Note 19 — THE IRISH SETTLERS OF SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Rev. David Annan made a fiddle with his jackknife and would sit with his Bible open before him and his inspiring glass standing by, and play tunes while the children danced. His people were shocked, however, on one occasion when he told them in one of his sermons that “he had prayed over one bed of onions and fiddled over another to see which would fare the best.” The result of the experiment was not reported.—Judge Nathaniel Holmes’ Address of Oct. 24, 1889, page 23.

Jonathan Smith, a lawyer in Clinton, Mass., in his recently published “Home of the Smith Family” on page 56, gives a description of a wake held in Peterborough on the occasion of the death of Elizabeth Smith, April 18, 1769, as follows: “The near relatives and neighbors assembled in the evening to watch through the night with the body in the dimly lighted room. The exercises began with the reading of the Bible, followed by prayer; then words of consolation and comfort were spoken to the mourners, and the virtue and character of the deceased were passed in review. Soon stories of ghosts, witches and demons were exchanged, tales of death warnings to the deceased and her friends. Later, stimulants were freely circulated, and before morning there was eating as well as drinking.” Mr. Parker, in speaking of the custom, says: “The affair often ended by shouts of laughter and revelry breaking up the company.”