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A bier is a sacred hand-barrow adapted to carry a corpse, a coffin or both. the only difference between a bier, and a stretcher, litter or even a hand-barrow, is the sacred purpose for which it was employed. The ancient Egyptians made use of biers to carry wealthier classes to their grave.
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A cachecope bell was a bell formerly rung at funerals, the pall being thrown over the coffin.
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A catafalco or catafalque is a temporary and ornamental structure, representing a tomb placed over the coffin of a distinguished person or over a grave.
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A catafalque is a temporary and ornamental structure, representing a tomb, placed over the coffin of a distinguished person or over a grave.
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A feretory was a bier or shrine containing the relics of saints borne in processions, which was usually done on their feast-days, as a token of gratitude in times of public rejoicing, or to obtain some favour in seasons of calamity.
A feretory is a type of coffin, but the form is usually that of a ridged chest, with a roof-like top, generally ornamented with pierced work, with the sides and top engraved and enamelled, and sometimes having images in high relief. They were made of precious metals - typically gold, wood, or ivory.
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A herse or hearse was oriiginally a framework whereon lighted candles were placed at the obsequies of distinguished persons. The funeral herse of the middle ages was a temporary canopy
covered with wax-lights, and set up in the church; the coffin was placed under the herse during the funeral ceremonies. Sometimes it was a very elaborate structure. The name has been transferred to the modern carriage for bearing a dead body to the grave.
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The iron coffin of Lissa was an old form of tortuous execution in which the victim was laid in a coffin face up and watched as the heavy lid slowly, almost imperceptibly, lowered and crushed the victim to death.
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Originally, a sarcophagus was a stone coffin manufactured from stone quarried at Assos in the Troad. It was popularly believed that the coffin would consume the body placed within it within forty days. Later the term came to be applied to any stone coffin. In ancient Egypt many stone coffins were made from limestone, basalt, marble or granite. Granite chiefly being used for the bodies of royalty and priests.
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The Underground Railroad was a secret and philanthropical organisation which existed in the USA and Canada during the later years of slavery with the object of helping slaves escape bondage. Its chief centre was in Philadelphia. The Underground Railroad was a network of 'safe houses' and individuals who aided escaped slaves by providing them with food, shelter and money, to travel primarily to Canada where they automatically became freemen.
The Underground Railroad movement originated among the Quakers of Pennsylvania, and the system was gradually extended until a chain of stations was established a day's journey apart and leading from Kentucky and Virginia across Ohio, and from Maryland through Pennsylvania and New York to Canada. The stations were private houses, and the inmates were known to be pledged to the cause. The fugitives reached these stations after nightfall, were fed and clothed when it was necessary and given a night's rest. The sick were provided with a place in which to remain until they were restored to health.
Levi Coffin, a Quaker, and the reputed president of the organization, assisted in the escape of about 100 slaves annually for many years. He always had a carriage in readiness to convey the fugitives to a place of safety and organized sewing circles to provide clothing for the destitute. Harriet Tubman, a Black woman, who had escaped North, made nineteen journeys to the South and brought back bands of fugitives always without detection. The greatest secrecy was observed in all of the movements of the organization. The Underground Railroad was formally organized in 1838, but did not reach its perfection until the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 aroused the Abolitionists to still greater exertions.
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The coffin bone is the foot bone of the horse and allied animals, enclosed within the hoof, and corresponding to the third phalanx of the middle finger, or toe, of most mammals.
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The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
©1993 - 2009 The Probert Encyclopaedia
Southampton, United Kingdom
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