Woe to the babie that ne’er saw the sun,
All alane and alane, oh!
His bodie shall lie in the kirk ’neath the rain,
All alane and alane, oh!
His grave must be dug at the foot o’ the wall,
All alane and alane, oh!
And the foot that treadeth his body upon
Shall have scab that will eat to the bane, oh!
And it ne’er will be cured by doctor on earth,
Tho’ every one should tent him, oh!
He shall tremble and die like the elf-shot eye,
And return from whence he came, oh!
Powerless, however, as the faculty may be, there is a remedy for the grave-merels, though not of easy attainment. It lies in the wearing a sark, thus prepared. The lint must be grown in a field which shall be manured from a farmyard heap that has not been disturbed for forty years. It must be spun by old Habbitrot, that queen of spinsters, of whom more hereafter; it must be bleached by an honest bleacher, in an honest miller’s milldam, and sewed by an honest tailor. On donning this mysterious vestment, the sufferer will at once regain his health and strength.[1]
It is curious to observe what a different feeling, with regard to stillborn children, may be met with in the South. We read in Choice Notes (p. 172) that one of the Commissioners of Devonport, after complaining of the charge made upon the parish for the interment of such children, said: “When I was a young man it was thought lucky to have a stillborn child put into any open grave, as it was considered a sure passport to heaven for the next person buried there.” The late Canon Humble’s experience is as follows: “When I was curate at Newburn, in Northumberland, the custom was to bring the coffin of an unbaptized babe with that of a full-grown person. The child’s coffin was always laid on the other coffin towards the feet, and so rested while the service was said. There was generally a receptacle for it in the grave towards the feet, made by widening the grave at that
- ↑ In Sweden, if a person afflicted with an open sore walks over any grave, it will heal slowly or never.—Thorpe’s Mythology, vol. ii. p. 110.
