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+Project Gutenberg's Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I., by Sir James George Frazer
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I.
+       A Study In Magic And Religion: The Golden Bough, Part VII., The
+       Fire-Festivals Of Europe And The Doctrine Of The External Soul
+       
+
+Author: Sir James George Frazer
+
+Release Date: May 4, 2004 [EBook #12261]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BALDER THE BEAUTIFUL, VOL. I. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Million Book Project, papeters, David King, and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+A STUDY IN MAGIC AND RELIGION
+
+_THIRD EDITION_
+
+PART VII
+
+BALDER THE BEAUTIFUL
+
+VOL. I
+
+BALDER
+THE BEAUTIFUL
+
+THE FIRE-FESTIVALS OF EUROPE
+AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE EXTERNAL SOUL
+
+J.G. FRAZER, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D.
+
+FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
+PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES
+VOL. I
+
+1913
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+In this concluding part of _The Golden Bough_ I have discussed the
+problem which gives its title to the whole work. If I am right, the
+Golden Bough over which the King of the Wood, Diana's priest at Aricia,
+kept watch and ward was no other than a branch of mistletoe growing on
+an oak within the sacred grove; and as the plucking of the bough was a
+necessary prelude to the slaughter of the priest, I have been led to
+institute a parallel between the King of the Wood at Nemi and the Norse
+god Balder, who was worshipped in a sacred grove beside the beautiful
+Sogne fiord of Norway and was said to have perished by a stroke of
+mistletoe, which alone of all things on earth or in heaven could wound
+him. On the theory here suggested both Balder and the King of the Wood
+personified in a sense the sacred oak of our Aryan forefathers, and both
+had deposited their lives or souls for safety in the parasite which
+sometimes, though rarely, is found growing on an oak and by the very
+rarity of its appearance excites the wonder and stimulates the devotion
+of ignorant men. Though I am now less than ever disposed to lay weight
+on the analogy between the Italian priest and the Norse god, I have
+allowed it to stand because it furnishes me with a pretext for
+discussing not only the general question of the external soul in popular
+superstition, but also the fire-festivals of Europe, since fire played a
+part both in the myth of Balder and in the ritual of the Arician grove.
+Thus Balder the Beautiful in my hands is little more than a
+stalking-horse to carry two heavy pack-loads of facts. And what is true
+of Balder applies equally to the priest of Nemi himself, the nominal
+hero of the long tragedy of human folly and suffering which has unrolled
+itself before the readers of these volumes, and on which the curtain is
+now about to fall. He, too, for all the quaint garb he wears and the
+gravity with which he stalks across the stage, is merely a puppet, and
+it is time to unmask him before laying him up in the box.
+
+To drop metaphor, while nominally investigating a particular problem of
+ancient mythology, I have really been discussing questions of more
+general interest which concern the gradual evolution of human thought
+from savagery to civilization. The enquiry is beset with difficulties of
+many kinds, for the record of man's mental development is even more
+imperfect than the record of his physical development, and it is harder
+to read, not only by reason of the incomparably more subtle and complex
+nature of the subject, but because the reader's eyes are apt to be
+dimmed by thick mists of passion and prejudice, which cloud in a far
+less degree the fields of comparative anatomy and geology. My
+contribution to the history of the human mind consists of little more
+than a rough and purely provisional classification of facts gathered
+almost entirely from printed sources. If there is one general conclusion
+which seems to emerge from the mass of particulars, I venture to think
+that it is the essential similarity in the working of the less developed
+human mind among all races, which corresponds to the essential
+similarity in their bodily frame revealed by comparative anatomy. But
+while this general mental similarity may, I believe, be taken as
+established, we must always be on our guard against tracing to it a
+multitude of particular resemblances which may be and often are due to
+simple diffusion, since nothing is more certain than that the various
+races of men have borrowed from each other many of their arts and
+crafts, their ideas, customs, and institutions. To sift out the elements
+of culture which a race has independently evolved and to distinguish
+them accurately from those which it has derived from other races is a
+task of extreme difficulty and delicacy, which promises to occupy
+students of man for a long time to come; indeed so complex are the facts
+and so imperfect in most cases is the historical record that it may be
+doubted whether in regard to many of the lower races we shall ever
+arrive at more than probable conjectures.
+
+Since the last edition of _The Golden Bough_ was published some thirteen
+years ago, I have seen reason to change my views on several matters
+discussed in this concluding part of the work, and though I have called
+attention to these changes in the text, it may be well for the sake of
+clearness to recapitulate them here.
+
+In the first place, the arguments of Dr. Edward Westermarck have
+satisfied me that the solar theory of the European fire-festivals, which
+I accepted from W. Mannhardt, is very slightly, if at all, supported by
+the evidence and is probably erroneous. The true explanation of the
+festivals I now believe to be the one advocated by Dr. Westermarck
+himself, namely that they are purificatory in intention, the fire being
+designed not, as I formerly held, to reinforce the sun's light and heat
+by sympathetic magic, but merely to burn or repel the noxious things,
+whether conceived as material or spiritual, which threaten the life of
+man, of animals, and of plants. This aspect of the fire-festivals had
+not wholly escaped me in former editions; I pointed it out explicitly,
+but, biassed perhaps by the great authority of Mannhardt, I treated it
+as secondary and subordinate instead of primary and dominant. Out of
+deference to Mannhardt, for whose work I entertain the highest respect,
+and because the evidence for the purificatory theory of the fires is
+perhaps not quite conclusive, I have in this edition repeated and even
+reinforced the arguments for the solar theory of the festivals, so that
+the reader may see for himself what can be said on both sides of the
+question and may draw his own conclusion; but for my part I cannot but
+think that the arguments for the purificatory theory far outweigh the
+arguments for the solar theory. Dr. Westermarck based his criticisms
+largely on his own observations of the Mohammedan fire-festivals of
+Morocco, which present a remarkable resemblance to those of Christian
+Europe, though there seems no reason to assume that herein Africa has
+borrowed from Europe or Europe from Africa. So far as Europe is
+concerned, the evidence tends strongly to shew that the grand evil which
+the festivals aimed at combating was witchcraft, and that they were
+conceived to attain their end by actually burning the witches, whether
+visible or invisible, in the flames. If that was so, the wide prevalence
+and the immense popularity of the fire-festivals provides us with a
+measure for estimating the extent of the hold which the belief in
+witchcraft had on the European mind before the rise of Christianity or
+rather of rationalism; for Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant,
+accepted the old belief and enforced it in the old way by the faggot and
+the stake. It was not until human reason at last awoke after the long
+slumber of the Middle Ages that this dreadful obsession gradually passed
+away like a dark cloud from the intellectual horizon of Europe.
+
+Yet we should deceive ourselves if we imagined that the belief in
+witchcraft is even now dead in the mass of the people; on the contrary
+there is ample evidence to show that it only hibernates under the
+chilling influence of rationalism, and that it would start into active
+life if that influence were ever seriously relaxed. The truth seems to
+be that to this day the peasant remains a pagan and savage at heart; his
+civilization is merely a thin veneer which the hard knocks of life soon
+abrade, exposing the solid core of paganism and savagery below. The
+danger created by a bottomless layer of ignorance and superstition under
+the crust of civilized society is lessened, not only by the natural
+torpidity and inertia of the bucolic mind, but also by the progressive
+decrease of the rural as compared with the urban population in modern
+states; for I believe it will be found that the artisans who congregate
+in towns are far less retentive of primitive modes of thought than their
+rustic brethren. In every age cities have been the centres and as it
+were the lighthouses from which ideas radiate into the surrounding
+darkness, kindled by the friction of mind with mind in the crowded
+haunts of men; and it is natural that at these beacons of intellectual
+light all should partake in some measure of the general illumination. No
+doubt the mental ferment and unrest of great cities have their dark as
+well as their bright side; but among the evils to be apprehended from
+them the chances of a pagan revival need hardly be reckoned.
+
+Another point on which I have changed my mind is the nature of the great
+Aryan god whom the Romans called Jupiter and the Greeks Zeus. Whereas I
+formerly argued that he was primarily a personification of the sacred
+oak and only in the second place a personification of the thundering
+sky, I now invert the order of his divine functions and believe that he
+was a sky-god before he came to be associated with the oak. In fact, I
+revert to the traditional view of Jupiter, recant my heresy, and am
+gathered like a lost sheep into the fold of mythological orthodoxy. The
+good shepherd who has brought me back is my friend Mr. W. Warde Fowler.
+He has removed the stone over which I stumbled in the wilderness by
+explaining in a simple and natural way how a god of the thundering sky
+might easily come to be afterwards associated with the oak. The
+explanation turns on the great frequency with which, as statistics
+prove, the oak is struck by lightning beyond any other tree of the wood
+in Europe. To our rude forefathers, who dwelt in the gloomy depths of
+the primaeval forest, it might well seem that the riven and blackened
+oaks must indeed be favourites of the sky-god, who so often descended on
+them from the murky cloud in a flash of lightning and a crash of
+thunder.
+
+This change of view as to the great Aryan god necessarily affects my
+interpretation of the King of the Wood, the priest of Diana at Aricia,
+if I may take that discarded puppet out of the box again for a moment.
+On my theory the priest represented Jupiter in the flesh, and
+accordingly, if Jupiter was primarily a sky-god, his priest cannot have
+been a mere incarnation of the sacred oak, but must, like the deity
+whose commission he bore, have been invested in the imagination of his
+worshippers with the power of overcasting the heaven with clouds and
+eliciting storms of thunder and rain from the celestial vault. The
+attribution of weather-making powers to kings or priests is very common
+in primitive society, and is indeed one of the principal levers by which
+such personages raise themselves to a position of superiority above
+their fellows. There is therefore no improbability in the supposition
+that as a representative of Jupiter the priest of Diana enjoyed this
+reputation, though positive evidence of it appears to be lacking.
+
+Lastly, in the present edition I have shewn some grounds for thinking
+that the Golden Bough itself, or in common parlance the mistletoe on the
+oak, was supposed to have dropped from the sky upon the tree in a flash
+of lightning and therefore to contain within itself the seed of
+celestial fire, a sort of smouldering thunderbolt. This view of the
+priest and of the bough which he guarded at the peril of his life has
+the advantage of accounting for the importance which the sanctuary at
+Nemi acquired and the treasure which it amassed through the offerings of
+the faithful; for the shrine would seem to have been to ancient what
+Loreto has been to modern Italy, a place of pilgrimage, where princes
+and nobles as well as commoners poured wealth into the coffers of Diana
+in her green recess among the Alban hills, just as in modern times kings
+and queens vied with each other in enriching the black Virgin who from
+her Holy House on the hillside at Loreto looks out on the blue Adriatic
+and the purple Apennines. Such pious prodigality becomes more
+intelligible if the greatest of the gods was indeed believed to dwell in
+human shape with his wife among the woods of Nemi.
+
+These are the principal points on which I have altered my opinion since
+the last edition of my book was published. The mere admission of such
+changes may suffice to indicate the doubt and uncertainty which attend
+enquiries of this nature. The whole fabric of ancient mythology is so
+foreign to our modern ways of thought, and the evidence concerning it is
+for the most part so fragmentary, obscure, and conflicting that in our
+attempts to piece together and interpret it we can hardly hope to reach
+conclusions that will completely satisfy either ourselves or others. In
+this as in other branches of study it is the fate of theories to be
+washed away like children's castles of sand by the rising tide of
+knowledge, and I am not so presumptuous as to expect or desire for mine
+an exemption from the common lot. I hold them all very lightly and have
+used them chiefly as convenient pegs on which to hang my collections of
+facts. For I believe that, while theories are transitory, a record of
+facts has a permanent value, and that as a chronicle of ancient customs
+and beliefs my book may retain its utility when my theories are as
+obsolete as the customs and beliefs themselves deserve to be.
+
+I cannot dismiss without some natural regret a task which has occupied
+and amused me at intervals for many years. But the regret is tempered by
+thankfulness and hope. I am thankful that I have been able to conclude
+at least one chapter of the work I projected a long time ago. I am
+hopeful that I may not now be taking a final leave of my indulgent
+readers, but that, as I am sensible of little abatement in my bodily
+strength and of none in my ardour for study, they will bear with me yet
+a while if I should attempt to entertain them with fresh subjects of
+laughter and tears drawn from the comedy and the tragedy of man's
+endless quest after happiness and truth.
+
+J.G. FRAZER.
+
+CAMBRIDGE, 17_th October_ 1913.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+PREFACE, Pp. v-xii
+
+CHAPTER I.--BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH, Pp. 1-21
+
+§ 1. _Not to touch the Earth_, pp. 1-18.--The priest of Aricia and the
+Golden Bough, 1 _sq._; sacred kings and priests forbidden to touch the
+ground with their feet, 2-4; certain persons on certain occasions
+forbidden to touch the ground with their feet, 4-6; sacred persons
+apparently thought to be charged with a mysterious virtue which will run
+to waste or explode by contact with the ground, 6 _sq._; things as well
+as persons charged with the mysterious virtue of holiness or taboo and
+therefore kept from contact with the ground, 7; festival of the wild
+mango, which is not allowed to touch the earth, 7-11; other sacred
+objects kept from contact with the ground, 11 _sq._; sacred food not
+allowed to touch the earth, 13 _sq._; magical implements and remedies
+thought to lose their virtue by contact with the ground, 14 _sq._;
+serpents' eggs or snake stones, 15 _sq._; medicinal plants, water, etc.,
+not allowed to touch the earth, 17 _sq._
+
+§ 2. _Not to see the Sun_, pp. 18-21.--Sacred persons not allowed to see
+the sun, 18-20; tabooed persons not allowed to see the sun, 20; certain
+persons forbidden to see fire, 20 _sq._; the story of Prince Sunless,
+21.
+
+CHAPTER II.--THE SECLUSION OF GIRLS AT PUBERTY, Pp. 22-100
+
+§ 1. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Africa_, pp. 22-32.--Girls at
+puberty forbidden to touch the ground and see the sun, 22; seclusion of
+girls at puberty among the Zulus and kindred tribes, 22; among the
+A-Kamba of British East Africa, 23; among the Baganda of Central Africa,
+23 _sq._; among the tribes of the Tanganyika plateau, 24 _sq._; among
+the tribes of British Central Africa, 25 _sq._; abstinence from salt
+associated with a rule of chastity in many tribes, 26-28; seclusion of
+girls at puberty among the tribes about Lake Nyassa and on the Zambesi,
+28 _sq._; among the Thonga of Delagoa Bay, 29 _sq._; among the Caffre
+tribes of South Africa, 30 _sq._; among the Bavili of the Lower Congo,
+31 _sq._
+
+§ 2. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in New Ireland, New Guinea, and
+Indonesia_, pp. 32-36.--Seclusion of girls at puberty in New Ireland,
+32-34; in New Guinea, Borneo, Ceram, and the Caroline Islands, 35 _sq._
+
+§ 3. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in the Torres Straits Islands and
+Northern Australia_, pp. 36-41.--Seclusion of girls at puberty in
+Mabuiag, Torres Straits, 36 _sq._; in Northern Australia, 37-39; in the
+islands of Torres Straits, 39-41.
+
+§ 4. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of North America_,
+pp. 41-55.--Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of
+California, 41-43; among the Indians of Washington State, 43; among the
+Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island, 43 _sq._; among the Haida Indians of
+the Queen Charlotte Islands, 44 _sq._; among the Tlingit Indians of
+Alaska, 45 _sq._; among the Tsetsaut and Bella Coola Indians of British
+Columbia, 46 _sq._; among the Tinneh Indians of British Columbia, 47
+_sq._; among the Tinneh Indians of Alaska, 48 _sq._; among the Thompson
+Indians of British Columbia, 49-52; among the Lillooet Indians of
+British Columbia, 52 _sq._; among the Shuswap Indians of British
+Columbia, 53 _sq._; among the Delaware and Cheyenne Indians, 54 _sq._;
+among the Esquimaux, 55 _sq._
+
+§ 5. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of South America_,
+pp. 56-68.--Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Guaranis,
+Chiriguanos, and Lengua Indians, 56 _sq._; among the Yuracares of
+Bolivia, 57 _sq._; among the Indians of the Gran Chaco, 58 _sq._; among
+the Indians of Brazil, 59 _sq._; among the Indians of Guiana, 60 _sq._;
+beating the girls and stinging them with ants, 61; stinging young men
+with ants and wasps as an initiatory rite, 61-63; stinging men and women
+with ants to improve their character or health or to render them
+invulnerable, 63 _sq._; in such cases the beating or stinging was
+originally a purification, not a test of courage and endurance, 65
+_sq._; this explanation confirmed by the beating of girls among the
+Banivas of the Orinoco to rid them of a demon, 66-68; symptoms of
+puberty in a girl regarded as wounds inflicted on her by a demon, 68.
+
+§ 6. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in India and Cambodia_, pp.
+68-70.--Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Hindoos, 68; in Southern
+India, 68-70; in Cambodia, 70.
+
+§ 7. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Folk-tales_, pp. 70-76.--Danish
+story of the girl who might not see the sun, 70-72; Tyrolese story of
+the girl who might not see the sun, 72; modern Greek stories of the maid
+who might not see the sun, 72 _sq._; ancient Greek story of Danae and
+its parallel in a Kirghiz legend, 73 _sq._; impregnation of women by the
+sun in legends, 74 _sq._; traces in marriage customs of the belief that
+women can be impregnated by the sun, 75; belief in the impregnation of
+women by the moon, 75 _sq._
+
+§ 8. _Reasons for the Seclusion of Girls at Puberty_, pp. 76-100.--The
+reason for the seclusion of girls at puberty is the dread of menstruous
+blood, 76; dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the aborigines
+of Australia, 76-78; in Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea, Galela, and
+Sumatra, 78 _sq._; among the tribes of South Africa, 79 _sq._; among the
+tribes of Central and East Africa, 80-82; among the tribes of West
+Africa, 82; powerful influence ascribed to menstruous blood in Arab
+legend, 82 _sq._; dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Jews
+and in Syria, 83 _sq._; in India, 84 _sq._; in Annam, 85; among the
+Indians of Central and South America, 85 _sq._; among the Indians of
+North America, 87-94; among the Creek, Choctaw, Omaha and Cheyenne
+Indians, 88 _sq._; among the Indians of British Columbia, 89 _sq._;
+among the Chippeway Indians, 90 _sq._; among the Tinneh or Déné Indians,
+91; among the Carrier Indians, 91-94; similar rules of seclusion
+enjoined on menstruous women in ancient Hindoo, Persian, and Hebrew
+codes, 94-96; superstitions as to menstruous women in ancient and modern
+Europe, 96 _sq._; the intention of secluding menstruous women is to
+neutralize the dangerous influences which are thought to emanate from
+them in that condition, 97; suspension between heaven and earth, 97; the
+same explanation applies to the similar rules of seclusion observed by
+divine kings and priests, 97-99; stories of immortality attained by
+suspension between heaven and earth, 99 _sq._
+
+CHAPTER III.--THE MYTH OF BALDER, Pp. 101-105
+
+How Balder, the good and beautiful god, was done to death by a stroke of
+mistletoe, 101 _sq._; story of Balder in the older _Edda_, 102 _sq._;
+story of Balder as told by Saxo Grammaticus, 103; Balder worshipped in
+Norway, 104; legendary death of Balder resembles the legendary death of
+Isfendiyar in the epic of Firdusi, 104 _sq._; the myth of Balder perhaps
+acted as a magical ceremony; the two main incidents of the myth, namely
+the pulling of the mistletoe and the burning of the god, have perhaps
+their counterpart in popular ritual, 105.
+
+CHAPTER IV.--THE FIRE FESTIVALS OF EUROPE, Pp. 106-327
+
+§ 1. _The Lenten Fires_, pp. 106-120.--European custom of kindling
+bonfires on certain days of the year, dancing round them, leaping over
+them, and burning effigies in the flames, 106; seasons of the year at
+which the bonfires are lit, 106 _sq._; bonfires on the first Sunday in
+Lent in the Belgian Ardennes, 107 _sq._; in the French department of the
+Ardennes, 109 _sq._; in Franche-Comté, 110 _sq._; in Auvergne, 111-113;
+French custom of carrying lighted torches (_brandons_) about the
+orchards and fields to fertilize them on the first Sunday of Lent,
+113-115; bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in Germany and Austria,
+115 _sq._; "burning the witch," 116; burning discs thrown into the air,
+116 _sq._; burning wheels rolled down hill, 117 _sq._; bonfires on the
+first Sunday in Lent in Switzerland, 118 _sq._; burning discs thrown
+into the air, 119; connexion of these fires with the custom of "carrying
+out Death," 119 _sq._
+
+§ 2. _The Easter Fires_, 120-146.--Custom in Catholic countries of
+kindling a holy new fire on Easter Saturday, marvellous properties
+ascribed to the embers of the fire, 121; effigy of Judas burnt in the
+fire, 121; Easter fires in Bavaria and the Abruzzi, 122; water as well
+as fire consecrated at Easter in Italy, Bohemia, and Germany, 122-124;
+new fire at Easter in Carinthia, 124; Thomas Kirchmeyer's account of the
+consecration of fire and water by the Catholic Church at Easter, 124
+_sq._; the new fire on Easter Saturday at Florence, 126 _sq._; the new
+fire and the burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in Mexico and South
+America, 127 _sq._; the new fire on Easter Saturday in the Church of the
+Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, 128-130; the new fire and the burning of
+Judas on Easter Saturday in Greece, 130 _sq._; the new fire at Candlemas
+in Armenia, 131; the new fire and the burning of Judas at Easter are
+probably relics of paganism, 131 _sq._; new fire at the summer solstice
+among the Incas of Peru, 132; new fire among the Indians of Mexico and
+New Mexico, the Iroquois, and the Esquimaux, 132-134; new fire in Wadai,
+among the Swahili, and in other parts of Africa, 134-136; new fires
+among the Todas and Nagas of India, 136; new fire in China and Japan,
+137 _sq._; new fire in ancient Greece and Rome, 138; new fire at
+Hallowe'en among the old Celts of Ireland, 139; new fire on the first of
+September among the Russian peasants, 139; the rite of the new fire
+probably common to many peoples of the Mediterranean area before the
+rise of Christianity, 139 _sq._; the pagan character of the Easter fire
+manifest from the superstitions associated with it, such as the belief
+that the fire fertilizes the fields and protects houses from
+conflagration and sickness, 140 _sq._; the Easter fires in Münsterland,
+Oldenburg, the Harz Mountains, and the Altmark, 141-143; Easter fires
+and the burning of Judas or the Easter Man in Bavaria, 143 _sq._; Easter
+fires and "thunder poles" in Baden, 145; Easter fires in Holland and
+Sweden, 145 _sq._; the burning of Judas in Bohemia, 146.
+
+§ 3. _The Beltane Fires_, pp. 146-160.--The Beltane fires on the first
+of May in the Highlands of Scotland, 146-154; John Ramsay of Ochtertyre,
+his description of the Beltane fires and cakes and the Beltane carline,
+146-149; Beltane fires and cakes in Perthshire, 150-153; Beltane fires
+in the north-east of Scotland to burn the witches, 153 _sq._; Beltane
+fires and cakes in the Hebrides, 154; Beltane fires and cakes in Wales,
+155-157; in the Isle of Man to burn the witches, 157; in
+Nottinghamshire, 157; in Ireland, 157-159; fires on the Eve of May Day
+in Sweden, 159; in Austria and Saxony to burn the witches, 159 _sq._
+
+§ 4. _The Midsummer Fires_, pp. 160-219.--The great season for
+fire-festivals in Europe is Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day, which the
+church has dedicated to St. John the Baptist, 160 _sq._; the bonfires,
+the torches, and the burning wheels of the festival, 161; Thomas
+Kirchmeyer's description of the Midsummer festival, 162 _sq._; the
+Midsummer fires in Germany, 163-171; burning wheel rolled down hill at
+Konz on the Moselle, 163 _sq._; Midsummer fires in Bavaria, 164-166; in
+Swabia, 166 _sq._; in Baden, 167-169; in Alsace, Lorraine, the Eifel,
+the Harz district, and Thuringia, 169; Midsummer fires kindled by the
+friction of wood, 169 _sq._; driving away the witches and demons, 170;
+Midsummer fires in Silesia, scaring away the witches, 170 _sq._;
+Midsummer fires in Denmark and Norway, keeping off the witches, 171;
+Midsummer fires in Sweden, 172; Midsummer fires in Switzerland and
+Austria, 172 _sq._; in Bohemia, 173-175; in Moravia, Austrian Silesia,
+and the district of Cracow, 175; among the Slavs of Russia, 176; in
+Prussia and Lithuania as a protection against witchcraft, thunder, hail,
+and cattle disease, 176 _sq._; in Masuren the fire is kindled by the
+revolution of a wheel, 177; Midsummer fires among the Letts of Russia,
+177 _sq._; among the South Slavs, 178; among the Magyars, 178 _sq._;
+among the Esthonians, 179 _sq._; among the Finns and Cheremiss of
+Russia, 180 _sq._; in France, 181-194; Bossuet on the Midsummer
+festival, 182; the Midsummer fires in Brittany, 183-185; in Normandy,
+the Brotherhood of the Green Wolf at Jumièges, 185 _sq._; Midsummer
+fires in Picardy, 187 _sq._; in Beauce and Perche, 188; the fires a
+protection against witchcraft, 188; the Midsummer fires in the Ardennes,
+the Vosges, and the Jura, 188 _sq._; in Franche-Comté, 189; in Berry and
+other parts of Central France, 189 _sq._; in Poitou, 190 _sq._; in the
+departments of Vienne and Deux-Sèvres and in the provinces of Saintonge
+and Aunis, 191 _sq._; in Southern France, 192 _sq._; Midsummer festival
+of fire and water in Provence, 193 _sq._; Midsummer fires in Belgium,
+194-196; in England, 196-200; Stow's description of the Midsummer fires
+in London, 196 _sq._; John Aubrey on the Midsummer fires, 197; Midsummer
+fires in Cumberland, Northumberland, and Yorkshire, 197 _sq._; in
+Herefordshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, 199 _sq._; in
+Wales and the Isle of Man, 200 _sq._; in Ireland, 201-205; holy wells
+resorted to on Midsummer Eve in Ireland, 205 _sq._; Midsummer fires in
+Scotland, 206 _sq._; Midsummer fires and divination in Spain and the
+Azores, 208 _sq._; Midsummer fires in Corsica and Sardinia, 209; in the
+Abruzzi, 209 _sq._; in Sicily, 210; in Malta, 210 _sq._; in Greece and
+the Greek islands, 211 _sq._; in Macedonia and Albania, 212; in South
+America, 212 _sq._; among the Mohammedans of Morocco and Algeria,
+213-216; the Midsummer festival in North Africa comprises rites of water
+as well as fire, 216; similar festival of fire and water at New Year in
+North Africa, 217 _sq._; the duplication of the festival probably due to
+a conflict between the solar calendar of the Romans and the lunar
+calendar of the Arabs, 218 _sg._; the Midsummer festival in Morocco
+apparently of Berber origin, 219.
+
+§ 5. _The Autumn Fires_, pp. 220-222.--Festivals of fire in August, 220;
+"living fire" made by the friction of wood, 220; feast of the Nativity
+of the Virgin on the eighth of September at Capri and Naples, 220-222.
+
+§ 6. _The Halloween Fires_, pp. 222-246.--While the Midsummer festival
+implies observation of the solstices, the Celts appear to have divided
+their year, without regard to the solstices, by the times when they
+drove their cattle to and from the summer pasture on the first of May
+and the last of October (Hallowe'en), 222-224; the two great Celtic
+festivals of Beltane (May Day) and Hallowe'en (the last of October),
+224; Hallowe'en seems to have marked the beginning of the Celtic year,
+224 _sq._; it was a season of divination and a festival of the dead, 225
+_sq._; fairies and hobgoblins let loose at Hallowe'en, 226-228;
+divination in Celtic countries at Hallowe'en, 228 _sq._; Hallowe'en
+bonfires in the Highlands of Scotland, 229-232; Hallowe'en fires in
+Buchan to burn the witches, 232 _sq._; processions with torches at
+Hallowe'en in the Braemar Highlands, 233 _sq._; divination at Hallowe'en
+in the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland, 234-239; Hallowe'en fires in
+Wales, omens drawn from stones cast into the fires, 239 _sq._;
+divination at Hallowe'en in Wales, 240 _sq._; divination at Hallowe'en
+in Ireland, 241-243; Hallowe'en fires and divination in the Isle of Man,
+243 _sq._; Hallowe'en fires and divination in Lancashire, 244 _sq._;
+marching with lighted candles to keep off the witches, 245; divination
+at Hallowe'en in Northumberland, 245; Hallowe'en fires in France, 245
+_sq._
+
+§ 7. _The Midwinter Fires_, pp. 246-269.--Christmas the continuation of
+an old heathen festival of the sun, 246; the Yule log the Midwinter
+counterpart of the Midsummer bonfire, 247; the Yule log in Germany,
+247-249; in Switzerland, 249; in Belgium, 249; in France, 249-255;
+French superstitions as to the Yule log, 250; the Yule log at Marseilles
+and in Perigord, 250 _sq._; in Berry, 251 _sq._; in Normandy and
+Brittany, 252 _sq._; in the Ardennes, 253 _sq._; in the Vosges, 254; in
+Franche-Comté, 254 _sq._; the Yule log and Yule candle in England,
+255-258; the Yule log in the north of England and Yorkshire, 256 _sq._;
+in Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire, 257 _sq._;
+in Wales, 258; in Servia, 258-262; among the Servians of Slavonia, 262
+_sq._; among the Servians of Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro, 263
+_sq._; in Albania, 264; belief that the Yule log protects against fire
+and lightning, 264 _sq._; public fire-festivals at Midwinter, 265-269;
+Christmas bonfire at Schweina in Thuringia, 265 _sq._; Christmas
+bonfires in Normandy, 266; bonfires on St. Thomas's Day in the Isle of
+Man, 266; the "Burning of the Clavie" at Burghead on the last day of
+December, 266-268; Christmas procession with burning tar-barrels at
+Lerwick, 268 _sq._
+
+§ 8. _The Need-fire_, pp. 269-300.--Need-fire kindled not at fixed
+periods but on occasions of distress and calamity, 269; the need-fire in
+the Middle Ages and down to the end of the sixteenth century, 270 _sq._;
+mode of kindling the need-fire by the friction of wood, 271 _sq_.; the
+need-fire in Central Germany, particularly about Hildesheim, 272 _sq._;
+the need-fire in the Mark, 273; in Mecklenburg, 274 _sq._; in Hanover,
+275 _sq._; in the Harz Mountains, 276 _sq._; in Brunswick, 277 _sq._; in
+Silesia and Bohemia, 278 _sq._; in Switzerland, 279 _sq._; in Sweden and
+Norway, 280; among the Slavonic peoples, 281-286; in Russia and Poland,
+281 _sq._; in Slavonia, 282; in Servia, 282-284; in Bulgaria, 284-286;
+in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 286; in England, 286-289; in Yorkshire,
+286-288; in Northumberland, 288 _sq._; in Scotland, 289-297; Martin's
+account of it in the Highlands, 289; the need-fire in Mull, 289 _sq._;
+in Caithness, 290-292; W. Grant Stewart's account of the need-fire, 292
+_sq._; Alexander Carmichael's account, 293-295; the need-fire in
+Aberdeenshire, 296; in Perthshire, 296 _sq._; in Ireland, 297; the use
+of need-fire a relic of the time when all fires were similarly kindled
+by the friction of wood, 297 _sq._; the belief that need-fire cannot
+kindle if any other fire remains alight in the neighbourhood, 298 _sq._;
+the need-fire among the Iroquois of North America, 299 _sq._
+
+§ 9. _The Sacrifice of an Animal to stay a Cattle-plague_, pp.
+300-327.--The burnt sacrifice of a calf in England and Wales, 300 _sq._;
+burnt sacrifices of animals in Scotland, 301 _sq._; calf burnt in order
+to break a spell which has been cast on the herd, 302 _sq._; mode in
+which the burning of a bewitched animal is supposed to break the spell,
+303-305; in burning the bewitched animal you burn the witch herself,
+305; practice of burning cattle and sheep as sacrifices in the Isle of
+Man, 305-307; by burning a bewitched animal you compel the witch to
+appear, 307; magic sympathy between the witch and the bewitched animal,
+308; similar sympathy between a were-wolf and his or her human shape,
+wounds inflicted on the animal are felt by the man or woman, 308;
+were-wolves in Europe, 308-310; in China, 310 _sq._; among the Toradjas
+of Central Celebes, 311-313 _sq._; in the Egyptian Sudan, 313 _sq._; the
+were-wolf story in Petronius, 313 _sq._; witches like were-wolves can
+temporarily transform themselves into animals, and wounds inflicted on
+the transformed animals appear on the persons of the witches, 315 _sq._;
+instances of such transformations and wounds in Scotland, England,
+Ireland, France, and Germany, 316-321; hence the reason for burning
+bewitched animals is either to burn the witch herself or at all events
+to compel her to appear, 321 _sq._; the like reason for burning
+bewitched things, 322 _sq._; similarly by burning alive a person whose
+likeness a witch has assumed you compel the witch to disclose herself,
+323; woman burnt alive as a witch in Ireland at the end of the
+nineteenth century, 323 _sq._; bewitched animals sometimes buried alive
+instead of being burned, 324-326; calves killed and buried to save the
+rest of the herd, 326 _sq_.
+
+CHAPTER V.--THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRE-FESTIVALS, Pp. 328-346
+
+§ 1. _On the Fire-festivals in general_ pp. 328-331.--General
+resemblance of the fire-festivals to each other, 328 _sq._; two
+explanations of the festivals suggested, one by W. Mannhardt that they
+are sun-charms, the other by Dr. E. Westermarck that they are
+purificatory, 329 _sq._; the two explanations perhaps not mutually
+exclusive, 330 _sq._
+
+§ 2. _The Solar Theory of the Fire-festivals_, pp. 331-341.--Theory that
+the fire-festivals are charms to ensure a supply of sunshine, 331;
+coincidence of two of the festivals with the solstices, 331 _sq._;
+attempt of the Bushmen to warm up the fire of Sirius in midwinter by
+kindling sticks, 332 _sq._; the burning wheels and discs of the
+fire-festivals may be direct imitations of the sun, 334; the wheel which
+is sometimes used to kindle the fire by friction may also be an
+imitation of the sun, 334-336; the influence which the bonfires 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, 336-338; 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, 338 _sq._; the carrying of lighted torches about the country at
+the festivals may be explained as an attempt to diffuse the sun's heat,
+339-341.
+
+§ 3. _The Purificatory Theory of the Fire-festivals_, pp.
+341-346.--Theory that the fires at the festivals are purificatory, being
+intended to burn up all harmful things, 341; the purificatory or
+destructive effect of the fires is often alleged by the people who light
+them, and there is no reason to reject this explanation, 341 _sq._; the
+great evil against which the fire at the festivals appears to be
+directed is witchcraft, 342; among 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, 343
+_sq._; again, the bonfires are thought to avert hail, thunder,
+lightning, and various maladies, all of which are attributed to the
+maleficent arts of witches, 344 _sq._; the burning wheels rolled down
+hill and the burning discs thrown into the air may be intended to burn
+the invisible witches, 345 _sq._; on this view the fertility supposed to
+follow the use of fire results indirectly from breaking the spells of
+witches, 346; on the whole the theory of the purificatory or destructive
+intention of the fire-festivals seems the more probable, 346.
+
+[Transcriber's Note: The brief descriptions often found enclosed in
+square brackets are "sidenotes", which appeared in the original book in
+the margins of the paragraph following the "sidenote." Footnotes were
+originally at the bottoms of the printed pages.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH
+
+
+§ 1. _Not to touch the Earth_
+
+
+[The priest of Aricia and the Golden Bough]
+
+We have travelled far since we turned our backs on Nemi and set forth in
+quest of the secret of the Golden Bough. With the present volume we
+enter on the last stage of our long journey. The reader who has had the
+patience to follow the enquiry thus far may remember that at the outset
+two questions were proposed for answer: Why had the priest of Aricia to
+slay his predecessor? And why, before doing so, had he to pluck the
+Golden Bough?[1] Of these two questions the first has now been answered.
+The priest of Aricia, if I am right, was one of those sacred kings or
+human divinities on whose life the welfare of the community and even the
+course of nature in general are believed to be intimately dependent. It
+does not appear that the subjects or worshippers of such a spiritual
+potentate form to themselves any very clear notion of the exact
+relationship in which they stand to him; probably their ideas on the
+point are vague and fluctuating, and we should err if we attempted to
+define the relationship with logical precision. All that the people
+know, or rather imagine, is that somehow they themselves, their cattle,
+and their crops are mysteriously bound up with their divine king, so
+that according as he is well or ill the community is healthy or sickly,
+the flocks and herds thrive or languish with disease, and the fields
+yield an abundant or a scanty harvest. The worst evil which they can
+conceive of is the natural death of their ruler, whether he succumb to
+sickness or old age, for in the opinion of his followers such a death
+would entail the most disastrous consequences on themselves and their
+possessions; fatal epidemics would sweep away man and beast, the earth
+would refuse her increase, nay the very frame of nature itself might be
+dissolved. To guard against these catastrophes it is necessary to put
+the king to death while he is still in the full bloom of his divine
+manhood, in order that his sacred life, transmitted in unabated force to
+his successor, may renew its youth, and thus by successive transmissions
+through a perpetual line of vigorous incarnations may remain eternally
+fresh and young, a pledge and security that men and animals shall in
+like manner renew their youth by a perpetual succession of generations,
+and that seedtime and harvest, and summer and winter, and rain and
+sunshine shall never fail. That, if my conjecture is right, was why the
+priest of Aricia, the King of the Wood at Nemi, had regularly to perish
+by the sword of his successor.
+
+[What was the Golden Bough?]
+
+But we have still to ask, What was the Golden Bough? and why had each
+candidate for the Arician priesthood to pluck it before he could slay
+the priest? These questions I will now try to answer.
+
+[Sacred kings and priests forbidden to touch the ground with their
+feet.]
+
+It will be well to begin by noticing two of those rules or taboos by
+which, as we have seen, the life of divine kings or priests is
+regulated. The first of the rules to which I desire to call the reader's
+attention is that the divine personage may not touch the ground with his
+foot. This rule was observed by the supreme pontiff of the Zapotecs in
+Mexico; he profaned his sanctity if he so much as touched the ground
+with his foot.[2] Montezuma, emperor of Mexico, never set foot on the
+ground; he was always carried on the shoulders of noblemen, and if he
+lighted anywhere they laid rich tapestry for him to walk upon.[3] For
+the Mikado of Japan to touch the ground with his foot was a shameful
+degradation; indeed, in the sixteenth century, it was enough to deprive
+him of his office. Outside his palace he was carried on men's shoulders;
+within it he walked on exquisitely wrought mats.[4] The king and queen
+of Tahiti might not touch the ground anywhere but within their
+hereditary domains; for the ground on which they trod became sacred. In
+travelling from place to place they were carried on the shoulders of
+sacred men. They were always accompanied by several pairs of these
+sanctified attendants; and when it became necessary to change their
+bearers, the king and queen vaulted on to the shoulders of their new
+bearers without letting their feet touch the ground.[5] It was an evil
+omen if the king of Dosuma touched the ground, and he had to perform an
+expiatory ceremony.[6] Within his palace the king of Persia walked on
+carpets on which no one else might tread; outside of it he was never
+seen on foot but only in a chariot or on horseback.[7] In old days the
+king of Siam never set foot upon the earth, but was carried on a throne
+of gold from place to place.[8] Formerly neither the kings of Uganda,
+nor their mothers, nor their queens might walk on foot outside of the
+spacious enclosures in which they lived. Whenever they went forth they
+were carried on the shoulders of men of the Buffalo clan, several of
+whom accompanied any of these royal personages on a journey and took it
+in turn to bear the burden. The king sat astride the bearer's neck with
+a leg over each shoulder and his feet tucked under the bearer's arms.
+When one of these royal carriers grew tired he shot the king on to the
+shoulders of a second man without allowing the royal feet to touch the
+ground. In this way they went at a great pace and travelled long
+distances in a day, when the king was on a journey. The bearers had a
+special hut in the king's enclosure in order to be at hand the moment
+they were wanted.[9] Among the Bakuba or rather Bushongo, a nation in
+the southern region of the Congo, down to a few years ago persons of the
+royal blood were forbidden to touch the ground; they must sit on a hide,
+a chair, or the back of a slave, who crouched on hands and feet; their
+feet rested on the feet of others. When they travelled they were carried
+on the backs of men; but the king journeyed in a litter supported on
+shafts.[10] Among the Ibo people about Awka, in Southern Nigeria, the
+priest of the Earth has to observe many taboos; for example, he may not
+see a corpse, and if he meets one on the road he must hide his eyes with
+his wristlet. He must abstain from many foods, such as eggs, birds of
+all sorts, mutton, dog, bush-buck, and so forth. He may neither wear nor
+touch a mask, and no masked man may enter his house. If a dog enters his
+house, it is killed and thrown out. As priest of the Earth he may not
+sit on the bare ground, nor eat things that have fallen on the ground,
+nor may earth be thrown at him.[11] According to ancient Brahmanic
+ritual a king at his inauguration trod on a tiger's skin and a golden
+plate; he was shod with shoes of boar's skin, and so long as he lived
+thereafter he might not stand on the earth with his bare feet.[12]
+
+[Certain persons on certain occasions forbidden to touch the ground with
+their feet.]
+
+But besides persons who are permanently sacred or tabooed and are
+therefore permanently forbidden to touch the ground with their feet,
+there are others who enjoy the character of sanctity or taboo only on
+certain occasions, and to whom accordingly the prohibition in question
+only applies at the definite seasons during which they exhale the odour
+of sanctity. Thus among the Kayans or Bahaus of Central Borneo, while
+the priestesses are engaged in the performance of certain rites they may
+not step on the ground, and boards are laid for them to tread on.[13] At
+a funeral ceremony observed by night among the Michemis, a Tibetan tribe
+near the northern frontier of Assam, a priest fantastically bedecked
+with tiger's teeth, many-coloured plumes, bells, and shells, executed a
+wild dance for the purpose of exorcising the evil spirits; then all
+fires were extinguished and a new light was struck by a man suspended by
+his feet from a beam in the ceiling; "he did not touch the ground," we
+are told, "in order to indicate that the light came from heaven."[14]
+Again, newly born infants are strongly tabooed; accordingly in Loango
+they are not allowed to touch the earth.[15] Among the Iluvans of
+Malabar the bridegroom on his wedding-day is bathed by seven young men
+and then carried or walks on planks from the bathing-place to the
+marriage booth; he may not touch the ground with his feet.[16] With the
+Dyaks of Landak and Tajan, two districts of Dutch Borneo, it is a custom
+that for a certain time after marriage neither bride nor bridegroom may
+tread on the earth.[17] Warriors, again, on the war-path are surrounded,
+so to say, by an atmosphere of taboo; hence some Indians of North
+America might not sit on the bare ground the whole time they were out on
+a warlike expedition.[18] In Laos the hunting of elephants gives rise to
+many taboos; one of them is that the chief hunter may not touch the
+earth with his foot. Accordingly, when he alights from his elephant, the
+others spread a carpet of leaves for him to step upon.[19] German
+wiseacres recommended that when witches were led to the block or the
+stake, they should not be allowed to touch the bare earth, and a reason
+suggested for the rule was that if they touched the earth they might
+make themselves invisible and so escape. The sagacious author of _The
+Striped-petticoat Philosophy_ in the eighteenth century ridicules the
+idea as mere silly talk. He admits, indeed, that the women were conveyed
+to the place of execution in carts; but he denies that there is any deep
+significance in the cart, and he is prepared to maintain this view by a
+chemical analysis of the timber of which the cart was built. To clinch
+his argument he appeals to plain matter of fact and his own personal
+experience. Not a single instance, he assures us with apparent
+satisfaction, can be produced of a witch who escaped the axe or the fire
+in this fashion. "I have myself," says he, "in my youth seen divers
+witches burned, some at Arnstadt, some at Ilmenau, some at Schwenda, a
+noble village between Arnstadt and Ilmenau, and some of them were
+pardoned and beheaded before being burned. They were laid on the earth
+in the place of execution and beheaded like any other poor sinner;
+whereas if they could have escaped by touching the earth, not one of
+them would have failed to do so."[20]
+
+[Sacred or tabooed persons apparently thought to be charged with a
+mysterious virtue like a fluid, which will run to waste or explode if it
+touches the ground.]
+
+Apparently holiness, magical virtue, taboo, or whatever we may call that
+mysterious quality which is supposed to pervade sacred or tabooed
+persons, is conceived by the primitive philosopher as a physical
+substance or fluid, with which the sacred man is charged just as a
+Leyden jar is charged with electricity; and exactly as the electricity
+in the jar can be discharged by contact with a good conductor, so the
+holiness or magical virtue in the man can be discharged and drained away
+by contact with the earth, which on this theory serves as an excellent
+conductor for the magical fluid. Hence in order to preserve the charge
+from running to waste, the sacred or tabooed personage must be carefully
+prevented from touching the ground; in electrical language he must be
+insulated, if he is not to be emptied of the precious substance or fluid
+with which he, as a vial, is filled to the brim. And in many cases
+apparently the insulation of the tabooed person is recommended as a
+precaution not merely for his own sake but for the sake of others; for
+since the virtue of holiness or taboo is, so to say, a powerful
+explosive which the smallest touch may detonate, it is necessary in the
+interest of the general safety to keep it within narrow bounds, lest
+breaking out it should blast, blight, and destroy whatever it comes into
+contact with.
+
+[Things as well as persons can be charged with the mysterious quality of
+holiness or taboo; and when so charged they must be kept from contact
+with the ground.]
+
+But things as well as persons are often charged with the mysterious
+quality of holiness or taboo; hence it frequently becomes necessary for
+similar reasons to guard them also from coming into contact with the
+ground, lest they should in like manner be drained of their valuable
+properties and be reduced to mere commonplace material objects, empty
+husks from which the good grain has been eliminated. Thus, for example,
+the most sacred object of the Arunta tribe in Central Australia is, or
+rather used to be, a pole about twenty feet high, which is completely
+smeared with human blood, crowned with an imitation of a human head, and
+set up on the ground where the final initiatory ceremonies of young men
+are performed. A young gum-tree is chosen to form the pole, and it must
+be cut down and transported in such a way that it does not touch the
+earth till it is erected in its place on the holy ground. Apparently the
+pole represents some famous ancestor of the olden time.[21]
+
+[Festival of the wild manog tree in British New Guinea.]
+
+Again, at a great dancing festival celebrated by the natives of Bartle
+Bay, in British New Guinea, a wild mango tree plays a prominent part.
+The tree must be self-sown, that is, really wild and so young that it
+has never flowered. It is chosen in the jungle some five or six weeks
+before the festival, and a circle is cleared round its trunk. From that
+time the master of the ceremonies and some eight to twenty other men,
+who have aided him in choosing the tree and in clearing the jungle,
+become strictly holy or tabooed. They sleep by themselves in a house
+into which no one else may intrude: they may not wash or drink water,
+nor even allow it accidentally to touch their bodies: they are forbidden
+to eat boiled food and the fruit of mango trees: they may drink only the
+milk of a young coco-nut which has been baked, and they may eat certain
+fruits and vegetables, such as paw-paws (_Carica papaya_) and
+sugar-cane, but only on condition that they have been baked. All refuse
+of their food is kept in baskets in their sleeping-house and may not be
+removed from it till the festival is over. At the time when the men
+begin to observe these rules of abstinence, some six to ten women,
+members of the same clan as the master of the ceremonies, enter on a
+like period of mortification, avoiding the company of the other sex, and
+refraining from water, all boiled food, and the fruit of the mango tree.
+These fasting men and women are the principal dancers at the festival.
+The dancing takes place on a special platform in a temporary village
+which has been erected for the purpose. When the platform is about to be
+set up, the fasting men rub the stepping posts and then suck their hands
+for the purpose of extracting the ghost of any dead man that might
+chance to be in the post and might be injured by the weight of the
+platform pressing down on him. Having carefully extracted these poor
+souls, the men carry them away tenderly and set them free in the forest
+or the long grass.
+
+[The wild mango tree not allowed to touch the ground.]
+
+On the day before the festival one of the fasting men cuts down the
+chosen mango tree in the jungle with a stone adze, which is never
+afterwards put to any other use; an iron tool may not be used for the
+purpose, though iron tools are now common enough in the district. In
+cutting down the mango they place nets on the ground to catch any leaves
+or twigs that might fall from the tree as it is being felled and they
+surround the trunk with new mats to receive the chips which fly out
+under the adze of the woodman; for the chips may not drop on the earth.
+Once the tree is down, it is carried to the centre of the temporary
+village, the greatest care being taken to prevent it from coming into
+contact with the ground. But when it is brought into the village, the
+houses are connected with the top of the mango by means of long vines
+decorated with the streamers. In the afternoon the fasting men and women
+begin to dance, the men bedizened with gay feathers, armlets, streamers,
+and anklets, the women flaunting in parti-coloured petticoats and sprigs
+of croton leaves, which wave from their waistbands as they dance. The
+dancing stops at sundown, and when the full moon rises over the shoulder
+of the eastern hill (for the date of the festival seems to be determined
+with reference to the time of the moon), two chiefs mount the gables of
+two houses on the eastern side of the square, and, their dusky figures
+standing sharply out against the moonlight, pray to the evil spirits to
+go away and not to hurt the people. Next morning pigs are killed by
+being speared as slowly as possible in order that they may squeal loud
+and long; for the people believe that the mango trees hear the
+squealing, and are pleased at the sound, and bear plenty of fruit,
+whereas if they heard no squeals they would bear no fruit. However, the
+trees have to content themselves with the squeals; the flesh of the pigs
+is eaten by the people. This ends the festival.
+
+[Final disposition of the wild mango tree.]
+
+Next day the mango is taken down from the platform, wrapt in new mats,
+and carried by the fasting men to their sleeping house, where it is hung
+from the roof. But after an interval, it may be of many months, the tree
+is brought forth again. As to the reason for its reappearance in public
+opinions are divided; but some say that the tree itself orders the
+master of the ceremonies to bring it forth, appearing to him in his
+dreams and saying, "Let me smell the smoking fat of pigs. So will your
+pigs be healthy and your crops will grow." Be that as it may, out it
+comes, conducted by the fasting men in their dancing costume; and with
+it come in the solemn procession all the pots, spoons, cups and so forth
+used by the fasting men during their period of holiness or taboo, also
+all the refuse of their food which has been collected for months, and
+all the fallen leaves and chips of the mango in their bundles of mats.
+These holy relics are carried in front and the mango tree itself brings
+up the rear of the procession. While these sacred objects are being
+handed out of the house, the men who are present rush up, wipe off the
+hallowed dust which has accumulated on them, and smear it over their own
+bodies, no doubt in order to steep themselves in their blessed
+influence. Thus the tree is carried as before to the centre of the
+temporary village, care being again taken not to let it touch the
+ground. Then one of the fasting men takes from a basket a number of
+young green mangoes, cuts them in pieces, and places them with his own
+hands in the mouths of his fellows, the other fasting men, who chew the
+pieces small and turning round spit the morsels in the direction of the
+setting sun, in order that "the sun should carry the mango bits over the
+whole country and everyone should know." A portion of the mango tree is
+then broken off and in the evening it is burnt along with the bundles of
+leaves, chips, and refuse of food, which have been stored up. What
+remains of the tree is taken to the house of the master of the
+ceremonies and hung over the fire-place; it will be brought out again at
+intervals and burned bit by bit, till all is consumed, whereupon a new
+mango will be cut down and treated in like manner. The ashes of the holy
+fire on each occasion are gathered by the people and preserved in the
+house of the master of the ceremonies.[22]
+
+[The ceremony apparently intended to fertilize the mango trees.]
+
+The meaning of these ceremonies is not explained by the authorities who
+describe them; but we may conjecture that they are intended to fertilize
+the mango trees and cause them to bear a good crop of fruit. The central
+feature of the whole ritual is a wild mango tree, so young that it has
+never flowered: the men who cut it down, carry it into the village, and
+dance at the festival, are forbidden to eat mangoes: pigs are killed in
+order that their dying squeals may move the mango trees to bear fruit:
+at the end of the ceremonies pieces of young green mangoes are solemnly
+placed in the mouths of the fasting men and are by them spurted out
+towards the setting sun in order that the luminary may carry the
+fragments to every part of the country; and finally when after a longer
+or shorter interval the tree is wholly consumed, its place is supplied
+by another. All these circumstances are explained simply and naturally
+by the supposition that the young mango tree is taken as a
+representative of mangoes generally, that the dances are intended to
+quicken it, and that it is preserved, like a May-pole of old in England,
+as a sort of general fund of vegetable life, till the fund being
+exhausted by the destruction of the tree it is renewed by the
+importation of a fresh young tree from the forest. We can therefore
+understand why, as a storehouse of vital energy, the tree should be
+carefully kept from contact with the ground, lest the pent-up and
+concentrated energy should escape and dribbling away into the earth be
+dissipated to no purpose.
+
+[Sacred objects of various sorts not allowed to touch the ground.]
+
+To take other instances of what we may call the conservation of energy
+in magic or religion by insulating sacred bodies from the ground, the
+natives of New Britain have a secret society called the Duk-duk, the
+members of which masquerade in petticoats of leaves and tall headdresses
+of wickerwork shaped like candle extinguishers, which descend to the
+shoulders of the wearers, completely concealing their faces. Thus
+disguised they dance about to the awe and terror, real or assumed, of
+the women and uninitiated, who take, or pretend to take, them for
+spirits. When lads are being initiated into the secrets of this august
+society, the adepts cut down some very large and heavy bamboos, one for
+each lad, and the novices carry them, carefully wrapt up in leaves, to
+the sacred ground, where they arrive very tired and weary, for they may
+not let the bamboos touch the ground nor the sun shine on them. Outside
+the fence of the enclosure every lad deposits his bamboo on a couple of
+forked sticks and covers it up with nut leaves.[23] Among the Carrier
+Indians of North-Western America, who burned their dead, the ashes of a
+chief used to be placed in a box and set on the top of a pole beside his
+hut: the box was never allowed to touch the ground.[24] In the Omaha
+tribe of North American Indians the sacred clam shell of the Elk clan
+was wrapt up from sight in a mat, placed on a stand, and never suffered
+to come in contact with the earth.[25] The Cherokees and kindred Indian
+tribes of the United States used to have certain sacred boxes or arks,
+which they regularly took with them to war. Such a holy ark consisted of
+a square wooden box, which contained "certain consecrated vessels made
+by beloved superannuated women, and of such various antiquated forms, as
+would have puzzled Adam to have given significant names to each." The
+leader of a war party and his attendant bore the ark by turns, but they
+never set it on the ground nor would they themselves sit on the bare
+earth while they were carrying it against the enemy. Where stones were
+plentiful they rested the ark on them; but where no stones were to be
+found, they deposited it on short logs. "The Indian ark is deemed so
+sacred and dangerous to be touched, either by their own sanctified
+warriors, or the spoiling enemy, that they durst not touch it upon any
+account. It is not to be meddled with by any, except the war chieftain
+and his waiter, under the penalty of incurring great evil. Nor would the
+most inveterate enemy touch it in the woods, for the very same reason."
+After their return home they used to hang the ark on the leader's
+red-painted war pole.[26] At Sipi, near Simla, in Northern India, an
+annual fair is held, at which men purchase wives. A square box with a
+domed top figures prominently at the fair. It is fixed on two poles to
+be carried on men's shoulders, and long heavily-plaited petticoats hang
+from it nearly to the ground. Three sides of the box are adorned with
+the head and shoulders of a female figure and the fourth side with a
+black yak's tail. Four men bear the poles, each carrying an axe in his
+right hand. They dance round, with a swinging rhythmical step, to the
+music of drums and a pipe. The dance goes on for hours and is thought to
+avert ill-luck from the fair. It is said that the box is brought to
+Simla from a place sixty miles off by relays of men, who may not stop
+nor set the box on the ground the whole way.[27] In Scotland, when water
+was carried from sacred wells to sick people, the water-vessel might not
+touch the earth.[28] In some parts of Aberdeenshire the last bunch of
+standing corn, which is commonly viewed as very sacred, being the last
+refuge of the corn-spirit retreating before the reapers, is not suffered
+to touch the ground; the master or "gueedman" sits down and receives
+each handful of corn as it is cut on his lap.[29]
+
+[Sacred food not allowed to touch the earth.]
+
+Again, sacred food may not under certain circumstances be brought into
+contact with the earth. Some of the aborigines of Victoria used to
+regard the fat of the emu as sacred, believing that it had once been the
+fat of the black man. In taking it from the bird or giving it to another
+they handled it reverently. Any one who threw away the fat or flesh of
+the emu was held accursed. "The late Mr. Thomas observed on one
+occasion, at Nerre-nerre-Warreen, a remarkable exhibition of the effects
+of this superstition. An aboriginal child--one attending the
+school--having eaten some part of the flesh of an emu, threw away the
+skin. The skin fell to the ground, and this being observed by his
+parents, they showed by their gestures every token of horror. They
+looked upon their child as one utterly lost. His desecration of the bird
+was regarded as a sin for which there was no atonement."[30] The
+Roumanians of Transylvania believe that "every fresh-baked loaf of
+wheaten bread is sacred, and should a piece inadvertently fall to the
+ground, it is hastily picked up, carefully wiped and kissed, and if
+soiled, thrown into the fire--partly as an offering to the dead, and
+partly because it were a heavy sin to throw away or tread upon any
+particle of it."[31] At certain festivals in south-eastern Borneo the
+food which is consumed in the common house may not touch the ground;
+hence, a little before the festivals take place, foot-bridges made of
+thin poles are constructed from the private dwellings to the common
+house.[32] When Hall was living with the Esquimaux and grew tired of
+eating walrus, one of the women brought the head and neck of a reindeer
+for him to eat. This venison had to be completely wrapt up before it was
+brought into the house, and once in the house it could only be placed on
+the platform which served as a bed. "To have placed it on the floor or
+on the platform behind the fire-lamp, among the walrus, musk-ox, and
+polar-bear meat which occupy a goodly portion of both of these places,
+would have horrified the whole town, as, according to the actual belief
+of the Innuits, not another walrus could be secured this year, and there
+would ever be trouble in catching any more."[33] But in this case the
+real scruple appears to have been felt not so much at placing the
+venison on the ground as at bringing it into contact with walrus
+meat.[34]
+
+[Magical implements and remedies thought to lose their virtue by contact
+with the ground.]
+
+Sometimes magical implements and remedies are supposed to lose their
+virtue by contact with the ground, the volatile essence with which they
+are impregnated being no doubt drained off into the earth. Thus in the
+Boulia district of Queensland the magical bone, which the native
+sorcerer points at his victim as a means of killing him, is never by any
+chance allowed to touch the earth.[35] The wives of rajahs in Macassar,
+a district of southern Celebes, pride themselves on their luxuriant
+tresses and are at great pains to oil and preserve them. Should the hair
+begin to grow thin, the lady resorts to many devices to stay the ravages
+of time; among other things she applies to her locks a fat extracted
+from crocodiles and venomous snakes. The unguent is believed to be very
+efficacious, but during its application the woman's feet may not come
+into contact with the ground, or all the benefit of the nostrum would be
+lost.[36] Some people in antiquity believed that a woman in hard labour
+would be delivered if a spear, which had been wrenched from a man's body
+without touching the ground, were thrown over the house where the
+sufferer lay. Again, according to certain ancient writers, arrows which
+had been extracted from a body without coming into contact with the
+earth and laid under sleepers, acted as a love-charm.[37] Among the
+peasantry of the north-east of Scotland the prehistoric weapons called
+celts went by the name of "thunderbolts" and were coveted as the sure
+bringers of success, always provided that they were not allowed to fall
+to the ground.[38]
+
+[Serpents eggs or Snake Stones.]
+
+In ancient Gaul certain glass or paste beads attained great celebrity as
+amulets under the name of serpents' eggs; it was believed that serpents,
+coiling together in a wriggling, writhing mass, generated them from
+their slaver and shot them into the air from their hissing jaws. If a
+man was bold and dexterous enough to catch one of these eggs in his
+cloak before it touched the ground, he rode off on horseback with it at
+full speed, pursued by the whole pack of serpents, till he was saved by
+the interposition of a river, which the snakes could not pass. The proof
+of the egg being genuine was that if it were thrown into a stream it
+would float up against the current, even though it were hooped in gold.
+The Druids held these beads in high esteem; according to them, the
+precious objects could only be obtained on a certain day of the moon,
+and the peculiar virtue that resided in them was to secure success in
+law suits and free access to kings. Pliny knew of a Gaulish knight who
+was executed by the emperor Claudius for wearing one of these
+amulets.[39] Under the name of Snake Stones (_glain neidr_) or Adder
+Stones the beads are still known in those parts of our own country where
+the Celtic population has lingered, with its immemorial superstitions,
+down to the present or recent times; and the old story of the origin of
+the beads from the slaver of serpents was believed by the modern
+peasantry of Cornwall, Wales, and Scotland as by the Druids of ancient
+Gaul. In Cornwall the time when the serpents united to fashion the beads
+was commonly said to be at or about Midsummer Eve; in Wales it was
+usually thought to be spring, especially the Eve of May Day, and even
+within recent years persons in the Principality have affirmed that they
+witnessed the great vernal congress of the snakes and saw the magic
+stone in the midst of the froth. The Welsh peasants believe the beads to
+possess medicinal virtues of many sorts and to be particularly
+efficacious for all maladies of the eyes. In Wales and Ireland the beads
+sometimes went by the name of the Magician's or Druid's Glass (_Gleini
+na Droedh_ and _Glaine nan Druidhe_). Specimens of them may be seen in
+museums; some have been found in British barrows. They are of glass of
+various colours, green, blue, pink, red, brown, and so forth, some plain
+and some ribbed. Some are streaked with brilliant hues. The beads are
+perforated, and in the Highlands of Scotland the hole is explained by
+saying that when the bead has just been conflated by the serpents
+jointly, one of the reptiles sticks his tail through the still viscous
+glass. An Englishman who visited Scotland in 1699 found many of these
+beads in use throughout the country. They were hung from children's
+necks to protect them from whooping cough and other ailments. Snake
+Stones were, moreover, a charm to ensure prosperity in general and to
+repel evil spirits. When one of these priceless treasures was not on
+active service, the owner kept it in an iron box to guard it against
+fairies, who, as is well known, cannot abide iron.[40]
+
+[Medicinal plants, water, are not allowed to touch the earth.]
+
+Pliny mentions several medicinal plants, which, if they were to retain
+their healing virtue, ought not to be allowed to touch the earth.[41]
+The curious medical treatise of Marcellus, a native of Bordeaux in the
+fourth century of our era, abounds with prescriptions of this sort; and
+we can well believe the writer when he assures us that he borrowed many
+of his quaint remedies from the lips of common folk and peasants rather
+than from the books of the learned.[42] Thus he tells us that certain
+white stones found in the stomachs of young swallows assuage the most
+persistent headache, always provided that their virtue be not impaired
+by contact with the ground.[43] Another of his cures for the same malady
+is a wreath of fleabane placed on the head, but it must not touch the
+earth.[44] On the same condition a decoction of the root of elecampane
+in wine kills worms; a fern, found growing on a tree, relieves the
+stomach-ache; and the pastern-bone of a hare is an infallible remedy for
+colic, provided, first, it be found in the dung of a wolf, second, that
+it docs not touch the ground, and, third, that it is not touched by a
+woman.[45] Another cure for colic is effected by certain hocus-pocus
+with a scrap of wool from the forehead of a first-born lamb, if only the
+lamb, instead of being allowed to fall to the ground, has been caught by
+hand as it dropped from its dam.[46] In Andjra, a district of Morocco,
+the people attribute many magical virtues to rain-water which has fallen
+on the twenty-seventh day of April, Old Style; accordingly they collect
+it and use it for a variety of purposes. Mixed with tar and sprinkled on
+the door-posts it prevents snakes and scorpions from entering the house:
+sprinkled on heaps of threshed corn it protects them from the evil eye:
+mixed with an egg, henna, and seeds of cress it is an invaluable
+medicine for sick cows: poured over a plate, on which a passage of the
+Koran has been written, it strengthens the memory of schoolboys who
+drink it; and if you mix it with cowdung and red earth and paint rings
+with the mixture round the trunks of your fig-trees at sunset on
+Midsummer Day, you may depend on it that the trees will bear an
+excellent crop and will not shed their fruit untimely on the ground. But
+in order to preserve these remarkable properties it is absolutely
+essential that the water should on no account be allowed to touch the
+ground; some say too that it should not be exposed to the sun nor
+breathed upon by anybody.[47] Again, the Moors ascribe great magical
+efficacy to what they call "the sultan of the oleander," which is a
+stalk of oleander with a cluster of four pairs of leaves springing from
+it. They think that the magical virtue is greatest if the stalk has been
+cut immediately before midsummer. But when the plant is brought into the
+house, the branches may not touch the ground, lest they should lose
+their marvellous qualities.[48] In the olden days, before a Lithuanian
+or Prussian farmer went forth to plough for the first time in spring, he
+called in a wizard to perform a certain ceremony for the good of the
+crops. The sage seized a mug of beer with his teeth, quaffed the liquor,
+and then tossed the mug over his head. This signified that the corn in
+that year should grow taller than a man. But the mug might not fall to
+the ground; it had to be caught by somebody stationed at the wizard's
+back, for if it fell to the ground the consequence naturally would be
+that the corn also would be laid low on the earth.[49]
+
+
+§ 2. _Not to see the Sun_
+
+
+[Sacred persons not allowed to see the sun.]
+
+The second rule to be here noted is that the sun may not shine upon the
+divine person. This rule was observed both by the Mikado and by the
+pontiff of the Zapotecs. The latter "was looked upon as a god whom the
+earth was not worthy to hold, nor the sun to shine upon."[50] The
+Japanese would not allow that the Mikado should expose his sacred person
+to the open air, and the sun was not thought worthy to shine on his
+head.[51] The Indians of Granada, in South America, "kept those who were
+to be rulers or commanders, whether men or women, locked up for several
+years when they were children, some of them seven years, and this so
+close that they were not to see the sun, for if they should happen to
+see it they forfeited their lordship, eating certain sorts of food
+appointed; and those who were their keepers at certain times went into
+their retreat or prison and scourged them severely."[52] Thus, for
+example, the heir to the throne of Bogota, who was not the son but the
+sister's son of the king, had to undergo a rigorous training from his
+infancy: he lived in complete retirement in a temple, where he might not
+see the sun nor eat salt nor converse with a woman: he was surrounded by
+guards who observed his conduct and noted all his actions: if he broke a
+single one of the rules laid down for him, he was deemed infamous and
+forfeited all his rights to the throne.[53] So, too, the heir to the
+kingdom of Sogamoso, before succeeding to the crown, had to fast for
+seven years in the temple, being shut up in the dark and not allowed to
+see the sun or light.[54] The prince who was to become Inca of Peru had
+to fast for a month without seeing light.[55] On the day when a Brahman
+student of the Veda took a bath, to signify that the time of his
+studentship was at an end, he entered a cow-shed before sunrise, hung
+over the door a skin with the hair inside, and sat there; on that day
+the sun should not shine upon him.[56]
+
+[Tabooed persons not allowed to see the sun; certain persons forbidden
+to see fire.]
+
+Again, women after childbirth and their offspring are more or less
+tabooed all the world over; hence in Corea the rays of the sun are
+rigidly excluded from both mother and child for a period of twenty-one
+or a hundred days, according to their rank, after the birth has taken
+place.[57] Among some of the tribes on the north-west coast of New
+Guinea a woman may not leave the house for months after childbirth. When
+she does go out, she must cover her head with a hood or mat; for if the
+sun were to shine upon her, it is thought that one of her male relations
+would die.[58] Again, mourners are everywhere taboo; accordingly in
+mourning the Ainos of Japan wear peculiar caps in order that the sun may
+not shine upon their heads.[59] During a solemn fast of three days the
+Indians of Costa Rica eat no salt, speak as little as possible, light no
+fires, and stay strictly indoors, or if they go out during the day they
+carefully cover themselves from the light of the sun, believing that
+exposure to the sun's rays would turn them black.[60] On Yule Night it
+has been customary in parts of Sweden from time immemorial to go on
+pilgrimage, whereby people learn many secret things and know what is to
+happen in the coming year. As a preparation for this pilgrimage, "some
+secrete themselves for three days previously in a dark cellar, so as to
+be shut out altogether from the light of heaven. Others retire at an
+early hour of the preceding morning to some out-of-the-way place, such
+as a hay-loft, where they bury themselves in the hay, that they may
+neither see nor hear any living creature; and here they remain, in
+silence and fasting, until after sundown; whilst there are those who
+think it sufficient if they rigidly abstain from food on the day before
+commencing their wanderings. During this period of probation a man ought
+not to see fire, but should this have happened, he must strike a light
+with flint and steel, whereby the evil that would otherwise have ensued
+will be obviated."[61] During the sixteen days that a Pima Indian is
+undergoing purification for killing an Apache he may not see a blazing
+fire.[62]
+
+[The story of Prince Sunless.]
+
+Acarnanian peasants tell of a handsome prince called Sunless, who would
+die if he saw the sun. So he lived in an underground palace on the site
+of the ancient Oeniadae, but at night he came forth and crossed the
+river to visit a famous enchantress who dwelt in a castle on the further
+bank. She was loth to part with him every night long before the sun was
+up, and as he turned a deaf ear to all her entreaties to linger, she hit
+upon the device of cutting the throats of all the cocks in the
+neighbourhood. So the prince, whose ear had learned to expect the shrill
+clarion of the birds as the signal of the growing light, tarried too
+long, and hardly had he reached the ford when the sun rose over the
+Aetolian mountains, and its fatal beams fell on him before he could
+regain his dark abode.[63]
+
+
+Notes:
+
+[1] _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 44.
+
+[2] H.H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_ (London,
+1875-1876), ii. 142; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations
+civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique-Centrale_ (Paris, 1857-1859),
+iii. 29.
+
+[3] _Manuscrit Ramirez, Histoire de l'origine des Indiens_, publié par
+D. Charnay (Paris, 1903), p. 108; J. de Acosta, _The Natural and Moral
+History of the Indies_, bk. vii. chap. 22, vol. ii. p. 505 of E.
+Grimston's translation, edited by (Sir) Clements R. Markham (Hakluyt
+Society, London, 1880).
+
+[4] _Memorials of the Empire of Japon in the XVI. and XVII. Centuries_,
+edited by T. Rundall (Hakluyt Society, London, 1850), pp. 14, 141; B.
+Varenius, _Descriptio regni Japoniae et Siam_ (Cambridge, 1673), p. 11;
+Caron, "Account of Japan," in John Pinkerton's _Voyages and Travels_
+(London, 1808-1814), vii. 613; Kaempfer, "History of Japan," in _id._
+vii. 716.
+
+[5] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, Second Edition (London,
+1832-1836), iii. 102 _sq._; Captain James Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to
+the Southern Pacific Ocean_ (London, 1799), p. 329.
+
+[6] A. Bastian, _Der Mensch in der Geschichte_ (Leipsic, 1860), iii. 81.
+
+[7] Athenaeus, xii. 8, p. 514 c.
+
+[8] _The Voiages and Travels of John Struys_ (London, 1684), p. 30.
+
+[9] Rev. J. Roscoe, "Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the
+Baganda," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) pp.
+62, 67; _id., The Baganda_ (London, 1911), pp. 154 _sq._ Compare L.
+Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_ (London, 1898), p. 445 note:
+"Before horses had been introduced into Uganda the king and his mother
+never walked, but always went about perched astride the shoulders of a
+slave--a most ludicrous sight. In this way they often travelled hundreds
+of miles." The use both of horses and of chariots by royal personages
+may often have been intended to prevent their sacred feet from touching
+the ground.
+
+[10] E. Torday et T.A. Joyce, _Les Bushongo_ (Brussels, 1910), p. 61.
+
+[11] Northcote W. Thomas, _Anthropological Report on the Ibo-speaking
+Peoples of Nigeria_ (London, 1913), i. 57 _sq._
+
+[12] _Satapatha Brâhmana_, translated by Julius Eggeling, Part iii.
+(Oxford, 1894) pp. 81, 91, 92, 102, 128 _sq. (Sacred Books of the East_,
+vol. xli.).
+
+[13] A.W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_ (Leyden, 1904-1907), i. 172.
+
+[14] Letter of Missionary Krick, in _Annales de la Propagation de la
+Foi_, xxvi. (1854) pp. 86-88.
+
+[15] Pechuel-Loesche, "Indiscretes aus Loango," _Zeitschrift für
+Ethnologie_, x. (1878) pp. 29 _sq._
+
+[16] Edgar Thurston, _Ethnographic Notes in Southern India_ (Madras,
+1906), p. 70.
+
+[17] M.C. Schadee, "Het familieleven en familierecht der Dajaks van
+Landak en Tajan," _Bijdragen tot de Taal-Land en Volkenkunde van
+Nederlandsch-Indié_, lxiii. (1910) p. 433.
+
+[18] James Adair, _History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775), p.
+382; _Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner_ (London,
+1830), p. 123. As to the taboos to which warriors are subject see _Taboo
+and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 157 _sqq._
+
+[19] Etienne Aymonier, _Notes sur le Laos_ (Saigon, 1885), p. 26.
+
+[20] _Die gestritgelte Rockenphilosophie_*[5] (Chemnitz, 1759), pp. 586
+_sqq._
+
+[21] Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central
+Australia_ (London, 1899), pp. 364, 370 _sqq._, 629; _id., Across
+Australia_ (London, 1912), ii. 280, 285 _sq._
+
+[22] C.G. Seligmann, M.D., _The Melanesians of British New Guinea_
+(Cambridge, 1910), pp. 589-599.
+
+[23] George Brown, D.D., _Melanesians and Polynesians_ (London, 1910),
+pp. 60 _sq._, 64. As to the Duk-duk society, see below, vol. ii. pp. 246
+_sq._
+
+[24] John Keast Lord, _The Naturalist in Vancouver Island and British
+Columbia_ (London, 1866), ii. 237.
+
+[25] Edwin James, _Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky
+Mountains_ (London, 1823), ii. 47; Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, "Omaha
+Sociology," _Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_
+(Washington, 1884), p. 226.
+
+[26] James Adair, _History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775), pp.
+161-163.
+
+[27] (Sir) Henry Babington Smith, in _Folk-lore_, v. (1894) p. 340.
+
+[28] Miss C.F. Gordon Cumming, _In the Hebrides_ (London, 1883), p. 211.
+
+[29] W. Gregor, "Quelques coutumes du Nord-est du Comté d'Aberdeen,"
+_Revue des Traditions populaires_, iii. (1888) p. 485 B. Compare
+_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, i. 158 _sq._
+
+[30] R. Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne and London,
+1878), i. 450.
+
+[31] E. Gerard, _The Land beyond the Forest_ (Edinburgh and London,
+1888), ii. 7.
+
+[32] F. Grabowsky, "Der Distrikt Dusson Timor in Südost-Borneo und seine
+Bewohner," _Das Ausland_, 1884, No. 24, p. 470.
+
+[33] _Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition made by Charles F.
+Hall_, edited by Prof. J.E. Nourse (Washington, 1879), pp. 110 _sq._
+
+[34] See _Taboo and Perils of the Soul_, pp. 207 _sqq._
+
+[35] Walter E. Roth, _Ethnological Studies among the North-West-Central
+Queensland Aborigines_ (Brisbane and London, 1897), p. 156, § 265. The
+custom of killing a man by pointing a bone or stick at him, while the
+sorcerer utters appropriate curses, is common among the tribes of
+Central Australia; but amongst them there seems to be no objection to
+place the bone or stick on the ground; on the contrary, an Arunta wizard
+inserts the bone or stick in the ground while he invokes death and
+destruction on his enemy. See Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen, _Native
+Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1899), pp. 534 _sqq.; id.,
+Northern Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1904), pp. 455 _sqq._
+
+[36] Hugh Low, _Sarawak_ (London, 1848), pp. 145 _sq._
+
+[37] Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_ xxviii. 33 _sq._
+
+[38] Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of
+Scotland_ (London, 1881), p. 184. As to the superstitions attaching to
+stone arrowheads and axeheads (celts), commonly known as "thunderbolts,"
+in the British Islands, see W.W. Skeat, "Snakestones and Stone
+Thunderbolts," _Folklore_, xxiii. (1912) pp. 60 _sqq._; and as to such
+superstitions in general, see Chr. Blinkenberg, _The Thunderweapon in
+Religion and Folklore_ (Cambridge, 1911).
+
+[39] Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_, xxix. 52-54.
+
+[40] W. Borlase, _Antiquities, Historical and Monumental, of the County
+of Cornwall_ (London, 1769), pp. 142 _sq._; J. Brand, _Popular
+Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London, 1882-1883), i. 322; J.G. Dalyell,
+_Darker Superstitions of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1834), pp. 140 _sq._;
+Daniel Wilson, _The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_
+(Edinburgh, 1851), pp. 303 _sqq._; Lieut.-Col. Forbes Leslie, _The Early
+Races of Scotland and their Monuments_ (Edinburgh, 1866), i. 75 _sqq._;
+J.G. Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands
+of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1902), pp. 84-88; Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and
+Folk-stories of Wales_ (London, 1909), pp. 170 _sq._; J.C. Davies,
+_Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales_ (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 76. Compare
+W.W. Skeat, "Snakestones and Stone Thunderbolts," _Folk-lore,_ xxiii.
+(1912) pp. 45 _sqq._ The superstition is described as follows by Edward
+Lhwyd in a letter quoted by W. Borlase (_op. cit._ p. 142): "In most
+parts of Wales, and throughout all Scotland, and in Cornwall, we find it
+a common opinion of the vulgar, that about Midsummer-Eve (though in the
+time they do not all agree) it is usual for snakes to meet in companies;
+and that, by joining heads together, and hissing, a kind of bubble is
+formed, which the rest, by continual hissing, blow on till it passes
+quite through the body, and then it immediately hardens, and resembles a
+glass-ring, which whoever finds (as some old women and children are
+persuaded) shall prosper in all his undertakings. The rings thus
+generated, are called _Gleineu Nadroeth_; in English, Snake-stones. They
+are small glass amulets, commonly about half as wide as our
+finger-rings, but much thicker, of a green colour usually, though
+sometimes blue, and waved with red and white."
+
+[41] Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_ xxiv. 12 and 68, xxv. 171.
+
+[42] Marcellus, _De medicamentis_, ed. G. Helmreich (Leipsic, 1889),
+preface, p. i.: "_Nec solum veteres medicinae artis auctores Latino
+dumtaxat sermone perscriptos ... lectione scrutatus sum, sed etiam ab
+agrestibus et plebeis remedia fortuita atque simplicia, quae
+experimentis probaverant didici_." As to Marcellus and his work, see
+Jacob Grimm, "Ueber Marcellus Burdigalensis," _Abhandlungen der
+koniglichen Akademie der Wissenschaft zu Berlin_, 1847, pp. 429-460;
+_id._, "Ueber die Marcellischen Formeln," _ibid._. 1855, pp. 50-68.
+
+[43] Marcellus, _De medicamentis_, i. 68.
+
+[44] Marcellus, _op. cit._ i. 76.
+
+[45] Marcellus, _op. cit._ xxviii. 28 and 71, xxix. 35.
+
+[46] Marcellus, _op. cit._ xxix. 51.
+
+[47] Edward Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folklore_,
+xvi. (1905) pp. 32 _sq._; _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with
+Agriculture, certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in
+Morocco_ (Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 75 _sq._
+
+[48] E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-lore_, xvi.
+(1905) p. 35 _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with Agriculture,
+certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in Morocco_
+(Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 88 _sq._
+
+[49] Matthäus Prätorius, _Deliciae Prussicae_, herausgegeben von Dr. W.
+Pierson (Berlin, 1871), p. 54.
+
+[50] H.H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_ (London,
+1875-1876), ii. 142; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations
+civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique Centrale_ (Paris, 1857-1859),
+iii. 29.
+
+[51] Kaempfer, "History of Japan," in J. Pinkerton's _Voyages and
+Travels_, vii. 717; Caron, "Account of Japan," _ibid._ vii. 613; B.
+Varenius, _Descriptio regni Japoniae et Siam_ (Cambridge, 1673), p. 11:
+_"Radiis solis caput nunquam illustrabatur: in apertum acrem non
+procedebat."_
+
+[52] A. de Herrera, _General History of the vast Continent and Islands
+of America,_ trans, by Capt. John Stevens (London, 1725-1726), v. 88.
+
+[53] H. Ternaux-Compans, _Essai sur l'ancien Cundinamarca_ (Paris,
+N.D.), p. 56; Theodor Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_ iv.
+(Leipsic, 1864) p. 359.
+
+[54] Alonzo de Zurita, "Rapport sur les differentes classes de chefs de
+la Nouvelle-Espagne," p. 30, in H. Ternaux-Compans's _Voyages, Relations
+et Mémoires originaux, pour servir à l'Histoire de la Découvertede
+l'Amérique_ (Paris, 1840); Th. Waitz, _l.c._; A. Bastian, _Die
+Culturländer des alten Amerika_ (Berlin, 1878), ii. 204.
+
+[55] Cieza de Leon, _Second Part of the Chronicle of Peru_ (Hakluyt
+Society, London, 1883), p. 18.
+
+[56] _The Grihya Sûtras_, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part ii. (Oxford,
+1892) pp. 165, 275 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xxx.). Umbrellas
+appear to have been sometimes used in ritual for the purpose of
+preventing the sunlight from falling on sacred persons or things. See W.
+Caland, _Altindisches Zauberritual_ (Amsterdam, 1900), p. 110 note 12.
+At an Athenian festival called Scira the priestess of Athena, the priest
+of Poseidon, and the priest of the Sun walked from the Acropolis under
+the shade of a huge white umbrella which was borne over their heads by
+the Eteobutads. See Harpocration and Suidas, _s.v._ [Greek: Skiron];
+Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Eccles._ 18.
+
+[57] Mrs. Bishop, _Korea and her Neighbours_ (London, 1898), ii. 248.
+
+[58] J.L. van Hasselt, "Eenige aanteekeningen aangaande de bewoners der
+N. Westkust van Nieuw Guinea," _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-Landen
+Volkenkunde_, xxxi. (1886) p. 587.
+
+[59] A. Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, v. (Jena, 1869) p.
+366.
+
+[60] W.M. Gabb, "On the Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica,"
+_Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at
+Philadelphia_, xiv. (Philadelphia, 1876), p. 510.
+
+[61] L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), p. 194.
+
+[62] H.H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, i. 553. See
+_Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, p. 182.
+
+[63] L. Heuzey, _Le Mont Olympe et l'Acarnanie_ (Paris, 1860), pp. 458
+_sq._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE SECLUSION OF GIRLS AT PUBERTY
+
+
+§ 1. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Africa_
+
+
+[Girls at puberty forbidden to touch the ground and to see the sun;
+seclusion of girls at puberty among the A-Kamba; seclusion of girls at
+puberty among the Baganda.]
+
+Now it is remarkable that the foregoing two rules--not to touch the
+ground and not to see the sun--are observed either separately or
+conjointly by girls at puberty in many parts of the world. Thus amongst
+the negroes of Loango girls at puberty are confined in separate huts,
+and they may not touch the ground with any part of their bare body.[64]
+Among the Zulus and kindred tribes of South Africa, when the first signs
+of puberty shew themselves "while a girl is walking, gathering wood, or
+working in the field, she runs to the river and hides herself among the
+reeds for the day, so as not to be seen by men. She covers her head
+carefully with her blanket that the sun may not shine on it and shrivel
+her up into a withered skeleton, as would result from exposure to the
+sun's beams. After dark she returns to her home and is secluded" in a
+hut for some time.[65] During her seclusion, which lasts for about a
+fortnight, neither she nor the girls who wait upon her may drink any
+milk, lest the cattle should die. And should she be overtaken by the
+first flow while she is in the fields, she must, after hiding in the
+bush, scrupulously avoid all pathways in returning home.[66] A reason
+for this avoidance is assigned by the A-Kamba of British East Africa,
+whose girls under similar circumstances observe the same rule. "A girl's
+first menstruation is a very critical period of her life according to
+A-Kamba beliefs. If this condition appears when she is away from the
+village, say at work in the fields, she returns at once to her village,
+but is careful to walk through the grass and not on a path, for if she
+followed a path and a stranger accidentally trod on a spot of blood and
+then cohabited with a member of the opposite sex before the girl was
+better again, it is believed that she would never bear a child." She
+remains at home till the symptoms have ceased, and during this time she
+may be fed by none but her mother. When the flux is over, her father and
+mother are bound to cohabit with each other, else it is believed that
+the girl would be barren all her life.[67] Similarly, among the Baganda,
+when a girl menstruated for the first time she was secluded and not
+allowed to handle food; and at the end of her seclusion the kinsman with
+whom she was staying (for among the Baganda young people did not reside
+with their parents) was obliged to jump over his wife, which with the
+Baganda is regarded as equivalent to having intercourse with her. Should
+the girl happen to be living near her parents at the moment when she
+attained to puberty, she was expected on her recovery to inform them of
+the fact, whereupon her father jumped over her mother. Were this custom
+omitted, the Baganda, like the A-Kamba, thought that the girl would
+never have children or that they would die in infancy.[68] Thus the
+pretence of sexual intercourse between the parents or other relatives of
+the girl was a magical ceremony to ensure her fertility. It is
+significant that among the Baganda the first menstruation was often
+called a marriage, and the girl was spoken of as a bride.[69] These
+terms so applied point to a belief like that of the Siamese, that a
+girl's first menstruation results from her defloration by one of a host
+of aerial spirits, and that the wound thus inflicted is repeated
+afterwards every month by the same ghostly agency.[70] For a like
+reason, probably, the Baganda imagine that a woman who does not
+menstruate exerts a malign influence on gardens and makes them
+barren[71] if she works in them. For not being herself fertilized by a
+spirit, how can she fertilize the garden?
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the tribes of the Tanganyika
+plateau.]
+
+Among the Amambwe, Winamwanga, Alungu, and other tribes of the great
+plateau to the west of Lake Tanganyika, "when a young girl knows that
+she has attained puberty, she forthwith leaves her mother's hut, and
+hides herself in the long grass near the village, covering her face with
+a cloth and weeping bitterly. Towards sunset one of the older
+women--who, as directress of the ceremonies, is called _nachimbusa_--
+follows her, places a cooking-pot by the cross-roads, and boils therein
+a concoction of various herbs, with which she anoints the neophyte. At
+nightfall the girl is carried on the old woman's back to her mother's
+hut. When the customary period of a few days has elapsed, she is allowed
+to cook again, after first whitewashing the floor of the hut. But, by
+the following month, the preparations for her initiation are complete.
+The novice must remain in her hut throughout the whole period of
+initiation, and is carefully guarded by the old women, who accompany her
+whenever she leaves her quarters, veiling her head with a native cloth.
+The ceremonies last for at least one month." During this period of
+seclusion, drumming and songs are kept up within the mother's hut by the
+village women, and no male, except, it is said, the father of twins, is
+allowed to enter. The directress of the rites and the older women
+instruct the young girl as to the elementary facts of life, the duties
+of marriage, and the rules of conduct, decorum, and hospitality to be
+observed by a married woman. Amongst other things the damsel must submit
+to a series of tests such as leaping over fences, thrusting her head
+into a collar made of thorns, and so on. The lessons which she receives
+are illustrated by mud figures of animals and of the common objects of
+domestic life. Moreover, the directress of studies embellishes the walls
+of the hut with rude pictures, each with its special significance and
+song, which must be understood and learned by the girl.[72] In the
+foregoing account the rule that a damsel at puberty may neither see the
+sun nor touch the ground seems implied by the statement that on the
+first discovery of her condition she hides in long grass and is carried
+home after sunset on the back of an old woman.
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the tribes of British Central
+Africa.]
+
+Among the Nyanja-speaking tribes of Central Angoniland, in British
+Central Africa, when a young girl finds that she has become a woman, she
+stands silent by the pathway leading to the village, her face wrapt in
+her calico. An old woman, finding her there, takes her off to a stream
+to bathe; after that the girl is secluded for six days in the old
+woman's hut. She eats her porridge out of an old basket and her relish,
+in which no salt is put, from a potsherd. The basket is afterwards
+thrown away. On the seventh day the aged matrons gather together, go
+with the girl to a stream, and throw her into the water. In returning
+they sing songs, and the old woman, who directs the proceedings, carries
+the maiden on her back. Then they spread a mat and fetch her husband and
+set the two down on the mat and shave his head. When it is dark, the old
+women escort the girl to her husband's hut. There the _ndiwo_ relish is
+cooking on the fire. During the night the woman rises and puts some salt
+in the pot. Next morning, before dawn, while all is dark and the
+villagers have not yet opened their doors, the young married woman goes
+off and gives some of the relish to her mother and to the old woman who
+was mistress of the ceremony. This relish she sets down at the doors of
+their houses and goes away. And in the morning, when the sun has risen
+and all is light in the village, the two women open their doors, and
+there they find the relish with the salt in it; and they take of it and
+rub it on their feet and under their arm-pits; and if there are little
+children in the house, they eat of it. And if the young wife has a
+kinsman who is absent from the village, some of the relish is put on a
+splinter of bamboo and kept against his return, that when he comes he,
+too, may rub his feet with it. But if the woman finds that her husband
+is impotent, she does not rise betimes and go out in the dark to lay the
+relish at the doors of her mother and the old woman. And in the morning,
+when the sun is up and all the village is light, the old women open
+their doors, and see no relish there, and they know what has happened,
+and so they go wilily to work. For they persuade the husband to consult
+the diviner that he may discover how to cure his impotence; and while he
+is closeted with the wizard, they fetch another man, who finishes the
+ceremony with the young wife, in order that the relish may be given out
+and that people may rub their feet with it. But if it happens that when
+a girl comes to maturity she is not yet betrothed to any man, and
+therefore has no husband to go to, the matrons tell her that she must go
+to a lover instead. And this is the custom which they call _chigango_.
+So in the evening she takes her cooking pot and relish and hies away to
+the quarters of the young bachelors, and they very civilly sleep
+somewhere else that night. And in the morning the girl goes back to the
+_kuka_ hut.[73]
+
+[Abstinence from salt associated with a rule of chastity in many
+tribes.]
+
+From the foregoing account it appears that among these tribes no sooner
+has a girl attained to womanhood than she is expected and indeed
+required to give proof of her newly acquired powers by cohabiting with a
+man, whether her husband or another. And the abstinence from salt during
+the girl's seclusion is all the more remarkable because as soon as the
+seclusion is over she has to use salt for a particular purpose, to which
+the people evidently attach very great importance, since in the event of
+her husband proving impotent she is even compelled, apparently, to
+commit adultery in order that the salted relish may be given out as
+usual. In this connexion it deserves to be noted that among the Wagogo
+of German East Africa women at their monthly periods may not sleep with
+their husbands and may not put salt in food.[74] A similar rule is
+observed by the Nyanja-speaking tribes of Central Angoniland, with whose
+puberty customs we are here concerned. Among them, we are told, "some
+superstition exists with regard to the use of salt. A woman during her
+monthly sickness must on no account put salt into any food she is
+cooking, lest she give her husband or children a disease called _tsempo_
+(_chitsoko soko_) but calls a child to put it in, or, as the song goes,
+'_Natira nichere ni bondo chifukwa n'kupanda mwana_' and pours in the
+salt by placing it on her knee, because there is no child handy. Should
+a party of villagers have gone to make salt, all sexual intercourse is
+forbidden among the people of the village, until the people who have
+gone to make the salt (from grass) return. When they do come back, they
+must make their entry into the village at night, and no one must see
+them. Then one of the elders of the village sleeps with his wife. She
+then cooks some relish, into which she puts some of the salt. This
+relish is handed round to the people who went to make the salt, who rub
+it on their feet and under their armpits."[75] Hence it would seem that
+in the mind of these people abstinence from salt is somehow associated
+with the idea of chastity. The same association meets us in the customs
+of many peoples in various parts of the world. For example, ancient
+Hindoo ritual prescribed that for three nights after a husband had
+brought his bride home, the two should sleep on the ground, remain
+chaste, and eat no salt.[76] Among the Baganda, when a man was making a
+net, he had to refrain from eating salt and meat and from living with
+his wife; these restrictions he observed until the net took its first
+catch of fish. Similarly, so long as a fisherman's nets or traps were in
+the water, he must live apart from his wife, and neither he nor she nor
+their children might eat salt or meat.[77] Evidence of the same sort
+could be multiplied,[78] but without going into it further we may say
+that for some reason which is not obvious to us primitive man connects
+salt with the intercourse of the sexes and therefore forbids the use of
+that condiment in a variety of circumstances in which he deems
+continence necessary or desirable. As there is nothing which the savage
+regards as a greater bar between the sexes than the state of
+menstruation, he naturally prohibits the use of salt to women and girls
+at their monthly periods.
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the tribes about Lake Nyassa and on
+the Zambesi.]
+
+With the Awa-nkonde, a tribe at the northern end of Lake Nyassa, it is a
+rule that after her first menstruation a girl must be kept apart, with a
+few companions of her own sex, in a darkened house. The floor is covered
+with dry banana leaves, but no fire may be lit in the house, which is
+called "the house of the Awasungu," that is, "of maidens who have no
+hearts."[79] When a girl reaches puberty, the Wafiomi of Eastern Africa
+hold a festival at which they make a noise with a peculiar kind of
+rattle. After that the girl remains for a year in the large common hut
+(_tembe_), where she occupies a special compartment screened off from
+the men's quarters. She may not cut her hair or touch food, but is fed
+by other women. At night, however, she quits the hut and dances with
+young men.[80] Among the Barotse or Marotse of the upper Zambesi, "when
+a girl arrives at the age of puberty she is sent into the fields, where
+a hut is constructed far from the village. There, with two or three
+companions, she spends a month, returning home late and starting before
+dawn in order not to be seen by the men. The women of the village visit
+her, bringing food and honey, and singing and dancing to amuse her. At
+the end of a month her husband comes and fetches her. It is only after
+this ceremony that women have the right to smear themselves with
+ochre."[81] We may suspect that the chief reason why the girl during her
+seclusion may visit her home only by night is a fear, not so much lest
+she should be seen by men, as that she might be seen by the sun. Among
+the Wafiomi, as we have just learned, the young woman in similar
+circumstances is even free to dance with men, provided always that the
+dance is danced at night. The ceremonies among the Barotse or Marotse
+are somewhat more elaborate for a girl of the royal family. She is shut
+up for three months in a place which is kept secret from the public;
+only the women of her family know where it is. There she sits alone in
+the darkness of the hut, waited on by female slaves, who are strictly
+forbidden to speak and may communicate with her and with each other only
+by signs. During all this time, though she does nothing, she eats much,
+and when at last she comes forth, her appearance is quite changed, so
+fat has she grown. She is then led by night to the river and bathed in
+presence of all the women of the village. Next day she flaunts before
+the public in her gayest attire, her head bedecked with ornaments and
+her face mottled with red paint. So everybody knows what has
+happened.[82]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Thonga on Delagoa Bay.]
+
+Among the northern clans of the Thonga tribe, in South-Eastern Africa,
+about Delagoa Bay, when a girl thinks that the time of her nubility is
+near, she chooses an adoptive mother, perhaps in a neighbouring village.
+When the symptoms appear, she flies away from her own village and
+repairs to that of her adopted mother "to weep near her." After that she
+is secluded with several other girls in the same condition for a month.
+They are shut up in a hut, and whenever they come outside they must wear
+a dirty greasy cloth over their faces as a veil. Every morning they are
+led to a pool and plunged in the water up to their necks. Initiated
+girls or women accompany them, singing obscene songs and driving away
+with sticks any man who meets them; for no man may see a girl during
+this time of seclusion. If he saw her, it is said that he would be
+struck blind. On their return from the river, the girls are again
+imprisoned in the hut, where they remain wet and shivering, for they may
+not go near the fire to warm themselves. During their seclusion they
+listen to lascivious songs sung by grown women and are instructed in
+sexual matters. At the end of the month the adoptive mother brings the
+girl home to her true mother and presents her with a pot of beer.[83]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Caffre tribes of South Africa.]
+
+Among the Caffre tribes of South Africa the period of a girl's seclusion
+at puberty varies with the rank of her father. If he is a rich man, it
+may last twelve days; if he is a chief, it may last twenty-four
+days.[84] And when it is over, the girl rubs herself over with red
+earth, and strews finely powdered red earth on the ground, before she
+leaves the hut where she has been shut up. Finally, though she was
+forbidden to drink milk all the days of her separation, she washes out
+her mouth with milk, and is from that moment regarded as a full-grown
+woman.[85] Afterwards, in the dusk of the evening, she carries away all
+the objects with which she came into contact in the hut during her
+seclusion and buries them secretly in a sequestered spot.[86] When the
+girl is a chief's daughter the ceremonies at her liberation from the hut
+are more elaborate than usual. She is led forth from the hut by a son of
+her father's councillor, who, wearing the wings of a blue crane, the
+badge of bravery, on his head, escorts her to the cattle kraal, where
+cows are slaughtered and dancing takes place. Large skins full of milk
+are sent to the spot from neighbouring villages; and after the dances
+are over the girl drinks milk for the first time since the day she
+entered into retreat. But the first mouthful is drunk by the girl's aunt
+or other female relative who had charge of her during her seclusion; and
+a little of it is poured on the fire-place.[87] Amongst the Zulus, when
+the girl was a princess royal, the end of her time of separation was
+celebrated by a sort of saturnalia: law and order were for the time
+being in abeyance: every man, woman, and child might appropriate any
+article of property: the king abstained from interfering; and if during
+this reign of misrule he was robbed of anything he valued he could only
+recover it by paying a fine.[88] Among the Basutos, when girls at
+puberty are bathed as usual by the matrons in a river, they are hidden
+separately in the turns and bends of the stream, and told to cover their
+heads, as they will be visited by a large serpent. Their limbs are then
+plastered with clay, little masks of straw are put on their faces, and
+thus arrayed they daily follow each other in procession, singing
+melancholy airs, to the fields, there to learn the labours of husbandry
+in which a great part of their adult life will be passed.[89] We may
+suppose, though we are not told, that the straw masks which they wear in
+these processions are intended to hide their faces from the gaze of men
+and the rays of the sun.
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty in the Lower Congo.]
+
+Among the tribes in the lower valley of the Congo, such as the Bavili,
+when a girl arrives at puberty, she has to pass two or three months in
+seclusion in a small hut built for the purpose. The hair of her head is
+shaved off, and every day the whole of her body is smeared with a red
+paint (_takulla_) made from a powdered wood mixed with water. Some of
+her companions reside in the hut with her and prepare the paint for her
+use. A woman is appointed to take charge of the hut and to keep off
+intruders. At the end of her confinement she is taken to water by the
+women of her family and bathed; the paint is rubbed off her body, her
+arms and legs are loaded with brass rings, and she is led in solemn
+procession under an umbrella to her husband's house. If these ceremonies
+were not performed, the people believe that the girl would be barren or
+would give birth to monsters, that the rain would cease to fall, the
+earth to bear fruit, and the fishing to be successful.[90] Such serious
+importance do these savages ascribe to the performance of rites which to
+us seem so childish.
+
+
+§ 2. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in New Ireland, New Guinea, and
+Indonesia_
+
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty in New Ireland.]
+
+In New Ireland girls are confined for four or five years in small cages,
+being kept in the dark and not allowed to set foot on the ground. The
+custom has been thus described by an eye-witness. "I heard from a
+teacher about some strange custom connected with some of the young girls
+here, so I asked the chief to take me to the house where they were. The
+house was about twenty-five feet in length, and stood in a reed and
+bamboo enclosure, across the entrance to which a bundle of dried grass
+was suspended to show that it was strictly '_tabu_.' Inside the house
+were three conical structures about seven or eight feet in height, and
+about ten or twelve feet in circumference at the bottom, and for about
+four feet from the ground, at which point they tapered off to a point at
+the top. These cages were made of the broad leaves of the pandanus-tree,
+sewn quite close together so that no light and little or no air could
+enter. On one side of each is an opening which is closed by a double
+door of plaited cocoa-nut tree and pandanus-tree leaves. About three
+feet from the ground there is a stage of bamboos which forms the floor.
+In each of these cages we were told there was a young woman confined,
+each of whom had to remain for at least four or five years, without ever
+being allowed to go outside the house. I could scarcely credit the story
+when I heard it; the whole thing seemed too horrible to be true. I spoke
+to the chief, and told him that I wished to see the inside of the cages,
+and also to see the girls that I might make them a present of a few
+beads. He told me that it was '_tabu_,' forbidden for any men but their
+own relations to look at them; but I suppose the promised beads acted as
+an inducement, and so he sent away for some old lady who had charge, and
+who alone is allowed to open the doors. While we were waiting we could
+hear the girls talking to the chief in a querulous way as if objecting
+to something or expressing their fears. The old woman came at length and
+certainly she did not seem a very pleasant jailor or guardian; nor did
+she seem to favour the request of the chief to allow us to see the
+girls, as she regarded us with anything but pleasant looks. However, she
+had to undo the door when the chief told her to do so, and then the
+girls peeped out at us, and, when told to do so, they held out their
+hands for the beads. I, however, purposely sat at some distance away and
+merely held out the beads to them, as I wished to draw them quite
+outside, that I might inspect the inside of the cages. This desire of
+mine gave rise to another difficulty, as these girls were not allowed to
+put their feet to the ground all the time they were confined in these
+places. However, they wished to get the beads, and so the old lady had
+to go outside and collect a lot of pieces of wood and bamboo, which she
+placed on the ground, and then going to one of the girls, she helped her
+down and held her hand as she stepped from one piece of wood to another
+until she came near enough to get the beads I held out to her. I then
+went to inspect the inside of the cage out of which she had come, but
+could scarcely put my head inside of it, the atmosphere was so hot and
+stifling. It was clean and contained nothing but a few short lengths of
+bamboo for holding water. There was only room for the girl to sit or lie
+down in a crouched position on the bamboo platform, and when the doors
+are shut it must be nearly or quite dark inside. The girls are never
+allowed to come out except once a day to bathe in a dish or wooden bowl
+placed close to each cage. They say that they perspire profusely. They
+are placed in these stifling cages when quite young, and must remain
+there until they are young women, when they are taken out and have each
+a great marriage feast provided for them. One of them was about fourteen
+or fifteen years old, and the chief told us that she had been there for
+five years, but would soon be taken out now. The other two were about
+eight and ten years old, and they have to stay there for several years
+longer."[91] A more recent observer has described the custom as it is
+observed on the western coast of New Ireland. He says: "A _buck_ is the
+name of a little house, not larger than an ordinary hen-coop, in which a
+little girl is shut up, sometimes for weeks only, and at other times for
+months.... Briefly stated, the custom is this. Girls, on attaining
+puberty or betrothal, are enclosed in one of these little coops for a
+considerable time. They must remain there night and day. We saw two of
+these girls in two coops; the girls were not more than ten years old,
+still they were lying in a doubled-up position, as their little houses
+would not admit of them lying in any other way. These two coops were
+inside a large house; but the chief, in consideration of a present of a
+couple of tomahawks, ordered the ends to be torn out of the house to
+admit the light, so that we might photograph the _buck_. The occupant
+was allowed to put her face through an opening to be photographed, in
+consideration of another present."[92] As a consequence of their long
+enforced idleness in the shade the girls grow fat and their dusky
+complexion bleaches to a more pallid hue. Both their corpulence and
+their pallor are regarded as beauties.[93]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty in New Guinea, Borneo, Ceram and Yap.]
+
+In Kabadi, a district of British New Guinea, "daughters of chiefs, when
+they are about twelve or thirteen years of age, are kept indoors for two
+or three years, never being allowed, under any pretence, to descend from
+the house, and the house is so shaded that the sun cannot shine on
+them."[94] Among the Yabim and Bukaua, two neighbouring and kindred
+tribes on the coast of German New Guinea, a girl at puberty is secluded
+for some five or six weeks in an inner part of the house; but she may
+not sit on the floor, lest her uncleanness should cleave to it, so a log
+of wood is placed for her to squat on. Moreover, she may not touch the
+ground with her feet; hence if she is obliged to quit the house for a
+short time, she is muffled up in mats and walks on two halves of a
+coconut shell, which are fastened like sandals to her feet by creeping
+plants. During her seclusion she is in charge of her aunts or other
+female relatives. At the end of the time she bathes, her person is
+loaded with ornaments, her face is grotesquely painted with red stripes
+on a white ground, and thus adorned she is brought forth in public to be
+admired by everybody. She is now marriageable.[95] Among the Ot Danoms
+of Borneo girls at the age of eight or ten years are shut up in a little
+room or cell of the house, and cut off from all intercourse with the
+world for a long time. The cell, like the rest of the house, is raised
+on piles above the ground, and is lit by a single small window opening
+on a lonely place, so that the girl is in almost total darkness. She may
+not leave the room on any pretext whatever, not even for the most
+necessary purposes. None of her family may see her all the time she is
+shut up, but a single slave woman is appointed to wait on her. During
+her lonely confinement, which often lasts seven years, the girl occupies
+herself in weaving mats or with other handiwork. Her bodily growth is
+stunted by the long want of exercise, and when, on attaining womanhood,
+she is brought out, her complexion is pale and wax-like. She is now
+shewn the sun, the earth, the water, the trees, and the flowers, as if
+she were newly born. Then a great feast is made, a slave is killed, and
+the girl is smeared with his blood.[96] In Ceram girls at puberty were
+formerly shut up by themselves in a hut which was kept dark.[97] In Yap,
+one of the Caroline Islands, should a girl be overtaken by her first
+menstruation on the public road, she may not sit down on the earth, but
+must beg for a coco-nut shell to put under her. She is shut up for
+several days in a small hut at a distance from her parents' house, and
+afterwards she is bound to sleep for a hundred days in one of the
+special houses which are provided for the use of menstruous women.[98]
+
+
+§ 3. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in the Torres Straits Islands and
+Northern Australia_
+
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty in Mabuiag, Torres Straits.]
+
+In the island of Mabuiag, Torres Straits, when the signs of puberty
+appear on a girl, a circle of bushes is made in a dark corner of the
+house. Here, decked with shoulder-belts, armlets, leglets just below the
+knees, and anklets, wearing a chaplet on her head, and shell ornaments
+in her ears, on her chest, and on her back, she squats in the midst of
+the bushes, which are piled so high round about her that only her head
+is visible. In this state of seclusion she must remain for three months.
+All this time the sun may not shine upon her, but at night she is
+allowed to slip out of the hut, and the bushes that hedge her in are
+then changed. She may not feed herself or handle food, but is fed by one
+or two old women, her maternal aunts, who are especially appointed to
+look after her. One of these women cooks food for her at a special fire
+in the forest. The girl is forbidden to eat turtle or turtle eggs during
+the season when the turtles are breeding; but no vegetable food is
+refused her. No man, not even her own father, may come into the house
+while her seclusion lasts; for if her father saw her at this time he
+would certainly have bad luck in his fishing, and would probably smash
+his canoe the very next time he went out in it. At the end of the three
+months she is carried down to a fresh-water creek by her attendants,
+hanging on to their shoulders in such a way that her feet do not touch
+the ground, while the women of the tribe form a ring round her, and thus
+escort her to the beach. Arrived at the shore, she is stripped of her
+ornaments, and the bearers stagger with her into the creek, where they
+immerse her, and all the other women join in splashing water over both
+the girl and her bearers. When they come out of the water one of the two
+attendants makes a heap of grass for her charge to squat upon. The other
+runs to the reef, catches a small crab, tears off its claws, and hastens
+back with them to the creek. Here in the meantime a fire has been
+kindled, and the claws are roasted at it. The girl is then fed by her
+attendants with the roasted claws. After that she is freshly decorated,
+and the whole party marches back to the village in a single rank, the
+girl walking in the centre between her two old aunts, who hold her by
+the wrists. The husbands of her aunts now receive her and lead her into
+the house of one of them, where all partake of food, and the girl is
+allowed once more to feed herself in the usual manner. A dance follows,
+in which the girl takes a prominent part, dancing between the husbands
+of the two aunts who had charge of her in her retirement.[99]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty in Northern Australia.]
+
+Among the Yaraikanna tribe of Cape York Peninsula, in Northern
+Queensland, a girl at puberty is said to live by herself for a month or
+six weeks; no man may see her, though any woman may. She stays in a hut
+or shelter specially made for her, on the floor of which she lies
+supine. She may not see the sun, and towards sunset she must keep her
+eyes shut until the sun has gone down, otherwise it is thought that her
+nose will be diseased. During her seclusion she may eat nothing that
+lives in salt water, or a snake would kill her. An old woman waits upon
+her and supplies her with roots, yams, and water.[100] Some tribes are
+wont to bury their girls at such seasons more or less deeply in the
+ground, perhaps in order to hide them from the light of the sun. Thus
+the Larrakeeyah tribe in the northern territory of South Australia used
+to cover a girl up with dirt for three days at her first monthly
+period.[101] In similar circumstances the Otati tribe, on the east coast
+of the Cape York Peninsula, make an excavation in the ground, where the
+girl squats. A bower is then built over the hole, and sand is thrown on
+the young woman till she is covered up to the hips. In this condition
+she remains for the first day, but comes out at night. So long as the
+period lasts, she stays in the bower during the day-time, but is not
+again covered with sand. Afterwards her body is painted red and white
+from the head to the hips, and she returns to the camp, where she squats
+first on the right side, then on the left side, and then on the lap of
+her future husband, who has been previously selected for her.[102] Among
+the natives of the Pennefather River, in the Cape York Peninsula,
+Queensland, when a girl menstruates for the first time, her mother takes
+her away from the camp to some secluded spot, where she digs a circular
+hole in the sandy soil under the shade of a tree. In this hole the girl
+squats with crossed legs and is covered with sand from the waist
+downwards. A digging-stick is planted firmly in the sand on each side of
+her, and the place is surrounded by a fence of bushes except in front,
+where her mother kindles a fire. Here the girl stays all day, sitting
+with her arms crossed and the palms of her hands resting on the sand.
+She may not move her arms except to take food from her mother or to
+scratch herself; and in scratching herself she may not touch herself
+with her own hands, but must use for the purpose a splinter of wood,
+which, when it is not in use, is stuck in her hair. She may speak to
+nobody but her mother; indeed nobody else would think of coming near
+her. At evening she lays hold of the two digging-sticks and by their
+help frees herself from the superincumbent weight of sand and returns to
+the camp. Next morning she is again buried in the sand under the shade
+of the tree and remains there again till evening. This she does daily
+for five days. On her return at evening on the fifth day her mother
+decorates her with a waist-band, a forehead-band, and a necklet of
+pearl-shell, ties green parrot feathers round her arms and wrists and
+across her chest, and smears her body, back and front, from the waist
+upwards with blotches of red, white, and yellow paint. She has in like
+manner to be buried in the sand at her second and third menstruations,
+but at the fourth she is allowed to remain in camp, only signifying her
+condition by wearing a basket of empty shells on her back.[103] Among
+the Kia blacks of the Prosperine River, on the east coast of Queensland,
+a girl at puberty has to sit or lie down in a shallow pit away from the
+camp; a rough hut of bushes is erected over her to protect her from the
+inclemency of the weather. There she stays for about a week, waited on
+by her mother and sister, the only persons to whom she may speak. She is
+allowed to drink water, but may not touch it with her hands; and she may
+scratch herself a little with a mussel-shell. This seclusion is repeated
+at her second and third monthly periods, but when the third is over she
+is brought to her husband bedecked with savage finery. Eagle-hawk or
+cockatoo feathers are stuck in her hair: a shell hangs over her
+forehead: grass bugles encircle her neck and an apron of opossum skin
+her waist: strings are tied to her arms and wrists; and her whole body
+is mottled with patterns drawn in red, white, and yellow pigments and
+charcoal.[104]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty in the islands of Torres Straits.]
+
+Among the Uiyumkwi tribe in Red Island the girl lies at full length in a
+shallow trench dug in the foreshore, and sand is lightly thrown over her
+legs and body up to the breasts, which appear not to be covered. A rough
+shelter of boughs is then built over her, and thus she remains lying for
+a few hours. Then she and her attendant go into the bush and look for
+food, which they cook at a fire close to the shelter. They sleep under
+the boughs, the girl remaining secluded from the camp but apparently not
+being again buried. At the end of the symptoms she stands over hot
+stones and water is poured over her, till, trickling from her body on
+the stones, it is converted into steam and envelops her in a cloud of
+vapour. Then she is painted with red and white stripes and returns to
+the camp. If her future husband has already been chosen, she goes to him
+and they eat some food together, which the girl has previously brought
+from the bush.[105] In Prince of Wales Island, Torres Strait, the
+treatment of the patient is similar, but lasts for about two months.
+During the day she lies covered up with sand in a shallow hole on the
+beach, over which a hut is built. At night she may get out of the hole,
+but she may not leave the hut. Her paternal aunt looks after her, and
+both of them must abstain from eating turtle, dugong, and the heads of
+fish. Were they to eat the heads of fish no more fish would be caught.
+During the time of the girl's seclusion, the aunt who waits upon her has
+the right to enter any house and take from it anything she likes without
+payment, provided she does so before the sun rises. When the time of her
+retirement has come to an end, the girl bathes in the sea while the
+morning star is rising, and after performing various other ceremonies is
+readmitted to society.[106] In Saibai, another island of Torres Straits,
+at her first monthly sickness a girl lives secluded in the forest for
+about a fortnight, during which no man may see her; even the women who
+have spoken to her in the forest must wash in salt water before they
+speak to a man. Two girls wait upon and feed the damsel, putting the
+food into her mouth, for she is not allowed to touch it with her own
+hands. Nor may she eat dugong and turtle. At the end of a fortnight the
+girl and her attendants bathe in salt water while the tide is running
+out. Afterwards they are clean, may again speak to men without ceremony,
+and move freely about the village. In Yam and Tutu a girl at puberty
+retires for a month to the forest, where no man nor even her own mother
+may look upon her. She is waited on by women who stand to her in a
+certain relationship (_mowai_), apparently her paternal aunts. She is
+blackened all over with charcoal and wears a long petticoat reaching
+below her knees. During her seclusion the married women of the village
+often assemble in the forest and dance, and the girl's aunts relieve the
+tedium of the proceedings by thrashing her from time to time as a useful
+preparation for matrimony. At the end of a month the whole party go into
+the sea, and the charcoal is washed off the girl. After that she is
+decorated, her body blackened again, her hair reddened with ochre, and
+in the evening she is brought back to her father's house, where she is
+received with weeping and lamentation because she has been so long
+away.[107]
+
+
+§ 4. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of North America_
+
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of California]
+
+Among the Indians of California a girl at her first menstruation "was
+thought to be possessed of a particular degree of supernatural power,
+and this was not always regarded as entirely defiling or malevolent.
+Often, however, there was a strong feeling of the power of evil inherent
+in her condition. Not only was she secluded from her family and the
+community, but an attempt was made to seclude the world from her. One of
+the injunctions most strongly laid upon her was not to look about her.
+She kept her head bowed and was forbidden to see the world and the sun.
+Some tribes covered her with a blanket. Many of the customs in this
+connection resembled those of the North Pacific Coast most strongly,
+such as the prohibition to the girl to touch or scratch her head with
+her hand, a special implement being furnished her for the purpose.
+Sometimes she could eat only when fed and in other cases fasted
+altogether. Some form of public ceremony, often accompanied by a dance
+and sometimes by a form of ordeal for the girl, was practised nearly
+everywhere. Such ceremonies were well developed in Southern California,
+where a number of actions symbolical of the girl's maturity and
+subsequent life were performed."[108] Thus among the Maidu Indians of
+California a girl at puberty remained shut up in a small separate hut.
+For five days she might not eat flesh or fish nor feed herself, but was
+fed by her mother or other old woman. She had a basket, plate, and cup
+for her own use, and a stick with which to scratch her head, for she
+might not scratch it with her fingers. At the end of five days she took
+a warm bath and, while she still remained in the hut and plied the
+scratching-stick on her head, was privileged to feed herself with her
+own hands. After five days more she bathed in the river, after which her
+parents gave a great feast in her honour. At the feast the girl was
+dressed in her best, and anybody might ask her parents for anything he
+pleased, and they had to give it, even if it was the hand of their
+daughter in marriage. During the period of her seclusion in the hut the
+girl was allowed to go by night to her parents' house and listen to
+songs sung by her friends and relations, who assembled for the purpose.
+Among the songs were some that related to the different roots and seeds
+which in these tribes it is the business of women to gather for food.
+While the singers sang, she sat by herself in a corner of the house
+muffled up completely in mats and skins; no man or boy might come near
+her.[109] Among the Hupa, another Indian tribe of California, when a
+girl had reached maturity her male relatives danced all night for nine
+successive nights, while the girl remained apart, eating no meat and
+blindfolded. But on the tenth night she entered the house and took part
+in the last dance.[110] Among the Wintun, another Californian tribe, a
+girl at puberty was banished from the camp and lived alone in a distant
+booth, fasting rigidly from animal food; it was death to any person to
+touch or even approach her.[111]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of Washington State.]
+
+In the interior of Washington State, about Colville, "the customs of the
+Indians, in relation to the treatment of females, are singular. On the
+first appearance of the menses, they are furnished with provisions, and
+sent into the woods, to remain concealed for two days; for they have a
+superstition, that if a man should be seen or met with during that time,
+death will be the consequence. At the end of the second day, the woman
+is permitted to return to the lodge, when she is placed in a hut just
+large enough for her to lie in at full length, in which she is compelled
+to remain for twenty days, cut off from all communication with her
+friends, and is obliged to hide her face at the appearance of a man.
+Provisions are supplied her daily. After this, she is required to
+perform repeated ablutions, before she can resume her place in the
+family. At every return, the women go into seclusion for two or more
+days."[112] Among the Chinook Indians who inhabited the coast of
+Washington State, from Shoalwater Bay as far as Grey's Harbour, when a
+chief's daughter attained to puberty, she was hidden for five days from
+the view of the people; she might not look at them nor at the sky, nor
+might she pick berries. It was believed that if she were to look at the
+sky, the weather would be bad; that if she picked berries, it would
+rain; and that when she hung her towel of cedar-bark on a spruce-tree,
+the tree withered up at once. She went out of the house by a separate
+door and bathed in a creek far from the village. She fasted for some
+days, and for many days more she might not eat fresh food.[113]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Nootka Indians of Vancouver
+Island.]
+
+Amongst the Aht or Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island, when girls reach
+puberty they are placed in a sort of gallery in the house "and are there
+surrounded completely with mats, so that neither the sun nor any fire
+can be seen. In this cage they remain for several days. Water is given
+them, but no food. The longer a girl remains in this retirement the
+greater honour is it to the parents; but she is disgraced for life if it
+is known that she has seen fire or the sun during this initiatory
+ordeal."[114] Pictures of the mythical thunder-bird are painted on the
+screens behind which she hides. During her seclusion she may neither
+move nor lie down, but must always sit in a squatting posture. She may
+not touch her hair with her hands, but is allowed to scratch her head
+with a comb or a piece of bone provided for the purpose. To scratch her
+body is also forbidden, as it is believed that every scratch would leave
+a scar. For eight months after reaching maturity she may not eat any
+fresh food, particularly salmon; moreover, she must eat by herself, and
+use a cup and dish of her own.[115]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Haida Indians of the Queen
+Charlotte Islands.]
+
+Among the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands girls at puberty
+were secluded behind screens in the house for about twenty days. In some
+parts of the islands separate fires were provided for the girls, and
+they went out and in by a separate door at the back of the house. If a
+girl at such a time was obliged to go out by the front door, all the
+weapons, gambling-sticks, medicine, and other articles had to be removed
+from the house till her return, for otherwise it was thought that they
+would be unlucky; and if there was a good hunter in the house, he also
+had to go out at the same time on pain of losing his good luck if he
+remained. During several months or even half a year the girl was bound
+to wear a peculiar cloak or hood made of cedar-bark, nearly conical in
+shape and reaching down below the breast, but open before the face.
+After the twenty days were over the girl took a bath; none of the water
+might be spilled, it had all to be taken back to the woods, else the
+girl would not live long. On the west coast of the islands the damsel
+might eat nothing but black cod for four years; for the people believed
+that other kinds of fish would become scarce if she partook of them. At
+Kloo the young woman at such times was forbidden to look at the sea, and
+for forty days she might not gaze at the fire; for a whole year she
+might not walk on the beach below high-water mark, because then the tide
+would come in, covering part of the food supply, and there would be bad
+weather. For five years she might not eat salmon, or the fish would be
+scarce; and when her family went to a salmon-creek, she landed from the
+canoe at the mouth of the creek and came to the smoke-house from behind;
+for were she to see a salmon leap, all the salmon might leave the creek.
+Among the Haidas of Masset it was believed that if the girl looked at
+the sky, the weather would be bad, and that if she stepped over a
+salmon-creek, all the salmon would disappear.[116]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Tlingit Indians of Alaska.]
+
+Amongst the Tlingit (Thlinkeet) or Kolosh Indians of Alaska, when a girl
+shewed signs of womanhood she used to be confined to a little hut or
+cage, which was completely blocked up with the exception of a small
+air-hole. In this dark and filthy abode she had to remain a year,
+without fire, exercise, or associates. Only her mother and a female
+slave might supply her with nourishment. Her food was put in at the
+little window; she had to drink out of the wing-bone of a white-headed
+eagle. The time of her seclusion was afterwards reduced in some places
+to six or three months or even less. She had to wear a sort of hat with
+long flaps, that her gaze might not pollute the sky; for she was thought
+unfit for the sun to shine upon, and it was imagined that her look would
+destroy the luck of a hunter, fisher, or gambler, turn things to stone,
+and do other mischief. At the end of her confinement her old clothes
+were burnt, new ones were made, and a feast was given, at which a slit
+was cut in her under lip parallel to the mouth, and a piece of wood or
+shell was inserted to keep the aperture open.[117]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Tsetsaut and Bella Coola
+Indians of British Columbia.]
+
+In the Tsetsaut tribe of British Columbia a girl at puberty wears a
+large hat of skin which comes down over her face and screens it from the
+sun. It is believed that if she were to expose her face to the sun or to
+the sky, rain would fall. The hat protects her face also against the
+fire, which ought not to strike her skin; to shield her hands she wears
+mittens. In her mouth she carries the tooth of an animal to prevent her
+own teeth from becoming hollow. For a whole year she may not see blood
+unless her face is blackened; otherwise she would grow blind. For two
+years she wears the hat and lives in a hut by herself, although she is
+allowed to see other people. At the end of two years a man takes the hat
+from her head and throws it away.[118] In the Bilqula or Bella Coola
+tribe of British Columbia, when a girl attains puberty she must stay in
+the shed which serves as her bedroom, where she has a separate
+fireplace. She is not allowed to descend to the main part of the house,
+and may not sit by the fire of the family. For four days she is bound to
+remain motionless in a sitting posture. She fasts during the day, but is
+allowed a little food and drink very early in the morning. After the
+four days' seclusion she may leave her room, but only through a separate
+opening cut in the floor, for the houses are raised on piles. She may
+not yet come into the chief room. In leaving the house she wears a large
+hat which protects her face against the rays of the sun. It is believed
+that if the sun were to shine on her face her eyes would suffer. She may
+pick berries on the hills, but may not come near the river or sea for a
+whole year. Were she to eat fresh salmon she would lose her senses, or
+her mouth would be changed into a long beak.[119]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Tinneh Indians of British
+Columbia.]
+
+Among the Tinneh Indians about Stuart Lake, Babine Lake, and Fraser Lake
+in British Columbia "girls verging on maturity, that is when their
+breasts begin to form, take swans' feathers mixed with human hair and
+plait bands, which they tie round their wrists and ankles to secure long
+life. At this time they are careful that the dishes out of which they
+eat, are used by no other person, and wholly devoted to their own use;
+during this period they eat nothing but dog fish, and starvation _only_
+will drive them to eat either fresh fish or meat. When their first
+periodical sickness comes on, they are fed by their mothers or nearest
+female relation by _themselves_, and on no account will they touch their
+food with their own hands. They are at this time also careful not to
+touch their heads with their hands, and keep a small stick to scratch
+their heads with. They remain outside the lodge, all the time they are
+in this state, in a hut made for the purpose. During all this period
+they wear a skull-cap made of skin to fit very tight; this is never
+taken off until their first monthly sickness ceases; they also wear a
+strip of black paint about one inch wide across their eyes, and wear a
+fringe of shells, bones, etc., hanging down from their foreheads to
+below their eyes; and this is never taken off till the second monthly
+period arrives and ceases, when the nearest male relative makes a feast;
+after which she is considered a fully matured woman; but she has to
+refrain from eating anything fresh for one year after her first monthly
+sickness; she may however eat partridge, but it must be cooked in the
+crop of the bird to render it harmless. I would have thought it
+impossible to perform this feat had I not seen it done. The crop is
+blown out, and a small bent willow put round the mouth; it is then
+filled with water, and the meat being first minced up, put in also, then
+put on the fire and boiled till cooked. Their reason for hanging fringes
+before their eyes, is to hinder any bad medicine man from harming them
+during this critical period: they are very careful not to drink whilst
+facing a medicine man, and do so only when their backs are turned to
+him. All these habits are left off when the girl is a recognised woman,
+with the exception of their going out of the lodge and remaining in a
+hut, every time their periodical sickness comes on. This is a rigidly
+observed law with both single and married women."[120]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Tinneh Indians of Alaska.]
+
+Among the Hareskin Tinneh a girl at puberty was secluded for five days
+in a hut made specially for the purpose; she might only drink out of a
+tube made from a swan's bone, and for a month she might not break a
+hare's bones, nor taste blood, nor eat the heart or fat of animals, nor
+birds' eggs.[121] Among the Tinneh Indians of the middle Yukon valley,
+in Alaska, the period of the girl's seclusion lasts exactly a lunar
+month; for the day of the moon on which the symptoms first occur is
+noted, and she is sequestered until the same day of the next moon. If
+the season is winter, a corner of the house is curtained off for her use
+by a blanket or a sheet of canvas; if it is summer, a small tent is
+erected for her near the common one. Here she lives and sleeps. She
+wears a long robe and a large hood, which she must pull down over her
+eyes whenever she leaves the hut, and she must keep it down till she
+returns. She may not speak to a man nor see his face, much less touch
+his clothes or anything that belongs to him; for if she did so, though
+no harm would come to her, he would grow unmanly. She has her own dishes
+for eating out of and may use no other; at Kaltag she must suck the
+water through a swan's bone without applying her lips to the cup. She
+may eat no fresh meat or fish except the flesh of the porcupine. She may
+not undress, but sleeps with all her clothes on, even her mittens. In
+her socks she wears, next to the skin, the horny soles cut from the feet
+of a porcupine, in order that for the rest of her life her shoes may
+never wear out. Round her waist she wears a cord to which are tied the
+heads of femurs of a porcupine; because of all animals known to the
+Tinneh the porcupine suffers least in parturition, it simply drops its
+young and continues to walk or skip about as if nothing had happened.
+Hence it is easy to see that a girl who wears these portions of a
+porcupine about her waist, will be delivered just as easily as the
+animal. To make quite sure of this, if anybody happens to kill a
+porcupine big with young while the girl is undergoing her period of
+separation, the foetus is given to her, and she lets it slide down
+between her shirt and her body so as to fall on the ground like an
+infant.[122] Here the imitation of childbirth is a piece of homoeopathic
+or imitative magic designed to facilitate the effect which it
+simulates.[123]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Thompson Indians of British
+Columbia.]
+
+Among the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, when a girl attained
+puberty, she was at once separated from all the people. A conical hut of
+fir branches and bark was erected at some little distance from the other
+houses, and in it the girl had to squat on her heels during the day.
+Often a deep circular hole was dug in the hut and the girl squatted in
+the hole, with her head projecting above the surface of the ground. She
+might quit the hut for various purposes in the early morning, but had
+always to be back at sunrise. On the first appearance of the symptoms
+her face was painted red all over, and the paint was renewed every
+morning during her term of seclusion. A heavy blanket swathed her body
+from top to toe, and during the first four days she wore a conical cap
+made of small fir branches, which reached below the breast but left an
+opening for the face. In her hair was fastened an implement made of
+deer-bone with which she scratched herself. For the first four days she
+might neither wash nor eat, but a little water was given her in a
+birch-bark cup painted red, and she sucked up the liquid through a tube
+made out of the leg of a crane, a swan, or a goose, for her lips might
+not touch the surface of the water. After the four days she was allowed,
+during the rest of the period of isolation, to eat, to wash, to lie
+down, to comb her hair, and to drink of streams and springs. But in
+drinking at these sources she had still to use her tube, otherwise the
+spring would dry up. While her seclusion lasted she performed by night
+various ceremonies, which were supposed to exert a beneficial influence
+on her future life. For example, she ran as fast as she could, praying
+at the same time to the Earth or Nature that she might be fleet of foot
+and tireless of limb. She dug trenches, in order that in after life she
+might be able to dig well and to work hard. These and other ceremonies
+she repeated for four nights or mornings in succession, four times each
+morning, and each time she supplicated the Dawn of the Day. Among the
+Lower Thompson Indians she carried a staff for one night; and when the
+day was breaking she leaned the staff against the stump of a tree and
+prayed to the Dawn that she might be blessed with a good husband, who
+was symbolized by the staff. She also wandered some nights to lonely
+parts of the mountains, where she would dance, imploring the spirits to
+pity and protect her during her future life; then, the dance and prayer
+over, she would lie down on the spot and fall asleep. Again, she carried
+four stones in her bosom to a spring, where she spat upon the stones and
+threw them one after the other into the water, praying that all disease
+might leave her, as these stones did. Also she ran four times in the
+early morning with two small stones in her bosom; and as she ran the
+stones slipped down between her bare body and her clothes and fell to
+the ground. At the same time she prayed to the Dawn that when she should
+be with child, she might be delivered as easily as she was delivered of
+these stones. But whatever exercises she performed or prayers she
+offered on the lonely mountains during the hours of darkness or while
+the morning light was growing in the east, she must always be back in
+her little hut before the sun rose. There she often passed the tedious
+hours away picking the needles, one by one, from the cones on two large
+branches of fir, which hung from the roof of her hut on purpose to
+provide her with occupation. And as she picked she prayed to the
+fir-branch that she might never be lazy, but always quick and active at
+work. During her seclusion, too, she had to make miniatures of all the
+articles that Indian women make, or used to make, such as baskets, mats,
+ropes, and thread. This she did in order that afterwards she might be
+able to make the real things properly. Four large fir-branches also were
+placed in front of the hut, so that when she went out or in, she had to
+step over them. The branches were renewed every morning and the old ones
+thrown away into the water, while the girl prayed, "May I never bewitch
+any man, nor my fellow-women! May it never happen!" The first four times
+that she went out and in, she prayed to the fir-branches, saying, "If
+ever I step into trouble or difficulties or step unknowingly inside the
+magical spell of some person, may you help me, O Fir-branches, with your
+power!" Every day she painted her face afresh, and she wore strings of
+parts of deer-hoofs round her ankles and knees, and tied to her
+waistband on either side, which rattled when she walked or ran. Even the
+shape of the hut in which she lived was adapted to her future rather
+than to her present needs and wishes. If she wished to be tall, the hut
+was tall; if she wished to be short, it was low, sometimes so low that
+there was not room in it for her to stand erect, and she would lay the
+palm of her hand on the top of her head and pray to the Dawn that she
+might grow no taller. Her seclusion lasted four months. The Indians say
+that long ago it extended over a year, and that fourteen days elapsed
+before the girl was permitted to wash for the first time. The dress
+which she wore during her time of separation was afterwards taken to the
+top of a hill and burned, and the rest of her clothes were hung up on
+trees.[124]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Lillooet Indians of British
+Columbia.]
+
+Among the Lillooet Indians of British Columbia, neighbours of the
+Thompsons, the customs observed by girls at puberty were similar. The
+damsels were secluded for a period of not less than one year nor more
+than four years, according to their own inclination and the wishes of
+their parents. Among the Upper Lillooets the hut in which the girl
+lodged was made of bushy fir-trees set up like a conical tent, the inner
+branches being lopped off, while the outer branches were closely
+interwoven and padded to form a roof. Every month or half-month the hut
+was shifted to another site or a new one erected. By day the girl sat in
+the hut; for the first month she squatted in a hole dug in the middle of
+it; and she passed the time making miniature baskets of birch-bark and
+other things, praying that she might be able to make the real things
+well in after years. At the dusk of the evening she left the hut and
+wandered about all night, but she returned before the sun rose. Before
+she quitted the hut at nightfall to roam abroad, she painted her face
+red and put on a mask of fir-branches, and in her hand, as she walked,
+she carried a basket-rattle to frighten ghosts and guard herself from
+evil. Among the Lower Lillooets, the girl's mask was often made of
+goat-skin, covering her head, neck, shoulders and breast, and leaving
+only a narrow opening from the brow to the chin. During the nocturnal
+hours she performed many ceremonies. Thus she put two smooth stones in
+her bosom and ran, and as they fell down between her body and her
+clothes, she prayed, saying, "May I always have easy child-births!" Now
+one of these stones represented her future child and the other
+represented the afterbirth. Also she dug trenches, praying that in the
+years to come she might be strong and tireless in digging roots; she
+picked leaves and needles from the fir-trees, praying that her fingers
+might be nimble in picking berries; and she tore sheets of birch-bark
+into shreds, dropping the shreds as she walked and asking that her hands
+might never tire and that she might make neat and fine work of
+birch-bark. Moreover, she ran and walked much that she might be light of
+foot. And every evening, when the shadows were falling, and every
+morning, when the day was breaking, she prayed to the Dusk of the
+Evening or to the Dawn of Day, saying, "O Dawn of Day!" or "O Dusk," as
+it might be, "may I be able to dig roots fast and easily, and may I
+always find plenty!" All her prayers were addressed to the Dusk of the
+Evening or the Dawn of Day. She supplicated both, asking for long life,
+health, wealth, and happiness.[125]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Shuswap Indians of British
+Columbia.]
+
+Among the Shuswap Indians of British Columbia, who are neighbours of the
+Thompsons and Lillooets, "a girl on reaching maturity has to go through
+a great number of ceremonies. She must leave the village and live alone
+in a small hut on the mountains. She cooks her own food, and must not
+eat anything that bleeds. She is forbidden to touch her head, for which
+purpose she uses a comb with three points. Neither is she allowed to
+scratch her body, except with a painted deer-bone. She wears the bone
+and the comb suspended from her belt. She drinks out of a painted cup of
+birch-bark, and neither more nor less than the quantity it holds. Every
+night she walks about her hut, and plants willow twigs, which she has
+painted, and to the ends of which she has attached pieces of cloth, into
+the ground. It is believed that thus she will become rich in later life.
+In order to become strong she should climb trees and try to break off
+their points. She plays with _lehal_ sticks that her future husbands
+might have good luck when gambling."[126] During the day the girl stays
+in her hut and occupies herself in making miniature bags, mats, and
+baskets, in sewing and embroidery, in manufacturing thread, twine, and
+so forth; in short she makes a beginning of all kinds of woman's work,
+in order that she may be a good housewife in after life. By night she
+roams the mountains and practises running, climbing, carrying burdens,
+and digging trenches, so that she may be expert at digging roots. If she
+has wandered far and daylight overtakes her, she hides herself behind a
+veil of fir branches; for no one, except her instructor or nearest
+relatives, should see her face during her period of seclusion. She wore
+a large robe painted red on the breast and sides, and her hair was done
+up in a knot at each ear.[127]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Delaware and Cheyenne Indians.]
+
+Ceremonies of the same general type were probably observed by girls at
+puberty among all the Indian tribes of North America. But the record of
+them is far less full for the Central and Eastern tribes, perhaps
+because the settlers who first came into contact with the Red Man in
+these regions were too busy fighting him to find leisure, even if they
+had the desire, to study his manners and customs. However, among the
+Delaware Indians, a tribe in the extreme east of the continent, we read
+that "when a Delaware girl has her first monthly period, she must
+withdraw into a hut at some distance from the village. Her head is
+wrapped up for twelve days, so that she can see nobody, and she must
+submit to frequent vomits and fasting, and abstain from all labor. After
+this she is washed and new clothed, but confined to a solitary life for
+two months, at the close of which she is declared marriageable."[128]
+Again, among the Cheyennes, an Indian tribe of the Missouri valley, a
+girl at her first menstruation is painted red all over her body and
+secluded in a special little lodge for four days. However, she may
+remain in her father's lodge provided that there are no charms
+("medicine"), no sacred bundle, and no shield in it, or that these and
+all other objects invested with a sacred character have been removed.
+For four days she may not eat boiled meat; the flesh of which she
+partakes must be roasted over coals. Young men will not eat from the
+dish nor drink from the pot, which has been used by her; because they
+believe that were they to do so they would be wounded in the next fight.
+She may not handle nor even touch any weapon of war or any sacred
+object. If the camp moves, she may not ride a horse, but is mounted on a
+mare.[129]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Esquimaux.]
+
+Among the Esquimaux also, in the extreme north of the continent, who
+belong to an entirely different race from the Indians, the attainment of
+puberty in the female sex is, or used to be, the occasion of similar
+observances. Thus among the Koniags, an Esquimau people of Alaska, a
+girl at puberty was placed in a small hut in which she had to remain on
+her hands and knees for six months; then the hut was enlarged a little
+so as to allow her to straighten her back, but in this posture she had
+to remain for six months more. All this time she was regarded as an
+unclean being with whom no one might hold intercourse. At the end of the
+year she was received back by her parents and a great feast held.[130]
+Again, among the Malemut, and southward from the lower Yukon and
+adjacent districts, when a girl reaches the age of puberty she is
+considered unclean for forty days and must therefore live by herself in
+a corner of the house with her face to the wall, always keeping her hood
+over her head and her hair hanging dishevelled over her eyes. But if it
+is summer, she commonly lives in a rough shelter outside the house. She
+may not go out by day, and only once at night, when every one else is
+asleep. At the end of the period she bathes and is clothed in new
+garments, whereupon she may be taken in marriage. During her seclusion
+she is supposed to be enveloped in a peculiar atmosphere of such a sort
+that were a young man to come near enough for it to touch him, it would
+render him visible to every animal he might hunt, so that his luck as a
+hunter would be gone.[131]
+
+
+§ 5. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of South America_
+
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Guaranis, Chiriguanos, and
+Lengua Indians of South America.]
+
+When symptoms of puberty appeared on a girl for the first time, the
+Guaranis of Southern Brazil, on the borders of Paraguay, used to sew her
+up in her hammock, leaving only a small opening in it to allow her to
+breathe. In this condition, wrapt up and shrouded like a corpse, she was
+kept for two or three days or so long as the symptoms lasted, and during
+this time she had to observe a most rigorous fast. After that she was
+entrusted to a matron, who cut the girl's hair and enjoined her to
+abstain most strictly from eating flesh of any kind until her hair
+should be grown long enough to hide her ears. Meanwhile the diviners
+drew omens of her future character from the various birds or animals
+that flew past or crossed her path. If they saw a parrot, they would say
+she was a chatterbox; if an owl, she was lazy and useless for domestic
+labours, and so on.[132] In similar circumstances the Chiriguanos of
+southeastern Bolivia hoisted the girl in her hammock to the roof, where
+she stayed for a month: the second month the hammock was let half-way
+down from the roof; and in the third month old women, armed with sticks,
+entered the hut and ran about striking everything they met, saying they
+were hunting the snake that had wounded the girl.[133] The Lengua
+Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco under similar circumstances hang the
+girl in her hammock from the roof of the house, but they leave her there
+only three days and nights, during which they give her nothing to eat
+but a little Paraguay tea or boiled maize. Only her mother or
+grandmother has access to her; nobody else approaches or speaks to her.
+If she is obliged to leave the hammock for a little, her friends take
+great care to prevent her from touching the _Boyrusu_, which is an
+imaginary serpent that would swallow her up. She must also be very
+careful not to set foot on the droppings of fowls or animals, else she
+would suffer from sores on the throat and breast. On the third day they
+let her down from the hammock, cut her hair, and make her sit in a
+corner of the room with her face turned to the wall. She may speak to
+nobody, and must abstain from flesh and fish. These rigorous observances
+she must practise for nearly a year. Many girls die or are injured for
+life in consequence of the hardships they endure at this time. Their
+only occupations during their seclusion are spinning and weaving.[134]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Yuracares of Bolivia.]
+
+Among the Yuracares, an Indian tribe of Bolivia, at the eastern foot of
+the Andes, when a girl perceives the signs of puberty, she informs her
+parents. The mother weeps and the father constructs a little hut of palm
+leaves near the house. In this cabin he shuts up his daughter so that
+she cannot see the light, and there she remains fasting rigorously for
+four days. Meantime the mother, assisted by the women of the
+neighbourhood, has brewed a large quantity of the native intoxicant
+called _chicha_, and poured it into wooden troughs and palm leaves. On
+the morning of the fourth day, three hours before the dawn, the girl's
+father, having arrayed himself in his savage finery, summons all his
+neighbours with loud cries. The damsel is seated on a stone, and every
+guest in turn cuts off a lock of her hair, and running away hides it in
+the hollow trunk of a tree in the depths of the forest. When they have
+all done so and seated themselves again gravely in the circle, the girl
+offers to each of them a calabash full of very strong _chicha_. Before
+the wassailing begins, the various fathers perform a curious operation
+on the arms of their sons, who are seated beside them. The operator
+takes a very sharp bone of an ape, rubs it with a pungent spice, and
+then pinching up the skin of his son's arm he pierces it with the bone
+through and through, as a surgeon might introduce a seton. This
+operation he repeats till the young man's arm is riddled with holes at
+regular intervals from the shoulder to the wrist. Almost all who take
+part in the festival are covered with these wounds, which the Indians
+call _culucute_. Having thus prepared themselves to spend a happy day,
+they drink, play on flutes, sing and dance till evening. Rain, thunder,
+and lightning, should they befall, have no effect in damping the general
+enjoyment or preventing its continuance till after the sun has set. The
+motive for perforating the arms of the young men is to make them skilful
+hunters; at each perforation the sufferer is cheered by the promise of
+another sort of game or fish which the surgical operation will
+infallibly procure for him. The same operation is performed on the arms
+and legs of the girls, in order that they may be brave and strong; even
+the dogs are operated on with the intention of making them run down the
+game better. For five or six months afterwards the damsel must cover her
+head with bark and refrain from speaking to men. The Yuracares think
+that if they did not submit a young girl to this severe ordeal, her
+children would afterwards perish by accidents of various kinds, such as
+the sting of a serpent, the bite of a jaguar, the fall of a tree, the
+wound of an arrow, or what not.[135]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of the Gran Chaco.]
+
+Among the Matacos or Mataguayos, an Indian tribe of the Gran Chaco, a
+girl at puberty has to remain in seclusion for some time. She lies
+covered up with branches or other things in a corner of the hut, seeing
+no one and speaking to no one, and during this time she may eat neither
+flesh nor fish. Meantime a man beats a drum in front of the house.[136]
+Similarly among the Tobas, another Indian tribe of the same region, when
+a chief's daughter has just attained to womanhood, she is shut up for
+two or three days in the house, all the men of the tribe scour the
+country to bring in game and fish for a feast, and a Mataco Indian is
+engaged to drum, sing, and dance in front of the house without
+cessation, day and night, till the festival is over. As the merrymaking
+lasts for two or three weeks, the exhaustion of the musician at the end
+of it may be readily conceived. Meat and drink are supplied to him on
+the spot where he pays his laborious court to the Muses. The proceedings
+wind up with a saturnalia and a drunken debauch.[137] Among the Yaguas,
+an Indian tribe of the Upper Amazon, a girl at puberty is shut up for
+three months in a lonely hut in the forest, where her mother brings her
+food daily.[138] When a girl of the Peguenches tribe perceives in
+herself the first signs of womanhood, she is secluded by her mother in a
+corner of the hut screened off with blankets, and is warned not to lift
+up her eyes on any man. Next day, very early in the morning and again
+after sunset, she is taken out by two women and made to run till she is
+tired; in the interval she is again secluded in her corner. On the
+following day she lays three packets of wool beside the path near the
+house to signify that she is now a woman.[139] Among the Passes, Mauhes,
+and other tribes of Brazil the young woman in similar circumstances is
+hung in her hammock from the roof and has to fast there for a month or
+as long as she can hold out.[140] One of the early settlers in Brazil,
+about the middle of the sixteenth century, has described the severe
+ordeal which damsels at puberty had to undergo among the Indians on the
+south-east coast of that country, near what is now Rio de Janeiro. When
+a girl had reached this critical period of life, her hair was burned or
+shaved off close to the head. Then she was placed on a flat stone and
+cut with the tooth of an animal from the shoulders all down the back,
+till she ran with blood. Next the ashes of a wild gourd were rubbed into
+the wounds; the girl was bound hand and foot, and hung in a hammock,
+being enveloped in it so closely that no one could see her. Here she had
+to stay for three days without eating or drinking. When the three days
+were over, she stepped out of the hammock upon the flat stone, for her
+feet might not touch the ground. If she had a call of nature, a female
+relation took the girl on her back and carried her out, taking with her
+a live coal to prevent evil influences from entering the girl's body.
+Being replaced in her hammock, she was now allowed to get some flour,
+boiled roots, and water, but might not taste salt or flesh. Thus she
+continued to the end of the first monthly period, at the expiry of which
+she was gashed on the breast and belly as well as all down the back.
+During the second month she still stayed in her hammock, but her rule of
+abstinence was less rigid, and she was allowed to spin. The third month
+she was blackened with a certain pigment and began to go about as
+usual.[141]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of Guiana; custom of
+beating the girls and of causing them to be stung by ants.]
+
+Amongst the Macusis of British Guiana, when a girl shews the first signs
+of puberty, she is hung in a hammock at the highest point of the hut.
+For the first few days she may not leave the hammock by day, but at
+night she must come down, light a fire, and spend the night beside it,
+else she would break out in sores on her neck, throat, and other parts
+of her body. So long as the symptoms are at their height, she must fast
+rigorously. When they have abated, she may come down and take up her
+abode in a little compartment that is made for her in the darkest corner
+of the hut. In the morning she may cook her food, but it must be at a
+separate fire and in a vessel of her own. After about ten days the
+magician comes and undoes the spell by muttering charms and breathing on
+her and on the more valuable of the things with which she has come in
+contact. The pots and drinking-vessels which she used are broken and the
+fragments buried. After her first bath, the girl must submit to be
+beaten by her mother with thin rods without uttering a cry. At the end
+of the second period she is again beaten, but not afterwards. She is now
+"clean," and can mix again with people.[142] Other Indians of Guiana,
+after keeping the girl in her hammock at the top of the hut for a month,
+expose her to certain large ants, whose bite is very painful.[143]
+Sometimes, in addition to being stung with ants, the sufferer has to
+fast day and night so long as she remains slung up on high in her
+hammock, so that when she comes down she is reduced to a skeleton. The
+intention of stinging her with ants is said to be to make her strong to
+bear the burden of maternity.[144] Amongst the Uaupes of Brazil a girl
+at puberty is secluded in the house for a month, and allowed only a
+small quantity of bread and water. Then she is taken out into the midst
+of her relations and friends, each of whom gives her four or five blows
+with pieces of _sipo_ (an elastic climber), till she falls senseless or
+dead. If she recovers, the operation is repeated four times at intervals
+of six hours, and it is considered an offence to the parents not to
+strike hard. Meantime, pots of meats and fish have been made ready; the
+_sipos_ are dipped into them and then given to the girl to lick, who is
+now considered a marriageable woman.[145]
+
+[Custom in South America of causing young men to be stung with ants as
+an initiatory rite.]
+
+The custom of stinging the girl at such times with ants or beating her
+with rods is intended, we may be sure, not as a punishment or a test of
+endurance, but as a purification, the object being to drive away the
+malignant influences with which a girl in this condition is believed to
+be beset and enveloped. Examples of purification, by beating, by
+incisions in the flesh, and by stinging with ants, have already come
+before us.[146] In some Indian tribes of Brazil and Guiana young men do
+not rank as warriors and may not marry till they have passed through a
+terrible ordeal, which consists in being stung by swarms of venomous
+ants whose bite is like fire. Thus among the Mauhes on the Tapajos
+river, a southern tributary of the Amazon, boys of eight to ten years
+are obliged to thrust their arms into sleeves stuffed with great
+ferocious ants, which the Indians call _tocandeira_ (_Cryptocerus
+atratus_, F.). When the young victim shrieks with pain, an excited mob
+of men dances round him, shouting and encouraging him till he falls
+exhausted to the ground. He is then committed to the care of old women,
+who treat his fearfully swollen arms with fresh juice of the manioc; and
+on his recovery he has to shew his strength and skill in bending a bow.
+This cruel ordeal is commonly repeated again and again, till the lad has
+reached his fourteenth year and can bear the agony without betraying any
+sign of emotion. Then he is a man and can marry. A lad's age is reckoned
+by the number of times he has passed through the ordeal.[147] An
+eye-witness has described how a young Mauhe hero bore the torture with
+an endurance more than Spartan, dancing and singing, with his arms cased
+in the terrible mittens, before every cabin of the great common house,
+till pallid, staggering, and with chattering teeth he triumphantly laid
+the gloves before the old chief and received the congratulations of the
+men and the caresses of the women; then breaking away from his friends
+and admirers he threw himself into the river and remained in its cool
+soothing water till nightfall.[148] Similarly among the Ticunas of the
+Upper Amazon, on the border of Peru, the young man who would take his
+place among the warriors must plunge his arm into a sort of basket full
+of venomous ants and keep it there for several minutes without uttering
+a cry. He generally falls backwards and sometimes succumbs to the fever
+which ensues; hence as soon as the ordeal is over the women are prodigal
+of their attentions to him, and rub the swollen arm with a particular
+kind of herb.[149] Ordeals of this sort appear to be in vogue among the
+Indians of the Rio Negro as well as of the Amazon.[150] Among the
+Rucuyennes, a tribe of Indians in the north of Brazil, on the borders of
+Guiana, young men who are candidates for marriage must submit to be
+stung all over their persons not only with ants but with wasps, which
+are applied to their naked bodies in curious instruments of trellis-work
+shaped like fantastic quadrupeds or birds. The patient invariably falls
+down in a swoon and is carried like dead to his hammock, where he is
+tightly lashed with cords. As they come to themselves, they writhe in
+agony, so that their hammocks rock violently to and fro, causing the hut
+to shake as if it were about to collapse. This dreadful ordeal is called
+by the Indians a _maraké_.[151]
+
+[Custom of causing men and women to be stung with ants to improve their
+character and health or to render them invulnerable.]
+
+The same ordeal, under the same name, is also practised by the Wayanas,
+an Indian tribe of French Guiana, but with them, we are told, it is no
+longer deemed an indispensable preliminary to marriage; "it is rather a
+sort of national medicine administered chiefly to the youth of both
+sexes." Applied to men, the _maraké_, as it is called, "sharpens them,
+prevents them from being heavy and lazy, makes them active, brisk,
+industrious, imparts strength, and helps them to shoot well with the
+bow; without it the Indians would always be slack and rather sickly,
+would always have a little fever, and would lie perpetually in their
+hammocks. As for the women, the _maraké_ keeps them from going to sleep,
+renders them active, alert, brisk, gives them strength and a liking for
+work, makes them good housekeepers, good workers at the stockade, good
+makers of _cachiri_. Every one undergoes the _maraké_ at least twice in
+his life, sometimes thrice, and oftener if he likes. It may be had from
+the age of about eight years and upward, and no one thinks it odd that a
+man of forty should voluntarily submit to it."[152] Similarly the
+Indians of St. Juan Capistrano in California used to be branded on some
+part of their bodies, generally on the right arm, but sometimes on the
+leg also, not as a proof of manly fortitude, but because they believed
+that the custom "added greater strength to the nerves, and gave a better
+pulse for the management of the bow." Afterwards "they were whipped with
+nettles, and covered with ants, that they might become robust, and the
+infliction was always performed in summer, during the months of July and
+August, when the nettle was in its most fiery state. They gathered small
+bunches, which they fastened together, and the poor deluded Indian was
+chastised, by inflicting blows with them upon his naked limbs, until
+unable to walk; and then he was carried to the nest of the nearest and
+most furious species of ants, and laid down among them, while some of
+his friends, with sticks, kept annoying the insects to make them still
+more violent. What torments did they not undergo! What pain! What
+hellish inflictions! Yet their faith gave them power to endure all
+without a murmur, and they remained as if dead. Having undergone these
+dreadful ordeals, they were considered as invulnerable, and believed
+that the arrows of their enemies could no longer harm them."[153] Among
+the Alur, a tribe inhabiting the south-western region of the upper Nile,
+to bury a man in an ant-hill and leave him there for a while is the
+regular treatment for insanity.[154]
+
+[In such cases the beating or stinging was originally a purification; at
+a later time it is interpreted as a test of courage and endurance.]
+
+In like manner it is probable that beating or scourging as a religious
+or ceremonial rite was originally a mode of purification. It was meant
+to wipe off and drive away a dangerous contagion, whether personified as
+demoniacal or not, which was supposed to be adhering physically, though
+invisibly, to the body of the sufferer.[155] The pain inflicted on the
+person beaten was no more the object of the beating than it is of a
+surgical operation with us; it was a necessary accident, that was all.
+In later times such customs were interpreted otherwise, and the pain,
+from being an accident, became the prime object of the ceremony, which
+was now regarded either as a test of endurance imposed upon persons at
+critical epochs of life, or as a mortification of the flesh well
+pleasing to the god. But asceticism, under any shape or form, is never
+primitive. The savage, it is true, in certain circumstances will
+voluntarily subject himself to pains and privations which appear to us
+wholly needless; but he never acts thus unless he believes that some
+solid temporal advantage is to be gained by so doing. Pain for the sake
+of pain, whether as a moral discipline in this life or as a means of
+winning a glorious immortality hereafter, is not an object which he sets
+himself deliberately to pursue.
+
+[This explanation confirmed with reference to the beating of girls at
+puberty among the South American Indians; treatment of a girl at puberty
+among the Banivas of the Orinoco; symptoms of puberty in a girl regarded
+as wounds inflicted by a demon.]
+
+If this view is correct, we can understand why so many Indian tribes of
+South America compel the youth of both sexes to submit to these painful
+and sometimes fatal ordeals. They imagine that in this way they rid the
+young folk of certain evils inherent in youth, especially at the
+critical age of puberty; and when they picture to themselves the evils
+in a personal form as dangerous spirits or demons, the ceremony of their
+expulsion may in the strict sense be termed an exorcism. This certainly
+appears to be the interpretation which the Banivas of the Orinoco put
+upon the cruel scourgings which they inflict on girls at puberty. At her
+first menstruation a Baniva girl must pass several days and nights in
+her hammock, almost motionless and getting nothing to eat and drink but
+water and a little manioc. While she lies there, the suitors for her
+hand apply to her father, and he who can afford to give most for her or
+can prove himself the best man, is promised the damsel in marriage. The
+fast over, some old men enter the hut, bandage the girl's eyes, cover
+her head with a bonnet of which the fringes fall on her shoulders, and
+then lead her forth and tie her to a post set up in an open place. The
+head of the post is carved in the shape of a grotesque face. None but
+the old men may witness what follows. Were a woman caught peeping and
+prying, it would go ill with her; she would be marked out for the
+vengeance of the demon, who would make her expiate her crime at the very
+next moon by madness or death. Every participant in the ceremony comes
+armed with a scourge of cords or of fish skins; some of them reinforce
+the virtue of the instrument by tying little sharp stones to the end of
+the thongs. Then, to the dismal and deafening notes of shell-trumpets
+blown by two or three supernumeraries, the men circle round and round
+the post, every one applying his scourge as he passes to the girl's
+back, till it streams with blood. At last the musicians, winding
+tremendous blasts on their trumpets against the demon, advance and touch
+the post in which he is supposed to be incorporate. Then the blows cease
+to descend; the girl is untied, often in a fainting state, and carried
+away to have her wounds washed and simples applied to them. The youngest
+of the executioners, or rather of the exorcists, hastens to inform her
+betrothed husband of the happy issue of the exorcism. "The spirit," he
+says, "had cast thy beloved into a sleep as deep almost as that of
+death. But we have rescued her from his attacks, and laid her down in
+such and such a place. Go seek her." Then going from house to house
+through the village he cries to the inmates, "Come, let us burn the
+demon who would have taken possession of such and such a girl, our
+friend." The bridegroom at once carries his wounded and suffering bride
+to his own house; and all the people gather round the post for the
+pleasure of burning it and the demon together. A great pile of firewood
+has meanwhile been heaped up about it, and the women run round the pyre
+cursing in shrill voices the wicked spirit who has wrought all this
+evil. The men join in with hoarser cries and animate themselves for the
+business in hand by deep draughts of an intoxicant which has been
+provided for the occasion by the parents-in-law. Soon the bridegroom,
+having committed the bride to the care of his mother, appears on the
+scene brandishing a lighted torch. He addresses the demon with bitter
+mockery and reproaches; informs him that the fair creature on whom he,
+the demon, had nefarious designs, is now his, the bridegroom's, blooming
+spouse; and shaking his torch at the grinning head on the post, he
+screams out, "This is how the victims of thy persecution take vengeance
+on thee!" With these words he puts a light to the pyre. At once the
+drums strike up, the trumpets blare, and men, women, and children begin
+to dance. In two long rows they dance, the men on one side, the women on
+the other, advancing till they almost touch and then retiring again.
+After that the two rows join hands, and forming a huge circle trip it
+round and round the blaze, till the post with its grotesque face is
+consumed in the flames and nothing of the pyre remains but a heap of red
+and glowing embers. "The evil spirit has been destroyed. Thus delivered
+from her persecutor, the young wife will be free from sickness, will not
+die in childbed, and will bear many children to her husband."[156] From
+this account it appears that the Banivas attribute the symptoms of
+puberty in girls to the wounds inflicted on them by an amorous devil,
+who, however, can be not only exorcised but burnt to ashes at the stake.
+
+
+§ 6. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in India and Cambodia_
+
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Hindoos; seclusion of girls at
+puberty in Southern India.]
+
+When a Hindoo maiden reaches maturity she is kept in a dark room for
+four days, and is forbidden to see the sun. She is regarded as unclean;
+no one may touch her. Her diet is restricted to boiled rice, milk,
+sugar, curd, and tamarind without salt. On the morning of the fifth day
+she goes to a neighbouring tank, accompanied by five women whose
+husbands are alive. Smeared with turmeric water, they all bathe and
+return home, throwing away the mat and other things that were in the
+room.[157] The Rarhi Brahmans of Bengal compel a girl at puberty to live
+alone, and do not allow her to see the face of any male. For three days
+she remains shut up in a dark room, and has to undergo certain penances.
+Fish, flesh, and sweetmeats are forbidden her; she must live upon rice
+and ghee.[158] Among the Tiyans of Malabar a girl is thought to be
+polluted for four days from the beginning of her first menstruation.
+During this time she must keep to the north side of the house, where she
+sleeps on a grass mat of a particular kind, in a room festooned with
+garlands of young coco-nut leaves. Another girl keeps her company and
+sleeps with her, but she may not touch any other person, tree or plant.
+Further, she may not see the sky, and woe betide her if she catches
+sight of a crow or a cat! Her diet must be strictly vegetarian, without
+salt, tamarinds, or chillies. She is armed against evil spirits by a
+knife, which is placed on the mat or carried on her person.[159] Among
+the Kappiliyans of Madura and Tinnevelly a girl at her first monthly
+period remains under pollution for thirteen days, either in a corner of
+the house, which is screened off for her use by her maternal uncle, or
+in a temporary hut, which is erected by the same relative on the common
+land of the village. On the thirteenth day she bathes in a tank, and, on
+entering the house, steps over a pestle and a cake. Near the entrance
+some food is placed and a dog is allowed to partake of it; but his
+enjoyment is marred by suffering, for while he eats he receives a sound
+thrashing, and the louder he howls the better, for the larger will be
+the family to which the young woman will give birth; should there be no
+howls, there will be no children. The temporary hut in which the girl
+passed the days of her seclusion is burnt down, and the pots which she
+used are smashed to shivers.[160] Similarly among the Parivarams of
+Madura, when a girl attains to puberty she is kept for sixteen days in a
+hut, which is guarded at night by her relations; and when her
+sequestration is over the hut is burnt down and the pots she used are
+broken into very small pieces, because they think that if rain-water
+gathered in any of them, the girl would be childless.[161] The Pulayars
+of Travancore build a special hut in the jungle for the use of a girl at
+puberty; there she remains for seven days. No one else may enter the
+hut, not even her mother. Women stand a little way off and lay down food
+for her. At the end of the time she is brought home, clad in a new or
+clean cloth, and friends are treated to betel-nut, toddy, and
+arack.[162] Among the Singhalese a girl at her first menstruation is
+confined to a room, where she may neither see nor be seen by any male.
+After being thus secluded for two weeks she is taken out, with her face
+covered, and is bathed by women at the back of the house. Near the
+bathing-place are kept branches of any milk-bearing tree, usually of the
+_jak_-tree. In some cases, while the time of purification or uncleanness
+lasts, the maiden stays in a separate hut, which is afterwards burnt
+down.[163]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty in Cambodia.]
+
+In Cambodia a girl at puberty is put to bed under a mosquito curtain,
+where she should stay a hundred days. Usually, however, four, five, ten,
+or twenty days are thought enough; and even this, in a hot climate and
+under the close meshes of the curtain, is sufficiently trying.[164]
+According to another account, a Cambodian maiden at puberty is said to
+"enter into the shade." During her retirement, which, according to the
+rank and position of her family, may last any time from a few days to
+several years, she has to observe a number of rules, such as not to be
+seen by a strange man, not to eat flesh or fish, and so on. She goes
+nowhere, not even to the pagoda. But this state of seclusion is
+discontinued during eclipses; at such times she goes forth and pays her
+devotions to the monster who is supposed to cause eclipses by catching
+the heavenly bodies between his teeth.[165] This permission to break her
+rule of retirement and appear abroad during an eclipse seems to shew how
+literally the injunction is interpreted which forbids maidens entering
+on womanhood to look upon the sun.
+
+
+§ 7. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Folk-tales_
+
+
+[Traces of the seclusion of girls at puberty in folk-tales. Danish story
+of the girl who might not see the sun.]
+
+A superstition so widely diffused as this might be expected to leave
+traces in legends and folk-tales. And it has done so. In a Danish story
+we read of a princess who was fated to be carried off by a warlock if
+ever the sun shone on her before she had passed her thirtieth year; so
+the king her father kept her shut up in the palace, and had all the
+windows on the east, south, and west sides blocked up, lest a sunbeam
+should fall on his darling child, and he should thus lose her for ever.
+Only at evening, when the sun was down, might she walk for a little in
+the beautiful garden of the castle. In time a prince came a-wooing,
+followed by a train of gorgeous knights and squires on horses all ablaze
+with gold and silver. The king said the prince might have his daughter
+to wife on condition that he would not carry her away to his home till
+she was thirty years old but would live with her in the castle, where
+the windows looked out only to the north. The prince agreed, so married
+they were. The bride was only fifteen, and fifteen more long weary years
+must pass before she might step out of the gloomy donjon, breathe the
+fresh air, and see the sun. But she and her gallant young bridegroom
+loved each other and they were happy. Often they sat hand in hand at the
+window looking out to the north and talked of what they would do when
+they were free. Still it was a little dull to look out always at the
+same window and to see nothing but the castle woods, and the distant
+hills, and the clouds drifting silently over them. Well, one day it
+happened that all the people in the castle had gone away to a
+neighbouring castle to witness a tournament and other gaieties, and the
+two young folks were left as usual all alone at the window looking out
+to the north. They sat silent for a time gazing away to the hills. It
+was a grey sad day, the sky was overcast, and the weather seemed to draw
+to rain. At last the prince said, "There will be no sunshine to-day.
+What if we were to drive over and join the rest at the tournament?" His
+young wife gladly consented, for she longed to see more of the world
+than those eternal green woods and those eternal blue hills, which were
+all she ever saw from the window. So the horses were put into the coach,
+and it rattled up to the door, and in they got and away they drove. At
+first all went well. The clouds hung low over the woods, the wind sighed
+in the trees, a drearier day you could hardly imagine. So they joined
+the rest at the other castle and took their seats to watch the jousting
+in the lists. So intent were they in watching the gay spectacle of the
+prancing steeds, the fluttering pennons, and the glittering armour of
+the knights, that they failed to mark the change, the fatal change, in
+the weather. For the wind was rising and had begun to disperse the
+clouds, and suddenly the sun broke through, and the glory of it fell
+like an aureole on the young wife, and at once she vanished away. No
+sooner did her husband miss her from his side than he, too, mysteriously
+disappeared. The tournament broke up in confusion, the bereft father
+hastened home, and shut himself up in the dark castle from which the
+light of life had departed. The green woods and the blue hills could
+still be seen from the window that looked to the north, but the young
+faces that had gazed out of it so wistfully were gone, as it seemed, for
+ever.[166]
+
+[Tyrolese story of the girl who might not see the sun.]
+
+A Tyrolese story tells how it was the doom of a lovely maiden with
+golden hair to be transported into the belly of a whale if ever a
+sunbeam fell on her. Hearing of the fame of her beauty the king of the
+country sent for her to be his bride, and her brother drove the fair
+damsel to the palace in a carefully closed coach, himself sitting on the
+box and handling the reins. On the way they overtook two hideous
+witches, who pretended they were weary and begged for a lift in the
+coach. At first the brother refused to take them in, but his
+tender-hearted sister entreated him to have compassion on the two poor
+footsore women; for you may easily imagine that she was not acquainted
+with their true character. So down he got rather surlily from the box,
+opened the coach door, and in the two witches stepped, laughing in their
+sleeves. But no sooner had the brother mounted the box and whipped up
+the horses, than one of the two wicked witches bored a hole in the
+closed coach. A sunbeam at once shot through the hole and fell on the
+fair damsel. So she vanished from the coach and was spirited away into
+the belly of a whale in the neighbouring sea. You can imagine the
+consternation of the king, when the coach door opened and instead of his
+blooming bride out bounced two hideous hags![167]
+
+[Modern Greek stories of the maid who might not see the sun.]
+
+In a modern Greek folk-tale the Fates predict that in her fifteenth year
+a princess must be careful not to let the sun shine on her, for if this
+were to happen she would be turned into a lizard.[168] In another modern
+Greek tale the Sun bestows a daughter upon a childless woman on
+condition of taking the child back to himself when she is twelve years
+old. So, when the child was twelve, the mother closed the doors and
+windows, and stopped up all the chinks and crannies, to prevent the Sun
+from coming to fetch away her daughter. But she forgot to stop up the
+key-hole, and a sunbeam streamed through it and carried off the
+girl.[169] In a Sicilian story a seer foretells that a king will have a
+daughter who, in her fourteenth year, will conceive a child by the Sun.
+So, when the child was born, the king shut her up in a lonely tower
+which had no window, lest a sunbeam should fall on her. When she was
+nearly fourteen years old, it happened that her parents sent her a piece
+of roasted kid, in which she found a sharp bone. With this bone she
+scraped a hole in the wall, and a sunbeam shot through the hole and got
+her with child.[170]
+
+[The story of Danae and its parallel in a Kirghiz legend.]
+
+The old Greek story of Danae, who was confined by her father in a
+subterranean chamber or a brazen tower, but impregnated by Zeus, who
+reached her in the shape of a shower of gold,[171] perhaps belongs to
+the same class of tales. It has its counterpart in the legend which the
+Kirghiz of Siberia tell of their ancestry. A certain Khan had a fair
+daughter, whom he kept in a dark iron house, that no man might see her.
+An old woman tended her; and when the girl was grown to maidenhood she
+asked the old woman, "Where do you go so often?" "My child," said the
+old dame, "there is a bright world. In that bright world your father and
+mother live, and all sorts of people live there. That is where I go."
+The maiden said, "Good mother, I will tell nobody, but shew me that
+bright world." So the old woman took the girl out of the iron house. But
+when she saw the bright world, the girl tottered and fainted; and the
+eye of God fell upon her, and she conceived. Her angry father put her in
+a golden chest and sent her floating away (fairy gold can float in
+fairyland) over the wide sea.[172] The shower of gold in the Greek
+story, and the eye of God in the Kirghiz legend, probably stand for
+sunlight and the sun.
+
+[Impregnation of women by the sun in legends.]
+
+The idea that women may be impregnated by the sun is not uncommon in
+legends. Thus, for example, among the Indians of Guacheta in Colombia,
+it is said, a report once ran that the sun would impregnate one of their
+maidens, who should bear a child and yet remain a virgin. The chief had
+two daughters, and was very desirous that one of them should conceive in
+this miraculous manner. So every day he made them climb a hill to the
+east of his house in order to be touched by the first beams of the
+rising sun. His wishes were fulfilled, for one of the damsels conceived
+and after nine months gave birth to an emerald. So she wrapped it in
+cotton and placed it in her bosom, and in a few days it turned into a
+child, who received the name of Garanchacha and was universally
+recognized as a son of the sun.[173] Again, the Samoans tell of a woman
+named Mangamangai, who became pregnant by looking at the rising sun. Her
+son grew up and was named "Child of the Sun." At his marriage he applied
+to his mother for a dowry, but she bade him apply to his father, the
+sun, and told him how to go to him. So one morning he took a long vine
+and made a noose in it; then climbing up a tree he threw the noose over
+the sun and caught him fast. Thus arrested in his progress, the luminary
+asked him what he wanted, and being told by the young man that he wanted
+a present for his bride, the sun obligingly packed up a store of
+blessings in a basket, with which the youth descended to the earth.[174]
+
+[Traces in marriage customs of the belief that women can be impregnated
+by the sun.]
+
+Even in the marriage customs of various races we may perhaps detect
+traces of this belief that women can be impregnated by the sun. Thus
+amongst the Chaco Indians of South America a newly married couple used
+to sleep the first night on a mare's or bullock's skin with their heads
+towards the west, "for the marriage is not considered ratified till the
+rising sun shines on their feet the succeeding morning."[175] At old
+Hindoo marriages the first ceremony was the "Impregnation-rite"
+(_Garbh[=a]dh[=a]na_); during the previous day the bride was made to
+look towards the sun or to be in some way exposed to its rays.[176]
+Amongst the Turks of Siberia it was formerly the custom on the morning
+after the marriage to lead the young couple out of the hut to greet the
+rising sun. The same custom is said to be still practised in Iran and
+Central Asia under a belief that the beams of the rising sun are the
+surest means of impregnating the new bride.[177]
+
+[Belief in the impregnation of women by the moon.]
+
+And as some people think that women may be gotten with child by the sun,
+so others imagine that they can conceive by the moon. According to the
+Greenlanders the moon is a young man, and he "now and then comes down to
+give their wives a visit and caress them; for which reason no woman dare
+sleep lying upon her back, without she first spits upon her fingers and
+rubs her belly with it. For the same reason the young maids are afraid
+to stare long at the moon, imagining they may get a child by the
+bargain."[178] Similarly Breton peasants are reported to believe that
+women or girls who expose their persons to the moonlight may be
+impregnated by it and give birth to monsters.[179]
+
+
+§ 8. _Reasons for the Seclusion of Girls at Puberty_
+
+
+[The reason for the seclusion of women at puberty is the dread of
+menstruous blood.]
+
+The motive for the restraints so commonly imposed on girls at puberty is
+the deeply engrained dread which primitive man universally entertains of
+menstruous blood. He fears it at all times but especially on its first
+appearance; hence the restrictions under which women lie at their first
+menstruation are usually more stringent than those which they have to
+observe at any subsequent recurrence of the mysterious flow. Some
+evidence of the fear and of the customs based on it has been cited in an
+earlier part of this work;[180] but as the terror, for it is nothing
+less, which the phenomenon periodically strikes into the mind of the
+savage has deeply influenced his life and institutions, it may be well
+to illustrate the subject with some further examples.
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the aborigines of
+Australia.]
+
+Thus in the Encounter Bay tribe of South Australia there is, or used to
+be, a "superstition which obliges a woman to separate herself from the
+camp at the time of her monthly illness, when, if a young man or boy
+should approach, she calls out, and he immediately makes a circuit to
+avoid her. If she is neglectful upon this point, she exposes herself to
+scolding, and sometimes to severe beating by her husband or nearest
+relation, because the boys are told from their infancy, that if they see
+the blood they will early become grey-headed, and their strength will
+fail prematurely."[181] And of the South Australian aborigines in
+general we read that there is a "custom requiring all boys and
+uninitiated young men to sleep at some distance from the huts of the
+adults, and to remove altogether away in the morning as soon as daylight
+dawns, and the natives begin to move about. This is to prevent their
+seeing the women, some of whom may be menstruating; and if looked upon
+by the young males, it is supposed that dire results will follow."[182]
+And amongst these tribes women in their courses "are not allowed to eat
+fish of any kind, or to go near the water at all; it being one of their
+superstitions, that if a female, in that state, goes near the water, no
+success can be expected by the men in fishing."[183] Similarly, among
+the natives of the Murray River, menstruous women "were not allowed to
+go near water for fear of frightening the fish. They were also not
+allowed to eat them, for the same reason. A woman during such periods
+would never cross the river in a canoe, or even fetch water for the
+camp. It was sufficient for her to say _Thama_, to ensure her husband
+getting the water himself."[184] The Dieri of Central Australia believe
+that if women at these times were to eat fish or bathe in a river, the
+fish would all die and the water would dry up. In this tribe a mark made
+with red ochre round a woman's mouth indicates that she has her courses;
+no one would offer fish to such a woman.[185] The Arunta of Central
+Australia forbid menstruous women to gather the _irriakura_ bulbs, which
+form a staple article of diet for both men and women. They believe that
+were a woman to break this rule, the supply of bulbs would fail.[186]
+Among the aborigines of Victoria the wife at her monthly periods had to
+sleep on the opposite side of the fire from her husband; she might
+partake of nobody's food, and nobody would partake of hers, for people
+thought that if they ate or drank anything that had been touched by a
+woman in her courses, it would make them weak or ill. Unmarried girls
+and widows at such times had to paint their heads and the upper parts of
+their bodies red,[187] no doubt as a danger signal.
+
+[Severe penalties inflicted for breaches of the custom of seclusion.]
+
+In some Australian tribes the seclusion of menstruous women was even
+more rigid, and was enforced by severer penalties than a scolding or a
+beating. Thus with regard to certain tribes of New South Wales and
+Southern Queensland we are told that "during the monthly illness, the
+woman is not allowed to touch anything that men use, or even to walk on
+a path that any man frequents, on pain of death."[188] Again, "there is
+a regulation relating to camps in the Wakelbura tribe which forbids the
+women coming into the encampment by the same path as the men. Any
+violation of this rule would in a large camp be punished with death. The
+reason for this is the dread with which they regard the menstrual period
+of women. During such a time, a woman is kept entirely away from the
+camp, half a mile at least. A woman in such a condition has boughs of
+some tree of her totem tied round her loins, and is constantly watched
+and guarded, for it is thought that should any male be so unfortunate as
+to see a woman in such a condition, he would die. If such a woman were
+to let herself be seen by a man, she would probably be put to death.
+When the woman has recovered, she is painted red and white, her head
+covered with feathers, and returns to the camp."[189]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women in the Torres Straits Islands,
+New Guinea, Galela, and Sumatra.]
+
+In Muralug, one of the Torres Straits Islands, a menstruous woman may
+not eat anything that lives in the sea, else the natives believe that
+the fisheries would fail. Again, in Mabuiag, another of these islands,
+women who have their courses on them may not eat turtle flesh nor turtle
+eggs, probably for a similar reason. And during the season when the
+turtles are pairing the restrictions laid on such a woman are much
+severer. She may not even enter a house in which there is turtle flesh,
+nor approach a fire on which the flesh is cooking; she may not go near
+the sea and she should not walk on the beach below high-water mark. Nay,
+the infection extends to her husband, who may not himself harpoon or
+otherwise take an active part in catching turtle; however, he is
+permitted to form one of the crew on a turtling expedition, provided he
+takes the precaution of rubbing his armpits with certain leaves, to
+which no doubt a disinfectant virtue is ascribed.[190] Among the Kai of
+German New Guinea women at their monthly sickness must live in little
+huts built for them in the forest; they may not enter the cultivated
+fields, for if they did go to them, and the pigs were to taste of the
+blood, it would inspire the animals with an irresistible desire to go
+likewise into the fields, where they would commit great depredations on
+the growing crops. Hence the issue from women at these times is
+carefully buried to prevent the pigs from getting at it. And conversely,
+if the pigs often break into the fields, the blame is laid on the women
+who by the neglect of these elementary precautions have put temptation
+in the way of the swine.[191] In Galela, to the west of New Guinea,
+women at their monthly periods may not enter a tobacco-field, or the
+plants would be attacked by disease.[192] The Minangkabauers of Sumatra
+are persuaded that if a woman in her unclean state were to go near a
+rice-field, the crop would be spoiled.[193]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the tribes of South
+Africa.]
+
+The Bushmen of South Africa think that, by a glance of a girl's eye at
+the time when she ought to be kept in strict retirement, men become
+fixed in whatever position they happen to occupy, with whatever they
+were holding in their hands, and are changed into trees that talk.[194]
+Cattle-rearing tribes of South Africa hold that their cattle would die
+if the milk were drunk by a menstruous woman;[195] and they fear the
+same disaster if a drop of her blood were to fall on the ground and the
+oxen were to pass over it. To prevent such a calamity women in general,
+not menstruous women only, are forbidden to enter the cattle enclosure;
+and more than that, they may not use the ordinary paths in entering the
+village or in passing from one hut to another. They are obliged to make
+circuitous tracks at the back of the huts in order to avoid the ground
+in the middle of the village where the cattle stand or lie down. These
+women's tracks may be seen at every Caffre village.[196]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the tribes of Central and
+East Africa.]
+
+Similarly among the Bahima, a cattle-breeding tribe of Ankole, in
+Central Africa, no menstruous woman may drink milk, lest by so doing she
+should injure the cows; and she may not lie on her husband's bed, no
+doubt lest she should injure him. Indeed she is forbidden to lie on a
+bed at all and must sleep on the ground. Her diet is restricted to
+vegetables and beer.[197] Among the Baganda, in like manner, no
+menstruous woman might drink milk or come into contact with any
+milk-vessel;[198] and she might not touch anything that belonged to her
+husband, nor sit on his mat, nor cook his food. If she touched anything
+of his at such a time it was deemed equivalent to wishing him dead or to
+actually working magic for his destruction.[199] Were she to handle any
+article of his, he would surely fall ill; were she to handle his
+weapons, he would certainly be killed in the next battle. Even a woman
+who did not menstruate was believed by the Baganda to be a source of
+danger to her husband, indeed capable of killing him. Hence, before he
+went to war, he used to wound her slightly with his spear so as to draw
+blood; this was thought to ensure his safe return.[200] Apparently the
+notion was that if the wife did not lose blood in one way or another,
+her husband would be bled in war to make up for her deficiency; so by
+way of guarding against this undesirable event, he took care to relieve
+her of a little superfluous blood before he repaired to the field of
+honour. Further, the Baganda would not suffer a menstruous woman to
+visit a well; if she did so, they feared that the water would dry up,
+and that she herself would fall sick and die, unless she confessed her
+fault and the medicine-man made atonement for her.[201] Among the
+Akikuyu of British East Africa, if a new hut is built in a village and
+the wife chances to menstruate in it on the day she lights the first
+fire there, the hut must be broken down and demolished the very next
+day. The woman may on no account sleep a second night in it; there is a
+curse (_thahu_) both on her and on it.[202] In the Suk tribe of British
+East Africa warriors may not eat anything that has been touched by
+menstruous women. If they did so, it is believed that they would lose
+their virility; "in the rain they will shiver and in the heat they will
+faint." Suk men and women take their meals apart, because the men fear
+that one or more of the women may be menstruating.[203] The Anyanja of
+British Central Africa, at the southern end of Lake Nyassa, think that a
+man who should sleep with a woman in her courses would fall sick and
+die, unless some remedy were applied in time. And with them it is a rule
+that at such times a woman should not put any salt into the food she is
+cooking, otherwise the people who partook of the food salted by her
+would suffer from a certain disease called _tsempo_; hence to obviate
+the danger she calls a child to put the salt into the dish.[204]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the tribes of West
+Africa.]
+
+Among the Hos, a tribe of Ewe negroes of Togoland in West Africa, so
+long as a wife has her monthly sickness she may not cook for her
+husband, nor lie on his bed, nor sit on his stool; an infraction of
+these rules would assuredly, it is believed, cause her husband to die.
+If her husband is a priest, or a magician, or a chief, she may not pass
+the days of her uncleanness in the house, but must go elsewhere till she
+is clean.[205] Among the Ewe negroes of this region each village has its
+huts where women who have their courses on them must spend their time
+secluded from intercourse with other people. Sometimes these huts stand
+by themselves in public places; sometimes they are mere shelters built
+either at the back or front of the ordinary dwelling-houses. A woman is
+punishable if she does not pass the time of her monthly sickness in one
+of these huts or shelters provided for her use. Thus, if she shews
+herself in her own house or even in the yard of the house, she may be
+fined a sheep, which is killed, its flesh divided among the people, and
+its blood poured on the image of the chief god as a sin-offering to
+expiate her offence. She is also forbidden to go to the place where the
+villagers draw water, and if she breaks the rule, she must give a goat
+to be killed; its flesh is distributed, and its blood, diluted with
+water and mixed with herbs, is sprinkled on the watering-place and on
+the paths leading to it. Were any woman to disregard these salutary
+precautions, the chief fetish-man in the village would fall sick and
+die, which would be an irreparable loss to society.[206]
+
+[Powerful influence ascribed to menstruous blood in Arab legend.]
+
+The miraculous virtue ascribed to menstruous blood is well illustrated
+in a story told by the Arab chronicler Tabari. He relates how Sapor,
+king of Persia, besieged the strong city of Atrae, in the desert of
+Mesopotamia, for several years without being able to take it. But the
+king of the city, whose name was Daizan, had a daughter, and when it was
+with her after the manner of women she went forth from the city and
+dwelt for a time in the suburb, for such was the custom of the place.
+Now it fell out that, while she tarried there, Sapor saw her and loved
+her, and she loved him; for he was a handsome man and she a lovely maid.
+And she said to him, "What will you give me if I shew you how you may
+destroy the walls of this city and slay my father?" And he said to her,
+"I will give you what you will, and I will exalt you above my other
+wives, and will set you nearer to me than them all." Then she said to
+him, "Take a greenish dove with a ring about its neck, and write
+something on its foot with the menstruous blood of a blue-eyed maid;
+then let the bird loose, and it will perch on the walls of the city, and
+they will fall down." For that, says the Arab historian, was the
+talisman of the city, which could not be destroyed in any other way. And
+Sapor did as she bade him, and the city fell down in a heap, and he
+stormed it and slew Daizan on the spot.[207]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Jews and in Syria.]
+
+According to the Talmud, if a woman at the beginning of her period
+passes between two men, she thereby kills one of them; if she passes
+between them towards the end of her period, she only causes them to
+quarrel violently.[208] Maimonides tells us that down to his time it was
+a common custom in the East to keep women at their periods in a separate
+house and to burn everything on which they had trodden; a man who spoke
+with such a woman or who was merely exposed to the same wind that blew
+over her, became thereby unclean.[209] Peasants of the Lebanon think
+that menstruous women are the cause of many misfortunes; their shadow
+causes flowers to wither and trees to perish, it even arrests the
+movements of serpents; if one of them mounts a horse, the animal might
+die or at least be disabled for a long time.[210] In Syria to this day a
+woman who has her courses on her may neither salt nor pickle, for the
+people think that whatever she pickled or salted would not keep.[211]
+The Toaripi of New Guinea, doubtless for a similar reason, will not
+allow women at such times to cook.[212]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women in India.]
+
+The Bhuiyars, a Dravidian tribe of South Mirzapur, are said to feel an
+intense dread of menstrual pollution. Every house has two doors, one of
+which is used only by women in this condition. During her impurity the
+wife is fed by her husband apart from the rest of the family, and
+whenever she has to quit the house she is obliged to creep out on her
+hands and knees in order not to defile the thatch by her touch.[213] The
+Kharwars, another aboriginal tribe of the same district, keep their
+women at such seasons in the outer verandah of the house for eight days,
+and will not let them enter the kitchen or the cowhouse; during this
+time the unclean woman may not cook nor even touch the cooking vessels.
+When the eight days are over, she bathes, washes her clothes, and
+returns to family life.[214] Hindoo women seclude themselves at their
+monthly periods and observe a number of rules, such as not to drink
+milk, not to milk cows, not to touch fire, not to lie on a high bed, not
+to walk on common paths, not to cross the track of animals, not to walk
+by the side of flowering plants, and not to observe the heavenly
+bodies.[215] The motive for these restrictions is not mentioned, but
+probably it is a dread of the baleful influence which is supposed to
+emanate from women at these times. The Parsees, who reverence fire, will
+not suffer menstruous women to see it or even to look on a lighted
+taper;[216] during their infirmity the women retire from their houses to
+little lodges in the country, whither victuals are brought to them
+daily; at the end of their seclusion they bathe and send a kid, a fowl,
+or a pigeon to the priest as an offering.[217] In Annam a woman at her
+monthly periods is deemed a centre of impurity, and contact with her is
+avoided. She is subject to all sorts of restrictions which she must
+observe herself and which others must observe towards her. She may not
+touch any food which is to be preserved by salting, whether it be fish,
+flesh, or vegetables; for were she to touch it the food would putrefy.
+She may not enter any sacred place, she may not be present at any
+religious ceremony. The linen which she wears at such times must be
+washed by herself at sunrise, never at night. On reaching puberty girls
+may not touch flowers or the fruits of certain trees, for touched by
+them the flowers would fade and the fruits fall to the ground. "It is on
+account of their reputation for impurity that the women generally live
+isolated. In every house they have an apartment reserved for them, and
+they never eat at the same table as the men. For the same reason they
+are excluded from all religious ceremonies. They may only be present at
+family ceremonies, but without ever officiating in them."[218]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of South and
+Central America.]
+
+The Guayquiries of the Orinoco think that when a woman has her courses,
+everything upon which she steps will die, and that if a man treads on
+the place where she has passed, his legs will immediately swell up.[219]
+Among the Guaraunos of the same great river, women at their periods are
+regarded as unclean and kept apart in special huts, where all that they
+need is brought to them.[220] In like manner among the Piapocos, an
+Indian tribe on the Guayabero, a tributary of the Orinoco, a menstruous
+woman is secluded from her family every month for four or five days. She
+passes the time in a special hut, whither her husband brings her food;
+and at the end of the time she takes a bath and resumes her usual
+occupations.[221] So among the Indians of the Mosquito territory in
+Central America, when a woman is in her courses, she must quit the
+village for seven or eight days. A small hut is built for her in the
+wood, and at night some of the village girls go and sleep with her to
+keep her company. Or if the nights are dark and jaguars are known to be
+prowling in the neighbourhood, her husband will take his gun or bow and
+sleep in a hammock near her. She may neither handle nor cook food; all
+is prepared and carried to her. When the sickness is over, she bathes in
+the river, puts on clean clothes, and returns to her household
+duties.[222] Among the Bri-bri Indians of Costa Rica a girl at her first
+menstruation retires to a hut built for the purpose in the forest, and
+there she must stay till she has been purified by a medicine-man, who
+breathes on her and places various objects, such as feathers, the beaks
+of birds, the teeth of beasts, and so forth, upon her body. A married
+woman at her periods remains in the house with her husband, but she is
+reckoned unclean (_bukuru_) and must avoid all intimate relations with
+him. She uses for plates only banana leaves, which, when she has done
+with them, she throws away in a sequestered spot; for should a cow find
+and eat them, the animal would waste away and perish. Also she drinks
+only out of a special vessel, because any person who should afterwards
+drink out of the same vessel would infallibly pine away and die.[223]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of North
+America.]
+
+Among most tribes of North American Indians the custom was that women in
+their courses retired from the camp or the village and lived during the
+time of their uncleanness in special huts or shelters which were
+appropriated to their use. There they dwelt apart, eating and sleeping
+by themselves, warming themselves at their own fires, and strictly
+abstaining from all communications with men, who shunned them just as if
+they were stricken with the plague. No article of furniture used in
+these menstrual huts might be used in any other, not even the flint and
+steel with which in the old days the fires were kindled. No one would
+borrow a light from a woman in her seclusion. If a white man in his
+ignorance asked to light his pipe at her fire, she would refuse to grant
+the request, telling him that it would make his nose bleed and his head
+ache, and that he would fall sick in consequence. If an Indian's wooden
+pipe cracked, his friends would think that he had either lit it at one
+of these polluted fires or had held some converse with a woman during
+her retirement, which was esteemed a most disgraceful and wicked thing
+to do. Decent men would not approach within a certain distance of a
+woman at such times, and if they had to convey anything to her they
+would stand some forty or fifty paces off and throw it to her.
+Everything which was touched by her hands during this period was deemed
+ceremonially unclean. Indeed her touch was thought to convey such
+pollution that if she chanced to lay a finger on a chief's lodge or his
+gun or anything else belonging to him, it would be instantly destroyed.
+If she crossed the path of a hunter or a warrior, his luck for that day
+at least would be gone. Were she not thus secluded, it was supposed that
+the men would be attacked by diseases of various kinds, which would
+prove mortal. In some tribes a woman who infringed the rules of
+separation might have to answer with her life for any misfortunes that
+might happen to individuals or to the tribe in consequence, as it was
+supposed, of her criminal negligence. When she quitted her tent or hut
+to go into retirement, the fire in it was extinguished and the ashes
+thrown away outside of the village, and a new fire was kindled, as if
+the old one had been defiled by her presence. At the end of their
+seclusion the women bathed in running streams and returned to their
+usual occupations.[224]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Creek, Choctaw,
+Omaha, and Cheyenne Indians.]
+
+Thus, to take examples, the Creek and kindred Indians of the United
+States compelled women at menstruation to live in separate huts at some
+distance from the village. There the women had to stay, at the risk of
+being surprised and cut off by enemies. It was thought "a most horrid
+and dangerous pollution" to go near the women at such times; and the
+danger extended to enemies who, if they slew the women, had to cleanse
+themselves from the pollution by means of certain sacred herbs and
+roots.[225] Similarly, the Choctaw women had to quit their huts during
+their monthly periods, and might not return till after they had been
+purified. While their uncleanness lasted they had to prepare their own
+food. The men believed that if they were to approach a menstruous woman,
+they would fall ill, and that some mishap would overtake them when they
+went to the wars.[226] When an Omaha woman has her courses on her, she
+retires from the family to a little shelter of bark or grass, supported
+by sticks, where she kindles a fire and cooks her victuals alone. Her
+seclusion lasts four days. During this time she may not approach or
+touch a horse, for the Indians believe that such contamination would
+impoverish or weaken the animal.[227] Among the Potawatomis the women at
+their monthly periods "are not allowed to associate with the rest of the
+nation; they are completely laid aside, and are not permitted to touch
+any article of furniture or food which the men have occasion to use. If
+the Indians be stationary at the time, the women are placed outside of
+the camp; if on a march, they are not allowed to follow the trail, but
+must take a different path and keep at a distance from the main
+body."[228] Among the Cheyennes menstruous women slept in special
+lodges; the men believed that if they slept with their wives at such
+times, they would probably be wounded in their next battle. A man who
+owned a shield had very particularly to be on his guard against women in
+their courses. He might not go into a lodge where one of them happened
+to be, nor even into a lodge where one of them had been, until a
+ceremony of purification had been performed. Sweet grass and juniper
+were burnt in the tent, and the pegs were pulled up and the covering
+thrown back, as if the tent were about to be struck. After this pretence
+of decamping from the polluted spot the owner of the shield might enter
+the tent.[229]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of British
+Columbia.]
+
+The Stseelis Indians of British Columbia imagined that if a menstruous
+woman were to step over a bundle of arrows, the arrows would thereby be
+rendered useless and might even cause the death of their owner; and
+similarly that if she passed in front of a hunter who carried a gun, the
+weapon would never shoot straight again. Neither her husband nor her
+father would dream of going out to hunt while she was in this state; and
+even if he had wished to do so, the other hunters would not go with him.
+Hence to keep them out of harm's way, the women, both married and
+unmarried, were secluded at these times for four days in shelters.[230]
+Among the Thompson Indians of British Columbia every woman had to
+isolate herself from the rest of the people during every recurring
+period of menstruation, and had to live some little way off in a small
+brush or bark lodge made for the purpose. At these times she was
+considered unclean, must use cooking and eating utensils of her own, and
+was supplied with food by some other woman. If she smoked out of a pipe
+other than her own, that pipe would ever afterwards be hot to smoke. If
+she crossed in front of a gun, that gun would thenceforth be useless for
+the war or the chase, unless indeed the owner promptly washed the weapon
+in "medecine" or struck the woman with it once on each principal part of
+her body. If a man ate or had any intercourse with a menstruous woman,
+nay if he merely wore clothes or mocassins made or patched by her, he
+would have bad luck in hunting and the bears would attack him fiercely.
+Before being admitted again among the people, she had to change all her
+clothes and wash several times in clear water. The clothes worn during
+her isolation were hung on a tree, to be used next time, or to be
+washed. For one day after coming back among the people she did not cook
+food. Were a man to eat food cooked by a woman at such times, he would
+have incapacitated himself for hunting and exposed himself to sickness
+or death.[231]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Chippeway Indians.]
+
+Among the Chippeways and other Indians of the Hudson Bay Territory,
+menstruous women are excluded from the camp, and take up their abode in
+huts of branches. They wear long hoods, which effectually conceal the
+head and breast. They may not touch the household furniture nor any
+objects used by men; for their touch "is supposed to defile them, so
+that their subsequent use would be followed by certain mischief or
+misfortune," such as disease or death. They must drink out of a swan's
+bone. They may not walk on the common paths nor cross the tracks of
+animals. They "are never permitted to walk on the ice of rivers or
+lakes, or near the part where the men are hunting beaver, or where a
+fishing-net is set, for fear of averting their success. They are also
+prohibited at those times from partaking of the head of any animal, and
+even from walking in or crossing the track where the head of a deer,
+moose, beaver, and many other animals have lately been carried, either
+on a sledge or on the back. To be guilty of a violation of this custom
+is considered as of the greatest importance; because they firmly believe
+that it would be a means of preventing the hunter from having an equal
+success in his future excursions."[232] So the Lapps forbid women at
+menstruation to walk on that part of the shore where the fishers are in
+the habit of setting out their fish;[233] and the Esquimaux of Bering
+Strait believe that if hunters were to come near women in their courses
+they would catch no game.[234]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Tinneh or Déné
+Indians; customs and beliefs of the Carrier Indians in regard to
+menstruous women.]
+
+But the beliefs and superstitions of this sort that prevail among the
+western tribes of the great Déné or Tinneh stock, to which the
+Chippeways belong, have been so well described by an experienced
+missionary, that I will give his description in his own words. Prominent
+among the ceremonial rites of these Indians, he says, "are the
+observances peculiar to the fair sex, and many of them are remarkably
+analogous to those practised by the Hebrew women, so much so that, were
+it not savouring of profanity, the ordinances of the Déné ritual code
+might be termed a new edition 'revised and considerably augmented' of
+the Mosaic ceremonial law. Among the Carriers,[235] as soon as a girl
+has experienced the first flow of the menses which in the female
+constitution are a natural discharge, her father believed himself under
+the obligation of atoning for her supposedly sinful condition by a small
+impromptu distribution of clothes among the natives. This periodical
+state of women was considered as one of legal impurity fateful both to
+the man who happened to have any intercourse, however indirect, with
+her, and to the woman herself who failed in scrupulously observing all
+the rites prescribed by ancient usage for persons in her condition.
+
+[Seclusion of Carrier girls at puberty.]
+
+"Upon entering into that stage of her life, the maiden was immediately
+sequestered from company, even that of her parents, and compelled to
+dwell in a small branch hut by herself away from beaten paths and the
+gaze of passers-by. As she was supposed to exercise malefic influence on
+any man who might inadvertently glance at her, she had to wear a sort of
+head-dress combining in itself the purposes of a veil, a bonnet, and a
+mantlet. It was made of tanned skin, its forepart was shaped like a long
+fringe completely hiding from view the face and breasts; then it formed
+on the head a close-fitting cap or bonnet, and finally fell in a broad
+band almost to the heels. This head-dress was made and publicly placed
+on her head by a paternal aunt, who received at once some present from
+the girl's father. When, three or four years later, the period of
+sequestration ceased, only this same aunt had the right to take off her
+niece's ceremonial head-dress. Furthermore, the girl's fingers, wrists,
+and legs at the ankles and immediately below the knees, were encircled
+with ornamental rings and bracelets of sinew intended as a protection
+against the malign influences she was supposed to be possessed
+with.[236] To a belt girding her waist were suspended two bone
+implements called respectively _Tsoenkuz_ (bone tube) and _Tsiltsoet_
+(head scratcher). The former was a hollowed swan bone to drink with, any
+other mode of drinking being unlawful to her. The latter was fork-like
+and was called into requisition whenever she wanted to scratch her
+head--immediate contact of the fingers with the head being reputed
+injurious to her health. While thus secluded, she was called _asta_,
+that is 'interred alive' in Carrier, and she had to submit to a rigorous
+fast and abstinence. Her only allowed food consisted of dried fish
+boiled in a small bark vessel which nobody else must touch, and she had
+to abstain especially from meat of any kind, as well as fresh fish. Nor
+was this all she had to endure; even her contact, however remote, with
+these two articles of diet was so dreaded that she could not cross the
+public paths or trails, or the tracks of animals. Whenever absolute
+necessity constrained her to go beyond such spots, she had to be packed
+or carried over them lest she should contaminate the game or meat which
+had passed that way, or had been brought over these paths; and also for
+the sake of self-preservation against tabooed, and consequently to her,
+deleterious food. In the same way she was never allowed to wade in
+streams or lakes, for fear of causing death to the fish.
+
+"It was also a prescription of the ancient ritual code for females
+during this primary condition to eat as little as possible, and to
+remain lying down, especially in course of each monthly flow, not only
+as a natural consequence of the prolonged fast and resulting weakness;
+but chiefly as an exhibition of a becoming penitential spirit which was
+believed to be rewarded by long life and continual good health in after
+years.
+
+[Seclusion of Carrier women at their monthly periods; reasons for the
+seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians.]
+
+"These mortifications or seclusion did not last less than three or four
+years. Useless to say that during all that time marriage could not be
+thought of, since the girl could not so much as be seen by men. When
+married, the same sequestration was practised relatively to husband and
+fellow-villagers--without the particular head-dress and rings spoken
+of--on the occasion of every recurring menstruation. Sometimes it was
+protracted as long as ten days at a time, especially during the first
+years of cohabitation. Even when she returned to her mate, she was not
+permitted to sleep with him on the first nor frequently on the second
+night, but would choose a distant corner of the lodge to spread her
+blanket, as if afraid to defile him with her dread uncleanness."[237]
+Elsewhere the same writer tells us that most of the devices to which
+these Indians used to resort for the sake of ensuring success in the
+chase "were based on their regard for continence and their excessive
+repugnance for, and dread of, menstruating women."[238] But the strict
+observances imposed on Tinneh or Déné women at such times were designed
+at the same time to protect the women themselves from the evil
+consequences of their dangerous condition. Thus it was thought that
+women in their courses could not partake of the head, heart, or hind
+part of an animal that had been caught in a snare without exposing
+themselves to a premature death through a kind of rabies. They might not
+cut or carve salmon, because to do so would seriously endanger their
+health, and especially would enfeeble their arms for life. And they had
+to abstain from cutting up the grebes which are caught by the Carriers
+in great numbers every spring, because otherwise the blood with which
+these fowls abound would occasion haemorrhage or an unnaturally
+prolonged flux in the transgressor.[239] Similarly Indian women of the
+Thompson tribe abstained from venison and the flesh of other large game
+during menstruation, lest the animals should be displeased and the
+menstrual flow increased.[240] For a similar reason, probably, Shuswap
+girls during their seclusion at puberty are forbidden to eat anything
+that bleeds.[241] The same principle may perhaps partly explain the
+rule, of which we have had some examples, that women at such times
+should refrain from fish and flesh, and restrict themselves to a
+vegetable diet.
+
+[Similar rules of seclusion enjoined on menstruous women in ancient
+Hindoo, Persian, and Hebrew codes.]
+
+The philosophic student of human nature will observe, or learn, without
+surprise that ideas thus deeply ingrained in the savage mind reappear at
+a more advanced stage of society in those elaborate codes which have
+been drawn up for the guidance of certain peoples by lawgivers who claim
+to have derived the rules they inculcate from the direct inspiration of
+the deity. However we may explain it, the resemblance which exists
+between the earliest official utterances of the deity and the ideas of
+savages is unquestionably close and remarkable; whether it be, as some
+suppose, that God communed face to face with man in those early days,
+or, as others maintain, that man mistook his wild and wandering thoughts
+for a revelation from heaven. Be that as it may, certain it is that the
+natural uncleanness of woman at her monthly periods is a conception
+which has occurred, or been revealed, with singular unanimity to several
+ancient legislators. The Hindoo lawgiver Manu, who professed to have
+received his institutes from the creator Brahman, informs us that the
+wisdom, the energy, the strength, the sight, and the vitality of a man
+who approaches a woman in her courses will utterly perish; whereas, if
+he avoids her, his wisdom, energy, strength, sight, and vitality will
+all increase.[242] The Persian lawgiver Zoroaster, who, if we can take
+his word for it, derived his code from the mouth of the supreme being
+Ahura Mazda, devoted special attention to the subject. According to him,
+the menstrous flow, at least in its abnormal manifestations, is a work
+of Ahriman, or the devil. Therefore, so long as it lasts, a woman "is
+unclean and possessed of the demon; she must be kept confined, apart
+from the faithful whom her touch would defile, and from the fire which
+her very look would injure; she is not allowed to eat as much as she
+wishes, as the strength she might acquire would accrue to the fiends.
+Her food is not given her from hand to hand, but is passed to her from a
+distance, in a long leaden spoon."[243] The Hebrew lawgiver Moses, whose
+divine legation is as little open to question as that of Manu and
+Zoroaster, treats the subject at still greater length; but I must leave
+to the reader the task of comparing the inspired ordinances on this head
+with the merely human regulations of the Carrier Indians which they so
+closely resemble.
+
+[Superstitions as to menstruous women in ancient and modern Europe.]
+
+Amongst the civilized nations of Europe the superstitions which cluster
+round this mysterious aspect of woman's nature are not less extravagant
+than those which prevail among savages. In the oldest existing
+cyclopaedia--the _Natural History_ of Pliny--the list of dangers
+apprehended from menstruation is longer than any furnished by mere
+barbarians. According to Pliny, the touch of a menstruous woman turned
+wine to vinegar, blighted crops, killed seedlings, blasted gardens,
+brought down the fruit from trees, dimmed mirrors, blunted razors,
+rusted iron and brass (especially at the waning of the moon), killed
+bees, or at least drove them from their hives, caused mares to miscarry,
+and so forth.[244] Similarly, in various parts of Europe, it is still
+believed that if a woman in her courses enters a brewery the beer will
+turn sour; if she touches beer, wine, vinegar, or milk, it will go bad;
+if she makes jam, it will not keep; if she mounts a mare, it will
+miscarry; if she touches buds, they will wither; if she climbs a cherry
+tree, it will die.[245] In Brunswick people think that if a menstruous
+woman assists at the killing of a pig, the pork will putrefy.[246] In
+the Greek island of Calymnos a woman at such times may not go to the
+well to draw water, nor cross a running stream, nor enter the sea. Her
+presence in a boat is said to raise storms.[247]
+
+[The intention of secluding menstruous women is to neutralize the
+dangerous influences which are thought to emanate from them in that
+condition; suspension between heaven and earth.]
+
+Thus the object of secluding women at menstruation is to neutralize the
+dangerous influences which are supposed to emanate from them at such
+times. That the danger is believed to be especially great at the first
+menstruation appears from the unusual precautions taken to isolate girls
+at this crisis. Two of these precautions have been illustrated above,
+namely, the rules that the girl may not touch the ground nor see the
+sun. The general effect of these rules is to keep her suspended, so to
+say, between heaven and earth. Whether enveloped in her hammock and
+slung up to the roof, as in South America, or raised above the ground in
+a dark and narrow cage, as in New Ireland, she may be considered to be
+out of the way of doing mischief, since, being shut off both from the
+earth and from the sun, she can poison neither of these great sources of
+life by her deadly contagion. In short, she is rendered harmless by
+being, in electrical language, insulated. But the precautions thus taken
+to isolate or insulate the girl are dictated by a regard for her own
+safety as well as for the safety of others. For it is thought that she
+herself would suffer if she were to neglect the prescribed regimen. Thus
+Zulu girls, as we have seen, believe that they would shrivel to
+skeletons if the sun were to shine on them at puberty, and in some
+Brazilian tribes the young women think that a transgression of the rules
+would entail sores on the neck and throat. In short, the girl is viewed
+as charged with a powerful force which, if not kept within bounds, may
+prove destructive both to herself and to all with whom she comes in
+contact. To repress this force within the limits necessary for the
+safety of all concerned is the object of the taboos in question.
+
+[The same explanation applies to the similar rules of seclusion observed
+by divine kings and priests; suspension between heaven and earth.]
+
+The same explanation applies to the observance of the same rules by
+divine kings and priests. The uncleanness, as it is called, of girls at
+puberty and the sanctity of holy men do not, to the primitive mind,
+differ materially from each other. They are only different
+manifestations of the same mysterious energy which, like energy in
+general, is in itself neither good nor bad, but becomes beneficent or
+maleficent according to its application.[248] Accordingly, if, like
+girls at puberty, divine personages may neither touch the ground nor see
+the sun, the reason is, on the one hand, a fear lest their divinity
+might, at contact with earth or heaven, discharge itself with fatal
+violence on either; and, on the other hand, an apprehension that the
+divine being, thus drained of his ethereal virtue, might thereby be
+incapacitated for the future performance of those magical functions,
+upon the proper discharge of which the safety of the people and even of
+the world is believed to hang. Thus the rules in question fall under the
+head of the taboos which we examined in the second part of this
+work;[249] they are intended to preserve the life of the divine person
+and with it the life of his subjects and worshippers. Nowhere, it is
+thought, can his precious yet dangerous life be at once so safe and so
+harmless as when it is neither in heaven nor in earth, but, as far as
+possible, suspended between the two.[250]
+
+[Stories of immortality attained by suspension between heaven and
+earth.]
+
+In legends and folk-tales, which reflect the ideas of earlier ages, we
+find this suspension between heaven and earth attributed to beings who
+have been endowed with the coveted yet burdensome gift of immortality.
+The wizened remains of the deathless Sibyl are said to have been
+preserved in a jar or urn which hung in a temple of Apollo at Cumae; and
+when a group of merry children, tired, perhaps, of playing in the sunny
+streets, sought the shade of the temple and amused themselves by
+gathering underneath the familiar jar and calling out, "Sibyl, what do
+you wish?" a hollow voice, like an echo, used to answer from the urn, "I
+wish to die."[251] A story, taken down from the lips of a German peasant
+at Thomsdorf, relates that once upon a time there was a girl in London
+who wished to live for ever, so they say:
+
+"_London, London is a fine town.
+A maiden prayed to live for ever._"
+
+And still she lives and hangs in a basket in a church, and every St.
+John's Day, about the hour of noon, she eats a roll of bread.[252]
+Another German story tells of a lady who resided at Danzig and was so
+rich and so blest with all that life can give that she wished to live
+always. So when she came to her latter end, she did not really die but
+only looked like dead, and very soon they found her in a hollow of a
+pillar in the church, half standing and half sitting, motionless. She
+stirred never a limb, but they saw quite plainly that she was alive, and
+she sits there down to this blessed day. Every New Year's Day the
+sacristan comes and puts a morsel of the holy bread in her mouth, and
+that is all she has to live on. Long, long has she rued her fatal wish
+who set this transient life above the eternal joys of heaven.[253] A
+third German story tells of a noble damsel who cherished the same
+foolish wish for immortality. So they put her in a basket and hung her
+up in a church, and there she hangs and never dies, though many a year
+has come and gone since they put her there. But every year on a certain
+day they give her a roll, and she eats it and cries out, "For ever! for
+ever! for ever!" And when she has so cried she falls silent again till
+the same time next year, and so it will go on for ever and for
+ever.[254] A fourth story, taken down near Oldenburg in Holstein, tells
+of a jolly dame that ate and drank and lived right merrily and had all
+that heart could desire, and she wished to live always. For the first
+hundred years all went well, but after that she began to shrink and
+shrivel up, till at last she could neither walk nor stand nor eat nor
+drink. But die she could not. At first they fed her as if she were a
+little child, but when she grew smaller and smaller they put her in a
+glass bottle and hung her up in the church. And there she still hangs,
+in the church of St. Mary, at Lübeck. She is as small as a mouse, but
+once a year she stirs.[255]
+
+Notes:
+
+[64] Pechuel-Loesche, "Indiscretes aus Loango," _Zeitschrift für
+Ethnologie_, x. (1878) p. 23.
+
+[65] Rev. J. Macdonald, "Manners, Customs, Superstitions, and Religions
+of South African Tribes," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+xx. (1891) p. 118.
+
+[66] Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_ (London, 1904), p. 209. The
+prohibition to drink milk under such circumstances is also mentioned,
+though without the reason for it, by L. Alberti (_De Kaffersaan de
+Zuidkust van Afrika_, Amsterdam, 1810, p. 79), George Thompson (_Travels
+and Adventures in Southern Africa_, London, 1827, ii. 354 _sq._), and
+Mr. Warner (in Col. Maclean's _Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs_;
+Cape Town, 1866, p. 98). As to the reason for the prohibition, see
+below, p. 80.
+
+[67] C.W. Hobley, _Ethnology of A-Kamba and other East African Tribes_
+(Cambridge, 1910), p. 65.
+
+[68] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 80. As to the
+interpretation which the Baganda put on the act of jumping or stepping
+over a woman, see _id._, pp. 48, 357 note 1. Apparently some of the
+Lower Congo people interpret the act similarly. See J.H. Weeks, "Notes
+on some Customs of the Lower Congo People," _Folk-lore_, xix. (1908) p.
+431. Among the Baganda the separation of children from their parents
+took place after weaning; girls usually went to live either with an
+elder married brother or (if there was none such) with one of their
+father's brothers; boys in like manner went to live with one of their
+father's brothers. See J. Roscoe, _op. cit._ p. 74. As to the
+prohibition to touch food with the hands, see _Taboo and the Perils of
+the Soul_, pp. 138 _sqq._, 146 _sqq._, etc.
+
+[69] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 80.
+
+[70] De la Loubere, _Du royaume de Siam_ (Amsterdam, 1691), i. 203. In
+Travancore it is believed that women at puberty and after childbirth are
+peculiarly liable to be attacked by demons. See S. Mateer, _The Land of
+Charity_ (London, 1871), p. 208.
+
+[71] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 80.
+
+[72] C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, _The Great Plateau of Northern
+Nigeria_ (London, 1911), pp. 158-160.
+
+[73] R. Sutherland Rattray, _Some Folk-lore, Stories and Songs in
+Chinyanja_ (London, 1907), pp. 102-105.
+
+[74] Rev. H. Cole, "Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa," _Journal
+of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) pp. 309 _sq._
+
+[75] R. Sutherland Rattray, _op. cit._ pp. 191 _sq._
+
+[76] _The Grihya Sutras_, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part i. p. 357,
+Part ii. p. 267 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vols. xxix., xxx.).
+
+[77] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), pp. 393 _sq._,
+compare pp. 396, 398.
+
+[78] See _Totemism and Exogamy_, iv. 224 _sqq._
+
+[79] Sir Harry H. Johnston, _British Central Africa_ (London, 1897), p.
+411.
+
+[80] Oscar Baumann, _Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle_ (Berlin, 1894), p.
+178.
+
+[81] Lionel Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_ (London, 1898), p. 78.
+Compare E. Jacottet, _Études sur les Langues du Haut-Zambèze_, Troisième
+Partie (Paris, 1901), pp. 174 _sq._ (as to the A-Louyi).
+
+[82] E. Béguin, _Les Ma-rotsé_ (Lausanne and Fontaines, 1903), p. 113.
+
+[83] Henri A. Junod, _The Life of a South African Tribe_ (Neuchatel,
+1912-1913), i. 178 _sq._
+
+[84] G. McCall Theal, _Kaffir Folk-lore_ (London, 1886), p. 218.
+
+[85] L. Alberti, _De Kaffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika_ (Amsterdam,
+1810), pp. 79 _sq._; H. Lichtenstein, _Reisen im südlichen Africa_
+(Berlin, 1811-1812), i. 428.
+
+[86] Gustav Fritsch, _Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika's_ (Breslau, 1872), p.
+112. This statement applies especially to the Ama-Xosa.
+
+[87] G. McCall Theal, _Kaffir Folk-lore_, p. 218.
+
+[88] Rev. Canon Henry Callaway, _Nursery Tales, Traditions, and
+Histories of the Zulus_ (Natal and London, 1868), p. 182, note 20. From
+one of the Zulu texts which the author edits and translates (p. 189) we
+may infer that during the period of her seclusion a Zulu girl may not
+light a fire. Compare above, p. 28.
+
+[89] E. Casalis, _The Basutos_ (London, 1861), p. 268.
+
+[90] J. Merolla, "Voyage to Congo," in J. Pinkerton's _Voyages and
+Travels_ (London, 1808-1814), xvi. 238; Father Campana, "Congo; Mission
+Catholique de Landana," _Les Missions Catholiques_, xxvii. (1895) p.
+161; R.E. Dennett, _At the Back of the Black Man's Mind_ (London, 1906),
+pp. 69 _sq._. According to Merolla, it is thought that if girls did not
+go through these ceremonies, they would "never be fit for procreation."
+The other consequences supposed to flow from the omission of the rites
+are mentioned by Father Campana. From Mr. Dennett's account (_op. cit._
+pp. 53, 67-71) we gather that drought and famine are thought to result
+from the intercourse of a man with a girl who has not yet passed through
+the "paint-house," as the hut is called where the young women live in
+seclusion. According to O. Dapper, the women of Loango paint themselves
+red on every recurrence of their monthly sickness; also they tie a cord
+tightly round their heads and take care neither to touch their husband's
+food nor to appear before him (_Description de l'Afrique_, Amsterdam,
+1686, p. 326).
+
+[91] The Rev. G. Brown, quoted by the Rev. B. Danks, "Marriage Customs
+of the New Britain Group," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+xviii. (1889) pp. 284. _sq.; id., Melanesians and Polynesians_ (London,
+1910), pp. 105-107. Compare _id._, "Notes on the Duke of York Group, New
+Britain, and New Ireland," _Journal of the Royal Geographical Society_,
+xlvii. (1877) pp. 142 _sq._; A. Hahl, "Das mittlere Neumecklenburg,"
+_Globus_, xci. (1907) p. 313. Wilfred Powell's description of the New
+Ireland custom is similar (_Wanderings in a Wild Country_, London, 1883,
+p. 249). According to him, the girls wear wreaths of scented herbs round
+the waist and neck; an old woman or a little child occupies the lower
+floor of the cage; and the confinement lasts only a month. Probably the
+long period mentioned by Dr. Brown is that prescribed for chiefs'
+daughters. Poor people could not afford to keep their children so long
+idle. This distinction is sometimes expressly stated. See above, p. 30.
+Among the Goajiras of Colombia rich people keep their daughters shut up
+in separate huts at puberty for periods varying from one to four years,
+but poor people cannot afford to do so for more than a fortnight or a
+month. See F.A. Simons, "An Exploration of the Goajira Peninsula,"
+_Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society_, N.S., vii. (1885) p.
+791. In Fiji, brides who were being tattooed were kept from the sun
+(Thomas Williams, _Fiji and the Fijians_, Second Edition, London, 1860,
+i. 170). This was perhaps a modification of the Melanesian custom of
+secluding girls at puberty. The reason mentioned by Mr. Williams, "to
+improve her complexion," can hardly have been the original one.
+
+[92] Rev. R.H. Rickard, quoted by Dr. George Brown, _Melanesians and
+Polynesians_, pp. 107 _sq._. His observations were made in 1892.
+
+[93] R. Parkinson, _Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee_ (Stuttgart, 1907), p.
+272. The natives told Mr. Parkinson that the confinement of the girls
+lasts from twelve to twenty months. The length of it may have been
+reduced since Dr. George Brown described the custom in 1876.
+
+[94] J. Chalmers and W. Wyatt Gill, _Work and Adventure in New Guinea_
+(London, 1885), p. 159.
+
+[95] H. Zahn and S. Lehner, in R. Neuhauss's _Deutsch New-Guinea_
+(Berlin, 1911), iii. 298, 418-420. The customs of the two tribes seem to
+be in substantial agreement, and the accounts of them supplement each
+other. The description of the Bukaua practice is the fuller.
+
+[96] C.A.L.M. Schwaner, _Borneo, Beschrijving van het stroomgebied van
+den Barito_ (Amsterdam, 1853-1854), ii. 77 _sq._; W.F.A. Zimmermann,
+_Die Inseln des Indischen und Stillen Meeres_ (Berlin, 1864-1865), ii.
+632 _sq._; Otto Finsch, _Neu Guinea und seine Bewohner_ (Bremen, 1865),
+pp. 116 _sq._.
+
+[97] J.G.F. Riedel, _De sluik--en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes
+en Papua_ (The Hague, 1886), p. 138.
+
+[98] A. Senfft, "Ethnographische Beiträge über die Karolineninsel Yap,"
+_Petermanns Mitteilungen_, xlix. (1903) p. 53; _id._, "Die Rechtssitten
+der Jap-Eingeborenen," _Globus_, xci. (1907) pp. 142 _sq._.
+
+[99] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+xxix. (1899) pp. 212 _sq.; id._, in _Reports of the Cambridge
+Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp.
+203 _sq._
+
+[100] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in _Reports of the Cambridge Expedition to
+Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) p. 205.
+
+[101] L. Crauford, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxiv.
+(1895) p. 181.
+
+[102] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, _op. cit._ v. 206.
+
+[103] Walter E. Roth, _North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 5,
+Superstition, Magic, and Medicine_ (Brisbane, 1903), pp. 24 _sq._
+
+[104] Walter E. Roth, _op. cit._ p. 25.
+
+[105] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological
+Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904), p. 205.
+
+[106] From notes kindly sent me by Dr. C.G. Seligmann. The practice of
+burying a girl at puberty was observed also by some Indian tribes of
+California, but apparently rather for the purpose of producing a sweat
+than for the sake of concealment. The treatment lasted only twenty-four
+hours, during which the patient was removed from the ground and washed
+three or four times, to be afterwards reimbedded. Dancing was kept up
+the whole time by the women. See H. R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of
+the United States_ (Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 215.
+
+[107] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological
+Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. 201 _sq._
+
+[108] A.L. Kroeber, "The Religion of the Indians of California,"
+_University of California Publications in American Archaeology and
+Ethnology_, vol. iv. No. 6 (September, 1907), p. 324.
+
+[109] Roland B. Dixon, "The Northern Maidu," _Bulletin of the American
+Museum of Natural History_, vol. xvii. Part iii. (May 1905) pp. 232
+_sq._, compare pp. 233-238.
+
+[110] Stephen Powers, _Tribes of California_ (Washington, 1877), p. 85
+(_Contributions to North American Ethnology_, vol. iii.).
+
+[111] Stephen Powers, _op. cit._ p. 235.
+
+[112] Charles Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States Exploring
+Expedition_, New Edition (New York, 1851), iv. 456.
+
+[113] Franz Boas, _Chinook Texts_ (Washington, 1894), pp. 246 _sq._ The
+account, taken down from the lips of a Chinook Indian, is not perfectly
+clear; some of the restrictions were prolonged after the girl's second
+monthly period.
+
+[114] G.M. Sproat, _Scenes and Studies of Savage Life_ (London, 1868),
+pp. 93 _sq._
+
+[115] Franz Boas, in _Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of
+Canada_, pp. 40-42 (separate reprint from the _Report of the British
+Association for the Advancement of Science_, Leeds meeting, 1890). The
+rule not to lie down is observed also during their seclusion at puberty
+by Tsimshian girls, who always sit propped up between boxes and mats;
+their heads are covered with small mats, and they may not look at men
+nor at fresh salmon and olachen. See Franz Boas, in _Fifth Report on the
+North-Western Tribes of Canada_, p. 41 (separate reprint from the
+_Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science_,
+Newcastle-upon-Tyne meeting, 1889); G.M. Dawson, _Report on the Queen
+Charlotte Islands, 1878_ (Montreal, 1880), pp. 130 B _sq._ Some divine
+kings are not allowed to lie down. See _Taboo and the Perils of the
+Soul_, p. 5.
+
+[116] George M. Dawson, _Report on the Queen Charlotte Islands, 1878_
+(Montreal, 1880), p. 130 B; J.R. Swanton, _Contributions to the
+Ethnology of the Haida_ (Leyden and New York, 1905), pp. 48-50 (_The
+Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural
+History_, New York). Speaking of the customs observed at Kloo, where the
+girls had to abstain from salmon for five years, Mr. Swanton says (p.
+49): "When five years had passed, the girl came out, and could do as she
+pleased." This seems to imply that the girl was secluded in the house
+for five years. We have seen (above, p. 32) that in New Ireland the
+girls used sometimes to be secluded for the same period.
+
+[117] G.H. von Langsdorff, _Reise um die Welt_ (Frankfort, 1812), ii.
+114 _sq._; H.J. Holmberg, "Ethnographische Skizzen über die Völker des
+Russischen Amerika," _Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae_, iv.
+(Helsingfors, 1856) pp. 319 _sq._; T. de Pauly, _Description
+Ethnographique des Peuples de la Russie_ (St. Petersburg, 1862),
+_Peuples de l'Amérique Russe_, p. 13; A. Erman, "Ethnographische
+Wahrnehmungen und Erfahrungen an den Küsten des Berings-Meeres,"
+_Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, ii. (1870) pp. 318 _sq._; H.H. Bancroft,
+_Native Races of the Pacific States_ (London, 1875-1876), i. 110 _sq._;
+Rev. Sheldon Jackson, "Alaska and its Inhabitants," _The American
+Antiquarian_, ii. (Chicago, 1879-1880) pp. 111 _sq._; A. Woldt, _Captain
+Jacobsen's Reise an der Nordwestkiiste Americas, 1881-1883_ (Leipsic,
+1884), p. 393; Aurel Krause, _Die Tlinkit-Indianer_ (Jena, 1885), pp.
+217 _sq._; W.M. Grant, in _Journal of American Folk-lore_, i. (1888) p.
+169; John R. Swanton, "Social Conditions, Beliefs, and Linguistic
+Relationship of the Tlingit Indians," _Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the
+Bureau of American Ethnology_ (Washington, 1908), p. 428.
+
+[118] Franz Boas, in _Tenth Report of the Committee on the North-Western
+Tribes of Canada_, p. 45 (separate reprint from the _Report of the
+British Association for the Advancement of Science_, Ipswich meeting,
+1895).
+
+[119] Franz Boas, in _Fifth Report of the Committee on the North-Western
+Tribes of Canada_, p. 42 (separate reprint from the _Report of the
+British Association for the Advancement of Science_, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
+meeting, 1889); _id._, in _Seventh Report_, etc., p. 12 (separate
+reprint from the _Report of the British Association for the Advancement
+of Science_, Cardiff meeting, 1891).
+
+[120] "Customs of the New Caledonian women belonging to the Nancaushy
+Tine, or Stuart's Lake Indians, Natotin Tine, or Babine's and Nantley
+Tine, or Fraser Lake Tribes," from information supplied by Gavin
+Hamilton, chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company's service, who has
+been for many years among these Indians, both he and his wife speaking
+their languages fluently (communicated by Dr. John Rae), _Journal of the
+Anthropological Institute_, vii. (1878) pp. 206 _sq._
+
+[121] Émile Petitot, _Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-ouest_ (Paris,
+1886), pp. 257 _sq._
+
+[122] Fr. Julius Jetté, S.J., "On the Superstitions of the Ten'a
+Indians," _Anthropos_, vi. (1911) pp. 700-702.
+
+[123] Compare _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 70 _sqq._
+
+[124] James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, pp.
+311-317 (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American
+Museum of Natural History_, New York, April, 1900). As to the customs
+observed among these Indians by the father of a girl at such times in
+order not to lose his luck in hunting, see _Spirits of the Corn and of
+the Wild_, ii. 268.
+
+[125] James Teit, _The Lillooet Indians_ (Leyden and New York, 1906),
+pp. 263-265 (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American
+Museum of Natural History_, New York). Compare C. Hill Tout, "Report on
+the Ethnology of the Stlatlumh of British Columbia," _Journal of the
+Anthropological Institute_, xxxv. (1905) p. 136.
+
+[126] Franz Boas, in _Sixth Report of the Committee on the North-Western
+Tribes of Canada_, pp. 89 _sq_. (separate reprint from the _Report of
+the British Association for the Advancement of Science_, Leeds meeting,
+1890).
+
+[127] James Teit, _The Shuswap_ (Leyden and New York, 1909), pp. 587
+_sq._ (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American
+Museum of Natural History_, New York).
+
+[128] G.H. Loskiel, _History of the Mission of the United Brethren among
+the Indians of North America_ (London, 1794), Part i. pp. 56 _sq_.
+
+[129] G.B. Grinnell, "Cheyenne Woman Customs," _American
+Anthropologist_, New Series, iv. (New York, 1902) pp. 13 _sq_. The
+Cheyennes appear to have been at first settled on the Mississippi, from
+which they were driven westward to the Missouri. See _Handbook of
+American Indians north of Mexico_, edited by F.W. Hodge (Washington,
+1907-1910), i. 250 _sqq_.
+
+[130] H.J. Holmberg, "Ueber die Völker des Russischen Amerika," _Acta
+Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae_, iv. (Helsingfors, 1856) pp. 401 _sq._;
+Ivan Petroff, _Report on the Population, Industries and Resources of
+Alaska_, p. 143.
+
+[131] E.W. Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," _Eighteenth Annual
+Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1899)
+p. 291.
+
+[132] Jose Guevara, "Historia del Paraguay, Rio de la Plata, y Tucuman,"
+pp. 16 _sq._, in Pedro de Angelis, _Coleccion de Obras y Documentos
+relativos a la Historia antigua y moderna de las Provincias del Rio de
+la Plata_, vol. ii. (Buenos-Ayres, 1836); J.F. Lafitau, _Moeurs des
+Sauvages Ameriquains_ (Paris, 1724), i. 262 _sq._
+
+[133] Father Ignace Chomé, in _Lettres Édifiantes et Curieuses_,
+Nouvelle Edition (Paris, 1780-1783), viii. 333. As to the Chiriguanos,
+see C.F. Phil. von Martius, _Zur Ethnographie Amerika's, zumal
+Brasiliens_ (Leipsic, 1867), pp. 212 _sqq._; Colonel G.E. Church,
+_Aborigines of South America_ (London, 1912), pp. 207-227.
+
+[134] A. Thouar, _Explorations dans l'Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1891),
+pp. 48 _sq._; G. Kurze, "Sitten und Gebräuche der Lengua-Indianer,"
+_Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, xxiii. (1905)
+pp. 26 _sq._ The two accounts appear to be identical; but the former
+attributes the custom to the Chiriguanos, the latter to the Lenguas. As
+the latter account is based on the reports of the Rev. W.B. Grubb, a
+missionary who has been settled among the Indians of the Chaco for many
+years and is our principal authority on them, I assume that the
+ascription of the custom to the Lenguas is correct. However, in the
+volume on the Lengua Indians, which has been edited from Mr. Grubb's
+papers (_An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_, London, 1911), these
+details as to the seclusion of girls at puberty are not mentioned,
+though what seems to be the final ceremony is described (_op. cit._ pp.
+177 _sq._). From the description we learn that boys dressed in ostrich
+feathers and wearing masks circle round the girl with shrill cries, but
+are repelled by the women.
+
+[135] Alcide d'Orbigny, _Voyage dans l'Amérique Méridionale_ vol. iii.
+1to Partie (Paris and Strasburg, 1844), pp. 205 _sq_.
+
+[136] A. Thouar, _Explorations dans l'Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1891) pp.
+56 _sq._; Father Cardus, quoted in J. Pelleschi's _Los Indios Matacos_
+(Buenos Ayres, 1897), pp. 47 _sq._
+
+[137] A. Thouar, _op. cit._ p. 63.
+
+[138] Francis de Castelnau, _Expédition dans les parties centrales de
+l'Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1850-1851), v. 25.
+
+[139] D. Luis de la Cruz, "Descripcion de la Naturaleza de los Terrenos
+que se comprenden en los Andes, poseidos por los Peguenches y los demas
+espacios hasta el rio de Chadileuba," p. 62, in Pedro de Angelis,
+_Coleccion de Obras y Documentos relativos a la Historia antigua y
+moderna de las Provincias del Rio de la Plata_, vol. i. (Buenos-Ayres,
+1836). Apparently the Peguenches are an Indian tribe of Chili.
+
+[140] J.B. von Spix und C.F. Ph. von Martius, _Reise in Brasilien_
+(Munich, 1823-1831), iii. 1186, 1187, 1318.
+
+[141] André Thevet, _Cosmographie Universelle_ (Paris, 1575), ii. 946 B
+[980] _sq._; _id., Les Singularites de la France Antarctique, autrement
+nommée Amerique_ (Antwerp, 1558), p. 76; J.F. Lafitau, _Moeurs des
+Sauvages Ameriquains_ (Paris, 1724), i. 290 _sqq_.
+
+[142] R. Schomburgk, _Reisen in Britisch Guiana_ (Leipsic, 1847-1848),
+ii. 315 _sq._; C.F.Ph. von Martius, _Zur Ethnographie Amerika's, zumal
+Brasiliens_ (Leipsic, 1867), p. 644.
+
+[143] Labat, _Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais en Guinée, Isles
+voisines, et à Cayenne_, iv. 365 _sq._ (Paris, 1730), pp. 17 _sq._
+(Amsterdam, 1731).
+
+[144] A. Caulin, _Historia Coro-graphica natural y evangelica dela Nueva
+Andalucia_ (1779), p. 93. A similar custom, with the omission of the
+stinging, is reported of the Tamanaks in the region of the Orinoco. See
+F.S. Gilij, _Saggio di Storia Americana_, ii. (Rome, 1781), p. 133.
+
+[145] A.R. Wallace, _Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro_,
+p. 496 (p. 345 of the Minerva Library edition, London, 1889).
+
+[146] _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 105 _sqq._; _The
+Scapegoat_> pp. 259 _sqq._
+
+[147] J.B. von Spix and C.F.Ph. von Martius, _Reise in Brasilien_
+(Munich, 1823-1831), iii. 1320.
+
+[148] W. Lewis Herndon, _Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon_
+(Washington, 1854), pp. 319 _sq._ The scene was described to Mr. Herndon
+by a French engineer and architect, M. de Lincourt, who witnessed it at
+Manduassu, a village on the Tapajos river. Mr. Herndon adds: "The
+_Tocandeira_ ants not only bite, but are also armed with a sting like
+the wasp; but the pain felt from it is more violent. I think it equal to
+that occasioned by the sting of the black scorpion." He gives the name
+of the Indians as Mahues, but I assume that they are the same as the
+Mauhes described by Spix and Martius.
+
+[149] Francis de Castelnau, _Expédition dans les parties centrals de
+l'Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1850-1851), v. 46.
+
+[150] L'Abbé Durand, "Le Rio Negro du Nord et son bassin," _Bulletin de
+la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), vi. Série, iii. (1872) pp. 21 _sq._
+The writer says that the candidate has to keep his arms plunged up to
+the shoulders in vessels full of ants, "as in a bath of vitriol," for
+hours. He gives the native name of the ant as _issauba_.
+
+[151] J. Crevaux, _Voyages dans l'Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1883), pp.
+245-250.
+
+[152] H. Coudreau, _Chez nos Indiens: quatre années dans la Guyane
+Française_ (Paris, 1895), p. 228. For details as to the different modes
+of administering the _maraké_ see _ibid._ pp. 228-235.
+
+[153] Father Geronimo Boscana, "Chinigchinich," in _Life in California
+by an American_ [A. Robinson] (New York, 1846), pp. 273 _sq._
+
+[154] F. Stuhlmann, _Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika_ (Berlin,
+1894), p. 506.
+
+[155] As a confirmation of this view it may be pointed out that beating
+or scourging is inflicted on inanimate objects expressly for the purpose
+indicated in the text. Thus the Indians of Costa Rica hold that there
+are two kinds of ceremonial uncleanness, _nya_ and _bu-ku-rú_. Anything
+that has been connected with a death is _nya_. But _bu-ku-rú_ is much
+more virulent. It can not only make one sick but kill. "_Bu-ku-rú_
+emanates in a variety of ways; arms, utensils, even houses become
+affected by it after long disuse, and before they can be used again must
+be purified. In the case of portable objects left undisturbed for a long
+time, the custom is to beat them with a stick before touching them. I
+have seen a woman take a long walking-stick and beat a basket hanging
+from the roof of a house by a cord. On asking what that was for, I was
+told that the basket contained her treasures, that she would probably
+want to take something out the next day, and that she was driving off
+the _bu-ku-rú_. A house long unused must be swept, and then the person
+who is purifying it must take a stick and beat not only the movable
+objects, but the beds, posts, and in short every accessible part of the
+interior. The next day it is fit for occupation. A place not visited for
+a long time or reached for the first time is _bu-ku-rú_. On our return
+from the ascent of Pico Blanco, nearly all the party suffered from
+little calenturas, the result of extraordinary exposure to wet and cold
+and of want of food. The Indians said that the peak was especially
+_bu-ku-rú_ since nobody had ever been on it before." One day Mr. Gabb
+took down some dusty blow-guns amid cries of _bu-ku-rú_ from the
+Indians. Some weeks afterwards a boy died, and the Indians firmly
+believed that the _bu-ku-rú_ of the blow-guns had killed him. "From all
+the foregoing, it would seem that _bu-ku-rú_ is a sort of evil spirit
+that takes possession of the object, and resents being disturbed; but I
+have never been able to learn from the Indians that they consider it so.
+They seem to think of it as a property the object acquires. But the
+worst _bu-ku-rú_ of all, is that of a young woman in her first
+pregnancy. She infects the whole neighbourhood. Persons going from the
+house where she lives, carry the infection with them to a distance, and
+all the deaths or other serious misfortunes in the vicinity are laid to
+her charge. In the old times, when the savage laws and customs were in
+full force, it was not an uncommon thing for the husband of such a woman
+to pay damages for casualties thus caused by his unfortunate wife." See
+Wm. M. Gabb, "On the Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica,"
+_Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at
+Philadelphia_, xiv. (Philadelphia, 1876) pp. 504 _sq._
+
+[156] J. Chaffanjon, _L'Orénoque et le Caura_ (Paris, 1889), pp.
+213-215.
+
+[157] Shib Chunder Bose, _The Hindoos as they are_ (London and Calcutta,
+1881), p. 86. Similarly, after a Brahman boy has been invested with the
+sacred thread, he is for three days strictly forbidden to see the sun.
+He may not eat salt, and he is enjoined to sleep either on a carpet or a
+deer's skin, without a mattress or mosquito curtain (_ibid._ p. 186). In
+Bali, boys who have had their teeth filed, as a preliminary to marriage,
+are kept shut up in a dark room for three days (R. Van Eck, "Schetsen
+van het eiland Bali," _Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië_, N.S., ix.
+(1880) pp. 428 _sq._).
+
+[158] (Sir) H.H. Risley, _Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Ethnographic
+Glossary_ (Calcutta, 1891-1892), i. 152.
+
+[159] Edgar Thurston, _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_ (Madras,
+1909), vii. 63 _sq._
+
+[160] Edgar Thurston, _op. cit._ iii. 218.
+
+[161] Edgar Thurston, _op. cit._ vi. 157.
+
+[162] S. Mateer, _Native Life in Travancore_ (London, 1883), p. 45.
+
+[163] Arthur A. Perera, "Glimpses of Singhalese Social Life," _Indian
+Antiquary_ xxxi, (1902) p. 380.
+
+[164] J. Moura, _Le Royaume du Cambodge_ (Paris, 1883), i. 377.
+
+[165] Étienne Aymonier, "Notes sur les coutumes et croyances
+superstitieuses des Cambodgiens," _Cochinchine Française: Excursions et
+Reconnaissances_, No. 16 (Saigon, 1883), pp. 193 _sq._ Compare _id.,
+Notice sur le Cambodge_ (Paris, 1875), p. 50 _id., Notes sur le Laos_
+(Saigon, 1885), p. 177.
+
+[166] Svend Grundtvig, _Dänische Volks-märchen_, übersetzt von A.
+Strodtmann, Zweite Sammlung (Leipsic, 1879), pp. 199 _sqq._
+
+[167] Christian Schneller, _Märchen und Sagen aus Wälschtirol_
+(Innsbruck, 1867), No. 22, pp. 51 _sqq._
+
+[168] Bernbard Schmidt, _Griechische Märchen, Sagen und Volkslieder_
+(Leipsic, 1877), p. 98.
+
+[169] J.G. von Hahn, _Griechische und albanesische Märchen_ (Leipsic,
+1864), No. 41, vol. i. pp. 245 _sqq._
+
+[170] Laura Gonzenbach, _Sicilianische Märchen_ (Leipsic, 1870), No. 28,
+vol. i. pp. 177 _sqq._ The incident of the bone occurs in other
+folk-tales. A prince or princess is shut up for safety in a tower and
+makes his or her escape by scraping a hole in the wall with a bone which
+has been accidentally conveyed into the tower; sometimes it is expressly
+said that care was taken to let the princess have no bones with her meat
+(J.G. von Hahn, _op. cit._ No. 15; L. Gonzenbach, _op. cit._ Nos. 26,
+27; _Der Pentamerone, aus dem Neapolitanischen übertragen_ von Felix
+Liebrecht (Breslau, 1846), No. 23, vol. i. pp. 294 _sqq._). From this we
+should infer that it is a rule with savages not to let women handle the
+bones of animals during their monthly seclusions. We have already seen
+the great respect with which the savage treats the bones of game
+(_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_ ii. 238 _sqq._, 256 _sqq._); and
+women in their courses are specially forbidden to meddle with the hunter
+or fisher, as their contact or neighbourhood would spoil his sport (see
+below, pp. 77, 78 _sq._, 87, 89 _sqq._). In folk-tales the hero who uses
+the bone is sometimes a boy; but the incident might easily be
+transferred from a girl to a boy after its real meaning had been
+forgotten. Amongst the Tinneh Indians a girl at puberty is forbidden to
+break the bones of hares (above, p. 48). On the other hand, she drinks
+out of a tube made of a swan's bone (above, pp. 48, 49), and the same
+instrument is used for the same purpose by girls of the Carrier tribe of
+Indians (see below, p. 92). We have seen that a Tlingit (Thlinkeet) girl
+in the same circumstances used to drink out of the wing-bone of a
+white-headed eagle (above, p. 45), and that among the Nootka and Shuswap
+tribes girls at puberty are provided with bones or combs with which to
+scratch themselves, because they may not use their fingers for this
+purpose (above, pp. 44, 53).
+
+[171] Sophocles, _Antigone_, 944 _sqq._; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, ii.
+4. I; Horace, _Odes_, iii. 16. I _sqq._; Pausanias, ii. 23. 7.
+
+[172] W. Radloff, _Proben der Volks-litteratur der türkischen Stämme
+Süd-Siberiens,_ iii. (St. Petersburg, 1870) pp. 82 _sq._
+
+[173] H. Ternaux-Compans, _Essai sur l'ancien Cundinamarca_ (Paris,
+N.D.), p. 18.
+
+[174] George Turner, LL.D., _Samoa, a Hundred Years ago and long before_
+(London, 1884), p. 200. For other examples of such tales, see Adolph
+Bastian, _Die Voelker des Oestlichen Asien_, i. 416, vi. 25; _Panjab
+Notes and Queries_, ii. p. 148, § 797 (June, 1885); A. Pfizmaier,
+"Nachrichten von den alten Bewohnern des heutigen Corea,"
+_Sitzungsberichte der philosoph. histor. Classe der kaiser. Akademie der
+Wissenschaften_ (Vienna), lvii. (1868) pp. 495 _sq._
+
+[175] Thomas J. Hutchinson, "On the Chaco and other Indians of South
+America," _Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London_, N.S.
+iii. (1865) p. 327. Amongst the Lengua Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco
+the marriage feast is now apparently extinct. See W. Barbrooke Grubb,
+_An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_ (London, 1911), p. 179.
+
+[176] Monier Williams, _Religious Thought and Life in India_ (London,
+1883), p. 354.
+
+[177] H. Vambery, _Das Türkenvolk_ (Leipsic, 1885), p. 112.
+
+[178] Hans Egede, _A Description of Greenland_ (London, 1818), p. 209.
+
+[179] _Revue des Traditions Populaires_, xv. (1900) p. 471.
+
+[180] _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 145 _sqq._
+
+[181] H.E.A. Meyer, "Manners and Customs of the Aborigines of the
+Encounter Bay Tribe, South Australia," _The Native Tribes of South
+Australia_ (Adelaide, 1879), p. 186.
+
+[182] E.J. Eyre, _Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central
+Australia_ (London, 1845), ii. 304.
+
+[183] E.J. Eyre, _op. cit._ ii. 295.
+
+[184] R. Brough Smyth, _The Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne and
+London, 1878), i. 236.
+
+[185] Samuel Gason, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxiv.
+(1895) p. 171.
+
+[186] Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central
+Australia_ (London, 1899), p. 473; _idem, Northern Tribes of Central
+Australia_ (London, 1904), p. 615.
+
+[187] James Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_ (Melbourne, Sydney, and
+Adelaide, 1881), pp. ci. _sq._
+
+[188] Rev. William Ridley, "Report on Australian Languages and
+Traditions," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, ii. (1873) p.
+268. Compare _id., Kamilaroi and other Australian Languages_ (Sydney,
+1875), p. 157.
+
+[189] A.W. Howitt, _The Native Tribes of South-East Australia_ (London,
+1904.), pp. 776 _sq._, on the authority of Mr. J.C. Muirhead. The
+Wakelbura are in Central Queensland. Compare Captain W.E. Armit, quoted
+in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, ix. (1880) pp. 459 _sq._
+
+[190] _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres
+Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 196, 207.
+
+[191] Ch. Keysser, "Aus dem Leben der Kaileute," in R. Neuhauss's
+_Deutsch Neu-Guinea_ (Berlin, 1911), iii. 91.
+
+[192] M.J. van Baarda, "Fabelen, Verhalen en Overleveringen der
+Galelareezen," _Bijdragen tot de Taal-Landen Volkenkinde van
+Nederlandsch-Indië_, xlv. (1895) p. 489.
+
+[193] J.L. van der Toorn, "Het animisme bij den Minangkabauer der
+Padangsche Bovenlanden," _Bijdragen tot de Taal-Land- en Volkenkunde van
+Nederlandsch-Indië_, xxxix. (1890) p. 66.
+
+[194] W.H.I. Bleek, _A Brief Account of Bushman Folk-lore_ (London,
+1875), p. 14; compare _ibid._, p. 10.
+
+[195] Rev. James Macdonald, "Manners, Customs, Superstitions and
+Religions of South African Tribes," _Journal of the Anthropological
+Institute_, xx. (1891) p. 138; _id., Light in Africa_, Second Edition
+(London, 1890), p. 221.
+
+[196] Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_ (London, 1904), p. 238; Mr.
+Warren's Notes, in Col. Maclean's _Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs_
+(Cape Town, 1866), p. 93; Rev. J. Macdonald, _Light in Africa_, p. 221;
+_id., Religion and Myth_ (London, 1893), p. 198. Compare Henri A. Junod,
+"Les conceptions physiologiques des Bantou Sud-Africains et leurs
+tabous," _Revue d'Ethnographie et de Sociologie_, i. (1910) p. 139. The
+danger of death to the cattle from the blood of women is mentioned only
+by Mr. Kidd. The part of the village which is frequented by the cattle,
+and which accordingly must be shunned by women, has a special name,
+_inkundhla_ (Mr. Warner's Notes, _l.c._).
+
+[197] Rev. J. Roscoe, "The Bahima, a Cow Tribe of Enkole," _Journal of
+the Royal Anthropological Institute_, xxxvii. (1907) p. 106.
+
+[198] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 419.
+
+[199] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 96.
+
+[200] Rev. J. Roscoe, "Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,"
+_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxi. (1901) p. 121; _id._,
+"Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda," _Journal of
+the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 39; _id., The Baganda_,
+p. 352.
+
+[201] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 459.
+
+[202] C.W. Hobley, "Further Researches into Kikuyu and Kamba Religious
+Beliefs and Customs," _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_,
+xli. (1911) p. 409.
+
+[203] Mervyn W.H. Beech, _The Suk, their Language and Folklore_ (Oxford,
+1911), p. 11.
+
+[204] H.S. Stannus, "Notes on some Tribes of British Central Africa,"
+_Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_, xl. (1910) p. 305; R.
+Sutherland Rattray, _Some Folk-lore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja_
+(London, 1907), p. 191. See above, p. 27.
+
+[205] Jakob Spieth, _Die Ewe-Stämme_ (Berlin, 1906), p. 192.
+
+[206] Anton Witte, "Menstruation und Pubertätsfeier der Mädchen in
+Kpandugebiet Togo," _Baessler-Archiv_, i. (1911) p. 279.
+
+[207] Th. Nöldeke, _Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der
+Sassaniden, aus der arabischen Chronik des Tabari übersetzt_ (Leyden,
+1879), pp. 33-38. I have to thank my friend Professor A.A. Bevan for
+pointing out to me this passage. Many ancient cities had talismans on
+the preservation of which their safety was believed to depend. The
+Palladium of Troy is the most familiar instance. See Chr. A. Lobeck,
+_Aglaophamus_ (Königsberg, 1829), pp. 278 _sqq._, and my note on
+Pausanias, viii. 47. 5 (vol. iv. pp. 433 _sq._).
+
+[208] J. Mergel, _Die Medezin der Talmudisten_ (Leipsic and Berlin,
+1885), pp. 15 _sq._
+
+[209] Maimonides, quoted by D. Chwolsohn, _Die Ssabier und der
+Ssabismus_ (St. Petersburg, 1856), ii. 483. According to the editor (p.
+735) by the East Maimonides means India and eastern countries generally.
+
+[210] L'abbé Béchara Chémali, "Naissance et premier âge au Liban,"
+_Anthropos_, v. (1910) p. 735.
+
+[211] Eijub Abela, "Beiträge zur Kenntniss abergläubischer Gebräuche in
+Syrien," _Zeitschrift des deutschen Palaestina-Vereins_, vii. (1884) p.
+111.
+
+[212] J. Chalmers, "Toaripi," _Journal of the Anthropological
+Institute_, xxvii. (1898) p. 328.
+
+[213] W. Crooke, _Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and
+Qudh_ (Calcutta, 1896), ii. 87.
+
+[214] W. Crooke, in _North Indian Notes and Queries_, i. p. 67, § 467
+(July, 1891).
+
+[215] L.K. Anantha Krishna Iyer, _The Cochin Tribes and Castes_, i.
+(Madras, 1909) pp. 201-203. As to the seclusion of menstruous women
+among the Hindoos, see also Sonnerat, _Voyage aux Indes Orientates et à
+la Chine_ (Paris, 1782), i. 31; J.A. Dubois, _Moeurs, Institutions et
+Cérémonies des Peuples de l'Inde_ (Paris, 1825), i. 245 _sq._ Nair women
+in Malabar seclude themselves for three days at menstruation and prepare
+their food in separate pots and pans. See Duarte Barbosa, _Description
+of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the beginning of the
+Sixteenth Century_ (Hakluyt Society, London, 1866), pp. 132 _sq._
+
+[216] G. Hoffman, _Auszüge aus Syrischen Akten persisischer Martyrer
+übersetzt_ (Leipsic, 1880), p. 99. This passage was pointed out to me by
+my friend Professor A.A. Bevan.
+
+[217] J.B. Tavernier, _Voyages en Turquie, en Perse, et aux Indes_ (The
+Hague, 1718), i. 488.
+
+[218] Paul Giran, _Magie et Religion Annamites_ (Paris, 1912), pp. 107
+_sq._, 112.
+
+[219] Joseph Gumilla, _Histoire Naturelle, Civile, et Géographique de
+l'Orenoque_ (Avignon, 1758), i. 249.
+
+[220] Dr. Louis Plassard, "Les Guaraunos et le delta de l'Orénoque,"
+_Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), v. Série, xv. (1868) p.
+584.
+
+[221] J. Crevaux, _Voyages dans l'Amérique du Sud_ (Paris, 1883), p.
+526. As to the customs observed at menstruation by Indian women in South
+America, see further A. d'Orbigny, _L'Homme Americain_ (Paris, 1839), i.
+237.
+
+[222] Chas. N. Bell, "The Mosquito Territory," _Journal of the Royal
+Geographical Society_, xxxii. (1862) p. 254.
+
+[223] H. Pittier de Fabrega, "Die Sprache der Bribri-Indianer in Costa
+Rica," _Sitztungsberichte der philosophischen-historischen Classe der
+Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften_ (Vienna), cxxxviii. (1898) pp.
+19 _sq._
+
+[224] Gabriel Sagard, _Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons_, Nouvelle
+Édition (Paris, 1865), p. 54 (original edition, Paris, 1632); J.F.
+Lafitau, _Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains_ (Paris, 1724), i. 262;
+Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1744), v. 423
+_sq._; Captain Jonathan Carver, _Travels through the Interior Parts of
+North America_, Third Edition (London, 1781), pp. 236 _sq._; Captains
+Lewis and Clark, _Expedition to the Sources of the Missouri_, etc.
+(London, 1905), iii. 90 (original edition, 1814); Rev. Jedidiah Morse,
+_Report to the Secretary of War of the United States on Indian Affairs_
+(New Haven, 1822), pp. 136 _sq._; _Annales de l'Association de la
+Propagation de la Foi_, iv, (Paris and Lyons, 1830) pp. 483, 494 _sq._;
+George Catlin, _Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition
+of the North American Indians_, Fourth Edition (London, 1844), ii. 233;
+H.R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of the United States_ (Philadelphia,
+1853-1856), v. 70; A.L. Kroeber, "The Religion of the Indians of
+California," _University of California Publication in American
+Archaeology and Ethnology_, vol. iv. No. 6 (Berkeley, September, 1907),
+pp. 323 _sq._; Frank G. Speck, _Ethnology of the Yuchi Indians_
+(Philadelphia, 1909), p. 96. Among the Hurons of Canada women at their
+periods did not retire from the house or village, but they ate from
+small dishes apart from the rest of the family at these times (Gabriel
+Sagard, _l.c._).
+
+[225] James Adair, _History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775), pp.
+123 _sq._
+
+[226] Bossu, _Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes occidentales_ (Paris, 1768),
+ii. 105.
+
+[227] Edwin James, _Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the
+Rocky Mountains_ (London, 1823), i. 214.
+
+[228] William H. Keating, _Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of
+St. Peter's River_ (London, 1825), i. 132.
+
+[229] G.B. Grinnell, "Cheyenne Woman Customs," _American
+Anthropologist_, New Series, iv. (New York, 1902) p. 14.
+
+[230] C. Hill Tout, "Ethnological Report on the Stseelis and Skaulits
+Tribes of the Halokmelem Division of the Salish of British Columbia,"
+_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxiv. (1904) p. 320.
+
+[231] James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, pp. 326
+_sq._ (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American
+Museum of Natural History_, New York, April, 1900).
+
+[232] Samuel Hearne, _Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's
+Bay to the Northern Ocean_ (London, 1795), pp. 314 _sq._; Alex.
+Mackenzie, _Voyages through the Continent of North America_ (London,
+1801), p. cxxiii.; E. Petitot, _Monographic des Déné-Dindjié_ (Paris,
+1876), pp. 75 _sq._
+
+[233] C. Leemius, _De Lapponibus Finmarchiae eorumque lingua vita et
+religione pristina_ (Copenhagen, 1767), p. 494.
+
+[234] E.W. Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," _Eighteenth Annual
+Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1899)
+p. 440.
+
+[235] The Carriers are a tribe of Déné or Tinneh Indians who get their
+name from a custom observed among them by widows, who carry, or rather
+used to carry, the charred bones of their dead husbands about with them
+in bundles.
+
+[236] Hence we may conjecture that the similar ornaments worn by Mabuiag
+girls in similar circumstances are also amulets. See above, p. 36. Among
+the aborigines of the Upper Yarra river in Victoria, a girl at puberty
+used to have cords tied very tightly round several parts of her body.
+The cords were worn for several days, causing the whole body to swell
+very much and inflicting great pain. The girl might not remove them till
+she was clean. See R. Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne
+and London, 1878), i. 65. Perhaps the cords were intended to arrest the
+flow of blood.
+
+[237] Rev. Father A.G. Morice, "The Western Dénés, their Manners and
+Customs," _Proceedings of the Canadian Institute, Toronto_, Third
+Series, vii. (1888-89) pp. 162-164. The writer has repeated the
+substance of this account in a later work, _Au pays de l'Ours Noir: chez
+les sauvages de la Colombia Britannique_ (Paris and Lyons, 1897), pp. 72
+_sq._
+
+[238] A.G. Morice, "Notes, Archaeological, Industrial, and Sociological,
+on the Western Dénés," _Transactions of the Canadian Institute_, iv.
+(1892-93) pp. 106 _sq._ Compare Rev. Father Julius Jetté, "On the
+Superstitions of the Ten'a Indians," _Anthropos_, vi. (1911) pp. 703
+_sq._, who tells us that Tinneh women at these times may not lift their
+own nets, may not step over other people's nets, and may not pass in a
+boat or canoe near a place where nets are being set.
+
+[239] A.G. Morice, in _Transactions of the Canadian Institute_, iv.
+(1892-93) pp. 107, 110.
+
+[240] James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, p. 327
+(_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of
+Natural History_, New York, April 1900).
+
+[241] See above, p. 53.
+
+[242] _Laws of Manu_, translated by G. Buhler (Oxford, 1886), ch. iv. 41
+_sq._, p. 135 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xxv.).
+
+[243] _The Zend-Avesta_, translated by J. Darmesteter, i. (Oxford, 1880)
+p. xcii. (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. iv.). See _id._, pp. 9,
+181-185, _Fargard_, i. 18 and 19, xvi. 1-18.
+
+[244] Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ vii. 64 _sq._, xxviii. 77 _sqq._ Compare
+_Geoponica_, xii. 20. 5 and 25. 2; Columella, _De re rustica_, xi. 357
+_sqq._
+
+[245] August Schleicher, _Volkstümliches aus Sonnenberg_ (Weimar, 1858),
+p. 134; B. Souché, _Croyances, Présages et Traditions diverses_ (Niort,
+1880), p. 11; A. Meyrac, _Traditions, Coutumes Légendes et Contes des
+Ardennes_ (Charleville, 1890), p. 171; V. Fossel, _Volksmedicin und
+medicinischer Aberglaube in Steiermark[2]_ (Graz, 1886), p. 124. A
+correspondent, who withholds her name, writes to me that in a Suffolk
+village, where she used to live some twenty or thirty years ago, "every
+one pickled their own beef, and it was held that if the pickling were
+performed by a woman during her menstrual period the meat would not
+keep. If the cook were incapacitated at the time when the pickling was
+due, another woman was sent for out of the village rather than risk what
+was considered a certainty." Another correspondent informs me that in
+some of the dales in the north of Yorkshire a similar belief prevailed
+down to recent years with regard to the salting of pork. Another
+correspondent writes to me: "The prohibition that a menstruating woman
+must not touch meat that is intended for keeping appears to be common
+all over the country; at least I have met with it as a confirmed and
+active custom in widely separated parts of England.... It is in regard
+to the salting of meat for bacon that the prohibition is most usual,
+because that is the commonest process; but it exists in regard to any
+meat food that is required to be kept."
+
+[246] R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_ (Brunswick, 1896), p. 291.
+
+[247] W.R. Paton, in _Folk-lore_, i. (1890) p. 524.
+
+[248] The Greeks and Romans thought that a field was completely
+protected against insects if a menstruous woman walked round it with
+bare feet and streaming hair (Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xvii. 266, xxviii. 78;
+Columella, _De re rustica_, x. 358 _sq._, xi. 3. 64; Palladius, _De re
+rustica_, i. 35. 3; _Geoponica_, xii. 8. 5 _sq._; Aelian, _Nat. Anim._
+vi. 36). A similar preventive is employed for the same purpose by North
+American Indians and European peasants. See H.R. Schoolcraft, _Indian
+Tribes of the United States_ (Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 70; F.J.
+Wiedemann, _Aus dem inneren und aüssern Leben der Ehsten_ (St.
+Petersburg, 1876), p. 484. Compare J. Haltrich, _Zur Volkskunde der
+Siebenbürger Sachsen_ (Vienna, 1885), p. 280; Adolph Heinrich,
+_Agrarische Sitten und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen Siebenbürgens_
+(Hermannstadt, 1880), p. 14; J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] iii.
+468; G. Lammert, _Volksmedizin und medizinischer Aberglaube aus Bayern_
+(Würzburg, 1869), p. 147. Among the Western Dénés it is believed that
+one or two transverse lines tattooed on the arms or legs of a young man
+by a pubescent girl are a specific against premature weakness of these
+limbs. See A.G. Morice, "Notes, Archaeological, Industrial, and
+Sociological, on the Western Dénés," _Transactions of the Canadian
+Institute_, iv. (1892-93) p. 182. The Thompson Indians of British
+Columbia thought that the Dawn of Day could and would cure hernia if
+only an adolescent girl prayed to it to do so. Just before daybreak the
+girl would put some charcoal in her mouth, chew it fine, and spit it out
+four times on the diseased place. Then she prayed: "O Day-dawn! thy
+child relies on me to obtain healing from thee, who art mystery. Remove
+thou the swelling of thy child. Pity thou him, Day-Dawn!" See James
+Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, pp. 345 _sq._ (_The
+Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural
+History_, New York, April, 1900). To cure the painful and dangerous
+wound inflicted by a ray-fish, the Indians of the Gran Chaco smoke the
+wounded limb and then cause a woman in her courses to sit astride of it.
+See G. Pelleschi, _Eight Months on the Gran Chaco of the Argentine
+Republic_ (London, 1886), p. 106. An ancient Hindoo method of securing
+prosperity was to swallow a portion of the menstruous fluid. See W.
+Caland, _Altindisches Zauberritual_ (Amsterdam, 1900), pp. 57 _sq._ To
+preserve a new cow from the evil eye Scottish Highlanders used to
+sprinkle menstruous blood on the animal; and at certain seasons of the
+year, especially at Beltane (the first of May) and Lammas (the first of
+August) it was their custom to sprinkle the same potent liquid on the
+doorposts and houses all round to guard them from harm. The fluid was
+applied by means of a wisp of straw, and the person who discharged this
+salutary office went round the house in the direction of the sun. See
+J.G. Campbell, _Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_
+(Glasgow, 1900), p. 248. These are examples of the beneficent
+application of the menstruous energy.
+
+[249] _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 1 _sqq._
+
+[250] For a similar reason, perhaps, ancient Hindoo ritual prescribed
+that when the hair of a child's head was shorn in the third year, the
+clippings should be buried in a cow-stable, or near an _udumbara_ tree,
+or in a clump of _darbha_ grass, with the words, "Where Pushan,
+Brihaspati, Savitri, Soma, Agni dwell, they have in many ways searched
+where they should deposit it, between heaven and earth, the waters and
+heaven." See _The Grihya-Sûtras_, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part ii.
+(Oxford, 1892) p. 218 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xxx.).
+
+[251] Petronius, _Sat._ 48; Pausanias, x. 12: 8; Justin Martyr, _Cohort
+ad Graecos_, 37, p. 34 c (ed. 1742). According to another account, the
+remains of the Sibyl were enclosed in an iron cage which hung from a
+pillar in an ancient temple of Hercules at Argyrus (Ampelius, _Liber
+Memorialis_, viii. 16).
+
+[252] A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Nord-deutsche Sagen, Märchen und
+Gebräuche_ (Leipsic, 1848), p. 70, No. 72. i. This and the following
+German parallels to the story of the Sibyl's wish were first indicated
+by Dr. M.R. James (_Classical Review_, vi. (1892) p. 74). I have already
+given the stories at length in a note on Pausanias, x. 12. 8 (vol. v.
+pp. 292 _sq._).
+
+[253] A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _op. cit._ pp. 70 _sq._, No. 72. 2.
+
+[254] A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _op. cit._ p. 71, No. 72. 3.
+
+[255] Karl Müllenhoff, _Sagen, Märchen und Lieder der Herzogthümer
+Holstein und Lauenburg_ (Kiel, 1845), pp. 158 _sg._, No. 217.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE MYTH OF BALDER
+
+
+[How Balder, the good and beautiful god, was done to death by a stroke
+of the mistletoe.]
+
+A deity whose life might in a sense be said to be neither in heaven nor
+on earth but between the two, was the Norse Balder, the good and
+beautiful god, the son of the great god Odin, and himself the wisest,
+mildest, best beloved of all the immortals. The story of his death, as
+it is told in the younger or prose _Edda_, runs thus. Once on a time
+Balder dreamed heavy dreams which seemed to forebode his death.
+Thereupon the gods held a council and resolved to make him secure
+against every danger. So the goddess Frigg took an oath from fire and
+water, iron and all metals, stones and earth, from trees, sicknesses and
+poisons, and from all four-footed beasts, birds, and creeping things,
+that they would not hurt Balder. When this was done Balder was deemed
+invulnerable; so the gods amused themselves by setting him in their
+midst, while some shot at him, others hewed at him, and others threw
+stones at him. But whatever they did, nothing could hurt him; and at
+this they were all glad. Only Loki, the mischief-maker, was displeased,
+and he went in the guise of an old woman to Frigg, who told him that the
+weapons of the gods could not wound Balder, since she had made them all
+swear not to hurt him. Then Loki asked, "Have all things sworn to spare
+Balder?" She answered, "East of Walhalla grows a plant called mistletoe;
+it seemed to me too young to swear." So Loki went and pulled the
+mistletoe and took it to the assembly of the gods. There he found the
+blind god Hother standing at the outside of the circle. Loki asked him,
+"Why do you not shoot at Balder?" Hother answered, "Because I do not see
+where he stands; besides I have no weapon." Then said Loki, "Do like the
+rest and shew Balder honour, as they all do. I will shew you where he
+stands, and do you shoot at him with this twig." Hother took the
+mistletoe and threw it at Balder, as Loki directed him. The mistletoe
+struck Balder and pierced him through and through, and he fell down
+dead. And that was the greatest misfortune that ever befell gods and
+men. For a while the gods stood speechless, then they lifted up their
+voices and wept bitterly. They took Balder's body and brought it to the
+sea-shore. There stood Balder's ship; it was called Ringhorn, and was
+the hugest of all ships. The gods wished to launch the ship and to burn
+Balder's body on it, but the ship would not stir. So they sent for a
+giantess called Hyrrockin. She came riding on a wolf and gave the ship
+such a push that fire flashed from the rollers and all the earth shook.
+Then Balder's body was taken and placed on the funeral pile upon his
+ship. When his wife Nanna saw that, her heart burst for sorrow and she
+died. So she was laid on the funeral pile with her husband, and fire was
+put to it. Balder's horse, too, with all its trappings, was burned on
+the pile.[256]
+
+[Tale of Balder in the older _Edda_.]
+
+In the older or poetic _Edda_ the tragic tale of Balder is hinted at
+rather than told at length. Among the visions which the Norse Sibyl sees
+and describes in the weird prophecy known as the _Voluspa_ is one of the
+fatal mistletoe. "I behold," says she, "Fate looming for Balder, Woden's
+son, the bloody victim. There stands the Mistletoe slender and delicate,
+blooming high above the ground. Out of this shoot, so slender to look
+on, there shall grow a harmful fateful shaft. Hod shall shoot it, but
+Frigga in Fen-hall shall weep over the woe of Wal-hall."[257] Yet
+looking far into the future the Sibyl sees a brighter vision of a new
+heaven and a new earth, where the fields unsown shall yield their
+increase and all sorrows shall be healed; then Balder will come back to
+dwell in Odin's mansions of bliss, in a hall brighter than the sun,
+shingled with gold, where the righteous shall live in joy for ever
+more.[258]
+
+[The story of Balder as related by Saxo Grammaticus.]
+
+Writing about the end of the twelfth century, the old Danish historian
+Saxo Grammaticus tells the story of Balder in a form which professes to
+be historical. According to him, Balder and Hother were rival suitors
+for the hand of Nanna, daughter of Gewar, King of Norway. Now Balder was
+a demigod and common steel could not wound his sacred body. The two
+rivals encountered each other in a terrific battle, and though Odin and
+Thor and the rest of the gods fought for Balder, yet was he defeated and
+fled away, and Hother married the princess. Nevertheless Balder took
+heart of grace and again met Hother in a stricken field. But he fared
+even worse than before; for Hother dealt him a deadly wound with a magic
+sword, which he had received from Miming, the Satyr of the woods; and
+after lingering three days in pain Balder died of his hurt and was
+buried with royal honours in a barrow.[259]
+
+[Balder worshipped in Norway.]
+
+Whether he was a real or merely a mythical personage, Balder was
+worshipped in Norway. On one of the bays of the beautiful Sogne Fiord,
+which penetrates far into the depths of the solemn Norwegian mountains,
+with their sombre pine-forests and their lofty cascades dissolving into
+spray before they reach the dark water of the fiord far below, Balder
+had a great sanctuary. It was called Balder's Grove. A palisade enclosed
+the hallowed ground, and within it stood a spacious temple with the
+images of many gods, but none of them was worshipped with such devotion
+as Balder. So great was the awe with which the heathen regarded the
+place that no man might harm another there, nor steal his cattle, nor
+defile himself with women. But women cared for the images of the gods in
+the temple; they warmed them at the fire, anointed them with oil, and
+dried them with cloths.[260]
+
+[The legendary death of Balder resembles the legendary death of the
+Persian hero Isfendiyar in the epic of Firdusi.]
+
+It might be rash to affirm that the romantic figure of Balder was
+nothing but a creation of the mythical fancy, a radiant phantom conjured
+up as by a wizard's wand to glitter for a time against the gloomy
+background of the stern Norwegian landscape. It may be so; yet it is
+also possible that the myth was founded on the tradition of a hero,
+popular and beloved in his lifetime, who long survived in the memory of
+the people, gathering more and more of the marvellous about him as he
+passed from generation to generation of story-tellers. At all events it
+is worth while to observe that a somewhat similar story is told of
+another national hero, who may well have been a real man. In his great
+poem, _The Epic of Kings_, which is founded on Persian traditions, the
+poet Firdusi tells us that in the combat between Rustem and Isfendiyar
+the arrows of the former did no harm to his adversary, "because Zerdusht
+had charmed his body against all dangers, so that it was like unto
+brass." But Simurgh, the bird of God, shewed Rustem the way he should
+follow in order to vanquish his redoubtable foe. He rode after her, and
+they halted not till they came to the sea-shore. There she led him into
+a garden, where grew a tamarisk, tall and strong, and the roots thereof
+were in the ground, but the branches pierced even unto the sky. Then the
+bird of God bade Rustem break from the tree a branch that was long and
+slender, and fashion it into an arrow, and she said, "Only through his
+eyes can Isfendiyar be wounded. If, therefore, thou wouldst slay him,
+direct this arrow unto his forehead, and verily it shall not miss its
+aim." Rustem did as he was bid; and when next he fought with Isfendiyar,
+he shot the arrow at him, and it pierced his eye, and he died. Great was
+the mourning for Isfendiyar. For the space of one year men ceased not to
+lament for him, and for many years they shed bitter tears for that
+arrow, and they said, "The glory of Iran hath been laid low."[261]
+
+[The myth of Balder was perhaps acted as a magical ceremony. The two
+chief incidents of the myth, namely the pulling of the mistletoe and the
+death and burning of the god, have perhaps their counterparts in popular
+ritual.]
+
+Whatever may be thought of an historical kernel underlying a mythical
+husk in the legend of Balder, the details of the story suggest that it
+belongs to that class of myths which have been dramatized in ritual, or,
+to put it otherwise, which have been performed as magical ceremonies for
+the sake of producing those natural effects which they describe in
+figurative language. A myth is never so graphic and precise in its
+details as when it is, so to speak, the book of the words which are
+spoken and acted by the performers of the sacred rite. That the Norse
+story of Balder was a myth of this sort will become probable if we can
+prove that ceremonies resembling the incidents in the tale have been
+performed by Norsemen and other European peoples. Now the main incidents
+in the tale are two--first, the pulling of the mistletoe, and second,
+the death and burning of the god; and both of them may perhaps be found
+to have had their counterparts in yearly rites observed, whether
+separately or conjointly, by people in various parts of Europe. These
+rites will be described and discussed in the following chapters. We
+shall begin with the annual festivals of fire and shall reserve the
+pulling of the mistletoe for consideration later on.
+
+Notes:
+
+[256] _Die Edda_, übersetzt von K. Simrock*[8] (Stuttgart, 1882), pp.
+286-288. Compare pp. 8, 34, 264. Balder's story is told in a professedly
+historical form by the old Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus in his
+third book. See below, p. 103. In English the story is told at length by
+Professor (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London and Edinburgh,
+1888), pp. 529 _sqq._ It is elaborately discussed by Professor F.
+Knuffmann in a learned monograph, _Balder, Mythus und Sage_ (Strasburg,
+1902).
+
+[257] Gudbrand Vigfusson and F. York Powell, _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_,
+i. (Oxford, 1883) p. 197. Compare _Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo
+Saemundina dicta_, Pars iii. (Copenhagen, 1828) pp. 39 _sq._; _Die
+Edda_, übersetzt von K. Simrock*[8] (Stuttgart, 1882), p. 8; K.
+Müllenhoff, _Deutsche Altertumskunde_, v. Zweite Abteilung (Berlin,
+1891), pp. 78 _sq._; Fr. Kauffmann, _Balder, Mythus und Sage_, pp. 20
+_sq._ In this passage the words translated "bloody victim" (_blaupom
+tivor_) and "fate looming" (_ørlog fólgen_) are somewhat uncertain and
+have been variously interpreted. The word _tivor_, usually understood to
+mean "god," seems to be found nowhere else. Professor H.M. Chadwick has
+kindly furnished me with the following literal translation of the
+passage: "I saw (or 'have seen') held in safe keeping the life of
+Balder, the bloody god, Othin's son. High above the fields (i.e. the
+surface of the earth) grew a mistletoe, slender and very beautiful. From
+a shaft (or 'stem') which appeared slender, came a dangerous
+sorrow-bringing missile (i.e. the shaft became a ... missile); Hodr
+proceeded to shoot. Soon was a brother of Balder born. He, Othin's son,
+proceeded to do battle when one day old. He did not wash his hands or
+comb his head before he brought Balder's antagonist on to the pyre. But
+Frigg in Fen-salir (i.e. the Fen-abode) lamented the trouble of
+Val-holl." In translating the words _ørlog fólgen_ "held in safe keeping
+the life" Professor Chadwick follows Professor F. Kauffmann's rendering
+("_das Leben verwahrt_"); but he writes to me that he is not quite
+confident about it, as the word _ørlog_ usually means "fate" rather than
+"life." Several sentences translated by Professor Chadwick ("Soon was a
+brother of Balder born ... he brought Balder's antagonist on the pyre")
+are omitted by some editors and translators of the _Edda_.
+
+[258] G. Vigfusson and F. York Powell, _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, i. 200
+_sq._; _Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta_, Pars iii.
+pp. 51-54; _Die Edda_, übersetzt von K. Simrock,*[8] p. 10 _sq._; K.
+Müllenhoff, _Deutsche Altertumskunde_, v. Zweite Abteilung, pp. 84 _sq._
+
+[259] Saxo Grammaticus, _Historia Danica_, ed. P.E. Müller (Copenhagen,
+1839-1858), _lib._ iii. vol. i. pp. 110 _sqq._; _The First Nine Books of
+the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus_, translated by Oliver Elton
+(London, 1894), pp. 83-93.
+
+[260] _Fridthjofs Saga, aus dem Alt-isländischen_, von J.C. Poestion,
+(Vienna, 1879), pp. 3 _sq._, 14-17, 45-52.
+
+[261] _The Epic of Kings, Stories retold from Firdusi_, by Helen Zimmern
+(London, 1883), pp. 325-331. The parallel between Balder and Isfendiyar
+was pointed out in the "Lexicon Mythologicum" appended to the _Edda
+Rhythmifa seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta_, Pars iii. (Copenhagen,
+1828) p. 513 note, with a reference to _Schah Namech, verdeutscht von
+Görres_, ii. 324, 327 _sq._ It is briefly mentioned by Dr. P. Wagler,
+_Die Eiche in alter und neuer Zeit_, ii. Teil (Berlin, 1891), p. 40.
+
+
+
+
+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.]
+
+All over Europe the peasants have been accustomed from time immemorial
+to kindle bonfires on certain days of the year, and to dance round or
+leap over them. Customs of this kind can be traced back on historical
+evidence to the Middle Ages,[262] and their analogy to similar customs
+observed in antiquity goes with strong internal evidence to prove that
+their origin must be sought in a period long prior to the spread of
+Christianity. Indeed the earliest proof of their observance in Northern
+Europe is furnished by the attempts made by Christian synods in the
+eighth century to put them down as heathenish rites.[263] Not uncommonly
+effigies are burned in these fires, or a pretence is made of burning a
+living person in them; and there are grounds for believing that
+anciently human beings were actually burned on these occasions. A
+general survey of the customs in question will bring out the traces of
+human sacrifice, and will serve at the same time to throw light on their
+meaning.[264]
+
+[Seasons of the year at which the bonfires are lit.]
+
+The seasons of the year when these bonfires are most commonly lit are
+spring and midsummer; but in some places they are kindled also at the
+end of autumn or during the course of the winter, particularly on Hallow
+E'en (the thirty-first of October), Christmas Day, and the Eve of
+Twelfth Day. We shall consider them in the order in which they occur in
+the calendar year. The earliest of them is the winter festival of the
+Eve of Twelfth Day (the fifth of January); but as it has been already
+described in an earlier part of this work[265] we shall pass it over
+here and begin with the fire-festivals of spring, which usually fall on
+the first Sunday of Lent (_Quadragesima_ or _Invocavit_),[266] Easter
+Eve, and May Day.
+
+[Custom of kindling bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent in the Belgian
+Ardennes.]
+
+The custom of kindling bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent has
+prevailed in Belgium, the north of France, and many parts of Germany.
+Thus in the Belgian Ardennes for a week or a fortnight before the "day
+of the great fire," as it is called, children go about from farm to farm
+collecting fuel. At Grand Halleux any one who refuses their request is
+pursued next day by the children, who try to blacken his face with the
+ashes of the extinct fire. When the day has come, they cut down bushes,
+especially juniper and broom, and in the evening great bonfires blaze on
+all the heights. It is a common saying that seven bonfires should be
+seen if the village is to be safe from conflagrations. If the Meuse
+happens to be frozen hard at the time, bonfires are lit also on the ice.
+At Grand Halleux they set up a pole called _makral_ or "the witch," in
+the midst of the pile, and the fire is kindled by the man who was last
+married in the village. In the neighbourhood of Morlanwelz a straw man
+is burnt in the fire. Young people and children dance and sing round the
+bonfires, and leap over the embers to secure good crops or a happy
+marriage within the year, or as a means of guarding themselves against
+colic. In Brabant on the same Sunday, down to the beginning of the
+nineteenth century, women and men disguised in female attire used to go
+with burning torches to the fields, where they danced and sang comic
+songs for the purpose, as they alleged, of driving away "the wicked
+sower," who is mentioned in the Gospel for the day. At Maeseyck and in
+many villages of Limburg, on the evening of the day children run through
+the streets carrying lighted torches; then they kindle little fires of
+straw in the fields and dance round them. At Ensival old folks tell
+young folks that they will have as many Easter eggs as they see bonfires
+on this day.[267] At Pâturages, in the province of Hainaut, down to
+about 1840 the custom was observed under the name of _Escouvion_ or
+_Scouvion_. Every year on the first Sunday of Lent, which was called the
+Day of the Little Scouvion, young folks and children used to run with
+lighted torches through the gardens and orchards. As they ran they cried
+at the pitch of their voices,
+
+"_Bear apples, bear pears
+And cherries all black
+  To Scouvion!_"
+
+At these words the torch-bearer whirled his blazing brand and hurled it
+among the branches of the apple-trees, the pear-trees, and the
+cherry-trees. The next Sunday was called the Day of the Great Scouvion,
+and the same race with lighted torches among the trees of the orchards
+was repeated in the afternoon till darkness fell. The same custom was
+observed on the same two days at Wasmes.[268] In the neighbourhood of
+Liège, where the Lenten fires were put down by the police about the
+middle of the nineteenth century, girls thought that by leaping over the
+fires without being smirched they made sure of a happy marriage.
+Elsewhere in order to get a good husband it was necessary to see seven
+of the bonfires from one spot. In Famenne, a district of Namur, men and
+cattle who traversed the Lenten fires were thought to be safe from
+sickness and witchcraft. Anybody who saw seven such fires at once had
+nothing to fear from sorcerers. An old saying ran, that if you do not
+light "the great fire," God will light it for you; which seems to imply
+that the kindling of the bonfires was deemed a protection against
+conflagrations throughout the year.[269]
+
+[Bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in the French department of the
+Ardennes.]
+
+In the French department of the Ardennes the whole village used to dance
+and sing round the bonfires which were lighted on the first Sunday in
+Lent. Here, too, it was the person last married, sometimes a man and
+sometimes a woman, who put the match to the fire. The custom is still
+kept up very commonly in the district. Cats used to be burnt in the fire
+or roasted to death by being held over it; and while they were burning
+the shepherds drove their flocks through the smoke and flames as a sure
+means of guarding them against sickness and witchcraft. In some communes
+it was believed that the livelier the dance round the fire, the better
+would be the crops that year.[270] In the Vosges Mountains it is still
+customary to light great fires on the heights and around the villages on
+the first Sunday in Lent; and at Rupt and elsewhere the right of
+kindling them belongs to the person who was last married. Round the
+fires the people dance and sing merrily till the flames have died out.
+Then the master of the fire, as they call the man who kindled it,
+invites all who contributed to the erection of the pile to follow him to
+the nearest tavern, where they partake of good cheer. At Dommartin they
+say that, if you would have the hemp tall, it is absolutely necessary
+that the women should be tipsy on the evening of this day.[271] At
+Épinal in the Vosges, on the first Sunday in Lent, bonfires used to be
+kindled at various places both in the town and on the banks of the
+Moselle. They consisted of pyramids of sticks and faggots, which had
+been collected some days earlier by young folks going from door to door.
+When the flames blazed up, the names of various couples, whether young
+or old, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, were called out, and the persons
+thus linked in mock marriage were forced, whether they liked it or not,
+to march arm in arm round the fire amid the laughter and jests of the
+crowd. The festivity lasted till the fire died out, and then the
+spectators dispersed through the streets, stopping under the windows of
+the houses and proclaiming the names of the _féchenots_ and
+_féchenottes_ or Valentines whom the popular voice had assigned to each
+other. These couples had to exchange presents; the mock bridegroom gave
+his mock bride something for her toilet, while she in turn presented him
+with a cockade of coloured ribbon. Next Sunday, if the weather allowed
+it, all the couples, arrayed in their best attire and attended by their
+relations, repaired to the wood of Saint Antony, where they mounted a
+famous stone called the _danserosse_ or _danseresse_. Here they found
+cakes and refreshments of all sorts, and danced to the music of a couple
+of fiddlers. The evening bell, ringing the Angelus, gave the signal to
+depart. As soon as its solemn chime was heard, every one quitted the
+forest and returned home. The exchange of presents between the
+Valentines went by the name of ransom or redemption (_rachat_), because
+it was supposed to redeem the couple from the flames of the bonfire. Any
+pair who failed thus to ransom themselves were not suffered to share the
+merrymaking at the great stone in the forest; and a pretence was made of
+burning them in small fires kindled before their own doors.[272]
+
+[Bonfires on the First Sunday of Lent in Franche-Comté.]
+
+In the French province of Franche-Comté, to the west of the Jura
+Mountains, the first Sunday of Lent is known as the Sunday of the
+Firebrands (_Brandons_), on account of the fires which it is customary
+to kindle on that day. On the Saturday or the Sunday the village lads
+harness themselves to a cart and drag it about the streets, stopping at
+the doors of the houses where there are girls and begging for a faggot.
+When they have got enough, they cart the fuel to a spot at some little
+distance from the village, pile it up, and set it on fire. All the
+people of the parish come out to see the bonfire. In some villages, when
+the bells have rung the Angelus, the signal for the observance is given
+by cries of, "To the fire! to the fire!" Lads, lasses, and children
+dance round the blaze, and when the flames have died down they vie with
+each other in leaping over the red embers. He or she who does so without
+singeing his or her garments will be married within the year. Young folk
+also carry lighted torches about the streets or the fields, and when
+they pass an orchard they cry out, "More fruit than leaves!" Down to
+recent years at Laviron, in the department of Doubs, it was the young
+married couples of the year who had charge of the bonfires. In the midst
+of the bonfire a pole was planted with a wooden figure of a cock
+fastened to the top. Then there were races, and the winner received the
+cock as a prize.[273]
+
+[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.]
+
+In Auvergne fires are everywhere kindled on the evening of the first
+Sunday in Lent. Every village, every hamlet, even every ward, every
+isolated farm has its bonfire or _figo_, as it is called, which blazes
+up as the shades of night are falling. The fires may be seen flaring on
+the heights and in the plains; the people dance and sing round about
+them and leap through the flames. Then they proceed to the ceremony of
+the _Grannas-mias_. A _granno-mio_[274] is a torch of straw fastened to
+the top of a pole. When the pyre is half consumed, the bystanders kindle
+the torches at the expiring flames and carry them into the neighbouring
+orchards, fields, and gardens, wherever there are fruit-trees. As they
+march they sing at the top of their voices,
+
+"_Granno, mo mio,
+Granno, mon pouère,
+Granno, mo mouère!_"
+
+that is, "Grannus my friend, Grannus my father, Grannus my mother." Then
+they pass the burning torches under the branches of every tree, singing,
+
+"_Brando, brandounci
+Tsaque brantso, in plan panei!_"
+
+that is, "Firebrand burn; every branch a basketful!" In some villages
+the people also run across the sown fields and shake the ashes of the
+torches on the ground; also they put some of the ashes in the fowls'
+nests, in order that the hens may lay plenty of eggs throughout the
+year. When all these ceremonies have been performed, everybody goes home
+and feasts; the special dishes of the evening are fritters and
+pancakes.[275] Here the application of the fire to the fruit-trees, to
+the sown fields, and to the nests of the poultry is clearly a charm
+intended to ensure fertility; and the Granno to whom the invocations are
+addressed, and who gives his name to the torches, may possibly be, as
+Dr. Pommerol suggests,[276] no other than the ancient Celtic god
+Grannus, whom the Romans identified with Apollo, and whose worship is
+attested by inscriptions found not only in France but in Scotland and on
+the Danube.[277] If the name Grannus is derived, as the learned tell us,
+from a root meaning "to glow, burn, shine,"[278] the deity who bore the
+name and was identified with Apollo may well have been a sun-god; and in
+that case the prayers addressed to him by the peasants of the Auvergne,
+while they wave the blazing, crackling torches about the fruit-trees,
+would be eminently appropriate. For who could ripen the fruit so well as
+the sun-god? and what better process could be devised to draw the
+blossoms from the bare boughs than the application to them of that
+genial warmth which is ultimately derived from the solar beams? Thus the
+fire-festival of the first Sunday in Lent, as it is observed in
+Auvergne, may be interpreted very naturally and simply as a religious or
+rather perhaps magical ceremony designed to procure a due supply of the
+sun's heat for plants and animals. At the same time we should remember
+that the employment of fire in this and kindred ceremonies may have been
+designed originally, not so much to stimulate growth and reproduction,
+as to burn and destroy all agencies, whether in the shape of vermin,
+witches, or what not, which threatened or were supposed to threaten the
+growth of the crops and the multiplication of animals. It is often
+difficult to decide between these two different interpretations of the
+use of fire in agricultural rites. In any case the fire-festival of
+Auvergne on the first Sunday in Lent may date from Druidical times.
+
+[French custom of carrying lighted torches (_brandons_) about the
+orchards and fields to fertilize them on the first Sunday of Lent.]
+
+The custom of carrying lighted torches of straw (_brandons_) about the
+orchards and fields to fertilize them on the first Sunday of Lent seems
+to have been common in France, whether it was accompanied with the
+practice of kindling bonfires or not. Thus in the province of Picardy
+"on the first Sunday of Lent people carried torches through the fields,
+exorcising the field-mice, the darnel, and the smut. They imagined that
+they did much good to the gardens and caused the onions to grow large.
+Children ran about the fields, torch in hand, to make the land more
+fertile. All that was done habitually in Picardy, and the ceremony of
+the torches is not entirely forgotten, especially in the villages on
+both sides the Somme as far as Saint-Valery."[279] "A very agreeable
+spectacle, said the curate of l'Étoile, is to survey from the portal of
+the church, situated almost on the top of the mountain, the vast plains
+of Vimeux all illuminated by these wandering fires. The same pastime is
+observed at Poix, at Conty, and in all the villages round about."[280]
+Again, in the district of Beauce a festival of torches (_brandons_ or
+_brandelons_) used to be held both on the first and on the second Sunday
+in Lent; the first was called "the Great Torches" and the second "the
+Little Torches." The torches were, as usual, bundles of straw wrapt
+round poles. In the evening the village lads carried the burning brands
+through the country, running about in disorder and singing,
+
+      "_Torches burn
+At these vines, at this wheat_;
+       _Torches burn
+For the maidens that shall wed_!"
+
+From time to time the bearers would stand still and smite the earth all
+together with the blazing straw of the torches, while they cried, "A
+sheaf of a peck and a half!" (_Gearbe à boissiaux_). If two torchbearers
+happened to meet each other on their rounds, they performed the same
+ceremony and uttered the same words. When the straw was burnt out, the
+poles were collected and a great bonfire made of them. Lads and lasses
+danced round the flames, and the lads leaped over them. Afterwards it
+was customary to eat a special sort of hasty-pudding made of wheaten
+flour. These usages were still in vogue at the beginning of the
+nineteenth century, but they have now almost disappeared. The peasants
+believed that by carrying lighted torches through the fields they
+protected the crops from field-mice, darnel, and smut.[281] "At Dijon,
+in Burgundy, it is the custom upon the first Sunday in Lent to make
+large fires in the streets, whence it is called Firebrand Sunday. This
+practice originated in the processions formerly made on that day by the
+peasants with lighted torches of straw, to drive away, as they called
+it, the bad air from the earth."[282] In some parts of France, while the
+people scoured the country with burning brands on the first Sunday in
+Lent, they warned the fruit-trees that if they did not take heed and
+bear fruit they would surely be cut down and cast into the fire.[283] On
+the same day peasants in the department of Loiret used to run about the
+sowed fields with burning torches in their hands, while they adjured the
+field-mice to quit the wheat on pain of having their whiskers
+burned.[284] In the department of Ain the great fires of straw and
+faggots which are kindled in the fields at this time are or were
+supposed to destroy the nests of the caterpillars.[285] At Verges, a
+lonely village surrounded by forests between the Jura and the Combe
+d'Ain, the torches used at this season were kindled in a peculiar
+manner. The young people climbed to the top of a mountain, where they
+placed three nests of straw in three trees. These nests being then set
+on fire, torches made of dry lime-wood were lighted at them, and the
+merry troop descended the mountain to their flickering light, and went
+to every house in the village, demanding roasted peas and obliging all
+couples who had been married within the year to dance.[286] In Berry, a
+district of central France, it appears that bonfires are not lighted on
+this day, but when the sun has set the whole population of the villages,
+armed with blazing torches of straw, disperse over the country and scour
+the fields, the vineyards, and the orchards. Seen from afar, the
+multitude of moving lights, twinkling in the darkness, appear like
+will-o'-the-wisps chasing each other across the plains, along the
+hillsides, and down the valleys. While the men wave their flambeaus
+about the branches of the fruit-trees, the women and children tie bands
+of wheaten-straw round the tree-trunks. The effect of the ceremony is
+supposed to be to avert the various plagues from which the fruits of the
+earth are apt to suffer; and the bands of straw fastened round the stems
+of the trees are believed to render them fruitful.[287] In the peninsula
+of La Manche the Norman peasants used to spend almost the whole night of
+the first Sunday in Lent rushing about the country with lighted torches
+for the purpose, as they supposed, of driving away the moles and
+field-mice; fires were also kindled on some of the dolmens.[288]
+
+[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.]
+
+In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland at the same season similar customs
+have prevailed. Thus in the Eifel Mountains, Rhenish Prussia, on the
+first Sunday in Lent young people used to collect straw and brushwood
+from house to house. These they carried to an eminence and piled up
+round a tall, slim beech-tree, to which a piece of wood was fastened at
+right angles to form a cross. The structure was known as the "hut" or
+"castle." Fire was set to it and the young people marched round the
+blazing "castle" bareheaded, each carrying a lighted torch and praying
+aloud. Sometimes a straw-man was burned in the "hut." People observed
+the direction in which the smoke blew from the fire. If it blew towards
+the corn-fields, it was a sign that the harvest would be abundant. On
+the same day, in some parts of the Eifel, a great wheel was made of
+straw and dragged by three horses to the top of a hill. Thither the
+village boys marched at nightfall, set fire to the wheel, and sent it
+rolling down the slope. Two lads followed it with levers to set it in
+motion again, in case it should anywhere meet with a check. At
+Oberstattfeld the wheel had to be provided by the young man who was last
+married.[289] About Echternach in Luxemburg the same ceremony is called
+"burning the witch"; while it is going on, the older men ascend the
+heights and observe what wind is blowing, for that is the wind which
+will prevail the whole year.[290] At Voralberg in the Tyrol, on the
+first Sunday in Lent, a slender young fir-tree is surrounded with a pile
+of straw and firewood. To the top of the tree is fastened a human figure
+called the "witch," made of old clothes and stuffed with gunpowder. At
+night the whole is set on fire and boys and girls dance round it,
+swinging torches and singing rhymes in which the words "corn in the
+winnowing-basket, the plough in the earth" may be distinguished.[291] In
+Swabia on the first Sunday in Lent a figure called the "witch" or the
+"old wife" or "winter's grandmother" is made up of clothes and fastened
+to a pole. This is stuck in the middle of a pile of wood, to which fire
+is applied. While the "witch" is burning, the young people throw blazing
+discs into the air. The discs are thin round pieces of wood, a few
+inches in diameter, with notched edges to imitate the rays of the sun or
+stars. They have a hole in the middle, by which they are attached to the
+end of a wand. Before the disc is thrown it is set on fire, the wand is
+swung to and fro, and the impetus thus communicated to the disc is
+augmented by dashing the rod sharply against a sloping board. The
+burning disc is thus thrown off, and mounting high into the air,
+describes a long fiery curve before it reaches the ground. A single lad
+may fling up forty or fifty of these discs, one after the other. The
+object is to throw them as high as possible. The wand by which they are
+hurled must, at least in some parts of Swabia, be of hazel. Sometimes
+the lads also leap over the fire brandishing lighted torches of
+pine-wood. The charred embers of the burned "witch" and discs are taken
+home and planted in the flaxfields the same night, in the belief that
+they will keep vermin from the fields.[292] At Wangen, near Molsheim in
+Baden, a like custom is observed on the first Sunday in Lent. The young
+people kindle a bonfire on the crest of the mountain above the village;
+and the burning discs which they hurl into the air are said to present
+in the darkness the aspect of a continual shower of falling stars. When
+the supply of discs is exhausted and the bonfire begins to burn low, the
+boys light torches and run with them at full speed down one or other of
+the three steep and winding paths that descend the mountain-side to the
+village. Bumps, bruises, and scratches are often the result of their
+efforts to outstrip each other in the headlong race.[293] In the Rhön
+Mountains, situated on the borders of Hesse and Bavaria, the people used
+to march to the top of a hill or eminence on the first Sunday in Lent.
+Children and lads carried torches, brooms daubed with tar, and poles
+swathed in straw. A wheel, wrapt in combustibles, was kindled and rolled
+down the hill; and the young people rushed about the fields with their
+burning torches and brooms, till at last they flung them in a heap, and
+standing round them, struck up a hymn or a popular song. The object of
+running about the fields with the blazing torches was to "drive away the
+wicked sower." Or it was done in honour of the Virgin, that she might
+preserve the fruits of the earth throughout the year and bless
+them.[294] In neighbouring villages of Hesse, between the Rhön and the
+Vogel Mountains, it is thought that wherever the burning wheels roll,
+the fields will be safe from hail and storm.[295] At Konz on the
+Moselle, on the Thursday before the first Sunday in Lent, the two guilds
+of the butchers and the weavers used to repair to the Marxberg and there
+set up an oak-tree with a wheel fastened to it. On the following Sunday
+the people ascended the hill, cut down the oak, set fire to the wheel,
+and sent both oak and wheel rolling down the hillside, while a guard of
+butchers, mounted on horses, fired at the flaming wheel in its descent.
+If the wheel rolled down into the Moselle, the butchers were rewarded
+with a waggon-load of wine by the archbishop of Treves.[296]
+
+[Burning discs thrown into the air.]
+
+In Switzerland, also, it is or used to be customary to kindle bonfires
+on high places on the evening of the first Sunday in Lent, and the day
+is therefore popularly known as Spark Sunday. The custom prevailed, for
+example, throughout the canton of Lucerne. Boys went about from house to
+house begging for wood and straw, then piled the fuel on a conspicuous
+mountain or hill round about a pole, which bore a straw effigy called
+"the witch." At nightfall the pile was set on fire, and the young folks
+danced wildly round it, some of them cracking whips or ringing bells;
+and when the fire burned low enough, they leaped over it. This was
+called "burning the witch." In some parts of the canton also they used
+to wrap old wheels in straw and thorns, put a light to them, and send
+them rolling and blazing down hill. The same custom of rolling lighted
+wheels down hill is attested by old authorities for the cantons of
+Aargau and Bâle. The more bonfires could be seen sparkling and flaring
+in the darkness, the more fruitful was the year expected to be; and the
+higher the dancers leaped beside or over the fire, the higher, it was
+thought, would grow the flax. In the district of Freiburg and at Birseck
+in the district of Bâle it was the last married man or woman who must
+kindle the bonfire. While the bonfires blazed up, it was customary in
+some parts of Switzerland to propel burning discs of wood through the
+air by means of the same simple machinery which is used for the purpose
+in Swabia. Each lad tried to send his disc fizzing and flaring through
+the darkness as far as possible, and in discharging it he mentioned the
+name of the person to whose honour it was dedicated. But in Prättigau
+the words uttered in launching the fiery discs referred to the abundance
+which was apparently expected to follow the performance of the ceremony.
+Among them were, "Grease in the pan, corn in the fan, and the plough in
+the earth!"[297]
+
+[Connexion of these bonfires with the custom of "carrying out Death;"
+effigies burnt on Shrove Tuesday.]
+
+It seems hardly possible to separate from these bonfires, kindled on the
+first Sunday in Lent, the fires in which, about the same season, the
+effigy called Death is burned as part of the ceremony of "carrying out
+Death." We have seen that at Spachendorf, in Austrian Silesia, on the
+morning of Rupert's Day (Shrove Tuesday?), a straw-man, dressed in a fur
+coat and a fur cap, is laid in a hole outside the village and there
+burned, and that while it is blazing every one seeks to snatch a
+fragment of it, which he fastens to a branch of the highest tree in his
+garden or buries in his field, believing that this will make the crops
+to grow better. The ceremony is known as the "burying of Death."[298]
+Even when the straw-man is not designated as Death, the meaning of the
+observance is probably the same; for the name Death, as I have tried to
+shew, does not express the original intention of the ceremony. At Cobern
+in the Eifel Mountains the lads make up a straw-man on Shrove Tuesday.
+The effigy is formally tried and accused of having perpetrated all the
+thefts that have been committed in the neighbourhood throughout the
+year. Being condemned to death, the straw-man is led through the
+village, shot, and burned upon a pyre. They dance round the blazing
+pile, and the last bride must leap over it.[299] In Oldenburg on the
+evening of Shrove Tuesday people used to make long bundles of straw,
+which they set on fire, and then ran about the fields waving them,
+shrieking, and singing wild songs. Finally they burned a straw-man on
+the field.[300] In the district of Düsseldorf the straw-man burned on
+Shrove Tuesday was made of an unthreshed sheaf of corn.[301] On the
+first Monday after the spring equinox the urchins of Zurich drag a
+straw-man on a little cart through the streets, while at the same time
+the girls carry about a May-tree. When vespers ring, the straw-man is
+burned.[302] In the district of Aachen on Ash Wednesday a man used to be
+encased in peas-straw and taken to an appointed place. Here he slipped
+quietly out of his straw casing, which was then burned, the children
+thinking that it was the man who was being burned.[303] In the Val di
+Ledro (Tyrol) on the last day of the Carnival a figure is made up of
+straw and brushwood and then burned. The figure is called the Old Woman,
+and the ceremony "burning the Old Woman."[304]
+
+
+§ 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.]
+
+Another occasion on which these fire-festivals are held is Easter Eve,
+the Saturday before Easter Sunday. On that day it has been customary in
+Catholic countries to extinguish all the lights in the churches, and
+then to make a new fire, sometimes with flint and steel, sometimes with
+a burning-glass. At this fire is lit the great Paschal or Easter candle,
+which is then used to rekindle all the extinguished lights in the
+church. In many parts of Germany a bonfire is also kindled, by means of
+the new fire, on some open space near the church. It is consecrated, and
+the people bring sticks of oak, walnut, and beech, which they char in
+the fire, and then take home with them. Some of these charred sticks are
+thereupon burned at home in a newly-kindled fire, with a prayer that God
+will preserve the homestead from fire, lightning, and hail. Thus every
+house receives "new fire." Some of the sticks are kept throughout the
+year and laid on the hearth-fire during heavy thunder-storms to prevent
+the house from being struck by lightning, or they are inserted in the
+roof with the like intention. Others are placed in the fields, gardens,
+and meadows, with a prayer that God will keep them from blight and hail.
+Such fields and gardens are thought to thrive more than others; the corn
+and the plants that grow in them are not beaten down by hail, nor
+devoured by mice, vermin, and beetles; no witch harms them, and the ears
+of corn stand close and full. The charred sticks are also applied to the
+plough. The ashes of the Easter bonfire, together with the ashes of the
+consecrated palm-branches, are mixed with the seed at sowing. A wooden
+figure called Judas is sometimes burned in the consecrated bonfire, and
+even where this custom has been abolished the bonfire itself in some
+places goes by the name of "the burning of Judas."[305]
+
+[Easter fires in Bavaria and the Abruzzi.]
+
+In the Hollertau, Bavaria, the young men used to light their lanterns at
+the newly-kindled Easter candle in the church and then race to the
+bonfire; he who reached it first set fire to the pile, and next day,
+Easter Sunday, was rewarded at the church-door by the housewives, who
+presented him with red eggs. Great was the jubilation while the effigy
+of the traitor was being consumed in the flames. The ashes were
+carefully collected and thrown away at sunrise in running water.[306] In
+many parts of the Abruzzi, also, pious people kindle their fires on
+Easter Saturday with a brand brought from the sacred new fire in the
+church. When the brand has thus served to bless the fire on the domestic
+hearth, it is extinguished, and the remainder is preserved, partly in a
+cranny of the outer wall of the house, partly on a tree to which it is
+tied. This is done for the purpose of guarding the homestead against
+injury by storms. At Campo di Giove the people say that if you can get a
+piece of one of the three holy candles which the priest lights from the
+new fire, you should allow a few drops of the wax to fall into the crown
+of your hat; for after that, if it should thunder and lighten, you have
+nothing to do but to clap the hat on your head, and no flash of
+lightning can possibly strike you.[307]
+
+[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.]
+
+Further, it deserves to be noted that in the Abruzzi water as well as
+fire is, as it were, renewed and consecrated on Easter Saturday. Most
+people fetch holy water on that day from the churches, and every member
+of the family drinks a little of it, believing that it has power to
+protect him or her against witchcraft, fever, and stomach-aches of all
+sorts. And when the church bells ring again after their enforced
+silence, the water is sprinkled about the house, and especially under
+the beds, with the help of a palm-branch. Some of this blessed water is
+also kept in the house for use in great emergencies, when there is no
+time to fetch a priest; thus it may be employed to baptize a newborn
+infant gasping for life or to sprinkle a sick man in the last agony;
+such a sprinkling is reckoned equal to priestly absolution.[308] In
+Calabria the customs with regard to the new water, as it is called, on
+Easter Saturday are similar; it is poured into a new vessel, adorned
+with ribbons and flowers, is blessed by the priest, and is tasted by
+every one of the household, beginning with the parents. And when the air
+vibrates with the glad music of the church bells announcing the
+resurrection, the people sprinkle the holy water about the houses,
+bidding in a loud voice all evil things to go forth and all good things
+to come in. At the same time, to emphasize the exorcism, they knock on
+doors, window-shutters, chests, and other domestic articles of
+furniture. At Cetraro people who suffer from diseases of the skin bathe
+in the sea at this propitious moment; at Pietro in Guarano they plunge
+into the river on the night of Easter Saturday before Easter Sunday
+dawns, and while they bathe they utter never a word. Moreover, the
+Calabrians keep the "new water" as a sacred thing. They believe that it
+serves as a protection against witchcraft if it is sprinkled on a fire
+or a lamp, when the wood crackles or the wick sputters; for they regard
+it as a bad omen when the fire talks, as they say.[309] Among the
+Germans of Western Bohemia, also, water as well as fire is consecrated
+by the priest in front of the church on Easter Saturday. People bring
+jugs full of water to the church and set them beside the holy fire;
+afterwards they use the water to sprinkle on the palm-branches which are
+stuck in the fields. Charred sticks of the Judas fire, as it is
+popularly called, are supposed to possess a magical and healing virtue;
+hence the people take them home with them, and even scuffle with each
+other for the still glowing embers in order to carry them, still
+glimmering, to their houses and so obtain "the light" or "the holy
+light."[310] At Hildesheim, also, and the neighbouring villages of
+central Germany rites both of fire and water are or were till lately
+observed at Easter. Thus on Easter night many people fetch water from
+the Innerste river and keep it carefully, believing it to be a remedy
+for many sorts of ailments both of man and beast. In the villages on the
+Leine river servant men and maids used to go silently on Easter night
+between the hours of eleven and twelve and silently draw water in
+buckets from the river; they mixed the water with the fodder and the
+drink of the cattle to make the animals thrive, and they imagined that
+to wash in it was good for human beings. Many were also of opinion that
+at the same mystic hour the water turned to wine as far as the crowing
+of a cock could be heard, and in this belief they laid themselves flat
+on their stomachs and kept their tongues in the water till the
+miraculous change occurred, when they took a great gulp of the
+transformed water. At Hildesheim, too, and the neighbouring villages
+fires used to blaze on all the heights on Easter Eve; and embers taken
+from the bonfires were dipped in the cattle troughs to benefit the
+beasts and were kept in the houses to avert lightning.[311]
+
+[New fire at Easter in Carinthia; consecration of fire and water by the
+Catholic Church at Easter.]
+
+In the Lesachthal, Carinthia, all the fires in the houses used to be
+extinguished on Easter Saturday, and rekindled with a fresh fire brought
+from the churchyard, where the priest had lit it by the friction of
+flint and steel and had bestowed his blessing on it.[312] Such customs
+were probably widespread. In a Latin poem of the sixteenth century,
+written by a certain Thomas Kirchmeyer and translated into English by
+Barnabe Googe, we read:--
+
+"_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,
+And herewithall the hungrie times of fasting ended bée."_[313]
+
+It is said that formerly all the fires in Rome were lighted afresh from
+the holy fire kindled in St. Peter's on Easter Saturday.[314]
+
+[The new fire on Easter Saturday at Florence.]
+
+In Florence the ceremony of kindling the new fire on Easter Eve is
+peculiar. The holy flame is elicited from certain flints which are said
+to have been brought by a member of the Pazzi family from the Holy Land.
+They are kept in the church of the Holy Apostles on the Piazza del
+Limbo, and on the morning of Easter Saturday the prior strikes fire from
+them and lights a candle from the new flame. The burning candle is then
+carried in solemn procession by the clergy and members of the
+municipality to the high altar in the cathedral. A vast crowd has
+meanwhile assembled in the cathedral and the neighbouring square to
+witness the ceremony; amongst the spectators are many peasants drawn
+from the surrounding country, for it is commonly believed that on the
+success or failure of the ceremony depends the fate of the crops for the
+year. Outside the door of the cathedral stands a festal car drawn by two
+fine white oxen with gilded horns. The body of the car is loaded with a
+pyramid of squibs and crackers and is connected by a wire with a pillar
+set up in front of the high altar. The wire extends down the middle of
+the nave at a height of about six feet from the ground. Beneath it a
+clear passage is left, the spectators being ranged on either side and
+crowding the vast interior from wall to wall. When all is ready, High
+Mass is celebrated, and precisely at noon, when the first words of the
+_Gloria_ are being chanted, the sacred fire is applied to the pillar,
+which like the car is wreathed with fireworks. A moment more and a fiery
+dove comes flying down the nave, with a hissing sound and a sputter of
+sparks, between the two hedges of eager spectators. If all goes well,
+the bird pursues its course along the wire and out at the door, and in
+another moment a prolonged series of fizzes, pops and bangs announces to
+the excited crowd in the cathedral that the fireworks on the car are
+going off. Great is the joy accordingly, especially among the bumpkins,
+who are now sure of an abundant harvest. But if, as sometimes happens,
+the dove stops short in its career and fizzles out, revealing itself as
+a stuffed bird with a packet of squibs tied to its tail, great is the
+consternation, and deep the curses that issue from between the set teeth
+of the clodhoppers, who now give up the harvest for lost. Formerly the
+unskilful mechanician who was responsible for the failure would have
+been clapped into gaol; but nowadays he is thought sufficiently punished
+by the storm of public indignation and the loss of his pay. The disaster
+is announced by placards posted about the streets in the evening; and
+next morning the newspapers are full of gloomy prognostications.[315]
+
+[The new fire and burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in Mexico.]
+
+Some of these customs have been transported by the Catholic Church to
+the New World. Thus in Mexico the new fire is struck from a flint early
+in the morning of Easter Saturday, and a candle which has been lighted
+at the sacred flame is carried through the church by a deacon shouting
+"_Lumen Christi_." Meantime the whole city, we are informed, has been
+converted into a vast place of execution. Ropes stretch across the
+streets from house to house, and from every house dangles an effigy of
+Judas, made of paper pulp. Scores or hundreds of them may adorn a single
+street. They are of all shapes and sizes, grotesque in form and garbed
+in strange attire, stuffed with gunpowder, squibs and crackers,
+sometimes, too, with meat, bread, soap, candy, and clothing, for which
+the crowd will scramble and scuffle while the effigies are burning.
