■I^H 



98 



A FUNERAL. 



liim the names of the places. It was his intention 

 to return again the following year, and seek them 

 out. I should have brought with me a copy of 

 this curious drawing, if my departure from Per- 

 nambuco had not been hastened from unavoida- 

 ab.le circumstances. 



I was invited about this period to attend the 

 funeral of a young married woman of respectable 

 family. I went about five o'clock to the house of 

 the vicar, that I might go with him and three 

 other priests. From hence we adjourned at dusk 

 to the church, where the priests, all of whom were 

 already in their black gowns, put on over these 

 the short lace rochet, and the vicar took in his 

 hands a large silver cross. We walked to the 

 house in which the body was laid ; this was ha- 

 bited in the coarse brown cloth of the Franciscan 

 order, for the deceased had belonged to the lay 

 sisterhood of the Third Order of St. Francis ; the 

 face was uncovered, and the body was laid upon 

 a bier, the room being lighted with many torches. 

 The habits in which the bodies of the deceased 

 lay brothers and sisters of the Third Order are 

 dressed, are obtained from the convents of St. 

 Francis, and are said to be the habits of deceased 

 friars ; but probably the worn-out dresses of 

 those who still live are likewise sold, arid thus 

 arises a considerable source of revenue to the 

 convent. There were assembled in the room 

 several of her male relations and others who had 



