The death rappings are said to be heard in carpenters’ workshops, and that they resembled the noise made by a carpenter when engaged in coffin-making. A respectable miner’s wife told me that a female friend told her, she had often heard this noise in a carpenter’s shop close by her abode, and that one Sunday evening this friend came and told her that the Tolaeth was at work then, and if she would come with her she should hear it. She complied, and there she heard this peculiar sound, and was thoroughly frightened.
There was no one in the shop at the time, the carpenter and his wife being in chapel. Sometimes this noise was heard by the person who was to die, but generally by his neighbours. The sounds were heard in houses even, and when this was the case the noise resembled the noise made as the shroud is being nailed to the coffin.
A Raven’s Croaking.
A raven croaking hoarsely as it flew through the air became the angel of death to some person over whose house it flew. It was a bird of ill omen.
The Owl.
This bird’s dismal and persistent screeching near an abode also foretold the death of an inmate of that house.
A Solitary Crow.
The cawing of a solitary crow on a tree near a house indicates a death in that house.
The Dog’s Howl.
A dog howling on the doorsteps or at the entrance of a house also foretold death. The noise was that peculiar howling noise which dogs sometimes make. It was in Welsh called yn udo, or crying.