Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1893 — Burial Customs. [ARTICLE]

Burial Customs.

Corpses were often interred in a sitting posture, sometimes, doubtless, to Bare the expense of a full-sized grave, as in the case of “Rare Ben Jonsoa’’ at Westminster. The hour glass in the coffin was varied in Sweden by another kind—a looking glass—in the coffin of unmarried women, so that they can see to comb their hair when Gabriel blows his trump. In Yorkshire and other British counties the custom still lingers of sending funeral cakes to the friends of a dead person. Ic Wales the east wind is called the wind of the dead men’s feet, because the dead are buried facing the cast. In some parts of Scotland the window bi nds are taken down during a funeral and the windows covered with white sheets. The practice of putting a plate of salt on a body is, perhaps, descended from mediaeval custom. The body of Henry L of England was literally salted down, wrapped in a bull’s hide and borne to Reading for burial.

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