In the late 17th century, the Englishman John Aubrey described sin-eating like
so:
“When the Corps was brought out of the house, and layd on the Biere, a Loafe of
Breade was brought out, and delivered to the Sinne-eater over the Corps . . . in
consideration whereof he tooke upon him (ipso facto) all of the Sinnes of the
Defunct, and freed him (or her) from walking after they were dead.”
In Aubrey’s telling, the sin-eaters were poor people at society’s margin, in
particular “a long, leane, ugly, lamentable poor raskal” who lived alone,
presumably surrounded by the many sins he had spent a lifetime taking on.
[from David's Orr's NYT review of Frederick Seidel's CP]
!!
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