The New North West

Peculiar Burial Custom at Munich.

Corr. Baltimore American.

The cemetery at Munich always has attraction to the visitor on account of the peculiarity of funerals, and the exposure of the bodies of the dead for three days before burial. The law requires the body of every one dying in Munich to be conveyed to the cemetery within three hours, there to remain, in buildings erected for the purpose, for three days. During these three days a wire is attached to the hands of each corpse, leading to a spring bell, so that an alarm will be given to those whose duty it is to be on guard in case of resuscitation. We could not ascertain whether there had ever been a case of resuscitation, but it appears that a long time ago a case of burial alive had led to the establishment of this custom, which had been regularly kept up ever since, to avoid the recurrence of such a catastrophe. We immediately proceeded to the first of these halls, in which the bodies of the poor were deposited, and there found 18 bodies, not laid out as if for burial, but lying in floral bowers or resting upon beds of flowers. Spectators were not admitted to the rooms, but they were surrounded with windows, through which a full view and inspection of each could be had. There were 18 bodies in this room, 7 of which were infants and 11 of those of grown persons, except one beautiful girl of twelve years, arrayed in white muslin, resting on a bed of flowers, with a wreath of orange blossoms around her head, reclining as though asleep, with her bare arms laying carelessly by her side. None of them excepting the infants were lying as we usually dispose of the dead, but in every case, whether old or young, there appeared to be an effort to place them in a careless or half reclining attitude, so as to have the appearance of being in a natural sleep.