There are many strange superstitions concerning the dead. The people
seem to believe in their actual presence, though unseen, and to have a
great fear and dread of their fatal and mysterious power.
If a person of doubtful character dies, too bad for heaven, too good
for hell, they imagine that his soul is sent back to earth, and obliged
to obey the order of some person who bids him remain in a particular
place until the Day of Judgment, or until another soul is found willing
to meet him there, and then they may both pass into heaven together,
absolved.
An incident is related that happened in the County Galway, concerning
this superstition.
A gentleman of rank and fortune, but of a free and dissipated life,
became the lover of a pretty girl, one of the tenant’s daughters. And
the girl was so devoted to him that perhaps he might have married her
at last; but he was killed suddenly, when out hunting, by a fall from
his horse.
Some time after, the girl, coming home late one evening, met the ghost
of her lover, at a very lonesome part of the road. The form was the
same as when living, but it had no eyes. The girl crossed herself, on
which the ghost disappeared.
Again she met the same apparition at night, and a third time, when the
ghost stood right before her in the path, so that she could not pass.
Then she spoke, and asked in the name of God and the good angels, why
he appeared to her; and he answered, that he could not rest in his
grave till he had received some command from her, which he was bound to
obey.
“Then,” she said, “go stand by the gate of heaven till the Judgment
Day, and look in at the blessed dead on their thrones, but you may not
enter. This is my judgment on your soul.”
On this the ghost sighed deeply and vanished, and was seen no more.
But the girl prayed earnestly that she soon might meet her lover at
the gate of heaven, whither she had sent him, that so both might enter
together into the blessed land. And thus it happened; for by that day
year she was carried to her grave in the churchyard, but her soul went
forth to meet her lover, where he waited for her by the gate of heaven;
and through her love he was absolved, and permitted to enter within the
gate before the Judgment Day.
* * * * *
It was considered disrespectful to the dead to take a short cut when
carrying the coffin to the grave.
* * * * *
In the Islands, when a person is dying, they place twelve lighted
rushes round the bed. This, they say, is to prevent the devil coming
for the soul; for nothing evil can pass a circle of fire. They also
forbid crying for the dead until three hours have passed by, lest the
wail of the mourners should waken the dogs who are waiting to devour
the souls of men before they can reach the throne of God.
* * * * *
It is a very general custom during some nights after a death to leave
food outside the house—a griddle cake, or a dish of potatoes. If it is
gone in the morning, the spirits must have taken it; for no human being
would touch the food left for the dead.
* * * * *
The great and old families of Ireland consider it right to be buried
with their kindred, and are brought from any distance, however remote,
to be laid in the ancient graveyard of the race.
A young man of family having died far away, from fever, it was thought
advisable not to bring him home, but to bury him where he died.
However, on the night of the funeral a phantom hearse with four black
horses stopped at the churchyard. Some men then entered with spades and
shovels and dug a grave, after which the hearse drove away. But next
morning no sign of the grave was to be found, except a long line marked
out, the length of a man’s coffin.
* * * * *
It is unlucky and a bad omen to carry fire out of a house where any
one is ill. A gentleman one day stopped at a cabin to get a light
for his cigar, and having wished good morning in the usual friendly
fashion, he took a stick from the fire, blew it into a blaze, and was
walking away, when the woman of the house rose up fiercely and told him
it was an evil thing to take fire away when her husband was dying. On
looking round he saw a wretched skeleton lying on a bed of straw; so
he flung back the stick at once, and fled from the place, leaving his
blessing in the form of a silver offering, to neutralize the evil of
the abducted fire.
* * * * *
After the priest has left a dying person, and confession has been made,
all the family kneel round the bed reciting the Litany for the Dying,
and holy water is sprinkled over the room until the soul departs.
Then they all rise and begin the mournful death-wail in a loud voice;
and by this cry all the people in the village know the exact moment of
the death, and each one that hears it utters a prayer for the departing
soul.
At the wake the corpse is often dressed in the habit of a religious
order. A cross is placed in the hands and the scapular on the breast.
Candles are lighted all round in a circle, and the friends and
relatives arrange themselves in due order, the nearest of kin being at
the head. At intervals they all stand up and intone the death-wail,
rocking back and forward over the dead, and reciting his virtues; while
the widow and orphans frequently salute the corpse with endearing
epithets, and recall the happy days they spent together.
When the coffin is borne to the grave each person present helps to
carry it a little way; for this is considered a mode of showing honour
to the dead. The nearest relatives take the front handles first; then
after a little while they move to the back and others take their place,
until every person in turn has borne the head of the coffin to the
grave—for it would be dishonourable to the dead to omit this mark of
respect.
As the coffin is lowered into the grave the death-cry rises up with a
loud and bitter wail, and the excitement often becomes so great that
women have fallen into hysterics; and at one funeral a young girl in
her agony of grief jumped into her father’s grave and was taken up
insensible.