It has nearly always been customary to sing songs at not only funerals
but for varying periods of time afterwards although these chants may
no doubt occasionally have been simply wailing or mournful
ejaculation. A writer [Footnote: Am. Antiq., April-May-June 1879, p.
251.] mentions it as follows:
"At almost all funerals there is an irregular crying kind of singing
with no accompaniments, but generally all do not sing the same melody
at the same time in unison. Several may sing the same song and at the
same time, but each begins and finishes when he or she may wish. Often
for weeks, or even months, after the decease of a dear friend, a
living one, usually a woman, will sit by her house and sing or cry by
the hour; and they also sing for a short time when they visit the
grave or meet an esteemed friend whom they have not seen since the
decease. At the funeral both men and women sing. No. 11 I have heard
more frequently some time after the funeral, and No. 12 at the time of
the funeral, by the Twanas (For song see p. 251.) The words are simply
an exclamation of grief, as our word 'alas'; but they also have other
words which they use, and sometimes they use merely the syllable
_la_. Often the notes are sung in this order, and sometimes not,
but in some order the notes _do_ and _la,_ and occasionally
_mi,_ are sung."