Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I. by Sir James George Frazer (page 8)

[657] J. Brand, _op. cit._ i. 455; _The Denham Tracts_, edited by Dr. James Hardy (London, 1892-1895), ii. 25 _sq._

[658] Herrick, _Hesperides_, “Ceremonies for Christmasse”:

“_Come, bring with a noise,
My merrie merrie boyes,
The Christmas log to the firing_;… _With the last yeeres brand
Light the neiv block_”

And, again, in his verses, “Ceremonies for Candlemasse Day”:

“_Kindle the Christmas brand, and then Till sunne-set let it burne;
Which quencht, then lay it up agen, Till Christmas next returne.
Part must be kept, wherewith to teend The Christmas log next yeare;
And where ’tis safely kept, the fiend Can do no mischiefe there_”

See _The Works of Robert Herrick_ (Edinburgh, 1823), vol. ii. pp. 91, 124. From these latter verses it seems that the Yule log was replaced on the fire on Candlemas (the second of February).

[659] Miss C. S. Burne and Miss G. F. Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_ (London, 1883), p. 398 note 2. See also below, pp. 257, 258, as to the Lincolnshire, Herefordshire, and Welsh practice.

[660] Francis Grose, _Provincial Glossary_, Second Edition (London, 1811), pp. 141 _sq._; T.F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), p. 466.

[661] _County Folk-lore_, vol. iv. _Northumberland_, collected by M.C. Balfour and edited by Northcote W. Thomas (London, 1904), p. 79.

[662] _County Folk-lore,_ vol. ii. _North Riding of Yorkshire, York and the Ainsty,_ collected and edited by Mrs. Gutch (London, 1901), pp. 273, 274, 275 _sq_.

[663] _County Folk-lore_, vol. vi. _East Riding of Yorkshire_, collected and edited by Mrs. Gutch (London, 1912), pp. 23, 118, compare p. 114.

[664] John Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_ (London, 1881), p. 5.

[665] _County Folk-lore_, vol. v. _Lincolnshire_, collected by Mrs. Gutch and Mabel Peacock (London, 1908), p. 219. Elsewhere in Lincolnshire the Yule-log seems to have been called the Yule-clog (_op. cit_. pp. 215, 216).

[666] Mrs. Samuel Chandler (Sarah Whateley), quoted in _The Folk-lore Journal_, i. (1883) pp. 351 _sq_.

[667] Miss C.S. Burne and Miss G.F. Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_ (London, 1883), pp. 397 _sq_. One of the informants of these writers says (_op. cit._ p. 399): “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. Observing a sort of roadway through the kitchen, and the flags much broken, I enquired what caused it, and was told it was from the horses’ hoofs drawing in the ‘Christmas Brund.'”

[668] Mrs. Ella Mary Leather, _The Folklore of Herefordshire_ (Hereford and London, 1912), p. 109. Compare Miss C.S. Burne, “Herefordshire Notes,” _The Folk-lore Journal_, iv. (1886) p. 167.

[669] Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London, 1909), p. 28.

[670] “In earlier ages, and even so late as towards the middle of the nineteenth century, the Servian village organisation and the Servian agriculture had yet another distinguishing feature. The dangers from wild beasts in old time, the want of security for life and property during the Turkish rule, or rather misrule, the natural difficulties of the agriculture, more especially the lack in agricultural labourers, induced the Servian peasants not to leave the parental house but to remain together on the family’s property. In the same yard, within the same fence, one could see around the ancestral house a number of wooden huts which contained one or two rooms, and were used as sleeping places for the sons, nephews and grandsons and their wives. 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 director of work. He is the executive chairman of the association. Generally he does not give any order without having consulted all the grown-up male members of the _Zadroega_” (Chedo Mijatovich, _Servia and the Servians_, London, 1908, pp. 237 _sq._). As to the house-communities of the South Slavs see further Og. M. Utiesenovic, _Die Hauskommunionen der Suedslaven_ (Vienna, 1859); F. Demelic, _Le Droit Coutumier des Slaves Meridionaux_ (Paris, 1876), pp. 23 _sqq._; F.S. Krauss, _Sitte und Brauch der Suedslaven_ (Vienna, 1885), pp. 64 _sqq._ Since Servia, freed from Turkish oppression, has become a well-regulated European state, with laws borrowed from the codes of France and Germany, the old house-communities have been rapidly disappearing (Chedo Mijatovich, _op. cit._ p. 240).

[671] Chedo Mijatovich, _Servia and the Servians_ (London, 1908), pp. 98-105.

[672] Baron Rajacsich, _Das Leben, die Sitten und Gebraeuche der im Kaiserthume Oesterreich lebenden Suedslaven_ (Vienna, 1873), pp. 122-128.

[673] Baron Rajacsich, _Das Leben, die Sitten und Gebrauche der im Kaiserthume Oesterreich lebenden Suedslaven_ (Vienna, 1873), pp. 129-131. The Yule log (_badnyak_) is also known in Bulgaria, where the women place it on the hearth on Christmas Eve. See A. Strausz, _Die Bulgaren_ (Leipsic, 1898), p. 361.

[674] M. Edith Durham, _High Albania_ (London, 1909), p. 129.

[675] R.F. Kaindl, _Die Huzulen_ (Vienna, 1894) p. 71.

[676] See above, pp. 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 258. Similarly at Candlemas people lighted candles in the churches, then took them home and kept them, and thought that by lighting them at any time they could keep off thunder, storm, and tempest. See Barnabe Googe, _The Popish Kingdom_ (reprinted London, 1880), p. 48 _verso_.

[677] See above, pp. 248, 250, 251, 257, 258, 263.

[678] See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 356 _sqq._

[679] See above, pp. 248, 249, 250, 251, 264.

[680] August Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebraeuche aus Thueringen_ (Vienna, 1878), pp. 171 _sq._

[681] Jules Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_ (Conde-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 289 _sq._

[682] Joseph Train, _Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle of Man_ (Douglas, Isle of Man, 1845), ii. 124, referring to Cregeen’s _Manx Dictionary_, p. 67.

[683] R. Chambers, _The Book of Days_ (London and Edinburgh, 1886), ii. 789-791, quoting _The Banffshire Journal_; Miss C.F. Gordon Cumming, _In the Hebrides_ (London, 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 Folk-lore Journal_, vii. (1889) pp. 11-14, 46. Miss Gordon Gumming and Miss Guthrie say that the burning of the Clavie took place upon Yule Night; but this seems to be a mistake.

[684] Caesar, _De bello Gallico_, vii. 23.

[685] Hugh W. Young, F.S.A. Scot., _Notes on the Ramparts of Burghead as revealed by recent Excavations_ (Edinburgh, 1892), pp. 3 _sqq_.; _Notes on further Excavations at Burghead_ (Edinburgh, 1893), pp. 7 _sqq_. These papers are reprinted from the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries 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 who made paved roads, and sunk artesian wells, and used Roman beads and pins. The riddle of Burghead should not now be very difficult to read.” (_Notes on further Excavations at Burghead_, pp. 14 _sq_.). For a loan of Mr. Young’s pamphlets I am indebted to the kindness of Sheriff-Substitute David.

[686] Robert Cowie, M.A., M.D., _Shetland, Descriptive and Historical_ (Aberdeen, 1871), pp. 127 _sq._; _County Folk-lore_, vol. iii. _Orkney and Shetland Islands_, collected 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, twenty-four days after Old Christmas. See _The Scapegoat_, pp. 167-169. Perhaps the popular festival of Up-helly-a has absorbed some of the features of the Christmas Eve celebration.

[687] Thomas Hyde, _Historia Religionis veterum Persarum_ (Oxford, 1700), pp. 255-257.

[688] On the need-fire see Jacob Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_*[4] i. 501 _sqq._; J.W. Wolf, _Beitraege zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Goettingen and Leipsic, 1852-1857), i. 116 _sq._, ii. 378 _sqq._; Adalbert Kuhn, _Die Herabkunjt des Feuers und des Goettertranks_*[2] (Guetersloh, 1886), pp. 41 _sqq._; Walter K. Kelly, _Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore_ (London, 1863), pp. 48 _sqq._; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstaemme_ (Berlin, 1875), pp. 518 _sqq._; Charles Elton, _Origins of English History_ (London, 1882), pp. 293 _sqq._; Ulrich Jahn, _Die deutschen Opfergebraeuche 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_ nodfeur _et_ nodfyr, _quasi necessarium ignem vocant_” C.L. Rochholz would connect _need_ with a verb _nieten_ “to churn,” so that need-fire would mean “churned fire.” See C.L. Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_ (Berlin, 1867), ii. 149 _sq._ This interpretion is confirmed by the name _ankenmilch bohren_, which is given to the need-fire in some parts of Switzerland. See E. Hoffmann-Krayer, “Fruchtbarkeitsriten im schweizerischen Volksbrauch,” _Schweizerisches Archiv fuer Volkskuende_, xi. (1907) p. 245.

[689] “_Illos sacrilegos ignes, quos_ niedfyr _vocant_,” quoted by J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 502; R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_ (Brunswick, 1896), p. 312.

[690] _Indiculus Superstitionum et Paganiarum_, No. XV., “_De igne fricato de ligno i.e._ nodfyr.” A convenient edition of the _Indiculus_ has been published with a commentary by H.A. Saupe (Leipsic, 1891). As to the date of the work, see the editor’s introduction, pp. 4 _sq_.

