The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-01-27
Burial Customs.


Rhenish town of Bonn, when funeral
came down the street. That particular
cake of soap-pink it was, and almond
scented-and that particular funeral was
ever connected in my mind. Even when
the last small fragments were slipping
[ through my fingers, melting away alto
ing-basin, they recalled to my imagina-
ton the brown frocked monks, the cross
bearer, the boys white-robed and singing,
the voices of the priests, and the wreath
of flowers upon the pail. Pious people
crossed themselves as the train passed
down the middle of the street, where ev-
erything made way for it-not that there
was then, or ever is, much going on in
Bonn, or much traffic to be disturbed by
death passing through its midst. Some
one was taking the last journey that day
with BETTING solemnity, and it set me
thinking of others 1 had seen pass along
the same road.
In Italy have met funeral professions
at night, when the streets were quiet and
the sound of chanting could be heard
far off. Ihave seen the hearse with black
nodding plumes, and followed by it's
train of mourning coaches, blocked up
by the crowded traffic of the London
streets-jostled by cabs and omnibuses
death fouted by busy tide of life,
which scarce contents to let it pass. In
q green lane in Ireland. when the hedges
were bursting into leaf and the birds all
singing, l came once upon party of
peasants, some score of them, waiting 10y
the roadside. There were women wear
ing cloaks of dark blue cloth, young
girls with shawls over their heads, men
in the long coats so familiar in Ireland.
From the distance, the sound of voices
was heard mingling in a wild musical
bstrain, and by and by the funeral came
in sight. The train, already long, was
joined by those who had been waiting for
it, and so one amongst the people took
his last journey away through the lanes
to the old burying- ground of his fathers.
Not so striking are village funerals in
England. There is nothing picturesque
about the poor procession following on
foot the cart in which the coffin is placed.
No long train of friends and neighbors,
no wild strain of music accompanies it
upon the road. The few mourners are
the immediate relatives of the dead. The
neighbors look, perhaps, from their win
dows as the sad group goes by; but they
would not dream of shortening a day.
work for the sake Of accompanying one
amongst their number to the grave. The
manner of their starting, too, Jared up
on my feelings the first time [ Glanced
to witness it for. in several instances,
they may be seen to leave their lowly
houses, not carried solemnly feet fore
most" over the familiar threshold, but
pushed abruptly through the window of
an upper room. My own windows COM
mand view of little house, where one
day the close-drawn blinds spoke of
death. l knew the inside of that room
so we'll, in imagination. that, looking
through the drawn blind, pictured to
myself the quiet form upon the bed. l
was thinking tenderly of the days work
done, the patient, homely life ended, the
burden laid down at last, when suddenly
1.-THE volunteers were passing ut the
moment, / remember, with the band
playing, and pursued by the usual crowd
of shouting urchins the window was
thrown open, long plank thrust out,
one end of which rested in a cart stand
ing at the door below; the coffin appear
the plank, WAS dexterously caught by
the carpenter, officiating just then as un-
dertaker; the family emerged at the
same moment from the house, formed
two and two without delay, and so they
started. What particularly disturbed me
in this contrivance of plank and cart was
the fact that my poor friend was one so
extremely unlikely under any circum-
stances to have left her house by the win
dow A staid, quiet, trouble-worn wo-
man, there was "a certain startling lncon-
gruity in her apparently adopting, after
death, a mode of egrcss which would
have scandalized her when alive. Be.
sides l was not used to it then. l have
seen many such exits since; and, indeed
hardly know what else they could do,
considering the narrow, winding stairs
common in the village. Yet, looking
round upon the many windows visible
from my own, those from which l have
CHANGED to see coffin rattle down into
a cart never seem to meet my eye with
tho same friendly chances that the others
do. Even on bright afternoons, when
the sunshine is reflected from the panes,
or at evening, when n crimson sunset
uTeS tucIu, ioE iuc tucy "Sai " "SAiu AVoAA, ,
look recalling death.
Dignified enough was the last solemn
rites Of the Northern heroes-the body
placed upright upon horseback, and so
borne into the centre of the mound, whose
heaped-up wall of earth was closed over
horse and man alike. These mounds
may still be seen in Jutland-out on the
moors where purple heath and wild
Al.u,..x os.n,yr. onl xvhara on snma roro