The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-10
DEAD MEMS SHOES.
Some Old World superstitions About
Them.


From the New York Tribune.
Dead mems Shoes is an expression
that is familiar to every one accustomed
to the use of the English language. But
there are few in this country who are ac-
quainted either with its origin or with
the Importance which is accorded in many
parts of the old world to the boots of the
dead. Thus, in Scotland in the mort hern
parts of England. in Scandinavia as well
as in Hungary, Croatia and Roumania, the
utmost care is taken among the lower
classes to see that each corpse is provi-
ded with a good pair of shoes before it is
laid into the ground. If the dead person
happens to be tramp, and to have been
found dead in a bare-footed condition
there will be always some charitable soul
to furnish pair of good boots for inter-
ment along with the corpse, and the writer
of this article has even known an inspec-
tor of police in Scotland to purchase of
his own accord a new pair of boots and to
place them in the grave, reopened for the
purpose, of a murdered stranger, who had
been inadvertently inferred barefooted
the day before.
This practice, which likewise prevails
among the Tsiganes, as well as in many
parts OF Asia, is attributable to the belief
that, unless the dead are well shod when
buried, their ghosts come back to haunt
the locality where they breathed their last
in search of a pair of shoes These are
popularity supposed to be needed to pass
in comfort and safety the broad plains
WHICH tue departed Soul mas Jnat IL mas
to traverse before 1t can reach Paradise.
Among some nations these plains are de-
clared to be covered with furZes thorns
and mOrass, while other races claim that
they consist of burning sands. These
plains of suffering (the belief in which, al
though of pagan origin, has its modern
counterpart in the purgatory of the Ro-
man Catholic church, are popularity cred
tied with forming sort of ante-chamber
to hell II Is for This reason that the boots
Of the dead are called ''hell-shoes" in Nor
way, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.
Sir Walter Scott, in his interesting notes
to "Minstrelsy on the Scottish Border"
quotes the following extract from a val
liable manuscript in the Cotton library,
dating from the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
1t runs as follows.
"When any dieth certaine women sing
a song TO the dead bodie. reciting the
journey that the partye deceased must
goe: and they are Of beliefe that once IN
their lives IL is goode to give a pair OF
new shoes 60 poor man; fOrasmuch as
before this life they are TO pass bare-foote
through a great lande. full Of thornes and
furzen-excepte 10y the meryte of the
almes aforesaid, they have redeemed-for
at the edge of the launde an Guide man
shall meet them with the same shoes that
were given by the partie when he was
living, and after he had shodde them,
dismsseth them TO so through thick and
thin without scratch or SCALE"
This must be a very agreeable reflection
to all gentlemen who have bestowed their
old boots on their Wallets. or ladies' who
have i'm like fashion gifted their maids. To
be sure, the legend specifies new shoes:
but surely a pair OF IS boots only half
worn count for as much as q new pair of
Through thick or thin without scratch or
sealle." It may be just as well 20 be on
the safe side, and give away "a good, new
extra stout pair.