Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales

by Jonathan Ceredig Davies

THE “TOILI” OR PHANTOM FUNERAL.

With the exception of Corpse Candle, the most prominent death portent in West and Mid-Wales is the “Toili” or spirit funeral; a kind of shadowy funeral which foretold the real one. In the very north of Cardiganshire, such apparition is known as “teulu” (family); but throughout all other parts of the county it is called “toili.” Toili, or Toeli is also rather general in Carmarthenshire; in North Pembrokeshire, however, it is called “Crefishgyn.”

There are tales of phantom funerals all over the Diocese of St. David’s, and the following account of a Twentieth Century Phantom Funeral in Pembrokeshire is interesting, as my informant himself was the man who witnessed the strange apparition, or a foreshadowing of a funeral which actually took place soon afterwards.