DEATH AND BURIAL.
Warnings of Death--The Howling of Dogs--A Cow in the Garden--
Death-presaging Birds--Plants--The Will-o'-the-Wisp--The
Sympathy between Two Personalities--Prophecy--Dying
Hardly--The Last Act--Place and Position of the Grave.
The superstitions associated with the last stage of human life are
most numerous; and that this should be so is not surprising when it
is considered how, from the earliest time, a certain dread has been
attached to death, not only on account of its awful mysteriousness,
but owing to its being the crisis of an entirely new phase of the
soul's existence.
Commencing then with popular omens, it may be noted that every
incident out of the common course of natural events is looked upon
by the superstitious as indicative of approaching death. Hence
we find the credulous ever conjuring up in their minds imaginary
prognostications of this sad occurrence, which, apart from the
needless terror they cause, are based on no foundation of truth.
Foremost among these is the howling of a dog at night, a superstition
which, while not confined to our own country, appears to have been
almost as well known in ancient times as at the present day. As
a plea, however, for its prevalence, even among the educated, we
might urge that it is not unnatural for the mind, when unstrung
and overbalanced by the presence of sickness and impending death,
to be over-sensitive, and to take notice of every little sound and
sight which may seem to connect themselves with its anxiety. Out
of the innumerable instances which are recorded in our own country
respecting this popular superstition, may be mentioned one which
happened a few years ago at Worthing. It appears that no slight
consternation was caused by a Newfoundland dog, the property of a
clergyman in the neighbourhood, lying down on the steps of a house
and howling piteously, refusing to be driven away. As soon as it
was known that a young lady, long an invalid, had died there, so
much excitement took place that news of the occurrence reached the
owner of the dog, who came to Worthing to inquire into the truth of
it. Unfortunately, however, for the lovers of and believers in the
marvellous, it eventually turned out that the dog had by accident
been separated from his master late in the evening, and had been seen
running here and there in search of him, and howling at the door of
the stable where he put up his horse, and other places which he often
visited in Worthing. It happened, moreover, that his master had been
in the habit of visiting the particular house where the young lady
had died, which at once accounted for the apparent mystery. In the
same way, indeed, other similar instances of this superstition might
be easily cleared up, if only properly investigated at the time of
the occurrence. The howling of the dog is ascribed by some to its
keen sense of the odour of approaching mortal dissolution; whereas
others affirm that this animal can see the spirits which hover round
the house of sickness, ready at the moment of death to bear away the
soul of the departed one to its distant home. In Aryan mythology the
dog is said to see ghosts, and in Germany, at the present day, a dog
howling before a house portends either a death or a fire. In Wales,
it is thought that horses, too, have the gift of seeing spirits.
Carriage-horses, it is said, have been known to display every sign of
the utmost terror, although the occupants of the carriage could see
no cause for alarm. Such an occurrence is considered highly ominous,
and thought to forebode that a funeral will soon pass by that way,
bearing to his resting-place some person not dead at the time of the
horse's fright.
Whilst speaking of animals in connection with death, it may be
noted that an ox or a cow breaking into a garden is an omen of
death. In illustration of this notion a correspondent of _Notes and
Queries_ relates the following narrative as written down by himself
about the time to which it relates. He says, "Though I laugh at the
superstition, the omen was painfully fulfilled in my case. About the
middle of March, 1843, some cattle were driven close to my house, and
the back door being open, three got into our little bit of garden,
and trampled it. When our school-drudge came in the afternoon, and
asked the cause of the confusion, she expressed great sorrow and
apprehension on being told--said that it was a bad sign--that we
should hear of three deaths within the next six months. Alas! in
April we heard of dear J----'s murder; a fortnight after A---- died;
and to-morrow, August 10th, I attend the funeral of my excellent
son-in-law. I have just heard of the same omen from another quarter.
But what is still more remarkable is that when I went down to Mr.
M----'s burial, and was mentioning the superstition, they told me
that while he was lying ill, a cow got into the front garden and was
driven out with great difficulty. It is still a common saying in
Scotland, when any one is dangerously ill, and not likely to recover,
'The black ox has trampled upon him.'"
