If someone pretends to feel sorry for the one whom he himself offended, then they say about such an offender: “Tears of crocodile”. In other words, in this case it is insincere tears that accompany hypocritical regret. It's time to find out why the crocodile is crying, because he is bloodthirsty and far from kind.
Ancient peoples feared crocodiles
Some nations in ancient times found among crocodiles the presence of such a dominant character trait as a tendency to deception. A few thousand years ago in Egypt, these animals inhabiting the Nile were credited with divine evil. To win the favor of bloodthirsty and treacherous reptiles, local residents pleased them in every possible way: they gave food, made ritual-magic speeches addressed to them. But why crocodiles cry when they eat, they did not understand.
The fantasy of people had no limits. For example, a well-known ancient Greek researcher can find the following funny description of the behavior of a crocodile. An insidious reptile with a mouthful of river water rushed to a steep path to abundantly water it, and then hid in ambush and waited for the victim. It’s easy to guess what happened to unsuspecting people or animals that descended the slippery slope of the river to quench their thirst. Despite the fantastic nature of such facts, confirming the insidiousness, they are still not so baseless. Why is a crocodile crying during a meal? It is possible that he feels sorry for his food.
Old legend
Various sources retell the ancient legend of the tearful cry of a crocodile over a mercilessly sacrificed victim, whom he immediately feasts.
Since the 9th century, the “Library” has come down, on which Patriarch Photius worked , who lived in Constantinople. In this pseudoscientific work, there was a place for a legend about a crying crocodile over the heads of those unfortunates whose remains he devoured. The author proposed a rather interesting hypothesis, according to which pity does not squeeze tears from a crocodile at all, but the absence of meat in the victim's skull. That's why crocodiles cry when they eat.
What do the researchers say?
In the 12th century, the scientific work of Hugo Victorian appeared in Western Europe, which also refers to crocodile tears. This topic also slips into later periods.
In 1357, the inhabitants of the city of Liege (the territory of modern Belgium) had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the work "Mandeville Travels". An unknown author in one of the stories talks about how Ethiopian crocodiles cry while eating people.
I did not ignore the theme of crocodile tears Russian dictionary-reference book of the 17th century "Alphabet book". In the section on the crocodile, the characteristics of the beast living in the water are almost the same as that given in the Photius' Library. That is, the crocodile cries after, having finished with the human body, can not decide what to do with his head.
Crocodile tears from a Christian point of view
In the Latin and Greek versions of Physiologists, the image of a crocodile was associated with the concept of hell and the image of the devil. Everything that was opposed to him belonged to Jesus Christ. Unlike Christ's tears, crocodile tears in the understanding of Christians are an apostasy from a righteous faith. Nevertheless, people did not get tired of pondering the version of why the crocodile is crying.
Unnoticed, starting from about the 50s of the 17th century, the expression "crocodile tears" goes from the plane of its relationship with Christian virtue. Allegory is increasingly becoming the subject of sentimentalism, which appeared in the literature of a new direction. So, the Russian fabulist Mazdorf A. K. in the work “Tears of a Crocodile” sentimental tearfulness ridiculed and presented in an ironic form. But the satirist Erasmus of Rotterdam ("Praise of Stupidity") offered his humorous interpretation - a hungry crocodile, who saw the victim, salivates reflexively, which is perceived as tears. You can’t say for sure if a crocodile is crying.
Scientific explanation of the nature of crocodile tears
Schmidt-Nilson and Fange, modern researchers from Sweden, made an attempt to scientifically explain the origin of crocodile tears . Salts that have accumulated in excess in the body cannot be removed from it through the kidneys. Special glands located in the eye area help to cope with this task. Periodically, as necessary, they open, and salts leave the body. Nature, in addition to crocodiles, endowed with such "abilities" some more representatives of this class of animals, namely turtles, iguanas and sea snakes. Now you know why a crocodile is crying.
Zoologists from Florida confirmed the proposed theory of their Swedish colleagues through experiments with caimans and alligators. Moreover, the fact of the release of "tears" during a meal is captured by a video camera. This was the proof of scientific theory.