E.5¥ f 
Ar the conclufion of the Keenan, the, body was conveyed to 
the place of interment, attended by the friends and relations of 
the deceafed, and accompanied by the cries of women, who at 
certain intervals fung the Go/ or Ullaloo. 
In antient times, after the interment, the favourite bards of 
the family, feated on the grave or fepulchre, performed the 
Connthal or Elegy; which they repeated every new and full 
moon, for the firft three months, and afterwards generally once 
every year, for perfons of diftinction. The Elegy was more 
regular than the Keenan, both in refpect to its poetical com- 
pofition and melodious cadence; though I have not been able 
to obtain any pieces of this kind, of a very antient date, nor 
the mufic appertaining to them. However, feveral families, 
both in Wales and this country, retained the cuftom to the 
‘clofe of the laft century, and it is frequently alluded to in 
the Irifh ballads and poetical romances. 
Tue following is faid to be the lamentations of Fin M‘Comhal 
over his grandfon Ofcar, who is fuppofed to have been flain in 
the battle of Gabhra in the third century. It is taken from the 
poem on the death of Ofcar, and the mufic is ftill preferved in 
Connaught and the Highlands of Scotland. I have chofen this 
paflage from that poetical romance, as it is probable the poetry 
and mufic are coeval, having both originated in the bardic f{chool 
of Errus, in the county of Mayo, towards the clofe of the 
fifteenth century : a fountain from whence flowed the greater part 
of 
‘ 
