Mortise

“ Post-Mortem Appearances in Cases of Death by Cobra-bite.
Rigor mortis generally comeson about the usual time and is as well marked as it is in death from ordinary causes. The blood in man is fluid, as a rule, and in the lower animals coagulated. If examined directly after death no changes can be recognised by the microscope. After a time the corpuscles may change in shape, become crenated, and blood-crystals may form, but at the moment of death no change can be recognised. The parotid glands may be swollen. The brain presents no marked deviation from normal. ”

“ I screamed, screamed in utter horror at the thing I saw there. Dead? Good God, I do not know. It was a corpse, a dead human body, standing before me like some propped-up thing from the grave. A face half eaten away, terrible in its leering grin. Twisted mouth, with only a suggestion of lips, curled back over broken teeth. Hair—writhing, distorted—like a mass of moving, bloody coils. ”

“ The bodies of the two men lay together, side by side, in the mortuary, the one white and slender, but laid rigidly at rest, the other looking as if every moment it must rouse into life again, so young and unused, from a slumber. ”

“ Most of the instances on record, and particularly those from lay journals, are vivid exaggerations, drawn from possibly such a trivial sign as a corpse found with the fist tightly clenched or the face distorted, which are the inspiration of the horrible details of the dying struggles of the person in the coffin. ”

“ Several patented devices are on the market that permit a ready adjustment with but little effort and are used extensively by commercial manufacturers. The amateur will do well to secure a set before he undertakes to work these slides to shape.
Prepare the legs by cutting them to length. Lay out and work the mortises. The ends of the facings are to be tenoned and housed into the posts. Prepare the rails by cutting the tenons and shaping the lower edges as shown in the drawing. Prepare the top. After this, assemble this much of the frame, using plenty of clamps and good hot glue. ”

“ Further mourning observances were and are, the women relatives getting on some elevated spot near where the body rests, and keeping up a dismal wail, frequently even in extreme cold weather, the greater part of the night, and this is kept up often for a month. No cremation or burying in a grave was practiced by them at any time. Pained by often coming on skeletons in trees and the stench of half-consumed remains in the brush, and shocked by the frequent mutilations visible, I have reasoned with the poor savages. ”

“ Just as the people were about to nail on the lid of the coffin, a kind of perspiration was observed to appear on the surface of her body. It grew greater every moment, and at last a kind of convulsive motion was observed in the hands and feet of the corpse. A few minutes after, during which time fresh signs of returning life appeared, she at once opened her eyes and uttered a most pitiable shriek. Physicians were quickly procured, and in the course of a few days she was considerably restored. ”

“ Are burial posts or slabs used, plain, or marked, with flags or other insignia of position of deceased. Describe embalmment, mummification, desiccation, or if antiseptic precautions are taken, and subsequent disposal of remains. Are bones collected and reinterred, describe ceremonies, if any, whether modern or ancient. If charnel houses exist or have been used, describe them.
5th. MOURNING OBSERVANCES—Is scarification practiced, or personal mutilation? What is the garb or sign of mourning? How are the dead lamented? Are periodical visits made to the grave? ”

“ Have mounds or tumuli been erected in modern times over the dead? How is the grave prepared and finished? What position are bodies placed in? Give reasons therefor if possible. If cremation is or was practiced, describe the process, disposal of the ashes, and origin of custom or traditions relating thereto. Are the dead ever eaten by the survivors? Are bodies deposited in springs or in any body of water? Are scaffolds or trees used as burial places; if so, describe construction of the former and how the corpse is prepared, and whether placed in skins or boxes. Are bodies placed in canoes? ”

“ If the corpse be left unburied, it should be placed in a box2 unseen by the people, and should be arranged in this manner: Lower the head of the corpse until it is bowed between the legs, draw up the legs so that the knees would project beyond the shoulders; slip in a cord at the knee-joints and fasten tightly; the corpse then would be round in appearance.3 If there be anything which the deceased had, such as money, or clothes or other articles, it is buried with the corpse. ”

