(Memorial Cairn of MacArthur family, pipers of MacDonalds, Lords of the Isles, Isle of Skye. In the background are the ruins of Duntulm, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duntulm_%26_Cairn_Macarthur.JPG?uselang=fr)
During the vigil, the death bodies have traditionally open face and his shroud was once generally linen. If Martin Martin reported in 1695 that the assistants, especially the immediate family, sang ballads celebrating the death, this custom seemed to have disappeared during the Johnson trip in 1773, which states that “[…] some of the old solemnities have gone, and singers are not hired to monitor the procession.” Reading the Psalms may also be part of the ritual.
In 1859, the French journalist Louis Énault describes organizing a vigil in the Isle of Skye:
“The funeral home, as we say in our ugly language, was located in a glen that opened on the lake two miles Kirkibost. We arrived around noon.
The body was lying on a bench, wrapped in a shroud, but the face was uncovered as in the Italian funeral. He was handsome, with a supremely calm and rested expression. The pale cheek had lost these bouquets of roses too bright that Phthisis hatched cheekbones; lips had Parma violet shades, and below the eye looked like blackened with Java kohl. We put on his chest a wooden dish with a few pinches of salt and ground carefully separated. The earth is the emblem of the body falling into dust; the salt is a symbol of incorruptible and immortal soul.
The fire had been careful extinguished everywhere, and sentries, armed with sticks, were put to the exits to prevent a dog or a cat might pass before the dead body, which would be considered a bad omen by the whole house.”
– Louis Énault Angleterre, Écosse, Irlande : Voyage Pittoresque (1859)
This custom to dispose salt and earth on a plate placed on the chest of the deceased is also reported by Donald MacLeod, who says that sometimes an open Bible was also placed on the lower face to prevent evil spirits to appropriate the body. A once widespread belief was that the spirit of the last person buried in a cemetery guard the door (Faire chlaidh in Scottish Gaelic), and is released from his sleep by the mind of the next person to be buried. Traditional Gaelic formula imposed upon death is “A Chuid de Pharas dha!” (Litt.” May he have his share of Paradise!”), equivalent to the words “Rest in peace”. The funeral is usually followed by a snack, usually served at the house of the deceased.
From Pictish times, cairns can be used to mark a place of memory, whether it is a grave or the site of a battle. At this time, the body was deposited, along with various objects, under a layer of dry sand, above which was then erected the cairn. An old Gaelic saying goes thus “Cuiridh mi clach air do chàrn” (litt. “I will come to drop a stone on your cairn”, in the sense of “I will not forget you”).
Legally, currently, any deaths on Scottish territory must be declared at the registry office before eight days elapsed. The stillbirths should be reported after the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy. Organ donation is governed by the principle of presumed consent; in the absence of opposition expressed the deceased during his lifetime, he is considered to have agreed. A civil or religious ceremony can take place before the burial. Cremation is only possible after the lifting of all forensic obstacle; burial may take place in cemeteries.
Translated from Wikipedia
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