Another common omen of death is the hovering of birds around a
house, and their tapping against the window-pane. Amongst the
death-presaging birds may be mentioned the raven, the crow, and the
swallow. The crowing of the cock, also, at the dead of night is
regarded as equally ominous. The appearance of a jackdaw is in some
parts of the country much dreaded. Thus a correspondent of _Notes
and Queries_ tells us, that a stonemason at Clifton related to him
an accident that happened to a workman at the suspension bridge over
the Avon, at the time when the river was simply spanned by a single
chain, placing much emphasis on the fact that a single jackdaw had
been noticed by some of the workmen perched upon the centre of the
chain, and had been regarded by them as a precursor of death. We
must not omit the evil reputation of the owl and the magpie; and a
well-known superstition current in some parts that to catch a sparrow
and keep it confined in a cage is an omen of death. Once more, it is
a bad sign when an invalid asks for a dish of pigeons to eat, such an
occurrence being considered an omen of his approaching death. Some
also affirm that if one hears the cuckoo's first note when in bed,
illness or death is certain to come upon the hearer or one of his
family. If any one be about to die suddenly, or lose a relation, the
cuckoo will light upon a piece of touchwood, or rotten bough, and
_cuckoo_.
Plants, in the next place, are sometimes regarded as ominous of
approaching mortality. When, for example, an apple-tree or pear-tree
blooms twice in the year it denotes a death in the family. If,
too, green broom be picked when in bloom it is believed that the
father or mother will die in the course of the year. Mrs. Latham,
in her "West Sussex Superstitions," gives the following touching
little anecdote:--"A poor girl, who was lingering in the last stage
of consumption, but whose countenance had always lighted up with
pleasure at the sight of flowers, appeared one morning so exceedingly
restless and unhappy after a fresh nosegay of gay spring flowers had
been laid upon her bed, that I asked her if the scent of them was
disagreeable to her. 'Oh, no!' she exclaimed, 'they are very nice
indeed to smell; but yet I should be very glad if you would throw
away that piece of yellow broom; for they do say that death comes
with it if it is brought into the house in blossom during the month
of May.'" According to a Yorkshire superstition, if a child gathers
the germander speedwell its mother will die during the year; and
others consider it equally unlucky to bring the first snowdrop of
the year into the house. To dream that a tree is uprooted in one's
garden is regarded as a death-warning to the owner. Indeed plants
may be said to hold an important place in the folk-lore of death, so
many curious legends and quaint superstitions having clustered round
them both in ancient and modern times. Thus, to quote one further
instance, if yew is accidentally brought into the house at Christmas
among the evergreens, it is looked upon as a sign that a death will
occur in the family before the end of the year.
Among other omens of death, may be noticed the will-o'-the-wisp,
which has on this account been much dreaded, its undulating movement
being carefully observed, from an anxiety to ascertain in which
direction it disappears, as it is supposed to be--
"The hateful messenger of heavy things,
Of death and dolour telling"
to the inhabitants of the house nearest that spot. We have heard
also of an occasion in which considerable uneasiness was created
by a pale light moving over the bed of a sick person, and after
flickering for some time in different parts of the room to vanish
through the window. It happened, however, that the mystery was
cleared up soon afterwards, for, on a similar light appearing, it
was found to proceed from a luminous insect, which proved to be the
male glow-worm. In the same way the "corpse-candles" in Wales, also
called the "fetch-lights," or "dead man's candles," are regarded as
forerunners of death. Sometimes this unlucky sign appears in the
form of a plain yellow candle, in the hand of a ghost, and at other
times it looks like "a stately flambeau, stalking along unsupported,
burning with ghastly blue flame." It is considered highly dangerous
to interfere with this fatal portent, and persons who have attempted
to check its course are reported to have been severely afflicted in
consequence, many being actually struck down on the spot where they
stood as a punishment for their audacity.
There is a popular idea prevalent in Lancashire that to build
or even to rebuild a house is always fatal to one member of the
family--generally to the one who may have been the principal promoter
of the plans for the building or alteration. Again, we are also told
how the household clock has been known to depart from its customary
precision in order to warn its owner of approaching death by
striking _thirteen_. A clergyman relates that one evening he called
on an old friend more than eighty years of age, who had lost her
husband about six months before. Whilst sitting with her he heard the
clock strike the hour in an adjoining room, and counted it _seven_.
Being surprised that it was no later he involuntarily took out his
watch, and found that it was in reality _eight_ o'clock. The old lady
noticing this remarked, "Ah! the clock lost a stroke against my poor
husband's death, and I have not altered it since."
