The triumphs of superstition

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This elegy was an expression of its author's abhorrence of a superstitious practice in which the bodies of those who had died of hectic fever were dug up from their burial sites and removed from their coffins. The bodies were then burned, and the resulting ashes were administered as a remedy to others of the same family also suffering from a hectic fever. This was believed to be a means of curing the illness.