Volume 1 — CHAPTER IV

THE FIRE-FESTIVALS OF EUROPE

§ 1. The Lenten Fires

[European custom of kindling bonfires on certain days of the year, dancing round them and leaping over them. Effigies are sometimes burnt in the fires.]

[Seasons of the year at which the bonfires are lit.]

[Custom of kindling bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent in the Belgian Ardennes.]

[Bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in the French department of the Ardennes.]

[Bonfires on the First Sunday of Lent in Franche-Comté.]

[Bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in Auvergne; the Granno invoked at these bonfires may be the old Celtic god Grannus, who was identified with Apollo.]

that is, "Grannus my friend, Grannus my father, Grannus my mother." Then they pass the burning torches under the branches of every tree, singing,

[French custom of carrying lighted torches (brandons) about the orchards and fields to fertilize them on the first Sunday of Lent.]

[Bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent in Germany and Austria; burning the witch; burning discs thrown into the air; burning wheels rolled down hill; bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent in Switzerland.]

[Burning discs thrown into the air.]

[Connexion of these bonfires with the custom of "carrying out Death;" effigies burnt on Shrove Tuesday.]

§ 2. The Easter Fires

[Fire-festivals on Easter Eve. Custom in Catholic countries of kindling a holy new fire at the church on Easter Saturday; marvellous properties ascribed to the embers of the fire; the burning of Judas.]

[Easter fires in Bavaria and the Abruzzi.]

[Water as well as fire consecrated in the Abruzzi on Easter Saturday; water consecrated in Calabria on Easter Saturday; water and fire consecrated on Easter Saturday among the Germans of Bohemia; Easter rites of fire and water at Hildesheim.]

[New fire at Easter in Carinthia; consecration of fire and water by the Catholic Church at Easter.]

"On Easter Eve the fire all is quencht in every place,

And fresh againe from out the flint is fetcht with solemne grace:

The priest doth halow this against great daungers many one,

A brande whereof doth every man with greedie mind take home,

That when the fearefull storme appeares, or tempest black arise,

By lighting this he safe may be from stroke of hurtful skies:

A taper great, the Paschall namde, with musicke then they blesse,

And franckensence herein they pricke, for greater holynesse:

This burneth night and day as signe of Christ that conquerde hell,

As if so be this foolish toye suffiseth this to tell.

Then doth the Bishop or the Priest, the water halow straight,

That for their baptisme is reservde: for now no more of waight

Is that they usde the yeare before, nor can they any more,

Yong children christen with the same, as they have done before.

With wondrous pompe and furniture, amid the Church they go,

With candles, crosses, banners, Chrisme, and oyle appoynted tho:

Nine times about the font they marche, and on the saintes doe call,

Then still at length they stande, and straight the Priest begins withall,

And thrise the water doth he touche, and crosses thereon make,

Here bigge and barbrous wordes he speakes, to make the devill quake:

And holsome waters conjureth, and foolishly doth dresse,

Supposing holyar that to make, which God before did blesse:

And after this his candle than, he thrusteth in the floode,

And thrise he breathes thereon with breath, that stinkes of former foode:

And making here an ende, his Chrisme he poureth thereupon,

The people staring hereat stande, amazed every one;

Beleeving that great powre is given to this water here,

By gaping of these learned men, and such like trifling gere.

Therefore in vessels brought they draw, and home they carie some,

Against the grieves that to themselves, or to their beastes may come.

Then Clappers ceasse, and belles are set againe at libertée,

[The new fire on Easter Saturday at Florence.]

[The new fire and burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in Mexico.]

[The burning of Judas at Easter in South America.]

[The new fire on Easter Saturday in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.]

[The new fire and the burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in Greece.]

[The new fire at Candlemas in Armenia.]

[The new fire and the burning of Judas at Easter are probably relics of paganism.]

[The new fire at the summer solstice among the Incas of Peru; the new fire among the Indians of Mexico and New Mexico; the new fire among the Esquimaux.]

[The new fire in Wadai, among the Swahili, and in other parts of Africa.]

[The new fire among the Todas of Southern India and among the Nagas of North-Eastern India.]

[The new fire in China and Japan.]