+There they hang grim, black, and sullen in the strong sunshine, greeted
+with a roar of execration by the pious mob. A peal of bells from the
+cathedral tower on the stroke of noon gives the signal for the
+execution. At the sound a frenzy seizes the crowd. They throw themselves
+furiously on the figures of the detested traitor, cut them down, hurl
+them with curses into the fire, and fight and struggle with each other
+in their efforts to tear the effigies to tatters and appropriate their
+contents. Smoke, stink, sputter of crackers, oaths, curses, yells are
+now the order of the day. But the traitor does not perish unavenged. For
+the anatomy of his frame has been cunningly contrived so as in burning
+to discharge volleys of squibs into his assailants; and the wounds and
+burns with which their piety is rewarded form a feature of the morning's
+entertainment. The English Jockey Club in Mexico used to improve on this
+popular pastime by suspending huge figures of Judas, stuffed with copper
+coins, from ropes in front of their clubhouse. These were ignited at the
+proper moment and lowered within reach of the expectant rabble, and it
+was the privilege of members of the club, seated in the balcony, to
+watch the grimaces and to hear the shrieks of the victims, as they
+stamped and capered about with the hot coppers sticking to their hands,
+divided in their minds between an acute sense of pain and a thirst for
+filthy lucre.[316]
+
+[The burning of Judas at Easter in South America.]
+
+Scenes of the same sort, though on a less ambitious scale, are witnessed
+among the Catholics of South America on the same day. In Brazil the
+mourning for the death of Christ ceases at noon on Easter Saturday and
+gives place to an extravagant burst of joy at his resurrection. Shots
+are fired everywhere, and effigies of Judas are hung on trees or dragged
+about the streets, to be finally burned or otherwise destroyed.[317] In
+the Indian villages scattered among the wild valleys of the Peruvian
+Andes figures of the traitor, made of pasteboard and stuffed with squibs
+and crackers, are hanged on gibbets before the door of the church on
+Easter Saturday. Fire is set to them, and while they crackle and
+explode, the Indians dance and shout for joy at the destruction of their
+hated enemy.[318] Similarly at Rio Hacha, in Colombia, Judas is
+represented during Holy Week by life-sized effigies, and the people fire
+at them as if they were discharging a sacred duty.[319]
+
+[The new fire on Easter Saturday in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at
+Jerusalem.]
+
+But usages of this sort are not confined to the Latin Church; they are
+common to the Greek Church also. Every year on the Saturday before
+Easter Sunday a new fire is miraculously kindled at the Holy Sepulchre
+in Jerusalem. It descends from heaven and ignites the candles which the
+patriarch holds in his hands, while with closed eyes he wrestles in
+prayer all alone in the chapel of the Angel. The worshippers meanwhile
+wait anxiously in the body of the church, and great are their transports
+of joy when at one of the windows of the chapel, which had been all dark
+a minute before, there suddenly appears the hand of an angel, or of the
+patriarch, holding a lighted taper. This is the sacred new fire; it is
+passed out to the expectant believers, and the desperate struggle which
+ensues among them to get a share of its blessed influence is only
+terminated by the intervention of the Turkish soldiery, who restore
+peace and order by hustling the whole multitude impartially out of the
+church. In days gone by many lives were often lost in these holy
+scrimmages. For example, in the year 1834, the famous Ibrahim Pasha
+witnessed the frantic scene from one of the galleries, and, being moved
+with compassion at the sight, descended with a few guards into the arena
+in the chimerical hope of restoring peace and order among the contending
+Christians. He contrived to force his way into the midst of the dense
+crowd, but there the heat and pressure were so great that he fainted
+away; a body of soldiers, seeing his danger, charged straight into the
+throng and carried him out of it in their arms, trampling under foot the
+dying and dead in their passage. Nearly two hundred people were killed
+that day in the church. The fortunate survivors on these occasions who
+succeeded in obtaining a portion of the coveted fire applied it freely
+to their faces, their beards, and their garments. The theory was that
+the fire, being miraculous, could only bless and not burn them; but the
+practical results of the experiment were often disappointing, for while
+the blessings were more or less dubious, there could be no doubt
+whatever about the burns.[320] The history of the miracle has been
+carefully investigated by a Jesuit father. The conclusions at which he
+arrives are that the miracle was a miracle indeed so long as the
+Catholics had the management of it; but that since it fell into the
+hands of the heretics it has been nothing but a barefaced trick and
+imposture.[321] Many people will be disposed to agree with the latter
+conclusion who might hesitate to accept the former.
+
+[The new fire and the burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in Greece.]
+
+At Athens the new fire is kindled in the cathedral at midnight on Holy
+Saturday. A dense crowd with unlit candles in their hands fills the
+square in front of the cathedral; the king, the archbishop, and the
+highest dignitaries of the church, arrayed in their gorgeous robes,
+occupy a platform; and at the exact moment of the resurrection the bells
+ring out, and the whole square bursts as by magic into a blaze of light.
+Theoretically all the candles are lit from the sacred new fire in the
+cathedral, but practically it may be suspected that the matches which
+bear the name of Lucifer have some share in the sudden
+illumination.[322] Effigies of Judas used to be burned at Athens on
+Easter Saturday, but the custom has been forbidden by the Government.
+However, firing goes on more or less continuously all over the city both
+on Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday, and the cartridges used on this
+occasion are not always blank. The shots are aimed at Judas, but
+sometimes they miss him and hit other people. Outside of Athens the
+practice of burning Judas in effigy still survives in some places. For
+example, in Cos a straw image of the traitor is made on Easter Day, and
+after being hung up and shot at it is burned.[323] A similar custom
+appears to prevail at Thebes;[324] it used to be observed by the
+Macedonian peasantry, and it is still kept up at Therapia, a fashionable
+summer resort of Constantinople.[325]
+
+[The new fire at Candlemas in Armenia.]
+
+In the Armenian Church the sacred new fire is kindled not at Easter but
+at Candlemas, that is, on the second of February, or on the eve of that
+festival. The materials of the bonfire are piled in an open space near a
+church, and they are generally ignited by young couples who have been
+married within the year. However, it is the bishop or his vicar who
+lights the candles with which fire is set to the pile. All young married
+pairs are expected to range themselves about the fire and to dance round
+it. Young men leap over the flames, but girls and women content
+themselves with going round them, while they pray to be preserved from
+the itch and other skin-diseases. When the ceremony is over, the people
+eagerly pick up charred sticks or ashes of the fire and preserve them or
+scatter them on the four corners of the roof, in the cattle-stall, in
+the garden, and on the pastures; for these holy sticks and ashes protect
+men and cattle against disease, and fruit-trees against worms and
+caterpillars. Omens, too, are drawn from the direction in which the wind
+blows the flames and the smoke: if it carries them eastward, there is
+hope of a good harvest; but if it inclines them westward, the people
+fear that the crops will fail.[326]
+
+[The new fire and the burning of Judas at Easter are probably relics of
+paganism.]
+
+In spite of the thin cloak of Christianity thrown over these customs by
+representing the new fire as an emblem of Christ and the figure burned
+in it as an effigy of Judas, we can hardly doubt that both practices are
+of pagan origin. Neither of them has the authority of Christ or of his
+disciples; but both of them have abundant analogies in popular custom
+and superstition. Some instances of the practice of annually
+extinguishing fires and relighting them from a new and sacred flame have
+already come before us;[327] but a few examples may here be cited for
+the sake of illustrating the wide diffusion of a custom which has found
+its way into the ritual both of the Eastern and of the Western Church.
+
+[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 Incas of Peru celebrated a festival called Raymi, a word which their
+native historian Garcilasso de la Vega tells us was equivalent to our
+Easter. It was held in honour of the sun at the solstice in June. For
+three days before the festival the people fasted, men did not sleep with
+their wives, and no fires were lighted in Cuzco, the capital. The sacred
+new fire was obtained direct from the sun by concentrating his beams on
+a highly polished concave plate and reflecting them on a little cotton
+wool. With this holy fire the sheep and lambs offered to the sun were
+consumed, and the flesh of such as were to be eaten at the festival was
+roasted. Portions of the new fire were also conveyed to the temple of
+the sun and to the convent of the sacred virgins, where they were kept
+burning all the year, and it was an ill omen if the holy flame went
+out.[328] At a festival held in the last month of the old Mexican year
+all the fires both in the temples and in the houses were extinguished,
+and the priest kindled a new fire by rubbing two sticks against each
+other before the image of the fire-god.[329] The Zuni Indians of New
+Mexico kindle a new fire by the friction of wood both at the winter and
+the summer solstice. At the winter solstice the chosen fire-maker
+collects a faggot of cedar-wood from every house in the village, and
+each person, as he hands the wood to the fire-maker, prays that the
+crops may be good in the coming year. For several days before the new
+fire is kindled, no ashes or sweepings may be removed from the houses
+and no artificial light may appear outside of them, not even a burning
+cigarette or the flash of firearms. The Indians believe that no rain
+will fall on the fields of the man outside whose house a light has been
+seen at this season. The signal for kindling the new fire is given by
+the rising of the Morning Star. The flame is produced by twirling an
+upright stick between the hands on a horizontal stick laid on the floor
+of a sacred chamber, the sparks being caught by a tinder of cedar-dust.
+It is forbidden to blow up the smouldering tinder with the breath, for
+that would offend the gods. After the fire has thus been ceremonially
+kindled, the women and girls of all the families in the village clean
+out their houses. They carry the sweepings and ashes in baskets or bowls
+to the fields and leave them there. To the sweepings the woman says: "I
+now deposit you as sweepings, but in one year you will return to me as
+corn." And to the ashes she says: "I now deposit you as ashes, but in
+one year you will return to me as meal." At the summer solstice the
+sacred fire which has been procured by the friction of wood is used to
+kindle the grass and trees, that there may be a great cloud of smoke,
+while bull-roarers are swung and prayers offered that the Rain-makers up
+aloft will water the earth.[330] From this account we see how intimately
+the kindling of a new fire at the two turning-points of the sun's course
+is associated in the minds of these Indians with the fertility of the
+land, particularly with the growth of the corn. The rolling smoke is
+apparently an imitation of rain-clouds designed, on the principle of
+homoeopathic magic, to draw showers from the blue sky. Once a year the
+Iroquois priesthood supplied the people with a new fire. As a
+preparation for the annual rite the fires in all the huts were
+extinguished and the ashes scattered about. Then the priest, wearing the
+insignia of his office, went from hut to hut relighting the fires by
+means of a flint.[331] Among the Esquimaux with whom C.F. Hall resided,
+it was the custom that at a certain time, which answered to our New
+Year's Day, two men went about from house to house blowing out every
+light in the village. One of the men was dressed to represent a woman.
+Afterwards the lights were rekindled from a fresh fire. An Esquimau
+woman being asked what all this meant, replied, "New sun--new
+light."[332] Among the Esquimaux of Iglulik, when the sun first rises
+above the horizon after the long night of the Arctic winter, the
+children who have watched for his reappearance run into the houses and
+blow out the lamps. Then they receive from their mothers presents of
+pieces of wick.[333]
+
+[The new fire in Wadai, among the Swahili, and in other parts of
+Africa.]
+
+In the Sudanese kingdom of Wadai all the fires in the villages are put
+out and the ashes removed from the houses on the day which precedes the
+New Year festival. At the beginning of the new year a new fire is lit by
+the friction of wood in the great straw hut where the village elders
+lounge away the sultry hours together; and every man takes thence a
+burning brand with which he rekindles the fire on his domestic
+hearth.[334] In the Bahr-el-Ghazal province of the Egyptian Sudan the
+people extinguish their old fires at the Arab New Year and bring in new
+fire. On the same occasion they beat the walls of their huts, the grass
+thatches, and the walls of their enclosures in order to drive away the
+devil or evil spirits. The beating of the walls and roofs is accompanied
+by the firing of guns, the shouting of men, and the shriller cries of
+the women.[335] Thus these people combine an annual expulsion of demons
+with an annual lighting of a new fire. Among the Swahili of East Africa
+the greatest festival is that of the New Year, which falls in the second
+half of August. At a given moment all the fires are extinguished with
+water and afterwards relit by the friction of two dry pieces of wood.
+The ashes of the old fires are carried out and deposited at cross-roads.
+All the people get up very early in the morning and bathe in the sea or
+some other water, praying to be kept in good health and to live that
+they may bathe again next year. Sham-fights form part of the amusements
+of the day; sometimes they pass into grim reality. Indeed the day was
+formerly one of general license; every man did that which was good in
+his own eyes. No awkward questions were asked about any crimes committed
+on this occasion, so some people improved the shining hour by knocking a
+few poor devils on the head. Shooting still goes on during the whole
+day, and at night the proceedings generally wind up with a great
+dance.[336] The King of Benametapa, as the early Portuguese traders
+called him, in East Africa used to send commissioners annually to every
+town in his dominions; on the arrival of one of these officers the
+inhabitants of each town had to put out all their fires and to receive a
+new fire from him. Failure to comply with this custom was treated as
+rebellion.[337] Some tribes of British Central Africa carefully
+extinguish the fires on the hearths at the beginning of the hoeing
+season and at harvest; the fires are afterwards rekindled by friction,
+and the people indulge in dances of various kinds.[338]
+
+[The new fire among the Todas of Southern India and among the Nagas of
+North-Eastern India.]
+
+The Todas of the Neilgheny Hills, in Southern India, annually kindle a
+sacred new fire by the friction of wood in the month which begins with
+the October moon. The ceremony is performed by two holy dairymen at the
+foot of a high hill. When they have lighted the fire by rubbing two dry
+sticks together, and it begins to burn well, they stand a little way off
+and pray, saying, "May the young grass flower! May honey flourish! May
+fruit ripen!" The purpose of the ceremony is to make the grass and honey
+plentiful. In ancient times the Todas lived largely on wild fruits, and
+then the rite of the new fire was very important. Now that they subsist
+chiefly on the milk of their buffaloes, the ceremony has lost much of
+its old significance.[339] When the Nagas of North-Eastern India have
+felled the timber and cut down the scrub in those patches of jungle
+which they propose to cultivate, they put out all the fires in the
+village and light a new fire by rubbing two dry pieces of wood together.
+Then having kindled torches at it they proceed with them to the jungle
+and ignite the felled timber and brushwood. The flesh of a cow or
+buffalo is also roasted on the new fire and furnishes a sacrificial
+meal.[340] Near the small town of Kahma in Burma, between Prome and
+Thayetmyo, certain gases escape from a hollow in the ground and burn
+with a steady flame during the dry season of the year. The people regard
+the flame as the forge of a spectral smith who here carried on his
+business after death had removed him from his old smithy in the village.
+Once a year all the household fires in Kahma are extinguished and then
+lighted afresh from the ghostly flame.[341]
+
+[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--
+
+"_At the festival of the cold food there are a thousand white stalks
+    among the flowers;
+On the day Tsing-ming, at sunrise, you may see the smoke of ten
+thousand houses_."
+
+According to a Chinese philosopher, the reason for thus renewing fire
+periodically is that the vital principle grows weaker and weaker in old
+fire, whereas in new fire it is young and vigorous. This annual renewal
+of fire was a ceremony of very great antiquity in China, since it is
+known to have been observed in the time of the first dynasty, about two
+thousand years before Christ. Under the Tcheou dynasty a change in the
+calendar led to shifting the fire-festival from spring to the summer
+solstice, but afterwards it was brought back to its original date.
+Although the custom appears to have long fallen into disuse, the
+barbarous inhabitants of Hainan, an island to the south of China, still
+call a year "a fire," as if in memory of the time when the years were
+reckoned by the annually recurring ceremony of rekindling the sacred
+fire.[342] "A Japanese book written two centuries ago informs us that
+sticks resembling the wands used for offerings at the purification
+ceremony were part shaven and set up in bundles at the four corners of
+the Gion shrine on the last day of the year. The priests, after prayers
+were recited, broke up the bundles and set fire to the sticks, which the
+people then carried home to light their household fires with for the New
+Year. The object of this ceremony was to avert pestilence."[343]
+
+[The new fire in ancient Greece and Rome.]
+
+In classical antiquity the Greek island of Lemnos was devoted to the
+worship of the smith-god Hephaestus, who was said to have fallen on it
+when Zeus hurled him from heaven.[344] Once a year every fire in the
+island was extinguished and remained extinct for nine days, during which
+sacrifices were offered to the dead and to the infernal powers. New fire
+was brought in a ship from the sacred isle of Delos, and with it the
+fires in the houses and the workshops were relit. The people said that
+with the new fire they made a new beginning of life. If the ship that
+bore the sacred flame arrived too soon, it might not put in to shore,
+but had to cruise in the offing till the nine days were expired.[345] At
+Rome the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta was kindled anew every year
+on the first of March, which used to be the beginning of the Roman
+year;[346] the task of lighting it was entrusted to the Vestal Virgins,
+and they performed it by drilling a hole in a board of lucky wood till
+the flame was elicited by friction. The new fire thus produced was
+carried into the temple of Vesta by one of the virgins in a bronze
+sieve.[347]
+
+[The new fire at Hallow E'en among the old Celts of Ireland; the new
+fire on September 1st among the Russian peasants.]
+
+Among the Celts of Ireland a new fire was annually kindled on Hallowe'en
+or the Eve of Samhain, as they called it, the last day of October, from
+which the Irish new year began; and all the hearths throughout the
+country are said to have been relighted from the fresh fire. The place
+where this holy flame was lit bore the name of Tlachtga or Tlactga; it
+has been identified with a rath or native fort on the Hill of Ward near
+Athboy in the county of Meath. "It was there," says the old Irish
+historian, Geoffrey Keating, "that the Festival of the Fire of Tlactga
+was ordered to be held, and it was thither that the Druids of Ireland
+were wont to repair and to assemble, in solemn meeting, on the eve of
+Samhain, for the purpose of making a sacrifice to all the gods. It was
+in that fire at Tlactga, that their sacrifice was burnt; and it was made
+obligatory, under pain of punishment, to extinguish all the fires of
+Ireland, on that eve; and the men of Ireland were allowed to kindle no
+other fire but that one; and for each of the other fires, which were all
+to be lighted from it, the king of Munster was to receive a tax of a
+_sgreball_, that is, of three pence, because the land, upon which
+Tlactga was built, belongs to the portion of Meath which had been taken
+from Munster."[348] In the villages near Moscow at the present time the
+peasants put out all their fires on the eve of the first of September,
+and next morning at sunrise a wise man or a wise woman rekindles them
+with the help of muttered incantations and spells.[349]
+
+[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 essentially pagan character of the Easter fire festival appears
+plainly both from the mode in which it is celebrated by the peasants and
+from the superstitious beliefs which they associate with it. All over
+northern and central Germany, from Altmark and Anhalt on the east,
+through Brunswick, Hanover, Oldenburg, the Harz district, and Hesse to
+Westphalia the Easter bonfires still blaze simultaneously on the
+hill-tops. As many as forty may sometimes be counted within sight at
+once. Long before Easter the young people have been busy collecting
+firewood; every farmer contributes, and tar-barrels, petroleum cases,
+and so forth go to swell the pile. Neighbouring villages vie with each
+other as to which shall send up the greatest blaze. The fires are always
+kindled, year after year, on the same hill, which accordingly often
+takes the name of Easter Mountain. It is a fine spectacle to watch from
+some eminence the bonfires flaring up one after another on the
+neighbouring heights. As far as their light reaches, so far, in the
+belief of the peasants, the fields will be fruitful, and the houses on
+which they shine will be safe from conflagration or sickness. At
+Volkmarsen and other places in Hesse the people used to observe which
+way the wind blew the flames, and then they sowed flax seed in that
+direction, confident that it would grow well. Brands taken from the
+bonfires preserve houses from being struck by lightning; and the ashes
+increase the fertility of the fields, protect them from mice, and mixed
+with the drinking-water of cattle make the animals thrive and ensure
+them against plague. As the flames die down, young and old leap over
+them, and cattle are sometimes driven through the smouldering embers. In
+some places tar-barrels or wheels wrapt in straw used to be set on fire,
+and then sent rolling down the hillside. In others the boys light
+torches and wisps of straw at the bonfires and rush about brandishing
+them in their hands. Where the people are divided between Protestantism
+and Catholicism, as in Hildesheim, it has been observed that among
+Protestants the Easter bonfires are generally left to the boys, while in
+Catholic districts they are cared for by grown-up persons, and here the
+whole population will gather round the blazing pile and join in singing
+choral hymns, which echo far and wide in the stillness of night.[350]
+
+[The Easter fires in Münsterland, Oldenburg, the Harz Mountains and the
+Altmark.]
+
+In Münsterland these Easter fires are always kindled upon certain
+definite hills, which are hence known as Easter or Paschal Mountains.
+The whole community assembles about the fire. Fathers of families form
+an inner circle round it. An outer circle is composed of the young men
+and maidens, who, singing Easter hymns, march round and round the fire
+in the direction of the sun, till the blaze dies down. Then the girls
+jump over the fire in a line, one after the other, each supported by two
+young men who hold her hands and run beside her. When the fire has
+burned out, the whole assembly marches in solemn procession to the
+church, singing hymns. They go thrice round the church, and then break
+up. In the twilight boys with blazing bundles of straw run over the
+fields to make them fruitful.[351] At Delmenhorst, in Oldenburg, it used
+to be the custom to cut down two trees, plant them in the ground side by
+side, and pile twelve tar-barrels, one above the other, against each of
+the trees. Brushwood was then heaped about the trees, and on the evening
+of Easter Saturday the boys, after rushing about with blazing beanpoles
+in their hands, set fire to the whole. At the end of the ceremony the
+urchins tried to blacken each other and the clothes of grown-up
+people.[352] In Schaumburg the Easter bonfires may be seen blazing on
+all the mountains around for miles. They are made with a tar-barrel
+fastened to a pine-tree, which is wrapt in straw. The people dance
+singing round them.[353] In the Harz Mountains the fire is commonly made
+by piling brushwood about a tree and setting it on fire. At Osterode
+every one tries to snatch a brand from the bonfire and runs about with
+it; the better it burns, the more lucky it is. In Grund there are
+torch-races.[354] In the Altmark the Easter bonfires are composed of
+tar-barrels, bee-hives, and so forth, piled round a pole. The young folk
+dance round the fire; and when it has died out, the old folk come and
+collect the ashes, which they preserve as a remedy for the ailments of
+bees. It is also believed that as far as the blaze of the bonfire is
+visible, the corn will grow well throughout the year, and no
+conflagration will break out.[355] At Braunröde, in the Harz Mountains,
+it was the custom to burn squirrels in the Easter bonfire.[356] In the
+Altmark, bones were burned in it.[357]
+
+[The Easter fires in Bavaria; the burning of Judas; burning the Easter
+Man.]
+
+Further south the Easter fires are, or used to be, lit in many districts
+of Bavaria. Thus on Easter Monday in some parts of Middle Franken the
+schoolboys collect all the old worn-out besoms they can lay hands on,
+and march with them in a long procession to a neighbouring height. When
+the first chime of the evening bell comes up from the dale they set fire
+to the brooms, and run along the ridges waving them, so that seen from
+below the hills appear to be crested with a twinkling and moving chain
+of fire.[358] In some parts of Upper Bavaria at Easter burning arrows or
+discs of wood were shot from hill-tops high into the air, as in the
+Swabian and Swiss customs already described.[359] At Oberau, instead of
+the discs, an old cart-wheel was sometimes wrapt in straw, ignited, and
+sent rolling and blazing down the mountain. The lads who hurled the
+discs received painted Easter eggs from the girls.[360] Near Forchheim,
+in Upper Franken, a straw-man called the Judas used to be burned in the
+churchyards on Easter Saturday. The whole village contributed wood to
+the pyre on which he perished, and the charred sticks were afterwards
+kept and planted in the fields on Walpurgis Day (the first of May) to
+preserve the wheat from blight and mildew.[361] About a hundred years
+ago or more the custom at Althenneberg, in Upper Bavaria, used to be as
+follows. On the afternoon of Easter Saturday the lads collected wood,
+which they piled in a cornfield, while in the middle of the pile they
+set up a tall wooden cross all swathed in straw. After the evening
+service they lighted their lanterns at the consecrated candle in the
+church, and ran with them at full speed to the pyre, each striving to
+get there first. The first to arrive set fire to the heap. No woman or
+girl might come near the bonfire, but they were allowed to watch it from
+a distance. As the flames rose the men and lads rejoiced and made merry,
+shouting, "We are burning the Judas!" Two of them had to watch the
+glowing embers the whole night long, lest people should come and steal
+them. Next morning at sunrise they carefully collected the ashes, and
+threw them into the running water of the Röten brook. The man who had
+been the first to reach the pyre and to kindle it was rewarded on Easter
+Sunday by the women, who gave him coloured eggs at the church door.
+Well-to-do women gave him two; poorer women gave him only one. The
+object of the whole ceremony was to keep off the hail. About a century
+ago the Judas fire, as it was called, was put down by the police.[362]
+At Giggenhausen and Aufkirchen, two other villages of Upper Bavaria, a
+similar custom prevailed, yet with some interesting differences. Here
+the ceremony, which took place between nine and ten at night on Easter
+Saturday, was called "burning the Easter Man." On a height about a mile
+from the village the young fellows set up a tall cross enveloped in
+straw, so that it looked like a man with his arms stretched out. This
+was the Easter Man. No lad under eighteen years of age might take part
+in the ceremony. One of the young men stationed himself beside the
+Easter Man, holding in his hand a consecrated taper which he had brought
+from the church and lighted. The rest stood at equal intervals in a
+great circle round the cross. At a given signal they raced thrice round
+the circle, and then at a second signal ran straight at the cross and at
+the lad with the lighted taper beside it; the one who reached the goal
+first had the right of setting fire to the Easter Man. Great was the
+jubilation while he was burning. When he had been consumed in the
+flames, three lads were chosen from among the rest, and each of the
+three drew a circle on the ground with a stick thrice round the ashes.
+Then they all left the spot. On Easter Monday the villagers gathered the
+ashes and strewed them on their fields; also they planted in the fields
+palm-branches which had been consecrated on Palm Sunday, and sticks
+which had been charred and hallowed on Good Friday, all for the purpose
+of protecting their fields against showers of hail. The custom of
+burning an Easter Man made of straw on Easter Saturday was observed also
+at Abensberg, in Lower Bavaria.[363] In some parts of Swabia the Easter
+fires might not be kindled with iron or steel or flint, but only by the
+friction of wood.[364]
+
+[The Easter fires in Baden; "Thunder poles."]
+
+In Baden bonfires are still kindled in the churchyards on Easter
+Saturday, and ecclesiastical refuse of various sorts, such as
+candle-ends, old surplices, and the wool used by the priest in the
+application of extreme unction, is consumed in the flames. At Zoznegg
+down to about 1850 the fire was lighted by the priest by means of a
+flint which had never been used before. People bring sticks, especially
+oaken sticks, char them in the fire, and then carry them home and keep
+them in the house as a preservative against lightning. At Zoznegg these
+oaken sticks were sword-shaped, each about an ell and a half long, and
+they went by the name of "weather or thunder poles" (_Wetterpfähle_).
+When a thunderstorm threatened to break out, one of the sticks was put
+into a small fire, in order that the hallowed smoke, ascending to the
+clouds, might ward off the lightning from the house and the hail from
+the fields and gardens. At Schöllbronn the oaken sticks, which are thus
+charred in the Easter bonfire and kept in the house as a protective
+against thunder and lightning, are three in number, perhaps with an
+allusion to the Trinity; they are brought every Easter to be consecrated
+afresh in the bonfire, till they are quite burnt away. In the lake
+district of Baden it is also customary to burn one of these holy sticks
+in the fire when a heavy thunderstorm is raging.[365] Hence it seems
+that the ancient association of the oak with the thunder[366] persists
+in the minds of German peasants to the present day.
+
+[Easter fires in Holland and Sweden; the burning of Judas in Bohemia.]
+
+Thus the custom of the Easter fires appears to have prevailed all over
+central and western Germany from north to south. We find it also in
+Holland, where the fires were kindled on the highest eminences, and the
+people danced round them and leaped through the flames or over the
+glowing embers. Here too, as so often in Germany, the materials for the
+bonfire were collected by the young folk from door to door.[367] In many
+parts of Sweden firearms are, as at Athens, discharged in all directions
+on Easter eve, and huge bonfires are lighted on hills and eminences.
+Some people think that the intention is to keep off the Troll and other
+evil spirits who are especially active at this season.[368] When the
+afternoon service on Good Friday is over, German children in Bohemia
+drive Judas out of the church by running about the sacred edifice and
+even the streets shaking rattles and clappers. Next day, on Easter
+Saturday, the remains of the holy oil are burnt before the church door
+in a fire which must be kindled with flint and steel. This fire is
+called "the burning of Judas," but in spite of its evil name a
+beneficent virtue is ascribed to it, for the people scuffle for the
+cinders, which they put in the roofs of their houses as a safeguard
+against fire and lightning.[369]
+
+
+§ 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.
+
+"It is probable that at the original Beltane festival there were two
+fires kindled near one another. When any person is in a critical
+dilemma, pressed on each side by unsurmountable difficulties, the
+Highlanders have a proverb, _The e' eada anda theine bealtuin_--i.e., he
+is between the two Beltane fires. There are in several parts small round
+hills, which, it is like, owe their present names to such solemn uses.
+One of the highest and most central in Icolmkil is called
+_Cnoch-nan-ainneal_--i.e., the hill of the fires. There is another of
+the same name near the kirk of Balquhidder; and at Killin there is a
+round green eminence which seems to have been raised by art. It is
+called _Tom-nan-ainneal_--i.e., the eminence of the fires. Around it
+there are the remains of a circular wall about two feet high. On the top
+a stone stands upon end. According to the tradition of the inhabitants,
+it was a place of Druidical worship; and it was afterwards pitched on as
+the most venerable spot for holding courts of justice for the country of
+Breadalbane. The earth of this eminence is still thought to be possessed
+of some healing virtue, for when cattle are observed to be diseased some
+of it is sent for, which is rubbed on the part affected."[370]
+
+[Local differences in the Beltane cakes; evidence of two fires at
+Beltane; Beltane pies and cakes in the parish of Callander.]
+
+In the parish of Callander, a beautiful district of western Perthshire,
+the Beltane custom was still in vogue towards the end of the eighteenth
+century. It has been described as follows by the parish minister of the
+time: "Upon the first day of May, which is called _Beltan_, or
+_Bal-tein_ day, all the boys in a township or hamlet, meet in the moors.
+They cut a table in the green sod, of a round figure, by casting a
+trench in the ground, of such circumference as to hold the whole
+company. They kindle a fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the
+consistence of a custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted
+at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they
+divide the cake into so many portions, as similar as possible to one
+another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. They
+daub one of these portions all over with charcoal, until it be perfectly
+black. They put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet. Every one,
+blindfold, draws out a portion. He who holds the bonnet, is entitled to
+the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit, is the _devoted_ person who
+is to be sacrificed to _Baal_[371] whose favour they mean to implore, in
+rendering the year productive of the sustenance of man and beast. There
+is little doubt of these inhuman sacrifices having been once offered in
+this country, as well as in the east, although they now pass from the
+act of sacrificing, and only compel the _devoted_ person to leap three
+times through the flames; with which the ceremonies of this festival are
+closed."[372]
+
+[Pennant's description of the Beltane fires and cakes in Perthshire.]
+
+Thomas Pennant, who travelled in Perthshire in the year 1769, tells us
+that "on the first of May, the herdsmen of every village hold their
+Bel-tien, a rural sacrifice. They cut a square trench on the ground,
+leaving the turf in the middle; on that they make a fire of wood, on
+which they dress a large caudle of eggs, butter, oatmeal and milk; and
+bring besides the ingredients of the caudle, plenty of beer and whisky;
+for each of the company must contribute something. The rites begin with
+spilling some of the caudle on the ground, by way of libation: on that
+every one takes a cake of oatmeal, upon which are raised nine square
+knobs, each dedicated to some particular being, the supposed preserver
+of their flocks and herds, or to some particular animal, the real
+destroyer of them: each person then turns his face to the fire, breaks
+off a knob, and flinging it over his shoulders, says, 'This I give to
+thee, preserve thou my horses; this to thee, preserve thou my sheep; and
+so on,' After that, they use the-same ceremony to the noxious animals:
+'This I give to thee, O fox! spare thou my lambs; this to thee, O hooded
+crow! this to thee, O eagle!' When the ceremony is over, they dine on
+the caudle; and after the feast is finished, what is left is hid by two
+persons deputed for that purpose; but on the next Sunday they
+re-assemble, and finish the reliques of the first entertainment"[373]
+
+[Beltane cakes and fires in the parishes of Logierait and Kirkmichael;
+omens drawn from the cakes.]
+
+Another writer of the eighteenth century has described the Beltane
+festival as it was held in the parish of Logierait in Perthshire. He
+says: "On the first of May, O.S., a festival called _Beltan_ is annually
+held here. It is chiefly celebrated by the cow-herds, who assemble by
+scores in the fields, to dress a dinner for themselves, of boiled milk
+and eggs. These dishes they eat with a sort of cakes baked for the
+occasion, and having small lumps in the form of _nipples_, raised all
+over the surface."[374] In this last account no mention is made of
+bonfires, but they were probably lighted, for a contemporary writer
+informs us that in the parish of Kirkmichael, which adjoins the parish
+of Logierait on the east, the custom of lighting a fire in the fields
+and baking a consecrated cake on the first of May was not quite obsolete
+in his time.[375] We may conjecture that the cake with knobs was
+formerly used for the purpose of determining who should be the "Beltane
+carline" or victim doomed to the flames. A trace of this custom
+survived, perhaps, in the custom of baking oatmeal cakes of a special
+kind and rolling them down hill about noon on the first of May; for it
+was thought that the person whose cake broke as it rolled would die or
+be unfortunate within the year. These cakes, or bannocks as we call them
+in Scotland, were baked in the usual way, but they were washed over with
+a thin batter composed of whipped egg, milk or cream, and a little
+oatmeal. This custom appears to have prevailed at or near Kingussie in
+Inverness-shire. At Achterneed, near Strathpeffer in Ross-shire, the
+Beltane bannocks were called _tcharnican_ or hand-cakes, because they
+were kneaded entirely in the hand, and not on a board or table like
+common cakes; and after being baked they might not be placed anywhere
+but in the hands of the children who were to eat them.[376]
+
+[Beltane fires in the north-east of Scotland to burn the witches; the
+Beltane cake.]
+
+In the north-east of Scotland the Beltane fires were still kindled in
+the latter half of the eighteenth century; the herdsmen of several farms
+used to gather dry wood, kindle it, and dance three times "southways"
+about the burning pile.[377] But in this region, according to a later
+authority, the Beltane fires were lit not on the first but on the second
+of May, Old Style. They were called bone-fires. The people believed that
+on that evening and night the witches were abroad and busy casting
+spells on cattle and stealing cows' milk. To counteract their
+machinations, pieces of rowan-tree and woodbine, but especially of
+rowan-tree, were placed over the doors of the cow-houses, and fires were
+kindled by every farmer and cottar. Old thatch, straw, furze, or broom
+was piled in a heap and set on fire a little after sunset. While some of
+the bystanders kept tossing the blazing mass, others hoisted portions of
+it on pitchforks or poles and ran hither and thither, holding them as
+high as they could. Meantime the young people danced round the fire or
+ran through the smoke shouting, "Fire! blaze and burn the witches; fire!
+fire! burn the witches." In some districts a large round cake of oat or
+barley meal was rolled through the ashes. When all the fuel was
+consumed, the people scattered the ashes far and wide, and till the
+night grew quite dark they continued to run through them, crying, "Fire!
+burn the witches."[378]
+
+[Beltane cakes and fires in the Hebrides.]
+
+In the Hebrides "the Beltane bannock is smaller than that made at St.
+Michael's, but is made in the same way; it is no longer made in Uist,
+but Father Allan remembers seeing his grandmother make one about
+twenty-five years ago. There was also a cheese made, generally on the
+first of May, which was kept to the next Beltane as a sort of charm
+against the bewitching of milk-produce. The Beltane customs seem to have
+been the same as elsewhere. Every fire was put out and a large one lit
+on the top of the hill, and the cattle driven round it sunwards
+(_dessil_), to keep off murrain all the year. Each man would take home
+fire wherewith to kindle his own."[379]
+
+[Beltane fires and cakes in Wales.]
+
+In Wales also the custom of lighting Beltane fires at the beginning of
+May used to be observed, but the day on which they were kindled varied
+from the Eve of May Day to the third of May. The flame was sometimes
+elicited by the friction of two pieces of oak, as appears from the
+following description. "The fire was done in this way. Nine men would
+turn their pockets inside out, and see that every piece of money and all
+metals were off their persons. Then the men went into the nearest woods,
+and collected sticks of nine different kinds of trees. These were
+carried to the spot where the fire had to be built. There a circle was
+cut in the sod, and the sticks were set crosswise. All around the circle
+the people stood and watched the proceedings. One of the men would then
+take two bits of oak, and rub them together until a flame was kindled.
+This was applied to the sticks, and soon a large fire was made.
+Sometimes two fires were set up side by side. These fires, whether one
+or two, were called _coelcerth_ or bonfire. Round cakes of oatmeal and
+brown meal were split in four, and placed in a small flour-bag, and
+everybody present had to pick out a portion. The last bit in the bag
+fell to the lot of the bag-holder. Each person who chanced to pick up a
+piece of brown-meal cake was compelled to leap three times over the
+flames, or to run thrice between the two fires, by which means the
+people thought they were sure of a plentiful harvest. Shouts and screams
+of those who had to face the ordeal could be heard ever so far, and
+those who chanced to pick the oatmeal portions sang and danced and
+clapped their hands in approval, as the holders of the brown bits leaped
+three times over the flames, or ran three times between the two fires.
+As a rule, no danger attended these curious celebrations, but
+occasionally somebody's clothes caught fire, which was quickly put out.
+The greatest fire of the year was the eve of May, or May first, second,
+or third. The Midsummer Eve fire was more for the harvest. Very often a
+fire was built on the eve of November. The high ground near the Castle
+Ditches at Llantwit Major, in the Vale of Glamorgan, was a familiar spot
+for the Beltane on May third and on Midsummer Eve.... Sometimes the
+Beltane fire was lighted by the flames produced by stone instead of wood
+friction. Charred logs and faggots used in the May Beltane were
+carefully preserved, and from them the next fire was lighted. May fires
+were always started with old faggots of the previous year, and midsummer
+from those of the last summer. It was unlucky to build a midsummer fire
+from May faggots. People carried the ashes left after these fires to
+their homes, and a charred brand was not only effectual against
+pestilence, but magical in its use. A few of the ashes placed in a
+person's shoes protected the wearer from any great sorrow or woe."[380]
+
+[Welsh belief that passage over or between the fires ensured good
+crops.]
+
+From the foregoing account we learn that bonfires were kindled in Wales
+on Midsummer Eve and Hallowe'en (the thirty-first of October), as well
+as at the beginning of May, but that the Beltane fires in May were
+deemed the most important. To the Midsummer Eve and Hallowe'en fires we
+shall return presently. The belief of the people that by leaping thrice
+over the bonfires or running thrice between them they ensured a
+plentiful harvest is worthy of note. The mode in which this result was
+supposed to be brought about is indicated by another writer on Welsh
+folk-lore, according to whom it used to be held that "the bonfires
+lighted in May or Midsummer protected the lands from sorcery, so that
+good crops would follow. The ashes were also considered valuable as
+charms."[381] Hence it appears that the heat of the fires was thought to
+fertilize the fields, not directly by quickening the seeds in the
+ground, but indirectly by counteracting the baleful influence of
+witchcraft or perhaps by burning up the persons of the witches.
+
+[Beltane fires in the Isle of Man to burn the witches; Beltane fires in
+Nottinghamshire.]
+
+"The Druidical anniversary of Beil or Baal is still celebrated in the
+Isle of Man. On the first of May, 1837, the Baal fires were, as usual on
+that day, so numerous as to give the island the appearance of a general
+conflagration."[382] By May Day in Manx folk-lore is meant May Day Old
+Style, or _Shenn Laa Boaldyn_, as it is called in Manx. The day was one
+on which the power of elves and witches was particularly dreaded, and
+the people resorted to many precautions in order to protect themselves
+against these mischievous beings. Hence at daybreak they set fire to the
+ling or gorse, for the purpose of burning out the witches, who are wont
+to lurk in the form of hares.[383] On the Hemlock Stone, a natural
+pillar of sandstone standing on Stapleford Hill in Nottinghamshire, a
+fire used to be solemnly kindled every year on Beltane Eve. The custom
+seems to have survived down to the beginning of the nineteenth century;
+old people could remember and describe the ceremony long after it had
+fallen into desuetude.[384]
+
+[Beltane fires in Ireland.]
+
+The Beltane fires appear to have been kindled also in Ireland, for
+Cormac, "or somebody in his name, says that _belltaine_, May-day, was so
+called from the 'lucky fire,' or the 'two fires,' which the druids of
+Erin used to make on that day with great incantations; and cattle, he
+adds, used to be brought to those fires, or to be driven between them,
+as a safeguard against the diseases of the year."[385] Again, a very
+ancient Irish poem, enumerating the May Day celebrations, mentions among
+them a bonfire on a hill (_tendal ar cnuc_); and another old authority
+says that these fires were kindled in the name of the idol-god Bel.[386]
+From an old life of St. Patrick we learn that on a day in spring the
+heathen of Ireland were wont to extinguish all their fires until a new
+fire was kindled with solemn ceremony in the king's house at Tara. In
+the year in which St. Patrick landed in Ireland it chanced that the
+night of the extinguished fires coincided with the Eve of Easter; and
+the saint, ignorant of this pagan superstition, resolved to celebrate
+his first Easter in Ireland after the true Christian fashion by lighting
+the holy Paschal fire on the hill of Slane, which rises high above the
+left bank of the Boyne, about twelve miles from the mouth of the river.
+So that night, looking from his palace at Tara across the darkened
+landscape, the king of Tara saw the solitary fire flaring on the top of
+the hill of Slane, and in consternation he asked his wise men what that
+light meant. They warned him of the danger that it betokened for the
+ancient faith of Erin.[387] In spite of the difference of date between
+Easter and Beltane, we may suspect that the new fire annually kindled
+with solemn ceremony about Easter in the king of Ireland's palace at
+Tara was no other than the Beltane fire. We have seen that in the
+Highlands of Scotland down to modern times it was customary to
+extinguish all fires in the neighbourhood before proceeding to kindle
+the sacred flame.[388] The Irish historian Geoffrey Keating, who wrote
+in the first part of the seventeenth century, tells us that the men of
+Ireland held a great fair every year in the month of May at Uisnech
+(_Ushnagh_) in the county of Meath, "and at it they were wont to
+exchange their goods and their wares and their jewels. At it, they were,
+also, wont to make a sacrifice to the Arch-God that they adored, whose
+name was Bèl (_bayl_). It was, likewise, their usage to light two fires
+to Bèl, in every district of Ireland, at this season, and to drive a
+pair of each kind of cattle that the district contained, between those
+two fires, as a preservative to guard them against all the diseases of
+that year. It is from that fire, thus made in honour of Bèl, that the
+day [the first of May] on which the noble feast of the apostles, Philip
+and James, is held, has been called Bèltaini, or Bèaltaine
+(_Bayltinnie_); for Beltaini is the same as Bèil-teinè, i.e. Teiné Bhèil
+(_Tinnie Vayl_) or Bèl's Fire."[389] The custom of driving cattle
+through or between fires on May Day or the eve of May Day persisted in
+Ireland down to a time within living memory. Thus Sir John Rhys was
+informed by a Manxman that an Irish cattle-dealer of his acquaintance
+used to drive his cattle through fire on May Day so as to singe them a
+little, since he believed that it would preserve them from harm. When
+the Manxman was asked where the dealer came from, he answered, "From the
+mountains over there," pointing to the Mourne Mountains then looming
+faintly in the mists on the western horizon.[390]
+
+[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.]
+
+The first of May is a great popular festival in the more midland and
+southern parts of Sweden. On the eve of the festival, huge bonfires,
+which should be lighted by striking two flints together, blaze on all
+the hills and knolls. Every large hamlet has its own fire, round which
+the young people dance in a ring. The old folk notice whether the flames
+incline to the north or to the south. In the former case, the spring
+will be cold and backward; in the latter, it will be mild and
+genial.[391] Similarly, in Bohemia, on the eve of May Day, young people
+kindle fires on hills and eminences, at crossways, and in pastures, and
+dance round them. They leap over the glowing embers or even through the
+flames. The ceremony is called "burning the witches." In some places an
+effigy representing a witch used to be burnt in the bonfire.[392] We
+have to remember that the eve of May Day is the notorious Walpurgis
+Night, when the witches are everywhere speeding unseen through the air
+on their hellish errands. On this witching night children in Voigtland
+also light bonfires on the heights and leap over them. Moreover, they
+wave burning brooms or toss them into the air. So far as the light of
+the bonfire reaches, so far will a blessing rest on the fields. The
+kindling of the fires on Walpurgis Night is called "driving away the
+witches."[393] The custom of kindling fires on the eve of May Day
+(Walpurgis Night) for the purpose of burning the witches is, or used to
+be, widespread in the Tyrol, Moravia, Saxony and Silesia.[394]
+
+
+§ 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.]
+
+But the season at which these fire-festivals have been mostly generally
+held all over Europe is the summer solstice, that is Midsummer Eve (the
+twenty-third of June) or Midsummer Day (the twenty-fourth of June). A
+faint tinge of Christianity has been given to them by naming Midsummer
+Day after St. John the Baptist, but we cannot doubt that the celebration
+dates from a time long before the beginning of our era. The summer
+solstice, or Midsummer Day, is the great turning-point in the sun's
+career, when, after climbing higher and higher day by day in the sky,
+the luminary stops and thenceforth retraces his steps down the heavenly
+road. Such a moment could not but be regarded with anxiety by primitive
+man so soon as he began to observe and ponder the courses of the great
+lights across the celestial vault; and having still to learn his own
+powerlessness in face of the vast cyclic changes of nature, he may have
+fancied that he could help the sun in his seeming decline--could prop
+his failing steps and rekindle the sinking flame of the red lamp in his
+feeble hand. In some such thoughts as these the midsummer festivals of
+our European peasantry may perhaps have taken their rise. Whatever their
+origin, they have prevailed all over this quarter of the globe, from
+Ireland on the west to Russia on the east, and from Norway and Sweden on
+the north to Spain and Greece on the south.[395] According to a mediæval
+writer, the three great features of the midsummer celebration were the
+bonfires, the procession with torches round the fields, and the custom
+of rolling a wheel. He tells us that boys burned bones and filth of
+various kinds to make a foul smoke, and that the smoke drove away
+certain noxious dragons which at this time, excited by the summer heat,
+copulated in the air and poisoned the wells and rivers by dropping their
+seed into them; and he explains the custom of trundling a wheel to mean
+that the sun, having now reached the highest point in the ecliptic,
+begins thenceforward to descend.[396]
+
+[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,
+And that from harmes and daungers now, in safetie here they dwell_."[397]
+
+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.]
+
+A writer of the first half of the sixteenth century informs us that in
+almost every village and town of Germany public bonfires were kindled on
+the Eve of St. John, and young and old, of both sexes, gathered about
+them and passed the time in dancing and singing. People on this occasion
+wore chaplets of mugwort and vervain, and they looked at the fire
+through bunches of larkspur which they held in their hands, believing
+that this would preserve their eyes in a healthy state throughout the
+year. As each departed, he threw the mugwort and vervain into the fire,
+saying, "May all my ill-luck depart and be burnt up with these."[398] At
+Lower Konz, a village prettily situated on a hillside overlooking the
+Moselle, in the midst of a wood of walnut-trees and fruit-trees, the
+midsummer festival used to be celebrated as follows. A quantity of straw
+was collected on the top of the steep Stromberg Hill. Every inhabitant,
+or at least every householder, had to contribute his share of straw to
+the pile; a recusant was looked at askance, and if in the course of the
+year he happened to break a leg or lose a child, there was not a gossip
+in the village but knew the reason why. At nightfall the whole male
+population, men and boys, mustered on the top of the hill; the women and
+girls were not allowed to join them, but had to take up their position
+at a certain spring half-way down the slope. On the summit stood a huge
+wheel completely encased in some of the straw which had been jointly
+contributed by the villagers; the rest of the straw was made into
+torches. From each side of the wheel the axle-tree projected about three
+feet, thus furnishing handles to the lads who were to guide it in its
+descent. The mayor of the neighbouring town of Sierck, who always
+received a basket of cherries for his services, gave the signal; a
+lighted torch was applied to the wheel, and as it burst into flame, two
+young fellows, strong-limbed and swift of foot, seized the handles and
+began running with it down the slope. A great shout went up. Every man
+and boy waved a blazing torch in the air, and took care to keep it
+alight so long as the wheel was trundling down the hill. Some of them
+followed the fiery wheel, and watched with amusement the shifts to which
+its guides were put in steering it round the hollows and over the broken
+ground on the mountainside. The great object of the young men who guided
+the wheel was to plunge it blazing into the water of the Moselle; but
+they rarely succeeded in their efforts, for the vineyards which cover
+the greater part of the declivity impeded their progress, and the wheel
+was often burned out before it reached the river. As it rolled past the
+women and girls at the spring, they raised cries of joy which were
+answered by the men on the top of the mountain; and the shouts were
+echoed by the inhabitants of neighbouring villages who watched the
+spectacle from their hills on the opposite bank of the Moselle. If the
+fiery wheel was successfully conveyed to the bank of the river and
+extinguished in the water, the people looked for an abundant vintage
+that year, and the inhabitants of Konz had the right to exact a
+waggon-load of white wine from the surrounding vineyards. On the other
+hand, they believed that, if they neglected to perform the ceremony, the
+cattle would be attacked by giddiness and convulsions and would dance in
+their stalls.[399]
+
+[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.]
+
+Down at least to the middle of the nineteenth century the midsummer
+fires used to blaze all over Upper Bavaria. They were kindled especially
+on the mountains, but also far and wide in the lowlands, and we are told
+that in the darkness and stillness of night the moving groups, lit up by
+the flickering glow of the flames, presented an impressive spectacle. In
+some places the people shewed their sense of the sanctity of the fires
+by using for fuel the trees past which the gay procession had defiled,
+with fluttering banners, on Corpus Christi Day. In others the children
+collected the firewood from door to door on the eve of the festival,
+singing their request for fuel at every house in doggerel verse. Cattle
+were driven through the fire to cure the sick animals and to guard such
+as were sound against plague and harm of every kind throughout the year.
+Many a householder on that day put out the fire on the domestic hearth
+and rekindled it by means of a brand taken from the midsummer bonfire.
+The people judged of the height to which the flax would grow in the year
+by the height to which the flames of the bonfire rose; and whoever
+leaped over the burning pile was sure not to suffer from backache in
+reaping the corn at harvest. But it was especially the practice for
+lovers to spring over the fire hand in hand, and the way in which each
+couple made the leap was the subject of many a jest and many a
+superstition. In one district the custom of kindling the bonfires was
+combined with that of lighting wooden discs and hurling them in the air
+after the manner which prevails at some of the spring festivals.[400] In
+many parts of Bavaria it was believed that the flax would grow as high
+as the young people leaped over the fire.[401] In others the old folk
+used to plant three charred sticks from the bonfire in the fields,
+believing that this would make the flax grow tall.[402] Elsewhere an
+extinguished brand was put in the roof of the house to protect it
+against fire. In the towns about Würzburg the bonfires used to be
+kindled in the market-places, and the young people who jumped over them
+wore garlands of flowers, especially of mugwort and vervain, and carried
+sprigs of larkspur in their hands. They thought that such as looked at
+the fire holding a bit of larkspur before their face would be troubled
+by no malady of the eyes throughout the year.[403] Further, it was
+customary at Würzburg, in the sixteenth century, for the bishop's
+followers to throw burning discs of wood into the air from a mountain
+which overhangs the town. The discs were discharged by means of flexible
+rods, and in their flight through the darkness presented the appearance
+of fiery dragons.[404]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Swabia; omens drawn from the leaps over the
+fires; burning wheels rolled down hill; burning the Angel-Man at
+Rottenburg.]
+
+In the valley of the Lech, which divides Upper Bavaria from Swabia, the
+midsummer customs and beliefs are, or used to be, very similar. Bonfires
+are kindled on the mountains on Midsummer Day; and besides the bonfire a
+tall beam, thickly wrapt in straw and surmounted by a cross-piece, is
+burned in many places. Round this cross as it burns the lads dance with
+loud shouts; and when the flames have subsided, the young people leap
+over the fire in pairs, a young man and a young woman together. If they
+escape unsmirched, the man will not suffer from fever, and the girl will
+not become a mother within the year. Further, it is believed that the
+flax will grow that year as high as they leap over the fire; and that if
+a charred billet be taken from the fire and stuck in a flax-field it
+will promote the growth of the flax.[405] Similarly in Swabia, lads and
+lasses, hand in hand, leap over the midsummer bonfire, praying that the
+hemp may grow three ells high, and they set fire to wheels of straw and
+send them rolling down the hill. Among the places where burning wheels
+were thus bowled down hill at Midsummer were the Hohenstaufen mountains
+in Wurtemberg and the Frauenberg near Gerhausen.[406] At Deffingen, in
+Swabia, as the people sprang over the midsummer bonfire they cried out,
+"Flax, flax! may the flax this year grow seven ells high!"[407] At
+Rottenburg in Swabia, down to the year 1807 or 1808, the festival was
+marked by some special features. About mid-day troops of boys went about
+the town begging for firewood at the houses. In each troop there were
+three leaders, one of whom carried a dagger, a second a paper banner,
+and a third a white plate covered with a white cloth. These three
+entered each house and recited verses, in which they expressed an
+intention of roasting Martin Luther and sending him to the devil; and
+for this meritorious service they expected to be paid, the contributions
+being received in the cloth-covered plate. In the evening they counted
+up their money and proceeded to "behead the Angel-man." For this
+ceremony an open space was chosen, sometimes in the middle of the town.
+Here a stake was thrust into the ground and straw wrapt about it, so as
+to make a rude effigy of human form with arms, head, and face. Every boy
+brought a handful of nosegays and fastened them to the straw-man, who
+was thus enveloped in flowers. Fuel was heaped about the stake and set
+on fire. When the Angel-man, as the straw-effigy was called, blazed up,
+all the boys of the neighbourhood, who had gathered expectantly around,
+fell upon him with their wooden swords and hewed him to pieces. As soon
+as he had vanished in smoke and flame, the lads leaped backward and
+forward over the glowing embers, and later in the evening they feasted
+on the proceeds of their collection.[408] Here the Angel-man burnt in
+the fire appears to be identified with Martin Luther, to whom, as we
+have seen, allusion was made during the house-to-house visitation. The
+identification was probably modern, for we may assume that the custom of
+burning an effigy in the Midsummer bonfire is far older than the time of
+Luther.
+
+[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.]
+
+In Baden the children used to collect fuel from house to house for the
+Midsummer bonfire on St. John's Day; and lads and lasses leaped over the
+fire in couples. Here, as elsewhere, a close connexion was traced
+between these bonfires and the harvest. In some places it was thought
+that those who leaped over the fires would not suffer from backache at
+reaping. Sometimes, as the young folk sprang over the flames, they
+cried, "Grow, that the hemp may be three ells high!" This notion that
+the hemp or the corn would grow as high as the flames blazed or as the
+people jumped over them, seems to have been widespread in Baden. It was
+held that the parents of the young people who bounded highest over the
+fire would have the most abundant harvest; and on the other hand, if a
+man contributed nothing to the bonfire, it was imagined that there would
+be no blessing on his crops, and that his hemp in particular would never
+grow.[409] In the neighbourhood of Bühl and Achern the St. John's fires
+were kindled on the tops of hills; only the unmarried lads of the
+village brought the fuel, and only the unmarried young men and women
+sprang through the flames. But most of the villagers, old and young,
+gathered round the bonfires, leaving a clear space for the leapers to
+take their run. One of the bystanders would call out the names of a pair
+of sweethearts; on which the two would step out from the throng, take
+each other by the hand, and leap high and lightly through the swirling
+smoke and flames, while the spectators watched them critically and drew
+omens of their married life from the height to which each of them
+bounded. Such an invitation to jump together over the bonfire was
+regarded as tantamount to a public betrothal.[410] Near Offenburg, in
+the Black Forest, on Midsummer Day the village boys used to collect
+faggots and straw on some steep and conspicuous height, and they spent
+some time in making circular wooden discs by slicing the trunk of a
+pine-tree across. When darkness had fallen, they kindled the bonfire,
+and then, as it blazed up, they lighted the discs at it, and, after
+swinging them to and fro at the end of a stout and supple hazel-wand,
+they hurled them one after the other, whizzing and flaming, into the
+air, where they described great arcs of fire, to fall at length, like
+shooting-stars, at the foot of the mountain.[411] In many parts of
+Alsace and Lorraine the midsummer fires still blaze annually or did so
+not very many years ago.[412] At Speicher in the Eifel, a district which
+lies on the middle Rhine, to the west of Coblentz, a bonfire used to be
+kindled in front of the village on St. John's Day, and all the young
+people had to jump over it. Those who failed to do so were not allowed
+to join the rest in begging for eggs from house to house. Where no eggs
+were given, they drove a wedge into the keyhole of the door. On this day
+children in the Eifel used also to gather flowers in the fields, weave
+them into garlands, and throw the garlands on the roofs or hang them on
+the doors of the houses. So long as the flowers remained there, they
+were supposed to guard the house from fire and lightning.[413] In the
+southern Harz district and in Thuringia the Midsummer or St. John's
+fires used to be commonly lighted down to about the middle of the
+nineteenth century, and the custom has probably not died out. At
+Edersleben, near Sangerhausen, a high pole was planted in the ground and
+a tar-barrel was hung from it by a chain which reached to the ground.
+The barrel was then set on fire and swung round the pole amid shouts of
+joy.[414]
+
+[Midsummer fires kindled by the friction of wood in Germany and
+Switzerland; driving away demons and witches.]
+
+According to one account, German tradition required that the midsummer
+fire should be lighted, not from a common hearth, but by the friction of
+two sorts of wood, namely oak and fir.[415] In some old farm-houses of
+the Surenthal and Winenthal, in Switzerland, a couple of holes or a
+whole row of them may be seen facing each other in the door-posts of the
+barn or stable. Sometimes the holes are smooth and round; sometimes they
+are deeply burnt and blackened. The explanation of them is this. About
+midsummer, but especially on Midsummer Day, two such holes are bored
+opposite each other, into which the extremities of a strong pole are
+fixed. The holes are then stuffed with tow steeped in resin and oil; a
+rope is looped round the pole, and two young men, who must be brothers
+or must have the same baptismal name, and must be of the same age, pull
+the ends of the rope backwards and forwards so as to make the pole
+revolve rapidly, till smoke and sparks issue from the two holes in the
+door-posts. The sparks are caught and blown up with tinder, and this is
+the new and pure fire, the appearance of which is greeted with cries of
+joy. Heaps of combustible materials are now ignited with the new fire,
+and blazing bundles are placed on boards and sent floating down the
+brook. The boys light torches at the new fire and run to fumigate the
+pastures. This is believed to drive away all the demons and witches that
+molest the cattle. Finally the torches are thrown in a heap on the
+meadow and allowed to burn out. On their way back the boys strew the
+ashes over the fields, which is supposed to make them fertile. If a
+farmer has taken possession of a new house, or if servants have changed
+masters, the boys fumigate the new abode and are rewarded by the farmer
+with a supper.[416]
+
+[Midsummer fires in Silesia; scaring away the witches.]
+
+In Silesia, from the south-eastern part of the Sudeten range and
+north-westward as far as Lausitz, the mountains are ablaze with bonfires
+on Midsummer Eve; and from the valleys and the plains round about
+Leobschütz, Neustadt, Zülz, Oels, and other places answering fires
+twinkle through the deepening gloom. While they are smouldering and
+sending forth volumes of smoke across the fields, young men kindle
+broom-stumps, soaked in pitch, at the bonfires and then, brandishing the
+stumps, which emit showers of sparks, they chase one another or dance
+with the girls round the burning pile. Shots, too, are fired, and shouts
+raised. The fire, the smoke, the shots, and the shouts are all intended
+to scare away the witches, who are let loose on this witching day, and
+who would certainly work harm to the crops and the cattle, if they were
+not deterred by these salutary measures. Mere contact with the fire
+brings all sorts of blessings. Hence when the bonfire is burning low,
+the lads leap over it, and the higher they bound, the better is the luck
+in store for them. He who surpasses his fellows is the hero of the day
+and is much admired by the village girls. It is also thought to be very
+good for the eyes to stare steadily at the bonfire without blinking;
+moreover he who does so will not drowse and fall asleep betimes in the
+long winter evenings. On Midsummer Eve the windows and doors of houses
+in Silesia are crowned with flowers, especially with the blue
+cornflowers and the bright corn-cockles; in some villages long strings
+of garlands and nosegays are stretched across the streets. The people
+believe that on that night St. John comes down from heaven to bless the
+flowers and to keep all evil things from house and home.[417]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Denmark and Norway; keeping off the witches; the
+Midsummer fires in Sweden.]
+
+In Denmark and Norway also Midsummer fires were kindled on St. John's
+Eve on roads, open spaces, and hills. People in Norway thought that the
+fires banished sickness from among the cattle.[418] Even yet the fires
+are said to be lighted all over Norway on the night of June the
+twenty-third, Midsummer Eve, Old Style. As many as fifty or sixty
+bonfires may often be counted burning on the hills round Bergen.
+Sometimes fuel is piled on rafts, ignited, and allowed to drift blazing
+across the fiords in the darkness of night. The fires are thought to be
+kindled in order to keep off the witches, who are said to be flying from
+all parts that night to the Blocksberg, where the big witch lives.[419]
+In Sweden the Eve of St. John (St. Hans) is the most joyous night of the
+whole year. Throughout some parts of the country, especially in the
+provinces of Bohus and Scania and in districts bordering on Norway, it
+is celebrated by the frequent discharge of firearms and by huge
+bonfires, formerly called Balder's Balefires (_Balder's Balar_), which
+are kindled at dusk on hills and eminences and throw a glare of light
+over the surrounding landscape. The people dance round the fires and
+leap over or through them. In parts of Norrland on St. John's Eve the
+bonfires are lit at the cross-roads. The fuel consists of nine different
+sorts of wood, and the spectators cast into the flames a kind of
+toad-stool (_Bäran_) in order to counteract the power of the Trolls and
+other evil spirits, who are believed to be abroad that night; for at
+that mystic season the mountains open and from their cavernous depths
+the uncanny crew pours forth to dance and disport themselves for a time.
+The peasants believe that should any of the Trolls be in the vicinity
+they will shew themselves; and if an animal, for example a he or she
+goat, happens to be seen near the blazing, crackling pile, the peasants
+are firmly persuaded that it is no other than the Evil One in
+person.[420] Further, it deserves to be remarked that in Sweden St.
+John's Eve is a festival of water as well as of fire; for certain holy
+springs are then supposed to be endowed with wonderful medicinal
+virtues, and many sick people resort to them for the healing of their
+infirmities.[421]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Switzerland and Austria; effigies burnt in the
+fires; burning wheels rolled down hill.]
+
+In Switzerland on Midsummer Eve fires are, or used to be, kindled on
+high places in the cantons of Bern, Neuchatel, Valais, and Geneva.[422]
+In Austria the midsummer customs and superstitions resemble those of
+Germany. Thus in some parts of the Tyrol bonfires are kindled and
+burning discs hurled into the air.[423] In the lower valley of the Inn a
+taterdemalian effigy is carted about the village on Midsummer Day and
+then burned. He is called the _Lotter_, which has been corrupted into
+Luther. At Ambras, one of the villages where Martin Luther is thus
+burned in effigy, they say that if you go through the village between
+eleven and twelve on St. John's Night and wash yourself in three wells,
+you will see all who are to die in the following year.[424] At Gratz on
+St. John's Eve (the twenty-third of June) the common people used to make
+a puppet called the _Tatermann_, which they dragged to the bleaching
+ground, and pelted with burning besoms till it took fire.[425] At
+Reutte, in the Tyrol, people believed that the flax would grow as high
+as they leaped over the midsummer bonfire, and they took pieces of
+charred wood from the fire and stuck them in their flax-fields the same
+night, leaving them there till the flax harvest had been got in.[426] In
+Lower Austria fires are lit in the fields, commonly in front of a cross,
+and the people dance and sing round them and throw flowers into the
+flames. Before each handful of flowers is tossed into the fire, a set
+speech is made; then the dance is resumed and the dancers sing in chorus
+the last words of the speech. At evening bonfires are kindled on the
+heights, and the boys caper round them, brandishing lighted torches
+drenched in pitch. Whoever jumps thrice across the fire will not suffer
+from fever within the year. Cart-wheels are often smeared with pitch,
+ignited, and sent rolling and blazing down the hillsides.[427]
+
+[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.]
+
+All over Bohemia bonfires still burn on Midsummer Eve. In the afternoon
+boys go about with handcarts from house to house collecting fuel, such
+as sticks, brushwood, old besoms, and so forth. They make their request
+at each house in rhyming verses, threatening with evil consequences the
+curmudgeons who refuse them a dole. Sometimes the young men fell a tall
+straight fir in the woods and set it up on a height, where the girls
+deck it with nosegays, wreaths of leaves, and red ribbons. Then
+brushwood is piled about it, and at nightfall the whole is set on fire.
+While the flames break out, the young men climb the tree and fetch down
+the wreaths which the girls had placed on it. After that, lads and
+lasses stand on opposite sides of the fire and look at one another
+through the wreaths to see whether they will be true to each other and
+marry within the year. Also the girls throw the wreaths across the
+flames to the men, and woe to the awkward swain who fails to catch the
+wreath thrown him by his sweetheart. When the blaze has died down, each
+couple takes hands, and leaps thrice across the fire. He or she who does
+so will be free from ague throughout the year, and the flax will grow as
+high as the young folks leap. A girl who sees nine bonfires on Midsummer
+Eve will marry before the year is out. The singed wreaths are carried
+home and carefully preserved throughout the year. During thunderstorms a
+bit of the wreath is burned on the hearth with a prayer; some of it is
+given to kine that are sick or calving, and some of it serves to
+fumigate house and cattle-stall, that man and beast may keep hale and
+well. Sometimes an old cartwheel is smeared with resin, ignited, and
+sent rolling down the hill. Often the boys collect all the worn-out
+besoms they can get hold of, dip them in pitch, and having set them on
+fire wave them about or throw them high into the air. Or they rush down
+the hillside in troops, brandishing the flaming brooms and shouting,
+only however to return to the bonfire on the summit when the brooms have
+burnt out. The stumps of the brooms and embers from the fire are
+preserved and stuck in cabbage gardens to protect the cabbages from
+caterpillars and gnats. Some people insert charred sticks and ashes from
+the bonfire in their sown fields and meadows, in their gardens and the
+roofs of their houses, as a talisman against lightning and foul weather;
+or they fancy that the ashes placed in the roof will prevent any fire
+from breaking out in the house. In some districts they crown or gird
+themselves with mugwort while the midsummer fire is burning, for this is
+supposed to be a protection against ghosts, witches, and sickness; in
+particular, a wreath of mugwort is a sure preventive of sore eyes.
+Sometimes the girls look at the bonfires through garlands of wild
+flowers, praying the fire to strengthen their eyes and eyelids. She who
+does this thrice will have no sore eyes all that year. In some parts of
+Bohemia they used to drive the cows through the midsummer fire to guard
+them against witchcraft.[428]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Moravia, Austrian Silesia, and the district of
+Cracow; fire kindled by the friction of wood.]
+
+The Germans of Moravia in like manner still light bonfires on open
+grounds and high places on Midsummer Eve; and they kindle besoms in the
+flames and then stick the charred stumps in the cabbage-fields as a
+powerful protection against caterpillars. On the same mystic evening
+Moravian girls gather flowers of nine sorts and lay them under their
+pillow when they go to sleep; then they dream every one of him who is to
+be her partner for life. For in Moravia maidens in their beds as well as
+poets by haunted streams have their Midsummer Night's dreams.[429] In
+Austrian Silesia the custom also prevails of lighting great bonfires on
+hilltops on Midsummer Eve, and here too the boys swing blazing besoms or
+hurl them high in the air, while they shout and leap and dance wildly.
+Next morning every door is decked with flowers and birchen
+saplings.[430] In the district of Cracow, especially towards the
+Carpathian Mountains, great fires are kindled by the peasants in the
+fields or on the heights at nightfall on Midsummer Eve, which among them
+goes by the name of Kupalo's Night. The fire must be kindled by the
+friction of two sticks. The young people dance round or leap over it;
+and a band of sturdy fellows run a race with lighted torches, the winner
+being rewarded with a peacock's feather, which he keeps throughout the
+year as a distinction. Cattle also are driven round the fire in the
+belief that this is a charm against pestilence and disease of every
+sort.[431]
+
+[The Midsummer fires among the Slavs of Russia; cattle protected against
+witchcraft; the fires lighted by the friction of wood.]
+
+The name of Kupalo's Night, applied in this part of Galicia to Midsummer
+Eve, reminds us that we have now passed from German to Slavonic ground;
+even in Bohemia the midsummer celebration is common to Slavs and
+Germans. We have already seen that in Russia the summer solstice or Eve
+of St. John is celebrated by young men and maidens, who jump over a
+bonfire in couples carrying a straw effigy of Kupalo in their arms.[432]
+In some parts of Russia an image of Kupalo is burnt or thrown into a
+stream on St. John's Night.[433] Again, in some districts of Russia the
+young folk wear garlands of flowers and girdles of holy herbs when they
+spring through the smoke or flames; and sometimes they drive the cattle
+also through the fire in order to protect the animals against wizards
+and witches, who are then ravenous after milk.[434] In Little Russia a
+stake is driven into the ground on St. John's Night, wrapt in straw, and
+set on fire. As the flames rise the peasant women throw birchen boughs
+into them, saying, "May my flax be as tall as this bough!"[435] In
+Ruthenia the bonfires are lighted by a flame procured by the friction of
+wood. While the elders of the party are engaged in thus "churning" the
+fire, the rest maintain a respectful silence; but when the flame bursts
+from the wood, they break forth into joyous songs. As soon as the
+bonfires are kindled, the young people take hands and leap in pairs
+through the smoke, if not through the flames; and after that the cattle
+in their turn are driven through the fire.[436]
+
+[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.]
+
+In many parts of Prussia and Lithuania great fires are kindled on
+Midsummer Eve. All the heights are ablaze with them, as far as the eye
+can see. The fires are supposed to be a protection against witchcraft,
+thunder, hail, and cattle disease, especially if next morning the cattle
+are driven over the places where the fires burned. Above all, the
+bonfires ensure the farmer against the arts of witches, who try to steal
+the milk from his cows by charms and spells. That is why next morning
+you may see the young fellows who lit the bonfire going from house to
+house and receiving jugfuls of milk. And for the same reason they stick
+burs and mugwort on the gate or the hedge through which the cows go to
+pasture, because that is supposed to be a preservative against
+witchcraft.[437] In Masuren, a district of Eastern Prussia inhabited by
+a branch of the Polish family, it is the custom on the evening of
+Midsummer Day to put out all the fires in the village. Then an oaken
+stake is driven into the ground and a wheel is fixed on it as on an
+axle. This wheel the villagers, working by relays, cause to revolve with
+great rapidity till fire is produced by friction. Every one takes home a
+lighted brand from the new fire and with it rekindles the fire on the
+domestic hearth.[438] In the sixteenth century Martin of Urzedow, a
+Polish priest, denounced the heathen practices of the women who on St.
+John's Eve (Midsummer Eve) kindled fires by the friction of wood,
+danced, and sang songs in honour of the devil.[439]
+
+[The Midsummer fires among the Letts of Russia; Midsummer Day in ancient
+Rome.]
+
+Among the Letts who inhabit the Baltic provinces of Russia the most
+joyful festival of the year is held on Midsummer Day. The people drink
+and dance and sing and adorn themselves and their houses with flowers
+and branches. Chopped boughs of fir are strewn about the rooms, and
+leaves are stuck in the roofs. In every farm-yard a birch tree is set
+up, and every person of the name of John who enters the farm that day
+must break off a twig from the tree and hang up on its branches in
+return a small present for the family. When the serene twilight of the
+summer night has veiled the landscape, bonfires gleam on all the hills,
+and wild shouts of "Ligho! Ligho!" echo from the woods and fields. In
+Riga the day is a festival of flowers. From all the neighbourhood the
+peasants stream into the city laden with flowers and garlands. A market
+of flowers is held in an open square and on the chief bridge over the
+river; here wreaths of immortelles, which grow wild in the meadows and
+woods, are sold in great profusion and deck the houses of Riga for long
+afterwards. Roses, too, are now at the prime of their beauty, and masses
+of them adorn the flower-stalls. Till far into the night gay crowds
+parade the streets to music or float on the river in gondolas decked
+with flowers.[440] So long ago in ancient Rome barges crowned with
+flowers and crowded with revellers used to float down the Tiber on
+Midsummer Day, the twenty-fourth of June,[441] and no doubt the strains
+of music were wafted as sweetly across the water to listeners on the
+banks as they still are to the throngs of merrymakers at Riga.
+
+[The Midsummer fires among the South Slavs.]
+
+Bonfires are commonly kindled by the South Slavonian peasantry on
+Midsummer Eve, and lads and lasses dance and shout round them in the
+usual way. The very names of St. John's Day (_Ivanje_) and the St.
+John's fires (_kries_) are said to act like electric sparks on the
+hearts and minds of these swains, kindling a thousand wild, merry, and
+happy fancies and ideas in their rustic breasts. At Kamenagora in
+Croatia the herdsmen throw nine three-year old vines into the bonfire,
+and when these burst into flames the young men who are candidates for
+matrimony jump through the blaze. He who succeeds in leaping over the
+fire without singeing himself will be married within the year. At
+Vidovec in Croatia parties of two girls and one lad unite to kindle a
+Midsummer bonfire and to leap through the flames; he or she who leaps
+furthest will soonest wed. Afterwards lads and lasses dance in separate
+rings, but the ring of lads bumps up against the ring of girls and
+breaks it, and the girl who has to let go her neighbour's hand will
+forsake her true love hereafter.[442] In Servia on Midsummer Eve
+herdsmen light torches of birch bark and march round the sheepfolds and
+cattle-stalls; then they climb the hills and there allow the torches to
+burn out.[443]
+
+[The Midsummer fires among the Magyars of Hungary.]
+
+Among the Magyars in Hungary the midsummer fire-festival is marked by
+the same features that meet us in so many parts of Europe. On Midsummer
+Eve in many places it is customary to kindle bonfires on heights and to
+leap over them, and from the manner in which the young people leap the
+bystanders predict whether they will marry soon. At Nograd-Ludany the
+young men and women, each carrying a truss of straw, repair to a meadow,
+where they pile the straw in seven or twelve heaps and set it on fire.
+Then they go round the fire singing, and hold a bunch of iron-wort in
+the smoke, while they say, "No boil on my body, no sprain in my foot!"
+This holding of the flowers over the flames is regarded, we are told, as
+equally important with the practice of walking through the fire barefoot
+and stamping it out. On this day also many Hungarian swineherds make
+fire by rotating a wheel round a wooden axle wrapt in hemp, and through
+the fire thus made they drive their pigs to preserve them from
+sickness.[444] In villages on the Danube, where the population is a
+cross between Magyar and German, the young men and maidens go to the
+high banks of the river on Midsummer Eve; and while the girls post
+themselves low down the slope, the lads on the height above set fire to
+little wooden wheels and, after swinging them to and fro at the end of a
+wand, send them whirling through the air to fall into the Danube. As he
+does so, each lad sings out the name of his sweetheart, and she listens
+well pleased down below.[445]
+
+[The Midsummer fires among the Esthonians; the Midsummer fires in
+Oesel.]
+
+The Esthonians of Russia, who, like the Magyars, belong to the great
+Turanian family of mankind, also celebrate the summer solstice in the
+usual way. On the Eve of St. John all the people of a farm, a village,
+or an estate, walk solemnly in procession, the girls decked with
+flowers, the men with leaves and carrying bundles of straw under their
+arms. The lads carry lighted torches or flaming hoops steeped in tar at
+the top of long poles. Thus they go singing to the cattle-sheds, the
+granaries, and so forth, and afterwards march thrice round the
+dwelling-house. Finally, preceded by the shrill music of the bagpipes
+and shawms, they repair to a neighbouring hill, where the materials of a
+bonfire have been collected. Tar-barrels filled with combustibles are
+hung on poles, or the trunk of a felled tree has been set up with a
+great mass of juniper piled about it in the form of a pyramid. When a
+light has been set to the pile, old and young gather about it and pass
+the time merrily with song and music till break of day. Every one who
+comes brings fresh fuel for the fire, and they say, "Now we all gather
+together, where St. John's fire burns. He who comes not to St. John's
+fire will have his barley full of thistles, and his oats full of weeds."
+Three logs are thrown into the fire with special ceremony; in throwing
+the first they say, "Gold of pleasure (a plant with yellow flowers) into
+the fire!" in throwing the second they say, "Weeds to the unploughed
+land!" but in throwing the third they cry, "Flax on my field!" The fire
+is said to keep the witches from the cattle.[446] According to others,
+it ensures that for the whole year the milk shall be "as pure as silver
+and as the stars in the sky, and the butter as yellow as the sun and the
+fire and the gold."[447] In the Esthonian island of Oesel, while they
+throw fuel into the midsummer fire, they call out, "Weeds to the fire,
+flax to the field," or they fling three billets into the flames, saying,
+"Flax grow long!" And they take charred sticks from the bonfire home
+with them and keep them to make the cattle thrive. In some parts of the
+island the bonfire is formed by piling brushwood and other combustibles
+round a tree, at the top of which a flag flies. Whoever succeeds in
+knocking down the flag with a pole before it begins to burn will have
+good luck. Formerly the festivities lasted till daybreak, and ended in
+scenes of debauchery which looked doubly hideous by the growing light of
+a summer morning.[448]
+
+[The Midsummer fires among the Finns and Cheremiss of Russia.]
+
+Still farther north, among a people of the same Turanian stock, we learn
+from an eye-witness that Midsummer Night used to witness a sort of
+witches' sabbath on the top of every hill in Finland. The bonfire was
+made by setting up four tall birches in a square and piling the
+intermediate space with fuel. Round the roaring flames the people sang
+and drank and gambolled in the usual way.[449] Farther east, in the
+valley of the Volga, the Cheremiss celebrate about midsummer a festival
+which Haxthausen regarded as identical with the midsummer ceremonies of
+the rest of Europe. A sacred tree in the forest, generally a tall and
+solitary oak, marks the scene of the solemnity. All the males assemble
+there, but no woman may be present. A heathen priest lights seven fires
+in a row from north-west to south-east; cattle are sacrificed and their
+blood poured in the fires, each of which is dedicated to a separate
+deity. Afterwards the holy tree is illumined by lighted candles placed
+on its branches; the people fall on their knees and with faces bowed to
+the earth pray that God would be pleased to bless them, their children,
+their cattle, and their bees, grant them success in trade, in travel,
+and in the chase, enable them to pay the Czar's taxes, and so
+forth.[450]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in France; Bossuet on the Midsummer festival.]
+
+When we pass from the east to the west of Europe we still find the
+summer solstice celebrated with rites of the same general character.
+Down to about the middle of the nineteenth century the custom of
+lighting bonfires at midsummer prevailed so commonly in France that
+there was hardly a town or a village, we are told, where they were not
+kindled.[451] Though the pagan origin of the custom may be regarded as
+certain, the Catholic Church threw a Christian cloak over it by boldly
+declaring that the bonfires were lit in token of the general rejoicing
+at the birth of the Baptist, who opportunely came into the world at the
+solstice of summer, just as his greater successor did at the solstice of
+winter; so that the whole year might be said to revolve on the golden
+hinges of these two great birthdays.[452] Writing in the seventeenth
+century Bishop Bossuet expressly affirms this edifying theory of the
+Midsummer bonfires, and he tells his catechumens that the Church herself
+participated in the illumination, since in several dioceses, including
+his own diocese of Meaux, a number of parishes kindled what were called
+ecclesiastical fires for the purpose of banishing the superstitions
+practised at the purely mundane bonfires. These superstitions, he goes
+on to say, consisted in dancing round the fire, playing, feasting,
+singing ribald songs, throwing herbs across the fire, gathering herbs at
+noon or while fasting, carrying them on the person, preserving them
+throughout the year, keeping brands or cinders of the fire, and other
+similar practices.[453] However excellent the intentions of the
+ecclesiastical authorities may have been, they failed of effecting their
+purpose; for the superstitions as well as the bonfires survived in
+France far into the nineteenth century, if indeed they are extinct even
+now at the beginning of the twentieth. Writing in the latter part of the
+nineteenth century Mr. Ch. Cuissard tells us that he himself witnessed
+in Touraine and Poitou the superstitious practices which he describes as
+follows: "The most credulous examine the ways in which the flame burns
+and draw good or bad omens accordingly. Others, after leaping through
+the flames crosswise, pass their little children through them thrice,
+fully persuaded that the little ones will then be able to walk at once.
+In some places the shepherds make their sheep tread the embers of the
+extinct fire in order to preserve them from the foot-rot. Here you may
+see about midnight an old woman grubbing among the cinders of the pyre
+to find the hair of the Holy Virgin or Saint John, which she deems an
+infallible specific against fever. There, another woman is busy plucking
+the roots of the herbs which have been burned on the surface of the
+ground; she intends to eat them, imagining that they are an infallible
+preservative against cancer. Elsewhere a girl wears on her neck a flower
+which the touch of St. John's fire has turned for her into a talisman,
+and she is sure to marry within the year. Shots are fired at the tree
+planted in the midst of the fire to drive away the demons who might
+purpose to send sicknesses about the country. Seats are set round about
+the bonfire, in order that the souls of dead relations may come and
+enjoy themselves for a little with the living."[454]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Brittany; uses made of the charred sticks and
+flowers.]
+
+In Brittany, apparently, the custom of the Midsummer bonfires is kept up
+to this day. Thus in Lower Brittany every town and every village still
+lights its _tantad_ or bonfire on St. John's Night. When the flames have
+died down, the whole assembly kneels round about the bonfire and an old
+man prays aloud. Then they all rise and march thrice round the fire; at
+the third turn they stop and every one picks up a pebble and throws it
+on the burning pile. After that they disperse.[455] In Finistère the
+bonfires of St. John's Day are kindled by preference in an open space
+near a chapel of St. John; but if there is no such chapel, they are
+lighted in the square facing the parish church and in some districts at
+cross-roads. Everybody brings fuel for the fire, it may be a faggot, a
+log, a branch, or an armful of gorse. When the vespers are over, the
+parish priest sets a light to the pile. All heads are bared, prayers
+recited, and hymns sung. Then the dancing begins. The young folk skip
+round the blazing pile and leap over it, when the flames have died down.
+If anybody makes a false step and falls or rolls in the hot embers, he
+or she is greeted with hoots and retires abashed from the circle of
+dancers. Brands are carried home from the bonfire to protect the houses
+against lightning, conflagrations, and certain maladies and spells. The
+precious talisman is carefully kept in a cupboard till St. John's Day of
+the following year.[456] At Quimper, and in the district of Léon, chairs
+used to be placed round the midsummer bonfire, that the souls of the
+dead might sit on them and warm themselves at the blaze.[457] At Brest
+on this day thousands of people used to assemble on the ramparts towards
+evening and brandish lighted torches, which they swung in circles or
+flung by hundreds into the air. The closing of the town gates put an end
+to the spectacle, and the lights might be seen dispersing in all
+directions like wandering will-o'-the-wisps.[458] In Upper Brittany the
+materials for the midsummer bonfires, which generally consist of bundles
+of furze and heath, are furnished by voluntary contributions, and piled
+on the tops of hills round poles, each of which is surmounted by a
+nosegay or a crown. This nosegay or crown is generally provided by a man
+named John or a woman named Jean, and it is always a John or a Jean who
+puts a light to the bonfire. While the fire is blazing the people dance
+and sing round it, and when the flames have subsided they leap over the
+glowing embers. Charred sticks from the bonfire are thrown into wells to
+improve the water, and they are also taken home as a protection against
+thunder.[459] To make them thoroughly effective, however, against
+thunder and lightning you should keep them near your bed, between a bit
+of a Twelfth Night cake and a sprig of boxwood which has been blessed on
+Palm Sunday.[460] Flowers from the nosegay or crown which overhung the
+fire are accounted charms against disease and pain, both bodily and
+spiritual; hence girls hang them at their breast by a thread of scarlet
+wool. In many parishes of Brittany the priest used to go in procession
+with the crucifix and kindle the bonfire with his own hands; and farmers
+were wont to drive their flocks and herds through the fire in order to
+preserve them from sickness till midsummer of the following year. Also
+it was believed that every girl who danced round nine of the bonfires
+would marry within the year.[461]
+
+[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.]
+
+In Normandy the midsummer fires have now almost disappeared, at least in
+the district known as the Bocage, but they used to shine on every hill.
+They were commonly made by piling brushwood, broom, and ferns about a
+tall tree, which was decorated with a crown of moss and sometimes with
+flowers. While they burned, people danced and sang round them, and young
+folk leaped over the flames or the glowing ashes. In the valley of the
+Orne the custom was to kindle the bonfire just at the moment when the
+sun was about to dip below the horizon; and the peasants drove their
+cattle through the fires to protect them against witchcraft, especially
+against the spells of witches and wizards who attempted to steal the
+milk and butter.[462] At Jumièges in Normandy, down to the first half of
+the nineteenth century, the midsummer festival was marked by certain
+singular features which bore the stamp of a very high antiquity. Every
+year, on the twenty-third of June, the Eve of St. John, the Brotherhood
+of the Green Wolf chose a new chief or master, who had always to be
+taken from the hamlet of Conihout. On being elected, the new head of the
+brotherhood assumed the title of the Green Wolf, and donned a peculiar
+costume consisting of a long green mantle and a very tall green hat of a
+conical shape and without a brim. Thus arrayed he stalked solemnly at
+the head of the brothers, chanting the hymn of St. John, the crucifix
+and holy banner leading the way, to a place called Chouquet. Here the
+procession was met by the priest, precentors, and choir, who conducted
+the brotherhood to the parish church. After hearing mass the company
+adjourned to the house of the Green Wolf, where a simple repast, such as
+is required by the church on fast-days, was served up to them. Then they
+danced before the door till it was time to light the bonfire. Night
+being come, the fire was kindled to the sound of hand-bells by a young
+man and a young woman, both decked with flowers. As the flames rose, the
+_Te Deum_ was sung, and a villager thundered out a parody in the Norman
+dialect of the hymn _ut queant laxis_. Meantime the Green Wolf and his
+brothers, with their hoods down on their shoulders and holding each
+other by the hand, ran round the fire after the man who had been chosen
+to be the Green Wolf of the following year. Though only the first and
+the last man of the chain had a hand free, their business was to
+surround and seize thrice the future Green Wolf, who in his efforts to
+escape belaboured the brothers with a long wand which he carried. When
+at last they succeeded in catching him they carried him to the burning
+pile and made as if they would throw him on it. This ceremony over, they
+returned to the house of the Green Wolf, where a supper, still of the
+most meagre fare, was set before them. Up till midnight a sort of
+religious solemnity prevailed. No unbecoming word might fall from the
+lips of any of the company, and a censor, armed with a hand-bell, was
+appointed to mark and punish instantly any infraction of the rule. But
+at the stroke of twelve all this was changed. Constraint gave way to
+license; pious hymns were replaced by Bacchanalian ditties, and the
+shrill quavering notes of the village fiddle hardly rose above the roar
+of voices that went up from the merry brotherhood of the Green Wolf.
+Next day, the twenty-fourth of June or Midsummer Day, was celebrated by
+the same personages with the same noisy gaiety. One of the ceremonies
+consisted in parading, to the sound of musketry, an enormous loaf of
+consecrated bread, which, rising in tiers, was surmounted by a pyramid
+of verdure adorned with ribbons. After that the holy handbells,
+deposited on the step of the altar, were entrusted as insignia of office
+to the man who was to be the Green Wolf next year.[463]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Picardy.]
+
+In the canton of Breteuil in Picardy (department of Oise) the priest
+used to kindle the midsummer bonfire, and the people marched thrice
+round it in procession. Some of them took ashes of the fire home with
+them to protect the houses against lightning.[464] The custom is, or was
+down to recent years, similar at Vorges, near Laon. An enormous pyre,
+some fifty or sixty feet high, supported in the middle by a tall pole,
+is constructed every year on the twenty-third of June, the Eve of St.
+John. It stands at one end of the village, and all the inhabitants
+contribute fuel to it: a cart goes round the village in the morning, by
+order of the mayor, collecting combustibles from house to house: no one
+would dream of refusing to comply with the customary obligation. In the
+evening, after a service in honour of St. John has been performed in the
+church, the clergy, the mayor, the municipal authorities, the rural
+police, and the fire-brigade march in procession to the bonfire,
+accompanied by the inhabitants and a crowd of idlers drawn by curiosity
+from the neighbouring villages. After addressing the throng in a sermon,
+to which they pay little heed, the parish priest sprinkles the pyre with
+holy water, and taking a lighted torch from the hand of an assistant
+sets fire to the pile. The enormous blaze, flaring up against the dark
+sky of the summer night, is seen for many miles around, particularly
+from the hill of Laon. When it has died down into a huge heap of glowing
+embers and grey ashes, every one carries home a charred stick or some
+cinders; and the fire-brigade, playing their hose on what remains,
+extinguishes the smouldering fire. The people preserve the charred
+sticks and cinders throughout the year, believing that these relics of
+St John's bonfire have power to guard them from lightning and from
+contagious diseases.[465] At Château-Thierry, a town of the department
+of Aisne, between Paris and Reims, the custom of lighting bonfires and
+dancing round them at the midsummer festival of St. John lasted down to
+about 1850; the fires were kindled especially when June had been rainy,
+and the people thought that the lighting of the bonfires would cause the
+rain to cease.[466]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Beauce and Perche; the fires as a protection
+against witchcraft.]
+
+In Beauce and Perche, two neighbouring districts of France to the
+south-west of Paris, the midsummer bonfires have nearly or wholly
+disappeared, but formerly they were commonly kindled and went by the
+name of the "fires of St. John." The site of the bonfire was either the
+village square or beside the cross in the cemetery. Here a great pile of
+faggots, brushwood, and grass was accumulated about a huge branch, which
+bore at the top a crown of fresh flowers. The priest blessed the bonfire
+and the people danced round it. When it blazed and crackled, the
+bystanders thrust their heads into the puffs of smoke, in the belief
+that it would preserve them from a multitude of ills; and when the fire
+was burnt out, they rushed upon the charred embers and ashes and carried
+them home, imagining that they had a secret virtue to guard their houses
+from being struck by lightning or consumed by fire. Some of the Perche
+farmers in the old days, not content with the public bonfire, used to
+light little private bonfires in their farmyards and make all their
+cattle pass through the smoke and flames for the purpose of protecting
+them against witchcraft or disease.[467]
+
+[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.]
+
+In the department of the Ardennes every one was wont to contribute his
+faggot to the midsummer bonfire, and the clergy marched at the head of
+the procession to kindle it. Failure to light the fires would, in the
+popular belief, have exposed the fields to the greatest danger. At Revin
+the young folk, besides dancing round the fire to the strains of the
+village fiddler, threw garlands of flowers across the flames to each
+other.[468] In the Vosges it is still customary to kindle bonfires upon
+the hill-tops on Midsummer Eve; the people believe that the fires help
+to preserve the fruits of the earth and ensure good crops.[469] In the
+Jura Mountains the midsummer bonfires went by the name of _bâ_ or
+_beau_. They were lit on the most conspicuous points of the
+landscape.[470] Near St. Jean, in the Jura, it appears that at this
+season young people still repair to the cross-roads and heights, and
+there wave burning torches so as to present the appearance of fiery
+wheels in the darkness.[471] In Franche-Comté, the province of France
+which lies immediately to the west of the Jura mountains, the fires of
+St. John still shone on the saint's day in several villages down to
+recent years. They were generally lit on high ground and the young folks
+of both sexes sang and danced round them, and sprang over the dying
+flames.[472] In Bresse bonfires used to be kindled on Midsummer Eve (the
+twenty-third of June) and the people danced about them in a circle.
+Devout persons, particularly old women, circumambulated the fires
+fourteen times, telling their beads and mumbling seven _Paters_ and
+seven _Aves_ in the hope that thereby they would feel no pains in their
+backs when they stooped over the sickle in the harvest field.[473] In
+Berry, a district of Central France, the midsummer fire was lit on the
+Eve of St. John and went by the name of the _jônée, joannée_, or
+_jouannée_. Every family according to its means contributed faggots,
+which were piled round a pole on the highest ground in the
+neighbourhood. In the hamlets the office of kindling the fire devolved
+on the oldest man, but in the towns it was the priest or the mayor who
+discharged the duty. Here, as in Brittany, people supposed that a girl
+who had danced round nine of the midsummer bonfires would marry within
+the year. To leap several times over the fire was regarded as a sort of
+purification which kept off sickness and brought good luck to the
+leaper. Hence the nimble youth bounded through the smoke and flames, and
+when the fire had somewhat abated parents jumped across it with their
+children in their arms in order that the little ones might also partake
+of its beneficent influence. Embers from the extinct bonfire were taken
+home, and after being dipped in holy water were kept as a talisman
+against all kinds of misfortune, but especially against lightning.[474]
+The same virtue was ascribed to the ashes and charred sticks of the
+midsummer bonfire in Périgord, where everybody contributed his share of
+fuel to the pile and the whole was crowned with flowers, especially with
+roses and lilies.[475] On the borders of the departments of Creuse and
+Corrèze, in Central France, the fires of St. John used to be lit on the
+Eve of the saint's day (the twenty-third of June); the custom seems to
+have survived till towards the end of the nineteenth century. Men,
+women, and children assembled round the fires, and the young people
+jumped over them. Children were brought by their parents or elder
+brothers into contact with the flames in the belief that this would save
+them from fever. Older people girded themselves with stalks of rye taken
+from a neighbouring field, because they fancied that by so doing they
+would not grow weary in reaping the corn at harvest.[476]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Poitou.]
+
+Bonfires were lit in almost all the hamlets of Poitou on the Eve of St.
+John. People marched round them thrice, carrying a branch of walnut in
+their hand. Shepherdesses and children passed sprigs of mullein
+(_verbascum_) and nuts across the flames; the nuts were supposed to cure
+toothache, and the mullein to protect the cattle from sickness and
+sorcery. When the fire died down people took some of the ashes home with
+them, either to keep them in the house as a preservative against thunder
+or to scatter them on the fields for the purpose of destroying
+corn-cockles and darnel. Stones were also placed round the fire, and it
+was believed that the first to lift one of these stones next morning
+would find under it the hair of St. John.[477] In Poitou also it used to
+be customary on the Eve of St. John to trundle a blazing wheel wrapt in
+straw over the fields to fertilize them.[478] This last custom is said
+to be now extinct,[479] but it is still usual, or was so down to recent
+years, in Poitou to kindle fires on this day at cross-roads or on the
+heights. The oldest or youngest person present sets a light to the pile,
+which consists of broom, gorse, and heath. A bright and crackling blaze
+shoots up, but soon dies down, and over it the young folk leap. They
+also throw stones into it, picking the stone according to the size of
+the turnips that they wish to have that year. It is said that "the good
+Virgin" comes and sits on the prettiest of the stones, and next morning
+they see there her beautiful golden tresses. At Lussac, in Poitou, the
+lighting of the midsummer bonfire is still an affair of some ceremony. A
+pyramid of faggots is piled round a tree or tall pole on the ground
+where the fair is held; the priest goes in procession to the spot and
+kindles the pile. When prayers have been said and the clergy have
+withdrawn, the people continue to march round the fire, telling their
+beads, but it is not till the flames have begun to die down that the
+youth jump over them. A brand from the midsummer bonfire is supposed to
+be a preservative against thunder.[480]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in the departments of Vienne and Deux-Sèvres and in
+the provinces of Saintonge and Aunis.]
+
+In the department of Vienne the bonfire was kindled by the oldest man,
+and before the dance round the flames began it was the custom to pass
+across them a great bunch of mullein (_bouillon blanc_) and a branch of
+walnut, which next morning before sunrise were fastened over the door of
+the chief cattle-shed.[481] A similar custom prevailed in the
+neighbouring department of Deux-Sèvres; but here it was the priest who
+kindled the bonfire, and old men used to put embers of the fire in their
+wooden shoes as a preservative against many evils.[482] In some towns
+and villages of Saintonge and Aunis, provinces of Western France now
+mostly comprised in the department of Charente Inférieure, the fires of
+St. John are still kindled on Midsummer Eve, but the custom is neither
+so common nor carried out with so much pomp and ceremony as formerly.
+Great quantities of wood used to be piled on an open space round about a
+huge post or a tree stripped of its leaves and branches. Every one took
+care to contribute a faggot to the pile, and the whole population
+marched to the spot in procession with the crucifix at their head and
+the priest bringing up the rear. The squire, or other person of high
+degree, put the torch to the pyre, and the priest blessed it. In the
+southern and eastern parts of Saintonge children and cattle were passed
+through the smoke of the bonfires to preserve them from contagious
+diseases, and when the fire had gone out the people scuffled for the
+charred fragments of the great post, which they regarded as talismans
+against thunder. Next morning, on Midsummer Day, every shepherdess in
+the neighbourhood was up very early, for the first to drive her sheep
+over the blackened cinders and ashes of the great bonfire was sure to
+have the best flock all that year. Where the shepherds shrunk from
+driving their flocks through the smoke and flames of the bonfire they
+contented themselves with marking the hinder-quarters of the animals
+with a broom which had been blackened in the ashes.[483]
+
+[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.]
+
+In the mountainous part of Comminges, a province of Southern France, now
+comprised in the department of Haute Garonne, the midsummer fire is made
+by splitting open the trunk of a tall tree, stuffing the crevice with
+shavings, and igniting the whole. A garland of flowers is fastened to
+the top of the tree, and at the moment when the fire is lighted the man
+who was last married has to climb up a ladder and bring the flowers
+down. In the flat parts of the same district the materials of the
+midsummer bonfires consist of fuel piled in the usual way; but they must
+be put together by men who have been married since the last midsummer
+festival, and each of these benedicts is obliged to lay a wreath of
+flowers on the top of the pile.[484] At the entrance of the valley of
+Aran young people set up on the banks of the Garonne a tree covered with
+ribbons and garlands; at the end of a year the withered tree and faded
+flowers furnish excellent fuel. So on the Eve of St. John the villagers
+assemble, and an old man or a child kindles the fire which is to consume
+tree and garlands together. While the blaze lasts the people sing and
+dance; and the burnt tree is then replaced by another which will suffer
+the same fate after the lapse of a year.[485] In some districts of the
+French Pyrenees it is deemed necessary to leap nine times over the
+midsummer fire if you would be assured of prosperity.[486] A traveller
+in Southern France at the beginning of the nineteenth century tells us
+that "the Eve of St. John is also a day of joy for the Provençals. They
+light great fires and the young folk leap over them. At Aix they shower
+squibs and crackers on the passers-by, which has often had disagreeable
+consequences. At Marseilles they drench each other with scented water,
+which is poured from the windows or squirted from little syringes; the
+roughest jest is to souse passers-by with clean water, which gives rise
+to loud bursts of laughter."[487] At Draguignan, in the department of
+Var, fires used to be lit in every street on the Eve of St. John, and
+the people roasted pods of garlic at them; the pods were afterwards
+distributed to every family. Another diversion of the evening was to
+pour cans of water from the houses on the heads of people in the
+streets.[488] In Provence the midsummer fires are still popular.
+Children go from door to door begging for fuel, and they are seldom sent
+empty away. Formerly the priest, the mayor, and the aldermen used to
+walk in procession to the bonfire, and even deigned to light it; after
+which the assembly marched thrice round the burning pile, while the
+church bells pealed and rockets fizzed and sputtered in the air. Dancing
+began later, and the bystanders threw water on each other. At Ciotat,
+while the fire was blazing, the young people plunged into the sea and
+splashed each other vigorously. At Vitrolles they bathed in a pond in
+order that they might not suffer from fever during the year, and at
+Saintes-Maries they watered the horses to protect them from the
+itch.[489] At Aix a nominal king, chosen from among the youth for his
+skill in shooting at a popinjay, presided over the festival. He selected
+his own officers, and escorted by a brilliant train marched to the
+bonfire, kindled it, and was the first to dance round it. Next day he
+distributed largesse to his followers. His reign lasted a year, during
+which he enjoyed certain privileges. He was allowed to attend the mass
+celebrated by the commander of the Knights of St. John on St. John's
+Day: the right of hunting was accorded to him; and soldiers might not be
+quartered in his house. At Marseilles also on this day one of the guilds
+chose a king of the _badache_ or double axe; but it does not appear that
+he kindled the bonfire, which is said to have been lighted with great
+ceremony by the préfet and other authorities.[490]
+
+[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.]
+
+In Belgium the custom of kindling the midsummer bonfires has long
+disappeared from the great cities, but it is still kept up in rural
+districts and small towns of Brabant, Flanders, and Limburg. People leap
+across the fires to protect themselves against fever, and in eastern
+Flanders women perform similar leaps for the purpose of ensuring an easy
+delivery. At Termonde young people go from door to door collecting fuel
+for the fires and reciting verses, in which they beg the inmates to give
+them "wood of St. John" and to keep some wood for St. Peter's Day (the
+twenty-ninth of June); for in Belgium the Eve of St. Peter's Day is
+celebrated by bonfires and dances exactly like those which commemorate
+St. John's Eve. The ashes of the St. John's fires are deemed by Belgian
+peasants an excellent remedy for consumption, if you take a spoonful or
+two of them, moistened with water, day by day. People also burn vervain
+in the fires, and they say that in the ashes of the plant you may find,
+if you look for it, the "Fool's Stone."[491] In many parts of Brabant
+St. Peter's bonfire used to be much larger than that of his rival St.
+John. When it had burned out, both sexes engaged in a game of ball, and
+the winner became the King of Summer or of the Ball and had the right to
+choose his Queen. Sometimes the winner was a woman, and it was then her
+privilege to select her royal mate. This pastime was well known at
+Louvain and it continued to be practised at Grammont and Mespelaer down
+to the second half of the nineteenth century. At Mespelaer, which is a
+village near Termonde, a huge pile of eglantine, reeds, and straw was
+collected in a marshy meadow for the bonfire; and next evening after
+vespers the young folk who had lit it assembled at the "Good Life"
+tavern to play the game. The winner was crowned with a wreath of roses,
+and the rest danced and sang in a ring about him. At Grammont, while the
+bonfire was lit and the dances round it took place on St. Peter's Eve,
+the festival of the "Crown of Roses" was deferred till the following
+Sunday. The young folk arranged among themselves beforehand who should
+be King and Queen of the Roses: the rosy wreaths were hung on cords
+across the street: the dancers danced below them, and at a given moment
+the wreaths fell on the heads of the chosen King and Queen, who had to
+entertain their fellows at a feast. According to some people the fires
+of St. Peter, like those of St. John, were lighted in order to drive
+away dragons.[492] In French Flanders down to 1789 a straw figure
+representing a man was always burned in the midsummer bonfire, and the
+figure of a woman was burned on St. Peter's Day.[493] In Belgium people
+jump over the midsummer bonfires as a preventive of colic, and they keep
+the ashes at home to hinder fire from breaking out.[494]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in England; Stow's description of the Midsummer
+fires in London; the Midsummer fires at Eton.]
+
+The custom of lighting bonfires at midsummer has been observed in many
+parts of our own country. "On the Vigil of Saint John the Baptist,
+commonly called Midsummer Eve, it was usual in most country places, and
+also in towns and cities, for the inhabitants, both old and young, and
+of both sexes, to meet together, and make merry by the side of a large
+fire made in the middle of the street, or in some open and convenient
+place, over which the young men frequently leaped by way of frolic, and
+also exercised themselves with various sports and pastimes, more
+especially with running, wrestling, and dancing. These diversions they
+continued till midnight, and sometimes till cock-crowing."[495] In the
+streets of London the midsummer fires were lighted in the time of Queen
+Elizabeth down to the end of the sixteenth century, as we learn from
+Stow's description, which runs thus: "In the months of June and July, on
+the vigils of festival days, and on the same festival days in the
+evenings after the sun setting, there were usually made bonfires in the
+streets, every man bestowing wood or labour towards them; the wealthier
+sort also, before their doors near to the said bonfires, would set out
+tables on the vigils furnished with sweet bread and good drink, and on
+the festival days with meats and drinks plentifully, whereunto they
+would invite their neighbours and passengers also to sit and be merry
+with them in great familiarity, praising God for His benefits bestowed
+on them. These were called bonfires as well of good amity amongst
+neighbours that being before at controversy, were there, by the labour
+of others, reconciled, and made of bitter enemies loving friends; and
+also for the virtue that a great fire hath to purge the infection of the
+air. On the vigil of St. John the Baptist, and on St. Peter and Paul the
+Apostles, every man's door being shadowed with green birch, long fennel,
+St John's wort, orpin, white lilies, and such like, garnished upon with
+garlands of beautiful flowers, had also lamps of glass, with oil burning
+in them all the night; some hung out branches of iron curiously wrought,
+containing hundreds of lamps alight at once, which made a goodly show,
+namely, in New Fish Street, Thames Street, etc."[496] In the sixteenth
+century the Eton boys used to kindle a bonfire on the east side of the
+church both on St John's Day and on St. Peter's Day.[497] Writing in the
+second half of the seventeenth century, the antiquary John Aubrey tells
+us that bonfires were still kindled in many places on St. John's Night,
+but that the civil wars had thrown many of these old customs out of
+fashion. Wars, he adds, extinguish superstition as well as religion and
+laws, and there is nothing like gunpowder for putting phantoms to
+flight.[498]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in the north of England; the Midsummer fires in
+Northumberland.]
+
+In the north of England these fires used to be lit in the open streets.
+Young and old gathered round them, and while the young leaped over the
+fires and engaged in games, their elders looked on and probably
+remembered with regret the days when they used to foot it as nimbly.
+Sometimes the fires were kindled on the tops of high hills. The people
+also carried firebrands about the fields.[499] The custom of kindling
+bonfires on Midsummer Eve prevailed all over Cumberland down to the
+second half of the eighteenth century.[500] In Northumberland the custom
+seems to have lasted into the first quarter of the nineteenth century;
+the fires were lit in the villages and on the tops of high hills, and
+the people sported and danced round them.[501] Moreover, the villagers
+used to run with burning brands round their fields and to snatch ashes
+from a neighbour's fire, saying as they did so, "We have the flower (or
+flour) of the wake."[502] At Sandhill bonfires were kindled on the Eve
+of St. Peter as well as on Midsummer Eve; the custom is attested for the
+year 1575, when it was described as ancient.[503] We are told that "on
+Midsummer's eve, reckoned according to the old style, it was formerly
+the custom of the inhabitants, young and old, not only of Whalton, but
+of most of the adjacent villages, to collect a large cartload of whins
+and other combustible materials, which was dragged by them with great
+rejoicing (a fiddler being seated on the top of the cart) into the
+village and erected into a pile. The people from the surrounding country
+assembled towards evening, when it was set on fire; and whilst the young
+danced around it, the elders looked on smoking their pipes and drinking
+their beer, until it was consumed. There can be little doubt that this
+curious old custom dates from a very remote antiquity." In a law-suit,
+which was tried in 1878, the rector of Whalton gave evidence of the
+constant use of the village green for the ceremony since 1843. "The
+bonfire," he said, "was lighted a little to the north-east of the well
+at Whalton, and partly on the footpath, and people danced round it and
+jumped through it. That was never interrupted." The Rev. G.R. Hall,
+writing in 1879, says that "the fire festivals or bonfires of the summer
+solstice at the Old Midsummer until recently were commemorated on
+Christenburg Crags and elsewhere by leaping through and dancing round
+the fires, as those who have been present have told me."[504] Down to
+the early part of the nineteenth century bonfires called Beal-fires used
+to be lit on Midsummer Eve all over the wolds in the East Riding of
+Yorkshire.[505]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Herefordshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, and
+Cornwall; the Cornish fires on Midsummer Eve and St. Peter's Eve.]
+
+In Herefordshire and Somersetshire the peasants used to make fires in
+the fields on Midsummer Eve "to bless the apples."[506] In Devonshire
+the custom of leaping over the midsummer fires was also observed.[507]
+"In Cornwall, the festival fires, called bonfires, are kindled on the
+Eves of St. John Baptist and St. Peter's day; and Midsummer is thence,
+in the Cornish tongue, called _Goluan_, which signifies both light and
+rejoicing. At these fires the Cornish attend with lighted torches,
+tarred and pitched at the end, and make their perambulations round their
+fires, going from village to village and carrying their torches before
+them; this is certainly the remains of Druid superstition; for, _Faces
+praeferre_, to carry lighted torches was reckoned a kind of gentilism,
+and as such particularly prohibited by the Gallick Councils."[508] At
+Penzance and elsewhere in the county the people danced and sang about
+the bonfires on Midsummer Eve. On Whiteborough, a large tumulus near
+Launceston, a huge bonfire used to be kindled on Midsummer Eve; a tall
+summer pole with a large bush at the top was fixed in the centre of the
+bonfire.[509] The Cornish fires at this season appear to have been
+commonly lit on high and conspicuous hills, such as Tregonan, Godolphin,
+Carnwarth, and Cam Brea. When it grew dusk on Midsummer Eve, old men
+would hobble away to some height whence they counted the fires and drew
+a presage from their number.[510] "It is the immemorial usage in
+Penzance, and the neighbouring towns and villages, to kindle bonfires
+and torches on Midsummer-eve; and on Midsummer-day to hold a fair on
+Penzance quay, where the country folks assemble from the adjoining
+parishes in great numbers to make excursions on the water. St. Peter's
+Eve (the twenty-eighth of June) is distinguished by a similar display of
+bonfires and torches, although the 'quay-fair' on St. Peter's-day (the
+twenty-ninth of June), has been discontinued upwards of forty years. On
+these eves a line of tar-barrels, relieved occasionally by large
+bonfires, is seen in the centre of each of the principal streets in
+Penzance. On either side of this line young men and women pass up and
+down, swinging round their heads heavy torches made of large pieces of
+folded canvas steeped in tar, and nailed to the ends of sticks between
+three and four feet long; the flames of some of these almost equal those
+of the tar-barrels. Rows of lighted candles, also, when the air is calm,
+are fixed outside the windows or along the sides of the streets. In St.
+Just, and other mining parishes, the young miners, mimicking their
+fathers' employments, bore rows of holes in the rocks, load them with
+gunpowder, and explode them in rapid succession by trains of the same
+substance. As the holes are not deep enough to split the rocks, the same
+little batteries serve for many years. On these nights, Mount's Bay has
+a most animating appearance, although not equal to what was annually
+witnessed at the beginning of the present century, when the whole coast,
+from the Land's End to the Lizard, wherever a town or a village existed,
+was lighted up with these stationary or moving fires. In the early part
+of the evening, children may be seen wearing wreaths of flowers--a
+custom in all probability originating from the ancient use of these
+ornaments when they danced around the fires. At the close of the
+fireworks in Penzance, a great number of persons of both sexes, chiefly
+from the neighbourhood of the quay, used always, until within the last
+few years, to join hand in hand, forming a long string, and run through
+the streets, playing 'thread the needle,' heedless of the fireworks
+showered upon them, and oftentimes leaping over the yet glowing embers.
+I have on these occasions seen boys following one another, jumping
+through flames higher than themselves."[511]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Wales and the Isle of Man; burning wheel rolled
+down hill.]
+
+In Wales the midsummer fires were kindled on St. John's Eve and on St.
+John's Day. Three or nine different kinds of wood and charred faggots
+carefully preserved from the last midsummer were deemed necessary to
+build the bonfire, which was generally done on rising ground. Various
+herbs were thrown into the blaze; and girls with bunches of three or
+nine different kinds of flowers would take the hands of boys, who wore
+flowers in their buttonholes and hats, and together the young couples
+would leap over the fires. On the same two midsummer days roses and
+wreaths of flowers were hung over the doors and windows. "Describing a
+midsummer fire, an old inhabitant, born in 1809, remembered being taken
+to different hills in the Vale of Glamorgan to see festivities in which
+people from all parts of the district participated. She was at that time
+about fourteen, and old enough to retain a vivid recollection of the
+circumstances. People conveyed trusses of straw to the top of the hill,
+where men and youths waited for the contributions. Women and girls were
+stationed at the bottom of the hill. Then a large cart-wheel was thickly
+swathed with straw, and not an inch of wood was left in sight. A pole
+was inserted through the centre of the wheel, so that long ends extended
+about a yard on each side. If any straw remained, it was made up into
+torches at the top of tall sticks. At a given signal the wheel was
+lighted, and sent rolling downhill. If this fire-wheel went out before
+it reached the bottom of the hill, a very poor harvest was promised. If
+it kept lighted all the way down, and continued blazing for a long time,
+the harvest would be exceptionally abundant. Loud cheers and shouts
+accompanied the progress of the wheel."[512] At Darowen in Wales small
+bonfires were kindled on Midsummer Eve.[513] On the same day people in
+the Isle of Man were wont to light fires to the windward of every field,
+so that the smoke might pass over the corn; and they folded their cattle
+and carried blazing furze or gorse round them several times.[514]
+
+[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.]
+
+A writer of the last quarter of the seventeenth century tells us that in
+Ireland, "on the Eves of St. John Baptist and St. Peter, they always
+have in every town a bonfire, late in the evenings, and carry about
+bundles of reeds fast tied and fired; these being dry, will last long,
+and flame better than a torch, and be a pleasing divertive prospect to
+the distant beholder; a stranger would go near to imagine the whole
+country was on fire."[515] Another writer says of the South of Ireland:
+"On Midsummer's Eve, every eminence, near which is a habitation, blazes
+with bonfires; and round these they carry numerous torches, shouting and
+dancing, which affords a beautiful sight."[516] An author who described
+Ireland in the first quarter of the eighteenth century says: "On the
+vigil of St. John the Baptist's Nativity, they make bonfires, and run
+along the streets and fields with wisps of straw blazing on long poles
+to purify the air, which they think infectious, by believing all the
+devils, spirits, ghosts, and hobgoblins fly abroad this night to hurt
+mankind."[517] Another writer states that he witnessed the festival in
+Ireland in 1782: "At the house where I was entertained, it was told me,
+that we should see, at midnight, the most singular sight in Ireland,
+which was the lighting of fires in honour of the sun. Accordingly,
+exactly at midnight, the fires began to appear; and taking the advantage
+of going up to the leads of the house, which had a widely extended view,
+I saw on a radius of thirty miles, all around, the fires burning on
+every eminence which the country afforded. I had a farther satisfaction
+in learning, from undoubted authority, that the people danced round the
+fires, and at the close went through these fires, and made their sons
+and daughters, together with their cattle, pass through the fire; and
+the whole was conducted with religious solemnity."[518] That the custom
+prevailed in full force as late as 1867 appears from a notice in a
+newspaper of that date, which runs thus: "The old pagan fire-worship
+still survives in Ireland, though nominally in honour of St. John. On
+Sunday night bonfires were observed throughout nearly every county in
+the province of Leinster. In Kilkenny, fires blazed on every hillside at
+intervals of about a mile. There were very many in the Queen's County,
+also in Kildare and Wexford. The effect in the rich sunset appeared to
+travellers very grand. The people assemble, and dance round the fires,
+the children jump through the flames, and in former times live coals
+were carried into the corn-fields to prevent blight."[519] In County
+Leitrim on St. John's Eve, which is called Bonfire Day, fires are still
+lighted after dusk on the hills and along the sides of the roads.[520]
+All over Kerry the same thing continues to be done, though not so
+commonly as of old. Small fires were made across the road, and to drive
+through them brought luck for the year. Cattle were also driven through
+the fires. On Lettermore Island, in South Connemara, some of the ashes
+from the midsummer bonfire are thrown on the fields to fertilize
+them.[521] One writer informs us that in Munster and Connaught a bone
+must always be burned in the fire; for otherwise the people believe that
+the fire will bring no luck. He adds that in many places sterile beasts
+and human beings are passed through the fire, and that as a boy he
+himself jumped through the fire "for luck."[522] An eye-witness has
+described as follows a remarkable ceremony observed in Ireland on
+Midsummer Eve: "When the fire burned for some hours, and got low, an
+indispensable part of the ceremony commenced. Every one present of the
+peasantry passed through it, and several children were thrown across the
+sparkling embers; while a wooden frame, of some eight feet long, with a
+horse's head fixed to one end, and a large white sheet thrown over it
+concealing the wood and the man on whose head it was carried, made its
+appearance. This was greeted with loud shouts of 'The white horse!' and
+having been safely carried by the skill of its bearer several times
+through the fire with a bold leap, it pursued the people, who ran
+screaming and laughing in every direction. I asked what the horse was
+meant for, and was told that it represented 'all cattle.'"[523]
+
+[Lady Wilde's account of the Midsummer fires in Ireland.]
+
+Lady Wilde's account of the midsummer festival in Ireland is picturesque
+and probably correct in substance, although she does not cite her
+authorities. As it contains some interesting features which are not
+noticed by the other writers on Ireland whom I have consulted, I will
+quote the greater part of it in full. "In ancient times," she says, "the
+sacred fire was lighted with great ceremony on Midsummer Eve; and on
+that night all the people of the adjacent country kept fixed watch on
+the western promontory of Howth, and the moment the first flash was seen
+from that spot the fact of ignition was announced with wild cries and
+cheers repeated from village to village, when all the local fires began
+to blaze, and Ireland was circled by a cordon of flame rising up from
+every hill. Then the dance and song began round every fire, and the wild
+hurrahs filled the air with the most frantic revelry. Many of these
+ancient customs are still continued, and the fires are still lighted on
+St. John's Eve on every hill in Ireland. When the fire has burned down
+to a red glow the young men strip to the waist and leap over or through
+the flames; this is done backwards and forwards several times, and he
+who braves the greatest blaze is considered the victor over the powers
+of evil, and is greeted with tremendous applause. When the fire burns
+still lower, the young girls leap the flame, and those who leap clean
+over three times back and forward will be certain of a speedy marriage
+and good luck in after-life, with many children. The married women then
+walk through the lines of the burning embers; and when the fire is
+nearly burnt and trampled down, the yearling cattle are driven through
+the hot ashes, and their back is singed with a lighted hazel twig. These
+rods are kept safely afterwards, being considered of immense power to
+drive the cattle to and from the watering places. As the fire diminishes
+the shouting grows fainter, and the song and the dance commence; while
+professional story-tellers narrate tales of fairy-land, or of the good
+old times long ago, when the kings and princes of Ireland dwelt amongst
+their own people, and there was food to eat and wine to drink for all
+comers to the feast at the king's house. When the crowd at length
+separate, every one carries home a brand from the fire, and great virtue
+is attached to the lighted _brone_ which is safely carried to the house
+without breaking or falling to the ground. Many contests also arise
+amongst the young men; for whoever enters his house first with the
+sacred fire brings the good luck of the year with him."[524]
+
+[Holy water resorted to on Midsummer Eve in Ireland.]
+
+In Ireland, as elsewhere, water was also apparently thought to acquire a
+certain mystical virtue at midsummer. "At Stoole, near Downpatrick,
+there is a ceremony commencing at twelve o'clock at night on Midsummer
+Eve. Its sacred mount is consecrated to St. Patrick; the plain contains
+three wells, to which the most extraordinary virtues are attributed.
+Here and there are heaps of stones, around some of which appear great
+numbers of people, running with as much speed as possible; around others
+crowds of worshippers kneel with bare legs and feet as an indispensable
+part of the penance. The men, without coats, with handkerchiefs on their
+heads instead of hats, having gone seven times round each heap, kiss the
+ground, cross themselves, and proceed to the hill; here they ascend, on
+their bare knees, by a path so steep and rugged that it would be
+difficult to walk up. Many hold their hands clasped at the back of their
+necks, and several carry large stones on their heads. Having repeated
+this ceremony seven times, they go to what is called St. Patrick's
+Chair, which are two great flat stones fixed upright in the hill; here
+they cross and bless themselves as they step in between these stones,
+and, while repeating prayers, an old man, seated for the purpose, turns
+them round on their feet three times, for which he is paid; the devotee
+then goes to conclude his penance at a pile of stones, named the Altar.
+While this busy scene is continued by the multitude, the wells and
+streams issuing from them are thronged by crowds of halt, maimed, and
+blind, pressing to wash away their infirmities with water consecrated by
+their patron saint, and so powerful is the impression of its efficacy on
+their minds, that many of those who go to be healed, and who are not
+totally blind, or altogether crippled, really believe for a time that
+they are by means of its miraculous virtues perfectly restored."[525]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Scotland; fires on St. Peter's Day (the
+twenty-ninth of June).]
+
+In Scotland the traces of midsummer fires are few. We are told by a
+writer of the eighteenth century that "the midsummer-even fire, a relict
+of Druidism," was kindled in some parts of the county of Perth.[526]
+Another writer of the same period, describing what he calls the
+Druidical festivals of the Highlanders, says that "the least
+considerable of them is that of midsummer. In the Highlands of
+Perthshire there are some vestiges of it. The cowherd goes three times
+round the fold, according to the course of the sun, with a burning torch
+in his hand. They imagined this rite had a tendency to purify their
+herds and flocks, and to prevent diseases. At their return the landlady
+makes an entertainment for the cowherd and his associates."[527] In the
+northeast of Scotland, down to the latter half of the eighteenth
+century, farmers used to go round their lands with burning torches about
+the middle of June.[528] On the hill of Cairnshee, in the parish of
+Durris, Kincardineshire, the herdsmen of the country round about
+annually kindle a bonfire at sunset on Midsummer Day (the twenty-fourth
+of June); the men or lads collect the fuel and push each other through
+the smoke and flames. The custom is kept up through the benefaction of a
+certain Alexander Hogg, a native of the parish, who died about 1790 and
+left a small sum for the maintenance of a midsummer bonfire on the spot,
+because as a boy he had herded cattle on the hill. We may conjecture
+that in doing so he merely provided for the continuance of an old custom
+which he himself had observed in the same place in his youth.[529] At
+the village of Tarbolton in Ayrshire a bonfire has been annually kindled
+from time immemorial on the evening of the first Monday after the
+eleventh of June. A noted cattle-market was formerly held at the fair on
+the following day. The bonfire is still lit at the gloaming by the lads
+and lasses of the village on a high mound or hillock just outside of the
+village. Fuel for it is collected by the lads from door to door. The
+youth dance round the fire and leap over the fringes of it. The many
+cattle-drovers who used to assemble for the fair were wont to gather
+round the blazing pile, smoke their pipes, and listen to the young folk
+singing in chorus on the hillock. Afterwards they wrapped themselves in
+their plaids and slept round the bonfire, which was intended to last all
+night.[530] Thomas Moresin of Aberdeen, a writer of the sixteenth
+century, says that on St. Peter's Day, which is the twenty-ninth of
+June, the Scotch ran about at night with lighted torches on mountains
+and high grounds, "as Ceres did when she roamed the whole earth in
+search of Proserpine";[531] and towards the end of the eighteenth
+century the parish minister of Loudoun, a district of Ayrshire whose
+"bonny woods and braes" have been sung by Burns, wrote that "the custom
+still remains amongst the herds and young people to kindle fires in the
+high grounds in honour of Beltan. _Beltan_, which in Gaelic signifies
+_Baal_, or _Bel's-fire_, was antiently the time of this solemnity. It is
+now kept on St. Peter's day."[532]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Spain and the Azores; divination on Midsummer
+Eve in the Azores; the Midsummer fires in Corsica and Sardinia.]
+
+All over Spain great bonfires called _lumes_ are still lit on Midsummer
+Eve. They are kept up all night, and the children leap over them in a
+certain rhythmical way which is said to resemble the ancient dances. On
+the coast, people at this season plunge into the sea; in the inland
+districts the villagers go and roll naked in the dew of the meadows,
+which is supposed to be a sovereign preservative against diseases of the
+skin. On this evening, too, girls who would pry into the future put a
+vessel of water on the sill outside their window; and when the clocks
+strike twelve, they break an egg in the water and see, or fancy they
+see, in the shapes assumed by the pulp, as it blends with the liquid,
+the likeness of future bridegrooms, castles, coffins, and so forth. But
+generally, as might perhaps have been anticipated, the obliging egg
+exhibits the features of a bridegroom.[533] In the Azores, also,
+bonfires are lit on Midsummer Eve (St. John's Eve), and boys jump over
+them for luck. On that night St. John himself is supposed to appear in
+person and bless all the seas and waters, driving out the devils and
+demons who had been disporting themselves in them ever since the second
+day of November; that is why in the interval between the second of
+November and the twenty-third of June nobody will bathe in the sea or in
+a hot spring. On Midsummer Eve, too, you can always see the devil, if
+you will go into a garden at midnight. He is invariably found standing
+near a mustard-plant. His reason for adopting this posture has not been
+ascertained; perhaps in the chilly air of the upper world he is
+attracted by the genial warmth of the mustard. Various forms of
+divination are practised by people in the Azores on Midsummer Eve. Thus
+a new-laid egg is broken into a glass of water, and the shapes which it
+assumes foreshadow the fate of the person concerned. Again, seven
+saucers are placed in a row, filled respectively with water, earth,
+ashes, keys, a thimble, money, and grass, which things signify travel,
+death, widowhood, housekeeping, spinsterhood, riches, and farming. A
+blindfolded person touches one or other of the saucers with a wand and
+so discovers his or her fate. Again, three broad beans are taken; one is
+left in its skin, one is half peeled, and the third is peeled outright.
+The three denote respectively riches, competence, and poverty. They are
+hidden and searched for; and he who finds one of them knows accordingly
+whether he will be rich, moderately well-off, or poor. Again, girls take
+slips of paper and write the names of young men twice over on them.
+These they fold up and crumple and place one set under their pillows and
+the other set in a saucer full of water. In the morning they draw one
+slip of paper from under their pillow, and see whether one in the water
+has opened out. If the names on the two slips are the same, it is the
+name of her future husband. Young men do the same with girls' names.
+Once more, if a girl rises at sunrise, goes out into the street, and
+asks the first passer-by his Christian name, that will be her husband's
+name.[534] Some of these modes of divination resemble those which are or
+used to be practised in Scotland at Hallowe'en.[535] In Corsica on the
+Eve of St. John the people set fire to the trunk of a tree or to a whole
+tree, and the young men and maidens dance round the blaze, which is
+called _fucaraia_.[536] We have seen that at Ozieri, in Sardinia, a
+great bonfire is kindled on St. John's Eve, and that the young people
+dance round it.[537]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in the Abruzzi; bathing on Midsummer Eve in the
+Abruzzi; the Midsummer fires in Sicily; the witches at Midsummer.]
+
+Passing to Italy, we find that the midsummer fires are still lighted on
+St. John's Eve in many parts of the Abruzzi. They are commonest in the
+territory which was inhabited in antiquity by the Vestini; they are
+rarer in the land of the ancient Marsi, and they disappear entirely in
+the lower valley of the Sangro. For the most part, the fires are fed
+with straw and dry grass, and are kindled in the fields near the
+villages or on high ground. As they blaze up, the people dance round or
+over them. In leaping across the flames the boys cry out, "St. John,
+preserve my thighs and legs!" Formerly it used to be common to light the
+bonfires also in the towns in front of churches of St. John, and the
+remains of the sacred fire were carried home by the people; but this
+custom has mostly fallen into disuse. However, at Celano the practice is
+still kept up of taking brands and ashes from the bonfires to the
+houses, although the fires are no longer kindled in front of the
+churches, but merely in the streets.[538] In the Abruzzi water also is
+supposed to acquire certain marvellous and beneficent properties on St.
+John's Night. Hence many people bathe or at least wash their faces and
+hands in the sea or a river at that season, especially at the moment of
+sunrise. Such a bath is said to be an excellent cure for diseases of the
+skin. At Castiglione a Casauria the people, after washing in the river
+or in springs, gird their waists and wreath their brows with sprigs of
+briony in order to keep them from aches and pains.[539] In various parts
+of Sicily, also, fires are kindled on Midsummer Eve (St. John's Eve),
+the twenty-third of June. On the Madonie mountains, in the north of the
+island, the herdsmen kindle them at intervals, so that the crests of the
+mountains are seen ablaze in the darkness for many miles. About
+Acireale, on the east coast of the island, the bonfires are lit by boys,
+who jump over them. At Chiaromonte the witches that night acquire
+extraordinary powers; hence everybody then puts a broom outside of his
+house, because a broom is an excellent protective against
+witchcraft.[540] At Orvieto the midsummer fires were specially excepted
+from the prohibition directed against bonfires in general.[541]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Malta ]
+
+In Malta also the people celebrate Midsummer Eve (St. John's Eve) "by
+kindling great fires in the public streets, and giving their children
+dolls to carry in their arms on this day, in order to make good the
+prophecy respecting the Baptist, _Multi in nativitate ejus gaudebunt_.
+Days and even weeks before this festival, groups of children are seen
+going out into the country fields to gather straw, twigs, and all sorts
+of other combustibles, which they store up for St. John's Eve. On the
+night of the twenty-third of June, the day before the festival of the
+Saint, great fires are kindled in the streets, squares, and market
+places of the towns and villages of the Island, and as fire after fire
+blazes out of the darkness of that summer night, the effect is
+singularly striking. These fires are sometimes kept up for hours, being
+continually fed by the scores of bystanders, who take great delight in
+throwing amidst the flames some old rickety piece of furniture which
+they consider as lumber in their houses. Lots of happy and reckless
+children, and very often men, are seen merrily leaping in succession
+over and through the crackling flames. At the time of the Order of St.
+John of Jerusalem, the Grand Master himself, soon after the _Angelus_,
+used to leave his palace, accompanied by the Grand Prior, the Bishop,
+and two bailiffs, to set fire to some pitch barrels which were placed
+for the occasion in the square facing the sacred Hospital. Great crowds
+used to assemble here in order to assist at this ceremony. The setting
+ablaze of the five casks, and later on of the eight casks, by the Grand
+Master, was a signal for the others to kindle their fires in the
+different parts of the town."[542]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Greece; the Midsummer fires in Macedonia and
+Albania.]
+
+In Greece, the custom of kindling fires on St. John's Eve and jumping
+over them is said to be still universal. One reason assigned for it is a
+wish to escape from the fleas.[543] According to another account, the
+women cry out, as they leap over the fire, "I leave my sins behind
+me."[544] In Lesbos the fires on St. John's Eve are usually lighted by
+threes, and the people spring thrice over them, each with a stone on his
+head, saying, "I jump the hare's fire, my head a stone!" On the morning
+of St. John's Day those who dwell near the coast go to bathe in the sea.
+As they go they gird themselves with osiers, and when they are in the
+water they let the osiers float away, saying, "Let my maladies go away!"
+Then they look for what is called "the hairy stone," which possesses the
+remarkable property not only of keeping moths from clothes but even of
+multiplying the clothes in the chest where it is laid up, and the more
+hairs on the stone the more will the clothes multiply in the chest.[545]
+In Calymnos the midsummer fire is supposed to ensure abundance in the
+coming year as well as deliverance from fleas. The people dance round
+the fires singing, with stones on their heads, and then jump over the
+blaze or the glowing embers. When the fire is burning low, they throw
+the stones into it; and when it is nearly out, they make crosses on
+their legs and then go straightway and bathe in the sea.[546] In Cos the
+lads and lasses dance round the bonfires on St. John's Eve. Each of the
+lads binds a black stone on his head, signifying that he wishes to
+become as strong as the stone. Also they make the sign of the cross on
+their feet and legs and jump over the fire.[547] On Midsummer Eve the
+Greeks of Macedonia light fires after supper in front of their gates.
+The garlands, now faded, which were hung over the doors on May Day, are
+taken down and cast into the flames, after which the young folk leap
+over the blaze, fully persuaded that St. John's fire will not burn
+them.[548] In Albania fires of dry herbage are, or used to be, lit
+everywhere on St. John's Eve; young and old leap over them, for such a
+leap is thought to be good for the health.[549]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in America.]
+
+From the Old World the midsummer fires have been carried across the
+Atlantic to America. In Brazil people jump over the fires of St. John,
+and at this season they can take hot coals in their mouths without
+burning themselves.[550] In Bolivia on the Eve of St. John it is usual
+to see bonfires lighted on the hills and even in the streets of the
+capital La Paz. As the city stands at the bottom of an immense ravine,
+and the Indians of the neighbourhood take a pride in kindling bonfires
+on heights which might seem inaccessible, the scene is very striking
+when the darkness of night is suddenly and simultaneously lit up by
+hundreds of fires, which cast a glare on surrounding objects, producing
+an effect at once weird and picturesque.[551]
+
+[The Midsummer fires among the Mohammedans of Morocco and Algeria.]
+
+The custom of kindling bonfires on Midsummer Day or on Midsummer Eve is
+widely spread among the Mohammedan peoples of North Africa, particularly
+in Morocco and Algeria; it is common both to the Berbers and to many of
+the Arabs or Arabic-speaking tribes. In these countries Midsummer Day
+(the twenty-fourth of June, Old Style) is called [Arabic: _l'ansara_].
+The fires are lit in the courtyards, at cross-roads, in the fields, and
+sometimes on the threshing-floors. Plants which in burning give out a
+thick smoke and an aromatic smell are much sought after for fuel on
+these occasions; among the plants used for the purpose are giant-fennel,
+thyme, rue, chervil-seed, camomile, geranium, and penny-royal. People
+expose themselves, and especially their children, to the smoke, and
+drive it towards the orchards and the crops. Also they leap across the
+fires; in some places everybody ought to repeat the leap seven times.
+Moreover they take burning brands from the fires and carry them through
+the houses in order to fumigate them. They pass things through the fire,
+and bring the sick into contact with it, while they utter prayers for
+their recovery. The ashes of the bonfires are also reputed to possess
+beneficial properties; hence in some places people rub their hair or
+their bodies with them.[552] For example, the Andjra mountaineers of
+Morocco kindle large fires in open places of their villages on Midsummer
+Day. Men, women, and children jump over the flames or the glowing
+embers, believing that by so doing they rid themselves of all misfortune
+which may be clinging to them; they imagine, also, that such leaps cure
+the sick and procure offspring for childless couples. Moreover, they
+burn straw, together with some marjoram and alum, in the fold where the
+cattle, sheep, and goats are penned for the night; the smoke, in their
+opinion, will make the animals thrive. On Midsummer Day the Arabs of the
+Mnasara tribe make fires outside their tents, near their animals, on
+their fields, and in their gardens. Large quantities of penny-royal are
+burned in these fires, and over some of them the people leap thrice to
+and fro. Sometimes small fires are also kindled inside the tents. They
+say that the smoke confers blessings on everything with which it comes
+into contact. At Salee, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, persons who
+suffer from diseased eyes rub them with the ashes of the midsummer fire;
+and in Casablanca and Azemmur the people hold their faces over the fire,
+because the smoke is thought to be good for the eyes. The Arab tribe
+Ulad Bu Aziz, in the Dukkala province of Morocco, kindle midsummer
+bonfires, not for themselves and their cattle, but only for crops and
+fruit; nobody likes to reap his crops before Midsummer Day, because if
+he did they would lose the benefit of the blessed influence which flows
+from the smoke of the bonfires. Again, the Beni Mgild, a Berber tribe of
+Morocco, light fires of straw on Midsummer Eve and leap thrice over them
+to and fro. They let some of the smoke pass underneath their clothes,
+and married women hold their breasts over the fire, in order that their
+children may be strong. Moreover, they paint their eyes and lips with
+some black powder, in which ashes of the bonfire are mixed. And in order
+that their horses may also benefit by the fires, they dip the right
+forelegs of the animals in the smoke and flames or in the hot embers,
+and they rub ashes on the foreheads and between the nostrils of the
+horses. Berbers of the Rif province, in northern Morocco, similarly make
+great use of fires at midsummer for the good of themselves, their
+cattle, and their fruit-trees. They jump over the bonfires in the belief
+that this will preserve them in good health, and they light fires under
+fruit-trees to keep the fruit from falling untimely. And they imagine
+that by rubbing a paste of the ashes on their hair they prevent the hair
+from falling off their heads.[553]
+
+[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.]
+
+In all these Moroccan customs, we are told, the beneficial effect is
+attributed wholly to the smoke, which is supposed to be endued with a
+magical quality that removes misfortune from men, animals, fruit-trees,
+and crops. But in some parts of Morocco people at midsummer kindle fires
+of a different sort, not for the sake of fumigation, but in order to
+burn up misfortune in the flames. Thus on Midsummer Eve the Berber tribe
+of the Beni Mgild burn three sheaves of unthreshed wheat or barley, "one
+for the children, one for the crops, and one for the animals." On the
+same occasion they burn the tent of a widow who has never given birth to
+a child; by so doing they think to rid the village of ill luck. It is
+said that at midsummer the Zemmur burn a tent, which belongs to somebody
+who was killed in war during a feast; or if there is no such person in
+the village, the schoolmaster's tent is burned instead. Among the
+Arabic-speaking Beni Ahsen it is customary for those who live near the
+river Sbu to make a little hut of straw at midsummer, set it on fire,
+and let it float down the river. Similarly the inhabitants of Salee burn
+a straw hut on the river which flows past their town.[554]
+
+Further it deserves to be noticed that in Northern Africa, as in
+Southern Europe, the midsummer festival comprises rites concerned with
+water as well as with fire. For example, among the Beni-Snous the women
+light a fire in an oven, throw perfumes into it, and circumambulate a
+tank, which they also incense after a fashion. In many places on the
+coast, as in the province of Oran and particularly in the north of
+Morocco, everybody goes and bathes in the sea at midsummer; and in many
+towns of the interior, such as Fez, Mequinez, and especially Merrakech,
+people throw water over each other on this day; and where water is
+scarce, earth is used instead, according to the Mohammedan principle
+which permits ablutions to be performed with earth or sand when water
+cannot be spared for the purpose.[555] People of the Andjra district in
+Morocco not only bathe themselves in the sea or in rivers at midsummer,
+they also bathe their animals, their horses, mules, donkeys, cattle,
+sheep, and goats; for they think that on that day water possesses a
+blessed virtue (_baraka_), which removes sickness and misfortune. In
+Aglu, again, men, women, and children bathe in the sea or springs or
+rivers at midsummer, alleging that by so doing they protect themselves
+against disease for the whole year. Among the Berbers of the Rif
+district the custom of bathing on this day is commonly observed, and
+animals share the ablutions.[556]
+
+[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 celebration of a midsummer festival by Mohammedan peoples is
+particularly remarkable, because the Mohammedan calendar, being purely
+lunar and uncorrected by intercalation, necessarily takes no note of
+festivals which occupy fixed points in the solar year; all strictly
+Mohammedan feasts, being pinned to the moon, slide gradually with that
+luminary through the whole period of the earth's revolution about the
+sun. This fact of itself seems to prove that among the Mohammedan
+peoples of Northern Africa, as among the Christian peoples of Europe,
+the midsummer festival is quite independent of the religion which the
+people publicly profess, and is a relic of a far older paganism. There
+are, indeed, independent grounds for thinking that the Arabs enjoyed the
+advantage of a comparatively well-regulated solar year before the
+prophet of God saddled them with the absurdity and inconvenience of a
+purely lunar calendar.[557] Be that as it may, it is notable that some
+Mohammedan people of North Africa kindle fires and bathe in water at the
+movable New Year of their lunar calendar instead of at the fixed
+Midsummer of the solar year; while others again practise these
+observances at both seasons. New Year's Day, on which the rites are
+celebrated, is called _Ashur_; it is the tenth day of Moharram, the
+first month of the Mohammedan calendar. On that day bonfires are kindled
+in Tunis and also at Merrakech and among some tribes of the
+neighbourhood.[558] At Demnat, in the Great Atlas mountains, people
+kindle a large bonfire on New Year's Eve and leap to and fro over the
+flames, uttering words which imply that by these leaps they think to
+purify themselves from all kinds of evil. At Aglu, in the province of
+Sus, the fire is lighted at three different points by an unmarried girl,
+and when it has died down the young men leap over the glowing embers,
+saying, "We shook on you, O Lady Ashur, fleas, and lice, and the
+illnesses of the heart, as also those of the bones; we shall pass
+through you again next year and the following years with safety and
+health." Both at Aglu and Glawi, in the Great Atlas, smaller fires are
+also kindled, over which the animals are driven. At Demnat girls who
+wish to marry wash themselves in water which has been boiled over the
+New Year fire; and in Dukkala people use the ashes of that fire to rub
+sore eyes with. New Year fires appear to be commonly kindled among the
+Berbers who inhabit the western portion of the Great Atlas, and also
+among the Arabic-speaking tribes of the plains; but Dr. Westermarck
+found no traces of such fires among the Arabic-speaking mountaineers of
+Northern Morocco and the Berbers of the Rif province. Further, it should
+be observed that water ceremonies like those which are practised at
+Midsummer are very commonly observed in Morocco at the New Year, that
+is, on the tenth day of the first month. On the morning of that day
+(_Ashur_) all water or, according to some people, only spring water is
+endowed with a magical virtue (_baraka_), especially before sunrise.
+Hence at that time the people bathe and pour water over each other; in
+some places they also sprinkle their animals, tents, or rooms. In
+Dukkala some of the New Year water is preserved at home till New Year's
+Day (_Ashur_) of next year; some of it is kept to be used as medicine,
+some of it is poured on the place where the corn is threshed, and some
+is used to water the money which is to be buried in the ground; for the
+people think that the earth-spirits will not be able to steal the buried
+treasures which have thus been sanctified with the holy water.[559]
+
+[The Midsummer festival in Morocco seems to be of Berber origin.]
+
+Thus the rites of fire and water which are observed in Morocco at
+Midsummer and New Year appear to be identical in character and
+intention, and it seems certain that the duplication of the rites is due
+to a conflict between two calendars, namely the old Julian calendar of
+the Romans, which was based on the sun, and the newer Mohammedan
+calendar of the Arabs, which is based on the moon. For not only was the
+Julian calendar in use throughout the whole of Northern Africa under the
+Roman Empire; to this day it is everywhere employed among Mohammedans
+for the regulation of agriculture and all the affairs of daily life; its
+practical convenience has made it indispensable, and the lunar calendar
+of orthodox Mohammedanism is scarcely used except for purposes of
+chronology. Even the old Latin names of the months are known and
+employed, in slightly disguised forms, throughout the whole Moslem
+world; and little calendars of the Julian year circulate in manuscript
+among Mohammedans, permitting them to combine the practical advantages
+of pagan science with a nominal adherence to orthodox absurdity.[560]
+Thus the heathen origin of the midsummer festival is too palpable to
+escape the attention of good Mohammedans, who accordingly frown upon the
+midsummer bonfires as pagan superstitions, precisely as similar
+observances in Europe have often been denounced by orthodox
+Christianity. Indeed, many religious people in Morocco entirely
+disapprove of the whole of the midsummer ceremonies, maintaining that
+they are all bad; and a conscientious schoolmaster will even refuse his
+pupils a holiday at midsummer, though the boys sometimes offer him a
+bribe if he will sacrifice his scruples to his avarice.[561] As the
+midsummer customs appear to flourish among all the Berbers of Morocco
+but to be unknown among the pure Arabs who have not been affected by
+Berber influence, it seems reasonable to infer with Dr. Westermarck that
+the midsummer festival has belonged from time immemorial to the Berber
+race, and that so far as it is now observed by the Arabs of Morocco, it
+has been learned by them from the Berbers, the old indigenous
+inhabitants of the country. Dr. Westermarck may also be right in holding
+that, in spite of the close similarity which obtains between the
+midsummer festival of Europe and the midsummer festival of North Africa,
+the latter is not a copy of the former, but that both have been handed
+down independently from a time beyond the purview of history, when such
+ceremonies were common to the Mediterranean race.[562]
+
+
+§ 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.]
+
+In the months which elapse between midsummer and the setting in of
+winter the European festivals of fire appear to be few and unimportant.
+On the evening of the first day of August, which is the Festival of the
+Cross, bonfires are commonly lit in Macedonia and boys jump over them,
+shouting, "Dig up! bury!" but whom or what they wish to dig up or bury
+they do not know.[563] The Russians hold the feast of two martyrs,
+Florus and Laurus, on the eighteenth day of August, Old Style. "On this
+day the Russians lead their horses round the church of their village,
+beside which on the foregoing evening they dig a hole with two mouths.
+Each horse has a bridle made of the bark of the linden-tree. The horses
+go through this hole one after the other, opposite to one of the mouths
+of which the priest stands with a sprinkler in his hand, with which he
+sprinkles them. As soon as the horses have passed by their bridles are
+taken off, and they are made to go between two fires that they kindle,
+called by the Russians _Givoy Agon_, that is to say, living fires, of
+which I shall give an account. I shall before remark, that the Russian
+peasantry throw the bridles of their horses into one of these fires to
+be consumed. This is the manner of their lighting these _givoy agon_, or
+living fires. Some men hold the ends of a stick made of the plane-tree,
+very dry, and about a fathom long. This stick they hold firmly over one
+of birch, perfectly dry, and rub with violence and quickly against the
+former; the birch, which is somewhat softer than the plane, in a short
+time inflames, and serves them to light both the fires I have
+described."[564]
+
+[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.]
+
+It is no doubt possible that these illuminations and fireworks, like the
+assassinations, are merely the natural and spontaneous expressions of
+that overflowing joy with which the thought of the birth of the Virgin
+must fill every pious heart; but when we remember how often the Church
+has skilfully decanted the new wine of Christianity into the old bottles
+of heathendom, we may be allowed to conjecture that the ecclesiastical
+authorities adroitly timed the Nativity of the Virgin so as to coincide
+with an old pagan festival of that day, in which fire, noise, and
+uproar, if not broken heads and bloodshed, were conspicuous features.
+The penny trumpets blown on this occasion recall the like melodious
+instruments which figure so largely in the celebration of Befana (the
+Eve of Epiphany) at Rome.[565]
+
+
+§ 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.]
+
+But while this may be regarded as fairly certain for what we may call
+the aborigines throughout a large part of the continent, it appears not
+to have been true of the Celtic peoples who inhabited the Land's End of
+Europe, the islands and promontories that stretch out into the Atlantic
+ocean on the North-West. The principal fire-festivals of the Celts,
+which have survived, though in a restricted area and with diminished
+pomp, to modern times and even to our own day, were seemingly timed
+without any reference to the position of the sun in the heaven. They
+were two in number, and fell at an interval of six months, one being
+celebrated on the eve of May Day and the other on Allhallow Even or
+Hallowe'en, as it is now commonly called, that is, on the thirty-first
+of October, the day preceding All Saints' or Allhallows' Day. These
+dates coincide with none of the four great hinges on which the solar
+year revolves, to wit, the solstices and the equinoxes. Nor do they
+agree with the principal seasons of the agricultural year, the sowing in
+spring and the reaping in autumn. For when May Day comes, the seed has
+long been committed to the earth; and when November opens, the harvest
+has long been reaped and garnered, the fields lie bare, the fruit-trees
+are stripped, and even the yellow leaves are fast fluttering to the
+ground. Yet the first of May and the first of November mark
+turning-points of the year in Europe; the one ushers in the genial heat
+and the rich vegetation of summer, the other heralds, if it does not
+share, the cold and barrenness of winter. Now these particular points of
+the year, as has been well pointed out by a learned and ingenious
+writer,[566] while they are of comparatively little moment to the
+European husbandman, do deeply concern the European herdsman; for it is
+on the approach of summer that he drives his cattle out into the open to
+crop the fresh grass, and it is on the approach of winter that he leads
+them back to the safety and shelter of the stall. Accordingly it seems
+not improbable that the Celtic bisection of the year into two halves at
+the beginning of May and the beginning of November dates from a time
+when the Celts were mainly a pastoral people, dependent for their
+subsistence on their herds, and when accordingly the great epochs of the
+year for them were the days on which the cattle went forth from the
+homestead in early summer and returned to it again in early winter.[567]
+Even in Central Europe, remote from the region now occupied by the
+Celts, a similar bisection of the year may be clearly traced in the
+great popularity, on the one hand, of May Day and its Eve (Walpurgis
+Night), and, on the other hand, of the Feast of All Souls at the
+beginning of November, which under a thin Christian cloak conceals an
+ancient pagan festival of the dead.[568] Hence we may conjecture that
+everywhere throughout Europe the celestial division of the year
+according to the solstices was preceded by what we may call a
+terrestrial division of the year according to the beginning of summer
+and the beginning of winter.
+
+[The two great Celtic festivals, Beltane and Hallowe'en.]
+
+Be that as it may, the two great Celtic festivals of May Day and the
+first of November or, to be more accurate, the Eves of these two days,
+closely resemble each other in the manner of their celebration and in
+the superstitions associated with them, and alike, by the antique
+character impressed upon both, betray a remote and purely pagan origin.
+The festival of May Day or Beltane, as the Celts called it, which
+ushered in summer, has already been described;[569] it remains to give
+some account of the corresponding festival of Hallowe'en, which
+announced the arrival of winter.
+
+[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.]
+
+Of the two feasts Hallowe'en was perhaps of old the more important,
+since the Celts would seem to have dated the beginning of the year from
+it rather than from Beltane. In the Isle of Man, one of the fortresses
+in which the Celtic language and lore longest held out against the siege
+of the Saxon invaders, the first of November, Old Style, has been
+regarded as New Year's day down to recent times. Thus Manx mummers used
+to go round on Hallowe'en (Old Style), singing, in the Manx language, a
+sort of Hogmanay song which began "To-night is New Year's Night,
+_Hog-unnaa_!"[570] One of Sir John Rhys's Manx informants, an old man of
+sixty-seven, "had been a farm servant from the age of sixteen till he
+was twenty-six to the same man, near Regaby, in the parish of Andreas,
+and he remembers his master and a near neighbour of his discussing the
+term New Year's Day as applied to the first of November, and explaining
+to the younger men that it had always been so in old times. In fact, it
+seemed to him natural enough, as all tenure of land ends at that time,
+and as all servant men begin their service then."[571] In ancient
+Ireland, as we saw, a new fire used to be kindled every year on
+Hallowe'en or the Eve of Samhain, and from this sacred flame all the
+fires in Ireland were rekindled.[572] Such a custom points strongly to
+Samhain or All Saints' Day (the first of November) as New Year's Day;
+since the annual kindling of a new fire takes place most naturally at
+the beginning of the year, in order that the blessed influence of the
+fresh fire may last throughout the whole period of twelve months.
+Another confirmation of the view that the Celts dated their year from
+the first of November is furnished by the manifold modes of divination
+which, as we shall see presently, were commonly resorted to by Celtic
+peoples on Hallowe'en for the purpose of ascertaining their destiny,
+especially their fortune in the coming year; for when could these
+devices for prying into the future be more reasonably put in practice
+than at the beginning of the year? As a season of omens and auguries
+Hallowe'en seems to have far surpassed Beltane in the imagination of the
+Celts; from which we may with some probability infer that they reckoned
+their year from Hallowe'en rather than Beltane. Another circumstance of
+great moment which points to the same conclusion is the association of
+the dead with Hallowe'en. Not only among the Celts but throughout
+Europe, Hallowe'en, the night which marks the transition from autumn to
+winter, seems to have been of old the time of year when the souls of the
+departed were supposed to revisit their old homes in order to warm
+themselves by the fire and to comfort themselves with the good cheer
+provided for them in the kitchen or the parlour by their affectionate
+kinsfolk.[573] It was, perhaps, a natural thought that the approach of
+winter should drive the poor shivering hungry ghosts from the bare
+fields and the leafless woodlands to the shelter of the cottage with its
+familiar fireside.[574] Did not the lowing kine then troop back from the
+summer pastures in the forests and on the hills to be fed and cared for
+in the stalls, while the bleak winds whistled among the swaying boughs
+and the snow drifts deepened in the hollows? and could the good-man and
+the good-wife deny to the spirits of their dead the welcome which they
+gave to the cows?
+
+[Fairies and Hobgoblins let loose at Hallowe'en.]
+
+But it is not only the souls of the departed who are supposed to be
+hovering unseen on the day "when autumn to winter resigns the pale
+year." Witches then speed on their errands of mischief, some sweeping
+through the air on besoms, others galloping along the roads on
+tabby-cats, which for that evening are turned into coal-black
+steeds.[575] The fairies, too, are all let loose, and hobgoblins of
+every sort roam freely about In South Uist and Eriskay there is a
+saying:--
+
+"_Hallowe'en will come, will come,
+Witchcraft [or divination] will be set agoing,
+Fairies will be at full speed,
+Running in every pass.
+Avoid the road, children, children_."[576]
+
+[Dancing with the fairies at Hallowe'en.]
+
+In Cardiganshire on November Eve a bogie sits on every stile.[577] On
+that night in Ireland all the fairy hills are thrown wide open and the
+fairies swarm forth; any man who is bold enough may then peep into the
+open green hills and see the treasures hidden in them. Worse than that,
+the cave of Cruachan in Connaught, known as "the Hell-gate of Ireland,"
+is unbarred on Samhain Eve or Hallowe'en, and a host of horrible fiends
+and goblins used to rush forth, particularly a flock of copper-red
+birds, which blighted crops and killed animals by their poisonous
+breath.[578] The Scotch Highlanders have a special name _Samhanach_
+(derived from _Samhain_, "All-hallows") for the dreadful bogies that go
+about that night stealing babies and committing other atrocities.[579]
+And though the fairies are a kindlier folk, it is dangerous to see even
+them at their revels on Hallowe'en. A melancholy case of this sort is
+reported from the Ferintosh district of the Highlands, though others say
+that it happened at the Slope of Big Stones in Harris. Two young men
+were coming home after nightfall on Hallowe'en, each with a jar of
+whisky on his back, when they saw, as they thought, a house all lit up
+by the roadside, from which proceeded the sounds of music and dancing.
+In reality it was not a house at all but a fairy knoll, and it was the
+fairies who were jigging it about there so merrily. But one of the young
+men was deceived and stepping into the house joined in the dance,
+without even stopping to put down the jar of whisky. His companion was
+wiser; he had a shrewd suspicion that the place was not what it seemed,
+and on entering he took the precaution of sticking a needle in the door.
+That disarmed the power of the fairies, and he got away safely. Well,
+that day twelve months he came back to the spot and what should he see
+but his poor friend still dancing away with the jar of whisky on his
+back? A weary man was he, as you may well believe, but he begged to be
+allowed to finish the reel which he was in the act of executing, and
+when they took him out into the open air, there was nothing of him left
+but skin and bones.[580] Again, the wicked fairies are apt to carry off
+men's wives with them to fairyland; but the lost spouses can be
+recovered within a year and a day when the procession of the fairies is
+defiling past on Hallowe'en, always provided that the mortals did not
+partake of elfin food while they were in elfinland.[581]
+
+[Guleesh and the revels of the fairies at Hallowe'en.]
+
+Sometimes valuable information may be obtained from the fairies on
+Hallowe'en. There was a young man named Guleesh in the County of Mayo.
+Near his house was a _rath_ or old fort with a fine grass bank running
+round it. One Hallowe'en, when the darkness was falling, Guleesh went to
+the rath and stood on a gray old flag. The night was calm and still;
+there was not a breath of wind stirring, nor a sound to be heard except
+the hum of the insects flitting past, or the whistle of the plovers, or
+the hoarse scream of the wild geese as they winged their way far
+overhead. Above the white fog the moon rose like a knob of fire in the
+east, and a thousand thousand stars were twinkling in the sky. There was
+a little frost in the air, the grass was white and crisp and crackled
+under foot. Guleesh expected to see the fairies, but they did not come.
+Hour after hour wore away, and he was just bethinking him of going home
+to bed, when his ear caught a sound far off coming towards him, and he
+knew what it was in a moment. The sound grew louder and louder; at first
+it was like the beating of waves on a stony shore, then it was like the
+roar of a waterfall, at last it was like a mighty rushing wind in the
+tops of the trees, then the storm burst upon the rath, and sure enough
+the fairies were in it. The rout went by so suddenly that Guleesh lost
+his breath; but he came to himself and listened. The fairies were now
+gathered within the grassy bank of the rath, and a fine uproar they
+made. But Guleesh listened with all his ears, and he heard one fairy
+saying to another that a magic herb grew by Guleesh's own door, and that
+Guleesh had nothing to do but pluck it and boil it and give it to his
+sweetheart, the daughter of the King of France, and she would be well,
+for just then she was lying very ill. Guleesh took the hint, and
+everything went as the fairy had said. And he married the daughter of
+the King of France; and they had never a cark nor a care, a sickness nor
+a sorrow, a mishap nor a misfortune to the day of their death.[582]
+
+[Divination resorted to in Celtic countries at Hallowe'en.]
+
+In all Celtic countries Hallowe'en seems to have been the great season
+of the year for prying into the future; all kinds of divination were put
+in practice that night. We read that Dathi, a king of Ireland in the
+fifth century, happening to be at the Druids' Hill (_Cnoc-nan-druad_) in
+the county of Sligo one Hallowe'en, ordered his druid to forecast for
+him the future from that day till the next Hallowe'en should come round.
+The druid passed the night on the top of the hill, and next morning made
+a prediction to the king which came true.[583] In Wales Hallowe'en was
+the weirdest of all the _Teir Nos Ysbrydion_, or Three Spirit Nights,
+when the wind, "blowing over the feet of the corpses," bore sighs to the
+houses of those who were to die within the year. People thought that if
+on that night they went out to a cross-road and listened to the wind,
+they would learn all the most important things that would befall them
+during the next twelve months.[584] In Wales, too, not so long ago women
+used to congregate in the parish churches on the night of Hallowe'en and
+read their fate from the flame of the candle which each of them held in
+her hand; also they heard the names or saw the coffins of the
+parishioners who would die within the year, and many were the sad scenes
+to which these gloomy visions gave rise.[585] And in the Highlands of
+Scotland anybody who pleased could hear proclaimed aloud the names of
+parishioners doomed to perish within the next twelve months, if he would
+only take a three-legged stool and go and sit on it at three
+cross-roads, while the church clock was striking twelve at midnight on
+Hallowe'en. It was even in his power to save the destined victims from
+their doom by taking with him articles of wearing apparel and throwing
+them away, one by one, as each name was called out by the mysterious
+voice.[586]
+
+[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.]
+
+But while a glamour of mystery and awe has always clung to Hallowe'en in
+the minds of the Celtic peasantry, the popular celebration of the
+festival has been, at least in modern times, by no means of a
+prevailingly gloomy cast; on the contrary it has been attended by
+picturesque features and merry pastimes, which rendered it the gayest
+night of all the year. Amongst the things which in the Highlands of
+Scotland contributed to invest the festival with a romantic beauty were
+the bonfires which used to blaze at frequent intervals on the heights.
+"On the last day of autumn children gathered ferns, tar-barrels, the
+long thin stalks called _gàinisg_, and everything suitable for a
+bonfire. These were placed in a heap on some eminence near the house,
+and in the evening set fire to. The fires were called _Samhnagan_. There
+was one for each house, and it was an object of ambition who should have
+the biggest. Whole districts were brilliant with bonfires, and their
+glare across a Highland loch, and from many eminences, formed an
+exceedingly picturesque scene."[587] Like the Beltane fires on the first
+of May, the Hallowe'en bonfires seem to have been kindled most commonly
+in the Perthshire Highlands. Travelling in the parish of Moulin, near
+Pitlochrie, in the year 1772, the Englishman Thomas Pennant writes that
+"Hallow Eve is also kept sacred: as soon as it is dark, a person sets
+fire to a bush of broom fastened round a pole, and, attended with a
+crowd, runs about the village. He then flings it down, heaps great
+quantity of combustible matters on it, and makes a great bonfire. A
+whole tract is thus illuminated at the same time, and makes a fine
+appearance."[588] The custom has been described more fully by a
+Scotchman of the eighteenth century, John Ramsay of Ochtertyre. On the
+evening of Hallowe'en "the young people of every hamlet assembled upon
+some eminence near the houses. There they made a bonfire of ferns or
+other fuel, cut the same day, which from the feast was called _Samh-nag_
+or _Savnag_, a fire of rest and pleasure. Around it was placed a circle
+of stones, one for each person of the families to whom they belonged.
+And when it grew dark the bonfire was kindled, at which a loud shout was
+set up. Then each person taking a torch of ferns or sticks in his hand,
+ran round the fire exulting; and sometimes they went into the adjacent
+fields, where, if there was another company, they visited the bonfire,
+taunting the others if inferior in any respect to themselves. After the
+fire was burned out they returned home, where a feast was prepared, and
+the remainder of the evening was spent in mirth and diversions of
+various kinds. Next morning they repaired betimes to the bonfire, where
+the situation of the stones was examined with much attention. If any of
+them were misplaced, or if the print of a foot could be discerned near
+any particular stone, it was imagined that the person for whom it was
+set would not live out the year. Of late years this is less attended to,
+but about the beginning of the present century it was regarded as a sure
+prediction. The Hallowe'en fire is still kept up in some parts of the
+Low country; but on the western coast and in the Isles it is never
+kindled, though the night is spent in merriment and
+entertainments."[589] In the Perthshire parish of Callander, which
+includes the now famous pass of the Trossachs opening out on the winding
+and wooded shores of the lovely Loch Katrine, the Hallowe'en bonfires
+were still kindled down to near the end of the eighteenth century. When
+the fire had died down, the ashes were carefully collected in the form
+of a circle, and a stone was put in, near the circumference, for every
+person of the several families interested in the bonfire. Next morning,
+if any of these stones was found to be displaced or injured, the people
+made sure that the person represented by it was _fey_ or devoted, and
+that he could not live twelve months from that day.[590] In the parish
+of Logierait, which covers the beautiful valley of the Tummel, one of
+the fairest regions of all Scotland, the Hallowe'en fire was somewhat
+different. Faggots of heath, broom, and the dressings of flax were
+kindled and carried on poles by men, who ran with them round the
+villages, attended by a crowd. As soon as one faggot was burnt out, a
+fresh one was lighted and fastened to the pole. Numbers of these blazing
+faggots were often carried about together, and when the night happened
+to be dark, they formed a splendid illumination.[591]
+
+[Hallowe'en fires on Loch Tay; Hallowe'en fires at Balquhidder.]
+
+Nor did the Hallowe'en fires die out in Perthshire with the end of the
+eighteenth century. Journeying from Dunkeld to Aberfeldy on Hallowe'en
+in the first half of the nineteenth century, Sheriff Barclay counted
+thirty fires blazing on the hill tops, and saw the figures of the people
+dancing like phantoms round the flames.[592] Again, "in 1860, I was
+residing near the head of Loch Tay during the season of the Hallowe'en
+feast. For several days before Hallowe'en, boys and youths collected
+wood and conveyed it to the most prominent places on the hill sides in
+their neighbourhood. Some of the heaps were as large as a corn-stack or
+hayrick. After dark on Hallowe'en, these heaps were kindled, and for
+several hours both sides of Loch Tay were illuminated as far as the eye
+could see. I was told by old men that at the beginning of this century
+men as well as boys took part in getting up the bonfires, and that, when
+the fire was ablaze, all joined hands and danced round the fire, and
+made a great noise; but that, as these gatherings generally ended in
+drunkenness and rough and dangerous fun, the ministers set their faces
+against the observance, and were seconded in their efforts by the more
+intelligent and well-behaved in the community; and so the practice was
+discontinued by adults and relegated to school boys."[593] At
+Balquhidder down to the latter part of the nineteenth century each
+household kindled its bonfire at Hallowe'en, but the custom was chiefly
+observed by children. The fires were lighted on any high knoll near the
+house; there was no dancing round them.[594]
+
+[Hallowe'en fires in Buchan to burn the witches; processions with
+torches at Hallowe'en in the Braemar Highlands.]
+
+Hallowe'en fires were also lighted in some districts of the north-east
+of Scotland, such as Buchan. Villagers and farmers alike must have their
+fire. In the villages the boys went from house to house and begged a
+peat from each householder, usually with the words, "Ge's a peat t' burn
+the witches." In some villages the lads collected the peats in a cart,
+some of them drawing it along and the others receiving the peats and
+loading them on the cart. Along with the peats they accumulated straw,
+furze, potato haulm, everything that would burn quickly, and when they
+had got enough they piled it all in a heap and set it on fire. Then each
+of the youths, one after another, laid himself down on the ground as
+near to the fire as he could without being scorched, and thus lying
+allowed the smoke to roll over him. The others ran through the smoke and
+jumped over their prostrate comrade. When the heap was burned down, they
+scattered the ashes. Each one took a share in this part of the ceremony,
+giving a kick first with the right foot and then with the left; and each
+vied with the other who should scatter the most. After that some of them
+still continued to run through the scattered ashes and to pelt each
+other with the half-burned peats. At each farm a spot as high as
+possible, not too near the steading, was chosen for the fire, and the
+proceedings were much the same as at the village bonfire. The lads of
+one farm, when their own fire was burned down and the ashes scattered,
+sometimes went to a neighbouring fire and helped to kick the ashes
+about.[595] Referring to this part of Scotland, a writer at the end of
+the eighteenth century observes that "the Hallow-even fire, another
+relict of druidism, was kindled in Buchan. Various magic ceremonies were
+then celebrated to counteract the influence of witches and demons, and
+to prognosticate to the young their success or disappointment in the
+matrimonial lottery. These being devoutly finished, the hallow fire was
+kindled, and guarded by the male part of the family. Societies were
+formed, either by pique or humour, to scatter certain fires, and the
+attack and defence were often conducted with art and with fury."[596]
+Down to about the middle of the nineteenth century "the Braemar
+Highlanders made the circuit of their fields with lighted torches at
+Hallowe'en to ensure their fertility in the coming year. At that date
+the custom was as follows: Every member of the family (in those days
+households were larger than they are now) was provided with a bundle of
+fir 'can'les' with which to go the round. The father and mother stood at
+the hearth and lit the splints in the peat fire, which they passed to
+the children and servants, who trooped out one after the other, and
+proceeded to tread the bounds of their little property, going slowly
+round at equal distances apart, and invariably with the sun. To go
+'withershins' seems to have been reserved for cursing and
+excommunication. When the fields had thus been circumambulated the
+remaining spills were thrown together in a heap and allowed to burn
+out."[597]
+
+[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.]
+
+In the Highlands of Scotland, as the evening of Hallowe'en wore on,
+young people gathered in one of the houses and resorted to an almost
+endless variety of games, or rather forms of divination, for the purpose
+of ascertaining the future fate of each member of the company. Were they
+to marry or remain single, was the marriage to take place that year or
+never, who was to be married first, what sort of husband or wife she or
+he was to get, the name, the trade, the colour of the hair, the amount
+of property of the future spouse--these were questions that were eagerly
+canvassed and the answers to them furnished never-failing
+entertainment.[598] Nor were these modes of divination at Hallowe'en
+confined to the Highlands, where the bonfires were kindled; they were
+practised with equal faith and in practically the same forms in the
+Lowlands, as we learn, for example, from Burns's poem _Hallowe'en_,
+which describes the auguries drawn from a variety of omens by the
+Ayrshire peasantry. These Lowlanders of Saxon descent may well have
+inherited the rites from the Celts who preceded them in the possession
+of the south country. A common practice at Hallowe'en was to go out
+stealthily to a neighbour's kailyard and there, with shut eyes, to pull
+up the first kail stock that came to hand. It was necessary that the
+plants should be stolen without the knowledge or consent of their owner;
+otherwise they were quite useless for the purpose of divination.
+Strictly speaking, too, the neighbour upon whose garden the raid was
+made should be unmarried, whether a bachelor or a spinster. The stolen
+kail was taken home and examined, and according to its height, shape,
+and features would be the height, shape, and features of the future
+husband or wife. The taste of the _custock_, that is, the heart of the
+stem, was an infallible indication of his or her temper; and a clod of
+earth adhering to the root signified, in proportion to its size, the
+amount of property which he or she would bring to the common stock. Then
+the kail-stock or _runt_, as it was called in Ayrshire, was placed over
+the lintel of the door; and the baptismal name of the young man or woman
+who first entered the door after the kail was in position would be the
+baptismal name of the husband or wife.[599] Again, young women sowed
+hemp seed over nine ridges of ploughed land, saying, "I sow hemp seed,
+and he who is to be my husband, let him come and harrow it." On looking
+back over her left shoulder the girl would see the figure of her future
+mate behind her in the darkness. In the north-east of Scotland lint seed
+was used instead of hemp seed and answered the purpose quite as
+well.[600] Again, a mode of ascertaining your future husband or wife was
+this. Take a clue of blue yarn and go to a lime-kiln. Throw the clue
+into the kiln, but keep one end of the thread in your hand and wind it
+on to another clue. As you come near the end somebody or something will
+hold the other end tight in the kiln. Then you call out, "Who holds?"
+giving the thread at the same time a gentle pull. Some one or something
+will thereupon pull the other end of the thread, and a voice will
+mention the name of your future husband or wife.[601] Another way is
+this. Go to the barn alone and secretly. Be sure to open both doors and
+if possible take them off their hinges; for if the being who is about to
+appear should catch you in the barn and clap the doors to on you, he or
+she might do you a mischief. Having done this, take the sieve or
+winnowing-basket, which in Lowland Scotch is called a _wecht_ or
+_waicht_, and go through the action of winnowing corn. Repeat it thrice,
+and at the third time the apparition of your future husband or wife will
+pass through the barn, entering at the windy door and passing out at the
+other.[602] Or this. Go to a southward running stream, where the lands
+of three lairds meet, or to a ford where the dead and living have
+crossed. Dip the left sleeve of your shirt in the water. Then go home,
+take off the shirt, hang it up before a fire to dry, and go to bed,
+taking care that the bed stands so that you can see your shirt hanging
+before the fire. Keep awake, and at midnight you will see the form of
+your future spouse come into the room and turn the other side of the
+sleeve to the fire to dry it.[603] A Highland form of divination at
+Hallowe'en is to take a shoe by the tip and throw it over the house,
+then observe the direction in which the toe points as it lies on the
+ground on the other side; for in that direction you are destined to go
+before long. If the shoe should fall sole uppermost, it is very unlucky
+for you.[604]
+
+[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.]
+
+These ways of prying into the future are practised outside of the house;
+others are observed in the kitchen or the parlour before the cheerful
+blaze of the fire. Thus the white of eggs, dropped in a glass of pure
+water, indicates by certain marks how many children a person will have.
+The impatience and clamour of the children, eager to ascertain the exact
+number of their future progeny, often induced the housewife to perform
+this ceremony for them by daylight; and the kindly mother, standing with
+her face to the window, dropping the white of an egg into a crystal
+glass of clean water, and surrounded by a group of children intently
+watching her proceedings, made up a pretty picture.[605] When the fun of
+the evening had fairly commenced, the names of eligible or likely
+matches were written on the chimney-piece, and the young man who wished
+to try his fortune was led up blindfolded to the list. Whatever name he
+put his finger on would prove that of his future wife.[606] Again, two
+nuts, representing a lad and a lass whose names were announced to the
+company, were put side by side in the fire. If they burned quietly
+together, the pair would be man and wife, and from the length of time
+they burned and the brightness of the flame the length and happiness of
+the married life of the two were augured. But if instead of burning
+together one of the nuts leaped away from the other, then there would be
+no marriage, and the blame would rest with the person whose nut had thus
+started away by itself.[607] Again, a dish of milk and meal (in Gaelic
+_fuarag_, in Lowland Scotch _crowdie_) or of beat potatoes was made and
+a ring was hidden in it. Spoons were served out to the company, who
+supped the contents of the dish hastily with them, and the one who got
+the ring would be the first to be married.[608] Again, apples and a
+silver sixpence were put in a tub of water; the apples naturally floated
+on the top and the sixpence sank to the bottom. Whoever could lift an
+apple or the sixpence from the water with his mouth, without using his
+teeth, was counted very lucky and got the prize to himself.[609] Again,
+three plates or basins were placed on the hearth. One was filled with
+clean water, another with dirty water, and the third was empty. The
+enquirer was blindfolded, knelt in front of the hearth, and groped about
+till he put his finger in one of them. If he lighted on the plate with
+the clean water, he would wed a maid; if on the plate with the dirty
+water, he would marry a widow; and if on the empty plate, he would
+remain a bachelor. For a girl the answer of the oracle was analogous;
+she would marry a bachelor, a widower, or nobody according to the plate
+into which she chanced to dip her finger. But to make sure, the
+operation had to be repeated thrice, the position of the plates being
+changed each time. If the enquirer put his or her finger into the same
+plate thrice or even twice, it was quite conclusive.[610]
+
+[The sliced apple; the white of egg in water; the salt cake or salt
+herring.]
+
+These forms of divination in the house were practised by the company in
+a body; but the following had to be performed by the person alone. You
+took an apple and stood with it in your hand in front of a
+looking-glass. Then you sliced the apple, stuck each slice on the point
+of the knife, and held it over your left shoulder, while you looked into
+the glass and combed your hair. The spectre of your future husband would
+then appear in the mirror stretching forth his hand to take the slices
+of the apple over your shoulder. Some say that the number of slices
+should be nine, that you should eat the first eight yourself, and only
+throw the ninth over your left shoulder for your husband; also that at
+each slice you should say, "In the name of the Father and the Son."[611]
+Again, take an egg, prick it with a pin, and let the white drop into a
+wine-glass nearly full of water. Take some of this in your mouth and go
+out for a walk. The first name you hear called out aloud will be that of
+your future husband or wife. An old woman told a lady that she had tried
+this mode of divination in her youth, that the name of Archibald "came
+up as it were from the very ground," and that Archibald sure enough was
+the name of her husband.[612] In South Uist and Eriskay, two of the
+outer Hebrides, a salt cake called _Bonnach Salainn_ is eaten at
+Hallowe'en to induce dreams that will reveal the future. It is baked of
+common meal with a great deal of salt. After eating it you may not drink
+water nor utter a word, not even to say your prayers. A salt herring,
+eaten bones and all in three bites, is equally efficacious, always
+provided that you drink no water and hold your tongue.[613]
+
+[Hallowe'en fires in Wales; omens drawn from stones thrown into the
+fire; divination by stones in the ashes.]
+
+In the northern part of Wales it used to be customary for every family
+to make a great bonfire called _Coel Coeth_ on Hallowe'en. The fire was
+kindled on the most conspicuous spot near the house; and when it had
+nearly gone out everyone threw into the ashes a white stone, which he
+had first marked. Then having said their prayers round the fire, they
+went to bed. Next morning, as soon as they were up, they came to search
+out the stones, and if any one of them was found to be missing, they had
+a notion that the person who threw it would die before he saw another
+Hallowe'en.[614] A writer on Wales at the beginning of the nineteenth
+century says that "the autumnal fire is still kindled in North Wales,
+being on the eve of the first day of November, and is attended by many
+ceremonies; such as running through the fire and smoke, each casting a
+stone into the fire, and all running off at the conclusion to escape
+from the black short-tailed sow; then supping upon parsnips, nuts, and
+apples; catching up an apple suspended by a string with the mouth alone,
+and the same by an apple in a tub of water: each throwing a nut into the
+fire; and those that burn bright, betoken prosperity to the owners
+through the following year, but those that burn black and crackle,
+denote misfortune. On the following morning the stones are searched for
+in the fire, and if any be missing, they betide ill to those who threw
+them in."[615] According to Sir John Rhys, the habit of celebrating
+Hallowe'en by lighting bonfires on the hills is perhaps not yet extinct
+in Wales, and men still living can remember how the people who assisted
+at the bonfires would wait till the last spark was out and then would
+suddenly take to their heels, shouting at the top of their voices, "The
+cropped black sow seize the hindmost!" The saying, as Sir John Rhys
+justly remarks, implies that originally one of the company became a
+victim in dead earnest. Down to the present time the saying is current
+in Carnarvonshire, where allusions to the cutty black sow are still
+occasionally made to frighten children.[616] We can now understand why
+in Lower Brittany every person throws a pebble into the midsummer
+bonfire.[617] Doubtless there, as in Wales and the Highlands of
+Scotland,[618] omens of life and death have at one time or other been
+drawn from the position and state of the pebbles on the morning of All
+Saints' Day. The custom, thus found among three separate branches of the
+Celtic stock, probably dates from a period before their dispersion, or
+at least from a time when alien races had not yet driven home the wedges
+of separation between them.
+
+[Divination as to love and marriage at Hallowe'en in Wales.]
+
+In Wales, as in Scotland, Hallowe'en was also the great season for
+forecasting the future in respect of love and marriage, and some of the
+forms of divination employed for this purpose resembled those which were
+in use among the Scotch peasantry. Two girls, for example, would make a
+little ladder of yarn, without breaking it from the ball, and having
+done so they would throw it out of the window. Then one of the girls,
+holding the ball in her hand, would wind the yarn back, repeating a
+rhyme in Welsh. This she did thrice, and as she wound the yarn she would
+see her future husband climbing up the little ladder. Again, three bowls
+or basins were placed on a table. One of them contained clean water, one
+dirty water, and one was empty. The girls of the household, and
+sometimes the boys too, then eagerly tried their fortunes. They were
+blindfolded, led up to the table, and dipped their hands into a bowl. If
+they happened to dip into the clean water, they would marry maidens or
+bachelors; if into the dirty water, they would be widowers or widows; if
+into the empty bowl, they would live unmarried. Again, if a girl,
+walking backwards, would place a knife among the leeks on Hallowe'en,
+she would see her future husband come and pick up the knife and throw it
+into the middle of the garden.[619]
+
+[Divination at Hallowe'en in Ireland.]
+
+In Ireland the Hallowe'en bonfires would seem to have died out, but the
+Hallowe'en divination has survived. Writing towards the end of the
+eighteenth century, General Vallancey tells us that on Hallowe'en or the
+vigil of Saman, as he calls it, "the peasants in Ireland assemble with
+sticks and clubs (the emblems of laceration) going from house to house,
+collecting money, bread-cake, butter, cheese, eggs, etc., etc., for the
+feast, repeating verses in honour of the solemnity, demanding
+preparations for the festival, in the name of St. Columb Kill, desiring
+them to lay aside the fatted calf, and to bring forth the black sheep.
+The good women are employed in making the griddle cake and candles;
+these last are sent from house to house in the vicinity, and are lighted
+up on the (Saman) next day, before which they pray, or are supposed to
+pray, for the departed souls of the donor. Every house abounds in the
+best viands they can afford: apples and nuts are devoured in abundance:
+the nut-shells are burnt, and from the ashes many strange things are
+foretold: cabbages are torn up by the root: hemp seed is sown by the
+maidens, and they believe, that if they look back, they will see the
+apparition of the man intended for their future spouse: they hang a
+smock before the fire, on the close of the feast, and sit up all night,
+concealed in a corner of the room, convinced that his apparition will
+come down the chimney and turn the smock: they throw a ball of yarn out
+of the window, and wind it on the reel within, convinced, that if they
+repeat the _Pater Noster_ backwards, and look at the ball of yarn
+without, they will then also see his _sith_ or apparition: they dip for
+apples in a tub of water, and endeavour to bring one up in the mouth:
+they suspend a cord with a cross-stick, with apples at one point, and
+candles lighted at the other, and endeavour to catch the apple, while it
+is in a circular motion, in the mouth. These, and many other
+superstitious ceremonies, the remains of Druidism, are observed on this
+holiday, which will never be eradicated, while the name of _Saman_ is
+permitted to remain."[620]
+
+[Divination at Hallow-e'en in Queen's County; divination at Hallow-e'en
+in County Leitrim; divination at Hallowe'en in County Roscommon.]
+
+In Queen's County, Ireland, down to the latter part of the nineteenth
+century children practised various of these rites of divination on
+Hallowe'en. Girls went out into the garden blindfold and pulled up
+cabbages: if the cabbage was well grown, the girl would have a handsome
+husband, but if it had a crooked stalk, the future spouse would be a
+stingy old man. Nuts, again, were placed in pairs on the bar of the
+fire, and from their behaviour omens were drawn of the fate in love and
+marriage of the couple whom they represented. Lead, also, was melted and
+allowed to drop into a tub of cold water, and from the shapes which it
+assumed in the water predictions were made to the children of their
+future destiny. Again, apples were bobbed for in a tub of water and
+brought up with the teeth; or a stick was hung from a hook with an apple
+at one end and a candle at the other, and the stick being made to
+revolve you made a bite at the apple and sometimes got a mouthful of
+candle instead.[621] In County Leitrim, also, down to near the end of
+the nineteenth century various forms of divination were practised at
+Hallowe'en. Girls ascertained the character of their future husbands by
+the help of cabbages just as in Queen's County. Again, if a girl found a
+branch of a briar-thorn which had bent over and grown into the ground so
+as to form a loop, she would creep through the loop thrice late in the
+evening in the devil's name, then cut the briar and put it under her
+pillow, all without speaking a word. Then she would lay her head on the
+pillow and dream of the man she was to marry. Boys, also, would dream in
+like manner of love and marriage at Hallowe'en, if only they would
+gather ten leaves of ivy without speaking, throw away one, and put the
+other nine under their pillow. Again, divination was practised by means
+of a cake called _barm-breac_, in which a nut and a ring were baked.
+Whoever got the ring would be married first; whoever got the nut would
+marry a widow or a widower; but if the nut were an empty shell, he or
+she would remain unwed. Again, a girl would take a clue of worsted, go
+to a lime kiln in the gloaming, and throw the clew into the kiln in the
+devil's name, while she held fast the other end of the thread. Then she
+would rewind the thread and ask, "Who holds my clue?" and the name of
+her future husband would come up from the depth of the kiln. Another way
+was to take a rake, go to a rick and walk round it nine times, saying,
+"I rake this rick in the devil's name." At the ninth time the wraith of
+your destined partner for life would come and take the rake out of your
+hand. Once more, before the company separated for the night, they would
+rake the ashes smooth on the hearth, and search them next morning for
+tracks, from which they judged whether anybody should come to the house,
+or leave it, or die in it before another year was out.[622] In County
+Roscommon, which borders on County Leitrim, a cake is made in nearly
+every house on Hallowe'en, and a ring, a coin, a sloe, and a chip of
+wood are put into it. Whoever gets the coin will be rich; whoever gets
+the ring will be married first; whoever gets the chip of wood, which
+stands for a coffin, will die first; and whoever gets the sloe will live
+longest, because the fairies blight the sloes in the hedges on
+Hallowe'en, so that the sloe in the cake will be the last of the year.
+Again, on the same mystic evening girls take nine grains of oats in
+their mouths, and going out without speaking walk about till they hear a
+man's name pronounced; it will be the name of their future husband. In
+County Roscommon, too, on Hallowe'en there is the usual dipping in water
+for apples or sixpences, and the usual bites at a revolving apple and
+tallow candle.[623]
+
+[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
+
+"_Noght oie howney hop-dy-naw_,"
+
+that is to say, "This is Hollantide Eve." For Hollantide is the Manx way
+of expressing the old English _All hallowen tide_, that is, All Saints'
+Day, the first of November. But as the people reckon this festival
+according to the Old Style, Hollantide in the Isle of Man is our twelfth
+of November. The native Manx name for the day is _Sauin_ or _Laa
+Houney_. Potatoes, parsnips and fish, pounded up together and mixed with
+butter, formed the proper evening meal (_mrastyr_) on Hallowe'en in the
+Isle of Man.[624] Here, too, as in Scotland forms of divination are
+practised by some people on this important evening. For example, the
+housewife fills a thimble full of salt for each member of the family and
+each guest; the contents of the thimblefuls are emptied out in as many
+neat little piles on a plate, and left there over night. Next morning
+the piles are examined, and if any of them has fallen down, he or she
+whom it represents will die within the year. Again, the women carefully
+sweep out the ashes from under the fireplace and flatten them down
+neatly on the open hearth. If they find next morning a footprint turned
+towards the door, it signifies a death in the family within the year;
+but if the footprint is turned in the opposite direction, it bodes a
+marriage. Again, divination by eavesdropping is practised in the Isle of
+Man in much the same way as in Scotland. You go out with your mouth full
+of water and your hands full of salt and listen at a neighbour's door,
+and the first name you hear will be the name of your husband. Again,
+Manx maids bandage their eyes and grope about the room till they dip
+their hands in vessels full of clean or dirty water, and so on; and from
+the thing they touch they draw corresponding omens. But some people in
+the Isle of Man observe these auguries, not on Hallowe'en or Hollantide
+Eve, as they call it, which was the old Manx New Year's Eve, but on the
+modern New Year's Eve, that is, on the thirty-first of December. The
+change no doubt marks a transition from the ancient to the modern mode
+of dating the beginning of the year.[625]
+
+[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.]
+
+In Lancashire, also, some traces of the old Celtic celebration of
+Hallowe'en have been reported in modern times. It is said that "fires
+are still lighted in Lancashire, on Hallowe'en, under the name of
+Beltains or Teanlas; and even such cakes as the Jews are said to have
+made in honour of the Queen of Heaven, are yet to be found at this
+season amongst the inhabitants of the banks of the Ribble.... Both the
+fires and the cakes, however, are now connected with superstitious
+notions respecting Purgatory, etc."[626] On Hallowe'en, too, the
+Lancashire maiden "strews the ashes which are to take the form of one or
+more letters of her lover's name; she throws hemp-seed over her shoulder
+and timidly glances to see who follows her."[627] Again, witches in
+Lancashire used to gather on Hallowe'en at the Malkin Tower, a ruined
+and desolate farm-house in the forest of Pendle. They assembled for no
+good purpose; but you could keep the infernal rout at bay by carrying a
+lighted candle about the fells from eleven to twelve o'clock at night.
+The witches tried to blow out the candle, and if they succeeded, so much
+the worse for you; but if the flame burned steadily till the clocks had
+struck midnight, you were safe. Some people performed the ceremony by
+deputy; and parties went about from house to house in the evening
+collecting candles, one for each inmate, and offering their services to
+_late_ or _leet_ the witches, as the phrase ran. This custom was
+practised at Longridge Fell in the early part of the nineteenth
+century.[628] In Northumberland on Hallowe'en omens of marriage were
+drawn from nuts thrown into the fire; and the sports of ducking for
+apples and biting at a revolving apple and lighted candle were also
+practised on that evening.[629] The equivalent of the Hallowe'en
+bonfires is reported also from France. We are told that in the
+department of Deux-Sèvres, which forms part of the old province of
+Poitou, young people used to assemble in the fields on All Saints' Day
+(the first of November) and kindle great fires of ferns, thorns, leaves,
+and stubble, at which they roasted chestnuts. They also danced round the
+fires and indulged in noisy pastimes.[630]
+
+
+§ 7. _The Midwinter Fires_
+
+
+[A Midwinter festival of fire; Christmas the continuation of an old
+heathen festival of the sun.]
+
+If the heathen of ancient Europe celebrated, as we have good reason to
+believe, the season of Midsummer with a great festival of fire, of which
+the traces have survived in many places down to our own time, it is
+natural to suppose that they should have observed with similar rites the
+corresponding season of Midwinter; for Midsummer and Midwinter, or, in
+more technical language, the summer solstice and the winter solstice,
+are the two great turning-points in the sun's apparent course through
+the sky, and from the standpoint of primitive man nothing might seem
+more appropriate than to kindle fires on earth at the two moments when
+the fire and heat of the great luminary in heaven begin to wane or to
+wax. In this way the savage philosopher, to whose meditations on the
+nature of things we owe many ancient customs and ceremonies, might
+easily imagine that he helped the labouring sun to relight his dying
+lamp, or at all events to blow up the flame into a brighter blaze.
+Certain it is that the winter solstice, which the ancients erroneously
+assigned to the twenty-fifth of December, was celebrated in antiquity as
+the Birthday of the Sun, and that festal lights or fires were kindled on
+this joyful occasion. Our Christmas festival is nothing but a
+continuation under a Christian name of this old solar festivity; for the
+ecclesiastical authorities saw fit, about the end of the third or the
+beginning of the fourth century, arbitrarily to transfer the nativity of
+Christ from the sixth of January to the twenty-fifth of December, for
+the purpose of diverting to their Lord the worship which the heathen had
+hitherto paid on that day to the sun.[631]
+
+[The Yule log is the Midwinter counterpart of the Midsummer bonfire.]
+
+In modern Christendom the ancient fire-festival of the winter solstice
+appears to survive, or to have survived down to recent years, in the old
+custom of the Yule log, clog, or block, as it was variously called in
+England.[632] The custom was widespread in Europe, but seems to have
+flourished especially in England, France, and among the South Slavs; at
+least the fullest accounts of the custom come from these quarters. That
+the Yule log was only the winter counterpart of the Midsummer bonfire,
+kindled within doors instead of in the open air on account of the cold
+and inclement weather of the season, was pointed out long ago by our
+English antiquary John Brand;[633] and the view is supported by the many
+quaint superstitions attaching to the Yule log, superstitions which have
+no apparent connexion with Christianity but carry their heathen origin
+plainly stamped upon them. But while the two solstitial celebrations
+were both festivals of fire, the necessity or desirability of holding
+the winter celebration within doors lent it the character of a private
+or domestic festivity, which contrasts strongly with the publicity of
+the summer celebration, at which the people gathered on some open space
+or conspicuous height, kindled a huge bonfire in common, and danced and
+made merry round it together.
+
+[The Yule log in Germany; the Yule log in Switzerland.]
+
+Among the Germans the custom of the Yule log is known to have been
+observed in the eleventh century; for in the year 1184 the parish priest
+of Ahlen, in Münsterland, spoke of "bringing a tree to kindle the festal
+fire at the Lord's Nativity."[634] Down to about the middle of the
+nineteenth century the old rite was kept up in some parts of central
+Germany, as we learn from an account of it given by a contemporary
+writer. After mentioning the custom of feeding the cattle and shaking
+the fruit-trees on Christmas night, to make them bear fruit, he goes on
+as follows: "Other customs pointing back to the far-off times of
+heathendom may still be met with among the old-fashioned peasants of the
+mountain regions. Such is in the valleys of the Sieg and Lahn the
+practice of laying a new log as a foundation of the hearth. A heavy
+block of oak-wood, generally a stump grubbed up from the ground, is
+fitted either into the floor of the hearth, or into a niche made for the
+purpose in the wall under the hook on which the kettle hangs. When the
+fire on the hearth glows, this block of wood glows too, but it is so
+placed that it is hardly reduced to ashes within a year. When the new
+foundation is laid, the remains of the old block are carefully taken
+out, ground to powder, and strewed over the fields during the Twelve
+Nights. This, so people fancied, promotes the fruitfulness of the year's
+crops."[635] In some parts of the Eifel Mountains, to the west of
+Coblentz, a log of wood called the _Christbrand_ used to be placed on
+the hearth on Christmas Eve; and the charred remains of it on Twelfth
+Night were put in the corn-bin to keep the mice from devouring the
+corn.[636] At Weidenhausen and Girkshausen, in Westphalia, the practice
+was to withdraw the Yule log (_Christbrand_) from the fire so soon as it
+was slightly charred; it was then kept carefully to be replaced on the
+fire whenever a thunder-storm broke, because the people believed that
+lightning would not strike a house in which the Yule log was
+smouldering.[637] In some villages near Berleburg in Westphalia the old
+custom was to tie up the Yule log in the last sheaf cut at harvest.[638]
+On Christmas Eve the peasantry of the Oberland, in Meiningen, a province
+of Central Germany, used to put a great block of wood called the
+_Christklots_ on the fire before they went to bed; it should burn all
+night, and the charred remains were believed to guard the house for the
+whole year against the risk of fire, burglary, and other
+misfortunes.[639] The Yule log seems to be known only in the
+French-speaking parts of Switzerland, where it goes by the usual French
+name of _Bûche de Noël_. In the Jura mountains of the canton of Bern,
+while the log is burning on the hearth the people sing a blessing over
+it as follows:--
+
+"_May the log burn!
+May all good come in!
+May the women have children
+And the sheep lambs!
+White bread for every one
+And the vat full of wine_!"
+
+The embers of the Yule log were kept carefully, for they were believed
+to be a protection against lightning.[640]
+
+[The Yule log in Belgium.]
+
+"The Christmas fires, which were formerly lit everywhere in the Low
+Countries, have fallen into disuse. But in Flanders a great log of wood,
+called the _kersavondblok_ and usually cut from the roots of a fir or a
+beech, is still put on the fire; all the lights in the house are
+extinguished, and the whole family gathers round the log to spend part
+of the night in singing, in telling stories, especially about ghosts,
+were-wolves, and so on, and also in drinking gin. At Grammont and in the
+neighbourhood of that town, where the Yule log is called _Kersmismot_,
+it is customary to set fire to the remainder of the gin at the moment
+when the log is reduced to ashes. Elsewhere a piece of the log is kept
+and put under the bed to protect the house against thunder and
+lightning. The charcoal of the log which burned during Christmas Night,
+if pounded up and mixed with water, is a cure for consumption. In the
+country of Limburg the log burns several nights, and the pounded
+charcoal is kept as a preventive (so they say), of toothache."[641]
+
+[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:--
+
+"_Let the log rejoice,
+To-morrow is the day of bread;
+Let all good enter here;
+Let the women bear children;
+Let the she-goats bring forth kids;
+Let the ewes drop lambs;
+Let there be much wheat and flour,
+And the vat full of wine_."
+
+Then the log was blessed by the smallest and youngest child of the
+house, who poured a glass of wine over it saying, _In nomine patris_,
+etc.; after which the log was set on the fire. The charcoal of the burnt
+wood was kept the whole year, and used as an ingredient in several
+remedies.[642]
+
+[French superstitions as to the Yule log.]
+
+Amongst the superstitions denounced by the same writer is "the belief
+that a log called the _trefoir_ or Christmas brand, which you put on the
+fire for the first time on Christmas Eve and continue to put on the fire
+for a little while every day till Twelfth Night, can, if kept under the
+bed, protect the house for a whole year from fire and thunder; that it
+can prevent the inmates from having chilblains on their heels in winter;
+that it can cure the cattle of many maladies; that if a piece of it be
+steeped in the water which cows drink it helps them to calve; and lastly
+that if the ashes of the log be strewn on the fields it can save the
+wheat from mildew."[643]
+
+[The Yule log at Marseilles and in Perigord; virtues ascribed to the
+charcoal and ashes of the burnt log; the Yule log in Berry.]
+
+In Marseilles the Yule log used to be a great block of oak, which went
+by the name of _calendeau_ or _calignau_; it was sprinkled with wine and
+oil, and the head of the house kindled it himself.[644] "The Yule log
+plays a great part at the festival of the winter solstice in Perigord.
+The countryman thinks that it is best made of plum-tree, cherry, or oak,
+and that the larger it is the better. If it burns well, it is a good
+omen, the blessing of heaven rests upon it. The charcoal and ashes,
+which are collected very carefully, are excellent for healing swollen
+glands; the part of the trunk which has not been burnt in the fire is
+used by ploughmen to make the wedge (_técoin ou cale_) for their plough,
+because they allege that it causes the seeds to thrive better; and the
+women keep pieces of it till Twelfth Night for the sake of their
+chickens. Nevertheless if you sit down on the log, you become subject to
+boils, and to cure yourself of them you must pass nine times under a
+bramble branch which happens to be rooted in the ground at both ends.
+The charcoal heals sheep of a disease called the _goumon_; and the
+ashes, carefully wrapt up in white linen, preserve the whole household
+from accidents. Some people think that they will have as many chickens
+as there are sparks that fly out of the brands of the log when they
+shake them; and others place the extinct brands under the bed to drive
+away vermin. In Vienne, on Christmas Eve, when supper is over, the
+master of the house has a great log--the Christmas brand--brought in,
+and then, surrounded by all the spectators gathered in profound silence,
+he sprinkles salt and water on the log. It is then put on the fire to
+burn during the three festivals; but they carefully preserve a piece to
+be kindled every time that it thunders."[645] In Berry, a district of
+Central France, the Yule log was called the _cosse de Nau_, the last
+word being an abbreviation of the usual French word for Christmas
+(Noël). It consisted of an enormous tree-trunk, so heavy that the united
+strength of several men was needed to carry it in and place it on the
+hearth, where it served to feed the fire during the three days of the
+Christmas festivity. Strictly speaking, it should be the trunk of an old
+oak-tree which had never been lopped and had been felled at midnight. It
+was placed on the hearth at the moment when the tinkle of the bell
+announced the elevation of the host at the midnight mass; and the head
+of the family, after sprinkling it with holy water, set it on fire. The
+remains of the log were preserved till the same day next year. They were
+kept under the bed of the master of the house; and whenever thunder was
+heard, one of the family would take a piece of the log and throw it on
+the fire, which was believed to guard the family against lightning. In
+the Middle Ages, we are told, several fiefs were granted on condition
+that the vassal should bring in person a Yule log every year for the
+hearth of his liege lord.[646]
+
+[The Yule log in Normandy and Brittany.]
+
+Similar customs and beliefs survived till recent years in some of the
+remote country villages of the picturesque district known as the Bocage
+of Normandy. There it was the grandfather or other oldest man of the
+family who chose the Yule log in good time and had it ready for
+Christmas Eve. Then he placed it on the hearth at the moment when the
+church bell began to ring for the evening service. Kneeling reverently
+at the hearth with the members of his family in a like attitude of
+devotion, the old man recited three _Pater Nosters_ and three _Aves_,
+and invoked the blessing of heaven on the log and on the cottage. Then
+at the sound of the bell which proclaimed the sacrament of the mass, or,
+if the church was too far off to allow the tinkle of the bell to be
+heard, at the moment when they judged that the priest was elevating the
+host before the high altar, the patriarch sprinkled the burning log with
+holy water, blessed it in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
+the Holy Ghost, and drew it out of the fire. The charred log was then
+carefully kept till the following Christmas as a precious relic which
+would guard the house against the levin bolt, evil spirits, sorcerers,
+and every misfortune that might befall in the course of the year.[647]
+In the department of Orne "the Yule-log is called _trefouet_; holy water
+is poured on it; it should last the three days of the festival, and the
+remains of it are kept to be put on the fire when it thunders. This
+brand is a protection both against thunder and against sorcerers."[648]
+In Upper Brittany, also, the Yule log is thought to be a safeguard
+against thunder and lightning. It is sprinkled with holy water on
+Christmas morning and allowed to burn till evening. If a piece of it is
+thrown into the well, it will ensure a supply of good water.[649]
+
+[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,
+
+'_When Christmas comes,
+Every one should rejoice,
+For it is a New Covenant_.'
+
+"Following the grandmother and joining in the song, the children and the
+rest of the family marched thrice round the log, which was as fine a log
+as could be got."[650] We can now, perhaps, understand why in Perigord
+people who sat on the Yule log suffered from boils,[651] and why in
+Lorraine young folks used to be warned that if they sat on it they would
+have the scab.[652] The reason probably was that the Virgin and child
+were supposed to be seated, invisible, upon the log and to resent the
+indignity of contact with mortal children.
+
+[The Yule log in the Vosges; the Yule log in Franche-Comté and
+Burgundy.]
+
+On Christmas Eve the mountaineers of Rupt, in the Vosges, also never
+fail to put on the hearth the largest log which the hearth can hold;
+they call it _la galeuche de Noë_, that is, the Yule log. Next morning
+they rake the ashes for any charred fragments and keep them as valuable
+talismans to guard them against the stroke of lightning. At Vagney and
+other places near it in the Vosges it used to be customary on the same
+evening to grease the hinges and the latches of the doors, that no harsh
+grating sound should break the slumbers of the infant Christ. In the
+Vosges Mountains, too, as indeed in many other places, cattle acquired
+the gift of speech on Christmas Eve and conversed with each other in the
+language of Christians. Their conversation was, indeed, most
+instructive; for the future, it seems, had no secret worth mentioning
+for them. Yet few people cared to be caught eavesdropping at the byre;
+wise folk contented themselves with setting a good store of fodder in
+the manger, then shut the door, and left the animals to their
+ruminations. A farmer of Vecoux once hid in a corner of the byre to
+overhear the edifying talk of the beasts. But it did him little good;
+for one ox said to another ox, "What shall we do to-morrow?" and the
+other replied, "We shall carry our master to the churchyard." Sure
+enough the farmer died that very night and was buried next morning.[653]
+In Franche-Comté, the province of France to the west of the Jura
+mountains, if the Yule log is really to protect a house against thunder
+and lightning, it is essential that it should burn during the midnight
+mass, and that the flame should not go out before the divine service is
+concluded. Otherwise the log is quite useless for the purpose.[654] In
+Burgundy the log which is placed on the fire on Christmas Eve is called
+the _suche_. While it is burning, the father of the family, assisted by
+his wife and children, sings Christmas carols; and when he has finished,
+he tells the smallest children to go into a corner of the room and pray
+God that the log may give them sweeties. The prayer is invariably
+answered.[655]
+
+[The Yule log and the Yule candle in England.]
+
+In England the customs and beliefs concerning the Yule log, clog, or
+block, as it was variously called, used to be similar. On the night of
+Christmas Eve, says the antiquary John Brand, "our ancestors were wont
+to light up candles of an uncommon size, called Christmas Candles, and
+lay a log of wood upon the fire, called a Yule-clog or Christmas-block,
+to illuminate the house, and, as it were, to turn night into day. This
+custom is, in some measure, still kept up in the North of England. In
+the buttery of St. John's College, Oxford, an ancient candle-socket of
+stone still remains ornamented with the figure of the Holy Lamb. It was
+formerly used to burn the Christmas Candle in, on the high table at
+supper, during the twelve nights of that festival."[656] "A tall mould
+candle, called a Yule candle, is lighted and set on the table; these
+candles are presented by the chandlers and grocers to their customers.
+The Yule-log is bought of the carpenters' lads. It would be unlucky to
+light either of them before the time, or to stir the fire or candle
+during the supper; the candle must not be snuffed, neither must any one
+stir from the table till supper is ended. In these suppers it is
+considered unlucky to have an odd number at table. A fragment of the log
+is occasionally saved, and put under a bed, to remain till next
+Christmas: it secures the house from fire; a small piece of it thrown
+into a fire occurring at the house of a neighbour, will quell the raging
+flame. A piece of the candle should likewise be kept to ensure good
+luck."[657] In the seventeenth century, as we learn from some verses of
+Herrick, the English custom was to light the Yule log with a fragment of
+its predecessor, which had been kept throughout the year for the
+purpose; where it was so kept, the fiend could do no mischief.[658]
+Indeed the practice of preserving a piece of the Yule-log of one year to
+light that of the next was observed by at least one family at Cheadle in
+Staffordshire down to the latter part of the nineteenth century.[659]
+
+[The Yule-log in Yorkshire; the Yule log in Lincolnshire; the Yule log
+in Warwickshire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire; the Yule log in Wales.]
+
+In the North of England farm-servants used to lay by a large knotty
+block of wood for the Christmas fire, and so long as the block lasted
+they were entitled by custom to ale at their meals. The log was as large
+as the hearth could hold.[660] At Belford, in Northumberland, "the lord
+of the manor sends round to every house, on the afternoon of Christmas
+Eve, the Yule Logs--four or five large logs--to be burnt on Christmas
+Eve and Day. This old custom has always, I am told, been kept up
+here."[661] The custom of burning the Yule log at Christmas used to be
+observed in Wensleydale and other parts of Yorkshire, and prudent
+housewives carefully preserved pieces of the log throughout the year. At
+Whitby the portions so kept were stowed away under the bed till next
+Christmas, when they were burnt with the new log; in the interval they
+were believed to protect the house from conflagration, and if one of
+them were thrown into the fire, it would quell a raging storm.[662] The
+practice and the belief were similar at Filey on the coast of Yorkshire,
+where besides the Yule log a tall Yule candle was lit on the same
+evening.[663] In the West Riding, while the log blazed cheerfully, the
+people quaffed their ale and sang, "Yule! Yule! a pack of new cards and
+a Christmas stool!"[664] At Clee, in Lincolnshire, "when Christmas Eve
+has come the Yule cake is duly cut and the Yule log lit, and I know of
+some even middle-class houses where the new log must always rest upon
+and be lighted by the old one, a small portion of which has been
+carefully stored away to preserve a continuity of light and heat."[665]
+At the village of Wootton Wawen in Warwickshire, down to 1759 at least,
+the Yule-block, as it was called, was drawn into the house by a horse on
+Christmas Eve "as a foundation for the fire on Christmas Day, and
+according to the superstition of those times for the twelve days
+following, as the said block was not to be entirely reduced to ashes
+till that time had passed by."[666] As late as 1830, or thereabout, the
+scene of lighting the hearth-fire on Christmas Eve, to continue burning
+throughout the Christmas season, might have been witnessed in the
+secluded and beautiful hill-country of West Shropshire, from Chirbury
+and Worthen to Pulverbatch and Pontesbury. The Christmas brand or brund,
+as they called it, was a great trunk of seasoned oak, holly, yew, or
+crab-tree, drawn by horses to the farm-house door and thence rolled by
+means of rollers and levers to the back of the wide open hearth, where
+the fire was made up in front of it. The embers were raked up to it
+every night, and it was carefully tended, that it might not go out
+during the whole Christmas season. All those days no light might be
+struck, given, or borrowed. Such was the custom at Worthen in the early
+part of the nineteenth century.[667] In Herefordshire the Christmas
+feast "lasted for twelve days, and no work was done. All houses were,
+and are now, decorated with sprigs of holly and ivy, which must not be
+brought in until Christmas Eve. A Yule log, as large as the open hearth
+could accommodate, was brought into the kitchen of each farmhouse, and
+smaller ones were used in the cottages. W---- P---- said he had seen a
+tree drawn into the kitchen at Kingstone Grange years ago by two cart
+horses; when it had been consumed a small portion was carefully kept to
+be used for lighting next year's log. 'Mother always kept it very
+carefully; she said it was lucky, and kept the house from fire and from
+lightning.' It seems to have been the general practice to light it on
+Christmas Eve."[668] "In many parts of Wales it is still customary to
+keep part of the Yule-log until the following Christmas Eve 'for luck.'
+It is then put into the fireplace and burnt, but before it is consumed
+the new log is put on, and thus 'the old fire and the new' burn
+together. In some families this is done from force of habit, and they
+cannot now tell why they do it; but in the past the observance of this
+custom was to keep witches away, and doubtless was a survival of
+fire-worship."[669]
+
+[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.]
+
+At the moment when the sun is setting all the members of the family
+assemble in the central hall (the great family kitchen) of the principal
+house. The mother of the family (or the wife of the chief of the
+Zadrooga)[670] gives a pair of woollen gloves to one of the young men,
+who goes out and presently returns carrying in his gloved hands the
+largest of the logs. The mother receives him at the threshold, throwing
+at him a handful of wheat, in which the first chip of the oak tree cut
+in the early morning for the Yule log has been kept all day. Entering
+the central hall with the Yule log the young man greets all present with
+the words: "Good evening, and may you have a happy Christmas!" and they
+all answer in chorus, "May God and the happy and holy Christmas help
+thee!" In some parts of Servia the chief of the family, holding a glass
+of red wine in his hand, greets the Yule log as if it were a living
+person, and drinks to its health. After that, another glass of red wine
+is poured on the log. Then the oldest male member of the family,
+assisted by the young man who brought in the log, places it on the
+burning fire so that the thicker end of the log protrudes for about a
+foot from the hearth. In some places this end is smeared with honey.
+
+[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_).]
+
+All the family gathered round the blazing Yule log now anxiously expect
+the arrival of the special Christmas visiter, who bears the title of
+_polaznik_. He is usually a young boy of a friendly family. No other
+person, not even the priest or the mayor of the village, would be
+allowed to set foot in the house before the arrival of this important
+personage. Therefore he ought to come, and generally does come, very
+early in the morning. He carries a woollen glove full of wheat, and when
+the door is opened at his knock he throws handfuls of wheat on the
+family gathered round the hearth, greeting them with the words, "Christ
+is born!" They all answer, "He is born indeed," and the hostess flings a
+handful of wheat over the Christmas visiter, who moreover casts some of
+his wheat into the corners of the hall as well as upon the people. Then
+he walks straight to the hearth, takes a shovel and strikes the burning
+log so that a cloud of sparks flies up the chimney, while he says, "May
+you have this year so many oxen, so many horses, so many sheep, so many
+pigs, so many beehives full of honey, so much good luck, prosperity,
+progress, and happiness!" Having uttered these good wishes, he embraces
+and kisses his host. Then he turns again to the hearth, and after
+crossing himself falls on his knees and kisses the projecting part of
+the Yule log. On rising to his feet he places a coin on the log as his
+gift. Meanwhile a low wooden chair has been brought in by a woman, and
+the visiter is led to it to take his seat. But just as he is about to do
+so, the chair is jerked away from under him by a male member of the
+family and he measures his length on the floor. By this fall he is
+supposed to fix into the ground all the good wishes which he has uttered
+that morning. The hostess thereupon wraps him in a thick blanket, and he
+sits quietly muffled in it for a few minutes; the thick blanket in which
+he is swathed is believed, on the principles of homoeopathic magic, to
+ensure that the cows will give thick cream next year. While he sits thus
+enriching the milk of the dairy, the lads who are to herd the sheep in
+the coming year go to the hearth and kneeling down before it kiss each
+other across the projecting end of the Yule log. By this demonstration
+of affection they are thought to seal the love of the ewes for their
+lambs.[671]
+
+[The Yule log among the Servians of Slavonia; the Christmas visiter
+(_polazenik_).]
+
+The ritual of the Yule log is observed in a similar form by the Servians
+who inhabit the southern provinces of Austria. Thus in Syrmia, a
+district of Slavonia which borders on Servia, the head of the house
+sends out one or two young men on Christmas Eve to cut the Yule log in
+the nearest forest. On being brought in, the log is not mixed with the
+ordinary fuel but placed by itself, generally leaning against a
+fruit-tree till the evening shadows begin to fall. When a man carries it
+into the kitchen and lays it on the fire, the master of the house throws
+corn over him, and the two greet each other solemnly the one saying,
+"Christ is born," and the other answering "He is born indeed." Later in
+the evening the master of the house pours a glass of wine on the charred
+end of the log, whereupon one of the younger men takes the burnt piece
+of wood, carries it to the orchard, and sets it up against one of the
+fruit-trees. For this service he is rewarded by the master of the house
+with a piece of money. On Christmas Day, when the family is assembled at
+table, they expect the arrival of the special Christmas visiter (called
+_polazenik_), the only person who is allowed to enter the house that
+day. When he comes, he goes to the hearth, stirs the fire with the poker
+and says, "Christ is born. May the family enjoy all good luck and
+happiness in this year! May the cattle increase in number like the
+sparks I have struck!" As he says these words, the mistress of the house
+pours corn over him and leads him to the parlour, where he takes the
+place of honour beside the master of the house. He is treated with
+marked attention and respect. The family are at pains to entertain him;
+they sing their best songs for his amusement, and after midnight a
+numerous band of men and maidens escorts him by torchlight, with songs
+and jubilation, to his own house.[672]
+
+[The Yule log among the Servians of Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and
+Montenegro; the Yule log in Albania.]
+
+Among the Servians of Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro it is
+customary on Christmas Eve (_Badnyi Dan_) to fetch a great Yule log
+(_badnyak_), which serves as a symbol of family luck. It is generally
+cut from an evergreen oak, but sometimes from an olive-tree or a beech.
+At nightfall the master of the house himself brings in the log and lays
+it on the fire. Then he and all present bare their heads, sprinkle the
+log with wine, and make a cross on it. After that the master of the
+house says, "Welcome, O log! May God keep you from mishap!" So saying he
+strews peas, maize, raisins, and wheat on the log, praying for God's
+blessing on all members of the family living and dead, for heaven's
+blessing on their undertakings, and for domestic prosperity. In
+Montenegro they meet the log with a loaf of bread and a jug of wine,
+drink to it, and pour wine on it, whereupon the whole family drinks out
+of the same beaker. In Dalmatia and other places, for example in Rizano,
+the Yule logs are decked by young women with red silk, flowers, laurel
+leaves, ribbons, and even gold wire; and the lights near the doorposts
+are kindled when the log is brought into the house. Among the Morlaks,
+as soon as the master of the house crosses the threshold with the Yule
+log, one of the family must sprinkle corn on him and say, "God bless
+you," to which he answers, "The same to you." A piece of the log is kept
+till New Year's Day to kindle a light with or it is carried out to the
+fields to protect them from hail. It is customary to invite before hand
+a Christmas visitor (_polazaynik_) and to admit no one else into the
+house on that day. He comes early, carrying in his sleeves a quantity of
+corn which he throws into the house, saying, "Christ is born." One of
+the household replies, "He is born indeed," and throws corn on the
+visiter. Then the newcomer goes up to the hearth, pokes the fire and
+strikes the burning log with the poker so hard that sparks fly off in
+all directions. At each blow he says, "I wish the family as many cows,
+calves, sucking pigs, goats, and sheep, and as many strokes of good
+luck, as the sparks that now fly from the log." With these words he
+throws some small coins into the ashes.[673] In Albania down to recent
+years it was a common custom to burn a Yule log at Christmas, and with
+it corn, maize, and beans; moreover, wine and _rakia_ were poured on the
+flames, and the ashes of the fire were scattered on the fields to make
+them fertile.[674] The Huzuls, a Slavonic people of the Carpathians,
+kindle fire by the friction of wood on Christmas Eve (Old Style, the
+fifth of January) and keep it burning till Twelfth Night.[675]
+
+[Belief that the Yule log protects against fire and lightning.]
+
+It is remarkable how common the belief appears to have been that the
+remains of the Yule-log, if kept throughout the year, had power to
+protect the house against fire and especially against lightning.[676] As
+the Yule log was frequently of oak,[677] it seems possible that this
+belief may be a relic of the old Aryan creed which associated the
+oak-tree with the god of thunder.[678] Whether the curative and
+fertilizing virtues ascribed to the ashes of the Yule log, which are
+supposed to heal cattle as well as men, to enable cows to calve, and to
+promote the fruitfulness of the earth,[679] may not be derived from the
+same ancient source, is a question which deserves to be considered.
+
+[Public celebrations of the fire-festival at Midwinter; the bonfire on
+Christmas Eve at Schweina in Thuringia.]
+
+Thus far we have regarded only the private or domestic celebration of
+the fire-festival at midwinter. The public celebration of such rites at
+that season of the year appears to have been rare and exceptional in
+Central and Northern Europe. However, some instances are on record. Thus
+at Schweina, in Thuringia, down to the second half of the nineteenth
+century, the young people used to kindle a great bonfire on the Antonius
+Mountain every year on Christmas Eve. Neither the civil nor the
+ecclesiastical authorities were able to suppress the celebration; nor
+could the cold, rain, and snow of the season damp or chill the
+enthusiasm of the celebrants. For some time before Christmas the young
+men and boys were busy building a foundation for the bonfire on the top
+of the mountain, where the oldest church of the village used to stand.
+The foundation consisted of a pyramidal structure composed of stones,
+turf, and moss. When Christmas Eve came round, a strong pole, with
+bundles of brushwood tied to it, was erected on the pyramid. The young
+folk also provided themselves with poles to which old brooms or faggots
+of shavings were attached. These were to serve as torches. When the
+evening grew dark and the church bells rang to service, the troop of
+lads ascended the mountain; and soon from the top the glare of the
+bonfire lit up the darkness, and the sound of a hymn broke the stillness
+of night. In a circle round the great fire lesser fires were kindled;
+and last of all the lads ran about swinging their lighted torches, till
+these twinkling points of fire, moving down the mountain-side, went out
+one by one in the darkness. At midnight the bells rang out from the
+church tower, mingled with the blast of horns and the sound of singing.
+Feasting and revelry were kept up throughout the night, and in the
+morning young and old went to early mass to be edified by hearing of the
+light eternal.[680]
+
+[Bonfires on Christmas Eve in Normandy.]
+
+In the Bocage of Normandy the peasants used to repair, often from a
+distance of miles, to the churches to hear the midnight mass on
+Christmas Eve. They marched in procession by torchlight, chanting
+Christmas carols, and the fitful illumination of the woods, the hedges,
+and the fields as they moved through the darkness, presented a
+succession of picturesque scenes. Mention is also made of bonfires
+kindled on the heights; the custom is said to have been observed at
+Athis near Condé down to recent years.[681]
+
+[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]
+
+In the Isle of Man, "on the twenty-first of December, a day dedicated to
+Saint Thomas, the people went to the mountains to catch deer and sheep
+for Christmas, and in the evenings always kindled a large fire on the
+top of every _fingan_ or cliff. Hence, at the time of casting peats,
+every one laid aside a large one, saying, '_Faaid mooar moayney son
+oie'l fingan_'; that is, 'a large turf for Fingan Eve.'"[682] At
+Burghead, an ancient village on the southern shore of the Moray Firth,
+about nine miles from the town of Elgin, a festival of fire called "the
+Burning of the Clavie" has been celebrated from time immemorial on
+Hogmanay, the last day of December. A tar-barrel is sawn in two, one
+half of it is set on the top of a stout pole, and filled with tar and
+other combustibles. The half-barrel is fastened to the pole by means of
+a long nail, which is made for the purpose and furnished gratuitously by
+the village blacksmith. The nail must be knocked in with a stone; the
+use of a hammer is forbidden. When the shades of evening have begun to
+fall, the Clavie, as it is called, is set on fire by means of a burning
+peat, which is always fetched from the same house; it may not be kindled
+with a match. As soon as it is in a blaze, it is shouldered by a man,
+who proceeds to carry it at a run, flaring and dripping melted tar,
+round the old boundaries of the village; the modern part of the town is
+not included in the circuit. Close at his heels follows a motley crowd,
+cheering and shouting. One bearer relieves another as each wearies of
+his burden. The first to shoulder the Clavie, which is esteemed an
+honour, is usually a man who has been lately married. Should the bearer
+stumble or fall, it is deemed a very ill omen for him and for the
+village. In bygone times it was thought necessary that one man should
+carry it all round the village; hence the strongest man was chosen for
+the purpose. Moreover it was customary to carry the burning Clavie round
+every fishing-boat and vessel in the harbour; but this part of the
+ceremony was afterwards discontinued. Finally, the blazing tar-barrel is
+borne to a small hill called the Doorie, which rises near the northern
+end of the promontory. Here the pole is fixed into a socket in a pillar
+of freestone, and fresh fuel is heaped upon the flames, which flare up
+higher and brighter than ever. Formerly the Clavie was allowed to burn
+here the whole night, but now, after blazing for about half an hour, it
+is lifted from the socket and thrown down the western slope of the hill.
+Then the crowd rushes upon it, demolishes it, and scrambles for the
+burning, smoking embers, which they carry home and carefully preserve as
+charms to protect them against witchcraft and misfortune.[683] The great
+antiquity of Burghead, where this curious and no doubt ancient festival
+is still annually observed, appears from the remains of a very
+remarkable rampart which formerly encircled the place. It consists of a
+mound of earth faced on both sides with a solid wall of stone and
+strengthened internally by oak beams and planks, the whole being laid on
+a foundation of boulders. The style of the rampart agrees in general
+with Caesar's description of the mode in which the Gauls constructed
+their walls of earth, stone, and logs,[684] and it resembles the ruins
+of Gallic fortifications which have been discovered in France, though it
+is said to surpass them in the strength and solidity of its structure.
+No similar walls appear to be known in Britain. A great part of this
+interesting prehistoric fortress was barbarously destroyed in the early
+part of the nineteenth century, much of it being tumbled into the sea
+and many of the stones used to build the harbour piers.[685]
+
+[Procession with burning tar-barrels on Christmas Eve (Old Style) at
+Lerwick.]
+
+In Lerwick, the capital of the Shetland Islands, "on Christmas Eve, the
+fourth of January,--for the old style is still observed--the children go
+_a guizing_, that is to say, they disguising themselves in the most
+fantastic and gaudy costumes, parade the streets, and infest the houses
+and shops, begging for the wherewithal to carry on their Christmas
+amusements. One o'clock on Yule morning having struck, the young men
+turn out in large numbers, dressed in the coarsest of garments, and, at
+the double-quick march, drag huge tar barrels through the town, shouting
+and cheering as they go, or blowing loud blasts with their 'louder
+horns.' The tar barrel simply consists of several--say from four to
+eight--tubs filled with tar and chips, placed on a platform of wood. It
+is dragged by means of a chain, to which scores of jubilant youths
+readily yoke themselves. They have recently been described by the worthy
+burgh officer of Lerwick as 'fiery chariots, the effect of which is
+truly grand and terrific.' In a Christmas morning the dark streets of
+Lerwick are generally lighted up by the bright glare, and its atmosphere
+blackened by the dense smoke of six or eight tar barrels in succession.
+On the appearance of daybreak, at six A.M., the morning revellers put
+off their coarse garments--well begrimed by this time--and in their turn
+become guizards. They assume every imaginable form of costume--those of
+soldiers, sailors, Highlanders, Spanish chevaliers, etc. Thus disguised,
+they either go in pairs, as man and wife, or in larger groups, and
+proceed to call on their friends, to wish them the compliments of the
+season. Formerly, these adolescent guizards used to seat themselves in
+crates, and accompanied by fiddlers, were dragged through the
+town."[686]
+
+[Persian festival of fire at the winter solstice.]
+
+The Persians used to celebrate a festival of fire called _Sada_ or
+_Saza_ at the winter solstice. On the longest night of the year they
+kindled bonfires everywhere, and kings and princes tied dry grass to the
+feet of birds and animals, set fire to the grass, and then let the birds
+and beasts fly or run blazing through the air or over the fields and
+mountains, so that the whole air and earth appeared to be on fire.[687]
+
+
+§ 8. _The Need-fire_
+
+
+[European festivals of fire in seasons of distress and calamity; the
+need-fire.]
+
+The fire-festivals hitherto described are all celebrated periodically at
+certain stated times of the year. But besides these regularly recurring
+celebrations the peasants in many parts of Europe have been wont from
+time immemorial to resort to a ritual of fire at irregular intervals in
+seasons of distress and calamity, above all when their cattle were
+attacked by epidemic disease. No account of the popular European
+fire-festivals would be complete without some notice of these remarkable
+rites, which have all the greater claim on our attention because they
+may perhaps be regarded as the source and origin of all the other
+fire-festivals; certainly they must date from a very remote antiquity.
+The general name by which they are known among the Teutonic peoples is
+need-fire.[688]
+
+[The needfire in the Middle Ages; the needfire at Neustadt in 1598.]
+
+The history of the need-fire can be traced back to early Middle Ages;
+for in the reign of Pippin, King of Franks, the practice of kindling
+need-fires was denounced as a heathen superstition by a synod of
+prelates and nobles held under the presidency of Boniface, Archbishop of
+Mainz.[689] Not long afterwards the custom was again forbidden, along
+with many more relics of expiring paganism, in an "Index of
+Superstitions and Heathenish Observances," which has been usually
+referred to the year 743 A.D., though some scholars assign it a later
+date under the reign of Charlemagne.[690] In Germany the need-fires
+would seem to have been popular down to the second half of the
+nineteenth century. Thus in the year 1598, when a fatal cattle-plague
+was raging at Neustadt, near Marburg, a wise man of the name of Joh.
+Köhler induced the authorities of the town to adopt the following
+remedy. A new waggon-wheel was taken and twirled round an axle, which
+had never been used before, until the friction elicited fire. With this
+fire a bonfire was next kindled between the gates of the town, and all
+the cattle were driven through the smoke and flames. Moreover, every
+householder had to rekindle the fire on his hearth by means of a light
+taken from the bonfire. Strange to say, this salutary measure had no
+effect whatever in staying the cattle-plague, and seven years later the
+sapient Joh. Köhler himself was burnt as a witch. The farmers, whose
+pigs and cows had derived no benefit from the need-fire, perhaps
+assisted as spectators at the burning, and, while they shook their
+heads, agreed among themselves that it served Joh. Köhler perfectly
+right.[691] According to a writer who published his book about nine
+years afterwards, some of the Germans, especially in the Wassgaw
+mountains, confidently believed that a cattle-plague could be stayed by
+driving the animals through a need-fire which had been kindled by the
+violent friction of a pole on a quantity of dry oak wood; but it was a
+necessary condition of success that all fires in the village should
+previously be extinguished with water, and any householder who failed to
+put out his fire was heavily fined.[692]
+
+[Method kindling the need fire.]
+
+The method of kindling the need-fire is described as follows by a writer
+towards the end of the seventeenth century: "When an evil plague has
+broken out among the cattle, large and small, and the herds have thereby
+suffered great ravages, the peasants resolve to light a need-fire. On a
+day appointed there must be no single flame in any house nor on any
+hearth. From every house a quantity of straw and water and underwood
+must be brought forth; then a strong oaken pole is fixed firmly in the
+earth, a hole is bored in it, and a wooden winch, well smeared with
+pitch and tar, is inserted in the hole and turned round forcibly till
+great heat and then fire is generated. The fire so produced is caught in
+fuel and fed with straw, heath, and underwood till it bursts out into a
+regular need-fire, which must then be somewhat spread out between walls
+or fences, and the cattle and horses driven through it twice or thrice
+with sticks and whips. Others set up two posts, each with a hole in it,
+and insert a winch, along with old greasy rags, in the holes. Others use
+a thick rope, collect nine kinds of wood, and keep them in violent
+motion till fire leaps forth. Perhaps there may be other ways of
+generating or kindling this fire, but they are all directed simply at
+the cure of the cattle. After passing twice or thrice through the fire
+the cattle are driven to their stalls or to pasture, and the heap of
+wood that had been collected is destroyed, but in some places every
+householder must take with him a brand, extinguish it in a washing-tub
+or trough, and put it in the manger where the cattle are fed, where it
+must lie for some time. The poles that were used to make the need-fire,
+together with the wood that was employed as a winch, are sometimes
+burned with the rest of the fuel, sometimes carefully preserved after
+the cattle have been thrice driven through the flames."[693]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire about Hildesheim.]
+
+Sometimes the need-fire was known as the "wild fire," to distinguish it
+no doubt from the tame fire produced by more ordinary methods. The
+following is Grimm's account of the mode of kindling it which prevailed
+in some parts of Central Germany, particularly about Hildesheim, down
+apparently to the first half of the nineteenth century: "In many places
+of Lower Saxony, especially among the mountains, the custom prevails of
+preparing the so-called 'wild fire' for the purpose of preventing
+cattle-plague; and through it first the pigs, then the cows, and last of
+all the geese are driven. The proceedings on the occasion are as
+follows. The principal farmers and parishioners assemble, and notice is
+served to every inhabitant to extinguish entirely all fire in his house,
+so that not even a spark remains alight in the whole village. Then young
+and old repair to a road in a hollow, usually towards evening, the women
+carrying linen, and the men wood and tow. Two oaken poles are driven
+into the ground about a foot and a half from each other. Each pole has
+in the side facing the other a socket into which a cross-piece as thick
+as a man's arm is fitted. The sockets are stuffed with linen, and the
+cross-piece is rammed in as tight as possible, while the poles are bound
+together at the top by ropes. A rope is wound about the round, smooth
+cross-piece, and the free ends of the rope at both sides are gripped by
+several persons, who pull the cross-piece to and fro with the utmost
+rapidity, till through the friction the linen in the sockets takes fire.
+The sparks of the linen are immediately caught in tow or oakum and waved
+about in a circle until they burst into a bright glow, when straw is
+applied to it, and the flaming straw used to kindle the brushwood which
+has been stacked in piles in the hollow way. When this wood has blazed
+up and the fire has nearly died out again, the people hasten to the
+herds, which have been waiting in the background, and drive them
+forcibly, one after the other, through the glow. As soon as all the
+beasts are through, the young folk rush wildly at the ashes and cinders,
+sprinkling and blackening each other with them; those who have been most
+sprinkled and blackened march in triumph behind the cattle into the
+village and do not wash themselves for a long time. If after long
+rubbing the linen should not catch fire, they guess that there is still
+fire somewhere in the village; then a strict search is made from house
+to house, any fire that may be found is put out, and the householder is
+punished or upbraided. The 'wild fire' must be made by prolonged
+friction; it may not be struck with flint and steel. Some villages do
+not prepare it yearly as a preventive of cattle-plague, but only kindle
+it when the disease has actually broken out."[694] In the Halberstadt
+district the ends of the rope which was used to make the cross-piece
+revolve in the sockets had to be pulled by two chaste young men.[695]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire in the Mark.]
+
+In the Mark down to the first half of the nineteenth century the
+practice was similar. We read that "in many parts of the Mark there
+still prevails on certain occasions the custom of kindling a need-fire,
+it happens particularly when a farmer has sick pigs. Two posts of dry
+wood are planted in the earth amid solemn silence before the sun rises,
+and round these posts hempen ropes are pulled to and fro till the wood
+kindles; whereupon the fire is fed with dry leaves and twigs and the
+sick beasts are driven through it In some places the fire is produced by
+the friction of an old cart-wheel."[696]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Mecklenburg]
+
+In Mecklenburg the need-fire used to be lighted by the friction of a
+rope wound about an oaken pole or by rubbing two boards against each
+other. Having been thus elicited, the flame was fed with wood of seven
+kinds. The practice was forbidden by Gustavus Adolphus, Duke of
+Mecklenburg, in 1682; but the prohibition apparently had little effect,
+for down to the end of the eighteenth century the custom was so common
+that the inhabitants even of large towns made no scruple of resorting to
+it. For example, in the month of July 1792 sickness broke out among the
+cattle belonging to the town of Sternberg; some of the beasts died
+suddenly, and so the people resolved to drive all the survivors through
+a need-fire. On the tenth day of July the magistrates issued a
+proclamation announcing that next morning before sunrise a need-fire
+would be kindled for the behoof of all the cattle of the town, and
+warning all the inhabitants against lighting fires in their kitchens
+that evening. So next morning very early, about two o'clock, nearly the
+whole population was astir, and having assembled outside one of the
+gates of the town they helped to drive the timid cattle, not without
+much ado, through three separate need-fires; after which they dispersed
+to their homes in the unalterable conviction that they had rescued the
+cattle from destruction. But to make assurance doubly sure they deemed
+it advisable to administer the rest of the ashes as a bolus to the
+animals. However, some people in Mecklenburg used to strew the ashes of
+the need-fire on fields for the purpose of protecting the crops against
+vermin. As late as June 1868 a traveller in Mecklenburg saw a couple of
+peasants sweating away at a rope, which they were pulling backwards and
+forwards so as to make a tarry roller revolve with great speed in the
+socket of an upright post. Asked what they were about, they vouchsafed
+no reply; but an old woman who appeared on the scene from a neighbouring
+cottage was more communicative. In the fulness of her heart she confided
+to the stranger that her pigs were sick, that the two taciturn bumpkins
+were her sons, who were busy extracting a need-fire from the roller, and
+that, when they succeeded, the flame would be used to ignite a heap of
+rags and brushwood, through which the ailing swine would be driven. She
+further explained that the persons who kindle a need-fire should always
+be two brothers or at least bear the same Christian name.[697]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Hanover.]
+
+In the summer of 1828 there was much sickness among the pigs and the
+cows of Eddesse, a village near Meinersen, in the south of Hanover. When
+all ordinary measures to arrest the malady failed, the farmers met in
+solemn conclave on the village green and determined that next morning
+there should be a need-fire. Thereupon the head man of the village sent
+word from house to house that on the following day nobody should kindle
+a fire before sunrise, and that everybody should stand by ready to drive
+out the cattle. The same afternoon all the necessary preparations were
+made for giving effect to the decision of the collective wisdom. A
+narrow street was enclosed with planks, and the village carpenter set to
+work at the machinery for kindling the fire. He took two posts of oak
+wood, bored a hole about three inches deep and broad in each, and set
+the two poles up facing each other at a distance of about two feet. Then
+he fitted a roller of oak wood into the two holes of the posts, so that
+it formed a cross-piece between them. About two o'clock next morning
+every householder brought a bundle of straw and brushwood and laid it
+down across the street in a prescribed order. The sturdiest swains who
+could be found were chosen to make the need-fire. For this purpose a
+long hempen rope was wound twice round the oaken roller in the oaken
+posts: the pivots were well smeared with pitch and tar: a bundle of tow
+and other tinder was laid close at hand, and all was ready. The stalwart
+clodhoppers now seized the two ends of the rope and went to work with a
+will. Puffs of smoke soon issued from the sockets, but to the
+consternation of the bystanders not a spark of fire could be elicited.
+Some people openly declared their suspicion that some rascal had not put
+out the fire in his house, when suddenly the tinder burst into flame.
+The cloud passed away from all faces; the fire was applied to the heaps
+of fuel, and when the flames had somewhat died down, the herds were
+forcibly driven through the fire, first the pigs, next the cows, and
+last of all the horses. The herdsmen then drove the beasts to pasture,
+and persons whose faith in the efficacy of the need-fire was
+particularly robust carried home brands.[698]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire in the Harz Mountains.]
+
+Again, at a village near Quedlinburg, in the Harz Mountains, it was
+resolved to put a herd of sick swine through the need-fire. Hearing of
+this intention the Superintendent of Quedlinburg hurried to the spot and
+has described for us what he saw. The beadles went from house to house
+to see that there was no fire in any house; for it is well known that
+should there be common fire burning in a house the need-fire will not
+kindle. The men made their rounds very early in the morning to make
+quite sure that all lights were out. At two o'clock a night-light was
+still burning in the parsonage, and this was of course a hindrance to
+the need-fire. The peasants knocked at the window and earnestly
+entreated that the night-light might be extinguished. But the parson's
+wife refused to put the light out; it still glimmered at the window; and
+in the darkness outside the angry rustics vowed that the parson's pigs
+should get no benefit of the need-fire. However, as good luck would have
+it, just as the morning broke, the night-light went out of itself, and
+the hopes of the people revived. From every house bundles of straw, tow,
+faggots and so forth were now carried to feed the bonfire. The noise and
+the cheerful bustle were such that you might have thought they were all
+hurrying to witness a public execution. Outside the village, between two
+garden walls, an oaken post had been driven into the ground and a hole
+bored through it. In the hole a wooden winch, smeared with tar, was
+inserted and made to revolve with such force and rapidity that fire and
+smoke in time issued from the socket. The collected fuel was then thrown
+upon the fire and soon a great blaze shot up. The pigs were now driven
+into the upper end of the street. As soon as they saw the fire, they
+turned tail, but the peasants drove them through with shrieks and shouts
+and lashes of whips. At the other end of the street there was another
+crowd waiting, who chased the swine back through the fire a second time.
+Then the other crowd repeated the manoeuvre, and the herd of swine was
+driven for the third time through the smoke and flames. That was the end
+of the performance. Many pigs were scorched so severely that they gave
+up the ghost. The bonfire was broken up, and every householder took home
+with him a brand, which he washed in the water-barrel and laid for some
+time, as a treasure of great price, in the manger from which the cattle
+were fed. But the parson's wife had reason bitterly to repent her folly
+in refusing to put out that night-light; for not one of her pigs was
+driven through the need-fire, so they died.[699]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Brunswick.]
+
+In Brunswick, also, the need-fire is known to have been repeatedly
+kindled during the nineteenth century. After driving the pigs through
+the fire, which was kindled by the friction of wood, some people took
+brands home, dipped them in water, and then gave the water to the pigs
+to drink, no doubt for the purpose of inoculating them still more
+effectually with the precious virtue of the need-fire. In the villages
+of the Drömling district everybody who bore a hand in kindling the "wild
+fire" must have the same Christian name; otherwise they laboured in
+vain. The fire was produced by the friction of a rope round the beams of
+a door; and bread, corn, and old boots contributed their mites to swell
+the blaze through which the pigs as usual were driven. In one place,
+apparently not far from Wolfenbüttel, the needfire is said to have been
+kindled, contrary to custom, by the smith striking a spark from the cold
+anvil.[700] At Gandersheim down to about the beginning of the nineteenth
+century the need-fire was lit in the common way by causing a cross-bar
+to revolve rapidly on its axis between two upright posts. The rope which
+produced the revolution of the bar had to be new, but it was if possible
+woven from threads taken from a gallows-rope, with which people had been
+hanged. While the need-fire was being kindled in this fashion, every
+other fire in the town had to be put out; search was made through the
+houses, and any fire discovered to be burning was extinguished. If in
+spite of every precaution no flame could be elicited by the friction of
+the rope, the failure was set down to witchcraft; but if the efforts
+were successful, a bonfire was lit with the new fire, and when the
+flames had died down, the sick swine were driven thrice through the
+glowing embers.[701] On the lower Rhine the need-fire is said to have
+been kindled by the friction of oak-wood on fir-wood, all fires in the
+village having been previously extinguished. The bonfires so kindled
+were composed of wood of nine different sorts; there were three such
+bonfires, and the cattle were driven round them with great gravity and
+devotion.[702]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Silesia and Bohemia.]
+
+In Silesia, also, need-fires were often employed for the purpose of
+curing a murrain or preventing its spread. While all other lights within
+the boundaries were extinguished, the new fire was produced by the
+friction of nine kinds of wood, and the flame so obtained was used to
+kindle heaps of brushwood or straw to which every inhabitant had
+contributed. Through these fires the cattle, both sick and sound, were
+driven in the confident expectation that thereby the sick would be
+healed and the sound saved from sickness.[703] When plague breaks out
+among the herds at Dobischwald, in Austrian Silesia, a splinter of wood
+is chipped from the threshold of every house, the cattle are driven to a
+cross-road, and there a tree, growing at the boundary, is felled by a
+pair of twin brothers. The wood of the tree and the splinters from the
+thresholds furnish the fuel of a bonfire, which is kindled by the
+rubbing of two pieces of wood together. When the bonfire is ablaze, the
+horns of the cattle are pared and the parings thrown into the flames,
+after which the animals are driven through the fire. This is believed to
+guard the herd against the plague.[704] The Germans of Western Bohemia
+resort to similar measures for staying a murrain. You set up a post,
+bore a hole in it, and insert in the hole a stick, which you have first
+of all smeared with pitch and wrapt in inflammable stuffs. Then you wind
+a rope round the stick and give the two ends of the rope to two persons
+who must either be brothers or have the same baptismal name. They haul
+the rope backwards and forwards so as to make the tarred stick revolve
+rapidly, till the rope first smokes and then emits sparks. The sparks
+are used to kindle a bonfire, through which the cattle are driven in the
+usual way. And as usual no other fire may burn in the village while the
+need-fire is being kindled; for otherwise the rope could not possibly be
+ignited.[705] In Upper Austria sick pigs are reported to have been
+driven through a need-fire about the beginning of the nineteenth
+century.[706]
+
+[The use the need-fire in Switzerland.]
+
+The need-fire is still in use in some parts of Switzerland, but it seems
+to have degenerated into a children's game and to be employed rather for
+the dispersal of a mist than for the prevention or cure of
+cattle-plague. In some cantons it goes by the name of "mist-healing,"
+while in others it is called "butter-churning." On a misty or rainy day
+a number of children will shut themselves up in a stable or byre and
+proceed to make fire for the purpose of improving the weather. The way
+in which they make it is this. A boy places a board against his breast,
+takes a peg pointed at both ends, and, setting one end of the peg
+against the board on his breast, presses the other end firmly against a
+second board, the surface of which has been flaked into a nap. A string
+is tied round the peg, and two other boys pull it to and fro, till
+through the rapid motion of the point of the peg a hole is burnt in the
+flaked board, to which tow or dry moss is then applied as a tinder. In
+this way fire and smoke are elicited, and with their appearance the
+children fancy that the mist will vanish.[707] We may conjecture that
+this method of dispersing a mist, which is now left to children, was
+formerly practised in all seriousness by grown men in Switzerland. It is
+thus that religious or magical rites dwindle away into the sports of
+children. In the canton of the Grisons there is still in common use an
+imprecation, "Mist, go away, or I'll heal you," which points to an old
+custom of burning up the fog with fire. A longer form of the curse
+lingers in the Vallée des Bagnes of the canton Valais. It runs thus:
+"Mist, mist, fly, fly, or St. Martin will come with a sheaf of straw to
+burn your guts, a great log of wood to smash your brow, and an iron
+chain to drag you to hell."[708]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Sweden and Norway; the need-fire
+as a protection against witchcraft.]
+
+In Sweden the need-fire is called, from the mode of its production,
+either _vrid-eld_, "turned fire," or _gnid-eld_, "rubbed fire." Down to
+near the end of the eighteenth century the need-fire was kindled, as in
+Germany, by the violent rubbing of two pieces of wood against each
+other; sometimes nine different kinds of wood were used for the purpose.
+The smoke of the fire was deemed salutary; fruit-trees and nets were
+fumigated with it, in order that the trees might bear fruit and the nets
+catch fish. Cattle were also driven through the smoke.[709] In Sundal, a
+narrow Norwegian valley, shut in on both sides by precipitous mountains,
+there lived down to the second half of the nineteenth century an old man
+who was very superstitious. He set salmon-traps in the river Driva,
+which traverses the valley, and he caught many fish both in spring and
+autumn. When his fishing went wrong, he kindled _naueld_ ("need-fire")
+or _gnideild_ ("rubbed fire," "friction fire") to counteract the
+witchcraft, which he believed to be the cause of his bad luck. He set up
+two planks near each other, bored a hole in each, inserted a pointed rod
+in the holes, and twisted a long cord round the rod. Then he pulled the
+cord so as to make the rod revolve rapidly. Thus by reason of the
+friction he at last drew fire from the wood. That contented him, for "he
+believed that the witchery was thus rendered powerless, and that good
+luck in his fishing was now ensured."[710]
+
+[The need-fire among the Slavonic peoples.]
+
+Slavonic peoples hold the need-fire in high esteem. They call it "living
+fire," and attribute to it a healing virtue. The ascription of medicinal
+power to fire kindled by the friction of wood is said to be especially
+characteristic of the Slavs who inhabit the Carpathian Mountains and the
+Balkan peninsula. The mode in which they produce the need-fire differs
+somewhat in different places. Thus in the Schar mountains of Servia the
+task is entrusted to a boy and girl between eleven and fourteen years of
+age. They are led into a perfectly dark room, and having stripped
+themselves naked kindle the fire by rubbing two rollers of lime wood
+against each other, till the friction produces sparks, which are caught
+in tinder. The Serbs of Western Macedonia drive two oaken posts into the
+ground, bore a round hole in the upper end of each, insert a roller of
+lime wood in the holes, and set it revolving rapidly by means of a cord,
+which is looped round the roller and worked by a bow. Elsewhere the
+roller is put in motion by two men, who hold each one end of the cord
+and pull it backwards and forwards forcibly between them. Bulgarian
+shepherds sometimes kindle the need-fire by drawing a prism-shaped piece
+of lime wood to and fro across the flat surface of a tree-stump in the
+forest.[711] But in the neighbourhood of Küstendil, in Bulgaria, the
+need-fire is kindled by the friction of two pieces of oak wood and the
+cattle are driven through it.[712]
+
+[The need-fire in Russia and Poland; the need-fire in Slavonia.]
+
+In many districts of Russia, also, "living fire" is made by the friction
+of wood on St. John's Day, and the herds are driven through it, and the
+people leap over it in the conviction that their health is thereby
+assured; when a cattle-plague is raging, the fire is produced by rubbing
+two pieces of oak wood against each other, and it is used to kindle the
+lamps before the holy pictures and the censers in the churches.[713]
+Thus it appears that in Russia the need-fire is kindled for the sake of
+the cattle periodically as well as on special emergencies. Similarly in
+Poland the peasants are said to kindle fires in the village streets on
+St. Rochus's day and to drive the cattle thrice through them in order to
+protect the animals against the murrain. The fire is produced by rubbing
+a pole of poplar wood on a plank of poplar or fir wood and catching the
+sparks in tow. The embers are carried home to be used as remedies in
+sickness.[714] As practised in Slavonia, the custom of the need-fire
+used to present some interesting features, which are best described in
+the words of an eyewitness:--"In the year 1833 I came for the first time
+as a young merchant to Slavonia; it was to Gaj that I went, in the
+Pozega district. The time was autumn, and it chanced that a
+cattle-plague was raging in the neighbourhood, which inflicted much loss
+on the people. The peasants believed that the plague was a woman, an
+evil spirit (_Kutga_), who was destroying the cattle; so they sought to
+banish her. I had then occasion to observe the proceedings in the
+villages of Gaj, Kukunjevac, Brezina, and Brekinjska. Towards evening
+the whole population of the village was busy laying a ring of brushwood
+round the boundaries of the village. All fires were extinguished
+throughout the village. Then pairs of men in several places took pieces
+of wood, which had been specially prepared for the purpose, and rubbed
+them together till they emitted sparks. The sparks were allowed to fall
+on tinder and fanned into a flame, with which the dry brushwood was
+kindled. Thus the fire burned all round the village. The peasants
+persuaded themselves that thereupon _Kuga_ must take her
+departure."[715]
+
+[The need-fire in Servia.]
+
+This last account leaves no doubt as to the significance of the
+need-fire in the minds of Slavonian peasantry. They regard it simply as
+a barrier interposed between their cattle and the evil spirit, which
+prowls, like a hungry wolf, round the fold and can, like a wolf, be kept
+at bay by fire. The same interpretation of the need-fire comes out,
+hardly less clearly, in the account which another writer gives of a
+ceremony witnessed by him at the village of Setonje, at the foot of the
+Homolje mountains in the great forest of Servia. An epidemic was raging
+among the children, and the need-fire was resorted to as a means of
+staying the plague. It was produced by an old man and an old woman in
+the first of the ways described above; that is, they made it in the dark
+by rubbing two sticks of lime wood against each other. Before the
+healing virtue of the fire was applied to the inhabitants of the
+village, two old women performed the following ceremony. Both bore the
+name of Stana, from the verb _stati_, "to remain standing"; for the
+ceremony could not be successfully performed by persons of any other
+name. One of them carried a copper kettle full of water, the other an
+old house-lock with the key. Thus equipped they repaired to a spot
+outside of the village, and there the old dame with the kettle asked the
+old dame with the lock, "Whither away?" and the other answered her, "I
+came to shut the village against ill-luck." With that she locked the
+lock and threw it with the key into the kettle of water. Then they
+marched thrice round the village, repeating the ceremony of the lock and
+key at each round. Meantime all the villagers, arrayed in their best
+clothes, were assembled in an open place. All the fires in the houses
+had been previously extinguished. Two sturdy yokels now dug a tunnel
+through a mound beside an oak tree; the tunnel was just high enough to
+let a man creep through it on all fours. Two fires, lit by the
+need-fire, were now laid, one at each end of the tunnel; and the old
+woman with the kettle took her stand at the entrance of the tunnel,
+while the one with the lock posted herself at the exit. Facing the
+latter stood another woman with a great pot of milk before her, and on
+the other side was set a pot full of melted swine's fat. All was now
+ready. The villagers thereupon crawled through the tunnel on hands and
+knees, one behind the other. Each, as he emerged from the tunnel,
+received a spoonful of milk from the woman and looked at his face
+reflected in the pot of melted swine's fat. Then another woman made a
+cross with a piece of charcoal on his back. When all the inhabitants had
+thus crept through the tunnel and been doctored at the other end, each
+took some glowing embers home with him in a pot wherewith to rekindle
+the fire on the domestic hearth. Lastly they put some of the charcoal in
+a vessel of water and drank the mixture in order to be thereby magically
+protected against the epidemic.[716]
+
+It would be superfluous to point out in detail how admirably these
+measures are calculated to arrest the ravages of disease; but for the
+sake of those, if there are any, to whom the medicinal effect of
+crawling through a hole on hands and knees is not at once apparent, I
+shall merely say that the procedure in question is one of the most
+powerful specifics which the wit of man has devised for maladies of all
+sorts. Ample evidence of its application will be adduced in a later part
+of this work.[717]
+
+[The need-fire in Bulgaria.]
+
+In Bulgaria the herds suffer much from the raids of certain
+blood-sucking vampyres called _Ustrels_. An _Ustrel_ is the spirit of a
+Christian child who was born on a Saturday and died unfortunately before
+he could be baptized. On the ninth day after burial he grubs his way out
+of the grave and attacks the cattle at once, sucking their blood all
+night and returning at peep of dawn to the grave to rest from his
+labours. In ten days or so the copious draughts of blood which he has
+swallowed have so fortified his constitution that he can undertake
+longer journeys; so when he falls in with great herds of cattle or
+flocks of sheep he returns no more to the grave for rest and refreshment
+at night, but takes up his quarters during the day either between the
+horns of a sturdy calf or ram or between the hind legs of a milch-cow.
+Beasts whose blood he has sucked die the same night. In any herd that he
+may fasten on he begins with the fattest animal and works his way down
+steadily through the leaner kine till not one single beast is left
+alive. The carcases of the victims swell up, and when the hide is
+stripped off you can always perceive the livid patch of flesh where the
+monster sucked the blood of the poor creature. In a single night he may,
+by working hard, kill five cows; but he seldom exceeds that number. He
+can change his shape and weight very easily; for example, when he is
+sitting by day between the horns of a ram, the animal scarcely feels his
+weight, but at night he will sometimes throw himself on an ox or a cow
+so heavily that the animal cannot stir, and lows so pitifully that it
+would make your heart bleed to hear. People who were born on a Saturday
+can see these monsters, and they have described them accurately, so that
+there can be no doubt whatever about their existence. It is, therefore,
+a matter of great importance to the peasant to protect his flocks and
+herds against the ravages of such dangerous vampyres. The way in which
+he does so is this. On a Saturday morning before sunrise the village
+drummer gives the signal to put out every fire in the village; even
+smoking is forbidden. Next all the domestic animals, with the exception
+of fowls, geese, and ducks, are driven out into the open. In front of
+the flocks and herds march two men, whose names during the ceremony may
+not be mentioned in the village. They go into the wood, pick two dry
+branches, and having stript themselves of their clothes they rub the two
+branches together very hard till they catch fire; then with the fire so
+obtained they kindle two bonfires, one on each side of a cross-road
+which is known to be frequented by wolves. After that the herd is driven
+between the two fires. Coals from the bonfires are then taken back to
+the village and used to rekindle the fires on the domestic hearths. For
+several days no one may go near the charred and blackened remains of the
+bonfires at the cross-road. The reason is that the vampyre is lying
+there, having dropped from his seat between the cow's horns when the
+animals were driven between the two fires. So if any one were to pass by
+the spot during these days, the monster would be sure to call him by
+name and to follow him to the village; whereas if he is left alone, a
+wolf will come at midnight and strangle him, and in a few days the
+herdsmen can see the ground soaked with his slimy blood. So that is the
+end of the vampyre.[718] In this Bulgarian custom, as in the Slavonian
+custom described above, the conception of the need-fire as a barrier set
+up between the cattle and a dangerous spirit is clearly worked out. The
+spirit rides the cow till he comes to the narrow pass between the two
+fires, but the heat there is too much for him; he drops in a faint from
+the saddle, or rather from the horns, and the now riderless animal
+escapes safe and sound beyond the smoke and flame, leaving her
+persecutor prostrate on the ground on the further side of the blessed
+barrier.
+
+[The need-fire in Bosnia and Herzegovina.]
+
+In Bosnia and Herzegovina there are some local differences in the mode
+of kindling the need-fire, or "living fire," as it is called. Thus at
+Jablanica both the uprights and the roller or cross-piece, which by its
+revolution kindles the fire, are made of cornel-tree wood; whereas at
+Dolac, near Sarajevo, the uprights and the cross-piece or roller are all
+made of lime wood. In Gacko, contrary to the usual custom, the fire is
+made by striking a piece of iron on an anvil, till sparks are given out,
+which are caught in tinder. The "living fire" thus produced is employed
+for purposes of healing. In particular, if any one suffers from wounds
+or sores, ashes of the need-fire are sprinkled on the ailing part. In
+Gacko it is also believed that if a pregnant woman witnesses a
+conflagration, her child will either be born with a red eruption on its
+skin or will contract the malady sooner or later afterwards. The only
+remedy consists in ashes of the need-fire, which are mixed with water
+and given to the child to drink.[719]
+
+[The need-fire in England; the need-fire in Yorkshire.]
+
+In England the earliest notice of the need-fire seems to be contained in
+the Chronicle of Lanercost for the year 1268. The annalist tells with
+pious horror how, when an epidemic was raging in that year among the
+cattle, "certain beastly men, monks in garb but not in mind, taught the
+idiots of their country to make fire by the friction of wood and to set
+up an image of Priapus, whereby they thought to succour the
+animals."[720] The use of the need-fire is particularly attested for the
+counties of Yorkshire and Northumberland. Thus in Yorkshire down to the
+middle of the eighteenth century "the favourite remedy of the country
+people, not only in the way of cure, but of prevention, was an odd one;
+it was to smoke the cattle almost to suffocation, by kindling straw,
+litter, and other combustible matter about them. The effects of this
+mode of cure are not stated, but the most singular part of it was that
+by which it was reported to have been discovered. An angel (says the
+legend), descended into Yorkshire, and there set a large tree on fire;
+the strange appearance of which or else the savour of the smoke, incited
+the cattle around (some of which were infected) to draw near the
+miracle, when they all either received an immediate cure or an absolute
+prevention of the disorder. It is not affirmed that the angel staid to
+speak to anybody, but only that he left a _written_ direction for the
+neighbouring people to catch this supernatural fire, and to communicate
+it from one to another with all possible speed throughout the country;
+and in case it should be extinguished and utterly lost, that then new
+fire, of equal virtue, might be obtained, not by any common method, but
+by rubbing two pieces of wood together till they ignited. Upon what
+foundation this story stood, is not exactly known, but it put the
+farmers actually into a hurry of communicating flame and smoke from one
+house to another with wonderful speed, making it run like wildfire over
+the country."[721] Again, we read that "the father of the writer, who
+died in 1843, in his seventy-ninth year, had a perfect remembrance of a
+great number of persons, belonging to the upper and middle classes of
+his native parish of Bowes, assembling on the banks of the river Greta
+to work for need-fire. A disease among cattle, called the murrain, then
+prevailed to a very great extent through that district of Yorkshire. The
+cattle were made to pass through the smoke raised by this miraculous
+fire, and their cure was looked upon as certain, and to neglect doing so
+was looked upon as wicked. This fire was produced by the violent and
+continued friction of two dry pieces of wood until such time as it was
+thereby obtained. 'To work as though one was working for need-fire' is a
+common proverb in the North of England."[722] At Ingleton, a small town
+nestling picturesquely at the foot of the high hill of Ingleborough in
+western Yorkshire, "within the last thirty years or so it was a common
+practice to kindle the so-called 'Need-fire' by rubbing two pieces of
+wood briskly together, and setting ablaze a large heap of sticks and
+brushwood, which were dispersed, and cattle then driven through the
+smoking brands. This was thought to act as a charm against the spread or
+developement of the various ailments to which cattle are liable, and the
+farmers seem to have had great faith in it."[723] Writing about the
+middle of the nineteenth century, Kemble tells us that the will-fire or
+need-fire had been used in Devonshire for the purpose of staying a
+murrain within the memory of man.[724]
+
+[The need-fire in Northumberland.]
+
+So in Northumberland, down to the first half of the nineteenth century,
+"when a contagious disease enters among cattle, the fires are
+extinguished in the adjacent villages. Two pieces of dried wood are then
+rubbed together until fire be produced; with this a quantity of straw is
+kindled, juniper is thrown into the flame, and the cattle are repeatedly
+driven through the smoke. Part of the forced fire is sent to the
+neighbours, who again forward it to others, and, as great expedition is
+used, the fires may be seen blazing over a great extent of country in a
+very short space of time."[725] "It is strange," says the antiquary
+William Henderson, writing about 1866, "to find the custom of lighting
+'need-fires' on the occasion of epidemics among cattle still lingering
+among us, but so it is. The vicar of Stamfordham writes thus respecting
+it: 'When the murrain broke out among the cattle about eighteen years
+ago, this fire was produced by rubbing two pieces of dry wood together,
+and was carried from place to place all through this district, as a
+charm against cattle taking the disease. Bonfires were kindled with it,
+and the cattle driven into the smoke, where they were left for some
+time. Many farmers hereabouts, I am informed, had the need-fire.'"[726]
+
+[Martin's account of the need-fire in the Highlands of Scotland.]
+
+In the earliest systematic account of the western islands of Scotland we
+read that "the inhabitants here did also make use of a fire called
+_Tin-egin, i.e._ a forced fire, or fire of necessity, which they used as
+an antidote against the plague or murrain in cattle; and it was
+performed thus: all the fires in the parish were extinguished, and then
+eighty-one married men, being thought the necessary number for effecting
+this design, took two great planks of wood, and nine of them were
+employed by turns, who by their repeated efforts rubbed one of the
+planks against the other until the heat thereof produced fire; and from
+this forced fire each family is supplied with new fire, which is no
+sooner kindled than a pot full of water is quickly set on it, and
+afterwards sprinkled upon the people infected with the plague, or upon
+the cattle that have the murrain. And this they all say they find
+successful by experience: it was practised in the main land, opposite to
+the south of Skie, within these thirty years."[727]
+
+[The need-fire in the island of Mull; sacrifice of a heifer.]
+
+In the island of Mull, one of the largest of the Hebrides, the need-fire
+was kindled as late as 1767. "In consequence of a disease among the
+black cattle the people agreed to perform an incantation, though they
+esteemed it a wicked thing. They carried to the top of Carnmoor a wheel
+and nine spindles of oakwood. They extinguished every fire in every
+house within sight of the hill; the wheel was then turned from east to
+west over the nine spindles long enough to produce fire by friction. If
+the fire were not produced before noon, the incantation lost its effect.
+They failed for several days running. They attributed this failure to
+the obstinacy of one householder, who would not let his fires be put out
+for what he considered so wrong a purpose. However, by bribing his
+servants they contrived to have them extinguished and on that morning
+raised their fire. They then sacrificed a heifer, cutting in pieces and
+burning, while yet alive, the diseased part. They then lighted their own
+hearths from the pile and ended by feasting on the remains. Words of
+incantation were repeated by an old man from Morven, who came over as
+master of the ceremonies, and who continued speaking all the time the
+fire was being raised. This man was living a beggar at Bellochroy. Asked
+to repeat the spell, he said, the sin of repeating it once had brought
+him to beggary, and that he dared not say those words again. The whole
+country believed him accursed."[728] From this account we see that in
+Mull the kindling of the need-fire as a remedy for cattle disease was
+accompanied by the sacrifice of one of the diseased animals; and though
+the two customs are for the most part mentioned separately by our
+authorities, we may surmise that they were often, perhaps usually,
+practised together for the purpose of checking the ravages of sickness
+in the herds.[729]
+
+[The need-fire in Caithness.]
+
+In the county of Caithness, forming the extreme northeast corner of the
+mainland of Scotland, the practice of the need-fire survived down at
+least to about 1788. We read that "in those days, when the stock of any
+considerable farmer was seized with the murrain, he would send for one
+of the charm-doctors to superintend the raising of a _need-fire_. It was
+done by friction, thus; upon any small island, where the stream of a
+river or burn ran on each side, a circular booth was erected, of stone
+and turf, as it could be had, in which a semicircular or highland couple
+of birch, or other hard wood, was set; and, in short, a roof closed on
+it. A straight pole was set up in the centre of this building, the upper
+end fixed by a wooden pin to the top of the couple, and the lower end in
+an oblong _trink_ in the earth or floor; and lastly, another pole was
+set across horizontally, having both ends tapered, one end of which was
+supported in a hole in the side of the perpendicular pole, and the other
+in a similar hole in the couple leg. The horizontal stick was called the
+auger, having four short arms or levers fixed in its centre, to work it
+by; the building having been thus finished, as many men as could be
+collected in the vicinity, (being divested of all kinds of metal in
+their clothes, etc.), would set to work with the said auger, two after
+two, constantly turning it round by the arms or levers, and others
+occasionally driving wedges of wood or stone behind the lower end of the
+upright pole, so as to press it the more on the end of the auger: by
+this constant friction and pressure, the ends of the auger would take
+fire, from which a fire would be instantly kindled, and thus the
+_needfire_ would be accomplished. The fire in the farmer's house, etc.,
+was immediately quenched with water, a fire kindled from this needfire,
+both in the farm-houses and offices, and the cattle brought to feel the
+smoke of this new and sacred fire, which preserved them from the
+murrain."[730]
+
+[The need-fire in Caithness.]
+
+The last recorded case of the need-fire in Caithness happened in 1809 or
+1810. At Houstry, Dunbeath, a crofter named David Gunn had made for
+himself a kail-yard and in doing so had wilfully encroached on one of
+those prehistoric ruins called _brochs_, which the people of the
+neighbourhood believed to be a fairy habitation. Soon afterwards a
+murrain broke out among the cattle of the district and carried off many
+beasts. So the wise men put their heads together and resolved to light a
+_teine-eigin_ or need-fire as the best way of stopping the plague. They
+cut a branch from a tree in a neighbouring wood, stripped it of bark,
+and carried it to a small island in the Houstry Burn. Every fire in the
+district having been quenched, new fire was made by the friction of wood
+in the island, and from this sacred flame all the hearths of the houses
+were lit afresh. One of the sticks used in making the fire was preserved
+down to about the end of the nineteenth century; apparently the mode of
+operation was the one known as the fire-drill: a pointed stick was
+twirled in a hole made in another stick till fire was elicited by the
+friction.[731]
+
+[Another account of the need-fire in the Highlands.]
+
+Another account of the use of need-fire in the Highlands of Scotland
+runs as follows: "When, by the neglect of the prescribed safeguards
+[against witchcraft], the seeds of iniquity have taken root, and a
+person's means are decaying in consequence, the only alternative, in
+this case, is to resort to that grand remedy, the _Tein Econuch_, or
+'Forlorn Fire,' which seldom fails of being productive of the best
+effects. The cure for witchcraft, called _Tein Econuch_, is wrought in
+the following manner:--A consultation being held by the unhappy sufferer
+and his friends as to the most advisable measures of effecting a cure,
+if this process is adopted, notice is privately communicated to all
+those householders who reside within the nearest of two running streams,
+to extinguish their lights and fires on some appointed morning. On its
+being ascertained that this notice has been duly observed, a
+spinning-wheel, or some other convenient instrument, calculated to
+produce fire by friction, is set to work with the most furious
+earnestness by the unfortunate sufferer, and all who wish well to his
+cause. Relieving each other by turns, they drive on with such
+persevering diligence, that at length the spindle of the wheel, ignited
+by excessive friction, emits 'forlorn fire' in abundance, which, by the
+application of tow, or some other combustible material, is widely
+extended over the whole neighbourhood. Communicating the fire to the
+tow, the tow communicates it to a candle, the candle to a fir-torch, the
+torch to a cartful of peats, which the master of the ceremonies, with
+pious ejaculations for the success of the experiment, distributes to
+messengers, who will proceed with portions of it to the different houses
+within the said two running streams, to kindle the different fires. By
+the influence of this operation, the machinations and spells of
+witchcraft are rendered null and void."[732]
+
+[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 neid-fire was made in North Uist about the year 1829, in Arran
+about 1820, in Helmsdale about 1818, in Reay about 1830."[733]
+
+[The Beltane fire a precaution against witchcraft.]
+
+From the foregoing account we learn that in Arran the annual Beltane
+fire was regularly made by the friction of wood, and that it was used to
+protect men and cattle against a great witch. When we remember that
+Beltane Eve or the Eve of May Day (Walpurgis Night) is the great
+witching time of the year throughout Europe, we may surmise that
+wherever bonfires have been ceremonially kindled on that day it has been
+done simply as a precaution against witchcraft; indeed this motive is
+expressly alleged not only in Scotland, but in Wales, the Isle of Man,
+and many parts of Central Europe.[734] It deserves, further, to be
+noticed that in North Uist the wood used to kindle the need-fire was
+oak, and that the nine times nine men by whose exertions the flame was
+elicited were all first-born sons. Apparently the first-born son of a
+family was thought to be endowed with more magical virtue than his
+younger brothers. Similarly in the Punjaub "the supernatural power
+ascribed to the first born is not due to his being unlucky, but the idea
+underlying the belief seems to be that being the first product of the
+parents, he inherits the spiritual powers (or magnetism) in a high
+degree. The success of such persons in stopping rain and hail and in
+stupefying snakes is proverbial. It is believed that a first child born
+with feet forward can cure backache by kicking the patient in the back,
+on a crossing."[735]
+
+[The need-fire in Aberdeenshire.]
+
+In the north-east of Aberdeenshire and the neighbourhood, when the
+cattle-disease known as the "quarter-ill" broke out, "the 'muckle wheel'
+was set in motion and turned till fire was produced. From this virgin
+flame fires were kindled in the byres. At the same time, if neighbours
+requested the favour, live coals were given them to kindle fires for the
+purification of their homesteads and turning off the disease. Fumigating
+the byres with juniper was a method adopted to ward off disease. Such a
+fire was called 'needfyre.' The kindling of it came under the censure of
+the Presbytery at times."[736]
+
+[The need-fire in Perthshire.]
+
+In Perthshire the need-fire was kindled as a remedy for cattle-disease
+as late as 1826. "A wealthy old farmer, having lost several of his
+cattle by some disease very prevalent at present, and being able to
+account for it in no way so rationally as by witchcraft, had recourse to
+the following remedy, recommended to him by a weird sister in his
+neighbourhood, as an effectual protection from the attacks of the foul
+fiend. A few stones were piled together in the barnyard, and woodcoals
+having been laid thereon, the fuel was ignited by _will-fire_, that is
+fire obtained by friction; the neighbours having been called in to
+witness the solemnity, the cattle were made to pass through the flames,
+in the order of their dignity and age, commencing with the horses and
+ending with the swine. The ceremony having been duly and decorously gone
+through, a neighbouring farmer observed to the enlightened owner of the
+herd, that he, along with his family, ought to have followed the example
+of the cattle, and the sacrifice to Baal would have been complete."[737]
+
+[The need-fire in Ireland.]
+
+In County Leitrim, Ireland, in order to prevent fever from spreading,
+"all the fires on the townland, and the two adjoining (one on each
+side), would be put out. Then the men of the three townlands would come
+to one house, and get two large blocks of wood. One would be set in the
+ground, and the other one, fitted with two handles, placed on the top of
+it. The men would then draw the upper block backwards and forwards over
+the lower until fire was produced by friction, and from this the fires
+would be lighted again. This would prevent the fever from
+spreading,"[738]
+
+[The use of the need-fire a relic of a time when all fires were kindled
+by the friction of wood.]
+
+Thus it appears that in many parts of Europe it has been customary to
+kindle fire by the friction of wood for the purpose of curing or
+preventing the spread of disease, particularly among cattle. The mode of
+striking a light by rubbing two dry sticks against each other is the one
+to which all over the world savages have most commonly resorted for the
+sake of providing themselves with fire;[739] and we can scarcely doubt
+that the practice of kindling the need-fire in this primitive fashion is
+merely a survival from the time when our savage forefathers lit all
+their fires in that way. Nothing is so conservative of old customs as
+religious or magical ritual, which invests these relics of the past with
+an atmosphere of mysterious virtue and sanctity. To the educated mind it
+seems obvious that a fire which a man kindles with the sweat of his brow
+by laboriously rubbing one stick against each other can possess neither
+more nor less virtue than one which he has struck in a moment by the
+friction of a lucifer match; but to the ignorant and superstitious this
+truth is far from apparent, and accordingly they take infinite pains to
+do in a roundabout way what they might have done directly with the
+greatest ease, and what, even when it is done, is of no use whatever for
+the purpose in hand. A vast proportion of the labour which mankind has
+expended throughout the ages has been no better spent; it has been like
+the stone of Sisyphus eternally rolled up hill only to revolve eternally
+down again, or like the water poured for ever by the Danaids into broken
+pitchers which it could never fill.
+
+[The belief that the need-fire cannot kindle if any other fire remains
+alight in the neighbourhood.]
+
+The curious notion that the need-fire cannot kindle if any other fire
+remains alight in the neighbourhood seems to imply that fire is
+conceived as a unity which is broken up into fractions and consequently
+weakened in exact proportion to the number of places where it burns;
+hence in order to obtain it at full strength you must light it only at a
+single point, for then the flame will burst out with a concentrated
+energy derived from the tributary fires which burned on all the
+extinguished hearths of the country. So in a modern city if all the gas
+were turned off simultaneously at all the burners but one, the flame
+would no doubt blaze at that one burner with a fierceness such as no
+single burner could shew when all are burning at the same time. The
+analogy may help us to understand the process of reasoning which leads
+the peasantry to insist on the extinction of all common fires when the
+need-fire is about to be kindled. Perhaps, too, it may partly explain
+that ceremonial extinction of all old fires on other occasions which is
+often required by custom as a preliminary to the lighting of a new and
+sacred fire.[740] We have seen that in the Highlands of Scotland all
+common fires were extinguished on the Eve of May-day as a preparation
+for kindling the Beltane bonfire by friction next morning;[741] and no
+doubt the reason for the extinction was the same as in the case of the
+need-fire. Indeed we may assume with a fair degree of probability that
+the need-fire was the parent of the periodic fire-festivals; at first
+invoked only at irregular intervals to cure certain evils as they
+occurred, the powerful virtue of fire was afterwards employed at regular
+intervals to prevent the occurrence of the same evils as well as to
+remedy such as had actually arisen.
+
+[The needfire among the Iroquois of North America.]
+
+The need-fire of Europe has its parallel in a ceremony which used to be
+observed by the Iroquois Indians of North America. "Formerly when an
+epidemic prevailed among the Iroquois despite the efforts to stay it, it
+was customary for the principal shaman to order the fires in every cabin
+to be extinguished and the ashes and cinders to be carefully removed;
+for it was believed that the pestilence was sent as a punishment for
+neglecting to rekindle 'new fire,' or because of the manner in which the
+fire then in use had been kindled. So, after all the fires were out, two
+suitable logs of slippery elm (_Ulmus fulva_) were provided for the new
+fire. One of the logs was from six to eight inches in diameter and from
+eight to ten feet long; the other was from ten to twelve inches in
+diameter and about ten feet long. About midway across the larger log a
+cuneiform notch or cut about six inches deep was made, and in the
+wedge-shaped notch punk was placed. The other log was drawn rapidly to
+and fro in the cut by four strong men chosen for the purpose until the
+punk was ignited by the friction thus produced. Before and during the
+progress of the work of igniting the fire the shaman votively sprinkled
+_tcar-hu'-eñ-we_, 'real tobacco,' three several times into the cuneiform
+notch and offered earnest prayers to the Fire-god, beseeching him 'to
+aid, to bless, and to redeem the people from their calamities.' The
+ignited punk was used to light a large bonfire, and then the head of
+every family was required to take home 'new fire' to rekindle a fire in
+his or her fire-place."[742]
+
+
+§ 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.]
+
+Sometimes apparently in England as well as in Scotland the kindling of a
+need-fire was accompanied by the sacrifice of a calf. Thus in
+Northamptonshire, at some time during the first half of the nineteenth
+century, "Miss C---- and her cousin walking saw a fire in a field and a
+crowd round it. They said, 'What is the matter?' 'Killing a calf.' 'What
+for?' 'To stop the murrain.' They went away as quickly as possible. On
+speaking to the clergyman he made enquiries. The people did not like to
+talk of the affair, but it appeared that when there is a disease among
+the cows or the calves are born sickly, they sacrifice (i.e. kill and
+burn) one 'for good luck.'"[743] It is not here said that the fire was a
+need-fire, of which indeed the two horrified ladies had probably never
+heard; but the analogy of the parallel custom in Mull[744] renders it
+probable that in Northamptonshire also the fire was kindled by the
+friction of wood, and that the calf or some part of it was burnt in the
+fire. Certainly the practice of burning a single animal alive in order
+to save all the others would seem to have been not uncommon in England
+down to the nineteenth century. Thus a farmer in Cornwall about the year
+1800, having lost many cattle by disease, and tried many remedies in
+vain, consulted with some of his neighbours and laying their heads
+together "they recalled to their recollections a tale, which tradition
+had handed down from remote antiquity, that the calamity would not cease
+until he had actually burned alive the finest calf which he had upon his
+farm; but that, when this sacrifice was made, the murrain would afflict
+his cattle no more." Accordingly, on a day appointed they met, lighted a
+large fire, placed the best calf in it, and standing round the blazing
+pile drove the animal with pitchforks back into the flames whenever it
+attempted to escape. Thus the victim was burned alive to save the rest
+of the cattle.[745] "There can be no doubt but that a belief prevailed
+until a very recent period, amongst the small farmers in the districts
+remote from towns in Cornwall, that a living sacrifice appeased the
+wrath of God. This sacrifice must be by fire; and I have heard it argued
+that the Bible gave them warranty for this belief.... While correcting
+these sheets I am informed of two recent instances of this superstition.
+One of them was the sacrifice of a calf by a farmer near Portreath, for
+the purpose of removing a disease which had long followed his horses and
+his cows. The other was the burning of a living lamb, to save, as the
+farmer said, 'his flocks from spells which had been cast on 'em.'"[746]
+In a recent account of the fire-festivals of Wales we read that "I have
+also heard my grandfather and father say that in times gone by the
+people would throw a calf in the fire when there was any disease among
+the herds. The same would be done with a sheep if there was anything the
+matter with a flock. I can remember myself seeing cattle being driven
+between two fires to 'stop the disease spreading.' When in later times
+it was not considered humane to drive the cattle between the fires, the
+herdsmen were accustomed to force the animals over the wood ashes to
+protect them against various ailments."[747] Writing about 1866, the
+antiquary W. Henderson says that a live ox was burned near Haltwhistle
+in Northumberland "only twenty years ago" to stop a murrain.[748] "About
+the year 1850 disease broke out among the cattle of a small farm in the
+parish of Resoliss, Black Isle, Ross-shire. The farmer prevailed on his
+wife to undertake a journey to a wise woman of renown in Banffshire to
+ask a charm against the effects of the 'ill eye.' The long journey of
+upwards of fifty miles was performed by the good wife, and the charm was
+got. One chief thing ordered was to burn to death a pig, and sprinkle
+the ashes over the byre and other farm buildings. This order was carried
+out, except that the pig was killed before it was burned. A more
+terrible sacrifice was made at times. One of the diseased animals was
+rubbed over with tar, driven forth, set on fire, and allowed to run till
+it fell down and died."[749] "Living animals have been burnt alive in
+sacrifice within memory to avert the loss of other stock. The burial of
+three puppies 'brandise-wise' in a field is supposed to rid it of weeds.
+Throughout the rural districts of Devon witchcraft is an article of
+current faith, and the toad is thrown into the flames as an emissary of
+the evil one."[750]
+
+[The calf is burnt in order to break a spell which has been cast on the
+herd.]
+
+But why, we may ask, should the burning alive of a calf or a sheep be
+supposed to save the rest of the herd or the flock from the murrain?
+According to one writer, as we have seen, the burnt sacrifice was
+thought to appease the wrath of God.[751] The idea of appeasing the
+wrath of a ferocious deity by burning an animal alive is probably no
+more than a theological gloss put on an old heathen rite; it would
+hardly occur to the simple mind of an English bumpkin, who, though he
+may be stupid, is not naturally cruel and does not conceive of a
+divinity who takes delight in the contemplation of suffering. To his
+thinking God has little or nothing to do with the murrain, but witches,
+ill-wishers, and fairies have a great deal to do with it. The English
+farmer who burned one of his lambs alive said that he did it "to save
+his flocks from spells which had been cast on them"; and the Scotch
+farmer who was bidden to burn a pig alive for a similar purpose, but who
+had the humanity to kill the animal first, believed that this was a
+remedy for the "evil eye" which had been cast upon his beasts. Again, we
+read that "a farmer, who possessed broad acres, and who was in many
+respects a sensible man, was greatly annoyed to find that his cattle
+became diseased in the spring. Nothing could satisfy him but that they
+were bewitched, and he was resolved to find out the person who had cast
+the evil eye on his oxen. According to an anciently-prescribed rule, the
+farmer took one of his bullocks and bled it to death, catching all the
+blood on bundles of straw. The bloody straw was then piled into a heap,
+and set on fire. Burning with a vast quantity of smoke, the farmer
+expected to see the witch, either in reality or in shadow, amidst the
+smoke."[752] Such reasons express the real beliefs of the peasants.
+"Cattle, like human beings, were exposed to the influences of the evil
+eye, of forespeaking, and of the casting of evil. Witches and warlocks
+did the work of evil among their neighbours' cattle if their anger had
+been aroused in any way. The fairies often wrought injury amongst
+cattle. Every animal that died suddenly was killed by the dart of the
+fairies, or, in the language of the people, was 'shot-a-dead.' Flint
+arrows and spear-heads went by the name of 'faery dairts....' When an
+animal died suddenly the canny woman of the district was sent for to
+search for the 'faery dairt,' and in due course she found one, to the
+great satisfaction of the owner of the dead animal."[753]
+
+[Mode in which the burning of a bewitched animal is supposed to break
+the spell.]
+
+But how, we must still ask, can burning an animal alive break the spell
+that has been cast upon its fellows by a witch or a warlock? Some light
+is thrown on the question by the following account of measures which
+rustic wiseacres in Suffolk are said to have adopted as a remedy for
+witchcraft. "A woman I knew forty-three years had been employed by my
+predecessor to take care of his poultry. At the time I came to make her
+acquaintance she was a bedridden toothless crone, with chin and nose all
+but meeting. She did not discourage in her neighbours the idea that she
+knew more than people ought to know, and had more power than others had.
+Many years before I knew her it happened one spring that the ducks,
+which were a part of her charge, failed to lay eggs.... She at once took
+it for granted that the ducks had been bewitched. This misbelief
+involved very shocking consequences, for it necessitated the idea that
+so diabolical an act could only be combated by diabolical cruelty. And
+the most diabolical act of cruelty she could imagine was that of baking
+alive in a hot oven one of the ducks. And that was what she did. The
+sequence of thought in her mind was that the spell that had been laid on
+the ducks was that of preternaturally wicked wilfulness; that this spell
+could only be broken through intensity of suffering, in this case death
+by burning; that the intensity of suffering would break the spell in the
+one roasted to death; and that the spell broken in one would be
+altogether broken, that is, in all the ducks.... Shocking, however, as
+was this method of exorcising the ducks, there was nothing in it
+original. Just about a hundred years before, everyone in the town and
+neighbourhood of Ipswich had heard, and many had believed, that a witch
+had been burnt to death in her own house at Ipswich by the process of
+burning alive one of the sheep she had bewitched. It was curious, but it
+was as convincing as curious, that the hands and feet of this witch were
+the only parts of her that had not been incinerated. This, however, was
+satisfactorily explained by the fact that the four feet of the sheep, by
+which it had been suspended over the fire, had not been destroyed in the
+flames that had consumed its body."[754] According to a slightly
+different account of the same tragic incident, the last of the "Ipswitch
+witches," one Grace Pett, "laid her hand heavily on a farmer's sheep,
+who, in order to punish her, fastened one of the sheep in the ground and
+burnt it, except the feet, which were under the earth. The next morning
+Grace Pett was found burnt to a cinder, except her feet. Her fate is
+recorded in the _Philosophical Transactions_ as a case of spontaneous
+combustion."[755]
+
+[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.]
+
+In the Isle of Man the practice of burning cattle alive in order to stop
+a murrain seems to have persisted down to a time within living memory.
+On this subject I will quote the evidence collected by Sir John Rhys: "A
+respectable farmer from Andreas told me that he was driving with his
+wife to the neighbouring parish of Jurby some years ago, and that on the
+way they beheld the carcase of a cow or an ox burning in a field, with a
+woman engaged in stirring the fire. On reaching the village to which
+they were going, they found that the burning beast belonged to a farmer
+whom they knew. They were further told it was no wonder that the said
+farmer had one of his cattle burnt, as several of them had recently
+died. Whether this was a case of sacrifice or not I cannot say. But let
+me give you another instance: a man whom I have already mentioned, saw
+at a farm nearer the centre of the island a live calf being burnt. The
+owner bears an English name, but his family has long been settled in
+Man. The farmer's explanation to my informant was that the calf was
+burnt to secure luck for the rest of the herd, some of which were
+threatening to die. My informant thought there was absolutely nothing
+the matter with them, except that they had too little to eat. Be that as
+it may, the one calf was sacrificed as a burnt-offering to secure luck
+for the rest of the cattle. Let me here also quote Mr. Moore's note in
+his _Manx Surnames_, p. 184, on the place name _Cabbal yn Oural Losht_,
+or the Chapel of the Burnt Sacrifice. 'This name,' he says, 'records a
+circumstance which took place in the nineteenth century, but which, it
+is to be hoped, was never customary in the Isle of Man. A farmer, who
+had lost a number of his sheep and cattle by murrain, burned a calf as a
+propitiatory offering to the Deity on this spot, where a chapel was
+afterwards built. Hence the name.' Particulars, I may say, of time,
+place, and person could be easily added to Mr. Moore's statement,
+excepting, perhaps as to the deity in question; on that point I have
+never been informed, but Mr. Moore is probably right in the use of the
+capital _d_, as the sacrificer is, according to all accounts, a highly
+devout Christian. One more instance: an octogenarian woman, born in the
+parish of Bride, and now living at Kirk Andreas, saw, when she was a
+'lump of a girl' of ten or fifteen years of age, a live sheep being
+burnt in a field in the parish of Andreas, on May-day, whereby she meant
+the first of May reckoned according to the Old Style. She asserts very
+decidedly that it was _son oural_, 'as a sacrifice,' as she put it, and
+'for an object to the public': those were her words when she expressed
+herself in English. Further, she made the statement that it was a custom
+to burn a sheep on old May-day for a sacrifice. I was fully alive to the
+interest of this evidence, and cross-examined her so far as her age
+allows of it, and I find that she adheres to her statement with all
+firmness."[756]
+
+[By burning a bewitched animal you compel the witch to appear.]
+
+But Manxmen burn beasts when they are dead as well as when they are
+alive; and their reasons for burning the dead animals may help us to
+understand their reasons for burning the living animals. On this subject
+I will again quote Sir John Rhys: "When a beast dies on a farm, of
+course it dies, according to the old-fashioned view of things, as I
+understand it, from the influence of the evil eye or the interposition
+of a witch. So if you want to know to whom you are indebted for the loss
+of the beast, you have simply to burn its carcase in the open air and
+watch who comes first to the spot or who first passes by; that is the
+criminal to be charged with the death of the animal, and he cannot help
+coming there--such is the effect of the fire. A Michael woman, who is
+now about thirty, related to me how she watched while the carcase of a
+bewitched colt was burning, how she saw the witch coming, and how she
+remembers her shrivelled face, with nose and chin in close proximity.
+According to another native of Michael, a well-informed middle-aged man,
+the animal in question was oftenest a calf, and it was wont to be burnt
+whole, skin and all. The object, according to him, is invariably to
+bring the bewitcher on the spot, and he always comes; but I am not clear
+what happens to him when he appears. My informant added, however, that
+it was believed that, unless the bewitcher got possession of the heart
+of the burning beast, he lost all his power of bewitching."[757]
+
+[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.]
+
+This explanation of the reason for burning a bewitched animal, dead or
+alive, is confirmed by the parallel belief concerning were-wolves. It is
+commonly supposed that certain men and women can transform themselves by
+magic art into wolves or other animals, but that any wound inflicted on
+such a transformed beast (a were-wolf or other were-animal) is
+simultaneously inflicted on the human body of the witch or warlock who
+had transformed herself or himself into the creature. This belief is
+widely diffused; it meets us in Europe, Asia, and Africa. For example,
+Olaus Magnus tells us that in Livonia, not many years before he wrote, a
+noble lady had a dispute with her slave on the subject of were-wolves,
+she doubting whether there were any such things, and he maintaining that
+there were. To convince her he retired to a room, from which he soon
+appeared in the form of a wolf. Being chased by the dogs into the forest
+and brought to bay, the wolf defended himself fiercely, but lost an eye
+in the struggle. Next day the slave returned to his mistress in human
+form but with only one eye.[758] Again, it happened in the year 1588
+that a gentleman in a village among the mountains of Auvergne, looking
+out of the window one evening, saw a friend of his going out to hunt. He
+begged him to bring him back some of his bag, and his friend said that
+he would. Well, he had not gone very far before he met a huge wolf. He
+fired and missed it, and the animal attacked him furiously, but he stood
+on his guard and with an adroit stroke of his hunting knife he cut off
+the right fore-paw of the brute, which thereupon fled away and he saw it
+no more. He returned to his friend, and drawing from his pouch the
+severed paw of the wolf he found to his horror that it was turned into a
+woman's hand with a golden ring on one of the fingers. His friend
+recognized the ring as that of his own wife and went to find her. She
+was sitting by the fire with her right arm under her apron. As she
+refused to draw it out, her husband confronted her with the hand and the
+ring on it. She at once confessed the truth, that it was she in the form
+of a were-wolf whom the hunter had wounded. Her confession was confirmed
+by applying the severed hand to the stump of her arm, for the two fitted
+exactly. The angry husband delivered up his wicked wife to justice; she
+was tried and burnt as a witch.[759] It is said that a were-wolf,
+scouring the streets of Padua, was caught, and when they cut off his
+four paws he at once turned into a man, but with both his hands and feet
+amputated.[760] Again, in a farm of the French district of Beauce, there
+was once a herdsman who never slept at home. These nocturnal absences
+naturally attracted attention and set people talking. At the same time,
+by a curious coincidence, a wolf used to prowl round the farm every
+night and to excite the dogs in the farmyard to fury by thrusting his
+snout derisively through the cat's hole in the great gate. The farmer
+had his suspicions and he determined to watch. One night, when the
+herdsman went out as usual, his master followed him quietly till he came
+to a hut, where with his own eyes he saw the man put on a broad belt and
+at once turn into a wolf, which scoured away over the fields. The farmer
+smiled a sickly sort of smile and went back to the farm. There he took a
+stout stick and sat down at the cat's hole to wait. He had not long to
+wait. The dogs barked like mad, a wolf's snout shewed through the hole,
+down came the stick, out gushed the blood, and a voice was heard to say
+without the gate, "A good job too. I had still three years to run." Next
+day the herdsman appeared as usual, but he had a scar on his brow, and
+he never went out again at night.[761]
+
+[Werewolves in China.]
+
+In China also the faith in similar transformation is reflected in the
+following tale. A certain man in Sung-yang went into the mountains to
+gather fuel. Night fell and he was pursued by two tigers, but scrambled
+up a tree out of their reach. Then said the one tiger to the other
+tiger, "If we can find Chu-Tu-shi, we are sure to catch this man up the
+tree." So off went one of them to find Chu-Tu-shi, while the other kept
+watch at the foot of the tree. Soon after that another tiger, leaner and
+longer than the other two, appeared on the scene and made a grab at the
+man's coat. But fortunately the moon was shining, the man saw the paw,
+and with a stroke of his axe cut off one of its claws. The tigers roared
+and fled, one after the other, so the man climbed down the tree and went
+home. When he told his tale in the village, suspicion naturally fell on
+the said Chu-Tu-shi; next day some men went to see him in his house.
+They were told that they could not see him; for he had been out the
+night before and had hurt his hand, and he was now ill in bed. So they
+put two and two together and reported him to the police. The police
+arrived, surrounded the house, and set fire to it; but Chu-Tu-shi rose
+from his bed, turned into a tiger, charged right through the police, and
+escaped, and to this day nobody ever knew where he went to.[762]
+
+[Werewolves among the Toradjas of Central Celebes.]
+
+The Toradjas of Central Celebes stand in very great fear of werewolves,
+that is of men and women, who have the power of transforming their
+spirits into animals such as cats, crocodiles, wild pigs, apes, deer,
+and buffaloes, which roam about battening on human flesh, and especially
+on human livers, while the men and women in their own proper human form
+are sleeping quietly in their beds at home. Among them a man is either
+born a were-wolf or becomes one by infection; for mere contact with a
+were-wolf, or even with anything that has been touched by his spittle,
+is quite enough to turn the most innocent person into a were-wolf; nay
+even to lean your head against anything against which a were-wolf has
+leaned his head suffices to do it. The penalty for being a were-wolf is
+death; but the sentence is never passed until the accused has had a fair
+trial and his guilt has been clearly demonstrated by an ordeal, which
+consists in dipping the middle finger into boiling resin. If the finger
+is not burnt, the man is no were-wolf; but if it is burnt, a werewolf he
+most assuredly is, so they take him away to a quiet spot and hack him to
+bits. In cutting him up the executioners are naturally very careful not
+to be bespattered with his blood, for if that were to happen they would
+of course be turned into were-wolves themselves. Further, they place his
+severed head beside his hinder-quarters to prevent his soul from coming
+to life again and pursuing his depredations. So great is the horror of
+were-wolves among the Toradjas, and so great is their fear of
+contracting the deadly taint by infection, that many persons have
+assured a missionary that they would not spare their own child if they
+knew him to be a were-wolf.[763] Now these people, whose faith in
+were-wolves is not a mere dying or dead superstition but a living,
+dreadful conviction, tell stories of were-wolves which conform to the
+type which we are examining. They say that once upon a time a were-wolf
+came in human shape under the house of a neighbour, while his real body
+lay asleep as usual at home, and calling out softly to the man's wife
+made an assignation with her to meet him in the tobacco-field next day.
+But the husband was lying awake and he heard it all, but he said nothing
+to anybody. Next day chanced to be a busy one in the village, for a roof
+had to be put on a new house and all the men were lending a hand with
+the work, and among them to be sure was the were-wolf himself, I mean to
+say his own human self; there he was up on the roof working away as hard
+as anybody. But the woman went out to the tobacco-field, and behind went
+unseen her husband, slinking through the underwood. When they were come
+to the field, he saw the were-wolf make up to his wife, so out he rushed
+and struck at him with a stick. Quick as thought, the were-wolf turned
+himself into a leaf, but the man was as nimble, for he caught up the
+leaf, thrust it into the joint of bamboo, in which he kept his tobacco,
+and bunged it up tight. Then he walked back with his wife to the
+village, carrying the bamboo with the werewolf in it. When they came to
+the village, the human body of the were-wolf was still on the roof,
+working away with the rest. The man put the bamboo in a fire. At that
+the human were-wolf looked down from the roof and said, "Don't do that."
+The man drew the bamboo from the fire, but a moment afterwards he put it
+in the fire again, and again the human were-wolf on the roof looked down
+and cried, "Don't do that." But this time the man kept the bamboo in the
+fire, and when it blazed up, down fell the human were-wolf from the roof
+as dead as a stone.[764] Again, the following story went round among the
+Toradjas not so very many years ago. The thing happened at Soemara, on
+the Gulf of Tomori. It was evening and some men sat chatting with a
+certain Hadji Mohammad. When it had grown dark, one of the men went out
+of the house for something or other. A little while afterwards one of
+the company thought he saw a stag's antlers standing out sharp and clear
+against the bright evening sky. So Hadji Mohammad raised his gun and
+fired. A minute or two afterwards back comes the man who had gone out,
+and says he to Hadji Mohammad, "You shot at me and hit me. You must pay
+me a fine." They searched him but found no wound on him anywhere. Then
+they knew that he was a were-wolf who had turned himself into a stag and
+had healed the bullet-wound by licking it. However, the bullet had found
+its billet, for two days afterwards he was a dead man.[765]
+
+[Were-wolves in the Egyptian Sudan.]
+
+In Sennar, a province of the Egyptian Sudan, the Hammeg and Fungi enjoy
+the reputation of being powerful magicians who can turn themselves into
+hyaenas and in that guise scour the country at night, howling and
+gorging themselves. But by day they are men again. It is very dangerous
+to shoot at such human hyaenas by night. On the Jebel Bela mountain a
+soldier once shot at a hyaena and hit it, but it dragged itself off,
+bleeding, in the darkness and escaped. Next morning he followed up the
+trail of blood and it led him straight to the hut of a man who was
+everywhere known for a wizard. Nothing of the hyaena was to be seen, but
+the man himself was laid up in the house with a fresh wound and died
+soon afterwards. And the soldier did not long survive him.[766]
+
+[The were-wolf story in Petronius.]
+
+But the classical example of these stories is an old Roman tale told by
+Petronius. It is put in the mouth of one Niceros. Late at night he left
+the town to visit a friend of his, a widow, who lived at a farm five
+miles down the road. He was accompanied by a soldier, who lodged in the
+same house, a man of Herculean build. When they set out it was near
+dawn, but the moon shone as bright as day. Passing through the outskirts
+of the town, they came amongst the tombs, which lined the highroad for
+some distance. There the soldier made an excuse for retiring behind a
+monument, and Niceros sat down to wait for him, humming a tune and
+counting the tombstones to pass the time. In a little he looked round
+for his companion, and saw a sight which froze him with horror. The
+soldier had stripped off his clothes to the last rag and laid them at
+the side of the highway. Then he performed a certain ceremony over them,
+and immediately was changed into a wolf, and ran howling into the
+forest. When Niceros had recovered himself a little, he went to pick up
+the clothes, but found that they were turned to stone. More dead than
+alive, he drew his sword, and, striking at every shadow cast by the
+tombstones on the moonlit road, he tottered to his friend's house. He
+entered it like a ghost, to the surprise of the widow, who wondered to
+see him abroad so late. "If you had only been here a little ago," said
+she, "you might have been of some use. For a wolf came tearing into the
+yard, scaring the cattle and bleeding them like a butcher. But he did
+not get off so easily, for the servant speared him in the neck." After
+hearing these words, Niceros felt that he could not close an eye, so he
+hurried away home again. It was now broad daylight, but when he came to
+the place where the clothes had been turned to stone, he found only a
+pool of blood. He reached home, and there lay the soldier in bed like an
+ox in the shambles, and the doctor was bandaging his neck. "Then I
+knew," said Niceros, "that the man was a were-wolf, and never again
+could I break bread with him, no, not if you had killed me for it."[767]
+
+[Witches like were-wolves can temporarily transform themselves into
+animals.]
+
+These stories may help us to understand the custom of burning a
+bewitched animal, which has been observed in our own country down to
+recent times, if indeed it is even now extinct. For a close parallel may
+be traced in some respects between witches and were-wolves. Like
+were-wolves, witches are commonly supposed to be able to transform
+themselves temporarily into animals for the purpose of playing their
+mischievous pranks;[768] and like were-wolves they can in their animal
+disguise be compelled to unmask themselves to any one who succeeds in
+drawing their blood. In either case the animal-skin is conceived as a
+cloak thrown round the wicked enchanter; and if you can only pierce the
+skin, whether by the stab of a knife or the shot of a gun, you so rend
+the disguise that the man or woman inside of it stands revealed in his
+or her true colours. Strictly speaking, the stab should be given on the
+brow or between the eyes in the case both of a witch and of a
+were-wolf;[769] and it is vain to shoot at a were-wolf unless you have
+had the bullet blessed in a chapel of St. Hubert or happen to be
+carrying about you, without knowing it, a four-leaved clover; otherwise
+the bullet will merely rebound from the were-wolf like water from a
+duck's back.[770] However, in Armenia they say that the were-wolf, who
+in that country is usually a woman, can be killed neither by shot nor by
+steel; the only way of delivering the unhappy woman from her bondage is
+to get hold of her wolf's skin and burn it; for that naturally prevents
+her from turning into a wolf again. But it is not easy to find the skin,
+for she is cunning enough to hide it by day.[771] So with witches, it is
+not only useless but even dangerous to shoot at one of them when she has
+turned herself into a hare; if you do, the gun may burst in your hand or
+the shot come back and kill you. The only way to make quite sure of
+hitting a witch-animal is to put a silver sixpence or a silver button in
+your gun.[772] For example, it happened one evening that a native of the
+island of Tiree was going home with a new gun, when he saw a black sheep
+running towards him across the plain of Reef. Something about the
+creature excited his suspicion, so he put a silver sixpence in his gun
+and fired at it. Instantly the black sheep became a woman with a drugget
+coat wrapt round her head. The man knew her quite well, for she was a
+witch who had often persecuted him before in the shape of a cat.[773]
+
+[Wounds inflicted on an animal into which a witch has transformed
+herself are inflicted on the witch herself.]
+
+Again, the wounds inflicted on a witch-hare or a witch-cat are to be
+seen on the witch herself, just as the wounds inflicted on a were-wolf
+are to be seen on the man himself when he has doffed the wolfs skin. To
+take a few instances out of a multitude, a young man in the island of
+Lismore was out shooting. When he was near Balnagown loch, he started a
+hare and fired at it. The animal gave an unearthly scream, and then for
+the first time it occurred to him that there were no real hares in
+Lismore. He threw away his gun in terror and fled home; and next day he
+heard that a notorious witch was laid up with a broken leg. A man need
+be no conjuror to guess how she came by that broken leg.[774] Again, at
+Thurso certain witches used to turn themselves into cats and in that
+shape to torment an honest man. One night he lost patience, whipped out
+his broadsword, and put them to flight. As they were scurrying away he
+struck at them and cut off a leg of one of the cats. To his astonishment
+it was a woman's leg, and next morning he found one of the witches short
+of the corresponding limb.[775] Glanvil tells a story of "an old woman
+in Cambridge-shire, whose astral spirit, coming into a man's house (as
+he was sitting alone at the fire) in the shape of an huge cat, and
+setting her self before the fire, not far from him, he stole a stroke at
+the back of it with a fire-fork, and seemed to break the back of it, but
+it scambled from him, and vanisht he knew not how. But such an old
+woman, a reputed witch, was found dead in her bed that very night, with
+her back broken, as I have heard some years ago credibly reported."[776]
+In Yorkshire during the latter half of the nineteenth century a parish
+clergyman was told a circumstantial story of an old witch named Nanny,
+who was hunted in the form of a hare for several miles over the
+Westerdale moors and kept well away from the dogs, till a black one
+joined the pack and succeeded in taking a bit out of one of the hare's
+legs. That was the end of the chase, and immediately afterwards the
+sportsmen found old Nanny laid up in bed with a sore leg. On examining
+the wounded limb they discovered that the hurt was precisely in that
+part of it which in the hare had been bitten by the black dog and, what
+was still more significant, the wound had all the appearance of having
+been inflicted by a dog's teeth. So they put two and two together.[777]
+The same sort of thing is often reported in Lincolnshire. "One night,"
+said a servant from Kirton Lindsey, "my father and brother saw a cat in
+front of them. Father knew it was a witch, and took a stone and hammered
+it. Next day the witch had her face all tied up, and shortly afterwards
+died." Again, a Bardney bumpkin told how a witch in his neighbourhood
+could take all sorts of shapes. One night a man shot a hare, and when he
+went to the witch's house he found her plastering a wound just where he
+had shot the hare.[778] So in County Leitrim, in Ireland, they say that
+a hare pursued by dogs fled to a house near at hand, but just as it was
+bolting in at the door one of the dogs came up with it and nipped a
+piece out of its leg. The hunters entered the house and found no hare
+there but only an old woman, and her side was bleeding; so they knew
+what to think of her.[779]
+
+[Wounded witches in the Vosges.]
+
+Again, in the Vosges Mountains a great big hare used to come out every
+evening to take the air at the foot of the Mont des Fourches. All the
+sportsmen of the neighbourhood tried their hands on that hare for a
+month, but not one of them could hit it. At last one marksman, more
+knowing than the rest, loaded his gun with some pellets of a consecrated
+wafer in addition to the usual pellets of lead. That did the trick. If
+puss was not killed outright, she was badly hurt, and limped away
+uttering shrieks and curses in a human voice. Later it transpired that
+she was no other than the witch of a neighbouring village who had the
+power of putting on the shape of any animal she pleased.[780] Again, a
+hunter of Travexin, in the Vosges, fired at a hare and almost shot away
+one of its hind legs. Nevertheless the creature contrived to escape into
+a cottage through the open door. Immediately a child's cries were heard
+to proceed from the cottage, and the hunter could distinguish these
+words, "Daddy, daddy, come quick! Poor mammy has her leg broken."[781]
+
+[Wounded witches in Swabia.]
+
+In Swabia the witches are liable to accidents of the same sort when they
+go about their business in the form of animals. For example, there was a
+soldier who was betrothed to a young woman and used to visit her every
+evening when he was off duty. But one evening the girl told him that he
+must not come to the house on Friday nights, because it was never
+convenient to her to see him then. This roused his suspicion, and the
+very next Friday night he set out to go to his sweetheart's house. On
+the way a white cat ran up to him in the street and dogged his steps,
+and when the animal would not make off he drew his sword and slashed off
+one of its paws. On that the cat bolted. The soldier walked on, but when
+he came to his sweetheart's house he found her in bed, and when he asked
+her what was the matter, she gave a very confused reply. Noticing stains
+of blood on the bed, he drew down the coverlet and saw that the girl was
+weltering in her gore, for one of her feet was lopped off. "So that's
+what's the matter with you, you witch!" said he, and turned on his heel
+and left her, and within three days she was dead.[782] Again, a farmer
+in the neighbourhood of Wiesensteig frequently found in his stable a
+horse over and above the four horses he actually owned. He did not know
+what to make of it and mentioned the matter to the smith. The smith said
+quietly, "The next time you see a fifth horse in the stable, just you
+send for me." Well, it was not long before the strange horse was there
+again, and the farmer at once sent for the smith. He came bringing four
+horse-shoes with him, and said, "I'm sure the nag has no shoes; I'll
+shoe her for you." No sooner said than done. However, the smith
+overreached himself; for next day when his friend the farmer paid him a
+visit he found the smith's own wife prancing about with horse-shoes
+nailed on her hands and feet. But it was the last time she ever appeared
+in the shape of a horse.[783]
+
+[The miller's wife and the two grey cats.]
+
+Once more, in Silesia they tell of a miller's apprentice, a sturdy and
+industrious young fellow, who set out on his travels. One day he came to
+a mill, and the miller told him that he wanted an apprentice but did not
+care to engage one, because hitherto all his apprentices had run away in
+the night, and when he came down in the morning the mill was at a stand.
+However, he liked the looks of the young chap and took him into his pay.
+But what the new apprentice heard about the mill and his predecessors
+was not encouraging; so the first night when it was his duty to watch in
+the mill he took care to provide himself with an axe and a prayer-book,
+and while he kept one eye on the whirring, humming wheels he kept the
+other on the good book, which he read by the flickering light of a
+candle set on a table. So the hours at first passed quietly with nothing
+to disturb him but the monotonous drone and click of the machinery. But
+on the stroke of twelve, as he was still reading with the axe lying on
+the table within reach, the door opened and in came two grey cats
+mewing, an old one and a young one. They sat down opposite him, but it
+was easy to see that they did not like his wakefulness and the
+prayer-book and the axe. Suddenly the old cat reached out a paw and made
+a grab at the axe, but the young chap was too quick for her and held it
+fast. Then the young cat tried to do the same for the prayer-book, but
+the apprentice gripped it tight. Thus balked, the two cats set up such a
+squalling that the young fellow could hardly say his prayers. Just
+before one o'clock the younger cat sprang on the table and fetched a
+blow with her right paw at the candle to put it out. But the apprentice
+struck at her with his axe and sliced the paw off, whereupon the two
+cats vanished with a frightful screech. The apprentice wrapped the paw
+up in paper to shew it to his master. Very glad the miller was next
+morning when he came down and found the mill going and the young chap at
+his post. The apprentice told him what had happened in the night and
+gave him the parcel containing the cat's paw. But when the miller opened
+it, what was the astonishment of the two to find in it no cat's paw but
+a woman's hand! At breakfast the miller's young wife did not as usual
+take her place at the table. She was ill in bed, and the doctor had to
+be called in to bind up her right arm, because in hewing wood, so they
+said, she had made a slip and cut off her own right hand. But the
+apprentice packed up his traps and turned his back on that mill before
+the sun had set.[784]
+
+[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.]
+
+It would no doubt be easy to multiply instances, all equally well
+attested and authentic, of the transformation of witches into animals
+and of the damage which the women themselves have sustained through
+injuries inflicted on the animals.[785] But the foregoing evidence may
+suffice to establish the complete parallelism between witches and
+were-wolves in these respects. The analogy appears to confirm the view
+that the reason for burning a bewitched animal alive is a belief that
+the witch herself is in the animal, and that by burning it you either
+destroy the witch completely or at least unmask her and compel her to
+reassume her proper human shape, in which she is naturally far less
+potent for mischief than when she is careering about the country in the
+likeness of a cat, a hare, a horse, or what not. This principle is still
+indeed clearly recognized by people in Oldenburg, though, as might be
+expected, they do not now carry out the principle to its logical
+conclusion by burning the bewitched animal or person alive; instead they
+resort to a feeble and, it must be added, perfectly futile subterfuge
+dictated by a mistaken humanity or a fear of the police. "When anything
+living is bewitched in a house, for example, children or animals, they
+burn or boil the nobler inwards of animals, especially the hearts, but
+also the lungs or the liver. If animals have died, they take the inwards
+of one of them or of an animal of the same kind slaughtered for the
+purpose; but if that is not possible they take the inwards of a cock, by
+preference a black one. The heart, lung, or liver is stuck all over with
+needles, or marked with a cross cut, or placed on the fire in a tightly
+closed vessel, strict silence being observed and doors and windows well
+shut. When the heart boils or is reduced to ashes, the witch must
+appear, for during the boiling she feels the burning pain. She either
+begs to be released or seeks to borrow something, for example, salt or a
+coal of fire, or she takes the lid off the pot, or tries to induce the
+person whose spell is on her to speak. They say, too, that a woman comes
+with a spinning-wheel. If it is a sheep that has died, you proceed in
+the same way with a tripe from its stomach and prick it with needles
+while it is on the boil. Instead of boiling it, some people nail the
+heart to the highest rafter of the house, or lay it on the edge of the
+hearth, in order that it may dry up, no doubt because the same thing
+happens to the witch. We may conjecture that other sympathetic means of
+destruction are employed against witchcraft. The following is expressly
+reported: the heart of a calf that has died is stuck all over with
+needles, enclosed in a bag, and thrown into flowing water before
+sunset."[786]
+
+[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.]
+
+And the same thing holds good also of inanimate objects on which a witch
+has cast her spell. In Wales they say that "if a thing is bewitched,
+burn it, and immediately afterwards the witch will come to borrow
+something of you. If you give what she asks, she will go free; if you
+refuse it, she will burn, and a mark will be on her body the next
+day."[787] So, too, in Oldenburg, "the burning of things that are
+bewitched or that have been received from witches is another way of
+breaking the spell. It is often said that the burning should take place
+at a cross-road, and in several places cross-roads are shewn where the
+burning used to be performed.... As a rule, while the things are
+burning, the guilty witches appear, though not always in their own
+shape. At the burning of bewitched butter they often appear as
+cockchafers and can be killed with impunity. Victuals received from
+witches may be safely consumed if only you first burn a portion of
+them."[788] For example, a young man in Oldenburg was wooing a girl, and
+she gave him two fine apples as a gift. Not feeling any appetite at the
+time, he put the apples in his pocket, and when he came home he laid
+them by in a chest. Two or three days afterwards he remembered the
+apples and went to the chest to fetch them. But when he would have put
+his hand on them, what was his horror to find in their stead two fat
+ugly toads in the chest. He hastened to a wise man and asked him what he
+should do with the toads. The man told him to boil the toads alive, but
+while he was doing so he must be sure on no account to lend anything out
+of the house. Well, just as he had the toads in a pot on the fire and
+the water began to grow nicely warm, who should come to the door but the
+girl who had given him the apples, and she wished to borrow something;
+but he refused to give her anything, rated her as a witch, and drove her
+out of the house. A little afterwards in came the girl's mother and
+begged with tears in her eyes for something or other; but he turned her
+out also. The last word she said to him was that he should at least
+spare her daughter's life; but he paid no heed to her and let the toads
+boil till they fell to bits. Next day word came that the girl was
+dead.[789] Can any reasonable man doubt that the witch herself was
+boiled alive in the person of the toads?
+
+[The burning alive of a supposed witch in Ireland in 1895.]
