1888. } 287 [Mooney. 
chomputl), ‘watch the cemetery,’’ aud carry water in purgatory to the 
souls of all the others buried there until relie¢vd by the soul of the one 
next interd, On this account, should two funerals be approaching at the 
same time, there is a contest for priority which becomes a serious matter 
if they meet at the churchyard. This has frequently led to disgraceful 
and even bloody scenes, which hav sometimes required the personal inter- 
vention of the clergy, especially in the old days of the factions. Instances 
hav occurd even within a few years past, but their recital would serv no 
useful purpose. 
Just outside the wall of Kilranclagh churchyard, near Baltinglass, in 
Wexford, is a deep round wel, above which is a curvd recess in the wall. 
In this recess ar several ledges upon which ar a number of wooden cups. 
Every one interring in the churchyard the body of a child under five 
years of age provides one of these cups, in which the soul of the last 
corpse buried carries water from the wel to its predecessors in purgatory.* 
In Scotland there was the same struggle for precedence, but there, accord- 
ing to Napier, it was the duty of the one last buried te see that no suicide 
or unbaptized child was interd in consecrated ground.+ 
On entering the churchyard the procession goes three times around it 
on the inside following the course of the sun—a custom also observd in 
Scotiand—while the people recite in a low voice the prayers for the dead. 
In some districts the coffin is then brought directly to the spot where the 
grave is to be dug, but in the eastern counties it is generally laid down 
upon a flag or a fragment from the old ruins. In making the cireui in 
an ancient churchyard at Slane, in Meath, the coffin is always set down 
for a few moments at a curious old tomb, locally known as a “‘pagan’s 
grave,’’ having two gable-shaped flagstones sunk in the earth about six 
feet apart, and groovd, evidently to receiv the stones which once formd 
the roof.t While the coffin is resting on the flag the nearest friends dig 
the grave. In accordance with the usages of the Catholic church the 
bodies of unbaptized children, suicides and those who have died intoxi- 
cated or without fulfilling their religious obligations, ar never buried in 
consecrated ground, but ar deposited in unblest earth adjoining the north 
wall of the cemetery, this part being known as ‘the wrong side of the 
churchyard.’ In the west and south there ar many small cemeteries, 
called Cillin (Kil-yeen), exclusively devoted to children. When a Catholic 
is buried in a Protestant cemetery, as sometimes happens in the north, a 
portion of clay is first consecrated by the priest and sprinkled over the 
coffin in the grave. According to Carleton, the priest in the same dis- 
trict would also throw the first three shovelluls of earth upon the coftin 
* Patrick Kennedy, Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts, 187, London, 1866. 
+ James Napier, Folk Lore or Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland, 63, Paisley, 
1879. 
t This tomb is mentioned by W. R. Wilde, The Boyne and the Blackwater, 182, 2d ed , 
Dublin, 1850; and by A. L, Lewis, Notes on Some Irish Antiquities, in Jour. Anth. Inst : 
ix, 141, London, 1880. 
PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXV. 128. 2K. PRINTED DEC. 17, 1888. 
