__ acuatiainicaiai 
7 
) 
1888.] 267 
[Mooney. 
In Connemara when one is dying of consumption it is customary to tie 
some unsalted butter in a piece of cloth and hang it up in the rafters. 
Just as the sick person is at his last gasp all of his blood relativs leav the 
hous and remain outside until he is dead. As he draws his last breath the 
consumption leavs his body and enters into one of his relativs, should any 
be present, but finding none of them in the room, it goes up into the but- 
ter, which is then taken down and buried. In some parts of Galway this 
is said to keep off the disease only for a term of seven years. On asking 
how long the friends remaind outside, my informant replied, ‘‘ They stay 
out til he’s dead—and wel dead.”’ 
From Jeremiah Curtin, of the Bureau of Ethnology, I learn that a 
somewhat similar practice formerly existed in Vermont, where within 
living memory the dead body of a consumptiv was dug up, and the heart 
taken out and burnd, under the impression that this would prevent the 
recurrence of the disease in the family. Among the Jews, also, the near- 
est relativs leav the hous just before the death struggle comes on. 
As soon as life is found to be extinct the neighbor women take charge 
of the body, which is washd and drest and stretchd upon a board resting 
on a table or the backs of chairs. The corpse is generally drest in a 
shroud, together with the scapular or other insignia of any religious order 
of which the deceasd may hav been amember. The shroud, towels and 
other clothes used in connection with the funeral ceremonies ar all of 
linen and ar commonly preservd in each family for this purpose alone. 
After the funeral the towels, etc., ar washd by the nearest female relativs 
of the deceasd, no indigo being used in the process. The corpse is laid 
out facing the east, or rather the south-east, that is, with the head to the 
west and the feet to the east, and is buried in the same position whenever 
possible. The custom of burying the dead facing the east is common to 
many European and Oriental peoples, having also been practiced formerly 
by the Choctaws and other Indian tribes of the Southern States,* and had 
its origin in sun worship. The Irish explain it by saying that the east or 
south-east is holy, while the evil spirits always come from the north—and 
here again we see the remains of the old element worship which regarded 
the rising sun, the warm southern breez and the cold northern blast as 
good or bad spirits according to their effects. In allusion to this custom 
there is a current saying in Connemara, when one person quarrels with 
another, Nar bud: fada go d-ti'n ceann caol siar duit,} ‘‘May it not be long 
until the little end of you is to the west.’’ In the east they say, ‘‘May I 
liv to see you stretchd on the board.’’ 
Two evil spirits known as the Mdistinid" Mor (Mawshchenee Moer) or Great 
Mastifs ar constantly waiting to seiz the soul before it can reach the judg- 
ment bar of God. They ar asleep, but spring up at the first sound of 
grief. For this reason the corpse is laid out as soon as possible, and no 
cry or lamentation is raised, im theory, for three hours after death, by 
* James Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., 182, 1775. 
t+ Pronounced, Nawr bd fodha ga jee’n can cueel sheer ghueeth. 