“ Among the Lapps, the person who is about to place a corpse in the coffin receives from the husband, wife, or children of the deceased a brass ring, which he must wear fastened to his right arm until the corpse is safely deposited in the grave. ”

“ The white-bearded corpse, which was his spirit’s earthly garniture, now lies beneath yonder coffin-lid. Many a cask of ale and cider is on tap, and many a draught of spiced wine and aqua-vitæ has been quaffed. Else why should the bearers stagger, as they tremulously uphold the coffin?—and the aged pall-bearers, too, as they strive to walk solemnly beside it?—and wherefore do the mourners tread on one another’s heels?—and why, if we may ask without offence, should the nose of the Rev. ”

“ Mord, masculine, ‘murder,’ from Middle High German mort (-des) , masculine and neuter, Old High German mord, neuter; compare Old Saxon morth, Dutch moord, Anglo-Saxon and Old Icelandic morð, ‘murder,’ with the common meaning ‘intentional, secret death-blow.’ Gothic *maurþ, neuter, is wanting; it is based on pre-Teutonic mṛto-m, neuter, and originally meant ‘death’ simply, as the root mor, ‘to die,’ widely diffused through all the Aryan languages, indicates. ”

“ The aboriginal Luh-N’zehtsze believe that health depends on the cleanness of the bones of departed kinsmen. Accordingly, when a man has been in the grave a year he is exhumed and his bones are carefully washed; and whenever any of his family are sick the same operation is at once performed, no matter how long or how short the time since he was buried.439.1 Even in Europe we have the well-known superstition that the state and appearance of a corpse before burial indicate whether other deaths in the family are to follow, as if it be limp, or the eyes cannot be closed, and so forth. ”

“ In burying a corpse, it is natural, and, so far as we are acquainted, universally the custom, to bury them with the face upwards. We can look upon our dead friends with a melancholy complacency—we cast a long and lingering look after them until they are completely shut from our view in the grave ”

“ The bodies of persons killed on the field of battle, and of those who have been drowned, sometimes seem to be overtaken by the rigor mortis at the very instant of death; the bodies retain the same position, and the face the same expression, which they had in the last moments of life. The rigor mortis may continue for from one to ten days, generally, but not always; death from narcotic poisons is followed by a short and feeble rigidity. While death by lightning is followed by rapid and intense rigidity, in young children, it is feeble and of short duration. ”

“ On another side was a corpse, dressed in female attire of centuries past, which had surprisingly resisted the ravages of time: close to it was extended a human skeleton almost destroyed.
“The two servants related that the young count, on seeing the body, cried in an accent of extreme horror, ‘Great God! it is she then whose portrait killed my intended wife.’ Saying which, he fell senseless by the body. The shake which his fall occasioned reduced the skeleton to dust. ”

“ As soon as death takes place the event is at once announced by the medicine-man, and without loss of time the squaws are busily engaged in preparing the corpse for the grave. This does not take long; whatever articles of clothing may have been on the body at the time of death are not removed. The dead man's limbs are straightened out, his weapons of war laid by his side, and his robes and blankets wrapped securely and snugly around him, and now everything is ready for burial. ”

“ A woman [pg 199] who has lost a child, especially a first-born or dearly loved child, will often amputate the first joint of one of her fingers with an adze; and she may repeat the amputation if she suffers another bereavement. A woman has been seen with three of her fingers mutilated in this fashion.326 The corpses of chiefs, their wives, and other members of their families are not buried in graves but laid in rude coffins, which are then deposited either on rough platforms in the village or in the fork of a species of fig-tree. ”

“ Bodies of stalwart workmen lie beside the remains of refined ladies, many of whom are still decked with costly earrings and have jewels glittering on the fingers. Rich and poor throng these quarters and gaze with awe-struck faces at the masses of mutilations in the hope of recognizing a missing one, so as to accord the body a decent burial. ”

