Note 725 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
Footnote 725
:
(return)
E. Mackenzie, An Historical, Topographical and Descriptive View of the County of Northumberland, Second Edition (Newcastle, 1825), i. 218, quoted in County Folk-lore, vol. iv. Northumberland, collected by M.C. Balfour (London, 1904), 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 the fire is thereby obtained. Need-fire, I am told, is still employed in the case of cattle infected with the murrain. They were formerly driven through the smoke of a fire made of straw, etc." The first edition of Brockett's Glossary was published in 1825.