Crocodile Tears

Crocodile tears

We shed tears when we have an unbearable sorrow and pain in our hearts and in the body.That sorrow or pain comes from the bottom of our hearts.In such cases, the tears shed are true tears.It shows your true consciences.But crocodile tears are not such true tears.It shows the superficial sympathy towards others in distress.It is false, fake and insincere.

  In my country, when people died the close relations wept at the funeral house in front of the coffin unable to bear the sorrow. When people visited the funeral house to pay the last respect for the deceased, one could hear more weeping of the relatives. More weeping and lamenting was a mirror that reflected how much of love and affection they  had had towards the deceased. If lamenting and weeping were not to be seen it reflected otherwise. This type of situation prevailed in my country about half a century ago especially among poor people. But educated wealthy people did not weep as poor people did. Instead , there  went the rumor that they hired weeping groups that were not relatives and advised them what to utter while weeping. So they shed tears uttering sorrowful laments, got their wages and went.but tears shed were not true tears but crocodile tears.

It is the ancient belief that crocodiles shed tears while eating their pray because of the sympathy towards the victim.That is how the term "crocodile tears" came into being.The victim might be a man or an animal.The ancient people might have seen crocodiles shed tears while eating.So they might have been compelled to believe it so.
 But what actually happens is that the secretion of tears in the eyes of crocodiles is triggered by eating.It is spontaneous and natural.So when they eat, tears begin to flow.On the other hand,we all know that crocodiles are amphibians.when they get on to land and when they have been out of water for a considerable time, their eyes tend to dry out.To keep their eyes wet, tears automatically secret. Misunderstanding these two ,ancient people might have thought that crocodiles shed tears being sympathetic towards their victims while eating  the same.
It is very difficult to differentiate between these two even today.