The trip was a threnody or an epicede, depending on the countryside through which they were passing

“Tell us what an epicede is,” said Belano without turning around. “It’s an elegy, recited in the presence of the dead,” I said. “Not to be confused with the threnody. The epicede took the form of a choral dialogue. The meter used was the dactylo-epitrite, and later elegiac verse.”