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![[Soddag: Dumb Supper]](../hillus/soddag.gif)
American Wakes: Mourning costumes can be worn up to three weeks. This is in the form of a full Italian black lace mantilla veil for a widow. In Colma, California, known as The City of the Dead, the stonemasons & other guilds can hire the caoine: keeners, funeral women. Brandy as payment is on the mantel or surrounded by gold coins. Colma means dove of peace in Breton.Dumb Suppers: Ozark Mountains, Arkansas. At midnight, candles are lit in every room. Two girls go backwards and place nine different things on the table to eat. The dead come, animals cry to show their arrival and whatever they leave in your plate, that’s what new husbands will be. Food is left out overnight for the spirits to enjoy. If you wish to contact a recently deceased loved one, you set a Dumb Supper with extra settings for those who you wish to contact. Set the table in reverse order; forks on the right side, etc. Serve food in reverse order, beginning with dessert and ending with either soup or appetizers. All table setting placements are handled by two people. At some point during the meal, the recently departed make contact. One reason to try to reach a loved one who recently died was if the family had ‘feelings’ of restlessness, showing the dead might be confused and had not crossed over to the other side. Contact through the Dumb Supper is a way of helping them cross over and find peace. (29)
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