Browse:WAKE HELD FOR MURDERED PERSON (Volume 4, entries 7515)
WAKE HELD FOR MURDERED PERSON
Volume 4, entries 7515. Source context: THE PHYSICAL HUMAN BODY ITSELF → DEATH AND BURIAL AND GRAVEYARD → HOW TO OBTAIN GRAVEYARD DIRT. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 7515
If yo' find a person daid an' yo' wanta find out who killed 'im - ah jes' tell yo' whut dey said, ah don' know. Dey say 'cordin' to how de man is layin', which way he's facin'. If he's layin' ovah on 'is side turnin' ovah on 'is face, de fellah dat killed 'im comin' back. An' says if yo' wan' to, when dey give de man a Wake, yo' go dere three nights han'rnnin' [= hand running = consecutively] at one 'clock at night an' say a prayah an' de one dat killed [him], he'll come dere durin' dat prayer. (You say if they found a man killed they just let him lie there and then his friends would go there every night for three nights and pray over the body, and the fellow that killed him would come back?) Durin' de third night. He would have to heah de prayah. [My comment apparently says the dead body lies at the scene of the crime of three days, so that his friends could go there three consecutive nights and pray over the body. My mistake began with the word when - when dey give de man a wake When, of course, here means after - after dey give de man a wake etc. On the three nights following the wake, friends at one o'clock visit the scene of the crime and say a special prayer to bring back the killer. The body was buried the day after the wake, that is, the day after the murder.]