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Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is

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Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,

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Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

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Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet

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Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Spend enough time at sea and your eyes

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Speaker 1: could start to play tricks on you. You might see

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Speaker 1: phantom sea creatures in the distance, or even a massive

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Speaker 1: land floating above the water. The latter is called the

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Speaker 1: Fata Morgana and was named after Morgan le Fay, the

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Speaker 1: powerful sorceress from our theory and legend. It was believed

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Speaker 1: that her powers had caused fairy castles to sprout above

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Speaker 1: the waves. For apps, Morgan le Fay was behind another

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Speaker 1: mysterious ocean mass, one that has confounded explorers and cartographers

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Speaker 1: for hundreds of years. What was nothing more than a

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Speaker 1: speck on a map became the legend that launched a

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Speaker 1: thousand ships. One of those ships belonged to John Nesbitt.

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Speaker 1: Nesbitt was a soldier after fighting in the Thirty Years

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Speaker 1: War during the seventeenth century. He probably should have settled

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Speaker 1: down with his wife and family back in Scotland, but

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Speaker 1: Nesbitt couldn't shake his sense of duty. He continued to

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Speaker 1: serve in battles between sixteen sixty six and sixteen seventy

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Speaker 1: nine before being labeled an outlaw for his extreme religious views. However,

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Speaker 1: while captaining his own ship one day in sixteen seventy four,

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Speaker 1: he noticed something in the water. His map showed it

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Speaker 1: as nothing more than a tiny circle an island. It

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Speaker 1: had appeared on maps since the mid fourteenth century, yet

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Speaker 1: no one had ever stepped foot on it before. On

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Speaker 1: this day, John Nesbitt would be the first. He and

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Speaker 1: his crew headed toward it. They dropped anchor once they

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Speaker 1: had gotten close enough and went out in rowboats to investigate.

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Speaker 1: Once they came ashore, the men lit a fire and

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Speaker 1: observed the local wildlife. Enormous black rabbits hopped around everywhere.

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Speaker 1: There was also a large castle made of stone. It's

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Speaker 1: only occupant, a man believed to be a wizard. As

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Speaker 1: they explored the island, the crew met another old man

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Speaker 1: who would lived there for quite a long time. He

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Speaker 1: gave them gold and silver to take back to their ship.

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Speaker 1: When Nesbitt told others back on land about his expedition.

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Speaker 1: He was met with one of two reactions, either laughter

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Speaker 1: at his expense or more questions than he had answers to.

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Speaker 1: Another captain, who heard Nesbitt's stories decided to see for himself.

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Speaker 1: He and his crew sailed to the island and surprisingly

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Speaker 1: had the same experience. They saw the castle, the rabbits,

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Speaker 1: and met the old man, who bestowed them with gold

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Speaker 1: and silver, just like Nesbit. After that, as sightings of

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Speaker 1: the island shrunk, so would its appearance on nautical maps.

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Speaker 1: No and saw it for two hundred years, and then

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Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy two, explorers Robert o'flairti and T. J.

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Speaker 1: Westdrop claimed to have spotted it from their ship. West

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Speaker 1: Drop allegedly visited on his own three separate times, before

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Speaker 1: bringing his family along on the voyage. There, the west

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Speaker 1: Drops said the island appeared and then disappeared without a trace.

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Speaker 1: According to the legends, the island only appears once every

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Speaker 1: seven years, when the fog that normally surrounds it lifts,

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Speaker 1: allowing sailors to catch a glimpse. And the name of

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Speaker 1: this mythical land they called it Brazil. No, not that Brazil.

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Speaker 1: It was also known as High Brazil, named for Brazil,

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Speaker 1: the Celtic name for the high King of the world.

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Speaker 1: Maps dating from thirty five all the way up to

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Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds positioned it about two hundred miles off

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Speaker 1: the coast of Ireland, out in the Atlantic Ocean. There's

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Speaker 1: a long history of mythology and folklore surrounding the island,

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Speaker 1: aside from the rabbits and the magic, and it's been

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Speaker 1: said that Brazil is also the Irish version of Mount Olympus,

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Speaker 1: home to the gods of old. No one has seen

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Speaker 1: it since and you won't find it on any modern map,

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Speaker 1: but some say it's still out there waiting to be found.

