CAOINTEACH

In Scots Gaelic tradition, the Caointeach is a small, white-capped woman with a green shawl who wails when there is to be a death in the Western Highlands of Argyle. Her name merely means ‘the keener’ or ‘the mourner’. The practice of keening or wailing the dead was a professional task in ancient Gaelic tradition. A chorus of keeners would attend the corpse of the deceased and set up a wailing and singing of the attributes of the dead person in such a way that enabled the bereaved to mourn properly. (See Banshee and Cyhyraeth.)

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