[691] Karl Lynker, _Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in hessischen Gauen_,*[2] (Cassel and Goettingen, 1860), pp. 252 _sq._, quoting a letter of the mayor (_Schultheiss_) of Neustadt to the mayor of Marburg dated 12th December 1605.

[692] Bartholomaeus Carrichter, _Der Teutschen Speisskammer_ (Strasburg, 1614), Fol. pag. 17 and 18, quoted by C.L. Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_ (Berlin, 1867), ii. 148 _sq._

[693] Joh. Reiskius, _Untersuchung des Notfeuers_ (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1696), p. 51, quoted by J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 502 _sq._; R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_ (Brunswick, 1896), p. 313.

[694] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_, *[4] i. 503 _sq._

[695] J. Grimm, _op. cit._ i. 504.

[696] Adalbert Kuhn, _Maerkische Sagen und Maerchen_ (Berlin, 1843), p. 369.

[697] Karl Bartsch, _Sagen, Maerchen und Gebraeuche aus Mecklenburg_ (Vienna, 1879-1880), ii. 149-151.

[698] Carl und Theodor Colshorn, _Maerchen und Sagen_ (Hanover, 1854), pp. 234-236, from the description of an eye-witness.

[699] Heinrich Proehle, _Harzbilder, Sitten und Gebraeuche aus dem Harz-gebirge_ (Leipsic, 1855), pp. 74 _sq._ The date of this need-fire is not given; probably it was about the middle of the nineteenth century.

[700] R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_ (Brunswick, 1896), pp. 313 _sq._

[701] R. Andree, _op. cit._ pp. 314 _sq._

[702] Montanus, _Die deutschen Volks-feste, Volksbraeuche und deutscher Volksglaube_ (Iserlohn, N.D.), p. 127.

[703] Paul Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_ (Leipsic, 1903-1906), ii. 204.

[704] Anton Peter, _Volksthuemliches aus Oesterreichisch-Schlesien_ (Troppau, 1865-1867), ii. 250.

[705] Alois John, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westboehmen_ (Prague, 1905), p. 209.

[706] C.L. Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_ (Berlin, 1867), ii. 149.

[707] E. Hoffmann-Krayer, “Fruchtbarkeitsriten im schweizerischen Volksbrauch,” _Schweizerisches Archiv fur Volkskunde_, xi. (1907) pp. 244-246.

[708] E. Hoffmann-Krayer, _op. cit._ p. 246.

[709] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 505.

[710] “Old-time Survivals in remote Norwegian Dales,” _Folk-lore_, xx. (1909) pp. 314, 322 _sq._ This record of Norwegian folk-lore is translated from a little work _Sundalen og Oeksendalens Beskrivelse_ written by Pastor Chr. Gluekstad and published at Christiania “about twenty years ago.”

[711] Prof. VI. Titelbach, “Das heilige Feuer bei den Balkanslaven,” _Inter-nationales Archiv fuer Ethnographie_, xiii. (1900) pp. 2 _sq._ We have seen (above, p. 220) that in Russia the need-fire is, or used to be, annually kindled on the eighteenth of August. As to the need-fire in Bulgaria see also below, pp. 284 _sq._

[712] F.S. Krauss, “Altslavische Feuergewinnung,” _Globus_, lix. (1891) p. 318, quoting P. Ljiebenov, _Baba Ega_ (Trnovo, 1887), p. 44.

[713] F.S. Krauss, _op. cit._ p. 319, quoting _Wisla_, vol. iv. pp. 1, 244 _sqq._

[714] F.S. Krauss, _op. cit._ p. 318, quoting Oskar Kolberg, in _Mazowsze_, vol. iv. p. 138.

[715] F.S. Krauss, “Slavische Feuerbohrer,” _Globus_, lix. (1891) p. 140. The evidence quoted by Dr. Krauss is that of his father, who often told of his experience to his son.

[716] Prof. Vl. Titelbach, “Das heilige Feuer bei den Balkanslaven,” _Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographie_, xiii. (1900) p. 3.

[717] See below, vol. ii. pp. 168 _sqq._

[718] Adolf Strausz, _Die Bulgaren_ (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 194-199.

[719] _Wissenschaftliche Mittheilungen aus Bosnien und der Hercegovina_, redigirt von Moriz Hoernes, iii. (Vienna, 1895) pp. 574 _sq._

[720] “_Pro fidei divinae integritate servanda recolat lector quod, cum hoc anno in Laodonia pestis grassaretur in pecudes armenti, quam vocant usitate Lungessouth, quidam bestiales, habitu 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_ (London, 1849), i. 358 _sq._; A. Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Goettertranks_*[2] (Guetersloh, 1886), p. 43; Ulrich Jahn, _Die deutschen Opfergebraeuche bei Ackerbau und Viehzucht_ (Breslau, 1884) p. 31.

[721] W.G.M. Jones Barker, _The Three Days of Wensleydale_ (London, 1854), pp. 90 _sq._; _County Folk-lore_, vol. ii., _North Riding of Yorkshire, York and the Ainsty_, collected and edited by Mrs. Gutch (London, 1901), p. 181.

[722] _The Denham Tracts, a Collection of Folklore by Michael Aislabie Denham_, edited by Dr. James Hardy (London, 1892-1895), ii. 50.

[723] Harry Speight, _Tramps and Drives in the Craven Highlands_ (London, 1895), p. 162. Compare, _id., The Craven and North-West Yorkshire Highlands_ (London, 1892), pp. 206 _sq._

[724] J.M. Kemble, _The Saxons in England_ (London, 1849), i. 361 note.

[725] 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.

[726] W. Henderson, _Notes on the Folklore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders_ (London, 1879), pp. 167 _sq._ Compare _County Folklore_, vol. iv. _Northumberland_, collected by M.C. Balfour (London, 1904), p. 45. Stamfordham is in Northumberland. The vicar’s testimony seems to have referred to the first half of the nineteenth century.

[727] M. Martin, “Description of the Western Islands of Scotland,” in J. Pinkerton’s _General Collection of Voyages and Travels_, iii. (London, 1809), p. 611. The second edition of Martin’s book, which Pinkerton reprints, was published at London in 1716. For John Ramsay’s account of the need-fire, see above, pp. 147 _sq._

[728] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 506, referring to Miss Austin as his authority.

[729] As to the custom of sacrificing one of a plague-stricken herd or flock for the purpose of saving the rest, see below, pp. 300 _sqq._

[730] John Jamieson, _Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, New Edition, revised by J. Longmuir and D. Donaldson, iii. (Paisley, 1880) pp. 349 _sq._, referring to “Agr. Surv. Caithn., pp. 200, 201.”

[731] R.C. Maclagan, “Sacred Fire,” _Folk-lore_, ix. (1898) pp. 280 _sq._ As to the fire-drill see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 207 _sqq._

[732] W. Grant Stewart, _The Popular Superstitions and Festive Amusements of the Highlanders of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1823), pp. 214-216; Walter K. Kelly, _Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore_ (London, 1863), pp. 53 _sq._

[733] Alexander Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica_ (Edinburgh, 1900), ii. 340 _sq._

[734] See above, pp. 154, 156, 157, 159 _sq._

[735] _Census of India, 1911_, vol. xiv. _Punjab_, Part i. _Report_, by Pandit Harikishan Kaul (Lahore, 1912), p. 302. So in the north-east of Scotland “those who were born with their 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 who came into the world in this fashion often exercised their power to their own profit.” See Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland_ (London, 1881), pp. 45 _sq._

[736] Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland_ (London, 1881), p. 186. The fumigation of the byres with juniper is a charm against witchcraft. See J.G. Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1902), p. ii. The “quarter-ill” is a disease of cattle, which affects the animals only in one limb or quarter. “A very gross superstition is observed by some people in Angus, as an antidote against this ill. A piece is cut out of the thigh of one of the cattle that has died of it. This they hang up within the chimney, in order to preserve the rest of the cattle from being infected. It is believed that as long as it hangs there, it will prevent the disease from approaching the place. It is therefore carefully preserved; and in case of the family removing, transported to the 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 cattle came lately to the knowledge of Mr. George Walker, a gentleman of the city of Durham. During an excursion of a few miles into the country, he observed a sort of rigging attached to the chimney of a farmhouse well known to him, and asked what it meant. The good wife told him that they had experienced great difficulty that year in rearing their calves; the poor little creatures all died off, so they had taken the leg and thigh of one of the dead calves, and hung it in a chimney by a rope, since which they had not lost another calf.” In the light of facts cited below (pp. 315 _sqq._) we may conjecture that the intention of cutting off the legs or cutting out the heart, liver, and lungs of the animals and hanging them up or boiling them, is by means of homoeopathic magic to inflict corresponding injuries on the witch who cast the fatal spell on the cattle.

[737] _The Mirror_, 24th June, 1826, quoted by J. M. Kemble, _The Saxons in England_ (London, 1849), i. 360 note 2.