+
+Moreover, just as a witch can assume the form of an animal, so she can
+assume the form of some other human being, and the likeness is sometimes
+so good that it is difficult to detect the fraud. However, by burning
+alive the person whose shape the witch has put on, you force the witch
+to disclose herself, just as by burning alive the bewitched animal you
+in like manner oblige the witch to appear. This principle may perhaps be
+unknown to science, falsely so called, but it is well understood in
+Ireland and has been acted on within recent years. In March 1895 a
+peasant named Michael Cleary, residing at Ballyvadlea, a remote and
+lonely district in the county of Tipperary, burned his wife Bridget
+Cleary alive over a slow fire on the kitchen hearth in the presence of
+and with the active assistance of some neighbours, including the woman's
+own father and several of her cousins. They thought that she was not
+Bridget Cleary at all, but a witch, and that when they held her down on
+the fire she would vanish up the chimney; so they cried, while she was
+burning, "Away she goes! Away she goes!" Even when she lay quite dead on
+the kitchen floor (for contrary to the general expectation she did not
+disappear up the chimney), her husband still believed that the woman
+lying there was a witch, and that his own dear wife had gone with the
+fairies to the old _rath_ or fort on the hill of Kylenagranagh, where he
+would see her at night riding a grey horse and roped to the saddle, and
+that he would cut the ropes, and that she would stay with him ever
+afterwards. So he went with some friends to the fort night after night,
+taking a big table-knife with him to cut the ropes. But he never saw his
+wife again. He and the men who had held the woman on the fire were
+arrested and tried at Clonmel for wilful murder in July 1895; they were
+all found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to various terms of penal
+servitude and imprisonment; the sentence passed on Michael Cleary was
+twenty years' penal servitude.[790]
+
+[Sometimes bewitched animals are buried alive instead of being burned.]
+
+However, our British peasants, it must be confessed, have not always
+acted up to the strict logical theory which seems to call for death by
+fire as the proper treatment both of bewitched animals and of witches.
+Sometimes, perhaps in moments of weakness, they have merely buried the
+bewitched animals alive instead of burning them. For example, in the
+year 1643, "many cattle having died, John Brughe and Neane Nikclerith,
+also one of the initiated, conjoined their mutual skill for the safety
+of the herd. The surviving animals were drove past a tub of water
+containing two enchanted stones: and each was sprinkled from the liquid
+contents in its course. One, however, being unable to walk, 'was by
+force drawin out at the byre dure; and the said Johnne with Nikclerith
+smelling the nois thereof said it wald not leive, caused are hoill to be
+maid in Maw Greane, quhilk was put quick in the hole and maid all the
+rest of the cattell theireftir to go over that place: and in that
+devillische maner, be charmeing,' they were cured."[791] Again, during
+the prevalence of a murrain about the year 1629, certain persons
+proposed to stay the plague with the help of a celebrated "cureing
+stane" of which the laird of Lee was the fortunate owner. But from this
+they were dissuaded by one who "had sene bestiall curet be taking are
+quik seik ox, and making are deip pitt, and bureing him therin, and be
+calling the oxin and bestiall over that place." Indeed Issobell Young,
+the mother of these persons, had herself endeavoured to check the
+progress of the distemper by taking "ane quik ox with ane catt, and ane
+grit quantitie of salt," and proceeding "to burie the ox and catt quik
+with the salt, in ane deip hoill in the grund, as ane sacrifice to the
+devill, that the rest of the guidis might be fred of the seiknes or
+diseases."[792] Writing towards the end of the eighteenth century, John
+Ramsay of Ochtertyre tells us that "the violent death even of a brute is
+in some cases held to be of great avail. There is a disease called the
+_black spauld_, which sometimes rages like a pestilence among black
+cattle, the symptoms of which are a mortification in the legs and a
+corruption of the mass of blood. Among the other engines of superstition
+that are directed against this fatal malady, the first cow seized with
+it is commonly buried alive, and the other cattle are forced to pass
+backwards and forwards over the pit. At other times the heart is taken
+out of the beast alive, and then the carcass is buried. It is remarkable
+that the leg affected is cut off, and hung up in some part of the house
+or byre, where it remains suspended, notwithstanding the seeming danger
+of infection. There is hardly a house in Mull where these may not be
+seen. This practice seems to have taken its rise antecedent to
+Christianity, as it reminds us of the pagan custom of hanging up
+offerings in their temples. In Breadalbane, when a cow is observed to
+have symptoms of madness, there is recourse had to a peculiar process.
+They tie the legs of the mad creature, and throw her into a pit dug at
+the door of the fold. After covering the hole with earth, a large fire
+is kindled upon it; and the rest of the cattle are driven out, and
+forced to pass through the fire one by one."[793] In this latter custom
+we may suspect that the fire kindled on the grave of the buried cow was
+originally made by the friction of wood, in other words, that it was a
+need-fire. Again, writing in the year 1862, Sir Arthur Mitchell tells us
+that "for the cure of the murrain in cattle, one of the herd is still
+sacrificed for the good of the whole. This is done by burying it alive.
+I am assured that within the last ten years such a barbarism occurred in
+the county of Moray."[794]
+
+[Calves killed and buried to save the rest of the herd.]
+
+Sometimes, however, the animal has not even been buried alive, it has
+been merely killed and then buried. In this emasculated form the
+sacrifice, we may say with confidence, is absolutely useless for the
+purpose of stopping a murrain. Nevertheless, it has been tried. Thus in
+Lincolnshire, when the cattle plague was so prevalent in 1866, there
+was, I believe, not a single cowshed in Marshland but had its wicken
+cross over the door; and other charms more powerful than this were in
+some cases resorted to. I never heard of the use of the needfire in the
+Marsh, though it was, I believe, used on the wolds not many miles off.
+But I knew of at least one case in which a calf was killed and solemnly
+buried feet pointing upwards at the threshold of the cowshed. When our
+garthman told me of this, I pointed out to him that the charm had
+failed, for the disease had not spared that shed. But he promptly
+replied, "Yis, but owd Edwards were a soight too cliver; he were that
+mean he slew nobbutt a wankling cauf as were bound to deny anny road; if
+he had nobbutt tekken his best cauf it wud hev worked reight enuff;
+'tain't in reason that owd skrat 'ud be hanselled wi' wankling
+draffle."[795]
+
+Notes:
+
+[262] See Jacob Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_*[4] (Berlin, 1875-1878), i.
+502, 510, 516.
+
+[263] W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer
+Nachbarstämme_ (Berlin, 1875), pp. 518 _sq._
+
+[264] In the following survey of these fire-customs I follow chiefly W.
+Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, kap. vi. pp. 497 _sqq._ Compare also J.
+Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 500 _sqq._; Walter E. Kelly,
+_Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore_ (London, 1863),
+pp. 46 _sqq._; F. Vogt, "Scheibentreiben und Frühlingsfeuer,"
+_Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde_, iii. (1893) pp. 349-369;
+_ibid._ iv. (1894) pp. 195-197.
+
+[265] _The Scapegoat_, pp. 316 _sqq._
+
+[266] The first Sunday in Lent is known as _Invocavit_ from the first
+word of the mass for the day (O. Frh. von Reinsberg-Düringsfeld,
+_Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_, p. 67).
+
+[267] Le Baron de Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Calendrier Belge_ (Brussels,
+1861-1862), i. 141-143; E. Monseur, _Le Folklore Wallon_ (Brussels,
+N.D.), pp. 124 _sq._
+
+[268] Émile Hublard, _Fêtes du Temps Jadis, les Feux du Carême_ (Mons,
+1899), pp. 25. For the loan of this work I am indebted to Mrs. Wherry of
+St. Peter's Terrace, Cambridge.
+
+[269] É. Hublard, _op. cit._ pp. 27 _sq._
+
+[270] A. Meyrac, _Traditions, coutumes, légendes et contes des Ardennes_
+(Charleville, 1890), p. 68.
+
+[271] L.F. Sauvé, _Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_ (Paris, 1889), p. 56.
+The popular name for the bonfires in the Upper Vosges (_Hautes-Vosges_)
+is _chavandes_.
+
+[272] E. Cortet, _Essai sur les fêtes religieuses_ (Paris, 1867), pp.
+101 _sq._ The local name for these bonfires is _bures_.
+
+[273] Charles Beauquier, _Les mois en Franche-Comté_ (Paris, 1900), pp.
+33 _sq._ In Bresse the custom was similar. See _La Bresse Louhannaise,
+Bulletin Mensuel, Organe de la Société d'Agriculture et d'Horticulture
+de l'Arrondissement de Louhans_, Mars, 1906, pp. 111 _sq._; E. Cortet,
+_op. cit._ p. 100. The usual name for the bonfires is _chevannes_ or
+_schvannes_; but in some places they are called _foulères, foualères,
+failles_, or _bourdifailles_ (Ch. Beauquier, _op. cit._ p. 34). But the
+Sunday is called the Sunday of the _brandons, bures, bordes_, or
+_boidès_, according to the place. The _brandons_ are the torches which
+are carried about the streets and the fields; the bonfires, as we have
+seen, bear another name. A curious custom, observed on the same Sunday
+in Franche-Comté, requires that couples married within the year should
+distribute boiled peas to all the young folks of both sexes who demand
+them at the door. The lads and lasses go about from house to house,
+making the customary request; in some places they wear masks or are
+otherwise disguised. See Ch. Beauquier, _op. cit._ pp. 31-33.
+
+[274] Curiously enough, while the singular is _granno-mio_, the plural
+is _grannas-mias_.
+
+[275] Dr. Pommerol, "La fête des Brandons et le dieu Gaulois Grannus,"
+_Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris_, v.
+Série, ii. (1901) pp. 427-429.
+
+[276] _Op. cit._ pp. 428 _sq._
+
+[277] H. Dessau, _Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, vol. ii. Pars i.
+(Berlin, 1902) pp. 216 _sq._, Nos. 4646-4652.
+
+[278] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London, 1888), pp. 22-25.
+
+[279] Émile Hublard, _Fêtes du Temps Jadis, les Feux du Carême_ (Mons,
+1899), p. 38, quoting Dom Grenier, _Histoire de la Province de
+Picardie_.
+
+[280] É. Hublard, _op. cit._ p. 39, quoting Dom Grenier.
+
+[281] M. Desgranges, "Usages du Canton de Bonneval," _Mémoires de la
+Société Royale des Antiquaires de France_, i. (Paris, 1817) pp. 236-238;
+Felix Chapiseau, _Le folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche_ (Paris, 1902),
+i. 315 _sq._
+
+[282] John Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 100.
+
+[283] E. Cortet, _Essai sur les fêtes religieuses_ (Paris, 1867), pp. 99
+_sq.; La Bresse Louhannaise_, Mars, 1906, p. 111.
+
+[284] A. de Nore, _Coutumes, mythes et traditions des provinces de
+France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 283 _sq._ A similar, though not
+identical, custom prevailed at Valenciennes (_ibid._ p. 338).
+
+[285] A. de Nore, _op. cit._ p. 302.
+
+[286] Désiré Monnier, _Traditions populaires comparées_ (Paris, 1854),
+pp. 191 _sq._
+
+[287] Laisnel de la Salle, _Croyances et légendes du centre de la
+France_ (Paris, 1875). i. 35 _sqq._
+
+[288] Jules Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Rocage Normand_ (Condé-sur-Noireau,
+1887), ii. 131 _sq._ For more evidence of customs of this sort observed
+in various parts of France on the first Sunday in Lent, see Madame
+Clément, _Histoire des Fêtes civiles et religieuses_, etc., _du
+Département du Nord_*[2] (Cambrai, 1836), pp. 351 _sqq._; Émile Hublard,
+_Fêtes du Temps Jadis, les Feux du Carême_ (Mons, 1899), pp. 33 _sqq._
+
+[289] J.H. Schmitz, _Sitten und Sagen, Lieder, Sprüchwörter und Räthsel
+des Eifler Volkes_ (Trèves, 1856-1858), i. 21-25; N. Hocker, in
+_Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, i. (1853) p. 90;
+W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstämme_
+(Berlin, 1875), p. 501.
+
+[290] N. Hocker, _op. cit._ pp. 89 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _l.c._
+
+[291] F.J. Vonbun, _Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Chur, 1862), p.
+20; W. Mannhardt, _l.c._
+
+[292] Ernst Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_
+(Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 380 _sqq._; Anton Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus
+Schwaben_ (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. 56 _sqq._, 66 _sqq._;
+_Bavaria, Landes-und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_ (Munich,
+1860-1867), ii. 2, pp. 838 _sq._; F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen
+Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855), i. 211, § 232; W. Mannhardt, _l.c._ One
+of the popular German names for the first Sunday in Lent is White
+Sunday, which is not to be confused with the first Sunday after Easter,
+which also goes by the name of White Sunday (E. Meier, _op. cit._ p.
+380; A. Birlinger, _op. cit._ ii. 56).
+
+[293] H. Gaidoz, "Le dieu gaulois du soleil et le symbolisme de la
+roue," _Revue Archéologique_, iii. série, iv. (1884) pp. 139 _sq._
+
+[294] August Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_
+(Vienna, 1878), p. 189; F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_
+(Munich, 1848-1855), ii. 207; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus,_ pp. 500
+_sq._
+
+[295] W. Kolbe, _Hessiche Volks-Sitten und Gebräuche_*[2] (Marburg,
+1888), p. 36.
+
+[296] Adalbert Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des
+Göttertranks_*[2] (Gütersloh, 1886), p. 86, quoting Hocker, _Des
+Mosellandes Geschichten, Sagen und Legenden_ (Trier, 1852), pp. 415
+_sqq._ Compare W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 501; and below, pp.
+163 _sq._ Thus it appears that the ceremony of rolling the fiery wheel
+down hill was observed twice a year at Konz, once on the first Sunday in
+Lent, and once at Midsummer.
+
+[297] H. Herzog, _Schweizerische Volksfeste, Sitten und Gebräuche_
+(Aarau, 1884), pp. 214-216; E. Hoffmann-Krayer, "Fruchtbarkeitsriten im
+schweizerischen Volksbrauch," _Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde_,
+xi. (1907) pp. 247-249; _id., Feste und Bräuche des Schweizervolkes_
+(Zurich, 1913), pp. 135 _sq._
+
+[298] Theodor Vernaleken, _Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich_
+(Vienna, 1859), pp. 293 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 498.
+See _The Dying God_, p. 239.
+
+[299] J. H. Schmitz, _Sitten und Sagen, Lieder, Sprüchwörter und Räthsel
+des Eifler Volkes_ (Treves, 1856-1858), i. 20; W. Mannhardt, _Der
+Baumkultus_, p. 499.
+
+[300] L. Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum
+Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg, 1867), ii. 39, § 306; W. Mannhardt, _Der
+Baumkultus_, p. 498.
+
+[301] W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 499.
+
+[302] W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 498 _sq._
+
+[303] W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 499.
+
+[304] Christian Schneller, _Märchen und Sagen aus Wälschtirol_
+(Innsbruck, 1867), pp. 234 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 499 _sq._
+
+[305] John Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 157 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, pp. 502-505;
+Karl Freiherr von Leoprechting, _Aus dem Lechrain_ (Munich, 1855), pp.
+172 _sq._; Anton Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im
+Breisgau, 1861-1862), i. 472 _sq._; Montanus, _Die deutschen Volksfeste,
+Volksbräuche und deutscher Volksglaube_ (Iserlohn, N.D.), p. 26; F.
+Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855), ii. 241
+_sq._; Ernst Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_
+(Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 139 _sq._; _Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des
+Königreichs Bayern_ (Munich, 1860-1867), i. 371; A. Wuttke, _Der
+deutsche Volksaberglaube_*[2] (Berlin, 1869), pp. 68 _sq._, § 81; Ignaz
+V. Zingerle, _Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes_*[2]
+(Innsbruck, 1871), p. 149, §§ 1286-1289; W. Kolbe, _Hessische
+Volks-Sitten und Gebräuche_*[2] (Marburg, 1888), pp. 44 _sqq._; _County
+Folk-lore, Printed Extracts, Leicestershire and Rutland_, collected by
+C.J. Billson (London, 1895), pp. 75 _sq._; A. Tiraboschi, "Usi pasquali
+nel Bergamasco," _Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradizione Popolari_, i.
+(1892) pp. 442 _sq._ The ecclesiastical custom of lighting the Paschal
+or Easter candle is very fully described by Mr. H.J. Feasey, _Ancient
+English Holy Week Ceremonial_ (London, 1897), pp. 179 _sqq._ These
+candles were sometimes of prodigious size; in the cathedrals of Norwich
+and Durham, for example, they reached almost to the roof, from which
+they had to be lighted. Often they went by the name of the Judas Light
+or the Judas Candle; and sometimes small waxen figures of Judas were
+hung on them. See H.J. Feasey, _op. cit._ pp. 193, 213 _sqq._ As to the
+ritual of the new fire at St. Peter's in Rome, see R. Chambers, _The
+Book of Days_ (London and Edinburgh, 1886), i. 421; and as to the early
+history of the rite in the Catholic church, see Mgr. L. Duchesne,
+_Origines du Culte Chrétien_*[3] (Paris, 1903), pp. 250-257.]
+
+[306] _Bavaria, Landes und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_ (Munich,
+1860-1867), i. 1002 _sq._
+
+[307] Gennaro Finamore, _Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi_ (Palermo,
+1890), pp. 122 _sq._
+
+[308] G. Finamore, _op. cit._ pp. 123 _sq._
+
+[309] Vincenzo Dorsa, _La Tradizione Greco-Latina negli Usi e nelle
+Credenze Popolari della Calabria Citeriore_ (Cosenza, 1884), pp. 48
+_sq._
+
+[310] Alois John, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen
+Westböhmen_ (Prague, 1905), pp. 62 _sq._
+
+[311] K. Seifart, _Sagen, Märchen, Schwänke und Gebräuche aits Stadt und
+Stift Hildesheim_*[2] (Hildesheim, 1889), pp. 177 _sq._, 179 _sq._
+
+[312] M. Lexer, "Volksüberlieferungen aus dem Lesachthal in Karnten,"
+_Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, iii. (1855) p.
+31.
+
+[313] _The Popish Kingdome or reigne of Antichrist, written in Latin
+verse by Thomas Naogeorgus and Englyshed by Barnabe Googe_, 1570, edited
+by R.C. Hope (London, 1880), p. 52, _recto._ The title of the original
+poem was _Regnum Papisticum_. The author, Thomas Kirchmeyer (Naogeorgus,
+as he called himself), died in 1577. The book is a satire on the abuses
+and superstitions of the Catholic Church. Only one perfect copy of
+Googe's translation is known to exist: it is in the University Library
+at Cambridge. See Mr. R.C. Hope's introduction to his reprint of this
+rare work, pp. xv. _sq._ The words, "Then Clappers ceasse, and belles
+are set againe at libertée," refer to the custom in Catholic countries
+of silencing the church bells for two days from noon on Maundy Thursday
+to noon on Easter Saturday and substituting for their music the harsh
+clatter of wooden rattles. See R. Chambers, _The Book of Days_ (London
+and Edinburgh, 1886), i, 412 _sq._ According to another account the
+church bells are silent from midnight on the Wednesday preceding Maundy
+Thursday till matins on Easter Day. See W. Smith and S. Cheetham,
+_Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_ (London, 1875-1880), ii. 1161,
+referring to _Ordo Roman_. i. _u.s._
+
+[314] R. Chambers, _The Book of Days_ (London and Edinburgh, 1886), i.
+421.
+
+[315] Miss Jessie L. Weston, "The _Scoppio del Carro_ at Florence,"
+_Folk-lore_, xvi. (1905) pp. 182-184; "Lo Scoppio del Carro,"
+_Resurrezione, Numero Unico del Sabato Santo_ (Florence, April, 1906),
+p. 1 (giving a picture of the car with its pyramid of fire-works). The
+latter paper was kindly sent to me from Florence by my friend Professor
+W.J. Lewis. I have also received a letter on the subject from Signor
+Carlo Placci, dated 4 (or 7) September, 1905, 1 Via Alfieri, Firenze.
+
+[316] Frederick Starr, "Holy Week in Mexico," _The Journal of American
+Folk-lore_, xii. (1899) pp. 164 _sq._; C. Boyson Taylor, "Easter in Many
+Lands," _Everybody's Magazine_, New York, 1903, p. 293. I have to thank
+Mr. S.S. Cohen, of 1525 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, for sending me a
+cutting from the latter magazine.
+
+[317] K. von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_
+(Berlin, 1894), pp. 458 _sq._; E. Montet, "Religion et Superstition dans
+l'Amérique du Sud," _Revue de l'Histoire des Religions_, xxxii. (1895)
+p. 145.
+
+[318] J.J. von Tschudi, _Peru, Reiseskizzen aus den Jahren 1838-1842_
+(St. Gallen, 1846), ii. 189 _sq._
+
+[319] H. Candelier, _Rio-Hacha et les Indiens Goajires_ (Paris, 1893),
+p. 85.
+
+[320] Henry Maundrell, "A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter,
+A.D. 1697," in Bohn's _Early Travellers in Palestine_ (London, 1848),
+pp. 462-465; Mgr. Auvergne, in _Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, x.
+(1837) pp. 23 _sq._; A.P. Stanley, _Sinai and Palestine_, Second Edition
+(London, 1856), pp. 460-465; E. Cortet, _Essai sur les Fêtes
+Religieuses_ (Paris, 1867), pp. 137-139; A.W. Kinglake, _Eothen_,
+chapter xvi. pp. 158-163 (Temple Classics edition); Father N. Abougit,
+S.J., "Le feu du Saint-Sépulcre," _Les Missions Catholiques_, viii.
+(1876) pp. 518 _sq._; Rev. C.T. Wilson, _Peasant Life in the Holy Land_
+(London, 1906), pp. 45 _sq._; P. Saint-yves, "Le Renouvellement du Feu
+Sacré," _Revue des Traditions Populaires_, xxvii. (1912) pp. 449 _sqq._
+The distribution of the new fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is
+the subject of a picture by Holman Hunt. From some printed notes on the
+picture, with which Mrs. Holman Hunt was so kind as to furnish me, it
+appears that the new fire is carried by horsemen to Bethlehem and Jaffa,
+and that a Russian ship conveys it from Jaffa to Odessa, whence it is
+distributed all over the country.
+
+[321] Father X. Abougit, S.J., "Le feu du Saint-Sépulcre," _Les Missions
+Catholiques_, viii. (1876) pp. 165-168.
+
+[322] I have described the ceremony as I witnessed it at Athens, on
+April 13th, 1890. Compare _Folk-lore_, i. (1890) p. 275. Having been
+honoured, like other strangers, with a place on the platform, I did not
+myself detect Lucifer at work among the multitude below; I merely
+suspected his insidious presence.
+
+[323] W.H.D. Rouse, "Folk-lore from the Southern Sporades," _Folk-lore_,
+x. (1899) p. 178.
+
+[324] Mrs. A.E. Gardner was so kind as to send me a photograph of a
+Theban Judas dangling from a gallows and partially enveloped in smoke.
+The photograph was taken at Thebes during the Easter celebration of
+1891.
+
+[325] G.F. Abbott, _Macedonian Folklore_ (Cambridge, 1903) p. 37.
+
+[326] Cirbied, "Mémoire sur la gouvernment et sur la religion des
+anciens Arméniens," _Mémoires publiées par la Société Royale des
+Antiquaires de France_, ii. (1820) pp. 285-287; Manuk Abeghian, _Der
+armenische Volksglaube_ (Leipsic, 1899), pp. 72-74. The ceremony is said
+to be merely a continuation of an old heathen festival which was held at
+the beginning of spring in honour of the fire-god Mihr. A bonfire was
+made in a public place, and lamps kindled at it were kept burning
+throughout the year in each of the fire-god's temples.
+
+[327] _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 32, ii. 243;
+_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, ii. 65, 74, 75, 78, 136.
+
+[328] Garcilasso de la Vega, _Royal Commentaries of the Yncas_
+translated by (Sir) Clements R. Markham (Hakluyt Society, London,
+1869-1871), vol. ii. pp. 155-163. Compare Juan de Velasco, "Histoire du
+Royaume de Quito," in H. Ternaux-Compans's _Voyages, Relations et
+Mémoires originaux pour servir à l'Histoire de la Découverte de
+l'Amérique_, xviii. (Paris, 1840) p. 140.
+
+[329] B. de Sahagun, _Histoire Générale des Choses de la Nouvelle
+Espagne_, traduite par D. Jourdanet et R. Simeon (Paris, 1880), bk. ii.
+chapters 18 and 37, pp. 76, 161; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des
+Nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique-Centrale_ (Paris,
+1857-1859), iii. 136.
+
+[330] Mrs. Matilda Coxe Stevenson, "The Zuñi Indians," _Twenty-third
+Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_ (Washington, 1904),
+pp. 108-141, 148-162, especially pp. 108, 109, 114 _sq._, 120 _sq._, 130
+_sq._, 132, 148 _sq._, 157 _sq._ I have already described these
+ceremonies in _Totemism and Exogamy_, iii. 237 _sq._ Among the Hopi
+(Moqui) Indians of Walpi, another pueblo village of this region, new
+fire is ceremonially kindled by friction in November. See Jesse Walter
+Fewkes, "The Tusayan New Fire Ceremony," _Proceedings of the Boston
+Society of Natural History_, xxvi. 422-458; _id._, "The Group of Tusayan
+Ceremonials called _Katcinas," Fifteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of
+Ethnology_ (Washington, 1897), p. 263; _id._, "Hopi _Katcinas,"
+Twenty-first Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_
+(Washington, 1903), p. 24.
+
+[331] Henry R. Schoolcraft, _Notes on the Iroquois_ (Albany, 1847), p.
+137. Schoolcraft did not know the date of the ceremony, but he
+conjectured that it fell at the end of the Iroquois year, which was a
+lunar year of twelve or thirteen months. He says: "That the close of the
+lunar series should have been the period of putting out the fire, and
+the beginning of the next, the time of relumination, from new fire, is
+so consonant to analogy in the tropical tribes, as to be probable" (_op.
+cit._ p. 138).
+
+[332] C.F. Hall, _Life with the Esquimaux_ (London, 1864), ii. 323.
+
+[333] Franz Boas, "The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay," _Bulletin
+of the American Museum of Natural, History_, xv. Part i. (New York,
+1901) p. 151.
+
+[334] G. Nachtigal, _Saharâ und Sûdân_, iii. (Leipsic, 1889) p. 251.
+
+[335] Major C. Percival, "Tropical Africa, on the Border Line of
+Mohamedan Civilization," _The Geographical Journal_, xlii. (1913) pp.
+253 _sq._
+
+[336] Adrien Germain, "Note sur Zanzibar et la côte orientale de
+l'Afrique," _Bulletin de la Société de Géographie_ (Paris), v. Série
+xvi. (1868) p. 557; _Les Missions Catholiques_, iii. (1870) p. 270;
+Charles New, _Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa_ (London,
+1873), p. 65; Jerome Becker, _La Vie en Afrique_ (Paris and Brussels,
+1887), ii. 36; O. Baumann, _Usambara und seine Nachbargebiele_ (Berlin,
+1891), pp. 55 _sq._; C. Velten, _Sitten und Gebräucheaer Suaheli_
+(Göttingen,1903), pp. 342-344.
+
+[337] Duarte Barbosa, _Description of the Coasts of East Africa and
+Malabar_ (Hakluyt Society, London, 1866), p. 8; _id._, in _Records of
+South-Eastern Africa_, collected by G. McCall Theal, vol. i. (1898) p.
+96; Damião de Goes, "Chronicle of the Most Fortunate King Dom Emanuel,"
+in _Records of South-Eastern Africa_, collected by G. McCall Theal, vol.
+iii. (1899) pp. 130 _sq._ The name Benametapa (more correctly
+_monomotapa_) appears to have been the regular title of the paramount
+chief, which the Portuguese took to be the name of the country. The
+people over whom he ruled seem to have been the Bantu tribe of the
+Makalanga in the neighbourhood of Sofala. See G. McCall Theal, _Records
+of South-Eastern Africa_, vii. (1901) pp. 481-484. It is to their custom
+of annually extinguishing and relighting the fire that Montaigne refers
+in his essay (i. 22, vol. i. p. 140 of Charpentier's edition), though he
+mentions no names.
+
+[338] Sir H.H. Johnson, _British Central Africa_ (London, 1897), pp.
+426, 439.
+
+[339] W.H.R. Rivers, _The Todas_ (London, 1906), pp. 290-292.
+
+[340] Lieut. R. Stewart, "Notes on Northern Cachar," _Journal of the
+Asiatic Society of Bengal_ xxiv. (1855) p. 612.
+
+[341] A. Bastian, _Die Völker des östlichen Asien_, ii. (Leipsic, 1866)
+pp. 49 _sq._; Shway Yoe, _The Burman_ (London, 1882), ii. 325 _sq._
+
+[342] G. Schlegel, _Uranographie Chinoise_ (The Hague and Leyden, 1875),
+pp. 139-143; C. Puini, "Il fuoco nella tradizione degli antichi Cinesi,"
+_Giornale della Società Asiatica Italiana_, i. (1887) pp. 20-23; J.J.M.
+de Groot, _Les Fétes annuellement célébrées à Émoui (Amoy)_ (Paris,
+1886), i. 208 _sqq._ The notion that fire can be worn out with age meets
+us also in Brahman ritual. See the _Satapatha Brahmana_, translated by
+Julius Eggeling, Part i. (Oxford, 1882) p. 230 (_Sacred Books of the
+East_, vol. xii.).
+
+[343] W.G. Aston, _Shinto, The Way of the Gods_ (London, 1905), pp. 258
+_sq._, compare p. 193. The wands in question are sticks whittled near
+the top into a mass of adherent shavings; they go by the name of
+_kedzurikake_ ("part-shaved"), and resemble the sacred _inao_ of the
+Aino. See W.G. Aston, _op. cit._ p. 191; and as to the _inao_, see
+_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, ii. 185, with note 2.
+
+[344] Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 82; Homer, _Iliad_, i. 590, _sqq._
+
+[345] Philostiatus, _Heroica_, xx. 24.
+
+[346] Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 143 _sq._; Macrobius, _Saturn_, i. 12. 6.
+
+[347] Festus, ed. C.O. Müller (Leipsic, 1839), p. 106, _s.v._ "Ignis."
+Plutarch describes a method of rekindling the sacred fire by means of
+the sun's rays reflected from a hollow mirror (_Numa_, 9); but he seems
+to be referring to a Greek rather than to the Roman custom. The rule of
+celibacy imposed on the Vestals, whose duty it was to relight the sacred
+fire as well as to preserve it when it was once made, is perhaps
+explained by a superstition current among French peasants that if a girl
+can blow up a smouldering candle into a flame she is a virgin, but that
+if she fails to do so, she is not. See Jules Lecoeur, _Esquisses du
+Bocage Normand_ (Condé-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 27; B. Souché,
+_Croyances, Présages et Traditions diverses_ (Niort, 1880), p. 12. At
+least it seems more likely that the rule sprang from a superstition of
+this sort than from a simple calculation of expediency, as I formerly
+suggested (_Journal of Philology_, xiv. (1885) p. 158). Compare _The
+Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings>_ ii. 234 _sqq._
+
+[348] Geoffrey Keating, D.D., _The History of Ireland, translated from
+the original Gaelic, and copiously annotated_, by John O'Mahony (New
+York, 1857), p. 300, with the translator's note. Compare (Sir) John
+Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London, 1888), pp. 514 _sq._
+
+[349] W.R.S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, Second Edition
+(London, 1872), pp. 254 _sq._
+
+[350] A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und
+Gebräuche_ (Leipsic, 1848), p. 373; A. Kuhn, _Sagen, Gebräuche und
+Märchen aus Westfalen_ (Leipsic, 1859), ii. 134 _sqq.; id., Märkische
+Sagen und Märchen_ (Berlin, 1843), pp. 312 _sq._; J.D.H. Temme, _Die
+Volkssagen der Altmark_ (Berlin, 1839), pp. 75 _sq._; K. Lynker,
+_Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in hessischen Gauen_*[2] (Cassel and
+Göttingen, 1860), p. 240; H. Pröhle, _Harzbilder_ (Leipsic, 1855), p.
+63; R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_ (Brunswick, 1896), pp.
+240-242; W. Kolbe, _Hessische Volks-Sitten und Gebräuche_ (Marburg,
+1888), pp. 44-47; F.A. Reimann, _Deutsche Volksfeste_ (Weimar, 1839), p.
+37; "Sitten und Gebräuche in Duderstadt," _Zeitschrift für deutsche
+Mythologie und Sitten-kunde_, ii. (1855) p. 107; K. Seifart, _Sagen,
+Märchen, Schwänke und Gebräuche aus Stadt und Stift Hildesheim_*[2]
+(Hildesheim, 1889), pp. 177, 180; O. Hartung, "Zur Volkskunde aus
+Anhalt," _Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde_, vii. (1897) p. 76.
+
+[351] L. Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum
+Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg, 1867), ii. p. 43 _sq._, §313; W. Mannhardt, _Der
+Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstämme_ (Berlin, 1875), pp. 505
+_sq._
+
+[352] L. Strackerjan, _op. cit._ ii. p. 43, §313.
+
+[353] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] (Berlin, 1875-1878), i. 512;
+W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstämme_, pp.
+506 _sq._
+
+[354] H. Pröhle, _Harzbilder_ (Leipsic, 1855), p. 63; _id._, in
+_Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, i. (1853) p. 79;
+A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche_
+(Leipsic, 1848), p. 373; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 507.
+
+[355] A. Kuhn, _Märkische Sagen und Märchen_ (Berlin, 1843), pp. 312
+_sq._; W. Mannhardt, _l.c._
+
+[356] W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_ p. 508. Compare J.W. Wolf,
+_Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Göttingen, 1852-1857), i. 74; J.
+Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 512. The two latter writers only
+state that before the fires were kindled it was customary to hunt
+squirrels in the woods.
+
+[357] A. Kuhn, _l.c._; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 508.
+
+[358] _Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_ (Munich,
+1860-1867), iii. 956.
+
+[359] See above, pp. 116 _sq._, 119.
+
+[360] F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855),
+i. pp. 211 _sq._, § 233; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, pp. 507 _sq._
+
+[361] _Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_, iii.
+357.
+
+[362] F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855),
+i. pp. 212 _sq._, § 236.
+
+[363] F. Panzer, _op. cit._ ii. pp. 78 _sq._, §§ 114, 115. The customs
+observed at these places and at Althenneberg are described together by
+W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 505.
+
+[364] A. Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im
+Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. p. 82, § 106; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_,
+p. 508.
+
+[365] Elard Hugo Meyer, _Badisches Volksleben_ (Strasburg, 1900), pp. 97
+_sq._
+
+[366] _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 349 _sqq._ See
+further below, vol. ii. pp. 298 _sqq._
+
+[367] J.W. Wolf, _Beiträge sur deutschen Mythologie_, i. 75 _sq._; W.
+Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 506.
+
+[368] L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), p. 228.
+
+[369] W. Müller, _Beiträge sur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mahren_
+(Vienna and Olmütz, 1893), pp. 321, 397 _sq._ In Wagstadt, a town of
+Austrian Silesia, a boy in a red waistcoat used to play the part of
+Judas on the Wednesday before Good Friday. He was chased from before the
+church door by the other school children, who pursued him through the
+streets with shouts and the noise of rattles and clappers till they
+reached a certain suburb, where they always caught and beat him because
+he had betrayed the Redeemer. See Anton Peter, _Volksthümliches aus
+österreichisch-Schlesien_ (Troppau, 1865-1867), ii. 282 _sq._; Paul
+Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_ (Leipsic,
+1903-1906), i. 77 _sq._
+
+[370] _Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century_, from the MSS.
+of John Ramsay, Esq., of Ochtertyre, edited by Alexander Allardyce
+(Edinburgh and London, 1888), ii. 439-445. As to the _tein-eigin_ or
+need-fire, see below, pp. 269 _sqq_. The etymology of the word Beltane
+is uncertain; the popular derivation of the first part from the
+Phoenician Baal is absurd. See, for example, John Graham Dalyell, _The
+Darker Superstitions of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1834), pp. 176 _sq._: "The
+recognition of the pagan divinity Baal, or Bel, the Sun, is discovered
+through innumerable etymological sources. In the records of Scottish
+history, down to the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, multiplied
+prohibitions were issued from the fountains of ecclesiastical
+ordinances, against kindling _Bailfires_, of which the origin cannot be
+mistaken. The festival of this divinity was commemorated in Scotland
+until the latest date." Modern scholars are not agreed as to the
+derivation of the name Beltane. See Rev. John Gregorson Campbell,
+_Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_
+(Glasgow, 1902), pp. 268 _sq._; J.A. MacCulloch, _The Religion of the
+Ancient Celts_ (Edinburgh, 1911), p. 264.
+
+[371] "_Bal-tein_ signifies the _fire of Baal. Baal_ or _Ball_ is the
+only word in Gaelic for _a globe_. This festival was probably in honour
+of the sun, whose return, in his apparent annual course, they
+celebrated, on account of his having such a visible influence, by his
+genial warmth, on the productions of the earth. That the Caledonians
+paid a superstitious respect to the sun, as was the practice among many
+other nations, is evident, not only by the sacrifice at Baltein, but
+upon many other occasions. When a Highlander goes to bathe, or to drink
+waters out of a consecrated fountain, he must always approach by going
+round the place, _from east to west on the south side_, in imitation of
+the apparent diurnal motion of the sun. When the dead are laid in the
+earth, the grave is approached by going round in the same manner. The
+bride is conducted to her future spouse, in the presence of the
+minister, and the glass goes round a company, in the course of the sun.
+This is called, in Gaelic, going round the right, or the _lucky way_.
+The opposite course is the wrong, or the _unlucky_ way. And if a
+person's meat or drink were to affect the wind-pipe, or come against his
+breath, they instantly cry out _deisheal_! which is an ejaculation
+praying that it may go by the right way" (Rev. J. Robertson, in Sir John
+Sinclair's _Statistical Account of Scotland_, xi. 621 note). Compare
+J.G. Campbell, _Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_
+(Glasgow, 1900), pp. 229 _sq._: "_The Right-hand Turn_ (_Deiseal_).--
+This was the most important of all the observances. The rule is
+'_Deiseal_ (i.e. the right-hand turn) for everything,' and consists in
+doing all things with a motion corresponding to the course of the sun,
+or from left to right. This is the manner in which screw-nails are
+driven, and is common with many for no reason but its convenience. Old
+men in the Highlands were very particular about it. The coffin was taken
+_deiseal_ about the grave, when about to be lowered; boats were turned
+to sea according to it, and drams are given to the present day to a
+company. When putting a straw rope on a house or corn-stack, if the
+assistant went _tuaitheal_ (i.e. against the course of the sun), the old
+man was ready to come down and thrash him. On coming to a house the
+visitor should go round it _deiseal_ to secure luck in the object of his
+visit. After milking a cow the dairy-maid should strike it _deiseal_
+with the shackle, saying 'out and home' (_mach 'us dachaigh_). This
+secures its safe return. The word is from _deas_, right-hand, and _iul_,
+direction, and of itself contains no allusion to the sun." Compare M.
+Martin, "Description of the Western Islands of Scotland," in J.
+Pinkerton's _Voyages and Travels_, iii. 612 _sq._: "There was an ancient
+custom in the island of Lewis, to make a fiery circle about the houses,
+corn, cattle, etc., belonging to each particular family: a man carried
+fire in his right hand, and went round, and it was called _dessil_, from
+the right hand, which in the ancient language is called _dess_.... There
+is another way of the _dessil_, or carrying fire round about women
+before they are churched, after child-bearing; and it is used likewise
+about children until they are christened; both which are performed in
+the morning and at night. This is only practised now by some of the
+ancient midwives: I enquired their reason for this custom, which I told
+them was altogether unlawful; this disobliged them mightily, insomuch
+that they would give me no satisfaction. But others, that were of a more
+agreeable temper, told me that fire-round was an effectual means to
+preserve both the mother and the infant from the power of evil spirits,
+who are ready at such times to do mischief, and sometimes carry away the
+infant; and when they get them once in their possession, return them
+poor meagre skeletons; and these infants are said to have voracious
+appetites, constantly craving for meat. In this case it was usual with
+those who believed that their children were thus taken away, to dig a
+grave in the fields upon quarter-day, and there to lay the fairy
+skeleton till next morning; at which time the parents went to the place,
+where they doubted not to find their own child instead of this skeleton.
+Some of the poorer sort of people in these islands retain the custom of
+performing these rounds sun-ways about the persons of their benefactors
+three times, when they bless them, and wish good success to all their
+enterprizes. Some are very careful when they set out to sea that the
+boat be first rowed about sun-ways; and if this be neglected, they are
+afraid their voyage may prove unfortunate." Probably the superstition
+was based entirely on the supposed luckiness of the right hand, which
+accordingly, in making a circuit round an object, is kept towards the
+centre. As to a supposed worship of the sun among the Scottish
+Highlanders, compare J.G. Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the
+Highlands and Islands of Scotland_, p. 304: "Both the sun (_a Ghrian_)
+and moon (_a Ghealach_) are feminine in Gaelic, and the names are simply
+descriptive of their appearance. There is no trace of a Sun-God or
+Moon-Goddess." As to the etymology of Beltane, see above, p. 149 note.
+
+[372] Rev. James Robertson (Parish Minister of Callander), in Sir John
+Sinclair's _Statistical Account of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1791-1799), xi.
+620 _sq._
+
+[373] Pennant's "Tour in Scotland," in John Pinkerton's _Voyages and
+Travels_ (London, 1808-1814), iii. 49.
+
+[374] Rev. Dr. Thomas Bisset, in Sir John Sinclair's _Statistical
+Account of Scotland_, v. 84.
+
+[375] Rev. Allan Stewart, in Sir John Sinclair's _Statistical Account of
+Scotland_, xv. 517 note.
+
+[376] Rev. Walter Gregor, "Notes on Beltane Cakes," _Folk-lore_, vi.
+(1895) pp. 2 _sq._ The Beltane cakes with the nine knobs on them remind
+us of the cakes with twelve knobs which the Athenians offered to Cronus
+and other deities (see _The Scapegoat_, p. 351). The King of the Bean on
+Twelfth Night was chosen by means of a cake, which was broken in as many
+pieces as there were persons present, and the person who received the
+piece containing a bean or a coin became king. See J. Boemus, _Mores,
+leges et ritus omnium gentium_ (Lyons, 1541), p. 222; John Brand,
+_Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London, 1882-1883), i. 22 _sq.;
+The Scapegoat_, pp. 313 _sqq._
+
+[377] Shaw, in Pennant's "Tour in Scotland," printed in J. Pinkerton's
+_Voyages and Travels_, iii. 136. The part of Scotland to which Shaw's
+description applies is what he calls the province or country of Murray,
+extending from the river Spey on the east to the river Beauly on the
+west, and south-west to Loch Lochy.
+
+[378] Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of
+Scotland_ (London, 1881), p. 167.
+
+[379] A. Goodrich-Freer, "More Folklore from the Hebrides," _Folk-lore_,
+xiii. (1902) p. 41. The St. Michael's cake (_Strùthan na h'eill
+Micheil_), referred to in the text, is described as "the size of a
+quern" in circumference. "It is kneaded simply with water, and marked
+across like a scone, dividing it into four equal parts, and then placed
+in front of the fire resting on a quern. It is not polished with dry
+meal as is usual in making a cake, but when it is cooked a thin coating
+of eggs (four in number), mixed with buttermilk, is spread first on one
+side, then on the other, and it is put before the fire again. An earlier
+shape, still in use, which tradition associates with the female sex, is
+that of a triangle with the corners cut off. A _strùhthan_ or
+_strùhdhan_ (the word seems to be used for no other kind of cake) is
+made for each member of the household, including servants and herds.
+When harvest is late, an early patch of corn is mown on purpose for the
+_strùthan_" (A. Goodrich-Freer, _op. cit._ pp. 44. _sq._.)
+
+[380] Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London,
+1909), pp. 22-24.
+
+[381] Jonathan Ceredig Davies, _Folklore of West and Mid-Wales_
+(Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 76.
+
+[382] Joseph Train, _An Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle
+of Man_ (Douglas, Isle of Man, 1845), i. 314 _sq._
+
+[383] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford,
+1901), i. 309; _id._, "The Coligny Calendar," _Proceedings of the
+British Academy, 1909-1910_, pp. 261 _sq._ See further _The Magic Art
+and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 53 _sq._
+
+[384] Professor Frank Granger, "Early Man," in _The Victoria History of
+the County of Nottingham_, edited by William Page, i. (London, 1906) pp.
+186 _sq._
+
+[385] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford,
+1901), i. 310; _id._, "Manx Folk-lore and Superstitions," _Folk-lore_,
+ii. (1891) pp. 303 _sq._
+
+[386] P.W. Joyce, _A Social History of Ancient Ireland_ (London, 1903),
+i. 290 _sq._, referring to Kuno Meyer, _Hibernia Minora_, p. 49 and
+_Glossary_, 23.
+
+[387] J.B. Bury, _The Life of St. Patrick_ (London, 1905), pp. 104
+_sqq._
+
+[388] Above, p. 147.
+
+[389] Geoffrey Keating, D.D., _The History of Ireland_, translated by
+John O'Mahony (New York, 1857), pp. 300 _sq._
+
+[390] (Sir) John Rhys, "Manx Folk-lore and Superstition," _Folk-lore_,
+ii. (1891) p. 303; _id., Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford,
+1901), i. 309. Compare P.W. Joyce, _A Social History of Ancient Ireland_
+(London, 1903), i. 291: "The custom of driving cattle through fires
+against disease on the eve of the 1st of May, and on the eve of the 24th
+June (St. John's Day), continued in Ireland, as well as in the Scottish
+Highlands, to a period within living memory." In a footnote Mr. Joyce
+refers to Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica_, ii. 340, for Scotland, and
+adds, "I saw it done in Ireland."
+
+[391] L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), pp. 233 _sq._
+
+[392] Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen_ (Prague, N.D.),
+pp. 211 _sq._; Br. Jelínek, "Materialien zur Vorgeschichte und
+Volkskunde Böhmens," _Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft
+in Wien_, xxi. (1891) p. 13; Alois John, _Sitte, Branch, und Volksglaube
+im deutschen Westböhmen_ (Prague, 1905), p. 71.
+
+[393] J.A.E. Köhler, _Volksbrauch, Aberglauben, Sagen und andre alte
+Ueberlieferungen im Voigtlande_ (Leipsic, 1867), p. 373. The
+superstitions relating to witches at this season are legion. For
+instance, in Saxony and Thuringia any one who labours under a physical
+blemish can easily rid himself of it by transferring it to the witches
+on Walpurgis Night. He has only to go out to a cross-road, make three
+crosses on the blemish, and say, "In the name of God the Father, the
+Son, and the Holy Ghost." Thus the blemish, whatever it may be, is left
+behind him at the cross-road, and when the witches sweep by on their way
+to the Brocken, they must take it with them, and it sticks to them
+henceforth. Moreover, three crosses chalked up on the doors of houses
+and cattle-stalls on Walpurgis Night will effectually prevent any of the
+infernal crew from entering and doing harm to man or beast. See E.
+Sommer, _Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Sachsen und Thüringen_ (Halle,
+1846), pp. 148 _sq.; Die gestriegelte Rockenphilosophie_ (Chemnitz,
+1759), p. 116.
+
+[394] See _The Scapegoat_, pp. 158 _sqq._
+
+[395] As to the Midsummer Festival of Europe in general see the evidence
+collected in the "Specimen Calendarii Gentilis," appended to the _Edda
+Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta_, Pars iii. (Copenhagen,
+1828) pp. 1086-1097.
+
+[396] John Mitchell Kemble, _The Saxons in England_, New Edition
+(London, 1876), i. 361 _sq_., quoting "an ancient MS. written in
+England, and now in the Harleian Collection, No. 2345, fol. 50." The
+passage is quoted in part by J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great
+Britain_ (London, 1882-1883), i. 298 _sq._, by R.T. Hampson, _Medii Aevi
+Kalendarium_ (London, 1841), i. 300, and by W. Mannhardt, _Der
+Baumkultus_, p. 509. The same explanations of the Midsummer fires and of
+the custom of trundling a burning wheel on Midsummer Eve are given also
+by John Beleth, a writer of the twelfth century. See his _Rationale
+Divinorum Officiorum_ (appended to the _Rationale Divinorum Officiorum_
+of G. [W.] Durandus, Lyons, 1584), p. 556 _recto: "Solent porro hoc
+tempore_ [the Eve of St. John the Baptist] _ex veteri consuetudine
+mortuorum animalium ossa comburi, quod hujusmodi habet originem. Sunt
+enim animalia, quae dracones appellamus.... Haec inquam animalia in aere
+volant, in aquis natant, in terra ambulant. Sed quando in aere ad
+libidinem concitantur (quod fere fit) saepe ipsum sperma vel in puteos,
+vel in aquas fluviales ejicunt ex quo lethalis sequitur annus. Adversus
+haec ergo hujusmodi inventum est remedium, ut videlicet rogus ex ossibus
+construeretur, et ita fumus hujusmodi animalia fugaret. Et quia istud
+maxime hoc tempore fiebat, idem etiam modo ab omnibus observatur....
+Consuetum item est hac vigilia ardentes deferri faculas quod Johannes
+fuerit ardens lucerna, et qui vias Domini praeparaverit. Sed quod etiam
+rota vertatur hinc esse putant quia in eum circulum tunc Sol descenderit
+ultra quem progredi nequit, a quo cogitur paulatim descendere_." The
+substance of the passage is repeated in other words by G. Durandus
+(Wilh. Durantis), a writer of the thirteenth century, in his _Rationale
+Divinorum Officiorum_, lib. vii. cap. 14 (p. 442 _verso_, ed. Lyons,
+1584). Compare J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 516.
+
+With the notion that the air is poisoned at midsummer we may compare the
+popular belief that it is similarly infected at an eclipse. Thus among
+the Esquimaux on the Lower Yukon river in Alaska "it is believed that a
+subtle essence or unclean influence descends to the earth during an
+eclipse, and if any of it is caught in utensils of any kind it will
+produce sickness. As a result, immediately on the commencement of an
+eclipse, every woman turns bottom side up all her pots, wooden buckets,
+and dishes" (E.W. Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," _Eighteenth
+Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington,
+1899) p. 431). Similar notions and practices prevail among the peasantry
+of southern Germany. Thus the Swabian peasants think that during an
+eclipse of the sun poison falls on the earth; hence at such a time they
+will not sow, mow, gather fruit or eat it, they bring the cattle into
+the stalls, and refrain from business of every kind. If the eclipse
+lasts long, the people get very anxious, set a burning candle on the
+mantel-shelf of the stove, and pray to be delivered from the danger. See
+Anton Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im Breisgau,
+1861-1862), i. 189. Similarly Bavarian peasants imagine that water is
+poisoned during a solar eclipse (F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen
+Mythologie_, ii. 297); and Thuringian bumpkins cover up the wells and
+bring the cattle home from pasture during an eclipse either of the sun
+or of the moon; an eclipse is particularly poisonous when it happens to
+fall on a Wednesday. See August Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche
+aus Thüringen_ (Vienna, 1878), p. 287. As eclipses are commonly supposed
+by the ignorant to be caused by a monster attacking the sun or moon
+(E.B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_,*[2] London, 1873, i. 328 _sqq._), we
+may surmise, on the analogy of the explanation given of the Midsummer
+fires, that the unclean influence which is thought to descend on the
+earth at such times is popularly attributed to seed discharged by the
+monster or possibly by the sun or moon then in conjunction with each
+other.
+
+[397] _The Popish Kingdome or reigne of Antichrist, written in Latin
+verse by Thomas Naogeorgus and Englyshed by Barnabe Googe, 1570_, edited
+by R.C. Hope (London, 1880), p. 54 _verso_. As to this work see above,
+p. 125 note 1.
+
+[398] J. Boemus, _Mores, leges et ritus omnium gentium_ (Lyons, 1541),
+pp. 225 _sq._
+
+[399] Tessier, "Sur la fête annuelle de la roue flamboyante de la
+Saint-Jean, à Basse-Kontz, arrondissement de Thionville," _Mémoires et
+dissertations publiés par la Société Royale des Antiquaires de France_,
+v. (1823) pp. 379-393. Tessier witnessed the ceremony, 23rd June 1822
+(not 1823, as is sometimes stated). His account has been reproduced more
+or less fully by J. Grimm (_Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 515 _sq._) W.
+Mannhardt (_Der Baumkultus_, pp. 510 _sq._), and H. Gaidoz ("Le dieu
+gaulois du Soleil et le symbolisme de la Roue," _Revue Archéologique_,
+iii. Série, iv. (1884) pp. 24 _sq._).
+
+[400] _Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern_ (Munich,
+1860-1867), i. 373 _sq_.; compare _id_., iii. 327 _sq_. As to the
+burning discs at the spring festivals, see above, pp. 116 _sq_., 119,
+143.
+
+[401] _Op. cit_. ii. 260 _sq_., iii. 936, 956, iv. 2. p. 360.
+
+[402] _Op. cit_. ii. 260.
+
+[403] _Op. cit._ iv. i. p. 242. We have seen (p. 163) that in the
+sixteenth century these customs and beliefs were common in Germany. It
+is also a German superstition that a house which contains a brand from
+the midsummer bonfire will not be struck by lightning (J.W. Wolf,
+_Beiträge, zur deutschen Mythologie_, i. p. 217, § 185).
+
+[404] J. Boemus, _Mores, leges et ritus omnium gentium_ (Lyons, 1541),
+p. 226.
+
+[405] Karl Freiherr von Leoprechting, _Aus dem Lechrain_ (Munich, 1855),
+pp. 181 _sqq._; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 510.
+
+[406] A. Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im
+Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. pp. 96 _sqq._, § 128, pp. 103 _sq._, § 129;
+_id., Aus Schwaben_ (Wiesbaden, 1874), ii. 116-120; E. Meier, _Deutsche
+Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben_ (Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 423
+_sqq._; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 510.
+
+[407] F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855),
+i. pp. 215 _sq._, § 242; _id._, ii. 549.
+
+[408] A. Birlinger, _Volksthümliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im
+Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. 99-101.
+
+[409] Elard Hugo Mayer, _Badisches Volksleben_ (Strasburg, 1900), pp.
+103 _sq._, 225 _sq._
+
+[410] W. von Schulenberg, in _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft
+für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, Jahrgang 1897_, pp. 494
+_sq._ (bound up with _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, xxix. 1897).
+
+[411] H. Gaidoz, "Le dieu Gaulois du Soleil et le symbolisme de la
+Roue," _Revue Archéologique_, iii. Série, iv. (1884) pp. 29 _sq._
+
+[412] Bruno Stehle, "Volksglauben, Sitten und Gebräuche in Lothringen,"
+_Globus_, lix. (1891) pp. 378 _sq._; "Die Sommerwendfeier im St.
+Amarinthale," _Der Urquell_, N.F., i. (1897) pp. 181 _sqq._
+
+[413] J.H. Schmitz, _Sitten und Sagen Lieder, Sprüchwörter und Räthsel
+des Eifler Volkes_ (Treves, 1856-1858), i. 40 _sq._ According to one
+writer, the garlands are composed of St. John's wort (Montanus, _Die
+deutschen Volksfeste, Volksbräuche und deutscher Volksglaube_, Iserlohn,
+N.D., p. 33). As to the use of St. John's wort at Midsummer, see below,
+vol. ii. pp. 54 _sqq._
+
+[414] A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und
+Gebräuche_ (Leipsic, 1848), p. 390.
+
+[415] Montanus, _Die deutschen Volksfeste, Volksbräuche und deutscher
+Volksglaube_ (Iserlohn, N.D.), pp. 33 _sq._
+
+[416] C.L. Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_ (Berlin, 1867), ii.
+144 _sqq._
+
+[417] Philo vom Walde, _Schlesien in Sage und Brauch_ (Berlin, N.D.), p.
+124; Paul Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch, und Volksglaube in Schlesien_
+(Leipsic, 1903-1906), i. 136 _sq._
+
+[418] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie,_*[4] i. 517 _sq._
+
+[419] From information supplied by Mr. Sigurd K. Heiberg, engineer, of
+Bergen, Norway, who in his boyhood regularly collected fuel for the
+fires. I have to thank Miss Anderson, of Barskimming, Mauchline,
+Ayrshire, for kindly procuring the information for me from Mr. Heiberg.
+
+The Blocksberg, where German as well as Norwegian witches gather for
+their great Sabbaths on the Eve of May Day (Walpurgis Night) and
+Midsummer Eve, is commonly identified with the Brocken, the highest peak
+of the Harz mountains. But in Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and probably
+elsewhere, villages have their own local Blocksberg, which is generally
+a hill or open place in the neighbourhood; a number of places in
+Pomerania go by the name of the Blocksberg. See J. Grimm, _Deutsche
+Mythologie_*[4] ii. 878 _sq._; Ulrich Jahn, _Hexenwesen und Zauberei in
+Pommern_ (Breslau, 1886), pp. 4 _sq._; _id._, _Volkssagen aus Pommern
+und Rügen_ (Stettin, 1886), p. 329.
+
+[420] L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), pp. 259, 265.
+
+[421] L. Lloyd, _op. cit._ pp. 261 _sq._ These springs are called
+"sacrificial fonts" (_Offer källor_) and are "so named because in
+heathen times the limbs of the slaughtered victim, whether man or beast,
+were here washed prior to immolation" (L. Lloyd, _op. cit._ p. 261).
+
+[422] E. Hoffmann-Krayer, _Feste und Bräuche des Schweizervolkes_
+(Zurich, 1913), p. 164.
+
+[423] Ignaz V. Zingerle, _Sitten, Bräuche und Meinungen des Tiroler
+Volkes_*[2] (Innsbruck, 1871), ii. p. 159, § 1354.
+
+[424] I.V. Zingerle, _op. cit._ p. 159, §§ 1353, 1355, 1356; W.
+Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 513.
+
+[425] W. Mannhardt, _l.c._
+
+[426] F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855),
+i. p. 210, § 231.
+
+[427] Theodor Vernaleken, _Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich_
+(Vienna, 1859), pp. 307 _sq._
+
+[428] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_*[4] i. 519; Theodor Vernaleken,
+_Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich_ (Vienna, 1859), p. 308;
+Joseph Virgil Grohmann, _Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Bohmen und
+Mähren_ (Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 80, § 636; Reinsberg-Düringsfeld,
+_Fest-Kalender aus Bohmen_ (Prague, N.D.), pp. 306-311; Br. Jelfnek,
+"Materialien zur Vorgeschichte und Volkskunde Böhmens," _Mittheilungen
+der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien>_ xxi. (1891) p. 13; Alois
+John, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen_ (Prague,
+1905) pp. 84-86.
+
+[429] Willibald Müller, _Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in
+Mähren_ (Vienna and Olmutz, 1893), pp. 263-265.
+
+[430] Anton Peter, _Volksthümliches aus Österreichisch-Schlesien_
+(Troppau, 1865-1867), ii. 287.
+
+[431] Th. Vernaleken, _Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Oesterreich_
+(Vienna, 1859), pp. 308 _sq._
+
+[432] _The Dying God_, p. 262. Compare M. Kowalewsky, in _Folk-lore_, i.
+(1890) p. 467.
+
+[433] W.R.S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, Second Edition
+(London, 1872), p. 240.
+
+[434] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 519; W.R.S. Ralston,
+_Songs of the Russian People_ (London, 1872), pp. 240, 391.
+
+[435] W.R.S. Ralston, _op. cit._ p. 240.
+
+[436] W.R.S. Ralston, _l.c._
+
+[437] W.J.A. von Tettau und J.D.H. Temme, _Die Volkssagen Ostpreussens,
+Litthauens und Westpreussens_ (Berlin, 1837), p. 277.
+
+[438] M. Töppen, _Aberglauben aus Masuren_*[2] (Danzig, 1867), p. 71.
+
+[439] F.S. Krauss, "Altslavische Feuergewinnung," _Globus_, lix. (1891)
+p. 318.
+
+[440] J.G. Kohl, _Die deutsch-russischen Ostseeprovinzen_ (Dresden and
+Leipsic, 1841), i. 178-180, ii. 24 _sq._ Ligho was an old heathen deity,
+whose joyous festival used to fall in spring.
+
+[441] Ovid, _Fasti_, vi. 775 _sqq._
+
+[442] Friederich S. Krauss, _Sitte und Brauch der Südslaven_ (Vienna,
+1885), pp. 176 _sq._
+
+[443] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 519.
+
+[444] H. von Wlislocki, _Volksglaube und religiöser Brauch der Magyar_
+(Münster i. W., 1893), pp. 40-44.
+
+[445] A. von Ipolyi, "Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie aus Ungarn,"
+_Zeitschrift für deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, i. (1853) pp. 270
+_sq._
+
+[446] J.G. Kohl, _Die deutsch-russischen Ostseeprovinzen_, ii. 268
+_sq._; F.J. Wiedemann, _Aus dem inneren und äusseren Leben der Ehsten_
+(St. Petersburg, 1876), p. 362. The word which I have translated "weeds"
+is in Esthonian _kaste-heinad_, in German _Thaugras_. Apparently it is
+the name of a special kind of weed.
+
+[447] Fr. Kreutzwald und H. Neus, _Mythische und Magische Lieder der
+Ehsten_ (St. Petersburg, 1854), p. 62.
+
+[448] J.B. Holzmayer, "Osiliana," _Verhandlungen der gelehrten
+Estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat_, vii. (1872) pp. 62 _sq._ Wiedemann
+also observes that the sports in which young couples engage in the woods
+on this evening are not always decorous (_Aus dem inneren und äusseren
+Leben der Ehsten_, p. 362).
+
+[449] J.G. Kohl, _Die deutsch-russischen Ostseeprovinzen_, ii. 447 _sq._
+
+[450] J.G. Georgi, _Beschreibung aller Nationen des russischen Reichs_
+(St. Petersburg, 1776), p. 36; August Freiherr von Haxthausen, _Studien
+über die innere Zustände das Volksleben und insbesondere die ländlichen
+Einrichtungen Russlands_ (Hanover, 1847), i. 446 _sqq._
+
+[451] Alfred de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 19.
+
+[452] It is notable that St. John is the only saint whose birthday the
+Church celebrates with honours like those which she accords to the
+nativity of Christ. Compare Edmond Doutté, _Magie et Religion dans
+l'Afrique du Nord_ (Algiers, 1908), p. 571 note I.
+
+[453] Bossuet, _Oeuvres_ (Versailles, 1815-1819), vi. 276 ("Catéchisme
+du diocèse de Meaux"). His description of the superstitions is, in his
+own words, as follows: "_Danser à l'entour du feu, jouer, faire des
+festins, chanter des chansons deshonnètes, jeter des herbes par-dessus
+le feu, en cueillir avant midi ou à jeun, en porter sur soi, les
+conserver le long de l'année, garder des tisons ou des charbons du feu,
+et autres semblables._" This and other evidence of the custom of
+kindling Midsummer bonfires in France is cited by Ch. Cuissard in his
+tract _Les Feux de la Saint-Jean_ (Orleans, 1884).
+
+[454] Ch. Cuissard, _Les Feux de la Saint-Jean_ (Orleans, 1884), pp. 40
+_sq._
+
+[455] A. Le Braz, _La Légende de la Mort en Basse-Bretagne_ (Paris,
+1893), p. 279. For an explanation of the custom of throwing a pebble
+into the fire, see below, p. 240.
+
+[456] M. Quellien, quoted by Alexandre Bertrand, _La Religion des
+Gaulois_ (Paris, 1897), pp. 116 _sq._
+
+[457] Collin de Plancy, _Dictionnaire Infernal_ (Paris, 1825-1826), iii.
+40; J.W. Wolf, _Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Göttingen,
+1852-1857), i. p. 217, § 185; A. Breuil, "Du Culte de St. Jean
+Baptiste," _Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie_, viii.
+(Amiens, 1845) pp. 189 _sq._
+
+[458] Eugene Cortet, _Essai sur les Fêtes Religieuses_ (Paris, 1867), p.
+216; Ch. Cuissard, _Les Feux de la Saint-Jean_ (Orleans, 1884), p. 24.
+
+[459] Paul Sébillot, _Coutumes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris,
+1886), pp. 192-195. In Upper Brittany these bonfires are called _rieux_
+or _raviers_.
+
+[460] A. de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 219; E. Cortet, _Essai sur les Fétes
+Religieuses_, p. 216.
+
+[461] A. de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_, pp. 219, 228, 231; E. Cortet, _op. cit._ pp. 215 _sq._
+
+[462] J. Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_ (Condé-sur-Noireau,
+1883-1887), ii. 219-224.
+
+[463] This description is quoted by Madame Clément (_Histoire des fêtes
+civites et religieuses_, etc., _de la Belgique Méridionale_, Avesnes,
+1846, pp. 394-396); F. Liebrecht (_Des Gervasius von Tilbury Otia
+Imperialia_, Hanover, 1856, pp. 209 _sq._); and W. Mannhardt (_Antike
+Wald und Feldkulte_, Berlin, 1877, pp. 323 _sqq._) from the _Magazin
+pittoresque_, Paris, viii. (1840) pp. 287 _sqq._ A slightly condensed
+account is given, from the same source, by E. Cortet (_Essai sur les
+Fêtes Religieuses_, pp. 221 _sq._).
+
+[464] Bazin, quoted by Breuil, in _Mémoires de la Société d' Antiquaires
+de Picardie_, viii. (1845) p. 191 note.
+
+[465] Correspondents quoted by A. Bertrand, _La Religion des Gaulois_
+(Paris, 1897), pp. 118, 406.
+
+[466] Correspondent quoted by A. Bertrand, _op. cit._ p. 407.
+
+[467] Felix Chapiseau, _Le folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche_ (Paris,
+1902), i. 318-320. In Perche the midsummer bonfires were called
+_marolles_. As to the custom formerly observed at Bullou, near
+Chateaudun, see a correspondent quoted by A. Bertrand, _La Religion des
+Gaulois_ (Paris, 1897), p. 117.
+
+[468] Albert Meyrac, _Traditions, Coutumes, Légendes, et Contes des
+Ardennes_ (Charleville, 1890), pp. 88 _sq._
+
+[469] L.F. Sauvé, _Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_ (Paris, 1889), p.
+186.
+
+[470] Désiré Monnier, _Traditions populaires comparées_ (Paris, 1854),
+pp. 207 _sqq._; E. Cortet, _Essai sur les Fêtes Religieuses_, pp. 217
+_sq._
+
+[471] Bérenger-Féraud, _Réminiscences populaires de la Provence_ (Paris,
+1885), p. 142.
+
+[472] Charles Beauquier, _Les Mois en Franche-Comté_ (Paris, 1900), p.
+89. The names of the bonfires vary with the place; among them are
+_failles, bourdifailles, bâs_ or _baux, feulères_ or _folières_, and
+_chavannes_.
+
+[473] _La Bresse Louhannaise_, Juin, 1906, p. 207.
+
+[474] Laisnel de la Salle, _Croyances et Légendes du Centre de la
+France_ (Paris, 1875), i. 78 _sqq._ The writer adopts the absurd
+derivation of _jônée_ from Janus. Needless to say that our old friend
+Baal, Bel, or Belus figures prominently in this and many other accounts
+of the European fire-festivals.
+
+[475] A. de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 150.
+
+[476] Correspondent, quoted by A. Bertrand, _La Religion des Gaulois_
+(Paris, 1897), p. 408.
+
+[477] Guerry, "Sur les usages et traditions du Poitou," _Mémoires et
+dissertations publiés par la Société Royale des Antiquaires de France_,
+viii. (1829) pp. 451 _sq._
+
+[478] Breuil, in _Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie_,
+viii. (1845) p. 206; E. Cortet, _Essai sur les Fêtes Religieuses_, p.
+216; Laisnel de la Salle, _Croyances et Légendes du Centre de la
+France_, i. 83; J. Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_, ii. 225.
+
+[479] H. Gaidoz, "Le dieu gaulois du soleil et le symbolisme de la
+roue," _Revue Archéologique_, iii. Série, iv. (1884) p. 26, note 3.
+
+[480] L. Pineau, _Le Folk-lore du Poitou_ (Paris, 1892), pp. 499 _sq._
+In Périgord the ashes of the midsummer bonfire are searched for the hair
+of the Virgin (E. Cortet, _Essai sur les Fêtes Religieuses_, p. 219).
+
+[481] A. de Nore, _Coutumes Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_, pp. 149 _sq._; E. Cortet, _op. cit._ pp. 218 _sq._
+
+[482] Dupin, "Notice sur quelques fêtes et divertissemens populaires du
+département des Deux-Sèvres," _Mémoires et Dissertations publiés par la
+Société Royale des Antiquaires de France_, iv. (1823) p. 110.
+
+[483] J.L.M. Noguès, _Les moeurs d'autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis_
+(Saintes, 1891), pp. 72, 178 _sq._
+
+[484] H. Gaidoz, "Le dieu soleil et le symbolisme de la roue," _Revue
+Archéologique_, iii. Série, iv. (1884) p. 30.
+
+[485] Ch. Cuissard, _Les Feux de la Saint-Jean_ (Orleans, 1884), pp. 22
+_sq._
+
+[486] A. de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_ p. 127.
+
+[487] Aubin-Louis Millin, _Voyage dans les Départemens du Midi de la
+France_ (Paris, 1807-1811), iii. 341 _sq._
+
+[488] Aubin-Louis Millin, _op. cit._ iii. 28.
+
+[489] A. de Nore, _op. cit._ pp. 19 _sq._; Bérenger-Féraud,
+_Reminiscences populaires de la Provence_ (Paris, 1885), pp. 135-141. As
+to the custom at Toulon, see Poncy, quoted by Breuil, _Mémoires de la
+Société des Antiquaires de Picardie_, viii. (1845) p. 190 note. The
+custom of drenching people on this occasion with water used to prevail
+in Toulon, as well as in Marseilles and other towns in the south of
+France. The water was squirted from syringes, poured on the heads of
+passers-by from windows, and so on. See Breuil, _op. cit._ pp. 237 _sq._
+
+[490] A. de Nore, _op. cit._ pp. 20 _sq._; E. Cortet, _op. cit._ pp.
+218, 219 _sq._
+
+[491] Le Baron de Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Calendrier Belge_ (Brussels,
+1861-1862), i. 416 _sq._ 439.
+
+[492] Le Baron de Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _op. cit._ i. 439-442.
+
+[493] Madame Clément, _Histoire des fêtes civiles et religieuses_, etc.,
+_du Département du Nord_ (Cambrai, 1836), p. 364; J.W. Wolf, _Beiträge
+zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Göttingen, 1852-1857), ii. 392; W. Mannhardt,
+_Der Baumkultus_. p. 513.
+
+[494] E. Monseur, _Folklore Wallon_ (Brussels, N.D.), p. 130, §§ 1783,
+1786, 1787.
+
+[495] Joseph Strutt, _The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England_,
+New Edition, by W. Hone (London, 1834), p. 359.
+
+[496] John Stow, _A Survay of London_, edited by Henry Morley (London,
+N.D.), pp. 126 _sq._ Stow's _Survay_ was written in 1598.
+
+[497] John Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 338; T.F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_
+(London, 1876), p. 331. Both writers refer to _Status Scholae Etonensis_
+(A.D. 1560).
+
+[498] John Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_ (London, 1881),
+p. 26.
+
+[499] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 300 _sq._, 318, compare pp. 305, 306, 308 _sq._; W.
+Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 512. Compare W. Hutchinson, _View of
+Northumberland_, vol. ii. (Newcastle, 1778), Appendix, p. (15), under
+the head "Midsummer":--"It is usual to raise fires on the tops of high
+hills and in the villages, and sport and danse around them; this is of
+very remote antiquity, and the first cause lost in the distance of
+time."
+
+[500] Dr. Lyttelton, Bishop of Carlisle, quoted by William Borlase,
+_Antiquities, Historical and Monumental, of the County of Cornwall_
+(London, 1769), p. 135 note.
+
+[501] _County Folk-lore_, vol. iv. _Northumberland_, collected by M.C.
+Balfour (London, 1904), p. 76, quoting E. Mackenzie, _An Historical,
+Topographical, and Descriptive View of the County of Northumberland_,
+Second Edition (Newcastle, 1825), i. 217.
+
+[502] _County Folk-lore_, vol. iv. _Northumberland_, collected by M.C.
+Balfour, p. 75.
+
+[503] _County Folk-lore_, vol. iv. _Northumberland_, collected by M.C.
+Balfour, p. 75.
+
+[504] _The Denham Tracts_, edited by J. Hardy (London, 1892-1895), ii.
+342 _sq._, quoting _Archælogia Aeliana_, N.S., vii. 73, and the
+_Proceedings_ of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, vi. 242 _sq._;
+_County Folk-lore_, vol. iv. _Northumberland_, collected by M.C. Balfour
+(London, 1904), pp. 75 _sq._ Whalton is a village of Northumberland, not
+far from Morpeth.
+
+[505] _County Folk-lore_, vol. vi. _East Riding of Yorkshire_, collected
+and edited by Mrs. Gutch (London, 1912), p. 102.
+
+[506] John Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_ (London, 1881),
+p. 96, compare _id._, p. 26.
+
+[507] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 311.
+
+[508] William Borlase, LL.D., _Antiquities, Historical and Monumental,
+of the County of Cornwall_ (London, 1769), pp. 135 _sq._ The Eve of St.
+Peter is June 28th. Bonfires have been lit elsewhere on the Eve or the
+day of St. Peter. See above, pp. 194 _sq._ 196 _sq._, and below, pp. 199
+_sq._, 202, 207.
+
+[509] J. Brand, _op. cit._ i. 318, 319; T.F. Thiselton Dyer, _British
+Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), p. 315.
+
+[510] William Bottrell, _Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West
+Cornwall_ (Penzance, 1870), pp. 8 _sq._, 55 _sq._; James Napier,
+_Folk-lore, or Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland_ (Paisley,
+1879), p. 173.
+
+[511] Richard Edmonds, _The Land's End District_ (London, 1862), pp. 66
+_sq._; Robert Hunt, _Popular Romances of the West of England_, Third
+Edition (London, 1881), pp. 207 _sq._
+
+[512] Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London,
+1909), pp. 27 _sq._ Compare Jonathan Ceredig Davies, _Folk-lore of West
+and Mid-Wales_ (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 76.
+
+[513] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 318.
+
+[514] Joseph Train, _Account of the Isle of Man_ (Douglas, Isle of Man,
+1845), ii. 120.
+
+[515] Sir Henry Piers, _Description of the County of Westmeath_, written
+in 1682, published by (General) Charles Vallancey, _Collectanea de Rebus
+Hibernieis_, i. (Dublin, 1786) pp. 123 _sq._
+
+[516] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 303, quoting the author of the _Survey of the South of
+Ireland_, p. 232.
+
+[517] J. Brand, _op. cit._ i. 305, quoting the author of the _Comical
+Pilgrim's Pilgrimage into Ireland_ (1723), p. 92.
+
+[518] _The Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lxv. (London, 1795) pp. 124 _sq._
+The writer dates the festival on June 21st, which is probably a mistake.
+
+[519] T.F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), pp.
+321 _sq._, quoting the _Liverpool Mercury_ of June 29th, 1867.
+
+[520] L.L. Duncan, "Further Notes from County Leitrim," _Folk-lore_, v.
+(1894) p. 193.
+
+[521] A.C. Haddon, "A Batch of Irish Folk-lore," _Folk-lore_, iv. (1893)
+pp. 351, 359.
+
+[522] G.H. Kinahan, "Notes on Irish Folk-lore," _Folk-lore Record_, iv.
+(1881) p. 97.
+
+[523] Charlotte Elizabeth, _Personal Recollections_, quoted by Rev.
+Alexander Hislop, _The Two Babylons_ (Edinburgh, 1853), p. 53.
+
+[524] Lady Wilde, _Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of
+Ireland_ (London, 1887), i. 214 _sq._
+
+[525] T.F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), pp.
+322 _sq._, quoting the _Hibernian Magazine_, July 1817. As to the
+worship of wells in ancient Ireland, see P.W. Joyce, _A Social History
+of Ancient Ireland_ (London, 1903), i. 288 _sq._, 366 _sqq._
+
+[526] Rev. A. Johnstone, describing the parish of Monquhitter in
+Perthshire, in Sir John Sinclair's _Statistical Account of Scotland_
+(Edinburgh, 1791-1799), xxi. 145. Mr. W. Warde Fowler writes that in
+Scotland "before the bonfires were kindled on midsummer eve, the houses
+were decorated with foliage brought from the woods" (_Roman Festivals of
+the Period of the Republic_, London, 1899, pp. 80 _sq._). For his
+authority he refers to _Chambers' Journal_, July, 1842.
+
+[527] John Ramsay, of Ochtertyre, _Scotland and Scotsmen in the
+Eighteenth Century_, edited by A. Allardyce (Edinburgh, 1888), ii. 436.
+
+[528] Rev. Mr. Shaw, Minister of Elgin, in Pennant's "Tour in Scotland,"
+printed in John Pinkerton's _Voyages and Travels_ (London, 1808-1814),
+iii. 136.
+
+[529] A. Macdonald, "Midsummer Bonfires," _Folk-lore_, xv. (1904) pp.
+105 _sq._
+
+[530] From notes kindly furnished to me by the Rev. J.C. Higgins, parish
+minister of Tarbolton. Mr. Higgins adds that he knows of no superstition
+connected with the fire, and no tradition of its origin. I visited the
+scene of the bonfire in 1898, but, as Pausanias says (viii. 41. 6) in
+similar circumstances, "I did not happen to arrive at the season of the
+festival." Indeed the snow was falling thick as I trudged to the village
+through the beautiful woods of "the Castle o' Montgomery" immortalized
+by Burns. From a notice in _The Scotsman_ of 26th June, 1906 (p. 8) it
+appears that the old custom was observed as usual that year.
+
+[531] Thomas Moresinus, _Papatus seu Depravatae Religionis Origo et
+Incrementum_ (Edinburgh, 1594), p. 56.
+
+[532] Rev. Dr. George Lawrie, in Sir John Sinclair's _Statistical
+Account of Scotland_, iii. (Edinburgh, 1792) p. 105.
+
+[533] Letter from Dr. Otero Acevado of Madrid, published in _Le Temps_,
+September 1898. An extract from the newspaper was sent me, but without
+mention of the day of the month when it appeared. The fires on St.
+John's Eve in Spain are mentioned also by J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities
+of Great Britain_, i. 317. Jacob Grimm inferred the custom from a
+passage in a romance (_Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 518). The custom of
+washing or bathing on the morning of St. John's Day is mentioned by the
+Spanish historian Diego Duran, _Historia de las Indias de Nueva España_,
+edited by J.F. Ramirez (Mexico, 1867-1880), vol. ii. p. 293. To roll in
+the dew on the morning of St. John's Day is a cure for diseases of the
+skin in Normandy, Périgord, and the Abruzzi, as well as in Spain. See J.
+Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_, ii. 8; A. de Nore, _Coutumes,
+Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de France_, p. 150; Gennaro Finamore,
+_Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi_ (Palermo, 1890), p. 157.
+
+[534] M. Longworth Dames and Mrs. E. Seemann, "Folklore of the Azores,"
+_Folk-lore_, xiv. (1903) pp. 142 _sq._; Theophilo Braga, _O Povo
+Portuguez nos seus Costumes, Crenças e Tradiçoes_ (Lisbon, 1885), ii.
+304 _sq._, 307 _sq._
+
+[535] See below, pp. 234 _sqq._
+
+[536] Angelo de Gubernatis, _Mythologie des Plantes_ (Paris, 1878-1882),
+i. 185 note 1.
+
+[537] _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 202 _sq._
+
+[538] G. Finamore, _Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi_ (Palermo, 1890),
+pp. 154 _sq._
+
+[539] G. Finamore, _Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi_, pp. 158-160. We
+may compare the Provençal and Spanish customs of bathing and splashing
+water at Midsummer. See above, pp. 193 _sq._, 208.
+
+[540] Giuseppe Pitrè, _Spettacoli e Feste Popolari Siciliane_ (Palermo,
+1881), pp. 246, 308 _sq._; _id., Usi e Costumi, Credenze e Pregiudizi
+del Popolo Siciliano_ (Palermo, 1889), pp. 146 _sq._
+
+[541] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 518.
+
+[542] V. Busuttil, _Holiday Customs in Malta, and Sports, Usages,
+Ceremonies, Omens, and Superstitions of the Maltese People_ (Malta,
+1894), pp. 56 _sqq._ The extract was kindly sent to me by Mr. H.W.
+Underwood (letter dated 14th November, 1902, Birbeck Bank Chambers,
+Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C.). See _Folk-lore_, xiv.
+(1903) pp. 77 _sq._
+
+[543] W. R. Paton, in _Folk-lore_, ii. (1891) p. 128. The custom was
+reported to me when I was in Greece in 1890 (_Folk-lore_, i. (1890) p.
+520).
+
+[544] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 519.
+
+[545] G. Georgeakis et L. Pineau, _Le Folk-lore de Lesbos_ (Paris,
+1894), pp. 308 _sq._
+
+[546] W.R. Paton, in _Folk-lore_, vi. (1895) p. 94. From the stones cast
+into the fire omens may perhaps be drawn, as in Scotland, Wales, and
+probably Brittany. See above, p. 183, and below, pp. 230 _sq._, 239,
+240.
+
+[547] W.H.D. Rouse, "Folklore from the Southern Sporades," _Folk-lore_,
+x. (1899) p. 179.
+
+[548] Lucy M.J. Garnett, _The Women of Turkey and their Folk-lore, the
+Christian Women_ (London, 1890), p. 122; G.F. Abbott, _Macedonian
+Folklore_ (Cambridge, 1903), p. 57.
+
+[549] J.G. von Hahn, _Albanesische Studien_ (Jena, 1854), i. 156.
+
+[550] K. von den Steinen, _Unter den Natur-Völkern Zentral-Brasiliens_
+(Berlin, 1894), p. 561.
+
+[551] Alcide d'Orbigny, _Voyage dans l'Amérique Méridionale_, ii. (Paris
+and Strasbourg, 1839-1843), p. 420; D. Forbes, "On the Aymara Indians of
+Bolivia and Peru," _Journal of the Ethnological Society of London_, ii.
+(1870) p. 235.
+
+[552] Edmond Doutté, _Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord_
+(Algiers, 1908), pp. 566 _sq_. For an older but briefer notice of the
+Midsummer fires in North Africa, see Giuseppe Ferraro, _Superstizioni,
+Usi e Proverbi Monferrini_ (Palermo, 1886), pp. 34 _sq._: "Also in
+Algeria, among the Mussalmans, and in Morocco, as Alvise da Cadamosto
+reports in his _Relazione dei viaggi d'Africa_, which may be read in
+Ramusio, people used to hold great festivities on St. John's Night; they
+kindled everywhere huge fires of straw (the _Palilia_ of the Romans), in
+which they threw incense and perfumes the whole night long in order to
+invoke the divine blessing on the fruit-trees." See also Budgett Meakin,
+_The Moors_ (London, 1902), p. 394: "The Berber festivals are mainly
+those of Islam, though a few traces of their predecessors are
+observable. Of these the most noteworthy is Midsummer or St. John's Day,
+still celebrated in a special manner, and styled _El Ansarah_. In the
+Rîf it is celebrated by the lighting of bonfires only, but in other
+parts there is a special dish prepared of wheat, raisins, etc.,
+resembling the frumenty consumed at the New Year. It is worthy of remark
+that the Old Style Gregorian calendar is maintained among them, with
+corruptions of Latin names."
+
+[553] Edward Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folklore_,
+xvi. (1905) pp. 28-30; _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with
+Agriculture, Certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather_
+(Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 79-83.
+
+[554] E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-lore_, xvi.
+(1905) pp. 30 _sq._; _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with
+Agriculture_, etc., pp. 83 _sq._
+
+[555] Edmond Doutté, _Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord_
+(Algiers, 1908), pp. 567 _sq._
+
+[556] E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-lore_, xvi.
+(1905) pp. 31 _sq._; _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with
+Agriculture_, etc., pp. 84-86.
+
+[557] See K. Vollers, in Dr. James Hastings's _Encyclopaedia of Religion
+and Ethics_ iii. (Edinburgh, 1910) _s.v._ "Calendar (Muslim)," pp. 126
+_sq._ However, L. Ideler held that even before the time of Mohammed the
+Arab year was lunar and vague, and that intercalation was only employed
+in order to fix the pilgrimage month in autumn, which, on account of the
+milder weather and the abundance of food, is the best time for pilgrims
+to go to Mecca. See L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und
+techischen Chronologie_ (Berlin, 1825-1826), ii. 495 _sqq._
+
+[558] E. Doutté, _Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord_, pp. 496,
+509, 532, 543, 569. It is somewhat remarkable that the tenth, not the
+first, day of the first month should be reckoned New Year's Day.
+
+[559] E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-lore_, xvi.
+(1905) pp. 40-42.
+
+[560] E. Doutté, _Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord_ (Algiers,
+1908), pp. 541 _sq._
+
+[561] E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-lore_, xvi.
+(1905) p. 42; _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with Agriculture,
+Certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in Morocco_
+(Helsingfors, 1913), p. 101.
+
+[562] E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-lore_, xvi.
+(1905), pp. 42 _sq._, 46 _sq.; id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected
+with Agriculture_, etc., _in Morocco_, pp. 99 _sqq._
+
+[563] G. F. Abbott, _Macedonian Folklore_ (Cambridge, 1903), pp. 60
+_sq._
+
+[564] "Narrative of the Adventures of four Russian Sailors, who were
+cast in a storm upon the uncultivated island of East Spitzbergen,"
+translated from the German of P.L. Le Roy, in John Pinkerton's _Voyages
+and Travels_ (London, 1808-1814), i. 603. This passage is quoted from
+the original by (Sir) Edward B. Tylor, _Researches into the Early
+History of Mankind_, Third Edition (London, 1878), pp. 259 _sq._
+
+[565] See _The Scapegoat_, pp. 166 _sq._
+
+[566] E.K. Chambers, _The Mediaeval Stage_ (Oxford, 1903), i. 110 _sqq._
+
+[567] In Eastern Europe to this day the great season for driving out the
+cattle to pasture for the first time in spring is St. George's Day, the
+twenty-third of April, which is not far removed from May Day. See _The
+Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 324 _sqq._ As to the
+bisection of the Celtic year, see the old authority quoted by P.W.
+Joyce, _The Social History of Ancient Ireland_ (London, 1903), ii. 390:
+"The whole year was [originally] divided into two parts--Summer from 1st
+May to 1st November, and Winter from 1st November to 1st May." On this
+subject compare (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London and
+Edinburgh, 1888), pp. 460, 514 _sqq.; id., Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and
+Manx_ (Oxford, 1901), i. 315 _sqq._; J.A. MacCulloch, in Dr. James
+Hastings's _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, iii. (Edinburgh,
+1910) p. 80.
+
+[568] See below, p. 225.
+
+[569] Above, pp. 146 _sqq._; _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_,
+ii. 59 _sqq._
+
+[570] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Folk-lore, Manx and Welsh_ (Oxford,
+1901), i. 316, 317 _sq._; J.A. MacCulloch, in Dr. James Hastings's
+_Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, iii. (Edinburgh, 1910) _s.v._
+"Calendar," p. 80, referring to Kelly, _English and Manx Dictionary_
+(Douglas, 1866), _s.v._ "Blein." Hogmanay is the popular Scotch name for
+the last day of the year. See Dr. J. Jamieson, _Etymological Dictionary
+of the Scottish Language_, New Edition (Paisley, 1879-1882), ii. 602
+_sq._
+
+[571] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx_, i. 316 _sq._
+
+[572] Above, p. 139.
+
+[573] See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 309-318. As I
+have there pointed out, the Catholic Church succeeded in altering the
+date of the festival by one day, but not in changing the character of
+the festival. All Souls' Day is now the second instead of the first of
+November. But we can hardly doubt that the Saints, who have taken
+possession of the first of November, wrested it from the Souls of the
+Dead, the original proprietors. After all, the Saints are only one
+particular class of the Souls of the Dead; so that the change which the
+Church effected, no doubt for the purpose of disguising the heathen
+character of the festival, is less great than appears at first sight.
+
+[574] In Wales "it was firmly believed in former times that on All
+Hallows' Eve the spirit of a departed person was to be seen at midnight
+on every cross-road and on every stile" (Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and
+Folk-stories of Wales_, London, 1909, p. 254).
+
+[575] E. J. Guthrie, _Old Scottish Customs_ (London and Glasgow, 1885),
+p. 68.
+
+[576] A. Goodrich-Freer, "More Folklore from the Hebrides," _Folk-lore_,
+xiii. (1902) p. 53.
+
+[577] (Sir) Jolin Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London and Edinburgh,
+1888), p. 516.
+
+[578] P.W. Joyce, _A Social History of Ancient Ireland_ (London, 1903),
+i. 264 _sq._, ii. 556.
+
+[579] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_, p. 516.
+
+[580] Rev. John Gregorson Campbell, _Superstitions of the Highlands and
+Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1900), pp. 61 _sq._
+
+[581] Ch. Rogers, _Social Life in Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1884-1886), iii.
+258-260.
+
+[582] Douglas Hyde, _Beside the Fire, a Collection of Irish Gaelic Folk
+Stories_ (London, 1890), pp. 104, 105, 121-128.
+
+[583] P.W. Joyce, _Social History of Ancient Ireland_, i. 229.
+
+[584] Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London,
+1909), p. 254.
+
+[585] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_, pp. 514 _sq._ In order to
+see the apparitions all you had to do was to run thrice round the parish
+church and then peep through the key-hole of the door. See Marie
+Trevelyan, _op. cit._ p. 254; J. C. Davies, _Folk-lore of West and
+Mid-Wales_ (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 77.
+
+[586] Miss E. J. Guthrie, _Old Scottish Customs_ (London and Glasgow,
+1885), p. 75.
+
+[587] Rev. John Gregorson Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the
+Highlands and Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1902), p. 282.
+
+[588] Thomas Pennant, "Tour in Scotland, and Voyage to the Hebrides in
+1772," in John Pinkerton's _Voyages and Travels_, iii. (London, 1809)
+pp. 383 _sq._ In quoting the passage I have corrected what seem to be
+two misprints.
+
+[589] John Ramsay, of Ochtertyre, _Scotland and Scotsmen in the
+Eighteenth Century_, edited by Alexander Allardyce (Edinburgh and
+London, 1888), ii. 437 _sq._ This account was written in the eighteenth
+century.
+
+[590] Rev. James Robertson, Parish minister of Callander, in Sir John
+Sinclair's _Statistical Account of Scotland_, xi. (Edinburgh, 1794), pp.
+621 _sq._
+
+[591] Rev. Dr. Thomas Bisset, in Sir John Sinclair's _Statistical
+Account of Scotland_ v. (Edinburgh, 1793) pp. 84 _sq._
+
+[592] Miss E. J. Guthrie, _Old Scottish Customs_ (London and Glasgow,
+1885), p. 67.
+
+[593] James Napier, _Folk Lore, or Superstitious Beliefs in the West of
+Scotland within this Century_ (Paisley, 1879), p. 179.
+
+[594] J. G. Frazer, "Folk-lore at Balquhidder," _The Folk-lore Journal_,
+vi. (1888) p. 270.
+
+[595] Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of
+Scotland_ (London, 1881), pp. 167 _sq._
+
+[596] Rev. A. Johnstone, as to the parish of Monquhitter, in Sir John
+Sinclair's _Statistical Account of Scotland_, xxi. (Edinburgh, 1799) pp.
+145 _sq._
+
+[597] A. Macdonald, "Some former Customs of the Royal Parish of Crathie,
+Scotland," _Folk-lore_, xviii. (1907) p. 85. The writer adds: "In this
+way the 'faulds' were purged of evil spirits." But it does not appear
+whether this expresses the belief of the people or only the
+interpretation of the writer.
+
+[598] Rev. John Gregorson Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the
+Highlands and Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1902), pp. 282 _sq._
+
+[599] Robert Burns, _Hallowe'en_, with the poet's note; Rev. Walter
+Gregor, _op. cit._ p. 84; Miss E.J. Guthrie, _op. cit._ p. 69; Rev. J.G.
+Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 287.
+
+[600] R. Burns, _l.c._; Rev. Walter Gregor, _l.c._; Miss E.J. Guthrie,
+_op. cit._ pp. 70 _sq._; Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 286.
+
+[601] R. Burns, _l.c._.; Rev. W. Gregor, _l.c._; Miss E.J. Guthrie, _op.
+cit._ p. 73; Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 285; A. Goodrich-Freer,
+"More Folklore from the Hebrides," _Folk-lore_, xiii. (1902) pp. 54
+_sq._
+
+[602] R. Burns, _l.c._; Rev. W. Gregor, _op. cit._ p. 85; Miss E.J.
+Guthrie, _op. cit._ p. 71; Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 285.
+According to the last of these writers, the winnowing had to be done in
+the devil's name.
+
+[603] R. Burns, _l.c._; Rev. W. Gregor, _l.c._; Miss E.J. Guthrie, _op.
+cit._ p. 72; Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 286; A. Goodrich-Freer,
+"More Folklore from the Hebrides," _Folklore_, xiii. (1902) p. 54.
+
+[604] Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 283.
+
+[605] Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ pp. 283 _sq._; A. Goodrich-Freer,
+_l.c._
+
+[606] Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 284.
+
+[607] R. Burns, _l.c._; Rev. W. Gregor, _op. cit._ p. 85; Miss E.J.
+Guthrie, _op. cit._ p. 70; Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 284. Where
+nuts were not to be had, peas were substituted.
+
+[608] Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 284.
+
+[609] Rev. J.G. Campbell, _l.c._ According to my recollection of
+Hallowe'en customs observed in my boyhood at Helensburgh, in
+Dumbartonshire, another way was to stir the floating apples and then
+drop a fork on them as they bobbed about in the water. Success consisted
+in pinning one of the apples with the fork.
+
+[610] R. Burns, _l.c._; Rev. W. Gregor, _op. cit_. pp. 85 _sq_.; Miss
+E.J. Guthrie, _op. cit_. pp. 72 _sq_.; Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit_. p.
+287.
+
+[611] R. Burns, _l.c._; Rev. W. Gregor, _op. cit_. p. 85; Miss E.J.
+Guthrie, _op. cit_. pp. 69 _sq_.; Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit_. p. 285.
+It is the last of these writers who gives what may be called the
+Trinitarian form of the divination.
+
+[612] Miss E.J. Guthrie, _Old Scottish Customs_ (London and Glasgow,
+1885), pp. 74 _sq_.
+
+[613] A. Goodrich-Freer, "More Folklore from the Hebrides," _Folk-lore_,
+xiii. (1902) p. 55.
+
+[614] Pennant's manuscript, quoted by J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of
+Great Britain_ (London, 1882-1883), i. 389 _sq_.
+
+[615] Sir Richard Colt Hoare, _The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin
+through Wales A.D. MCLXXXVIII. by Giraldus de Barri_ (London, 1806), ii.
+315; J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, i. 390. The passage quoted in the
+text occurs in one of Hoare's notes on the Itinerary. The dipping for
+apples, burning of nuts, and so forth, are mentioned also by Marie
+Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London, 1909), pp.
+253, 255.
+
+[616] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London and Edinburgh, 1888),
+pp. 515 _sq._ As to the Hallowe'en bonfires in Wales compare J.C.
+Davies, _Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales_ (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 77.
+
+[617] See above, p. 183.
+
+[618] See above, p. 231.
+
+[619] Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London,
+1909), pp. 254 _sq._
+
+[620] (General) Charles Vallancey, _Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis_,
+iii. (Dublin, 1786), pp. 459-461.
+
+[621] Miss A. Watson, quoted by A.C. Haddon, "A Batch of Irish
+Folk-lore," _Folk-lore_, iv. (1893) pp. 361 _sq._
+
+[622] Leland L. Duncan, "Further Notes from County Leitrim,"
+_Folk-lore_, v. (1894) pp. 195-197.
+
+[623] H.J. Byrne, "All Hallows Eve and other Festivals in Connaught,"
+_Folk-lore_, xviii. (1907) pp. 437 _sq._
+
+[624] Joseph Train, _Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle of
+Man_ (Douglas, Isle of Man, 1845), ii. 123; (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic
+Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford, 1901), i. 315 _sqq._
+
+[625] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford,
+1901), i. 318-321.
+
+[626] John Harland and T.T. Wilkinson, _Lancashire Folk-lore_
+(Manchester and London, 1882), pp. 3 _sq_.
+
+[627] J. Harland and T.T. Wilkinson, _op. cit_. p. 140.
+
+[628] Annie Milner, in William Hone's _Year Book_ (London, preface dated
+January, 1832), coll. 1276-1279 (letter dated June, 1831); R.T. Hampson,
+_Medii Aevi Kalendarium_ (London, 1841), i. 365; T.F. Thiselton Dyer,
+_British Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), p. 395.
+
+[629] _County Folk-lore_ vol. iv. _Northumberland_, collected by M.C.
+Balfour (London, 1904), p. 78. Compare W. Henderson, _Notes on the
+Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England_ (London, 1879), pp. 96
+_sq_.
+
+[630] Baron Dupin, in _Mémoires publiées par la Société Royale des
+Antiquaires de France_, iv. (1823) p. 108.
+
+[631] The evidence for the solar origin of Christmas is given in
+_Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 254-256.
+
+[632] For the various names (Yu-batch, Yu-block, Yule-log, etc.) see
+Francis Grose, _Provincial Glossary_, New Edition (London, 1811), p.
+141; Joseph Wright, _The English Dialect Dictionary_ (London,
+1898-1905), vi. 593, _s.v._ "Yule."
+
+[633] "I am pretty confident that the Yule block will be found, in its
+first use, to have been only a counterpart of the Midsummer fires, made
+within doors because of the cold weather at this winter solstice, as
+those in the hot season, at the summer one, are kindled in the open
+air." (John Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_, London,
+1882-1883, i. 471). His opinion is approved by W. Mannhardt _(Der
+Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstämme_, p. 236).
+
+[634] "_Et arborem in nativitate domini ad festivum ignem suum
+adducendam esse dicebat_" (quoted by Jacob Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,
+i. 522).
+
+[635] Montanus, _Die deutschen Volksfeste, Volksbrauche und deutscher
+Volksglaube_ (Iserlohn, N.D.), p. 12. The Sieg and Lahn are two rivers
+of Central Germany, between Siegen and Marburg.
+
+[636] J.H. Schmitz, _Sitten und Sagen, Lieder, Sprüchwörter und Räthsel
+des Eifler Volkes_ (Treves, 1856-1858), i. 4.
+
+[637] Adalbert Kuhn, _Sagen, Gebräuche und Märchen aus Westfalen_
+(Leipsic, 1859), ii. § 319, pp. 103 _sq_.
+
+[638] A. Kuhn, _op. cit._ ii. § 523, p. 187.
+
+[639] August Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen_
+(Vienna, 1878), p. 172.
+
+[640] K. Hoffmann-Krayer, _Feste und Bräuche des Schweizervolkes_
+(Zurich, 1913), pp. 108 _sq._
+
+[641] Le Baron de Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, _Calendrier Belge_ (Brussels,
+1861-1862), ii. 326 _sq._ Compare J.W. Wolf, _Beiträgezur deutschen
+Mythologie_ (Göttingen, 1852-1858), i. 117.
+
+[642] J.B. Thiers, _Traité des Superstitions_*[5] (Paris, 1741), i. 302
+_sq._; Eugène Cortet, _Essai sur les Fêtes Religieuses_ (Paris, 1867),
+pp. _266 sq._
+
+[643] J.B. Thiers, _Traité des Superstitions_ (Paris, 1679), p. 323.
+
+[644] Aubin-Louis Millin, _Voyage dans les Départemens du Midi de la
+France_ (Paris, 1807-1811), iii. 336 _sq._ The fire so kindled was
+called _caco fuech_.
+
+[645] Alfred de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 151 _sq._ The three festivals
+during which the Yule log is expected to burn are probably Christmas Day
+(December 25th), St. Stephen's Day (December 26th), and St. John the
+Evangelist's Day (December 27th). Compare J.L.M. Noguès, _Les Moeurs
+d'autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis_ (Saintes, 1891), pp. 45-47.
+According to the latter writer, in Saintonge it was the mistress of the
+house who blessed the Yule log, sprinkling salt and holy water on it; in
+Poitou it was the eldest male who officiated. The log was called the
+_cosse de Nô_.
+
+[646] Laisnel de Salle, _Croyances et Légendes du Centres de la France_
+(Paris, 1875), i. 1-3.
+
+[647] Jules Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_ (Condé-sur-Noireau,
+1883-1887), ii. 291. The author speaks of the custom as still practised
+in out-of-the-way villages at the time when he wrote. The usage of
+preserving the remains of the Yule-log (called _tréfouet_) in Normandy
+is mentioned also by M'elle Amélie Bosquet, _La Normandie Romanesque et
+Merveilleuse_ (Paris and Rouen, 1845), p. 294.
+
+[648] A. de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes, et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 256.
+
+[649] Paul Sébillot, _Coutumes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris,
+1886), pp. 217 _sq._
+
+[650] Albert Meyrac, _Traditions, Coutumes, Légendes et Contes des
+Ardennes_ (Charleville, 1890), pp. 96 _sq._
+
+[651] See above, p. 251.
+
+[652] Lerouze, in _Mémoires de l'Academie Celtique_, iii. (1809) p. 441,
+quoted by J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 469 note.
+
+[653] L.F. Sauvé, _Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_ (Paris, 1889), pp.
+370 _sq._
+
+[654] Charles Beauquier, _Les Mois en Franche-Comté_ (Paris, 1900), p.
+183.
+
+[655] A. de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes, et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 302 _sq._
+
+[656] John Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 467.
+
+[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 Südslaven_ (Vienna, 1859); F. Demelic, _Le Droit Coutumier des
+Slaves Méridionaux_ (Paris, 1876), pp. 23 _sqq._; F.S. Krauss, _Sitte
+und Brauch der Südslaven_ (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 Gebräuche der im
+Kaiserthume Oesterreich lebenden Südslaven_ (Vienna, 1873), pp. 122-128.
+
+[673] Baron Rajacsich, _Das Leben, die Sitten und Gebrauche der im
+Kaiserthume Oesterreich lebenden Südslaven_ (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 Gebräuche aus Thüringen_
+(Vienna, 1878), pp. 171 _sq._
+
+[681] Jules Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_ (Condé-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, _Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Göttingen and
+Leipsic, 1852-1857), i. 116 _sq._, ii. 378 _sqq._; Adalbert Kuhn, _Die
+Herabkunjt des Feuers und des Göttertranks_*[2] (Gütersloh, 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 Nachbarstämme_ (Berlin, 1875), pp. 518 _sqq._;
+Charles Elton, _Origins of English History_ (London, 1882), pp. 293
+_sqq._; Ulrich Jahn, _Die deutschen Opfergebräuche 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 für Volkskünde_, 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 Göttingen, 1860), pp. 252 _sq._, quoting a letter of the
+mayor (_Schultheiss_) of Neustadt to the mayor of Marburg dated 12th
+December 1605.
+
+[692] Bartholomäus 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, _Märkische Sagen und Märchen_ (Berlin, 1843), p.
+369.
+
+[697] Karl Bartsch, _Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Mecklenburg_
+(Vienna, 1879-1880), ii. 149-151.
+
+[698] Carl und Theodor Colshorn, _Märchen und Sagen_ (Hanover, 1854),
+pp. 234-236, from the description of an eye-witness.
+
+[699] Heinrich Pröhle, _Harzbilder, Sitten und Gebräuche 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, Volksbräuche 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, _Volksthümliches aus Österreichisch-Schlesien_
+(Troppau, 1865-1867), ii. 250.
+
+[705] Alois John, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen
+Westböhmen_ (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 Öksendalens Beskrivelse_
+written by Pastor Chr. Glükstad and published at Christiania "about
+twenty years ago."
+
+[711] Prof. VI. Titelbach, "Das heilige Feuer bei den Balkanslaven,"
+_Inter-nationales Archiv für 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 Göttertranks_*[2] (Gütersloh,
+1886), p. 43; Ulrich Jahn, _Die deutschen Opfergebräuche 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. Bâle, 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
+Sébillot, _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;
+Amélie 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, _Märkische Sagen und Märchen_ (Berlin,
+1843), p. 375; Ulrich Jahn, _Volkssagen aus Pommern und Rügen_ (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 Koloniën en op het oostaziatische Vasteland," _Bijdragen tot de
+Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië_, xlix. (1898) pp.
+549-585; G.P. Rouffaer, "Matjan Gadoengan," _Bijdragen tot de Taal-
+Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië_ 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. Noguès, _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 § 217; L. Strackerjan,
+_Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg, 1867),
+i. 327 § 220; Ulrich Jahn, _Hexenwesen und Zauberei in Pommern_
+(Breslau, 1886), p. 7. In his _Topography of Ireland_ (chap. 19), a work
+completed in 1187 A.D., 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. Noguès,
+_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. Noguès, _l.c._; L.F. Sauvé, _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 § 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. Sauvé, _Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_ (Paris, 1889), p.
+176.
+
+[781] L.F. Sauvé, _op. cit._ pp. 176 _sq._
+
+[782] Ernst Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche 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. Kühnau, _Schlesische Sagen_ (Berlin, 1910-1913), iii. pp. 27
+_sq._, No. 1380.
+
+[784] R. Kühnau, _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 Gebräuche aus dem Spreewald_
+(Leipsic, 1880), pp. 164, 165 _sq._; H. Pröhle, _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, § 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, § 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, § 238.
+
+[789] L. Strackerjan, _op. cit._ i. p. 360, § 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
+
+
+§ 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.
+
+
+§ 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.
+
+
+§ 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
+Nachbarstämme_ (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 Gebräuche im Kreislauf des Jahres," in R.
+Wuttke's _Sächsische 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 Göttertranks_*[2] (Gütersloh, 1886), pp.
+45 _sqq._; H. Gaidoz, "Le dieu gaulois du soleil et le symbolisme de la
+roue," _Revue Archéologique_, iii. Série, 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 Gebräuche aus Schwaben_
+(Stuttgart, 1852), p. 225; F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_
+(Munich, 1848-1855), ii. 240; Anton Birlinger, _Volksthümliches 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,
+_Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Gottingen und Leipsic, 1852-1857),
+ii. 389; Adalbert Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des
+Göttertranks_*[2] (Gütersloh, 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, _Beiträge
+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 Göttertranks_*[2]
+(Gütersloh, 1886), p. 47.
+
+[816] Above, p. 179.
+
+[817] F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855),
+ii. 240, § 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] Amélie Bosquet, _La Normandie Romanesque et Merveilleuse_ (Paris
+and Rouen, 1845), pp. 295 _sq._; Jules Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage
+Normand_ (Condé-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 126-129. See _The
+Scapegoat_, pp. 316 _sq._
+
+[853] Br. Jelínek, "Materialen zur Vorgeschichte mid Volkskunde
+Böhmens," _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, § 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, § 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 § 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 Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren_ (Prague and Leipsic,
+1864), p. 32 § 182; A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_*[2]
+(Berlin, 1869), pp. 149 _sq._, §216; J. Ceredig Davies, _Folk-lore of
+West and Mid-Wales_ (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 230; Alois John, _Sitte,
+Branch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen_ (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, § 395.
+
+[871] Above, pp. 165, 168, 189, compare 190.
+
+[872] A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_*[2] (Berlin, 1869), p.
+351, § 395; L. Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum
+Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg, 1867), i. p. 298, § 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, § 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 religiöser Brauch der Südslaven_
+(Münster i. W., 1890), pp. 118 _sq._
+
+[875] In German such spells are called _Nestelknüpfen_; in French,
+_nouer l'aiguilette_. See J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] ii. 897,
+983; A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube_*[2] (Berlin, 1869), p.
+252 § 396; K. Doutté, _Magic et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord_
+(Algiers, 1908), pp. 87 _sq._, 294 _sqq._; J.L.M. Noguès, _Les Moeurs
+d'autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis_ (Saintes, 1891), pp. 171 _sq._
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I.
+by Sir James George Frazer
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+Project Gutenberg's Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I., by Sir James George Frazer
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I.
+       A Study In Magic And Religion: The Golden Bough, Part VII., The
+              Fire-Festivals Of Europe And The Doctrine Of The External Soul
+              
+
+Author: Sir James George Frazer
+
+Release Date: May 4, 2004 [EBook #12261]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BALDER THE BEAUTIFUL, VOL. I. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Million Book Project, David King, and the
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+</pre>
+
+<h1>A STUDY IN MAGIC AND RELIGION</h1>
+<h2><i>THIRD EDITION</i></h2>
+<h2>PART VII</h2>
+<h2>BALDER THE BEAUTIFUL</h2>
+<h2>VOL. I</h2>
+<h3>THE FIRE-FESTIVALS OF EUROPE AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE EXTERNAL
+SOUL</h3>
+<h2>J.G. FRAZER, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D.</h2>
+<h3>FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL
+ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL.</h3>
+<h3>IN TWO VOLUMES</h3>
+<h3>VOL. I</h3>
+<h3>PREFACE</h3>
+<p>In this concluding part of <i>The Golden Bough</i> I have
+discussed the problem which gives its title to the whole work. If I
+am right, the Golden Bough over which the King of the Wood, Diana's
+priest at Aricia, kept watch and ward was no other than a branch of
+mistletoe growing on an oak within the sacred grove; and as the
+plucking of the bough was a necessary prelude to the slaughter of
+the priest, I have been led to institute a parallel between the
+King of the Wood at Nemi and the Norse god Balder, who was
+worshipped in a sacred grove beside the beautiful Sogne fiord of
+Norway and was said to have perished by a stroke of mistletoe,
+which alone of all things on earth or in heaven could wound him. On
+the theory here suggested both Balder and the King of the Wood
+personified in a sense the sacred oak of our Aryan forefathers, and
+both had deposited their lives or souls for safety in the parasite
+which sometimes, though rarely, is found growing on an oak and by
+the very rarity of its appearance excites the wonder and stimulates
+the devotion of ignorant men. Though I am now less than ever
+disposed to lay weight on the analogy between the Italian priest
+and the Norse god, I have allowed it to stand because it furnishes
+me with a pretext for discussing not only the general question of
+the external soul in popular superstition, but also the
+fire-festivals of Europe, since fire played a part both in the myth
+of Balder and in the ritual of the Arician grove. Thus Balder the
+Beautiful in my hands is little more than a stalking-horse to carry
+two heavy pack-loads of facts. And what is true of Balder applies
+equally to the priest of Nemi himself, the nominal hero of the long
+tragedy of human folly and suffering which has unrolled itself
+before the readers of these volumes, and on which the curtain is
+now about to fall. He, too, for all the quaint garb he wears and
+the gravity with which he stalks across the stage, is merely a
+puppet, and it is time to unmask him before laying him up in the
+box.</p>
+<p>To drop metaphor, while nominally investigating a particular
+problem of ancient mythology, I have really been discussing
+questions of more general interest which concern the gradual
+evolution of human thought from savagery to civilization. The
+enquiry is beset with difficulties of many kinds, for the record of
+man's mental development is even more imperfect than the record of
+his physical development, and it is harder to read, not only by
+reason of the incomparably more subtle and complex nature of the
+subject, but because the reader's eyes are apt to be dimmed by
+thick mists of passion and prejudice, which cloud in a far less
+degree the fields of comparative anatomy and geology. My
+contribution to the history of the human mind consists of little
+more than a rough and purely provisional classification of facts
+gathered almost entirely from printed sources. If there is one
+general conclusion which seems to emerge from the mass of
+particulars, I venture to think that it is the essential similarity
+in the working of the less developed human mind among all races,
+which corresponds to the essential similarity in their bodily frame
+revealed by comparative anatomy. But while this general mental
+similarity may, I believe, be taken as established, we must always
+be on our guard against tracing to it a multitude of particular
+resemblances which may be and often are due to simple diffusion,
+since nothing is more certain than that the various races of men
+have borrowed from each other many of their arts and crafts, their
+ideas, customs, and institutions. To sift out the elements of
+culture which a race has independently evolved and to distinguish
+them accurately from those which it has derived from other races is
+a task of extreme difficulty and delicacy, which promises to occupy
+students of man for a long time to come; indeed so complex are the
+facts and so imperfect in most cases is the historical record that
+it may be doubted whether in regard to many of the lower races we
+shall ever arrive at more than probable conjectures.</p>
+<p>Since the last edition of <i>The Golden Bough</i> was published
+some thirteen years ago, I have seen reason to change my views on
+several matters discussed in this concluding part of the work, and
+though I have called attention to these changes in the text, it may
+be well for the sake of clearness to recapitulate them here.</p>
+<p>In the first place, the arguments of Dr. Edward Westermarck have
+satisfied me that the solar theory of the European fire-festivals,
+which I accepted from W. Mannhardt, is very slightly, if at all,
+supported by the evidence and is probably erroneous. The true
+explanation of the festivals I now believe to be the one advocated
+by Dr. Westermarck himself, namely that they are purificatory in
+intention, the fire being designed not, as I formerly held, to
+reinforce the sun's light and heat by sympathetic magic, but merely
+to burn or repel the noxious things, whether conceived as material
+or spiritual, which threaten the life of man, of animals, and of
+plants. This aspect of the fire-festivals had not wholly escaped me
+in former editions; I pointed it out explicitly, but, biassed
+perhaps by the great authority of Mannhardt, I treated it as
+secondary and subordinate instead of primary and dominant. Out of
+deference to Mannhardt, for whose work I entertain the highest
+respect, and because the evidence for the purificatory theory of
+the fires is perhaps not quite conclusive, I have in this edition
+repeated and even reinforced the arguments for the solar theory of
+the festivals, so that the reader may see for himself what can be
+said on both sides of the question and may draw his own conclusion;
+but for my part I cannot but think that the arguments for the
+purificatory theory far outweigh the arguments for the solar
+theory. Dr. Westermarck based his criticisms largely on his own
+observations of the Mohammedan fire-festivals of Morocco, which
+present a remarkable resemblance to those of Christian Europe,
+though there seems no reason to assume that herein Africa has
+borrowed from Europe or Europe from Africa. So far as Europe is
+concerned, the evidence tends strongly to shew that the grand evil
+which the festivals aimed at combating was witchcraft, and that
+they were conceived to attain their end by actually burning the
+witches, whether visible or invisible, in the flames. If that was
+so, the wide prevalence and the immense popularity of the
+fire-festivals provides us with a measure for estimating the extent
+of the hold which the belief in witchcraft had on the European mind
+before the rise of Christianity or rather of rationalism; for
+Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant, accepted the old belief
+and enforced it in the old way by the faggot and the stake. It was
+not until human reason at last awoke after the long slumber of the
+Middle Ages that this dreadful obsession gradually passed away like
+a dark cloud from the intellectual horizon of Europe.</p>
+<p>Yet we should deceive ourselves if we imagined that the belief
+in witchcraft is even now dead in the mass of the people; on the
+contrary there is ample evidence to show that it only hibernates
+under the chilling influence of rationalism, and that it would
+start into active life if that influence were ever seriously
+relaxed. The truth seems to be that to this day the peasant remains
+a pagan and savage at heart; his civilization is merely a thin
+veneer which the hard knocks of life soon abrade, exposing the
+solid core of paganism and savagery below. The danger created by a
+bottomless layer of ignorance and superstition under the crust of
+civilized society is lessened, not only by the natural torpidity
+and inertia of the bucolic mind, but also by the progressive
+decrease of the rural as compared with the urban population in
+modern states; for I believe it will be found that the artisans who
+congregate in towns are far less retentive of primitive modes of
+thought than their rustic brethren. In every age cities have been
+the centres and as it were the lighthouses from which ideas radiate
+into the surrounding darkness, kindled by the friction of mind with
+mind in the crowded haunts of men; and it is natural that at these
+beacons of intellectual light all should partake in some measure of
+the general illumination. No doubt the mental ferment and unrest of
+great cities have their dark as well as their bright side; but
+among the evils to be apprehended from them the chances of a pagan
+revival need hardly be reckoned.</p>
+<p>Another point on which I have changed my mind is the nature of
+the great Aryan god whom the Romans called Jupiter and the Greeks
+Zeus. Whereas I formerly argued that he was primarily a
+personification of the sacred oak and only in the second place a
+personification of the thundering sky, I now invert the order of
+his divine functions and believe that he was a sky-god before he
+came to be associated with the oak. In fact, I revert to the
+traditional view of Jupiter, recant my heresy, and am gathered like
+a lost sheep into the fold of mythological orthodoxy. The good
+shepherd who has brought me back is my friend Mr. W. Warde Fowler.
+He has removed the stone over which I stumbled in the wilderness by
+explaining in a simple and natural way how a god of the thundering
+sky might easily come to be afterwards associated with the oak. The
+explanation turns on the great frequency with which, as statistics
+prove, the oak is struck by lightning beyond any other tree of the
+wood in Europe. To our rude forefathers, who dwelt in the gloomy
+depths of the primaeval forest, it might well seem that the riven
+and blackened oaks must indeed be favourites of the sky-god, who so
+often descended on them from the murky cloud in a flash of
+lightning and a crash of thunder.</p>
+<p>This change of view as to the great Aryan god necessarily
+affects my interpretation of the King of the Wood, the priest of
+Diana at Aricia, if I may take that discarded puppet out of the box
+again for a moment. On my theory the priest represented Jupiter in
+the flesh, and accordingly, if Jupiter was primarily a sky-god, his
+priest cannot have been a mere incarnation of the sacred oak, but
+must, like the deity whose commission he bore, have been invested
+in the imagination of his worshippers with the power of overcasting
+the heaven with clouds and eliciting storms of thunder and rain
+from the celestial vault. The attribution of weather-making powers
+to kings or priests is very common in primitive society, and is
+indeed one of the principal levers by which such personages raise
+themselves to a position of superiority above their fellows. There
+is therefore no improbability in the supposition that as a
+representative of Jupiter the priest of Diana enjoyed this
+reputation, though positive evidence of it appears to be
+lacking.</p>
+<p>Lastly, in the present edition I have shewn some grounds for
+thinking that the Golden Bough itself, or in common parlance the
+mistletoe on the oak, was supposed to have dropped from the sky
+upon the tree in a flash of lightning and therefore to contain
+within itself the seed of celestial fire, a sort of smouldering
+thunderbolt. This view of the priest and of the bough which he
+guarded at the peril of his life has the advantage of accounting
+for the importance which the sanctuary at Nemi acquired and the
+treasure which it amassed through the offerings of the faithful;
+for the shrine would seem to have been to ancient what Loreto has
+been to modern Italy, a place of pilgrimage, where princes and
+nobles as well as commoners poured wealth into the coffers of Diana
+in her green recess among the Alban hills, just as in modern times
+kings and queens vied with each other in enriching the black Virgin
+who from her Holy House on the hillside at Loreto looks out on the
+blue Adriatic and the purple Apennines. Such pious prodigality
+becomes more intelligible if the greatest of the gods was indeed
+believed to dwell in human shape with his wife among the woods of
+Nemi.</p>
+<p>These are the principal points on which I have altered my
+opinion since the last edition of my book was published. The mere
+admission of such changes may suffice to indicate the doubt and
+uncertainty which attend enquiries of this nature. The whole fabric
+of ancient mythology is so foreign to our modern ways of thought,
+and the evidence concerning it is for the most part so fragmentary,
+obscure, and conflicting that in our attempts to piece together and
+interpret it we can hardly hope to reach conclusions that will
+completely satisfy either ourselves or others. In this as in other
+branches of study it is the fate of theories to be washed away like
+children's castles of sand by the rising tide of knowledge, and I
+am not so presumptuous as to expect or desire for mine an exemption
+from the common lot. I hold them all very lightly and have used
+them chiefly as convenient pegs on which to hang my collections of
+facts. For I believe that, while theories are transitory, a record
+of facts has a permanent value, and that as a chronicle of ancient
+customs and beliefs my book may retain its utility when my theories
+are as obsolete as the customs and beliefs themselves deserve to
+be.</p>
+<p>I cannot dismiss without some natural regret a task which has
+occupied and amused me at intervals for many years. But the regret
+is tempered by thankfulness and hope. I am thankful that I have
+been able to conclude at least one chapter of the work I projected
+a long time ago. I am hopeful that I may not now be taking a final
+leave of my indulgent readers, but that, as I am sensible of little
+abatement in my bodily strength and of none in my ardour for study,
+they will bear with me yet a while if I should attempt to entertain
+them with fresh subjects of laughter and tears drawn from the
+comedy and the tragedy of man's endless quest after happiness and
+truth.</p>
+<p>J.G. FRAZER.</p>
+<p>CAMBRIDGE, 17<i>th October</i> 1913.</p>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<p>PREFACE, Pp. v-xii</p>
+<p><a href="#chap1">CHAPTER I.&mdash;BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH, Pp.
+1-21</a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect1-1">&sect; 1. <i>Not to touch the Earth</i>, pp.
+1-18</a>.&mdash;<a href="#priest">The priest of Aricia and the
+Golden Bough, 1 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#sacredkings">sacred kings
+and priests forbidden to touch the ground with their feet, 2-4</a>;
+<a href="#certain">certain persons on certain occasions forbidden
+to touch the ground with their feet, 4-6</a>; <a href=
+"#sacredtabooed">sacred persons apparently thought to be charged
+with a mysterious virtue which will run to waste or explode by
+contact with the ground, 6 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#thingsaswell">things as well as persons charged with the
+mysterious virtue of holiness or taboo and therefore kept from
+contact with the ground, 7</a>; <a href="#wildmango">festival of
+the wild mango, which is not allowed to touch the earth, 7-11</a>;
+<a href="#sacredobjects">other sacred objects kept from contact
+with the ground, 11 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#sacredfood">sacred
+food not allowed to touch the earth, 13 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#magicalimplements">magical implements and remedies thought to
+lose their virtue by contact with the ground, 14 <i>sq.</i></a>;
+<a href="#serpentseggs">serpents' eggs or snake stones, 15
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#medicinalplants">medicinal plants, water,
+etc., not allowed to touch the earth, 17 <i>sq.</i></a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect1-2">&sect; 2. <i>Not to see the Sun</i>, pp.
+18-21</a>.&mdash;<a href="#sacredpersons">Sacred persons not
+allowed to see the sun, 18-20</a>; <a href=
+"#tabooedpersons">tabooed persons not allowed to see the sun,
+20</a>; <a href="#certainpersons">certain persons forbidden to see
+fire, 20 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#princesunless">the story of
+Prince Sunless, 21.</a></p>
+<p><a href="#chap2">CHAPTER II.&mdash;THE SECLUSION OF GIRLS AT
+PUBERTY, Pp. 22-100</a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect2-1">&sect; 1. <i>Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in
+Africa</i>, pp. 22-32</a>.&mdash;<a href="#puberty">Girls at
+puberty forbidden to touch the ground and see the sun, 22</a>;
+<a href="#puberty">seclusion of girls at puberty among the Zulus
+and kindred tribes, 22</a>; <a href="#seclusionakamba">among the
+A-Kamba of British East Africa, 23</a>; <a href=
+"#seclusionbaganda">among the Baganda of Central Africa, 23
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#seclusiontangayika">among the tribes of
+the Tanganyika plateau, 24 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#seclusionbritishcentral">among the tribes of British Central
+Africa, 25 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#abstinencesalt">abstinence
+from salt associated with a rule of chastity in many tribes,
+26-28</a>; <a href="#seclusionnyassa">seclusion of girls at puberty
+among the tribes about Lake Nyassa and on the Zambesi, 28
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#seclusionthonga">among the Thonga of
+Delagoa Bay, 29 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#seclusioncaffre">among
+the Caffre tribes of South Africa, 30 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#seclusionlowercongo">among the Bavili of the Lower Congo, 31
+<i>sq.</i></a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect2-2">&sect; 2. <i>Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in
+New Ireland, New Guinea, and Indonesia</i>, pp.
+32-36</a>.&mdash;<a href="#seclusionnewireland">Seclusion of girls
+at puberty in New Ireland, 32-34</a>; <a href=
+"#seclusionnewguinea">in New Guinea, Borneo, Ceram, and the
+Caroline Islands, 35 <i>sq.</i></a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect2-3">&sect; 3. <i>Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in
+the Torres Straits Islands and Northern Australia</i>, pp.
+36-41</a>.&mdash;<a href="#seclusionmabuiag">Seclusion of girls at
+puberty in Mabuiag, Torres Straits, 36 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#seclusionnorthernaustralia">in Northern Australia, 37-39</a>;
+<a href="#seclusiontorres">in the islands of Torres Straits,
+39-41.</a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect2-4">&sect; 4. <i>Seclusion of Girls at Puberty
+among the Indians of North America</i>, pp.
+41-55</a>.&mdash;<a href="#seclusioncaliformia">Seclusion of girls
+at puberty among the Indians of California, 41-43</a>; <a href=
+"#seclusionwashington">among the Indians of Washington State,
+43</a>; <a href="#seclusionnootka">among the Nootka Indians of
+Vancouver Island, 43 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#seclusionhaida">among the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte
+Islands, 44 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#seclusiontlingit">among the
+Tlingit Indians of Alaska, 45 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#seclusiontsetsaut">among the Tsetsaut and Bella Coola Indians of
+British Columbia, 46 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#seclusiontinneh">among the Tinneh Indians of British Columbia, 47
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#seclusiontinnehalaska">among the Tinneh
+Indians of Alaska, 48 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#seclusionthompson">among the Thompson Indians of British
+Columbia, 49-52</a>; <a href="#seclusionlillooet">among the
+Lillooet Indians of British Columbia, 52 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#seclusionshuswap">among the Shuswap Indians of British Columbia,
+53 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#seclusiondelaware">among the Delaware
+and Cheyenne Indians, 54 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#seclusionesquimaux">among the Esquimaux, 55 <i>sq.</i></a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect2-5">&sect; 5. <i>Seclusion of Girls at Puberty
+among the Indians of South America</i>, pp.
+56-68</a>.&mdash;<a href="#seclusionguaranis">Seclusion of girls at
+puberty among the Guaranis, Chiriguanos, and Lengua Indians, 56
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#seclusionyuracares">among the Yuracares
+of Bolivia, 57 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#seclusiongranchaco">among
+the Indians of the Gran Chaco, 58 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#seclusionguaranis">among the Indians of Brazil, 59
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#seclusionguiana">among the Indians of
+Guiana, 60 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#seclusionguiana">beating the
+girls and stinging them with ants, 61</a>; <a href="#ants">stinging
+young men with ants and wasps as an initiatory rite, 61-63</a>;
+<a href="#antscharacter">stinging men and women with ants to
+improve their character or health or to render them invulnerable,
+63 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#beatingpurification">in such cases the
+beating or stinging was originally a purification, not a test of
+courage and endurance, 65 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#beatingconfirmed">this explanation confirmed by the beating of
+girls among the Banivas of the Orinoco to rid them of a demon,
+66-68</a>; <a href="#beatingconfirmed">symptoms of puberty in a
+girl regarded as wounds inflicted on her by a demon, 68.</a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect2-6">&sect; 6. <i>Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in
+India and Cambodia</i>, pp. 68-70</a>.&mdash;<a href=
+"#seclusionhindoos">Seclusion of girls at puberty among the
+Hindoos, 68</a>; <a href="#seclusionhindoos">in Southern India,
+68-70</a>; <a href="#seclusioncambodia">in Cambodia, 70.</a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect2-7">&sect; 7. <i>Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in
+Folk-tales</i>, pp. 70-76</a>.&mdash;<a href=
+"#seclusiondanish">Danish story of the girl who might not see the
+sun, 70-72</a>; <a href="#seclusiontyrolese">Tyrolese story of the
+girl who might not see the sun, 72</a>; <a href=
+"#seclusionmoderngreek">modern Greek stories of the maid who might
+not see the sun, 72 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#danae">ancient Greek
+story of Danae and its parallel in a Kirghiz legend, 73
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#sunimpregnation">impregnation of women by
+the sun in legends, 74 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#marriagecustoms">traces in marriage customs of the belief that
+women can be impregnated by the sun, 75</a>; <a href=
+"#moonimpregnation">belief in the impregnation of women by the
+moon, 75 <i>sq.</i></a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect2-8">&sect; 8. <i>Reasons for the Seclusion of
+Girls at Puberty</i>, pp. 76-100</a>.&mdash;<a href=
+"#reasondread">The reason for the seclusion of girls at puberty is
+the dread of menstruous blood, 76</a>; <a href=
+"#dreadaustralia">dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the
+aborigines of Australia, 76-78</a>; <a href="#dreadtorres">in
+Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea, Galela, and Sumatra, 78
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#dreadsouthafrica">among the tribes of
+South Africa, 79 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#dreadcentralafrica">among the tribes of Central and East Africa,
+80-82</a>; <a href="#dreadwestafrica">among the tribes of West
+Africa, 82</a>; <a href="#arablegend">powerful influence ascribed
+to menstruous blood in Arab legend, 82 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#dreadjews">dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Jews
+and in Syria, 83 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#dreadindia">in India, 84
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#dreadindia">in Annam, 85</a>; <a href=
+"#dreadsouthamerica">among the Indians of Central and South
+America, 85 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#dreadnorthamerica">among the
+Indians of North America, 87-94</a>; <a href="#dreadcreek">among
+the Creek, Choctaw, Omaha and Cheyenne Indians, 88 <i>sq.</i></a>;
+<a href="#dreadbritishcolumbia">among the Indians of British
+Columbia, 89 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#dreadchippeway">among the
+Chippeway Indians, 90 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#dreadtinneh">among
+the Tinneh or D&eacute;n&eacute; Indians, 91</a>; <a href=
+"#dreadcarrier">among the Carrier Indians, 91-94</a>; <a href=
+"#similarrules">similar rules of seclusion enjoined on menstruous
+women in ancient Hindoo, Persian, and Hebrew codes, 94-96</a>;
+<a href="#superstitionsmenstrous">superstitions as to menstruous
+women in ancient and modern Europe, 96 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#intentionsecluding">the intention of secluding menstruous women
+is to neutralize the dangerous influences which are thought to
+emanate from them in that condition, 97</a>; <a href=
+"#suspensionheaven">suspension between heaven and earth, 97</a>;
+<a href="#suspensionheaven">the same explanation applies to the
+similar rules of seclusion observed by divine kings and priests,
+97-99</a>; <a href="#storiesimmortality">stories of immortality
+attained by suspension between heaven and earth, 99
+<i>sq.</i></a></p>
+<p><a href="#chap3">CHAPTER III.&mdash;THE MYTH OF BALDER, Pp.
+101-105</a></p>
+<p><a href="#balderdeath">How Balder, the good and beautiful god,
+was done to death by a stroke of mistletoe, 101 <i>sq.</i></a>;
+<a href="#olderedda">story of Balder in the older <i>Edda</i>, 102
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#saxogrammaticus">story of Balder as told
+by Saxo Grammaticus, 103</a>; <a href="#baldernorway">Balder
+worshipped in Norway, 104</a>; <a href="#balderfirdusi">legendary
+death of Balder resembles the legendary death of Isfendiyar in the
+epic of Firdusi, 104 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#balderceremony">the
+myth of Balder perhaps acted as a magical ceremony; the two main
+incidents of the myth, namely the pulling of the mistletoe and the
+burning of the god, have perhaps their counterpart in popular
+ritual, 105.</a></p>
+<p><a href="#chap4">CHAPTER IV.&mdash;THE FIRE FESTIVALS OF EUROPE,
+Pp. 106-327</a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect4-1">&sect; 1. <i>The Lenten Fires</i>, pp.
+106-120</a>.&mdash;<a href="#custom">European custom of kindling
+bonfires on certain days of the year, dancing round them, leaping
+over them, and burning effigies in the flames, 106</a>; <a href=
+"#seasons">seasons of the year at which the bonfires are lit, 106
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#fireardennes">bonfires on the first
+Sunday in Lent in the Belgian Ardennes, 107 <i>sq.</i></a>;
+<a href="#firefrenchardennes">in the French department of the
+Ardennes, 109 <i>sq.</i></a>; in
+Franche-Comt&eacute;, 110 <i>sq.</i>; <a href=
+"#fireauvergne">in Auvergne, 111-113</a>; <a href=
+"#firebrandons">French custom of carrying lighted torches
+(<i>brandons</i>) about the orchards and fields to fertilize them
+on the first Sunday of Lent, 113-115</a>; <a href=
+"#firegermany">bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in Germany and
+Austria, 115 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#firegermany">"burning the
+witch," 116</a>; <a href="#firegermany">burning discs thrown into
+the air, 116 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#firegermany">burning wheels
+rolled down hill, 117 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#firegermany">bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent in Switzerland,
+118 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#firediscs">burning discs thrown into
+the air, 119</a>; <a href="#fireconnexion">connexion of these fires
+with the custom of "carrying out Death," 119 <i>sq.</i></a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect4-2">&sect; 2. <i>The Easter Fires</i>,
+120-146</a>.&mdash;<a href="#fireeaster">Custom in Catholic
+countries of kindling a holy new fire on Easter Saturday,
+marvellous properties ascribed to the embers of the fire, 121</a>;
+<a href="#fireeaster">effigy of Judas burnt in the fire, 121</a>;
+<a href="#firebavaria">Easter fires in Bavaria and the Abruzzi,
+122</a>; <a href="#firewater">water as well as fire consecrated at
+Easter in Italy, Bohemia, and Germany, 122-124</a>; <a href=
+"#firecarinthia">new fire at Easter in Carinthia, 124</a>; <a href=
+"#firecarinthia">Thomas Kirchmeyer's account of the consecration of
+fire and water by the Catholic Church at Easter, 124
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#fireflorence">the new fire on Easter
+Saturday at Florence, 126 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#firemexico">the
+new fire and the burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in Mexico and
+South America, 127 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#firejerusalem">the new
+fire on Easter Saturday in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at
+Jerusalem, 128-130</a>; <a href="#firegreece">the new fire and the
+burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in Greece, 130 <i>sq.</i></a>;
+<a href="#firearmenia">the new fire at Candlemas in Armenia,
+131</a>; <a href="#firerelics">the new fire and the burning of
+Judas at Easter are probably relics of paganism, 131
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#fireincas">new fire at the summer
+solstice among the Incas of Peru, 132</a>; <a href="#fireincas">new
+fire among the Indians of Mexico and New Mexico, the Iroquois, and
+the Esquimaux, 132-134</a>; <a href="#firewadai">new fire in Wadai,
+among the Swahili, and in other parts of Africa, 134-136</a>;
+<a href="#firetodas">new fires among the Todas and Nagas of India,
+136</a>; <a href="#firechina">new fire in China and Japan, 137
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#firerome">new fire in ancient Greece and
+Rome, 138</a>; <a href="#firecelts">new fire at Hallowe'en among
+the old Celts of Ireland, 139</a>; <a href="#firecelts">new fire on
+the first of September among the Russian peasants, 139</a>;
+<a href="#fireheathen">the rite of the new fire probably common to
+many peoples of the Mediterranean area before the rise of
+Christianity, 139 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#paganeaster">the pagan
+character of the Easter fire manifest from the superstitions
+associated with it, such as the belief that the fire fertilizes the
+fields and protects houses from conflagration and sickness, 140
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#firemunsterland">the Easter fires in
+M&uuml;nsterland, Oldenburg, the Harz Mountains, and the Altmark,
+141-143</a>; <a href="#easterbavaria">Easter fires and the burning
+of Judas or the Easter Man in Bavaria, 143 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#easterbaden">Easter fires and "thunder poles" in Baden, 145</a>;
+<a href="#easterholland">Easter fires in Holland and Sweden, 145
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#easterholland">the burning of Judas in
+Bohemia, 146.</a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect4-3">&sect; 3. <i>The Beltane Fires</i>, pp.
+146-160</a>.&mdash;<a href="#beltanehighlands">The Beltane fires on
+the first of May in the Highlands of Scotland, 146-154</a>;
+<a href="#beltanehighlands">John Ramsay of Ochtertyre, his
+description of the Beltane fires and cakes and the Beltane carline,
+146-149</a>; <a href="#beltaneperthshire">Beltane fires and cakes
+in Perthshire, 150-153</a>; <a href="#beltanenescotland">Beltane
+fires in the north-east of Scotland to burn the witches, 153
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#beltanehebrides">Beltane fires and cakes
+in the Hebrides, 154</a>; <a href="#beltanewales">Beltane fires and
+cakes in Wales, 155-157</a>; <a href="#beltaneman">in the Isle of
+Man to burn the witches, 157</a>; <a href="#beltaneman">in
+Nottinghamshire, 157</a>; <a href="#beltaneireland">in Ireland,
+157-159</a>; <a href="#maydaysweden">fires on the Eve of May Day in
+Sweden, 159</a>; <a href="#maydaysweden">in Austria and Saxony to
+burn the witches, 159 <i>sq.</i></a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect4-4">&sect; 4. <i>The Midsummer Fires</i>, pp.
+160-219</a>.&mdash;<a href="#summersolstice">The great season for
+fire-festivals in Europe is Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day, which
+the church has dedicated to St. John the Baptist, 160
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summersolstice">the bonfires, the
+torches, and the burning wheels of the festival, 161</a>; <a href=
+"#summerkirchmeyer">Thomas Kirchmeyer's description of the
+Midsummer festival, 162 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#summergermany">the Midsummer fires in Germany, 163-171</a>;
+<a href="#summergermany">burning wheel rolled down hill at Konz on
+the Moselle, 163 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summerbavaria">Midsummer
+fires in Bavaria, 164-166</a>; <a href="#summerswabia">in Swabia,
+166 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summerbaden">in Baden, 167-169</a>;
+<a href="#summerbaden">in Alsace, Lorraine, the Eifel, the Harz
+district, and Thuringia, 169</a>; <a href=
+"#summerfriction">Midsummer fires kindled by the friction of wood,
+169 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summerfriction">driving away the
+witches and demons, 170</a>; <a href="#summersilesia">Midsummer
+fires in Silesia, scaring away the witches, 170 <i>sq.</i></a>;
+<a href="#summerdenmark">Midsummer fires in Denmark and Norway,
+keeping off the witches, 171</a>; <a href=
+"#summerdenmark">Midsummer fires in Sweden, 172</a>; <a href=
+"#summerswitzerland">Midsummer fires in Switzerland and Austria,
+172 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summerbohemia">in Bohemia,
+173-175</a>; <a href="#summermoravia">in Moravia, Austrian Silesia,
+and the district of Cracow, 175</a>; <a href="#summerslavs">among
+the Slavs of Russia, 176</a>; <a href="#summerprussia">in Prussia
+and Lithuania as a protection against witchcraft, thunder, hail,
+and cattle disease, 176 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summerprussia">in
+Masuren the fire is kindled by the revolution of a wheel, 177</a>;
+<a href="#summerletts">Midsummer fires among the Letts of Russia,
+177 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summersouthslavs">among the South
+Slavs, 178</a>; <a href="#summermagyars">among the Magyars, 178
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summeresthonians">among the Esthonians,
+179 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summerfinns">among the Finns and
+Cheremiss of Russia, 180 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summerfrance">in
+France, 181-194</a>; <a href="#summerfrance">Bossuet on the
+Midsummer festival, 182</a>; <a href="#summerbrittany">the
+Midsummer fires in Brittany, 183-185</a>; <a href=
+"#summernormandy">in Normandy, the Brotherhood of the Green Wolf at
+Jumi&egrave;ges, 185 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#summerpicardy">Midsummer fires in Picardy, 187 <i>sq.</i></a>;
+<a href="#summerbeauce">in Beauce and Perche, 188</a>; <a href=
+"#summerbeauce">the fires a protection against witchcraft, 188</a>;
+<a href="#summerardennes">the Midsummer fires in the Ardennes, the
+Vosges, and the Jura, 188 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#summerardennes">in Franche-Comt&eacute;, 189</a>; <a href=
+"#summerardennes">in Berry and other parts of Central France, 189
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summerpoitou">in Poitou, 190
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summervienne">in the departments of
+Vienne and Deux-S&egrave;vres and in the provinces of Saintonge and
+Aunis, 191 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summersouthernfrance">in
+Southern France, 192 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#summersouthernfrance">Midsummer festival of fire and water in
+Provence, 193 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summerbelgium">Midsummer
+fires in Belgium, 194-196</a>; <a href="#summerengland">in England,
+196-200</a>; <a href="#summerengland">Stow's description of the
+Midsummer fires in London, 196 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#summerengland">John Aubrey on the Midsummer fires, 197</a>;
+<a href="#summernorthengland">Midsummer fires in Cumberland,
+Northumberland, and Yorkshire, 197 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#summerherefordshire">in Herefordshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire,
+and Cornwall, 199 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summerwales">in Wales
+and the Isle of Man, 200 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#summerireland">in Ireland, 201-205</a>; <a href=
+"#summerwaterireland">holy wells resorted to on Midsummer Eve in
+Ireland, 205 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summerscotland">Midsummer
+fires in Scotland, 206 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#summerspain">Midsummer fires and divination in Spain and the
+Azores, 208 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summerspain">Midsummer fires
+in Corsica and Sardinia, 209</a>; <a href="#summerabruzzi">in the
+Abruzzi, 209 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summerabruzzi">in Sicily,
+210</a>; <a href="#summermalta">in Malta, 210 <i>sq.</i></a>;
+<a href="#summergreece">in Greece and the Greek islands, 211
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summergreece">in Macedonia and Albania,
+212</a>; <a href="#summeramerica">in South America, 212
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#summermorocco">among the Mohammedans of
+Morocco and Algeria, 213-216</a>; <a href="#summerwater">the
+Midsummer festival in North Africa comprises rites of water as well
+as fire, 216</a>; <a href="#summerwater">similar festival of fire
+and water at New Year in North Africa, 217 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#summerberber">the duplication of the festival probably due to a
+conflict between the solar calendar of the Romans and the lunar
+calendar of the Arabs, 218 <i>sg.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#summerberber">the Midsummer festival in Morocco apparently of
+Berber origin, 219.</a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect4-5">&sect; 5. <i>The Autumn Fires</i>, pp.
+220-222</a>.&mdash;<a href="#autumnaugust">Festivals of fire in
+August, 220</a>; <a href="#autumnaugust">"living fire" made by the
+friction of wood, 220</a>; <a href="#autumnnativity">feast of the
+Nativity of the Virgin on the eighth of September at Capri and
+Naples, 220-222.</a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect4-6">&sect; 6. <i>The Halloween Fires</i>, pp.
+222-246</a>.&mdash;<a href="#halloweencelts">While the Midsummer
+festival implies observation of the solstices, the Celts appear to
+have divided their year, without regard to the solstices, by the
+times when they drove their cattle to and from the summer pasture
+on the first of May and the last of October (Hallowe'en),
+222-224</a>; <a href="#halloweenbeltane">the two great Celtic
+festivals of Beltane (May Day) and Hallowe'en (the last of
+October), 224</a>; <a href="#halloweenbeginning">Hallowe'en seems
+to have marked the beginning of the Celtic year, 224
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#halloweenbeginning">it was a season of
+divination and a festival of the dead, 225 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#halloweenfairies">fairies and hobgoblins let loose at Hallowe'en,
+226-228</a>; <a href="#halloweendivination">divination in Celtic
+countries at Hallowe'en, 228 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#halloweenscotland">Hallowe'en bonfires in the Highlands of
+Scotland, 229-232</a>; <a href="#halloweenbuchan">Hallowe'en fires
+in Buchan to burn the witches, 232 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#halloweenbuchan">processions with torches at Hallowe'en in the
+Braemar Highlands, 233 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#halloweenhighlands">divination at Hallowe'en in the Highlands and
+Lowlands of Scotland, 234-239</a>; <a href=
+"#halloweenwales">Hallowe'en fires in Wales, omens drawn from
+stones cast into the fires, 239 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#halloweenwalesdivination">divination at Hallowe'en in Wales, 240
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#halloweendivinationireland">divination at
+Hallowe'en in Ireland, 241-243</a>; <a href=
+"#halloweenman">Hallowe'en fires and divination in the Isle of Man,
+243 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#halloweenlancashire">Hallowe'en fires
+and divination in Lancashire, 244 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#halloweenlancashire">marching with lighted candles to keep off
+the witches, 245</a>; <a href="#halloweenlancashire">divination at
+Hallowe'en in Northumberland, 245</a>; <a href=
+"#halloweenlancashire">Hallowe'en fires in France, 245
+<i>sq.</i></a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect4-7">&sect; 7. <i>The Midwinter Fires</i>, pp.
+246-269</a>.&mdash;<a href="#winterfire">Christmas the continuation
+of an old heathen festival of the sun, 246</a>; <a href=
+"#winterlog">the Yule log the Midwinter counterpart of the
+Midsummer bonfire, 247</a>; <a href="#yulegermany">the Yule log in
+Germany, 247-249</a>; <a href="#yulegermany">in Switzerland,
+249</a>; <a href="#yulebelgium">in Belgium, 249</a>; <a href=
+"#yulefrance">in France, 249-255</a>; <a href=
+"#yulefrenchsuperstitions">French superstitions as to the Yule log,
+250</a>; <a href="#yulemarseilles">the Yule log at Marseilles and
+in Perigord, 250 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#yulemarseilles">in
+Berry, 251 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#yulenormandybrittany">in
+Normandy and Brittany, 252 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#yuleardennes">in the Ardennes, 253 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#yulevosges">in the Vosges, 254</a>; <a href="#yulevosges">in
+Franche-Comt&eacute;, 254 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#yuleengland">the Yule log and Yule candle in England,
+255-258</a>; <a href="#yuleyorkshire">the Yule log in the north of
+England and Yorkshire, 256 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#yuleyorkshire">in Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, and
+Herefordshire, 257 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#yuleyorkshire">in
+Wales, 258</a>; <a href="#yuleservia">in Servia, 258-262</a>;
+<a href="#yuleslavonia">among the Servians of Slavonia, 262
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#yuledalmatia">among the Servians of
+Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro, 263 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#yuledalmatia">in Albania, 264</a>; <a href="#yulefire">belief
+that the Yule log protects against fire and lightning, 264
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#yulepublic">public fire-festivals at
+Midwinter, 265-269</a>; <a href="#yulepublic">Christmas bonfire at
+Schweina in Thuringia, 265 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#yulenormandy">Christmas bonfires in Normandy, 266</a>; <a href=
+"#yuleman">bonfires on St. Thomas's Day in the Isle of Man,
+266</a>; <a href="#yuleman">the "Burning of the Clavie" at Burghead
+on the last day of December, 266-268</a>; <a href=
+"#yulelerwick">Christmas procession with burning tar-barrels at
+Lerwick, 268 <i>sq.</i></a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect4-8">&sect; 8. <i>The Need-fire</i>, pp.
+269-300</a>.&mdash;<a href="#needfire">Need-fire kindled not at
+fixed periods but on occasions of distress and calamity, 269</a>;
+<a href="#needmiddleages">the need-fire in the Middle Ages and down
+to the end of the sixteenth century, 270 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#needmethod">mode of kindling the need-fire by the friction of
+wood, 271 <i>sq</i>.</a>; <a href="#needhildesheim">the need-fire
+in Central Germany, particularly about Hildesheim, 272
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#needmark">the need-fire in the Mark,
+273</a>; <a href="#needmecklenburg">in Mecklenburg, 274
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#needhanover">in Hanover, 275
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#needharz">in the Harz Mountains, 276
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#needbrunswick">in Brunswick, 277
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#needsilesia">in Silesia and Bohemia, 278
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#needswitzerland">in Switzerland, 279
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#needsweden">in Sweden and Norway,
+280</a>; <a href="#needslavonic">among the Slavonic peoples,
+281-286</a>; <a href="#needrussia">in Russia and Poland, 281
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#needrussia">in Slavonia, 282</a>;
+<a href="#needservia">in Servia, 282-284</a>; <a href=
+"#needbulgaria">in Bulgaria, 284-286</a>; <a href="#needbosnia">in
+Bosnia and Herzegovina, 286</a>; <a href="#needengland">in England,
+286-289</a>; <a href="#needengland">in Yorkshire, 286-288</a>;
+<a href="#neednorthumberland">in Northumberland, 288
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#needscotland">in Scotland, 289-297</a>;
+<a href="#needscotland">Martin's account of it in the Highlands,
+289</a>; <a href="#needmull">the need-fire in Mull, 289
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#needcaithness">in Caithness, 290-292</a>;
+<a href="#needcaithness2">W. Grant Stewart's account of the
+need-fire, 292 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#needcarmichael">Alexander
+Carmichael's account, 293-295</a>; <a href="#needaberdeenshire">the
+need-fire in Aberdeenshire, 296</a>; <a href="#needperthshire">in
+Perthshire, 296 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#needireland">in Ireland,
+297</a>; <a href="#needrelic">the use of need-fire a relic of the
+time when all fires were similarly kindled by the friction of wood,
+297 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#needbelief">the belief that need-fire
+cannot kindle if any other fire remains alight in the
+neighbourhood, 298 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#neediroquois">the
+need-fire among the Iroquois of North America, 299
+<i>sq.</i></a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect4-9">&sect; 9. <i>The Sacrifice of an Animal to
+stay a Cattle-plague</i>, pp. 300-327</a>.&mdash;<a href=
+"#sacrificeengland">The burnt sacrifice of a calf in England and
+Wales, 300 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#sacrificeengland">burnt
+sacrifices of animals in Scotland, 301 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#sacrificecalf">calf burnt in order to break a spell which has
+been cast on the herd, 302 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#sacrificemode">mode in which the burning of a bewitched animal is
+supposed to break the spell, 303-305</a>; <a href=
+"#sacrificewitch">in burning the bewitched animal you burn the
+witch herself, 305</a>; <a href="#sacrificeman">practice of burning
+cattle and sheep as sacrifices in the Isle of Man, 305-307</a>;
+<a href="#sacrificeappear">by burning a bewitched animal you compel
+the witch to appear, 307</a>; <a href="#magicsympathy">magic
+sympathy between the witch and the bewitched animal, 308</a>;
+<a href="#parallelbelief">similar sympathy between a were-wolf and
+his or her human shape, wounds inflicted on the animal are felt by
+the man or woman, 308</a>; <a href="#parallelbelief">were-wolves in
+Europe, 308-310</a>; <a href="#chinawerewolves">in China, 310
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#toradjaswerewolves">among the Toradjas of
+Central Celebes, 311-313 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#werewolvessudan">in the Egyptian Sudan, 313 <i>sq.</i></a>;
+<a href="#werewolfpetronius">the were-wolf story in Petronius, 313
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#witchesanimals">witches like were-wolves
+can temporarily transform themselves into animals, and wounds
+inflicted on the transformed animals appear on the persons of the
+witches, 315 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#woundsinflicted">instances
+of such transformations and wounds in Scotland, England, Ireland,
+France, and Germany, 316-321</a>; <a href=
+"#analogywerewolves">hence the reason for burning bewitched animals
+is either to burn the witch herself or at all events to compel her
+to appear, 321 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#bewitchedthings">the like
+reason for burning bewitched things, 322 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#bewitchedthings">similarly by burning alive a person whose
+likeness a witch has assumed you compel the witch to disclose
+herself, 323</a>; <a href="#witchireland">woman burnt alive as a
+witch in Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century, 323
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#animalsburied">bewitched animals
+sometimes buried alive instead of being burned, 324-326</a>;
+<a href="#calveskilled">calves killed and buried to save the rest
+of the herd, 326 <i>sq</i>.</a></p>
+<p><a href="#chap5">CHAPTER V.&mdash;THE INTERPRETATION OF THE
+FIRE-FESTIVALS, Pp. 328-346</a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect5-1">&sect; 1. <i>On the Fire-festivals in
+general</i> pp. 328-331</a>.&mdash;<a href=
+"#fireresemblance">General resemblance of the fire-festivals to
+each other, 328 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#twoexplanations">two
+explanations of the festivals suggested, one by W. Mannhardt that
+they are sun-charms, the other by Dr. E. Westermarck that they are
+purificatory, 329 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#notexclusive">the two
+explanations perhaps not mutually exclusive, 330 <i>sq.</i></a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect5-2">&sect; 2. <i>The Solar Theory of the
+Fire-festivals</i>, pp. 331-341</a>.&mdash;<a href=
+"#supplytheory">Theory that the fire-festivals are charms to ensure
+a supply of sunshine, 331</a>; <a href=
+"#solsticecoincidence">coincidence of two of the festivals with the
+solstices, 331 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#bushmenattempt">attempt of
+the Bushmen to warm up the fire of Sirius in midwinter by kindling
+sticks, 332 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#burningimitations">the
+burning wheels and discs of the fire-festivals may be direct
+imitations of the sun, 334</a>; <a href="#wheelimitation">the wheel
+which is sometimes used to kindle the fire by friction may also be
+an imitation of the sun, 334-336</a>; <a href="#fireinfluence">the
+influence which the bonfires 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, 336-338</a>; <a href=
+"#fertilizingfire">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, 338 <i>sq.</i></a>;
+<a href="#carryingtorches">the carrying of lighted torches about
+the country at the festivals may be explained as an attempt to
+diffuse the sun's heat, 339-341.</a></p>
+<p><a href="#sect5-3">&sect; 3. <i>The Purificatory Theory of the
+Fire-festivals</i>, pp. 341-346</a>.&mdash;<a href=
+"#purificatorytheory">Theory that the fires at the festivals are
+purificatory, being intended to burn up all harmful things,
+341</a>; <a href="#destructiveeffect">the purificatory or
+destructive effect of the fires is often alleged by the people who
+light them, and there is no reason to reject this explanation, 341
+<i>sq.</i></a>; <a href="#destructiveeffect">the great evil against
+which the fire at the festivals appears to be directed is
+witchcraft, 342</a>; <a href="#cattledisease">among 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, 343 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#averthail">again, the bonfires are thought to avert hail,
+thunder, lightning, and various maladies, all of which are
+attributed to the maleficent arts of witches, 344 <i>sq.</i></a>;
+<a href="#wheelsburn">the burning wheels rolled down hill and the
+burning discs thrown into the air may be intended to burn the
+invisible witches, 345 <i>sq.</i></a>; <a href=
+"#fertilityindirect">on this view the fertility supposed to follow
+the use of fire results indirectly from breaking the spells of
+witches, 346</a>; <a href="#destructiveprobable">on the whole the
+theory of the purificatory or destructive intention of the
+fire-festivals seems the more probable, 346.</a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page1" name="page1"></a>[pg 1]</span>
+<p>[Transcriber's Note: The brief descriptions often found enclosed
+in square brackets are "sidenotes", which appeared in the original
+book in the margins of the paragraph following the "sidenote."
+Footnotes were originally at the bottoms of the printed pages.]</p>
+<h2><a id="chap1" name="chap1">CHAPTER I</a></h2>
+<h3>BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH</h3>
+<h4><a id="sect1-1" name="sect1-1">&sect; 1. <i>Not to touch the
+Earth</i></a></h4>
+<a id="priest" name="priest"></a>
+<p>[The priest of Aricia and the Golden Bough]</p>
+<p>We have travelled far since we turned our backs on Nemi and set
+forth in quest of the secret of the Golden Bough. With the present
+volume we enter on the last stage of our long journey. The reader
+who has had the patience to follow the enquiry thus far may
+remember that at the outset two questions were proposed for answer:
+Why had the priest of Aricia to slay his predecessor? And why,
+before doing so, had he to pluck the Golden Bough?<a id=
+"footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href=
+"#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> Of these two questions the first has
+now been answered. The priest of Aricia, if I am right, was one of
+those sacred kings or human divinities on whose life the welfare of
+the community and even the course of nature in general are believed
+to be intimately dependent. It does not appear that the subjects or
+worshippers of such a spiritual potentate form to themselves any
+very clear notion of the exact relationship in which they stand to
+him; probably their ideas on the point are vague and fluctuating,
+and we should err if we attempted to define the relationship with
+logical precision. All that the people know, or rather imagine, is
+that somehow they themselves, their cattle, and their crops are
+mysteriously bound up with their divine king, so that according as
+he is well or ill the community is healthy or sickly, the flocks
+and herds thrive or languish with disease, and the fields yield an
+abundant or a scanty harvest. The worst evil which they can
+conceive of is the natural death of their ruler, whether he succumb
+to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page2" name="page2"></a>[pg
+2]</span> sickness or old age, for in the opinion of his followers
+such a death would entail the most disastrous consequences on
+themselves and their possessions; fatal epidemics would sweep away
+man and beast, the earth would refuse her increase, nay the very
+frame of nature itself might be dissolved. To guard against these
+catastrophes it is necessary to put the king to death while he is
+still in the full bloom of his divine manhood, in order that his
+sacred life, transmitted in unabated force to his successor, may
+renew its youth, and thus by successive transmissions through a
+perpetual line of vigorous incarnations may remain eternally fresh
+and young, a pledge and security that men and animals shall in like
+manner renew their youth by a perpetual succession of generations,
+and that seedtime and harvest, and summer and winter, and rain and
+sunshine shall never fail. That, if my conjecture is right, was why
+the priest of Aricia, the King of the Wood at Nemi, had regularly
+to perish by the sword of his successor.</p>
+<p>[What was the Golden Bough?]</p>
+<p>But we have still to ask, What was the Golden Bough? and why had
+each candidate for the Arician priesthood to pluck it before he
+could slay the priest? These questions I will now try to
+answer.</p>
+<a id="sacredkings" name="sacredkings"></a>
+<p>[Sacred kings and priests forbidden to touch the ground with
+their feet.]</p>
+<p>It will be well to begin by noticing two of those rules or
+taboos by which, as we have seen, the life of divine kings or
+priests is regulated. The first of the rules to which I desire to
+call the reader's attention is that the divine personage may not
+touch the ground with his foot. This rule was observed by the
+supreme pontiff of the Zapotecs in Mexico; he profaned his sanctity
+if he so much as touched the ground with his foot.<a id=
+"footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href=
+"#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> Montezuma, emperor of Mexico, never
+set foot on the ground; he was always carried on the shoulders of
+noblemen, and if he lighted anywhere they laid rich tapestry for
+him to walk upon.<a id="footnotetag3" name=
+"footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a> For the
+Mikado of Japan to touch the ground with his foot was a shameful
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page3" name="page3"></a>[pg 3]</span>
+degradation; indeed, in the sixteenth century, it was enough to
+deprive him of his office. Outside his palace he was carried on
+men's shoulders; within it he walked on exquisitely wrought
+mats.<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href=
+"#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a> The king and queen of Tahiti might
+not touch the ground anywhere but within their hereditary domains;
+for the ground on which they trod became sacred. In travelling from
+place to place they were carried on the shoulders of sacred men.
+They were always accompanied by several pairs of these sanctified
+attendants; and when it became necessary to change their bearers,
+the king and queen vaulted on to the shoulders of their new bearers
+without letting their feet touch the ground.<a id="footnotetag5"
+name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a> It
+was an evil omen if the king of Dosuma touched the ground, and he
+had to perform an expiatory ceremony.<a id="footnotetag6" name=
+"footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a> Within his
+palace the king of Persia walked on carpets on which no one else
+might tread; outside of it he was never seen on foot but only in a
+chariot or on horseback.<a id="footnotetag7" name=
+"footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a> In old
+days the king of Siam never set foot upon the earth, but was
+carried on a throne of gold from place to place.<a id=
+"footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href=
+"#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a> Formerly neither the kings of Uganda,
+nor their mothers, nor their queens might walk on foot outside of
+the spacious enclosures in which they lived. Whenever they went
+forth they were carried on the shoulders of men of the Buffalo
+clan, several of whom accompanied any of these royal personages on
+a journey and took it in turn to bear the burden. The king sat
+astride the bearer's neck with a leg over each shoulder and his
+feet tucked under the bearer's arms. When one of these royal
+carriers grew tired he shot the king on to the shoulders of a
+second man without allowing the royal feet to touch the ground. In
+this way they went at a great pace and travelled long distances in
+a day, when the king was on a journey. The bearers had a special
+hut in the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page4" name="page4"></a>[pg
+4]</span> king's enclosure in order to be at hand the moment they
+were wanted.<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href=
+"#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a> Among the Bakuba or rather Bushongo,
+a nation in the southern region of the Congo, down to a few years
+ago persons of the royal blood were forbidden to touch the ground;
+they must sit on a hide, a chair, or the back of a slave, who
+crouched on hands and feet; their feet rested on the feet of
+others. When they travelled they were carried on the backs of men;
+but the king journeyed in a litter supported on shafts.<a id=
+"footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href=
+"#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a> Among the Ibo people about Awka, in
+Southern Nigeria, the priest of the Earth has to observe many
+taboos; for example, he may not see a corpse, and if he meets one
+on the road he must hide his eyes with his wristlet. He must
+abstain from many foods, such as eggs, birds of all sorts, mutton,
+dog, bush-buck, and so forth. He may neither wear nor touch a mask,
+and no masked man may enter his house. If a dog enters his house,
+it is killed and thrown out. As priest of the Earth he may not sit
+on the bare ground, nor eat things that have fallen on the ground,
+nor may earth be thrown at him.<a id="footnotetag11" name=
+"footnotetag11"></a><a href="#footnote11"><sup>11</sup></a>
+According to ancient Brahmanic ritual a king at his inauguration
+trod on a tiger's skin and a golden plate; he was shod with shoes
+of boar's skin, and so long as he lived thereafter he might not
+stand on the earth with his bare feet.<a id="footnotetag12" name=
+"footnotetag12"></a><a href="#footnote12"><sup>12</sup></a></p>
+<a id="certain" name="certain"></a>
+<p>[Certain persons on certain occasions forbidden to touch the
+ground with their feet.]</p>
+<p>But besides persons who are permanently sacred or tabooed and
+are therefore permanently forbidden to touch the ground with their
+feet, there are others who enjoy the character of sanctity or taboo
+only on certain occasions, and to whom accordingly the prohibition
+in question only applies at the definite seasons during which they
+exhale the odour of sanctity. Thus among the Kayans or Bahaus of
+Central <span class="pagenum"><a id="page5" name="page5"></a>[pg
+5]</span> Borneo, while the priestesses are engaged in the
+performance of certain rites they may not step on the ground, and
+boards are laid for them to tread on.<a id="footnotetag13" name=
+"footnotetag13"></a><a href="#footnote13"><sup>13</sup></a> At a
+funeral ceremony observed by night among the Michemis, a Tibetan
+tribe near the northern frontier of Assam, a priest fantastically
+bedecked with tiger's teeth, many-coloured plumes, bells, and
+shells, executed a wild dance for the purpose of exorcising the
+evil spirits; then all fires were extinguished and a new light was
+struck by a man suspended by his feet from a beam in the ceiling;
+"he did not touch the ground," we are told, "in order to indicate
+that the light came from heaven."<a id="footnotetag14" name=
+"footnotetag14"></a><a href="#footnote14"><sup>14</sup></a> Again,
+newly born infants are strongly tabooed; accordingly in Loango they
+are not allowed to touch the earth.<a id="footnotetag15" name=
+"footnotetag15"></a><a href="#footnote15"><sup>15</sup></a> Among
+the Iluvans of Malabar the bridegroom on his wedding-day is bathed
+by seven young men and then carried or walks on planks from the
+bathing-place to the marriage booth; he may not touch the ground
+with his feet.<a id="footnotetag16" name=
+"footnotetag16"></a><a href="#footnote16"><sup>16</sup></a> With
+the Dyaks of Landak and Tajan, two districts of Dutch Borneo, it is
+a custom that for a certain time after marriage neither bride nor
+bridegroom may tread on the earth.<a id="footnotetag17" name=
+"footnotetag17"></a><a href="#footnote17"><sup>17</sup></a>
+Warriors, again, on the war-path are surrounded, so to say, by an
+atmosphere of taboo; hence some Indians of North America might not
+sit on the bare ground the whole time they were out on a warlike
+expedition.<a id="footnotetag18" name="footnotetag18"></a><a href=
+"#footnote18"><sup>18</sup></a> In Laos the hunting of elephants
+gives rise to many taboos; one of them is that the chief hunter may
+not touch the earth with his foot. Accordingly, when he alights
+from his elephant, the others spread a carpet of leaves for him to
+step upon.<a id="footnotetag19" name="footnotetag19"></a><a href=
+"#footnote19"><sup>19</sup></a> German wiseacres recommended that
+when witches were led to the block or the stake, they should not be
+allowed to touch the bare <span class="pagenum"><a id="page6" name=
+"page6"></a>[pg 6]</span> earth, and a reason suggested for the
+rule was that if they touched the earth they might make themselves
+invisible and so escape. The sagacious author of <i>The
+Striped-petticoat Philosophy</i> in the eighteenth century
+ridicules the idea as mere silly talk. He admits, indeed, that the
+women were conveyed to the place of execution in carts; but he
+denies that there is any deep significance in the cart, and he is
+prepared to maintain this view by a chemical analysis of the timber
+of which the cart was built. To clinch his argument he appeals to
+plain matter of fact and his own personal experience. Not a single
+instance, he assures us with apparent satisfaction, can be produced
+of a witch who escaped the axe or the fire in this fashion. "I have
+myself," says he, "in my youth seen divers witches burned, some at
+Arnstadt, some at Ilmenau, some at Schwenda, a noble village
+between Arnstadt and Ilmenau, and some of them were pardoned and
+beheaded before being burned. They were laid on the earth in the
+place of execution and beheaded like any other poor sinner; whereas
+if they could have escaped by touching the earth, not one of them
+would have failed to do so."<a id="footnotetag20" name=
+"footnotetag20"></a><a href="#footnote20"><sup>20</sup></a></p>
+<a id="sacredtabooed" name="sacredtabooed"></a>
+<p>[Sacred or tabooed persons apparently thought to be charged with
+a mysterious virtue like a fluid, which will run to waste or
+explode if it touches the ground.]</p>
+<p>Apparently holiness, magical virtue, taboo, or whatever we may
+call that mysterious quality which is supposed to pervade sacred or
+tabooed persons, is conceived by the primitive philosopher as a
+physical substance or fluid, with which the sacred man is charged
+just as a Leyden jar is charged with electricity; and exactly as
+the electricity in the jar can be discharged by contact with a good
+conductor, so the holiness or magical virtue in the man can be
+discharged and drained away by contact with the earth, which on
+this theory serves as an excellent conductor for the magical fluid.
+Hence in order to preserve the charge from running to waste, the
+sacred or tabooed personage must be carefully prevented from
+touching the ground; in electrical language he must be insulated,
+if he is not to be emptied of the precious substance or fluid with
+which he, as a vial, is filled to the brim. And in many cases
+apparently the insulation of the tabooed person is recommended as a
+precaution not merely for his own sake but for the sake of others;
+for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page7" name="page7"></a>[pg
+7]</span> since the virtue of holiness or taboo is, so to say, a
+powerful explosive which the smallest touch may detonate, it is
+necessary in the interest of the general safety to keep it within
+narrow bounds, lest breaking out it should blast, blight, and
+destroy whatever it comes into contact with.</p>
+<a id="thingsaswell" name="thingsaswell"></a>
+<p>[Things as well as persons can be charged with the mysterious
+quality of holiness or taboo; and when so charged they must be kept
+from contact with the ground.]</p>
+<p>But things as well as persons are often charged with the
+mysterious quality of holiness or taboo; hence it frequently
+becomes necessary for similar reasons to guard them also from
+coming into contact with the ground, lest they should in like
+manner be drained of their valuable properties and be reduced to
+mere commonplace material objects, empty husks from which the good
+grain has been eliminated. Thus, for example, the most sacred
+object of the Arunta tribe in Central Australia is, or rather used
+to be, a pole about twenty feet high, which is completely smeared
+with human blood, crowned with an imitation of a human head, and
+set up on the ground where the final initiatory ceremonies of young
+men are performed. A young gum-tree is chosen to form the pole, and
+it must be cut down and transported in such a way that it does not
+touch the earth till it is erected in its place on the holy ground.
+Apparently the pole represents some famous ancestor of the olden
+time.<a id="footnotetag21" name="footnotetag21"></a><a href=
+"#footnote21"><sup>21</sup></a></p>
+<a id="wildmango" name="wildmango"></a>
+<p>[Festival of the wild mango tree in British New Guinea.]</p>
+<p>Again, at a great dancing festival celebrated by the natives of
+Bartle Bay, in British New Guinea, a wild mango tree plays a
+prominent part. The tree must be self-sown, that is, really wild
+and so young that it has never flowered. It is chosen in the jungle
+some five or six weeks before the festival, and a circle is cleared
+round its trunk. From that time the master of the ceremonies and
+some eight to twenty other men, who have aided him in choosing the
+tree and in clearing the jungle, become strictly holy or tabooed.
+They sleep by themselves in a house into which no one else may
+intrude: they may not wash or drink water, nor even allow it
+accidentally to touch their bodies: they are forbidden to eat
+boiled food and the fruit of mango trees: they may drink only the
+milk of a young coco-nut which has been baked, and they may eat
+certain fruits and vegetables, such as paw-paws <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page8" name="page8"></a>[pg 8]</span> (<i>Carica
+papaya</i>) and sugar-cane, but only on condition that they have
+been baked. All refuse of their food is kept in baskets in their
+sleeping-house and may not be removed from it till the festival is
+over. At the time when the men begin to observe these rules of
+abstinence, some six to ten women, members of the same clan as the
+master of the ceremonies, enter on a like period of mortification,
+avoiding the company of the other sex, and refraining from water,
+all boiled food, and the fruit of the mango tree. These fasting men
+and women are the principal dancers at the festival. The dancing
+takes place on a special platform in a temporary village which has
+been erected for the purpose. When the platform is about to be set
+up, the fasting men rub the stepping posts and then suck their
+hands for the purpose of extracting the ghost of any dead man that
+might chance to be in the post and might be injured by the weight
+of the platform pressing down on him. Having carefully extracted
+these poor souls, the men carry them away tenderly and set them
+free in the forest or the long grass.</p>
+<p>[The wild mango tree not allowed to touch the ground.]</p>
+<p>On the day before the festival one of the fasting men cuts down
+the chosen mango tree in the jungle with a stone adze, which is
+never afterwards put to any other use; an iron tool may not be used
+for the purpose, though iron tools are now common enough in the
+district. In cutting down the mango they place nets on the ground
+to catch any leaves or twigs that might fall from the tree as it is
+being felled and they surround the trunk with new mats to receive
+the chips which fly out under the adze of the woodman; for the
+chips may not drop on the earth. Once the tree is down, it is
+carried to the centre of the temporary village, the greatest care
+being taken to prevent it from coming into contact with the ground.
+But when it is brought into the village, the houses are connected
+with the top of the mango by means of long vines decorated with the
+streamers. In the afternoon the fasting men and women begin to
+dance, the men bedizened with gay feathers, armlets, streamers, and
+anklets, the women flaunting in parti-coloured petticoats and
+sprigs of croton leaves, which wave from their waistbands as they
+dance. The dancing stops at sundown, and when the full moon rises
+over the shoulder of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page9" name=
+"page9"></a>[pg 9]</span> eastern hill (for the date of the
+festival seems to be determined with reference to the time of the
+moon), two chiefs mount the gables of two houses on the eastern
+side of the square, and, their dusky figures standing sharply out
+against the moonlight, pray to the evil spirits to go away and not
+to hurt the people. Next morning pigs are killed by being speared
+as slowly as possible in order that they may squeal loud and long;
+for the people believe that the mango trees hear the squealing, and
+are pleased at the sound, and bear plenty of fruit, whereas if they
+heard no squeals they would bear no fruit. However, the trees have
+to content themselves with the squeals; the flesh of the pigs is
+eaten by the people. This ends the festival.</p>
+<p>[Final disposition of the wild mango tree.]</p>
+<p>Next day the mango is taken down from the platform, wrapt in new
+mats, and carried by the fasting men to their sleeping house, where
+it is hung from the roof. But after an interval, it may be of many
+months, the tree is brought forth again. As to the reason for its
+reappearance in public opinions are divided; but some say that the
+tree itself orders the master of the ceremonies to bring it forth,
+appearing to him in his dreams and saying, "Let me smell the
+smoking fat of pigs. So will your pigs be healthy and your crops
+will grow." Be that as it may, out it comes, conducted by the
+fasting men in their dancing costume; and with it come in the
+solemn procession all the pots, spoons, cups and so forth used by
+the fasting men during their period of holiness or taboo, also all
+the refuse of their food which has been collected for months, and
+all the fallen leaves and chips of the mango in their bundles of
+mats. These holy relics are carried in front and the mango tree
+itself brings up the rear of the procession. While these sacred
+objects are being handed out of the house, the men who are present
+rush up, wipe off the hallowed dust which has accumulated on them,
+and smear it over their own bodies, no doubt in order to steep
+themselves in their blessed influence. Thus the tree is carried as
+before to the centre of the temporary village, care being again
+taken not to let it touch the ground. Then one of the fasting men
+takes from a basket a number of young green mangoes, cuts them in
+pieces, and places them with his own hands in the mouths of his
+fellows, the other <span class="pagenum"><a id="page10" name=
+"page10"></a>[pg 10]</span> fasting men, who chew the pieces small
+and turning round spit the morsels in the direction of the setting
+sun, in order that "the sun should carry the mango bits over the
+whole country and everyone should know." A portion of the mango
+tree is then broken off and in the evening it is burnt along with
+the bundles of leaves, chips, and refuse of food, which have been
+stored up. What remains of the tree is taken to the house of the
+master of the ceremonies and hung over the fire-place; it will be
+brought out again at intervals and burned bit by bit, till all is
+consumed, whereupon a new mango will be cut down and treated in
+like manner. The ashes of the holy fire on each occasion are
+gathered by the people and preserved in the house of the master of
+the ceremonies.<a id="footnotetag22" name=
+"footnotetag22"></a><a href="#footnote22"><sup>22</sup></a></p>
+<p>[The ceremony apparently intended to fertilize the mango
+trees.]</p>
+<p>The meaning of these ceremonies is not explained by the
+authorities who describe them; but we may conjecture that they are
+intended to fertilize the mango trees and cause them to bear a good
+crop of fruit. The central feature of the whole ritual is a wild
+mango tree, so young that it has never flowered: the men who cut it
+down, carry it into the village, and dance at the festival, are
+forbidden to eat mangoes: pigs are killed in order that their dying
+squeals may move the mango trees to bear fruit: at the end of the
+ceremonies pieces of young green mangoes are solemnly placed in the
+mouths of the fasting men and are by them spurted out towards the
+setting sun in order that the luminary may carry the fragments to
+every part of the country; and finally when after a longer or
+shorter interval the tree is wholly consumed, its place is supplied
+by another. All these circumstances are explained simply and
+naturally by the supposition that the young mango tree is taken as
+a representative of mangoes generally, that the dances are intended
+to quicken it, and that it is preserved, like a May-pole of old in
+England, as a sort of general fund of vegetable life, till the fund
+being exhausted by the destruction of the tree it is renewed by the
+importation of a fresh young tree from the forest. We can therefore
+understand why, as a storehouse of vital energy, the tree should be
+carefully kept from <span class="pagenum"><a id="page11" name=
+"page11"></a>[pg 11]</span> contact with the ground, lest the
+pent-up and concentrated energy should escape and dribbling away
+into the earth be dissipated to no purpose.</p>
+<a id="sacredobjects" name="sacredobjects"></a>
+<p>[Sacred objects of various sorts not allowed to touch the
+ground.]</p>
+<p>To take other instances of what we may call the conservation of
+energy in magic or religion by insulating sacred bodies from the
+ground, the natives of New Britain have a secret society called the
+Duk-duk, the members of which masquerade in petticoats of leaves
+and tall headdresses of wickerwork shaped like candle
+extinguishers, which descend to the shoulders of the wearers,
+completely concealing their faces. Thus disguised they dance about
+to the awe and terror, real or assumed, of the women and
+uninitiated, who take, or pretend to take, them for spirits. When
+lads are being initiated into the secrets of this august society,
+the adepts cut down some very large and heavy bamboos, one for each
+lad, and the novices carry them, carefully wrapt up in leaves, to
+the sacred ground, where they arrive very tired and weary, for they
+may not let the bamboos touch the ground nor the sun shine on them.
+Outside the fence of the enclosure every lad deposits his bamboo on
+a couple of forked sticks and covers it up with nut leaves.<a id=
+"footnotetag23" name="footnotetag23"></a><a href=
+"#footnote23"><sup>23</sup></a> Among the Carrier Indians of
+North-Western America, who burned their dead, the ashes of a chief
+used to be placed in a box and set on the top of a pole beside his
+hut: the box was never allowed to touch the ground.<a id=
+"footnotetag24" name="footnotetag24"></a><a href=
+"#footnote24"><sup>24</sup></a> In the Omaha tribe of North
+American Indians the sacred clam shell of the Elk clan was wrapt up
+from sight in a mat, placed on a stand, and never suffered to come
+in contact with the earth.<a id="footnotetag25" name=
+"footnotetag25"></a><a href="#footnote25"><sup>25</sup></a> The
+Cherokees and kindred Indian tribes of the United States used to
+have certain sacred boxes or arks, which they regularly took with
+them to war. Such a holy ark consisted of a square wooden box,
+which contained "certain consecrated vessels made by beloved
+superannuated women, and of such various antiquated forms, as would
+have puzzled Adam to have given significant names to each." The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page12" name="page12"></a>[pg
+12]</span> leader of a war party and his attendant bore the ark by
+turns, but they never set it on the ground nor would they
+themselves sit on the bare earth while they were carrying it
+against the enemy. Where stones were plentiful they rested the ark
+on them; but where no stones were to be found, they deposited it on
+short logs. "The Indian ark is deemed so sacred and dangerous to be
+touched, either by their own sanctified warriors, or the spoiling
+enemy, that they durst not touch it upon any account. It is not to
+be meddled with by any, except the war chieftain and his waiter,
+under the penalty of incurring great evil. Nor would the most
+inveterate enemy touch it in the woods, for the very same reason."
+After their return home they used to hang the ark on the leader's
+red-painted war pole.<a id="footnotetag26" name=
+"footnotetag26"></a><a href="#footnote26"><sup>26</sup></a> At
+Sipi, near Simla, in Northern India, an annual fair is held, at
+which men purchase wives. A square box with a domed top figures
+prominently at the fair. It is fixed on two poles to be carried on
+men's shoulders, and long heavily-plaited petticoats hang from it
+nearly to the ground. Three sides of the box are adorned with the
+head and shoulders of a female figure and the fourth side with a
+black yak's tail. Four men bear the poles, each carrying an axe in
+his right hand. They dance round, with a swinging rhythmical step,
+to the music of drums and a pipe. The dance goes on for hours and
+is thought to avert ill-luck from the fair. It is said that the box
+is brought to Simla from a place sixty miles off by relays of men,
+who may not stop nor set the box on the ground the whole way.<a id=
+"footnotetag27" name="footnotetag27"></a><a href=
+"#footnote27"><sup>27</sup></a> In Scotland, when water was carried
+from sacred wells to sick people, the water-vessel might not touch
+the earth.<a id="footnotetag28" name="footnotetag28"></a><a href=
+"#footnote28"><sup>28</sup></a> In some parts of Aberdeenshire the
+last bunch of standing corn, which is commonly viewed as very
+sacred, being the last refuge of the corn-spirit retreating before
+the reapers, is not suffered to touch the ground; the master or
+"gueedman" sits down and receives each handful of corn as it is cut
+on his lap.<a id="footnotetag29" name="footnotetag29"></a><a href=
+"#footnote29"><sup>29</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page13" name="page13"></a>[pg
+13]</span> <a id="sacredfood" name="sacredfood"></a>
+<p>[Sacred food not allowed to touch the earth.]</p>
+<p>Again, sacred food may not under certain circumstances be
+brought into contact with the earth. Some of the aborigines of
+Victoria used to regard the fat of the emu as sacred, believing
+that it had once been the fat of the black man. In taking it from
+the bird or giving it to another they handled it reverently. Any
+one who threw away the fat or flesh of the emu was held accursed.
+"The late Mr. Thomas observed on one occasion, at
+Nerre-nerre-Warreen, a remarkable exhibition of the effects of this
+superstition. An aboriginal child&mdash;one attending the
+school&mdash;having eaten some part of the flesh of an emu, threw
+away the skin. The skin fell to the ground, and this being observed
+by his parents, they showed by their gestures every token of
+horror. They looked upon their child as one utterly lost. His
+desecration of the bird was regarded as a sin for which there was
+no atonement."<a id="footnotetag30" name=
+"footnotetag30"></a><a href="#footnote30"><sup>30</sup></a> The
+Roumanians of Transylvania believe that "every fresh-baked loaf of
+wheaten bread is sacred, and should a piece inadvertently fall to
+the ground, it is hastily picked up, carefully wiped and kissed,
+and if soiled, thrown into the fire&mdash;partly as an offering to
+the dead, and partly because it were a heavy sin to throw away or
+tread upon any particle of it."<a id="footnotetag31" name=
+"footnotetag31"></a><a href="#footnote31"><sup>31</sup></a> At
+certain festivals in south-eastern Borneo the food which is
+consumed in the common house may not touch the ground; hence, a
+little before the festivals take place, foot-bridges made of thin
+poles are constructed from the private dwellings to the common
+house.<a id="footnotetag32" name="footnotetag32"></a><a href=
+"#footnote32"><sup>32</sup></a> When Hall was living with the
+Esquimaux and grew tired of eating walrus, one of the women brought
+the head and neck of a reindeer for him to eat. This venison had to
+be completely wrapt up before it was brought into the house, and
+once in the house it could only be placed on the platform which
+served as a bed. "To have placed it on the floor or on the platform
+behind the fire-lamp, among the walrus, musk-ox, and polar-bear
+meat which occupy a goodly portion of both of these places, would
+have horrified the whole town, as, according to the actual
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page14" name="page14"></a>[pg
+14]</span> belief of the Innuits, not another walrus could be
+secured this year, and there would ever be trouble in catching any
+more."<a id="footnotetag33" name="footnotetag33"></a><a href=
+"#footnote33"><sup>33</sup></a> But in this case the real scruple
+appears to have been felt not so much at placing the venison on the
+ground as at bringing it into contact with walrus meat.<a id=
+"footnotetag34" name="footnotetag34"></a><a href=
+"#footnote34"><sup>34</sup></a></p>
+<a id="magicalimplements" name="magicalimplements"></a>
+<p>[Magical implements and remedies thought to lose their virtue by
+contact with the ground.]</p>
+<p>Sometimes magical implements and remedies are supposed to lose
+their virtue by contact with the ground, the volatile essence with
+which they are impregnated being no doubt drained off into the
+earth. Thus in the Boulia district of Queensland the magical bone,
+which the native sorcerer points at his victim as a means of
+killing him, is never by any chance allowed to touch the
+earth.<a id="footnotetag35" name="footnotetag35"></a><a href=
+"#footnote35"><sup>35</sup></a> The wives of rajahs in Macassar, a
+district of southern Celebes, pride themselves on their luxuriant
+tresses and are at great pains to oil and preserve them. Should the
+hair begin to grow thin, the lady resorts to many devices to stay
+the ravages of time; among other things she applies to her locks a
+fat extracted from crocodiles and venomous snakes. The unguent is
+believed to be very efficacious, but during its application the
+woman's feet may not come into contact with the ground, or all the
+benefit of the nostrum would be lost.<a id="footnotetag36" name=
+"footnotetag36"></a><a href="#footnote36"><sup>36</sup></a> Some
+people in antiquity believed that a woman in hard labour would be
+delivered if a spear, which had been wrenched from a man's body
+without touching the ground, were thrown over the house where the
+sufferer lay. Again, according to certain ancient writers, arrows
+which had been extracted from a body without coming into contact
+with the earth and laid under sleepers, acted as a
+love-charm.<a id="footnotetag37" name="footnotetag37"></a><a href=
+"#footnote37"><sup>37</sup></a> Among the peasantry of the
+north-east of Scotland the prehistoric <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page15" name="page15"></a>[pg 15]</span> weapons called celts went
+by the name of "thunderbolts" and were coveted as the sure bringers
+of success, always provided that they were not allowed to fall to
+the ground.<a id="footnotetag38" name="footnotetag38"></a><a href=
+"#footnote38"><sup>38</sup></a></p>
+<a id="serpentseggs" name="serpentseggs"></a>
+<p>[Serpents eggs or Snake Stones.]</p>
+<p>In ancient Gaul certain glass or paste beads attained great
+celebrity as amulets under the name of serpents' eggs; it was
+believed that serpents, coiling together in a wriggling, writhing
+mass, generated them from their slaver and shot them into the air
+from their hissing jaws. If a man was bold and dexterous enough to
+catch one of these eggs in his cloak before it touched the ground,
+he rode off on horseback with it at full speed, pursued by the
+whole pack of serpents, till he was saved by the interposition of a
+river, which the snakes could not pass. The proof of the egg being
+genuine was that if it were thrown into a stream it would float up
+against the current, even though it were hooped in gold. The Druids
+held these beads in high esteem; according to them, the precious
+objects could only be obtained on a certain day of the moon, and
+the peculiar virtue that resided in them was to secure success in
+law suits and free access to kings. Pliny knew of a Gaulish knight
+who was executed by the emperor Claudius for wearing one of these
+amulets.<a id="footnotetag39" name="footnotetag39"></a><a href=
+"#footnote39"><sup>39</sup></a> Under the name of Snake Stones
+(<i>glain neidr</i>) or Adder Stones the beads are still known in
+those parts of our own country where the Celtic population has
+lingered, with its immemorial superstitions, down to the present or
+recent times; and the old story of the origin of the beads from the
+slaver of serpents was believed by the modern peasantry of
+Cornwall, Wales, and Scotland as by the Druids of ancient Gaul. In
+Cornwall the time when the serpents united to fashion the beads was
+commonly said to be at or about Midsummer Eve; in Wales it was
+usually thought to be spring, especially the Eve of May Day, and
+even within recent years persons in the Principality have affirmed
+that they witnessed the great <span class="pagenum"><a id="page16"
+name="page16"></a>[pg 16]</span> vernal congress of the snakes and
+saw the magic stone in the midst of the froth. The Welsh peasants
+believe the beads to possess medicinal virtues of many sorts and to
+be particularly efficacious for all maladies of the eyes. In Wales
+and Ireland the beads sometimes went by the name of the Magician's
+or Druid's Glass (<i>Gleini na Droedh</i> and <i>Glaine nan
+Druidhe</i>). Specimens of them may be seen in museums; some have
+been found in British barrows. They are of glass of various
+colours, green, blue, pink, red, brown, and so forth, some plain
+and some ribbed. Some are streaked with brilliant hues. The beads
+are perforated, and in the Highlands of Scotland the hole is
+explained by saying that when the bead has just been conflated by
+the serpents jointly, one of the reptiles sticks his tail through
+the still viscous glass. An Englishman who visited Scotland in 1699
+found many of these beads in use throughout the country. They were
+hung from children's necks to protect them from whooping cough and
+other ailments. Snake Stones were, moreover, a charm to ensure
+prosperity in general and to repel evil spirits. When one of these
+priceless treasures was not on active service, the owner kept it in
+an iron box to guard it against fairies, who, as is well known,
+cannot abide iron.<a id="footnotetag40" name=
+"footnotetag40"></a><a href="#footnote40"><sup>40</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page17" name="page17"></a>[pg
+17]</span> <a id="medicinalplants" name="medicinalplants"></a>
+<p>[Medicinal plants, water, are not allowed to touch the
+earth.]</p>
+<p>Pliny mentions several medicinal plants, which, if they were to
+retain their healing virtue, ought not to be allowed to touch the
+earth.<a id="footnotetag41" name="footnotetag41"></a><a href=
+"#footnote41"><sup>41</sup></a> The curious medical treatise of
+Marcellus, a native of Bordeaux in the fourth century of our era,
+abounds with prescriptions of this sort; and we can well believe
+the writer when he assures us that he borrowed many of his quaint
+remedies from the lips of common folk and peasants rather than from
+the books of the learned.<a id="footnotetag42" name=
+"footnotetag42"></a><a href="#footnote42"><sup>42</sup></a> Thus he
+tells us that certain white stones found in the stomachs of young
+swallows assuage the most persistent headache, always provided that
+their virtue be not impaired by contact with the ground.<a id=
+"footnotetag43" name="footnotetag43"></a><a href=
+"#footnote43"><sup>43</sup></a> Another of his cures for the same
+malady is a wreath of fleabane placed on the head, but it must not
+touch the earth.<a id="footnotetag44" name=
+"footnotetag44"></a><a href="#footnote44"><sup>44</sup></a> On the
+same condition a decoction of the root of elecampane in wine kills
+worms; a fern, found growing on a tree, relieves the stomach-ache;
+and the pastern-bone of a hare is an infallible remedy for colic,
+provided, first, it be found in the dung of a wolf, second, that it
+docs not touch the ground, and, third, that it is not touched by a
+woman.<a id="footnotetag45" name="footnotetag45"></a><a href=
+"#footnote45"><sup>45</sup></a> Another cure for colic is effected
+by certain hocus-pocus with a scrap of wool from the forehead of a
+first-born lamb, if only the lamb, instead of being allowed to fall
+to the ground, has been caught by hand as it dropped from its
+dam.<a id="footnotetag46" name="footnotetag46"></a><a href=
+"#footnote46"><sup>46</sup></a> In Andjra, a district of Morocco,
+the people attribute many magical virtues to rain-water which has
+fallen on the twenty-seventh day of April, Old Style; accordingly
+they collect it and use it for a variety of purposes. Mixed with
+tar and sprinkled on the door-posts it prevents snakes and
+scorpions from entering the house: sprinkled on heaps of threshed
+corn it protects them from the evil eye: mixed with an egg, henna,
+and seeds of cress it is an invaluable medicine for sick cows:
+poured over a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page18" name=
+"page18"></a>[pg 18]</span> plate, on which a passage of the Koran
+has been written, it strengthens the memory of schoolboys who drink
+it; and if you mix it with cowdung and red earth and paint rings
+with the mixture round the trunks of your fig-trees at sunset on
+Midsummer Day, you may depend on it that the trees will bear an
+excellent crop and will not shed their fruit untimely on the
+ground. But in order to preserve these remarkable properties it is
+absolutely essential that the water should on no account be allowed
+to touch the ground; some say too that it should not be exposed to
+the sun nor breathed upon by anybody.<a id="footnotetag47" name=
+"footnotetag47"></a><a href="#footnote47"><sup>47</sup></a> Again,
+the Moors ascribe great magical efficacy to what they call "the
+sultan of the oleander," which is a stalk of oleander with a
+cluster of four pairs of leaves springing from it. They think that
+the magical virtue is greatest if the stalk has been cut
+immediately before midsummer. But when the plant is brought into
+the house, the branches may not touch the ground, lest they should
+lose their marvellous qualities.<a id="footnotetag48" name=
+"footnotetag48"></a><a href="#footnote48"><sup>48</sup></a> In the
+olden days, before a Lithuanian or Prussian farmer went forth to
+plough for the first time in spring, he called in a wizard to
+perform a certain ceremony for the good of the crops. The sage
+seized a mug of beer with his teeth, quaffed the liquor, and then
+tossed the mug over his head. This signified that the corn in that
+year should grow taller than a man. But the mug might not fall to
+the ground; it had to be caught by somebody stationed at the
+wizard's back, for if it fell to the ground the consequence
+naturally would be that the corn also would be laid low on the
+earth.<a id="footnotetag49" name="footnotetag49"></a><a href=
+"#footnote49"><sup>49</sup></a></p>
+<h4><a id="sect1-2" name="sect1-2">&sect; 2. <i>Not to see the
+Sun</i></a></h4>
+<a id="sacredpersons" name="sacredpersons"></a>
+<p>[Sacred persons not allowed to see the sun.]</p>
+<p>The second rule to be here noted is that the sun may not shine
+upon the divine person. This rule was observed <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page19" name="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span> both by
+the Mikado and by the pontiff of the Zapotecs. The latter "was
+looked upon as a god whom the earth was not worthy to hold, nor the
+sun to shine upon."<a id="footnotetag50" name=
+"footnotetag50"></a><a href="#footnote50"><sup>50</sup></a> The
+Japanese would not allow that the Mikado should expose his sacred
+person to the open air, and the sun was not thought worthy to shine
+on his head.<a id="footnotetag51" name="footnotetag51"></a><a href=
+"#footnote51"><sup>51</sup></a> The Indians of Granada, in South
+America, "kept those who were to be rulers or commanders, whether
+men or women, locked up for several years when they were children,
+some of them seven years, and this so close that they were not to
+see the sun, for if they should happen to see it they forfeited
+their lordship, eating certain sorts of food appointed; and those
+who were their keepers at certain times went into their retreat or
+prison and scourged them severely."<a id="footnotetag52" name=
+"footnotetag52"></a><a href="#footnote52"><sup>52</sup></a> Thus,
+for example, the heir to the throne of Bogota, who was not the son
+but the sister's son of the king, had to undergo a rigorous
+training from his infancy: he lived in complete retirement in a
+temple, where he might not see the sun nor eat salt nor converse
+with a woman: he was surrounded by guards who observed his conduct
+and noted all his actions: if he broke a single one of the rules
+laid down for him, he was deemed infamous and forfeited all his
+rights to the throne.<a id="footnotetag53" name=
+"footnotetag53"></a><a href="#footnote53"><sup>53</sup></a> So,
+too, the heir to the kingdom of Sogamoso, before succeeding to the
+crown, had to fast for seven years in the temple, being shut up in
+the dark and not allowed to see the sun or light.<a id=
+"footnotetag54" name="footnotetag54"></a><a href=
+"#footnote54"><sup>54</sup></a> The prince who was to become Inca
+of Peru had to fast for a month without seeing light.<a id=
+"footnotetag55" name="footnotetag55"></a><a href=
+"#footnote55"><sup>55</sup></a> On <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page20" name="page20"></a>[pg 20]</span> the day when a Brahman
+student of the Veda took a bath, to signify that the time of his
+studentship was at an end, he entered a cow-shed before sunrise,
+hung over the door a skin with the hair inside, and sat there; on
+that day the sun should not shine upon him.<a id="footnotetag56"
+name="footnotetag56"></a><a href=
+"#footnote56"><sup>56</sup></a></p>
+<a id="tabooedpersons" name="tabooedpersons"></a> <a id=
+"certainpersons" name="certainpersons"></a>
+<p>[Tabooed persons not allowed to see the sun; certain persons
+forbidden to see fire.]</p>
+<p>Again, women after childbirth and their offspring are more or
+less tabooed all the world over; hence in Corea the rays of the sun
+are rigidly excluded from both mother and child for a period of
+twenty-one or a hundred days, according to their rank, after the
+birth has taken place.<a id="footnotetag57" name=
+"footnotetag57"></a><a href="#footnote57"><sup>57</sup></a> Among
+some of the tribes on the north-west coast of New Guinea a woman
+may not leave the house for months after childbirth. When she does
+go out, she must cover her head with a hood or mat; for if the sun
+were to shine upon her, it is thought that one of her male
+relations would die.<a id="footnotetag58" name=
+"footnotetag58"></a><a href="#footnote58"><sup>58</sup></a> Again,
+mourners are everywhere taboo; accordingly in mourning the Ainos of
+Japan wear peculiar caps in order that the sun may not shine upon
+their heads.<a id="footnotetag59" name="footnotetag59"></a><a href=
+"#footnote59"><sup>59</sup></a> During a solemn fast of three days
+the Indians of Costa Rica eat no salt, speak as little as possible,
+light no fires, and stay strictly indoors, or if they go out during
+the day they carefully cover themselves from the light of the sun,
+believing that exposure to the sun's rays would turn them
+black.<a id="footnotetag60" name="footnotetag60"></a><a href=
+"#footnote60"><sup>60</sup></a> On Yule Night it has been customary
+in parts of Sweden from time immemorial to go on pilgrimage,
+whereby people learn many secret things and know what is to happen
+in the coming year. As a preparation for this pilgrimage, "some
+secrete themselves for three days previously in a dark cellar, so
+as to be shut out altogether from the light of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page21" name="page21"></a>[pg 21]</span> heaven.
+Others retire at an early hour of the preceding morning to some
+out-of-the-way place, such as a hay-loft, where they bury
+themselves in the hay, that they may neither see nor hear any
+living creature; and here they remain, in silence and fasting,
+until after sundown; whilst there are those who think it sufficient
+if they rigidly abstain from food on the day before commencing
+their wanderings. During this period of probation a man ought not
+to see fire, but should this have happened, he must strike a light
+with flint and steel, whereby the evil that would otherwise have
+ensued will be obviated."<a id="footnotetag61" name=
+"footnotetag61"></a><a href="#footnote61"><sup>61</sup></a> During
+the sixteen days that a Pima Indian is undergoing purification for
+killing an Apache he may not see a blazing fire.<a id=
+"footnotetag62" name="footnotetag62"></a><a href=
+"#footnote62"><sup>62</sup></a></p>
+<a id="princesunless" name="princesunless"></a>
+<p>[The story of Prince Sunless.]</p>
+<p>Acarnanian peasants tell of a handsome prince called Sunless,
+who would die if he saw the sun. So he lived in an underground
+palace on the site of the ancient Oeniadae, but at night he came
+forth and crossed the river to visit a famous enchantress who dwelt
+in a castle on the further bank. She was loth to part with him
+every night long before the sun was up, and as he turned a deaf ear
+to all her entreaties to linger, she hit upon the device of cutting
+the throats of all the cocks in the neighbourhood. So the prince,
+whose ear had learned to expect the shrill clarion of the birds as
+the signal of the growing light, tarried too long, and hardly had
+he reached the ford when the sun rose over the Aetolian mountains,
+and its fatal beams fell on him before he could regain his dark
+abode.<a id="footnotetag63" name="footnotetag63"></a><a href=
+"#footnote63"><sup>63</sup></a></p>
+<p>Notes:</p>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1" name=
+"footnote1"></a> <b>Footnote 1</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag1">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings</i>, i. 44.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2" name=
+"footnote2"></a> <b>Footnote 2</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag2">(return)</a>
+<p>H.H. Bancroft, <i>Native Races of the Pacific States</i>
+(London, 1875-1876), ii. 142; Brasseur de Bourbourg, <i>Histoire
+des Nations civilis&eacute;es du Mexique et de
+l'Am&eacute;rique-Centrale</i> (Paris, 1857-1859), iii. 29.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3" name=
+"footnote3"></a> <b>Footnote 3</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag3">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Manuscrit Ramirez, Histoire de l'origine des Indiens</i>,
+publi&eacute; par D. Charnay (Paris, 1903), p. 108; J. de Acosta,
+<i>The Natural and Moral History of the Indies</i>, bk. vii. chap.
+22, vol. ii. p. 505 of E. Grimston's translation, edited by (Sir)
+Clements R. Markham (Hakluyt Society, London, 1880).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4" name=
+"footnote4"></a> <b>Footnote 4</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag4">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Memorials of the Empire of Japon in the XVI. and XVII.
+Centuries</i>, edited by T. Rundall (Hakluyt Society, London,
+1850), pp. 14, 141; B. Varenius, <i>Descriptio regni Japoniae et
+Siam</i> (Cambridge, 1673), p. 11; Caron, "Account of Japan," in
+John Pinkerton's <i>Voyages and Travels</i> (London, 1808-1814),
+vii. 613; Kaempfer, "History of Japan," in <i>id.</i> vii. 716.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5" name=
+"footnote5"></a> <b>Footnote 5</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag5">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Ellis, <i>Polynesian Researches</i>, Second Edition (London,
+1832-1836), iii. 102 <i>sq.</i>; Captain James Wilson,
+<i>Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean</i> (London,
+1799), p. 329.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6" name=
+"footnote6"></a> <b>Footnote 6</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag6">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Bastian, <i>Der Mensch in der Geschichte</i> (Leipsic, 1860),
+iii. 81.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7" name=
+"footnote7"></a> <b>Footnote 7</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag7">(return)</a>
+<p>Athenaeus, xii. 8, p. 514 c.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8" name=
+"footnote8"></a> <b>Footnote 8</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag8">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Voiages and Travels of John Struys</i> (London, 1684), p.
+30.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9" name=
+"footnote9"></a> <b>Footnote 9</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag9">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J. Roscoe, "Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the
+Baganda," <i>Journal of the Anthropological Institute</i>, xxxii.
+(1902) pp. 62, 67; <i>id., The Baganda</i> (London, 1911), pp. 154
+<i>sq.</i> Compare L. Decle, <i>Three Years in Savage Africa</i>
+(London, 1898), p. 445 note: "Before horses had been introduced
+into Uganda the king and his mother never walked, but always went
+about perched astride the shoulders of a slave&mdash;a most
+ludicrous sight. In this way they often travelled hundreds of
+miles." The use both of horses and of chariots by royal personages
+may often have been intended to prevent their sacred feet from
+touching the ground.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10" name=
+"footnote10"></a> <b>Footnote 10</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag10">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Torday et T.A. Joyce, <i>Les Bushongo</i> (Brussels, 1910),
+p. 61.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11" name=
+"footnote11"></a> <b>Footnote 11</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag11">(return)</a>
+<p>Northcote W. Thomas, <i>Anthropological Report on the
+Ibo-speaking Peoples of Nigeria</i> (London, 1913), i. 57
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12" name=
+"footnote12"></a> <b>Footnote 12</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag12">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Satapatha Br&acirc;hmana</i>, translated by Julius Eggeling,
+Part iii. (Oxford, 1894) pp. 81, 91, 92, 102, 128 <i>sq. (Sacred
+Books of the East</i>, vol. xli.).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote13" name=
+"footnote13"></a> <b>Footnote 13</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag13">(return)</a>
+<p>A.W. Nieuwenhuis, <i>Quer durch Borneo</i> (Leyden, 1904-1907),
+i. 172.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote14" name=
+"footnote14"></a> <b>Footnote 14</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag14">(return)</a>
+<p>Letter of Missionary Krick, in <i>Annales de la Propagation de
+la Foi</i>, xxvi. (1854) pp. 86-88.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote15" name=
+"footnote15"></a> <b>Footnote 15</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag15">(return)</a>
+<p>Pechuel-Loesche, "Indiscretes aus Loango," <i>Zeitschrift
+f&uuml;r Ethnologie</i>, x. (1878) pp. 29 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote16" name=
+"footnote16"></a> <b>Footnote 16</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag16">(return)</a>
+<p>Edgar Thurston, <i>Ethnographic Notes in Southern India</i>
+(Madras, 1906), p. 70.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote17" name=
+"footnote17"></a> <b>Footnote 17</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag17">(return)</a>
+<p>M.C. Schadee, "Het familieleven en familierecht der Dajaks van
+Landak en Tajan," <i>Bijdragen tot de Taal-Land en Volkenkunde van
+Nederlandsch-Indi&eacute;</i>, lxiii. (1910) p. 433.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote18" name=
+"footnote18"></a> <b>Footnote 18</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag18">(return)</a>
+<p>James Adair, <i>History of the American Indians</i> (London,
+1775), p. 382; <i>Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John
+Tanner</i> (London, 1830), p. 123. As to the taboos to which
+warriors are subject see <i>Taboo and the Perils of the Soul</i>,
+pp. 157 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote19" name=
+"footnote19"></a> <b>Footnote 19</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag19">(return)</a>
+<p>Etienne Aymonier, <i>Notes sur le Laos</i> (Saigon, 1885), p.
+26.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote20" name=
+"footnote20"></a> <b>Footnote 20</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag20">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Die gestritgelte Rockenphilosophie</i>,<sup>5</sup>
+(Chemnitz, 1759), pp. 586 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote21" name=
+"footnote21"></a> <b>Footnote 21</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag21">(return)</a>
+<p>Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen, <i>Native Tribes of Central
+Australia</i> (London, 1899), pp. 364, 370 <i>sqq.</i>, 629;
+<i>id., Across Australia</i> (London, 1912), ii. 280, 285
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote22" name=
+"footnote22"></a> <b>Footnote 22</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag22">(return)</a>
+<p>C.G. Seligmann, M.D., <i>The Melanesians of British New
+Guinea</i> (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 589-599.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote23" name=
+"footnote23"></a> <b>Footnote 23</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag23">(return)</a>
+<p>George Brown, D.D., <i>Melanesians and Polynesians</i> (London,
+1910), pp. 60 <i>sq.</i>, 64. As to the Duk-duk society, see below,
+vol. ii. pp. 246 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote24" name=
+"footnote24"></a> <b>Footnote 24</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag24">(return)</a>
+<p>John Keast Lord, <i>The Naturalist in Vancouver Island and
+British Columbia</i> (London, 1866), ii. 237.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote25" name=
+"footnote25"></a> <b>Footnote 25</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag25">(return)</a>
+<p>Edwin James, <i>Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the
+Rocky Mountains</i> (London, 1823), ii. 47; Rev. J. Owen Dorsey,
+"Omaha Sociology," <i>Third Annual Report of the Bureau of
+Ethnology</i> (Washington, 1884), p. 226.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote26" name=
+"footnote26"></a> <b>Footnote 26</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag26">(return)</a>
+<p>James Adair, <i>History of the American Indians</i> (London,
+1775), pp. 161-163.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote27" name=
+"footnote27"></a> <b>Footnote 27</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag27">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) Henry Babington Smith, in <i>Folk-lore</i>, v. (1894) p.
+340.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote28" name=
+"footnote28"></a> <b>Footnote 28</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag28">(return)</a>
+<p>Miss C.F. Gordon Cumming, <i>In the Hebrides</i> (London, 1883),
+p. 211.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote29" name=
+"footnote29"></a> <b>Footnote 29</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag29">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Gregor, "Quelques coutumes du Nord-est du Comt&eacute;
+d'Aberdeen," <i>Revue des Traditions populaires</i>, iii. (1888) p.
+485 B. Compare <i>Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild</i>, i. 158
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote30" name=
+"footnote30"></a> <b>Footnote 30</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag30">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Brough Smyth, <i>Aborigines of Victoria</i> (Melbourne and
+London, 1878), i. 450.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote31" name=
+"footnote31"></a> <b>Footnote 31</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag31">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Gerard, <i>The Land beyond the Forest</i> (Edinburgh and
+London, 1888), ii. 7.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote32" name=
+"footnote32"></a> <b>Footnote 32</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag32">(return)</a>
+<p>F. Grabowsky, "Der Distrikt Dusson Timor in S&uuml;dost-Borneo
+und seine Bewohner," <i>Das Ausland</i>, 1884, No. 24, p. 470.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote33" name=
+"footnote33"></a> <b>Footnote 33</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag33">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition made by Charles F.
+Hall</i>, edited by Prof. J.E. Nourse (Washington, 1879), pp. 110
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote34" name=
+"footnote34"></a> <b>Footnote 34</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag34">(return)</a>
+<p>See <i>Taboo and Perils of the Soul</i>, pp. 207 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote35" name=
+"footnote35"></a> <b>Footnote 35</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag35">(return)</a>
+<p>Walter E. Roth, <i>Ethnological Studies among the
+North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines</i> (Brisbane and London,
+1897), p. 156, &sect; 265. The custom of killing a man by pointing
+a bone or stick at him, while the sorcerer utters appropriate
+curses, is common among the tribes of Central Australia; but
+amongst them there seems to be no objection to place the bone or
+stick on the ground; on the contrary, an Arunta wizard inserts the
+bone or stick in the ground while he invokes death and destruction
+on his enemy. See Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen, <i>Native Tribes
+of Central Australia</i> (London, 1899), pp. 534 <i>sqq.; id.,
+Northern Tribes of Central Australia</i> (London, 1904), pp. 455
+<i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote36" name=
+"footnote36"></a> <b>Footnote 36</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag36">(return)</a>
+<p>Hugh Low, <i>Sarawak</i> (London, 1848), pp. 145 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote37" name=
+"footnote37"></a> <b>Footnote 37</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag37">(return)</a>
+<p>Pliny, <i>Naturalis Historia</i> xxviii. 33 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote38" name=
+"footnote38"></a> <b>Footnote 38</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag38">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. Walter Gregor, <i>Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East
+of Scotland</i> (London, 1881), p. 184. As to the superstitions
+attaching to stone arrowheads and axeheads (celts), commonly known
+as "thunderbolts," in the British Islands, see W.W. Skeat,
+"Snakestones and Stone Thunderbolts," <i>Folklore</i>, xxiii.
+(1912) pp. 60 <i>sqq.</i>; and as to such superstitions in general,
+see Chr. Blinkenberg, <i>The Thunderweapon in Religion and
+Folklore</i> (Cambridge, 1911).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote39" name=
+"footnote39"></a> <b>Footnote 39</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag39">(return)</a>
+<p>Pliny, <i>Naturalis Historia</i>, xxix. 52-54.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote40" name=
+"footnote40"></a> <b>Footnote 40</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag40">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Borlase, <i>Antiquities, Historical and Monumental, of the
+County of Cornwall</i> (London, 1769), pp. 142 <i>sq.</i>; J.
+Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities of Great Britain</i> (London,
+1882-1883), i. 322; J.G. Dalyell, <i>Darker Superstitions of
+Scotland</i> (Edinburgh, 1834), pp. 140 <i>sq.</i>; Daniel Wilson,
+<i>The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland</i>
+(Edinburgh, 1851), pp. 303 <i>sqq.</i>; Lieut.-Col. Forbes Leslie,
+<i>The Early Races of Scotland and their Monuments</i> (Edinburgh,
+1866), i. 75 <i>sqq.</i>; J.G. Campbell, <i>Witchcraft and Second
+Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland</i> (Glasgow, 1902),
+pp. 84-88; Marie Trevelyan, <i>Folk-lore and Folk-stories of
+Wales</i> (London, 1909), pp. 170 <i>sq.</i>; J.C. Davies,
+<i>Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales</i> (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 76.
+Compare W.W. Skeat, "Snakestones and Stone Thunderbolts,"
+<i>Folk-lore,</i> xxiii. (1912) pp. 45 <i>sqq.</i> The superstition
+is described as follows by Edward Lhwyd in a letter quoted by W.
+Borlase (<i>op. cit.</i> p. 142): "In most parts of Wales, and
+throughout all Scotland, and in Cornwall, we find it a common
+opinion of the vulgar, that about Midsummer-Eve (though in the time
+they do not all agree) it is usual for snakes to meet in companies;
+and that, by joining heads together, and hissing, a kind of bubble
+is formed, which the rest, by continual hissing, blow on till it
+passes quite through the body, and then it immediately hardens, and
+resembles a glass-ring, which whoever finds (as some old women and
+children are persuaded) shall prosper in all his undertakings. The
+rings thus generated, are called <i>Gleineu Nadroeth</i>; in
+English, Snake-stones. They are small glass amulets, commonly about
+half as wide as our finger-rings, but much thicker, of a green
+colour usually, though sometimes blue, and waved with red and
+white."</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote41" name=
+"footnote41"></a> <b>Footnote 41</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag41">(return)</a>
+<p>Pliny, <i>Naturalis Historia</i> xxiv. 12 and 68, xxv. 171.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote42" name=
+"footnote42"></a> <b>Footnote 42</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag42">(return)</a>
+<p>Marcellus, <i>De medicamentis</i>, ed. G. Helmreich (Leipsic,
+1889), preface, p. i.: "<i>Nec solum veteres medicinae artis
+auctores Latino dumtaxat sermone perscriptos ... lectione scrutatus
+sum, sed etiam ab agrestibus et plebeis remedia fortuita atque
+simplicia, quae experimentis probaverant didici</i>." As to
+Marcellus and his work, see Jacob Grimm, "Ueber Marcellus
+Burdigalensis," <i>Abhandlungen der koniglichen Akademie der
+Wissenschaft zu Berlin</i>, 1847, pp. 429-460; <i>id.</i>, "Ueber
+die Marcellischen Formeln," <i>ibid.</i>. 1855, pp. 50-68.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote43" name=
+"footnote43"></a> <b>Footnote 43</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag43">(return)</a>
+<p>Marcellus, <i>De medicamentis</i>, i. 68.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote44" name=
+"footnote44"></a> <b>Footnote 44</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag44">(return)</a>
+<p>Marcellus, <i>op. cit.</i> i. 76.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote45" name=
+"footnote45"></a> <b>Footnote 45</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag45">(return)</a>
+<p>Marcellus, <i>op. cit.</i> xxviii. 28 and 71, xxix. 35.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote46" name=
+"footnote46"></a> <b>Footnote 46</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag46">(return)</a>
+<p>Marcellus, <i>op. cit.</i> xxix. 51.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote47" name=
+"footnote47"></a> <b>Footnote 47</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag47">(return)</a>
+<p>Edward Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco,"
+<i>Folklore</i>, xvi. (1905) pp. 32 <i>sq.</i>; <i>id., Ceremonies
+and Beliefs connected with Agriculture, certain Dates of the Solar
+Year, and the Weather in Morocco</i> (Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 75
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote48" name=
+"footnote48"></a> <b>Footnote 48</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag48">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, xvi. (1905) p. 35 <i>id., Ceremonies and Beliefs
+connected with Agriculture, certain Dates of the Solar Year, and
+the Weather in Morocco</i> (Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 88
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote49" name=
+"footnote49"></a> <b>Footnote 49</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag49">(return)</a>
+<p>Matth&auml;us Pr&auml;torius, <i>Deliciae Prussicae</i>,
+herausgegeben von Dr. W. Pierson (Berlin, 1871), p. 54.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote50" name=
+"footnote50"></a> <b>Footnote 50</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag50">(return)</a>
+<p>H.H. Bancroft, <i>Native Races of the Pacific States</i>
+(London, 1875-1876), ii. 142; Brasseur de Bourbourg, <i>Histoire
+des Nations civilis&eacute;es du Mexique et de l'Am&eacute;rique
+Centrale</i> (Paris, 1857-1859), iii. 29.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote51" name=
+"footnote51"></a> <b>Footnote 51</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag51">(return)</a>
+<p>Kaempfer, "History of Japan," in J. Pinkerton's <i>Voyages and
+Travels</i>, vii. 717; Caron, "Account of Japan," <i>ibid.</i> vii.
+613; B. Varenius, <i>Descriptio regni Japoniae et Siam</i>
+(Cambridge, 1673), p. 11: <i>"Radiis solis caput nunquam
+illustrabatur: in apertum acrem non procedebat."</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote52" name=
+"footnote52"></a> <b>Footnote 52</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag52">(return)</a>
+<p>A. de Herrera, <i>General History of the vast Continent and
+Islands of America,</i> trans, by Capt. John Stevens (London,
+1725-1726), v. 88.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote53" name=
+"footnote53"></a> <b>Footnote 53</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag53">(return)</a>
+<p>H. Ternaux-Compans, <i>Essai sur l'ancien Cundinamarca</i>
+(Paris, N.D.), p. 56; Theodor Waitz, <i>Anthropologie der
+Naturv&ouml;lker</i> iv. (Leipsic, 1864) p. 359.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote54" name=
+"footnote54"></a> <b>Footnote 54</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag54">(return)</a>
+<p>Alonzo de Zurita, "Rapport sur les differentes classes de chefs
+de la Nouvelle-Espagne," p. 30, in H. Ternaux-Compans's <i>Voyages,
+Relations et M&eacute;moires originaux, pour servir &agrave;
+l'Histoire de la D&eacute;couvertede l'Am&eacute;rique</i> (Paris,
+1840); Th. Waitz, <i>l.c.</i>; A. Bastian, <i>Die Culturl&auml;nder
+des alten Amerika</i> (Berlin, 1878), ii. 204.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote55" name=
+"footnote55"></a> <b>Footnote 55</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag55">(return)</a>
+<p>Cieza de Leon, <i>Second Part of the Chronicle of Peru</i>
+(Hakluyt Society, London, 1883), p. 18.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote56" name=
+"footnote56"></a> <b>Footnote 56</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag56">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Grihya S&ucirc;tras</i>, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part
+ii. (Oxford, 1892) pp. 165, 275 (<i>Sacred Books of the East</i>,
+vol. xxx.). Umbrellas appear to have been sometimes used in ritual
+for the purpose of preventing the sunlight from falling on sacred
+persons or things. See W. Caland, <i>Altindisches Zauberritual</i>
+(Amsterdam, 1900), p. 110 note 12. At an Athenian festival called
+Scira the priestess of Athena, the priest of Poseidon, and the
+priest of the Sun walked from the Acropolis under the shade of a
+huge white umbrella which was borne over their heads by the
+Eteobutads. See Harpocration and Suidas, <i>s.v.</i> [Greek:
+Skiron]; Scholiast on Aristophanes, <i>Eccles.</i> 18.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote57" name=
+"footnote57"></a> <b>Footnote 57</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag57">(return)</a>
+<p>Mrs. Bishop, <i>Korea and her Neighbours</i> (London, 1898), ii.
+248.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote58" name=
+"footnote58"></a> <b>Footnote 58</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag58">(return)</a>
+<p>J.L. van Hasselt, "Eenige aanteekeningen aangaande de bewoners
+der N. Westkust van Nieuw Guinea," <i>Tijdschrift voor Indische
+Taal-Landen Volkenkunde</i>, xxxi. (1886) p. 587.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote59" name=
+"footnote59"></a> <b>Footnote 59</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag59">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Bastian, <i>Die V&ouml;lker des &ouml;stlichen Asien</i>, v.
+(Jena, 1869) p. 366.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote60" name=
+"footnote60"></a> <b>Footnote 60</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag60">(return)</a>
+<p>W.M. Gabb, "On the Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica,"
+<i>Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at
+Philadelphia</i>, xiv. (Philadelphia, 1876), p. 510.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote61" name=
+"footnote61"></a> <b>Footnote 61</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag61">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Lloyd, <i>Peasant Life in Sweden</i> (London, 1870), p.
+194.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote62" name=
+"footnote62"></a> <b>Footnote 62</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag62">(return)</a>
+<p>H.H. Bancroft, <i>Native Races of the Pacific States</i>, i.
+553. See <i>Taboo and the Perils of the Soul</i>, p. 182.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote63" name=
+"footnote63"></a> <b>Footnote 63</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag63">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Heuzey, <i>Le Mont Olympe et l'Acarnanie</i> (Paris, 1860),
+pp. 458 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page22" name="page22"></a>[pg
+22]</span>
+<h2><a id="chap2" name="chap2">CHAPTER II</a></h2>
+<h3>THE SECLUSION OF GIRLS AT PUBERTY</h3>
+<h4><a id="sect2-1" name="sect2-1">&sect; 1. <i>Seclusion of Girls
+at Puberty in Africa</i></a></h4>
+<a id="puberty" name="puberty"></a> <a id="seclusionakamba" name=
+"seclusionakamba"></a> <a id="seclusionbaganda" name=
+"seclusionbaganda"></a>
+<p>[Girls at puberty forbidden to touch the ground and to see the
+sun; seclusion of girls at puberty among the A-Kamba; seclusion of
+girls at puberty among the Baganda.]</p>
+<p>Now it is remarkable that the foregoing two rules&mdash;not to
+touch the ground and not to see the sun&mdash;are observed either
+separately or conjointly by girls at puberty in many parts of the
+world. Thus amongst the negroes of Loango girls at puberty are
+confined in separate huts, and they may not touch the ground with
+any part of their bare body.<a id="footnotetag64" name=
+"footnotetag64"></a><a href="#footnote64"><sup>64</sup></a> Among
+the Zulus and kindred tribes of South Africa, when the first signs
+of puberty shew themselves "while a girl is walking, gathering
+wood, or working in the field, she runs to the river and hides
+herself among the reeds for the day, so as not to be seen by men.
+She covers her head carefully with her blanket that the sun may not
+shine on it and shrivel her up into a withered skeleton, as would
+result from exposure to the sun's beams. After dark she returns to
+her home and is secluded" in a hut for some time.<a id=
+"footnotetag65" name="footnotetag65"></a><a href=
+"#footnote65"><sup>65</sup></a> During her seclusion, which lasts
+for about a fortnight, neither she nor the girls who wait upon her
+may drink any milk, lest the cattle should die. And should she be
+overtaken by the first flow while she is in the fields, she must,
+after hiding in the bush, scrupulously avoid all pathways in
+returning home.<a id="footnotetag66" name=
+"footnotetag66"></a><a href="#footnote66"><sup>66</sup></a> A
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page23" name="page23"></a>[pg
+23]</span> reason for this avoidance is assigned by the A-Kamba of
+British East Africa, whose girls under similar circumstances
+observe the same rule. "A girl's first menstruation is a very
+critical period of her life according to A-Kamba beliefs. If this
+condition appears when she is away from the village, say at work in
+the fields, she returns at once to her village, but is careful to
+walk through the grass and not on a path, for if she followed a
+path and a stranger accidentally trod on a spot of blood and then
+cohabited with a member of the opposite sex before the girl was
+better again, it is believed that she would never bear a child."
+She remains at home till the symptoms have ceased, and during this
+time she may be fed by none but her mother. When the flux is over,
+her father and mother are bound to cohabit with each other, else it
+is believed that the girl would be barren all her life.<a id=
+"footnotetag67" name="footnotetag67"></a><a href=
+"#footnote67"><sup>67</sup></a> Similarly, among the Baganda, when
+a girl menstruated for the first time she was secluded and not
+allowed to handle food; and at the end of her seclusion the kinsman
+with whom she was staying (for among the Baganda young people did
+not reside with their parents) was obliged to jump over his wife,
+which with the Baganda is regarded as equivalent to having
+intercourse with her. Should the girl happen to be living near her
+parents at the moment when she attained to puberty, she was
+expected on her recovery to inform them of the fact, whereupon her
+father jumped over her mother. Were this custom omitted, the
+Baganda, like the A-Kamba, thought that the girl would never have
+children or that they would die in infancy.<a id="footnotetag68"
+name="footnotetag68"></a><a href="#footnote68"><sup>68</sup></a>
+Thus the pretence of sexual intercourse between the parents or
+other relatives of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page24" name=
+"page24"></a>[pg 24]</span> the girl was a magical ceremony to
+ensure her fertility. It is significant that among the Baganda the
+first menstruation was often called a marriage, and the girl was
+spoken of as a bride.<a id="footnotetag69" name=
+"footnotetag69"></a><a href="#footnote69"><sup>69</sup></a> These
+terms so applied point to a belief like that of the Siamese, that a
+girl's first menstruation results from her defloration by one of a
+host of aerial spirits, and that the wound thus inflicted is
+repeated afterwards every month by the same ghostly agency.<a id=
+"footnotetag70" name="footnotetag70"></a><a href=
+"#footnote70"><sup>70</sup></a> For a like reason, probably, the
+Baganda imagine that a woman who does not menstruate exerts a
+malign influence on gardens and makes them barren<a id=
+"footnotetag71" name="footnotetag71"></a><a href=
+"#footnote71"><sup>71</sup></a> if she works in them. For not being
+herself fertilized by a spirit, how can she fertilize the
+garden?</p>
+<a id="seclusiontangayika" name="seclusiontangayika"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the tribes of the
+Tanganyika plateau.]</p>
+<p>Among the Amambwe, Winamwanga, Alungu, and other tribes of the
+great plateau to the west of Lake Tanganyika, "when a young girl
+knows that she has attained puberty, she forthwith leaves her
+mother's hut, and hides herself in the long grass near the village,
+covering her face with a cloth and weeping bitterly. Towards sunset
+one of the older women&mdash;who, as directress of the ceremonies,
+is called <i>nachimbusa</i>&mdash;follows her, places a cooking-pot
+by the cross-roads, and boils therein a concoction of various
+herbs, with which she anoints the neophyte. At nightfall the girl
+is carried on the old woman's back to her mother's hut. When the
+customary period of a few days has elapsed, she is allowed to cook
+again, after first whitewashing the floor of the hut. But, by the
+following month, the preparations for her initiation are complete.
+The novice must remain in her hut throughout the whole period of
+initiation, and is carefully guarded by the old women, who
+accompany her whenever she leaves her quarters, veiling her head
+with a native cloth. The ceremonies last for at least one month."
+During this period of seclusion, drumming and songs are kept up
+within the mother's hut by the village women, and no male, except,
+it is said, the father of twins, is allowed to enter. The
+directress of the rites and the older women instruct the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page25" name="page25"></a>[pg
+25]</span> young girl as to the elementary facts of life, the
+duties of marriage, and the rules of conduct, decorum, and
+hospitality to be observed by a married woman. Amongst other things
+the damsel must submit to a series of tests such as leaping over
+fences, thrusting her head into a collar made of thorns, and so on.
+The lessons which she receives are illustrated by mud figures of
+animals and of the common objects of domestic life. Moreover, the
+directress of studies embellishes the walls of the hut with rude
+pictures, each with its special significance and song, which must
+be understood and learned by the girl.<a id="footnotetag72" name=
+"footnotetag72"></a><a href="#footnote72"><sup>72</sup></a> In the
+foregoing account the rule that a damsel at puberty may neither see
+the sun nor touch the ground seems implied by the statement that on
+the first discovery of her condition she hides in long grass and is
+carried home after sunset on the back of an old woman.</p>
+<a id="seclusionbritishcentral" name="seclusionbritishcentral"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the tribes of British
+Central Africa.]</p>
+<p>Among the Nyanja-speaking tribes of Central Angoniland, in
+British Central Africa, when a young girl finds that she has become
+a woman, she stands silent by the pathway leading to the village,
+her face wrapt in her calico. An old woman, finding her there,
+takes her off to a stream to bathe; after that the girl is secluded
+for six days in the old woman's hut. She eats her porridge out of
+an old basket and her relish, in which no salt is put, from a
+potsherd. The basket is afterwards thrown away. On the seventh day
+the aged matrons gather together, go with the girl to a stream, and
+throw her into the water. In returning they sing songs, and the old
+woman, who directs the proceedings, carries the maiden on her back.
+Then they spread a mat and fetch her husband and set the two down
+on the mat and shave his head. When it is dark, the old women
+escort the girl to her husband's hut. There the <i>ndiwo</i> relish
+is cooking on the fire. During the night the woman rises and puts
+some salt in the pot. Next morning, before dawn, while all is dark
+and the villagers have not yet opened their doors, the young
+married woman goes off and gives some of the relish to her mother
+and to the old woman who was mistress of the ceremony. This relish
+she sets down at the doors of their <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page26" name="page26"></a>[pg 26]</span> houses and goes away. And
+in the morning, when the sun has risen and all is light in the
+village, the two women open their doors, and there they find the
+relish with the salt in it; and they take of it and rub it on their
+feet and under their arm-pits; and if there are little children in
+the house, they eat of it. And if the young wife has a kinsman who
+is absent from the village, some of the relish is put on a splinter
+of bamboo and kept against his return, that when he comes he, too,
+may rub his feet with it. But if the woman finds that her husband
+is impotent, she does not rise betimes and go out in the dark to
+lay the relish at the doors of her mother and the old woman. And in
+the morning, when the sun is up and all the village is light, the
+old women open their doors, and see no relish there, and they know
+what has happened, and so they go wilily to work. For they persuade
+the husband to consult the diviner that he may discover how to cure
+his impotence; and while he is closeted with the wizard, they fetch
+another man, who finishes the ceremony with the young wife, in
+order that the relish may be given out and that people may rub
+their feet with it. But if it happens that when a girl comes to
+maturity she is not yet betrothed to any man, and therefore has no
+husband to go to, the matrons tell her that she must go to a lover
+instead. And this is the custom which they call <i>chigango</i>. So
+in the evening she takes her cooking pot and relish and hies away
+to the quarters of the young bachelors, and they very civilly sleep
+somewhere else that night. And in the morning the girl goes back to
+the <i>kuka</i> hut.<a id="footnotetag73" name=
+"footnotetag73"></a><a href="#footnote73"><sup>73</sup></a></p>
+<a id="abstinencesalt" name="abstinencesalt"></a>
+<p>[Abstinence from salt associated with a rule of chastity in many
+tribes.]</p>
+<p>From the foregoing account it appears that among these tribes no
+sooner has a girl attained to womanhood than she is expected and
+indeed required to give proof of her newly acquired powers by
+cohabiting with a man, whether her husband or another. And the
+abstinence from salt during the girl's seclusion is all the more
+remarkable because as soon as the seclusion is over she has to use
+salt for a particular purpose, to which the people evidently attach
+very great importance, since in the event of her husband proving
+impotent she is even compelled, apparently, to commit <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page27" name="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span> adultery
+in order that the salted relish may be given out as usual. In this
+connexion it deserves to be noted that among the Wagogo of German
+East Africa women at their monthly periods may not sleep with their
+husbands and may not put salt in food.<a id="footnotetag74" name=
+"footnotetag74"></a><a href="#footnote74"><sup>74</sup></a> A
+similar rule is observed by the Nyanja-speaking tribes of Central
+Angoniland, with whose puberty customs we are here concerned. Among
+them, we are told, "some superstition exists with regard to the use
+of salt. A woman during her monthly sickness must on no account put
+salt into any food she is cooking, lest she give her husband or
+children a disease called <i>tsempo</i> (<i>chitsoko soko</i>) but
+calls a child to put it in, or, as the song goes, '<i>Natira
+nichere ni bondo chifukwa n'kupanda mwana</i>' and pours in the
+salt by placing it on her knee, because there is no child handy.
+Should a party of villagers have gone to make salt, all sexual
+intercourse is forbidden among the people of the village, until the
+people who have gone to make the salt (from grass) return. When
+they do come back, they must make their entry into the village at
+night, and no one must see them. Then one of the elders of the
+village sleeps with his wife. She then cooks some relish, into
+which she puts some of the salt. This relish is handed round to the
+people who went to make the salt, who rub it on their feet and
+under their armpits."<a id="footnotetag75" name=
+"footnotetag75"></a><a href="#footnote75"><sup>75</sup></a> Hence
+it would seem that in the mind of these people abstinence from salt
+is somehow associated with the idea of chastity. The same
+association meets us in the customs of many peoples in various
+parts of the world. For example, ancient Hindoo ritual prescribed
+that for three nights after a husband had brought his bride home,
+the two should sleep on the ground, remain chaste, and eat no
+salt.<a id="footnotetag76" name="footnotetag76"></a><a href=
+"#footnote76"><sup>76</sup></a> Among the Baganda, when a man was
+making a net, he had to refrain from eating salt and meat and from
+living with his wife; these restrictions he observed until the net
+took its first catch of fish. Similarly, so long as a fisherman's
+nets or traps were in the water, he must live apart from his wife,
+and neither he nor she nor their children might eat salt or
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page28" name="page28"></a>[pg
+28]</span> meat.<a id="footnotetag77" name=
+"footnotetag77"></a><a href="#footnote77"><sup>77</sup></a>
+Evidence of the same sort could be multiplied,<a id="footnotetag78"
+name="footnotetag78"></a><a href="#footnote78"><sup>78</sup></a>
+but without going into it further we may say that for some reason
+which is not obvious to us primitive man connects salt with the
+intercourse of the sexes and therefore forbids the use of that
+condiment in a variety of circumstances in which he deems
+continence necessary or desirable. As there is nothing which the
+savage regards as a greater bar between the sexes than the state of
+menstruation, he naturally prohibits the use of salt to women and
+girls at their monthly periods.</p>
+<a id="seclusionnyassa" name="seclusionnyassa"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the tribes about Lake
+Nyassa and on the Zambesi.]</p>
+<p>With the Awa-nkonde, a tribe at the northern end of Lake Nyassa,
+it is a rule that after her first menstruation a girl must be kept
+apart, with a few companions of her own sex, in a darkened house.
+The floor is covered with dry banana leaves, but no fire may be lit
+in the house, which is called "the house of the Awasungu," that is,
+"of maidens who have no hearts."<a id="footnotetag79" name=
+"footnotetag79"></a><a href="#footnote79"><sup>79</sup></a> When a
+girl reaches puberty, the Wafiomi of Eastern Africa hold a festival
+at which they make a noise with a peculiar kind of rattle. After
+that the girl remains for a year in the large common hut
+(<i>tembe</i>), where she occupies a special compartment screened
+off from the men's quarters. She may not cut her hair or touch
+food, but is fed by other women. At night, however, she quits the
+hut and dances with young men.<a id="footnotetag80" name=
+"footnotetag80"></a><a href="#footnote80"><sup>80</sup></a> Among
+the Barotse or Marotse of the upper Zambesi, "when a girl arrives
+at the age of puberty she is sent into the fields, where a hut is
+constructed far from the village. There, with two or three
+companions, she spends a month, returning home late and starting
+before dawn in order not to be seen by the men. The women of the
+village visit her, bringing food and honey, and singing and dancing
+to amuse her. At the end of a month her husband comes and fetches
+her. It is only after this ceremony that women have the right to
+smear themselves with ochre."<a id="footnotetag81" name=
+"footnotetag81"></a><a href="#footnote81"><sup>81</sup></a> We may
+suspect that the chief reason why <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page29" name="page29"></a>[pg 29]</span> the girl during her
+seclusion may visit her home only by night is a fear, not so much
+lest she should be seen by men, as that she might be seen by the
+sun. Among the Wafiomi, as we have just learned, the young woman in
+similar circumstances is even free to dance with men, provided
+always that the dance is danced at night. The ceremonies among the
+Barotse or Marotse are somewhat more elaborate for a girl of the
+royal family. She is shut up for three months in a place which is
+kept secret from the public; only the women of her family know
+where it is. There she sits alone in the darkness of the hut,
+waited on by female slaves, who are strictly forbidden to speak and
+may communicate with her and with each other only by signs. During
+all this time, though she does nothing, she eats much, and when at
+last she comes forth, her appearance is quite changed, so fat has
+she grown. She is then led by night to the river and bathed in
+presence of all the women of the village. Next day she flaunts
+before the public in her gayest attire, her head bedecked with
+ornaments and her face mottled with red paint. So everybody knows
+what has happened.<a id="footnotetag82" name=
+"footnotetag82"></a><a href="#footnote82"><sup>82</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusionthonga" name="seclusionthonga"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Thonga on Delagoa
+Bay.]</p>
+<p>Among the northern clans of the Thonga tribe, in South-Eastern
+Africa, about Delagoa Bay, when a girl thinks that the time of her
+nubility is near, she chooses an adoptive mother, perhaps in a
+neighbouring village. When the symptoms appear, she flies away from
+her own village and repairs to that of her adopted mother "to weep
+near her." After that she is secluded with several other girls in
+the same condition for a month. They are shut up in a hut, and
+whenever they come outside they must wear a dirty greasy cloth over
+their faces as a veil. Every morning they are led to a pool and
+plunged in the water up to their necks. Initiated girls or women
+accompany them, singing obscene songs and driving away with sticks
+any man who meets them; for no man may see a girl during this time
+of seclusion. If he saw her, it is said that he would be struck
+blind. On their return from the river, the girls are again
+imprisoned in the hut, where they remain wet and shivering, for
+they may not go near the fire to warm themselves. During their
+seclusion they listen to lascivious songs sung by <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page30" name="page30"></a>[pg 30]</span> grown
+women and are instructed in sexual matters. At the end of the month
+the adoptive mother brings the girl home to her true mother and
+presents her with a pot of beer.<a id="footnotetag83" name=
+"footnotetag83"></a><a href="#footnote83"><sup>83</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusioncaffre" name="seclusioncaffre"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Caffre tribes of South
+Africa.]</p>
+<p>Among the Caffre tribes of South Africa the period of a girl's
+seclusion at puberty varies with the rank of her father. If he is a
+rich man, it may last twelve days; if he is a chief, it may last
+twenty-four days.<a id="footnotetag84" name=
+"footnotetag84"></a><a href="#footnote84"><sup>84</sup></a> And
+when it is over, the girl rubs herself over with red earth, and
+strews finely powdered red earth on the ground, before she leaves
+the hut where she has been shut up. Finally, though she was
+forbidden to drink milk all the days of her separation, she washes
+out her mouth with milk, and is from that moment regarded as a
+full-grown woman.<a id="footnotetag85" name=
+"footnotetag85"></a><a href="#footnote85"><sup>85</sup></a>
+Afterwards, in the dusk of the evening, she carries away all the
+objects with which she came into contact in the hut during her
+seclusion and buries them secretly in a sequestered spot.<a id=
+"footnotetag86" name="footnotetag86"></a><a href=
+"#footnote86"><sup>86</sup></a> When the girl is a chief's daughter
+the ceremonies at her liberation from the hut are more elaborate
+than usual. She is led forth from the hut by a son of her father's
+councillor, who, wearing the wings of a blue crane, the badge of
+bravery, on his head, escorts her to the cattle kraal, where cows
+are slaughtered and dancing takes place. Large skins full of milk
+are sent to the spot from neighbouring villages; and after the
+dances are over the girl drinks milk for the first time since the
+day she entered into retreat. But the first mouthful is drunk by
+the girl's aunt or other female relative who had charge of her
+during her seclusion; and a little of it is poured on the
+fire-place.<a id="footnotetag87" name="footnotetag87"></a><a href=
+"#footnote87"><sup>87</sup></a> Amongst the Zulus, when the girl
+was a princess royal, the end of her time of separation was
+celebrated by a sort of saturnalia: law and order were for the time
+being in abeyance: every man, woman, and child might appropriate
+any article of property: the king abstained from interfering; and
+if during this reign of misrule he was robbed of anything he valued
+he could only <span class="pagenum"><a id="page31" name=
+"page31"></a>[pg 31]</span> recover it by paying a fine.<a id=
+"footnotetag88" name="footnotetag88"></a><a href=
+"#footnote88"><sup>88</sup></a> Among the Basutos, when girls at
+puberty are bathed as usual by the matrons in a river, they are
+hidden separately in the turns and bends of the stream, and told to
+cover their heads, as they will be visited by a large serpent.
+Their limbs are then plastered with clay, little masks of straw are
+put on their faces, and thus arrayed they daily follow each other
+in procession, singing melancholy airs, to the fields, there to
+learn the labours of husbandry in which a great part of their adult
+life will be passed.<a id="footnotetag89" name=
+"footnotetag89"></a><a href="#footnote89"><sup>89</sup></a> We may
+suppose, though we are not told, that the straw masks which they
+wear in these processions are intended to hide their faces from the
+gaze of men and the rays of the sun.</p>
+<a id="seclusionlowercongo" name="seclusionlowercongo"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty in the Lower Congo.]</p>
+<p>Among the tribes in the lower valley of the Congo, such as the
+Bavili, when a girl arrives at puberty, she has to pass two or
+three months in seclusion in a small hut built for the purpose. The
+hair of her head is shaved off, and every day the whole of her body
+is smeared with a red paint (<i>takulla</i>) made from a powdered
+wood mixed with water. Some of her companions reside in the hut
+with her and prepare the paint for her use. A woman is appointed to
+take charge of the hut and to keep off intruders. At the end of her
+confinement she is taken to water by the women of her family and
+bathed; the paint is rubbed off her body, her arms and legs are
+loaded with brass rings, and she is led in solemn procession under
+an umbrella to her husband's house. If these ceremonies were not
+performed, the people believe that the girl would be barren or
+would give birth to monsters, that the rain would cease to fall,
+the earth to bear fruit, and the fishing to be successful.<a id=
+"footnotetag90" name="footnotetag90"></a><a href=
+"#footnote90"><sup>90</sup></a> Such serious importance do these
+savages <span class="pagenum"><a id="page32" name="page32"></a>[pg
+32]</span> ascribe to the performance of rites which to us seem so
+childish.</p>
+<h4><a id="sect2-2" name="sect2-2">&sect; 2. <i>Seclusion of Girls
+at Puberty in New Ireland, New Guinea, and Indonesia</i></a></h4>
+<a id="seclusionnewireland" name="seclusionnewireland"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty in New Ireland.]</p>
+<p>In New Ireland girls are confined for four or five years in
+small cages, being kept in the dark and not allowed to set foot on
+the ground. The custom has been thus described by an eye-witness.
+"I heard from a teacher about some strange custom connected with
+some of the young girls here, so I asked the chief to take me to
+the house where they were. The house was about twenty-five feet in
+length, and stood in a reed and bamboo enclosure, across the
+entrance to which a bundle of dried grass was suspended to show
+that it was strictly '<i>tabu</i>.' Inside the house were three
+conical structures about seven or eight feet in height, and about
+ten or twelve feet in circumference at the bottom, and for about
+four feet from the ground, at which point they tapered off to a
+point at the top. These cages were made of the broad leaves of the
+pandanus-tree, sewn quite close together so that no light and
+little or no air could enter. On one side of each is an opening
+which is closed by a double door of plaited cocoa-nut tree and
+pandanus-tree leaves. About three feet from the ground there is a
+stage of bamboos which forms the floor. In each of these cages we
+were told there was a young woman confined, each of whom had to
+remain for at least four or five years, without ever being allowed
+to go outside the house. I could scarcely credit the story when I
+heard it; the whole thing seemed too horrible to be true. I spoke
+to the chief, and told him that I wished to see the inside of the
+cages, and also to see the girls that I might make them a present
+of a few beads. He told me that it was '<i>tabu</i>,' forbidden for
+any men but their own relations to look at them; but I suppose the
+promised beads <span class="pagenum"><a id="page33" name=
+"page33"></a>[pg 33]</span> acted as an inducement, and so he sent
+away for some old lady who had charge, and who alone is allowed to
+open the doors. While we were waiting we could hear the girls
+talking to the chief in a querulous way as if objecting to
+something or expressing their fears. The old woman came at length
+and certainly she did not seem a very pleasant jailor or guardian;
+nor did she seem to favour the request of the chief to allow us to
+see the girls, as she regarded us with anything but pleasant looks.
+However, she had to undo the door when the chief told her to do so,
+and then the girls peeped out at us, and, when told to do so, they
+held out their hands for the beads. I, however, purposely sat at
+some distance away and merely held out the beads to them, as I
+wished to draw them quite outside, that I might inspect the inside
+of the cages. This desire of mine gave rise to another difficulty,
+as these girls were not allowed to put their feet to the ground all
+the time they were confined in these places. However, they wished
+to get the beads, and so the old lady had to go outside and collect
+a lot of pieces of wood and bamboo, which she placed on the ground,
+and then going to one of the girls, she helped her down and held
+her hand as she stepped from one piece of wood to another until she
+came near enough to get the beads I held out to her. I then went to
+inspect the inside of the cage out of which she had come, but could
+scarcely put my head inside of it, the atmosphere was so hot and
+stifling. It was clean and contained nothing but a few short
+lengths of bamboo for holding water. There was only room for the
+girl to sit or lie down in a crouched position on the bamboo
+platform, and when the doors are shut it must be nearly or quite
+dark inside. The girls are never allowed to come out except once a
+day to bathe in a dish or wooden bowl placed close to each cage.
+They say that they perspire profusely. They are placed in these
+stifling cages when quite young, and must remain there until they
+are young women, when they are taken out and have each a great
+marriage feast provided for them. One of them was about fourteen or
+fifteen years old, and the chief told us that she had been there
+for five years, but would soon be taken out now. The other two were
+about eight and ten years old, and they have to stay there for
+several years <span class="pagenum"><a id="page34" name=
+"page34"></a>[pg 34]</span> longer."<a id="footnotetag91" name=
+"footnotetag91"></a><a href="#footnote91"><sup>91</sup></a> A more
+recent observer has described the custom as it is observed on the
+western coast of New Ireland. He says: "A <i>buck</i> is the name
+of a little house, not larger than an ordinary hen-coop, in which a
+little girl is shut up, sometimes for weeks only, and at other
+times for months.... Briefly stated, the custom is this. Girls, on
+attaining puberty or betrothal, are enclosed in one of these little
+coops for a considerable time. They must remain there night and
+day. We saw two of these girls in two coops; the girls were not
+more than ten years old, still they were lying in a doubled-up
+position, as their little houses would not admit of them lying in
+any other way. These two coops were inside a large house; but the
+chief, in consideration of a present of a couple of tomahawks,
+ordered the ends to be torn out of the house to admit the light, so
+that we might photograph the <i>buck</i>. The occupant was allowed
+to put her face through an opening to be photographed, in
+consideration of another present."<a id="footnotetag92" name=
+"footnotetag92"></a><a href="#footnote92"><sup>92</sup></a> As a
+consequence of their long enforced idleness in the shade the girls
+grow fat and their dusky complexion bleaches to a more pallid hue.
+Both their corpulence and their pallor are regarded as
+beauties.<a id="footnotetag93" name="footnotetag93"></a><a href=
+"#footnote93"><sup>93</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page35" name="page35"></a>[pg
+35]</span> <a id="seclusionnewguinea" name=
+"seclusionnewguinea"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty in New Guinea, Borneo, Ceram and
+Yap.]</p>
+<p>In Kabadi, a district of British New Guinea, "daughters of
+chiefs, when they are about twelve or thirteen years of age, are
+kept indoors for two or three years, never being allowed, under any
+pretence, to descend from the house, and the house is so shaded
+that the sun cannot shine on them."<a id="footnotetag94" name=
+"footnotetag94"></a><a href="#footnote94"><sup>94</sup></a> Among
+the Yabim and Bukaua, two neighbouring and kindred tribes on the
+coast of German New Guinea, a girl at puberty is secluded for some
+five or six weeks in an inner part of the house; but she may not
+sit on the floor, lest her uncleanness should cleave to it, so a
+log of wood is placed for her to squat on. Moreover, she may not
+touch the ground with her feet; hence if she is obliged to quit the
+house for a short time, she is muffled up in mats and walks on two
+halves of a coconut shell, which are fastened like sandals to her
+feet by creeping plants. During her seclusion she is in charge of
+her aunts or other female relatives. At the end of the time she
+bathes, her person is loaded with ornaments, her face is
+grotesquely painted with red stripes on a white ground, and thus
+adorned she is brought forth in public to be admired by everybody.
+She is now marriageable.<a id="footnotetag95" name=
+"footnotetag95"></a><a href="#footnote95"><sup>95</sup></a> Among
+the Ot Danoms of Borneo girls at the age of eight or ten years are
+shut up in a little room or cell of the house, and cut off from all
+intercourse with the world for a long time. The cell, like the rest
+of the house, is raised on piles above the ground, and is lit by a
+single small window opening on a lonely place, so that the girl is
+in almost total darkness. She may not leave the room on any pretext
+whatever, not even for the most necessary purposes. None of her
+family may see her all the time she is shut up, but a single slave
+woman is appointed to wait on her. During her lonely confinement,
+which often lasts seven years, the girl occupies herself in weaving
+mats or with other handiwork. Her bodily growth is stunted by the
+long want of exercise, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page36"
+name="page36"></a>[pg 36]</span> when, on attaining womanhood, she
+is brought out, her complexion is pale and wax-like. She is now
+shewn the sun, the earth, the water, the trees, and the flowers, as
+if she were newly born. Then a great feast is made, a slave is
+killed, and the girl is smeared with his blood.<a id=
+"footnotetag96" name="footnotetag96"></a><a href=
+"#footnote96"><sup>96</sup></a> In Ceram girls at puberty were
+formerly shut up by themselves in a hut which was kept dark.<a id=
+"footnotetag97" name="footnotetag97"></a><a href=
+"#footnote97"><sup>97</sup></a> In Yap, one of the Caroline
+Islands, should a girl be overtaken by her first menstruation on
+the public road, she may not sit down on the earth, but must beg
+for a coco-nut shell to put under her. She is shut up for several
+days in a small hut at a distance from her parents' house, and
+afterwards she is bound to sleep for a hundred days in one of the
+special houses which are provided for the use of menstruous
+women.<a id="footnotetag98" name="footnotetag98"></a><a href=
+"#footnote98"><sup>98</sup></a></p>
+<h4><a id="sect2-3" name="sect2-3">&sect; 3. <i>Seclusion of Girls
+at Puberty in the Torres Straits Islands and Northern
+Australia</i></a></h4>
+<a id="seclusionmabuiag" name="seclusionmabuiag"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty in Mabuiag, Torres Straits.]</p>
+<p>In the island of Mabuiag, Torres Straits, when the signs of
+puberty appear on a girl, a circle of bushes is made in a dark
+corner of the house. Here, decked with shoulder-belts, armlets,
+leglets just below the knees, and anklets, wearing a chaplet on her
+head, and shell ornaments in her ears, on her chest, and on her
+back, she squats in the midst of the bushes, which are piled so
+high round about her that only her head is visible. In this state
+of seclusion she must remain for three months. All this time the
+sun may not shine upon her, but at night she is allowed to slip out
+of the hut, and the bushes that hedge her in are then changed. She
+may not feed herself or handle food, but is fed by one or two old
+women, her maternal aunts, who are especially appointed to look
+after her. One of these women cooks food for her at a special fire
+in the forest. The girl is forbidden to eat turtle or <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page37" name="page37"></a>[pg 37]</span> turtle
+eggs during the season when the turtles are breeding; but no
+vegetable food is refused her. No man, not even her own father, may
+come into the house while her seclusion lasts; for if her father
+saw her at this time he would certainly have bad luck in his
+fishing, and would probably smash his canoe the very next time he
+went out in it. At the end of the three months she is carried down
+to a fresh-water creek by her attendants, hanging on to their
+shoulders in such a way that her feet do not touch the ground,
+while the women of the tribe form a ring round her, and thus escort
+her to the beach. Arrived at the shore, she is stripped of her
+ornaments, and the bearers stagger with her into the creek, where
+they immerse her, and all the other women join in splashing water
+over both the girl and her bearers. When they come out of the water
+one of the two attendants makes a heap of grass for her charge to
+squat upon. The other runs to the reef, catches a small crab, tears
+off its claws, and hastens back with them to the creek. Here in the
+meantime a fire has been kindled, and the claws are roasted at it.
+The girl is then fed by her attendants with the roasted claws.
+After that she is freshly decorated, and the whole party marches
+back to the village in a single rank, the girl walking in the
+centre between her two old aunts, who hold her by the wrists. The
+husbands of her aunts now receive her and lead her into the house
+of one of them, where all partake of food, and the girl is allowed
+once more to feed herself in the usual manner. A dance follows, in
+which the girl takes a prominent part, dancing between the husbands
+of the two aunts who had charge of her in her retirement.<a id=
+"footnotetag99" name="footnotetag99"></a><a href=
+"#footnote99"><sup>99</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusionnorthernaustralia" name=
+"seclusionnorthernaustralia"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty in Northern Australia.]</p>
+<p>Among the Yaraikanna tribe of Cape York Peninsula, in Northern
+Queensland, a girl at puberty is said to live by herself for a
+month or six weeks; no man may see her, though any woman may. She
+stays in a hut or shelter specially made for her, on the floor of
+which she lies supine. She may not see the sun, and towards sunset
+she must keep her eyes shut until the sun has gone down, otherwise
+it is thought that her nose will be diseased. During her seclusion
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page38" name="page38"></a>[pg
+38]</span> she may eat nothing that lives in salt water, or a snake
+would kill her. An old woman waits upon her and supplies her with
+roots, yams, and water.<a id="footnotetag100" name=
+"footnotetag100"></a><a href="#footnote100"><sup>100</sup></a> Some
+tribes are wont to bury their girls at such seasons more or less
+deeply in the ground, perhaps in order to hide them from the light
+of the sun. Thus the Larrakeeyah tribe in the northern territory of
+South Australia used to cover a girl up with dirt for three days at
+her first monthly period.<a id="footnotetag101" name=
+"footnotetag101"></a><a href="#footnote101"><sup>101</sup></a> In
+similar circumstances the Otati tribe, on the east coast of the
+Cape York Peninsula, make an excavation in the ground, where the
+girl squats. A bower is then built over the hole, and sand is
+thrown on the young woman till she is covered up to the hips. In
+this condition she remains for the first day, but comes out at
+night. So long as the period lasts, she stays in the bower during
+the day-time, but is not again covered with sand. Afterwards her
+body is painted red and white from the head to the hips, and she
+returns to the camp, where she squats first on the right side, then
+on the left side, and then on the lap of her future husband, who
+has been previously selected for her.<a id="footnotetag102" name=
+"footnotetag102"></a><a href="#footnote102"><sup>102</sup></a>
+Among the natives of the Pennefather River, in the Cape York
+Peninsula, Queensland, when a girl menstruates for the first time,
+her mother takes her away from the camp to some secluded spot,
+where she digs a circular hole in the sandy soil under the shade of
+a tree. In this hole the girl squats with crossed legs and is
+covered with sand from the waist downwards. A digging-stick is
+planted firmly in the sand on each side of her, and the place is
+surrounded by a fence of bushes except in front, where her mother
+kindles a fire. Here the girl stays all day, sitting with her arms
+crossed and the palms of her hands resting on the sand. She may not
+move her arms except to take food from her mother or to scratch
+herself; and in scratching herself she may not touch herself with
+her own hands, but must use for the purpose a splinter of wood,
+which, when it is not in use, is stuck in her hair. She may speak
+to nobody but her mother; indeed nobody else would <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page39" name="page39"></a>[pg 39]</span> think of
+coming near her. At evening she lays hold of the two digging-sticks
+and by their help frees herself from the superincumbent weight of
+sand and returns to the camp. Next morning she is again buried in
+the sand under the shade of the tree and remains there again till
+evening. This she does daily for five days. On her return at
+evening on the fifth day her mother decorates her with a
+waist-band, a forehead-band, and a necklet of pearl-shell, ties
+green parrot feathers round her arms and wrists and across her
+chest, and smears her body, back and front, from the waist upwards
+with blotches of red, white, and yellow paint. She has in like
+manner to be buried in the sand at her second and third
+menstruations, but at the fourth she is allowed to remain in camp,
+only signifying her condition by wearing a basket of empty shells
+on her back.<a id="footnotetag103" name=
+"footnotetag103"></a><a href="#footnote103"><sup>103</sup></a>
+Among the Kia blacks of the Prosperine River, on the east coast of
+Queensland, a girl at puberty has to sit or lie down in a shallow
+pit away from the camp; a rough hut of bushes is erected over her
+to protect her from the inclemency of the weather. There she stays
+for about a week, waited on by her mother and sister, the only
+persons to whom she may speak. She is allowed to drink water, but
+may not touch it with her hands; and she may scratch herself a
+little with a mussel-shell. This seclusion is repeated at her
+second and third monthly periods, but when the third is over she is
+brought to her husband bedecked with savage finery. Eagle-hawk or
+cockatoo feathers are stuck in her hair: a shell hangs over her
+forehead: grass bugles encircle her neck and an apron of opossum
+skin her waist: strings are tied to her arms and wrists; and her
+whole body is mottled with patterns drawn in red, white, and yellow
+pigments and charcoal.<a id="footnotetag104" name=
+"footnotetag104"></a><a href="#footnote104"><sup>104</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusiontorres" name="seclusiontorres"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty in the islands of Torres
+Straits.]</p>
+<p>Among the Uiyumkwi tribe in Red Island the girl lies at full
+length in a shallow trench dug in the foreshore, and sand is
+lightly thrown over her legs and body up to the breasts, which
+appear not to be covered. A rough shelter of boughs is then built
+over her, and thus she <span class="pagenum"><a id="page40" name=
+"page40"></a>[pg 40]</span> remains lying for a few hours. Then she
+and her attendant go into the bush and look for food, which they
+cook at a fire close to the shelter. They sleep under the boughs,
+the girl remaining secluded from the camp but apparently not being
+again buried. At the end of the symptoms she stands over hot stones
+and water is poured over her, till, trickling from her body on the
+stones, it is converted into steam and envelops her in a cloud of
+vapour. Then she is painted with red and white stripes and returns
+to the camp. If her future husband has already been chosen, she
+goes to him and they eat some food together, which the girl has
+previously brought from the bush.<a id="footnotetag105" name=
+"footnotetag105"></a><a href="#footnote105"><sup>105</sup></a> In
+Prince of Wales Island, Torres Strait, the treatment of the patient
+is similar, but lasts for about two months. During the day she lies
+covered up with sand in a shallow hole on the beach, over which a
+hut is built. At night she may get out of the hole, but she may not
+leave the hut. Her paternal aunt looks after her, and both of them
+must abstain from eating turtle, dugong, and the heads of fish.
+Were they to eat the heads of fish no more fish would be caught.
+During the time of the girl's seclusion, the aunt who waits upon
+her has the right to enter any house and take from it anything she
+likes without payment, provided she does so before the sun rises.
+When the time of her retirement has come to an end, the girl bathes
+in the sea while the morning star is rising, and after performing
+various other ceremonies is readmitted to society.<a id=
+"footnotetag106" name="footnotetag106"></a><a href=
+"#footnote106"><sup>106</sup></a> In Saibai, another island of
+Torres Straits, at her first monthly sickness a girl lives secluded
+in the forest for about a fortnight, during which no man may see
+her; even the women who have spoken to her in the forest must wash
+in salt water before they speak to a man. Two girls wait upon and
+feed the damsel, putting the food into her mouth, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page41" name="page41"></a>[pg 41]</span> for she
+is not allowed to touch it with her own hands. Nor may she eat
+dugong and turtle. At the end of a fortnight the girl and her
+attendants bathe in salt water while the tide is running out.
+Afterwards they are clean, may again speak to men without ceremony,
+and move freely about the village. In Yam and Tutu a girl at
+puberty retires for a month to the forest, where no man nor even
+her own mother may look upon her. She is waited on by women who
+stand to her in a certain relationship (<i>mowai</i>), apparently
+her paternal aunts. She is blackened all over with charcoal and
+wears a long petticoat reaching below her knees. During her
+seclusion the married women of the village often assemble in the
+forest and dance, and the girl's aunts relieve the tedium of the
+proceedings by thrashing her from time to time as a useful
+preparation for matrimony. At the end of a month the whole party go
+into the sea, and the charcoal is washed off the girl. After that
+she is decorated, her body blackened again, her hair reddened with
+ochre, and in the evening she is brought back to her father's
+house, where she is received with weeping and lamentation because
+she has been so long away.<a id="footnotetag107" name=
+"footnotetag107"></a><a href="#footnote107"><sup>107</sup></a></p>
+<h4><a id="sect2-4" name="sect2-4">&sect; 4. <i>Seclusion of Girls
+at Puberty among the Indians of North America</i></a></h4>
+<a id="seclusioncaliformia" name="seclusioncaliformia"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of
+California]</p>
+<p>Among the Indians of California a girl at her first menstruation
+"was thought to be possessed of a particular degree of supernatural
+power, and this was not always regarded as entirely defiling or
+malevolent. Often, however, there was a strong feeling of the power
+of evil inherent in her condition. Not only was she secluded from
+her family and the community, but an attempt was made to seclude
+the world from her. One of the injunctions most strongly laid upon
+her was not to look about her. She kept her head bowed and was
+forbidden to see the world and the sun. Some tribes covered her
+with a blanket. Many of the customs in this connection resembled
+those of the North Pacific Coast most strongly, such as the
+prohibition to the girl to touch or scratch her head with her hand,
+a special implement being furnished her for the purpose. Sometimes
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page42" name="page42"></a>[pg
+42]</span> she could eat only when fed and in other cases fasted
+altogether. Some form of public ceremony, often accompanied by a
+dance and sometimes by a form of ordeal for the girl, was practised
+nearly everywhere. Such ceremonies were well developed in Southern
+California, where a number of actions symbolical of the girl's
+maturity and subsequent life were performed."<a id="footnotetag108"
+name="footnotetag108"></a><a href="#footnote108"><sup>108</sup></a>
+Thus among the Maidu Indians of California a girl at puberty
+remained shut up in a small separate hut. For five days she might
+not eat flesh or fish nor feed herself, but was fed by her mother
+or other old woman. She had a basket, plate, and cup for her own
+use, and a stick with which to scratch her head, for she might not
+scratch it with her fingers. At the end of five days she took a
+warm bath and, while she still remained in the hut and plied the
+scratching-stick on her head, was privileged to feed herself with
+her own hands. After five days more she bathed in the river, after
+which her parents gave a great feast in her honour. At the feast
+the girl was dressed in her best, and anybody might ask her parents
+for anything he pleased, and they had to give it, even if it was
+the hand of their daughter in marriage. During the period of her
+seclusion in the hut the girl was allowed to go by night to her
+parents' house and listen to songs sung by her friends and
+relations, who assembled for the purpose. Among the songs were some
+that related to the different roots and seeds which in these tribes
+it is the business of women to gather for food. While the singers
+sang, she sat by herself in a corner of the house muffled up
+completely in mats and skins; no man or boy might come near
+her.<a id="footnotetag109" name="footnotetag109"></a><a href=
+"#footnote109"><sup>109</sup></a> Among the Hupa, another Indian
+tribe of California, when a girl had reached maturity her male
+relatives danced all night for nine successive nights, while the
+girl remained apart, eating no meat and blindfolded. But on the
+tenth night she entered the house and took part in the last
+dance.<a id="footnotetag110" name="footnotetag110"></a><a href=
+"#footnote110"><sup>110</sup></a> Among the Wintun, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page43" name="page43"></a>[pg 43]</span> another
+Californian tribe, a girl at puberty was banished from the camp and
+lived alone in a distant booth, fasting rigidly from animal food;
+it was death to any person to touch or even approach her.<a id=
+"footnotetag111" name="footnotetag111"></a><a href=
+"#footnote111"><sup>111</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusionwashington" name="seclusionwashington"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of Washington
+State.]</p>
+<p>In the interior of Washington State, about Colville, "the
+customs of the Indians, in relation to the treatment of females,
+are singular. On the first appearance of the menses, they are
+furnished with provisions, and sent into the woods, to remain
+concealed for two days; for they have a superstition, that if a man
+should be seen or met with during that time, death will be the
+consequence. At the end of the second day, the woman is permitted
+to return to the lodge, when she is placed in a hut just large
+enough for her to lie in at full length, in which she is compelled
+to remain for twenty days, cut off from all communication with her
+friends, and is obliged to hide her face at the appearance of a
+man. Provisions are supplied her daily. After this, she is required
+to perform repeated ablutions, before she can resume her place in
+the family. At every return, the women go into seclusion for two or
+more days."<a id="footnotetag112" name=
+"footnotetag112"></a><a href="#footnote112"><sup>112</sup></a>
+Among the Chinook Indians who inhabited the coast of Washington
+State, from Shoalwater Bay as far as Grey's Harbour, when a chief's
+daughter attained to puberty, she was hidden for five days from the
+view of the people; she might not look at them nor at the sky, nor
+might she pick berries. It was believed that if she were to look at
+the sky, the weather would be bad; that if she picked berries, it
+would rain; and that when she hung her towel of cedar-bark on a
+spruce-tree, the tree withered up at once. She went out of the
+house by a separate door and bathed in a creek far from the
+village. She fasted for some days, and for many days more she might
+not eat fresh food.<a id="footnotetag113" name=
+"footnotetag113"></a><a href="#footnote113"><sup>113</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusionnootka" name="seclusionnootka"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Nootka Indians of
+Vancouver Island.]</p>
+<p>Amongst the Aht or Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island, when
+girls reach puberty they are placed in a sort of gallery in the
+house "and are there surrounded <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page44" name="page44"></a>[pg 44]</span> completely with mats, so
+that neither the sun nor any fire can be seen. In this cage they
+remain for several days. Water is given them, but no food. The
+longer a girl remains in this retirement the greater honour is it
+to the parents; but she is disgraced for life if it is known that
+she has seen fire or the sun during this initiatory ordeal."<a id=
+"footnotetag114" name="footnotetag114"></a><a href=
+"#footnote114"><sup>114</sup></a> Pictures of the mythical
+thunder-bird are painted on the screens behind which she hides.
+During her seclusion she may neither move nor lie down, but must
+always sit in a squatting posture. She may not touch her hair with
+her hands, but is allowed to scratch her head with a comb or a
+piece of bone provided for the purpose. To scratch her body is also
+forbidden, as it is believed that every scratch would leave a scar.
+For eight months after reaching maturity she may not eat any fresh
+food, particularly salmon; moreover, she must eat by herself, and
+use a cup and dish of her own.<a id="footnotetag115" name=
+"footnotetag115"></a><a href="#footnote115"><sup>115</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusionhaida" name="seclusionhaida"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Haida Indians of the
+Queen Charlotte Islands.]</p>
+<p>Among the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands girls at
+puberty were secluded behind screens in the house for about twenty
+days. In some parts of the islands separate fires were provided for
+the girls, and they went out and in by a separate door at the back
+of the house. If a girl at such a time was obliged to go out by the
+front door, all the weapons, gambling-sticks, medicine, and other
+articles had to be removed from the house till her return, for
+otherwise it was thought that they would be unlucky; and if there
+was a good hunter in the house, he also had to go out at the same
+time on pain of losing his good luck if he remained. During several
+months or even half a year the girl was bound to wear a peculiar
+cloak or hood made of cedar-bark, nearly conical in shape and
+reaching <span class="pagenum"><a id="page45" name="page45"></a>[pg
+45]</span> down below the breast, but open before the face. After
+the twenty days were over the girl took a bath; none of the water
+might be spilled, it had all to be taken back to the woods, else
+the girl would not live long. On the west coast of the islands the
+damsel might eat nothing but black cod for four years; for the
+people believed that other kinds of fish would become scarce if she
+partook of them. At Kloo the young woman at such times was
+forbidden to look at the sea, and for forty days she might not gaze
+at the fire; for a whole year she might not walk on the beach below
+high-water mark, because then the tide would come in, covering part
+of the food supply, and there would be bad weather. For five years
+she might not eat salmon, or the fish would be scarce; and when her
+family went to a salmon-creek, she landed from the canoe at the
+mouth of the creek and came to the smoke-house from behind; for
+were she to see a salmon leap, all the salmon might leave the
+creek. Among the Haidas of Masset it was believed that if the girl
+looked at the sky, the weather would be bad, and that if she
+stepped over a salmon-creek, all the salmon would disappear.<a id=
+"footnotetag116" name="footnotetag116"></a><a href=
+"#footnote116"><sup>116</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusiontlingit" name="seclusiontlingit"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Tlingit Indians of
+Alaska.]</p>
+<p>Amongst the Tlingit (Thlinkeet) or Kolosh Indians of Alaska,
+when a girl shewed signs of womanhood she used to be confined to a
+little hut or cage, which was completely blocked up with the
+exception of a small air-hole. In this dark and filthy abode she
+had to remain a year, without fire, exercise, or associates. Only
+her mother and a female slave might supply her with nourishment.
+Her food was put in at the little window; she had to drink out of
+the wing-bone of a white-headed eagle. The time of her seclusion
+was afterwards reduced in some places to six or three months or
+even less. She had to wear a sort of hat with long flaps,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page46" name="page46"></a>[pg
+46]</span> that her gaze might not pollute the sky; for she was
+thought unfit for the sun to shine upon, and it was imagined that
+her look would destroy the luck of a hunter, fisher, or gambler,
+turn things to stone, and do other mischief. At the end of her
+confinement her old clothes were burnt, new ones were made, and a
+feast was given, at which a slit was cut in her under lip parallel
+to the mouth, and a piece of wood or shell was inserted to keep the
+aperture open.<a id="footnotetag117" name=
+"footnotetag117"></a><a href="#footnote117"><sup>117</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusiontsetsaut" name="seclusiontsetsaut"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Tsetsaut and Bella
+Coola Indians of British Columbia.]</p>
+<p>In the Tsetsaut tribe of British Columbia a girl at puberty
+wears a large hat of skin which comes down over her face and
+screens it from the sun. It is believed that if she were to expose
+her face to the sun or to the sky, rain would fall. The hat
+protects her face also against the fire, which ought not to strike
+her skin; to shield her hands she wears mittens. In her mouth she
+carries the tooth of an animal to prevent her own teeth from
+becoming hollow. For a whole year she may not see blood unless her
+face is blackened; otherwise she would grow blind. For two years
+she wears the hat and lives in a hut by herself, although she is
+allowed to see other people. At the end of two years a man takes
+the hat from her head and throws it away.<a id="footnotetag118"
+name="footnotetag118"></a><a href="#footnote118"><sup>118</sup></a>
+In the Bilqula or Bella Coola tribe of British Columbia, when a
+girl attains puberty she must stay in the shed which serves as her
+bedroom, where she has a separate fireplace. She is not allowed to
+descend to the main part of the house, and may not sit by the fire
+of the family. For four days she is <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page47" name="page47"></a>[pg 47]</span> bound to remain
+motionless in a sitting posture. She fasts during the day, but is
+allowed a little food and drink very early in the morning. After
+the four days' seclusion she may leave her room, but only through a
+separate opening cut in the floor, for the houses are raised on
+piles. She may not yet come into the chief room. In leaving the
+house she wears a large hat which protects her face against the
+rays of the sun. It is believed that if the sun were to shine on
+her face her eyes would suffer. She may pick berries on the hills,
+but may not come near the river or sea for a whole year. Were she
+to eat fresh salmon she would lose her senses, or her mouth would
+be changed into a long beak.<a id="footnotetag119" name=
+"footnotetag119"></a><a href="#footnote119"><sup>119</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusiontinneh" name="seclusiontinneh"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Tinneh Indians of
+British Columbia.]</p>
+<p>Among the Tinneh Indians about Stuart Lake, Babine Lake, and
+Fraser Lake in British Columbia "girls verging on maturity, that is
+when their breasts begin to form, take swans' feathers mixed with
+human hair and plait bands, which they tie round their wrists and
+ankles to secure long life. At this time they are careful that the
+dishes out of which they eat, are used by no other person, and
+wholly devoted to their own use; during this period they eat
+nothing but dog fish, and starvation <i>only</i> will drive them to
+eat either fresh fish or meat. When their first periodical sickness
+comes on, they are fed by their mothers or nearest female relation
+by <i>themselves</i>, and on no account will they touch their food
+with their own hands. They are at this time also careful not to
+touch their heads with their hands, and keep a small stick to
+scratch their heads with. They remain outside the lodge, all the
+time they are in this state, in a hut made for the purpose. During
+all this period they wear a skull-cap made of skin to fit very
+tight; this is never taken off until their first monthly sickness
+ceases; they also wear a strip of black paint about one inch wide
+across their eyes, and wear a fringe of shells, bones, etc.,
+hanging down from their foreheads to below their eyes; and this is
+never taken off <span class="pagenum"><a id="page48" name=
+"page48"></a>[pg 48]</span> till the second monthly period arrives
+and ceases, when the nearest male relative makes a feast; after
+which she is considered a fully matured woman; but she has to
+refrain from eating anything fresh for one year after her first
+monthly sickness; she may however eat partridge, but it must be
+cooked in the crop of the bird to render it harmless. I would have
+thought it impossible to perform this feat had I not seen it done.
+The crop is blown out, and a small bent willow put round the mouth;
+it is then filled with water, and the meat being first minced up,
+put in also, then put on the fire and boiled till cooked. Their
+reason for hanging fringes before their eyes, is to hinder any bad
+medicine man from harming them during this critical period: they
+are very careful not to drink whilst facing a medicine man, and do
+so only when their backs are turned to him. All these habits are
+left off when the girl is a recognised woman, with the exception of
+their going out of the lodge and remaining in a hut, every time
+their periodical sickness comes on. This is a rigidly observed law
+with both single and married women."<a id="footnotetag120" name=
+"footnotetag120"></a><a href="#footnote120"><sup>120</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusiontinnehalaska" name="seclusiontinnehalaska"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Tinneh Indians of
+Alaska.]</p>
+<p>Among the Hareskin Tinneh a girl at puberty was secluded for
+five days in a hut made specially for the purpose; she might only
+drink out of a tube made from a swan's bone, and for a month she
+might not break a hare's bones, nor taste blood, nor eat the heart
+or fat of animals, nor birds' eggs.<a id="footnotetag121" name=
+"footnotetag121"></a><a href="#footnote121"><sup>121</sup></a>
+Among the Tinneh Indians of the middle Yukon valley, in Alaska, the
+period of the girl's seclusion lasts exactly a lunar month; for the
+day of the moon on which the symptoms first occur is noted, and she
+is sequestered until the same day of the next moon. If the season
+is winter, a corner of the house is curtained off for her use by a
+blanket or a sheet of canvas; if it is summer, a small tent is
+erected for her near the common one. Here she lives and sleeps. She
+wears a long robe and a large <span class="pagenum"><a id="page49"
+name="page49"></a>[pg 49]</span> hood, which she must pull down
+over her eyes whenever she leaves the hut, and she must keep it
+down till she returns. She may not speak to a man nor see his face,
+much less touch his clothes or anything that belongs to him; for if
+she did so, though no harm would come to her, he would grow
+unmanly. She has her own dishes for eating out of and may use no
+other; at Kaltag she must suck the water through a swan's bone
+without applying her lips to the cup. She may eat no fresh meat or
+fish except the flesh of the porcupine. She may not undress, but
+sleeps with all her clothes on, even her mittens. In her socks she
+wears, next to the skin, the horny soles cut from the feet of a
+porcupine, in order that for the rest of her life her shoes may
+never wear out. Round her waist she wears a cord to which are tied
+the heads of femurs of a porcupine; because of all animals known to
+the Tinneh the porcupine suffers least in parturition, it simply
+drops its young and continues to walk or skip about as if nothing
+had happened. Hence it is easy to see that a girl who wears these
+portions of a porcupine about her waist, will be delivered just as
+easily as the animal. To make quite sure of this, if anybody
+happens to kill a porcupine big with young while the girl is
+undergoing her period of separation, the foetus is given to her,
+and she lets it slide down between her shirt and her body so as to
+fall on the ground like an infant.<a id="footnotetag122" name=
+"footnotetag122"></a><a href="#footnote122"><sup>122</sup></a> Here
+the imitation of childbirth is a piece of homoeopathic or imitative
+magic designed to facilitate the effect which it simulates.<a id=
+"footnotetag123" name="footnotetag123"></a><a href=
+"#footnote123"><sup>123</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusionthompson" name="seclusionthompson"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Thompson Indians of
+British Columbia.]</p>
+<p>Among the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, when a girl
+attained puberty, she was at once separated from all the people. A
+conical hut of fir branches and bark was erected at some little
+distance from the other houses, and in it the girl had to squat on
+her heels during the day. Often a deep circular hole was dug in the
+hut and the girl squatted in the hole, with her head projecting
+above the surface of the ground. She might quit the hut for various
+purposes in the early morning, but had always to be back at
+sunrise. On the first appearance of the symptoms her face was
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page50" name="page50"></a>[pg
+50]</span> painted red all over, and the paint was renewed every
+morning during her term of seclusion. A heavy blanket swathed her
+body from top to toe, and during the first four days she wore a
+conical cap made of small fir branches, which reached below the
+breast but left an opening for the face. In her hair was fastened
+an implement made of deer-bone with which she scratched herself.
+For the first four days she might neither wash nor eat, but a
+little water was given her in a birch-bark cup painted red, and she
+sucked up the liquid through a tube made out of the leg of a crane,
+a swan, or a goose, for her lips might not touch the surface of the
+water. After the four days she was allowed, during the rest of the
+period of isolation, to eat, to wash, to lie down, to comb her
+hair, and to drink of streams and springs. But in drinking at these
+sources she had still to use her tube, otherwise the spring would
+dry up. While her seclusion lasted she performed by night various
+ceremonies, which were supposed to exert a beneficial influence on
+her future life. For example, she ran as fast as she could, praying
+at the same time to the Earth or Nature that she might be fleet of
+foot and tireless of limb. She dug trenches, in order that in after
+life she might be able to dig well and to work hard. These and
+other ceremonies she repeated for four nights or mornings in
+succession, four times each morning, and each time she supplicated
+the Dawn of the Day. Among the Lower Thompson Indians she carried a
+staff for one night; and when the day was breaking she leaned the
+staff against the stump of a tree and prayed to the Dawn that she
+might be blessed with a good husband, who was symbolized by the
+staff. She also wandered some nights to lonely parts of the
+mountains, where she would dance, imploring the spirits to pity and
+protect her during her future life; then, the dance and prayer
+over, she would lie down on the spot and fall asleep. Again, she
+carried four stones in her bosom to a spring, where she spat upon
+the stones and threw them one after the other into the water,
+praying that all disease might leave her, as these stones did. Also
+she ran four times in the early morning with two small stones in
+her bosom; and as she ran the stones slipped down between her bare
+body and her clothes and fell to the <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page51" name="page51"></a>[pg 51]</span> ground. At the same time
+she prayed to the Dawn that when she should be with child, she
+might be delivered as easily as she was delivered of these stones.
+But whatever exercises she performed or prayers she offered on the
+lonely mountains during the hours of darkness or while the morning
+light was growing in the east, she must always be back in her
+little hut before the sun rose. There she often passed the tedious
+hours away picking the needles, one by one, from the cones on two
+large branches of fir, which hung from the roof of her hut on
+purpose to provide her with occupation. And as she picked she
+prayed to the fir-branch that she might never be lazy, but always
+quick and active at work. During her seclusion, too, she had to
+make miniatures of all the articles that Indian women make, or used
+to make, such as baskets, mats, ropes, and thread. This she did in
+order that afterwards she might be able to make the real things
+properly. Four large fir-branches also were placed in front of the
+hut, so that when she went out or in, she had to step over them.
+The branches were renewed every morning and the old ones thrown
+away into the water, while the girl prayed, "May I never bewitch
+any man, nor my fellow-women! May it never happen!" The first four
+times that she went out and in, she prayed to the fir-branches,
+saying, "If ever I step into trouble or difficulties or step
+unknowingly inside the magical spell of some person, may you help
+me, O Fir-branches, with your power!" Every day she painted her
+face afresh, and she wore strings of parts of deer-hoofs round her
+ankles and knees, and tied to her waistband on either side, which
+rattled when she walked or ran. Even the shape of the hut in which
+she lived was adapted to her future rather than to her present
+needs and wishes. If she wished to be tall, the hut was tall; if
+she wished to be short, it was low, sometimes so low that there was
+not room in it for her to stand erect, and she would lay the palm
+of her hand on the top of her head and pray to the Dawn that she
+might grow no taller. Her seclusion lasted four months. The Indians
+say that long ago it extended over a year, and that fourteen days
+elapsed before the girl was permitted to wash for the first time.
+The dress which she wore during her time of separation was
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page52" name="page52"></a>[pg
+52]</span> afterwards taken to the top of a hill and burned, and
+the rest of her clothes were hung up on trees.<a id=
+"footnotetag124" name="footnotetag124"></a><a href=
+"#footnote124"><sup>124</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusionlillooet" name="seclusionlillooet"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Lillooet Indians of
+British Columbia.]</p>
+<p>Among the Lillooet Indians of British Columbia, neighbours of
+the Thompsons, the customs observed by girls at puberty were
+similar. The damsels were secluded for a period of not less than
+one year nor more than four years, according to their own
+inclination and the wishes of their parents. Among the Upper
+Lillooets the hut in which the girl lodged was made of bushy
+fir-trees set up like a conical tent, the inner branches being
+lopped off, while the outer branches were closely interwoven and
+padded to form a roof. Every month or half-month the hut was
+shifted to another site or a new one erected. By day the girl sat
+in the hut; for the first month she squatted in a hole dug in the
+middle of it; and she passed the time making miniature baskets of
+birch-bark and other things, praying that she might be able to make
+the real things well in after years. At the dusk of the evening she
+left the hut and wandered about all night, but she returned before
+the sun rose. Before she quitted the hut at nightfall to roam
+abroad, she painted her face red and put on a mask of fir-branches,
+and in her hand, as she walked, she carried a basket-rattle to
+frighten ghosts and guard herself from evil. Among the Lower
+Lillooets, the girl's mask was often made of goat-skin, covering
+her head, neck, shoulders and breast, and leaving only a narrow
+opening from the brow to the chin. During the nocturnal hours she
+performed many ceremonies. Thus she put two smooth stones in her
+bosom and ran, and as they fell down between her body and her
+clothes, she prayed, saying, "May I always have easy child-births!"
+Now one of these stones represented her future child and the other
+represented the afterbirth. Also she dug trenches, praying that in
+the years to come she might be strong and tireless in digging
+roots; she picked leaves and needles from the fir-trees, praying
+that her fingers might be nimble in picking berries; and she tore
+sheets of birch-bark into <span class="pagenum"><a id="page53"
+name="page53"></a>[pg 53]</span> shreds, dropping the shreds as she
+walked and asking that her hands might never tire and that she
+might make neat and fine work of birch-bark. Moreover, she ran and
+walked much that she might be light of foot. And every evening,
+when the shadows were falling, and every morning, when the day was
+breaking, she prayed to the Dusk of the Evening or to the Dawn of
+Day, saying, "O Dawn of Day!" or "O Dusk," as it might be, "may I
+be able to dig roots fast and easily, and may I always find
+plenty!" All her prayers were addressed to the Dusk of the Evening
+or the Dawn of Day. She supplicated both, asking for long life,
+health, wealth, and happiness.<a id="footnotetag125" name=
+"footnotetag125"></a><a href="#footnote125"><sup>125</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusionshuswap" name="seclusionshuswap"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Shuswap Indians of
+British Columbia.]</p>
+<p>Among the Shuswap Indians of British Columbia, who are
+neighbours of the Thompsons and Lillooets, "a girl on reaching
+maturity has to go through a great number of ceremonies. She must
+leave the village and live alone in a small hut on the mountains.
+She cooks her own food, and must not eat anything that bleeds. She
+is forbidden to touch her head, for which purpose she uses a comb
+with three points. Neither is she allowed to scratch her body,
+except with a painted deer-bone. She wears the bone and the comb
+suspended from her belt. She drinks out of a painted cup of
+birch-bark, and neither more nor less than the quantity it holds.
+Every night she walks about her hut, and plants willow twigs, which
+she has painted, and to the ends of which she has attached pieces
+of cloth, into the ground. It is believed that thus she will become
+rich in later life. In order to become strong she should climb
+trees and try to break off their points. She plays with
+<i>lehal</i> sticks that her future husbands might have good luck
+when gambling."<a id="footnotetag126" name=
+"footnotetag126"></a><a href="#footnote126"><sup>126</sup></a>
+During the day the girl stays in her hut and occupies herself in
+making miniature bags, mats, and baskets, in sewing and embroidery,
+in manufacturing thread, twine, and so forth; in short she makes a
+beginning of all kinds of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page54"
+name="page54"></a>[pg 54]</span> woman's work, in order that she
+may be a good housewife in after life. By night she roams the
+mountains and practises running, climbing, carrying burdens, and
+digging trenches, so that she may be expert at digging roots. If
+she has wandered far and daylight overtakes her, she hides herself
+behind a veil of fir branches; for no one, except her instructor or
+nearest relatives, should see her face during her period of
+seclusion. She wore a large robe painted red on the breast and
+sides, and her hair was done up in a knot at each ear.<a id=
+"footnotetag127" name="footnotetag127"></a><a href=
+"#footnote127"><sup>127</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusiondelaware" name="seclusiondelaware"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Delaware and Cheyenne
+Indians.]</p>
+<p>Ceremonies of the same general type were probably observed by
+girls at puberty among all the Indian tribes of North America. But
+the record of them is far less full for the Central and Eastern
+tribes, perhaps because the settlers who first came into contact
+with the Red Man in these regions were too busy fighting him to
+find leisure, even if they had the desire, to study his manners and
+customs. However, among the Delaware Indians, a tribe in the
+extreme east of the continent, we read that "when a Delaware girl
+has her first monthly period, she must withdraw into a hut at some
+distance from the village. Her head is wrapped up for twelve days,
+so that she can see nobody, and she must submit to frequent vomits
+and fasting, and abstain from all labor. After this she is washed
+and new clothed, but confined to a solitary life for two months, at
+the close of which she is declared marriageable."<a id=
+"footnotetag128" name="footnotetag128"></a><a href=
+"#footnote128"><sup>128</sup></a> Again, among the Cheyennes, an
+Indian tribe of the Missouri valley, a girl at her first
+menstruation is painted red all over her body and secluded in a
+special little lodge for four days. However, she may remain in her
+father's lodge provided that there are no charms ("medicine"), no
+sacred bundle, and no shield in it, or that these and all other
+objects invested with a sacred character have been removed. For
+four days she may not eat boiled meat; the flesh of which she
+partakes must be roasted over coals. Young men will not eat from
+the dish nor drink from the pot, which has been used by her;
+because <span class="pagenum"><a id="page55" name="page55"></a>[pg
+55]</span> they believe that were they to do so they would be
+wounded in the next fight. She may not handle nor even touch any
+weapon of war or any sacred object. If the camp moves, she may not
+ride a horse, but is mounted on a mare.<a id="footnotetag129" name=
+"footnotetag129"></a><a href="#footnote129"><sup>129</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusionesquimaux" name="seclusionesquimaux"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Esquimaux.]</p>
+<p>Among the Esquimaux also, in the extreme north of the continent,
+who belong to an entirely different race from the Indians, the
+attainment of puberty in the female sex is, or used to be, the
+occasion of similar observances. Thus among the Koniags, an
+Esquimau people of Alaska, a girl at puberty was placed in a small
+hut in which she had to remain on her hands and knees for six
+months; then the hut was enlarged a little so as to allow her to
+straighten her back, but in this posture she had to remain for six
+months more. All this time she was regarded as an unclean being
+with whom no one might hold intercourse. At the end of the year she
+was received back by her parents and a great feast held.<a id=
+"footnotetag130" name="footnotetag130"></a><a href=
+"#footnote130"><sup>130</sup></a> Again, among the Malemut, and
+southward from the lower Yukon and adjacent districts, when a girl
+reaches the age of puberty she is considered unclean for forty days
+and must therefore live by herself in a corner of the house with
+her face to the wall, always keeping her hood over her head and her
+hair hanging dishevelled over her eyes. But if it is summer, she
+commonly lives in a rough shelter outside the house. She may not go
+out by day, and only once at night, when every one else is asleep.
+At the end of the period she bathes and is clothed in new garments,
+whereupon she may be taken in marriage. During her seclusion she is
+supposed to be enveloped in a peculiar atmosphere of such a sort
+that were a young man to come near enough for it to touch him, it
+would render him visible to every animal he might hunt, so that his
+luck as a hunter would be gone.<a id="footnotetag131" name=
+"footnotetag131"></a><a href="#footnote131"><sup>131</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page56" name="page56"></a>[pg
+56]</span>
+<h4><a id="sect2-5" name="sect2-5">&sect; 5. <i>Seclusion of Girls
+at Puberty among the Indians of South America</i></a></h4>
+<a id="seclusionguaranis" name="seclusionguaranis"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Guaranis, Chiriguanos,
+and Lengua Indians of South America.]</p>
+<p>When symptoms of puberty appeared on a girl for the first time,
+the Guaranis of Southern Brazil, on the borders of Paraguay, used
+to sew her up in her hammock, leaving only a small opening in it to
+allow her to breathe. In this condition, wrapt up and shrouded like
+a corpse, she was kept for two or three days or so long as the
+symptoms lasted, and during this time she had to observe a most
+rigorous fast. After that she was entrusted to a matron, who cut
+the girl's hair and enjoined her to abstain most strictly from
+eating flesh of any kind until her hair should be grown long enough
+to hide her ears. Meanwhile the diviners drew omens of her future
+character from the various birds or animals that flew past or
+crossed her path. If they saw a parrot, they would say she was a
+chatterbox; if an owl, she was lazy and useless for domestic
+labours, and so on.<a id="footnotetag132" name=
+"footnotetag132"></a><a href="#footnote132"><sup>132</sup></a> In
+similar circumstances the Chiriguanos of southeastern Bolivia
+hoisted the girl in her hammock to the roof, where she stayed for a
+month: the second month the hammock was let half-way down from the
+roof; and in the third month old women, armed with sticks, entered
+the hut and ran about striking everything they met, saying they
+were hunting the snake that had wounded the girl.<a id=
+"footnotetag133" name="footnotetag133"></a><a href=
+"#footnote133"><sup>133</sup></a> The Lengua Indians of the
+Paraguayan Chaco under similar circumstances hang the girl in her
+hammock from the roof of the house, but they leave her there only
+three days and nights, during which they give her nothing to eat
+but a little Paraguay tea or boiled maize. Only her mother or
+grandmother has access to her; nobody else approaches or speaks to
+her. If she is obliged to leave the hammock for a little,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page57" name="page57"></a>[pg
+57]</span> her friends take great care to prevent her from touching
+the <i>Boyrusu</i>, which is an imaginary serpent that would
+swallow her up. She must also be very careful not to set foot on
+the droppings of fowls or animals, else she would suffer from sores
+on the throat and breast. On the third day they let her down from
+the hammock, cut her hair, and make her sit in a corner of the room
+with her face turned to the wall. She may speak to nobody, and must
+abstain from flesh and fish. These rigorous observances she must
+practise for nearly a year. Many girls die or are injured for life
+in consequence of the hardships they endure at this time. Their
+only occupations during their seclusion are spinning and
+weaving.<a id="footnotetag134" name="footnotetag134"></a><a href=
+"#footnote134"><sup>134</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusionyuracares" name="seclusionyuracares"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Yuracares of
+Bolivia.]</p>
+<p>Among the Yuracares, an Indian tribe of Bolivia, at the eastern
+foot of the Andes, when a girl perceives the signs of puberty, she
+informs her parents. The mother weeps and the father constructs a
+little hut of palm leaves near the house. In this cabin he shuts up
+his daughter so that she cannot see the light, and there she
+remains fasting rigorously for four days. Meantime the mother,
+assisted by the women of the neighbourhood, has brewed a large
+quantity of the native intoxicant called <i>chicha</i>, and poured
+it into wooden troughs and palm leaves. On the morning of the
+fourth day, three hours before the dawn, the girl's father, having
+arrayed himself in his savage finery, summons all his neighbours
+with loud cries. The damsel is seated on a stone, and every guest
+in turn cuts off a lock of her hair, and running away hides it in
+the hollow trunk of a tree in the depths of the forest. When they
+have all done so and seated themselves again gravely in the circle,
+the girl offers <span class="pagenum"><a id="page58" name=
+"page58"></a>[pg 58]</span> to each of them a calabash full of very
+strong <i>chicha</i>. Before the wassailing begins, the various
+fathers perform a curious operation on the arms of their sons, who
+are seated beside them. The operator takes a very sharp bone of an
+ape, rubs it with a pungent spice, and then pinching up the skin of
+his son's arm he pierces it with the bone through and through, as a
+surgeon might introduce a seton. This operation he repeats till the
+young man's arm is riddled with holes at regular intervals from the
+shoulder to the wrist. Almost all who take part in the festival are
+covered with these wounds, which the Indians call <i>culucute</i>.
+Having thus prepared themselves to spend a happy day, they drink,
+play on flutes, sing and dance till evening. Rain, thunder, and
+lightning, should they befall, have no effect in damping the
+general enjoyment or preventing its continuance till after the sun
+has set. The motive for perforating the arms of the young men is to
+make them skilful hunters; at each perforation the sufferer is
+cheered by the promise of another sort of game or fish which the
+surgical operation will infallibly procure for him. The same
+operation is performed on the arms and legs of the girls, in order
+that they may be brave and strong; even the dogs are operated on
+with the intention of making them run down the game better. For
+five or six months afterwards the damsel must cover her head with
+bark and refrain from speaking to men. The Yuracares think that if
+they did not submit a young girl to this severe ordeal, her
+children would afterwards perish by accidents of various kinds,
+such as the sting of a serpent, the bite of a jaguar, the fall of a
+tree, the wound of an arrow, or what not.<a id="footnotetag135"
+name="footnotetag135"></a><a href=
+"#footnote135"><sup>135</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusiongranchaco" name="seclusiongranchaco"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of the Gran
+Chaco.]</p>
+<p>Among the Matacos or Mataguayos, an Indian tribe of the Gran
+Chaco, a girl at puberty has to remain in seclusion for some time.
+She lies covered up with branches or other things in a corner of
+the hut, seeing no one and speaking to no one, and during this time
+she may eat neither flesh nor fish. Meantime a man beats a drum in
+front of the house.<a id="footnotetag136" name=
+"footnotetag136"></a><a href="#footnote136"><sup>136</sup></a>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page59" name="page59"></a>[pg
+59]</span> Similarly among the Tobas, another Indian tribe of the
+same region, when a chief's daughter has just attained to
+womanhood, she is shut up for two or three days in the house, all
+the men of the tribe scour the country to bring in game and fish
+for a feast, and a Mataco Indian is engaged to drum, sing, and
+dance in front of the house without cessation, day and night, till
+the festival is over. As the merrymaking lasts for two or three
+weeks, the exhaustion of the musician at the end of it may be
+readily conceived. Meat and drink are supplied to him on the spot
+where he pays his laborious court to the Muses. The proceedings
+wind up with a saturnalia and a drunken debauch.<a id=
+"footnotetag137" name="footnotetag137"></a><a href=
+"#footnote137"><sup>137</sup></a> Among the Yaguas, an Indian tribe
+of the Upper Amazon, a girl at puberty is shut up for three months
+in a lonely hut in the forest, where her mother brings her food
+daily.<a id="footnotetag138" name="footnotetag138"></a><a href=
+"#footnote138"><sup>138</sup></a> When a girl of the Peguenches
+tribe perceives in herself the first signs of womanhood, she is
+secluded by her mother in a corner of the hut screened off with
+blankets, and is warned not to lift up her eyes on any man. Next
+day, very early in the morning and again after sunset, she is taken
+out by two women and made to run till she is tired; in the interval
+she is again secluded in her corner. On the following day she lays
+three packets of wool beside the path near the house to signify
+that she is now a woman.<a id="footnotetag139" name=
+"footnotetag139"></a><a href="#footnote139"><sup>139</sup></a>
+Among the Passes, Mauhes, and other tribes of Brazil the young
+woman in similar circumstances is hung in her hammock from the roof
+and has to fast there for a month or as long as she can hold
+out.<a id="footnotetag140" name="footnotetag140"></a><a href=
+"#footnote140"><sup>140</sup></a> One of the early settlers in
+Brazil, about the middle of the sixteenth century, has described
+the severe ordeal which damsels at puberty had to undergo among the
+Indians on the south-east coast of that country, near what is now
+Rio de Janeiro. When a girl had reached this critical period of
+life, her hair was burned or shaved off close to the head.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page60" name="page60"></a>[pg
+60]</span> Then she was placed on a flat stone and cut with the
+tooth of an animal from the shoulders all down the back, till she
+ran with blood. Next the ashes of a wild gourd were rubbed into the
+wounds; the girl was bound hand and foot, and hung in a hammock,
+being enveloped in it so closely that no one could see her. Here
+she had to stay for three days without eating or drinking. When the
+three days were over, she stepped out of the hammock upon the flat
+stone, for her feet might not touch the ground. If she had a call
+of nature, a female relation took the girl on her back and carried
+her out, taking with her a live coal to prevent evil influences
+from entering the girl's body. Being replaced in her hammock, she
+was now allowed to get some flour, boiled roots, and water, but
+might not taste salt or flesh. Thus she continued to the end of the
+first monthly period, at the expiry of which she was gashed on the
+breast and belly as well as all down the back. During the second
+month she still stayed in her hammock, but her rule of abstinence
+was less rigid, and she was allowed to spin. The third month she
+was blackened with a certain pigment and began to go about as
+usual.<a id="footnotetag141" name="footnotetag141"></a><a href=
+"#footnote141"><sup>141</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusionguiana" name="seclusionguiana"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of Guiana;
+custom of beating the girls and of causing them to be stung by
+ants.]</p>
+<p>Amongst the Macusis of British Guiana, when a girl shews the
+first signs of puberty, she is hung in a hammock at the highest
+point of the hut. For the first few days she may not leave the
+hammock by day, but at night she must come down, light a fire, and
+spend the night beside it, else she would break out in sores on her
+neck, throat, and other parts of her body. So long as the symptoms
+are at their height, she must fast rigorously. When they have
+abated, she may come down and take up her abode in a little
+compartment that is made for her in the darkest corner of the hut.
+In the morning she may cook her food, but it must be at a separate
+fire and in a vessel of her own. After about ten days the magician
+comes and undoes the spell by muttering charms and breathing on her
+and on the more valuable of the things with which she has come in
+contact. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page61" name="page61"></a>[pg
+61]</span> The pots and drinking-vessels which she used are broken
+and the fragments buried. After her first bath, the girl must
+submit to be beaten by her mother with thin rods without uttering a
+cry. At the end of the second period she is again beaten, but not
+afterwards. She is now "clean," and can mix again with
+people.<a id="footnotetag142" name="footnotetag142"></a><a href=
+"#footnote142"><sup>142</sup></a> Other Indians of Guiana, after
+keeping the girl in her hammock at the top of the hut for a month,
+expose her to certain large ants, whose bite is very painful.<a id=
+"footnotetag143" name="footnotetag143"></a><a href=
+"#footnote143"><sup>143</sup></a> Sometimes, in addition to being
+stung with ants, the sufferer has to fast day and night so long as
+she remains slung up on high in her hammock, so that when she comes
+down she is reduced to a skeleton. The intention of stinging her
+with ants is said to be to make her strong to bear the burden of
+maternity.<a id="footnotetag144" name="footnotetag144"></a><a href=
+"#footnote144"><sup>144</sup></a> Amongst the Uaupes of Brazil a
+girl at puberty is secluded in the house for a month, and allowed
+only a small quantity of bread and water. Then she is taken out
+into the midst of her relations and friends, each of whom gives her
+four or five blows with pieces of <i>sipo</i> (an elastic climber),
+till she falls senseless or dead. If she recovers, the operation is
+repeated four times at intervals of six hours, and it is considered
+an offence to the parents not to strike hard. Meantime, pots of
+meats and fish have been made ready; the <i>sipos</i> are dipped
+into them and then given to the girl to lick, who is now considered
+a marriageable woman.<a id="footnotetag145" name=
+"footnotetag145"></a><a href="#footnote145"><sup>145</sup></a></p>
+<a id="ants" name="ants"></a>
+<p>[Custom in South America of causing young men to be stung with
+ants as an initiatory rite.]</p>
+<p>The custom of stinging the girl at such times with ants or
+beating her with rods is intended, we may be sure, not as a
+punishment or a test of endurance, but as a purification, the
+object being to drive away the malignant influences with which a
+girl in this condition is believed to be beset and enveloped.
+Examples of purification, by beating, by incisions in the flesh,
+and by <span class="pagenum"><a id="page62" name="page62"></a>[pg
+62]</span> stinging with ants, have already come before us.<a id=
+"footnotetag146" name="footnotetag146"></a><a href=
+"#footnote146"><sup>146</sup></a> In some Indian tribes of Brazil
+and Guiana young men do not rank as warriors and may not marry till
+they have passed through a terrible ordeal, which consists in being
+stung by swarms of venomous ants whose bite is like fire. Thus
+among the Mauhes on the Tapajos river, a southern tributary of the
+Amazon, boys of eight to ten years are obliged to thrust their arms
+into sleeves stuffed with great ferocious ants, which the Indians
+call <i>tocandeira</i> (<i>Cryptocerus atratus</i>, F.). When the
+young victim shrieks with pain, an excited mob of men dances round
+him, shouting and encouraging him till he falls exhausted to the
+ground. He is then committed to the care of old women, who treat
+his fearfully swollen arms with fresh juice of the manioc; and on
+his recovery he has to shew his strength and skill in bending a
+bow. This cruel ordeal is commonly repeated again and again, till
+the lad has reached his fourteenth year and can bear the agony
+without betraying any sign of emotion. Then he is a man and can
+marry. A lad's age is reckoned by the number of times he has passed
+through the ordeal.<a id="footnotetag147" name=
+"footnotetag147"></a><a href="#footnote147"><sup>147</sup></a> An
+eye-witness has described how a young Mauhe hero bore the torture
+with an endurance more than Spartan, dancing and singing, with his
+arms cased in the terrible mittens, before every cabin of the great
+common house, till pallid, staggering, and with chattering teeth he
+triumphantly laid the gloves before the old chief and received the
+congratulations of the men and the caresses of the women; then
+breaking away from his friends and admirers he threw himself into
+the river and remained in its cool soothing water till
+nightfall.<a id="footnotetag148" name="footnotetag148"></a><a href=
+"#footnote148"><sup>148</sup></a> Similarly among the Ticunas of
+the Upper Amazon, on the border of Peru, the young man who would
+take his place among the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page63" name=
+"page63"></a>[pg 63]</span> warriors must plunge his arm into a
+sort of basket full of venomous ants and keep it there for several
+minutes without uttering a cry. He generally falls backwards and
+sometimes succumbs to the fever which ensues; hence as soon as the
+ordeal is over the women are prodigal of their attentions to him,
+and rub the swollen arm with a particular kind of herb.<a id=
+"footnotetag149" name="footnotetag149"></a><a href=
+"#footnote149"><sup>149</sup></a> Ordeals of this sort appear to be
+in vogue among the Indians of the Rio Negro as well as of the
+Amazon.<a id="footnotetag150" name="footnotetag150"></a><a href=
+"#footnote150"><sup>150</sup></a> Among the Rucuyennes, a tribe of
+Indians in the north of Brazil, on the borders of Guiana, young men
+who are candidates for marriage must submit to be stung all over
+their persons not only with ants but with wasps, which are applied
+to their naked bodies in curious instruments of trellis-work shaped
+like fantastic quadrupeds or birds. The patient invariably falls
+down in a swoon and is carried like dead to his hammock, where he
+is tightly lashed with cords. As they come to themselves, they
+writhe in agony, so that their hammocks rock violently to and fro,
+causing the hut to shake as if it were about to collapse. This
+dreadful ordeal is called by the Indians a
+<i>marak&eacute;</i>.<a id="footnotetag151" name=
+"footnotetag151"></a><a href="#footnote151"><sup>151</sup></a></p>
+<a id="antscharacter" name="antscharacter"></a>
+<p>[Custom of causing men and women to be stung with ants to
+improve their character and health or to render them
+invulnerable.]</p>
+<p>The same ordeal, under the same name, is also practised by the
+Wayanas, an Indian tribe of French Guiana, but with them, we are
+told, it is no longer deemed an indispensable preliminary to
+marriage; "it is rather a sort of national medicine administered
+chiefly to the youth of both sexes." Applied to men, the
+<i>marak&eacute;</i>, as it is called, "sharpens them, prevents
+them from being heavy and lazy, makes them active, brisk,
+industrious, imparts strength, and helps them to shoot well with
+the bow; without it the Indians would always be slack and rather
+sickly, would always have a little fever, and would lie perpetually
+in their hammocks. As for the women, the <i>marak&eacute;</i> keeps
+them from going to sleep, renders them active, alert, brisk,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page64" name="page64"></a>[pg
+64]</span> gives them strength and a liking for work, makes them
+good housekeepers, good workers at the stockade, good makers of
+<i>cachiri</i>. Every one undergoes the <i>marak&eacute;</i> at
+least twice in his life, sometimes thrice, and oftener if he likes.
+It may be had from the age of about eight years and upward, and no
+one thinks it odd that a man of forty should voluntarily submit to
+it."<a id="footnotetag152" name="footnotetag152"></a><a href=
+"#footnote152"><sup>152</sup></a> Similarly the Indians of St. Juan
+Capistrano in California used to be branded on some part of their
+bodies, generally on the right arm, but sometimes on the leg also,
+not as a proof of manly fortitude, but because they believed that
+the custom "added greater strength to the nerves, and gave a better
+pulse for the management of the bow." Afterwards "they were whipped
+with nettles, and covered with ants, that they might become robust,
+and the infliction was always performed in summer, during the
+months of July and August, when the nettle was in its most fiery
+state. They gathered small bunches, which they fastened together,
+and the poor deluded Indian was chastised, by inflicting blows with
+them upon his naked limbs, until unable to walk; and then he was
+carried to the nest of the nearest and most furious species of
+ants, and laid down among them, while some of his friends, with
+sticks, kept annoying the insects to make them still more violent.
+What torments did they not undergo! What pain! What hellish
+inflictions! Yet their faith gave them power to endure all without
+a murmur, and they remained as if dead. Having undergone these
+dreadful ordeals, they were considered as invulnerable, and
+believed that the arrows of their enemies could no longer harm
+them."<a id="footnotetag153" name="footnotetag153"></a><a href=
+"#footnote153"><sup>153</sup></a> Among the Alur, a tribe
+inhabiting the south-western region of the upper Nile, to bury a
+man in an ant-hill and leave him there for a while is the regular
+treatment for insanity.<a id="footnotetag154" name=
+"footnotetag154"></a><a href="#footnote154"><sup>154</sup></a></p>
+<a id="beatingpurification" name="beatingpurification"></a>
+<p>[In such cases the beating or stinging was originally a
+purification; at a later time it is interpreted as a test of
+courage and endurance.]</p>
+<p>In like manner it is probable that beating or scourging as a
+religious or ceremonial rite was originally a <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page65" name="page65"></a>[pg 65]</span> mode of
+purification. It was meant to wipe off and drive away a dangerous
+contagion, whether personified as demoniacal or not, which was
+supposed to be adhering physically, though invisibly, to the body
+of the sufferer.<a id="footnotetag155" name=
+"footnotetag155"></a><a href="#footnote155"><sup>155</sup></a> The
+pain inflicted on the person beaten was no more the object of the
+beating than it is of a surgical operation with us; it was a
+necessary accident, that was all. In later times such customs were
+interpreted otherwise, and the pain, from being an accident, became
+the prime object of the ceremony, which was now regarded either as
+a test of endurance imposed upon persons at critical epochs of
+life, or as a mortification of the flesh well pleasing to the god.
