nce, in military phrase, to relieve guard upon
the body of the defunct. On any other occasion the speed of these
reverend sibyls would have been much more moderate, for the first was
eighty years of age and upwards, the second was paralytic, and the third
lame of a leg from some accident. But the burial duties rendered to the
deceased are, to the Scottish peasant of either sex, a labour of love.
I know not whether it is from the temper of the people, grave and
enthusiastic as it certainly is, or from the recollection of the ancient
Catholic opinions, when the funeral rites were always considered as a
period of festival to the living; but feasting, good cheer, and even
inebriety, were, and are, the frequent accompaniments of a Scottish
old-fashioned burial. What the funeral feast, or "dirgie," as it is
called, was to the men, the gloomy preparations of the dead body for the
coffin were to the women. To straight the contorted limbs upon a board
used for that melancholy purpose, to array the corpse in clean linen,
and over that in its woollen shroad, were operations committed always to
the old matrons of the village, and in which they found a singular and
gloomy delight.

The old women paid the Master their salutations with a ghastly smile,
which reminded him of the meeting betwixt Macbeth and the witches on
the blasted heath of Forres. He gave them some money, and recommended to
them the charge of the dead body of their contemporary, an office which
they willingly undertook; intimating to him at the same time that
he must leave the hut, in order that they might begin their mournful
duties. Ravenswood readily agreed to depart, only tarrying to recommend
to them due attention to the body, and to receive information where
he was to find the sexton, or beadle, who had in charge the deserted
churchyard of the Armitage, in order to prepare matters for the
reception of Old Alice in the place of repose which she had selected for
herself.

"Ye'll no be pinched to find out Johnie Mortsheugh," said the elder
sibyl, and still her withered cheek bore a grisly smile; "he dwells near
the Tod's Hole, an house of entertainment where there has been mony a
blythe birling, for death and drink-draining are near neighbours to ane
anither."

"Ay! and that's e'en true, cummer," said the lame hag, propping herself
with a crutch which supported the shortness of her left leg, "for I mind
when the father of this Master of Ravenswood that is now s