[738] Leland L. Duncan, “Fairy Beliefs and other Folklore Notes from County Leitrim,” _Folk-lore_, vii. (1896) pp. 181 _sq._

[739] (Sir) Edward B. Tylor, _Researches into the Early History of Mankind_, Third Edition (London, 1878), pp. 237 _sqq._; _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 207 _sqq._

[740] For some examples of such extinctions, see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 261 _sqq._, 267 _sq._; _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, i. 311, ii. 73 _sq._; and above, 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 hovering invisible in the air; sometimes it is apparently an idea that a fire is old and tired with burning so long, and that it must be relieved of the fatiguing duty by a young and vigorous flame.

[741] Above, pp. 147, 154. The same custom appears to have been observed in Ireland. See above, p. 158.

[742] J.N.B. Hewitt, “New Fire among the Iroquois,” _The American Anthropologist_, ii. (1889) p. 319.

[743] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 507.

[744] See above, p. 290.

[745] William Hone, _Every-day Book_ (London, preface dated 1827), i. coll. 853 _sq._ (June 24th), quoting Hitchin’s _History of Cornwall_.

[746] Hunt, _Romances and Drolls of the West of England_, 1st series, p. 237, quoted by W. Henderson, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the 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 ignorantly practised in the neighbouring kingdom, where one having lost many of his herd by witchcraft, as he concluded, burnt a living calf to break the spell and preserve the remainder.”

[747] Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London, 1909), p. 23.

[748] W. Henderson, _op. cit._ pp. 148 _sq._

[749] Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland_ (London, 1881), p. 186.

[750] R. N. Worth, _History of Devonshire_, Second Edition (London, 1886), p. 339. The diabolical nature of the toad probably explains why people in Herefordshire 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 boasting, “They never catches _me_: and they never ooll neither. I allus wears a toad’s heart round my neck, _I_ does.” See Mrs. Ella M. Leather, in _Folk-lore_, xxiv. (1913) p. 238.

[751] Above, p. 301.

[752] Robert Hunt, _Popular Romances of the West of England_, Third Edition (London, 1881), p. 320. The writer does not say where this took place; probably it was in Cornwall or Devonshire.

[753] Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland_ (London, 1881), p. 184.

[754] _County Folk-lore, Printed Extracts, No. 2, Suffolk_, collected and edited by the Lady Eveline Camilla Gurdon (London, 1893), pp. 190 _sq._, quoting _Some Materials for the History of Wherstead_ by F. Barham Zincke (Ipswich, 1887), p. 168.

[755] _County Folk-lore, Printed Extracts, No. 2, Suffolk_, p. 191, referring to Murray’s _Handbook for Essex, Suffolk_, etc., p. 109.

[756] (Sir) John Rhys, “Manx Folklore and Superstitions,” _Folk-lore_, ii. (1891) pp. 300-302; repeated in his _Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford, 1901), i. 306 _sq._ Sir John Rhys does not doubt that the old woman saw, as she said, a live sheep 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.” However, the evidence I have adduced of a custom of burnt sacrifice among English rustics tends to confirm the old woman’s statement, that the burning of the live sheep which she witnessed was not an act of wanton cruelty but a sacrifice per formed for the public good.

[757] (Sir) John Rhys, “Manx Folklore and Superstitions,” _Folk-lore_, ii. (1891) pp. 299 _sq.; id., Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford, 1901), i. 304 _sq._ We have seen that by burning the blood of a bewitched bullock a farmer expected to compel the witch to appear. See above, p. 303.

[758] Olaus Magnus, _Historia de Gentium Septentrionalium Conditionibus_, lib xviii. cap. 47, p. 713 (ed. Bale, 1567).

[759] Collin de Plancy, _Dictionnaire Infernal_ (Paris, 1825-1826), iii. 473 _sq._, referring to Boguet.

[760] Collin de Plancy, _op. cit._ iii. 473.

[761] Felix Chapiseau, _Le Folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche_ (Paris, 1902), i. 239 _sq._ The same story is told in Upper Brittany. See Paul Sebillot, _Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1882), i. 292. It is a common belief that a man who has once been transformed into a werewolf must remain a were-wolf for seven years unless blood is drawn from him in his animal shape, upon which he at once recovers his human form and is delivered from the bondage and misery of being a were-wolf. See F. Chapiseau, _op. cit._ i. 218-220; Amelie Bosquet, _La Normandie Romanesque et Merveilleuse_ (Paris and Rouen, 1845), p. 233. On the belief in were-wolves in general; see W. Hertz, _Der Werwolf_ (Stuttgart, 1862); J. Grimm, _Deutsche 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, which entails a transformation for a full year. But by putting off the girdle the man can resume his human form. The time when were-wolves are most about is the period of the Twelve Nights between Christmas and Epiphany; hence cautious German farmers will not remove the dung from the cattle stalls at that season for fear of attracting the were-wolves to the cattle. See Adalbert Kuhn, _Maerkische Sagen und Maerchen_ (Berlin, 1843), p. 375; Ulrich Jahn, _Volkssagen aus Pommern und Ruegen_ (Stettin, 1886), pp. 384, 386, Nos. 491, 495. Down to the time of Elizabeth it was reported that in the county of Tipperary certain men were annually turned into wolves. See W. Camden, _Britain_, translated into English by Philemon Holland (London, 1610), “Ireland,” p. 83.

[762] J.J.M. de Groot, _The Religious System of China_, v. (Leyden, 1907) p. 548.

[763] A. C. Kruijt, “De weerwolf bij de Toradja’s van Midden-Celebes,” _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Landen Volkenkunde,_ xli. (1899) pp. 548-551, 557-560.

[764] A.C. Kruijt, _op. cit._ pp. 552 _sq._

[765] A.C. Kruijt, _op. cit._ pp. 553. For more evidence of the belief in were-wolves, or rather in were-animals of various sorts, particularly were-tigers, in the East Indies, see J.J. M. de Groot, “De Weertijger in onze Kolonien en op het oostaziatische Vasteland,” _Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie_, xlix. (1898) pp. 549-585; G.P. Rouffaer, “Matjan Gadoengan,” _Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie_ 1. (1899) pp. 67-75; J. Knebel, “De Weertijger op Midden-Java, den Javaan naverteld,” _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, xli. (1899) pp. 568-587; L.M.F. Plate, “Bijdrage tot de kennis van de lykanthropie bij de Sasaksche bevolking in Oost-Lombok,” _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde_, liv. (1912) pp. 458-469; G.A. Wilken, “Het animisme bij de volken van den Indischen Archipel,” _Verspreide Geschriften_ (The Hague, 1912), iii. 25-30.

[766] Ernst Marno, _Reisen im Gebiete des blauen und weissen Nil_ (Vienna, 1874), pp. 239 _sq._

[767] Petronius, _Sat._ 61 _sq._ (pp. 40 _sq._, ed. Fr. Buecheler,*[3] Berlin, 1882). The Latin word for a were-wolf (_versipellis_) is expressive: it means literally “skin-shifter,” and is equally appropriate whatever the particular animal may be into which the wizard transforms 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 transformation of were-wolves into their bestial shape takes place particularly at full moon. See A. de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 99, 157; J.L.M. Nogues, _Les Moeurs d’autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis_ (Saintes, 1891), p. 141.

[768] J.G. Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1902), p. 6: “In carrying out their unhallowed cantrips, witches assumed various shapes. They became gulls, cormorants, ravens, rats, mice, black sheep, swelling waves, whales, and very frequently cats and hares.” To this list of animals into which witches can turn themselves may be added horses, dogs, wolves, 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 Sec. 217; L. Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg, 1867), i. 327 Sec. 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., Giraldus Cambrensis records that “it has also been a frequent complaint, from old times as well as in the present, that certain hags in Wales, as well as in Ireland and Scotland, changed themselves into the shape of hares, that, sucking teats under this counterfeit form, they might stealthily rob other people’s milk.” See _The Historical Works of Giraldus Cambrensis_, revised and edited by Thomas Wright (London, 1887), p. 83.

[769] _The Folk-lore Journal_, iv. (1886) p. 266; Collin de Plancy, _Dictionnaire Infernal_ (Paris, 1825-1826), iii. 475; J.L.M. Nogues, _Les Moeurs d’autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis_ (Saintes, 1891), p. 141. In Scotland 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 Scott, _Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft_ (London, 1884), p. 272; J.G. Dalyell, _The Darker Superstitions of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1834), pp. 531 _sq._; M.M. Banks, “Scoring a Witch above the Breath,” _Folk-lore_, xxiii. (1912) p. 490.

[770] J.L.M. Nogues, _l.c._; L.F. Sauve, _Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_ (Paris, 1889), P. 187.

[771] M. Abeghian, _Der armenische Volksglaube_ (Leipsic, 1899), p. 117. The wolf-skin is supposed to fall down from heaven and to return to heaven after seven years, if the were-wolf has not been delivered from her unhappy state in the meantime by the burning of the skin.

[772] J.G. Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1902), p. 8; compare A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_*[2] (Berlin, 1869), p. 150 Sec. 217. Some think that the sixpence should be crooked. See Rev. W. Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland_ (London, 1881), pp. 71 _sq._, 128; _County Folk-lore_, vol. v. _Lincolnshire_, collected by Mrs. Gutch and Mabel Peacock (London, 1908), p. 75.

[773] J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 30.

[774] J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 33.

[775] (Sir) Edward B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_*[2] (London, 1873), i. 314.

[776] Joseph Glanvil, _Saducismus Triumphatus or Full and Plain Evidence concerning Witches and Apparitions_ (London, 1681), Part ii. p. 205.

