Year: 1876

There is no doubt that the custom of
waking or watching, says writer in the
Dublin University Magazine, originated
with the Irish in an afectionate feeling
toward their dead relatives, whom their
natural kindness prompted them not to
desert, as it were, nor to leave to the
attacks of evil spirits, who hover in their
fancy round the body tn do it an injury.
Hence the light and holy water. The
same idea, in almost the identical form;
prevailed in Cleveland, Yorkshire, where
indeed it is only just extinct. The Lyke
Wake, ar Late Wake, was maintained
sometimes for few days after the body
was laid in the grave, and there were
more superstitious practices than in Ire
land. In addition to the light and holy
water a plate of salt was put on the
breast; these were held to be efficacious
for the watcher as we'll as the dead.
Above all, the door was always either
wide open or carefully closed, lest some
fearful apparition should enter. The
readers of Guy Mannerfng will remember
Meg Merrilies opening the door wide
when she was busy in her CHASTITY admin
istration about the smuggler's corpse.
She alsC chanted some dismal verse,
something similar to the Lyke Wake
dirge which is sung in Yorkshire, but
properly belongs to Cleveland -


This ae night this no night,


Every night and ale,


fire and eet, and candlelight


And Chfisle receive thy sale.


In parts of the north of Ireland there
was at one time, sons forty or fifty years
ago, a rather roma ntic custom, tha when
a very young unmarried woman died her
coffin should be carried by young girls
only to the graveyard. AS this was
situated perhaps some fifteen or twenty
miles from where she lived, it followed
that the bearers should be changed every
second mile, and on these occasions there
was generally an escort of running volun-
teers who in this way often did their
thirty miles day. This custom was
called shifting the coffin and good
many marriages were the result of these
excursions, but the idea was nevertheless
pretty and pastoral. The irish peasantry
have an inborn taste for funerals, and in
the amount of honor due to the departed
they lose sight of the actual loss they
have suffered. "Och, sure thin, it was
a fine berryin'-there was a sight of peo-
pie and a power of cars" is as great an
eulogium as can be accorded any man,
and will quite console the survivors.
And the reverse, "Och, sure thin, he
did not leave enough as would bury him
dacent." In fact, they think far more of
how they are to be buried than of keep
ing life itself. The poorest and the most
improvident lay by something for his or
her wake, and have myself known cases
of paupers in the hospital who were &C
cumulating under their pillows a little
store to save the disgrace of a parish cof-
fin, that being the greatest and last mis-
fortune that could befall them. Douglas
Jerrold was much struck by this phase
of the Irish character, and it is he, l
think, who tells an affecting story of
young girl whom he found in cabin
busy at her needle. 81 see you take in
plain sewing-this is some bridal gran
deur," he said, taking what looked like
an elaborated night dress. "'TisnO we'd
ding grandeur" replied the girl proudly.
"Shure tits me own shroud. Let life
bring what it may, place God I'll have a
dacent wake"