keening

• “           The keening was a physical thing, a blast as the curtain rose quickly and there they were.”

  Fictionaut: February 1964

• “Their keening was a terrible din, like the wailing of alleycats-alleycats that were as large as lions.”

  Moonheart

• “My voice was much, much higher and kind of keening, scary quality, which was ...”

  NPR: Loudon Wainwright's 'Charlie Poole Project'

• “I remember it was the first time I'd ever heard real "keening" (the falsetto, high pitched wail sometimes used to describe the mythical sound of Irish banshees on the prowl).”

  Edward J. Murray: Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the "Real" Black Church in America

• “I've always considered myself as good at wailing -- "keening," we call it in Ireland.”

  Bono On Bono

• “Oddly, the stairs seemed to vibrate beneath their feet with a kind of keening, a doleful wail coming from deep under the temple.”

  Song of Time

• “BANSHEE (Irish _bean sidhe_; Gaelic _ban sith_, "woman of the fairies"), a supernatural being in Irish and general Celtic folklore, whose mournful screaming, or "keening," at night is held to foretell the death of some member of the household visited.”

  Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon"

• “She is opening her letters and "keening" softly as she rocks in her chair.”

  Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, August 4th, 1920

• “Finally, the wailing for the dead is continued night and day to the point of utter voicelessness; a musical, weird, and heart-piercing sound, which has been compared to the, "keening" of the Celtic mourner.”

  The Soul of the Indian

• “Occasionally, a shrill peculiarly weird cry, the Celtic "keening" or lamentation over their dead, broke upon the air and drew the gaping, wonder-eyed idlers to the street corners.”

  War-time sketches : historical and otherwise,

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