[777] Rev. J.C. Atkinson, _Forty Years in a Moorland Parish_ (London, 1891), pp. 82-84.

[778] _County Folk-lore_, vol. v. _Lincolnshire_, collected by Mrs. Gutch and Mabel Peacock (London, 1908), pp. 79, 80.

[779] Leland L. Duncan, “Folk-lore Gleanings from County Leitrim,” _Folklore_, iv. (1893) pp. 183 _sq._

[780] L.F. Sauve, _Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_ (Paris, 1889), p. 176.

[781] L.F. Sauve, _op. cit._ pp. 176 _sq._

[782] Ernst Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebraeuche aus Schwaben_ (Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 184 _sq._, No. 203.

[783] E. Meier, _op. cit._ pp. 191 _sq._, No. 215. A similar story of the shoeing of a woman in the shape of a horse is reported from Silesia. See R. Kuehnau, _Schlesische Sagen_ (Berlin, 1910-1913), iii. pp. 27 _sq._, No. 1380.

[784] R. Kuehnau, _Schlesische Sagen_ (Berlin, 1910-1913), iii. pp. 23 _sq._, No. 1375. Compare _id._, iii. pp. 28 _sq._, No. 1381.

[785] See for example L. Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg, 1867), i. pp. 328, 329, 334, 339; W. von Schulenburg, _Wendische Volkssagen und Gebraeuche aus dem Spreewald_ (Leipsic, 1880), pp. 164, 165 _sq._; H. Proehle, _Harzsagen_ (Leipsic, 1859), i. 100 _sq._ The belief in such things is said to be universal among the ignorant and superstitious in Germany. See A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_*[2] (Berlin, 1869), p. 150, Sec. 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 common belief” (J. Ceredig Davies, _Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales_, Aberystwyth, 1911, p. 243). For Welsh stories of this sort, see J. Ceredig Davies, _l.c._; Rev. Elias Owen, _Welsh Folk-lore_ (Oswestry and Wrexham, N.D., preface dated 1896), pp. 228 _sq._; M. Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London, 1909), p. 214.

[786] L. Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg, 1867), i. p. 361, Sec. 239.

[787] Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London, 1909), p. 210.

[788] L. Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg, 1867), i. p. 358, Sec. 238.

[789] L. Strackerjan, _op. cit._ i. p. 360, Sec. 238e.

[790] “The ‘Witch-burning’ at Clonmell,” _Folk-lore_, vi. (1895) pp. 373-384. The account there printed is based on the reports of the judicial proceedings before the magistrates and the judge, which were published in _The Irish Times_ for March 26th, 27th, and 28th, April 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 8th, and July 6th, 1895.

[791] John Graham Dalyell, _The Darker Superstitions of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1834), p. 185. In this passage “quick” is used in the old sense of “living,” as in the phrase “the quick and the dead.” _Nois_ is “nose,” _hoill_ is “hole,” _quhilk (whilk)_ is “which,” and _be_ is “by.”

[792] J.G. Dalyell, _op. cit._ p. 186. _Bestiall_=animals; _seik_=sick; _calling_=driving; _guidis_=cattle.

[793] John Ramsay, of Ochtertyre, _Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century_, edited by Alexander Allardyce (Edinburgh and London, 1888), ii. 446 _sq._ As to the custom of cutting off the leg of a diseased animal and hanging it up in the house, see above, p. 296, note 1.

[794] (Sir) Arthur Mitchell, A.M., M.D., _On Various Superstitions in the North-West Highlands and Islands of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1862), p. 12 (reprinted from the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, vol. iv.).

[795] _County Folk-lore_, vol. v. _Lincolnshire_, collected by Mrs. Gutch and Mabel Peacock (London, 1908), p. 75, quoting Rev. R.M. Heanley, “The Vikings: traces of their Folklore in Marshland,” a paper read before the Viking Club, London, and printed in its _Saga-Book_, 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,” _Folk-lore_, xii. (1901) p. 175; J.G. Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1902), pp. 11 _sq._; Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland_ (London, 1881), p. 188. See further _The Scapegoat_, pp. 266 _sq_.

CHAPTER V

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRE-FESTIVALS

Sec. 1. _On the Fire-festivals in general_

[General resemblance of the European fire-festivals to each other.]

The foregoing survey of the popular fire-festivals of Europe suggests some general observations. In the first place we can hardly help being struck by the resemblance which the ceremonies bear to each other, at whatever time of the year and in whatever part of Europe they are celebrated. The custom of kindling great bonfires, leaping over them, and driving cattle through or round them would seem to have been practically universal throughout Europe, and the same may be said of the processions or races with blazing torches round fields, orchards, pastures, or cattle-stalls. Less widespread are the customs of hurling lighted discs into the air[796] and trundling a burning wheel down hill;[797] for to judge by the evidence which I have collected these modes of distributing the beneficial influence of the fire have been confined in the main to Central Europe. The ceremonial of the Yule log is distinguished from that of the other fire-festivals by the privacy and domesticity which characterize it; but, as we have already seen, this distinction may well be due simply to the rough weather of midwinter, which is apt not only to render a public assembly in the open air disagreeable, but also at any moment to defeat the object of the assembly by extinguishing the all-important fire under a downpour of rain or a fall of snow. Apart from these local or seasonal differences, the general resemblance between the fire-festivals at all times of the year and in all places is tolerably close. And as the ceremonies themselves resemble each other, so do the benefits which the people expect to reap from them. Whether applied in the form of bonfires blazing at fixed points, or of torches carried about from place to place, or of embers and ashes taken from the smouldering heap of fuel, the fire is believed to promote the growth of the crops and the welfare of man and beast, either positively by stimulating them, or negatively by averting the dangers and calamities which threaten them from such causes as thunder and lightning, conflagration, blight, mildew, vermin, sterility, disease, and not least of all witchcraft.

[Two explanations suggested of the fire-festivals. According to W. Mannhardt, they are charms to secure a supply of sunshine; according to Dr. E. Westermarck they are purificatory, being intended to burn and destroy all harmful influences.]

But we naturally ask, How did it come about that benefits so great and manifold were supposed to be attained by means so simple? In what way did people imagine that they could procure so many goods or avoid so many ills by the application of fire and smoke, of embers and ashes? In short, what theory underlay and prompted the practice of these customs? For that the institution of the festivals was the outcome of a definite train of reasoning may be taken for granted; the view that primitive man acted first and invented his reasons to suit his actions afterwards, is not borne out by what we know of his nearest living representatives, the savage and the peasant. Two different explanations of the fire-festivals have been given by modern enquirers. On the one hand it has been held that they are sun-charms or magical ceremonies intended, on the principle of imitative magic, to ensure a needful supply of sunshine for men, animals, and plants by kindling fires which mimic on earth the great source of light and heat in the sky. This was the view of Wilhelm Mannhardt.[798] It may be called the solar theory. On the other hand it has been maintained that the ceremonial fires have no necessary reference to the sun but are simply purificatory in intention, being designed to burn up and destroy all harmful influences, whether these are conceived in a personal form as witches, demons, and monsters, or in an impersonal form as a sort of pervading taint or corruption of the air. This is the view of Dr. Edward Westermarck[799] and apparently of Professor Eugen Mogk.[800] It may be called the purificatory theory. Obviously the two theories postulate two very different conceptions of the fire which plays the principal part in the rites. On the one view, the fire, like sunshine in our latitude, is a genial creative power which fosters the growth of plants and the development of all that makes for health and happiness; on the other view, the fire is a fierce destructive power which blasts and consumes all the noxious elements, whether spiritual or material, that menace the life of men, of animals, and of plants. According to the one theory the fire is a stimulant, according to the other it is a disinfectant; on the one view its virtue is positive, on the other it is negative.

[The two explanations are perhaps not mutually exclusive.]

Yet the two explanations, different as they are in the character which they attribute to the fire, are perhaps not wholly irreconcilable. If we assume that the fires kindled at these festivals were primarily intended to imitate the sun’s light and heat, may we not regard the purificatory and disinfecting qualities, which popular opinion certainly appears to have ascribed to them, as attributes derived directly from the purificatory and disinfecting qualities of sunshine? In this way we might conclude that, while the imitation of sunshine in these ceremonies was primary and original, the purification attributed to them was secondary and derivative. Such a conclusion, occupying an intermediate position between the two opposing theories and recognizing an element of truth in both of them, was adopted by me in earlier editions of this work;[801] but in the meantime Dr. Westermarck has argued powerfully in favour of the purificatory theory alone, and I am bound to say that his arguments carry great weight, and that on a fuller review of the facts the balance of evidence seems to me to incline decidedly in his favour. However, the case is not so clear as to justify us in dismissing the solar theory without discussion, and accordingly I propose to adduce the considerations which tell for it before proceeding to notice those which tell against it. A theory which had the support of so learned and sagacious an investigator as W. Mannhardt is entitled to a respectful hearing.

Sec. 2. _The Solar Theory of the Fire-festivals_

[Theory that the fire-festivals are charms to ensure a supply of sunshine.]