In China every year, about the beginning of April, certain officials, called Sz'hüen, used of old to go about the country armed with wooden clappers. Their business was to summon the people and command them to put out every fire. This was the beginning of a season called Han-shih-tsieh, or "eating cold food." For three days all household fires remained extinct as a preparation 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 called by the Chinese heavenly fire, and its use is enjoined in sacrifices; whereas fire elicited by the friction of wood is termed by them earthly fire, and its use is prescribed for cooking and other domestic purposes. When once the new fire had thus been drawn from the sun, all the people were free to rekindle their domestic hearths; and, as a Chinese distich has it—

[The new fire in ancient Greece and Rome.]

[The new fire at Hallow E'en among the old Celts of Ireland; the new fire on September 1st among the Russian peasants.]

[Thus the ceremony of the new fire in the Eastern and Western Church is probably a relic of an old heathen rite.]

Instances of such practices might doubtless be multiplied, but the foregoing examples may suffice to render it probable that the ecclesiastical ceremony of lighting a sacred new fire on Easter Saturday had originally nothing to do with Christianity, but is merely one case of a world-wide custom which the Church has seen fit to incorporate 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 spring, perhaps at the vernal equinox, was common to many peoples of the Mediterranean area. We may conjecture that wherever such a ceremony has been observed, it originally marked the beginning of a new year, as it did in ancient Rome and Ireland, and as it still does in the Sudanese kingdom of Wadai and among the Swahili of Eastern Africa.

[The pagan character of the Easter fire appears from the superstitions associated with it, such as the belief that the fire fertilizes the fields and protects houses from conflagration and sickness.]

[The Easter fires in Münsterland, Oldenburg, the Harz Mountains and the Altmark.]

[The Easter fires in Bavaria; the burning of Judas; burning the Easter Man.]

[The Easter fires in Baden; "Thunder poles."]

[Easter fires in Holland and Sweden; the burning of Judas in Bohemia.]

§ 3. The Beltane Fires

[The Beltane fires on the first of May in the Highlands of Scotland; description of the Beltane fires by John Ramsay of Ochtertyre in the eighteenth century.]

In the central Highlands of Scotland bonfires, known as the Beltane fires, were formerly kindled with great ceremony on the first of May, and the traces of human sacrifices at them were particularly clear and unequivocal. The custom of lighting the bonfires lasted in various places far into the eighteenth century, and the descriptions of the ceremony by writers of that period present such a curious and interesting picture of ancient heathendom surviving in our own country that I will reproduce them in the 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 the Druidical festivals is that of Beltane, or May-day, which was lately observed in some parts of the Highlands with extraordinary ceremonies. Of later years it is chiefly attended to by young people, persons advanced in years considering it as inconsistent with their gravity to give it any countenance. Yet a number of circumstances relative to it may be collected from tradition, or the conversation of very old people, who witnessed this feast in their youth, when the ancient rites were better observed.

[Need-fire.]

"This festival is called in Gaelic Beal-tene—i.e., the fire of Bel.... Like the other public worship of the Druids, the Beltane feast seems to have been performed on hills or eminences. They thought it degrading to him whose temple is the universe, to suppose that he would dwell in any house made with hands. Their sacrifices were therefore offered in the open air, frequently upon the tops of hills, where they were presented with 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 trench, on the summit of which a seat of turf was formed for the company. And in the middle a pile of wood or other fuel was placed, which of old they kindled with tein-eigin—i.e., forced-fire or need-fire. Although, for many years past, they have been contented with common fire, yet we shall now describe the process, because it will hereafter appear that recourse is still had to the tein-eigin upon extraordinary emergencies.

[Need-fire kindled by the friction of oak wood.]

"The night before, all the fires in the country were carefully extinguished, and next morning the materials for exciting this sacred fire were prepared. The most primitive method seems to be that which was used in the islands of Skye, Mull, and Tiree. A well-seasoned plank of oak was procured, in the midst of which a hole was bored. A wimble of the same timber was then applied, the end of which they fitted to the hole. But in some parts of the mainland the machinery 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 emitted by means of the violent friction, they applied a species of agaric which grows on old birch-trees, and is very combustible. This fire had the appearance of being immediately derived from heaven, and manifold were the virtues ascribed to it. They esteemed it a preservative against witchcraft, and a sovereign remedy against malignant diseases, both in the human species and in cattle; and by it the strongest poisons were supposed to have their nature changed.

