Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I.

e Lente

ays of the year, dancing round them and leaping ov

evidence to prove that their origin must be sought in a period long prior to the spread of Christianity. Indeed the earliest proof of their observance in Northern Europe is furnished by the attempts made by Christian synods in the eighth century to put them down as heathenish rites.263 Not uncommonly effigies are burned in the

ear at which the

f October), Christmas Day, and the Eve of Twelfth Day. We shall consider them in the order in which they occur in the calendar year. The earliest of them is the winter festival of the Eve of Twelfth Day (the fifth of January); but as it

s on the first Sunday in Le

time, bonfires are lit also on the ice. At Grand Halleux they set up a pole called makral or "the witch," in the midst of the pile, and the fire is kindled by the man who was last married in the village. In the neighbourhood of Morlanwelz a straw man is burnt in the fire. Young people and children dance and sing round the bonfires, and leap over the embers to secure good crops or a happy marriage within the year, or as a means of guarding themselves against colic. In Brabant on the same Sunday, down to the beginning of the nineteenth century, women and men disguised in female attire used to go with burning torches to the fields, where they danced and sang comic songs for the purpose, as they alleged, of driving away "the wi

ples, be

rries a

couv

asmes.268 In the neighbourhood of Liège, where the Lenten fires were put down by the police about the middle of the nineteenth century, girls thought that by leaping over the fires without being smirched they made sure of a happy marriage. Elsewhere in order to get a good husband it was necessary to see seven of the bonfires from one spot. In Famenne, a district of Namur, men and

day of Lent in the French

ntributed to the erection of the pile to follow him to the nearest tavern, where they partake of good cheer. At Dommartin they say that, if you would have the hemp tall, it is absolutely necessary that the women should be tipsy on the evening of this day.271 At épinal in the Vosges, on the first Sunday in Lent, bonfires used to be kindled at various places both in the town and on the banks of the Moselle. They consisted of pyramids of sticks and faggots, which had been collected some days earlier by young folks going from door to door. When the flames blazed up, the names of various couples, whether young or old, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, were called out, and the persons thus linked in mock marriage were forced, whether they liked it or not, to march arm in arm round the fire amid the laughter and jests of the crowd. The festivity lasted till the fire died out, and then the spectators dispersed through the streets, stopping under the windows of the houses and proclaiming the names of the féchenots and féchenottes or Valentines whom the popular voice

irst Sunday of Len

some little distance from the village, pile it up, and set it on fire. All the people of the parish come out to see the bonfire. In some villages, when the bells have rung the Angelus, the signal for the observance is given by cries of, "To the fire! to the fire!" Lads, lasses, and children dance round the blaze, and when the flames have died down they vie with each other in leaping over the red embers. He or she who does so without singeing his or her garments will be

the Granno invoked at these bonfires may be the old

e fires may be seen flaring on the heights and in the plains; the people dance and sing round about them and leap through the flames. Then they proceed to the ceremony of the Grannas-mias. A granno-mio274 is a torch of straw fastened to the top of

no, m

, mon

, mo m

Grannus my mother." Then they pass the burning t

o, bra

ntso, in p

d with Apollo, and whose worship is attested by inscriptions found not only in France but in Scotland and on the Danube.277 If the name Grannus is derived, as the learned tell us, from a root meaning "to glow, burn, shine,"278 the deity who bore the name and was identified with Apollo may well have been a sun-god; and in that case the prayers addressed to him by the peasants of the Auvergne, while they wave the blazing, crackling torches about the fruit-trees, would be eminently appropriate. For who could ripen the fruit so well as the sun-god? and what better process could be devised to draw the blossoms from the bare boughs than the application to them of that genial warmth which is ultimately derived from the solar beams? Thus the fire-festival of the first Sunday in Lent, as

(brandons) about the orchards and fields to

large. Children ran about the fields, torch in hand, to make the land more fertile. All that was done habitually in Picardy, and the ceremony of the torches is not entirely forgotten, especially in the villages on both sides the Somme as far as Saint-Valery."279 "A very agreeable spectacle, said the curate of l'étoile, is to survey from the portal of the church, situated almost on the top of the mountain, the vast plains of Vimeux all illuminated by these wandering fires. The same

ches

ines, at t

hes

idens that

parts of France, while the people scoured the country with burning brands on the first Sunday in Lent, they warned the fruit-trees that if they did not take heed and bear fruit they would surely be cut down and cast into the fire.283 On the same day peasants in the department of Loiret used to run about the sowed fields with burning torches in their hands, while they adjured the field-mice to quit the wheat on pain of having their whiskers burned.284 In the department of Ain the great fires of straw and faggots which are kindled in the fields at this time are or were supposed to destroy the nests of the caterpillars.285 At Verges, a lonely village surrounded by forests between the Jura and the Combe d'Ain, the torches used at this season were kindled in a peculiar manner. The young people climbed to the top of a mountain, where they placed three nests of straw in three trees. These nests being then set on fire, torches made of dry lime-wood were lighted at them, and the merry troop descended the mountain to their flickering light, and went to every house in the village, demanding roasted peas and obliging all couples who had been married

ng the witch; burning discs thrown into the air; burning wheels rol

mes in which the words "corn in the winnowing-basket, the plough in the earth" may be distinguished.291 In Swabia on the first Sunday in Lent a figure called the "witch" or the "old wife" or "winter's grandmother" is made up of clothes and fastened to a pole. This is stuck in the middle of a pile of wood, to which fire is applied. While the "witch" is burning, the young people throw blazing discs into the air. The discs are thin round pieces of wood, a few inches in diameter, with notched edges to imitate the rays of the sun or stars. They have a hole in the middle, by which they are attached to the end of a wand. Before the disc is thrown it is set on fire, the wand is swung to and fro, and the impetus thus communicated to the disc is augmented by dashing the rod sharply against a sloping board. The burning disc is thus thrown off, and mounting high into the air, describes a long fiery curve before it reaches the ground. A single lad may fling up forty or fifty of these discs, one after the other. The object is to throw them as high as possible. The wand by which they are hurled must, at least in some parts of Swabia, be of hazel. Sometimes the lads also leap over the fire brandishing lighted torches of pine-wood. The charred embers of the burned "witch" and discs are taken home and planted in the flaxfields the same night, in the belief that they will keep vermin from the fields.292 At Wangen, near Molsheim in Baden, a like custom is observed on the first Sunday in Lent. The young people kindle a bonfire on the crest of the mountain above the village; and the burning discs which they hurl into the air are said to present in the darkness the aspect of a continual shower of falling stars. When the supply of discs is exhausted and the bonfire

cs thrown in

"burning the witch." In some parts of the canton also they used to wrap old wheels in straw and thorns, put a light to them, and send them rolling and blazing down hill. The same custom of rolling lighted wheels down hill is attested by old authorities for the cantons of Aargau and Bale. The more bonfires could be seen sparkling and flaring in the darkness, the more fruitful was the year expected to be; and the higher the dancers leaped beside or over the fire, the higher, it was thought, would grow the flax. In the district of Freiburg and at Birseck in the district of Bale it was the last married man or woman who must kindle the bon

the custom of "carrying out Death;

ce is probably the same; for the name Death, as I have tried to shew, does not express the original intention of the ceremony. At Cobern in the Eifel Mountains the lads make up a straw-man on Shrove Tuesday. The effigy is formally tried and accused of having perpetrated all the thefts that have been committed in the neighbourhood throughout the year. Being condemned to death, the straw-man is led through the village, shot, and burned upon a pyre. They dance round the blazing pile, and the last bride must leap over it.299 In Oldenburg on the evening of Shrove Tuesday people used to make long bundles of straw, which they set on fire, and then ran about the fields waving them, shrieking, and singing wild songs. Finally they burned a straw-man on the field.300 In the distr

e Easte

ling a holy new fire at the church on Easter Saturday; marvellous p

beech, which they char in the fire, and then take home with them. Some of these charred sticks are thereupon burned at home in a newly-kindled fire, with a prayer that God will preserve the homestead from fire, lightning, and hail. Thus every house receives "new fire." Some of the sticks are kept throughout the year and laid on the hearth-fire during heavy thunder-storms to prevent the house from being struck by lightning, or they are inserted in the roof with the like intention. Others are placed in the fields, gardens, and meadows, with a prayer that God will keep them from blight and hail. Such field

in Bavaria and

d and thrown away at sunrise in running water.306 In many parts of the Abruzzi, also, pious people kindle their fires on Easter Saturday with a brand brought from the sacred new fire in the church. When the brand has thus served to bless the fire on the domestic hearth, it is extinguished, and the remainder is preserved, partly in a cranny of the outer wall of the house, partly on a tree to which it is tied. This is done for the

ecrated in Calabria on Easter Saturday; water and fire consecrated on Easter Sat

to go forth and all good things to come in. At the same time, to emphasize the exorcism, they knock on doors, window-shutters, chests, and other domestic articles of furniture. At Cetraro people who suffer from diseases of the skin bathe in the sea at this propitious moment; at Pietro in Guarano they plunge into the river on the night of Easter Saturday before Easter Sunday dawns, and while they bathe they utter never a word. Moreover, the Calabrians keep the "new water" as a sacred thing. They believe that it serves as a protection against witchcraft if it is sprinkled on a fire or a lamp, when the wood crackles or the wick sputters; for they regard it as a bad omen when the fire talks, as they say.309 Among the Germans of Western Bohemia, also, water as well as fire is consecrated by the priest in front of the church on Easter Saturday. People bring jugs full of water to the church and set them beside the holy fire; afterwards they use the water to sprinkle on the palm-branches which are stuck in the fields. Charred sticks of the Judas fire, as it is popularly called, are supposed to possess a magical and healing virtue; hence the people take them home with them, and even scuffle with each other for the still glowing embers in order to carry them, still glimmerin

consecration of fire and water b

the churchyard, where the priest had lit it by the friction of flint and steel and had bestowed his blessing on it.312 Such customs were probably w

fire all is quenc

out the flint is fet

ow this against gre

h every man with gre

ll storme appeares, o

safe may be from str

schall namde, with mu

rein they pricke, fo

day as signe of Chris

foolish toye suff

or the Priest, the

sme is reservde: for

he yeare before, no

n with the same, as t

and furniture, ami

, banners, Chrisme, a

ont they marche, and o

y stande, and straight t

doth he touche, and

s wordes he speakes, t

conjureth, and fo

at to make, which G

candle than, he thr

hereon with breath, that

ende, his Chrisme h

g hereat stande,

at powre is given

earned men, and such

brought they draw, an

t to themselves, or to

, and belles are set

hungrie times of f

ome were lighted afresh from the holy fire

n Easter Saturd

drawn by two fine white oxen with gilded horns. The body of the car is loaded with a pyramid of squibs and crackers and is connected by a wire with a pillar set up in front of the high altar. The wire extends down the middle of the nave at a height of about six feet from the ground. Beneath it a clear passage is left, the spectators being ranged on either side and crowding the vast interior from wall to wall. When all is ready, High Mass is celebrated, and precisely at noon, when the first words of the Gloria are being chanted, the sacred fire is applied to the pillar, which like the car is wreathed with fireworks. A moment more and a fiery dove comes flying down the nave, with a hissing sound and a sputter of sparks, between the two hedges of eager spectators. If all goes well, the bird pursues its course along the wire and out at the door, and in another moment a prolonged seri

ning of Judas on East

g, for which the crowd will scramble and scuffle while the effigies are burning. There they hang grim, black, and sullen in the strong sunshine, greeted with a roar of execration by the pious mob. A peal of bells from the cathedral tower on the stroke of noon gives the signal for the execution. At the sound a frenzy seizes the crowd. They throw themselves furiously on the figures of the detested traitor, cut them down, hurl them with curses into the fire, and fight and struggle with each other in their efforts to tear the effigies to tatters and appropriate their contents. Smoke, stink, sputter of crackers, oaths, curses, yells are now the order of the day. But the traitor does not perish unavenged. For the anatomy of his frame has been cunningly

Judas at Easter

Judas are hung on trees or dragged about the streets, to be finally burned or otherwise destroyed.317 In the Indian villages scattered among the wild valleys of the Peruvian Andes figures of the traitor, made of pasteboard and stuffed with squibs and crackers, are hanged on gibbets before the door of the church on East

urday in the Church of the

d by the intervention of the Turkish soldiery, who restore peace and order by hustling the whole multitude impartially out of the church. In days gone by many lives were often lost in these holy scrimmages. For example, in the year 1834, the famous Ibrahim Pasha witnessed the frantic scene from one of the galleries, and, being moved with compassion at the sight, descended with a few guards into the arena in the chimerical hope of restoring peace and order among the contending Christians. He contrived to force his way into the midst of the dense crowd, but there the heat and pressure were so great that he fainted away; a body of soldiers, seeing his danger, charged straight into the throng and carried him out of it in their arms, trampling under foot the dying and dead in their passage. Nearly two hundred people were killed that day in the churc

urning of Judas on East

acred new fire in the cathedral, but practically it may be suspected that the matches which bear the name of Lucifer have some share in the sudden illumination.322 Effigies of Judas used to be burned at Athens on Easter Saturday, but the custom has been forbidden by the Government. However, firing goes on more or less continuously all over the city both on Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday, and the cartridges used on this occasion are not always blank. The shots ar

at Candlemas

ll young married pairs are expected to range themselves about the fire and to dance round it. Young men leap over the flames, but girls and women content themselves with going round them, while they pray to be preserved from the itch and other skin-diseases. When the ceremony is over, the people eagerly pick up charred sticks or ashes of the fire and preserve them or scatter them on the four corners of the r

ng of Judas at Easter are p

Neither of them has the authority of Christ or of his disciples; but both of them have abundant analogies in popular custom and superstition. Some instances of the practice of annually extinguishing fires and relighting them from a n

s of Peru; the new fire among the Indians of Mexico

e crops may be good in the coming year. For several days before the new fire is kindled, no ashes or sweepings may be removed from the houses and no artificial light may appear outside of them, not even a burning cigarette or the flash of firearms. The Indians believe that no rain will fall on the fields of the man outside whose house a light has been seen at this season. The signal for kindling the new fire is given by the rising of the Morning Star. The flame is produced by twirling an upright stick between the hands on a horizontal stick laid on the floor of a sacred chamber, the sparks being caught by a tinder of cedar-dust. It is forbidden to blow up the smouldering tinder with the breath, for that would offend the gods. After the fire has thus been ceremonially kindled, the women and girls of all the families in the village clean out their houses. They carry the sweepings and ashes in baskets or bowls to the fields and leave them there. To the sweepings the woman says: "I now deposit you as sweepings, but in one year you will return to me as corn." And to the ashes she says: "I now deposit you as ashes, but in one year you will return to me as meal." At the summer solstice the sacred fire which has been procured by the friction of wood is used to kindle the grass and trees, that there may be a great cloud of smoke, while bull-roarers are swung and prayers offered that the R

among the Swahili, and i

ries of the women.335 Thus these people combine an annual expulsion of demons with an annual lighting of a new fire. Among the Swahili of East Africa the greatest festival is that of the New Year, which falls in the second half of August. At a given moment all the fires are extinguished with water and afterwards relit by the friction of two dry pieces of wood. The ashes of the old fires are carried out and deposited at cross-roads. All the people get up very early in the morning and bathe in the sea or some other water, praying to be kept in good health and to live that they may bathe again next year. Sham-fights form part of the amusements of the day; sometimes they pass into grim reality. Indeed the day was formerly one of general license; every man did that which was good in his own eyes. No awkward questions were asked

of Southern India and among th

ly on wild fruits, and then the rite of the new fire was very important. Now that they subsist chiefly on the milk of their buffaloes, the ceremony has lost much of its old significance.339 When the Nagas of North-Eastern India have felled the timber and cut down the scrub in those patches of jungle which they propose to cultivate, they put out all the fires in the village and light a new fire by rubbing two dry pieces of wood together. Then having kindled torches at it they proceed with them to the jungle and ignite the felled timber and brushwo

re in China

paration for the solemn renewal of the fire, which took place on the fifth or sixth day of April, being the hundred and fifth day after the winter solstice. The ceremony was performed with great pomp by the same officials, who procured the new fire from heaven by reflecting the sun's rays either from a metal mirror or from a crystal on dry moss. Fire thus obtained is c

food there are a thousand w

, at sunrise, you may

and h

shifting the fire-festival from spring to the summer solstice, but afterwards it was brought back to its original date. Although the custom appears to have long fallen into disuse, the barbarous inhabitants of Hainan, an island to the south of China, still call a year "a fire," as if in memory of the time when the years were reckoned by the annually recurring ceremony of rekindling the sacred fire.342 "A Japanese book written two centur

in ancient Gre

from the sacred isle of Delos, and with it the fires in the houses and the workshops were relit. The people said that with the new fire they made a new beginning of life. If the ship that bore the sacred flame arrived too soon, it might not put in to shore, but had to cruise in the offing till the nine days were expired.345 At Rome the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta wa

old Celts of Ireland; the new fire on S

ey Keating, "that the Festival of the Fire of Tlactga was ordered to be held, and it was thither that the Druids of Ireland were wont to repair and to assemble, in solemn meeting, on the eve of Samhain, for the purpose of making a sacrifice to all the gods. It was in that fire at Tlactga, that their sacrifice was burnt; and it was made obligatory, under pain of punishment, to extinguish all the fires of Ireland, on that eve; and the men of Ireland were allowed to kindle no other fire but that one; and fo

the Eastern and Western Church is pr

e in its ritual. It might be supposed that in the Western Church the custom was merely a survival of the old Roman usage of renewing the fire on the first of March, were it not that the observance by the Eastern Church of the custom on the same day seems to point back to a still older period when the ceremony of lighting a new fire in sp

ions associated with it, such as the belief that the fire fertiliz

r, on the same hill, which accordingly often takes the name of Easter Mountain. It is a fine spectacle to watch from some eminence the bonfires flaring up one after another on the neighbouring heights. As far as their light reaches, so far, in the belief of the peasants, the fields will be fruitful, and the houses on which they shine will be safe from conflagration or sickness. At Volkmarsen and other places in Hesse the people used to observe which way the wind blew the flames, and then they sowed flax seed in that direction, confident that it would grow well. Brands taken from the bonfires preserve houses from being struck by lightning; and the ashes increase the fertility of the fields, protect them from mice, and mixed with the drinking-water of cattle make the animals thri

rland, Oldenburg, the Harz

make them fruitful.351 At Delmenhorst, in Oldenburg, it used to be the custom to cut down two trees, plant them in the ground side by side, and pile twelve tar-barrels, one above the other, against each of the trees. Brushwood was then heaped about the trees, and on the evening of Easter Saturday the boys, after rushing about with blazing beanpoles in their hands, set fire to the whole. At the end of the ceremony the urchins tried to blacken each other and the clothes of grown-up people.352 In Schaumburg the Easter bonfires may be seen blazing on all the mountains around for miles. They are made with a tar-barrel fastened to a pine-tree, which is wrapt in straw. The people dance singing round them.353 In the Harz Mountains the fire is commonly made by piling brushw

ria; the burning of Judas

rnfield, while in the middle of the pile they set up a tall wooden cross all swathed in straw. After the evening service they lighted their lanterns at the consecrated candle in the church, and ran with them at full speed to the pyre, each striving to get there first. The first to arrive set fire to the heap. No woman or girl might come near the bonfire, but they were allowed to watch it from a distance. As the flames rose the men and lads rejoiced and made merry, shouting, "We are burning the Judas!" Two of them had to watch the glowing embers the whole night long, lest people should come and steal them. Next morning at sunrise they carefully collected the ashes, and threw them into the running water of the R?ten brook. The man who had been the first to reach the pyre and to kindle it was rewarded on Easter Sunday by the women, who gave him coloured eggs at the church door. Well-to-do women gave him two; poorer women gave him only one. The object of the whole ceremony was to keep off the hail. About a century ago the Judas fire, as it was called, was put down by the police.362 At Giggenhausen and Aufkirchen, two other villages of Upper Bavaria, a similar custom prevailed, yet with some interesting differences. Here the ceremony, which took place between nine and ten at night on Easter Saturday, was called "burning the Easter Man." On a height about a mile from the village the young fellows set up a tall cross e

es in Baden; "T

servative against lightning. At Zoznegg these oaken sticks were sword-shaped, each about an ell and a half long, and they went by the name of "weather or thunder poles" (Wetterpf?hle). When a thunderstorm threatened to break out, one of the sticks was put into a small fire, in order that the hallowed smoke, ascending to the clouds, might ward off the lightning from the house and the hail from the fields and gardens. At Sch?llbronn the oaken sticks, which are thus charred in the Easter bonfire and

d and Sweden; the burni

s of Sweden firearms are, as at Athens, discharged in all directions on Easter eve, and huge bonfires are lighted on hills and eminences. Some people think that the intention is to keep off the Troll and other evil spirits who are especially active at this season.368 When the afternoon service on Good Friday is over, German children in Bohemia drive Judas out of the church by running about the sacred edifice and even the

e Belta

nds of Scotland; description of the Beltane fires by

words of their authors. The fullest of the descriptions, so far as I know, is the one bequeathed to us by John Ramsay, laird of Ochtertyre, near Crieff, the patron of Burns and the friend of Sir Walter Scott. From his voluminous manuscripts, written in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, a selection was published in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The following account of Beltane is extracted from a chapter dealing with Highland superstitions. Ramsay says: "But the most considerable of

d-fi

ith the grandest views of nature, and were nearest the seat of warmth and order. And, according to tradition, such was the manner of celebrating this festival in the Highlands within the last hundred years. But since the decline of superstition, it has been celebrated by the people of each hamlet on some hill or rising ground around which their cattle were pasturing. Thither the young folks repaired in the morning, and cut a

ed by the fricti

inery was different. They used a frame of green wood, of a square form, in the centre of which was an axle-tree. In some places three times three persons, in others three times nine, were required for turning round by turns the axle-tree or wimble. If any of them had been guilty of murder, adultery, theft, or other atrocious crime, it was imagined either that the fire would not kindle, or that it would be devoid of its usual virtue. So soon as any sparks were e

and the Beltane ca

lled am bonnach beal-tine-i.e. the Beltane cake. It was divided into a number of pieces, and distributed in great form to the company. There was one particular piece which whoever got was called cailleach beal-tine-i.e., the Beltane carline, a term of great reproach. Upon his being known, part of the company laid hold of him and made a show of putting him i

middle, through which each of the cows in the fold is milked. In Tiree it is of a triangular form. The more elderly people remember when this festival was celebrated without-doors with some solemnity in both these islands. There are at present no vest

