This may be accounted
for by its being thought weak and unmanly by men, both of civilized
and barbarous races, to exhibit bodily pain by any outward sign.
With this exception, savages weep copiously from very slight causes,
of which fact Sir J. Lubbock[8] has collected instances.
A New Zealand chief "cried like a child because the sailors
spoilt his favourite cloak by powdering it with flour."
I saw in Tierra del Fuego a native who had lately lost a brother,
and who alternately cried with hysterical violence, and laughed
heartily at anything which amused him. With the civilized nations
of Europe there is also much difference in the frequency of weeping.
Englishmen rarely cry, except under the pressure of the acutest grief;
whereas in some parts of the Continent the men shed tears much
more readily and freely.
The insane notoriously give way to all their emotions with little or
no restraint; and I am informed by Dr. J. Crichton Browne, that nothing
is more characteristic of simple melancholia, even in the male sex,
than a tendency to weep on the slightest occasions, or from no cause.
They also weep disproportionately on the occurrence of any real
cause of grief.
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