According to another very common superstition there seems to be a
kind of sympathy and harmony between two personalities, whereby dying
persons themselves announce their departure to their friends in
certain mysterious ways. Countless instances are on record of such
supposed forebodings of death. A curious and interesting example
of this species of folk-lore happened not so very long ago, in
connection with the lamented death of Mr. George Smith, the eminent
Assyriologist. This famous scholar died at Aleppo, on the 19th of
August, 1876, at or about the hour of six in the afternoon. On the
same day, and at about the same time, a friend and fellow-worker of
Mr. Smith's--Dr. Delitzsch--was passing within a stone's-throw of the
house in which Mr. Smith had lived whilst in London, when he suddenly
heard his own name uttered aloud in a "most piercing cry," which,
says _The Daily News_ (Sept. 12th, 1876) thrilled him to the marrow.
The fact impressed him so strongly that he looked at his watch, noted
the hour, and, although he did not mention the circumstance at the
time, recorded it in his note-book.
Again, as a further illustration, we are told how on board one of
Her Majesty's ships lying off Portsmouth, the officers being one
day at mess, a young lieutenant suddenly laid down his knife and
fork, pushed away his plate, and turned extremely pale. He then
rose from the table, covered his face with his hands, and retired.
The president of the mess, supposing him to be ill, sent to make
inquiries. At first he was unwilling to reply; but on being pressed
he confessed that he had been seized by a sudden and irresistible
impression that a brother he had in India was dead. "He died," said
he, "on the 12th August, at six o'clock; I am perfectly convinced of
it." No argument could overthrow his conviction, which in due course
of time was verified to the letter. Events of this kind, which in
the minds of many seem to point to a mysterious sympathy between two
individuals, are explained by others as simply the result of "fancy
and coincidence." Any one, it is argued, may fall into a brown study,
and emerge from it with a stare, and the notion that he heard his
name spoken. That is the part of fancy, and the simultaneous event is
the part of coincidence. Against this theory it will always be argued
that these coincidences are too many to be accidental, and this
position, as a writer in _The Daily News_ has shown, will generally
be met by counter-efforts to weaken the evidence for each individual
case, and so to reduce the cumulative evidence to nothing. Taking
into consideration however, the countless instances which are on
record of this kind, many of them apparently resting on evidence
beyond impeachment, we must, whilst allotting to them the credence
they deserve, honestly admit they are occasionally beyond the limits
of human explanation.
From a very early period there has existed a belief in the existence
of the power of prophecy at that period which precedes death. It
probably took its origin in the assumed fact that the soul becomes
divine in the same rate as the connection with the body is loosened.
It has been urged in support of this theory that at the hour of death
the soul is, as it were, on the confines of two worlds, and may
possibly at the same moment possess a power which is both prospective
and retrospective. Shakespeare in his _Richard II._ (Act ii., sc.
1) makes the dying Gaunt, alluding to his nephew, the young and
self-willed king, exclaim:--
"Methinks I am a prophet new inspired,
And thus expiring do foretell of him."
Again in _1 Henry IV._ (Act v., sc. 4), the brave Percy, when in the
agonies of death, conveys the same idea in the following words:--
"O, I could prophesy,
But that the earthy and cold hand of death
Lies on my tongue."
Some have sought for the foundation of this belief in the forty-ninth
chapter of Genesis:--"And Jacob called his sons, and said, Gather
yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you
in the last days. And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his
sons, he gathered up his feet into his bed, and yielded up the ghost,
and was gathered unto his people." This notion has not died out, but
still prevails in Lancashire and other parts of England.
Referring to death itself, there is a widespread belief that deaths
mostly occur during the ebbing of the tide: a superstition to which
Charles Dickens has so touchingly alluded in "David Copperfield."
While the honest-hearted Mr. Peggotty sat by the bedside of poor
Barkis, and watched life's flame gradually growing dimmer, he said to
David Copperfield, "People can't die along the coast except when the
tide's pretty nigh out. They can't be born unless it's pretty nigh
in. Not properly born till flood. He's agoing out with the tide--he's
agoing out with the tide. It's ebb at half-arter three, slack water
half an hour. If he lives till it turns, he'll hold his own till past
the flood, and go out with the next tide." And after many hours'
watching, "it being low water, he went out with the tide."
