uniform, practice is, that those friends of the mourning family who
reside in the neighbourhood of the burying place assemble in a group
at a convenient turning of the road, and wait till the funeral
procession reaches the spot; they then silently fall into their
places and follow the corpse to the grave. I like the analogy none
the less that it is taken, not from a time of mirth, but from a time
of weeping. The two cases coincide in all their features except one.
In either example we have an occasion of absorbing interest to one
family, and the sympathy of neighbours expressed by means of large
assemblies and public processions. In a minor but characteristic
feature there is an exact coincidence,--a portion of the
sympathizing neighbours wait for the main body at a point on the
path and fall into the line of march from that spot to the terminus.
That the one is a joyful and the other a mournful group enhances
rather than diminishes the value of the comparison.

Waiting long without employment, the group of maidens would stand, and
sit, and recline by turns. Each holds a tiny torch in her hand, or has
laid it on the ground by her side. As the night wears on, the
conversation that had at first been animated, gradually dies away, and
one by one the wearied damsels drop over into snatches of slumber.
Before midnight they have all sunk into a continuous sleep. At midnight
a cry arose, apparently from some more wakeful watcher in the
neighbourhood, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." At
this alarm the whole band awake simultaneously and spring to their feet.
Each maiden hastily snatches up her torch; not one of them burns
brightly now; some are flickering low, and some are altogether
extinguished. In a moment, all those nimble young hands begin to ply the
work of trimming the expired or expiring lamps. All alike are able to
touch them skilfully, but the main want with every lamp is a new supply
of oil. Some can supply that want at the moment on the spot, while
others cannot. Those who had brought from home a supply of oil in
separate vessels, found it easy to make the flame of their torches burn
up as brightly as ever; but those who had neglected to provide such a
supply could not with all their efforts revive the dead or dying light.
"Give us," said the five improvident maidens, "give us of your oil, for
our lamps are gone out." The more thoughtful, and therefore more
fortun