[The Beltane cake and the Beltane carline (cailleach).]

"After kindling the bonfire with the tein-eigin the company prepared their victuals. And as soon as they had finished their meal, they amused themselves a while in singing and dancing round the fire. Towards the close of the entertainment, the person who officiated as master of the feast produced a large cake baked with eggs and scalloped round the edge, called 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 into the fire; but the majority interposing, he was rescued. And in some places they laid him flat on the ground, making as if they would quarter him. Afterwards, he was pelted with egg-shells, and retained the odious appellation during the whole year. And while the feast was fresh in people's memory, they affected to speak of the cailleach beal-tine as dead.

"This festival was longest observed in the interior Highlands, for towards the west coast the traces of it are faintest. In Glenorchy and Lorne, a large cake is made on that day, which they consume in the house; and in Mull it has a large hole in the 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 vestiges of it in Skye or the Long Island, the inhabitants of which have substituted the connach Micheil or St. Michael's cake. It is made at Michaelmas with milk and oatmeal, and some eggs are sprinkled on its surface. Part of it is sent to the neighbours.

[Local differences in the Beltane cakes; evidence of two fires at Beltane; Beltane pies and cakes in the parish of Callander.]

[Pennant's description of the Beltane fires and cakes in Perthshire.]

[Beltane cakes and fires in the parishes of Logierait and Kirkmichael; omens drawn from the cakes.]

[Beltane fires in the north-east of Scotland to burn the witches; the Beltane cake.]

[Beltane cakes and fires in the Hebrides.]

[Beltane fires and cakes in Wales.]

[Welsh belief that passage over or between the fires ensured good crops.]

[Beltane fires in the Isle of Man to burn the witches; Beltane fires in Nottinghamshire.]

[Beltane fires in Ireland.]

[Fires on the Eve of May Day in Sweden; fires on the Eve of May Day in Austria and Saxony for the purpose of burning the witches.]

§ 4. The Midsummer Fires

[The great season for fire-festivals in Europe is the summer solstice, Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day, which the church has dedicated to St. John the Baptist; the bonfires, the torches, and the burning wheels of the festival.]

[T. Kirchmeyer's description of the Midsummer Festival.]

A good general account of the midsummer customs, together with some of the reasons popularly alleged for observing them, is given by Thomas Kirchmeyer, a writer of the sixteenth century, in his poem The Popish Kingdome:—

"Then doth the joyfull feast of John the Baptist take his turne,

When bonfiers great with loftie flame, in every towne doe burne;

And yong men round about with maides, doe daunce in every streete,

With garlands wrought of Motherwort, or else with Vervain sweete,

And many other flowres faire, with Violets in their handes,

Whereas they all do fondly thinke, that whosoever standes,

And thorow the flowres beholds the flame, his eyes shall feele no paine.

When thus till night they daunced have, they through the fire amaine

With striving mindes doe runne, and all their hearbes they cast therin,

And then with wordes devout and prayers, they solemnely begin,

Desiring God that all their illes may there consumed bee,

Whereby they thinke through all that yeare from Agues to be free.

Some others get a rotten wheele, all worne and cast aside,

Which covered round about with strawe, and tow, they closely hide:

And caryed to some mountaines top, being all with fire light,

They hurle it downe with violence, when darke appeares the night:

Resembling much the Sunne, that from the heavens downe should fal,

A straunge and monstrous sight it seemes, and fearfull to them all;

But they suppose their mischiefes all are likewise throwne to hell,

From these general descriptions, which to some extent still hold good, or did so till lately, we see that the main features of the midsummer fire-festival resemble those which we have found to characterize the vernal festivals of fire. The similarity of the two sets of ceremonies will plainly appear from the following examples.

[The Midsummer fires in Germany; the celebration at Konz on the Moselle: the rolling of a burning wheel down hill.]

[The Midsummer fires in Bavaria; Cattle driven through the fire; the new fire; omens of the harvest drawn from the fires; burning discs thrown into the air.]

[The Midsummer fires in Swabia; omens drawn from the leaps over the fires; burning wheels rolled down hill; burning the Angel-Man at Rottenburg.]