In an earlier part of this work we saw that savages resort to charms for making sunshine,[802] and it would be no wonder if primitive man in Europe did the same. Indeed, when we consider the cold and cloudy climate of Europe during a great part of the year, we shall find it natural that sun-charms should have played a much more prominent part among the superstitious practices of European peoples than among those of savages who live nearer the equator and who consequently are apt to get in the course of nature more sunshine than they want. This view of the festivals may be supported by various arguments drawn partly from their dates, partly from the nature of the rites, and partly from the influence which they are believed to exert upon the weather and on vegetation.

[Coincidence of two of the festivals with the solstices.]

First, in regard to the dates of the festivals it can be no mere accident that two of the most important and widely spread of the festivals are timed to coincide more or less exactly with the summer and winter solstices, that is, with the two turning-points in the sun’s apparent course in the sky when he reaches respectively his highest and his lowest elevation at noon. Indeed with respect to the midwinter celebration of Christmas we are not left to conjecture; we know from the express testimony of the ancients that it was instituted by the church to supersede an old heathen festival of the birth of the sun,[803] which was apparently conceived to be born again on the shortest day of the year, after which his light and heat were seen to grow till they attained their full maturity at midsummer. Therefore it is no very far fetched conjecture to suppose that the Yule log, which figures so prominently in the popular celebration of Christmas, was originally designed to help the labouring sun of midwinter to rekindle his seemingly expiring light.

[Attempt of the Bushmen to warm up the fire of Sirius in midwinter by kindling sticks.]

The idea that by lighting a log on earth you can rekindle a fire in heaven or fan it into a brighter blaze, naturally seems to us absurd; but to the savage mind it wears a different aspect, and the institution of the great fire-festivals which we are considering probably dates from a time when Europe was still sunk in savagery or at most in barbarism. Now it can be shewn that in order to increase the celestial source of heat at midwinter savages resort to a practice analogous to that of our Yule log, if the kindling of the Yule log was originally a magical rite intended to rekindle the sun. In the southern hemisphere, where the order of the seasons is the reverse of ours, the rising of Sirius or the Dog Star in July marks the season of the greatest cold instead of, as with us, the greatest heat; and just as the civilized ancients ascribed the torrid heat of midsummer to that brilliant star,[804] so the modern savage of South Africa attributes to it the piercing cold of midwinter and seeks to mitigate its rigour by warming up the chilly star with the genial heat of the sun. How he does so may be best described in his own words as follows:–[805]

“The Bushmen perceive Canopus, they say to a child: ‘Give me yonder piece of wood, that I may put the end of it in the fire, that I may point it burning towards grandmother, for grandmother carries Bushman rice; grandmother shall make a little warmth for us; for she coldly comes out; the sun[806] shall warm grandmother’s eye for us.’ Sirius comes out; the people call out to one another: ‘Sirius comes yonder;’ they say to one another: ‘Ye must burn a stick for us towards Sirius.’ They say to one another: ‘Who was it who saw Sirius?’ One man says to the other: ‘Our brother saw Sirius,’ The other man says to him: ‘I saw Sirius.’ The other man says to him: ‘I wish thee to burn a stick for us towards Sirius; that the sun may shining come out for us; that Sirius may not coldly come out’ The other man (the one who saw Sirius) says to his son: ‘Bring me the small piece of wood yonder, that I may put the end of it in the fire, that I may burn it towards grandmother; that grandmother may ascend the sky, like the other one, Canopus.’ The child brings him the piece of wood, he (the father) holds the end of it in the fire. He points it burning towards Sirius; he says that Sirius shall twinkle like Canopus. He sings; he sings about Canopus, he sings about Sirius; he points to them with fire,[807] that they may twinkle like each other. He throws fire at them. He covers himself up entirely (including his head) in his kaross and lies down. He arises, he sits down; while he does not again lie down; because he feels that he has worked, putting Sirius into the sun’s warmth; so that Sirius may warmly come out. The women go out early to seek for Bushman rice; they walk, sunning their shoulder blades.”[808] What the Bushmen thus do to temper the cold of midwinter in the southern hemisphere by blowing up the celestial fires may have been done by our rude forefathers at the corresponding season in the northern hemisphere.

[The burning wheels and discs of the fire-festivals may be direct imitations of the sun.]

Not only the date of some of the festivals but the manner of their celebration suggests a conscious imitation of the sun. The custom of rolling a burning wheel down a hill, which is often observed at these ceremonies, might well pass for an imitation of the sun’s course in the sky, and the imitation would be especially appropriate on Midsummer Day when the sun’s annual declension begins. Indeed the custom has been thus interpreted by some of those who have recorded it.[809] Not less graphic, it may be said, is the mimicry of his apparent revolution by swinging a burning tar-barrel round a pole.[810] Again, the common practice of throwing fiery discs, sometimes expressly said to be shaped like suns, into the air at the festivals may well be a piece of imitative magic. In these, as in so many cases, the magic force may be supposed to take effect through mimicry or sympathy: by imitating the desired result you actually produce it: by counterfeiting the sun’s progress through the heavens you really help the luminary to pursue his celestial journey with punctuality and despatch. The name “fire of heaven,” by which the midsummer fire is sometimes popularly known,[811] clearly implies a consciousness of a connexion between the earthly and the heavenly flame.

[The wheel sometimes used to kindle the fire by friction may also be an imitation of the sun.]

Again, the manner in which the fire appears to have been originally kindled on these occasions has been alleged in support of the view that it was intended to be a mock-sun. As some scholars have perceived, it is highly probable that at the periodic festivals in former times fire was universally obtained by the friction of two pieces of wood.[812] We have seen that it is still so procured in some places both at the Easter and the midsummer festivals, and that it is expressly said to have been formerly so procured at the Beltane celebration both in Scotland and Wales.[813] But what makes it nearly certain that this was once the invariable mode of kindling the fire at these periodic festivals is the analogy of the need-fire, which has almost always been produced by the friction of wood, and sometimes by the revolution of a wheel. It is a plausible conjecture that the wheel employed for this purpose represents the sun,[814] and if the fires at the regularly recurring celebrations were formerly produced in the same way, it might be regarded as a confirmation of the view that they were originally sun-charms. In point of fact there is, as Kuhn has indicated,[815] some evidence to shew that the midsummer fire was originally thus produced. We have seen that many Hungarian swineherds make fire on Midsummer Eve by rotating a wheel round a wooden axle wrapt in hemp, and that they drive their pigs through the fire thus made.[816] At Obermedlingen, in Swabia, the “fire of heaven,” as it was called, was made on St. Vitus’s Day (the fifteenth of June) by igniting a cartwheel, which, smeared with pitch and plaited with straw, was fastened on a pole twelve feet high, the top of the pole being inserted in the nave of the wheel. This fire was made on the summit of a mountain, and as the flame ascended, the people uttered a set form of words, with eyes and arms directed heavenward.[817] Here the fixing of a wheel on a pole and igniting it suggests that originally the fire was produced, as in the case of the need-fire, by the revolution of a wheel. The day on which the ceremony takes place (the fifteenth of June) is near midsummer; and we have seen that in Masuren fire is, or used to be, actually made on Midsummer Day by turning a wheel rapidly about an oaken pole,[818] though it is not said that the new fire so obtained is used to light a bonfire. However, we must bear in mind that in all such cases the use of a wheel may be merely a mechanical device to facilitate the operation of fire-making by increasing the friction; it need not have any symbolical significance.

[The influence which the fires are supposed to exert on the weather and vegetation may be thought to be due to an increase of solar heat produced by the fires.]

Further, the influence which these fires, whether periodic or occasional, are supposed to exert on the weather and vegetation may be cited in support of the view that they are sun-charms, since the effects ascribed to them resemble those of sunshine. Thus, the French belief that in a rainy June the lighting of the midsummer bonfires will cause the rain to cease[819] appears to assume that they can disperse the dark clouds and make the sun to break out in radiant glory, drying the wet earth and dripping trees. Similarly the use of the need-fire by Swiss children on foggy days for the purpose of clearing away the mist[820] may very naturally be interpreted as a sun-charm. Again, we have seen that in the Vosges Mountains the people believe that the midsummer fires help to preserve the fruits of the earth and ensure good crops.[821] In Sweden the warmth or cold of the coming season is inferred from the direction in which the flames of the May Day bonfire are blown; if they blow to the south, it will be warm, if to the north, cold.[822] No doubt at present the direction of the flames is regarded merely as an augury of the weather, not as a mode of influencing it. But we may be pretty sure that this is one of the cases in which magic has dwindled into divination. So in the Eifel Mountains, when the smoke blows towards the corn-fields, this is an omen that the harvest will be abundant.[823] But the older view may have been not merely that the smoke and flames prognosticated, but that they actually produced an abundant harvest, the heat of the flames acting like sunshine on the corn. Perhaps it was with this view that people in the Isle of Man lit fires to windward of their fields in order that the smoke might blow over them.[824] So in South Africa, about the month of April, the Matabeles light huge fires to the windward of their gardens, “their idea being that the smoke, by passing over the crops, will assist the ripening of them.”[825] Among the Zulus also “medicine is burned on a fire placed to windward of the garden, the fumigation which the plants in consequence receive being held to improve the crop.”[826] Again, the idea of our European peasants that the corn will grow well as far as the blaze of the bonfire is visible,[827] may be interpreted as a remnant of the belief in the quickening and fertilizing power of the bonfires. The same belief, it may be argued, reappears in the notion that embers taken from the bonfires and inserted in the fields will promote the growth of the crops,[828] and it may be thought to underlie the customs of sowing flax-seed in the direction in which the flames blow,[829] of mixing the ashes of the bonfire with the seed-corn at sowing,[830] of scattering the ashes by themselves over the field to fertilize it,[831] and of incorporating a piece of the Yule log in the plough to make the seeds thrive.[832] The opinion that the flax or hemp will grow as high as the flames rise or the people leap over them[833] belongs clearly to the same class of ideas. Again, at Konz, on the banks of the Moselle, if the blazing wheel which was trundled down the hillside reached the river without being extinguished, this was hailed as a proof that the vintage would be abundant. So firmly was this belief held that the successful performance of the ceremony entitled the villagers to levy a tax upon the owners of the neighbouring vineyards.[834] Here the unextinguished wheel might be taken to represent an unclouded sun, which in turn would portend an abundant vintage. So the waggon-load of white wine which the villagers received from the vineyards round about might pass for a payment for the sunshine which they had procured for the grapes. Similarly we saw that in the Vale of Glamorgan a blazing wheel used to be trundled down hill on Midsummer Day, and that if the fire were extinguished before the wheel reached the foot of the hill, the people expected a bad harvest; whereas if the wheel kept alight all the way down and continued to blaze for a long time, the farmers looked forward to heavy crops that summer.[835] Here, again, it is natural to suppose that the rustic mind traced a direct connexion between the fire of the wheel and the fire of the sun, on which the crops are dependent.

