Note 77 — Chapter III · THE GODLINGS OF DISEASE.

It is obvious that this exactly corresponds with the old English custom of sin-eating. Thus we read:77—“Within the memory of our fathers, in Shropshire, when a person died, there was a notice given to an old sire (for so they called him), who presently repaired to the place where the deceased lay, and stood before the door of the house, when some of the family came out and furnished him with a cricket on which he sat down facing the door. Then they gave him a groat, which he put in his pocket; a crust of bread, which he ate; and a full bowl of ale, which he drank off at a draught. After this he got out from the cricket and pronounced, with a composed gesture, the ease and rest of the soul departed, for which he would pawn his own soul.”