Relatives, after an absence of a few weeks or months, testify their joy at meeting by sitting with their arms round each other’s necks and weeping and howling in a manner which would lead a stranger to suppose that some great sorrow had befallen them; and, in point of fact, there is no difference observable between their demonstrations of joy on these occasions and those of grief on the death of one of their number. The crying chorus is started by women, but the men speedily chime in, and groups of three or four may thus be seen weeping in concert, until from sheer exhaustion they are compelled to desist. . . .

A husband who is childless and has been absent from his home for some time, on his return to the encampment visits first a blood relation (if any), and when they have wept together he goes to his own hut, not in order to shed more tears but to see and talk to his spouse. The same remark applies to a wife similarly circumstanced. But in the case of a married couple who are parents the meeting takes place first between them. The wife hangs round her husband’s neck sobbing as if her heart would break with joy at their reunion. When she is exhausted with weeping he leaves her and going to one of his relations gives vent to his pent-up feelings of happiness by bursting into tears.¹

¹Mann/an/an/an/an/an/a, , 147–148.