ON THE ETHNOGRAPHICAL SURVEY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 483 



the funeral, return to the house of the departed and partake of a meal, 

 commonly ' high tea.' The joiner who makes the coffin commonly gets a 

 list of those that are wished to be so entertained. 



542. Kirkmaiden, Minnigaff. — It was till not long ago a custom to 

 cut off a piece of the grave-clothes immediately before the coffin was closed, 

 and to preserve it. 



543. Kirkmaiden. — The coffin is taken out by the door and not by a 

 window, except in rare cases when it cannot be taken through the door- 

 way. The body must be taken out by the door the deceased came in. 



544. Balmagliie. — At a funeral the women of the house never go out- 

 side, but shut themselves up. 



545. Kirkmaiden. — The coffin is usually carried to the graveyard. To 

 take the coffin to the graveyard in a cart, which is sometimes done, is 

 accounted a less honourable mode of burial than to be carried. 



546. Fifty years ago there was very little conversation carried on by 

 those that formed the funeral procession ; and if any was carried on, it was 

 in subdued tones. It is quite different nowadays. There is conversa- 

 tion, and it runs on all kinds of subjects. 



547. Mochrum. — In tolling the church-bell at a funeral, three tolls in 

 succession are given, and then an interval. 



548. My informant, a gravedigger, has sometimes seen each of the 

 relatives of the deceased throw a handful of mould on the coffin after it was 

 lowered into the grave. 



549. Kirkmaiden. — A man of somewhat bad character died at Logan. 

 When the coffin was being carried to the grave many extraordinary diffi- 

 culties came in the way. At last one old man called out, ' In God's name, 

 lay 'im doon, an' lat the deil tack 'im.' 



550. Cross michael. — When one' dies the room is darkened. 



551. When one dies the clock is stopped. My informant has heard 

 the order given ' Stop the clock.' 



552. On the occasion of a death it is the custom to burn the chaff of 

 the bed and the bed-straw. 



553. Balmadellan. — Between forty and fifty years ago, Fanny Ireland 

 or Macmillan, an old woman that lived in Balmadellan, fell ill. The aunt 

 of my informant's wife went to ask how she was. She found she had not 

 long to live. She stayed a long time. When she returned home, her 

 mother asked her why she had stayed so long. She said she had been 

 helping to carry the dying woman ' weathershins ' round her house, and 

 * was jist worn oot ' doing so. The women had taken the dying woman 

 from bed and carried her ' weathershins ' round the house ' to keep awa'' 

 evil spirits.' 



554. Mochrum. — Unbaptized children used to be buried under the wall 

 of the graveyard or of the church. My informant has done this. 



555. The church bell was rung at the funerals of children that had 

 been baptized, but not at those that had not been baptized. 



556. Kirkmaiden. — Still-born as well as unbaptized children are, or 

 were till lately, buried in the gloaming and under the walls of the church. 

 It is unlucky to step over the graves of such. 



Suicides. 



557. Corsock. — The ridge of the Lowther or Lead Hills, along which 

 runs the boundary between the counties of Lanark and Dumfries, was 



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