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The funeral laments of Upper Egypt have an elaborate and ancient history stretching back more than 5,000 years. Even the chants of modern-day lamenters, echo the words of their ancestors. The laments - known as idid in Arabic - are composed orally in performance. Elizabeth Wickett explores the performance, motifs and meanings of the laments and reveals their relation to myth, religion, cosmology and the ancient Egyptian funerary texts.