The are also a couple of pages on the sin-eater in Wales in Trefor M. Owen's WELSH FOLK CUSTOMS, 4th ed. (Llandysul: Gomer, 1987), pp.183-84--summarizing 17th-century (John Aubrey) and 19th-century reports (as well as denials that the custom ever existed). And then there is the sin-eater in the southern Appalachians. Interestingly, the American short-story writer Lewis Nordan has a great story, "The Sin-Eater," in his collection WELCOME TO THE ARROW-CATCHER FAIR. The story is set in the deep South and makes no reference to Wales,but it clearly is the same custom transported. AW