[The effect which the bonfires are supposed to have in fertilizing cattle and women may also be attributed to an increase of solar heat produced by the fires.]

But in popular belief the quickening and fertilizing influence of the bonfires is not limited to the vegetable world; it extends also to animals. This plainly appears from the Irish custom of driving barren cattle through the midsummer fires,[836] from the French belief that the Yule-log steeped in water helps cows to calve,[837] from the French and Servian notion that there will be as many chickens, calves, lambs, and kids as there are sparks struck out of the Yule log,[838] from the French custom of putting the ashes of the bonfires in the fowls’ nests to make the hens lay eggs,[839] and from the German practice of mixing the ashes of the bonfires with the drink of cattle in order to make the animals thrive.[840] Further, there are clear indications that even human fecundity is supposed to be promoted by the genial heat of the fires. In Morocco the people think that childless couples can obtain offspring by leaping over the midsummer bonfire.[841] It is an Irish belief that a girl who jumps thrice over the midsummer bonfire will soon marry and become the mother of many children;[842] in Flanders women leap over the Midsummer fires to ensure an easy delivery;[843] and in various parts of France they think that if a girl dances round nine fires she will be sure to marry within the year.[844] On the other hand, in Lechrain people say that if a young man and woman, leaping over the midsummer fire together, escape unsmirched, the young woman will not become a mother within twelve months:[845] the flames have not touched and fertilized her. In parts of Switzerland and France the lighting of the Yule log is accompanied by a prayer that the women may bear children, the she-goats bring forth kids, and the ewes drop lambs.[846] The rule observed in some places that the bonfires should be kindled by the person who was last married[847] seems to belong to the same class of ideas, whether it be that such a person is supposed to receive from, or to impart to, the fire a generative and fertilizing influence. The common practice of lovers leaping over the fires hand in hand may very well have originated in a notion that thereby their marriage would be blessed with offspring; and the like motive would explain the custom which obliges couples married within the year to dance to the light of torches.[848] And the scenes of profligacy which appear to have marked the midsummer celebration among the Esthonians,[849] as they once marked the celebration of May Day among ourselves, may have sprung, not from the mere license of holiday-makers, but from a crude notion that such orgies were justified, if not required, by some mysterious bond which linked the life of man to the courses of the heavens at this turning-point of the year.

[The custom of carrying lighted torches about the country at the festival may be explained as an attempt to diffuse the Sun’s heat.]

At the festivals which we are considering the custom of kindling bonfires is commonly associated with a custom of carrying lighted torches about the fields, the orchards, the pastures, the flocks and the herds; and we can hardly doubt that the two customs are only two different ways of attaining the same object, namely, the benefits which are believed to flow from the fire, whether it be stationary or portable. Accordingly if we accept the solar theory of the bonfires, we seem bound to apply it also to the torches; we must suppose that the practice of marching or running with blazing torches about the country is simply a means of diffusing far and wide the genial influence of the sunshine, of which these flickering flames are a feeble imitation. In favour of this view it may be said that sometimes the torches are carried about the fields for the express purpose of fertilizing them,[850] and for the same purpose live coals from the bonfires are sometimes placed in the fields “to prevent blight.”[851] On the Eve of Twelfth Day in Normandy men, women, and children run wildly through the fields and orchards with lighted torches, which they wave about the branches and dash against the trunks of the fruit-trees for the sake of burning the moss and driving away the moles and field mice. “They believe that the ceremony fulfils the double object of exorcizing the vermin whose multiplication would be a real calamity, and of imparting fecundity to the trees, the fields, and even the cattle”; and they imagine that the more the ceremony is prolonged, the greater will be the crop of fruit next autumn.[852] In Bohemia they say that the corn will grow as high as they fling the blazing besoms into the air.[853] Nor are such notions confined to Europe. In Corea, a few days before the New Year festival, the eunuchs of the palace swing burning torches, chanting invocations the while, and this is supposed to ensure bountiful crops for the next season.[854] The custom of trundling a burning wheel over the fields, which used to be observed in Poitou for the express purpose of fertilizing them,[855] may be thought to embody the same idea in a still more graphic form; since in this way the mock-sun itself, not merely its light and heat represented by torches, is made actually to pass over the ground which is to receive its quickening and kindly influence. Once more, the custom of carrying lighted brands round cattle[856] is plainly equivalent to driving the animals through the bonfire; and if the bonfire is a sun-charm, the torches must be so also.

Sec. 3. _The Purificatory Theory of the Fire-festivals_

[Theory that the fires at the festivals are purificatory, being intended to burn up all harmful things.]

Thus far we have considered what may be said for the theory that at the European fire-festivals the fire is kindled as a charm to ensure an abundant supply of sunshine for man and beast, for corn and fruits. It remains to consider what may be said against this theory and in favour of the view that in these rites fire is employed not as a creative but as a cleansing agent, which purifies men, animals, and plants by burning up and consuming the noxious elements, whether material or spiritual, which menace all living things with disease and death.

[The purificatory or destructive effect of the fires is often alleged by the people who light them; the great evil against which the fire at the festivals is directed appears to be witchcraft.]

First, then, it is to be observed that the people who practise the fire-customs appear never to allege the solar theory in explanation of them, while on the contrary they do frequently and emphatically put forward the purificatory theory. This is a strong argument in favour of the purificatory and against the solar theory; for the popular explanation of a popular custom is never to be rejected except for grave cause. And in the present case there seems to be no adequate reason for rejecting it. The conception of fire as a destructive agent, which can be turned to account for the consumption of evil things, is so simple and obvious that it could hardly escape the minds even of the rude peasantry with whom these festivals originated. On the other hand the conception of fire as an emanation of the sun, or at all events as linked to it by a bond of physical sympathy, is far less simple and obvious; and though the use of fire as a charm to produce sunshine appears to be undeniable,[857] nevertheless in attempting to explain popular customs we should never have recourse to a more recondite idea when a simpler one lies to hand and is supported by the explicit testimony of the people themselves. Now in the case of the fire-festivals the destructive aspect of fire is one upon which the people dwell again and again; and it is highly significant that the great evil against which the fire is directed appears to be witchcraft. Again and again we are told that the fires are intended to burn or repel the witches;[858] and the intention is sometimes graphically expressed by burning an effigy of a witch in the fire.[859] Hence, when we remember the great hold which the dread of witchcraft has had on the popular European mind in all ages, we may suspect that the primary intention of all these fire-festivals was simply to destroy or at all events get rid of the witches, who were regarded as the causes of nearly all the misfortunes and calamities that befall men, their cattle, and their crops.[860]

[Amongst the evils for which the fire-festivals are deemed remedies the foremost is cattle-disease, and cattle-disease is often supposed to be an effect of witchcraft.]

This suspicion is confirmed when we examine the evils for which the bonfires and torches were supposed to provide a remedy. Foremost, perhaps, among these evils we may reckon the diseases of cattle; and of all the ills that witches are believed to work there is probably none which is so constantly insisted on as the harm they do to the herds, particularly by stealing the milk from the cows.[861] Now it is significant that the need-fire, which may perhaps be regarded as the parent of the periodic fire-festivals, is kindled above all as a remedy for a murrain or other disease of cattle; and the circumstance suggests, what on general grounds seems probable, that the custom of kindling the need-fire goes back to a time when the ancestors of the European peoples subsisted chiefly on the products of their herds, and when agriculture as yet played a subordinate part in their lives. Witches and wolves are the two great foes still dreaded by the herdsman in many parts of Europe;[862] and we need not wonder that he should resort to fire as a powerful means of banning them both. Among Slavonic peoples it appears that the foes whom the need-fire is designed to combat are not so much living witches as vampyres and other evil spirits,[863] and the ceremony, as we saw, aims rather at repelling these baleful beings than at actually consuming them in the flames. But for our present purpose these distinctions are immaterial. The important thing to observe is that among the Slavs the need-fire, which is probably the original of all the ceremonial fires now under consideration, is not a sun-charm, but clearly and unmistakably nothing but a means of protecting man and beast against the attacks of maleficent creatures, whom the peasant thinks to burn or scare by the heat of the fire, just as he might burn or scare wild animals.