+But asceticism, under any shape or form, is never primitive.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page66" name="page66"></a>[pg
+66]</span> The savage, it is true, in certain circumstances will
+voluntarily subject himself to pains and privations which appear to
+us wholly needless; but he never acts thus unless he believes that
+some solid temporal advantage is to be gained by so doing. Pain for
+the sake of pain, whether as a moral discipline in this life or as
+a means of winning a glorious immortality hereafter, is not an
+object which he sets himself deliberately to pursue.</p>
+<a id="beatingconfirmed" name="beatingconfirmed"></a>
+<p>[This explanation confirmed with reference to the beating of
+girls at puberty among the South American Indians; treatment of a
+girl at puberty among the Banivas of the Orinoco; symptoms of
+puberty in a girl regarded as wounds inflicted by a demon.]</p>
+<p>If this view is correct, we can understand why so many Indian
+tribes of South America compel the youth of both sexes to submit to
+these painful and sometimes fatal ordeals. They imagine that in
+this way they rid the young folk of certain evils inherent in
+youth, especially at the critical age of puberty; and when they
+picture to themselves the evils in a personal form as dangerous
+spirits or demons, the ceremony of their expulsion may in the
+strict sense be termed an exorcism. This certainly appears to be
+the interpretation which the Banivas of the Orinoco put upon the
+cruel scourgings which they inflict on girls at puberty. At her
+first menstruation a Baniva girl must pass several days and nights
+in her hammock, almost motionless and getting nothing to eat and
+drink but water and a little manioc. While she lies there, the
+suitors for her hand apply to her father, and he who can afford to
+give most for her or can prove himself the best man, is promised
+the damsel in marriage. The fast over, some old men enter the hut,
+bandage the girl's eyes, cover her head with a bonnet of which the
+fringes fall on her shoulders, and then lead her forth and tie her
+to a post set up in an open place. The head of the post is carved
+in the shape of a grotesque face. None but the old men may witness
+what follows. Were a woman caught peeping and prying, it would go
+ill with her; she would be marked out for the vengeance of the
+demon, who would make her expiate her crime at the very next moon
+by madness or death. Every participant in the ceremony comes armed
+with a scourge of cords or of fish skins; some of them reinforce
+the virtue of the instrument by tying little sharp stones to the
+end of the thongs. Then, to the dismal and deafening notes of
+shell-trumpets blown by two or three supernumeraries, the men
+circle round and round the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page67"
+name="page67"></a>[pg 67]</span> post, every one applying his
+scourge as he passes to the girl's back, till it streams with
+blood. At last the musicians, winding tremendous blasts on their
+trumpets against the demon, advance and touch the post in which he
+is supposed to be incorporate. Then the blows cease to descend; the
+girl is untied, often in a fainting state, and carried away to have
+her wounds washed and simples applied to them. The youngest of the
+executioners, or rather of the exorcists, hastens to inform her
+betrothed husband of the happy issue of the exorcism. "The spirit,"
+he says, "had cast thy beloved into a sleep as deep almost as that
+of death. But we have rescued her from his attacks, and laid her
+down in such and such a place. Go seek her." Then going from house
+to house through the village he cries to the inmates, "Come, let us
+burn the demon who would have taken possession of such and such a
+girl, our friend." The bridegroom at once carries his wounded and
+suffering bride to his own house; and all the people gather round
+the post for the pleasure of burning it and the demon together. A
+great pile of firewood has meanwhile been heaped up about it, and
+the women run round the pyre cursing in shrill voices the wicked
+spirit who has wrought all this evil. The men join in with hoarser
+cries and animate themselves for the business in hand by deep
+draughts of an intoxicant which has been provided for the occasion
+by the parents-in-law. Soon the bridegroom, having committed the
+bride to the care of his mother, appears on the scene brandishing a
+lighted torch. He addresses the demon with bitter mockery and
+reproaches; informs him that the fair creature on whom he, the
+demon, had nefarious designs, is now his, the bridegroom's,
+blooming spouse; and shaking his torch at the grinning head on the
+post, he screams out, "This is how the victims of thy persecution
+take vengeance on thee!" With these words he puts a light to the
+pyre. At once the drums strike up, the trumpets blare, and men,
+women, and children begin to dance. In two long rows they dance,
+the men on one side, the women on the other, advancing till they
+almost touch and then retiring again. After that the two rows join
+hands, and forming a huge circle trip it round and round the blaze,
+till the post with its grotesque face is consumed in the flames
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page68" name="page68"></a>[pg
+68]</span> and nothing of the pyre remains but a heap of red and
+glowing embers. "The evil spirit has been destroyed. Thus delivered
+from her persecutor, the young wife will be free from sickness,
+will not die in childbed, and will bear many children to her
+husband."<a id="footnotetag156" name="footnotetag156"></a><a href=
+"#footnote156"><sup>156</sup></a> From this account it appears that
+the Banivas attribute the symptoms of puberty in girls to the
+wounds inflicted on them by an amorous devil, who, however, can be
+not only exorcised but burnt to ashes at the stake.</p>
+<h4><a id="sect2-6" name="sect2-6">&sect; 6. <i>Seclusion of Girls
+at Puberty in India and Cambodia</i></a></h4>
+<a id="seclusionhindoos" name="seclusionhindoos"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Hindoos; seclusion of
+girls at puberty in Southern India.]</p>
+<p>When a Hindoo maiden reaches maturity she is kept in a dark room
+for four days, and is forbidden to see the sun. She is regarded as
+unclean; no one may touch her. Her diet is restricted to boiled
+rice, milk, sugar, curd, and tamarind without salt. On the morning
+of the fifth day she goes to a neighbouring tank, accompanied by
+five women whose husbands are alive. Smeared with turmeric water,
+they all bathe and return home, throwing away the mat and other
+things that were in the room.<a id="footnotetag157" name=
+"footnotetag157"></a><a href="#footnote157"><sup>157</sup></a> The
+Rarhi Brahmans of Bengal compel a girl at puberty to live alone,
+and do not allow her to see the face of any male. For three days
+she remains shut up in a dark room, and has to undergo certain
+penances. Fish, flesh, and sweetmeats are forbidden her; she must
+live upon rice and ghee.<a id="footnotetag158" name=
+"footnotetag158"></a><a href="#footnote158"><sup>158</sup></a>
+Among the Tiyans of Malabar a girl is thought to be polluted for
+four days from the beginning of her first menstruation. During this
+time she must keep to the north side of the house, where she sleeps
+on a grass mat of a particular kind, in a room festooned with
+garlands of young coco-nut leaves. Another girl keeps her company
+and sleeps with her, but she may <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page69" name="page69"></a>[pg 69]</span> not touch any other
+person, tree or plant. Further, she may not see the sky, and woe
+betide her if she catches sight of a crow or a cat! Her diet must
+be strictly vegetarian, without salt, tamarinds, or chillies. She
+is armed against evil spirits by a knife, which is placed on the
+mat or carried on her person.<a id="footnotetag159" name=
+"footnotetag159"></a><a href="#footnote159"><sup>159</sup></a>
+Among the Kappiliyans of Madura and Tinnevelly a girl at her first
+monthly period remains under pollution for thirteen days, either in
+a corner of the house, which is screened off for her use by her
+maternal uncle, or in a temporary hut, which is erected by the same
+relative on the common land of the village. On the thirteenth day
+she bathes in a tank, and, on entering the house, steps over a
+pestle and a cake. Near the entrance some food is placed and a dog
+is allowed to partake of it; but his enjoyment is marred by
+suffering, for while he eats he receives a sound thrashing, and the
+louder he howls the better, for the larger will be the family to
+which the young woman will give birth; should there be no howls,
+there will be no children. The temporary hut in which the girl
+passed the days of her seclusion is burnt down, and the pots which
+she used are smashed to shivers.<a id="footnotetag160" name=
+"footnotetag160"></a><a href="#footnote160"><sup>160</sup></a>
+Similarly among the Parivarams of Madura, when a girl attains to
+puberty she is kept for sixteen days in a hut, which is guarded at
+night by her relations; and when her sequestration is over the hut
+is burnt down and the pots she used are broken into very small
+pieces, because they think that if rain-water gathered in any of
+them, the girl would be childless.<a id="footnotetag161" name=
+"footnotetag161"></a><a href="#footnote161"><sup>161</sup></a> The
+Pulayars of Travancore build a special hut in the jungle for the
+use of a girl at puberty; there she remains for seven days. No one
+else may enter the hut, not even her mother. Women stand a little
+way off and lay down food for her. At the end of the time she is
+brought home, clad in a new or clean cloth, and friends are treated
+to betel-nut, toddy, and arack.<a id="footnotetag162" name=
+"footnotetag162"></a><a href="#footnote162"><sup>162</sup></a>
+Among the Singhalese a girl at her first menstruation is confined
+to a room, where she may neither see nor be seen by any male. After
+being thus secluded for two weeks she is taken out, with her face
+covered, and is bathed by women at the back <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page70" name="page70"></a>[pg 70]</span> of the
+house. Near the bathing-place are kept branches of any milk-bearing
+tree, usually of the <i>jak</i>-tree. In some cases, while the time
+of purification or uncleanness lasts, the maiden stays in a
+separate hut, which is afterwards burnt down.<a id="footnotetag163"
+name="footnotetag163"></a><a href=
+"#footnote163"><sup>163</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusioncambodia" name="seclusioncambodia"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of girls at puberty in Cambodia.]</p>
+<p>In Cambodia a girl at puberty is put to bed under a mosquito
+curtain, where she should stay a hundred days. Usually, however,
+four, five, ten, or twenty days are thought enough; and even this,
+in a hot climate and under the close meshes of the curtain, is
+sufficiently trying.<a id="footnotetag164" name=
+"footnotetag164"></a><a href="#footnote164"><sup>164</sup></a>
+According to another account, a Cambodian maiden at puberty is said
+to "enter into the shade." During her retirement, which, according
+to the rank and position of her family, may last any time from a
+few days to several years, she has to observe a number of rules,
+such as not to be seen by a strange man, not to eat flesh or fish,
+and so on. She goes nowhere, not even to the pagoda. But this state
+of seclusion is discontinued during eclipses; at such times she
+goes forth and pays her devotions to the monster who is supposed to
+cause eclipses by catching the heavenly bodies between his
+teeth.<a id="footnotetag165" name="footnotetag165"></a><a href=
+"#footnote165"><sup>165</sup></a> This permission to break her rule
+of retirement and appear abroad during an eclipse seems to shew how
+literally the injunction is interpreted which forbids maidens
+entering on womanhood to look upon the sun.</p>
+<h4><a id="sect2-7" name="sect2-7">&sect; 7. <i>Seclusion of Girls
+at Puberty in Folk-tales</i></a></h4>
+<a id="seclusiondanish" name="seclusiondanish"></a>
+<p>[Traces of the seclusion of girls at puberty in folk-tales.
+Danish story of the girl who might not see the sun.]</p>
+<p>A superstition so widely diffused as this might be expected to
+leave traces in legends and folk-tales. And it has done so. In a
+Danish story we read of a princess who was fated to be carried off
+by a warlock if ever the sun shone on her before she had passed her
+thirtieth year; so the king her father kept her shut up in the
+palace, and had all the windows on the east, south, and west sides
+blocked up, lest a sunbeam should fall on his darling child, and he
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page71" name="page71"></a>[pg
+71]</span> should thus lose her for ever. Only at evening, when the
+sun was down, might she walk for a little in the beautiful garden
+of the castle. In time a prince came a-wooing, followed by a train
+of gorgeous knights and squires on horses all ablaze with gold and
+silver. The king said the prince might have his daughter to wife on
+condition that he would not carry her away to his home till she was
+thirty years old but would live with her in the castle, where the
+windows looked out only to the north. The prince agreed, so married
+they were. The bride was only fifteen, and fifteen more long weary
+years must pass before she might step out of the gloomy donjon,
+breathe the fresh air, and see the sun. But she and her gallant
+young bridegroom loved each other and they were happy. Often they
+sat hand in hand at the window looking out to the north and talked
+of what they would do when they were free. Still it was a little
+dull to look out always at the same window and to see nothing but
+the castle woods, and the distant hills, and the clouds drifting
+silently over them. Well, one day it happened that all the people
+in the castle had gone away to a neighbouring castle to witness a
+tournament and other gaieties, and the two young folks were left as
+usual all alone at the window looking out to the north. They sat
+silent for a time gazing away to the hills. It was a grey sad day,
+the sky was overcast, and the weather seemed to draw to rain. At
+last the prince said, "There will be no sunshine to-day. What if we
+were to drive over and join the rest at the tournament?" His young
+wife gladly consented, for she longed to see more of the world than
+those eternal green woods and those eternal blue hills, which were
+all she ever saw from the window. So the horses were put into the
+coach, and it rattled up to the door, and in they got and away they
+drove. At first all went well. The clouds hung low over the woods,
+the wind sighed in the trees, a drearier day you could hardly
+imagine. So they joined the rest at the other castle and took their
+seats to watch the jousting in the lists. So intent were they in
+watching the gay spectacle of the prancing steeds, the fluttering
+pennons, and the glittering armour of the knights, that they failed
+to mark the change, the fatal change, in the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page72" name="page72"></a>[pg 72]</span> weather.
+For the wind was rising and had begun to disperse the clouds, and
+suddenly the sun broke through, and the glory of it fell like an
+aureole on the young wife, and at once she vanished away. No sooner
+did her husband miss her from his side than he, too, mysteriously
+disappeared. The tournament broke up in confusion, the bereft
+father hastened home, and shut himself up in the dark castle from
+which the light of life had departed. The green woods and the blue
+hills could still be seen from the window that looked to the north,
+but the young faces that had gazed out of it so wistfully were
+gone, as it seemed, for ever.<a id="footnotetag166" name=
+"footnotetag166"></a><a href="#footnote166"><sup>166</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusiontyrolese" name="seclusiontyrolese"></a>
+<p>[Tyrolese story of the girl who might not see the sun.]</p>
+<p>A Tyrolese story tells how it was the doom of a lovely maiden
+with golden hair to be transported into the belly of a whale if
+ever a sunbeam fell on her. Hearing of the fame of her beauty the
+king of the country sent for her to be his bride, and her brother
+drove the fair damsel to the palace in a carefully closed coach,
+himself sitting on the box and handling the reins. On the way they
+overtook two hideous witches, who pretended they were weary and
+begged for a lift in the coach. At first the brother refused to
+take them in, but his tender-hearted sister entreated him to have
+compassion on the two poor footsore women; for you may easily
+imagine that she was not acquainted with their true character. So
+down he got rather surlily from the box, opened the coach door, and
+in the two witches stepped, laughing in their sleeves. But no
+sooner had the brother mounted the box and whipped up the horses,
+than one of the two wicked witches bored a hole in the closed
+coach. A sunbeam at once shot through the hole and fell on the fair
+damsel. So she vanished from the coach and was spirited away into
+the belly of a whale in the neighbouring sea. You can imagine the
+consternation of the king, when the coach door opened and instead
+of his blooming bride out bounced two hideous hags!<a id=
+"footnotetag167" name="footnotetag167"></a><a href=
+"#footnote167"><sup>167</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seclusionmoderngreek" name="seclusionmoderngreek"></a>
+<p>[Modern Greek stories of the maid who might not see the
+sun.]</p>
+<p>In a modern Greek folk-tale the Fates predict that in her
+fifteenth year a princess must be careful not to let the sun
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page73" name="page73"></a>[pg
+73]</span> shine on her, for if this were to happen she would be
+turned into a lizard.<a id="footnotetag168" name=
+"footnotetag168"></a><a href="#footnote168"><sup>168</sup></a> In
+another modern Greek tale the Sun bestows a daughter upon a
+childless woman on condition of taking the child back to himself
+when she is twelve years old. So, when the child was twelve, the
+mother closed the doors and windows, and stopped up all the chinks
+and crannies, to prevent the Sun from coming to fetch away her
+daughter. But she forgot to stop up the key-hole, and a sunbeam
+streamed through it and carried off the girl.<a id="footnotetag169"
+name="footnotetag169"></a><a href="#footnote169"><sup>169</sup></a>
+In a Sicilian story a seer foretells that a king will have a
+daughter who, in her fourteenth year, will conceive a child by the
+Sun. So, when the child was born, the king shut her up in a lonely
+tower which had no window, lest a sunbeam should fall on her. When
+she was nearly fourteen years old, it happened that her parents
+sent her a piece of roasted kid, in which she found a sharp bone.
+With this bone she scraped a hole in the wall, and a sunbeam shot
+through the hole and got her with child.<a id="footnotetag170"
+name="footnotetag170"></a><a href=
+"#footnote170"><sup>170</sup></a></p>
+<a id="danae" name="danae"></a>
+<p>[The story of Danae and its parallel in a Kirghiz legend.]</p>
+<p>The old Greek story of Danae, who was confined by <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page74" name="page74"></a>[pg 74]</span> her
+father in a subterranean chamber or a brazen tower, but impregnated
+by Zeus, who reached her in the shape of a shower of gold,<a id=
+"footnotetag171" name="footnotetag171"></a><a href=
+"#footnote171"><sup>171</sup></a> perhaps belongs to the same class
+of tales. It has its counterpart in the legend which the Kirghiz of
+Siberia tell of their ancestry. A certain Khan had a fair daughter,
+whom he kept in a dark iron house, that no man might see her. An
+old woman tended her; and when the girl was grown to maidenhood she
+asked the old woman, "Where do you go so often?" "My child," said
+the old dame, "there is a bright world. In that bright world your
+father and mother live, and all sorts of people live there. That is
+where I go." The maiden said, "Good mother, I will tell nobody, but
+shew me that bright world." So the old woman took the girl out of
+the iron house. But when she saw the bright world, the girl
+tottered and fainted; and the eye of God fell upon her, and she
+conceived. Her angry father put her in a golden chest and sent her
+floating away (fairy gold can float in fairyland) over the wide
+sea.<a id="footnotetag172" name="footnotetag172"></a><a href=
+"#footnote172"><sup>172</sup></a> The shower of gold in the Greek
+story, and the eye of God in the Kirghiz legend, probably stand for
+sunlight and the sun.</p>
+<a id="sunimpregnation" name="sunimpregnation"></a>
+<p>[Impregnation of women by the sun in legends.]</p>
+<p>The idea that women may be impregnated by the sun is not
+uncommon in legends. Thus, for example, among the Indians of
+Guacheta in Colombia, it is said, a report once ran that the sun
+would impregnate one of their maidens, who should bear a child and
+yet remain a virgin. The chief had two daughters, and was very
+desirous that one of them should conceive in this miraculous
+manner. So every day he made them climb a hill to the east of his
+house in order to be touched by the first beams of the rising sun.
+His wishes were fulfilled, for one of the damsels conceived and
+after nine months gave birth to an emerald. So she wrapped it in
+cotton and placed it in her bosom, and in a few days it turned into
+a child, who received the name of Garanchacha and was universally
+recognized as a son of the sun.<a id="footnotetag173" name=
+"footnotetag173"></a><a href="#footnote173"><sup>173</sup></a>
+Again, the Samoans tell of a woman named Mangamangai, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page75" name="page75"></a>[pg 75]</span> who
+became pregnant by looking at the rising sun. Her son grew up and
+was named "Child of the Sun." At his marriage he applied to his
+mother for a dowry, but she bade him apply to his father, the sun,
+and told him how to go to him. So one morning he took a long vine
+and made a noose in it; then climbing up a tree he threw the noose
+over the sun and caught him fast. Thus arrested in his progress,
+the luminary asked him what he wanted, and being told by the young
+man that he wanted a present for his bride, the sun obligingly
+packed up a store of blessings in a basket, with which the youth
+descended to the earth.<a id="footnotetag174" name=
+"footnotetag174"></a><a href="#footnote174"><sup>174</sup></a></p>
+<a id="marriagecustoms" name="marriagecustoms"></a>
+<p>[Traces in marriage customs of the belief that women can be
+impregnated by the sun.]</p>
+<p>Even in the marriage customs of various races we may perhaps
+detect traces of this belief that women can be impregnated by the
+sun. Thus amongst the Chaco Indians of South America a newly
+married couple used to sleep the first night on a mare's or
+bullock's skin with their heads towards the west, "for the marriage
+is not considered ratified till the rising sun shines on their feet
+the succeeding morning."<a id="footnotetag175" name=
+"footnotetag175"></a><a href="#footnote175"><sup>175</sup></a> At
+old Hindoo marriages the first ceremony was the "Impregnation-rite"
+(<i>Garbh[=a]dh[=a]na</i>); during the previous day the bride was
+made to look towards the sun or to be in some way exposed to its
+rays.<a id="footnotetag176" name="footnotetag176"></a><a href=
+"#footnote176"><sup>176</sup></a> Amongst the Turks of Siberia it
+was formerly the custom on the morning after the marriage to lead
+the young couple out of the hut to greet the rising sun. The same
+custom is said to be still practised in Iran and Central Asia under
+a belief that the beams of the rising sun are the surest means of
+impregnating the new bride.<a id="footnotetag177" name=
+"footnotetag177"></a><a href="#footnote177"><sup>177</sup></a></p>
+<a id="moonimpregnation" name="moonimpregnation"></a>
+<p>[Belief in the impregnation of women by the moon.]</p>
+<p>And as some people think that women may be gotten with child by
+the sun, so others imagine that they can conceive by the moon.
+According to the Greenlanders <span class="pagenum"><a id="page76"
+name="page76"></a>[pg 76]</span> the moon is a young man, and he
+"now and then comes down to give their wives a visit and caress
+them; for which reason no woman dare sleep lying upon her back,
+without she first spits upon her fingers and rubs her belly with
+it. For the same reason the young maids are afraid to stare long at
+the moon, imagining they may get a child by the bargain."<a id=
+"footnotetag178" name="footnotetag178"></a><a href=
+"#footnote178"><sup>178</sup></a> Similarly Breton peasants are
+reported to believe that women or girls who expose their persons to
+the moonlight may be impregnated by it and give birth to
+monsters.<a id="footnotetag179" name="footnotetag179"></a><a href=
+"#footnote179"><sup>179</sup></a></p>
+<h4><a id="sect2-8" name="sect2-8">&sect; 8. <i>Reasons for the
+Seclusion of Girls at Puberty</i></a></h4>
+<a id="reasondread" name="reasondread"></a>
+<p>[The reason for the seclusion of women at puberty is the dread
+of menstruous blood.]</p>
+<p>The motive for the restraints so commonly imposed on girls at
+puberty is the deeply engrained dread which primitive man
+universally entertains of menstruous blood. He fears it at all
+times but especially on its first appearance; hence the
+restrictions under which women lie at their first menstruation are
+usually more stringent than those which they have to observe at any
+subsequent recurrence of the mysterious flow. Some evidence of the
+fear and of the customs based on it has been cited in an earlier
+part of this work;<a id="footnotetag180" name=
+"footnotetag180"></a><a href="#footnote180"><sup>180</sup></a> but
+as the terror, for it is nothing less, which the phenomenon
+periodically strikes into the mind of the savage has deeply
+influenced his life and institutions, it may be well to illustrate
+the subject with some further examples.</p>
+<a id="dreadaustralia" name="dreadaustralia"></a>
+<p>[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the aborigines of
+Australia.]</p>
+<p>Thus in the Encounter Bay tribe of South Australia there is, or
+used to be, a "superstition which obliges a woman to separate
+herself from the camp at the time of her monthly illness, when, if
+a young man or boy should approach, she calls out, and he
+immediately makes a circuit to avoid her. If she is neglectful upon
+this point, she exposes herself to scolding, and sometimes to
+severe beating by her husband or nearest relation, because the boys
+are told from their infancy, that if they see the blood they will
+early become grey-headed, and their strength will fail
+prematurely."<a id="footnotetag181" name=
+"footnotetag181"></a><a href="#footnote181"><sup>181</sup></a> And
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page77" name="page77"></a>[pg
+77]</span> of the South Australian aborigines in general we read
+that there is a "custom requiring all boys and uninitiated young
+men to sleep at some distance from the huts of the adults, and to
+remove altogether away in the morning as soon as daylight dawns,
+and the natives begin to move about. This is to prevent their
+seeing the women, some of whom may be menstruating; and if looked
+upon by the young males, it is supposed that dire results will
+follow."<a id="footnotetag182" name="footnotetag182"></a><a href=
+"#footnote182"><sup>182</sup></a> And amongst these tribes women in
+their courses "are not allowed to eat fish of any kind, or to go
+near the water at all; it being one of their superstitions, that if
+a female, in that state, goes near the water, no success can be
+expected by the men in fishing."<a id="footnotetag183" name=
+"footnotetag183"></a><a href="#footnote183"><sup>183</sup></a>
+Similarly, among the natives of the Murray River, menstruous women
+"were not allowed to go near water for fear of frightening the
+fish. They were also not allowed to eat them, for the same reason.
+A woman during such periods would never cross the river in a canoe,
+or even fetch water for the camp. It was sufficient for her to say
+<i>Thama</i>, to ensure her husband getting the water
+himself."<a id="footnotetag184" name="footnotetag184"></a><a href=
+"#footnote184"><sup>184</sup></a> The Dieri of Central Australia
+believe that if women at these times were to eat fish or bathe in a
+river, the fish would all die and the water would dry up. In this
+tribe a mark made with red ochre round a woman's mouth indicates
+that she has her courses; no one would offer fish to such a
+woman.<a id="footnotetag185" name="footnotetag185"></a><a href=
+"#footnote185"><sup>185</sup></a> The Arunta of Central Australia
+forbid menstruous women to gather the <i>irriakura</i> bulbs, which
+form a staple article of diet for both men and women. They believe
+that were a woman to break this rule, the supply of bulbs would
+fail.<a id="footnotetag186" name="footnotetag186"></a><a href=
+"#footnote186"><sup>186</sup></a> Among the aborigines of Victoria
+the wife at her monthly periods had to sleep on the opposite side
+of the fire from her husband; she might partake of nobody's food,
+and nobody would partake of hers, for people thought that if they
+ate or drank anything that had been touched by a woman in her
+courses, it would make them weak or ill. Unmarried girls
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page78" name="page78"></a>[pg
+78]</span> and widows at such times had to paint their heads and
+the upper parts of their bodies red,<a id="footnotetag187" name=
+"footnotetag187"></a><a href="#footnote187"><sup>187</sup></a> no
+doubt as a danger signal.</p>
+<p>[Severe penalties inflicted for breaches of the custom of
+seclusion.]</p>
+<p>In some Australian tribes the seclusion of menstruous women was
+even more rigid, and was enforced by severer penalties than a
+scolding or a beating. Thus with regard to certain tribes of New
+South Wales and Southern Queensland we are told that "during the
+monthly illness, the woman is not allowed to touch anything that
+men use, or even to walk on a path that any man frequents, on pain
+of death."<a id="footnotetag188" name="footnotetag188"></a><a href=
+"#footnote188"><sup>188</sup></a> Again, "there is a regulation
+relating to camps in the Wakelbura tribe which forbids the women
+coming into the encampment by the same path as the men. Any
+violation of this rule would in a large camp be punished with
+death. The reason for this is the dread with which they regard the
+menstrual period of women. During such a time, a woman is kept
+entirely away from the camp, half a mile at least. A woman in such
+a condition has boughs of some tree of her totem tied round her
+loins, and is constantly watched and guarded, for it is thought
+that should any male be so unfortunate as to see a woman in such a
+condition, he would die. If such a woman were to let herself be
+seen by a man, she would probably be put to death. When the woman
+has recovered, she is painted red and white, her head covered with
+feathers, and returns to the camp."<a id="footnotetag189" name=
+"footnotetag189"></a><a href="#footnote189"><sup>189</sup></a></p>
+<a id="dreadtorres" name="dreadtorres"></a>
+<p>[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women in the Torres Straits
+Islands, New Guinea, Galela, and Sumatra.]</p>
+<p>In Muralug, one of the Torres Straits Islands, a menstruous
+woman may not eat anything that lives in the sea, else the natives
+believe that the fisheries would fail. Again, in Mabuiag, another
+of these islands, women who have their courses on them may not eat
+turtle flesh nor turtle eggs, probably for a similar reason. And
+during the season when the turtles are pairing the restrictions
+laid on <span class="pagenum"><a id="page79" name="page79"></a>[pg
+79]</span> such a woman are much severer. She may not even enter a
+house in which there is turtle flesh, nor approach a fire on which
+the flesh is cooking; she may not go near the sea and she should
+not walk on the beach below high-water mark. Nay, the infection
+extends to her husband, who may not himself harpoon or otherwise
+take an active part in catching turtle; however, he is permitted to
+form one of the crew on a turtling expedition, provided he takes
+the precaution of rubbing his armpits with certain leaves, to which
+no doubt a disinfectant virtue is ascribed.<a id="footnotetag190"
+name="footnotetag190"></a><a href="#footnote190"><sup>190</sup></a>
+Among the Kai of German New Guinea women at their monthly sickness
+must live in little huts built for them in the forest; they may not
+enter the cultivated fields, for if they did go to them, and the
+pigs were to taste of the blood, it would inspire the animals with
+an irresistible desire to go likewise into the fields, where they
+would commit great depredations on the growing crops. Hence the
+issue from women at these times is carefully buried to prevent the
+pigs from getting at it. And conversely, if the pigs often break
+into the fields, the blame is laid on the women who by the neglect
+of these elementary precautions have put temptation in the way of
+the swine.<a id="footnotetag191" name="footnotetag191"></a><a href=
+"#footnote191"><sup>191</sup></a> In Galela, to the west of New
+Guinea, women at their monthly periods may not enter a
+tobacco-field, or the plants would be attacked by disease.<a id=
+"footnotetag192" name="footnotetag192"></a><a href=
+"#footnote192"><sup>192</sup></a> The Minangkabauers of Sumatra are
+persuaded that if a woman in her unclean state were to go near a
+rice-field, the crop would be spoiled.<a id="footnotetag193" name=
+"footnotetag193"></a><a href="#footnote193"><sup>193</sup></a></p>
+<a id="dreadsouthafrica" name="dreadsouthafrica"></a>
+<p>[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the tribes of
+South Africa.]</p>
+<p>The Bushmen of South Africa think that, by a glance of a girl's
+eye at the time when she ought to be kept in strict retirement, men
+become fixed in whatever position they happen to occupy, with
+whatever they were holding in their hands, and are changed into
+trees that talk.<a id="footnotetag194" name=
+"footnotetag194"></a><a href="#footnote194"><sup>194</sup></a>
+Cattle-rearing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page80" name=
+"page80"></a>[pg 80]</span> tribes of South Africa hold that their
+cattle would die if the milk were drunk by a menstruous
+woman;<a id="footnotetag195" name="footnotetag195"></a><a href=
+"#footnote195"><sup>195</sup></a> and they fear the same disaster
+if a drop of her blood were to fall on the ground and the oxen were
+to pass over it. To prevent such a calamity women in general, not
+menstruous women only, are forbidden to enter the cattle enclosure;
+and more than that, they may not use the ordinary paths in entering
+the village or in passing from one hut to another. They are obliged
+to make circuitous tracks at the back of the huts in order to avoid
+the ground in the middle of the village where the cattle stand or
+lie down. These women's tracks may be seen at every Caffre
+village.<a id="footnotetag196" name="footnotetag196"></a><a href=
+"#footnote196"><sup>196</sup></a></p>
+<a id="dreadcentralafrica" name="dreadcentralafrica"></a>
+<p>[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the tribes of
+Central and East Africa.]</p>
+<p>Similarly among the Bahima, a cattle-breeding tribe of Ankole,
+in Central Africa, no menstruous woman may drink milk, lest by so
+doing she should injure the cows; and she may not lie on her
+husband's bed, no doubt lest she should injure him. Indeed she is
+forbidden to lie on a bed at all and must sleep on the ground. Her
+diet is restricted to vegetables and beer.<a id="footnotetag197"
+name="footnotetag197"></a><a href="#footnote197"><sup>197</sup></a>
+Among the Baganda, in like manner, no menstruous woman might drink
+milk or come into contact with any milk-vessel;<a id=
+"footnotetag198" name="footnotetag198"></a><a href=
+"#footnote198"><sup>198</sup></a> and she might not touch anything
+that belonged to her husband, nor sit on his mat, nor cook his
+food. If she touched anything of his at such a time it was deemed
+equivalent to wishing him dead or to actually working magic for his
+destruction.<a id="footnotetag199" name=
+"footnotetag199"></a><a href="#footnote199"><sup>199</sup></a> Were
+she to handle any article of his, he would surely fall ill; were
+she to handle his weapons, he would certainly be killed in the next
+battle. Even a woman <span class="pagenum"><a id="page81" name=
+"page81"></a>[pg 81]</span> who did not menstruate was believed by
+the Baganda to be a source of danger to her husband, indeed capable
+of killing him. Hence, before he went to war, he used to wound her
+slightly with his spear so as to draw blood; this was thought to
+ensure his safe return.<a id="footnotetag200" name=
+"footnotetag200"></a><a href="#footnote200"><sup>200</sup></a>
+Apparently the notion was that if the wife did not lose blood in
+one way or another, her husband would be bled in war to make up for
+her deficiency; so by way of guarding against this undesirable
+event, he took care to relieve her of a little superfluous blood
+before he repaired to the field of honour. Further, the Baganda
+would not suffer a menstruous woman to visit a well; if she did so,
+they feared that the water would dry up, and that she herself would
+fall sick and die, unless she confessed her fault and the
+medicine-man made atonement for her.<a id="footnotetag201" name=
+"footnotetag201"></a><a href="#footnote201"><sup>201</sup></a>
+Among the Akikuyu of British East Africa, if a new hut is built in
+a village and the wife chances to menstruate in it on the day she
+lights the first fire there, the hut must be broken down and
+demolished the very next day. The woman may on no account sleep a
+second night in it; there is a curse (<i>thahu</i>) both on her and
+on it.<a id="footnotetag202" name="footnotetag202"></a><a href=
+"#footnote202"><sup>202</sup></a> In the Suk tribe of British East
+Africa warriors may not eat anything that has been touched by
+menstruous women. If they did so, it is believed that they would
+lose their virility; "in the rain they will shiver and in the heat
+they will faint." Suk men and women take their meals apart, because
+the men fear that one or more of the women may be
+menstruating.<a id="footnotetag203" name=
+"footnotetag203"></a><a href="#footnote203"><sup>203</sup></a> The
+Anyanja of British Central Africa, at the southern end of Lake
+Nyassa, think that a man who should sleep with a woman in her
+courses would fall sick and die, unless some remedy were applied in
+time. And with them it is a rule that at such times a woman should
+not put any salt into the food she is cooking, otherwise the people
+who partook of the food salted by her would suffer from a certain
+disease called <span class="pagenum"><a id="page82" name=
+"page82"></a>[pg 82]</span> <i>tsempo</i>; hence to obviate the
+danger she calls a child to put the salt into the dish.<a id=
+"footnotetag204" name="footnotetag204"></a><a href=
+"#footnote204"><sup>204</sup></a></p>
+<a id="dreadwestafrica" name="dreadwestafrica"></a>
+<p>[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the tribes of
+West Africa.]</p>
+<p>Among the Hos, a tribe of Ewe negroes of Togoland in West
+Africa, so long as a wife has her monthly sickness she may not cook
+for her husband, nor lie on his bed, nor sit on his stool; an
+infraction of these rules would assuredly, it is believed, cause
+her husband to die. If her husband is a priest, or a magician, or a
+chief, she may not pass the days of her uncleanness in the house,
+but must go elsewhere till she is clean.<a id="footnotetag205"
+name="footnotetag205"></a><a href="#footnote205"><sup>205</sup></a>
+Among the Ewe negroes of this region each village has its huts
+where women who have their courses on them must spend their time
+secluded from intercourse with other people. Sometimes these huts
+stand by themselves in public places; sometimes they are mere
+shelters built either at the back or front of the ordinary
+dwelling-houses. A woman is punishable if she does not pass the
+time of her monthly sickness in one of these huts or shelters
+provided for her use. Thus, if she shews herself in her own house
+or even in the yard of the house, she may be fined a sheep, which
+is killed, its flesh divided among the people, and its blood poured
+on the image of the chief god as a sin-offering to expiate her
+offence. She is also forbidden to go to the place where the
+villagers draw water, and if she breaks the rule, she must give a
+goat to be killed; its flesh is distributed, and its blood, diluted
+with water and mixed with herbs, is sprinkled on the watering-place
+and on the paths leading to it. Were any woman to disregard these
+salutary precautions, the chief fetish-man in the village would
+fall sick and die, which would be an irreparable loss to
+society.<a id="footnotetag206" name="footnotetag206"></a><a href=
+"#footnote206"><sup>206</sup></a></p>
+<a id="arablegend" name="arablegend"></a>
+<p>[Powerful influence ascribed to menstruous blood in Arab
+legend.]</p>
+<p>The miraculous virtue ascribed to menstruous blood is well
+illustrated in a story told by the Arab chronicler Tabari. He
+relates how Sapor, king of Persia, besieged the strong city of
+Atrae, in the desert of Mesopotamia, for several years without
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page83" name="page83"></a>[pg
+83]</span> being able to take it. But the king of the city, whose
+name was Daizan, had a daughter, and when it was with her after the
+manner of women she went forth from the city and dwelt for a time
+in the suburb, for such was the custom of the place. Now it fell
+out that, while she tarried there, Sapor saw her and loved her, and
+she loved him; for he was a handsome man and she a lovely maid. And
+she said to him, "What will you give me if I shew you how you may
+destroy the walls of this city and slay my father?" And he said to
+her, "I will give you what you will, and I will exalt you above my
+other wives, and will set you nearer to me than them all." Then she
+said to him, "Take a greenish dove with a ring about its neck, and
+write something on its foot with the menstruous blood of a
+blue-eyed maid; then let the bird loose, and it will perch on the
+walls of the city, and they will fall down." For that, says the
+Arab historian, was the talisman of the city, which could not be
+destroyed in any other way. And Sapor did as she bade him, and the
+city fell down in a heap, and he stormed it and slew Daizan on the
+spot.<a id="footnotetag207" name="footnotetag207"></a><a href=
+"#footnote207"><sup>207</sup></a></p>
+<a id="dreadjews" name="dreadjews"></a>
+<p>[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Jews and in
+Syria.]</p>
+<p>According to the Talmud, if a woman at the beginning of her
+period passes between two men, she thereby kills one of them; if
+she passes between them towards the end of her period, she only
+causes them to quarrel violently.<a id="footnotetag208" name=
+"footnotetag208"></a><a href="#footnote208"><sup>208</sup></a>
+Maimonides tells us that down to his time it was a common custom in
+the East to keep women at their periods in a separate house and to
+burn everything on which they had trodden; a man who spoke with
+such a woman or who was merely exposed to the same wind that blew
+over her, became thereby unclean.<a id="footnotetag209" name=
+"footnotetag209"></a><a href="#footnote209"><sup>209</sup></a>
+Peasants of the Lebanon think that menstruous women are the cause
+of many misfortunes; their shadow <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page84" name="page84"></a>[pg 84]</span> causes flowers to wither
+and trees to perish, it even arrests the movements of serpents; if
+one of them mounts a horse, the animal might die or at least be
+disabled for a long time.<a id="footnotetag210" name=
+"footnotetag210"></a><a href="#footnote210"><sup>210</sup></a> In
+Syria to this day a woman who has her courses on her may neither
+salt nor pickle, for the people think that whatever she pickled or
+salted would not keep.<a id="footnotetag211" name=
+"footnotetag211"></a><a href="#footnote211"><sup>211</sup></a> The
+Toaripi of New Guinea, doubtless for a similar reason, will not
+allow women at such times to cook.<a id="footnotetag212" name=
+"footnotetag212"></a><a href="#footnote212"><sup>212</sup></a></p>
+<a id="dreadindia" name="dreadindia"></a>
+<p>[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women in India.]</p>
+<p>The Bhuiyars, a Dravidian tribe of South Mirzapur, are said to
+feel an intense dread of menstrual pollution. Every house has two
+doors, one of which is used only by women in this condition. During
+her impurity the wife is fed by her husband apart from the rest of
+the family, and whenever she has to quit the house she is obliged
+to creep out on her hands and knees in order not to defile the
+thatch by her touch.<a id="footnotetag213" name=
+"footnotetag213"></a><a href="#footnote213"><sup>213</sup></a> The
+Kharwars, another aboriginal tribe of the same district, keep their
+women at such seasons in the outer verandah of the house for eight
+days, and will not let them enter the kitchen or the cowhouse;
+during this time the unclean woman may not cook nor even touch the
+cooking vessels. When the eight days are over, she bathes, washes
+her clothes, and returns to family life.<a id="footnotetag214"
+name="footnotetag214"></a><a href="#footnote214"><sup>214</sup></a>
+Hindoo women seclude themselves at their monthly periods and
+observe a number of rules, such as not to drink milk, not to milk
+cows, not to touch fire, not to lie on a high bed, not to walk on
+common paths, not to cross the track of animals, not to walk by the
+side of flowering plants, and not to observe the heavenly
+bodies.<a id="footnotetag215" name="footnotetag215"></a><a href=
+"#footnote215"><sup>215</sup></a> The motive for these <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page85" name="page85"></a>[pg 85]</span>
+restrictions is not mentioned, but probably it is a dread of the
+baleful influence which is supposed to emanate from women at these
+times. The Parsees, who reverence fire, will not suffer menstruous
+women to see it or even to look on a lighted taper;<a id=
+"footnotetag216" name="footnotetag216"></a><a href=
+"#footnote216"><sup>216</sup></a> during their infirmity the women
+retire from their houses to little lodges in the country, whither
+victuals are brought to them daily; at the end of their seclusion
+they bathe and send a kid, a fowl, or a pigeon to the priest as an
+offering.<a id="footnotetag217" name="footnotetag217"></a><a href=
+"#footnote217"><sup>217</sup></a> In Annam a woman at her monthly
+periods is deemed a centre of impurity, and contact with her is
+avoided. She is subject to all sorts of restrictions which she must
+observe herself and which others must observe towards her. She may
+not touch any food which is to be preserved by salting, whether it
+be fish, flesh, or vegetables; for were she to touch it the food
+would putrefy. She may not enter any sacred place, she may not be
+present at any religious ceremony. The linen which she wears at
+such times must be washed by herself at sunrise, never at night. On
+reaching puberty girls may not touch flowers or the fruits of
+certain trees, for touched by them the flowers would fade and the
+fruits fall to the ground. "It is on account of their reputation
+for impurity that the women generally live isolated. In every house
+they have an apartment reserved for them, and they never eat at the
+same table as the men. For the same reason they are excluded from
+all religious ceremonies. They may only be present at family
+ceremonies, but without ever officiating in them."<a id=
+"footnotetag218" name="footnotetag218"></a><a href=
+"#footnote218"><sup>218</sup></a></p>
+<a id="dreadsouthamerica" name="dreadsouthamerica"></a>
+<p>[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of
+South and Central America.]</p>
+<p>The Guayquiries of the Orinoco think that when a woman has her
+courses, everything upon which she steps will die, and that if a
+man treads on the place where she has passed, his legs will
+immediately swell up.<a id="footnotetag219" name=
+"footnotetag219"></a><a href="#footnote219"><sup>219</sup></a>
+Among the Guaraunos of the same great river, women at their periods
+are regarded as unclean and kept apart in special huts, where
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page86" name="page86"></a>[pg
+86]</span> all that they need is brought to them.<a id=
+"footnotetag220" name="footnotetag220"></a><a href=
+"#footnote220"><sup>220</sup></a> In like manner among the
+Piapocos, an Indian tribe on the Guayabero, a tributary of the
+Orinoco, a menstruous woman is secluded from her family every month
+for four or five days. She passes the time in a special hut,
+whither her husband brings her food; and at the end of the time she
+takes a bath and resumes her usual occupations.<a id=
+"footnotetag221" name="footnotetag221"></a><a href=
+"#footnote221"><sup>221</sup></a> So among the Indians of the
+Mosquito territory in Central America, when a woman is in her
+courses, she must quit the village for seven or eight days. A small
+hut is built for her in the wood, and at night some of the village
+girls go and sleep with her to keep her company. Or if the nights
+are dark and jaguars are known to be prowling in the neighbourhood,
+her husband will take his gun or bow and sleep in a hammock near
+her. She may neither handle nor cook food; all is prepared and
+carried to her. When the sickness is over, she bathes in the river,
+puts on clean clothes, and returns to her household duties.<a id=
+"footnotetag222" name="footnotetag222"></a><a href=
+"#footnote222"><sup>222</sup></a> Among the Bri-bri Indians of
+Costa Rica a girl at her first menstruation retires to a hut built
+for the purpose in the forest, and there she must stay till she has
+been purified by a medicine-man, who breathes on her and places
+various objects, such as feathers, the beaks of birds, the teeth of
+beasts, and so forth, upon her body. A married woman at her periods
+remains in the house with her husband, but she is reckoned unclean
+(<i>bukuru</i>) and must avoid all intimate relations with him. She
+uses for plates only banana leaves, which, when she has done with
+them, she throws away in a sequestered spot; for should a cow find
+and eat them, the animal would waste away and perish. Also she
+drinks only out of a special vessel, because any person who should
+afterwards drink out of the same vessel would infallibly pine away
+and die.<a id="footnotetag223" name="footnotetag223"></a><a href=
+"#footnote223"><sup>223</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page87" name="page87"></a>[pg
+87]</span> <a id="dreadnorthamerica" name="dreadnorthamerica"></a>
+<p>[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of
+North America.]</p>
+<p>Among most tribes of North American Indians the custom was that
+women in their courses retired from the camp or the village and
+lived during the time of their uncleanness in special huts or
+shelters which were appropriated to their use. There they dwelt
+apart, eating and sleeping by themselves, warming themselves at
+their own fires, and strictly abstaining from all communications
+with men, who shunned them just as if they were stricken with the
+plague. No article of furniture used in these menstrual huts might
+be used in any other, not even the flint and steel with which in
+the old days the fires were kindled. No one would borrow a light
+from a woman in her seclusion. If a white man in his ignorance
+asked to light his pipe at her fire, she would refuse to grant the
+request, telling him that it would make his nose bleed and his head
+ache, and that he would fall sick in consequence. If an Indian's
+wooden pipe cracked, his friends would think that he had either lit
+it at one of these polluted fires or had held some converse with a
+woman during her retirement, which was esteemed a most disgraceful
+and wicked thing to do. Decent men would not approach within a
+certain distance of a woman at such times, and if they had to
+convey anything to her they would stand some forty or fifty paces
+off and throw it to her. Everything which was touched by her hands
+during this period was deemed ceremonially unclean. Indeed her
+touch was thought to convey such pollution that if she chanced to
+lay a finger on a chief's lodge or his gun or anything else
+belonging to him, it would be instantly destroyed. If she crossed
+the path of a hunter or a warrior, his luck for that day at least
+would be gone. Were she not thus secluded, it was supposed that the
+men would be attacked by diseases of various kinds, which would
+prove mortal. In some tribes a woman who infringed the rules of
+separation might have to answer with her life for any misfortunes
+that might happen to individuals or to the tribe in consequence, as
+it was supposed, of her criminal negligence. When she quitted her
+tent or hut to go into retirement, the fire in it was extinguished
+and the ashes thrown away outside of the village, and a new fire
+was kindled, as if the old one had been defiled by her presence. At
+the end of their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page88" name=
+"page88"></a>[pg 88]</span> seclusion the women bathed in running
+streams and returned to their usual occupations.<a id=
+"footnotetag224" name="footnotetag224"></a><a href=
+"#footnote224"><sup>224</sup></a></p>
+<a id="dreadcreek" name="dreadcreek"></a>
+<p>[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Creek,
+Choctaw, Omaha, and Cheyenne Indians.]</p>
+<p>Thus, to take examples, the Creek and kindred Indians of the
+United States compelled women at menstruation to live in separate
+huts at some distance from the village. There the women had to
+stay, at the risk of being surprised and cut off by enemies. It was
+thought "a most horrid and dangerous pollution" to go near the
+women at such times; and the danger extended to enemies who, if
+they slew the women, had to cleanse themselves from the pollution
+by means of certain sacred herbs and roots.<a id="footnotetag225"
+name="footnotetag225"></a><a href="#footnote225"><sup>225</sup></a>
+Similarly, the Choctaw women had to quit their huts during their
+monthly periods, and might not return till after they had been
+purified. While their uncleanness lasted they had to prepare their
+own food. The men believed that if they were to approach a
+menstruous woman, they would fall ill, and that some mishap would
+overtake them when they went to the wars.<a id="footnotetag226"
+name="footnotetag226"></a><a href="#footnote226"><sup>226</sup></a>
+When an Omaha woman has her courses on her, she retires from the
+family to a little shelter of bark or grass, supported by sticks,
+where she kindles a fire and cooks her victuals alone. Her
+seclusion lasts four days. During this time she may not approach or
+touch a horse, for the Indians believe that <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page89" name="page89"></a>[pg 89]</span> such
+contamination would impoverish or weaken the animal.<a id=
+"footnotetag227" name="footnotetag227"></a><a href=
+"#footnote227"><sup>227</sup></a> Among the Potawatomis the women
+at their monthly periods "are not allowed to associate with the
+rest of the nation; they are completely laid aside, and are not
+permitted to touch any article of furniture or food which the men
+have occasion to use. If the Indians be stationary at the time, the
+women are placed outside of the camp; if on a march, they are not
+allowed to follow the trail, but must take a different path and
+keep at a distance from the main body."<a id="footnotetag228" name=
+"footnotetag228"></a><a href="#footnote228"><sup>228</sup></a>
+Among the Cheyennes menstruous women slept in special lodges; the
+men believed that if they slept with their wives at such times,
+they would probably be wounded in their next battle. A man who
+owned a shield had very particularly to be on his guard against
+women in their courses. He might not go into a lodge where one of
+them happened to be, nor even into a lodge where one of them had
+been, until a ceremony of purification had been performed. Sweet
+grass and juniper were burnt in the tent, and the pegs were pulled
+up and the covering thrown back, as if the tent were about to be
+struck. After this pretence of decamping from the polluted spot the
+owner of the shield might enter the tent.<a id="footnotetag229"
+name="footnotetag229"></a><a href=
+"#footnote229"><sup>229</sup></a></p>
+<a id="dreadbritishcolumbia" name="dreadbritishcolumbia"></a>
+<p>[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of
+British Columbia.]</p>
+<p>The Stseelis Indians of British Columbia imagined that if a
+menstruous woman were to step over a bundle of arrows, the arrows
+would thereby be rendered useless and might even cause the death of
+their owner; and similarly that if she passed in front of a hunter
+who carried a gun, the weapon would never shoot straight again.
+Neither her husband nor her father would dream of going out to hunt
+while she was in this state; and even if he had wished to do so,
+the other hunters would not go with him. Hence to keep them out of
+harm's way, the women, both married and unmarried, were secluded at
+these times for four days in shelters.<a id="footnotetag230" name=
+"footnotetag230"></a><a href="#footnote230"><sup>230</sup></a>
+Among the Thompson <span class="pagenum"><a id="page90" name=
+"page90"></a>[pg 90]</span> Indians of British Columbia every woman
+had to isolate herself from the rest of the people during every
+recurring period of menstruation, and had to live some little way
+off in a small brush or bark lodge made for the purpose. At these
+times she was considered unclean, must use cooking and eating
+utensils of her own, and was supplied with food by some other
+woman. If she smoked out of a pipe other than her own, that pipe
+would ever afterwards be hot to smoke. If she crossed in front of a
+gun, that gun would thenceforth be useless for the war or the
+chase, unless indeed the owner promptly washed the weapon in
+"medecine" or struck the woman with it once on each principal part
+of her body. If a man ate or had any intercourse with a menstruous
+woman, nay if he merely wore clothes or mocassins made or patched
+by her, he would have bad luck in hunting and the bears would
+attack him fiercely. Before being admitted again among the people,
+she had to change all her clothes and wash several times in clear
+water. The clothes worn during her isolation were hung on a tree,
+to be used next time, or to be washed. For one day after coming
+back among the people she did not cook food. Were a man to eat food
+cooked by a woman at such times, he would have incapacitated
+himself for hunting and exposed himself to sickness or death.<a id=
+"footnotetag231" name="footnotetag231"></a><a href=
+"#footnote231"><sup>231</sup></a></p>
+<a id="dreadchippeway" name="dreadchippeway"></a>
+<p>[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Chippeway
+Indians.]</p>
+<p>Among the Chippeways and other Indians of the Hudson Bay
+Territory, menstruous women are excluded from the camp, and take up
+their abode in huts of branches. They wear long hoods, which
+effectually conceal the head and breast. They may not touch the
+household furniture nor any objects used by men; for their touch
+"is supposed to defile them, so that their subsequent use would be
+followed by certain mischief or misfortune," such as disease or
+death. They must drink out of a swan's bone. They may not walk on
+the common paths nor cross the tracks of animals. They "are never
+permitted to walk on the ice of rivers or lakes, or near the part
+where the men are hunting beaver, or where a fishing-net is set,
+for fear of averting <span class="pagenum"><a id="page91" name=
+"page91"></a>[pg 91]</span> their success. They are also prohibited
+at those times from partaking of the head of any animal, and even
+from walking in or crossing the track where the head of a deer,
+moose, beaver, and many other animals have lately been carried,
+either on a sledge or on the back. To be guilty of a violation of
+this custom is considered as of the greatest importance; because
+they firmly believe that it would be a means of preventing the
+hunter from having an equal success in his future
+excursions."<a id="footnotetag232" name=
+"footnotetag232"></a><a href="#footnote232"><sup>232</sup></a> So
+the Lapps forbid women at menstruation to walk on that part of the
+shore where the fishers are in the habit of setting out their
+fish;<a id="footnotetag233" name="footnotetag233"></a><a href=
+"#footnote233"><sup>233</sup></a> and the Esquimaux of Bering
+Strait believe that if hunters were to come near women in their
+courses they would catch no game.<a id="footnotetag234" name=
+"footnotetag234"></a><a href="#footnote234"><sup>234</sup></a></p>
+<a id="dreadtinneh" name="dreadtinneh"></a>
+<p>[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Tinneh or
+D&eacute;n&eacute; Indians; customs and beliefs of the Carrier
+Indians in regard to menstruous women.]</p>
+<p>But the beliefs and superstitions of this sort that prevail
+among the western tribes of the great D&eacute;n&eacute; or Tinneh
+stock, to which the Chippeways belong, have been so well described
+by an experienced missionary, that I will give his description in
+his own words. Prominent among the ceremonial rites of these
+Indians, he says, "are the observances peculiar to the fair sex,
+and many of them are remarkably analogous to those practised by the
+Hebrew women, so much so that, were it not savouring of profanity,
+the ordinances of the D&eacute;n&eacute; ritual code might be
+termed a new edition 'revised and considerably augmented' of the
+Mosaic ceremonial law. Among the Carriers,<a id="footnotetag235"
+name="footnotetag235"></a><a href="#footnote235"><sup>235</sup></a>
+as soon as a girl has experienced the first flow of the menses
+which in the female constitution are a natural discharge, her
+father believed himself under the obligation of atoning for her
+supposedly sinful condition by a small impromptu distribution of
+clothes among the natives. This periodical state of women was
+considered as one of legal impurity <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page92" name="page92"></a>[pg 92]</span> fateful both to the man
+who happened to have any intercourse, however indirect, with her,
+and to the woman herself who failed in scrupulously observing all
+the rites prescribed by ancient usage for persons in her
+condition.</p>
+<a id="dreadcarrier" name="dreadcarrier"></a>
+<p>[Seclusion of Carrier girls at puberty.]</p>
+<p>"Upon entering into that stage of her life, the maiden was
+immediately sequestered from company, even that of her parents, and
+compelled to dwell in a small branch hut by herself away from
+beaten paths and the gaze of passers-by. As she was supposed to
+exercise malefic influence on any man who might inadvertently
+glance at her, she had to wear a sort of head-dress combining in
+itself the purposes of a veil, a bonnet, and a mantlet. It was made
+of tanned skin, its forepart was shaped like a long fringe
+completely hiding from view the face and breasts; then it formed on
+the head a close-fitting cap or bonnet, and finally fell in a broad
+band almost to the heels. This head-dress was made and publicly
+placed on her head by a paternal aunt, who received at once some
+present from the girl's father. When, three or four years later,
+the period of sequestration ceased, only this same aunt had the
+right to take off her niece's ceremonial head-dress. Furthermore,
+the girl's fingers, wrists, and legs at the ankles and immediately
+below the knees, were encircled with ornamental rings and bracelets
+of sinew intended as a protection against the malign influences she
+was supposed to be possessed with.<a id="footnotetag236" name=
+"footnotetag236"></a><a href="#footnote236"><sup>236</sup></a> To a
+belt girding her waist were suspended two bone implements called
+respectively <i>Tsoenkuz</i> (bone tube) and <i>Tsiltsoet</i> (head
+scratcher). The former was a hollowed swan bone to drink with, any
+other mode of drinking being unlawful to her. The latter was
+fork-like and was called into requisition whenever she wanted to
+scratch her head&mdash;immediate contact of the fingers with the
+head being reputed injurious to her health. While thus secluded,
+she was called <i>asta</i>, that <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page93" name="page93"></a>[pg 93]</span> is 'interred alive' in
+Carrier, and she had to submit to a rigorous fast and abstinence.
+Her only allowed food consisted of dried fish boiled in a small
+bark vessel which nobody else must touch, and she had to abstain
+especially from meat of any kind, as well as fresh fish. Nor was
+this all she had to endure; even her contact, however remote, with
+these two articles of diet was so dreaded that she could not cross
+the public paths or trails, or the tracks of animals. Whenever
+absolute necessity constrained her to go beyond such spots, she had
+to be packed or carried over them lest she should contaminate the
+game or meat which had passed that way, or had been brought over
+these paths; and also for the sake of self-preservation against
+tabooed, and consequently to her, deleterious food. In the same way
+she was never allowed to wade in streams or lakes, for fear of
+causing death to the fish.</p>
+<p>"It was also a prescription of the ancient ritual code for
+females during this primary condition to eat as little as possible,
+and to remain lying down, especially in course of each monthly
+flow, not only as a natural consequence of the prolonged fast and
+resulting weakness; but chiefly as an exhibition of a becoming
+penitential spirit which was believed to be rewarded by long life
+and continual good health in after years.</p>
+<p>[Seclusion of Carrier women at their monthly periods; reasons
+for the seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians.]</p>
+<p>"These mortifications or seclusion did not last less than three
+or four years. Useless to say that during all that time marriage
+could not be thought of, since the girl could not so much as be
+seen by men. When married, the same sequestration was practised
+relatively to husband and fellow-villagers&mdash;without the
+particular head-dress and rings spoken of&mdash;on the occasion of
+every recurring menstruation. Sometimes it was protracted as long
+as ten days at a time, especially during the first years of
+cohabitation. Even when she returned to her mate, she was not
+permitted to sleep with him on the first nor frequently on the
+second night, but would choose a distant corner of the lodge to
+spread her blanket, as if afraid to defile him with her dread
+uncleanness."<a id="footnotetag237" name=
+"footnotetag237"></a><a href="#footnote237"><sup>237</sup></a>
+Elsewhere the same writer tells us that most of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page94" name="page94"></a>[pg 94]</span> the
+devices to which these Indians used to resort for the sake of
+ensuring success in the chase "were based on their regard for
+continence and their excessive repugnance for, and dread of,
+menstruating women."<a id="footnotetag238" name=
+"footnotetag238"></a><a href="#footnote238"><sup>238</sup></a> But
+the strict observances imposed on Tinneh or D&eacute;n&eacute;
+women at such times were designed at the same time to protect the
+women themselves from the evil consequences of their dangerous
+condition. Thus it was thought that women in their courses could
+not partake of the head, heart, or hind part of an animal that had
+been caught in a snare without exposing themselves to a premature
+death through a kind of rabies. They might not cut or carve salmon,
+because to do so would seriously endanger their health, and
+especially would enfeeble their arms for life. And they had to
+abstain from cutting up the grebes which are caught by the Carriers
+in great numbers every spring, because otherwise the blood with
+which these fowls abound would occasion haemorrhage or an
+unnaturally prolonged flux in the transgressor.<a id=
+"footnotetag239" name="footnotetag239"></a><a href=
+"#footnote239"><sup>239</sup></a> Similarly Indian women of the
+Thompson tribe abstained from venison and the flesh of other large
+game during menstruation, lest the animals should be displeased and
+the menstrual flow increased.<a id="footnotetag240" name=
+"footnotetag240"></a><a href="#footnote240"><sup>240</sup></a> For
+a similar reason, probably, Shuswap girls during their seclusion at
+puberty are forbidden to eat anything that bleeds.<a id=
+"footnotetag241" name="footnotetag241"></a><a href=
+"#footnote241"><sup>241</sup></a> The same principle may perhaps
+partly explain the rule, of which we have had some examples, that
+women at such times should refrain from fish and flesh, and
+restrict themselves to a vegetable diet.</p>
+<a id="similarrules" name="similarrules"></a>
+<p>[Similar rules of seclusion enjoined on menstruous women in
+ancient Hindoo, Persian, and Hebrew codes.]</p>
+<p>The philosophic student of human nature will observe, or learn,
+without surprise that ideas thus deeply ingrained <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page95" name="page95"></a>[pg 95]</span> in the
+savage mind reappear at a more advanced stage of society in those
+elaborate codes which have been drawn up for the guidance of
+certain peoples by lawgivers who claim to have derived the rules
+they inculcate from the direct inspiration of the deity. However we
+may explain it, the resemblance which exists between the earliest
+official utterances of the deity and the ideas of savages is
+unquestionably close and remarkable; whether it be, as some
+suppose, that God communed face to face with man in those early
+days, or, as others maintain, that man mistook his wild and
+wandering thoughts for a revelation from heaven. Be that as it may,
+certain it is that the natural uncleanness of woman at her monthly
+periods is a conception which has occurred, or been revealed, with
+singular unanimity to several ancient legislators. The Hindoo
+lawgiver Manu, who professed to have received his institutes from
+the creator Brahman, informs us that the wisdom, the energy, the
+strength, the sight, and the vitality of a man who approaches a
+woman in her courses will utterly perish; whereas, if he avoids
+her, his wisdom, energy, strength, sight, and vitality will all
+increase.<a id="footnotetag242" name="footnotetag242"></a><a href=
+"#footnote242"><sup>242</sup></a> The Persian lawgiver Zoroaster,
+who, if we can take his word for it, derived his code from the
+mouth of the supreme being Ahura Mazda, devoted special attention
+to the subject. According to him, the menstrous flow, at least in
+its abnormal manifestations, is a work of Ahriman, or the devil.
+Therefore, so long as it lasts, a woman "is unclean and possessed
+of the demon; she must be kept confined, apart from the faithful
+whom her touch would defile, and from the fire which her very look
+would injure; she is not allowed to eat as much as she wishes, as
+the strength she might acquire would accrue to the fiends. Her food
+is not given her from hand to hand, but is passed to her from a
+distance, in a long leaden spoon."<a id="footnotetag243" name=
+"footnotetag243"></a><a href="#footnote243"><sup>243</sup></a> The
+Hebrew lawgiver Moses, whose divine legation is as little open to
+question as that of Manu and Zoroaster, treats the subject at still
+greater length; but I must leave to the reader the task of
+comparing the inspired ordinances <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page96" name="page96"></a>[pg 96]</span> on this head with the
+merely human regulations of the Carrier Indians which they so
+closely resemble.</p>
+<a id="superstitionsmenstrous" name="superstitionsmenstrous"></a>
+<p>[Superstitions as to menstruous women in ancient and modern
+Europe.]</p>
+<p>Amongst the civilized nations of Europe the superstitions which
+cluster round this mysterious aspect of woman's nature are not less
+extravagant than those which prevail among savages. In the oldest
+existing cyclopaedia&mdash;the <i>Natural History</i> of
+Pliny&mdash;the list of dangers apprehended from menstruation is
+longer than any furnished by mere barbarians. According to Pliny,
+the touch of a menstruous woman turned wine to vinegar, blighted
+crops, killed seedlings, blasted gardens, brought down the fruit
+from trees, dimmed mirrors, blunted razors, rusted iron and brass
+(especially at the waning of the moon), killed bees, or at least
+drove them from their hives, caused mares to miscarry, and so
+forth.<a id="footnotetag244" name="footnotetag244"></a><a href=
+"#footnote244"><sup>244</sup></a> Similarly, in various parts of
+Europe, it is still believed that if a woman in her courses enters
+a brewery the beer will turn sour; if she touches beer, wine,
+vinegar, or milk, it will go bad; if she makes jam, it will not
+keep; if she mounts a mare, it will miscarry; if she touches buds,
+they will wither; if she climbs a cherry tree, it will die.<a id=
+"footnotetag245" name="footnotetag245"></a><a href=
+"#footnote245"><sup>245</sup></a> In Brunswick people think that if
+a menstruous woman assists at the killing of a pig, the pork will
+putrefy.<a id="footnotetag246" name="footnotetag246"></a><a href=
+"#footnote246"><sup>246</sup></a> In the Greek island of Calymnos a
+woman at such times may not <span class="pagenum"><a id="page97"
+name="page97"></a>[pg 97]</span> go to the well to draw water, nor
+cross a running stream, nor enter the sea. Her presence in a boat
+is said to raise storms.<a id="footnotetag247" name=
+"footnotetag247"></a><a href="#footnote247"><sup>247</sup></a></p>
+<a id="intentionsecluding" name="intentionsecluding"></a>
+<p>[The intention of secluding menstruous women is to neutralize
+the dangerous influences which are thought to emanate from them in
+that condition; suspension between heaven and earth.]</p>
+<p>Thus the object of secluding women at menstruation is to
+neutralize the dangerous influences which are supposed to emanate
+from them at such times. That the danger is believed to be
+especially great at the first menstruation appears from the unusual
+precautions taken to isolate girls at this crisis. Two of these
+precautions have been illustrated above, namely, the rules that the
+girl may not touch the ground nor see the sun. The general effect
+of these rules is to keep her suspended, so to say, between heaven
+and earth. Whether enveloped in her hammock and slung up to the
+roof, as in South America, or raised above the ground in a dark and
+narrow cage, as in New Ireland, she may be considered to be out of
+the way of doing mischief, since, being shut off both from the
+earth and from the sun, she can poison neither of these great
+sources of life by her deadly contagion. In short, she is rendered
+harmless by being, in electrical language, insulated. But the
+precautions thus taken to isolate or insulate the girl are dictated
+by a regard for her own safety as well as for the safety of others.
+For it is thought that she herself would suffer if she were to
+neglect the prescribed regimen. Thus Zulu girls, as we have seen,
+believe that they would shrivel to skeletons if the sun were to
+shine on them at puberty, and in some Brazilian tribes the young
+women think that a transgression of the rules would entail sores on
+the neck and throat. In short, the girl is viewed as charged with a
+powerful force which, if not kept within bounds, may prove
+destructive both to herself and to all with whom she comes in
+contact. To repress this force within the limits necessary for the
+safety of all concerned is the object of the taboos in
+question.</p>
+<a id="suspensionheaven" name="suspensionheaven"></a>
+<p>[The same explanation applies to the similar rules of seclusion
+observed by divine kings and priests; suspension between heaven and
+earth.]</p>
+<p>The same explanation applies to the observance of the same rules
+by divine kings and priests. The uncleanness, as it is called, of
+girls at puberty and the sanctity of holy men do not, to the
+primitive mind, differ materially from each other. They are only
+different manifestations of the same mysterious energy which, like
+energy in general, is in itself neither good <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page98" name="page98"></a>[pg 98]</span> nor bad,
+but becomes beneficent or maleficent according to its
+application.<a id="footnotetag248" name=
+"footnotetag248"></a><a href="#footnote248"><sup>248</sup></a>
+Accordingly, if, like girls at puberty, divine personages may
+neither touch the ground nor see the sun, the reason is, on the one
+hand, a fear lest their divinity might, at contact with earth or
+heaven, discharge itself with fatal violence on either; and, on the
+other hand, an apprehension that the divine being, thus drained of
+his ethereal virtue, might thereby be incapacitated for the future
+performance of those magical functions, upon the proper discharge
+of which the safety of the people and even of the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page99" name="page99"></a>[pg 99]</span> world is
+believed to hang. Thus the rules in question fall under the head of
+the taboos which we examined in the second part of this work;<a id=
+"footnotetag249" name="footnotetag249"></a><a href=
+"#footnote249"><sup>249</sup></a> they are intended to preserve the
+life of the divine person and with it the life of his subjects and
+worshippers. Nowhere, it is thought, can his precious yet dangerous
+life be at once so safe and so harmless as when it is neither in
+heaven nor in earth, but, as far as possible, suspended between the
+two.<a id="footnotetag250" name="footnotetag250"></a><a href=
+"#footnote250"><sup>250</sup></a></p>
+<a id="storiesimmortality" name="storiesimmortality"></a>
+<p>[Stories of immortality attained by suspension between heaven
+and earth.]</p>
+<p>In legends and folk-tales, which reflect the ideas of earlier
+ages, we find this suspension between heaven and earth attributed
+to beings who have been endowed with the coveted yet burdensome
+gift of immortality. The wizened remains of the deathless Sibyl are
+said to have been preserved in a jar or urn which hung in a temple
+of Apollo at Cumae; and when a group of merry children, tired,
+perhaps, of playing in the sunny streets, sought the shade of the
+temple and amused themselves by gathering underneath the familiar
+jar and calling out, "Sibyl, what do you wish?" a hollow voice,
+like an echo, used to answer from the urn, "I wish to die."<a id=
+"footnotetag251" name="footnotetag251"></a><a href=
+"#footnote251"><sup>251</sup></a> A story, taken down from the lips
+of a German peasant at Thomsdorf, relates that once upon a time
+there was a girl in London who wished to live for ever, so they
+say:</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>"London, London is a fine town.</p>
+<p>A maiden prayed to live for ever."</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>And still she lives and hangs in a basket in a church, and every
+St. John's Day, about the hour of noon, she eats a roll of
+bread.<a id="footnotetag252" name="footnotetag252"></a><a href=
+"#footnote252"><sup>252</sup></a> Another German story tells of a
+lady who <span class="pagenum"><a id="page100" name=
+"page100"></a>[pg 100]</span> resided at Danzig and was so rich and
+so blest with all that life can give that she wished to live
+always. So when she came to her latter end, she did not really die
+but only looked like dead, and very soon they found her in a hollow
+of a pillar in the church, half standing and half sitting,
+motionless. She stirred never a limb, but they saw quite plainly
+that she was alive, and she sits there down to this blessed day.
+Every New Year's Day the sacristan comes and puts a morsel of the
+holy bread in her mouth, and that is all she has to live on. Long,
+long has she rued her fatal wish who set this transient life above
+the eternal joys of heaven.<a id="footnotetag253" name=
+"footnotetag253"></a><a href="#footnote253"><sup>253</sup></a> A
+third German story tells of a noble damsel who cherished the same
+foolish wish for immortality. So they put her in a basket and hung
+her up in a church, and there she hangs and never dies, though many
+a year has come and gone since they put her there. But every year
+on a certain day they give her a roll, and she eats it and cries
+out, "For ever! for ever! for ever!" And when she has so cried she
+falls silent again till the same time next year, and so it will go
+on for ever and for ever.<a id="footnotetag254" name=
+"footnotetag254"></a><a href="#footnote254"><sup>254</sup></a> A
+fourth story, taken down near Oldenburg in Holstein, tells of a
+jolly dame that ate and drank and lived right merrily and had all
+that heart could desire, and she wished to live always. For the
+first hundred years all went well, but after that she began to
+shrink and shrivel up, till at last she could neither walk nor
+stand nor eat nor drink. But die she could not. At first they fed
+her as if she were a little child, but when she grew smaller and
+smaller they put her in a glass bottle and hung her up in the
+church. And there she still hangs, in the church of St. Mary, at
+L&uuml;beck. She is as small as a mouse, but once a year she
+stirs.<a id="footnotetag255" name="footnotetag255"></a><a href=
+"#footnote255"><sup>255</sup></a></p>
+<p>Notes:</p>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote64" name=
+"footnote64"></a> <b>Footnote 64</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag64">(return)</a>
+<p>Pechuel-Loesche, "Indiscretes aus Loango," <i>Zeitschrift
+f&uuml;r Ethnologie</i>, x. (1878) p. 23.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote65" name=
+"footnote65"></a> <b>Footnote 65</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag65">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J. Macdonald, "Manners, Customs, Superstitions, and
+Religions of South African Tribes," <i>Journal of the
+Anthropological Institute</i>, xx. (1891) p. 118.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote66" name=
+"footnote66"></a> <b>Footnote 66</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag66">(return)</a>
+<p>Dudley Kidd, <i>The Essential Kafir</i> (London, 1904), p. 209.
+The prohibition to drink milk under such circumstances is also
+mentioned, though without the reason for it, by L. Alberti (<i>De
+Kaffersaan de Zuidkust van Afrika</i>, Amsterdam, 1810, p. 79),
+George Thompson (<i>Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa</i>,
+London, 1827, ii. 354 <i>sq.</i>), and Mr. Warner (in Col.
+Maclean's <i>Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs</i>; Cape Town,
+1866, p. 98). As to the reason for the prohibition, see <a href=
+"#page80">below, p. 80</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote67" name=
+"footnote67"></a> <b>Footnote 67</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag67">(return)</a>
+<p>C.W. Hobley, <i>Ethnology of A-Kamba and other East African
+Tribes</i> (Cambridge, 1910), p. 65.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote68" name=
+"footnote68"></a> <b>Footnote 68</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag68">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J. Roscoe, <i>The Baganda</i> (London, 1911), p. 80. As to
+the interpretation which the Baganda put on the act of jumping or
+stepping over a woman, see <i>id.</i>, pp. 48, 357 note 1.
+Apparently some of the Lower Congo people interpret the act
+similarly. See J.H. Weeks, "Notes on some Customs of the Lower
+Congo People," <i>Folk-lore</i>, xix. (1908) p. 431. Among the
+Baganda the separation of children from their parents took place
+after weaning; girls usually went to live either with an elder
+married brother or (if there was none such) with one of their
+father's brothers; boys in like manner went to live with one of
+their father's brothers. See J. Roscoe, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 74. As
+to the prohibition to touch food with the hands, see <i>Taboo and
+the Perils of the Soul</i>, pp. 138 <i>sqq.</i>, 146 <i>sqq.</i>,
+etc.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote69" name=
+"footnote69"></a> <b>Footnote 69</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag69">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J. Roscoe, <i>The Baganda</i>, p. 80.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote70" name=
+"footnote70"></a> <b>Footnote 70</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag70">(return)</a>
+<p>De la Loubere, <i>Du royaume de Siam</i> (Amsterdam, 1691), i.
+203. In Travancore it is believed that women at puberty and after
+childbirth are peculiarly liable to be attacked by demons. See S.
+Mateer, <i>The Land of Charity</i> (London, 1871), p. 208.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote71" name=
+"footnote71"></a> <b>Footnote 71</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag71">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J. Roscoe, <i>The Baganda</i>, p. 80.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote72" name=
+"footnote72"></a> <b>Footnote 72</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag72">(return)</a>
+<p>C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, <i>The Great Plateau of Northern
+Nigeria</i> (London, 1911), pp. 158-160.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote73" name=
+"footnote73"></a> <b>Footnote 73</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag73">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Sutherland Rattray, <i>Some Folk-lore, Stories and Songs in
+Chinyanja</i> (London, 1907), pp. 102-105.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote74" name=
+"footnote74"></a> <b>Footnote 74</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag74">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. H. Cole, "Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa,"
+<i>Journal of the Anthropological Institute</i>, xxxii. (1902) pp.
+309 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote75" name=
+"footnote75"></a> <b>Footnote 75</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag75">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Sutherland Rattray, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 191 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote76" name=
+"footnote76"></a> <b>Footnote 76</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag76">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Grihya Sutras</i>, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part i. p.
+357, Part ii. p. 267 (<i>Sacred Books of the East</i>, vols. xxix.,
+xxx.).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote77" name=
+"footnote77"></a> <b>Footnote 77</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag77">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J. Roscoe, <i>The Baganda</i> (London, 1911), pp. 393
+<i>sq.</i>, compare pp. 396, 398.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote78" name=
+"footnote78"></a> <b>Footnote 78</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag78">(return)</a>
+<p>See <i>Totemism and Exogamy</i>, iv. 224 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote79" name=
+"footnote79"></a> <b>Footnote 79</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag79">(return)</a>
+<p>Sir Harry H. Johnston, <i>British Central Africa</i> (London,
+1897), p. 411.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote80" name=
+"footnote80"></a> <b>Footnote 80</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag80">(return)</a>
+<p>Oscar Baumann, <i>Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle</i> (Berlin,
+1894), p. 178.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote81" name=
+"footnote81"></a> <b>Footnote 81</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag81">(return)</a>
+<p>Lionel Decle, <i>Three Years in Savage Africa</i> (London,
+1898), p. 78. Compare E. Jacottet, <i>&Eacute;tudes sur les Langues
+du Haut-Zamb&egrave;ze</i>, Troisi&egrave;me Partie (Paris, 1901),
+pp. 174 <i>sq.</i> (as to the A-Louyi).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote82" name=
+"footnote82"></a> <b>Footnote 82</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag82">(return)</a>
+<p>E. B&eacute;guin, <i>Les Ma-rots&eacute;</i> (Lausanne and
+Fontaines, 1903), p. 113.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote83" name=
+"footnote83"></a> <b>Footnote 83</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag83">(return)</a>
+<p>Henri A. Junod, <i>The Life of a South African Tribe</i>
+(Neuchatel, 1912-1913), i. 178 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote84" name=
+"footnote84"></a> <b>Footnote 84</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag84">(return)</a>
+<p>G. McCall Theal, <i>Kaffir Folk-lore</i> (London, 1886), p.
+218.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote85" name=
+"footnote85"></a> <b>Footnote 85</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag85">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Alberti, <i>De Kaffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika</i>
+(Amsterdam, 1810), pp. 79 <i>sq.</i>; H. Lichtenstein, <i>Reisen im
+s&uuml;dlichen Africa</i> (Berlin, 1811-1812), i. 428.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote86" name=
+"footnote86"></a> <b>Footnote 86</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag86">(return)</a>
+<p>Gustav Fritsch, <i>Die Eingeborenen S&uuml;d-Afrika's</i>
+(Breslau, 1872), p. 112. This statement applies especially to the
+Ama-Xosa.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote87" name=
+"footnote87"></a> <b>Footnote 87</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag87">(return)</a>
+<p>G. McCall Theal, <i>Kaffir Folk-lore</i>, p. 218.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote88" name=
+"footnote88"></a> <b>Footnote 88</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag88">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. Canon Henry Callaway, <i>Nursery Tales, Traditions, and
+Histories of the Zulus</i> (Natal and London, 1868), p. 182, note
+20. From one of the Zulu texts which the author edits and
+translates (p. 189) we may infer that during the period of her
+seclusion a Zulu girl may not light a fire. Compare <a href=
+"#page28">above, p. 28</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote89" name=
+"footnote89"></a> <b>Footnote 89</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag89">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Casalis, <i>The Basutos</i> (London, 1861), p. 268.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote90" name=
+"footnote90"></a> <b>Footnote 90</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag90">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Merolla, "Voyage to Congo," in J. Pinkerton's <i>Voyages and
+Travels</i> (London, 1808-1814), xvi. 238; Father Campana, "Congo;
+Mission Catholique de Landana," <i>Les Missions Catholiques</i>,
+xxvii. (1895) p. 161; R.E. Dennett, <i>At the Back of the Black
+Man's Mind</i> (London, 1906), pp. 69 <i>sq.</i>. According to
+Merolla, it is thought that if girls did not go through these
+ceremonies, they would "never be fit for procreation." The other
+consequences supposed to flow from the omission of the rites are
+mentioned by Father Campana. From Mr. Dennett's account (<i>op.
+cit.</i> pp. 53, 67-71) we gather that drought and famine are
+thought to result from the intercourse of a man with a girl who has
+not yet passed through the "paint-house," as the hut is called
+where the young women live in seclusion. According to O. Dapper,
+the women of Loango paint themselves red on every recurrence of
+their monthly sickness; also they tie a cord tightly round their
+heads and take care neither to touch their husband's food nor to
+appear before him (<i>Description de l'Afrique</i>, Amsterdam,
+1686, p. 326).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote91" name=
+"footnote91"></a> <b>Footnote 91</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag91">(return)</a>
+<p>The Rev. G. Brown, quoted by the Rev. B. Danks, "Marriage
+Customs of the New Britain Group," <i>Journal of the
+Anthropological Institute</i>, xviii. (1889) pp. 284. <i>sq.; id.,
+Melanesians and Polynesians</i> (London, 1910), pp. 105-107.
+Compare <i>id.</i>, "Notes on the Duke of York Group, New Britain,
+and New Ireland," <i>Journal of the Royal Geographical Society</i>,
+xlvii. (1877) pp. 142 <i>sq.</i>; A. Hahl, "Das mittlere
+Neumecklenburg," <i>Globus</i>, xci. (1907) p. 313. Wilfred
+Powell's description of the New Ireland custom is similar
+(<i>Wanderings in a Wild Country</i>, London, 1883, p. 249).
+According to him, the girls wear wreaths of scented herbs round the
+waist and neck; an old woman or a little child occupies the lower
+floor of the cage; and the confinement lasts only a month. Probably
+the long period mentioned by Dr. Brown is that prescribed for
+chiefs' daughters. Poor people could not afford to keep their
+children so long idle. This distinction is sometimes expressly
+stated. See <a href="#page30">above, p. 30</a>. Among the Goajiras
+of Colombia rich people keep their daughters shut up in separate
+huts at puberty for periods varying from one to four years, but
+poor people cannot afford to do so for more than a fortnight or a
+month. See F.A. Simons, "An Exploration of the Goajira Peninsula,"
+<i>Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society</i>, N.S., vii.
+(1885) p. 791. In Fiji, brides who were being tattooed were kept
+from the sun (Thomas Williams, <i>Fiji and the Fijians</i>, Second
+Edition, London, 1860, i. 170). This was perhaps a modification of
+the Melanesian custom of secluding girls at puberty. The reason
+mentioned by Mr. Williams, "to improve her complexion," can hardly
+have been the original one.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote92" name=
+"footnote92"></a> <b>Footnote 92</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag92">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. R.H. Rickard, quoted by Dr. George Brown, <i>Melanesians
+and Polynesians</i>, pp. 107 <i>sq.</i>. His observations were made
+in 1892.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote93" name=
+"footnote93"></a> <b>Footnote 93</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag93">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Parkinson, <i>Dreissig Jahre in der S&uuml;dsee</i>
+(Stuttgart, 1907), p. 272. The natives told Mr. Parkinson that the
+confinement of the girls lasts from twelve to twenty months. The
+length of it may have been reduced since Dr. George Brown described
+the custom in 1876.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote94" name=
+"footnote94"></a> <b>Footnote 94</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag94">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Chalmers and W. Wyatt Gill, <i>Work and Adventure in New
+Guinea</i> (London, 1885), p. 159.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote95" name=
+"footnote95"></a> <b>Footnote 95</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag95">(return)</a>
+<p>H. Zahn and S. Lehner, in R. Neuhauss's <i>Deutsch
+New-Guinea</i> (Berlin, 1911), iii. 298, 418-420. The customs of
+the two tribes seem to be in substantial agreement, and the
+accounts of them supplement each other. The description of the
+Bukaua practice is the fuller.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote96" name=
+"footnote96"></a> <b>Footnote 96</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag96">(return)</a>
+<p>C.A.L.M. Schwaner, <i>Borneo, Beschrijving van het stroomgebied
+van den Barito</i> (Amsterdam, 1853-1854), ii. 77 <i>sq.</i>;
+W.F.A. Zimmermann, <i>Die Inseln des Indischen und Stillen
+Meeres</i> (Berlin, 1864-1865), ii. 632 <i>sq.</i>; Otto Finsch,
+<i>Neu Guinea und seine Bewohner</i> (Bremen, 1865), pp. 116
+<i>sq.</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote97" name=
+"footnote97"></a> <b>Footnote 97</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag97">(return)</a>
+<p>J.G.F. Riedel, <i>De sluik&mdash;en kroesharige rassen tusschen
+Selebes en Papua</i> (The Hague, 1886), p. 138.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote98" name=
+"footnote98"></a> <b>Footnote 98</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag98">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Senfft, "Ethnographische Beitr&auml;ge &uuml;ber die
+Karolineninsel Yap," <i>Petermanns Mitteilungen</i>, xlix. (1903)
+p. 53; <i>id.</i>, "Die Rechtssitten der Jap-Eingeborenen,"
+<i>Globus</i>, xci. (1907) pp. 142 <i>sq.</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote99" name=
+"footnote99"></a> <b>Footnote 99</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag99">(return)</a>
+<p>Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in <i>Journal of the Anthropological
+Institute</i>, xxix. (1899) pp. 212 <i>sq.; id.</i>, in <i>Reports
+of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits</i>,
+v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 203 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote100" name=
+"footnote100"></a> <b>Footnote 100</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag100">(return)</a>
+<p>Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in <i>Reports of the Cambridge Expedition to
+Torres Straits</i>, v. (Cambridge, 1904) p. 205.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote101" name=
+"footnote101"></a> <b>Footnote 101</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag101">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Crauford, in <i>Journal of the Anthropological Institute</i>,
+xxiv. (1895) p. 181.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote102" name=
+"footnote102"></a> <b>Footnote 102</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag102">(return)</a>
+<p>Dr. C.G. Seligmann, <i>op. cit.</i> v. 206.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote103" name=
+"footnote103"></a> <b>Footnote 103</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag103">(return)</a>
+<p>Walter E. Roth, <i>North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 5,
+Superstition, Magic, and Medicine</i> (Brisbane, 1903), pp. 24
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote104" name=
+"footnote104"></a> <b>Footnote 104</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag104">(return)</a>
+<p>Walter E. Roth, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 25.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote105" name=
+"footnote105"></a> <b>Footnote 105</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag105">(return)</a>
+<p>Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in <i>Reports of the Cambridge
+Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits</i>, v. (Cambridge,
+1904), p. 205.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote106" name=
+"footnote106"></a> <b>Footnote 106</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag106">(return)</a>
+<p>From notes kindly sent me by Dr. C.G. Seligmann. The practice of
+burying a girl at puberty was observed also by some Indian tribes
+of California, but apparently rather for the purpose of producing a
+sweat than for the sake of concealment. The treatment lasted only
+twenty-four hours, during which the patient was removed from the
+ground and washed three or four times, to be afterwards reimbedded.
+Dancing was kept up the whole time by the women. See H. R.
+Schoolcraft, <i>Indian Tribes of the United States</i>
+(Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 215.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote107" name=
+"footnote107"></a> <b>Footnote 107</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag107">(return)</a>
+<p>Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in <i>Reports of the Cambridge
+Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits</i>, v. 201
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote108" name=
+"footnote108"></a> <b>Footnote 108</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag108">(return)</a>
+<p>A.L. Kroeber, "The Religion of the Indians of California,"
+<i>University of California Publications in American Archaeology
+and Ethnology</i>, vol. iv. No. 6 (September, 1907), p. 324.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote109" name=
+"footnote109"></a> <b>Footnote 109</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag109">(return)</a>
+<p>Roland B. Dixon, "The Northern Maidu," <i>Bulletin of the
+American Museum of Natural History</i>, vol. xvii. Part iii. (May
+1905) pp. 232 <i>sq.</i>, compare pp. 233-238.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote110" name=
+"footnote110"></a> <b>Footnote 110</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag110">(return)</a>
+<p>Stephen Powers, <i>Tribes of California</i> (Washington, 1877),
+p. 85 (<i>Contributions to North American Ethnology</i>, vol.
+iii.).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote111" name=
+"footnote111"></a> <b>Footnote 111</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag111">(return)</a>
+<p>Stephen Powers, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 235.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote112" name=
+"footnote112"></a> <b>Footnote 112</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag112">(return)</a>
+<p>Charles Wilkes, <i>Narrative of the United States Exploring
+Expedition</i>, New Edition (New York, 1851), iv. 456.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote113" name=
+"footnote113"></a> <b>Footnote 113</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag113">(return)</a>
+<p>Franz Boas, <i>Chinook Texts</i> (Washington, 1894), pp. 246
+<i>sq.</i> The account, taken down from the lips of a Chinook
+Indian, is not perfectly clear; some of the restrictions were
+prolonged after the girl's second monthly period.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote114" name=
+"footnote114"></a> <b>Footnote 114</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag114">(return)</a>
+<p>G.M. Sproat, <i>Scenes and Studies of Savage Life</i> (London,
+1868), pp. 93 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote115" name=
+"footnote115"></a> <b>Footnote 115</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag115">(return)</a>
+<p>Franz Boas, in <i>Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of
+Canada</i>, pp. 40-42 (separate reprint from the <i>Report of the
+British Association for the Advancement of Science</i>, Leeds
+meeting, 1890). The rule not to lie down is observed also during
+their seclusion at puberty by Tsimshian girls, who always sit
+propped up between boxes and mats; their heads are covered with
+small mats, and they may not look at men nor at fresh salmon and
+olachen. See Franz Boas, in <i>Fifth Report on the North-Western
+Tribes of Canada</i>, p. 41 (separate reprint from the <i>Report of
+the British Association for the Advancement of Science</i>,
+Newcastle-upon-Tyne meeting, 1889); G.M. Dawson, <i>Report on the
+Queen Charlotte Islands, 1878</i> (Montreal, 1880), pp. 130 B
+<i>sq.</i> Some divine kings are not allowed to lie down. See
+<i>Taboo and the Perils of the Soul</i>, p. 5.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote116" name=
+"footnote116"></a> <b>Footnote 116</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag116">(return)</a>
+<p>George M. Dawson, <i>Report on the Queen Charlotte Islands,
+1878</i> (Montreal, 1880), p. 130 B; J.R. Swanton, <i>Contributions
+to the Ethnology of the Haida</i> (Leyden and New York, 1905), pp.
+48-50 (<i>The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the
+American Museum of Natural History</i>, New York). Speaking of the
+customs observed at Kloo, where the girls had to abstain from
+salmon for five years, Mr. Swanton says (p. 49): "When five years
+had passed, the girl came out, and could do as she pleased." This
+seems to imply that the girl was secluded in the house for five
+years. We have seen (<a href="#page32">above, p. 32</a>) that in
+New Ireland the girls used sometimes to be secluded for the same
+period.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote117" name=
+"footnote117"></a> <b>Footnote 117</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag117">(return)</a>
+<p>G.H. von Langsdorff, <i>Reise um die Welt</i> (Frankfort, 1812),
+ii. 114 <i>sq.</i>; H.J. Holmberg, "Ethnographische Skizzen
+&uuml;ber die V&ouml;lker des Russischen Amerika," <i>Acta
+Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae</i>, iv. (Helsingfors, 1856) pp.
+319 <i>sq.</i>; T. de Pauly, <i>Description Ethnographique des
+Peuples de la Russie</i> (St. Petersburg, 1862), <i>Peuples de
+l'Am&eacute;rique Russe</i>, p. 13; A. Erman, "Ethnographische
+Wahrnehmungen und Erfahrungen an den K&uuml;sten des
+Berings-Meeres," <i>Zeitschrift f&uuml;r Ethnologie</i>, ii. (1870)
+pp. 318 <i>sq.</i>; H.H. Bancroft, <i>Native Races of the Pacific
+States</i> (London, 1875-1876), i. 110 <i>sq.</i>; Rev. Sheldon
+Jackson, "Alaska and its Inhabitants," <i>The American
+Antiquarian</i>, ii. (Chicago, 1879-1880) pp. 111 <i>sq.</i>; A.
+Woldt, <i>Captain Jacobsen's Reise an der Nordwestkiiste Americas,
+1881-1883</i> (Leipsic, 1884), p. 393; Aurel Krause, <i>Die
+Tlinkit-Indianer</i> (Jena, 1885), pp. 217 <i>sq.</i>; W.M. Grant,
+in <i>Journal of American Folk-lore</i>, i. (1888) p. 169; John R.
+Swanton, "Social Conditions, Beliefs, and Linguistic Relationship
+of the Tlingit Indians," <i>Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the
+Bureau of American Ethnology</i> (Washington, 1908), p. 428.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote118" name=
+"footnote118"></a> <b>Footnote 118</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag118">(return)</a>
+<p>Franz Boas, in <i>Tenth Report of the Committee on the
+North-Western Tribes of Canada</i>, p. 45 (separate reprint from
+the <i>Report of the British Association for the Advancement of
+Science</i>, Ipswich meeting, 1895).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote119" name=
+"footnote119"></a> <b>Footnote 119</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag119">(return)</a>
+<p>Franz Boas, in <i>Fifth Report of the Committee on the
+North-Western Tribes of Canada</i>, p. 42 (separate reprint from
+the <i>Report of the British Association for the Advancement of
+Science</i>, Newcastle-upon-Tyne meeting, 1889); <i>id.</i>, in
+<i>Seventh Report</i>, etc., p. 12 (separate reprint from the
+<i>Report of the British Association for the Advancement of
+Science</i>, Cardiff meeting, 1891).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote120" name=
+"footnote120"></a> <b>Footnote 120</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag120">(return)</a>
+<p>"Customs of the New Caledonian women belonging to the Nancaushy
+Tine, or Stuart's Lake Indians, Natotin Tine, or Babine's and
+Nantley Tine, or Fraser Lake Tribes," from information supplied by
+Gavin Hamilton, chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company's service,
+who has been for many years among these Indians, both he and his
+wife speaking their languages fluently (communicated by Dr. John
+Rae), <i>Journal of the Anthropological Institute</i>, vii. (1878)
+pp. 206 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote121" name=
+"footnote121"></a> <b>Footnote 121</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag121">(return)</a>
+<p>&Eacute;mile Petitot, <i>Traditions Indiennes du Canada
+Nord-ouest</i> (Paris, 1886), pp. 257 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote122" name=
+"footnote122"></a> <b>Footnote 122</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag122">(return)</a>
+<p>Fr. Julius Jett&eacute;, S.J., "On the Superstitions of the
+Ten'a Indians," <i>Anthropos</i>, vi. (1911) pp. 700-702.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote123" name=
+"footnote123"></a> <b>Footnote 123</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag123">(return)</a>
+<p>Compare <i>The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings</i>, i. 70
+<i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote124" name=
+"footnote124"></a> <b>Footnote 124</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag124">(return)</a>
+<p>James Teit, <i>The Thompson Indians of British Columbia</i>, pp.
+311-317 (<i>The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the
+American Museum of Natural History</i>, New York, April, 1900). As
+to the customs observed among these Indians by the father of a girl
+at such times in order not to lose his luck in hunting, see
+<i>Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild</i>, ii. 268.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote125" name=
+"footnote125"></a> <b>Footnote 125</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag125">(return)</a>
+<p>James Teit, <i>The Lillooet Indians</i> (Leyden and New York,
+1906), pp. 263-265 (<i>The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir
+of the American Museum of Natural History</i>, New York). Compare
+C. Hill Tout, "Report on the Ethnology of the Stlatlumh of British
+Columbia," <i>Journal of the Anthropological Institute</i>, xxxv.
+(1905) p. 136.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote126" name=
+"footnote126"></a> <b>Footnote 126</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag126">(return)</a>
+<p>Franz Boas, in <i>Sixth Report of the Committee on the
+North-Western Tribes of Canada</i>, pp. 89 <i>sq</i>. (separate
+reprint from the <i>Report of the British Association for the
+Advancement of Science</i>, Leeds meeting, 1890).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote127" name=
+"footnote127"></a> <b>Footnote 127</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag127">(return)</a>
+<p>James Teit, <i>The Shuswap</i> (Leyden and New York, 1909), pp.
+587 <i>sq.</i> (<i>The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of
+the American Museum of Natural History</i>, New York).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote128" name=
+"footnote128"></a> <b>Footnote 128</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag128">(return)</a>
+<p>G.H. Loskiel, <i>History of the Mission of the United Brethren
+among the Indians of North America</i> (London, 1794), Part i. pp.
+56 <i>sq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote129" name=
+"footnote129"></a> <b>Footnote 129</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag129">(return)</a>
+<p>G.B. Grinnell, "Cheyenne Woman Customs," <i>American
+Anthropologist</i>, New Series, iv. (New York, 1902) pp. 13
+<i>sq</i>. The Cheyennes appear to have been at first settled on
+the Mississippi, from which they were driven westward to the
+Missouri. See <i>Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico</i>,
+edited by F.W. Hodge (Washington, 1907-1910), i. 250
+<i>sqq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote130" name=
+"footnote130"></a> <b>Footnote 130</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag130">(return)</a>
+<p>H.J. Holmberg, "Ueber die V&ouml;lker des Russischen Amerika,"
+<i>Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae</i>, iv. (Helsingfors,
+1856) pp. 401 <i>sq.</i>; Ivan Petroff, <i>Report on the
+Population, Industries and Resources of Alaska</i>, p. 143.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote131" name=
+"footnote131"></a> <b>Footnote 131</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag131">(return)</a>
+<p>E.W. Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," <i>Eighteenth
+Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology</i>, Part i.
+(Washington, 1899) p. 291.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote132" name=
+"footnote132"></a> <b>Footnote 132</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag132">(return)</a>
+<p>Jose Guevara, "Historia del Paraguay, Rio de la Plata, y
+Tucuman," pp. 16 <i>sq.</i>, in Pedro de Angelis, <i>Coleccion de
+Obras y Documentos relativos a la Historia antigua y moderna de las
+Provincias del Rio de la Plata</i>, vol. ii. (Buenos-Ayres, 1836);
+J.F. Lafitau, <i>Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains</i> (Paris, 1724),
+i. 262 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote133" name=
+"footnote133"></a> <b>Footnote 133</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag133">(return)</a>
+<p>Father Ignace Chom&eacute;, in <i>Lettres &Eacute;difiantes et
+Curieuses</i>, Nouvelle Edition (Paris, 1780-1783), viii. 333. As
+to the Chiriguanos, see C.F. Phil. von Martius, <i>Zur Ethnographie
+Amerika's, zumal Brasiliens</i> (Leipsic, 1867), pp. 212
+<i>sqq.</i>; Colonel G.E. Church, <i>Aborigines of South
+America</i> (London, 1912), pp. 207-227.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote134" name=
+"footnote134"></a> <b>Footnote 134</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag134">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Thouar, <i>Explorations dans l'Am&eacute;rique du Sud</i>
+(Paris, 1891), pp. 48 <i>sq.</i>; G. Kurze, "Sitten und
+Gebr&auml;uche der Lengua-Indianer," <i>Mitteilungen der
+Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena</i>, xxiii. (1905) pp. 26
+<i>sq.</i> The two accounts appear to be identical; but the former
+attributes the custom to the Chiriguanos, the latter to the
+Lenguas. As the latter account is based on the reports of the Rev.
+W.B. Grubb, a missionary who has been settled among the Indians of
+the Chaco for many years and is our principal authority on them, I
+assume that the ascription of the custom to the Lenguas is correct.
+However, in the volume on the Lengua Indians, which has been edited
+from Mr. Grubb's papers (<i>An Unknown People in an Unknown
+Land</i>, London, 1911), these details as to the seclusion of girls
+at puberty are not mentioned, though what seems to be the final
+ceremony is described (<i>op. cit.</i> pp. 177 <i>sq.</i>). From
+the description we learn that boys dressed in ostrich feathers and
+wearing masks circle round the girl with shrill cries, but are
+repelled by the women.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote135" name=
+"footnote135"></a> <b>Footnote 135</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag135">(return)</a>
+<p>Alcide d'Orbigny, <i>Voyage dans l'Am&eacute;rique
+M&eacute;ridionale</i> vol. iii. 1to Partie (Paris and Strasburg,
+1844), pp. 205 <i>sq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote136" name=
+"footnote136"></a> <b>Footnote 136</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag136">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Thouar, <i>Explorations dans l'Am&eacute;rique du Sud</i>
+(Paris, 1891) pp. 56 <i>sq.</i>; Father Cardus, quoted in J.
+Pelleschi's <i>Los Indios Matacos</i> (Buenos Ayres, 1897), pp. 47
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote137" name=
+"footnote137"></a> <b>Footnote 137</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag137">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Thouar, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 63.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote138" name=
+"footnote138"></a> <b>Footnote 138</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag138">(return)</a>
+<p>Francis de Castelnau, <i>Exp&eacute;dition dans les parties
+centrales de l'Am&eacute;rique du Sud</i> (Paris, 1850-1851), v.
+25.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote139" name=
+"footnote139"></a> <b>Footnote 139</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag139">(return)</a>
+<p>D. Luis de la Cruz, "Descripcion de la Naturaleza de los
+Terrenos que se comprenden en los Andes, poseidos por los
+Peguenches y los demas espacios hasta el rio de Chadileuba," p. 62,
+in Pedro de Angelis, <i>Coleccion de Obras y Documentos relativos a
+la Historia antigua y moderna de las Provincias del Rio de la
+Plata</i>, vol. i. (Buenos-Ayres, 1836). Apparently the Peguenches
+are an Indian tribe of Chili.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote140" name=
+"footnote140"></a> <b>Footnote 140</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag140">(return)</a>
+<p>J.B. von Spix und C.F. Ph. von Martius, <i>Reise in
+Brasilien</i> (Munich, 1823-1831), iii. 1186, 1187, 1318.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote141" name=
+"footnote141"></a> <b>Footnote 141</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag141">(return)</a>
+<p>Andr&eacute; Thevet, <i>Cosmographie Universelle</i> (Paris,
+1575), ii. 946 B [980] <i>sq.</i>; <i>id., Les Singularites de la
+France Antarctique, autrement nomm&eacute;e Amerique</i> (Antwerp,
+1558), p. 76; J.F. Lafitau, <i>Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains</i>
+(Paris, 1724), i. 290 <i>sqq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote142" name=
+"footnote142"></a> <b>Footnote 142</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag142">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Schomburgk, <i>Reisen in Britisch Guiana</i> (Leipsic,
+1847-1848), ii. 315 <i>sq.</i>; C.F.Ph. von Martius, <i>Zur
+Ethnographie Amerika's, zumal Brasiliens</i> (Leipsic, 1867), p.
+644.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote143" name=
+"footnote143"></a> <b>Footnote 143</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag143">(return)</a>
+<p>Labat, <i>Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais en Guin&eacute;e,
+Isles voisines, et &agrave; Cayenne</i>, iv. 365 <i>sq.</i> (Paris,
+1730), pp. 17 <i>sq.</i> (Amsterdam, 1731).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote144" name=
+"footnote144"></a> <b>Footnote 144</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag144">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Caulin, <i>Historia Coro-graphica natural y evangelica dela
+Nueva Andalucia</i> (1779), p. 93. A similar custom, with the
+omission of the stinging, is reported of the Tamanaks in the region
+of the Orinoco. See F.S. Gilij, <i>Saggio di Storia Americana</i>,
+ii. (Rome, 1781), p. 133.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote145" name=
+"footnote145"></a> <b>Footnote 145</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag145">(return)</a>
+<p>A.R. Wallace, <i>Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio
+Negro</i>, p. 496 (p. 345 of the Minerva Library edition, London,
+1889).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote146" name=
+"footnote146"></a> <b>Footnote 146</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag146">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Taboo and the Perils of the Soul</i>, pp. 105 <i>sqq.</i>;
+<i>The Scapegoat</i>&gt; pp. 259 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote147" name=
+"footnote147"></a> <b>Footnote 147</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag147">(return)</a>
+<p>J.B. von Spix and C.F.Ph. von Martius, <i>Reise in Brasilien</i>
+(Munich, 1823-1831), iii. 1320.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote148" name=
+"footnote148"></a> <b>Footnote 148</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag148">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Lewis Herndon, <i>Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon</i>
+(Washington, 1854), pp. 319 <i>sq.</i> The scene was described to
+Mr. Herndon by a French engineer and architect, M. de Lincourt, who
+witnessed it at Manduassu, a village on the Tapajos river. Mr.
+Herndon adds: "The <i>Tocandeira</i> ants not only bite, but are
+also armed with a sting like the wasp; but the pain felt from it is
+more violent. I think it equal to that occasioned by the sting of
+the black scorpion." He gives the name of the Indians as Mahues,
+but I assume that they are the same as the Mauhes described by Spix
+and Martius.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote149" name=
+"footnote149"></a> <b>Footnote 149</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag149">(return)</a>
+<p>Francis de Castelnau, <i>Exp&eacute;dition dans les parties
+centrals de l'Am&eacute;rique du Sud</i> (Paris, 1850-1851), v.
+46.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote150" name=
+"footnote150"></a> <b>Footnote 150</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag150">(return)</a>
+<p>L'Abb&eacute; Durand, "Le Rio Negro du Nord et son bassin,"
+<i>Bulletin de la Soci&eacute;t&eacute; de G&eacute;ographie</i>
+(Paris), vi. S&eacute;rie, iii. (1872) pp. 21 <i>sq.</i> The writer
+says that the candidate has to keep his arms plunged up to the
+shoulders in vessels full of ants, "as in a bath of vitriol," for
+hours. He gives the native name of the ant as <i>issauba</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote151" name=
+"footnote151"></a> <b>Footnote 151</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag151">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Crevaux, <i>Voyages dans l'Am&eacute;rique du Sud</i> (Paris,
+1883), pp. 245-250.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote152" name=
+"footnote152"></a> <b>Footnote 152</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag152">(return)</a>
+<p>H. Coudreau, <i>Chez nos Indiens: quatre ann&eacute;es dans la
+Guyane Fran&ccedil;aise</i> (Paris, 1895), p. 228. For details as
+to the different modes of administering the <i>marak&eacute;</i>
+see <i>ibid.</i> pp. 228-235.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote153" name=
+"footnote153"></a> <b>Footnote 153</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag153">(return)</a>
+<p>Father Geronimo Boscana, "Chinigchinich," in <i>Life in
+California by an American</i> [A. Robinson] (New York, 1846), pp.
+273 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote154" name=
+"footnote154"></a> <b>Footnote 154</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag154">(return)</a>
+<p>F. Stuhlmann, <i>Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika</i>
+(Berlin, 1894), p. 506.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote155" name=
+"footnote155"></a> <b>Footnote 155</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag155">(return)</a>
+<p>As a confirmation of this view it may be pointed out that
+beating or scourging is inflicted on inanimate objects expressly
+for the purpose indicated in the text. Thus the Indians of Costa
+Rica hold that there are two kinds of ceremonial uncleanness,
+<i>nya</i> and <i>bu-ku-r&uacute;</i>. Anything that has been
+connected with a death is <i>nya</i>. But <i>bu-ku-r&uacute;</i> is
+much more virulent. It can not only make one sick but kill.
+"<i>Bu-ku-r&uacute;</i> emanates in a variety of ways; arms,
+utensils, even houses become affected by it after long disuse, and
+before they can be used again must be purified. In the case of
+portable objects left undisturbed for a long time, the custom is to
+beat them with a stick before touching them. I have seen a woman
+take a long walking-stick and beat a basket hanging from the roof
+of a house by a cord. On asking what that was for, I was told that
+the basket contained her treasures, that she would probably want to
+take something out the next day, and that she was driving off the
+<i>bu-ku-r&uacute;</i>. A house long unused must be swept, and then
+the person who is purifying it must take a stick and beat not only
+the movable objects, but the beds, posts, and in short every
+accessible part of the interior. The next day it is fit for
+occupation. A place not visited for a long time or reached for the
+first time is <i>bu-ku-r&uacute;</i>. On our return from the ascent
+of Pico Blanco, nearly all the party suffered from little
+calenturas, the result of extraordinary exposure to wet and cold
+and of want of food. The Indians said that the peak was especially
+<i>bu-ku-r&uacute;</i> since nobody had ever been on it before."
+One day Mr. Gabb took down some dusty blow-guns amid cries of
+<i>bu-ku-r&uacute;</i> from the Indians. Some weeks afterwards a
+boy died, and the Indians firmly believed that the
+<i>bu-ku-r&uacute;</i> of the blow-guns had killed him. "From all
+the foregoing, it would seem that <i>bu-ku-r&uacute;</i> is a sort
+of evil spirit that takes possession of the object, and resents
+being disturbed; but I have never been able to learn from the
+Indians that they consider it so. They seem to think of it as a
+property the object acquires. But the worst <i>bu-ku-r&uacute;</i>
+of all, is that of a young woman in her first pregnancy. She
+infects the whole neighbourhood. Persons going from the house where
+she lives, carry the infection with them to a distance, and all the
+deaths or other serious misfortunes in the vicinity are laid to her
+charge. In the old times, when the savage laws and customs were in
+full force, it was not an uncommon thing for the husband of such a
+woman to pay damages for casualties thus caused by his unfortunate
+wife." See Wm. M. Gabb, "On the Indian Tribes and Languages of
+Costa Rica," <i>Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
+held at Philadelphia</i>, xiv. (Philadelphia, 1876) pp. 504
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote156" name=
+"footnote156"></a> <b>Footnote 156</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag156">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Chaffanjon, <i>L'Or&eacute;noque et le Caura</i> (Paris,
+1889), pp. 213-215.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote157" name=
+"footnote157"></a> <b>Footnote 157</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag157">(return)</a>
+<p>Shib Chunder Bose, <i>The Hindoos as they are</i> (London and
+Calcutta, 1881), p. 86. Similarly, after a Brahman boy has been
+invested with the sacred thread, he is for three days strictly
+forbidden to see the sun. He may not eat salt, and he is enjoined
+to sleep either on a carpet or a deer's skin, without a mattress or
+mosquito curtain (<i>ibid.</i> p. 186). In Bali, boys who have had
+their teeth filed, as a preliminary to marriage, are kept shut up
+in a dark room for three days (R. Van Eck, "Schetsen van het eiland
+Bali," <i>Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indi&euml;</i>, N.S., ix.
+(1880) pp. 428 <i>sq.</i>).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote158" name=
+"footnote158"></a> <b>Footnote 158</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag158">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) H.H. Risley, <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Ethnographic
+Glossary</i> (Calcutta, 1891-1892), i. 152.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote159" name=
+"footnote159"></a> <b>Footnote 159</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag159">(return)</a>
+<p>Edgar Thurston, <i>Castes and Tribes of Southern India</i>
+(Madras, 1909), vii. 63 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote160" name=
+"footnote160"></a> <b>Footnote 160</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag160">(return)</a>
+<p>Edgar Thurston, <i>op. cit.</i> iii. 218.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote161" name=
+"footnote161"></a> <b>Footnote 161</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag161">(return)</a>
+<p>Edgar Thurston, <i>op. cit.</i> vi. 157.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote162" name=
+"footnote162"></a> <b>Footnote 162</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag162">(return)</a>
+<p>S. Mateer, <i>Native Life in Travancore</i> (London, 1883), p.
+45.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote163" name=
+"footnote163"></a> <b>Footnote 163</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag163">(return)</a>
+<p>Arthur A. Perera, "Glimpses of Singhalese Social Life,"
+<i>Indian Antiquary</i> xxxi, (1902) p. 380.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote164" name=
+"footnote164"></a> <b>Footnote 164</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag164">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Moura, <i>Le Royaume du Cambodge</i> (Paris, 1883), i.
+377.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote165" name=
+"footnote165"></a> <b>Footnote 165</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag165">(return)</a>
+<p>&Eacute;tienne Aymonier, "Notes sur les coutumes et croyances
+superstitieuses des Cambodgiens," <i>Cochinchine Fran&ccedil;aise:
+Excursions et Reconnaissances</i>, No. 16 (Saigon, 1883), pp. 193
+<i>sq.</i> Compare <i>id., Notice sur le Cambodge</i> (Paris,
+1875), p. 50 <i>id., Notes sur le Laos</i> (Saigon, 1885), p.
+177.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote166" name=
+"footnote166"></a> <b>Footnote 166</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag166">(return)</a>
+<p>Svend Grundtvig, <i>D&auml;nische Volks-m&auml;rchen</i>,
+&uuml;bersetzt von A. Strodtmann, Zweite Sammlung (Leipsic, 1879),
+pp. 199 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote167" name=
+"footnote167"></a> <b>Footnote 167</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag167">(return)</a>
+<p>Christian Schneller, <i>M&auml;rchen und Sagen aus
+W&auml;lschtirol</i> (Innsbruck, 1867), No. 22, pp. 51
+<i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote168" name=
+"footnote168"></a> <b>Footnote 168</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag168">(return)</a>
+<p>Bernbard Schmidt, <i>Griechische M&auml;rchen, Sagen und
+Volkslieder</i> (Leipsic, 1877), p. 98.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote169" name=
+"footnote169"></a> <b>Footnote 169</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag169">(return)</a>
+<p>J.G. von Hahn, <i>Griechische und albanesische M&auml;rchen</i>
+(Leipsic, 1864), No. 41, vol. i. pp. 245 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote170" name=
+"footnote170"></a> <b>Footnote 170</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag170">(return)</a>
+<p>Laura Gonzenbach, <i>Sicilianische M&auml;rchen</i> (Leipsic,
+1870), No. 28, vol. i. pp. 177 <i>sqq.</i> The incident of the bone
+occurs in other folk-tales. A prince or princess is shut up for
+safety in a tower and makes his or her escape by scraping a hole in
+the wall with a bone which has been accidentally conveyed into the
+tower; sometimes it is expressly said that care was taken to let
+the princess have no bones with her meat (J.G. von Hahn, <i>op.
+cit.</i> No. 15; L. Gonzenbach, <i>op. cit.</i> Nos. 26, 27; <i>Der
+Pentamerone, aus dem Neapolitanischen &uuml;bertragen</i> von Felix
+Liebrecht (Breslau, 1846), No. 23, vol. i. pp. 294 <i>sqq.</i>).
+From this we should infer that it is a rule with savages not to let
+women handle the bones of animals during their monthly seclusions.
+We have already seen the great respect with which the savage treats
+the bones of game (<i>Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild</i> ii.
+238 <i>sqq.</i>, 256 <i>sqq.</i>); and women in their courses are
+specially forbidden to meddle with the hunter or fisher, as their
+contact or neighbourhood would spoil his sport (see below, pp.
+<a href="#page77">77</a>, <a href="#page78">78</a> <i>sq.</i>,
+<a href="#page87">87</a>, <a href="#page89">89</a> <i>sqq.</i>). In
+folk-tales the hero who uses the bone is sometimes a boy; but the
+incident might easily be transferred from a girl to a boy after its
+real meaning had been forgotten. Amongst the Tinneh Indians a girl
+at puberty is forbidden to break the bones of hares (<a href=
+"#page48">above, p. 48</a>). On the other hand, she drinks out of a
+tube made of a swan's bone (above, pp. <a href="#page48">48</a>,
+<a href="#page49">49</a>), and the same instrument is used for the
+same purpose by girls of the Carrier tribe of Indians (see below,
+p. <a href="#page92">92</a>). We have seen that a Tlingit
+(Thlinkeet) girl in the same circumstances used to drink out of the
+wing-bone of a white-headed eagle (above, p. <a href=
+"#page45">45</a>), and that among the Nootka and Shuswap tribes
+girls at puberty are provided with bones or combs with which to
+scratch themselves, because they may not use their fingers for this
+purpose (above, pp. <a href="#page44">44</a>, <a href=
+"#page53">53</a>).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote171" name=
+"footnote171"></a> <b>Footnote 171</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag171">(return)</a>
+<p>Sophocles, <i>Antigone</i>, 944 <i>sqq.</i>; Apollodorus,
+<i>Bibliotheca</i>, ii. 4. I; Horace, <i>Odes</i>, iii. 16. I
+<i>sqq.</i>; Pausanias, ii. 23. 7.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote172" name=
+"footnote172"></a> <b>Footnote 172</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag172">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Radloff, <i>Proben der Volks-litteratur der t&uuml;rkischen
+St&auml;mme S&uuml;d-Siberiens,</i> iii. (St. Petersburg, 1870) pp.
+82 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote173" name=
+"footnote173"></a> <b>Footnote 173</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag173">(return)</a>
+<p>H. Ternaux-Compans, <i>Essai sur l'ancien Cundinamarca</i>
+(Paris, N.D.), p. 18.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote174" name=
+"footnote174"></a> <b>Footnote 174</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag174">(return)</a>
+<p>George Turner, LL.D., <i>Samoa, a Hundred Years ago and long
+before</i> (London, 1884), p. 200. For other examples of such
+tales, see Adolph Bastian, <i>Die Voelker des Oestlichen Asien</i>,
+i. 416, vi. 25; <i>Panjab Notes and Queries</i>, ii. p. 148, &sect;
+797 (June, 1885); A. Pfizmaier, "Nachrichten von den alten
+Bewohnern des heutigen Corea," <i>Sitzungsberichte der philosoph.
+histor. Classe der kaiser. Akademie der Wissenschaften</i>
+(Vienna), lvii. (1868) pp. 495 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote175" name=
+"footnote175"></a> <b>Footnote 175</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag175">(return)</a>
+<p>Thomas J. Hutchinson, "On the Chaco and other Indians of South
+America," <i>Transactions of the Ethnological Society of
+London</i>, N.S. iii. (1865) p. 327. Amongst the Lengua Indians of
+the Paraguayan Chaco the marriage feast is now apparently extinct.
+See W. Barbrooke Grubb, <i>An Unknown People in an Unknown Land</i>
+(London, 1911), p. 179.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote176" name=
+"footnote176"></a> <b>Footnote 176</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag176">(return)</a>
+<p>Monier Williams, <i>Religious Thought and Life in India</i>
+(London, 1883), p. 354.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote177" name=
+"footnote177"></a> <b>Footnote 177</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag177">(return)</a>
+<p>H. Vambery, <i>Das T&uuml;rkenvolk</i> (Leipsic, 1885), p.
+112.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote178" name=
+"footnote178"></a> <b>Footnote 178</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag178">(return)</a>
+<p>Hans Egede, <i>A Description of Greenland</i> (London, 1818), p.
+209.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote179" name=
+"footnote179"></a> <b>Footnote 179</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag179">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Revue des Traditions Populaires</i>, xv. (1900) p. 471.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote180" name=
+"footnote180"></a> <b>Footnote 180</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag180">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Taboo and the Perils of the Soul</i>, pp. 145 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote181" name=
+"footnote181"></a> <b>Footnote 181</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag181">(return)</a>
+<p>H.E.A. Meyer, "Manners and Customs of the Aborigines of the
+Encounter Bay Tribe, South Australia," <i>The Native Tribes of
+South Australia</i> (Adelaide, 1879), p. 186.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote182" name=
+"footnote182"></a> <b>Footnote 182</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag182">(return)</a>
+<p>E.J. Eyre, <i>Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central
+Australia</i> (London, 1845), ii. 304.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote183" name=
+"footnote183"></a> <b>Footnote 183</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag183">(return)</a>
+<p>E.J. Eyre, <i>op. cit.</i> ii. 295.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote184" name=
+"footnote184"></a> <b>Footnote 184</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag184">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Brough Smyth, <i>The Aborigines of Victoria</i> (Melbourne
+and London, 1878), i. 236.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote185" name=
+"footnote185"></a> <b>Footnote 185</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag185">(return)</a>
+<p>Samuel Gason, in <i>Journal of the Anthropological
+Institute</i>, xxiv. (1895) p. 171.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote186" name=
+"footnote186"></a> <b>Footnote 186</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag186">(return)</a>
+<p>Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen, <i>Native Tribes of Central
+Australia</i> (London, 1899), p. 473; <i>idem, Northern Tribes of
+Central Australia</i> (London, 1904), p. 615.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote187" name=
+"footnote187"></a> <b>Footnote 187</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag187">(return)</a>
+<p>James Dawson, <i>Australian Aborigines</i> (Melbourne, Sydney,
+and Adelaide, 1881), pp. ci. <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote188" name=
+"footnote188"></a> <b>Footnote 188</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag188">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. William Ridley, "Report on Australian Languages and
+Traditions," <i>Journal of the Anthropological Institute</i>, ii.
+(1873) p. 268. Compare <i>id., Kamilaroi and other Australian
+Languages</i> (Sydney, 1875), p. 157.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote189" name=
+"footnote189"></a> <b>Footnote 189</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag189">(return)</a>
+<p>A.W. Howitt, <i>The Native Tribes of South-East Australia</i>
+(London, 1904.), pp. 776 <i>sq.</i>, on the authority of Mr. J.C.
+Muirhead. The Wakelbura are in Central Queensland. Compare Captain
+W.E. Armit, quoted in <i>Journal of the Anthropological
+Institute</i>, ix. (1880) pp. 459 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote190" name=
+"footnote190"></a> <b>Footnote 190</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag190">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres
+Straits</i>, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 196, 207.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote191" name=
+"footnote191"></a> <b>Footnote 191</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag191">(return)</a>
+<p>Ch. Keysser, "Aus dem Leben der Kaileute," in R. Neuhauss's
+<i>Deutsch Neu-Guinea</i> (Berlin, 1911), iii. 91.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote192" name=
+"footnote192"></a> <b>Footnote 192</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag192">(return)</a>
+<p>M.J. van Baarda, "Fabelen, Verhalen en Overleveringen der
+Galelareezen," <i>Bijdragen tot de Taal-Landen Volkenkinde van
+Nederlandsch-Indi&euml;</i>, xlv. (1895) p. 489.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote193" name=
+"footnote193"></a> <b>Footnote 193</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag193">(return)</a>
+<p>J.L. van der Toorn, "Het animisme bij den Minangkabauer der
+Padangsche Bovenlanden," <i>Bijdragen tot de Taal-Land- en
+Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indi&euml;</i>, xxxix. (1890) p.
+66.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote194" name=
+"footnote194"></a> <b>Footnote 194</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag194">(return)</a>
+<p>W.H.I. Bleek, <i>A Brief Account of Bushman Folk-lore</i>
+(London, 1875), p. 14; compare <i>ibid.</i>, p. 10.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote195" name=
+"footnote195"></a> <b>Footnote 195</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag195">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. James Macdonald, "Manners, Customs, Superstitions and
+Religions of South African Tribes," <i>Journal of the
+Anthropological Institute</i>, xx. (1891) p. 138; <i>id., Light in
+Africa</i>, Second Edition (London, 1890), p. 221.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote196" name=
+"footnote196"></a> <b>Footnote 196</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag196">(return)</a>
+<p>Dudley Kidd, <i>The Essential Kafir</i> (London, 1904), p. 238;
+Mr. Warren's Notes, in Col. Maclean's <i>Compendium of Kafir Laws
+and Customs</i> (Cape Town, 1866), p. 93; Rev. J. Macdonald,
+<i>Light in Africa</i>, p. 221; <i>id., Religion and Myth</i>
+(London, 1893), p. 198. Compare Henri A. Junod, "Les conceptions
+physiologiques des Bantou Sud-Africains et leurs tabous," <i>Revue
+d'Ethnographie et de Sociologie</i>, i. (1910) p. 139. The danger
+of death to the cattle from the blood of women is mentioned only by
+Mr. Kidd. The part of the village which is frequented by the
+cattle, and which accordingly must be shunned by women, has a
+special name, <i>inkundhla</i> (Mr. Warner's Notes,
+<i>l.c.</i>).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote197" name=
+"footnote197"></a> <b>Footnote 197</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag197">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J. Roscoe, "The Bahima, a Cow Tribe of Enkole," <i>Journal
+of the Royal Anthropological Institute</i>, xxxvii. (1907) p.
+106.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote198" name=
+"footnote198"></a> <b>Footnote 198</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag198">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J. Roscoe, <i>The Baganda</i> (London, 1911), p. 419.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote199" name=
+"footnote199"></a> <b>Footnote 199</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag199">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J. Roscoe, <i>The Baganda</i>, p. 96.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote200" name=
+"footnote200"></a> <b>Footnote 200</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag200">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J. Roscoe, "Notes on the Manners and Customs of the
+Baganda," <i>Journal of the Anthropological Institute</i>, xxxi.
+(1901) p. 121; <i>id.</i>, "Further Notes on the Manners and
+Customs of the Baganda," <i>Journal of the Anthropological
+Institute</i>, xxxii. (1902) p. 39; <i>id., The Baganda</i>, p.
+352.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote201" name=
+"footnote201"></a> <b>Footnote 201</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag201">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J. Roscoe, <i>The Baganda</i>, p. 459.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote202" name=
+"footnote202"></a> <b>Footnote 202</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag202">(return)</a>
+<p>C.W. Hobley, "Further Researches into Kikuyu and Kamba Religious
+Beliefs and Customs," <i>Journal of the Royal Anthropological
+Institute</i>, xli. (1911) p. 409.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote203" name=
+"footnote203"></a> <b>Footnote 203</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag203">(return)</a>
+<p>Mervyn W.H. Beech, <i>The Suk, their Language and Folklore</i>
+(Oxford, 1911), p. 11.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote204" name=
+"footnote204"></a> <b>Footnote 204</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag204">(return)</a>
+<p>H.S. Stannus, "Notes on some Tribes of British Central Africa,"
+<i>Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute</i>, xl. (1910)
+p. 305; R. Sutherland Rattray, <i>Some Folk-lore Stories and Songs
+in Chinyanja</i> (London, 1907), p. 191. See above, p. <a href=
+"#page27">27</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote205" name=
+"footnote205"></a> <b>Footnote 205</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag205">(return)</a>
+<p>Jakob Spieth, <i>Die Ewe-St&auml;mme</i> (Berlin, 1906), p.
+192.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote206" name=
+"footnote206"></a> <b>Footnote 206</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag206">(return)</a>
+<p>Anton Witte, "Menstruation und Pubert&auml;tsfeier der
+M&auml;dchen in Kpandugebiet Togo," <i>Baessler-Archiv</i>, i.
+(1911) p. 279.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote207" name=
+"footnote207"></a> <b>Footnote 207</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag207">(return)</a>
+<p>Th. N&ouml;ldeke, <i>Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit
+der Sassaniden, aus der arabischen Chronik des Tabari
+&uuml;bersetzt</i> (Leyden, 1879), pp. 33-38. I have to thank my
+friend Professor A.A. Bevan for pointing out to me this passage.
+Many ancient cities had talismans on the preservation of which
+their safety was believed to depend. The Palladium of Troy is the
+most familiar instance. See Chr. A. Lobeck, <i>Aglaophamus</i>
+(K&ouml;nigsberg, 1829), pp. 278 <i>sqq.</i>, and my note on
+Pausanias, viii. 47. 5 (vol. iv. pp. 433 <i>sq.</i>).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote208" name=
+"footnote208"></a> <b>Footnote 208</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag208">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Mergel, <i>Die Medezin der Talmudisten</i> (Leipsic and
+Berlin, 1885), pp. 15 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote209" name=
+"footnote209"></a> <b>Footnote 209</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag209">(return)</a>
+<p>Maimonides, quoted by D. Chwolsohn, <i>Die Ssabier und der
+Ssabismus</i> (St. Petersburg, 1856), ii. 483. According to the
+editor (p. 735) by the East Maimonides means India and eastern
+countries generally.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote210" name=
+"footnote210"></a> <b>Footnote 210</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag210">(return)</a>
+<p>L'abb&eacute; B&eacute;chara Ch&eacute;mali, "Naissance et
+premier &acirc;ge au Liban," <i>Anthropos</i>, v. (1910) p.
+735.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote211" name=
+"footnote211"></a> <b>Footnote 211</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag211">(return)</a>
+<p>Eijub Abela, "Beitr&auml;ge zur Kenntniss abergl&auml;ubischer
+Gebr&auml;uche in Syrien," <i>Zeitschrift des deutschen
+Palaestina-Vereins</i>, vii. (1884) p. 111.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote212" name=
+"footnote212"></a> <b>Footnote 212</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag212">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Chalmers, "Toaripi," <i>Journal of the Anthropological
+Institute</i>, xxvii. (1898) p. 328.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote213" name=
+"footnote213"></a> <b>Footnote 213</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag213">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Crooke, <i>Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces
+and Qudh</i> (Calcutta, 1896), ii. 87.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote214" name=
+"footnote214"></a> <b>Footnote 214</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag214">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Crooke, in <i>North Indian Notes and Queries</i>, i. p. 67,
+&sect; 467 (July, 1891).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote215" name=
+"footnote215"></a> <b>Footnote 215</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag215">(return)</a>
+<p>L.K. Anantha Krishna Iyer, <i>The Cochin Tribes and Castes</i>,
+i. (Madras, 1909) pp. 201-203. As to the seclusion of menstruous
+women among the Hindoos, see also Sonnerat, <i>Voyage aux Indes
+Orientates et &agrave; la Chine</i> (Paris, 1782), i. 31; J.A.
+Dubois, <i>Moeurs, Institutions et C&eacute;r&eacute;monies des
+Peuples de l'Inde</i> (Paris, 1825), i. 245 <i>sq.</i> Nair women
+in Malabar seclude themselves for three days at menstruation and
+prepare their food in separate pots and pans. See Duarte Barbosa,
+<i>Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the
+beginning of the Sixteenth Century</i> (Hakluyt Society, London,
+1866), pp. 132 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote216" name=
+"footnote216"></a> <b>Footnote 216</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag216">(return)</a>
+<p>G. Hoffman, <i>Ausz&uuml;ge aus Syrischen Akten persisischer
+Martyrer &uuml;bersetzt</i> (Leipsic, 1880), p. 99. This passage
+was pointed out to me by my friend Professor A.A. Bevan.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote217" name=
+"footnote217"></a> <b>Footnote 217</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag217">(return)</a>
+<p>J.B. Tavernier, <i>Voyages en Turquie, en Perse, et aux
+Indes</i> (The Hague, 1718), i. 488.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote218" name=
+"footnote218"></a> <b>Footnote 218</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag218">(return)</a>
+<p>Paul Giran, <i>Magie et Religion Annamites</i> (Paris, 1912),
+pp. 107 <i>sq.</i>, 112.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote219" name=
+"footnote219"></a> <b>Footnote 219</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag219">(return)</a>
+<p>Joseph Gumilla, <i>Histoire Naturelle, Civile, et
+G&eacute;ographique de l'Orenoque</i> (Avignon, 1758), i. 249.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote220" name=
+"footnote220"></a> <b>Footnote 220</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag220">(return)</a>
+<p>Dr. Louis Plassard, "Les Guaraunos et le delta de
+l'Or&eacute;noque," <i>Bulletin de la Soci&eacute;t&eacute; de
+G&eacute;ographie</i> (Paris), v. S&eacute;rie, xv. (1868) p.
+584.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote221" name=
+"footnote221"></a> <b>Footnote 221</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag221">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Crevaux, <i>Voyages dans l'Am&eacute;rique du Sud</i> (Paris,
+1883), p. 526. As to the customs observed at menstruation by Indian
+women in South America, see further A. d'Orbigny, <i>L'Homme
+Americain</i> (Paris, 1839), i. 237.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote222" name=
+"footnote222"></a> <b>Footnote 222</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag222">(return)</a>
+<p>Chas. N. Bell, "The Mosquito Territory," <i>Journal of the Royal
+Geographical Society</i>, xxxii. (1862) p. 254.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote223" name=
+"footnote223"></a> <b>Footnote 223</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag223">(return)</a>
+<p>H. Pittier de Fabrega, "Die Sprache der Bribri-Indianer in Costa
+Rica," <i>Sitztungsberichte der philosophischen-historischen Classe
+der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften</i> (Vienna),
+cxxxviii. (1898) pp. 19 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote224" name=
+"footnote224"></a> <b>Footnote 224</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag224">(return)</a>
+<p>Gabriel Sagard, <i>Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons</i>,
+Nouvelle &Eacute;dition (Paris, 1865), p. 54 (original edition,
+Paris, 1632); J.F. Lafitau, <i>Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains</i>
+(Paris, 1724), i. 262; Charlevoix, <i>Histoire de la Nouvelle
+France</i> (Paris, 1744), v. 423 <i>sq.</i>; Captain Jonathan
+Carver, <i>Travels through the Interior Parts of North America</i>,
+Third Edition (London, 1781), pp. 236 <i>sq.</i>; Captains Lewis
+and Clark, <i>Expedition to the Sources of the Missouri</i>, etc.
+(London, 1905), iii. 90 (original edition, 1814); Rev. Jedidiah
+Morse, <i>Report to the Secretary of War of the United States on
+Indian Affairs</i> (New Haven, 1822), pp. 136 <i>sq.</i>;
+<i>Annales de l'Association de la Propagation de la Foi</i>, iv,
+(Paris and Lyons, 1830) pp. 483, 494 <i>sq.</i>; George Catlin,
+<i>Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the
+North American Indians</i>, Fourth Edition (London, 1844), ii. 233;
+H.R. Schoolcraft, <i>Indian Tribes of the United States</i>
+(Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 70; A.L. Kroeber, "The Religion of
+the Indians of California," <i>University of California Publication
+in American Archaeology and Ethnology</i>, vol. iv. No. 6
+(Berkeley, September, 1907), pp. 323 <i>sq.</i>; Frank G. Speck,
+<i>Ethnology of the Yuchi Indians</i> (Philadelphia, 1909), p. 96.
+Among the Hurons of Canada women at their periods did not retire
+from the house or village, but they ate from small dishes apart
+from the rest of the family at these times (Gabriel Sagard,
+<i>l.c.</i>).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote225" name=
+"footnote225"></a> <b>Footnote 225</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag225">(return)</a>
+<p>James Adair, <i>History of the American Indians</i> (London,
+1775), pp. 123 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote226" name=
+"footnote226"></a> <b>Footnote 226</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag226">(return)</a>
+<p>Bossu, <i>Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes occidentales</i> (Paris,
+1768), ii. 105.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote227" name=
+"footnote227"></a> <b>Footnote 227</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag227">(return)</a>
+<p>Edwin James, <i>Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the
+Rocky Mountains</i> (London, 1823), i. 214.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote228" name=
+"footnote228"></a> <b>Footnote 228</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag228">(return)</a>
+<p>William H. Keating, <i>Narrative of an Expedition to the Source
+of St. Peter's River</i> (London, 1825), i. 132.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote229" name=
+"footnote229"></a> <b>Footnote 229</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag229">(return)</a>
+<p>G.B. Grinnell, "Cheyenne Woman Customs," <i>American
+Anthropologist</i>, New Series, iv. (New York, 1902) p. 14.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote230" name=
+"footnote230"></a> <b>Footnote 230</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag230">(return)</a>
+<p>C. Hill Tout, "Ethnological Report on the Stseelis and Skaulits
+Tribes of the Halokmelem Division of the Salish of British
+Columbia," <i>Journal of the Anthropological Institute</i>, xxxiv.
+(1904) p. 320.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote231" name=
+"footnote231"></a> <b>Footnote 231</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag231">(return)</a>
+<p>James Teit, <i>The Thompson Indians of British Columbia</i>, pp.
+326 <i>sq.</i> (<i>The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of
+the American Museum of Natural History</i>, New York, April,
+1900).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote232" name=
+"footnote232"></a> <b>Footnote 232</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag232">(return)</a>
+<p>Samuel Hearne, <i>Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in
+Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean</i> (London, 1795), pp. 314
+<i>sq.</i>; Alex. Mackenzie, <i>Voyages through the Continent of
+North America</i> (London, 1801), p. cxxiii.; E. Petitot,
+<i>Monographic des D&eacute;n&eacute;-Dindji&eacute;</i> (Paris,
+1876), pp. 75 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote233" name=
+"footnote233"></a> <b>Footnote 233</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag233">(return)</a>
+<p>C. Leemius, <i>De Lapponibus Finmarchiae eorumque lingua vita et
+religione pristina</i> (Copenhagen, 1767), p. 494.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote234" name=
+"footnote234"></a> <b>Footnote 234</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag234">(return)</a>
+<p>E.W. Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," <i>Eighteenth
+Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology</i>, Part i.
+(Washington, 1899) p. 440.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote235" name=
+"footnote235"></a> <b>Footnote 235</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag235">(return)</a>
+<p>The Carriers are a tribe of D&eacute;n&eacute; or Tinneh Indians
+who get their name from a custom observed among them by widows, who
+carry, or rather used to carry, the charred bones of their dead
+husbands about with them in bundles.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote236" name=
+"footnote236"></a> <b>Footnote 236</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag236">(return)</a>
+<p>Hence we may conjecture that the similar ornaments worn by
+Mabuiag girls in similar circumstances are also amulets. See above,
+p. <a href="#page36">36</a>. Among the aborigines of the Upper
+Yarra river in Victoria, a girl at puberty used to have cords tied
+very tightly round several parts of her body. The cords were worn
+for several days, causing the whole body to swell very much and
+inflicting great pain. The girl might not remove them till she was
+clean. See R. Brough Smyth, <i>Aborigines of Victoria</i>
+(Melbourne and London, 1878), i. 65. Perhaps the cords were
+intended to arrest the flow of blood.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote237" name=
+"footnote237"></a> <b>Footnote 237</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag237">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. Father A.G. Morice, "The Western D&eacute;n&eacute;s, their
+Manners and Customs," <i>Proceedings of the Canadian Institute,
+Toronto</i>, Third Series, vii. (1888-89) pp. 162-164. The writer
+has repeated the substance of this account in a later work, <i>Au
+pays de l'Ours Noir: chez les sauvages de la Colombia
+Britannique</i> (Paris and Lyons, 1897), pp. 72 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote238" name=
+"footnote238"></a> <b>Footnote 238</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag238">(return)</a>
+<p>A.G. Morice, "Notes, Archaeological, Industrial, and
+Sociological, on the Western D&eacute;n&eacute;s," <i>Transactions
+of the Canadian Institute</i>, iv. (1892-93) pp. 106 <i>sq.</i>
+Compare Rev. Father Julius Jett&eacute;, "On the Superstitions of
+the Ten'a Indians," <i>Anthropos</i>, vi. (1911) pp. 703
+<i>sq.</i>, who tells us that Tinneh women at these times may not
+lift their own nets, may not step over other people's nets, and may
+not pass in a boat or canoe near a place where nets are being
+set.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote239" name=
+"footnote239"></a> <b>Footnote 239</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag239">(return)</a>
+<p>A.G. Morice, in <i>Transactions of the Canadian Institute</i>,
+iv. (1892-93) pp. 107, 110.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote240" name=
+"footnote240"></a> <b>Footnote 240</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag240">(return)</a>
+<p>James Teit, <i>The Thompson Indians of British Columbia</i>, p.
+327 (<i>The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American
+Museum of Natural History</i>, New York, April 1900).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote241" name=
+"footnote241"></a> <b>Footnote 241</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag241">(return)</a>
+<p>See above, p. <a href="#page53">53</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote242" name=
+"footnote242"></a> <b>Footnote 242</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag242">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Laws of Manu</i>, translated by G. Buhler (Oxford, 1886), ch.
+iv. 41 <i>sq.</i>, p. 135 (<i>Sacred Books of the East</i>, vol.
+xxv.).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote243" name=
+"footnote243"></a> <b>Footnote 243</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag243">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Zend-Avesta</i>, translated by J. Darmesteter, i.
+(Oxford, 1880) p. xcii. (<i>Sacred Books of the East</i>, vol.
+iv.). See <i>id.</i>, pp. 9, 181-185, <i>Fargard</i>, i. 18 and 19,
+xvi. 1-18.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote244" name=
+"footnote244"></a> <b>Footnote 244</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag244">(return)</a>
+<p>Pliny, <i>Nat. Hist.</i> vii. 64 <i>sq.</i>, xxviii. 77
+<i>sqq.</i> Compare <i>Geoponica</i>, xii. 20. 5 and 25. 2;
+Columella, <i>De re rustica</i>, xi. 357 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote245" name=
+"footnote245"></a> <b>Footnote 245</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag245">(return)</a>
+<p>August Schleicher, <i>Volkst&uuml;mliches aus Sonnenberg</i>
+(Weimar, 1858), p. 134; B. Souch&eacute;, <i>Croyances,
+Pr&eacute;sages et Traditions diverses</i> (Niort, 1880), p. 11; A.
+Meyrac, <i>Traditions, Coutumes L&eacute;gendes et Contes des
+Ardennes</i> (Charleville, 1890), p. 171; V. Fossel,
+<i>Volksmedicin und medicinischer Aberglaube in
+Steiermark</i>,<sup>2</sup> (Graz, 1886), p. 124. A correspondent,
+who withholds her name, writes to me that in a Suffolk village,
+where she used to live some twenty or thirty years ago, "every one
+pickled their own beef, and it was held that if the pickling were
+performed by a woman during her menstrual period the meat would not
+keep. If the cook were incapacitated at the time when the pickling
+was due, another woman was sent for out of the village rather than
+risk what was considered a certainty." Another correspondent
+informs me that in some of the dales in the north of Yorkshire a
+similar belief prevailed down to recent years with regard to the
+salting of pork. Another correspondent writes to me: "The
+prohibition that a menstruating woman must not touch meat that is
+intended for keeping appears to be common all over the country; at
+least I have met with it as a confirmed and active custom in widely
+separated parts of England.... It is in regard to the salting of
+meat for bacon that the prohibition is most usual, because that is
+the commonest process; but it exists in regard to any meat food
+that is required to be kept."</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote246" name=
+"footnote246"></a> <b>Footnote 246</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag246">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Andree, <i>Braunschweiger Volkskunde</i> (Brunswick, 1896),
+p. 291.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote247" name=
+"footnote247"></a> <b>Footnote 247</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag247">(return)</a>
+<p>W.R. Paton, in <i>Folk-lore</i>, i. (1890) p. 524.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote248" name=
+"footnote248"></a> <b>Footnote 248</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag248">(return)</a>
+<p>The Greeks and Romans thought that a field was completely
+protected against insects if a menstruous woman walked round it
+with bare feet and streaming hair (Pliny, <i>Nat. Hist.</i> xvii.
+266, xxviii. 78; Columella, <i>De re rustica</i>, x. 358
+<i>sq.</i>, xi. 3. 64; Palladius, <i>De re rustica</i>, i. 35. 3;
+<i>Geoponica</i>, xii. 8. 5 <i>sq.</i>; Aelian, <i>Nat. Anim.</i>
+vi. 36). A similar preventive is employed for the same purpose by
+North American Indians and European peasants. See H.R. Schoolcraft,
+<i>Indian Tribes of the United States</i> (Philadelphia,
+1853-1856), v. 70; F.J. Wiedemann, <i>Aus dem inneren und
+a&uuml;ssern Leben der Ehsten</i> (St. Petersburg, 1876), p. 484.
+Compare J. Haltrich, <i>Zur Volkskunde der Siebenb&uuml;rger
+Sachsen</i> (Vienna, 1885), p. 280; Adolph Heinrich, <i>Agrarische
+Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche unter den Sachsen Siebenb&uuml;rgens</i>
+(Hermannstadt, 1880), p. 14; J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche
+Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> iii. 468; G. Lammert, <i>Volksmedizin
+und medizinischer Aberglaube aus Bayern</i> (W&uuml;rzburg, 1869),
+p. 147. Among the Western D&eacute;n&eacute;s it is believed that
+one or two transverse lines tattooed on the arms or legs of a young
+man by a pubescent girl are a specific against premature weakness
+of these limbs. See A.G. Morice, "Notes, Archaeological,
+Industrial, and Sociological, on the Western D&eacute;n&eacute;s,"
+<i>Transactions of the Canadian Institute</i>, iv. (1892-93) p.
+182. The Thompson Indians of British Columbia thought that the Dawn
+of Day could and would cure hernia if only an adolescent girl
+prayed to it to do so. Just before daybreak the girl would put some
+charcoal in her mouth, chew it fine, and spit it out four times on
+the diseased place. Then she prayed: "O Day-dawn! thy child relies
+on me to obtain healing from thee, who art mystery. Remove thou the
+swelling of thy child. Pity thou him, Day-Dawn!" See James Teit,
+<i>The Thompson Indians of British Columbia</i>, pp. 345 <i>sq.</i>
+(<i>The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American
+Museum of Natural History</i>, New York, April, 1900). To cure the
+painful and dangerous wound inflicted by a ray-fish, the Indians of
+the Gran Chaco smoke the wounded limb and then cause a woman in her
+courses to sit astride of it. See G. Pelleschi, <i>Eight Months on
+the Gran Chaco of the Argentine Republic</i> (London, 1886), p.
+106. An ancient Hindoo method of securing prosperity was to swallow
+a portion of the menstruous fluid. See W. Caland, <i>Altindisches
+Zauberritual</i> (Amsterdam, 1900), pp. 57 <i>sq.</i> To preserve a
+new cow from the evil eye Scottish Highlanders used to sprinkle
+menstruous blood on the animal; and at certain seasons of the year,
+especially at Beltane (the first of May) and Lammas (the first of
+August) it was their custom to sprinkle the same potent liquid on
+the doorposts and houses all round to guard them from harm. The
+fluid was applied by means of a wisp of straw, and the person who
+discharged this salutary office went round the house in the
+direction of the sun. See J.G. Campbell, <i>Superstitions of the
+Highlands and Islands of Scotland</i> (Glasgow, 1900), p. 248.
+These are examples of the beneficent application of the menstruous
+energy.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote249" name=
+"footnote249"></a> <b>Footnote 249</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag249">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Taboo and the Perils of the Soul</i>, pp. 1 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote250" name=
+"footnote250"></a> <b>Footnote 250</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag250">(return)</a>
+<p>For a similar reason, perhaps, ancient Hindoo ritual prescribed
+that when the hair of a child's head was shorn in the third year,
+the clippings should be buried in a cow-stable, or near an
+<i>udumbara</i> tree, or in a clump of <i>darbha</i> grass, with
+the words, "Where Pushan, Brihaspati, Savitri, Soma, Agni dwell,
+they have in many ways searched where they should deposit it,
+between heaven and earth, the waters and heaven." See <i>The
+Grihya-S&ucirc;tras</i>, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part ii.
+(Oxford, 1892) p. 218 (<i>Sacred Books of the East</i>, vol.
+xxx.).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote251" name=
+"footnote251"></a> <b>Footnote 251</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag251">(return)</a>
+<p>Petronius, <i>Sat.</i> 48; Pausanias, x. 12: 8; Justin Martyr,
+<i>Cohort ad Graecos</i>, 37, p. 34 c (ed. 1742). According to
+another account, the remains of the Sibyl were enclosed in an iron
+cage which hung from a pillar in an ancient temple of Hercules at
+Argyrus (Ampelius, <i>Liber Memorialis</i>, viii. 16).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote252" name=
+"footnote252"></a> <b>Footnote 252</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag252">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, <i>Nord-deutsche Sagen, M&auml;rchen
+und Gebr&auml;uche</i> (Leipsic, 1848), p. 70, No. 72. i. This and
+the following German parallels to the story of the Sibyl's wish
+were first indicated by Dr. M.R. James (<i>Classical Review</i>,
+vi. (1892) p. 74). I have already given the stories at length in a
+note on Pausanias, x. 12. 8 (vol. v. pp. 292 <i>sq.</i>).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote253" name=
+"footnote253"></a> <b>Footnote 253</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag253">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 70 <i>sq.</i>, No.
+72. 2.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote254" name=
+"footnote254"></a> <b>Footnote 254</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag254">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 71, No. 72. 3.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote255" name=
+"footnote255"></a> <b>Footnote 255</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag255">(return)</a>
+<p>Karl M&uuml;llenhoff, <i>Sagen, M&auml;rchen und Lieder der
+Herzogth&uuml;mer Holstein und Lauenburg</i> (Kiel, 1845), pp. 158
+<i>sg.</i>, No. 217.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page101" name="page101"></a>[pg
+101]</span>
+<h2><a id="chap3" name="chap3">CHAPTER III</a></h2>
+<h3>THE MYTH OF BALDER</h3>
+<a id="balderdeath" name="balderdeath"></a>
+<p>[How Balder, the good and beautiful god, was done to death by a
+stroke of the mistletoe.]</p>
+<p>A deity whose life might in a sense be said to be neither in
+heaven nor on earth but between the two, was the Norse Balder, the
+good and beautiful god, the son of the great god Odin, and himself
+the wisest, mildest, best beloved of all the immortals. The story
+of his death, as it is told in the younger or prose <i>Edda</i>,
+runs thus. Once on a time Balder dreamed heavy dreams which seemed
+to forebode his death. Thereupon the gods held a council and
+resolved to make him secure against every danger. So the goddess
+Frigg took an oath from fire and water, iron and all metals, stones
+and earth, from trees, sicknesses and poisons, and from all
+four-footed beasts, birds, and creeping things, that they would not
+hurt Balder. When this was done Balder was deemed invulnerable; so
+the gods amused themselves by setting him in their midst, while
+some shot at him, others hewed at him, and others threw stones at
+him. But whatever they did, nothing could hurt him; and at this
+they were all glad. Only Loki, the mischief-maker, was displeased,
+and he went in the guise of an old woman to Frigg, who told him
+that the weapons of the gods could not wound Balder, since she had
+made them all swear not to hurt him. Then Loki asked, "Have all
+things sworn to spare Balder?" She answered, "East of Walhalla
+grows a plant called mistletoe; it seemed to me too young to
+swear." So Loki went and pulled the mistletoe and took it to the
+assembly of the gods. There he found the blind god Hother standing
+at the outside of the circle. Loki asked him, "Why do you not shoot
+at Balder?" Hother answered, "Because I do not see where
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name="page102"></a>[pg
+102]</span> he stands; besides I have no weapon." Then said Loki,
+"Do like the rest and shew Balder honour, as they all do. I will
+shew you where he stands, and do you shoot at him with this twig."
+Hother took the mistletoe and threw it at Balder, as Loki directed
+him. The mistletoe struck Balder and pierced him through and
+through, and he fell down dead. And that was the greatest
+misfortune that ever befell gods and men. For a while the gods
+stood speechless, then they lifted up their voices and wept
+bitterly. They took Balder's body and brought it to the sea-shore.
+There stood Balder's ship; it was called Ringhorn, and was the
+hugest of all ships. The gods wished to launch the ship and to burn
+Balder's body on it, but the ship would not stir. So they sent for
+a giantess called Hyrrockin. She came riding on a wolf and gave the
+ship such a push that fire flashed from the rollers and all the
+earth shook. Then Balder's body was taken and placed on the funeral
+pile upon his ship. When his wife Nanna saw that, her heart burst
+for sorrow and she died. So she was laid on the funeral pile with
+her husband, and fire was put to it. Balder's horse, too, with all
+its trappings, was burned on the pile.<a id="footnotetag256" name=
+"footnotetag256"></a><a href="#footnote256"><sup>256</sup></a></p>
+<a id="olderedda" name="olderedda"></a>
+<p>[Tale of Balder in the older <i>Edda</i>.]</p>
+<p>In the older or poetic <i>Edda</i> the tragic tale of Balder is
+hinted at rather than told at length. Among the visions which the
+Norse Sibyl sees and describes in the weird prophecy known as the
+<i>Voluspa</i> is one of the fatal mistletoe. "I behold," says she,
+"Fate looming for Balder, Woden's son, the bloody victim. There
+stands the Mistletoe slender and delicate, blooming high above the
+ground. Out of this shoot, so slender to look on, there shall grow
+a harmful fateful shaft. Hod shall shoot it, but Frigga in Fen-hall
+shall weep over the woe of Wal-hall."<a id="footnotetag257" name=
+"footnotetag257"></a><a href="#footnote257"><sup>257</sup></a> Yet
+looking far into <span class="pagenum"><a id="page103" name=
+"page103"></a>[pg 103]</span> the future the Sibyl sees a brighter
+vision of a new heaven and a new earth, where the fields unsown
+shall yield their increase and all sorrows shall be healed; then
+Balder will come back to dwell in Odin's mansions of bliss, in a
+hall brighter than the sun, shingled with gold, where the righteous
+shall live in joy for ever more.<a id="footnotetag258" name=
+"footnotetag258"></a><a href="#footnote258"><sup>258</sup></a></p>
+<a id="saxogrammaticus" name="saxogrammaticus"></a>
+<p>[The story of Balder as related by Saxo Grammaticus.]</p>
+<p>Writing about the end of the twelfth century, the old Danish
+historian Saxo Grammaticus tells the story of Balder in a form
+which professes to be historical. According to him, Balder and
+Hother were rival suitors for the hand of Nanna, daughter of Gewar,
+King of Norway. Now Balder was a demigod and common steel could not
+wound his sacred body. The two rivals encountered each other in a
+terrific battle, and though Odin and Thor and the rest of the gods
+fought for Balder, yet was he defeated and fled away, and Hother
+married the princess. Nevertheless Balder took heart of grace and
+again met Hother in a stricken field. But he fared even worse than
+before; for Hother dealt him a deadly wound with a magic sword,
+which he had received from Miming, the Satyr of the woods; and
+after lingering three days in pain Balder died of his hurt and was
+buried with royal honours in a barrow.<a id="footnotetag259" name=
+"footnotetag259"></a><a href="#footnote259"><sup>259</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page104" name="page104"></a>[pg
+104]</span> <a id="baldernorway" name="baldernorway"></a>
+<p>[Balder worshipped in Norway.]</p>
+<p>Whether he was a real or merely a mythical personage, Balder was
+worshipped in Norway. On one of the bays of the beautiful Sogne
+Fiord, which penetrates far into the depths of the solemn Norwegian
+mountains, with their sombre pine-forests and their lofty cascades
+dissolving into spray before they reach the dark water of the fiord
+far below, Balder had a great sanctuary. It was called Balder's
+Grove. A palisade enclosed the hallowed ground, and within it stood
+a spacious temple with the images of many gods, but none of them
+was worshipped with such devotion as Balder. So great was the awe
+with which the heathen regarded the place that no man might harm
+another there, nor steal his cattle, nor defile himself with women.
+But women cared for the images of the gods in the temple; they
+warmed them at the fire, anointed them with oil, and dried them
+with cloths.<a id="footnotetag260" name=
+"footnotetag260"></a><a href="#footnote260"><sup>260</sup></a></p>
+<a id="balderfirdusi" name="balderfirdusi"></a>
+<p>[The legendary death of Balder resembles the legendary death of
+the Persian hero Isfendiyar in the epic of Firdusi.]</p>
+<p>It might be rash to affirm that the romantic figure of Balder
+was nothing but a creation of the mythical fancy, a radiant phantom
+conjured up as by a wizard's wand to glitter for a time against the
+gloomy background of the stern Norwegian landscape. It may be so;
+yet it is also possible that the myth was founded on the tradition
+of a hero, popular and beloved in his lifetime, who long survived
+in the memory of the people, gathering more and more of the
+marvellous about him as he passed from generation to generation of
+story-tellers. At all events it is worth while to observe that a
+somewhat similar story is told of another national hero, who may
+well have been a real man. In his great poem, <i>The Epic of
+Kings</i>, which is founded on Persian traditions, the poet Firdusi
+tells us that in the combat between Rustem and Isfendiyar the
+arrows of the former did no harm to his adversary, "because
+Zerdusht had charmed his body against all dangers, so that it was
+like unto brass." But Simurgh, the bird of God, shewed Rustem the
+way he should follow in order to vanquish his redoubtable foe. He
+rode after her, and they halted not till they came to the
+sea-shore. There she led him into a garden, where grew a
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name="page105"></a>[pg
+105]</span> tamarisk, tall and strong, and the roots thereof were
+in the ground, but the branches pierced even unto the sky. Then the
+bird of God bade Rustem break from the tree a branch that was long
+and slender, and fashion it into an arrow, and she said, "Only
+through his eyes can Isfendiyar be wounded. If, therefore, thou
+wouldst slay him, direct this arrow unto his forehead, and verily
+it shall not miss its aim." Rustem did as he was bid; and when next
+he fought with Isfendiyar, he shot the arrow at him, and it pierced
+his eye, and he died. Great was the mourning for Isfendiyar. For
+the space of one year men ceased not to lament for him, and for
+many years they shed bitter tears for that arrow, and they said,
+"The glory of Iran hath been laid low."<a id="footnotetag261" name=
+"footnotetag261"></a><a href="#footnote261"><sup>261</sup></a></p>
+<a id="balderceremony" name="balderceremony"></a>
+<p>[The myth of Balder was perhaps acted as a magical ceremony. The
+two chief incidents of the myth, namely the pulling of the
+mistletoe and the death and burning of the god, have perhaps their
+counterparts in popular ritual.]</p>
+<p>Whatever may be thought of an historical kernel underlying a
+mythical husk in the legend of Balder, the details of the story
+suggest that it belongs to that class of myths which have been
+dramatized in ritual, or, to put it otherwise, which have been
+performed as magical ceremonies for the sake of producing those
+natural effects which they describe in figurative language. A myth
+is never so graphic and precise in its details as when it is, so to
+speak, the book of the words which are spoken and acted by the
+performers of the sacred rite. That the Norse story of Balder was a
+myth of this sort will become probable if we can prove that
+ceremonies resembling the incidents in the tale have been performed
+by Norsemen and other European peoples. Now the main incidents in
+the tale are two&mdash;first, the pulling of the mistletoe, and
+second, the death and burning of the god; and both of them may
+perhaps be found to have had their counterparts in yearly rites
+observed, whether separately or conjointly, by people in various
+parts of Europe. These rites will be described and discussed in the
+following chapters. We shall begin with the annual festivals of
+fire and shall reserve the pulling of the mistletoe for
+consideration later on.</p>
+<p>Notes:</p>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote256" name=
+"footnote256"></a> <b>Footnote 256</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag256">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Die Edda</i>, &uuml;bersetzt von K. Simrock,<sup>8</sup>
+(Stuttgart, 1882), pp. 286-288. Compare pp. 8, 34, 264. Balder's
+story is told in a professedly historical form by the old Danish
+historian Saxo Grammaticus in his third book. See below, p.
+<a href="#page103">103</a>. In English the story is told at length
+by Professor (Sir) John Rhys, <i>Celtic Heathendom</i> (London and
+Edinburgh, 1888), pp. 529 <i>sqq.</i> It is elaborately discussed
+by Professor F. Knuffmann in a learned monograph, <i>Balder, Mythus
+und Sage</i> (Strasburg, 1902).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote257" name=
+"footnote257"></a> <b>Footnote 257</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag257">(return)</a>
+<p>Gudbrand Vigfusson and F. York Powell, <i>Corpus Poeticum
+Boreale</i>, i. (Oxford, 1883) p. 197. Compare <i>Edda Rhythmica
+seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta</i>, Pars iii. (Copenhagen,
+1828) pp. 39 <i>sq.</i>; <i>Die Edda</i>, &uuml;bersetzt von K.
+Simrock,<sup>8</sup> (Stuttgart, 1882), p. 8; K. M&uuml;llenhoff,
+<i>Deutsche Altertumskunde</i>, v. Zweite Abteilung (Berlin, 1891),
+pp. 78 <i>sq.</i>; Fr. Kauffmann, <i>Balder, Mythus und Sage</i>,
+pp. 20 <i>sq.</i> In this passage the words translated "bloody
+victim" (<i>blaupom tivor</i>) and "fate looming" (<i>&oslash;rlog
+f&oacute;lgen</i>) are somewhat uncertain and have been variously
+interpreted. The word <i>tivor</i>, usually understood to mean
+"god," seems to be found nowhere else. Professor H.M. Chadwick has
+kindly furnished me with the following literal translation of the
+passage: "I saw (or 'have seen') held in safe keeping the life of
+Balder, the bloody god, Othin's son. High above the fields
+(<i>i.e.</i> the surface of the earth) grew a mistletoe, slender
+and very beautiful. From a shaft (or 'stem') which appeared
+slender, came a dangerous sorrow-bringing missile (<i>i.e.</i> the
+shaft became a ... missile); Hodr proceeded to shoot. Soon was a
+brother of Balder born. He, Othin's son, proceeded to do battle
+when one day old. He did not wash his hands or comb his head before
+he brought Balder's antagonist on to the pyre. But Frigg in
+Fen-salir (<i>i.e.</i> the Fen-abode) lamented the trouble of
+Val-holl." In translating the words <i>&oslash;rlog
+f&oacute;lgen</i> "held in safe keeping the life" Professor
+Chadwick follows Professor F. Kauffmann's rendering ("<i>das Leben
+verwahrt</i>"); but he writes to me that he is not quite confident
+about it, as the word <i>&oslash;rlog</i> usually means "fate"
+rather than "life." Several sentences translated by Professor
+Chadwick ("Soon was a brother of Balder born ... he brought
+Balder's antagonist on the pyre") are omitted by some editors and
+translators of the <i>Edda</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote258" name=
+"footnote258"></a> <b>Footnote 258</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag258">(return)</a>
+<p>G. Vigfusson and F. York Powell, <i>Corpus Poeticum Boreale</i>,
+i. 200 <i>sq.</i>; <i>Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo
+Saemundina dicta</i>, Pars iii. pp. 51-54; <i>Die Edda</i>,
+&uuml;bersetzt von K. Simrock,<sup>8</sup> p. 10 <i>sq.</i>; K.
+M&uuml;llenhoff, <i>Deutsche Altertumskunde</i>, v. Zweite
+Abteilung, pp. 84 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote259" name=
+"footnote259"></a> <b>Footnote 259</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag259">(return)</a>
+<p>Saxo Grammaticus, <i>Historia Danica</i>, ed. P.E. M&uuml;ller
+(Copenhagen, 1839-1858), <i>lib.</i> iii. vol. i. pp. 110
+<i>sqq.</i>; <i>The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo
+Grammaticus</i>, translated by Oliver Elton (London, 1894), pp.
+83-93.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote260" name=
+"footnote260"></a> <b>Footnote 260</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag260">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Fridthjofs Saga, aus dem Alt-isl&auml;ndischen</i>, von J.C.
+Poestion, (Vienna, 1879), pp. 3 <i>sq.</i>, 14-17, 45-52.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote261" name=
+"footnote261"></a> <b>Footnote 261</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag261">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Epic of Kings, Stories retold from Firdusi</i>, by Helen
+Zimmern (London, 1883), pp. 325-331. The parallel between Balder
+and Isfendiyar was pointed out in the "Lexicon Mythologicum"
+appended to the <i>Edda Rhythmifa seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina
+dicta</i>, Pars iii. (Copenhagen, 1828) p. 513 note, with a
+reference to <i>Schah Namech, verdeutscht von G&ouml;rres</i>, ii.
+324, 327 <i>sq.</i> It is briefly mentioned by Dr. P. Wagler,
+<i>Die Eiche in alter und neuer Zeit</i>, ii. Teil (Berlin, 1891),
+p. 40.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page106" name="page106"></a>[pg
+106]</span>
+<h2><a id="chap4" name="chap4">CHAPTER IV</a></h2>
+<h3>THE FIRE-FESTIVALS OF EUROPE</h3>
+<h4><a id="sect4-1" name="sect4-1">&sect; 1. <i>The Lenten
+Fires</i></a></h4>
+<a id="custom" name="custom"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>All over Europe the peasants have been accustomed from time
+immemorial to kindle bonfires on certain days of the year, and to
+dance round or leap over them. Customs of this kind can be traced
+back on historical evidence to the Middle Ages,<a id=
+"footnotetag262" name="footnotetag262"></a><a href=
+"#footnote262"><sup>262</sup></a> and their analogy to similar
+customs observed in antiquity goes with strong internal evidence to
+prove that their origin must be sought in a period long prior to
+the spread of Christianity. Indeed the earliest proof of their
+observance in Northern Europe is furnished by the attempts made by
+Christian synods in the eighth century to put them down as
+heathenish rites.<a id="footnotetag263" name=
+"footnotetag263"></a><a href="#footnote263"><sup>263</sup></a> Not
+uncommonly effigies are burned in these fires, or a pretence is
+made of burning a living person in them; and there are grounds for
+believing that anciently human beings were actually burned on these
+occasions. A general survey of the customs in question will bring
+out the traces of human sacrifice, and will serve at the same time
+to throw light on their meaning.<a id="footnotetag264" name=
+"footnotetag264"></a><a href="#footnote264"><sup>264</sup></a></p>
+<a id="seasons" name="seasons"></a>
+<p>[Seasons of the year at which the bonfires are lit.]</p>
+<p>The seasons of the year when these bonfires are most commonly
+lit are spring and midsummer; but in some places they are kindled
+also at the end of autumn or during the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page107" name="page107"></a>[pg 107]</span> course
+of the winter, particularly on Hallow E'en (the thirty-first of
+October), Christmas Day, and the Eve of Twelfth Day. We shall
+consider them in the order in which they occur in the calendar
+year. The earliest of them is the winter festival of the Eve of
+Twelfth Day (the fifth of January); but as it has been already
+described in an earlier part of this work<a id="footnotetag265"
+name="footnotetag265"></a><a href="#footnote265"><sup>265</sup></a>
+we shall pass it over here and begin with the fire-festivals of
+spring, which usually fall on the first Sunday of Lent
+(<i>Quadragesima</i> or <i>Invocavit</i>),<a id="footnotetag266"
+name="footnotetag266"></a><a href="#footnote266"><sup>266</sup></a>
+Easter Eve, and May Day.</p>
+<a id="fireardennes" name="fireardennes"></a>
+<p>[Custom of kindling bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent in the
+Belgian Ardennes.]</p>
+<p>The custom of kindling bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent has
+prevailed in Belgium, the north of France, and many parts of
+Germany. Thus in the Belgian Ardennes for a week or a fortnight
+before the "day of the great fire," as it is called, children go
+about from farm to farm collecting fuel. At Grand Halleux any one
+who refuses their request is pursued next day by the children, who
+try to blacken his face with the ashes of the extinct fire. When
+the day has come, they cut down bushes, especially juniper and
+broom, and in the evening great bonfires blaze on all the heights.
+It is a common saying that seven bonfires should be seen if the
+village is to be safe from conflagrations. If the Meuse happens to
+be frozen hard at the time, bonfires are lit also on the ice. At
+Grand Halleux they set up a pole called <i>makral</i> or "the
+witch," in the midst of the pile, and the fire is kindled by the
+man who was last married in the village. In the neighbourhood of
+Morlanwelz a straw man is burnt in the fire. Young people and
+children dance and sing round the bonfires, and leap over the
+embers to secure good crops or a happy marriage within the year, or
+as a means of guarding themselves against colic. In Brabant on the
+same Sunday, down to the beginning of the nineteenth century, women
+and men disguised in female attire used to go with burning torches
+to the fields, where they danced and sang comic songs for the
+purpose, as they alleged, of driving away "the wicked sower," who
+is mentioned in the Gospel for the day. At Maeseyck and in many
+villages of Limburg, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page108" name=
+"page108"></a>[pg 108]</span> on the evening of the day children
+run through the streets carrying lighted torches; then they kindle
+little fires of straw in the fields and dance round them. At
+Ensival old folks tell young folks that they will have as many
+Easter eggs as they see bonfires on this day.<a id="footnotetag267"
+name="footnotetag267"></a><a href="#footnote267"><sup>267</sup></a>
+At P&acirc;turages, in the province of Hainaut, down to about 1840
+the custom was observed under the name of <i>Escouvion</i> or
+<i>Scouvion</i>. Every year on the first Sunday of Lent, which was
+called the Day of the Little Scouvion, young folks and children
+used to run with lighted torches through the gardens and orchards.
+As they ran they cried at the pitch of their voices,</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>"Bear apples, bear pears</p>
+<p>And cherries all black</p>
+<p class="i2">To Scouvion!"</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>At these words the torch-bearer whirled his blazing brand and
+hurled it among the branches of the apple-trees, the pear-trees,
+and the cherry-trees. The next Sunday was called the Day of the
+Great Scouvion, and the same race with lighted torches among the
+trees of the orchards was repeated in the afternoon till darkness
+fell. The same custom was observed on the same two days at
+Wasmes.<a id="footnotetag268" name="footnotetag268"></a><a href=
+"#footnote268"><sup>268</sup></a> In the neighbourhood of
+Li&egrave;ge, where the Lenten fires were put down by the police
+about the middle of the nineteenth century, girls thought that by
+leaping over the fires without being smirched they made sure of a
+happy marriage. Elsewhere in order to get a good husband it was
+necessary to see seven of the bonfires from one spot. In Famenne, a
+district of Namur, men and cattle who traversed the Lenten fires
+were thought to be safe from sickness and witchcraft. Anybody who
+saw seven such fires at once had nothing to fear from sorcerers. An
+old saying ran, that if you do not light "the great fire," God will
+light it for you; which seems to imply that the kindling of the
+bonfires was deemed a protection against conflagrations throughout
+the year.<a id="footnotetag269" name="footnotetag269"></a><a href=
+"#footnote269"><sup>269</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page109" name="page109"></a>[pg
+109]</span> <a id="firefrenchardennes" name=
+"firefrenchardennes"></a>
+<p>[Bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in the French department
+of the Ardennes.]</p>
+<p>In the French department of the Ardennes the whole village used
+to dance and sing round the bonfires which were lighted on the
+first Sunday in Lent. Here, too, it was the person last married,
+sometimes a man and sometimes a woman, who put the match to the
+fire. The custom is still kept up very commonly in the district.
+Cats used to be burnt in the fire or roasted to death by being held
+over it; and while they were burning the shepherds drove their
+flocks through the smoke and flames as a sure means of guarding
+them against sickness and witchcraft. In some communes it was
+believed that the livelier the dance round the fire, the better
+would be the crops that year.<a id="footnotetag270" name=
+"footnotetag270"></a><a href="#footnote270"><sup>270</sup></a> In
+the Vosges Mountains it is still customary to light great fires on
+the heights and around the villages on the first Sunday in Lent;
+and at Rupt and elsewhere the right of kindling them belongs to the
+person who was last married. Round the fires the people dance and
+sing merrily till the flames have died out. Then the master of the
+fire, as they call the man who kindled it, invites all who
+contributed to the erection of the pile to follow him to the
+nearest tavern, where they partake of good cheer. At Dommartin they
+say that, if you would have the hemp tall, it is absolutely
+necessary that the women should be tipsy on the evening of this
+day.<a id="footnotetag271" name="footnotetag271"></a><a href=
+"#footnote271"><sup>271</sup></a> At &Eacute;pinal in the Vosges,
+on the first Sunday in Lent, bonfires used to be kindled at various
+places both in the town and on the banks of the Moselle. They
+consisted of pyramids of sticks and faggots, which had been
+collected some days earlier by young folks going from door to door.
+When the flames blazed up, the names of various couples, whether
+young or old, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, were called out, and
+the persons thus linked in mock marriage were forced, whether they
+liked it or not, to march arm in arm round the fire amid the
+laughter and jests of the crowd. The festivity lasted till the fire
+died out, and then the spectators dispersed through the streets,
+stopping under the windows of the houses and proclaiming the names
+of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page110" name="page110"></a>[pg
+110]</span> <i>f&eacute;chenots</i> and <i>f&eacute;chenottes</i>
+or Valentines whom the popular voice had assigned to each other.
+These couples had to exchange presents; the mock bridegroom gave
+his mock bride something for her toilet, while she in turn
+presented him with a cockade of coloured ribbon. Next Sunday, if
+the weather allowed it, all the couples, arrayed in their best
+attire and attended by their relations, repaired to the wood of
+Saint Antony, where they mounted a famous stone called the
+<i>danserosse</i> or <i>danseresse</i>. Here they found cakes and
+refreshments of all sorts, and danced to the music of a couple of
+fiddlers. The evening bell, ringing the Angelus, gave the signal to
+depart. As soon as its solemn chime was heard, every one quitted
+the forest and returned home. The exchange of presents between the
+Valentines went by the name of ransom or redemption
+(<i>rachat</i>), because it was supposed to redeem the couple from
+the flames of the bonfire. Any pair who failed thus to ransom
+themselves were not suffered to share the merrymaking at the great
+stone in the forest; and a pretence was made of burning them in
+small fires kindled before their own doors.<a id="footnotetag272"
+name="footnotetag272"></a><a href=
+"#footnote272"><sup>272</sup></a></p>
+<a id="firefranchecomte" name="firefranchecomte"></a>
+<p>[Bonfires on the First Sunday of Lent in
+Franche-Comt&eacute;.]</p>
+<p>In the French province of Franche-Comt&eacute;, to the west of
+the Jura Mountains, the first Sunday of Lent is known as the Sunday
+of the Firebrands (<i>Brandons</i>), on account of the fires which
+it is customary to kindle on that day. On the Saturday or the
+Sunday the village lads harness themselves to a cart and drag it
+about the streets, stopping at the doors of the houses where there
+are girls and begging for a faggot. When they have got enough, they
+cart the fuel to a spot at some little distance from the village,
+pile it up, and set it on fire. All the people of the parish come
+out to see the bonfire. In some villages, when the bells have rung
+the Angelus, the signal for the observance is given by cries of,
+"To the fire! to the fire!" Lads, lasses, and children dance round
+the blaze, and when the flames have died down they vie with each
+other in leaping over the red embers. He or she who does so without
+singeing his or her garments will be married within the year. Young
+folk also carry lighted torches about the streets or the fields,
+and when they pass <span class="pagenum"><a id="page111" name=
+"page111"></a>[pg 111]</span> an orchard they cry out, "More fruit
+than leaves!" Down to recent years at Laviron, in the department of
+Doubs, it was the young married couples of the year who had charge
+of the bonfires. In the midst of the bonfire a pole was planted
+with a wooden figure of a cock fastened to the top. Then there were
+races, and the winner received the cock as a prize.<a id=
+"footnotetag273" name="footnotetag273"></a><a href=
+"#footnote273"><sup>273</sup></a></p>
+<a id="fireauvergne" name="fireauvergne"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>In Auvergne fires are everywhere kindled on the evening of the
+first Sunday in Lent. Every village, every hamlet, even every ward,
+every isolated farm has its bonfire or <i>figo</i>, as it is
+called, which blazes up as the shades of night are falling. The
+fires may be seen flaring on the heights and in the plains; the
+people dance and sing round about them and leap through the flames.
+Then they proceed to the ceremony of the <i>Grannas-mias</i>. A
+<i>granno-mio</i><a id="footnotetag274" name=
+"footnotetag274"></a><a href="#footnote274"><sup>274</sup></a> is a
+torch of straw fastened to the top of a pole. When the pyre is half
+consumed, the bystanders kindle the torches at the expiring flames
+and carry them into the neighbouring orchards, fields, and gardens,
+wherever there are fruit-trees. As they march they sing at the top
+of their voices,</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>"Granno, mo mio,</p>
+<p>Granno, mon pou&egrave;re,</p>
+<p>Granno, mo mou&egrave;re!"</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>that is, "Grannus my friend, Grannus my father, Grannus my
+mother." Then they pass the burning torches under the branches of
+every tree, singing,</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>"Brando, brandounci</p>
+<p>Tsaque brantso, in plan panei!"</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name="page112"></a>[pg
+112]</span>
+<p>that is, "Firebrand burn; every branch a basketful!" In some
+villages the people also run across the sown fields and shake the
+ashes of the torches on the ground; also they put some of the ashes
+in the fowls' nests, in order that the hens may lay plenty of eggs
+throughout the year. When all these ceremonies have been performed,
+everybody goes home and feasts; the special dishes of the evening
+are fritters and pancakes.<a id="footnotetag275" name=
+"footnotetag275"></a><a href="#footnote275"><sup>275</sup></a> Here
+the application of the fire to the fruit-trees, to the sown fields,
+and to the nests of the poultry is clearly a charm intended to
+ensure fertility; and the Granno to whom the invocations are
+addressed, and who gives his name to the torches, may possibly be,
+as Dr. Pommerol suggests,<a id="footnotetag276" name=
+"footnotetag276"></a><a href="#footnote276"><sup>276</sup></a> no
+other than the ancient Celtic god Grannus, whom the Romans
+identified with Apollo, and whose worship is attested by
+inscriptions found not only in France but in Scotland and on the
+Danube.<a id="footnotetag277" name="footnotetag277"></a><a href=
+"#footnote277"><sup>277</sup></a> If the name Grannus is derived,
+as the learned tell us, from a root meaning "to glow, burn,
+shine,"<a id="footnotetag278" name="footnotetag278"></a><a href=
+"#footnote278"><sup>278</sup></a> the deity who bore the name and
+was identified with Apollo may well have been a sun-god; and in
+that case the prayers addressed to him by the peasants of the
+Auvergne, while they wave the blazing, crackling torches about the
+fruit-trees, would be eminently appropriate. For who could ripen
+the fruit so well as the sun-god? and what better process could be
+devised to draw the blossoms from the bare boughs than the
+application to them of that genial warmth which is ultimately
+derived from the solar beams? Thus the fire-festival of the first
+Sunday in Lent, as it is observed in Auvergne, may be interpreted
+very naturally and simply as a religious or rather perhaps magical
+ceremony designed to procure a due supply of the sun's heat for
+plants and animals. At the same time we should remember that the
+employment of fire in this and kindred ceremonies may have been
+designed originally, not so much to stimulate growth and
+reproduction, as to burn and destroy all agencies, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page113" name="page113"></a>[pg 113]</span>
+whether in the shape of vermin, witches, or what not, which
+threatened or were supposed to threaten the growth of the crops and
+the multiplication of animals. It is often difficult to decide
+between these two different interpretations of the use of fire in
+agricultural rites. In any case the fire-festival of Auvergne on
+the first Sunday in Lent may date from Druidical times.</p>
+<a id="firebrandons" name="firebrandons"></a>
+<p>[French custom of carrying lighted torches (<i>brandons</i>)
+about the orchards and fields to fertilize them on the first Sunday
+of Lent.]</p>
+<p>The custom of carrying lighted torches of straw
+(<i>brandons</i>) about the orchards and fields to fertilize them
+on the first Sunday of Lent seems to have been common in France,
+whether it was accompanied with the practice of kindling bonfires
+or not. Thus in the province of Picardy "on the first Sunday of
+Lent people carried torches through the fields, exorcising the
+field-mice, the darnel, and the smut. They imagined that they did
+much good to the gardens and caused the onions to grow large.
+Children ran about the fields, torch in hand, to make the land more
+fertile. All that was done habitually in Picardy, and the ceremony
+of the torches is not entirely forgotten, especially in the
+villages on both sides the Somme as far as Saint-Valery."<a id=
+"footnotetag279" name="footnotetag279"></a><a href=
+"#footnote279"><sup>279</sup></a> "A very agreeable spectacle, said
+the curate of l'&Eacute;toile, is to survey from the portal of the
+church, situated almost on the top of the mountain, the vast plains
+of Vimeux all illuminated by these wandering fires. The same
+pastime is observed at Poix, at Conty, and in all the villages
+round about."<a id="footnotetag280" name=
+"footnotetag280"></a><a href="#footnote280"><sup>280</sup></a>
+Again, in the district of Beauce a festival of torches
+(<i>brandons</i> or <i>brandelons</i>) used to be held both on the
+first and on the second Sunday in Lent; the first was called "the
+Great Torches" and the second "the Little Torches." The torches
+were, as usual, bundles of straw wrapt round poles. In the evening
+the village lads carried the burning brands through the country,
+running about in disorder and singing,</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p class="i6">"Torches burn</p>
+<p>At these vines, at this wheat;</p>
+<p class="i6">Torches burn</p>
+<p>For the maidens that shall wed!"</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>From time to time the bearers would stand still and smite
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114"></a>[pg
+114]</span> the earth all together with the blazing straw of the
+torches, while they cried, "A sheaf of a peck and a half!"
+(<i>Gearbe &agrave; boissiaux</i>). If two torchbearers happened to
+meet each other on their rounds, they performed the same ceremony
+and uttered the same words. When the straw was burnt out, the poles
+were collected and a great bonfire made of them. Lads and lasses
+danced round the flames, and the lads leaped over them. Afterwards
+it was customary to eat a special sort of hasty-pudding made of
+wheaten flour. These usages were still in vogue at the beginning of
+the nineteenth century, but they have now almost disappeared. The
+peasants believed that by carrying lighted torches through the
+fields they protected the crops from field-mice, darnel, and
+smut.<a id="footnotetag281" name="footnotetag281"></a><a href=
+"#footnote281"><sup>281</sup></a> "At Dijon, in Burgundy, it is the
+custom upon the first Sunday in Lent to make large fires in the
+streets, whence it is called Firebrand Sunday. This practice
+originated in the processions formerly made on that day by the
+peasants with lighted torches of straw, to drive away, as they
+called it, the bad air from the earth."<a id="footnotetag282" name=
+"footnotetag282"></a><a href="#footnote282"><sup>282</sup></a> In
+some parts of France, while the people scoured the country with
+burning brands on the first Sunday in Lent, they warned the
+fruit-trees that if they did not take heed and bear fruit they
+would surely be cut down and cast into the fire.<a id=
+"footnotetag283" name="footnotetag283"></a><a href=
+"#footnote283"><sup>283</sup></a> On the same day peasants in the
+department of Loiret used to run about the sowed fields with
+burning torches in their hands, while they adjured the field-mice
+to quit the wheat on pain of having their whiskers burned.<a id=
+"footnotetag284" name="footnotetag284"></a><a href=
+"#footnote284"><sup>284</sup></a> In the department of Ain the
+great fires of straw and faggots which are kindled in the fields at
+this time are or were supposed to destroy the nests of the
+caterpillars.<a id="footnotetag285" name=
+"footnotetag285"></a><a href="#footnote285"><sup>285</sup></a> At
+Verges, a lonely village surrounded by forests between the Jura and
+the Combe d'Ain, the torches used at this season were kindled in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name="page115"></a>[pg
+115]</span> a peculiar manner. The young people climbed to the top
+of a mountain, where they placed three nests of straw in three
+trees. These nests being then set on fire, torches made of dry
+lime-wood were lighted at them, and the merry troop descended the
+mountain to their flickering light, and went to every house in the
+village, demanding roasted peas and obliging all couples who had
+been married within the year to dance.<a id="footnotetag286" name=
+"footnotetag286"></a><a href="#footnote286"><sup>286</sup></a> In
+Berry, a district of central France, it appears that bonfires are
+not lighted on this day, but when the sun has set the whole
+population of the villages, armed with blazing torches of straw,
+disperse over the country and scour the fields, the vineyards, and
+the orchards. Seen from afar, the multitude of moving lights,
+twinkling in the darkness, appear like will-o'-the-wisps chasing
+each other across the plains, along the hillsides, and down the
+valleys. While the men wave their flambeaus about the branches of
+the fruit-trees, the women and children tie bands of wheaten-straw
+round the tree-trunks. The effect of the ceremony is supposed to be
+to avert the various plagues from which the fruits of the earth are
+apt to suffer; and the bands of straw fastened round the stems of
+the trees are believed to render them fruitful.<a id=
+"footnotetag287" name="footnotetag287"></a><a href=
+"#footnote287"><sup>287</sup></a> In the peninsula of La Manche the
+Norman peasants used to spend almost the whole night of the first
+Sunday in Lent rushing about the country with lighted torches for
+the purpose, as they supposed, of driving away the moles and
+field-mice; fires were also kindled on some of the dolmens.<a id=
+"footnotetag288" name="footnotetag288"></a><a href=
+"#footnote288"><sup>288</sup></a></p>
+<a id="firegermany" name="firegermany"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland at the same season similar
+customs have prevailed. Thus in the Eifel Mountains, Rhenish
+Prussia, on the first Sunday in Lent young people used to collect
+straw and brushwood from house to house. These they carried to an
+eminence and piled up round a tall, slim beech-tree, to which a
+piece of wood was fastened at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page116"
+name="page116"></a>[pg 116]</span> right angles to form a cross.
+The structure was known as the "hut" or "castle." Fire was set to
+it and the young people marched round the blazing "castle"
+bareheaded, each carrying a lighted torch and praying aloud.
+Sometimes a straw-man was burned in the "hut." People observed the
+direction in which the smoke blew from the fire. If it blew towards
+the corn-fields, it was a sign that the harvest would be abundant.
+On the same day, in some parts of the Eifel, a great wheel was made
+of straw and dragged by three horses to the top of a hill. Thither
+the village boys marched at nightfall, set fire to the wheel, and
+sent it rolling down the slope. Two lads followed it with levers to
+set it in motion again, in case it should anywhere meet with a
+check. At Oberstattfeld the wheel had to be provided by the young
+man who was last married.<a id="footnotetag289" name=
+"footnotetag289"></a><a href="#footnote289"><sup>289</sup></a>
+About Echternach in Luxemburg the same ceremony is called "burning
+the witch"; while it is going on, the older men ascend the heights
+and observe what wind is blowing, for that is the wind which will
+prevail the whole year.<a id="footnotetag290" name=
+"footnotetag290"></a><a href="#footnote290"><sup>290</sup></a> At
+Voralberg in the Tyrol, on the first Sunday in Lent, a slender
+young fir-tree is surrounded with a pile of straw and firewood. To
+the top of the tree is fastened a human figure called the "witch,"
+made of old clothes and stuffed with gunpowder. At night the whole
+is set on fire and boys and girls dance round it, swinging torches
+and singing rhymes in which the words "corn in the
+winnowing-basket, the plough in the earth" may be
+distinguished.<a id="footnotetag291" name=
+"footnotetag291"></a><a href="#footnote291"><sup>291</sup></a> In
+Swabia on the first Sunday in Lent a figure called the "witch" or
+the "old wife" or "winter's grandmother" is made up of clothes and
+fastened to a pole. This is stuck in the middle of a pile of wood,
+to which fire is applied. While the "witch" is burning, the young
+people throw blazing discs into the air. The discs are thin round
+pieces of wood, a few inches in diameter, with notched edges to
+imitate the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name=
+"page117"></a>[pg 117]</span> rays of the sun or stars. They have a
+hole in the middle, by which they are attached to the end of a
+wand. Before the disc is thrown it is set on fire, the wand is
+swung to and fro, and the impetus thus communicated to the disc is
+augmented by dashing the rod sharply against a sloping board. The
+burning disc is thus thrown off, and mounting high into the air,
+describes a long fiery curve before it reaches the ground. A single
+lad may fling up forty or fifty of these discs, one after the
+other. The object is to throw them as high as possible. The wand by
+which they are hurled must, at least in some parts of Swabia, be of
+hazel. Sometimes the lads also leap over the fire brandishing
+lighted torches of pine-wood. The charred embers of the burned
+"witch" and discs are taken home and planted in the flaxfields the
+same night, in the belief that they will keep vermin from the
+fields.<a id="footnotetag292" name="footnotetag292"></a><a href=
+"#footnote292"><sup>292</sup></a> At Wangen, near Molsheim in
+Baden, a like custom is observed on the first Sunday in Lent. The
+young people kindle a bonfire on the crest of the mountain above
+the village; and the burning discs which they hurl into the air are
+said to present in the darkness the aspect of a continual shower of
+falling stars. When the supply of discs is exhausted and the
+bonfire begins to burn low, the boys light torches and run with
+them at full speed down one or other of the three steep and winding
+paths that descend the mountain-side to the village. Bumps,
+bruises, and scratches are often the result of their efforts to
+outstrip each other in the headlong race.<a id="footnotetag293"
+name="footnotetag293"></a><a href="#footnote293"><sup>293</sup></a>
+In the Rh&ouml;n Mountains, situated on the borders of Hesse and
+Bavaria, the people used to march to the top of a hill or eminence
+on the first Sunday in Lent. Children and lads carried torches,
+brooms daubed with tar, and poles swathed in straw. A wheel, wrapt
+in combustibles, was kindled and rolled down <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page118" name="page118"></a>[pg 118]</span> the
+hill; and the young people rushed about the fields with their
+burning torches and brooms, till at last they flung them in a heap,
+and standing round them, struck up a hymn or a popular song. The
+object of running about the fields with the blazing torches was to
+"drive away the wicked sower." Or it was done in honour of the
+Virgin, that she might preserve the fruits of the earth throughout
+the year and bless them.<a id="footnotetag294" name=
+"footnotetag294"></a><a href="#footnote294"><sup>294</sup></a> In
+neighbouring villages of Hesse, between the Rh&ouml;n and the Vogel
+Mountains, it is thought that wherever the burning wheels roll, the
+fields will be safe from hail and storm.<a id="footnotetag295"
+name="footnotetag295"></a><a href="#footnote295"><sup>295</sup></a>
+At Konz on the Moselle, on the Thursday before the first Sunday in
+Lent, the two guilds of the butchers and the weavers used to repair
+to the Marxberg and there set up an oak-tree with a wheel fastened
+to it. On the following Sunday the people ascended the hill, cut
+down the oak, set fire to the wheel, and sent both oak and wheel
+rolling down the hillside, while a guard of butchers, mounted on
+horses, fired at the flaming wheel in its descent. If the wheel
+rolled down into the Moselle, the butchers were rewarded with a
+waggon-load of wine by the archbishop of Treves.<a id=
+"footnotetag296" name="footnotetag296"></a><a href=
+"#footnote296"><sup>296</sup></a></p>
+<a id="firediscs" name="firediscs"></a>
+<p>[Burning discs thrown into the air.]</p>
+<p>In Switzerland, also, it is or used to be customary to kindle
+bonfires on high places on the evening of the first Sunday in Lent,
+and the day is therefore popularly known as Spark Sunday. The
+custom prevailed, for example, throughout the canton of Lucerne.
+Boys went about from house to house begging for wood and straw,
+then piled the fuel on a conspicuous mountain or hill round about a
+pole, which bore a straw effigy called "the witch." At nightfall
+the pile was set on fire, and the young folks danced wildly round
+it, some of them cracking whips or ringing bells; and when the fire
+burned low enough, they leaped over it. This <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page119" name="page119"></a>[pg 119]</span> was
+called "burning the witch." In some parts of the canton also they
+used to wrap old wheels in straw and thorns, put a light to them,
+and send them rolling and blazing down hill. The same custom of
+rolling lighted wheels down hill is attested by old authorities for
+the cantons of Aargau and B&acirc;le. The more bonfires could be
+seen sparkling and flaring in the darkness, the more fruitful was
+the year expected to be; and the higher the dancers leaped beside
+or over the fire, the higher, it was thought, would grow the flax.
+In the district of Freiburg and at Birseck in the district of
+B&acirc;le it was the last married man or woman who must kindle the
+bonfire. While the bonfires blazed up, it was customary in some
+parts of Switzerland to propel burning discs of wood through the
+air by means of the same simple machinery which is used for the
+purpose in Swabia. Each lad tried to send his disc fizzing and
+flaring through the darkness as far as possible, and in discharging
+it he mentioned the name of the person to whose honour it was
+dedicated. But in Pr&auml;ttigau the words uttered in launching the
+fiery discs referred to the abundance which was apparently expected
+to follow the performance of the ceremony. Among them were, "Grease
+in the pan, corn in the fan, and the plough in the earth!"<a id=
+"footnotetag297" name="footnotetag297"></a><a href=
+"#footnote297"><sup>297</sup></a></p>
+<a id="fireconnexion" name="fireconnexion"></a>
+<p>[Connexion of these bonfires with the custom of "carrying out
+Death;" effigies burnt on Shrove Tuesday.]</p>
+<p>It seems hardly possible to separate from these bonfires,
+kindled on the first Sunday in Lent, the fires in which, about the
+same season, the effigy called Death is burned as part of the
+ceremony of "carrying out Death." We have seen that at Spachendorf,
+in Austrian Silesia, on the morning of Rupert's Day (Shrove
+Tuesday?), a straw-man, dressed in a fur coat and a fur cap, is
+laid in a hole outside the village and there burned, and that while
+it is blazing every one seeks to snatch a fragment of it, which he
+fastens to a branch of the highest tree in his garden or buries in
+his field, believing that this will make the crops to grow better.
+The ceremony is known as the "burying of Death."<a id=
+"footnotetag298" name="footnotetag298"></a><a href=
+"#footnote298"><sup>298</sup></a> Even <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page120" name="page120"></a>[pg 120]</span> when the straw-man is
+not designated as Death, the meaning of the observance is probably
+the same; for the name Death, as I have tried to shew, does not
+express the original intention of the ceremony. At Cobern in the
+Eifel Mountains the lads make up a straw-man on Shrove Tuesday. The
+effigy is formally tried and accused of having perpetrated all the
+thefts that have been committed in the neighbourhood throughout the
+year. Being condemned to death, the straw-man is led through the
+village, shot, and burned upon a pyre. They dance round the blazing
+pile, and the last bride must leap over it.<a id="footnotetag299"
+name="footnotetag299"></a><a href="#footnote299"><sup>299</sup></a>
+In Oldenburg on the evening of Shrove Tuesday people used to make
+long bundles of straw, which they set on fire, and then ran about
+the fields waving them, shrieking, and singing wild songs. Finally
+they burned a straw-man on the field.<a id="footnotetag300" name=
+"footnotetag300"></a><a href="#footnote300"><sup>300</sup></a> In
+the district of D&uuml;sseldorf the straw-man burned on Shrove
+Tuesday was made of an unthreshed sheaf of corn.<a id=
+"footnotetag301" name="footnotetag301"></a><a href=
+"#footnote301"><sup>301</sup></a> On the first Monday after the
+spring equinox the urchins of Zurich drag a straw-man on a little
+cart through the streets, while at the same time the girls carry
+about a May-tree. When vespers ring, the straw-man is burned.<a id=
+"footnotetag302" name="footnotetag302"></a><a href=
+"#footnote302"><sup>302</sup></a> In the district of Aachen on Ash
+Wednesday a man used to be encased in peas-straw and taken to an
+appointed place. Here he slipped quietly out of his straw casing,
+which was then burned, the children thinking that it was the man
+who was being burned.<a id="footnotetag303" name=
+"footnotetag303"></a><a href="#footnote303"><sup>303</sup></a> In
+the Val di Ledro (Tyrol) on the last day of the Carnival a figure
+is made up of straw and brushwood and then burned. The figure is
+called the Old Woman, and the ceremony "burning the Old
+Woman."<a id="footnotetag304" name="footnotetag304"></a><a href=
+"#footnote304"><sup>304</sup></a></p>
+<h4><a id="sect4-2" name="sect4-2">&sect; 2. <i>The Easter
+Fires</i></a></h4>
+<a id="fireeaster" name="fireeaster"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>Another occasion on which these fire-festivals are held is
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name="page121"></a>[pg
+121]</span> Easter Eve, the Saturday before Easter Sunday. On that
+day it has been customary in Catholic countries to extinguish all
+the lights in the churches, and then to make a new fire, sometimes
+with flint and steel, sometimes with a burning-glass. At this fire
+is lit the great Paschal or Easter candle, which is then used to
+rekindle all the extinguished lights in the church. In many parts
+of Germany a bonfire is also kindled, by means of the new fire, on
+some open space near the church. It is consecrated, and the people
+bring sticks of oak, walnut, and beech, which they char in the
+fire, and then take home with them. Some of these charred sticks
+are thereupon burned at home in a newly-kindled fire, with a prayer
+that God will preserve the homestead from fire, lightning, and
+hail. Thus every house receives "new fire." Some of the sticks are
+kept throughout the year and laid on the hearth-fire during heavy
+thunder-storms to prevent the house from being struck by lightning,
+or they are inserted in the roof with the like intention. Others
+are placed in the fields, gardens, and meadows, with a prayer that
+God will keep them from blight and hail. Such fields and gardens
+are thought to thrive more than others; the corn and the plants
+that grow in them are not beaten down by hail, nor devoured by
+mice, vermin, and beetles; no witch harms them, and the ears of
+corn stand close and full. The charred sticks are also applied to
+the plough. The ashes of the Easter bonfire, together with the
+ashes of the consecrated palm-branches, are mixed with the seed at
+sowing. A wooden figure called Judas is sometimes burned in the
+consecrated bonfire, and even where this custom has been abolished
+the bonfire itself in some places goes by the name of "the burning
+of Judas."<a id="footnotetag305" name="footnotetag305"></a><a href=
+"#footnote305"><sup>305</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name="page122"></a>[pg
+122]</span> <a id="firebavaria" name="firebavaria"></a>
+<p>[Easter fires in Bavaria and the Abruzzi.]</p>
+<p>In the Hollertau, Bavaria, the young men used to light their
+lanterns at the newly-kindled Easter candle in the church and then
+race to the bonfire; he who reached it first set fire to the pile,
+and next day, Easter Sunday, was rewarded at the church-door by the
+housewives, who presented him with red eggs. Great was the
+jubilation while the effigy of the traitor was being consumed in
+the flames. The ashes were carefully collected and thrown away at
+sunrise in running water.<a id="footnotetag306" name=
+"footnotetag306"></a><a href="#footnote306"><sup>306</sup></a> In
+many parts of the Abruzzi, also, pious people kindle their fires on
+Easter Saturday with a brand brought from the sacred new fire in
+the church. When the brand has thus served to bless the fire on the
+domestic hearth, it is extinguished, and the remainder is
+preserved, partly in a cranny of the outer wall of the house,
+partly on a tree to which it is tied. This is done for the purpose
+of guarding the homestead against injury by storms. At Campo di
+Giove the people say that if you can get a piece of one of the
+three holy candles which the priest lights from the new fire, you
+should allow a few drops of the wax to fall into the crown of your
+hat; for after that, if it should thunder and lighten, you have
+nothing to do but to clap the hat on your head, and no flash of
+lightning can possibly strike you.<a id="footnotetag307" name=
+"footnotetag307"></a><a href="#footnote307"><sup>307</sup></a></p>
+<a id="firewater" name="firewater"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>Further, it deserves to be noted that in the Abruzzi water as
+well as fire is, as it were, renewed and consecrated on Easter
+Saturday. Most people fetch holy water on <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page123" name="page123"></a>[pg 123]</span> that
+day from the churches, and every member of the family drinks a
+little of it, believing that it has power to protect him or her
+against witchcraft, fever, and stomach-aches of all sorts. And when
+the church bells ring again after their enforced silence, the water
+is sprinkled about the house, and especially under the beds, with
+the help of a palm-branch. Some of this blessed water is also kept
+in the house for use in great emergencies, when there is no time to
+fetch a priest; thus it may be employed to baptize a newborn infant
+gasping for life or to sprinkle a sick man in the last agony; such
+a sprinkling is reckoned equal to priestly absolution.<a id=
+"footnotetag308" name="footnotetag308"></a><a href=
+"#footnote308"><sup>308</sup></a> In Calabria the customs with
+regard to the new water, as it is called, on Easter Saturday are
+similar; it is poured into a new vessel, adorned with ribbons and
+flowers, is blessed by the priest, and is tasted by every one of
+the household, beginning with the parents. And when the air
+vibrates with the glad music of the church bells announcing the
+resurrection, the people sprinkle the holy water about the houses,
+bidding in a loud voice all evil things to go forth and all good
+things to come in. At the same time, to emphasize the exorcism,
+they knock on doors, window-shutters, chests, and other domestic
+articles of furniture. At Cetraro people who suffer from diseases
+of the skin bathe in the sea at this propitious moment; at Pietro
+in Guarano they plunge into the river on the night of Easter
+Saturday before Easter Sunday dawns, and while they bathe they
+utter never a word. Moreover, the Calabrians keep the "new water"
+as a sacred thing. They believe that it serves as a protection
+against witchcraft if it is sprinkled on a fire or a lamp, when the
+wood crackles or the wick sputters; for they regard it as a bad
+omen when the fire talks, as they say.<a id="footnotetag309" name=
+"footnotetag309"></a><a href="#footnote309"><sup>309</sup></a>
+Among the Germans of Western Bohemia, also, water as well as fire
+is consecrated by the priest in front of the church on Easter
+Saturday. People bring jugs full of water to the church and set
+them beside the holy fire; afterwards they use the water to
+sprinkle on the palm-branches which are stuck in the fields.
+Charred sticks of the Judas fire, as it is popularly called, are
+supposed to possess a magical and healing virtue; <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page124" name="page124"></a>[pg 124]</span> hence
+the people take them home with them, and even scuffle with each
+other for the still glowing embers in order to carry them, still
+glimmering, to their houses and so obtain "the light" or "the holy
+light."<a id="footnotetag310" name="footnotetag310"></a><a href=
+"#footnote310"><sup>310</sup></a> At Hildesheim, also, and the
+neighbouring villages of central Germany rites both of fire and
+water are or were till lately observed at Easter. Thus on Easter
+night many people fetch water from the Innerste river and keep it
+carefully, believing it to be a remedy for many sorts of ailments
+both of man and beast. In the villages on the Leine river servant
+men and maids used to go silently on Easter night between the hours
+of eleven and twelve and silently draw water in buckets from the
+river; they mixed the water with the fodder and the drink of the
+cattle to make the animals thrive, and they imagined that to wash
+in it was good for human beings. Many were also of opinion that at
+the same mystic hour the water turned to wine as far as the crowing
+of a cock could be heard, and in this belief they laid themselves
+flat on their stomachs and kept their tongues in the water till the
+miraculous change occurred, when they took a great gulp of the
+transformed water. At Hildesheim, too, and the neighbouring
+villages fires used to blaze on all the heights on Easter Eve; and
+embers taken from the bonfires were dipped in the cattle troughs to
+benefit the beasts and were kept in the houses to avert
+lightning.<a id="footnotetag311" name="footnotetag311"></a><a href=
+"#footnote311"><sup>311</sup></a></p>
+<a id="firecarinthia" name="firecarinthia"></a>
+<p>[New fire at Easter in Carinthia; consecration of fire and water
+by the Catholic Church at Easter.]</p>
+<p>In the Lesachthal, Carinthia, all the fires in the houses used
+to be extinguished on Easter Saturday, and rekindled with a fresh
+fire brought from the churchyard, where the priest had lit it by
+the friction of flint and steel and had bestowed his blessing on
+it.<a id="footnotetag312" name="footnotetag312"></a><a href=
+"#footnote312"><sup>312</sup></a> Such customs were probably
+widespread. In a Latin poem of the sixteenth century, written by a
+certain Thomas Kirchmeyer and translated into English by Barnabe
+Googe, we read:&mdash;</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>"On Easter Eve the fire all is quencht in every place,</p>
+<p>And fresh againe from out the flint is fetcht with solemne
+grace:</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name="page125"></a>[pg
+125]</span>
+<p>The priest doth halow this against great daungers many one,</p>
+<p>A brande whereof doth every man with greedie mind take home,</p>
+<p>That when the fearefull storme appeares, or tempest black
+arise,</p>
+<p>By lighting this he safe may be from stroke of hurtful
+skies:</p>
+<p>A taper great, the Paschall namde, with musicke then they
+blesse,</p>
+<p>And franckensence herein they pricke, for greater holynesse:</p>
+<p>This burneth night and day as signe of Christ that conquerde
+hell,</p>
+<p>As if so be this foolish toye suffiseth this to tell.</p>
+<p>Then doth the Bishop or the Priest, the water halow
+straight,</p>
+<p>That for their baptisme is reservde: for now no more of
+waight</p>
+<p>Is that they usde the yeare before, nor can they any more,</p>
+<p>Yong children christen with the same, as they have done
+before.</p>
+<p>With wondrous pompe and furniture, amid the Church they go,</p>
+<p>With candles, crosses, banners, Chrisme, and oyle appoynted
+tho:</p>
+<p>Nine times about the font they marche, and on the saintes doe
+call,</p>
+<p>Then still at length they stande, and straight the Priest begins
+withall,</p>
+<p>And thrise the water doth he touche, and crosses thereon
+make,</p>
+<p>Here bigge and barbrous wordes he speakes, to make the devill
+quake:</p>
+<p>And holsome waters conjureth, and foolishly doth dresse,</p>
+<p>Supposing holyar that to make, which God before did blesse:</p>
+<p>And after this his candle than, he thrusteth in the floode,</p>
+<p>And thrise he breathes thereon with breath, that stinkes of
+former foode:</p>
+<p>And making here an ende, his Chrisme he poureth thereupon,</p>
+<p>The people staring hereat stande, amazed every one;</p>
+<p>Beleeving that great powre is given to this water here,</p>
+<p>By gaping of these learned men, and such like trifling gere.</p>
+<p>Therefore in vessels brought they draw, and home they carie
+some,</p>
+<p>Against the grieves that to themselves, or to their beastes may
+come.</p>
+<p>Then Clappers ceasse, and belles are set againe at
+libert&eacute;e,</p>
+<p>And herewithall the hungrie times of fasting ended
+b&eacute;e."<a id="footnotetag313" name=
+"footnotetag313"></a><a href="#footnote313"><sup>313</sup></a></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>It is said that formerly all the fires in Rome were lighted
+afresh from the holy fire kindled in St. Peter's on Easter
+Saturday.<a id="footnotetag314" name="footnotetag314"></a><a href=
+"#footnote314"><sup>314</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name="page126"></a>[pg
+126]</span> <a id="fireflorence" name="fireflorence"></a>
+<p>[The new fire on Easter Saturday at Florence.]</p>
+<p>In Florence the ceremony of kindling the new fire on Easter Eve
+is peculiar. The holy flame is elicited from certain flints which
+are said to have been brought by a member of the Pazzi family from
+the Holy Land. They are kept in the church of the Holy Apostles on
+the Piazza del Limbo, and on the morning of Easter Saturday the
+prior strikes fire from them and lights a candle from the new
+flame. The burning candle is then carried in solemn procession by
+the clergy and members of the municipality to the high altar in the
+cathedral. A vast crowd has meanwhile assembled in the cathedral
+and the neighbouring square to witness the ceremony; amongst the
+spectators are many peasants drawn from the surrounding country,
+for it is commonly believed that on the success or failure of the
+ceremony depends the fate of the crops for the year. Outside the
+door of the cathedral stands a festal car drawn by two fine white
+oxen with gilded horns. The body of the car is loaded with a
+pyramid of squibs and crackers and is connected by a wire with a
+pillar set up in front of the high altar. The wire extends down the
+middle of the nave at a height of about six feet from the ground.
+Beneath it a clear passage is left, the spectators being ranged on
+either side and crowding the vast interior from wall to wall. When
+all is ready, High Mass is celebrated, and precisely at noon, when
+the first words of the <i>Gloria</i> are being chanted, the sacred
+fire is applied to the pillar, which like the car is wreathed with
+fireworks. A moment more and a fiery dove comes flying down the
+nave, with a hissing sound and a sputter of sparks, between the two
+hedges of eager spectators. If all goes well, the bird pursues its
+course along the wire and out at the door, and in another moment a
+prolonged series of fizzes, pops and bangs announces to the excited
+crowd in the cathedral that the fireworks on the car are going off.
+Great is the joy accordingly, especially among the bumpkins, who
+are now sure of an abundant harvest. But if, as sometimes happens,
+the dove stops short in its career and fizzles out, revealing
+itself as a stuffed bird with a packet of squibs tied to its tail,
+great is the consternation, and deep the curses that issue from
+between the set teeth of the clodhoppers, who now give up the
+harvest for lost. Formerly the unskilful <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page127" name="page127"></a>[pg 127]</span>
+mechanician who was responsible for the failure would have been
+clapped into gaol; but nowadays he is thought sufficiently punished
+by the storm of public indignation and the loss of his pay. The
+disaster is announced by placards posted about the streets in the
+evening; and next morning the newspapers are full of gloomy
+prognostications.<a id="footnotetag315" name=
+"footnotetag315"></a><a href="#footnote315"><sup>315</sup></a></p>
+<a id="firemexico" name="firemexico"></a>
+<p>[The new fire and burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in
+Mexico.]</p>
+<p>Some of these customs have been transported by the Catholic
+Church to the New World. Thus in Mexico the new fire is struck from
+a flint early in the morning of Easter Saturday, and a candle which
+has been lighted at the sacred flame is carried through the church
+by a deacon shouting "<i>Lumen Christi</i>." Meantime the whole
+city, we are informed, has been converted into a vast place of
+execution. Ropes stretch across the streets from house to house,
+and from every house dangles an effigy of Judas, made of paper
+pulp. Scores or hundreds of them may adorn a single street. They
+are of all shapes and sizes, grotesque in form and garbed in
+strange attire, stuffed with gunpowder, squibs and crackers,
+sometimes, too, with meat, bread, soap, candy, and clothing, for
+which the crowd will scramble and scuffle while the effigies are
+burning. There they hang grim, black, and sullen in the strong
+sunshine, greeted with a roar of execration by the pious mob. A
+peal of bells from the cathedral tower on the stroke of noon gives
+the signal for the execution. At the sound a frenzy seizes the
+crowd. They throw themselves furiously on the figures of the
+detested traitor, cut them down, hurl them with curses into the
+fire, and fight and struggle with each other in their efforts to
+tear the effigies to tatters and appropriate their contents. Smoke,
+stink, sputter of crackers, oaths, curses, yells are now the order
+of the day. But the traitor does not perish unavenged. For the
+anatomy of his frame has been cunningly contrived so as in burning
+to discharge volleys of squibs into his assailants; and the wounds
+and burns with which their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page128"
+name="page128"></a>[pg 128]</span> piety is rewarded form a feature
+of the morning's entertainment. The English Jockey Club in Mexico
+used to improve on this popular pastime by suspending huge figures
+of Judas, stuffed with copper coins, from ropes in front of their
+clubhouse. These were ignited at the proper moment and lowered
+within reach of the expectant rabble, and it was the privilege of
+members of the club, seated in the balcony, to watch the grimaces
+and to hear the shrieks of the victims, as they stamped and capered
+about with the hot coppers sticking to their hands, divided in
+their minds between an acute sense of pain and a thirst for filthy
+lucre.<a id="footnotetag316" name="footnotetag316"></a><a href=
+"#footnote316"><sup>316</sup></a></p>
+<p>[The burning of Judas at Easter in South America.]</p>
+<p>Scenes of the same sort, though on a less ambitious scale, are
+witnessed among the Catholics of South America on the same day. In
+Brazil the mourning for the death of Christ ceases at noon on
+Easter Saturday and gives place to an extravagant burst of joy at
+his resurrection. Shots are fired everywhere, and effigies of Judas
+are hung on trees or dragged about the streets, to be finally
+burned or otherwise destroyed.<a id="footnotetag317" name=
+"footnotetag317"></a><a href="#footnote317"><sup>317</sup></a> In
+the Indian villages scattered among the wild valleys of the
+Peruvian Andes figures of the traitor, made of pasteboard and
+stuffed with squibs and crackers, are hanged on gibbets before the
+door of the church on Easter Saturday. Fire is set to them, and
+while they crackle and explode, the Indians dance and shout for joy
+at the destruction of their hated enemy.<a id="footnotetag318"
+name="footnotetag318"></a><a href="#footnote318"><sup>318</sup></a>
+Similarly at Rio Hacha, in Colombia, Judas is represented during
+Holy Week by life-sized effigies, and the people fire at them as if
+they were discharging a sacred duty.<a id="footnotetag319" name=
+"footnotetag319"></a><a href="#footnote319"><sup>319</sup></a></p>
+<a id="firejerusalem" name="firejerusalem"></a>
+<p>[The new fire on Easter Saturday in the Church of the Holy
+Sepulchre at Jerusalem.]</p>
+<p>But usages of this sort are not confined to the Latin Church;
+they are common to the Greek Church also. Every year on the
+Saturday before Easter Sunday a new fire is miraculously kindled at
+the Holy Sepulchre in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page129" name=
+"page129"></a>[pg 129]</span> Jerusalem. It descends from heaven
+and ignites the candles which the patriarch holds in his hands,
+while with closed eyes he wrestles in prayer all alone in the
+chapel of the Angel. The worshippers meanwhile wait anxiously in
+the body of the church, and great are their transports of joy when
+at one of the windows of the chapel, which had been all dark a
+minute before, there suddenly appears the hand of an angel, or of
+the patriarch, holding a lighted taper. This is the sacred new
+fire; it is passed out to the expectant believers, and the
+desperate struggle which ensues among them to get a share of its
+blessed influence is only terminated by the intervention of the
+Turkish soldiery, who restore peace and order by hustling the whole
+multitude impartially out of the church. In days gone by many lives
+were often lost in these holy scrimmages. For example, in the year
+1834, the famous Ibrahim Pasha witnessed the frantic scene from one
+of the galleries, and, being moved with compassion at the sight,
+descended with a few guards into the arena in the chimerical hope
+of restoring peace and order among the contending Christians. He
+contrived to force his way into the midst of the dense crowd, but
+there the heat and pressure were so great that he fainted away; a
+body of soldiers, seeing his danger, charged straight into the
+throng and carried him out of it in their arms, trampling under
+foot the dying and dead in their passage. Nearly two hundred people
+were killed that day in the church. The fortunate survivors on
+these occasions who succeeded in obtaining a portion of the coveted
+fire applied it freely to their faces, their beards, and their
+garments. The theory was that the fire, being miraculous, could
+only bless and not burn them; but the practical results of the
+experiment were often disappointing, for while the blessings were
+more or less dubious, there could be no doubt whatever about the
+burns.<a id="footnotetag320" name="footnotetag320"></a><a href=
+"#footnote320"><sup>320</sup></a> The history of the miracle has
+been carefully <span class="pagenum"><a id="page130" name=
+"page130"></a>[pg 130]</span> investigated by a Jesuit father. The
+conclusions at which he arrives are that the miracle was a miracle
+indeed so long as the Catholics had the management of it; but that
+since it fell into the hands of the heretics it has been nothing
+but a barefaced trick and imposture.<a id="footnotetag321" name=
+"footnotetag321"></a><a href="#footnote321"><sup>321</sup></a> Many
+people will be disposed to agree with the latter conclusion who
+might hesitate to accept the former.</p>
+<a id="firegreece" name="firegreece"></a>
+<p>[The new fire and the burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in
+Greece.]</p>
+<p>At Athens the new fire is kindled in the cathedral at midnight
+on Holy Saturday. A dense crowd with unlit candles in their hands
+fills the square in front of the cathedral; the king, the
+archbishop, and the highest dignitaries of the church, arrayed in
+their gorgeous robes, occupy a platform; and at the exact moment of
+the resurrection the bells ring out, and the whole square bursts as
+by magic into a blaze of light. Theoretically all the candles are
+lit from the sacred new fire in the cathedral, but practically it
+may be suspected that the matches which bear the name of Lucifer
+have some share in the sudden illumination.<a id="footnotetag322"
+name="footnotetag322"></a><a href="#footnote322"><sup>322</sup></a>
+Effigies of Judas used to be burned at Athens on Easter Saturday,
+but the custom has been forbidden by the Government. However,
+firing goes on more or less continuously all over the city both on
+Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday, and the cartridges used on this
+occasion are not always blank. The shots are aimed at Judas, but
+sometimes they miss him and hit other people. Outside of Athens the
+practice of burning Judas in effigy still survives in some places.
+For example, in Cos a straw image of the traitor is made on Easter
+Day, and after being hung up and shot at it is burned.<a id=
+"footnotetag323" name="footnotetag323"></a><a href=
+"#footnote323"><sup>323</sup></a> A similar custom <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page131" name="page131"></a>[pg 131]</span>
+appears to prevail at Thebes;<a id="footnotetag324" name=
+"footnotetag324"></a><a href="#footnote324"><sup>324</sup></a> it
+used to be observed by the Macedonian peasantry, and it is still
+kept up at Therapia, a fashionable summer resort of
+Constantinople.<a id="footnotetag325" name=
+"footnotetag325"></a><a href="#footnote325"><sup>325</sup></a></p>
+<a id="firearmenia" name="firearmenia"></a>
+<p>[The new fire at Candlemas in Armenia.]</p>
+<p>In the Armenian Church the sacred new fire is kindled not at
+Easter but at Candlemas, that is, on the second of February, or on
+the eve of that festival. The materials of the bonfire are piled in
+an open space near a church, and they are generally ignited by
+young couples who have been married within the year. However, it is
+the bishop or his vicar who lights the candles with which fire is
+set to the pile. All young married pairs are expected to range
+themselves about the fire and to dance round it. Young men leap
+over the flames, but girls and women content themselves with going
+round them, while they pray to be preserved from the itch and other
+skin-diseases. When the ceremony is over, the people eagerly pick
+up charred sticks or ashes of the fire and preserve them or scatter
+them on the four corners of the roof, in the cattle-stall, in the
+garden, and on the pastures; for these holy sticks and ashes
+protect men and cattle against disease, and fruit-trees against
+worms and caterpillars. Omens, too, are drawn from the direction in
+which the wind blows the flames and the smoke: if it carries them
+eastward, there is hope of a good harvest; but if it inclines them
+westward, the people fear that the crops will fail.<a id=
+"footnotetag326" name="footnotetag326"></a><a href=
+"#footnote326"><sup>326</sup></a></p>
+<a id="firerelics" name="firerelics"></a>
+<p>[The new fire and the burning of Judas at Easter are probably
+relics of paganism.]</p>
+<p>In spite of the thin cloak of Christianity thrown over these
+customs by representing the new fire as an emblem of Christ and the
+figure burned in it as an effigy of Judas, we can hardly doubt that
+both practices are of pagan origin. Neither of them has the
+authority of Christ or of his disciples; but both of them have
+abundant analogies in popular custom <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page132" name="page132"></a>[pg 132]</span> and superstition. Some
+instances of the practice of annually extinguishing fires and
+relighting them from a new and sacred flame have already come
+before us;<a id="footnotetag327" name="footnotetag327"></a><a href=
+"#footnote327"><sup>327</sup></a> but a few examples may here be
+cited for the sake of illustrating the wide diffusion of a custom
+which has found its way into the ritual both of the Eastern and of
+the Western Church.</p>
+<a id="fireincas" name="fireincas"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>The Incas of Peru celebrated a festival called Raymi, a word
+which their native historian Garcilasso de la Vega tells us was
+equivalent to our Easter. It was held in honour of the sun at the
+solstice in June. For three days before the festival the people
+fasted, men did not sleep with their wives, and no fires were
+lighted in Cuzco, the capital. The sacred new fire was obtained
+direct from the sun by concentrating his beams on a highly polished
+concave plate and reflecting them on a little cotton wool. With
+this holy fire the sheep and lambs offered to the sun were
+consumed, and the flesh of such as were to be eaten at the festival
+was roasted. Portions of the new fire were also conveyed to the
+temple of the sun and to the convent of the sacred virgins, where
+they were kept burning all the year, and it was an ill omen if the
+holy flame went out.<a id="footnotetag328" name=
+"footnotetag328"></a><a href="#footnote328"><sup>328</sup></a> At a
+festival held in the last month of the old Mexican year all the
+fires both in the temples and in the houses were extinguished, and
+the priest kindled a new fire by rubbing two sticks against each
+other before the image of the fire-god.<a id="footnotetag329" name=
+"footnotetag329"></a><a href="#footnote329"><sup>329</sup></a> The
+Zuni Indians of New Mexico kindle a new fire by the friction of
+wood both at the winter and the summer solstice. At the winter
+solstice the chosen fire-maker collects a faggot of cedar-wood from
+every house in the village, and each person, as he hands the wood
+to the fire-maker, prays that the crops may be good in the coming
+year. For several days before the new fire is kindled, no
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page133" name="page133"></a>[pg
+133]</span> ashes or sweepings may be removed from the houses and
+no artificial light may appear outside of them, not even a burning
+cigarette or the flash of firearms. The Indians believe that no
+rain will fall on the fields of the man outside whose house a light
+has been seen at this season. The signal for kindling the new fire
+is given by the rising of the Morning Star. The flame is produced
+by twirling an upright stick between the hands on a horizontal
+stick laid on the floor of a sacred chamber, the sparks being
+caught by a tinder of cedar-dust. It is forbidden to blow up the
+smouldering tinder with the breath, for that would offend the gods.
+After the fire has thus been ceremonially kindled, the women and
+girls of all the families in the village clean out their houses.
+They carry the sweepings and ashes in baskets or bowls to the
+fields and leave them there. To the sweepings the woman says: "I
+now deposit you as sweepings, but in one year you will return to me
+as corn." And to the ashes she says: "I now deposit you as ashes,
+but in one year you will return to me as meal." At the summer
+solstice the sacred fire which has been procured by the friction of
+wood is used to kindle the grass and trees, that there may be a
+great cloud of smoke, while bull-roarers are swung and prayers
+offered that the Rain-makers up aloft will water the earth.<a id=
+"footnotetag330" name="footnotetag330"></a><a href=
+"#footnote330"><sup>330</sup></a> From this account we see how
+intimately the kindling of a new fire at the two turning-points of
+the sun's course is associated in the minds of these Indians with
+the fertility of the land, particularly with the growth of the
+corn. The rolling smoke is apparently an imitation of rain-clouds
+designed, on the principle of homoeopathic magic, to draw showers
+from the blue sky. Once a year the Iroquois priesthood supplied the
+people with a new fire. As a preparation for the annual rite
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page134" name="page134"></a>[pg
+134]</span> the fires in all the huts were extinguished and the
+ashes scattered about. Then the priest, wearing the insignia of his
+office, went from hut to hut relighting the fires by means of a
+flint.<a id="footnotetag331" name="footnotetag331"></a><a href=
+"#footnote331"><sup>331</sup></a> Among the Esquimaux with whom
+C.F. Hall resided, it was the custom that at a certain time, which
+answered to our New Year's Day, two men went about from house to
+house blowing out every light in the village. One of the men was
+dressed to represent a woman. Afterwards the lights were rekindled
+from a fresh fire. An Esquimau woman being asked what all this
+meant, replied, "New sun&mdash;new light."<a id="footnotetag332"
+name="footnotetag332"></a><a href="#footnote332"><sup>332</sup></a>
+Among the Esquimaux of Iglulik, when the sun first rises above the
+horizon after the long night of the Arctic winter, the children who
+have watched for his reappearance run into the houses and blow out
+the lamps. Then they receive from their mothers presents of pieces
+of wick.<a id="footnotetag333" name="footnotetag333"></a><a href=
+"#footnote333"><sup>333</sup></a></p>
+<a id="firewadai" name="firewadai"></a>
+<p>[The new fire in Wadai, among the Swahili, and in other parts of
+Africa.]</p>
+<p>In the Sudanese kingdom of Wadai all the fires in the villages
+are put out and the ashes removed from the houses on the day which
+precedes the New Year festival. At the beginning of the new year a
+new fire is lit by the friction of wood in the great straw hut
+where the village elders lounge away the sultry hours together; and
+every man takes thence a burning brand with which he rekindles the
+fire on his domestic hearth.<a id="footnotetag334" name=
+"footnotetag334"></a><a href="#footnote334"><sup>334</sup></a> In
+the Bahr-el-Ghazal province of the Egyptian Sudan the people
+extinguish their old fires at the Arab New Year and bring in new
+fire. On the same occasion they beat the walls of their huts, the
+grass thatches, and the walls of their enclosures in order to drive
+away the devil or evil spirits. The beating of the walls and roofs
+is accompanied by the firing of guns, the shouting of men, and the
+shriller cries of the women.<a id="footnotetag335" name=
+"footnotetag335"></a><a href="#footnote335"><sup>335</sup></a> Thus
+these people combine <span class="pagenum"><a id="page135" name=
+"page135"></a>[pg 135]</span> an annual expulsion of demons with an
+annual lighting of a new fire. Among the Swahili of East Africa the
+greatest festival is that of the New Year, which falls in the
+second half of August. At a given moment all the fires are
+extinguished with water and afterwards relit by the friction of two
+dry pieces of wood. The ashes of the old fires are carried out and
+deposited at cross-roads. All the people get up very early in the
+morning and bathe in the sea or some other water, praying to be
+kept in good health and to live that they may bathe again next
+year. Sham-fights form part of the amusements of the day; sometimes
+they pass into grim reality. Indeed the day was formerly one of
+general license; every man did that which was good in his own eyes.
+No awkward questions were asked about any crimes committed on this
+occasion, so some people improved the shining hour by knocking a
+few poor devils on the head. Shooting still goes on during the
+whole day, and at night the proceedings generally wind up with a
+great dance.<a id="footnotetag336" name=
+"footnotetag336"></a><a href="#footnote336"><sup>336</sup></a> The
+King of Benametapa, as the early Portuguese traders called him, in
+East Africa used to send commissioners annually to every town in
+his dominions; on the arrival of one of these officers the
+inhabitants of each town had to put out all their fires and to
+receive a new fire from him. Failure to comply with this custom was
+treated as rebellion.<a id="footnotetag337" name=
+"footnotetag337"></a><a href="#footnote337"><sup>337</sup></a> Some
+tribes of British Central Africa carefully extinguish the fires on
+the hearths at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page136" name=
+"page136"></a>[pg 136]</span> the beginning of the hoeing season
+and at harvest; the fires are afterwards rekindled by friction, and
+the people indulge in dances of various kinds.<a id=
+"footnotetag338" name="footnotetag338"></a><a href=
+"#footnote338"><sup>338</sup></a></p>
+<a id="firetodas" name="firetodas"></a>
+<p>[The new fire among the Todas of Southern India and among the
+Nagas of North-Eastern India.]</p>
+<p>The Todas of the Neilgheny Hills, in Southern India, annually
+kindle a sacred new fire by the friction of wood in the month which
+begins with the October moon. The ceremony is performed by two holy
+dairymen at the foot of a high hill. When they have lighted the
+fire by rubbing two dry sticks together, and it begins to burn
+well, they stand a little way off and pray, saying, "May the young
+grass flower! May honey flourish! May fruit ripen!" The purpose of
+the ceremony is to make the grass and honey plentiful. In ancient
+times the Todas lived largely on wild fruits, and then the rite of
+the new fire was very important. Now that they subsist chiefly on
+the milk of their buffaloes, the ceremony has lost much of its old
+significance.<a id="footnotetag339" name=
+"footnotetag339"></a><a href="#footnote339"><sup>339</sup></a> When
+the Nagas of North-Eastern India have felled the timber and cut
+down the scrub in those patches of jungle which they propose to
+cultivate, they put out all the fires in the village and light a
+new fire by rubbing two dry pieces of wood together. Then having
+kindled torches at it they proceed with them to the jungle and
+ignite the felled timber and brushwood. The flesh of a cow or
+buffalo is also roasted on the new fire and furnishes a sacrificial
+meal.<a id="footnotetag340" name="footnotetag340"></a><a href=
+"#footnote340"><sup>340</sup></a> Near the small town of Kahma in
+Burma, between Prome and Thayetmyo, certain gases escape from a
+hollow in the ground and burn with a steady flame during the dry
+season of the year. The people regard the flame as the forge of a
+spectral smith who here carried on his business after death had
+removed him from his old smithy in the village. Once a year all the
+household fires in Kahma are extinguished and then lighted afresh
+from the ghostly flame.<a id="footnotetag341" name=
+"footnotetag341"></a><a href="#footnote341"><sup>341</sup></a></p>
+<a id="firechina" name="firechina"></a>
+<p>[The new fire in China and Japan.]</p>
+<p>In China every year, about the beginning of April, certain
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page137" name="page137"></a>[pg
+137]</span> officials, called <i>Sz'h&uuml;en</i>, 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 <i>Han-shih-tsieh</i>, 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&mdash;</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>"At the festival of the cold food there are a thousand white
+stalks among the flowers;</p>
+<p>On the day Tsing-ming, at sunrise, you may see the smoke of
+ten</p>
+<p>thousand houses."</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>According to a Chinese philosopher, the reason for thus renewing
+fire periodically is that the vital principle grows weaker and
+weaker in old fire, whereas in new fire it is young and vigorous.
+This annual renewal of fire was a ceremony of very great antiquity
+in China, since it is known to have been observed in the time of
+the first dynasty, about two thousand years before Christ. Under
+the Tcheou dynasty a change in the calendar led to shifting the
+fire-festival from spring to the summer solstice, but afterwards it
+was brought back to its original date. Although the custom appears
+to have long fallen into disuse, the barbarous inhabitants of
+Hainan, an island to the south of China, still call a year "a
+fire," as if in memory of the time when the years were reckoned by
+the annually recurring ceremony of rekindling the sacred
+fire.<a id="footnotetag342" name="footnotetag342"></a><a href=
+"#footnote342"><sup>342</sup></a> "A Japanese book written two
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page138" name="page138"></a>[pg
+138]</span> centuries ago informs us that sticks resembling the
+wands used for offerings at the purification ceremony were part
+shaven and set up in bundles at the four corners of the Gion shrine
+on the last day of the year. The priests, after prayers were
+recited, broke up the bundles and set fire to the sticks, which the
+people then carried home to light their household fires with for
+the New Year. The object of this ceremony was to avert
+pestilence."<a id="footnotetag343" name=
+"footnotetag343"></a><a href="#footnote343"><sup>343</sup></a></p>
+<a id="firerome" name="firerome"></a>
+<p>[The new fire in ancient Greece and Rome.]</p>
+<p>In classical antiquity the Greek island of Lemnos was devoted to
+the worship of the smith-god Hephaestus, who was said to have
+fallen on it when Zeus hurled him from heaven.<a id=
+"footnotetag344" name="footnotetag344"></a><a href=
+"#footnote344"><sup>344</sup></a> Once a year every fire in the
+island was extinguished and remained extinct for nine days, during
+which sacrifices were offered to the dead and to the infernal
+powers. New fire was brought in a ship from the sacred isle of
+Delos, and with it the fires in the houses and the workshops were
+relit. The people said that with the new fire they made a new
+beginning of life. If the ship that bore the sacred flame arrived
+too soon, it might not put in to shore, but had to cruise in the
+offing till the nine days were expired.<a id="footnotetag345" name=
+"footnotetag345"></a><a href="#footnote345"><sup>345</sup></a> At
+Rome the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta was kindled anew every
+year on the first of March, which used to be the beginning of the
+Roman year;<a id="footnotetag346" name=
+"footnotetag346"></a><a href="#footnote346"><sup>346</sup></a> the
+task of lighting it was entrusted to the Vestal Virgins, and they
+performed it by drilling a hole in a board of lucky wood till the
+flame was elicited by friction. The new fire thus produced was
+carried into the temple of Vesta by one of the virgins in a bronze
+sieve.<a id="footnotetag347" name="footnotetag347"></a><a href=
+"#footnote347"><sup>347</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page139" name="page139"></a>[pg
+139]</span> <a id="firecelts" name="firecelts"></a>
+<p>[The new fire at Hallow E'en among the old Celts of Ireland; the
+new fire on September 1st among the Russian peasants.]</p>
+<p>Among the Celts of Ireland a new fire was annually kindled on
+Hallowe'en or the Eve of Samhain, as they called it, the last day
+of October, from which the Irish new year began; and all the
+hearths throughout the country are said to have been relighted from
+the fresh fire. The place where this holy flame was lit bore the
+name of Tlachtga or Tlactga; it has been identified with a rath or
+native fort on the Hill of Ward near Athboy in the county of Meath.
+"It was there," says the old Irish historian, Geoffrey Keating,
+"that the Festival of the Fire of Tlactga was ordered to be held,
+and it was thither that the Druids of Ireland were wont to repair
+and to assemble, in solemn meeting, on the eve of Samhain, for the
+purpose of making a sacrifice to all the gods. It was in that fire
+at Tlactga, that their sacrifice was burnt; and it was made
+obligatory, under pain of punishment, to extinguish all the fires
+of Ireland, on that eve; and the men of Ireland were allowed to
+kindle no other fire but that one; and for each of the other fires,
+which were all to be lighted from it, the king of Munster was to
+receive a tax of a <i>sgreball</i>, that is, of three pence,
+because the land, upon which Tlactga was built, belongs to the
+portion of Meath which had been taken from Munster."<a id=
+"footnotetag348" name="footnotetag348"></a><a href=
+"#footnote348"><sup>348</sup></a> In the villages near Moscow at
+the present time the peasants put out all their fires on the eve of
+the first of September, and next morning at sunrise a wise man or a
+wise woman rekindles them with the help of muttered incantations
+and spells.<a id="footnotetag349" name=
+"footnotetag349"></a><a href="#footnote349"><sup>349</sup></a></p>
+<a id="fireheathen" name="fireheathen"></a>
+<p>[Thus the ceremony of the new fire in the Eastern and Western
+Church is probably a relic of an old heathen rite.]</p>
+<p>Instances of such practices might doubtless be multiplied, but
+the foregoing examples may suffice to render it <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page140" name="page140"></a>[pg 140]</span>
+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.</p>
+<a id="paganeaster" name="paganeaster"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>The essentially pagan character of the Easter fire festival
+appears plainly both from the mode in which it is celebrated by the
+peasants and from the superstitious beliefs which they associate
+with it. All over northern and central Germany, from Altmark and
+Anhalt on the east, through Brunswick, Hanover, Oldenburg, the Harz
+district, and Hesse to Westphalia the Easter bonfires still blaze
+simultaneously on the hill-tops. As many as forty may sometimes be
+counted within sight at once. Long before Easter the young people
+have been busy collecting firewood; every farmer contributes, and
+tar-barrels, petroleum cases, and so forth go to swell the pile.
+Neighbouring villages vie with each other as to which shall send up
+the greatest blaze. The fires are always kindled, year after year,
+on the same hill, which accordingly often takes the name of Easter
+Mountain. It is a fine spectacle to watch from some eminence the
+bonfires flaring up one after another on the neighbouring heights.
+As far as their light reaches, so far, in the belief of the
+peasants, the fields will be fruitful, and the houses on which they
+shine will be safe from conflagration or sickness. At Volkmarsen
+and other places in Hesse the people used to observe which way the
+wind blew the flames, and then they sowed flax seed in that
+direction, confident that it would grow well. Brands taken from the
+bonfires preserve houses from <span class="pagenum"><a id="page141"
+name="page141"></a>[pg 141]</span> being struck by lightning; and
+the ashes increase the fertility of the fields, protect them from
+mice, and mixed with the drinking-water of cattle make the animals
+thrive and ensure them against plague. As the flames die down,
+young and old leap over them, and cattle are sometimes driven
+through the smouldering embers. In some places tar-barrels or
+wheels wrapt in straw used to be set on fire, and then sent rolling
+down the hillside. In others the boys light torches and wisps of
+straw at the bonfires and rush about brandishing them in their
+hands. Where the people are divided between Protestantism and
+Catholicism, as in Hildesheim, it has been observed that among
+Protestants the Easter bonfires are generally left to the boys,
+while in Catholic districts they are cared for by grown-up persons,
+and here the whole population will gather round the blazing pile
+and join in singing choral hymns, which echo far and wide in the
+stillness of night.<a id="footnotetag350" name=
+"footnotetag350"></a><a href="#footnote350"><sup>350</sup></a></p>
+<a id="firemunsterland" name="firemunsterland"></a>
+<p>[The Easter fires in M&uuml;nsterland, Oldenburg, the Harz
+Mountains and the Altmark.]</p>
+<p>In M&uuml;nsterland these Easter fires are always kindled upon
+certain definite hills, which are hence known as Easter or Paschal
+Mountains. The whole community assembles about the fire. Fathers of
+families form an inner circle round it. An outer circle is composed
+of the young men and maidens, who, singing Easter hymns, march
+round and round the fire in the direction of the sun, till the
+blaze dies down. Then the girls jump over the fire in a line, one
+after the other, each supported by two young men who hold her hands
+and run beside her. When the fire has burned out, the whole
+assembly marches in solemn procession to the church, singing hymns.
+They go thrice round the church, and then break up. In the twilight
+boys with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page142" name=
+"page142"></a>[pg 142]</span> blazing bundles of straw run over the
+fields to make them fruitful.<a id="footnotetag351" name=
+"footnotetag351"></a><a href="#footnote351"><sup>351</sup></a> At
+Delmenhorst, in Oldenburg, it used to be the custom to cut down two
+trees, plant them in the ground side by side, and pile twelve
+tar-barrels, one above the other, against each of the trees.
+Brushwood was then heaped about the trees, and on the evening of
+Easter Saturday the boys, after rushing about with blazing
+beanpoles in their hands, set fire to the whole. At the end of the
+ceremony the urchins tried to blacken each other and the clothes of
+grown-up people.<a id="footnotetag352" name=
+"footnotetag352"></a><a href="#footnote352"><sup>352</sup></a> In
+Schaumburg the Easter bonfires may be seen blazing on all the
+mountains around for miles. They are made with a tar-barrel
+fastened to a pine-tree, which is wrapt in straw. The people dance
+singing round them.<a id="footnotetag353" name=
+"footnotetag353"></a><a href="#footnote353"><sup>353</sup></a> In
+the Harz Mountains the fire is commonly made by piling brushwood
+about a tree and setting it on fire. At Osterode every one tries to
+snatch a brand from the bonfire and runs about with it; the better
+it burns, the more lucky it is. In Grund there are
+torch-races.<a id="footnotetag354" name=
+"footnotetag354"></a><a href="#footnote354"><sup>354</sup></a> In
+the Altmark the Easter bonfires are composed of tar-barrels,
+bee-hives, and so forth, piled round a pole. The young folk dance
+round the fire; and when it has died out, the old folk come and
+collect the ashes, which they preserve as a remedy for the ailments
+of bees. It is also believed that as far as the blaze of the
+bonfire is visible, the corn will grow well throughout the year,
+and no conflagration will break out.<a id="footnotetag355" name=
+"footnotetag355"></a><a href="#footnote355"><sup>355</sup></a> At
+Braunr&ouml;de, in the Harz Mountains, it was the custom to burn
+squirrels in the Easter bonfire.<a id="footnotetag356" name=
+"footnotetag356"></a><a href="#footnote356"><sup>356</sup></a> In
+the Altmark, bones were burned in it.<a id="footnotetag357" name=
+"footnotetag357"></a><a href="#footnote357"><sup>357</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page143" name="page143"></a>[pg
+143]</span> <a id="easterbavaria" name="easterbavaria"></a>
+<p>[The Easter fires in Bavaria; the burning of Judas; burning the
+Easter Man.]</p>
+<p>Further south the Easter fires are, or used to be, lit in many
+districts of Bavaria. Thus on Easter Monday in some parts of Middle
+Franken the schoolboys collect all the old worn-out besoms they can
+lay hands on, and march with them in a long procession to a
+neighbouring height. When the first chime of the evening bell comes
+up from the dale they set fire to the brooms, and run along the
+ridges waving them, so that seen from below the hills appear to be
+crested with a twinkling and moving chain of fire.<a id=
+"footnotetag358" name="footnotetag358"></a><a href=
+"#footnote358"><sup>358</sup></a> In some parts of Upper Bavaria at
+Easter burning arrows or discs of wood were shot from hill-tops
+high into the air, as in the Swabian and Swiss customs already
+described.<a id="footnotetag359" name="footnotetag359"></a><a href=
+"#footnote359"><sup>359</sup></a> At Oberau, instead of the discs,
+an old cart-wheel was sometimes wrapt in straw, ignited, and sent
+rolling and blazing down the mountain. The lads who hurled the
+discs received painted Easter eggs from the girls.<a id=
+"footnotetag360" name="footnotetag360"></a><a href=
+"#footnote360"><sup>360</sup></a> Near Forchheim, in Upper Franken,
+a straw-man called the Judas used to be burned in the churchyards
+on Easter Saturday. The whole village contributed wood to the pyre
+on which he perished, and the charred sticks were afterwards kept
+and planted in the fields on Walpurgis Day (the first of May) to
+preserve the wheat from blight and mildew.<a id="footnotetag361"
+name="footnotetag361"></a><a href="#footnote361"><sup>361</sup></a>
+About a hundred years ago or more the custom at Althenneberg, in
+Upper Bavaria, used to be as follows. On the afternoon of Easter
+Saturday the lads collected wood, which they piled in a cornfield,
+while in the middle of the pile they set up a tall wooden cross all
+swathed in straw. After the evening service they lighted their
+lanterns at the consecrated candle in the church, and ran with them
+at full speed to the pyre, each striving to get there first. The
+first to arrive set fire to the heap. No woman or girl might come
+near the bonfire, but they were allowed to watch it from a
+distance. As the flames rose the men and lads rejoiced and made
+merry, shouting, "We are burning the Judas!" Two of them had to
+watch the glowing embers the whole night long, lest people should
+come and steal them. Next morning at sunrise they carefully
+collected the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page144" name=
+"page144"></a>[pg 144]</span> ashes, and threw them into the
+running water of the R&ouml;ten brook. The man who had been the
+first to reach the pyre and to kindle it was rewarded on Easter
+Sunday by the women, who gave him coloured eggs at the church door.
+Well-to-do women gave him two; poorer women gave him only one. The
+object of the whole ceremony was to keep off the hail. About a
+century ago the Judas fire, as it was called, was put down by the
+police.<a id="footnotetag362" name="footnotetag362"></a><a href=
+"#footnote362"><sup>362</sup></a> At Giggenhausen and Aufkirchen,
+two other villages of Upper Bavaria, a similar custom prevailed,
+yet with some interesting differences. Here the ceremony, which
+took place between nine and ten at night on Easter Saturday, was
+called "burning the Easter Man." On a height about a mile from the
+village the young fellows set up a tall cross enveloped in straw,
+so that it looked like a man with his arms stretched out. This was
+the Easter Man. No lad under eighteen years of age might take part
+in the ceremony. One of the young men stationed himself beside the
+Easter Man, holding in his hand a consecrated taper which he had
+brought from the church and lighted. The rest stood at equal
+intervals in a great circle round the cross. At a given signal they
+raced thrice round the circle, and then at a second signal ran
+straight at the cross and at the lad with the lighted taper beside
+it; the one who reached the goal first had the right of setting
+fire to the Easter Man. Great was the jubilation while he was
+burning. When he had been consumed in the flames, three lads were
+chosen from among the rest, and each of the three drew a circle on
+the ground with a stick thrice round the ashes. Then they all left
+the spot. On Easter Monday the villagers gathered the ashes and
+strewed them on their fields; also they planted in the fields
+palm-branches which had been consecrated on Palm Sunday, and sticks
+which had been charred and hallowed on Good Friday, all for the
+purpose of protecting their fields against showers of hail. The
+custom of burning an Easter Man made of straw on Easter Saturday
+was observed also at Abensberg, in Lower Bavaria.<a id=
+"footnotetag363" name="footnotetag363"></a><a href=
+"#footnote363"><sup>363</sup></a> In some parts of Swabia the
+Easter fires might <span class="pagenum"><a id="page145" name=
+"page145"></a>[pg 145]</span> not be kindled with iron or steel or
+flint, but only by the friction of wood.<a id="footnotetag364"
+name="footnotetag364"></a><a href=
+"#footnote364"><sup>364</sup></a></p>
+<a id="easterbaden" name="easterbaden"></a>
+<p>[The Easter fires in Baden; "Thunder poles."]</p>
+<p>In Baden bonfires are still kindled in the churchyards on Easter
+Saturday, and ecclesiastical refuse of various sorts, such as
+candle-ends, old surplices, and the wool used by the priest in the
+application of extreme unction, is consumed in the flames. At
+Zoznegg down to about 1850 the fire was lighted by the priest by
+means of a flint which had never been used before. People bring
+sticks, especially oaken sticks, char them in the fire, and then
+carry them home and keep them in the house as a preservative
+against lightning. At Zoznegg these oaken sticks were sword-shaped,
+each about an ell and a half long, and they went by the name of
+"weather or thunder poles" (<i>Wetterpf&auml;hle</i>). When a
+thunderstorm threatened to break out, one of the sticks was put
+into a small fire, in order that the hallowed smoke, ascending to
+the clouds, might ward off the lightning from the house and the
+hail from the fields and gardens. At Sch&ouml;llbronn the oaken
+sticks, which are thus charred in the Easter bonfire and kept in
+the house as a protective against thunder and lightning, are three
+in number, perhaps with an allusion to the Trinity; they are
+brought every Easter to be consecrated afresh in the bonfire, till
+they are quite burnt away. In the lake district of Baden it is also
+customary to burn one of these holy sticks in the fire when a heavy
+thunderstorm is raging.<a id="footnotetag365" name=
+"footnotetag365"></a><a href="#footnote365"><sup>365</sup></a>
+Hence it seems that the ancient association of the oak with the
+thunder<a id="footnotetag366" name="footnotetag366"></a><a href=
+"#footnote366"><sup>366</sup></a> persists in the minds of German
+peasants to the present day.</p>
+<a id="easterholland" name="easterholland"></a>
+<p>[Easter fires in Holland and Sweden; the burning of Judas in
+Bohemia.]</p>
+<p>Thus the custom of the Easter fires appears to have prevailed
+all over central and western Germany from north to south. We find
+it also in Holland, where the fires were kindled on the highest
+eminences, and the people danced round them and leaped through the
+flames or over the glowing embers. Here too, as so often in
+Germany, the materials for the bonfire were collected by the young
+folk <span class="pagenum"><a id="page146" name="page146"></a>[pg
+146]</span> from door to door.<a id="footnotetag367" name=
+"footnotetag367"></a><a href="#footnote367"><sup>367</sup></a> In
+many parts of Sweden firearms are, as at Athens, discharged in all
+directions on Easter eve, and huge bonfires are lighted on hills
+and eminences. Some people think that the intention is to keep off
+the Troll and other evil spirits who are especially active at this
+season.<a id="footnotetag368" name="footnotetag368"></a><a href=
+"#footnote368"><sup>368</sup></a> When the afternoon service on
+Good Friday is over, German children in Bohemia drive Judas out of
+the church by running about the sacred edifice and even the streets
+shaking rattles and clappers. Next day, on Easter Saturday, the
+remains of the holy oil are burnt before the church door in a fire
+which must be kindled with flint and steel. This fire is called
+"the burning of Judas," but in spite of its evil name a beneficent
+virtue is ascribed to it, for the people scuffle for the cinders,
+which they put in the roofs of their houses as a safeguard against
+fire and lightning.<a id="footnotetag369" name=
+"footnotetag369"></a><a href="#footnote369"><sup>369</sup></a></p>
+<h4><a href="#sect4-3" name="sect4-3" id="sect4-3">&sect; 3. <i>The
+Beltane Fires</i></a></h4>
+<a id="beltanehighlands" name="beltanehighlands"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>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
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page147" name="page147"></a>[pg
+147]</span> 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.</p>
+<p>[Need-fire.]</p>
+<p>"This festival is called in Gaelic
+<i>Beal-tene</i>&mdash;<i>i.e.</i>, 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 <i>tein-eigin</i>&mdash;<i>i.e.</i>, forced-fire or
+<i>need-fire</i>. 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
+<i>tein-eigin</i> upon extraordinary emergencies.</p>
+<p>[Need-fire kindled by the friction of oak wood.]</p>
+<p>"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 <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page148" name="page148"></a>[pg 148]</span> 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.</p>
+<p>[The Beltane cake and the Beltane carline
+(<i>cailleach</i>).]</p>
+<p>"After kindling the bonfire with the <i>tein-eigin</i> 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 <i>am bonnach
+beal-tine&mdash;i.e.</i> 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
+<i>cailleach beal-tine&mdash;i.e.</i>, the Beltane <i>carline</i>,
+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 <i>cailleach
+beal-tine</i> as dead.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page149" name="page149"></a>[pg
+149]</span>
+<p>"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 <i>connach Micheil</i> 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.</p>
+<p>"It is probable that at the original Beltane festival there were
+two fires kindled near one another. When any person is in a
+critical dilemma, pressed on each side by unsurmountable
+difficulties, the Highlanders have a proverb, <i>The e' eada anda
+theine bealtuin</i>&mdash;<i>i.e.</i>, he is between the two
+Beltane fires. There are in several parts small round hills, which,
+it is like, owe their present names to such solemn uses. One of the
+highest and most central in Icolmkil is called
+<i>Cnoch-nan-ainneal</i>&mdash;<i>i.e.</i>, the hill of the fires.
+There is another of the same name near the kirk of Balquhidder; and
+at Killin there is a round green eminence which seems to have been
+raised by art. It is called
+<i>Tom-nan-ainneal</i>&mdash;<i>i.e.</i>, the eminence of the
+fires. Around it there are the remains of a circular wall about two
+feet high. On the top a stone stands upon end. According to the
+tradition of the inhabitants, it was a place of Druidical worship;
+and it was afterwards pitched on as the most venerable spot for
+holding courts of justice for the country of Breadalbane. The earth
+of this eminence is still thought to be possessed of some healing
+virtue, for when cattle are observed to be diseased some of it is
+sent for, which is rubbed on the part affected."<a id=
+"footnotetag370" name="footnotetag370"></a><a href=
+"#footnote370"><sup>370</sup></a></p>
+<p>[Local differences in the Beltane cakes; evidence of two fires
+at Beltane; Beltane pies and cakes in the parish of Callander.]</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page150" name="page150"></a>[pg
+150]</span>
+<p>In the parish of Callander, a beautiful district of western
+Perthshire, the Beltane custom was still in vogue towards the end
+of the eighteenth century. It has been described as follows by the
+parish minister of the time: "Upon the first day of May, which is
+called <i>Beltan</i>, or <i>Bal-tein</i> day, all the boys in a
+township or hamlet, meet in the moors. They cut a table in the
+green sod, of a round figure, by casting a trench in the ground, of
+such circumference as to hold the whole company. They kindle a
+fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a
+custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the
+embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide
+the cake into so many portions, as similar as possible to one
+another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company.
+They daub one of these portions all over with charcoal, until it be
+perfectly black. They put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet.
+Every one, blindfold, draws out a portion. He who holds the bonnet,
+is entitled to the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit, is the
+<i>devoted</i> person who is to be sacrificed to <i>Baal</i><a id=
+"footnotetag371" name="footnotetag371"></a><a href=
+"#footnote371"><sup>371</sup></a> whose favour they mean to
+implore, in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page151" name=
+"page151"></a>[pg 151]</span> rendering the year productive of the
+sustenance of man and beast. There is little doubt of these inhuman
+sacrifices having been once offered in this country, as well as in
+the east, although they now pass from the act of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page152" name="page152"></a>[pg 152]</span>
+sacrificing, and only compel the <i>devoted</i> person to leap
+three times through the flames; with which the ceremonies of this
+festival are closed."<a id="footnotetag372" name=
+"footnotetag372"></a><a href="#footnote372"><sup>372</sup></a></p>
+<a id="beltaneperthshire" name="beltaneperthshire"></a>
+<p>[Pennant's description of the Beltane fires and cakes in
+Perthshire.]</p>
+<p>Thomas Pennant, who travelled in Perthshire in the year 1769,
+tells us that "on the first of May, the herdsmen of every village
+hold their Bel-tien, a rural sacrifice. They cut a square trench on
+the ground, leaving the turf in the middle; on that they make a
+fire of wood, on which they dress a large caudle of eggs, butter,
+oatmeal and milk; and bring besides the ingredients of the caudle,
+plenty of beer and whisky; for each of the company must contribute
+something. The rites begin with spilling some of the caudle on the
+ground, by way of libation: on that every one takes a cake of
+oatmeal, upon which are raised nine square knobs, each dedicated to
+some particular being, the supposed preserver of their flocks and
+herds, or to some particular animal, the real destroyer of them:
+each person then turns his face to the fire, breaks off a knob, and
+flinging it over his shoulders, says, 'This I give to thee,
+preserve thou my horses; this to thee, preserve thou my sheep; and
+so on,' After that, they use the-same ceremony to the noxious
+animals: 'This I give to thee, O fox! spare thou my lambs; this to
+thee, O hooded crow! this to thee, O eagle!' When the ceremony is
+over, they dine on the caudle; and after the feast is finished,
+what is left is hid by two persons deputed for that purpose; but on
+the next Sunday they re-assemble, and finish the reliques of the
+first entertainment"<a id="footnotetag373" name=
+"footnotetag373"></a><a href="#footnote373"><sup>373</sup></a></p>
+<p>[Beltane cakes and fires in the parishes of Logierait and
+Kirkmichael; omens drawn from the cakes.]</p>
+<p>Another writer of the eighteenth century has described the
+Beltane festival as it was held in the parish of Logierait in
+Perthshire. He says: "On the first of May, O.S., a festival called
+<i>Beltan</i> is annually held here. It is chiefly celebrated by
+the cow-herds, who assemble by scores in the fields, to dress a
+dinner for themselves, of boiled milk <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page153" name="page153"></a>[pg 153]</span> and eggs. These dishes
+they eat with a sort of cakes baked for the occasion, and having
+small lumps in the form of <i>nipples</i>, raised all over the
+surface."<a id="footnotetag374" name="footnotetag374"></a><a href=
+"#footnote374"><sup>374</sup></a> In this last account no mention
+is made of bonfires, but they were probably lighted, for a
+contemporary writer informs us that in the parish of Kirkmichael,
+which adjoins the parish of Logierait on the east, the custom of
+lighting a fire in the fields and baking a consecrated cake on the
+first of May was not quite obsolete in his time.<a id=
+"footnotetag375" name="footnotetag375"></a><a href=
+"#footnote375"><sup>375</sup></a> We may conjecture that the cake
+with knobs was formerly used for the purpose of determining who
+should be the "Beltane carline" or victim doomed to the flames. A
+trace of this custom survived, perhaps, in the custom of baking
+oatmeal cakes of a special kind and rolling them down hill about
+noon on the first of May; for it was thought that the person whose
+cake broke as it rolled would die or be unfortunate within the
+year. These cakes, or bannocks as we call them in Scotland, were
+baked in the usual way, but they were washed over with a thin
+batter composed of whipped egg, milk or cream, and a little
+oatmeal. This custom appears to have prevailed at or near Kingussie
+in Inverness-shire. At Achterneed, near Strathpeffer in Ross-shire,
+the Beltane bannocks were called <i>tcharnican</i> or hand-cakes,
+because they were kneaded entirely in the hand, and not on a board
+or table like common cakes; and after being baked they might not be
+placed anywhere but in the hands of the children who were to eat
+them.<a id="footnotetag376" name="footnotetag376"></a><a href=
+"#footnote376"><sup>376</sup></a></p>
+<a id="beltanenescotland" name="beltanenescotland"></a>
+<p>[Beltane fires in the north-east of Scotland to burn the
+witches; the Beltane cake.]</p>
+<p>In the north-east of Scotland the Beltane fires were still
+kindled in the latter half of the eighteenth century; the herdsmen
+of several farms used to gather dry wood, kindle it, and dance
+three times "southways" about the burning <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page154" name="page154"></a>[pg 154]</span>
+pile.<a id="footnotetag377" name="footnotetag377"></a><a href=
+"#footnote377"><sup>377</sup></a> But in this region, according to
+a later authority, the Beltane fires were lit not on the first but
+on the second of May, Old Style. They were called bone-fires. The
+people believed that on that evening and night the witches were
+abroad and busy casting spells on cattle and stealing cows' milk.
+To counteract their machinations, pieces of rowan-tree and
+woodbine, but especially of rowan-tree, were placed over the doors
+of the cow-houses, and fires were kindled by every farmer and
+cottar. Old thatch, straw, furze, or broom was piled in a heap and
+set on fire a little after sunset. While some of the bystanders
+kept tossing the blazing mass, others hoisted portions of it on
+pitchforks or poles and ran hither and thither, holding them as
+high as they could. Meantime the young people danced round the fire
+or ran through the smoke shouting, "Fire! blaze and burn the
+witches; fire! fire! burn the witches." In some districts a large
+round cake of oat or barley meal was rolled through the ashes. When
+all the fuel was consumed, the people scattered the ashes far and
+wide, and till the night grew quite dark they continued to run
+through them, crying, "Fire! burn the witches."<a id=
+"footnotetag378" name="footnotetag378"></a><a href=
+"#footnote378"><sup>378</sup></a></p>
+<a id="beltanehebrides" name="beltanehebrides"></a>
+<p>[Beltane cakes and fires in the Hebrides.]</p>
+<p>In the Hebrides "the Beltane bannock is smaller than that made
+at St. Michael's, but is made in the same way; it is no longer made
+in Uist, but Father Allan remembers seeing his grandmother make one
+about twenty-five years ago. There was also a cheese made,
+generally on the first of May, which was kept to the next Beltane
+as a sort of charm against the bewitching of milk-produce. The
+Beltane customs seem to have been the same as elsewhere. Every fire
+was put out and a large one lit on the top of the hill, and the
+cattle driven round it sunwards (<i>dessil</i>), to keep off
+murrain all the year. Each man would take home fire wherewith to
+kindle his own."<a id="footnotetag379" name=
+"footnotetag379"></a><a href="#footnote379"><sup>379</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page155" name="page155"></a>[pg
+155]</span> <a id="beltanewales" name="beltanewales"></a>
+<p>[Beltane fires and cakes in Wales.]</p>
+<p>In Wales also the custom of lighting Beltane fires at the
+beginning of May used to be observed, but the day on which they
+were kindled varied from the Eve of May Day to the third of May.
+The flame was sometimes elicited by the friction of two pieces of
+oak, as appears from the following description. "The fire was done
+in this way. Nine men would turn their pockets inside out, and see
+that every piece of money and all metals were off their persons.
+Then the men went into the nearest woods, and collected sticks of
+nine different kinds of trees. These were carried to the spot where
+the fire had to be built. There a circle was cut in the sod, and
+the sticks were set crosswise. All around the circle the people
+stood and watched the proceedings. One of the men would then take
+two bits of oak, and rub them together until a flame was kindled.
+This was applied to the sticks, and soon a large fire was made.
+Sometimes two fires were set up side by side. These fires, whether
+one or two, were called <i>coelcerth</i> or bonfire. Round cakes of
+oatmeal and brown meal were split in four, and placed in a small
+flour-bag, and everybody present had to pick out a portion. The
+last bit in the bag fell to the lot of the bag-holder. Each person
+who chanced to pick up a piece of brown-meal cake was compelled to
+leap three times over the flames, or to run thrice between the two
+fires, by which means the people thought they were sure of a
+plentiful harvest. Shouts and screams of those who had to face the
+ordeal could be heard ever so far, and those who chanced to pick
+the oatmeal portions sang and danced and clapped their hands in
+approval, as the holders of the brown bits leaped three times over
+the flames, or ran three times between the two fires. As a rule, no
+danger attended <span class="pagenum"><a id="page156" name=
+"page156"></a>[pg 156]</span> these curious celebrations, but
+occasionally somebody's clothes caught fire, which was quickly put
+out. The greatest fire of the year was the eve of May, or May
+first, second, or third. The Midsummer Eve fire was more for the
+harvest. Very often a fire was built on the eve of November. The
+high ground near the Castle Ditches at Llantwit Major, in the Vale
+of Glamorgan, was a familiar spot for the Beltane on May third and
+on Midsummer Eve.... Sometimes the Beltane fire was lighted by the
+flames produced by stone instead of wood friction. Charred logs and
+faggots used in the May Beltane were carefully preserved, and from
+them the next fire was lighted. May fires were always started with
+old faggots of the previous year, and midsummer from those of the
+last summer. It was unlucky to build a midsummer fire from May
+faggots. People carried the ashes left after these fires to their
+homes, and a charred brand was not only effectual against
+pestilence, but magical in its use. A few of the ashes placed in a
+person's shoes protected the wearer from any great sorrow or
+woe."<a id="footnotetag380" name="footnotetag380"></a><a href=
+"#footnote380"><sup>380</sup></a></p>
+<p>[Welsh belief that passage over or between the fires ensured
+good crops.]</p>
+<p>From the foregoing account we learn that bonfires were kindled
+in Wales on Midsummer Eve and Hallowe'en (the thirty-first of
+October), as well as at the beginning of May, but that the Beltane
+fires in May were deemed the most important. To the Midsummer Eve
+and Hallowe'en fires we shall return presently. The belief of the
+people that by leaping thrice over the bonfires or running thrice
+between them they ensured a plentiful harvest is worthy of note.
+The mode in which this result was supposed to be brought about is
+indicated by another writer on Welsh folk-lore, according to whom
+it used to be held that "the bonfires lighted in May or Midsummer
+protected the lands from sorcery, so that good crops would follow.
+The ashes were also considered valuable as charms."<a id=
+"footnotetag381" name="footnotetag381"></a><a href=
+"#footnote381"><sup>381</sup></a> Hence it appears that the heat of
+the fires was thought to fertilize the fields, not directly by
+quickening the seeds in the ground, but indirectly by counteracting
+the baleful influence <span class="pagenum"><a id="page157" name=
+"page157"></a>[pg 157]</span> of witchcraft or perhaps by burning
+up the persons of the witches.</p>
+<a id="beltaneman" name="beltaneman"></a>
+<p>[Beltane fires in the Isle of Man to burn the witches; Beltane
+fires in Nottinghamshire.]</p>
+<p>"The Druidical anniversary of Beil or Baal is still celebrated
+in the Isle of Man. On the first of May, 1837, the Baal fires were,
+as usual on that day, so numerous as to give the island the
+appearance of a general conflagration."<a id="footnotetag382" name=
+"footnotetag382"></a><a href="#footnote382"><sup>382</sup></a> By
+May Day in Manx folk-lore is meant May Day Old Style, or <i>Shenn
+Laa Boaldyn</i>, as it is called in Manx. The day was one on which
+the power of elves and witches was particularly dreaded, and the
+people resorted to many precautions in order to protect themselves
+against these mischievous beings. Hence at daybreak they set fire
+to the ling or gorse, for the purpose of burning out the witches,
+who are wont to lurk in the form of hares.<a id="footnotetag383"
+name="footnotetag383"></a><a href="#footnote383"><sup>383</sup></a>
+On the Hemlock Stone, a natural pillar of sandstone standing on
+Stapleford Hill in Nottinghamshire, a fire used to be solemnly
+kindled every year on Beltane Eve. The custom seems to have
+survived down to the beginning of the nineteenth century; old
+people could remember and describe the ceremony long after it had
+fallen into desuetude.<a id="footnotetag384" name=
+"footnotetag384"></a><a href="#footnote384"><sup>384</sup></a></p>
+<a id="beltaneireland" name="beltaneireland"></a>
+<p>[Beltane fires in Ireland.]</p>
+<p>The Beltane fires appear to have been kindled also in Ireland,
+for Cormac, "or somebody in his name, says that <i>belltaine</i>,
+May-day, was so called from the 'lucky fire,' or the 'two fires,'
+which the druids of Erin used to make on that day with great
+incantations; and cattle, he adds, used to be brought to those
+fires, or to be driven between them, as a safeguard against the
+diseases of the year."<a id="footnotetag385" name=
+"footnotetag385"></a><a href="#footnote385"><sup>385</sup></a>
+Again, a very ancient Irish poem, enumerating the May Day
+celebrations, mentions among them a bonfire on a hill (<i>tendal ar
+cnuc</i>); and another old authority says that these fires were
+kindled in the name of the idol-god Bel.<a id="footnotetag386"
+name="footnotetag386"></a><a href="#footnote386"><sup>386</sup></a>
+From an old life of St. Patrick we learn that on a day <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page158" name="page158"></a>[pg 158]</span> in
+spring the heathen of Ireland were wont to extinguish all their
+fires until a new fire was kindled with solemn ceremony in the
+king's house at Tara. In the year in which St. Patrick landed in
+Ireland it chanced that the night of the extinguished fires
+coincided with the Eve of Easter; and the saint, ignorant of this
+pagan superstition, resolved to celebrate his first Easter in
+Ireland after the true Christian fashion by lighting the holy
+Paschal fire on the hill of Slane, which rises high above the left
+bank of the Boyne, about twelve miles from the mouth of the river.
+So that night, looking from his palace at Tara across the darkened
+landscape, the king of Tara saw the solitary fire flaring on the
+top of the hill of Slane, and in consternation he asked his wise
+men what that light meant. They warned him of the danger that it
+betokened for the ancient faith of Erin.<a id="footnotetag387"
+name="footnotetag387"></a><a href="#footnote387"><sup>387</sup></a>
+In spite of the difference of date between Easter and Beltane, we
+may suspect that the new fire annually kindled with solemn ceremony
+about Easter in the king of Ireland's palace at Tara was no other
+than the Beltane fire. We have seen that in the Highlands of
+Scotland down to modern times it was customary to extinguish all
+fires in the neighbourhood before proceeding to kindle the sacred
+flame.<a id="footnotetag388" name="footnotetag388"></a><a href=
+"#footnote388"><sup>388</sup></a> The Irish historian Geoffrey
+Keating, who wrote in the first part of the seventeenth century,
+tells us that the men of Ireland held a great fair every year in
+the month of May at Uisnech (<i>Ushnagh</i>) in the county of
+Meath, "and at it they were wont to exchange their goods and their
+wares and their jewels. At it, they were, also, wont to make a
+sacrifice to the Arch-God that they adored, whose name was
+B&egrave;l (<i>bayl</i>). It was, likewise, their usage to light
+two fires to B&egrave;l, in every district of Ireland, at this
+season, and to drive a pair of each kind of cattle that the
+district contained, between those two fires, as a preservative to
+guard them against all the diseases of that year. It is from that
+fire, thus made in honour of B&egrave;l, that the day [the first of
+May] on which the noble feast of the apostles, Philip and James, is
+held, has been called B&egrave;ltaini, or B&egrave;altaine
+(<i>Bayltinnie</i>); for Beltaini is the same as
+B&egrave;il-tein&egrave;, <i>i.e.</i> Tein&eacute; Bh&egrave;il
+(<i>Tinnie Vayl</i>) or <span class="pagenum"><a id="page159" name=
+"page159"></a>[pg 159]</span> B&egrave;l's Fire."<a id=
+"footnotetag389" name="footnotetag389"></a><a href=
+"#footnote389"><sup>389</sup></a> The custom of driving cattle
+through or between fires on May Day or the eve of May Day persisted
+in Ireland down to a time within living memory. Thus Sir John Rhys
+was informed by a Manxman that an Irish cattle-dealer of his
+acquaintance used to drive his cattle through fire on May Day so as
+to singe them a little, since he believed that it would preserve
+them from harm. When the Manxman was asked where the dealer came
+from, he answered, "From the mountains over there," pointing to the
+Mourne Mountains then looming faintly in the mists on the western
+horizon.<a id="footnotetag390" name="footnotetag390"></a><a href=
+"#footnote390"><sup>390</sup></a></p>
+<a id="maydaysweden" name="maydaysweden"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>The first of May is a great popular festival in the more midland
+and southern parts of Sweden. On the eve of the festival, huge
+bonfires, which should be lighted by striking two flints together,
+blaze on all the hills and knolls. Every large hamlet has its own
+fire, round which the young people dance in a ring. The old folk
+notice whether the flames incline to the north or to the south. In
+the former case, the spring will be cold and backward; in the
+latter, it will be mild and genial.<a id="footnotetag391" name=
+"footnotetag391"></a><a href="#footnote391"><sup>391</sup></a>
+Similarly, in Bohemia, on the eve of May Day, young people kindle
+fires on hills and eminences, at crossways, and in pastures, and
+dance round them. They leap over the glowing embers or even through
+the flames. The ceremony is called "burning the witches." In some
+places an effigy representing a witch used to be burnt in the
+bonfire.<a id="footnotetag392" name="footnotetag392"></a><a href=
+"#footnote392"><sup>392</sup></a> We have to remember that the eve
+of May Day is the notorious Walpurgis Night, when the witches are
+everywhere speeding unseen through the air on their hellish
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page160" name="page160"></a>[pg
+160]</span> errands. On this witching night children in Voigtland
+also light bonfires on the heights and leap over them. Moreover,
+they wave burning brooms or toss them into the air. So far as the
+light of the bonfire reaches, so far will a blessing rest on the
+fields. The kindling of the fires on Walpurgis Night is called
+"driving away the witches."<a id="footnotetag393" name=
+"footnotetag393"></a><a href="#footnote393"><sup>393</sup></a> The
+custom of kindling fires on the eve of May Day (Walpurgis Night)
+for the purpose of burning the witches is, or used to be,
+widespread in the Tyrol, Moravia, Saxony and Silesia.<a id=
+"footnotetag394" name="footnotetag394"></a><a href=
+"#footnote394"><sup>394</sup></a></p>
+<h4><a id="sect4-4" name="sect4-4">&sect; 4. <i>The Midsummer
+Fires</i></a></h4>
+<a id="summersolstice" name="summersolstice"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>But the season at which these fire-festivals have been mostly
+generally held all over Europe is the summer solstice, that is
+Midsummer Eve (the twenty-third of June) or Midsummer Day (the
+twenty-fourth of June). A faint tinge of Christianity has been
+given to them by naming Midsummer Day after St. John the Baptist,
+but we cannot doubt that the celebration dates from a time long
+before the beginning of our era. The summer solstice, or Midsummer
+Day, is the great turning-point in the sun's career, when, after
+climbing higher and higher day by day in the sky, the luminary
+stops and thenceforth retraces his steps down the heavenly road.
+Such a moment could not but be regarded with anxiety by primitive
+man so soon as he began to observe and ponder the courses of the
+great lights across the celestial vault; and having still to learn
+his own powerlessness in face of the vast cyclic changes of nature,
+he may have fancied that he could help the sun in his seeming
+decline&mdash;could prop his failing <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page161" name="page161"></a>[pg 161]</span> steps and rekindle the
+sinking flame of the red lamp in his feeble hand. In some such
+thoughts as these the midsummer festivals of our European peasantry
+may perhaps have taken their rise. Whatever their origin, they have
+prevailed all over this quarter of the globe, from Ireland on the
+west to Russia on the east, and from Norway and Sweden on the north
+to Spain and Greece on the south.<a id="footnotetag395" name=
+"footnotetag395"></a><a href="#footnote395"><sup>395</sup></a>
+According to a medi&aelig;val writer, the three great features of
+the midsummer celebration were the bonfires, the procession with
+torches round the fields, and the custom of rolling a wheel. He
+tells us that boys burned bones and filth of various kinds to make
+a foul smoke, and that the smoke drove away certain noxious dragons
+which at this time, excited by the summer heat, copulated in the
+air and poisoned the wells and rivers by dropping their seed into
+them; and he explains the custom of trundling a wheel to mean that
+the sun, having now reached the highest point in the ecliptic,
+begins thenceforward to descend.<a id="footnotetag396" name=
+"footnotetag396"></a><a href="#footnote396"><sup>396</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page162" name="page162"></a>[pg
+162]</span> <a id="summerkirchmeyer" name="summerkirchmeyer"></a>
+<p>[T. Kirchmeyer's description of the Midsummer Festival.]</p>
+<p>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 <i>The Popish Kingdome</i>:&mdash;</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>"Then doth the joyfull feast of John the Baptist take his
+turne,</p>
+<p>When bonfiers great with loftie flame, in every towne doe
+burne;</p>
+<p>And yong men round about with maides, doe daunce in every
+streete,</p>
+<p>With garlands wrought of Motherwort, or else with Vervain
+sweete,</p>
+<p>And many other flowres faire, with Violets in their handes,</p>
+<p>Whereas they all do fondly thinke, that whosoever standes,</p>
+<p>And thorow the flowres beholds the flame, his eyes shall feele
+no paine.</p>
+<p>When thus till night they daunced have, they through the fire
+amaine</p>
+<p>With striving mindes doe runne, and all their hearbes they cast
+therin,</p>
+<p>And then with wordes devout and prayers, they solemnely
+begin,</p>
+<p>Desiring God that all their illes may there consumed bee,</p>
+<p>Whereby they thinke through all that yeare from Agues to be
+free.</p>
+<p>Some others get a rotten wheele, all worne and cast aside,</p>
+<p>Which covered round about with strawe, and tow, they closely
+hide:</p>
+<p>And caryed to some mountaines top, being all with fire
+light,</p>
+<p>They hurle it downe with violence, when darke appeares the
+night:</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page163" name="page163"></a>[pg
+163]</span>
+<p>Resembling much the Sunne, that from the heavens downe should
+fal,</p>
+<p>A straunge and monstrous sight it seemes, and fearfull to them
+all;</p>
+<p>But they suppose their mischiefes all are likewise throwne to
+hell,</p>
+<p>And that from harmes and daungers now, in safetie here they
+dwell."<a id="footnotetag397" name="footnotetag397"></a><a href=
+"#footnote397"><sup>397</sup></a></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>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.</p>
+<a id="summergermany" name="summergermany"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Germany; the celebration at Konz on the
+Moselle: the rolling of a burning wheel down hill.]</p>
+<p>A writer of the first half of the sixteenth century informs us
+that in almost every village and town of Germany public bonfires
+were kindled on the Eve of St. John, and young and old, of both
+sexes, gathered about them and passed the time in dancing and
+singing. People on this occasion wore chaplets of mugwort and
+vervain, and they looked at the fire through bunches of larkspur
+which they held in their hands, believing that this would preserve
+their eyes in a healthy state throughout the year. As each
+departed, he threw the mugwort and vervain into the fire, saying,
+"May all my ill-luck depart and be burnt up with these."<a id=
+"footnotetag398" name="footnotetag398"></a><a href=
+"#footnote398"><sup>398</sup></a> At Lower Konz, a village prettily
+situated on a hillside overlooking the Moselle, in the midst of a
+wood of walnut-trees and fruit-trees, the midsummer festival used
+to be celebrated as follows. A quantity of straw was collected on
+the top of the steep Stromberg Hill. Every inhabitant, or at least
+every householder, had to contribute his share of straw to the
+pile; a recusant was looked at askance, and if in the course of the
+year he happened to break a leg or lose a child, there was not a
+gossip in the village but knew the reason why. At nightfall the
+whole male population, men and boys, mustered on the top of the
+hill; the women and girls were not allowed to join them, but had to
+take up their position at a certain spring half-way down the slope.
+On the summit stood a huge wheel completely encased in some of the
+straw which had been jointly contributed by the villagers; the rest
+of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page164" name="page164"></a>[pg
+164]</span> straw was made into torches. From each side of the
+wheel the axle-tree projected about three feet, thus furnishing
+handles to the lads who were to guide it in its descent. The mayor
+of the neighbouring town of Sierck, who always received a basket of
+cherries for his services, gave the signal; a lighted torch was
+applied to the wheel, and as it burst into flame, two young
+fellows, strong-limbed and swift of foot, seized the handles and
+began running with it down the slope. A great shout went up. Every
+man and boy waved a blazing torch in the air, and took care to keep
+it alight so long as the wheel was trundling down the hill. Some of
+them followed the fiery wheel, and watched with amusement the
+shifts to which its guides were put in steering it round the
+hollows and over the broken ground on the mountainside. The great
+object of the young men who guided the wheel was to plunge it
+blazing into the water of the Moselle; but they rarely succeeded in
+their efforts, for the vineyards which cover the greater part of
+the declivity impeded their progress, and the wheel was often
+burned out before it reached the river. As it rolled past the women
+and girls at the spring, they raised cries of joy which were
+answered by the men on the top of the mountain; and the shouts were
+echoed by the inhabitants of neighbouring villages who watched the
+spectacle from their hills on the opposite bank of the Moselle. If
+the fiery wheel was successfully conveyed to the bank of the river
+and extinguished in the water, the people looked for an abundant
+vintage that year, and the inhabitants of Konz had the right to
+exact a waggon-load of white wine from the surrounding vineyards.
+On the other hand, they believed that, if they neglected to perform
+the ceremony, the cattle would be attacked by giddiness and
+convulsions and would dance in their stalls.<a id="footnotetag399"
+name="footnotetag399"></a><a href=
+"#footnote399"><sup>399</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerbavaria" name="summerbavaria"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>Down at least to the middle of the nineteenth century the
+midsummer fires used to blaze all over Upper Bavaria. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page165" name="page165"></a>[pg 165]</span> They
+were kindled especially on the mountains, but also far and wide in
+the lowlands, and we are told that in the darkness and stillness of
+night the moving groups, lit up by the flickering glow of the
+flames, presented an impressive spectacle. In some places the
+people shewed their sense of the sanctity of the fires by using for
+fuel the trees past which the gay procession had defiled, with
+fluttering banners, on Corpus Christi Day. In others the children
+collected the firewood from door to door on the eve of the
+festival, singing their request for fuel at every house in doggerel
+verse. Cattle were driven through the fire to cure the sick animals
+and to guard such as were sound against plague and harm of every
+kind throughout the year. Many a householder on that day put out
+the fire on the domestic hearth and rekindled it by means of a
+brand taken from the midsummer bonfire. The people judged of the
+height to which the flax would grow in the year by the height to
+which the flames of the bonfire rose; and whoever leaped over the
+burning pile was sure not to suffer from backache in reaping the
+corn at harvest. But it was especially the practice for lovers to
+spring over the fire hand in hand, and the way in which each couple
+made the leap was the subject of many a jest and many a
+superstition. In one district the custom of kindling the bonfires
+was combined with that of lighting wooden discs and hurling them in
+the air after the manner which prevails at some of the spring
+festivals.<a id="footnotetag400" name="footnotetag400"></a><a href=
+"#footnote400"><sup>400</sup></a> In many parts of Bavaria it was
+believed that the flax would grow as high as the young people
+leaped over the fire.<a id="footnotetag401" name=
+"footnotetag401"></a><a href="#footnote401"><sup>401</sup></a> In
+others the old folk used to plant three charred sticks from the
+bonfire in the fields, believing that this would make the flax grow
+tall.<a id="footnotetag402" name="footnotetag402"></a><a href=
+"#footnote402"><sup>402</sup></a> Elsewhere an extinguished brand
+was put in the roof of the house to protect it against fire. In the
+towns about W&uuml;rzburg the bonfires used to be kindled in the
+market-places, and the young people who jumped over them wore
+garlands of flowers, especially of mugwort and vervain, and carried
+sprigs of larkspur in their hands. They thought <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page166" name="page166"></a>[pg 166]</span> that
+such as looked at the fire holding a bit of larkspur before their
+face would be troubled by no malady of the eyes throughout the
+year.<a id="footnotetag403" name="footnotetag403"></a><a href=
+"#footnote403"><sup>403</sup></a> Further, it was customary at
+W&uuml;rzburg, in the sixteenth century, for the bishop's followers
+to throw burning discs of wood into the air from a mountain which
+overhangs the town. The discs were discharged by means of flexible
+rods, and in their flight through the darkness presented the
+appearance of fiery dragons.<a id="footnotetag404" name=
+"footnotetag404"></a><a href="#footnote404"><sup>404</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerswabia" name="summerswabia"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Swabia; omens drawn from the leaps over
+the fires; burning wheels rolled down hill; burning the Angel-Man
+at Rottenburg.]</p>
+<p>In the valley of the Lech, which divides Upper Bavaria from
+Swabia, the midsummer customs and beliefs are, or used to be, very
+similar. Bonfires are kindled on the mountains on Midsummer Day;
+and besides the bonfire a tall beam, thickly wrapt in straw and
+surmounted by a cross-piece, is burned in many places. Round this
+cross as it burns the lads dance with loud shouts; and when the
+flames have subsided, the young people leap over the fire in pairs,
+a young man and a young woman together. If they escape unsmirched,
+the man will not suffer from fever, and the girl will not become a
+mother within the year. Further, it is believed that the flax will
+grow that year as high as they leap over the fire; and that if a
+charred billet be taken from the fire and stuck in a flax-field it
+will promote the growth of the flax.<a id="footnotetag405" name=
+"footnotetag405"></a><a href="#footnote405"><sup>405</sup></a>
+Similarly in Swabia, lads and lasses, hand in hand, leap over the
+midsummer bonfire, praying that the hemp may grow three ells high,
+and they set fire to wheels of straw and send them rolling down the
+hill. Among the places where burning wheels were thus bowled down
+hill at Midsummer were the Hohenstaufen mountains in Wurtemberg and
+the Frauenberg near Gerhausen.<a id="footnotetag406" name=
+"footnotetag406"></a><a href="#footnote406"><sup>406</sup></a> At
+Deffingen, in Swabia, as the people sprang over the midsummer
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page167" name="page167"></a>[pg
+167]</span> bonfire they cried out, "Flax, flax! may the flax this
+year grow seven ells high!"<a id="footnotetag407" name=
+"footnotetag407"></a><a href="#footnote407"><sup>407</sup></a> At
+Rottenburg in Swabia, down to the year 1807 or 1808, the festival
+was marked by some special features. About mid-day troops of boys
+went about the town begging for firewood at the houses. In each
+troop there were three leaders, one of whom carried a dagger, a
+second a paper banner, and a third a white plate covered with a
+white cloth. These three entered each house and recited verses, in
+which they expressed an intention of roasting Martin Luther and
+sending him to the devil; and for this meritorious service they
+expected to be paid, the contributions being received in the
+cloth-covered plate. In the evening they counted up their money and
+proceeded to "behead the Angel-man." For this ceremony an open
+space was chosen, sometimes in the middle of the town. Here a stake
+was thrust into the ground and straw wrapt about it, so as to make
+a rude effigy of human form with arms, head, and face. Every boy
+brought a handful of nosegays and fastened them to the straw-man,
+who was thus enveloped in flowers. Fuel was heaped about the stake
+and set on fire. When the Angel-man, as the straw-effigy was
+called, blazed up, all the boys of the neighbourhood, who had
+gathered expectantly around, fell upon him with their wooden swords
+and hewed him to pieces. As soon as he had vanished in smoke and
+flame, the lads leaped backward and forward over the glowing
+embers, and later in the evening they feasted on the proceeds of
+their collection.<a id="footnotetag408" name=
+"footnotetag408"></a><a href="#footnote408"><sup>408</sup></a> Here
+the Angel-man burnt in the fire appears to be identified with
+Martin Luther, to whom, as we have seen, allusion was made during
+the house-to-house visitation. The identification was probably
+modern, for we may assume that the custom of burning an effigy in
+the Midsummer bonfire is far older than the time of Luther.</p>
+<a id="summerbaden" name="summerbaden"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>In Baden the children used to collect fuel from house to house
+for the Midsummer bonfire on St. John's Day; and lads and lasses
+leaped over the fire in couples. Here, <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page168" name="page168"></a>[pg 168]</span> as elsewhere, a close
+connexion was traced between these bonfires and the harvest. In
+some places it was thought that those who leaped over the fires
+would not suffer from backache at reaping. Sometimes, as the young
+folk sprang over the flames, they cried, "Grow, that the hemp may
+be three ells high!" This notion that the hemp or the corn would
+grow as high as the flames blazed or as the people jumped over
+them, seems to have been widespread in Baden. It was held that the
+parents of the young people who bounded highest over the fire would
+have the most abundant harvest; and on the other hand, if a man
+contributed nothing to the bonfire, it was imagined that there
+would be no blessing on his crops, and that his hemp in particular
+would never grow.<a id="footnotetag409" name=
+"footnotetag409"></a><a href="#footnote409"><sup>409</sup></a> In
+the neighbourhood of B&uuml;hl and Achern the St. John's fires were
+kindled on the tops of hills; only the unmarried lads of the
+village brought the fuel, and only the unmarried young men and
+women sprang through the flames. But most of the villagers, old and
+young, gathered round the bonfires, leaving a clear space for the
+leapers to take their run. One of the bystanders would call out the
+names of a pair of sweethearts; on which the two would step out
+from the throng, take each other by the hand, and leap high and
+lightly through the swirling smoke and flames, while the spectators
+watched them critically and drew omens of their married life from
+the height to which each of them bounded. Such an invitation to
+jump together over the bonfire was regarded as tantamount to a
+public betrothal.<a id="footnotetag410" name=
+"footnotetag410"></a><a href="#footnote410"><sup>410</sup></a> Near
+Offenburg, in the Black Forest, on Midsummer Day the village boys
+used to collect faggots and straw on some steep and conspicuous
+height, and they spent some time in making circular wooden discs by
+slicing the trunk of a pine-tree across. When darkness had fallen,
+they kindled the bonfire, and then, as it blazed up, they lighted
+the discs at it, and, after swinging them to and fro at the end of
+a stout and supple hazel-wand, they hurled them one after the
+other, whizzing and flaming, into the air, where they described
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page169" name="page169"></a>[pg
+169]</span> great arcs of fire, to fall at length, like
+shooting-stars, at the foot of the mountain.<a id="footnotetag411"
+name="footnotetag411"></a><a href="#footnote411"><sup>411</sup></a>
+In many parts of Alsace and Lorraine the midsummer fires still
+blaze annually or did so not very many years ago.<a id=
+"footnotetag412" name="footnotetag412"></a><a href=
+"#footnote412"><sup>412</sup></a> At Speicher in the Eifel, a
+district which lies on the middle Rhine, to the west of Coblentz, a
+bonfire used to be kindled in front of the village on St. John's
+Day, and all the young people had to jump over it. Those who failed
+to do so were not allowed to join the rest in begging for eggs from
+house to house. Where no eggs were given, they drove a wedge into
+the keyhole of the door. On this day children in the Eifel used
+also to gather flowers in the fields, weave them into garlands, and
+throw the garlands on the roofs or hang them on the doors of the
+houses. So long as the flowers remained there, they were supposed
+to guard the house from fire and lightning.<a id="footnotetag413"
+name="footnotetag413"></a><a href="#footnote413"><sup>413</sup></a>
+In the southern Harz district and in Thuringia the Midsummer or St.
+John's fires used to be commonly lighted down to about the middle
+of the nineteenth century, and the custom has probably not died
+out. At Edersleben, near Sangerhausen, a high pole was planted in
+the ground and a tar-barrel was hung from it by a chain which
+reached to the ground. The barrel was then set on fire and swung
+round the pole amid shouts of joy.<a id="footnotetag414" name=
+"footnotetag414"></a><a href="#footnote414"><sup>414</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerfriction" name="summerfriction"></a>
+<p>[Midsummer fires kindled by the friction of wood in Germany and
+Switzerland; driving away demons and witches.]</p>
+<p>According to one account, German tradition required that the
+midsummer fire should be lighted, not from a common hearth, but by
+the friction of two sorts of wood, namely oak and fir.<a id=
+"footnotetag415" name="footnotetag415"></a><a href=
+"#footnote415"><sup>415</sup></a> In some old farm-houses of the
+Surenthal and Winenthal, in Switzerland, a couple of holes or a
+whole row of them may be seen facing each other in the door-posts
+of the barn or stable. Sometimes the holes are smooth and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page170" name="page170"></a>[pg
+170]</span> round; sometimes they are deeply burnt and blackened.
+The explanation of them is this. About midsummer, but especially on
+Midsummer Day, two such holes are bored opposite each other, into
+which the extremities of a strong pole are fixed. The holes are
+then stuffed with tow steeped in resin and oil; a rope is looped
+round the pole, and two young men, who must be brothers or must
+have the same baptismal name, and must be of the same age, pull the
+ends of the rope backwards and forwards so as to make the pole
+revolve rapidly, till smoke and sparks issue from the two holes in
+the door-posts. The sparks are caught and blown up with tinder, and
+this is the new and pure fire, the appearance of which is greeted
+with cries of joy. Heaps of combustible materials are now ignited
+with the new fire, and blazing bundles are placed on boards and
+sent floating down the brook. The boys light torches at the new
+fire and run to fumigate the pastures. This is believed to drive
+away all the demons and witches that molest the cattle. Finally the
+torches are thrown in a heap on the meadow and allowed to burn out.
+On their way back the boys strew the ashes over the fields, which
+is supposed to make them fertile. If a farmer has taken possession
+of a new house, or if servants have changed masters, the boys
+fumigate the new abode and are rewarded by the farmer with a
+supper.<a id="footnotetag416" name="footnotetag416"></a><a href=
+"#footnote416"><sup>416</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summersilesia" name="summersilesia"></a>
+<p>[Midsummer fires in Silesia; scaring away the witches.]</p>
+<p>In Silesia, from the south-eastern part of the Sudeten range and
+north-westward as far as Lausitz, the mountains are ablaze with
+bonfires on Midsummer Eve; and from the valleys and the plains
+round about Leobsch&uuml;tz, Neustadt, Z&uuml;lz, Oels, and other
+places answering fires twinkle through the deepening gloom. While
+they are smouldering and sending forth volumes of smoke across the
+fields, young men kindle broom-stumps, soaked in pitch, at the
+bonfires and then, brandishing the stumps, which emit showers of
+sparks, they chase one another or dance with the girls round the
+burning pile. Shots, too, are fired, and shouts raised. The fire,
+the smoke, the shots, and the shouts are all intended to scare away
+the witches, who are let loose on this witching day, and who would
+certainly work harm to the crops and the cattle, if they were not
+deterred by these salutary measures. <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page171" name="page171"></a>[pg 171]</span> Mere contact with the
+fire brings all sorts of blessings. Hence when the bonfire is
+burning low, the lads leap over it, and the higher they bound, the
+better is the luck in store for them. He who surpasses his fellows
+is the hero of the day and is much admired by the village girls. It
+is also thought to be very good for the eyes to stare steadily at
+the bonfire without blinking; moreover he who does so will not
+drowse and fall asleep betimes in the long winter evenings. On
+Midsummer Eve the windows and doors of houses in Silesia are
+crowned with flowers, especially with the blue cornflowers and the
+bright corn-cockles; in some villages long strings of garlands and
+nosegays are stretched across the streets. The people believe that
+on that night St. John comes down from heaven to bless the flowers
+and to keep all evil things from house and home.<a id=
+"footnotetag417" name="footnotetag417"></a><a href=
+"#footnote417"><sup>417</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerdenmark" name="summerdenmark"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Denmark and Norway; keeping off the
+witches; the Midsummer fires in Sweden.]</p>
+<p>In Denmark and Norway also Midsummer fires were kindled on St.
+John's Eve on roads, open spaces, and hills. People in Norway
+thought that the fires banished sickness from among the
+cattle.<a id="footnotetag418" name="footnotetag418"></a><a href=
+"#footnote418"><sup>418</sup></a> Even yet the fires are said to be
+lighted all over Norway on the night of June the twenty-third,
+Midsummer Eve, Old Style. As many as fifty or sixty bonfires may
+often be counted burning on the hills round Bergen. Sometimes fuel
+is piled on rafts, ignited, and allowed to drift blazing across the
+fiords in the darkness of night. The fires are thought to be
+kindled in order to keep off the witches, who are said to be flying
+from all parts that night to the Blocksberg, where the big witch
+lives.<a id="footnotetag419" name="footnotetag419"></a><a href=
+"#footnote419"><sup>419</sup></a> <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page172" name="page172"></a>[pg 172]</span> In Sweden the Eve of
+St. John (St. Hans) is the most joyous night of the whole year.
+Throughout some parts of the country, especially in the provinces
+of Bohus and Scania and in districts bordering on Norway, it is
+celebrated by the frequent discharge of firearms and by huge
+bonfires, formerly called Balder's Balefires (<i>Balder's
+Balar</i>), which are kindled at dusk on hills and eminences and
+throw a glare of light over the surrounding landscape. The people
+dance round the fires and leap over or through them. In parts of
+Norrland on St. John's Eve the bonfires are lit at the cross-roads.
+The fuel consists of nine different sorts of wood, and the
+spectators cast into the flames a kind of toad-stool
+(<i>B&auml;ran</i>) in order to counteract the power of the Trolls
+and other evil spirits, who are believed to be abroad that night;
+for at that mystic season the mountains open and from their
+cavernous depths the uncanny crew pours forth to dance and disport
+themselves for a time. The peasants believe that should any of the
+Trolls be in the vicinity they will shew themselves; and if an
+animal, for example a he or she goat, happens to be seen near the
+blazing, crackling pile, the peasants are firmly persuaded that it
+is no other than the Evil One in person.<a id="footnotetag420"
+name="footnotetag420"></a><a href="#footnote420"><sup>420</sup></a>
+Further, it deserves to be remarked that in Sweden St. John's Eve
+is a festival of water as well as of fire; for certain holy springs
+are then supposed to be endowed with wonderful medicinal virtues,
+and many sick people resort to them for the healing of their
+infirmities.<a id="footnotetag421" name=
+"footnotetag421"></a><a href="#footnote421"><sup>421</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerswitzerland" name="summerswitzerland"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Switzerland and Austria; effigies burnt
+in the fires; burning wheels rolled down hill.]</p>
+<p>In Switzerland on Midsummer Eve fires are, or used to be,
+kindled on high places in the cantons of Bern, Neuchatel, Valais,
+and Geneva.<a id="footnotetag422" name=
+"footnotetag422"></a><a href="#footnote422"><sup>422</sup></a> In
+Austria the midsummer customs and superstitions resemble those of
+Germany. Thus in some parts of the Tyrol bonfires are kindled and
+burning discs hurled into the air.<a id="footnotetag423" name=
+"footnotetag423"></a><a href="#footnote423"><sup>423</sup></a> In
+the lower valley of the Inn a taterdemalian effigy is carted about
+the village on Midsummer <span class="pagenum"><a id="page173"
+name="page173"></a>[pg 173]</span> Day and then burned. He is
+called the <i>Lotter</i>, which has been corrupted into Luther. At
+Ambras, one of the villages where Martin Luther is thus burned in
+effigy, they say that if you go through the village between eleven
+and twelve on St. John's Night and wash yourself in three wells,
+you will see all who are to die in the following year.<a id=
+"footnotetag424" name="footnotetag424"></a><a href=
+"#footnote424"><sup>424</sup></a> At Gratz on St. John's Eve (the
+twenty-third of June) the common people used to make a puppet
+called the <i>Tatermann</i>, which they dragged to the bleaching
+ground, and pelted with burning besoms till it took fire.<a id=
+"footnotetag425" name="footnotetag425"></a><a href=
+"#footnote425"><sup>425</sup></a> At Reutte, in the Tyrol, people
+believed that the flax would grow as high as they leaped over the
+midsummer bonfire, and they took pieces of charred wood from the
+fire and stuck them in their flax-fields the same night, leaving
+them there till the flax harvest had been got in.<a id=
+"footnotetag426" name="footnotetag426"></a><a href=
+"#footnote426"><sup>426</sup></a> In Lower Austria fires are lit in
+the fields, commonly in front of a cross, and the people dance and
+sing round them and throw flowers into the flames. Before each
+handful of flowers is tossed into the fire, a set speech is made;
+then the dance is resumed and the dancers sing in chorus the last
+words of the speech. At evening bonfires are kindled on the
+heights, and the boys caper round them, brandishing lighted torches
+drenched in pitch. Whoever jumps thrice across the fire will not
+suffer from fever within the year. Cart-wheels are often smeared
+with pitch, ignited, and sent rolling and blazing down the
+hillsides.<a id="footnotetag427" name="footnotetag427"></a><a href=
+"#footnote427"><sup>427</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerbohemia" name="summerbohemia"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>All over Bohemia bonfires still burn on Midsummer Eve. In the
+afternoon boys go about with handcarts from house to house
+collecting fuel, such as sticks, brushwood, old besoms, and so
+forth. They make their request at each house in rhyming verses,
+threatening with evil consequences the curmudgeons who refuse them
+a dole. Sometimes the young men fell a tall straight fir in the
+woods and set it up on a height, where the girls deck it with
+nosegays, wreaths of leaves, and red ribbons. Then brushwood is
+piled about it, and at nightfall the whole is set on fire. While
+the flames break out, the young men climb <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page174" name="page174"></a>[pg 174]</span> the
+tree and fetch down the wreaths which the girls had placed on it.
+After that, lads and lasses stand on opposite sides of the fire and
+look at one another through the wreaths to see whether they will be
+true to each other and marry within the year. Also the girls throw
+the wreaths across the flames to the men, and woe to the awkward
+swain who fails to catch the wreath thrown him by his sweetheart.
+When the blaze has died down, each couple takes hands, and leaps
+thrice across the fire. He or she who does so will be free from
+ague throughout the year, and the flax will grow as high as the
+young folks leap. A girl who sees nine bonfires on Midsummer Eve
+will marry before the year is out. The singed wreaths are carried
+home and carefully preserved throughout the year. During
+thunderstorms a bit of the wreath is burned on the hearth with a
+prayer; some of it is given to kine that are sick or calving, and
+some of it serves to fumigate house and cattle-stall, that man and
+beast may keep hale and well. Sometimes an old cartwheel is smeared
+with resin, ignited, and sent rolling down the hill. Often the boys
+collect all the worn-out besoms they can get hold of, dip them in
+pitch, and having set them on fire wave them about or throw them
+high into the air. Or they rush down the hillside in troops,
+brandishing the flaming brooms and shouting, only however to return
+to the bonfire on the summit when the brooms have burnt out. The
+stumps of the brooms and embers from the fire are preserved and
+stuck in cabbage gardens to protect the cabbages from caterpillars
+and gnats. Some people insert charred sticks and ashes from the
+bonfire in their sown fields and meadows, in their gardens and the
+roofs of their houses, as a talisman against lightning and foul
+weather; or they fancy that the ashes placed in the roof will
+prevent any fire from breaking out in the house. In some districts
+they crown or gird themselves with mugwort while the midsummer fire
+is burning, for this is supposed to be a protection against ghosts,
+witches, and sickness; in particular, a wreath of mugwort is a sure
+preventive of sore eyes. Sometimes the girls look at the bonfires
+through garlands of wild flowers, praying the fire to strengthen
+their eyes and eyelids. She who does this thrice will have no sore
+eyes <span class="pagenum"><a id="page175" name="page175"></a>[pg
+175]</span> all that year. In some parts of Bohemia they used to
+drive the cows through the midsummer fire to guard them against
+witchcraft.<a id="footnotetag428" name=
+"footnotetag428"></a><a href="#footnote428"><sup>428</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summermoravia" name="summermoravia"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Moravia, Austrian Silesia, and the
+district of Cracow; fire kindled by the friction of wood.]</p>
+<p>The Germans of Moravia in like manner still light bonfires on
+open grounds and high places on Midsummer Eve; and they kindle
+besoms in the flames and then stick the charred stumps in the
+cabbage-fields as a powerful protection against caterpillars. On
+the same mystic evening Moravian girls gather flowers of nine sorts
+and lay them under their pillow when they go to sleep; then they
+dream every one of him who is to be her partner for life. For in
+Moravia maidens in their beds as well as poets by haunted streams
+have their Midsummer Night's dreams.<a id="footnotetag429" name=
+"footnotetag429"></a><a href="#footnote429"><sup>429</sup></a> In
+Austrian Silesia the custom also prevails of lighting great
+bonfires on hilltops on Midsummer Eve, and here too the boys swing
+blazing besoms or hurl them high in the air, while they shout and
+leap and dance wildly. Next morning every door is decked with
+flowers and birchen saplings.<a id="footnotetag430" name=
+"footnotetag430"></a><a href="#footnote430"><sup>430</sup></a> In
+the district of Cracow, especially towards the Carpathian
+Mountains, great fires are kindled by the peasants in the fields or
+on the heights at nightfall on Midsummer Eve, which among them goes
+by the name of Kupalo's Night. The fire must be kindled by the
+friction of two sticks. The young people dance round or leap over
+it; and a band of sturdy fellows run a race with lighted torches,
+the winner being rewarded with a peacock's feather, which he keeps
+throughout the year as a distinction. Cattle also are driven round
+the fire in the belief that this is a charm against pestilence and
+disease of every sort.<a id="footnotetag431" name=
+"footnotetag431"></a><a href="#footnote431"><sup>431</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page176" name="page176"></a>[pg
+176]</span> <a id="summerslavs" name="summerslavs"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires among the Slavs of Russia; cattle protected
+against witchcraft; the fires lighted by the friction of wood.]</p>
+<p>The name of Kupalo's Night, applied in this part of Galicia to
+Midsummer Eve, reminds us that we have now passed from German to
+Slavonic ground; even in Bohemia the midsummer celebration is
+common to Slavs and Germans. We have already seen that in Russia
+the summer solstice or Eve of St. John is celebrated by young men
+and maidens, who jump over a bonfire in couples carrying a straw
+effigy of Kupalo in their arms.<a id="footnotetag432" name=
+"footnotetag432"></a><a href="#footnote432"><sup>432</sup></a> In
+some parts of Russia an image of Kupalo is burnt or thrown into a
+stream on St. John's Night.<a id="footnotetag433" name=
+"footnotetag433"></a><a href="#footnote433"><sup>433</sup></a>
+Again, in some districts of Russia the young folk wear garlands of
+flowers and girdles of holy herbs when they spring through the
+smoke or flames; and sometimes they drive the cattle also through
+the fire in order to protect the animals against wizards and
+witches, who are then ravenous after milk.<a id="footnotetag434"
+name="footnotetag434"></a><a href="#footnote434"><sup>434</sup></a>
+In Little Russia a stake is driven into the ground on St. John's
+Night, wrapt in straw, and set on fire. As the flames rise the
+peasant women throw birchen boughs into them, saying, "May my flax
+be as tall as this bough!"<a id="footnotetag435" name=
+"footnotetag435"></a><a href="#footnote435"><sup>435</sup></a> In
+Ruthenia the bonfires are lighted by a flame procured by the
+friction of wood. While the elders of the party are engaged in thus
+"churning" the fire, the rest maintain a respectful silence; but
+when the flame bursts from the wood, they break forth into joyous
+songs. As soon as the bonfires are kindled, the young people take
+hands and leap in pairs through the smoke, if not through the
+flames; and after that the cattle in their turn are driven through
+the fire.<a id="footnotetag436" name="footnotetag436"></a><a href=
+"#footnote436"><sup>436</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerprussia" name="summerprussia"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>In many parts of Prussia and Lithuania great fires are kindled
+on Midsummer Eve. All the heights are ablaze with them, as far as
+the eye can see. The fires are supposed to be a protection against
+witchcraft, thunder, hail, and cattle disease, especially if next
+morning the cattle are driven over the places where the fires
+burned. Above all, the bonfires ensure the farmer against the arts
+of witches, who try to steal the milk from his cows by charms and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page177" name="page177"></a>[pg
+177]</span> spells. That is why next morning you may see the young
+fellows who lit the bonfire going from house to house and receiving
+jugfuls of milk. And for the same reason they stick burs and
+mugwort on the gate or the hedge through which the cows go to
+pasture, because that is supposed to be a preservative against
+witchcraft.<a id="footnotetag437" name=
+"footnotetag437"></a><a href="#footnote437"><sup>437</sup></a> In
+Masuren, a district of Eastern Prussia inhabited by a branch of the
+Polish family, it is the custom on the evening of Midsummer Day to
+put out all the fires in the village. Then an oaken stake is driven
+into the ground and a wheel is fixed on it as on an axle. This
+wheel the villagers, working by relays, cause to revolve with great
+rapidity till fire is produced by friction. Every one takes home a
+lighted brand from the new fire and with it rekindles the fire on
+the domestic hearth.<a id="footnotetag438" name=
+"footnotetag438"></a><a href="#footnote438"><sup>438</sup></a> In
+the sixteenth century Martin of Urzedow, a Polish priest, denounced
+the heathen practices of the women who on St. John's Eve (Midsummer
+Eve) kindled fires by the friction of wood, danced, and sang songs
+in honour of the devil.<a id="footnotetag439" name=
+"footnotetag439"></a><a href="#footnote439"><sup>439</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerletts" name="summerletts"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires among the Letts of Russia; Midsummer Day in
+ancient Rome.]</p>
+<p>Among the Letts who inhabit the Baltic provinces of Russia the
+most joyful festival of the year is held on Midsummer Day. The
+people drink and dance and sing and adorn themselves and their
+houses with flowers and branches. Chopped boughs of fir are strewn
+about the rooms, and leaves are stuck in the roofs. In every
+farm-yard a birch tree is set up, and every person of the name of
+John who enters the farm that day must break off a twig from the
+tree and hang up on its branches in return a small present for the
+family. When the serene twilight of the summer night has veiled the
+landscape, bonfires gleam on all the hills, and wild shouts of
+"Ligho! Ligho!" echo from the woods and fields. In Riga the day is
+a festival of flowers. From all the neighbourhood the peasants
+stream into the city laden with flowers and garlands. A market of
+flowers is held in an open square and on the chief bridge over the
+river; here wreaths of immortelles, which grow wild in the meadows
+and woods, are sold in great profusion and deck the houses
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page178" name="page178"></a>[pg
+178]</span> of Riga for long afterwards. Roses, too, are now at the
+prime of their beauty, and masses of them adorn the flower-stalls.
+Till far into the night gay crowds parade the streets to music or
+float on the river in gondolas decked with flowers.<a id=
+"footnotetag440" name="footnotetag440"></a><a href=
+"#footnote440"><sup>440</sup></a> So long ago in ancient Rome
+barges crowned with flowers and crowded with revellers used to
+float down the Tiber on Midsummer Day, the twenty-fourth of
+June,<a id="footnotetag441" name="footnotetag441"></a><a href=
+"#footnote441"><sup>441</sup></a> and no doubt the strains of music
+were wafted as sweetly across the water to listeners on the banks
+as they still are to the throngs of merrymakers at Riga.</p>
+<a id="summersouthslavs" name="summersouthslavs"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires among the South Slavs.]</p>
+<p>Bonfires are commonly kindled by the South Slavonian peasantry
+on Midsummer Eve, and lads and lasses dance and shout round them in
+the usual way. The very names of St. John's Day (<i>Ivanje</i>) and
+the St. John's fires (<i>kries</i>) are said to act like electric
+sparks on the hearts and minds of these swains, kindling a thousand
+wild, merry, and happy fancies and ideas in their rustic breasts.
+At Kamenagora in Croatia the herdsmen throw nine three-year old
+vines into the bonfire, and when these burst into flames the young
+men who are candidates for matrimony jump through the blaze. He who
+succeeds in leaping over the fire without singeing himself will be
+married within the year. At Vidovec in Croatia parties of two girls
+and one lad unite to kindle a Midsummer bonfire and to leap through
+the flames; he or she who leaps furthest will soonest wed.
+Afterwards lads and lasses dance in separate rings, but the ring of
+lads bumps up against the ring of girls and breaks it, and the girl
+who has to let go her neighbour's hand will forsake her true love
+hereafter.<a id="footnotetag442" name="footnotetag442"></a><a href=
+"#footnote442"><sup>442</sup></a> In Servia on Midsummer Eve
+herdsmen light torches of birch bark and march round the sheepfolds
+and cattle-stalls; then they climb the hills and there allow the
+torches to burn out.<a id="footnotetag443" name=
+"footnotetag443"></a><a href="#footnote443"><sup>443</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summermagyars" name="summermagyars"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires among the Magyars of Hungary.]</p>
+<p>Among the Magyars in Hungary the midsummer fire-festival is
+marked by the same features that meet us in so many parts of
+Europe. On Midsummer Eve in many <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page179" name="page179"></a>[pg 179]</span> places it is customary
+to kindle bonfires on heights and to leap over them, and from the
+manner in which the young people leap the bystanders predict
+whether they will marry soon. At Nograd-Ludany the young men and
+women, each carrying a truss of straw, repair to a meadow, where
+they pile the straw in seven or twelve heaps and set it on fire.
+Then they go round the fire singing, and hold a bunch of iron-wort
+in the smoke, while they say, "No boil on my body, no sprain in my
+foot!" This holding of the flowers over the flames is regarded, we
+are told, as equally important with the practice of walking through
+the fire barefoot and stamping it out. On this day also many
+Hungarian swineherds make fire by rotating a wheel round a wooden
+axle wrapt in hemp, and through the fire thus made they drive their
+pigs to preserve them from sickness.<a id="footnotetag444" name=
+"footnotetag444"></a><a href="#footnote444"><sup>444</sup></a> In
+villages on the Danube, where the population is a cross between
+Magyar and German, the young men and maidens go to the high banks
+of the river on Midsummer Eve; and while the girls post themselves
+low down the slope, the lads on the height above set fire to little
+wooden wheels and, after swinging them to and fro at the end of a
+wand, send them whirling through the air to fall into the Danube.
+As he does so, each lad sings out the name of his sweetheart, and
+she listens well pleased down below.<a id="footnotetag445" name=
+"footnotetag445"></a><a href="#footnote445"><sup>445</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summeresthonians" name="summeresthonians"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires among the Esthonians; the Midsummer fires
+in Oesel.]</p>
+<p>The Esthonians of Russia, who, like the Magyars, belong to the
+great Turanian family of mankind, also celebrate the summer
+solstice in the usual way. On the Eve of St. John all the people of
+a farm, a village, or an estate, walk solemnly in procession, the
+girls decked with flowers, the men with leaves and carrying bundles
+of straw under their arms. The lads carry lighted torches or
+flaming hoops steeped in tar at the top of long poles. Thus they go
+singing to the cattle-sheds, the granaries, and so forth, and
+afterwards march thrice round the dwelling-house. Finally, preceded
+by the shrill music of the bagpipes and shawms, they repair to a
+neighbouring hill, where the materials of a bonfire have
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page180" name="page180"></a>[pg
+180]</span> been collected. Tar-barrels filled with combustibles
+are hung on poles, or the trunk of a felled tree has been set up
+with a great mass of juniper piled about it in the form of a
+pyramid. When a light has been set to the pile, old and young
+gather about it and pass the time merrily with song and music till
+break of day. Every one who comes brings fresh fuel for the fire,
+and they say, "Now we all gather together, where St. John's fire
+burns. He who comes not to St. John's fire will have his barley
+full of thistles, and his oats full of weeds." Three logs are
+thrown into the fire with special ceremony; in throwing the first
+they say, "Gold of pleasure (a plant with yellow flowers) into the
+fire!" in throwing the second they say, "Weeds to the unploughed
+land!" but in throwing the third they cry, "Flax on my field!" The
+fire is said to keep the witches from the cattle.<a id=
+"footnotetag446" name="footnotetag446"></a><a href=
+"#footnote446"><sup>446</sup></a> According to others, it ensures
+that for the whole year the milk shall be "as pure as silver and as
+the stars in the sky, and the butter as yellow as the sun and the
+fire and the gold."<a id="footnotetag447" name=
+"footnotetag447"></a><a href="#footnote447"><sup>447</sup></a> In
+the Esthonian island of Oesel, while they throw fuel into the
+midsummer fire, they call out, "Weeds to the fire, flax to the
+field," or they fling three billets into the flames, saying, "Flax
+grow long!" And they take charred sticks from the bonfire home with
+them and keep them to make the cattle thrive. In some parts of the
+island the bonfire is formed by piling brushwood and other
+combustibles round a tree, at the top of which a flag flies.
+Whoever succeeds in knocking down the flag with a pole before it
+begins to burn will have good luck. Formerly the festivities lasted
+till daybreak, and ended in scenes of debauchery which looked
+doubly hideous by the growing light of a summer morning.<a id=
+"footnotetag448" name="footnotetag448"></a><a href=
+"#footnote448"><sup>448</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerfinns" name="summerfinns"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires among the Finns and Cheremiss of
+Russia.]</p>
+<p>Still farther north, among a people of the same Turanian
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page181" name="page181"></a>[pg
+181]</span> stock, we learn from an eye-witness that Midsummer
+Night used to witness a sort of witches' sabbath on the top of
+every hill in Finland. The bonfire was made by setting up four tall
+birches in a square and piling the intermediate space with fuel.
