THE CAUSE OF DEATH STRUGGLES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1142, 30 August 1883, Page 3

THE CAUSE OF DEATH STRUGGLES.

There is an old superstition in Yorkshire, that it is impossible for anyone to die easy on a bed, and hence they not unfrequently lay a dying man on the floor to facilitate the departure of the soul. The Hindoos and Moharaedans advocate a similar p’an. Some suppose, however, that the hard dying only applies to beds which contain the feathers of pigeons or game birds. ‘ A Sussex nurse lately told the wife of her clergyman that never did she see anyone die so hard as old Master Short, and at last she thought (though his daughters said there were none) that there must be game feathers in his bed. So she tried to pull it from under him ; but lie was a very heavy man, and she could not manage it alone. There was no one with him but herself, so she got a rope, tied it round him, pulled him by it from the bed, and he went off in a minute quite comfortable, just like a lamb!’ All along our shores from Kent to Northumberland, it is supposed that deaths mostly occur during the falling of the tide. The idea is expressed by Pegotty, in David Copperfield, when he says ‘people ean’t die along the coast except when the tide’s pretty nigh out; they can’t be born unless its pretty nigh in—not properly born till flood.’ Some extracts from the parish register of Heslidon, near Hartlepool, actually names the state of the tide at the time of death. One runs ‘ The xith daye of Maye, a.d. 1595, at vi of ye clocks in the morning®, being full water, Mr llenrye Mitford, of Haslam, died at Newcastle, and was buried the xvi daie, being Sondaie, at evening prayer; the hired preacher maid ye sermon.’ Another entry says ; ‘ The xvii daie of Maie, at xii of ye clocke at noon, being low water, Mrs Barbara Mitford died, and was buried the xviii daie of Maie, at ix of ye clocke. Mr Holsworth maid ye sermon.’ ‘The belief,’ says Mr Henderson, ‘ is of some antiquity, and must have found its way inland, since Mr John Falstaff is recorded to have parted just between twelve and one-o’ the turning of the tide. I cannot hear of it in the South oi West Coast of England. A friend suggests to me that there may be some slight foundation for this belief in the change of temperature which undoubtedly does take place on the change of the tide, and which, acting on the flickering spark of life, may extinguish it as the ebbing sea recodes.’—Newcastle Chronicle.