Food over the Coffin

The funeral chapter describes a coffin placed on a bier near the door after removal from the house. A relative of the deceased then handed bread and cheese to the poor, taking care to pass the food over the coffin. The illustration shows a dish being offered across it amid a gathered company. The adjoining text adds that a loaf or cheese could contain money and that a cup of drink was subsequently presented.

Sikes then asks what connection, if any, this distribution had with sin-eating. He introduces competing ways of interpreting funeral hospitality, rather than proving that every such distribution transferred sins. This entry therefore records the food-giving custom on its own terms and preserves the interpretive question separately. The image’s caption says it derives from an old drawing; its original maker is not named.

A coffin, food and drink can occur in several funeral customs. Their shared appearance does not by itself settle the meaning or establish a sin-eating rite.