+Round the roaring flames the people sang and drank and gambolled in
+the usual way.<a id="footnotetag449" name=
+"footnotetag449"></a><a href="#footnote449"><sup>449</sup></a>
+Farther east, in the valley of the Volga, the Cheremiss celebrate
+about midsummer a festival which Haxthausen regarded as identical
+with the midsummer ceremonies of the rest of Europe. A sacred tree
+in the forest, generally a tall and solitary oak, marks the scene
+of the solemnity. All the males assemble there, but no woman may be
+present. A heathen priest lights seven fires in a row from
+north-west to south-east; cattle are sacrificed and their blood
+poured in the fires, each of which is dedicated to a separate
+deity. Afterwards the holy tree is illumined by lighted candles
+placed on its branches; the people fall on their knees and with
+faces bowed to the earth pray that God would be pleased to bless
+them, their children, their cattle, and their bees, grant them
+success in trade, in travel, and in the chase, enable them to pay
+the Czar's taxes, and so forth.<a id="footnotetag450" name=
+"footnotetag450"></a><a href="#footnote450"><sup>450</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerfrance" name="summerfrance"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in France; Bossuet on the Midsummer
+festival.]</p>
+<p>When we pass from the east to the west of Europe we still find
+the summer solstice celebrated with rites of the same general
+character. Down to about the middle of the nineteenth century the
+custom of lighting bonfires at midsummer prevailed so commonly in
+France that there was hardly a town or a village, we are told,
+where they were not kindled.<a id="footnotetag451" name=
+"footnotetag451"></a><a href="#footnote451"><sup>451</sup></a>
+Though the pagan origin of the custom may be regarded as certain,
+the Catholic Church threw a Christian cloak over it by boldly
+declaring that the bonfires were lit in token of the general
+rejoicing at the birth of the Baptist, who opportunely came into
+the world at the solstice of summer, just as his greater successor
+did at the solstice of winter; so that the whole year might be said
+to revolve on <span class="pagenum"><a id="page182" name=
+"page182"></a>[pg 182]</span> the golden hinges of these two great
+birthdays.<a id="footnotetag452" name="footnotetag452"></a><a href=
+"#footnote452"><sup>452</sup></a> Writing in the seventeenth
+century Bishop Bossuet expressly affirms this edifying theory of
+the Midsummer bonfires, and he tells his catechumens that the
+Church herself participated in the illumination, since in several
+dioceses, including his own diocese of Meaux, a number of parishes
+kindled what were called ecclesiastical fires for the purpose of
+banishing the superstitions practised at the purely mundane
+bonfires. These superstitions, he goes on to say, consisted in
+dancing round the fire, playing, feasting, singing ribald songs,
+throwing herbs across the fire, gathering herbs at noon or while
+fasting, carrying them on the person, preserving them throughout
+the year, keeping brands or cinders of the fire, and other similar
+practices.<a id="footnotetag453" name="footnotetag453"></a><a href=
+"#footnote453"><sup>453</sup></a> However excellent the intentions
+of the ecclesiastical authorities may have been, they failed of
+effecting their purpose; for the superstitions as well as the
+bonfires survived in France far into the nineteenth century, if
+indeed they are extinct even now at the beginning of the twentieth.
+Writing in the latter part of the nineteenth century Mr. Ch.
+Cuissard tells us that he himself witnessed in Touraine and Poitou
+the superstitious practices which he describes as follows: "The
+most credulous examine the ways in which the flame burns and draw
+good or bad omens accordingly. Others, after leaping through the
+flames crosswise, pass their little children through them thrice,
+fully persuaded that the little ones will then be able to walk at
+once. In some places the shepherds make their sheep tread the
+embers of the extinct fire in order to preserve them from the
+foot-rot. Here you may see about midnight an old woman grubbing
+among the cinders of the pyre to find the hair of the Holy Virgin
+or Saint <span class="pagenum"><a id="page183" name=
+"page183"></a>[pg 183]</span> John, which she deems an infallible
+specific against fever. There, another woman is busy plucking the
+roots of the herbs which have been burned on the surface of the
+ground; she intends to eat them, imagining that they are an
+infallible preservative against cancer. Elsewhere a girl wears on
+her neck a flower which the touch of St. John's fire has turned for
+her into a talisman, and she is sure to marry within the year.
+Shots are fired at the tree planted in the midst of the fire to
+drive away the demons who might purpose to send sicknesses about
+the country. Seats are set round about the bonfire, in order that
+the souls of dead relations may come and enjoy themselves for a
+little with the living."<a id="footnotetag454" name=
+"footnotetag454"></a><a href="#footnote454"><sup>454</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerbrittany" name="summerbrittany"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Brittany; uses made of the charred
+sticks and flowers.]</p>
+<p>In Brittany, apparently, the custom of the Midsummer bonfires is
+kept up to this day. Thus in Lower Brittany every town and every
+village still lights its <i>tantad</i> or bonfire on St. John's
+Night. When the flames have died down, the whole assembly kneels
+round about the bonfire and an old man prays aloud. Then they all
+rise and march thrice round the fire; at the third turn they stop
+and every one picks up a pebble and throws it on the burning pile.
+After that they disperse.<a id="footnotetag455" name=
+"footnotetag455"></a><a href="#footnote455"><sup>455</sup></a> In
+Finist&egrave;re the bonfires of St. John's Day are kindled by
+preference in an open space near a chapel of St. John; but if there
+is no such chapel, they are lighted in the square facing the parish
+church and in some districts at cross-roads. Everybody brings fuel
+for the fire, it may be a faggot, a log, a branch, or an armful of
+gorse. When the vespers are over, the parish priest sets a light to
+the pile. All heads are bared, prayers recited, and hymns sung.
+Then the dancing begins. The young folk skip round the blazing pile
+and leap over it, when the flames have died down. If anybody makes
+a false step and falls or rolls in the hot embers, he or she is
+greeted with hoots and retires abashed from the circle of dancers.
+Brands are carried home from the bonfire to protect the houses
+against lightning, conflagrations, and certain maladies and spells.
+The precious talisman is carefully kept in a cupboard till
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page184" name="page184"></a>[pg
+184]</span> St. John's Day of the following year.<a id=
+"footnotetag456" name="footnotetag456"></a><a href=
+"#footnote456"><sup>456</sup></a> At Quimper, and in the district
+of L&eacute;on, chairs used to be placed round the midsummer
+bonfire, that the souls of the dead might sit on them and warm
+themselves at the blaze.<a id="footnotetag457" name=
+"footnotetag457"></a><a href="#footnote457"><sup>457</sup></a> At
+Brest on this day thousands of people used to assemble on the
+ramparts towards evening and brandish lighted torches, which they
+swung in circles or flung by hundreds into the air. The closing of
+the town gates put an end to the spectacle, and the lights might be
+seen dispersing in all directions like wandering
+will-o'-the-wisps.<a id="footnotetag458" name=
+"footnotetag458"></a><a href="#footnote458"><sup>458</sup></a> In
+Upper Brittany the materials for the midsummer bonfires, which
+generally consist of bundles of furze and heath, are furnished by
+voluntary contributions, and piled on the tops of hills round
+poles, each of which is surmounted by a nosegay or a crown. This
+nosegay or crown is generally provided by a man named John or a
+woman named Jean, and it is always a John or a Jean who puts a
+light to the bonfire. While the fire is blazing the people dance
+and sing round it, and when the flames have subsided they leap over
+the glowing embers. Charred sticks from the bonfire are thrown into
+wells to improve the water, and they are also taken home as a
+protection against thunder.<a id="footnotetag459" name=
+"footnotetag459"></a><a href="#footnote459"><sup>459</sup></a> To
+make them thoroughly effective, however, against thunder and
+lightning you should keep them near your bed, between a bit of a
+Twelfth Night cake and a sprig of boxwood which has been blessed on
+Palm Sunday.<a id="footnotetag460" name=
+"footnotetag460"></a><a href="#footnote460"><sup>460</sup></a>
+Flowers from the nosegay or crown which overhung the fire are
+accounted charms against disease and pain, both bodily and
+spiritual; hence girls hang them at their breast by a thread of
+scarlet wool. In many parishes of Brittany the priest used to go in
+procession with the crucifix and kindle the bonfire with his own
+hands; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page185" name="page185"></a>[pg
+185]</span> and farmers were wont to drive their flocks and herds
+through the fire in order to preserve them from sickness till
+midsummer of the following year. Also it was believed that every
+girl who danced round nine of the bonfires would marry within the
+year.<a id="footnotetag461" name="footnotetag461"></a><a href=
+"#footnote461"><sup>461</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summernormandy" name="summernormandy"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Normandy; the fires as a protection
+against witchcraft; the Brotherhood of the Green Wolf at
+Jumi&egrave;ges; pretence of throwing the Green Wolf into the
+fire.]</p>
+<p>In Normandy the midsummer fires have now almost disappeared, at
+least in the district known as the Bocage, but they used to shine
+on every hill. They were commonly made by piling brushwood, broom,
+and ferns about a tall tree, which was decorated with a crown of
+moss and sometimes with flowers. While they burned, people danced
+and sang round them, and young folk leaped over the flames or the
+glowing ashes. In the valley of the Orne the custom was to kindle
+the bonfire just at the moment when the sun was about to dip below
+the horizon; and the peasants drove their cattle through the fires
+to protect them against witchcraft, especially against the spells
+of witches and wizards who attempted to steal the milk and
+butter.<a id="footnotetag462" name="footnotetag462"></a><a href=
+"#footnote462"><sup>462</sup></a> At Jumi&egrave;ges in Normandy,
+down to the first half of the nineteenth century, the midsummer
+festival was marked by certain singular features which bore the
+stamp of a very high antiquity. Every year, on the twenty-third of
+June, the Eve of St. John, the Brotherhood of the Green Wolf chose
+a new chief or master, who had always to be taken from the hamlet
+of Conihout. On being elected, the new head of the brotherhood
+assumed the title of the Green Wolf, and donned a peculiar costume
+consisting of a long green mantle and a very tall green hat of a
+conical shape and without a brim. Thus arrayed he stalked solemnly
+at the head of the brothers, chanting the hymn of St. John, the
+crucifix and holy banner leading the way, to a place called
+Chouquet. Here the procession was met by the priest, precentors,
+and choir, who conducted the brotherhood to the parish church.
+After hearing mass the company adjourned to the house of the Green
+Wolf, where a simple repast, such as is required by the church on
+fast-days, was served up to them. Then they <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page186" name="page186"></a>[pg 186]</span> danced
+before the door till it was time to light the bonfire. Night being
+come, the fire was kindled to the sound of hand-bells by a young
+man and a young woman, both decked with flowers. As the flames
+rose, the <i>Te Deum</i> was sung, and a villager thundered out a
+parody in the Norman dialect of the hymn <i>ut queant laxis</i>.
+Meantime the Green Wolf and his brothers, with their hoods down on
+their shoulders and holding each other by the hand, ran round the
+fire after the man who had been chosen to be the Green Wolf of the
+following year. Though only the first and the last man of the chain
+had a hand free, their business was to surround and seize thrice
+the future Green Wolf, who in his efforts to escape belaboured the
+brothers with a long wand which he carried. When at last they
+succeeded in catching him they carried him to the burning pile and
+made as if they would throw him on it. This ceremony over, they
+returned to the house of the Green Wolf, where a supper, still of
+the most meagre fare, was set before them. Up till midnight a sort
+of religious solemnity prevailed. No unbecoming word might fall
+from the lips of any of the company, and a censor, armed with a
+hand-bell, was appointed to mark and punish instantly any
+infraction of the rule. But at the stroke of twelve all this was
+changed. Constraint gave way to license; pious hymns were replaced
+by Bacchanalian ditties, and the shrill quavering notes of the
+village fiddle hardly rose above the roar of voices that went up
+from the merry brotherhood of the Green Wolf. Next day, the
+twenty-fourth of June or Midsummer Day, was celebrated by the same
+personages with the same noisy gaiety. One of the ceremonies
+consisted in parading, to the sound of musketry, an enormous loaf
+of consecrated bread, which, rising in tiers, was surmounted by a
+pyramid of verdure adorned with ribbons. After that the holy
+handbells, deposited on the step of the altar, were entrusted as
+insignia of office to the man who was to be the Green Wolf next
+year.<a id="footnotetag463" name="footnotetag463"></a><a href=
+"#footnote463"><sup>463</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page187" name="page187"></a>[pg
+187]</span> <a id="summerpicardy" name="summerpicardy"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Picardy.]</p>
+<p>In the canton of Breteuil in Picardy (department of Oise) the
+priest used to kindle the midsummer bonfire, and the people marched
+thrice round it in procession. Some of them took ashes of the fire
+home with them to protect the houses against lightning.<a id=
+"footnotetag464" name="footnotetag464"></a><a href=
+"#footnote464"><sup>464</sup></a> The custom is, or was down to
+recent years, similar at Vorges, near Laon. An enormous pyre, some
+fifty or sixty feet high, supported in the middle by a tall pole,
+is constructed every year on the twenty-third of June, the Eve of
+St. John. It stands at one end of the village, and all the
+inhabitants contribute fuel to it: a cart goes round the village in
+the morning, by order of the mayor, collecting combustibles from
+house to house: no one would dream of refusing to comply with the
+customary obligation. In the evening, after a service in honour of
+St. John has been performed in the church, the clergy, the mayor,
+the municipal authorities, the rural police, and the fire-brigade
+march in procession to the bonfire, accompanied by the inhabitants
+and a crowd of idlers drawn by curiosity from the neighbouring
+villages. After addressing the throng in a sermon, to which they
+pay little heed, the parish priest sprinkles the pyre with holy
+water, and taking a lighted torch from the hand of an assistant
+sets fire to the pile. The enormous blaze, flaring up against the
+dark sky of the summer night, is seen for many miles around,
+particularly from the hill of Laon. When it has died down into a
+huge heap of glowing embers and grey ashes, every one carries home
+a charred stick or some cinders; and the fire-brigade, playing
+their hose on what remains, extinguishes the smouldering fire. The
+people preserve the charred sticks and cinders throughout the year,
+believing that these relics of St John's bonfire have power to
+guard them from lightning and from contagious diseases.<a id=
+"footnotetag465" name="footnotetag465"></a><a href=
+"#footnote465"><sup>465</sup></a> At Ch&acirc;teau-Thierry, a town
+of the department of Aisne, between Paris and Reims, the custom of
+lighting bonfires and dancing round them at the midsummer festival
+of St. John lasted down to about 1850; the fires were kindled
+especially when June had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page188"
+name="page188"></a>[pg 188]</span> been rainy, and the people
+thought that the lighting of the bonfires would cause the rain to
+cease.<a id="footnotetag466" name="footnotetag466"></a><a href=
+"#footnote466"><sup>466</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerbeauce" name="summerbeauce"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Beauce and Perche; the fires as a
+protection against witchcraft.]</p>
+<p>In Beauce and Perche, two neighbouring districts of France to
+the south-west of Paris, the midsummer bonfires have nearly or
+wholly disappeared, but formerly they were commonly kindled and
+went by the name of the "fires of St. John." The site of the
+bonfire was either the village square or beside the cross in the
+cemetery. Here a great pile of faggots, brushwood, and grass was
+accumulated about a huge branch, which bore at the top a crown of
+fresh flowers. The priest blessed the bonfire and the people danced
+round it. When it blazed and crackled, the bystanders thrust their
+heads into the puffs of smoke, in the belief that it would preserve
+them from a multitude of ills; and when the fire was burnt out,
+they rushed upon the charred embers and ashes and carried them
+home, imagining that they had a secret virtue to guard their houses
+from being struck by lightning or consumed by fire. Some of the
+Perche farmers in the old days, not content with the public
+bonfire, used to light little private bonfires in their farmyards
+and make all their cattle pass through the smoke and flames for the
+purpose of protecting them against witchcraft or disease.<a id=
+"footnotetag467" name="footnotetag467"></a><a href=
+"#footnote467"><sup>467</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerardennes" name="summerardennes"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in the Ardennes, the Vosges, and the Jura;
+the Midsummer fires in Franche-Comt&eacute;; the Midsummer fires in
+Berry and other parts of Central France.]</p>
+<p>In the department of the Ardennes every one was wont to
+contribute his faggot to the midsummer bonfire, and the clergy
+marched at the head of the procession to kindle it. Failure to
+light the fires would, in the popular belief, have exposed the
+fields to the greatest danger. At Revin the young folk, besides
+dancing round the fire to the strains of the village fiddler, threw
+garlands of flowers across the flames to each other.<a id=
+"footnotetag468" name="footnotetag468"></a><a href=
+"#footnote468"><sup>468</sup></a> In the Vosges it is still
+customary to kindle bonfires upon the hill-tops on Midsummer Eve;
+the people believe that the fires help to preserve the fruits of
+the earth and ensure good crops.<a id="footnotetag469" name=
+"footnotetag469"></a><a href="#footnote469"><sup>469</sup></a> In
+the Jura Mountains the midsummer <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page189" name="page189"></a>[pg 189]</span> bonfires went by the
+name of <i>b&acirc;</i> or <i>beau</i>. They were lit on the most
+conspicuous points of the landscape.<a id="footnotetag470" name=
+"footnotetag470"></a><a href="#footnote470"><sup>470</sup></a> Near
+St. Jean, in the Jura, it appears that at this season young people
+still repair to the cross-roads and heights, and there wave burning
+torches so as to present the appearance of fiery wheels in the
+darkness.<a id="footnotetag471" name="footnotetag471"></a><a href=
+"#footnote471"><sup>471</sup></a> In Franche-Comt&eacute;, the
+province of France which lies immediately to the west of the Jura
+mountains, the fires of St. John still shone on the saint's day in
+several villages down to recent years. They were generally lit on
+high ground and the young folks of both sexes sang and danced round
+them, and sprang over the dying flames.<a id="footnotetag472" name=
+"footnotetag472"></a><a href="#footnote472"><sup>472</sup></a> In
+Bresse bonfires used to be kindled on Midsummer Eve (the
+twenty-third of June) and the people danced about them in a circle.
+Devout persons, particularly old women, circumambulated the fires
+fourteen times, telling their beads and mumbling seven
+<i>Paters</i> and seven <i>Aves</i> in the hope that thereby they
+would feel no pains in their backs when they stooped over the
+sickle in the harvest field.<a id="footnotetag473" name=
+"footnotetag473"></a><a href="#footnote473"><sup>473</sup></a> In
+Berry, a district of Central France, the midsummer fire was lit on
+the Eve of St. John and went by the name of the
+<i>j&ocirc;n&eacute;e, joann&eacute;e</i>, or
+<i>jouann&eacute;e</i>. Every family according to its means
+contributed faggots, which were piled round a pole on the highest
+ground in the neighbourhood. In the hamlets the office of kindling
+the fire devolved on the oldest man, but in the towns it was the
+priest or the mayor who discharged the duty. Here, as in Brittany,
+people supposed that a girl who had danced round nine of the
+midsummer bonfires would marry within the year. To leap several
+times over the fire was regarded as a sort of purification which
+kept off sickness and brought good luck to the leaper. Hence the
+nimble youth bounded through the smoke and flames, and when the
+fire had somewhat abated parents jumped across it with their
+children in their arms in order that the little ones might also
+partake of its <span class="pagenum"><a id="page190" name=
+"page190"></a>[pg 190]</span> beneficent influence. Embers from the
+extinct bonfire were taken home, and after being dipped in holy
+water were kept as a talisman against all kinds of misfortune, but
+especially against lightning.<a id="footnotetag474" name=
+"footnotetag474"></a><a href="#footnote474"><sup>474</sup></a> The
+same virtue was ascribed to the ashes and charred sticks of the
+midsummer bonfire in P&eacute;rigord, where everybody contributed
+his share of fuel to the pile and the whole was crowned with
+flowers, especially with roses and lilies.<a id="footnotetag475"
+name="footnotetag475"></a><a href="#footnote475"><sup>475</sup></a>
+On the borders of the departments of Creuse and Corr&egrave;ze, in
+Central France, the fires of St. John used to be lit on the Eve of
+the saint's day (the twenty-third of June); the custom seems to
+have survived till towards the end of the nineteenth century. Men,
+women, and children assembled round the fires, and the young people
+jumped over them. Children were brought by their parents or elder
+brothers into contact with the flames in the belief that this would
+save them from fever. Older people girded themselves with stalks of
+rye taken from a neighbouring field, because they fancied that by
+so doing they would not grow weary in reaping the corn at
+harvest.<a id="footnotetag476" name="footnotetag476"></a><a href=
+"#footnote476"><sup>476</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerpoitou" name="summerpoitou"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Poitou.]</p>
+<p>Bonfires were lit in almost all the hamlets of Poitou on the Eve
+of St. John. People marched round them thrice, carrying a branch of
+walnut in their hand. Shepherdesses and children passed sprigs of
+mullein (<i>verbascum</i>) and nuts across the flames; the nuts
+were supposed to cure toothache, and the mullein to protect the
+cattle from sickness and sorcery. When the fire died down people
+took some of the ashes home with them, either to keep them in the
+house as a preservative against thunder or to scatter them on the
+fields for the purpose of destroying corn-cockles and darnel.
+Stones were also placed round the fire, and it was believed that
+the first to lift one of these stones next morning would find under
+it the hair of St. John.<a id="footnotetag477" name=
+"footnotetag477"></a><a href="#footnote477"><sup>477</sup></a> In
+Poitou also it used to be <span class="pagenum"><a id="page191"
+name="page191"></a>[pg 191]</span> customary on the Eve of St. John
+to trundle a blazing wheel wrapt in straw over the fields to
+fertilize them.<a id="footnotetag478" name=
+"footnotetag478"></a><a href="#footnote478"><sup>478</sup></a> This
+last custom is said to be now extinct,<a id="footnotetag479" name=
+"footnotetag479"></a><a href="#footnote479"><sup>479</sup></a> but
+it is still usual, or was so down to recent years, in Poitou to
+kindle fires on this day at cross-roads or on the heights. The
+oldest or youngest person present sets a light to the pile, which
+consists of broom, gorse, and heath. A bright and crackling blaze
+shoots up, but soon dies down, and over it the young folk leap.
+They also throw stones into it, picking the stone according to the
+size of the turnips that they wish to have that year. It is said
+that "the good Virgin" comes and sits on the prettiest of the
+stones, and next morning they see there her beautiful golden
+tresses. At Lussac, in Poitou, the lighting of the midsummer
+bonfire is still an affair of some ceremony. A pyramid of faggots
+is piled round a tree or tall pole on the ground where the fair is
+held; the priest goes in procession to the spot and kindles the
+pile. When prayers have been said and the clergy have withdrawn,
+the people continue to march round the fire, telling their beads,
+but it is not till the flames have begun to die down that the youth
+jump over them. A brand from the midsummer bonfire is supposed to
+be a preservative against thunder.<a id="footnotetag480" name=
+"footnotetag480"></a><a href="#footnote480"><sup>480</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summervienne" name="summervienne"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in the departments of Vienne and
+Deux-S&egrave;vres and in the provinces of Saintonge and
+Aunis.]</p>
+<p>In the department of Vienne the bonfire was kindled by the
+oldest man, and before the dance round the flames began it was the
+custom to pass across them a great bunch of mullein (<i>bouillon
+blanc</i>) and a branch of walnut, which next morning before
+sunrise were fastened over the door of the chief cattle-shed.<a id=
+"footnotetag481" name="footnotetag481"></a><a href=
+"#footnote481"><sup>481</sup></a> A similar custom prevailed in the
+neighbouring department of Deux-S&egrave;vres; but here it was the
+priest who kindled the bonfire, and old men used to put embers of
+the fire in their wooden shoes as a preservative <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page192" name="page192"></a>[pg 192]</span>
+against many evils.<a id="footnotetag482" name=
+"footnotetag482"></a><a href="#footnote482"><sup>482</sup></a> In
+some towns and villages of Saintonge and Aunis, provinces of
+Western France now mostly comprised in the department of Charente
+Inf&eacute;rieure, the fires of St. John are still kindled on
+Midsummer Eve, but the custom is neither so common nor carried out
+with so much pomp and ceremony as formerly. Great quantities of
+wood used to be piled on an open space round about a huge post or a
+tree stripped of its leaves and branches. Every one took care to
+contribute a faggot to the pile, and the whole population marched
+to the spot in procession with the crucifix at their head and the
+priest bringing up the rear. The squire, or other person of high
+degree, put the torch to the pyre, and the priest blessed it. In
+the southern and eastern parts of Saintonge children and cattle
+were passed through the smoke of the bonfires to preserve them from
+contagious diseases, and when the fire had gone out the people
+scuffled for the charred fragments of the great post, which they
+regarded as talismans against thunder. Next morning, on Midsummer
+Day, every shepherdess in the neighbourhood was up very early, for
+the first to drive her sheep over the blackened cinders and ashes
+of the great bonfire was sure to have the best flock all that year.
+Where the shepherds shrunk from driving their flocks through the
+smoke and flames of the bonfire they contented themselves with
+marking the hinder-quarters of the animals with a broom which had
+been blackened in the ashes.<a id="footnotetag483" name=
+"footnotetag483"></a><a href="#footnote483"><sup>483</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summersouthernfrance" name="summersouthernfrance"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>In the mountainous part of Comminges, a province of Southern
+France, now comprised in the department of Haute Garonne, the
+midsummer fire is made by splitting open the trunk of a tall tree,
+stuffing the crevice with shavings, and igniting the whole. A
+garland of flowers is fastened to the top of the tree, and at the
+moment when the fire is lighted the man who was last married has to
+climb up a ladder and bring the flowers down. In the flat parts of
+the same district the materials of the midsummer bonfires consist
+of fuel piled in the usual way; but they must be <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page193" name="page193"></a>[pg 193]</span> put
+together by men who have been married since the last midsummer
+festival, and each of these benedicts is obliged to lay a wreath of
+flowers on the top of the pile.<a id="footnotetag484" name=
+"footnotetag484"></a><a href="#footnote484"><sup>484</sup></a> At
+the entrance of the valley of Aran young people set up on the banks
+of the Garonne a tree covered with ribbons and garlands; at the end
+of a year the withered tree and faded flowers furnish excellent
+fuel. So on the Eve of St. John the villagers assemble, and an old
+man or a child kindles the fire which is to consume tree and
+garlands together. While the blaze lasts the people sing and dance;
+and the burnt tree is then replaced by another which will suffer
+the same fate after the lapse of a year.<a id="footnotetag485"
+name="footnotetag485"></a><a href="#footnote485"><sup>485</sup></a>
+In some districts of the French Pyrenees it is deemed necessary to
+leap nine times over the midsummer fire if you would be assured of
+prosperity.<a id="footnotetag486" name=
+"footnotetag486"></a><a href="#footnote486"><sup>486</sup></a> A
+traveller in Southern France at the beginning of the nineteenth
+century tells us that "the Eve of St. John is also a day of joy for
+the Proven&ccedil;als. They light great fires and the young folk
+leap over them. At Aix they shower squibs and crackers on the
+passers-by, which has often had disagreeable consequences. At
+Marseilles they drench each other with scented water, which is
+poured from the windows or squirted from little syringes; the
+roughest jest is to souse passers-by with clean water, which gives
+rise to loud bursts of laughter."<a id="footnotetag487" name=
+"footnotetag487"></a><a href="#footnote487"><sup>487</sup></a> At
+Draguignan, in the department of Var, fires used to be lit in every
+street on the Eve of St. John, and the people roasted pods of
+garlic at them; the pods were afterwards distributed to every
+family. Another diversion of the evening was to pour cans of water
+from the houses on the heads of people in the streets.<a id=
+"footnotetag488" name="footnotetag488"></a><a href=
+"#footnote488"><sup>488</sup></a> In Provence the midsummer fires
+are still popular. Children go from door to door begging for fuel,
+and they are seldom sent empty away. Formerly the priest, the
+mayor, and the aldermen used to walk in procession to the bonfire,
+and even deigned to light it; after which the assembly marched
+thrice round the burning pile, while the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page194" name="page194"></a>[pg 194]</span> church
+bells pealed and rockets fizzed and sputtered in the air. Dancing
+began later, and the bystanders threw water on each other. At
+Ciotat, while the fire was blazing, the young people plunged into
+the sea and splashed each other vigorously. At Vitrolles they
+bathed in a pond in order that they might not suffer from fever
+during the year, and at Saintes-Maries they watered the horses to
+protect them from the itch.<a id="footnotetag489" name=
+"footnotetag489"></a><a href="#footnote489"><sup>489</sup></a> At
+Aix a nominal king, chosen from among the youth for his skill in
+shooting at a popinjay, presided over the festival. He selected his
+own officers, and escorted by a brilliant train marched to the
+bonfire, kindled it, and was the first to dance round it. Next day
+he distributed largesse to his followers. His reign lasted a year,
+during which he enjoyed certain privileges. He was allowed to
+attend the mass celebrated by the commander of the Knights of St.
+John on St. John's Day: the right of hunting was accorded to him;
+and soldiers might not be quartered in his house. At Marseilles
+also on this day one of the guilds chose a king of the
+<i>badache</i> or double axe; but it does not appear that he
+kindled the bonfire, which is said to have been lighted with great
+ceremony by the pr&eacute;fet and other authorities.<a id=
+"footnotetag490" name="footnotetag490"></a><a href=
+"#footnote490"><sup>490</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerbelgium" name="summerbelgium"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>In Belgium the custom of kindling the midsummer bonfires has
+long disappeared from the great cities, but it is still kept up in
+rural districts and small towns of Brabant, Flanders, and Limburg.
+People leap across the fires to protect themselves against fever,
+and in eastern Flanders women perform similar leaps for the purpose
+of ensuring an easy delivery. At Termonde young people go from door
+to door collecting fuel for the fires and reciting verses, in which
+they beg the inmates to give them "wood of St. John" and to keep
+some wood for St. Peter's Day (the twenty-ninth of June); for in
+Belgium the Eve of St. Peter's Day is celebrated by bonfires and
+dances exactly like those which commemorate St. John's Eve. The
+ashes of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page195" name=
+"page195"></a>[pg 195]</span> the St. John's fires are deemed by
+Belgian peasants an excellent remedy for consumption, if you take a
+spoonful or two of them, moistened with water, day by day. People
+also burn vervain in the fires, and they say that in the ashes of
+the plant you may find, if you look for it, the "Fool's
+Stone."<a id="footnotetag491" name="footnotetag491"></a><a href=
+"#footnote491"><sup>491</sup></a> In many parts of Brabant St.
+Peter's bonfire used to be much larger than that of his rival St.
+John. When it had burned out, both sexes engaged in a game of ball,
+and the winner became the King of Summer or of the Ball and had the
+right to choose his Queen. Sometimes the winner was a woman, and it
+was then her privilege to select her royal mate. This pastime was
+well known at Louvain and it continued to be practised at Grammont
+and Mespelaer down to the second half of the nineteenth century. At
+Mespelaer, which is a village near Termonde, a huge pile of
+eglantine, reeds, and straw was collected in a marshy meadow for
+the bonfire; and next evening after vespers the young folk who had
+lit it assembled at the "Good Life" tavern to play the game. The
+winner was crowned with a wreath of roses, and the rest danced and
+sang in a ring about him. At Grammont, while the bonfire was lit
+and the dances round it took place on St. Peter's Eve, the festival
+of the "Crown of Roses" was deferred till the following Sunday. The
+young folk arranged among themselves beforehand who should be King
+and Queen of the Roses: the rosy wreaths were hung on cords across
+the street: the dancers danced below them, and at a given moment
+the wreaths fell on the heads of the chosen King and Queen, who had
+to entertain their fellows at a feast. According to some people the
+fires of St. Peter, like those of St. John, were lighted in order
+to drive away dragons.<a id="footnotetag492" name=
+"footnotetag492"></a><a href="#footnote492"><sup>492</sup></a> In
+French Flanders down to 1789 a straw figure representing a man was
+always burned in the midsummer bonfire, and the figure of a woman
+was burned on St. Peter's Day.<a id="footnotetag493" name=
+"footnotetag493"></a><a href="#footnote493"><sup>493</sup></a> In
+Belgium people jump over the midsummer bonfires as a <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page196" name="page196"></a>[pg 196]</span>
+preventive of colic, and they keep the ashes at home to hinder fire
+from breaking out.<a id="footnotetag494" name=
+"footnotetag494"></a><a href="#footnote494"><sup>494</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerengland" name="summerengland"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in England; Stow's description of the
+Midsummer fires in London; the Midsummer fires at Eton.]</p>
+<p>The custom of lighting bonfires at midsummer has been observed
+in many parts of our own country. "On the Vigil of Saint John the
+Baptist, commonly called Midsummer Eve, it was usual in most
+country places, and also in towns and cities, for the inhabitants,
+both old and young, and of both sexes, to meet together, and make
+merry by the side of a large fire made in the middle of the street,
+or in some open and convenient place, over which the young men
+frequently leaped by way of frolic, and also exercised themselves
+with various sports and pastimes, more especially with running,
+wrestling, and dancing. These diversions they continued till
+midnight, and sometimes till cock-crowing."<a id="footnotetag495"
+name="footnotetag495"></a><a href="#footnote495"><sup>495</sup></a>
+In the streets of London the midsummer fires were lighted in the
+time of Queen Elizabeth down to the end of the sixteenth century,
+as we learn from Stow's description, which runs thus: "In the
+months of June and July, on the vigils of festival days, and on the
+same festival days in the evenings after the sun setting, there
+were usually made bonfires in the streets, every man bestowing wood
+or labour towards them; the wealthier sort also, before their doors
+near to the said bonfires, would set out tables on the vigils
+furnished with sweet bread and good drink, and on the festival days
+with meats and drinks plentifully, whereunto they would invite
+their neighbours and passengers also to sit and be merry with them
+in great familiarity, praising God for His benefits bestowed on
+them. These were called bonfires as well of good amity amongst
+neighbours that being before at controversy, were there, by the
+labour of others, reconciled, and made of bitter enemies loving
+friends; and also for the virtue that a great fire hath to purge
+the infection of the air. On the vigil of St. John the Baptist, and
+on St. Peter and Paul the Apostles, every man's door being shadowed
+with green birch, long fennel, St John's wort, orpin, white lilies,
+and such like, garnished upon with garlands of beautiful flowers,
+had also lamps of glass, with oil burning in them all the night;
+some hung <span class="pagenum"><a id="page197" name=
+"page197"></a>[pg 197]</span> out branches of iron curiously
+wrought, containing hundreds of lamps alight at once, which made a
+goodly show, namely, in New Fish Street, Thames Street, etc."<a id=
+"footnotetag496" name="footnotetag496"></a><a href=
+"#footnote496"><sup>496</sup></a> In the sixteenth century the Eton
+boys used to kindle a bonfire on the east side of the church both
+on St John's Day and on St. Peter's Day.<a id="footnotetag497"
+name="footnotetag497"></a><a href="#footnote497"><sup>497</sup></a>
+Writing in the second half of the seventeenth century, the
+antiquary John Aubrey tells us that bonfires were still kindled in
+many places on St. John's Night, but that the civil wars had thrown
+many of these old customs out of fashion. Wars, he adds, extinguish
+superstition as well as religion and laws, and there is nothing
+like gunpowder for putting phantoms to flight.<a id=
+"footnotetag498" name="footnotetag498"></a><a href=
+"#footnote498"><sup>498</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summernorthengland" name="summernorthengland"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in the north of England; the Midsummer
+fires in Northumberland.]</p>
+<p>In the north of England these fires used to be lit in the open
+streets. Young and old gathered round them, and while the young
+leaped over the fires and engaged in games, their elders looked on
+and probably remembered with regret the days when they used to foot
+it as nimbly. Sometimes the fires were kindled on the tops of high
+hills. The people also carried firebrands about the fields.<a id=
+"footnotetag499" name="footnotetag499"></a><a href=
+"#footnote499"><sup>499</sup></a> The custom of kindling bonfires
+on Midsummer Eve prevailed all over Cumberland down to the second
+half of the eighteenth century.<a id="footnotetag500" name=
+"footnotetag500"></a><a href="#footnote500"><sup>500</sup></a> In
+Northumberland the custom seems to have lasted into the first
+quarter of the nineteenth century; the fires were lit in the
+villages and on the tops of high hills, and the people sported and
+danced round them.<a id="footnotetag501" name=
+"footnotetag501"></a><a href="#footnote501"><sup>501</sup></a>
+Moreover, the villagers used to run with burning brands round their
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page198" name="page198"></a>[pg
+198]</span> fields and to snatch ashes from a neighbour's fire,
+saying as they did so, "We have the flower (or flour) of the
+wake."<a id="footnotetag502" name="footnotetag502"></a><a href=
+"#footnote502"><sup>502</sup></a> At Sandhill bonfires were kindled
+on the Eve of St. Peter as well as on Midsummer Eve; the custom is
+attested for the year 1575, when it was described as ancient.<a id=
+"footnotetag503" name="footnotetag503"></a><a href=
+"#footnote503"><sup>503</sup></a> We are told that "on Midsummer's
+eve, reckoned according to the old style, it was formerly the
+custom of the inhabitants, young and old, not only of Whalton, but
+of most of the adjacent villages, to collect a large cartload of
+whins and other combustible materials, which was dragged by them
+with great rejoicing (a fiddler being seated on the top of the
+cart) into the village and erected into a pile. The people from the
+surrounding country assembled towards evening, when it was set on
+fire; and whilst the young danced around it, the elders looked on
+smoking their pipes and drinking their beer, until it was consumed.
+There can be little doubt that this curious old custom dates from a
+very remote antiquity." In a law-suit, which was tried in 1878, the
+rector of Whalton gave evidence of the constant use of the village
+green for the ceremony since 1843. "The bonfire," he said, "was
+lighted a little to the north-east of the well at Whalton, and
+partly on the footpath, and people danced round it and jumped
+through it. That was never interrupted." The Rev. G.R. Hall,
+writing in 1879, says that "the fire festivals or bonfires of the
+summer solstice at the Old Midsummer until recently were
+commemorated on Christenburg Crags and elsewhere by leaping through
+and dancing round the fires, as those who have been present have
+told me."<a id="footnotetag504" name="footnotetag504"></a><a href=
+"#footnote504"><sup>504</sup></a> Down to the early part of the
+nineteenth century bonfires called Beal-fires used to be lit on
+Midsummer Eve all over the wolds in the East Riding of
+Yorkshire.<a id="footnotetag505" name="footnotetag505"></a><a href=
+"#footnote505"><sup>505</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page199" name="page199"></a>[pg
+199]</span> <a id="summerherefordshire" name=
+"summerherefordshire"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Herefordshire, Somersetshire,
+Devonshire, and Cornwall; the Cornish fires on Midsummer Eve and
+St. Peter's Eve.]</p>
+<p>In Herefordshire and Somersetshire the peasants used to make
+fires in the fields on Midsummer Eve "to bless the apples."<a id=
+"footnotetag506" name="footnotetag506"></a><a href=
+"#footnote506"><sup>506</sup></a> In Devonshire the custom of
+leaping over the midsummer fires was also observed.<a id=
+"footnotetag507" name="footnotetag507"></a><a href=
+"#footnote507"><sup>507</sup></a> "In Cornwall, the festival fires,
+called bonfires, are kindled on the Eves of St. John Baptist and
+St. Peter's day; and Midsummer is thence, in the Cornish tongue,
+called <i>Goluan</i>, which signifies both light and rejoicing. At
+these fires the Cornish attend with lighted torches, tarred and
+pitched at the end, and make their perambulations round their
+fires, going from village to village and carrying their torches
+before them; this is certainly the remains of Druid superstition;
+for, <i>Faces praeferre</i>, to carry lighted torches was reckoned
+a kind of gentilism, and as such particularly prohibited by the
+Gallick Councils."<a id="footnotetag508" name=
+"footnotetag508"></a><a href="#footnote508"><sup>508</sup></a> At
+Penzance and elsewhere in the county the people danced and sang
+about the bonfires on Midsummer Eve. On Whiteborough, a large
+tumulus near Launceston, a huge bonfire used to be kindled on
+Midsummer Eve; a tall summer pole with a large bush at the top was
+fixed in the centre of the bonfire.<a id="footnotetag509" name=
+"footnotetag509"></a><a href="#footnote509"><sup>509</sup></a> The
+Cornish fires at this season appear to have been commonly lit on
+high and conspicuous hills, such as Tregonan, Godolphin, Carnwarth,
+and Cam Brea. When it grew dusk on Midsummer Eve, old men would
+hobble away to some height whence they counted the fires and drew a
+presage from their number.<a id="footnotetag510" name=
+"footnotetag510"></a><a href="#footnote510"><sup>510</sup></a> "It
+is the immemorial usage in Penzance, and the neighbouring towns and
+villages, to kindle bonfires and torches on Midsummer-eve; and on
+Midsummer-day to hold a fair on Penzance quay, where the country
+folks assemble from the adjoining parishes in great numbers to make
+excursions on the water. St. Peter's Eve <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page200" name="page200"></a>[pg 200]</span> (the
+twenty-eighth of June) is distinguished by a similar display of
+bonfires and torches, although the 'quay-fair' on St. Peter's-day
+(the twenty-ninth of June), has been discontinued upwards of forty
+years. On these eves a line of tar-barrels, relieved occasionally
+by large bonfires, is seen in the centre of each of the principal
+streets in Penzance. On either side of this line young men and
+women pass up and down, swinging round their heads heavy torches
+made of large pieces of folded canvas steeped in tar, and nailed to
+the ends of sticks between three and four feet long; the flames of
+some of these almost equal those of the tar-barrels. Rows of
+lighted candles, also, when the air is calm, are fixed outside the
+windows or along the sides of the streets. In St. Just, and other
+mining parishes, the young miners, mimicking their fathers'
+employments, bore rows of holes in the rocks, load them with
+gunpowder, and explode them in rapid succession by trains of the
+same substance. As the holes are not deep enough to split the
+rocks, the same little batteries serve for many years. On these
+nights, Mount's Bay has a most animating appearance, although not
+equal to what was annually witnessed at the beginning of the
+present century, when the whole coast, from the Land's End to the
+Lizard, wherever a town or a village existed, was lighted up with
+these stationary or moving fires. In the early part of the evening,
+children may be seen wearing wreaths of flowers&mdash;a custom in
+all probability originating from the ancient use of these ornaments
+when they danced around the fires. At the close of the fireworks in
+Penzance, a great number of persons of both sexes, chiefly from the
+neighbourhood of the quay, used always, until within the last few
+years, to join hand in hand, forming a long string, and run through
+the streets, playing 'thread the needle,' heedless of the fireworks
+showered upon them, and oftentimes leaping over the yet glowing
+embers. I have on these occasions seen boys following one another,
+jumping through flames higher than themselves."<a id=
+"footnotetag511" name="footnotetag511"></a><a href=
+"#footnote511"><sup>511</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerwales" name="summerwales"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Wales and the Isle of Man; burning wheel
+rolled down hill.]</p>
+<p>In Wales the midsummer fires were kindled on St. John's
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page201" name="page201"></a>[pg
+201]</span> Eve and on St. John's Day. Three or nine different
+kinds of wood and charred faggots carefully preserved from the last
+midsummer were deemed necessary to build the bonfire, which was
+generally done on rising ground. Various herbs were thrown into the
+blaze; and girls with bunches of three or nine different kinds of
+flowers would take the hands of boys, who wore flowers in their
+buttonholes and hats, and together the young couples would leap
+over the fires. On the same two midsummer days roses and wreaths of
+flowers were hung over the doors and windows. "Describing a
+midsummer fire, an old inhabitant, born in 1809, remembered being
+taken to different hills in the Vale of Glamorgan to see
+festivities in which people from all parts of the district
+participated. She was at that time about fourteen, and old enough
+to retain a vivid recollection of the circumstances. People
+conveyed trusses of straw to the top of the hill, where men and
+youths waited for the contributions. Women and girls were stationed
+at the bottom of the hill. Then a large cart-wheel was thickly
+swathed with straw, and not an inch of wood was left in sight. A
+pole was inserted through the centre of the wheel, so that long
+ends extended about a yard on each side. If any straw remained, it
+was made up into torches at the top of tall sticks. At a given
+signal the wheel was lighted, and sent rolling downhill. If this
+fire-wheel went out before it reached the bottom of the hill, a
+very poor harvest was promised. If it kept lighted all the way
+down, and continued blazing for a long time, the harvest would be
+exceptionally abundant. Loud cheers and shouts accompanied the
+progress of the wheel."<a id="footnotetag512" name=
+"footnotetag512"></a><a href="#footnote512"><sup>512</sup></a> At
+Darowen in Wales small bonfires were kindled on Midsummer
+Eve.<a id="footnotetag513" name="footnotetag513"></a><a href=
+"#footnote513"><sup>513</sup></a> On the same day people in the
+Isle of Man were wont to light fires to the windward of every
+field, so that the smoke might pass over the corn; and they folded
+their cattle and carried blazing furze or gorse round them several
+times.<a id="footnotetag514" name="footnotetag514"></a><a href=
+"#footnote514"><sup>514</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerireland" name="summerireland"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>A writer of the last quarter of the seventeenth century
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page202" name="page202"></a>[pg
+202]</span> tells us that in Ireland, "on the Eves of St. John
+Baptist and St. Peter, they always have in every town a bonfire,
+late in the evenings, and carry about bundles of reeds fast tied
+and fired; these being dry, will last long, and flame better than a
+torch, and be a pleasing divertive prospect to the distant
+beholder; a stranger would go near to imagine the whole country was
+on fire."<a id="footnotetag515" name="footnotetag515"></a><a href=
+"#footnote515"><sup>515</sup></a> Another writer says of the South
+of Ireland: "On Midsummer's Eve, every eminence, near which is a
+habitation, blazes with bonfires; and round these they carry
+numerous torches, shouting and dancing, which affords a beautiful
+sight."<a id="footnotetag516" name="footnotetag516"></a><a href=
+"#footnote516"><sup>516</sup></a> An author who described Ireland
+in the first quarter of the eighteenth century says: "On the vigil
+of St. John the Baptist's Nativity, they make bonfires, and run
+along the streets and fields with wisps of straw blazing on long
+poles to purify the air, which they think infectious, by believing
+all the devils, spirits, ghosts, and hobgoblins fly abroad this
+night to hurt mankind."<a id="footnotetag517" name=
+"footnotetag517"></a><a href="#footnote517"><sup>517</sup></a>
+Another writer states that he witnessed the festival in Ireland in
+1782: "At the house where I was entertained, it was told me, that
+we should see, at midnight, the most singular sight in Ireland,
+which was the lighting of fires in honour of the sun. Accordingly,
+exactly at midnight, the fires began to appear; and taking the
+advantage of going up to the leads of the house, which had a widely
+extended view, I saw on a radius of thirty miles, all around, the
+fires burning on every eminence which the country afforded. I had a
+farther satisfaction in learning, from undoubted authority, that
+the people danced round the fires, and at the close went through
+these fires, and made their sons and daughters, together with their
+cattle, pass through the fire; and the whole was conducted with
+religious solemnity."<a id="footnotetag518" name=
+"footnotetag518"></a><a href="#footnote518"><sup>518</sup></a> That
+the custom prevailed in full force as late as 1867 appears from a
+notice in a newspaper of that date, which runs thus: "The old pagan
+fire-worship still survives in Ireland, though nominally
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page203" name="page203"></a>[pg
+203]</span> in honour of St. John. On Sunday night bonfires were
+observed throughout nearly every county in the province of
+Leinster. In Kilkenny, fires blazed on every hillside at intervals
+of about a mile. There were very many in the Queen's County, also
+in Kildare and Wexford. The effect in the rich sunset appeared to
+travellers very grand. The people assemble, and dance round the
+fires, the children jump through the flames, and in former times
+live coals were carried into the corn-fields to prevent
+blight."<a id="footnotetag519" name="footnotetag519"></a><a href=
+"#footnote519"><sup>519</sup></a> In County Leitrim on St. John's
+Eve, which is called Bonfire Day, fires are still lighted after
+dusk on the hills and along the sides of the roads.<a id=
+"footnotetag520" name="footnotetag520"></a><a href=
+"#footnote520"><sup>520</sup></a> All over Kerry the same thing
+continues to be done, though not so commonly as of old. Small fires
+were made across the road, and to drive through them brought luck
+for the year. Cattle were also driven through the fires. On
+Lettermore Island, in South Connemara, some of the ashes from the
+midsummer bonfire are thrown on the fields to fertilize them.<a id=
+"footnotetag521" name="footnotetag521"></a><a href=
+"#footnote521"><sup>521</sup></a> One writer informs us that in
+Munster and Connaught a bone must always be burned in the fire; for
+otherwise the people believe that the fire will bring no luck. He
+adds that in many places sterile beasts and human beings are passed
+through the fire, and that as a boy he himself jumped through the
+fire "for luck."<a id="footnotetag522" name=
+"footnotetag522"></a><a href="#footnote522"><sup>522</sup></a> An
+eye-witness has described as follows a remarkable ceremony observed
+in Ireland on Midsummer Eve: "When the fire burned for some hours,
+and got low, an indispensable part of the ceremony commenced. Every
+one present of the peasantry passed through it, and several
+children were thrown across the sparkling embers; while a wooden
+frame, of some eight feet long, with a horse's head fixed to one
+end, and a large white sheet thrown over it concealing the wood and
+the man on whose head it was carried, made its appearance. This was
+greeted with loud shouts of 'The white horse!' and having been
+safely carried by the skill of its <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page204" name="page204"></a>[pg 204]</span> bearer several times
+through the fire with a bold leap, it pursued the people, who ran
+screaming and laughing in every direction. I asked what the horse
+was meant for, and was told that it represented 'all
+cattle.'"<a id="footnotetag523" name="footnotetag523"></a><a href=
+"#footnote523"><sup>523</sup></a></p>
+<p>[Lady Wilde's account of the Midsummer fires in Ireland.]</p>
+<p>Lady Wilde's account of the midsummer festival in Ireland is
+picturesque and probably correct in substance, although she does
+not cite her authorities. As it contains some interesting features
+which are not noticed by the other writers on Ireland whom I have
+consulted, I will quote the greater part of it in full. "In ancient
+times," she says, "the sacred fire was lighted with great ceremony
+on Midsummer Eve; and on that night all the people of the adjacent
+country kept fixed watch on the western promontory of Howth, and
+the moment the first flash was seen from that spot the fact of
+ignition was announced with wild cries and cheers repeated from
+village to village, when all the local fires began to blaze, and
+Ireland was circled by a cordon of flame rising up from every hill.
+Then the dance and song began round every fire, and the wild
+hurrahs filled the air with the most frantic revelry. Many of these
+ancient customs are still continued, and the fires are still
+lighted on St. John's Eve on every hill in Ireland. When the fire
+has burned down to a red glow the young men strip to the waist and
+leap over or through the flames; this is done backwards and
+forwards several times, and he who braves the greatest blaze is
+considered the victor over the powers of evil, and is greeted with
+tremendous applause. When the fire burns still lower, the young
+girls leap the flame, and those who leap clean over three times
+back and forward will be certain of a speedy marriage and good luck
+in after-life, with many children. The married women then walk
+through the lines of the burning embers; and when the fire is
+nearly burnt and trampled down, the yearling cattle are driven
+through the hot ashes, and their back is singed with a lighted
+hazel twig. These rods are kept safely afterwards, being considered
+of immense power to drive the cattle to and from the watering
+places. As the fire diminishes the shouting grows fainter, and the
+song and the dance commence; while <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page205" name="page205"></a>[pg 205]</span> professional
+story-tellers narrate tales of fairy-land, or of the good old times
+long ago, when the kings and princes of Ireland dwelt amongst their
+own people, and there was food to eat and wine to drink for all
+comers to the feast at the king's house. When the crowd at length
+separate, every one carries home a brand from the fire, and great
+virtue is attached to the lighted <i>brone</i> which is safely
+carried to the house without breaking or falling to the ground.
+Many contests also arise amongst the young men; for whoever enters
+his house first with the sacred fire brings the good luck of the
+year with him."<a id="footnotetag524" name=
+"footnotetag524"></a><a href="#footnote524"><sup>524</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerwaterireland" name="summerwaterireland"></a>
+<p>[Holy water resorted to on Midsummer Eve in Ireland.]</p>
+<p>In Ireland, as elsewhere, water was also apparently thought to
+acquire a certain mystical virtue at midsummer. "At Stoole, near
+Downpatrick, there is a ceremony commencing at twelve o'clock at
+night on Midsummer Eve. Its sacred mount is consecrated to St.
+Patrick; the plain contains three wells, to which the most
+extraordinary virtues are attributed. Here and there are heaps of
+stones, around some of which appear great numbers of people,
+running with as much speed as possible; around others crowds of
+worshippers kneel with bare legs and feet as an indispensable part
+of the penance. The men, without coats, with handkerchiefs on their
+heads instead of hats, having gone seven times round each heap,
+kiss the ground, cross themselves, and proceed to the hill; here
+they ascend, on their bare knees, by a path so steep and rugged
+that it would be difficult to walk up. Many hold their hands
+clasped at the back of their necks, and several carry large stones
+on their heads. Having repeated this ceremony seven times, they go
+to what is called St. Patrick's Chair, which are two great flat
+stones fixed upright in the hill; here they cross and bless
+themselves as they step in between these stones, and, while
+repeating prayers, an old man, seated for the purpose, turns them
+round on their feet three times, for which he is paid; the devotee
+then goes to conclude his penance at a pile of stones, named the
+Altar. While this busy scene is continued by the multitude, the
+wells and streams issuing from them are thronged by crowds of halt,
+maimed, and blind, pressing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page206"
+name="page206"></a>[pg 206]</span> to wash away their infirmities
+with water consecrated by their patron saint, and so powerful is
+the impression of its efficacy on their minds, that many of those
+who go to be healed, and who are not totally blind, or altogether
+crippled, really believe for a time that they are by means of its
+miraculous virtues perfectly restored."<a id="footnotetag525" name=
+"footnotetag525"></a><a href="#footnote525"><sup>525</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerscotland" name="summerscotland"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Scotland; fires on St. Peter's Day (the
+twenty-ninth of June).]</p>
+<p>In Scotland the traces of midsummer fires are few. We are told
+by a writer of the eighteenth century that "the midsummer-even
+fire, a relict of Druidism," was kindled in some parts of the
+county of Perth.<a id="footnotetag526" name=
+"footnotetag526"></a><a href="#footnote526"><sup>526</sup></a>
+Another writer of the same period, describing what he calls the
+Druidical festivals of the Highlanders, says that "the least
+considerable of them is that of midsummer. In the Highlands of
+Perthshire there are some vestiges of it. The cowherd goes three
+times round the fold, according to the course of the sun, with a
+burning torch in his hand. They imagined this rite had a tendency
+to purify their herds and flocks, and to prevent diseases. At their
+return the landlady makes an entertainment for the cowherd and his
+associates."<a id="footnotetag527" name=
+"footnotetag527"></a><a href="#footnote527"><sup>527</sup></a> In
+the northeast of Scotland, down to the latter half of the
+eighteenth century, farmers used to go round their lands with
+burning torches about the middle of June.<a id="footnotetag528"
+name="footnotetag528"></a><a href="#footnote528"><sup>528</sup></a>
+On the hill of Cairnshee, in the parish of Durris, Kincardineshire,
+the herdsmen of the country round about annually kindle a bonfire
+at sunset on Midsummer Day (the twenty-fourth of June); the men or
+lads collect the fuel and push each other through the smoke and
+flames. The custom is kept up through the benefaction of a certain
+Alexander Hogg, a native of the parish, who died about 1790 and
+left a small sum for the maintenance of a midsummer bonfire on the
+spot, because as <span class="pagenum"><a id="page207" name=
+"page207"></a>[pg 207]</span> a boy he had herded cattle on the
+hill. We may conjecture that in doing so he merely provided for the
+continuance of an old custom which he himself had observed in the
+same place in his youth.<a id="footnotetag529" name=
+"footnotetag529"></a><a href="#footnote529"><sup>529</sup></a> At
+the village of Tarbolton in Ayrshire a bonfire has been annually
+kindled from time immemorial on the evening of the first Monday
+after the eleventh of June. A noted cattle-market was formerly held
+at the fair on the following day. The bonfire is still lit at the
+gloaming by the lads and lasses of the village on a high mound or
+hillock just outside of the village. Fuel for it is collected by
+the lads from door to door. The youth dance round the fire and leap
+over the fringes of it. The many cattle-drovers who used to
+assemble for the fair were wont to gather round the blazing pile,
+smoke their pipes, and listen to the young folk singing in chorus
+on the hillock. Afterwards they wrapped themselves in their plaids
+and slept round the bonfire, which was intended to last all
+night.<a id="footnotetag530" name="footnotetag530"></a><a href=
+"#footnote530"><sup>530</sup></a> Thomas Moresin of Aberdeen, a
+writer of the sixteenth century, says that on St. Peter's Day,
+which is the twenty-ninth of June, the Scotch ran about at night
+with lighted torches on mountains and high grounds, "as Ceres did
+when she roamed the whole earth in search of Proserpine";<a id=
+"footnotetag531" name="footnotetag531"></a><a href=
+"#footnote531"><sup>531</sup></a> and towards the end of the
+eighteenth century the parish minister of Loudoun, a district of
+Ayrshire whose "bonny woods and braes" have been sung by Burns,
+wrote that "the custom still remains amongst the herds and young
+people to kindle fires in the high grounds in honour of Beltan.
+<i>Beltan</i>, which in Gaelic signifies <i>Baal</i>, or
+<i>Bel's-fire</i>, was antiently the time of this solemnity. It is
+now kept on St. Peter's day."<a id="footnotetag532" name=
+"footnotetag532"></a><a href="#footnote532"><sup>532</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page208" name="page208"></a>[pg
+208]</span> <a id="summerspain" name="summerspain"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Spain and the Azores; divination on
+Midsummer Eve in the Azores; the Midsummer fires in Corsica and
+Sardinia.]</p>
+<p>All over Spain great bonfires called <i>lumes</i> are still lit
+on Midsummer Eve. They are kept up all night, and the children leap
+over them in a certain rhythmical way which is said to resemble the
+ancient dances. On the coast, people at this season plunge into the
+sea; in the inland districts the villagers go and roll naked in the
+dew of the meadows, which is supposed to be a sovereign
+preservative against diseases of the skin. On this evening, too,
+girls who would pry into the future put a vessel of water on the
+sill outside their window; and when the clocks strike twelve, they
+break an egg in the water and see, or fancy they see, in the shapes
+assumed by the pulp, as it blends with the liquid, the likeness of
+future bridegrooms, castles, coffins, and so forth. But generally,
+as might perhaps have been anticipated, the obliging egg exhibits
+the features of a bridegroom.<a id="footnotetag533" name=
+"footnotetag533"></a><a href="#footnote533"><sup>533</sup></a> In
+the Azores, also, bonfires are lit on Midsummer Eve (St. John's
+Eve), and boys jump over them for luck. On that night St. John
+himself is supposed to appear in person and bless all the seas and
+waters, driving out the devils and demons who had been disporting
+themselves in them ever since the second day of November; that is
+why in the interval between the second of November and the
+twenty-third of June nobody will bathe in the sea or in a hot
+spring. On Midsummer Eve, too, you can always see the devil, if you
+will go into a garden at midnight. He is invariably found standing
+near a mustard-plant. His reason for adopting this posture has not
+been ascertained; perhaps in the chilly air of the upper world he
+is attracted by the genial warmth of the mustard. Various forms of
+divination are practised by people in the Azores on Midsummer Eve.
+Thus a new-laid egg is broken <span class="pagenum"><a id="page209"
+name="page209"></a>[pg 209]</span> into a glass of water, and the
+shapes which it assumes foreshadow the fate of the person
+concerned. Again, seven saucers are placed in a row, filled
+respectively with water, earth, ashes, keys, a thimble, money, and
+grass, which things signify travel, death, widowhood, housekeeping,
+spinsterhood, riches, and farming. A blindfolded person touches one
+or other of the saucers with a wand and so discovers his or her
+fate. Again, three broad beans are taken; one is left in its skin,
+one is half peeled, and the third is peeled outright. The three
+denote respectively riches, competence, and poverty. They are
+hidden and searched for; and he who finds one of them knows
+accordingly whether he will be rich, moderately well-off, or poor.
+Again, girls take slips of paper and write the names of young men
+twice over on them. These they fold up and crumple and place one
+set under their pillows and the other set in a saucer full of
+water. In the morning they draw one slip of paper from under their
+pillow, and see whether one in the water has opened out. If the
+names on the two slips are the same, it is the name of her future
+husband. Young men do the same with girls' names. Once more, if a
+girl rises at sunrise, goes out into the street, and asks the first
+passer-by his Christian name, that will be her husband's
+name.<a id="footnotetag534" name="footnotetag534"></a><a href=
+"#footnote534"><sup>534</sup></a> Some of these modes of divination
+resemble those which are or used to be practised in Scotland at
+Hallowe'en.<a id="footnotetag535" name=
+"footnotetag535"></a><a href="#footnote535"><sup>535</sup></a> In
+Corsica on the Eve of St. John the people set fire to the trunk of
+a tree or to a whole tree, and the young men and maidens dance
+round the blaze, which is called <i>fucaraia</i>.<a id=
+"footnotetag536" name="footnotetag536"></a><a href=
+"#footnote536"><sup>536</sup></a> We have seen that at Ozieri, in
+Sardinia, a great bonfire is kindled on St. John's Eve, and that
+the young people dance round it.<a id="footnotetag537" name=
+"footnotetag537"></a><a href="#footnote537"><sup>537</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerabruzzi" name="summerabruzzi"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in the Abruzzi; bathing on Midsummer Eve in
+the Abruzzi; the Midsummer fires in Sicily; the witches at
+Midsummer.]</p>
+<p>Passing to Italy, we find that the midsummer fires are still
+lighted on St. John's Eve in many parts of the Abruzzi. They are
+commonest in the territory which was inhabited in antiquity by the
+Vestini; they are rarer in the land of the ancient Marsi, and they
+disappear entirely in the lower valley <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page210" name="page210"></a>[pg 210]</span> of the Sangro. For the
+most part, the fires are fed with straw and dry grass, and are
+kindled in the fields near the villages or on high ground. As they
+blaze up, the people dance round or over them. In leaping across
+the flames the boys cry out, "St. John, preserve my thighs and
+legs!" Formerly it used to be common to light the bonfires also in
+the towns in front of churches of St. John, and the remains of the
+sacred fire were carried home by the people; but this custom has
+mostly fallen into disuse. However, at Celano the practice is still
+kept up of taking brands and ashes from the bonfires to the houses,
+although the fires are no longer kindled in front of the churches,
+but merely in the streets.<a id="footnotetag538" name=
+"footnotetag538"></a><a href="#footnote538"><sup>538</sup></a> In
+the Abruzzi water also is supposed to acquire certain marvellous
+and beneficent properties on St. John's Night. Hence many people
+bathe or at least wash their faces and hands in the sea or a river
+at that season, especially at the moment of sunrise. Such a bath is
+said to be an excellent cure for diseases of the skin. At
+Castiglione a Casauria the people, after washing in the river or in
+springs, gird their waists and wreath their brows with sprigs of
+briony in order to keep them from aches and pains.<a id=
+"footnotetag539" name="footnotetag539"></a><a href=
+"#footnote539"><sup>539</sup></a> In various parts of Sicily, also,
+fires are kindled on Midsummer Eve (St. John's Eve), the
+twenty-third of June. On the Madonie mountains, in the north of the
+island, the herdsmen kindle them at intervals, so that the crests
+of the mountains are seen ablaze in the darkness for many miles.
+About Acireale, on the east coast of the island, the bonfires are
+lit by boys, who jump over them. At Chiaromonte the witches that
+night acquire extraordinary powers; hence everybody then puts a
+broom outside of his house, because a broom is an excellent
+protective against witchcraft.<a id="footnotetag540" name=
+"footnotetag540"></a><a href="#footnote540"><sup>540</sup></a> At
+Orvieto the midsummer fires were specially excepted from the
+prohibition directed against bonfires in general.<a id=
+"footnotetag541" name="footnotetag541"></a><a href=
+"#footnote541"><sup>541</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summermalta" name="summermalta"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Malta ]</p>
+<p>In Malta also the people celebrate Midsummer Eve <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page211" name="page211"></a>[pg 211]</span> (St.
+John's Eve) "by kindling great fires in the public streets, and
+giving their children dolls to carry in their arms on this day, in
+order to make good the prophecy respecting the Baptist, <i>Multi in
+nativitate ejus gaudebunt</i>. Days and even weeks before this
+festival, groups of children are seen going out into the country
+fields to gather straw, twigs, and all sorts of other combustibles,
+which they store up for St. John's Eve. On the night of the
+twenty-third of June, the day before the festival of the Saint,
+great fires are kindled in the streets, squares, and market places
+of the towns and villages of the Island, and as fire after fire
+blazes out of the darkness of that summer night, the effect is
+singularly striking. These fires are sometimes kept up for hours,
+being continually fed by the scores of bystanders, who take great
+delight in throwing amidst the flames some old rickety piece of
+furniture which they consider as lumber in their houses. Lots of
+happy and reckless children, and very often men, are seen merrily
+leaping in succession over and through the crackling flames. At the
+time of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, the Grand Master
+himself, soon after the <i>Angelus</i>, used to leave his palace,
+accompanied by the Grand Prior, the Bishop, and two bailiffs, to
+set fire to some pitch barrels which were placed for the occasion
+in the square facing the sacred Hospital. Great crowds used to
+assemble here in order to assist at this ceremony. The setting
+ablaze of the five casks, and later on of the eight casks, by the
+Grand Master, was a signal for the others to kindle their fires in
+the different parts of the town."<a id="footnotetag542" name=
+"footnotetag542"></a><a href="#footnote542"><sup>542</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summergreece" name="summergreece"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in Greece; the Midsummer fires in Macedonia
+and Albania.]</p>
+<p>In Greece, the custom of kindling fires on St. John's Eve and
+jumping over them is said to be still universal. One reason
+assigned for it is a wish to escape from the fleas.<a id=
+"footnotetag543" name="footnotetag543"></a><a href=
+"#footnote543"><sup>543</sup></a> According to another account, the
+women cry out, as they leap over the fire, "I leave my sins behind
+me."<a id="footnotetag544" name="footnotetag544"></a><a href=
+"#footnote544"><sup>544</sup></a> In Lesbos the fires on St. John's
+Eve are usually lighted by threes, and <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page212" name="page212"></a>[pg 212]</span> the people spring
+thrice over them, each with a stone on his head, saying, "I jump
+the hare's fire, my head a stone!" On the morning of St. John's Day
+those who dwell near the coast go to bathe in the sea. As they go
+they gird themselves with osiers, and when they are in the water
+they let the osiers float away, saying, "Let my maladies go away!"
+Then they look for what is called "the hairy stone," which
+possesses the remarkable property not only of keeping moths from
+clothes but even of multiplying the clothes in the chest where it
+is laid up, and the more hairs on the stone the more will the
+clothes multiply in the chest.<a id="footnotetag545" name=
+"footnotetag545"></a><a href="#footnote545"><sup>545</sup></a> In
+Calymnos the midsummer fire is supposed to ensure abundance in the
+coming year as well as deliverance from fleas. The people dance
+round the fires singing, with stones on their heads, and then jump
+over the blaze or the glowing embers. When the fire is burning low,
+they throw the stones into it; and when it is nearly out, they make
+crosses on their legs and then go straightway and bathe in the
+sea.<a id="footnotetag546" name="footnotetag546"></a><a href=
+"#footnote546"><sup>546</sup></a> In Cos the lads and lasses dance
+round the bonfires on St. John's Eve. Each of the lads binds a
+black stone on his head, signifying that he wishes to become as
+strong as the stone. Also they make the sign of the cross on their
+feet and legs and jump over the fire.<a id="footnotetag547" name=
+"footnotetag547"></a><a href="#footnote547"><sup>547</sup></a> On
+Midsummer Eve the Greeks of Macedonia light fires after supper in
+front of their gates. The garlands, now faded, which were hung over
+the doors on May Day, are taken down and cast into the flames,
+after which the young folk leap over the blaze, fully persuaded
+that St. John's fire will not burn them.<a id="footnotetag548"
+name="footnotetag548"></a><a href="#footnote548"><sup>548</sup></a>
+In Albania fires of dry herbage are, or used to be, lit everywhere
+on St. John's Eve; young and old leap over them, for such a leap is
+thought to be good for the health.<a id="footnotetag549" name=
+"footnotetag549"></a><a href="#footnote549"><sup>549</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summeramerica" name="summeramerica"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires in America.]</p>
+<p>From the Old World the midsummer fires have been <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page213" name="page213"></a>[pg 213]</span>
+carried across the Atlantic to America. In Brazil people jump over
+the fires of St. John, and at this season they can take hot coals
+in their mouths without burning themselves.<a id="footnotetag550"
+name="footnotetag550"></a><a href="#footnote550"><sup>550</sup></a>
+In Bolivia on the Eve of St. John it is usual to see bonfires
+lighted on the hills and even in the streets of the capital La Paz.
+As the city stands at the bottom of an immense ravine, and the
+Indians of the neighbourhood take a pride in kindling bonfires on
+heights which might seem inaccessible, the scene is very striking
+when the darkness of night is suddenly and simultaneously lit up by
+hundreds of fires, which cast a glare on surrounding objects,
+producing an effect at once weird and picturesque.<a id=
+"footnotetag551" name="footnotetag551"></a><a href=
+"#footnote551"><sup>551</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summermorocco" name="summermorocco"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer fires among the Mohammedans of Morocco and
+Algeria.]</p>
+<p>The custom of kindling bonfires on Midsummer Day or on Midsummer
+Eve is widely spread among the Mohammedan peoples of North Africa,
+particularly in Morocco and Algeria; it is common both to the
+Berbers and to many of the Arabs or Arabic-speaking tribes. In
+these countries Midsummer Day (the twenty-fourth of June, Old
+Style) is called [Arabic: <i>l'ansara</i>]. The fires are lit in
+the courtyards, at cross-roads, in the fields, and sometimes on the
+threshing-floors. Plants which in burning give out a thick smoke
+and an aromatic smell are much sought after for fuel on these
+occasions; among the plants used for the purpose are giant-fennel,
+thyme, rue, chervil-seed, camomile, geranium, and penny-royal.
+People expose themselves, and especially their children, to the
+smoke, and drive it towards the orchards and the crops. Also they
+leap across the fires; in some places everybody ought to repeat the
+leap seven times. Moreover they take burning brands from the fires
+and carry them through the houses in order to fumigate them. They
+pass things through the fire, and bring the sick into contact with
+it, while they utter prayers for their recovery. The ashes of the
+bonfires are also reputed to possess beneficial properties; hence
+in some places people rub their hair or their bodies with
+them.<a id="footnotetag552" name="footnotetag552"></a><a href=
+"#footnote552"><sup>552</sup></a> For example, the Andjra
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page214" name="page214"></a>[pg
+214]</span> mountaineers of Morocco kindle large fires in open
+places of their villages on Midsummer Day. Men, women, and children
+jump over the flames or the glowing embers, believing that by so
+doing they rid themselves of all misfortune which may be clinging
+to them; they imagine, also, that such leaps cure the sick and
+procure offspring for childless couples. Moreover, they burn straw,
+together with some marjoram and alum, in the fold where the cattle,
+sheep, and goats are penned for the night; the smoke, in their
+opinion, will make the animals thrive. On Midsummer Day the Arabs
+of the Mnasara tribe make fires outside their tents, near their
+animals, on their fields, and in their gardens. Large quantities of
+penny-royal are burned in these fires, and over some of them the
+people leap thrice to and fro. Sometimes small fires are also
+kindled inside the tents. They say that the smoke confers blessings
+on everything with which it comes into contact. At Salee, on the
+Atlantic coast of Morocco, persons who suffer from diseased eyes
+rub them with the ashes of the midsummer fire; and in Casablanca
+and Azemmur the people hold their faces over the fire, because the
+smoke is thought to be good for the eyes. The Arab tribe Ulad Bu
+Aziz, in the Dukkala province of Morocco, kindle midsummer
+bonfires, not for themselves and their cattle, but only for crops
+and fruit; nobody likes to reap his crops before Midsummer Day,
+because if he did they would lose the benefit of the blessed
+influence which flows from the smoke of the bonfires. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page215" name="page215"></a>[pg 215]</span> Again,
+the Beni Mgild, a Berber tribe of Morocco, light fires of straw on
+Midsummer Eve and leap thrice over them to and fro. They let some
+of the smoke pass underneath their clothes, and married women hold
+their breasts over the fire, in order that their children may be
+strong. Moreover, they paint their eyes and lips with some black
+powder, in which ashes of the bonfire are mixed. And in order that
+their horses may also benefit by the fires, they dip the right
+forelegs of the animals in the smoke and flames or in the hot
+embers, and they rub ashes on the foreheads and between the
+nostrils of the horses. Berbers of the Rif province, in northern
+Morocco, similarly make great use of fires at midsummer for the
+good of themselves, their cattle, and their fruit-trees. They jump
+over the bonfires in the belief that this will preserve them in
+good health, and they light fires under fruit-trees to keep the
+fruit from falling untimely. And they imagine that by rubbing a
+paste of the ashes on their hair they prevent the hair from falling
+off their heads.<a id="footnotetag553" name=
+"footnotetag553"></a><a href="#footnote553"><sup>553</sup></a></p>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>In all these Moroccan customs, we are told, the beneficial
+effect is attributed wholly to the smoke, which is supposed to be
+endued with a magical quality that removes misfortune from men,
+animals, fruit-trees, and crops. But in some parts of Morocco
+people at midsummer kindle fires of a different sort, not for the
+sake of fumigation, but in order to burn up misfortune in the
+flames. Thus on Midsummer Eve the Berber tribe of the Beni Mgild
+burn three sheaves of unthreshed wheat or barley, "one for the
+children, one for the crops, and one for the animals." On the same
+occasion they burn the tent of a widow who has never given birth to
+a child; by so doing they think to rid the village of ill luck. It
+is said that at midsummer the Zemmur burn a tent, which belongs to
+somebody who was killed in war during a feast; or if there is no
+such person in the village, the schoolmaster's tent is burned
+instead. Among the Arabic-speaking Beni Ahsen it is customary for
+those who live near the river Sbu to make a little hut of straw at
+midsummer, set it on fire, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page216"
+name="page216"></a>[pg 216]</span> and let it float down the river.
+Similarly the inhabitants of Salee burn a straw hut on the river
+which flows past their town.<a id="footnotetag554" name=
+"footnotetag554"></a><a href="#footnote554"><sup>554</sup></a></p>
+<p>Further it deserves to be noticed that in Northern Africa, as in
+Southern Europe, the midsummer festival comprises rites concerned
+with water as well as with fire. For example, among the Beni-Snous
+the women light a fire in an oven, throw perfumes into it, and
+circumambulate a tank, which they also incense after a fashion. In
+many places on the coast, as in the province of Oran and
+particularly in the north of Morocco, everybody goes and bathes in
+the sea at midsummer; and in many towns of the interior, such as
+Fez, Mequinez, and especially Merrakech, people throw water over
+each other on this day; and where water is scarce, earth is used
+instead, according to the Mohammedan principle which permits
+ablutions to be performed with earth or sand when water cannot be
+spared for the purpose.<a id="footnotetag555" name=
+"footnotetag555"></a><a href="#footnote555"><sup>555</sup></a>
+People of the Andjra district in Morocco not only bathe themselves
+in the sea or in rivers at midsummer, they also bathe their
+animals, their horses, mules, donkeys, cattle, sheep, and goats;
+for they think that on that day water possesses a blessed virtue
+(<i>baraka</i>), which removes sickness and misfortune. In Aglu,
+again, men, women, and children bathe in the sea or springs or
+rivers at midsummer, alleging that by so doing they protect
+themselves against disease for the whole year. Among the Berbers of
+the Rif district the custom of bathing on this day is commonly
+observed, and animals share the ablutions.<a id="footnotetag556"
+name="footnotetag556"></a><a href=
+"#footnote556"><sup>556</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerwater" name="summerwater"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>The celebration of a midsummer festival by Mohammedan peoples is
+particularly remarkable, because the Mohammedan calendar, being
+purely lunar and uncorrected by intercalation, necessarily takes no
+note of festivals which occupy fixed points in the solar year; all
+strictly Mohammedan feasts, being pinned to the moon, slide
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page217" name="page217"></a>[pg
+217]</span> gradually with that luminary through the whole period
+of the earth's revolution about the sun. This fact of itself seems
+to prove that among the Mohammedan peoples of Northern Africa, as
+among the Christian peoples of Europe, the midsummer festival is
+quite independent of the religion which the people publicly
+profess, and is a relic of a far older paganism. There are, indeed,
+independent grounds for thinking that the Arabs enjoyed the
+advantage of a comparatively well-regulated solar year before the
+prophet of God saddled them with the absurdity and inconvenience of
+a purely lunar calendar.<a id="footnotetag557" name=
+"footnotetag557"></a><a href="#footnote557"><sup>557</sup></a> Be
+that as it may, it is notable that some Mohammedan people of North
+Africa kindle fires and bathe in water at the movable New Year of
+their lunar calendar instead of at the fixed Midsummer of the solar
+year; while others again practise these observances at both
+seasons. New Year's Day, on which the rites are celebrated, is
+called <i>Ashur</i>; it is the tenth day of Moharram, the first
+month of the Mohammedan calendar. On that day bonfires are kindled
+in Tunis and also at Merrakech and among some tribes of the
+neighbourhood.<a id="footnotetag558" name=
+"footnotetag558"></a><a href="#footnote558"><sup>558</sup></a> At
+Demnat, in the Great Atlas mountains, people kindle a large bonfire
+on New Year's Eve and leap to and fro over the flames, uttering
+words which imply that by these leaps they think to purify
+themselves from all kinds of evil. At Aglu, in the province of Sus,
+the fire is lighted at three different points by an unmarried girl,
+and when it has died down the young men leap over the glowing
+embers, saying, "We shook on you, O Lady Ashur, fleas, and lice,
+and the illnesses of the heart, as also those of the bones; we
+shall pass through you again next year and the following years with
+safety and health." Both at Aglu and Glawi, in the Great Atlas,
+smaller fires are also kindled, over which the animals <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page218" name="page218"></a>[pg 218]</span> are
+driven. At Demnat girls who wish to marry wash themselves in water
+which has been boiled over the New Year fire; and in Dukkala people
+use the ashes of that fire to rub sore eyes with. New Year fires
+appear to be commonly kindled among the Berbers who inhabit the
+western portion of the Great Atlas, and also among the
+Arabic-speaking tribes of the plains; but Dr. Westermarck found no
+traces of such fires among the Arabic-speaking mountaineers of
+Northern Morocco and the Berbers of the Rif province. Further, it
+should be observed that water ceremonies like those which are
+practised at Midsummer are very commonly observed in Morocco at the
+New Year, that is, on the tenth day of the first month. On the
+morning of that day (<i>Ashur</i>) all water or, according to some
+people, only spring water is endowed with a magical virtue
+(<i>baraka</i>), especially before sunrise. Hence at that time the
+people bathe and pour water over each other; in some places they
+also sprinkle their animals, tents, or rooms. In Dukkala some of
+the New Year water is preserved at home till New Year's Day
+(<i>Ashur</i>) of next year; some of it is kept to be used as
+medicine, some of it is poured on the place where the corn is
+threshed, and some is used to water the money which is to be buried
+in the ground; for the people think that the earth-spirits will not
+be able to steal the buried treasures which have thus been
+sanctified with the holy water.<a id="footnotetag559" name=
+"footnotetag559"></a><a href="#footnote559"><sup>559</sup></a></p>
+<a id="summerberber" name="summerberber"></a>
+<p>[The Midsummer festival in Morocco seems to be of Berber
+origin.]</p>
+<p>Thus the rites of fire and water which are observed in Morocco
+at Midsummer and New Year appear to be identical in character and
+intention, and it seems certain that the duplication of the rites
+is due to a conflict between two calendars, namely the old Julian
+calendar of the Romans, which was based on the sun, and the newer
+Mohammedan calendar of the Arabs, which is based on the moon. For
+not only was the Julian calendar in use throughout the whole of
+Northern Africa under the Roman Empire; to this day it is
+everywhere employed among Mohammedans for the regulation of
+agriculture and all the affairs of daily life; its practical
+convenience has made it indispensable, <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page219" name="page219"></a>[pg 219]</span> and the lunar calendar
+of orthodox Mohammedanism is scarcely used except for purposes of
+chronology. Even the old Latin names of the months are known and
+employed, in slightly disguised forms, throughout the whole Moslem
+world; and little calendars of the Julian year circulate in
+manuscript among Mohammedans, permitting them to combine the
+practical advantages of pagan science with a nominal adherence to
+orthodox absurdity.<a id="footnotetag560" name=
+"footnotetag560"></a><a href="#footnote560"><sup>560</sup></a> Thus
+the heathen origin of the midsummer festival is too palpable to
+escape the attention of good Mohammedans, who accordingly frown
+upon the midsummer bonfires as pagan superstitions, precisely as
+similar observances in Europe have often been denounced by orthodox
+Christianity. Indeed, many religious people in Morocco entirely
+disapprove of the whole of the midsummer ceremonies, maintaining
+that they are all bad; and a conscientious schoolmaster will even
+refuse his pupils a holiday at midsummer, though the boys sometimes
+offer him a bribe if he will sacrifice his scruples to his
+avarice.<a id="footnotetag561" name="footnotetag561"></a><a href=
+"#footnote561"><sup>561</sup></a> As the midsummer customs appear
+to flourish among all the Berbers of Morocco but to be unknown
+among the pure Arabs who have not been affected by Berber
+influence, it seems reasonable to infer with Dr. Westermarck that
+the midsummer festival has belonged from time immemorial to the
+Berber race, and that so far as it is now observed by the Arabs of
+Morocco, it has been learned by them from the Berbers, the old
+indigenous inhabitants of the country. Dr. Westermarck may also be
+right in holding that, in spite of the close similarity which
+obtains between the midsummer festival of Europe and the midsummer
+festival of North Africa, the latter is not a copy of the former,
+but that both have been handed down independently from a time
+beyond the purview of history, when such ceremonies were common to
+the Mediterranean race.<a id="footnotetag562" name=
+"footnotetag562"></a><a href="#footnote562"><sup>562</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page220" name="page220"></a>[pg
+220]</span>
+<h4><a id="sect4-5" name="sect4-5">&sect; 5. <i>The Autumn
+Fires</i></a></h4>
+<a id="autumnaugust" name="autumnaugust"></a>
+<p>[Festivals of fire in August; Russian feast of Florus and Laurus
+on August 18th; "Living fire" made by the friction of wood.]</p>
+<p>In the months which elapse between midsummer and the setting in
+of winter the European festivals of fire appear to be few and
+unimportant. On the evening of the first day of August, which is
+the Festival of the Cross, bonfires are commonly lit in Macedonia
+and boys jump over them, shouting, "Dig up! bury!" but whom or what
+they wish to dig up or bury they do not know.<a id="footnotetag563"
+name="footnotetag563"></a><a href="#footnote563"><sup>563</sup></a>
+The Russians hold the feast of two martyrs, Florus and Laurus, on
+the eighteenth day of August, Old Style. "On this day the Russians
+lead their horses round the church of their village, beside which
+on the foregoing evening they dig a hole with two mouths. Each
+horse has a bridle made of the bark of the linden-tree. The horses
+go through this hole one after the other, opposite to one of the
+mouths of which the priest stands with a sprinkler in his hand,
+with which he sprinkles them. As soon as the horses have passed by
+their bridles are taken off, and they are made to go between two
+fires that they kindle, called by the Russians <i>Givoy Agon</i>,
+that is to say, living fires, of which I shall give an account. I
+shall before remark, that the Russian peasantry throw the bridles
+of their horses into one of these fires to be consumed. This is the
+manner of their lighting these <i>givoy agon</i>, or living fires.
+Some men hold the ends of a stick made of the plane-tree, very dry,
+and about a fathom long. This stick they hold firmly over one of
+birch, perfectly dry, and rub with violence and quickly against the
+former; the birch, which is somewhat softer than the plane, in a
+short time inflames, and serves them to light both the fires I have
+described."<a id="footnotetag564" name=
+"footnotetag564"></a><a href="#footnote564"><sup>564</sup></a></p>
+<a id="autumnnativity" name="autumnnativity"></a>
+<p>[Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin on the eighth of September
+at Capri and Naples.]</p>
+<p>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 <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page221" name="page221"></a>[pg 221]</span> 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 fa&ccedil;ade
+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."</p>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>It is no doubt possible that these illuminations and fireworks,
+like the assassinations, are merely the natural and spontaneous
+expressions of that overflowing joy with which the thought of the
+birth of the Virgin must fill every pious heart; but when we
+remember how often the Church has skilfully decanted the new wine
+of Christianity into the old bottles of heathendom, we may be
+allowed to conjecture that the ecclesiastical authorities adroitly
+timed the Nativity of the Virgin so as to coincide with an old
+pagan festival <span class="pagenum"><a id="page222" name=
+"page222"></a>[pg 222]</span> of that day, in which fire, noise,
+and uproar, if not broken heads and bloodshed, were conspicuous
+features. The penny trumpets blown on this occasion recall the like
+melodious instruments which figure so largely in the celebration of
+Befana (the Eve of Epiphany) at Rome.<a id="footnotetag565" name=
+"footnotetag565"></a><a href="#footnote565"><sup>565</sup></a></p>
+<h4><a id="sect4-6" name="sect4-6">&sect; 6. <i>The Hallowe'en
+Fires</i></a></h4>
+<a id="halloweencelts" name="halloweencelts"></a>
+<p>[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).]</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>But while this may be regarded as fairly certain for what we may
+call the aborigines throughout a large part of the continent, it
+appears not to have been true of the Celtic peoples who inhabited
+the Land's End of Europe, the islands and promontories that stretch
+out into the Atlantic ocean on the North-West. The principal
+fire-festivals of the Celts, which have survived, though in a
+restricted area and with diminished pomp, to modern times and even
+to our own day, were seemingly timed without any reference to the
+position of the sun in the heaven. They were two in number, and
+fell at an interval of six months, one being celebrated on the eve
+of May Day and the other on Allhallow Even or Hallowe'en, as it is
+now commonly called, that is, on the thirty-first of October, the
+day preceding All Saints' or Allhallows' Day. These dates coincide
+with none of the four great hinges on which the solar year
+revolves, to wit, the solstices and the equinoxes. Nor do they
+agree with the principal seasons of the agricultural <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page223" name="page223"></a>[pg 223]</span> year,
+the sowing in spring and the reaping in autumn. For when May Day
+comes, the seed has long been committed to the earth; and when
+November opens, the harvest has long been reaped and garnered, the
+fields lie bare, the fruit-trees are stripped, and even the yellow
+leaves are fast fluttering to the ground. Yet the first of May and
+the first of November mark turning-points of the year in Europe;
+the one ushers in the genial heat and the rich vegetation of
+summer, the other heralds, if it does not share, the cold and
+barrenness of winter. Now these particular points of the year, as
+has been well pointed out by a learned and ingenious writer,<a id=
+"footnotetag566" name="footnotetag566"></a><a href=
+"#footnote566"><sup>566</sup></a> while they are of comparatively
+little moment to the European husbandman, do deeply concern the
+European herdsman; for it is on the approach of summer that he
+drives his cattle out into the open to crop the fresh grass, and it
+is on the approach of winter that he leads them back to the safety
+and shelter of the stall. Accordingly it seems not improbable that
+the Celtic bisection of the year into two halves at the beginning
+of May and the beginning of November dates from a time when the
+Celts were mainly a pastoral people, dependent for their
+subsistence on their herds, and when accordingly the great epochs
+of the year for them were the days on which the cattle went forth
+from the homestead in early summer and returned to it again in
+early winter.<a id="footnotetag567" name=
+"footnotetag567"></a><a href="#footnote567"><sup>567</sup></a> Even
+in Central Europe, remote from the region now occupied by the
+Celts, a similar bisection of the year may be clearly traced in the
+great popularity, on the one hand, of May Day and its Eve
+(Walpurgis Night), and, on the other hand, of the Feast of All
+Souls at the beginning of November, <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page224" name="page224"></a>[pg 224]</span> which under a thin
+Christian cloak conceals an ancient pagan festival of the
+dead.<a id="footnotetag568" name="footnotetag568"></a><a href=
+"#footnote568"><sup>568</sup></a> Hence we may conjecture that
+everywhere throughout Europe the celestial division of the year
+according to the solstices was preceded by what we may call a
+terrestrial division of the year according to the beginning of
+summer and the beginning of winter.</p>
+<a id="halloweenbeltane" name="halloweenbeltane"></a>
+<p>[The two great Celtic festivals, Beltane and Hallowe'en.]</p>
+<p>Be that as it may, the two great Celtic festivals of May Day and
+the first of November or, to be more accurate, the Eves of these
+two days, closely resemble each other in the manner of their
+celebration and in the superstitions associated with them, and
+alike, by the antique character impressed upon both, betray a
+remote and purely pagan origin. The festival of May Day or Beltane,
+as the Celts called it, which ushered in summer, has already been
+described;<a id="footnotetag569" name="footnotetag569"></a><a href=
+"#footnote569"><sup>569</sup></a> it remains to give some account
+of the corresponding festival of Hallowe'en, which announced the
+arrival of winter.</p>
+<a id="halloweenbeginning" name="halloweenbeginning"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>Of the two feasts Hallowe'en was perhaps of old the more
+important, since the Celts would seem to have dated the beginning
+of the year from it rather than from Beltane. In the Isle of Man,
+one of the fortresses in which the Celtic language and lore longest
+held out against the siege of the Saxon invaders, the first of
+November, Old Style, has been regarded as New Year's day down to
+recent times. Thus Manx mummers used to go round on Hallowe'en (Old
+Style), singing, in the Manx language, a sort of Hogmanay song
+which began "To-night is New Year's Night, <i>Hog-unnaa</i>!"<a id=
+"footnotetag570" name="footnotetag570"></a><a href=
+"#footnote570"><sup>570</sup></a> One of Sir John Rhys's Manx
+informants, an old man of sixty-seven, "had been a farm servant
+from the age of sixteen till he was twenty-six to the same man,
+near Regaby, in the parish of Andreas, and he remembers his master
+and a near neighbour of his discussing the term New Year's Day as
+applied to the first of November, and explaining to the younger men
+that it had always been so in old <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page225" name="page225"></a>[pg 225]</span> times. In fact, it
+seemed to him natural enough, as all tenure of land ends at that
+time, and as all servant men begin their service then."<a id=
+"footnotetag571" name="footnotetag571"></a><a href=
+"#footnote571"><sup>571</sup></a> In ancient Ireland, as we saw, a
+new fire used to be kindled every year on Hallowe'en or the Eve of
+Samhain, and from this sacred flame all the fires in Ireland were
+rekindled.<a id="footnotetag572" name="footnotetag572"></a><a href=
+"#footnote572"><sup>572</sup></a> Such a custom points strongly to
+Samhain or All Saints' Day (the first of November) as New Year's
+Day; since the annual kindling of a new fire takes place most
+naturally at the beginning of the year, in order that the blessed
+influence of the fresh fire may last throughout the whole period of
+twelve months. Another confirmation of the view that the Celts
+dated their year from the first of November is furnished by the
+manifold modes of divination which, as we shall see presently, were
+commonly resorted to by Celtic peoples on Hallowe'en for the
+purpose of ascertaining their destiny, especially their fortune in
+the coming year; for when could these devices for prying into the
+future be more reasonably put in practice than at the beginning of
+the year? As a season of omens and auguries Hallowe'en seems to
+have far surpassed Beltane in the imagination of the Celts; from
+which we may with some probability infer that they reckoned their
+year from Hallowe'en rather than Beltane. Another circumstance of
+great moment which points to the same conclusion is the association
+of the dead with Hallowe'en. Not only among the Celts but
+throughout Europe, Hallowe'en, the night which marks the transition
+from autumn to winter, seems to have been of old the time of year
+when the souls of the departed were supposed to revisit their old
+homes in order to warm themselves by the fire and to comfort
+themselves with the good cheer provided for them in the kitchen or
+the parlour by their affectionate kinsfolk.<a id="footnotetag573"
+name="footnotetag573"></a><a href="#footnote573"><sup>573</sup></a>
+It was, perhaps, a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page226" name=
+"page226"></a>[pg 226]</span> natural thought that the approach of
+winter should drive the poor shivering hungry ghosts from the bare
+fields and the leafless woodlands to the shelter of the cottage
+with its familiar fireside.<a id="footnotetag574" name=
+"footnotetag574"></a><a href="#footnote574"><sup>574</sup></a> Did
+not the lowing kine then troop back from the summer pastures in the
+forests and on the hills to be fed and cared for in the stalls,
+while the bleak winds whistled among the swaying boughs and the
+snow drifts deepened in the hollows? and could the good-man and the
+good-wife deny to the spirits of their dead the welcome which they
+gave to the cows?</p>
+<a id="halloweenfairies" name="halloweenfairies"></a>
+<p>[Fairies and Hobgoblins let loose at Hallowe'en.]</p>
+<p>But it is not only the souls of the departed who are supposed to
+be hovering unseen on the day "when autumn to winter resigns the
+pale year." Witches then speed on their errands of mischief, some
+sweeping through the air on besoms, others galloping along the
+roads on tabby-cats, which for that evening are turned into
+coal-black steeds.<a id="footnotetag575" name=
+"footnotetag575"></a><a href="#footnote575"><sup>575</sup></a> The
+fairies, too, are all let loose, and hobgoblins of every sort roam
+freely about In South Uist and Eriskay there is a
+saying:&mdash;</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>"Hallowe'en will come, will come,</p>
+<p>Witchcraft [or divination] will be set agoing,</p>
+<p>Fairies will be at full speed,</p>
+<p>Running in every pass.</p>
+<p>Avoid the road, children, children."<a id="footnotetag576" name=
+"footnotetag576"></a><a href="#footnote576"><sup>576</sup></a></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>[Dancing with the fairies at Hallowe'en.]</p>
+<p>In Cardiganshire on November Eve a bogie sits on every
+stile.<a id="footnotetag577" name="footnotetag577"></a><a href=
+"#footnote577"><sup>577</sup></a> On that night in Ireland all the
+fairy hills are thrown wide open and the fairies swarm forth; any
+man who is bold enough may then peep into the open green hills and
+see the treasures hidden in them. Worse than that, the cave of
+Cruachan in Connaught, known as "the Hell-gate of Ireland," is
+unbarred on Samhain Eve or Hallowe'en, and a host of horrible
+fiends and goblins used to rush forth, particularly a flock of
+copper-red birds, which <span class="pagenum"><a id="page227" name=
+"page227"></a>[pg 227]</span> blighted crops and killed animals by
+their poisonous breath.<a id="footnotetag578" name=
+"footnotetag578"></a><a href="#footnote578"><sup>578</sup></a> The
+Scotch Highlanders have a special name <i>Samhanach</i> (derived
+from <i>Samhain</i>, "All-hallows") for the dreadful bogies that go
+about that night stealing babies and committing other
+atrocities.<a id="footnotetag579" name=
+"footnotetag579"></a><a href="#footnote579"><sup>579</sup></a> And
+though the fairies are a kindlier folk, it is dangerous to see even
+them at their revels on Hallowe'en. A melancholy case of this sort
+is reported from the Ferintosh district of the Highlands, though
+others say that it happened at the Slope of Big Stones in Harris.
+Two young men were coming home after nightfall on Hallowe'en, each
+with a jar of whisky on his back, when they saw, as they thought, a
+house all lit up by the roadside, from which proceeded the sounds
+of music and dancing. In reality it was not a house at all but a
+fairy knoll, and it was the fairies who were jigging it about there
+so merrily. But one of the young men was deceived and stepping into
+the house joined in the dance, without even stopping to put down
+the jar of whisky. His companion was wiser; he had a shrewd
+suspicion that the place was not what it seemed, and on entering he
+took the precaution of sticking a needle in the door. That disarmed
+the power of the fairies, and he got away safely. Well, that day
+twelve months he came back to the spot and what should he see but
+his poor friend still dancing away with the jar of whisky on his
+back? A weary man was he, as you may well believe, but he begged to
+be allowed to finish the reel which he was in the act of executing,
+and when they took him out into the open air, there was nothing of
+him left but skin and bones.<a id="footnotetag580" name=
+"footnotetag580"></a><a href="#footnote580"><sup>580</sup></a>
+Again, the wicked fairies are apt to carry off men's wives with
+them to fairyland; but the lost spouses can be recovered within a
+year and a day when the procession of the fairies is defiling past
+on Hallowe'en, always provided that the mortals did not partake of
+elfin food while they were in elfinland.<a id="footnotetag581"
+name="footnotetag581"></a><a href=
+"#footnote581"><sup>581</sup></a></p>
+<p>[Guleesh and the revels of the fairies at Hallowe'en.]</p>
+<p>Sometimes valuable information may be obtained from the fairies
+on Hallowe'en. There was a young man named <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page228" name="page228"></a>[pg 228]</span>
+Guleesh in the County of Mayo. Near his house was a <i>rath</i> or
+old fort with a fine grass bank running round it. One Hallowe'en,
+when the darkness was falling, Guleesh went to the rath and stood
+on a gray old flag. The night was calm and still; there was not a
+breath of wind stirring, nor a sound to be heard except the hum of
+the insects flitting past, or the whistle of the plovers, or the
+hoarse scream of the wild geese as they winged their way far
+overhead. Above the white fog the moon rose like a knob of fire in
+the east, and a thousand thousand stars were twinkling in the sky.
+There was a little frost in the air, the grass was white and crisp
+and crackled under foot. Guleesh expected to see the fairies, but
+they did not come. Hour after hour wore away, and he was just
+bethinking him of going home to bed, when his ear caught a sound
+far off coming towards him, and he knew what it was in a moment.
+The sound grew louder and louder; at first it was like the beating
+of waves on a stony shore, then it was like the roar of a
+waterfall, at last it was like a mighty rushing wind in the tops of
+the trees, then the storm burst upon the rath, and sure enough the
+fairies were in it. The rout went by so suddenly that Guleesh lost
+his breath; but he came to himself and listened. The fairies were
+now gathered within the grassy bank of the rath, and a fine uproar
+they made. But Guleesh listened with all his ears, and he heard one
+fairy saying to another that a magic herb grew by Guleesh's own
+door, and that Guleesh had nothing to do but pluck it and boil it
+and give it to his sweetheart, the daughter of the King of France,
+and she would be well, for just then she was lying very ill.
+Guleesh took the hint, and everything went as the fairy had said.
+And he married the daughter of the King of France; and they had
+never a cark nor a care, a sickness nor a sorrow, a mishap nor a
+misfortune to the day of their death.<a id="footnotetag582" name=
+"footnotetag582"></a><a href="#footnote582"><sup>582</sup></a></p>
+<a id="halloweendivination" name="halloweendivination"></a>
+<p>[Divination resorted to in Celtic countries at Hallowe'en.]</p>
+<p>In all Celtic countries Hallowe'en seems to have been the great
+season of the year for prying into the future; all kinds of
+divination were put in practice that night. We read that Dathi, a
+king of Ireland in the fifth century, <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page229" name="page229"></a>[pg 229]</span> happening to be at the
+Druids' Hill (<i>Cnoc-nan-druad</i>) in the county of Sligo one
+Hallowe'en, ordered his druid to forecast for him the future from
+that day till the next Hallowe'en should come round. The druid
+passed the night on the top of the hill, and next morning made a
+prediction to the king which came true.<a id="footnotetag583" name=
+"footnotetag583"></a><a href="#footnote583"><sup>583</sup></a> In
+Wales Hallowe'en was the weirdest of all the <i>Teir Nos
+Ysbrydion</i>, or Three Spirit Nights, when the wind, "blowing over
+the feet of the corpses," bore sighs to the houses of those who
+were to die within the year. People thought that if on that night
+they went out to a cross-road and listened to the wind, they would
+learn all the most important things that would befall them during
+the next twelve months.<a id="footnotetag584" name=
+"footnotetag584"></a><a href="#footnote584"><sup>584</sup></a> In
+Wales, too, not so long ago women used to congregate in the parish
+churches on the night of Hallowe'en and read their fate from the
+flame of the candle which each of them held in her hand; also they
+heard the names or saw the coffins of the parishioners who would
+die within the year, and many were the sad scenes to which these
+gloomy visions gave rise.<a id="footnotetag585" name=
+"footnotetag585"></a><a href="#footnote585"><sup>585</sup></a> And
+in the Highlands of Scotland anybody who pleased could hear
+proclaimed aloud the names of parishioners doomed to perish within
+the next twelve months, if he would only take a three-legged stool
+and go and sit on it at three cross-roads, while the church clock
+was striking twelve at midnight on Hallowe'en. It was even in his
+power to save the destined victims from their doom by taking with
+him articles of wearing apparel and throwing them away, one by one,
+as each name was called out by the mysterious voice.<a id=
+"footnotetag586" name="footnotetag586"></a><a href=
+"#footnote586"><sup>586</sup></a></p>
+<a id="halloweenscotland" name="halloweenscotland"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>But while a glamour of mystery and awe has always clung to
+Hallowe'en in the minds of the Celtic peasantry, the popular
+celebration of the festival has been, at least in modern times, by
+no means of a prevailingly gloomy cast; on the contrary it has been
+attended by picturesque features and <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page230" name="page230"></a>[pg 230]</span> merry pastimes, which
+rendered it the gayest night of all the year. Amongst the things
+which in the Highlands of Scotland contributed to invest the
+festival with a romantic beauty were the bonfires which used to
+blaze at frequent intervals on the heights. "On the last day of
+autumn children gathered ferns, tar-barrels, the long thin stalks
+called <i>g&agrave;inisg</i>, and everything suitable for a
+bonfire. These were placed in a heap on some eminence near the
+house, and in the evening set fire to. The fires were called
+<i>Samhnagan</i>. There was one for each house, and it was an
+object of ambition who should have the biggest. Whole districts
+were brilliant with bonfires, and their glare across a Highland
+loch, and from many eminences, formed an exceedingly picturesque
+scene."<a id="footnotetag587" name="footnotetag587"></a><a href=
+"#footnote587"><sup>587</sup></a> Like the Beltane fires on the
+first of May, the Hallowe'en bonfires seem to have been kindled
+most commonly in the Perthshire Highlands. Travelling in the parish
+of Moulin, near Pitlochrie, in the year 1772, the Englishman Thomas
+Pennant writes that "Hallow Eve is also kept sacred: as soon as it
+is dark, a person sets fire to a bush of broom fastened round a
+pole, and, attended with a crowd, runs about the village. He then
+flings it down, heaps great quantity of combustible matters on it,
+and makes a great bonfire. A whole tract is thus illuminated at the
+same time, and makes a fine appearance."<a id="footnotetag588"
+name="footnotetag588"></a><a href="#footnote588"><sup>588</sup></a>
+The custom has been described more fully by a Scotchman of the
+eighteenth century, John Ramsay of Ochtertyre. On the evening of
+Hallowe'en "the young people of every hamlet assembled upon some
+eminence near the houses. There they made a bonfire of ferns or
+other fuel, cut the same day, which from the feast was called
+<i>Samh-nag</i> or <i>Savnag</i>, a fire of rest and pleasure.
+Around it was placed a circle of stones, one for each person of the
+families to whom they belonged. And when it grew dark the bonfire
+was kindled, at which a loud shout was set up. Then each person
+taking a torch of ferns or sticks in his hand, ran round the fire
+exulting; and sometimes <span class="pagenum"><a id="page231" name=
+"page231"></a>[pg 231]</span> they went into the adjacent fields,
+where, if there was another company, they visited the bonfire,
+taunting the others if inferior in any respect to themselves. After
+the fire was burned out they returned home, where a feast was
+prepared, and the remainder of the evening was spent in mirth and
+diversions of various kinds. Next morning they repaired betimes to
+the bonfire, where the situation of the stones was examined with
+much attention. If any of them were misplaced, or if the print of a
+foot could be discerned near any particular stone, it was imagined
+that the person for whom it was set would not live out the year. Of
+late years this is less attended to, but about the beginning of the
+present century it was regarded as a sure prediction. The
+Hallowe'en fire is still kept up in some parts of the Low country;
+but on the western coast and in the Isles it is never kindled,
+though the night is spent in merriment and entertainments."<a id=
+"footnotetag589" name="footnotetag589"></a><a href=
+"#footnote589"><sup>589</sup></a> In the Perthshire parish of
+Callander, which includes the now famous pass of the Trossachs
+opening out on the winding and wooded shores of the lovely Loch
+Katrine, the Hallowe'en bonfires were still kindled down to near
+the end of the eighteenth century. When the fire had died down, the
+ashes were carefully collected in the form of a circle, and a stone
+was put in, near the circumference, for every person of the several
+families interested in the bonfire. Next morning, if any of these
+stones was found to be displaced or injured, the people made sure
+that the person represented by it was <i>fey</i> or devoted, and
+that he could not live twelve months from that day.<a id=
+"footnotetag590" name="footnotetag590"></a><a href=
+"#footnote590"><sup>590</sup></a> In the parish of Logierait, which
+covers the beautiful valley of the Tummel, one of the fairest
+regions of all Scotland, the Hallowe'en fire was somewhat
+different. Faggots of heath, broom, and the dressings of flax were
+kindled and carried on poles by men, who ran with them round the
+villages, attended by a crowd. As soon as one faggot was burnt out,
+a fresh one was lighted and fastened to the pole. Numbers of these
+blazing faggots were often carried about together, and when
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page232" name="page232"></a>[pg
+232]</span> the night happened to be dark, they formed a splendid
+illumination.<a id="footnotetag591" name=
+"footnotetag591"></a><a href="#footnote591"><sup>591</sup></a></p>
+<p>[Hallowe'en fires on Loch Tay; Hallowe'en fires at
+Balquhidder.]</p>
+<p>Nor did the Hallowe'en fires die out in Perthshire with the end
+of the eighteenth century. Journeying from Dunkeld to Aberfeldy on
+Hallowe'en in the first half of the nineteenth century, Sheriff
+Barclay counted thirty fires blazing on the hill tops, and saw the
+figures of the people dancing like phantoms round the flames.<a id=
+"footnotetag592" name="footnotetag592"></a><a href=
+"#footnote592"><sup>592</sup></a> Again, "in 1860, I was residing
+near the head of Loch Tay during the season of the Hallowe'en
+feast. For several days before Hallowe'en, boys and youths
+collected wood and conveyed it to the most prominent places on the
+hill sides in their neighbourhood. Some of the heaps were as large
+as a corn-stack or hayrick. After dark on Hallowe'en, these heaps
+were kindled, and for several hours both sides of Loch Tay were
+illuminated as far as the eye could see. I was told by old men that
+at the beginning of this century men as well as boys took part in
+getting up the bonfires, and that, when the fire was ablaze, all
+joined hands and danced round the fire, and made a great noise; but
+that, as these gatherings generally ended in drunkenness and rough
+and dangerous fun, the ministers set their faces against the
+observance, and were seconded in their efforts by the more
+intelligent and well-behaved in the community; and so the practice
+was discontinued by adults and relegated to school boys."<a id=
+"footnotetag593" name="footnotetag593"></a><a href=
+"#footnote593"><sup>593</sup></a> At Balquhidder down to the latter
+part of the nineteenth century each household kindled its bonfire
+at Hallowe'en, but the custom was chiefly observed by children. The
+fires were lighted on any high knoll near the house; there was no
+dancing round them.<a id="footnotetag594" name=
+"footnotetag594"></a><a href="#footnote594"><sup>594</sup></a></p>
+<a id="halloweenbuchan" name="halloweenbuchan"></a>
+<p>[Hallowe'en fires in Buchan to burn the witches; processions
+with torches at Hallowe'en in the Braemar Highlands.]</p>
+<p>Hallowe'en fires were also lighted in some districts of the
+north-east of Scotland, such as Buchan. Villagers and farmers alike
+must have their fire. In the villages the boys went from house to
+house and begged a peat from each householder, usually with the
+words, "Ge's a peat t' burn <span class="pagenum"><a id="page233"
+name="page233"></a>[pg 233]</span> the witches." In some villages
+the lads collected the peats in a cart, some of them drawing it
+along and the others receiving the peats and loading them on the
+cart. Along with the peats they accumulated straw, furze, potato
+haulm, everything that would burn quickly, and when they had got
+enough they piled it all in a heap and set it on fire. Then each of
+the youths, one after another, laid himself down on the ground as
+near to the fire as he could without being scorched, and thus lying
+allowed the smoke to roll over him. The others ran through the
+smoke and jumped over their prostrate comrade. When the heap was
+burned down, they scattered the ashes. Each one took a share in
+this part of the ceremony, giving a kick first with the right foot
+and then with the left; and each vied with the other who should
+scatter the most. After that some of them still continued to run
+through the scattered ashes and to pelt each other with the
+half-burned peats. At each farm a spot as high as possible, not too
+near the steading, was chosen for the fire, and the proceedings
+were much the same as at the village bonfire. The lads of one farm,
+when their own fire was burned down and the ashes scattered,
+sometimes went to a neighbouring fire and helped to kick the ashes
+about.<a id="footnotetag595" name="footnotetag595"></a><a href=
+"#footnote595"><sup>595</sup></a> Referring to this part of
+Scotland, a writer at the end of the eighteenth century observes
+that "the Hallow-even fire, another relict of druidism, was kindled
+in Buchan. Various magic ceremonies were then celebrated to
+counteract the influence of witches and demons, and to
+prognosticate to the young their success or disappointment in the
+matrimonial lottery. These being devoutly finished, the hallow fire
+was kindled, and guarded by the male part of the family. Societies
+were formed, either by pique or humour, to scatter certain fires,
+and the attack and defence were often conducted with art and with
+fury."<a id="footnotetag596" name="footnotetag596"></a><a href=
+"#footnote596"><sup>596</sup></a> Down to about the middle of the
+nineteenth century "the Braemar Highlanders made the circuit of
+their fields with lighted torches at Hallowe'en to ensure their
+fertility in the coming year. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page234"
+name="page234"></a>[pg 234]</span> At that date the custom was as
+follows: Every member of the family (in those days households were
+larger than they are now) was provided with a bundle of fir
+'can'les' with which to go the round. The father and mother stood
+at the hearth and lit the splints in the peat fire, which they
+passed to the children and servants, who trooped out one after the
+other, and proceeded to tread the bounds of their little property,
+going slowly round at equal distances apart, and invariably with
+the sun. To go 'withershins' seems to have been reserved for
+cursing and excommunication. When the fields had thus been
+circumambulated the remaining spills were thrown together in a heap
+and allowed to burn out."<a id="footnotetag597" name=
+"footnotetag597"></a><a href="#footnote597"><sup>597</sup></a></p>
+<a id="halloweenhighlands" name="halloweenhighlands"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>In the Highlands of Scotland, as the evening of Hallowe'en wore
+on, young people gathered in one of the houses and resorted to an
+almost endless variety of games, or rather forms of divination, for
+the purpose of ascertaining the future fate of each member of the
+company. Were they to marry or remain single, was the marriage to
+take place that year or never, who was to be married first, what
+sort of husband or wife she or he was to get, the name, the trade,
+the colour of the hair, the amount of property of the future
+spouse&mdash;these were questions that were eagerly canvassed and
+the answers to them furnished never-failing entertainment.<a id=
+"footnotetag598" name="footnotetag598"></a><a href=
+"#footnote598"><sup>598</sup></a> Nor were these modes of
+divination at Hallowe'en confined to the Highlands, where the
+bonfires were kindled; they were practised with equal faith and in
+practically the same forms in the Lowlands, as we learn, for
+example, from Burns's poem <i>Hallowe'en</i>, which describes the
+auguries drawn from a variety of omens by the Ayrshire peasantry.
+These Lowlanders of Saxon descent may well have inherited the rites
+from the Celts who preceded them in the possession of the south
+country. A common practice at Hallowe'en was to go out stealthily
+to a neighbour's kailyard and there, with shut eyes, to pull up the
+first kail <span class="pagenum"><a id="page235" name=
+"page235"></a>[pg 235]</span> stock that came to hand. It was
+necessary that the plants should be stolen without the knowledge or
+consent of their owner; otherwise they were quite useless for the
+purpose of divination. Strictly speaking, too, the neighbour upon
+whose garden the raid was made should be unmarried, whether a
+bachelor or a spinster. The stolen kail was taken home and
+examined, and according to its height, shape, and features would be
+the height, shape, and features of the future husband or wife. The
+taste of the <i>custock</i>, that is, the heart of the stem, was an
+infallible indication of his or her temper; and a clod of earth
+adhering to the root signified, in proportion to its size, the
+amount of property which he or she would bring to the common stock.
+Then the kail-stock or <i>runt</i>, as it was called in Ayrshire,
+was placed over the lintel of the door; and the baptismal name of
+the young man or woman who first entered the door after the kail
+was in position would be the baptismal name of the husband or
+wife.<a id="footnotetag599" name="footnotetag599"></a><a href=
+"#footnote599"><sup>599</sup></a> Again, young women sowed hemp
+seed over nine ridges of ploughed land, saying, "I sow hemp seed,
+and he who is to be my husband, let him come and harrow it." On
+looking back over her left shoulder the girl would see the figure
+of her future mate behind her in the darkness. In the north-east of
+Scotland lint seed was used instead of hemp seed and answered the
+purpose quite as well.<a id="footnotetag600" name=
+"footnotetag600"></a><a href="#footnote600"><sup>600</sup></a>
+Again, a mode of ascertaining your future husband or wife was this.
+Take a clue of blue yarn and go to a lime-kiln. Throw the clue into
+the kiln, but keep one end of the thread in your hand and wind it
+on to another clue. As you come near the end somebody or something
+will hold the other end tight in the kiln. Then you call out, "Who
+holds?" giving the thread at the same time a gentle pull. Some one
+or something will thereupon pull the other end of the thread, and a
+voice will mention the name of your future husband or wife.<a id=
+"footnotetag601" name="footnotetag601"></a><a href=
+"#footnote601"><sup>601</sup></a> Another way is this. Go to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page236" name="page236"></a>[pg
+236]</span> barn alone and secretly. Be sure to open both doors and
+if possible take them off their hinges; for if the being who is
+about to appear should catch you in the barn and clap the doors to
+on you, he or she might do you a mischief. Having done this, take
+the sieve or winnowing-basket, which in Lowland Scotch is called a
+<i>wecht</i> or <i>waicht</i>, and go through the action of
+winnowing corn. Repeat it thrice, and at the third time the
+apparition of your future husband or wife will pass through the
+barn, entering at the windy door and passing out at the
+other.<a id="footnotetag602" name="footnotetag602"></a><a href=
+"#footnote602"><sup>602</sup></a> Or this. Go to a southward
+running stream, where the lands of three lairds meet, or to a ford
+where the dead and living have crossed. Dip the left sleeve of your
+shirt in the water. Then go home, take off the shirt, hang it up
+before a fire to dry, and go to bed, taking care that the bed
+stands so that you can see your shirt hanging before the fire. Keep
+awake, and at midnight you will see the form of your future spouse
+come into the room and turn the other side of the sleeve to the
+fire to dry it.<a id="footnotetag603" name=
+"footnotetag603"></a><a href="#footnote603"><sup>603</sup></a> A
+Highland form of divination at Hallowe'en is to take a shoe by the
+tip and throw it over the house, then observe the direction in
+which the toe points as it lies on the ground on the other side;
+for in that direction you are destined to go before long. If the
+shoe should fall sole uppermost, it is very unlucky for you.<a id=
+"footnotetag604" name="footnotetag604"></a><a href=
+"#footnote604"><sup>604</sup></a></p>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>These ways of prying into the future are practised outside of
+the house; others are observed in the kitchen or the parlour before
+the cheerful blaze of the fire. Thus the white of eggs, dropped in
+a glass of pure water, indicates by certain marks how many children
+a person will have. The impatience and clamour of the children,
+eager to ascertain the exact number of their future progeny, often
+induced the housewife to perform this ceremony for them by
+daylight; and the kindly mother, standing with her face to the
+window, dropping the white of an egg into a crystal <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page237" name="page237"></a>[pg 237]</span> glass
+of clean water, and surrounded by a group of children intently
+watching her proceedings, made up a pretty picture.<a id=
+"footnotetag605" name="footnotetag605"></a><a href=
+"#footnote605"><sup>605</sup></a> When the fun of the evening had
+fairly commenced, the names of eligible or likely matches were
+written on the chimney-piece, and the young man who wished to try
+his fortune was led up blindfolded to the list. Whatever name he
+put his finger on would prove that of his future wife.<a id=
+"footnotetag606" name="footnotetag606"></a><a href=
+"#footnote606"><sup>606</sup></a> Again, two nuts, representing a
+lad and a lass whose names were announced to the company, were put
+side by side in the fire. If they burned quietly together, the pair
+would be man and wife, and from the length of time they burned and
+the brightness of the flame the length and happiness of the married
+life of the two were augured. But if instead of burning together
+one of the nuts leaped away from the other, then there would be no
+marriage, and the blame would rest with the person whose nut had
+thus started away by itself.<a id="footnotetag607" name=
+"footnotetag607"></a><a href="#footnote607"><sup>607</sup></a>
+Again, a dish of milk and meal (in Gaelic <i>fuarag</i>, in Lowland
+Scotch <i>crowdie</i>) or of beat potatoes was made and a ring was
+hidden in it. Spoons were served out to the company, who supped the
+contents of the dish hastily with them, and the one who got the
+ring would be the first to be married.<a id="footnotetag608" name=
+"footnotetag608"></a><a href="#footnote608"><sup>608</sup></a>
+Again, apples and a silver sixpence were put in a tub of water; the
+apples naturally floated on the top and the sixpence sank to the
+bottom. Whoever could lift an apple or the sixpence from the water
+with his mouth, without using his teeth, was counted very lucky and
+got the prize to himself.<a id="footnotetag609" name=
+"footnotetag609"></a><a href="#footnote609"><sup>609</sup></a>
+Again, three plates or basins were placed on the hearth. One was
+filled with clean water, another with dirty water, and the third
+was empty. The enquirer was blindfolded, knelt in front of the
+hearth, and groped about till he put his finger in one of them. If
+he lighted on the plate with the clean water, he would wed a maid;
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page238" name="page238"></a>[pg
+238]</span> if on the plate with the dirty water, he would marry a
+widow; and if on the empty plate, he would remain a bachelor. For a
+girl the answer of the oracle was analogous; she would marry a
+bachelor, a widower, or nobody according to the plate into which
+she chanced to dip her finger. But to make sure, the operation had
+to be repeated thrice, the position of the plates being changed
+each time. If the enquirer put his or her finger into the same
+plate thrice or even twice, it was quite conclusive.<a id=
+"footnotetag610" name="footnotetag610"></a><a href=
+"#footnote610"><sup>610</sup></a></p>
+<p>[The sliced apple; the white of egg in water; the salt cake or
+salt herring.]</p>
+<p>These forms of divination in the house were practised by the
+company in a body; but the following had to be performed by the
+person alone. You took an apple and stood with it in your hand in
+front of a looking-glass. Then you sliced the apple, stuck each
+slice on the point of the knife, and held it over your left
+shoulder, while you looked into the glass and combed your hair. The
+spectre of your future husband would then appear in the mirror
+stretching forth his hand to take the slices of the apple over your
+shoulder. Some say that the number of slices should be nine, that
+you should eat the first eight yourself, and only throw the ninth
+over your left shoulder for your husband; also that at each slice
+you should say, "In the name of the Father and the Son."<a id=
+"footnotetag611" name="footnotetag611"></a><a href=
+"#footnote611"><sup>611</sup></a> Again, take an egg, prick it with
+a pin, and let the white drop into a wine-glass nearly full of
+water. Take some of this in your mouth and go out for a walk. The
+first name you hear called out aloud will be that of your future
+husband or wife. An old woman told a lady that she had tried this
+mode of divination in her youth, that the name of Archibald "came
+up as it were from the very ground," and that Archibald sure enough
+was the name of her husband.<a id="footnotetag612" name=
+"footnotetag612"></a><a href="#footnote612"><sup>612</sup></a> In
+South Uist and Eriskay, two of the outer Hebrides, a salt cake
+called <i>Bonnach Salainn</i> is eaten at Hallowe'en to induce
+dreams that will reveal the future. It is baked of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page239" name="page239"></a>[pg 239]</span> common
+meal with a great deal of salt. After eating it you may not drink
+water nor utter a word, not even to say your prayers. A salt
+herring, eaten bones and all in three bites, is equally
+efficacious, always provided that you drink no water and hold your
+tongue.<a id="footnotetag613" name="footnotetag613"></a><a href=
+"#footnote613"><sup>613</sup></a></p>
+<a id="halloweenwales" name="halloweenwales"></a>
+<p>[Hallowe'en fires in Wales; omens drawn from stones thrown into
+the fire; divination by stones in the ashes.]</p>
+<p>In the northern part of Wales it used to be customary for every
+family to make a great bonfire called <i>Coel Coeth</i> on
+Hallowe'en. The fire was kindled on the most conspicuous spot near
+the house; and when it had nearly gone out everyone threw into the
+ashes a white stone, which he had first marked. Then having said
+their prayers round the fire, they went to bed. Next morning, as
+soon as they were up, they came to search out the stones, and if
+any one of them was found to be missing, they had a notion that the
+person who threw it would die before he saw another
+Hallowe'en.<a id="footnotetag614" name=
+"footnotetag614"></a><a href="#footnote614"><sup>614</sup></a> A
+writer on Wales at the beginning of the nineteenth century says
+that "the autumnal fire is still kindled in North Wales, being on
+the eve of the first day of November, and is attended by many
+ceremonies; such as running through the fire and smoke, each
+casting a stone into the fire, and all running off at the
+conclusion to escape from the black short-tailed sow; then supping
+upon parsnips, nuts, and apples; catching up an apple suspended by
+a string with the mouth alone, and the same by an apple in a tub of
+water: each throwing a nut into the fire; and those that burn
+bright, betoken prosperity to the owners through the following
+year, but those that burn black and crackle, denote misfortune. On
+the following morning the stones are searched for in the fire, and
+if any be missing, they betide ill to those who threw them
+in."<a id="footnotetag615" name="footnotetag615"></a><a href=
+"#footnote615"><sup>615</sup></a> According to Sir John Rhys, the
+habit of celebrating Hallowe'en by lighting bonfires on the hills
+is perhaps not yet extinct in Wales, and men still living
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page240" name="page240"></a>[pg
+240]</span> can remember how the people who assisted at the
+bonfires would wait till the last spark was out and then would
+suddenly take to their heels, shouting at the top of their voices,
+"The cropped black sow seize the hindmost!" The saying, as Sir John
+Rhys justly remarks, implies that originally one of the company
+became a victim in dead earnest. Down to the present time the
+saying is current in Carnarvonshire, where allusions to the cutty
+black sow are still occasionally made to frighten children.<a id=
+"footnotetag616" name="footnotetag616"></a><a href=
+"#footnote616"><sup>616</sup></a> We can now understand why in
+Lower Brittany every person throws a pebble into the midsummer
+bonfire.<a id="footnotetag617" name="footnotetag617"></a><a href=
+"#footnote617"><sup>617</sup></a> Doubtless there, as in Wales and
+the Highlands of Scotland,<a id="footnotetag618" name=
+"footnotetag618"></a><a href="#footnote618"><sup>618</sup></a>
+omens of life and death have at one time or other been drawn from
+the position and state of the pebbles on the morning of All Saints'
+Day. The custom, thus found among three separate branches of the
+Celtic stock, probably dates from a period before their dispersion,
+or at least from a time when alien races had not yet driven home
+the wedges of separation between them.</p>
+<a id="halloweenwalesdivination" name=
+"halloweenwalesdivination"></a>
+<p>[Divination as to love and marriage at Hallowe'en in Wales.]</p>
+<p>In Wales, as in Scotland, Hallowe'en was also the great season
+for forecasting the future in respect of love and marriage, and
+some of the forms of divination employed for this purpose resembled
+those which were in use among the Scotch peasantry. Two girls, for
+example, would make a little ladder of yarn, without breaking it
+from the ball, and having done so they would throw it out of the
+window. Then one of the girls, holding the ball in her hand, would
+wind the yarn back, repeating a rhyme in Welsh. This she did
+thrice, and as she wound the yarn she would see her future husband
+climbing up the little ladder. Again, three bowls or basins were
+placed on a table. One of them contained clean water, one dirty
+water, and one was empty. The girls of the household, and sometimes
+the boys too, then eagerly tried their fortunes. They were
+blindfolded, led up to the table, and dipped their hands into a
+bowl. If they happened to dip into the clean water, they would
+marry maidens or bachelors; if into the dirty water, they would be
+widowers or widows; if into the empty bowl, they would <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page241" name="page241"></a>[pg 241]</span> live
+unmarried. Again, if a girl, walking backwards, would place a knife
+among the leeks on Hallowe'en, she would see her future husband
+come and pick up the knife and throw it into the middle of the
+garden.<a id="footnotetag619" name="footnotetag619"></a><a href=
+"#footnote619"><sup>619</sup></a></p>
+<a id="halloweendivinationireland" name=
+"halloweendivinationireland"></a>
+<p>[Divination at Hallowe'en in Ireland.]</p>
+<p>In Ireland the Hallowe'en bonfires would seem to have died out,
+but the Hallowe'en divination has survived. Writing towards the end
+of the eighteenth century, General Vallancey tells us that on
+Hallowe'en or the vigil of Saman, as he calls it, "the peasants in
+Ireland assemble with sticks and clubs (the emblems of laceration)
+going from house to house, collecting money, bread-cake, butter,
+cheese, eggs, etc., etc., for the feast, repeating verses in honour
+of the solemnity, demanding preparations for the festival, in the
+name of St. Columb Kill, desiring them to lay aside the fatted
+calf, and to bring forth the black sheep. The good women are
+employed in making the griddle cake and candles; these last are
+sent from house to house in the vicinity, and are lighted up on the
+(Saman) next day, before which they pray, or are supposed to pray,
+for the departed souls of the donor. Every house abounds in the
+best viands they can afford: apples and nuts are devoured in
+abundance: the nut-shells are burnt, and from the ashes many
+strange things are foretold: cabbages are torn up by the root: hemp
+seed is sown by the maidens, and they believe, that if they look
+back, they will see the apparition of the man intended for their
+future spouse: they hang a smock before the fire, on the close of
+the feast, and sit up all night, concealed in a corner of the room,
+convinced that his apparition will come down the chimney and turn
+the smock: they throw a ball of yarn out of the window, and wind it
+on the reel within, convinced, that if they repeat the <i>Pater
+Noster</i> backwards, and look at the ball of yarn without, they
+will then also see his <i>sith</i> or apparition: they dip for
+apples in a tub of water, and endeavour to bring one up in the
+mouth: they suspend a cord with a cross-stick, with apples at one
+point, and candles lighted at the other, and endeavour to catch the
+apple, while it is in a circular motion, in the mouth. These, and
+many other superstitious ceremonies, the remains of Druidism, are
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page242" name="page242"></a>[pg
+242]</span> observed on this holiday, which will never be
+eradicated, while the name of <i>Saman</i> is permitted to
+remain."<a id="footnotetag620" name="footnotetag620"></a><a href=
+"#footnote620"><sup>620</sup></a></p>
+<p>[Divination at Hallow-e'en in Queen's County; divination at
+Hallow-e'en in County Leitrim; divination at Hallowe'en in County
+Roscommon.]</p>
+<p>In Queen's County, Ireland, down to the latter part of the
+nineteenth century children practised various of these rites of
+divination on Hallowe'en. Girls went out into the garden blindfold
+and pulled up cabbages: if the cabbage was well grown, the girl
+would have a handsome husband, but if it had a crooked stalk, the
+future spouse would be a stingy old man. Nuts, again, were placed
+in pairs on the bar of the fire, and from their behaviour omens
+were drawn of the fate in love and marriage of the couple whom they
+represented. Lead, also, was melted and allowed to drop into a tub
+of cold water, and from the shapes which it assumed in the water
+predictions were made to the children of their future destiny.
+Again, apples were bobbed for in a tub of water and brought up with
+the teeth; or a stick was hung from a hook with an apple at one end
+and a candle at the other, and the stick being made to revolve you
+made a bite at the apple and sometimes got a mouthful of candle
+instead.<a id="footnotetag621" name="footnotetag621"></a><a href=
+"#footnote621"><sup>621</sup></a> In County Leitrim, also, down to
+near the end of the nineteenth century various forms of divination
+were practised at Hallowe'en. Girls ascertained the character of
+their future husbands by the help of cabbages just as in Queen's
+County. Again, if a girl found a branch of a briar-thorn which had
+bent over and grown into the ground so as to form a loop, she would
+creep through the loop thrice late in the evening in the devil's
+name, then cut the briar and put it under her pillow, all without
+speaking a word. Then she would lay her head on the pillow and
+dream of the man she was to marry. Boys, also, would dream in like
+manner of love and marriage at Hallowe'en, if only they would
+gather ten leaves of ivy without speaking, throw away one, and put
+the other nine under their pillow. Again, divination was practised
+by means of a cake called <i>barm-breac</i>, in which a nut and a
+ring were baked. Whoever got the ring would be married first;
+whoever got the nut would marry a widow or a widower; but if the
+nut were an empty shell, he or she <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page243" name="page243"></a>[pg 243]</span> would remain unwed.
+Again, a girl would take a clue of worsted, go to a lime kiln in
+the gloaming, and throw the clew into the kiln in the devil's name,
+while she held fast the other end of the thread. Then she would
+rewind the thread and ask, "Who holds my clue?" and the name of her
+future husband would come up from the depth of the kiln. Another
+way was to take a rake, go to a rick and walk round it nine times,
+saying, "I rake this rick in the devil's name." At the ninth time
+the wraith of your destined partner for life would come and take
+the rake out of your hand. Once more, before the company separated
+for the night, they would rake the ashes smooth on the hearth, and
+search them next morning for tracks, from which they judged whether
+anybody should come to the house, or leave it, or die in it before
+another year was out.<a id="footnotetag622" name=
+"footnotetag622"></a><a href="#footnote622"><sup>622</sup></a> In
+County Roscommon, which borders on County Leitrim, a cake is made
+in nearly every house on Hallowe'en, and a ring, a coin, a sloe,
+and a chip of wood are put into it. Whoever gets the coin will be
+rich; whoever gets the ring will be married first; whoever gets the
+chip of wood, which stands for a coffin, will die first; and
+whoever gets the sloe will live longest, because the fairies blight
+the sloes in the hedges on Hallowe'en, so that the sloe in the cake
+will be the last of the year. Again, on the same mystic evening
+girls take nine grains of oats in their mouths, and going out
+without speaking walk about till they hear a man's name pronounced;
+it will be the name of their future husband. In County Roscommon,
+too, on Hallowe'en there is the usual dipping in water for apples
+or sixpences, and the usual bites at a revolving apple and tallow
+candle.<a id="footnotetag623" name="footnotetag623"></a><a href=
+"#footnote623"><sup>623</sup></a></p>
+<a id="halloweenman" name="halloweenman"></a>
+<p>[Hallowe'en fires in the Isle of Man; divination at Hallowe'en
+in the Isle of Man.]</p>
+<p>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</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>"<i>Noght oie howney hop-dy-naw</i>,"</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page244" name="page244"></a>[pg
+244]</span> that is to say, "This is Hollantide Eve." For
+Hollantide is the Manx way of expressing the old English <i>All
+hallowen tide</i>, that is, All Saints' Day, the first of November.
+But as the people reckon this festival according to the Old Style,
+Hollantide in the Isle of Man is our twelfth of November. The
+native Manx name for the day is <i>Sauin</i> or <i>Laa Houney</i>.
+Potatoes, parsnips and fish, pounded up together and mixed with
+butter, formed the proper evening meal (<i>mrastyr</i>) on
+Hallowe'en in the Isle of Man.<a id="footnotetag624" name=
+"footnotetag624"></a><a href="#footnote624"><sup>624</sup></a>
+Here, too, as in Scotland forms of divination are practised by some
+people on this important evening. For example, the housewife fills
+a thimble full of salt for each member of the family and each
+guest; the contents of the thimblefuls are emptied out in as many
+neat little piles on a plate, and left there over night. Next
+morning the piles are examined, and if any of them has fallen down,
+he or she whom it represents will die within the year. Again, the
+women carefully sweep out the ashes from under the fireplace and
+flatten them down neatly on the open hearth. If they find next
+morning a footprint turned towards the door, it signifies a death
+in the family within the year; but if the footprint is turned in
+the opposite direction, it bodes a marriage. Again, divination by
+eavesdropping is practised in the Isle of Man in much the same way
+as in Scotland. You go out with your mouth full of water and your
+hands full of salt and listen at a neighbour's door, and the first
+name you hear will be the name of your husband. Again, Manx maids
+bandage their eyes and grope about the room till they dip their
+hands in vessels full of clean or dirty water, and so on; and from
+the thing they touch they draw corresponding omens. But some people
+in the Isle of Man observe these auguries, not on Hallowe'en or
+Hollantide Eve, as they call it, which was the old Manx New Year's
+Eve, but on the modern New Year's Eve, that is, on the thirty-first
+of December. The change no doubt marks a transition from the
+ancient to the modern mode of dating the beginning of the
+year.<a id="footnotetag625" name="footnotetag625"></a><a href=
+"#footnote625"><sup>625</sup></a></p>
+<a id="halloweenlancashire" name="halloweenlancashire"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>In Lancashire, also, some traces of the old Celtic celebration
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page245" name="page245"></a>[pg
+245]</span> of Hallowe'en have been reported in modern times. It is
+said that "fires are still lighted in Lancashire, on Hallowe'en,
+under the name of Beltains or Teanlas; and even such cakes as the
+Jews are said to have made in honour of the Queen of Heaven, are
+yet to be found at this season amongst the inhabitants of the banks
+of the Ribble.... Both the fires and the cakes, however, are now
+connected with superstitious notions respecting Purgatory,
+etc."<a id="footnotetag626" name="footnotetag626"></a><a href=
+"#footnote626"><sup>626</sup></a> On Hallowe'en, too, the
+Lancashire maiden "strews the ashes which are to take the form of
+one or more letters of her lover's name; she throws hemp-seed over
+her shoulder and timidly glances to see who follows her."<a id=
+"footnotetag627" name="footnotetag627"></a><a href=
+"#footnote627"><sup>627</sup></a> Again, witches in Lancashire used
+to gather on Hallowe'en at the Malkin Tower, a ruined and desolate
+farm-house in the forest of Pendle. They assembled for no good
+purpose; but you could keep the infernal rout at bay by carrying a
+lighted candle about the fells from eleven to twelve o'clock at
+night. The witches tried to blow out the candle, and if they
+succeeded, so much the worse for you; but if the flame burned
+steadily till the clocks had struck midnight, you were safe. Some
+people performed the ceremony by deputy; and parties went about
+from house to house in the evening collecting candles, one for each
+inmate, and offering their services to <i>late</i> or <i>leet</i>
+the witches, as the phrase ran. This custom was practised at
+Longridge Fell in the early part of the nineteenth century.<a id=
+"footnotetag628" name="footnotetag628"></a><a href=
+"#footnote628"><sup>628</sup></a> In Northumberland on Hallowe'en
+omens of marriage were drawn from nuts thrown into the fire; and
+the sports of ducking for apples and biting at a revolving apple
+and lighted candle were also practised on that evening.<a id=
+"footnotetag629" name="footnotetag629"></a><a href=
+"#footnote629"><sup>629</sup></a> The equivalent of the Hallowe'en
+bonfires is reported also from France. We are told that in the
+department of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page246" name=
+"page246"></a>[pg 246]</span> Deux-S&egrave;vres, which forms part
+of the old province of Poitou, young people used to assemble in the
+fields on All Saints' Day (the first of November) and kindle great
+fires of ferns, thorns, leaves, and stubble, at which they roasted
+chestnuts. They also danced round the fires and indulged in noisy
+pastimes.<a id="footnotetag630" name="footnotetag630"></a><a href=
+"#footnote630"><sup>630</sup></a></p>
+<h4><a id="sect4-7" name="sect4-7">&sect; 7. <i>The Midwinter
+Fires</i></a></h4>
+<a id="winterfire" name="winterfire"></a>
+<p>[A Midwinter festival of fire; Christmas the continuation of an
+old heathen festival of the sun.]</p>
+<p>If the heathen of ancient Europe celebrated, as we have good
+reason to believe, the season of Midsummer with a great festival of
+fire, of which the traces have survived in many places down to our
+own time, it is natural to suppose that they should have observed
+with similar rites the corresponding season of Midwinter; for
+Midsummer and Midwinter, or, in more technical language, the summer
+solstice and the winter solstice, are the two great turning-points
+in the sun's apparent course through the sky, and from the
+standpoint of primitive man nothing might seem more appropriate
+than to kindle fires on earth at the two moments when the fire and
+heat of the great luminary in heaven begin to wane or to wax. In
+this way the savage philosopher, to whose meditations on the nature
+of things we owe many ancient customs and ceremonies, might easily
+imagine that he helped the labouring sun to relight his dying lamp,
+or at all events to blow up the flame into a brighter blaze.
+Certain it is that the winter solstice, which the ancients
+erroneously assigned to the twenty-fifth of December, was
+celebrated in antiquity as the Birthday of the Sun, and that festal
+lights or fires were kindled on this joyful occasion. Our Christmas
+festival is nothing but a continuation under a Christian name of
+this old solar festivity; for the ecclesiastical authorities saw
+fit, about the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth
+century, arbitrarily to transfer the nativity of Christ from the
+sixth of January to the twenty-fifth of December, for the purpose
+of diverting to their Lord the worship which the heathen had
+hitherto paid on that day to the sun.<a id="footnotetag631" name=
+"footnotetag631"></a><a href="#footnote631"><sup>631</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page247" name="page247"></a>[pg
+247]</span> <a id="winterlog" name="winterlog"></a>
+<p>[The Yule log is the Midwinter counterpart of the Midsummer
+bonfire.]</p>
+<p>In modern Christendom the ancient fire-festival of the winter
+solstice appears to survive, or to have survived down to recent
+years, in the old custom of the Yule log, clog, or block, as it was
+variously called in England.<a id="footnotetag632" name=
+"footnotetag632"></a><a href="#footnote632"><sup>632</sup></a> The
+custom was widespread in Europe, but seems to have flourished
+especially in England, France, and among the South Slavs; at least
+the fullest accounts of the custom come from these quarters. That
+the Yule log was only the winter counterpart of the Midsummer
+bonfire, kindled within doors instead of in the open air on account
+of the cold and inclement weather of the season, was pointed out
+long ago by our English antiquary John Brand;<a id="footnotetag633"
+name="footnotetag633"></a><a href="#footnote633"><sup>633</sup></a>
+and the view is supported by the many quaint superstitions
+attaching to the Yule log, superstitions which have no apparent
+connexion with Christianity but carry their heathen origin plainly
+stamped upon them. But while the two solstitial celebrations were
+both festivals of fire, the necessity or desirability of holding
+the winter celebration within doors lent it the character of a
+private or domestic festivity, which contrasts strongly with the
+publicity of the summer celebration, at which the people gathered
+on some open space or conspicuous height, kindled a huge bonfire in
+common, and danced and made merry round it together.</p>
+<a id="yulegermany" name="yulegermany"></a>
+<p>[The Yule log in Germany; the Yule log in Switzerland.]</p>
+<p>Among the Germans the custom of the Yule log is known to have
+been observed in the eleventh century; for in the year 1184 the
+parish priest of Ahlen, in M&uuml;nsterland, spoke of "bringing a
+tree to kindle the festal fire at the Lord's Nativity."<a id=
+"footnotetag634" name="footnotetag634"></a><a href=
+"#footnote634"><sup>634</sup></a> Down to about the middle of the
+nineteenth century the old rite was kept up in some parts of
+central Germany, as we learn from an account of it given by a
+contemporary writer. After mentioning the custom of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page248" name="page248"></a>[pg 248]</span>
+feeding the cattle and shaking the fruit-trees on Christmas night,
+to make them bear fruit, he goes on as follows: "Other customs
+pointing back to the far-off times of heathendom may still be met
+with among the old-fashioned peasants of the mountain regions. Such
+is in the valleys of the Sieg and Lahn the practice of laying a new
+log as a foundation of the hearth. A heavy block of oak-wood,
+generally a stump grubbed up from the ground, is fitted either into
+the floor of the hearth, or into a niche made for the purpose in
+the wall under the hook on which the kettle hangs. When the fire on
+the hearth glows, this block of wood glows too, but it is so placed
+that it is hardly reduced to ashes within a year. When the new
+foundation is laid, the remains of the old block are carefully
+taken out, ground to powder, and strewed over the fields during the
+Twelve Nights. This, so people fancied, promotes the fruitfulness
+of the year's crops."<a id="footnotetag635" name=
+"footnotetag635"></a><a href="#footnote635"><sup>635</sup></a> In
+some parts of the Eifel Mountains, to the west of Coblentz, a log
+of wood called the <i>Christbrand</i> used to be placed on the
+hearth on Christmas Eve; and the charred remains of it on Twelfth
+Night were put in the corn-bin to keep the mice from devouring the
+corn.<a id="footnotetag636" name="footnotetag636"></a><a href=
+"#footnote636"><sup>636</sup></a> At Weidenhausen and Girkshausen,
+in Westphalia, the practice was to withdraw the Yule log
+(<i>Christbrand</i>) from the fire so soon as it was slightly
+charred; it was then kept carefully to be replaced on the fire
+whenever a thunder-storm broke, because the people believed that
+lightning would not strike a house in which the Yule log was
+smouldering.<a id="footnotetag637" name=
+"footnotetag637"></a><a href="#footnote637"><sup>637</sup></a> In
+some villages near Berleburg in Westphalia the old custom was to
+tie up the Yule log in the last sheaf cut at harvest.<a id=
+"footnotetag638" name="footnotetag638"></a><a href=
+"#footnote638"><sup>638</sup></a> On Christmas Eve the peasantry of
+the Oberland, in Meiningen, a province of Central Germany, used to
+put a great block of wood called the <i>Christklots</i> on the fire
+before they went to bed; it should burn all night, and the charred
+remains were believed to guard the house for the whole year against
+the risk of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page249" name=
+"page249"></a>[pg 249]</span> fire, burglary, and other
+misfortunes.<a id="footnotetag639" name=
+"footnotetag639"></a><a href="#footnote639"><sup>639</sup></a> The
+Yule log seems to be known only in the French-speaking parts of
+Switzerland, where it goes by the usual French name of
+<i>B&ucirc;che de No&euml;l</i>. In the Jura mountains of the
+canton of Bern, while the log is burning on the hearth the people
+sing a blessing over it as follows:&mdash;</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>"May the log burn!</p>
+<p>May all good come in!</p>
+<p>May the women have children</p>
+<p>And the sheep lambs!</p>
+<p>White bread for every one</p>
+<p>And the vat full of wine!"</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>The embers of the Yule log were kept carefully, for they were
+believed to be a protection against lightning.<a id=
+"footnotetag640" name="footnotetag640"></a><a href=
+"#footnote640"><sup>640</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yulebelgium" name="yulebelgium"></a>
+<p>[The Yule log in Belgium.]</p>
+<p>"The Christmas fires, which were formerly lit everywhere in the
+Low Countries, have fallen into disuse. But in Flanders a great log
+of wood, called the <i>kersavondblok</i> and usually cut from the
+roots of a fir or a beech, is still put on the fire; all the lights
+in the house are extinguished, and the whole family gathers round
+the log to spend part of the night in singing, in telling stories,
+especially about ghosts, were-wolves, and so on, and also in
+drinking gin. At Grammont and in the neighbourhood of that town,
+where the Yule log is called <i>Kersmismot</i>, it is customary to
+set fire to the remainder of the gin at the moment when the log is
+reduced to ashes. Elsewhere a piece of the log is kept and put
+under the bed to protect the house against thunder and lightning.
+The charcoal of the log which burned during Christmas Night, if
+pounded up and mixed with water, is a cure for consumption. In the
+country of Limburg the log burns several nights, and the pounded
+charcoal is kept as a preventive (so they say), of
+toothache."<a id="footnotetag641" name=
+"footnotetag641"></a><a href="#footnote641"><sup>641</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yulefrance" name="yulefrance"></a>
+<p>[The Yule log in France.]</p>
+<p>In several provinces of France, and particularly in Provence,
+the custom of the Yule log or <i>tr&eacute;foir</i>, as it was
+called in many places, was long observed. A French <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page250" name="page250"></a>[pg 250]</span> 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 Proven&ccedil;al verses to the
+following effect:&mdash;</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>"Let the log rejoice,</p>
+<p>To-morrow is the day of bread;</p>
+<p>Let all good enter here;</p>
+<p>Let the women bear children;</p>
+<p>Let the she-goats bring forth kids;</p>
+<p>Let the ewes drop lambs;</p>
+<p>Let there be much wheat and flour,</p>
+<p>And the vat full of wine."</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>Then the log was blessed by the smallest and youngest child of
+the house, who poured a glass of wine over it saying, <i>In nomine
+patris</i>, etc.; after which the log was set on the fire. The
+charcoal of the burnt wood was kept the whole year, and used as an
+ingredient in several remedies.<a id="footnotetag642" name=
+"footnotetag642"></a><a href="#footnote642"><sup>642</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yulefrenchsuperstitions" name="yulefrenchsuperstitions"></a>
+<p>[French superstitions as to the Yule log.]</p>
+<p>Amongst the superstitions denounced by the same writer is "the
+belief that a log called the <i>trefoir</i> or Christmas brand,
+which you put on the fire for the first time on Christmas Eve and
+continue to put on the fire for a little while every day till
+Twelfth Night, can, if kept under the bed, protect the house for a
+whole year from fire and thunder; that it can prevent the inmates
+from having chilblains on their heels in winter; that it can cure
+the cattle of many maladies; that if a piece of it be steeped in
+the water which cows drink it helps them to calve; and lastly that
+if the ashes of the log be strewn on the fields it can save the
+wheat from mildew."<a id="footnotetag643" name=
+"footnotetag643"></a><a href="#footnote643"><sup>643</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yulemarseilles" name="yulemarseilles"></a>
+<p>[The Yule log at Marseilles and in Perigord; virtues ascribed to
+the charcoal and ashes of the burnt log; the Yule log in
+Berry.]</p>
+<p>In Marseilles the Yule log used to be a great block of oak,
+which went by the name of <i>calendeau</i> or <i>calignau</i>; it
+was sprinkled with wine and oil, and the head of the house kindled
+it himself.<a id="footnotetag644" name=
+"footnotetag644"></a><a href="#footnote644"><sup>644</sup></a> "The
+Yule log plays a great part at the festival of the winter solstice
+in Perigord. The countryman thinks that it is best made of
+plum-tree, cherry, or oak, and <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page251" name="page251"></a>[pg 251]</span> that the larger it is
+the better. If it burns well, it is a good omen, the blessing of
+heaven rests upon it. The charcoal and ashes, which are collected
+very carefully, are excellent for healing swollen glands; the part
+of the trunk which has not been burnt in the fire is used by
+ploughmen to make the wedge (<i>t&eacute;coin ou cale</i>) for
+their plough, because they allege that it causes the seeds to
+thrive better; and the women keep pieces of it till Twelfth Night
+for the sake of their chickens. Nevertheless if you sit down on the
+log, you become subject to boils, and to cure yourself of them you
+must pass nine times under a bramble branch which happens to be
+rooted in the ground at both ends. The charcoal heals sheep of a
+disease called the <i>goumon</i>; and the ashes, carefully wrapt up
+in white linen, preserve the whole household from accidents. Some
+people think that they will have as many chickens as there are
+sparks that fly out of the brands of the log when they shake them;
+and others place the extinct brands under the bed to drive away
+vermin. In Vienne, on Christmas Eve, when supper is over, the
+master of the house has a great log&mdash;the Christmas
+brand&mdash;brought in, and then, surrounded by all the spectators
+gathered in profound silence, he sprinkles salt and water on the
+log. It is then put on the fire to burn during the three festivals;
+but they carefully preserve a piece to be kindled every time that
+it thunders."<a id="footnotetag645" name=
+"footnotetag645"></a><a href="#footnote645"><sup>645</sup></a> In
+Berry, a district of Central France, the Yule log was called the
+<i>cosse de Nau</i>, the last word being an abbreviation of the
+usual French word for Christmas (No&euml;l). It consisted of an
+enormous tree-trunk, so heavy that the united strength of several
+men was needed to carry it in and place it on the hearth, where it
+served to feed the fire during the three days of the Christmas
+festivity. Strictly speaking, it should be the trunk of an old
+oak-tree which had never been lopped and had been felled at
+midnight. It <span class="pagenum"><a id="page252" name=
+"page252"></a>[pg 252]</span> was placed on the hearth at the
+moment when the tinkle of the bell announced the elevation of the
+host at the midnight mass; and the head of the family, after
+sprinkling it with holy water, set it on fire. The remains of the
+log were preserved till the same day next year. They were kept
+under the bed of the master of the house; and whenever thunder was
+heard, one of the family would take a piece of the log and throw it
+on the fire, which was believed to guard the family against
+lightning. In the Middle Ages, we are told, several fiefs were
+granted on condition that the vassal should bring in person a Yule
+log every year for the hearth of his liege lord.<a id=
+"footnotetag646" name="footnotetag646"></a><a href=
+"#footnote646"><sup>646</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yulenormandybrittany" name="yulenormandybrittany"></a>
+<p>[The Yule log in Normandy and Brittany.]</p>
+<p>Similar customs and beliefs survived till recent years in some
+of the remote country villages of the picturesque district known as
+the Bocage of Normandy. There it was the grandfather or other
+oldest man of the family who chose the Yule log in good time and
+had it ready for Christmas Eve. Then he placed it on the hearth at
+the moment when the church bell began to ring for the evening
+service. Kneeling reverently at the hearth with the members of his
+family in a like attitude of devotion, the old man recited three
+<i>Pater Nosters</i> and three <i>Aves</i>, and invoked the
+blessing of heaven on the log and on the cottage. Then at the sound
+of the bell which proclaimed the sacrament of the mass, or, if the
+church was too far off to allow the tinkle of the bell to be heard,
+at the moment when they judged that the priest was elevating the
+host before the high altar, the patriarch sprinkled the burning log
+with holy water, blessed it in the name of the Father and of the
+Son and of the Holy Ghost, and drew it out of the fire. The charred
+log was then carefully kept till the following Christmas as a
+precious relic which would guard the house against the levin bolt,
+evil spirits, sorcerers, and every misfortune that might befall in
+the course of the year.<a id="footnotetag647" name=
+"footnotetag647"></a><a href="#footnote647"><sup>647</sup></a> In
+the department of Orne <span class="pagenum"><a id="page253" name=
+"page253"></a>[pg 253]</span> "the Yule-log is called
+<i>trefouet</i>; holy water is poured on it; it should last the
+three days of the festival, and the remains of it are kept to be
+put on the fire when it thunders. This brand is a protection both
+against thunder and against sorcerers."<a id="footnotetag648" name=
+"footnotetag648"></a><a href="#footnote648"><sup>648</sup></a> In
+Upper Brittany, also, the Yule log is thought to be a safeguard
+against thunder and lightning. It is sprinkled with holy water on
+Christmas morning and allowed to burn till evening. If a piece of
+it is thrown into the well, it will ensure a supply of good
+water.<a id="footnotetag649" name="footnotetag649"></a><a href=
+"#footnote649"><sup>649</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yuleardennes" name="yuleardennes"></a>
+<p>[The Yule log in the Ardennes.]</p>
+<p>"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,</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>'When Christmas comes,</p>
+<p>Every one should rejoice,</p>
+<p>For it is a New Covenant.'</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>"Following the grandmother and joining in the song, the children
+and the rest of the family marched thrice round the log, which was
+as fine a log as could be got."<a id="footnotetag650" name=
+"footnotetag650"></a><a href="#footnote650"><sup>650</sup></a> We
+can now, perhaps, understand why in Perigord people who sat on the
+Yule log suffered from boils,<a id="footnotetag651" name=
+"footnotetag651"></a><a href="#footnote651"><sup>651</sup></a> and
+why in Lorraine young folks used to be warned that if they sat on
+it they would have the scab.<a id="footnotetag652" name=
+"footnotetag652"></a><a href="#footnote652"><sup>652</sup></a> The
+reason probably was that the Virgin and child were supposed to be
+seated, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page254" name=
+"page254"></a>[pg 254]</span> invisible, upon the log and to resent
+the indignity of contact with mortal children.</p>
+<a id="yulevosges" name="yulevosges"></a>
+<p>[The Yule log in the Vosges; the Yule log in
+Franche-Comt&eacute; and Burgundy.]</p>
+<p>On Christmas Eve the mountaineers of Rupt, in the Vosges, also
+never fail to put on the hearth the largest log which the hearth
+can hold; they call it <i>la galeuche de No&euml;</i>, that is, the
+Yule log. Next morning they rake the ashes for any charred
+fragments and keep them as valuable talismans to guard them against
+the stroke of lightning. At Vagney and other places near it in the
+Vosges it used to be customary on the same evening to grease the
+hinges and the latches of the doors, that no harsh grating sound
+should break the slumbers of the infant Christ. In the Vosges
+Mountains, too, as indeed in many other places, cattle acquired the
+gift of speech on Christmas Eve and conversed with each other in
+the language of Christians. Their conversation was, indeed, most
+instructive; for the future, it seems, had no secret worth
+mentioning for them. Yet few people cared to be caught
+eavesdropping at the byre; wise folk contented themselves with
+setting a good store of fodder in the manger, then shut the door,
+and left the animals to their ruminations. A farmer of Vecoux once
+hid in a corner of the byre to overhear the edifying talk of the
+beasts. But it did him little good; for one ox said to another ox,
+"What shall we do to-morrow?" and the other replied, "We shall
+carry our master to the churchyard." Sure enough the farmer died
+that very night and was buried next morning.<a id="footnotetag653"
+name="footnotetag653"></a><a href="#footnote653"><sup>653</sup></a>
+In Franche-Comt&eacute;, the province of France to the west of the
+Jura mountains, if the Yule log is really to protect a house
+against thunder and lightning, it is essential that it should burn
+during the midnight mass, and that the flame should not go out
+before the divine service is concluded. Otherwise the log is quite
+useless for the purpose.<a id="footnotetag654" name=
+"footnotetag654"></a><a href="#footnote654"><sup>654</sup></a> In
+Burgundy the log which is placed on the fire on Christmas Eve is
+called the <i>suche</i>. While it is burning, the father of the
+family, assisted by his wife and children, sings Christmas carols;
+and when he has finished, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page255"
+name="page255"></a>[pg 255]</span> he tells the smallest children
+to go into a corner of the room and pray God that the log may give
+them sweeties. The prayer is invariably answered.<a id=
+"footnotetag655" name="footnotetag655"></a><a href=
+"#footnote655"><sup>655</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yuleengland" name="yuleengland"></a>
+<p>[The Yule log and the Yule candle in England.]</p>
+<p>In England the customs and beliefs concerning the Yule log,
+clog, or block, as it was variously called, used to be similar. On
+the night of Christmas Eve, says the antiquary John Brand, "our
+ancestors were wont to light up candles of an uncommon size, called
+Christmas Candles, and lay a log of wood upon the fire, called a
+Yule-clog or Christmas-block, to illuminate the house, and, as it
+were, to turn night into day. This custom is, in some measure,
+still kept up in the North of England. In the buttery of St. John's
+College, Oxford, an ancient candle-socket of stone still remains
+ornamented with the figure of the Holy Lamb. It was formerly used
+to burn the Christmas Candle in, on the high table at supper,
+during the twelve nights of that festival."<a id="footnotetag656"
+name="footnotetag656"></a><a href="#footnote656"><sup>656</sup></a>
+"A tall mould candle, called a Yule candle, is lighted and set on
+the table; these candles are presented by the chandlers and grocers
+to their customers. The Yule-log is bought of the carpenters' lads.
+It would be unlucky to light either of them before the time, or to
+stir the fire or candle during the supper; the candle must not be
+snuffed, neither must any one stir from the table till supper is
+ended. In these suppers it is considered unlucky to have an odd
+number at table. A fragment of the log is occasionally saved, and
+put under a bed, to remain till next Christmas: it secures the
+house from fire; a small piece of it thrown into a fire occurring
+at the house of a neighbour, will quell the raging flame. A piece
+of the candle should likewise be kept to ensure good luck."<a id=
+"footnotetag657" name="footnotetag657"></a><a href=
+"#footnote657"><sup>657</sup></a> In the seventeenth century, as we
+learn from some verses of Herrick, the English custom was to light
+the Yule log with a fragment of its predecessor, which had been
+kept throughout the year for the purpose; where it was so kept, the
+fiend could do no mischief.<a id="footnotetag658" name=
+"footnotetag658"></a><a href="#footnote658"><sup>658</sup></a>
+Indeed the practice of preserving a piece of the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page256" name="page256"></a>[pg 256]</span>
+Yule-log of one year to light that of the next was observed by at
+least one family at Cheadle in Staffordshire down to the latter
+part of the nineteenth century.<a id="footnotetag659" name=
+"footnotetag659"></a><a href="#footnote659"><sup>659</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yuleyorkshire" name="yuleyorkshire"></a>
+<p>[The Yule-log in Yorkshire; the Yule log in Lincolnshire; the
+Yule log in Warwickshire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire; the Yule
+log in Wales.]</p>
+<p>In the North of England farm-servants used to lay by a large
+knotty block of wood for the Christmas fire, and so long as the
+block lasted they were entitled by custom to ale at their meals.
+The log was as large as the hearth could hold.<a id=
+"footnotetag660" name="footnotetag660"></a><a href=
+"#footnote660"><sup>660</sup></a> At Belford, in Northumberland,
+"the lord of the manor sends round to every house, on the afternoon
+of Christmas Eve, the Yule Logs&mdash;four or five large
+logs&mdash;to be burnt on Christmas Eve and Day. This old custom
+has always, I am told, been kept up here."<a id="footnotetag661"
+name="footnotetag661"></a><a href="#footnote661"><sup>661</sup></a>
+The custom of burning the Yule log at Christmas used to be observed
+in Wensleydale and other parts of Yorkshire, and prudent housewives
+carefully preserved pieces of the log throughout the year. At
+Whitby the portions so kept were stowed away under the bed till
+next Christmas, when they were burnt with the new log; in the
+interval they were believed to protect the house from
+conflagration, and if one of them were thrown into the fire, it
+would quell a raging storm.<a id="footnotetag662" name=
+"footnotetag662"></a><a href="#footnote662"><sup>662</sup></a> The
+practice and the belief were similar at Filey on the coast of
+Yorkshire, where besides the Yule log a tall Yule candle was lit on
+the same evening.<a id="footnotetag663" name=
+"footnotetag663"></a><a href="#footnote663"><sup>663</sup></a> In
+the West Riding, while the log <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page257" name="page257"></a>[pg 257]</span> blazed cheerfully, the
+people quaffed their ale and sang, "Yule! Yule! a pack of new cards
+and a Christmas stool!"<a id="footnotetag664" name=
+"footnotetag664"></a><a href="#footnote664"><sup>664</sup></a> At
+Clee, in Lincolnshire, "when Christmas Eve has come the Yule cake
+is duly cut and the Yule log lit, and I know of some even
+middle-class houses where the new log must always rest upon and be
+lighted by the old one, a small portion of which has been carefully
+stored away to preserve a continuity of light and heat."<a id=
+"footnotetag665" name="footnotetag665"></a><a href=
+"#footnote665"><sup>665</sup></a> At the village of Wootton Wawen
+in Warwickshire, down to 1759 at least, the Yule-block, as it was
+called, was drawn into the house by a horse on Christmas Eve "as a
+foundation for the fire on Christmas Day, and according to the
+superstition of those times for the twelve days following, as the
+said block was not to be entirely reduced to ashes till that time
+had passed by."<a id="footnotetag666" name=
+"footnotetag666"></a><a href="#footnote666"><sup>666</sup></a> As
+late as 1830, or thereabout, the scene of lighting the hearth-fire
+on Christmas Eve, to continue burning throughout the Christmas
+season, might have been witnessed in the secluded and beautiful
+hill-country of West Shropshire, from Chirbury and Worthen to
+Pulverbatch and Pontesbury. The Christmas brand or brund, as they
+called it, was a great trunk of seasoned oak, holly, yew, or
+crab-tree, drawn by horses to the farm-house door and thence rolled
+by means of rollers and levers to the back of the wide open hearth,
+where the fire was made up in front of it. The embers were raked up
+to it every night, and it was carefully tended, that it might not
+go out during the whole Christmas season. All those days no light
+might be struck, given, or borrowed. Such was the custom at Worthen
+in the early part of the nineteenth century.<a id="footnotetag667"
+name="footnotetag667"></a><a href="#footnote667"><sup>667</sup></a>
+In Herefordshire the Christmas feast "lasted for twelve days, and
+no work was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page258" name=
+"page258"></a>[pg 258]</span> done. All houses were, and are now,
+decorated with sprigs of holly and ivy, which must not be brought
+in until Christmas Eve. A Yule log, as large as the open hearth
+could accommodate, was brought into the kitchen of each farmhouse,
+and smaller ones were used in the cottages. W&mdash;&mdash;
+P&mdash;&mdash; said he had seen a tree drawn into the kitchen at
+Kingstone Grange years ago by two cart horses; when it had been
+consumed a small portion was carefully kept to be used for lighting
+next year's log. 'Mother always kept it very carefully; she said it
+was lucky, and kept the house from fire and from lightning.' It
+seems to have been the general practice to light it on Christmas
+Eve."<a id="footnotetag668" name="footnotetag668"></a><a href=
+"#footnote668"><sup>668</sup></a> "In many parts of Wales it is
+still customary to keep part of the Yule-log until the following
+Christmas Eve 'for luck.' It is then put into the fireplace and
+burnt, but before it is consumed the new log is put on, and thus
+'the old fire and the new' burn together. In some families this is
+done from force of habit, and they cannot now tell why they do it;
+but in the past the observance of this custom was to keep witches
+away, and doubtless was a survival of fire-worship."<a id=
+"footnotetag669" name="footnotetag669"></a><a href=
+"#footnote669"><sup>669</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yuleservia" name="yuleservia"></a>
+<p>[The Yule log in Servia; the cutting of the oak tree to form the
+Yule log.]</p>
+<p>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 (<i>Badnyi Dan</i>) 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 <i>Badnyi</i> 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 <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page259" name="page259"></a>[pg 259]</span> 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
+(<i>badnyak</i>).</p>
+<p>[Prayers to Colleda.]</p>
+<p>Meanwhile the children and young people go from house to house
+singing special songs called <i>Colleda</i> 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.</p>
+<p>[The bringing in of the Yule log.]</p>
+<p>At the moment when the sun is setting all the members of the
+family assemble in the central hall (the great family kitchen) of
+the principal house. The mother of the family (or the wife of the
+chief of the Zadrooga)<a id="footnotetag670" name=
+"footnotetag670"></a><a href="#footnote670"><sup>670</sup></a>
+gives a pair of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page260" name=
+"page260"></a>[pg 260]</span> woollen gloves to one of the young
+men, who goes out and presently returns carrying in his gloved
+hands the largest of the logs. The mother receives him at the
+threshold, throwing at him a handful of wheat, in which the first
+chip of the oak tree cut in the early morning for the Yule log has
+been kept all day. Entering the central hall with the Yule log the
+young man greets all present with the words: "Good evening, and may
+you have a happy Christmas!" and they all answer in chorus, "May
+God and the happy and holy Christmas help thee!" In some parts of
+Servia the chief of the family, holding a glass of red wine in his
+hand, greets the Yule log as if it were a living person, and drinks
+to its health. After that, another glass of red wine is poured on
+the log. Then the oldest male member of the family, assisted by the
+young man who brought in the log, places it on the burning fire so
+that the thicker end of the log protrudes for about a foot from the
+hearth. In some places this end is smeared with honey.</p>
+<p>[The ceremony with the straw; the Yule candle.]</p>
+<p>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 <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page261" name="page261"></a>[pg 261]</span> 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.</p>
+<p>[The roast Pig; the drawing of the water.]</p>
+<p>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 (<i>chesnitsa</i>), 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.</p>
+<p>[The Christmas visiter (<i>polaznik</i>).]</p>
+<p>All the family gathered round the blazing Yule log now anxiously
+expect the arrival of the special Christmas visiter, who bears the
+title of <i>polaznik</i>. He is usually a young boy of a friendly
+family. No other person, not even the priest or the mayor of the
+village, would be allowed to set foot in the house before the
+arrival of this important personage. Therefore he ought to come,
+and generally does come, very early in the morning. He carries a
+woollen glove full of wheat, and when the door is opened at his
+knock he throws handfuls of wheat on the family gathered round the
+hearth, greeting them with the words, "Christ is born!" They all
+answer, "He is born indeed," and the hostess flings a handful of
+wheat over the Christmas visiter, who moreover casts some of his
+wheat into the corners of the hall as well as upon the people. Then
+he walks straight to the hearth, <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page262" name="page262"></a>[pg 262]</span> takes a shovel and
+strikes the burning log so that a cloud of sparks flies up the
+chimney, while he says, "May you have this year so many oxen, so
+many horses, so many sheep, so many pigs, so many beehives full of
+honey, so much good luck, prosperity, progress, and happiness!"
+Having uttered these good wishes, he embraces and kisses his host.
+Then he turns again to the hearth, and after crossing himself falls
+on his knees and kisses the projecting part of the Yule log. On
+rising to his feet he places a coin on the log as his gift.
+Meanwhile a low wooden chair has been brought in by a woman, and
+the visiter is led to it to take his seat. But just as he is about
+to do so, the chair is jerked away from under him by a male member
+of the family and he measures his length on the floor. By this fall
+he is supposed to fix into the ground all the good wishes which he
+has uttered that morning. The hostess thereupon wraps him in a
+thick blanket, and he sits quietly muffled in it for a few minutes;
+the thick blanket in which he is swathed is believed, on the
+principles of homoeopathic magic, to ensure that the cows will give
+thick cream next year. While he sits thus enriching the milk of the
+dairy, the lads who are to herd the sheep in the coming year go to
+the hearth and kneeling down before it kiss each other across the
+projecting end of the Yule log. By this demonstration of affection
+they are thought to seal the love of the ewes for their
+lambs.<a id="footnotetag671" name="footnotetag671"></a><a href=
+"#footnote671"><sup>671</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yuleslavonia" name="yuleslavonia"></a>
+<p>[The Yule log among the Servians of Slavonia; the Christmas
+visiter (<i>polazenik</i>).]</p>
+<p>The ritual of the Yule log is observed in a similar form by the
+Servians who inhabit the southern provinces of Austria. Thus in
+Syrmia, a district of Slavonia which borders on Servia, the head of
+the house sends out one or two young men on Christmas Eve to cut
+the Yule log in the nearest forest. On being brought in, the log is
+not mixed with the ordinary fuel but placed by itself, generally
+leaning against a fruit-tree till the evening shadows begin to
+fall. When a man carries it into the kitchen and lays it on the
+fire, the master of the house throws corn over him, and the two
+greet each other solemnly the one saying, "Christ is born," and the
+other answering "He is born indeed." Later in the evening the
+master of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page263" name=
+"page263"></a>[pg 263]</span> the house pours a glass of wine on
+the charred end of the log, whereupon one of the younger men takes
+the burnt piece of wood, carries it to the orchard, and sets it up
+against one of the fruit-trees. For this service he is rewarded by
+the master of the house with a piece of money. On Christmas Day,
+when the family is assembled at table, they expect the arrival of
+the special Christmas visiter (called <i>polazenik</i>), the only
+person who is allowed to enter the house that day. When he comes,
+he goes to the hearth, stirs the fire with the poker and says,
+"Christ is born. May the family enjoy all good luck and happiness
+in this year! May the cattle increase in number like the sparks I
+have struck!" As he says these words, the mistress of the house
+pours corn over him and leads him to the parlour, where he takes
+the place of honour beside the master of the house. He is treated
+with marked attention and respect. The family are at pains to
+entertain him; they sing their best songs for his amusement, and
+after midnight a numerous band of men and maidens escorts him by
+torchlight, with songs and jubilation, to his own house.<a id=
+"footnotetag672" name="footnotetag672"></a><a href=
+"#footnote672"><sup>672</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yuledalmatia" name="yuledalmatia"></a>
+<p>[The Yule log among the Servians of Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and
+Montenegro; the Yule log in Albania.]</p>
+<p>Among the Servians of Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro it
+is customary on Christmas Eve (<i>Badnyi Dan</i>) to fetch a great
+Yule log (<i>badnyak</i>), which serves as a symbol of family luck.
+It is generally cut from an evergreen oak, but sometimes from an
+olive-tree or a beech. At nightfall the master of the house himself
+brings in the log and lays it on the fire. Then he and all present
+bare their heads, sprinkle the log with wine, and make a cross on
+it. After that the master of the house says, "Welcome, O log! May
+God keep you from mishap!" So saying he strews peas, maize,
+raisins, and wheat on the log, praying for God's blessing on all
+members of the family living and dead, for heaven's blessing on
+their undertakings, and for domestic prosperity. In Montenegro they
+meet the log with a loaf of bread and a jug of wine, drink to it,
+and pour wine on it, whereupon the whole family drinks out of the
+same beaker. In Dalmatia and other places, for example in Rizano,
+the Yule logs are decked by young women with red silk, flowers,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page264" name="page264"></a>[pg
+264]</span> laurel leaves, ribbons, and even gold wire; and the
+lights near the doorposts are kindled when the log is brought into
+the house. Among the Morlaks, as soon as the master of the house
+crosses the threshold with the Yule log, one of the family must
+sprinkle corn on him and say, "God bless you," to which he answers,
+"The same to you." A piece of the log is kept till New Year's Day
+to kindle a light with or it is carried out to the fields to
+protect them from hail. It is customary to invite before hand a
+Christmas visitor (<i>polazaynik</i>) and to admit no one else into
+the house on that day. He comes early, carrying in his sleeves a
+quantity of corn which he throws into the house, saying, "Christ is
+born." One of the household replies, "He is born indeed," and
+throws corn on the visiter. Then the newcomer goes up to the
+hearth, pokes the fire and strikes the burning log with the poker
+so hard that sparks fly off in all directions. At each blow he
+says, "I wish the family as many cows, calves, sucking pigs, goats,
+and sheep, and as many strokes of good luck, as the sparks that now
+fly from the log." With these words he throws some small coins into
+the ashes.<a id="footnotetag673" name="footnotetag673"></a><a href=
+"#footnote673"><sup>673</sup></a> In Albania down to recent years
+it was a common custom to burn a Yule log at Christmas, and with it
+corn, maize, and beans; moreover, wine and <i>rakia</i> were poured
+on the flames, and the ashes of the fire were scattered on the
+fields to make them fertile.<a id="footnotetag674" name=
+"footnotetag674"></a><a href="#footnote674"><sup>674</sup></a> The
+Huzuls, a Slavonic people of the Carpathians, kindle fire by the
+friction of wood on Christmas Eve (Old Style, the fifth of January)
+and keep it burning till Twelfth Night.<a id="footnotetag675" name=
+"footnotetag675"></a><a href="#footnote675"><sup>675</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yulefire" name="yulefire"></a>
+<p>[Belief that the Yule log protects against fire and
+lightning.]</p>
+<p>It is remarkable how common the belief appears to have been that
+the remains of the Yule-log, if kept throughout the year, had power
+to protect the house against fire and especially against
+lightning.<a id="footnotetag676" name="footnotetag676"></a><a href=
+"#footnote676"><sup>676</sup></a> As the Yule log was <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page265" name="page265"></a>[pg 265]</span>
+frequently of oak,<a id="footnotetag677" name=
+"footnotetag677"></a><a href="#footnote677"><sup>677</sup></a> it
+seems possible that this belief may be a relic of the old Aryan
+creed which associated the oak-tree with the god of thunder.<a id=
+"footnotetag678" name="footnotetag678"></a><a href=
+"#footnote678"><sup>678</sup></a> Whether the curative and
+fertilizing virtues ascribed to the ashes of the Yule log, which
+are supposed to heal cattle as well as men, to enable cows to
+calve, and to promote the fruitfulness of the earth,<a id=
+"footnotetag679" name="footnotetag679"></a><a href=
+"#footnote679"><sup>679</sup></a> may not be derived from the same
+ancient source, is a question which deserves to be considered.</p>
+<a id="yulepublic" name="yulepublic"></a>
+<p>[Public celebrations of the fire-festival at Midwinter; the
+bonfire on Christmas Eve at Schweina in Thuringia.]</p>
+<p>Thus far we have regarded only the private or domestic
+celebration of the fire-festival at midwinter. The public
+celebration of such rites at that season of the year appears to
+have been rare and exceptional in Central and Northern Europe.
+However, some instances are on record. Thus at Schweina, in
+Thuringia, down to the second half of the nineteenth century, the
+young people used to kindle a great bonfire on the Antonius
+Mountain every year on Christmas Eve. Neither the civil nor the
+ecclesiastical authorities were able to suppress the celebration;
+nor could the cold, rain, and snow of the season damp or chill the
+enthusiasm of the celebrants. For some time before Christmas the
+young men and boys were busy building a foundation for the bonfire
+on the top of the mountain, where the oldest church of the village
+used to stand. The foundation consisted of a pyramidal structure
+composed of stones, turf, and moss. When Christmas Eve came round,
+a strong pole, with bundles of brushwood tied to it, was erected on
+the pyramid. The young folk also provided themselves with poles to
+which old brooms or faggots of shavings were attached. These were
+to serve as torches. When the evening grew dark and the church
+bells rang to service, the troop of lads ascended the mountain; and
+soon from the top the glare of the bonfire lit up the darkness, and
+the sound of a hymn broke the stillness of night. In a circle round
+the great fire lesser fires were kindled; and last of all the lads
+ran about swinging their lighted torches, till these twinkling
+points of fire, moving down the mountain-side, went out one by one
+in the darkness. At midnight the bells rang out from the church
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page266" name="page266"></a>[pg
+266]</span> tower, mingled with the blast of horns and the sound of
+singing. Feasting and revelry were kept up throughout the night,
+and in the morning young and old went to early mass to be edified
+by hearing of the light eternal.<a id="footnotetag680" name=
+"footnotetag680"></a><a href="#footnote680"><sup>680</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yulenormandy" name="yulenormandy"></a>
+<p>[Bonfires on Christmas Eve in Normandy.]</p>
+<p>In the Bocage of Normandy the peasants used to repair, often
+from a distance of miles, to the churches to hear the midnight mass
+on Christmas Eve. They marched in procession by torchlight,
+chanting Christmas carols, and the fitful illumination of the
+woods, the hedges, and the fields as they moved through the
+darkness, presented a succession of picturesque scenes. Mention is
+also made of bonfires kindled on the heights; the custom is said to
+have been observed at Athis near Cond&eacute; down to recent
+years.<a id="footnotetag681" name="footnotetag681"></a><a href=
+"#footnote681"><sup>681</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yuleman" name="yuleman"></a>
+<p>[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]</p>
+<p>In the Isle of Man, "on the twenty-first of December, a day
+dedicated to Saint Thomas, the people went to the mountains to
+catch deer and sheep for Christmas, and in the evenings always
+kindled a large fire on the top of every <i>fingan</i> or cliff.
+Hence, at the time of casting peats, every one laid aside a large
+one, saying, '<i>Faaid mooar moayney son oie'l fingan</i>'; that
+is, 'a large turf for Fingan Eve.'"<a id="footnotetag682" name=
+"footnotetag682"></a><a href="#footnote682"><sup>682</sup></a> At
+Burghead, an ancient village on the southern shore of the Moray
+Firth, about nine miles from the town of Elgin, a festival of fire
+called "the Burning of the Clavie" has been celebrated from time
+immemorial on Hogmanay, the last day of December. A tar-barrel is
+sawn in two, one half of it is set on the top of a stout pole, and
+filled with tar and other combustibles. The half-barrel is fastened
+to the pole by means of a long nail, which is made for the purpose
+and furnished gratuitously by the village blacksmith. The nail must
+be knocked in with a stone; the use of a hammer is forbidden. When
+the shades of evening have begun to fall, the Clavie, as it is
+called, is set on fire by means of a burning peat, which is always
+fetched from the same house; it may not be kindled with a match. As
+soon as it is in a blaze, it is shouldered by a man, who proceeds
+to carry it at a run, flaring and dripping melted tar, round the
+old <span class="pagenum"><a id="page267" name="page267"></a>[pg
+267]</span> boundaries of the village; the modern part of the town
+is not included in the circuit. Close at his heels follows a motley
+crowd, cheering and shouting. One bearer relieves another as each
+wearies of his burden. The first to shoulder the Clavie, which is
+esteemed an honour, is usually a man who has been lately married.
+Should the bearer stumble or fall, it is deemed a very ill omen for
+him and for the village. In bygone times it was thought necessary
+that one man should carry it all round the village; hence the
+strongest man was chosen for the purpose. Moreover it was customary
+to carry the burning Clavie round every fishing-boat and vessel in
+the harbour; but this part of the ceremony was afterwards
+discontinued. Finally, the blazing tar-barrel is borne to a small
+hill called the Doorie, which rises near the northern end of the
+promontory. Here the pole is fixed into a socket in a pillar of
+freestone, and fresh fuel is heaped upon the flames, which flare up
+higher and brighter than ever. Formerly the Clavie was allowed to
+burn here the whole night, but now, after blazing for about half an
+hour, it is lifted from the socket and thrown down the western
+slope of the hill. Then the crowd rushes upon it, demolishes it,
+and scrambles for the burning, smoking embers, which they carry
+home and carefully preserve as charms to protect them against
+witchcraft and misfortune.<a id="footnotetag683" name=
+"footnotetag683"></a><a href="#footnote683"><sup>683</sup></a> The
+great antiquity of Burghead, where this curious and no doubt
+ancient festival is still annually observed, appears from the
+remains of a very remarkable rampart which formerly encircled the
+place. It consists of a mound of earth faced on both sides with a
+solid wall of stone and strengthened internally by oak beams and
+planks, the whole being laid on a foundation of boulders. The style
+of the rampart agrees in general with Caesar's description of the
+mode in which the Gauls constructed their walls of earth, stone,
+and logs,<a id="footnotetag684" name="footnotetag684"></a><a href=
+"#footnote684"><sup>684</sup></a> and it resembles the ruins of
+Gallic fortifications which have been discovered <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page268" name="page268"></a>[pg 268]</span> in
+France, though it is said to surpass them in the strength and
+solidity of its structure. No similar walls appear to be known in
+Britain. A great part of this interesting prehistoric fortress was
+barbarously destroyed in the early part of the nineteenth century,
+much of it being tumbled into the sea and many of the stones used
+to build the harbour piers.<a id="footnotetag685" name=
+"footnotetag685"></a><a href="#footnote685"><sup>685</sup></a></p>
+<a id="yulelerwick" name="yulelerwick"></a>
+<p>[Procession with burning tar-barrels on Christmas Eve (Old
+Style) at Lerwick.]</p>
+<p>In Lerwick, the capital of the Shetland Islands, "on Christmas
+Eve, the fourth of January,&mdash;for the old style is still
+observed&mdash;the children go <i>a guizing</i>, that is to say,
+they disguising themselves in the most fantastic and gaudy
+costumes, parade the streets, and infest the houses and shops,
+begging for the wherewithal to carry on their Christmas amusements.
+One o'clock on Yule morning having struck, the young men turn out
+in large numbers, dressed in the coarsest of garments, and, at the
+double-quick march, drag huge tar barrels through the town,
+shouting and cheering as they go, or blowing loud blasts with their
+'louder horns.' The tar barrel simply consists of several&mdash;say
+from four to eight&mdash;tubs filled with tar and chips, placed on
+a platform of wood. It is dragged by means of a chain, to which
+scores of jubilant youths readily yoke themselves. They have
+recently been described by the worthy burgh officer of Lerwick as
+'fiery chariots, the effect of which is truly grand and terrific.'
+In a Christmas morning the dark streets of Lerwick are generally
+lighted up by the bright glare, and its atmosphere blackened by the
+dense smoke of six or eight tar barrels in succession. On the
+appearance of daybreak, at six A.M., the morning revellers put off
+their coarse garments&mdash;well begrimed by this time&mdash;and in
+their turn become guizards. They assume every imaginable form of
+costume&mdash;those of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page269" name=
+"page269"></a>[pg 269]</span> soldiers, sailors, Highlanders,
+Spanish chevaliers, etc. Thus disguised, they either go in pairs,
+as man and wife, or in larger groups, and proceed to call on their
+friends, to wish them the compliments of the season. Formerly,
+these adolescent guizards used to seat themselves in crates, and
+accompanied by fiddlers, were dragged through the town."<a id=
+"footnotetag686" name="footnotetag686"></a><a href=
+"#footnote686"><sup>686</sup></a></p>
+<p>[Persian festival of fire at the winter solstice.]</p>
+<p>The Persians used to celebrate a festival of fire called
+<i>Sada</i> or <i>Saza</i> at the winter solstice. On the longest
+night of the year they kindled bonfires everywhere, and kings and
+princes tied dry grass to the feet of birds and animals, set fire
+to the grass, and then let the birds and beasts fly or run blazing
+through the air or over the fields and mountains, so that the whole
+air and earth appeared to be on fire.<a id="footnotetag687" name=
+"footnotetag687"></a><a href="#footnote687"><sup>687</sup></a></p>
+<h4><a id="sect4-8" name="sect4-8">&sect; 8. <i>The
+Need-fire</i></a></h4>
+<a id="needfire" name="needfire"></a>
+<p>[European festivals of fire in seasons of distress and calamity;
+the need-fire.]</p>
+<p>The fire-festivals hitherto described are all celebrated
+periodically at certain stated times of the year. But besides these
+regularly recurring celebrations the peasants in many parts of
+Europe have been wont from time immemorial to resort to a ritual of
+fire at irregular intervals in seasons of distress and calamity,
+above all when their cattle were attacked by epidemic disease. No
+account of the popular European fire-festivals would be complete
+without some notice of these remarkable rites, which have all the
+greater claim on our attention because they may perhaps be regarded
+as the source and origin of all the other fire-festivals; certainly
+they must date from a very remote antiquity. The general name by
+which they are known among the Teutonic peoples is need-fire.<a id=
+"footnotetag688" name="footnotetag688"></a><a href=
+"#footnote688"><sup>688</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page270" name="page270"></a>[pg
+270]</span> <a id="needmiddleages" name="needmiddleages"></a>
+<p>[The needfire in the Middle Ages; the needfire at Neustadt in
+1598.]</p>
+<p>The history of the need-fire can be traced back to early Middle
+Ages; for in the reign of Pippin, King of Franks, the practice of
+kindling need-fires was denounced as a heathen superstition by a
+synod of prelates and nobles held under the presidency of Boniface,
+Archbishop of Mainz.<a id="footnotetag689" name=
+"footnotetag689"></a><a href="#footnote689"><sup>689</sup></a> Not
+long afterwards the custom was again forbidden, along with many
+more relics of expiring paganism, in an "Index of Superstitions and
+Heathenish Observances," which has been usually referred to the
+year 743 A.D., though some scholars assign it a later date under
+the reign of Charlemagne.<a id="footnotetag690" name=
+"footnotetag690"></a><a href="#footnote690"><sup>690</sup></a> In
+Germany the need-fires would seem to have been popular down to the
+second half of the nineteenth century. Thus in the year 1598, when
+a fatal cattle-plague was raging at Neustadt, near Marburg, a wise
+man of the name of Joh. K&ouml;hler induced the authorities of the
+town to adopt the following remedy. A new waggon-wheel was taken
+and twirled round an axle, which had never been used before, until
+the friction elicited fire. With this fire a bonfire was next
+kindled between the gates of the town, and all the cattle were
+driven through the smoke and flames. Moreover, every householder
+had to rekindle the fire on his hearth by means of a light taken
+from the bonfire. Strange to say, this salutary measure had no
+effect whatever in staying the <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page271" name="page271"></a>[pg 271]</span> cattle-plague, and
+seven years later the sapient Joh. K&ouml;hler himself was burnt as
+a witch. The farmers, whose pigs and cows had derived no benefit
+from the need-fire, perhaps assisted as spectators at the burning,
+and, while they shook their heads, agreed among themselves that it
+served Joh. K&ouml;hler perfectly right.<a id="footnotetag691"
+name="footnotetag691"></a><a href="#footnote691"><sup>691</sup></a>
+According to a writer who published his book about nine years
+afterwards, some of the Germans, especially in the Wassgaw
+mountains, confidently believed that a cattle-plague could be
+stayed by driving the animals through a need-fire which had been
+kindled by the violent friction of a pole on a quantity of dry oak
+wood; but it was a necessary condition of success that all fires in
+the village should previously be extinguished with water, and any
+householder who failed to put out his fire was heavily fined.<a id=
+"footnotetag692" name="footnotetag692"></a><a href=
+"#footnote692"><sup>692</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needmethod" name="needmethod"></a>
+<p>[Method kindling the need fire.]</p>
+<p>The method of kindling the need-fire is described as follows by
+a writer towards the end of the seventeenth century: "When an evil
+plague has broken out among the cattle, large and small, and the
+herds have thereby suffered great ravages, the peasants resolve to
+light a need-fire. On a day appointed there must be no single flame
+in any house nor on any hearth. From every house a quantity of
+straw and water and underwood must be brought forth; then a strong
+oaken pole is fixed firmly in the earth, a hole is bored in it, and
+a wooden winch, well smeared with pitch and tar, is inserted in the
+hole and turned round forcibly till great heat and then fire is
+generated. The fire so produced is caught in fuel and fed with
+straw, heath, and underwood till it bursts out into a regular
+need-fire, which must then be somewhat spread out between walls or
+fences, and the cattle and horses driven through it twice or thrice
+with sticks and whips. Others set up two posts, each with a hole in
+it, and insert a winch, along with old greasy rags, in the holes.
+Others use a thick rope, collect nine kinds of wood, and keep them
+in violent motion till fire leaps forth. Perhaps there may be other
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page272" name="page272"></a>[pg
+272]</span> ways of generating or kindling this fire, but they are
+all directed simply at the cure of the cattle. After passing twice
+or thrice through the fire the cattle are driven to their stalls or
+to pasture, and the heap of wood that had been collected is
+destroyed, but in some places every householder must take with him
+a brand, extinguish it in a washing-tub or trough, and put it in
+the manger where the cattle are fed, where it must lie for some
+time. The poles that were used to make the need-fire, together with
+the wood that was employed as a winch, are sometimes burned with
+the rest of the fuel, sometimes carefully preserved after the
+cattle have been thrice driven through the flames."<a id=
+"footnotetag693" name="footnotetag693"></a><a href=
+"#footnote693"><sup>693</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needhildesheim" name="needhildesheim"></a>
+<p>[The mode of kindling the need-fire about Hildesheim.]</p>
+<p>Sometimes the need-fire was known as the "wild fire," to
+distinguish it no doubt from the tame fire produced by more
+ordinary methods. The following is Grimm's account of the mode of
+kindling it which prevailed in some parts of Central Germany,
+particularly about Hildesheim, down apparently to the first half of
+the nineteenth century: "In many places of Lower Saxony, especially
+among the mountains, the custom prevails of preparing the so-called
+'wild fire' for the purpose of preventing cattle-plague; and
+through it first the pigs, then the cows, and last of all the geese
+are driven. The proceedings on the occasion are as follows. The
+principal farmers and parishioners assemble, and notice is served
+to every inhabitant to extinguish entirely all fire in his house,
+so that not even a spark remains alight in the whole village. Then
+young and old repair to a road in a hollow, usually towards
+evening, the women carrying linen, and the men wood and tow. Two
+oaken poles are driven into the ground about a foot and a half from
+each other. Each pole has in the side facing the other a socket
+into which a cross-piece as thick as a man's arm is fitted. The
+sockets are stuffed with linen, and the cross-piece is rammed in as
+tight as possible, while the poles are bound together at the top by
+ropes. A rope is wound about the round, smooth cross-piece, and the
+free ends of the rope at both sides are gripped by several
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page273" name="page273"></a>[pg
+273]</span> persons, who pull the cross-piece to and fro with the
+utmost rapidity, till through the friction the linen in the sockets
+takes fire. The sparks of the linen are immediately caught in tow
+or oakum and waved about in a circle until they burst into a bright
+glow, when straw is applied to it, and the flaming straw used to
+kindle the brushwood which has been stacked in piles in the hollow
+way. When this wood has blazed up and the fire has nearly died out
+again, the people hasten to the herds, which have been waiting in
+the background, and drive them forcibly, one after the other,
+through the glow. As soon as all the beasts are through, the young
+folk rush wildly at the ashes and cinders, sprinkling and
+blackening each other with them; those who have been most sprinkled
+and blackened march in triumph behind the cattle into the village
+and do not wash themselves for a long time. If after long rubbing
+the linen should not catch fire, they guess that there is still
+fire somewhere in the village; then a strict search is made from
+house to house, any fire that may be found is put out, and the
+householder is punished or upbraided. The 'wild fire' must be made
+by prolonged friction; it may not be struck with flint and steel.
+Some villages do not prepare it yearly as a preventive of
+cattle-plague, but only kindle it when the disease has actually
+broken out."<a id="footnotetag694" name=
+"footnotetag694"></a><a href="#footnote694"><sup>694</sup></a> In
+the Halberstadt district the ends of the rope which was used to
+make the cross-piece revolve in the sockets had to be pulled by two
+chaste young men.<a id="footnotetag695" name=
+"footnotetag695"></a><a href="#footnote695"><sup>695</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needmark" name="needmark"></a>
+<p>[The mode of kindling the need-fire in the Mark.]</p>
+<p>In the Mark down to the first half of the nineteenth century the
+practice was similar. We read that "in many parts of the Mark there
+still prevails on certain occasions the custom of kindling a
+need-fire, it happens particularly when a farmer has sick pigs. Two
+posts of dry wood are planted in the earth amid solemn silence
+before the sun rises, and round these posts hempen ropes are pulled
+to and fro till the wood kindles; whereupon the fire is fed with
+dry leaves and twigs and the sick beasts are driven through it In
+some places the fire is produced by the friction of an old
+cart-wheel."<a id="footnotetag696" name=
+"footnotetag696"></a><a href="#footnote696"><sup>696</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page274" name="page274"></a>[pg
+274]</span> <a id="needmecklenburg" name="needmecklenburg"></a>
+<p>[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Mecklenburg]</p>
+<p>In Mecklenburg the need-fire used to be lighted by the friction
+of a rope wound about an oaken pole or by rubbing two boards
+against each other. Having been thus elicited, the flame was fed
+with wood of seven kinds. The practice was forbidden by Gustavus
+Adolphus, Duke of Mecklenburg, in 1682; but the prohibition
+apparently had little effect, for down to the end of the eighteenth
+century the custom was so common that the inhabitants even of large
+towns made no scruple of resorting to it. For example, in the month
+of July 1792 sickness broke out among the cattle belonging to the
+town of Sternberg; some of the beasts died suddenly, and so the
+people resolved to drive all the survivors through a need-fire. On
+the tenth day of July the magistrates issued a proclamation
+announcing that next morning before sunrise a need-fire would be
+kindled for the behoof of all the cattle of the town, and warning
+all the inhabitants against lighting fires in their kitchens that
+evening. So next morning very early, about two o'clock, nearly the
+whole population was astir, and having assembled outside one of the
+gates of the town they helped to drive the timid cattle, not
+without much ado, through three separate need-fires; after which
+they dispersed to their homes in the unalterable conviction that
+they had rescued the cattle from destruction. But to make assurance
+doubly sure they deemed it advisable to administer the rest of the
+ashes as a bolus to the animals. However, some people in
+Mecklenburg used to strew the ashes of the need-fire on fields for
+the purpose of protecting the crops against vermin. As late as June
+1868 a traveller in Mecklenburg saw a couple of peasants sweating
+away at a rope, which they were pulling backwards and forwards so
+as to make a tarry roller revolve with great speed in the socket of
+an upright post. Asked what they were about, they vouchsafed no
+reply; but an old woman who appeared on the scene from a
+neighbouring cottage was more communicative. In the fulness of her
+heart she confided to the stranger that her pigs were sick, that
+the two taciturn bumpkins were her sons, who were busy extracting a
+need-fire from the roller, and that, when they succeeded, the flame
+would be used to ignite a heap of rags and brushwood, through which
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page275" name="page275"></a>[pg
+275]</span> the ailing swine would be driven. She further explained
+that the persons who kindle a need-fire should always be two
+brothers or at least bear the same Christian name.<a id=
+"footnotetag697" name="footnotetag697"></a><a href=
+"#footnote697"><sup>697</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needhanover" name="needhanover"></a>
+<p>[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Hanover.]</p>
+<p>In the summer of 1828 there was much sickness among the pigs and
+the cows of Eddesse, a village near Meinersen, in the south of
+Hanover. When all ordinary measures to arrest the malady failed,
+the farmers met in solemn conclave on the village green and
+determined that next morning there should be a need-fire. Thereupon
+the head man of the village sent word from house to house that on
+the following day nobody should kindle a fire before sunrise, and
+that everybody should stand by ready to drive out the cattle. The
+same afternoon all the necessary preparations were made for giving
+effect to the decision of the collective wisdom. A narrow street
+was enclosed with planks, and the village carpenter set to work at
+the machinery for kindling the fire. He took two posts of oak wood,
+bored a hole about three inches deep and broad in each, and set the
+two poles up facing each other at a distance of about two feet.
+Then he fitted a roller of oak wood into the two holes of the
+posts, so that it formed a cross-piece between them. About two
+o'clock next morning every householder brought a bundle of straw
+and brushwood and laid it down across the street in a prescribed
+order. The sturdiest swains who could be found were chosen to make
+the need-fire. For this purpose a long hempen rope was wound twice
+round the oaken roller in the oaken posts: the pivots were well
+smeared with pitch and tar: a bundle of tow and other tinder was
+laid close at hand, and all was ready. The stalwart clodhoppers now
+seized the two ends of the rope and went to work with a will. Puffs
+of smoke soon issued from the sockets, but to the consternation of
+the bystanders not a spark of fire could be elicited. Some people
+openly declared their suspicion that some rascal had not put out
+the fire in his house, when suddenly the tinder burst into flame.
+The cloud passed away from all faces; the fire was applied to the
+heaps of fuel, and when the flames had somewhat died down, the
+herds were forcibly driven through the fire, first the pigs,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page276" name="page276"></a>[pg
+276]</span> next the cows, and last of all the horses. The herdsmen
+then drove the beasts to pasture, and persons whose faith in the
+efficacy of the need-fire was particularly robust carried home
+brands.<a id="footnotetag698" name="footnotetag698"></a><a href=
+"#footnote698"><sup>698</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needharz" name="needharz"></a>
+<p>[The mode of kindling the need-fire in the Harz Mountains.]</p>
+<p>Again, at a village near Quedlinburg, in the Harz Mountains, it
+was resolved to put a herd of sick swine through the need-fire.
+Hearing of this intention the Superintendent of Quedlinburg hurried
+to the spot and has described for us what he saw. The beadles went
+from house to house to see that there was no fire in any house; for
+it is well known that should there be common fire burning in a
+house the need-fire will not kindle. The men made their rounds very
+early in the morning to make quite sure that all lights were out.
+At two o'clock a night-light was still burning in the parsonage,
+and this was of course a hindrance to the need-fire. The peasants
+knocked at the window and earnestly entreated that the night-light
+might be extinguished. But the parson's wife refused to put the
+light out; it still glimmered at the window; and in the darkness
+outside the angry rustics vowed that the parson's pigs should get
+no benefit of the need-fire. However, as good luck would have it,
+just as the morning broke, the night-light went out of itself, and
+the hopes of the people revived. From every house bundles of straw,
+tow, faggots and so forth were now carried to feed the bonfire. The
+noise and the cheerful bustle were such that you might have thought
+they were all hurrying to witness a public execution. Outside the
+village, between two garden walls, an oaken post had been driven
+into the ground and a hole bored through it. In the hole a wooden
+winch, smeared with tar, was inserted and made to revolve with such
+force and rapidity that fire and smoke in time issued from the
+socket. The collected fuel was then thrown upon the fire and soon a
+great blaze shot up. The pigs were now driven into the upper end of
+the street. As soon as they saw the fire, they turned tail, but the
+peasants drove them through with shrieks and shouts and lashes of
+whips. At the other end of the street there was another crowd
+waiting, who <span class="pagenum"><a id="page277" name=
+"page277"></a>[pg 277]</span> chased the swine back through the
+fire a second time. Then the other crowd repeated the manoeuvre,
+and the herd of swine was driven for the third time through the
+smoke and flames. That was the end of the performance. Many pigs
+were scorched so severely that they gave up the ghost. The bonfire
+was broken up, and every householder took home with him a brand,
+which he washed in the water-barrel and laid for some time, as a
+treasure of great price, in the manger from which the cattle were
+fed. But the parson's wife had reason bitterly to repent her folly
+in refusing to put out that night-light; for not one of her pigs
+was driven through the need-fire, so they died.<a id=
+"footnotetag699" name="footnotetag699"></a><a href=
+"#footnote699"><sup>699</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needbrunswick" name="needbrunswick"></a>
+<p>[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Brunswick.]</p>
+<p>In Brunswick, also, the need-fire is known to have been
+repeatedly kindled during the nineteenth century. After driving the
+pigs through the fire, which was kindled by the friction of wood,
+some people took brands home, dipped them in water, and then gave
+the water to the pigs to drink, no doubt for the purpose of
+inoculating them still more effectually with the precious virtue of
+the need-fire. In the villages of the Dr&ouml;mling district
+everybody who bore a hand in kindling the "wild fire" must have the
+same Christian name; otherwise they laboured in vain. The fire was
+produced by the friction of a rope round the beams of a door; and
+bread, corn, and old boots contributed their mites to swell the
+blaze through which the pigs as usual were driven. In one place,
+apparently not far from Wolfenb&uuml;ttel, the needfire is said to
+have been kindled, contrary to custom, by the smith striking a
+spark from the cold anvil.<a id="footnotetag700" name=
+"footnotetag700"></a><a href="#footnote700"><sup>700</sup></a> At
+Gandersheim down to about the beginning of the nineteenth century
+the need-fire was lit in the common way by causing a cross-bar to
+revolve rapidly on its axis between two upright posts. The rope
+which produced the revolution of the bar had to be new, but it was
+if possible woven from threads taken from a gallows-rope, with
+which people had been hanged. While the need-fire was being kindled
+in this fashion, every other fire in the town had to be put out;
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page278" name="page278"></a>[pg
+278]</span> search was made through the houses, and any fire
+discovered to be burning was extinguished. If in spite of every
+precaution no flame could be elicited by the friction of the rope,
+the failure was set down to witchcraft; but if the efforts were
+successful, a bonfire was lit with the new fire, and when the
+flames had died down, the sick swine were driven thrice through the
+glowing embers.<a id="footnotetag701" name=
+"footnotetag701"></a><a href="#footnote701"><sup>701</sup></a> On
+the lower Rhine the need-fire is said to have been kindled by the
+friction of oak-wood on fir-wood, all fires in the village having
+been previously extinguished. The bonfires so kindled were composed
+of wood of nine different sorts; there were three such bonfires,
+and the cattle were driven round them with great gravity and
+devotion.<a id="footnotetag702" name="footnotetag702"></a><a href=
+"#footnote702"><sup>702</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needsilesia" name="needsilesia"></a>
+<p>[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Silesia and Bohemia.]</p>
+<p>In Silesia, also, need-fires were often employed for the purpose
+of curing a murrain or preventing its spread. While all other
+lights within the boundaries were extinguished, the new fire was
+produced by the friction of nine kinds of wood, and the flame so
+obtained was used to kindle heaps of brushwood or straw to which
+every inhabitant had contributed. Through these fires the cattle,
+both sick and sound, were driven in the confident expectation that
+thereby the sick would be healed and the sound saved from
+sickness.<a id="footnotetag703" name="footnotetag703"></a><a href=
+"#footnote703"><sup>703</sup></a> When plague breaks out among the
+herds at Dobischwald, in Austrian Silesia, a splinter of wood is
+chipped from the threshold of every house, the cattle are driven to
+a cross-road, and there a tree, growing at the boundary, is felled
+by a pair of twin brothers. The wood of the tree and the splinters
+from the thresholds furnish the fuel of a bonfire, which is kindled
+by the rubbing of two pieces of wood together. When the bonfire is
+ablaze, the horns of the cattle are pared and the parings thrown
+into the flames, after which the animals are driven through the
+fire. This is believed to guard the herd against the plague.<a id=
+"footnotetag704" name="footnotetag704"></a><a href=
+"#footnote704"><sup>704</sup></a> The Germans of Western Bohemia
+resort to similar measures for staying a murrain. You set up a
+post, bore a hole in it, and insert in the hole a stick, which you
+have first of all smeared <span class="pagenum"><a id="page279"
+name="page279"></a>[pg 279]</span> with pitch and wrapt in
+inflammable stuffs. Then you wind a rope round the stick and give
+the two ends of the rope to two persons who must either be brothers
+or have the same baptismal name. They haul the rope backwards and
+forwards so as to make the tarred stick revolve rapidly, till the
+rope first smokes and then emits sparks. The sparks are used to
+kindle a bonfire, through which the cattle are driven in the usual
+way. And as usual no other fire may burn in the village while the
+need-fire is being kindled; for otherwise the rope could not
+possibly be ignited.<a id="footnotetag705" name=
+"footnotetag705"></a><a href="#footnote705"><sup>705</sup></a> In
+Upper Austria sick pigs are reported to have been driven through a
+need-fire about the beginning of the nineteenth century.<a id=
+"footnotetag706" name="footnotetag706"></a><a href=
+"#footnote706"><sup>706</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needswitzerland" name="needswitzerland"></a>
+<p>[The use the need-fire in Switzerland.]</p>
+<p>The need-fire is still in use in some parts of Switzerland, but
+it seems to have degenerated into a children's game and to be
+employed rather for the dispersal of a mist than for the prevention
+or cure of cattle-plague. In some cantons it goes by the name of
+"mist-healing," while in others it is called "butter-churning." On
+a misty or rainy day a number of children will shut themselves up
+in a stable or byre and proceed to make fire for the purpose of
+improving the weather. The way in which they make it is this. A boy
+places a board against his breast, takes a peg pointed at both
+ends, and, setting one end of the peg against the board on his
+breast, presses the other end firmly against a second board, the
+surface of which has been flaked into a nap. A string is tied round
+the peg, and two other boys pull it to and fro, till through the
+rapid motion of the point of the peg a hole is burnt in the flaked
+board, to which tow or dry moss is then applied as a tinder. In
+this way fire and smoke are elicited, and with their appearance the
+children fancy that the mist will vanish.<a id="footnotetag707"
+name="footnotetag707"></a><a href="#footnote707"><sup>707</sup></a>
+We may conjecture that this method of dispersing a mist, which is
+now left to children, was formerly practised in all seriousness by
+grown men in Switzerland. It is thus that religious or magical
+rites dwindle away into the sports <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page280" name="page280"></a>[pg 280]</span> of children. In the
+canton of the Grisons there is still in common use an imprecation,
+"Mist, go away, or I'll heal you," which points to an old custom of
+burning up the fog with fire. A longer form of the curse lingers in
+the Vall&eacute;e des Bagnes of the canton Valais. It runs thus:
+"Mist, mist, fly, fly, or St. Martin will come with a sheaf of
+straw to burn your guts, a great log of wood to smash your brow,
+and an iron chain to drag you to hell."<a id="footnotetag708" name=
+"footnotetag708"></a><a href="#footnote708"><sup>708</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needsweden" name="needsweden"></a>
+<p>[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Sweden and Norway; the
+need-fire as a protection against witchcraft.]</p>
+<p>In Sweden the need-fire is called, from the mode of its
+production, either <i>vrid-eld</i>, "turned fire," or
+<i>gnid-eld</i>, "rubbed fire." Down to near the end of the
+eighteenth century the need-fire was kindled, as in Germany, by the
+violent rubbing of two pieces of wood against each other; sometimes
+nine different kinds of wood were used for the purpose. The smoke
+of the fire was deemed salutary; fruit-trees and nets were
+fumigated with it, in order that the trees might bear fruit and the
+nets catch fish. Cattle were also driven through the smoke.<a id=
+"footnotetag709" name="footnotetag709"></a><a href=
+"#footnote709"><sup>709</sup></a> In Sundal, a narrow Norwegian
+valley, shut in on both sides by precipitous mountains, there lived
+down to the second half of the nineteenth century an old man who
+was very superstitious. He set salmon-traps in the river Driva,
+which traverses the valley, and he caught many fish both in spring
+and autumn. When his fishing went wrong, he kindled <i>naueld</i>
+("need-fire") or <i>gnideild</i> ("rubbed fire," "friction fire")
+to counteract the witchcraft, which he believed to be the cause of
+his bad luck. He set up two planks near each other, bored a hole in
+each, inserted a pointed rod in the holes, and twisted a long cord
+round the rod. Then he pulled the cord so as to make the rod
+revolve rapidly. Thus by reason of the friction he at last drew
+fire from the wood. That contented him, for "he believed that the
+witchery was thus rendered powerless, and that good luck in his
+fishing was now ensured."<a id="footnotetag710" name=
+"footnotetag710"></a><a href="#footnote710"><sup>710</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needslavonic" name="needslavonic"></a>
+<p>[The need-fire among the Slavonic peoples.]</p>
+<p>Slavonic peoples hold the need-fire in high esteem. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page281" name="page281"></a>[pg 281]</span> They
+call it "living fire," and attribute to it a healing virtue. The
+ascription of medicinal power to fire kindled by the friction of
+wood is said to be especially characteristic of the Slavs who
+inhabit the Carpathian Mountains and the Balkan peninsula. The mode
+in which they produce the need-fire differs somewhat in different
+places. Thus in the Schar mountains of Servia the task is entrusted
+to a boy and girl between eleven and fourteen years of age. They
+are led into a perfectly dark room, and having stripped themselves
+naked kindle the fire by rubbing two rollers of lime wood against
+each other, till the friction produces sparks, which are caught in
+tinder. The Serbs of Western Macedonia drive two oaken posts into
+the ground, bore a round hole in the upper end of each, insert a
+roller of lime wood in the holes, and set it revolving rapidly by
+means of a cord, which is looped round the roller and worked by a
+bow. Elsewhere the roller is put in motion by two men, who hold
+each one end of the cord and pull it backwards and forwards
+forcibly between them. Bulgarian shepherds sometimes kindle the
+need-fire by drawing a prism-shaped piece of lime wood to and fro
+across the flat surface of a tree-stump in the forest.<a id=
+"footnotetag711" name="footnotetag711"></a><a href=
+"#footnote711"><sup>711</sup></a> But in the neighbourhood of
+K&uuml;stendil, in Bulgaria, the need-fire is kindled by the
+friction of two pieces of oak wood and the cattle are driven
+through it.<a id="footnotetag712" name=
+"footnotetag712"></a><a href="#footnote712"><sup>712</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needrussia" name="needrussia"></a>
+<p>[The need-fire in Russia and Poland; the need-fire in
+Slavonia.]</p>
+<p>In many districts of Russia, also, "living fire" is made by the
+friction of wood on St. John's Day, and the herds are driven
+through it, and the people leap over it in the conviction that
+their health is thereby assured; when a cattle-plague is raging,
+the fire is produced by rubbing two pieces of oak wood against each
+other, and it is used to kindle the lamps before the holy pictures
+and the censers in the churches.<a id="footnotetag713" name=
+"footnotetag713"></a><a href="#footnote713"><sup>713</sup></a> Thus
+it appears that in Russia the need-fire is kindled for the sake of
+the cattle periodically as well as on special emergencies.
+Similarly in Poland the peasants are said to kindle fires in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page282" name="page282"></a>[pg
+282]</span> the village streets on St. Rochus's day and to drive
+the cattle thrice through them in order to protect the animals
+against the murrain. The fire is produced by rubbing a pole of
+poplar wood on a plank of poplar or fir wood and catching the
+sparks in tow. The embers are carried home to be used as remedies
+in sickness.<a id="footnotetag714" name=
+"footnotetag714"></a><a href="#footnote714"><sup>714</sup></a> As
+practised in Slavonia, the custom of the need-fire used to present
+some interesting features, which are best described in the words of
+an eyewitness:&mdash;"In the year 1833 I came for the first time as
+a young merchant to Slavonia; it was to Gaj that I went, in the
+Pozega district. The time was autumn, and it chanced that a
+cattle-plague was raging in the neighbourhood, which inflicted much
+loss on the people. The peasants believed that the plague was a
+woman, an evil spirit (<i>Kutga</i>), who was destroying the
+cattle; so they sought to banish her. I had then occasion to
+observe the proceedings in the villages of Gaj, Kukunjevac,
+Brezina, and Brekinjska. Towards evening the whole population of
+the village was busy laying a ring of brushwood round the
+boundaries of the village. All fires were extinguished throughout
+the village. Then pairs of men in several places took pieces of
+wood, which had been specially prepared for the purpose, and rubbed
+them together till they emitted sparks. The sparks were allowed to
+fall on tinder and fanned into a flame, with which the dry
+brushwood was kindled. Thus the fire burned all round the village.
+The peasants persuaded themselves that thereupon <i>Kuga</i> must
+take her departure."<a id="footnotetag715" name=
+"footnotetag715"></a><a href="#footnote715"><sup>715</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needservia" name="needservia"></a>
+<p>[The need-fire in Servia.]</p>
+<p>This last account leaves no doubt as to the significance of the
+need-fire in the minds of Slavonian peasantry. They regard it
+simply as a barrier interposed between their cattle and the evil
+spirit, which prowls, like a hungry wolf, round the fold and can,
+like a wolf, be kept at bay by fire. The same interpretation of the
+need-fire comes out, hardly less clearly, in the account which
+another writer gives of a ceremony witnessed by him at the village
+of Setonje, at the foot of the Homolje mountains in the great
+forest of Servia. An <span class="pagenum"><a id="page283" name=
+"page283"></a>[pg 283]</span> epidemic was raging among the
+children, and the need-fire was resorted to as a means of staying
+the plague. It was produced by an old man and an old woman in the
+first of the ways described above; that is, they made it in the
+dark by rubbing two sticks of lime wood against each other. Before
+the healing virtue of the fire was applied to the inhabitants of
+the village, two old women performed the following ceremony. Both
+bore the name of Stana, from the verb <i>stati</i>, "to remain
+standing"; for the ceremony could not be successfully performed by
+persons of any other name. One of them carried a copper kettle full
+of water, the other an old house-lock with the key. Thus equipped
+they repaired to a spot outside of the village, and there the old
+dame with the kettle asked the old dame with the lock, "Whither
+away?" and the other answered her, "I came to shut the village
+against ill-luck." With that she locked the lock and threw it with
+the key into the kettle of water. Then they marched thrice round
+the village, repeating the ceremony of the lock and key at each
+round. Meantime all the villagers, arrayed in their best clothes,
+were assembled in an open place. All the fires in the houses had
+been previously extinguished. Two sturdy yokels now dug a tunnel
+through a mound beside an oak tree; the tunnel was just high enough
+to let a man creep through it on all fours. Two fires, lit by the
+need-fire, were now laid, one at each end of the tunnel; and the
+old woman with the kettle took her stand at the entrance of the
+tunnel, while the one with the lock posted herself at the exit.
+Facing the latter stood another woman with a great pot of milk
+before her, and on the other side was set a pot full of melted
+swine's fat. All was now ready. The villagers thereupon crawled
+through the tunnel on hands and knees, one behind the other. Each,
+as he emerged from the tunnel, received a spoonful of milk from the
+woman and looked at his face reflected in the pot of melted swine's
+fat. Then another woman made a cross with a piece of charcoal on
+his back. When all the inhabitants had thus crept through the
+tunnel and been doctored at the other end, each took some glowing
+embers home with him in a pot wherewith to rekindle the fire on the
+domestic hearth. Lastly they put some of the charcoal in a vessel
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page284" name="page284"></a>[pg
+284]</span> of water and drank the mixture in order to be thereby
+magically protected against the epidemic.<a id="footnotetag716"
+name="footnotetag716"></a><a href=
+"#footnote716"><sup>716</sup></a></p>
+<p>It would be superfluous to point out in detail how admirably
+these measures are calculated to arrest the ravages of disease; but
+for the sake of those, if there are any, to whom the medicinal
+effect of crawling through a hole on hands and knees is not at once
+apparent, I shall merely say that the procedure in question is one
+of the most powerful specifics which the wit of man has devised for
+maladies of all sorts. Ample evidence of its application will be
+adduced in a later part of this work.<a id="footnotetag717" name=
+"footnotetag717"></a><a href="#footnote717"><sup>717</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needbulgaria" name="needbulgaria"></a>
+<p>[The need-fire in Bulgaria.]</p>
+<p>In Bulgaria the herds suffer much from the raids of certain
+blood-sucking vampyres called <i>Ustrels</i>. An <i>Ustrel</i> is
+the spirit of a Christian child who was born on a Saturday and died
+unfortunately before he could be baptized. On the ninth day after
+burial he grubs his way out of the grave and attacks the cattle at
+once, sucking their blood all night and returning at peep of dawn
+to the grave to rest from his labours. In ten days or so the
+copious draughts of blood which he has swallowed have so fortified
+his constitution that he can undertake longer journeys; so when he
+falls in with great herds of cattle or flocks of sheep he returns
+no more to the grave for rest and refreshment at night, but takes
+up his quarters during the day either between the horns of a sturdy
+calf or ram or between the hind legs of a milch-cow. Beasts whose
+blood he has sucked die the same night. In any herd that he may
+fasten on he begins with the fattest animal and works his way down
+steadily through the leaner kine till not one single beast is left
+alive. The carcases of the victims swell up, and when the hide is
+stripped off you can always perceive the livid patch of flesh where
+the monster sucked the blood of the poor creature. In a single
+night he may, by working hard, kill five cows; but he seldom
+exceeds that number. He can change his shape and weight very
+easily; for example, when he is sitting by day between the horns of
+a ram, the animal scarcely feels his weight, but at night he will
+sometimes throw himself on an ox or a cow <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page285" name="page285"></a>[pg 285]</span> so
+heavily that the animal cannot stir, and lows so pitifully that it
+would make your heart bleed to hear. People who were born on a
+Saturday can see these monsters, and they have described them
+accurately, so that there can be no doubt whatever about their
+existence. It is, therefore, a matter of great importance to the
+peasant to protect his flocks and herds against the ravages of such
+dangerous vampyres. The way in which he does so is this. On a
+Saturday morning before sunrise the village drummer gives the
+signal to put out every fire in the village; even smoking is
+forbidden. Next all the domestic animals, with the exception of
+fowls, geese, and ducks, are driven out into the open. In front of
+the flocks and herds march two men, whose names during the ceremony
+may not be mentioned in the village. They go into the wood, pick
+two dry branches, and having stript themselves of their clothes
+they rub the two branches together very hard till they catch fire;
+then with the fire so obtained they kindle two bonfires, one on
+each side of a cross-road which is known to be frequented by
+wolves. After that the herd is driven between the two fires. Coals
+from the bonfires are then taken back to the village and used to
+rekindle the fires on the domestic hearths. For several days no one
+may go near the charred and blackened remains of the bonfires at
+the cross-road. The reason is that the vampyre is lying there,
+having dropped from his seat between the cow's horns when the
+animals were driven between the two fires. So if any one were to
+pass by the spot during these days, the monster would be sure to
+call him by name and to follow him to the village; whereas if he is
+left alone, a wolf will come at midnight and strangle him, and in a
+few days the herdsmen can see the ground soaked with his slimy
+blood. So that is the end of the vampyre.<a id="footnotetag718"
+name="footnotetag718"></a><a href="#footnote718"><sup>718</sup></a>
+In this Bulgarian custom, as in the Slavonian custom described
+above, the conception of the need-fire as a barrier set up between
+the cattle and a dangerous spirit is clearly worked out. The spirit
+rides the cow till he comes to the narrow pass between the two
+fires, but the heat there is too much for him; he drops in a faint
+from the saddle, or rather from the horns, and the now riderless
+animal escapes safe and sound <span class="pagenum"><a id="page286"
+name="page286"></a>[pg 286]</span> beyond the smoke and flame,
+leaving her persecutor prostrate on the ground on the further side
+of the blessed barrier.</p>
+<a id="needbosnia" name="needbosnia"></a>
+<p>[The need-fire in Bosnia and Herzegovina.]</p>
+<p>In Bosnia and Herzegovina there are some local differences in
+the mode of kindling the need-fire, or "living fire," as it is
+called. Thus at Jablanica both the uprights and the roller or
+cross-piece, which by its revolution kindles the fire, are made of
+cornel-tree wood; whereas at Dolac, near Sarajevo, the uprights and
+the cross-piece or roller are all made of lime wood. In Gacko,
+contrary to the usual custom, the fire is made by striking a piece
+of iron on an anvil, till sparks are given out, which are caught in
+tinder. The "living fire" thus produced is employed for purposes of
+healing. In particular, if any one suffers from wounds or sores,
+ashes of the need-fire are sprinkled on the ailing part. In Gacko
+it is also believed that if a pregnant woman witnesses a
+conflagration, her child will either be born with a red eruption on
+its skin or will contract the malady sooner or later afterwards.
+The only remedy consists in ashes of the need-fire, which are mixed
+with water and given to the child to drink.<a id="footnotetag719"
+name="footnotetag719"></a><a href=
+"#footnote719"><sup>719</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needengland" name="needengland"></a>
+<p>[The need-fire in England; the need-fire in Yorkshire.]</p>
+<p>In England the earliest notice of the need-fire seems to be
+contained in the Chronicle of Lanercost for the year 1268. The
+annalist tells with pious horror how, when an epidemic was raging
+in that year among the cattle, "certain beastly men, monks in garb
+but not in mind, taught the idiots of their country to make fire by
+the friction of wood and to set up an image of Priapus, whereby
+they thought to succour the animals."<a id="footnotetag720" name=
+"footnotetag720"></a><a href="#footnote720"><sup>720</sup></a> The
+use of the need-fire is particularly attested for the counties of
+Yorkshire and Northumberland. Thus in Yorkshire down to the middle
+of the eighteenth century "the favourite remedy of the country
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page287" name="page287"></a>[pg
+287]</span> people, not only in the way of cure, but of prevention,
+was an odd one; it was to smoke the cattle almost to suffocation,
+by kindling straw, litter, and other combustible matter about them.
+The effects of this mode of cure are not stated, but the most
+singular part of it was that by which it was reported to have been
+discovered. An angel (says the legend), descended into Yorkshire,
+and there set a large tree on fire; the strange appearance of which
+or else the savour of the smoke, incited the cattle around (some of
+which were infected) to draw near the miracle, when they all either
+received an immediate cure or an absolute prevention of the
+disorder. It is not affirmed that the angel staid to speak to
+anybody, but only that he left a <i>written</i> direction for the
+neighbouring people to catch this supernatural fire, and to
+communicate it from one to another with all possible speed
+throughout the country; and in case it should be extinguished and
+utterly lost, that then new fire, of equal virtue, might be
+obtained, not by any common method, but by rubbing two pieces of
+wood together till they ignited. Upon what foundation this story
+stood, is not exactly known, but it put the farmers actually into a
+hurry of communicating flame and smoke from one house to another
+with wonderful speed, making it run like wildfire over the
+country."<a id="footnotetag721" name="footnotetag721"></a><a href=
+"#footnote721"><sup>721</sup></a> Again, we read that "the father
+of the writer, who died in 1843, in his seventy-ninth year, had a
+perfect remembrance of a great number of persons, belonging to the
+upper and middle classes of his native parish of Bowes, assembling
+on the banks of the river Greta to work for need-fire. A disease
+among cattle, called the murrain, then prevailed to a very great
+extent through that district of Yorkshire. The cattle were made to
+pass through the smoke raised by this miraculous fire, and their
+cure was looked upon as certain, and to neglect doing so was looked
+upon as wicked. This fire was produced by the violent and continued
+friction of two dry pieces of wood until such time as it was
+thereby obtained. 'To work as though one was working for need-fire'
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page288" name="page288"></a>[pg
+288]</span> is a common proverb in the North of England."<a id=
+"footnotetag722" name="footnotetag722"></a><a href=
+"#footnote722"><sup>722</sup></a> At Ingleton, a small town
+nestling picturesquely at the foot of the high hill of Ingleborough
+in western Yorkshire, "within the last thirty years or so it was a
+common practice to kindle the so-called 'Need-fire' by rubbing two
+pieces of wood briskly together, and setting ablaze a large heap of
+sticks and brushwood, which were dispersed, and cattle then driven
+through the smoking brands. This was thought to act as a charm
+against the spread or developement of the various ailments to which
+cattle are liable, and the farmers seem to have had great faith in
+it."<a id="footnotetag723" name="footnotetag723"></a><a href=
+"#footnote723"><sup>723</sup></a> Writing about the middle of the
+nineteenth century, Kemble tells us that the will-fire or need-fire
+had been used in Devonshire for the purpose of staying a murrain
+within the memory of man.<a id="footnotetag724" name=
+"footnotetag724"></a><a href="#footnote724"><sup>724</sup></a></p>
+<a id="neednorthumberland" name="neednorthumberland"></a>
+<p>[The need-fire in Northumberland.]</p>
+<p>So in Northumberland, down to the first half of the nineteenth
+century, "when a contagious disease enters among cattle, the fires
+are extinguished in the adjacent villages. Two pieces of dried wood
+are then rubbed together until fire be produced; with this a
+quantity of straw is kindled, juniper is thrown into the flame, and
+the cattle are repeatedly driven through the smoke. Part of the
+forced fire is sent to the neighbours, who again forward it to
+others, and, as great expedition is used, the fires may be seen
+blazing over a great extent of country in a very short space of
+time."<a id="footnotetag725" name="footnotetag725"></a><a href=
+"#footnote725"><sup>725</sup></a> "It is strange," says the
+antiquary William Henderson, writing about 1866, "to find the
+custom of lighting 'need-fires' on the occasion of epidemics among
+cattle still lingering among us, but so it is. The vicar of
+Stamfordham writes thus <span class="pagenum"><a id="page289" name=
+"page289"></a>[pg 289]</span> respecting it: 'When the murrain
+broke out among the cattle about eighteen years ago, this fire was
+produced by rubbing two pieces of dry wood together, and was
+carried from place to place all through this district, as a charm
+against cattle taking the disease. Bonfires were kindled with it,
+and the cattle driven into the smoke, where they were left for some
+time. Many farmers hereabouts, I am informed, had the
+need-fire.'"<a id="footnotetag726" name=
+"footnotetag726"></a><a href="#footnote726"><sup>726</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needscotland" name="needscotland"></a>
+<p>[Martin's account of the need-fire in the Highlands of
+Scotland.]</p>
+<p>In the earliest systematic account of the western islands of
+Scotland we read that "the inhabitants here did also make use of a
+fire called <i>Tin-egin, i.e.</i> a forced fire, or fire of
+necessity, which they used as an antidote against the plague or
+murrain in cattle; and it was performed thus: all the fires in the
+parish were extinguished, and then eighty-one married men, being
+thought the necessary number for effecting this design, took two
+great planks of wood, and nine of them were employed by turns, who
+by their repeated efforts rubbed one of the planks against the
+other until the heat thereof produced fire; and from this forced
+fire each family is supplied with new fire, which is no sooner
+kindled than a pot full of water is quickly set on it, and
+afterwards sprinkled upon the people infected with the plague, or
+upon the cattle that have the murrain. And this they all say they
+find successful by experience: it was practised in the main land,
+opposite to the south of Skie, within these thirty years."<a id=
+"footnotetag727" name="footnotetag727"></a><a href=
+"#footnote727"><sup>727</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needmull" name="needmull"></a>
+<p>[The need-fire in the island of Mull; sacrifice of a
+heifer.]</p>
+<p>In the island of Mull, one of the largest of the Hebrides, the
+need-fire was kindled as late as 1767. "In consequence of a disease
+among the black cattle the people agreed to perform an incantation,
+though they esteemed it a wicked thing. They carried to the top of
+Carnmoor a wheel and nine spindles of oakwood. They extinguished
+every fire in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page290" name=
+"page290"></a>[pg 290]</span> every house within sight of the hill;
+the wheel was then turned from east to west over the nine spindles
+long enough to produce fire by friction. If the fire were not
+produced before noon, the incantation lost its effect. They failed
+for several days running. They attributed this failure to the
+obstinacy of one householder, who would not let his fires be put
+out for what he considered so wrong a purpose. However, by bribing
+his servants they contrived to have them extinguished and on that
+morning raised their fire. They then sacrificed a heifer, cutting
+in pieces and burning, while yet alive, the diseased part. They
+then lighted their own hearths from the pile and ended by feasting
+on the remains. Words of incantation were repeated by an old man
+from Morven, who came over as master of the ceremonies, and who
+continued speaking all the time the fire was being raised. This man
+was living a beggar at Bellochroy. Asked to repeat the spell, he
+said, the sin of repeating it once had brought him to beggary, and
+that he dared not say those words again. The whole country believed
+him accursed."<a id="footnotetag728" name=
+"footnotetag728"></a><a href="#footnote728"><sup>728</sup></a> From
+this account we see that in Mull the kindling of the need-fire as a
+remedy for cattle disease was accompanied by the sacrifice of one
+of the diseased animals; and though the two customs are for the
+most part mentioned separately by our authorities, we may surmise
+that they were often, perhaps usually, practised together for the
+purpose of checking the ravages of sickness in the herds.<a id=
+"footnotetag729" name="footnotetag729"></a><a href=
+"#footnote729"><sup>729</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needcaithness" name="needcaithness"></a>
+<p>[The need-fire in Caithness.]</p>
+<p>In the county of Caithness, forming the extreme northeast corner
+of the mainland of Scotland, the practice of the need-fire survived
+down at least to about 1788. We read that "in those days, when the
+stock of any considerable farmer was seized with the murrain, he
+would send for one of the charm-doctors to superintend the raising
+of a <i>need-fire</i>. It was done by friction, thus; upon any
+small island, where the stream of a river or burn ran on each side,
+a circular booth was erected, of stone and turf, as it could be
+had, in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page291" name=
+"page291"></a>[pg 291]</span> which a semicircular or highland
+couple of birch, or other hard wood, was set; and, in short, a roof
+closed on it. A straight pole was set up in the centre of this
+building, the upper end fixed by a wooden pin to the top of the
+couple, and the lower end in an oblong <i>trink</i> in the earth or
+floor; and lastly, another pole was set across horizontally, having
+both ends tapered, one end of which was supported in a hole in the
+side of the perpendicular pole, and the other in a similar hole in
+the couple leg. The horizontal stick was called the auger, having
+four short arms or levers fixed in its centre, to work it by; the
+building having been thus finished, as many men as could be
+collected in the vicinity, (being divested of all kinds of metal in
+their clothes, etc.), would set to work with the said auger, two
+after two, constantly turning it round by the arms or levers, and
+others occasionally driving wedges of wood or stone behind the
+lower end of the upright pole, so as to press it the more on the
+end of the auger: by this constant friction and pressure, the ends
+of the auger would take fire, from which a fire would be instantly
+kindled, and thus the <i>needfire</i> would be accomplished. The
+fire in the farmer's house, etc., was immediately quenched with
+water, a fire kindled from this needfire, both in the farm-houses
+and offices, and the cattle brought to feel the smoke of this new
+and sacred fire, which preserved them from the murrain."<a id=
+"footnotetag730" name="footnotetag730"></a><a href=
+"#footnote730"><sup>730</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needcaithness2" name="needcaithness2"></a>
+<p>[The need-fire in Caithness.]</p>
+<p>The last recorded case of the need-fire in Caithness happened in
+1809 or 1810. At Houstry, Dunbeath, a crofter named David Gunn had
+made for himself a kail-yard and in doing so had wilfully
+encroached on one of those prehistoric ruins called <i>brochs</i>,
+which the people of the neighbourhood believed to be a fairy
+habitation. Soon afterwards a murrain broke out among the cattle of
+the district and carried off many beasts. So the wise men put their
+heads together and resolved to light a <i>teine-eigin</i> or
+need-fire as the best way of stopping the plague. They cut a branch
+from a tree in a neighbouring wood, stripped it of bark, and
+carried it to a small island in the Houstry Burn. Every fire in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page292" name="page292"></a>[pg
+292]</span> district having been quenched, new fire was made by the
+friction of wood in the island, and from this sacred flame all the
+hearths of the houses were lit afresh. One of the sticks used in
+making the fire was preserved down to about the end of the
+nineteenth century; apparently the mode of operation was the one
+known as the fire-drill: a pointed stick was twirled in a hole made
+in another stick till fire was elicited by the friction.<a id=
+"footnotetag731" name="footnotetag731"></a><a href=
+"#footnote731"><sup>731</sup></a></p>
+<p>[Another account of the need-fire in the Highlands.]</p>
+<p>Another account of the use of need-fire in the Highlands of
+Scotland runs as follows: "When, by the neglect of the prescribed
+safeguards [against witchcraft], the seeds of iniquity have taken
+root, and a person's means are decaying in consequence, the only
+alternative, in this case, is to resort to that grand remedy, the
+<i>Tein Econuch</i>, or 'Forlorn Fire,' which seldom fails of being
+productive of the best effects. The cure for witchcraft, called
+<i>Tein Econuch</i>, is wrought in the following manner:&mdash;A
+consultation being held by the unhappy sufferer and his friends as
+to the most advisable measures of effecting a cure, if this process
+is adopted, notice is privately communicated to all those
+householders who reside within the nearest of two running streams,
+to extinguish their lights and fires on some appointed morning. On
+its being ascertained that this notice has been duly observed, a
+spinning-wheel, or some other convenient instrument, calculated to
+produce fire by friction, is set to work with the most furious
+earnestness by the unfortunate sufferer, and all who wish well to
+his cause. Relieving each other by turns, they drive on with such
+persevering diligence, that at length the spindle of the wheel,
+ignited by excessive friction, emits 'forlorn fire' in abundance,
+which, by the application of tow, or some other combustible
+material, is widely extended over the whole neighbourhood.
+Communicating the fire to the tow, the tow communicates it to a
+candle, the candle to a fir-torch, the torch to a cartful of peats,
+which the master of the ceremonies, with pious ejaculations for the
+success of the experiment, distributes to messengers, who will
+proceed with portions of it to the different houses within the said
+two running streams, to kindle the different fires. By the
+influence <span class="pagenum"><a id="page293" name=
+"page293"></a>[pg 293]</span> of this operation, the machinations
+and spells of witchcraft are rendered null and void."<a id=
+"footnotetag732" name="footnotetag732"></a><a href=
+"#footnote732"><sup>732</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needcarmichael" name="needcarmichael"></a>
+<p>[Alexander Carmichael's account of the need-fire in the
+Highlands of Scotland during the nineteenth century.]</p>
+<p>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:&mdash;</p>
+<p>"<i>Tein-eigin</i>, neid-fire, need-fire, forced fire, fire
+produced by the friction of wood or iron against wood.</p>
+<p>"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 <i>Teine Bheuil</i>, fire of Beul, and <i>Teine mor
+Bheuil</i>, 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. <i>Is teodha so na teine teodha
+Bheuil</i>, '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.'</p>
+<p>"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.</p>
+<p>[The needfire in Arran.]</p>
+<p>"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 <i>La buidhe
+Bealltain</i>&mdash;Yellow Day of Beltane. They fed the fire from
+<i>cuaile mor conaidh caoin</i>&mdash;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 <i>bana bhuitseach mhor Nic Creafain Mac
+Creafain</i>&mdash;the great arch witch Mac Crauford, now Crawford.
+That was in the second decade of this century.</p>
+<p>[The need-fire in North Uist.]</p>
+<p>"John Macphail, Middlequarter, North Uist, said that
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page294" name="page294"></a>[pg
+294]</span> the last occasion on which the neid-fire was made in
+North Uist was <i>bliadhna an t-sneachda bhuidhe</i>&mdash;the year
+of the yellow snow&mdash;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 <i>naoi naoinear ciad ginealach mac</i>&mdash;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.
+<i>Sail Dharaich</i>, 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 <i>Cladh Sgealoir</i>, the
+burying-ground of <i>Sgealoir</i>, in the neighbourhood.</p>
+<p>[The need-fire in Reay, Sutherland.]</p>
+<p>"Mr. Alexander Mackay, Edinburgh, a native of Reay, Sutherland,
+says:&mdash;'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 <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page295" name="page295"></a>[pg 295]</span> and
+the good Christians they were&mdash;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.'</p>
+<p>"A man at Helmsdale, Sutherland, saw the <i>tein-eigin</i> made
+in his boyhood.</p>
+<p>"The neid-fire was made in North Uist about the year 1829, in
+Arran about 1820, in Helmsdale about 1818, in Reay about
+1830."<a id="footnotetag733" name="footnotetag733"></a><a href=
+"#footnote733"><sup>733</sup></a></p>
+<p>[The Beltane fire a precaution against witchcraft.]</p>
+<p>From the foregoing account we learn that in Arran the annual
+Beltane fire was regularly made by the friction of wood, and that
+it was used to protect men and cattle against a great witch. When
+we remember that Beltane Eve or the Eve of May Day (Walpurgis
+Night) is the great witching time of the year throughout Europe, we
+may surmise that wherever bonfires have been ceremonially kindled
+on that day it has been done simply as a precaution against
+witchcraft; indeed this motive is expressly alleged not only in
+Scotland, but in Wales, the Isle of Man, and many parts of Central
+Europe.<a id="footnotetag734" name="footnotetag734"></a><a href=
+"#footnote734"><sup>734</sup></a> It deserves, further, to be
+noticed that in North Uist the wood used to kindle the need-fire
+was oak, and that the nine times nine men by whose exertions the
+flame was elicited were all first-born sons. Apparently the
+first-born son of a family was thought to be endowed with more
+magical virtue than his younger brothers. Similarly in the Punjaub
+"the supernatural power ascribed to the first born is not due to
+his being unlucky, but the idea underlying the belief seems to be
+that being the first product of the parents, he inherits the
+spiritual powers (or magnetism) in a high degree. The success of
+such persons in stopping rain and hail and in stupefying snakes is
+proverbial. It is believed that a first child born with feet
+forward can cure backache by kicking the patient in the back, on a
+crossing."<a id="footnotetag735" name="footnotetag735"></a><a href=
+"#footnote735"><sup>735</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page296" name="page296"></a>[pg
+296]</span> <a id="needaberdeenshire" name="needaberdeenshire"></a>
+<p>[The need-fire in Aberdeenshire.]</p>
+<p>In the north-east of Aberdeenshire and the neighbourhood, when
+the cattle-disease known as the "quarter-ill" broke out, "the
+'muckle wheel' was set in motion and turned till fire was produced.
+From this virgin flame fires were kindled in the byres. At the same
+time, if neighbours requested the favour, live coals were given
+them to kindle fires for the purification of their homesteads and
+turning off the disease. Fumigating the byres with juniper was a
+method adopted to ward off disease. Such a fire was called
+'needfyre.' The kindling of it came under the censure of the
+Presbytery at times."<a id="footnotetag736" name=
+"footnotetag736"></a><a href="#footnote736"><sup>736</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needperthshire" name="needperthshire"></a>
+<p>[The need-fire in Perthshire.]</p>
+<p>In Perthshire the need-fire was kindled as a remedy for
+cattle-disease as late as 1826. "A wealthy old farmer, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page297" name="page297"></a>[pg 297]</span> having
+lost several of his cattle by some disease very prevalent at
+present, and being able to account for it in no way so rationally
+as by witchcraft, had recourse to the following remedy, recommended
+to him by a weird sister in his neighbourhood, as an effectual
+protection from the attacks of the foul fiend. A few stones were
+piled together in the barnyard, and woodcoals having been laid
+thereon, the fuel was ignited by <i>will-fire</i>, that is fire
+obtained by friction; the neighbours having been called in to
+witness the solemnity, the cattle were made to pass through the
+flames, in the order of their dignity and age, commencing with the
+horses and ending with the swine. The ceremony having been duly and
+decorously gone through, a neighbouring farmer observed to the
+enlightened owner of the herd, that he, along with his family,
+ought to have followed the example of the cattle, and the sacrifice
+to Baal would have been complete."<a id="footnotetag737" name=
+"footnotetag737"></a><a href="#footnote737"><sup>737</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needireland" name="needireland"></a>
+<p>[The need-fire in Ireland.]</p>
+<p>In County Leitrim, Ireland, in order to prevent fever from
+spreading, "all the fires on the townland, and the two adjoining
+(one on each side), would be put out. Then the men of the three
+townlands would come to one house, and get two large blocks of
+wood. One would be set in the ground, and the other one, fitted
+with two handles, placed on the top of it. The men would then draw
+the upper block backwards and forwards over the lower until fire
+was produced by friction, and from this the fires would be lighted
+again. This would prevent the fever from spreading,"<a id=
+"footnotetag738" name="footnotetag738"></a><a href=
+"#footnote738"><sup>738</sup></a></p>
+<a id="needrelic" name="needrelic"></a>
+<p>[The use of the need-fire a relic of a time when all fires were
+kindled by the friction of wood.]</p>
+<p>Thus it appears that in many parts of Europe it has been
+customary to kindle fire by the friction of wood for the purpose of
+curing or preventing the spread of disease, particularly among
+cattle. The mode of striking a light by rubbing two dry sticks
+against each other is the one to which all over the world savages
+have most commonly resorted for the sake of providing themselves
+with fire;<a id="footnotetag739" name="footnotetag739"></a><a href=
+"#footnote739"><sup>739</sup></a> and we can scarcely doubt that
+the practice of kindling the need-fire in this primitive fashion is
+merely a survival from the time <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page298" name="page298"></a>[pg 298]</span> when our savage
+forefathers lit all their fires in that way. Nothing is so
+conservative of old customs as religious or magical ritual, which
+invests these relics of the past with an atmosphere of mysterious
+virtue and sanctity. To the educated mind it seems obvious that a
+fire which a man kindles with the sweat of his brow by laboriously
+rubbing one stick against each other can possess neither more nor
+less virtue than one which he has struck in a moment by the
+friction of a lucifer match; but to the ignorant and superstitious
+this truth is far from apparent, and accordingly they take infinite
+pains to do in a roundabout way what they might have done directly
+with the greatest ease, and what, even when it is done, is of no
+use whatever for the purpose in hand. A vast proportion of the
+labour which mankind has expended throughout the ages has been no
+better spent; it has been like the stone of Sisyphus eternally
+rolled up hill only to revolve eternally down again, or like the
+water poured for ever by the Danaids into broken pitchers which it
+could never fill.</p>
+<a id="needbelief" name="needbelief"></a>
+<p>[The belief that the need-fire cannot kindle if any other fire
+remains alight in the neighbourhood.]</p>
+<p>The curious notion that the need-fire cannot kindle if any other
+fire remains alight in the neighbourhood seems to imply that fire
+is conceived as a unity which is broken up into fractions and
+consequently weakened in exact proportion to the number of places
+where it burns; hence in order to obtain it at full strength you
+must light it only at a single point, for then the flame will burst
+out with a concentrated energy derived from the tributary fires
+which burned on all the extinguished hearths of the country. So in
+a modern city if all the gas were turned off simultaneously at all
+the burners but one, the flame would no doubt blaze at that one
+burner with a fierceness such as no single burner could shew when
+all are burning at the same time. The analogy may help us to
+understand the process of reasoning which leads the peasantry to
+insist on the extinction of all common fires when the need-fire is
+about to be kindled. Perhaps, too, it may partly explain that
+ceremonial extinction of all old fires on other occasions which is
+often required by custom as a preliminary to the lighting of a new
+and sacred fire.<a id="footnotetag740" name=
+"footnotetag740"></a><a href="#footnote740"><sup>740</sup></a> We
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page299" name="page299"></a>[pg
+299]</span> have seen that in the Highlands of Scotland all common
+fires were extinguished on the Eve of May-day as a preparation for
+kindling the Beltane bonfire by friction next morning;<a id=
+"footnotetag741" name="footnotetag741"></a><a href=
+"#footnote741"><sup>741</sup></a> and no doubt the reason for the
+extinction was the same as in the case of the need-fire. Indeed we
+may assume with a fair degree of probability that the need-fire was
+the parent of the periodic fire-festivals; at first invoked only at
+irregular intervals to cure certain evils as they occurred, the
+powerful virtue of fire was afterwards employed at regular
+intervals to prevent the occurrence of the same evils as well as to
+remedy such as had actually arisen.</p>
+<a id="neediroquois" name="neediroquois"></a>
+<p>[The needfire among the Iroquois of North America.]</p>
+<p>The need-fire of Europe has its parallel in a ceremony which
+used to be observed by the Iroquois Indians of North America.
+"Formerly when an epidemic prevailed among the Iroquois despite the
+efforts to stay it, it was customary for the principal shaman to
+order the fires in every cabin to be extinguished and the ashes and
+cinders to be carefully removed; for it was believed that the
+pestilence was sent as a punishment for neglecting to rekindle 'new
+fire,' or because of the manner in which the fire then in use had
+been kindled. So, after all the fires were out, two suitable logs
+of slippery elm (<i>Ulmus fulva</i>) were provided for the new
+fire. One of the logs was from six to eight inches in diameter and
+from eight to ten feet long; the other was from ten to twelve
+inches in diameter and about ten feet long. About midway across the
+larger log a cuneiform notch or cut about six inches deep was made,
+and in the wedge-shaped notch punk was placed. The other log was
+drawn rapidly to and fro in the cut by four strong men chosen for
+the purpose until the punk was ignited by the friction thus
+produced. Before and during the progress of the work of igniting
+the fire the shaman votively sprinkled
+<i>tcar-hu'-e&ntilde;-we</i>, 'real tobacco,' three several times
+into the cuneiform notch and offered earnest prayers to the
+Fire-god, beseeching him 'to aid, to bless, and <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page300" name="page300"></a>[pg 300]</span> to
+redeem the people from their calamities.' The ignited punk was used
+to light a large bonfire, and then the head of every family was
+required to take home 'new fire' to rekindle a fire in his or her
+fire-place."<a id="footnotetag742" name=
+"footnotetag742"></a><a href="#footnote742"><sup>742</sup></a></p>
+<h4><a id="sect4-9" name="sect4-9">&sect; 9. <i>The Sacrifice of an
+Animal to stay a Cattle-Plague</i></a></h4>
+<a id="sacrificeengland" name="sacrificeengland"></a>
+<p>[The burnt sacrifice of a calf in England and Wales; burnt
+sacrifice a pig in Scotland.]</p>
+<p>Sometimes apparently in England as well as in Scotland the
+kindling of a need-fire was accompanied by the sacrifice of a calf.
+Thus in Northamptonshire, at some time during the first half of the
+nineteenth century, "Miss C&mdash;&mdash; and her cousin walking
+saw a fire in a field and a crowd round it. They said, 'What is the
+matter?' 'Killing a calf.' 'What for?' 'To stop the murrain.' They
+went away as quickly as possible. On speaking to the clergyman he
+made enquiries. The people did not like to talk of the affair, but
+it appeared that when there is a disease among the cows or the
+calves are born sickly, they sacrifice (<i>i.e.</i> kill and burn)
+one 'for good luck.'"<a id="footnotetag743" name=
+"footnotetag743"></a><a href="#footnote743"><sup>743</sup></a> It
+is not here said that the fire was a need-fire, of which indeed the
+two horrified ladies had probably never heard; but the analogy of
+the parallel custom in Mull<a id="footnotetag744" name=
+"footnotetag744"></a><a href="#footnote744"><sup>744</sup></a>
+renders it probable that in Northamptonshire also the fire was
+kindled by the friction of wood, and that the calf or some part of
+it was burnt in the fire. Certainly the practice of burning a
+single animal alive in order to save all the others would seem to
+have been not uncommon in England down to the nineteenth century.
+Thus a farmer in Cornwall about the year 1800, having lost many
+cattle by disease, and tried many remedies in vain, consulted with
+some of his neighbours and laying their heads together "they
+recalled to their recollections a tale, which tradition had handed
+down from remote antiquity, that the calamity would not cease until
+he had actually burned alive the finest calf which he had upon his
+farm; but that, when this sacrifice was made, the murrain would
+afflict his cattle no more." Accordingly, on a day appointed they
+met, lighted a large fire, placed the best calf in it, and standing
+round the blazing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page301" name=
+"page301"></a>[pg 301]</span> pile drove the animal with pitchforks
+back into the flames whenever it attempted to escape. Thus the
+victim was burned alive to save the rest of the cattle.<a id=
+"footnotetag745" name="footnotetag745"></a><a href=
+"#footnote745"><sup>745</sup></a> "There can be no doubt but that a
+belief prevailed until a very recent period, amongst the small
+farmers in the districts remote from towns in Cornwall, that a
+living sacrifice appeased the wrath of God. This sacrifice must be
+by fire; and I have heard it argued that the Bible gave them
+warranty for this belief.... While correcting these sheets I am
+informed of two recent instances of this superstition. One of them
+was the sacrifice of a calf by a farmer near Portreath, for the
+purpose of removing a disease which had long followed his horses
+and his cows. The other was the burning of a living lamb, to save,
+as the farmer said, 'his flocks from spells which had been cast on
+'em.'"<a id="footnotetag746" name="footnotetag746"></a><a href=
+"#footnote746"><sup>746</sup></a> In a recent account of the
+fire-festivals of Wales we read that "I have also heard my
+grandfather and father say that in times gone by the people would
+throw a calf in the fire when there was any disease among the
+herds. The same would be done with a sheep if there was anything
+the matter with a flock. I can remember myself seeing cattle being
+driven between two fires to 'stop the disease spreading.' When in
+later times it was not considered humane to drive the cattle
+between the fires, the herdsmen were accustomed to force the
+animals over the wood ashes to protect them against various
+ailments."<a id="footnotetag747" name="footnotetag747"></a><a href=
+"#footnote747"><sup>747</sup></a> Writing about 1866, the antiquary
+W. Henderson says that a live ox was burned near Haltwhistle in
+Northumberland "only twenty years ago" to stop a murrain.<a id=
+"footnotetag748" name="footnotetag748"></a><a href=
+"#footnote748"><sup>748</sup></a> "About the year 1850 disease
+broke out among the cattle of a small farm in the parish of
+Resoliss, Black Isle, Ross-shire. The farmer prevailed on his wife
+to undertake a journey to a wise woman of renown <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page302" name="page302"></a>[pg 302]</span> in
+Banffshire to ask a charm against the effects of the 'ill eye.' The
+long journey of upwards of fifty miles was performed by the good
+wife, and the charm was got. One chief thing ordered was to burn to
+death a pig, and sprinkle the ashes over the byre and other farm
+buildings. This order was carried out, except that the pig was
+killed before it was burned. A more terrible sacrifice was made at
+times. One of the diseased animals was rubbed over with tar, driven
+forth, set on fire, and allowed to run till it fell down and
+died."<a id="footnotetag749" name="footnotetag749"></a><a href=
+"#footnote749"><sup>749</sup></a> "Living animals have been burnt
+alive in sacrifice within memory to avert the loss of other stock.
+The burial of three puppies 'brandise-wise' in a field is supposed
+to rid it of weeds. Throughout the rural districts of Devon
+witchcraft is an article of current faith, and the toad is thrown
+into the flames as an emissary of the evil one."<a id=
+"footnotetag750" name="footnotetag750"></a><a href=
+"#footnote750"><sup>750</sup></a></p>
+<a id="sacrificecalf" name="sacrificecalf"></a>
+<p>[The calf is burnt in order to break a spell which has been cast
+on the herd.]</p>
+<p>But why, we may ask, should the burning alive of a calf or a
+sheep be supposed to save the rest of the herd or the flock from
+the murrain? According to one writer, as we have seen, the burnt
+sacrifice was thought to appease the wrath of God.<a id=
+"footnotetag751" name="footnotetag751"></a><a href=
+"#footnote751"><sup>751</sup></a> The idea of appeasing the wrath
+of a ferocious deity by burning an animal alive is probably no more
+than a theological gloss put on an old heathen rite; it would
+hardly occur to the simple mind of an English bumpkin, who, though
+he may be stupid, is not naturally cruel and does not conceive of a
+divinity who takes delight in the contemplation of suffering. To
+his thinking God has little or nothing to do with the murrain, but
+witches, ill-wishers, and fairies have a great deal to do with it.
+The English farmer who burned one of his lambs alive said that he
+did it "to save his flocks from spells which had been cast on
+them"; and the Scotch farmer who was bidden to burn a pig alive for
+a similar <span class="pagenum"><a id="page303" name=
+"page303"></a>[pg 303]</span> purpose, but who had the humanity to
+kill the animal first, believed that this was a remedy for the
+"evil eye" which had been cast upon his beasts. Again, we read that
+"a farmer, who possessed broad acres, and who was in many respects
+a sensible man, was greatly annoyed to find that his cattle became
+diseased in the spring. Nothing could satisfy him but that they
+were bewitched, and he was resolved to find out the person who had
+cast the evil eye on his oxen. According to an anciently-prescribed
+rule, the farmer took one of his bullocks and bled it to death,
+catching all the blood on bundles of straw. The bloody straw was
+then piled into a heap, and set on fire. Burning with a vast
+quantity of smoke, the farmer expected to see the witch, either in
+reality or in shadow, amidst the smoke."<a id="footnotetag752"
+name="footnotetag752"></a><a href="#footnote752"><sup>752</sup></a>
+Such reasons express the real beliefs of the peasants. "Cattle,
+like human beings, were exposed to the influences of the evil eye,
+of forespeaking, and of the casting of evil. Witches and warlocks
+did the work of evil among their neighbours' cattle if their anger
+had been aroused in any way. The fairies often wrought injury
+amongst cattle. Every animal that died suddenly was killed by the
+dart of the fairies, or, in the language of the people, was
+'shot-a-dead.' Flint arrows and spear-heads went by the name of
+'faery dairts....' When an animal died suddenly the canny woman of
+the district was sent for to search for the 'faery dairt,' and in
+due course she found one, to the great satisfaction of the owner of
+the dead animal."<a id="footnotetag753" name=
+"footnotetag753"></a><a href="#footnote753"><sup>753</sup></a></p>
+<a id="sacrificemode" name="sacrificemode"></a>
+<p>[Mode in which the burning of a bewitched animal is supposed to
+break the spell.]</p>
+<p>But how, we must still ask, can burning an animal alive break
+the spell that has been cast upon its fellows by a witch or a
+warlock? Some light is thrown on the question by the following
+account of measures which rustic wiseacres in Suffolk are said to
+have adopted as a remedy for witchcraft. "A woman I knew
+forty-three years had been employed by my predecessor to take care
+of his poultry. At the time I came to make her acquaintance she was
+a bedridden toothless crone, with chin and nose all but meeting.
+She did <span class="pagenum"><a id="page304" name=
+"page304"></a>[pg 304]</span> not discourage in her neighbours the
+idea that she knew more than people ought to know, and had more
+power than others had. Many years before I knew her it happened one
+spring that the ducks, which were a part of her charge, failed to
+lay eggs.... She at once took it for granted that the ducks had
+been bewitched. This misbelief involved very shocking consequences,
+for it necessitated the idea that so diabolical an act could only
+be combated by diabolical cruelty. And the most diabolical act of
+cruelty she could imagine was that of baking alive in a hot oven
+one of the ducks. And that was what she did. The sequence of
+thought in her mind was that the spell that had been laid on the
+ducks was that of preternaturally wicked wilfulness; that this
+spell could only be broken through intensity of suffering, in this
+case death by burning; that the intensity of suffering would break
+the spell in the one roasted to death; and that the spell broken in
+one would be altogether broken, that is, in all the ducks....
+Shocking, however, as was this method of exorcising the ducks,
+there was nothing in it original. Just about a hundred years
+before, everyone in the town and neighbourhood of Ipswich had
+heard, and many had believed, that a witch had been burnt to death
+in her own house at Ipswich by the process of burning alive one of
+the sheep she had bewitched. It was curious, but it was as
+convincing as curious, that the hands and feet of this witch were
+the only parts of her that had not been incinerated. This, however,
+was satisfactorily explained by the fact that the four feet of the
+sheep, by which it had been suspended over the fire, had not been
+destroyed in the flames that had consumed its body."<a id=
+"footnotetag754" name="footnotetag754"></a><a href=
+"#footnote754"><sup>754</sup></a> According to a slightly different
+account of the same tragic incident, the last of the "Ipswitch
+witches," one Grace Pett, "laid her hand heavily on a farmer's
+sheep, who, in order to punish her, fastened one of the sheep in
+the ground and burnt it, except the feet, which were under the
+earth. The next morning Grace Pett was found burnt to a cinder,
+except her <span class="pagenum"><a id="page305" name=
+"page305"></a>[pg 305]</span> feet. Her fate is recorded in the
+<i>Philosophical Transactions</i> as a case of spontaneous
+combustion."<a id="footnotetag755" name=
+"footnotetag755"></a><a href="#footnote755"><sup>755</sup></a></p>
+<a id="sacrificewitch" name="sacrificewitch"></a>
+<p>[In burning the bewitched animal you burn the witch
+herself.]</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<a id="sacrificeman" name="sacrificeman"></a>
+<p>[Practice of burning cattle and sheep as sacrifices in the Isle
+of Man.]</p>
+<p>In the Isle of Man the practice of burning cattle alive in order
+to stop a murrain seems to have persisted down to a time within
+living memory. On this subject I will quote the evidence collected
+by Sir John Rhys: "A respectable farmer from Andreas told me that
+he was driving with his wife to the neighbouring parish of Jurby
+some years ago, and that on the way they beheld the carcase of a
+cow or an ox burning in a field, with a woman engaged in stirring
+the fire. On reaching the village to which they were going, they
+found that the burning beast belonged to a farmer <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page306" name="page306"></a>[pg 306]</span> whom
+they knew. They were further told it was no wonder that the said
+farmer had one of his cattle burnt, as several of them had recently
+died. Whether this was a case of sacrifice or not I cannot say. But
+let me give you another instance: a man whom I have already
+mentioned, saw at a farm nearer the centre of the island a live
+calf being burnt. The owner bears an English name, but his family
+has long been settled in Man. The farmer's explanation to my
+informant was that the calf was burnt to secure luck for the rest
+of the herd, some of which were threatening to die. My informant
+thought there was absolutely nothing the matter with them, except
+that they had too little to eat. Be that as it may, the one calf
+was sacrificed as a burnt-offering to secure luck for the rest of
+the cattle. Let me here also quote Mr. Moore's note in his <i>Manx
+Surnames</i>, p. 184, on the place name <i>Cabbal yn Oural
+Losht</i>, or the Chapel of the Burnt Sacrifice. 'This name,' he
+says, 'records a circumstance which took place in the nineteenth
+century, but which, it is to be hoped, was never customary in the
+Isle of Man. A farmer, who had lost a number of his sheep and
+cattle by murrain, burned a calf as a propitiatory offering to the
+Deity on this spot, where a chapel was afterwards built. Hence the
+name.' Particulars, I may say, of time, place, and person could be
+easily added to Mr. Moore's statement, excepting, perhaps as to the
+deity in question; on that point I have never been informed, but
+Mr. Moore is probably right in the use of the capital <i>d</i>, as
+the sacrificer is, according to all accounts, a highly devout
+Christian. One more instance: an octogenarian woman, born in the
+parish of Bride, and now living at Kirk Andreas, saw, when she was
+a 'lump of a girl' of ten or fifteen years of age, a live sheep
+being burnt in a field in the parish of Andreas, on May-day,
+whereby she meant the first of May reckoned according to the Old
+Style. She asserts very decidedly that it was <i>son oural</i>, 'as
+a sacrifice,' as she put it, and 'for an object to the public':
+those were her words when she expressed herself in English.
+Further, she made the statement that it was a custom to burn a
+sheep on old May-day for a sacrifice. I was fully alive to the
+interest of this evidence, and cross-examined her so far as
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page307" name="page307"></a>[pg
+307]</span> her age allows of it, and I find that she adheres to
+her statement with all firmness."<a id="footnotetag756" name=
+"footnotetag756"></a><a href="#footnote756"><sup>756</sup></a></p>
+<a id="sacrificeappear" name="sacrificeappear"></a>
+<p>[By burning a bewitched animal you compel the witch to
+appear.]</p>
+<p>But Manxmen burn beasts when they are dead as well as when they
+are alive; and their reasons for burning the dead animals may help
+us to understand their reasons for burning the living animals. On
+this subject I will again quote Sir John Rhys: "When a beast dies
+on a farm, of course it dies, according to the old-fashioned view
+of things, as I understand it, from the influence of the evil eye
+or the interposition of a witch. So if you want to know to whom you
+are indebted for the loss of the beast, you have simply to burn its
+carcase in the open air and watch who comes first to the spot or
+who first passes by; that is the criminal to be charged with the
+death of the animal, and he cannot help coming there&mdash;such is
+the effect of the fire. A Michael woman, who is now about thirty,
+related to me how she watched while the carcase of a bewitched colt
+was burning, how she saw the witch coming, and how she remembers
+her shrivelled face, with nose and chin in close proximity.
+According to another native of Michael, a well-informed middle-aged
+man, the animal in question was oftenest a calf, and it was wont to
+be burnt whole, skin and all. The object, according to him, is
+invariably to bring the bewitcher on the spot, and he always comes;
+but I am not clear what happens to him when he appears. My
+informant added, however, that it was believed that, unless the
+bewitcher got possession of the heart of the burning beast, he lost
+all his power of bewitching."<a id="footnotetag757" name=
+"footnotetag757"></a><a href="#footnote757"><sup>757</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page308" name="page308"></a>[pg
+308]</span> <a id="magicsympathy" name="magicsympathy"></a>
+<p>[Magic sympathy between the witch and the bewitched animal.]</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<a id="parallelbelief" name="parallelbelief"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>This explanation of the reason for burning a bewitched animal,
+dead or alive, is confirmed by the parallel belief concerning
+were-wolves. It is commonly supposed that certain men and women can
+transform themselves by magic art into wolves or other animals, but
+that any wound inflicted on such a transformed beast (a were-wolf
+or other were-animal) is simultaneously inflicted on the human body
+of the witch or warlock who had transformed herself or himself into
+the creature. This belief is widely diffused; it meets us in
+Europe, Asia, and Africa. For example, Olaus Magnus tells us that
+in Livonia, not many years before he wrote, a noble lady had a
+dispute with her slave on the subject of were-wolves, she doubting
+whether there were any such things, and he maintaining that there
+were. To convince her he retired to a room, from which he soon
+appeared in the form of a wolf. Being chased by the dogs into the
+forest and brought to bay, the wolf defended himself fiercely, but
+lost an eye in the struggle. Next day the slave returned to his
+mistress in human form but with only one eye.<a id="footnotetag758"
+name="footnotetag758"></a><a href="#footnote758"><sup>758</sup></a>
+Again, it happened in the year 1588 that a gentleman in a village
+among the mountains of Auvergne, looking out of the window one
+evening, saw a friend of his going out to hunt. He begged him to
+bring him back some of his bag, and his friend said that he would.
+Well, he had not gone very far before he met a huge wolf. He fired
+and missed it, and the animal attacked him furiously, but he stood
+on his guard and with an adroit stroke of his <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page309" name="page309"></a>[pg 309]</span>
+hunting knife he cut off the right fore-paw of the brute, which
+thereupon fled away and he saw it no more. He returned to his
+friend, and drawing from his pouch the severed paw of the wolf he
+found to his horror that it was turned into a woman's hand with a
+golden ring on one of the fingers. His friend recognized the ring
+as that of his own wife and went to find her. She was sitting by
+the fire with her right arm under her apron. As she refused to draw
+it out, her husband confronted her with the hand and the ring on
+it. She at once confessed the truth, that it was she in the form of
+a were-wolf whom the hunter had wounded. Her confession was
+confirmed by applying the severed hand to the stump of her arm, for
+the two fitted exactly. The angry husband delivered up his wicked
+wife to justice; she was tried and burnt as a witch.<a id=
+"footnotetag759" name="footnotetag759"></a><a href=
+"#footnote759"><sup>759</sup></a> It is said that a were-wolf,
+scouring the streets of Padua, was caught, and when they cut off
+his four paws he at once turned into a man, but with both his hands
+and feet amputated.<a id="footnotetag760" name=
+"footnotetag760"></a><a href="#footnote760"><sup>760</sup></a>
+Again, in a farm of the French district of Beauce, there was once a
+herdsman who never slept at home. These nocturnal absences
+naturally attracted attention and set people talking. At the same
+time, by a curious coincidence, a wolf used to prowl round the farm
+every night and to excite the dogs in the farmyard to fury by
+thrusting his snout derisively through the cat's hole in the great
+gate. The farmer had his suspicions and he determined to watch. One
+night, when the herdsman went out as usual, his master followed him
+quietly till he came to a hut, where with his own eyes he saw the
+man put on a broad belt and at once turn into a wolf, which scoured
+away over the fields. The farmer smiled a sickly sort of smile and
+went back to the farm. There he took a stout stick and sat down at
+the cat's hole to wait. He had not long to wait. The dogs barked
+like mad, a wolf's snout shewed through the hole, down came the
+stick, out gushed the blood, and a voice was heard to say without
+the gate, "A good job too. I had still three years to run." Next
+day the herdsman appeared as usual, <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page310" name="page310"></a>[pg 310]</span> but he had a scar on
+his brow, and he never went out again at night.<a id=
+"footnotetag761" name="footnotetag761"></a><a href=
+"#footnote761"><sup>761</sup></a></p>
+<a id="chinawerewolves" name="chinawerewolves"></a>
+<p>[Werewolves in China.]</p>
+<p>In China also the faith in similar transformation is reflected
+in the following tale. A certain man in Sung-yang went into the
+mountains to gather fuel. Night fell and he was pursued by two
+tigers, but scrambled up a tree out of their reach. Then said the
+one tiger to the other tiger, "If we can find Chu-Tu-shi, we are
+sure to catch this man up the tree." So off went one of them to
+find Chu-Tu-shi, while the other kept watch at the foot of the
+tree. Soon after that another tiger, leaner and longer than the
+other two, appeared on the scene and made a grab at the man's coat.
+But fortunately the moon was shining, the man saw the paw, and with
+a stroke of his axe cut off one of its claws. The tigers roared and
+fled, one after the other, so the man climbed down the tree and
+went home. When he told his tale in the village, suspicion
+naturally fell on the said Chu-Tu-shi; next day some men went to
+see him in his house. They <span class="pagenum"><a id="page311"
+name="page311"></a>[pg 311]</span> were told that they could not
+see him; for he had been out the night before and had hurt his
+hand, and he was now ill in bed. So they put two and two together
+and reported him to the police. The police arrived, surrounded the
+house, and set fire to it; but Chu-Tu-shi rose from his bed, turned
+into a tiger, charged right through the police, and escaped, and to
+this day nobody ever knew where he went to.<a id="footnotetag762"
+name="footnotetag762"></a><a href=
+"#footnote762"><sup>762</sup></a></p>
+<a id="toradjaswerewolves" name="toradjaswerewolves"></a>
+<p>[Werewolves among the Toradjas of Central Celebes.]</p>
+<p>The Toradjas of Central Celebes stand in very great fear of
+werewolves, that is of men and women, who have the power of
+transforming their spirits into animals such as cats, crocodiles,
+wild pigs, apes, deer, and buffaloes, which roam about battening on
+human flesh, and especially on human livers, while the men and
+women in their own proper human form are sleeping quietly in their
+beds at home. Among them a man is either born a were-wolf or
+becomes one by infection; for mere contact with a were-wolf, or
+even with anything that has been touched by his spittle, is quite
+enough to turn the most innocent person into a were-wolf; nay even
+to lean your head against anything against which a were-wolf has
+leaned his head suffices to do it. The penalty for being a
+were-wolf is death; but the sentence is never passed until the
+accused has had a fair trial and his guilt has been clearly
+demonstrated by an ordeal, which consists in dipping the middle
+finger into boiling resin. If the finger is not burnt, the man is
+no were-wolf; but if it is burnt, a werewolf he most assuredly is,
+so they take him away to a quiet spot and hack him to bits. In
+cutting him up the executioners are naturally very careful not to
+be bespattered with his blood, for if that were to happen they
+would of course be turned into were-wolves themselves. Further,
+they place his severed head beside his hinder-quarters to prevent
+his soul from coming to life again and pursuing his depredations.
+So great is the horror of were-wolves among the Toradjas, and so
+great is their fear of contracting the deadly taint by infection,
+that many persons have assured a missionary that they would not
+spare their own child if they knew him to be a were-wolf.<a id=
+"footnotetag763" name="footnotetag763"></a><a href=
+"#footnote763"><sup>763</sup></a> Now these people, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page312" name="page312"></a>[pg 312]</span> whose
+faith in were-wolves is not a mere dying or dead superstition but a
+living, dreadful conviction, tell stories of were-wolves which
+conform to the type which we are examining. They say that once upon
+a time a were-wolf came in human shape under the house of a
+neighbour, while his real body lay asleep as usual at home, and
+calling out softly to the man's wife made an assignation with her
+to meet him in the tobacco-field next day. But the husband was
+lying awake and he heard it all, but he said nothing to anybody.
+Next day chanced to be a busy one in the village, for a roof had to
+be put on a new house and all the men were lending a hand with the
+work, and among them to be sure was the were-wolf himself, I mean
+to say his own human self; there he was up on the roof working away
+as hard as anybody. But the woman went out to the tobacco-field,
+and behind went unseen her husband, slinking through the underwood.
+When they were come to the field, he saw the were-wolf make up to
+his wife, so out he rushed and struck at him with a stick. Quick as
+thought, the were-wolf turned himself into a leaf, but the man was
+as nimble, for he caught up the leaf, thrust it into the joint of
+bamboo, in which he kept his tobacco, and bunged it up tight. Then
+he walked back with his wife to the village, carrying the bamboo
+with the werewolf in it. When they came to the village, the human
+body of the were-wolf was still on the roof, working away with the
+rest. The man put the bamboo in a fire. At that the human were-wolf
+looked down from the roof and said, "Don't do that." The man drew
+the bamboo from the fire, but a moment afterwards he put it in the
+fire again, and again the human were-wolf on the roof looked down
+and cried, "Don't do that." But this time the man kept the bamboo
+in the fire, and when it blazed up, down fell the human were-wolf
+from the roof as dead as a stone.<a id="footnotetag764" name=
+"footnotetag764"></a><a href="#footnote764"><sup>764</sup></a>
+Again, the following story went round among the Toradjas not so
+very many years ago. The thing happened at Soemara, on the Gulf of
+Tomori. It was evening and some men sat chatting with a certain
+Hadji Mohammad. When it had grown dark, one of the men went out of
+the house for something or other. A little while afterwards one of
+the company <span class="pagenum"><a id="page313" name=
+"page313"></a>[pg 313]</span> thought he saw a stag's antlers
+standing out sharp and clear against the bright evening sky. So
+Hadji Mohammad raised his gun and fired. A minute or two afterwards
+back comes the man who had gone out, and says he to Hadji Mohammad,
+"You shot at me and hit me. You must pay me a fine." They searched
+him but found no wound on him anywhere. Then they knew that he was
+a were-wolf who had turned himself into a stag and had healed the
+bullet-wound by licking it. However, the bullet had found its
+billet, for two days afterwards he was a dead man.<a id=
+"footnotetag765" name="footnotetag765"></a><a href=
+"#footnote765"><sup>765</sup></a></p>
+<a id="werewolvessudan" name="werewolvessudan"></a>
+<p>[Were-wolves in the Egyptian Sudan.]</p>
+<p>In Sennar, a province of the Egyptian Sudan, the Hammeg and
+Fungi enjoy the reputation of being powerful magicians who can turn
+themselves into hyaenas and in that guise scour the country at
+night, howling and gorging themselves. But by day they are men
+again. It is very dangerous to shoot at such human hyaenas by
+night. On the Jebel Bela mountain a soldier once shot at a hyaena
+and hit it, but it dragged itself off, bleeding, in the darkness
+and escaped. Next morning he followed up the trail of blood and it
+led him straight to the hut of a man who was everywhere known for a
+wizard. Nothing of the hyaena was to be seen, but the man himself
+was laid up in the house with a fresh wound and died soon
+afterwards. And the soldier did not long survive him.<a id=
+"footnotetag766" name="footnotetag766"></a><a href=
+"#footnote766"><sup>766</sup></a></p>
+<a id="werewolfpetronius" name="werewolfpetronius"></a>
+<p>[The were-wolf story in Petronius.]</p>
+<p>But the classical example of these stories is an old Roman tale
+told by Petronius. It is put in the mouth of one Niceros. Late at
+night he left the town to visit a friend of his, a widow, who lived
+at a farm five miles down the road. He <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page314" name="page314"></a>[pg 314]</span> was accompanied by a
+soldier, who lodged in the same house, a man of Herculean build.
+When they set out it was near dawn, but the moon shone as bright as
+day. Passing through the outskirts of the town, they came amongst
+the tombs, which lined the highroad for some distance. There the
+soldier made an excuse for retiring behind a monument, and Niceros
+sat down to wait for him, humming a tune and counting the
+tombstones to pass the time. In a little he looked round for his
+companion, and saw a sight which froze him with horror. The soldier
+had stripped off his clothes to the last rag and laid them at the
+side of the highway. Then he performed a certain ceremony over
+them, and immediately was changed into a wolf, and ran howling into
+the forest. When Niceros had recovered himself a little, he went to
+pick up the clothes, but found that they were turned to stone. More
+dead than alive, he drew his sword, and, striking at every shadow
+cast by the tombstones on the moonlit road, he tottered to his
+friend's house. He entered it like a ghost, to the surprise of the
+widow, who wondered to see him abroad so late. "If you had only
+been here a little ago," said she, "you might have been of some
+use. For a wolf came tearing into the yard, scaring the cattle and
+bleeding them like a butcher. But he did not get off so easily, for
+the servant speared him in the neck." After hearing these words,
+Niceros felt that he could not close an eye, so he hurried away
+home again. It was now broad daylight, but when he came to the
+place where the clothes had been turned to stone, he found only a
+pool of blood. He reached home, and there lay the soldier in bed
+like an ox in the shambles, and the doctor was bandaging his neck.
+"Then I knew," said Niceros, "that the man was a were-wolf, and
+never again could I break bread with him, no, not if you had killed
+me for it."<a id="footnotetag767" name=
+"footnotetag767"></a><a href="#footnote767"><sup>767</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page315" name="page315"></a>[pg
+315]</span> <a id="witchesanimals" name="witchesanimals"></a>
+<p>[Witches like were-wolves can temporarily transform themselves
+into animals.]</p>
+<p>These stories may help us to understand the custom of burning a
+bewitched animal, which has been observed in our own country down
+to recent times, if indeed it is even now extinct. For a close
+parallel may be traced in some respects between witches and
+were-wolves. Like were-wolves, witches are commonly supposed to be
+able to transform themselves temporarily into animals for the
+purpose of playing their mischievous pranks;<a id="footnotetag768"
+name="footnotetag768"></a><a href="#footnote768"><sup>768</sup></a>
+and like were-wolves they can in their animal disguise be compelled
+to unmask themselves to any one who succeeds in drawing their
+blood. In either case the animal-skin is conceived as a cloak
+thrown round the wicked enchanter; and if you can only pierce the
+skin, whether by the stab of a knife or the shot of a gun, you so
+rend the disguise that the man or woman inside of it stands
+revealed in his or her true colours. Strictly speaking, the stab
+should be given on the brow or between the eyes in the case both of
+a witch and of a were-wolf;<a id="footnotetag769" name=
+"footnotetag769"></a><a href="#footnote769"><sup>769</sup></a> and
+it is vain to shoot at a were-wolf unless you have had the bullet
+blessed in a chapel <span class="pagenum"><a id="page316" name=
+"page316"></a>[pg 316]</span> of St. Hubert or happen to be
+carrying about you, without knowing it, a four-leaved clover;
+otherwise the bullet will merely rebound from the were-wolf like
+water from a duck's back.<a id="footnotetag770" name=
+"footnotetag770"></a><a href="#footnote770"><sup>770</sup></a>
+However, in Armenia they say that the were-wolf, who in that
+country is usually a woman, can be killed neither by shot nor by
+steel; the only way of delivering the unhappy woman from her
+bondage is to get hold of her wolf's skin and burn it; for that
+naturally prevents her from turning into a wolf again. But it is
+not easy to find the skin, for she is cunning enough to hide it by
+day.<a id="footnotetag771" name="footnotetag771"></a><a href=
+"#footnote771"><sup>771</sup></a> So with witches, it is not only
+useless but even dangerous to shoot at one of them when she has
+turned herself into a hare; if you do, the gun may burst in your
+hand or the shot come back and kill you. The only way to make quite
+sure of hitting a witch-animal is to put a silver sixpence or a
+silver button in your gun.<a id="footnotetag772" name=
+"footnotetag772"></a><a href="#footnote772"><sup>772</sup></a> For
+example, it happened one evening that a native of the island of
+Tiree was going home with a new gun, when he saw a black sheep
+running towards him across the plain of Reef. Something about the
+creature excited his suspicion, so he put a silver sixpence in his
+gun and fired at it. Instantly the black sheep became a woman with
+a drugget coat wrapt round her head. The man knew her quite well,
+for she was a witch who had often persecuted him before in the
+shape of a cat.<a id="footnotetag773" name=
+"footnotetag773"></a><a href="#footnote773"><sup>773</sup></a></p>
+<a id="woundsinflicted" name="woundsinflicted"></a>
+<p>[Wounds inflicted on an animal into which a witch has
+transformed herself are inflicted on the witch herself.]</p>
+<p>Again, the wounds inflicted on a witch-hare or a witch-cat are
+to be seen on the witch herself, just as the wounds inflicted on a
+were-wolf are to be seen on the man himself when he has doffed the
+wolfs skin. To take a few instances out of a multitude, a young man
+in the island of Lismore was out shooting. When he was near
+Balnagown loch, he started <span class="pagenum"><a id="page317"
+name="page317"></a>[pg 317]</span> a hare and fired at it. The
+animal gave an unearthly scream, and then for the first time it
+occurred to him that there were no real hares in Lismore. He threw
+away his gun in terror and fled home; and next day he heard that a
+notorious witch was laid up with a broken leg. A man need be no
+conjuror to guess how she came by that broken leg.<a id=
+"footnotetag774" name="footnotetag774"></a><a href=
+"#footnote774"><sup>774</sup></a> Again, at Thurso certain witches
+used to turn themselves into cats and in that shape to torment an
+honest man. One night he lost patience, whipped out his broadsword,
+and put them to flight. As they were scurrying away he struck at
+them and cut off a leg of one of the cats. To his astonishment it
+was a woman's leg, and next morning he found one of the witches
+short of the corresponding limb.<a id="footnotetag775" name=
+"footnotetag775"></a><a href="#footnote775"><sup>775</sup></a>
+Glanvil tells a story of "an old woman in Cambridge-shire, whose
+astral spirit, coming into a man's house (as he was sitting alone
+at the fire) in the shape of an huge cat, and setting her self
+before the fire, not far from him, he stole a stroke at the back of
+it with a fire-fork, and seemed to break the back of it, but it
+scambled from him, and vanisht he knew not how. But such an old
+woman, a reputed witch, was found dead in her bed that very night,
+with her back broken, as I have heard some years ago credibly
+reported."<a id="footnotetag776" name="footnotetag776"></a><a href=
+"#footnote776"><sup>776</sup></a> In Yorkshire during the latter
+half of the nineteenth century a parish clergyman was told a
+circumstantial story of an old witch named Nanny, who was hunted in
+the form of a hare for several miles over the Westerdale moors and
+kept well away from the dogs, till a black one joined the pack and
+succeeded in taking a bit out of one of the hare's legs. That was
+the end of the chase, and immediately afterwards the sportsmen
+found old Nanny laid up in bed with a sore leg. On examining the
+wounded limb they discovered that the hurt was precisely in that
+part of it which in the hare had been bitten by the black dog and,
+what was still more significant, the wound had all the appearance
+of having been inflicted by a dog's teeth. So they put two and two
+together.<a id="footnotetag777" name="footnotetag777"></a><a href=
+"#footnote777"><sup>777</sup></a> The same sort of thing
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page318" name="page318"></a>[pg
+318]</span> is often reported in Lincolnshire. "One night," said a
+servant from Kirton Lindsey, "my father and brother saw a cat in
+front of them. Father knew it was a witch, and took a stone and
+hammered it. Next day the witch had her face all tied up, and
+shortly afterwards died." Again, a Bardney bumpkin told how a witch
+in his neighbourhood could take all sorts of shapes. One night a
+man shot a hare, and when he went to the witch's house he found her
+plastering a wound just where he had shot the hare.<a id=
+"footnotetag778" name="footnotetag778"></a><a href=
+"#footnote778"><sup>778</sup></a> So in County Leitrim, in Ireland,
+they say that a hare pursued by dogs fled to a house near at hand,
+but just as it was bolting in at the door one of the dogs came up
+with it and nipped a piece out of its leg. The hunters entered the
+house and found no hare there but only an old woman, and her side
+was bleeding; so they knew what to think of her.<a id=
+"footnotetag779" name="footnotetag779"></a><a href=
+"#footnote779"><sup>779</sup></a></p>
+<p>[Wounded witches in the Vosges.]</p>
+<p>Again, in the Vosges Mountains a great big hare used to come out
+every evening to take the air at the foot of the Mont des Fourches.
+All the sportsmen of the neighbourhood tried their hands on that
+hare for a month, but not one of them could hit it. At last one
+marksman, more knowing than the rest, loaded his gun with some
+pellets of a consecrated wafer in addition to the usual pellets of
+lead. That did the trick. If puss was not killed outright, she was
+badly hurt, and limped away uttering shrieks and curses in a human
+voice. Later it transpired that she was no other than the witch of
+a neighbouring village who had the power of putting on the shape of
+any animal she pleased.<a id="footnotetag780" name=
+"footnotetag780"></a><a href="#footnote780"><sup>780</sup></a>
+Again, a hunter of Travexin, in the Vosges, fired at a hare and
+almost shot away one of its hind legs. Nevertheless the creature
+contrived to escape into a cottage through the open door.
+Immediately a child's cries were heard to proceed from the cottage,
+and the hunter could distinguish these words, "Daddy, daddy, come
+quick! Poor mammy has her leg broken."<a id="footnotetag781" name=
+"footnotetag781"></a><a href="#footnote781"><sup>781</sup></a></p>
+<p>[Wounded witches in Swabia.]</p>
+<p>In Swabia the witches are liable to accidents of the same sort
+when they go about their business in the form <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page319" name="page319"></a>[pg 319]</span> of
+animals. For example, there was a soldier who was betrothed to a
+young woman and used to visit her every evening when he was off
+duty. But one evening the girl told him that he must not come to
+the house on Friday nights, because it was never convenient to her
+to see him then. This roused his suspicion, and the very next
+Friday night he set out to go to his sweetheart's house. On the way
+a white cat ran up to him in the street and dogged his steps, and
+when the animal would not make off he drew his sword and slashed
+off one of its paws. On that the cat bolted. The soldier walked on,
+but when he came to his sweetheart's house he found her in bed, and
+when he asked her what was the matter, she gave a very confused
+reply. Noticing stains of blood on the bed, he drew down the
+coverlet and saw that the girl was weltering in her gore, for one
+of her feet was lopped off. "So that's what's the matter with you,
+you witch!" said he, and turned on his heel and left her, and
+within three days she was dead.<a id="footnotetag782" name=
+"footnotetag782"></a><a href="#footnote782"><sup>782</sup></a>
+Again, a farmer in the neighbourhood of Wiesensteig frequently
+found in his stable a horse over and above the four horses he
+actually owned. He did not know what to make of it and mentioned
+the matter to the smith. The smith said quietly, "The next time you
+see a fifth horse in the stable, just you send for me." Well, it
+was not long before the strange horse was there again, and the
+farmer at once sent for the smith. He came bringing four
+horse-shoes with him, and said, "I'm sure the nag has no shoes;
+I'll shoe her for you." No sooner said than done. However, the
+smith overreached himself; for next day when his friend the farmer
+paid him a visit he found the smith's own wife prancing about with
+horse-shoes nailed on her hands and feet. But it was the last time
+she ever appeared in the shape of a horse.<a id="footnotetag783"
+name="footnotetag783"></a><a href=
+"#footnote783"><sup>783</sup></a></p>
+<p>[The miller's wife and the two grey cats.]</p>
+<p>Once more, in Silesia they tell of a miller's apprentice, a
+sturdy and industrious young fellow, who set out on his travels.
+One day he came to a mill, and the miller told <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page320" name="page320"></a>[pg 320]</span> him
+that he wanted an apprentice but did not care to engage one,
+because hitherto all his apprentices had run away in the night, and
+when he came down in the morning the mill was at a stand. However,
+he liked the looks of the young chap and took him into his pay. But
+what the new apprentice heard about the mill and his predecessors
+was not encouraging; so the first night when it was his duty to
+watch in the mill he took care to provide himself with an axe and a
+prayer-book, and while he kept one eye on the whirring, humming
+wheels he kept the other on the good book, which he read by the
+flickering light of a candle set on a table. So the hours at first
+passed quietly with nothing to disturb him but the monotonous drone
+and click of the machinery. But on the stroke of twelve, as he was
+still reading with the axe lying on the table within reach, the
+door opened and in came two grey cats mewing, an old one and a
+young one. They sat down opposite him, but it was easy to see that
+they did not like his wakefulness and the prayer-book and the axe.
+Suddenly the old cat reached out a paw and made a grab at the axe,
+but the young chap was too quick for her and held it fast. Then the
+young cat tried to do the same for the prayer-book, but the
+apprentice gripped it tight. Thus balked, the two cats set up such
+a squalling that the young fellow could hardly say his prayers.
+Just before one o'clock the younger cat sprang on the table and
+fetched a blow with her right paw at the candle to put it out. But
+the apprentice struck at her with his axe and sliced the paw off,
+whereupon the two cats vanished with a frightful screech. The
+apprentice wrapped the paw up in paper to shew it to his master.
+Very glad the miller was next morning when he came down and found
+the mill going and the young chap at his post. The apprentice told
+him what had happened in the night and gave him the parcel
+containing the cat's paw. But when the miller opened it, what was
+the astonishment of the two to find in it no cat's paw but a
+woman's hand! At breakfast the miller's young wife did not as usual
+take her place at the table. She was ill in bed, and the doctor had
+to be called in to bind up her right arm, because in hewing wood,
+so they said, she had made a slip and cut off her own right hand.
+But <span class="pagenum"><a id="page321" name="page321"></a>[pg
+321]</span> the apprentice packed up his traps and turned his back
+on that mill before the sun had set.<a id="footnotetag784" name=
+"footnotetag784"></a><a href="#footnote784"><sup>784</sup></a></p>
+<a id="analogywerewolves" name="analogywerewolves"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>It would no doubt be easy to multiply instances, all equally
+well attested and authentic, of the transformation of witches into
+animals and of the damage which the women themselves have sustained
+through injuries inflicted on the animals.<a id="footnotetag785"
+name="footnotetag785"></a><a href="#footnote785"><sup>785</sup></a>
+But the foregoing evidence may suffice to establish the complete
+parallelism between witches and were-wolves in these respects. The
+analogy appears to confirm the view that the reason for burning a
+bewitched animal alive is a belief that the witch herself is in the
+animal, and that by burning it you either destroy the witch
+completely or at least unmask her and compel her to reassume her
+proper human shape, in which she is naturally far less potent for
+mischief than when she is careering about the country in the
+likeness of a cat, a hare, a horse, or what not. This principle is
+still indeed clearly recognized by people in Oldenburg, though, as
+might be expected, they do not now carry out the principle to its
+logical conclusion by burning the bewitched animal or person alive;
+instead they resort to a feeble and, it must be added, perfectly
+futile subterfuge dictated by a mistaken humanity or a fear of the
+police. "When anything living is bewitched in a house, for example,
+children or animals, they burn or boil the nobler inwards of
+animals, especially the hearts, but also the lungs or the liver. If
+animals have died, they take the inwards of one of them or of an
+animal of the same kind slaughtered for the purpose; but if that is
+not possible they take the inwards of a cock, by preference a black
+one. The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page322" name=
+"page322"></a>[pg 322]</span> heart, lung, or liver is stuck all
+over with needles, or marked with a cross cut, or placed on the
+fire in a tightly closed vessel, strict silence being observed and
+doors and windows well shut. When the heart boils or is reduced to
+ashes, the witch must appear, for during the boiling she feels the
+burning pain. She either begs to be released or seeks to borrow
+something, for example, salt or a coal of fire, or she takes the
+lid off the pot, or tries to induce the person whose spell is on
+her to speak. They say, too, that a woman comes with a
+spinning-wheel. If it is a sheep that has died, you proceed in the
+same way with a tripe from its stomach and prick it with needles
+while it is on the boil. Instead of boiling it, some people nail
+the heart to the highest rafter of the house, or lay it on the edge
+of the hearth, in order that it may dry up, no doubt because the
+same thing happens to the witch. We may conjecture that other
+sympathetic means of destruction are employed against witchcraft.
+The following is expressly reported: the heart of a calf that has
+died is stuck all over with needles, enclosed in a bag, and thrown
+into flowing water before sunset."<a id="footnotetag786" name=
+"footnotetag786"></a><a href="#footnote786"><sup>786</sup></a></p>
+<a id="bewitchedthings" name="bewitchedthings"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>And the same thing holds good also of inanimate objects on which
+a witch has cast her spell. In Wales they say that "if a thing is
+bewitched, burn it, and immediately afterwards the witch will come
+to borrow something of you. If you give what she asks, she will go
+free; if you refuse it, she will burn, and a mark will be on her
+body the next day."<a id="footnotetag787" name=
+"footnotetag787"></a><a href="#footnote787"><sup>787</sup></a> So,
+too, in Oldenburg, "the burning of things that are bewitched or
+that have been received from witches is another way of breaking the
+spell. It is often said that the burning should take place at a
+cross-road, and in several places cross-roads are shewn where the
+burning used to be performed.... As a rule, while the things are
+burning, the guilty witches appear, though not always in their own
+shape. At the burning of bewitched butter they often appear as
+cockchafers and can be killed with impunity. Victuals received from
+witches may be safely consumed if only you <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page323" name="page323"></a>[pg 323]</span> first
+burn a portion of them."<a id="footnotetag788" name=
+"footnotetag788"></a><a href="#footnote788"><sup>788</sup></a> For
+example, a young man in Oldenburg was wooing a girl, and she gave
+him two fine apples as a gift. Not feeling any appetite at the
+time, he put the apples in his pocket, and when he came home he
+laid them by in a chest. Two or three days afterwards he remembered
+the apples and went to the chest to fetch them. But when he would
+have put his hand on them, what was his horror to find in their
+stead two fat ugly toads in the chest. He hastened to a wise man
+and asked him what he should do with the toads. The man told him to
+boil the toads alive, but while he was doing so he must be sure on
+no account to lend anything out of the house. Well, just as he had
+the toads in a pot on the fire and the water began to grow nicely
+warm, who should come to the door but the girl who had given him
+the apples, and she wished to borrow something; but he refused to
+give her anything, rated her as a witch, and drove her out of the
+house. A little afterwards in came the girl's mother and begged
+with tears in her eyes for something or other; but he turned her
+out also. The last word she said to him was that he should at least
+spare her daughter's life; but he paid no heed to her and let the
+toads boil till they fell to bits. Next day word came that the girl
+was dead.<a id="footnotetag789" name="footnotetag789"></a><a href=
+"#footnote789"><sup>789</sup></a> Can any reasonable man doubt that
+the witch herself was boiled alive in the person of the toads?</p>
+<a id="witchireland" name="witchireland"></a>
+<p>[The burning alive of a supposed witch in Ireland in 1895.]</p>
+<p>Moreover, just as a witch can assume the form of an animal, so
+she can assume the form of some other human being, and the likeness
+is sometimes so good that it is difficult to detect the fraud.
+However, by burning alive the person whose shape the witch has put
+on, you force the witch to disclose herself, just as by burning
+alive the bewitched animal you in like manner oblige the witch to
+appear. This principle may perhaps be unknown to science, falsely
+so called, but it is well understood in Ireland and has been acted
+on within recent years. In March 1895 a peasant named Michael
+Cleary, residing at Ballyvadlea, a remote and lonely district in
+the county of Tipperary, burned his wife <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page324" name="page324"></a>[pg 324]</span>
+Bridget Cleary alive over a slow fire on the kitchen hearth in the
+presence of and with the active assistance of some neighbours,
+including the woman's own father and several of her cousins. They
+thought that she was not Bridget Cleary at all, but a witch, and
+that when they held her down on the fire she would vanish up the
+chimney; so they cried, while she was burning, "Away she goes! Away
+she goes!" Even when she lay quite dead on the kitchen floor (for
+contrary to the general expectation she did not disappear up the
+chimney), her husband still believed that the woman lying there was
+a witch, and that his own dear wife had gone with the fairies to
+the old <i>rath</i> or fort on the hill of Kylenagranagh, where he
+would see her at night riding a grey horse and roped to the saddle,
+and that he would cut the ropes, and that she would stay with him
+ever afterwards. So he went with some friends to the fort night
+after night, taking a big table-knife with him to cut the ropes.
+But he never saw his wife again. He and the men who had held the
+woman on the fire were arrested and tried at Clonmel for wilful
+murder in July 1895; they were all found guilty of manslaughter and
+sentenced to various terms of penal servitude and imprisonment; the
+sentence passed on Michael Cleary was twenty years' penal
+servitude.<a id="footnotetag790" name="footnotetag790"></a><a href=
+"#footnote790"><sup>790</sup></a></p>
+<a id="animalsburied" name="animalsburied"></a>
+<p>[Sometimes bewitched animals are buried alive instead of being
+burned.]</p>
+<p>However, our British peasants, it must be confessed, have not
+always acted up to the strict logical theory which seems to call
+for death by fire as the proper treatment both of bewitched animals
+and of witches. Sometimes, perhaps in moments of weakness, they
+have merely buried the bewitched animals alive instead of burning
+them. For example, in the year 1643, "many cattle having died, John
+Brughe and Neane Nikclerith, also one of the initiated, conjoined
+their mutual skill for the safety of the herd. The surviving
+animals were drove past a tub of water containing two enchanted
+stones: and each was sprinkled from the liquid contents in its
+course. One, however, being unable to walk, 'was by force drawin
+out at the byre dure; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page325" name=
+"page325"></a>[pg 325]</span> and the said Johnne with Nikclerith
+smelling the nois thereof said it wald not leive, caused are hoill
+to be maid in Maw Greane, quhilk was put quick in the hole and maid
+all the rest of the cattell theireftir to go over that place: and
+in that devillische maner, be charmeing,' they were cured."<a id=
+"footnotetag791" name="footnotetag791"></a><a href=
+"#footnote791"><sup>791</sup></a> Again, during the prevalence of a
+murrain about the year 1629, certain persons proposed to stay the
+plague with the help of a celebrated "cureing stane" of which the
+laird of Lee was the fortunate owner. But from this they were
+dissuaded by one who "had sene bestiall curet be taking are quik
+seik ox, and making are deip pitt, and bureing him therin, and be
+calling the oxin and bestiall over that place." Indeed Issobell
+Young, the mother of these persons, had herself endeavoured to
+check the progress of the distemper by taking "ane quik ox with ane
+catt, and ane grit quantitie of salt," and proceeding "to burie the
+ox and catt quik with the salt, in ane deip hoill in the grund, as
+ane sacrifice to the devill, that the rest of the guidis might be
+fred of the seiknes or diseases."<a id="footnotetag792" name=
+"footnotetag792"></a><a href="#footnote792"><sup>792</sup></a>
+Writing towards the end of the eighteenth century, John Ramsay of
+Ochtertyre tells us that "the violent death even of a brute is in
+some cases held to be of great avail. There is a disease called the
+<i>black spauld</i>, which sometimes rages like a pestilence among
+black cattle, the symptoms of which are a mortification in the legs
+and a corruption of the mass of blood. Among the other engines of
+superstition that are directed against this fatal malady, the first
+cow seized with it is commonly buried alive, and the other cattle
+are forced to pass backwards and forwards over the pit. At other
+times the heart is taken out of the beast alive, and then the
+carcass is buried. It is remarkable that the leg affected is cut
+off, and hung up in some part of the house or byre, where it
+remains suspended, notwithstanding the seeming danger of infection.
+There is hardly a house in Mull where these may not be seen. This
+practice seems to have taken its rise antecedent to Christianity,
+as it reminds us of the pagan custom of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page326" name="page326"></a>[pg 326]</span>
+hanging up offerings in their temples. In Breadalbane, when a cow
+is observed to have symptoms of madness, there is recourse had to a
+peculiar process. They tie the legs of the mad creature, and throw
+her into a pit dug at the door of the fold. After covering the hole
+with earth, a large fire is kindled upon it; and the rest of the
+cattle are driven out, and forced to pass through the fire one by
+one."<a id="footnotetag793" name="footnotetag793"></a><a href=
+"#footnote793"><sup>793</sup></a> In this latter custom we may
+suspect that the fire kindled on the grave of the buried cow was
+originally made by the friction of wood, in other words, that it
+was a need-fire. Again, writing in the year 1862, Sir Arthur
+Mitchell tells us that "for the cure of the murrain in cattle, one
+of the herd is still sacrificed for the good of the whole. This is
+done by burying it alive. I am assured that within the last ten
+years such a barbarism occurred in the county of Moray."<a id=
+"footnotetag794" name="footnotetag794"></a><a href=
+"#footnote794"><sup>794</sup></a></p>
+<a id="calveskilled" name="calveskilled"></a>
+<p>[Calves killed and buried to save the rest of the herd.]</p>
+<p>Sometimes, however, the animal has not even been buried alive,
+it has been merely killed and then buried. In this emasculated form
+the sacrifice, we may say with confidence, is absolutely useless
+for the purpose of stopping a murrain. Nevertheless, it has been
+tried. Thus in Lincolnshire, when the cattle plague was so
+prevalent in 1866, there was, I believe, not a single cowshed in
+Marshland but had its wicken cross over the door; and other charms
+more powerful than this were in some cases resorted to. I never
+heard of the use of the needfire in the Marsh, though it was, I
+believe, used on the wolds not many miles off. But I knew of at
+least one case in which a calf was killed and solemnly buried feet
+pointing upwards at the threshold of the cowshed. When our garthman
+told me of this, I pointed out to him that the charm had failed,
+for the disease had not spared that shed. But he promptly replied,
+"Yis, but owd Edwards were a soight too cliver; he were that mean
+he slew nobbutt a wankling cauf as were bound to deny anny road; if
+he had nobbutt tekken his best cauf it wud hev worked reight enuff;
+'tain't <span class="pagenum"><a id="page327" name=
+"page327"></a>[pg 327]</span> in reason that owd skrat 'ud be
+hanselled wi' wankling draffle."<a id="footnotetag795" name=
+"footnotetag795"></a><a href="#footnote795"><sup>795</sup></a></p>
+<p>Notes:</p>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote262" name=
+"footnote262"></a> <b>Footnote 262</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag262">(return)</a>
+<p>See Jacob Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup>
+(Berlin, 1875-1878), i. 502, 510, 516.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote263" name=
+"footnote263"></a> <b>Footnote 263</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag263">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer
+Nachbarst&auml;mme</i> (Berlin, 1875), pp. 518 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote264" name=
+"footnote264"></a> <b>Footnote 264</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag264">(return)</a>
+<p>In the following survey of these fire-customs I follow chiefly
+W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i>, kap. vi. pp. 497 <i>sqq.</i>
+Compare also J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i.
+500 <i>sqq.</i>; Walter E. Kelly, <i>Curiosities of Indo-European
+Tradition and Folk-lore</i> (London, 1863), pp. 46 <i>sqq.</i>; F.
+Vogt, "Scheibentreiben und Fr&uuml;hlingsfeuer," <i>Zeitschrift des
+Vereins f&uuml;r Volkskunde</i>, iii. (1893) pp. 349-369;
+<i>ibid.</i> iv. (1894) pp. 195-197.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote265" name=
+"footnote265"></a> <b>Footnote 265</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag265">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Scapegoat</i>, pp. 316 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote266" name=
+"footnote266"></a> <b>Footnote 266</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag266">(return)</a>
+<p>The first Sunday in Lent is known as <i>Invocavit</i> from the
+first word of the mass for the day (O. Frh. von
+Reinsberg-D&uuml;ringsfeld, <i>Fest-Kalender aus B&ouml;hmen</i>,
+p. 67).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote267" name=
+"footnote267"></a> <b>Footnote 267</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag267">(return)</a>
+<p>Le Baron de Reinsberg-D&uuml;ringsfeld, <i>Calendrier Belge</i>
+(Brussels, 1861-1862), i. 141-143; E. Monseur, <i>Le Folklore
+Wallon</i> (Brussels, N.D.), pp. 124 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote268" name=
+"footnote268"></a> <b>Footnote 268</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag268">(return)</a>
+<p>&Eacute;mile Hublard, <i>F&ecirc;tes du Temps Jadis, les Feux du
+Car&ecirc;me</i> (Mons, 1899), pp. 25. For the loan of this work I
+am indebted to Mrs. Wherry of St. Peter's Terrace, Cambridge.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote269" name=
+"footnote269"></a> <b>Footnote 269</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag269">(return)</a>
+<p>&Eacute;. Hublard, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 27 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote270" name=
+"footnote270"></a> <b>Footnote 270</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag270">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Meyrac, <i>Traditions, coutumes, l&eacute;gendes et contes
+des Ardennes</i> (Charleville, 1890), p. 68.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote271" name=
+"footnote271"></a> <b>Footnote 271</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag271">(return)</a>
+<p>L.F. Sauv&eacute;, <i>Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges</i> (Paris,
+1889), p. 56. The popular name for the bonfires in the Upper Vosges
+(<i>Hautes-Vosges</i>) is <i>chavandes</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote272" name=
+"footnote272"></a> <b>Footnote 272</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag272">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Cortet, <i>Essai sur les f&ecirc;tes religieuses</i> (Paris,
+1867), pp. 101 <i>sq.</i> The local name for these bonfires is
+<i>bures</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote273" name=
+"footnote273"></a> <b>Footnote 273</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag273">(return)</a>
+<p>Charles Beauquier, <i>Les mois en Franche-Comt&eacute;</i>
+(Paris, 1900), pp. 33 <i>sq.</i> In Bresse the custom was similar.
+See <i>La Bresse Louhannaise, Bulletin Mensuel, Organe de la
+Soci&eacute;t&eacute; d'Agriculture et d'Horticulture de
+l'Arrondissement de Louhans</i>, Mars, 1906, pp. 111 <i>sq.</i>; E.
+Cortet, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 100. The usual name for the bonfires is
+<i>chevannes</i> or <i>schvannes</i>; but in some places they are
+called <i>foul&egrave;res, foual&egrave;res, failles</i>, or
+<i>bourdifailles</i> (Ch. Beauquier, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 34). But
+the Sunday is called the Sunday of the <i>brandons, bures,
+bordes</i>, or <i>boid&egrave;s</i>, according to the place. The
+<i>brandons</i> are the torches which are carried about the streets
+and the fields; the bonfires, as we have seen, bear another name. A
+curious custom, observed on the same Sunday in
+Franche-Comt&eacute;, requires that couples married within the year
+should distribute boiled peas to all the young folks of both sexes
+who demand them at the door. The lads and lasses go about from
+house to house, making the customary request; in some places they
+wear masks or are otherwise disguised. See Ch. Beauquier, <i>op.
+cit.</i> pp. 31-33.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote274" name=
+"footnote274"></a> <b>Footnote 274</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag274">(return)</a>
+<p>Curiously enough, while the singular is <i>granno-mio</i>, the
+plural is <i>grannas-mias</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote275" name=
+"footnote275"></a> <b>Footnote 275</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag275">(return)</a>
+<p>Dr. Pommerol, "La f&ecirc;te des Brandons et le dieu Gaulois
+Grannus," <i>Bulletins et M&eacute;moires de la
+Soci&eacute;t&eacute; d'Anthropologie de Paris</i>, v.
+S&eacute;rie, ii. (1901) pp. 427-429.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote276" name=
+"footnote276"></a> <b>Footnote 276</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag276">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Op. cit.</i> pp. 428 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote277" name=
+"footnote277"></a> <b>Footnote 277</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag277">(return)</a>
+<p>H. Dessau, <i>Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae</i>, vol. ii. Pars
+i. (Berlin, 1902) pp. 216 <i>sq.</i>, Nos. 4646-4652.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote278" name=
+"footnote278"></a> <b>Footnote 278</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag278">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) John Rhys, <i>Celtic Heathendom</i> (London, 1888), pp.
+22-25.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote279" name=
+"footnote279"></a> <b>Footnote 279</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag279">(return)</a>
+<p>&Eacute;mile Hublard, <i>F&ecirc;tes du Temps Jadis, les Feux du
+Car&ecirc;me</i> (Mons, 1899), p. 38, quoting Dom Grenier,
+<i>Histoire de la Province de Picardie</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote280" name=
+"footnote280"></a> <b>Footnote 280</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag280">(return)</a>
+<p>&Eacute;. Hublard, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 39, quoting Dom
+Grenier.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote281" name=
+"footnote281"></a> <b>Footnote 281</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag281">(return)</a>
+<p>M. Desgranges, "Usages du Canton de Bonneval,"
+<i>M&eacute;moires de la Soci&eacute;t&eacute; Royale des
+Antiquaires de France</i>, i. (Paris, 1817) pp. 236-238; Felix
+Chapiseau, <i>Le folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche</i> (Paris,
+1902), i. 315 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote282" name=
+"footnote282"></a> <b>Footnote 282</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag282">(return)</a>
+<p>John Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities of Great Britain</i> (London,
+1882-1883), i. 100.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote283" name=
+"footnote283"></a> <b>Footnote 283</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag283">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Cortet, <i>Essai sur les f&ecirc;tes religieuses</i> (Paris,
+1867), pp. 99 <i>sq.; La Bresse Louhannaise</i>, Mars, 1906, p.
+111.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote284" name=
+"footnote284"></a> <b>Footnote 284</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag284">(return)</a>
+<p>A. de Nore, <i>Coutumes, mythes et traditions des provinces de
+France</i> (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 283 <i>sq.</i> A similar,
+though not identical, custom prevailed at Valenciennes
+(<i>ibid.</i> p. 338).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote285" name=
+"footnote285"></a> <b>Footnote 285</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag285">(return)</a>
+<p>A. de Nore, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 302.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote286" name=
+"footnote286"></a> <b>Footnote 286</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag286">(return)</a>
+<p>D&eacute;sir&eacute; Monnier, <i>Traditions populaires
+compar&eacute;es</i> (Paris, 1854), pp. 191 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote287" name=
+"footnote287"></a> <b>Footnote 287</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag287">(return)</a>
+<p>Laisnel de la Salle, <i>Croyances et l&eacute;gendes du centre
+de la France</i> (Paris, 1875). i. 35 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote288" name=
+"footnote288"></a> <b>Footnote 288</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag288">(return)</a>
+<p>Jules Lecoeur, <i>Esquisses du Rocage Normand</i>
+(Cond&eacute;-sur-Noireau, 1887), ii. 131 <i>sq.</i> For more
+evidence of customs of this sort observed in various parts of
+France on the first Sunday in Lent, see Madame Cl&eacute;ment,
+<i>Histoire des F&ecirc;tes civiles et religieuses</i>, etc., <i>du
+D&eacute;partement du Nord</i>,<sup>2</sup> (Cambrai, 1836), pp.
+351 <i>sqq.</i>; &Eacute;mile Hublard, <i>F&ecirc;tes du Temps
+Jadis, les Feux du Car&ecirc;me</i> (Mons, 1899), pp. 33
+<i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote289" name=
+"footnote289"></a> <b>Footnote 289</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag289">(return)</a>
+<p>J.H. Schmitz, <i>Sitten und Sagen, Lieder,
+Spr&uuml;chw&ouml;rter und R&auml;thsel des Eifler Volkes</i>
+(Tr&egrave;ves, 1856-1858), i. 21-25; N. Hocker, in <i>Zeitschrift
+f&uuml;r deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde</i>, i. (1853) p. 90;
+W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer
+Nachbarst&auml;mme</i> (Berlin, 1875), p. 501.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote290" name=
+"footnote290"></a> <b>Footnote 290</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag290">(return)</a>
+<p>N. Hocker, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 89 <i>sq.</i>; W. Mannhardt,
+<i>l.c.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote291" name=
+"footnote291"></a> <b>Footnote 291</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag291">(return)</a>
+<p>F.J. Vonbun, <i>Beitr&auml;ge zur deutschen Mythologie</i>
+(Chur, 1862), p. 20; W. Mannhardt, <i>l.c.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote292" name=
+"footnote292"></a> <b>Footnote 292</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag292">(return)</a>
+<p>Ernst Meier, <i>Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche aus
+Schwaben</i> (Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 380 <i>sqq.</i>; Anton
+Birlinger, <i>Volksth&uuml;mliches aus Schwaben</i> (Freiburg im
+Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. 56 <i>sqq.</i>, 66 <i>sqq.</i>;
+<i>Bavaria, Landes-und Volkskunde des K&ouml;nigreichs Bayern</i>
+(Munich, 1860-1867), ii. 2, pp. 838 <i>sq.</i>; F. Panzer,
+<i>Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie</i> (Munich, 1848-1855), i.
+211, &sect; 232; W. Mannhardt, <i>l.c.</i> One of the popular
+German names for the first Sunday in Lent is White Sunday, which is
+not to be confused with the first Sunday after Easter, which also
+goes by the name of White Sunday (E. Meier, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 380;
+A. Birlinger, <i>op. cit.</i> ii. 56).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote293" name=
+"footnote293"></a> <b>Footnote 293</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag293">(return)</a>
+<p>H. Gaidoz, "Le dieu gaulois du soleil et le symbolisme de la
+roue," <i>Revue Arch&eacute;ologique</i>, iii. s&eacute;rie, iv.
+(1884) pp. 139 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote294" name=
+"footnote294"></a> <b>Footnote 294</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag294">(return)</a>
+<p>August Witzschel, <i>Sagen, Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche aus
+Th&uuml;ringen</i> (Vienna, 1878), p. 189; F. Panzer, <i>Beitrag
+zur deutschen Mythologie</i> (Munich, 1848-1855), ii. 207; W.
+Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus,</i> pp. 500 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote295" name=
+"footnote295"></a> <b>Footnote 295</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag295">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Kolbe, <i>Hessiche Volks-Sitten und
+Gebr&auml;uche</i>,<sup>2</sup> (Marburg, 1888), p. 36.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote296" name=
+"footnote296"></a> <b>Footnote 296</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag296">(return)</a>
+<p>Adalbert Kuhn, <i>Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des
+G&ouml;ttertranks</i>,<sup>2</sup> (G&uuml;tersloh, 1886), p. 86,
+quoting Hocker, <i>Des Mosellandes Geschichten, Sagen und
+Legenden</i> (Trier, 1852), pp. 415 <i>sqq.</i> Compare W.
+Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p. 501; and below, pp. 163
+<i>sq.</i> Thus it appears that the ceremony of rolling the fiery
+wheel down hill was observed twice a year at Konz, once on the
+first Sunday in Lent, and once at Midsummer.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote297" name=
+"footnote297"></a> <b>Footnote 297</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag297">(return)</a>
+<p>H. Herzog, <i>Schweizerische Volksfeste, Sitten und
+Gebr&auml;uche</i> (Aarau, 1884), pp. 214-216; E. Hoffmann-Krayer,
+"Fruchtbarkeitsriten im schweizerischen Volksbrauch,"
+<i>Schweizerisches Archiv f&uuml;r Volkskunde</i>, xi. (1907) pp.
+247-249; <i>id., Feste und Br&auml;uche des Schweizervolkes</i>
+(Zurich, 1913), pp. 135 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote298" name=
+"footnote298"></a> <b>Footnote 298</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag298">(return)</a>
+<p>Theodor Vernaleken, <i>Mythen und Br&auml;uche des Volkes in
+Oesterreich</i> (Vienna, 1859), pp. 293 <i>sq.</i>; W. Mannhardt,
+<i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p. 498. See <i>The Dying God</i>, p.
+239.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote299" name=
+"footnote299"></a> <b>Footnote 299</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag299">(return)</a>
+<p>J. H. Schmitz, <i>Sitten und Sagen, Lieder,
+Spr&uuml;chw&ouml;rter und R&auml;thsel des Eifler Volkes</i>
+(Treves, 1856-1858), i. 20; W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p.
