This explains a lot.

Greta and I just returned from a trip to the park, where I enjoyed another chapter in the book I'm reading on the history of Galveston.

Chapter 3 talks of the Karankawas Indians, of which I must surely be a part.

"La Salle's men referred to this tribe contemptuously as "the weepers," but these crying fits were not a sign of weakness. Indeed, they were as much a part of the culture as saluting or bowing or making the sign of the cross was in Western culture. Conversation within the Karankawa culture must have attained a high art: even a simple request or complaint among tribal members was preceded by the shedding of mutual tears. When a Karankawa visited the hut of a neighbor, the visitor and the host went to the middle of the room and squatted on mats. Without speaking a word, both wept bitterly for half an hour."

"Karankawa is not the name this tribe gave itself. Like most other North American Indians, they called themselves men, people, genuine people, human beings, or bodies. Other South Texas tribes assigned various names to these newcomers. The Lipan-Apaches knew them as "people who walk in the water," and others called them "wrestlers" or "without moccasins." But the name that stuck came from two Indian words - karan (dog) and kawa (to love). Since the tribe traveled with small, barkless, foxlike dogs, it became known as the dog lovers, Karankawas."

Most know me as a dog lover, and much of my family can attest that I am the "crier" in the family.

Think the next time I'm home I think I'll have to look for a Karankawa arrow head fashioned out of a seashell to add to my BOI necklace!