Excerpt from A Handbook of Irish Dances: With an Essay on Their Origin and History IT has been suggested that the word Cronan, which is mentioned in the sixth century by St. Colman of Cloyne, originally meant a kind of singing accompaniment for dancing. There is no evidence, however, in support of this suggestion. It is now generally accepted that the word originally meant a musical bass, -and, later, a curious kind of nasal singing accomplished with the mouth shut. To the latter may possibly be ascribed the origin of what is known as the traditional style of Irish singing. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.