“ If we are right in supposing that the death-penalty is one exacted by the deceased, the conjecture will not be deemed unreasonable that hanging is believed to inflict such injuries on the ghost that its interference is not to be dreaded. The mode of death and the mutilations (if any) inflicted on the corpse are widely held to affect the departed in the future life. ”

“ True, and the use of the coffin is due, in part, to an ignorant notion of confining the corpse, lest, like Hamlet’s father, he should walk the earth. You will have noticed that the corpse is always carried out of the house feet foremost, to suggest a final exit, and that the grave is often covered with a heavy slab. Very curious epitaphs are to be found on these slabs.... ”

“ The following treatment of the dead is very strange ... As soon as the deceased is departed, a stage is erected (as in the annexed plate is represented) and the corpse is laid on it and covered with a bear skin; if he be a man of note, it is decorated, and the poles painted red with vermillion and bear's oil; if a child, it is put upon stakes set across; at this stage the relations come and weep, asking many questions of the corpse, such as, why he left them? ”

“ It is not lawful to walk over, or sit upon, a grave. A post mortem examination is never allowed, unless the deceased is so near confinement, that there may be danger of burying the living with the dead. The corpse is laid naked in the ground. ”

“ Death is sufficiently terrible in itself, and the grave in its best form has enough of horror to make the stoutest heart quail at the thought, but nothing I have seen or read of can equal the Campo Santo for the most loathsome and disgusting mode of burial. ”

“ When all this is properly completed, the relatives of the deceased fling themselves prone upon the grave—howling, tearing their hair out by handfuls, and rubbing earth in quantity over their heads and bodies; ripping up the unhealed ulcers in the most loathsome fashion, until with blood and grime they become a hideous and ghastly spectacle. ”

“ Pathology.—The tissues after death are shrunken and drawn, and the extremities are inclined to be mottled; in some cases there is a postmortem rise of temperature. Rigor mortis sets in very early. Spasmodic contractions sometimes occur for some moments after death; hence the eyes and jaws have been seen to move after life was extinct. ”

“ From the time of death until burial, the corpse lies on the floor of the house, with no other covering than it had in life. In the present case a man, a near relative, was seen lying across the corpse, which he hugged and stroked, with loud crying and bitter sobbing. ”

“ One man, trying in his terror to escape the awful sight, stumbled against the coffin so heavily as to knock away one of its frail supports. The coffin fell to the floor, the glass was shattered to bits by the concussion. ”

“ On these occasions they vanish, but presently appear again behind the observer, and hold on their course. If a little candle is seen, of a pale or bluish colour, then follows the corpse, either of an abortive, or some infant; if a large one, then the corpse of some one come to age. ”

“ If we could but sever that cord which links us with the past and cut out the moral gangrene, as we amputate the physical limb when mortification has set in, how healthy would be our spiritual being, how cheerfully we could limp, mutilated but painless, to the grave! ”

“ Also a kind of meate of compressed flesh of Veale.
Mortáio, as Mortáro.
Mortaiuólo, a littler mortar. Also a litle chamber-piece or pot-gun. Also the blacke and blew marke, of any stripe or bruze.
Mortále, mortall, deadly, subiect to death. Also vsed for a man. Also vsed for mortalitie.
Mortalità, death, mortalitie, frailtie.
Mortál márca, the worlds frame.
Mortarẻllo, as Mortaiuólo.
Mortáro, a piece of Ordinance called a Morter-piece, wherewith they shoot stone-bullets vpward into the ayre, which in their fall worke the effect expected. Also a mortar to stampe any thing in. ”

“ The ornaments which were placed on the body when it was laid out are removed before it is lowered into the grave, and the dead takes his last rest wrapt in a simple leaf-mat. Often a dying man expresses a wish not to be buried. In that case his corpse, tightly bandaged, is deposited in a corner of the house, and the products of decomposition are allowed to drain through a tube into the ground. When they have ceased to run, the bundle is opened and the bones taken out and buried, except the lower jawbone, which is preserved, sometimes along with one of the lower arm bones. ”