[The Midsummer fires in Baden; omens drawn from leaps over the fires; burning discs thrown into the air; Midsummer fires in Alsace, Lorraine, the Eifel, the Harz districts and Thuringia; burning barrel swung round a pole.]

[Midsummer fires kindled by the friction of wood in Germany and Switzerland; driving away demons and witches.]

[Midsummer fires in Silesia; scaring away the witches.]

[The Midsummer fires in Denmark and Norway; keeping off the witches; the Midsummer fires in Sweden.]

[The Midsummer fires in Switzerland and Austria; effigies burnt in the fires; burning wheels rolled down hill.]

[Midsummer fires in Bohemia; wreaths thrown across the fire; uses made of the singed wreaths; burning wheels rolled down hill; embers of the fire stuck in fields, gardens, and houses as a talisman against lightning and conflagration; use of mugwort; cattle protected against witchcraft.]

[The Midsummer fires in Moravia, Austrian Silesia, and the district of Cracow; fire kindled by the friction of wood.]

[The Midsummer fires among the Slavs of Russia; cattle protected against witchcraft; the fires lighted by the friction of wood.]

[The Midsummer fires in Prussia and Lithuania thought to protect against witchcraft, thunder, hail, and cattle disease; the fire kindled by the friction of wood.]

[The Midsummer fires among the Letts of Russia; Midsummer Day in ancient Rome.]

[The Midsummer fires among the South Slavs.]

[The Midsummer fires among the Magyars of Hungary.]

[The Midsummer fires among the Esthonians; the Midsummer fires in Oesel.]

[The Midsummer fires among the Finns and Cheremiss of Russia.]

[The Midsummer fires in France; Bossuet on the Midsummer festival.]

[The Midsummer fires in Brittany; uses made of the charred sticks and flowers.]

[The Midsummer fires in Normandy; the fires as a protection against witchcraft; the Brotherhood of the Green Wolf at Jumièges; pretence of throwing the Green Wolf into the fire.]

[The Midsummer fires in Picardy.]

[The Midsummer fires in Beauce and Perche; the fires as a protection against witchcraft.]

[The Midsummer fires in the Ardennes, the Vosges, and the Jura; the Midsummer fires in Franche-Comté; the Midsummer fires in Berry and other parts of Central France.]

[The Midsummer fires in Poitou.]

[The Midsummer fires in the departments of Vienne and Deux-Sèvres and in the provinces of Saintonge and Aunis.]

[The Midsummer fires in Southern France; Midsummer festival of fire and water in Provence; bathing in the sea at Midsummer; temporary Midsummer kings at Aix and Marseilles.]

[The Midsummer fires in Belgium; bonfires on St. Peter's Day in Brabant; the King and Queen of the Roses; effigies burnt in the Midsummer fires.]

[The Midsummer fires in England; Stow's description of the Midsummer fires in London; the Midsummer fires at Eton.]

[The Midsummer fires in the north of England; the Midsummer fires in Northumberland.]

[The Midsummer fires in Herefordshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall; the Cornish fires on Midsummer Eve and St. Peter's Eve.]

[The Midsummer fires in Wales and the Isle of Man; burning wheel rolled down hill.]

[The Midsummer fires in Ireland; passage of people and cattle through the fires; cattle driven through the fire; ashes used to fertilize the fields; the White Horse at the Midsummer fire.]

[Lady Wilde's account of the Midsummer fires in Ireland.]

[Holy water resorted to on Midsummer Eve in Ireland.]

[The Midsummer fires in Scotland; fires on St. Peter's Day (the twenty-ninth of June).]

[The Midsummer fires in Spain and the Azores; divination on Midsummer Eve in the Azores; the Midsummer fires in Corsica and Sardinia.]

[The Midsummer fires in the Abruzzi; bathing on Midsummer Eve in the Abruzzi; the Midsummer fires in Sicily; the witches at Midsummer.]

[The Midsummer fires in Malta ]

[The Midsummer fires in Greece; the Midsummer fires in Macedonia and Albania.]

[The Midsummer fires in America.]

[The Midsummer fires among the Mohammedans of Morocco and Algeria.]

[Beneficial effect ascribed to the smoke of the fires; ill luck supposed to be burnt in the Midsummer fires; the Midsummer festival in North Africa comprises rites concerned with water as well as with fire; the Midsummer festival in North Africa is probably older than Mohammedanism.]

