Praefĭcae
Women who were hired to act as mourners at Roman funerals (Plaut. Truc. ii. 6, 14). They went before the corpse, with their heads bared, their locks dishevelled, uttering cries of lamentation and chanting dirges (neniae). See Funus.
Harry Thurston Peck. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1898.
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