18/30 The body seems to disappear of itself, as though engulfed by a fluid medium. For a long time yet, until the depth is regarded as sufficient, the body will continue to descend. As the diggers, underneath the corpse, deepen the cavity into which it sinks, tugged and shaken by the sextons, the grave, without their intervention, fills of itself by the mere downfall of the shaken soil. Let us add--for this is an essential point--the art of continually jerking and shaking the body, so as to pack it into a lesser volume and cause it to pass when passage is obstructed. |