. One of the highest and most central in Icolmkil is called Cnoch-nan-ainneal-i.e., the hill of the fires. There is another of the same name near the kirk of Balquhidder; and at Killin there is a round green eminence which seems to have been raised by art. It is called Tom-nan-ainneal-i.e., the eminence of the fires. Around it there are the remains of a circular wall about two feet high. On the top a stone st

vidence of two fires at Beltane; Beltane p

ess a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide the cake into so many portions, as similar as possible to one another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. They daub one of these portions all over with charcoal, until it be perfectly black. They put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet. Every one, blindfold, draws out a portion. He who holds the bonnet, is

of the Beltane fires an

ing. The rites begin with spilling some of the caudle on the ground, by way of libation: on that every one takes a cake of oatmeal, upon which are raised nine square knobs, each dedicated to some particular being, the supposed preserver of their flocks and herds, or to some particular animal, the real destroyer of them: each person then turns his face to the fire, breaks off a knob, and flinging it over his shoulders, says, 'This I give to thee, preserve thou my

arishes of Logierait and Kirkmich

orms us that in the parish of Kirkmichael, which adjoins the parish of Logierait on the east, the custom of lighting a fire in the fields and baking a consecrated cake on the first of May was not quite obsolete in his time.375 We may conjecture that the cake with knobs was formerly used for the purpose of determining who should be the "Beltane carline" or victim doomed to the flames. A trace of this custom survived, perhaps, in the custom of baking oatmeal cakes of a special kind and rolling them down hill about noon on the first of May; for it was thought that the person whose cake broke as it rolled would die

east of Scotland to burn the

d and busy casting spells on cattle and stealing cows' milk. To counteract their machinations, pieces of rowan-tree and woodbine, but especially of rowan-tree, were placed over the doors of the cow-houses, and fires were kindled by every farmer and cottar. Old thatch, straw, furze, or broom was piled in a heap and set on fire a little after sunset. While some of the bystanders kept tossing the blazing mass, others hoisted portions of it on pitchforks or poles and ran hit

and fires in

ars ago. There was also a cheese made, generally on the first of May, which was kept to the next Beltane as a sort of charm against the bewitching of milk-produce. The Beltane customs seem to have been the same as elsew

res and cak

de. These fires, whether one or two, were called coelcerth or bonfire. Round cakes of oatmeal and brown meal were split in four, and placed in a small flour-bag, and everybody present had to pick out a portion. The last bit in the bag fell to the lot of the bag-holder. Each person who chanced to pick up a piece of brown-meal cake was compelled to leap three times over the flames, or to run thrice between the two fires, by which means the people thought they were sure of a plentiful harvest. Shouts and screams of those who had to face the ordeal could be heard ever so far, and those who chanced to pick the oatmeal portions sang and danced and clapped their hands in approval, as the holders of the brown bits leaped three times over the flames, or ran three times between the two fires. As a rule, no danger attended these curious celebrations, but occasionally somebody's clothes caught fire, which was quickly put out. The greatest fire of the

ge over or between the f

ping thrice over the bonfires or running thrice between them they ensured a plentiful harvest is worthy of note. The mode in which this result was supposed to be brought about is indicated by another writer on Welsh folk-lore, according to whom it used to be held that "the bonfires lighted in May or Midsummer protected the lands from sorcer

Man to burn the witches; Bel

The day was one on which the power of elves and witches was particularly dreaded, and the people resorted to many precautions in order to protect themselves against these mischievous beings. Hence at daybreak they set fire to the ling or gorse, for the purpose of burning out the witches, who are wont to lurk in the form of hares.383 O

fires in

es high above the left bank of the Boyne, about twelve miles from the mouth of the river. So that night, looking from his palace at Tara across the darkened landscape, the king of Tara saw the solitary fire flaring on the top of the hill of Slane, and in consternation he asked his wise men what that light meant. They warned him of the danger that it betokened for the ancient faith of Erin.387 In spite of the difference of date between Easter and Beltane, we may suspect that the new fire annually kindled with solemn ceremony about Easter in the king of Ireland's palace at Tara was no other than the Beltane fire. We have seen that in the Highlands of Scotland down to modern times it was customary to extinguish all fires in the neighbourhood before proceeding to kindle the sacred flame.388 The Irish historian Geoffrey Keating, who wrote in the first part of the seventeenth century, tells us that the men of Ireland held a great fair every year in the month of May at Uisnech (Ushnagh) in the county of Meath, "and at it they were wont to exchange their goods and their wares and their jewels. At it, they were, also, wont to make a sacrifice to the Arch-God that

es on the Eve of May Day in Austria and Sax

n Bohemia, on the eve of May Day, young people kindle fires on hills and eminences, at crossways, and in pastures, and dance round them. They leap over the glowing embers or even through the flames. The ceremony is called "burning the witches." In some places an effigy representing a witch used to be burnt in the bonfire.392 We have to remember that the eve of May Day is the notorious Walpurgis Night, when the witches are everywhere speeding unseen through the air on their hellish errands. On this wit

Midsumm

ummer Eve or Midsummer Day, which the church has dedicated to St. John the

regarded with anxiety by primitive man so soon as he began to observe and ponder the courses of the great lights across the celestial vault; and having still to learn his own powerlessness in face of the vast cyclic changes of nature, he may have fancied that he could help the sun in his seeming decline-could prop his failing steps and rekindle the sinking flame of the red lamp in his feeble hand. In some such thoughts as these the midsummer festivals of our European peasantry may perhaps have taken their rise. Whatever their origin, they have prevailed all over this quarter of the globe, from Ireland on the west to Russia on the east, and from Norway and Sweden

escription of the

e reasons popularly alleged for observing them, is given by Thomas Kirchm

l feast of John the B

ith loftie flame, in

ut with maides, doe da

of Motherwort, or el

res faire, with Vio

fondly thinke, tha

eholds the flame, his ey

hey daunced have, they

e runne, and all their

devout and prayers,

ll their illes may

hrough all that yeare

otten wheele, all w

out with strawe, and t

ountaines top, being

ith violence, when da

nne, that from the hea

us sight it seemes, an

mischiefes all are li

d daungers now, in safe

main features of the midsummer fire-festival resemble those which we have found to characterize the vernal f

elebration at Konz on the Moselle: the

ssip in the village but knew the reason why. At nightfall the whole male population, men and boys, mustered on the top of the hill; the women and girls were not allowed to join them, but had to take up their position at a certain spring half-way down the slope. On the summit stood a huge wheel completely encased in some of the straw which had been jointly contributed by the villagers; the rest of the straw was made into torches. From each side of the wheel the axle-tree projected about three feet, thus furnishing handles to the lads who were to guide it in its descent. The mayor of the neighbouring town of Sierck, who always received a basket of cherries for his services, gave the signal; a lighted torch was applied to the wheel, and as it burst into flame, two young fellows, strong-limbed and swift of foot, seized the handles and began running with it down the slope. A great shout went up. Every man and boy waved a blazing torch in the air, and took care to keep it alight so long as the wheel was trundling down the hill. Some of them followed the fiery wheel, and watched with amusement the shifts to which its gu

gh the fire; the new fire; omens of the harvest draw

out the fire on the domestic hearth and rekindled it by means of a brand taken from the midsummer bonfire. The people judged of the height to which the flax would grow in the year by the height to which the flames of the bonfire rose; and whoever leaped over the burning pile was sure not to suffer from backache in reaping the corn at harvest. But it was especially the practice for lovers to spring over the fire hand in hand, and the way in which each couple made the leap was the subject of many a jest and many a superstition. In one district the custom of kindling the bonfires was combined with that of lighting wooden discs and hurling them in the air after the manner which prevails at some of the spring festivals.400 In many parts of Bavaria it was believed that the flax would grow as high as the young people leaped over the fire.401 In others the old folk used to plant three char

the leaps over the fires; burning wheels rolled

the places where burning wheels were thus bowled down hill at Midsummer were the Hohenstaufen mountains in Wurtemberg and the Frauenberg near Gerhausen.406 At Deffingen, in Swabia, as the people sprang over the midsummer bonfire they cried out, "Flax, flax! may the flax this year grow seven ells high!"407 At Rottenburg in Swabia, down to the year 1807 or 1808, the festival was marked by some special features. About mid-day troops of boys went about the town begging for firewood at the houses. In each troop there were three leaders, one of whom carried a dagger, a second a paper banner, and a third a white plate covered with a white cloth. These three entered each house and recited verses, in which they expressed an intention of roasting Martin Luther and sending him to the devil; and for this meritorious service they expected to be paid, the contributions being received in the cloth-covered plate. In the evening they counted up their money and proceeded to "behead the Angel-man." For this ceremony an open space was chosen,

ing discs thrown into the air; Midsummer fires in Alsace, Lorraine, the Ei

ng, gathered round the bonfires, leaving a clear space for the leapers to take their run. One of the bystanders would call out the names of a pair of sweethearts; on which the two would step out from the throng, take each other by the hand, and leap high and lightly through the swirling smoke and flames, while the spectators watched them critically and drew omens of their married life from the height to which each of them bounded. Such an invitation to jump together over the bonfire was regarded as tantamount to a public betrothal.410 Near Offenburg, in the Black Forest, on Midsummer Day the village boys used to collect faggots and straw on some steep and conspicuous height, and they spent some time in making circular wooden discs by slicing the trunk of a pine-tree across. When darkness had fallen, they kindled the bonfire, and then, as it blazed up, they lighted the discs at it, and, after swinging them to and fro at the end of a stout and supple hazel-wand, they hurled them one after the other, whizzing and flaming, into the air, where they described great arcs of fire, to fall at length, like shooting-stars, at the foot of the mountain.411 In many parts of Alsace and

tion of wood in Germany and Switzerl

which the extremities of a strong pole are fixed. The holes are then stuffed with tow steeped in resin and oil; a rope is looped round the pole, and two young men, who must be brothers or must have the same baptismal name, and must be of the same age, pull the ends of the rope backwards and forwards so as to make the pole revolve rapidly, till smoke and sparks issue from the two holes in the door-posts. The sparks are caught and blown up with tinder, and this is the new and pure fire, the appearance of which is greeted with cries of joy. Heaps of combustible materials are now ignited wi

n Silesia; scaring

ing pile. Shots, too, are fired, and shouts raised. The fire, the smoke, the shots, and the shouts are all intended to scare away the witches, who are let loose on this witching day, and who would certainly work harm to the crops and the cattle, if they were not deterred by these salutary measures. Mere contact with the fire brings all sorts of blessings. Hence when the bonfire is burning low, the lads leap over it, and the higher they bound, the better is the luck in store for them. He who surpasses his fellows is the hero of the day and is much admired by the village gi

nd Norway; keeping off the witche

ost joyous night of the whole year. Throughout some parts of the country, especially in the provinces of Bohus and Scania and in districts bordering on Norway, it is celebrated by the frequent discharge of firearms and by huge bonfires, formerly called Balder's Balefires (Balder's Balar), which are kindled at dusk on hills and eminences and throw a glare of light over the surrounding landscape. The people dance round the fires and leap over or through them. In parts of Norrland on St. John's Eve the bonfires are lit at the cross-roads. The fuel consists of nine different sorts of wood, and the spectators cast into the flames a kind of toad-stool (B?ran) in order to counteract the power of the Trolls and other evil spirits, who are b

nd Austria; effigies burnt in the fir

ven and twelve on St. John's Night and wash yourself in three wells, you will see all who are to die in the following year.424 At Gratz on St. John's Eve (the twenty-third of June) the common people used to make a puppet called the Tatermann, which they dragged to the bleaching ground, and pelted with burning besoms till it took fire.425 At Reutte, in the Tyrol, people believed that the flax would grow as high as they leaped over the midsummer bonfire, and they took pieces of charred wood from the fire and stuck them in their flax-fields the same night, leaving them there till the flax harvest had been got in.426 In

urning wheels rolled down hill; embers of the fire stuck in fields, gardens, and houses as a ta

When the blaze has died down, each couple takes hands, and leaps thrice across the fire. He or she who does so will be free from ague throughout the year, and the flax will grow as high as the young folks leap. A girl who sees nine bonfires on Midsummer Eve will marry before the year is out. The singed wreaths are carried home and carefully preserved throughout the year. During thunderstorms a bit of the wreath is burned on the hearth with a prayer; some of it is given to kine that are sick or calving, and some of it serves to fumigate house and cattle-stall, that man and beast may keep hale and well. Sometimes an old cartwheel is smeared with resin, ignited, and sent rolling down the hill. Often the boys collect all the worn-out besoms they can get hold of, dip them in pitch, and having set them on fire wave them about or throw them high into the air. Or they rush down the hillside in troops, brandishing the flaming brooms and shouting, only however to return to the bonfire on the summit when the bro

an Silesia, and the district of Cracow;

as poets by haunted streams have their Midsummer Night's dreams.429 In Austrian Silesia the custom also prevails of lighting great bonfires on hilltops on Midsummer Eve, and here too the boys swing blazing besoms or hurl them high in the air, while they shout and leap and dance wildly. Next morning every door is decked with flowers and birchen saplings.430 In the district of Cracow, especially towards the Carpathian Mountains, great fires are kindled by the peasants in the fields or

ssia; cattle protected against witchcraft;

hn's Night.433 Again, in some districts of Russia the young folk wear garlands of flowers and girdles of holy herbs when they spring through the smoke or flames; and sometimes they drive the cattle also through the fire in order to protect the animals against wizards and witches, who are then ravenous after milk.434 In Little Russia a stake is driven into the ground on St. John's Night, wrapt in straw, and set on fire. As the flames rise the peasant women throw birchen boughs into them, saying, "May m

to protect against witchcraft, thunder, hail, and catt

the young fellows who lit the bonfire going from house to house and receiving jugfuls of milk. And for the same reason they stick burs and mugwort on the gate or the hedge through which the cows go to pasture, because that is supposed to be a preservative against witchcraft.437 In Masuren, a district of Eastern Prussia inhabited by a branch of the Polish family, it is the custom on the evening of Midsummer Day to put out all the fires in the village. Then an oaken stake is driven into the ground a

the Letts of Russia; Mids

serene twilight of the summer night has veiled the landscape, bonfires gleam on all the hills, and wild shouts of "Ligho! Ligho!" echo from the woods and fields. In Riga the day is a festival of flowers. From all the neighbourhood the peasants stream into the city laden with flowers and garlands. A market of flowers is held in an open square and on the chief bridge over the river; here wreaths of immortelles, which grow wild in the meadows and woods, are sold in great profusion and deck the houses of Riga for long afterwards

fires among t

erdsmen throw nine three-year old vines into the bonfire, and when these burst into flames the young men who are candidates for matrimony jump through the blaze. He who succeeds in leaping over the fire without singeing himself will be married within the year. At Vidovec in Croatia parties of two girls and one lad unite to kindle a Midsummer bonfire and to leap through the flames; he or she who leaps furthest wi

res among the Mag

n they go round the fire singing, and hold a bunch of iron-wort in the smoke, while they say, "No boil on my body, no sprain in my foot!" This holding of the flowers over the flames is regarded, we are told, as equally important with the practice of walking through the fire barefoot and stamping it out. On this day also many Hungarian swineherds make fire by rotating a wheel round a wooden axle wrapt in hemp, and through the fire thus made they drive their pigs to preserve them from sickness.444 I

ng the Esthonians; the M

h a great mass of juniper piled about it in the form of a pyramid. When a light has been set to the pile, old and young gather about it and pass the time merrily with song and music till break of day. Every one who comes brings fresh fuel for the fire, and they say, "Now we all gather together, where St. John's fire burns. He who comes not to St. John's fire will have his barley full of thistles, and his oats full of weeds." Three logs are thrown into the fire with special ceremony; in throwing the first they say, "Gold of pleasure (a plant with yellow flowers) into the fire!" in throwing the second they say, "Weeds to the unploughed land!" but in throwing the third they cry, "Flax on my field!" The fire is said to keep the witches from the cattle.446 According to others, it ensures that for the whole year the milk

among the Finns and

the Volga, the Cheremiss celebrate about midsummer a festival which Haxthausen regarded as identical with the midsummer ceremonies of the rest of Europe. A sacred tree in the forest, generally a tall and solitary oak, marks the scene of the solemnity. All the males assemble there, but no woman may be present. A heathen priest lights seven fires in a row from north-west to south-east; cattle are sacrificed and their bl

n France; Bossuet on t

s kindled what were called ecclesiastical fires for the purpose of banishing the superstitions practised at the purely mundane bonfires. These superstitions, he goes on to say, consisted in dancing round the fire, playing, feasting, singing ribald songs, throwing herbs across the fire, gathering herbs at noon or while fasting, carrying them on the person, preserving them throughout the year, keeping brands or cinders of the fire, and other similar practices.453 However excellent the intentions of the ecclesiastical authorities may have been, they failed of effecting their purpose; for the superstitions as well as the bonfires survived in France far into the nineteenth century, if indeed they are extinct even now at the beginning of the twentieth. Writing in the latter part of the nineteenth century Mr. Ch. Cuissard tells us that he himself witnessed in Touraine and Poitou the superstitious practices which he describes as follows: "The most credulous examine the ways in which the flame burns and draw good or bad omens accordingly. Others, after leaping through the flames cros

ittany; uses made of the c

reeted with hoots and retires abashed from the circle of dancers. Brands are carried home from the bonfire to protect the houses against lightning, conflagrations, and certain maladies and spells. The precious talisman is carefully kept in a cupboard till St. John's Day of the following year.456 At Quimper, and in the district of Léon, chairs used to be placed round the midsummer bonfire, that the souls of the dead might sit on them and warm themselves at the blaze.457 At Brest on this day thousands of people used to assemble on the ramparts towards evening and brandish lighted torches, which they swung in circles or flung by hundreds into the air. The closing of the town gates put an end to the spectacle, and the lights might be seen dispersing in all directions like wandering will-o'-the-wisps.458 In Upper Brittany the materials for the midsummer bonfires, which generally consist of bundles of furze and heath, are furnished by voluntary contributions, and piled on the tops of hills round poles, each of which is surmounted by a nosegay or a crown. This nosegay or crown is generally provided by a man named John or a woman n

