by condescending to perform the office of chief-mourner. Of
this he was quite aware, and wisely withheld rebuke, where rebuke
and advice would have been equally unavailing. In truth, the Scottish
peasantry are still infected with that rage for funeral ceremonial,
which once distinguished the grandees of the kingdom so much, that a
sumptuary law was made by the Parliament of Scotland for the purpose of
restraining it; and I have known many in the lowest stations, who have
denied themselves not merely the comforts, but almost the necessaries
of life, in order to save such a sum of money as might enable their
surviving friends to bury them like Christians, as they termed it;
nor could their faithful executors be prevailed upon, though equally
necessitous, to turn to the use and maintenance of the living the money
vainly wasted upon the interment of the dead.

The procession to the churchyard, at about half-a-mile's distance, was
made with the mournful solemnity usual on these occasions,--the body was
consigned to its parent earth,--and when the labour of the gravediggers
had filled up the trench, and covered it with fresh sod, Mr. Oldbuck,
taking his hat off, saluted the assistants, who had stood by in
melancholy silence, and with that adieu dispersed the mourners.

The clergyman offered our Antiquary his company to walk homeward; but
Mr. Oldbuck had been so much struck with the deportment of the fisherman
and his mother, that, moved by compassion, and perhaps also, in some
degree, by that curiosity which induces us to seek out even what gives
us pain to witness, he preferred a solitary walk by the coast, for the
purpose of again visiting the cottage as he passed.

CHAPTER ELEVENTH

What is this secret sin, this untold tale,
That art cannot extract, nor penance cleanse?
--Her muscles hold their place;
Nor discomposed, nor formed to steadiness,
No sudden flushing, and no faltering lip.--
Mysterious Mother.

The coffin had been borne from the place where it rested. The mourners,
in regular gradation, according to their rank or their relationship
to the deceased, had filed from the cottage, while the younger male
children were led along to totter after the bier of their brother, and
to view with wonder a ceremonial which they could hardly comprehend.
The female gossips next rose to depart, and, with co