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Of the many and various libert.ies taken with the corpse, including those implying close
"body contact," such as in waltzing with it or taking it on ajigging trip, none apparcmly
entailed single company with it: I
... there's a feller over there in Western Cove of Bar Haven, and now
this feller died over in Southern Haroour and they brought him over, see,
to bury him over there in Bruley and he was a wonderful fellow for
getting, hauling bait, getting the caplin, herring and everything like thai
and they had him in the ooat coming over, see, the old corpse, and every
now and then, they'd shove him out [laugh], they slided him overboard,
yOll know. And, they smack the line on the waler, boy Jeslls, they'd say
he got one again liaughter]. He never missed and they'd rock the old
corpse up on the dory again, you know [laugh], and then they'd row on
so far and they'd soush him overboard. Yes, boy, look, he smacked one,
yes, he got him again, look {laugh]. That's what they'd do, something a
day like today, ya know,like the 18th May, you know, and Ihal whallhey
done all the time, now till they got one. 2
In confim13tion of Casey's proposition, Ihe following case suggests that if
"communal fear" could easily be transposed into "communal fun;' staying alone with Ihe
corpse, even when Ihis was coffined. hardly encouraged pranking:
Boy, there's a 101, there's a lot of fellers drowned up there, up there
around Ihe Bay one lime and shipwrecks, you know. And, one feller
said, he was out on the road just like any of us here talking now OUI on the
road, one feller said to the other, "who got nerve enough to go in there
now and drive a nail in one of their coffins?" See, and one fellow now
was brave, one of the fellers was brave boy among the bunch. He said,
"I'll go in," he said, "and drive a nail in the coffin." ow he was wearing
one of them raglans, raglan coat. So he went in the dark and found a nail
and a hammer, drove the nail in the coffin, and when he drove the nail in,
he nailed on his raglan, you know [laugh]. And, when he gets, comes up
to go, he brought up, Ilaughter] he was gone so long they wenl in to get
him and he, when the coat brought up, he fainted llaughter] and here he is,
they went in anyway and he was brought up on the floor. the coal nailed
on the coffin [laugh].3
An interesting and likely major clue to this strong ghost tradition in the light of
comparative cultural data is their direct relation to the proper achievemenhOf grief work:
Fear of ghosts seems to promote the breaking of ties with the deceased..
Thus one possibility for explaining the high incidence of ghost fear is that it
IMUNFLA ms 73-t3: MUNFlA ms 7t-42.
2MUNFlA 70-29/C735.
3 MUNFLA 70-29/C735, p. 23. This story, like the other well-known one locally of the
corpse wrapped in sail, might be JUSt an anecdote, as the annotation suggests: AT 167611
Clochim' Caught in Graveyard, or Baughman N384.2 (a).