The juxtaposition between the tragic loss of a loved one to American waters with the seeming absurdity of bread as a locator for the dead is a mystery. It is a world apart from logic, and any attempt at understanding would be an exercise in futility. Perhaps, however, one should instead attempt to concentrate not on the practice itself but on the very real tragedy of loss that leads one to such detachment from reality.


Bread is staple food, rather, the staple food. It is so commonly found across peoples and continents that its cultural significance cannot be overstated. After all, bread is perhaps the only food that is synonymous with the concept of food itself. Apart from its place in culture is its role in religion, specifically its relation with practices surrounding death.

For example, a soul cake in Christian tradition is a form of sweet bread given out on the eve of All Hallows' or on All Souls' Day. The soul cakes are received by children who, in exchange, submit prayers for departed relatives. The practice dates all the way back to the Middle Ages and is still practice in some areas today. Similarly, in Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) bread in the shape of bones is offered up on alters in honor of relatives who have passed.

Now, these are just a couple of examples, likely, there are endless others. The point to be made is that the connection is not altogether random but that some precedence exists however loose in relation. It is also noteworthy to mention that in some parts mercury is added to the bread floated down stream. Mercury, or quicksilver, holds a comparable significance of silver as a symbol of purity. Among beliefs current among sailors in our own country is the notion that it is unlucky to turn a loaf upside down after helping oneself from it, the idea being that for every loaf so turned a ship will be wrecked. It is said that if a loaf parts in the hand while being cut it bodes dissention in the family—the separation of man and wife. Again, it has long been a widespread belief that the whereabouts of a drowned body may be ascertained by floating a loaf of bread down stream, when it will stop over the spot where the body is.

A curious account of the body thus recovered near Hull appeared some years back in the Gentleman’s Magazine: “After diligent search in the river had been made for the child, to no purpose, a two-penny loaf with a quantity of quicksilver [mercury] put in it, was set floating from the place where the child was supposed to have fallen in, which steered its way down the river upward of a half a mile, when, the body happening to lie on the contrary side of the river, the loaf suddenly tacked about and swam across the river, and gradually sank near the child, when both the child and the loaf were brought up with the grapplers ready for the purpose.”

A correspondent of Notes and Queries maintains that it is a scientific fact that a loaf and quicksilver indicates the position of the body, as the weighted loaf is carried by the current just as the body is. This practice, too, prevails on the continent; and Germany the name of the drowned person is inscribed on the piece of bread, while in France loaves consecrated to St. Nicholas, with a lighted wax taper in them, have generally been employed for that purpose.—Notes and Queries.


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