Death on the Border

Consistent with the ethnic cultures of Britain, Death is not feared. Death comes as a friend that brings relief, certainty and guidance for what lies beyond. Funeral customs reflect this ideal, protecting and guiding the Soul on its journey and bringing comfort to loved ones.

The unwillingness of the Protestant Kirk in Scotland to recognize death as a sacrament meant that for centuries, the way that families carried out funerals in the home was largely at their discretion and many Border families clung to the regional customs and traditions that brought them close to their ancestors.

Border funeral tradition is unique synthesis of Old faith practices, overlaid with Christian observance, and imposed upon by law.

A Good Death

The importance of a Good Death in Scottish culture cannot be understated. A Good Death is not judged by how little pain is endured or the health and longevity achieved. A Good Death is measured by the courage and dignity with which it is met.

The best way to ensure a good death is a good life. That is, be brave, generous and loyal to kin. Walk in the ways of our ancestors and right our wrongs while we are alive. Do not let unresolved issues follow us into death. When we die, know it is not death that judges us. We must have the courage to weigh our own soul.[1]

Death is considered a passage in a continuous journey of the soul, from life to death and death to life. In the Old Faith, when we die in this world we celebrate being reunited with our ancestors. And when we are born into this world, we weep. For although we are born among loved ones, we cry for the realm we left behind, where we are are true selves..

Death, like birth, is only a transformation… as easy and natural as going to sleep here and waking up there. Pope John XXIII

The Last Breath

Spirit enters the body with the first breath and leaves with the final breath. Every heartbeat in between is in unison with the heartbeat of nature.

When a being takes their last breath every leaf on every tree, every creature and element will know of it and its telling will be revealed in signs and omens such as a raven knocking at the window, a dog howling through the night or smoke entering a chimney.

Bell Towlin

Traditionally, death is announced by the ringing of a bell; one toll for each year of life. It’s clear sound penetrates the mists between worlds. In some villages, the beedal or herald walked through the streets ringing a bell [2] but in the remote regions of the Borders a bell resounds into lonely hills, inviting ancestors, fairy kin and the land itself to join in the mourning. And where there is no bell, a song of lament is sung, giving words to the pain.

Domestic animals also join in the mourning. The loss is whispered into the ear of the crummie or favored cow and the plow horse. Calves are separated from their mothers and make plaintiff cries. A black ribbon tied around the bee-keeper's hives denotes a time during which they are not to be disturbed, after which the bees must choose whether to stay, or go.[9]

All share in the lamenting so the burden of pain is spread about and it does not fall so heavily upon the loved ones.

Time Stands Still

In the home of the deceased, small rituals help ensure the safe passage of the soul, which is released with the last breathe like a rushing wind. Reflective surfaces like mirrors are covered and the windows and doors are closed; all but one through which the soul can leave. These rituals are not for fear of being haunted. They help guide the soul to its swift release, and protect it from unwanted influences.

In many homes, the clock is stopped. An observance that originates in the requirement to register the time of death, but has become part of funerary custom.[3] In modern times this act of stopping time quietly replaces the tolling of a bell.

The Soul Shrine

Although the body of the newly deceased is no longer animated, is still infused with the life power of the person. Alexander Carmichael translates the Gaelic word for this life force as the ‘Soul Shrine’. This term is not local to the Borders to my knowledge, but it is an apt and beautiful description which indicates the care and love with which it is treated, and the sanctity of the soul it enshrines.[4]

The link between the Soul Shrine and the Soul is particularly strong during life and much of the corpus of funerary rites is about allowing the two to easily separate after death.

Sometimes the Soul Shrine of a person is especially tenacious and in the days leading up to death it holds on resiliently even though the soul is ready to pass, creating a prolonged and wearisome death. Like a stubborn child clutching sweets, it may coaxed to let go. Family may sing soothing lullabies to the dying, sharing stories of the honored dead and prayers.[5]

After death, it is thought that the life force dissipates over a period of three to seven days, and ideally it is important to allow this time for the spirit to separate from the body gradually before burial. During this time, efforts are made to ensure the Soul Shrine is protected and the body prepared according to custom.

The Sinn

Traditionally, the women of the house wash and prepare the body. This is a practice our family has continued where possible. Coins may be placed over the eyes to close them, the limbs secured, and a silver coin is pressed into the palm for their passage to the land of the dead. Until recent times, the body was wrapped in traditional deid claes , a shroud or mort cloth - a trend that is making a resurgence.