against witchcraft; the Brotherhood of the Green Wolf at J

l green hat of a conical shape and without a brim. Thus arrayed he stalked solemnly at the head of the brothers, chanting the hymn of St. John, the crucifix and holy banner leading the way, to a place called Chouquet. Here the procession was met by the priest, precentors, and choir, who conducted the brotherhood to the parish church. After hearing mass the company adjourned to the house of the Green Wolf, where a simple repast, such as is required by the church on fast-days, was served up to them. Then they danced before the door till it was time to light the bonfire. Night being come, the fire was kindled to the sound of hand-bells by a young man and a young woman, both decked with flowers. As the flames rose, the Te Deum was sung, and a villager thundered out a parody in the Norman dialect of the hymn ut queant laxis. Meantime the Green Wolf and his brothers, with their hoods down on their shoulders and holding each other by the hand, ran round the fire after the man who had been chosen to be the Green Wolf of the following year. Though only the first and the last man of the chain had a hand free, their business was to surround and seize thrice the future Green Wolf, who in his efforts to escape belaboured the brothers with a long wand whi

mer fires i

ly with the customary obligation. In the evening, after a service in honour of St. John has been performed in the church, the clergy, the mayor, the municipal authorities, the rural police, and the fire-brigade march in procession to the bonfire, accompanied by the inhabitants and a crowd of idlers drawn by curiosity from the neighbouring villages. After addressing the throng in a sermon, to which they pay little heed, the parish priest sprinkles the pyre with holy water, and taking a lighted torch from the hand of an assistant sets fire to the pile. The enormous blaze, flaring up against the dark sky of the summer night, is seen for many miles around, particularly from the hill of Laon. When it has died down into a huge

e and Perche; the fires as a

ated about a huge branch, which bore at the top a crown of fresh flowers. The priest blessed the bonfire and the people danced round it. When it blazed and crackled, the bystanders thrust their heads into the puffs of smoke, in the belief that it would preserve them from a multitude of ills; and when the fire was burnt out, they rushed upon the charred embers and ashes and carried the

he Jura; the Midsummer fires in Franche-Comté; the Mids

f both sexes sang and danced round them, and sprang over the dying flames.472 In Bresse bonfires used to be kindled on Midsummer Eve (the twenty-third of June) and the people danced about them in a circle. Devout persons, particularly old women, circumambulated the fires fourteen times, telling their beads and mumbling seven Paters and seven Aves in the hope that thereby they would feel no pains in their backs when they stooped over the sickle in the harvest field.473 In Berry, a district of Central France, the midsummer fire was lit on the Eve of St. John and went by the name of the j?née, joannée, or jouannée. Every family according to its means contributed faggots, which were piled round a pole on the highest ground in the neighbourhood. In the hamlets the office of kindling the fire devolved on the oldest man, but in the towns it was the priest or the mayor who discharged the duty. Here, as in Brittany, people supposed that a girl who had danced round nine of the midsummer bonfires would marry within the year. To leap several times over the fire was regarded as a sort of purification which kept off sickness and brought good luck to the leaper. Hence the nimble youth bounded through the smoke and flames, and when the

mmer fires

ning would find under it the hair of St. John.477 In Poitou also it used to be customary on the Eve of St. John to trundle a blazing wheel wrapt in straw over the fields to fertilize them.478 This last custom is said to be now extinct,479 but it is still usual, or was so down to recent years, in Poitou to kindle fires on this day at cross-roads or on the heights. The oldest or youngest person present sets a light to the pile, which consists of broom, gorse, and heath. A bright and crackling blaze shoots up, but soon dies down, and over it the young folk leap. They also throw stones into it, picking the stone according to the size of the turnips that they wish to have that year. It

ts of Vienne and Deux-Sèvres and in t

nte Inférieure, the fires of St. John are still kindled on Midsummer Eve, but the custom is neither so common nor carried out with so much pomp and ceremony as formerly. Great quantities of wood used to be piled on an open space round about a huge post or a tree stripped of its leaves and branches. Every one took care to contribute a faggot to the pile, and the whole population marched to the spot in procession with the crucifix at their head and the priest bringing up the rear. The squire, or other person of high degree, put the torch to the pyre, and the priest blessed it. In the southern and eastern parts of Saintonge children and cattle were passed through

al of fire and water in Provence; bathing in the sea at M

Pyrenees it is deemed necessary to leap nine times over the midsummer fire if you would be assured of prosperity.486 A traveller in Southern France at the beginning of the nineteenth century tells us that "the Eve of St. John is also a day of joy for the Proven?als. They light great fires and the young folk leap over them. At Aix they shower squibs and crackers on the passers-by, which has often had disagreeable consequences. At Marseilles they drench each other with scented water, which is poured from the windows or squirted from little syringes; the roughest jest is to souse passers-by with clean water, which gives rise to loud bursts of laughter."487 At Draguignan, in the department of Var, fires used to be lit in every street on the Eve of St. John, and the people roasted pods of garlic at them; the pods were afterwards distributed to every family. Another diversion of the evening was to pour cans of water from the houses on the heads of people in the streets.488 In Provence the midsummer fires are still popular. Children go from door to door begging for fuel, and they are seldom sent empty away. Formerly the priest, the mayor, and the aldermen used to walk in procession to the bonfire, and even deigned to light it; after which the assembly marched thr

Peter's Day in Brabant; the King and Queen of t

and they say that in the ashes of the plant you may find, if you look for it, the "Fool's Stone."491 In many parts of Brabant St. Peter's bonfire used to be much larger than that of his rival St. John. When it had burned out, both sexes engaged in a game of ball, and the winner became the King of Summer or of the Ball and had the right to choose his Queen. Sometimes the winner was a woman, and it was then her privilege to select her royal mate. This pastime was well known at Louvain and it continued to be practised at Grammont and Mespelaer down to the second half of the nineteenth century. At Mespelaer, which is a village near Termonde, a huge pile of eglantine, reeds, and straw was collected in a marshy meadow for the bonfire; and next evening after vespers the young folk who had lit it assembled at the "Good Life" tavern to play the game. The winner was crowned with a wreath of roses, and the rest danced and sang in a

s description of the Midsummer fires i

ils of festival days, and on the same festival days in the evenings after the sun setting, there were usually made bonfires in the streets, every man bestowing wood or labour towards them; the wealthier sort also, before their doors near to the said bonfires, would set out tables on the vigils furnished with sweet bread and good drink, and on the festival days with meats and drinks plentifully, whereunto they would invite their neighbours and passengers also to sit and be merry with them in great familiarity, praising God for His benefits bestowed on them. These were called bonfires as well of good amity amongst neighbours that being before at controversy, were there, by the labour of others, reconciled, and made of bitter enemies loving friends; and also for the virtue that a great fire hath to purge the infection of the air. On the vigil of St. John the Baptist, and on St. Peter and Paul the Apostles, eve

north of England; the Midsum

s they did so, "We have the flower (or flour) of the wake."502 At Sandhill bonfires were kindled on the Eve of St. Peter as well as on Midsummer Eve; the custom is attested for the year 1575, when it was described as ancient.503 We are told that "on Midsummer's eve, reckoned according to the old style, it was formerly the custom of the inhabitants, young and old, not only of Whalton, but of most of the adjacent villages, to collect a large cartload of whins and other combustible materials, which was dragged by them with great rejoicing (a fiddler being seated on the top of the cart) into the village and erected into a pile. The people from the surrounding country assembled towards evening, when it was set on fire; and whilst the young danced around it, the elders looked on smoking their pipes and drinking their beer, until it was consumed. There can be lit

etshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall; the Cornis

am Brea. When it grew dusk on Midsummer Eve, old men would hobble away to some height whence they counted the fires and drew a presage from their number.510 "It is the immemorial usage in Penzance, and the neighbouring towns and villages, to kindle bonfires and torches on Midsummer-eve; and on Midsummer-day to hold a fair on Penzance quay, where the country folks assemble from the adjoining parishes in great numbers to make excursions on the water. St. Peter's Eve (the twenty-eighth of June) is distinguished by a similar display of bonfires and torches, although the 'quay-fair' on St. Peter's-day (the twenty-ninth of June), has been discontinued upwards of forty years. On these eves a line of tar-barrels, relieved occasionally by large bonfires, is seen in the centre of each of the principal streets in Penzance. On either side of this line young men and women pass up and down, swinging round their heads heavy torches made of large pieces of folded canvas steeped in tar, and nailed to the ends of sticks between three and four feet long; the flames of some of these almost equal those of the tar-barrels. Rows of lighted candles, also, when the air is calm, are fixed outside the windows or along the sides of the streets. In St. Just, and other mining paris

es and the Isle of Man; bur

embered being taken to different hills in the Vale of Glamorgan to see festivities in which people from all parts of the district participated. She was at that time about fourteen, and old enough to retain a vivid recollection of the circumstances. People conveyed trusses of straw to the top of the hill, where men and youths waited for the contributions. Women and girls were stationed at the bottom of the hill. Then a large cart-wheel was thickly swathed with straw, and not an inch of wood was left in sight. A pole was inserted through the centre of the wheel, so that long ends extended about a yard on each side. If any straw remained, it was made up into torches at the to

through the fires; cattle driven through the fire; ashes used

the leads of the house, which had a widely extended view, I saw on a radius of thirty miles, all around, the fires burning on every eminence which the country afforded. I had a farther satisfaction in learning, from undoubted authority, that the people danced round the fires, and at the close went through these fires, and made their sons and daughters, together with their cattle, pass through the fire; and the whole was conducted with religious solemnity."518 That the custom prevailed in full force as late as 1867 appears from a notice in a newspaper of that date, which runs thus: "The old pagan fire-worship still survives in Ireland, though nominally in honour of St. John. On Sunday night bonfires were observed throughout nearly every county in the province of Leinster. In Kilkenny, fires blazed on every hillside at intervals of about a mile. There were very many in the Queen's County, also in Kildare and Wexford. The effect in the rich sunset appeared to travellers very grand. The people assemble, and dance round the fires, the children jump through the flames, and in former times live coals were carried into the corn-fields to prevent blight."519 In County Leitrim on St. John's Eve, which is called Bonfire Day, fires are still lighted after dusk on the hills and along the sides of the roads.520 All over Kerry the same thing continues to be done, though not so commonly as of old. Small fires we

nt of the Midsummer

e air with the most frantic revelry. Many of these ancient customs are still continued, and the fires are still lighted on St. John's Eve on every hill in Ireland. When the fire has burned down to a red glow the young men strip to the waist and leap over or through the flames; this is done backwards and forwards several times, and he who braves the greatest blaze is considered the victor over the powers of evil, and is greeted with tremendous applause. When the fire burns still lower, the young girls leap the flame, and those who leap clean over three times back and forward will be certain of a speedy marriage and good luck in after-life, with many children. The married women then walk through the lines of the burning embers; and when the fire is nearly burnt and trampled down, the yearling cattle are driven through the hot ashes, and their back is sin

ted to on Midsumm

their heads instead of hats, having gone seven times round each heap, kiss the ground, cross themselves, and proceed to the hill; here they ascend, on their bare knees, by a path so steep and rugged that it would be difficult to walk up. Many hold their hands clasped at the back of their necks, and several carry large stones on their heads. Having repeated this ceremony seven times, they go to what is called St. Patrick's Chair, which are two great flat stones fixed upright in the hill; here they cross and bless themselves as they step in between these stones, and, while repeating prayers, an old man, seated for the purpose, tu

and; fires on St. Peter's Day

kindle a bonfire at sunset on Midsummer Day (the twenty-fourth of June); the men or lads collect the fuel and push each other through the smoke and flames. The custom is kept up through the benefaction of a certain Alexander Hogg, a native of the parish, who died about 1790 and left a small sum for the maintenance of a midsummer bonfire on the spot, because as a boy he had herded cattle on the hill. We may conjecture that in doing so he merely provided for the continuance of an old custom which he himself had observed in the same place in his youth.529 At the village of Tarbolton in Ayrshire a bonfire has been annually kindled from time immemorial on the evening of the first Monday after the eleventh of June. A noted cattle-market was formerly held at the fair on the following day. The bonfire is still lit at the gloaming by the lads and lasses of the village on a high mound or hillock just outside of the village. Fuel for it is collected by the lads from door to door. The youth dance round the fire and leap over

; divination on Midsummer Eve in the Azores;

ince the second day of November; that is why in the interval between the second of November and the twenty-third of June nobody will bathe in the sea or in a hot spring. On Midsummer Eve, too, you can always see the devil, if you will go into a garden at midnight. He is invariably found standing near a mustard-plant. His reason for adopting this posture has not been ascertained; perhaps in the chilly air of the upper world he is attracted by the genial warmth of the mustard. Various forms of divination are practised by people in the Azores on Midsummer Eve. Thus a new-laid egg is broken into a glass of water, and the shapes which it assumes foreshadow the fate of the person concerned. Again, seven saucers are placed in a row, filled respectively with water, earth, ashes, keys, a thimble, money, and grass, which things signify travel, death, widowhood, housekeeping, spinsterhood, riches, and farming. A blindfolded person touches one or other of the saucers with a wand and so discovers his or her fate. Again, three broad beans are taken; one is left in its skin, one is half peeled, and the third is peeled outright. The three denote respectively riches, co

on Midsummer Eve in the Abruzzi; the Midsumme

ome by the people; but this custom has mostly fallen into disuse. However, at Celano the practice is still kept up of taking brands and ashes from the bonfires to the houses, although the fires are no longer kindled in front of the churches, but merely in the streets.538 In the Abruzzi water also is supposed to acquire certain marvellous and beneficent properties on St. John's Night. Hence many people bathe or at least wash their faces and hands in the sea or a river at that season, especially at the moment of sunrise. Such a bath is said to be an excellent cure for diseases of the skin. At Castiglione a Casauria the people, after washing in the river or in springs, gird their waists and wreath their brows with sprigs of briony in

mmer fires

reat fires are kindled in the streets, squares, and market places of the towns and villages of the Island, and as fire after fire blazes out of the darkness of that summer night, the effect is singularly striking. These fires are sometimes kept up for hours, being continually fed by the scores of bystanders, who take great delight in throwing amidst the flames some old rickety piece of furniture which they consider as lumber in their houses. Lots of happy and reckless children, and very often men, are seen merrily leaping in succession over and through the crac

eece; the Midsummer fires

y look for what is called "the hairy stone," which possesses the remarkable property not only of keeping moths from clothes but even of multiplying the clothes in the chest where it is laid up, and the more hairs on the stone the more will the clothes multiply in the chest.545 In Calymnos the midsummer fire is supposed to ensure abundance in the coming year as well as deliverance from fleas. The people dance round the fires singing, with stones on their heads, and then jump over the blaze or the glowing embers. When the fire is burning low, they throw the stones into it; and when it is nearly out, they make crosses on their legs and then go straightway and bathe in the sea.546 In Cos the lads and lasses dan

mer fires i

e Eve of St. John it is usual to see bonfires lighted on the hills and even in the streets of the capital La Paz. As the city stands at the bottom of an immense ravine, and the Indians of the neighbourhood take a pride in kindling bonfires on he

mong the Mohammedans o

ple, the Andjra mountaineers of Morocco kindle large fires in open places of their villages on Midsummer Day. Men, women, and children jump over the flames or the glowing embers, believing that by so doing they rid themselves of all misfortune which may be clinging to them; they imagine, also, that such leaps cure the sick and procure offspring for childless couples. Moreover, they burn straw, together with some marjoram and alum, in the fold where the cattle, sheep, and goats are penned for the night; the smoke, in their opinion, will make the animals thrive. On Midsummer Day the Arabs of the Mnasara tribe make fires outside their tents, near their animals, on their fields, and in their gardens. Large quantities of penny-royal are burned in these fires, and over some of them the people leap thrice to and fro. Sometimes small fires are also kindled inside the tents. They say that the smoke confers blessings on everything with which it comes into contact. At Salee, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, persons who suffer from diseased eyes rub them with the ashes of the midsummer fire; and in Casablanca and Azemmur the people hold their faces over the fire, because the smoke is thought to be good for the eyes. The Arab tribe Ulad Bu Aziz, in the Dukkala province of Morocco, kindle midsummer

dsummer fires; the Midsummer festival in North Africa comprises rites concerned with water as

dsummer Eve the Berber tribe of the Beni Mgild burn three sheaves of unthreshed wheat or barley, "one for the children, one for the crops, and one for the animals." On the same occasion they burn the tent of a widow who has never given birth to a child; by so doing they think to rid the village of ill luck. It is said that at midsummer the Zemmur burn a tent, which belongs to somebody who was k

r; and in many towns of the interior, such as Fez, Mequinez, and especially Merrakech, people throw water over each other on this day; and where water is scarce, earth is used instead, according to the Mohammedan principle which permits ablutions to be performed with earth or sand when water cannot be spared for the purpose.555 People of the Andjra district in Morocco not only bathe themselves in the sea or in rivers at midsummer, they also bathe their animals, their

ear in Morocco; the rites of fire and water at Midsummer and New Year in Morocco seem to be identical in character; the duplicat

s. New Year's Day, on which the rites are celebrated, is called Ashur; it is the tenth day of Moharram, the first month of the Mohammedan calendar. On that day bonfires are kindled in Tunis and also at Merrakech and among some tribes of the neighbourhood.558 At Demnat, in the Great Atlas mountains, people kindle a large bonfire on New Year's Eve and leap to and fro over the flames, uttering words which imply that by these leaps they think to purify themselves from all kinds of evil. At Aglu, in the province of Sus, the fire is lighted at three different points by an unmarried girl, and when it has died down the young men leap over the glowing embers, saying, "We shook on you, O Lady Ashur, fleas, and lice, and the illnesses of the heart, as also those of the bones; we shall pass through you again next year and the following years with safety and health." Both at Aglu and Glawi, in the Great Atlas, smaller fires are also kindled, over which the animals are driven. At Demnat girls who wish to marry wash themselves in water which has been boiled over the New Year fire; and in Dukkala people use the ashes of that fire to rub sore eyes with. New Year fires appear to be commonly kind

al in Morocco seems t

ghtly disguised forms, throughout the whole Moslem world; and little calendars of the Julian year circulate in manuscript among Mohammedans, permitting them to combine the practical advantages of pagan science with a nominal adherence to orthodox absurdity.560 Thus the heathen origin of the midsummer festival is too palpable to escape the attention of good Mohammedans, who accordingly frown upon the midsummer bonfires as pagan superstitions, precisely as similar observances in Europe have often been denounced by orthodox Christianity. Indeed, many religious people in Morocco entirely disapprove of the whole of the midsummer ceremonies, maintaining that they are all bad; and a conscientious schoolmaster will even refuse his pupils a holiday at midsummer, though the boys sometimes offer him a bribe if he will sacrifice his scruples to

e Autum

st of Florus and Laurus on August 18th; "

f their village, beside which on the foregoing evening they dig a hole with two mouths. Each horse has a bridle made of the bark of the linden-tree. The horses go through this hole one after the other, opposite to one of the mouths of which the priest stands with a sprinkler in his hand, with which he sprinkles them. As soon as the horses have passed by their bridles are taken off, and they are made to go between two fires that they kindle, called by the Russians Givoy Agon, that is to say, living fires, of which I shall give an account.

e Virgin on the eighth of Se

of ground by the wayside. Very pretty it looked, with the flames blowing about in the twilight; but what took my attention was the listlessness of the boys and their lack of interest in the proceeding. A single lad, the youngest, would be raking the fire together and keeping it alight, but the rest stood lounging about and looking in every other direction, with the air of discharging mechanically a traditional office from which all zest had evaporated." "The pious orgy at Naples on September the eighth went through the following phases when I witnessed it in 1897. It began at eight in the evening with an illumination of the fa?ade of

e coincidence of the Midsummer festival with the summer solstice implies that t

often the Church has skilfully decanted the new wine of Christianity into the old bottles of heathendom, we may be allowed to conjecture that the ecclesiastical authorities adroitly timed the Nativity of the Virgin so as to coincide with an old pagan festival of tha

