New Street, Birmingham.
Replies to Minor Queries.
_Mazer Wood and Sin-eaters_ (Vol. iii., pp. 239. 288.).--The following
extract from Hone's _Year Book_, p. 858., will add to the explanation
furnished by S. S. S., and will also give an instance of the singular
practices which prevailed among our ancestors:--
"Among the Lansdowne MSS. in the British Museum are statements in
Aubrey's own handwriting to this purport. In the county of
Hereford, was an old custom at funerals, to hire poor people, who
were to take upon them the sins of the party deceased. One of them
(he was a long, lean, ugly, lamentable, poor rascal), I remember,
lived in a cottage on Rosse highway. The manner was, that when the
corpse was brought out of the house, and laid on the bier, a loaf
of bread was brought out, and delivered to the sin eater, over the
corpse, as also a _mazard bowl_ of maple, full of beer (which he
was to drink up), and sixpence in money, in consideration whereof
he took upon him, _ipso facto_, all the sins of the defunct, and
freed him or her from walking after they were dead."
Perhaps some of your readers may be able to throw some light on this
curious practice of _sin-eating_, or on the existence of regular
_sin-eaters_.