+499.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote300" name=
+"footnote300"></a> <b>Footnote 300</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag300">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Strackerjan, <i>Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum
+Oldenburg</i> (Oldenburg, 1867), ii. 39, &sect; 306; W. Mannhardt,
+<i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p. 498.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote301" name=
+"footnote301"></a> <b>Footnote 301</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag301">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p. 499.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote302" name=
+"footnote302"></a> <b>Footnote 302</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag302">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Mannhardt, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 498 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote303" name=
+"footnote303"></a> <b>Footnote 303</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag303">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Mannhardt, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 499.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote304" name=
+"footnote304"></a> <b>Footnote 304</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag304">(return)</a>
+<p>Christian Schneller, <i>M&auml;rchen und Sagen aus
+W&auml;lschtirol</i> (Innsbruck, 1867), pp. 234 <i>sq.</i>; W.
+Mannhardt, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 499 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote305" name=
+"footnote305"></a> <b>Footnote 305</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag305">(return)</a>
+<p>John Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities of Great Britain</i> (London,
+1882-1883), i. 157 <i>sq.</i>; W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i>,
+pp. 502-505; Karl Freiherr von Leoprechting, <i>Aus dem
+Lechrain</i> (Munich, 1855), pp. 172 <i>sq.</i>; Anton Birlinger,
+<i>Volksth&uuml;mliches aus Schwaben</i> (Freiburg im Breisgau,
+1861-1862), i. 472 <i>sq.</i>; Montanus, <i>Die deutschen
+Volksfeste, Volksbr&auml;uche und deutscher Volksglaube</i>
+(Iserlohn, N.D.), p. 26; F. Panzer, <i>Beitrag zur deutschen
+Mythologie</i> (Munich, 1848-1855), ii. 241 <i>sq.</i>; Ernst
+Meier, <i>Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche aus
+Schwaben</i> (Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 139 <i>sq.</i>; <i>Bavaria,
+Landes- und Volkskunde des K&ouml;nigreichs Bayern</i> (Munich,
+1860-1867), i. 371; A. Wuttke, <i>Der deutsche
+Volksaberglaube</i>,<sup>2</sup> (Berlin, 1869), pp. 68 <i>sq.</i>,
+&sect; 81; Ignaz V. Zingerle, <i>Sitten, Br&auml;uche und Meinungen
+des Tiroler Volkes</i>,<sup>2</sup> (Innsbruck, 1871), p. 149,
+&sect;&sect; 1286-1289; W. Kolbe, <i>Hessische Volks-Sitten und
+Gebr&auml;uche</i>,<sup>2</sup> (Marburg, 1888), pp. 44
+<i>sqq.</i>; <i>County Folk-lore, Printed Extracts, Leicestershire
+and Rutland</i>, collected by C.J. Billson (London, 1895), pp. 75
+<i>sq.</i>; A. Tiraboschi, "Usi pasquali nel Bergamasco,"
+<i>Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradizione Popolari</i>, i. (1892)
+pp. 442 <i>sq.</i> The ecclesiastical custom of lighting the
+Paschal or Easter candle is very fully described by Mr. H.J.
+Feasey, <i>Ancient English Holy Week Ceremonial</i> (London, 1897),
+pp. 179 <i>sqq.</i> These candles were sometimes of prodigious
+size; in the cathedrals of Norwich and Durham, for example, they
+reached almost to the roof, from which they had to be lighted.
+Often they went by the name of the Judas Light or the Judas Candle;
+and sometimes small waxen figures of Judas were hung on them. See
+H.J. Feasey, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 193, 213 <i>sqq.</i> As to the
+ritual of the new fire at St. Peter's in Rome, see R. Chambers,
+<i>The Book of Days</i> (London and Edinburgh, 1886), i. 421; and
+as to the early history of the rite in the Catholic church, see
+Mgr. L. Duchesne, <i>Origines du Culte
+Chr&eacute;tien</i>,<sup>3</sup> (Paris, 1903), pp. 250-257.]</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote306" name=
+"footnote306"></a> <b>Footnote 306</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag306">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Bavaria, Landes und Volkskunde des K&ouml;nigreichs
+Bayern</i> (Munich, 1860-1867), i. 1002 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote307" name=
+"footnote307"></a> <b>Footnote 307</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag307">(return)</a>
+<p>Gennaro Finamore, <i>Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi</i>
+(Palermo, 1890), pp. 122 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote308" name=
+"footnote308"></a> <b>Footnote 308</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag308">(return)</a>
+<p>G. Finamore, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 123 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote309" name=
+"footnote309"></a> <b>Footnote 309</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag309">(return)</a>
+<p>Vincenzo Dorsa, <i>La Tradizione Greco-Latina negli Usi e nelle
+Credenze Popolari della Calabria Citeriore</i> (Cosenza, 1884), pp.
+48 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote310" name=
+"footnote310"></a> <b>Footnote 310</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag310">(return)</a>
+<p>Alois John, <i>Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen
+Westb&ouml;hmen</i> (Prague, 1905), pp. 62 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote311" name=
+"footnote311"></a> <b>Footnote 311</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag311">(return)</a>
+<p>K. Seifart, <i>Sagen, M&auml;rchen, Schw&auml;nke und
+Gebr&auml;uche aits Stadt und Stift Hildesheim</i>,<sup>2</sup>
+(Hildesheim, 1889), pp. 177 <i>sq.</i>, 179 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote312" name=
+"footnote312"></a> <b>Footnote 312</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag312">(return)</a>
+<p>M. Lexer, "Volks&uuml;berlieferungen aus dem Lesachthal in
+Karnten," <i>Zeitschrift f&uuml;r deutsche Mythologie und
+Sittenkunde</i>, iii. (1855) p. 31.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote313" name=
+"footnote313"></a> <b>Footnote 313</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag313">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Popish Kingdome or reigne of Antichrist, written in Latin
+verse by Thomas Naogeorgus and Englyshed by Barnabe Googe</i>,
+1570, edited by R.C. Hope (London, 1880), p. 52, <i>recto.</i> The
+title of the original poem was <i>Regnum Papisticum</i>. The
+author, Thomas Kirchmeyer (Naogeorgus, as he called himself), died
+in 1577. The book is a satire on the abuses and superstitions of
+the Catholic Church. Only one perfect copy of Googe's translation
+is known to exist: it is in the University Library at Cambridge.
+See Mr. R.C. Hope's introduction to his reprint of this rare work,
+pp. xv. <i>sq.</i> The words, "Then Clappers ceasse, and belles are
+set againe at libert&eacute;e," refer to the custom in Catholic
+countries of silencing the church bells for two days from noon on
+Maundy Thursday to noon on Easter Saturday and substituting for
+their music the harsh clatter of wooden rattles. See R. Chambers,
+<i>The Book of Days</i> (London and Edinburgh, 1886), i, 412
+<i>sq.</i> According to another account the church bells are silent
+from midnight on the Wednesday preceding Maundy Thursday till
+matins on Easter Day. See W. Smith and S. Cheetham, <i>Dictionary
+of Christian Antiquities</i> (London, 1875-1880), ii. 1161,
+referring to <i>Ordo Roman</i>. i. <i>u.s.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote314" name=
+"footnote314"></a> <b>Footnote 314</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag314">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Chambers, <i>The Book of Days</i> (London and Edinburgh,
+1886), i. 421.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote315" name=
+"footnote315"></a> <b>Footnote 315</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag315">(return)</a>
+<p>Miss Jessie L. Weston, "The <i>Scoppio del Carro</i> at
+Florence," <i>Folk-lore</i>, xvi. (1905) pp. 182-184; "Lo Scoppio
+del Carro," <i>Resurrezione, Numero Unico del Sabato Santo</i>
+(Florence, April, 1906), p. 1 (giving a picture of the car with its
+pyramid of fire-works). The latter paper was kindly sent to me from
+Florence by my friend Professor W.J. Lewis. I have also received a
+letter on the subject from Signor Carlo Placci, dated 4 (or 7)
+September, 1905, 1 Via Alfieri, Firenze.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote316" name=
+"footnote316"></a> <b>Footnote 316</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag316">(return)</a>
+<p>Frederick Starr, "Holy Week in Mexico," <i>The Journal of
+American Folk-lore</i>, xii. (1899) pp. 164 <i>sq.</i>; C. Boyson
+Taylor, "Easter in Many Lands," <i>Everybody's Magazine</i>, New
+York, 1903, p. 293. I have to thank Mr. S.S. Cohen, of 1525 Walnut
+Street, Philadelphia, for sending me a cutting from the latter
+magazine.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote317" name=
+"footnote317"></a> <b>Footnote 317</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag317">(return)</a>
+<p>K. von den Steinen, <i>Unter den Naturv&ouml;lkern
+Zentral-Brasiliens</i> (Berlin, 1894), pp. 458 <i>sq.</i>; E.
+Montet, "Religion et Superstition dans l'Am&eacute;rique du Sud,"
+<i>Revue de l'Histoire des Religions</i>, xxxii. (1895) p. 145.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote318" name=
+"footnote318"></a> <b>Footnote 318</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag318">(return)</a>
+<p>J.J. von Tschudi, <i>Peru, Reiseskizzen aus den Jahren
+1838-1842</i> (St. Gallen, 1846), ii. 189 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote319" name=
+"footnote319"></a> <b>Footnote 319</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag319">(return)</a>
+<p>H. Candelier, <i>Rio-Hacha et les Indiens Goajires</i> (Paris,
+1893), p. 85.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote320" name=
+"footnote320"></a> <b>Footnote 320</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag320">(return)</a>
+<p>Henry Maundrell, "A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter,
+A.D. 1697," in Bohn's <i>Early Travellers in Palestine</i> (London,
+1848), pp. 462-465; Mgr. Auvergne, in <i>Annales de la Propagation
+de la Foi</i>, x. (1837) pp. 23 <i>sq.</i>; A.P. Stanley, <i>Sinai
+and Palestine</i>, Second Edition (London, 1856), pp. 460-465; E.
+Cortet, <i>Essai sur les F&ecirc;tes Religieuses</i> (Paris, 1867),
+pp. 137-139; A.W. Kinglake, <i>Eothen</i>, chapter xvi. pp. 158-163
+(Temple Classics edition); Father N. Abougit, S.J., "Le feu du
+Saint-S&eacute;pulcre," <i>Les Missions Catholiques</i>, viii.
+(1876) pp. 518 <i>sq.</i>; Rev. C.T. Wilson, <i>Peasant Life in the
+Holy Land</i> (London, 1906), pp. 45 <i>sq.</i>; P. Saint-yves, "Le
+Renouvellement du Feu Sacr&eacute;," <i>Revue des Traditions
+Populaires</i>, xxvii. (1912) pp. 449 <i>sqq.</i> The distribution
+of the new fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the subject
+of a picture by Holman Hunt. From some printed notes on the
+picture, with which Mrs. Holman Hunt was so kind as to furnish me,
+it appears that the new fire is carried by horsemen to Bethlehem
+and Jaffa, and that a Russian ship conveys it from Jaffa to Odessa,
+whence it is distributed all over the country.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote321" name=
+"footnote321"></a> <b>Footnote 321</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag321">(return)</a>
+<p>Father X. Abougit, S.J., "Le feu du Saint-S&eacute;pulcre,"
+<i>Les Missions Catholiques</i>, viii. (1876) pp. 165-168.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote322" name=
+"footnote322"></a> <b>Footnote 322</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag322">(return)</a>
+<p>I have described the ceremony as I witnessed it at Athens, on
+April 13th, 1890. Compare <i>Folk-lore</i>, i. (1890) p. 275.
+Having been honoured, like other strangers, with a place on the
+platform, I did not myself detect Lucifer at work among the
+multitude below; I merely suspected his insidious presence.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote323" name=
+"footnote323"></a> <b>Footnote 323</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag323">(return)</a>
+<p>W.H.D. Rouse, "Folk-lore from the Southern Sporades,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, x. (1899) p. 178.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote324" name=
+"footnote324"></a> <b>Footnote 324</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag324">(return)</a>
+<p>Mrs. A.E. Gardner was so kind as to send me a photograph of a
+Theban Judas dangling from a gallows and partially enveloped in
+smoke. The photograph was taken at Thebes during the Easter
+celebration of 1891.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote325" name=
+"footnote325"></a> <b>Footnote 325</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag325">(return)</a>
+<p>G.F. Abbott, <i>Macedonian Folklore</i> (Cambridge, 1903) p.
+37.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote326" name=
+"footnote326"></a> <b>Footnote 326</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag326">(return)</a>
+<p>Cirbied, "M&eacute;moire sur la gouvernment et sur la religion
+des anciens Arm&eacute;niens," <i>M&eacute;moires publi&eacute;es
+par la Soci&eacute;t&eacute; Royale des Antiquaires de France</i>,
+ii. (1820) pp. 285-287; Manuk Abeghian, <i>Der armenische
+Volksglaube</i> (Leipsic, 1899), pp. 72-74. The ceremony is said to
+be merely a continuation of an old heathen festival which was held
+at the beginning of spring in honour of the fire-god Mihr. A
+bonfire was made in a public place, and lamps kindled at it were
+kept burning throughout the year in each of the fire-god's
+temples.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote327" name=
+"footnote327"></a> <b>Footnote 327</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag327">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings</i>, i. 32, ii. 243;
+<i>Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild</i>, ii. 65, 74, 75, 78,
+136.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote328" name=
+"footnote328"></a> <b>Footnote 328</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag328">(return)</a>
+<p>Garcilasso de la Vega, <i>Royal Commentaries of the Yncas</i>
+translated by (Sir) Clements R. Markham (Hakluyt Society, London,
+1869-1871), vol. ii. pp. 155-163. Compare Juan de Velasco,
+"Histoire du Royaume de Quito," in H. Ternaux-Compans's <i>Voyages,
+Relations et M&eacute;moires originaux pour servir &agrave;
+l'Histoire de la D&eacute;couverte de l'Am&eacute;rique</i>, xviii.
+(Paris, 1840) p. 140.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote329" name=
+"footnote329"></a> <b>Footnote 329</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag329">(return)</a>
+<p>B. de Sahagun, <i>Histoire G&eacute;n&eacute;rale des Choses de
+la Nouvelle Espagne</i>, traduite par D. Jourdanet et R. Simeon
+(Paris, 1880), bk. ii. chapters 18 and 37, pp. 76, 161; Brasseur de
+Bourbourg, <i>Histoire des Nations civilis&eacute;es du Mexique et
+de l'Am&eacute;rique-Centrale</i> (Paris, 1857-1859), iii. 136.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote330" name=
+"footnote330"></a> <b>Footnote 330</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag330">(return)</a>
+<p>Mrs. Matilda Coxe Stevenson, "The Zu&ntilde;i Indians,"
+<i>Twenty-third Annual Report of the Bureau of American
+Ethnology</i> (Washington, 1904), pp. 108-141, 148-162, especially
+pp. 108, 109, 114 <i>sq.</i>, 120 <i>sq.</i>, 130 <i>sq.</i>, 132,
+148 <i>sq.</i>, 157 <i>sq.</i> I have already described these
+ceremonies in <i>Totemism and Exogamy</i>, iii. 237 <i>sq.</i>
+Among the Hopi (Moqui) Indians of Walpi, another pueblo village of
+this region, new fire is ceremonially kindled by friction in
+November. See Jesse Walter Fewkes, "The Tusayan New Fire Ceremony,"
+<i>Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History</i>, xxvi.
+422-458; <i>id.</i>, "The Group of Tusayan Ceremonials called
+<i>Katcinas," Fifteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of
+Ethnology</i> (Washington, 1897), p. 263; <i>id.</i>, "Hopi
+<i>Katcinas," Twenty-first Annual Report of the Bureau of American
+Ethnology</i> (Washington, 1903), p. 24.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote331" name=
+"footnote331"></a> <b>Footnote 331</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag331">(return)</a>
+<p>Henry R. Schoolcraft, <i>Notes on the Iroquois</i> (Albany,
+1847), p. 137. Schoolcraft did not know the date of the ceremony,
+but he conjectured that it fell at the end of the Iroquois year,
+which was a lunar year of twelve or thirteen months. He says: "That
+the close of the lunar series should have been the period of
+putting out the fire, and the beginning of the next, the time of
+relumination, from new fire, is so consonant to analogy in the
+tropical tribes, as to be probable" (<i>op. cit.</i> p. 138).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote332" name=
+"footnote332"></a> <b>Footnote 332</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag332">(return)</a>
+<p>C.F. Hall, <i>Life with the Esquimaux</i> (London, 1864), ii.
+323.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote333" name=
+"footnote333"></a> <b>Footnote 333</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag333">(return)</a>
+<p>Franz Boas, "The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay,"
+<i>Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural, History</i>, xv.
+Part i. (New York, 1901) p. 151.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote334" name=
+"footnote334"></a> <b>Footnote 334</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag334">(return)</a>
+<p>G. Nachtigal, <i>Sahar&acirc; und S&ucirc;d&acirc;n</i>, iii.
+(Leipsic, 1889) p. 251.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote335" name=
+"footnote335"></a> <b>Footnote 335</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag335">(return)</a>
+<p>Major C. Percival, "Tropical Africa, on the Border Line of
+Mohamedan Civilization," <i>The Geographical Journal</i>, xlii.
+(1913) pp. 253 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote336" name=
+"footnote336"></a> <b>Footnote 336</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag336">(return)</a>
+<p>Adrien Germain, "Note sur Zanzibar et la c&ocirc;te orientale de
+l'Afrique," <i>Bulletin de la Soci&eacute;t&eacute; de
+G&eacute;ographie</i> (Paris), v. S&eacute;rie xvi. (1868) p. 557;
+<i>Les Missions Catholiques</i>, iii. (1870) p. 270; Charles New,
+<i>Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa</i> (London,
+1873), p. 65; Jerome Becker, <i>La Vie en Afrique</i> (Paris and
+Brussels, 1887), ii. 36; O. Baumann, <i>Usambara und seine
+Nachbargebiele</i> (Berlin, 1891), pp. 55 <i>sq.</i>; C. Velten,
+<i>Sitten und Gebr&auml;ucheaer Suaheli</i> (G&ouml;ttingen,1903),
+pp. 342-344.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote337" name=
+"footnote337"></a> <b>Footnote 337</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag337">(return)</a>
+<p>Duarte Barbosa, <i>Description of the Coasts of East Africa and
+Malabar</i> (Hakluyt Society, London, 1866), p. 8; <i>id.</i>, in
+<i>Records of South-Eastern Africa</i>, collected by G. McCall
+Theal, vol. i. (1898) p. 96; Dami&atilde;o de Goes, "Chronicle of
+the Most Fortunate King Dom Emanuel," in <i>Records of
+South-Eastern Africa</i>, collected by G. McCall Theal, vol. iii.
+(1899) pp. 130 <i>sq.</i> The name Benametapa (more correctly
+<i>monomotapa</i>) appears to have been the regular title of the
+paramount chief, which the Portuguese took to be the name of the
+country. The people over whom he ruled seem to have been the Bantu
+tribe of the Makalanga in the neighbourhood of Sofala. See G.
+McCall Theal, <i>Records of South-Eastern Africa</i>, vii. (1901)
+pp. 481-484. It is to their custom of annually extinguishing and
+relighting the fire that Montaigne refers in his essay (i. 22, vol.
+i. p. 140 of Charpentier's edition), though he mentions no
+names.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote338" name=
+"footnote338"></a> <b>Footnote 338</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag338">(return)</a>
+<p>Sir H.H. Johnson, <i>British Central Africa</i> (London, 1897),
+pp. 426, 439.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote339" name=
+"footnote339"></a> <b>Footnote 339</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag339">(return)</a>
+<p>W.H.R. Rivers, <i>The Todas</i> (London, 1906), pp. 290-292.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote340" name=
+"footnote340"></a> <b>Footnote 340</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag340">(return)</a>
+<p>Lieut. R. Stewart, "Notes on Northern Cachar," <i>Journal of the
+Asiatic Society of Bengal</i> xxiv. (1855) p. 612.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote341" name=
+"footnote341"></a> <b>Footnote 341</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag341">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Bastian, <i>Die V&ouml;lker des &ouml;stlichen Asien</i>, ii.
+(Leipsic, 1866) pp. 49 <i>sq.</i>; Shway Yoe, <i>The Burman</i>
+(London, 1882), ii. 325 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote342" name=
+"footnote342"></a> <b>Footnote 342</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag342">(return)</a>
+<p>G. Schlegel, <i>Uranographie Chinoise</i> (The Hague and Leyden,
+1875), pp. 139-143; C. Puini, "Il fuoco nella tradizione degli
+antichi Cinesi," <i>Giornale della Societ&agrave; Asiatica
+Italiana</i>, i. (1887) pp. 20-23; J.J.M. de Groot, <i>Les
+F&eacute;tes annuellement c&eacute;l&eacute;br&eacute;es &agrave;
+&Eacute;moui (Amoy)</i> (Paris, 1886), i. 208 <i>sqq.</i> The
+notion that fire can be worn out with age meets us also in Brahman
+ritual. See the <i>Satapatha Brahmana</i>, translated by Julius
+Eggeling, Part i. (Oxford, 1882) p. 230 (<i>Sacred Books of the
+East</i>, vol. xii.).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote343" name=
+"footnote343"></a> <b>Footnote 343</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag343">(return)</a>
+<p>W.G. Aston, <i>Shinto, The Way of the Gods</i> (London, 1905),
+pp. 258 <i>sq.</i>, compare p. 193. The wands in question are
+sticks whittled near the top into a mass of adherent shavings; they
+go by the name of <i>kedzurikake</i> ("part-shaved"), and resemble
+the sacred <i>inao</i> of the Aino. See W.G. Aston, <i>op. cit.</i>
+p. 191; and as to the <i>inao</i>, see <i>Spirits of the Corn and
+of the Wild</i>, ii. 185, with note 2.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote344" name=
+"footnote344"></a> <b>Footnote 344</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag344">(return)</a>
+<p>Ovid, <i>Fasti</i>, iii. 82; Homer, <i>Iliad</i>, i. 590,
+<i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote345" name=
+"footnote345"></a> <b>Footnote 345</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag345">(return)</a>
+<p>Philostiatus, <i>Heroica</i>, xx. 24.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote346" name=
+"footnote346"></a> <b>Footnote 346</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag346">(return)</a>
+<p>Ovid, <i>Fasti</i>, iii. 143 <i>sq.</i>; Macrobius,
+<i>Saturn</i>, i. 12. 6.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote347" name=
+"footnote347"></a> <b>Footnote 347</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag347">(return)</a>
+<p>Festus, ed. C.O. M&uuml;ller (Leipsic, 1839), p. 106,
+<i>s.v.</i> "Ignis." Plutarch describes a method of rekindling the
+sacred fire by means of the sun's rays reflected from a hollow
+mirror (<i>Numa</i>, 9); but he seems to be referring to a Greek
+rather than to the Roman custom. The rule of celibacy imposed on
+the Vestals, whose duty it was to relight the sacred fire as well
+as to preserve it when it was once made, is perhaps explained by a
+superstition current among French peasants that if a girl can blow
+up a smouldering candle into a flame she is a virgin, but that if
+she fails to do so, she is not. See Jules Lecoeur, <i>Esquisses du
+Bocage Normand</i> (Cond&eacute;-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 27;
+B. Souch&eacute;, <i>Croyances, Pr&eacute;sages et Traditions
+diverses</i> (Niort, 1880), p. 12. At least it seems more likely
+that the rule sprang from a superstition of this sort than from a
+simple calculation of expediency, as I formerly suggested
+(<i>Journal of Philology</i>, xiv. (1885) p. 158). Compare <i>The
+Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings&gt;</i> ii. 234
+<i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote348" name=
+"footnote348"></a> <b>Footnote 348</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag348">(return)</a>
+<p>Geoffrey Keating, D.D., <i>The History of Ireland, translated
+from the original Gaelic, and copiously annotated</i>, by John
+O'Mahony (New York, 1857), p. 300, with the translator's note.
+Compare (Sir) John Rhys, <i>Celtic Heathendom</i> (London, 1888),
+pp. 514 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote349" name=
+"footnote349"></a> <b>Footnote 349</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag349">(return)</a>
+<p>W.R.S. Ralston, <i>Songs of the Russian People</i>, Second
+Edition (London, 1872), pp. 254 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote350" name=
+"footnote350"></a> <b>Footnote 350</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag350">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, <i>Norddeutsche Sagen, M&auml;rchen und
+Gebr&auml;uche</i> (Leipsic, 1848), p. 373; A. Kuhn, <i>Sagen,
+Gebr&auml;uche und M&auml;rchen aus Westfalen</i> (Leipsic, 1859),
+ii. 134 <i>sqq.; id., M&auml;rkische Sagen und M&auml;rchen</i>
+(Berlin, 1843), pp. 312 <i>sq.</i>; J.D.H. Temme, <i>Die Volkssagen
+der Altmark</i> (Berlin, 1839), pp. 75 <i>sq.</i>; K. Lynker,
+<i>Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in hessischen Gauen</i>,<sup>2</sup>
+(Cassel and G&ouml;ttingen, 1860), p. 240; H. Pr&ouml;hle,
+<i>Harzbilder</i> (Leipsic, 1855), p. 63; R. Andree,
+<i>Braunschweiger Volkskunde</i> (Brunswick, 1896), pp. 240-242; W.
+Kolbe, <i>Hessische Volks-Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche</i> (Marburg,
+1888), pp. 44-47; F.A. Reimann, <i>Deutsche Volksfeste</i> (Weimar,
+1839), p. 37; "Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche in Duderstadt,"
+<i>Zeitschrift f&uuml;r deutsche Mythologie und Sitten-kunde</i>,
+ii. (1855) p. 107; K. Seifart, <i>Sagen, M&auml;rchen,
+Schw&auml;nke und Gebr&auml;uche aus Stadt und Stift
+Hildesheim</i>,<sup>2</sup> (Hildesheim, 1889), pp. 177, 180; O.
+Hartung, "Zur Volkskunde aus Anhalt," <i>Zeitschrift des Vereins
+f&uuml;r Volkskunde</i>, vii. (1897) p. 76.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote351" name=
+"footnote351"></a> <b>Footnote 351</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag351">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Strackerjan, <i>Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum
+Oldenburg</i> (Oldenburg, 1867), ii. p. 43 <i>sq.</i>, &sect;313;
+W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer
+Nachbarst&auml;mme</i> (Berlin, 1875), pp. 505 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote352" name=
+"footnote352"></a> <b>Footnote 352</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag352">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Strackerjan, <i>op. cit.</i> ii. p. 43, &sect;313.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote353" name=
+"footnote353"></a> <b>Footnote 353</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag353">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> (Berlin,
+1875-1878), i. 512; W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus der Germanen
+und ihrer Nachbarst&auml;mme</i>, pp. 506 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote354" name=
+"footnote354"></a> <b>Footnote 354</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag354">(return)</a>
+<p>H. Pr&ouml;hle, <i>Harzbilder</i> (Leipsic, 1855), p. 63;
+<i>id.</i>, in <i>Zeitschrift f&uuml;r deutsche Mythologie und
+Sittenkunde</i>, i. (1853) p. 79; A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz,
+<i>Norddeutsche Sagen, M&auml;rchen und Gebr&auml;uche</i>
+(Leipsic, 1848), p. 373; W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p.
+507.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote355" name=
+"footnote355"></a> <b>Footnote 355</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag355">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Kuhn, <i>M&auml;rkische Sagen und M&auml;rchen</i> (Berlin,
+1843), pp. 312 <i>sq.</i>; W. Mannhardt, <i>l.c.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote356" name=
+"footnote356"></a> <b>Footnote 356</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag356">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i> p. 508. Compare J.W. Wolf,
+<i>Beitr&auml;ge zur deutschen Mythologie</i> (G&ouml;ttingen,
+1852-1857), i. 74; J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche
+Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 512. The two latter writers only
+state that before the fires were kindled it was customary to hunt
+squirrels in the woods.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote357" name=
+"footnote357"></a> <b>Footnote 357</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag357">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Kuhn, <i>l.c.</i>; W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p.
+508.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote358" name=
+"footnote358"></a> <b>Footnote 358</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag358">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des K&ouml;nigreichs
+Bayern</i> (Munich, 1860-1867), iii. 956.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote359" name=
+"footnote359"></a> <b>Footnote 359</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag359">(return)</a>
+<p>See above, pp. <a href="#page116">116</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href=
+"#page119">119</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote360" name=
+"footnote360"></a> <b>Footnote 360</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag360">(return)</a>
+<p>F. Panzer, <i>Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie</i> (Munich,
+1848-1855), i. pp. 211 <i>sq.</i>, &sect; 233; W. Mannhardt, <i>Der
+Baumkultus</i>, pp. 507 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote361" name=
+"footnote361"></a> <b>Footnote 361</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag361">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des K&ouml;nigreichs
+Bayern</i>, iii. 357.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote362" name=
+"footnote362"></a> <b>Footnote 362</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag362">(return)</a>
+<p>F. Panzer, <i>Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie</i> (Munich,
+1848-1855), i. pp. 212 <i>sq.</i>, &sect; 236.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote363" name=
+"footnote363"></a> <b>Footnote 363</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag363">(return)</a>
+<p>F. Panzer, <i>op. cit.</i> ii. pp. 78 <i>sq.</i>, &sect;&sect;
+114, 115. The customs observed at these places and at Althenneberg
+are described together by W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p.
+505.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote364" name=
+"footnote364"></a> <b>Footnote 364</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag364">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Birlinger, <i>Volksth&uuml;mliches aus Schwaben</i> (Freiburg
+im Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. p. 82, &sect; 106; W. Mannhardt,
+<i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p. 508.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote365" name=
+"footnote365"></a> <b>Footnote 365</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag365">(return)</a>
+<p>Elard Hugo Meyer, <i>Badisches Volksleben</i> (Strasburg, 1900),
+pp. 97 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote366" name=
+"footnote366"></a> <b>Footnote 366</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag366">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings</i>, ii. 349
+<i>sqq.</i> See further below, vol. ii. pp. 298 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote367" name=
+"footnote367"></a> <b>Footnote 367</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag367">(return)</a>
+<p>J.W. Wolf, <i>Beitr&auml;ge sur deutschen Mythologie</i>, i. 75
+<i>sq.</i>; W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p. 506.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote368" name=
+"footnote368"></a> <b>Footnote 368</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag368">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Lloyd, <i>Peasant Life in Sweden</i> (London, 1870), p.
+228.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote369" name=
+"footnote369"></a> <b>Footnote 369</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag369">(return)</a>
+<p>W. M&uuml;ller, <i>Beitr&auml;ge sur Volkskunde der Deutschen in
+Mahren</i> (Vienna and Olm&uuml;tz, 1893), pp. 321, 397 <i>sq.</i>
+In Wagstadt, a town of Austrian Silesia, a boy in a red waistcoat
+used to play the part of Judas on the Wednesday before Good Friday.
+He was chased from before the church door by the other school
+children, who pursued him through the streets with shouts and the
+noise of rattles and clappers till they reached a certain suburb,
+where they always caught and beat him because he had betrayed the
+Redeemer. See Anton Peter, <i>Volksth&uuml;mliches aus
+&ouml;sterreichisch-Schlesien</i> (Troppau, 1865-1867), ii. 282
+<i>sq.</i>; Paul Drechsler, <i>Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in
+Schlesien</i> (Leipsic, 1903-1906), i. 77 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote370" name=
+"footnote370"></a> <b>Footnote 370</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag370">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century</i>, from the
+MSS. of John Ramsay, Esq., of Ochtertyre, edited by Alexander
+Allardyce (Edinburgh and London, 1888), ii. 439-445. As to the
+<i>tein-eigin</i> or need-fire, see below, pp. <a href=
+"#page269">269</a> <i>sqq</i>. The etymology of the word Beltane is
+uncertain; the popular derivation of the first part from the
+Phoenician Baal is absurd. See, for example, John Graham Dalyell,
+<i>The Darker Superstitions of Scotland</i> (Edinburgh, 1834), pp.
+176 <i>sq.</i>: "The recognition of the pagan divinity Baal, or
+Bel, the Sun, is discovered through innumerable etymological
+sources. In the records of Scottish history, down to the sixteenth
+or seventeenth centuries, multiplied prohibitions were issued from
+the fountains of ecclesiastical ordinances, against kindling
+<i>Bailfires</i>, of which the origin cannot be mistaken. The
+festival of this divinity was commemorated in Scotland until the
+latest date." Modern scholars are not agreed as to the derivation
+of the name Beltane. See Rev. John Gregorson Campbell,
+<i>Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of
+Scotland</i> (Glasgow, 1902), pp. 268 <i>sq.</i>; J.A. MacCulloch,
+<i>The Religion of the Ancient Celts</i> (Edinburgh, 1911), p.
+264.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote371" name=
+"footnote371"></a> <b>Footnote 371</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag371">(return)</a>
+<p>"<i>Bal-tein</i> signifies the <i>fire of Baal. Baal</i> or
+<i>Ball</i> is the only word in Gaelic for <i>a globe</i>. This
+festival was probably in honour of the sun, whose return, in his
+apparent annual course, they celebrated, on account of his having
+such a visible influence, by his genial warmth, on the productions
+of the earth. That the Caledonians paid a superstitious respect to
+the sun, as was the practice among many other nations, is evident,
+not only by the sacrifice at Baltein, but upon many other
+occasions. When a Highlander goes to bathe, or to drink waters out
+of a consecrated fountain, he must always approach by going round
+the place, <i>from east to west on the south side</i>, in imitation
+of the apparent diurnal motion of the sun. When the dead are laid
+in the earth, the grave is approached by going round in the same
+manner. The bride is conducted to her future spouse, in the
+presence of the minister, and the glass goes round a company, in
+the course of the sun. This is called, in Gaelic, going round the
+right, or the <i>lucky way</i>. The opposite course is the wrong,
+or the <i>unlucky</i> way. And if a person's meat or drink were to
+affect the wind-pipe, or come against his breath, they instantly
+cry out <i>deisheal</i>! which is an ejaculation praying that it
+may go by the right way" (Rev. J. Robertson, in Sir John Sinclair's
+<i>Statistical Account of Scotland</i>, xi. 621 note). Compare J.G.
+Campbell, <i>Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of
+Scotland</i> (Glasgow, 1900), pp. 229 <i>sq.</i>: "<i>The
+Right-hand Turn</i> (<i>Deiseal</i>).&mdash;This was the most
+important of all the observances. The rule is '<i>Deiseal</i>
+(<i>i.e.</i> the right-hand turn) for everything,' and consists in
+doing all things with a motion corresponding to the course of the
+sun, or from left to right. This is the manner in which screw-nails
+are driven, and is common with many for no reason but its
+convenience. Old men in the Highlands were very particular about
+it. The coffin was taken <i>deiseal</i> about the grave, when about
+to be lowered; boats were turned to sea according to it, and drams
+are given to the present day to a company. When putting a straw
+rope on a house or corn-stack, if the assistant went
+<i>tuaitheal</i> (<i>i.e.</i> against the course of the sun), the
+old man was ready to come down and thrash him. On coming to a house
+the visitor should go round it <i>deiseal</i> to secure luck in the
+object of his visit. After milking a cow the dairy-maid should
+strike it <i>deiseal</i> with the shackle, saying 'out and home'
+(<i>mach 'us dachaigh</i>). This secures its safe return. The word
+is from <i>deas</i>, right-hand, and <i>iul</i>, direction, and of
+itself contains no allusion to the sun." Compare M. Martin,
+"Description of the Western Islands of Scotland," in J. Pinkerton's
+<i>Voyages and Travels</i>, iii. 612 <i>sq.</i>: "There was an
+ancient custom in the island of Lewis, to make a fiery circle about
+the houses, corn, cattle, etc., belonging to each particular
+family: a man carried fire in his right hand, and went round, and
+it was called <i>dessil</i>, from the right hand, which in the
+ancient language is called <i>dess</i>.... There is another way of
+the <i>dessil</i>, or carrying fire round about women before they
+are churched, after child-bearing; and it is used likewise about
+children until they are christened; both which are performed in the
+morning and at night. This is only practised now by some of the
+ancient midwives: I enquired their reason for this custom, which I
+told them was altogether unlawful; this disobliged them mightily,
+insomuch that they would give me no satisfaction. But others, that
+were of a more agreeable temper, told me that fire-round was an
+effectual means to preserve both the mother and the infant from the
+power of evil spirits, who are ready at such times to do mischief,
+and sometimes carry away the infant; and when they get them once in
+their possession, return them poor meagre skeletons; and these
+infants are said to have voracious appetites, constantly craving
+for meat. In this case it was usual with those who believed that
+their children were thus taken away, to dig a grave in the fields
+upon quarter-day, and there to lay the fairy skeleton till next
+morning; at which time the parents went to the place, where they
+doubted not to find their own child instead of this skeleton. Some
+of the poorer sort of people in these islands retain the custom of
+performing these rounds sun-ways about the persons of their
+benefactors three times, when they bless them, and wish good
+success to all their enterprizes. Some are very careful when they
+set out to sea that the boat be first rowed about sun-ways; and if
+this be neglected, they are afraid their voyage may prove
+unfortunate." Probably the superstition was based entirely on the
+supposed luckiness of the right hand, which accordingly, in making
+a circuit round an object, is kept towards the centre. As to a
+supposed worship of the sun among the Scottish Highlanders, compare
+J.G. Campbell, <i>Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and
+Islands of Scotland</i>, p. 304: "Both the sun (<i>a Ghrian</i>)
+and moon (<i>a Ghealach</i>) are feminine in Gaelic, and the names
+are simply descriptive of their appearance. There is no trace of a
+Sun-God or Moon-Goddess." As to the etymology of Beltane, see
+above, p. <a href="#footnotetag370">149 note</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote372" name=
+"footnote372"></a> <b>Footnote 372</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag372">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. James Robertson (Parish Minister of Callander), in Sir John
+Sinclair's <i>Statistical Account of Scotland</i> (Edinburgh,
+1791-1799), xi. 620 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote373" name=
+"footnote373"></a> <b>Footnote 373</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag373">(return)</a>
+<p>Pennant's "Tour in Scotland," in John Pinkerton's <i>Voyages and
+Travels</i> (London, 1808-1814), iii. 49.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote374" name=
+"footnote374"></a> <b>Footnote 374</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag374">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. Dr. Thomas Bisset, in Sir John Sinclair's <i>Statistical
+Account of Scotland</i>, v. 84.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote375" name=
+"footnote375"></a> <b>Footnote 375</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag375">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. Allan Stewart, in Sir John Sinclair's <i>Statistical
+Account of Scotland</i>, xv. 517 note.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote376" name=
+"footnote376"></a> <b>Footnote 376</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag376">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. Walter Gregor, "Notes on Beltane Cakes," <i>Folk-lore</i>,
+vi. (1895) pp. 2 <i>sq.</i> The Beltane cakes with the nine knobs
+on them remind us of the cakes with twelve knobs which the
+Athenians offered to Cronus and other deities (see <i>The
+Scapegoat</i>, p. 351). The King of the Bean on Twelfth Night was
+chosen by means of a cake, which was broken in as many pieces as
+there were persons present, and the person who received the piece
+containing a bean or a coin became king. See J. Boemus, <i>Mores,
+leges et ritus omnium gentium</i> (Lyons, 1541), p. 222; John
+Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities of Great Britain</i> (London,
+1882-1883), i. 22 <i>sq.; The Scapegoat</i>, pp. 313
+<i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote377" name=
+"footnote377"></a> <b>Footnote 377</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag377">(return)</a>
+<p>Shaw, in Pennant's "Tour in Scotland," printed in J. Pinkerton's
+<i>Voyages and Travels</i>, iii. 136. The part of Scotland to which
+Shaw's description applies is what he calls the province or country
+of Murray, extending from the river Spey on the east to the river
+Beauly on the west, and south-west to Loch Lochy.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote378" name=
+"footnote378"></a> <b>Footnote 378</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag378">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. Walter Gregor, <i>Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East
+of Scotland</i> (London, 1881), p. 167.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote379" name=
+"footnote379"></a> <b>Footnote 379</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag379">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Goodrich-Freer, "More Folklore from the Hebrides,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, xiii. (1902) p. 41. The St. Michael's cake
+(<i>Str&ugrave;than na h'eill Micheil</i>), referred to in the
+text, is described as "the size of a quern" in circumference. "It
+is kneaded simply with water, and marked across like a scone,
+dividing it into four equal parts, and then placed in front of the
+fire resting on a quern. It is not polished with dry meal as is
+usual in making a cake, but when it is cooked a thin coating of
+eggs (four in number), mixed with buttermilk, is spread first on
+one side, then on the other, and it is put before the fire again.
+An earlier shape, still in use, which tradition associates with the
+female sex, is that of a triangle with the corners cut off. A
+<i>str&ugrave;hthan</i> or <i>str&ugrave;hdhan</i> (the word seems
+to be used for no other kind of cake) is made for each member of
+the household, including servants and herds. When harvest is late,
+an early patch of corn is mown on purpose for the
+<i>str&ugrave;than</i>" (A. Goodrich-Freer, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 44.
+<i>sq.</i>.)</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote380" name=
+"footnote380"></a> <b>Footnote 380</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag380">(return)</a>
+<p>Marie Trevelyan, <i>Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales</i>
+(London, 1909), pp. 22-24.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote381" name=
+"footnote381"></a> <b>Footnote 381</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag381">(return)</a>
+<p>Jonathan Ceredig Davies, <i>Folklore of West and Mid-Wales</i>
+(Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 76.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote382" name=
+"footnote382"></a> <b>Footnote 382</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag382">(return)</a>
+<p>Joseph Train, <i>An Historical and Statistical Account of the
+Isle of Man</i> (Douglas, Isle of Man, 1845), i. 314 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote383" name=
+"footnote383"></a> <b>Footnote 383</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag383">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) John Rhys, <i>Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx</i>
+(Oxford, 1901), i. 309; <i>id.</i>, "The Coligny Calendar,"
+<i>Proceedings of the British Academy, 1909-1910</i>, pp. 261
+<i>sq.</i> See further <i>The Magic Art and the Evolution of
+Kings</i>, ii. 53 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote384" name=
+"footnote384"></a> <b>Footnote 384</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag384">(return)</a>
+<p>Professor Frank Granger, "Early Man," in <i>The Victoria History
+of the County of Nottingham</i>, edited by William Page, i.
+(London, 1906) pp. 186 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote385" name=
+"footnote385"></a> <b>Footnote 385</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag385">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) John Rhys, <i>Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx</i>
+(Oxford, 1901), i. 310; <i>id.</i>, "Manx Folk-lore and
+Superstitions," <i>Folk-lore</i>, ii. (1891) pp. 303 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote386" name=
+"footnote386"></a> <b>Footnote 386</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag386">(return)</a>
+<p>P.W. Joyce, <i>A Social History of Ancient Ireland</i> (London,
+1903), i. 290 <i>sq.</i>, referring to Kuno Meyer, <i>Hibernia
+Minora</i>, p. 49 and <i>Glossary</i>, 23.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote387" name=
+"footnote387"></a> <b>Footnote 387</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag387">(return)</a>
+<p>J.B. Bury, <i>The Life of St. Patrick</i> (London, 1905), pp.
+104 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote388" name=
+"footnote388"></a> <b>Footnote 388</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag388">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page147">147</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote389" name=
+"footnote389"></a> <b>Footnote 389</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag389">(return)</a>
+<p>Geoffrey Keating, D.D., <i>The History of Ireland</i>,
+translated by John O'Mahony (New York, 1857), pp. 300
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote390" name=
+"footnote390"></a> <b>Footnote 390</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag390">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) John Rhys, "Manx Folk-lore and Superstition,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, ii. (1891) p. 303; <i>id., Celtic Folk-lore,
+Welsh and Manx</i> (Oxford, 1901), i. 309. Compare P.W. Joyce, <i>A
+Social History of Ancient Ireland</i> (London, 1903), i. 291: "The
+custom of driving cattle through fires against disease on the eve
+of the 1st of May, and on the eve of the 24th June (St. John's
+Day), continued in Ireland, as well as in the Scottish Highlands,
+to a period within living memory." In a footnote Mr. Joyce refers
+to Carmichael, <i>Carmina Gadelica</i>, ii. 340, for Scotland, and
+adds, "I saw it done in Ireland."</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote391" name=
+"footnote391"></a> <b>Footnote 391</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag391">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Lloyd, <i>Peasant Life in Sweden</i> (London, 1870), pp. 233
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote392" name=
+"footnote392"></a> <b>Footnote 392</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag392">(return)</a>
+<p>Reinsberg-D&uuml;ringsfeld, <i>Fest-Kalender aus B&ouml;hmen</i>
+(Prague, N.D.), pp. 211 <i>sq.</i>; Br. Jel&iacute;nek,
+"Materialien zur Vorgeschichte und Volkskunde B&ouml;hmens,"
+<i>Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien</i>,
+xxi. (1891) p. 13; Alois John, <i>Sitte, Branch, und Volksglaube im
+deutschen Westb&ouml;hmen</i> (Prague, 1905), p. 71.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote393" name=
+"footnote393"></a> <b>Footnote 393</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag393">(return)</a>
+<p>J.A.E. K&ouml;hler, <i>Volksbrauch, Aberglauben, Sagen und andre
+alte Ueberlieferungen im Voigtlande</i> (Leipsic, 1867), p. 373.
+The superstitions relating to witches at this season are legion.
+For instance, in Saxony and Thuringia any one who labours under a
+physical blemish can easily rid himself of it by transferring it to
+the witches on Walpurgis Night. He has only to go out to a
+cross-road, make three crosses on the blemish, and say, "In the
+name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." Thus the
+blemish, whatever it may be, is left behind him at the cross-road,
+and when the witches sweep by on their way to the Brocken, they
+must take it with them, and it sticks to them henceforth. Moreover,
+three crosses chalked up on the doors of houses and cattle-stalls
+on Walpurgis Night will effectually prevent any of the infernal
+crew from entering and doing harm to man or beast. See E. Sommer,
+<i>Sagen, M&auml;rchen und Gebr&auml;uche aus Sachsen und
+Th&uuml;ringen</i> (Halle, 1846), pp. 148 <i>sq.; Die gestriegelte
+Rockenphilosophie</i> (Chemnitz, 1759), p. 116.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote394" name=
+"footnote394"></a> <b>Footnote 394</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag394">(return)</a>
+<p>See <i>The Scapegoat</i>, pp. 158 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote395" name=
+"footnote395"></a> <b>Footnote 395</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag395">(return)</a>
+<p>As to the Midsummer Festival of Europe in general see the
+evidence collected in the "Specimen Calendarii Gentilis," appended
+to the <i>Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta</i>,
+Pars iii. (Copenhagen, 1828) pp. 1086-1097.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote396" name=
+"footnote396"></a> <b>Footnote 396</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag396">(return)</a>
+<p>John Mitchell Kemble, <i>The Saxons in England</i>, New Edition
+(London, 1876), i. 361 <i>sq</i>., quoting "an ancient MS. written
+in England, and now in the Harleian Collection, No. 2345, fol. 50."
+The passage is quoted in part by J. Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities
+of Great Britain</i> (London, 1882-1883), i. 298 <i>sq.</i>, by
+R.T. Hampson, <i>Medii Aevi Kalendarium</i> (London, 1841), i. 300,
+and by W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p. 509. The same
+explanations of the Midsummer fires and of the custom of trundling
+a burning wheel on Midsummer Eve are given also by John Beleth, a
+writer of the twelfth century. See his <i>Rationale Divinorum
+Officiorum</i> (appended to the <i>Rationale Divinorum
+Officiorum</i> of G. [W.] Durandus, Lyons, 1584), p. 556 <i>recto:
+"Solent porro hoc tempore</i> [the Eve of St. John the Baptist]
+<i>ex veteri consuetudine mortuorum animalium ossa comburi, quod
+hujusmodi habet originem. Sunt enim animalia, quae dracones
+appellamus.... Haec inquam animalia in aere volant, in aquis
+natant, in terra ambulant. Sed quando in aere ad libidinem
+concitantur (quod fere fit) saepe ipsum sperma vel in puteos, vel
+in aquas fluviales ejicunt ex quo lethalis sequitur annus. Adversus
+haec ergo hujusmodi inventum est remedium, ut videlicet rogus ex
+ossibus construeretur, et ita fumus hujusmodi animalia fugaret. Et
+quia istud maxime hoc tempore fiebat, idem etiam modo ab omnibus
+observatur.... Consuetum item est hac vigilia ardentes deferri
+faculas quod Johannes fuerit ardens lucerna, et qui vias Domini
+praeparaverit. Sed quod etiam rota vertatur hinc esse putant quia
+in eum circulum tunc Sol descenderit ultra quem progredi nequit, a
+quo cogitur paulatim descendere</i>." The substance of the passage
+is repeated in other words by G. Durandus (Wilh. Durantis), a
+writer of the thirteenth century, in his <i>Rationale Divinorum
+Officiorum</i>, lib. vii. cap. 14 (p. 442 <i>verso</i>, ed. Lyons,
+1584). Compare J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i.
+516.</p>
+<p>With the notion that the air is poisoned at midsummer we may
+compare the popular belief that it is similarly infected at an
+eclipse. Thus among the Esquimaux on the Lower Yukon river in
+Alaska "it is believed that a subtle essence or unclean influence
+descends to the earth during an eclipse, and if any of it is caught
+in utensils of any kind it will produce sickness. As a result,
+immediately on the commencement of an eclipse, every woman turns
+bottom side up all her pots, wooden buckets, and dishes" (E.W.
+Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," <i>Eighteenth Annual
+Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology</i>, Part i.
+(Washington, 1899) p. 431). Similar notions and practices prevail
+among the peasantry of southern Germany. Thus the Swabian peasants
+think that during an eclipse of the sun poison falls on the earth;
+hence at such a time they will not sow, mow, gather fruit or eat
+it, they bring the cattle into the stalls, and refrain from
+business of every kind. If the eclipse lasts long, the people get
+very anxious, set a burning candle on the mantel-shelf of the
+stove, and pray to be delivered from the danger. See Anton
+Birlinger, <i>Volksth&uuml;mliches aus Schwaben</i> (Freiburg im
+Breisgau, 1861-1862), i. 189. Similarly Bavarian peasants imagine
+that water is poisoned during a solar eclipse (F. Panzer,
+<i>Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie</i>, ii. 297); and Thuringian
+bumpkins cover up the wells and bring the cattle home from pasture
+during an eclipse either of the sun or of the moon; an eclipse is
+particularly poisonous when it happens to fall on a Wednesday. See
+August Witzschel, <i>Sagen, Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche aus
+Th&uuml;ringen</i> (Vienna, 1878), p. 287. As eclipses are commonly
+supposed by the ignorant to be caused by a monster attacking the
+sun or moon (E.B. Tylor, <i>Primitive Culture</i>,<sup>2</sup>
+London, 1873, i. 328 <i>sqq.</i>), we may surmise, on the analogy
+of the explanation given of the Midsummer fires, that the unclean
+influence which is thought to descend on the earth at such times is
+popularly attributed to seed discharged by the monster or possibly
+by the sun or moon then in conjunction with each other.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote397" name=
+"footnote397"></a> <b>Footnote 397</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag397">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Popish Kingdome or reigne of Antichrist, written in Latin
+verse by Thomas Naogeorgus and Englyshed by Barnabe Googe,
+1570</i>, edited by R.C. Hope (London, 1880), p. 54 <i>verso</i>.
+As to this work see above, p. <a href="#footnotetag313">125 note
+1.</a></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote398" name=
+"footnote398"></a> <b>Footnote 398</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag398">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Boemus, <i>Mores, leges et ritus omnium gentium</i> (Lyons,
+1541), pp. 225 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote399" name=
+"footnote399"></a> <b>Footnote 399</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag399">(return)</a>
+<p>Tessier, "Sur la f&ecirc;te annuelle de la roue flamboyante de
+la Saint-Jean, &agrave; Basse-Kontz, arrondissement de Thionville,"
+<i>M&eacute;moires et dissertations publi&eacute;s par la
+Soci&eacute;t&eacute; Royale des Antiquaires de France</i>, v.
+(1823) pp. 379-393. Tessier witnessed the ceremony, 23rd June 1822
+(not 1823, as is sometimes stated). His account has been reproduced
+more or less fully by J. Grimm (<i>Deutsche
+Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 515 <i>sq.</i>) W. Mannhardt (<i>Der
+Baumkultus</i>, pp. 510 <i>sq.</i>), and H. Gaidoz ("Le dieu
+gaulois du Soleil et le symbolisme de la Roue," <i>Revue
+Arch&eacute;ologique</i>, iii. S&eacute;rie, iv. (1884) pp. 24
+<i>sq.</i>).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote400" name=
+"footnote400"></a> <b>Footnote 400</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag400">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des K&ouml;nigreichs
+Bayern</i> (Munich, 1860-1867), i. 373 <i>sq</i>.; compare
+<i>id</i>., iii. 327 <i>sq</i>. As to the burning discs at the
+spring festivals, see above, pp. <a href="#page116">116</a>
+<i>sq</i>., <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href=
+"#page143">143</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote401" name=
+"footnote401"></a> <b>Footnote 401</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag401">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Op. cit</i>. ii. 260 <i>sq</i>., iii. 936, 956, iv. 2. p.
+360.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote402" name=
+"footnote402"></a> <b>Footnote 402</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag402">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Op. cit</i>. ii. 260.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote403" name=
+"footnote403"></a> <b>Footnote 403</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag403">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Op. cit.</i> iv. i. p. 242. We have seen (p. 163) that in the
+sixteenth century these customs and beliefs were common in Germany.
+It is also a German superstition that a house which contains a
+brand from the midsummer bonfire will not be struck by lightning
+(J.W. Wolf, <i>Beitr&auml;ge, zur deutschen Mythologie</i>, i. p.
+217, &sect; 185).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote404" name=
+"footnote404"></a> <b>Footnote 404</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag404">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Boemus, <i>Mores, leges et ritus omnium gentium</i> (Lyons,
+1541), p. 226.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote405" name=
+"footnote405"></a> <b>Footnote 405</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag405">(return)</a>
+<p>Karl Freiherr von Leoprechting, <i>Aus dem Lechrain</i> (Munich,
+1855), pp. 181 <i>sqq.</i>; W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p.
+510.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote406" name=
+"footnote406"></a> <b>Footnote 406</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag406">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Birlinger, <i>Volksth&uuml;mliches aus Schwaben</i> (Freiburg
+im Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. pp. 96 <i>sqq.</i>, &sect; 128, pp.
+103 <i>sq.</i>, &sect; 129; <i>id., Aus Schwaben</i> (Wiesbaden,
+1874), ii. 116-120; E. Meier, <i>Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und
+Gebr&auml;uche aus Schwaben</i> (Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 423
+<i>sqq.</i>; W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p. 510.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote407" name=
+"footnote407"></a> <b>Footnote 407</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag407">(return)</a>
+<p>F. Panzer, <i>Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie</i> (Munich,
+1848-1855), i. pp. 215 <i>sq.</i>, &sect; 242; <i>id.</i>, ii.
+549.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote408" name=
+"footnote408"></a> <b>Footnote 408</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag408">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Birlinger, <i>Volksth&uuml;mliches aus Schwaben</i> (Freiburg
+im Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. 99-101.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote409" name=
+"footnote409"></a> <b>Footnote 409</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag409">(return)</a>
+<p>Elard Hugo Mayer, <i>Badisches Volksleben</i> (Strasburg, 1900),
+pp. 103 <i>sq.</i>, 225 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote410" name=
+"footnote410"></a> <b>Footnote 410</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag410">(return)</a>
+<p>W. von Schulenberg, in <i>Verhandlungen der Berliner
+Gesellschaft f&uuml;r Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte,
+Jahrgang 1897</i>, pp. 494 <i>sq.</i> (bound up with <i>Zeitschrift
+f&uuml;r Ethnologie</i>, xxix. 1897).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote411" name=
+"footnote411"></a> <b>Footnote 411</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag411">(return)</a>
+<p>H. Gaidoz, "Le dieu Gaulois du Soleil et le symbolisme de la
+Roue," <i>Revue Arch&eacute;ologique</i>, iii. S&eacute;rie, iv.
+(1884) pp. 29 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote412" name=
+"footnote412"></a> <b>Footnote 412</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag412">(return)</a>
+<p>Bruno Stehle, "Volksglauben, Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche in
+Lothringen," <i>Globus</i>, lix. (1891) pp. 378 <i>sq.</i>; "Die
+Sommerwendfeier im St. Amarinthale," <i>Der Urquell</i>, N.F., i.
+(1897) pp. 181 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote413" name=
+"footnote413"></a> <b>Footnote 413</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag413">(return)</a>
+<p>J.H. Schmitz, <i>Sitten und Sagen Lieder, Spr&uuml;chw&ouml;rter
+und R&auml;thsel des Eifler Volkes</i> (Treves, 1856-1858), i. 40
+<i>sq.</i> According to one writer, the garlands are composed of
+St. John's wort (Montanus, <i>Die deutschen Volksfeste,
+Volksbr&auml;uche und deutscher Volksglaube</i>, Iserlohn, N.D., p.
+33). As to the use of St. John's wort at Midsummer, see below, vol.
+ii. pp. 54 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote414" name=
+"footnote414"></a> <b>Footnote 414</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag414">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, <i>Norddeutsche Sagen, M&auml;rchen und
+Gebr&auml;uche</i> (Leipsic, 1848), p. 390.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote415" name=
+"footnote415"></a> <b>Footnote 415</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag415">(return)</a>
+<p>Montanus, <i>Die deutschen Volksfeste, Volksbr&auml;uche und
+deutscher Volksglaube</i> (Iserlohn, N.D.), pp. 33 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote416" name=
+"footnote416"></a> <b>Footnote 416</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag416">(return)</a>
+<p>C.L. Rochholz, <i>Deutscher Glaube und Brauch</i> (Berlin,
+1867), ii. 144 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote417" name=
+"footnote417"></a> <b>Footnote 417</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag417">(return)</a>
+<p>Philo vom Walde, <i>Schlesien in Sage und Brauch</i> (Berlin,
+N.D.), p. 124; Paul Drechsler, <i>Sitte, Brauch, und Volksglaube in
+Schlesien</i> (Leipsic, 1903-1906), i. 136 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote418" name=
+"footnote418"></a> <b>Footnote 418</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag418">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie,</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 517
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote419" name=
+"footnote419"></a> <b>Footnote 419</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag419">(return)</a>
+<p>From information supplied by Mr. Sigurd K. Heiberg, engineer, of
+Bergen, Norway, who in his boyhood regularly collected fuel for the
+fires. I have to thank Miss Anderson, of Barskimming, Mauchline,
+Ayrshire, for kindly procuring the information for me from Mr.
+Heiberg.</p>
+<p>The Blocksberg, where German as well as Norwegian witches gather
+for their great Sabbaths on the Eve of May Day (Walpurgis Night)
+and Midsummer Eve, is commonly identified with the Brocken, the
+highest peak of the Harz mountains. But in Mecklenburg, Pomerania,
+and probably elsewhere, villages have their own local Blocksberg,
+which is generally a hill or open place in the neighbourhood; a
+number of places in Pomerania go by the name of the Blocksberg. See
+J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> ii. 878
+<i>sq.</i>; Ulrich Jahn, <i>Hexenwesen und Zauberei in Pommern</i>
+(Breslau, 1886), pp. 4 <i>sq.</i>; <i>id.</i>, <i>Volkssagen aus
+Pommern und R&uuml;gen</i> (Stettin, 1886), p. 329.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote420" name=
+"footnote420"></a> <b>Footnote 420</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag420">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Lloyd, <i>Peasant Life in Sweden</i> (London, 1870), pp. 259,
+265.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote421" name=
+"footnote421"></a> <b>Footnote 421</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag421">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Lloyd, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 261 <i>sq.</i> These springs are
+called "sacrificial fonts" (<i>Offer k&auml;llor</i>) and are "so
+named because in heathen times the limbs of the slaughtered victim,
+whether man or beast, were here washed prior to immolation" (L.
+Lloyd, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 261).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote422" name=
+"footnote422"></a> <b>Footnote 422</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag422">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Hoffmann-Krayer, <i>Feste und Br&auml;uche des
+Schweizervolkes</i> (Zurich, 1913), p. 164.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote423" name=
+"footnote423"></a> <b>Footnote 423</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag423">(return)</a>
+<p>Ignaz V. Zingerle, <i>Sitten, Br&auml;uche und Meinungen des
+Tiroler Volkes</i>,<sup>2</sup> (Innsbruck, 1871), ii. p. 159,
+&sect; 1354.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote424" name=
+"footnote424"></a> <b>Footnote 424</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag424">(return)</a>
+<p>I.V. Zingerle, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 159, &sect;&sect; 1353, 1355,
+1356; W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p. 513.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote425" name=
+"footnote425"></a> <b>Footnote 425</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag425">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Mannhardt, <i>l.c.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote426" name=
+"footnote426"></a> <b>Footnote 426</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag426">(return)</a>
+<p>F. Panzer, <i>Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie</i> (Munich,
+1848-1855), i. p. 210, &sect; 231.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote427" name=
+"footnote427"></a> <b>Footnote 427</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag427">(return)</a>
+<p>Theodor Vernaleken, <i>Mythen und Br&auml;uche des Volkes in
+Oesterreich</i> (Vienna, 1859), pp. 307 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote428" name=
+"footnote428"></a> <b>Footnote 428</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag428">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 519;
+Theodor Vernaleken, <i>Mythen und Br&auml;uche des Volkes in
+Oesterreich</i> (Vienna, 1859), p. 308; Joseph Virgil Grohmann,
+<i>Aberglauben und Gebr&auml;uche aus Bohmen und M&auml;hren</i>
+(Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 80, &sect; 636;
+Reinsberg-D&uuml;ringsfeld, <i>Fest-Kalender aus Bohmen</i>
+(Prague, N.D.), pp. 306-311; Br. Jelfnek, "Materialien zur
+Vorgeschichte und Volkskunde B&ouml;hmens," <i>Mittheilungen der
+anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien&gt;</i> xxi. (1891) p. 13;
+Alois John, <i>Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen
+Westb&ouml;hmen</i> (Prague, 1905) pp. 84-86.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote429" name=
+"footnote429"></a> <b>Footnote 429</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag429">(return)</a>
+<p>Willibald M&uuml;ller, <i>Beitr&auml;ge zur Volkskunde der
+Deutschen in M&auml;hren</i> (Vienna and Olmutz, 1893), pp.
+263-265.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote430" name=
+"footnote430"></a> <b>Footnote 430</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag430">(return)</a>
+<p>Anton Peter, <i>Volksth&uuml;mliches aus
+&Ouml;sterreichisch-Schlesien</i> (Troppau, 1865-1867), ii.
+287.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote431" name=
+"footnote431"></a> <b>Footnote 431</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag431">(return)</a>
+<p>Th. Vernaleken, <i>Mythen und Br&auml;uche des Volkes in
+Oesterreich</i> (Vienna, 1859), pp. 308 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote432" name=
+"footnote432"></a> <b>Footnote 432</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag432">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Dying God</i>, p. 262. Compare M. Kowalewsky, in
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, i. (1890) p. 467.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote433" name=
+"footnote433"></a> <b>Footnote 433</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag433">(return)</a>
+<p>W.R.S. Ralston, <i>Songs of the Russian People</i>, Second
+Edition (London, 1872), p. 240.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote434" name=
+"footnote434"></a> <b>Footnote 434</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag434">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 519; W.R.S.
+Ralston, <i>Songs of the Russian People</i> (London, 1872), pp.
+240, 391.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote435" name=
+"footnote435"></a> <b>Footnote 435</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag435">(return)</a>
+<p>W.R.S. Ralston, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 240.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote436" name=
+"footnote436"></a> <b>Footnote 436</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag436">(return)</a>
+<p>W.R.S. Ralston, <i>l.c.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote437" name=
+"footnote437"></a> <b>Footnote 437</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag437">(return)</a>
+<p>W.J.A. von Tettau und J.D.H. Temme, <i>Die Volkssagen
+Ostpreussens, Litthauens und Westpreussens</i> (Berlin, 1837), p.
+277.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote438" name=
+"footnote438"></a> <b>Footnote 438</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag438">(return)</a>
+<p>M. T&ouml;ppen, <i>Aberglauben aus Masuren</i>,<sup>2</sup>
+(Danzig, 1867), p. 71.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote439" name=
+"footnote439"></a> <b>Footnote 439</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag439">(return)</a>
+<p>F.S. Krauss, "Altslavische Feuergewinnung," <i>Globus</i>, lix.
+(1891) p. 318.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote440" name=
+"footnote440"></a> <b>Footnote 440</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag440">(return)</a>
+<p>J.G. Kohl, <i>Die deutsch-russischen Ostseeprovinzen</i>
+(Dresden and Leipsic, 1841), i. 178-180, ii. 24 <i>sq.</i> Ligho
+was an old heathen deity, whose joyous festival used to fall in
+spring.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote441" name=
+"footnote441"></a> <b>Footnote 441</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag441">(return)</a>
+<p>Ovid, <i>Fasti</i>, vi. 775 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote442" name=
+"footnote442"></a> <b>Footnote 442</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag442">(return)</a>
+<p>Friederich S. Krauss, <i>Sitte und Brauch der S&uuml;dslaven</i>
+(Vienna, 1885), pp. 176 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote443" name=
+"footnote443"></a> <b>Footnote 443</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag443">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 519.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote444" name=
+"footnote444"></a> <b>Footnote 444</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag444">(return)</a>
+<p>H. von Wlislocki, <i>Volksglaube und religi&ouml;ser Brauch der
+Magyar</i> (M&uuml;nster i. W., 1893), pp. 40-44.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote445" name=
+"footnote445"></a> <b>Footnote 445</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag445">(return)</a>
+<p>A. von Ipolyi, "Beitr&auml;ge zur deutschen Mythologie aus
+Ungarn," <i>Zeitschrift f&uuml;r deutsche Mythologie und
+Sittenkunde</i>, i. (1853) pp. 270 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote446" name=
+"footnote446"></a> <b>Footnote 446</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag446">(return)</a>
+<p>J.G. Kohl, <i>Die deutsch-russischen Ostseeprovinzen</i>, ii.
+268 <i>sq.</i>; F.J. Wiedemann, <i>Aus dem inneren und
+&auml;usseren Leben der Ehsten</i> (St. Petersburg, 1876), p. 362.
+The word which I have translated "weeds" is in Esthonian
+<i>kaste-heinad</i>, in German <i>Thaugras</i>. Apparently it is
+the name of a special kind of weed.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote447" name=
+"footnote447"></a> <b>Footnote 447</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag447">(return)</a>
+<p>Fr. Kreutzwald und H. Neus, <i>Mythische und Magische Lieder der
+Ehsten</i> (St. Petersburg, 1854), p. 62.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote448" name=
+"footnote448"></a> <b>Footnote 448</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag448">(return)</a>
+<p>J.B. Holzmayer, "Osiliana," <i>Verhandlungen der gelehrten
+Estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat</i>, vii. (1872) pp. 62
+<i>sq.</i> Wiedemann also observes that the sports in which young
+couples engage in the woods on this evening are not always decorous
+(<i>Aus dem inneren und &auml;usseren Leben der Ehsten</i>, p.
+362).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote449" name=
+"footnote449"></a> <b>Footnote 449</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag449">(return)</a>
+<p>J.G. Kohl, <i>Die deutsch-russischen Ostseeprovinzen</i>, ii.
+447 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote450" name=
+"footnote450"></a> <b>Footnote 450</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag450">(return)</a>
+<p>J.G. Georgi, <i>Beschreibung aller Nationen des russischen
+Reichs</i> (St. Petersburg, 1776), p. 36; August Freiherr von
+Haxthausen, <i>Studien &uuml;ber die innere Zust&auml;nde das
+Volksleben und insbesondere die l&auml;ndlichen Einrichtungen
+Russlands</i> (Hanover, 1847), i. 446 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote451" name=
+"footnote451"></a> <b>Footnote 451</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag451">(return)</a>
+<p>Alfred de Nore, <i>Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces
+de France</i> (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 19.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote452" name=
+"footnote452"></a> <b>Footnote 452</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag452">(return)</a>
+<p>It is notable that St. John is the only saint whose birthday the
+Church celebrates with honours like those which she accords to the
+nativity of Christ. Compare Edmond Doutt&eacute;, <i>Magie et
+Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord</i> (Algiers, 1908), p. 571 note
+I.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote453" name=
+"footnote453"></a> <b>Footnote 453</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag453">(return)</a>
+<p>Bossuet, <i>Oeuvres</i> (Versailles, 1815-1819), vi. 276
+("Cat&eacute;chisme du dioc&egrave;se de Meaux"). His description
+of the superstitions is, in his own words, as follows: "<i>Danser
+&agrave; l'entour du feu, jouer, faire des festins, chanter des
+chansons deshonn&egrave;tes, jeter des herbes par-dessus le feu, en
+cueillir avant midi ou &agrave; jeun, en porter sur soi, les
+conserver le long de l'ann&eacute;e, garder des tisons ou des
+charbons du feu, et autres semblables.</i>" This and other evidence
+of the custom of kindling Midsummer bonfires in France is cited by
+Ch. Cuissard in his tract <i>Les Feux de la Saint-Jean</i>
+(Orleans, 1884).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote454" name=
+"footnote454"></a> <b>Footnote 454</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag454">(return)</a>
+<p>Ch. Cuissard, <i>Les Feux de la Saint-Jean</i> (Orleans, 1884),
+pp. 40 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote455" name=
+"footnote455"></a> <b>Footnote 455</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag455">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Le Braz, <i>La L&eacute;gende de la Mort en
+Basse-Bretagne</i> (Paris, 1893), p. 279. For an explanation of the
+custom of throwing a pebble into the fire, see below, p. <a href=
+"#page240">240</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote456" name=
+"footnote456"></a> <b>Footnote 456</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag456">(return)</a>
+<p>M. Quellien, quoted by Alexandre Bertrand, <i>La Religion des
+Gaulois</i> (Paris, 1897), pp. 116 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote457" name=
+"footnote457"></a> <b>Footnote 457</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag457">(return)</a>
+<p>Collin de Plancy, <i>Dictionnaire Infernal</i> (Paris,
+1825-1826), iii. 40; J.W. Wolf, <i>Beitr&auml;ge zur deutschen
+Mythologie</i> (G&ouml;ttingen, 1852-1857), i. p. 217, &sect; 185;
+A. Breuil, "Du Culte de St. Jean Baptiste," <i>M&eacute;moires de
+la Soci&eacute;t&eacute; des Antiquaires de Picardie</i>, viii.
+(Amiens, 1845) pp. 189 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote458" name=
+"footnote458"></a> <b>Footnote 458</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag458">(return)</a>
+<p>Eugene Cortet, <i>Essai sur les F&ecirc;tes Religieuses</i>
+(Paris, 1867), p. 216; Ch. Cuissard, <i>Les Feux de la
+Saint-Jean</i> (Orleans, 1884), p. 24.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote459" name=
+"footnote459"></a> <b>Footnote 459</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag459">(return)</a>
+<p>Paul S&eacute;billot, <i>Coutumes populaires de la
+Haute-Bretagne</i> (Paris, 1886), pp. 192-195. In Upper Brittany
+these bonfires are called <i>rieux</i> or <i>raviers</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote460" name=
+"footnote460"></a> <b>Footnote 460</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag460">(return)</a>
+<p>A. de Nore, <i>Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France</i> (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 219; E. Cortet, <i>Essai sur
+les F&eacute;tes Religieuses</i>, p. 216.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote461" name=
+"footnote461"></a> <b>Footnote 461</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag461">(return)</a>
+<p>A. de Nore, <i>Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France</i>, pp. 219, 228, 231; E. Cortet, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 215
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote462" name=
+"footnote462"></a> <b>Footnote 462</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag462">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Lecoeur, <i>Esquisses du Bocage Normand</i>
+(Cond&eacute;-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 219-224.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote463" name=
+"footnote463"></a> <b>Footnote 463</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag463">(return)</a>
+<p>This description is quoted by Madame Cl&eacute;ment (<i>Histoire
+des f&ecirc;tes civites et religieuses</i>, etc., <i>de la Belgique
+M&eacute;ridionale</i>, Avesnes, 1846, pp. 394-396); F. Liebrecht
+(<i>Des Gervasius von Tilbury Otia Imperialia</i>, Hanover, 1856,
+pp. 209 <i>sq.</i>); and W. Mannhardt (<i>Antike Wald und
+Feldkulte</i>, Berlin, 1877, pp. 323 <i>sqq.</i>) from the
+<i>Magazin pittoresque</i>, Paris, viii. (1840) pp. 287 <i>sqq.</i>
+A slightly condensed account is given, from the same source, by E.
+Cortet (<i>Essai sur les F&ecirc;tes Religieuses</i>, pp. 221
+<i>sq.</i>).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote464" name=
+"footnote464"></a> <b>Footnote 464</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag464">(return)</a>
+<p>Bazin, quoted by Breuil, in <i>M&eacute;moires de la
+Soci&eacute;t&eacute; d' Antiquaires de Picardie</i>, viii. (1845)
+p. 191 note.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote465" name=
+"footnote465"></a> <b>Footnote 465</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag465">(return)</a>
+<p>Correspondents quoted by A. Bertrand, <i>La Religion des
+Gaulois</i> (Paris, 1897), pp. 118, 406.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote466" name=
+"footnote466"></a> <b>Footnote 466</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag466">(return)</a>
+<p>Correspondent quoted by A. Bertrand, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 407.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote467" name=
+"footnote467"></a> <b>Footnote 467</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag467">(return)</a>
+<p>Felix Chapiseau, <i>Le folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche</i>
+(Paris, 1902), i. 318-320. In Perche the midsummer bonfires were
+called <i>marolles</i>. As to the custom formerly observed at
+Bullou, near Chateaudun, see a correspondent quoted by A. Bertrand,
+<i>La Religion des Gaulois</i> (Paris, 1897), p. 117.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote468" name=
+"footnote468"></a> <b>Footnote 468</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag468">(return)</a>
+<p>Albert Meyrac, <i>Traditions, Coutumes, L&eacute;gendes, et
+Contes des Ardennes</i> (Charleville, 1890), pp. 88 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote469" name=
+"footnote469"></a> <b>Footnote 469</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag469">(return)</a>
+<p>L.F. Sauv&eacute;, <i>Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges</i> (Paris,
+1889), p. 186.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote470" name=
+"footnote470"></a> <b>Footnote 470</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag470">(return)</a>
+<p>D&eacute;sir&eacute; Monnier, <i>Traditions populaires
+compar&eacute;es</i> (Paris, 1854), pp. 207 <i>sqq.</i>; E. Cortet,
+<i>Essai sur les F&ecirc;tes Religieuses</i>, pp. 217
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote471" name=
+"footnote471"></a> <b>Footnote 471</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag471">(return)</a>
+<p>B&eacute;renger-F&eacute;raud, <i>R&eacute;miniscences
+populaires de la Provence</i> (Paris, 1885), p. 142.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote472" name=
+"footnote472"></a> <b>Footnote 472</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag472">(return)</a>
+<p>Charles Beauquier, <i>Les Mois en Franche-Comt&eacute;</i>
+(Paris, 1900), p. 89. The names of the bonfires vary with the
+place; among them are <i>failles, bourdifailles, b&acirc;s</i> or
+<i>baux, feul&egrave;res</i> or <i>foli&egrave;res</i>, and
+<i>chavannes</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote473" name=
+"footnote473"></a> <b>Footnote 473</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag473">(return)</a>
+<p><i>La Bresse Louhannaise</i>, Juin, 1906, p. 207.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote474" name=
+"footnote474"></a> <b>Footnote 474</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag474">(return)</a>
+<p>Laisnel de la Salle, <i>Croyances et L&eacute;gendes du Centre
+de la France</i> (Paris, 1875), i. 78 <i>sqq.</i> The writer adopts
+the absurd derivation of <i>j&ocirc;n&eacute;e</i> from Janus.
+Needless to say that our old friend Baal, Bel, or Belus figures
+prominently in this and many other accounts of the European
+fire-festivals.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote475" name=
+"footnote475"></a> <b>Footnote 475</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag475">(return)</a>
+<p>A. de Nore, <i>Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France</i> (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 150.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote476" name=
+"footnote476"></a> <b>Footnote 476</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag476">(return)</a>
+<p>Correspondent, quoted by A. Bertrand, <i>La Religion des
+Gaulois</i> (Paris, 1897), p. 408.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote477" name=
+"footnote477"></a> <b>Footnote 477</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag477">(return)</a>
+<p>Guerry, "Sur les usages et traditions du Poitou,"
+<i>M&eacute;moires et dissertations publi&eacute;s par la
+Soci&eacute;t&eacute; Royale des Antiquaires de France</i>, viii.
+(1829) pp. 451 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote478" name=
+"footnote478"></a> <b>Footnote 478</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag478">(return)</a>
+<p>Breuil, in <i>M&eacute;moires de la Soci&eacute;t&eacute; des
+Antiquaires de Picardie</i>, viii. (1845) p. 206; E. Cortet,
+<i>Essai sur les F&ecirc;tes Religieuses</i>, p. 216; Laisnel de la
+Salle, <i>Croyances et L&eacute;gendes du Centre de la France</i>,
+i. 83; J. Lecoeur, <i>Esquisses du Bocage Normand</i>, ii. 225.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote479" name=
+"footnote479"></a> <b>Footnote 479</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag479">(return)</a>
+<p>H. Gaidoz, "Le dieu gaulois du soleil et le symbolisme de la
+roue," <i>Revue Arch&eacute;ologique</i>, iii. S&eacute;rie, iv.
+(1884) p. 26, note 3.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote480" name=
+"footnote480"></a> <b>Footnote 480</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag480">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Pineau, <i>Le Folk-lore du Poitou</i> (Paris, 1892), pp. 499
+<i>sq.</i> In P&eacute;rigord the ashes of the midsummer bonfire
+are searched for the hair of the Virgin (E. Cortet, <i>Essai sur
+les F&ecirc;tes Religieuses</i>, p. 219).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote481" name=
+"footnote481"></a> <b>Footnote 481</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag481">(return)</a>
+<p>A. de Nore, <i>Coutumes Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France</i>, pp. 149 <i>sq.</i>; E. Cortet, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 218
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote482" name=
+"footnote482"></a> <b>Footnote 482</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag482">(return)</a>
+<p>Dupin, "Notice sur quelques f&ecirc;tes et divertissemens
+populaires du d&eacute;partement des Deux-S&egrave;vres,"
+<i>M&eacute;moires et Dissertations publi&eacute;s par la
+Soci&eacute;t&eacute; Royale des Antiquaires de France</i>, iv.
+(1823) p. 110.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote483" name=
+"footnote483"></a> <b>Footnote 483</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag483">(return)</a>
+<p>J.L.M. Nogu&egrave;s, <i>Les moeurs d'autrefois en Saintonge et
+en Aunis</i> (Saintes, 1891), pp. 72, 178 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote484" name=
+"footnote484"></a> <b>Footnote 484</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag484">(return)</a>
+<p>H. Gaidoz, "Le dieu soleil et le symbolisme de la roue,"
+<i>Revue Arch&eacute;ologique</i>, iii. S&eacute;rie, iv. (1884) p.
+30.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote485" name=
+"footnote485"></a> <b>Footnote 485</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag485">(return)</a>
+<p>Ch. Cuissard, <i>Les Feux de la Saint-Jean</i> (Orleans, 1884),
+pp. 22 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote486" name=
+"footnote486"></a> <b>Footnote 486</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag486">(return)</a>
+<p>A. de Nore, <i>Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France</i> p. 127.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote487" name=
+"footnote487"></a> <b>Footnote 487</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag487">(return)</a>
+<p>Aubin-Louis Millin, <i>Voyage dans les D&eacute;partemens du
+Midi de la France</i> (Paris, 1807-1811), iii. 341 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote488" name=
+"footnote488"></a> <b>Footnote 488</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag488">(return)</a>
+<p>Aubin-Louis Millin, <i>op. cit.</i> iii. 28.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote489" name=
+"footnote489"></a> <b>Footnote 489</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag489">(return)</a>
+<p>A. de Nore, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 19 <i>sq.</i>;
+B&eacute;renger-F&eacute;raud, <i>Reminiscences populaires de la
+Provence</i> (Paris, 1885), pp. 135-141. As to the custom at
+Toulon, see Poncy, quoted by Breuil, <i>M&eacute;moires de la
+Soci&eacute;t&eacute; des Antiquaires de Picardie</i>, viii. (1845)
+p. 190 note. The custom of drenching people on this occasion with
+water used to prevail in Toulon, as well as in Marseilles and other
+towns in the south of France. The water was squirted from syringes,
+poured on the heads of passers-by from windows, and so on. See
+Breuil, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 237 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote490" name=
+"footnote490"></a> <b>Footnote 490</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag490">(return)</a>
+<p>A. de Nore, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 20 <i>sq.</i>; E. Cortet, <i>op.
+cit.</i> pp. 218, 219 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote491" name=
+"footnote491"></a> <b>Footnote 491</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag491">(return)</a>
+<p>Le Baron de Reinsberg-D&uuml;ringsfeld, <i>Calendrier Belge</i>
+(Brussels, 1861-1862), i. 416 <i>sq.</i> 439.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote492" name=
+"footnote492"></a> <b>Footnote 492</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag492">(return)</a>
+<p>Le Baron de Reinsberg-D&uuml;ringsfeld, <i>op. cit.</i> i.
+439-442.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote493" name=
+"footnote493"></a> <b>Footnote 493</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag493">(return)</a>
+<p>Madame Cl&eacute;ment, <i>Histoire des f&ecirc;tes civiles et
+religieuses</i>, etc., <i>du D&eacute;partement du Nord</i>
+(Cambrai, 1836), p. 364; J.W. Wolf, <i>Beitr&auml;ge zur deutschen
+Mythologie</i> (G&ouml;ttingen, 1852-1857), ii. 392; W. Mannhardt,
+<i>Der Baumkultus</i>. p. 513.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote494" name=
+"footnote494"></a> <b>Footnote 494</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag494">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Monseur, <i>Folklore Wallon</i> (Brussels, N.D.), p. 130,
+&sect;&sect; 1783, 1786, 1787.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote495" name=
+"footnote495"></a> <b>Footnote 495</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag495">(return)</a>
+<p>Joseph Strutt, <i>The Sports and Pastimes of the People of
+England</i>, New Edition, by W. Hone (London, 1834), p. 359.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote496" name=
+"footnote496"></a> <b>Footnote 496</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag496">(return)</a>
+<p>John Stow, <i>A Survay of London</i>, edited by Henry Morley
+(London, N.D.), pp. 126 <i>sq.</i> Stow's <i>Survay</i> was written
+in 1598.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote497" name=
+"footnote497"></a> <b>Footnote 497</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag497">(return)</a>
+<p>John Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities of Great Britain</i> (London,
+1882-1883), i. 338; T.F. Thiselton Dyer, <i>British Popular
+Customs</i> (London, 1876), p. 331. Both writers refer to <i>Status
+Scholae Etonensis</i> (A.D. 1560).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote498" name=
+"footnote498"></a> <b>Footnote 498</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag498">(return)</a>
+<p>John Aubrey, <i>Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme</i> (London,
+1881), p. 26.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote499" name=
+"footnote499"></a> <b>Footnote 499</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag499">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities of Great Britain</i> (London,
+1882-1883), i. 300 <i>sq.</i>, 318, compare pp. 305, 306, 308
+<i>sq.</i>; W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus</i>, p. 512. Compare W.
+Hutchinson, <i>View of Northumberland</i>, vol. ii. (Newcastle,
+1778), Appendix, p. (15), under the head "Midsummer":&mdash;"It is
+usual to raise fires on the tops of high hills and in the villages,
+and sport and danse around them; this is of very remote antiquity,
+and the first cause lost in the distance of time."</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote500" name=
+"footnote500"></a> <b>Footnote 500</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag500">(return)</a>
+<p>Dr. Lyttelton, Bishop of Carlisle, quoted by William Borlase,
+<i>Antiquities, Historical and Monumental, of the County of
+Cornwall</i> (London, 1769), p. 135 note.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote501" name=
+"footnote501"></a> <b>Footnote 501</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag501">(return)</a>
+<p><i>County Folk-lore</i>, vol. iv. <i>Northumberland</i>,
+collected by M.C. Balfour (London, 1904), p. 76, quoting E.
+Mackenzie, <i>An Historical, Topographical, and Descriptive View of
+the County of Northumberland</i>, Second Edition (Newcastle, 1825),
+i. 217.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote502" name=
+"footnote502"></a> <b>Footnote 502</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag502">(return)</a>
+<p><i>County Folk-lore</i>, vol. iv. <i>Northumberland</i>,
+collected by M.C. Balfour, p. 75.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote503" name=
+"footnote503"></a> <b>Footnote 503</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag503">(return)</a>
+<p><i>County Folk-lore</i>, vol. iv. <i>Northumberland</i>,
+collected by M.C. Balfour, p. 75.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote504" name=
+"footnote504"></a> <b>Footnote 504</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag504">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Denham Tracts</i>, edited by J. Hardy (London,
+1892-1895), ii. 342 <i>sq.</i>, quoting <i>Arch&aelig;logia
+Aeliana</i>, N.S., vii. 73, and the <i>Proceedings</i> of the
+Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, vi. 242 <i>sq.</i>; <i>County
+Folk-lore</i>, vol. iv. <i>Northumberland</i>, collected by M.C.
+Balfour (London, 1904), pp. 75 <i>sq.</i> Whalton is a village of
+Northumberland, not far from Morpeth.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote505" name=
+"footnote505"></a> <b>Footnote 505</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag505">(return)</a>
+<p><i>County Folk-lore</i>, vol. vi. <i>East Riding of
+Yorkshire</i>, collected and edited by Mrs. Gutch (London, 1912),
+p. 102.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote506" name=
+"footnote506"></a> <b>Footnote 506</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag506">(return)</a>
+<p>John Aubrey, <i>Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme</i> (London,
+1881), p. 96, compare <i>id.</i>, p. 26.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote507" name=
+"footnote507"></a> <b>Footnote 507</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag507">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities of Great Britain</i> (London,
+1882-1883), i. 311.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote508" name=
+"footnote508"></a> <b>Footnote 508</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag508">(return)</a>
+<p>William Borlase, LL.D., <i>Antiquities, Historical and
+Monumental, of the County of Cornwall</i> (London, 1769), pp. 135
+<i>sq.</i> The Eve of St. Peter is June 28th. Bonfires have been
+lit elsewhere on the Eve or the day of St. Peter. See above, pp.
+<a href="#page194">194</a> <i>sq.</i> <a href="#page196">196</a>
+<i>sq.</i>, and below, pp. <a href="#page199">199</a> <i>sq.</i>,
+<a href="#page202">202</a>, <a href="#page207">207</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote509" name=
+"footnote509"></a> <b>Footnote 509</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag509">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Brand, <i>op. cit.</i> i. 318, 319; T.F. Thiselton Dyer,
+<i>British Popular Customs</i> (London, 1876), p. 315.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote510" name=
+"footnote510"></a> <b>Footnote 510</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag510">(return)</a>
+<p>William Bottrell, <i>Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West
+Cornwall</i> (Penzance, 1870), pp. 8 <i>sq.</i>, 55 <i>sq.</i>;
+James Napier, <i>Folk-lore, or Superstitious Beliefs in the West of
+Scotland</i> (Paisley, 1879), p. 173.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote511" name=
+"footnote511"></a> <b>Footnote 511</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag511">(return)</a>
+<p>Richard Edmonds, <i>The Land's End District</i> (London, 1862),
+pp. 66 <i>sq.</i>; Robert Hunt, <i>Popular Romances of the West of
+England</i>, Third Edition (London, 1881), pp. 207 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote512" name=
+"footnote512"></a> <b>Footnote 512</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag512">(return)</a>
+<p>Marie Trevelyan, <i>Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales</i>
+(London, 1909), pp. 27 <i>sq.</i> Compare Jonathan Ceredig Davies,
+<i>Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales</i> (Aberystwyth, 1911), p.
+76.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote513" name=
+"footnote513"></a> <b>Footnote 513</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag513">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities of Great Britain</i> (London,
+1882-1883), i. 318.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote514" name=
+"footnote514"></a> <b>Footnote 514</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag514">(return)</a>
+<p>Joseph Train, <i>Account of the Isle of Man</i> (Douglas, Isle
+of Man, 1845), ii. 120.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote515" name=
+"footnote515"></a> <b>Footnote 515</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag515">(return)</a>
+<p>Sir Henry Piers, <i>Description of the County of Westmeath</i>,
+written in 1682, published by (General) Charles Vallancey,
+<i>Collectanea de Rebus Hibernieis</i>, i. (Dublin, 1786) pp. 123
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote516" name=
+"footnote516"></a> <b>Footnote 516</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag516">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities of Great Britain</i> (London,
+1882-1883), i. 303, quoting the author of the <i>Survey of the
+South of Ireland</i>, p. 232.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote517" name=
+"footnote517"></a> <b>Footnote 517</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag517">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Brand, <i>op. cit.</i> i. 305, quoting the author of the
+<i>Comical Pilgrim's Pilgrimage into Ireland</i> (1723), p. 92.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote518" name=
+"footnote518"></a> <b>Footnote 518</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag518">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Gentleman's Magazine</i>, vol. lxv. (London, 1795) pp.
+124 <i>sq.</i> The writer dates the festival on June 21st, which is
+probably a mistake.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote519" name=
+"footnote519"></a> <b>Footnote 519</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag519">(return)</a>
+<p>T.F. Thiselton Dyer, <i>British Popular Customs</i> (London,
+1876), pp. 321 <i>sq.</i>, quoting the <i>Liverpool Mercury</i> of
+June 29th, 1867.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote520" name=
+"footnote520"></a> <b>Footnote 520</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag520">(return)</a>
+<p>L.L. Duncan, "Further Notes from County Leitrim,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, v. (1894) p. 193.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote521" name=
+"footnote521"></a> <b>Footnote 521</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag521">(return)</a>
+<p>A.C. Haddon, "A Batch of Irish Folk-lore," <i>Folk-lore</i>, iv.
+(1893) pp. 351, 359.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote522" name=
+"footnote522"></a> <b>Footnote 522</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag522">(return)</a>
+<p>G.H. Kinahan, "Notes on Irish Folk-lore," <i>Folk-lore
+Record</i>, iv. (1881) p. 97.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote523" name=
+"footnote523"></a> <b>Footnote 523</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag523">(return)</a>
+<p>Charlotte Elizabeth, <i>Personal Recollections</i>, quoted by
+Rev. Alexander Hislop, <i>The Two Babylons</i> (Edinburgh, 1853),
+p. 53.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote524" name=
+"footnote524"></a> <b>Footnote 524</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag524">(return)</a>
+<p>Lady Wilde, <i>Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions
+of Ireland</i> (London, 1887), i. 214 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote525" name=
+"footnote525"></a> <b>Footnote 525</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag525">(return)</a>
+<p>T.F. Thiselton Dyer, <i>British Popular Customs</i> (London,
+1876), pp. 322 <i>sq.</i>, quoting the <i>Hibernian Magazine</i>,
+July 1817. As to the worship of wells in ancient Ireland, see P.W.
+Joyce, <i>A Social History of Ancient Ireland</i> (London, 1903),
+i. 288 <i>sq.</i>, 366 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote526" name=
+"footnote526"></a> <b>Footnote 526</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag526">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. A. Johnstone, describing the parish of Monquhitter in
+Perthshire, in Sir John Sinclair's <i>Statistical Account of
+Scotland</i> (Edinburgh, 1791-1799), xxi. 145. Mr. W. Warde Fowler
+writes that in Scotland "before the bonfires were kindled on
+midsummer eve, the houses were decorated with foliage brought from
+the woods" (<i>Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic</i>,
+London, 1899, pp. 80 <i>sq.</i>). For his authority he refers to
+<i>Chambers' Journal</i>, July, 1842.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote527" name=
+"footnote527"></a> <b>Footnote 527</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag527">(return)</a>
+<p>John Ramsay, of Ochtertyre, <i>Scotland and Scotsmen in the
+Eighteenth Century</i>, edited by A. Allardyce (Edinburgh, 1888),
+ii. 436.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote528" name=
+"footnote528"></a> <b>Footnote 528</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag528">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. Mr. Shaw, Minister of Elgin, in Pennant's "Tour in
+Scotland," printed in John Pinkerton's <i>Voyages and Travels</i>
+(London, 1808-1814), iii. 136.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote529" name=
+"footnote529"></a> <b>Footnote 529</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag529">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Macdonald, "Midsummer Bonfires," <i>Folk-lore</i>, xv. (1904)
+pp. 105 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote530" name=
+"footnote530"></a> <b>Footnote 530</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag530">(return)</a>
+<p>From notes kindly furnished to me by the Rev. J.C. Higgins,
+parish minister of Tarbolton. Mr. Higgins adds that he knows of no
+superstition connected with the fire, and no tradition of its
+origin. I visited the scene of the bonfire in 1898, but, as
+Pausanias says (viii. 41. 6) in similar circumstances, "I did not
+happen to arrive at the season of the festival." Indeed the snow
+was falling thick as I trudged to the village through the beautiful
+woods of "the Castle o' Montgomery" immortalized by Burns. From a
+notice in <i>The Scotsman</i> of 26th June, 1906 (p. 8) it appears
+that the old custom was observed as usual that year.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote531" name=
+"footnote531"></a> <b>Footnote 531</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag531">(return)</a>
+<p>Thomas Moresinus, <i>Papatus seu Depravatae Religionis Origo et
+Incrementum</i> (Edinburgh, 1594), p. 56.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote532" name=
+"footnote532"></a> <b>Footnote 532</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag532">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. Dr. George Lawrie, in Sir John Sinclair's <i>Statistical
+Account of Scotland</i>, iii. (Edinburgh, 1792) p. 105.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote533" name=
+"footnote533"></a> <b>Footnote 533</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag533">(return)</a>
+<p>Letter from Dr. Otero Acevado of Madrid, published in <i>Le
+Temps</i>, September 1898. An extract from the newspaper was sent
+me, but without mention of the day of the month when it appeared.
+The fires on St. John's Eve in Spain are mentioned also by J.
+Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities of Great Britain</i>, i. 317. Jacob
+Grimm inferred the custom from a passage in a romance (<i>Deutsche
+Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 518). The custom of washing or
+bathing on the morning of St. John's Day is mentioned by the
+Spanish historian Diego Duran, <i>Historia de las Indias de Nueva
+Espa&ntilde;a</i>, edited by J.F. Ramirez (Mexico, 1867-1880), vol.
+ii. p. 293. To roll in the dew on the morning of St. John's Day is
+a cure for diseases of the skin in Normandy, P&eacute;rigord, and
+the Abruzzi, as well as in Spain. See J. Lecoeur, <i>Esquisses du
+Bocage Normand</i>, ii. 8; A. de Nore, <i>Coutumes, Mythes et
+Traditions des Provinces de France</i>, p. 150; Gennaro Finamore,
+<i>Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi</i> (Palermo, 1890), p.
+157.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote534" name=
+"footnote534"></a> <b>Footnote 534</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag534">(return)</a>
+<p>M. Longworth Dames and Mrs. E. Seemann, "Folklore of the
+Azores," <i>Folk-lore</i>, xiv. (1903) pp. 142 <i>sq.</i>;
+Theophilo Braga, <i>O Povo Portuguez nos seus Costumes,
+Cren&ccedil;as e Tradi&ccedil;oes</i> (Lisbon, 1885), ii. 304
+<i>sq.</i>, 307 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote535" name=
+"footnote535"></a> <b>Footnote 535</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag535">(return)</a>
+<p>See below, pp. <a href="#page234">234</a> <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote536" name=
+"footnote536"></a> <b>Footnote 536</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag536">(return)</a>
+<p>Angelo de Gubernatis, <i>Mythologie des Plantes</i> (Paris,
+1878-1882), i. 185 note 1.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote537" name=
+"footnote537"></a> <b>Footnote 537</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag537">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Adonis, Attis, Osiris</i>, Second Edition, pp. 202
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote538" name=
+"footnote538"></a> <b>Footnote 538</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag538">(return)</a>
+<p>G. Finamore, <i>Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi</i> (Palermo,
+1890), pp. 154 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote539" name=
+"footnote539"></a> <b>Footnote 539</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag539">(return)</a>
+<p>G. Finamore, <i>Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi</i>, pp.
+158-160. We may compare the Proven&ccedil;al and Spanish customs of
+bathing and splashing water at Midsummer. See above, pp. <a href=
+"#page193">193</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#page208">208</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote540" name=
+"footnote540"></a> <b>Footnote 540</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag540">(return)</a>
+<p>Giuseppe Pitr&egrave;, <i>Spettacoli e Feste Popolari
+Siciliane</i> (Palermo, 1881), pp. 246, 308 <i>sq.</i>; <i>id., Usi
+e Costumi, Credenze e Pregiudizi del Popolo Siciliano</i> (Palermo,
+1889), pp. 146 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote541" name=
+"footnote541"></a> <b>Footnote 541</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag541">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 518.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote542" name=
+"footnote542"></a> <b>Footnote 542</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag542">(return)</a>
+<p>V. Busuttil, <i>Holiday Customs in Malta, and Sports, Usages,
+Ceremonies, Omens, and Superstitions of the Maltese People</i>
+(Malta, 1894), pp. 56 <i>sqq.</i> The extract was kindly sent to me
+by Mr. H.W. Underwood (letter dated 14th November, 1902, Birbeck
+Bank Chambers, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C.). See
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, xiv. (1903) pp. 77 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote543" name=
+"footnote543"></a> <b>Footnote 543</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag543">(return)</a>
+<p>W. R. Paton, in <i>Folk-lore</i>, ii. (1891) p. 128. The custom
+was reported to me when I was in Greece in 1890 (<i>Folk-lore</i>,
+i. (1890) p. 520).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote544" name=
+"footnote544"></a> <b>Footnote 544</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag544">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 519.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote545" name=
+"footnote545"></a> <b>Footnote 545</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag545">(return)</a>
+<p>G. Georgeakis et L. Pineau, <i>Le Folk-lore de Lesbos</i>
+(Paris, 1894), pp. 308 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote546" name=
+"footnote546"></a> <b>Footnote 546</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag546">(return)</a>
+<p>W.R. Paton, in <i>Folk-lore</i>, vi. (1895) p. 94. From the
+stones cast into the fire omens may perhaps be drawn, as in
+Scotland, Wales, and probably Brittany. See above, p. <a href=
+"#page183">183</a>, and below, pp. <a href="#page230">230</a>
+<i>sq.</i>, <a href="#page239">239</a>, <a href=
+"#page240">240</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote547" name=
+"footnote547"></a> <b>Footnote 547</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag547">(return)</a>
+<p>W.H.D. Rouse, "Folklore from the Southern Sporades,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, x. (1899) p. 179.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote548" name=
+"footnote548"></a> <b>Footnote 548</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag548">(return)</a>
+<p>Lucy M.J. Garnett, <i>The Women of Turkey and their Folk-lore,
+the Christian Women</i> (London, 1890), p. 122; G.F. Abbott,
+<i>Macedonian Folklore</i> (Cambridge, 1903), p. 57.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote549" name=
+"footnote549"></a> <b>Footnote 549</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag549">(return)</a>
+<p>J.G. von Hahn, <i>Albanesische Studien</i> (Jena, 1854), i.
+156.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote550" name=
+"footnote550"></a> <b>Footnote 550</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag550">(return)</a>
+<p>K. von den Steinen, <i>Unter den Natur-V&ouml;lkern
+Zentral-Brasiliens</i> (Berlin, 1894), p. 561.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote551" name=
+"footnote551"></a> <b>Footnote 551</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag551">(return)</a>
+<p>Alcide d'Orbigny, <i>Voyage dans l'Am&eacute;rique
+M&eacute;ridionale</i>, ii. (Paris and Strasbourg, 1839-1843), p.
+420; D. Forbes, "On the Aymara Indians of Bolivia and Peru,"
+<i>Journal of the Ethnological Society of London</i>, ii. (1870) p.
+235.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote552" name=
+"footnote552"></a> <b>Footnote 552</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag552">(return)</a>
+<p>Edmond Doutt&eacute;, <i>Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du
+Nord</i> (Algiers, 1908), pp. 566 <i>sq</i>. For an older but
+briefer notice of the Midsummer fires in North Africa, see Giuseppe
+Ferraro, <i>Superstizioni, Usi e Proverbi Monferrini</i> (Palermo,
+1886), pp. 34 <i>sq.</i>: "Also in Algeria, among the Mussalmans,
+and in Morocco, as Alvise da Cadamosto reports in his <i>Relazione
+dei viaggi d'Africa</i>, which may be read in Ramusio, people used
+to hold great festivities on St. John's Night; they kindled
+everywhere huge fires of straw (the <i>Palilia</i> of the Romans),
+in which they threw incense and perfumes the whole night long in
+order to invoke the divine blessing on the fruit-trees." See also
+Budgett Meakin, <i>The Moors</i> (London, 1902), p. 394: "The
+Berber festivals are mainly those of Islam, though a few traces of
+their predecessors are observable. Of these the most noteworthy is
+Midsummer or St. John's Day, still celebrated in a special manner,
+and styled <i>El Ansarah</i>. In the R&icirc;f it is celebrated by
+the lighting of bonfires only, but in other parts there is a
+special dish prepared of wheat, raisins, etc., resembling the
+frumenty consumed at the New Year. It is worthy of remark that the
+Old Style Gregorian calendar is maintained among them, with
+corruptions of Latin names."</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote553" name=
+"footnote553"></a> <b>Footnote 553</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag553">(return)</a>
+<p>Edward Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco,"
+<i>Folklore</i>, xvi. (1905) pp. 28-30; <i>id., Ceremonies and
+Beliefs connected with Agriculture, Certain Dates of the Solar
+Year, and the Weather</i> (Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 79-83.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote554" name=
+"footnote554"></a> <b>Footnote 554</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag554">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, xvi. (1905) pp. 30 <i>sq.</i>; <i>id., Ceremonies
+and Beliefs connected with Agriculture</i>, etc., pp. 83
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote555" name=
+"footnote555"></a> <b>Footnote 555</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag555">(return)</a>
+<p>Edmond Doutt&eacute;, <i>Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du
+Nord</i> (Algiers, 1908), pp. 567 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote556" name=
+"footnote556"></a> <b>Footnote 556</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag556">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, xvi. (1905) pp. 31 <i>sq.</i>; <i>id., Ceremonies
+and Beliefs connected with Agriculture</i>, etc., pp. 84-86.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote557" name=
+"footnote557"></a> <b>Footnote 557</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag557">(return)</a>
+<p>See K. Vollers, in Dr. James Hastings's <i>Encyclopaedia of
+Religion and Ethics</i> iii. (Edinburgh, 1910) <i>s.v.</i>
+"Calendar (Muslim)," pp. 126 <i>sq.</i> However, L. Ideler held
+that even before the time of Mohammed the Arab year was lunar and
+vague, and that intercalation was only employed in order to fix the
+pilgrimage month in autumn, which, on account of the milder weather
+and the abundance of food, is the best time for pilgrims to go to
+Mecca. See L. Ideler, <i>Handbuch der mathematischen und techischen
+Chronologie</i> (Berlin, 1825-1826), ii. 495 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote558" name=
+"footnote558"></a> <b>Footnote 558</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag558">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Doutt&eacute;, <i>Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du
+Nord</i>, pp. 496, 509, 532, 543, 569. It is somewhat remarkable
+that the tenth, not the first, day of the first month should be
+reckoned New Year's Day.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote559" name=
+"footnote559"></a> <b>Footnote 559</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag559">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, xvi. (1905) pp. 40-42.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote560" name=
+"footnote560"></a> <b>Footnote 560</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag560">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Doutt&eacute;, <i>Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du
+Nord</i> (Algiers, 1908), pp. 541 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote561" name=
+"footnote561"></a> <b>Footnote 561</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag561">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, xvi. (1905) p. 42; <i>id., Ceremonies and Beliefs
+connected with Agriculture, Certain Dates of the Solar Year, and
+the Weather in Morocco</i> (Helsingfors, 1913), p. 101.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote562" name=
+"footnote562"></a> <b>Footnote 562</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag562">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, xvi. (1905), pp. 42 <i>sq.</i>, 46 <i>sq.; id.,
+Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with Agriculture</i>, etc., <i>in
+Morocco</i>, pp. 99 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote563" name=
+"footnote563"></a> <b>Footnote 563</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag563">(return)</a>
+<p>G. F. Abbott, <i>Macedonian Folklore</i> (Cambridge, 1903), pp.
+60 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote564" name=
+"footnote564"></a> <b>Footnote 564</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag564">(return)</a>
+<p>"Narrative of the Adventures of four Russian Sailors, who were
+cast in a storm upon the uncultivated island of East Spitzbergen,"
+translated from the German of P.L. Le Roy, in John Pinkerton's
+<i>Voyages and Travels</i> (London, 1808-1814), i. 603. This
+passage is quoted from the original by (Sir) Edward B. Tylor,
+<i>Researches into the Early History of Mankind</i>, Third Edition
+(London, 1878), pp. 259 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote565" name=
+"footnote565"></a> <b>Footnote 565</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag565">(return)</a>
+<p>See <i>The Scapegoat</i>, pp. 166 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote566" name=
+"footnote566"></a> <b>Footnote 566</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag566">(return)</a>
+<p>E.K. Chambers, <i>The Mediaeval Stage</i> (Oxford, 1903), i. 110
+<i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote567" name=
+"footnote567"></a> <b>Footnote 567</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag567">(return)</a>
+<p>In Eastern Europe to this day the great season for driving out
+the cattle to pasture for the first time in spring is St. George's
+Day, the twenty-third of April, which is not far removed from May
+Day. See <i>The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings</i>, ii. 324
+<i>sqq.</i> As to the bisection of the Celtic year, see the old
+authority quoted by P.W. Joyce, <i>The Social History of Ancient
+Ireland</i> (London, 1903), ii. 390: "The whole year was
+[originally] divided into two parts&mdash;Summer from 1st May to
+1st November, and Winter from 1st November to 1st May." On this
+subject compare (Sir) John Rhys, <i>Celtic Heathendom</i> (London
+and Edinburgh, 1888), pp. 460, 514 <i>sqq.; id., Celtic Folk-lore,
+Welsh and Manx</i> (Oxford, 1901), i. 315 <i>sqq.</i>; J.A.
+MacCulloch, in Dr. James Hastings's <i>Encyclopaedia of Religion
+and Ethics</i>, iii. (Edinburgh, 1910) p. 80.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote568" name=
+"footnote568"></a> <b>Footnote 568</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag568">(return)</a>
+<p>See below, p. <a href="#page225">225</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote569" name=
+"footnote569"></a> <b>Footnote 569</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag569">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page146">146</a> <i>sqq.</i>; <i>The Magic
+Art and the Evolution of Kings</i>, ii. 59 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote570" name=
+"footnote570"></a> <b>Footnote 570</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag570">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) John Rhys, <i>Celtic Folk-lore, Manx and Welsh</i>
+(Oxford, 1901), i. 316, 317 <i>sq.</i>; J.A. MacCulloch, in Dr.
+James Hastings's <i>Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics</i>, iii.
+(Edinburgh, 1910) <i>s.v.</i> "Calendar," p. 80, referring to
+Kelly, <i>English and Manx Dictionary</i> (Douglas, 1866),
+<i>s.v.</i> "Blein." Hogmanay is the popular Scotch name for the
+last day of the year. See Dr. J. Jamieson, <i>Etymological
+Dictionary of the Scottish Language</i>, New Edition (Paisley,
+1879-1882), ii. 602 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote571" name=
+"footnote571"></a> <b>Footnote 571</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag571">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) John Rhys, <i>Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx</i>, i. 316
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote572" name=
+"footnote572"></a> <b>Footnote 572</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag572">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page139">139</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote573" name=
+"footnote573"></a> <b>Footnote 573</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag573">(return)</a>
+<p>See <i>Adonis, Attis, Osiris</i>, Second Edition, pp. 309-318.
+As I have there pointed out, the Catholic Church succeeded in
+altering the date of the festival by one day, but not in changing
+the character of the festival. All Souls' Day is now the second
+instead of the first of November. But we can hardly doubt that the
+Saints, who have taken possession of the first of November, wrested
+it from the Souls of the Dead, the original proprietors. After all,
+the Saints are only one particular class of the Souls of the Dead;
+so that the change which the Church effected, no doubt for the
+purpose of disguising the heathen character of the festival, is
+less great than appears at first sight.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote574" name=
+"footnote574"></a> <b>Footnote 574</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag574">(return)</a>
+<p>In Wales "it was firmly believed in former times that on All
+Hallows' Eve the spirit of a departed person was to be seen at
+midnight on every cross-road and on every stile" (Marie Trevelyan,
+<i>Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales</i>, London, 1909, p.
+254).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote575" name=
+"footnote575"></a> <b>Footnote 575</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag575">(return)</a>
+<p>E. J. Guthrie, <i>Old Scottish Customs</i> (London and Glasgow,
+1885), p. 68.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote576" name=
+"footnote576"></a> <b>Footnote 576</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag576">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Goodrich-Freer, "More Folklore from the Hebrides,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, xiii. (1902) p. 53.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote577" name=
+"footnote577"></a> <b>Footnote 577</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag577">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) Jolin Rhys, <i>Celtic Heathendom</i> (London and
+Edinburgh, 1888), p. 516.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote578" name=
+"footnote578"></a> <b>Footnote 578</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag578">(return)</a>
+<p>P.W. Joyce, <i>A Social History of Ancient Ireland</i> (London,
+1903), i. 264 <i>sq.</i>, ii. 556.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote579" name=
+"footnote579"></a> <b>Footnote 579</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag579">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) John Rhys, <i>Celtic Heathendom</i>, p. 516.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote580" name=
+"footnote580"></a> <b>Footnote 580</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag580">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. John Gregorson Campbell, <i>Superstitions of the Highlands
+and Islands of Scotland</i> (Glasgow, 1900), pp. 61 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote581" name=
+"footnote581"></a> <b>Footnote 581</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag581">(return)</a>
+<p>Ch. Rogers, <i>Social Life in Scotland</i> (Edinburgh,
+1884-1886), iii. 258-260.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote582" name=
+"footnote582"></a> <b>Footnote 582</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag582">(return)</a>
+<p>Douglas Hyde, <i>Beside the Fire, a Collection of Irish Gaelic
+Folk Stories</i> (London, 1890), pp. 104, 105, 121-128.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote583" name=
+"footnote583"></a> <b>Footnote 583</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag583">(return)</a>
+<p>P.W. Joyce, <i>Social History of Ancient Ireland</i>, i.
+229.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote584" name=
+"footnote584"></a> <b>Footnote 584</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag584">(return)</a>
+<p>Marie Trevelyan, <i>Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales</i>
+(London, 1909), p. 254.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote585" name=
+"footnote585"></a> <b>Footnote 585</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag585">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) John Rhys, <i>Celtic Heathendom</i>, pp. 514 <i>sq.</i> In
+order to see the apparitions all you had to do was to run thrice
+round the parish church and then peep through the key-hole of the
+door. See Marie Trevelyan, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 254; J. C. Davies,
+<i>Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales</i> (Aberystwyth, 1911), p.
+77.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote586" name=
+"footnote586"></a> <b>Footnote 586</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag586">(return)</a>
+<p>Miss E. J. Guthrie, <i>Old Scottish Customs</i> (London and
+Glasgow, 1885), p. 75.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote587" name=
+"footnote587"></a> <b>Footnote 587</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag587">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. John Gregorson Campbell, <i>Witchcraft and Second Sight in
+the Highlands and Islands of Scotland</i> (Glasgow, 1902), p.
+282.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote588" name=
+"footnote588"></a> <b>Footnote 588</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag588">(return)</a>
+<p>Thomas Pennant, "Tour in Scotland, and Voyage to the Hebrides in
+1772," in John Pinkerton's <i>Voyages and Travels</i>, iii.
+(London, 1809) pp. 383 <i>sq.</i> In quoting the passage I have
+corrected what seem to be two misprints.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote589" name=
+"footnote589"></a> <b>Footnote 589</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag589">(return)</a>
+<p>John Ramsay, of Ochtertyre, <i>Scotland and Scotsmen in the
+Eighteenth Century</i>, edited by Alexander Allardyce (Edinburgh
+and London, 1888), ii. 437 <i>sq.</i> This account was written in
+the eighteenth century.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote590" name=
+"footnote590"></a> <b>Footnote 590</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag590">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. James Robertson, Parish minister of Callander, in Sir John
+Sinclair's <i>Statistical Account of Scotland</i>, xi. (Edinburgh,
+1794), pp. 621 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote591" name=
+"footnote591"></a> <b>Footnote 591</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag591">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. Dr. Thomas Bisset, in Sir John Sinclair's <i>Statistical
+Account of Scotland</i> v. (Edinburgh, 1793) pp. 84 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote592" name=
+"footnote592"></a> <b>Footnote 592</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag592">(return)</a>
+<p>Miss E. J. Guthrie, <i>Old Scottish Customs</i> (London and
+Glasgow, 1885), p. 67.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote593" name=
+"footnote593"></a> <b>Footnote 593</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag593">(return)</a>
+<p>James Napier, <i>Folk Lore, or Superstitious Beliefs in the West
+of Scotland within this Century</i> (Paisley, 1879), p. 179.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote594" name=
+"footnote594"></a> <b>Footnote 594</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag594">(return)</a>
+<p>J. G. Frazer, "Folk-lore at Balquhidder," <i>The Folk-lore
+Journal</i>, vi. (1888) p. 270.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote595" name=
+"footnote595"></a> <b>Footnote 595</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag595">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. Walter Gregor, <i>Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East
+of Scotland</i> (London, 1881), pp. 167 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote596" name=
+"footnote596"></a> <b>Footnote 596</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag596">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. A. Johnstone, as to the parish of Monquhitter, in Sir John
+Sinclair's <i>Statistical Account of Scotland</i>, xxi. (Edinburgh,
+1799) pp. 145 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote597" name=
+"footnote597"></a> <b>Footnote 597</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag597">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Macdonald, "Some former Customs of the Royal Parish of
+Crathie, Scotland," <i>Folk-lore</i>, xviii. (1907) p. 85. The
+writer adds: "In this way the 'faulds' were purged of evil
+spirits." But it does not appear whether this expresses the belief
+of the people or only the interpretation of the writer.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote598" name=
+"footnote598"></a> <b>Footnote 598</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag598">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. John Gregorson Campbell, <i>Witchcraft and Second Sight in
+the Highlands and Islands of Scotland</i> (Glasgow, 1902), pp. 282
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote599" name=
+"footnote599"></a> <b>Footnote 599</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag599">(return)</a>
+<p>Robert Burns, <i>Hallowe'en</i>, with the poet's note; Rev.
+Walter Gregor, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 84; Miss E.J. Guthrie, <i>op.
+cit.</i> p. 69; Rev. J.G. Campbell, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 287.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote600" name=
+"footnote600"></a> <b>Footnote 600</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag600">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Burns, <i>l.c.</i>; Rev. Walter Gregor, <i>l.c.</i>; Miss
+E.J. Guthrie, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 70 <i>sq.</i>; Rev. J.G.
+Campbell, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 286.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote601" name=
+"footnote601"></a> <b>Footnote 601</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag601">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Burns, <i>l.c.</i>.; Rev. W. Gregor, <i>l.c.</i>; Miss E.J.
+Guthrie, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 73; Rev. J.G. Campbell, <i>op. cit.</i>
+p. 285; A. Goodrich-Freer, "More Folklore from the Hebrides,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, xiii. (1902) pp. 54 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote602" name=
+"footnote602"></a> <b>Footnote 602</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag602">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Burns, <i>l.c.</i>; Rev. W. Gregor, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 85;
+Miss E.J. Guthrie, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 71; Rev. J.G. Campbell,
+<i>op. cit.</i> p. 285. According to the last of these writers, the
+winnowing had to be done in the devil's name.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote603" name=
+"footnote603"></a> <b>Footnote 603</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag603">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Burns, <i>l.c.</i>; Rev. W. Gregor, <i>l.c.</i>; Miss E.J.
+Guthrie, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 72; Rev. J.G. Campbell, <i>op. cit.</i>
+p. 286; A. Goodrich-Freer, "More Folklore from the Hebrides,"
+<i>Folklore</i>, xiii. (1902) p. 54.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote604" name=
+"footnote604"></a> <b>Footnote 604</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag604">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J.G. Campbell, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 283.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote605" name=
+"footnote605"></a> <b>Footnote 605</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag605">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J.G. Campbell, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 283 <i>sq.</i>; A.
+Goodrich-Freer, <i>l.c.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote606" name=
+"footnote606"></a> <b>Footnote 606</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag606">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J.G. Campbell, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 284.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote607" name=
+"footnote607"></a> <b>Footnote 607</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag607">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Burns, <i>l.c.</i>; Rev. W. Gregor, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 85;
+Miss E.J. Guthrie, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 70; Rev. J.G. Campbell,
+<i>op. cit.</i> p. 284. Where nuts were not to be had, peas were
+substituted.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote608" name=
+"footnote608"></a> <b>Footnote 608</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag608">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J.G. Campbell, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 284.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote609" name=
+"footnote609"></a> <b>Footnote 609</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag609">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J.G. Campbell, <i>l.c.</i> According to my recollection of
+Hallowe'en customs observed in my boyhood at Helensburgh, in
+Dumbartonshire, another way was to stir the floating apples and
+then drop a fork on them as they bobbed about in the water. Success
+consisted in pinning one of the apples with the fork.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote610" name=
+"footnote610"></a> <b>Footnote 610</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag610">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Burns, <i>l.c.</i>; Rev. W. Gregor, <i>op. cit</i>. pp. 85
+<i>sq</i>.; Miss E.J. Guthrie, <i>op. cit</i>. pp. 72 <i>sq</i>.;
+Rev. J.G. Campbell, <i>op. cit</i>. p. 287.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote611" name=
+"footnote611"></a> <b>Footnote 611</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag611">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Burns, <i>l.c.</i>; Rev. W. Gregor, <i>op. cit</i>. p. 85;
+Miss E.J. Guthrie, <i>op. cit</i>. pp. 69 <i>sq</i>.; Rev. J.G.
+Campbell, <i>op. cit</i>. p. 285. It is the last of these writers
+who gives what may be called the Trinitarian form of the
+divination.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote612" name=
+"footnote612"></a> <b>Footnote 612</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag612">(return)</a>
+<p>Miss E.J. Guthrie, <i>Old Scottish Customs</i> (London and
+Glasgow, 1885), pp. 74 <i>sq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote613" name=
+"footnote613"></a> <b>Footnote 613</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag613">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Goodrich-Freer, "More Folklore from the Hebrides,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, xiii. (1902) p. 55.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote614" name=
+"footnote614"></a> <b>Footnote 614</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag614">(return)</a>
+<p>Pennant's manuscript, quoted by J. Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities
+of Great Britain</i> (London, 1882-1883), i. 389 <i>sq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote615" name=
+"footnote615"></a> <b>Footnote 615</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag615">(return)</a>
+<p>Sir Richard Colt Hoare, <i>The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin
+through Wales A.D. MCLXXXVIII. by Giraldus de Barri</i> (London,
+1806), ii. 315; J. Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities</i>, i. 390. The
+passage quoted in the text occurs in one of Hoare's notes on the
+Itinerary. The dipping for apples, burning of nuts, and so forth,
+are mentioned also by Marie Trevelyan, <i>Folk-lore and
+Folk-stories of Wales</i> (London, 1909), pp. 253, 255.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote616" name=
+"footnote616"></a> <b>Footnote 616</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag616">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) John Rhys, <i>Celtic Heathendom</i> (London and Edinburgh,
+1888), pp. 515 <i>sq.</i> As to the Hallowe'en bonfires in Wales
+compare J.C. Davies, <i>Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales</i>
+(Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 77.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote617" name=
+"footnote617"></a> <b>Footnote 617</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag617">(return)</a>
+<p>See above, p. <a href="#page183">183</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote618" name=
+"footnote618"></a> <b>Footnote 618</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag618">(return)</a>
+<p>See above, p. <a href="#page231">231</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote619" name=
+"footnote619"></a> <b>Footnote 619</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag619">(return)</a>
+<p>Marie Trevelyan, <i>Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales</i>
+(London, 1909), pp. 254 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote620" name=
+"footnote620"></a> <b>Footnote 620</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag620">(return)</a>
+<p>(General) Charles Vallancey, <i>Collectanea de Rebus
+Hibernicis</i>, iii. (Dublin, 1786), pp. 459-461.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote621" name=
+"footnote621"></a> <b>Footnote 621</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag621">(return)</a>
+<p>Miss A. Watson, quoted by A.C. Haddon, "A Batch of Irish
+Folk-lore," <i>Folk-lore</i>, iv. (1893) pp. 361 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote622" name=
+"footnote622"></a> <b>Footnote 622</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag622">(return)</a>
+<p>Leland L. Duncan, "Further Notes from County Leitrim,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, v. (1894) pp. 195-197.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote623" name=
+"footnote623"></a> <b>Footnote 623</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag623">(return)</a>
+<p>H.J. Byrne, "All Hallows Eve and other Festivals in Connaught,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, xviii. (1907) pp. 437 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote624" name=
+"footnote624"></a> <b>Footnote 624</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag624">(return)</a>
+<p>Joseph Train, <i>Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle
+of Man</i> (Douglas, Isle of Man, 1845), ii. 123; (Sir) John Rhys,
+<i>Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx</i> (Oxford, 1901), i. 315
+<i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote625" name=
+"footnote625"></a> <b>Footnote 625</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag625">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) John Rhys, <i>Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx</i>
+(Oxford, 1901), i. 318-321.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote626" name=
+"footnote626"></a> <b>Footnote 626</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag626">(return)</a>
+<p>John Harland and T.T. Wilkinson, <i>Lancashire Folk-lore</i>
+(Manchester and London, 1882), pp. 3 <i>sq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote627" name=
+"footnote627"></a> <b>Footnote 627</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag627">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Harland and T.T. Wilkinson, <i>op. cit</i>. p. 140.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote628" name=
+"footnote628"></a> <b>Footnote 628</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag628">(return)</a>
+<p>Annie Milner, in William Hone's <i>Year Book</i> (London,
+preface dated January, 1832), coll. 1276-1279 (letter dated June,
+1831); R.T. Hampson, <i>Medii Aevi Kalendarium</i> (London, 1841),
+i. 365; T.F. Thiselton Dyer, <i>British Popular Customs</i>
+(London, 1876), p. 395.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote629" name=
+"footnote629"></a> <b>Footnote 629</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag629">(return)</a>
+<p><i>County Folk-lore</i> vol. iv. <i>Northumberland</i>,
+collected by M.C. Balfour (London, 1904), p. 78. Compare W.
+Henderson, <i>Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of
+England</i> (London, 1879), pp. 96 <i>sq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote630" name=
+"footnote630"></a> <b>Footnote 630</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag630">(return)</a>
+<p>Baron Dupin, in <i>M&eacute;moires publi&eacute;es par la
+Soci&eacute;t&eacute; Royale des Antiquaires de France</i>, iv.
+(1823) p. 108.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote631" name=
+"footnote631"></a> <b>Footnote 631</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag631">(return)</a>
+<p>The evidence for the solar origin of Christmas is given in
+<i>Adonis, Attis, Osiris</i>, Second Edition, pp. 254-256.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote632" name=
+"footnote632"></a> <b>Footnote 632</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag632">(return)</a>
+<p>For the various names (Yu-batch, Yu-block, Yule-log, etc.) see
+Francis Grose, <i>Provincial Glossary</i>, New Edition (London,
+1811), p. 141; Joseph Wright, <i>The English Dialect Dictionary</i>
+(London, 1898-1905), vi. 593, <i>s.v.</i> "Yule."</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote633" name=
+"footnote633"></a> <b>Footnote 633</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag633">(return)</a>
+<p>"I am pretty confident that the Yule block will be found, in its
+first use, to have been only a counterpart of the Midsummer fires,
+made within doors because of the cold weather at this winter
+solstice, as those in the hot season, at the summer one, are
+kindled in the open air." (John Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities of
+Great Britain</i>, London, 1882-1883, i. 471). His opinion is
+approved by W. Mannhardt <i>(Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer
+Nachbarst&auml;mme</i>, p. 236).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote634" name=
+"footnote634"></a> <b>Footnote 634</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag634">(return)</a>
+<p>"<i>Et arborem in nativitate domini ad festivum ignem suum
+adducendam esse dicebat</i>" (quoted by Jacob Grimm, <i>Deutsche
+Mythologie</i>, i. 522).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote635" name=
+"footnote635"></a> <b>Footnote 635</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag635">(return)</a>
+<p>Montanus, <i>Die deutschen Volksfeste, Volksbrauche und
+deutscher Volksglaube</i> (Iserlohn, N.D.), p. 12. The Sieg and
+Lahn are two rivers of Central Germany, between Siegen and
+Marburg.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote636" name=
+"footnote636"></a> <b>Footnote 636</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag636">(return)</a>
+<p>J.H. Schmitz, <i>Sitten und Sagen, Lieder,
+Spr&uuml;chw&ouml;rter und R&auml;thsel des Eifler Volkes</i>
+(Treves, 1856-1858), i. 4.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote637" name=
+"footnote637"></a> <b>Footnote 637</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag637">(return)</a>
+<p>Adalbert Kuhn, <i>Sagen, Gebr&auml;uche und M&auml;rchen aus
+Westfalen</i> (Leipsic, 1859), ii. &sect; 319, pp. 103
+<i>sq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote638" name=
+"footnote638"></a> <b>Footnote 638</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag638">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Kuhn, <i>op. cit.</i> ii. &sect; 523, p. 187.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote639" name=
+"footnote639"></a> <b>Footnote 639</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag639">(return)</a>
+<p>August Witzschel, <i>Sagen, Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche aus
+Th&uuml;ringen</i> (Vienna, 1878), p. 172.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote640" name=
+"footnote640"></a> <b>Footnote 640</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag640">(return)</a>
+<p>K. Hoffmann-Krayer, <i>Feste und Br&auml;uche des
+Schweizervolkes</i> (Zurich, 1913), pp. 108 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote641" name=
+"footnote641"></a> <b>Footnote 641</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag641">(return)</a>
+<p>Le Baron de Reinsberg-D&uuml;ringsfeld, <i>Calendrier Belge</i>
+(Brussels, 1861-1862), ii. 326 <i>sq.</i> Compare J.W. Wolf,
+<i>Beitr&auml;gezur deutschen Mythologie</i> (G&ouml;ttingen,
+1852-1858), i. 117.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote642" name=
+"footnote642"></a> <b>Footnote 642</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag642">(return)</a>
+<p>J.B. Thiers, <i>Trait&eacute; des Superstitions</i>,<sup>5</sup>
+(Paris, 1741), i. 302 <i>sq.</i>; Eug&egrave;ne Cortet, <i>Essai
+sur les F&ecirc;tes Religieuses</i> (Paris, 1867), pp. <i>266
+sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote643" name=
+"footnote643"></a> <b>Footnote 643</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag643">(return)</a>
+<p>J.B. Thiers, <i>Trait&eacute; des Superstitions</i> (Paris,
+1679), p. 323.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote644" name=
+"footnote644"></a> <b>Footnote 644</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag644">(return)</a>
+<p>Aubin-Louis Millin, <i>Voyage dans les D&eacute;partemens du
+Midi de la France</i> (Paris, 1807-1811), iii. 336 <i>sq.</i> The
+fire so kindled was called <i>caco fuech</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote645" name=
+"footnote645"></a> <b>Footnote 645</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag645">(return)</a>
+<p>Alfred de Nore, <i>Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces
+de France</i> (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 151 <i>sq.</i> The three
+festivals during which the Yule log is expected to burn are
+probably Christmas Day (December 25th), St. Stephen's Day (December
+26th), and St. John the Evangelist's Day (December 27th). Compare
+J.L.M. Nogu&egrave;s, <i>Les Moeurs d'autrefois en Saintonge et en
+Aunis</i> (Saintes, 1891), pp. 45-47. According to the latter
+writer, in Saintonge it was the mistress of the house who blessed
+the Yule log, sprinkling salt and holy water on it; in Poitou it
+was the eldest male who officiated. The log was called the <i>cosse
+de N&ocirc;</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote646" name=
+"footnote646"></a> <b>Footnote 646</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag646">(return)</a>
+<p>Laisnel de Salle, <i>Croyances et L&eacute;gendes du Centres de
+la France</i> (Paris, 1875), i. 1-3.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote647" name=
+"footnote647"></a> <b>Footnote 647</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag647">(return)</a>
+<p>Jules Lecoeur, <i>Esquisses du Bocage Normand</i>
+(Cond&eacute;-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 291. The author speaks
+of the custom as still practised in out-of-the-way villages at the
+time when he wrote. The usage of preserving the remains of the
+Yule-log (called <i>tr&eacute;fouet</i>) in Normandy is mentioned
+also by M'elle Am&eacute;lie Bosquet, <i>La Normandie Romanesque et
+Merveilleuse</i> (Paris and Rouen, 1845), p. 294.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote648" name=
+"footnote648"></a> <b>Footnote 648</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag648">(return)</a>
+<p>A. de Nore, <i>Coutumes, Mythes, et Traditions des Provinces de
+France</i> (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 256.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote649" name=
+"footnote649"></a> <b>Footnote 649</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag649">(return)</a>
+<p>Paul S&eacute;billot, <i>Coutumes populaires de la
+Haute-Bretagne</i> (Paris, 1886), pp. 217 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote650" name=
+"footnote650"></a> <b>Footnote 650</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag650">(return)</a>
+<p>Albert Meyrac, <i>Traditions, Coutumes, L&eacute;gendes et
+Contes des Ardennes</i> (Charleville, 1890), pp. 96 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote651" name=
+"footnote651"></a> <b>Footnote 651</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag651">(return)</a>
+<p>See above, p. <a href="#page251">251</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote652" name=
+"footnote652"></a> <b>Footnote 652</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag652">(return)</a>
+<p>Lerouze, in <i>M&eacute;moires de l'Academie Celtique</i>, iii.
+(1809) p. 441, quoted by J. Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities of Great
+Britain</i> (London, 1882-1883), i. 469 note.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote653" name=
+"footnote653"></a> <b>Footnote 653</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag653">(return)</a>
+<p>L.F. Sauv&eacute;, <i>Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges</i> (Paris,
+1889), pp. 370 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote654" name=
+"footnote654"></a> <b>Footnote 654</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag654">(return)</a>
+<p>Charles Beauquier, <i>Les Mois en Franche-Comt&eacute;</i>
+(Paris, 1900), p. 183.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote655" name=
+"footnote655"></a> <b>Footnote 655</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag655">(return)</a>
+<p>A. de Nore, <i>Coutumes, Mythes, et Traditions des Provinces de
+France</i> (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 302 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote656" name=
+"footnote656"></a> <b>Footnote 656</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag656">(return)</a>
+<p>John Brand, <i>Popular Antiquities of Great Britain</i> (London,
+1882-1883), i. 467.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote657" name=
+"footnote657"></a> <b>Footnote 657</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag657">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Brand, <i>op. cit.</i> i. 455; <i>The Denham Tracts</i>,
+edited by Dr. James Hardy (London, 1892-1895), ii. 25
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote658" name=
+"footnote658"></a> <b>Footnote 658</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag658">(return)</a>
+<p>Herrick, <i>Hesperides</i>, "Ceremonies for Christmasse":</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>"Come, bring with a noise,</p>
+<p>My merrie merrie boyes,</p>
+<p>The Christmas log to the firing;...</p>
+<p>With the last yeeres brand</p>
+<p>Light the neiv block"</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>And, again, in his verses, "Ceremonies for Candlemasse Day":</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>"Kindle the Christmas brand, and then</p>
+<p>Till sunne-set let it burne;</p>
+<p>Which quencht, then lay it up agen,</p>
+<p>Till Christmas next returne.</p>
+<p>Part must be kept, wherewith to teend</p>
+<p>The Christmas log next yeare;</p>
+<p>And where 'tis safely kept, the fiend</p>
+<p>Can do no mischiefe there"</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>See <i>The Works of Robert Herrick</i> (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).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote659" name=
+"footnote659"></a> <b>Footnote 659</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag659">(return)</a>
+<p>Miss C. S. Burne and Miss G. F. Jackson, <i>Shropshire
+Folk-lore</i> (London, 1883), p. 398 note 2. See also below, pp.
+<a href="#page257">257</a>, <a href="#page258">258</a>, as to the
+Lincolnshire, Herefordshire, and Welsh practice.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote660" name=
+"footnote660"></a> <b>Footnote 660</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag660">(return)</a>
+<p>Francis Grose, <i>Provincial Glossary</i>, Second Edition
+(London, 1811), pp. 141 <i>sq.</i>; T.F. Thiselton Dyer, <i>British
+Popular Customs</i> (London, 1876), p. 466.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote661" name=
+"footnote661"></a> <b>Footnote 661</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag661">(return)</a>
+<p><i>County Folk-lore</i>, vol. iv. <i>Northumberland</i>,
+collected by M.C. Balfour and edited by Northcote W. Thomas
+(London, 1904), p. 79.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote662" name=
+"footnote662"></a> <b>Footnote 662</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag662">(return)</a>
+<p><i>County Folk-lore,</i> vol. ii. <i>North Riding of Yorkshire,
+York and the Ainsty,</i> collected and edited by Mrs. Gutch
+(London, 1901), pp. 273, 274, 275 <i>sq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote663" name=
+"footnote663"></a> <b>Footnote 663</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag663">(return)</a>
+<p><i>County Folk-lore</i>, vol. vi. <i>East Riding of
+Yorkshire</i>, collected and edited by Mrs. Gutch (London, 1912),
+pp. 23, 118, compare p. 114.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote664" name=
+"footnote664"></a> <b>Footnote 664</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag664">(return)</a>
+<p>John Aubrey, <i>Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme</i> (London,
+1881), p. 5.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote665" name=
+"footnote665"></a> <b>Footnote 665</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag665">(return)</a>
+<p><i>County Folk-lore</i>, vol. v. <i>Lincolnshire</i>, 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 (<i>op. cit</i>. pp. 215, 216).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote666" name=
+"footnote666"></a> <b>Footnote 666</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag666">(return)</a>
+<p>Mrs. Samuel Chandler (Sarah Whateley), quoted in <i>The
+Folk-lore Journal</i>, i. (1883) pp. 351 <i>sq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote667" name=
+"footnote667"></a> <b>Footnote 667</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag667">(return)</a>
+<p>Miss C.S. Burne and Miss G.F. Jackson, <i>Shropshire
+Folk-lore</i> (London, 1883), pp. 397 <i>sq</i>. One of the
+informants of these writers says (<i>op. cit.</i> 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.'"</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote668" name=
+"footnote668"></a> <b>Footnote 668</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag668">(return)</a>
+<p>Mrs. Ella Mary Leather, <i>The Folklore of Herefordshire</i>
+(Hereford and London, 1912), p. 109. Compare Miss C.S. Burne,
+"Herefordshire Notes," <i>The Folk-lore Journal</i>, iv. (1886) p.
+167.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote669" name=
+"footnote669"></a> <b>Footnote 669</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag669">(return)</a>
+<p>Marie Trevelyan, <i>Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales</i>
+(London, 1909), p. 28.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote670" name=
+"footnote670"></a> <b>Footnote 670</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag670">(return)</a>
+<p>"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
+<i>Zadrooga</i> (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 <i>Stareshina</i>) 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 <i>Zadroega</i>" (Chedo Mijatovich, <i>Servia and
+the Servians</i>, London, 1908, pp. 237 <i>sq.</i>). As to the
+house-communities of the South Slavs see further Og. M.
+Utiesenovic, <i>Die Hauskommunionen der S&uuml;dslaven</i> (Vienna,
+1859); F. Demelic, <i>Le Droit Coutumier des Slaves
+M&eacute;ridionaux</i> (Paris, 1876), pp. 23 <i>sqq.</i>; F.S.
+Krauss, <i>Sitte und Brauch der S&uuml;dslaven</i> (Vienna, 1885),
+pp. 64 <i>sqq.</i> 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, <i>op. cit.</i> p.
+240).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote671" name=
+"footnote671"></a> <b>Footnote 671</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag671">(return)</a>
+<p>Chedo Mijatovich, <i>Servia and the Servians</i> (London, 1908),
+pp. 98-105.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote672" name=
+"footnote672"></a> <b>Footnote 672</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag672">(return)</a>
+<p>Baron Rajacsich, <i>Das Leben, die Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche der
+im Kaiserthume Oesterreich lebenden S&uuml;dslaven</i> (Vienna,
+1873), pp. 122-128.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote673" name=
+"footnote673"></a> <b>Footnote 673</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag673">(return)</a>
+<p>Baron Rajacsich, <i>Das Leben, die Sitten und Gebrauche der im
+Kaiserthume Oesterreich lebenden S&uuml;dslaven</i> (Vienna, 1873),
+pp. 129-131. The Yule log (<i>badnyak</i>) is also known in
+Bulgaria, where the women place it on the hearth on Christmas Eve.
+See A. Strausz, <i>Die Bulgaren</i> (Leipsic, 1898), p. 361.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote674" name=
+"footnote674"></a> <b>Footnote 674</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag674">(return)</a>
+<p>M. Edith Durham, <i>High Albania</i> (London, 1909), p. 129.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote675" name=
+"footnote675"></a> <b>Footnote 675</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag675">(return)</a>
+<p>R.F. Kaindl, <i>Die Huzulen</i> (Vienna, 1894) p. 71.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote676" name=
+"footnote676"></a> <b>Footnote 676</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag676">(return)</a>
+<p>See above, pp. <a href="#page248">248</a>, <a href=
+"#page249">249</a>, <a href="#page250">250</a>, <a href=
+"#page251">251</a>, <a href="#page252">252</a>, <a href=
+"#page253">253</a>, <a href="#page254">254</a>, <a href=
+"#page255">255</a>, <a href="#page256">256</a>, <a href=
+"#page258">258</a>. 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, <i>The Popish Kingdom</i>
+(reprinted London, 1880), p. 48 <i>verso</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote677" name=
+"footnote677"></a> <b>Footnote 677</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag677">(return)</a>
+<p>See above, pp. <a href="#page248">248</a>, <a href=
+"#page250">250</a>, <a href="#page251">251</a>, <a href=
+"#page257">257</a>, <a href="#page258">258</a>, <a href=
+"#page263">263</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote678" name=
+"footnote678"></a> <b>Footnote 678</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag678">(return)</a>
+<p>See <i>The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings</i>, ii. 356
+<i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote679" name=
+"footnote679"></a> <b>Footnote 679</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag679">(return)</a>
+<p>See above, pp. <a href="#page248">248</a>, <a href=
+"#page249">249</a>, <a href="#page250">250</a>, <a href=
+"#page251">251</a>, <a href="#page264">264</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote680" name=
+"footnote680"></a> <b>Footnote 680</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag680">(return)</a>
+<p>August Witzschel, <i>Sagen, Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche aus
+Th&uuml;ringen</i> (Vienna, 1878), pp. 171 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote681" name=
+"footnote681"></a> <b>Footnote 681</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag681">(return)</a>
+<p>Jules Lecoeur, <i>Esquisses du Bocage Normand</i>
+(Cond&eacute;-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 289 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote682" name=
+"footnote682"></a> <b>Footnote 682</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag682">(return)</a>
+<p>Joseph Train, <i>Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle
+of Man</i> (Douglas, Isle of Man, 1845), ii. 124, referring to
+Cregeen's <i>Manx Dictionary</i>, p. 67.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote683" name=
+"footnote683"></a> <b>Footnote 683</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag683">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Chambers, <i>The Book of Days</i> (London and Edinburgh,
+1886), ii. 789-791, quoting <i>The Banffshire Journal</i>; Miss
+C.F. Gordon Cumming, <i>In the Hebrides</i> (London, 1883), p. 226;
+Miss E.J. Guthrie, <i>Old Scottish Customs</i> (London and Glasgow,
+1885), pp. 223-225; Ch. Rogers, <i>Social Life in Scotland</i>
+(Edinburgh, 1884-1886), iii. 244 <i>sq</i>.; <i>The Folk-lore
+Journal</i>, 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.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote684" name=
+"footnote684"></a> <b>Footnote 684</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag684">(return)</a>
+<p>Caesar, <i>De bello Gallico</i>, vii. 23.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote685" name=
+"footnote685"></a> <b>Footnote 685</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag685">(return)</a>
+<p>Hugh W. Young, F.S.A. Scot., <i>Notes on the Ramparts of
+Burghead as revealed by recent Excavations</i> (Edinburgh, 1892),
+pp. 3 <i>sqq</i>.; <i>Notes on further Excavations at Burghead</i>
+(Edinburgh, 1893), pp. 7 <i>sqq</i>. These papers are reprinted
+from the <i>Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
+Scotland</i>, 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
+<i>bos longifrons</i>. 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." (<i>Notes on
+further Excavations at Burghead</i>, pp. 14 <i>sq</i>.). For a loan
+of Mr. Young's pamphlets I am indebted to the kindness of
+Sheriff-Substitute David.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote686" name=
+"footnote686"></a> <b>Footnote 686</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag686">(return)</a>
+<p>Robert Cowie, M.A., M.D., <i>Shetland, Descriptive and
+Historical</i> (Aberdeen, 1871), pp. 127 <i>sq.</i>; <i>County
+Folk-lore</i>, vol. iii. <i>Orkney and Shetland Islands</i>,
+collected by G.F. Black and edited by Northcote W. Thomas (London,
+1903), pp. 203 <i>sq.</i> A similar celebration, known as
+Up-helly-a, takes place at Lerwick on the 29th of January,
+twenty-four days after Old Christmas. See <i>The Scapegoat</i>, pp.
+167-169. Perhaps the popular festival of Up-helly-a has absorbed
+some of the features of the Christmas Eve celebration.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote687" name=
+"footnote687"></a> <b>Footnote 687</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag687">(return)</a>
+<p>Thomas Hyde, <i>Historia Religionis veterum Persarum</i>
+(Oxford, 1700), pp. 255-257.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote688" name=
+"footnote688"></a> <b>Footnote 688</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag688">(return)</a>
+<p>On the need-fire see Jacob Grimm, <i>Deutsche
+Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 501 <i>sqq.</i>; J.W. Wolf,
+<i>Beitr&auml;ge zur deutschen Mythologie</i> (G&ouml;ttingen and
+Leipsic, 1852-1857), i. 116 <i>sq.</i>, ii. 378 <i>sqq.</i>;
+Adalbert Kuhn, <i>Die Herabkunjt des Feuers und des
+G&ouml;ttertranks</i>,<sup>2</sup> (G&uuml;tersloh, 1886), pp. 41
+<i>sqq.</i>; Walter K. Kelly, <i>Curiosities of Indo-European
+Tradition and Folk-lore</i> (London, 1863), pp. 48 <i>sqq.</i>; W.
+Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer
+Nachbarst&auml;mme</i> (Berlin, 1875), pp. 518 <i>sqq.</i>; Charles
+Elton, <i>Origins of English History</i> (London, 1882), pp. 293
+<i>sqq.</i>; Ulrich Jahn, <i>Die deutschen Opfergebr&auml;uche bei
+Ackerbau und Viehzucht</i> (Breslau, 1884), pp. 26 <i>sqq.</i>
+Grimm would derive the name <i>need-</i>fire (German, <i>niedfyr,
+nodfyr, nodfeur, nothfeur</i>) from <i>need</i> (German,
+<i>noth</i>), "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, <i>op. cit.</i> i.
+p. 502: "<i>Eum ergo ignem</i> nodfeur <i>et</i> nodfyr, <i>quasi
+necessarium ignem vocant</i>" C.L. Rochholz would connect
+<i>need</i> with a verb <i>nieten</i> "to churn," so that need-fire
+would mean "churned fire." See C.L. Rochholz, <i>Deutscher Glaube
+und Brauch</i> (Berlin, 1867), ii. 149 <i>sq.</i> This interpretion
+is confirmed by the name <i>ankenmilch bohren</i>, which is given
+to the need-fire in some parts of Switzerland. See E.
+Hoffmann-Krayer, "Fruchtbarkeitsriten im schweizerischen
+Volksbrauch," <i>Schweizerisches Archiv f&uuml;r
+Volksk&uuml;nde</i>, xi. (1907) p. 245.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote689" name=
+"footnote689"></a> <b>Footnote 689</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag689">(return)</a>
+<p>"<i>Illos sacrilegos ignes, quos</i> niedfyr <i>vocant</i>,"
+quoted by J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 502;
+R. Andree, <i>Braunschweiger Volkskunde</i> (Brunswick, 1896), p.
+312.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote690" name=
+"footnote690"></a> <b>Footnote 690</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag690">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Indiculus Superstitionum et Paganiarum</i>, No. XV., "<i>De
+igne fricato de ligno i.e.</i> nodfyr." A convenient edition of the
+<i>Indiculus</i> 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 <i>sq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote691" name=
+"footnote691"></a> <b>Footnote 691</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag691">(return)</a>
+<p>Karl Lynker, <i>Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in hessischen
+Gauen</i>,<sup>2</sup> (Cassel and G&ouml;ttingen, 1860), pp. 252
+<i>sq.</i>, quoting a letter of the mayor (<i>Schultheiss</i>) of
+Neustadt to the mayor of Marburg dated 12th December 1605.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote692" name=
+"footnote692"></a> <b>Footnote 692</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag692">(return)</a>
+<p>Bartholom&auml;us Carrichter, <i>Der Teutschen Speisskammer</i>
+(Strasburg, 1614), Fol. pag. 17 and 18, quoted by C.L. Rochholz,
+<i>Deutscher Glaube und Brauch</i> (Berlin, 1867), ii. 148
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote693" name=
+"footnote693"></a> <b>Footnote 693</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag693">(return)</a>
+<p>Joh. Reiskius, <i>Untersuchung des Notfeuers</i> (Frankfort and
+Leipsic, 1696), p. 51, quoted by J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche
+Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 502 <i>sq.</i>; R. Andree,
+<i>Braunschweiger Volkskunde</i> (Brunswick, 1896), p. 313.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote694" name=
+"footnote694"></a> <b>Footnote 694</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag694">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 503
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote695" name=
+"footnote695"></a> <b>Footnote 695</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag695">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Grimm, <i>op. cit.</i> i. 504.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote696" name=
+"footnote696"></a> <b>Footnote 696</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag696">(return)</a>
+<p>Adalbert Kuhn, <i>M&auml;rkische Sagen und M&auml;rchen</i>
+(Berlin, 1843), p. 369.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote697" name=
+"footnote697"></a> <b>Footnote 697</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag697">(return)</a>
+<p>Karl Bartsch, <i>Sagen, M&auml;rchen und Gebr&auml;uche aus
+Mecklenburg</i> (Vienna, 1879-1880), ii. 149-151.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote698" name=
+"footnote698"></a> <b>Footnote 698</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag698">(return)</a>
+<p>Carl und Theodor Colshorn, <i>M&auml;rchen und Sagen</i>
+(Hanover, 1854), pp. 234-236, from the description of an
+eye-witness.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote699" name=
+"footnote699"></a> <b>Footnote 699</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag699">(return)</a>
+<p>Heinrich Pr&ouml;hle, <i>Harzbilder, Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche
+aus dem Harz-gebirge</i> (Leipsic, 1855), pp. 74 <i>sq.</i> The
+date of this need-fire is not given; probably it was about the
+middle of the nineteenth century.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote700" name=
+"footnote700"></a> <b>Footnote 700</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag700">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Andree, <i>Braunschweiger Volkskunde</i> (Brunswick, 1896),
+pp. 313 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote701" name=
+"footnote701"></a> <b>Footnote 701</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag701">(return)</a>
+<p>R. Andree, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 314 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote702" name=
+"footnote702"></a> <b>Footnote 702</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag702">(return)</a>
+<p>Montanus, <i>Die deutschen Volks-feste, Volksbr&auml;uche und
+deutscher Volksglaube</i> (Iserlohn, N.D.), p. 127.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote703" name=
+"footnote703"></a> <b>Footnote 703</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag703">(return)</a>
+<p>Paul Drechsler, <i>Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in
+Schlesien</i> (Leipsic, 1903-1906), ii. 204.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote704" name=
+"footnote704"></a> <b>Footnote 704</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag704">(return)</a>
+<p>Anton Peter, <i>Volksth&uuml;mliches aus
+&Ouml;sterreichisch-Schlesien</i> (Troppau, 1865-1867), ii.
+250.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote705" name=
+"footnote705"></a> <b>Footnote 705</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag705">(return)</a>
+<p>Alois John, <i>Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen
+Westb&ouml;hmen</i> (Prague, 1905), p. 209.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote706" name=
+"footnote706"></a> <b>Footnote 706</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag706">(return)</a>
+<p>C.L. Rochholz, <i>Deutscher Glaube und Brauch</i> (Berlin,
+1867), ii. 149.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote707" name=
+"footnote707"></a> <b>Footnote 707</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag707">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Hoffmann-Krayer, "Fruchtbarkeitsriten im schweizerischen
+Volksbrauch," <i>Schweizerisches Archiv fur Volkskunde</i>, xi.
+(1907) pp. 244-246.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote708" name=
+"footnote708"></a> <b>Footnote 708</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag708">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Hoffmann-Krayer, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 246.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote709" name=
+"footnote709"></a> <b>Footnote 709</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag709">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 505.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote710" name=
+"footnote710"></a> <b>Footnote 710</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag710">(return)</a>
+<p>"Old-time Survivals in remote Norwegian Dales,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, xx. (1909) pp. 314, 322 <i>sq.</i> This record of
+Norwegian folk-lore is translated from a little work <i>Sundalen og
+&Ouml;ksendalens Beskrivelse</i> written by Pastor Chr.
+Gl&uuml;kstad and published at Christiania "about twenty years
+ago."</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote711" name=
+"footnote711"></a> <b>Footnote 711</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag711">(return)</a>
+<p>Prof. VI. Titelbach, "Das heilige Feuer bei den Balkanslaven,"
+<i>Inter-nationales Archiv f&uuml;r Ethnographie</i>, xiii. (1900)
+pp. 2 <i>sq.</i> 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.
+<a href="#page284">284</a> <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote712" name=
+"footnote712"></a> <b>Footnote 712</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag712">(return)</a>
+<p>F.S. Krauss, "Altslavische Feuergewinnung," <i>Globus</i>, lix.
+(1891) p. 318, quoting P. Ljiebenov, <i>Baba Ega</i> (Trnovo,
+1887), p. 44.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote713" name=
+"footnote713"></a> <b>Footnote 713</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag713">(return)</a>
+<p>F.S. Krauss, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 319, quoting <i>Wisla</i>, vol.
+iv. pp. 1, 244 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote714" name=
+"footnote714"></a> <b>Footnote 714</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag714">(return)</a>
+<p>F.S. Krauss, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 318, quoting Oskar Kolberg, in
+<i>Mazowsze</i>, vol. iv. p. 138.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote715" name=
+"footnote715"></a> <b>Footnote 715</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag715">(return)</a>
+<p>F.S. Krauss, "Slavische Feuerbohrer," <i>Globus</i>, lix. (1891)
+p. 140. The evidence quoted by Dr. Krauss is that of his father,
+who often told of his experience to his son.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote716" name=
+"footnote716"></a> <b>Footnote 716</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag716">(return)</a>
+<p>Prof. Vl. Titelbach, "Das heilige Feuer bei den Balkanslaven,"
+<i>Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographie</i>, xiii. (1900) p.
+3.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote717" name=
+"footnote717"></a> <b>Footnote 717</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag717">(return)</a>
+<p>See below, vol. ii. pp. 168 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote718" name=
+"footnote718"></a> <b>Footnote 718</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag718">(return)</a>
+<p>Adolf Strausz, <i>Die Bulgaren</i> (Leipsic, 1898), pp.
+194-199.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote719" name=
+"footnote719"></a> <b>Footnote 719</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag719">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Wissenschaftliche Mittheilungen aus Bosnien und der
+Hercegovina</i>, redigirt von Moriz Hoernes, iii. (Vienna, 1895)
+pp. 574 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote720" name=
+"footnote720"></a> <b>Footnote 720</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag720">(return)</a>
+<p>"<i>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</i>" quoted by J.M. Kemble, <i>The Saxons in
+England</i> (London, 1849), i. 358 <i>sq.</i>; A. Kuhn, <i>Die
+Herabkunft des Feuers und des G&ouml;ttertranks</i>,<sup>2</sup>
+(G&uuml;tersloh, 1886), p. 43; Ulrich Jahn, <i>Die deutschen
+Opfergebr&auml;uche bei Ackerbau und Viehzucht</i> (Breslau, 1884)
+p. 31.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote721" name=
+"footnote721"></a> <b>Footnote 721</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag721">(return)</a>
+<p>W.G.M. Jones Barker, <i>The Three Days of Wensleydale</i>
+(London, 1854), pp. 90 <i>sq.</i>; <i>County Folk-lore</i>, vol.
+ii., <i>North Riding of Yorkshire, York and the Ainsty</i>,
+collected and edited by Mrs. Gutch (London, 1901), p. 181.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote722" name=
+"footnote722"></a> <b>Footnote 722</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag722">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Denham Tracts, a Collection of Folklore by Michael
+Aislabie Denham</i>, edited by Dr. James Hardy (London, 1892-1895),
+ii. 50.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote723" name=
+"footnote723"></a> <b>Footnote 723</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag723">(return)</a>
+<p>Harry Speight, <i>Tramps and Drives in the Craven Highlands</i>
+(London, 1895), p. 162. Compare, <i>id., The Craven and North-West
+Yorkshire Highlands</i> (London, 1892), pp. 206 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote724" name=
+"footnote724"></a> <b>Footnote 724</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag724">(return)</a>
+<p>J.M. Kemble, <i>The Saxons in England</i> (London, 1849), i. 361
+note.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote725" name=
+"footnote725"></a> <b>Footnote 725</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag725">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Mackenzie, <i>An Historical, Topographical and Descriptive
+View of the County of Northumberland</i>, Second Edition
+(Newcastle, 1825), i. 218, quoted in <i>County Folk-lore</i>, vol.
+iv. <i>Northumberland</i>, collected by M.C. Balfour (London,
+1904), p. 45. Compare J.T. Brockett, <i>Glossary of North Country
+Words</i>, p. 147, quoted by Mrs. M.C. Balfour, <i>l.c.:
+"Need-fire</i> ... 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 <i>Glossary</i> was
+published in 1825.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote726" name=
+"footnote726"></a> <b>Footnote 726</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag726">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Henderson, <i>Notes on the Folklore of the Northern Counties
+of England and the Borders</i> (London, 1879), pp. 167 <i>sq.</i>
+Compare <i>County Folklore</i>, vol. iv. <i>Northumberland</i>,
+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.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote727" name=
+"footnote727"></a> <b>Footnote 727</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag727">(return)</a>
+<p>M. Martin, "Description of the Western Islands of Scotland," in
+J. Pinkerton's <i>General Collection of Voyages and Travels</i>,
+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. <a href=
+"#page147">147</a> <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote728" name=
+"footnote728"></a> <b>Footnote 728</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag728">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 506,
+referring to Miss Austin as his authority.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote729" name=
+"footnote729"></a> <b>Footnote 729</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag729">(return)</a>
+<p>As to the custom of sacrificing one of a plague-stricken herd or
+flock for the purpose of saving the rest, see below, pp. <a href=
+"#page300">300</a> <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote730" name=
+"footnote730"></a> <b>Footnote 730</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag730">(return)</a>
+<p>John Jamieson, <i>Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish
+Language</i>, New Edition, revised by J. Longmuir and D. Donaldson,
+iii. (Paisley, 1880) pp. 349 <i>sq.</i>, referring to "Agr. Surv.
+Caithn., pp. 200, 201."</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote731" name=
+"footnote731"></a> <b>Footnote 731</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag731">(return)</a>
+<p>R.C. Maclagan, "Sacred Fire," <i>Folk-lore</i>, ix. (1898) pp.
+280 <i>sq.</i> As to the fire-drill see <i>The Magic Art and the
+Evolution of Kings</i>, ii. 207 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote732" name=
+"footnote732"></a> <b>Footnote 732</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag732">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Grant Stewart, <i>The Popular Superstitions and Festive
+Amusements of the Highlanders of Scotland</i> (Edinburgh, 1823),
+pp. 214-216; Walter K. Kelly, <i>Curiosities of Indo-European
+Tradition and Folk-lore</i> (London, 1863), pp. 53 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote733" name=
+"footnote733"></a> <b>Footnote 733</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag733">(return)</a>
+<p>Alexander Carmichael, <i>Carmina Gadelica</i> (Edinburgh, 1900),
+ii. 340 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote734" name=
+"footnote734"></a> <b>Footnote 734</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag734">(return)</a>
+<p>See above, pp. <a href="#page154">154</a>, <a href=
+"#page156">156</a>, <a href="#page157">157</a>, <a href=
+"#page159">159</a> <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote735" name=
+"footnote735"></a> <b>Footnote 735</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag735">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Census of India, 1911</i>, vol. xiv. <i>Punjab</i>, Part i.
+<i>Report</i>, 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, <i>Notes on the Folk-lore of
+the North-East of Scotland</i> (London, 1881), pp. 45
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote736" name=
+"footnote736"></a> <b>Footnote 736</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag736">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. Walter Gregor, <i>Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East
+of Scotland</i> (London, 1881), p. 186. The fumigation of the byres
+with juniper is a charm against witchcraft. See J.G. Campbell,
+<i>Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of
+Scotland</i> (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,
+<i>Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language</i>, revised by
+J. Longmuir and D. Donaldson, iii. 575, <i>s.v.</i> "Quarter-ill").
+See further Rev. W. Gregor, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 186 <i>sq.</i>:
+"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, <i>Notes on
+the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the
+Borders</i> (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.
+<a href="#page315">315</a> <i>sqq.</i>) 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.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote737" name=
+"footnote737"></a> <b>Footnote 737</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag737">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Mirror</i>, 24th June, 1826, quoted by J. M. Kemble,
+<i>The Saxons in England</i> (London, 1849), i. 360 note 2.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote738" name=
+"footnote738"></a> <b>Footnote 738</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag738">(return)</a>
+<p>Leland L. Duncan, "Fairy Beliefs and other Folklore Notes from
+County Leitrim," <i>Folk-lore</i>, vii. (1896) pp. 181
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote739" name=
+"footnote739"></a> <b>Footnote 739</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag739">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) Edward B. Tylor, <i>Researches into the Early History of
+Mankind</i>, Third Edition (London, 1878), pp. 237 <i>sqq.</i>;
+<i>The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings</i>, ii. 207
+<i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote740" name=
+"footnote740"></a> <b>Footnote 740</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag740">(return)</a>
+<p>For some examples of such extinctions, see <i>The Magic Art and
+the Evolution of Kings</i>, ii. 261 <i>sqq.</i>, 267 <i>sq.</i>;
+<i>Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild</i>, i. 311, ii. 73
+<i>sq.</i>; and above, pp. <a href="#page124">124</a> <i>sq.</i>,
+<a href="#page132">132-139</a>. 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.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote741" name=
+"footnote741"></a> <b>Footnote 741</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag741">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page147">147</a>, <a href=
+"#page154">154</a>. The same custom appears to have been observed
+in Ireland. See above, p. <a href="#page158">158</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote742" name=
+"footnote742"></a> <b>Footnote 742</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag742">(return)</a>
+<p>J.N.B. Hewitt, "New Fire among the Iroquois," <i>The American
+Anthropologist</i>, ii. (1889) p. 319.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote743" name=
+"footnote743"></a> <b>Footnote 743</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag743">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 507.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote744" name=
+"footnote744"></a> <b>Footnote 744</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag744">(return)</a>
+<p>See above, p. <a href="#page290">290</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote745" name=
+"footnote745"></a> <b>Footnote 745</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag745">(return)</a>
+<p>William Hone, <i>Every-day Book</i> (London, preface dated
+1827), i. coll. 853 <i>sq.</i> (June 24th), quoting Hitchin's
+<i>History of Cornwall</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote746" name=
+"footnote746"></a> <b>Footnote 746</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag746">(return)</a>
+<p>Hunt, <i>Romances and Drolls of the West of England</i>, 1st
+series, p. 237, quoted by W. Henderson, <i>Notes on the Folk-lore
+of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders</i> (London,
+1879), p. 149. Compare J.G. Dalyell, <i>The Darker Superstitions of
+Scotland</i> (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."</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote747" name=
+"footnote747"></a> <b>Footnote 747</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag747">(return)</a>
+<p>Marie Trevelyan, <i>Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales</i>
+(London, 1909), p. 23.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote748" name=
+"footnote748"></a> <b>Footnote 748</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag748">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Henderson, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 148 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote749" name=
+"footnote749"></a> <b>Footnote 749</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag749">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. Walter Gregor, <i>Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East
+of Scotland</i> (London, 1881), p. 186.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote750" name=
+"footnote750"></a> <b>Footnote 750</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag750">(return)</a>
+<p>R. N. Worth, <i>History of Devonshire</i>, 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 <i>me</i>: and they never
+ooll neither. I allus wears a toad's heart round my neck, <i>I</i>
+does." See Mrs. Ella M. Leather, in <i>Folk-lore</i>, xxiv. (1913)
+p. 238.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote751" name=
+"footnote751"></a> <b>Footnote 751</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag751">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page301">301</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote752" name=
+"footnote752"></a> <b>Footnote 752</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag752">(return)</a>
+<p>Robert Hunt, <i>Popular Romances of the West of England</i>,
+Third Edition (London, 1881), p. 320. The writer does not say where
+this took place; probably it was in Cornwall or Devonshire.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote753" name=
+"footnote753"></a> <b>Footnote 753</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag753">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. Walter Gregor, <i>Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East
+of Scotland</i> (London, 1881), p. 184.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote754" name=
+"footnote754"></a> <b>Footnote 754</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag754">(return)</a>
+<p><i>County Folk-lore, Printed Extracts, No. 2, Suffolk</i>,
+collected and edited by the Lady Eveline Camilla Gurdon (London,
+1893), pp. 190 <i>sq.</i>, quoting <i>Some Materials for the
+History of Wherstead</i> by F. Barham Zincke (Ipswich, 1887), p.
+168.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote755" name=
+"footnote755"></a> <b>Footnote 755</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag755">(return)</a>
+<p><i>County Folk-lore, Printed Extracts, No. 2, Suffolk</i>, p.
+191, referring to Murray's <i>Handbook for Essex, Suffolk</i>,
+etc., p. 109.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote756" name=
+"footnote756"></a> <b>Footnote 756</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag756">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) John Rhys, "Manx Folklore and Superstitions,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, ii. (1891) pp. 300-302; repeated in his <i>Celtic
+Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx</i> (Oxford, 1901), i. 306 <i>sq.</i> 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.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote757" name=
+"footnote757"></a> <b>Footnote 757</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag757">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) John Rhys, "Manx Folklore and Superstitions,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, ii. (1891) pp. 299 <i>sq.; id., Celtic Folklore,
+Welsh and Manx</i> (Oxford, 1901), i. 304 <i>sq.</i> We have seen
+that by burning the blood of a bewitched bullock a farmer expected
+to compel the witch to appear. See above, p. <a href=
+"#page303">303</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote758" name=
+"footnote758"></a> <b>Footnote 758</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag758">(return)</a>
+<p>Olaus Magnus, <i>Historia de Gentium Septentrionalium
+Conditionibus</i>, lib xviii. cap. 47, p. 713 (ed. B&acirc;le,
+1567).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote759" name=
+"footnote759"></a> <b>Footnote 759</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag759">(return)</a>
+<p>Collin de Plancy, <i>Dictionnaire Infernal</i> (Paris,
+1825-1826), iii. 473 <i>sq.</i>, referring to Boguet.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote760" name=
+"footnote760"></a> <b>Footnote 760</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag760">(return)</a>
+<p>Collin de Plancy, <i>op. cit.</i> iii. 473.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote761" name=
+"footnote761"></a> <b>Footnote 761</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag761">(return)</a>
+<p>Felix Chapiseau, <i>Le Folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche</i>
+(Paris, 1902), i. 239 <i>sq.</i> The same story is told in Upper
+Brittany. See Paul S&eacute;billot, <i>Traditions et Superstitions
+de la Haute-Bretagne</i> (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, <i>op. cit.</i> i. 218-220;
+Am&eacute;lie Bosquet, <i>La Normandie Romanesque et
+Merveilleuse</i> (Paris and Rouen, 1845), p. 233. On the belief in
+were-wolves in general; see W. Hertz, <i>Der Werwolf</i>
+(Stuttgart, 1862); J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche
+Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 915 <i>sqq.</i>; (Sir) Edward B.
+Tylor, <i>Primitive Culture</i>,<sup>2</sup> (London, 1873), i. 308
+<i>sqq.</i>; R. Andree, <i>Ethnographische Parallelen und
+Vergleiche</i> (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, <i>M&auml;rkische Sagen und M&auml;rchen</i>
+(Berlin, 1843), p. 375; Ulrich Jahn, <i>Volkssagen aus Pommern und
+R&uuml;gen</i> (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, <i>Britain</i>, translated into English by Philemon Holland
+(London, 1610), "Ireland," p. 83.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote762" name=
+"footnote762"></a> <b>Footnote 762</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag762">(return)</a>
+<p>J.J.M. de Groot, <i>The Religious System of China</i>, v.
+(Leyden, 1907) p. 548.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote763" name=
+"footnote763"></a> <b>Footnote 763</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag763">(return)</a>
+<p>A. C. Kruijt, "De weerwolf bij de Toradja's van Midden-Celebes,"
+<i>Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Landen Volkenkunde,</i> xli.
+(1899) pp. 548-551, 557-560.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote764" name=
+"footnote764"></a> <b>Footnote 764</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag764">(return)</a>
+<p>A.C. Kruijt, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 552 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote765" name=
+"footnote765"></a> <b>Footnote 765</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag765">(return)</a>
+<p>A.C. Kruijt, <i>op. cit.</i> 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 Koloni&euml;n en op het oostaziatische
+Vasteland," <i>Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van
+Nederlandsch-Indi&euml;</i>, xlix. (1898) pp. 549-585; G.P.
+Rouffaer, "Matjan Gadoengan," <i>Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en
+Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indi&euml;</i> 1. (1899) pp. 67-75; J.
+Knebel, "De Weertijger op Midden-Java, den Javaan naverteld,"
+<i>Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde</i>, xli.
+(1899) pp. 568-587; L.M.F. Plate, "Bijdrage tot de kennis van de
+lykanthropie bij de Sasaksche bevolking in Oost-Lombok,"
+<i>Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde</i>, liv.
+(1912) pp. 458-469; G.A. Wilken, "Het animisme bij de volken van
+den Indischen Archipel," <i>Verspreide Geschriften</i> (The Hague,
+1912), iii. 25-30.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote766" name=
+"footnote766"></a> <b>Footnote 766</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag766">(return)</a>
+<p>Ernst Marno, <i>Reisen im Gebiete des blauen und weissen Nil</i>
+(Vienna, 1874), pp. 239 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote767" name=
+"footnote767"></a> <b>Footnote 767</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag767">(return)</a>
+<p>Petronius, <i>Sat.</i> 61 <i>sq.</i> (pp. 40 <i>sq.</i>, ed. Fr.
+Buecheler,<sup>3</sup> Berlin, 1882). The Latin word for a
+were-wolf (<i>versipellis</i>) 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, <i>Coutumes, Mythes et
+Traditions des Provinces de France</i> (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp.
+99, 157; J.L.M. Nogu&egrave;s, <i>Les Moeurs d'autrefois en
+Saintonge et en Aunis</i> (Saintes, 1891), p. 141.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote768" name=
+"footnote768"></a> <b>Footnote 768</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag768">(return)</a>
+<p>J.G. Campbell, <i>Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands
+and Islands of Scotland</i> (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, <i>Der deutsche Volksaberglaube</i>,<sup>2</sup> (Berlin,
+1869), p. 150 &sect; 217; L. Strackerjan, <i>Aberglaube und Sagen
+aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg</i> (Oldenburg, 1867), i. 327 &sect;
+220; Ulrich Jahn, <i>Hexenwesen und Zauberei in Pommern</i>
+(Breslau, 1886), p. 7. In his <i>Topography of Ireland</i> (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 <i>The Historical Works of
+Giraldus Cambrensis</i>, revised and edited by Thomas Wright
+(London, 1887), p. 83.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote769" name=
+"footnote769"></a> <b>Footnote 769</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag769">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Folk-lore Journal</i>, iv. (1886) p. 266; Collin de
+Plancy, <i>Dictionnaire Infernal</i> (Paris, 1825-1826), iii. 475;
+J.L.M. Nogu&egrave;s, <i>Les Moeurs d'autrefois en Saintonge et en
+Aunis</i> (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, <i>Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft</i> (London,
+1884), p. 272; J.G. Dalyell, <i>The Darker Superstitions of
+Scotland</i> (Edinburgh, 1834), pp. 531 <i>sq.</i>; M.M. Banks,
+"Scoring a Witch above the Breath," <i>Folk-lore</i>, xxiii. (1912)
+p. 490.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote770" name=
+"footnote770"></a> <b>Footnote 770</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag770">(return)</a>
+<p>J.L.M. Nogu&egrave;s, <i>l.c.</i>; L.F. Sauv&eacute;, <i>Le
+Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges</i> (Paris, 1889), P. 187.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote771" name=
+"footnote771"></a> <b>Footnote 771</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag771">(return)</a>
+<p>M. Abeghian, <i>Der armenische Volksglaube</i> (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.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote772" name=
+"footnote772"></a> <b>Footnote 772</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag772">(return)</a>
+<p>J.G. Campbell, <i>Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands
+and Islands of Scotland</i> (Glasgow, 1902), p. 8; compare A.
+Wuttke, <i>Der deutsche Volksaberglaube</i>,<sup>2</sup> (Berlin,
+1869), p. 150 &sect; 217. Some think that the sixpence should be
+crooked. See Rev. W. Gregor, <i>Notes on the Folk-lore of the
+North-East of Scotland</i> (London, 1881), pp. 71 <i>sq.</i>, 128;
+<i>County Folk-lore</i>, vol. v. <i>Lincolnshire</i>, collected by
+Mrs. Gutch and Mabel Peacock (London, 1908), p. 75.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote773" name=
+"footnote773"></a> <b>Footnote 773</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag773">(return)</a>
+<p>J.G. Campbell, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 30.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote774" name=
+"footnote774"></a> <b>Footnote 774</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag774">(return)</a>
+<p>J.G. Campbell, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 33.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote775" name=
+"footnote775"></a> <b>Footnote 775</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag775">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) Edward B. Tylor, <i>Primitive Culture</i>,<sup>2</sup>
+(London, 1873), i. 314.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote776" name=
+"footnote776"></a> <b>Footnote 776</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag776">(return)</a>
+<p>Joseph Glanvil, <i>Saducismus Triumphatus or Full and Plain
+Evidence concerning Witches and Apparitions</i> (London, 1681),
+Part ii. p. 205.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote777" name=
+"footnote777"></a> <b>Footnote 777</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag777">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J.C. Atkinson, <i>Forty Years in a Moorland Parish</i>
+(London, 1891), pp. 82-84.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote778" name=
+"footnote778"></a> <b>Footnote 778</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag778">(return)</a>
+<p><i>County Folk-lore</i>, vol. v. <i>Lincolnshire</i>, collected
+by Mrs. Gutch and Mabel Peacock (London, 1908), pp. 79, 80.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote779" name=
+"footnote779"></a> <b>Footnote 779</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag779">(return)</a>
+<p>Leland L. Duncan, "Folk-lore Gleanings from County Leitrim,"
+<i>Folklore</i>, iv. (1893) pp. 183 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote780" name=
+"footnote780"></a> <b>Footnote 780</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag780">(return)</a>
+<p>L.F. Sauv&eacute;, <i>Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges</i> (Paris,
+1889), p. 176.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote781" name=
+"footnote781"></a> <b>Footnote 781</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag781">(return)</a>
+<p>L.F. Sauv&eacute;, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 176 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote782" name=
+"footnote782"></a> <b>Footnote 782</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag782">(return)</a>
+<p>Ernst Meier, <i>Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche aus
+Schwaben</i> (Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 184 <i>sq.</i>, No. 203.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote783" name=
+"footnote783"></a> <b>Footnote 783</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag783">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Meier, <i>op. cit.</i> pp. 191 <i>sq.</i>, No. 215. A similar
+story of the shoeing of a woman in the shape of a horse is reported
+from Silesia. See R. K&uuml;hnau, <i>Schlesische Sagen</i> (Berlin,
+1910-1913), iii. pp. 27 <i>sq.</i>, No. 1380.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote784" name=
+"footnote784"></a> <b>Footnote 784</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag784">(return)</a>
+<p>R. K&uuml;hnau, <i>Schlesische Sagen</i> (Berlin, 1910-1913),
+iii. pp. 23 <i>sq.</i>, No. 1375. Compare <i>id.</i>, iii. pp. 28
+<i>sq.</i>, No. 1381.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote785" name=
+"footnote785"></a> <b>Footnote 785</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag785">(return)</a>
+<p>See for example L. Strackerjan, <i>Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem
+Herzogthum Oldenburg</i> (Oldenburg, 1867), i. pp. 328, 329, 334,
+339; W. von Schulenburg, <i>Wendische Volkssagen und Gebr&auml;uche
+aus dem Spreewald</i> (Leipsic, 1880), pp. 164, 165 <i>sq.</i>; H.
+Pr&ouml;hle, <i>Harzsagen</i> (Leipsic, 1859), i. 100 <i>sq.</i>
+The belief in such things is said to be universal among the
+ignorant and superstitious in Germany. See A. Wuttke, <i>Der
+deutsche Volksaberglaube</i>,<sup>2</sup> (Berlin, 1869), p. 150,
+&sect; 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, <i>Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales</i>, Aberystwyth, 1911,
+p. 243). For Welsh stories of this sort, see J. Ceredig Davies,
+<i>l.c.</i>; Rev. Elias Owen, <i>Welsh Folk-lore</i> (Oswestry and
+Wrexham, N.D., preface dated 1896), pp. 228 <i>sq.</i>; M.
+Trevelyan, <i>Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales</i> (London,
+1909), p. 214.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote786" name=
+"footnote786"></a> <b>Footnote 786</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag786">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Strackerjan, <i>Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum
+Oldenburg</i> (Oldenburg, 1867), i. p. 361, &sect; 239.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote787" name=
+"footnote787"></a> <b>Footnote 787</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag787">(return)</a>
+<p>Marie Trevelyan, <i>Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales</i>
+(London, 1909), p. 210.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote788" name=
+"footnote788"></a> <b>Footnote 788</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag788">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Strackerjan, <i>Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum
+Oldenburg</i> (Oldenburg, 1867), i. p. 358, &sect; 238.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote789" name=
+"footnote789"></a> <b>Footnote 789</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag789">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Strackerjan, <i>op. cit.</i> i. p. 360, &sect; 238e.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote790" name=
+"footnote790"></a> <b>Footnote 790</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag790">(return)</a>
+<p>"The 'Witch-burning' at Clonmell," <i>Folk-lore</i>, 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 <i>The Irish Times</i> for March 26th,
+27th, and 28th, April 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 8th, and July 6th,
+1895.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote791" name=
+"footnote791"></a> <b>Footnote 791</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag791">(return)</a>
+<p>John Graham Dalyell, <i>The Darker Superstitions of Scotland</i>
+(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."
+<i>Nois</i> is "nose," <i>hoill</i> is "hole," <i>quhilk
+(whilk)</i> is "which," and <i>be</i> is "by."</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote792" name=
+"footnote792"></a> <b>Footnote 792</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag792">(return)</a>
+<p>J.G. Dalyell, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 186. <i>Bestiall</i>=animals;
+<i>seik</i>=sick; <i>calling</i>=driving; <i>guidis</i>=cattle.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote793" name=
+"footnote793"></a> <b>Footnote 793</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag793">(return)</a>
+<p>John Ramsay, of Ochtertyre, <i>Scotland and Scotsmen in the
+Eighteenth Century</i>, edited by Alexander Allardyce (Edinburgh
+and London, 1888), ii. 446 <i>sq.</i> As to the custom of cutting
+off the leg of a diseased animal and hanging it up in the house,
+see above, p. <a href="#page296">296</a>, note 1.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote794" name=
+"footnote794"></a> <b>Footnote 794</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag794">(return)</a>
+<p>(Sir) Arthur Mitchell, A.M., M.D., <i>On Various Superstitions
+in the North-West Highlands and Islands of Scotland</i> (Edinburgh,
+1862), p. 12 (reprinted from the <i>Proceedings of the Society of
+Antiquaries of Scotland</i>, vol. iv.).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote795" name=
+"footnote795"></a> <b>Footnote 795</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag795">(return)</a>
+<p><i>County Folk-lore</i>, vol. v. <i>Lincolnshire</i>, 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
+<i>Saga-Book</i>, 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
+<i>County Folk-lore</i>, vol. v. <i>Lincolnshire</i>, pp. 26
+<i>sq.</i>, 98 <i>sq.</i>; Mabel Peacock, "The Folklore of
+Lincolnshire," <i>Folk-lore</i>, xii. (1901) p. 175; J.G. Campbell,
+<i>Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of
+Scotland</i> (Glasgow, 1902), pp. 11 <i>sq.</i>; Rev. Walter
+Gregor, <i>Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland</i>
+(London, 1881), p. 188. See further <i>The Scapegoat</i>, pp. 266
+<i>sq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page328" name="page328"></a>[pg
+328]</span>
+<h2><a id="chap5" name="chap5">CHAPTER V</a></h2>
+<h3>THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRE-FESTIVALS</h3>
+<h4><a id="sect5-1" name="sect5-1">&sect; 1. <i>On the
+Fire-festivals in general</i></a></h4>
+<a id="fireresemblance" name="fireresemblance"></a>
+<p>[General resemblance of the European fire-festivals to each
+other.]</p>
+<p>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<a id="footnotetag796" name="footnotetag796"></a><a href=
+"#footnote796"><sup>796</sup></a> and trundling a burning wheel
+down hill;<a id="footnotetag797" name="footnotetag797"></a><a href=
+"#footnote797"><sup>797</sup></a> 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 <span class="pagenum"><a id="page329"
+name="page329"></a>[pg 329]</span> 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.</p>
+<a id="twoexplanations" name="twoexplanations"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>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.<a id="footnotetag798" name=
+"footnotetag798"></a><a href="#footnote798"><sup>798</sup></a> 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. <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page330" name="page330"></a>[pg 330]</span> Edward
+Westermarck<a id="footnotetag799" name=
+"footnotetag799"></a><a href="#footnote799"><sup>799</sup></a> and
+apparently of Professor Eugen Mogk.<a id="footnotetag800" name=
+"footnotetag800"></a><a href="#footnote800"><sup>800</sup></a> 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.</p>
+<a id="notexclusive" name="notexclusive"></a>
+<p>[The two explanations are perhaps not mutually exclusive.]</p>
+<p>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;<a id="footnotetag801" name=
+"footnotetag801"></a><a href="#footnote801"><sup>801</sup></a> but
+in the meantime Dr. Westermarck <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page331" name="page331"></a>[pg 331]</span> 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.</p>
+<h4><a id="sect5-2" name="sect5-2">&sect; 2. <i>The Solar Theory of
+the Fire-festivals</i></a></h4>
+<a id="supplytheory" name="supplytheory"></a>
+<p>[Theory that the fire-festivals are charms to ensure a supply of
+sunshine.]</p>
+<p>In an earlier part of this work we saw that savages resort to
+charms for making sunshine,<a id="footnotetag802" name=
+"footnotetag802"></a><a href="#footnote802"><sup>802</sup></a> 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.</p>
+<a id="solsticecoincidence" name="solsticecoincidence"></a>
+<p>[Coincidence of two of the festivals with the solstices.]</p>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a id="page332" name=
+"page332"></a>[pg 332]</span> 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,<a id="footnotetag803"
+name="footnotetag803"></a><a href="#footnote803"><sup>803</sup></a>
+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.</p>
+<a id="bushmenattempt" name="bushmenattempt"></a>
+<p>[Attempt of the Bushmen to warm up the fire of Sirius in
+midwinter by kindling sticks.]</p>
+<p>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,<a id=
+"footnotetag804" name="footnotetag804"></a><a href=
+"#footnote804"><sup>804</sup></a> 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:&mdash;<a id="footnotetag805" name=
+"footnotetag805"></a><a href="#footnote805"><sup>805</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page333" name="page333"></a>[pg
+333]</span>
+<p>"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<a id="footnotetag806" name=
+"footnotetag806"></a><a href="#footnote806"><sup>806</sup></a>
+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,<a id="footnotetag807" name=
+"footnotetag807"></a><a href="#footnote807"><sup>807</sup></a> 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."<a id="footnotetag808" name="footnotetag808"></a><a href=
+"#footnote808"><sup>808</sup></a> 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.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page334" name="page334"></a>[pg
+334]</span> <a id="burningimitations" name="burningimitations"></a>
+<p>[The burning wheels and discs of the fire-festivals may be
+direct imitations of the sun.]</p>
+<p>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.<a id="footnotetag809" name=
+"footnotetag809"></a><a href="#footnote809"><sup>809</sup></a> Not
+less graphic, it may be said, is the mimicry of his apparent
+revolution by swinging a burning tar-barrel round a pole.<a id=
+"footnotetag810" name="footnotetag810"></a><a href=
+"#footnote810"><sup>810</sup></a> 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,<a id="footnotetag811" name=
+"footnotetag811"></a><a href="#footnote811"><sup>811</sup></a>
+clearly implies a consciousness of a connexion between the earthly
+and the heavenly flame.</p>
+<a id="wheelimitation" name="wheelimitation"></a>
+<p>[The wheel sometimes used to kindle the fire by friction may
+also be an imitation of the sun.]</p>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page335" name="page335"></a>[pg 335]</span> that at the periodic
+festivals in former times fire was universally obtained by the
+friction of two pieces of wood.<a id="footnotetag812" name=
+"footnotetag812"></a><a href="#footnote812"><sup>812</sup></a> 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.<a id="footnotetag813" name=
+"footnotetag813"></a><a href="#footnote813"><sup>813</sup></a> 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,<a id="footnotetag814" name=
+"footnotetag814"></a><a href="#footnote814"><sup>814</sup></a> 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,<a id="footnotetag815" name=
+"footnotetag815"></a><a href="#footnote815"><sup>815</sup></a> 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.<a id="footnotetag816" name="footnotetag816"></a><a href=
+"#footnote816"><sup>816</sup></a> 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 <span class="pagenum"><a id="page336" name=
+"page336"></a>[pg 336]</span> 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.<a id="footnotetag817" name=
+"footnotetag817"></a><a href="#footnote817"><sup>817</sup></a> 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,<a id=
+"footnotetag818" name="footnotetag818"></a><a href=
+"#footnote818"><sup>818</sup></a> 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.</p>
+<a id="fireinfluence" name="fireinfluence"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>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<a id="footnotetag819" name=
+"footnotetag819"></a><a href="#footnote819"><sup>819</sup></a>
+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<a id="footnotetag820" name="footnotetag820"></a><a href=
+"#footnote820"><sup>820</sup></a> 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.<a id="footnotetag821"
+name="footnotetag821"></a><a href="#footnote821"><sup>821</sup></a>
+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.<a id="footnotetag822" name="footnotetag822"></a><a href=
+"#footnote822"><sup>822</sup></a> 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 <span class="pagenum"><a id="page337" name=
+"page337"></a>[pg 337]</span> Mountains, when the smoke blows
+towards the corn-fields, this is an omen that the harvest will be
+abundant.<a id="footnotetag823" name="footnotetag823"></a><a href=
+"#footnote823"><sup>823</sup></a> 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.<a id=
+"footnotetag824" name="footnotetag824"></a><a href=
+"#footnote824"><sup>824</sup></a> 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."<a id="footnotetag825"
+name="footnotetag825"></a><a href="#footnote825"><sup>825</sup></a>
+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."<a id=
+"footnotetag826" name="footnotetag826"></a><a href=
+"#footnote826"><sup>826</sup></a> Again, the idea of our European
+peasants that the corn will grow well as far as the blaze of the
+bonfire is visible,<a id="footnotetag827" name=
+"footnotetag827"></a><a href="#footnote827"><sup>827</sup></a> 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,<a id="footnotetag828" name="footnotetag828"></a><a href=
+"#footnote828"><sup>828</sup></a> and it may be thought to underlie
+the customs of sowing flax-seed in the direction in which the
+flames blow,<a id="footnotetag829" name=
+"footnotetag829"></a><a href="#footnote829"><sup>829</sup></a> of
+mixing the ashes of the bonfire with the seed-corn at sowing,<a id=
+"footnotetag830" name="footnotetag830"></a><a href=
+"#footnote830"><sup>830</sup></a> of scattering the ashes by
+themselves over the field to fertilize it,<a id="footnotetag831"
+name="footnotetag831"></a><a href="#footnote831"><sup>831</sup></a>
+and of incorporating a piece of the Yule log in the plough to make
+the seeds thrive.<a id="footnotetag832" name=
+"footnotetag832"></a><a href="#footnote832"><sup>832</sup></a> The
+opinion that the flax or hemp will grow as high as the flames rise
+or the people leap over them<a id="footnotetag833" name=
+"footnotetag833"></a><a href="#footnote833"><sup>833</sup></a>
+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 <span class="pagenum"><a id="page338"
+name="page338"></a>[pg 338]</span> 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.<a id="footnotetag834" name=
+"footnotetag834"></a><a href="#footnote834"><sup>834</sup></a> 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.<a id="footnotetag835" name=
+"footnotetag835"></a><a href="#footnote835"><sup>835</sup></a>
+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.</p>
+<a id="fertilizingfire" name="fertilizingfire"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>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,<a id=
+"footnotetag836" name="footnotetag836"></a><a href=
+"#footnote836"><sup>836</sup></a> from the French belief that the
+Yule-log steeped in water helps cows to calve,<a id=
+"footnotetag837" name="footnotetag837"></a><a href=
+"#footnote837"><sup>837</sup></a> 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,<a id=
+"footnotetag838" name="footnotetag838"></a><a href=
+"#footnote838"><sup>838</sup></a> from the French custom of putting
+the ashes of the bonfires in the fowls' nests to make the hens lay
+eggs,<a id="footnotetag839" name="footnotetag839"></a><a href=
+"#footnote839"><sup>839</sup></a> and from the German practice of
+mixing the ashes of the bonfires with the drink of cattle in order
+to make the animals thrive.<a id="footnotetag840" name=
+"footnotetag840"></a><a href="#footnote840"><sup>840</sup></a>
+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.<a id="footnotetag841" name=
+"footnotetag841"></a><a href="#footnote841"><sup>841</sup></a> It
+is an Irish belief that a girl who jumps thrice over the midsummer
+bonfire will soon marry and become the mother <span class=
+"pagenum"><a id="page339" name="page339"></a>[pg 339]</span> of
+many children;<a id="footnotetag842" name=
+"footnotetag842"></a><a href="#footnote842"><sup>842</sup></a> in
+Flanders women leap over the Midsummer fires to ensure an easy
+delivery;<a id="footnotetag843" name="footnotetag843"></a><a href=
+"#footnote843"><sup>843</sup></a> 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.<a id="footnotetag844" name=
+"footnotetag844"></a><a href="#footnote844"><sup>844</sup></a> 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:<a id="footnotetag845" name="footnotetag845"></a><a href=
+"#footnote845"><sup>845</sup></a> 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.<a id="footnotetag846" name="footnotetag846"></a><a href=
+"#footnote846"><sup>846</sup></a> The rule observed in some places
+that the bonfires should be kindled by the person who was last
+married<a id="footnotetag847" name="footnotetag847"></a><a href=
+"#footnote847"><sup>847</sup></a> 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.<a id="footnotetag848" name=
+"footnotetag848"></a><a href="#footnote848"><sup>848</sup></a> And
+the scenes of profligacy which appear to have marked the midsummer
+celebration among the Esthonians,<a id="footnotetag849" name=
+"footnotetag849"></a><a href="#footnote849"><sup>849</sup></a> 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.</p>
+<a id="carryingtorches" name="carryingtorches"></a>
+<p>[The custom of carrying lighted torches about the country at the
+festival may be explained as an attempt to diffuse the Sun's
+heat.]</p>
+<p>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. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page340" name=
+"page340"></a>[pg 340]</span> 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,<a id=
+"footnotetag850" name="footnotetag850"></a><a href=
+"#footnote850"><sup>850</sup></a> and for the same purpose live
+coals from the bonfires are sometimes placed in the fields "to
+prevent blight."<a id="footnotetag851" name=
+"footnotetag851"></a><a href="#footnote851"><sup>851</sup></a> 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.<a id="footnotetag852" name="footnotetag852"></a><a href=
+"#footnote852"><sup>852</sup></a> In Bohemia they say that the corn
+will grow as high as they fling the blazing besoms into the
+air.<a id="footnotetag853" name="footnotetag853"></a><a href=
+"#footnote853"><sup>853</sup></a> 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.<a id="footnotetag854" name=
+"footnotetag854"></a><a href="#footnote854"><sup>854</sup></a> The
+custom of trundling a burning wheel <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+"page341" name="page341"></a>[pg 341]</span> over the fields, which
+used to be observed in Poitou for the express purpose of
+fertilizing them,<a id="footnotetag855" name=
+"footnotetag855"></a><a href="#footnote855"><sup>855</sup></a> 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<a id=
+"footnotetag856" name="footnotetag856"></a><a href=
+"#footnote856"><sup>856</sup></a> is plainly equivalent to driving
+the animals through the bonfire; and if the bonfire is a sun-charm,
+the torches must be so also.</p>
+<h4><a id="sect5-3" name="sect5-3">&sect; 3. <i>The Purificatory
+Theory of the Fire-festivals</i></a></h4>
+<a id="purificatorytheory" name="purificatorytheory"></a>
+<p>[Theory that the fires at the festivals are purificatory, being
+intended to burn up all harmful things.]</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<a id="destructiveeffect" name="destructiveeffect"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a id="page342" name="page342"></a>[pg
+342]</span> use of fire as a charm to produce sunshine appears to
+be undeniable,<a id="footnotetag857" name=
+"footnotetag857"></a><a href="#footnote857"><sup>857</sup></a>
+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;<a id="footnotetag858" name="footnotetag858"></a><a href=
+"#footnote858"><sup>858</sup></a> and the intention is sometimes
+graphically expressed by burning an effigy of a witch in the
+fire.<a id="footnotetag859" name="footnotetag859"></a><a href=
+"#footnote859"><sup>859</sup></a> 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.<a id="footnotetag860" name="footnotetag860"></a><a href=
+"#footnote860"><sup>860</sup></a></p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page343" name="page343"></a>[pg
+343]</span> <a id="cattledisease" name="cattledisease"></a>
+<p>[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.]</p>
+<p>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.<a id="footnotetag861" name="footnotetag861"></a><a href=
+"#footnote861"><sup>861</sup></a> 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;<a id="footnotetag862" name=
+"footnotetag862"></a><a href="#footnote862"><sup>862</sup></a> and
+we need not wonder that he should resort to fire as a powerful
+means of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page344" name=
+"page344"></a>[pg 344]</span> 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,<a id="footnotetag863" name="footnotetag863"></a><a href=
+"#footnote863"><sup>863</sup></a> 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.</p>
+<a id="averthail" name="averthail"></a>
+<p>[Again, the bonfires are thought to avert hail, thunder,
+lightning, and other maladies, all of which are attributed to the
+maleficent arts of witches.]</p>
+<p>Again, the bonfires are often supposed to protect the fields
+against hail<a id="footnotetag864" name=
+"footnotetag864"></a><a href="#footnote864"><sup>864</sup></a> and
+the homestead against thunder and lightning.<a id="footnotetag865"
+name="footnotetag865"></a><a href="#footnote865"><sup>865</sup></a>
+But both hail and thunderstorms are frequently thought to be caused
+by witches;<a id="footnotetag866" name=
+"footnotetag866"></a><a href="#footnote866"><sup>866</sup></a>
+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;<a id="footnotetag867"
+name="footnotetag867"></a><a href="#footnote867"><sup>867</sup></a>
+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,<a id="footnotetag868" name=
+"footnotetag868"></a><a href="#footnote868"><sup>868</sup></a> and
+look at the flames steadily in order to preserve their eyes in good
+health;<a id="footnotetag869" name="footnotetag869"></a><a href=
+"#footnote869"><sup>869</sup></a> and both colic and sore eyes are
+in Germany, and probably elsewhere, set down to the machinations of
+witches.<a id="footnotetag870" name="footnotetag870"></a><a href=
+"#footnote870"><sup>870</sup></a> Once more, to leap over the
+Midsummer fires or <span class="pagenum"><a id="page345" name=
+"page345"></a>[pg 345]</span> to circumambulate them is thought to
+prevent a person from feeling pains in his back at reaping;<a id=
+"footnotetag871" name="footnotetag871"></a><a href=
+"#footnote871"><sup>871</sup></a> and in Germany such pains are
+called "witch-shots" and ascribed to witchcraft.<a id=
+"footnotetag872" name="footnotetag872"></a><a href=
+"#footnote872"><sup>872</sup></a></p>
+<a id="wheelsburn" name="wheelsburn"></a>
+<p>[The burning wheels rolled down hills and the burning discs and
+brooms thrown into the air may be intended to burn the invisible
+witches.]</p>
+<p>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.<a id="footnotetag873"
+name="footnotetag873"></a><a href="#footnote873"><sup>873</sup></a>
+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 <span class="pagenum"><a id="page346" name=
+"page346"></a>[pg 346]</span> the poor wretches when they drop
+plump upon them from the clouds.<a id="footnotetag874" name=
+"footnotetag874"></a><a href="#footnote874"><sup>874</sup></a></p>
+<a id="fertilityindirect" name="fertilityindirect"></a>
+<p>[On this view the fertility supposed to follow the use of fire
+results indirectly from breaking the spells of witches.]</p>
+<p>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.<a id="footnotetag875" name=
+"footnotetag875"></a><a href="#footnote875"><sup>875</sup></a></p>
+<a id="destructiveprobable" name="destructiveprobable"></a>
+<p>[On the whole the theory of the purificatory or destructive
+intention of the fire-festivals seems the more probable.]</p>
+<p>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.</p>
+<p>Notes:</p>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote796" name=
+"footnote796"></a> <b>Footnote 796</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag796">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page116">116</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href=
+"#page119">119</a>, <a href="#page143">143</a>, <a href=
+"#page165">165</a>, <a href="#page166">166</a>, <a href=
+"#page168">168</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#page172">172</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote797" name=
+"footnote797"></a> <b>Footnote 797</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag797">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page116">116</a>, <a href=
+"#page117">117</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href=
+"#page141">141</a>, <a href="#page143">143</a>, <a href=
+"#page161">161</a>, <a href="#page162">162</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href=
+"#page163">163</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#page173">173</a>, <a href=
+"#page191">191</a>, <a href="#page201">201</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote798" name=
+"footnote798"></a> <b>Footnote 798</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag798">(return)</a>
+<p>W. Mannhardt, <i>Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer
+Nachbarst&auml;mme</i> (Berlin, 1875), pp. 521 <i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote799" name=
+"footnote799"></a> <b>Footnote 799</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag799">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco,"
+<i>Folk-lore</i>, xvi. (1905) pp. 44 <i>sqq.; id., The Origin and
+Development of the Moral Ideas</i> (London, 1906-1908), i. 56;
+<i>id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with Agriculture, certain
+Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in Morocco</i>
+(Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 93-102.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote800" name=
+"footnote800"></a> <b>Footnote 800</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag800">(return)</a>
+<p>E. Mogk, "Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche im Kreislauf des Jahres," in
+R. Wuttke's <i>S&auml;chsische Volkskunde</i>,<sup>2</sup>
+(Dresden, 1901), pp. 310 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote801" name=
+"footnote801"></a> <b>Footnote 801</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag801">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Golden Bough</i>, 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, <i>id.</i> 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."</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote802" name=
+"footnote802"></a> <b>Footnote 802</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag802">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings</i>, i. 311
+<i>sqq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote803" name=
+"footnote803"></a> <b>Footnote 803</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag803">(return)</a>
+<p>See <i>Adonis, Attis, Osiris</i>, Second Edition, pp. 254
+<i>sqq</i>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote804" name=
+"footnote804"></a> <b>Footnote 804</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag804">(return)</a>
+<p>Manilius, <i>Astronom</i>. v. 206 <i>sqq.</i>:</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<p>"Cum vero in vastos surget Nemeaeus</p>
+<p class="i4">hiatus,</p>
+<p class="i2">Exoriturque Canis, latratque Canicula</p>
+<p class="i4">flammas</p>
+<p class="i2">Et rabit igne suo geminatque incendia</p>
+<p class="i4">solis,</p>
+<p class="i2">Qua subdente facem terris radiosque</p>
+<p class="i4">movente" etc.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p>Pliny, <i>Naturalis Historic</i> xviii. 269 <i>sq</i>.:
+"<i>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</i>."</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote805" name=
+"footnote805"></a> <b>Footnote 805</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag805">(return)</a>
+<p><i>Specimens of Bushman Folklore</i> 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.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote806" name=
+"footnote806"></a> <b>Footnote 806</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag806">(return)</a>
+<p>"The sun is a little warm, when this star appears in winter"
+(Editors of <i>Specimens of Bushman Folklore</i>).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote807" name=
+"footnote807"></a> <b>Footnote 807</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag807">(return)</a>
+<p>"With the stick that he had held in the fire, moving it up and
+down quickly" (Editors).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote808" name=
+"footnote808"></a> <b>Footnote 808</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag808">(return)</a>
+<p>"They take one arm out of the kaross, thereby exposing one
+shoulder blade to the sun" (Editors).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote809" name=
+"footnote809"></a> <b>Footnote 809</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag809">(return)</a>
+<p>See above, pp. <a href="#page162">161</a>, <a href=
+"#page162">162</a> <i>sq.</i> On the wheel as an emblem of the sun,
+see J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> ii. 585; A.
+Kuhn, <i>Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des
+G&ouml;ttertranks</i>,<sup>2</sup> (G&uuml;tersloh, 1886), pp. 45
+<i>sqq.</i>; H. Gaidoz, "Le dieu gaulois du soleil et le symbolisme
+de la roue," <i>Revue Arch&eacute;ologique</i>, iii. S&eacute;rie,
+iv. (1884) pp. 14 <i>sqq.</i>; William Simpson, <i>The Buddhist
+Praying Wheel</i> (London, 1896), pp. 87 <i>sqq.</i> 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, <i>Der armenische
+Volksglaube</i>, 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, <i>History of the New World called
+America</i>, Oxford, 1892, i. 521).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote810" name=
+"footnote810"></a> <b>Footnote 810</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag810">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page169">169</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote811" name=
+"footnote811"></a> <b>Footnote 811</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag811">(return)</a>
+<p>Ernst Meier, <i>Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebr&auml;uche aus
+Schwaben</i> (Stuttgart, 1852), p. 225; F. Panzer, <i>Beitrag zur
+deutschen Mythologie</i> (Munich, 1848-1855), ii. 240; Anton
+Birlinger, <i>Volksth&uuml;mliches aus Schwaben</i> (Freiburg im
+Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. 57, 97; W. Mannhardt, <i>Baumkultus</i>,
+p. 510.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote812" name=
+"footnote812"></a> <b>Footnote 812</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag812">(return)</a>
+<p>Compare J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i.
+521; J.W. Wolf, <i>Beitr&auml;ge zur deutschen Mythologie</i>
+(Gottingen und Leipsic, 1852-1857), ii. 389; Adalbert Kuhn, <i>Die
+Herabkunft des Feuers und des G&ouml;ttertranks</i>,<sup>2</sup>
+(G&uuml;tersloh, 1886), pp. 41 <i>sq.</i>, 47; W. Mannhardt,
+<i>Baumkultus</i>, p. 521. Lindenbrog in his Glossary on the
+Capitularies (quoted by J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche
+Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> 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
+<i>nodfeur</i> or <i>nodfyr</i>, that is to say need-fire."</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote813" name=
+"footnote813"></a> <b>Footnote 813</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag813">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page144">144</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href=
+"#page147">147</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#page155">155</a>, <a href=
+"#page169">169</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#page175">175</a>, <a href=
+"#page177">177</a>, <a href="#page179">179</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote814" name=
+"footnote814"></a> <b>Footnote 814</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag814">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> i. 509; J.W.
+Wolf, <i>Beitr&auml;ge zur deutschen Mythologie</i>, i. 117; A.
+Kuhn, <i>Die Herabkunft des Feuers</i>,<sup>2</sup> pp. 47
+<i>sq.</i>; W. Mannhardt, <i>Baumkultus</i>, p. 521; W.E. Kelly,
+<i>Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore</i>
+(London, 1863), p. 49.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote815" name=
+"footnote815"></a> <b>Footnote 815</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag815">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Kuhn, <i>Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des
+G&ouml;ttertranks</i>,<sup>2</sup> (G&uuml;tersloh, 1886), p.
+47.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote816" name=
+"footnote816"></a> <b>Footnote 816</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag816">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page179">179</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote817" name=
+"footnote817"></a> <b>Footnote 817</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag817">(return)</a>
+<p>F. Panzer, <i>Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie</i> (Munich,
+1848-1855), ii. 240, &sect; 443.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote818" name=
+"footnote818"></a> <b>Footnote 818</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag818">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page177">177</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote819" name=
+"footnote819"></a> <b>Footnote 819</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag819">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page187">187</a> <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote820" name=
+"footnote820"></a> <b>Footnote 820</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag820">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page279">279</a> <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote821" name=
+"footnote821"></a> <b>Footnote 821</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag821">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page188">188</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote822" name=
+"footnote822"></a> <b>Footnote 822</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag822">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page159">159</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote823" name=
+"footnote823"></a> <b>Footnote 823</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag823">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page116">116</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote824" name=
+"footnote824"></a> <b>Footnote 824</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag824">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page201">201</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote825" name=
+"footnote825"></a> <b>Footnote 825</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag825">(return)</a>
+<p>L. Decle, <i>Three Years in Savage Africa</i> (London, 1898),
+pp. 160 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote826" name=
+"footnote826"></a> <b>Footnote 826</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag826">(return)</a>
+<p>Rev. J. Shooter, <i>The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country</i>
+(London, 1857), p. 18.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote827" name=
+"footnote827"></a> <b>Footnote 827</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag827">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page140">140</a>, <a href=
+"#page142">142</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote828" name=
+"footnote828"></a> <b>Footnote 828</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag828">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href=
+"#page165">165</a>, <a href="#page166">166</a>, <a href=
+"#page173">173</a>, <a href="#page203">203</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote829" name=
+"footnote829"></a> <b>Footnote 829</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag829">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page140">140</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote830" name=
+"footnote830"></a> <b>Footnote 830</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag830">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page121">121</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote831" name=
+"footnote831"></a> <b>Footnote 831</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag831">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page141">141</a>, <a href=
+"#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page190">190</a>, <a href=
+"#page203">203</a>, <a href="#page248">248</a>, <a href=
+"#page250">250</a>, <a href="#page264">264</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote832" name=
+"footnote832"></a> <b>Footnote 832</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag832">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page251">251</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote833" name=
+"footnote833"></a> <b>Footnote 833</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag833">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page119">119</a>, <a href=
+"#page165">165</a>, <a href="#page166">166</a>, <a href=
+"#page168">168</a>, <a href="#page173">173</a>, <a href=
+"#page174">174</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote834" name=
+"footnote834"></a> <b>Footnote 834</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag834">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page118">118</a>, <a href=
+"#page163">163</a> <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote835" name=
+"footnote835"></a> <b>Footnote 835</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag835">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page201">201</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote836" name=
+"footnote836"></a> <b>Footnote 836</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag836">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page203">203</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote837" name=
+"footnote837"></a> <b>Footnote 837</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag837">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page250">250</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote838" name=
+"footnote838"></a> <b>Footnote 838</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag838">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page251">251</a>, <a href=
+"#page262">262</a>, <a href="#page263">263</a>, <a href=
+"#page264">264</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote839" name=
+"footnote839"></a> <b>Footnote 839</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag839">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page112">112</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote840" name=
+"footnote840"></a> <b>Footnote 840</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag840">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page141">141</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote841" name=
+"footnote841"></a> <b>Footnote 841</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag841">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page214">214</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote842" name=
+"footnote842"></a> <b>Footnote 842</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag842">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page204">204</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote843" name=
+"footnote843"></a> <b>Footnote 843</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag843">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page194">194</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote844" name=
+"footnote844"></a> <b>Footnote 844</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag844">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page185">185</a>, <a href=
+"#page189">189</a>; compare p. <a href="#page174">174</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote845" name=
+"footnote845"></a> <b>Footnote 845</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag845">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page166">166</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote846" name=
+"footnote846"></a> <b>Footnote 846</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag846">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page249">249</a>, <a href=
+"#page250">250</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote847" name=
+"footnote847"></a> <b>Footnote 847</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag847">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page107">107</a>, <a href=
+"#page109">109</a>, <a href="#page111">111</a>, <a href=
+"#page119">119</a>; compare pp. <a href="#page116">116</a>,
+<a href="#page192">192</a>, <a href="#page193">193</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote848" name=
+"footnote848"></a> <b>Footnote 848</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag848">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page115">115</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote849" name=
+"footnote849"></a> <b>Footnote 849</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag849">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page180">180</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote850" name=
+"footnote850"></a> <b>Footnote 850</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag850">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page113">113</a>, <a href=
+"#page142">142</a>, <a href="#page170">170</a>, <a href=
+"#page233">233</a>. The torches of Demeter, which figure so largely
+in her myth and on her monuments, are perhaps to be explained by
+this custom. See <i>Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild</i>, i. 57.
+W. Mannhardt thought (<i>Baumkultus</i>, 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," <i>Report of the United States National Museum for
+1895</i> (Washington, 1897), p. 639.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote851" name=
+"footnote851"></a> <b>Footnote 851</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag851">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, p. <a href="#page203">203</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote852" name=
+"footnote852"></a> <b>Footnote 852</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag852">(return)</a>
+<p>Am&eacute;lie Bosquet, <i>La Normandie Romanesque et
+Merveilleuse</i> (Paris and Rouen, 1845), pp. 295 <i>sq.</i>; Jules
+Lecoeur, <i>Esquisses du Bocage Normand</i>
+(Cond&eacute;-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 126-129. See <i>The
+Scapegoat</i>, pp. 316 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote853" name=
+"footnote853"></a> <b>Footnote 853</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag853">(return)</a>
+<p>Br. Jel&iacute;nek, "Materialen zur Vorgeschichte mid Volkskunde
+B&ouml;hmens," <i>Mittheilungen der anthropolog. Gesellschaft in
+Wien</i> xxi. (1891) p. 13 note.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote854" name=
+"footnote854"></a> <b>Footnote 854</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag854">(return)</a>
+<p>Mrs. Bishop, <i>Korea and her Neighbours</i> (London, 1898), ii.
+56 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote855" name=
+"footnote855"></a> <b>Footnote 855</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag855">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page190">190</a> <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote856" name=
+"footnote856"></a> <b>Footnote 856</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag856">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page178">178</a>, <a href=
+"#page205">205</a>, <a href="#page206">206</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote857" name=
+"footnote857"></a> <b>Footnote 857</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag857">(return)</a>
+<p>See <i>The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings</i>, i. 311
+<i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote858" name=
+"footnote858"></a> <b>Footnote 858</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag858">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page108">108</a>, <a href=
+"#page109">109</a>, <a href="#page116">116</a>, <a href=
+"#page118">118</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#page121">121</a>, <a href=
+"#page148">148</a>, <a href="#page154">154</a>, <a href=
+"#page156">156</a>, <a href="#page157">157</a>, <a href=
+"#page159">159</a>, <a href="#page160">160</a>, <a href=
+"#page170">170</a>, <a href="#page171">171</a>, <a href=
+"#page174">174</a>, <a href="#page175">175</a>, <a href=
+"#page176">176</a>, <a href="#page180">180</a>, <a href=
+"#page183">183</a>, <a href="#page185">185</a>, <a href=
+"#page188">188</a>, <a href="#page232">232</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href=
+"#page245">245</a>, <a href="#page252">252</a>, <a href=
+"#page253">253</a>, <a href="#page280">280</a>, <a href=
+"#page292">292</a>, <a href="#page293">293</a>, <a href=
+"#page295">295</a>, <a href="#page297">297</a>. For more evidence
+of the use of fire to burn or expel witches on certain days of the
+year, see <i>The Scapegoat</i> pp. 158 <i>sqq.</i> Less often the
+fires are thought to burn or repel evil spirits and vampyres. See
+above, pp. <a href="#page146">146</a>, <a href="#page170">170</a>,
+<a href="#page172">172</a>, <a href="#page202">202</a>, <a href=
+"#page252">252</a>, <a href="#page282">282</a>, <a href=
+"#page285">285</a>. Sometimes the purpose of the fires is to drive
+away dragons (above, pp. <a href="#page161">161</a>, <a href=
+"#page195">195</a>).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote859" name=
+"footnote859"></a> <b>Footnote 859</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag859">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page107">107</a>, <a href=
+"#page116">116</a>, <a href="#page118">118</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href=
+"#page159">159</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote860" name=
+"footnote860"></a> <b>Footnote 860</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag860">(return)</a>
+<p>"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, <i>The Popular Superstitions and Festive
+Amusements of the Highlanders of Scotland</i>, Edinburgh, 1823, pp.
+202 <i>sq.</i>). "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"
+(<i>County Folklore</i>, vol. v. <i>Lincolnshire</i>, 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, <i>Shropshire
+Folk-lore</i>, 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, <i>Aberglaube und Sagen
+aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg</i>, Oldenburg, 1867, i. p. 298,
+&sect; 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" (<i>Letters on Demonology and
+Witchcraft</i>, London, 1884, p. 272). Compare L. Strackerjan,
+<i>op. cit.</i> i. p. 340, &sect; 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."</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote861" name=
+"footnote861"></a> <b>Footnote 861</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag861">(return)</a>
+<p>For some evidence, see <i>The Magic Art and the Evolution of
+Kings</i>; ii. 52-55, 330 <i>sqq.</i> It is a popular belief,
+universally diffused in Germany, that cattle-plagues are caused by
+witches (A. Wuttke, <i>Der deutsche
+Volksaberglaube</i>,<sup>2</sup> Berlin, 1869, p. 149 &sect; 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, <i>The
+Popular superstitions and Festive Amusements of the Highlanders of
+Scotland</i>, Edinburgh, 1823, pp. 201 <i>sq.</i>).</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote862" name=
+"footnote862"></a> <b>Footnote 862</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag862">(return)</a>
+<p><i>The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings</i>, ii. 330
+<i>sqq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote863" name=
+"footnote863"></a> <b>Footnote 863</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag863">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page282">282</a>, <a href=
+"#page284">284</a> <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote864" name=
+"footnote864"></a> <b>Footnote 864</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag864">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page118">118</a>, <a href=
+"#page121">121</a>, <a href="#page144">144</a>, <a href=
+"#page145">145</a>, <a href="#page176">176</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote865" name=
+"footnote865"></a> <b>Footnote 865</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag865">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page121">121</a>, <a href=
+"#page122">122</a>, <a href="#page124">124</a>, <a href=
+"#page140">140</a> <i>sq.</i>, <a href="#page145">145</a>, <a href=
+"#page146">146</a>, <a href="#page174">174</a>, <a href=
+"#page176">176</a>, <a href="#page183">183</a>, <a href=
+"#page184">184</a>, <a href="#page187">187</a>, <a href=
+"#page188">188</a>, <a href="#page190">190</a>, <a href=
+"#page191">191</a>, <a href="#page192">192</a>, <a href=
+"#page249">249</a>, <a href="#page250">250</a>, <a href=
+"#page252">252</a>, <a href="#page253">253</a>, <a href=
+"#page254">254</a>, <a href="#page258">258</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote866" name=
+"footnote866"></a> <b>Footnote 866</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag866">(return)</a>
+<p>J. Grimm, <i>Deutsch Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> ii. 908
+<i>sqq.</i>; J.V. Grohmann, <i>Aberglauben und Gebr&auml;uche aus
+B&ouml;hmen und M&auml;hren</i> (Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 32
+&sect; 182; A. Wuttke, <i>Der deutsche
+Volksaberglaube</i>,<sup>2</sup> (Berlin, 1869), pp. 149
+<i>sq.</i>, &sect;216; J. Ceredig Davies, <i>Folk-lore of West and
+Mid-Wales</i> (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 230; Alois John, <i>Sitte,
+Branch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westb&ouml;hmen</i> (Prague,
+1905), p. 202.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote867" name=
+"footnote867"></a> <b>Footnote 867</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag867">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page108">108</a>, <a href=
+"#page121">121</a>, <a href="#page140">140</a>, <a href=
+"#page146">146</a>, <a href="#page165">165</a>, <a href=
+"#page183">183</a>, <a href="#page188">188</a>, <a href=
+"#page196">196</a>, <a href="#page250">250</a>, <a href=
+"#page255">255</a>, <a href="#page256">256</a>, <a href=
+"#page258">258</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote868" name=
+"footnote868"></a> <b>Footnote 868</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag868">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page107">107</a>, <a href=
+"#page195">195</a> <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote869" name=
+"footnote869"></a> <b>Footnote 869</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag869">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page162">162</a>, <a href=
+"#page163">163</a>, <a href="#page166">166</a>, <a href=
+"#page171">171</a>, <a href="#page174">174</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote870" name=
+"footnote870"></a> <b>Footnote 870</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag870">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Wuttke, <i>Der deutsche Volksaberglaube</i>,<sup>2</sup>
+(Berlin, 1869), p. 351, &sect; 395.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote871" name=
+"footnote871"></a> <b>Footnote 871</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag871">(return)</a>
+<p>Above, pp. <a href="#page165">165</a>, <a href=
+"#page168">168</a>, <a href="#page189">189</a>, compare <a href=
+"#page190">190</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote872" name=
+"footnote872"></a> <b>Footnote 872</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag872">(return)</a>
+<p>A. Wuttke, <i>Der deutsche Volksaberglaube</i>,<sup>2</sup>
+(Berlin, 1869), p. 351, &sect; 395; L. Strackerjan, <i>Aberglaube
+und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg</i> (Oldenburg, 1867), i. p.
+298, &sect; 209. See above, p. <a href="#page343">343</a> note.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote873" name=
+"footnote873"></a> <b>Footnote 873</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag873">(return)</a>
+<p>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, <i>Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum
+Oldenburg</i> (Oldenburg, 1867), i. p. 357, &sect; 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?</p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote874" name=
+"footnote874"></a> <b>Footnote 874</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag874">(return)</a>
+<p>F.S. Krauss, <i>Volksglaube und religi&ouml;ser Brauch der
+S&uuml;dslaven</i> (M&uuml;nster i. W., 1890), pp. 118
+<i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote875" name=
+"footnote875"></a> <b>Footnote 875</b>: <a href=
+"#footnotetag875">(return)</a>
+<p>In German such spells are called <i>Nestelkn&uuml;pfen</i>; in
+French, <i>nouer l'aiguilette</i>. See J. Grimm, <i>Deutsche
+Mythologie</i>,<sup>4</sup> ii. 897, 983; A. Wuttke, <i>Der
+deutsche Volksaberglaube</i>,<sup>2</sup> (Berlin, 1869), p. 252
+&sect; 396; K. Doutt&eacute;, <i>Magic et Religion dans l'Afrique
+du Nord</i> (Algiers, 1908), pp. 87 <i>sq.</i>, 294 <i>sqq.</i>;
+J.L.M. Nogu&egrave;s, <i>Les Moeurs d'autrefois en Saintonge et en
+Aunis</i> (Saintes, 1891), pp. 171 <i>sq.</i></p>
+</blockquote>
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I.
+by Sir James George Frazer
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+Project Gutenberg's Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I., by Sir James George Frazer
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I.
+       A Study In Magic And Religion: The Golden Bough, Part VII., The
+       Fire-Festivals Of Europe And The Doctrine Of The External Soul
+
+
+Author: Sir James George Frazer
+
+Release Date: May 4, 2004 [EBook #12261]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BALDER THE BEAUTIFUL, VOL. I. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Million Book Project, papeters, David King, and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+A STUDY IN MAGIC AND RELIGION
+
+_THIRD EDITION_
+
+PART VII
+
+BALDER THE BEAUTIFUL
+
+VOL. I
+
+BALDER
+THE BEAUTIFUL
+
+THE FIRE-FESTIVALS OF EUROPE
+AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE EXTERNAL SOUL
+
+J.G. FRAZER, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D.
+
+FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
+PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL.
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES
+VOL. I
+
+1913
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+In this concluding part of _The Golden Bough_ I have discussed the
+problem which gives its title to the whole work. If I am right, the
+Golden Bough over which the King of the Wood, Diana's priest at Aricia,
+kept watch and ward was no other than a branch of mistletoe growing on
+an oak within the sacred grove; and as the plucking of the bough was a
+necessary prelude to the slaughter of the priest, I have been led to
+institute a parallel between the King of the Wood at Nemi and the Norse
+god Balder, who was worshipped in a sacred grove beside the beautiful
+Sogne fiord of Norway and was said to have perished by a stroke of
+mistletoe, which alone of all things on earth or in heaven could wound
+him. On the theory here suggested both Balder and the King of the Wood
+personified in a sense the sacred oak of our Aryan forefathers, and both
+had deposited their lives or souls for safety in the parasite which
+sometimes, though rarely, is found growing on an oak and by the very
+rarity of its appearance excites the wonder and stimulates the devotion
+of ignorant men. Though I am now less than ever disposed to lay weight
+on the analogy between the Italian priest and the Norse god, I have
+allowed it to stand because it furnishes me with a pretext for
+discussing not only the general question of the external soul in popular
+superstition, but also the fire-festivals of Europe, since fire played a
+part both in the myth of Balder and in the ritual of the Arician grove.
+Thus Balder the Beautiful in my hands is little more than a
+stalking-horse to carry two heavy pack-loads of facts. And what is true
+of Balder applies equally to the priest of Nemi himself, the nominal
+hero of the long tragedy of human folly and suffering which has unrolled
+itself before the readers of these volumes, and on which the curtain is
+now about to fall. He, too, for all the quaint garb he wears and the
+gravity with which he stalks across the stage, is merely a puppet, and
+it is time to unmask him before laying him up in the box.
+
+To drop metaphor, while nominally investigating a particular problem of
+ancient mythology, I have really been discussing questions of more
+general interest which concern the gradual evolution of human thought
+from savagery to civilization. The enquiry is beset with difficulties of
+many kinds, for the record of man's mental development is even more
+imperfect than the record of his physical development, and it is harder
+to read, not only by reason of the incomparably more subtle and complex
+nature of the subject, but because the reader's eyes are apt to be
+dimmed by thick mists of passion and prejudice, which cloud in a far
+less degree the fields of comparative anatomy and geology. My
+contribution to the history of the human mind consists of little more
+than a rough and purely provisional classification of facts gathered
+almost entirely from printed sources. If there is one general conclusion
+which seems to emerge from the mass of particulars, I venture to think
+that it is the essential similarity in the working of the less developed
+human mind among all races, which corresponds to the essential
+similarity in their bodily frame revealed by comparative anatomy. But
+while this general mental similarity may, I believe, be taken as
+established, we must always be on our guard against tracing to it a
+multitude of particular resemblances which may be and often are due to
+simple diffusion, since nothing is more certain than that the various
+races of men have borrowed from each other many of their arts and
+crafts, their ideas, customs, and institutions. To sift out the elements
+of culture which a race has independently evolved and to distinguish
+them accurately from those which it has derived from other races is a
+task of extreme difficulty and delicacy, which promises to occupy
+students of man for a long time to come; indeed so complex are the facts
+and so imperfect in most cases is the historical record that it may be
+doubted whether in regard to many of the lower races we shall ever
+arrive at more than probable conjectures.
+
+Since the last edition of _The Golden Bough_ was published some thirteen
+years ago, I have seen reason to change my views on several matters
+discussed in this concluding part of the work, and though I have called
+attention to these changes in the text, it may be well for the sake of
+clearness to recapitulate them here.
+
+In the first place, the arguments of Dr. Edward Westermarck have
+satisfied me that the solar theory of the European fire-festivals, which
+I accepted from W. Mannhardt, is very slightly, if at all, supported by
+the evidence and is probably erroneous. The true explanation of the
+festivals I now believe to be the one advocated by Dr. Westermarck
+himself, namely that they are purificatory in intention, the fire being
+designed not, as I formerly held, to reinforce the sun's light and heat
+by sympathetic magic, but merely to burn or repel the noxious things,
+whether conceived as material or spiritual, which threaten the life of
+man, of animals, and of plants. This aspect of the fire-festivals had
+not wholly escaped me in former editions; I pointed it out explicitly,
+but, biassed perhaps by the great authority of Mannhardt, I treated it
+as secondary and subordinate instead of primary and dominant. Out of
+deference to Mannhardt, for whose work I entertain the highest respect,
+and because the evidence for the purificatory theory of the fires is
+perhaps not quite conclusive, I have in this edition repeated and even
+reinforced the arguments for the solar theory of the festivals, so that
+the reader may see for himself what can be said on both sides of the
+question and may draw his own conclusion; but for my part I cannot but
+think that the arguments for the purificatory theory far outweigh the
+arguments for the solar theory. Dr. Westermarck based his criticisms
+largely on his own observations of the Mohammedan fire-festivals of
+Morocco, which present a remarkable resemblance to those of Christian
+Europe, though there seems no reason to assume that herein Africa has
+borrowed from Europe or Europe from Africa. So far as Europe is
+concerned, the evidence tends strongly to shew that the grand evil which
+the festivals aimed at combating was witchcraft, and that they were
+conceived to attain their end by actually burning the witches, whether
+visible or invisible, in the flames. If that was so, the wide prevalence
+and the immense popularity of the fire-festivals provides us with a
+measure for estimating the extent of the hold which the belief in
+witchcraft had on the European mind before the rise of Christianity or
+rather of rationalism; for Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant,
+accepted the old belief and enforced it in the old way by the faggot and
+the stake. It was not until human reason at last awoke after the long
+slumber of the Middle Ages that this dreadful obsession gradually passed
+away like a dark cloud from the intellectual horizon of Europe.
+
+Yet we should deceive ourselves if we imagined that the belief in
+witchcraft is even now dead in the mass of the people; on the contrary
+there is ample evidence to show that it only hibernates under the
+chilling influence of rationalism, and that it would start into active
+life if that influence were ever seriously relaxed. The truth seems to
+be that to this day the peasant remains a pagan and savage at heart; his
+civilization is merely a thin veneer which the hard knocks of life soon
+abrade, exposing the solid core of paganism and savagery below. The
+danger created by a bottomless layer of ignorance and superstition under
+the crust of civilized society is lessened, not only by the natural
+torpidity and inertia of the bucolic mind, but also by the progressive
+decrease of the rural as compared with the urban population in modern
+states; for I believe it will be found that the artisans who congregate
+in towns are far less retentive of primitive modes of thought than their
+rustic brethren. In every age cities have been the centres and as it
+were the lighthouses from which ideas radiate into the surrounding
+darkness, kindled by the friction of mind with mind in the crowded
+haunts of men; and it is natural that at these beacons of intellectual
+light all should partake in some measure of the general illumination. No
+doubt the mental ferment and unrest of great cities have their dark as
+well as their bright side; but among the evils to be apprehended from
+them the chances of a pagan revival need hardly be reckoned.
+
+Another point on which I have changed my mind is the nature of the great
+Aryan god whom the Romans called Jupiter and the Greeks Zeus. Whereas I
+formerly argued that he was primarily a personification of the sacred
+oak and only in the second place a personification of the thundering
+sky, I now invert the order of his divine functions and believe that he
+was a sky-god before he came to be associated with the oak. In fact, I
+revert to the traditional view of Jupiter, recant my heresy, and am
+gathered like a lost sheep into the fold of mythological orthodoxy. The
+good shepherd who has brought me back is my friend Mr. W. Warde Fowler.
+He has removed the stone over which I stumbled in the wilderness by
+explaining in a simple and natural way how a god of the thundering sky
+might easily come to be afterwards associated with the oak. The
+explanation turns on the great frequency with which, as statistics
+prove, the oak is struck by lightning beyond any other tree of the wood
+in Europe. To our rude forefathers, who dwelt in the gloomy depths of
+the primaeval forest, it might well seem that the riven and blackened
+oaks must indeed be favourites of the sky-god, who so often descended on
+them from the murky cloud in a flash of lightning and a crash of
+thunder.
+
+This change of view as to the great Aryan god necessarily affects my
+interpretation of the King of the Wood, the priest of Diana at Aricia,
+if I may take that discarded puppet out of the box again for a moment.
+On my theory the priest represented Jupiter in the flesh, and
+accordingly, if Jupiter was primarily a sky-god, his priest cannot have
+been a mere incarnation of the sacred oak, but must, like the deity
+whose commission he bore, have been invested in the imagination of his
+worshippers with the power of overcasting the heaven with clouds and
+eliciting storms of thunder and rain from the celestial vault. The
+attribution of weather-making powers to kings or priests is very common
+in primitive society, and is indeed one of the principal levers by which
+such personages raise themselves to a position of superiority above
+their fellows. There is therefore no improbability in the supposition
+that as a representative of Jupiter the priest of Diana enjoyed this
+reputation, though positive evidence of it appears to be lacking.
+
+Lastly, in the present edition I have shewn some grounds for thinking
+that the Golden Bough itself, or in common parlance the mistletoe on the
+oak, was supposed to have dropped from the sky upon the tree in a flash
+of lightning and therefore to contain within itself the seed of
+celestial fire, a sort of smouldering thunderbolt. This view of the
+priest and of the bough which he guarded at the peril of his life has
+the advantage of accounting for the importance which the sanctuary at
+Nemi acquired and the treasure which it amassed through the offerings of
+the faithful; for the shrine would seem to have been to ancient what
+Loreto has been to modern Italy, a place of pilgrimage, where princes
+and nobles as well as commoners poured wealth into the coffers of Diana
+in her green recess among the Alban hills, just as in modern times kings
+and queens vied with each other in enriching the black Virgin who from
+her Holy House on the hillside at Loreto looks out on the blue Adriatic
+and the purple Apennines. Such pious prodigality becomes more
+intelligible if the greatest of the gods was indeed believed to dwell in
+human shape with his wife among the woods of Nemi.
+
+These are the principal points on which I have altered my opinion since
+the last edition of my book was published. The mere admission of such
+changes may suffice to indicate the doubt and uncertainty which attend
+enquiries of this nature. The whole fabric of ancient mythology is so
+foreign to our modern ways of thought, and the evidence concerning it is
+for the most part so fragmentary, obscure, and conflicting that in our
+attempts to piece together and interpret it we can hardly hope to reach
+conclusions that will completely satisfy either ourselves or others. In
+this as in other branches of study it is the fate of theories to be
+washed away like children's castles of sand by the rising tide of
+knowledge, and I am not so presumptuous as to expect or desire for mine
+an exemption from the common lot. I hold them all very lightly and have
+used them chiefly as convenient pegs on which to hang my collections of
+facts. For I believe that, while theories are transitory, a record of
+facts has a permanent value, and that as a chronicle of ancient customs
+and beliefs my book may retain its utility when my theories are as
+obsolete as the customs and beliefs themselves deserve to be.
+
+I cannot dismiss without some natural regret a task which has occupied
+and amused me at intervals for many years. But the regret is tempered by
+thankfulness and hope. I am thankful that I have been able to conclude
+at least one chapter of the work I projected a long time ago. I am
+hopeful that I may not now be taking a final leave of my indulgent
+readers, but that, as I am sensible of little abatement in my bodily
+strength and of none in my ardour for study, they will bear with me yet
+a while if I should attempt to entertain them with fresh subjects of
+laughter and tears drawn from the comedy and the tragedy of man's
+endless quest after happiness and truth.
+
+J.G. FRAZER.
+
+CAMBRIDGE, 17_th October_ 1913.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+PREFACE, Pp. v-xii
+
+CHAPTER I.--BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH, Pp. 1-21
+
+Sec. 1. _Not to touch the Earth_, pp. 1-18.--The priest of Aricia and the
+Golden Bough, 1 _sq._; sacred kings and priests forbidden to touch the
+ground with their feet, 2-4; certain persons on certain occasions
+forbidden to touch the ground with their feet, 4-6; sacred persons
+apparently thought to be charged with a mysterious virtue which will run
+to waste or explode by contact with the ground, 6 _sq._; things as well
+as persons charged with the mysterious virtue of holiness or taboo and
+therefore kept from contact with the ground, 7; festival of the wild
+mango, which is not allowed to touch the earth, 7-11; other sacred
+objects kept from contact with the ground, 11 _sq._; sacred food not
+allowed to touch the earth, 13 _sq._; magical implements and remedies
+thought to lose their virtue by contact with the ground, 14 _sq._;
+serpents' eggs or snake stones, 15 _sq._; medicinal plants, water, etc.,
+not allowed to touch the earth, 17 _sq._
+
+Sec. 2. _Not to see the Sun_, pp. 18-21.--Sacred persons not allowed to see
+the sun, 18-20; tabooed persons not allowed to see the sun, 20; certain
+persons forbidden to see fire, 20 _sq._; the story of Prince Sunless,
+21.
+
+CHAPTER II.--THE SECLUSION OF GIRLS AT PUBERTY, Pp. 22-100
+
+Sec. 1. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Africa_, pp. 22-32.--Girls at
+puberty forbidden to touch the ground and see the sun, 22; seclusion of
+girls at puberty among the Zulus and kindred tribes, 22; among the
+A-Kamba of British East Africa, 23; among the Baganda of Central Africa,
+23 _sq._; among the tribes of the Tanganyika plateau, 24 _sq._; among
+the tribes of British Central Africa, 25 _sq._; abstinence from salt
+associated with a rule of chastity in many tribes, 26-28; seclusion of
+girls at puberty among the tribes about Lake Nyassa and on the Zambesi,
+28 _sq._; among the Thonga of Delagoa Bay, 29 _sq._; among the Caffre
+tribes of South Africa, 30 _sq._; among the Bavili of the Lower Congo,
+31 _sq._
+
+Sec. 2. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in New Ireland, New Guinea, and
+Indonesia_, pp. 32-36.--Seclusion of girls at puberty in New Ireland,
+32-34; in New Guinea, Borneo, Ceram, and the Caroline Islands, 35 _sq._
+
+Sec. 3. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in the Torres Straits Islands and
+Northern Australia_, pp. 36-41.--Seclusion of girls at puberty in
+Mabuiag, Torres Straits, 36 _sq._; in Northern Australia, 37-39; in the
+islands of Torres Straits, 39-41.
+
+Sec. 4. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of North America_,
+pp. 41-55.--Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of
+California, 41-43; among the Indians of Washington State, 43; among the
+Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island, 43 _sq._; among the Haida Indians of
+the Queen Charlotte Islands, 44 _sq._; among the Tlingit Indians of
+Alaska, 45 _sq._; among the Tsetsaut and Bella Coola Indians of British
+Columbia, 46 _sq._; among the Tinneh Indians of British Columbia, 47
+_sq._; among the Tinneh Indians of Alaska, 48 _sq._; among the Thompson
+Indians of British Columbia, 49-52; among the Lillooet Indians of
+British Columbia, 52 _sq._; among the Shuswap Indians of British
+Columbia, 53 _sq._; among the Delaware and Cheyenne Indians, 54 _sq._;
+among the Esquimaux, 55 _sq._
+
+Sec. 5. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of South America_,
+pp. 56-68.--Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Guaranis,
+Chiriguanos, and Lengua Indians, 56 _sq._; among the Yuracares of
+Bolivia, 57 _sq._; among the Indians of the Gran Chaco, 58 _sq._; among
+the Indians of Brazil, 59 _sq._; among the Indians of Guiana, 60 _sq._;
+beating the girls and stinging them with ants, 61; stinging young men
+with ants and wasps as an initiatory rite, 61-63; stinging men and women
+with ants to improve their character or health or to render them
+invulnerable, 63 _sq._; in such cases the beating or stinging was
+originally a purification, not a test of courage and endurance, 65
+_sq._; this explanation confirmed by the beating of girls among the
+Banivas of the Orinoco to rid them of a demon, 66-68; symptoms of
+puberty in a girl regarded as wounds inflicted on her by a demon, 68.
+
+Sec. 6. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in India and Cambodia_, pp.
+68-70.--Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Hindoos, 68; in Southern
+India, 68-70; in Cambodia, 70.
+
+Sec. 7. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Folk-tales_, pp. 70-76.--Danish
+story of the girl who might not see the sun, 70-72; Tyrolese story of
+the girl who might not see the sun, 72; modern Greek stories of the maid
+who might not see the sun, 72 _sq._; ancient Greek story of Danae and
+its parallel in a Kirghiz legend, 73 _sq._; impregnation of women by the
+sun in legends, 74 _sq._; traces in marriage customs of the belief that
+women can be impregnated by the sun, 75; belief in the impregnation of
+women by the moon, 75 _sq._
+
+Sec. 8. _Reasons for the Seclusion of Girls at Puberty_, pp. 76-100.--The
+reason for the seclusion of girls at puberty is the dread of menstruous
+blood, 76; dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the aborigines
+of Australia, 76-78; in Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea, Galela, and
+Sumatra, 78 _sq._; among the tribes of South Africa, 79 _sq._; among the
+tribes of Central and East Africa, 80-82; among the tribes of West
+Africa, 82; powerful influence ascribed to menstruous blood in Arab
+legend, 82 _sq._; dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Jews
+and in Syria, 83 _sq._; in India, 84 _sq._; in Annam, 85; among the
+Indians of Central and South America, 85 _sq._; among the Indians of
+North America, 87-94; among the Creek, Choctaw, Omaha and Cheyenne
+Indians, 88 _sq._; among the Indians of British Columbia, 89 _sq._;
+among the Chippeway Indians, 90 _sq._; among the Tinneh or Dene Indians,
+91; among the Carrier Indians, 91-94; similar rules of seclusion
+enjoined on menstruous women in ancient Hindoo, Persian, and Hebrew
+codes, 94-96; superstitions as to menstruous women in ancient and modern
+Europe, 96 _sq._; the intention of secluding menstruous women is to
+neutralize the dangerous influences which are thought to emanate from
+them in that condition, 97; suspension between heaven and earth, 97; the
+same explanation applies to the similar rules of seclusion observed by
+divine kings and priests, 97-99; stories of immortality attained by
+suspension between heaven and earth, 99 _sq._
+
+CHAPTER III.--THE MYTH OF BALDER, Pp. 101-105
+
+How Balder, the good and beautiful god, was done to death by a stroke of
+mistletoe, 101 _sq._; story of Balder in the older _Edda_, 102 _sq._;
+story of Balder as told by Saxo Grammaticus, 103; Balder worshipped in
+Norway, 104; legendary death of Balder resembles the legendary death of
+Isfendiyar in the epic of Firdusi, 104 _sq._; the myth of Balder perhaps
+acted as a magical ceremony; the two main incidents of the myth, namely
+the pulling of the mistletoe and the burning of the god, have perhaps
+their counterpart in popular ritual, 105.
+
+CHAPTER IV.--THE FIRE FESTIVALS OF EUROPE, Pp. 106-327
+
+Sec. 1. _The Lenten Fires_, pp. 106-120.--European custom of kindling
+bonfires on certain days of the year, dancing round them, leaping over
+them, and burning effigies in the flames, 106; seasons of the year at
+which the bonfires are lit, 106 _sq._; bonfires on the first Sunday in
+Lent in the Belgian Ardennes, 107 _sq._; in the French department of the
+Ardennes, 109 _sq._; in Franche-Comte, 110 _sq._; in Auvergne, 111-113;
+French custom of carrying lighted torches (_brandons_) about the
+orchards and fields to fertilize them on the first Sunday of Lent,
+113-115; bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in Germany and Austria,
+115 _sq._; "burning the witch," 116; burning discs thrown into the air,
+116 _sq._; burning wheels rolled down hill, 117 _sq._; bonfires on the
+first Sunday in Lent in Switzerland, 118 _sq._; burning discs thrown
+into the air, 119; connexion of these fires with the custom of "carrying
+out Death," 119 _sq._
+
+Sec. 2. _The Easter Fires_, 120-146.--Custom in Catholic countries of
+kindling a holy new fire on Easter Saturday, marvellous properties
+ascribed to the embers of the fire, 121; effigy of Judas burnt in the
+fire, 121; Easter fires in Bavaria and the Abruzzi, 122; water as well
+as fire consecrated at Easter in Italy, Bohemia, and Germany, 122-124;
+new fire at Easter in Carinthia, 124; Thomas Kirchmeyer's account of the
+consecration of fire and water by the Catholic Church at Easter, 124
+_sq._; the new fire on Easter Saturday at Florence, 126 _sq._; the new
+fire and the burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in Mexico and South
+America, 127 _sq._; the new fire on Easter Saturday in the Church of the
+Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, 128-130; the new fire and the burning of
+Judas on Easter Saturday in Greece, 130 _sq._; the new fire at Candlemas
+in Armenia, 131; the new fire and the burning of Judas at Easter are
+probably relics of paganism, 131 _sq._; new fire at the summer solstice
+among the Incas of Peru, 132; new fire among the Indians of Mexico and
+New Mexico, the Iroquois, and the Esquimaux, 132-134; new fire in Wadai,
+among the Swahili, and in other parts of Africa, 134-136; new fires
+among the Todas and Nagas of India, 136; new fire in China and Japan,
+137 _sq._; new fire in ancient Greece and Rome, 138; new fire at
+Hallowe'en among the old Celts of Ireland, 139; new fire on the first of
+September among the Russian peasants, 139; the rite of the new fire
+probably common to many peoples of the Mediterranean area before the
+rise of Christianity, 139 _sq._; the pagan character of the Easter fire
+manifest from the superstitions associated with it, such as the belief
+that the fire fertilizes the fields and protects houses from
+conflagration and sickness, 140 _sq._; the Easter fires in Muensterland,
+Oldenburg, the Harz Mountains, and the Altmark, 141-143; Easter fires
+and the burning of Judas or the Easter Man in Bavaria, 143 _sq._; Easter
+fires and "thunder poles" in Baden, 145; Easter fires in Holland and
+Sweden, 145 _sq._; the burning of Judas in Bohemia, 146.
+
+Sec. 3. _The Beltane Fires_, pp. 146-160.--The Beltane fires on the first
+of May in the Highlands of Scotland, 146-154; John Ramsay of Ochtertyre,
+his description of the Beltane fires and cakes and the Beltane carline,
+146-149; Beltane fires and cakes in Perthshire, 150-153; Beltane fires
+in the north-east of Scotland to burn the witches, 153 _sq._; Beltane
+fires and cakes in the Hebrides, 154; Beltane fires and cakes in Wales,
+155-157; in the Isle of Man to burn the witches, 157; in
+Nottinghamshire, 157; in Ireland, 157-159; fires on the Eve of May Day
+in Sweden, 159; in Austria and Saxony to burn the witches, 159 _sq._
+
+Sec. 4. _The Midsummer Fires_, pp. 160-219.--The great season for
+fire-festivals in Europe is Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day, which the
+church has dedicated to St. John the Baptist, 160 _sq._; the bonfires,
+the torches, and the burning wheels of the festival, 161; Thomas
+Kirchmeyer's description of the Midsummer festival, 162 _sq._; the
+Midsummer fires in Germany, 163-171; burning wheel rolled down hill at
+Konz on the Moselle, 163 _sq._; Midsummer fires in Bavaria, 164-166; in
+Swabia, 166 _sq._; in Baden, 167-169; in Alsace, Lorraine, the Eifel,
+the Harz district, and Thuringia, 169; Midsummer fires kindled by the
+friction of wood, 169 _sq._; driving away the witches and demons, 170;
+Midsummer fires in Silesia, scaring away the witches, 170 _sq._;
+Midsummer fires in Denmark and Norway, keeping off the witches, 171;
+Midsummer fires in Sweden, 172; Midsummer fires in Switzerland and
+Austria, 172 _sq._; in Bohemia, 173-175; in Moravia, Austrian Silesia,
+and the district of Cracow, 175; among the Slavs of Russia, 176; in
+Prussia and Lithuania as a protection against witchcraft, thunder, hail,
+and cattle disease, 176 _sq._; in Masuren the fire is kindled by the
+revolution of a wheel, 177; Midsummer fires among the Letts of Russia,
+177 _sq._; among the South Slavs, 178; among the Magyars, 178 _sq._;
+among the Esthonians, 179 _sq._; among the Finns and Cheremiss of
+Russia, 180 _sq._; in France, 181-194; Bossuet on the Midsummer
+festival, 182; the Midsummer fires in Brittany, 183-185; in Normandy,
+the Brotherhood of the Green Wolf at Jumieges, 185 _sq._; Midsummer
+fires in Picardy, 187 _sq._; in Beauce and Perche, 188; the fires a
+protection against witchcraft, 188; the Midsummer fires in the Ardennes,
+the Vosges, and the Jura, 188 _sq._; in Franche-Comte, 189; in Berry and
+other parts of Central France, 189 _sq._; in Poitou, 190 _sq._; in the
+departments of Vienne and Deux-Sevres and in the provinces of Saintonge
+and Aunis, 191 _sq._; in Southern France, 192 _sq._; Midsummer festival
+of fire and water in Provence, 193 _sq._; Midsummer fires in Belgium,
+194-196; in England, 196-200; Stow's description of the Midsummer fires
+in London, 196 _sq._; John Aubrey on the Midsummer fires, 197; Midsummer
+fires in Cumberland, Northumberland, and Yorkshire, 197 _sq._; in
+Herefordshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, 199 _sq._; in
+Wales and the Isle of Man, 200 _sq._; in Ireland, 201-205; holy wells
+resorted to on Midsummer Eve in Ireland, 205 _sq._; Midsummer fires in
+Scotland, 206 _sq._; Midsummer fires and divination in Spain and the
+Azores, 208 _sq._; Midsummer fires in Corsica and Sardinia, 209; in the
+Abruzzi, 209 _sq._; in Sicily, 210; in Malta, 210 _sq._; in Greece and
+the Greek islands, 211 _sq._; in Macedonia and Albania, 212; in South
+America, 212 _sq._; among the Mohammedans of Morocco and Algeria,
+213-216; the Midsummer festival in North Africa comprises rites of water
+as well as fire, 216; similar festival of fire and water at New Year in
+North Africa, 217 _sq._; the duplication of the festival probably due to
+a conflict between the solar calendar of the Romans and the lunar
+calendar of the Arabs, 218 _sg._; the Midsummer festival in Morocco
+apparently of Berber origin, 219.
+
+Sec. 5. _The Autumn Fires_, pp. 220-222.--Festivals of fire in August, 220;
+"living fire" made by the friction of wood, 220; feast of the Nativity
+of the Virgin on the eighth of September at Capri and Naples, 220-222.
+
+Sec. 6. _The Halloween Fires_, pp. 222-246.--While the Midsummer festival
+implies observation of the solstices, the Celts appear to have divided
+their year, without regard to the solstices, by the times when they
+drove their cattle to and from the summer pasture on the first of May
+and the last of October (Hallowe'en), 222-224; the two great Celtic
+festivals of Beltane (May Day) and Hallowe'en (the last of October),
+224; Hallowe'en seems to have marked the beginning of the Celtic year,
+224 _sq._; it was a season of divination and a festival of the dead, 225
+_sq._; fairies and hobgoblins let loose at Hallowe'en, 226-228;
+divination in Celtic countries at Hallowe'en, 228 _sq._; Hallowe'en
+bonfires in the Highlands of Scotland, 229-232; Hallowe'en fires in
+Buchan to burn the witches, 232 _sq._; processions with torches at
+Hallowe'en in the Braemar Highlands, 233 _sq._; divination at Hallowe'en
+in the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland, 234-239; Hallowe'en fires in
+Wales, omens drawn from stones cast into the fires, 239 _sq._;
+divination at Hallowe'en in Wales, 240 _sq._; divination at Hallowe'en
+in Ireland, 241-243; Hallowe'en fires and divination in the Isle of Man,
+243 _sq._; Hallowe'en fires and divination in Lancashire, 244 _sq._;
+marching with lighted candles to keep off the witches, 245; divination
+at Hallowe'en in Northumberland, 245; Hallowe'en fires in France, 245
+_sq._
+
+Sec. 7. _The Midwinter Fires_, pp. 246-269.--Christmas the continuation of
+an old heathen festival of the sun, 246; the Yule log the Midwinter
+counterpart of the Midsummer bonfire, 247; the Yule log in Germany,
+247-249; in Switzerland, 249; in Belgium, 249; in France, 249-255;
+French superstitions as to the Yule log, 250; the Yule log at Marseilles
+and in Perigord, 250 _sq._; in Berry, 251 _sq._; in Normandy and
+Brittany, 252 _sq._; in the Ardennes, 253 _sq._; in the Vosges, 254; in
+Franche-Comte, 254 _sq._; the Yule log and Yule candle in England,
+255-258; the Yule log in the north of England and Yorkshire, 256 _sq._;
+in Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire, 257 _sq._;
+in Wales, 258; in Servia, 258-262; among the Servians of Slavonia, 262
+_sq._; among the Servians of Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro, 263
+_sq._; in Albania, 264; belief that the Yule log protects against fire
+and lightning, 264 _sq._; public fire-festivals at Midwinter, 265-269;
+Christmas bonfire at Schweina in Thuringia, 265 _sq._; Christmas
+bonfires in Normandy, 266; bonfires on St. Thomas's Day in the Isle of
+Man, 266; the "Burning of the Clavie" at Burghead on the last day of
+December, 266-268; Christmas procession with burning tar-barrels at
+Lerwick, 268 _sq._
+
+Sec. 8. _The Need-fire_, pp. 269-300.--Need-fire kindled not at fixed
+periods but on occasions of distress and calamity, 269; the need-fire in
+the Middle Ages and down to the end of the sixteenth century, 270 _sq._;
+mode of kindling the need-fire by the friction of wood, 271 _sq_.; the
+need-fire in Central Germany, particularly about Hildesheim, 272 _sq._;
+the need-fire in the Mark, 273; in Mecklenburg, 274 _sq._; in Hanover,
+275 _sq._; in the Harz Mountains, 276 _sq._; in Brunswick, 277 _sq._; in
+Silesia and Bohemia, 278 _sq._; in Switzerland, 279 _sq._; in Sweden and
+Norway, 280; among the Slavonic peoples, 281-286; in Russia and Poland,
+281 _sq._; in Slavonia, 282; in Servia, 282-284; in Bulgaria, 284-286;
+in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 286; in England, 286-289; in Yorkshire,
+286-288; in Northumberland, 288 _sq._; in Scotland, 289-297; Martin's
+account of it in the Highlands, 289; the need-fire in Mull, 289 _sq._;
+in Caithness, 290-292; W. Grant Stewart's account of the need-fire, 292
+_sq._; Alexander Carmichael's account, 293-295; the need-fire in
+Aberdeenshire, 296; in Perthshire, 296 _sq._; in Ireland, 297; the use
+of need-fire a relic of the time when all fires were similarly kindled
+by the friction of wood, 297 _sq._; the belief that need-fire cannot
+kindle if any other fire remains alight in the neighbourhood, 298 _sq._;
+the need-fire among the Iroquois of North America, 299 _sq._
+
+Sec. 9. _The Sacrifice of an Animal to stay a Cattle-plague_, pp.
+300-327.--The burnt sacrifice of a calf in England and Wales, 300 _sq._;
+burnt sacrifices of animals in Scotland, 301 _sq._; calf burnt in order
+to break a spell which has been cast on the herd, 302 _sq._; mode in
+which the burning of a bewitched animal is supposed to break the spell,
+303-305; in burning the bewitched animal you burn the witch herself,
+305; practice of burning cattle and sheep as sacrifices in the Isle of
+Man, 305-307; by burning a bewitched animal you compel the witch to
+appear, 307; magic sympathy between the witch and the bewitched animal,
+308; similar sympathy between a were-wolf and his or her human shape,
+wounds inflicted on the animal are felt by the man or woman, 308;
+were-wolves in Europe, 308-310; in China, 310 _sq._; among the Toradjas
+of Central Celebes, 311-313 _sq._; in the Egyptian Sudan, 313 _sq._; the
+were-wolf story in Petronius, 313 _sq._; witches like were-wolves can
+temporarily transform themselves into animals, and wounds inflicted on
+the transformed animals appear on the persons of the witches, 315 _sq._;
+instances of such transformations and wounds in Scotland, England,
+Ireland, France, and Germany, 316-321; hence the reason for burning
+bewitched animals is either to burn the witch herself or at all events
+to compel her to appear, 321 _sq._; the like reason for burning
+bewitched things, 322 _sq._; similarly by burning alive a person whose
+likeness a witch has assumed you compel the witch to disclose herself,
+323; woman burnt alive as a witch in Ireland at the end of the
+nineteenth century, 323 _sq._; bewitched animals sometimes buried alive
+instead of being burned, 324-326; calves killed and buried to save the
+rest of the herd, 326 _sq_.
+
+CHAPTER V.--THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRE-FESTIVALS, Pp. 328-346
+
+Sec. 1. _On the Fire-festivals in general_ pp. 328-331.--General
+resemblance of the fire-festivals to each other, 328 _sq._; two
+explanations of the festivals suggested, one by W. Mannhardt that they
+are sun-charms, the other by Dr. E. Westermarck that they are
+purificatory, 329 _sq._; the two explanations perhaps not mutually
+exclusive, 330 _sq._
+
+Sec. 2. _The Solar Theory of the Fire-festivals_, pp. 331-341.--Theory that
+the fire-festivals are charms to ensure a supply of sunshine, 331;
+coincidence of two of the festivals with the solstices, 331 _sq._;
+attempt of the Bushmen to warm up the fire of Sirius in midwinter by
+kindling sticks, 332 _sq._; the burning wheels and discs of the
+fire-festivals may be direct imitations of the sun, 334; the wheel which
+is sometimes used to kindle the fire by friction may also be an
+imitation of the sun, 334-336; the influence which the bonfires 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, 336-338; 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, 338 _sq._; the carrying of lighted torches about the country at
+the festivals may be explained as an attempt to diffuse the sun's heat,
+339-341.
+
+Sec. 3. _The Purificatory Theory of the Fire-festivals_, pp.
+341-346.--Theory that the fires at the festivals are purificatory, being
+intended to burn up all harmful things, 341; the purificatory or
+destructive effect of the fires is often alleged by the people who light
+them, and there is no reason to reject this explanation, 341 _sq._; the
+great evil against which the fire at the festivals appears to be
+directed is witchcraft, 342; among 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, 343
+_sq._; again, the bonfires are thought to avert hail, thunder,
+lightning, and various maladies, all of which are attributed to the
+maleficent arts of witches, 344 _sq._; the burning wheels rolled down
+hill and the burning discs thrown into the air may be intended to burn
+the invisible witches, 345 _sq._; on this view the fertility supposed to
+follow the use of fire results indirectly from breaking the spells of
+witches, 346; on the whole the theory of the purificatory or destructive
+intention of the fire-festivals seems the more probable, 346.
+
+[Transcriber's Note: The brief descriptions often found enclosed in
+square brackets are "sidenotes", which appeared in the original book in
+the margins of the paragraph following the "sidenote." Footnotes were
+originally at the bottoms of the printed pages.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH
+
+
+Sec. 1. _Not to touch the Earth_
+
+
+[The priest of Aricia and the Golden Bough]
+
+We have travelled far since we turned our backs on Nemi and set forth in
+quest of the secret of the Golden Bough. With the present volume we
+enter on the last stage of our long journey. The reader who has had the
+patience to follow the enquiry thus far may remember that at the outset
+two questions were proposed for answer: Why had the priest of Aricia to
+slay his predecessor? And why, before doing so, had he to pluck the
+Golden Bough?[1] Of these two questions the first has now been answered.
+The priest of Aricia, if I am right, was one of those sacred kings or
+human divinities on whose life the welfare of the community and even the
+course of nature in general are believed to be intimately dependent. It
+does not appear that the subjects or worshippers of such a spiritual
+potentate form to themselves any very clear notion of the exact
+relationship in which they stand to him; probably their ideas on the
+point are vague and fluctuating, and we should err if we attempted to
+define the relationship with logical precision. All that the people
+know, or rather imagine, is that somehow they themselves, their cattle,
+and their crops are mysteriously bound up with their divine king, so
+that according as he is well or ill the community is healthy or sickly,
+the flocks and herds thrive or languish with disease, and the fields
+yield an abundant or a scanty harvest. The worst evil which they can
+conceive of is the natural death of their ruler, whether he succumb to
+sickness or old age, for in the opinion of his followers such a death
+would entail the most disastrous consequences on themselves and their
+possessions; fatal epidemics would sweep away man and beast, the earth
+would refuse her increase, nay the very frame of nature itself might be
+dissolved. To guard against these catastrophes it is necessary to put
+the king to death while he is still in the full bloom of his divine
+manhood, in order that his sacred life, transmitted in unabated force to
+his successor, may renew its youth, and thus by successive transmissions
+through a perpetual line of vigorous incarnations may remain eternally
+fresh and young, a pledge and security that men and animals shall in
+like manner renew their youth by a perpetual succession of generations,
+and that seedtime and harvest, and summer and winter, and rain and
+sunshine shall never fail. That, if my conjecture is right, was why the
+priest of Aricia, the King of the Wood at Nemi, had regularly to perish
+by the sword of his successor.
+
+[What was the Golden Bough?]
+
+But we have still to ask, What was the Golden Bough? and why had each
+candidate for the Arician priesthood to pluck it before he could slay
+the priest? These questions I will now try to answer.
+
+[Sacred kings and priests forbidden to touch the ground with their
+feet.]
+
+It will be well to begin by noticing two of those rules or taboos by
+which, as we have seen, the life of divine kings or priests is
+regulated. The first of the rules to which I desire to call the reader's
+attention is that the divine personage may not touch the ground with his
+foot. This rule was observed by the supreme pontiff of the Zapotecs in
+Mexico; he profaned his sanctity if he so much as touched the ground
+with his foot.[2] Montezuma, emperor of Mexico, never set foot on the
+ground; he was always carried on the shoulders of noblemen, and if he
+lighted anywhere they laid rich tapestry for him to walk upon.[3] For
+the Mikado of Japan to touch the ground with his foot was a shameful
+degradation; indeed, in the sixteenth century, it was enough to deprive
+him of his office. Outside his palace he was carried on men's shoulders;
+within it he walked on exquisitely wrought mats.[4] The king and queen
+of Tahiti might not touch the ground anywhere but within their
+hereditary domains; for the ground on which they trod became sacred. In
+travelling from place to place they were carried on the shoulders of
+sacred men. They were always accompanied by several pairs of these
+sanctified attendants; and when it became necessary to change their
+bearers, the king and queen vaulted on to the shoulders of their new
+bearers without letting their feet touch the ground.[5] It was an evil
+omen if the king of Dosuma touched the ground, and he had to perform an
+expiatory ceremony.[6] Within his palace the king of Persia walked on
+carpets on which no one else might tread; outside of it he was never
+seen on foot but only in a chariot or on horseback.[7] In old days the
+king of Siam never set foot upon the earth, but was carried on a throne
+of gold from place to place.[8] Formerly neither the kings of Uganda,
+nor their mothers, nor their queens might walk on foot outside of the
+spacious enclosures in which they lived. Whenever they went forth they
+were carried on the shoulders of men of the Buffalo clan, several of
+whom accompanied any of these royal personages on a journey and took it
+in turn to bear the burden. The king sat astride the bearer's neck with
+a leg over each shoulder and his feet tucked under the bearer's arms.
+When one of these royal carriers grew tired he shot the king on to the
+shoulders of a second man without allowing the royal feet to touch the
+ground. In this way they went at a great pace and travelled long
+distances in a day, when the king was on a journey. The bearers had a
+special hut in the king's enclosure in order to be at hand the moment
+they were wanted.[9] Among the Bakuba or rather Bushongo, a nation in
+the southern region of the Congo, down to a few years ago persons of the
+royal blood were forbidden to touch the ground; they must sit on a hide,
+a chair, or the back of a slave, who crouched on hands and feet; their
+feet rested on the feet of others. When they travelled they were carried
+on the backs of men; but the king journeyed in a litter supported on
+shafts.[10] Among the Ibo people about Awka, in Southern Nigeria, the
+priest of the Earth has to observe many taboos; for example, he may not
+see a corpse, and if he meets one on the road he must hide his eyes with
+his wristlet. He must abstain from many foods, such as eggs, birds of
+all sorts, mutton, dog, bush-buck, and so forth. He may neither wear nor
+touch a mask, and no masked man may enter his house. If a dog enters his
+house, it is killed and thrown out. As priest of the Earth he may not
+sit on the bare ground, nor eat things that have fallen on the ground,
+nor may earth be thrown at him.[11] According to ancient Brahmanic
+ritual a king at his inauguration trod on a tiger's skin and a golden
+plate; he was shod with shoes of boar's skin, and so long as he lived
+thereafter he might not stand on the earth with his bare feet.[12]
+
+[Certain persons on certain occasions forbidden to touch the ground with
+their feet.]
+
+But besides persons who are permanently sacred or tabooed and are
+therefore permanently forbidden to touch the ground with their feet,
+there are others who enjoy the character of sanctity or taboo only on
+certain occasions, and to whom accordingly the prohibition in question
+only applies at the definite seasons during which they exhale the odour
+of sanctity. Thus among the Kayans or Bahaus of Central Borneo, while
+the priestesses are engaged in the performance of certain rites they may
+not step on the ground, and boards are laid for them to tread on.[13] At
+a funeral ceremony observed by night among the Michemis, a Tibetan tribe
+near the northern frontier of Assam, a priest fantastically bedecked
+with tiger's teeth, many-coloured plumes, bells, and shells, executed a
+wild dance for the purpose of exorcising the evil spirits; then all
+fires were extinguished and a new light was struck by a man suspended by
+his feet from a beam in the ceiling; "he did not touch the ground," we
+are told, "in order to indicate that the light came from heaven."[14]
+Again, newly born infants are strongly tabooed; accordingly in Loango
+they are not allowed to touch the earth.[15] Among the Iluvans of
+Malabar the bridegroom on his wedding-day is bathed by seven young men
+and then carried or walks on planks from the bathing-place to the
+marriage booth; he may not touch the ground with his feet.[16] With the
+Dyaks of Landak and Tajan, two districts of Dutch Borneo, it is a custom
+that for a certain time after marriage neither bride nor bridegroom may
+tread on the earth.[17] Warriors, again, on the war-path are surrounded,
+so to say, by an atmosphere of taboo; hence some Indians of North
+America might not sit on the bare ground the whole time they were out on
+a warlike expedition.[18] In Laos the hunting of elephants gives rise to
+many taboos; one of them is that the chief hunter may not touch the
+earth with his foot. Accordingly, when he alights from his elephant, the
+others spread a carpet of leaves for him to step upon.[19] German
+wiseacres recommended that when witches were led to the block or the
+stake, they should not be allowed to touch the bare earth, and a reason
+suggested for the rule was that if they touched the earth they might
+make themselves invisible and so escape. The sagacious author of _The
+Striped-petticoat Philosophy_ in the eighteenth century ridicules the
+idea as mere silly talk. He admits, indeed, that the women were conveyed
+to the place of execution in carts; but he denies that there is any deep
+significance in the cart, and he is prepared to maintain this view by a
+chemical analysis of the timber of which the cart was built. To clinch
+his argument he appeals to plain matter of fact and his own personal
+experience. Not a single instance, he assures us with apparent
+satisfaction, can be produced of a witch who escaped the axe or the fire
+in this fashion. "I have myself," says he, "in my youth seen divers
+witches burned, some at Arnstadt, some at Ilmenau, some at Schwenda, a
+noble village between Arnstadt and Ilmenau, and some of them were
+pardoned and beheaded before being burned. They were laid on the earth
+in the place of execution and beheaded like any other poor sinner;
+whereas if they could have escaped by touching the earth, not one of
+them would have failed to do so."[20]
+
+[Sacred or tabooed persons apparently thought to be charged with a
+mysterious virtue like a fluid, which will run to waste or explode if it
+touches the ground.]
+
+Apparently holiness, magical virtue, taboo, or whatever we may call that
+mysterious quality which is supposed to pervade sacred or tabooed
+persons, is conceived by the primitive philosopher as a physical
+substance or fluid, with which the sacred man is charged just as a
+Leyden jar is charged with electricity; and exactly as the electricity
+in the jar can be discharged by contact with a good conductor, so the
+holiness or magical virtue in the man can be discharged and drained away
+by contact with the earth, which on this theory serves as an excellent
+conductor for the magical fluid. Hence in order to preserve the charge
+from running to waste, the sacred or tabooed personage must be carefully
+prevented from touching the ground; in electrical language he must be
+insulated, if he is not to be emptied of the precious substance or fluid
+with which he, as a vial, is filled to the brim. And in many cases
+apparently the insulation of the tabooed person is recommended as a
+precaution not merely for his own sake but for the sake of others; for
+since the virtue of holiness or taboo is, so to say, a powerful
+explosive which the smallest touch may detonate, it is necessary in the
+interest of the general safety to keep it within narrow bounds, lest
+breaking out it should blast, blight, and destroy whatever it comes into
+contact with.
+
+[Things as well as persons can be charged with the mysterious quality of
+holiness or taboo; and when so charged they must be kept from contact
+with the ground.]
+
+But things as well as persons are often charged with the mysterious
+quality of holiness or taboo; hence it frequently becomes necessary for
+similar reasons to guard them also from coming into contact with the
+ground, lest they should in like manner be drained of their valuable
+properties and be reduced to mere commonplace material objects, empty
+husks from which the good grain has been eliminated. Thus, for example,
+the most sacred object of the Arunta tribe in Central Australia is, or
+rather used to be, a pole about twenty feet high, which is completely
+smeared with human blood, crowned with an imitation of a human head, and
+set up on the ground where the final initiatory ceremonies of young men
+are performed. A young gum-tree is chosen to form the pole, and it must
+be cut down and transported in such a way that it does not touch the
+earth till it is erected in its place on the holy ground. Apparently the
+pole represents some famous ancestor of the olden time.[21]
+
+[Festival of the wild manog tree in British New Guinea.]
+
+Again, at a great dancing festival celebrated by the natives of Bartle
+Bay, in British New Guinea, a wild mango tree plays a prominent part.
+The tree must be self-sown, that is, really wild and so young that it
+has never flowered. It is chosen in the jungle some five or six weeks
+before the festival, and a circle is cleared round its trunk. From that
+time the master of the ceremonies and some eight to twenty other men,
+who have aided him in choosing the tree and in clearing the jungle,
+become strictly holy or tabooed. They sleep by themselves in a house
+into which no one else may intrude: they may not wash or drink water,
+nor even allow it accidentally to touch their bodies: they are forbidden
+to eat boiled food and the fruit of mango trees: they may drink only the
+milk of a young coco-nut which has been baked, and they may eat certain
+fruits and vegetables, such as paw-paws (_Carica papaya_) and
+sugar-cane, but only on condition that they have been baked. All refuse
+of their food is kept in baskets in their sleeping-house and may not be
+removed from it till the festival is over. At the time when the men
+begin to observe these rules of abstinence, some six to ten women,
+members of the same clan as the master of the ceremonies, enter on a
+like period of mortification, avoiding the company of the other sex, and
+refraining from water, all boiled food, and the fruit of the mango tree.
+These fasting men and women are the principal dancers at the festival.
+The dancing takes place on a special platform in a temporary village
+which has been erected for the purpose. When the platform is about to be
+set up, the fasting men rub the stepping posts and then suck their hands
+for the purpose of extracting the ghost of any dead man that might
+chance to be in the post and might be injured by the weight of the
+platform pressing down on him. Having carefully extracted these poor
+souls, the men carry them away tenderly and set them free in the forest
+or the long grass.
+
+[The wild mango tree not allowed to touch the ground.]
+
+On the day before the festival one of the fasting men cuts down the
+chosen mango tree in the jungle with a stone adze, which is never
+afterwards put to any other use; an iron tool may not be used for the
+purpose, though iron tools are now common enough in the district. In
+cutting down the mango they place nets on the ground to catch any leaves
+or twigs that might fall from the tree as it is being felled and they
+surround the trunk with new mats to receive the chips which fly out
+under the adze of the woodman; for the chips may not drop on the earth.
+Once the tree is down, it is carried to the centre of the temporary
+village, the greatest care being taken to prevent it from coming into
+contact with the ground. But when it is brought into the village, the
+houses are connected with the top of the mango by means of long vines
+decorated with the streamers. In the afternoon the fasting men and women
+begin to dance, the men bedizened with gay feathers, armlets, streamers,
+and anklets, the women flaunting in parti-coloured petticoats and sprigs
+of croton leaves, which wave from their waistbands as they dance. The
+dancing stops at sundown, and when the full moon rises over the shoulder
+of the eastern hill (for the date of the festival seems to be determined
+with reference to the time of the moon), two chiefs mount the gables of
+two houses on the eastern side of the square, and, their dusky figures
+standing sharply out against the moonlight, pray to the evil spirits to
+go away and not to hurt the people. Next morning pigs are killed by
+being speared as slowly as possible in order that they may squeal loud
+and long; for the people believe that the mango trees hear the
+squealing, and are pleased at the sound, and bear plenty of fruit,
+whereas if they heard no squeals they would bear no fruit. However, the
+trees have to content themselves with the squeals; the flesh of the pigs
+is eaten by the people. This ends the festival.
+
+[Final disposition of the wild mango tree.]
+
+Next day the mango is taken down from the platform, wrapt in new mats,
+and carried by the fasting men to their sleeping house, where it is hung
+from the roof. But after an interval, it may be of many months, the tree
+is brought forth again. As to the reason for its reappearance in public
+opinions are divided; but some say that the tree itself orders the
+master of the ceremonies to bring it forth, appearing to him in his
+dreams and saying, "Let me smell the smoking fat of pigs. So will your
+pigs be healthy and your crops will grow." Be that as it may, out it
+comes, conducted by the fasting men in their dancing costume; and with
+it come in the solemn procession all the pots, spoons, cups and so forth
+used by the fasting men during their period of holiness or taboo, also
+all the refuse of their food which has been collected for months, and
+all the fallen leaves and chips of the mango in their bundles of mats.
+These holy relics are carried in front and the mango tree itself brings
+up the rear of the procession. While these sacred objects are being
+handed out of the house, the men who are present rush up, wipe off the
+hallowed dust which has accumulated on them, and smear it over their own
+bodies, no doubt in order to steep themselves in their blessed
+influence. Thus the tree is carried as before to the centre of the
+temporary village, care being again taken not to let it touch the
+ground. Then one of the fasting men takes from a basket a number of
+young green mangoes, cuts them in pieces, and places them with his own
+hands in the mouths of his fellows, the other fasting men, who chew the
+pieces small and turning round spit the morsels in the direction of the
+setting sun, in order that "the sun should carry the mango bits over the
+whole country and everyone should know." A portion of the mango tree is
+then broken off and in the evening it is burnt along with the bundles of
+leaves, chips, and refuse of food, which have been stored up. What
+remains of the tree is taken to the house of the master of the
+ceremonies and hung over the fire-place; it will be brought out again at
+intervals and burned bit by bit, till all is consumed, whereupon a new
+mango will be cut down and treated in like manner. The ashes of the holy
+fire on each occasion are gathered by the people and preserved in the
+house of the master of the ceremonies.[22]
+
+[The ceremony apparently intended to fertilize the mango trees.]
+
+The meaning of these ceremonies is not explained by the authorities who
+describe them; but we may conjecture that they are intended to fertilize
+the mango trees and cause them to bear a good crop of fruit. The central
+feature of the whole ritual is a wild mango tree, so young that it has
+never flowered: the men who cut it down, carry it into the village, and
+dance at the festival, are forbidden to eat mangoes: pigs are killed in
+order that their dying squeals may move the mango trees to bear fruit:
+at the end of the ceremonies pieces of young green mangoes are solemnly
+placed in the mouths of the fasting men and are by them spurted out
+towards the setting sun in order that the luminary may carry the
+fragments to every part of the country; and finally when after a longer
+or shorter interval the tree is wholly consumed, its place is supplied
+by another. All these circumstances are explained simply and naturally
+by the supposition that the young mango tree is taken as a
+representative of mangoes generally, that the dances are intended to
+quicken it, and that it is preserved, like a May-pole of old in England,
+as a sort of general fund of vegetable life, till the fund being
+exhausted by the destruction of the tree it is renewed by the
+importation of a fresh young tree from the forest. We can therefore
+understand why, as a storehouse of vital energy, the tree should be
+carefully kept from contact with the ground, lest the pent-up and
+concentrated energy should escape and dribbling away into the earth be
+dissipated to no purpose.
+
+[Sacred objects of various sorts not allowed to touch the ground.]
+
+To take other instances of what we may call the conservation of energy
+in magic or religion by insulating sacred bodies from the ground, the
+natives of New Britain have a secret society called the Duk-duk, the
+members of which masquerade in petticoats of leaves and tall headdresses
+of wickerwork shaped like candle extinguishers, which descend to the
+shoulders of the wearers, completely concealing their faces. Thus
+disguised they dance about to the awe and terror, real or assumed, of
+the women and uninitiated, who take, or pretend to take, them for
+spirits. When lads are being initiated into the secrets of this august
+society, the adepts cut down some very large and heavy bamboos, one for
+each lad, and the novices carry them, carefully wrapt up in leaves, to
+the sacred ground, where they arrive very tired and weary, for they may
+not let the bamboos touch the ground nor the sun shine on them. Outside
+the fence of the enclosure every lad deposits his bamboo on a couple of
+forked sticks and covers it up with nut leaves.[23] Among the Carrier
+Indians of North-Western America, who burned their dead, the ashes of a
+chief used to be placed in a box and set on the top of a pole beside his
+hut: the box was never allowed to touch the ground.[24] In the Omaha
+tribe of North American Indians the sacred clam shell of the Elk clan
+was wrapt up from sight in a mat, placed on a stand, and never suffered
+to come in contact with the earth.[25] The Cherokees and kindred Indian
+tribes of the United States used to have certain sacred boxes or arks,
+which they regularly took with them to war. Such a holy ark consisted of
+a square wooden box, which contained "certain consecrated vessels made
+by beloved superannuated women, and of such various antiquated forms, as
+would have puzzled Adam to have given significant names to each." The
+leader of a war party and his attendant bore the ark by turns, but they
+never set it on the ground nor would they themselves sit on the bare
+earth while they were carrying it against the enemy. Where stones were
+plentiful they rested the ark on them; but where no stones were to be
+found, they deposited it on short logs. "The Indian ark is deemed so
+sacred and dangerous to be touched, either by their own sanctified
+warriors, or the spoiling enemy, that they durst not touch it upon any
+account. It is not to be meddled with by any, except the war chieftain
+and his waiter, under the penalty of incurring great evil. Nor would the
+most inveterate enemy touch it in the woods, for the very same reason."
+After their return home they used to hang the ark on the leader's
+red-painted war pole.[26] At Sipi, near Simla, in Northern India, an
+annual fair is held, at which men purchase wives. A square box with a
+domed top figures prominently at the fair. It is fixed on two poles to
+be carried on men's shoulders, and long heavily-plaited petticoats hang
+from it nearly to the ground. Three sides of the box are adorned with
+the head and shoulders of a female figure and the fourth side with a
+black yak's tail. Four men bear the poles, each carrying an axe in his
+right hand. They dance round, with a swinging rhythmical step, to the
+music of drums and a pipe. The dance goes on for hours and is thought to
+avert ill-luck from the fair. It is said that the box is brought to
+Simla from a place sixty miles off by relays of men, who may not stop
+nor set the box on the ground the whole way.[27] In Scotland, when water
+was carried from sacred wells to sick people, the water-vessel might not
+touch the earth.[28] In some parts of Aberdeenshire the last bunch of
+standing corn, which is commonly viewed as very sacred, being the last
+refuge of the corn-spirit retreating before the reapers, is not suffered
+to touch the ground; the master or "gueedman" sits down and receives
+each handful of corn as it is cut on his lap.[29]
+
+[Sacred food not allowed to touch the earth.]
+
+Again, sacred food may not under certain circumstances be brought into
+contact with the earth. Some of the aborigines of Victoria used to
+regard the fat of the emu as sacred, believing that it had once been the
+fat of the black man. In taking it from the bird or giving it to another
+they handled it reverently. Any one who threw away the fat or flesh of
+the emu was held accursed. "The late Mr. Thomas observed on one
+occasion, at Nerre-nerre-Warreen, a remarkable exhibition of the effects
+of this superstition. An aboriginal child--one attending the
+school--having eaten some part of the flesh of an emu, threw away the
+skin. The skin fell to the ground, and this being observed by his
+parents, they showed by their gestures every token of horror. They
+looked upon their child as one utterly lost. His desecration of the bird
+was regarded as a sin for which there was no atonement."[30] The
+Roumanians of Transylvania believe that "every fresh-baked loaf of
+wheaten bread is sacred, and should a piece inadvertently fall to the
+ground, it is hastily picked up, carefully wiped and kissed, and if
+soiled, thrown into the fire--partly as an offering to the dead, and
+partly because it were a heavy sin to throw away or tread upon any
+particle of it."[31] At certain festivals in south-eastern Borneo the
+food which is consumed in the common house may not touch the ground;
+hence, a little before the festivals take place, foot-bridges made of
+thin poles are constructed from the private dwellings to the common
+house.[32] When Hall was living with the Esquimaux and grew tired of
+eating walrus, one of the women brought the head and neck of a reindeer
+for him to eat. This venison had to be completely wrapt up before it was
+brought into the house, and once in the house it could only be placed on
+the platform which served as a bed. "To have placed it on the floor or
+on the platform behind the fire-lamp, among the walrus, musk-ox, and
+polar-bear meat which occupy a goodly portion of both of these places,
+would have horrified the whole town, as, according to the actual belief
+of the Innuits, not another walrus could be secured this year, and there
+would ever be trouble in catching any more."[33] But in this case the
+real scruple appears to have been felt not so much at placing the
+venison on the ground as at bringing it into contact with walrus
+meat.[34]
+
+[Magical implements and remedies thought to lose their virtue by contact
+with the ground.]
+
+Sometimes magical implements and remedies are supposed to lose their
+virtue by contact with the ground, the volatile essence with which they
+are impregnated being no doubt drained off into the earth. Thus in the
+Boulia district of Queensland the magical bone, which the native
+sorcerer points at his victim as a means of killing him, is never by any
+chance allowed to touch the earth.[35] The wives of rajahs in Macassar,
+a district of southern Celebes, pride themselves on their luxuriant
+tresses and are at great pains to oil and preserve them. Should the hair
+begin to grow thin, the lady resorts to many devices to stay the ravages
+of time; among other things she applies to her locks a fat extracted
+from crocodiles and venomous snakes. The unguent is believed to be very
+efficacious, but during its application the woman's feet may not come
+into contact with the ground, or all the benefit of the nostrum would be
+lost.[36] Some people in antiquity believed that a woman in hard labour
+would be delivered if a spear, which had been wrenched from a man's body
+without touching the ground, were thrown over the house where the
+sufferer lay. Again, according to certain ancient writers, arrows which
+had been extracted from a body without coming into contact with the
+earth and laid under sleepers, acted as a love-charm.[37] Among the
+peasantry of the north-east of Scotland the prehistoric weapons called
+celts went by the name of "thunderbolts" and were coveted as the sure
+bringers of success, always provided that they were not allowed to fall
+to the ground.[38]
+
+[Serpents eggs or Snake Stones.]
+
+In ancient Gaul certain glass or paste beads attained great celebrity as
+amulets under the name of serpents' eggs; it was believed that serpents,
+coiling together in a wriggling, writhing mass, generated them from
+their slaver and shot them into the air from their hissing jaws. If a
+man was bold and dexterous enough to catch one of these eggs in his
+cloak before it touched the ground, he rode off on horseback with it at
+full speed, pursued by the whole pack of serpents, till he was saved by
+the interposition of a river, which the snakes could not pass. The proof
+of the egg being genuine was that if it were thrown into a stream it
+would float up against the current, even though it were hooped in gold.
+The Druids held these beads in high esteem; according to them, the
+precious objects could only be obtained on a certain day of the moon,
+and the peculiar virtue that resided in them was to secure success in
+law suits and free access to kings. Pliny knew of a Gaulish knight who
+was executed by the emperor Claudius for wearing one of these
+amulets.[39] Under the name of Snake Stones (_glain neidr_) or Adder
+Stones the beads are still known in those parts of our own country where
+the Celtic population has lingered, with its immemorial superstitions,
+down to the present or recent times; and the old story of the origin of
+the beads from the slaver of serpents was believed by the modern
+peasantry of Cornwall, Wales, and Scotland as by the Druids of ancient
+Gaul. In Cornwall the time when the serpents united to fashion the beads
+was commonly said to be at or about Midsummer Eve; in Wales it was
+usually thought to be spring, especially the Eve of May Day, and even
+within recent years persons in the Principality have affirmed that they
+witnessed the great vernal congress of the snakes and saw the magic
+stone in the midst of the froth. The Welsh peasants believe the beads to
+possess medicinal virtues of many sorts and to be particularly
+efficacious for all maladies of the eyes. In Wales and Ireland the beads
+sometimes went by the name of the Magician's or Druid's Glass (_Gleini
+na Droedh_ and _Glaine nan Druidhe_). Specimens of them may be seen in
+museums; some have been found in British barrows. They are of glass of
+various colours, green, blue, pink, red, brown, and so forth, some plain
+and some ribbed. Some are streaked with brilliant hues. The beads are
+perforated, and in the Highlands of Scotland the hole is explained by
+saying that when the bead has just been conflated by the serpents
+jointly, one of the reptiles sticks his tail through the still viscous
+glass. An Englishman who visited Scotland in 1699 found many of these
+beads in use throughout the country. They were hung from children's
+necks to protect them from whooping cough and other ailments. Snake
+Stones were, moreover, a charm to ensure prosperity in general and to
+repel evil spirits. When one of these priceless treasures was not on
+active service, the owner kept it in an iron box to guard it against
+fairies, who, as is well known, cannot abide iron.[40]
+
+[Medicinal plants, water, are not allowed to touch the earth.]
+
+Pliny mentions several medicinal plants, which, if they were to retain
+their healing virtue, ought not to be allowed to touch the earth.[41]
+The curious medical treatise of Marcellus, a native of Bordeaux in the
+fourth century of our era, abounds with prescriptions of this sort; and
+we can well believe the writer when he assures us that he borrowed many
+of his quaint remedies from the lips of common folk and peasants rather
+than from the books of the learned.[42] Thus he tells us that certain
+white stones found in the stomachs of young swallows assuage the most
+persistent headache, always provided that their virtue be not impaired
+by contact with the ground.[43] Another of his cures for the same malady
+is a wreath of fleabane placed on the head, but it must not touch the
+earth.[44] On the same condition a decoction of the root of elecampane
+in wine kills worms; a fern, found growing on a tree, relieves the
+stomach-ache; and the pastern-bone of a hare is an infallible remedy for
+colic, provided, first, it be found in the dung of a wolf, second, that
+it docs not touch the ground, and, third, that it is not touched by a
+woman.[45] Another cure for colic is effected by certain hocus-pocus
+with a scrap of wool from the forehead of a first-born lamb, if only the
+lamb, instead of being allowed to fall to the ground, has been caught by
+hand as it dropped from its dam.[46] In Andjra, a district of Morocco,
+the people attribute many magical virtues to rain-water which has fallen
+on the twenty-seventh day of April, Old Style; accordingly they collect
+it and use it for a variety of purposes. Mixed with tar and sprinkled on
+the door-posts it prevents snakes and scorpions from entering the house:
+sprinkled on heaps of threshed corn it protects them from the evil eye:
+mixed with an egg, henna, and seeds of cress it is an invaluable
+medicine for sick cows: poured over a plate, on which a passage of the
+Koran has been written, it strengthens the memory of schoolboys who
+drink it; and if you mix it with cowdung and red earth and paint rings
+with the mixture round the trunks of your fig-trees at sunset on
+Midsummer Day, you may depend on it that the trees will bear an
+excellent crop and will not shed their fruit untimely on the ground. But
+in order to preserve these remarkable properties it is absolutely
+essential that the water should on no account be allowed to touch the
+ground; some say too that it should not be exposed to the sun nor
+breathed upon by anybody.[47] Again, the Moors ascribe great magical
+efficacy to what they call "the sultan of the oleander," which is a
+stalk of oleander with a cluster of four pairs of leaves springing from
+it. They think that the magical virtue is greatest if the stalk has been
+cut immediately before midsummer. But when the plant is brought into the
+house, the branches may not touch the ground, lest they should lose
+their marvellous qualities.[48] In the olden days, before a Lithuanian
+or Prussian farmer went forth to plough for the first time in spring, he
+called in a wizard to perform a certain ceremony for the good of the
+crops. The sage seized a mug of beer with his teeth, quaffed the liquor,
+and then tossed the mug over his head. This signified that the corn in
+that year should grow taller than a man. But the mug might not fall to
+the ground; it had to be caught by somebody stationed at the wizard's
+back, for if it fell to the ground the consequence naturally would be
+that the corn also would be laid low on the earth.[49]
+
+
+Sec. 2. _Not to see the Sun_
+
+
+[Sacred persons not allowed to see the sun.]
+
+The second rule to be here noted is that the sun may not shine upon the
+divine person. This rule was observed both by the Mikado and by the
+pontiff of the Zapotecs. The latter "was looked upon as a god whom the
+earth was not worthy to hold, nor the sun to shine upon."[50] The
+Japanese would not allow that the Mikado should expose his sacred person
+to the open air, and the sun was not thought worthy to shine on his
+head.[51] The Indians of Granada, in South America, "kept those who were
+to be rulers or commanders, whether men or women, locked up for several
+years when they were children, some of them seven years, and this so
+close that they were not to see the sun, for if they should happen to
+see it they forfeited their lordship, eating certain sorts of food
+appointed; and those who were their keepers at certain times went into
+their retreat or prison and scourged them severely."[52] Thus, for
+example, the heir to the throne of Bogota, who was not the son but the
+sister's son of the king, had to undergo a rigorous training from his
+infancy: he lived in complete retirement in a temple, where he might not
+see the sun nor eat salt nor converse with a woman: he was surrounded by
+guards who observed his conduct and noted all his actions: if he broke a
+single one of the rules laid down for him, he was deemed infamous and
+forfeited all his rights to the throne.[53] So, too, the heir to the
+kingdom of Sogamoso, before succeeding to the crown, had to fast for
+seven years in the temple, being shut up in the dark and not allowed to
+see the sun or light.[54] The prince who was to become Inca of Peru had
+to fast for a month without seeing light.[55] On the day when a Brahman
+student of the Veda took a bath, to signify that the time of his
+studentship was at an end, he entered a cow-shed before sunrise, hung
+over the door a skin with the hair inside, and sat there; on that day
+the sun should not shine upon him.[56]
+
+[Tabooed persons not allowed to see the sun; certain persons forbidden
+to see fire.]
+
+Again, women after childbirth and their offspring are more or less
+tabooed all the world over; hence in Corea the rays of the sun are
+rigidly excluded from both mother and child for a period of twenty-one
+or a hundred days, according to their rank, after the birth has taken
+place.[57] Among some of the tribes on the north-west coast of New
+Guinea a woman may not leave the house for months after childbirth. When
+she does go out, she must cover her head with a hood or mat; for if the
+sun were to shine upon her, it is thought that one of her male relations
+would die.[58] Again, mourners are everywhere taboo; accordingly in
+mourning the Ainos of Japan wear peculiar caps in order that the sun may
+not shine upon their heads.[59] During a solemn fast of three days the
+Indians of Costa Rica eat no salt, speak as little as possible, light no
+fires, and stay strictly indoors, or if they go out during the day they
+carefully cover themselves from the light of the sun, believing that
+exposure to the sun's rays would turn them black.[60] On Yule Night it
+has been customary in parts of Sweden from time immemorial to go on
+pilgrimage, whereby people learn many secret things and know what is to
+happen in the coming year. As a preparation for this pilgrimage, "some
+secrete themselves for three days previously in a dark cellar, so as to
+be shut out altogether from the light of heaven. Others retire at an
+early hour of the preceding morning to some out-of-the-way place, such
+as a hay-loft, where they bury themselves in the hay, that they may
+neither see nor hear any living creature; and here they remain, in
+silence and fasting, until after sundown; whilst there are those who
+think it sufficient if they rigidly abstain from food on the day before
+commencing their wanderings. During this period of probation a man ought
+not to see fire, but should this have happened, he must strike a light
+with flint and steel, whereby the evil that would otherwise have ensued
+will be obviated."[61] During the sixteen days that a Pima Indian is
+undergoing purification for killing an Apache he may not see a blazing
+fire.[62]
+
+[The story of Prince Sunless.]
+
+Acarnanian peasants tell of a handsome prince called Sunless, who would
+die if he saw the sun. So he lived in an underground palace on the site
+of the ancient Oeniadae, but at night he came forth and crossed the
+river to visit a famous enchantress who dwelt in a castle on the further
+bank. She was loth to part with him every night long before the sun was
+up, and as he turned a deaf ear to all her entreaties to linger, she hit
+upon the device of cutting the throats of all the cocks in the
+neighbourhood. So the prince, whose ear had learned to expect the shrill
+clarion of the birds as the signal of the growing light, tarried too
+long, and hardly had he reached the ford when the sun rose over the
+Aetolian mountains, and its fatal beams fell on him before he could
+regain his dark abode.[63]
+
+
+Notes:
+
+[1] _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 44.
+
+[2] H.H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_ (London,
+1875-1876), ii. 142; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations
+civilisees du Mexique et de l'Amerique-Centrale_ (Paris, 1857-1859),
+iii. 29.
+
+[3] _Manuscrit Ramirez, Histoire de l'origine des Indiens_, publie par
+D. Charnay (Paris, 1903), p. 108; J. de Acosta, _The Natural and Moral
+History of the Indies_, bk. vii. chap. 22, vol. ii. p. 505 of E.
+Grimston's translation, edited by (Sir) Clements R. Markham (Hakluyt
+Society, London, 1880).
+
+[4] _Memorials of the Empire of Japon in the XVI. and XVII. Centuries_,
+edited by T. Rundall (Hakluyt Society, London, 1850), pp. 14, 141; B.
+Varenius, _Descriptio regni Japoniae et Siam_ (Cambridge, 1673), p. 11;
+Caron, "Account of Japan," in John Pinkerton's _Voyages and Travels_
+(London, 1808-1814), vii. 613; Kaempfer, "History of Japan," in _id._
+vii. 716.
+
+[5] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, Second Edition (London,
+1832-1836), iii. 102 _sq._; Captain James Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to
+the Southern Pacific Ocean_ (London, 1799), p. 329.
+
+[6] A. Bastian, _Der Mensch in der Geschichte_ (Leipsic, 1860), iii. 81.
+
+[7] Athenaeus, xii. 8, p. 514 c.
+
+[8] _The Voiages and Travels of John Struys_ (London, 1684), p. 30.
+
+[9] Rev. J. Roscoe, "Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the
+Baganda," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) pp.
+62, 67; _id., The Baganda_ (London, 1911), pp. 154 _sq._ Compare L.
+Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_ (London, 1898), p. 445 note:
+"Before horses had been introduced into Uganda the king and his mother
+never walked, but always went about perched astride the shoulders of a
+slave--a most ludicrous sight. In this way they often travelled hundreds
+of miles." The use both of horses and of chariots by royal personages
+may often have been intended to prevent their sacred feet from touching
+the ground.
+
+[10] E. Torday et T.A. Joyce, _Les Bushongo_ (Brussels, 1910), p. 61.
+
+[11] Northcote W. Thomas, _Anthropological Report on the Ibo-speaking
+Peoples of Nigeria_ (London, 1913), i. 57 _sq._
+
+[12] _Satapatha Brahmana_, translated by Julius Eggeling, Part iii.
+(Oxford, 1894) pp. 81, 91, 92, 102, 128 _sq. (Sacred Books of the East_,
+vol. xli.).
+
+[13] A.W. Nieuwenhuis, _Quer durch Borneo_ (Leyden, 1904-1907), i. 172.
+
+[14] Letter of Missionary Krick, in _Annales de la Propagation de la
+Foi_, xxvi. (1854) pp. 86-88.
+
+[15] Pechuel-Loesche, "Indiscretes aus Loango," _Zeitschrift fuer
+Ethnologie_, x. (1878) pp. 29 _sq._
+
+[16] Edgar Thurston, _Ethnographic Notes in Southern India_ (Madras,
+1906), p. 70.
+
+[17] M.C. Schadee, "Het familieleven en familierecht der Dajaks van
+Landak en Tajan," _Bijdragen tot de Taal-Land en Volkenkunde van
+Nederlandsch-Indie_, lxiii. (1910) p. 433.
+
+[18] James Adair, _History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775), p.
+382; _Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner_ (London,
+1830), p. 123. As to the taboos to which warriors are subject see _Taboo
+and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 157 _sqq._
+
+[19] Etienne Aymonier, _Notes sur le Laos_ (Saigon, 1885), p. 26.
+
+[20] _Die gestritgelte Rockenphilosophie_*[5] (Chemnitz, 1759), pp. 586
+_sqq._
+
+[21] Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central
+Australia_ (London, 1899), pp. 364, 370 _sqq._, 629; _id., Across
+Australia_ (London, 1912), ii. 280, 285 _sq._
+
+[22] C.G. Seligmann, M.D., _The Melanesians of British New Guinea_
+(Cambridge, 1910), pp. 589-599.
+
+[23] George Brown, D.D., _Melanesians and Polynesians_ (London, 1910),
+pp. 60 _sq._, 64. As to the Duk-duk society, see below, vol. ii. pp. 246
+_sq._
+
+[24] John Keast Lord, _The Naturalist in Vancouver Island and British
+Columbia_ (London, 1866), ii. 237.
+
+[25] Edwin James, _Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky
+Mountains_ (London, 1823), ii. 47; Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, "Omaha
+Sociology," _Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_
+(Washington, 1884), p. 226.
+
+[26] James Adair, _History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775), pp.
+161-163.
+
+[27] (Sir) Henry Babington Smith, in _Folk-lore_, v. (1894) p. 340.
+
+[28] Miss C.F. Gordon Cumming, _In the Hebrides_ (London, 1883), p. 211.
+
+[29] W. Gregor, "Quelques coutumes du Nord-est du Comte d'Aberdeen,"
+_Revue des Traditions populaires_, iii. (1888) p. 485 B. Compare
+_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, i. 158 _sq._
+
+[30] R. Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne and London,
+1878), i. 450.
+
+[31] E. Gerard, _The Land beyond the Forest_ (Edinburgh and London,
+1888), ii. 7.
+
+[32] F. Grabowsky, "Der Distrikt Dusson Timor in Suedost-Borneo und seine
+Bewohner," _Das Ausland_, 1884, No. 24, p. 470.
+
+[33] _Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition made by Charles F.
+Hall_, edited by Prof. J.E. Nourse (Washington, 1879), pp. 110 _sq._
+
+[34] See _Taboo and Perils of the Soul_, pp. 207 _sqq._
+
+[35] Walter E. Roth, _Ethnological Studies among the North-West-Central
+Queensland Aborigines_ (Brisbane and London, 1897), p. 156, Sec. 265. The
+custom of killing a man by pointing a bone or stick at him, while the
+sorcerer utters appropriate curses, is common among the tribes of
+Central Australia; but amongst them there seems to be no objection to
+place the bone or stick on the ground; on the contrary, an Arunta wizard
+inserts the bone or stick in the ground while he invokes death and
+destruction on his enemy. See Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen, _Native
+Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1899), pp. 534 _sqq.; id.,
+Northern Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1904), pp. 455 _sqq._
+
+[36] Hugh Low, _Sarawak_ (London, 1848), pp. 145 _sq._
+
+[37] Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_ xxviii. 33 _sq._
+
+[38] Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of
+Scotland_ (London, 1881), p. 184. As to the superstitions attaching to
+stone arrowheads and axeheads (celts), commonly known as "thunderbolts,"
+in the British Islands, see W.W. Skeat, "Snakestones and Stone
+Thunderbolts," _Folklore_, xxiii. (1912) pp. 60 _sqq._; and as to such
+superstitions in general, see Chr. Blinkenberg, _The Thunderweapon in
+Religion and Folklore_ (Cambridge, 1911).
+
+[39] Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_, xxix. 52-54.
+
+[40] W. Borlase, _Antiquities, Historical and Monumental, of the County
+of Cornwall_ (London, 1769), pp. 142 _sq._; J. Brand, _Popular
+Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London, 1882-1883), i. 322; J.G. Dalyell,
+_Darker Superstitions of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1834), pp. 140 _sq._;
+Daniel Wilson, _The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_
+(Edinburgh, 1851), pp. 303 _sqq._; Lieut.-Col. Forbes Leslie, _The Early
+Races of Scotland and their Monuments_ (Edinburgh, 1866), i. 75 _sqq._;
+J.G. Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands
+of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1902), pp. 84-88; Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and
+Folk-stories of Wales_ (London, 1909), pp. 170 _sq._; J.C. Davies,
+_Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales_ (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 76. Compare
+W.W. Skeat, "Snakestones and Stone Thunderbolts," _Folk-lore,_ xxiii.
+(1912) pp. 45 _sqq._ The superstition is described as follows by Edward
+Lhwyd in a letter quoted by W. Borlase (_op. cit._ p. 142): "In most
+parts of Wales, and throughout all Scotland, and in Cornwall, we find it
+a common opinion of the vulgar, that about Midsummer-Eve (though in the
+time they do not all agree) it is usual for snakes to meet in companies;
+and that, by joining heads together, and hissing, a kind of bubble is
+formed, which the rest, by continual hissing, blow on till it passes
+quite through the body, and then it immediately hardens, and resembles a
+glass-ring, which whoever finds (as some old women and children are
+persuaded) shall prosper in all his undertakings. The rings thus
+generated, are called _Gleineu Nadroeth_; in English, Snake-stones. They
+are small glass amulets, commonly about half as wide as our
+finger-rings, but much thicker, of a green colour usually, though
+sometimes blue, and waved with red and white."
+
+[41] Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_ xxiv. 12 and 68, xxv. 171.
+
+[42] Marcellus, _De medicamentis_, ed. G. Helmreich (Leipsic, 1889),
+preface, p. i.: "_Nec solum veteres medicinae artis auctores Latino
+dumtaxat sermone perscriptos ... lectione scrutatus sum, sed etiam ab
+agrestibus et plebeis remedia fortuita atque simplicia, quae
+experimentis probaverant didici_." As to Marcellus and his work, see
+Jacob Grimm, "Ueber Marcellus Burdigalensis," _Abhandlungen der
+koniglichen Akademie der Wissenschaft zu Berlin_, 1847, pp. 429-460;
+_id._, "Ueber die Marcellischen Formeln," _ibid._. 1855, pp. 50-68.
+
+[43] Marcellus, _De medicamentis_, i. 68.
+
+[44] Marcellus, _op. cit._ i. 76.
+
+[45] Marcellus, _op. cit._ xxviii. 28 and 71, xxix. 35.
+
+[46] Marcellus, _op. cit._ xxix. 51.
+
+[47] Edward Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folklore_,
+xvi. (1905) pp. 32 _sq._; _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with
+Agriculture, certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in
+Morocco_ (Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 75 _sq._
+
+[48] E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-lore_, xvi.
+(1905) p. 35 _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with Agriculture,
+certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in Morocco_
+(Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 88 _sq._
+
+[49] Matthaeus Praetorius, _Deliciae Prussicae_, herausgegeben von Dr. W.
+Pierson (Berlin, 1871), p. 54.
+
+[50] H.H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_ (London,
+1875-1876), ii. 142; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des Nations
+civilisees du Mexique et de l'Amerique Centrale_ (Paris, 1857-1859),
+iii. 29.
+
+[51] Kaempfer, "History of Japan," in J. Pinkerton's _Voyages and
+Travels_, vii. 717; Caron, "Account of Japan," _ibid._ vii. 613; B.
+Varenius, _Descriptio regni Japoniae et Siam_ (Cambridge, 1673), p. 11:
+_"Radiis solis caput nunquam illustrabatur: in apertum acrem non
+procedebat."_
+
+[52] A. de Herrera, _General History of the vast Continent and Islands
+of America,_ trans, by Capt. John Stevens (London, 1725-1726), v. 88.
+
+[53] H. Ternaux-Compans, _Essai sur l'ancien Cundinamarca_ (Paris,
+N.D.), p. 56; Theodor Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvoelker_ iv.
+(Leipsic, 1864) p. 359.
+
+[54] Alonzo de Zurita, "Rapport sur les differentes classes de chefs de
+la Nouvelle-Espagne," p. 30, in H. Ternaux-Compans's _Voyages, Relations
+et Memoires originaux, pour servir a l'Histoire de la Decouvertede
+l'Amerique_ (Paris, 1840); Th. Waitz, _l.c._; A. Bastian, _Die
+Culturlaender des alten Amerika_ (Berlin, 1878), ii. 204.
+
+[55] Cieza de Leon, _Second Part of the Chronicle of Peru_ (Hakluyt
+Society, London, 1883), p. 18.
+
+[56] _The Grihya Sutras_, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part ii. (Oxford,
+1892) pp. 165, 275 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xxx.). Umbrellas
+appear to have been sometimes used in ritual for the purpose of
+preventing the sunlight from falling on sacred persons or things. See W.
+Caland, _Altindisches Zauberritual_ (Amsterdam, 1900), p. 110 note 12.
+At an Athenian festival called Scira the priestess of Athena, the priest
+of Poseidon, and the priest of the Sun walked from the Acropolis under
+the shade of a huge white umbrella which was borne over their heads by
+the Eteobutads. See Harpocration and Suidas, _s.v._ [Greek: Skiron];
+Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Eccles._ 18.
+
+[57] Mrs. Bishop, _Korea and her Neighbours_ (London, 1898), ii. 248.
+
+[58] J.L. van Hasselt, "Eenige aanteekeningen aangaande de bewoners der
+N. Westkust van Nieuw Guinea," _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-Landen
+Volkenkunde_, xxxi. (1886) p. 587.
+
+[59] A. Bastian, _Die Voelker des oestlichen Asien_, v. (Jena, 1869) p.
+366.
+
+[60] W.M. Gabb, "On the Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica,"
+_Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at
+Philadelphia_, xiv. (Philadelphia, 1876), p. 510.
+
+[61] L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), p. 194.
+
+[62] H.H. Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, i. 553. See
+_Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, p. 182.
+
+[63] L. Heuzey, _Le Mont Olympe et l'Acarnanie_ (Paris, 1860), pp. 458
+_sq._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE SECLUSION OF GIRLS AT PUBERTY
+
+
+Sec. 1. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Africa_
+
+
+[Girls at puberty forbidden to touch the ground and to see the sun;
+seclusion of girls at puberty among the A-Kamba; seclusion of girls at
+puberty among the Baganda.]
+
+Now it is remarkable that the foregoing two rules--not to touch the
+ground and not to see the sun--are observed either separately or
+conjointly by girls at puberty in many parts of the world. Thus amongst
+the negroes of Loango girls at puberty are confined in separate huts,
+and they may not touch the ground with any part of their bare body.[64]
+Among the Zulus and kindred tribes of South Africa, when the first signs
+of puberty shew themselves "while a girl is walking, gathering wood, or
+working in the field, she runs to the river and hides herself among the
+reeds for the day, so as not to be seen by men. She covers her head
+carefully with her blanket that the sun may not shine on it and shrivel
+her up into a withered skeleton, as would result from exposure to the
+sun's beams. After dark she returns to her home and is secluded" in a
+hut for some time.[65] During her seclusion, which lasts for about a
+fortnight, neither she nor the girls who wait upon her may drink any
+milk, lest the cattle should die. And should she be overtaken by the
+first flow while she is in the fields, she must, after hiding in the
+bush, scrupulously avoid all pathways in returning home.[66] A reason
+for this avoidance is assigned by the A-Kamba of British East Africa,
+whose girls under similar circumstances observe the same rule. "A girl's
+first menstruation is a very critical period of her life according to
+A-Kamba beliefs. If this condition appears when she is away from the
+village, say at work in the fields, she returns at once to her village,
+but is careful to walk through the grass and not on a path, for if she
+followed a path and a stranger accidentally trod on a spot of blood and
+then cohabited with a member of the opposite sex before the girl was
+better again, it is believed that she would never bear a child." She
+remains at home till the symptoms have ceased, and during this time she
+may be fed by none but her mother. When the flux is over, her father and
+mother are bound to cohabit with each other, else it is believed that
+the girl would be barren all her life.[67] Similarly, among the Baganda,
+when a girl menstruated for the first time she was secluded and not
+allowed to handle food; and at the end of her seclusion the kinsman with
+whom she was staying (for among the Baganda young people did not reside
+with their parents) was obliged to jump over his wife, which with the
+Baganda is regarded as equivalent to having intercourse with her. Should
+the girl happen to be living near her parents at the moment when she
+attained to puberty, she was expected on her recovery to inform them of
+the fact, whereupon her father jumped over her mother. Were this custom
+omitted, the Baganda, like the A-Kamba, thought that the girl would
+never have children or that they would die in infancy.[68] Thus the
+pretence of sexual intercourse between the parents or other relatives of
+the girl was a magical ceremony to ensure her fertility. It is
+significant that among the Baganda the first menstruation was often
+called a marriage, and the girl was spoken of as a bride.[69] These
+terms so applied point to a belief like that of the Siamese, that a
+girl's first menstruation results from her defloration by one of a host
+of aerial spirits, and that the wound thus inflicted is repeated
+afterwards every month by the same ghostly agency.[70] For a like
+reason, probably, the Baganda imagine that a woman who does not
+menstruate exerts a malign influence on gardens and makes them
+barren[71] if she works in them. For not being herself fertilized by a
+spirit, how can she fertilize the garden?
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the tribes of the Tanganyika
+plateau.]
+
+Among the Amambwe, Winamwanga, Alungu, and other tribes of the great
+plateau to the west of Lake Tanganyika, "when a young girl knows that
+she has attained puberty, she forthwith leaves her mother's hut, and
+hides herself in the long grass near the village, covering her face with
+a cloth and weeping bitterly. Towards sunset one of the older
+women--who, as directress of the ceremonies, is called _nachimbusa_--
+follows her, places a cooking-pot by the cross-roads, and boils therein
+a concoction of various herbs, with which she anoints the neophyte. At
+nightfall the girl is carried on the old woman's back to her mother's
+hut. When the customary period of a few days has elapsed, she is allowed
+to cook again, after first whitewashing the floor of the hut. But, by
+the following month, the preparations for her initiation are complete.
+The novice must remain in her hut throughout the whole period of
+initiation, and is carefully guarded by the old women, who accompany her
+whenever she leaves her quarters, veiling her head with a native cloth.
+The ceremonies last for at least one month." During this period of
+seclusion, drumming and songs are kept up within the mother's hut by the
+village women, and no male, except, it is said, the father of twins, is
+allowed to enter. The directress of the rites and the older women
+instruct the young girl as to the elementary facts of life, the duties
+of marriage, and the rules of conduct, decorum, and hospitality to be
+observed by a married woman. Amongst other things the damsel must submit
+to a series of tests such as leaping over fences, thrusting her head
+into a collar made of thorns, and so on. The lessons which she receives
+are illustrated by mud figures of animals and of the common objects of
+domestic life. Moreover, the directress of studies embellishes the walls
+of the hut with rude pictures, each with its special significance and
+song, which must be understood and learned by the girl.[72] In the
+foregoing account the rule that a damsel at puberty may neither see the
+sun nor touch the ground seems implied by the statement that on the
+first discovery of her condition she hides in long grass and is carried
+home after sunset on the back of an old woman.
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the tribes of British Central
+Africa.]
+
+Among the Nyanja-speaking tribes of Central Angoniland, in British
+Central Africa, when a young girl finds that she has become a woman, she
+stands silent by the pathway leading to the village, her face wrapt in
+her calico. An old woman, finding her there, takes her off to a stream
+to bathe; after that the girl is secluded for six days in the old
+woman's hut. She eats her porridge out of an old basket and her relish,
+in which no salt is put, from a potsherd. The basket is afterwards
+thrown away. On the seventh day the aged matrons gather together, go
+with the girl to a stream, and throw her into the water. In returning
+they sing songs, and the old woman, who directs the proceedings, carries
+the maiden on her back. Then they spread a mat and fetch her husband and
+set the two down on the mat and shave his head. When it is dark, the old
+women escort the girl to her husband's hut. There the _ndiwo_ relish is
+cooking on the fire. During the night the woman rises and puts some salt
+in the pot. Next morning, before dawn, while all is dark and the
+villagers have not yet opened their doors, the young married woman goes
+off and gives some of the relish to her mother and to the old woman who
+was mistress of the ceremony. This relish she sets down at the doors of
+their houses and goes away. And in the morning, when the sun has risen
+and all is light in the village, the two women open their doors, and
+there they find the relish with the salt in it; and they take of it and
+rub it on their feet and under their arm-pits; and if there are little
+children in the house, they eat of it. And if the young wife has a
+kinsman who is absent from the village, some of the relish is put on a
+splinter of bamboo and kept against his return, that when he comes he,
+too, may rub his feet with it. But if the woman finds that her husband
+is impotent, she does not rise betimes and go out in the dark to lay the
+relish at the doors of her mother and the old woman. And in the morning,
+when the sun is up and all the village is light, the old women open
+their doors, and see no relish there, and they know what has happened,
+and so they go wilily to work. For they persuade the husband to consult
+the diviner that he may discover how to cure his impotence; and while he
+is closeted with the wizard, they fetch another man, who finishes the
+ceremony with the young wife, in order that the relish may be given out
+and that people may rub their feet with it. But if it happens that when
+a girl comes to maturity she is not yet betrothed to any man, and
+therefore has no husband to go to, the matrons tell her that she must go
+to a lover instead. And this is the custom which they call _chigango_.
