Browse:Heavy Coffin (Volume 1, entries 220–224)
Heavy Coffin
Volume 1, entries 220–224. Source context: SPIRITS → SPIRITS AND ANIMALS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 220
A girl was always crazy for fixing her hair. Her mother was going to a party. Her mother was hurrying her." And she told her mother she'd rather go to hell than to go to this party without time for fixing her hair. And she died and they laid her out in the coffin. They couldn't move the coffin. They open it and a black cat jumped out. The hair was fixed as good as anybody ever could fix it. They said the cat must of fixed it. [For girl 'fixing her hair, '' cat, and heavy coffin, see FACI,2ed., Pp.710-711, Nos.15372-15373.]
Entry 221
I heard one time that a woman died and the day - they got ready to bury her and the pallbearers had taken her out of the house and put her in the hearse. And they had four horses and they couldn't pull it. So they got two more and they couldn't pull it. And they said they got two more horses and they couldn't pull it. So then they decided to open it and see what was in it. And when they opened it there was a cat in there combing her hair. So they got the cat out and the two horses could pull it.
Entry 222
I did hear one time that there was two girls which was partners, used to go to and fro together. So at last one day, one Sunday, they decided to go to church. And they went to Sunday school in the morning, also to eleven o'clock service, and that night one of the girls decided she Wanted to go to the night service. So when the one girl got to the other girl's house, the other girl was combing her hair. She told the other girl, "Leave us go to church." The other girl said to her in reply, "Before I go to church I'd rather go to hell with both eyes open without my hair being combed." After then they went. The next day, which was Monday, this girl was taken sick. Tuesday she died. On Thursday they were getting ready for her funeral. They had taken the corpse to the church. And after carrying it to the church they opened it so everybody could review. And after doing so, they went to pick up the coffin to put it to the hearse and they couldn't nobody move it. Then at last a gang of men put this coffin in the hearse. After the coffin got in the hearse they had four horses pulling the coffin. All four of those horses could not move it. It was an awful thing to see the great excitment. Then they decided to take this coffin out of the hearse and open it to see what was the trouble. So when they open this coffin there was a black cat in there combing this girl's hair with its paw.
Entry 223
That's the reason I don't plat my hair to this day. If a woman dies and her hair be platted, they said, "She's gone to torment [hell]." The horses could not pull the coffin it would be so heavy. A black cat would be in that coffin unplatting the hair. You open the coffin and run that cat out and go on to the grave. They say never plat your hair. I never platted my hair in my life. They Say it's a bad sign. [Informant a large girl near Woodville, Miss., when Civil War began.]
Entry 224
I heard of another story one time, I don't know how true it is, about a man dying. He wasn't a church member. So when he died they had the casket and they carried it to the grave. And it seemed as heavy, well, as double as what it belonged to be. So when they opened it, out fly a turkey buzzard. That buzzard was supposed to be the devil. Then the casket became light and they could carry it to the grave.