Mooney.] 272 [Oct. 19, 
every wake necessitates an attendance of several days. In Galway there 
is a class of women known as knitters, who travel about from place to 
place knitting stockings, mittens and caps for the peasantry, and from their 
intimate acquaintance with the life histories of their customers, and their 
readiness of expression in song or story, they ar usually in demand on 
such occasions, 
As soon as the body is laid out the friends kneel down and pray. Then 
rising, the women range themselvs around the corpse, and the Bean 
Caointe, advancing, stretches out her hands for a moment over the body, 
and then, lifting them suddenly over her head, breaks out into the wild 
lament. When she pauses at the end of a stanza, the other women take 
up the mournful chorus, moving their bodies slowly to and fro and clap- 
ping their hands in front of them in keeping with the measure of the 
ehant. Then the Bean Caointe begins another stanza, which is followd 
by the chorus in the same way, and so on to the close. The caoine is re- 
peated each night about 10 o’clock, each morning soon after daybreak, 
and on the arrival of any relativ who may not hav been in at the begin- 
ning of the wake. In the latter case the new comer kneels down beside 
the corpse and recites a short prayer, then rising together with the women 
he joins them in repeating the cry, after which he takes his place with the 
rest of the company, who ar indulging in jokes and small talk, games and 
stories during the intervals of the caoine. 
As the funeral leavs the hous the women form in line behind the coffin 
and the caoine is raisd again, the wailing chorus now swelling loudly 
upon the breez and again dying away into silence, until the churchyard 
is reachd. As the coffin is lowerd into the grave the cry rises for the last 
time with all the agony of the final parting, and the excitement for some 
moments is something awful. In Meath all the women of the neighbor- 
hood formerly walkd behind the coffin, from three to five abreast, and 
the cry was raisd by those in the first row, then taken up by those in the 
second, and so on to the last, when those in the front row began again. 
The cry while walking with the funeral is generally only a wailing cho- 
rus. It may be heard to a great distance and long before the funeral is in 
sight. In this county it used to be said of one noted for attending wakes, 
‘*You’re as fond of a funeral as Denning’s dog.’”’? Denning lived in Na- 
van and ownd.a dog which used to jump up whenever he heard the cry 
and follow the funeral until it reachd the churchyard. In Connemara 
there is no caoine during the procession. In Kerry one-half the women 
walk in front of the coffin while the others come after it, and the cuoine is 
raisd alternately by each party. In the north also the women frequently 
walk in front. 
The impression made by the caoine, with the passionate eulogy of the 
Bean Caointe and the wailing chorus of the women, is thus described by 
competent witnesses: ‘‘The Irish language, bold, forcible and compre- 
hensive, full of the most striking epithets and idiomatic beauties, is pecu- 
liarly adapted for either praise or satire—its blessings are singularly touch- 
