CHAPTER XVIII.
MORTUARY CUSTOMS.
1240. If “salt water pigeons’” feathers are in a bed, the sick person on it will not die easily.
Newfoundland.
1241. In old colonial burying-grounds—in Plymouth, Concord, Cambridge, and Rutland, Mass.—the graves are so placed that the headstones face west, that is, the body lies with the feet toward the east.
Perhaps general in New England.
1242. Among Irish Catholics it is usual to place the body with the feet toward the door. The body of a young girl is usually draped in the robes of the society to which in her church she belonged. Over the corpse is constructed a white canopy, from one end of which images of white doves are often hung. At the feet is a stand or table, on which flowers are laid, and where, at night, candles are kept burning.
Boston, Mass.
1243. Country people turn the mirror to face the wall while one lies dead in the house.