Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1895 — Looking Glass in a Coffin. [ARTICLE]

Looking Glass in a Coffin.

One of the ancient customs connected with Swedish funerals was to place a small looking-glass In the coffin of an unmarried female, so that when the last trumpet sounds she might be able to arrange her tresses. It was the practice for Scandinavian maidens to wear their hair flowing loosely, while the matrons wore It bound about the head and generally covered with some form of cap. Hence the unmarried woman was Imagined as awakening at the Judgment day with more untidy locks than her wedded sisters and more In need of a glass.