The Devil's Dictionary: Funeral

Updated May 14, 2020 | Infoplease Staff
by Ambrose Bierce
FRYING-PAN
FUTURE

FUNERAL

-n.

A pageant whereby we attest our respect for the dead by enriching the undertaker, and strengthen our grief by an expenditure that deepens our groans and doubles our tears.

The savage dies — they sacrifice a horse
To bear to happy hunting-grounds the corse.
Our friends expire — we make the money fly
In hope their souls will chase it to the sky.

- Jex Wopley

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