+So in the evening she takes her cooking pot and relish and hies away to
+the quarters of the young bachelors, and they very civilly sleep
+somewhere else that night. And in the morning the girl goes back to the
+_kuka_ hut.[73]
+
+[Abstinence from salt associated with a rule of chastity in many
+tribes.]
+
+From the foregoing account it appears that among these tribes no sooner
+has a girl attained to womanhood than she is expected and indeed
+required to give proof of her newly acquired powers by cohabiting with a
+man, whether her husband or another. And the abstinence from salt during
+the girl's seclusion is all the more remarkable because as soon as the
+seclusion is over she has to use salt for a particular purpose, to which
+the people evidently attach very great importance, since in the event of
+her husband proving impotent she is even compelled, apparently, to
+commit adultery in order that the salted relish may be given out as
+usual. In this connexion it deserves to be noted that among the Wagogo
+of German East Africa women at their monthly periods may not sleep with
+their husbands and may not put salt in food.[74] A similar rule is
+observed by the Nyanja-speaking tribes of Central Angoniland, with whose
+puberty customs we are here concerned. Among them, we are told, "some
+superstition exists with regard to the use of salt. A woman during her
+monthly sickness must on no account put salt into any food she is
+cooking, lest she give her husband or children a disease called _tsempo_
+(_chitsoko soko_) but calls a child to put it in, or, as the song goes,
+'_Natira nichere ni bondo chifukwa n'kupanda mwana_' and pours in the
+salt by placing it on her knee, because there is no child handy. Should
+a party of villagers have gone to make salt, all sexual intercourse is
+forbidden among the people of the village, until the people who have
+gone to make the salt (from grass) return. When they do come back, they
+must make their entry into the village at night, and no one must see
+them. Then one of the elders of the village sleeps with his wife. She
+then cooks some relish, into which she puts some of the salt. This
+relish is handed round to the people who went to make the salt, who rub
+it on their feet and under their armpits."[75] Hence it would seem that
+in the mind of these people abstinence from salt is somehow associated
+with the idea of chastity. The same association meets us in the customs
+of many peoples in various parts of the world. For example, ancient
+Hindoo ritual prescribed that for three nights after a husband had
+brought his bride home, the two should sleep on the ground, remain
+chaste, and eat no salt.[76] Among the Baganda, when a man was making a
+net, he had to refrain from eating salt and meat and from living with
+his wife; these restrictions he observed until the net took its first
+catch of fish. Similarly, so long as a fisherman's nets or traps were in
+the water, he must live apart from his wife, and neither he nor she nor
+their children might eat salt or meat.[77] Evidence of the same sort
+could be multiplied,[78] but without going into it further we may say
+that for some reason which is not obvious to us primitive man connects
+salt with the intercourse of the sexes and therefore forbids the use of
+that condiment in a variety of circumstances in which he deems
+continence necessary or desirable. As there is nothing which the savage
+regards as a greater bar between the sexes than the state of
+menstruation, he naturally prohibits the use of salt to women and girls
+at their monthly periods.
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the tribes about Lake Nyassa and on
+the Zambesi.]
+
+With the Awa-nkonde, a tribe at the northern end of Lake Nyassa, it is a
+rule that after her first menstruation a girl must be kept apart, with a
+few companions of her own sex, in a darkened house. The floor is covered
+with dry banana leaves, but no fire may be lit in the house, which is
+called "the house of the Awasungu," that is, "of maidens who have no
+hearts."[79] When a girl reaches puberty, the Wafiomi of Eastern Africa
+hold a festival at which they make a noise with a peculiar kind of
+rattle. After that the girl remains for a year in the large common hut
+(_tembe_), where she occupies a special compartment screened off from
+the men's quarters. She may not cut her hair or touch food, but is fed
+by other women. At night, however, she quits the hut and dances with
+young men.[80] Among the Barotse or Marotse of the upper Zambesi, "when
+a girl arrives at the age of puberty she is sent into the fields, where
+a hut is constructed far from the village. There, with two or three
+companions, she spends a month, returning home late and starting before
+dawn in order not to be seen by the men. The women of the village visit
+her, bringing food and honey, and singing and dancing to amuse her. At
+the end of a month her husband comes and fetches her. It is only after
+this ceremony that women have the right to smear themselves with
+ochre."[81] We may suspect that the chief reason why the girl during her
+seclusion may visit her home only by night is a fear, not so much lest
+she should be seen by men, as that she might be seen by the sun. Among
+the Wafiomi, as we have just learned, the young woman in similar
+circumstances is even free to dance with men, provided always that the
+dance is danced at night. The ceremonies among the Barotse or Marotse
+are somewhat more elaborate for a girl of the royal family. She is shut
+up for three months in a place which is kept secret from the public;
+only the women of her family know where it is. There she sits alone in
+the darkness of the hut, waited on by female slaves, who are strictly
+forbidden to speak and may communicate with her and with each other only
+by signs. During all this time, though she does nothing, she eats much,
+and when at last she comes forth, her appearance is quite changed, so
+fat has she grown. She is then led by night to the river and bathed in
+presence of all the women of the village. Next day she flaunts before
+the public in her gayest attire, her head bedecked with ornaments and
+her face mottled with red paint. So everybody knows what has
+happened.[82]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Thonga on Delagoa Bay.]
+
+Among the northern clans of the Thonga tribe, in South-Eastern Africa,
+about Delagoa Bay, when a girl thinks that the time of her nubility is
+near, she chooses an adoptive mother, perhaps in a neighbouring village.
+When the symptoms appear, she flies away from her own village and
+repairs to that of her adopted mother "to weep near her." After that she
+is secluded with several other girls in the same condition for a month.
+They are shut up in a hut, and whenever they come outside they must wear
+a dirty greasy cloth over their faces as a veil. Every morning they are
+led to a pool and plunged in the water up to their necks. Initiated
+girls or women accompany them, singing obscene songs and driving away
+with sticks any man who meets them; for no man may see a girl during
+this time of seclusion. If he saw her, it is said that he would be
+struck blind. On their return from the river, the girls are again
+imprisoned in the hut, where they remain wet and shivering, for they may
+not go near the fire to warm themselves. During their seclusion they
+listen to lascivious songs sung by grown women and are instructed in
+sexual matters. At the end of the month the adoptive mother brings the
+girl home to her true mother and presents her with a pot of beer.[83]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Caffre tribes of South Africa.]
+
+Among the Caffre tribes of South Africa the period of a girl's seclusion
+at puberty varies with the rank of her father. If he is a rich man, it
+may last twelve days; if he is a chief, it may last twenty-four
+days.[84] And when it is over, the girl rubs herself over with red
+earth, and strews finely powdered red earth on the ground, before she
+leaves the hut where she has been shut up. Finally, though she was
+forbidden to drink milk all the days of her separation, she washes out
+her mouth with milk, and is from that moment regarded as a full-grown
+woman.[85] Afterwards, in the dusk of the evening, she carries away all
+the objects with which she came into contact in the hut during her
+seclusion and buries them secretly in a sequestered spot.[86] When the
+girl is a chief's daughter the ceremonies at her liberation from the hut
+are more elaborate than usual. She is led forth from the hut by a son of
+her father's councillor, who, wearing the wings of a blue crane, the
+badge of bravery, on his head, escorts her to the cattle kraal, where
+cows are slaughtered and dancing takes place. Large skins full of milk
+are sent to the spot from neighbouring villages; and after the dances
+are over the girl drinks milk for the first time since the day she
+entered into retreat. But the first mouthful is drunk by the girl's aunt
+or other female relative who had charge of her during her seclusion; and
+a little of it is poured on the fire-place.[87] Amongst the Zulus, when
+the girl was a princess royal, the end of her time of separation was
+celebrated by a sort of saturnalia: law and order were for the time
+being in abeyance: every man, woman, and child might appropriate any
+article of property: the king abstained from interfering; and if during
+this reign of misrule he was robbed of anything he valued he could only
+recover it by paying a fine.[88] Among the Basutos, when girls at
+puberty are bathed as usual by the matrons in a river, they are hidden
+separately in the turns and bends of the stream, and told to cover their
+heads, as they will be visited by a large serpent. Their limbs are then
+plastered with clay, little masks of straw are put on their faces, and
+thus arrayed they daily follow each other in procession, singing
+melancholy airs, to the fields, there to learn the labours of husbandry
+in which a great part of their adult life will be passed.[89] We may
+suppose, though we are not told, that the straw masks which they wear in
+these processions are intended to hide their faces from the gaze of men
+and the rays of the sun.
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty in the Lower Congo.]
+
+Among the tribes in the lower valley of the Congo, such as the Bavili,
+when a girl arrives at puberty, she has to pass two or three months in
+seclusion in a small hut built for the purpose. The hair of her head is
+shaved off, and every day the whole of her body is smeared with a red
+paint (_takulla_) made from a powdered wood mixed with water. Some of
+her companions reside in the hut with her and prepare the paint for her
+use. A woman is appointed to take charge of the hut and to keep off
+intruders. At the end of her confinement she is taken to water by the
+women of her family and bathed; the paint is rubbed off her body, her
+arms and legs are loaded with brass rings, and she is led in solemn
+procession under an umbrella to her husband's house. If these ceremonies
+were not performed, the people believe that the girl would be barren or
+would give birth to monsters, that the rain would cease to fall, the
+earth to bear fruit, and the fishing to be successful.[90] Such serious
+importance do these savages ascribe to the performance of rites which to
+us seem so childish.
+
+
+Sec. 2. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in New Ireland, New Guinea, and
+Indonesia_
+
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty in New Ireland.]
+
+In New Ireland girls are confined for four or five years in small cages,
+being kept in the dark and not allowed to set foot on the ground. The
+custom has been thus described by an eye-witness. "I heard from a
+teacher about some strange custom connected with some of the young girls
+here, so I asked the chief to take me to the house where they were. The
+house was about twenty-five feet in length, and stood in a reed and
+bamboo enclosure, across the entrance to which a bundle of dried grass
+was suspended to show that it was strictly '_tabu_.' Inside the house
+were three conical structures about seven or eight feet in height, and
+about ten or twelve feet in circumference at the bottom, and for about
+four feet from the ground, at which point they tapered off to a point at
+the top. These cages were made of the broad leaves of the pandanus-tree,
+sewn quite close together so that no light and little or no air could
+enter. On one side of each is an opening which is closed by a double
+door of plaited cocoa-nut tree and pandanus-tree leaves. About three
+feet from the ground there is a stage of bamboos which forms the floor.
+In each of these cages we were told there was a young woman confined,
+each of whom had to remain for at least four or five years, without ever
+being allowed to go outside the house. I could scarcely credit the story
+when I heard it; the whole thing seemed too horrible to be true. I spoke
+to the chief, and told him that I wished to see the inside of the cages,
+and also to see the girls that I might make them a present of a few
+beads. He told me that it was '_tabu_,' forbidden for any men but their
+own relations to look at them; but I suppose the promised beads acted as
+an inducement, and so he sent away for some old lady who had charge, and
+who alone is allowed to open the doors. While we were waiting we could
+hear the girls talking to the chief in a querulous way as if objecting
+to something or expressing their fears. The old woman came at length and
+certainly she did not seem a very pleasant jailor or guardian; nor did
+she seem to favour the request of the chief to allow us to see the
+girls, as she regarded us with anything but pleasant looks. However, she
+had to undo the door when the chief told her to do so, and then the
+girls peeped out at us, and, when told to do so, they held out their
+hands for the beads. I, however, purposely sat at some distance away and
+merely held out the beads to them, as I wished to draw them quite
+outside, that I might inspect the inside of the cages. This desire of
+mine gave rise to another difficulty, as these girls were not allowed to
+put their feet to the ground all the time they were confined in these
+places. However, they wished to get the beads, and so the old lady had
+to go outside and collect a lot of pieces of wood and bamboo, which she
+placed on the ground, and then going to one of the girls, she helped her
+down and held her hand as she stepped from one piece of wood to another
+until she came near enough to get the beads I held out to her. I then
+went to inspect the inside of the cage out of which she had come, but
+could scarcely put my head inside of it, the atmosphere was so hot and
+stifling. It was clean and contained nothing but a few short lengths of
+bamboo for holding water. There was only room for the girl to sit or lie
+down in a crouched position on the bamboo platform, and when the doors
+are shut it must be nearly or quite dark inside. The girls are never
+allowed to come out except once a day to bathe in a dish or wooden bowl
+placed close to each cage. They say that they perspire profusely. They
+are placed in these stifling cages when quite young, and must remain
+there until they are young women, when they are taken out and have each
+a great marriage feast provided for them. One of them was about fourteen
+or fifteen years old, and the chief told us that she had been there for
+five years, but would soon be taken out now. The other two were about
+eight and ten years old, and they have to stay there for several years
+longer."[91] A more recent observer has described the custom as it is
+observed on the western coast of New Ireland. He says: "A _buck_ is the
+name of a little house, not larger than an ordinary hen-coop, in which a
+little girl is shut up, sometimes for weeks only, and at other times for
+months.... Briefly stated, the custom is this. Girls, on attaining
+puberty or betrothal, are enclosed in one of these little coops for a
+considerable time. They must remain there night and day. We saw two of
+these girls in two coops; the girls were not more than ten years old,
+still they were lying in a doubled-up position, as their little houses
+would not admit of them lying in any other way. These two coops were
+inside a large house; but the chief, in consideration of a present of a
+couple of tomahawks, ordered the ends to be torn out of the house to
+admit the light, so that we might photograph the _buck_. The occupant
+was allowed to put her face through an opening to be photographed, in
+consideration of another present."[92] As a consequence of their long
+enforced idleness in the shade the girls grow fat and their dusky
+complexion bleaches to a more pallid hue. Both their corpulence and
+their pallor are regarded as beauties.[93]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty in New Guinea, Borneo, Ceram and Yap.]
+
+In Kabadi, a district of British New Guinea, "daughters of chiefs, when
+they are about twelve or thirteen years of age, are kept indoors for two
+or three years, never being allowed, under any pretence, to descend from
+the house, and the house is so shaded that the sun cannot shine on
+them."[94] Among the Yabim and Bukaua, two neighbouring and kindred
+tribes on the coast of German New Guinea, a girl at puberty is secluded
+for some five or six weeks in an inner part of the house; but she may
+not sit on the floor, lest her uncleanness should cleave to it, so a log
+of wood is placed for her to squat on. Moreover, she may not touch the
+ground with her feet; hence if she is obliged to quit the house for a
+short time, she is muffled up in mats and walks on two halves of a
+coconut shell, which are fastened like sandals to her feet by creeping
+plants. During her seclusion she is in charge of her aunts or other
+female relatives. At the end of the time she bathes, her person is
+loaded with ornaments, her face is grotesquely painted with red stripes
+on a white ground, and thus adorned she is brought forth in public to be
+admired by everybody. She is now marriageable.[95] Among the Ot Danoms
+of Borneo girls at the age of eight or ten years are shut up in a little
+room or cell of the house, and cut off from all intercourse with the
+world for a long time. The cell, like the rest of the house, is raised
+on piles above the ground, and is lit by a single small window opening
+on a lonely place, so that the girl is in almost total darkness. She may
+not leave the room on any pretext whatever, not even for the most
+necessary purposes. None of her family may see her all the time she is
+shut up, but a single slave woman is appointed to wait on her. During
+her lonely confinement, which often lasts seven years, the girl occupies
+herself in weaving mats or with other handiwork. Her bodily growth is
+stunted by the long want of exercise, and when, on attaining womanhood,
+she is brought out, her complexion is pale and wax-like. She is now
+shewn the sun, the earth, the water, the trees, and the flowers, as if
+she were newly born. Then a great feast is made, a slave is killed, and
+the girl is smeared with his blood.[96] In Ceram girls at puberty were
+formerly shut up by themselves in a hut which was kept dark.[97] In Yap,
+one of the Caroline Islands, should a girl be overtaken by her first
+menstruation on the public road, she may not sit down on the earth, but
+must beg for a coco-nut shell to put under her. She is shut up for
+several days in a small hut at a distance from her parents' house, and
+afterwards she is bound to sleep for a hundred days in one of the
+special houses which are provided for the use of menstruous women.[98]
+
+
+Sec. 3. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in the Torres Straits Islands and
+Northern Australia_
+
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty in Mabuiag, Torres Straits.]
+
+In the island of Mabuiag, Torres Straits, when the signs of puberty
+appear on a girl, a circle of bushes is made in a dark corner of the
+house. Here, decked with shoulder-belts, armlets, leglets just below the
+knees, and anklets, wearing a chaplet on her head, and shell ornaments
+in her ears, on her chest, and on her back, she squats in the midst of
+the bushes, which are piled so high round about her that only her head
+is visible. In this state of seclusion she must remain for three months.
+All this time the sun may not shine upon her, but at night she is
+allowed to slip out of the hut, and the bushes that hedge her in are
+then changed. She may not feed herself or handle food, but is fed by one
+or two old women, her maternal aunts, who are especially appointed to
+look after her. One of these women cooks food for her at a special fire
+in the forest. The girl is forbidden to eat turtle or turtle eggs during
+the season when the turtles are breeding; but no vegetable food is
+refused her. No man, not even her own father, may come into the house
+while her seclusion lasts; for if her father saw her at this time he
+would certainly have bad luck in his fishing, and would probably smash
+his canoe the very next time he went out in it. At the end of the three
+months she is carried down to a fresh-water creek by her attendants,
+hanging on to their shoulders in such a way that her feet do not touch
+the ground, while the women of the tribe form a ring round her, and thus
+escort her to the beach. Arrived at the shore, she is stripped of her
+ornaments, and the bearers stagger with her into the creek, where they
+immerse her, and all the other women join in splashing water over both
+the girl and her bearers. When they come out of the water one of the two
+attendants makes a heap of grass for her charge to squat upon. The other
+runs to the reef, catches a small crab, tears off its claws, and hastens
+back with them to the creek. Here in the meantime a fire has been
+kindled, and the claws are roasted at it. The girl is then fed by her
+attendants with the roasted claws. After that she is freshly decorated,
+and the whole party marches back to the village in a single rank, the
+girl walking in the centre between her two old aunts, who hold her by
+the wrists. The husbands of her aunts now receive her and lead her into
+the house of one of them, where all partake of food, and the girl is
+allowed once more to feed herself in the usual manner. A dance follows,
+in which the girl takes a prominent part, dancing between the husbands
+of the two aunts who had charge of her in her retirement.[99]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty in Northern Australia.]
+
+Among the Yaraikanna tribe of Cape York Peninsula, in Northern
+Queensland, a girl at puberty is said to live by herself for a month or
+six weeks; no man may see her, though any woman may. She stays in a hut
+or shelter specially made for her, on the floor of which she lies
+supine. She may not see the sun, and towards sunset she must keep her
+eyes shut until the sun has gone down, otherwise it is thought that her
+nose will be diseased. During her seclusion she may eat nothing that
+lives in salt water, or a snake would kill her. An old woman waits upon
+her and supplies her with roots, yams, and water.[100] Some tribes are
+wont to bury their girls at such seasons more or less deeply in the
+ground, perhaps in order to hide them from the light of the sun. Thus
+the Larrakeeyah tribe in the northern territory of South Australia used
+to cover a girl up with dirt for three days at her first monthly
+period.[101] In similar circumstances the Otati tribe, on the east coast
+of the Cape York Peninsula, make an excavation in the ground, where the
+girl squats. A bower is then built over the hole, and sand is thrown on
+the young woman till she is covered up to the hips. In this condition
+she remains for the first day, but comes out at night. So long as the
+period lasts, she stays in the bower during the day-time, but is not
+again covered with sand. Afterwards her body is painted red and white
+from the head to the hips, and she returns to the camp, where she squats
+first on the right side, then on the left side, and then on the lap of
+her future husband, who has been previously selected for her.[102] Among
+the natives of the Pennefather River, in the Cape York Peninsula,
+Queensland, when a girl menstruates for the first time, her mother takes
+her away from the camp to some secluded spot, where she digs a circular
+hole in the sandy soil under the shade of a tree. In this hole the girl
+squats with crossed legs and is covered with sand from the waist
+downwards. A digging-stick is planted firmly in the sand on each side of
+her, and the place is surrounded by a fence of bushes except in front,
+where her mother kindles a fire. Here the girl stays all day, sitting
+with her arms crossed and the palms of her hands resting on the sand.
+She may not move her arms except to take food from her mother or to
+scratch herself; and in scratching herself she may not touch herself
+with her own hands, but must use for the purpose a splinter of wood,
+which, when it is not in use, is stuck in her hair. She may speak to
+nobody but her mother; indeed nobody else would think of coming near
+her. At evening she lays hold of the two digging-sticks and by their
+help frees herself from the superincumbent weight of sand and returns to
+the camp. Next morning she is again buried in the sand under the shade
+of the tree and remains there again till evening. This she does daily
+for five days. On her return at evening on the fifth day her mother
+decorates her with a waist-band, a forehead-band, and a necklet of
+pearl-shell, ties green parrot feathers round her arms and wrists and
+across her chest, and smears her body, back and front, from the waist
+upwards with blotches of red, white, and yellow paint. She has in like
+manner to be buried in the sand at her second and third menstruations,
+but at the fourth she is allowed to remain in camp, only signifying her
+condition by wearing a basket of empty shells on her back.[103] Among
+the Kia blacks of the Prosperine River, on the east coast of Queensland,
+a girl at puberty has to sit or lie down in a shallow pit away from the
+camp; a rough hut of bushes is erected over her to protect her from the
+inclemency of the weather. There she stays for about a week, waited on
+by her mother and sister, the only persons to whom she may speak. She is
+allowed to drink water, but may not touch it with her hands; and she may
+scratch herself a little with a mussel-shell. This seclusion is repeated
+at her second and third monthly periods, but when the third is over she
+is brought to her husband bedecked with savage finery. Eagle-hawk or
+cockatoo feathers are stuck in her hair: a shell hangs over her
+forehead: grass bugles encircle her neck and an apron of opossum skin
+her waist: strings are tied to her arms and wrists; and her whole body
+is mottled with patterns drawn in red, white, and yellow pigments and
+charcoal.[104]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty in the islands of Torres Straits.]
+
+Among the Uiyumkwi tribe in Red Island the girl lies at full length in a
+shallow trench dug in the foreshore, and sand is lightly thrown over her
+legs and body up to the breasts, which appear not to be covered. A rough
+shelter of boughs is then built over her, and thus she remains lying for
+a few hours. Then she and her attendant go into the bush and look for
+food, which they cook at a fire close to the shelter. They sleep under
+the boughs, the girl remaining secluded from the camp but apparently not
+being again buried. At the end of the symptoms she stands over hot
+stones and water is poured over her, till, trickling from her body on
+the stones, it is converted into steam and envelops her in a cloud of
+vapour. Then she is painted with red and white stripes and returns to
+the camp. If her future husband has already been chosen, she goes to him
+and they eat some food together, which the girl has previously brought
+from the bush.[105] In Prince of Wales Island, Torres Strait, the
+treatment of the patient is similar, but lasts for about two months.
+During the day she lies covered up with sand in a shallow hole on the
+beach, over which a hut is built. At night she may get out of the hole,
+but she may not leave the hut. Her paternal aunt looks after her, and
+both of them must abstain from eating turtle, dugong, and the heads of
+fish. Were they to eat the heads of fish no more fish would be caught.
+During the time of the girl's seclusion, the aunt who waits upon her has
+the right to enter any house and take from it anything she likes without
+payment, provided she does so before the sun rises. When the time of her
+retirement has come to an end, the girl bathes in the sea while the
+morning star is rising, and after performing various other ceremonies is
+readmitted to society.[106] In Saibai, another island of Torres Straits,
+at her first monthly sickness a girl lives secluded in the forest for
+about a fortnight, during which no man may see her; even the women who
+have spoken to her in the forest must wash in salt water before they
+speak to a man. Two girls wait upon and feed the damsel, putting the
+food into her mouth, for she is not allowed to touch it with her own
+hands. Nor may she eat dugong and turtle. At the end of a fortnight the
+girl and her attendants bathe in salt water while the tide is running
+out. Afterwards they are clean, may again speak to men without ceremony,
+and move freely about the village. In Yam and Tutu a girl at puberty
+retires for a month to the forest, where no man nor even her own mother
+may look upon her. She is waited on by women who stand to her in a
+certain relationship (_mowai_), apparently her paternal aunts. She is
+blackened all over with charcoal and wears a long petticoat reaching
+below her knees. During her seclusion the married women of the village
+often assemble in the forest and dance, and the girl's aunts relieve the
+tedium of the proceedings by thrashing her from time to time as a useful
+preparation for matrimony. At the end of a month the whole party go into
+the sea, and the charcoal is washed off the girl. After that she is
+decorated, her body blackened again, her hair reddened with ochre, and
+in the evening she is brought back to her father's house, where she is
+received with weeping and lamentation because she has been so long
+away.[107]
+
+
+Sec. 4. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of North America_
+
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of California]
+
+Among the Indians of California a girl at her first menstruation "was
+thought to be possessed of a particular degree of supernatural power,
+and this was not always regarded as entirely defiling or malevolent.
+Often, however, there was a strong feeling of the power of evil inherent
+in her condition. Not only was she secluded from her family and the
+community, but an attempt was made to seclude the world from her. One of
+the injunctions most strongly laid upon her was not to look about her.
+She kept her head bowed and was forbidden to see the world and the sun.
+Some tribes covered her with a blanket. Many of the customs in this
+connection resembled those of the North Pacific Coast most strongly,
+such as the prohibition to the girl to touch or scratch her head with
+her hand, a special implement being furnished her for the purpose.
+Sometimes she could eat only when fed and in other cases fasted
+altogether. Some form of public ceremony, often accompanied by a dance
+and sometimes by a form of ordeal for the girl, was practised nearly
+everywhere. Such ceremonies were well developed in Southern California,
+where a number of actions symbolical of the girl's maturity and
+subsequent life were performed."[108] Thus among the Maidu Indians of
+California a girl at puberty remained shut up in a small separate hut.
+For five days she might not eat flesh or fish nor feed herself, but was
+fed by her mother or other old woman. She had a basket, plate, and cup
+for her own use, and a stick with which to scratch her head, for she
+might not scratch it with her fingers. At the end of five days she took
+a warm bath and, while she still remained in the hut and plied the
+scratching-stick on her head, was privileged to feed herself with her
+own hands. After five days more she bathed in the river, after which her
+parents gave a great feast in her honour. At the feast the girl was
+dressed in her best, and anybody might ask her parents for anything he
+pleased, and they had to give it, even if it was the hand of their
+daughter in marriage. During the period of her seclusion in the hut the
+girl was allowed to go by night to her parents' house and listen to
+songs sung by her friends and relations, who assembled for the purpose.
+Among the songs were some that related to the different roots and seeds
+which in these tribes it is the business of women to gather for food.
+While the singers sang, she sat by herself in a corner of the house
+muffled up completely in mats and skins; no man or boy might come near
+her.[109] Among the Hupa, another Indian tribe of California, when a
+girl had reached maturity her male relatives danced all night for nine
+successive nights, while the girl remained apart, eating no meat and
+blindfolded. But on the tenth night she entered the house and took part
+in the last dance.[110] Among the Wintun, another Californian tribe, a
+girl at puberty was banished from the camp and lived alone in a distant
+booth, fasting rigidly from animal food; it was death to any person to
+touch or even approach her.[111]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of Washington State.]
+
+In the interior of Washington State, about Colville, "the customs of the
+Indians, in relation to the treatment of females, are singular. On the
+first appearance of the menses, they are furnished with provisions, and
+sent into the woods, to remain concealed for two days; for they have a
+superstition, that if a man should be seen or met with during that time,
+death will be the consequence. At the end of the second day, the woman
+is permitted to return to the lodge, when she is placed in a hut just
+large enough for her to lie in at full length, in which she is compelled
+to remain for twenty days, cut off from all communication with her
+friends, and is obliged to hide her face at the appearance of a man.
+Provisions are supplied her daily. After this, she is required to
+perform repeated ablutions, before she can resume her place in the
+family. At every return, the women go into seclusion for two or more
+days."[112] Among the Chinook Indians who inhabited the coast of
+Washington State, from Shoalwater Bay as far as Grey's Harbour, when a
+chief's daughter attained to puberty, she was hidden for five days from
+the view of the people; she might not look at them nor at the sky, nor
+might she pick berries. It was believed that if she were to look at the
+sky, the weather would be bad; that if she picked berries, it would
+rain; and that when she hung her towel of cedar-bark on a spruce-tree,
+the tree withered up at once. She went out of the house by a separate
+door and bathed in a creek far from the village. She fasted for some
+days, and for many days more she might not eat fresh food.[113]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Nootka Indians of Vancouver
+Island.]
+
+Amongst the Aht or Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island, when girls reach
+puberty they are placed in a sort of gallery in the house "and are there
+surrounded completely with mats, so that neither the sun nor any fire
+can be seen. In this cage they remain for several days. Water is given
+them, but no food. The longer a girl remains in this retirement the
+greater honour is it to the parents; but she is disgraced for life if it
+is known that she has seen fire or the sun during this initiatory
+ordeal."[114] Pictures of the mythical thunder-bird are painted on the
+screens behind which she hides. During her seclusion she may neither
+move nor lie down, but must always sit in a squatting posture. She may
+not touch her hair with her hands, but is allowed to scratch her head
+with a comb or a piece of bone provided for the purpose. To scratch her
+body is also forbidden, as it is believed that every scratch would leave
+a scar. For eight months after reaching maturity she may not eat any
+fresh food, particularly salmon; moreover, she must eat by herself, and
+use a cup and dish of her own.[115]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Haida Indians of the Queen
+Charlotte Islands.]
+
+Among the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands girls at puberty
+were secluded behind screens in the house for about twenty days. In some
+parts of the islands separate fires were provided for the girls, and
+they went out and in by a separate door at the back of the house. If a
+girl at such a time was obliged to go out by the front door, all the
+weapons, gambling-sticks, medicine, and other articles had to be removed
+from the house till her return, for otherwise it was thought that they
+would be unlucky; and if there was a good hunter in the house, he also
+had to go out at the same time on pain of losing his good luck if he
+remained. During several months or even half a year the girl was bound
+to wear a peculiar cloak or hood made of cedar-bark, nearly conical in
+shape and reaching down below the breast, but open before the face.
+After the twenty days were over the girl took a bath; none of the water
+might be spilled, it had all to be taken back to the woods, else the
+girl would not live long. On the west coast of the islands the damsel
+might eat nothing but black cod for four years; for the people believed
+that other kinds of fish would become scarce if she partook of them. At
+Kloo the young woman at such times was forbidden to look at the sea, and
+for forty days she might not gaze at the fire; for a whole year she
+might not walk on the beach below high-water mark, because then the tide
+would come in, covering part of the food supply, and there would be bad
+weather. For five years she might not eat salmon, or the fish would be
+scarce; and when her family went to a salmon-creek, she landed from the
+canoe at the mouth of the creek and came to the smoke-house from behind;
+for were she to see a salmon leap, all the salmon might leave the creek.
+Among the Haidas of Masset it was believed that if the girl looked at
+the sky, the weather would be bad, and that if she stepped over a
+salmon-creek, all the salmon would disappear.[116]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Tlingit Indians of Alaska.]
+
+Amongst the Tlingit (Thlinkeet) or Kolosh Indians of Alaska, when a girl
+shewed signs of womanhood she used to be confined to a little hut or
+cage, which was completely blocked up with the exception of a small
+air-hole. In this dark and filthy abode she had to remain a year,
+without fire, exercise, or associates. Only her mother and a female
+slave might supply her with nourishment. Her food was put in at the
+little window; she had to drink out of the wing-bone of a white-headed
+eagle. The time of her seclusion was afterwards reduced in some places
+to six or three months or even less. She had to wear a sort of hat with
+long flaps, that her gaze might not pollute the sky; for she was thought
+unfit for the sun to shine upon, and it was imagined that her look would
+destroy the luck of a hunter, fisher, or gambler, turn things to stone,
+and do other mischief. At the end of her confinement her old clothes
+were burnt, new ones were made, and a feast was given, at which a slit
+was cut in her under lip parallel to the mouth, and a piece of wood or
+shell was inserted to keep the aperture open.[117]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Tsetsaut and Bella Coola
+Indians of British Columbia.]
+
+In the Tsetsaut tribe of British Columbia a girl at puberty wears a
+large hat of skin which comes down over her face and screens it from the
+sun. It is believed that if she were to expose her face to the sun or to
+the sky, rain would fall. The hat protects her face also against the
+fire, which ought not to strike her skin; to shield her hands she wears
+mittens. In her mouth she carries the tooth of an animal to prevent her
+own teeth from becoming hollow. For a whole year she may not see blood
+unless her face is blackened; otherwise she would grow blind. For two
+years she wears the hat and lives in a hut by herself, although she is
+allowed to see other people. At the end of two years a man takes the hat
+from her head and throws it away.[118] In the Bilqula or Bella Coola
+tribe of British Columbia, when a girl attains puberty she must stay in
+the shed which serves as her bedroom, where she has a separate
+fireplace. She is not allowed to descend to the main part of the house,
+and may not sit by the fire of the family. For four days she is bound to
+remain motionless in a sitting posture. She fasts during the day, but is
+allowed a little food and drink very early in the morning. After the
+four days' seclusion she may leave her room, but only through a separate
+opening cut in the floor, for the houses are raised on piles. She may
+not yet come into the chief room. In leaving the house she wears a large
+hat which protects her face against the rays of the sun. It is believed
+that if the sun were to shine on her face her eyes would suffer. She may
+pick berries on the hills, but may not come near the river or sea for a
+whole year. Were she to eat fresh salmon she would lose her senses, or
+her mouth would be changed into a long beak.[119]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Tinneh Indians of British
+Columbia.]
+
+Among the Tinneh Indians about Stuart Lake, Babine Lake, and Fraser Lake
+in British Columbia "girls verging on maturity, that is when their
+breasts begin to form, take swans' feathers mixed with human hair and
+plait bands, which they tie round their wrists and ankles to secure long
+life. At this time they are careful that the dishes out of which they
+eat, are used by no other person, and wholly devoted to their own use;
+during this period they eat nothing but dog fish, and starvation _only_
+will drive them to eat either fresh fish or meat. When their first
+periodical sickness comes on, they are fed by their mothers or nearest
+female relation by _themselves_, and on no account will they touch their
+food with their own hands. They are at this time also careful not to
+touch their heads with their hands, and keep a small stick to scratch
+their heads with. They remain outside the lodge, all the time they are
+in this state, in a hut made for the purpose. During all this period
+they wear a skull-cap made of skin to fit very tight; this is never
+taken off until their first monthly sickness ceases; they also wear a
+strip of black paint about one inch wide across their eyes, and wear a
+fringe of shells, bones, etc., hanging down from their foreheads to
+below their eyes; and this is never taken off till the second monthly
+period arrives and ceases, when the nearest male relative makes a feast;
+after which she is considered a fully matured woman; but she has to
+refrain from eating anything fresh for one year after her first monthly
+sickness; she may however eat partridge, but it must be cooked in the
+crop of the bird to render it harmless. I would have thought it
+impossible to perform this feat had I not seen it done. The crop is
+blown out, and a small bent willow put round the mouth; it is then
+filled with water, and the meat being first minced up, put in also, then
+put on the fire and boiled till cooked. Their reason for hanging fringes
+before their eyes, is to hinder any bad medicine man from harming them
+during this critical period: they are very careful not to drink whilst
+facing a medicine man, and do so only when their backs are turned to
+him. All these habits are left off when the girl is a recognised woman,
+with the exception of their going out of the lodge and remaining in a
+hut, every time their periodical sickness comes on. This is a rigidly
+observed law with both single and married women."[120]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Tinneh Indians of Alaska.]
+
+Among the Hareskin Tinneh a girl at puberty was secluded for five days
+in a hut made specially for the purpose; she might only drink out of a
+tube made from a swan's bone, and for a month she might not break a
+hare's bones, nor taste blood, nor eat the heart or fat of animals, nor
+birds' eggs.[121] Among the Tinneh Indians of the middle Yukon valley,
+in Alaska, the period of the girl's seclusion lasts exactly a lunar
+month; for the day of the moon on which the symptoms first occur is
+noted, and she is sequestered until the same day of the next moon. If
+the season is winter, a corner of the house is curtained off for her use
+by a blanket or a sheet of canvas; if it is summer, a small tent is
+erected for her near the common one. Here she lives and sleeps. She
+wears a long robe and a large hood, which she must pull down over her
+eyes whenever she leaves the hut, and she must keep it down till she
+returns. She may not speak to a man nor see his face, much less touch
+his clothes or anything that belongs to him; for if she did so, though
+no harm would come to her, he would grow unmanly. She has her own dishes
+for eating out of and may use no other; at Kaltag she must suck the
+water through a swan's bone without applying her lips to the cup. She
+may eat no fresh meat or fish except the flesh of the porcupine. She may
+not undress, but sleeps with all her clothes on, even her mittens. In
+her socks she wears, next to the skin, the horny soles cut from the feet
+of a porcupine, in order that for the rest of her life her shoes may
+never wear out. Round her waist she wears a cord to which are tied the
+heads of femurs of a porcupine; because of all animals known to the
+Tinneh the porcupine suffers least in parturition, it simply drops its
+young and continues to walk or skip about as if nothing had happened.
+Hence it is easy to see that a girl who wears these portions of a
+porcupine about her waist, will be delivered just as easily as the
+animal. To make quite sure of this, if anybody happens to kill a
+porcupine big with young while the girl is undergoing her period of
+separation, the foetus is given to her, and she lets it slide down
+between her shirt and her body so as to fall on the ground like an
+infant.[122] Here the imitation of childbirth is a piece of homoeopathic
+or imitative magic designed to facilitate the effect which it
+simulates.[123]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Thompson Indians of British
+Columbia.]
+
+Among the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, when a girl attained
+puberty, she was at once separated from all the people. A conical hut of
+fir branches and bark was erected at some little distance from the other
+houses, and in it the girl had to squat on her heels during the day.
+Often a deep circular hole was dug in the hut and the girl squatted in
+the hole, with her head projecting above the surface of the ground. She
+might quit the hut for various purposes in the early morning, but had
+always to be back at sunrise. On the first appearance of the symptoms
+her face was painted red all over, and the paint was renewed every
+morning during her term of seclusion. A heavy blanket swathed her body
+from top to toe, and during the first four days she wore a conical cap
+made of small fir branches, which reached below the breast but left an
+opening for the face. In her hair was fastened an implement made of
+deer-bone with which she scratched herself. For the first four days she
+might neither wash nor eat, but a little water was given her in a
+birch-bark cup painted red, and she sucked up the liquid through a tube
+made out of the leg of a crane, a swan, or a goose, for her lips might
+not touch the surface of the water. After the four days she was allowed,
+during the rest of the period of isolation, to eat, to wash, to lie
+down, to comb her hair, and to drink of streams and springs. But in
+drinking at these sources she had still to use her tube, otherwise the
+spring would dry up. While her seclusion lasted she performed by night
+various ceremonies, which were supposed to exert a beneficial influence
+on her future life. For example, she ran as fast as she could, praying
+at the same time to the Earth or Nature that she might be fleet of foot
+and tireless of limb. She dug trenches, in order that in after life she
+might be able to dig well and to work hard. These and other ceremonies
+she repeated for four nights or mornings in succession, four times each
+morning, and each time she supplicated the Dawn of the Day. Among the
+Lower Thompson Indians she carried a staff for one night; and when the
+day was breaking she leaned the staff against the stump of a tree and
+prayed to the Dawn that she might be blessed with a good husband, who
+was symbolized by the staff. She also wandered some nights to lonely
+parts of the mountains, where she would dance, imploring the spirits to
+pity and protect her during her future life; then, the dance and prayer
+over, she would lie down on the spot and fall asleep. Again, she carried
+four stones in her bosom to a spring, where she spat upon the stones and
+threw them one after the other into the water, praying that all disease
+might leave her, as these stones did. Also she ran four times in the
+early morning with two small stones in her bosom; and as she ran the
+stones slipped down between her bare body and her clothes and fell to
+the ground. At the same time she prayed to the Dawn that when she should
+be with child, she might be delivered as easily as she was delivered of
+these stones. But whatever exercises she performed or prayers she
+offered on the lonely mountains during the hours of darkness or while
+the morning light was growing in the east, she must always be back in
+her little hut before the sun rose. There she often passed the tedious
+hours away picking the needles, one by one, from the cones on two large
+branches of fir, which hung from the roof of her hut on purpose to
+provide her with occupation. And as she picked she prayed to the
+fir-branch that she might never be lazy, but always quick and active at
+work. During her seclusion, too, she had to make miniatures of all the
+articles that Indian women make, or used to make, such as baskets, mats,
+ropes, and thread. This she did in order that afterwards she might be
+able to make the real things properly. Four large fir-branches also were
+placed in front of the hut, so that when she went out or in, she had to
+step over them. The branches were renewed every morning and the old ones
+thrown away into the water, while the girl prayed, "May I never bewitch
+any man, nor my fellow-women! May it never happen!" The first four times
+that she went out and in, she prayed to the fir-branches, saying, "If
+ever I step into trouble or difficulties or step unknowingly inside the
+magical spell of some person, may you help me, O Fir-branches, with your
+power!" Every day she painted her face afresh, and she wore strings of
+parts of deer-hoofs round her ankles and knees, and tied to her
+waistband on either side, which rattled when she walked or ran. Even the
+shape of the hut in which she lived was adapted to her future rather
+than to her present needs and wishes. If she wished to be tall, the hut
+was tall; if she wished to be short, it was low, sometimes so low that
+there was not room in it for her to stand erect, and she would lay the
+palm of her hand on the top of her head and pray to the Dawn that she
+might grow no taller. Her seclusion lasted four months. The Indians say
+that long ago it extended over a year, and that fourteen days elapsed
+before the girl was permitted to wash for the first time. The dress
+which she wore during her time of separation was afterwards taken to the
+top of a hill and burned, and the rest of her clothes were hung up on
+trees.[124]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Lillooet Indians of British
+Columbia.]
+
+Among the Lillooet Indians of British Columbia, neighbours of the
+Thompsons, the customs observed by girls at puberty were similar. The
+damsels were secluded for a period of not less than one year nor more
+than four years, according to their own inclination and the wishes of
+their parents. Among the Upper Lillooets the hut in which the girl
+lodged was made of bushy fir-trees set up like a conical tent, the inner
+branches being lopped off, while the outer branches were closely
+interwoven and padded to form a roof. Every month or half-month the hut
+was shifted to another site or a new one erected. By day the girl sat in
+the hut; for the first month she squatted in a hole dug in the middle of
+it; and she passed the time making miniature baskets of birch-bark and
+other things, praying that she might be able to make the real things
+well in after years. At the dusk of the evening she left the hut and
+wandered about all night, but she returned before the sun rose. Before
+she quitted the hut at nightfall to roam abroad, she painted her face
+red and put on a mask of fir-branches, and in her hand, as she walked,
+she carried a basket-rattle to frighten ghosts and guard herself from
+evil. Among the Lower Lillooets, the girl's mask was often made of
+goat-skin, covering her head, neck, shoulders and breast, and leaving
+only a narrow opening from the brow to the chin. During the nocturnal
+hours she performed many ceremonies. Thus she put two smooth stones in
+her bosom and ran, and as they fell down between her body and her
+clothes, she prayed, saying, "May I always have easy child-births!" Now
+one of these stones represented her future child and the other
+represented the afterbirth. Also she dug trenches, praying that in the
+years to come she might be strong and tireless in digging roots; she
+picked leaves and needles from the fir-trees, praying that her fingers
+might be nimble in picking berries; and she tore sheets of birch-bark
+into shreds, dropping the shreds as she walked and asking that her hands
+might never tire and that she might make neat and fine work of
+birch-bark. Moreover, she ran and walked much that she might be light of
+foot. And every evening, when the shadows were falling, and every
+morning, when the day was breaking, she prayed to the Dusk of the
+Evening or to the Dawn of Day, saying, "O Dawn of Day!" or "O Dusk," as
+it might be, "may I be able to dig roots fast and easily, and may I
+always find plenty!" All her prayers were addressed to the Dusk of the
+Evening or the Dawn of Day. She supplicated both, asking for long life,
+health, wealth, and happiness.[125]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Shuswap Indians of British
+Columbia.]
+
+Among the Shuswap Indians of British Columbia, who are neighbours of the
+Thompsons and Lillooets, "a girl on reaching maturity has to go through
+a great number of ceremonies. She must leave the village and live alone
+in a small hut on the mountains. She cooks her own food, and must not
+eat anything that bleeds. She is forbidden to touch her head, for which
+purpose she uses a comb with three points. Neither is she allowed to
+scratch her body, except with a painted deer-bone. She wears the bone
+and the comb suspended from her belt. She drinks out of a painted cup of
+birch-bark, and neither more nor less than the quantity it holds. Every
+night she walks about her hut, and plants willow twigs, which she has
+painted, and to the ends of which she has attached pieces of cloth, into
+the ground. It is believed that thus she will become rich in later life.
+In order to become strong she should climb trees and try to break off
+their points. She plays with _lehal_ sticks that her future husbands
+might have good luck when gambling."[126] During the day the girl stays
+in her hut and occupies herself in making miniature bags, mats, and
+baskets, in sewing and embroidery, in manufacturing thread, twine, and
+so forth; in short she makes a beginning of all kinds of woman's work,
+in order that she may be a good housewife in after life. By night she
+roams the mountains and practises running, climbing, carrying burdens,
+and digging trenches, so that she may be expert at digging roots. If she
+has wandered far and daylight overtakes her, she hides herself behind a
+veil of fir branches; for no one, except her instructor or nearest
+relatives, should see her face during her period of seclusion. She wore
+a large robe painted red on the breast and sides, and her hair was done
+up in a knot at each ear.[127]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Delaware and Cheyenne Indians.]
+
+Ceremonies of the same general type were probably observed by girls at
+puberty among all the Indian tribes of North America. But the record of
+them is far less full for the Central and Eastern tribes, perhaps
+because the settlers who first came into contact with the Red Man in
+these regions were too busy fighting him to find leisure, even if they
+had the desire, to study his manners and customs. However, among the
+Delaware Indians, a tribe in the extreme east of the continent, we read
+that "when a Delaware girl has her first monthly period, she must
+withdraw into a hut at some distance from the village. Her head is
+wrapped up for twelve days, so that she can see nobody, and she must
+submit to frequent vomits and fasting, and abstain from all labor. After
+this she is washed and new clothed, but confined to a solitary life for
+two months, at the close of which she is declared marriageable."[128]
+Again, among the Cheyennes, an Indian tribe of the Missouri valley, a
+girl at her first menstruation is painted red all over her body and
+secluded in a special little lodge for four days. However, she may
+remain in her father's lodge provided that there are no charms
+("medicine"), no sacred bundle, and no shield in it, or that these and
+all other objects invested with a sacred character have been removed.
+For four days she may not eat boiled meat; the flesh of which she
+partakes must be roasted over coals. Young men will not eat from the
+dish nor drink from the pot, which has been used by her; because they
+believe that were they to do so they would be wounded in the next fight.
+She may not handle nor even touch any weapon of war or any sacred
+object. If the camp moves, she may not ride a horse, but is mounted on a
+mare.[129]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Esquimaux.]
+
+Among the Esquimaux also, in the extreme north of the continent, who
+belong to an entirely different race from the Indians, the attainment of
+puberty in the female sex is, or used to be, the occasion of similar
+observances. Thus among the Koniags, an Esquimau people of Alaska, a
+girl at puberty was placed in a small hut in which she had to remain on
+her hands and knees for six months; then the hut was enlarged a little
+so as to allow her to straighten her back, but in this posture she had
+to remain for six months more. All this time she was regarded as an
+unclean being with whom no one might hold intercourse. At the end of the
+year she was received back by her parents and a great feast held.[130]
+Again, among the Malemut, and southward from the lower Yukon and
+adjacent districts, when a girl reaches the age of puberty she is
+considered unclean for forty days and must therefore live by herself in
+a corner of the house with her face to the wall, always keeping her hood
+over her head and her hair hanging dishevelled over her eyes. But if it
+is summer, she commonly lives in a rough shelter outside the house. She
+may not go out by day, and only once at night, when every one else is
+asleep. At the end of the period she bathes and is clothed in new
+garments, whereupon she may be taken in marriage. During her seclusion
+she is supposed to be enveloped in a peculiar atmosphere of such a sort
+that were a young man to come near enough for it to touch him, it would
+render him visible to every animal he might hunt, so that his luck as a
+hunter would be gone.[131]
+
+
+Sec. 5. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of South America_
+
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Guaranis, Chiriguanos, and
+Lengua Indians of South America.]
+
+When symptoms of puberty appeared on a girl for the first time, the
+Guaranis of Southern Brazil, on the borders of Paraguay, used to sew her
+up in her hammock, leaving only a small opening in it to allow her to
+breathe. In this condition, wrapt up and shrouded like a corpse, she was
+kept for two or three days or so long as the symptoms lasted, and during
+this time she had to observe a most rigorous fast. After that she was
+entrusted to a matron, who cut the girl's hair and enjoined her to
+abstain most strictly from eating flesh of any kind until her hair
+should be grown long enough to hide her ears. Meanwhile the diviners
+drew omens of her future character from the various birds or animals
+that flew past or crossed her path. If they saw a parrot, they would say
+she was a chatterbox; if an owl, she was lazy and useless for domestic
+labours, and so on.[132] In similar circumstances the Chiriguanos of
+southeastern Bolivia hoisted the girl in her hammock to the roof, where
+she stayed for a month: the second month the hammock was let half-way
+down from the roof; and in the third month old women, armed with sticks,
+entered the hut and ran about striking everything they met, saying they
+were hunting the snake that had wounded the girl.[133] The Lengua
+Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco under similar circumstances hang the
+girl in her hammock from the roof of the house, but they leave her there
+only three days and nights, during which they give her nothing to eat
+but a little Paraguay tea or boiled maize. Only her mother or
+grandmother has access to her; nobody else approaches or speaks to her.
+If she is obliged to leave the hammock for a little, her friends take
+great care to prevent her from touching the _Boyrusu_, which is an
+imaginary serpent that would swallow her up. She must also be very
+careful not to set foot on the droppings of fowls or animals, else she
+would suffer from sores on the throat and breast. On the third day they
+let her down from the hammock, cut her hair, and make her sit in a
+corner of the room with her face turned to the wall. She may speak to
+nobody, and must abstain from flesh and fish. These rigorous observances
+she must practise for nearly a year. Many girls die or are injured for
+life in consequence of the hardships they endure at this time. Their
+only occupations during their seclusion are spinning and weaving.[134]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Yuracares of Bolivia.]
+
+Among the Yuracares, an Indian tribe of Bolivia, at the eastern foot of
+the Andes, when a girl perceives the signs of puberty, she informs her
+parents. The mother weeps and the father constructs a little hut of palm
+leaves near the house. In this cabin he shuts up his daughter so that
+she cannot see the light, and there she remains fasting rigorously for
+four days. Meantime the mother, assisted by the women of the
+neighbourhood, has brewed a large quantity of the native intoxicant
+called _chicha_, and poured it into wooden troughs and palm leaves. On
+the morning of the fourth day, three hours before the dawn, the girl's
+father, having arrayed himself in his savage finery, summons all his
+neighbours with loud cries. The damsel is seated on a stone, and every
+guest in turn cuts off a lock of her hair, and running away hides it in
+the hollow trunk of a tree in the depths of the forest. When they have
+all done so and seated themselves again gravely in the circle, the girl
+offers to each of them a calabash full of very strong _chicha_. Before
+the wassailing begins, the various fathers perform a curious operation
+on the arms of their sons, who are seated beside them. The operator
+takes a very sharp bone of an ape, rubs it with a pungent spice, and
+then pinching up the skin of his son's arm he pierces it with the bone
+through and through, as a surgeon might introduce a seton. This
+operation he repeats till the young man's arm is riddled with holes at
+regular intervals from the shoulder to the wrist. Almost all who take
+part in the festival are covered with these wounds, which the Indians
+call _culucute_. Having thus prepared themselves to spend a happy day,
+they drink, play on flutes, sing and dance till evening. Rain, thunder,
+and lightning, should they befall, have no effect in damping the general
+enjoyment or preventing its continuance till after the sun has set. The
+motive for perforating the arms of the young men is to make them skilful
+hunters; at each perforation the sufferer is cheered by the promise of
+another sort of game or fish which the surgical operation will
+infallibly procure for him. The same operation is performed on the arms
+and legs of the girls, in order that they may be brave and strong; even
+the dogs are operated on with the intention of making them run down the
+game better. For five or six months afterwards the damsel must cover her
+head with bark and refrain from speaking to men. The Yuracares think
+that if they did not submit a young girl to this severe ordeal, her
+children would afterwards perish by accidents of various kinds, such as
+the sting of a serpent, the bite of a jaguar, the fall of a tree, the
+wound of an arrow, or what not.[135]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of the Gran Chaco.]
+
+Among the Matacos or Mataguayos, an Indian tribe of the Gran Chaco, a
+girl at puberty has to remain in seclusion for some time. She lies
+covered up with branches or other things in a corner of the hut, seeing
+no one and speaking to no one, and during this time she may eat neither
+flesh nor fish. Meantime a man beats a drum in front of the house.[136]
+Similarly among the Tobas, another Indian tribe of the same region, when
+a chief's daughter has just attained to womanhood, she is shut up for
+two or three days in the house, all the men of the tribe scour the
+country to bring in game and fish for a feast, and a Mataco Indian is
+engaged to drum, sing, and dance in front of the house without
+cessation, day and night, till the festival is over. As the merrymaking
+lasts for two or three weeks, the exhaustion of the musician at the end
+of it may be readily conceived. Meat and drink are supplied to him on
+the spot where he pays his laborious court to the Muses. The proceedings
+wind up with a saturnalia and a drunken debauch.[137] Among the Yaguas,
+an Indian tribe of the Upper Amazon, a girl at puberty is shut up for
+three months in a lonely hut in the forest, where her mother brings her
+food daily.[138] When a girl of the Peguenches tribe perceives in
+herself the first signs of womanhood, she is secluded by her mother in a
+corner of the hut screened off with blankets, and is warned not to lift
+up her eyes on any man. Next day, very early in the morning and again
+after sunset, she is taken out by two women and made to run till she is
+tired; in the interval she is again secluded in her corner. On the
+following day she lays three packets of wool beside the path near the
+house to signify that she is now a woman.[139] Among the Passes, Mauhes,
+and other tribes of Brazil the young woman in similar circumstances is
+hung in her hammock from the roof and has to fast there for a month or
+as long as she can hold out.[140] One of the early settlers in Brazil,
+about the middle of the sixteenth century, has described the severe
+ordeal which damsels at puberty had to undergo among the Indians on the
+south-east coast of that country, near what is now Rio de Janeiro. When
+a girl had reached this critical period of life, her hair was burned or
+shaved off close to the head. Then she was placed on a flat stone and
+cut with the tooth of an animal from the shoulders all down the back,
+till she ran with blood. Next the ashes of a wild gourd were rubbed into
+the wounds; the girl was bound hand and foot, and hung in a hammock,
+being enveloped in it so closely that no one could see her. Here she had
+to stay for three days without eating or drinking. When the three days
+were over, she stepped out of the hammock upon the flat stone, for her
+feet might not touch the ground. If she had a call of nature, a female
+relation took the girl on her back and carried her out, taking with her
+a live coal to prevent evil influences from entering the girl's body.
+Being replaced in her hammock, she was now allowed to get some flour,
+boiled roots, and water, but might not taste salt or flesh. Thus she
+continued to the end of the first monthly period, at the expiry of which
+she was gashed on the breast and belly as well as all down the back.
+During the second month she still stayed in her hammock, but her rule of
+abstinence was less rigid, and she was allowed to spin. The third month
+she was blackened with a certain pigment and began to go about as
+usual.[141]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of Guiana; custom of
+beating the girls and of causing them to be stung by ants.]
+
+Amongst the Macusis of British Guiana, when a girl shews the first signs
+of puberty, she is hung in a hammock at the highest point of the hut.
+For the first few days she may not leave the hammock by day, but at
+night she must come down, light a fire, and spend the night beside it,
+else she would break out in sores on her neck, throat, and other parts
+of her body. So long as the symptoms are at their height, she must fast
+rigorously. When they have abated, she may come down and take up her
+abode in a little compartment that is made for her in the darkest corner
+of the hut. In the morning she may cook her food, but it must be at a
+separate fire and in a vessel of her own. After about ten days the
+magician comes and undoes the spell by muttering charms and breathing on
+her and on the more valuable of the things with which she has come in
+contact. The pots and drinking-vessels which she used are broken and the
+fragments buried. After her first bath, the girl must submit to be
+beaten by her mother with thin rods without uttering a cry. At the end
+of the second period she is again beaten, but not afterwards. She is now
+"clean," and can mix again with people.[142] Other Indians of Guiana,
+after keeping the girl in her hammock at the top of the hut for a month,
+expose her to certain large ants, whose bite is very painful.[143]
+Sometimes, in addition to being stung with ants, the sufferer has to
+fast day and night so long as she remains slung up on high in her
+hammock, so that when she comes down she is reduced to a skeleton. The
+intention of stinging her with ants is said to be to make her strong to
+bear the burden of maternity.[144] Amongst the Uaupes of Brazil a girl
+at puberty is secluded in the house for a month, and allowed only a
+small quantity of bread and water. Then she is taken out into the midst
+of her relations and friends, each of whom gives her four or five blows
+with pieces of _sipo_ (an elastic climber), till she falls senseless or
+dead. If she recovers, the operation is repeated four times at intervals
+of six hours, and it is considered an offence to the parents not to
+strike hard. Meantime, pots of meats and fish have been made ready; the
+_sipos_ are dipped into them and then given to the girl to lick, who is
+now considered a marriageable woman.[145]
+
+[Custom in South America of causing young men to be stung with ants as
+an initiatory rite.]
+
+The custom of stinging the girl at such times with ants or beating her
+with rods is intended, we may be sure, not as a punishment or a test of
+endurance, but as a purification, the object being to drive away the
+malignant influences with which a girl in this condition is believed to
+be beset and enveloped. Examples of purification, by beating, by
+incisions in the flesh, and by stinging with ants, have already come
+before us.[146] In some Indian tribes of Brazil and Guiana young men do
+not rank as warriors and may not marry till they have passed through a
+terrible ordeal, which consists in being stung by swarms of venomous
+ants whose bite is like fire. Thus among the Mauhes on the Tapajos
+river, a southern tributary of the Amazon, boys of eight to ten years
+are obliged to thrust their arms into sleeves stuffed with great
+ferocious ants, which the Indians call _tocandeira_ (_Cryptocerus
+atratus_, F.). When the young victim shrieks with pain, an excited mob
+of men dances round him, shouting and encouraging him till he falls
+exhausted to the ground. He is then committed to the care of old women,
+who treat his fearfully swollen arms with fresh juice of the manioc; and
+on his recovery he has to shew his strength and skill in bending a bow.
+This cruel ordeal is commonly repeated again and again, till the lad has
+reached his fourteenth year and can bear the agony without betraying any
+sign of emotion. Then he is a man and can marry. A lad's age is reckoned
+by the number of times he has passed through the ordeal.[147] An
+eye-witness has described how a young Mauhe hero bore the torture with
+an endurance more than Spartan, dancing and singing, with his arms cased
+in the terrible mittens, before every cabin of the great common house,
+till pallid, staggering, and with chattering teeth he triumphantly laid
+the gloves before the old chief and received the congratulations of the
+men and the caresses of the women; then breaking away from his friends
+and admirers he threw himself into the river and remained in its cool
+soothing water till nightfall.[148] Similarly among the Ticunas of the
+Upper Amazon, on the border of Peru, the young man who would take his
+place among the warriors must plunge his arm into a sort of basket full
+of venomous ants and keep it there for several minutes without uttering
+a cry. He generally falls backwards and sometimes succumbs to the fever
+which ensues; hence as soon as the ordeal is over the women are prodigal
+of their attentions to him, and rub the swollen arm with a particular
+kind of herb.[149] Ordeals of this sort appear to be in vogue among the
+Indians of the Rio Negro as well as of the Amazon.[150] Among the
+Rucuyennes, a tribe of Indians in the north of Brazil, on the borders of
+Guiana, young men who are candidates for marriage must submit to be
+stung all over their persons not only with ants but with wasps, which
+are applied to their naked bodies in curious instruments of trellis-work
+shaped like fantastic quadrupeds or birds. The patient invariably falls
+down in a swoon and is carried like dead to his hammock, where he is
+tightly lashed with cords. As they come to themselves, they writhe in
+agony, so that their hammocks rock violently to and fro, causing the hut
+to shake as if it were about to collapse. This dreadful ordeal is called
+by the Indians a _marake_.[151]
+
+[Custom of causing men and women to be stung with ants to improve their
+character and health or to render them invulnerable.]
+
+The same ordeal, under the same name, is also practised by the Wayanas,
+an Indian tribe of French Guiana, but with them, we are told, it is no
+longer deemed an indispensable preliminary to marriage; "it is rather a
+sort of national medicine administered chiefly to the youth of both
+sexes." Applied to men, the _marake_, as it is called, "sharpens them,
+prevents them from being heavy and lazy, makes them active, brisk,
+industrious, imparts strength, and helps them to shoot well with the
+bow; without it the Indians would always be slack and rather sickly,
+would always have a little fever, and would lie perpetually in their
+hammocks. As for the women, the _marake_ keeps them from going to sleep,
+renders them active, alert, brisk, gives them strength and a liking for
+work, makes them good housekeepers, good workers at the stockade, good
+makers of _cachiri_. Every one undergoes the _marake_ at least twice in
+his life, sometimes thrice, and oftener if he likes. It may be had from
+the age of about eight years and upward, and no one thinks it odd that a
+man of forty should voluntarily submit to it."[152] Similarly the
+Indians of St. Juan Capistrano in California used to be branded on some
+part of their bodies, generally on the right arm, but sometimes on the
+leg also, not as a proof of manly fortitude, but because they believed
+that the custom "added greater strength to the nerves, and gave a better
+pulse for the management of the bow." Afterwards "they were whipped with
+nettles, and covered with ants, that they might become robust, and the
+infliction was always performed in summer, during the months of July and
+August, when the nettle was in its most fiery state. They gathered small
+bunches, which they fastened together, and the poor deluded Indian was
+chastised, by inflicting blows with them upon his naked limbs, until
+unable to walk; and then he was carried to the nest of the nearest and
+most furious species of ants, and laid down among them, while some of
+his friends, with sticks, kept annoying the insects to make them still
+more violent. What torments did they not undergo! What pain! What
+hellish inflictions! Yet their faith gave them power to endure all
+without a murmur, and they remained as if dead. Having undergone these
+dreadful ordeals, they were considered as invulnerable, and believed
+that the arrows of their enemies could no longer harm them."[153] Among
+the Alur, a tribe inhabiting the south-western region of the upper Nile,
+to bury a man in an ant-hill and leave him there for a while is the
+regular treatment for insanity.[154]
+
+[In such cases the beating or stinging was originally a purification; at
+a later time it is interpreted as a test of courage and endurance.]
+
+In like manner it is probable that beating or scourging as a religious
+or ceremonial rite was originally a mode of purification. It was meant
+to wipe off and drive away a dangerous contagion, whether personified as
+demoniacal or not, which was supposed to be adhering physically, though
+invisibly, to the body of the sufferer.[155] The pain inflicted on the
+person beaten was no more the object of the beating than it is of a
+surgical operation with us; it was a necessary accident, that was all.
+In later times such customs were interpreted otherwise, and the pain,
+from being an accident, became the prime object of the ceremony, which
+was now regarded either as a test of endurance imposed upon persons at
+critical epochs of life, or as a mortification of the flesh well
+pleasing to the god. But asceticism, under any shape or form, is never
+primitive. The savage, it is true, in certain circumstances will
+voluntarily subject himself to pains and privations which appear to us
+wholly needless; but he never acts thus unless he believes that some
+solid temporal advantage is to be gained by so doing. Pain for the sake
+of pain, whether as a moral discipline in this life or as a means of
+winning a glorious immortality hereafter, is not an object which he sets
+himself deliberately to pursue.
+
+[This explanation confirmed with reference to the beating of girls at
+puberty among the South American Indians; treatment of a girl at puberty
+among the Banivas of the Orinoco; symptoms of puberty in a girl regarded
+as wounds inflicted by a demon.]
+
+If this view is correct, we can understand why so many Indian tribes of
+South America compel the youth of both sexes to submit to these painful
+and sometimes fatal ordeals. They imagine that in this way they rid the
+young folk of certain evils inherent in youth, especially at the
+critical age of puberty; and when they picture to themselves the evils
+in a personal form as dangerous spirits or demons, the ceremony of their
+expulsion may in the strict sense be termed an exorcism. This certainly
+appears to be the interpretation which the Banivas of the Orinoco put
+upon the cruel scourgings which they inflict on girls at puberty. At her
+first menstruation a Baniva girl must pass several days and nights in
+her hammock, almost motionless and getting nothing to eat and drink but
+water and a little manioc. While she lies there, the suitors for her
+hand apply to her father, and he who can afford to give most for her or
+can prove himself the best man, is promised the damsel in marriage. The
+fast over, some old men enter the hut, bandage the girl's eyes, cover
+her head with a bonnet of which the fringes fall on her shoulders, and
+then lead her forth and tie her to a post set up in an open place. The
+head of the post is carved in the shape of a grotesque face. None but
+the old men may witness what follows. Were a woman caught peeping and
+prying, it would go ill with her; she would be marked out for the
+vengeance of the demon, who would make her expiate her crime at the very
+next moon by madness or death. Every participant in the ceremony comes
+armed with a scourge of cords or of fish skins; some of them reinforce
+the virtue of the instrument by tying little sharp stones to the end of
+the thongs. Then, to the dismal and deafening notes of shell-trumpets
+blown by two or three supernumeraries, the men circle round and round
+the post, every one applying his scourge as he passes to the girl's
+back, till it streams with blood. At last the musicians, winding
+tremendous blasts on their trumpets against the demon, advance and touch
+the post in which he is supposed to be incorporate. Then the blows cease
+to descend; the girl is untied, often in a fainting state, and carried
+away to have her wounds washed and simples applied to them. The youngest
+of the executioners, or rather of the exorcists, hastens to inform her
+betrothed husband of the happy issue of the exorcism. "The spirit," he
+says, "had cast thy beloved into a sleep as deep almost as that of
+death. But we have rescued her from his attacks, and laid her down in
+such and such a place. Go seek her." Then going from house to house
+through the village he cries to the inmates, "Come, let us burn the
+demon who would have taken possession of such and such a girl, our
+friend." The bridegroom at once carries his wounded and suffering bride
+to his own house; and all the people gather round the post for the
+pleasure of burning it and the demon together. A great pile of firewood
+has meanwhile been heaped up about it, and the women run round the pyre
+cursing in shrill voices the wicked spirit who has wrought all this
+evil. The men join in with hoarser cries and animate themselves for the
+business in hand by deep draughts of an intoxicant which has been
+provided for the occasion by the parents-in-law. Soon the bridegroom,
+having committed the bride to the care of his mother, appears on the
+scene brandishing a lighted torch. He addresses the demon with bitter
+mockery and reproaches; informs him that the fair creature on whom he,
+the demon, had nefarious designs, is now his, the bridegroom's, blooming
+spouse; and shaking his torch at the grinning head on the post, he
+screams out, "This is how the victims of thy persecution take vengeance
+on thee!" With these words he puts a light to the pyre. At once the
+drums strike up, the trumpets blare, and men, women, and children begin
+to dance. In two long rows they dance, the men on one side, the women on
+the other, advancing till they almost touch and then retiring again.
+After that the two rows join hands, and forming a huge circle trip it
+round and round the blaze, till the post with its grotesque face is
+consumed in the flames and nothing of the pyre remains but a heap of red
+and glowing embers. "The evil spirit has been destroyed. Thus delivered
+from her persecutor, the young wife will be free from sickness, will not
+die in childbed, and will bear many children to her husband."[156] From
+this account it appears that the Banivas attribute the symptoms of
+puberty in girls to the wounds inflicted on them by an amorous devil,
+who, however, can be not only exorcised but burnt to ashes at the stake.
+
+
+Sec. 6. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in India and Cambodia_
+
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Hindoos; seclusion of girls at
+puberty in Southern India.]
+
+When a Hindoo maiden reaches maturity she is kept in a dark room for
+four days, and is forbidden to see the sun. She is regarded as unclean;
+no one may touch her. Her diet is restricted to boiled rice, milk,
+sugar, curd, and tamarind without salt. On the morning of the fifth day
+she goes to a neighbouring tank, accompanied by five women whose
+husbands are alive. Smeared with turmeric water, they all bathe and
+return home, throwing away the mat and other things that were in the
+room.[157] The Rarhi Brahmans of Bengal compel a girl at puberty to live
+alone, and do not allow her to see the face of any male. For three days
+she remains shut up in a dark room, and has to undergo certain penances.
+Fish, flesh, and sweetmeats are forbidden her; she must live upon rice
+and ghee.[158] Among the Tiyans of Malabar a girl is thought to be
+polluted for four days from the beginning of her first menstruation.
+During this time she must keep to the north side of the house, where she
+sleeps on a grass mat of a particular kind, in a room festooned with
+garlands of young coco-nut leaves. Another girl keeps her company and
+sleeps with her, but she may not touch any other person, tree or plant.
+Further, she may not see the sky, and woe betide her if she catches
+sight of a crow or a cat! Her diet must be strictly vegetarian, without
+salt, tamarinds, or chillies. She is armed against evil spirits by a
+knife, which is placed on the mat or carried on her person.[159] Among
+the Kappiliyans of Madura and Tinnevelly a girl at her first monthly
+period remains under pollution for thirteen days, either in a corner of
+the house, which is screened off for her use by her maternal uncle, or
+in a temporary hut, which is erected by the same relative on the common
+land of the village. On the thirteenth day she bathes in a tank, and, on
+entering the house, steps over a pestle and a cake. Near the entrance
+some food is placed and a dog is allowed to partake of it; but his
+enjoyment is marred by suffering, for while he eats he receives a sound
+thrashing, and the louder he howls the better, for the larger will be
+the family to which the young woman will give birth; should there be no
+howls, there will be no children. The temporary hut in which the girl
+passed the days of her seclusion is burnt down, and the pots which she
+used are smashed to shivers.[160] Similarly among the Parivarams of
+Madura, when a girl attains to puberty she is kept for sixteen days in a
+hut, which is guarded at night by her relations; and when her
+sequestration is over the hut is burnt down and the pots she used are
+broken into very small pieces, because they think that if rain-water
+gathered in any of them, the girl would be childless.[161] The Pulayars
+of Travancore build a special hut in the jungle for the use of a girl at
+puberty; there she remains for seven days. No one else may enter the
+hut, not even her mother. Women stand a little way off and lay down food
+for her. At the end of the time she is brought home, clad in a new or
+clean cloth, and friends are treated to betel-nut, toddy, and
+arack.[162] Among the Singhalese a girl at her first menstruation is
+confined to a room, where she may neither see nor be seen by any male.
+After being thus secluded for two weeks she is taken out, with her face
+covered, and is bathed by women at the back of the house. Near the
+bathing-place are kept branches of any milk-bearing tree, usually of the
+_jak_-tree. In some cases, while the time of purification or uncleanness
+lasts, the maiden stays in a separate hut, which is afterwards burnt
+down.[163]
+
+[Seclusion of girls at puberty in Cambodia.]
+
+In Cambodia a girl at puberty is put to bed under a mosquito curtain,
+where she should stay a hundred days. Usually, however, four, five, ten,
+or twenty days are thought enough; and even this, in a hot climate and
+under the close meshes of the curtain, is sufficiently trying.[164]
+According to another account, a Cambodian maiden at puberty is said to
+"enter into the shade." During her retirement, which, according to the
+rank and position of her family, may last any time from a few days to
+several years, she has to observe a number of rules, such as not to be
+seen by a strange man, not to eat flesh or fish, and so on. She goes
+nowhere, not even to the pagoda. But this state of seclusion is
+discontinued during eclipses; at such times she goes forth and pays her
+devotions to the monster who is supposed to cause eclipses by catching
+the heavenly bodies between his teeth.[165] This permission to break her
+rule of retirement and appear abroad during an eclipse seems to shew how
+literally the injunction is interpreted which forbids maidens entering
+on womanhood to look upon the sun.
+
+
+Sec. 7. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Folk-tales_
+
+
+[Traces of the seclusion of girls at puberty in folk-tales. Danish story
+of the girl who might not see the sun.]
+
+A superstition so widely diffused as this might be expected to leave
+traces in legends and folk-tales. And it has done so. In a Danish story
+we read of a princess who was fated to be carried off by a warlock if
+ever the sun shone on her before she had passed her thirtieth year; so
+the king her father kept her shut up in the palace, and had all the
+windows on the east, south, and west sides blocked up, lest a sunbeam
+should fall on his darling child, and he should thus lose her for ever.
+Only at evening, when the sun was down, might she walk for a little in
+the beautiful garden of the castle. In time a prince came a-wooing,
+followed by a train of gorgeous knights and squires on horses all ablaze
+with gold and silver. The king said the prince might have his daughter
+to wife on condition that he would not carry her away to his home till
+she was thirty years old but would live with her in the castle, where
+the windows looked out only to the north. The prince agreed, so married
+they were. The bride was only fifteen, and fifteen more long weary years
+must pass before she might step out of the gloomy donjon, breathe the
+fresh air, and see the sun. But she and her gallant young bridegroom
+loved each other and they were happy. Often they sat hand in hand at the
+window looking out to the north and talked of what they would do when
+they were free. Still it was a little dull to look out always at the
+same window and to see nothing but the castle woods, and the distant
+hills, and the clouds drifting silently over them. Well, one day it
+happened that all the people in the castle had gone away to a
+neighbouring castle to witness a tournament and other gaieties, and the
+two young folks were left as usual all alone at the window looking out
+to the north. They sat silent for a time gazing away to the hills. It
+was a grey sad day, the sky was overcast, and the weather seemed to draw
+to rain. At last the prince said, "There will be no sunshine to-day.
+What if we were to drive over and join the rest at the tournament?" His
+young wife gladly consented, for she longed to see more of the world
+than those eternal green woods and those eternal blue hills, which were
+all she ever saw from the window. So the horses were put into the coach,
+and it rattled up to the door, and in they got and away they drove. At
+first all went well. The clouds hung low over the woods, the wind sighed
+in the trees, a drearier day you could hardly imagine. So they joined
+the rest at the other castle and took their seats to watch the jousting
+in the lists. So intent were they in watching the gay spectacle of the
+prancing steeds, the fluttering pennons, and the glittering armour of
+the knights, that they failed to mark the change, the fatal change, in
+the weather. For the wind was rising and had begun to disperse the
+clouds, and suddenly the sun broke through, and the glory of it fell
+like an aureole on the young wife, and at once she vanished away. No
+sooner did her husband miss her from his side than he, too, mysteriously
+disappeared. The tournament broke up in confusion, the bereft father
+hastened home, and shut himself up in the dark castle from which the
+light of life had departed. The green woods and the blue hills could
+still be seen from the window that looked to the north, but the young
+faces that had gazed out of it so wistfully were gone, as it seemed, for
+ever.[166]
+
+[Tyrolese story of the girl who might not see the sun.]
+
+A Tyrolese story tells how it was the doom of a lovely maiden with
+golden hair to be transported into the belly of a whale if ever a
+sunbeam fell on her. Hearing of the fame of her beauty the king of the
+country sent for her to be his bride, and her brother drove the fair
+damsel to the palace in a carefully closed coach, himself sitting on the
+box and handling the reins. On the way they overtook two hideous
+witches, who pretended they were weary and begged for a lift in the
+coach. At first the brother refused to take them in, but his
+tender-hearted sister entreated him to have compassion on the two poor
+footsore women; for you may easily imagine that she was not acquainted
+with their true character. So down he got rather surlily from the box,
+opened the coach door, and in the two witches stepped, laughing in their
+sleeves. But no sooner had the brother mounted the box and whipped up
+the horses, than one of the two wicked witches bored a hole in the
+closed coach. A sunbeam at once shot through the hole and fell on the
+fair damsel. So she vanished from the coach and was spirited away into
+the belly of a whale in the neighbouring sea. You can imagine the
+consternation of the king, when the coach door opened and instead of his
+blooming bride out bounced two hideous hags![167]
+
+[Modern Greek stories of the maid who might not see the sun.]
+
+In a modern Greek folk-tale the Fates predict that in her fifteenth year
+a princess must be careful not to let the sun shine on her, for if this
+were to happen she would be turned into a lizard.[168] In another modern
+Greek tale the Sun bestows a daughter upon a childless woman on
+condition of taking the child back to himself when she is twelve years
+old. So, when the child was twelve, the mother closed the doors and
+windows, and stopped up all the chinks and crannies, to prevent the Sun
+from coming to fetch away her daughter. But she forgot to stop up the
+key-hole, and a sunbeam streamed through it and carried off the
+girl.[169] In a Sicilian story a seer foretells that a king will have a
+daughter who, in her fourteenth year, will conceive a child by the Sun.
+So, when the child was born, the king shut her up in a lonely tower
+which had no window, lest a sunbeam should fall on her. When she was
+nearly fourteen years old, it happened that her parents sent her a piece
+of roasted kid, in which she found a sharp bone. With this bone she
+scraped a hole in the wall, and a sunbeam shot through the hole and got
+her with child.[170]
+
+[The story of Danae and its parallel in a Kirghiz legend.]
+
+The old Greek story of Danae, who was confined by her father in a
+subterranean chamber or a brazen tower, but impregnated by Zeus, who
+reached her in the shape of a shower of gold,[171] perhaps belongs to
+the same class of tales. It has its counterpart in the legend which the
+Kirghiz of Siberia tell of their ancestry. A certain Khan had a fair
+daughter, whom he kept in a dark iron house, that no man might see her.
+An old woman tended her; and when the girl was grown to maidenhood she
+asked the old woman, "Where do you go so often?" "My child," said the
+old dame, "there is a bright world. In that bright world your father and
+mother live, and all sorts of people live there. That is where I go."
+The maiden said, "Good mother, I will tell nobody, but shew me that
+bright world." So the old woman took the girl out of the iron house. But
+when she saw the bright world, the girl tottered and fainted; and the
+eye of God fell upon her, and she conceived. Her angry father put her in
+a golden chest and sent her floating away (fairy gold can float in
+fairyland) over the wide sea.[172] The shower of gold in the Greek
+story, and the eye of God in the Kirghiz legend, probably stand for
+sunlight and the sun.
+
+[Impregnation of women by the sun in legends.]
+
+The idea that women may be impregnated by the sun is not uncommon in
+legends. Thus, for example, among the Indians of Guacheta in Colombia,
+it is said, a report once ran that the sun would impregnate one of their
+maidens, who should bear a child and yet remain a virgin. The chief had
+two daughters, and was very desirous that one of them should conceive in
+this miraculous manner. So every day he made them climb a hill to the
+east of his house in order to be touched by the first beams of the
+rising sun. His wishes were fulfilled, for one of the damsels conceived
+and after nine months gave birth to an emerald. So she wrapped it in
+cotton and placed it in her bosom, and in a few days it turned into a
+child, who received the name of Garanchacha and was universally
+recognized as a son of the sun.[173] Again, the Samoans tell of a woman
+named Mangamangai, who became pregnant by looking at the rising sun. Her
+son grew up and was named "Child of the Sun." At his marriage he applied
+to his mother for a dowry, but she bade him apply to his father, the
+sun, and told him how to go to him. So one morning he took a long vine
+and made a noose in it; then climbing up a tree he threw the noose over
+the sun and caught him fast. Thus arrested in his progress, the luminary
+asked him what he wanted, and being told by the young man that he wanted
+a present for his bride, the sun obligingly packed up a store of
+blessings in a basket, with which the youth descended to the earth.[174]
+
+[Traces in marriage customs of the belief that women can be impregnated
+by the sun.]
+
+Even in the marriage customs of various races we may perhaps detect
+traces of this belief that women can be impregnated by the sun. Thus
+amongst the Chaco Indians of South America a newly married couple used
+to sleep the first night on a mare's or bullock's skin with their heads
+towards the west, "for the marriage is not considered ratified till the
+rising sun shines on their feet the succeeding morning."[175] At old
+Hindoo marriages the first ceremony was the "Impregnation-rite"
+(_Garbh[=a]dh[=a]na_); during the previous day the bride was made to
+look towards the sun or to be in some way exposed to its rays.[176]
+Amongst the Turks of Siberia it was formerly the custom on the morning
+after the marriage to lead the young couple out of the hut to greet the
+rising sun. The same custom is said to be still practised in Iran and
+Central Asia under a belief that the beams of the rising sun are the
+surest means of impregnating the new bride.[177]
+
+[Belief in the impregnation of women by the moon.]
+
+And as some people think that women may be gotten with child by the sun,
+so others imagine that they can conceive by the moon. According to the
+Greenlanders the moon is a young man, and he "now and then comes down to
+give their wives a visit and caress them; for which reason no woman dare
+sleep lying upon her back, without she first spits upon her fingers and
+rubs her belly with it. For the same reason the young maids are afraid
+to stare long at the moon, imagining they may get a child by the
+bargain."[178] Similarly Breton peasants are reported to believe that
+women or girls who expose their persons to the moonlight may be
+impregnated by it and give birth to monsters.[179]
+
+
+Sec. 8. _Reasons for the Seclusion of Girls at Puberty_
+
+
+[The reason for the seclusion of women at puberty is the dread of
+menstruous blood.]
+
+The motive for the restraints so commonly imposed on girls at puberty is
+the deeply engrained dread which primitive man universally entertains of
+menstruous blood. He fears it at all times but especially on its first
+appearance; hence the restrictions under which women lie at their first
+menstruation are usually more stringent than those which they have to
+observe at any subsequent recurrence of the mysterious flow. Some
+evidence of the fear and of the customs based on it has been cited in an
+earlier part of this work;[180] but as the terror, for it is nothing
+less, which the phenomenon periodically strikes into the mind of the
+savage has deeply influenced his life and institutions, it may be well
+to illustrate the subject with some further examples.
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the aborigines of
+Australia.]
+
+Thus in the Encounter Bay tribe of South Australia there is, or used to
+be, a "superstition which obliges a woman to separate herself from the
+camp at the time of her monthly illness, when, if a young man or boy
+should approach, she calls out, and he immediately makes a circuit to
+avoid her. If she is neglectful upon this point, she exposes herself to
+scolding, and sometimes to severe beating by her husband or nearest
+relation, because the boys are told from their infancy, that if they see
+the blood they will early become grey-headed, and their strength will
+fail prematurely."[181] And of the South Australian aborigines in
+general we read that there is a "custom requiring all boys and
+uninitiated young men to sleep at some distance from the huts of the
+adults, and to remove altogether away in the morning as soon as daylight
+dawns, and the natives begin to move about. This is to prevent their
+seeing the women, some of whom may be menstruating; and if looked upon
+by the young males, it is supposed that dire results will follow."[182]
+And amongst these tribes women in their courses "are not allowed to eat
+fish of any kind, or to go near the water at all; it being one of their
+superstitions, that if a female, in that state, goes near the water, no
+success can be expected by the men in fishing."[183] Similarly, among
+the natives of the Murray River, menstruous women "were not allowed to
+go near water for fear of frightening the fish. They were also not
+allowed to eat them, for the same reason. A woman during such periods
+would never cross the river in a canoe, or even fetch water for the
+camp. It was sufficient for her to say _Thama_, to ensure her husband
+getting the water himself."[184] The Dieri of Central Australia believe
+that if women at these times were to eat fish or bathe in a river, the
+fish would all die and the water would dry up. In this tribe a mark made
+with red ochre round a woman's mouth indicates that she has her courses;
+no one would offer fish to such a woman.[185] The Arunta of Central
+Australia forbid menstruous women to gather the _irriakura_ bulbs, which
+form a staple article of diet for both men and women. They believe that
+were a woman to break this rule, the supply of bulbs would fail.[186]
+Among the aborigines of Victoria the wife at her monthly periods had to
+sleep on the opposite side of the fire from her husband; she might
+partake of nobody's food, and nobody would partake of hers, for people
+thought that if they ate or drank anything that had been touched by a
+woman in her courses, it would make them weak or ill. Unmarried girls
+and widows at such times had to paint their heads and the upper parts of
+their bodies red,[187] no doubt as a danger signal.
+
+[Severe penalties inflicted for breaches of the custom of seclusion.]
+
+In some Australian tribes the seclusion of menstruous women was even
+more rigid, and was enforced by severer penalties than a scolding or a
+beating. Thus with regard to certain tribes of New South Wales and
+Southern Queensland we are told that "during the monthly illness, the
+woman is not allowed to touch anything that men use, or even to walk on
+a path that any man frequents, on pain of death."[188] Again, "there is
+a regulation relating to camps in the Wakelbura tribe which forbids the
+women coming into the encampment by the same path as the men. Any
+violation of this rule would in a large camp be punished with death. The
+reason for this is the dread with which they regard the menstrual period
+of women. During such a time, a woman is kept entirely away from the
+camp, half a mile at least. A woman in such a condition has boughs of
+some tree of her totem tied round her loins, and is constantly watched
+and guarded, for it is thought that should any male be so unfortunate as
+to see a woman in such a condition, he would die. If such a woman were
+to let herself be seen by a man, she would probably be put to death.
+When the woman has recovered, she is painted red and white, her head
+covered with feathers, and returns to the camp."[189]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women in the Torres Straits Islands,
+New Guinea, Galela, and Sumatra.]
+
+In Muralug, one of the Torres Straits Islands, a menstruous woman may
+not eat anything that lives in the sea, else the natives believe that
+the fisheries would fail. Again, in Mabuiag, another of these islands,
+women who have their courses on them may not eat turtle flesh nor turtle
+eggs, probably for a similar reason. And during the season when the
+turtles are pairing the restrictions laid on such a woman are much
+severer. She may not even enter a house in which there is turtle flesh,
+nor approach a fire on which the flesh is cooking; she may not go near
+the sea and she should not walk on the beach below high-water mark. Nay,
+the infection extends to her husband, who may not himself harpoon or
+otherwise take an active part in catching turtle; however, he is
+permitted to form one of the crew on a turtling expedition, provided he
+takes the precaution of rubbing his armpits with certain leaves, to
+which no doubt a disinfectant virtue is ascribed.[190] Among the Kai of
+German New Guinea women at their monthly sickness must live in little
+huts built for them in the forest; they may not enter the cultivated
+fields, for if they did go to them, and the pigs were to taste of the
+blood, it would inspire the animals with an irresistible desire to go
+likewise into the fields, where they would commit great depredations on
+the growing crops. Hence the issue from women at these times is
+carefully buried to prevent the pigs from getting at it. And conversely,
+if the pigs often break into the fields, the blame is laid on the women
+who by the neglect of these elementary precautions have put temptation
+in the way of the swine.[191] In Galela, to the west of New Guinea,
+women at their monthly periods may not enter a tobacco-field, or the
+plants would be attacked by disease.[192] The Minangkabauers of Sumatra
+are persuaded that if a woman in her unclean state were to go near a
+rice-field, the crop would be spoiled.[193]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the tribes of South
+Africa.]
+
+The Bushmen of South Africa think that, by a glance of a girl's eye at
+the time when she ought to be kept in strict retirement, men become
+fixed in whatever position they happen to occupy, with whatever they
+were holding in their hands, and are changed into trees that talk.[194]
+Cattle-rearing tribes of South Africa hold that their cattle would die
+if the milk were drunk by a menstruous woman;[195] and they fear the
+same disaster if a drop of her blood were to fall on the ground and the
+oxen were to pass over it. To prevent such a calamity women in general,
+not menstruous women only, are forbidden to enter the cattle enclosure;
+and more than that, they may not use the ordinary paths in entering the
+village or in passing from one hut to another. They are obliged to make
+circuitous tracks at the back of the huts in order to avoid the ground
+in the middle of the village where the cattle stand or lie down. These
+women's tracks may be seen at every Caffre village.[196]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the tribes of Central and
+East Africa.]
+
+Similarly among the Bahima, a cattle-breeding tribe of Ankole, in
+Central Africa, no menstruous woman may drink milk, lest by so doing she
+should injure the cows; and she may not lie on her husband's bed, no
+doubt lest she should injure him. Indeed she is forbidden to lie on a
+bed at all and must sleep on the ground. Her diet is restricted to
+vegetables and beer.[197] Among the Baganda, in like manner, no
+menstruous woman might drink milk or come into contact with any
+milk-vessel;[198] and she might not touch anything that belonged to her
+husband, nor sit on his mat, nor cook his food. If she touched anything
+of his at such a time it was deemed equivalent to wishing him dead or to
+actually working magic for his destruction.[199] Were she to handle any
+article of his, he would surely fall ill; were she to handle his
+weapons, he would certainly be killed in the next battle. Even a woman
+who did not menstruate was believed by the Baganda to be a source of
+danger to her husband, indeed capable of killing him. Hence, before he
+went to war, he used to wound her slightly with his spear so as to draw
+blood; this was thought to ensure his safe return.[200] Apparently the
+notion was that if the wife did not lose blood in one way or another,
+her husband would be bled in war to make up for her deficiency; so by
+way of guarding against this undesirable event, he took care to relieve
+her of a little superfluous blood before he repaired to the field of
+honour. Further, the Baganda would not suffer a menstruous woman to
+visit a well; if she did so, they feared that the water would dry up,
+and that she herself would fall sick and die, unless she confessed her
+fault and the medicine-man made atonement for her.[201] Among the
+Akikuyu of British East Africa, if a new hut is built in a village and
+the wife chances to menstruate in it on the day she lights the first
+fire there, the hut must be broken down and demolished the very next
+day. The woman may on no account sleep a second night in it; there is a
+curse (_thahu_) both on her and on it.[202] In the Suk tribe of British
+East Africa warriors may not eat anything that has been touched by
+menstruous women. If they did so, it is believed that they would lose
+their virility; "in the rain they will shiver and in the heat they will
+faint." Suk men and women take their meals apart, because the men fear
+that one or more of the women may be menstruating.[203] The Anyanja of
+British Central Africa, at the southern end of Lake Nyassa, think that a
+man who should sleep with a woman in her courses would fall sick and
+die, unless some remedy were applied in time. And with them it is a rule
+that at such times a woman should not put any salt into the food she is
+cooking, otherwise the people who partook of the food salted by her
+would suffer from a certain disease called _tsempo_; hence to obviate
+the danger she calls a child to put the salt into the dish.[204]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the tribes of West
+Africa.]
+
+Among the Hos, a tribe of Ewe negroes of Togoland in West Africa, so
+long as a wife has her monthly sickness she may not cook for her
+husband, nor lie on his bed, nor sit on his stool; an infraction of
+these rules would assuredly, it is believed, cause her husband to die.
+If her husband is a priest, or a magician, or a chief, she may not pass
+the days of her uncleanness in the house, but must go elsewhere till she
+is clean.[205] Among the Ewe negroes of this region each village has its
+huts where women who have their courses on them must spend their time
+secluded from intercourse with other people. Sometimes these huts stand
+by themselves in public places; sometimes they are mere shelters built
+either at the back or front of the ordinary dwelling-houses. A woman is
+punishable if she does not pass the time of her monthly sickness in one
+of these huts or shelters provided for her use. Thus, if she shews
+herself in her own house or even in the yard of the house, she may be
+fined a sheep, which is killed, its flesh divided among the people, and
+its blood poured on the image of the chief god as a sin-offering to
+expiate her offence. She is also forbidden to go to the place where the
+villagers draw water, and if she breaks the rule, she must give a goat
+to be killed; its flesh is distributed, and its blood, diluted with
+water and mixed with herbs, is sprinkled on the watering-place and on
+the paths leading to it. Were any woman to disregard these salutary
+precautions, the chief fetish-man in the village would fall sick and
+die, which would be an irreparable loss to society.[206]
+
+[Powerful influence ascribed to menstruous blood in Arab legend.]
+
+The miraculous virtue ascribed to menstruous blood is well illustrated
+in a story told by the Arab chronicler Tabari. He relates how Sapor,
+king of Persia, besieged the strong city of Atrae, in the desert of
+Mesopotamia, for several years without being able to take it. But the
+king of the city, whose name was Daizan, had a daughter, and when it was
+with her after the manner of women she went forth from the city and
+dwelt for a time in the suburb, for such was the custom of the place.
+Now it fell out that, while she tarried there, Sapor saw her and loved
+her, and she loved him; for he was a handsome man and she a lovely maid.
+And she said to him, "What will you give me if I shew you how you may
+destroy the walls of this city and slay my father?" And he said to her,
+"I will give you what you will, and I will exalt you above my other
+wives, and will set you nearer to me than them all." Then she said to
+him, "Take a greenish dove with a ring about its neck, and write
+something on its foot with the menstruous blood of a blue-eyed maid;
+then let the bird loose, and it will perch on the walls of the city, and
+they will fall down." For that, says the Arab historian, was the
+talisman of the city, which could not be destroyed in any other way. And
+Sapor did as she bade him, and the city fell down in a heap, and he
+stormed it and slew Daizan on the spot.[207]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Jews and in Syria.]
+
+According to the Talmud, if a woman at the beginning of her period
+passes between two men, she thereby kills one of them; if she passes
+between them towards the end of her period, she only causes them to
+quarrel violently.[208] Maimonides tells us that down to his time it was
+a common custom in the East to keep women at their periods in a separate
+house and to burn everything on which they had trodden; a man who spoke
+with such a woman or who was merely exposed to the same wind that blew
+over her, became thereby unclean.[209] Peasants of the Lebanon think
+that menstruous women are the cause of many misfortunes; their shadow
+causes flowers to wither and trees to perish, it even arrests the
+movements of serpents; if one of them mounts a horse, the animal might
+die or at least be disabled for a long time.[210] In Syria to this day a
+woman who has her courses on her may neither salt nor pickle, for the
+people think that whatever she pickled or salted would not keep.[211]
+The Toaripi of New Guinea, doubtless for a similar reason, will not
+allow women at such times to cook.[212]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women in India.]
+
+The Bhuiyars, a Dravidian tribe of South Mirzapur, are said to feel an
+intense dread of menstrual pollution. Every house has two doors, one of
+which is used only by women in this condition. During her impurity the
+wife is fed by her husband apart from the rest of the family, and
+whenever she has to quit the house she is obliged to creep out on her
+hands and knees in order not to defile the thatch by her touch.[213] The
+Kharwars, another aboriginal tribe of the same district, keep their
+women at such seasons in the outer verandah of the house for eight days,
+and will not let them enter the kitchen or the cowhouse; during this
+time the unclean woman may not cook nor even touch the cooking vessels.
+When the eight days are over, she bathes, washes her clothes, and
+returns to family life.[214] Hindoo women seclude themselves at their
+monthly periods and observe a number of rules, such as not to drink
+milk, not to milk cows, not to touch fire, not to lie on a high bed, not
+to walk on common paths, not to cross the track of animals, not to walk
+by the side of flowering plants, and not to observe the heavenly
+bodies.[215] The motive for these restrictions is not mentioned, but
+probably it is a dread of the baleful influence which is supposed to
+emanate from women at these times. The Parsees, who reverence fire, will
+not suffer menstruous women to see it or even to look on a lighted
+taper;[216] during their infirmity the women retire from their houses to
+little lodges in the country, whither victuals are brought to them
+daily; at the end of their seclusion they bathe and send a kid, a fowl,
+or a pigeon to the priest as an offering.[217] In Annam a woman at her
+monthly periods is deemed a centre of impurity, and contact with her is
+avoided. She is subject to all sorts of restrictions which she must
+observe herself and which others must observe towards her. She may not
+touch any food which is to be preserved by salting, whether it be fish,
+flesh, or vegetables; for were she to touch it the food would putrefy.
+She may not enter any sacred place, she may not be present at any
+religious ceremony. The linen which she wears at such times must be
+washed by herself at sunrise, never at night. On reaching puberty girls
+may not touch flowers or the fruits of certain trees, for touched by
+them the flowers would fade and the fruits fall to the ground. "It is on
+account of their reputation for impurity that the women generally live
+isolated. In every house they have an apartment reserved for them, and
+they never eat at the same table as the men. For the same reason they
+are excluded from all religious ceremonies. They may only be present at
+family ceremonies, but without ever officiating in them."[218]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of South and
+Central America.]
+
+The Guayquiries of the Orinoco think that when a woman has her courses,
+everything upon which she steps will die, and that if a man treads on
+the place where she has passed, his legs will immediately swell up.[219]
+Among the Guaraunos of the same great river, women at their periods are
+regarded as unclean and kept apart in special huts, where all that they
+need is brought to them.[220] In like manner among the Piapocos, an
+Indian tribe on the Guayabero, a tributary of the Orinoco, a menstruous
+woman is secluded from her family every month for four or five days. She
+passes the time in a special hut, whither her husband brings her food;
+and at the end of the time she takes a bath and resumes her usual
+occupations.[221] So among the Indians of the Mosquito territory in
+Central America, when a woman is in her courses, she must quit the
+village for seven or eight days. A small hut is built for her in the
+wood, and at night some of the village girls go and sleep with her to
+keep her company. Or if the nights are dark and jaguars are known to be
+prowling in the neighbourhood, her husband will take his gun or bow and
+sleep in a hammock near her. She may neither handle nor cook food; all
+is prepared and carried to her. When the sickness is over, she bathes in
+the river, puts on clean clothes, and returns to her household
+duties.[222] Among the Bri-bri Indians of Costa Rica a girl at her first
+menstruation retires to a hut built for the purpose in the forest, and
+there she must stay till she has been purified by a medicine-man, who
+breathes on her and places various objects, such as feathers, the beaks
+of birds, the teeth of beasts, and so forth, upon her body. A married
+woman at her periods remains in the house with her husband, but she is
+reckoned unclean (_bukuru_) and must avoid all intimate relations with
+him. She uses for plates only banana leaves, which, when she has done
+with them, she throws away in a sequestered spot; for should a cow find
+and eat them, the animal would waste away and perish. Also she drinks
+only out of a special vessel, because any person who should afterwards
+drink out of the same vessel would infallibly pine away and die.[223]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of North
+America.]
+
+Among most tribes of North American Indians the custom was that women in
+their courses retired from the camp or the village and lived during the
+time of their uncleanness in special huts or shelters which were
+appropriated to their use. There they dwelt apart, eating and sleeping
+by themselves, warming themselves at their own fires, and strictly
+abstaining from all communications with men, who shunned them just as if
+they were stricken with the plague. No article of furniture used in
+these menstrual huts might be used in any other, not even the flint and
+steel with which in the old days the fires were kindled. No one would
+borrow a light from a woman in her seclusion. If a white man in his
+ignorance asked to light his pipe at her fire, she would refuse to grant
+the request, telling him that it would make his nose bleed and his head
+ache, and that he would fall sick in consequence. If an Indian's wooden
+pipe cracked, his friends would think that he had either lit it at one
+of these polluted fires or had held some converse with a woman during
+her retirement, which was esteemed a most disgraceful and wicked thing
+to do. Decent men would not approach within a certain distance of a
+woman at such times, and if they had to convey anything to her they
+would stand some forty or fifty paces off and throw it to her.
+Everything which was touched by her hands during this period was deemed
+ceremonially unclean. Indeed her touch was thought to convey such
+pollution that if she chanced to lay a finger on a chief's lodge or his
+gun or anything else belonging to him, it would be instantly destroyed.
+If she crossed the path of a hunter or a warrior, his luck for that day
+at least would be gone. Were she not thus secluded, it was supposed that
+the men would be attacked by diseases of various kinds, which would
+prove mortal. In some tribes a woman who infringed the rules of
+separation might have to answer with her life for any misfortunes that
+might happen to individuals or to the tribe in consequence, as it was
+supposed, of her criminal negligence. When she quitted her tent or hut
+to go into retirement, the fire in it was extinguished and the ashes
+thrown away outside of the village, and a new fire was kindled, as if
+the old one had been defiled by her presence. At the end of their
+seclusion the women bathed in running streams and returned to their
+usual occupations.[224]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Creek, Choctaw,
+Omaha, and Cheyenne Indians.]
+
+Thus, to take examples, the Creek and kindred Indians of the United
+States compelled women at menstruation to live in separate huts at some
+distance from the village. There the women had to stay, at the risk of
+being surprised and cut off by enemies. It was thought "a most horrid
+and dangerous pollution" to go near the women at such times; and the
+danger extended to enemies who, if they slew the women, had to cleanse
+themselves from the pollution by means of certain sacred herbs and
+roots.[225] Similarly, the Choctaw women had to quit their huts during
+their monthly periods, and might not return till after they had been
+purified. While their uncleanness lasted they had to prepare their own
+food. The men believed that if they were to approach a menstruous woman,
+they would fall ill, and that some mishap would overtake them when they
+went to the wars.[226] When an Omaha woman has her courses on her, she
+retires from the family to a little shelter of bark or grass, supported
+by sticks, where she kindles a fire and cooks her victuals alone. Her
+seclusion lasts four days. During this time she may not approach or
+touch a horse, for the Indians believe that such contamination would
+impoverish or weaken the animal.[227] Among the Potawatomis the women at
+their monthly periods "are not allowed to associate with the rest of the
+nation; they are completely laid aside, and are not permitted to touch
+any article of furniture or food which the men have occasion to use. If
+the Indians be stationary at the time, the women are placed outside of
+the camp; if on a march, they are not allowed to follow the trail, but
+must take a different path and keep at a distance from the main
+body."[228] Among the Cheyennes menstruous women slept in special
+lodges; the men believed that if they slept with their wives at such
+times, they would probably be wounded in their next battle. A man who
+owned a shield had very particularly to be on his guard against women in
+their courses. He might not go into a lodge where one of them happened
+to be, nor even into a lodge where one of them had been, until a
+ceremony of purification had been performed. Sweet grass and juniper
+were burnt in the tent, and the pegs were pulled up and the covering
+thrown back, as if the tent were about to be struck. After this pretence
+of decamping from the polluted spot the owner of the shield might enter
+the tent.[229]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians of British
+Columbia.]
+
+The Stseelis Indians of British Columbia imagined that if a menstruous
+woman were to step over a bundle of arrows, the arrows would thereby be
+rendered useless and might even cause the death of their owner; and
+similarly that if she passed in front of a hunter who carried a gun, the
+weapon would never shoot straight again. Neither her husband nor her
+father would dream of going out to hunt while she was in this state; and
+even if he had wished to do so, the other hunters would not go with him.
+Hence to keep them out of harm's way, the women, both married and
+unmarried, were secluded at these times for four days in shelters.[230]
+Among the Thompson Indians of British Columbia every woman had to
+isolate herself from the rest of the people during every recurring
+period of menstruation, and had to live some little way off in a small
+brush or bark lodge made for the purpose. At these times she was
+considered unclean, must use cooking and eating utensils of her own, and
+was supplied with food by some other woman. If she smoked out of a pipe
+other than her own, that pipe would ever afterwards be hot to smoke. If
+she crossed in front of a gun, that gun would thenceforth be useless for
+the war or the chase, unless indeed the owner promptly washed the weapon
+in "medecine" or struck the woman with it once on each principal part of
+her body. If a man ate or had any intercourse with a menstruous woman,
+nay if he merely wore clothes or mocassins made or patched by her, he
+would have bad luck in hunting and the bears would attack him fiercely.
+Before being admitted again among the people, she had to change all her
+clothes and wash several times in clear water. The clothes worn during
+her isolation were hung on a tree, to be used next time, or to be
+washed. For one day after coming back among the people she did not cook
+food. Were a man to eat food cooked by a woman at such times, he would
+have incapacitated himself for hunting and exposed himself to sickness
+or death.[231]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Chippeway Indians.]
+
+Among the Chippeways and other Indians of the Hudson Bay Territory,
+menstruous women are excluded from the camp, and take up their abode in
+huts of branches. They wear long hoods, which effectually conceal the
+head and breast. They may not touch the household furniture nor any
+objects used by men; for their touch "is supposed to defile them, so
+that their subsequent use would be followed by certain mischief or
+misfortune," such as disease or death. They must drink out of a swan's
+bone. They may not walk on the common paths nor cross the tracks of
+animals. They "are never permitted to walk on the ice of rivers or
+lakes, or near the part where the men are hunting beaver, or where a
+fishing-net is set, for fear of averting their success. They are also
+prohibited at those times from partaking of the head of any animal, and
+even from walking in or crossing the track where the head of a deer,
+moose, beaver, and many other animals have lately been carried, either
+on a sledge or on the back. To be guilty of a violation of this custom
+is considered as of the greatest importance; because they firmly believe
+that it would be a means of preventing the hunter from having an equal
+success in his future excursions."[232] So the Lapps forbid women at
+menstruation to walk on that part of the shore where the fishers are in
+the habit of setting out their fish;[233] and the Esquimaux of Bering
+Strait believe that if hunters were to come near women in their courses
+they would catch no game.[234]
+
+[Dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Tinneh or Dene
+Indians; customs and beliefs of the Carrier Indians in regard to
+menstruous women.]
+
+But the beliefs and superstitions of this sort that prevail among the
+western tribes of the great Dene or Tinneh stock, to which the
+Chippeways belong, have been so well described by an experienced
+missionary, that I will give his description in his own words. Prominent
+among the ceremonial rites of these Indians, he says, "are the
+observances peculiar to the fair sex, and many of them are remarkably
+analogous to those practised by the Hebrew women, so much so that, were
+it not savouring of profanity, the ordinances of the Dene ritual code
+might be termed a new edition 'revised and considerably augmented' of
+the Mosaic ceremonial law. Among the Carriers,[235] as soon as a girl
+has experienced the first flow of the menses which in the female
+constitution are a natural discharge, her father believed himself under
+the obligation of atoning for her supposedly sinful condition by a small
+impromptu distribution of clothes among the natives. This periodical
+state of women was considered as one of legal impurity fateful both to
+the man who happened to have any intercourse, however indirect, with
+her, and to the woman herself who failed in scrupulously observing all
+the rites prescribed by ancient usage for persons in her condition.
+
+[Seclusion of Carrier girls at puberty.]
+
+"Upon entering into that stage of her life, the maiden was immediately
+sequestered from company, even that of her parents, and compelled to
+dwell in a small branch hut by herself away from beaten paths and the
+gaze of passers-by. As she was supposed to exercise malefic influence on
+any man who might inadvertently glance at her, she had to wear a sort of
+head-dress combining in itself the purposes of a veil, a bonnet, and a
+mantlet. It was made of tanned skin, its forepart was shaped like a long
+fringe completely hiding from view the face and breasts; then it formed
+on the head a close-fitting cap or bonnet, and finally fell in a broad
+band almost to the heels. This head-dress was made and publicly placed
+on her head by a paternal aunt, who received at once some present from
+the girl's father. When, three or four years later, the period of
+sequestration ceased, only this same aunt had the right to take off her
+niece's ceremonial head-dress. Furthermore, the girl's fingers, wrists,
+and legs at the ankles and immediately below the knees, were encircled
+with ornamental rings and bracelets of sinew intended as a protection
+against the malign influences she was supposed to be possessed
+with.[236] To a belt girding her waist were suspended two bone
+implements called respectively _Tsoenkuz_ (bone tube) and _Tsiltsoet_
+(head scratcher). The former was a hollowed swan bone to drink with, any
+other mode of drinking being unlawful to her. The latter was fork-like
+and was called into requisition whenever she wanted to scratch her
+head--immediate contact of the fingers with the head being reputed
+injurious to her health. While thus secluded, she was called _asta_,
+that is 'interred alive' in Carrier, and she had to submit to a rigorous
+fast and abstinence. Her only allowed food consisted of dried fish
+boiled in a small bark vessel which nobody else must touch, and she had
+to abstain especially from meat of any kind, as well as fresh fish. Nor
+was this all she had to endure; even her contact, however remote, with
+these two articles of diet was so dreaded that she could not cross the
+public paths or trails, or the tracks of animals. Whenever absolute
+necessity constrained her to go beyond such spots, she had to be packed
+or carried over them lest she should contaminate the game or meat which
+had passed that way, or had been brought over these paths; and also for
+the sake of self-preservation against tabooed, and consequently to her,
+deleterious food. In the same way she was never allowed to wade in
+streams or lakes, for fear of causing death to the fish.
+
+"It was also a prescription of the ancient ritual code for females
+during this primary condition to eat as little as possible, and to
+remain lying down, especially in course of each monthly flow, not only
+as a natural consequence of the prolonged fast and resulting weakness;
+but chiefly as an exhibition of a becoming penitential spirit which was
+believed to be rewarded by long life and continual good health in after
+years.
+
+[Seclusion of Carrier women at their monthly periods; reasons for the
+seclusion of menstruous women among the Indians.]
+
+"These mortifications or seclusion did not last less than three or four
+years. Useless to say that during all that time marriage could not be
+thought of, since the girl could not so much as be seen by men. When
+married, the same sequestration was practised relatively to husband and
+fellow-villagers--without the particular head-dress and rings spoken
+of--on the occasion of every recurring menstruation. Sometimes it was
+protracted as long as ten days at a time, especially during the first
+years of cohabitation. Even when she returned to her mate, she was not
+permitted to sleep with him on the first nor frequently on the second
+night, but would choose a distant corner of the lodge to spread her
+blanket, as if afraid to defile him with her dread uncleanness."[237]
+Elsewhere the same writer tells us that most of the devices to which
+these Indians used to resort for the sake of ensuring success in the
+chase "were based on their regard for continence and their excessive
+repugnance for, and dread of, menstruating women."[238] But the strict
+observances imposed on Tinneh or Dene women at such times were designed
+at the same time to protect the women themselves from the evil
+consequences of their dangerous condition. Thus it was thought that
+women in their courses could not partake of the head, heart, or hind
+part of an animal that had been caught in a snare without exposing
+themselves to a premature death through a kind of rabies. They might not
+cut or carve salmon, because to do so would seriously endanger their
+health, and especially would enfeeble their arms for life. And they had
+to abstain from cutting up the grebes which are caught by the Carriers
+in great numbers every spring, because otherwise the blood with which
+these fowls abound would occasion haemorrhage or an unnaturally
+prolonged flux in the transgressor.[239] Similarly Indian women of the
+Thompson tribe abstained from venison and the flesh of other large game
+during menstruation, lest the animals should be displeased and the
+menstrual flow increased.[240] For a similar reason, probably, Shuswap
+girls during their seclusion at puberty are forbidden to eat anything
+that bleeds.[241] The same principle may perhaps partly explain the
+rule, of which we have had some examples, that women at such times
+should refrain from fish and flesh, and restrict themselves to a
+vegetable diet.
+
+[Similar rules of seclusion enjoined on menstruous women in ancient
+Hindoo, Persian, and Hebrew codes.]
+
+The philosophic student of human nature will observe, or learn, without
+surprise that ideas thus deeply ingrained in the savage mind reappear at
+a more advanced stage of society in those elaborate codes which have
+been drawn up for the guidance of certain peoples by lawgivers who claim
+to have derived the rules they inculcate from the direct inspiration of
+the deity. However we may explain it, the resemblance which exists
+between the earliest official utterances of the deity and the ideas of
+savages is unquestionably close and remarkable; whether it be, as some
+suppose, that God communed face to face with man in those early days,
+or, as others maintain, that man mistook his wild and wandering thoughts
+for a revelation from heaven. Be that as it may, certain it is that the
+natural uncleanness of woman at her monthly periods is a conception
+which has occurred, or been revealed, with singular unanimity to several
+ancient legislators. The Hindoo lawgiver Manu, who professed to have
+received his institutes from the creator Brahman, informs us that the
+wisdom, the energy, the strength, the sight, and the vitality of a man
+who approaches a woman in her courses will utterly perish; whereas, if
+he avoids her, his wisdom, energy, strength, sight, and vitality will
+all increase.[242] The Persian lawgiver Zoroaster, who, if we can take
+his word for it, derived his code from the mouth of the supreme being
+Ahura Mazda, devoted special attention to the subject. According to him,
+the menstrous flow, at least in its abnormal manifestations, is a work
+of Ahriman, or the devil. Therefore, so long as it lasts, a woman "is
+unclean and possessed of the demon; she must be kept confined, apart
+from the faithful whom her touch would defile, and from the fire which
+her very look would injure; she is not allowed to eat as much as she
+wishes, as the strength she might acquire would accrue to the fiends.
+Her food is not given her from hand to hand, but is passed to her from a
+distance, in a long leaden spoon."[243] The Hebrew lawgiver Moses, whose
+divine legation is as little open to question as that of Manu and
+Zoroaster, treats the subject at still greater length; but I must leave
+to the reader the task of comparing the inspired ordinances on this head
+with the merely human regulations of the Carrier Indians which they so
+closely resemble.
+
+[Superstitions as to menstruous women in ancient and modern Europe.]
+
+Amongst the civilized nations of Europe the superstitions which cluster
+round this mysterious aspect of woman's nature are not less extravagant
+than those which prevail among savages. In the oldest existing
+cyclopaedia--the _Natural History_ of Pliny--the list of dangers
+apprehended from menstruation is longer than any furnished by mere
+barbarians. According to Pliny, the touch of a menstruous woman turned
+wine to vinegar, blighted crops, killed seedlings, blasted gardens,
+brought down the fruit from trees, dimmed mirrors, blunted razors,
+rusted iron and brass (especially at the waning of the moon), killed
+bees, or at least drove them from their hives, caused mares to miscarry,
+and so forth.[244] Similarly, in various parts of Europe, it is still
+believed that if a woman in her courses enters a brewery the beer will
+turn sour; if she touches beer, wine, vinegar, or milk, it will go bad;
+if she makes jam, it will not keep; if she mounts a mare, it will
+miscarry; if she touches buds, they will wither; if she climbs a cherry
+tree, it will die.[245] In Brunswick people think that if a menstruous
+woman assists at the killing of a pig, the pork will putrefy.[246] In
+the Greek island of Calymnos a woman at such times may not go to the
+well to draw water, nor cross a running stream, nor enter the sea. Her
+presence in a boat is said to raise storms.[247]
+
+[The intention of secluding menstruous women is to neutralize the
+dangerous influences which are thought to emanate from them in that
+condition; suspension between heaven and earth.]
+
+Thus the object of secluding women at menstruation is to neutralize the
+dangerous influences which are supposed to emanate from them at such
+times. That the danger is believed to be especially great at the first
+menstruation appears from the unusual precautions taken to isolate girls
+at this crisis. Two of these precautions have been illustrated above,
+namely, the rules that the girl may not touch the ground nor see the
+sun. The general effect of these rules is to keep her suspended, so to
+say, between heaven and earth. Whether enveloped in her hammock and
+slung up to the roof, as in South America, or raised above the ground in
+a dark and narrow cage, as in New Ireland, she may be considered to be
+out of the way of doing mischief, since, being shut off both from the
+earth and from the sun, she can poison neither of these great sources of
+life by her deadly contagion. In short, she is rendered harmless by
+being, in electrical language, insulated. But the precautions thus taken
+to isolate or insulate the girl are dictated by a regard for her own
+safety as well as for the safety of others. For it is thought that she
+herself would suffer if she were to neglect the prescribed regimen. Thus
+Zulu girls, as we have seen, believe that they would shrivel to
+skeletons if the sun were to shine on them at puberty, and in some
+Brazilian tribes the young women think that a transgression of the rules
+would entail sores on the neck and throat. In short, the girl is viewed
+as charged with a powerful force which, if not kept within bounds, may
+prove destructive both to herself and to all with whom she comes in
+contact. To repress this force within the limits necessary for the
+safety of all concerned is the object of the taboos in question.
+
+[The same explanation applies to the similar rules of seclusion observed
+by divine kings and priests; suspension between heaven and earth.]
+
+The same explanation applies to the observance of the same rules by
+divine kings and priests. The uncleanness, as it is called, of girls at
+puberty and the sanctity of holy men do not, to the primitive mind,
+differ materially from each other. They are only different
+manifestations of the same mysterious energy which, like energy in
+general, is in itself neither good nor bad, but becomes beneficent or
+maleficent according to its application.[248] Accordingly, if, like
+girls at puberty, divine personages may neither touch the ground nor see
+the sun, the reason is, on the one hand, a fear lest their divinity
+might, at contact with earth or heaven, discharge itself with fatal
+violence on either; and, on the other hand, an apprehension that the
+divine being, thus drained of his ethereal virtue, might thereby be
+incapacitated for the future performance of those magical functions,
+upon the proper discharge of which the safety of the people and even of
+the world is believed to hang. Thus the rules in question fall under the
+head of the taboos which we examined in the second part of this
+work;[249] they are intended to preserve the life of the divine person
+and with it the life of his subjects and worshippers. Nowhere, it is
+thought, can his precious yet dangerous life be at once so safe and so
+harmless as when it is neither in heaven nor in earth, but, as far as
+possible, suspended between the two.[250]
+
+[Stories of immortality attained by suspension between heaven and
+earth.]
+
+In legends and folk-tales, which reflect the ideas of earlier ages, we
+find this suspension between heaven and earth attributed to beings who
+have been endowed with the coveted yet burdensome gift of immortality.
+The wizened remains of the deathless Sibyl are said to have been
+preserved in a jar or urn which hung in a temple of Apollo at Cumae; and
+when a group of merry children, tired, perhaps, of playing in the sunny
+streets, sought the shade of the temple and amused themselves by
+gathering underneath the familiar jar and calling out, "Sibyl, what do
+you wish?" a hollow voice, like an echo, used to answer from the urn, "I
+wish to die."[251] A story, taken down from the lips of a German peasant
+at Thomsdorf, relates that once upon a time there was a girl in London
+who wished to live for ever, so they say:
+
+"_London, London is a fine town.
+A maiden prayed to live for ever._"
+
+And still she lives and hangs in a basket in a church, and every St.
+John's Day, about the hour of noon, she eats a roll of bread.[252]
+Another German story tells of a lady who resided at Danzig and was so
+rich and so blest with all that life can give that she wished to live
+always. So when she came to her latter end, she did not really die but
+only looked like dead, and very soon they found her in a hollow of a
+pillar in the church, half standing and half sitting, motionless. She
+stirred never a limb, but they saw quite plainly that she was alive, and
+she sits there down to this blessed day. Every New Year's Day the
+sacristan comes and puts a morsel of the holy bread in her mouth, and
+that is all she has to live on. Long, long has she rued her fatal wish
+who set this transient life above the eternal joys of heaven.[253] A
+third German story tells of a noble damsel who cherished the same
+foolish wish for immortality. So they put her in a basket and hung her
+up in a church, and there she hangs and never dies, though many a year
+has come and gone since they put her there. But every year on a certain
+day they give her a roll, and she eats it and cries out, "For ever! for
+ever! for ever!" And when she has so cried she falls silent again till
+the same time next year, and so it will go on for ever and for
+ever.[254] A fourth story, taken down near Oldenburg in Holstein, tells
+of a jolly dame that ate and drank and lived right merrily and had all
+that heart could desire, and she wished to live always. For the first
+hundred years all went well, but after that she began to shrink and
+shrivel up, till at last she could neither walk nor stand nor eat nor
+drink. But die she could not. At first they fed her as if she were a
+little child, but when she grew smaller and smaller they put her in a
+glass bottle and hung her up in the church. And there she still hangs,
+in the church of St. Mary, at Luebeck. She is as small as a mouse, but
+once a year she stirs.[255]
+
+Notes:
+
+[64] Pechuel-Loesche, "Indiscretes aus Loango," _Zeitschrift fuer
+Ethnologie_, x. (1878) p. 23.
+
+[65] Rev. J. Macdonald, "Manners, Customs, Superstitions, and Religions
+of South African Tribes," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+xx. (1891) p. 118.
+
+[66] Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_ (London, 1904), p. 209. The
+prohibition to drink milk under such circumstances is also mentioned,
+though without the reason for it, by L. Alberti (_De Kaffersaan de
+Zuidkust van Afrika_, Amsterdam, 1810, p. 79), George Thompson (_Travels
+and Adventures in Southern Africa_, London, 1827, ii. 354 _sq._), and
+Mr. Warner (in Col. Maclean's _Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs_;
+Cape Town, 1866, p. 98). As to the reason for the prohibition, see
+below, p. 80.
+
+[67] C.W. Hobley, _Ethnology of A-Kamba and other East African Tribes_
+(Cambridge, 1910), p. 65.
+
+[68] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 80. As to the
+interpretation which the Baganda put on the act of jumping or stepping
+over a woman, see _id._, pp. 48, 357 note 1. Apparently some of the
+Lower Congo people interpret the act similarly. See J.H. Weeks, "Notes
+on some Customs of the Lower Congo People," _Folk-lore_, xix. (1908) p.
+431. Among the Baganda the separation of children from their parents
+took place after weaning; girls usually went to live either with an
+elder married brother or (if there was none such) with one of their
+father's brothers; boys in like manner went to live with one of their
+father's brothers. See J. Roscoe, _op. cit._ p. 74. As to the
+prohibition to touch food with the hands, see _Taboo and the Perils of
+the Soul_, pp. 138 _sqq._, 146 _sqq._, etc.
+
+[69] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 80.
+
+[70] De la Loubere, _Du royaume de Siam_ (Amsterdam, 1691), i. 203. In
+Travancore it is believed that women at puberty and after childbirth are
+peculiarly liable to be attacked by demons. See S. Mateer, _The Land of
+Charity_ (London, 1871), p. 208.
+
+[71] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 80.
+
+[72] C. Gouldsbury and H. Sheane, _The Great Plateau of Northern
+Nigeria_ (London, 1911), pp. 158-160.
+
+[73] R. Sutherland Rattray, _Some Folk-lore, Stories and Songs in
+Chinyanja_ (London, 1907), pp. 102-105.
+
+[74] Rev. H. Cole, "Notes on the Wagogo of German East Africa," _Journal
+of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) pp. 309 _sq._
+
+[75] R. Sutherland Rattray, _op. cit._ pp. 191 _sq._
+
+[76] _The Grihya Sutras_, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part i. p. 357,
+Part ii. p. 267 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vols. xxix., xxx.).
+
+[77] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), pp. 393 _sq._,
+compare pp. 396, 398.
+
+[78] See _Totemism and Exogamy_, iv. 224 _sqq._
+
+[79] Sir Harry H. Johnston, _British Central Africa_ (London, 1897), p.
+411.
+
+[80] Oscar Baumann, _Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle_ (Berlin, 1894), p.
+178.
+
+[81] Lionel Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_ (London, 1898), p. 78.
+Compare E. Jacottet, _Etudes sur les Langues du Haut-Zambeze_, Troisieme
+Partie (Paris, 1901), pp. 174 _sq._ (as to the A-Louyi).
+
+[82] E. Beguin, _Les Ma-rotse_ (Lausanne and Fontaines, 1903), p. 113.
+
+[83] Henri A. Junod, _The Life of a South African Tribe_ (Neuchatel,
+1912-1913), i. 178 _sq._
+
+[84] G. McCall Theal, _Kaffir Folk-lore_ (London, 1886), p. 218.
+
+[85] L. Alberti, _De Kaffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika_ (Amsterdam,
+1810), pp. 79 _sq._; H. Lichtenstein, _Reisen im suedlichen Africa_
+(Berlin, 1811-1812), i. 428.
+
+[86] Gustav Fritsch, _Die Eingeborenen Sued-Afrika's_ (Breslau, 1872), p.
+112. This statement applies especially to the Ama-Xosa.
+
+[87] G. McCall Theal, _Kaffir Folk-lore_, p. 218.
+
+[88] Rev. Canon Henry Callaway, _Nursery Tales, Traditions, and
+Histories of the Zulus_ (Natal and London, 1868), p. 182, note 20. From
+one of the Zulu texts which the author edits and translates (p. 189) we
+may infer that during the period of her seclusion a Zulu girl may not
+light a fire. Compare above, p. 28.
+
+[89] E. Casalis, _The Basutos_ (London, 1861), p. 268.
+
+[90] J. Merolla, "Voyage to Congo," in J. Pinkerton's _Voyages and
+Travels_ (London, 1808-1814), xvi. 238; Father Campana, "Congo; Mission
+Catholique de Landana," _Les Missions Catholiques_, xxvii. (1895) p.
+161; R.E. Dennett, _At the Back of the Black Man's Mind_ (London, 1906),
+pp. 69 _sq._. According to Merolla, it is thought that if girls did not
+go through these ceremonies, they would "never be fit for procreation."
+The other consequences supposed to flow from the omission of the rites
+are mentioned by Father Campana. From Mr. Dennett's account (_op. cit._
+pp. 53, 67-71) we gather that drought and famine are thought to result
+from the intercourse of a man with a girl who has not yet passed through
+the "paint-house," as the hut is called where the young women live in
+seclusion. According to O. Dapper, the women of Loango paint themselves
+red on every recurrence of their monthly sickness; also they tie a cord
+tightly round their heads and take care neither to touch their husband's
+food nor to appear before him (_Description de l'Afrique_, Amsterdam,
+1686, p. 326).
+
+[91] The Rev. G. Brown, quoted by the Rev. B. Danks, "Marriage Customs
+of the New Britain Group," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+xviii. (1889) pp. 284. _sq.; id., Melanesians and Polynesians_ (London,
+1910), pp. 105-107. Compare _id._, "Notes on the Duke of York Group, New
+Britain, and New Ireland," _Journal of the Royal Geographical Society_,
+xlvii. (1877) pp. 142 _sq._; A. Hahl, "Das mittlere Neumecklenburg,"
+_Globus_, xci. (1907) p. 313. Wilfred Powell's description of the New
+Ireland custom is similar (_Wanderings in a Wild Country_, London, 1883,
+p. 249). According to him, the girls wear wreaths of scented herbs round
+the waist and neck; an old woman or a little child occupies the lower
+floor of the cage; and the confinement lasts only a month. Probably the
+long period mentioned by Dr. Brown is that prescribed for chiefs'
+daughters. Poor people could not afford to keep their children so long
+idle. This distinction is sometimes expressly stated. See above, p. 30.
+Among the Goajiras of Colombia rich people keep their daughters shut up
+in separate huts at puberty for periods varying from one to four years,
+but poor people cannot afford to do so for more than a fortnight or a
+month. See F.A. Simons, "An Exploration of the Goajira Peninsula,"
+_Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society_, N.S., vii. (1885) p.
+791. In Fiji, brides who were being tattooed were kept from the sun
+(Thomas Williams, _Fiji and the Fijians_, Second Edition, London, 1860,
+i. 170). This was perhaps a modification of the Melanesian custom of
+secluding girls at puberty. The reason mentioned by Mr. Williams, "to
+improve her complexion," can hardly have been the original one.
+
+[92] Rev. R.H. Rickard, quoted by Dr. George Brown, _Melanesians and
+Polynesians_, pp. 107 _sq._. His observations were made in 1892.
+
+[93] R. Parkinson, _Dreissig Jahre in der Suedsee_ (Stuttgart, 1907), p.
+272. The natives told Mr. Parkinson that the confinement of the girls
+lasts from twelve to twenty months. The length of it may have been
+reduced since Dr. George Brown described the custom in 1876.
+
+[94] J. Chalmers and W. Wyatt Gill, _Work and Adventure in New Guinea_
+(London, 1885), p. 159.
+
+[95] H. Zahn and S. Lehner, in R. Neuhauss's _Deutsch New-Guinea_
+(Berlin, 1911), iii. 298, 418-420. The customs of the two tribes seem to
+be in substantial agreement, and the accounts of them supplement each
+other. The description of the Bukaua practice is the fuller.
+
+[96] C.A.L.M. Schwaner, _Borneo, Beschrijving van het stroomgebied van
+den Barito_ (Amsterdam, 1853-1854), ii. 77 _sq._; W.F.A. Zimmermann,
+_Die Inseln des Indischen und Stillen Meeres_ (Berlin, 1864-1865), ii.
+632 _sq._; Otto Finsch, _Neu Guinea und seine Bewohner_ (Bremen, 1865),
+pp. 116 _sq._.
+
+[97] J.G.F. Riedel, _De sluik--en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes
+en Papua_ (The Hague, 1886), p. 138.
+
+[98] A. Senfft, "Ethnographische Beitraege ueber die Karolineninsel Yap,"
+_Petermanns Mitteilungen_, xlix. (1903) p. 53; _id._, "Die Rechtssitten
+der Jap-Eingeborenen," _Globus_, xci. (1907) pp. 142 _sq._.
+
+[99] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_,
+xxix. (1899) pp. 212 _sq.; id._, in _Reports of the Cambridge
+Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp.
+203 _sq._
+
+[100] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in _Reports of the Cambridge Expedition to
+Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) p. 205.
+
+[101] L. Crauford, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxiv.
+(1895) p. 181.
+
+[102] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, _op. cit._ v. 206.
+
+[103] Walter E. Roth, _North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No. 5,
+Superstition, Magic, and Medicine_ (Brisbane, 1903), pp. 24 _sq._
+
+[104] Walter E. Roth, _op. cit._ p. 25.
+
+[105] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological
+Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904), p. 205.
+
+[106] From notes kindly sent me by Dr. C.G. Seligmann. The practice of
+burying a girl at puberty was observed also by some Indian tribes of
+California, but apparently rather for the purpose of producing a sweat
+than for the sake of concealment. The treatment lasted only twenty-four
+hours, during which the patient was removed from the ground and washed
+three or four times, to be afterwards reimbedded. Dancing was kept up
+the whole time by the women. See H. R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of
+the United States_ (Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 215.
+
+[107] Dr. C.G. Seligmann, in _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological
+Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. 201 _sq._
+
+[108] A.L. Kroeber, "The Religion of the Indians of California,"
+_University of California Publications in American Archaeology and
+Ethnology_, vol. iv. No. 6 (September, 1907), p. 324.
+
+[109] Roland B. Dixon, "The Northern Maidu," _Bulletin of the American
+Museum of Natural History_, vol. xvii. Part iii. (May 1905) pp. 232
+_sq._, compare pp. 233-238.
+
+[110] Stephen Powers, _Tribes of California_ (Washington, 1877), p. 85
+(_Contributions to North American Ethnology_, vol. iii.).
+
+[111] Stephen Powers, _op. cit._ p. 235.
+
+[112] Charles Wilkes, _Narrative of the United States Exploring
+Expedition_, New Edition (New York, 1851), iv. 456.
+
+[113] Franz Boas, _Chinook Texts_ (Washington, 1894), pp. 246 _sq._ The
+account, taken down from the lips of a Chinook Indian, is not perfectly
+clear; some of the restrictions were prolonged after the girl's second
+monthly period.
+
+[114] G.M. Sproat, _Scenes and Studies of Savage Life_ (London, 1868),
+pp. 93 _sq._
+
+[115] Franz Boas, in _Sixth Report on the North-Western Tribes of
+Canada_, pp. 40-42 (separate reprint from the _Report of the British
+Association for the Advancement of Science_, Leeds meeting, 1890). The
+rule not to lie down is observed also during their seclusion at puberty
+by Tsimshian girls, who always sit propped up between boxes and mats;
+their heads are covered with small mats, and they may not look at men
+nor at fresh salmon and olachen. See Franz Boas, in _Fifth Report on the
+North-Western Tribes of Canada_, p. 41 (separate reprint from the
+_Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science_,
+Newcastle-upon-Tyne meeting, 1889); G.M. Dawson, _Report on the Queen
+Charlotte Islands, 1878_ (Montreal, 1880), pp. 130 B _sq._ Some divine
+kings are not allowed to lie down. See _Taboo and the Perils of the
+Soul_, p. 5.
+
+[116] George M. Dawson, _Report on the Queen Charlotte Islands, 1878_
+(Montreal, 1880), p. 130 B; J.R. Swanton, _Contributions to the
+Ethnology of the Haida_ (Leyden and New York, 1905), pp. 48-50 (_The
+Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural
+History_, New York). Speaking of the customs observed at Kloo, where the
+girls had to abstain from salmon for five years, Mr. Swanton says (p.
+49): "When five years had passed, the girl came out, and could do as she
+pleased." This seems to imply that the girl was secluded in the house
+for five years. We have seen (above, p. 32) that in New Ireland the
+girls used sometimes to be secluded for the same period.
+
+[117] G.H. von Langsdorff, _Reise um die Welt_ (Frankfort, 1812), ii.
+114 _sq._; H.J. Holmberg, "Ethnographische Skizzen ueber die Voelker des
+Russischen Amerika," _Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae_, iv.
+(Helsingfors, 1856) pp. 319 _sq._; T. de Pauly, _Description
+Ethnographique des Peuples de la Russie_ (St. Petersburg, 1862),
+_Peuples de l'Amerique Russe_, p. 13; A. Erman, "Ethnographische
+Wahrnehmungen und Erfahrungen an den Kuesten des Berings-Meeres,"
+_Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_, ii. (1870) pp. 318 _sq._; H.H. Bancroft,
+_Native Races of the Pacific States_ (London, 1875-1876), i. 110 _sq._;
+Rev. Sheldon Jackson, "Alaska and its Inhabitants," _The American
+Antiquarian_, ii. (Chicago, 1879-1880) pp. 111 _sq._; A. Woldt, _Captain
+Jacobsen's Reise an der Nordwestkiiste Americas, 1881-1883_ (Leipsic,
+1884), p. 393; Aurel Krause, _Die Tlinkit-Indianer_ (Jena, 1885), pp.
+217 _sq._; W.M. Grant, in _Journal of American Folk-lore_, i. (1888) p.
+169; John R. Swanton, "Social Conditions, Beliefs, and Linguistic
+Relationship of the Tlingit Indians," _Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the
+Bureau of American Ethnology_ (Washington, 1908), p. 428.
+
+[118] Franz Boas, in _Tenth Report of the Committee on the North-Western
+Tribes of Canada_, p. 45 (separate reprint from the _Report of the
+British Association for the Advancement of Science_, Ipswich meeting,
+1895).
+
+[119] Franz Boas, in _Fifth Report of the Committee on the North-Western
+Tribes of Canada_, p. 42 (separate reprint from the _Report of the
+British Association for the Advancement of Science_, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
+meeting, 1889); _id._, in _Seventh Report_, etc., p. 12 (separate
+reprint from the _Report of the British Association for the Advancement
+of Science_, Cardiff meeting, 1891).
+
+[120] "Customs of the New Caledonian women belonging to the Nancaushy
+Tine, or Stuart's Lake Indians, Natotin Tine, or Babine's and Nantley
+Tine, or Fraser Lake Tribes," from information supplied by Gavin
+Hamilton, chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company's service, who has
+been for many years among these Indians, both he and his wife speaking
+their languages fluently (communicated by Dr. John Rae), _Journal of the
+Anthropological Institute_, vii. (1878) pp. 206 _sq._
+
+[121] Emile Petitot, _Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-ouest_ (Paris,
+1886), pp. 257 _sq._
+
+[122] Fr. Julius Jette, S.J., "On the Superstitions of the Ten'a
+Indians," _Anthropos_, vi. (1911) pp. 700-702.
+
+[123] Compare _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 70 _sqq._
+
+[124] James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, pp.
+311-317 (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American
+Museum of Natural History_, New York, April, 1900). As to the customs
+observed among these Indians by the father of a girl at such times in
+order not to lose his luck in hunting, see _Spirits of the Corn and of
+the Wild_, ii. 268.
+
+[125] James Teit, _The Lillooet Indians_ (Leyden and New York, 1906),
+pp. 263-265 (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American
+Museum of Natural History_, New York). Compare C. Hill Tout, "Report on
+the Ethnology of the Stlatlumh of British Columbia," _Journal of the
+Anthropological Institute_, xxxv. (1905) p. 136.
+
+[126] Franz Boas, in _Sixth Report of the Committee on the North-Western
+Tribes of Canada_, pp. 89 _sq_. (separate reprint from the _Report of
+the British Association for the Advancement of Science_, Leeds meeting,
+1890).
+
+[127] James Teit, _The Shuswap_ (Leyden and New York, 1909), pp. 587
+_sq._ (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American
+Museum of Natural History_, New York).
+
+[128] G.H. Loskiel, _History of the Mission of the United Brethren among
+the Indians of North America_ (London, 1794), Part i. pp. 56 _sq_.
+
+[129] G.B. Grinnell, "Cheyenne Woman Customs," _American
+Anthropologist_, New Series, iv. (New York, 1902) pp. 13 _sq_. The
+Cheyennes appear to have been at first settled on the Mississippi, from
+which they were driven westward to the Missouri. See _Handbook of
+American Indians north of Mexico_, edited by F.W. Hodge (Washington,
+1907-1910), i. 250 _sqq_.
+
+[130] H.J. Holmberg, "Ueber die Voelker des Russischen Amerika," _Acta
+Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae_, iv. (Helsingfors, 1856) pp. 401 _sq._;
+Ivan Petroff, _Report on the Population, Industries and Resources of
+Alaska_, p. 143.
+
+[131] E.W. Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," _Eighteenth Annual
+Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1899)
+p. 291.
+
+[132] Jose Guevara, "Historia del Paraguay, Rio de la Plata, y Tucuman,"
+pp. 16 _sq._, in Pedro de Angelis, _Coleccion de Obras y Documentos
+relativos a la Historia antigua y moderna de las Provincias del Rio de
+la Plata_, vol. ii. (Buenos-Ayres, 1836); J.F. Lafitau, _Moeurs des
+Sauvages Ameriquains_ (Paris, 1724), i. 262 _sq._
+
+[133] Father Ignace Chome, in _Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses_,
+Nouvelle Edition (Paris, 1780-1783), viii. 333. As to the Chiriguanos,
+see C.F. Phil. von Martius, _Zur Ethnographie Amerika's, zumal
+Brasiliens_ (Leipsic, 1867), pp. 212 _sqq._; Colonel G.E. Church,
+_Aborigines of South America_ (London, 1912), pp. 207-227.
+
+[134] A. Thouar, _Explorations dans l'Amerique du Sud_ (Paris, 1891),
+pp. 48 _sq._; G. Kurze, "Sitten und Gebraeuche der Lengua-Indianer,"
+_Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft zu Jena_, xxiii. (1905)
+pp. 26 _sq._ The two accounts appear to be identical; but the former
+attributes the custom to the Chiriguanos, the latter to the Lenguas. As
+the latter account is based on the reports of the Rev. W.B. Grubb, a
+missionary who has been settled among the Indians of the Chaco for many
+years and is our principal authority on them, I assume that the
+ascription of the custom to the Lenguas is correct. However, in the
+volume on the Lengua Indians, which has been edited from Mr. Grubb's
+papers (_An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_, London, 1911), these
+details as to the seclusion of girls at puberty are not mentioned,
+though what seems to be the final ceremony is described (_op. cit._ pp.
+177 _sq._). From the description we learn that boys dressed in ostrich
+feathers and wearing masks circle round the girl with shrill cries, but
+are repelled by the women.
+
+[135] Alcide d'Orbigny, _Voyage dans l'Amerique Meridionale_ vol. iii.
+1to Partie (Paris and Strasburg, 1844), pp. 205 _sq_.
+
+[136] A. Thouar, _Explorations dans l'Amerique du Sud_ (Paris, 1891) pp.
+56 _sq._; Father Cardus, quoted in J. Pelleschi's _Los Indios Matacos_
+(Buenos Ayres, 1897), pp. 47 _sq._
+
+[137] A. Thouar, _op. cit._ p. 63.
+
+[138] Francis de Castelnau, _Expedition dans les parties centrales de
+l'Amerique du Sud_ (Paris, 1850-1851), v. 25.
+
+[139] D. Luis de la Cruz, "Descripcion de la Naturaleza de los Terrenos
+que se comprenden en los Andes, poseidos por los Peguenches y los demas
+espacios hasta el rio de Chadileuba," p. 62, in Pedro de Angelis,
+_Coleccion de Obras y Documentos relativos a la Historia antigua y
+moderna de las Provincias del Rio de la Plata_, vol. i. (Buenos-Ayres,
+1836). Apparently the Peguenches are an Indian tribe of Chili.
+
+[140] J.B. von Spix und C.F. Ph. von Martius, _Reise in Brasilien_
+(Munich, 1823-1831), iii. 1186, 1187, 1318.
+
+[141] Andre Thevet, _Cosmographie Universelle_ (Paris, 1575), ii. 946 B
+[980] _sq._; _id., Les Singularites de la France Antarctique, autrement
+nommee Amerique_ (Antwerp, 1558), p. 76; J.F. Lafitau, _Moeurs des
+Sauvages Ameriquains_ (Paris, 1724), i. 290 _sqq_.
+
+[142] R. Schomburgk, _Reisen in Britisch Guiana_ (Leipsic, 1847-1848),
+ii. 315 _sq._; C.F.Ph. von Martius, _Zur Ethnographie Amerika's, zumal
+Brasiliens_ (Leipsic, 1867), p. 644.
+
+[143] Labat, _Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais en Guinee, Isles
+voisines, et a Cayenne_, iv. 365 _sq._ (Paris, 1730), pp. 17 _sq._
+(Amsterdam, 1731).
+
+[144] A. Caulin, _Historia Coro-graphica natural y evangelica dela Nueva
+Andalucia_ (1779), p. 93. A similar custom, with the omission of the
+stinging, is reported of the Tamanaks in the region of the Orinoco. See
+F.S. Gilij, _Saggio di Storia Americana_, ii. (Rome, 1781), p. 133.
+
+[145] A.R. Wallace, _Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro_,
+p. 496 (p. 345 of the Minerva Library edition, London, 1889).
+
+[146] _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 105 _sqq._; _The
+Scapegoat_> pp. 259 _sqq._
+
+[147] J.B. von Spix and C.F.Ph. von Martius, _Reise in Brasilien_
+(Munich, 1823-1831), iii. 1320.
+
+[148] W. Lewis Herndon, _Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon_
+(Washington, 1854), pp. 319 _sq._ The scene was described to Mr. Herndon
+by a French engineer and architect, M. de Lincourt, who witnessed it at
+Manduassu, a village on the Tapajos river. Mr. Herndon adds: "The
+_Tocandeira_ ants not only bite, but are also armed with a sting like
+the wasp; but the pain felt from it is more violent. I think it equal to
+that occasioned by the sting of the black scorpion." He gives the name
+of the Indians as Mahues, but I assume that they are the same as the
+Mauhes described by Spix and Martius.
+
+[149] Francis de Castelnau, _Expedition dans les parties centrals de
+l'Amerique du Sud_ (Paris, 1850-1851), v. 46.
+
+[150] L'Abbe Durand, "Le Rio Negro du Nord et son bassin," _Bulletin de
+la Societe de Geographie_ (Paris), vi. Serie, iii. (1872) pp. 21 _sq._
+The writer says that the candidate has to keep his arms plunged up to
+the shoulders in vessels full of ants, "as in a bath of vitriol," for
+hours. He gives the native name of the ant as _issauba_.
+
+[151] J. Crevaux, _Voyages dans l'Amerique du Sud_ (Paris, 1883), pp.
+245-250.
+
+[152] H. Coudreau, _Chez nos Indiens: quatre annees dans la Guyane
+Francaise_ (Paris, 1895), p. 228. For details as to the different modes
+of administering the _marake_ see _ibid._ pp. 228-235.
+
+[153] Father Geronimo Boscana, "Chinigchinich," in _Life in California
+by an American_ [A. Robinson] (New York, 1846), pp. 273 _sq._
+
+[154] F. Stuhlmann, _Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika_ (Berlin,
+1894), p. 506.
+
+[155] As a confirmation of this view it may be pointed out that beating
+or scourging is inflicted on inanimate objects expressly for the purpose
+indicated in the text. Thus the Indians of Costa Rica hold that there
+are two kinds of ceremonial uncleanness, _nya_ and _bu-ku-ru_. Anything
+that has been connected with a death is _nya_. But _bu-ku-ru_ is much
+more virulent. It can not only make one sick but kill. "_Bu-ku-ru_
+emanates in a variety of ways; arms, utensils, even houses become
+affected by it after long disuse, and before they can be used again must
+be purified. In the case of portable objects left undisturbed for a long
+time, the custom is to beat them with a stick before touching them. I
+have seen a woman take a long walking-stick and beat a basket hanging
+from the roof of a house by a cord. On asking what that was for, I was
+told that the basket contained her treasures, that she would probably
+want to take something out the next day, and that she was driving off
+the _bu-ku-ru_. A house long unused must be swept, and then the person
+who is purifying it must take a stick and beat not only the movable
+objects, but the beds, posts, and in short every accessible part of the
+interior. The next day it is fit for occupation. A place not visited for
+a long time or reached for the first time is _bu-ku-ru_. On our return
+from the ascent of Pico Blanco, nearly all the party suffered from
+little calenturas, the result of extraordinary exposure to wet and cold
+and of want of food. The Indians said that the peak was especially
+_bu-ku-ru_ since nobody had ever been on it before." One day Mr. Gabb
+took down some dusty blow-guns amid cries of _bu-ku-ru_ from the
+Indians. Some weeks afterwards a boy died, and the Indians firmly
+believed that the _bu-ku-ru_ of the blow-guns had killed him. "From all
+the foregoing, it would seem that _bu-ku-ru_ is a sort of evil spirit
+that takes possession of the object, and resents being disturbed; but I
+have never been able to learn from the Indians that they consider it so.
+They seem to think of it as a property the object acquires. But the
+worst _bu-ku-ru_ of all, is that of a young woman in her first
+pregnancy. She infects the whole neighbourhood. Persons going from the
+house where she lives, carry the infection with them to a distance, and
+all the deaths or other serious misfortunes in the vicinity are laid to
+her charge. In the old times, when the savage laws and customs were in
+full force, it was not an uncommon thing for the husband of such a woman
+to pay damages for casualties thus caused by his unfortunate wife." See
+Wm. M. Gabb, "On the Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Rica,"
+_Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at
+Philadelphia_, xiv. (Philadelphia, 1876) pp. 504 _sq._
+
+[156] J. Chaffanjon, _L'Orenoque et le Caura_ (Paris, 1889), pp.
+213-215.
+
+[157] Shib Chunder Bose, _The Hindoos as they are_ (London and Calcutta,
+1881), p. 86. Similarly, after a Brahman boy has been invested with the
+sacred thread, he is for three days strictly forbidden to see the sun.
+He may not eat salt, and he is enjoined to sleep either on a carpet or a
+deer's skin, without a mattress or mosquito curtain (_ibid._ p. 186). In
+Bali, boys who have had their teeth filed, as a preliminary to marriage,
+are kept shut up in a dark room for three days (R. Van Eck, "Schetsen
+van het eiland Bali," _Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indie_, N.S., ix.
+(1880) pp. 428 _sq._).
+
+[158] (Sir) H.H. Risley, _Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Ethnographic
+Glossary_ (Calcutta, 1891-1892), i. 152.
+
+[159] Edgar Thurston, _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_ (Madras,
+1909), vii. 63 _sq._
+
+[160] Edgar Thurston, _op. cit._ iii. 218.
+
+[161] Edgar Thurston, _op. cit._ vi. 157.
+
+[162] S. Mateer, _Native Life in Travancore_ (London, 1883), p. 45.
+
+[163] Arthur A. Perera, "Glimpses of Singhalese Social Life," _Indian
+Antiquary_ xxxi, (1902) p. 380.
+
+[164] J. Moura, _Le Royaume du Cambodge_ (Paris, 1883), i. 377.
+
+[165] Etienne Aymonier, "Notes sur les coutumes et croyances
+superstitieuses des Cambodgiens," _Cochinchine Francaise: Excursions et
+Reconnaissances_, No. 16 (Saigon, 1883), pp. 193 _sq._ Compare _id.,
+Notice sur le Cambodge_ (Paris, 1875), p. 50 _id., Notes sur le Laos_
+(Saigon, 1885), p. 177.
+
+[166] Svend Grundtvig, _Daenische Volks-maerchen_, uebersetzt von A.
+Strodtmann, Zweite Sammlung (Leipsic, 1879), pp. 199 _sqq._
+
+[167] Christian Schneller, _Maerchen und Sagen aus Waelschtirol_
+(Innsbruck, 1867), No. 22, pp. 51 _sqq._
+
+[168] Bernbard Schmidt, _Griechische Maerchen, Sagen und Volkslieder_
+(Leipsic, 1877), p. 98.
+
+[169] J.G. von Hahn, _Griechische und albanesische Maerchen_ (Leipsic,
+1864), No. 41, vol. i. pp. 245 _sqq._
+
+[170] Laura Gonzenbach, _Sicilianische Maerchen_ (Leipsic, 1870), No. 28,
+vol. i. pp. 177 _sqq._ The incident of the bone occurs in other
+folk-tales. A prince or princess is shut up for safety in a tower and
+makes his or her escape by scraping a hole in the wall with a bone which
+has been accidentally conveyed into the tower; sometimes it is expressly
+said that care was taken to let the princess have no bones with her meat
+(J.G. von Hahn, _op. cit._ No. 15; L. Gonzenbach, _op. cit._ Nos. 26,
+27; _Der Pentamerone, aus dem Neapolitanischen uebertragen_ von Felix
+Liebrecht (Breslau, 1846), No. 23, vol. i. pp. 294 _sqq._). From this we
+should infer that it is a rule with savages not to let women handle the
+bones of animals during their monthly seclusions. We have already seen
+the great respect with which the savage treats the bones of game
+(_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_ ii. 238 _sqq._, 256 _sqq._); and
+women in their courses are specially forbidden to meddle with the hunter
+or fisher, as their contact or neighbourhood would spoil his sport (see
+below, pp. 77, 78 _sq._, 87, 89 _sqq._). In folk-tales the hero who uses
+the bone is sometimes a boy; but the incident might easily be
+transferred from a girl to a boy after its real meaning had been
+forgotten. Amongst the Tinneh Indians a girl at puberty is forbidden to
+break the bones of hares (above, p. 48). On the other hand, she drinks
+out of a tube made of a swan's bone (above, pp. 48, 49), and the same
+instrument is used for the same purpose by girls of the Carrier tribe of
+Indians (see below, p. 92). We have seen that a Tlingit (Thlinkeet) girl
+in the same circumstances used to drink out of the wing-bone of a
+white-headed eagle (above, p. 45), and that among the Nootka and Shuswap
+tribes girls at puberty are provided with bones or combs with which to
+scratch themselves, because they may not use their fingers for this
+purpose (above, pp. 44, 53).
+
+[171] Sophocles, _Antigone_, 944 _sqq._; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, ii.
+4. I; Horace, _Odes_, iii. 16. I _sqq._; Pausanias, ii. 23. 7.
+
+[172] W. Radloff, _Proben der Volks-litteratur der tuerkischen Staemme
+Sued-Siberiens,_ iii. (St. Petersburg, 1870) pp. 82 _sq._
+
+[173] H. Ternaux-Compans, _Essai sur l'ancien Cundinamarca_ (Paris,
+N.D.), p. 18.
+
+[174] George Turner, LL.D., _Samoa, a Hundred Years ago and long before_
+(London, 1884), p. 200. For other examples of such tales, see Adolph
+Bastian, _Die Voelker des Oestlichen Asien_, i. 416, vi. 25; _Panjab
+Notes and Queries_, ii. p. 148, Sec. 797 (June, 1885); A. Pfizmaier,
+"Nachrichten von den alten Bewohnern des heutigen Corea,"
+_Sitzungsberichte der philosoph. histor. Classe der kaiser. Akademie der
+Wissenschaften_ (Vienna), lvii. (1868) pp. 495 _sq._
+
+[175] Thomas J. Hutchinson, "On the Chaco and other Indians of South
+America," _Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London_, N.S.
+iii. (1865) p. 327. Amongst the Lengua Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco
+the marriage feast is now apparently extinct. See W. Barbrooke Grubb,
+_An Unknown People in an Unknown Land_ (London, 1911), p. 179.
+
+[176] Monier Williams, _Religious Thought and Life in India_ (London,
+1883), p. 354.
+
+[177] H. Vambery, _Das Tuerkenvolk_ (Leipsic, 1885), p. 112.
+
+[178] Hans Egede, _A Description of Greenland_ (London, 1818), p. 209.
+
+[179] _Revue des Traditions Populaires_, xv. (1900) p. 471.
+
+[180] _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 145 _sqq._
+
+[181] H.E.A. Meyer, "Manners and Customs of the Aborigines of the
+Encounter Bay Tribe, South Australia," _The Native Tribes of South
+Australia_ (Adelaide, 1879), p. 186.
+
+[182] E.J. Eyre, _Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central
+Australia_ (London, 1845), ii. 304.
+
+[183] E.J. Eyre, _op. cit._ ii. 295.
+
+[184] R. Brough Smyth, _The Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne and
+London, 1878), i. 236.
+
+[185] Samuel Gason, in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxiv.
+(1895) p. 171.
+
+[186] Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central
+Australia_ (London, 1899), p. 473; _idem, Northern Tribes of Central
+Australia_ (London, 1904), p. 615.
+
+[187] James Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_ (Melbourne, Sydney, and
+Adelaide, 1881), pp. ci. _sq._
+
+[188] Rev. William Ridley, "Report on Australian Languages and
+Traditions," _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, ii. (1873) p.
+268. Compare _id., Kamilaroi and other Australian Languages_ (Sydney,
+1875), p. 157.
+
+[189] A.W. Howitt, _The Native Tribes of South-East Australia_ (London,
+1904.), pp. 776 _sq._, on the authority of Mr. J.C. Muirhead. The
+Wakelbura are in Central Queensland. Compare Captain W.E. Armit, quoted
+in _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, ix. (1880) pp. 459 _sq._
+
+[190] _Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres
+Straits_, v. (Cambridge, 1904) pp. 196, 207.
+
+[191] Ch. Keysser, "Aus dem Leben der Kaileute," in R. Neuhauss's
+_Deutsch Neu-Guinea_ (Berlin, 1911), iii. 91.
+
+[192] M.J. van Baarda, "Fabelen, Verhalen en Overleveringen der
+Galelareezen," _Bijdragen tot de Taal-Landen Volkenkinde van
+Nederlandsch-Indie_, xlv. (1895) p. 489.
+
+[193] J.L. van der Toorn, "Het animisme bij den Minangkabauer der
+Padangsche Bovenlanden," _Bijdragen tot de Taal-Land- en Volkenkunde van
+Nederlandsch-Indie_, xxxix. (1890) p. 66.
+
+[194] W.H.I. Bleek, _A Brief Account of Bushman Folk-lore_ (London,
+1875), p. 14; compare _ibid._, p. 10.
+
+[195] Rev. James Macdonald, "Manners, Customs, Superstitions and
+Religions of South African Tribes," _Journal of the Anthropological
+Institute_, xx. (1891) p. 138; _id., Light in Africa_, Second Edition
+(London, 1890), p. 221.
+
+[196] Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_ (London, 1904), p. 238; Mr.
+Warren's Notes, in Col. Maclean's _Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs_
+(Cape Town, 1866), p. 93; Rev. J. Macdonald, _Light in Africa_, p. 221;
+_id., Religion and Myth_ (London, 1893), p. 198. Compare Henri A. Junod,
+"Les conceptions physiologiques des Bantou Sud-Africains et leurs
+tabous," _Revue d'Ethnographie et de Sociologie_, i. (1910) p. 139. The
+danger of death to the cattle from the blood of women is mentioned only
+by Mr. Kidd. The part of the village which is frequented by the cattle,
+and which accordingly must be shunned by women, has a special name,
+_inkundhla_ (Mr. Warner's Notes, _l.c._).
+
+[197] Rev. J. Roscoe, "The Bahima, a Cow Tribe of Enkole," _Journal of
+the Royal Anthropological Institute_, xxxvii. (1907) p. 106.
+
+[198] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_ (London, 1911), p. 419.
+
+[199] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 96.
+
+[200] Rev. J. Roscoe, "Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,"
+_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxi. (1901) p. 121; _id._,
+"Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda," _Journal of
+the Anthropological Institute_, xxxii. (1902) p. 39; _id., The Baganda_,
+p. 352.
+
+[201] Rev. J. Roscoe, _The Baganda_, p. 459.
+
+[202] C.W. Hobley, "Further Researches into Kikuyu and Kamba Religious
+Beliefs and Customs," _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_,
+xli. (1911) p. 409.
+
+[203] Mervyn W.H. Beech, _The Suk, their Language and Folklore_ (Oxford,
+1911), p. 11.
+
+[204] H.S. Stannus, "Notes on some Tribes of British Central Africa,"
+_Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_, xl. (1910) p. 305; R.
+Sutherland Rattray, _Some Folk-lore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja_
+(London, 1907), p. 191. See above, p. 27.
+
+[205] Jakob Spieth, _Die Ewe-Staemme_ (Berlin, 1906), p. 192.
+
+[206] Anton Witte, "Menstruation und Pubertaetsfeier der Maedchen in
+Kpandugebiet Togo," _Baessler-Archiv_, i. (1911) p. 279.
+
+[207] Th. Noeldeke, _Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der
+Sassaniden, aus der arabischen Chronik des Tabari uebersetzt_ (Leyden,
+1879), pp. 33-38. I have to thank my friend Professor A.A. Bevan for
+pointing out to me this passage. Many ancient cities had talismans on
+the preservation of which their safety was believed to depend. The
+Palladium of Troy is the most familiar instance. See Chr. A. Lobeck,
+_Aglaophamus_ (Koenigsberg, 1829), pp. 278 _sqq._, and my note on
+Pausanias, viii. 47. 5 (vol. iv. pp. 433 _sq._).
+
+[208] J. Mergel, _Die Medezin der Talmudisten_ (Leipsic and Berlin,
+1885), pp. 15 _sq._
+
+[209] Maimonides, quoted by D. Chwolsohn, _Die Ssabier und der
+Ssabismus_ (St. Petersburg, 1856), ii. 483. According to the editor (p.
+735) by the East Maimonides means India and eastern countries generally.
+
+[210] L'abbe Bechara Chemali, "Naissance et premier age au Liban,"
+_Anthropos_, v. (1910) p. 735.
+
+[211] Eijub Abela, "Beitraege zur Kenntniss aberglaeubischer Gebraeuche in
+Syrien," _Zeitschrift des deutschen Palaestina-Vereins_, vii. (1884) p.
+111.
+
+[212] J. Chalmers, "Toaripi," _Journal of the Anthropological
+Institute_, xxvii. (1898) p. 328.
+
+[213] W. Crooke, _Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and
+Qudh_ (Calcutta, 1896), ii. 87.
+
+[214] W. Crooke, in _North Indian Notes and Queries_, i. p. 67, Sec. 467
+(July, 1891).
+
+[215] L.K. Anantha Krishna Iyer, _The Cochin Tribes and Castes_, i.
+(Madras, 1909) pp. 201-203. As to the seclusion of menstruous women
+among the Hindoos, see also Sonnerat, _Voyage aux Indes Orientates et a
+la Chine_ (Paris, 1782), i. 31; J.A. Dubois, _Moeurs, Institutions et
+Ceremonies des Peuples de l'Inde_ (Paris, 1825), i. 245 _sq._ Nair women
+in Malabar seclude themselves for three days at menstruation and prepare
+their food in separate pots and pans. See Duarte Barbosa, _Description
+of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the beginning of the
+Sixteenth Century_ (Hakluyt Society, London, 1866), pp. 132 _sq._
+
+[216] G. Hoffman, _Auszuege aus Syrischen Akten persisischer Martyrer
+uebersetzt_ (Leipsic, 1880), p. 99. This passage was pointed out to me by
+my friend Professor A.A. Bevan.
+
+[217] J.B. Tavernier, _Voyages en Turquie, en Perse, et aux Indes_ (The
+Hague, 1718), i. 488.
+
+[218] Paul Giran, _Magie et Religion Annamites_ (Paris, 1912), pp. 107
+_sq._, 112.
+
+[219] Joseph Gumilla, _Histoire Naturelle, Civile, et Geographique de
+l'Orenoque_ (Avignon, 1758), i. 249.
+
+[220] Dr. Louis Plassard, "Les Guaraunos et le delta de l'Orenoque,"
+_Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie_ (Paris), v. Serie, xv. (1868) p.
+584.
+
+[221] J. Crevaux, _Voyages dans l'Amerique du Sud_ (Paris, 1883), p.
+526. As to the customs observed at menstruation by Indian women in South
+America, see further A. d'Orbigny, _L'Homme Americain_ (Paris, 1839), i.
+237.
+
+[222] Chas. N. Bell, "The Mosquito Territory," _Journal of the Royal
+Geographical Society_, xxxii. (1862) p. 254.
+
+[223] H. Pittier de Fabrega, "Die Sprache der Bribri-Indianer in Costa
+Rica," _Sitztungsberichte der philosophischen-historischen Classe der
+Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften_ (Vienna), cxxxviii. (1898) pp.
+19 _sq._
+
+[224] Gabriel Sagard, _Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons_, Nouvelle
+Edition (Paris, 1865), p. 54 (original edition, Paris, 1632); J.F.
+Lafitau, _Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains_ (Paris, 1724), i. 262;
+Charlevoix, _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1744), v. 423
+_sq._; Captain Jonathan Carver, _Travels through the Interior Parts of
+North America_, Third Edition (London, 1781), pp. 236 _sq._; Captains
+Lewis and Clark, _Expedition to the Sources of the Missouri_, etc.
+(London, 1905), iii. 90 (original edition, 1814); Rev. Jedidiah Morse,
+_Report to the Secretary of War of the United States on Indian Affairs_
+(New Haven, 1822), pp. 136 _sq._; _Annales de l'Association de la
+Propagation de la Foi_, iv, (Paris and Lyons, 1830) pp. 483, 494 _sq._;
+George Catlin, _Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition
+of the North American Indians_, Fourth Edition (London, 1844), ii. 233;
+H.R. Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes of the United States_ (Philadelphia,
+1853-1856), v. 70; A.L. Kroeber, "The Religion of the Indians of
+California," _University of California Publication in American
+Archaeology and Ethnology_, vol. iv. No. 6 (Berkeley, September, 1907),
+pp. 323 _sq._; Frank G. Speck, _Ethnology of the Yuchi Indians_
+(Philadelphia, 1909), p. 96. Among the Hurons of Canada women at their
+periods did not retire from the house or village, but they ate from
+small dishes apart from the rest of the family at these times (Gabriel
+Sagard, _l.c._).
+
+[225] James Adair, _History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775), pp.
+123 _sq._
+
+[226] Bossu, _Nouveaux Voyages aux Indes occidentales_ (Paris, 1768),
+ii. 105.
+
+[227] Edwin James, _Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the
+Rocky Mountains_ (London, 1823), i. 214.
+
+[228] William H. Keating, _Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of
+St. Peter's River_ (London, 1825), i. 132.
+
+[229] G.B. Grinnell, "Cheyenne Woman Customs," _American
+Anthropologist_, New Series, iv. (New York, 1902) p. 14.
+
+[230] C. Hill Tout, "Ethnological Report on the Stseelis and Skaulits
+Tribes of the Halokmelem Division of the Salish of British Columbia,"
+_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, xxxiv. (1904) p. 320.
+
+[231] James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, pp. 326
+_sq._ (_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American
+Museum of Natural History_, New York, April, 1900).
+
+[232] Samuel Hearne, _Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's
+Bay to the Northern Ocean_ (London, 1795), pp. 314 _sq._; Alex.
+Mackenzie, _Voyages through the Continent of North America_ (London,
+1801), p. cxxiii.; E. Petitot, _Monographic des Dene-Dindjie_ (Paris,
+1876), pp. 75 _sq._
+
+[233] C. Leemius, _De Lapponibus Finmarchiae eorumque lingua vita et
+religione pristina_ (Copenhagen, 1767), p. 494.
+
+[234] E.W. Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," _Eighteenth Annual
+Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington, 1899)
+p. 440.
+
+[235] The Carriers are a tribe of Dene or Tinneh Indians who get their
+name from a custom observed among them by widows, who carry, or rather
+used to carry, the charred bones of their dead husbands about with them
+in bundles.
+
+[236] Hence we may conjecture that the similar ornaments worn by Mabuiag
+girls in similar circumstances are also amulets. See above, p. 36. Among
+the aborigines of the Upper Yarra river in Victoria, a girl at puberty
+used to have cords tied very tightly round several parts of her body.
+The cords were worn for several days, causing the whole body to swell
+very much and inflicting great pain. The girl might not remove them till
+she was clean. See R. Brough Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_ (Melbourne
+and London, 1878), i. 65. Perhaps the cords were intended to arrest the
+flow of blood.
+
+[237] Rev. Father A.G. Morice, "The Western Denes, their Manners and
+Customs," _Proceedings of the Canadian Institute, Toronto_, Third
+Series, vii. (1888-89) pp. 162-164. The writer has repeated the
+substance of this account in a later work, _Au pays de l'Ours Noir: chez
+les sauvages de la Colombia Britannique_ (Paris and Lyons, 1897), pp. 72
+_sq._
+
+[238] A.G. Morice, "Notes, Archaeological, Industrial, and Sociological,
+on the Western Denes," _Transactions of the Canadian Institute_, iv.
+(1892-93) pp. 106 _sq._ Compare Rev. Father Julius Jette, "On the
+Superstitions of the Ten'a Indians," _Anthropos_, vi. (1911) pp. 703
+_sq._, who tells us that Tinneh women at these times may not lift their
+own nets, may not step over other people's nets, and may not pass in a
+boat or canoe near a place where nets are being set.
+
+[239] A.G. Morice, in _Transactions of the Canadian Institute_, iv.
+(1892-93) pp. 107, 110.
+
+[240] James Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, p. 327
+(_The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of
+Natural History_, New York, April 1900).
+
+[241] See above, p. 53.
+
+[242] _Laws of Manu_, translated by G. Buhler (Oxford, 1886), ch. iv. 41
+_sq._, p. 135 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xxv.).
+
+[243] _The Zend-Avesta_, translated by J. Darmesteter, i. (Oxford, 1880)
+p. xcii. (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. iv.). See _id._, pp. 9,
+181-185, _Fargard_, i. 18 and 19, xvi. 1-18.
+
+[244] Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ vii. 64 _sq._, xxviii. 77 _sqq._ Compare
+_Geoponica_, xii. 20. 5 and 25. 2; Columella, _De re rustica_, xi. 357
+_sqq._
+
+[245] August Schleicher, _Volkstuemliches aus Sonnenberg_ (Weimar, 1858),
+p. 134; B. Souche, _Croyances, Presages et Traditions diverses_ (Niort,
+1880), p. 11; A. Meyrac, _Traditions, Coutumes Legendes et Contes des
+Ardennes_ (Charleville, 1890), p. 171; V. Fossel, _Volksmedicin und
+medicinischer Aberglaube in Steiermark[2]_ (Graz, 1886), p. 124. A
+correspondent, who withholds her name, writes to me that in a Suffolk
+village, where she used to live some twenty or thirty years ago, "every
+one pickled their own beef, and it was held that if the pickling were
+performed by a woman during her menstrual period the meat would not
+keep. If the cook were incapacitated at the time when the pickling was
+due, another woman was sent for out of the village rather than risk what
+was considered a certainty." Another correspondent informs me that in
+some of the dales in the north of Yorkshire a similar belief prevailed
+down to recent years with regard to the salting of pork. Another
+correspondent writes to me: "The prohibition that a menstruating woman
+must not touch meat that is intended for keeping appears to be common
+all over the country; at least I have met with it as a confirmed and
+active custom in widely separated parts of England.... It is in regard
+to the salting of meat for bacon that the prohibition is most usual,
+because that is the commonest process; but it exists in regard to any
+meat food that is required to be kept."
+
+[246] R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_ (Brunswick, 1896), p. 291.
+
+[247] W.R. Paton, in _Folk-lore_, i. (1890) p. 524.
+
+[248] The Greeks and Romans thought that a field was completely
+protected against insects if a menstruous woman walked round it with
+bare feet and streaming hair (Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xvii. 266, xxviii. 78;
+Columella, _De re rustica_, x. 358 _sq._, xi. 3. 64; Palladius, _De re
+rustica_, i. 35. 3; _Geoponica_, xii. 8. 5 _sq._; Aelian, _Nat. Anim._
+vi. 36). A similar preventive is employed for the same purpose by North
+American Indians and European peasants. See H.R. Schoolcraft, _Indian
+Tribes of the United States_ (Philadelphia, 1853-1856), v. 70; F.J.
+Wiedemann, _Aus dem inneren und auessern Leben der Ehsten_ (St.
+Petersburg, 1876), p. 484. Compare J. Haltrich, _Zur Volkskunde der
+Siebenbuerger Sachsen_ (Vienna, 1885), p. 280; Adolph Heinrich,
+_Agrarische Sitten und Gebraeuche unter den Sachsen Siebenbuergens_
+(Hermannstadt, 1880), p. 14; J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] iii.
+468; G. Lammert, _Volksmedizin und medizinischer Aberglaube aus Bayern_
+(Wuerzburg, 1869), p. 147. Among the Western Denes it is believed that
+one or two transverse lines tattooed on the arms or legs of a young man
+by a pubescent girl are a specific against premature weakness of these
+limbs. See A.G. Morice, "Notes, Archaeological, Industrial, and
+Sociological, on the Western Denes," _Transactions of the Canadian
+Institute_, iv. (1892-93) p. 182. The Thompson Indians of British
+Columbia thought that the Dawn of Day could and would cure hernia if
+only an adolescent girl prayed to it to do so. Just before daybreak the
+girl would put some charcoal in her mouth, chew it fine, and spit it out
+four times on the diseased place. Then she prayed: "O Day-dawn! thy
+child relies on me to obtain healing from thee, who art mystery. Remove
+thou the swelling of thy child. Pity thou him, Day-Dawn!" See James
+Teit, _The Thompson Indians of British Columbia_, pp. 345 _sq._ (_The
+Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural
+History_, New York, April, 1900). To cure the painful and dangerous
+wound inflicted by a ray-fish, the Indians of the Gran Chaco smoke the
+wounded limb and then cause a woman in her courses to sit astride of it.
+See G. Pelleschi, _Eight Months on the Gran Chaco of the Argentine
+Republic_ (London, 1886), p. 106. An ancient Hindoo method of securing
+prosperity was to swallow a portion of the menstruous fluid. See W.
+Caland, _Altindisches Zauberritual_ (Amsterdam, 1900), pp. 57 _sq._ To
+preserve a new cow from the evil eye Scottish Highlanders used to
+sprinkle menstruous blood on the animal; and at certain seasons of the
+year, especially at Beltane (the first of May) and Lammas (the first of
+August) it was their custom to sprinkle the same potent liquid on the
+doorposts and houses all round to guard them from harm. The fluid was
+applied by means of a wisp of straw, and the person who discharged this
+salutary office went round the house in the direction of the sun. See
+J.G. Campbell, _Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_
+(Glasgow, 1900), p. 248. These are examples of the beneficent
+application of the menstruous energy.
+
+[249] _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 1 _sqq._
+
+[250] For a similar reason, perhaps, ancient Hindoo ritual prescribed
+that when the hair of a child's head was shorn in the third year, the
+clippings should be buried in a cow-stable, or near an _udumbara_ tree,
+or in a clump of _darbha_ grass, with the words, "Where Pushan,
+Brihaspati, Savitri, Soma, Agni dwell, they have in many ways searched
+where they should deposit it, between heaven and earth, the waters and
+heaven." See _The Grihya-Sutras_, translated by H. Oldenberg, Part ii.
+(Oxford, 1892) p. 218 (_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. xxx.).
+
+[251] Petronius, _Sat._ 48; Pausanias, x. 12: 8; Justin Martyr, _Cohort
+ad Graecos_, 37, p. 34 c (ed. 1742). According to another account, the
+remains of the Sibyl were enclosed in an iron cage which hung from a
+pillar in an ancient temple of Hercules at Argyrus (Ampelius, _Liber
+Memorialis_, viii. 16).
+
+[252] A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Nord-deutsche Sagen, Maerchen und
+Gebraeuche_ (Leipsic, 1848), p. 70, No. 72. i. This and the following
+German parallels to the story of the Sibyl's wish were first indicated
+by Dr. M.R. James (_Classical Review_, vi. (1892) p. 74). I have already
+given the stories at length in a note on Pausanias, x. 12. 8 (vol. v.
+pp. 292 _sq._).
+
+[253] A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _op. cit._ pp. 70 _sq._, No. 72. 2.
+
+[254] A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _op. cit._ p. 71, No. 72. 3.
+
+[255] Karl Muellenhoff, _Sagen, Maerchen und Lieder der Herzogthuemer
+Holstein und Lauenburg_ (Kiel, 1845), pp. 158 _sg._, No. 217.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE MYTH OF BALDER
+
+
+[How Balder, the good and beautiful god, was done to death by a stroke
+of the mistletoe.]
+
+A deity whose life might in a sense be said to be neither in heaven nor
+on earth but between the two, was the Norse Balder, the good and
+beautiful god, the son of the great god Odin, and himself the wisest,
+mildest, best beloved of all the immortals. The story of his death, as
+it is told in the younger or prose _Edda_, runs thus. Once on a time
+Balder dreamed heavy dreams which seemed to forebode his death.
+Thereupon the gods held a council and resolved to make him secure
+against every danger. So the goddess Frigg took an oath from fire and
+water, iron and all metals, stones and earth, from trees, sicknesses and
+poisons, and from all four-footed beasts, birds, and creeping things,
+that they would not hurt Balder. When this was done Balder was deemed
+invulnerable; so the gods amused themselves by setting him in their
+midst, while some shot at him, others hewed at him, and others threw
+stones at him. But whatever they did, nothing could hurt him; and at
+this they were all glad. Only Loki, the mischief-maker, was displeased,
+and he went in the guise of an old woman to Frigg, who told him that the
+weapons of the gods could not wound Balder, since she had made them all
+swear not to hurt him. Then Loki asked, "Have all things sworn to spare
+Balder?" She answered, "East of Walhalla grows a plant called mistletoe;
+it seemed to me too young to swear." So Loki went and pulled the
+mistletoe and took it to the assembly of the gods. There he found the
+blind god Hother standing at the outside of the circle. Loki asked him,
+"Why do you not shoot at Balder?" Hother answered, "Because I do not see
+where he stands; besides I have no weapon." Then said Loki, "Do like the
+rest and shew Balder honour, as they all do. I will shew you where he
+stands, and do you shoot at him with this twig." Hother took the
+mistletoe and threw it at Balder, as Loki directed him. The mistletoe
+struck Balder and pierced him through and through, and he fell down
+dead. And that was the greatest misfortune that ever befell gods and
+men. For a while the gods stood speechless, then they lifted up their
+voices and wept bitterly. They took Balder's body and brought it to the
+sea-shore. There stood Balder's ship; it was called Ringhorn, and was
+the hugest of all ships. The gods wished to launch the ship and to burn
+Balder's body on it, but the ship would not stir. So they sent for a
+giantess called Hyrrockin. She came riding on a wolf and gave the ship
+such a push that fire flashed from the rollers and all the earth shook.
+Then Balder's body was taken and placed on the funeral pile upon his
+ship. When his wife Nanna saw that, her heart burst for sorrow and she
+died. So she was laid on the funeral pile with her husband, and fire was
+put to it. Balder's horse, too, with all its trappings, was burned on
+the pile.[256]
+
+[Tale of Balder in the older _Edda_.]
+
+In the older or poetic _Edda_ the tragic tale of Balder is hinted at
+rather than told at length. Among the visions which the Norse Sibyl sees
+and describes in the weird prophecy known as the _Voluspa_ is one of the
+fatal mistletoe. "I behold," says she, "Fate looming for Balder, Woden's
+son, the bloody victim. There stands the Mistletoe slender and delicate,
+blooming high above the ground. Out of this shoot, so slender to look
+on, there shall grow a harmful fateful shaft. Hod shall shoot it, but
+Frigga in Fen-hall shall weep over the woe of Wal-hall."[257] Yet
+looking far into the future the Sibyl sees a brighter vision of a new
+heaven and a new earth, where the fields unsown shall yield their
+increase and all sorrows shall be healed; then Balder will come back to
+dwell in Odin's mansions of bliss, in a hall brighter than the sun,
+shingled with gold, where the righteous shall live in joy for ever
+more.[258]
+
+[The story of Balder as related by Saxo Grammaticus.]
+
+Writing about the end of the twelfth century, the old Danish historian
+Saxo Grammaticus tells the story of Balder in a form which professes to
+be historical. According to him, Balder and Hother were rival suitors
+for the hand of Nanna, daughter of Gewar, King of Norway. Now Balder was
+a demigod and common steel could not wound his sacred body. The two
+rivals encountered each other in a terrific battle, and though Odin and
+Thor and the rest of the gods fought for Balder, yet was he defeated and
+fled away, and Hother married the princess. Nevertheless Balder took
+heart of grace and again met Hother in a stricken field. But he fared
+even worse than before; for Hother dealt him a deadly wound with a magic
+sword, which he had received from Miming, the Satyr of the woods; and
+after lingering three days in pain Balder died of his hurt and was
+buried with royal honours in a barrow.[259]
+
+[Balder worshipped in Norway.]
+
+Whether he was a real or merely a mythical personage, Balder was
+worshipped in Norway. On one of the bays of the beautiful Sogne Fiord,
+which penetrates far into the depths of the solemn Norwegian mountains,
+with their sombre pine-forests and their lofty cascades dissolving into
+spray before they reach the dark water of the fiord far below, Balder
+had a great sanctuary. It was called Balder's Grove. A palisade enclosed
+the hallowed ground, and within it stood a spacious temple with the
+images of many gods, but none of them was worshipped with such devotion
+as Balder. So great was the awe with which the heathen regarded the
+place that no man might harm another there, nor steal his cattle, nor
+defile himself with women. But women cared for the images of the gods in
+the temple; they warmed them at the fire, anointed them with oil, and
+dried them with cloths.[260]
+
+[The legendary death of Balder resembles the legendary death of the
+Persian hero Isfendiyar in the epic of Firdusi.]
+
+It might be rash to affirm that the romantic figure of Balder was
+nothing but a creation of the mythical fancy, a radiant phantom conjured
+up as by a wizard's wand to glitter for a time against the gloomy
+background of the stern Norwegian landscape. It may be so; yet it is
+also possible that the myth was founded on the tradition of a hero,
+popular and beloved in his lifetime, who long survived in the memory of
+the people, gathering more and more of the marvellous about him as he
+passed from generation to generation of story-tellers. At all events it
+is worth while to observe that a somewhat similar story is told of
+another national hero, who may well have been a real man. In his great
+poem, _The Epic of Kings_, which is founded on Persian traditions, the
+poet Firdusi tells us that in the combat between Rustem and Isfendiyar
+the arrows of the former did no harm to his adversary, "because Zerdusht
+had charmed his body against all dangers, so that it was like unto
+brass." But Simurgh, the bird of God, shewed Rustem the way he should
+follow in order to vanquish his redoubtable foe. He rode after her, and
+they halted not till they came to the sea-shore. There she led him into
+a garden, where grew a tamarisk, tall and strong, and the roots thereof
+were in the ground, but the branches pierced even unto the sky. Then the
+bird of God bade Rustem break from the tree a branch that was long and
+slender, and fashion it into an arrow, and she said, "Only through his
+eyes can Isfendiyar be wounded. If, therefore, thou wouldst slay him,
+direct this arrow unto his forehead, and verily it shall not miss its
+aim." Rustem did as he was bid; and when next he fought with Isfendiyar,
+he shot the arrow at him, and it pierced his eye, and he died. Great was
+the mourning for Isfendiyar. For the space of one year men ceased not to
+lament for him, and for many years they shed bitter tears for that
+arrow, and they said, "The glory of Iran hath been laid low."[261]
+
+[The myth of Balder was perhaps acted as a magical ceremony. The two
+chief incidents of the myth, namely the pulling of the mistletoe and the
+death and burning of the god, have perhaps their counterparts in popular
+ritual.]
+
+Whatever may be thought of an historical kernel underlying a mythical
+husk in the legend of Balder, the details of the story suggest that it
+belongs to that class of myths which have been dramatized in ritual, or,
+to put it otherwise, which have been performed as magical ceremonies for
+the sake of producing those natural effects which they describe in
+figurative language. A myth is never so graphic and precise in its
+details as when it is, so to speak, the book of the words which are
+spoken and acted by the performers of the sacred rite. That the Norse
+story of Balder was a myth of this sort will become probable if we can
+prove that ceremonies resembling the incidents in the tale have been
+performed by Norsemen and other European peoples. Now the main incidents
+in the tale are two--first, the pulling of the mistletoe, and second,
+the death and burning of the god; and both of them may perhaps be found
+to have had their counterparts in yearly rites observed, whether
+separately or conjointly, by people in various parts of Europe. These
+rites will be described and discussed in the following chapters. We
+shall begin with the annual festivals of fire and shall reserve the
+pulling of the mistletoe for consideration later on.
+
+Notes:
+
+[256] _Die Edda_, uebersetzt von K. Simrock*[8] (Stuttgart, 1882), pp.
+286-288. Compare pp. 8, 34, 264. Balder's story is told in a professedly
+historical form by the old Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus in his
+third book. See below, p. 103. In English the story is told at length by
+Professor (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London and Edinburgh,
+1888), pp. 529 _sqq._ It is elaborately discussed by Professor F.
+Knuffmann in a learned monograph, _Balder, Mythus und Sage_ (Strasburg,
+1902).
+
+[257] Gudbrand Vigfusson and F. York Powell, _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_,
+i. (Oxford, 1883) p. 197. Compare _Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo
+Saemundina dicta_, Pars iii. (Copenhagen, 1828) pp. 39 _sq._; _Die
+Edda_, uebersetzt von K. Simrock*[8] (Stuttgart, 1882), p. 8; K.
+Muellenhoff, _Deutsche Altertumskunde_, v. Zweite Abteilung (Berlin,
+1891), pp. 78 _sq._; Fr. Kauffmann, _Balder, Mythus und Sage_, pp. 20
+_sq._ In this passage the words translated "bloody victim" (_blaupom
+tivor_) and "fate looming" (_orlog folgen_) are somewhat uncertain and
+have been variously interpreted. The word _tivor_, usually understood to
+mean "god," seems to be found nowhere else. Professor H.M. Chadwick has
+kindly furnished me with the following literal translation of the
+passage: "I saw (or 'have seen') held in safe keeping the life of
+Balder, the bloody god, Othin's son. High above the fields (i.e. the
+surface of the earth) grew a mistletoe, slender and very beautiful. From
+a shaft (or 'stem') which appeared slender, came a dangerous
+sorrow-bringing missile (i.e. the shaft became a ... missile); Hodr
+proceeded to shoot. Soon was a brother of Balder born. He, Othin's son,
+proceeded to do battle when one day old. He did not wash his hands or
+comb his head before he brought Balder's antagonist on to the pyre. But
+Frigg in Fen-salir (i.e. the Fen-abode) lamented the trouble of
+Val-holl." In translating the words _orlog folgen_ "held in safe keeping
+the life" Professor Chadwick follows Professor F. Kauffmann's rendering
+("_das Leben verwahrt_"); but he writes to me that he is not quite
+confident about it, as the word _orlog_ usually means "fate" rather than
+"life." Several sentences translated by Professor Chadwick ("Soon was a
+brother of Balder born ... he brought Balder's antagonist on the pyre")
+are omitted by some editors and translators of the _Edda_.
+
+[258] G. Vigfusson and F. York Powell, _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, i. 200
+_sq._; _Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta_, Pars iii.
+pp. 51-54; _Die Edda_, uebersetzt von K. Simrock,*[8] p. 10 _sq._; K.
+Muellenhoff, _Deutsche Altertumskunde_, v. Zweite Abteilung, pp. 84 _sq._
+
+[259] Saxo Grammaticus, _Historia Danica_, ed. P.E. Mueller (Copenhagen,
+1839-1858), _lib._ iii. vol. i. pp. 110 _sqq._; _The First Nine Books of
+the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus_, translated by Oliver Elton
+(London, 1894), pp. 83-93.
+
+[260] _Fridthjofs Saga, aus dem Alt-islaendischen_, von J.C. Poestion,
+(Vienna, 1879), pp. 3 _sq._, 14-17, 45-52.
+
+[261] _The Epic of Kings, Stories retold from Firdusi_, by Helen Zimmern
+(London, 1883), pp. 325-331. The parallel between Balder and Isfendiyar
+was pointed out in the "Lexicon Mythologicum" appended to the _Edda
+Rhythmifa seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta_, Pars iii. (Copenhagen,
+1828) p. 513 note, with a reference to _Schah Namech, verdeutscht von
+Goerres_, ii. 324, 327 _sq._ It is briefly mentioned by Dr. P. Wagler,
+_Die Eiche in alter und neuer Zeit_, ii. Teil (Berlin, 1891), p. 40.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE FIRE-FESTIVALS OF EUROPE
+
+
+Sec. 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.]
+
+All over Europe the peasants have been accustomed from time immemorial
+to kindle bonfires on certain days of the year, and to dance round or
+leap over them. Customs of this kind can be traced back on historical
+evidence to the Middle Ages,[262] and their analogy to similar customs
+observed in antiquity goes with strong internal evidence to prove that
+their origin must be sought in a period long prior to the spread of
+Christianity. Indeed the earliest proof of their observance in Northern
+Europe is furnished by the attempts made by Christian synods in the
+eighth century to put them down as heathenish rites.[263] Not uncommonly
+effigies are burned in these fires, or a pretence is made of burning a
+living person in them; and there are grounds for believing that
+anciently human beings were actually burned on these occasions. A
+general survey of the customs in question will bring out the traces of
+human sacrifice, and will serve at the same time to throw light on their
+meaning.[264]
+
+[Seasons of the year at which the bonfires are lit.]
+
+The seasons of the year when these bonfires are most commonly lit are
+spring and midsummer; but in some places they are kindled also at the
+end of autumn or during the course of the winter, particularly on Hallow
+E'en (the thirty-first of October), Christmas Day, and the Eve of
+Twelfth Day. We shall consider them in the order in which they occur in
+the calendar year. The earliest of them is the winter festival of the
+Eve of Twelfth Day (the fifth of January); but as it has been already
+described in an earlier part of this work[265] we shall pass it over
+here and begin with the fire-festivals of spring, which usually fall on
+the first Sunday of Lent (_Quadragesima_ or _Invocavit_),[266] Easter
+Eve, and May Day.
+
+[Custom of kindling bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent in the Belgian
+Ardennes.]
+
+The custom of kindling bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent has
+prevailed in Belgium, the north of France, and many parts of Germany.
+Thus in the Belgian Ardennes for a week or a fortnight before the "day
+of the great fire," as it is called, children go about from farm to farm
+collecting fuel. At Grand Halleux any one who refuses their request is
+pursued next day by the children, who try to blacken his face with the
+ashes of the extinct fire. When the day has come, they cut down bushes,
+especially juniper and broom, and in the evening great bonfires blaze on
+all the heights. It is a common saying that seven bonfires should be
+seen if the village is to be safe from conflagrations. If the Meuse
+happens to be frozen hard at the time, bonfires are lit also on the ice.
+At Grand Halleux they set up a pole called _makral_ or "the witch," in
+the midst of the pile, and the fire is kindled by the man who was last
+married in the village. In the neighbourhood of Morlanwelz a straw man
+is burnt in the fire. Young people and children dance and sing round the
+bonfires, and leap over the embers to secure good crops or a happy
+marriage within the year, or as a means of guarding themselves against
+colic. In Brabant on the same Sunday, down to the beginning of the
+nineteenth century, women and men disguised in female attire used to go
+with burning torches to the fields, where they danced and sang comic
+songs for the purpose, as they alleged, of driving away "the wicked
+sower," who is mentioned in the Gospel for the day. At Maeseyck and in
+many villages of Limburg, on the evening of the day children run through
+the streets carrying lighted torches; then they kindle little fires of
+straw in the fields and dance round them. At Ensival old folks tell
+young folks that they will have as many Easter eggs as they see bonfires
+on this day.[267] At Paturages, in the province of Hainaut, down to
+about 1840 the custom was observed under the name of _Escouvion_ or
+_Scouvion_. Every year on the first Sunday of Lent, which was called the
+Day of the Little Scouvion, young folks and children used to run with
+lighted torches through the gardens and orchards. As they ran they cried
+at the pitch of their voices,
+
+"_Bear apples, bear pears
+And cherries all black
+  To Scouvion!_"
+
+At these words the torch-bearer whirled his blazing brand and hurled it
+among the branches of the apple-trees, the pear-trees, and the
+cherry-trees. The next Sunday was called the Day of the Great Scouvion,
+and the same race with lighted torches among the trees of the orchards
+was repeated in the afternoon till darkness fell. The same custom was
+observed on the same two days at Wasmes.[268] In the neighbourhood of
+Liege, where the Lenten fires were put down by the police about the
+middle of the nineteenth century, girls thought that by leaping over the
+fires without being smirched they made sure of a happy marriage.
+Elsewhere in order to get a good husband it was necessary to see seven
+of the bonfires from one spot. In Famenne, a district of Namur, men and
+cattle who traversed the Lenten fires were thought to be safe from
+sickness and witchcraft. Anybody who saw seven such fires at once had
+nothing to fear from sorcerers. An old saying ran, that if you do not
+light "the great fire," God will light it for you; which seems to imply
+that the kindling of the bonfires was deemed a protection against
+conflagrations throughout the year.[269]
+
+[Bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in the French department of the
+Ardennes.]
+
+In the French department of the Ardennes the whole village used to dance
+and sing round the bonfires which were lighted on the first Sunday in
+Lent. Here, too, it was the person last married, sometimes a man and
+sometimes a woman, who put the match to the fire. The custom is still
+kept up very commonly in the district. Cats used to be burnt in the fire
+or roasted to death by being held over it; and while they were burning
+the shepherds drove their flocks through the smoke and flames as a sure
+means of guarding them against sickness and witchcraft. In some communes
+it was believed that the livelier the dance round the fire, the better
+would be the crops that year.[270] In the Vosges Mountains it is still
+customary to light great fires on the heights and around the villages on
+the first Sunday in Lent; and at Rupt and elsewhere the right of
+kindling them belongs to the person who was last married. Round the
+fires the people dance and sing merrily till the flames have died out.
+Then the master of the fire, as they call the man who kindled it,
+invites all who contributed to the erection of the pile to follow him to
+the nearest tavern, where they partake of good cheer. At Dommartin they
+say that, if you would have the hemp tall, it is absolutely necessary
+that the women should be tipsy on the evening of this day.[271] At
+Epinal in the Vosges, on the first Sunday in Lent, bonfires used to be
+kindled at various places both in the town and on the banks of the
+Moselle. They consisted of pyramids of sticks and faggots, which had
+been collected some days earlier by young folks going from door to door.
+When the flames blazed up, the names of various couples, whether young
+or old, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, were called out, and the persons
+thus linked in mock marriage were forced, whether they liked it or not,
+to march arm in arm round the fire amid the laughter and jests of the
+crowd. The festivity lasted till the fire died out, and then the
+spectators dispersed through the streets, stopping under the windows of
+the houses and proclaiming the names of the _fechenots_ and
+_fechenottes_ or Valentines whom the popular voice had assigned to each
+other. These couples had to exchange presents; the mock bridegroom gave
+his mock bride something for her toilet, while she in turn presented him
+with a cockade of coloured ribbon. Next Sunday, if the weather allowed
+it, all the couples, arrayed in their best attire and attended by their
+relations, repaired to the wood of Saint Antony, where they mounted a
+famous stone called the _danserosse_ or _danseresse_. Here they found
+cakes and refreshments of all sorts, and danced to the music of a couple
+of fiddlers. The evening bell, ringing the Angelus, gave the signal to
+depart. As soon as its solemn chime was heard, every one quitted the
+forest and returned home. The exchange of presents between the
+Valentines went by the name of ransom or redemption (_rachat_), because
+it was supposed to redeem the couple from the flames of the bonfire. Any
+pair who failed thus to ransom themselves were not suffered to share the
+merrymaking at the great stone in the forest; and a pretence was made of
+burning them in small fires kindled before their own doors.[272]
+
+[Bonfires on the First Sunday of Lent in Franche-Comte.]
+
+In the French province of Franche-Comte, to the west of the Jura
+Mountains, the first Sunday of Lent is known as the Sunday of the
+Firebrands (_Brandons_), on account of the fires which it is customary
+to kindle on that day. On the Saturday or the Sunday the village lads
+harness themselves to a cart and drag it about the streets, stopping at
+the doors of the houses where there are girls and begging for a faggot.
+When they have got enough, they cart the fuel to a spot at some little
+distance from the village, pile it up, and set it on fire. All the
+people of the parish come out to see the bonfire. In some villages, when
+the bells have rung the Angelus, the signal for the observance is given
+by cries of, "To the fire! to the fire!" Lads, lasses, and children
+dance round the blaze, and when the flames have died down they vie with
+each other in leaping over the red embers. He or she who does so without
+singeing his or her garments will be married within the year. Young folk
+also carry lighted torches about the streets or the fields, and when
+they pass an orchard they cry out, "More fruit than leaves!" Down to
+recent years at Laviron, in the department of Doubs, it was the young
+married couples of the year who had charge of the bonfires. In the midst
+of the bonfire a pole was planted with a wooden figure of a cock
+fastened to the top. Then there were races, and the winner received the
+cock as a prize.[273]
+
+[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.]
+
+In Auvergne fires are everywhere kindled on the evening of the first
+Sunday in Lent. Every village, every hamlet, even every ward, every
+isolated farm has its bonfire or _figo_, as it is called, which blazes
+up as the shades of night are falling. The fires may be seen flaring on
+the heights and in the plains; the people dance and sing round about
+them and leap through the flames. Then they proceed to the ceremony of
+the _Grannas-mias_. A _granno-mio_[274] is a torch of straw fastened to
+the top of a pole. When the pyre is half consumed, the bystanders kindle
+the torches at the expiring flames and carry them into the neighbouring
+orchards, fields, and gardens, wherever there are fruit-trees. As they
+march they sing at the top of their voices,
+
+"_Granno, mo mio,
+Granno, mon pouere,
+Granno, mo mouere!_"
+
+that is, "Grannus my friend, Grannus my father, Grannus my mother." Then
+they pass the burning torches under the branches of every tree, singing,
+
+"_Brando, brandounci
+Tsaque brantso, in plan panei!_"
+
+that is, "Firebrand burn; every branch a basketful!" In some villages
+the people also run across the sown fields and shake the ashes of the
+torches on the ground; also they put some of the ashes in the fowls'
+nests, in order that the hens may lay plenty of eggs throughout the
+year. When all these ceremonies have been performed, everybody goes home
+and feasts; the special dishes of the evening are fritters and
+pancakes.[275] Here the application of the fire to the fruit-trees, to
+the sown fields, and to the nests of the poultry is clearly a charm
+intended to ensure fertility; and the Granno to whom the invocations are
+addressed, and who gives his name to the torches, may possibly be, as
+Dr. Pommerol suggests,[276] no other than the ancient Celtic god
+Grannus, whom the Romans identified with Apollo, and whose worship is
+attested by inscriptions found not only in France but in Scotland and on
+the Danube.[277] If the name Grannus is derived, as the learned tell us,
+from a root meaning "to glow, burn, shine,"[278] the deity who bore the
+name and was identified with Apollo may well have been a sun-god; and in
+that case the prayers addressed to him by the peasants of the Auvergne,
+while they wave the blazing, crackling torches about the fruit-trees,
+would be eminently appropriate. For who could ripen the fruit so well as
+the sun-god? and what better process could be devised to draw the
+blossoms from the bare boughs than the application to them of that
+genial warmth which is ultimately derived from the solar beams? Thus the
+fire-festival of the first Sunday in Lent, as it is observed in
+Auvergne, may be interpreted very naturally and simply as a religious or
+rather perhaps magical ceremony designed to procure a due supply of the
+sun's heat for plants and animals. At the same time we should remember
+that the employment of fire in this and kindred ceremonies may have been
+designed originally, not so much to stimulate growth and reproduction,
+as to burn and destroy all agencies, whether in the shape of vermin,
+witches, or what not, which threatened or were supposed to threaten the
+growth of the crops and the multiplication of animals. It is often
+difficult to decide between these two different interpretations of the
+use of fire in agricultural rites. In any case the fire-festival of
+Auvergne on the first Sunday in Lent may date from Druidical times.
+
+[French custom of carrying lighted torches (_brandons_) about the
+orchards and fields to fertilize them on the first Sunday of Lent.]
+
+The custom of carrying lighted torches of straw (_brandons_) about the
+orchards and fields to fertilize them on the first Sunday of Lent seems
+to have been common in France, whether it was accompanied with the
+practice of kindling bonfires or not. Thus in the province of Picardy
+"on the first Sunday of Lent people carried torches through the fields,
+exorcising the field-mice, the darnel, and the smut. They imagined that
+they did much good to the gardens and caused the onions to grow large.
+Children ran about the fields, torch in hand, to make the land more
+fertile. All that was done habitually in Picardy, and the ceremony of
+the torches is not entirely forgotten, especially in the villages on
+both sides the Somme as far as Saint-Valery."[279] "A very agreeable
+spectacle, said the curate of l'Etoile, is to survey from the portal of
+the church, situated almost on the top of the mountain, the vast plains
+of Vimeux all illuminated by these wandering fires. The same pastime is
+observed at Poix, at Conty, and in all the villages round about."[280]
+Again, in the district of Beauce a festival of torches (_brandons_ or
+_brandelons_) used to be held both on the first and on the second Sunday
+in Lent; the first was called "the Great Torches" and the second "the
+Little Torches." The torches were, as usual, bundles of straw wrapt
+round poles. In the evening the village lads carried the burning brands
+through the country, running about in disorder and singing,
+
+      "_Torches burn
+At these vines, at this wheat_;
+       _Torches burn
+For the maidens that shall wed_!"
+
+From time to time the bearers would stand still and smite the earth all
+together with the blazing straw of the torches, while they cried, "A
+sheaf of a peck and a half!" (_Gearbe a boissiaux_). If two torchbearers
+happened to meet each other on their rounds, they performed the same
+ceremony and uttered the same words. When the straw was burnt out, the
+poles were collected and a great bonfire made of them. Lads and lasses
+danced round the flames, and the lads leaped over them. Afterwards it
+was customary to eat a special sort of hasty-pudding made of wheaten
+flour. These usages were still in vogue at the beginning of the
+nineteenth century, but they have now almost disappeared. The peasants
+believed that by carrying lighted torches through the fields they
+protected the crops from field-mice, darnel, and smut.[281] "At Dijon,
+in Burgundy, it is the custom upon the first Sunday in Lent to make
+large fires in the streets, whence it is called Firebrand Sunday. This
+practice originated in the processions formerly made on that day by the
+peasants with lighted torches of straw, to drive away, as they called
+it, the bad air from the earth."[282] In some parts of France, while the
+people scoured the country with burning brands on the first Sunday in
+Lent, they warned the fruit-trees that if they did not take heed and
+bear fruit they would surely be cut down and cast into the fire.[283] On
+the same day peasants in the department of Loiret used to run about the
+sowed fields with burning torches in their hands, while they adjured the
+field-mice to quit the wheat on pain of having their whiskers
+burned.[284] In the department of Ain the great fires of straw and
+faggots which are kindled in the fields at this time are or were
+supposed to destroy the nests of the caterpillars.[285] At Verges, a
+lonely village surrounded by forests between the Jura and the Combe
+d'Ain, the torches used at this season were kindled in a peculiar
+manner. The young people climbed to the top of a mountain, where they
+placed three nests of straw in three trees. These nests being then set
+on fire, torches made of dry lime-wood were lighted at them, and the
+merry troop descended the mountain to their flickering light, and went
+to every house in the village, demanding roasted peas and obliging all
+couples who had been married within the year to dance.[286] In Berry, a
+district of central France, it appears that bonfires are not lighted on
+this day, but when the sun has set the whole population of the villages,
+armed with blazing torches of straw, disperse over the country and scour
+the fields, the vineyards, and the orchards. Seen from afar, the
+multitude of moving lights, twinkling in the darkness, appear like
+will-o'-the-wisps chasing each other across the plains, along the
+hillsides, and down the valleys. While the men wave their flambeaus
+about the branches of the fruit-trees, the women and children tie bands
+of wheaten-straw round the tree-trunks. The effect of the ceremony is
+supposed to be to avert the various plagues from which the fruits of the
+earth are apt to suffer; and the bands of straw fastened round the stems
+of the trees are believed to render them fruitful.[287] In the peninsula
+of La Manche the Norman peasants used to spend almost the whole night of
+the first Sunday in Lent rushing about the country with lighted torches
+for the purpose, as they supposed, of driving away the moles and
+field-mice; fires were also kindled on some of the dolmens.[288]
+
+[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.]
+
+In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland at the same season similar customs
+have prevailed. Thus in the Eifel Mountains, Rhenish Prussia, on the
+first Sunday in Lent young people used to collect straw and brushwood
+from house to house. These they carried to an eminence and piled up
+round a tall, slim beech-tree, to which a piece of wood was fastened at
+right angles to form a cross. The structure was known as the "hut" or
+"castle." Fire was set to it and the young people marched round the
+blazing "castle" bareheaded, each carrying a lighted torch and praying
+aloud. Sometimes a straw-man was burned in the "hut." People observed
+the direction in which the smoke blew from the fire. If it blew towards
+the corn-fields, it was a sign that the harvest would be abundant. On
+the same day, in some parts of the Eifel, a great wheel was made of
+straw and dragged by three horses to the top of a hill. Thither the
+village boys marched at nightfall, set fire to the wheel, and sent it
+rolling down the slope. Two lads followed it with levers to set it in
+motion again, in case it should anywhere meet with a check. At
+Oberstattfeld the wheel had to be provided by the young man who was last
+married.[289] About Echternach in Luxemburg the same ceremony is called
+"burning the witch"; while it is going on, the older men ascend the
+heights and observe what wind is blowing, for that is the wind which
+will prevail the whole year.[290] At Voralberg in the Tyrol, on the
+first Sunday in Lent, a slender young fir-tree is surrounded with a pile
+of straw and firewood. To the top of the tree is fastened a human figure
+called the "witch," made of old clothes and stuffed with gunpowder. At
+night the whole is set on fire and boys and girls dance round it,
+swinging torches and singing rhymes in which the words "corn in the
+winnowing-basket, the plough in the earth" may be distinguished.[291] In
+Swabia on the first Sunday in Lent a figure called the "witch" or the
+"old wife" or "winter's grandmother" is made up of clothes and fastened
+to a pole. This is stuck in the middle of a pile of wood, to which fire
+is applied. While the "witch" is burning, the young people throw blazing
+discs into the air. The discs are thin round pieces of wood, a few
+inches in diameter, with notched edges to imitate the rays of the sun or
+stars. They have a hole in the middle, by which they are attached to the
+end of a wand. Before the disc is thrown it is set on fire, the wand is
+swung to and fro, and the impetus thus communicated to the disc is
+augmented by dashing the rod sharply against a sloping board. The
+burning disc is thus thrown off, and mounting high into the air,
+describes a long fiery curve before it reaches the ground. A single lad
+may fling up forty or fifty of these discs, one after the other. The
+object is to throw them as high as possible. The wand by which they are
+hurled must, at least in some parts of Swabia, be of hazel. Sometimes
+the lads also leap over the fire brandishing lighted torches of
+pine-wood. The charred embers of the burned "witch" and discs are taken
+home and planted in the flaxfields the same night, in the belief that
+they will keep vermin from the fields.[292] At Wangen, near Molsheim in
+Baden, a like custom is observed on the first Sunday in Lent. The young
+people kindle a bonfire on the crest of the mountain above the village;
+and the burning discs which they hurl into the air are said to present
+in the darkness the aspect of a continual shower of falling stars. When
+the supply of discs is exhausted and the bonfire begins to burn low, the
+boys light torches and run with them at full speed down one or other of
+the three steep and winding paths that descend the mountain-side to the
+village. Bumps, bruises, and scratches are often the result of their
+efforts to outstrip each other in the headlong race.[293] In the Rhoen
+Mountains, situated on the borders of Hesse and Bavaria, the people used
+to march to the top of a hill or eminence on the first Sunday in Lent.
+Children and lads carried torches, brooms daubed with tar, and poles
+swathed in straw. A wheel, wrapt in combustibles, was kindled and rolled
+down the hill; and the young people rushed about the fields with their
+burning torches and brooms, till at last they flung them in a heap, and
+standing round them, struck up a hymn or a popular song. The object of
+running about the fields with the blazing torches was to "drive away the
+wicked sower." Or it was done in honour of the Virgin, that she might
+preserve the fruits of the earth throughout the year and bless
+them.[294] In neighbouring villages of Hesse, between the Rhoen and the
+Vogel Mountains, it is thought that wherever the burning wheels roll,
+the fields will be safe from hail and storm.[295] At Konz on the
+Moselle, on the Thursday before the first Sunday in Lent, the two guilds
+of the butchers and the weavers used to repair to the Marxberg and there
+set up an oak-tree with a wheel fastened to it. On the following Sunday
+the people ascended the hill, cut down the oak, set fire to the wheel,
+and sent both oak and wheel rolling down the hillside, while a guard of
+butchers, mounted on horses, fired at the flaming wheel in its descent.
+If the wheel rolled down into the Moselle, the butchers were rewarded
+with a waggon-load of wine by the archbishop of Treves.[296]
+
+[Burning discs thrown into the air.]
+
+In Switzerland, also, it is or used to be customary to kindle bonfires
+on high places on the evening of the first Sunday in Lent, and the day
+is therefore popularly known as Spark Sunday. The custom prevailed, for
+example, throughout the canton of Lucerne. Boys went about from house to
+house begging for wood and straw, then piled the fuel on a conspicuous
+mountain or hill round about a pole, which bore a straw effigy called
+"the witch." At nightfall the pile was set on fire, and the young folks
+danced wildly round it, some of them cracking whips or ringing bells;
+and when the fire burned low enough, they leaped over it. This was
+called "burning the witch." In some parts of the canton also they used
+to wrap old wheels in straw and thorns, put a light to them, and send
+them rolling and blazing down hill. The same custom of rolling lighted
+wheels down hill is attested by old authorities for the cantons of
+Aargau and Bale. The more bonfires could be seen sparkling and flaring
+in the darkness, the more fruitful was the year expected to be; and the
+higher the dancers leaped beside or over the fire, the higher, it was
+thought, would grow the flax. In the district of Freiburg and at Birseck
+in the district of Bale it was the last married man or woman who must
+kindle the bonfire. While the bonfires blazed up, it was customary in
+some parts of Switzerland to propel burning discs of wood through the
+air by means of the same simple machinery which is used for the purpose
+in Swabia. Each lad tried to send his disc fizzing and flaring through
+the darkness as far as possible, and in discharging it he mentioned the
+name of the person to whose honour it was dedicated. But in Praettigau
+the words uttered in launching the fiery discs referred to the abundance
+which was apparently expected to follow the performance of the ceremony.
+Among them were, "Grease in the pan, corn in the fan, and the plough in
+the earth!"[297]
+
+[Connexion of these bonfires with the custom of "carrying out Death;"
+effigies burnt on Shrove Tuesday.]
+
+It seems hardly possible to separate from these bonfires, kindled on the
+first Sunday in Lent, the fires in which, about the same season, the
+effigy called Death is burned as part of the ceremony of "carrying out
+Death." We have seen that at Spachendorf, in Austrian Silesia, on the
+morning of Rupert's Day (Shrove Tuesday?), a straw-man, dressed in a fur
+coat and a fur cap, is laid in a hole outside the village and there
+burned, and that while it is blazing every one seeks to snatch a
+fragment of it, which he fastens to a branch of the highest tree in his
+garden or buries in his field, believing that this will make the crops
+to grow better. The ceremony is known as the "burying of Death."[298]
+Even when the straw-man is not designated as Death, the meaning of the
+observance is probably the same; for the name Death, as I have tried to
+shew, does not express the original intention of the ceremony. At Cobern
+in the Eifel Mountains the lads make up a straw-man on Shrove Tuesday.
+The effigy is formally tried and accused of having perpetrated all the
+thefts that have been committed in the neighbourhood throughout the
+year. Being condemned to death, the straw-man is led through the
+village, shot, and burned upon a pyre. They dance round the blazing
+pile, and the last bride must leap over it.[299] In Oldenburg on the
+evening of Shrove Tuesday people used to make long bundles of straw,
+which they set on fire, and then ran about the fields waving them,
+shrieking, and singing wild songs. Finally they burned a straw-man on
+the field.[300] In the district of Duesseldorf the straw-man burned on
+Shrove Tuesday was made of an unthreshed sheaf of corn.[301] On the
+first Monday after the spring equinox the urchins of Zurich drag a
+straw-man on a little cart through the streets, while at the same time
+the girls carry about a May-tree. When vespers ring, the straw-man is
+burned.[302] In the district of Aachen on Ash Wednesday a man used to be
+encased in peas-straw and taken to an appointed place. Here he slipped
+quietly out of his straw casing, which was then burned, the children
+thinking that it was the man who was being burned.[303] In the Val di
+Ledro (Tyrol) on the last day of the Carnival a figure is made up of
+straw and brushwood and then burned. The figure is called the Old Woman,
+and the ceremony "burning the Old Woman."[304]
+
+
+Sec. 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.]
+
+Another occasion on which these fire-festivals are held is Easter Eve,
+the Saturday before Easter Sunday. On that day it has been customary in
+Catholic countries to extinguish all the lights in the churches, and
+then to make a new fire, sometimes with flint and steel, sometimes with
+a burning-glass. At this fire is lit the great Paschal or Easter candle,
+which is then used to rekindle all the extinguished lights in the
+church. In many parts of Germany a bonfire is also kindled, by means of
+the new fire, on some open space near the church. It is consecrated, and
+the people bring sticks of oak, walnut, and beech, which they char in
+the fire, and then take home with them. Some of these charred sticks are
+thereupon burned at home in a newly-kindled fire, with a prayer that God
+will preserve the homestead from fire, lightning, and hail. Thus every
+house receives "new fire." Some of the sticks are kept throughout the
+year and laid on the hearth-fire during heavy thunder-storms to prevent
+the house from being struck by lightning, or they are inserted in the
+roof with the like intention. Others are placed in the fields, gardens,
+and meadows, with a prayer that God will keep them from blight and hail.
+Such fields and gardens are thought to thrive more than others; the corn
+and the plants that grow in them are not beaten down by hail, nor
+devoured by mice, vermin, and beetles; no witch harms them, and the ears
+of corn stand close and full. The charred sticks are also applied to the
+plough. The ashes of the Easter bonfire, together with the ashes of the
+consecrated palm-branches, are mixed with the seed at sowing. A wooden
+figure called Judas is sometimes burned in the consecrated bonfire, and
+even where this custom has been abolished the bonfire itself in some
+places goes by the name of "the burning of Judas."[305]
+
+[Easter fires in Bavaria and the Abruzzi.]
+
+In the Hollertau, Bavaria, the young men used to light their lanterns at
+the newly-kindled Easter candle in the church and then race to the
+bonfire; he who reached it first set fire to the pile, and next day,
+Easter Sunday, was rewarded at the church-door by the housewives, who
+presented him with red eggs. Great was the jubilation while the effigy
+of the traitor was being consumed in the flames. The ashes were
+carefully collected and thrown away at sunrise in running water.[306] In
+many parts of the Abruzzi, also, pious people kindle their fires on
+Easter Saturday with a brand brought from the sacred new fire in the
+church. When the brand has thus served to bless the fire on the domestic
+hearth, it is extinguished, and the remainder is preserved, partly in a
+cranny of the outer wall of the house, partly on a tree to which it is
+tied. This is done for the purpose of guarding the homestead against
+injury by storms. At Campo di Giove the people say that if you can get a
+piece of one of the three holy candles which the priest lights from the
+new fire, you should allow a few drops of the wax to fall into the crown
+of your hat; for after that, if it should thunder and lighten, you have
+nothing to do but to clap the hat on your head, and no flash of
+lightning can possibly strike you.[307]
+
+[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.]
+
+Further, it deserves to be noted that in the Abruzzi water as well as
+fire is, as it were, renewed and consecrated on Easter Saturday. Most
+people fetch holy water on that day from the churches, and every member
+of the family drinks a little of it, believing that it has power to
+protect him or her against witchcraft, fever, and stomach-aches of all
+sorts. And when the church bells ring again after their enforced
+silence, the water is sprinkled about the house, and especially under
+the beds, with the help of a palm-branch. Some of this blessed water is
+also kept in the house for use in great emergencies, when there is no
+time to fetch a priest; thus it may be employed to baptize a newborn
+infant gasping for life or to sprinkle a sick man in the last agony;
+such a sprinkling is reckoned equal to priestly absolution.[308] In
+Calabria the customs with regard to the new water, as it is called, on
+Easter Saturday are similar; it is poured into a new vessel, adorned
+with ribbons and flowers, is blessed by the priest, and is tasted by
+every one of the household, beginning with the parents. And when the air
+vibrates with the glad music of the church bells announcing the
+resurrection, the people sprinkle the holy water about the houses,
+bidding in a loud voice all evil things to go forth and all good things
+to come in. At the same time, to emphasize the exorcism, they knock on
+doors, window-shutters, chests, and other domestic articles of
+furniture. At Cetraro people who suffer from diseases of the skin bathe
+in the sea at this propitious moment; at Pietro in Guarano they plunge
+into the river on the night of Easter Saturday before Easter Sunday
+dawns, and while they bathe they utter never a word. Moreover, the
+Calabrians keep the "new water" as a sacred thing. They believe that it
+serves as a protection against witchcraft if it is sprinkled on a fire
+or a lamp, when the wood crackles or the wick sputters; for they regard
+it as a bad omen when the fire talks, as they say.[309] Among the
+Germans of Western Bohemia, also, water as well as fire is consecrated
+by the priest in front of the church on Easter Saturday. People bring
+jugs full of water to the church and set them beside the holy fire;
+afterwards they use the water to sprinkle on the palm-branches which are
+stuck in the fields. Charred sticks of the Judas fire, as it is
+popularly called, are supposed to possess a magical and healing virtue;
+hence the people take them home with them, and even scuffle with each
+other for the still glowing embers in order to carry them, still
+glimmering, to their houses and so obtain "the light" or "the holy
+light."[310] At Hildesheim, also, and the neighbouring villages of
+central Germany rites both of fire and water are or were till lately
+observed at Easter. Thus on Easter night many people fetch water from
+the Innerste river and keep it carefully, believing it to be a remedy
+for many sorts of ailments both of man and beast. In the villages on the
+Leine river servant men and maids used to go silently on Easter night
+between the hours of eleven and twelve and silently draw water in
+buckets from the river; they mixed the water with the fodder and the
+drink of the cattle to make the animals thrive, and they imagined that
+to wash in it was good for human beings. Many were also of opinion that
+at the same mystic hour the water turned to wine as far as the crowing
+of a cock could be heard, and in this belief they laid themselves flat
+on their stomachs and kept their tongues in the water till the
+miraculous change occurred, when they took a great gulp of the
+transformed water. At Hildesheim, too, and the neighbouring villages
+fires used to blaze on all the heights on Easter Eve; and embers taken
+from the bonfires were dipped in the cattle troughs to benefit the
+beasts and were kept in the houses to avert lightning.[311]
+
+[New fire at Easter in Carinthia; consecration of fire and water by the
+Catholic Church at Easter.]
+
+In the Lesachthal, Carinthia, all the fires in the houses used to be
+extinguished on Easter Saturday, and rekindled with a fresh fire brought
+from the churchyard, where the priest had lit it by the friction of
+flint and steel and had bestowed his blessing on it.[312] Such customs
+were probably widespread. In a Latin poem of the sixteenth century,
+written by a certain Thomas Kirchmeyer and translated into English by
+Barnabe Googe, we read:--
+
+"_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 libertee,
+And herewithall the hungrie times of fasting ended bee."_[313]
+
+It is said that formerly all the fires in Rome were lighted afresh from
+the holy fire kindled in St. Peter's on Easter Saturday.[314]
+
+[The new fire on Easter Saturday at Florence.]
+
+In Florence the ceremony of kindling the new fire on Easter Eve is
+peculiar. The holy flame is elicited from certain flints which are said
+to have been brought by a member of the Pazzi family from the Holy Land.
+They are kept in the church of the Holy Apostles on the Piazza del
+Limbo, and on the morning of Easter Saturday the prior strikes fire from
+them and lights a candle from the new flame. The burning candle is then
+carried in solemn procession by the clergy and members of the
+municipality to the high altar in the cathedral. A vast crowd has
+meanwhile assembled in the cathedral and the neighbouring square to
+witness the ceremony; amongst the spectators are many peasants drawn
+from the surrounding country, for it is commonly believed that on the
+success or failure of the ceremony depends the fate of the crops for the
+year. Outside the door of the cathedral stands a festal car drawn by two
+fine white oxen with gilded horns. The body of the car is loaded with a
+pyramid of squibs and crackers and is connected by a wire with a pillar
+set up in front of the high altar. The wire extends down the middle of
+the nave at a height of about six feet from the ground. Beneath it a
+clear passage is left, the spectators being ranged on either side and
+crowding the vast interior from wall to wall. When all is ready, High
+Mass is celebrated, and precisely at noon, when the first words of the
+_Gloria_ are being chanted, the sacred fire is applied to the pillar,
+which like the car is wreathed with fireworks. A moment more and a fiery
+dove comes flying down the nave, with a hissing sound and a sputter of
+sparks, between the two hedges of eager spectators. If all goes well,
+the bird pursues its course along the wire and out at the door, and in
+another moment a prolonged series of fizzes, pops and bangs announces to
+the excited crowd in the cathedral that the fireworks on the car are
+going off. Great is the joy accordingly, especially among the bumpkins,
+who are now sure of an abundant harvest. But if, as sometimes happens,
+the dove stops short in its career and fizzles out, revealing itself as
+a stuffed bird with a packet of squibs tied to its tail, great is the
+consternation, and deep the curses that issue from between the set teeth
+of the clodhoppers, who now give up the harvest for lost. Formerly the
+unskilful mechanician who was responsible for the failure would have
+been clapped into gaol; but nowadays he is thought sufficiently punished
+by the storm of public indignation and the loss of his pay. The disaster
+is announced by placards posted about the streets in the evening; and
+next morning the newspapers are full of gloomy prognostications.[315]
+
+[The new fire and burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in Mexico.]
+
+Some of these customs have been transported by the Catholic Church to
+the New World. Thus in Mexico the new fire is struck from a flint early
+in the morning of Easter Saturday, and a candle which has been lighted
+at the sacred flame is carried through the church by a deacon shouting
+"_Lumen Christi_." Meantime the whole city, we are informed, has been
+converted into a vast place of execution. Ropes stretch across the
+streets from house to house, and from every house dangles an effigy of
+Judas, made of paper pulp. Scores or hundreds of them may adorn a single
+street. They are of all shapes and sizes, grotesque in form and garbed
+in strange attire, stuffed with gunpowder, squibs and crackers,
+sometimes, too, with meat, bread, soap, candy, and clothing, for which
+the crowd will scramble and scuffle while the effigies are burning.
+There they hang grim, black, and sullen in the strong sunshine, greeted
+with a roar of execration by the pious mob. A peal of bells from the
+cathedral tower on the stroke of noon gives the signal for the
+execution. At the sound a frenzy seizes the crowd. They throw themselves
+furiously on the figures of the detested traitor, cut them down, hurl
+them with curses into the fire, and fight and struggle with each other
+in their efforts to tear the effigies to tatters and appropriate their
+contents. Smoke, stink, sputter of crackers, oaths, curses, yells are
+now the order of the day. But the traitor does not perish unavenged. For
+the anatomy of his frame has been cunningly contrived so as in burning
+to discharge volleys of squibs into his assailants; and the wounds and
+burns with which their piety is rewarded form a feature of the morning's
+entertainment. The English Jockey Club in Mexico used to improve on this
+popular pastime by suspending huge figures of Judas, stuffed with copper
+coins, from ropes in front of their clubhouse. These were ignited at the
+proper moment and lowered within reach of the expectant rabble, and it
+was the privilege of members of the club, seated in the balcony, to
+watch the grimaces and to hear the shrieks of the victims, as they
+stamped and capered about with the hot coppers sticking to their hands,
+divided in their minds between an acute sense of pain and a thirst for
+filthy lucre.[316]
+
+[The burning of Judas at Easter in South America.]
+
+Scenes of the same sort, though on a less ambitious scale, are witnessed
+among the Catholics of South America on the same day. In Brazil the
+mourning for the death of Christ ceases at noon on Easter Saturday and
+gives place to an extravagant burst of joy at his resurrection. Shots
+are fired everywhere, and effigies of Judas are hung on trees or dragged
+about the streets, to be finally burned or otherwise destroyed.[317] In
+the Indian villages scattered among the wild valleys of the Peruvian
+Andes figures of the traitor, made of pasteboard and stuffed with squibs
+and crackers, are hanged on gibbets before the door of the church on
+Easter Saturday. Fire is set to them, and while they crackle and
+explode, the Indians dance and shout for joy at the destruction of their
+hated enemy.[318] Similarly at Rio Hacha, in Colombia, Judas is
+represented during Holy Week by life-sized effigies, and the people fire
+at them as if they were discharging a sacred duty.[319]
+
+[The new fire on Easter Saturday in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at
+Jerusalem.]
+
+But usages of this sort are not confined to the Latin Church; they are
+common to the Greek Church also. Every year on the Saturday before
+Easter Sunday a new fire is miraculously kindled at the Holy Sepulchre
+in Jerusalem. It descends from heaven and ignites the candles which the
+patriarch holds in his hands, while with closed eyes he wrestles in
+prayer all alone in the chapel of the Angel. The worshippers meanwhile
+wait anxiously in the body of the church, and great are their transports
+of joy when at one of the windows of the chapel, which had been all dark
+a minute before, there suddenly appears the hand of an angel, or of the
+patriarch, holding a lighted taper. This is the sacred new fire; it is
+passed out to the expectant believers, and the desperate struggle which
+ensues among them to get a share of its blessed influence is only
+terminated by the intervention of the Turkish soldiery, who restore
+peace and order by hustling the whole multitude impartially out of the
+church. In days gone by many lives were often lost in these holy
+scrimmages. For example, in the year 1834, the famous Ibrahim Pasha
+witnessed the frantic scene from one of the galleries, and, being moved
+with compassion at the sight, descended with a few guards into the arena
+in the chimerical hope of restoring peace and order among the contending
+Christians. He contrived to force his way into the midst of the dense
+crowd, but there the heat and pressure were so great that he fainted
+away; a body of soldiers, seeing his danger, charged straight into the
+throng and carried him out of it in their arms, trampling under foot the
+dying and dead in their passage. Nearly two hundred people were killed
+that day in the church. The fortunate survivors on these occasions who
+succeeded in obtaining a portion of the coveted fire applied it freely
+to their faces, their beards, and their garments. The theory was that
+the fire, being miraculous, could only bless and not burn them; but the
+practical results of the experiment were often disappointing, for while
+the blessings were more or less dubious, there could be no doubt
+whatever about the burns.[320] The history of the miracle has been
+carefully investigated by a Jesuit father. The conclusions at which he
+arrives are that the miracle was a miracle indeed so long as the
+Catholics had the management of it; but that since it fell into the
+hands of the heretics it has been nothing but a barefaced trick and
+imposture.[321] Many people will be disposed to agree with the latter
+conclusion who might hesitate to accept the former.
+
+[The new fire and the burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in Greece.]
+
+At Athens the new fire is kindled in the cathedral at midnight on Holy
+Saturday. A dense crowd with unlit candles in their hands fills the
+square in front of the cathedral; the king, the archbishop, and the
+highest dignitaries of the church, arrayed in their gorgeous robes,
+occupy a platform; and at the exact moment of the resurrection the bells
+ring out, and the whole square bursts as by magic into a blaze of light.
+Theoretically all the candles are lit from the sacred new fire in the
+cathedral, but practically it may be suspected that the matches which
+bear the name of Lucifer have some share in the sudden
+illumination.[322] Effigies of Judas used to be burned at Athens on
+Easter Saturday, but the custom has been forbidden by the Government.
+However, firing goes on more or less continuously all over the city both
+on Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday, and the cartridges used on this
+occasion are not always blank. The shots are aimed at Judas, but
+sometimes they miss him and hit other people. Outside of Athens the
+practice of burning Judas in effigy still survives in some places. For
+example, in Cos a straw image of the traitor is made on Easter Day, and
+after being hung up and shot at it is burned.[323] A similar custom
+appears to prevail at Thebes;[324] it used to be observed by the
+Macedonian peasantry, and it is still kept up at Therapia, a fashionable
+summer resort of Constantinople.[325]
+
+[The new fire at Candlemas in Armenia.]
+
+In the Armenian Church the sacred new fire is kindled not at Easter but
+at Candlemas, that is, on the second of February, or on the eve of that
+festival. The materials of the bonfire are piled in an open space near a
+church, and they are generally ignited by young couples who have been
+married within the year. However, it is the bishop or his vicar who
+lights the candles with which fire is set to the pile. All young married
+pairs are expected to range themselves about the fire and to dance round
+it. Young men leap over the flames, but girls and women content
+themselves with going round them, while they pray to be preserved from
+the itch and other skin-diseases. When the ceremony is over, the people
+eagerly pick up charred sticks or ashes of the fire and preserve them or
+scatter them on the four corners of the roof, in the cattle-stall, in
+the garden, and on the pastures; for these holy sticks and ashes protect
+men and cattle against disease, and fruit-trees against worms and
+caterpillars. Omens, too, are drawn from the direction in which the wind
+blows the flames and the smoke: if it carries them eastward, there is
+hope of a good harvest; but if it inclines them westward, the people
+fear that the crops will fail.[326]
+
+[The new fire and the burning of Judas at Easter are probably relics of
+paganism.]
+
+In spite of the thin cloak of Christianity thrown over these customs by
+representing the new fire as an emblem of Christ and the figure burned
+in it as an effigy of Judas, we can hardly doubt that both practices are
+of pagan origin. Neither of them has the authority of Christ or of his
+disciples; but both of them have abundant analogies in popular custom
+and superstition. Some instances of the practice of annually
+extinguishing fires and relighting them from a new and sacred flame have
+already come before us;[327] but a few examples may here be cited for
+the sake of illustrating the wide diffusion of a custom which has found
+its way into the ritual both of the Eastern and of the Western Church.
+
+[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 Incas of Peru celebrated a festival called Raymi, a word which their
+native historian Garcilasso de la Vega tells us was equivalent to our
+Easter. It was held in honour of the sun at the solstice in June. For
+three days before the festival the people fasted, men did not sleep with
+their wives, and no fires were lighted in Cuzco, the capital. The sacred
+new fire was obtained direct from the sun by concentrating his beams on
+a highly polished concave plate and reflecting them on a little cotton
+wool. With this holy fire the sheep and lambs offered to the sun were
+consumed, and the flesh of such as were to be eaten at the festival was
+roasted. Portions of the new fire were also conveyed to the temple of
+the sun and to the convent of the sacred virgins, where they were kept
+burning all the year, and it was an ill omen if the holy flame went
+out.[328] At a festival held in the last month of the old Mexican year
+all the fires both in the temples and in the houses were extinguished,
+and the priest kindled a new fire by rubbing two sticks against each
+other before the image of the fire-god.[329] The Zuni Indians of New
+Mexico kindle a new fire by the friction of wood both at the winter and
+the summer solstice. At the winter solstice the chosen fire-maker
+collects a faggot of cedar-wood from every house in the village, and
+each person, as he hands the wood to the fire-maker, prays that the
+crops may be good in the coming year. For several days before the new
+fire is kindled, no ashes or sweepings may be removed from the houses
+and no artificial light may appear outside of them, not even a burning
+cigarette or the flash of firearms. The Indians believe that no rain
+will fall on the fields of the man outside whose house a light has been
+seen at this season. The signal for kindling the new fire is given by
+the rising of the Morning Star. The flame is produced by twirling an
+upright stick between the hands on a horizontal stick laid on the floor
+of a sacred chamber, the sparks being caught by a tinder of cedar-dust.
+It is forbidden to blow up the smouldering tinder with the breath, for
+that would offend the gods. After the fire has thus been ceremonially
+kindled, the women and girls of all the families in the village clean
+out their houses. They carry the sweepings and ashes in baskets or bowls
+to the fields and leave them there. To the sweepings the woman says: "I
+now deposit you as sweepings, but in one year you will return to me as
+corn." And to the ashes she says: "I now deposit you as ashes, but in
+one year you will return to me as meal." At the summer solstice the
+sacred fire which has been procured by the friction of wood is used to
+kindle the grass and trees, that there may be a great cloud of smoke,
+while bull-roarers are swung and prayers offered that the Rain-makers up
+aloft will water the earth.[330] From this account we see how intimately
+the kindling of a new fire at the two turning-points of the sun's course
+is associated in the minds of these Indians with the fertility of the
+land, particularly with the growth of the corn. The rolling smoke is
+apparently an imitation of rain-clouds designed, on the principle of
+homoeopathic magic, to draw showers from the blue sky. Once a year the
+Iroquois priesthood supplied the people with a new fire. As a
+preparation for the annual rite the fires in all the huts were
+extinguished and the ashes scattered about. Then the priest, wearing the
+insignia of his office, went from hut to hut relighting the fires by
+means of a flint.[331] Among the Esquimaux with whom C.F. Hall resided,
+it was the custom that at a certain time, which answered to our New
+Year's Day, two men went about from house to house blowing out every
+light in the village. One of the men was dressed to represent a woman.
+Afterwards the lights were rekindled from a fresh fire. An Esquimau
+woman being asked what all this meant, replied, "New sun--new
+light."[332] Among the Esquimaux of Iglulik, when the sun first rises
+above the horizon after the long night of the Arctic winter, the
+children who have watched for his reappearance run into the houses and
+blow out the lamps. Then they receive from their mothers presents of
+pieces of wick.[333]
+
+[The new fire in Wadai, among the Swahili, and in other parts of
+Africa.]
+
+In the Sudanese kingdom of Wadai all the fires in the villages are put
+out and the ashes removed from the houses on the day which precedes the
+New Year festival. At the beginning of the new year a new fire is lit by
+the friction of wood in the great straw hut where the village elders
+lounge away the sultry hours together; and every man takes thence a
+burning brand with which he rekindles the fire on his domestic
+hearth.[334] In the Bahr-el-Ghazal province of the Egyptian Sudan the
+people extinguish their old fires at the Arab New Year and bring in new
+fire. On the same occasion they beat the walls of their huts, the grass
+thatches, and the walls of their enclosures in order to drive away the
+devil or evil spirits. The beating of the walls and roofs is accompanied
+by the firing of guns, the shouting of men, and the shriller cries of
+the women.[335] Thus these people combine an annual expulsion of demons
+with an annual lighting of a new fire. Among the Swahili of East Africa
+the greatest festival is that of the New Year, which falls in the second
+half of August. At a given moment all the fires are extinguished with
+water and afterwards relit by the friction of two dry pieces of wood.
+The ashes of the old fires are carried out and deposited at cross-roads.
+All the people get up very early in the morning and bathe in the sea or
+some other water, praying to be kept in good health and to live that
+they may bathe again next year. Sham-fights form part of the amusements
+of the day; sometimes they pass into grim reality. Indeed the day was
+formerly one of general license; every man did that which was good in
+his own eyes. No awkward questions were asked about any crimes committed
+on this occasion, so some people improved the shining hour by knocking a
+few poor devils on the head. Shooting still goes on during the whole
+day, and at night the proceedings generally wind up with a great
+dance.[336] The King of Benametapa, as the early Portuguese traders
+called him, in East Africa used to send commissioners annually to every
+town in his dominions; on the arrival of one of these officers the
+inhabitants of each town had to put out all their fires and to receive a
+new fire from him. Failure to comply with this custom was treated as
+rebellion.[337] Some tribes of British Central Africa carefully
+extinguish the fires on the hearths at the beginning of the hoeing
+season and at harvest; the fires are afterwards rekindled by friction,
+and the people indulge in dances of various kinds.[338]
+
+[The new fire among the Todas of Southern India and among the Nagas of
+North-Eastern India.]
+
+The Todas of the Neilgheny Hills, in Southern India, annually kindle a
+sacred new fire by the friction of wood in the month which begins with
+the October moon. The ceremony is performed by two holy dairymen at the
+foot of a high hill. When they have lighted the fire by rubbing two dry
+sticks together, and it begins to burn well, they stand a little way off
+and pray, saying, "May the young grass flower! May honey flourish! May
+fruit ripen!" The purpose of the ceremony is to make the grass and honey
+plentiful. In ancient times the Todas lived largely on wild fruits, and
+then the rite of the new fire was very important. Now that they subsist
+chiefly on the milk of their buffaloes, the ceremony has lost much of
+its old significance.[339] When the Nagas of North-Eastern India have
+felled the timber and cut down the scrub in those patches of jungle
+which they propose to cultivate, they put out all the fires in the
+village and light a new fire by rubbing two dry pieces of wood together.
+Then having kindled torches at it they proceed with them to the jungle
+and ignite the felled timber and brushwood. The flesh of a cow or
+buffalo is also roasted on the new fire and furnishes a sacrificial
+meal.[340] Near the small town of Kahma in Burma, between Prome and
+Thayetmyo, certain gases escape from a hollow in the ground and burn
+with a steady flame during the dry season of the year. The people regard
+the flame as the forge of a spectral smith who here carried on his
+business after death had removed him from his old smithy in the village.
+Once a year all the household fires in Kahma are extinguished and then
+lighted afresh from the ghostly flame.[341]
+
+[The new fire in China and Japan.]
+
+In China every year, about the beginning of April, certain officials,
+called _Sz'hueen_, 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--
+
+"_At the festival of the cold food there are a thousand white stalks
+    among the flowers;
+On the day Tsing-ming, at sunrise, you may see the smoke of ten
+thousand houses_."
+
+According to a Chinese philosopher, the reason for thus renewing fire
+periodically is that the vital principle grows weaker and weaker in old
+fire, whereas in new fire it is young and vigorous. This annual renewal
+of fire was a ceremony of very great antiquity in China, since it is
+known to have been observed in the time of the first dynasty, about two
+thousand years before Christ. Under the Tcheou dynasty a change in the
+calendar led to shifting the fire-festival from spring to the summer
+solstice, but afterwards it was brought back to its original date.
+Although the custom appears to have long fallen into disuse, the
+barbarous inhabitants of Hainan, an island to the south of China, still
+call a year "a fire," as if in memory of the time when the years were
+reckoned by the annually recurring ceremony of rekindling the sacred
+fire.[342] "A Japanese book written two centuries ago informs us that
+sticks resembling the wands used for offerings at the purification
+ceremony were part shaven and set up in bundles at the four corners of
+the Gion shrine on the last day of the year. The priests, after prayers
+were recited, broke up the bundles and set fire to the sticks, which the
+people then carried home to light their household fires with for the New
+Year. The object of this ceremony was to avert pestilence."[343]
+
+[The new fire in ancient Greece and Rome.]
+
+In classical antiquity the Greek island of Lemnos was devoted to the
+worship of the smith-god Hephaestus, who was said to have fallen on it
+when Zeus hurled him from heaven.[344] Once a year every fire in the
+island was extinguished and remained extinct for nine days, during which
+sacrifices were offered to the dead and to the infernal powers. New fire
+was brought in a ship from the sacred isle of Delos, and with it the
+fires in the houses and the workshops were relit. The people said that
+with the new fire they made a new beginning of life. If the ship that
+bore the sacred flame arrived too soon, it might not put in to shore,
+but had to cruise in the offing till the nine days were expired.[345] At
+Rome the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta was kindled anew every year
+on the first of March, which used to be the beginning of the Roman
+year;[346] the task of lighting it was entrusted to the Vestal Virgins,
+and they performed it by drilling a hole in a board of lucky wood till
+the flame was elicited by friction. The new fire thus produced was
+carried into the temple of Vesta by one of the virgins in a bronze
+sieve.[347]
+
+[The new fire at Hallow E'en among the old Celts of Ireland; the new
+fire on September 1st among the Russian peasants.]
+
+Among the Celts of Ireland a new fire was annually kindled on Hallowe'en
+or the Eve of Samhain, as they called it, the last day of October, from
+which the Irish new year began; and all the hearths throughout the
+country are said to have been relighted from the fresh fire. The place
+where this holy flame was lit bore the name of Tlachtga or Tlactga; it
+has been identified with a rath or native fort on the Hill of Ward near
+Athboy in the county of Meath. "It was there," says the old Irish
+historian, Geoffrey Keating, "that the Festival of the Fire of Tlactga
+was ordered to be held, and it was thither that the Druids of Ireland
+were wont to repair and to assemble, in solemn meeting, on the eve of
+Samhain, for the purpose of making a sacrifice to all the gods. It was
+in that fire at Tlactga, that their sacrifice was burnt; and it was made
+obligatory, under pain of punishment, to extinguish all the fires of
+Ireland, on that eve; and the men of Ireland were allowed to kindle no
+other fire but that one; and for each of the other fires, which were all
+to be lighted from it, the king of Munster was to receive a tax of a
+_sgreball_, that is, of three pence, because the land, upon which
+Tlactga was built, belongs to the portion of Meath which had been taken
+from Munster."[348] In the villages near Moscow at the present time the
+peasants put out all their fires on the eve of the first of September,
+and next morning at sunrise a wise man or a wise woman rekindles them
+with the help of muttered incantations and spells.[349]
+
+[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 essentially pagan character of the Easter fire festival appears
+plainly both from the mode in which it is celebrated by the peasants and
+from the superstitious beliefs which they associate with it. All over
+northern and central Germany, from Altmark and Anhalt on the east,
+through Brunswick, Hanover, Oldenburg, the Harz district, and Hesse to
+Westphalia the Easter bonfires still blaze simultaneously on the
+hill-tops. As many as forty may sometimes be counted within sight at
+once. Long before Easter the young people have been busy collecting
+firewood; every farmer contributes, and tar-barrels, petroleum cases,
+and so forth go to swell the pile. Neighbouring villages vie with each
+other as to which shall send up the greatest blaze. The fires are always
+kindled, year after year, on the same hill, which accordingly often
+takes the name of Easter Mountain. It is a fine spectacle to watch from
+some eminence the bonfires flaring up one after another on the
+neighbouring heights. As far as their light reaches, so far, in the
+belief of the peasants, the fields will be fruitful, and the houses on
+which they shine will be safe from conflagration or sickness. At
+Volkmarsen and other places in Hesse the people used to observe which
+way the wind blew the flames, and then they sowed flax seed in that
+direction, confident that it would grow well. Brands taken from the
+bonfires preserve houses from being struck by lightning; and the ashes
+increase the fertility of the fields, protect them from mice, and mixed
+with the drinking-water of cattle make the animals thrive and ensure
+them against plague. As the flames die down, young and old leap over
+them, and cattle are sometimes driven through the smouldering embers. In
+some places tar-barrels or wheels wrapt in straw used to be set on fire,
+and then sent rolling down the hillside. In others the boys light
+torches and wisps of straw at the bonfires and rush about brandishing
+them in their hands. Where the people are divided between Protestantism
+and Catholicism, as in Hildesheim, it has been observed that among
+Protestants the Easter bonfires are generally left to the boys, while in
+Catholic districts they are cared for by grown-up persons, and here the
+whole population will gather round the blazing pile and join in singing
+choral hymns, which echo far and wide in the stillness of night.[350]
+
+[The Easter fires in Muensterland, Oldenburg, the Harz Mountains and the
+Altmark.]
+
+In Muensterland these Easter fires are always kindled upon certain
+definite hills, which are hence known as Easter or Paschal Mountains.
+The whole community assembles about the fire. Fathers of families form
+an inner circle round it. An outer circle is composed of the young men
+and maidens, who, singing Easter hymns, march round and round the fire
+in the direction of the sun, till the blaze dies down. Then the girls
+jump over the fire in a line, one after the other, each supported by two
+young men who hold her hands and run beside her. When the fire has
+burned out, the whole assembly marches in solemn procession to the
+church, singing hymns. They go thrice round the church, and then break
+up. In the twilight boys with blazing bundles of straw run over the
+fields to make them fruitful.[351] At Delmenhorst, in Oldenburg, it used
+to be the custom to cut down two trees, plant them in the ground side by
+side, and pile twelve tar-barrels, one above the other, against each of
+the trees. Brushwood was then heaped about the trees, and on the evening
+of Easter Saturday the boys, after rushing about with blazing beanpoles
+in their hands, set fire to the whole. At the end of the ceremony the
+urchins tried to blacken each other and the clothes of grown-up
+people.[352] In Schaumburg the Easter bonfires may be seen blazing on
+all the mountains around for miles. They are made with a tar-barrel
+fastened to a pine-tree, which is wrapt in straw. The people dance
+singing round them.[353] In the Harz Mountains the fire is commonly made
+by piling brushwood about a tree and setting it on fire. At Osterode
+every one tries to snatch a brand from the bonfire and runs about with
+it; the better it burns, the more lucky it is. In Grund there are
+torch-races.[354] In the Altmark the Easter bonfires are composed of
+tar-barrels, bee-hives, and so forth, piled round a pole. The young folk
+dance round the fire; and when it has died out, the old folk come and
+collect the ashes, which they preserve as a remedy for the ailments of
+bees. It is also believed that as far as the blaze of the bonfire is
+visible, the corn will grow well throughout the year, and no
+conflagration will break out.[355] At Braunroede, in the Harz Mountains,
+it was the custom to burn squirrels in the Easter bonfire.[356] In the
+Altmark, bones were burned in it.[357]
+
+[The Easter fires in Bavaria; the burning of Judas; burning the Easter
+Man.]
+
+Further south the Easter fires are, or used to be, lit in many districts
+of Bavaria. Thus on Easter Monday in some parts of Middle Franken the
+schoolboys collect all the old worn-out besoms they can lay hands on,
+and march with them in a long procession to a neighbouring height. When
+the first chime of the evening bell comes up from the dale they set fire
+to the brooms, and run along the ridges waving them, so that seen from
+below the hills appear to be crested with a twinkling and moving chain
+of fire.[358] In some parts of Upper Bavaria at Easter burning arrows or
+discs of wood were shot from hill-tops high into the air, as in the
+Swabian and Swiss customs already described.[359] At Oberau, instead of
+the discs, an old cart-wheel was sometimes wrapt in straw, ignited, and
+sent rolling and blazing down the mountain. The lads who hurled the
+discs received painted Easter eggs from the girls.[360] Near Forchheim,
+in Upper Franken, a straw-man called the Judas used to be burned in the
+churchyards on Easter Saturday. The whole village contributed wood to
+the pyre on which he perished, and the charred sticks were afterwards
+kept and planted in the fields on Walpurgis Day (the first of May) to
+preserve the wheat from blight and mildew.[361] About a hundred years
+ago or more the custom at Althenneberg, in Upper Bavaria, used to be as
+follows. On the afternoon of Easter Saturday the lads collected wood,
+which they piled in a cornfield, while in the middle of the pile they
+set up a tall wooden cross all swathed in straw. After the evening
+service they lighted their lanterns at the consecrated candle in the
+church, and ran with them at full speed to the pyre, each striving to
+get there first. The first to arrive set fire to the heap. No woman or
+girl might come near the bonfire, but they were allowed to watch it from
+a distance. As the flames rose the men and lads rejoiced and made merry,
+shouting, "We are burning the Judas!" Two of them had to watch the
+glowing embers the whole night long, lest people should come and steal
+them. Next morning at sunrise they carefully collected the ashes, and
+threw them into the running water of the Roeten brook. The man who had
+been the first to reach the pyre and to kindle it was rewarded on Easter
+Sunday by the women, who gave him coloured eggs at the church door.
+Well-to-do women gave him two; poorer women gave him only one. The
+object of the whole ceremony was to keep off the hail. About a century
+ago the Judas fire, as it was called, was put down by the police.[362]
+At Giggenhausen and Aufkirchen, two other villages of Upper Bavaria, a
+similar custom prevailed, yet with some interesting differences. Here
+the ceremony, which took place between nine and ten at night on Easter
+Saturday, was called "burning the Easter Man." On a height about a mile
+from the village the young fellows set up a tall cross enveloped in
+straw, so that it looked like a man with his arms stretched out. This
+was the Easter Man. No lad under eighteen years of age might take part
+in the ceremony. One of the young men stationed himself beside the
+Easter Man, holding in his hand a consecrated taper which he had brought
+from the church and lighted. The rest stood at equal intervals in a
+great circle round the cross. At a given signal they raced thrice round
+the circle, and then at a second signal ran straight at the cross and at
+the lad with the lighted taper beside it; the one who reached the goal
+first had the right of setting fire to the Easter Man. Great was the
+jubilation while he was burning. When he had been consumed in the
+flames, three lads were chosen from among the rest, and each of the
+three drew a circle on the ground with a stick thrice round the ashes.
+Then they all left the spot. On Easter Monday the villagers gathered the
+ashes and strewed them on their fields; also they planted in the fields
+palm-branches which had been consecrated on Palm Sunday, and sticks
+which had been charred and hallowed on Good Friday, all for the purpose
+of protecting their fields against showers of hail. The custom of
+burning an Easter Man made of straw on Easter Saturday was observed also
+at Abensberg, in Lower Bavaria.[363] In some parts of Swabia the Easter
+fires might not be kindled with iron or steel or flint, but only by the
+friction of wood.[364]
+
+[The Easter fires in Baden; "Thunder poles."]
+
+In Baden bonfires are still kindled in the churchyards on Easter
+Saturday, and ecclesiastical refuse of various sorts, such as
+candle-ends, old surplices, and the wool used by the priest in the
+application of extreme unction, is consumed in the flames. At Zoznegg
+down to about 1850 the fire was lighted by the priest by means of a
+flint which had never been used before. People bring sticks, especially
+oaken sticks, char them in the fire, and then carry them home and keep
+them in the house as a preservative against lightning. At Zoznegg these
+oaken sticks were sword-shaped, each about an ell and a half long, and
+they went by the name of "weather or thunder poles" (_Wetterpfaehle_).
+When a thunderstorm threatened to break out, one of the sticks was put
+into a small fire, in order that the hallowed smoke, ascending to the
+clouds, might ward off the lightning from the house and the hail from
+the fields and gardens. At Schoellbronn the oaken sticks, which are thus
+charred in the Easter bonfire and kept in the house as a protective
+against thunder and lightning, are three in number, perhaps with an
+allusion to the Trinity; they are brought every Easter to be consecrated
+afresh in the bonfire, till they are quite burnt away. In the lake
+district of Baden it is also customary to burn one of these holy sticks
+in the fire when a heavy thunderstorm is raging.[365] Hence it seems
+that the ancient association of the oak with the thunder[366] persists
+in the minds of German peasants to the present day.
+
+[Easter fires in Holland and Sweden; the burning of Judas in Bohemia.]
+
+Thus the custom of the Easter fires appears to have prevailed all over
+central and western Germany from north to south. We find it also in
+Holland, where the fires were kindled on the highest eminences, and the
+people danced round them and leaped through the flames or over the
+glowing embers. Here too, as so often in Germany, the materials for the
+bonfire were collected by the young folk from door to door.[367] In many
+parts of Sweden firearms are, as at Athens, discharged in all directions
+on Easter eve, and huge bonfires are lighted on hills and eminences.
+Some people think that the intention is to keep off the Troll and other
+evil spirits who are especially active at this season.[368] When the
+afternoon service on Good Friday is over, German children in Bohemia
+drive Judas out of the church by running about the sacred edifice and
+even the streets shaking rattles and clappers. Next day, on Easter
+Saturday, the remains of the holy oil are burnt before the church door
+in a fire which must be kindled with flint and steel. This fire is
+called "the burning of Judas," but in spite of its evil name a
+beneficent virtue is ascribed to it, for the people scuffle for the
+cinders, which they put in the roofs of their houses as a safeguard
+against fire and lightning.[369]
+
+
+Sec. 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.
+
+"It is probable that at the original Beltane festival there were two
+fires kindled near one another. When any person is in a critical
+dilemma, pressed on each side by unsurmountable difficulties, the
+Highlanders have a proverb, _The e' eada anda theine bealtuin_--i.e., he
+is between the two Beltane fires. There are in several parts small round
+hills, which, it is like, owe their present names to such solemn uses.
+One of the highest and most central in Icolmkil is called
+_Cnoch-nan-ainneal_--i.e., the hill of the fires. There is another of
+the same name near the kirk of Balquhidder; and at Killin there is a
+round green eminence which seems to have been raised by art. It is
+called _Tom-nan-ainneal_--i.e., the eminence of the fires. Around it
+there are the remains of a circular wall about two feet high. On the top
+a stone stands upon end. According to the tradition of the inhabitants,
+it was a place of Druidical worship; and it was afterwards pitched on as
+the most venerable spot for holding courts of justice for the country of
+Breadalbane. The earth of this eminence is still thought to be possessed
+of some healing virtue, for when cattle are observed to be diseased some
+of it is sent for, which is rubbed on the part affected."[370]
+
+[Local differences in the Beltane cakes; evidence of two fires at
+Beltane; Beltane pies and cakes in the parish of Callander.]
+
+In the parish of Callander, a beautiful district of western Perthshire,
+the Beltane custom was still in vogue towards the end of the eighteenth
+century. It has been described as follows by the parish minister of the
+time: "Upon the first day of May, which is called _Beltan_, or
+_Bal-tein_ day, all the boys in a township or hamlet, meet in the moors.
+They cut a table in the green sod, of a round figure, by casting a
+trench in the ground, of such circumference as to hold the whole
+company. They kindle a fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the
+consistence of a custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted
+at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they
+divide the cake into so many portions, as similar as possible to one
+another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. They
+daub one of these portions all over with charcoal, until it be perfectly
+black. They put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet. Every one,
+blindfold, draws out a portion. He who holds the bonnet, is entitled to
+the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit, is the _devoted_ person who
+is to be sacrificed to _Baal_[371] whose favour they mean to implore, in
+rendering the year productive of the sustenance of man and beast. There
+is little doubt of these inhuman sacrifices having been once offered in
+this country, as well as in the east, although they now pass from the
+act of sacrificing, and only compel the _devoted_ person to leap three
+times through the flames; with which the ceremonies of this festival are
+closed."[372]
+
+[Pennant's description of the Beltane fires and cakes in Perthshire.]
+
+Thomas Pennant, who travelled in Perthshire in the year 1769, tells us
+that "on the first of May, the herdsmen of every village hold their
+Bel-tien, a rural sacrifice. They cut a square trench on the ground,
+leaving the turf in the middle; on that they make a fire of wood, on
+which they dress a large caudle of eggs, butter, oatmeal and milk; and
+bring besides the ingredients of the caudle, plenty of beer and whisky;
+for each of the company must contribute something. The rites begin with
+spilling some of the caudle on the ground, by way of libation: on that
+every one takes a cake of oatmeal, upon which are raised nine square
+knobs, each dedicated to some particular being, the supposed preserver
+of their flocks and herds, or to some particular animal, the real
+destroyer of them: each person then turns his face to the fire, breaks
+off a knob, and flinging it over his shoulders, says, 'This I give to
+thee, preserve thou my horses; this to thee, preserve thou my sheep; and
+so on,' After that, they use the-same ceremony to the noxious animals:
+'This I give to thee, O fox! spare thou my lambs; this to thee, O hooded
+crow! this to thee, O eagle!' When the ceremony is over, they dine on
+the caudle; and after the feast is finished, what is left is hid by two
+persons deputed for that purpose; but on the next Sunday they
+re-assemble, and finish the reliques of the first entertainment"[373]
+
+[Beltane cakes and fires in the parishes of Logierait and Kirkmichael;
+omens drawn from the cakes.]
+
+Another writer of the eighteenth century has described the Beltane
+festival as it was held in the parish of Logierait in Perthshire. He
+says: "On the first of May, O.S., a festival called _Beltan_ is annually
+held here. It is chiefly celebrated by the cow-herds, who assemble by
+scores in the fields, to dress a dinner for themselves, of boiled milk
+and eggs. These dishes they eat with a sort of cakes baked for the
+occasion, and having small lumps in the form of _nipples_, raised all
+over the surface."[374] In this last account no mention is made of
+bonfires, but they were probably lighted, for a contemporary writer
+informs us that in the parish of Kirkmichael, which adjoins the parish
+of Logierait on the east, the custom of lighting a fire in the fields
+and baking a consecrated cake on the first of May was not quite obsolete
+in his time.[375] We may conjecture that the cake with knobs was
+formerly used for the purpose of determining who should be the "Beltane
+carline" or victim doomed to the flames. A trace of this custom
+survived, perhaps, in the custom of baking oatmeal cakes of a special
+kind and rolling them down hill about noon on the first of May; for it
+was thought that the person whose cake broke as it rolled would die or
+be unfortunate within the year. These cakes, or bannocks as we call them
+in Scotland, were baked in the usual way, but they were washed over with
+a thin batter composed of whipped egg, milk or cream, and a little
+oatmeal. This custom appears to have prevailed at or near Kingussie in
+Inverness-shire. At Achterneed, near Strathpeffer in Ross-shire, the
+Beltane bannocks were called _tcharnican_ or hand-cakes, because they
+were kneaded entirely in the hand, and not on a board or table like
+common cakes; and after being baked they might not be placed anywhere
+but in the hands of the children who were to eat them.[376]
+
+[Beltane fires in the north-east of Scotland to burn the witches; the
+Beltane cake.]
+
+In the north-east of Scotland the Beltane fires were still kindled in
+the latter half of the eighteenth century; the herdsmen of several farms
+used to gather dry wood, kindle it, and dance three times "southways"
+about the burning pile.[377] But in this region, according to a later
+authority, the Beltane fires were lit not on the first but on the second
+of May, Old Style. They were called bone-fires. The people believed that
+on that evening and night the witches were abroad and busy casting
+spells on cattle and stealing cows' milk. To counteract their
+machinations, pieces of rowan-tree and woodbine, but especially of
+rowan-tree, were placed over the doors of the cow-houses, and fires were
+kindled by every farmer and cottar. Old thatch, straw, furze, or broom
+was piled in a heap and set on fire a little after sunset. While some of
+the bystanders kept tossing the blazing mass, others hoisted portions of
+it on pitchforks or poles and ran hither and thither, holding them as
+high as they could. Meantime the young people danced round the fire or
+ran through the smoke shouting, "Fire! blaze and burn the witches; fire!
+fire! burn the witches." In some districts a large round cake of oat or
+barley meal was rolled through the ashes. When all the fuel was
+consumed, the people scattered the ashes far and wide, and till the
+night grew quite dark they continued to run through them, crying, "Fire!
+burn the witches."[378]
+
+[Beltane cakes and fires in the Hebrides.]
+
+In the Hebrides "the Beltane bannock is smaller than that made at St.
+Michael's, but is made in the same way; it is no longer made in Uist,
+but Father Allan remembers seeing his grandmother make one about
+twenty-five years ago. There was also a cheese made, generally on the
+first of May, which was kept to the next Beltane as a sort of charm
+against the bewitching of milk-produce. The Beltane customs seem to have
+been the same as elsewhere. Every fire was put out and a large one lit
+on the top of the hill, and the cattle driven round it sunwards
+(_dessil_), to keep off murrain all the year. Each man would take home
+fire wherewith to kindle his own."[379]
+
+[Beltane fires and cakes in Wales.]
+
+In Wales also the custom of lighting Beltane fires at the beginning of
+May used to be observed, but the day on which they were kindled varied
+from the Eve of May Day to the third of May. The flame was sometimes
+elicited by the friction of two pieces of oak, as appears from the
+following description. "The fire was done in this way. Nine men would
+turn their pockets inside out, and see that every piece of money and all
+metals were off their persons. Then the men went into the nearest woods,
+and collected sticks of nine different kinds of trees. These were
+carried to the spot where the fire had to be built. There a circle was
+cut in the sod, and the sticks were set crosswise. All around the circle
+the people stood and watched the proceedings. One of the men would then
+take two bits of oak, and rub them together until a flame was kindled.
+This was applied to the sticks, and soon a large fire was made.
+Sometimes two fires were set up side by side. These fires, whether one
+or two, were called _coelcerth_ or bonfire. Round cakes of oatmeal and
+brown meal were split in four, and placed in a small flour-bag, and
+everybody present had to pick out a portion. The last bit in the bag
+fell to the lot of the bag-holder. Each person who chanced to pick up a
+piece of brown-meal cake was compelled to leap three times over the
+flames, or to run thrice between the two fires, by which means the
+people thought they were sure of a plentiful harvest. Shouts and screams
+of those who had to face the ordeal could be heard ever so far, and
+those who chanced to pick the oatmeal portions sang and danced and
+clapped their hands in approval, as the holders of the brown bits leaped
+three times over the flames, or ran three times between the two fires.
+As a rule, no danger attended these curious celebrations, but
+occasionally somebody's clothes caught fire, which was quickly put out.
+The greatest fire of the year was the eve of May, or May first, second,
+or third. The Midsummer Eve fire was more for the harvest. Very often a
+fire was built on the eve of November. The high ground near the Castle
+Ditches at Llantwit Major, in the Vale of Glamorgan, was a familiar spot
+for the Beltane on May third and on Midsummer Eve.... Sometimes the
+Beltane fire was lighted by the flames produced by stone instead of wood
+friction. Charred logs and faggots used in the May Beltane were
+carefully preserved, and from them the next fire was lighted. May fires
+were always started with old faggots of the previous year, and midsummer
+from those of the last summer. It was unlucky to build a midsummer fire
+from May faggots. People carried the ashes left after these fires to
+their homes, and a charred brand was not only effectual against
+pestilence, but magical in its use. A few of the ashes placed in a
+person's shoes protected the wearer from any great sorrow or woe."[380]
+
+[Welsh belief that passage over or between the fires ensured good
+crops.]
+
+From the foregoing account we learn that bonfires were kindled in Wales
+on Midsummer Eve and Hallowe'en (the thirty-first of October), as well
+as at the beginning of May, but that the Beltane fires in May were
+deemed the most important. To the Midsummer Eve and Hallowe'en fires we
+shall return presently. The belief of the people that by leaping thrice
+over the bonfires or running thrice between them they ensured a
+plentiful harvest is worthy of note. The mode in which this result was
+supposed to be brought about is indicated by another writer on Welsh
+folk-lore, according to whom it used to be held that "the bonfires
+lighted in May or Midsummer protected the lands from sorcery, so that
+good crops would follow. The ashes were also considered valuable as
+charms."[381] Hence it appears that the heat of the fires was thought to
+fertilize the fields, not directly by quickening the seeds in the
+ground, but indirectly by counteracting the baleful influence of
+witchcraft or perhaps by burning up the persons of the witches.
+
+[Beltane fires in the Isle of Man to burn the witches; Beltane fires in
+Nottinghamshire.]
+
+"The Druidical anniversary of Beil or Baal is still celebrated in the
+Isle of Man. On the first of May, 1837, the Baal fires were, as usual on
+that day, so numerous as to give the island the appearance of a general
+conflagration."[382] By May Day in Manx folk-lore is meant May Day Old
+Style, or _Shenn Laa Boaldyn_, as it is called in Manx. The day was one
+on which the power of elves and witches was particularly dreaded, and
+the people resorted to many precautions in order to protect themselves
+against these mischievous beings. Hence at daybreak they set fire to the
+ling or gorse, for the purpose of burning out the witches, who are wont
+to lurk in the form of hares.[383] On the Hemlock Stone, a natural
+pillar of sandstone standing on Stapleford Hill in Nottinghamshire, a
+fire used to be solemnly kindled every year on Beltane Eve. The custom
+seems to have survived down to the beginning of the nineteenth century;
+old people could remember and describe the ceremony long after it had
+fallen into desuetude.[384]
+
+[Beltane fires in Ireland.]
+
+The Beltane fires appear to have been kindled also in Ireland, for
+Cormac, "or somebody in his name, says that _belltaine_, May-day, was so
+called from the 'lucky fire,' or the 'two fires,' which the druids of
+Erin used to make on that day with great incantations; and cattle, he
+adds, used to be brought to those fires, or to be driven between them,
+as a safeguard against the diseases of the year."[385] Again, a very
+ancient Irish poem, enumerating the May Day celebrations, mentions among
+them a bonfire on a hill (_tendal ar cnuc_); and another old authority
+says that these fires were kindled in the name of the idol-god Bel.[386]
+From an old life of St. Patrick we learn that on a day in spring the
+heathen of Ireland were wont to extinguish all their fires until a new
+fire was kindled with solemn ceremony in the king's house at Tara. In
+the year in which St. Patrick landed in Ireland it chanced that the
+night of the extinguished fires coincided with the Eve of Easter; and
+the saint, ignorant of this pagan superstition, resolved to celebrate
+his first Easter in Ireland after the true Christian fashion by lighting
+the holy Paschal fire on the hill of Slane, which rises high above the
+left bank of the Boyne, about twelve miles from the mouth of the river.
+So that night, looking from his palace at Tara across the darkened
+landscape, the king of Tara saw the solitary fire flaring on the top of
+the hill of Slane, and in consternation he asked his wise men what that
+light meant. They warned him of the danger that it betokened for the
+ancient faith of Erin.[387] In spite of the difference of date between
+Easter and Beltane, we may suspect that the new fire annually kindled
+with solemn ceremony about Easter in the king of Ireland's palace at
+Tara was no other than the Beltane fire. We have seen that in the
+Highlands of Scotland down to modern times it was customary to
+extinguish all fires in the neighbourhood before proceeding to kindle
+the sacred flame.[388] The Irish historian Geoffrey Keating, who wrote
+in the first part of the seventeenth century, tells us that the men of
+Ireland held a great fair every year in the month of May at Uisnech
+(_Ushnagh_) in the county of Meath, "and at it they were wont to
+exchange their goods and their wares and their jewels. At it, they were,
+also, wont to make a sacrifice to the Arch-God that they adored, whose
+name was Bel (_bayl_). It was, likewise, their usage to light two fires
+to Bel, in every district of Ireland, at this season, and to drive a
+pair of each kind of cattle that the district contained, between those
+two fires, as a preservative to guard them against all the diseases of
+that year. It is from that fire, thus made in honour of Bel, that the
+day [the first of May] on which the noble feast of the apostles, Philip
+and James, is held, has been called Beltaini, or Bealtaine
+(_Bayltinnie_); for Beltaini is the same as Beil-teine, i.e. Teine Bheil
+(_Tinnie Vayl_) or Bel's Fire."[389] The custom of driving cattle
+through or between fires on May Day or the eve of May Day persisted in
+Ireland down to a time within living memory. Thus Sir John Rhys was
+informed by a Manxman that an Irish cattle-dealer of his acquaintance
+used to drive his cattle through fire on May Day so as to singe them a
+little, since he believed that it would preserve them from harm. When
+the Manxman was asked where the dealer came from, he answered, "From the
+mountains over there," pointing to the Mourne Mountains then looming
+faintly in the mists on the western horizon.[390]
+
+[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.]
+
+The first of May is a great popular festival in the more midland and
+southern parts of Sweden. On the eve of the festival, huge bonfires,
+which should be lighted by striking two flints together, blaze on all
+the hills and knolls. Every large hamlet has its own fire, round which
+the young people dance in a ring. The old folk notice whether the flames
+incline to the north or to the south. In the former case, the spring
+will be cold and backward; in the latter, it will be mild and
+genial.[391] Similarly, in Bohemia, on the eve of May Day, young people
+kindle fires on hills and eminences, at crossways, and in pastures, and
+dance round them. They leap over the glowing embers or even through the
+flames. The ceremony is called "burning the witches." In some places an
+effigy representing a witch used to be burnt in the bonfire.[392] We
+have to remember that the eve of May Day is the notorious Walpurgis
+Night, when the witches are everywhere speeding unseen through the air
+on their hellish errands. On this witching night children in Voigtland
+also light bonfires on the heights and leap over them. Moreover, they
+wave burning brooms or toss them into the air. So far as the light of
+the bonfire reaches, so far will a blessing rest on the fields. The
+kindling of the fires on Walpurgis Night is called "driving away the
+witches."[393] The custom of kindling fires on the eve of May Day
+(Walpurgis Night) for the purpose of burning the witches is, or used to
+be, widespread in the Tyrol, Moravia, Saxony and Silesia.[394]
+
+
+Sec. 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.]
+
+But the season at which these fire-festivals have been mostly generally
+held all over Europe is the summer solstice, that is Midsummer Eve (the
+twenty-third of June) or Midsummer Day (the twenty-fourth of June). A
+faint tinge of Christianity has been given to them by naming Midsummer
+Day after St. John the Baptist, but we cannot doubt that the celebration
+dates from a time long before the beginning of our era. The summer
+solstice, or Midsummer Day, is the great turning-point in the sun's
+career, when, after climbing higher and higher day by day in the sky,
+the luminary stops and thenceforth retraces his steps down the heavenly
+road. Such a moment could not but be regarded with anxiety by primitive
+man so soon as he began to observe and ponder the courses of the great
+lights across the celestial vault; and having still to learn his own
+powerlessness in face of the vast cyclic changes of nature, he may have
+fancied that he could help the sun in his seeming decline--could prop
+his failing steps and rekindle the sinking flame of the red lamp in his
+feeble hand. In some such thoughts as these the midsummer festivals of
+our European peasantry may perhaps have taken their rise. Whatever their
+origin, they have prevailed all over this quarter of the globe, from
+Ireland on the west to Russia on the east, and from Norway and Sweden on
+the north to Spain and Greece on the south.[395] According to a mediaeval
+writer, the three great features of the midsummer celebration were the
+bonfires, the procession with torches round the fields, and the custom
+of rolling a wheel. He tells us that boys burned bones and filth of
+various kinds to make a foul smoke, and that the smoke drove away
+certain noxious dragons which at this time, excited by the summer heat,
+copulated in the air and poisoned the wells and rivers by dropping their
+seed into them; and he explains the custom of trundling a wheel to mean
+that the sun, having now reached the highest point in the ecliptic,
+begins thenceforward to descend.[396]
+
+[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,
+And that from harmes and daungers now, in safetie here they dwell_."[397]
+
+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.]
+
+A writer of the first half of the sixteenth century informs us that in
+almost every village and town of Germany public bonfires were kindled on
+the Eve of St. John, and young and old, of both sexes, gathered about
+them and passed the time in dancing and singing. People on this occasion
+wore chaplets of mugwort and vervain, and they looked at the fire
+through bunches of larkspur which they held in their hands, believing
+that this would preserve their eyes in a healthy state throughout the
+year. As each departed, he threw the mugwort and vervain into the fire,
+saying, "May all my ill-luck depart and be burnt up with these."[398] At
+Lower Konz, a village prettily situated on a hillside overlooking the
+Moselle, in the midst of a wood of walnut-trees and fruit-trees, the
+midsummer festival used to be celebrated as follows. A quantity of straw
+was collected on the top of the steep Stromberg Hill. Every inhabitant,
+or at least every householder, had to contribute his share of straw to
+the pile; a recusant was looked at askance, and if in the course of the
+year he happened to break a leg or lose a child, there was not a gossip
+in the village but knew the reason why. At nightfall the whole male
+population, men and boys, mustered on the top of the hill; the women and
+girls were not allowed to join them, but had to take up their position
+at a certain spring half-way down the slope. On the summit stood a huge
+wheel completely encased in some of the straw which had been jointly
+contributed by the villagers; the rest of the straw was made into
+torches. From each side of the wheel the axle-tree projected about three
+feet, thus furnishing handles to the lads who were to guide it in its
+descent. The mayor of the neighbouring town of Sierck, who always
+received a basket of cherries for his services, gave the signal; a
+lighted torch was applied to the wheel, and as it burst into flame, two
+young fellows, strong-limbed and swift of foot, seized the handles and
+began running with it down the slope. A great shout went up. Every man
+and boy waved a blazing torch in the air, and took care to keep it
+alight so long as the wheel was trundling down the hill. Some of them
+followed the fiery wheel, and watched with amusement the shifts to which
+its guides were put in steering it round the hollows and over the broken
+ground on the mountainside. The great object of the young men who guided
+the wheel was to plunge it blazing into the water of the Moselle; but
+they rarely succeeded in their efforts, for the vineyards which cover
+the greater part of the declivity impeded their progress, and the wheel
+was often burned out before it reached the river. As it rolled past the
+women and girls at the spring, they raised cries of joy which were
+answered by the men on the top of the mountain; and the shouts were
+echoed by the inhabitants of neighbouring villages who watched the
+spectacle from their hills on the opposite bank of the Moselle. If the
+fiery wheel was successfully conveyed to the bank of the river and
+extinguished in the water, the people looked for an abundant vintage
+that year, and the inhabitants of Konz had the right to exact a
+waggon-load of white wine from the surrounding vineyards. On the other
+hand, they believed that, if they neglected to perform the ceremony, the
+cattle would be attacked by giddiness and convulsions and would dance in
+their stalls.[399]
+
+[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.]
+
+Down at least to the middle of the nineteenth century the midsummer
+fires used to blaze all over Upper Bavaria. They were kindled especially
+on the mountains, but also far and wide in the lowlands, and we are told
+that in the darkness and stillness of night the moving groups, lit up by
+the flickering glow of the flames, presented an impressive spectacle. In
+some places the people shewed their sense of the sanctity of the fires
+by using for fuel the trees past which the gay procession had defiled,
+with fluttering banners, on Corpus Christi Day. In others the children
+collected the firewood from door to door on the eve of the festival,
+singing their request for fuel at every house in doggerel verse. Cattle
+were driven through the fire to cure the sick animals and to guard such
+as were sound against plague and harm of every kind throughout the year.
+Many a householder on that day put out the fire on the domestic hearth
+and rekindled it by means of a brand taken from the midsummer bonfire.
+The people judged of the height to which the flax would grow in the year
+by the height to which the flames of the bonfire rose; and whoever
+leaped over the burning pile was sure not to suffer from backache in
+reaping the corn at harvest. But it was especially the practice for
+lovers to spring over the fire hand in hand, and the way in which each
+couple made the leap was the subject of many a jest and many a
+superstition. In one district the custom of kindling the bonfires was
+combined with that of lighting wooden discs and hurling them in the air
+after the manner which prevails at some of the spring festivals.[400] In
+many parts of Bavaria it was believed that the flax would grow as high
+as the young people leaped over the fire.[401] In others the old folk
+used to plant three charred sticks from the bonfire in the fields,
+believing that this would make the flax grow tall.[402] Elsewhere an
+extinguished brand was put in the roof of the house to protect it
+against fire. In the towns about Wuerzburg the bonfires used to be
+kindled in the market-places, and the young people who jumped over them
+wore garlands of flowers, especially of mugwort and vervain, and carried
+sprigs of larkspur in their hands. They thought that such as looked at
+the fire holding a bit of larkspur before their face would be troubled
+by no malady of the eyes throughout the year.[403] Further, it was
+customary at Wuerzburg, in the sixteenth century, for the bishop's
+followers to throw burning discs of wood into the air from a mountain
+which overhangs the town. The discs were discharged by means of flexible
+rods, and in their flight through the darkness presented the appearance
+of fiery dragons.[404]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Swabia; omens drawn from the leaps over the
+fires; burning wheels rolled down hill; burning the Angel-Man at
+Rottenburg.]
+
+In the valley of the Lech, which divides Upper Bavaria from Swabia, the
+midsummer customs and beliefs are, or used to be, very similar. Bonfires
+are kindled on the mountains on Midsummer Day; and besides the bonfire a
+tall beam, thickly wrapt in straw and surmounted by a cross-piece, is
+burned in many places. Round this cross as it burns the lads dance with
+loud shouts; and when the flames have subsided, the young people leap
+over the fire in pairs, a young man and a young woman together. If they
+escape unsmirched, the man will not suffer from fever, and the girl will
+not become a mother within the year. Further, it is believed that the
+flax will grow that year as high as they leap over the fire; and that if
+a charred billet be taken from the fire and stuck in a flax-field it
+will promote the growth of the flax.[405] Similarly in Swabia, lads and
+lasses, hand in hand, leap over the midsummer bonfire, praying that the
+hemp may grow three ells high, and they set fire to wheels of straw and
+send them rolling down the hill. Among the places where burning wheels
+were thus bowled down hill at Midsummer were the Hohenstaufen mountains
+in Wurtemberg and the Frauenberg near Gerhausen.[406] At Deffingen, in
+Swabia, as the people sprang over the midsummer bonfire they cried out,
+"Flax, flax! may the flax this year grow seven ells high!"[407] At
+Rottenburg in Swabia, down to the year 1807 or 1808, the festival was
+marked by some special features. About mid-day troops of boys went about
+the town begging for firewood at the houses. In each troop there were
+three leaders, one of whom carried a dagger, a second a paper banner,
+and a third a white plate covered with a white cloth. These three
+entered each house and recited verses, in which they expressed an
+intention of roasting Martin Luther and sending him to the devil; and
+for this meritorious service they expected to be paid, the contributions
+being received in the cloth-covered plate. In the evening they counted
+up their money and proceeded to "behead the Angel-man." For this
+ceremony an open space was chosen, sometimes in the middle of the town.
+Here a stake was thrust into the ground and straw wrapt about it, so as
+to make a rude effigy of human form with arms, head, and face. Every boy
+brought a handful of nosegays and fastened them to the straw-man, who
+was thus enveloped in flowers. Fuel was heaped about the stake and set
+on fire. When the Angel-man, as the straw-effigy was called, blazed up,
+all the boys of the neighbourhood, who had gathered expectantly around,
+fell upon him with their wooden swords and hewed him to pieces. As soon
+as he had vanished in smoke and flame, the lads leaped backward and
+forward over the glowing embers, and later in the evening they feasted
+on the proceeds of their collection.[408] Here the Angel-man burnt in
+the fire appears to be identified with Martin Luther, to whom, as we
+have seen, allusion was made during the house-to-house visitation. The
+identification was probably modern, for we may assume that the custom of
+burning an effigy in the Midsummer bonfire is far older than the time of
+Luther.
+
+[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.]
+
+In Baden the children used to collect fuel from house to house for the
+Midsummer bonfire on St. John's Day; and lads and lasses leaped over the
+fire in couples. Here, as elsewhere, a close connexion was traced
+between these bonfires and the harvest. In some places it was thought
+that those who leaped over the fires would not suffer from backache at
+reaping. Sometimes, as the young folk sprang over the flames, they
+cried, "Grow, that the hemp may be three ells high!" This notion that
+the hemp or the corn would grow as high as the flames blazed or as the
+people jumped over them, seems to have been widespread in Baden. It was
+held that the parents of the young people who bounded highest over the
+fire would have the most abundant harvest; and on the other hand, if a
+man contributed nothing to the bonfire, it was imagined that there would
+be no blessing on his crops, and that his hemp in particular would never
+grow.[409] In the neighbourhood of Buehl and Achern the St. John's fires
+were kindled on the tops of hills; only the unmarried lads of the
+village brought the fuel, and only the unmarried young men and women
+sprang through the flames. But most of the villagers, old and young,
+gathered round the bonfires, leaving a clear space for the leapers to
+take their run. One of the bystanders would call out the names of a pair
+of sweethearts; on which the two would step out from the throng, take
+each other by the hand, and leap high and lightly through the swirling
+smoke and flames, while the spectators watched them critically and drew
+omens of their married life from the height to which each of them
+bounded. Such an invitation to jump together over the bonfire was
+regarded as tantamount to a public betrothal.[410] Near Offenburg, in
+the Black Forest, on Midsummer Day the village boys used to collect
+faggots and straw on some steep and conspicuous height, and they spent
+some time in making circular wooden discs by slicing the trunk of a
+pine-tree across. When darkness had fallen, they kindled the bonfire,
+and then, as it blazed up, they lighted the discs at it, and, after
+swinging them to and fro at the end of a stout and supple hazel-wand,
+they hurled them one after the other, whizzing and flaming, into the
+air, where they described great arcs of fire, to fall at length, like
+shooting-stars, at the foot of the mountain.[411] In many parts of
+Alsace and Lorraine the midsummer fires still blaze annually or did so
+not very many years ago.[412] At Speicher in the Eifel, a district which
+lies on the middle Rhine, to the west of Coblentz, a bonfire used to be
+kindled in front of the village on St. John's Day, and all the young
+people had to jump over it. Those who failed to do so were not allowed
+to join the rest in begging for eggs from house to house. Where no eggs
+were given, they drove a wedge into the keyhole of the door. On this day
+children in the Eifel used also to gather flowers in the fields, weave
+them into garlands, and throw the garlands on the roofs or hang them on
+the doors of the houses. So long as the flowers remained there, they
+were supposed to guard the house from fire and lightning.[413] In the
+southern Harz district and in Thuringia the Midsummer or St. John's
+fires used to be commonly lighted down to about the middle of the
+nineteenth century, and the custom has probably not died out. At
+Edersleben, near Sangerhausen, a high pole was planted in the ground and
+a tar-barrel was hung from it by a chain which reached to the ground.
+The barrel was then set on fire and swung round the pole amid shouts of
+joy.[414]
+
+[Midsummer fires kindled by the friction of wood in Germany and
+Switzerland; driving away demons and witches.]
+
+According to one account, German tradition required that the midsummer
+fire should be lighted, not from a common hearth, but by the friction of
+two sorts of wood, namely oak and fir.[415] In some old farm-houses of
+the Surenthal and Winenthal, in Switzerland, a couple of holes or a
+whole row of them may be seen facing each other in the door-posts of the
+barn or stable. Sometimes the holes are smooth and round; sometimes they
+are deeply burnt and blackened. The explanation of them is this. About
+midsummer, but especially on Midsummer Day, two such holes are bored
+opposite each other, into which the extremities of a strong pole are
+fixed. The holes are then stuffed with tow steeped in resin and oil; a
+rope is looped round the pole, and two young men, who must be brothers
+or must have the same baptismal name, and must be of the same age, pull
+the ends of the rope backwards and forwards so as to make the pole
+revolve rapidly, till smoke and sparks issue from the two holes in the
+door-posts. The sparks are caught and blown up with tinder, and this is
+the new and pure fire, the appearance of which is greeted with cries of
+joy. Heaps of combustible materials are now ignited with the new fire,
+and blazing bundles are placed on boards and sent floating down the
+brook. The boys light torches at the new fire and run to fumigate the
+pastures. This is believed to drive away all the demons and witches that
+molest the cattle. Finally the torches are thrown in a heap on the
+meadow and allowed to burn out. On their way back the boys strew the
+ashes over the fields, which is supposed to make them fertile. If a
+farmer has taken possession of a new house, or if servants have changed
+masters, the boys fumigate the new abode and are rewarded by the farmer
+with a supper.[416]
+
+[Midsummer fires in Silesia; scaring away the witches.]
+
+In Silesia, from the south-eastern part of the Sudeten range and
+north-westward as far as Lausitz, the mountains are ablaze with bonfires
+on Midsummer Eve; and from the valleys and the plains round about
+Leobschuetz, Neustadt, Zuelz, Oels, and other places answering fires
+twinkle through the deepening gloom. While they are smouldering and
+sending forth volumes of smoke across the fields, young men kindle
+broom-stumps, soaked in pitch, at the bonfires and then, brandishing the
+stumps, which emit showers of sparks, they chase one another or dance
+with the girls round the burning pile. Shots, too, are fired, and shouts
+raised. The fire, the smoke, the shots, and the shouts are all intended
+to scare away the witches, who are let loose on this witching day, and
+who would certainly work harm to the crops and the cattle, if they were
+not deterred by these salutary measures. Mere contact with the fire
+brings all sorts of blessings. Hence when the bonfire is burning low,
+the lads leap over it, and the higher they bound, the better is the luck
+in store for them. He who surpasses his fellows is the hero of the day
+and is much admired by the village girls. It is also thought to be very
+good for the eyes to stare steadily at the bonfire without blinking;
+moreover he who does so will not drowse and fall asleep betimes in the
+long winter evenings. On Midsummer Eve the windows and doors of houses
+in Silesia are crowned with flowers, especially with the blue
+cornflowers and the bright corn-cockles; in some villages long strings
+of garlands and nosegays are stretched across the streets. The people
+believe that on that night St. John comes down from heaven to bless the
+flowers and to keep all evil things from house and home.[417]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Denmark and Norway; keeping off the witches; the
+Midsummer fires in Sweden.]
+
+In Denmark and Norway also Midsummer fires were kindled on St. John's
+Eve on roads, open spaces, and hills. People in Norway thought that the
+fires banished sickness from among the cattle.[418] Even yet the fires
+are said to be lighted all over Norway on the night of June the
+twenty-third, Midsummer Eve, Old Style. As many as fifty or sixty
+bonfires may often be counted burning on the hills round Bergen.
+Sometimes fuel is piled on rafts, ignited, and allowed to drift blazing
+across the fiords in the darkness of night. The fires are thought to be
+kindled in order to keep off the witches, who are said to be flying from
+all parts that night to the Blocksberg, where the big witch lives.[419]
+In Sweden the Eve of St. John (St. Hans) is the most joyous night of the
+whole year. Throughout some parts of the country, especially in the
+provinces of Bohus and Scania and in districts bordering on Norway, it
+is celebrated by the frequent discharge of firearms and by huge
+bonfires, formerly called Balder's Balefires (_Balder's Balar_), which
+are kindled at dusk on hills and eminences and throw a glare of light
+over the surrounding landscape. The people dance round the fires and
+leap over or through them. In parts of Norrland on St. John's Eve the
+bonfires are lit at the cross-roads. The fuel consists of nine different
+sorts of wood, and the spectators cast into the flames a kind of
+toad-stool (_Baeran_) in order to counteract the power of the Trolls and
+other evil spirits, who are believed to be abroad that night; for at
+that mystic season the mountains open and from their cavernous depths
+the uncanny crew pours forth to dance and disport themselves for a time.
+The peasants believe that should any of the Trolls be in the vicinity
+they will shew themselves; and if an animal, for example a he or she
+goat, happens to be seen near the blazing, crackling pile, the peasants
+are firmly persuaded that it is no other than the Evil One in
+person.[420] Further, it deserves to be remarked that in Sweden St.
+John's Eve is a festival of water as well as of fire; for certain holy
+springs are then supposed to be endowed with wonderful medicinal
+virtues, and many sick people resort to them for the healing of their
+infirmities.[421]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Switzerland and Austria; effigies burnt in the
+fires; burning wheels rolled down hill.]
+
+In Switzerland on Midsummer Eve fires are, or used to be, kindled on
+high places in the cantons of Bern, Neuchatel, Valais, and Geneva.[422]
+In Austria the midsummer customs and superstitions resemble those of
+Germany. Thus in some parts of the Tyrol bonfires are kindled and
+burning discs hurled into the air.[423] In the lower valley of the Inn a
+taterdemalian effigy is carted about the village on Midsummer Day and
+then burned. He is called the _Lotter_, which has been corrupted into
+Luther. At Ambras, one of the villages where Martin Luther is thus
+burned in effigy, they say that if you go through the village between
+eleven and twelve on St. John's Night and wash yourself in three wells,
+you will see all who are to die in the following year.[424] At Gratz on
+St. John's Eve (the twenty-third of June) the common people used to make
+a puppet called the _Tatermann_, which they dragged to the bleaching
+ground, and pelted with burning besoms till it took fire.[425] At
+Reutte, in the Tyrol, people believed that the flax would grow as high
+as they leaped over the midsummer bonfire, and they took pieces of
+charred wood from the fire and stuck them in their flax-fields the same
+night, leaving them there till the flax harvest had been got in.[426] In
+Lower Austria fires are lit in the fields, commonly in front of a cross,
+and the people dance and sing round them and throw flowers into the
+flames. Before each handful of flowers is tossed into the fire, a set
+speech is made; then the dance is resumed and the dancers sing in chorus
+the last words of the speech. At evening bonfires are kindled on the
+heights, and the boys caper round them, brandishing lighted torches
+drenched in pitch. Whoever jumps thrice across the fire will not suffer
+from fever within the year. Cart-wheels are often smeared with pitch,
+ignited, and sent rolling and blazing down the hillsides.[427]
+
+[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.]
+
+All over Bohemia bonfires still burn on Midsummer Eve. In the afternoon
+boys go about with handcarts from house to house collecting fuel, such
+as sticks, brushwood, old besoms, and so forth. They make their request
+at each house in rhyming verses, threatening with evil consequences the
+curmudgeons who refuse them a dole. Sometimes the young men fell a tall
+straight fir in the woods and set it up on a height, where the girls
+deck it with nosegays, wreaths of leaves, and red ribbons. Then
+brushwood is piled about it, and at nightfall the whole is set on fire.
+While the flames break out, the young men climb the tree and fetch down
+the wreaths which the girls had placed on it. After that, lads and
+lasses stand on opposite sides of the fire and look at one another
+through the wreaths to see whether they will be true to each other and
+marry within the year. Also the girls throw the wreaths across the
+flames to the men, and woe to the awkward swain who fails to catch the
+wreath thrown him by his sweetheart. When the blaze has died down, each
+couple takes hands, and leaps thrice across the fire. He or she who does
+so will be free from ague throughout the year, and the flax will grow as
+high as the young folks leap. A girl who sees nine bonfires on Midsummer
+Eve will marry before the year is out. The singed wreaths are carried
+home and carefully preserved throughout the year. During thunderstorms a
+bit of the wreath is burned on the hearth with a prayer; some of it is
+given to kine that are sick or calving, and some of it serves to
+fumigate house and cattle-stall, that man and beast may keep hale and
+well. Sometimes an old cartwheel is smeared with resin, ignited, and
+sent rolling down the hill. Often the boys collect all the worn-out
+besoms they can get hold of, dip them in pitch, and having set them on
+fire wave them about or throw them high into the air. Or they rush down
+the hillside in troops, brandishing the flaming brooms and shouting,
+only however to return to the bonfire on the summit when the brooms have
+burnt out. The stumps of the brooms and embers from the fire are
+preserved and stuck in cabbage gardens to protect the cabbages from
+caterpillars and gnats. Some people insert charred sticks and ashes from
+the bonfire in their sown fields and meadows, in their gardens and the
+roofs of their houses, as a talisman against lightning and foul weather;
+or they fancy that the ashes placed in the roof will prevent any fire
+from breaking out in the house. In some districts they crown or gird
+themselves with mugwort while the midsummer fire is burning, for this is
+supposed to be a protection against ghosts, witches, and sickness; in
+particular, a wreath of mugwort is a sure preventive of sore eyes.
+Sometimes the girls look at the bonfires through garlands of wild
+flowers, praying the fire to strengthen their eyes and eyelids. She who
+does this thrice will have no sore eyes all that year. In some parts of
+Bohemia they used to drive the cows through the midsummer fire to guard
+them against witchcraft.[428]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Moravia, Austrian Silesia, and the district of
+Cracow; fire kindled by the friction of wood.]
+
+The Germans of Moravia in like manner still light bonfires on open
+grounds and high places on Midsummer Eve; and they kindle besoms in the
+flames and then stick the charred stumps in the cabbage-fields as a
+powerful protection against caterpillars. On the same mystic evening
+Moravian girls gather flowers of nine sorts and lay them under their
+pillow when they go to sleep; then they dream every one of him who is to
+be her partner for life. For in Moravia maidens in their beds as well as
+poets by haunted streams have their Midsummer Night's dreams.[429] In
+Austrian Silesia the custom also prevails of lighting great bonfires on
+hilltops on Midsummer Eve, and here too the boys swing blazing besoms or
+hurl them high in the air, while they shout and leap and dance wildly.
+Next morning every door is decked with flowers and birchen
+saplings.[430] In the district of Cracow, especially towards the
+Carpathian Mountains, great fires are kindled by the peasants in the
+fields or on the heights at nightfall on Midsummer Eve, which among them
+goes by the name of Kupalo's Night. The fire must be kindled by the
+friction of two sticks. The young people dance round or leap over it;
+and a band of sturdy fellows run a race with lighted torches, the winner
+being rewarded with a peacock's feather, which he keeps throughout the
+year as a distinction. Cattle also are driven round the fire in the
+belief that this is a charm against pestilence and disease of every
+sort.[431]
+
+[The Midsummer fires among the Slavs of Russia; cattle protected against
+witchcraft; the fires lighted by the friction of wood.]
+
+The name of Kupalo's Night, applied in this part of Galicia to Midsummer
+Eve, reminds us that we have now passed from German to Slavonic ground;
+even in Bohemia the midsummer celebration is common to Slavs and
+Germans. We have already seen that in Russia the summer solstice or Eve
+of St. John is celebrated by young men and maidens, who jump over a
+bonfire in couples carrying a straw effigy of Kupalo in their arms.[432]
+In some parts of Russia an image of Kupalo is burnt or thrown into a
+stream on St. John's Night.[433] Again, in some districts of Russia the
+young folk wear garlands of flowers and girdles of holy herbs when they
+spring through the smoke or flames; and sometimes they drive the cattle
+also through the fire in order to protect the animals against wizards
+and witches, who are then ravenous after milk.[434] In Little Russia a
+stake is driven into the ground on St. John's Night, wrapt in straw, and
+set on fire. As the flames rise the peasant women throw birchen boughs
+into them, saying, "May my flax be as tall as this bough!"[435] In
+Ruthenia the bonfires are lighted by a flame procured by the friction of
+wood. While the elders of the party are engaged in thus "churning" the
+fire, the rest maintain a respectful silence; but when the flame bursts
+from the wood, they break forth into joyous songs. As soon as the
+bonfires are kindled, the young people take hands and leap in pairs
+through the smoke, if not through the flames; and after that the cattle
+in their turn are driven through the fire.[436]
+
+[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.]
+
+In many parts of Prussia and Lithuania great fires are kindled on
+Midsummer Eve. All the heights are ablaze with them, as far as the eye
+can see. The fires are supposed to be a protection against witchcraft,
+thunder, hail, and cattle disease, especially if next morning the cattle
+are driven over the places where the fires burned. Above all, the
+bonfires ensure the farmer against the arts of witches, who try to steal
+the milk from his cows by charms and spells. That is why next morning
+you may see the young fellows who lit the bonfire going from house to
+house and receiving jugfuls of milk. And for the same reason they stick
+burs and mugwort on the gate or the hedge through which the cows go to
+pasture, because that is supposed to be a preservative against
+witchcraft.[437] In Masuren, a district of Eastern Prussia inhabited by
+a branch of the Polish family, it is the custom on the evening of
+Midsummer Day to put out all the fires in the village. Then an oaken
+stake is driven into the ground and a wheel is fixed on it as on an
+axle. This wheel the villagers, working by relays, cause to revolve with
+great rapidity till fire is produced by friction. Every one takes home a
+lighted brand from the new fire and with it rekindles the fire on the
+domestic hearth.[438] In the sixteenth century Martin of Urzedow, a
+Polish priest, denounced the heathen practices of the women who on St.
+John's Eve (Midsummer Eve) kindled fires by the friction of wood,
+danced, and sang songs in honour of the devil.[439]
+
+[The Midsummer fires among the Letts of Russia; Midsummer Day in ancient
+Rome.]
+
+Among the Letts who inhabit the Baltic provinces of Russia the most
+joyful festival of the year is held on Midsummer Day. The people drink
+and dance and sing and adorn themselves and their houses with flowers
+and branches. Chopped boughs of fir are strewn about the rooms, and
+leaves are stuck in the roofs. In every farm-yard a birch tree is set
+up, and every person of the name of John who enters the farm that day
+must break off a twig from the tree and hang up on its branches in
+return a small present for the family. When the serene twilight of the
+summer night has veiled the landscape, bonfires gleam on all the hills,
+and wild shouts of "Ligho! Ligho!" echo from the woods and fields. In
+Riga the day is a festival of flowers. From all the neighbourhood the
+peasants stream into the city laden with flowers and garlands. A market
+of flowers is held in an open square and on the chief bridge over the
+river; here wreaths of immortelles, which grow wild in the meadows and
+woods, are sold in great profusion and deck the houses of Riga for long
+afterwards. Roses, too, are now at the prime of their beauty, and masses
+of them adorn the flower-stalls. Till far into the night gay crowds
+parade the streets to music or float on the river in gondolas decked
+with flowers.[440] So long ago in ancient Rome barges crowned with
+flowers and crowded with revellers used to float down the Tiber on
+Midsummer Day, the twenty-fourth of June,[441] and no doubt the strains
+of music were wafted as sweetly across the water to listeners on the
+banks as they still are to the throngs of merrymakers at Riga.
+
+[The Midsummer fires among the South Slavs.]
+
+Bonfires are commonly kindled by the South Slavonian peasantry on
+Midsummer Eve, and lads and lasses dance and shout round them in the
+usual way. The very names of St. John's Day (_Ivanje_) and the St.
+John's fires (_kries_) are said to act like electric sparks on the
+hearts and minds of these swains, kindling a thousand wild, merry, and
+happy fancies and ideas in their rustic breasts. At Kamenagora in
+Croatia the herdsmen throw nine three-year old vines into the bonfire,
+and when these burst into flames the young men who are candidates for
+matrimony jump through the blaze. He who succeeds in leaping over the
+fire without singeing himself will be married within the year. At
+Vidovec in Croatia parties of two girls and one lad unite to kindle a
+Midsummer bonfire and to leap through the flames; he or she who leaps
+furthest will soonest wed. Afterwards lads and lasses dance in separate
+rings, but the ring of lads bumps up against the ring of girls and
+breaks it, and the girl who has to let go her neighbour's hand will
+forsake her true love hereafter.[442] In Servia on Midsummer Eve
+herdsmen light torches of birch bark and march round the sheepfolds and
+cattle-stalls; then they climb the hills and there allow the torches to
+burn out.[443]
+
+[The Midsummer fires among the Magyars of Hungary.]
+
+Among the Magyars in Hungary the midsummer fire-festival is marked by
+the same features that meet us in so many parts of Europe. On Midsummer
+Eve in many places it is customary to kindle bonfires on heights and to
+leap over them, and from the manner in which the young people leap the
+bystanders predict whether they will marry soon. At Nograd-Ludany the
+young men and women, each carrying a truss of straw, repair to a meadow,
+where they pile the straw in seven or twelve heaps and set it on fire.
+Then they go round the fire singing, and hold a bunch of iron-wort in
+the smoke, while they say, "No boil on my body, no sprain in my foot!"
+This holding of the flowers over the flames is regarded, we are told, as
+equally important with the practice of walking through the fire barefoot
+and stamping it out. On this day also many Hungarian swineherds make
+fire by rotating a wheel round a wooden axle wrapt in hemp, and through
+the fire thus made they drive their pigs to preserve them from
+sickness.[444] In villages on the Danube, where the population is a
+cross between Magyar and German, the young men and maidens go to the
+high banks of the river on Midsummer Eve; and while the girls post
+themselves low down the slope, the lads on the height above set fire to
+little wooden wheels and, after swinging them to and fro at the end of a
+wand, send them whirling through the air to fall into the Danube. As he
+does so, each lad sings out the name of his sweetheart, and she listens
+well pleased down below.[445]
+
+[The Midsummer fires among the Esthonians; the Midsummer fires in
+Oesel.]
+
+The Esthonians of Russia, who, like the Magyars, belong to the great
+Turanian family of mankind, also celebrate the summer solstice in the
+usual way. On the Eve of St. John all the people of a farm, a village,
+or an estate, walk solemnly in procession, the girls decked with
+flowers, the men with leaves and carrying bundles of straw under their
+arms. The lads carry lighted torches or flaming hoops steeped in tar at
+the top of long poles. Thus they go singing to the cattle-sheds, the
+granaries, and so forth, and afterwards march thrice round the
+dwelling-house. Finally, preceded by the shrill music of the bagpipes
+and shawms, they repair to a neighbouring hill, where the materials of a
+bonfire have been collected. Tar-barrels filled with combustibles are
+hung on poles, or the trunk of a felled tree has been set up with a
+great mass of juniper piled about it in the form of a pyramid. When a
+light has been set to the pile, old and young gather about it and pass
+the time merrily with song and music till break of day. Every one who
+comes brings fresh fuel for the fire, and they say, "Now we all gather
+together, where St. John's fire burns. He who comes not to St. John's
+fire will have his barley full of thistles, and his oats full of weeds."
+Three logs are thrown into the fire with special ceremony; in throwing
+the first they say, "Gold of pleasure (a plant with yellow flowers) into
+the fire!" in throwing the second they say, "Weeds to the unploughed
+land!" but in throwing the third they cry, "Flax on my field!" The fire
+is said to keep the witches from the cattle.[446] According to others,
+it ensures that for the whole year the milk shall be "as pure as silver
+and as the stars in the sky, and the butter as yellow as the sun and the
+fire and the gold."[447] In the Esthonian island of Oesel, while they
+throw fuel into the midsummer fire, they call out, "Weeds to the fire,
+flax to the field," or they fling three billets into the flames, saying,
+"Flax grow long!" And they take charred sticks from the bonfire home
+with them and keep them to make the cattle thrive. In some parts of the
+island the bonfire is formed by piling brushwood and other combustibles
+round a tree, at the top of which a flag flies. Whoever succeeds in
+knocking down the flag with a pole before it begins to burn will have
+good luck. Formerly the festivities lasted till daybreak, and ended in
+scenes of debauchery which looked doubly hideous by the growing light of
+a summer morning.[448]
+
+[The Midsummer fires among the Finns and Cheremiss of Russia.]
+
+Still farther north, among a people of the same Turanian stock, we learn
+from an eye-witness that Midsummer Night used to witness a sort of
+witches' sabbath on the top of every hill in Finland. The bonfire was
+made by setting up four tall birches in a square and piling the
+intermediate space with fuel. Round the roaring flames the people sang
+and drank and gambolled in the usual way.[449] Farther east, in the
+valley of the Volga, the Cheremiss celebrate about midsummer a festival
+which Haxthausen regarded as identical with the midsummer ceremonies of
+the rest of Europe. A sacred tree in the forest, generally a tall and
+solitary oak, marks the scene of the solemnity. All the males assemble
+there, but no woman may be present. A heathen priest lights seven fires
+in a row from north-west to south-east; cattle are sacrificed and their
+blood poured in the fires, each of which is dedicated to a separate
+deity. Afterwards the holy tree is illumined by lighted candles placed
+on its branches; the people fall on their knees and with faces bowed to
+the earth pray that God would be pleased to bless them, their children,
+their cattle, and their bees, grant them success in trade, in travel,
+and in the chase, enable them to pay the Czar's taxes, and so
+forth.[450]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in France; Bossuet on the Midsummer festival.]
+
+When we pass from the east to the west of Europe we still find the
+summer solstice celebrated with rites of the same general character.
+Down to about the middle of the nineteenth century the custom of
+lighting bonfires at midsummer prevailed so commonly in France that
+there was hardly a town or a village, we are told, where they were not
+kindled.[451] Though the pagan origin of the custom may be regarded as
+certain, the Catholic Church threw a Christian cloak over it by boldly
+declaring that the bonfires were lit in token of the general rejoicing
+at the birth of the Baptist, who opportunely came into the world at the
+solstice of summer, just as his greater successor did at the solstice of
+winter; so that the whole year might be said to revolve on the golden
+hinges of these two great birthdays.[452] Writing in the seventeenth
+century Bishop Bossuet expressly affirms this edifying theory of the
+Midsummer bonfires, and he tells his catechumens that the Church herself
+participated in the illumination, since in several dioceses, including
+his own diocese of Meaux, a number of parishes kindled what were called
+ecclesiastical fires for the purpose of banishing the superstitions
+practised at the purely mundane bonfires. These superstitions, he goes
+on to say, consisted in dancing round the fire, playing, feasting,
+singing ribald songs, throwing herbs across the fire, gathering herbs at
+noon or while fasting, carrying them on the person, preserving them
+throughout the year, keeping brands or cinders of the fire, and other
+similar practices.[453] However excellent the intentions of the
+ecclesiastical authorities may have been, they failed of effecting their
+purpose; for the superstitions as well as the bonfires survived in
+France far into the nineteenth century, if indeed they are extinct even
+now at the beginning of the twentieth. Writing in the latter part of the
+nineteenth century Mr. Ch. Cuissard tells us that he himself witnessed
+in Touraine and Poitou the superstitious practices which he describes as
+follows: "The most credulous examine the ways in which the flame burns
+and draw good or bad omens accordingly. Others, after leaping through
+the flames crosswise, pass their little children through them thrice,
+fully persuaded that the little ones will then be able to walk at once.
+In some places the shepherds make their sheep tread the embers of the
+extinct fire in order to preserve them from the foot-rot. Here you may
+see about midnight an old woman grubbing among the cinders of the pyre
+to find the hair of the Holy Virgin or Saint John, which she deems an
+infallible specific against fever. There, another woman is busy plucking
+the roots of the herbs which have been burned on the surface of the
+ground; she intends to eat them, imagining that they are an infallible
+preservative against cancer. Elsewhere a girl wears on her neck a flower
+which the touch of St. John's fire has turned for her into a talisman,
+and she is sure to marry within the year. Shots are fired at the tree
+planted in the midst of the fire to drive away the demons who might
+purpose to send sicknesses about the country. Seats are set round about
+the bonfire, in order that the souls of dead relations may come and
+enjoy themselves for a little with the living."[454]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Brittany; uses made of the charred sticks and
+flowers.]
+
+In Brittany, apparently, the custom of the Midsummer bonfires is kept up
+to this day. Thus in Lower Brittany every town and every village still
+lights its _tantad_ or bonfire on St. John's Night. When the flames have
+died down, the whole assembly kneels round about the bonfire and an old
+man prays aloud. Then they all rise and march thrice round the fire; at
+the third turn they stop and every one picks up a pebble and throws it
+on the burning pile. After that they disperse.[455] In Finistere the
+bonfires of St. John's Day are kindled by preference in an open space
+near a chapel of St. John; but if there is no such chapel, they are
+lighted in the square facing the parish church and in some districts at
+cross-roads. Everybody brings fuel for the fire, it may be a faggot, a
+log, a branch, or an armful of gorse. When the vespers are over, the
+parish priest sets a light to the pile. All heads are bared, prayers
+recited, and hymns sung. Then the dancing begins. The young folk skip
+round the blazing pile and leap over it, when the flames have died down.
+If anybody makes a false step and falls or rolls in the hot embers, he
+or she is greeted with hoots and retires abashed from the circle of
+dancers. Brands are carried home from the bonfire to protect the houses
+against lightning, conflagrations, and certain maladies and spells. The
+precious talisman is carefully kept in a cupboard till St. John's Day of
+the following year.[456] At Quimper, and in the district of Leon, chairs
+used to be placed round the midsummer bonfire, that the souls of the
+dead might sit on them and warm themselves at the blaze.[457] At Brest
+on this day thousands of people used to assemble on the ramparts towards
+evening and brandish lighted torches, which they swung in circles or
+flung by hundreds into the air. The closing of the town gates put an end
+to the spectacle, and the lights might be seen dispersing in all
+directions like wandering will-o'-the-wisps.[458] In Upper Brittany the
+materials for the midsummer bonfires, which generally consist of bundles
+of furze and heath, are furnished by voluntary contributions, and piled
+on the tops of hills round poles, each of which is surmounted by a
+nosegay or a crown. This nosegay or crown is generally provided by a man
+named John or a woman named Jean, and it is always a John or a Jean who
+puts a light to the bonfire. While the fire is blazing the people dance
+and sing round it, and when the flames have subsided they leap over the
+glowing embers. Charred sticks from the bonfire are thrown into wells to
+improve the water, and they are also taken home as a protection against
+thunder.[459] To make them thoroughly effective, however, against
+thunder and lightning you should keep them near your bed, between a bit
+of a Twelfth Night cake and a sprig of boxwood which has been blessed on
+Palm Sunday.[460] Flowers from the nosegay or crown which overhung the
+fire are accounted charms against disease and pain, both bodily and
+spiritual; hence girls hang them at their breast by a thread of scarlet
+wool. In many parishes of Brittany the priest used to go in procession
+with the crucifix and kindle the bonfire with his own hands; and farmers
+were wont to drive their flocks and herds through the fire in order to
+preserve them from sickness till midsummer of the following year. Also
+it was believed that every girl who danced round nine of the bonfires
+would marry within the year.[461]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Normandy; the fires as a protection against
+witchcraft; the Brotherhood of the Green Wolf at Jumieges; pretence of
+throwing the Green Wolf into the fire.]
+
+In Normandy the midsummer fires have now almost disappeared, at least in
+the district known as the Bocage, but they used to shine on every hill.
+They were commonly made by piling brushwood, broom, and ferns about a
+tall tree, which was decorated with a crown of moss and sometimes with
+flowers. While they burned, people danced and sang round them, and young
+folk leaped over the flames or the glowing ashes. In the valley of the
+Orne the custom was to kindle the bonfire just at the moment when the
+sun was about to dip below the horizon; and the peasants drove their
+cattle through the fires to protect them against witchcraft, especially
+against the spells of witches and wizards who attempted to steal the
+milk and butter.[462] At Jumieges in Normandy, down to the first half of
+the nineteenth century, the midsummer festival was marked by certain
+singular features which bore the stamp of a very high antiquity. Every
+year, on the twenty-third of June, the Eve of St. John, the Brotherhood
+of the Green Wolf chose a new chief or master, who had always to be
+taken from the hamlet of Conihout. On being elected, the new head of the
+brotherhood assumed the title of the Green Wolf, and donned a peculiar
+costume consisting of a long green mantle and a very tall green hat of a
+conical shape and without a brim. Thus arrayed he stalked solemnly at
+the head of the brothers, chanting the hymn of St. John, the crucifix
+and holy banner leading the way, to a place called Chouquet. Here the
+procession was met by the priest, precentors, and choir, who conducted
+the brotherhood to the parish church. After hearing mass the company
+adjourned to the house of the Green Wolf, where a simple repast, such as
+is required by the church on fast-days, was served up to them. Then they
+danced before the door till it was time to light the bonfire. Night
+being come, the fire was kindled to the sound of hand-bells by a young
+man and a young woman, both decked with flowers. As the flames rose, the
+_Te Deum_ was sung, and a villager thundered out a parody in the Norman
+dialect of the hymn _ut queant laxis_. Meantime the Green Wolf and his
+brothers, with their hoods down on their shoulders and holding each
+other by the hand, ran round the fire after the man who had been chosen
+to be the Green Wolf of the following year. Though only the first and
+the last man of the chain had a hand free, their business was to
+surround and seize thrice the future Green Wolf, who in his efforts to
+escape belaboured the brothers with a long wand which he carried. When
+at last they succeeded in catching him they carried him to the burning
+pile and made as if they would throw him on it. This ceremony over, they
+returned to the house of the Green Wolf, where a supper, still of the
+most meagre fare, was set before them. Up till midnight a sort of
+religious solemnity prevailed. No unbecoming word might fall from the
+lips of any of the company, and a censor, armed with a hand-bell, was
+appointed to mark and punish instantly any infraction of the rule. But
+at the stroke of twelve all this was changed. Constraint gave way to
+license; pious hymns were replaced by Bacchanalian ditties, and the
+shrill quavering notes of the village fiddle hardly rose above the roar
+of voices that went up from the merry brotherhood of the Green Wolf.
+Next day, the twenty-fourth of June or Midsummer Day, was celebrated by
+the same personages with the same noisy gaiety. One of the ceremonies
+consisted in parading, to the sound of musketry, an enormous loaf of
+consecrated bread, which, rising in tiers, was surmounted by a pyramid
+of verdure adorned with ribbons. After that the holy handbells,
+deposited on the step of the altar, were entrusted as insignia of office
+to the man who was to be the Green Wolf next year.[463]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Picardy.]
