time and in the same cemetery. Whence does it
happen that they neither come back nor infest the place any more when
they are burned or impaled? Would it be again the imagination of the
living and their prejudices which reassure them after these
executions? Whence comes it that these scenes recur so frequently in
those countries, that the people are not cured of their prejudices,
and daily experience, instead of destroying, only augments and
strengthens them?

CHAPTER XLV.

DEAD PERSONS WHO CHEW IN THEIR GRAVES LIKE HOGS, AND DEVOUR THEIR OWN
FLESH.

It is an opinion widely spread in Germany, that certain dead persons
chew in their graves, and devour whatever may be close to them; that
they are even heard to eat like pigs, with a certain low cry, and as
if growling and grunting.

A German author,[575] named Michael Rauff, has composed a work,
entitled _De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis_--"Of the Dead who
Masticate in their Graves." He sets it down as a proved and sure
thing, that there are certain dead persons who have devoured the linen
and everything that was within reach of their mouth, and even their
own flesh, in their graves. He remarks,[576] that in some parts of
Germany, to prevent the dead from masticating, they place a motte of
earth under their chin in the coffin; elsewhere they place a little
piece of money and a stone in their mouth; elsewhere they tie a
handkerchief tightly round their throat. The author cites some German
writers who make mention of this ridiculous custom; he quotes several
others who speak of dead people that have devoured their own flesh in
their sepulchre. This work was printed at Leipsic in 1728. It speaks
of an author named Philip Rehrius, who printed in 1679 a treatise with
the same title--_De Masticatione Mortuorum_.

He might have added to it the circumstance of Henry Count of
Salm,[577] who, being supposed to be dead, was interred alive; they
heard during the night, in the church of the Abbey of Haute-Seille,
where he was buried, loud cries; and the next day, on his tomb being
opened, they found him turned upon his face, whilst in fact he had
been buried lying upon his back.

Some years ago, at Bar-le-Duc, a man was buried in the cemetery, and a
noise was heard in his grave; the next day they disinterred him, and
found that he had gnawed the flesh of his arms; and this we learned
from ocular witnesses. This man had drunk brandy, and had been buried
as dead. Rau