hank tune

[Zeb nuts Johnson]

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/9/12/2573255/HankWilliamsSr_SixMoreMilesToTheGraveyard.wav

Appalachian History
Stories, quotes and anecdotes.
Put the corpse in the barn till spring

Prior to the funeral industrys rise and its use of embalming, a practice
that gained legitimacy during the War Between the States, the interior
of a corpse was generally not accessible to prying eyes, hands, or
medical equipment.
Instead, the deceased was prepared ? laid out ? and remained in the home
until burial. This was a sacred, almost ritualistic, process. The body
was washed as soon as possible after death with soap and water. Then it
was dressed in its Sunday suit or dress and laid out for viewing.

While in a few instances the laying out was performed by family members,
more typically it was done by neighbors who came to a home for the death
watch. An old Scottish belief, still seen today in some of the more
remote areas of Tennessees Unaka Mountains, holds that watching the
corpse for 24 hours after death will prevent the body from being whisked
away by agents of the devil.

Sometimes the laying out was performed on a bed. If the person did not
die in bed, the corpse was often carried there. However, mattresses made
it difficult to keep cold death or stiffening by mountaineers) set in.
The solution to this problem was to place a body on a cooling board
(sometimes called a laying out board). This board, covered with a sheet,
could be a door taken off hinges, a table, a board used for ironing, or
indeed any piece of lumber that was handy, though many mountain families
had a specific board for the purpose passed down generation to
generation.

Original photo caption reads: Mountain people carrying a homemade coffin
up creek bed to the family plot on the hillside where it will be buried.
This section is too isolated to hold any formal funeral services
immediately. Up South Fork of the Kentucky River near Jackson, Kentucky.

If the person died in the winter and the ground was too frozen to dig a
grave, the cooling board could simply be placed in a protected place
outdoors till spring. Otherwise the cooling board was placed in a parlor
on two chairs or sawhorses, and the body stretched out straight.
Depending on the persons position at death (some die while sitting or
sleeping curled up) it might have been necessary to break bones or soak
parts of the body in warm water to get the corpse flat on the board so
it would fit into a coffin.

Neighbors used a rope or sheet to tie the body to the board to keep it
straight as well as to prevent it from suddenly jerking upright and
scaring the living. Some families employed the Scottish process of
saining: the oldest woman in the house lit a candle and waved it over
the corpse three times. Then she took three handfuls of salt, placed it
in a wooden bowl, and put the bowl on the corpses chest. This process
was supposed to prevent the body from rising up unexpectedly.

When the corpse was placed on the bed or cooling board, the arms were
folded across the chest and the legs brought together and tied near the
feet. A rope or handkerchief was tied under the chin and over the head
to keep the mouth from opening. Another towel soaked in a strong soda
solution took care of discoloration. Some families placed a bowl mixed
with salt and ashes underneath the cooling board to absorb disease.
Others placed cedar chips or spices around the body to help ward off
unpleasant odors.

Some people died with their eyes fully or partially open. If they were
left open and rigor mortis set in, they couldnt be closed. Therefore
mountaineers placed weights on the eyes to close them and give the
impression that the deceased was sleeping peacefully. Have you heard the
phrase ?hed steal money from a dead mans eyes?? Coins were often used to
close eyes, and since they were valuable, there were indeed dishonest
community members who would do that very thing. The saying is still
heard in the mountains today.