The remains of my poor sister had been brought round by the kitchen door, and, it being a point of Undertaking ceremony that the six bearers must be stifled and blinded under a horrible black velvet housing with a white border, the whole looked like a blind monster with twelve human legs, shuffling and blundering along, under the guidance of two keepers, – the postboy and his comrade.
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 35. Here Dickens uses a rather horrifying image to describe a Victorian funeral procession. The metaphor of a blind monster with twelve human legs is used to depict the pallbearers at the funeral of Mrs. Joe Gargery, Pip’s older sister.