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246 wall. This corresponds remarkably with the common custom in our own country of carrying a body out through an opening in the wall made for the purpose. The reason is, no doubt, the same in both cases—namely, that these openings can be entirely closed again, so that the spectre or soul cannot re-enter, as it might if the body were carried out by way of the passage or the door. It is not improbable that the Greenlanders may have borrowed the habit from the ancient Norwegian or Icelandic settlers in Greenland. It is mentioned in several sagas as having been the custom of the heathen Icelanders. In the Eyrbyggja Saga it is said: 'Then he [Arnkel] let break down the wall behind him [the body of Thorolf], and brought him out thereby.' The clothes and other possessions of the deceased are also at once thrown out, that they may not make the survivors unclean. This recalls our death-bed burning, which is also a