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That night the men spend about an hour in the house of mourning, singing sang-sangit, a song in which they praise the dead man, encourage the widow, and bespeak the welfare of the family. The wailers still remain in the dwelling to protect the widow, and a male relative is detailed to see that the fire at the foot of the ladder is kept burning brightly.
Jesus turned to the disciples and said, "You saw a woman healed through faith." They looked at him, wondering what he meant. To Jairus, Jesus said, "Come, take me to your home." All hope was gone for Jairus, but obediently he led the way. Already the hired wailers filled Jairus' house.
In the historical texts from the days of Hammurabi onward, the references to women attached to the service of temples are not infrequent. Gudea expressly mentions the 'wailing women, and there is every reason to believe that the female wailers, like the male ones, belong to some priestly class.
The continuation of the funeral began, and the golden boat carried the deceased to the other side of the river. But first it passed through the main street of Thebes surrounded by an immense retinue of priests, wailers, warriors, and people, amid incense, music, wailing and chanting. This was perhaps the most beautiful street in all Egypt. It was broad, smooth, lined with trees.
The women of the family resign themselves to their grief, which is expressed by loud wailings, with beating of their breast and tearing their dishevelled hair. While professional wailers are rare, nevertheless friends and relatives congregate and add volume to the dirge of sorrow.
By this time the children who swarm in the side-rooms are not to be kept quiet longer, even by hunches of bread and cake; there is a general howl and wail, that rises yet higher than the scraping of fiddles, and mothers rush from their partners to knock small heads together, and cuff little nursemaids, and force the wailers down into unoccupied corners of beds, under tables and behind boxes.
"Clear this crowd out of here," Jesus commanded. Jairus was glad to be rid of them. Amid angry murmurs, he sent every single one of them out of the house. Several of the disciples were waiting outside; they watched the hired wailers leave. "What do you suppose is going on?" asked Andrew. They waited a little longer, but at last the suspense was too much. "Come on," said the Zealot, "let's go in."
Their loud cries of grief, the shrill sound of flutes playing funeral music, and the hysterical weeping of the friends of the child's mother made such noise that Jesus could hardly be heard. "Why all this wailing?" Jesus cried. The noise quieted a little. "The child is not dead! She is only asleep!" The wailers burst into derisive laughter. "She sleeps soundly!"
The accompaniment of musical instruments to the dirges also appears to be a very old custom in Babylonia. In the story of Ishtar's journey the wailers are called upon to strike their instruments. What kind of instruments were used in ancient times we do not know. In the Assyrian period, the harp and flute appear to be the most common.
To defeat his plans, the widow is closely guarded by the wailers; she also sleeps under a fish net as an additional protection against his long fingers, and she wears seeds which are disliked by this being. Kadongáyan indulges in the malicious sport of slitting the mouth of the corpse back to the ears.
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