Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/412

374 dread of the returning ghost to suicides and evil-doers, but originally it applied to the whole of the departed without exception.

It belongs to human nature to be lazy. We like to do things the easiest way, and to attain our aim with as little trouble as possible. In Mecklenburg they have arranged a loose doorstep, which can be lifted up for the coffin to pass under and then let down again, so that the ghost cannot possibly get in under it. In old-fashioned houses they have had a window frame made so as to be easily taken out and put in again, I have seen a coffin conveyed out through such a window, and as in the olden times people were not in the habit of opening windows, there was not much likelihood of its being opened again before the next death, so one was pretty safe not to get a visit from the dead through that way. Now, I think that the intention of a "corpse-door" is clearly explained. It is a simple, easy, and inexpensive means of getting the dead out of the house. The doors may be low, the passage narrow, that does not matter. In the "big room," where all the more important events are celebrated, a few bricks cemented with clay can easily be removed, and then there is room enough for the coffin to pass through. The opening is only there for a couple of hours, and closed up again before the procession returns from church. The dead is shut out effectually from his old home; the living need feel no terror at midnight when the howling of the dogs proclaims that the dead are afoot, for the departed one can only come back by the way he went out. When the opening through which he left his home is closed up, it is not in his power to return.

As far as I know, there is but one house left having such a corpse-door, and that is old and ruinous. When it is gone the only relic of the custom will be a drawing