[Some Mohammedans of North Africa kindle fires and observe water ceremonies at their movable New Year; water ceremonies at New Year in Morocco; the rites of fire and water at Midsummer and New Year in Morocco seem to be identical in character; the duplication of the festival is probably due to a conflict between the solar calendar of the Romans and the lunar calendar of the Arabs.]

[The Midsummer festival in Morocco seems to be of Berber origin.]

§ 5. The Autumn Fires

[Festivals of fire in August; Russian feast of Florus and Laurus on August 18th; "Living fire" made by the friction of wood.]

[Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin on the eighth of September at Capri and Naples.]

The Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin on the eighth day of September is celebrated at Naples and Capri with fireworks, bonfires, and assassinations. On this subject my friend Professor A. E. Housman, who witnessed the celebration in different years at both places, has kindly furnished me with the following particulars: "In 1906 I was in the island of Capri on September the eighth, the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin. The anniversary was duly solemnised by fire-works at nine or ten in the evening, which I suppose were municipal; but just after sundown the boys outside the villages were making small fires of brushwood on waste bits 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 façade of Santa Maria Piedigrotta and with the whole population walking about blowing penny trumpets. After four hours of this I went to bed at midnight, and was lulled to sleep by barrel-organs, which supersede the trumpets about that hour. At four in the morning I was waked by detonations as if the British fleet were bombarding the city, caused, I was afterwards told, by dynamite rockets. The only step possible beyond this is assassination, which accordingly takes place about peep of day: I forget now the number of the slain, but I think the average is eight or ten, and I know that in honour of my presence they murdered a few more than usual."

[The Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin may have replaced a pagan festival; the coincidence of the Midsummer festival with the summer solstice implies that the founders of the festival regulated their calendar by observation of the sun.]

§ 6. The Hallowe'en Fires

[On the other hand the Celts divided their year, not by the solstices, but by the beginning of summer (the first of May) and the beginning of winter (the first of November).]

From the foregoing survey we may infer that among the heathen forefathers of the European peoples the most popular and widespread fire-festival of the year was the great celebration of Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day. The coincidence of the festival 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 so, it follows that the old founders of the midsummer rites had observed the solstices or turning-points of the sun's apparent path in the sky, and that they accordingly regulated their festal calendar to some extent by astronomical considerations.

[The division seems to have been neither astronomical nor agricultural but pastoral, being determined by the times when cattle are driven to and from their summer pasture.]

[The two great Celtic festivals, Beltane and Hallowe'en.]

[Hallowe'en (the evening of October 31st) seems to have marked the beginning of the Celtic year; the many forms of divination resorted to at Hallowe'en are appropriate to the beginning of a New Year; Hallowe'en also a festival of the dead.]

[Fairies and Hobgoblins let loose at Hallowe'en.]

"Hallowe'en will come, will come,

Witchcraft [or divination] will be set agoing,

Fairies will be at full speed,

Running in every pass.

[Dancing with the fairies at Hallowe'en.]

[Guleesh and the revels of the fairies at Hallowe'en.]

[Divination resorted to in Celtic countries at Hallowe'en.]

[Hallowe'en bonfires in the Highlands of Scotland; John Ramsay's account of the Hallowe'en bonfires; divination from stones at the fire; Hallowe'en fires in the parishes of Callander and Logierait.]

[Hallowe'en fires on Loch Tay; Hallowe'en fires at Balquhidder.]

[Hallowe'en fires in Buchan to burn the witches; processions with torches at Hallowe'en in the Braemar Highlands.]

[Divination at Hallow-e'en in the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland; the stolen kail; sowing hemp seed; the winnowing basket; the wet shirt; the thrown shoe.]

[The white of eggs in water; the names on the chimney piece; the nuts in the fire; the milk and meal; the apples in the water; the three plates.]

[The sliced apple; the white of egg in water; the salt cake or salt herring.]

[Hallowe'en fires in Wales; omens drawn from stones thrown into the fire; divination by stones in the ashes.]

[Divination as to love and marriage at Hallowe'en in Wales.]

[Divination at Hallowe'en in Ireland.]

[Divination at Hallow-e'en in Queen's County; divination at Hallow-e'en in County Leitrim; divination at Hallowe'en in County Roscommon.]