Hallowe

e solstices, but by the beginning of summer (the first of

l with the summer solstice can hardly be accidental. Rather we must suppose that our pagan ancestors purposely timed the ceremony of fire on earth to coincide with the arrival of the sun at the highest point of his course in the sky. If that was s

agricultural but pastoral, being determined by the times

al year, the sowing in spring and the reaping in autumn. For when May Day comes, the seed has long been committed to the earth; and when November opens, the harvest has long been reaped and garnered, the fields lie bare, the fruit-trees are stripped, and even the yellow leaves are fast fluttering to the ground. Yet the first of May and the first of November mark turning-points of the year in Europe; the one ushers in the genial heat and the rich vegetation of summer, the other heralds, if it does not share, the cold and barrenness of winter. Now these particular points of the year, as has been well pointed out by a learned and ingenious writer,566 while they are of comparatively little moment to the European husbandman, do deeply concern the European herdsman; for it is on the approach of summer that he drives his cattle out into the open to crop the fresh grass, and it is on the approach of winter that he leads them back to the safety and shelter of the stall. Accordingly it seems not improbable that the Ce

ic festivals, Belta

lebration and in the superstitions associated with them, and alike, by the antique character impressed upon both, betray a remote and purely pagan origin. The festival of May Day or Beltane, as

the Celtic year; the many forms of divination resorted to at Hallowe'en are appr

and, as we saw, a new fire used to be kindled every year on Hallowe'en or the Eve of Samhain, and from this sacred flame all the fires in Ireland were rekindled.572 Such a custom points strongly to Samhain or All Saints' Day (the first of November) as New Year's Day; since the annual kindling of a new fire takes place most naturally at the beginning of the year, in order that the blessed influence of the fresh fire may last throughout the whole period of twelve months. Another confirmation of the view that the Celts dated their year from the first of November is furnished by the manifold modes of divination which, as we shall see presently, were commonly resorted to by Celtic peoples on Hallowe'en for the purpose of ascertaining their destiny, especially their fortune in the coming year; for when could these devices for prying into the future be more reasonably put in practice than at the beginning of the year? As a season of omens and auguries Hallowe'en seems to have far surpassed Beltane in the imagination of the Celts; from which we may with some probability infer that they reckoned their year from Hal

goblins let loos

peed on their errands of mischief, some sweeping through the air on besoms, others galloping along the roads on tabby-cats, which for that evening are turne

will come,

divination] wil

ll be at f

in eve

d, children,

the fairies

dangerous to see even them at their revels on Hallowe'en. A melancholy case of this sort is reported from the Ferintosh district of the Highlands, though others say that it happened at the Slope of Big Stones in Harris. Two young men were coming home after nightfall on Hallowe'en, each with a jar of whisky on his back, when they saw, as they thought, a house all lit up by the roadside, from which proceeded the sounds of music and dancing. In reality it was not a house at all but a fairy knoll, and it was the fairies who were jigging it about there so merrily. But one of the young men was deceived and stepping into the house joined in the dance, without even stopping to put down the jar of whisky. His companion was wiser; he had a shrewd suspicion that the place was not what it seemed, and on enterin

evels of the fairi

in the sky. There was a little frost in the air, the grass was white and crisp and crackled under foot. Guleesh expected to see the fairies, but they did not come. Hour after hour wore away, and he was just bethinking him of going home to bed, when his ear caught a sound far off coming towards him, and he knew what it was in a moment. The sound grew louder and louder; at first it was like the beating of waves on a stony shore, then it was like the roar of a waterfall, at last it was like a mighty rushing wind in the tops of the trees, then the storm burst upon the rath, and sure enough the fairies were in it. The rout went by so suddenly that Guleesh lost his breath; bu

d to in Celtic coun

or Three Spirit Nights, when the wind, "blowing over the feet of the corpses," bore sighs to the houses of those who were to die within the year. People thought that if on that night they went out to a cross-road and listened to the wind, they would learn all the most important things that would befall them during the next twelve months.584 In Wales, too, not so long ago women used to congregate in the parish churches on the night of Hallowe'en and read their fate from the flame of the candle which each of them held in her hand; also they heard the names or saw the coffins of the parishioners who would d

ccount of the Hallowe'en bonfires; divination from stones at the f

t down, heaps great quantity of combustible matters on it, and makes a great bonfire. A whole tract is thus illuminated at the same time, and makes a fine appearance."588 The custom has been described more fully by a Scotchman of the eighteenth century, John Ramsay of Ochtertyre. On the evening of Hallowe'en "the young people of every hamlet assembled upon some eminence near the houses. There they made a bonfire of ferns or other fuel, cut the same day, which from the feast was called Samh-nag or Savnag, a fire of rest and pleasure. Around it was placed a circle of stones, one for each person of the families to whom they belonged. And when it grew dark the bonfire was kindled, at which a loud shout was set up. Then each person taking a torch of ferns or sticks in his hand, ran round the fire exulting; and sometimes they went into the adjacent fields, where, if there was another company, they visited the bonfire, taunting the others if inferior in any respect to themselves. After the fire was burned out they returned home, where a feast was prepared, and the remainder of the evening was spent in mirth and diversions of various kinds. Next morning they repaired betimes to the bonfire, where the situation of the stones was examined with much attention. If any of them were misplaced, or if the print of a foot could be discerned near any particular stone, it was imagined that the person for whom it was set would not live out the year. Of late years this is less attended to, but

Loch Tay; Hallowe'en

inent places on the hill sides in their neighbourhood. Some of the heaps were as large as a corn-stack or hayrick. After dark on Hallowe'en, these heaps were kindled, and for several hours both sides of Loch Tay were illuminated as far as the eye could see. I was told by old men that at the beginning of this century men as well as boys took part in getting up the bonfires, and that, when the fire was ablaze, all joined hands and danced round the fire, and made a great noise; but that, as these gatherings generally ended i

e witches; processions with torches at

e right foot and then with the left; and each vied with the other who should scatter the most. After that some of them still continued to run through the scattered ashes and to pelt each other with the half-burned peats. At each farm a spot as high as possible, not too near the steading, was chosen for the fire, and the proceedings were much the same as at the village bonfire. The lads of one farm, when their own fire was burned down and the ashes scattered, sometimes went to a neighbouring fire and helped to kick the ashes about.595 Referring to this part of Scotland, a writer at the end of the eighteenth century observes that "the Hallow-even fire, another relict of druidism, was kindled in Buchan. Various magic ceremonies were then celebrated to counteract the influence of witches and demons, and to prognosticate to the young their success or disappointment in the matrimonial lottery. These being devoutly finished, the hallow fire was kindled, and guarded by the male part of the family. Societies were form

nds of Scotland; the stolen kail; sowing hemp seed; t

nmarried, whether a bachelor or a spinster. The stolen kail was taken home and examined, and according to its height, shape, and features would be the height, shape, and features of the future husband or wife. The taste of the custock, that is, the heart of the stem, was an infallible indication of his or her temper; and a clod of earth adhering to the root signified, in proportion to its size, the amount of property which he or she would bring to the common stock. Then the kail-stock or runt, as it was called in Ayrshire, was placed over the lintel of the door; and the baptismal name of the young man or woman who first entered the door after the kail was in position would be the baptismal name of the husband or wife.599 Again, young women sowed hemp seed over nine ridges of ploughed land, saying, "I sow hemp seed, and he who is to be my husband, let him come and harrow it." On looking back over her left shoulder the girl would see the figure of her future mate behind her in the darkness. In the north-east of Scotland lint seed was used instead of hemp seed and answered the purpose quite as well.600 Again, a mode of ascertaining your future husband or wife was this. Take a clue of blue yarn and go to a lime-kiln. Throw the clue into the kiln, but keep one end of the thread in your hand and wind it on to another clue. As you come near the end somebody or something will hold the other end tight in the kiln. Then you call out, "Who holds?" giving the thread at the same time a gentle pull. Some one or something wi

imney piece; the nuts in the fire; the milk and

6 Again, two nuts, representing a lad and a lass whose names were announced to the company, were put side by side in the fire. If they burned quietly together, the pair would be man and wife, and from the length of time they burned and the brightness of the flame the length and happiness of the married life of the two were augured. But if instead of burning together one of the nuts leaped away from the other, then there would be no marriage, and the blame would rest with the person whose nut had thus started away by itself.607 Again, a dish of milk and meal (in Gaelic fuarag, in Lowland Scotch crowdie) or of beat potatoes was made and a ring was hidden in it. Spoons were served out to the company, who supped the contents of the dish hastily with them, and the one who got the ring would be the first to be married.608 Again, apples and a silver sixpence were put in a tub of water; the apples naturally floated on the top and the sixpence sank to the bottom. Whoever

ite of egg in water; the

s should be nine, that you should eat the first eight yourself, and only throw the ninth over your left shoulder for your husband; also that at each slice you should say, "In the name of the Father and the Son."611 Again, take an egg, prick it with a pin, and let the white drop into a wine-glass nearly full of water. Take some of this in your mouth and go out for a walk. The first name you hear called out aloud will be that of your future husband or wife. An old woman told a lady that she had tried this mode of divination in her youth, that the name o

awn from stones thrown into the fire

ll running off at the conclusion to escape from the black short-tailed sow; then supping upon parsnips, nuts, and apples; catching up an apple suspended by a string with the mouth alone, and the same by an apple in a tub of water: each throwing a nut into the fire; and those that burn bright, betoken prosperity to the owners through the following year, but those that burn black and crackle, denote misfortune. On the following morning the stones are searched for in the fire, and if any be missing, they betide ill to those who threw them in."615 According to Sir John Rhys, the habit of celebrating Hallowe'en by lighting bonfires on the hills is perhaps not yet extinct in Wales, and men still living can remember how the people who assisted at the bonfires would wait till the last spark was out and then would suddenly take to their heels, shouting at the top of t

ve and marriage at H

ball in her hand, would wind the yarn back, repeating a rhyme in Welsh. This she did thrice, and as she wound the yarn she would see her future husband climbing up the little ladder. Again, three bowls or basins were placed on a table. One of them contained clean water, one dirty water, and one was empty. The girls of the household, and sometimes the boys too, then eagerly tried their fortunes. They were blindfolded, led up to th

at Hallowe'e

last are sent from house to house in the vicinity, and are lighted up on the (Saman) next day, before which they pray, or are supposed to pray, for the departed souls of the donor. Every house abounds in the best viands they can afford: apples and nuts are devoured in abundance: the nut-shells are burnt, and from the ashes many strange things are foretold: cabbages are torn up by the root: hemp seed is sown by the maidens, and they believe, that if they look back, they will see the apparition of the man intended for their future spouse: they hang a smock before the fire, on the close of the feast, and sit up all night, concealed in a corner of the room, convinced that his apparition will come down

divination at Hallow-e'en in County Leitrim;

ound a branch of a briar-thorn which had bent over and grown into the ground so as to form a loop, she would creep through the loop thrice late in the evening in the devil's name, then cut the briar and put it under her pillow, all without speaking a word. Then she would lay her head on the pillow and dream of the man she was to marry. Boys, also, would dream in like manner of love and marriage at Hallowe'en, if only they would gather ten leaves of ivy without speaking, throw away one, and put the other nine under their pillow. Again, divination was practised by means of a cake called barm-breac, in which a nut and a ring were baked. Whoever got the ring would be married first; whoever got the nut would marry a widow or a widower; but if the nut were an empty shell, he or she would remain unwed. Again, a girl would take a clue of worsted, go to a lime kiln in the gloaming, and throw the clew into the kiln in the devil's name, while she held fast the other end of the thread. Then she would rewind the thread and ask, "Who holds my clue?" and the name of her future husband would come up from the depth of the kiln. Another way was to take a rake, go to a rick and walk round it nine times, saying, "I rake this rick in the devil's nam

le of Man; divination at Ha

s, accompanied with all the usual ceremonies designed to prevent the baneful influence of fairies and witches. Bands of

howney ho

nd each guest; the contents of the thimblefuls are emptied out in as many neat little piles on a plate, and left there over night. Next morning the piles are examined, and if any of them has fallen down, he or she whom it represents will die within the year. Again, the women carefully sweep out the ashes from under the fireplace and flatten them down neatly on the open hearth. If they find next morning a footprint turned towards the door, it signifies a death in the family within the year; but if the footprint is turned in the opposite direction, it bodes a marriage. Again, divination by eavesdropping is practised in the Isle of Man in much the same way as in Scotland. You go out wit

es lighted to keep off the witches; divination at Hal

ws her."627 Again, witches in Lancashire used to gather on Hallowe'en at the Malkin Tower, a ruined and desolate farm-house in the forest of Pendle. They assembled for no good purpose; but you could keep the infernal rout at bay by carrying a lighted candle about the fells from eleven to twelve o'clock at night. The witches tried to blow out the candle, and if they succeeded, so much the worse for you; but if the flame burned steadily till the clocks had struck midnight, you were safe. Some people performed the ceremony by deputy; and parties went about from house to house in the evening collecting candles, one for each inmate, and offering their services to late or leet the witches, as the phrase ran. This custo

Midwint

hristmas the continuation of an

g might seem more appropriate than to kindle fires on earth at the two moments when the fire and heat of the great luminary in heaven begin to wane or to wax. In this way the savage philosopher, to whose meditations on the nature of things we owe many ancient customs and ceremonies, might easily imagine that he helped the labouring sun to relight his dying lamp, or at all events to blow up the flame into a brighter blaze. Certain it is that the winter solstice, which the ancients erroneously assigned to the twenty-fifth of December, was celebrate

dwinter counterpart of

log was only the winter counterpart of the Midsummer bonfire, kindled within doors instead of in the open air on account of the cold and inclement weather of the season, was pointed out long ago by our English antiquary John Brand;633 and the view is supported by the many quaint superstitions attaching to the Yule log, superstitions which have no apparent connexion with Christianity but carry their heathen origin plainly stamped u

ermany; the Yule l

oor of the hearth, or into a niche made for the purpose in the wall under the hook on which the kettle hangs. When the fire on the hearth glows, this block of wood glows too, but it is so placed that it is hardly reduced to ashes within a year. When the new foundation is laid, the remains of the old block are carefully taken out, ground to powder, and strewed over the fields during the Twelve Nights. This, so people fancied, promotes the fruitfulness of the year's crops."635 In some parts of the Eifel Mountains, to the west of Coblentz, a log of wood called the Christbrand used to be placed on the hearth on Christmas Eve; and the charred remains of it on Twelfth Night were put in the corn-bin to keep the mice from devouring the corn.636 At Weidenhausen and Girkshausen, in Westphalia, the practice was to withdraw the Yule log (Christbrand) from the fire so soon as it was slightly charred; it was then kept car

he log

good c

omen have

e shee

ead for

vat full

carefully, for they were believed to

e log in

t of the night in singing, in telling stories, especially about ghosts, were-wolves, and so on, and also in drinking gin. At Grammont and in the neighbourhood of that town, where the Yule log is called Kersmismot, it is customary to set fire to the remainder of the gin at the moment when the log is reduced to ashes. Elsewhere a piece of the lo

e log in

bserved. A French writer of the seventeenth century tells us that on Christmas Eve the log was prepared, and when the whole family had assembled

e log r

is the day

good ent

omen bear

-goats brin

ewes dro

e much whea

vat full

wine over it saying, In nomine patris, etc.; after which the log was set on the fire. The char

titions as to

ittle while every day till Twelfth Night, can, if kept under the bed, protect the house for a whole year from fire and thunder; that it can prevent the inmates from having chilblains on their heels in winter; that it can

; virtues ascribed to the charcoal and ashe

nch which happens to be rooted in the ground at both ends. The charcoal heals sheep of a disease called the goumon; and the ashes, carefully wrapt up in white linen, preserve the whole household from accidents. Some people think that they will have as many chickens as there are sparks that fly out of the brands of the log when they shake them; and others place the extinct brands under the bed to drive away vermin. In Vienne, on Christmas Eve, when supper is over, the master of the house has a great log-the Christmas brand-brought in, and then, surrounded by all the spectators gathered in profound silence, he sprinkles salt and water on the log. It is then put on the fire to burn during the three festivals; but they carefully preserve a piece to be kindled every time that it thunders."645 In Berry, a district of Central France, the Yule log was called the cosse de Nau, the last word being an abbreviation of the usual French word for Christmas (No?l). It consisted of an enormo

in Normandy

the cottage. Then at the sound of the bell which proclaimed the sacrament of the mass, or, if the church was too far off to allow the tinkle of the bell to be heard, at the moment when they judged that the priest was elevating the host before the high altar, the patriarch sprinkled the burning log with holy water, blessed it in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and drew it out of the fire. The charred log was then carefully kept till the following Christmas as a precious relic which would guard the house against the levin bolt, evil spirits, sorcerers, and every misfor

log in the

ains of it, placed under the pillow or under the house, preserved the house from storms, and before it was burned the Virgin used to come and sit on it, invisible, swaddling the infant Jesus. At Nouzon, twenty years ago, the trad

hristma

e should

s a New

perhaps, understand why in Perigord people who sat on the Yule log suffered from boils,651 and why in Lorraine young folks used to be warned that if they sat on it they would ha

ges; the Yule log in Fra

in the language of Christians. Their conversation was, indeed, most instructive; for the future, it seems, had no secret worth mentioning for them. Yet few people cared to be caught eavesdropping at the byre; wise folk contented themselves with setting a good store of fodder in the manger, then shut the door, and left the animals to their ruminations. A farmer of Vecoux once hid in a corner of the byre to overhear the edifying talk of the beasts. But it did him little good; for one ox said to another ox, "What shall we do to-morrow?" and the other replied, "We shall carry our master to the churchyard." Sure enough the farmer died that very night and was buried next morning.653 In Franche-Com

nd the Yule can

andle in, on the high table at supper, during the twelve nights of that festival."656 "A tall mould candle, called a Yule candle, is lighted and set on the table; these candles are presented by the chandlers and grocers to their customers. The Yule-log is bought of the carpenters' lads. It would be unlucky to light either of them before the time, or to stir the fire or candle during the supper; the candle must not be snuffed, neither must any one stir from the table till supper is ended. In these suppers it is considered unlucky to have an odd number at table. A fragment of the log is occasionally saved, and put under a bed, to remain till next Christmas: it secures

colnshire; the Yule log in Warwickshire, Shrops

uly cut and the Yule log lit, and I know of some even middle-class houses where the new log must always rest upon and be lighted by the old one, a small portion of which has been carefully stored away to preserve a continuity of light and heat."665 At the village of Wootton Wawen in Warwickshire, down to 1759 at least, the Yule-block, as it was called, was drawn into the house by a horse on Christmas Eve "as a foundation for the fire on Christmas Day, and according to the superstition of those times for the twelve days following, as the said block was not to be entirely reduced to ashes till that time had passed by."666 As late as 1830, or thereabout, the scene of lighting the hearth-fire on Christmas Eve, to continue burning throughout the Christmas season, might have been witnessed in the secluded and beautiful hill-country of West Shropshire, from Chirbury and Worthen to Pulverbatch and Pontesbury. The Christmas brand or brund, as they called it, was a great trunk of seasoned oak, holly, yew, or crab-tree, drawn by horses to the farm-house door and thence rolled by means of rollers and levers to the back of the wide open hearth, where the fire was made up in front of it. The embers were raked up to it every night, and it was carefully tended, that it might not go out during the whole Christmas season. All those days no ligh

the cutting of the oak tr

and greet it with the words, "Happy Badnyi day to you!" Then they cut it down, taking care that it shall fall towards the east at the moment when the sun's orb appears over the rim of the eastern horizon. Should the tree fall towards the west, it would be the worst possible omen for the house and its inmates in the ensuing year; and it is also an evil omen if the tree should be caught and stopped in its fall by another tree

s to Co

ul little maid"; in another she is implored to make the cows yield milk abundantly. The day is spent in busy preparations. The women bake little cakes of a special sort in the shape of lambs, pigs, and chickens; the m

ng in of th

him a handful of wheat, in which the first chip of the oak tree cut in the early morning for the Yule log has been kept all day. Entering the central hall with the Yule log the young man greets all present with the words: "Good evening, and may you have a happy Christmas!" and they all answer in chorus, "May God and the happy and holy Christmas help thee!" In some parts of Servia the chief of the family, holding

ith the straw;

he mother bird. When the floor is well strewn with straw, the father or the eldest member of the family throws a few walnuts in every corner of the hall, pronouncing the words: "In the name of God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen!" A large pot, or a small wooden box, filled with wheat is placed high in the east corner of the hall, and a tall candle of yellow wax is stuck in the middle of

