Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/103

 Collectanea. 9 1

being the case in the north of England, and is applied to the mewing of a cat and the wail of an infant. The Latin ululare is to cry as a wolf, and connected with this is ulfiv the Suio-Gothic for a wolf, while iilidae are screech owls, in Gaelic coinfiil (Meyer). The connection of owls with women in Gaelic is shown in the name cailleach oidhche (the night woman). Coinnil (screech owls) are evidently so-called from cdinim (to complain, bewail), a word we find in the ]Manx caayney, caoiney (to bewail, to sing), the Welsh aciyno (to mourn or lament), the Cornish atyna, and the Breton keina, keini. In Greek we have Kivvpos, and also [x.li'vpos meaning to complain, the latter specially with a low voice, which suggests that the former has kvojv as its root as has, for instance, KiVttSos a fox; Kua'pos therefore is a whining, and with this com- pare the Latin cano (I sing) and ca/n's (a dog). Primitive singing must have been a mere exaggeration of the rise and fall of the voice when speaking, rhythm being achieved by accompanying the outcry with clapping of hands. The Latin cano has possibly influenced the Gaelic catiim, I sing. What we wish to make clear to our readers is that the lamenting of the "keener" after a death is the survival of an early form of what we now know as singing. The Bodb, the Banshee, the Caonteach, and the Vow are probably identical in origin, commemorating grief as expressed by the voice, and the Washer Woman tradition commemorates the clap- ping of the hands common both at keening and at clothes washing. The information I have used in writing this paper has been gathered from living reciters, and I would gratefully acknowledge much local information given by Miss E. M. Kerr, 137 Craiglea Drive, Edinburgh, formerly of Port Charlotte, Islay.

R. C. Maclagan.

Some White Ruthenian Folk-Songs.

I. Notes on the People.

The accompanying songs, which are both in words and music extremely characteristic, have been collected within the radius of