It was considered a mark of the strongest affection by the ancients,
that a son, when his father was dying, should lean over him and receive
his last gasp,
“and kiss his spirit into happy rest.”
The Jews, Greeks, and Romans, esteemed it a high privilege for the
nearest relative to close the eyes of the deceased body; as in Genesis,
when Jacob’s sun was setting, “_Joseph_ shall put his hands upon thine
eyes.” And in another place,--“The memory of the father is preserved in
_the son_.” Again, (contra) “I have _no son_ to keep my name in
remembrance.” And in Homer, “Let not the _glory_ of his eyes depart,
without the _tender hand_ to move it silently to peace.” Ovid says,
“Ille _meos oculos_ comprimat, ille tuos.” The performing this ceremony
was so valued, that to die without friends to the due observance of this
affectionate and last testimony, was thought an irreparable affliction.
The sudden death of a man was attributed to Apollo; of a woman, to
Diana. If any relation were present, a vessel of brass was procured, and
beaten loudly in the ears of the deceased to determine the point. The
ringing of bells by the Romans, and others to this day is practised. The
Irish wake partakes also of this usage. When the moon was in eclipse,
she was thought asleep, and bells were rung to wake her: the eclipse
having past, and the moon recovered her light, faith in this noisy
custom became strengthened. Euripides says, when Hyppolitus was dying,
he called on his father to close his eyes, cover his face with a cloth,
and put a shroud over the corpse. Cassandra, desirous of proving the
Trojan cause better than that of the Greeks, eulogizes their happy
condition in dying at home, where the obsequies might be performed for
them by their nearest relatives. Medea tells her children she once hoped
they would have performed the duty for her, but she must do it for them.
If a father, or the mother died a widow, the children attended to it: if
the husband died, the wife performed it; which the Greeks lamented could
not be done if they died at Troy. The duty devolved on the sister if her
brother died; which caused Orestes to exclaim, when he was to suffer
death so far from his home--“Alas! how shall my _sister_ shroud me
now?”
Last month I was gratified by observing the funereal attentions of the
gipsy tribes to _Cooper_, then lying in state on a common, near Epping
forest. The corpse lay in a tent clothed with white linen; candles were
lighted over the body, on which forest flowers and blossoms of the
season were strewn and hung in posies. Cooper’s wife, dressed in black,
perceiving I did not wish to see the face of her husband, said in
perfect naïveté, “Oh, sir, don’t fear to look at him, I never saw his
countenance so _pleasant_ in all my life.” A wit might have construed
this sentence otherwise; but too much kindness emanated from this scene
of rustic association to admit of levity. Her partner was cold, and her
heart beat the pulsations of widowhood. The picture would have caught an
artist’s eye. The gipsy-friends and relations sat mutely in the
adjoining tents; and, like Job and his comforters, absorbed their grief
in the silence of the summer air and their breasts. When Cooper was put
in his coffin, the same feeling of attachment pervaded the scene. A
train of several pairs, suitably clothed, followed their friend to the
grave, and he was buried at the neighbouring church in quiet solemnity.
In addition to this, I transcribe a notice from a MS. journal, kept by a
member of my family, 1769, which confirms the custom above alluded to.
“Here was just buried in the church, (Tring,) the sister of the queen of
the gipsies, to whom it is designed by her husband, to erect a monument
to her memory of 20_l._ price. He is going to be married to the queen
(sister to the deceased.) He offered 20_l._ to the clergyman to marry
him directly; but he had not been in the town a month, so could not be
married till that time. When this takes place, an entertainment will be
made, and 20_l._ or 30_l._ spent. Just above esquire Gore’s park these
_destiny readers_ have a camp, at which place the woman died;
immediately after which, the survivors took all her wearing apparel and
burnt them, including silk gowns, rich laces, silver buckles, gold
earrings, trinkets, &c.,--for such is their custom.”