death

Burial Preparations

It is generally considered to be a bad omen if, when a corpse is being prepared for burial, the eyes are found to be still open. The dead man is
looking for someone accompany him into the grave.

Until recently it was usual to place coins on the eyes as soon as death had occurred, a custom often explained as an attempt to prevent this
ominous staring, but perhaps also connected with the old belief that the dead must be provided with money to pay their way in the next world.

A 'limber corpse', that is, one which has not stiffened as quickly as usual, signifies another death in the household before very long.

In some places, it was formerly considered essential to tie the feet of the corpse with string or woolen thread as soon as laying-out was
completed. If this was not done, the spirit might return or, worse still, some other spirit might enter the body and use it for its own purposes.

When the corpse was fully clothed, it was laid in the coffin with its feet towards the rising sun, following the line along which graves were
customarily made. Before the coffin was finally nailed down, every fastening in the shroud had to be carefully loosened. Knots were untied,
strings cut, and all pins removed. If this was not done, it was believed that the dead man would be hampered when he rose from the grave on
the Last Day.

Causing Death

If a cow moos after midnight, someone the in owner's family will die.

If a bat flies into you house, a very close friend will die soon.

If a dog howls after midnight, someone in the neighborhood will die.

If someone accidentally places three chairs in a row, a close relative of his will soon die.

If a cricket chirps in you house, someone in the immediate family will soon die.

If a sick person is moved from one room to another for any reason, he will die.

If someone counts the vehicles in a funeral procession or points his finger at any of them, someone in his family will die before a year has
passed.

If anyone hold an open umbrella over his head in the house, a close relative will die within six months.

If three crows fly over your house, someone very close to you will die within a year.

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Cemetery

Make sure your loved one is not the first to be buried in a new cemetery. The Devil is said to claim the first person so buried and may send him
back to harm the family. Others believed that if you were the first buried you would be the Churchyard Watcher. To avoid this after the new
churchyard was consecrated, a dog would be buried there so it would not effect the first human.

Also some believed that if you were the last person buried in the cemetery, you would be doomed as the Churchyard Watcher forever, since no
other corpse would come to relieve you.

It is considered to be very bad luck to break up a cemetery and use it for something else, and the people disturbed will probably haunt the
person responsible for the decision.

The dead are best placed on an east/west axis facing east (where the sun will rise on the day of Resurrection) and on the south side of the
church. This helps to protect them from demons and you from them. To keep the dead from getting up, place a cairn of stones or one heavy
stone (a head-stone) on the grave. Put a cross on it to keep away devils and demons.

Dead Hand

The hand of a man who had died on the gallows, or who had committed suicide, was formerly believed to have strong curative powers. It healed
those who were touched by it of many diseases, and especially those which affected the neck and throat. When executions were public,
sufferers from goiter, king's evil, cancer, tumors, and sores of various kinds often went to a hanging, and persuaded or bribed the hangman to
let them stroke the affected part with the criminal's hand, as soon as possible after the breath had left his body. Childless women who believed
that the touch of the dead hand would remove the curse of barrenness.

Things also that were in contact to the dead hand were also deemed to have curative powers. A sty on the eye could be healed by stroking it
nine times with a gold wedding ring taken from a dead woman's hand, or a silver ring taken from that of a drowned sailor.

Funerals

In Britain, if you are attending a funeral and a ray of sunshine directly hits your face, it is unlucky; and you are marked as the next one to die.
Also if anyone attempts to precede the coffin on its way to the church, serious bad luck or sudden death will be their fate.

When horses were used to draw the funeral carriage, they had, on arrival at the house, to be taken out of the shafts and put into the stable for
a short time before leaving again for the church. If they refused to start, another death in the same family would follow soon, and so too, if the
hearse had to be turned after the corpse had been place in it. If, during the journey, one of the horses turned his head towards any house and
neighed, someone in that house would die before long.

Graves

It is unlucky to walk or tread upon a grave. To do so is disrespectful not only to whoever lies below, but also to all the dead buried nearby. If the
grave trodden on happens to be that of a stillborn or unbaptized child, the offender runs the risk of contracting the fatal disease known as
Gravemerelles.

To leave a grave open over Sunday is still quite often thought to be ill-omened. It yawns for another corpse, and a second death in the parish
will follow shortly.

It is very dangerous to disturb a grave, and still more to rob it. The dead man, roused prematurely from his rest, may haunt the neighborhood,
or take direct revenge upon the offender. This includes prehistoric burial sites. It one is accidentally disturbed, the bones should be reburied as
quickly as possible, otherwise they be haunted by the ghost, suffer from bad dreams or insomnia, or experience other forms of bad luck.

Hand of Glory

The Hand of Glory was a charm used in many parts of Europe by burglars, and also by sorcerers. It consisted of the hand of a hanged felon,
cut from the body as it hung on the gibbet, pickled with various salts, and dried in strong sunlight or in an oven until it was quite hard. It was
then used as a holder for a candle made of hanged man's fat, virgin wax, and Lapland sesame.

Burglars would then use the hand to hold a candle believing that it would only be able to be seen by those who used it, making themselves
invisible. Also others believed that it could move on it's own to do the thieves bidding.

Miscellaneous

Sometimes the dead return asking you to do work they left unfinished or to undertake other tasks. You can oblige them and then you have the
grateful dead on your side. Annoy them by refusing to carry out their wishes (or by such improprieties as dancing or urinating on their graves)
and they may seek revenge on you.

A very persistent superstition is communities is 'one funeral makes three'. Especially if there is a long period of time without any death means
that when the next person dies, two will die quickly afterwards.

Transporting the Corpse

If you place a coin in the coffin, the dead person will be able to pay the fare across the River Styx and will not return to haunt the living. This is
the belief that led the people being buried with a penny on each eyelid.

If you carry the corpse out of the house feet first, it cannot look back and beckon some member of the family to follow it soon into the next
world.