Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/422

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384
"Death's Deeds":

proper places. The infant's especially, which had been thrown to the opposite angle of the vault.

Sept. 25, 1816. Vault opened for Samuel B. Ames, an infant. Coffins in great disorder.

Nov. 17, 1816. Vault opened for Samuel Brewster. Great confusion among the coffins.

July 7, 1819. Vault opened for Thomazin Clarke. Coffins found in great confusion.

At each time of the Vault being opened, the coffins were carefully replaced in their proper places, and the mouth of the Vault regularly closed by masons.

April 18, 1820. In consequence of a noise being heard one night in the Vault, it was opened next day in the presence of Lord Combermere and two other persons of first respectability, and the same confusion prevailed among the coffins, all of which were of lead, except Thomazin Clarke's, which was of cedar.

SignedThomas H. Orderson,
Rector.

The within was copied from a drawing made on the spot by order of Lord Combermere. [Plates VL and VIL]

This third version increases the resemblance to the Ahrensburg story, by mentioning that "a noise was heard one night in the vault," which caused Lord Combermere to have the vault opened for the last time, on April 18, 1820. Mr. Orderson, obviously, had to make many copies, and slightly altered them, being weary of repeating identical phrases.

Turning to Schomburgk's History of Barbadoes (1844), we learn that fine sand was laid to detect footsteps of marauders, as wood ashes were used at Ahrensburg. Private marks were also found undisturbed, like the seals at Ahrensburg. As at Ahrensburg, the cofiins were finally buried in the earth, and I daresay nobody exhumed them to see how they were behaving. Schomburgk gives, like A., four, not, like O., five disturbances. A. mentions the making of the sketches by one of Lord Combermere's