A short reference may here be made to the custom of burial without coffins. The spirit of economy went far indeed in these older days, for burial, particularly of the poor, took place either without a coffin at all, or they were carried to the grave in one of common and general use, from which they were removed and buried when the grave-side was reached. A doubtful advance upon this method was the introduction of the "slip-coffin," which permitted of a bolt being drawn when lowered to the bottom of the grave. A hinged bottom was in this way relieved, which left the poor dead body in the closest of contact with mother earth. The motive, of course, was economy, and its use practically restricted to paupers. On the authority of Edgar, author of _Old Church Life in Scotland_ (1886), it is gratifying to note that none of these uncoffined interments had taken place in the South of Scotland for at least 150 years. In this connection a story somewhat against the "cloth" may be given:-- "A worthy Galloway minister, feeling that the newly-passed Poor Law Act with its assessments was burdensome to his flock, seriously proposed to the Parochial Board of his district that to narrow down the rates a 'slip-coffin' should be made for the poor, out of which the body could be slipped into its narrow home. The proposal met with scant consideration, and during the rest of his lifetime the well-meaning man was known as 'Slip.'"(77) [Illustration: A GALLOWAY FUNERAL OF OTHER DAYS. Sketch by J. Copland, Dundrennan.] Before the days of hearses the coffin was borne to the grave on two long poles or hand-spokes. Over the simple bare coffin the "mort-cloth" was spread, for the use of which the "Kirk-Session" made a charge, the money received being devoted to the relief of the poor of the parish. As superstitious custom refused the rites of Christian burial to those who died by their own hand, so was also the use of the "mort-cloth" withheld. Until comparatively recent days the bodies of suicides were buried at the meeting of four cross roads, or at all events at some lonely, unfrequented spot, the remains having not unusually the additional indignity of being impaled by a stake practised upon them. It is of interest to note that the name of the "Stake Moss," Sanquhar, may be traced to this callous practice. A superstition of the churchyard itself that still lingers and is worthy of notice, is that the north side is less hallowed than the other portions of "God's Acre." The origin of this comes from the Scriptural description of the last judgment (Matthew xxv.), which tells how "He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left." A recent local writer has thus embodied the idea and its probable derivation:--