was dying, and could any one give her a candle. At first I thought the candle was for some remedy such as cupping, but I soon found that her agony was not because she could not relieve her husband’s pain, but because he might pass away without a candle. My cook found a candle for her, but the man did not die.
In hospital wards during the war, they had to be content with one candle of any sort for many dying.
If a man suffers much a priest is called in to read prayers for him (molifte). If this does not ease him, his friends shift his position, putting him facing east. If he has done a wrong, the person wronged is sought, so that forgiveness may be obtained (S. page 291).
When the man is dead, a window is opened or a pane is broken so that the soul may fly out (S. page 291). Any mirrors which may be in the house are covered up. The eyes of the dead are closed by the most loved child. The priest is notified and the church bells are tolled, so that people may know that some one is dead.
In certain localities, the men related to the deceased show their sorrow by going about bare-headed even when going as far as the market-place. The women let down their hair, and begin lamenting the dead aloud. Words are said with a musical intonation, the words often constituting complete elegies of praise and regret for the dead.
In Macedonia, there are professionals who lament the dead, for pay; in Roumania amateurs only are found, who lament “pour l’amour de l’art.”
The dead man is now washed, sometimes for the second time only, the first being at his birth.
The water in which he was washed is poured out at the foot of a tree, and covered with the “kazan,” the vessel in which it was heated, for it would be a profanation to walk over it (S. page 291).
The face is shaven and the nails are cut. It is said that in some places the parings are stuck into a ball of wax and
