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The men might join in the chorus of woe if they wished, but the main part of the song was always given by the women, who were not unlike the "Keeners," heard in Ireland on similar occasions, even down to recent times. The book of Lamentations presents a series of funeral songs, written in imitation of the professional lays of grief, and containing many allusions to the mourning women.
Father Miles sat straight and stem in his chair by the pillow he had said the prayers for the dying, and the holy oil was already shining on Mike Bogan's forehead. The keeners were swaying themselves to and fro, there where they waited in the next room.
They sang it well, in meditative march, looking out of the windows during its interminable length. Then the Elder read some passages of the Scripture in his "funeral voice," which was entirely different from his "marriage voice" and his "Sunday voice." It had deep cadences in it and chanting inflections, not unlike the negro preachers or the keeners at Irish wakes.
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