; the drawing

the roast pig is removed from the fire the shot is repeated. Hence for several hours in the early morning of Christmas Day such a popping and banging of firearms goes on that a stranger might think a stubborn skirmish was in progress. Just before the sun rises a girl goes and draws water at the village spring or at the brook. Before she fills her vessels, s

mas visiter

into the corners of the hall as well as upon the people. Then he walks straight to the hearth, takes a shovel and strikes the burning log so that a cloud of sparks flies up the chimney, while he says, "May you have this year so many oxen, so many horses, so many sheep, so many pigs, so many beehives full of honey, so much good luck, prosperity, progress, and happiness!" Having uttered these good wishes, he embraces and kisses his host. Then he turns again to the hearth, and after crossing himself falls on his knees and kisses the projecting part of the Yule log. On rising to his feet he places a coin on the log as his gift. Meanwhile a low wooden chair has been brought in by a woman, and the visiter is led to it to take his seat. But just as he is about to do so, the

vians of Slavonia; the Chri

saying, "Christ is born," and the other answering "He is born indeed." Later in the evening the master of the house pours a glass of wine on the charred end of the log, whereupon one of the younger men takes the burnt piece of wood, carries it to the orchard, and sets it up against one of the fruit-trees. For this service he is rewarded by the master of the house with a piece of money. On Christmas Day, when the family is assembled at table, they expect the arrival of the special Christmas visiter (called polazenik), the only person who is allowed to enter the house that day. When he comes, he goes to the hearth

of Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and Mon

family drinks out of the same beaker. In Dalmatia and other places, for example in Rizano, the Yule logs are decked by young women with red silk, flowers, laurel leaves, ribbons, and even gold wire; and the lights near the doorposts are kindled when the log is brought into the house. Among the Morlaks, as soon as the master of the house crosses the threshold with the Yule log, one of the family must sprinkle corn on him and say, "God bless you," to which he answers, "The same to you." A piece of the log is kept till New Year's Day to kindle a light with or it is carried out to the fields to protect them from hail. It is customary to invite before hand a Christmas visitor (polazaynik) and to admit no one else into the house on that day. He comes early, carrying in his sleeves a quantity of corn which he throws into the house, saying, "Christ is born." One of the househ

log protects against

equently of oak,677 it seems possible that this belief may be a relic of the old Aryan creed which associated the oak-tree with the god of thunder.678 Whether the curative and fertilizing virtues ascribed to the ashes of the Y

ival at Midwinter; the bonfire on Chr

f the celebrants. For some time before Christmas the young men and boys were busy building a foundation for the bonfire on the top of the mountain, where the oldest church of the village used to stand. The foundation consisted of a pyramidal structure composed of stones, turf, and moss. When Christmas Eve came round, a strong pole, with bundles of brushwood tied to it, was erected on the pyramid. The young folk also provided themselves with poles to which old brooms or faggots of shavings were attached. These were to serve as torches. When the evening grew dark and the church bells rang to service, the troop of lads ascended th

Christmas Eve

sion by torchlight, chanting Christmas carols, and the fitful illumination of the woods, the hedges, and the fields as they moved through the darkness, presented a succe

the "Burning of the Clavie" at Burghead on the l

is shouldered by a man, who proceeds to carry it at a run, flaring and dripping melted tar, round the old boundaries of the village; the modern part of the town is not included in the circuit. Close at his heels follows a motley crowd, cheering and shouting. One bearer relieves another as each wearies of his burden. The first to shoulder the Clavie, which is esteemed an honour, is usually a man who has been lately married. Should the bearer stumble or fall, it is deemed a very ill omen for him and for the village. In bygone times it was thought necessary that one man should carry it all round the village; hence the strongest man was chosen for the purpose. Moreover it was customary to carry the burning Clavie round every fishing-boat and vessel in the harbour; but this part of the ceremony was afterwards discontinued. Finally, the blazing tar-barrel is borne to a small hill called the Doorie, which rises near the northern end of the promontory. Here the pole is fixed into a socket in a pillar of freestone, and fresh fuel is heaped upon the flames, which flare up higher and brighter than ever. Formerly the Clavie was allowed to burn here the whole night, but now, after blazing for about half an hour, it is lifted from

ar-barrels on Christmas Ev

o, or blowing loud blasts with their 'louder horns.' The tar barrel simply consists of several-say from four to eight-tubs filled with tar and chips, placed on a platform of wood. It is dragged by means of a chain, to which scores of jubilant youths readily yoke themselves. They have recently been described by the worthy burgh officer of Lerwick as 'fiery chariots, the effect of which is truly grand and terrific.' In a Christmas morning the dark streets of Lerwick are generally lighted up by the bright glare, and its atmosphere blackened by the dense smoke of six or eight tar b

l of fire at the

d bonfires everywhere, and kings and princes tied dry grass to the feet of birds and animals, set fire to the grass, and then let the bird

he Nee

e in seasons of distress a

at irregular intervals in seasons of distress and calamity, above all when their cattle were attacked by epidemic disease. No account of the popular European fire-festivals would be complete without some notice of these remarkable rites, which have all the grea

iddle Ages; the needfi

fatal cattle-plague was raging at Neustadt, near Marburg, a wise man of the name of Joh. K?hler induced the authorities of the town to adopt the following remedy. A new waggon-wheel was taken and twirled round an axle, which had never been used before, until the friction elicited fire. With this fire a bonfire was next kindled between the gates of the town, and all the cattle were driven through the smoke and flames. Moreover, every householder had to rekindle the fire on his hearth by means of a light taken from the bonfire. Strange to say, this salutary measure had no effect whatever in staying the cattle-plague, and seven years later the sapient Joh. K?hler himself was burnt as a witch. The farmers, whose pi

ndling the

till great heat and then fire is generated. The fire so produced is caught in fuel and fed with straw, heath, and underwood till it bursts out into a regular need-fire, which must then be somewhat spread out between walls or fences, and the cattle and horses driven through it twice or thrice with sticks and whips. Others set up two posts, each with a hole in it, and insert a winch, along with old greasy rags, in the holes. Others use a thick rope, collect nine kinds of wood, and keep them in violent motion till fire leaps forth. Perhaps there may be other ways of generating or kindling this fire, but they are all directe

ing the need-fire

riven into the ground about a foot and a half from each other. Each pole has in the side facing the other a socket into which a cross-piece as thick as a man's arm is fitted. The sockets are stuffed with linen, and the cross-piece is rammed in as tight as possible, while the poles are bound together at the top by ropes. A rope is wound about the round, smooth cross-piece, and the free ends of the rope at both sides are gripped by several persons, who pull the cross-piece to and fro with the utmost rapidity, till through the friction the linen in the sockets takes fire. The sparks of the linen are immediately caught in tow or oakum and waved about in a circle until they burst into a bright glow, when straw is applied to it, and the flaming straw used to kindle the brushwood which has been stacked in piles in the hollow way. When this wood has blazed up and the fire has nearly died out again, the people hasten to the herds, which have been waiting in the background, and

dling the need-f

fire, it happens particularly when a farmer has sick pigs. Two posts of dry wood are planted in the earth amid solemn silence before the sun rises, and round these posts hempen ropes are pulled to an

ling the need-fir

se a need-fire would be kindled for the behoof of all the cattle of the town, and warning all the inhabitants against lighting fires in their kitchens that evening. So next morning very early, about two o'clock, nearly the whole population was astir, and having assembled outside one of the gates of the town they helped to drive the timid cattle, not without much ado, through three separate need-fires; after which they dispersed to their homes in the unalterable conviction that they had rescued the cattle from destruction. But to make assurance doubly sure they deemed it advisable to administer the rest of the ashes as a bolus to the animals. However, some people in Mecklenburg used to strew the ashes of the need-fire on fields for the purpose of protecting the crops against vermin. As late as June 1868 a t

dling the need-f

ling the fire. He took two posts of oak wood, bored a hole about three inches deep and broad in each, and set the two poles up facing each other at a distance of about two feet. Then he fitted a roller of oak wood into the two holes of the posts, so that it formed a cross-piece between them. About two o'clock next morning every householder brought a bundle of straw and brushwood and laid it down across the street in a prescribed order. The sturdiest swains who could be found were chosen to make the need-fire. For this purpose a long hempen rope was wound twice round the oaken roller in the oaken posts: the pivots were well smeared with pitch and tar: a bundle of tow and other tinder was laid close at hand, and all was ready. The s

ng the need-fire in

ngry rustics vowed that the parson's pigs should get no benefit of the need-fire. However, as good luck would have it, just as the morning broke, the night-light went out of itself, and the hopes of the people revived. From every house bundles of straw, tow, faggots and so forth were now carried to feed the bonfire. The noise and the cheerful bustle were such that you might have thought they were all hurrying to witness a public execution. Outside the village, between two garden walls, an oaken post had been driven into the ground and a hole bored through it. In the hole a wooden winch, smeared with tar, was inserted and made to revolve with such force and rapidity that fire and smoke in time issued from the socket. The collected fuel was then thrown upon the fire and soon a great blaze shot up. The pigs were now driven into the upper end of the street. As

dling the need-f

aze through which the pigs as usual were driven. In one place, apparently not far from Wolfenbüttel, the needfire is said to have been kindled, contrary to custom, by the smith striking a spark from the cold anvil.700 At Gandersheim down to about the beginning of the nineteenth century the need-fire was lit in the common way by causing a cross-bar to revolve rapidly on its axis between two upright posts. The rope which produced the revolution of the bar had to be new, but it was if possible woven from threads taken from a gallows-rope, with which people had been hanged. While the need-fire was being kindled in this fashion, every other fire in the town had to be put out; search was made through the

g the need-fire in S

e driven to a cross-road, and there a tree, growing at the boundary, is felled by a pair of twin brothers. The wood of the tree and the splinters from the thresholds furnish the fuel of a bonfire, which is kindled by the rubbing of two pieces of wood together. When the bonfire is ablaze, the horns of the cattle are pared and the parings thrown into the flames, after which the animals are driven through the fire. This is believed to guard the herd against the plague.704 The Germans of Western Bohemia resort to similar measures for staying a murrain. You set up a post, bore a hole in it, and insert in the hole a stick, which you have first of all smeared with pitch and wrap

need-fire in

, and, setting one end of the peg against the board on his breast, presses the other end firmly against a second board, the surface of which has been flaked into a nap. A string is tied round the peg, and two other boys pull it to and fro, till through the rapid motion of the point of the peg a hole is burnt in the flaked board, to which tow or dry moss is then applied as a tinder. In this way fire and smoke are elicited, and with their appearance the children fancy that the mist will vanish.707 We may conjecture that this method of dispersing a mist, which is now left to children, wa

in Sweden and Norway; the need-fire

the nets catch fish. Cattle were also driven through the smoke.709 In Sundal, a narrow Norwegian valley, shut in on both sides by precipitous mountains, there lived down to the second half of the nineteenth century an old man who was very superstitious. He set salmon-traps in the river Driva, which traverses the valley, and he caught many fish both in spring and autumn. When his fishing went wrong, he kindled naueld ("need-fire") or gnideild ("rubbed fire," "friction fire") to

among the Sla

and fourteen years of age. They are led into a perfectly dark room, and having stripped themselves naked kindle the fire by rubbing two rollers of lime wood against each other, till the friction produces sparks, which are caught in tinder. The Serbs of Western Macedonia drive two oaken posts into the ground, bore a round hole in the upper end of each, insert a roller of lime wood in the holes, and set it revolving rapidly by means of a cord, which is looped round the roller and

sia and Poland; the n

e animals against the murrain. The fire is produced by rubbing a pole of poplar wood on a plank of poplar or fir wood and catching the sparks in tow. The embers are carried home to be used as remedies in sickness.714 As practised in Slavonia, the custom of the need-fire used to present some interesting features, which are best described in the words of an eyewitness:-"In the year 1833 I came for the first time as a young merchant to Slavonia; it was to Gaj that I went, in the Pozega district. The time was autumn, and it chanced that a cattle-plague was raging in the neighbourhood, which inflicted much loss on the people. The peasants believed that the plague was a woman, an evil spirit (Kutga), who was destroying

d-fire i

a, from the verb stati, "to remain standing"; for the ceremony could not be successfully performed by persons of any other name. One of them carried a copper kettle full of water, the other an old house-lock with the key. Thus equipped they repaired to a spot outside of the village, and there the old dame with the kettle asked the old dame with the lock, "Whither away?" and the other answered her, "I came to shut the village against ill-luck." With that she locked the lock and threw it with the key into the kettle of water. Then they marched thrice round the village, repeating the ceremony of the lock and key at each round. Meantime all the villagers, arrayed in their best clothes, were assembled in an open place. All the fires in the houses had been previously extinguished. Two sturdy yokels now dug a tunnel through a mound beside an oak tree; the tunnel was just high enough to let a man creep through it on all fours. Two fires, lit by the need-fire, were now laid, on

ny, to whom the medicinal effect of crawling through a hole on hands and knees is not at once apparent, I shall merely say that the procedure in question is one of th

-fire in

mber. He can change his shape and weight very easily; for example, when he is sitting by day between the horns of a ram, the animal scarcely feels his weight, but at night he will sometimes throw himself on an ox or a cow so heavily that the animal cannot stir, and lows so pitifully that it would make your heart bleed to hear. People who were born on a Saturday can see these monsters, and they have described them accurately, so that there can be no doubt whatever about their existence. It is, therefore, a matter of great importance to the peasant to protect his flocks and herds against the ravages of such dangerous vampyres. The way in which he does so is this. On a Saturday morning before sunrise the village drummer gives the signal to put out every fire in the village; even smoking is forbidden. Next all the domestic animals, with the exception of fowls, geese, and ducks, are driven out into the open. In front of the flocks and herds march two men, whose names during the ceremony may not be mentioned in the village. They go into the wood, pick two dry branches, and having stript themselves of their clothes they rub the two branches together very hard till they catch fire; then with the fire so obtained they kindle two bonfires, one on each side of a cross-road which is known to be frequen

in Bosnia and

roller are all made of lime wood. In Gacko, contrary to the usual custom, the fire is made by striking a piece of iron on an anvil, till sparks are given out, which are caught in tinder. The "living fire" thus produced is employed for purposes of healing. In particular, if any one suffers from wounds or sores, ashes of the need-fire are sp

England; the need-

the miracle, when they all either received an immediate cure or an absolute prevention of the disorder. It is not affirmed that the angel staid to speak to anybody, but only that he left a written direction for the neighbouring people to catch this supernatural fire, and to communicate it from one to another with all possible speed throughout the country; and in case it should be extinguished and utterly lost, that then new fire, of equal virtue, might be obtained, not by any common method, but by rubbing two pieces of wood together till they ignited. Upon what foundation this story stood, is not exactly known, but it put the farmers actually into a hurry of communicating flame and smoke from one house to another with wonderful speed, making it run like wildfire over the country."721 Again, we read that "the father of the writer, who died in 1843, in his seventy-ninth year, had a perfect remembrance of a great number of persons, belonging to the upper and middle classes of his native parish of Bowes, assembling on the banks of the river Greta to work for need-fire. A disease among cattle, called the murrain, then prevailed to a very great extent through that distr

ire in Nort

ighbours, who again forward it to others, and, as great expedition is used, the fires may be seen blazing over a great extent of country in a very short space of time."725 "It is strange," says the antiquary William Henderson, writing about 1866, "to find the custom of lighting 'need-fires' on the occasion of epidemics among cattle still lingering among us, but so it is. The vicar of Stamfordham writes thus respectin

the need-fire in the

nd then eighty-one married men, being thought the necessary number for effecting this design, took two great planks of wood, and nine of them were employed by turns, who by their repeated efforts rubbed one of the planks against the other until the heat thereof produced fire; and from this forced fire each family is supplied with new fir

e island of Mull; sa

buted this failure to the obstinacy of one householder, who would not let his fires be put out for what he considered so wrong a purpose. However, by bribing his servants they contrived to have them extinguished and on that morning raised their fire. They then sacrificed a heifer, cutting in pieces and burning, while yet alive, the diseased part. They then lighted their own hearths from the pile and ended by feasting on the remains. Words of incantation were repeated by an old man from Morven, who came over as master of the ceremonies, and who continued speaking all the time the fire was being raised. This m

-fire in

s set up in the centre of this building, the upper end fixed by a wooden pin to the top of the couple, and the lower end in an oblong trink in the earth or floor; and lastly, another pole was set across horizontally, having both ends tapered, one end of which was supported in a hole in the side of the perpendicular pole, and the other in a similar hole in the couple leg. The horizontal stick was called the auger, having four short arms or levers fixed in its centre, to work it by; the building having been thus finished, as many men as could be collected in the vicinity, (being divested of all kinds of metal in their clothes, etc.), would set to work wit

-fire in

the district and carried off many beasts. So the wise men put their heads together and resolved to light a teine-eigin or need-fire as the best way of stopping the plague. They cut a branch from a tree in a neighbouring wood, stripped it of bark, and carried it to a small island in the Houstry Burn. Every fire in the district having been quenched, new fire was made by the fric

of the need-fire

ess is adopted, notice is privately communicated to all those householders who reside within the nearest of two running streams, to extinguish their lights and fires on some appointed morning. On its being ascertained that this notice has been duly observed, a spinning-wheel, or some other convenient instrument, calculated to produce fire by friction, is set to work with the most furious earnestness by the unfortunate sufferer, and all who wish well to his cause. Relieving each other by turns, they drive on with such persevering diligence, that at length the spindle of the wheel, ignited by excessive friction, emits 'forlor

he need-fire in the Highlands of Sco

ire was still kindled during the first half of the nine

forced fire, fire produced by the f

Teine mor Bheuil, great fire of Beul. The fire of Beul was divided into two fires between which people and cattle rushed australly for purposes of purification. The ordeal was trying, as may be inferred from phrases still current. Is te

ual calamity upon the first day of the quarter, a

dfire in

n La buidhe Bealltain-Yellow Day of Beltane. They fed the fire from cuaile mor conaidh caoin-great bundles of sacred faggots brought to the knoll on Beltane Eve. When the sacred fire became kindled, the people rushed home and brought

fire in No

want and suffering throughout the Isles. The people of North Uist extinguished their own fires and generated a purification fire at Sail Dharaich, Sollas. The fire was produced from an oak log by rapidly boring with an auger. This was accomplished by the exertions of naoi naoinear ciad ginealach mac-the nine nines of first-begotten sons. From the neid-fire produced on the knoll the people of the

re in Reay,

affairs and future plans, they put out the fire on the hearth, not a spark being allowed to live. They then rubbed two pieces of wood one against another so rapidly as to produce fire, the men joining in one after the other, and working with the utmost energy and never allowing the friction to relax. From this friction-fire they rekindled the fire on the hearth, from which all the men present carried away a kindling to their own homes. Whether their

herland, saw the tein-ei

t the year 1829, in Arran about 1820, in H

a precaution aga

this motive is expressly alleged not only in Scotland, but in Wales, the Isle of Man, and many parts of Central Europe.734 It deserves, further, to be noticed that in North Uist the wood used to kindle the need-fire was oak, and that the nine times nine men by whose exertions the flame was elicited were all first-born sons. Apparently the first-born son of a family was thought to be endowed with more magical virtue than his younger brothers. Similarly in the Punja

ire in Aber

is virgin flame fires were kindled in the byres. At the same time, if neighbours requested the favour, live coals were given them to kindle fires for the purification of their homesteads and turning o

fire in Pe

ourhood, as an effectual protection from the attacks of the foul fiend. A few stones were piled together in the barnyard, and woodcoals having been laid thereon, the fuel was ignited by will-fire, that is fire obtained by friction; the neighbours having been called in to witness the solemnity, the cattle were made to pass through the flames, in the