[Hallowe'en fires in the Isle of Man; divination at Hallowe'en in the Isle of Man.]

In the Isle of Man also, another Celtic country, Hallow-e'en was celebrated down to modern times by the kindling of fires, accompanied with all the usual ceremonies designed to prevent the baneful influence of fairies and witches. Bands of young men perambulated the island by night, and at the door of every dwelling-house they struck up a Manx rhyme, beginning

[Hallowe'en fires and divination in Lancashire; candles lighted to keep off the witches; divination at Hallowe'en in Northumberland; Hallowe'en fires in France.]

§ 7. The Midwinter Fires

[A Midwinter festival of fire; Christmas the continuation of an old heathen festival of the sun.]

[The Yule log is the Midwinter counterpart of the Midsummer bonfire.]

[The Yule log in Germany; the Yule log in Switzerland.]

[The Yule log in Belgium.]

[The Yule log in France.]

In several provinces of France, and particularly in Provence, the custom of the Yule log or tréfoir, as it was called in many places, was long observed. A French writer of the seventeenth century tells us that on Christmas Eve the log was prepared, and when the whole family had assembled in the kitchen or parlour of the house, they went and brought it in, walking in procession and singing Provençal verses to the following effect:—

[French superstitions as to the Yule log.]

[The Yule log at Marseilles and in Perigord; virtues ascribed to the charcoal and ashes of the burnt log; the Yule log in Berry.]

[The Yule log in Normandy and Brittany.]

[The Yule log in the Ardennes.]

"In almost all the families of the Ardennes," we are told, "at the present day they never fail to put the Yule log on the fireplace, but formerly it was the object of a superstitious worship which is now obsolete. The charred remains 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 traditional log was brought into the kitchen on Christmas Eve, and the grandmother, with a sprig of box in her hand, sprinkled the log with holy water as soon as the clock struck the first stroke of midnight. As she did so she chanted,

[The Yule log in the Vosges; the Yule log in Franche-Comté and Burgundy.]

[The Yule log and the Yule candle in England.]

[The Yule-log in Yorkshire; the Yule log in Lincolnshire; the Yule log in Warwickshire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire; the Yule log in Wales.]

[The Yule log in Servia; the cutting of the oak tree to form the Yule log.]

But nowhere, apparently, in Europe is the old heathen ritual of the Yule log preserved to the present day more perfectly than in Servia. At early dawn on Christmas Eve (Badnyi Dan) every peasant house sends two of its strongest young men to the nearest forest to cut down a young oak tree and bring it home. There, after offering up a short prayer or crossing themselves thrice, they throw a handful of wheat on the chosen oak 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. It is important to keep and carry home the first chip from the fallen oak. The trunk is sawn into two or three logs, one of them rather longer than the others. A flat, unleavened cake of the purest wheaten flour is brought out of the house and broken on the larger of the logs by a woman. The logs are left for the present to stand outside, leaning on one of the walls of the house. Each of them is called a Yule log (badnyak).

[Prayers to Colleda.]

Meanwhile the children and young people go from house to house singing special songs called Colleda because of an old pagan divinity Colleda, who is invoked in every line. In one of them she is spoken of as "a beautiful 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 men make ready a pig for roasting, for in every Servian house roast pig is the principal dish at Christmas. A bundle of straw, tied with a rope, is brought into the courtyard and left to stand there near the Yule logs.

[The bringing in of the Yule log.]

[The ceremony with the straw; the Yule candle.]

Next the mother of the family brings in the bundle of straw which was left standing outside. All the young children arrange themselves behind her in a row. She then walks slowly round the hall and the adjoining rooms, throwing handfuls of straw on the floor and imitating the cackling of a hen, while all the children follow her peeping with their lips as if they were chickens cheeping and waddling after the 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 wheat. Then the father of the family reverently lights the candle and prays God to bless the family with health and happiness, the fields with a good harvest, the beehives with plenty of honey, the cattle and sheep with young, and the cows with abundant milk and rich cream. After that they all sit down to supper, squatting on the floor, for the use of chairs and tables is forbidden on this occasion.

[The roast Pig; the drawing of the water.]