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Speaker 1: An island shrouded and missed as well as mystery. When

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Speaker 1: we die, we leave behind more than we realize. There

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Speaker 1: are often grieving family members, perhaps a beloved pet now

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Speaker 1: without its owner, And in far too many cases we

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Speaker 1: have debts that have gone unpaid. Most debts will be

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Speaker 1: forgiven or collected by the banks through various means. Other debts, however,

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Speaker 1: aren't waived so easily. They need more than a signature

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Speaker 1: to dismiss them. These debts require a unique kind of

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Speaker 1: payment in the ledge of Rattling Hope, England, Richard Munslow

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Speaker 1: made himself a reputation for collecting those debts. He was

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Speaker 1: unlike a lot of folks in his trade, which favored

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Speaker 1: the poor. He was far from it, in fact, having

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Speaker 1: been born to a wealthy family and his farm was

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Speaker 1: quite successful. But Munslow loved his neighbors and wanted to

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Speaker 1: do something for them at one of the saddest points

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Speaker 1: in their lives. So whenever one of them died, Munslow

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Speaker 1: would venture to the graveyard and eat over the body.

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Speaker 1: You see, a person who died suddenly didn't have the

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Speaker 1: time to confess their sins to a priest or to God,

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Speaker 1: thus leaving their souls impure. An impure soul was unable

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Speaker 1: to move on to heaven. However, there was a way

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Speaker 1: for the soul to be cleansed after the fact. It

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Speaker 1: was believed that consuming a meal over the dead would

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Speaker 1: absolve them of their sins, which would then pass on

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Speaker 1: to the sin eater, instead allowing the soul to move on.

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Speaker 1: The practice of sin eating had existed for thousands of

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Speaker 1: years in various forms. In early Mesoamerica, a dying person

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Speaker 1: could confess their sins to the Aztec goddess of fertility

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Speaker 1: and motherhood, who would consume them and purify the soul

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Speaker 1: that specific term. Though sin eater originated in Wales as

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Speaker 1: a practice, it gained popularity in specific parts of England

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Speaker 1: throughout the fifteenth century all the way up until the

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Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. Aside from helping the dead move on, the

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Speaker 1: act of eating one sins would also prevent restless spirits

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Speaker 1: from tormenting the living, which was a good benefit if

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Speaker 1: you ask me. Sin eating was originally a paid job

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Speaker 1: performed by the poor. No one of any wealth or

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Speaker 1: status would take on the sins of others, which brought

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Speaker 1: with it the stigma of being a pawn to the

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Speaker 1: devil himself. Sin Eaters were thought to be blasphemers and

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Speaker 1: practitioners of black magic. They also became targets for the

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Speaker 1: Catholic Church, who had cornered the market on absolution. Anyone

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Speaker 1: caught practicing sin eating could be sentenced to death. The

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Speaker 1: same was true for folks who hire senators in the

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Speaker 1: first place, as they had gone against God's will. But

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Speaker 1: Mounslow didn't mind any of that. He tended to his

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Speaker 1: farm and occasionally stopped by the graveyard to break bread

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Speaker 1: with the recently deceased, and his neighbors loved him for it.

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Speaker 1: He wasn't shunned by them for cavorting with spirits or

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Speaker 1: working with the devil. He performed a necessary service and

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Speaker 1: was beloved for it. Sin eating as a practice started

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Speaker 1: to die out in the mid nineteenth century, but carried

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Speaker 1: on in some of the smaller towns. The locals found

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Speaker 1: it an important part of the greeting process. Richard Munslow,

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Speaker 1: though did not die out until the nineteenth century. Some

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Speaker 1: believed that he continued the practice out of respect for

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Speaker 1: his deceased children, who had passed away of scarlet fever

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Speaker 1: when they were very young. Munslow lived until nineteen oh six,

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Speaker 1: becoming the last living senator in England. The village of

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Speaker 1: Rattling Hope erected a memorial for their hometown hero, which

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Speaker 1: had fallen into disrepair over the years. In two thousand ten,

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Speaker 1: the town got together to restore it to its former glory,

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Speaker 1: a lasting homage to the man who sacrificed his mortal

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Speaker 1: soul for his friends and neighbors. And while they had

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Speaker 1: no qualms about bringing Manslow's grave site back from the dead,

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Speaker 1: they apparently drew the line at resurrecting his occupation. Some leftovers,

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Speaker 1: it seems, just aren't worth saving. I hope you've enjoyed

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Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for

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Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show

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Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created

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Speaker 1: by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.

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Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is

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Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can

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Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore

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Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Ye