EXTRAORDINARY SUPERSTITION.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1413, 19 November 1904, Page 6

EXTRAORDINARY SUPERSTITION.

A striking proof that superstition iu not yet oUiiut in some parts of ireland comes from County Cavan. (>n a recent Sunday evening the police at Coolehill Here informed a sudden death having oceurnd 411% Church street, and on arming at the house, they found' a room laid out as ji ier a wake. A recumbent figure oclifted a bed, at the head and foftt of which candles were burning, whim an olif* woman named ltVb.ren fiodley, the occupier of the house, was reading a portion of Scripture,. 'I he apparent solemnity of the 5..-ne, however, was di-eoiint.il by the discovery that tint reader was 'going through' the lt>i{h I'salm backwards, while "the supposed corpse, on closer inspection. turn.xJ. out to be an uncouth figure of straw, into which pins hud bii-n stuck. Ou being ifiicoiioned by the constable an to Ihe reason of this strange conduct, the woman gave an astonishing reply. She had recently lost a sum of money, amounting- to not more than '■'* lid, and was now ongugod in the execution of an elaborate plun of vengeance against some person or |iersoiin who. she averred, had robbed her of the few coins iii ipiestion. She was, in fuel, "waking" tin' stww moire, which she intended to bury on Tuesday. Ucbecca implied that as the straw rotted away so would the bodies of the alleged thieves decay from a mysterious wasting malady. 'l'ho performance of the wake was continued on the Monday night, but was interrupted by indignant tosviispconlo, who proceeded to break the windiuK, extinguish ihe candles, and generally to wreck everything in the ho'pe. Eventually ihe police came on the scene to ipiell the disturbance, vhieh Was assuming set ions proportions. The woman still retained possession of her dummy figure, which she duly interred on the Tuesday.