[294.1] Aubrey, Remaines, 35. Ellis reprints from Leland’s Collectanea a letter from a Mr. Bagford, dated 1st Feb. 1714-15, giving a slightly varied account, also professedly derived from Aubrey, of the rite as practised in Shropshire. The fee is stated as a groat. ii. Brand, 155.
[294.2] iii. Arch. Cambr., N.S., 330. Traces of a similar custom are found in Derbyshire. There no wine is drunk at a funeral until after the party has returned from the church. Wine is then offered first to the bearers. This order is strictly observed; and it is believed that “every drop that you drink is a sin which the deceased has committed. You thereby take away the dead man’s sins and bear them yourself.” Addy, 123, 124.
[296.1] Burton, Sindh, 350, 354.
[296.2] iii. Mélusine, 409, quoting M. Dubois’ work as cited in the Annales de la Propagation de la Foi for 1830. Mr. Frazer cites this case (ii. Golden Bough, 155) and some others from India, all of which I believe are referable to the same origin, though he interprets them by reference to the idea expressed in the Mosaic Scapegoat. His attention probably had not been drawn to the parallel cases I cite above and below.
[297.1] Dr. M. Hoefler, in ii. Am Urquell, 101. In an article on the Sin-eater in iii. Folklore, 150, I quoted Wilkie’s description of the Lowland Scottish rite called Dishaloof, and expressed the opinion that it belonged to the same order of thought as the rites now under discussion. Though I adhere to that opinion, I have not met with any thing which illustrates the mysterious details of the rite; and I have, therefore, thought it well to avoid burdening these pages with particulars that I cannot correlate. Mrs. Gomme has exhaustively analysed a children’s game called Green Grass, apparently connected with the Lowland rite; but the results attained do not help here. i. Traditional Games, 153. See Henderson, 53.
[298.1] Quoted in ii. Brand, 153 note.
[299.1] Denis H. Kelly, in i. Journ. Kilkenny Arch. Soc., N.S., 31 note. Smoking round the corpse was a part of the ceremony in North Wales in the last century. Owen, Crosses, 56.
[299.2] Mr. W. R. Paton, in letters to me as before, and in letter dated 25th May 1894. Bread or money is distributed by the beadle at the gate of the cemetery on the island of Lesbos. Georgeakis, 321. In Sardinia grain or money is given to the poor who assist at the funeral mass. G. Calvia, in i. Rivista, 953.
[299.3] Guhl and Koner, 594.
[300.1] Possibly this is because no fire is lighted in the house of death, as in Calabria, where all food for this reason is provided by the relations and friends for a whole month, i. Rivista, 383.