Superstitions of New England

TBA | 1822

In that almost insulated part of the State of Massachusetts, called Old Colony or Plymouth County, and particularly in a small village adjoining the shire town, there may be found the relics of many old customs and superstitions which would be amusing, at least to the antiquary. Among others of the less serious cast, there was fifteen years ago, one which, on account of it's peculiarity and its consequence, I beg leave mention.

It is well known to those who are acquainted with the section of our country, that nearly one half of it's inhabitants die of consumption, occasioned by the chilly humidity of their atmosphere, and the long prevalence of easterly winds. The inhabitants of the village - or town as it is there called - to which I allude were peculiarly exposed to this scourge; and I have seen, at one time, one of every fifty of its inhabitants gliding down to the grave with all the certainty which characterises this insiduous {insidious} foe of the human family.

There was, fifteen years ago, and is perhaps at this time, an opinion prevalent among the inhabitants of this town, that the body of a person who died of a consumption was by some supernatural means, nourished in the grave of some one living member of the family; and that during the life of this person, the body remained in the grave, all the fullness of freshness of life and health. This belief was strengthened by the circumstances, that the whole families frequently fell a prey to this terrible disease. Of one large family in this town consisting of fourteen children, and their venerable parents, the mother and the youngest son only remained -- the rest within a year of each other had died of the consumption.

Within two months from the death of the thirteenth child, an amiable girl of about 16 years of age, the bloon, which characterised the while of this family, was seen to fade from the cheek of the last support of the heart smitten mother, and his broad flat chest was occasionally convulsed by that power deep cough which attends the consumption in out Atlantic States.

At this time as if yo snatch one of this family from an early grave, it was resolved by a few of the inhabitants of the village to test the truth of this tradition which I have mentioned, and, which the circumstances of this afflicted family seemed to confirm. I should have added that it was believed that if the body thus supernaturally nourished in the grave, should be raised and turned over in the coffin, its depredation upon the survivor would necessarily cease. The consent of the mother being obtained, it was agreed that four persons, attended by the surviving and complaining brother should, at sunrise the next day dig up the remains of the last buried sister. At the appointed hour they attended in the burying yard, and having with much exertion removed the earth, they raised the coffin upon the ground; then, displacing the flat lid, they lifted the covering from her face, and discovered what they had indeed anticipated, but dredded to declare - yes i saw the visage of one who had been long the tenant of a silent grave, lit up with the brilliance of youthful health.

The cheek was full to dimpling, and a rich profusion of hair shaded her cold forehead, and while some of its richest curls floated upon her unconscious breast. The large blue eyes had scarcely lost its brilliancy, and the livid fullness of her lips seemed almost to say, "loose me and let me go." In two weeks the brother, shocked with the spectacle he had witnessed, sunk under his disease. The mother survived scarcely a year, and the long range of sixteen graves is pointed out to the stranger as an evidence of the Truth of the Belief of the inhabitants. The following lines were written on a recollection of the above shocking scene:

I saw her, the grave sheet was round her,

months had passed since they had laid her in clay;

yet the damps of the tome could not wound her,

the worms had not seized on the prey.

O, fair was her cheek, as I knew it.

When the rose all its colours there brough;

and that eye, did a tear then bedew it?

Gleame'd like the herald of thought.

She bloom'd, though the shroud was around her,

locks o'er her cold bosom wave,

as if the stern monarch had crown'd her,

the fair speechless queen of the grave.

But what ends the grave such lustre?

O'er her cheeks what such beauty had shed?

His life blood, who bent there, had nurs'd her, the living was food for dead!