CHURCH GARDENS AND CEMETERIES. 



Ill 



a slope formed by the slight covering thrown over the buried 

 of that day^, and^ frequently_, a little crowd of mourners and 

 Mendsj bearing a coffin. They hand it to the man in the 

 bottom of the trench, who packs it beside the others without 

 placing a particle of earth between ; the priest says a few 

 words,, and sprinkles a few drops of water on the coffin and 

 clay; some of the mourners weep, but are soon moved out 

 of the way by another little crowd, with its dead, and so on 

 till the long and wide trench is full. They do not even take 

 the trouble to throw a little earth against the last coffins 

 put in, but simply put a rough board against them for the 

 night. Those places not paid for in perpetuity are com- 

 pletely cleared out, dug up, and used again after a few 

 years, the bones being doubtless sent to the catacombs. 

 The wooden crosses, little headstones, and countless orna- 

 ments are carted away, thrown in great heaps, the crosses 

 and consumable parts being, I believe, sent to the hospitals 

 as fuel. The headstones from such a clearing (when not 

 claimed in good time by their owners) go to make the 

 drainage of a drive, or some similar purpose. And yet 

 these people, who cannot afford to pay for the ground in 

 perpetuity, go on erecting inscribed headstones, and bringing 

 often their little tokens of love, knowing well that a few 

 years will sweep away these, and that afterwards they cannot 

 even tell where is the dust of those that have been taken 

 from them. What an instance of human love and man^s 

 fugacity ! Let us hope that whatever else may be " taken 

 from the French,^^ we may never imitate them in their 

 cemetery management. 



The catacombs are simply old subterranean quarries stored 

 with the skulls and bones of multitudes of men. When some 

 of the old and well-filled cemeteries of Paris were removed to 

 make way for improvements, the bones, &c., were carted away 

 at night, escorted by priests and torches, and shot down in 

 these extensive burrowings. Afterwards they were regularly 

 arranged and packed, and these places now present the ap- 

 pearance shown in the engraving. These caves were origi- 

 nally precisely like those in which is practised the extra- 

 ordinary system of mushroom-culture described in another 

 chapter. 



