Once more the 1841 British edition introduced an error which was corrected in the following LDS edition (in 1849): namely, the replacement of the conjoined finite predicate and cried with the present participial form crying. This error was probably the result of the typesetter anticipating the following present participial form saying. For another example of this kind of anticipatory error (but involving “prophesying seeing”), see under Mosiah 12:2.
In all cases but one, the verb cry does not take the present participial form when followed by saying; the only exception (marked below with an asterisk) has a sequence of “and crying … saying”:
One might think that the example in Alma 46:19 of “crying with a loud voice saying” could be an error, just like the 1841 reading here in Alma 22:17 (“crying mightily saying”). However, the larger context for the Alma 46 passage shows that the present participial form crying is conjoined with an earlier present participial form, waving:
Thus in Alma 46:19, there is nothing inappropriate about “crying … saying”. But here in Alma 22:17, the 1841 change to “crying … saying” is clearly a textual error, although not syntactically impossible. The critical text will follow the earliest reading and cried in Alma 22:17.
Summary: Maintain in Alma 22:17 and cried, the earliest reading, rather than the innovative and somewhat unexpected crying that showed up only in the 1841 British edition.