Note 180 — II. OUR DUTIES. (continued 4)

When life has come to an end friends and relatives give free expression to their grief;180 to check it by comforting words at this moment is useless (Aboth iv. 18). The mourners,181 father, mother, son, daughter, brother, and sister, have now to direct all their attention to the deceased relative, in order that nothing be neglected in the last honours shown to him; they are therefore free from all other religious obligations till after the burial. In Palestine and neighbouring countries, where, in consequence of the higher temperature, decomposition of the body begins soon after death, the burial takes place on the same day.182 In colder climates two or three days elapse between death and burial. The mourners abstain during the interval from wine and meat.