huilebalk, noun

/ˈhœɪləbalk/
Plurals:
huilebalken, huilbaken, huilbalken.
Origin:
Dutch.
obs. except in historical contexts
Usually in the plural : Professional mourners, employed to walk, weeping, in funeral processions. See also tropsluiter.
1926 P.W. Laidler Tavern of Ocean 157Funerals were pageants not soon forgotten. Professional mourners — ‘huilbaken,’ as they were called — accompanied the coffin and were paid to weep copiously.
1927 C.G. Botha Social Life in Cape Col. 65At a funeral there were paid mourners or weepers called ‘huilebalken,’ who had to weep and exhibit great distress.
1952 G.M. Mills First Ladies of Cape 76Her funeral, conducted by the Rev. Mr Hough with great privacy, was one of the last attended at the Cape by huilebalken or professional mourners. These persons were hired to walk at the head of a funeral procession and perform certain ceremonies at the interment.
1965 A. Gordon-Brown S. Afr. Heritage III. 10Funerals were accompanied at one time by professional mourners known as ‘huilebalken’, whose duty it was to exhibit signs of grief.
Usually in the plural :Professional mourners, employed to walk, weeping, in funeral processions.
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obsolete or obsolescent
huilbos, nounn.huis-apotheek, nounn.
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