FUNERAL SUPERSTITIONS IN JAMAICA

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1751, 27 September 1905, Page 2

FUNERAL SUPERSTITIONS IN JAMAICA

There are some curious femoral superstitions in Jamaica. Hearses are unknown in the country districts, and th® coffin has to be borne to the grave on the shoulders of the mourners. The negroes gravely assert that onlv with the greatest difficulty can they persuade the corpse to pass places with which it was well acquainted in life, and if the coffin strikes against a tree on the way to the grave something dreadful is sure to happen. Hesketh Bell, a wellknown West Indian official, tells a good story on this head. A negress had died rather suddenly, and, according to custom, she was fastened down in her coffin with all possible speed. Funerals in the West Indies usually take place a few hours after death. On the way to the cemetery the coffin struck against a tree, and immediately afterwards the bearers were horrified to hear the sujiposed corpse thumping at the lid. They opened the coffin, and the woman was found to be alive and just regaining consciousness. She was taken out and returned to the arms of her astonished husband. Some time later, this same woman died in grim earnest, and the funeral procession once more wended its way along the same road. As it approached the scene of the former resurrection, the bereaved widower excitedly rushed up to the bearers and cried, “For goodness sake, mind dat tree dis time!”