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attributes the same custom to those " villages of Wales adjoining Shropshire ; " 

 and Aubrey is cited in the text or notes as having observed the custom in Brecon ; 

 at Llangorse, about 1640, in North Wales, where milk was substituted for beer ; 

 and as believing it to have been used heretofore all over Wales. Now, Aubrey, 

 no doubt, was a rather credulous antiquary, though, perhaps, not more so than 

 many others of his time. He was a frequent traveller in South SVales, inherited 

 property in the county of Hereford, and came of a family located in Brecon and 

 Glamorgan. Some of my hearers may remember a controversy in the Academy 

 weekly paper, in 1875, respecting this question of the "sin-eater," arising out of 

 the mention of it as having prevailed in Wales, by the writer of a paper on 

 " Welsh Legends and Folklore," in Blackwood's Magazine. Certain zealous 

 Welshmen repudiated the superstition for their countrymen, who they averred 

 were not given to superstition, as a nationality, and who reUed on the fact that no 

 Welsh equivalent for the name " sin-eater " is extant, and that no inquiry has 

 elicited modem evidence of the usage. On the other hand, it was shown that in 

 1852, at the Cambrian Archaeological Meeting, held at Ludlow, Mr. Matthew 

 Moggridge stated that the custom had been practised within a then recent period, 

 at, or near Llandebie, in Carmarthenshire ; and this agrees with the independent 

 statement of the author of " Murray's Handbook to South Wales " {1st edition), 

 which connects it with the secluded Vale of Cwm Amman, in the same county 

 and district. Also, a novel of a singular character, the " Mountain Decameron," 

 published by Bentley, and written in 1836, by Joseph Downes, gives, in vol. 3, 

 p. 233 — as from the lips of a gentleman living before this superstition became 

 obsolete — a brief account of the last " sin-eater in Wales," whom he locates on the 

 Cardiganshire side of the Dovey estuary. My observations of the controversy, at 

 the time, led me to the opinion that the Welsh champions would have been quite 

 content to allow that there had been " sin-eaters " in Herefordshire, if they could 

 purge Wales of what seemed to them such a degrading superstition ; and so it is 

 unnecessary to say more on that part of the subject, except that the contiguity of 

 Herefordshire to South Wales, the evidence of the Welsh occupation of the English 

 side of the border, and the very frequent occurrence in this county of Welsh names 

 of Herefordshire places and parishes, are arguments that a custom observed in 

 Herefordshire would be familiar in Wales, and vice versd. I hope no Herefordshire 

 hearer will take offence at my having raked up a superstitious custom, which 

 assuredly has now quite vanished from out our better-educated parishes, but of 

 which I can see no reason to doubt the former existence, inasmuch as, besides 

 Aubrey's direct testimony, accepted and quoted by several writers on Hereford- 

 shire and border customs, there are parallels to this superstition to be found in 

 other parts of the world, as, for instance (to cite Notes and Queries, 5th series, 

 vol. viii., p. 14) among the Mussulmans of Khokand, who, according to Mr. 

 Schuyler's Book on Turkistan, " account sin-eating as a regular part of their 

 religious observances." I would add that accessories of the plenary custom are 

 to be found in use still, amongst the lower classes. Most of us have noticed the 

 plate of salt placed on the breast of a corpse when laid out ; and Pennant, in his 

 Welsh tour (vol ii., 338), sketches a funeral custom of his day, containing a pretty 



