Note 525 — Chapter III · SYMPATHETIC MAGIC (continued 3)

F. S. Krauss, Volksglaube und religiöser Brauch der Südslaven, p. 140. The custom of placing coins on the eyes of a corpse to prevent them from opening is not uncommon. Its observance in England is attested by the experienced Mrs. Gamp:—“When Gamp was summonsed to his long home, and I see him a-lying in Guy’s Hospital with a penny piece on each eye, and his wooden leg under his left arm, I thought I should have fainted away. But I bore up” (C. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xix.).