Maltese death, mourning and funeral customs

Abstract

Sir James Frazer's communication of a coroner's note about "Beliefs Regarding Death in Cumberland" has suggested to me that I might put on record Maltese funeral customs now extant, some o-f which are analogous to those noticed in Cumberland. Amongst our middle and lower classes the practice still lingers of placing a dish of salt on the stomach of the corpse, whether male or female. The popular belief in Malta is that salt prevents early decomposition. Certeux and Carnoy give the following interpretation of a practice by Arabs in Algeria: "II est de convenance religieuse.... de lui poser sur le ventre (of a dead person) quelque chose de pesant afin de prevenir le gonflement.