Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1893 — Katchin Ante-Funeral Ceremonies. [ARTICLE]

Katchin Ante-Funeral Ceremonies.

I was never present at a oomplete funeral ceremony, but once took a modest part in the saturnalia held while the corpse is still above ground. There is nothing very remarkable about it, the main idea being to make as much noise as possible, to frighten away ghouls and evilly disposed nats, and at the same time hint to the newly liberated spirit that his late residence is no place for a serious-minded ghost. With this end in view the whole proceeds to get uproariously drunk on rice spirit, and, assembling in the dead man’s house, shouts, beats, drums and cymbals, dances and slashes the air with dahs, until, unable to drink, dance, beat and slash any more, it falls into a drunken stupor, the silence of which is only broken throughout the night by the mournful wfils of a widow or daughter.—[Scribner’s Magazine.