Persons, too, are said to "die hard," to quote a popular phrase, or,
in other words, to have a painful and prolonged death, when there
are pigeons' feathers in the bed. Hence, some will not allow dying
persons to lie on a feather bed at all, maintaining that it very
much increases the pain, and retards the inevitable crisis of their
departure. Many, on the other hand, have a superstitious feeling that
it is a great misfortune, nay, even a judgment, not to die in a bed.
Many are the anecdotes illustrative of the former superstition, one
or two of which we will quote. Thus a Sussex nurse one day told the
wife of her clergyman that "never did she see any one die so hard as
old Master Short; and at last she thought (though his daughter said
there were none) that there must be game-feathers in the bed. She,
therefore, tried to pull it from under him, but he was a heavy man
and she could not manage it alone, and there was no one with him but
herself, and so she got a rope and tied it round him and pulled him
by it off the bed, and he went off in a minute quite comfortable,
just like a lamb." Again, one day, when an old woman near Yarmouth
was speaking of the burning of game-feathers as a precaution in case
of death, her neighbours said to her, "Of course we don't believe
that can have anything to do with a hard death," whereupon she
replied, "Then you yourself use such feathers." "Oh, no; we always
burn them, unless we want them for a chair-cushion." The same notion
prevails in Yorkshire with regard to cocks' feathers. According to
another popular fancy a person cannot die comfortably under the
cross-beam of a house, and we are told of the case of a man of whom
it was said at his death, that after many hours' hard dying, being
removed from the position under the cross-beam, he departed peaceably.
Again, the interval between death and burial has generally been
associated with various superstitious fears and practices. Thus, as
soon as the corpse is laid out there is still a widespread custom of
placing a plate of salt upon the breast, the reason being no doubt
to prevent the body swelling; although there is a belief that it acts
as a charm against any attempt on the part of evil spirits to disturb
the body. Pennant tells us that formerly in Scotland, "the corpse
being stretched on a board and covered with a coarse linen wrapper,
the friends laid on the breast of the deceased a wooden platter,
containing a small quantity of salt and earth, separate and unmixed;
the earth an emblem of the corruptible body, the salt as an emblem
of the immortal spirit." Mr. Napier, in his "Folk-Lore of the West
of Scotland," points out that we may find another explanation for
the plate of salt on the breast in the "sin-eaters," persons who, in
days gone by, when a person died, were sent for to come and eat the
sins of the deceased. On their arrival their first act was to place a
plate of salt and one of bread on the breast of the corpse, repeating
a series of incantations, after which they devoured the contents of
the plates. By this ceremony the deceased person was supposed to be
relieved of such sins as would have kept his spirit hovering about
his relations to their discomfort and annoyance.
It is customary, especially among the poor, for those who visit a
house while the dead body is lying in it to touch the corpse, thereby
showing that they owe the departed one no grudge. This practice, in
all probability, originated in the belief that a corpse would bleed
at the touch of the murderer, constant allusions to which we find in
old authors.
The practice of watching the dead body until its burial is not yet
obsolete, a custom indeed which, among the Irish, is even still
occasionally the scene of the most unseemly revelries, those present
oftentimes indulging in excessive drinking and riotous merry-making.
In days gone by, however, this practice was attended with every mark
of respect to the deceased one, the leading idea being to see that
the devil did not carry off the body.
Lastly, since the formation of cemeteries, many of the quaint old
funeral customs which formerly existed in many of our country
villages have passed away. Now-a-days, the "last act," as the
committal of the body to the grave has been termed, has been shorn
of much of its pomp. Thus, in the North of England it was customary,
only a few years ago, to carry "the dead with the sun" to the grave,
a practice corresponding with the Highland usage of making "the
deazil," or walking three times round a person, according to the
course of the sun. On one occasion, in the village of Stranton, near
West Hartlepool, the vicar was standing at the churchyard gate,
awaiting the arrival of the funeral procession, when, much to his
surprise, the entire group, who had come within a few yards of him,
suddenly turned back and marched round the churchyard wall, thus
traversing its west, north, and east boundaries. On inquiring the
reason of this extraordinary procedure, one of the mourners quickly
replied, "Why, ye wad no hae them carry the dead again the sun; the
dead maun ay go wi' the sun." This is not unlike a Welsh custom
mentioned by Pennant, who tells us that when a corpse was conveyed
to the churchyard from any part of the town, great care was always
taken that it should be carried the whole distance on the right-hand
side of the road. A curious custom, which still survives at Welsh
funerals, is termed "the parson's penny." After reading the burial
service in the church, the clergyman stands behind a table while a
psalm is being sung. In the meantime each of the mourners places a
piece of money on the table for his acceptance. This ceremony is
regarded as a token of respect to the deceased, although it was no
doubt originally intended to compensate the clergyman for praying for
the soul of the departed. In some Welsh parishes a similar custom,
called "spade-money," is observed. As soon as the corpse has been
committed to its resting-place, the grave-digger presents his spade
as a receptacle for donations, these offerings, which often amount to
a goodly sum, being regarded as his perquisites.
