Proffessional mourners (klogerins) in the cemetery
in Brody.
During the
month of Elul, it was customary to visit the graves
of relatives and of very pious Jews to pray
for eternal rest for
the deceased and to beg them to intervene
with G-d on behalf
of the
living. Professional mourners were sometimes hired to
improvise prayers and entreaties in Yiddish;
they wailed and
fell upon the graves, in a show of mourning.