By four o'clock next morning (Christmas Day) the whole village is astir; indeed most people do not sleep at all that night. It is deemed most important to keep the Yule log burning brightly all night long. Very early, too, the pig is laid on the fire to roast, and at the same moment one of the family goes out into the yard and fires a pistol or gun; and when 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, she wishes the water a happy Christmas and throws a handful of wheat into it. The first cupfuls of water she brings home are used to bake a special Christmas cake (chesnitsa), of which all the members partake at dinner, and portions are kept for absent relatives. A small silver coin is baked in the cake, and he or she who gets it will be lucky during the year.

[The Christmas visiter (polaznik).]

[The Yule log among the Servians of Slavonia; the Christmas visiter (polazenik).]

[The Yule log among the Servians of Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro; the Yule log in Albania.]

[Belief that the Yule log protects against fire and lightning.]

[Public celebrations of the fire-festival at Midwinter; the bonfire on Christmas Eve at Schweina in Thuringia.]

[Bonfires on Christmas Eve in Normandy.]

[Bonfires on St. Thomas's Day in the Isle of Man; the "Burning of the Clavie" at Burghead on the last day of December; the old rampart at Burghead]

[Procession with burning tar-barrels on Christmas Eve (Old Style) at Lerwick.]

[Persian festival of fire at the winter solstice.]

§ 8. The Need-fire

[European festivals of fire in seasons of distress and calamity; the need-fire.]

[The needfire in the Middle Ages; the needfire at Neustadt in 1598.]

[Method kindling the need fire.]

[The mode of kindling the need-fire about Hildesheim.]

[The mode of kindling the need-fire in the Mark.]

[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Mecklenburg]

[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Hanover.]

[The mode of kindling the need-fire in the Harz Mountains.]

[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Brunswick.]

[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Silesia and Bohemia.]

[The use the need-fire in Switzerland.]

[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Sweden and Norway; the need-fire as a protection against witchcraft.]

[The need-fire among the Slavonic peoples.]

[The need-fire in Russia and Poland; the need-fire in Slavonia.]

[The need-fire in Servia.]

[The need-fire in Bulgaria.]

[The need-fire in Bosnia and Herzegovina.]

[The need-fire in England; the need-fire in Yorkshire.]

[The need-fire in Northumberland.]

[Martin's account of the need-fire in the Highlands of Scotland.]

[The need-fire in the island of Mull; sacrifice of a heifer.]

[The need-fire in Caithness.]

[The need-fire in Caithness.]

[Another account of the need-fire in the Highlands.]

[Alexander Carmichael's account of the need-fire in the Highlands of Scotland during the nineteenth century.]

In various parts of the Highlands of Scotland the needfire was still kindled during the first half of the nineteenth century, as we learn from the following account:—

"Tein-eigin, neid-fire, need-fire, forced fire, fire produced by the friction of wood or iron against wood.

"The fire of purification was kindled from the neid-fire, while the domestic fire on the hearth was re-kindled from the purification fire on the knoll. Among other names, the purification fire was called Teine Bheuil, fire of Beul, and 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 teodha so na teine teodha Bheuil, 'Hotter is this than the hot fire of Beul.' Replying to his grandchild, an old man in Lewis said ... 'Mary! sonnie, it were worse for me to do that for thee than to go between the two great fires of Beul.'

"The neid-fire was resorted to in imminent or actual calamity upon the first day of the quarter, and to ensure success in great or important events.

[The needfire in Arran.]

"The writer conversed with several persons who saw the neid-fire made, and who joined in the ceremony. As mentioned elsewhere, a woman in Arran said that her father, and the other men of the townland, made the neid-fire on the knoll on 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 their herds and drove them through and round the fire of purification, to sain them from the bana bhuitseach mhor Nic Creafain Mac Creafain—the great arch witch Mac Crauford, now Crawford. That was in the second decade of this century.

[The need-fire in North Uist.]

"John Macphail, Middlequarter, North Uist, said that the last occasion on which the neid-fire was made in North Uist was bliadhna an t-sneachda bhuidhe—the year of the yellow snow—1829 (?). The snow lay so deep and remained so long on the ground, that it became yellow. Some suggest that the snow was originally yellow, as snow is occasionally red. This extraordinary continuance of snow caused much 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 parish obtained fire for their dwellings. Many cults and ceremonies were observed on the occasion, cults and ceremonies in which Pagan and Christian beliefs intermingled. Sail Dharaich, Oak Log, obtained its name from the log of oak for the neid-fire being there. A fragment of this log riddled with auger holes marks a grave in Cladh Sgealoir, the burying-ground of Sgealoir, in the neighbourhood.

