Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1881 — Sonl Burying. [ARTICLE]

Sonl Burying.

Whenever an Abchasian is drowned his friends search carefully for the body, but, if this is not found, they proceed to capture the soul of the deceased, a measure which then has become a matter of importance. A goatskin bag is sprinkled with water and placed with its mouth, which is stretched open over a hoop, looking toward the river, near the place where the man is supposed to have been drowned. Two cords are stretched from the spot across the river, as a bridge on which the soul can come over. Vessels containing food and drink are set around the skin, and the friends of the deceased come and eat quietly, while a song is sung with instrumental accompaniments. The soul, it is believed, is attracted by the ceremonies, comes over on the bridge that is laid for it, and goes into the trap. As soon as. it has entered—that is, when the bag is inflxted by the breeze—the opening is quietly closed, and the bag is taken up to the burial place, where a grave has already been prepared. The bag is held with the opening to the grave, the strings are untied, and the bag is squeezed into the grave, and the burial is afterward completed. This rite is considered of equivalent value with the burial of the body, and the grave is treated with the same honor as if the body were really within it.— Popular Science Monthly. Buffbbeks from Constantinople should make one trial of Kidney-Wort and be cured.

A contemporary tells a good story of a poacher at Littlecot. This worthy, with whom love of sport was bred in the bone, bad set snares in the wood above the park-keeper’s homo, and, finding they were watched, turned his attention to the fish instead. Presently he saw the keepers come down under the fence for breakfast. He seized the opportunity in their absence to visit the wood, take a hare out, and put a trout into the snare! The disgust of the keepers cn their return can well be imagined.