FLORAL CUSTOMS, SUPERSTITIONS, AND HISTORIES. 223 



among aged oaks, in secluded parts of the forest, where the hushed 

 silence of the solitude steals sadly upon the heart, like soft moonlight, 

 shining upon graves. " We then saw newly-married brides, who, 

 desiring the joys of maternity, sought among the flowers the soul of 

 the infant, which they imagined to be hovering around. At last 

 came the mother, and, placing a bunch of maize and lilies upon the 

 grave, she seated herself upon the turf, and thus addressed her de- 

 parted child * Why should I deplore thy early grave, O my first-born ? 

 When the newly-fledged bird first seeks his food, he finds many 

 bitter grains. Thou never felt the pangs of sorrow, and thy heart 

 was never polluted by the poisonous breath of men. The rose that 

 is nipped in the bud, dies enclosed with all its perfumes, like thee, 

 my son, with all thy innocence.' " 



Byron knew the value of flowers in association with death ; when 

 Medora, the Corsair's bride, is stretched lifeless on the bier — 



" The cold flowers her colder hand contained 



In that last grasp so tenderly were strained, 

 As if she scarcely felt, but feigned a sleep, 

 And made it almost mockery to ^veep." 



In the neighbourood of Mecca, Burckhardt found planted, at the 

 extremity of almost every grave, a species of aloe, whose Arabic 

 name, saber, signifies patience ; symbolical of the great lesson taught 

 by death. The Greeks held the myrtle in the highest reverence as a 

 funeral flower, and crowned the corpse with wreaths of its fragrant 

 foliage. The fathers of the church endeavoured to check this prac- 

 tice, but the people clung fondly to the custom, and continued to 

 enwreathe the dead with flowers, and to hang up chaplets in churches, 

 and to lay them on tombs. And in some green hamlets of Britain 

 the custom still prevails. In the south of England, chaplets of white 

 roses are borne by village maidens in funeral processions ; and often 

 when some fair flower like themselves, or a gentle infant — a yet 

 folded blossom — is being carried to its early tomb, these funeral 

 flowers are watered by the tears of true sorrow. In many parts of 

 Wales, the mourners carry sprigs of rosemary and yew, and when the 

 coffin is lowered into the yawning grave, these are strewed upon it. 

 The graves are planted with shrubs and flowers, and regularly weeded 

 and tended, and visited on the eve of Whitsuntide, and other festi- 

 vals. Thus is the grave sanctified by the offerings of love and f.. lend- 