[The need-fire in Reay, Sutherland.]

"Mr. Alexander Mackay, Edinburgh, a native of Reay, Sutherland, says:—'My father was the skipper of a fishing crew. Before beginning operations for the season, the crew of the boat met at night in our house to settle accounts for the past, and to plan operations for the new season. My mother and the rest of us were sent to bed. I lay in the kitchen, and was listening and watching, though they thought I was asleep. After the men had settled their past 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 success was due to their skill, their industry, their perseverance, or to the neid-fire, I do not know, but I know that they were much the most successful crew in the place. They met on Saturday, and went to church on Sunday like the good men and the good Christians they were—a little of their Pagan faith mingling with their Christian belief. I have reason to believe that other crews in the place as well as my father's crew practised the neid-fire.'

"A man at Helmsdale, Sutherland, saw the tein-eigin made in his boyhood.

[The Beltane fire a precaution against witchcraft.]

[The need-fire in Aberdeenshire.]

[The need-fire in Perthshire.]

[The need-fire in Ireland.]

[The use of the need-fire a relic of a time when all fires were kindled by the friction of wood.]

[The belief that the need-fire cannot kindle if any other fire remains alight in the neighbourhood.]

[The needfire among the Iroquois of North America.]

§ 9. The Sacrifice of an Animal to stay a Cattle-Plague

[The burnt sacrifice of a calf in England and Wales; burnt sacrifice a pig in Scotland.]

[The calf is burnt in order to break a spell which has been cast on the herd.]

[Mode in which the burning of a bewitched animal is supposed to break the spell.]

[In burning the bewitched animal you burn the witch herself.]

This last anecdote is instructive, if perhaps not strictly authentic. It shows that in burning alive one of a bewitched flock or herd what you really do is to burn the witch, who is either actually incarnate in the animal or perhaps more probably stands in a relation of sympathy with it so close as almost to amount to identity. Hence if you burn the creature to ashes, you utterly destroy the witch and thereby save the whole of the rest of the flock or herd from her abominable machinations; whereas 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's, and therefore the witch's, body nearly intact at the moment of death, it allows her soul to escape and return safe and sound to her own human body, which all the time is probably lying quietly at home in bed. And the same train of reasoning that justifies the burning alive of bewitched animals justifies and indeed requires the burning alive of the witches themselves; it is really the only way of destroying them, body and soul, and therefore of thoroughly extirpating the whole infernal crew.

[Practice of burning cattle and sheep as sacrifices in the Isle of Man.]

[By burning a bewitched animal you compel the witch to appear.]

[Magic sympathy between the witch and the bewitched animal.]

These statements shew that in the Isle of Man the sympathetic relation between the witch and his or her animal victim is believed to be so close that by burning the animal you compel the witch to appear. 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 would fully explain why Manx people used also to burn bewitched animals alive; in doing so they probably imagined that they were simultaneously burning the witch who had cast the spell on their cattle.

[Parallel belief in magic sympathy between the animal shape of a were-wolf and his or her ordinary human shape: by wounding the wolf you simultaneously wound the man or woman.]

[Werewolves in China.]

[Werewolves among the Toradjas of Central Celebes.]

[Were-wolves in the Egyptian Sudan.]

[The were-wolf story in Petronius.]

[Witches like were-wolves can temporarily transform themselves into animals.]

[Wounds inflicted on an animal into which a witch has transformed herself are inflicted on the witch herself.]

[Wounded witches in the Vosges.]

[Wounded witches in Swabia.]

[The miller's wife and the two grey cats.]

[The analogy of were-wolves confirms the view that the reason for burning bewitched animals is either to burn the witch or to compel her to appear.]

[There is the same reason for burning bewitched things; similarly by burning alive a person whose form a witch has assumed, you compel the witch to disclose herself.]

[The burning alive of a supposed witch in Ireland in 1895.]

[Sometimes bewitched animals are buried alive instead of being burned.]

[Calves killed and buried to save the rest of the herd.]

Notes: