Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 169, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1914 — Cling to Old Beliefs. [ARTICLE]

Cling to Old Beliefs.

Holiday-makers who visit the English Lakeland, and regard it as a beautiful place in which to rest from strenuous work in order to be fit for harder work, would probably be surprised to learn that in the quiet hamlets among the Cumbrian fells motor cars are still regarded as curiosities, and superstitious customs and beliefs are much as they were a hundred years ago. Funeral feasts have lost much of their character, but a number of curious customs still survive. The bees have at once to be informed of any death that takes place. Some one, generally a woman dressed in blacb, whispers to them what has occurred. - Sometimes they take a holiday in consequence. At other times they continue their work, but, in any case, hives are braided with black, and on the dfiy of the funeral wine and sweet butter are placed in the garden or orchard for their consolation. A silk scarf is usually distributed to each man who attends a funeral, and there was one person so much In demand for these melancholy occasions that in time he had collected a sufficient number of scarfs to allow of his wife making herself aJM*B<i..new silk dress.