Folk-Lore of West and Mid-WalesDavies, Jonathan Ceredig
History
Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales
Davies, Jonathan Ceredig
Folklore -- Wales; Wales -- Social life and customs
Mrs. Lloyd, Ffynnonddagrau, Llangynog, Carmarthenshire, told me five
years ago that there lived at Ffynnonddagrau, an old man named Thomas
Harries, who always foretold every death in the parish as he possessed
second sight. John Thomas, Pentre, who worked about the farms, called
with my informant one day on his way home; he was in good health then,
but on the very next day he was very ill and soon died. Harries had
foretold the death of the poor man some days before he was taken
ill. He had also foretold the death of one Howells, who was buried at
Ebenezer Chapel, and of an old woman known as Rassie of Moelfre Fach,
as well as the death of one Thomas Thomas about 35 years ago. People
were almost frightened to see Harries as he so often foretold the
death of someone or other, and his predictions were always correct. My
informant also added that Harries only died about 20 years ago.
THE "TOILI" OR PHANTOM FUNERAL.
With the exception of Corpse Candle, the most prominent death
portent in West and Mid-Wales is the "Toili" or spirit funeral;
a kind of shadowy funeral which foretold the real one. In the
very north of Cardiganshire, such apparition is known as "teulu"
(family); but throughout all other parts of the county it is called
"toili." Toili, or Toeli is also rather general in Carmarthenshire;
in North Pembrokeshire, however, it is called "Crefishgyn."
There are tales of phantom funerals all over the Diocese of
St. David's, and the following account of a Twentieth Century Phantom
Funeral in Pembrokeshire is interesting, as my informant himself was
the man who witnessed the strange apparition, or a foreshadowing of
a funeral which actually took place soon afterwards.
A PRESENT DAY PHANTOM FUNERAL.
A young man who lives in the Gwaun Valley, between Pontfaen and
Fishguard informed me in the beginning of November, 1905, that he had
just seen a phantom or a spirit funeral only a few weeks previously.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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