The only references I have ever had to the practice were from Edgar Allen Poe and a movie which I cannot remember the name of. The movie was about a fugitive, either from the law, military or the mob, and in their flight, eventually wound up in a village chapel where they found food, by taking it off the deceased body of somebody waiting to be buried. I think the movie took place in an Adriatic country, Italy, Greece, Albania, Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia or Macedonia. The man fled through fields of Olive Trees, pursued by a Helicopter at one point. I wish I could remember the title of the movie.