From time immemorial there has been a popular prejudice among the
inhabitants of rural villages against "burial without the sanctuary."
This does not imply in unconsecrated ground, but on the north
side of the church, or in a remote corner of the churchyard. The
origin of this repugnance is said to have been the notion that the
northern part was that which was appropriated to the interment of
unbaptised infants, excommunicated persons, or such as had laid
violent hands upon themselves. Hence it was generally known as "the
wrong side of the church." In many parishes, therefore, this spot
remained unoccupied while the remaining portion of the churchyard
was crowded. White, in his "History of Selborne," alluding to this
superstition, says that as most people wished to be buried on the
south side of the churchyard, it became such a mass of mortality that
no person could be interred "without disturbing or displacing the
bones of his ancestors." A clergyman of a rural parish in Norfolk
says:--"If I were on any occasion to urge a parishioner to inter a
deceased relative on the north side of the church, he would answer me
with some expression of surprise, if not of offence, at the proposal,
'No, sir, it is not in the sanctuary.'"
Great attention has, also, generally been paid to the position of
the grave, the popular idea being from east to west, while that
from north to south has been considered not only dishonourable,
but unlucky. Indeed, the famous antiquary, Thomas Hearne, was so
particular on this point that he left orders for his grave to be made
straight by a compass, due east and west. In _Cymbeline_ (Act iv.,
sc. 2), Guiderius, speaking of the apparently dead body of Imogen
disguised in man's apparel, says:--
"Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head to the east;
My father hath a reason for 't."
It is worthy of notice that the burial of the dead among the Greeks
was in the line of east and west; and thus it is not to late and
isolated fancy, but to the carrying on of ancient and widespread
solar ideas, as Mr. Tylor has so clearly shown, that we trace the
well-known legend that the body of Christ was laid towards the east,
and the Christian usage of digging graves east and west. A pretty
custom was once observed in many of our country villages at the
funeral of a young unmarried girl, or of a bride who died in her
honeymoon; a chaplet of flowers being carried before the corpse by a
girl nearest in age, size, and resemblance, and afterwards hung up in
the church over the accustomed seat of the deceased.
Among other customs connected with burial may be mentioned "funeral
feasts," which have prevailed in this and other countries from
the earliest times, and are supposed to have been borrowed from
the _Coena feralis_ of the Romans: an offering, consisting of
milk, honey, wine, aloes, and strewed flowers, to the ghost of the
deceased. In a variety of forms this custom has prevailed amongst
most nations, the idea being that the spirits of the dead feed on
the viands set before them. In Christian times, however, these
funeral offerings have passed into commemorative banquets, under
which form they still exist amongst us. In the north of England the
funeral feast is called "an arval," and the loaves that are sometimes
distributed among the poor are termed "arval bread."
The poor seem to have always been fond of inviting a large number
of friends to attend a funeral. Instances are on record of a barrel
of beer, two gallons of sack, and four gallons of claret being
consumed at a funeral, and the cost of wine has been five times more
than the cost of the coffin. In one of the parishes on the borders
of Norfolk there is a tradition, says Mr. Glyde in his "Norfolk
Garland," that when the warrior Sir Robert Atte Tye was buried, four
dozen of wine were drunk, according to his last directions, over
his grave, before the coffin was covered with earth. Many curious
anecdotes might be given of funerals having been solemnised within
the church-porch, and of the scruples entertained by great men as
to the practice of interment in churches. A part of the churchyard,
too, was occasionally left unconsecrated for the purpose of burying
excommunicated persons. Among some of the superstitions associated
with burial we may just note that it is considered by some unlucky to
meet a funeral; and that, according to another notion, the ghost of
the last person buried keeps watch over the churchyard till another
is buried, to whom he delivers his charge.