Among Scottish pioneers in America, laying the body on a death-board across sawhorses seems to be typical. But in the the small bothies on the Borders the body was often laid out on the farmhouse table. This is where the sinns (sains) were sung to protect the body and guide the soul to its resting place. This is probably the reason why in some families singing at the dinner table and laying shoes on a table is said to bring ill-fortune. [6]

Death Cakes

A handful of salt is placed over the heart, usually on a plate. Some consider this a remedy to stop the body swelling, but it also acts as a spiritual protection and purification for the Soul as it leaves the body.

In some cases when it is perceived that the soul may have trouble finding release, a piece of bread or cake made from milled flour is placed on the salt. The salt draws and purifies the life force form the body into the bread, which represents the culmination of refined experience.

This bread may be used in the rite of 'Sin Eating', or buried at a tree with offerings, or shared among loved ones, similar to Arval cake in Northern England. [7]

The Wake

The Waking or Wake is a vigil to stay with the deceased day and night. Where the Sinn is usually a solemn event, the Wake is celebratory and sometimes even riotous. In kirk-abiding households sobriety and bible-reading may be advised, but not so in our family.

People come from afar, whiskey flows, songs are sung and hospitality is given. Loved ones and ancestors who have gone before us also gather and join in the festivities, as does the newly deceased. It doesn’t seem to matter if the body is laid out in the home, or at the funeral parlor, or already buried. The Wake continues.

The feeling of ancestors crowding around is especially strong. Usually a trusted ancestor will guide the deceased on their journey at the right time, if not the Goddess of Death herself. No one should pass into death alone.

Burial Steps

Border tradition dictates that the body should be lifted out of the house through the door that the deceased last entered, gathering any lingering remnants of the deceased's activities. For the body to be marched on foot to the burial place was seen to be a more honorable departure, but it was once also the most practical means to traverse the boggy moors. [8]

In more ancient times the procession was the main pageantry of the funeral proceedings. Symbolic of the journey of the the soul to the other world, the shrouded body was carried on a bier amid loved ones across a body of water. Among noble families a herald bard would pay tribute to the life of the deceased and keeners lamented the song of the fairy women (ban shee) on the behalf of the loved ones.

In the 1770s, at a time when elaborate funerals were not permitted by law, the infamous John Paul Jones witnessed a large burial procession of a Border chief from the waters near Kirkudbright where he was harbored. It is reported that when he saw such a great amass of torches parading he mistakenly thought his whereabouts had been discovered.

A Popish Practice

The Scottish Presbyterian Kirk found burial customs to be far too idolatrous and proscribed a more somber affair. After 1560 processions were to be conducted in silence, eulogies and prayers at the graveside were banned and so were women and tombstones. The involvement of clergy in funerary proceedings was prohibited, as was the burial in churchyards. [9]

While these burial laws were easier to enforce among the poor and town dwellers, Court sessions demonstrate that they were not always strictly followed by everyone. Especially in rural communities and the Borders, and among the wealthy and nobility who would rather pay a fine than give their loved ones a send-off unworthy of their forebears.

“Praying, reading, and singing, have been grossly abused, are no way beneficial to the dead, and have proved many ways hurtful to the living; therefore let all such things be laid aside” (Directory of Publick Worship, Act of Parliament 1645)

A Border Synthesis

Although burial proceedings became regulated under health laws in the mid 19th century, it was only in the 1940s that the Kirk instituted public prayers for the dead and funerals were held in churches. [10]

In the meantime, many Border families continued to carry out funerals in the home, encouraging the persistence of local custom well into living memory, in which the Soul is a traveler and Death is a friend.

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1. The Rule and Exercise of Holy Dying by Jeremy Taylor, 1651, was an influential Scottish commentary providing instruction on a good death, based on the Medieval Ars Morendi ,' Art of Dying'

2. ‘ A Perfect description of the People and Country of Scotland’ attributed to Sir Anthony Weldon, pamplet published James Howell gent, 1649

3. Scottish Law introduced January 1,1855

4. Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and incantations, collected by Alexander Carmichael, 1900

5. Ars Morendi ,' Art of Dying' 1400s

6. Funeral Customs; Their Origin and Development by BS Puckle, T Werner Ltd, London 1926

7. www.foodsofengland.co.uk/arvalcake.htm

8. Report on Folklore in Galloway, W Gregor 1896

9. First Book of Discipline, Church of Scotland, 1561

10. Presbyterian Book of Common Order, 1940