Formerly when it was customary to keep vigil over the dead, young men and women were glad to volunteer their services to watch the corpse during the night in order to enjoy the society of each other, and on some occasions, it seems, from what I have been told by old persons, some of the young men were rather merry before morning, and often went as far as to drink beer, and in order to pass the time good many stories were related about Corpse Candles, phantom funerals, etc., but the old Welsh Wake nights were never so rowdy as the Irish ones.
In Pembrokeshire, about hundred and fifty years ago there was a most curious, strange, and mysterious custom performed during the Wake Night, known as “Hir-wen-gwd” (long white bag, or shroud). The corpse was drawn up through the chimney, and the process was as follows:—A certain number of young men took out the corpse from the coffin and moved it, clad in a long white shroud, to a convenient place near the fire. Then a rope was tied round to the upper part of the body, and when this was done securely, the other end of the rope was passed up the chimney by means of a long stick for that purpose; and the next step was for a party of the men to go up to the top of the chimney from the outside of the house by means of a ladder, and take hold of the rope which had been sent up inside, and when they were ready for the ceremony, they gave a sign to those who were inside the house with the corpse, by crying in Welsh, “Hirwen-gwd,” and those who were inside the house would answer by saying, “Chware’n barod,” or we are ready. Then the party who were on top of the house pulled up the corpse slowly through the chimney by means of the rope, and brought it to the very top and lowered it again, and eventually re-placed it in the coffin. An aged person, named Mrs. Mary Thomas, Bengal, near Fishguard, told me that she had heard a good deal from her mother about this strange old custom, “Hirwen-gwd,” and that the last of such ceremonies took place at a house called Pantycnwch, in the parish of Bridell, about a hundred and forty years ago. According to Mrs. Thomas, it was customary to put a living man in the coffin whilst the ceremony of drawing up the corpse through the chimney was going on, and this was done in the case referred to at Bridell; but when the party at the end of the game approached the coffin in order to take out the living man so as to replace the corpse in it, they found him dead. This sad incident caused people after this to put an end of the old custom. When in Pembrokeshire, I enquired everywhere from very old persons as to the origin and object of such strange and mysterious ceremony, and in reply some of them informed me that it was only a game indulged in by those who were keeping vigil over the dead, to pass the time, whilst others said that there was once a superstition that another death would soon follow the funeral in the family or in the district unless the ceremony was duly performed. Hirwen-gwd, whatever might have been the origin of it, seems to have been confined to Pembrokeshire, at least I have not found any tradition of the custom among the old people of Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire, except in one district in the latter county, situated on the very border of Pembrokeshire.
It is, however, possible that such custom was once known in other parts of South Wales, but discontinued at an earlier date.
In a series of spurious letters, known as “Llythyrau Anna Beynon,” bearing the date 1720, and pretending to give an account of the old rural customs of two hundred years ago in the Parish of Llandyssul and the surrounding districts, I found the following strange story in connection with “Hirwen-gwd,” but I cannot vouch for the truth of the account, as it is evident that the “letters” referred to are not authentic:—
“GWYLNOS.
“Fe fu farw Shann, Ty Clai yn ddiweddar, yn 90 oed. Nid oedd ganddi yr un plentyn yn y byd i alaru ar ei hol, ond yr oedd Abel ei hwyr, bachgen 18 oed, yn llefain yn dost ar ol yr unig ffrynd oedd ganddo yn y byd. Fe fu yno ryw wylnos ryfedd ar ei hol. Cafwyd cwrw yno o dafarn Nani Dan-yr-Allt, a buwyd yn adrodd hanes Twm Shon Cati, ac yn yfed hyd haner nos. Yna gollyngodd rhyw rai raff yn ddistaw i lawr trwy y simnau, tra yr oedd eu cyfeillion tu mewn yn canu can ‘Ysgyfarnog pen Crug y Balog.’ Yr oedd Abel druan, yn eistedd yn bendrwm yng nghornel yr aelwyd, a’i law dan ei ben, ac yn llefain wrtho ei hunan, ac Evan Blaen Cwm ar ei bwys, ac yn ei gysuro, a’i law dros ei gefn, gan dd’weyd, ‘Paid llefan Abel bach; yf lymaid eto; rhaid i ti ymroi i fod yn dawel, a ni a wnawn ninau ein goreu drosof ti. Gwnawn nas cyffrwy i, Abel!’ Ar yr un pryd yr oedd yr hen andras yn cylymu y rhaff am ganol yr hogyn tlawd. Yn y man dyna y cymdeithion o’r tu maes yn gwaeddi, ‘Hirwen gwd,’ ac Evan o’r tu mewn yn gwaeddi, ‘chwareu yn barod.’
“Gyda hyny, dyna Abel yn araf esgyn i fyny i’r simnai, ac Evan yn gofyn, ‘Pa le yr wyt ti yn myned, Abel bach?’ ac yntau yn ateb, ‘Wn i ddim b’le mae’r d——l yn myned a fi.’ Tyn-wyd ef i maes trwy y simnai. Hen lwfer gul ydoedd, yn llawn o huddugl, ac yr oedd golwg ofnadwy arno wedyn....
“Mae nhad a’r dynion goreu yn teimlo i’r byw fod y fath beth wedi cymeryd lle yn yr ardal, ac na fu y fath beth o’r blaen er ys pymtheg mlynedd.”
Translated into English the above reads as follows:—