-fire in

ownlands would come to one house, and get two large blocks of wood. One would be set in the ground, and the other one, fitted with two handles, placed on the top of it. The men would then d

c of a time when all fires were

ur savage forefathers lit all their fires in that way. Nothing is so conservative of old customs as religious or magical ritual, which invests these relics of the past with an atmosphere of mysterious virtue and sanctity. To the educated mind it seems obvious that a fire which a man kindles with the sweat of his brow by laboriously rubbing one stick against each other can possess neither more nor less virtue than one which he has struck in a moment by the friction of a lucifer match; but to the ignorant and superstitious this t

nnot kindle if any other fire rem

he burners but one, the flame would no doubt blaze at that one burner with a fierceness such as no single burner could shew when all are burning at the same time. The analogy may help us to understand the process of reasoning which leads the peasantry to insist on the extinction of all common fires when the need-fire is about to be kindled. Perhaps, too, it may partly explain that ceremonial extinction of all old fires on other occasions which is often required by custom as a preliminary to the lighting of a new and sacred fire.740 We have seen that in the Highlands of Scotland all co

ng the Iroquois o

indled. So, after all the fires were out, two suitable logs of slippery elm (Ulmus fulva) were provided for the new fire. One of the logs was from six to eight inches in diameter and from eight to ten feet long; the other was from ten to twelve inches in diameter and about ten feet long. About midway across the larger log a cuneiform notch or cut about six inches deep was made, and in the wedge-shaped notch punk was placed. The other log was drawn rapidly to and fro in the cut by four strong men chosen for the purpose un

of an Animal to s

f in England and Wales; burnt

actually burned alive the finest calf which he had upon his farm; but that, when this sacrifice was made, the murrain would afflict his cattle no more." Accordingly, on a day appointed they met, lighted a large fire, placed the best calf in it, and standing round the blazing pile drove the animal with pitchforks back into the flames whenever it attempted to escape. Thus the victim was burned alive to save the rest of the cattle.745 "There can be no doubt but that a belief prevailed until a very recent period, amongst the small farmers in the districts remote from towns in Cornwall, that a living sacrifice appeased the wrath of God. This sacrifice must be by fire; and I have heard it argued that the Bible gave them warranty for this belief.... While correcting these sheets I am informed of two recent instances of this superstition. One of them was the sacrifice of a calf by a farmer near Portreath, for the purpose of removing a disease which had long followed his horses and his cows. The other was the burning of a living lamb, to save, as the farmer said, 'his flocks from spells which had been cast on 'em.'"746 In a recent account of the fire-festivals of Wales we read that "I have also heard my grandfather and father say that in times gone by the people would throw a calf in the fire when there was any disease among the herds. The same would be done with a sheep if there was anything the matter with a flock. I can remember myself seeing cattle being driven between t

r to break a spell which h

locks from spells which had been cast on them"; and the Scotch farmer who was bidden to burn a pig alive for a similar purpose, but who had the humanity to kill the animal first, believed that this was a remedy for the "evil eye" which had been cast upon his beasts. Again, we read that "a farmer, who possessed broad acres, and who was in many respects a sensible man, was greatly annoyed to find that his cattle became diseased in the spring. Nothing could satisfy him but that they were bewitched, and he was resolved to find out the person who had cast the evil eye on his oxen. According to an anciently-prescribed rule, the farmer took one of his bullocks and bled it to death, catching all the blood on bundles of straw. The bloody straw was then piled into a heap, and set on fire. Burning with a vast quantity of smoke,

of a bewitched animal is su

ated the idea that so diabolical an act could only be combated by diabolical cruelty. And the most diabolical act of cruelty she could imagine was that of baking alive in a hot oven one of the ducks. And that was what she did. The sequence of thought in her mind was that the spell that had been laid on the ducks was that of preternaturally wicked wilfulness; that this spell could only be broken through intensity of suffering, in this case death by burning; that the intensity of suffering would break the spell in the one roasted to death; and that the spell broken in one would be altogether broken, that is, in all the ducks.... Shocking, however, as was this method of exorcising the ducks, there was nothing in it original. Just about a hundred years before, everyone in the town and neighbourhood of Ipswich had heard, and many had believed, that a witch had been burnt to death in her own h

tched animal you bur

ereas if you only partially burn the animal, allowing some parts of it to escape the flames, the witch is only half-baked, and her power for mischief may be hardly, if at all, impaired by the grilling. We can now see that in such matters half-measures are useless. To kill the animal first and burn it afterwards is a weak compromise, dictated no doubt by a well-meant but utterly mistaken kindness; it is like shutting the stable-door when the steed is stolen, for obviously by leaving the animal

tle and sheep as sacrifi

ed in Man. The farmer's explanation to my informant was that the calf was burnt to secure luck for the rest of the herd, some of which were threatening to die. My informant thought there was absolutely nothing the matter with them, except that they had too little to eat. Be that as it may, the one calf was sacrificed as a burnt-offering to secure luck for the rest of the cattle. Let me here also quote Mr. Moore's note in his Manx Surnames, p. 184, on the place name Cabbal yn Oural Losht, or the Chapel of the Burnt Sacrifice. 'This name,' he says, 'records a circumstance which took place in the nineteenth century, but which, it is to be hoped, was never customary in the Isle of Man. A farmer, who had lost a number of his sheep and cattle by murrain, burned a calf as a propitiatory offering to the Deity on this spot, where a chapel was afterwards built. Hence the name.' Particulars, I may say, of time, place, and person could be easily added to Mr. Moore's statement, exceptin

ed animal you compel

f the beast, you have simply to burn its carcase in the open air and watch who comes first to the spot or who first passes by; that is the criminal to be charged with the death of the animal, and he cannot help coming there-such is the effect of the fire. A Michael woman, who is now about thirty, related to me how she watched while the carcase of a bewitched colt was burning, how she saw the witch coming, and how she remembers her shrivelled face, with nose and chin in close proximity.

een the witch and th

ar. The original idea may have been that, by virtue of a magic sympathy which binds the two together, whatever harm you do to the animal is felt by the witch as if it were done to herself. That notion

e of a were-wolf and his or her ordinary human shape: by w

riend of his going out to hunt. He begged him to bring him back some of his bag, and his friend said that he would. Well, he had not gone very far before he met a huge wolf. He fired and missed it, and the animal attacked him furiously, but he stood on his guard and with an adroit stroke of his hunting knife he cut off the right fore-paw of the brute, which thereupon fled away and he saw it no more. He returned to his friend, and drawing from his pouch the severed paw of the wolf he found to his horror that it was turned into a woman's hand with a golden ring on one of the fingers. His friend recognized the ring as that of his own wife and went to find her. She was sitting by the fire with her right arm under her apron. As she refused to draw it out, her husband confronted her with the hand and the ring on it. She at once confessed the truth, that it was she in the form of a were-wolf whom the hunter had wounded. Her confession was confirmed by applying the severed hand to the stump of her arm, for the two fitted exactly. The angry husband delivered up his wicked wife to justice; she was tried and burnt as a witch.759 It is said that a were-wolf, scouring the streets of Padua, was caught, and when they cut off his four p

lves in

e tree. Soon after that another tiger, leaner and longer than the other two, appeared on the scene and made a grab at the man's coat. But fortunately the moon was shining, the man saw the paw, and with a stroke of his axe cut off one of its claws. The tigers roared and fled, one after the other, so the man climbed down the tree and went home. When he told his tale in the village, suspicion naturally fell on the said Chu-Tu-shi; next day some

the Toradjas of

es among the Toradjas, and so great is their fear of contracting the deadly taint by infection, that many persons have assured a missionary that they would not spare their own child if they knew him to be a were-wolf.763 Now these people, whose faith in were-wolves is not a mere dying or dead superstition but a living, dreadful conviction, tell stories of were-wolves which conform to the type which we are examining. They say that once upon a time a were-wolf came in human shape under the house of a neighbour, while his real body lay asleep as usual at home, and calling out softly to the man's wife made an assignation with her to meet him in the tobacco-field next day. But the husband was lying awake and he heard it all, but he said nothing to anybody. Next day chanced to be a busy one in the village, for a roof had to be put on a new house and all the men were lending a hand with the work, and among them to be sure was the were-wolf himself, I mean to say his own human self; there he was up on the roof working away as hard as anybody. But the woman went out to the tobacco-field, and behind went unseen her husband, slinking through the underwood. When they were come to the field, he saw the were-wolf make up to his wife, so out he rushed and struck at him with a stick. Quick as thought, the were-wolf turned himself into a leaf, but the man was as nimble, for he caught up the leaf, thrust it into the joint of bamboo, in which he kept his tobacco, and bunged it up tight. Then he walked b

in the Egyp

again. It is very dangerous to shoot at such human hyaenas by night. On the Jebel Bela mountain a soldier once shot at a hyaena and hit it, but it dragged itself off, bleeding, in the darkness and escaped. Next morning he followed up the trail of blood a

olf story i

d for his companion, and saw a sight which froze him with horror. The soldier had stripped off his clothes to the last rag and laid them at the side of the highway. Then he performed a certain ceremony over them, and immediately was changed into a wolf, and ran howling into the forest. When Niceros had recovered himself a little, he went to pick up the clothes, but found that they were turned to stone. More dead than alive, he drew his sword, and, striking at every shadow cast by the tombstones on the moonlit road, he tottered to his friend's house. He entered it like a ghost, to the surprise of the widow, who wondered to see him abroad so late. "If you had only been here a little ago," said s

can temporarily transfor

evealed in his or her true colours. Strictly speaking, the stab should be given on the brow or between the eyes in the case both of a witch and of a were-wolf;769 and it is vain to shoot at a were-wolf unless you have had the bullet blessed in a chapel of St. Hubert or happen to be carrying about you, without knowing it, a four-leaved clover; otherwise the bullet will merely rebound from the were-wolf like water from a duck's back.770 However, in Armenia they say that the were-wolf, who in that country is usually a woman, can be killed neither by shot nor by steel; the only way of delivering the unhappy woman from her bondage is to get hold of her wolf's skin and burn it; for that naturally prevents her from turning into a wolf again. But it is not easy to find the skin, for she is cunning enough to hide

which a witch has transformed hersel

.775 Glanvil tells a story of "an old woman in Cambridge-shire, whose astral spirit, coming into a man's house (as he was sitting alone at the fire) in the shape of an huge cat, and setting her self before the fire, not far from him, he stole a stroke at the back of it with a fire-fork, and seemed to break the back of it, but it scambled from him, and vanisht he knew not how. But such an old woman, a reputed witch, was found dead in her bed that very night, with her back broken, as I have heard some years ago credibly reported."776 In Yorkshire during the latter half of the nineteenth century a parish clergyman was told a circumstantial story of an old witch named Nanny, who was hunted in the form of a hare for several miles over the Westerdale moors and kept well away from the dogs, till a black one joined the pack and succeeded in taking a bit out of one of the hare's legs. That was the end of the chase, and immediately afterwards the sportsmen found old Nanny laid up in bed with a sore leg. On examining the wounded limb they discovered that the hurt was precisely in tha

itches in

wafer in addition to the usual pellets of lead. That did the trick. If puss was not killed outright, she was badly hurt, and limped away uttering shrieks and curses in a human voice. Later it transpired that she was no other than the witch of a neighbouring village who had the power of putting on the shape of any animal she pleased.780 Again, a hun

witches i

s paws. On that the cat bolted. The soldier walked on, but when he came to his sweetheart's house he found her in bed, and when he asked her what was the matter, she gave a very confused reply. Noticing stains of blood on the bed, he drew down the coverlet and saw that the girl was weltering in her gore, for one of her feet was lopped off. "So that's what's the matter with you, you witch!" said he, and turned on his heel and left her, and within three days she was dead.782 Again, a farmer in the neighbourhood of Wiesensteig frequently found in his stable a horse over and above the four horses he actually owned. He did not know what to make

wife and the t

othing to disturb him but the monotonous drone and click of the machinery. But on the stroke of twelve, as he was still reading with the axe lying on the table within reach, the door opened and in came two grey cats mewing, an old one and a young one. They sat down opposite him, but it was easy to see that they did not like his wakefulness and the prayer-book and the axe. Suddenly the old cat reached out a paw and made a grab at the axe, but the young chap was too quick for her and held it fast. Then the young cat tried to do the same for the prayer-book, but the apprentice gripped it tight. Thus balked, the two cats set up such a squalling that the young fellow could hardly say his prayers. Just before one o'clock the younger cat sprang on the table and fetched a blow with her right paw at the candle to put it out. But the apprentice struck

t the reason for burning bewitched animals is eit

hey do not now carry out the principle to its logical conclusion by burning the bewitched animal or person alive; instead they resort to a feeble and, it must be added, perfectly futile subterfuge dictated by a mistaken humanity or a fear of the police. "When anything living is bewitched in a house, for example, children or animals, they burn or boil the nobler inwards of animals, especially the hearts, but also the lungs or the liver. If animals have died, they take the inwards of one of them or of an animal of the same kind slaughtered for the purpose; but if that is not possible they take the inwards of a cock, by preference a black one. The heart, lung, or liver is stuck all over with needles, or marked with a cross cut, or placed on the fire in a tightly closed vessel, strict silence being observed and doors and windows well shut. When the heart boils or is reduced to ashes, the witch must appear

similarly by burning alive a person whose form a witch

f bewitched butter they often appear as cockchafers and can be killed with impunity. Victuals received from witches may be safely consumed if only you first burn a portion of them."788 For example, a young man in Oldenburg was wooing a girl, and she gave him two fine apples as a gift. Not feeling any appetite at the time, he put the apples in his pocket, and when he came home he laid them by in a chest. Two or three days afterwards he remembered the apples and went to the chest to fetch them. But when he would have put his hand on them, what was his horror to find in their stead two fat ugly toads in the chest. He hastened to a wise man and asked him what he should do with the toads. The man told him to boil the toads alive, but while he was doing so he must be su

of a supposed witch

erary, burned his wife Bridget Cleary alive over a slow fire on the kitchen hearth in the presence of and with the active assistance of some neighbours, including the woman's own father and several of her cousins. They thought that she was not Bridget Cleary at all, but a witch, and that when they held her down on the fire she would vanish up the chimney; so they cried, while she was burning, "Away she goes! Away she goes!" Even when she lay quite dead on the kitchen floor (for contrary to the general expectation she did not disappear up the chimney), her husband still believed that the woman lying there was a witch, and that his own dear wife had gone with the

imals are buried alive

om this they were dissuaded by one who "had sene bestiall curet be taking are quik seik ox, and making are deip pitt, and bureing him therin, and be calling the oxin and bestiall over that place." Indeed Issobell Young, the mother of these persons, had herself endeavoured to check the progress of the distemper by taking "ane quik ox with ane catt, and ane grit quantitie of salt," and proceeding "to burie the ox and catt quik with the salt, in ane deip hoill in the grund, as ane sacrifice to the devill, that the rest of the guidis might be fred of the seiknes or diseases."792 Writing towards the end of the eighteenth century, John Ramsay of Ochtertyre tells us that "the violent death even of a brute is in some cases held to be of great avail. There is a disease called the black spauld, which sometimes rages like a pestilence among black cattle, the symptoms of which are a mortification in the legs and a corruption of the mass of blood. Among the other engines of superstition that are directed against this fatal malady, the first cow seized with it is commonly buried alive, and the other cattle are forced to pass backwards and forwards over the pit. At other times the heart is taken out of the beast alive, and then the carcass

buried to save th

ut had its wicken cross over the door; and other charms more powerful than this were in some cases resorted to. I never heard of the use of the needfire in the Marsh, though it was, I believe, used on the wolds not many miles off. But I knew of at least one case in which a calf was killed and solemnly buried feet pointing upwards at the threshold of the cowshed. When our garthman told me of th

te

Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 (Ber

er Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer N

also J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 i. 500 sqq.; Walter E. Kelly, Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore (London, 1863), pp. 46 s

eturn) The Scape

nvocavit from the first word of the mass for the day (O. Frh.

, Calendrier Belge (Brussels, 1861-1862), i. 141-143; E.

Feux du Carême (Mons, 1899), pp. 25. For the loan of this work

urn) é. Hublard, o

itions, coutumes, légendes et contes d

s-Vosges (Paris, 1889), p. 56. The popular name for the b

es fêtes religieuses (Paris, 1867), pp. 101 s

s; but in some places they are called foulères, foualères, failles, or bourdifailles (Ch. Beauquier, op. cit. p. 34). But the Sunday is called the Sunday of the brandons, bures, bordes, or boidès, according to the place. The brandons are the torches which are carried about the streets and the fields; the bonfires, as we have seen, bear another name. A curious custo

nough, while the singular is grann

le dieu Gaulois Grannus," Bulletins et Mémoires de la Sociét

(return) Op. c

iones Latinae Selectae, vol. ii. Pars i. (

John Rhys, Celtic Heathendo

Jadis, les Feux du Carême (Mons, 1899), p. 38, quot

é. Hublard, op. cit. p.

de la Société Royale des Antiquaires de France, i. (Paris, 1817) pp. 236-238; F

, Popular Antiquities of Great Br

es fêtes religieuses (Paris, 1867), pp. 99 sq

provinces de France (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 283 sq. A similar,

turn) A. de Nore,

nnier, Traditions populaires com

alle, Croyances et légendes du centre

is sort observed in various parts of France on the first Sunday in Lent, see Madame Clément, Histoire des Fêtes civiles et religieuses, etc

es (Trèves, 1856-1858), i. 21-25; N. Hocker, in Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde, i.

. Hocker, op. cit. pp. 8

Beitr?ge zur deutschen Mythologie (C

; Bavaria, Landes-und Volkskunde des K?nigreichs Bayern (Munich, 1860-1867), ii. 2, pp. 838 sq.; F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie (Munich, 1848-1855), i. 211, § 232; W. Mannhardt, l.c. One of the popular Germa

is du soleil et le symbolisme de la roue," Revue

hüringen (Vienna, 1878), p. 189; F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mytholog

, Hessiche Volks-Sitten und Geb

Geschichten, Sagen und Legenden (Trier, 1852), pp. 415 sqq. Compare W. Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus, p. 501; and below, pp. 163 sq. Thus it appears

216; E. Hoffmann-Krayer, "Fruchtbarkeitsriten im schweizerischen Volksbrauch," Schweizerisches Archiv für

e des Volkes in Oesterreich (Vienna, 1859), pp. 293 sq.; W.

ieder, Sprüchw?rter und R?thsel des Eifler Volkes (Treves

Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg (Oldenburg, 1867)

n) W. Mannhardt, Der

rn) W. Mannhardt, o

turn) W. Mannhard

hen und Sagen aus W?lschtirol (Innsbruck, 1867),

860-1867), i. 371; A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube,2 (Berlin, 1869), pp. 68 sq., § 81; Ignaz V. Zingerle, Sitten, Br?uche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes,2 (Innsbruck, 1871), p. 149, §§ 1286-1289; W. Kolbe, Hessische Volks-Sitten und Gebr?uche,2 (Marburg, 1888), pp. 44 sqq.; County Folk-lore, Printed Extracts, Leicestershire and Rutland, collected by C.J. Billson (London, 1895), pp. 75 sq.; A. Tiraboschi, "Usi pasquali nel Bergamasco," Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradizione Popolari, i. (1892) pp. 442 sq. The ecclesiastical custom of lighting the Paschal or Easter candle is very fully described by Mr. H.J. Feasey, Ancient English Holy Week

es und Volkskunde des K?nigreichs Ba

amore, Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abr

urn) G. Finamore,

e Greco-Latina negli Usi e nelle Credenze Popolari

te, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutsche

, Schw?nke und Gebr?uche aits Stadt und Stift Hil

en aus dem Lesachthal in Karnten," Zeitschrift für d

Only one perfect copy of Googe's translation is known to exist: it is in the University Library at Cambridge. See Mr. R.C. Hope's introduction to his reprint of this rare work, pp. xv. sq. The words, "Then Clappers ceasse, and belles are set againe at libertée," refer to the custom in Catholic countries of silencing the church bells for two days from noon on Maundy Thursday to noon on Easter Saturday and s

bers, The Book of Days (London

Unico del Sabato Santo (Florence, April, 1906), p. 1 (giving a picture of the car with its pyramid of fire-works). The latter paper was kindly sent to me from Flore

pp. 164 sq.; C. Boyson Taylor, "Easter in Many Lands," Everybody's Magazine, New York, 1903, p. 293. I have to

siliens (Berlin, 1894), pp. 458 sq.; E. Montet, "Religion et Superstition dan

i, Peru, Reiseskizzen aus den Jahren 1

elier, Rio-Hacha et les Indien

p. 137-139; A.W. Kinglake, Eothen, chapter xvi. pp. 158-163 (Temple Classics edition); Father N. Abougit, S.J., "Le feu du Saint-Sépulcre," Les Missions Catholiques, viii. (1876) pp. 518 sq.; Rev. C.T. Wilson, Peasant Life in the Holy Land (London, 1906), pp. 45 sq.; P. Saint-yves, "Le Renouvellement du Feu Sacré," Revue des Traditions Populaires, xxvii. (1912) pp. 449 sqq. The di

