KIRKBEAN FOLKLORE. 45 
some parts of Germany, after a death, not only the mirrors but 
everything that shines or glitters (windows, clocks, &c.), are 
covered up, doubtless, because they might reflect a person’s image. 
The same custom of covering up mirrors, or turning them to the 
wall, after a death, prevails in England, Scotland, and Mada- 
eascar. The statement in the last sentence regarding the cus- 
tom north of the Tweed is confirmed by the late Mr James 
Napier, in his ‘ Folk Lore in the West of Scotland.’ On page 60 
of that work he says :—‘ After death there came a new class of 
superstitious fears and practices. The clock was stopped, the 
looking-glass was covered with a cloth, and all domestic animals 
were removed from the house until after the funeral.’ Mr Napier 
does not attempt to explain the practice, but the reason given in 
the‘ Golden Bough’ is quite anadequate one.” It will be observed 
that this is no explanation of the stopping of the clocks. With 
regard to the other custom or belief. it is actually still observed, 
and hascome under my own notice. One night, when present at 
an “ encoffining,” a young woman, who was taking her last look 
at the little child, remarked that it was the first corpse she had 
ever seen. ‘‘ Then,” remarked another person present, ‘‘ you must 
touch it.” She did so, and was told that she should draw her 
hand from head to foot. I afterwards ascertained that it was 
supposed that the one who saw a corpse for the first time, would 
dream about it the same night unless he or she touched it in this 
way. Although there was no‘ wake” held after the fashion so 
prevalent in Ireland, a number of years ago, it was the custom for 
one or more of the neighbours to sit in the apartment in which the 
corpse lay, or in the adjoining one. ‘This was kept up by day and 
night until the funeral, which frequently did not take place until 
eight days after the death. This custom gave an opportu- 
nity for showing the neighbourly feeling so common in country 
districts, which is often unseen in ordinary intercourse, but is so 
apparent in times of sickness and sorrow. The saying, “‘ Happy 
is the corpse the rain rains on,” is sometimes remembered, although 
in varying words. I have been unable to hear of any superstitions 
connecting deaths and bees, similar to those spoken of by the late 
Mr Dudgeon in his paper on ‘“‘ Bee Folklore,” which appears in this 
Society’s “ Transactions” for the session 1891-92. I have made 
particular inquiry about these, but no one seems to have heard of 
them in Kirkbean. The custom cf having a few friends and neigh- 
