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While the means of salvation are freely laughed at when depending on 51. Peter and his
followers, they remain peJfectly respectful. if no less fantastic, towards the Blessed Virgin.
Whether in fact or fiction, her portrayal remains untouched. A report from Branch speaks
for her operational intercession in spiritual rescue operations:
If the sacrament of the last rite was not received before death, the soul
would have 10 spend usually 3 months in Purgatory, and after enough llail
Mary's had been said on hislher behalf, the Blessed Virgin would rescue
him on one of the Saturdays that she released souls from there. I
A fellow, hard up for money. had sold himself to the devil for a few dollars, which he had
been wise to give to priests and nuns to build churches and convents besides spending it on
drink. On the given day, his charity saves him from his fatal deal:
. "he said he's comin' today, and there's nothing I can do about il--Ihe
priest couldn't save him, nobody couldn't save 'n--cause I was afler
sellin' meself." . 0 good for 'n to say his prayers, thai was no good
to 'n, 'cause he was goin' to hell anyway. Well he said, when we were in
the convent Ihere was a little old woman come along. He up and told up
and she took out a little bit of candle out of her pocket about a half an inch
long, she lit ii, and she said to 'n, will you wait for lhat to bum Oul before
you takes 'no Yes he said, that wouldn't take long, he said, he wait Ihat
long. He's waitin' yet. This was the Blessed Virgin. 2
8.5. "Dead men don't want no rum")
Earlier consideration of the local Marchen repertoire led to the definition of a "core
group" of five lale-types focusing on the hero's relation 10 the dead. 4 Their plols evoke a
similar environment to that of the other six types previously examined: danger 100l11s large
in the hero's "quest" of work for a living, but here also "Ihose fellers in the slories, because
they was all smart men, Ihey always come out on top."5 Their employment by "Iiviers,"
work 011 a "schooner" and enjoyment of "a time" given in celebration of a wedding,
unfailingly reveal a Newfoundland locale. Thus, it is in the mundane selling of outport
life, whclhcr of work or leisure, that these tales articulate their own answer to the pervasive
concern with Ihe risks of interaction with the dead.
I MUNFLA ms 78-304, p. 6.
2MUNFLA ms 72-51, p. 11 (AT 1187).
]MUNFLA 64-13/C59-60 (AT 1350).
4 Thc reader is referred to section 7.9 for the analysis of the first group as for all
annotations 10 the Iypes examined above.
5MUNFLA 71-50/C968-9, p. II (AT 1536A)/(AT 326·).