S.J., "Le feu du Saint-Sépulcre," Les Miss

are Folk-lore, i. (1890) p. 275. Having been honoured, like other strangers, with a place on the platform,

, "Folk-lore from the Southern Spor

aph of a Theban Judas dangling from a gallows and partially enveloped in smo

. Abbott, Macedonian Folkl

. 285-287; Manuk Abeghian, Der armenische Volksglaube (Leipsic, 1899), pp. 72-74. The ceremony is said to be merely a continuation of an old heathen festival which was held at the beg

olution of Kings, i. 32, ii. 243; Spirits of th

ociety, London, 1869-1871), vol. ii. pp. 155-163. Compare Juan de Velasco, "Histoire du Royaume de Quito," in H. Ternaux-Compans

r D. Jourdanet et R. Simeon (Paris, 1880), bk. ii. chapters 18 and 37, pp. 76, 161; Brasseur de Bourbo

ceremonies in Totemism and Exogamy, iii. 237 sq. Among the Hopi (Moqui) Indians of Walpi, another pueblo village of this region, new fire is ceremonially kindled by friction in November. See Jesse Walter Fewkes, "The Tusayan New Fire Ceremony," Proceedings of the Boston Society o

l at the end of the Iroquois year, which was a lunar year of twelve or thirteen months. He says: "That the close of the lunar series should have been the period of putting

Hall, Life with the Esquim

Land and Hudson Bay," Bulletin of the American Museum o

achtigal, Sahara und S?dan,

Africa, on the Border Line of Mohamedan Civilization

s Missions Catholiques, iii. (1870) p. 270; Charles New, Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa (London, 1873), p. 65; Jerome Becker, La Vie en Afrique (Paris and

h-Eastern Africa, collected by G. McCall Theal, vol. iii. (1899) pp. 130 sq. The name Benametapa (more correctly monomotapa) appears to have been the regular title of the paramount chief, which the Portuguese took to be the name of the country. The people over whom he ruled seem to have been the Bantu tribe o

Johnson, British Central Afric

H.R. Rivers, The Todas (L

Notes on Northern Cachar," Journal of the A

?stlichen Asien, ii. (Leipsic, 1866) pp. 49 sq.;

a Società Asiatica Italiana, i. (1887) pp. 20-23; J.J.M. de Groot, Les Fétes annuellement célébrées à émoui (Amoy) (Paris, 1886), i. 208 sqq. The notion that fire can be worn

ticks whittled near the top into a mass of adherent shavings; they go by the name of kedzurikake ("part-shaved"), and resemble the sacr

Ovid, Fasti, iii. 82; H

turn) Philostiatu

d, Fasti, iii. 143 sq.; Ma

as to relight the sacred fire as well as to preserve it when it was once made, is perhaps explained by a superstition current among French peasants that if a girl can blow up a smouldering candle into a flame she is a virgin, but that if she fails to do so, she is not. See Jules Lecoeur, Esquisses du Bocage Normand (Condé-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887

original Gaelic, and copiously annotated, by John O'Mahony (New York, 1857), p. 300, with t

n, Songs of the Russian People, Seco

ynker, Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in hessischen Gauen,2 (Cassel and G?ttingen, 1860), p. 240; H. Pr?hle, Harzbilder (Leipsic, 1855), p. 63; R. Andree, Braunschweiger Volkskunde (Brunswick, 1896), pp. 240-242; W. Kolbe, Hessische Volks-Sitten und Gebr?uche (Marburg, 1888), pp. 44-47; F.A. Reimann, Deutsche Volksfeste (Weimar, 1839),

thum Oldenburg (Oldenburg, 1867), ii. p. 43 sq., §313; W. Mannhardt, Der B

) L. Strackerjan, op.

(Berlin, 1875-1878), i. 512; W. Mannhardt, Der Baumku

deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde, i. (1853) p. 79; A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, Norddeutsche

kische Sagen und M?rchen (Berlin, 1

n Mythologie (G?ttingen, 1852-1857), i. 74; J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 i. 512. The two latter w

Kuhn, l.c.; W. Mannhardt

es- und Volkskunde des K?nigreichs B

turn) See above,

schen Mythologie (Munich, 1848-1855), i. pp. 211 s

a, Landes- und Volkskunde des

itrag zur deutschen Mythologie (Muni

4, 115. The customs observed at these places and at Althenneberg

aus Schwaben (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii.

ugo Meyer, Badisches Volkslebe

d the Evolution of Kings, ii. 349 sqq.

?ge sur deutschen Mythologie, i. 75 sq.

Lloyd, Peasant Life in Swe

before Good Friday. He was chased from before the church door by the other school children, who pursued him through the streets with shouts and the noise of rattles and clappers till they reached a certain suburb, where they always caught

Graham Dalyell, The Darker Superstitions of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1834), pp. 176 sq.: "The recognition of the pagan divinity Baal, or Bel, the Sun, is discovered through innumerable etymological sources. In the records of Scottish history, down to the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, multiplied prohibitions were issued from the fountains of ecclesiastical ordinances, against kindling Bailfires, of

eft to right. This is the manner in which screw-nails are driven, and is common with many for no reason but its convenience. Old men in the Highlands were very particular about it. The coffin was taken deiseal about the grave, when about to be lowered; boats were turned to sea according to it, and drams are given to the present day to a company. When putting a straw rope on a house or corn-stack, if the assistant went tuaitheal (i.e. against the course of the sun), the old man was ready to come down and thrash him. On coming to a house the visitor should go round it deiseal to secure luck in the object of his visit. After milking a cow the dairy-maid should strike it deiseal with the shackle, saying 'out and home' (mach 'us dachaigh). This secures its safe return. The word is from deas, right-hand, and iul, direction, and of itself contains no allusion to the sun." Compare M. Martin, "Description of the Western Islands of Scotland," in J. Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, iii. 612 sq.: "There was an ancient custom in the island of Lewis, to make a fiery circle about the houses, corn, cattle, etc., belonging to each particular family: a man carried fire in his right hand, and went round, and it was called dessil, from the right hand, which in the ancient language is called dess.... There is another way of the dessil, or carrying fire round about women before they are churched, after child-bearing; and it is used likewise about children until they are christened; both which are performed in the morning and at night. This is only practised now by some of the ancient midwives: I enquired their reason for this custom, which I told them was altogether unlawful; this disobliged them mightily, insomuch that they wou

ister of Callander), in Sir John Sinclair's Statistical

n Scotland," in John Pinkerton's Voyages

as Bisset, in Sir John Sinclair's St

wart, in Sir John Sinclair's Statisti

us and other deities (see The Scapegoat, p. 351). The King of the Bean on Twelfth Night was chosen by means of a cake, which was broken in as many pieces as there were persons present, and the person who received the piece

ii. 136. The part of Scotland to which Shaw's description applies is what he calls the province or country of

or, Notes on the Folk-lore of the North

d then placed in front of the fire resting on a quern. It is not polished with dry meal as is usual in making a cake, but when it is cooked a thin coating of eggs (four in number), mixed with buttermilk, is spread first on one side, then on the other, and it is put before the fire again. An earlier shape, still in use, which tradition associat

lyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stories o

edig Davies, Folklore of West and M

orical and Statistical Account of the Isle o

901), i. 309; id., "The Coligny Calendar," Proceedings of the British Academy, 1909

Man," in The Victoria History of the County of Nottingh

Welsh and Manx (Oxford, 1901), i. 310; id., "Manx Folk-l

Ancient Ireland (London, 1903), i. 290 sq., referring

Bury, The Life of St. Patric

: (return) A

.D., The History of Ireland, translated by

y of Ancient Ireland (London, 1903), i. 291: "The custom of driving cattle through fires against disease on the eve of the 1st of May, and on the eve of the 24th June (St. John's Day), continued in Irel

loyd, Peasant Life in Swede

, "Materialien zur Vorgeschichte und Volkskunde B?hmens," Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in W

Walpurgis Night. He has only to go out to a cross-road, make three crosses on the blemish, and say, "In the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." Thus the blemish, whatever it may be, is left behind him at the cross-road, and when the witches sweep by on their way to the Brocken, they must take it with them, and it sticks to them hence

urn) See The Scape

dence collected in the "Specimen Calendarii Gentilis," appended to the Edda Rhythmic

(appended to the Rationale Divinorum Officiorum of G. [W.] Durandus, Lyons, 1584), p. 556 recto: "Solent porro hoc tempore [the Eve of St. John the Baptist] ex veteri consuetudine mortuorum animalium ossa comburi, quod hujusmodi habet originem. Sunt enim animalia, quae dracones appellamus.... Haec inquam animalia in aere volant, in aquis natant, in terra ambulant. Sed quando in aere ad libidinem concitantur (quod fere fit) saepe ipsum sperma vel in puteos, vel in aquas fluviales ejicunt ex quo lethalis sequitur annus. Adversus haec ergo hujusmodi inventum est remedium, ut videlicet rogus ex ossibus construeretur, et ita fumus hujusmod

asantry of southern Germany. Thus the Swabian peasants think that during an eclipse of the sun poison falls on the earth; hence at such a time they will not sow, mow, gather fruit or eat it, they bring the cattle into the stalls, and refrain from business of every kind. If the eclipse lasts long, the people get very anxious, set a burning candle on the mantel-shelf of the stove, and pray to be delivered from the danger. See Anton Birlinger, Volksthümliches aus Schwaben (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1861-1862), i. 189. Similarly Bavarian peasants imagine that water is poisoned during a solar eclipse (F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie, ii. 297); and Thuringian bumpkins cover up the wells and

atin verse by Thomas Naogeorgus and Englyshed by Barnabe Googe, 1570, edited by

, Mores, leges et ritus omnium g

Antiquaires de France, v. (1823) pp. 379-393. Tessier witnessed the ceremony, 23rd June 1822 (not 1823, as is sometimes stated). His account has been reproduced more or less fully by J. Grimm (Deutsc

yern (Munich, 1860-1867), i. 373 sq.; compare id., iii. 327 sq. As to the

p. cit. ii. 260 sq., iii

(return) Op.

nd beliefs were common in Germany. It is also a German superstition that a house which contains a brand from the m

s, Mores, leges et ritus omnium

echting, Aus dem Lechrain (Munich, 1855), pp.

96 sqq., § 128, pp. 103 sq., § 129; id., Aus Schwaben (Wiesbaden, 1874), ii. 116-120; E. Meier, Deutsche Sa

zur deutschen Mythologie (Munich, 1848-1

Volksthümliches aus Schwaben (Freibur

Mayer, Badisches Volksleben (Str

Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, Jahrgang 1

is du Soleil et le symbolisme de la Roue," Revue

uche in Lothringen," Globus, lix. (1891) pp. 378 sq.; "Die Sommerwen

40 sq. According to one writer, the garlands are composed of St. John's wort (Montanus, Die deutschen Volksfeste, Volksbr?uche

Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, M?rchen

chen Volksfeste, Volksbr?uche und deutsche

hholz, Deutscher Glaube und Bra

Brauch (Berlin, N.D.), p. 124; Paul Drechsler, Sitte, Brauch

J. Grimm, Deutsche My

orway, who in his boyhood regularly collected fuel for the fires. I have to thank Miss Anderson,

Harz mountains. But in Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and probably elsewhere, villages have their own local Blocksberg, which is generally a hill or open place in the neighbourhood; a number of places in Pomerania go by t

oyd, Peasant Life in Sweden

nts" (Offer k?llor) and are "so named because in heathen times the limbs of the slaughtered vi

-Krayer, Feste und Br?uche des Sch

itten, Br?uche und Meinungen des Tiroler Vo

op. cit. p. 159, §§ 1353, 1355, 1356

(return) W.

eitrag zur deutschen Mythologie (Mu

ken, Mythen und Br?uche des Volkes in

ebr?uche aus Bohmen und M?hren (Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 80, § 636; Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Bohmen (Prague, N.D.), pp. 306-311; Br. Jelfnek, "Materialien zur Vorgeschichte

eitr?ge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in M?

olksthümliches aus ?sterreichisch-Sch

, Mythen und Br?uche des Volkes in Oe

God, p. 262. Compare M. Kowalewsk

on, Songs of the Russian People, Se

hologie,4 i. 519; W.R.S. Ralston, Songs of th

urn) W.R.S. Ralsto

(return) W.R.S

.D.H. Temme, Die Volkssagen Ostpreussens, Litt

?ppen, Aberglauben aus Masu

uss, "Altslavische Feuergewinnu

inzen (Dresden and Leipsic, 1841), i. 178-180, ii. 24 sq. Ligho was

eturn) Ovid, Fas

S. Krauss, Sitte und Brauch der Sü

n) J. Grimm, Deutsch

, Volksglaube und religi?ser Brauch der

eutschen Mythologie aus Ungarn," Zeitschrift für deut

em inneren und ?usseren Leben der Ehsten (St. Petersburg, 1876), p. 362. The word which I have translated "w

d H. Neus, Mythische und Magische Lieder

Dorpat, vii. (1872) pp. 62 sq. Wiedemann also observes that the sports in which young couples engage in

Kohl, Die deutsch-russischen

tersburg, 1776), p. 36; August Freiherr von Haxthausen, Studien über die innere Zust?nde das

utumes, Mythes et Traditions des Province

urch celebrates with honours like those which she accords to the nativity of Christ. Compa

u, jouer, faire des festins, chanter des chansons deshonnètes, jeter des herbes par-dessus le feu, en cueillir avant midi ou à jeun, en porter sur soi, les conserver le long de l'année, garder des tisons

ssard, Les Feux de la Saint-Je

asse-Bretagne (Paris, 1893), p. 279. For an explanation of th

oted by Alexandre Bertrand, La Religio

Beitr?ge zur deutschen Mythologie (G?ttingen, 1852-1857), i. p. 217, § 185; A. Breuil, "Du Culte de S

Fêtes Religieuses (Paris, 1867), p. 216; Ch. Cuissar

s de la Haute-Bretagne (Paris, 1886), pp. 192-195. In Up

ditions des Provinces de France (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p

thes et Traditions des Provinces de France, pp.

Esquisses du Bocage Normand (Condé-

); F. Liebrecht (Des Gervasius von Tilbury Otia Imperialia, Hanover, 1856, pp. 209 sq.); and W. Mannhardt (Antike Wald und Feldkulte, Berlin, 1877, pp. 323 sqq.) from the M

euil, in Mémoires de la Société d' Antiqua

quoted by A. Bertrand, La Religion d

rrespondent quoted by A.

. In Perche the midsummer bonfires were called marolles. As to the custom formerly observed at Bullou, n

ditions, Coutumes, Légendes, et Contes de

auvé, Le Folk-lore des Hautes

opulaires comparées (Paris, 1854), pp. 207 sqq.; E.

raud, Réminiscences populaires de

1900), p. 89. The names of the bonfires vary with the place; among them ar

) La Bresse Louhannai

. 78 sqq. The writer adopts the absurd derivation of j?née from Janus. Needless to say that our old frien

mes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces

t, quoted by A. Bertrand, La Religi

du Poitou," Mémoires et dissertations publiés par la Sociét

845) p. 206; E. Cortet, Essai sur les Fêtes Religieuses, p. 216; Laisnel de la Salle, Croyance

s du soleil et le symbolisme de la roue," Revue A

. 499 sq. In Périgord the ashes of the midsummer bonfire are searched for

Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de France

s populaires du département des Deux-Sèvres," Mémoires et Dissertations p

es moeurs d'autrefois en Saintonge et e

soleil et le symbolisme de la roue," Revue

ssard, Les Feux de la Saint-Je

e, Coutumes, Mythes et Tradition

, Voyage dans les Départemens du Midi de

n) Aubin-Louis Milli

d by Breuil, Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie, viii. (1845) p. 190 note. The custom of drenching people on this occasion with water used to prevail in Toulon, as well

ore, op. cit. pp. 20 sq.; E. C

insberg-Düringsfeld, Calendrier Belge

Baron de Reinsberg-Dürings

tc., du Département du Nord (Cambrai, 1836), p. 364; J.W. Wolf, Beitr?ge zur deutsc

r, Folklore Wallon (Brussels, N.

rts and Pastimes of the People of England, Ne

London, edited by Henry Morley (London, N.D.),

don, 1882-1883), i. 338; T.F. Thiselton Dyer, British Popular Customs (Londo

rey, Remaines of Gentilisme and

ltus, p. 512. Compare W. Hutchinson, View of Northumberland, vol. ii. (Newcastle, 1778), Appendix, p. (15), under the head "Midsummer":-"It is usual to raise fires

uoted by William Borlase, Antiquities, Historical and Monum

four (London, 1904), p. 76, quoting E. Mackenzie, An Historical, Topographical, and Des

k-lore, vol. iv. Northumberland,

k-lore, vol. iv. Northumberland,

N.S., vii. 73, and the Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, vi. 242 sq.; County Folk-lore, vol. iv. Northum

. vi. East Riding of Yorkshire, collected an

maines of Gentilisme and Judaisme (Lon

Popular Antiquities of Great Br

Cornwall (London, 1769), pp. 135 sq. The Eve of St. Peter is June 28th. Bonfires have been lit elsewhe

i. 318, 319; T.F. Thiselton Dyer, Britis

of West Cornwall (Penzance, 1870), pp. 8 sq., 55 sq.; James Napier, Folk-lo

t (London, 1862), pp. 66 sq.; Robert Hunt, Popular Romances of

s of Wales (London, 1909), pp. 27 sq. Compare Jonathan Ceredig Da

Popular Antiquities of Great Br

n, Account of the Isle of Man (Dou

f Westmeath, written in 1682, published by (General) Charles Vallan

f Great Britain (London, 1882-1883), i. 303, quoting t

305, quoting the author of the Comical Pilg

. lxv. (London, 1795) pp. 124 sq. The writer dates t

ish Popular Customs (London, 1876), pp. 321 sq.,

n, "Further Notes from County Lei

n, "A Batch of Irish Folk-lore,"

an, "Notes on Irish Folk-lore," F

sonal Recollections, quoted by Rev. Alexander H

nt Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstit

sq., quoting the Hibernian Magazine, July 1817. As to the worship of wells in ancient Irel

, 1791-1799), xxi. 145. Mr. W. Warde Fowler writes that in Scotland "before the bonfires were kindled on midsummer eve, the houses were decorated with foliage

Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century,

in Pennant's "Tour in Scotland," printed in John Pinker

onald, "Midsummer Bonfires," F

in. I visited the scene of the bonfire in 1898, but, as Pausanias says (viii. 41. 6) in similar circumstances, "I did not happen to arrive at the season of the festival." Indeed the snow was falling thick as I trudge

Papatus seu Depravatae Religionis Origo

e, in Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Accoun

Grimm inferred the custom from a passage in a romance (Deutsche Mythologie,4 i. 518). The custom of washing or bathing on the morning of St. John's Day is mentioned by the Spanish historian Diego Duran, Historia de las Indias de Nueva Espa?a, edited by J.F. Ramirez (Mexico, 1867-1880), vol. ii. p. 293. To roll in the dew on t

e Azores," Folk-lore, xiv. (1903) pp. 142 sq.; Theophilo Braga, O Povo Portugu

return) See bel

ubernatis, Mythologie des Plantes

donis, Attis, Osiris, Se

re, Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abru

i, pp. 158-160. We may compare the Proven?al and Spanish customs of

Siciliane (Palermo, 1881), pp. 246, 308 sq.; id., Usi e Costumi, Cr

n) J. Grimm, Deutsch

the Maltese People (Malta, 1894), pp. 56 sqq. The extract was kindly sent to me by Mr. H.W. Underwood (letter dated 14th

. (1891) p. 128. The custom was reported to me when

n) J. Grimm, Deutsch

kis et L. Pineau, Le Folk-lore de

stones cast into the fire omens may perhaps be drawn, as in Scotland, Wales,

e, "Folklore from the Southern Spo

and their Folk-lore, the Christian Women (London, 1890), p.

