Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Praeficae

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

PRAE'FICAE. Women hired to act as mourners in the funeral processions of wealthy individuals. (Lucil. and Varro ap. Non. s. v. p. 67. Plaut. Truc. ii. 6. 14.) They preceded the corpse, making every external demonstration of poignant grief, with bare heads and dishevelled hair, weeping aloud, and chanting a funeral dirge, or singing the praises of the deceased; as exhibited by the annexed figures (Praeficae/1.1) from a marble sarcophagus, on which the funeral of Meleager is represented. This singular custom is still observed in two districts of Italy, at Canalo and at Agnara, both in the diocese of Gerace, where women, termed ripetitrici, that is, rehearsers, perform similar offices for the dead. Ficoroni, Vestig. Rom. part. ii. p. 77.

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  Praeficae/1.1