[Again, the bonfires are thought to avert hail, thunder, lightning, and other maladies, all of which are attributed to the maleficent arts of witches.]

Again, the bonfires are often supposed to protect the fields against hail[864] and the homestead against thunder and lightning.[865] But both hail and thunderstorms are frequently thought to be caused by witches;[866] hence the fire which bans the witches necessarily serves at the same time as a talisman against hail, thunder, and lightning. Further, brands taken from the bonfires are commonly kept in the houses to guard them against conflagration;[867] and though this may perhaps be done on the principle of homoeopathic magic, one fire being thought to act as a preventive of another, it is also possible that the intention may be to keep witch-incendiaries at bay. Again, people leap over the bonfires as a preventive of colic,[868] and look at the flames steadily in order to preserve their eyes in good health;[869] and both colic and sore eyes are in Germany, and probably elsewhere, set down to the machinations of witches.[870] Once more, to leap over the Midsummer fires or to circumambulate them is thought to prevent a person from feeling pains in his back at reaping;[871] and in Germany such pains are called “witch-shots” and ascribed to witchcraft.[872]

[The burning wheels rolled down hills and the burning discs and brooms thrown into the air may be intended to burn the invisible witches.]

But if the bonfires and torches of the fire-festivals are to be regarded primarily as weapons directed against witches and wizards, it becomes probable that the same explanation applies not only to the flaming discs which are hurled into the air, but also to the burning wheels which are rolled down hill on these occasions; discs and wheels, we may suppose, are alike intended to burn the witches who hover invisible in the air or haunt unseen the fields, the orchards, and the vineyards on the hillside.[873] Certainly witches are constantly thought to ride through the air on broomsticks or other equally convenient vehicles; and if they do so, how can you get at them so effectually as by hurling lighted missiles, whether discs, torches, or besoms, after them as they flit past overhead in the gloom? The South Slavonian peasant believes that witches ride in the dark hail-clouds; so he shoots at the clouds to bring down the hags, while he curses them, saying, “Curse, curse Herodias, thy mother is a heathen, damned of God and fettered through the Redeemer’s blood.” Also he brings out a pot of glowing charcoal on which he has thrown holy oil, laurel leaves, and wormwood to make a smoke. The fumes are supposed to ascend to the clouds and stupefy the witches, so that they tumble down to earth. And in order that they may not fall soft, but may hurt themselves very much, the yokel hastily brings out a chair and tilts it bottom up so that the witch in falling may break her legs on the legs of the chair. Worse than that, he cruelly lays scythes, bill-hooks and other formidable weapons edge upwards so as to cut and mangle the poor wretches when they drop plump upon them from the clouds.[874]

[On this view the fertility supposed to follow the use of fire results indirectly from breaking the spells of witches.]

On this view the fertility supposed to follow the application of fire in the form of bonfires, torches, discs, rolling wheels, and so forth, is not conceived as resulting directly from an increase of solar heat which the fire has magically generated; it is merely an indirect result obtained by freeing the reproductive powers of plants and animals from the fatal obstruction of witchcraft. And what is true of the reproduction of plants and animals may hold good also of the fertility of the human sexes. We have seen that the bonfires are supposed to promote marriage and to procure offspring for childless couples. This happy effect need not flow directly from any quickening or fertilizing energy in the fire; it may follow indirectly from the power of the fire to remove those obstacles which the spells of witches and wizards notoriously present to the union of man and wife.[875]

[On the whole the theory of the purificatory or destructive intention of the fire-festivals seems the more probable.]

On the whole, then, the theory of the purificatory virtue of the ceremonial fires appears more probable and more in accordance with the evidence than the opposing theory of their connexion with the sun. But Europe is not the only part of the world where ceremonies of this sort have been performed; elsewhere the passage through the flames or smoke or over the glowing embers of a bonfire, which is the central feature of most of the rites, has been employed as a cure or a preventive of various ills. We have seen that the midsummer ritual of fire in Morocco is practically identical with that of our European peasantry; and customs more or less similar have been observed by many races in various parts of the world. A consideration of some of them may help us to decide between the conflicting claims of the two rival theories, which explain the ceremonies as sun-charms or purifications respectively.

Notes:

[796] Above, pp. 116 _sq._, 119, 143, 165, 166, 168 _sq._, 172.

[797] Above, pp. 116, 117 _sq._, 119, 141, 143, 161, 162 _sq._, 163 _sq._, 173, 191, 201.

[798] W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstaemme_ (Berlin, 1875), pp. 521 _sqq._

[799] E. Westermarck, “Midsummer Customs in Morocco,” _Folk-lore_, xvi. (1905) pp. 44 _sqq.; id., The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_ (London, 1906-1908), i. 56; _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with Agriculture, certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in Morocco_ (Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 93-102.

[800] E. Mogk, “Sitten und Gebraeuche im Kreislauf des Jahres,” in R. Wuttke’s _Saechsische Volkskunde_*[2] (Dresden, 1901), pp. 310 _sq._

[801] _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition (London, 1900), iii. 312: “The custom of leaping over the fire and driving cattle through it may be intended, on the one hand, to secure for man and beast a share of the vital energy of the sun, and, on the other hand, to purge them of all evil influences; for to the primitive mind fire is the most powerful of all purificatory agents”; and again, _id._ iii. 314: “It is quite possible that in these customs the idea of the quickening power of fire may be combined with the conception of it as a purgative agent for the expulsion or destruction of evil beings, such as witches and the vermin that destroy the fruits of the earth. Certainly the fires are often interpreted in the latter way by the persons who light them; and this purgative use of the element comes out very prominently, as we have seen, in the general expulsion of demons from towns and villages. But in the present class of cases this aspect of fire may be secondary, if indeed it is more than a later misinterpretation of the custom.”

[802] _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 311 _sqq_.

[803] See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 254 _sqq_.

[804] Manilius, _Astronom_. v. 206 _sqq._:

“_Cum vero in vastos surget Nemeaeus
hiatus,
Exoriturque Canis, latratque Canicula flammas
Et rabit igne suo geminatque incendia solis,
Qua subdente facem terris radiosque movente_” etc.

Pliny, _Naturalis Historic_ xviii. 269 _sq_.: “_Exoritur dein post triduum fere ubique confessum inter omnes sidus ingens quod canis ortum vocamus, sole partem primam leonis ingresso. Hoc fit post solstitium XXIII. die. Sentiunt id maria et terrae, multae vero et ferae, ut suis locis diximus. Neque est minor ei veneratio quam descriptis in deos stellis accendique solem et magnam aestus obtinet causam_.”

[805] _Specimens of Bushman Folklore_ collected by the late W.H.I. Bleek, Ph.D., and L.C. Lloyd (London, 1911), pp. 339, 341. In quoting the passage I have omitted the brackets which the editors print for the purpose of indicating the words which are implied, but not expressed, in the original Bushman text.

[806] “The sun is a little warm, when this star appears in winter” (Editors of _Specimens of Bushman Folklore_).

[807] “With the stick that he had held in the fire, moving it up and down quickly” (Editors).

[808] “They take one arm out of the kaross, thereby exposing one shoulder blade to the sun” (Editors).

[809] See above, pp. 161, 162 _sq._ On the wheel as an emblem of the sun, see J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] ii. 585; A. Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Goettertranks_*[2] (Guetersloh, 1886), pp. 45 _sqq._; H. Gaidoz, “Le dieu gaulois du soleil et le symbolisme de la roue,” _Revue Archeologique_, iii. Serie, iv. (1884) pp. 14 _sqq._; William Simpson, _The Buddhist Praying Wheel_ (London, 1896), pp. 87 _sqq._ It is a popular Armenian idea that “the body of the sun has the shape of the wheel of a water-mill; it revolves and moves forward. As drops of water sputter from the mill-wheel, so sunbeams shoot out from the spokes of the sun-wheel” (M. Abeghian, _Der armenische Volksglaube_, Leipsic, 1899, p. 41). In the old Mexican picture-books the usual representation of the sun is “a wheel, often brilliant with many colours, the rays of which are so many bloodstained tongues, by means of which the Sun receives his nourishment” (E.J. Payne, _History of the New World called America_, Oxford, 1892, i. 521).

[810] Above, p. 169.

[811] Ernst Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebraeuche aus Schwaben_ (Stuttgart, 1852), p. 225; F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855), ii. 240; Anton Birlinger, _Volksthuemliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. 57, 97; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 510.

[812] Compare J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 521; J.W. Wolf, _Beitraege zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Gottingen und Leipsic, 1852-1857), ii. 389; Adalbert Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Goettertranks_*[2] (Guetersloh, 1886), pp. 41 _sq._, 47; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 521. Lindenbrog in his Glossary on the Capitularies (quoted by J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 502) expressly says: “The rustics in many parts of Germany, particularly on the festival of St. John the Baptist, wrench a stake from a fence, wind a rope round it, and pull it to and fro till it catches fire. This fire they carefully feed with straw and dry sticks and scatter the ashes over the vegetable gardens, foolishly and superstitiously imagining that in this way the caterpillar can be kept off. They call such a fire _nodfeur_ or _nodfyr_, that is to say need-fire.”

[813] Above, pp. 144 _sq._, 147 _sq._, 155, 169 _sq._, 175, 177, 179.

[814] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 509; J.W. Wolf, _Beitraege zur deutschen Mythologie_, i. 117; A. Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers_,*[2] pp. 47 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 521; W.E. Kelly, _Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore_ (London, 1863), p. 49.

[815] A. Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Goettertranks_*[2] (Guetersloh, 1886), p. 47.

[816] Above, p. 179.

[817] F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855), ii. 240, Sec. 443.

[818] Above, p. 177.

[819] Above, pp. 187 _sq._

[820] Above, pp. 279 _sq._

[821] Above, p. 188.

[822] Above, p. 159.

[823] Above, p. 116.

[824] Above, p. 201.

[825] L. Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_ (London, 1898), pp. 160 _sq._

[826] Rev. J. Shooter, _The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country_ (London, 1857), p. 18.

[827] Above, pp. 140, 142.

[828] Above, pp. 119, 165, 166, 173, 203.

[829] Above, p. 140.

[830] Above, p. 121.

[831] Above, pp. 141, 170, 190, 203, 248, 250, 264.

[832] Above, p. 251.

[833] Above, pp. 119, 165, 166, 168, 173, 174.

[834] Above, pp. 118, 163 _sq._

[835] Above, p. 201.

[836] Above, p. 203.

[837] Above, p. 250.

[838] Above, pp. 251, 262, 263, 264.

[839] Above, p. 112.

[840] Above, p. 141.

[841] Above, p. 214.

[842] Above, p. 204.

[843] Above, p. 194.

[844] Above, p. 185, 189; compare p. 174.

[845] Above, p. 166.

[846] Above, pp. 249, 250.

[847] Above, pp. 107, 109, 111, 119; compare pp. 116, 192, 193.

[848] Above, p. 115.

[849] Above, p. 180.

[850] Above, pp. 113, 142, 170, 233. The torches of Demeter, which figure so largely in her myth and on her monuments, are perhaps to be explained by this custom. See _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, i. 57. W. Mannhardt thought (_Baumkultus_, p. 536) that the torches in the modern European customs are imitations of lightning. At some of their ceremonies the Indians of North-West America imitate lightning by means of pitch-wood torches which are flashed through the roof of the house. See J.G. Swan, quoted by Franz Boas, “The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians,” _Report of the United States National Museum for 1895_ (Washington, 1897), p. 639.

[851] Above, p. 203.

[852] Amelie Bosquet, _La Normandie Romanesque et Merveilleuse_ (Paris and Rouen, 1845), pp. 295 _sq._; Jules Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_ (Conde-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 126-129. See _The Scapegoat_, pp. 316 _sq._

[853] Br. Jelinek, “Materialen zur Vorgeschichte mid Volkskunde Boehmens,” _Mittheilungen der anthropolog. Gesellschaft in Wien_ xxi. (1891) p. 13 note.

[854] Mrs. Bishop, _Korea and her Neighbours_ (London, 1898), ii. 56 _sq._

[855] Above, pp. 190 _sq._

[856] Above, pp. 178, 205, 206.

[857] See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 311 _sqq._

[858] Above, pp. 108, 109, 116, 118 _sq._, 121, 148, 154, 156, 157, 159, 160, 170, 171, 174, 175, 176, 180, 183, 185, 188, 232 _sq._, 245, 252, 253, 280, 292, 293, 295, 297. For more evidence of the use of fire to burn or expel witches on certain days of the year, see _The Scapegoat_ pp. 158 _sqq._ Less often the fires are thought to burn or repel evil spirits and vampyres. See above, pp. 146, 170, 172, 202, 252, 282, 285. Sometimes the purpose of the fires is to drive away dragons (above, pp. 161, 195).

[859] Above, pp. 107, 116, 118 _sq._, 159.

[860] “In short, of all the ills incident to the life of man, none are so formidable as witchcraft, before the combined influence of which, to use the language of an honest man who had himself severely suffered from its effects, the great laird of Grant himself could not stand them if they should fairly yoke upon him” (W. Grant Stewart, _The Popular Superstitions and Festive Amusements of the Highlanders of Scotland_, Edinburgh, 1823, pp. 202 _sq._). “Every misfortune and calamity that took place in the parish, such as ill-health, the death of friends, the loss of stock, and the failure of crops; yea to such a length did they carry their superstition, that even the inclemency of the seasons, were attributed to the influence of certain old women who were supposed to be in league, and had dealings with the Devil. These the common people thought had the power and too often the inclination to injure their property, and torment their persons” (_County Folklore_, vol. v. _Lincolnshire_, collected by Mrs. Gutch and Mabel Peacock, London, 1908, p. 76). “The county of Salop is no exception to the rule of superstition. The late vicar of a parish on the Clee Hills, startled to find that his parishioners still believed in witchcraft, once proposed to preach a sermon against it, but he was dissuaded from doing so by the parish schoolmaster, who assured him that the belief was so deeply rooted in the people’s minds that he would be more likely to alienate them from the Church than to weaken their faith in witchcraft” (Miss C.F. Burne and Miss G.F. Jackson, _Shropshire Folk-lore_, London, 1883, p. 145). “Wherever a man or any living creature falls sick, or a misfortune of any kind happens, without any natural cause being discoverable or rather lying on the surface, there in all probability witchcraft is at work. The sudden stiffness in the small of the back, which few people can account for at the time, is therefore called a ‘witch-shot’ and is really ascribed to witchcraft” (L. Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_, Oldenburg, 1867, i. p. 298, Sec. 209). What Sir Walter Scott said less than a hundred years ago is probably still true: “The remains of the superstition sometimes occur; there can be no doubt that the vulgar are still addicted to the custom of scoring above the breath (as it is termed), and other counter-spells, evincing that the belief in witchcraft is only asleep, and might in remote corners be again awakened to deeds of blood” (_Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft_, London, 1884, p. 272). Compare L. Strackerjan, _op. cit._ i. p. 340, Sec. 221: “The great power, the malicious wickedness of the witches, cause them to be feared and hated by everybody. The hatred goes so far that still at the present day you may hear it said right out that it is a pity burning has gone out of fashion, for the evil crew deserve nothing else. Perhaps the hatred might find vent yet more openly, if the fear were not so great.”

[861] For some evidence, see _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_; ii. 52-55, 330 _sqq._ It is a popular belief, universally diffused in Germany, that cattle-plagues are caused by witches (A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_,*[2] Berlin, 1869, p. 149 Sec. 216). The Scotch Highlanders thought that a witch could destroy the whole of a farmer’s live stock by hiding a small bag, stuffed with charms, in a cleft of the stable or byre (W. Grant Stewart, _The Popular superstitions and Festive Amusements of the Highlanders of Scotland_, Edinburgh, 1823, pp. 201 _sq._).

[862] _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 330 _sqq._

[863] Above, pp. 282, 284 _sq._

[864] Above, pp. 118, 121, 144, 145, 176.

[865] Above, pp. 121, 122, 124, 140 _sq._, 145, 146, 174, 176, 183, 184, 187, 188, 190, 191, 192, 249, 250, 252, 253, 254, 258.

[866] J. Grimm, _Deutsch Mythologie_,*[4] ii. 908 _sqq._; J.V. Grohmann, _Aberglauben und Gebraeuche aus Boehmen und Maehren_ (Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 32 Sec. 182; A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_*[2] (Berlin, 1869), pp. 149 _sq._, Sec.216; J. Ceredig Davies, _Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales_ (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 230; Alois John, _Sitte, Branch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westboehmen_ (Prague, 1905), p. 202.

[867] Above, pp. 108, 121, 140, 146, 165, 183, 188, 196, 250, 255, 256, 258.

[868] Above, pp. 107, 195 _sq._

[869] Above, pp. 162, 163, 166, 171, 174.

[870] A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_*[2] (Berlin, 1869), p. 351, Sec. 395.

[871] Above, pp. 165, 168, 189, compare 190.

[872] A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_*[2] (Berlin, 1869), p. 351, Sec. 395; L. Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg, 1867), i. p. 298, Sec. 209. See above, p. 343 note.

[873] In the Ammerland, a district of Oldenburg, you may sometimes see an old cart-wheel fixed over the principal door or on the gable of a house; it serves as a charm against witchcraft and is especially intended to protect the cattle as they are driven out and in. See L. Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg, 1867), i. p. 357, Sec. 236. Can this use of a wheel as a talisman against witchcraft be derived from the practice of rolling fiery wheels down hill for a similar purpose?

[874] F.S. Krauss, _Volksglaube und religioeser Brauch der Suedslaven_ (Muenster i. W., 1890), pp. 118 _sq._

[875] In German such spells are called _Nestelknuepfen_; in French, _nouer l’aiguilette_. See J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] ii. 897, 983; A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_*[2] (Berlin, 1869), p. 252 Sec. 396; K. Doutte, _Magic et Religion dans l’Afrique du Nord_ (Algiers, 1908), pp. 87 _sq._, 294 _sqq._; J.L.M. Nogues, _Les Moeurs d’autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis_ (Saintes, 1891), pp. 171 _sq._