. von Hahn, Albanesische S

einen, Unter den Natur-V?lkern Zentr

(Paris and Strasbourg, 1839-1843), p. 420; D. Forbes, "On the Aymara Indians of B

people used to hold great festivities on St. John's Night; they kindled everywhere huge fires of straw (the Palilia of the Romans), in which they threw incense and perfumes the whole night long in order to invoke the divine blessing on the fruit-trees." See also Budgett Meakin, The Moors (London, 1902), p. 394: "The Berber festivals are mainly those of Islam, though a few traces of their predecessors are observable. Of th

re, xvi. (1905) pp. 28-30; id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with Agriculture

n Morocco," Folk-lore, xvi. (1905) pp. 30 sq.; id., Ceremon

é, Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique

n Morocco," Folk-lore, xvi. (1905) pp. 31 sq.; id., Ceremon

at even before the time of Mohammed the Arab year was lunar and vague, and that intercalation was only employed in order to fix the pilgrimage month in autumn, which, on account of the mi

d, pp. 496, 509, 532, 543, 569. It is somewhat remarkable that the tenth,

rck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco

Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique d

xvi. (1905) p. 42; id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with Agriculture, Certa

co," Folk-lore, xvi. (1905), pp. 42 sq., 46 sq.; id., Ceremonies a

Abbott, Macedonian Folklore

Spitzbergen," translated from the German of P.L. Le Roy, in John Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels (London, 1808-1814), i. 603. This passage

turn) See The Sca

Chambers, The Mediaeval Stag

As to the bisection of the Celtic year, see the old authority quoted by P.W. Joyce, The Social History of Ancient Ireland (London, 1903), ii. 390: "The whole year was [originally] divided into two parts-Summer from 1st May to 1st November, and Winter from 1st November to 1st May."

(return) See

. 146 sqq.; The Magic Art and th

Religion and Ethics, iii. (Edinburgh, 1910) s.v. "Calendar," p. 80, referring to Kelly, English and Manx Dictionary (Douglas, 1866), s.v. "Blein." Hogmanay is the p

John Rhys, Celtic Folk-lore

: (return) A

l. All Souls' Day is now the second instead of the first of November. But we can hardly doubt that the Saints, who have taken possession of the first of November, wrested it from the Souls of the Dead, the original proprietors. After a

' Eve the spirit of a departed person was to be seen at midnight on every cross-road and on

thrie, Old Scottish Customs (Lo

Freer, "More Folklore from the Hebr

in Rhys, Celtic Heathendom (Lond

A Social History of Ancient Ireland

(Sir) John Rhys, Celt

mpbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Is

s, Social Life in Scotland (Edin

the Fire, a Collection of Irish Gaelic Folk

W. Joyce, Social History

elyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stories

you had to do was to run thrice round the parish church and then peep through the key-hole of the door. See

. Guthrie, Old Scottish Customs

ell, Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highland

rides in 1772," in John Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, iii. (London, 1809) pp

n the Eighteenth Century, edited by Alexander Allardyce (Edinburgh and Lon

ister of Callander, in Sir John Sinclair's Statistical

t, in Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Accoun

. Guthrie, Old Scottish Customs

or Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotla

, "Folk-lore at Balquhidder," The F

, Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-Eas

ish of Monquhitter, in Sir John Sinclair's Statistical

lore, xviii. (1907) p. 85. The writer adds: "In this way the 'faulds' were purged of evil spirits." But it

l, Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands an

oet's note; Rev. Walter Gregor, op. cit. p. 84; Miss E.J. G

ter Gregor, l.c.; Miss E.J. Guthrie, op. cit. p

thrie, op. cit. p. 73; Rev. J.G. Campbell, op. cit. p. 285; A. Goodrich-Fr

.J. Guthrie, op. cit. p. 71; Rev. J.G. Campbell, op. cit. p. 285. According t

uthrie, op. cit. p. 72; Rev. J.G. Campbell, op. cit. p. 286; A. Goodrich

rn) Rev. J.G. Campb

.G. Campbell, op. cit. pp. 28

rn) Rev. J.G. Campb

. 85; Miss E.J. Guthrie, op. cit. p. 70; Rev. J.G. Campbell, op.

rn) Rev. J.G. Campb

in my boyhood at Helensburgh, in Dumbartonshire, another way was to stir the floating apples and then drop a

gor, op. cit. pp. 85 sq.; Miss E.J. Guthrie, op. c

uthrie, op. cit. pp. 69 sq.; Rev. J.G. Campbell, op. cit. p. 285. It is the last o

Guthrie, Old Scottish Customs (Lo

Freer, "More Folklore from the Hebr

quoted by J. Brand, Popular Antiquities of

06), ii. 315; J. Brand, Popular Antiquities, i. 390. The passage quoted in the text occurs in one of Hoare's notes on the Itinerary. The dipping f

nburgh, 1888), pp. 515 sq. As to the Hallowe'en bonfires in Wales compare

(return) See

(return) See

lyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stories o

s Vallancey, Collectanea de Rebus Hiber

oted by A.C. Haddon, "A Batch of Irish Fo

an, "Further Notes from County Leitri

allows Eve and other Festivals in Connaug

nt of the Isle of Man (Douglas, Isle of Man, 1845), ii. 123; (Sir) Jo

Rhys, Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh an

T.T. Wilkinson, Lancashire Folk-lore (

J. Harland and T.T. Wil

ary, 1832), coll. 1276-1279 (letter dated June, 1831); R.T. Hampson, Medii Aevi Kalendarium

d by M.C. Balfour (London, 1904), p. 78. Compare W. Henderson, Notes on t

moires publiées par la Société Royale des

solar origin of Christmas is given in Adonis

see Francis Grose, Provincial Glossary, New Edition (London, 1811), p. 141; Joseph

ithin doors because of the cold weather at this winter solstice, as those in the hot season, at the summer one, are kindled in the open air." (John Brand, Popula

ini ad festivum ignem suum adducendam esse dicebat"

uche und deutscher Volksglaube (Iserlohn, N.D.), p. 12. The Sieg an

und Sagen, Lieder, Sprüchw?rter und R?thsel

gen, Gebr?uche und M?rchen aus Westfalen

rn) A. Kuhn, op. ci

chel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebr?uche a

rayer, Feste und Br?uche des Schweiz

rier Belge (Brussels, 1861-1862), ii. 326 sq. Compare J.W. Wolf,

itions,5 (Paris, 1741), i. 302 sq.; Eugène Cortet, Ess

Thiers, Traité des Superst

les Départemens du Midi de la France (Paris, 1807-1811)

as Day (December 25th), St. Stephen's Day (December 26th), and St. John the Evangelist's Day (December 27th). Compare J.L.M. Noguès, Les Moeurs d'autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis (Saintes, 1891), pp. 45-47. Accordin

lle, Croyances et Légendes du Centre

om as still practised in out-of-the-way villages at the time when he wrote. The usage of preserving the remains of the Yule-log (called

es, Mythes, et Traditions des Provinces d

t, Coutumes populaires de la Haute-

ditions, Coutumes, Légendes et Contes des

(return) See

eltique, iii. (1809) p. 441, quoted by J. Brand, Popular An

uvé, Le Folk-lore des Hautes-V

Beauquier, Les Mois en Franch

s, Mythes, et Traditions des Provinces de

, Popular Antiquities of Great Br

i. 455; The Denham Tracts, edited by Dr. J

errick, Hesperides, "Cer

ring wit

ie merr

as log to t

last ye

he neiv

erses, "Ceremonies f

Christmas br

e-set let

ht, then la

stmas nex

kept, where

tmas log

is safely ke

o mischi

. 91, 124. From these latter verses it seems that the Yule log

pshire Folk-lore (London, 1883), p. 398 note 2. See also below, pp.

, Second Edition (London, 1811), pp. 141 sq.; T.F. Thisel

Northumberland, collected by M.C. Balfour and ed

Riding of Yorkshire, York and the Ainsty, collected and

ast Riding of Yorkshire, collected and edited by Mr

rey, Remaines of Gentilisme and

rs. Gutch and Mabel Peacock (London, 1908), p. 219. Elsewhere in Lincolnshire

ndler (Sarah Whateley), quoted in The

"In 1845 I was at the Vessons farmhouse, near the Eastbridge Coppice (at the northern end of the Stiperstones). The floor was of flags, an unusual thing in this part. Obser

fordshire (Hereford and London, 1912), p. 109. Compare Miss C.S. Bu

velyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stori

Men and women of three generations could be often seen living in that way together, and working together the land which was considered as common property of the whole family. This expanded family, remaining with all its branches together, and, so to say, under the same roof, working together, dividing the fruits of their joint labours together, this family and an agricultural association in one, was called Zadrooga (The Association). This combination of family and agricultural association has morally, economically, socially, and politically rendered very important services to the Servians. The headman or chief (called Stareshina) of such family association is generally the oldest male member of the family. He is the administrator of the common property and d

ijatovich, Servia and the Serv

die Sitten und Gebr?uche der im Kaiserthume Oesterr

h lebenden Südslaven (Vienna, 1873), pp. 129-131. The Yule log (badnyak) is also known in Bulgaria, where

Edith Durham, High Alban

R.F. Kaindl, Die Huzule

ighted candles in the churches, then took them home and kept them, and thought that by lighting them at any time they c

See above, pp. 248, 2

The Magic Art and the Evolu

n) See above, pp. 24

hel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebr?uche aus

, Esquisses du Bocage Normand (Condé

tical Account of the Isle of Man (Douglas, Isle of Man, 18

n, 1883), p. 226; Miss E.J. Guthrie, Old Scottish Customs (London and Glasgow, 1885), pp. 223-225; Ch. Rogers, Social Life in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1884-1886), iii. 244 sq.; The

rn) Caesar, De bell

aries of Scotland, vols. xxv., xxvii. Mr. Young concludes as follows: "It is proved that the fort at Burghead was raised by a people skilled in engineering, who used axes and chisels of iron; who shot balista stones over 20 lbs. in weight; and whose daily food was the bos longifrons. A people

lected by G.F. Black and edited by Northcote W. Thomas (London, 1903), pp. 203 sq. A similar celebration, known as Up-helly-a, takes place at Lerwick on the 29th of January, twe

e, Historia Religionis veterum Pe

; Charles Elton, Origins of English History (London, 1882), pp. 293 sqq.; Ulrich Jahn, Die deutschen Opfergebr?uche bei Ackerbau und Viehzucht (Breslau, 1884), pp. 26 sqq. Grimm would derive the name need-fire (German, niedfyr, nodfyr, nodfeur, nothfeur) from need (German, noth), "necessity," so that the phrase need-fire would mean "a forced fire." This is the sense attached to it in Lindenbrog's glossary on the capitularies, quoted by Grimm, op. cit. i. p. 502: "Eum ergo ignem nodfe

vocant," quoted by J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 i. 502; R.

no i.e. nodfyr." A convenient edition of the Indiculus has been published with a commentary by

auen,2 (Cassel and G?ttingen, 1860), pp. 252 sq., quoting a letter of the may

isskammer (Strasburg, 1614), Fol. pag. 17 and 18, quoted by C.L.

rt and Leipsic, 1696), p. 51, quoted by J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 i

) J. Grimm, Deutsche

eturn) J. Grimm,

rt Kuhn, M?rkische Sagen und

agen, M?rchen und Gebr?uche aus Meckle

orn, M?rchen und Sagen (Hanover, 1854), pp. 2

us dem Harz-gebirge (Leipsic, 1855), pp. 74 sq. The date of this need-fire

ee, Braunschweiger Volkskunde

urn) R. Andree, op

schen Volks-feste, Volksbr?uche und deuts

, Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Sc

olksthümliches aus ?sterreichisch-Sch

tte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutsc

chholz, Deutscher Glaube und B

keitsriten im schweizerischen Volksbrauch," Schweizer

rn) E. Hoffmann-Kra

n) J. Grimm, Deutsch

, 322 sq. This record of Norwegian folk-lore is translated from a little work Sundalen og ?ksendalen

ür Ethnographie, xiii. (1900) pp. 2 sq. We have seen (above, p. 220) that in Russia the need-fire is, or used t

Feuergewinnung," Globus, lix. (1891) p. 318, quo

auss, op. cit. p. 319, quoting

op. cit. p. 318, quoting Oskar Kol

obus, lix. (1891) p. 140. The evidence quoted by Dr. Krauss is

heilige Feuer bei den Balkanslaven," Internatio

urn) See below, vo

lf Strausz, Die Bulgaren (

ungen aus Bosnien und der Hercegovina, redigirt v

bitu claustrales non animo, docebant idiotas patriae ignem confrictione de lignis educere et simulachrum Priapi statuere, et per haec bestiis succurrere" quoted by J.M. Kemble, The Saxons in England (L

don, 1854), pp. 90 sq.; County Folk-lore, vol. ii., North Riding of Yorkshire,

ction of Folklore by Michael Aislabie Denham, edi

Craven Highlands (London, 1895), p. 162. Compare, id., The Crav

Kemble, The Saxons in Englan

), p. 45. Compare J.T. Brockett, Glossary of North Country Words, p. 147, quoted by Mrs. M.C. Balfour, l.c.: "Need-fire ... an ignition produced by the friction of two pieces of dried wood. The vulgar opinion is, that an angel strikes a tree, and that th

1879), pp. 167 sq. Compare County Folklore, vol. iv. Northumberland, collected by M.C. Balfour (London, 1904), p. 45. St

llection of Voyages and Travels, iii. (London, 1809), p. 611. The second edition of Martin's book, which Pinkert

utsche Mythologie,4 i. 506, referri

ing one of a plague-stricken herd or flock for the

ish Language, New Edition, revised by J. Longmuir and D. Donaldson, iii. (

lk-lore, ix. (1898) pp. 280 sq. As to the fire-drill se

ements of the Highlanders of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1823), pp. 214-216; Walter K. Kel

er Carmichael, Carmina Gadelic

n) See above, pp. 15

ir feet first possessed great power to heal all kinds of sprains, lumbago, and rheumatism, either by rubbing the affected part, or by trampling on it. The chief virtue lay in the feet. Those w

e new farm, as one of their valuable effects. It is handed down from one generation to another" (J. Jamieson, Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, revised by J. Longmuir and D. Donaldson, iii. 575, s.v. "Quarter-ill"). See further Rev. W. Gregor, op. cit. pp. 186 sq.: "The forelegs of one of the animals that had died were cut off a little above the knee, and hung over the fire-place in the kitchen. It was thought sufficient by some if they were placed over the door of the byre, in the 'crap o' the wa'.' Sometimes the heart and part of the liver and lungs were cut out, and hung over the fireplace instead of the fore-feet. Boiling them was at times substituted for hanging them over the hearth." Compare W. Henderson, Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders (London, 1879), p. 167: "A curious aid to the rearing of

ne, 1826, quoted by J. M. Kemble, The Saxo

ry Beliefs and other Folklore Notes from Coun

he Early History of Mankind, Third Edition (London, 1878), pp.

e, pp. 124 sq., 132-139. The reasons for extinguishing fires ceremonially appear to vary with the occasion. Sometimes the motive seems to be a fear of burning or at least singeing a ghost, who is

54. The same custom appears to have been

"New Fire among the Iroquois," The Ame

n) J. Grimm, Deutsch

(return) See

k (London, preface dated 1827), i. coll. 853 sq. (

Borders (London, 1879), p. 149. Compare J.G. Dalyell, The Darker Superstitions of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1834), p. 184: "Here also maybe found a solution of that recent expedient so igno

velyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stori

rn) W. Henderson, o

or, Notes on the Folk-lore of the North

dshire think that if you wear a toad's heart concealed about your person you can steal to your heart's content without being found out. A suspected thief was overheard boa

: (return) A

England, Third Edition (London, 1881), p. 320. The writer does not s

or, Notes on the Folk-lore of the North

and edited by the Lady Eveline Camilla Gurdon (London, 1893), pp. 190 sq., quoting So

Extracts, No. 2, Suffolk, p. 191, referring to Mu

p being burnt on old May-day; but he doubts whether it was done as a sacrifice. He adds: "I have failed to find anybody else in Andreas or Bride, or indeed in the whole island, who will now confess to having ever heard of the sheep sacrifice on old May-day." Howe

299 sq.; id., Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx (Oxford, 1901), i. 304 sq. We have seen that by burning

a de Gentium Septentrionalium Conditionibus,

, Dictionnaire Infernal (Paris, 1825-18

rn) Collin de Planc

che Mythologie,4 i. 915 sqq.; (Sir) Edward B. Tylor, Primitive Culture,2 (London, 1873), i. 308 sqq.; R. Andree, Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche (Stuttgart, 1878), pp. 62-80. In North Germany it is believed that a man can turn himself into a wolf by girding himself with a strap made out of a wolf's hide. Some say that the strap must have nine, others say twelve, holes and a buckle; and that according to the number of the hole through which the man inserts the tongue of the buckle will be the length of time of his transformation. For example, if he puts the tongue of the buckle through the first hole, he will be a wolf for one hour; if he puts it through the second, he will be a wolf for two days; and so on, up to the last hole, whi

Groot, The Religious System of

Toradja's van Midden-Celebes," Tijdschrift voor Indische

urn) A.C. Kruijt,

olkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indi?, xlix. (1898) pp. 549-585; G.P. Rouffaer, "Matjan Gadoengan," Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indi? 1. (1899) pp. 67-75; J. Knebel, "De Weertijger op Midden-Java, den Javaan naverteld," Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, xli. (1899) p

Reisen im Gebiete des blauen und wei

forms himself. It is to be regretted that we have no such general term in English. The bright moonlight which figures in some of these were-wolf stories is perhaps not a mere embellishment of the tale but has its own significance; for in some places it is believed that the transfo

s, foxes, pigs, owls, magpies, wild geese, ducks, serpents, toads, lizards, flies, wasps, and butterflies. See A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube,2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 150 § 217; L. Strackerjan, Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg (Oldenburg, 1867), i. 327 § 220; Ulrich Jahn, Hexenwesen und Zauberei in Pommern (Breslau, 1886), p. 7. In his Topography of Ireland (chap. 19), a work completed in 1187 A.D., G

cotland the cut was known as "scoring above the breath." It consisted of two incisions made crosswise on the witch's forehead, and was "confided in all throughout Scotland as the most powerful counter-charm." See Sir Walter Sco

, l.c.; L.F. Sauvé, Le Folk-lore des

-skin is supposed to fall down from heaven and to return to heaven after seven years, if the wer

tsche Volksaberglaube,2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 150 § 217. Some think that the sixpence should be crooked. See Rev. W. Gregor, Notes on the Folk-lore of the Nort

turn) J.G. Campbe

turn) J.G. Campbe

Edward B. Tylor, Primitive Cu

iumphatus or Full and Plain Evidence concerning Witc

tkinson, Forty Years in a Moorland

. v. Lincolnshire, collected by Mrs. Gutch a

n, "Folk-lore Gleanings from County Le

auvé, Le Folk-lore des Hautes

urn) L.F. Sauvé, o

he Sagen, Sitten und Gebr?uche aus Schwabe

y of the shoeing of a woman in the shape of a horse is reported from Silesia.

Sagen (Berlin, 1910-1913), iii. pp. 23 sq., No

ch things is said to be universal among the ignorant and superstitious in Germany. See A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube,2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 150, § 217. In Wales, also, "the possibility of injuring or marking the witch in her assumed shape so deeply that the bruise remained a mark on her in her natural form was a co

erglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Old

elyan, Folk-lore and Folk-stories

erglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Old

L. Strackerjan, op. c

printed is based on the reports of the judicial proceedings before the magistrates and the judge, which were

4), p. 185. In this passage "quick" is used in the old sense of "living," as in the phrase "the

p. cit. p. 186. Bestiall=animals; seik

y, edited by Alexander Allardyce (Edinburgh and London, 1888), ii. 446 sq. As to the custom of cu

s in the North-West Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1862), p. 12 (r

k, vol. iii. Part i. Jan. 1902. The wicken-tree is the mountain-ash or rowan free, which is a very efficient, or at all events a very popular protective against witchcraft. See County Folk-lore, vol. v. Lincolnshire, pp. 26 sq., 98 sq.; Mabel Peacock, "The Folklore of Lincolnshire