A CURIOUS CUSTOM IN LOWER CANADA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 73, 26 March 1878, Page 4

A CURIOUS CUSTOM IN LOWER CANADA.

Two old people wera sold the olher day at the door of a parish church in Quebec, encumbered with a farm, to the highteat bidder. They handed over their property to their children, on condition that co long as the old people lived those children should lodge and board thera, JJwasb. and mend their

clothing, furnish them with outer psrments and linen, shoes nnd headdresses, r]| suitable to their condition ; take them to divine service on Sundays and feast days, Hnd bring them home : "-* . place a horse and vehicle at their disposal on demand ; fetch and fee the priest and doctor when desired ; keep in good order the best bed reserved for them until the death of the survivor ; allow them access to all buildings and lands they may wish to enter ; satisfy all their necessary wants, spiritual or corporal, and in times of sickness furnish them with due luxuries ; and, finally, at their death bury them in the parish cemetery, provide an ordinary funeral service and a memorial service at the end of the year, besides having ten low masses chanted for the repose of their souls. The new possessors of the property failed, and now the property is offered for sale, subject to the charges in the deeds of donations. This is a very common practice in Lower Canada, and many of the contracts made would be worth reproduction, if only to show how carefully old inhabitants, disposing of their property, provide for such («ot) unconsidered trifles as clay pipes and nutmegs. — Toronto Globe.