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FUNERAL PROCESSION.
Another matter of surprise to a stranger is to see the prodigious number of persons which attend these funerals, often consisting of from four to five hundred, and very seldom less than from two to three. These persons are arranged as follows :—The nearest members of the family walk immediately after the hearse ; if the deceased is a man, then follow a number of that sex, then a number of women, after them men again, and so on until the procession is complete. On the contrary, should the corpse be that of a female, the women precede the men ; the train is sometimes so long, that it reaches the entire length of a street. Of course it is not to be supposed that all this multitude is habited in black ; from the short time which intervenes between the demise and the interment, even the family are unable to procure mourning, unless, as it sometimes happens, they may chance to have those sable garments by them ; the consequence of this is, that the procession presents a most motley group. Some of the followers are indeed habited in black ; some in white, with a little black ribbon and a coloured bonnet ; but the greater part appear in the various hues of the rainbow. As* before remarked, at these funerals almost all their friends give something, if it is but a bottle of wine, or a small quantity of tobacco, and so universal is this practice, that I knew a servant who refused to attend the funeral of his father, because he had not money enough to give. It used to be the custom in former times, to hand round to the company cake, wine, rum and water, porter and " drink," but this is now dispensed with ; the greater part of the assemblage follow the corpse to the place of burial, and then disperse. When a funeral takes place in the country, however, a grand dinner is generally provided for the company after the ceremony Is over ; and on these occasions all is mirth and joy, and the cup and the glass is so often replenished, that many of the party return home in a state of intoxication. It is among the Moravian congregations the largest funeral processions are seen, the reason of which is as follows :—As is the case in the established church, and with the Methodists, the