1888.] 271 [ Mooney. 
around the wall for the visitors. When the hous has several rooms the 
company assembles in one, leaving the corpse to be guarded by a few 
watchers in another room, and if there be a barn close at hand the young 
folks usually adjourn to it early in the evening in order to enjoy themselvs 
without interruption. The men, and frequently the women as wel, help 
themselvs to the pipes and tobacco, and in the old times whisky was also 
servd out at intervals to the entire company. For each pipe of tobacco 
used the smoker is expected to say a short prayer for the repose of the 
soul of the dead, the regular Gaelic formula being : Seac't lan reilic P-ad‘- 
ruig agus tomba C*rtosd go breannac'taib: le h-anam na marb,* “Seven 
fuls of the cemetery of Patrick and the tomb of Christ of blessings with 
the soul of the dead,’’ while the English speakers say, ‘‘God hav mercy on 
the soul of the one this pipe was over.’’ 
While the family and the caoiners sit or stand about the corpse the 
others pass the time in smoking, gossiping, telling stories, singing songs 
and playing games, all of which seems strangely out of place in the pres- 
ence of death. At intervals one of the company will say, ‘‘ Let us repeat 
a Pater and Ave for the soul of the dead,’’ when all rise and say a short 
prayer in silence, after which the talk and merriment go on as before. 
The only other interruption is that occasioned by the caoine, which is 
raisd when the body is first laid out, and repeated on the entrance of each 
relativ or near friend. 
The custom of a public funeral lament for the dead comes down to us 
from the earliest times, having been common to all the nations of antiq- 
uity, and is stil practiced in India, Arabia, Abyssinia, Australia and among 
some tribes of the American Indians. Numerous references in the Bible 
show that it existed among the Hebrews. Homer represents the women 
as wailing and reciting eulogies over Hector’s dead body, and in ancient 
Rome we find laws in regard to the prafice or mourning women. From J. 
Owen Dorsey, of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, I hav obtaind a 
description of a funeral lament which he heard among the Osage Indians, 
in which the words, the intonation and the motions of the wailers wer 
exactly similar to what we find in the Irish caoine. According to Francis 
La Fléche their kindred, the Omahas, hav but one formal lament. Among 
all nations this duty seems to hav been left to the women, as beneath the 
dignity of a man. 
In Ireland the funeral lament is calld caoine (almost cena) by the Gaelic 
speakers, while the corrupted form, keen, is used by the rest of the popu- 
lation. The woman who leads the lament is calld the Bean Caointe (ban 
ceencha) or ‘‘crying woman,” and is generally selected for her fine voice 
and skil in improvising. When she is a near friend of the deceasd she 
givs her services as a labor of love; otherwise she receivs a small sum 
according to the ability of the relativs. It must be rememberd that it re- 
quires some special qualifications to lead the caoine properly, and that 
* Pronounced Shokhth lawn rel-yie Fuwrig ogus thonba Khreesdh g6é vinakhthee lae honam 
na moraw’. . 
PROC, AMER, PHILOS. SOC. XXV. 128. 21. PRINTED DEC. 28, 1888, 
