multicolumn in floating objects?

[e_w_g@t-online.de (Eckhart Guthöhrlein)]

I have a very narrow table with a natural height of approximately 
1.25\makeupheight. What I would like to do is:
- split it in 3 columns
- put the whole thing in a float
- give it a single caption

With tabulate, splitting with \startcolumns works fine, nicely distributed 
over 3 columns using the minimum of tatal vertical space. First I tried to 
simply put it a \placetable: no error message (wow), but no splitting, either.

Furthermore, I would prefer to use \starttables, because I need 
heads/tails. Or is it possible to set up repeating heads for tabulate (I 
found only \starttablehead in the archive)?
But, with \starttables, each column is filled until the bottom of the page 
is reached before a new column is started, resulting into an empty third 
and a half-full second column in my case. (And no split inside floats, 
either.) I didn't succeed in making tables believe that vsize is xxx, how 
can this be done? And then, how to make the whole thing a single float?

I experimented with \splitfloat. This seems to work well with tabulate. But 
it does not really float, does it? As far as I have observed, it starts 
where it occurs in the text, extending to the next page if necessary.

Currently, I have put the \startcolumns / tabulate into an extra file, 
converted it to eps and included as \externalfigure. Not very nice and 
nasty if changes are necessary, so I would be grateful for a better 
solution, if there is any.

Eckhart