+
+In the canton of Breteuil in Picardy (department of Oise) the priest
+used to kindle the midsummer bonfire, and the people marched thrice
+round it in procession. Some of them took ashes of the fire home with
+them to protect the houses against lightning.[464] The custom is, or was
+down to recent years, similar at Vorges, near Laon. An enormous pyre,
+some fifty or sixty feet high, supported in the middle by a tall pole,
+is constructed every year on the twenty-third of June, the Eve of St.
+John. It stands at one end of the village, and all the inhabitants
+contribute fuel to it: a cart goes round the village in the morning, by
+order of the mayor, collecting combustibles from house to house: no one
+would dream of refusing to comply with the customary obligation. In the
+evening, after a service in honour of St. John has been performed in the
+church, the clergy, the mayor, the municipal authorities, the rural
+police, and the fire-brigade march in procession to the bonfire,
+accompanied by the inhabitants and a crowd of idlers drawn by curiosity
+from the neighbouring villages. After addressing the throng in a sermon,
+to which they pay little heed, the parish priest sprinkles the pyre with
+holy water, and taking a lighted torch from the hand of an assistant
+sets fire to the pile. The enormous blaze, flaring up against the dark
+sky of the summer night, is seen for many miles around, particularly
+from the hill of Laon. When it has died down into a huge heap of glowing
+embers and grey ashes, every one carries home a charred stick or some
+cinders; and the fire-brigade, playing their hose on what remains,
+extinguishes the smouldering fire. The people preserve the charred
+sticks and cinders throughout the year, believing that these relics of
+St John's bonfire have power to guard them from lightning and from
+contagious diseases.[465] At Chateau-Thierry, a town of the department
+of Aisne, between Paris and Reims, the custom of lighting bonfires and
+dancing round them at the midsummer festival of St. John lasted down to
+about 1850; the fires were kindled especially when June had been rainy,
+and the people thought that the lighting of the bonfires would cause the
+rain to cease.[466]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Beauce and Perche; the fires as a protection
+against witchcraft.]
+
+In Beauce and Perche, two neighbouring districts of France to the
+south-west of Paris, the midsummer bonfires have nearly or wholly
+disappeared, but formerly they were commonly kindled and went by the
+name of the "fires of St. John." The site of the bonfire was either the
+village square or beside the cross in the cemetery. Here a great pile of
+faggots, brushwood, and grass was accumulated about a huge branch, which
+bore at the top a crown of fresh flowers. The priest blessed the bonfire
+and the people danced round it. When it blazed and crackled, the
+bystanders thrust their heads into the puffs of smoke, in the belief
+that it would preserve them from a multitude of ills; and when the fire
+was burnt out, they rushed upon the charred embers and ashes and carried
+them home, imagining that they had a secret virtue to guard their houses
+from being struck by lightning or consumed by fire. Some of the Perche
+farmers in the old days, not content with the public bonfire, used to
+light little private bonfires in their farmyards and make all their
+cattle pass through the smoke and flames for the purpose of protecting
+them against witchcraft or disease.[467]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in the Ardennes, the Vosges, and the Jura; the
+Midsummer fires in Franche-Comte; the Midsummer fires in Berry and other
+parts of Central France.]
+
+In the department of the Ardennes every one was wont to contribute his
+faggot to the midsummer bonfire, and the clergy marched at the head of
+the procession to kindle it. Failure to light the fires would, in the
+popular belief, have exposed the fields to the greatest danger. At Revin
+the young folk, besides dancing round the fire to the strains of the
+village fiddler, threw garlands of flowers across the flames to each
+other.[468] In the Vosges it is still customary to kindle bonfires upon
+the hill-tops on Midsummer Eve; the people believe that the fires help
+to preserve the fruits of the earth and ensure good crops.[469] In the
+Jura Mountains the midsummer bonfires went by the name of _ba_ or
+_beau_. They were lit on the most conspicuous points of the
+landscape.[470] Near St. Jean, in the Jura, it appears that at this
+season young people still repair to the cross-roads and heights, and
+there wave burning torches so as to present the appearance of fiery
+wheels in the darkness.[471] In Franche-Comte, the province of France
+which lies immediately to the west of the Jura mountains, the fires of
+St. John still shone on the saint's day in several villages down to
+recent years. They were generally lit on high ground and the young folks
+of both sexes sang and danced round them, and sprang over the dying
+flames.[472] In Bresse bonfires used to be kindled on Midsummer Eve (the
+twenty-third of June) and the people danced about them in a circle.
+Devout persons, particularly old women, circumambulated the fires
+fourteen times, telling their beads and mumbling seven _Paters_ and
+seven _Aves_ in the hope that thereby they would feel no pains in their
+backs when they stooped over the sickle in the harvest field.[473] In
+Berry, a district of Central France, the midsummer fire was lit on the
+Eve of St. John and went by the name of the _jonee, joannee_, or
+_jouannee_. Every family according to its means contributed faggots,
+which were piled round a pole on the highest ground in the
+neighbourhood. In the hamlets the office of kindling the fire devolved
+on the oldest man, but in the towns it was the priest or the mayor who
+discharged the duty. Here, as in Brittany, people supposed that a girl
+who had danced round nine of the midsummer bonfires would marry within
+the year. To leap several times over the fire was regarded as a sort of
+purification which kept off sickness and brought good luck to the
+leaper. Hence the nimble youth bounded through the smoke and flames, and
+when the fire had somewhat abated parents jumped across it with their
+children in their arms in order that the little ones might also partake
+of its beneficent influence. Embers from the extinct bonfire were taken
+home, and after being dipped in holy water were kept as a talisman
+against all kinds of misfortune, but especially against lightning.[474]
+The same virtue was ascribed to the ashes and charred sticks of the
+midsummer bonfire in Perigord, where everybody contributed his share of
+fuel to the pile and the whole was crowned with flowers, especially with
+roses and lilies.[475] On the borders of the departments of Creuse and
+Correze, in Central France, the fires of St. John used to be lit on the
+Eve of the saint's day (the twenty-third of June); the custom seems to
+have survived till towards the end of the nineteenth century. Men,
+women, and children assembled round the fires, and the young people
+jumped over them. Children were brought by their parents or elder
+brothers into contact with the flames in the belief that this would save
+them from fever. Older people girded themselves with stalks of rye taken
+from a neighbouring field, because they fancied that by so doing they
+would not grow weary in reaping the corn at harvest.[476]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Poitou.]
+
+Bonfires were lit in almost all the hamlets of Poitou on the Eve of St.
+John. People marched round them thrice, carrying a branch of walnut in
+their hand. Shepherdesses and children passed sprigs of mullein
+(_verbascum_) and nuts across the flames; the nuts were supposed to cure
+toothache, and the mullein to protect the cattle from sickness and
+sorcery. When the fire died down people took some of the ashes home with
+them, either to keep them in the house as a preservative against thunder
+or to scatter them on the fields for the purpose of destroying
+corn-cockles and darnel. Stones were also placed round the fire, and it
+was believed that the first to lift one of these stones next morning
+would find under it the hair of St. John.[477] In Poitou also it used to
+be customary on the Eve of St. John to trundle a blazing wheel wrapt in
+straw over the fields to fertilize them.[478] This last custom is said
+to be now extinct,[479] but it is still usual, or was so down to recent
+years, in Poitou to kindle fires on this day at cross-roads or on the
+heights. The oldest or youngest person present sets a light to the pile,
+which consists of broom, gorse, and heath. A bright and crackling blaze
+shoots up, but soon dies down, and over it the young folk leap. They
+also throw stones into it, picking the stone according to the size of
+the turnips that they wish to have that year. It is said that "the good
+Virgin" comes and sits on the prettiest of the stones, and next morning
+they see there her beautiful golden tresses. At Lussac, in Poitou, the
+lighting of the midsummer bonfire is still an affair of some ceremony. A
+pyramid of faggots is piled round a tree or tall pole on the ground
+where the fair is held; the priest goes in procession to the spot and
+kindles the pile. When prayers have been said and the clergy have
+withdrawn, the people continue to march round the fire, telling their
+beads, but it is not till the flames have begun to die down that the
+youth jump over them. A brand from the midsummer bonfire is supposed to
+be a preservative against thunder.[480]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in the departments of Vienne and Deux-Sevres and in
+the provinces of Saintonge and Aunis.]
+
+In the department of Vienne the bonfire was kindled by the oldest man,
+and before the dance round the flames began it was the custom to pass
+across them a great bunch of mullein (_bouillon blanc_) and a branch of
+walnut, which next morning before sunrise were fastened over the door of
+the chief cattle-shed.[481] A similar custom prevailed in the
+neighbouring department of Deux-Sevres; but here it was the priest who
+kindled the bonfire, and old men used to put embers of the fire in their
+wooden shoes as a preservative against many evils.[482] In some towns
+and villages of Saintonge and Aunis, provinces of Western France now
+mostly comprised in the department of Charente Inferieure, the fires of
+St. John are still kindled on Midsummer Eve, but the custom is neither
+so common nor carried out with so much pomp and ceremony as formerly.
+Great quantities of wood used to be piled on an open space round about a
+huge post or a tree stripped of its leaves and branches. Every one took
+care to contribute a faggot to the pile, and the whole population
+marched to the spot in procession with the crucifix at their head and
+the priest bringing up the rear. The squire, or other person of high
+degree, put the torch to the pyre, and the priest blessed it. In the
+southern and eastern parts of Saintonge children and cattle were passed
+through the smoke of the bonfires to preserve them from contagious
+diseases, and when the fire had gone out the people scuffled for the
+charred fragments of the great post, which they regarded as talismans
+against thunder. Next morning, on Midsummer Day, every shepherdess in
+the neighbourhood was up very early, for the first to drive her sheep
+over the blackened cinders and ashes of the great bonfire was sure to
+have the best flock all that year. Where the shepherds shrunk from
+driving their flocks through the smoke and flames of the bonfire they
+contented themselves with marking the hinder-quarters of the animals
+with a broom which had been blackened in the ashes.[483]
+
+[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.]
+
+In the mountainous part of Comminges, a province of Southern France, now
+comprised in the department of Haute Garonne, the midsummer fire is made
+by splitting open the trunk of a tall tree, stuffing the crevice with
+shavings, and igniting the whole. A garland of flowers is fastened to
+the top of the tree, and at the moment when the fire is lighted the man
+who was last married has to climb up a ladder and bring the flowers
+down. In the flat parts of the same district the materials of the
+midsummer bonfires consist of fuel piled in the usual way; but they must
+be put together by men who have been married since the last midsummer
+festival, and each of these benedicts is obliged to lay a wreath of
+flowers on the top of the pile.[484] At the entrance of the valley of
+Aran young people set up on the banks of the Garonne a tree covered with
+ribbons and garlands; at the end of a year the withered tree and faded
+flowers furnish excellent fuel. So on the Eve of St. John the villagers
+assemble, and an old man or a child kindles the fire which is to consume
+tree and garlands together. While the blaze lasts the people sing and
+dance; and the burnt tree is then replaced by another which will suffer
+the same fate after the lapse of a year.[485] In some districts of the
+French Pyrenees it is deemed necessary to leap nine times over the
+midsummer fire if you would be assured of prosperity.[486] A traveller
+in Southern France at the beginning of the nineteenth century tells us
+that "the Eve of St. John is also a day of joy for the Provencals. They
+light great fires and the young folk leap over them. At Aix they shower
+squibs and crackers on the passers-by, which has often had disagreeable
+consequences. At Marseilles they drench each other with scented water,
+which is poured from the windows or squirted from little syringes; the
+roughest jest is to souse passers-by with clean water, which gives rise
+to loud bursts of laughter."[487] At Draguignan, in the department of
+Var, fires used to be lit in every street on the Eve of St. John, and
+the people roasted pods of garlic at them; the pods were afterwards
+distributed to every family. Another diversion of the evening was to
+pour cans of water from the houses on the heads of people in the
+streets.[488] In Provence the midsummer fires are still popular.
+Children go from door to door begging for fuel, and they are seldom sent
+empty away. Formerly the priest, the mayor, and the aldermen used to
+walk in procession to the bonfire, and even deigned to light it; after
+which the assembly marched thrice round the burning pile, while the
+church bells pealed and rockets fizzed and sputtered in the air. Dancing
+began later, and the bystanders threw water on each other. At Ciotat,
+while the fire was blazing, the young people plunged into the sea and
+splashed each other vigorously. At Vitrolles they bathed in a pond in
+order that they might not suffer from fever during the year, and at
+Saintes-Maries they watered the horses to protect them from the
+itch.[489] At Aix a nominal king, chosen from among the youth for his
+skill in shooting at a popinjay, presided over the festival. He selected
+his own officers, and escorted by a brilliant train marched to the
+bonfire, kindled it, and was the first to dance round it. Next day he
+distributed largesse to his followers. His reign lasted a year, during
+which he enjoyed certain privileges. He was allowed to attend the mass
+celebrated by the commander of the Knights of St. John on St. John's
+Day: the right of hunting was accorded to him; and soldiers might not be
+quartered in his house. At Marseilles also on this day one of the guilds
+chose a king of the _badache_ or double axe; but it does not appear that
+he kindled the bonfire, which is said to have been lighted with great
+ceremony by the prefet and other authorities.[490]
+
+[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.]
+
+In Belgium the custom of kindling the midsummer bonfires has long
+disappeared from the great cities, but it is still kept up in rural
+districts and small towns of Brabant, Flanders, and Limburg. People leap
+across the fires to protect themselves against fever, and in eastern
+Flanders women perform similar leaps for the purpose of ensuring an easy
+delivery. At Termonde young people go from door to door collecting fuel
+for the fires and reciting verses, in which they beg the inmates to give
+them "wood of St. John" and to keep some wood for St. Peter's Day (the
+twenty-ninth of June); for in Belgium the Eve of St. Peter's Day is
+celebrated by bonfires and dances exactly like those which commemorate
+St. John's Eve. The ashes of the St. John's fires are deemed by Belgian
+peasants an excellent remedy for consumption, if you take a spoonful or
+two of them, moistened with water, day by day. People also burn vervain
+in the fires, and they say that in the ashes of the plant you may find,
+if you look for it, the "Fool's Stone."[491] In many parts of Brabant
+St. Peter's bonfire used to be much larger than that of his rival St.
+John. When it had burned out, both sexes engaged in a game of ball, and
+the winner became the King of Summer or of the Ball and had the right to
+choose his Queen. Sometimes the winner was a woman, and it was then her
+privilege to select her royal mate. This pastime was well known at
+Louvain and it continued to be practised at Grammont and Mespelaer down
+to the second half of the nineteenth century. At Mespelaer, which is a
+village near Termonde, a huge pile of eglantine, reeds, and straw was
+collected in a marshy meadow for the bonfire; and next evening after
+vespers the young folk who had lit it assembled at the "Good Life"
+tavern to play the game. The winner was crowned with a wreath of roses,
+and the rest danced and sang in a ring about him. At Grammont, while the
+bonfire was lit and the dances round it took place on St. Peter's Eve,
+the festival of the "Crown of Roses" was deferred till the following
+Sunday. The young folk arranged among themselves beforehand who should
+be King and Queen of the Roses: the rosy wreaths were hung on cords
+across the street: the dancers danced below them, and at a given moment
+the wreaths fell on the heads of the chosen King and Queen, who had to
+entertain their fellows at a feast. According to some people the fires
+of St. Peter, like those of St. John, were lighted in order to drive
+away dragons.[492] In French Flanders down to 1789 a straw figure
+representing a man was always burned in the midsummer bonfire, and the
+figure of a woman was burned on St. Peter's Day.[493] In Belgium people
+jump over the midsummer bonfires as a preventive of colic, and they keep
+the ashes at home to hinder fire from breaking out.[494]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in England; Stow's description of the Midsummer
+fires in London; the Midsummer fires at Eton.]
+
+The custom of lighting bonfires at midsummer has been observed in many
+parts of our own country. "On the Vigil of Saint John the Baptist,
+commonly called Midsummer Eve, it was usual in most country places, and
+also in towns and cities, for the inhabitants, both old and young, and
+of both sexes, to meet together, and make merry by the side of a large
+fire made in the middle of the street, or in some open and convenient
+place, over which the young men frequently leaped by way of frolic, and
+also exercised themselves with various sports and pastimes, more
+especially with running, wrestling, and dancing. These diversions they
+continued till midnight, and sometimes till cock-crowing."[495] In the
+streets of London the midsummer fires were lighted in the time of Queen
+Elizabeth down to the end of the sixteenth century, as we learn from
+Stow's description, which runs thus: "In the months of June and July, on
+the vigils of festival days, and on the same festival days in the
+evenings after the sun setting, there were usually made bonfires in the
+streets, every man bestowing wood or labour towards them; the wealthier
+sort also, before their doors near to the said bonfires, would set out
+tables on the vigils furnished with sweet bread and good drink, and on
+the festival days with meats and drinks plentifully, whereunto they
+would invite their neighbours and passengers also to sit and be merry
+with them in great familiarity, praising God for His benefits bestowed
+on them. These were called bonfires as well of good amity amongst
+neighbours that being before at controversy, were there, by the labour
+of others, reconciled, and made of bitter enemies loving friends; and
+also for the virtue that a great fire hath to purge the infection of the
+air. On the vigil of St. John the Baptist, and on St. Peter and Paul the
+Apostles, every man's door being shadowed with green birch, long fennel,
+St John's wort, orpin, white lilies, and such like, garnished upon with
+garlands of beautiful flowers, had also lamps of glass, with oil burning
+in them all the night; some hung out branches of iron curiously wrought,
+containing hundreds of lamps alight at once, which made a goodly show,
+namely, in New Fish Street, Thames Street, etc."[496] In the sixteenth
+century the Eton boys used to kindle a bonfire on the east side of the
+church both on St John's Day and on St. Peter's Day.[497] Writing in the
+second half of the seventeenth century, the antiquary John Aubrey tells
+us that bonfires were still kindled in many places on St. John's Night,
+but that the civil wars had thrown many of these old customs out of
+fashion. Wars, he adds, extinguish superstition as well as religion and
+laws, and there is nothing like gunpowder for putting phantoms to
+flight.[498]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in the north of England; the Midsummer fires in
+Northumberland.]
+
+In the north of England these fires used to be lit in the open streets.
+Young and old gathered round them, and while the young leaped over the
+fires and engaged in games, their elders looked on and probably
+remembered with regret the days when they used to foot it as nimbly.
+Sometimes the fires were kindled on the tops of high hills. The people
+also carried firebrands about the fields.[499] The custom of kindling
+bonfires on Midsummer Eve prevailed all over Cumberland down to the
+second half of the eighteenth century.[500] In Northumberland the custom
+seems to have lasted into the first quarter of the nineteenth century;
+the fires were lit in the villages and on the tops of high hills, and
+the people sported and danced round them.[501] Moreover, the villagers
+used to run with burning brands round their fields and to snatch ashes
+from a neighbour's fire, saying as they did so, "We have the flower (or
+flour) of the wake."[502] At Sandhill bonfires were kindled on the Eve
+of St. Peter as well as on Midsummer Eve; the custom is attested for the
+year 1575, when it was described as ancient.[503] We are told that "on
+Midsummer's eve, reckoned according to the old style, it was formerly
+the custom of the inhabitants, young and old, not only of Whalton, but
+of most of the adjacent villages, to collect a large cartload of whins
+and other combustible materials, which was dragged by them with great
+rejoicing (a fiddler being seated on the top of the cart) into the
+village and erected into a pile. The people from the surrounding country
+assembled towards evening, when it was set on fire; and whilst the young
+danced around it, the elders looked on smoking their pipes and drinking
+their beer, until it was consumed. There can be little doubt that this
+curious old custom dates from a very remote antiquity." In a law-suit,
+which was tried in 1878, the rector of Whalton gave evidence of the
+constant use of the village green for the ceremony since 1843. "The
+bonfire," he said, "was lighted a little to the north-east of the well
+at Whalton, and partly on the footpath, and people danced round it and
+jumped through it. That was never interrupted." The Rev. G.R. Hall,
+writing in 1879, says that "the fire festivals or bonfires of the summer
+solstice at the Old Midsummer until recently were commemorated on
+Christenburg Crags and elsewhere by leaping through and dancing round
+the fires, as those who have been present have told me."[504] Down to
+the early part of the nineteenth century bonfires called Beal-fires used
+to be lit on Midsummer Eve all over the wolds in the East Riding of
+Yorkshire.[505]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Herefordshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, and
+Cornwall; the Cornish fires on Midsummer Eve and St. Peter's Eve.]
+
+In Herefordshire and Somersetshire the peasants used to make fires in
+the fields on Midsummer Eve "to bless the apples."[506] In Devonshire
+the custom of leaping over the midsummer fires was also observed.[507]
+"In Cornwall, the festival fires, called bonfires, are kindled on the
+Eves of St. John Baptist and St. Peter's day; and Midsummer is thence,
+in the Cornish tongue, called _Goluan_, which signifies both light and
+rejoicing. At these fires the Cornish attend with lighted torches,
+tarred and pitched at the end, and make their perambulations round their
+fires, going from village to village and carrying their torches before
+them; this is certainly the remains of Druid superstition; for, _Faces
+praeferre_, to carry lighted torches was reckoned a kind of gentilism,
+and as such particularly prohibited by the Gallick Councils."[508] At
+Penzance and elsewhere in the county the people danced and sang about
+the bonfires on Midsummer Eve. On Whiteborough, a large tumulus near
+Launceston, a huge bonfire used to be kindled on Midsummer Eve; a tall
+summer pole with a large bush at the top was fixed in the centre of the
+bonfire.[509] The Cornish fires at this season appear to have been
+commonly lit on high and conspicuous hills, such as Tregonan, Godolphin,
+Carnwarth, and Cam Brea. When it grew dusk on Midsummer Eve, old men
+would hobble away to some height whence they counted the fires and drew
+a presage from their number.[510] "It is the immemorial usage in
+Penzance, and the neighbouring towns and villages, to kindle bonfires
+and torches on Midsummer-eve; and on Midsummer-day to hold a fair on
+Penzance quay, where the country folks assemble from the adjoining
+parishes in great numbers to make excursions on the water. St. Peter's
+Eve (the twenty-eighth of June) is distinguished by a similar display of
+bonfires and torches, although the 'quay-fair' on St. Peter's-day (the
+twenty-ninth of June), has been discontinued upwards of forty years. On
+these eves a line of tar-barrels, relieved occasionally by large
+bonfires, is seen in the centre of each of the principal streets in
+Penzance. On either side of this line young men and women pass up and
+down, swinging round their heads heavy torches made of large pieces of
+folded canvas steeped in tar, and nailed to the ends of sticks between
+three and four feet long; the flames of some of these almost equal those
+of the tar-barrels. Rows of lighted candles, also, when the air is calm,
+are fixed outside the windows or along the sides of the streets. In St.
+Just, and other mining parishes, the young miners, mimicking their
+fathers' employments, bore rows of holes in the rocks, load them with
+gunpowder, and explode them in rapid succession by trains of the same
+substance. As the holes are not deep enough to split the rocks, the same
+little batteries serve for many years. On these nights, Mount's Bay has
+a most animating appearance, although not equal to what was annually
+witnessed at the beginning of the present century, when the whole coast,
+from the Land's End to the Lizard, wherever a town or a village existed,
+was lighted up with these stationary or moving fires. In the early part
+of the evening, children may be seen wearing wreaths of flowers--a
+custom in all probability originating from the ancient use of these
+ornaments when they danced around the fires. At the close of the
+fireworks in Penzance, a great number of persons of both sexes, chiefly
+from the neighbourhood of the quay, used always, until within the last
+few years, to join hand in hand, forming a long string, and run through
+the streets, playing 'thread the needle,' heedless of the fireworks
+showered upon them, and oftentimes leaping over the yet glowing embers.
+I have on these occasions seen boys following one another, jumping
+through flames higher than themselves."[511]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Wales and the Isle of Man; burning wheel rolled
+down hill.]
+
+In Wales the midsummer fires were kindled on St. John's Eve and on St.
+John's Day. Three or nine different kinds of wood and charred faggots
+carefully preserved from the last midsummer were deemed necessary to
+build the bonfire, which was generally done on rising ground. Various
+herbs were thrown into the blaze; and girls with bunches of three or
+nine different kinds of flowers would take the hands of boys, who wore
+flowers in their buttonholes and hats, and together the young couples
+would leap over the fires. On the same two midsummer days roses and
+wreaths of flowers were hung over the doors and windows. "Describing a
+midsummer fire, an old inhabitant, born in 1809, remembered being taken
+to different hills in the Vale of Glamorgan to see festivities in which
+people from all parts of the district participated. She was at that time
+about fourteen, and old enough to retain a vivid recollection of the
+circumstances. People conveyed trusses of straw to the top of the hill,
+where men and youths waited for the contributions. Women and girls were
+stationed at the bottom of the hill. Then a large cart-wheel was thickly
+swathed with straw, and not an inch of wood was left in sight. A pole
+was inserted through the centre of the wheel, so that long ends extended
+about a yard on each side. If any straw remained, it was made up into
+torches at the top of tall sticks. At a given signal the wheel was
+lighted, and sent rolling downhill. If this fire-wheel went out before
+it reached the bottom of the hill, a very poor harvest was promised. If
+it kept lighted all the way down, and continued blazing for a long time,
+the harvest would be exceptionally abundant. Loud cheers and shouts
+accompanied the progress of the wheel."[512] At Darowen in Wales small
+bonfires were kindled on Midsummer Eve.[513] On the same day people in
+the Isle of Man were wont to light fires to the windward of every field,
+so that the smoke might pass over the corn; and they folded their cattle
+and carried blazing furze or gorse round them several times.[514]
+
+[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.]
+
+A writer of the last quarter of the seventeenth century tells us that in
+Ireland, "on the Eves of St. John Baptist and St. Peter, they always
+have in every town a bonfire, late in the evenings, and carry about
+bundles of reeds fast tied and fired; these being dry, will last long,
+and flame better than a torch, and be a pleasing divertive prospect to
+the distant beholder; a stranger would go near to imagine the whole
+country was on fire."[515] Another writer says of the South of Ireland:
+"On Midsummer's Eve, every eminence, near which is a habitation, blazes
+with bonfires; and round these they carry numerous torches, shouting and
+dancing, which affords a beautiful sight."[516] An author who described
+Ireland in the first quarter of the eighteenth century says: "On the
+vigil of St. John the Baptist's Nativity, they make bonfires, and run
+along the streets and fields with wisps of straw blazing on long poles
+to purify the air, which they think infectious, by believing all the
+devils, spirits, ghosts, and hobgoblins fly abroad this night to hurt
+mankind."[517] Another writer states that he witnessed the festival in
+Ireland in 1782: "At the house where I was entertained, it was told me,
+that we should see, at midnight, the most singular sight in Ireland,
+which was the lighting of fires in honour of the sun. Accordingly,
+exactly at midnight, the fires began to appear; and taking the advantage
+of going up to the leads of the house, which had a widely extended view,
+I saw on a radius of thirty miles, all around, the fires burning on
+every eminence which the country afforded. I had a farther satisfaction
+in learning, from undoubted authority, that the people danced round the
+fires, and at the close went through these fires, and made their sons
+and daughters, together with their cattle, pass through the fire; and
+the whole was conducted with religious solemnity."[518] That the custom
+prevailed in full force as late as 1867 appears from a notice in a
+newspaper of that date, which runs thus: "The old pagan fire-worship
+still survives in Ireland, though nominally in honour of St. John. On
+Sunday night bonfires were observed throughout nearly every county in
+the province of Leinster. In Kilkenny, fires blazed on every hillside at
+intervals of about a mile. There were very many in the Queen's County,
+also in Kildare and Wexford. The effect in the rich sunset appeared to
+travellers very grand. The people assemble, and dance round the fires,
+the children jump through the flames, and in former times live coals
+were carried into the corn-fields to prevent blight."[519] In County
+Leitrim on St. John's Eve, which is called Bonfire Day, fires are still
+lighted after dusk on the hills and along the sides of the roads.[520]
+All over Kerry the same thing continues to be done, though not so
+commonly as of old. Small fires were made across the road, and to drive
+through them brought luck for the year. Cattle were also driven through
+the fires. On Lettermore Island, in South Connemara, some of the ashes
+from the midsummer bonfire are thrown on the fields to fertilize
+them.[521] One writer informs us that in Munster and Connaught a bone
+must always be burned in the fire; for otherwise the people believe that
+the fire will bring no luck. He adds that in many places sterile beasts
+and human beings are passed through the fire, and that as a boy he
+himself jumped through the fire "for luck."[522] An eye-witness has
+described as follows a remarkable ceremony observed in Ireland on
+Midsummer Eve: "When the fire burned for some hours, and got low, an
+indispensable part of the ceremony commenced. Every one present of the
+peasantry passed through it, and several children were thrown across the
+sparkling embers; while a wooden frame, of some eight feet long, with a
+horse's head fixed to one end, and a large white sheet thrown over it
+concealing the wood and the man on whose head it was carried, made its
+appearance. This was greeted with loud shouts of 'The white horse!' and
+having been safely carried by the skill of its bearer several times
+through the fire with a bold leap, it pursued the people, who ran
+screaming and laughing in every direction. I asked what the horse was
+meant for, and was told that it represented 'all cattle.'"[523]
+
+[Lady Wilde's account of the Midsummer fires in Ireland.]
+
+Lady Wilde's account of the midsummer festival in Ireland is picturesque
+and probably correct in substance, although she does not cite her
+authorities. As it contains some interesting features which are not
+noticed by the other writers on Ireland whom I have consulted, I will
+quote the greater part of it in full. "In ancient times," she says, "the
+sacred fire was lighted with great ceremony on Midsummer Eve; and on
+that night all the people of the adjacent country kept fixed watch on
+the western promontory of Howth, and the moment the first flash was seen
+from that spot the fact of ignition was announced with wild cries and
+cheers repeated from village to village, when all the local fires began
+to blaze, and Ireland was circled by a cordon of flame rising up from
+every hill. Then the dance and song began round every fire, and the wild
+hurrahs filled the air with the most frantic revelry. Many of these
+ancient customs are still continued, and the fires are still lighted on
+St. John's Eve on every hill in Ireland. When the fire has burned down
+to a red glow the young men strip to the waist and leap over or through
+the flames; this is done backwards and forwards several times, and he
+who braves the greatest blaze is considered the victor over the powers
+of evil, and is greeted with tremendous applause. When the fire burns
+still lower, the young girls leap the flame, and those who leap clean
+over three times back and forward will be certain of a speedy marriage
+and good luck in after-life, with many children. The married women then
+walk through the lines of the burning embers; and when the fire is
+nearly burnt and trampled down, the yearling cattle are driven through
+the hot ashes, and their back is singed with a lighted hazel twig. These
+rods are kept safely afterwards, being considered of immense power to
+drive the cattle to and from the watering places. As the fire diminishes
+the shouting grows fainter, and the song and the dance commence; while
+professional story-tellers narrate tales of fairy-land, or of the good
+old times long ago, when the kings and princes of Ireland dwelt amongst
+their own people, and there was food to eat and wine to drink for all
+comers to the feast at the king's house. When the crowd at length
+separate, every one carries home a brand from the fire, and great virtue
+is attached to the lighted _brone_ which is safely carried to the house
+without breaking or falling to the ground. Many contests also arise
+amongst the young men; for whoever enters his house first with the
+sacred fire brings the good luck of the year with him."[524]
+
+[Holy water resorted to on Midsummer Eve in Ireland.]
+
+In Ireland, as elsewhere, water was also apparently thought to acquire a
+certain mystical virtue at midsummer. "At Stoole, near Downpatrick,
+there is a ceremony commencing at twelve o'clock at night on Midsummer
+Eve. Its sacred mount is consecrated to St. Patrick; the plain contains
+three wells, to which the most extraordinary virtues are attributed.
+Here and there are heaps of stones, around some of which appear great
+numbers of people, running with as much speed as possible; around others
+crowds of worshippers kneel with bare legs and feet as an indispensable
+part of the penance. The men, without coats, with handkerchiefs on their
+heads instead of hats, having gone seven times round each heap, kiss the
+ground, cross themselves, and proceed to the hill; here they ascend, on
+their bare knees, by a path so steep and rugged that it would be
+difficult to walk up. Many hold their hands clasped at the back of their
+necks, and several carry large stones on their heads. Having repeated
+this ceremony seven times, they go to what is called St. Patrick's
+Chair, which are two great flat stones fixed upright in the hill; here
+they cross and bless themselves as they step in between these stones,
+and, while repeating prayers, an old man, seated for the purpose, turns
+them round on their feet three times, for which he is paid; the devotee
+then goes to conclude his penance at a pile of stones, named the Altar.
+While this busy scene is continued by the multitude, the wells and
+streams issuing from them are thronged by crowds of halt, maimed, and
+blind, pressing to wash away their infirmities with water consecrated by
+their patron saint, and so powerful is the impression of its efficacy on
+their minds, that many of those who go to be healed, and who are not
+totally blind, or altogether crippled, really believe for a time that
+they are by means of its miraculous virtues perfectly restored."[525]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Scotland; fires on St. Peter's Day (the
+twenty-ninth of June).]
+
+In Scotland the traces of midsummer fires are few. We are told by a
+writer of the eighteenth century that "the midsummer-even fire, a relict
+of Druidism," was kindled in some parts of the county of Perth.[526]
+Another writer of the same period, describing what he calls the
+Druidical festivals of the Highlanders, says that "the least
+considerable of them is that of midsummer. In the Highlands of
+Perthshire there are some vestiges of it. The cowherd goes three times
+round the fold, according to the course of the sun, with a burning torch
+in his hand. They imagined this rite had a tendency to purify their
+herds and flocks, and to prevent diseases. At their return the landlady
+makes an entertainment for the cowherd and his associates."[527] In the
+northeast of Scotland, down to the latter half of the eighteenth
+century, farmers used to go round their lands with burning torches about
+the middle of June.[528] On the hill of Cairnshee, in the parish of
+Durris, Kincardineshire, the herdsmen of the country round about
+annually kindle a bonfire at sunset on Midsummer Day (the twenty-fourth
+of June); the men or lads collect the fuel and push each other through
+the smoke and flames. The custom is kept up through the benefaction of a
+certain Alexander Hogg, a native of the parish, who died about 1790 and
+left a small sum for the maintenance of a midsummer bonfire on the spot,
+because as a boy he had herded cattle on the hill. We may conjecture
+that in doing so he merely provided for the continuance of an old custom
+which he himself had observed in the same place in his youth.[529] At
+the village of Tarbolton in Ayrshire a bonfire has been annually kindled
+from time immemorial on the evening of the first Monday after the
+eleventh of June. A noted cattle-market was formerly held at the fair on
+the following day. The bonfire is still lit at the gloaming by the lads
+and lasses of the village on a high mound or hillock just outside of the
+village. Fuel for it is collected by the lads from door to door. The
+youth dance round the fire and leap over the fringes of it. The many
+cattle-drovers who used to assemble for the fair were wont to gather
+round the blazing pile, smoke their pipes, and listen to the young folk
+singing in chorus on the hillock. Afterwards they wrapped themselves in
+their plaids and slept round the bonfire, which was intended to last all
+night.[530] Thomas Moresin of Aberdeen, a writer of the sixteenth
+century, says that on St. Peter's Day, which is the twenty-ninth of
+June, the Scotch ran about at night with lighted torches on mountains
+and high grounds, "as Ceres did when she roamed the whole earth in
+search of Proserpine";[531] and towards the end of the eighteenth
+century the parish minister of Loudoun, a district of Ayrshire whose
+"bonny woods and braes" have been sung by Burns, wrote that "the custom
+still remains amongst the herds and young people to kindle fires in the
+high grounds in honour of Beltan. _Beltan_, which in Gaelic signifies
+_Baal_, or _Bel's-fire_, was antiently the time of this solemnity. It is
+now kept on St. Peter's day."[532]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Spain and the Azores; divination on Midsummer
+Eve in the Azores; the Midsummer fires in Corsica and Sardinia.]
+
+All over Spain great bonfires called _lumes_ are still lit on Midsummer
+Eve. They are kept up all night, and the children leap over them in a
+certain rhythmical way which is said to resemble the ancient dances. On
+the coast, people at this season plunge into the sea; in the inland
+districts the villagers go and roll naked in the dew of the meadows,
+which is supposed to be a sovereign preservative against diseases of the
+skin. On this evening, too, girls who would pry into the future put a
+vessel of water on the sill outside their window; and when the clocks
+strike twelve, they break an egg in the water and see, or fancy they
+see, in the shapes assumed by the pulp, as it blends with the liquid,
+the likeness of future bridegrooms, castles, coffins, and so forth. But
+generally, as might perhaps have been anticipated, the obliging egg
+exhibits the features of a bridegroom.[533] In the Azores, also,
+bonfires are lit on Midsummer Eve (St. John's Eve), and boys jump over
+them for luck. On that night St. John himself is supposed to appear in
+person and bless all the seas and waters, driving out the devils and
+demons who had been disporting themselves in them ever since the second
+day of November; that is why in the interval between the second of
+November and the twenty-third of June nobody will bathe in the sea or in
+a hot spring. On Midsummer Eve, too, you can always see the devil, if
+you will go into a garden at midnight. He is invariably found standing
+near a mustard-plant. His reason for adopting this posture has not been
+ascertained; perhaps in the chilly air of the upper world he is
+attracted by the genial warmth of the mustard. Various forms of
+divination are practised by people in the Azores on Midsummer Eve. Thus
+a new-laid egg is broken into a glass of water, and the shapes which it
+assumes foreshadow the fate of the person concerned. Again, seven
+saucers are placed in a row, filled respectively with water, earth,
+ashes, keys, a thimble, money, and grass, which things signify travel,
+death, widowhood, housekeeping, spinsterhood, riches, and farming. A
+blindfolded person touches one or other of the saucers with a wand and
+so discovers his or her fate. Again, three broad beans are taken; one is
+left in its skin, one is half peeled, and the third is peeled outright.
+The three denote respectively riches, competence, and poverty. They are
+hidden and searched for; and he who finds one of them knows accordingly
+whether he will be rich, moderately well-off, or poor. Again, girls take
+slips of paper and write the names of young men twice over on them.
+These they fold up and crumple and place one set under their pillows and
+the other set in a saucer full of water. In the morning they draw one
+slip of paper from under their pillow, and see whether one in the water
+has opened out. If the names on the two slips are the same, it is the
+name of her future husband. Young men do the same with girls' names.
+Once more, if a girl rises at sunrise, goes out into the street, and
+asks the first passer-by his Christian name, that will be her husband's
+name.[534] Some of these modes of divination resemble those which are or
+used to be practised in Scotland at Hallowe'en.[535] In Corsica on the
+Eve of St. John the people set fire to the trunk of a tree or to a whole
+tree, and the young men and maidens dance round the blaze, which is
+called _fucaraia_.[536] We have seen that at Ozieri, in Sardinia, a
+great bonfire is kindled on St. John's Eve, and that the young people
+dance round it.[537]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in the Abruzzi; bathing on Midsummer Eve in the
+Abruzzi; the Midsummer fires in Sicily; the witches at Midsummer.]
+
+Passing to Italy, we find that the midsummer fires are still lighted on
+St. John's Eve in many parts of the Abruzzi. They are commonest in the
+territory which was inhabited in antiquity by the Vestini; they are
+rarer in the land of the ancient Marsi, and they disappear entirely in
+the lower valley of the Sangro. For the most part, the fires are fed
+with straw and dry grass, and are kindled in the fields near the
+villages or on high ground. As they blaze up, the people dance round or
+over them. In leaping across the flames the boys cry out, "St. John,
+preserve my thighs and legs!" Formerly it used to be common to light the
+bonfires also in the towns in front of churches of St. John, and the
+remains of the sacred fire were carried home by the people; but this
+custom has mostly fallen into disuse. However, at Celano the practice is
+still kept up of taking brands and ashes from the bonfires to the
+houses, although the fires are no longer kindled in front of the
+churches, but merely in the streets.[538] In the Abruzzi water also is
+supposed to acquire certain marvellous and beneficent properties on St.
+John's Night. Hence many people bathe or at least wash their faces and
+hands in the sea or a river at that season, especially at the moment of
+sunrise. Such a bath is said to be an excellent cure for diseases of the
+skin. At Castiglione a Casauria the people, after washing in the river
+or in springs, gird their waists and wreath their brows with sprigs of
+briony in order to keep them from aches and pains.[539] In various parts
+of Sicily, also, fires are kindled on Midsummer Eve (St. John's Eve),
+the twenty-third of June. On the Madonie mountains, in the north of the
+island, the herdsmen kindle them at intervals, so that the crests of the
+mountains are seen ablaze in the darkness for many miles. About
+Acireale, on the east coast of the island, the bonfires are lit by boys,
+who jump over them. At Chiaromonte the witches that night acquire
+extraordinary powers; hence everybody then puts a broom outside of his
+house, because a broom is an excellent protective against
+witchcraft.[540] At Orvieto the midsummer fires were specially excepted
+from the prohibition directed against bonfires in general.[541]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Malta ]
+
+In Malta also the people celebrate Midsummer Eve (St. John's Eve) "by
+kindling great fires in the public streets, and giving their children
+dolls to carry in their arms on this day, in order to make good the
+prophecy respecting the Baptist, _Multi in nativitate ejus gaudebunt_.
+Days and even weeks before this festival, groups of children are seen
+going out into the country fields to gather straw, twigs, and all sorts
+of other combustibles, which they store up for St. John's Eve. On the
+night of the twenty-third of June, the day before the festival of the
+Saint, great fires are kindled in the streets, squares, and market
+places of the towns and villages of the Island, and as fire after fire
+blazes out of the darkness of that summer night, the effect is
+singularly striking. These fires are sometimes kept up for hours, being
+continually fed by the scores of bystanders, who take great delight in
+throwing amidst the flames some old rickety piece of furniture which
+they consider as lumber in their houses. Lots of happy and reckless
+children, and very often men, are seen merrily leaping in succession
+over and through the crackling flames. At the time of the Order of St.
+John of Jerusalem, the Grand Master himself, soon after the _Angelus_,
+used to leave his palace, accompanied by the Grand Prior, the Bishop,
+and two bailiffs, to set fire to some pitch barrels which were placed
+for the occasion in the square facing the sacred Hospital. Great crowds
+used to assemble here in order to assist at this ceremony. The setting
+ablaze of the five casks, and later on of the eight casks, by the Grand
+Master, was a signal for the others to kindle their fires in the
+different parts of the town."[542]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in Greece; the Midsummer fires in Macedonia and
+Albania.]
+
+In Greece, the custom of kindling fires on St. John's Eve and jumping
+over them is said to be still universal. One reason assigned for it is a
+wish to escape from the fleas.[543] According to another account, the
+women cry out, as they leap over the fire, "I leave my sins behind
+me."[544] In Lesbos the fires on St. John's Eve are usually lighted by
+threes, and the people spring thrice over them, each with a stone on his
+head, saying, "I jump the hare's fire, my head a stone!" On the morning
+of St. John's Day those who dwell near the coast go to bathe in the sea.
+As they go they gird themselves with osiers, and when they are in the
+water they let the osiers float away, saying, "Let my maladies go away!"
+Then they look for what is called "the hairy stone," which possesses the
+remarkable property not only of keeping moths from clothes but even of
+multiplying the clothes in the chest where it is laid up, and the more
+hairs on the stone the more will the clothes multiply in the chest.[545]
+In Calymnos the midsummer fire is supposed to ensure abundance in the
+coming year as well as deliverance from fleas. The people dance round
+the fires singing, with stones on their heads, and then jump over the
+blaze or the glowing embers. When the fire is burning low, they throw
+the stones into it; and when it is nearly out, they make crosses on
+their legs and then go straightway and bathe in the sea.[546] In Cos the
+lads and lasses dance round the bonfires on St. John's Eve. Each of the
+lads binds a black stone on his head, signifying that he wishes to
+become as strong as the stone. Also they make the sign of the cross on
+their feet and legs and jump over the fire.[547] On Midsummer Eve the
+Greeks of Macedonia light fires after supper in front of their gates.
+The garlands, now faded, which were hung over the doors on May Day, are
+taken down and cast into the flames, after which the young folk leap
+over the blaze, fully persuaded that St. John's fire will not burn
+them.[548] In Albania fires of dry herbage are, or used to be, lit
+everywhere on St. John's Eve; young and old leap over them, for such a
+leap is thought to be good for the health.[549]
+
+[The Midsummer fires in America.]
+
+From the Old World the midsummer fires have been carried across the
+Atlantic to America. In Brazil people jump over the fires of St. John,
+and at this season they can take hot coals in their mouths without
+burning themselves.[550] In Bolivia on the Eve of St. John it is usual
+to see bonfires lighted on the hills and even in the streets of the
+capital La Paz. As the city stands at the bottom of an immense ravine,
+and the Indians of the neighbourhood take a pride in kindling bonfires
+on heights which might seem inaccessible, the scene is very striking
+when the darkness of night is suddenly and simultaneously lit up by
+hundreds of fires, which cast a glare on surrounding objects, producing
+an effect at once weird and picturesque.[551]
+
+[The Midsummer fires among the Mohammedans of Morocco and Algeria.]
+
+The custom of kindling bonfires on Midsummer Day or on Midsummer Eve is
+widely spread among the Mohammedan peoples of North Africa, particularly
+in Morocco and Algeria; it is common both to the Berbers and to many of
+the Arabs or Arabic-speaking tribes. In these countries Midsummer Day
+(the twenty-fourth of June, Old Style) is called [Arabic: _l'ansara_].
+The fires are lit in the courtyards, at cross-roads, in the fields, and
+sometimes on the threshing-floors. Plants which in burning give out a
+thick smoke and an aromatic smell are much sought after for fuel on
+these occasions; among the plants used for the purpose are giant-fennel,
+thyme, rue, chervil-seed, camomile, geranium, and penny-royal. People
+expose themselves, and especially their children, to the smoke, and
+drive it towards the orchards and the crops. Also they leap across the
+fires; in some places everybody ought to repeat the leap seven times.
+Moreover they take burning brands from the fires and carry them through
+the houses in order to fumigate them. They pass things through the fire,
+and bring the sick into contact with it, while they utter prayers for
+their recovery. The ashes of the bonfires are also reputed to possess
+beneficial properties; hence in some places people rub their hair or
+their bodies with them.[552] For example, the Andjra mountaineers of
+Morocco kindle large fires in open places of their villages on Midsummer
+Day. Men, women, and children jump over the flames or the glowing
+embers, believing that by so doing they rid themselves of all misfortune
+which may be clinging to them; they imagine, also, that such leaps cure
+the sick and procure offspring for childless couples. Moreover, they
+burn straw, together with some marjoram and alum, in the fold where the
+cattle, sheep, and goats are penned for the night; the smoke, in their
+opinion, will make the animals thrive. On Midsummer Day the Arabs of the
+Mnasara tribe make fires outside their tents, near their animals, on
+their fields, and in their gardens. Large quantities of penny-royal are
+burned in these fires, and over some of them the people leap thrice to
+and fro. Sometimes small fires are also kindled inside the tents. They
+say that the smoke confers blessings on everything with which it comes
+into contact. At Salee, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, persons who
+suffer from diseased eyes rub them with the ashes of the midsummer fire;
+and in Casablanca and Azemmur the people hold their faces over the fire,
+because the smoke is thought to be good for the eyes. The Arab tribe
+Ulad Bu Aziz, in the Dukkala province of Morocco, kindle midsummer
+bonfires, not for themselves and their cattle, but only for crops and
+fruit; nobody likes to reap his crops before Midsummer Day, because if
+he did they would lose the benefit of the blessed influence which flows
+from the smoke of the bonfires. Again, the Beni Mgild, a Berber tribe of
+Morocco, light fires of straw on Midsummer Eve and leap thrice over them
+to and fro. They let some of the smoke pass underneath their clothes,
+and married women hold their breasts over the fire, in order that their
+children may be strong. Moreover, they paint their eyes and lips with
+some black powder, in which ashes of the bonfire are mixed. And in order
+that their horses may also benefit by the fires, they dip the right
+forelegs of the animals in the smoke and flames or in the hot embers,
+and they rub ashes on the foreheads and between the nostrils of the
+horses. Berbers of the Rif province, in northern Morocco, similarly make
+great use of fires at midsummer for the good of themselves, their
+cattle, and their fruit-trees. They jump over the bonfires in the belief
+that this will preserve them in good health, and they light fires under
+fruit-trees to keep the fruit from falling untimely. And they imagine
+that by rubbing a paste of the ashes on their hair they prevent the hair
+from falling off their heads.[553]
+
+[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.]
+
+In all these Moroccan customs, we are told, the beneficial effect is
+attributed wholly to the smoke, which is supposed to be endued with a
+magical quality that removes misfortune from men, animals, fruit-trees,
+and crops. But in some parts of Morocco people at midsummer kindle fires
+of a different sort, not for the sake of fumigation, but in order to
+burn up misfortune in the flames. Thus on Midsummer Eve the Berber tribe
+of the Beni Mgild burn three sheaves of unthreshed wheat or barley, "one
+for the children, one for the crops, and one for the animals." On the
+same occasion they burn the tent of a widow who has never given birth to
+a child; by so doing they think to rid the village of ill luck. It is
+said that at midsummer the Zemmur burn a tent, which belongs to somebody
+who was killed in war during a feast; or if there is no such person in
+the village, the schoolmaster's tent is burned instead. Among the
+Arabic-speaking Beni Ahsen it is customary for those who live near the
+river Sbu to make a little hut of straw at midsummer, set it on fire,
+and let it float down the river. Similarly the inhabitants of Salee burn
+a straw hut on the river which flows past their town.[554]
+
+Further it deserves to be noticed that in Northern Africa, as in
+Southern Europe, the midsummer festival comprises rites concerned with
+water as well as with fire. For example, among the Beni-Snous the women
+light a fire in an oven, throw perfumes into it, and circumambulate a
+tank, which they also incense after a fashion. In many places on the
+coast, as in the province of Oran and particularly in the north of
+Morocco, everybody goes and bathes in the sea at midsummer; and in many
+towns of the interior, such as Fez, Mequinez, and especially Merrakech,
+people throw water over each other on this day; and where water is
+scarce, earth is used instead, according to the Mohammedan principle
+which permits ablutions to be performed with earth or sand when water
+cannot be spared for the purpose.[555] People of the Andjra district in
+Morocco not only bathe themselves in the sea or in rivers at midsummer,
+they also bathe their animals, their horses, mules, donkeys, cattle,
+sheep, and goats; for they think that on that day water possesses a
+blessed virtue (_baraka_), which removes sickness and misfortune. In
+Aglu, again, men, women, and children bathe in the sea or springs or
+rivers at midsummer, alleging that by so doing they protect themselves
+against disease for the whole year. Among the Berbers of the Rif
+district the custom of bathing on this day is commonly observed, and
+animals share the ablutions.[556]
+
+[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 celebration of a midsummer festival by Mohammedan peoples is
+particularly remarkable, because the Mohammedan calendar, being purely
+lunar and uncorrected by intercalation, necessarily takes no note of
+festivals which occupy fixed points in the solar year; all strictly
+Mohammedan feasts, being pinned to the moon, slide gradually with that
+luminary through the whole period of the earth's revolution about the
+sun. This fact of itself seems to prove that among the Mohammedan
+peoples of Northern Africa, as among the Christian peoples of Europe,
+the midsummer festival is quite independent of the religion which the
+people publicly profess, and is a relic of a far older paganism. There
+are, indeed, independent grounds for thinking that the Arabs enjoyed the
+advantage of a comparatively well-regulated solar year before the
+prophet of God saddled them with the absurdity and inconvenience of a
+purely lunar calendar.[557] Be that as it may, it is notable that some
+Mohammedan people of North Africa kindle fires and bathe in water at the
+movable New Year of their lunar calendar instead of at the fixed
+Midsummer of the solar year; while others again practise these
+observances at both seasons. New Year's Day, on which the rites are
+celebrated, is called _Ashur_; it is the tenth day of Moharram, the
+first month of the Mohammedan calendar. On that day bonfires are kindled
+in Tunis and also at Merrakech and among some tribes of the
+neighbourhood.[558] At Demnat, in the Great Atlas mountains, people
+kindle a large bonfire on New Year's Eve and leap to and fro over the
+flames, uttering words which imply that by these leaps they think to
+purify themselves from all kinds of evil. At Aglu, in the province of
+Sus, the fire is lighted at three different points by an unmarried girl,
+and when it has died down the young men leap over the glowing embers,
+saying, "We shook on you, O Lady Ashur, fleas, and lice, and the
+illnesses of the heart, as also those of the bones; we shall pass
+through you again next year and the following years with safety and
+health." Both at Aglu and Glawi, in the Great Atlas, smaller fires are
+also kindled, over which the animals are driven. At Demnat girls who
+wish to marry wash themselves in water which has been boiled over the
+New Year fire; and in Dukkala people use the ashes of that fire to rub
+sore eyes with. New Year fires appear to be commonly kindled among the
+Berbers who inhabit the western portion of the Great Atlas, and also
+among the Arabic-speaking tribes of the plains; but Dr. Westermarck
+found no traces of such fires among the Arabic-speaking mountaineers of
+Northern Morocco and the Berbers of the Rif province. Further, it should
+be observed that water ceremonies like those which are practised at
+Midsummer are very commonly observed in Morocco at the New Year, that
+is, on the tenth day of the first month. On the morning of that day
+(_Ashur_) all water or, according to some people, only spring water is
+endowed with a magical virtue (_baraka_), especially before sunrise.
+Hence at that time the people bathe and pour water over each other; in
+some places they also sprinkle their animals, tents, or rooms. In
+Dukkala some of the New Year water is preserved at home till New Year's
+Day (_Ashur_) of next year; some of it is kept to be used as medicine,
+some of it is poured on the place where the corn is threshed, and some
+is used to water the money which is to be buried in the ground; for the
+people think that the earth-spirits will not be able to steal the buried
+treasures which have thus been sanctified with the holy water.[559]
+
+[The Midsummer festival in Morocco seems to be of Berber origin.]
+
+Thus the rites of fire and water which are observed in Morocco at
+Midsummer and New Year appear to be identical in character and
+intention, and it seems certain that the duplication of the rites is due
+to a conflict between two calendars, namely the old Julian calendar of
+the Romans, which was based on the sun, and the newer Mohammedan
+calendar of the Arabs, which is based on the moon. For not only was the
+Julian calendar in use throughout the whole of Northern Africa under the
+Roman Empire; to this day it is everywhere employed among Mohammedans
+for the regulation of agriculture and all the affairs of daily life; its
+practical convenience has made it indispensable, and the lunar calendar
+of orthodox Mohammedanism is scarcely used except for purposes of
+chronology. Even the old Latin names of the months are known and
+employed, in slightly disguised forms, throughout the whole Moslem
+world; and little calendars of the Julian year circulate in manuscript
+among Mohammedans, permitting them to combine the practical advantages
+of pagan science with a nominal adherence to orthodox absurdity.[560]
+Thus the heathen origin of the midsummer festival is too palpable to
+escape the attention of good Mohammedans, who accordingly frown upon the
+midsummer bonfires as pagan superstitions, precisely as similar
+observances in Europe have often been denounced by orthodox
+Christianity. Indeed, many religious people in Morocco entirely
+disapprove of the whole of the midsummer ceremonies, maintaining that
+they are all bad; and a conscientious schoolmaster will even refuse his
+pupils a holiday at midsummer, though the boys sometimes offer him a
+bribe if he will sacrifice his scruples to his avarice.[561] As the
+midsummer customs appear to flourish among all the Berbers of Morocco
+but to be unknown among the pure Arabs who have not been affected by
+Berber influence, it seems reasonable to infer with Dr. Westermarck that
+the midsummer festival has belonged from time immemorial to the Berber
+race, and that so far as it is now observed by the Arabs of Morocco, it
+has been learned by them from the Berbers, the old indigenous
+inhabitants of the country. Dr. Westermarck may also be right in holding
+that, in spite of the close similarity which obtains between the
+midsummer festival of Europe and the midsummer festival of North Africa,
+the latter is not a copy of the former, but that both have been handed
+down independently from a time beyond the purview of history, when such
+ceremonies were common to the Mediterranean race.[562]
+
+
+Sec. 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.]
+
+In the months which elapse between midsummer and the setting in of
+winter the European festivals of fire appear to be few and unimportant.
+On the evening of the first day of August, which is the Festival of the
+Cross, bonfires are commonly lit in Macedonia and boys jump over them,
+shouting, "Dig up! bury!" but whom or what they wish to dig up or bury
+they do not know.[563] The Russians hold the feast of two martyrs,
+Florus and Laurus, on the eighteenth day of August, Old Style. "On this
+day the Russians lead their horses round the church of their village,
+beside which on the foregoing evening they dig a hole with two mouths.
+Each horse has a bridle made of the bark of the linden-tree. The horses
+go through this hole one after the other, opposite to one of the mouths
+of which the priest stands with a sprinkler in his hand, with which he
+sprinkles them. As soon as the horses have passed by their bridles are
+taken off, and they are made to go between two fires that they kindle,
+called by the Russians _Givoy Agon_, that is to say, living fires, of
+which I shall give an account. I shall before remark, that the Russian
+peasantry throw the bridles of their horses into one of these fires to
+be consumed. This is the manner of their lighting these _givoy agon_, or
+living fires. Some men hold the ends of a stick made of the plane-tree,
+very dry, and about a fathom long. This stick they hold firmly over one
+of birch, perfectly dry, and rub with violence and quickly against the
+former; the birch, which is somewhat softer than the plane, in a short
+time inflames, and serves them to light both the fires I have
+described."[564]
+
+[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 facade 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.]
+
+It is no doubt possible that these illuminations and fireworks, like the
+assassinations, are merely the natural and spontaneous expressions of
+that overflowing joy with which the thought of the birth of the Virgin
+must fill every pious heart; but when we remember how often the Church
+has skilfully decanted the new wine of Christianity into the old bottles
+of heathendom, we may be allowed to conjecture that the ecclesiastical
+authorities adroitly timed the Nativity of the Virgin so as to coincide
+with an old pagan festival of that day, in which fire, noise, and
+uproar, if not broken heads and bloodshed, were conspicuous features.
+The penny trumpets blown on this occasion recall the like melodious
+instruments which figure so largely in the celebration of Befana (the
+Eve of Epiphany) at Rome.[565]
+
+
+Sec. 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.]
+
+But while this may be regarded as fairly certain for what we may call
+the aborigines throughout a large part of the continent, it appears not
+to have been true of the Celtic peoples who inhabited the Land's End of
+Europe, the islands and promontories that stretch out into the Atlantic
+ocean on the North-West. The principal fire-festivals of the Celts,
+which have survived, though in a restricted area and with diminished
+pomp, to modern times and even to our own day, were seemingly timed
+without any reference to the position of the sun in the heaven. They
+were two in number, and fell at an interval of six months, one being
+celebrated on the eve of May Day and the other on Allhallow Even or
+Hallowe'en, as it is now commonly called, that is, on the thirty-first
+of October, the day preceding All Saints' or Allhallows' Day. These
+dates coincide with none of the four great hinges on which the solar
+year revolves, to wit, the solstices and the equinoxes. Nor do they
+agree with the principal seasons of the agricultural year, the sowing in
+spring and the reaping in autumn. For when May Day comes, the seed has
+long been committed to the earth; and when November opens, the harvest
+has long been reaped and garnered, the fields lie bare, the fruit-trees
+are stripped, and even the yellow leaves are fast fluttering to the
+ground. Yet the first of May and the first of November mark
+turning-points of the year in Europe; the one ushers in the genial heat
+and the rich vegetation of summer, the other heralds, if it does not
+share, the cold and barrenness of winter. Now these particular points of
+the year, as has been well pointed out by a learned and ingenious
+writer,[566] while they are of comparatively little moment to the
+European husbandman, do deeply concern the European herdsman; for it is
+on the approach of summer that he drives his cattle out into the open to
+crop the fresh grass, and it is on the approach of winter that he leads
+them back to the safety and shelter of the stall. Accordingly it seems
+not improbable that the Celtic bisection of the year into two halves at
+the beginning of May and the beginning of November dates from a time
+when the Celts were mainly a pastoral people, dependent for their
+subsistence on their herds, and when accordingly the great epochs of the
+year for them were the days on which the cattle went forth from the
+homestead in early summer and returned to it again in early winter.[567]
+Even in Central Europe, remote from the region now occupied by the
+Celts, a similar bisection of the year may be clearly traced in the
+great popularity, on the one hand, of May Day and its Eve (Walpurgis
+Night), and, on the other hand, of the Feast of All Souls at the
+beginning of November, which under a thin Christian cloak conceals an
+ancient pagan festival of the dead.[568] Hence we may conjecture that
+everywhere throughout Europe the celestial division of the year
+according to the solstices was preceded by what we may call a
+terrestrial division of the year according to the beginning of summer
+and the beginning of winter.
+
+[The two great Celtic festivals, Beltane and Hallowe'en.]
+
+Be that as it may, the two great Celtic festivals of May Day and the
+first of November or, to be more accurate, the Eves of these two days,
+closely resemble each other in the manner of their celebration and in
+the superstitions associated with them, and alike, by the antique
+character impressed upon both, betray a remote and purely pagan origin.
+The festival of May Day or Beltane, as the Celts called it, which
+ushered in summer, has already been described;[569] it remains to give
+some account of the corresponding festival of Hallowe'en, which
+announced the arrival of winter.
+
+[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.]
+
+Of the two feasts Hallowe'en was perhaps of old the more important,
+since the Celts would seem to have dated the beginning of the year from
+it rather than from Beltane. In the Isle of Man, one of the fortresses
+in which the Celtic language and lore longest held out against the siege
+of the Saxon invaders, the first of November, Old Style, has been
+regarded as New Year's day down to recent times. Thus Manx mummers used
+to go round on Hallowe'en (Old Style), singing, in the Manx language, a
+sort of Hogmanay song which began "To-night is New Year's Night,
+_Hog-unnaa_!"[570] One of Sir John Rhys's Manx informants, an old man of
+sixty-seven, "had been a farm servant from the age of sixteen till he
+was twenty-six to the same man, near Regaby, in the parish of Andreas,
+and he remembers his master and a near neighbour of his discussing the
+term New Year's Day as applied to the first of November, and explaining
+to the younger men that it had always been so in old times. In fact, it
+seemed to him natural enough, as all tenure of land ends at that time,
+and as all servant men begin their service then."[571] In ancient
+Ireland, as we saw, a new fire used to be kindled every year on
+Hallowe'en or the Eve of Samhain, and from this sacred flame all the
+fires in Ireland were rekindled.[572] Such a custom points strongly to
+Samhain or All Saints' Day (the first of November) as New Year's Day;
+since the annual kindling of a new fire takes place most naturally at
+the beginning of the year, in order that the blessed influence of the
+fresh fire may last throughout the whole period of twelve months.
+Another confirmation of the view that the Celts dated their year from
+the first of November is furnished by the manifold modes of divination
+which, as we shall see presently, were commonly resorted to by Celtic
+peoples on Hallowe'en for the purpose of ascertaining their destiny,
+especially their fortune in the coming year; for when could these
+devices for prying into the future be more reasonably put in practice
+than at the beginning of the year? As a season of omens and auguries
+Hallowe'en seems to have far surpassed Beltane in the imagination of the
+Celts; from which we may with some probability infer that they reckoned
+their year from Hallowe'en rather than Beltane. Another circumstance of
+great moment which points to the same conclusion is the association of
+the dead with Hallowe'en. Not only among the Celts but throughout
+Europe, Hallowe'en, the night which marks the transition from autumn to
+winter, seems to have been of old the time of year when the souls of the
+departed were supposed to revisit their old homes in order to warm
+themselves by the fire and to comfort themselves with the good cheer
+provided for them in the kitchen or the parlour by their affectionate
+kinsfolk.[573] It was, perhaps, a natural thought that the approach of
+winter should drive the poor shivering hungry ghosts from the bare
+fields and the leafless woodlands to the shelter of the cottage with its
+familiar fireside.[574] Did not the lowing kine then troop back from the
+summer pastures in the forests and on the hills to be fed and cared for
+in the stalls, while the bleak winds whistled among the swaying boughs
+and the snow drifts deepened in the hollows? and could the good-man and
+the good-wife deny to the spirits of their dead the welcome which they
+gave to the cows?
+
+[Fairies and Hobgoblins let loose at Hallowe'en.]
+
+But it is not only the souls of the departed who are supposed to be
+hovering unseen on the day "when autumn to winter resigns the pale
+year." Witches then speed on their errands of mischief, some sweeping
+through the air on besoms, others galloping along the roads on
+tabby-cats, which for that evening are turned into coal-black
+steeds.[575] The fairies, too, are all let loose, and hobgoblins of
+every sort roam freely about In South Uist and Eriskay there is a
+saying:--
+
+"_Hallowe'en will come, will come,
+Witchcraft [or divination] will be set agoing,
+Fairies will be at full speed,
+Running in every pass.
+Avoid the road, children, children_."[576]
+
+[Dancing with the fairies at Hallowe'en.]
+
+In Cardiganshire on November Eve a bogie sits on every stile.[577] On
+that night in Ireland all the fairy hills are thrown wide open and the
+fairies swarm forth; any man who is bold enough may then peep into the
+open green hills and see the treasures hidden in them. Worse than that,
+the cave of Cruachan in Connaught, known as "the Hell-gate of Ireland,"
+is unbarred on Samhain Eve or Hallowe'en, and a host of horrible fiends
+and goblins used to rush forth, particularly a flock of copper-red
+birds, which blighted crops and killed animals by their poisonous
+breath.[578] The Scotch Highlanders have a special name _Samhanach_
+(derived from _Samhain_, "All-hallows") for the dreadful bogies that go
+about that night stealing babies and committing other atrocities.[579]
+And though the fairies are a kindlier folk, it is dangerous to see even
+them at their revels on Hallowe'en. A melancholy case of this sort is
+reported from the Ferintosh district of the Highlands, though others say
+that it happened at the Slope of Big Stones in Harris. Two young men
+were coming home after nightfall on Hallowe'en, each with a jar of
+whisky on his back, when they saw, as they thought, a house all lit up
+by the roadside, from which proceeded the sounds of music and dancing.
+In reality it was not a house at all but a fairy knoll, and it was the
+fairies who were jigging it about there so merrily. But one of the young
+men was deceived and stepping into the house joined in the dance,
+without even stopping to put down the jar of whisky. His companion was
+wiser; he had a shrewd suspicion that the place was not what it seemed,
+and on entering he took the precaution of sticking a needle in the door.
+That disarmed the power of the fairies, and he got away safely. Well,
+that day twelve months he came back to the spot and what should he see
+but his poor friend still dancing away with the jar of whisky on his
+back? A weary man was he, as you may well believe, but he begged to be
+allowed to finish the reel which he was in the act of executing, and
+when they took him out into the open air, there was nothing of him left
+but skin and bones.[580] Again, the wicked fairies are apt to carry off
+men's wives with them to fairyland; but the lost spouses can be
+recovered within a year and a day when the procession of the fairies is
+defiling past on Hallowe'en, always provided that the mortals did not
+partake of elfin food while they were in elfinland.[581]
+
+[Guleesh and the revels of the fairies at Hallowe'en.]
+
+Sometimes valuable information may be obtained from the fairies on
+Hallowe'en. There was a young man named Guleesh in the County of Mayo.
+Near his house was a _rath_ or old fort with a fine grass bank running
+round it. One Hallowe'en, when the darkness was falling, Guleesh went to
+the rath and stood on a gray old flag. The night was calm and still;
+there was not a breath of wind stirring, nor a sound to be heard except
+the hum of the insects flitting past, or the whistle of the plovers, or
+the hoarse scream of the wild geese as they winged their way far
+overhead. Above the white fog the moon rose like a knob of fire in the
+east, and a thousand thousand stars were twinkling in the sky. There was
+a little frost in the air, the grass was white and crisp and crackled
+under foot. Guleesh expected to see the fairies, but they did not come.
+Hour after hour wore away, and he was just bethinking him of going home
+to bed, when his ear caught a sound far off coming towards him, and he
+knew what it was in a moment. The sound grew louder and louder; at first
+it was like the beating of waves on a stony shore, then it was like the
+roar of a waterfall, at last it was like a mighty rushing wind in the
+tops of the trees, then the storm burst upon the rath, and sure enough
+the fairies were in it. The rout went by so suddenly that Guleesh lost
+his breath; but he came to himself and listened. The fairies were now
+gathered within the grassy bank of the rath, and a fine uproar they
+made. But Guleesh listened with all his ears, and he heard one fairy
+saying to another that a magic herb grew by Guleesh's own door, and that
+Guleesh had nothing to do but pluck it and boil it and give it to his
+sweetheart, the daughter of the King of France, and she would be well,
+for just then she was lying very ill. Guleesh took the hint, and
+everything went as the fairy had said. And he married the daughter of
+the King of France; and they had never a cark nor a care, a sickness nor
+a sorrow, a mishap nor a misfortune to the day of their death.[582]
+
+[Divination resorted to in Celtic countries at Hallowe'en.]
+
+In all Celtic countries Hallowe'en seems to have been the great season
+of the year for prying into the future; all kinds of divination were put
+in practice that night. We read that Dathi, a king of Ireland in the
+fifth century, happening to be at the Druids' Hill (_Cnoc-nan-druad_) in
+the county of Sligo one Hallowe'en, ordered his druid to forecast for
+him the future from that day till the next Hallowe'en should come round.
+The druid passed the night on the top of the hill, and next morning made
+a prediction to the king which came true.[583] In Wales Hallowe'en was
+the weirdest of all the _Teir Nos Ysbrydion_, or Three Spirit Nights,
+when the wind, "blowing over the feet of the corpses," bore sighs to the
+houses of those who were to die within the year. People thought that if
+on that night they went out to a cross-road and listened to the wind,
+they would learn all the most important things that would befall them
+during the next twelve months.[584] In Wales, too, not so long ago women
+used to congregate in the parish churches on the night of Hallowe'en and
+read their fate from the flame of the candle which each of them held in
+her hand; also they heard the names or saw the coffins of the
+parishioners who would die within the year, and many were the sad scenes
+to which these gloomy visions gave rise.[585] And in the Highlands of
+Scotland anybody who pleased could hear proclaimed aloud the names of
+parishioners doomed to perish within the next twelve months, if he would
+only take a three-legged stool and go and sit on it at three
+cross-roads, while the church clock was striking twelve at midnight on
+Hallowe'en. It was even in his power to save the destined victims from
+their doom by taking with him articles of wearing apparel and throwing
+them away, one by one, as each name was called out by the mysterious
+voice.[586]
+
+[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.]
+
+But while a glamour of mystery and awe has always clung to Hallowe'en in
+the minds of the Celtic peasantry, the popular celebration of the
+festival has been, at least in modern times, by no means of a
+prevailingly gloomy cast; on the contrary it has been attended by
+picturesque features and merry pastimes, which rendered it the gayest
+night of all the year. Amongst the things which in the Highlands of
+Scotland contributed to invest the festival with a romantic beauty were
+the bonfires which used to blaze at frequent intervals on the heights.
+"On the last day of autumn children gathered ferns, tar-barrels, the
+long thin stalks called _gainisg_, and everything suitable for a
+bonfire. These were placed in a heap on some eminence near the house,
+and in the evening set fire to. The fires were called _Samhnagan_. There
+was one for each house, and it was an object of ambition who should have
+the biggest. Whole districts were brilliant with bonfires, and their
+glare across a Highland loch, and from many eminences, formed an
+exceedingly picturesque scene."[587] Like the Beltane fires on the first
+of May, the Hallowe'en bonfires seem to have been kindled most commonly
+in the Perthshire Highlands. Travelling in the parish of Moulin, near
+Pitlochrie, in the year 1772, the Englishman Thomas Pennant writes that
+"Hallow Eve is also kept sacred: as soon as it is dark, a person sets
+fire to a bush of broom fastened round a pole, and, attended with a
+crowd, runs about the village. He then flings it down, heaps great
+quantity of combustible matters on it, and makes a great bonfire. A
+whole tract is thus illuminated at the same time, and makes a fine
+appearance."[588] The custom has been described more fully by a
+Scotchman of the eighteenth century, John Ramsay of Ochtertyre. On the
+evening of Hallowe'en "the young people of every hamlet assembled upon
+some eminence near the houses. There they made a bonfire of ferns or
+other fuel, cut the same day, which from the feast was called _Samh-nag_
+or _Savnag_, a fire of rest and pleasure. Around it was placed a circle
+of stones, one for each person of the families to whom they belonged.
+And when it grew dark the bonfire was kindled, at which a loud shout was
+set up. Then each person taking a torch of ferns or sticks in his hand,
+ran round the fire exulting; and sometimes they went into the adjacent
+fields, where, if there was another company, they visited the bonfire,
+taunting the others if inferior in any respect to themselves. After the
+fire was burned out they returned home, where a feast was prepared, and
+the remainder of the evening was spent in mirth and diversions of
+various kinds. Next morning they repaired betimes to the bonfire, where
+the situation of the stones was examined with much attention. If any of
+them were misplaced, or if the print of a foot could be discerned near
+any particular stone, it was imagined that the person for whom it was
+set would not live out the year. Of late years this is less attended to,
+but about the beginning of the present century it was regarded as a sure
+prediction. The Hallowe'en fire is still kept up in some parts of the
+Low country; but on the western coast and in the Isles it is never
+kindled, though the night is spent in merriment and
+entertainments."[589] In the Perthshire parish of Callander, which
+includes the now famous pass of the Trossachs opening out on the winding
+and wooded shores of the lovely Loch Katrine, the Hallowe'en bonfires
+were still kindled down to near the end of the eighteenth century. When
+the fire had died down, the ashes were carefully collected in the form
+of a circle, and a stone was put in, near the circumference, for every
+person of the several families interested in the bonfire. Next morning,
+if any of these stones was found to be displaced or injured, the people
+made sure that the person represented by it was _fey_ or devoted, and
+that he could not live twelve months from that day.[590] In the parish
+of Logierait, which covers the beautiful valley of the Tummel, one of
+the fairest regions of all Scotland, the Hallowe'en fire was somewhat
+different. Faggots of heath, broom, and the dressings of flax were
+kindled and carried on poles by men, who ran with them round the
+villages, attended by a crowd. As soon as one faggot was burnt out, a
+fresh one was lighted and fastened to the pole. Numbers of these blazing
+faggots were often carried about together, and when the night happened
+to be dark, they formed a splendid illumination.[591]
+
+[Hallowe'en fires on Loch Tay; Hallowe'en fires at Balquhidder.]
+
+Nor did the Hallowe'en fires die out in Perthshire with the end of the
+eighteenth century. Journeying from Dunkeld to Aberfeldy on Hallowe'en
+in the first half of the nineteenth century, Sheriff Barclay counted
+thirty fires blazing on the hill tops, and saw the figures of the people
+dancing like phantoms round the flames.[592] Again, "in 1860, I was
+residing near the head of Loch Tay during the season of the Hallowe'en
+feast. For several days before Hallowe'en, boys and youths collected
+wood and conveyed it to the most prominent places on the hill sides in
+their neighbourhood. Some of the heaps were as large as a corn-stack or
+hayrick. After dark on Hallowe'en, these heaps were kindled, and for
+several hours both sides of Loch Tay were illuminated as far as the eye
+could see. I was told by old men that at the beginning of this century
+men as well as boys took part in getting up the bonfires, and that, when
+the fire was ablaze, all joined hands and danced round the fire, and
+made a great noise; but that, as these gatherings generally ended in
+drunkenness and rough and dangerous fun, the ministers set their faces
+against the observance, and were seconded in their efforts by the more
+intelligent and well-behaved in the community; and so the practice was
+discontinued by adults and relegated to school boys."[593] At
+Balquhidder down to the latter part of the nineteenth century each
+household kindled its bonfire at Hallowe'en, but the custom was chiefly
+observed by children. The fires were lighted on any high knoll near the
+house; there was no dancing round them.[594]
+
+[Hallowe'en fires in Buchan to burn the witches; processions with
+torches at Hallowe'en in the Braemar Highlands.]
+
+Hallowe'en fires were also lighted in some districts of the north-east
+of Scotland, such as Buchan. Villagers and farmers alike must have their
+fire. In the villages the boys went from house to house and begged a
+peat from each householder, usually with the words, "Ge's a peat t' burn
+the witches." In some villages the lads collected the peats in a cart,
+some of them drawing it along and the others receiving the peats and
+loading them on the cart. Along with the peats they accumulated straw,
+furze, potato haulm, everything that would burn quickly, and when they
+had got enough they piled it all in a heap and set it on fire. Then each
+of the youths, one after another, laid himself down on the ground as
+near to the fire as he could without being scorched, and thus lying
+allowed the smoke to roll over him. The others ran through the smoke and
+jumped over their prostrate comrade. When the heap was burned down, they
+scattered the ashes. Each one took a share in this part of the ceremony,
+giving a kick first with the right foot and then with the left; and each
+vied with the other who should scatter the most. After that some of them
+still continued to run through the scattered ashes and to pelt each
+other with the half-burned peats. At each farm a spot as high as
+possible, not too near the steading, was chosen for the fire, and the
+proceedings were much the same as at the village bonfire. The lads of
+one farm, when their own fire was burned down and the ashes scattered,
+sometimes went to a neighbouring fire and helped to kick the ashes
+about.[595] Referring to this part of Scotland, a writer at the end of
+the eighteenth century observes that "the Hallow-even fire, another
+relict of druidism, was kindled in Buchan. Various magic ceremonies were
+then celebrated to counteract the influence of witches and demons, and
+to prognosticate to the young their success or disappointment in the
+matrimonial lottery. These being devoutly finished, the hallow fire was
+kindled, and guarded by the male part of the family. Societies were
+formed, either by pique or humour, to scatter certain fires, and the
+attack and defence were often conducted with art and with fury."[596]
+Down to about the middle of the nineteenth century "the Braemar
+Highlanders made the circuit of their fields with lighted torches at
+Hallowe'en to ensure their fertility in the coming year. At that date
+the custom was as follows: Every member of the family (in those days
+households were larger than they are now) was provided with a bundle of
+fir 'can'les' with which to go the round. The father and mother stood at
+the hearth and lit the splints in the peat fire, which they passed to
+the children and servants, who trooped out one after the other, and
+proceeded to tread the bounds of their little property, going slowly
+round at equal distances apart, and invariably with the sun. To go
+'withershins' seems to have been reserved for cursing and
+excommunication. When the fields had thus been circumambulated the
+remaining spills were thrown together in a heap and allowed to burn
+out."[597]
+
+[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.]
+
+In the Highlands of Scotland, as the evening of Hallowe'en wore on,
+young people gathered in one of the houses and resorted to an almost
+endless variety of games, or rather forms of divination, for the purpose
+of ascertaining the future fate of each member of the company. Were they
+to marry or remain single, was the marriage to take place that year or
+never, who was to be married first, what sort of husband or wife she or
+he was to get, the name, the trade, the colour of the hair, the amount
+of property of the future spouse--these were questions that were eagerly
+canvassed and the answers to them furnished never-failing
+entertainment.[598] Nor were these modes of divination at Hallowe'en
+confined to the Highlands, where the bonfires were kindled; they were
+practised with equal faith and in practically the same forms in the
+Lowlands, as we learn, for example, from Burns's poem _Hallowe'en_,
+which describes the auguries drawn from a variety of omens by the
+Ayrshire peasantry. These Lowlanders of Saxon descent may well have
+inherited the rites from the Celts who preceded them in the possession
+of the south country. A common practice at Hallowe'en was to go out
+stealthily to a neighbour's kailyard and there, with shut eyes, to pull
+up the first kail stock that came to hand. It was necessary that the
+plants should be stolen without the knowledge or consent of their owner;
+otherwise they were quite useless for the purpose of divination.
+Strictly speaking, too, the neighbour upon whose garden the raid was
+made should be unmarried, whether a bachelor or a spinster. The stolen
+kail was taken home and examined, and according to its height, shape,
+and features would be the height, shape, and features of the future
+husband or wife. The taste of the _custock_, that is, the heart of the
+stem, was an infallible indication of his or her temper; and a clod of
+earth adhering to the root signified, in proportion to its size, the
+amount of property which he or she would bring to the common stock. Then
+the kail-stock or _runt_, as it was called in Ayrshire, was placed over
+the lintel of the door; and the baptismal name of the young man or woman
+who first entered the door after the kail was in position would be the
+baptismal name of the husband or wife.[599] Again, young women sowed
+hemp seed over nine ridges of ploughed land, saying, "I sow hemp seed,
+and he who is to be my husband, let him come and harrow it." On looking
+back over her left shoulder the girl would see the figure of her future
+mate behind her in the darkness. In the north-east of Scotland lint seed
+was used instead of hemp seed and answered the purpose quite as
+well.[600] Again, a mode of ascertaining your future husband or wife was
+this. Take a clue of blue yarn and go to a lime-kiln. Throw the clue
+into the kiln, but keep one end of the thread in your hand and wind it
+on to another clue. As you come near the end somebody or something will
+hold the other end tight in the kiln. Then you call out, "Who holds?"
+giving the thread at the same time a gentle pull. Some one or something
+will thereupon pull the other end of the thread, and a voice will
+mention the name of your future husband or wife.[601] Another way is
+this. Go to the barn alone and secretly. Be sure to open both doors and
+if possible take them off their hinges; for if the being who is about to
+appear should catch you in the barn and clap the doors to on you, he or
+she might do you a mischief. Having done this, take the sieve or
+winnowing-basket, which in Lowland Scotch is called a _wecht_ or
+_waicht_, and go through the action of winnowing corn. Repeat it thrice,
+and at the third time the apparition of your future husband or wife will
+pass through the barn, entering at the windy door and passing out at the
+other.[602] Or this. Go to a southward running stream, where the lands
+of three lairds meet, or to a ford where the dead and living have
+crossed. Dip the left sleeve of your shirt in the water. Then go home,
+take off the shirt, hang it up before a fire to dry, and go to bed,
+taking care that the bed stands so that you can see your shirt hanging
+before the fire. Keep awake, and at midnight you will see the form of
+your future spouse come into the room and turn the other side of the
+sleeve to the fire to dry it.[603] A Highland form of divination at
+Hallowe'en is to take a shoe by the tip and throw it over the house,
+then observe the direction in which the toe points as it lies on the
+ground on the other side; for in that direction you are destined to go
+before long. If the shoe should fall sole uppermost, it is very unlucky
+for you.[604]
+
+[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.]
+
+These ways of prying into the future are practised outside of the house;
+others are observed in the kitchen or the parlour before the cheerful
+blaze of the fire. Thus the white of eggs, dropped in a glass of pure
+water, indicates by certain marks how many children a person will have.
+The impatience and clamour of the children, eager to ascertain the exact
+number of their future progeny, often induced the housewife to perform
+this ceremony for them by daylight; and the kindly mother, standing with
+her face to the window, dropping the white of an egg into a crystal
+glass of clean water, and surrounded by a group of children intently
+watching her proceedings, made up a pretty picture.[605] When the fun of
+the evening had fairly commenced, the names of eligible or likely
+matches were written on the chimney-piece, and the young man who wished
+to try his fortune was led up blindfolded to the list. Whatever name he
+put his finger on would prove that of his future wife.[606] Again, two
+nuts, representing a lad and a lass whose names were announced to the
+company, were put side by side in the fire. If they burned quietly
+together, the pair would be man and wife, and from the length of time
+they burned and the brightness of the flame the length and happiness of
+the married life of the two were augured. But if instead of burning
+together one of the nuts leaped away from the other, then there would be
+no marriage, and the blame would rest with the person whose nut had thus
+started away by itself.[607] Again, a dish of milk and meal (in Gaelic
+_fuarag_, in Lowland Scotch _crowdie_) or of beat potatoes was made and
+a ring was hidden in it. Spoons were served out to the company, who
+supped the contents of the dish hastily with them, and the one who got
+the ring would be the first to be married.[608] Again, apples and a
+silver sixpence were put in a tub of water; the apples naturally floated
+on the top and the sixpence sank to the bottom. Whoever could lift an
+apple or the sixpence from the water with his mouth, without using his
+teeth, was counted very lucky and got the prize to himself.[609] Again,
+three plates or basins were placed on the hearth. One was filled with
+clean water, another with dirty water, and the third was empty. The
+enquirer was blindfolded, knelt in front of the hearth, and groped about
+till he put his finger in one of them. If he lighted on the plate with
+the clean water, he would wed a maid; if on the plate with the dirty
+water, he would marry a widow; and if on the empty plate, he would
+remain a bachelor. For a girl the answer of the oracle was analogous;
+she would marry a bachelor, a widower, or nobody according to the plate
+into which she chanced to dip her finger. But to make sure, the
+operation had to be repeated thrice, the position of the plates being
+changed each time. If the enquirer put his or her finger into the same
+plate thrice or even twice, it was quite conclusive.[610]
+
+[The sliced apple; the white of egg in water; the salt cake or salt
+herring.]
+
+These forms of divination in the house were practised by the company in
+a body; but the following had to be performed by the person alone. You
+took an apple and stood with it in your hand in front of a
+looking-glass. Then you sliced the apple, stuck each slice on the point
+of the knife, and held it over your left shoulder, while you looked into
+the glass and combed your hair. The spectre of your future husband would
+then appear in the mirror stretching forth his hand to take the slices
+of the apple over your shoulder. Some say that the number of slices
+should be nine, that you should eat the first eight yourself, and only
+throw the ninth over your left shoulder for your husband; also that at
+each slice you should say, "In the name of the Father and the Son."[611]
+Again, take an egg, prick it with a pin, and let the white drop into a
+wine-glass nearly full of water. Take some of this in your mouth and go
+out for a walk. The first name you hear called out aloud will be that of
+your future husband or wife. An old woman told a lady that she had tried
+this mode of divination in her youth, that the name of Archibald "came
+up as it were from the very ground," and that Archibald sure enough was
+the name of her husband.[612] In South Uist and Eriskay, two of the
+outer Hebrides, a salt cake called _Bonnach Salainn_ is eaten at
+Hallowe'en to induce dreams that will reveal the future. It is baked of
+common meal with a great deal of salt. After eating it you may not drink
+water nor utter a word, not even to say your prayers. A salt herring,
+eaten bones and all in three bites, is equally efficacious, always
+provided that you drink no water and hold your tongue.[613]
+
+[Hallowe'en fires in Wales; omens drawn from stones thrown into the
+fire; divination by stones in the ashes.]
+
+In the northern part of Wales it used to be customary for every family
+to make a great bonfire called _Coel Coeth_ on Hallowe'en. The fire was
+kindled on the most conspicuous spot near the house; and when it had
+nearly gone out everyone threw into the ashes a white stone, which he
+had first marked. Then having said their prayers round the fire, they
+went to bed. Next morning, as soon as they were up, they came to search
+out the stones, and if any one of them was found to be missing, they had
+a notion that the person who threw it would die before he saw another
+Hallowe'en.[614] A writer on Wales at the beginning of the nineteenth
+century says that "the autumnal fire is still kindled in North Wales,
+being on the eve of the first day of November, and is attended by many
+ceremonies; such as running through the fire and smoke, each casting a
+stone into the fire, and all running off at the conclusion to escape
+from the black short-tailed sow; then supping upon parsnips, nuts, and
+apples; catching up an apple suspended by a string with the mouth alone,
+and the same by an apple in a tub of water: each throwing a nut into the
+fire; and those that burn bright, betoken prosperity to the owners
+through the following year, but those that burn black and crackle,
+denote misfortune. On the following morning the stones are searched for
+in the fire, and if any be missing, they betide ill to those who threw
+them in."[615] According to Sir John Rhys, the habit of celebrating
+Hallowe'en by lighting bonfires on the hills is perhaps not yet extinct
+in Wales, and men still living can remember how the people who assisted
+at the bonfires would wait till the last spark was out and then would
+suddenly take to their heels, shouting at the top of their voices, "The
+cropped black sow seize the hindmost!" The saying, as Sir John Rhys
+justly remarks, implies that originally one of the company became a
+victim in dead earnest. Down to the present time the saying is current
+in Carnarvonshire, where allusions to the cutty black sow are still
+occasionally made to frighten children.[616] We can now understand why
+in Lower Brittany every person throws a pebble into the midsummer
+bonfire.[617] Doubtless there, as in Wales and the Highlands of
+Scotland,[618] omens of life and death have at one time or other been
+drawn from the position and state of the pebbles on the morning of All
+Saints' Day. The custom, thus found among three separate branches of the
+Celtic stock, probably dates from a period before their dispersion, or
+at least from a time when alien races had not yet driven home the wedges
+of separation between them.
+
+[Divination as to love and marriage at Hallowe'en in Wales.]
+
+In Wales, as in Scotland, Hallowe'en was also the great season for
+forecasting the future in respect of love and marriage, and some of the
+forms of divination employed for this purpose resembled those which were
+in use among the Scotch peasantry. Two girls, for example, would make a
+little ladder of yarn, without breaking it from the ball, and having
+done so they would throw it out of the window. Then one of the girls,
+holding the ball in her hand, would wind the yarn back, repeating a
+rhyme in Welsh. This she did thrice, and as she wound the yarn she would
+see her future husband climbing up the little ladder. Again, three bowls
+or basins were placed on a table. One of them contained clean water, one
+dirty water, and one was empty. The girls of the household, and
+sometimes the boys too, then eagerly tried their fortunes. They were
+blindfolded, led up to the table, and dipped their hands into a bowl. If
+they happened to dip into the clean water, they would marry maidens or
+bachelors; if into the dirty water, they would be widowers or widows; if
+into the empty bowl, they would live unmarried. Again, if a girl,
+walking backwards, would place a knife among the leeks on Hallowe'en,
+she would see her future husband come and pick up the knife and throw it
+into the middle of the garden.[619]
+
+[Divination at Hallowe'en in Ireland.]
+
+In Ireland the Hallowe'en bonfires would seem to have died out, but the
+Hallowe'en divination has survived. Writing towards the end of the
+eighteenth century, General Vallancey tells us that on Hallowe'en or the
+vigil of Saman, as he calls it, "the peasants in Ireland assemble with
+sticks and clubs (the emblems of laceration) going from house to house,
+collecting money, bread-cake, butter, cheese, eggs, etc., etc., for the
+feast, repeating verses in honour of the solemnity, demanding
+preparations for the festival, in the name of St. Columb Kill, desiring
+them to lay aside the fatted calf, and to bring forth the black sheep.
+The good women are employed in making the griddle cake and candles;
+these last are sent from house to house in the vicinity, and are lighted
+up on the (Saman) next day, before which they pray, or are supposed to
+pray, for the departed souls of the donor. Every house abounds in the
+best viands they can afford: apples and nuts are devoured in abundance:
+the nut-shells are burnt, and from the ashes many strange things are
+foretold: cabbages are torn up by the root: hemp seed is sown by the
+maidens, and they believe, that if they look back, they will see the
+apparition of the man intended for their future spouse: they hang a
+smock before the fire, on the close of the feast, and sit up all night,
+concealed in a corner of the room, convinced that his apparition will
+come down the chimney and turn the smock: they throw a ball of yarn out
+of the window, and wind it on the reel within, convinced, that if they
+repeat the _Pater Noster_ backwards, and look at the ball of yarn
+without, they will then also see his _sith_ or apparition: they dip for
+apples in a tub of water, and endeavour to bring one up in the mouth:
+they suspend a cord with a cross-stick, with apples at one point, and
+candles lighted at the other, and endeavour to catch the apple, while it
+is in a circular motion, in the mouth. These, and many other
+superstitious ceremonies, the remains of Druidism, are observed on this
+holiday, which will never be eradicated, while the name of _Saman_ is
+permitted to remain."[620]
+
+[Divination at Hallow-e'en in Queen's County; divination at Hallow-e'en
+in County Leitrim; divination at Hallowe'en in County Roscommon.]
+
+In Queen's County, Ireland, down to the latter part of the nineteenth
+century children practised various of these rites of divination on
+Hallowe'en. Girls went out into the garden blindfold and pulled up
+cabbages: if the cabbage was well grown, the girl would have a handsome
+husband, but if it had a crooked stalk, the future spouse would be a
+stingy old man. Nuts, again, were placed in pairs on the bar of the
+fire, and from their behaviour omens were drawn of the fate in love and
+marriage of the couple whom they represented. Lead, also, was melted and
+allowed to drop into a tub of cold water, and from the shapes which it
+assumed in the water predictions were made to the children of their
+future destiny. Again, apples were bobbed for in a tub of water and
+brought up with the teeth; or a stick was hung from a hook with an apple
+at one end and a candle at the other, and the stick being made to
+revolve you made a bite at the apple and sometimes got a mouthful of
+candle instead.[621] In County Leitrim, also, down to near the end of
+the nineteenth century various forms of divination were practised at
+Hallowe'en. Girls ascertained the character of their future husbands by
+the help of cabbages just as in Queen's County. Again, if a girl found a
+branch of a briar-thorn which had bent over and grown into the ground so
+as to form a loop, she would creep through the loop thrice late in the
+evening in the devil's name, then cut the briar and put it under her
+pillow, all without speaking a word. Then she would lay her head on the
+pillow and dream of the man she was to marry. Boys, also, would dream in
+like manner of love and marriage at Hallowe'en, if only they would
+gather ten leaves of ivy without speaking, throw away one, and put the
+other nine under their pillow. Again, divination was practised by means
+of a cake called _barm-breac_, in which a nut and a ring were baked.
+Whoever got the ring would be married first; whoever got the nut would
+marry a widow or a widower; but if the nut were an empty shell, he or
+she would remain unwed. Again, a girl would take a clue of worsted, go
+to a lime kiln in the gloaming, and throw the clew into the kiln in the
+devil's name, while she held fast the other end of the thread. Then she
+would rewind the thread and ask, "Who holds my clue?" and the name of
+her future husband would come up from the depth of the kiln. Another way
+was to take a rake, go to a rick and walk round it nine times, saying,
+"I rake this rick in the devil's name." At the ninth time the wraith of
+your destined partner for life would come and take the rake out of your
+hand. Once more, before the company separated for the night, they would
+rake the ashes smooth on the hearth, and search them next morning for
+tracks, from which they judged whether anybody should come to the house,
+or leave it, or die in it before another year was out.[622] In County
+Roscommon, which borders on County Leitrim, a cake is made in nearly
+every house on Hallowe'en, and a ring, a coin, a sloe, and a chip of
+wood are put into it. Whoever gets the coin will be rich; whoever gets
+the ring will be married first; whoever gets the chip of wood, which
+stands for a coffin, will die first; and whoever gets the sloe will live
+longest, because the fairies blight the sloes in the hedges on
+Hallowe'en, so that the sloe in the cake will be the last of the year.
+Again, on the same mystic evening girls take nine grains of oats in
+their mouths, and going out without speaking walk about till they hear a
+man's name pronounced; it will be the name of their future husband. In
+County Roscommon, too, on Hallowe'en there is the usual dipping in water
+for apples or sixpences, and the usual bites at a revolving apple and
+tallow candle.[623]
+
+[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
+
+"_Noght oie howney hop-dy-naw_,"
+
+that is to say, "This is Hollantide Eve." For Hollantide is the Manx way
+of expressing the old English _All hallowen tide_, that is, All Saints'
+Day, the first of November. But as the people reckon this festival
+according to the Old Style, Hollantide in the Isle of Man is our twelfth
+of November. The native Manx name for the day is _Sauin_ or _Laa
+Houney_. Potatoes, parsnips and fish, pounded up together and mixed with
+butter, formed the proper evening meal (_mrastyr_) on Hallowe'en in the
+Isle of Man.[624] Here, too, as in Scotland forms of divination are
+practised by some people on this important evening. For example, the
+housewife fills a thimble full of salt for each member of the family and
+each guest; the contents of the thimblefuls are emptied out in as many
+neat little piles on a plate, and left there over night. Next morning
+the piles are examined, and if any of them has fallen down, he or she
+whom it represents will die within the year. Again, the women carefully
+sweep out the ashes from under the fireplace and flatten them down
+neatly on the open hearth. If they find next morning a footprint turned
+towards the door, it signifies a death in the family within the year;
+but if the footprint is turned in the opposite direction, it bodes a
+marriage. Again, divination by eavesdropping is practised in the Isle of
+Man in much the same way as in Scotland. You go out with your mouth full
+of water and your hands full of salt and listen at a neighbour's door,
+and the first name you hear will be the name of your husband. Again,
+Manx maids bandage their eyes and grope about the room till they dip
+their hands in vessels full of clean or dirty water, and so on; and from
+the thing they touch they draw corresponding omens. But some people in
+the Isle of Man observe these auguries, not on Hallowe'en or Hollantide
+Eve, as they call it, which was the old Manx New Year's Eve, but on the
+modern New Year's Eve, that is, on the thirty-first of December. The
+change no doubt marks a transition from the ancient to the modern mode
+of dating the beginning of the year.[625]
+
+[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.]
+
+In Lancashire, also, some traces of the old Celtic celebration of
+Hallowe'en have been reported in modern times. It is said that "fires
+are still lighted in Lancashire, on Hallowe'en, under the name of
+Beltains or Teanlas; and even such cakes as the Jews are said to have
+made in honour of the Queen of Heaven, are yet to be found at this
+season amongst the inhabitants of the banks of the Ribble.... Both the
+fires and the cakes, however, are now connected with superstitious
+notions respecting Purgatory, etc."[626] On Hallowe'en, too, the
+Lancashire maiden "strews the ashes which are to take the form of one or
+more letters of her lover's name; she throws hemp-seed over her shoulder
+and timidly glances to see who follows her."[627] Again, witches in
+Lancashire used to gather on Hallowe'en at the Malkin Tower, a ruined
+and desolate farm-house in the forest of Pendle. They assembled for no
+good purpose; but you could keep the infernal rout at bay by carrying a
+lighted candle about the fells from eleven to twelve o'clock at night.
+The witches tried to blow out the candle, and if they succeeded, so much
+the worse for you; but if the flame burned steadily till the clocks had
+struck midnight, you were safe. Some people performed the ceremony by
+deputy; and parties went about from house to house in the evening
+collecting candles, one for each inmate, and offering their services to
+_late_ or _leet_ the witches, as the phrase ran. This custom was
+practised at Longridge Fell in the early part of the nineteenth
+century.[628] In Northumberland on Hallowe'en omens of marriage were
+drawn from nuts thrown into the fire; and the sports of ducking for
+apples and biting at a revolving apple and lighted candle were also
+practised on that evening.[629] The equivalent of the Hallowe'en
+bonfires is reported also from France. We are told that in the
+department of Deux-Sevres, which forms part of the old province of
+Poitou, young people used to assemble in the fields on All Saints' Day
+(the first of November) and kindle great fires of ferns, thorns, leaves,
+and stubble, at which they roasted chestnuts. They also danced round the
+fires and indulged in noisy pastimes.[630]
+
+
+Sec. 7. _The Midwinter Fires_
+
+
+[A Midwinter festival of fire; Christmas the continuation of an old
+heathen festival of the sun.]
+
+If the heathen of ancient Europe celebrated, as we have good reason to
+believe, the season of Midsummer with a great festival of fire, of which
+the traces have survived in many places down to our own time, it is
+natural to suppose that they should have observed with similar rites the
+corresponding season of Midwinter; for Midsummer and Midwinter, or, in
+more technical language, the summer solstice and the winter solstice,
+are the two great turning-points in the sun's apparent course through
+the sky, and from the standpoint of primitive man nothing might seem
+more appropriate than to kindle fires on earth at the two moments when
+the fire and heat of the great luminary in heaven begin to wane or to
+wax. In this way the savage philosopher, to whose meditations on the
+nature of things we owe many ancient customs and ceremonies, might
+easily imagine that he helped the labouring sun to relight his dying
+lamp, or at all events to blow up the flame into a brighter blaze.
+Certain it is that the winter solstice, which the ancients erroneously
+assigned to the twenty-fifth of December, was celebrated in antiquity as
+the Birthday of the Sun, and that festal lights or fires were kindled on
+this joyful occasion. Our Christmas festival is nothing but a
+continuation under a Christian name of this old solar festivity; for the
+ecclesiastical authorities saw fit, about the end of the third or the
+beginning of the fourth century, arbitrarily to transfer the nativity of
+Christ from the sixth of January to the twenty-fifth of December, for
+the purpose of diverting to their Lord the worship which the heathen had
+hitherto paid on that day to the sun.[631]
+
+[The Yule log is the Midwinter counterpart of the Midsummer bonfire.]
+
+In modern Christendom the ancient fire-festival of the winter solstice
+appears to survive, or to have survived down to recent years, in the old
+custom of the Yule log, clog, or block, as it was variously called in
+England.[632] The custom was widespread in Europe, but seems to have
+flourished especially in England, France, and among the South Slavs; at
+least the fullest accounts of the custom come from these quarters. That
+the Yule log was only the winter counterpart of the Midsummer bonfire,
+kindled within doors instead of in the open air on account of the cold
+and inclement weather of the season, was pointed out long ago by our
+English antiquary John Brand;[633] and the view is supported by the many
+quaint superstitions attaching to the Yule log, superstitions which have
+no apparent connexion with Christianity but carry their heathen origin
+plainly stamped upon them. But while the two solstitial celebrations
+were both festivals of fire, the necessity or desirability of holding
+the winter celebration within doors lent it the character of a private
+or domestic festivity, which contrasts strongly with the publicity of
+the summer celebration, at which the people gathered on some open space
+or conspicuous height, kindled a huge bonfire in common, and danced and
+made merry round it together.
+
+[The Yule log in Germany; the Yule log in Switzerland.]
+
+Among the Germans the custom of the Yule log is known to have been
+observed in the eleventh century; for in the year 1184 the parish priest
+of Ahlen, in Muensterland, spoke of "bringing a tree to kindle the festal
+fire at the Lord's Nativity."[634] Down to about the middle of the
+nineteenth century the old rite was kept up in some parts of central
+Germany, as we learn from an account of it given by a contemporary
+writer. After mentioning the custom of feeding the cattle and shaking
+the fruit-trees on Christmas night, to make them bear fruit, he goes on
+as follows: "Other customs pointing back to the far-off times of
+heathendom may still be met with among the old-fashioned peasants of the
+mountain regions. Such is in the valleys of the Sieg and Lahn the
+practice of laying a new log as a foundation of the hearth. A heavy
+block of oak-wood, generally a stump grubbed up from the ground, is
+fitted either into the floor of the hearth, or into a niche made for the
+purpose in the wall under the hook on which the kettle hangs. When the
+fire on the hearth glows, this block of wood glows too, but it is so
+placed that it is hardly reduced to ashes within a year. When the new
+foundation is laid, the remains of the old block are carefully taken
+out, ground to powder, and strewed over the fields during the Twelve
+Nights. This, so people fancied, promotes the fruitfulness of the year's
+crops."[635] In some parts of the Eifel Mountains, to the west of
+Coblentz, a log of wood called the _Christbrand_ used to be placed on
+the hearth on Christmas Eve; and the charred remains of it on Twelfth
+Night were put in the corn-bin to keep the mice from devouring the
+corn.[636] At Weidenhausen and Girkshausen, in Westphalia, the practice
+was to withdraw the Yule log (_Christbrand_) from the fire so soon as it
+was slightly charred; it was then kept carefully to be replaced on the
+fire whenever a thunder-storm broke, because the people believed that
+lightning would not strike a house in which the Yule log was
+smouldering.[637] In some villages near Berleburg in Westphalia the old
+custom was to tie up the Yule log in the last sheaf cut at harvest.[638]
+On Christmas Eve the peasantry of the Oberland, in Meiningen, a province
+of Central Germany, used to put a great block of wood called the
+_Christklots_ on the fire before they went to bed; it should burn all
+night, and the charred remains were believed to guard the house for the
+whole year against the risk of fire, burglary, and other
+misfortunes.[639] The Yule log seems to be known only in the
+French-speaking parts of Switzerland, where it goes by the usual French
+name of _Buche de Noel_. In the Jura mountains of the canton of Bern,
+while the log is burning on the hearth the people sing a blessing over
+it as follows:--
+
+"_May the log burn!
+May all good come in!
+May the women have children
+And the sheep lambs!
+White bread for every one
+And the vat full of wine_!"
+
+The embers of the Yule log were kept carefully, for they were believed
+to be a protection against lightning.[640]
+
+[The Yule log in Belgium.]
+
+"The Christmas fires, which were formerly lit everywhere in the Low
+Countries, have fallen into disuse. But in Flanders a great log of wood,
+called the _kersavondblok_ and usually cut from the roots of a fir or a
+beech, is still put on the fire; all the lights in the house are
+extinguished, and the whole family gathers round the log to spend part
+of the night in singing, in telling stories, especially about ghosts,
+were-wolves, and so on, and also in drinking gin. At Grammont and in the
+neighbourhood of that town, where the Yule log is called _Kersmismot_,
+it is customary to set fire to the remainder of the gin at the moment
+when the log is reduced to ashes. Elsewhere a piece of the log is kept
+and put under the bed to protect the house against thunder and
+lightning. The charcoal of the log which burned during Christmas Night,
+if pounded up and mixed with water, is a cure for consumption. In the
+country of Limburg the log burns several nights, and the pounded
+charcoal is kept as a preventive (so they say), of toothache."[641]
+
+[The Yule log in France.]
+
+In several provinces of France, and particularly in Provence, the custom
+of the Yule log or _trefoir_, 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 Provencal verses to the
+following effect:--
+
+"_Let the log rejoice,
+To-morrow is the day of bread;
+Let all good enter here;
+Let the women bear children;
+Let the she-goats bring forth kids;
+Let the ewes drop lambs;
+Let there be much wheat and flour,
+And the vat full of wine_."
+
+Then the log was blessed by the smallest and youngest child of the
+house, who poured a glass of wine over it saying, _In nomine patris_,
+etc.; after which the log was set on the fire. The charcoal of the burnt
+wood was kept the whole year, and used as an ingredient in several
+remedies.[642]
+
+[French superstitions as to the Yule log.]
+
+Amongst the superstitions denounced by the same writer is "the belief
+that a log called the _trefoir_ or Christmas brand, which you put on the
+fire for the first time on Christmas Eve and continue to put on the fire
+for a little while every day till Twelfth Night, can, if kept under the
+bed, protect the house for a whole year from fire and thunder; that it
+can prevent the inmates from having chilblains on their heels in winter;
+that it can cure the cattle of many maladies; that if a piece of it be
+steeped in the water which cows drink it helps them to calve; and lastly
+that if the ashes of the log be strewn on the fields it can save the
+wheat from mildew."[643]
+
+[The Yule log at Marseilles and in Perigord; virtues ascribed to the
+charcoal and ashes of the burnt log; the Yule log in Berry.]
+
+In Marseilles the Yule log used to be a great block of oak, which went
+by the name of _calendeau_ or _calignau_; it was sprinkled with wine and
+oil, and the head of the house kindled it himself.[644] "The Yule log
+plays a great part at the festival of the winter solstice in Perigord.
+The countryman thinks that it is best made of plum-tree, cherry, or oak,
+and that the larger it is the better. If it burns well, it is a good
+omen, the blessing of heaven rests upon it. The charcoal and ashes,
+which are collected very carefully, are excellent for healing swollen
+glands; the part of the trunk which has not been burnt in the fire is
+used by ploughmen to make the wedge (_tecoin ou cale_) for their plough,
+because they allege that it causes the seeds to thrive better; and the
+women keep pieces of it till Twelfth Night for the sake of their
+chickens. Nevertheless if you sit down on the log, you become subject to
+boils, and to cure yourself of them you must pass nine times under a
+bramble branch which happens to be rooted in the ground at both ends.
+The charcoal heals sheep of a disease called the _goumon_; and the
+ashes, carefully wrapt up in white linen, preserve the whole household
+from accidents. Some people think that they will have as many chickens
+as there are sparks that fly out of the brands of the log when they
+shake them; and others place the extinct brands under the bed to drive
+away vermin. In Vienne, on Christmas Eve, when supper is over, the
+master of the house has a great log--the Christmas brand--brought in,
+and then, surrounded by all the spectators gathered in profound silence,
+he sprinkles salt and water on the log. It is then put on the fire to
+burn during the three festivals; but they carefully preserve a piece to
+be kindled every time that it thunders."[645] In Berry, a district of
+Central France, the Yule log was called the _cosse de Nau_, the last
+word being an abbreviation of the usual French word for Christmas
+(Noel). It consisted of an enormous tree-trunk, so heavy that the united
+strength of several men was needed to carry it in and place it on the
+hearth, where it served to feed the fire during the three days of the
+Christmas festivity. Strictly speaking, it should be the trunk of an old
+oak-tree which had never been lopped and had been felled at midnight. It
+was placed on the hearth at the moment when the tinkle of the bell
+announced the elevation of the host at the midnight mass; and the head
+of the family, after sprinkling it with holy water, set it on fire. The
+remains of the log were preserved till the same day next year. They were
+kept under the bed of the master of the house; and whenever thunder was
+heard, one of the family would take a piece of the log and throw it on
+the fire, which was believed to guard the family against lightning. In
+the Middle Ages, we are told, several fiefs were granted on condition
+that the vassal should bring in person a Yule log every year for the
+hearth of his liege lord.[646]
+
+[The Yule log in Normandy and Brittany.]
+
+Similar customs and beliefs survived till recent years in some of the
+remote country villages of the picturesque district known as the Bocage
+of Normandy. There it was the grandfather or other oldest man of the
+family who chose the Yule log in good time and had it ready for
+Christmas Eve. Then he placed it on the hearth at the moment when the
+church bell began to ring for the evening service. Kneeling reverently
+at the hearth with the members of his family in a like attitude of
+devotion, the old man recited three _Pater Nosters_ and three _Aves_,
+and invoked the blessing of heaven on the log and on the cottage. Then
+at the sound of the bell which proclaimed the sacrament of the mass, or,
+if the church was too far off to allow the tinkle of the bell to be
+heard, at the moment when they judged that the priest was elevating the
+host before the high altar, the patriarch sprinkled the burning log with
+holy water, blessed it in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
+the Holy Ghost, and drew it out of the fire. The charred log was then
+carefully kept till the following Christmas as a precious relic which
+would guard the house against the levin bolt, evil spirits, sorcerers,
+and every misfortune that might befall in the course of the year.[647]
+In the department of Orne "the Yule-log is called _trefouet_; holy water
+is poured on it; it should last the three days of the festival, and the
+remains of it are kept to be put on the fire when it thunders. This
+brand is a protection both against thunder and against sorcerers."[648]
+In Upper Brittany, also, the Yule log is thought to be a safeguard
+against thunder and lightning. It is sprinkled with holy water on
+Christmas morning and allowed to burn till evening. If a piece of it is
+thrown into the well, it will ensure a supply of good water.[649]
+
+[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,
+
+'_When Christmas comes,
+Every one should rejoice,
+For it is a New Covenant_.'
+
+"Following the grandmother and joining in the song, the children and the
+rest of the family marched thrice round the log, which was as fine a log
+as could be got."[650] We can now, perhaps, understand why in Perigord
+people who sat on the Yule log suffered from boils,[651] and why in
+Lorraine young folks used to be warned that if they sat on it they would
+have the scab.[652] The reason probably was that the Virgin and child
+were supposed to be seated, invisible, upon the log and to resent the
+indignity of contact with mortal children.
+
+[The Yule log in the Vosges; the Yule log in Franche-Comte and
+Burgundy.]
+
+On Christmas Eve the mountaineers of Rupt, in the Vosges, also never
+fail to put on the hearth the largest log which the hearth can hold;
+they call it _la galeuche de Noe_, that is, the Yule log. Next morning
+they rake the ashes for any charred fragments and keep them as valuable
+talismans to guard them against the stroke of lightning. At Vagney and
+other places near it in the Vosges it used to be customary on the same
+evening to grease the hinges and the latches of the doors, that no harsh
+grating sound should break the slumbers of the infant Christ. In the
+Vosges Mountains, too, as indeed in many other places, cattle acquired
+the gift of speech on Christmas Eve and conversed with each other in the
+language of Christians. Their conversation was, indeed, most
+instructive; for the future, it seems, had no secret worth mentioning
+for them. Yet few people cared to be caught eavesdropping at the byre;
+wise folk contented themselves with setting a good store of fodder in
+the manger, then shut the door, and left the animals to their
+ruminations. A farmer of Vecoux once hid in a corner of the byre to
+overhear the edifying talk of the beasts. But it did him little good;
+for one ox said to another ox, "What shall we do to-morrow?" and the
+other replied, "We shall carry our master to the churchyard." Sure
+enough the farmer died that very night and was buried next morning.[653]
+In Franche-Comte, the province of France to the west of the Jura
+mountains, if the Yule log is really to protect a house against thunder
+and lightning, it is essential that it should burn during the midnight
+mass, and that the flame should not go out before the divine service is
+concluded. Otherwise the log is quite useless for the purpose.[654] In
+Burgundy the log which is placed on the fire on Christmas Eve is called
+the _suche_. While it is burning, the father of the family, assisted by
+his wife and children, sings Christmas carols; and when he has finished,
+he tells the smallest children to go into a corner of the room and pray
+God that the log may give them sweeties. The prayer is invariably
+answered.[655]
+
+[The Yule log and the Yule candle in England.]
+
+In England the customs and beliefs concerning the Yule log, clog, or
+block, as it was variously called, used to be similar. On the night of
+Christmas Eve, says the antiquary John Brand, "our ancestors were wont
+to light up candles of an uncommon size, called Christmas Candles, and
+lay a log of wood upon the fire, called a Yule-clog or Christmas-block,
+to illuminate the house, and, as it were, to turn night into day. This
+custom is, in some measure, still kept up in the North of England. In
+the buttery of St. John's College, Oxford, an ancient candle-socket of
+stone still remains ornamented with the figure of the Holy Lamb. It was
+formerly used to burn the Christmas Candle in, on the high table at
+supper, during the twelve nights of that festival."[656] "A tall mould
+candle, called a Yule candle, is lighted and set on the table; these
+candles are presented by the chandlers and grocers to their customers.
+The Yule-log is bought of the carpenters' lads. It would be unlucky to
+light either of them before the time, or to stir the fire or candle
+during the supper; the candle must not be snuffed, neither must any one
+stir from the table till supper is ended. In these suppers it is
+considered unlucky to have an odd number at table. A fragment of the log
+is occasionally saved, and put under a bed, to remain till next
+Christmas: it secures the house from fire; a small piece of it thrown
+into a fire occurring at the house of a neighbour, will quell the raging
+flame. A piece of the candle should likewise be kept to ensure good
+luck."[657] In the seventeenth century, as we learn from some verses of
+Herrick, the English custom was to light the Yule log with a fragment of
+its predecessor, which had been kept throughout the year for the
+purpose; where it was so kept, the fiend could do no mischief.[658]
+Indeed the practice of preserving a piece of the Yule-log of one year to
+light that of the next was observed by at least one family at Cheadle in
+Staffordshire down to the latter part of the nineteenth century.[659]
+
+[The Yule-log in Yorkshire; the Yule log in Lincolnshire; the Yule log
+in Warwickshire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire; the Yule log in Wales.]
+
+In the North of England farm-servants used to lay by a large knotty
+block of wood for the Christmas fire, and so long as the block lasted
+they were entitled by custom to ale at their meals. The log was as large
+as the hearth could hold.[660] At Belford, in Northumberland, "the lord
+of the manor sends round to every house, on the afternoon of Christmas
+Eve, the Yule Logs--four or five large logs--to be burnt on Christmas
+Eve and Day. This old custom has always, I am told, been kept up
+here."[661] The custom of burning the Yule log at Christmas used to be
+observed in Wensleydale and other parts of Yorkshire, and prudent
+housewives carefully preserved pieces of the log throughout the year. At
+Whitby the portions so kept were stowed away under the bed till next
+Christmas, when they were burnt with the new log; in the interval they
+were believed to protect the house from conflagration, and if one of
+them were thrown into the fire, it would quell a raging storm.[662] The
+practice and the belief were similar at Filey on the coast of Yorkshire,
+where besides the Yule log a tall Yule candle was lit on the same
+evening.[663] In the West Riding, while the log blazed cheerfully, the
+people quaffed their ale and sang, "Yule! Yule! a pack of new cards and
+a Christmas stool!"[664] At Clee, in Lincolnshire, "when Christmas Eve
+has come the Yule cake is duly cut and the Yule log lit, and I know of
+some even middle-class houses where the new log must always rest upon
+and be lighted by the old one, a small portion of which has been
+carefully stored away to preserve a continuity of light and heat."[665]
+At the village of Wootton Wawen in Warwickshire, down to 1759 at least,
+the Yule-block, as it was called, was drawn into the house by a horse on
+Christmas Eve "as a foundation for the fire on Christmas Day, and
+according to the superstition of those times for the twelve days
+following, as the said block was not to be entirely reduced to ashes
+till that time had passed by."[666] As late as 1830, or thereabout, the
+scene of lighting the hearth-fire on Christmas Eve, to continue burning
+throughout the Christmas season, might have been witnessed in the
+secluded and beautiful hill-country of West Shropshire, from Chirbury
+and Worthen to Pulverbatch and Pontesbury. The Christmas brand or brund,
+as they called it, was a great trunk of seasoned oak, holly, yew, or
+crab-tree, drawn by horses to the farm-house door and thence rolled by
+means of rollers and levers to the back of the wide open hearth, where
+the fire was made up in front of it. The embers were raked up to it
+every night, and it was carefully tended, that it might not go out
+during the whole Christmas season. All those days no light might be
+struck, given, or borrowed. Such was the custom at Worthen in the early
+part of the nineteenth century.[667] In Herefordshire the Christmas
+feast "lasted for twelve days, and no work was done. All houses were,
+and are now, decorated with sprigs of holly and ivy, which must not be
+brought in until Christmas Eve. A Yule log, as large as the open hearth
+could accommodate, was brought into the kitchen of each farmhouse, and
+smaller ones were used in the cottages. W---- P---- said he had seen a
+tree drawn into the kitchen at Kingstone Grange years ago by two cart
+horses; when it had been consumed a small portion was carefully kept to
+be used for lighting next year's log. 'Mother always kept it very
+carefully; she said it was lucky, and kept the house from fire and from
+lightning.' It seems to have been the general practice to light it on
+Christmas Eve."[668] "In many parts of Wales it is still customary to
+keep part of the Yule-log until the following Christmas Eve 'for luck.'
+It is then put into the fireplace and burnt, but before it is consumed
+the new log is put on, and thus 'the old fire and the new' burn
+together. In some families this is done from force of habit, and they
+cannot now tell why they do it; but in the past the observance of this
+custom was to keep witches away, and doubtless was a survival of
+fire-worship."[669]
+
+[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.]
+
+At the moment when the sun is setting all the members of the family
+assemble in the central hall (the great family kitchen) of the principal
+house. The mother of the family (or the wife of the chief of the
+Zadrooga)[670] gives a pair of woollen gloves to one of the young men,
+who goes out and presently returns carrying in his gloved hands the
+largest of the logs. The mother receives him at the threshold, throwing
+at him a handful of wheat, in which the first chip of the oak tree cut
+in the early morning for the Yule log has been kept all day. Entering
+the central hall with the Yule log the young man greets all present with
+the words: "Good evening, and may you have a happy Christmas!" and they
+all answer in chorus, "May God and the happy and holy Christmas help
+thee!" In some parts of Servia the chief of the family, holding a glass
+of red wine in his hand, greets the Yule log as if it were a living
+person, and drinks to its health. After that, another glass of red wine
+is poured on the log. Then the oldest male member of the family,
+assisted by the young man who brought in the log, places it on the
+burning fire so that the thicker end of the log protrudes for about a
+foot from the hearth. In some places this end is smeared with honey.
+
+[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_).]
+
+All the family gathered round the blazing Yule log now anxiously expect
+the arrival of the special Christmas visiter, who bears the title of
+_polaznik_. He is usually a young boy of a friendly family. No other
+person, not even the priest or the mayor of the village, would be
+allowed to set foot in the house before the arrival of this important
+personage. Therefore he ought to come, and generally does come, very
+early in the morning. He carries a woollen glove full of wheat, and when
+the door is opened at his knock he throws handfuls of wheat on the
+family gathered round the hearth, greeting them with the words, "Christ
+is born!" They all answer, "He is born indeed," and the hostess flings a
+handful of wheat over the Christmas visiter, who moreover casts some of
+his wheat into the corners of the hall as well as upon the people. Then
+he walks straight to the hearth, takes a shovel and strikes the burning
+log so that a cloud of sparks flies up the chimney, while he says, "May
+you have this year so many oxen, so many horses, so many sheep, so many
+pigs, so many beehives full of honey, so much good luck, prosperity,
+progress, and happiness!" Having uttered these good wishes, he embraces
+and kisses his host. Then he turns again to the hearth, and after
+crossing himself falls on his knees and kisses the projecting part of
+the Yule log. On rising to his feet he places a coin on the log as his
+gift. Meanwhile a low wooden chair has been brought in by a woman, and
+the visiter is led to it to take his seat. But just as he is about to do
+so, the chair is jerked away from under him by a male member of the
+family and he measures his length on the floor. By this fall he is
+supposed to fix into the ground all the good wishes which he has uttered
+that morning. The hostess thereupon wraps him in a thick blanket, and he
+sits quietly muffled in it for a few minutes; the thick blanket in which
+he is swathed is believed, on the principles of homoeopathic magic, to
+ensure that the cows will give thick cream next year. While he sits thus
+enriching the milk of the dairy, the lads who are to herd the sheep in
+the coming year go to the hearth and kneeling down before it kiss each
+other across the projecting end of the Yule log. By this demonstration
+of affection they are thought to seal the love of the ewes for their
+lambs.[671]
+
+[The Yule log among the Servians of Slavonia; the Christmas visiter
+(_polazenik_).]
+
+The ritual of the Yule log is observed in a similar form by the Servians
+who inhabit the southern provinces of Austria. Thus in Syrmia, a
+district of Slavonia which borders on Servia, the head of the house
+sends out one or two young men on Christmas Eve to cut the Yule log in
+the nearest forest. On being brought in, the log is not mixed with the
+ordinary fuel but placed by itself, generally leaning against a
+fruit-tree till the evening shadows begin to fall. When a man carries it
+into the kitchen and lays it on the fire, the master of the house throws
+corn over him, and the two greet each other solemnly the one saying,
+"Christ is born," and the other answering "He is born indeed." Later in
+the evening the master of the house pours a glass of wine on the charred
+end of the log, whereupon one of the younger men takes the burnt piece
+of wood, carries it to the orchard, and sets it up against one of the
+fruit-trees. For this service he is rewarded by the master of the house
+with a piece of money. On Christmas Day, when the family is assembled at
+table, they expect the arrival of the special Christmas visiter (called
+_polazenik_), the only person who is allowed to enter the house that
+day. When he comes, he goes to the hearth, stirs the fire with the poker
+and says, "Christ is born. May the family enjoy all good luck and
+happiness in this year! May the cattle increase in number like the
+sparks I have struck!" As he says these words, the mistress of the house
+pours corn over him and leads him to the parlour, where he takes the
+place of honour beside the master of the house. He is treated with
+marked attention and respect. The family are at pains to entertain him;
+they sing their best songs for his amusement, and after midnight a
+numerous band of men and maidens escorts him by torchlight, with songs
+and jubilation, to his own house.[672]
+
+[The Yule log among the Servians of Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and
+Montenegro; the Yule log in Albania.]
+
+Among the Servians of Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro it is
+customary on Christmas Eve (_Badnyi Dan_) to fetch a great Yule log
+(_badnyak_), which serves as a symbol of family luck. It is generally
+cut from an evergreen oak, but sometimes from an olive-tree or a beech.
+At nightfall the master of the house himself brings in the log and lays
+it on the fire. Then he and all present bare their heads, sprinkle the
+log with wine, and make a cross on it. After that the master of the
+house says, "Welcome, O log! May God keep you from mishap!" So saying he
+strews peas, maize, raisins, and wheat on the log, praying for God's
+blessing on all members of the family living and dead, for heaven's
+blessing on their undertakings, and for domestic prosperity. In
+Montenegro they meet the log with a loaf of bread and a jug of wine,
+drink to it, and pour wine on it, whereupon the whole family drinks out
+of the same beaker. In Dalmatia and other places, for example in Rizano,
+the Yule logs are decked by young women with red silk, flowers, laurel
+leaves, ribbons, and even gold wire; and the lights near the doorposts
+are kindled when the log is brought into the house. Among the Morlaks,
+as soon as the master of the house crosses the threshold with the Yule
+log, one of the family must sprinkle corn on him and say, "God bless
+you," to which he answers, "The same to you." A piece of the log is kept
+till New Year's Day to kindle a light with or it is carried out to the
+fields to protect them from hail. It is customary to invite before hand
+a Christmas visitor (_polazaynik_) and to admit no one else into the
+house on that day. He comes early, carrying in his sleeves a quantity of
+corn which he throws into the house, saying, "Christ is born." One of
+the household replies, "He is born indeed," and throws corn on the
+visiter. Then the newcomer goes up to the hearth, pokes the fire and
+strikes the burning log with the poker so hard that sparks fly off in
+all directions. At each blow he says, "I wish the family as many cows,
+calves, sucking pigs, goats, and sheep, and as many strokes of good
+luck, as the sparks that now fly from the log." With these words he
+throws some small coins into the ashes.[673] In Albania down to recent
+years it was a common custom to burn a Yule log at Christmas, and with
+it corn, maize, and beans; moreover, wine and _rakia_ were poured on the
+flames, and the ashes of the fire were scattered on the fields to make
+them fertile.[674] The Huzuls, a Slavonic people of the Carpathians,
+kindle fire by the friction of wood on Christmas Eve (Old Style, the
+fifth of January) and keep it burning till Twelfth Night.[675]
+
+[Belief that the Yule log protects against fire and lightning.]
+
+It is remarkable how common the belief appears to have been that the
+remains of the Yule-log, if kept throughout the year, had power to
+protect the house against fire and especially against lightning.[676] As
+the Yule log was frequently of oak,[677] it seems possible that this
+belief may be a relic of the old Aryan creed which associated the
+oak-tree with the god of thunder.[678] Whether the curative and
+fertilizing virtues ascribed to the ashes of the Yule log, which are
+supposed to heal cattle as well as men, to enable cows to calve, and to
+promote the fruitfulness of the earth,[679] may not be derived from the
+same ancient source, is a question which deserves to be considered.
+
+[Public celebrations of the fire-festival at Midwinter; the bonfire on
+Christmas Eve at Schweina in Thuringia.]
+
+Thus far we have regarded only the private or domestic celebration of
+the fire-festival at midwinter. The public celebration of such rites at
+that season of the year appears to have been rare and exceptional in
+Central and Northern Europe. However, some instances are on record. Thus
+at Schweina, in Thuringia, down to the second half of the nineteenth
+century, the young people used to kindle a great bonfire on the Antonius
+Mountain every year on Christmas Eve. Neither the civil nor the
+ecclesiastical authorities were able to suppress the celebration; nor
+could the cold, rain, and snow of the season damp or chill the
+enthusiasm of the celebrants. For some time before Christmas the young
+men and boys were busy building a foundation for the bonfire on the top
+of the mountain, where the oldest church of the village used to stand.
+The foundation consisted of a pyramidal structure composed of stones,
+turf, and moss. When Christmas Eve came round, a strong pole, with
+bundles of brushwood tied to it, was erected on the pyramid. The young
+folk also provided themselves with poles to which old brooms or faggots
+of shavings were attached. These were to serve as torches. When the
+evening grew dark and the church bells rang to service, the troop of
+lads ascended the mountain; and soon from the top the glare of the
+bonfire lit up the darkness, and the sound of a hymn broke the stillness
+of night. In a circle round the great fire lesser fires were kindled;
+and last of all the lads ran about swinging their lighted torches, till
+these twinkling points of fire, moving down the mountain-side, went out
+one by one in the darkness. At midnight the bells rang out from the
+church tower, mingled with the blast of horns and the sound of singing.
+Feasting and revelry were kept up throughout the night, and in the
+morning young and old went to early mass to be edified by hearing of the
+light eternal.[680]
+
+[Bonfires on Christmas Eve in Normandy.]
+
+In the Bocage of Normandy the peasants used to repair, often from a
+distance of miles, to the churches to hear the midnight mass on
+Christmas Eve. They marched in procession by torchlight, chanting
+Christmas carols, and the fitful illumination of the woods, the hedges,
+and the fields as they moved through the darkness, presented a
+succession of picturesque scenes. Mention is also made of bonfires
+kindled on the heights; the custom is said to have been observed at
+Athis near Conde down to recent years.[681]
+
+[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]
+
+In the Isle of Man, "on the twenty-first of December, a day dedicated to
+Saint Thomas, the people went to the mountains to catch deer and sheep
+for Christmas, and in the evenings always kindled a large fire on the
+top of every _fingan_ or cliff. Hence, at the time of casting peats,
+every one laid aside a large one, saying, '_Faaid mooar moayney son
+oie'l fingan_'; that is, 'a large turf for Fingan Eve.'"[682] At
+Burghead, an ancient village on the southern shore of the Moray Firth,
+about nine miles from the town of Elgin, a festival of fire called "the
+Burning of the Clavie" has been celebrated from time immemorial on
+Hogmanay, the last day of December. A tar-barrel is sawn in two, one
+half of it is set on the top of a stout pole, and filled with tar and
+other combustibles. The half-barrel is fastened to the pole by means of
+a long nail, which is made for the purpose and furnished gratuitously by
+the village blacksmith. The nail must be knocked in with a stone; the
+use of a hammer is forbidden. When the shades of evening have begun to
+fall, the Clavie, as it is called, is set on fire by means of a burning
+peat, which is always fetched from the same house; it may not be kindled
+with a match. As soon as it is in a blaze, it is shouldered by a man,
+who proceeds to carry it at a run, flaring and dripping melted tar,
+round the old boundaries of the village; the modern part of the town is
+not included in the circuit. Close at his heels follows a motley crowd,
+cheering and shouting. One bearer relieves another as each wearies of
+his burden. The first to shoulder the Clavie, which is esteemed an
+honour, is usually a man who has been lately married. Should the bearer
+stumble or fall, it is deemed a very ill omen for him and for the
+village. In bygone times it was thought necessary that one man should
+carry it all round the village; hence the strongest man was chosen for
+the purpose. Moreover it was customary to carry the burning Clavie round
+every fishing-boat and vessel in the harbour; but this part of the
+ceremony was afterwards discontinued. Finally, the blazing tar-barrel is
+borne to a small hill called the Doorie, which rises near the northern
+end of the promontory. Here the pole is fixed into a socket in a pillar
+of freestone, and fresh fuel is heaped upon the flames, which flare up
+higher and brighter than ever. Formerly the Clavie was allowed to burn
+here the whole night, but now, after blazing for about half an hour, it
+is lifted from the socket and thrown down the western slope of the hill.
+Then the crowd rushes upon it, demolishes it, and scrambles for the
+burning, smoking embers, which they carry home and carefully preserve as
+charms to protect them against witchcraft and misfortune.[683] The great
+antiquity of Burghead, where this curious and no doubt ancient festival
+is still annually observed, appears from the remains of a very
+remarkable rampart which formerly encircled the place. It consists of a
+mound of earth faced on both sides with a solid wall of stone and
+strengthened internally by oak beams and planks, the whole being laid on
+a foundation of boulders. The style of the rampart agrees in general
+with Caesar's description of the mode in which the Gauls constructed
+their walls of earth, stone, and logs,[684] and it resembles the ruins
+of Gallic fortifications which have been discovered in France, though it
+is said to surpass them in the strength and solidity of its structure.
+No similar walls appear to be known in Britain. A great part of this
+interesting prehistoric fortress was barbarously destroyed in the early
+part of the nineteenth century, much of it being tumbled into the sea
+and many of the stones used to build the harbour piers.[685]
+
+[Procession with burning tar-barrels on Christmas Eve (Old Style) at
+Lerwick.]
+
+In Lerwick, the capital of the Shetland Islands, "on Christmas Eve, the
+fourth of January,--for the old style is still observed--the children go
+_a guizing_, that is to say, they disguising themselves in the most
+fantastic and gaudy costumes, parade the streets, and infest the houses
+and shops, begging for the wherewithal to carry on their Christmas
+amusements. One o'clock on Yule morning having struck, the young men
+turn out in large numbers, dressed in the coarsest of garments, and, at
+the double-quick march, drag huge tar barrels through the town, shouting
+and cheering as they go, or blowing loud blasts with their 'louder
+horns.' The tar barrel simply consists of several--say from four to
+eight--tubs filled with tar and chips, placed on a platform of wood. It
+is dragged by means of a chain, to which scores of jubilant youths
+readily yoke themselves. They have recently been described by the worthy
+burgh officer of Lerwick as 'fiery chariots, the effect of which is
+truly grand and terrific.' In a Christmas morning the dark streets of
+Lerwick are generally lighted up by the bright glare, and its atmosphere
+blackened by the dense smoke of six or eight tar barrels in succession.
+On the appearance of daybreak, at six A.M., the morning revellers put
+off their coarse garments--well begrimed by this time--and in their turn
+become guizards. They assume every imaginable form of costume--those of
+soldiers, sailors, Highlanders, Spanish chevaliers, etc. Thus disguised,
+they either go in pairs, as man and wife, or in larger groups, and
+proceed to call on their friends, to wish them the compliments of the
+season. Formerly, these adolescent guizards used to seat themselves in
+crates, and accompanied by fiddlers, were dragged through the
+town."[686]
+
+[Persian festival of fire at the winter solstice.]
+
+The Persians used to celebrate a festival of fire called _Sada_ or
+_Saza_ at the winter solstice. On the longest night of the year they
+kindled bonfires everywhere, and kings and princes tied dry grass to the
+feet of birds and animals, set fire to the grass, and then let the birds
+and beasts fly or run blazing through the air or over the fields and
+mountains, so that the whole air and earth appeared to be on fire.[687]
+
+
+Sec. 8. _The Need-fire_
+
+
+[European festivals of fire in seasons of distress and calamity; the
+need-fire.]
+
+The fire-festivals hitherto described are all celebrated periodically at
+certain stated times of the year. But besides these regularly recurring
+celebrations the peasants in many parts of Europe have been wont from
+time immemorial to resort to a ritual of fire at irregular intervals in
+seasons of distress and calamity, above all when their cattle were
+attacked by epidemic disease. No account of the popular European
+fire-festivals would be complete without some notice of these remarkable
+rites, which have all the greater claim on our attention because they
+may perhaps be regarded as the source and origin of all the other
+fire-festivals; certainly they must date from a very remote antiquity.
+The general name by which they are known among the Teutonic peoples is
+need-fire.[688]
+
+[The needfire in the Middle Ages; the needfire at Neustadt in 1598.]
+
+The history of the need-fire can be traced back to early Middle Ages;
+for in the reign of Pippin, King of Franks, the practice of kindling
+need-fires was denounced as a heathen superstition by a synod of
+prelates and nobles held under the presidency of Boniface, Archbishop of
+Mainz.[689] Not long afterwards the custom was again forbidden, along
+with many more relics of expiring paganism, in an "Index of
+Superstitions and Heathenish Observances," which has been usually
+referred to the year 743 A.D., though some scholars assign it a later
+date under the reign of Charlemagne.[690] In Germany the need-fires
+would seem to have been popular down to the second half of the
+nineteenth century. Thus in the year 1598, when a fatal cattle-plague
+was raging at Neustadt, near Marburg, a wise man of the name of Joh.
+Koehler induced the authorities of the town to adopt the following
+remedy. A new waggon-wheel was taken and twirled round an axle, which
+had never been used before, until the friction elicited fire. With this
+fire a bonfire was next kindled between the gates of the town, and all
+the cattle were driven through the smoke and flames. Moreover, every
+householder had to rekindle the fire on his hearth by means of a light
+taken from the bonfire. Strange to say, this salutary measure had no
+effect whatever in staying the cattle-plague, and seven years later the
+sapient Joh. Koehler himself was burnt as a witch. The farmers, whose
+pigs and cows had derived no benefit from the need-fire, perhaps
+assisted as spectators at the burning, and, while they shook their
+heads, agreed among themselves that it served Joh. Koehler perfectly
+right.[691] According to a writer who published his book about nine
+years afterwards, some of the Germans, especially in the Wassgaw
+mountains, confidently believed that a cattle-plague could be stayed by
+driving the animals through a need-fire which had been kindled by the
+violent friction of a pole on a quantity of dry oak wood; but it was a
+necessary condition of success that all fires in the village should
+previously be extinguished with water, and any householder who failed to
+put out his fire was heavily fined.[692]
+
+[Method kindling the need fire.]
+
+The method of kindling the need-fire is described as follows by a writer
+towards the end of the seventeenth century: "When an evil plague has
+broken out among the cattle, large and small, and the herds have thereby
+suffered great ravages, the peasants resolve to light a need-fire. On a
+day appointed there must be no single flame in any house nor on any
+hearth. From every house a quantity of straw and water and underwood
+must be brought forth; then a strong oaken pole is fixed firmly in the
+earth, a hole is bored in it, and a wooden winch, well smeared with
+pitch and tar, is inserted in the hole and turned round forcibly till
+great heat and then fire is generated. The fire so produced is caught in
+fuel and fed with straw, heath, and underwood till it bursts out into a
+regular need-fire, which must then be somewhat spread out between walls
+or fences, and the cattle and horses driven through it twice or thrice
+with sticks and whips. Others set up two posts, each with a hole in it,
+and insert a winch, along with old greasy rags, in the holes. Others use
+a thick rope, collect nine kinds of wood, and keep them in violent
+motion till fire leaps forth. Perhaps there may be other ways of
+generating or kindling this fire, but they are all directed simply at
+the cure of the cattle. After passing twice or thrice through the fire
+the cattle are driven to their stalls or to pasture, and the heap of
+wood that had been collected is destroyed, but in some places every
+householder must take with him a brand, extinguish it in a washing-tub
+or trough, and put it in the manger where the cattle are fed, where it
+must lie for some time. The poles that were used to make the need-fire,
+together with the wood that was employed as a winch, are sometimes
+burned with the rest of the fuel, sometimes carefully preserved after
+the cattle have been thrice driven through the flames."[693]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire about Hildesheim.]
+
+Sometimes the need-fire was known as the "wild fire," to distinguish it
+no doubt from the tame fire produced by more ordinary methods. The
+following is Grimm's account of the mode of kindling it which prevailed
+in some parts of Central Germany, particularly about Hildesheim, down
+apparently to the first half of the nineteenth century: "In many places
+of Lower Saxony, especially among the mountains, the custom prevails of
+preparing the so-called 'wild fire' for the purpose of preventing
+cattle-plague; and through it first the pigs, then the cows, and last of
+all the geese are driven. The proceedings on the occasion are as
+follows. The principal farmers and parishioners assemble, and notice is
+served to every inhabitant to extinguish entirely all fire in his house,
+so that not even a spark remains alight in the whole village. Then young
+and old repair to a road in a hollow, usually towards evening, the women
+carrying linen, and the men wood and tow. Two oaken poles are driven
+into the ground about a foot and a half from each other. Each pole has
+in the side facing the other a socket into which a cross-piece as thick
+as a man's arm is fitted. The sockets are stuffed with linen, and the
+cross-piece is rammed in as tight as possible, while the poles are bound
+together at the top by ropes. A rope is wound about the round, smooth
+cross-piece, and the free ends of the rope at both sides are gripped by
+several persons, who pull the cross-piece to and fro with the utmost
+rapidity, till through the friction the linen in the sockets takes fire.
+The sparks of the linen are immediately caught in tow or oakum and waved
+about in a circle until they burst into a bright glow, when straw is
+applied to it, and the flaming straw used to kindle the brushwood which
+has been stacked in piles in the hollow way. When this wood has blazed
+up and the fire has nearly died out again, the people hasten to the
+herds, which have been waiting in the background, and drive them
+forcibly, one after the other, through the glow. As soon as all the
+beasts are through, the young folk rush wildly at the ashes and cinders,
+sprinkling and blackening each other with them; those who have been most
+sprinkled and blackened march in triumph behind the cattle into the
+village and do not wash themselves for a long time. If after long
+rubbing the linen should not catch fire, they guess that there is still
+fire somewhere in the village; then a strict search is made from house
+to house, any fire that may be found is put out, and the householder is
+punished or upbraided. The 'wild fire' must be made by prolonged
+friction; it may not be struck with flint and steel. Some villages do
+not prepare it yearly as a preventive of cattle-plague, but only kindle
+it when the disease has actually broken out."[694] In the Halberstadt
+district the ends of the rope which was used to make the cross-piece
+revolve in the sockets had to be pulled by two chaste young men.[695]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire in the Mark.]
+
+In the Mark down to the first half of the nineteenth century the
+practice was similar. We read that "in many parts of the Mark there
+still prevails on certain occasions the custom of kindling a need-fire,
+it happens particularly when a farmer has sick pigs. Two posts of dry
+wood are planted in the earth amid solemn silence before the sun rises,
+and round these posts hempen ropes are pulled to and fro till the wood
+kindles; whereupon the fire is fed with dry leaves and twigs and the
+sick beasts are driven through it In some places the fire is produced by
+the friction of an old cart-wheel."[696]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Mecklenburg]
+
+In Mecklenburg the need-fire used to be lighted by the friction of a
+rope wound about an oaken pole or by rubbing two boards against each
+other. Having been thus elicited, the flame was fed with wood of seven
+kinds. The practice was forbidden by Gustavus Adolphus, Duke of
+Mecklenburg, in 1682; but the prohibition apparently had little effect,
+for down to the end of the eighteenth century the custom was so common
+that the inhabitants even of large towns made no scruple of resorting to
+it. For example, in the month of July 1792 sickness broke out among the
+cattle belonging to the town of Sternberg; some of the beasts died
+suddenly, and so the people resolved to drive all the survivors through
+a need-fire. On the tenth day of July the magistrates issued a
+proclamation announcing that next morning before sunrise a need-fire
+would be kindled for the behoof of all the cattle of the town, and
+warning all the inhabitants against lighting fires in their kitchens
+that evening. So next morning very early, about two o'clock, nearly the
+whole population was astir, and having assembled outside one of the
+gates of the town they helped to drive the timid cattle, not without
+much ado, through three separate need-fires; after which they dispersed
+to their homes in the unalterable conviction that they had rescued the
+cattle from destruction. But to make assurance doubly sure they deemed
+it advisable to administer the rest of the ashes as a bolus to the
+animals. However, some people in Mecklenburg used to strew the ashes of
+the need-fire on fields for the purpose of protecting the crops against
+vermin. As late as June 1868 a traveller in Mecklenburg saw a couple of
+peasants sweating away at a rope, which they were pulling backwards and
+forwards so as to make a tarry roller revolve with great speed in the
+socket of an upright post. Asked what they were about, they vouchsafed
+no reply; but an old woman who appeared on the scene from a neighbouring
+cottage was more communicative. In the fulness of her heart she confided
+to the stranger that her pigs were sick, that the two taciturn bumpkins
+were her sons, who were busy extracting a need-fire from the roller, and
+that, when they succeeded, the flame would be used to ignite a heap of
+rags and brushwood, through which the ailing swine would be driven. She
+further explained that the persons who kindle a need-fire should always
+be two brothers or at least bear the same Christian name.[697]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Hanover.]
+
+In the summer of 1828 there was much sickness among the pigs and the
+cows of Eddesse, a village near Meinersen, in the south of Hanover. When
+all ordinary measures to arrest the malady failed, the farmers met in
+solemn conclave on the village green and determined that next morning
+there should be a need-fire. Thereupon the head man of the village sent
+word from house to house that on the following day nobody should kindle
+a fire before sunrise, and that everybody should stand by ready to drive
+out the cattle. The same afternoon all the necessary preparations were
+made for giving effect to the decision of the collective wisdom. A
+narrow street was enclosed with planks, and the village carpenter set to
+work at the machinery for kindling the fire. He took two posts of oak
+wood, bored a hole about three inches deep and broad in each, and set
+the two poles up facing each other at a distance of about two feet. Then
+he fitted a roller of oak wood into the two holes of the posts, so that
+it formed a cross-piece between them. About two o'clock next morning
+every householder brought a bundle of straw and brushwood and laid it
+down across the street in a prescribed order. The sturdiest swains who
+could be found were chosen to make the need-fire. For this purpose a
+long hempen rope was wound twice round the oaken roller in the oaken
+posts: the pivots were well smeared with pitch and tar: a bundle of tow
+and other tinder was laid close at hand, and all was ready. The stalwart
+clodhoppers now seized the two ends of the rope and went to work with a
+will. Puffs of smoke soon issued from the sockets, but to the
+consternation of the bystanders not a spark of fire could be elicited.
+Some people openly declared their suspicion that some rascal had not put
+out the fire in his house, when suddenly the tinder burst into flame.
+The cloud passed away from all faces; the fire was applied to the heaps
+of fuel, and when the flames had somewhat died down, the herds were
+forcibly driven through the fire, first the pigs, next the cows, and
+last of all the horses. The herdsmen then drove the beasts to pasture,
+and persons whose faith in the efficacy of the need-fire was
+particularly robust carried home brands.[698]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire in the Harz Mountains.]
+
+Again, at a village near Quedlinburg, in the Harz Mountains, it was
+resolved to put a herd of sick swine through the need-fire. Hearing of
+this intention the Superintendent of Quedlinburg hurried to the spot and
+has described for us what he saw. The beadles went from house to house
+to see that there was no fire in any house; for it is well known that
+should there be common fire burning in a house the need-fire will not
+kindle. The men made their rounds very early in the morning to make
+quite sure that all lights were out. At two o'clock a night-light was
+still burning in the parsonage, and this was of course a hindrance to
+the need-fire. The peasants knocked at the window and earnestly
+entreated that the night-light might be extinguished. But the parson's
+wife refused to put the light out; it still glimmered at the window; and
+in the darkness outside the angry rustics vowed that the parson's pigs
+should get no benefit of the need-fire. However, as good luck would have
+it, just as the morning broke, the night-light went out of itself, and
+the hopes of the people revived. From every house bundles of straw, tow,
+faggots and so forth were now carried to feed the bonfire. The noise and
+the cheerful bustle were such that you might have thought they were all
+hurrying to witness a public execution. Outside the village, between two
+garden walls, an oaken post had been driven into the ground and a hole
+bored through it. In the hole a wooden winch, smeared with tar, was
+inserted and made to revolve with such force and rapidity that fire and
+smoke in time issued from the socket. The collected fuel was then thrown
+upon the fire and soon a great blaze shot up. The pigs were now driven
+into the upper end of the street. As soon as they saw the fire, they
+turned tail, but the peasants drove them through with shrieks and shouts
+and lashes of whips. At the other end of the street there was another
+crowd waiting, who chased the swine back through the fire a second time.
+Then the other crowd repeated the manoeuvre, and the herd of swine was
+driven for the third time through the smoke and flames. That was the end
+of the performance. Many pigs were scorched so severely that they gave
+up the ghost. The bonfire was broken up, and every householder took home
+with him a brand, which he washed in the water-barrel and laid for some
+time, as a treasure of great price, in the manger from which the cattle
+were fed. But the parson's wife had reason bitterly to repent her folly
+in refusing to put out that night-light; for not one of her pigs was
+driven through the need-fire, so they died.[699]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Brunswick.]
+
+In Brunswick, also, the need-fire is known to have been repeatedly
+kindled during the nineteenth century. After driving the pigs through
+the fire, which was kindled by the friction of wood, some people took
+brands home, dipped them in water, and then gave the water to the pigs
+to drink, no doubt for the purpose of inoculating them still more
+effectually with the precious virtue of the need-fire. In the villages
+of the Droemling district everybody who bore a hand in kindling the "wild
+fire" must have the same Christian name; otherwise they laboured in
+vain. The fire was produced by the friction of a rope round the beams of
+a door; and bread, corn, and old boots contributed their mites to swell
+the blaze through which the pigs as usual were driven. In one place,
+apparently not far from Wolfenbuettel, the needfire is said to have been
+kindled, contrary to custom, by the smith striking a spark from the cold
+anvil.[700] At Gandersheim down to about the beginning of the nineteenth
+century the need-fire was lit in the common way by causing a cross-bar
+to revolve rapidly on its axis between two upright posts. The rope which
+produced the revolution of the bar had to be new, but it was if possible
+woven from threads taken from a gallows-rope, with which people had been
+hanged. While the need-fire was being kindled in this fashion, every
+other fire in the town had to be put out; search was made through the
+houses, and any fire discovered to be burning was extinguished. If in
+spite of every precaution no flame could be elicited by the friction of
+the rope, the failure was set down to witchcraft; but if the efforts
+were successful, a bonfire was lit with the new fire, and when the
+flames had died down, the sick swine were driven thrice through the
+glowing embers.[701] On the lower Rhine the need-fire is said to have
+been kindled by the friction of oak-wood on fir-wood, all fires in the
+village having been previously extinguished. The bonfires so kindled
+were composed of wood of nine different sorts; there were three such
+bonfires, and the cattle were driven round them with great gravity and
+devotion.[702]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Silesia and Bohemia.]
+
+In Silesia, also, need-fires were often employed for the purpose of
+curing a murrain or preventing its spread. While all other lights within
+the boundaries were extinguished, the new fire was produced by the
+friction of nine kinds of wood, and the flame so obtained was used to
+kindle heaps of brushwood or straw to which every inhabitant had
+contributed. Through these fires the cattle, both sick and sound, were
+driven in the confident expectation that thereby the sick would be
+healed and the sound saved from sickness.[703] When plague breaks out
+among the herds at Dobischwald, in Austrian Silesia, a splinter of wood
+is chipped from the threshold of every house, the cattle are driven to a
+cross-road, and there a tree, growing at the boundary, is felled by a
+pair of twin brothers. The wood of the tree and the splinters from the
+thresholds furnish the fuel of a bonfire, which is kindled by the
+rubbing of two pieces of wood together. When the bonfire is ablaze, the
+horns of the cattle are pared and the parings thrown into the flames,
+after which the animals are driven through the fire. This is believed to
+guard the herd against the plague.[704] The Germans of Western Bohemia
+resort to similar measures for staying a murrain. You set up a post,
+bore a hole in it, and insert in the hole a stick, which you have first
+of all smeared with pitch and wrapt in inflammable stuffs. Then you wind
+a rope round the stick and give the two ends of the rope to two persons
+who must either be brothers or have the same baptismal name. They haul
+the rope backwards and forwards so as to make the tarred stick revolve
+rapidly, till the rope first smokes and then emits sparks. The sparks
+are used to kindle a bonfire, through which the cattle are driven in the
+usual way. And as usual no other fire may burn in the village while the
+need-fire is being kindled; for otherwise the rope could not possibly be
+ignited.[705] In Upper Austria sick pigs are reported to have been
+driven through a need-fire about the beginning of the nineteenth
+century.[706]
+
+[The use the need-fire in Switzerland.]
+
+The need-fire is still in use in some parts of Switzerland, but it seems
+to have degenerated into a children's game and to be employed rather for
+the dispersal of a mist than for the prevention or cure of
+cattle-plague. In some cantons it goes by the name of "mist-healing,"
+while in others it is called "butter-churning." On a misty or rainy day
+a number of children will shut themselves up in a stable or byre and
+proceed to make fire for the purpose of improving the weather. The way
+in which they make it is this. A boy places a board against his breast,
+takes a peg pointed at both ends, and, setting one end of the peg
+against the board on his breast, presses the other end firmly against a
+second board, the surface of which has been flaked into a nap. A string
+is tied round the peg, and two other boys pull it to and fro, till
+through the rapid motion of the point of the peg a hole is burnt in the
+flaked board, to which tow or dry moss is then applied as a tinder. In
+this way fire and smoke are elicited, and with their appearance the
+children fancy that the mist will vanish.[707] We may conjecture that
+this method of dispersing a mist, which is now left to children, was
+formerly practised in all seriousness by grown men in Switzerland. It is
+thus that religious or magical rites dwindle away into the sports of
+children. In the canton of the Grisons there is still in common use an
+imprecation, "Mist, go away, or I'll heal you," which points to an old
+custom of burning up the fog with fire. A longer form of the curse
+lingers in the Vallee des Bagnes of the canton Valais. It runs thus:
+"Mist, mist, fly, fly, or St. Martin will come with a sheaf of straw to
+burn your guts, a great log of wood to smash your brow, and an iron
+chain to drag you to hell."[708]
+
+[The mode of kindling the need-fire in Sweden and Norway; the need-fire
+as a protection against witchcraft.]
+
+In Sweden the need-fire is called, from the mode of its production,
+either _vrid-eld_, "turned fire," or _gnid-eld_, "rubbed fire." Down to
+near the end of the eighteenth century the need-fire was kindled, as in
+Germany, by the violent rubbing of two pieces of wood against each
+other; sometimes nine different kinds of wood were used for the purpose.
+The smoke of the fire was deemed salutary; fruit-trees and nets were
+fumigated with it, in order that the trees might bear fruit and the nets
+catch fish. Cattle were also driven through the smoke.[709] In Sundal, a
+narrow Norwegian valley, shut in on both sides by precipitous mountains,
+there lived down to the second half of the nineteenth century an old man
+who was very superstitious. He set salmon-traps in the river Driva,
+which traverses the valley, and he caught many fish both in spring and
+autumn. When his fishing went wrong, he kindled _naueld_ ("need-fire")
+or _gnideild_ ("rubbed fire," "friction fire") to counteract the
+witchcraft, which he believed to be the cause of his bad luck. He set up
+two planks near each other, bored a hole in each, inserted a pointed rod
+in the holes, and twisted a long cord round the rod. Then he pulled the
+cord so as to make the rod revolve rapidly. Thus by reason of the
+friction he at last drew fire from the wood. That contented him, for "he
+believed that the witchery was thus rendered powerless, and that good
+luck in his fishing was now ensured."[710]
+
+[The need-fire among the Slavonic peoples.]
+
+Slavonic peoples hold the need-fire in high esteem. They call it "living
+fire," and attribute to it a healing virtue. The ascription of medicinal
+power to fire kindled by the friction of wood is said to be especially
+characteristic of the Slavs who inhabit the Carpathian Mountains and the
+Balkan peninsula. The mode in which they produce the need-fire differs
+somewhat in different places. Thus in the Schar mountains of Servia the
+task is entrusted to a boy and girl between eleven and fourteen years of
+age. They are led into a perfectly dark room, and having stripped
+themselves naked kindle the fire by rubbing two rollers of lime wood
+against each other, till the friction produces sparks, which are caught
+in tinder. The Serbs of Western Macedonia drive two oaken posts into the
+ground, bore a round hole in the upper end of each, insert a roller of
+lime wood in the holes, and set it revolving rapidly by means of a cord,
+which is looped round the roller and worked by a bow. Elsewhere the
+roller is put in motion by two men, who hold each one end of the cord
+and pull it backwards and forwards forcibly between them. Bulgarian
+shepherds sometimes kindle the need-fire by drawing a prism-shaped piece
+of lime wood to and fro across the flat surface of a tree-stump in the
+forest.[711] But in the neighbourhood of Kuestendil, in Bulgaria, the
+need-fire is kindled by the friction of two pieces of oak wood and the
+cattle are driven through it.[712]
+
+[The need-fire in Russia and Poland; the need-fire in Slavonia.]
+
+In many districts of Russia, also, "living fire" is made by the friction
+of wood on St. John's Day, and the herds are driven through it, and the
+people leap over it in the conviction that their health is thereby
+assured; when a cattle-plague is raging, the fire is produced by rubbing
+two pieces of oak wood against each other, and it is used to kindle the
+lamps before the holy pictures and the censers in the churches.[713]
+Thus it appears that in Russia the need-fire is kindled for the sake of
+the cattle periodically as well as on special emergencies. Similarly in
+Poland the peasants are said to kindle fires in the village streets on
+St. Rochus's day and to drive the cattle thrice through them in order to
+protect the animals against the murrain. The fire is produced by rubbing
+a pole of poplar wood on a plank of poplar or fir wood and catching the
+sparks in tow. The embers are carried home to be used as remedies in
+sickness.[714] As practised in Slavonia, the custom of the need-fire
+used to present some interesting features, which are best described in
+the words of an eyewitness:--"In the year 1833 I came for the first time
+as a young merchant to Slavonia; it was to Gaj that I went, in the
+Pozega district. The time was autumn, and it chanced that a
+cattle-plague was raging in the neighbourhood, which inflicted much loss
+on the people. The peasants believed that the plague was a woman, an
+evil spirit (_Kutga_), who was destroying the cattle; so they sought to
+banish her. I had then occasion to observe the proceedings in the
+villages of Gaj, Kukunjevac, Brezina, and Brekinjska. Towards evening
+the whole population of the village was busy laying a ring of brushwood
+round the boundaries of the village. All fires were extinguished
+throughout the village. Then pairs of men in several places took pieces
+of wood, which had been specially prepared for the purpose, and rubbed
+them together till they emitted sparks. The sparks were allowed to fall
+on tinder and fanned into a flame, with which the dry brushwood was
+kindled. Thus the fire burned all round the village. The peasants
+persuaded themselves that thereupon _Kuga_ must take her
+departure."[715]
+
+[The need-fire in Servia.]
+
+This last account leaves no doubt as to the significance of the
+need-fire in the minds of Slavonian peasantry. They regard it simply as
+a barrier interposed between their cattle and the evil spirit, which
+prowls, like a hungry wolf, round the fold and can, like a wolf, be kept
+at bay by fire. The same interpretation of the need-fire comes out,
+hardly less clearly, in the account which another writer gives of a
+ceremony witnessed by him at the village of Setonje, at the foot of the
+Homolje mountains in the great forest of Servia. An epidemic was raging
+among the children, and the need-fire was resorted to as a means of
+staying the plague. It was produced by an old man and an old woman in
+the first of the ways described above; that is, they made it in the dark
+by rubbing two sticks of lime wood against each other. Before the
+healing virtue of the fire was applied to the inhabitants of the
+village, two old women performed the following ceremony. Both bore the
+name of Stana, from the verb _stati_, "to remain standing"; for the
+ceremony could not be successfully performed by persons of any other
+name. One of them carried a copper kettle full of water, the other an
+old house-lock with the key. Thus equipped they repaired to a spot
+outside of the village, and there the old dame with the kettle asked the
+old dame with the lock, "Whither away?" and the other answered her, "I
+came to shut the village against ill-luck." With that she locked the
+lock and threw it with the key into the kettle of water. Then they
+marched thrice round the village, repeating the ceremony of the lock and
+key at each round. Meantime all the villagers, arrayed in their best
+clothes, were assembled in an open place. All the fires in the houses
+had been previously extinguished. Two sturdy yokels now dug a tunnel
+through a mound beside an oak tree; the tunnel was just high enough to
+let a man creep through it on all fours. Two fires, lit by the
+need-fire, were now laid, one at each end of the tunnel; and the old
+woman with the kettle took her stand at the entrance of the tunnel,
+while the one with the lock posted herself at the exit. Facing the
+latter stood another woman with a great pot of milk before her, and on
+the other side was set a pot full of melted swine's fat. All was now
+ready. The villagers thereupon crawled through the tunnel on hands and
+knees, one behind the other. Each, as he emerged from the tunnel,
+received a spoonful of milk from the woman and looked at his face
+reflected in the pot of melted swine's fat. Then another woman made a
+cross with a piece of charcoal on his back. When all the inhabitants had
+thus crept through the tunnel and been doctored at the other end, each
+took some glowing embers home with him in a pot wherewith to rekindle
+the fire on the domestic hearth. Lastly they put some of the charcoal in
+a vessel of water and drank the mixture in order to be thereby magically
+protected against the epidemic.[716]
+
+It would be superfluous to point out in detail how admirably these
+measures are calculated to arrest the ravages of disease; but for the
+sake of those, if there are any, to whom the medicinal effect of
+crawling through a hole on hands and knees is not at once apparent, I
+shall merely say that the procedure in question is one of the most
+powerful specifics which the wit of man has devised for maladies of all
+sorts. Ample evidence of its application will be adduced in a later part
+of this work.[717]
+
+[The need-fire in Bulgaria.]
+
+In Bulgaria the herds suffer much from the raids of certain
+blood-sucking vampyres called _Ustrels_. An _Ustrel_ is the spirit of a
+Christian child who was born on a Saturday and died unfortunately before
+he could be baptized. On the ninth day after burial he grubs his way out
+of the grave and attacks the cattle at once, sucking their blood all
+night and returning at peep of dawn to the grave to rest from his
+labours. In ten days or so the copious draughts of blood which he has
+swallowed have so fortified his constitution that he can undertake
+longer journeys; so when he falls in with great herds of cattle or
+flocks of sheep he returns no more to the grave for rest and refreshment
+at night, but takes up his quarters during the day either between the
+horns of a sturdy calf or ram or between the hind legs of a milch-cow.
+Beasts whose blood he has sucked die the same night. In any herd that he
+may fasten on he begins with the fattest animal and works his way down
+steadily through the leaner kine till not one single beast is left
+alive. The carcases of the victims swell up, and when the hide is
+stripped off you can always perceive the livid patch of flesh where the
+monster sucked the blood of the poor creature. In a single night he may,
+by working hard, kill five cows; but he seldom exceeds that number. He
+can change his shape and weight very easily; for example, when he is
+sitting by day between the horns of a ram, the animal scarcely feels his
+weight, but at night he will sometimes throw himself on an ox or a cow
+so heavily that the animal cannot stir, and lows so pitifully that it
+would make your heart bleed to hear. People who were born on a Saturday
+can see these monsters, and they have described them accurately, so that
+there can be no doubt whatever about their existence. It is, therefore,
+a matter of great importance to the peasant to protect his flocks and
+herds against the ravages of such dangerous vampyres. The way in which
+he does so is this. On a Saturday morning before sunrise the village
+drummer gives the signal to put out every fire in the village; even
+smoking is forbidden. Next all the domestic animals, with the exception
+of fowls, geese, and ducks, are driven out into the open. In front of
+the flocks and herds march two men, whose names during the ceremony may
+not be mentioned in the village. They go into the wood, pick two dry
+branches, and having stript themselves of their clothes they rub the two
+branches together very hard till they catch fire; then with the fire so
+obtained they kindle two bonfires, one on each side of a cross-road
+which is known to be frequented by wolves. After that the herd is driven
+between the two fires. Coals from the bonfires are then taken back to
+the village and used to rekindle the fires on the domestic hearths. For
+several days no one may go near the charred and blackened remains of the
+bonfires at the cross-road. The reason is that the vampyre is lying
+there, having dropped from his seat between the cow's horns when the
+animals were driven between the two fires. So if any one were to pass by
+the spot during these days, the monster would be sure to call him by
+name and to follow him to the village; whereas if he is left alone, a
+wolf will come at midnight and strangle him, and in a few days the
+herdsmen can see the ground soaked with his slimy blood. So that is the
+end of the vampyre.[718] In this Bulgarian custom, as in the Slavonian
+custom described above, the conception of the need-fire as a barrier set
+up between the cattle and a dangerous spirit is clearly worked out. The
+spirit rides the cow till he comes to the narrow pass between the two
+fires, but the heat there is too much for him; he drops in a faint from
+the saddle, or rather from the horns, and the now riderless animal
+escapes safe and sound beyond the smoke and flame, leaving her
+persecutor prostrate on the ground on the further side of the blessed
+barrier.
+
+[The need-fire in Bosnia and Herzegovina.]
+
+In Bosnia and Herzegovina there are some local differences in the mode
+of kindling the need-fire, or "living fire," as it is called. Thus at
+Jablanica both the uprights and the roller or cross-piece, which by its
+revolution kindles the fire, are made of cornel-tree wood; whereas at
+Dolac, near Sarajevo, the uprights and the cross-piece or roller are all
+made of lime wood. In Gacko, contrary to the usual custom, the fire is
+made by striking a piece of iron on an anvil, till sparks are given out,
+which are caught in tinder. The "living fire" thus produced is employed
+for purposes of healing. In particular, if any one suffers from wounds
+or sores, ashes of the need-fire are sprinkled on the ailing part. In
+Gacko it is also believed that if a pregnant woman witnesses a
+conflagration, her child will either be born with a red eruption on its
+skin or will contract the malady sooner or later afterwards. The only
+remedy consists in ashes of the need-fire, which are mixed with water
+and given to the child to drink.[719]
+
+[The need-fire in England; the need-fire in Yorkshire.]
+
+In England the earliest notice of the need-fire seems to be contained in
+the Chronicle of Lanercost for the year 1268. The annalist tells with
+pious horror how, when an epidemic was raging in that year among the
+cattle, "certain beastly men, monks in garb but not in mind, taught the
+idiots of their country to make fire by the friction of wood and to set
+up an image of Priapus, whereby they thought to succour the
+animals."[720] The use of the need-fire is particularly attested for the
+counties of Yorkshire and Northumberland. Thus in Yorkshire down to the
+middle of the eighteenth century "the favourite remedy of the country
+people, not only in the way of cure, but of prevention, was an odd one;
+it was to smoke the cattle almost to suffocation, by kindling straw,
+litter, and other combustible matter about them. The effects of this
+mode of cure are not stated, but the most singular part of it was that
+by which it was reported to have been discovered. An angel (says the
+legend), descended into Yorkshire, and there set a large tree on fire;
+the strange appearance of which or else the savour of the smoke, incited
+the cattle around (some of which were infected) to draw near the
+miracle, when they all either received an immediate cure or an absolute
+prevention of the disorder. It is not affirmed that the angel staid to
+speak to anybody, but only that he left a _written_ direction for the
+neighbouring people to catch this supernatural fire, and to communicate
+it from one to another with all possible speed throughout the country;
+and in case it should be extinguished and utterly lost, that then new
+fire, of equal virtue, might be obtained, not by any common method, but
+by rubbing two pieces of wood together till they ignited. Upon what
+foundation this story stood, is not exactly known, but it put the
+farmers actually into a hurry of communicating flame and smoke from one
+house to another with wonderful speed, making it run like wildfire over
+the country."[721] Again, we read that "the father of the writer, who
+died in 1843, in his seventy-ninth year, had a perfect remembrance of a
+great number of persons, belonging to the upper and middle classes of
+his native parish of Bowes, assembling on the banks of the river Greta
+to work for need-fire. A disease among cattle, called the murrain, then
+prevailed to a very great extent through that district of Yorkshire. The
+cattle were made to pass through the smoke raised by this miraculous
+fire, and their cure was looked upon as certain, and to neglect doing so
+was looked upon as wicked. This fire was produced by the violent and
+continued friction of two dry pieces of wood until such time as it was
+thereby obtained. 'To work as though one was working for need-fire' is a
+common proverb in the North of England."[722] At Ingleton, a small town
+nestling picturesquely at the foot of the high hill of Ingleborough in
+western Yorkshire, "within the last thirty years or so it was a common
+practice to kindle the so-called 'Need-fire' by rubbing two pieces of
+wood briskly together, and setting ablaze a large heap of sticks and
+brushwood, which were dispersed, and cattle then driven through the
+smoking brands. This was thought to act as a charm against the spread or
+developement of the various ailments to which cattle are liable, and the
+farmers seem to have had great faith in it."[723] Writing about the
+middle of the nineteenth century, Kemble tells us that the will-fire or
+need-fire had been used in Devonshire for the purpose of staying a
+murrain within the memory of man.[724]
+
+[The need-fire in Northumberland.]
+
+So in Northumberland, down to the first half of the nineteenth century,
+"when a contagious disease enters among cattle, the fires are
+extinguished in the adjacent villages. Two pieces of dried wood are then
+rubbed together until fire be produced; with this a quantity of straw is
+kindled, juniper is thrown into the flame, and the cattle are repeatedly
+driven through the smoke. Part of the forced fire is sent to the
+neighbours, who again forward it to others, and, as great expedition is
+used, the fires may be seen blazing over a great extent of country in a
+very short space of time."[725] "It is strange," says the antiquary
+William Henderson, writing about 1866, "to find the custom of lighting
+'need-fires' on the occasion of epidemics among cattle still lingering
+among us, but so it is. The vicar of Stamfordham writes thus respecting
+it: 'When the murrain broke out among the cattle about eighteen years
+ago, this fire was produced by rubbing two pieces of dry wood together,
+and was carried from place to place all through this district, as a
+charm against cattle taking the disease. Bonfires were kindled with it,
+and the cattle driven into the smoke, where they were left for some
+time. Many farmers hereabouts, I am informed, had the need-fire.'"[726]
+
+[Martin's account of the need-fire in the Highlands of Scotland.]
+
+In the earliest systematic account of the western islands of Scotland we
+read that "the inhabitants here did also make use of a fire called
+_Tin-egin, i.e._ a forced fire, or fire of necessity, which they used as
+an antidote against the plague or murrain in cattle; and it was
+performed thus: all the fires in the parish were extinguished, and then
+eighty-one married men, being thought the necessary number for effecting
+this design, took two great planks of wood, and nine of them were
+employed by turns, who by their repeated efforts rubbed one of the
+planks against the other until the heat thereof produced fire; and from
+this forced fire each family is supplied with new fire, which is no
+sooner kindled than a pot full of water is quickly set on it, and
+afterwards sprinkled upon the people infected with the plague, or upon
+the cattle that have the murrain. And this they all say they find
+successful by experience: it was practised in the main land, opposite to
+the south of Skie, within these thirty years."[727]
+
+[The need-fire in the island of Mull; sacrifice of a heifer.]
+
+In the island of Mull, one of the largest of the Hebrides, the need-fire
+was kindled as late as 1767. "In consequence of a disease among the
+black cattle the people agreed to perform an incantation, though they
+esteemed it a wicked thing. They carried to the top of Carnmoor a wheel
+and nine spindles of oakwood. They extinguished every fire in every
+house within sight of the hill; the wheel was then turned from east to
+west over the nine spindles long enough to produce fire by friction. If
+the fire were not produced before noon, the incantation lost its effect.
+They failed for several days running. They attributed this failure to
+the obstinacy of one householder, who would not let his fires be put out
+for what he considered so wrong a purpose. However, by bribing his
+servants they contrived to have them extinguished and on that morning
+raised their fire. They then sacrificed a heifer, cutting in pieces and
+burning, while yet alive, the diseased part. They then lighted their own
+hearths from the pile and ended by feasting on the remains. Words of
+incantation were repeated by an old man from Morven, who came over as
+master of the ceremonies, and who continued speaking all the time the
+fire was being raised. This man was living a beggar at Bellochroy. Asked
+to repeat the spell, he said, the sin of repeating it once had brought
+him to beggary, and that he dared not say those words again. The whole
+country believed him accursed."[728] From this account we see that in
+Mull the kindling of the need-fire as a remedy for cattle disease was
+accompanied by the sacrifice of one of the diseased animals; and though
+the two customs are for the most part mentioned separately by our
+authorities, we may surmise that they were often, perhaps usually,
+practised together for the purpose of checking the ravages of sickness
+in the herds.[729]
+
+[The need-fire in Caithness.]
+
+In the county of Caithness, forming the extreme northeast corner of the
+mainland of Scotland, the practice of the need-fire survived down at
+least to about 1788. We read that "in those days, when the stock of any
+considerable farmer was seized with the murrain, he would send for one
+of the charm-doctors to superintend the raising of a _need-fire_. It was
+done by friction, thus; upon any small island, where the stream of a
+river or burn ran on each side, a circular booth was erected, of stone
+and turf, as it could be had, in which a semicircular or highland couple
+of birch, or other hard wood, was set; and, in short, a roof closed on
+it. A straight pole was set up in the centre of this building, the upper
+end fixed by a wooden pin to the top of the couple, and the lower end in
+an oblong _trink_ in the earth or floor; and lastly, another pole was
+set across horizontally, having both ends tapered, one end of which was
+supported in a hole in the side of the perpendicular pole, and the other
+in a similar hole in the couple leg. The horizontal stick was called the
+auger, having four short arms or levers fixed in its centre, to work it
+by; the building having been thus finished, as many men as could be
+collected in the vicinity, (being divested of all kinds of metal in
+their clothes, etc.), would set to work with the said auger, two after
+two, constantly turning it round by the arms or levers, and others
+occasionally driving wedges of wood or stone behind the lower end of the
+upright pole, so as to press it the more on the end of the auger: by
+this constant friction and pressure, the ends of the auger would take
+fire, from which a fire would be instantly kindled, and thus the
+_needfire_ would be accomplished. The fire in the farmer's house, etc.,
+was immediately quenched with water, a fire kindled from this needfire,
+both in the farm-houses and offices, and the cattle brought to feel the
+smoke of this new and sacred fire, which preserved them from the
+murrain."[730]
+
+[The need-fire in Caithness.]
+
+The last recorded case of the need-fire in Caithness happened in 1809 or
+1810. At Houstry, Dunbeath, a crofter named David Gunn had made for
+himself a kail-yard and in doing so had wilfully encroached on one of
+those prehistoric ruins called _brochs_, which the people of the
+neighbourhood believed to be a fairy habitation. Soon afterwards a
+murrain broke out among the cattle of the district and carried off many
+beasts. So the wise men put their heads together and resolved to light a
+_teine-eigin_ or need-fire as the best way of stopping the plague. They
+cut a branch from a tree in a neighbouring wood, stripped it of bark,
+and carried it to a small island in the Houstry Burn. Every fire in the
+district having been quenched, new fire was made by the friction of wood
+in the island, and from this sacred flame all the hearths of the houses
+were lit afresh. One of the sticks used in making the fire was preserved
+down to about the end of the nineteenth century; apparently the mode of
+operation was the one known as the fire-drill: a pointed stick was
+twirled in a hole made in another stick till fire was elicited by the
+friction.[731]
+
+[Another account of the need-fire in the Highlands.]
+
+Another account of the use of need-fire in the Highlands of Scotland
+runs as follows: "When, by the neglect of the prescribed safeguards
+[against witchcraft], the seeds of iniquity have taken root, and a
+person's means are decaying in consequence, the only alternative, in
+this case, is to resort to that grand remedy, the _Tein Econuch_, or
+'Forlorn Fire,' which seldom fails of being productive of the best
+effects. The cure for witchcraft, called _Tein Econuch_, is wrought in
+the following manner:--A consultation being held by the unhappy sufferer
+and his friends as to the most advisable measures of effecting a cure,
+if this process is adopted, notice is privately communicated to all
+those householders who reside within the nearest of two running streams,
+to extinguish their lights and fires on some appointed morning. On its
+being ascertained that this notice has been duly observed, a
+spinning-wheel, or some other convenient instrument, calculated to
+produce fire by friction, is set to work with the most furious
+earnestness by the unfortunate sufferer, and all who wish well to his
+cause. Relieving each other by turns, they drive on with such
+persevering diligence, that at length the spindle of the wheel, ignited
+by excessive friction, emits 'forlorn fire' in abundance, which, by the
+application of tow, or some other combustible material, is widely
+extended over the whole neighbourhood. Communicating the fire to the
+tow, the tow communicates it to a candle, the candle to a fir-torch, the
+torch to a cartful of peats, which the master of the ceremonies, with
+pious ejaculations for the success of the experiment, distributes to
+messengers, who will proceed with portions of it to the different houses
+within the said two running streams, to kindle the different fires. By
+the influence of this operation, the machinations and spells of
+witchcraft are rendered null and void."[732]
+
+[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 neid-fire was made in North Uist about the year 1829, in Arran
+about 1820, in Helmsdale about 1818, in Reay about 1830."[733]
+
+[The Beltane fire a precaution against witchcraft.]
+
+From the foregoing account we learn that in Arran the annual Beltane
+fire was regularly made by the friction of wood, and that it was used to
+protect men and cattle against a great witch. When we remember that
+Beltane Eve or the Eve of May Day (Walpurgis Night) is the great
+witching time of the year throughout Europe, we may surmise that
+wherever bonfires have been ceremonially kindled on that day it has been
+done simply as a precaution against witchcraft; indeed this motive is
+expressly alleged not only in Scotland, but in Wales, the Isle of Man,
+and many parts of Central Europe.[734] It deserves, further, to be
+noticed that in North Uist the wood used to kindle the need-fire was
+oak, and that the nine times nine men by whose exertions the flame was
+elicited were all first-born sons. Apparently the first-born son of a
+family was thought to be endowed with more magical virtue than his
+younger brothers. Similarly in the Punjaub "the supernatural power
+ascribed to the first born is not due to his being unlucky, but the idea
+underlying the belief seems to be that being the first product of the
+parents, he inherits the spiritual powers (or magnetism) in a high
+degree. The success of such persons in stopping rain and hail and in
+stupefying snakes is proverbial. It is believed that a first child born
+with feet forward can cure backache by kicking the patient in the back,
+on a crossing."[735]
+
+[The need-fire in Aberdeenshire.]
+
+In the north-east of Aberdeenshire and the neighbourhood, when the
+cattle-disease known as the "quarter-ill" broke out, "the 'muckle wheel'
+was set in motion and turned till fire was produced. From this virgin
+flame fires were kindled in the byres. At the same time, if neighbours
+requested the favour, live coals were given them to kindle fires for the
+purification of their homesteads and turning off the disease. Fumigating
+the byres with juniper was a method adopted to ward off disease. Such a
+fire was called 'needfyre.' The kindling of it came under the censure of
+the Presbytery at times."[736]
+
+[The need-fire in Perthshire.]
+
+In Perthshire the need-fire was kindled as a remedy for cattle-disease
+as late as 1826. "A wealthy old farmer, having lost several of his
+cattle by some disease very prevalent at present, and being able to
+account for it in no way so rationally as by witchcraft, had recourse to
+the following remedy, recommended to him by a weird sister in his
+neighbourhood, as an effectual protection from the attacks of the foul
+fiend. A few stones were piled together in the barnyard, and woodcoals
+having been laid thereon, the fuel was ignited by _will-fire_, that is
+fire obtained by friction; the neighbours having been called in to
+witness the solemnity, the cattle were made to pass through the flames,
+in the order of their dignity and age, commencing with the horses and
+ending with the swine. The ceremony having been duly and decorously gone
+through, a neighbouring farmer observed to the enlightened owner of the
+herd, that he, along with his family, ought to have followed the example
+of the cattle, and the sacrifice to Baal would have been complete."[737]
+
+[The need-fire in Ireland.]
+
+In County Leitrim, Ireland, in order to prevent fever from spreading,
+"all the fires on the townland, and the two adjoining (one on each
+side), would be put out. Then the men of the three townlands would come
+to one house, and get two large blocks of wood. One would be set in the
+ground, and the other one, fitted with two handles, placed on the top of
+it. The men would then draw the upper block backwards and forwards over
+the lower until fire was produced by friction, and from this the fires
+would be lighted again. This would prevent the fever from
+spreading,"[738]
+
+[The use of the need-fire a relic of a time when all fires were kindled
+by the friction of wood.]
+
+Thus it appears that in many parts of Europe it has been customary to
+kindle fire by the friction of wood for the purpose of curing or
+preventing the spread of disease, particularly among cattle. The mode of
+striking a light by rubbing two dry sticks against each other is the one
+to which all over the world savages have most commonly resorted for the
+sake of providing themselves with fire;[739] and we can scarcely doubt
+that the practice of kindling the need-fire in this primitive fashion is
+merely a survival from the time when our savage forefathers lit all
+their fires in that way. Nothing is so conservative of old customs as
+religious or magical ritual, which invests these relics of the past with
+an atmosphere of mysterious virtue and sanctity. To the educated mind it
+seems obvious that a fire which a man kindles with the sweat of his brow
+by laboriously rubbing one stick against each other can possess neither
+more nor less virtue than one which he has struck in a moment by the
+friction of a lucifer match; but to the ignorant and superstitious this
+truth is far from apparent, and accordingly they take infinite pains to
+do in a roundabout way what they might have done directly with the
+greatest ease, and what, even when it is done, is of no use whatever for
+the purpose in hand. A vast proportion of the labour which mankind has
+expended throughout the ages has been no better spent; it has been like
+the stone of Sisyphus eternally rolled up hill only to revolve eternally
+down again, or like the water poured for ever by the Danaids into broken
+pitchers which it could never fill.
+
+[The belief that the need-fire cannot kindle if any other fire remains
+alight in the neighbourhood.]
+
+The curious notion that the need-fire cannot kindle if any other fire
+remains alight in the neighbourhood seems to imply that fire is
+conceived as a unity which is broken up into fractions and consequently
+weakened in exact proportion to the number of places where it burns;
+hence in order to obtain it at full strength you must light it only at a
+single point, for then the flame will burst out with a concentrated
+energy derived from the tributary fires which burned on all the
+extinguished hearths of the country. So in a modern city if all the gas
+were turned off simultaneously at all the burners but one, the flame
+would no doubt blaze at that one burner with a fierceness such as no
+single burner could shew when all are burning at the same time. The
+analogy may help us to understand the process of reasoning which leads
+the peasantry to insist on the extinction of all common fires when the
+need-fire is about to be kindled. Perhaps, too, it may partly explain
+that ceremonial extinction of all old fires on other occasions which is
+often required by custom as a preliminary to the lighting of a new and
+sacred fire.[740] We have seen that in the Highlands of Scotland all
+common fires were extinguished on the Eve of May-day as a preparation
+for kindling the Beltane bonfire by friction next morning;[741] and no
+doubt the reason for the extinction was the same as in the case of the
+need-fire. Indeed we may assume with a fair degree of probability that
+the need-fire was the parent of the periodic fire-festivals; at first
+invoked only at irregular intervals to cure certain evils as they
+occurred, the powerful virtue of fire was afterwards employed at regular
+intervals to prevent the occurrence of the same evils as well as to
+remedy such as had actually arisen.
+
+[The needfire among the Iroquois of North America.]
+
+The need-fire of Europe has its parallel in a ceremony which used to be
+observed by the Iroquois Indians of North America. "Formerly when an
+epidemic prevailed among the Iroquois despite the efforts to stay it, it
+was customary for the principal shaman to order the fires in every cabin
+to be extinguished and the ashes and cinders to be carefully removed;
+for it was believed that the pestilence was sent as a punishment for
+neglecting to rekindle 'new fire,' or because of the manner in which the
+fire then in use had been kindled. So, after all the fires were out, two
+suitable logs of slippery elm (_Ulmus fulva_) were provided for the new
+fire. One of the logs was from six to eight inches in diameter and from
+eight to ten feet long; the other was from ten to twelve inches in
+diameter and about ten feet long. About midway across the larger log a
+cuneiform notch or cut about six inches deep was made, and in the
+wedge-shaped notch punk was placed. The other log was drawn rapidly to
+and fro in the cut by four strong men chosen for the purpose until the
+punk was ignited by the friction thus produced. Before and during the
+progress of the work of igniting the fire the shaman votively sprinkled
+_tcar-hu'-en-we_, 'real tobacco,' three several times into the cuneiform
+notch and offered earnest prayers to the Fire-god, beseeching him 'to
+aid, to bless, and to redeem the people from their calamities.' The
+ignited punk was used to light a large bonfire, and then the head of
+every family was required to take home 'new fire' to rekindle a fire in
+his or her fire-place."[742]
+
+
+Sec. 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.]
+
+Sometimes apparently in England as well as in Scotland the kindling of a
+need-fire was accompanied by the sacrifice of a calf. Thus in
+Northamptonshire, at some time during the first half of the nineteenth
+century, "Miss C---- and her cousin walking saw a fire in a field and a
+crowd round it. They said, 'What is the matter?' 'Killing a calf.' 'What
+for?' 'To stop the murrain.' They went away as quickly as possible. On
+speaking to the clergyman he made enquiries. The people did not like to
+talk of the affair, but it appeared that when there is a disease among
+the cows or the calves are born sickly, they sacrifice (i.e. kill and
+burn) one 'for good luck.'"[743] It is not here said that the fire was a
+need-fire, of which indeed the two horrified ladies had probably never
+heard; but the analogy of the parallel custom in Mull[744] renders it
+probable that in Northamptonshire also the fire was kindled by the
+friction of wood, and that the calf or some part of it was burnt in the
+fire. Certainly the practice of burning a single animal alive in order
+to save all the others would seem to have been not uncommon in England
+down to the nineteenth century. Thus a farmer in Cornwall about the year
+1800, having lost many cattle by disease, and tried many remedies in
+vain, consulted with some of his neighbours and laying their heads
+together "they recalled to their recollections a tale, which tradition
+had handed down from remote antiquity, that the calamity would not cease
+until he had actually burned alive the finest calf which he had upon his
+farm; but that, when this sacrifice was made, the murrain would afflict
+his cattle no more." Accordingly, on a day appointed they met, lighted a
+large fire, placed the best calf in it, and standing round the blazing
+pile drove the animal with pitchforks back into the flames whenever it
+attempted to escape. Thus the victim was burned alive to save the rest
+of the cattle.[745] "There can be no doubt but that a belief prevailed
+until a very recent period, amongst the small farmers in the districts
+remote from towns in Cornwall, that a living sacrifice appeased the
+wrath of God. This sacrifice must be by fire; and I have heard it argued
+that the Bible gave them warranty for this belief.... While correcting
+these sheets I am informed of two recent instances of this superstition.
+One of them was the sacrifice of a calf by a farmer near Portreath, for
+the purpose of removing a disease which had long followed his horses and
+his cows. The other was the burning of a living lamb, to save, as the
+farmer said, 'his flocks from spells which had been cast on 'em.'"[746]
+In a recent account of the fire-festivals of Wales we read that "I have
+also heard my grandfather and father say that in times gone by the
+people would throw a calf in the fire when there was any disease among
+the herds. The same would be done with a sheep if there was anything the
+matter with a flock. I can remember myself seeing cattle being driven
+between two fires to 'stop the disease spreading.' When in later times
+it was not considered humane to drive the cattle between the fires, the
+herdsmen were accustomed to force the animals over the wood ashes to
+protect them against various ailments."[747] Writing about 1866, the
+antiquary W. Henderson says that a live ox was burned near Haltwhistle
+in Northumberland "only twenty years ago" to stop a murrain.[748] "About
+the year 1850 disease broke out among the cattle of a small farm in the
+parish of Resoliss, Black Isle, Ross-shire. The farmer prevailed on his
+wife to undertake a journey to a wise woman of renown in Banffshire to
+ask a charm against the effects of the 'ill eye.' The long journey of
+upwards of fifty miles was performed by the good wife, and the charm was
+got. One chief thing ordered was to burn to death a pig, and sprinkle
+the ashes over the byre and other farm buildings. This order was carried
+out, except that the pig was killed before it was burned. A more
+terrible sacrifice was made at times. One of the diseased animals was
+rubbed over with tar, driven forth, set on fire, and allowed to run till
+it fell down and died."[749] "Living animals have been burnt alive in
+sacrifice within memory to avert the loss of other stock. The burial of
+three puppies 'brandise-wise' in a field is supposed to rid it of weeds.
+Throughout the rural districts of Devon witchcraft is an article of
+current faith, and the toad is thrown into the flames as an emissary of
+the evil one."[750]
+
+[The calf is burnt in order to break a spell which has been cast on the
+herd.]
+
+But why, we may ask, should the burning alive of a calf or a sheep be
+supposed to save the rest of the herd or the flock from the murrain?
+According to one writer, as we have seen, the burnt sacrifice was
+thought to appease the wrath of God.[751] The idea of appeasing the
+wrath of a ferocious deity by burning an animal alive is probably no
+more than a theological gloss put on an old heathen rite; it would
+hardly occur to the simple mind of an English bumpkin, who, though he
+may be stupid, is not naturally cruel and does not conceive of a
+divinity who takes delight in the contemplation of suffering. To his
+thinking God has little or nothing to do with the murrain, but witches,
+ill-wishers, and fairies have a great deal to do with it. The English
+farmer who burned one of his lambs alive said that he did it "to save
+his flocks from spells which had been cast on them"; and the Scotch
+farmer who was bidden to burn a pig alive for a similar purpose, but who
+had the humanity to kill the animal first, believed that this was a
+remedy for the "evil eye" which had been cast upon his beasts. Again, we
+read that "a farmer, who possessed broad acres, and who was in many
+respects a sensible man, was greatly annoyed to find that his cattle
+became diseased in the spring. Nothing could satisfy him but that they
+were bewitched, and he was resolved to find out the person who had cast
+the evil eye on his oxen. According to an anciently-prescribed rule, the
+farmer took one of his bullocks and bled it to death, catching all the
+blood on bundles of straw. The bloody straw was then piled into a heap,
+and set on fire. Burning with a vast quantity of smoke, the farmer
+expected to see the witch, either in reality or in shadow, amidst the
+smoke."[752] Such reasons express the real beliefs of the peasants.
+"Cattle, like human beings, were exposed to the influences of the evil
+eye, of forespeaking, and of the casting of evil. Witches and warlocks
+did the work of evil among their neighbours' cattle if their anger had
+been aroused in any way. The fairies often wrought injury amongst
+cattle. Every animal that died suddenly was killed by the dart of the
+fairies, or, in the language of the people, was 'shot-a-dead.' Flint
+arrows and spear-heads went by the name of 'faery dairts....' When an
+animal died suddenly the canny woman of the district was sent for to
+search for the 'faery dairt,' and in due course she found one, to the
+great satisfaction of the owner of the dead animal."[753]
+
+[Mode in which the burning of a bewitched animal is supposed to break
+the spell.]
+
+But how, we must still ask, can burning an animal alive break the spell
+that has been cast upon its fellows by a witch or a warlock? Some light
+is thrown on the question by the following account of measures which
+rustic wiseacres in Suffolk are said to have adopted as a remedy for
+witchcraft. "A woman I knew forty-three years had been employed by my
+predecessor to take care of his poultry. At the time I came to make her
+acquaintance she was a bedridden toothless crone, with chin and nose all
+but meeting. She did not discourage in her neighbours the idea that she
+knew more than people ought to know, and had more power than others had.
+Many years before I knew her it happened one spring that the ducks,
+which were a part of her charge, failed to lay eggs.... She at once took
+it for granted that the ducks had been bewitched. This misbelief
+involved very shocking consequences, for it necessitated the idea that
+so diabolical an act could only be combated by diabolical cruelty. And
+the most diabolical act of cruelty she could imagine was that of baking
+alive in a hot oven one of the ducks. And that was what she did. The
+sequence of thought in her mind was that the spell that had been laid on
+the ducks was that of preternaturally wicked wilfulness; that this spell
+could only be broken through intensity of suffering, in this case death
+by burning; that the intensity of suffering would break the spell in the
+one roasted to death; and that the spell broken in one would be
+altogether broken, that is, in all the ducks.... Shocking, however, as
+was this method of exorcising the ducks, there was nothing in it
+original. Just about a hundred years before, everyone in the town and
+neighbourhood of Ipswich had heard, and many had believed, that a witch
+had been burnt to death in her own house at Ipswich by the process of
+burning alive one of the sheep she had bewitched. It was curious, but it
+was as convincing as curious, that the hands and feet of this witch were
+the only parts of her that had not been incinerated. This, however, was
+satisfactorily explained by the fact that the four feet of the sheep, by
+which it had been suspended over the fire, had not been destroyed in the
+flames that had consumed its body."[754] According to a slightly
+different account of the same tragic incident, the last of the "Ipswitch
+witches," one Grace Pett, "laid her hand heavily on a farmer's sheep,
+who, in order to punish her, fastened one of the sheep in the ground and
+burnt it, except the feet, which were under the earth. The next morning
+Grace Pett was found burnt to a cinder, except her feet. Her fate is
+recorded in the _Philosophical Transactions_ as a case of spontaneous
+combustion."[755]
+
+[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.]
+
+In the Isle of Man the practice of burning cattle alive in order to stop
+a murrain seems to have persisted down to a time within living memory.
+On this subject I will quote the evidence collected by Sir John Rhys: "A
+respectable farmer from Andreas told me that he was driving with his
+wife to the neighbouring parish of Jurby some years ago, and that on the
+way they beheld the carcase of a cow or an ox burning in a field, with a
+woman engaged in stirring the fire. On reaching the village to which
+they were going, they found that the burning beast belonged to a farmer
+whom they knew. They were further told it was no wonder that the said
+farmer had one of his cattle burnt, as several of them had recently
+died. Whether this was a case of sacrifice or not I cannot say. But let
+me give you another instance: a man whom I have already mentioned, saw
+at a farm nearer the centre of the island a live calf being burnt. The
+owner bears an English name, but his family has long been settled in
+Man. The farmer's explanation to my informant was that the calf was
+burnt to secure luck for the rest of the herd, some of which were
+threatening to die. My informant thought there was absolutely nothing
+the matter with them, except that they had too little to eat. Be that as
+it may, the one calf was sacrificed as a burnt-offering to secure luck
+for the rest of the cattle. Let me here also quote Mr. Moore's note in
+his _Manx Surnames_, p. 184, on the place name _Cabbal yn Oural Losht_,
+or the Chapel of the Burnt Sacrifice. 'This name,' he says, 'records a
+circumstance which took place in the nineteenth century, but which, it
+is to be hoped, was never customary in the Isle of Man. A farmer, who
+had lost a number of his sheep and cattle by murrain, burned a calf as a
+propitiatory offering to the Deity on this spot, where a chapel was
+afterwards built. Hence the name.' Particulars, I may say, of time,
+place, and person could be easily added to Mr. Moore's statement,
+excepting, perhaps as to the deity in question; on that point I have
+never been informed, but Mr. Moore is probably right in the use of the
+capital _d_, as the sacrificer is, according to all accounts, a highly
+devout Christian. One more instance: an octogenarian woman, born in the
+parish of Bride, and now living at Kirk Andreas, saw, when she was a
+'lump of a girl' of ten or fifteen years of age, a live sheep being
+burnt in a field in the parish of Andreas, on May-day, whereby she meant
+the first of May reckoned according to the Old Style. She asserts very
+decidedly that it was _son oural_, 'as a sacrifice,' as she put it, and
+'for an object to the public': those were her words when she expressed
+herself in English. Further, she made the statement that it was a custom
+to burn a sheep on old May-day for a sacrifice. I was fully alive to the
+interest of this evidence, and cross-examined her so far as her age
+allows of it, and I find that she adheres to her statement with all
+firmness."[756]
+
+[By burning a bewitched animal you compel the witch to appear.]
+
+But Manxmen burn beasts when they are dead as well as when they are
+alive; and their reasons for burning the dead animals may help us to
+understand their reasons for burning the living animals. On this subject
+I will again quote Sir John Rhys: "When a beast dies on a farm, of
+course it dies, according to the old-fashioned view of things, as I
+understand it, from the influence of the evil eye or the interposition
+of a witch. So if you want to know to whom you are indebted for the loss
+of the beast, you have simply to burn its carcase in the open air and
+watch who comes first to the spot or who first passes by; that is the
+criminal to be charged with the death of the animal, and he cannot help
+coming there--such is the effect of the fire. A Michael woman, who is
+now about thirty, related to me how she watched while the carcase of a
+bewitched colt was burning, how she saw the witch coming, and how she
+remembers her shrivelled face, with nose and chin in close proximity.
+According to another native of Michael, a well-informed middle-aged man,
+the animal in question was oftenest a calf, and it was wont to be burnt
+whole, skin and all. The object, according to him, is invariably to
+bring the bewitcher on the spot, and he always comes; but I am not clear
+what happens to him when he appears. My informant added, however, that
+it was believed that, unless the bewitcher got possession of the heart
+of the burning beast, he lost all his power of bewitching."[757]
+
+[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.]
+
+This explanation of the reason for burning a bewitched animal, dead or
+alive, is confirmed by the parallel belief concerning were-wolves. It is
+commonly supposed that certain men and women can transform themselves by
+magic art into wolves or other animals, but that any wound inflicted on
+such a transformed beast (a were-wolf or other were-animal) is
+simultaneously inflicted on the human body of the witch or warlock who
+had transformed herself or himself into the creature. This belief is
+widely diffused; it meets us in Europe, Asia, and Africa. For example,
+Olaus Magnus tells us that in Livonia, not many years before he wrote, a
+noble lady had a dispute with her slave on the subject of were-wolves,
+she doubting whether there were any such things, and he maintaining that
+there were. To convince her he retired to a room, from which he soon
+appeared in the form of a wolf. Being chased by the dogs into the forest
+and brought to bay, the wolf defended himself fiercely, but lost an eye
+in the struggle. Next day the slave returned to his mistress in human
+form but with only one eye.[758] Again, it happened in the year 1588
+that a gentleman in a village among the mountains of Auvergne, looking
+out of the window one evening, saw a friend of his going out to hunt. He
+begged him to bring him back some of his bag, and his friend said that
+he would. Well, he had not gone very far before he met a huge wolf. He
+fired and missed it, and the animal attacked him furiously, but he stood
+on his guard and with an adroit stroke of his hunting knife he cut off
+the right fore-paw of the brute, which thereupon fled away and he saw it
+no more. He returned to his friend, and drawing from his pouch the
+severed paw of the wolf he found to his horror that it was turned into a
+woman's hand with a golden ring on one of the fingers. His friend
+recognized the ring as that of his own wife and went to find her. She
+was sitting by the fire with her right arm under her apron. As she
+refused to draw it out, her husband confronted her with the hand and the
+ring on it. She at once confessed the truth, that it was she in the form
+of a were-wolf whom the hunter had wounded. Her confession was confirmed
+by applying the severed hand to the stump of her arm, for the two fitted
+exactly. The angry husband delivered up his wicked wife to justice; she
+was tried and burnt as a witch.[759] It is said that a were-wolf,
+scouring the streets of Padua, was caught, and when they cut off his
+four paws he at once turned into a man, but with both his hands and feet
+amputated.[760] Again, in a farm of the French district of Beauce, there
+was once a herdsman who never slept at home. These nocturnal absences
+naturally attracted attention and set people talking. At the same time,
+by a curious coincidence, a wolf used to prowl round the farm every
+night and to excite the dogs in the farmyard to fury by thrusting his
+snout derisively through the cat's hole in the great gate. The farmer
+had his suspicions and he determined to watch. One night, when the
+herdsman went out as usual, his master followed him quietly till he came
+to a hut, where with his own eyes he saw the man put on a broad belt and
+at once turn into a wolf, which scoured away over the fields. The farmer
+smiled a sickly sort of smile and went back to the farm. There he took a
+stout stick and sat down at the cat's hole to wait. He had not long to
+wait. The dogs barked like mad, a wolf's snout shewed through the hole,
+down came the stick, out gushed the blood, and a voice was heard to say
+without the gate, "A good job too. I had still three years to run." Next
+day the herdsman appeared as usual, but he had a scar on his brow, and
+he never went out again at night.[761]
+
+[Werewolves in China.]
+
+In China also the faith in similar transformation is reflected in the
+following tale. A certain man in Sung-yang went into the mountains to
+gather fuel. Night fell and he was pursued by two tigers, but scrambled
+up a tree out of their reach. Then said the one tiger to the other
+tiger, "If we can find Chu-Tu-shi, we are sure to catch this man up the
+tree." So off went one of them to find Chu-Tu-shi, while the other kept
+watch at the foot of the tree. Soon after that another tiger, leaner and
+longer than the other two, appeared on the scene and made a grab at the
+man's coat. But fortunately the moon was shining, the man saw the paw,
+and with a stroke of his axe cut off one of its claws. The tigers roared
+and fled, one after the other, so the man climbed down the tree and went
+home. When he told his tale in the village, suspicion naturally fell on
+the said Chu-Tu-shi; next day some men went to see him in his house.
+They were told that they could not see him; for he had been out the
+night before and had hurt his hand, and he was now ill in bed. So they
+put two and two together and reported him to the police. The police
+arrived, surrounded the house, and set fire to it; but Chu-Tu-shi rose
+from his bed, turned into a tiger, charged right through the police, and
+escaped, and to this day nobody ever knew where he went to.[762]
+
+[Werewolves among the Toradjas of Central Celebes.]
+
+The Toradjas of Central Celebes stand in very great fear of werewolves,
+that is of men and women, who have the power of transforming their
+spirits into animals such as cats, crocodiles, wild pigs, apes, deer,
+and buffaloes, which roam about battening on human flesh, and especially
+on human livers, while the men and women in their own proper human form
+are sleeping quietly in their beds at home. Among them a man is either
+born a were-wolf or becomes one by infection; for mere contact with a
+were-wolf, or even with anything that has been touched by his spittle,
+is quite enough to turn the most innocent person into a were-wolf; nay
+even to lean your head against anything against which a were-wolf has
+leaned his head suffices to do it. The penalty for being a were-wolf is
+death; but the sentence is never passed until the accused has had a fair
+trial and his guilt has been clearly demonstrated by an ordeal, which
+consists in dipping the middle finger into boiling resin. If the finger
+is not burnt, the man is no were-wolf; but if it is burnt, a werewolf he
+most assuredly is, so they take him away to a quiet spot and hack him to
+bits. In cutting him up the executioners are naturally very careful not
+to be bespattered with his blood, for if that were to happen they would
+of course be turned into were-wolves themselves. Further, they place his
+severed head beside his hinder-quarters to prevent his soul from coming
+to life again and pursuing his depredations. So great is the horror of
+were-wolves among the Toradjas, and so great is their fear of
+contracting the deadly taint by infection, that many persons have
+assured a missionary that they would not spare their own child if they
+knew him to be a were-wolf.[763] Now these people, whose faith in
+were-wolves is not a mere dying or dead superstition but a living,
+dreadful conviction, tell stories of were-wolves which conform to the
+type which we are examining. They say that once upon a time a were-wolf
+came in human shape under the house of a neighbour, while his real body
+lay asleep as usual at home, and calling out softly to the man's wife
+made an assignation with her to meet him in the tobacco-field next day.
+But the husband was lying awake and he heard it all, but he said nothing
+to anybody. Next day chanced to be a busy one in the village, for a roof
+had to be put on a new house and all the men were lending a hand with
+the work, and among them to be sure was the were-wolf himself, I mean to
+say his own human self; there he was up on the roof working away as hard
+as anybody. But the woman went out to the tobacco-field, and behind went
+unseen her husband, slinking through the underwood. When they were come
+to the field, he saw the were-wolf make up to his wife, so out he rushed
+and struck at him with a stick. Quick as thought, the were-wolf turned
+himself into a leaf, but the man was as nimble, for he caught up the
+leaf, thrust it into the joint of bamboo, in which he kept his tobacco,
+and bunged it up tight. Then he walked back with his wife to the
+village, carrying the bamboo with the werewolf in it. When they came to
+the village, the human body of the were-wolf was still on the roof,
+working away with the rest. The man put the bamboo in a fire. At that
+the human were-wolf looked down from the roof and said, "Don't do that."
+The man drew the bamboo from the fire, but a moment afterwards he put it
+in the fire again, and again the human were-wolf on the roof looked down
+and cried, "Don't do that." But this time the man kept the bamboo in the
+fire, and when it blazed up, down fell the human were-wolf from the roof
+as dead as a stone.[764] Again, the following story went round among the
+Toradjas not so very many years ago. The thing happened at Soemara, on
+the Gulf of Tomori. It was evening and some men sat chatting with a
+certain Hadji Mohammad. When it had grown dark, one of the men went out
+of the house for something or other. A little while afterwards one of
+the company thought he saw a stag's antlers standing out sharp and clear
+against the bright evening sky. So Hadji Mohammad raised his gun and
+fired. A minute or two afterwards back comes the man who had gone out,
+and says he to Hadji Mohammad, "You shot at me and hit me. You must pay
+me a fine." They searched him but found no wound on him anywhere. Then
+they knew that he was a were-wolf who had turned himself into a stag and
+had healed the bullet-wound by licking it. However, the bullet had found
+its billet, for two days afterwards he was a dead man.[765]
+
+[Were-wolves in the Egyptian Sudan.]
+
+In Sennar, a province of the Egyptian Sudan, the Hammeg and Fungi enjoy
+the reputation of being powerful magicians who can turn themselves into
+hyaenas and in that guise scour the country at night, howling and
+gorging themselves. But by day they are men again. It is very dangerous
+to shoot at such human hyaenas by night. On the Jebel Bela mountain a
+soldier once shot at a hyaena and hit it, but it dragged itself off,
+bleeding, in the darkness and escaped. Next morning he followed up the
+trail of blood and it led him straight to the hut of a man who was
+everywhere known for a wizard. Nothing of the hyaena was to be seen, but
+the man himself was laid up in the house with a fresh wound and died
+soon afterwards. And the soldier did not long survive him.[766]
+
+[The were-wolf story in Petronius.]
+
+But the classical example of these stories is an old Roman tale told by
+Petronius. It is put in the mouth of one Niceros. Late at night he left
+the town to visit a friend of his, a widow, who lived at a farm five
+miles down the road. He was accompanied by a soldier, who lodged in the
+same house, a man of Herculean build. When they set out it was near
+dawn, but the moon shone as bright as day. Passing through the outskirts
+of the town, they came amongst the tombs, which lined the highroad for
+some distance. There the soldier made an excuse for retiring behind a
+monument, and Niceros sat down to wait for him, humming a tune and
+counting the tombstones to pass the time. In a little he looked round
+for his companion, and saw a sight which froze him with horror. The
+soldier had stripped off his clothes to the last rag and laid them at
+the side of the highway. Then he performed a certain ceremony over them,
+and immediately was changed into a wolf, and ran howling into the
+forest. When Niceros had recovered himself a little, he went to pick up
+the clothes, but found that they were turned to stone. More dead than
+alive, he drew his sword, and, striking at every shadow cast by the
+tombstones on the moonlit road, he tottered to his friend's house. He
+entered it like a ghost, to the surprise of the widow, who wondered to
+see him abroad so late. "If you had only been here a little ago," said
+she, "you might have been of some use. For a wolf came tearing into the
+yard, scaring the cattle and bleeding them like a butcher. But he did
+not get off so easily, for the servant speared him in the neck." After
+hearing these words, Niceros felt that he could not close an eye, so he
+hurried away home again. It was now broad daylight, but when he came to
+the place where the clothes had been turned to stone, he found only a
+pool of blood. He reached home, and there lay the soldier in bed like an
+ox in the shambles, and the doctor was bandaging his neck. "Then I
+knew," said Niceros, "that the man was a were-wolf, and never again
+could I break bread with him, no, not if you had killed me for it."[767]
+
+[Witches like were-wolves can temporarily transform themselves into
+animals.]
+
+These stories may help us to understand the custom of burning a
+bewitched animal, which has been observed in our own country down to
+recent times, if indeed it is even now extinct. For a close parallel may
+be traced in some respects between witches and were-wolves. Like
+were-wolves, witches are commonly supposed to be able to transform
+themselves temporarily into animals for the purpose of playing their
+mischievous pranks;[768] and like were-wolves they can in their animal
+disguise be compelled to unmask themselves to any one who succeeds in
+drawing their blood. In either case the animal-skin is conceived as a
+cloak thrown round the wicked enchanter; and if you can only pierce the
+skin, whether by the stab of a knife or the shot of a gun, you so rend
+the disguise that the man or woman inside of it stands revealed in his
+or her true colours. Strictly speaking, the stab should be given on the
+brow or between the eyes in the case both of a witch and of a
+were-wolf;[769] and it is vain to shoot at a were-wolf unless you have
+had the bullet blessed in a chapel of St. Hubert or happen to be
+carrying about you, without knowing it, a four-leaved clover; otherwise
+the bullet will merely rebound from the were-wolf like water from a
+duck's back.[770] However, in Armenia they say that the were-wolf, who
+in that country is usually a woman, can be killed neither by shot nor by
+steel; the only way of delivering the unhappy woman from her bondage is
+to get hold of her wolf's skin and burn it; for that naturally prevents
+her from turning into a wolf again. But it is not easy to find the skin,
+for she is cunning enough to hide it by day.[771] So with witches, it is
+not only useless but even dangerous to shoot at one of them when she has
+turned herself into a hare; if you do, the gun may burst in your hand or
+the shot come back and kill you. The only way to make quite sure of
+hitting a witch-animal is to put a silver sixpence or a silver button in
+your gun.[772] For example, it happened one evening that a native of the
+island of Tiree was going home with a new gun, when he saw a black sheep
+running towards him across the plain of Reef. Something about the
+creature excited his suspicion, so he put a silver sixpence in his gun
+and fired at it. Instantly the black sheep became a woman with a drugget
+coat wrapt round her head. The man knew her quite well, for she was a
+witch who had often persecuted him before in the shape of a cat.[773]
+
+[Wounds inflicted on an animal into which a witch has transformed
+herself are inflicted on the witch herself.]
+
+Again, the wounds inflicted on a witch-hare or a witch-cat are to be
+seen on the witch herself, just as the wounds inflicted on a were-wolf
+are to be seen on the man himself when he has doffed the wolfs skin. To
+take a few instances out of a multitude, a young man in the island of
+Lismore was out shooting. When he was near Balnagown loch, he started a
+hare and fired at it. The animal gave an unearthly scream, and then for
+the first time it occurred to him that there were no real hares in
+Lismore. He threw away his gun in terror and fled home; and next day he
+heard that a notorious witch was laid up with a broken leg. A man need
+be no conjuror to guess how she came by that broken leg.[774] Again, at
+Thurso certain witches used to turn themselves into cats and in that
+shape to torment an honest man. One night he lost patience, whipped out
+his broadsword, and put them to flight. As they were scurrying away he
+struck at them and cut off a leg of one of the cats. To his astonishment
+it was a woman's leg, and next morning he found one of the witches short
+of the corresponding limb.[775] Glanvil tells a story of "an old woman
+in Cambridge-shire, whose astral spirit, coming into a man's house (as
+he was sitting alone at the fire) in the shape of an huge cat, and
+setting her self before the fire, not far from him, he stole a stroke at
+the back of it with a fire-fork, and seemed to break the back of it, but
+it scambled from him, and vanisht he knew not how. But such an old
+woman, a reputed witch, was found dead in her bed that very night, with
+her back broken, as I have heard some years ago credibly reported."[776]
+In Yorkshire during the latter half of the nineteenth century a parish
+clergyman was told a circumstantial story of an old witch named Nanny,
+who was hunted in the form of a hare for several miles over the
+Westerdale moors and kept well away from the dogs, till a black one
+joined the pack and succeeded in taking a bit out of one of the hare's
+legs. That was the end of the chase, and immediately afterwards the
+sportsmen found old Nanny laid up in bed with a sore leg. On examining
+the wounded limb they discovered that the hurt was precisely in that
+part of it which in the hare had been bitten by the black dog and, what
+was still more significant, the wound had all the appearance of having
+been inflicted by a dog's teeth. So they put two and two together.[777]
+The same sort of thing is often reported in Lincolnshire. "One night,"
+said a servant from Kirton Lindsey, "my father and brother saw a cat in
+front of them. Father knew it was a witch, and took a stone and hammered
+it. Next day the witch had her face all tied up, and shortly afterwards
+died." Again, a Bardney bumpkin told how a witch in his neighbourhood
+could take all sorts of shapes. One night a man shot a hare, and when he
+went to the witch's house he found her plastering a wound just where he
+had shot the hare.[778] So in County Leitrim, in Ireland, they say that
+a hare pursued by dogs fled to a house near at hand, but just as it was
+bolting in at the door one of the dogs came up with it and nipped a
+piece out of its leg. The hunters entered the house and found no hare
+there but only an old woman, and her side was bleeding; so they knew
+what to think of her.[779]
+
+[Wounded witches in the Vosges.]
+
+Again, in the Vosges Mountains a great big hare used to come out every
+evening to take the air at the foot of the Mont des Fourches. All the
+sportsmen of the neighbourhood tried their hands on that hare for a
+month, but not one of them could hit it. At last one marksman, more
+knowing than the rest, loaded his gun with some pellets of a consecrated
+wafer in addition to the usual pellets of lead. That did the trick. If
+puss was not killed outright, she was badly hurt, and limped away
+uttering shrieks and curses in a human voice. Later it transpired that
+she was no other than the witch of a neighbouring village who had the
+power of putting on the shape of any animal she pleased.[780] Again, a
+hunter of Travexin, in the Vosges, fired at a hare and almost shot away
+one of its hind legs. Nevertheless the creature contrived to escape into
+a cottage through the open door. Immediately a child's cries were heard
+to proceed from the cottage, and the hunter could distinguish these
+words, "Daddy, daddy, come quick! Poor mammy has her leg broken."[781]
+
+[Wounded witches in Swabia.]
+
+In Swabia the witches are liable to accidents of the same sort when they
+go about their business in the form of animals. For example, there was a
+soldier who was betrothed to a young woman and used to visit her every
+evening when he was off duty. But one evening the girl told him that he
+must not come to the house on Friday nights, because it was never
+convenient to her to see him then. This roused his suspicion, and the
+very next Friday night he set out to go to his sweetheart's house. On
+the way a white cat ran up to him in the street and dogged his steps,
+and when the animal would not make off he drew his sword and slashed off
+one of its paws. On that the cat bolted. The soldier walked on, but when
+he came to his sweetheart's house he found her in bed, and when he asked
+her what was the matter, she gave a very confused reply. Noticing stains
+of blood on the bed, he drew down the coverlet and saw that the girl was
+weltering in her gore, for one of her feet was lopped off. "So that's
+what's the matter with you, you witch!" said he, and turned on his heel
+and left her, and within three days she was dead.[782] Again, a farmer
+in the neighbourhood of Wiesensteig frequently found in his stable a
+horse over and above the four horses he actually owned. He did not know
+what to make of it and mentioned the matter to the smith. The smith said
+quietly, "The next time you see a fifth horse in the stable, just you
+send for me." Well, it was not long before the strange horse was there
+again, and the farmer at once sent for the smith. He came bringing four
+horse-shoes with him, and said, "I'm sure the nag has no shoes; I'll
+shoe her for you." No sooner said than done. However, the smith
+overreached himself; for next day when his friend the farmer paid him a
+visit he found the smith's own wife prancing about with horse-shoes
+nailed on her hands and feet. But it was the last time she ever appeared
+in the shape of a horse.[783]
+
+[The miller's wife and the two grey cats.]
+
+Once more, in Silesia they tell of a miller's apprentice, a sturdy and
+industrious young fellow, who set out on his travels. One day he came to
+a mill, and the miller told him that he wanted an apprentice but did not
+care to engage one, because hitherto all his apprentices had run away in
+the night, and when he came down in the morning the mill was at a stand.
+However, he liked the looks of the young chap and took him into his pay.
+But what the new apprentice heard about the mill and his predecessors
+was not encouraging; so the first night when it was his duty to watch in
+the mill he took care to provide himself with an axe and a prayer-book,
+and while he kept one eye on the whirring, humming wheels he kept the
+other on the good book, which he read by the flickering light of a
+candle set on a table. So the hours at first passed quietly with nothing
+to disturb him but the monotonous drone and click of the machinery. But
+on the stroke of twelve, as he was still reading with the axe lying on
+the table within reach, the door opened and in came two grey cats
+mewing, an old one and a young one. They sat down opposite him, but it
+was easy to see that they did not like his wakefulness and the
+prayer-book and the axe. Suddenly the old cat reached out a paw and made
+a grab at the axe, but the young chap was too quick for her and held it
+fast. Then the young cat tried to do the same for the prayer-book, but
+the apprentice gripped it tight. Thus balked, the two cats set up such a
+squalling that the young fellow could hardly say his prayers. Just
+before one o'clock the younger cat sprang on the table and fetched a
+blow with her right paw at the candle to put it out. But the apprentice
+struck at her with his axe and sliced the paw off, whereupon the two
+cats vanished with a frightful screech. The apprentice wrapped the paw
+up in paper to shew it to his master. Very glad the miller was next
+morning when he came down and found the mill going and the young chap at
+his post. The apprentice told him what had happened in the night and
+gave him the parcel containing the cat's paw. But when the miller opened
+it, what was the astonishment of the two to find in it no cat's paw but
+a woman's hand! At breakfast the miller's young wife did not as usual
+take her place at the table. She was ill in bed, and the doctor had to
+be called in to bind up her right arm, because in hewing wood, so they
+said, she had made a slip and cut off her own right hand. But the
+apprentice packed up his traps and turned his back on that mill before
+the sun had set.[784]
+
+[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.]
+
+It would no doubt be easy to multiply instances, all equally well
+attested and authentic, of the transformation of witches into animals
+and of the damage which the women themselves have sustained through
+injuries inflicted on the animals.[785] But the foregoing evidence may
+suffice to establish the complete parallelism between witches and
+were-wolves in these respects. The analogy appears to confirm the view
+that the reason for burning a bewitched animal alive is a belief that
+the witch herself is in the animal, and that by burning it you either
+destroy the witch completely or at least unmask her and compel her to
+reassume her proper human shape, in which she is naturally far less
+potent for mischief than when she is careering about the country in the
+likeness of a cat, a hare, a horse, or what not. This principle is still
+indeed clearly recognized by people in Oldenburg, though, as might be
+expected, they do not now carry out the principle to its logical
+conclusion by burning the bewitched animal or person alive; instead they
+resort to a feeble and, it must be added, perfectly futile subterfuge
+dictated by a mistaken humanity or a fear of the police. "When anything
+living is bewitched in a house, for example, children or animals, they
+burn or boil the nobler inwards of animals, especially the hearts, but
+also the lungs or the liver. If animals have died, they take the inwards
+of one of them or of an animal of the same kind slaughtered for the
+purpose; but if that is not possible they take the inwards of a cock, by
+preference a black one. The heart, lung, or liver is stuck all over with
+needles, or marked with a cross cut, or placed on the fire in a tightly
+closed vessel, strict silence being observed and doors and windows well
+shut. When the heart boils or is reduced to ashes, the witch must
+appear, for during the boiling she feels the burning pain. She either
+begs to be released or seeks to borrow something, for example, salt or a
+coal of fire, or she takes the lid off the pot, or tries to induce the
+person whose spell is on her to speak. They say, too, that a woman comes
+with a spinning-wheel. If it is a sheep that has died, you proceed in
+the same way with a tripe from its stomach and prick it with needles
+while it is on the boil. Instead of boiling it, some people nail the
+heart to the highest rafter of the house, or lay it on the edge of the
+hearth, in order that it may dry up, no doubt because the same thing
+happens to the witch. We may conjecture that other sympathetic means of
+destruction are employed against witchcraft. The following is expressly
+reported: the heart of a calf that has died is stuck all over with
+needles, enclosed in a bag, and thrown into flowing water before
+sunset."[786]
+
+[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.]
+
+And the same thing holds good also of inanimate objects on which a witch
+has cast her spell. In Wales they say that "if a thing is bewitched,
+burn it, and immediately afterwards the witch will come to borrow
+something of you. If you give what she asks, she will go free; if you
+refuse it, she will burn, and a mark will be on her body the next
+day."[787] So, too, in Oldenburg, "the burning of things that are
+bewitched or that have been received from witches is another way of
+breaking the spell. It is often said that the burning should take place
+at a cross-road, and in several places cross-roads are shewn where the
+burning used to be performed.... As a rule, while the things are
+burning, the guilty witches appear, though not always in their own
+shape. At the burning of bewitched butter they often appear as
+cockchafers and can be killed with impunity. Victuals received from
+witches may be safely consumed if only you first burn a portion of
+them."[788] For example, a young man in Oldenburg was wooing a girl, and
+she gave him two fine apples as a gift. Not feeling any appetite at the
+time, he put the apples in his pocket, and when he came home he laid
+them by in a chest. Two or three days afterwards he remembered the
+apples and went to the chest to fetch them. But when he would have put
+his hand on them, what was his horror to find in their stead two fat
+ugly toads in the chest. He hastened to a wise man and asked him what he
+should do with the toads. The man told him to boil the toads alive, but
+while he was doing so he must be sure on no account to lend anything out
+of the house. Well, just as he had the toads in a pot on the fire and
+the water began to grow nicely warm, who should come to the door but the
+girl who had given him the apples, and she wished to borrow something;
+but he refused to give her anything, rated her as a witch, and drove her
+out of the house. A little afterwards in came the girl's mother and
+begged with tears in her eyes for something or other; but he turned her
+out also. The last word she said to him was that he should at least
+spare her daughter's life; but he paid no heed to her and let the toads
+boil till they fell to bits. Next day word came that the girl was
+dead.[789] Can any reasonable man doubt that the witch herself was
+boiled alive in the person of the toads?
+
+[The burning alive of a supposed witch in Ireland in 1895.]
+
+Moreover, just as a witch can assume the form of an animal, so she can
+assume the form of some other human being, and the likeness is sometimes
+so good that it is difficult to detect the fraud. However, by burning
+alive the person whose shape the witch has put on, you force the witch
+to disclose herself, just as by burning alive the bewitched animal you
+in like manner oblige the witch to appear. This principle may perhaps be
+unknown to science, falsely so called, but it is well understood in
+Ireland and has been acted on within recent years. In March 1895 a
+peasant named Michael Cleary, residing at Ballyvadlea, a remote and
+lonely district in the county of Tipperary, burned his wife Bridget
+Cleary alive over a slow fire on the kitchen hearth in the presence of
+and with the active assistance of some neighbours, including the woman's
+own father and several of her cousins. They thought that she was not
+Bridget Cleary at all, but a witch, and that when they held her down on
+the fire she would vanish up the chimney; so they cried, while she was
+burning, "Away she goes! Away she goes!" Even when she lay quite dead on
+the kitchen floor (for contrary to the general expectation she did not
+disappear up the chimney), her husband still believed that the woman
+lying there was a witch, and that his own dear wife had gone with the
+fairies to the old _rath_ or fort on the hill of Kylenagranagh, where he
+would see her at night riding a grey horse and roped to the saddle, and
+that he would cut the ropes, and that she would stay with him ever
+afterwards. So he went with some friends to the fort night after night,
+taking a big table-knife with him to cut the ropes. But he never saw his
+wife again. He and the men who had held the woman on the fire were
+arrested and tried at Clonmel for wilful murder in July 1895; they were
+all found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to various terms of penal
+servitude and imprisonment; the sentence passed on Michael Cleary was
+twenty years' penal servitude.[790]
+
+[Sometimes bewitched animals are buried alive instead of being burned.]
+
+However, our British peasants, it must be confessed, have not always
+acted up to the strict logical theory which seems to call for death by
+fire as the proper treatment both of bewitched animals and of witches.
+Sometimes, perhaps in moments of weakness, they have merely buried the
+bewitched animals alive instead of burning them. For example, in the
+year 1643, "many cattle having died, John Brughe and Neane Nikclerith,
+also one of the initiated, conjoined their mutual skill for the safety
+of the herd. The surviving animals were drove past a tub of water
+containing two enchanted stones: and each was sprinkled from the liquid
+contents in its course. One, however, being unable to walk, 'was by
+force drawin out at the byre dure; and the said Johnne with Nikclerith
+smelling the nois thereof said it wald not leive, caused are hoill to be
+maid in Maw Greane, quhilk was put quick in the hole and maid all the
+rest of the cattell theireftir to go over that place: and in that
+devillische maner, be charmeing,' they were cured."[791] Again, during
+the prevalence of a murrain about the year 1629, certain persons
+proposed to stay the plague with the help of a celebrated "cureing
+stane" of which the laird of Lee was the fortunate owner. But from this
+they were dissuaded by one who "had sene bestiall curet be taking are
+quik seik ox, and making are deip pitt, and bureing him therin, and be
+calling the oxin and bestiall over that place." Indeed Issobell Young,
+the mother of these persons, had herself endeavoured to check the
+progress of the distemper by taking "ane quik ox with ane catt, and ane
+grit quantitie of salt," and proceeding "to burie the ox and catt quik
+with the salt, in ane deip hoill in the grund, as ane sacrifice to the
+devill, that the rest of the guidis might be fred of the seiknes or
+diseases."[792] Writing towards the end of the eighteenth century, John
+Ramsay of Ochtertyre tells us that "the violent death even of a brute is
+in some cases held to be of great avail. There is a disease called the
+_black spauld_, which sometimes rages like a pestilence among black
+cattle, the symptoms of which are a mortification in the legs and a
+corruption of the mass of blood. Among the other engines of superstition
+that are directed against this fatal malady, the first cow seized with
+it is commonly buried alive, and the other cattle are forced to pass
+backwards and forwards over the pit. At other times the heart is taken
+out of the beast alive, and then the carcass is buried. It is remarkable
+that the leg affected is cut off, and hung up in some part of the house
+or byre, where it remains suspended, notwithstanding the seeming danger
+of infection. There is hardly a house in Mull where these may not be
+seen. This practice seems to have taken its rise antecedent to
+Christianity, as it reminds us of the pagan custom of hanging up
+offerings in their temples. In Breadalbane, when a cow is observed to
+have symptoms of madness, there is recourse had to a peculiar process.
+They tie the legs of the mad creature, and throw her into a pit dug at
+the door of the fold. After covering the hole with earth, a large fire
+is kindled upon it; and the rest of the cattle are driven out, and
+forced to pass through the fire one by one."[793] In this latter custom
+we may suspect that the fire kindled on the grave of the buried cow was
+originally made by the friction of wood, in other words, that it was a
+need-fire. Again, writing in the year 1862, Sir Arthur Mitchell tells us
+that "for the cure of the murrain in cattle, one of the herd is still
+sacrificed for the good of the whole. This is done by burying it alive.
+I am assured that within the last ten years such a barbarism occurred in
+the county of Moray."[794]
+
+[Calves killed and buried to save the rest of the herd.]
+
+Sometimes, however, the animal has not even been buried alive, it has
+been merely killed and then buried. In this emasculated form the
+sacrifice, we may say with confidence, is absolutely useless for the
+purpose of stopping a murrain. Nevertheless, it has been tried. Thus in
+Lincolnshire, when the cattle plague was so prevalent in 1866, there
+was, I believe, not a single cowshed in Marshland but had its wicken
+cross over the door; and other charms more powerful than this were in
+some cases resorted to. I never heard of the use of the needfire in the
+Marsh, though it was, I believe, used on the wolds not many miles off.
+But I knew of at least one case in which a calf was killed and solemnly
+buried feet pointing upwards at the threshold of the cowshed. When our
+garthman told me of this, I pointed out to him that the charm had
+failed, for the disease had not spared that shed. But he promptly
+replied, "Yis, but owd Edwards were a soight too cliver; he were that
+mean he slew nobbutt a wankling cauf as were bound to deny anny road; if
+he had nobbutt tekken his best cauf it wud hev worked reight enuff;
+'tain't in reason that owd skrat 'ud be hanselled wi' wankling
+draffle."[795]
+
+Notes:
+
+[262] See Jacob Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_*[4] (Berlin, 1875-1878), i.
+502, 510, 516.
+
+[263] W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer
+Nachbarstaemme_ (Berlin, 1875), pp. 518 _sq._
+
+[264] In the following survey of these fire-customs I follow chiefly W.
+Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, kap. vi. pp. 497 _sqq._ Compare also J.
+Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 500 _sqq._; Walter E. Kelly,
+_Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore_ (London, 1863),
+pp. 46 _sqq._; F. Vogt, "Scheibentreiben und Fruehlingsfeuer,"
+_Zeitschrift des Vereins fuer Volkskunde_, iii. (1893) pp. 349-369;
+_ibid._ iv. (1894) pp. 195-197.
+
+[265] _The Scapegoat_, pp. 316 _sqq._
+
+[266] The first Sunday in Lent is known as _Invocavit_ from the first
+word of the mass for the day (O. Frh. von Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld,
+_Fest-Kalender aus Boehmen_, p. 67).
+
+[267] Le Baron de Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, _Calendrier Belge_ (Brussels,
+1861-1862), i. 141-143; E. Monseur, _Le Folklore Wallon_ (Brussels,
+N.D.), pp. 124 _sq._
+
+[268] Emile Hublard, _Fetes du Temps Jadis, les Feux du Careme_ (Mons,
+1899), pp. 25. For the loan of this work I am indebted to Mrs. Wherry of
+St. Peter's Terrace, Cambridge.
+
+[269] E. Hublard, _op. cit._ pp. 27 _sq._
+
+[270] A. Meyrac, _Traditions, coutumes, legendes et contes des Ardennes_
+(Charleville, 1890), p. 68.
+
+[271] L.F. Sauve, _Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_ (Paris, 1889), p. 56.
+The popular name for the bonfires in the Upper Vosges (_Hautes-Vosges_)
+is _chavandes_.
+
+[272] E. Cortet, _Essai sur les fetes religieuses_ (Paris, 1867), pp.
+101 _sq._ The local name for these bonfires is _bures_.
+
+[273] Charles Beauquier, _Les mois en Franche-Comte_ (Paris, 1900), pp.
+33 _sq._ In Bresse the custom was similar. See _La Bresse Louhannaise,
+Bulletin Mensuel, Organe de la Societe d'Agriculture et d'Horticulture
+de l'Arrondissement de Louhans_, Mars, 1906, pp. 111 _sq._; E. Cortet,
+_op. cit._ p. 100. The usual name for the bonfires is _chevannes_ or
+_schvannes_; but in some places they are called _fouleres, foualeres,
+failles_, or _bourdifailles_ (Ch. Beauquier, _op. cit._ p. 34). But the
+Sunday is called the Sunday of the _brandons, bures, bordes_, or
+_boides_, according to the place. The _brandons_ are the torches which
+are carried about the streets and the fields; the bonfires, as we have
+seen, bear another name. A curious custom, observed on the same Sunday
+in Franche-Comte, requires that couples married within the year should
+distribute boiled peas to all the young folks of both sexes who demand
+them at the door. The lads and lasses go about from house to house,
+making the customary request; in some places they wear masks or are
+otherwise disguised. See Ch. Beauquier, _op. cit._ pp. 31-33.
+
+[274] Curiously enough, while the singular is _granno-mio_, the plural
+is _grannas-mias_.
+
+[275] Dr. Pommerol, "La fete des Brandons et le dieu Gaulois Grannus,"
+_Bulletins et Memoires de la Societe d'Anthropologie de Paris_, v.
+Serie, ii. (1901) pp. 427-429.
+
+[276] _Op. cit._ pp. 428 _sq._
+
+[277] H. Dessau, _Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae_, vol. ii. Pars i.
+(Berlin, 1902) pp. 216 _sq._, Nos. 4646-4652.
+
+[278] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London, 1888), pp. 22-25.
+
+[279] Emile Hublard, _Fetes du Temps Jadis, les Feux du Careme_ (Mons,
+1899), p. 38, quoting Dom Grenier, _Histoire de la Province de
+Picardie_.
+
+[280] E. Hublard, _op. cit._ p. 39, quoting Dom Grenier.
+
+[281] M. Desgranges, "Usages du Canton de Bonneval," _Memoires de la
+Societe Royale des Antiquaires de France_, i. (Paris, 1817) pp. 236-238;
+Felix Chapiseau, _Le folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche_ (Paris, 1902),
+i. 315 _sq._
+
+[282] John Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 100.
+
+[283] E. Cortet, _Essai sur les fetes religieuses_ (Paris, 1867), pp. 99
+_sq.; La Bresse Louhannaise_, Mars, 1906, p. 111.
+
+[284] A. de Nore, _Coutumes, mythes et traditions des provinces de
+France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 283 _sq._ A similar, though not
+identical, custom prevailed at Valenciennes (_ibid._ p. 338).
+
+[285] A. de Nore, _op. cit._ p. 302.
+
+[286] Desire Monnier, _Traditions populaires comparees_ (Paris, 1854),
+pp. 191 _sq._
+
+[287] Laisnel de la Salle, _Croyances et legendes du centre de la
+France_ (Paris, 1875). i. 35 _sqq._
+
+[288] Jules Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Rocage Normand_ (Conde-sur-Noireau,
+1887), ii. 131 _sq._ For more evidence of customs of this sort observed
+in various parts of France on the first Sunday in Lent, see Madame
+Clement, _Histoire des Fetes civiles et religieuses_, etc., _du
+Departement du Nord_*[2] (Cambrai, 1836), pp. 351 _sqq._; Emile Hublard,
+_Fetes du Temps Jadis, les Feux du Careme_ (Mons, 1899), pp. 33 _sqq._
+
+[289] J.H. Schmitz, _Sitten und Sagen, Lieder, Spruechwoerter und Raethsel
+des Eifler Volkes_ (Treves, 1856-1858), i. 21-25; N. Hocker, in
+_Zeitschrift fuer deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, i. (1853) p. 90;
+W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstaemme_
+(Berlin, 1875), p. 501.
+
+[290] N. Hocker, _op. cit._ pp. 89 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _l.c._
+
+[291] F.J. Vonbun, _Beitraege zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Chur, 1862), p.
+20; W. Mannhardt, _l.c._
+
+[292] Ernst Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebraeuche aus Schwaben_
+(Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 380 _sqq._; Anton Birlinger, _Volksthuemliches aus
+Schwaben_ (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. 56 _sqq._, 66 _sqq._;
+_Bavaria, Landes-und Volkskunde des Koenigreichs Bayern_ (Munich,
+1860-1867), ii. 2, pp. 838 _sq._; F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen
+Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855), i. 211, Sec. 232; W. Mannhardt, _l.c._ One
+of the popular German names for the first Sunday in Lent is White
+Sunday, which is not to be confused with the first Sunday after Easter,
+which also goes by the name of White Sunday (E. Meier, _op. cit._ p.
+380; A. Birlinger, _op. cit._ ii. 56).
+
+[293] H. Gaidoz, "Le dieu gaulois du soleil et le symbolisme de la
+roue," _Revue Archeologique_, iii. serie, iv. (1884) pp. 139 _sq._
+
+[294] August Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebraeuche aus Thueringen_
+(Vienna, 1878), p. 189; F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_
+(Munich, 1848-1855), ii. 207; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus,_ pp. 500
+_sq._
+
+[295] W. Kolbe, _Hessiche Volks-Sitten und Gebraeuche_*[2] (Marburg,
+1888), p. 36.
+
+[296] Adalbert Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des
+Goettertranks_*[2] (Guetersloh, 1886), p. 86, quoting Hocker, _Des
+Mosellandes Geschichten, Sagen und Legenden_ (Trier, 1852), pp. 415
+_sqq._ Compare W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 501; and below, pp.
+163 _sq._ Thus it appears that the ceremony of rolling the fiery wheel
+down hill was observed twice a year at Konz, once on the first Sunday in
+Lent, and once at Midsummer.
+
+[297] H. Herzog, _Schweizerische Volksfeste, Sitten und Gebraeuche_
+(Aarau, 1884), pp. 214-216; E. Hoffmann-Krayer, "Fruchtbarkeitsriten im
+schweizerischen Volksbrauch," _Schweizerisches Archiv fuer Volkskunde_,
+xi. (1907) pp. 247-249; _id., Feste und Braeuche des Schweizervolkes_
+(Zurich, 1913), pp. 135 _sq._
+
+[298] Theodor Vernaleken, _Mythen und Braeuche des Volkes in Oesterreich_
+(Vienna, 1859), pp. 293 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 498.
+See _The Dying God_, p. 239.
+
+[299] J. H. Schmitz, _Sitten und Sagen, Lieder, Spruechwoerter und Raethsel
+des Eifler Volkes_ (Treves, 1856-1858), i. 20; W. Mannhardt, _Der
+Baumkultus_, p. 499.
+
+[300] L. Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum
+Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg, 1867), ii. 39, Sec. 306; W. Mannhardt, _Der
+Baumkultus_, p. 498.
+
+[301] W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 499.
+
+[302] W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 498 _sq._
+
+[303] W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 499.
+
+[304] Christian Schneller, _Maerchen und Sagen aus Waelschtirol_
+(Innsbruck, 1867), pp. 234 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 499 _sq._
+
+[305] John Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 157 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, pp. 502-505;
+Karl Freiherr von Leoprechting, _Aus dem Lechrain_ (Munich, 1855), pp.
+172 _sq._; Anton Birlinger, _Volksthuemliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im
+Breisgau, 1861-1862), i. 472 _sq._; Montanus, _Die deutschen Volksfeste,
+Volksbraeuche und deutscher Volksglaube_ (Iserlohn, N.D.), p. 26; F.
+Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855), ii. 241
+_sq._; Ernst Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebraeuche aus Schwaben_
+(Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 139 _sq._; _Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des
+Koenigreichs Bayern_ (Munich, 1860-1867), i. 371; A. Wuttke, _Der
+deutsche Volksaberglaube_*[2] (Berlin, 1869), pp. 68 _sq._, Sec. 81; Ignaz
+V. Zingerle, _Sitten, Braeuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes_*[2]
+(Innsbruck, 1871), p. 149, Sec.Sec. 1286-1289; W. Kolbe, _Hessische
+Volks-Sitten und Gebraeuche_*[2] (Marburg, 1888), pp. 44 _sqq._; _County
+Folk-lore, Printed Extracts, Leicestershire and Rutland_, collected by
+C.J. Billson (London, 1895), pp. 75 _sq._; A. Tiraboschi, "Usi pasquali
+nel Bergamasco," _Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradizione Popolari_, i.
+(1892) pp. 442 _sq._ The ecclesiastical custom of lighting the Paschal
+or Easter candle is very fully described by Mr. H.J. Feasey, _Ancient
+English Holy Week Ceremonial_ (London, 1897), pp. 179 _sqq._ These
+candles were sometimes of prodigious size; in the cathedrals of Norwich
+and Durham, for example, they reached almost to the roof, from which
+they had to be lighted. Often they went by the name of the Judas Light
+or the Judas Candle; and sometimes small waxen figures of Judas were
+hung on them. See H.J. Feasey, _op. cit._ pp. 193, 213 _sqq._ As to the
+ritual of the new fire at St. Peter's in Rome, see R. Chambers, _The
+Book of Days_ (London and Edinburgh, 1886), i. 421; and as to the early
+history of the rite in the Catholic church, see Mgr. L. Duchesne,
+_Origines du Culte Chretien_*[3] (Paris, 1903), pp. 250-257.]
+
+[306] _Bavaria, Landes und Volkskunde des Koenigreichs Bayern_ (Munich,
+1860-1867), i. 1002 _sq._
+
+[307] Gennaro Finamore, _Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi_ (Palermo,
+1890), pp. 122 _sq._
+
+[308] G. Finamore, _op. cit._ pp. 123 _sq._
+
+[309] Vincenzo Dorsa, _La Tradizione Greco-Latina negli Usi e nelle
+Credenze Popolari della Calabria Citeriore_ (Cosenza, 1884), pp. 48
+_sq._
+
+[310] Alois John, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen
+Westboehmen_ (Prague, 1905), pp. 62 _sq._
+
+[311] K. Seifart, _Sagen, Maerchen, Schwaenke und Gebraeuche aits Stadt und
+Stift Hildesheim_*[2] (Hildesheim, 1889), pp. 177 _sq._, 179 _sq._
+
+[312] M. Lexer, "Volksueberlieferungen aus dem Lesachthal in Karnten,"
+_Zeitschrift fuer deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, iii. (1855) p.
+31.
+
+[313] _The Popish Kingdome or reigne of Antichrist, written in Latin
+verse by Thomas Naogeorgus and Englyshed by Barnabe Googe_, 1570, edited
+by R.C. Hope (London, 1880), p. 52, _recto._ The title of the original
+poem was _Regnum Papisticum_. The author, Thomas Kirchmeyer (Naogeorgus,
+as he called himself), died in 1577. The book is a satire on the abuses
+and superstitions of the Catholic Church. Only one perfect copy of
+Googe's translation is known to exist: it is in the University Library
+at Cambridge. See Mr. R.C. Hope's introduction to his reprint of this
+rare work, pp. xv. _sq._ The words, "Then Clappers ceasse, and belles
+are set againe at libertee," refer to the custom in Catholic countries
+of silencing the church bells for two days from noon on Maundy Thursday
+to noon on Easter Saturday and substituting for their music the harsh
+clatter of wooden rattles. See R. Chambers, _The Book of Days_ (London
+and Edinburgh, 1886), i, 412 _sq._ According to another account the
+church bells are silent from midnight on the Wednesday preceding Maundy
+Thursday till matins on Easter Day. See W. Smith and S. Cheetham,
+_Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_ (London, 1875-1880), ii. 1161,
+referring to _Ordo Roman_. i. _u.s._
+
+[314] R. Chambers, _The Book of Days_ (London and Edinburgh, 1886), i.
+421.
+
+[315] Miss Jessie L. Weston, "The _Scoppio del Carro_ at Florence,"
+_Folk-lore_, xvi. (1905) pp. 182-184; "Lo Scoppio del Carro,"
+_Resurrezione, Numero Unico del Sabato Santo_ (Florence, April, 1906),
+p. 1 (giving a picture of the car with its pyramid of fire-works). The
+latter paper was kindly sent to me from Florence by my friend Professor
+W.J. Lewis. I have also received a letter on the subject from Signor
+Carlo Placci, dated 4 (or 7) September, 1905, 1 Via Alfieri, Firenze.
+
+[316] Frederick Starr, "Holy Week in Mexico," _The Journal of American
+Folk-lore_, xii. (1899) pp. 164 _sq._; C. Boyson Taylor, "Easter in Many
+Lands," _Everybody's Magazine_, New York, 1903, p. 293. I have to thank
+Mr. S.S. Cohen, of 1525 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, for sending me a
+cutting from the latter magazine.
+
+[317] K. von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvoelkern Zentral-Brasiliens_
+(Berlin, 1894), pp. 458 _sq._; E. Montet, "Religion et Superstition dans
+l'Amerique du Sud," _Revue de l'Histoire des Religions_, xxxii. (1895)
+p. 145.
+
+[318] J.J. von Tschudi, _Peru, Reiseskizzen aus den Jahren 1838-1842_
+(St. Gallen, 1846), ii. 189 _sq._
+
+[319] H. Candelier, _Rio-Hacha et les Indiens Goajires_ (Paris, 1893),
+p. 85.
+
+[320] Henry Maundrell, "A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter,
+A.D. 1697," in Bohn's _Early Travellers in Palestine_ (London, 1848),
+pp. 462-465; Mgr. Auvergne, in _Annales de la Propagation de la Foi_, x.
+(1837) pp. 23 _sq._; A.P. Stanley, _Sinai and Palestine_, Second Edition
+(London, 1856), pp. 460-465; E. Cortet, _Essai sur les Fetes
+Religieuses_ (Paris, 1867), pp. 137-139; A.W. Kinglake, _Eothen_,
+chapter xvi. pp. 158-163 (Temple Classics edition); Father N. Abougit,
+S.J., "Le feu du Saint-Sepulcre," _Les Missions Catholiques_, viii.
+(1876) pp. 518 _sq._; Rev. C.T. Wilson, _Peasant Life in the Holy Land_
+(London, 1906), pp. 45 _sq._; P. Saint-yves, "Le Renouvellement du Feu
+Sacre," _Revue des Traditions Populaires_, xxvii. (1912) pp. 449 _sqq._
+The distribution of the new fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is
+the subject of a picture by Holman Hunt. From some printed notes on the
+picture, with which Mrs. Holman Hunt was so kind as to furnish me, it
+appears that the new fire is carried by horsemen to Bethlehem and Jaffa,
+and that a Russian ship conveys it from Jaffa to Odessa, whence it is
+distributed all over the country.
+
+[321] Father X. Abougit, S.J., "Le feu du Saint-Sepulcre," _Les Missions
+Catholiques_, viii. (1876) pp. 165-168.
+
+[322] I have described the ceremony as I witnessed it at Athens, on
+April 13th, 1890. Compare _Folk-lore_, i. (1890) p. 275. Having been
+honoured, like other strangers, with a place on the platform, I did not
+myself detect Lucifer at work among the multitude below; I merely
+suspected his insidious presence.
+
+[323] W.H.D. Rouse, "Folk-lore from the Southern Sporades," _Folk-lore_,
+x. (1899) p. 178.
+
+[324] Mrs. A.E. Gardner was so kind as to send me a photograph of a
+Theban Judas dangling from a gallows and partially enveloped in smoke.
+The photograph was taken at Thebes during the Easter celebration of
+1891.
+
+[325] G.F. Abbott, _Macedonian Folklore_ (Cambridge, 1903) p. 37.
+
+[326] Cirbied, "Memoire sur la gouvernment et sur la religion des
+anciens Armeniens," _Memoires publiees par la Societe Royale des
+Antiquaires de France_, ii. (1820) pp. 285-287; Manuk Abeghian, _Der
+armenische Volksglaube_ (Leipsic, 1899), pp. 72-74. The ceremony is said
+to be merely a continuation of an old heathen festival which was held at
+the beginning of spring in honour of the fire-god Mihr. A bonfire was
+made in a public place, and lamps kindled at it were kept burning
+throughout the year in each of the fire-god's temples.
+
+[327] _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 32, ii. 243;
+_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, ii. 65, 74, 75, 78, 136.
+
+[328] Garcilasso de la Vega, _Royal Commentaries of the Yncas_
+translated by (Sir) Clements R. Markham (Hakluyt Society, London,
+1869-1871), vol. ii. pp. 155-163. Compare Juan de Velasco, "Histoire du
+Royaume de Quito," in H. Ternaux-Compans's _Voyages, Relations et
+Memoires originaux pour servir a l'Histoire de la Decouverte de
+l'Amerique_, xviii. (Paris, 1840) p. 140.
+
+[329] B. de Sahagun, _Histoire Generale des Choses de la Nouvelle
+Espagne_, traduite par D. Jourdanet et R. Simeon (Paris, 1880), bk. ii.
+chapters 18 and 37, pp. 76, 161; Brasseur de Bourbourg, _Histoire des
+Nations civilisees du Mexique et de l'Amerique-Centrale_ (Paris,
+1857-1859), iii. 136.
+
+[330] Mrs. Matilda Coxe Stevenson, "The Zuni Indians," _Twenty-third
+Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_ (Washington, 1904),
+pp. 108-141, 148-162, especially pp. 108, 109, 114 _sq._, 120 _sq._, 130
+_sq._, 132, 148 _sq._, 157 _sq._ I have already described these
+ceremonies in _Totemism and Exogamy_, iii. 237 _sq._ Among the Hopi
+(Moqui) Indians of Walpi, another pueblo village of this region, new
+fire is ceremonially kindled by friction in November. See Jesse Walter
+Fewkes, "The Tusayan New Fire Ceremony," _Proceedings of the Boston
+Society of Natural History_, xxvi. 422-458; _id._, "The Group of Tusayan
+Ceremonials called _Katcinas," Fifteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of
+Ethnology_ (Washington, 1897), p. 263; _id._, "Hopi _Katcinas,"
+Twenty-first Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_
+(Washington, 1903), p. 24.
+
+[331] Henry R. Schoolcraft, _Notes on the Iroquois_ (Albany, 1847), p.
+137. Schoolcraft did not know the date of the ceremony, but he
+conjectured that it fell at the end of the Iroquois year, which was a
+lunar year of twelve or thirteen months. He says: "That the close of the
+lunar series should have been the period of putting out the fire, and
+the beginning of the next, the time of relumination, from new fire, is
+so consonant to analogy in the tropical tribes, as to be probable" (_op.
+cit._ p. 138).
+
+[332] C.F. Hall, _Life with the Esquimaux_ (London, 1864), ii. 323.
+
+[333] Franz Boas, "The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay," _Bulletin
+of the American Museum of Natural, History_, xv. Part i. (New York,
+1901) p. 151.
+
+[334] G. Nachtigal, _Sahara und Sudan_, iii. (Leipsic, 1889) p. 251.
+
+[335] Major C. Percival, "Tropical Africa, on the Border Line of
+Mohamedan Civilization," _The Geographical Journal_, xlii. (1913) pp.
+253 _sq._
+
+[336] Adrien Germain, "Note sur Zanzibar et la cote orientale de
+l'Afrique," _Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie_ (Paris), v. Serie
+xvi. (1868) p. 557; _Les Missions Catholiques_, iii. (1870) p. 270;
+Charles New, _Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa_ (London,
+1873), p. 65; Jerome Becker, _La Vie en Afrique_ (Paris and Brussels,
+1887), ii. 36; O. Baumann, _Usambara und seine Nachbargebiele_ (Berlin,
+1891), pp. 55 _sq._; C. Velten, _Sitten und Gebraeucheaer Suaheli_
+(Goettingen,1903), pp. 342-344.
+
+[337] Duarte Barbosa, _Description of the Coasts of East Africa and
+Malabar_ (Hakluyt Society, London, 1866), p. 8; _id._, in _Records of
+South-Eastern Africa_, collected by G. McCall Theal, vol. i. (1898) p.
+96; Damiao de Goes, "Chronicle of the Most Fortunate King Dom Emanuel,"
+in _Records of South-Eastern Africa_, collected by G. McCall Theal, vol.
+iii. (1899) pp. 130 _sq._ The name Benametapa (more correctly
+_monomotapa_) appears to have been the regular title of the paramount
+chief, which the Portuguese took to be the name of the country. The
+people over whom he ruled seem to have been the Bantu tribe of the
+Makalanga in the neighbourhood of Sofala. See G. McCall Theal, _Records
+of South-Eastern Africa_, vii. (1901) pp. 481-484. It is to their custom
+of annually extinguishing and relighting the fire that Montaigne refers
+in his essay (i. 22, vol. i. p. 140 of Charpentier's edition), though he
+mentions no names.
+
+[338] Sir H.H. Johnson, _British Central Africa_ (London, 1897), pp.
+426, 439.
+
+[339] W.H.R. Rivers, _The Todas_ (London, 1906), pp. 290-292.
+
+[340] Lieut. R. Stewart, "Notes on Northern Cachar," _Journal of the
+Asiatic Society of Bengal_ xxiv. (1855) p. 612.
+
+[341] A. Bastian, _Die Voelker des oestlichen Asien_, ii. (Leipsic, 1866)
+pp. 49 _sq._; Shway Yoe, _The Burman_ (London, 1882), ii. 325 _sq._
+
+[342] G. Schlegel, _Uranographie Chinoise_ (The Hague and Leyden, 1875),
+pp. 139-143; C. Puini, "Il fuoco nella tradizione degli antichi Cinesi,"
+_Giornale della Societa Asiatica Italiana_, i. (1887) pp. 20-23; J.J.M.
+de Groot, _Les Fetes annuellement celebrees a Emoui (Amoy)_ (Paris,
+1886), i. 208 _sqq._ The notion that fire can be worn out with age meets
+us also in Brahman ritual. See the _Satapatha Brahmana_, translated by
+Julius Eggeling, Part i. (Oxford, 1882) p. 230 (_Sacred Books of the
+East_, vol. xii.).
+
+[343] W.G. Aston, _Shinto, The Way of the Gods_ (London, 1905), pp. 258
+_sq._, compare p. 193. The wands in question are sticks whittled near
+the top into a mass of adherent shavings; they go by the name of
+_kedzurikake_ ("part-shaved"), and resemble the sacred _inao_ of the
+Aino. See W.G. Aston, _op. cit._ p. 191; and as to the _inao_, see
+_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, ii. 185, with note 2.
+
+[344] Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 82; Homer, _Iliad_, i. 590, _sqq._
+
+[345] Philostiatus, _Heroica_, xx. 24.
+
+[346] Ovid, _Fasti_, iii. 143 _sq._; Macrobius, _Saturn_, i. 12. 6.
+
+[347] Festus, ed. C.O. Mueller (Leipsic, 1839), p. 106, _s.v._ "Ignis."
+Plutarch describes a method of rekindling the sacred fire by means of
+the sun's rays reflected from a hollow mirror (_Numa_, 9); but he seems
+to be referring to a Greek rather than to the Roman custom. The rule of
+celibacy imposed on the Vestals, whose duty it was to relight the sacred
+fire as well as to preserve it when it was once made, is perhaps
+explained by a superstition current among French peasants that if a girl
+can blow up a smouldering candle into a flame she is a virgin, but that
+if she fails to do so, she is not. See Jules Lecoeur, _Esquisses du
+Bocage Normand_ (Conde-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887), ii. 27; B. Souche,
+_Croyances, Presages et Traditions diverses_ (Niort, 1880), p. 12. At
+least it seems more likely that the rule sprang from a superstition of
+this sort than from a simple calculation of expediency, as I formerly
+suggested (_Journal of Philology_, xiv. (1885) p. 158). Compare _The
+Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings>_ ii. 234 _sqq._
+
+[348] Geoffrey Keating, D.D., _The History of Ireland, translated from
+the original Gaelic, and copiously annotated_, by John O'Mahony (New
+York, 1857), p. 300, with the translator's note. Compare (Sir) John
+Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London, 1888), pp. 514 _sq._
+
+[349] W.R.S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, Second Edition
+(London, 1872), pp. 254 _sq._
+
+[350] A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Maerchen und
+Gebraeuche_ (Leipsic, 1848), p. 373; A. Kuhn, _Sagen, Gebraeuche und
+Maerchen aus Westfalen_ (Leipsic, 1859), ii. 134 _sqq.; id., Maerkische
+Sagen und Maerchen_ (Berlin, 1843), pp. 312 _sq._; J.D.H. Temme, _Die
+Volkssagen der Altmark_ (Berlin, 1839), pp. 75 _sq._; K. Lynker,
+_Deutsche Sagen und Sitten in hessischen Gauen_*[2] (Cassel and
+Goettingen, 1860), p. 240; H. Proehle, _Harzbilder_ (Leipsic, 1855), p.
+63; R. Andree, _Braunschweiger Volkskunde_ (Brunswick, 1896), pp.
+240-242; W. Kolbe, _Hessische Volks-Sitten und Gebraeuche_ (Marburg,
+1888), pp. 44-47; F.A. Reimann, _Deutsche Volksfeste_ (Weimar, 1839), p.
+37; "Sitten und Gebraeuche in Duderstadt," _Zeitschrift fuer deutsche
+Mythologie und Sitten-kunde_, ii. (1855) p. 107; K. Seifart, _Sagen,
+Maerchen, Schwaenke und Gebraeuche aus Stadt und Stift Hildesheim_*[2]
+(Hildesheim, 1889), pp. 177, 180; O. Hartung, "Zur Volkskunde aus
+Anhalt," _Zeitschrift des Vereins fuer Volkskunde_, vii. (1897) p. 76.
+
+[351] L. Strackerjan, _Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum
+Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg, 1867), ii. p. 43 _sq._, Sec.313; W. Mannhardt, _Der
+Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstaemme_ (Berlin, 1875), pp. 505
+_sq._
+
+[352] L. Strackerjan, _op. cit._ ii. p. 43, Sec.313.
+
+[353] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] (Berlin, 1875-1878), i. 512;
+W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstaemme_, pp.
+506 _sq._
+
+[354] H. Proehle, _Harzbilder_ (Leipsic, 1855), p. 63; _id._, in
+_Zeitschrift fuer deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, i. (1853) p. 79;
+A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Maerchen und Gebraeuche_
+(Leipsic, 1848), p. 373; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 507.
+
+[355] A. Kuhn, _Maerkische Sagen und Maerchen_ (Berlin, 1843), pp. 312
+_sq._; W. Mannhardt, _l.c._
+
+[356] W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_ p. 508. Compare J.W. Wolf,
+_Beitraege zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Goettingen, 1852-1857), i. 74; J.
+Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 512. The two latter writers only
+state that before the fires were kindled it was customary to hunt
+squirrels in the woods.
+
+[357] A. Kuhn, _l.c._; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 508.
+
+[358] _Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Koenigreichs Bayern_ (Munich,
+1860-1867), iii. 956.
+
+[359] See above, pp. 116 _sq._, 119.
+
+[360] F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855),
+i. pp. 211 _sq._, Sec. 233; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, pp. 507 _sq._
+
+[361] _Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Koenigreichs Bayern_, iii.
+357.
+
+[362] F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855),
+i. pp. 212 _sq._, Sec. 236.
+
+[363] F. Panzer, _op. cit._ ii. pp. 78 _sq._, Sec.Sec. 114, 115. The customs
+observed at these places and at Althenneberg are described together by
+W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 505.
+
+[364] A. Birlinger, _Volksthuemliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im
+Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. p. 82, Sec. 106; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_,
+p. 508.
+
+[365] Elard Hugo Meyer, _Badisches Volksleben_ (Strasburg, 1900), pp. 97
+_sq._
+
+[366] _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 349 _sqq._ See
+further below, vol. ii. pp. 298 _sqq._
+
+[367] J.W. Wolf, _Beitraege sur deutschen Mythologie_, i. 75 _sq._; W.
+Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 506.
+
+[368] L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), p. 228.
+
+[369] W. Mueller, _Beitraege sur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mahren_
+(Vienna and Olmuetz, 1893), pp. 321, 397 _sq._ In Wagstadt, a town of
+Austrian Silesia, a boy in a red waistcoat used to play the part of
+Judas on the Wednesday before Good Friday. He was chased from before the
+church door by the other school children, who pursued him through the
+streets with shouts and the noise of rattles and clappers till they
+reached a certain suburb, where they always caught and beat him because
+he had betrayed the Redeemer. See Anton Peter, _Volksthuemliches aus
+oesterreichisch-Schlesien_ (Troppau, 1865-1867), ii. 282 _sq._; Paul
+Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien_ (Leipsic,
+1903-1906), i. 77 _sq._
+
+[370] _Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century_, from the MSS.
+of John Ramsay, Esq., of Ochtertyre, edited by Alexander Allardyce
+(Edinburgh and London, 1888), ii. 439-445. As to the _tein-eigin_ or
+need-fire, see below, pp. 269 _sqq_. The etymology of the word Beltane
+is uncertain; the popular derivation of the first part from the
+Phoenician Baal is absurd. See, for example, John Graham Dalyell, _The
+Darker Superstitions of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1834), pp. 176 _sq._: "The
+recognition of the pagan divinity Baal, or Bel, the Sun, is discovered
+through innumerable etymological sources. In the records of Scottish
+history, down to the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, multiplied
+prohibitions were issued from the fountains of ecclesiastical
+ordinances, against kindling _Bailfires_, of which the origin cannot be
+mistaken. The festival of this divinity was commemorated in Scotland
+until the latest date." Modern scholars are not agreed as to the
+derivation of the name Beltane. See Rev. John Gregorson Campbell,
+_Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_
+(Glasgow, 1902), pp. 268 _sq._; J.A. MacCulloch, _The Religion of the
+Ancient Celts_ (Edinburgh, 1911), p. 264.
+
+[371] "_Bal-tein_ signifies the _fire of Baal. Baal_ or _Ball_ is the
+only word in Gaelic for _a globe_. This festival was probably in honour
+of the sun, whose return, in his apparent annual course, they
+celebrated, on account of his having such a visible influence, by his
+genial warmth, on the productions of the earth. That the Caledonians
+paid a superstitious respect to the sun, as was the practice among many
+other nations, is evident, not only by the sacrifice at Baltein, but
+upon many other occasions. When a Highlander goes to bathe, or to drink
+waters out of a consecrated fountain, he must always approach by going
+round the place, _from east to west on the south side_, in imitation of
+the apparent diurnal motion of the sun. When the dead are laid in the
+earth, the grave is approached by going round in the same manner. The
+bride is conducted to her future spouse, in the presence of the
+minister, and the glass goes round a company, in the course of the sun.
+This is called, in Gaelic, going round the right, or the _lucky way_.
+The opposite course is the wrong, or the _unlucky_ way. And if a
+person's meat or drink were to affect the wind-pipe, or come against his
+breath, they instantly cry out _deisheal_! which is an ejaculation
+praying that it may go by the right way" (Rev. J. Robertson, in Sir John
+Sinclair's _Statistical Account of Scotland_, xi. 621 note). Compare
+J.G. Campbell, _Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_
+(Glasgow, 1900), pp. 229 _sq._: "_The Right-hand Turn_ (_Deiseal_).--
+This was the most important of all the observances. The rule is
+'_Deiseal_ (i.e. the right-hand turn) for everything,' and consists in
+doing all things with a motion corresponding to the course of the sun,
+or from left to right. This is the manner in which screw-nails are
+driven, and is common with many for no reason but its convenience. Old
+men in the Highlands were very particular about it. The coffin was taken
+_deiseal_ about the grave, when about to be lowered; boats were turned
+to sea according to it, and drams are given to the present day to a
+company. When putting a straw rope on a house or corn-stack, if the
+assistant went _tuaitheal_ (i.e. against the course of the sun), the old
+man was ready to come down and thrash him. On coming to a house the
+visitor should go round it _deiseal_ to secure luck in the object of his
+visit. After milking a cow the dairy-maid should strike it _deiseal_
+with the shackle, saying 'out and home' (_mach 'us dachaigh_). This
+secures its safe return. The word is from _deas_, right-hand, and _iul_,
+direction, and of itself contains no allusion to the sun." Compare M.
+Martin, "Description of the Western Islands of Scotland," in J.
+Pinkerton's _Voyages and Travels_, iii. 612 _sq._: "There was an ancient
+custom in the island of Lewis, to make a fiery circle about the houses,
+corn, cattle, etc., belonging to each particular family: a man carried
+fire in his right hand, and went round, and it was called _dessil_, from
+the right hand, which in the ancient language is called _dess_.... There
+is another way of the _dessil_, or carrying fire round about women
+before they are churched, after child-bearing; and it is used likewise
+about children until they are christened; both which are performed in
+the morning and at night. This is only practised now by some of the
+ancient midwives: I enquired their reason for this custom, which I told
+them was altogether unlawful; this disobliged them mightily, insomuch
+that they would give me no satisfaction. But others, that were of a more
+agreeable temper, told me that fire-round was an effectual means to
+preserve both the mother and the infant from the power of evil spirits,
+who are ready at such times to do mischief, and sometimes carry away the
+infant; and when they get them once in their possession, return them
+poor meagre skeletons; and these infants are said to have voracious
+appetites, constantly craving for meat. In this case it was usual with
+those who believed that their children were thus taken away, to dig a
+grave in the fields upon quarter-day, and there to lay the fairy
+skeleton till next morning; at which time the parents went to the place,
+where they doubted not to find their own child instead of this skeleton.
+Some of the poorer sort of people in these islands retain the custom of
+performing these rounds sun-ways about the persons of their benefactors
+three times, when they bless them, and wish good success to all their
+enterprizes. Some are very careful when they set out to sea that the
+boat be first rowed about sun-ways; and if this be neglected, they are
+afraid their voyage may prove unfortunate." Probably the superstition
+was based entirely on the supposed luckiness of the right hand, which
+accordingly, in making a circuit round an object, is kept towards the
+centre. As to a supposed worship of the sun among the Scottish
+Highlanders, compare J.G. Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the
+Highlands and Islands of Scotland_, p. 304: "Both the sun (_a Ghrian_)
+and moon (_a Ghealach_) are feminine in Gaelic, and the names are simply
+descriptive of their appearance. There is no trace of a Sun-God or
+Moon-Goddess." As to the etymology of Beltane, see above, p. 149 note.
+
+[372] Rev. James Robertson (Parish Minister of Callander), in Sir John
+Sinclair's _Statistical Account of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1791-1799), xi.
+620 _sq._
+
+[373] Pennant's "Tour in Scotland," in John Pinkerton's _Voyages and
+Travels_ (London, 1808-1814), iii. 49.
+
+[374] Rev. Dr. Thomas Bisset, in Sir John Sinclair's _Statistical
+Account of Scotland_, v. 84.
+
+[375] Rev. Allan Stewart, in Sir John Sinclair's _Statistical Account of
+Scotland_, xv. 517 note.
+
+[376] Rev. Walter Gregor, "Notes on Beltane Cakes," _Folk-lore_, vi.
+(1895) pp. 2 _sq._ The Beltane cakes with the nine knobs on them remind
+us of the cakes with twelve knobs which the Athenians offered to Cronus
+and other deities (see _The Scapegoat_, p. 351). The King of the Bean on
+Twelfth Night was chosen by means of a cake, which was broken in as many
+pieces as there were persons present, and the person who received the
+piece containing a bean or a coin became king. See J. Boemus, _Mores,
+leges et ritus omnium gentium_ (Lyons, 1541), p. 222; John Brand,
+_Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London, 1882-1883), i. 22 _sq.;
+The Scapegoat_, pp. 313 _sqq._
+
+[377] Shaw, in Pennant's "Tour in Scotland," printed in J. Pinkerton's
+_Voyages and Travels_, iii. 136. The part of Scotland to which Shaw's
+description applies is what he calls the province or country of Murray,
+extending from the river Spey on the east to the river Beauly on the
+west, and south-west to Loch Lochy.
+
+[378] Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of
+Scotland_ (London, 1881), p. 167.
+
+[379] A. Goodrich-Freer, "More Folklore from the Hebrides," _Folk-lore_,
+xiii. (1902) p. 41. The St. Michael's cake (_Struthan na h'eill
+Micheil_), referred to in the text, is described as "the size of a
+quern" in circumference. "It is kneaded simply with water, and marked
+across like a scone, dividing it into four equal parts, and then placed
+in front of the fire resting on a quern. It is not polished with dry
+meal as is usual in making a cake, but when it is cooked a thin coating
+of eggs (four in number), mixed with buttermilk, is spread first on one
+side, then on the other, and it is put before the fire again. An earlier
+shape, still in use, which tradition associates with the female sex, is
+that of a triangle with the corners cut off. A _struhthan_ or
+_struhdhan_ (the word seems to be used for no other kind of cake) is
+made for each member of the household, including servants and herds.
+When harvest is late, an early patch of corn is mown on purpose for the
+_struthan_" (A. Goodrich-Freer, _op. cit._ pp. 44. _sq._.)
+
+[380] Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London,
+1909), pp. 22-24.
+
+[381] Jonathan Ceredig Davies, _Folklore of West and Mid-Wales_
+(Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 76.
+
+[382] Joseph Train, _An Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle
+of Man_ (Douglas, Isle of Man, 1845), i. 314 _sq._
+
+[383] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford,
+1901), i. 309; _id._, "The Coligny Calendar," _Proceedings of the
+British Academy, 1909-1910_, pp. 261 _sq._ See further _The Magic Art
+and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 53 _sq._
+
+[384] Professor Frank Granger, "Early Man," in _The Victoria History of
+the County of Nottingham_, edited by William Page, i. (London, 1906) pp.
+186 _sq._
+
+[385] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford,
+1901), i. 310; _id._, "Manx Folk-lore and Superstitions," _Folk-lore_,
+ii. (1891) pp. 303 _sq._
+
+[386] P.W. Joyce, _A Social History of Ancient Ireland_ (London, 1903),
+i. 290 _sq._, referring to Kuno Meyer, _Hibernia Minora_, p. 49 and
+_Glossary_, 23.
+
+[387] J.B. Bury, _The Life of St. Patrick_ (London, 1905), pp. 104
+_sqq._
+
+[388] Above, p. 147.
+
+[389] Geoffrey Keating, D.D., _The History of Ireland_, translated by
+John O'Mahony (New York, 1857), pp. 300 _sq._
+
+[390] (Sir) John Rhys, "Manx Folk-lore and Superstition," _Folk-lore_,
+ii. (1891) p. 303; _id., Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford,
+1901), i. 309. Compare P.W. Joyce, _A Social History of Ancient Ireland_
+(London, 1903), i. 291: "The custom of driving cattle through fires
+against disease on the eve of the 1st of May, and on the eve of the 24th
+June (St. John's Day), continued in Ireland, as well as in the Scottish
+Highlands, to a period within living memory." In a footnote Mr. Joyce
+refers to Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica_, ii. 340, for Scotland, and
+adds, "I saw it done in Ireland."
+
+[391] L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), pp. 233 _sq._
+
+[392] Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, _Fest-Kalender aus Boehmen_ (Prague, N.D.),
+pp. 211 _sq._; Br. Jelinek, "Materialien zur Vorgeschichte und
+Volkskunde Boehmens," _Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft
+in Wien_, xxi. (1891) p. 13; Alois John, _Sitte, Branch, und Volksglaube
+im deutschen Westboehmen_ (Prague, 1905), p. 71.
+
+[393] J.A.E. Koehler, _Volksbrauch, Aberglauben, Sagen und andre alte
+Ueberlieferungen im Voigtlande_ (Leipsic, 1867), p. 373. The
+superstitions relating to witches at this season are legion. For
+instance, in Saxony and Thuringia any one who labours under a physical
+blemish can easily rid himself of it by transferring it to the witches
+on Walpurgis Night. He has only to go out to a cross-road, make three
+crosses on the blemish, and say, "In the name of God the Father, the
+Son, and the Holy Ghost." Thus the blemish, whatever it may be, is left
+behind him at the cross-road, and when the witches sweep by on their way
+to the Brocken, they must take it with them, and it sticks to them
+henceforth. Moreover, three crosses chalked up on the doors of houses
+and cattle-stalls on Walpurgis Night will effectually prevent any of the
+infernal crew from entering and doing harm to man or beast. See E.
+Sommer, _Sagen, Maerchen und Gebraeuche aus Sachsen und Thueringen_ (Halle,
+1846), pp. 148 _sq.; Die gestriegelte Rockenphilosophie_ (Chemnitz,
+1759), p. 116.
+
+[394] See _The Scapegoat_, pp. 158 _sqq._
+
+[395] As to the Midsummer Festival of Europe in general see the evidence
+collected in the "Specimen Calendarii Gentilis," appended to the _Edda
+Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta_, Pars iii. (Copenhagen,
+1828) pp. 1086-1097.
+
+[396] John Mitchell Kemble, _The Saxons in England_, New Edition
+(London, 1876), i. 361 _sq_., quoting "an ancient MS. written in
+England, and now in the Harleian Collection, No. 2345, fol. 50." The
+passage is quoted in part by J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great
+Britain_ (London, 1882-1883), i. 298 _sq._, by R.T. Hampson, _Medii Aevi
+Kalendarium_ (London, 1841), i. 300, and by W. Mannhardt, _Der
+Baumkultus_, p. 509. The same explanations of the Midsummer fires and of
+the custom of trundling a burning wheel on Midsummer Eve are given also
+by John Beleth, a writer of the twelfth century. See his _Rationale
+Divinorum Officiorum_ (appended to the _Rationale Divinorum Officiorum_
+of G. [W.] Durandus, Lyons, 1584), p. 556 _recto: "Solent porro hoc
+tempore_ [the Eve of St. John the Baptist] _ex veteri consuetudine
+mortuorum animalium ossa comburi, quod hujusmodi habet originem. Sunt
+enim animalia, quae dracones appellamus.... Haec inquam animalia in aere
+volant, in aquis natant, in terra ambulant. Sed quando in aere ad
+libidinem concitantur (quod fere fit) saepe ipsum sperma vel in puteos,
+vel in aquas fluviales ejicunt ex quo lethalis sequitur annus. Adversus
+haec ergo hujusmodi inventum est remedium, ut videlicet rogus ex ossibus
+construeretur, et ita fumus hujusmodi animalia fugaret. Et quia istud
+maxime hoc tempore fiebat, idem etiam modo ab omnibus observatur....
+Consuetum item est hac vigilia ardentes deferri faculas quod Johannes
+fuerit ardens lucerna, et qui vias Domini praeparaverit. Sed quod etiam
+rota vertatur hinc esse putant quia in eum circulum tunc Sol descenderit
+ultra quem progredi nequit, a quo cogitur paulatim descendere_." The
+substance of the passage is repeated in other words by G. Durandus
+(Wilh. Durantis), a writer of the thirteenth century, in his _Rationale
+Divinorum Officiorum_, lib. vii. cap. 14 (p. 442 _verso_, ed. Lyons,
+1584). Compare J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 516.
+
+With the notion that the air is poisoned at midsummer we may compare the
+popular belief that it is similarly infected at an eclipse. Thus among
+the Esquimaux on the Lower Yukon river in Alaska "it is believed that a
+subtle essence or unclean influence descends to the earth during an
+eclipse, and if any of it is caught in utensils of any kind it will
+produce sickness. As a result, immediately on the commencement of an
+eclipse, every woman turns bottom side up all her pots, wooden buckets,
+and dishes" (E.W. Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," _Eighteenth
+Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part i. (Washington,
+1899) p. 431). Similar notions and practices prevail among the peasantry
+of southern Germany. Thus the Swabian peasants think that during an
+eclipse of the sun poison falls on the earth; hence at such a time they
+will not sow, mow, gather fruit or eat it, they bring the cattle into
+the stalls, and refrain from business of every kind. If the eclipse
+lasts long, the people get very anxious, set a burning candle on the
+mantel-shelf of the stove, and pray to be delivered from the danger. See
+Anton Birlinger, _Volksthuemliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im Breisgau,
+1861-1862), i. 189. Similarly Bavarian peasants imagine that water is
+poisoned during a solar eclipse (F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen
+Mythologie_, ii. 297); and Thuringian bumpkins cover up the wells and
+bring the cattle home from pasture during an eclipse either of the sun
+or of the moon; an eclipse is particularly poisonous when it happens to
+fall on a Wednesday. See August Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebraeuche
+aus Thueringen_ (Vienna, 1878), p. 287. As eclipses are commonly supposed
+by the ignorant to be caused by a monster attacking the sun or moon
+(E.B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_,*[2] London, 1873, i. 328 _sqq._), we
+may surmise, on the analogy of the explanation given of the Midsummer
+fires, that the unclean influence which is thought to descend on the
+earth at such times is popularly attributed to seed discharged by the
+monster or possibly by the sun or moon then in conjunction with each
+other.
+
+[397] _The Popish Kingdome or reigne of Antichrist, written in Latin
+verse by Thomas Naogeorgus and Englyshed by Barnabe Googe, 1570_, edited
+by R.C. Hope (London, 1880), p. 54 _verso_. As to this work see above,
+p. 125 note 1.
+
+[398] J. Boemus, _Mores, leges et ritus omnium gentium_ (Lyons, 1541),
+pp. 225 _sq._
+
+[399] Tessier, "Sur la fete annuelle de la roue flamboyante de la
+Saint-Jean, a Basse-Kontz, arrondissement de Thionville," _Memoires et
+dissertations publies par la Societe Royale des Antiquaires de France_,
+v. (1823) pp. 379-393. Tessier witnessed the ceremony, 23rd June 1822
+(not 1823, as is sometimes stated). His account has been reproduced more
+or less fully by J. Grimm (_Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 515 _sq._) W.
+Mannhardt (_Der Baumkultus_, pp. 510 _sq._), and H. Gaidoz ("Le dieu
+gaulois du Soleil et le symbolisme de la Roue," _Revue Archeologique_,
+iii. Serie, iv. (1884) pp. 24 _sq._).
+
+[400] _Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Koenigreichs Bayern_ (Munich,
+1860-1867), i. 373 _sq_.; compare _id_., iii. 327 _sq_. As to the
+burning discs at the spring festivals, see above, pp. 116 _sq_., 119,
+143.
+
+[401] _Op. cit_. ii. 260 _sq_., iii. 936, 956, iv. 2. p. 360.
+
+[402] _Op. cit_. ii. 260.
+
+[403] _Op. cit._ iv. i. p. 242. We have seen (p. 163) that in the
+sixteenth century these customs and beliefs were common in Germany. It
+is also a German superstition that a house which contains a brand from
+the midsummer bonfire will not be struck by lightning (J.W. Wolf,
+_Beitraege, zur deutschen Mythologie_, i. p. 217, Sec. 185).
+
+[404] J. Boemus, _Mores, leges et ritus omnium gentium_ (Lyons, 1541),
+p. 226.
+
+[405] Karl Freiherr von Leoprechting, _Aus dem Lechrain_ (Munich, 1855),
+pp. 181 _sqq._; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 510.
+
+[406] A. Birlinger, _Volksthuemliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im
+Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. pp. 96 _sqq._, Sec. 128, pp. 103 _sq._, Sec. 129;
+_id., Aus Schwaben_ (Wiesbaden, 1874), ii. 116-120; E. Meier, _Deutsche
+Sagen, Sitten und Gebraeuche aus Schwaben_ (Stuttgart, 1852), pp. 423
+_sqq._; W. Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 510.
+
+[407] F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855),
+i. pp. 215 _sq._, Sec. 242; _id._, ii. 549.
+
+[408] A. Birlinger, _Volksthuemliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im
+Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. 99-101.
+
+[409] Elard Hugo Mayer, _Badisches Volksleben_ (Strasburg, 1900), pp.
+103 _sq._, 225 _sq._
+
+[410] W. von Schulenberg, in _Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft
+fuer Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, Jahrgang 1897_, pp. 494
+_sq._ (bound up with _Zeitschrift fuer Ethnologie_, xxix. 1897).
+
+[411] H. Gaidoz, "Le dieu Gaulois du Soleil et le symbolisme de la
+Roue," _Revue Archeologique_, iii. Serie, iv. (1884) pp. 29 _sq._
+
+[412] Bruno Stehle, "Volksglauben, Sitten und Gebraeuche in Lothringen,"
+_Globus_, lix. (1891) pp. 378 _sq._; "Die Sommerwendfeier im St.
+Amarinthale," _Der Urquell_, N.F., i. (1897) pp. 181 _sqq._
+
+[413] J.H. Schmitz, _Sitten und Sagen Lieder, Spruechwoerter und Raethsel
+des Eifler Volkes_ (Treves, 1856-1858), i. 40 _sq._ According to one
+writer, the garlands are composed of St. John's wort (Montanus, _Die
+deutschen Volksfeste, Volksbraeuche und deutscher Volksglaube_, Iserlohn,
+N.D., p. 33). As to the use of St. John's wort at Midsummer, see below,
+vol. ii. pp. 54 _sqq._
+
+[414] A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz, _Norddeutsche Sagen, Maerchen und
+Gebraeuche_ (Leipsic, 1848), p. 390.
+
+[415] Montanus, _Die deutschen Volksfeste, Volksbraeuche und deutscher
+Volksglaube_ (Iserlohn, N.D.), pp. 33 _sq._
+
+[416] C.L. Rochholz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_ (Berlin, 1867), ii.
+144 _sqq._
+
+[417] Philo vom Walde, _Schlesien in Sage und Brauch_ (Berlin, N.D.), p.
+124; Paul Drechsler, _Sitte, Brauch, und Volksglaube in Schlesien_
+(Leipsic, 1903-1906), i. 136 _sq._
+
+[418] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie,_*[4] i. 517 _sq._
+
+[419] From information supplied by Mr. Sigurd K. Heiberg, engineer, of
+Bergen, Norway, who in his boyhood regularly collected fuel for the
+fires. I have to thank Miss Anderson, of Barskimming, Mauchline,
+Ayrshire, for kindly procuring the information for me from Mr. Heiberg.
+
+The Blocksberg, where German as well as Norwegian witches gather for
+their great Sabbaths on the Eve of May Day (Walpurgis Night) and
+Midsummer Eve, is commonly identified with the Brocken, the highest peak
+of the Harz mountains. But in Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and probably
+elsewhere, villages have their own local Blocksberg, which is generally
+a hill or open place in the neighbourhood; a number of places in
+Pomerania go by the name of the Blocksberg. See J. Grimm, _Deutsche
+Mythologie_*[4] ii. 878 _sq._; Ulrich Jahn, _Hexenwesen und Zauberei in
+Pommern_ (Breslau, 1886), pp. 4 _sq._; _id._, _Volkssagen aus Pommern
+und Ruegen_ (Stettin, 1886), p. 329.
+
+[420] L. Lloyd, _Peasant Life in Sweden_ (London, 1870), pp. 259, 265.
+
+[421] L. Lloyd, _op. cit._ pp. 261 _sq._ These springs are called
+"sacrificial fonts" (_Offer kaellor_) and are "so named because in
+heathen times the limbs of the slaughtered victim, whether man or beast,
+were here washed prior to immolation" (L. Lloyd, _op. cit._ p. 261).
+
+[422] E. Hoffmann-Krayer, _Feste und Braeuche des Schweizervolkes_
+(Zurich, 1913), p. 164.
+
+[423] Ignaz V. Zingerle, _Sitten, Braeuche und Meinungen des Tiroler
+Volkes_*[2] (Innsbruck, 1871), ii. p. 159, Sec. 1354.
+
+[424] I.V. Zingerle, _op. cit._ p. 159, Sec.Sec. 1353, 1355, 1356; W.
+Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 513.
+
+[425] W. Mannhardt, _l.c._
+
+[426] F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855),
+i. p. 210, Sec. 231.
+
+[427] Theodor Vernaleken, _Mythen und Braeuche des Volkes in Oesterreich_
+(Vienna, 1859), pp. 307 _sq._
+
+[428] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_*[4] i. 519; Theodor Vernaleken,
+_Mythen und Braeuche des Volkes in Oesterreich_ (Vienna, 1859), p. 308;
+Joseph Virgil Grohmann, _Aberglauben und Gebraeuche aus Bohmen und
+Maehren_ (Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 80, Sec. 636; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld,
+_Fest-Kalender aus Bohmen_ (Prague, N.D.), pp. 306-311; Br. Jelfnek,
+"Materialien zur Vorgeschichte und Volkskunde Boehmens," _Mittheilungen
+der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien>_ xxi. (1891) p. 13; Alois
+John, _Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westboehmen_ (Prague,
+1905) pp. 84-86.
+
+[429] Willibald Mueller, _Beitraege zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in
+Maehren_ (Vienna and Olmutz, 1893), pp. 263-265.
+
+[430] Anton Peter, _Volksthuemliches aus Oesterreichisch-Schlesien_
+(Troppau, 1865-1867), ii. 287.
+
+[431] Th. Vernaleken, _Mythen und Braeuche des Volkes in Oesterreich_
+(Vienna, 1859), pp. 308 _sq._
+
+[432] _The Dying God_, p. 262. Compare M. Kowalewsky, in _Folk-lore_, i.
+(1890) p. 467.
+
+[433] W.R.S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, Second Edition
+(London, 1872), p. 240.
+
+[434] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 519; W.R.S. Ralston,
+_Songs of the Russian People_ (London, 1872), pp. 240, 391.
+
+[435] W.R.S. Ralston, _op. cit._ p. 240.
+
+[436] W.R.S. Ralston, _l.c._
+
+[437] W.J.A. von Tettau und J.D.H. Temme, _Die Volkssagen Ostpreussens,
+Litthauens und Westpreussens_ (Berlin, 1837), p. 277.
+
+[438] M. Toeppen, _Aberglauben aus Masuren_*[2] (Danzig, 1867), p. 71.
+
+[439] F.S. Krauss, "Altslavische Feuergewinnung," _Globus_, lix. (1891)
+p. 318.
+
+[440] J.G. Kohl, _Die deutsch-russischen Ostseeprovinzen_ (Dresden and
+Leipsic, 1841), i. 178-180, ii. 24 _sq._ Ligho was an old heathen deity,
+whose joyous festival used to fall in spring.
+
+[441] Ovid, _Fasti_, vi. 775 _sqq._
+
+[442] Friederich S. Krauss, _Sitte und Brauch der Suedslaven_ (Vienna,
+1885), pp. 176 _sq._
+
+[443] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 519.
+
+[444] H. von Wlislocki, _Volksglaube und religioeser Brauch der Magyar_
+(Muenster i. W., 1893), pp. 40-44.
+
+[445] A. von Ipolyi, "Beitraege zur deutschen Mythologie aus Ungarn,"
+_Zeitschrift fuer deutsche Mythologie und Sittenkunde_, i. (1853) pp. 270
+_sq._
+
+[446] J.G. Kohl, _Die deutsch-russischen Ostseeprovinzen_, ii. 268
+_sq._; F.J. Wiedemann, _Aus dem inneren und aeusseren Leben der Ehsten_
+(St. Petersburg, 1876), p. 362. The word which I have translated "weeds"
+is in Esthonian _kaste-heinad_, in German _Thaugras_. Apparently it is
+the name of a special kind of weed.
+
+[447] Fr. Kreutzwald und H. Neus, _Mythische und Magische Lieder der
+Ehsten_ (St. Petersburg, 1854), p. 62.
+
+[448] J.B. Holzmayer, "Osiliana," _Verhandlungen der gelehrten
+Estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat_, vii. (1872) pp. 62 _sq._ Wiedemann
+also observes that the sports in which young couples engage in the woods
+on this evening are not always decorous (_Aus dem inneren und aeusseren
+Leben der Ehsten_, p. 362).
+
+[449] J.G. Kohl, _Die deutsch-russischen Ostseeprovinzen_, ii. 447 _sq._
+
+[450] J.G. Georgi, _Beschreibung aller Nationen des russischen Reichs_
+(St. Petersburg, 1776), p. 36; August Freiherr von Haxthausen, _Studien
+ueber die innere Zustaende das Volksleben und insbesondere die laendlichen
+Einrichtungen Russlands_ (Hanover, 1847), i. 446 _sqq._
+
+[451] Alfred de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 19.
+
+[452] It is notable that St. John is the only saint whose birthday the
+Church celebrates with honours like those which she accords to the
+nativity of Christ. Compare Edmond Doutte, _Magie et Religion dans
+l'Afrique du Nord_ (Algiers, 1908), p. 571 note I.
+
+[453] Bossuet, _Oeuvres_ (Versailles, 1815-1819), vi. 276 ("Catechisme
+du diocese de Meaux"). His description of the superstitions is, in his
+own words, as follows: "_Danser a l'entour du feu, jouer, faire des
+festins, chanter des chansons deshonnetes, jeter des herbes par-dessus
+le feu, en cueillir avant midi ou a jeun, en porter sur soi, les
+conserver le long de l'annee, garder des tisons ou des charbons du feu,
+et autres semblables._" This and other evidence of the custom of
+kindling Midsummer bonfires in France is cited by Ch. Cuissard in his
+tract _Les Feux de la Saint-Jean_ (Orleans, 1884).
+
+[454] Ch. Cuissard, _Les Feux de la Saint-Jean_ (Orleans, 1884), pp. 40
+_sq._
+
+[455] A. Le Braz, _La Legende de la Mort en Basse-Bretagne_ (Paris,
+1893), p. 279. For an explanation of the custom of throwing a pebble
+into the fire, see below, p. 240.
+
+[456] M. Quellien, quoted by Alexandre Bertrand, _La Religion des
+Gaulois_ (Paris, 1897), pp. 116 _sq._
+
+[457] Collin de Plancy, _Dictionnaire Infernal_ (Paris, 1825-1826), iii.
+40; J.W. Wolf, _Beitraege zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Goettingen,
+1852-1857), i. p. 217, Sec. 185; A. Breuil, "Du Culte de St. Jean
+Baptiste," _Memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires de Picardie_, viii.
+(Amiens, 1845) pp. 189 _sq._
+
+[458] Eugene Cortet, _Essai sur les Fetes Religieuses_ (Paris, 1867), p.
+216; Ch. Cuissard, _Les Feux de la Saint-Jean_ (Orleans, 1884), p. 24.
+
+[459] Paul Sebillot, _Coutumes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris,
+1886), pp. 192-195. In Upper Brittany these bonfires are called _rieux_
+or _raviers_.
+
+[460] A. de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 219; E. Cortet, _Essai sur les Fetes
+Religieuses_, p. 216.
+
+[461] A. de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_, pp. 219, 228, 231; E. Cortet, _op. cit._ pp. 215 _sq._
+
+[462] J. Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_ (Conde-sur-Noireau,
+1883-1887), ii. 219-224.
+
+[463] This description is quoted by Madame Clement (_Histoire des fetes
+civites et religieuses_, etc., _de la Belgique Meridionale_, Avesnes,
+1846, pp. 394-396); F. Liebrecht (_Des Gervasius von Tilbury Otia
+Imperialia_, Hanover, 1856, pp. 209 _sq._); and W. Mannhardt (_Antike
+Wald und Feldkulte_, Berlin, 1877, pp. 323 _sqq._) from the _Magazin
+pittoresque_, Paris, viii. (1840) pp. 287 _sqq._ A slightly condensed
+account is given, from the same source, by E. Cortet (_Essai sur les
+Fetes Religieuses_, pp. 221 _sq._).
+
+[464] Bazin, quoted by Breuil, in _Memoires de la Societe d' Antiquaires
+de Picardie_, viii. (1845) p. 191 note.
+
+[465] Correspondents quoted by A. Bertrand, _La Religion des Gaulois_
+(Paris, 1897), pp. 118, 406.
+
+[466] Correspondent quoted by A. Bertrand, _op. cit._ p. 407.
+
+[467] Felix Chapiseau, _Le folk-lore de la Beauce et du Perche_ (Paris,
+1902), i. 318-320. In Perche the midsummer bonfires were called
+_marolles_. As to the custom formerly observed at Bullou, near
+Chateaudun, see a correspondent quoted by A. Bertrand, _La Religion des
+Gaulois_ (Paris, 1897), p. 117.
+
+[468] Albert Meyrac, _Traditions, Coutumes, Legendes, et Contes des
+Ardennes_ (Charleville, 1890), pp. 88 _sq._
+
+[469] L.F. Sauve, _Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_ (Paris, 1889), p.
+186.
+
+[470] Desire Monnier, _Traditions populaires comparees_ (Paris, 1854),
+pp. 207 _sqq._; E. Cortet, _Essai sur les Fetes Religieuses_, pp. 217
+_sq._
+
+[471] Berenger-Feraud, _Reminiscences populaires de la Provence_ (Paris,
+1885), p. 142.
+
+[472] Charles Beauquier, _Les Mois en Franche-Comte_ (Paris, 1900), p.
+89. The names of the bonfires vary with the place; among them are
+_failles, bourdifailles, bas_ or _baux, feuleres_ or _folieres_, and
+_chavannes_.
+
+[473] _La Bresse Louhannaise_, Juin, 1906, p. 207.
+
+[474] Laisnel de la Salle, _Croyances et Legendes du Centre de la
+France_ (Paris, 1875), i. 78 _sqq._ The writer adopts the absurd
+derivation of _jonee_ from Janus. Needless to say that our old friend
+Baal, Bel, or Belus figures prominently in this and many other accounts
+of the European fire-festivals.
+
+[475] A. de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 150.
+
+[476] Correspondent, quoted by A. Bertrand, _La Religion des Gaulois_
+(Paris, 1897), p. 408.
+
+[477] Guerry, "Sur les usages et traditions du Poitou," _Memoires et
+dissertations publies par la Societe Royale des Antiquaires de France_,
+viii. (1829) pp. 451 _sq._
+
+[478] Breuil, in _Memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires de Picardie_,
+viii. (1845) p. 206; E. Cortet, _Essai sur les Fetes Religieuses_, p.
+216; Laisnel de la Salle, _Croyances et Legendes du Centre de la
+France_, i. 83; J. Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_, ii. 225.
+
+[479] H. Gaidoz, "Le dieu gaulois du soleil et le symbolisme de la
+roue," _Revue Archeologique_, iii. Serie, iv. (1884) p. 26, note 3.
+
+[480] L. Pineau, _Le Folk-lore du Poitou_ (Paris, 1892), pp. 499 _sq._
+In Perigord the ashes of the midsummer bonfire are searched for the hair
+of the Virgin (E. Cortet, _Essai sur les Fetes Religieuses_, p. 219).
+
+[481] A. de Nore, _Coutumes Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_, pp. 149 _sq._; E. Cortet, _op. cit._ pp. 218 _sq._
+
+[482] Dupin, "Notice sur quelques fetes et divertissemens populaires du
+departement des Deux-Sevres," _Memoires et Dissertations publies par la
+Societe Royale des Antiquaires de France_, iv. (1823) p. 110.
+
+[483] J.L.M. Nogues, _Les moeurs d'autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis_
+(Saintes, 1891), pp. 72, 178 _sq._
+
+[484] H. Gaidoz, "Le dieu soleil et le symbolisme de la roue," _Revue
+Archeologique_, iii. Serie, iv. (1884) p. 30.
+
+[485] Ch. Cuissard, _Les Feux de la Saint-Jean_ (Orleans, 1884), pp. 22
+_sq._
+
+[486] A. de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_ p. 127.
+
+[487] Aubin-Louis Millin, _Voyage dans les Departemens du Midi de la
+France_ (Paris, 1807-1811), iii. 341 _sq._
+
+[488] Aubin-Louis Millin, _op. cit._ iii. 28.
+
+[489] A. de Nore, _op. cit._ pp. 19 _sq._; Berenger-Feraud,
+_Reminiscences populaires de la Provence_ (Paris, 1885), pp. 135-141. As
+to the custom at Toulon, see Poncy, quoted by Breuil, _Memoires de la
+Societe des Antiquaires de Picardie_, viii. (1845) p. 190 note. The
+custom of drenching people on this occasion with water used to prevail
+in Toulon, as well as in Marseilles and other towns in the south of
+France. The water was squirted from syringes, poured on the heads of
+passers-by from windows, and so on. See Breuil, _op. cit._ pp. 237 _sq._
+
+[490] A. de Nore, _op. cit._ pp. 20 _sq._; E. Cortet, _op. cit._ pp.
+218, 219 _sq._
+
+[491] Le Baron de Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, _Calendrier Belge_ (Brussels,
+1861-1862), i. 416 _sq._ 439.
+
+[492] Le Baron de Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, _op. cit._ i. 439-442.
+
+[493] Madame Clement, _Histoire des fetes civiles et religieuses_, etc.,
+_du Departement du Nord_ (Cambrai, 1836), p. 364; J.W. Wolf, _Beitraege
+zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Goettingen, 1852-1857), ii. 392; W. Mannhardt,
+_Der Baumkultus_. p. 513.
+
+[494] E. Monseur, _Folklore Wallon_ (Brussels, N.D.), p. 130, Sec.Sec. 1783,
+1786, 1787.
+
+[495] Joseph Strutt, _The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England_,
+New Edition, by W. Hone (London, 1834), p. 359.
+
+[496] John Stow, _A Survay of London_, edited by Henry Morley (London,
+N.D.), pp. 126 _sq._ Stow's _Survay_ was written in 1598.
+
+[497] John Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 338; T.F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_
+(London, 1876), p. 331. Both writers refer to _Status Scholae Etonensis_
+(A.D. 1560).
+
+[498] John Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_ (London, 1881),
+p. 26.
+
+[499] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 300 _sq._, 318, compare pp. 305, 306, 308 _sq._; W.
+Mannhardt, _Der Baumkultus_, p. 512. Compare W. Hutchinson, _View of
+Northumberland_, vol. ii. (Newcastle, 1778), Appendix, p. (15), under
+the head "Midsummer":--"It is usual to raise fires on the tops of high
+hills and in the villages, and sport and danse around them; this is of
+very remote antiquity, and the first cause lost in the distance of
+time."
+
+[500] Dr. Lyttelton, Bishop of Carlisle, quoted by William Borlase,
+_Antiquities, Historical and Monumental, of the County of Cornwall_
+(London, 1769), p. 135 note.
+
+[501] _County Folk-lore_, vol. iv. _Northumberland_, collected by M.C.
+Balfour (London, 1904), p. 76, quoting E. Mackenzie, _An Historical,
+Topographical, and Descriptive View of the County of Northumberland_,
+Second Edition (Newcastle, 1825), i. 217.
+
+[502] _County Folk-lore_, vol. iv. _Northumberland_, collected by M.C.
+Balfour, p. 75.
+
+[503] _County Folk-lore_, vol. iv. _Northumberland_, collected by M.C.
+Balfour, p. 75.
+
+[504] _The Denham Tracts_, edited by J. Hardy (London, 1892-1895), ii.
+342 _sq._, quoting _Archaelogia Aeliana_, N.S., vii. 73, and the
+_Proceedings_ of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, vi. 242 _sq._;
+_County Folk-lore_, vol. iv. _Northumberland_, collected by M.C. Balfour
+(London, 1904), pp. 75 _sq._ Whalton is a village of Northumberland, not
+far from Morpeth.
+
+[505] _County Folk-lore_, vol. vi. _East Riding of Yorkshire_, collected
+and edited by Mrs. Gutch (London, 1912), p. 102.
+
+[506] John Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_ (London, 1881),
+p. 96, compare _id._, p. 26.
+
+[507] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 311.
+
+[508] William Borlase, LL.D., _Antiquities, Historical and Monumental,
+of the County of Cornwall_ (London, 1769), pp. 135 _sq._ The Eve of St.
+Peter is June 28th. Bonfires have been lit elsewhere on the Eve or the
+day of St. Peter. See above, pp. 194 _sq._ 196 _sq._, and below, pp. 199
+_sq._, 202, 207.
+
+[509] J. Brand, _op. cit._ i. 318, 319; T.F. Thiselton Dyer, _British
+Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), p. 315.
+
+[510] William Bottrell, _Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West
+Cornwall_ (Penzance, 1870), pp. 8 _sq._, 55 _sq._; James Napier,
+_Folk-lore, or Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland_ (Paisley,
+1879), p. 173.
+
+[511] Richard Edmonds, _The Land's End District_ (London, 1862), pp. 66
+_sq._; Robert Hunt, _Popular Romances of the West of England_, Third
+Edition (London, 1881), pp. 207 _sq._
+
+[512] Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London,
+1909), pp. 27 _sq._ Compare Jonathan Ceredig Davies, _Folk-lore of West
+and Mid-Wales_ (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 76.
+
+[513] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 318.
+
+[514] Joseph Train, _Account of the Isle of Man_ (Douglas, Isle of Man,
+1845), ii. 120.
+
+[515] Sir Henry Piers, _Description of the County of Westmeath_, written
+in 1682, published by (General) Charles Vallancey, _Collectanea de Rebus
+Hibernieis_, i. (Dublin, 1786) pp. 123 _sq._
+
+[516] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 303, quoting the author of the _Survey of the South of
+Ireland_, p. 232.
+
+[517] J. Brand, _op. cit._ i. 305, quoting the author of the _Comical
+Pilgrim's Pilgrimage into Ireland_ (1723), p. 92.
+
+[518] _The Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lxv. (London, 1795) pp. 124 _sq._
+The writer dates the festival on June 21st, which is probably a mistake.
+
+[519] T.F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), pp.
+321 _sq._, quoting the _Liverpool Mercury_ of June 29th, 1867.
+
+[520] L.L. Duncan, "Further Notes from County Leitrim," _Folk-lore_, v.
+(1894) p. 193.
+
+[521] A.C. Haddon, "A Batch of Irish Folk-lore," _Folk-lore_, iv. (1893)
+pp. 351, 359.
+
+[522] G.H. Kinahan, "Notes on Irish Folk-lore," _Folk-lore Record_, iv.
+(1881) p. 97.
+
+[523] Charlotte Elizabeth, _Personal Recollections_, quoted by Rev.
+Alexander Hislop, _The Two Babylons_ (Edinburgh, 1853), p. 53.
+
+[524] Lady Wilde, _Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of
+Ireland_ (London, 1887), i. 214 _sq._
+
+[525] T.F. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), pp.
+322 _sq._, quoting the _Hibernian Magazine_, July 1817. As to the
+worship of wells in ancient Ireland, see P.W. Joyce, _A Social History
+of Ancient Ireland_ (London, 1903), i. 288 _sq._, 366 _sqq._
+
+[526] Rev. A. Johnstone, describing the parish of Monquhitter in
+Perthshire, in Sir John Sinclair's _Statistical Account of Scotland_
+(Edinburgh, 1791-1799), xxi. 145. Mr. W. Warde Fowler writes that in
+Scotland "before the bonfires were kindled on midsummer eve, the houses
+were decorated with foliage brought from the woods" (_Roman Festivals of
+the Period of the Republic_, London, 1899, pp. 80 _sq._). For his
+authority he refers to _Chambers' Journal_, July, 1842.
+
+[527] John Ramsay, of Ochtertyre, _Scotland and Scotsmen in the
+Eighteenth Century_, edited by A. Allardyce (Edinburgh, 1888), ii. 436.
+
+[528] Rev. Mr. Shaw, Minister of Elgin, in Pennant's "Tour in Scotland,"
+printed in John Pinkerton's _Voyages and Travels_ (London, 1808-1814),
+iii. 136.
+
+[529] A. Macdonald, "Midsummer Bonfires," _Folk-lore_, xv. (1904) pp.
+105 _sq._
+
+[530] From notes kindly furnished to me by the Rev. J.C. Higgins, parish
+minister of Tarbolton. Mr. Higgins adds that he knows of no superstition
+connected with the fire, and no tradition of its origin. I visited the
+scene of the bonfire in 1898, but, as Pausanias says (viii. 41. 6) in
+similar circumstances, "I did not happen to arrive at the season of the
+festival." Indeed the snow was falling thick as I trudged to the village
+through the beautiful woods of "the Castle o' Montgomery" immortalized
+by Burns. From a notice in _The Scotsman_ of 26th June, 1906 (p. 8) it
+appears that the old custom was observed as usual that year.
+
+[531] Thomas Moresinus, _Papatus seu Depravatae Religionis Origo et
+Incrementum_ (Edinburgh, 1594), p. 56.
+
+[532] Rev. Dr. George Lawrie, in Sir John Sinclair's _Statistical
+Account of Scotland_, iii. (Edinburgh, 1792) p. 105.
+
+[533] Letter from Dr. Otero Acevado of Madrid, published in _Le Temps_,
+September 1898. An extract from the newspaper was sent me, but without
+mention of the day of the month when it appeared. The fires on St.
+John's Eve in Spain are mentioned also by J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities
+of Great Britain_, i. 317. Jacob Grimm inferred the custom from a
+passage in a romance (_Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 518). The custom of
+washing or bathing on the morning of St. John's Day is mentioned by the
+Spanish historian Diego Duran, _Historia de las Indias de Nueva Espana_,
+edited by J.F. Ramirez (Mexico, 1867-1880), vol. ii. p. 293. To roll in
+the dew on the morning of St. John's Day is a cure for diseases of the
+skin in Normandy, Perigord, and the Abruzzi, as well as in Spain. See J.
+Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_, ii. 8; A. de Nore, _Coutumes,
+Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de France_, p. 150; Gennaro Finamore,
+_Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi_ (Palermo, 1890), p. 157.
+
+[534] M. Longworth Dames and Mrs. E. Seemann, "Folklore of the Azores,"
+_Folk-lore_, xiv. (1903) pp. 142 _sq._; Theophilo Braga, _O Povo
+Portuguez nos seus Costumes, Crencas e Tradicoes_ (Lisbon, 1885), ii.
+304 _sq._, 307 _sq._
+
+[535] See below, pp. 234 _sqq._
+
+[536] Angelo de Gubernatis, _Mythologie des Plantes_ (Paris, 1878-1882),
+i. 185 note 1.
+
+[537] _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 202 _sq._
+
+[538] G. Finamore, _Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi_ (Palermo, 1890),
+pp. 154 _sq._
+
+[539] G. Finamore, _Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi_, pp. 158-160. We
+may compare the Provencal and Spanish customs of bathing and splashing
+water at Midsummer. See above, pp. 193 _sq._, 208.
+
+[540] Giuseppe Pitre, _Spettacoli e Feste Popolari Siciliane_ (Palermo,
+1881), pp. 246, 308 _sq._; _id., Usi e Costumi, Credenze e Pregiudizi
+del Popolo Siciliano_ (Palermo, 1889), pp. 146 _sq._
+
+[541] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 518.
+
+[542] V. Busuttil, _Holiday Customs in Malta, and Sports, Usages,
+Ceremonies, Omens, and Superstitions of the Maltese People_ (Malta,
+1894), pp. 56 _sqq._ The extract was kindly sent to me by Mr. H.W.
+Underwood (letter dated 14th November, 1902, Birbeck Bank Chambers,
+Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C.). See _Folk-lore_, xiv.
+(1903) pp. 77 _sq._
+
+[543] W. R. Paton, in _Folk-lore_, ii. (1891) p. 128. The custom was
+reported to me when I was in Greece in 1890 (_Folk-lore_, i. (1890) p.
+520).
+
+[544] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 519.
+
+[545] G. Georgeakis et L. Pineau, _Le Folk-lore de Lesbos_ (Paris,
+1894), pp. 308 _sq._
+
+[546] W.R. Paton, in _Folk-lore_, vi. (1895) p. 94. From the stones cast
+into the fire omens may perhaps be drawn, as in Scotland, Wales, and
+probably Brittany. See above, p. 183, and below, pp. 230 _sq._, 239,
+240.
+
+[547] W.H.D. Rouse, "Folklore from the Southern Sporades," _Folk-lore_,
+x. (1899) p. 179.
+
+[548] Lucy M.J. Garnett, _The Women of Turkey and their Folk-lore, the
+Christian Women_ (London, 1890), p. 122; G.F. Abbott, _Macedonian
+Folklore_ (Cambridge, 1903), p. 57.
+
+[549] J.G. von Hahn, _Albanesische Studien_ (Jena, 1854), i. 156.
+
+[550] K. von den Steinen, _Unter den Natur-Voelkern Zentral-Brasiliens_
+(Berlin, 1894), p. 561.
+
+[551] Alcide d'Orbigny, _Voyage dans l'Amerique Meridionale_, ii. (Paris
+and Strasbourg, 1839-1843), p. 420; D. Forbes, "On the Aymara Indians of
+Bolivia and Peru," _Journal of the Ethnological Society of London_, ii.
+(1870) p. 235.
+
+[552] Edmond Doutte, _Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord_
+(Algiers, 1908), pp. 566 _sq_. For an older but briefer notice of the
+Midsummer fires in North Africa, see Giuseppe Ferraro, _Superstizioni,
+Usi e Proverbi Monferrini_ (Palermo, 1886), pp. 34 _sq._: "Also in
+Algeria, among the Mussalmans, and in Morocco, as Alvise da Cadamosto
+reports in his _Relazione dei viaggi d'Africa_, which may be read in
+Ramusio, people used to hold great festivities on St. John's Night; they
+kindled everywhere huge fires of straw (the _Palilia_ of the Romans), in
+which they threw incense and perfumes the whole night long in order to
+invoke the divine blessing on the fruit-trees." See also Budgett Meakin,
+_The Moors_ (London, 1902), p. 394: "The Berber festivals are mainly
+those of Islam, though a few traces of their predecessors are
+observable. Of these the most noteworthy is Midsummer or St. John's Day,
+still celebrated in a special manner, and styled _El Ansarah_. In the
+Rif it is celebrated by the lighting of bonfires only, but in other
+parts there is a special dish prepared of wheat, raisins, etc.,
+resembling the frumenty consumed at the New Year. It is worthy of remark
+that the Old Style Gregorian calendar is maintained among them, with
+corruptions of Latin names."
+
+[553] Edward Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folklore_,
+xvi. (1905) pp. 28-30; _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with
+Agriculture, Certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather_
+(Helsingfors, 1913), pp. 79-83.
+
+[554] E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-lore_, xvi.
+(1905) pp. 30 _sq._; _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with
+Agriculture_, etc., pp. 83 _sq._
+
+[555] Edmond Doutte, _Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord_
+(Algiers, 1908), pp. 567 _sq._
+
+[556] E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-lore_, xvi.
+(1905) pp. 31 _sq._; _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with
+Agriculture_, etc., pp. 84-86.
+
+[557] See K. Vollers, in Dr. James Hastings's _Encyclopaedia of Religion
+and Ethics_ iii. (Edinburgh, 1910) _s.v._ "Calendar (Muslim)," pp. 126
+_sq._ However, L. Ideler held that even before the time of Mohammed the
+Arab year was lunar and vague, and that intercalation was only employed
+in order to fix the pilgrimage month in autumn, which, on account of the
+milder weather and the abundance of food, is the best time for pilgrims
+to go to Mecca. See L. Ideler, _Handbuch der mathematischen und
+techischen Chronologie_ (Berlin, 1825-1826), ii. 495 _sqq._
+
+[558] E. Doutte, _Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord_, pp. 496,
+509, 532, 543, 569. It is somewhat remarkable that the tenth, not the
+first, day of the first month should be reckoned New Year's Day.
+
+[559] E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-lore_, xvi.
+(1905) pp. 40-42.
+
+[560] E. Doutte, _Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord_ (Algiers,
+1908), pp. 541 _sq._
+
+[561] E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-lore_, xvi.
+(1905) p. 42; _id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected with Agriculture,
+Certain Dates of the Solar Year, and the Weather in Morocco_
+(Helsingfors, 1913), p. 101.
+
+[562] E. Westermarck, "Midsummer Customs in Morocco," _Folk-lore_, xvi.
+(1905), pp. 42 _sq._, 46 _sq.; id., Ceremonies and Beliefs connected
+with Agriculture_, etc., _in Morocco_, pp. 99 _sqq._
+
+[563] G. F. Abbott, _Macedonian Folklore_ (Cambridge, 1903), pp. 60
+_sq._
+
+[564] "Narrative of the Adventures of four Russian Sailors, who were
+cast in a storm upon the uncultivated island of East Spitzbergen,"
+translated from the German of P.L. Le Roy, in John Pinkerton's _Voyages
+and Travels_ (London, 1808-1814), i. 603. This passage is quoted from
+the original by (Sir) Edward B. Tylor, _Researches into the Early
+History of Mankind_, Third Edition (London, 1878), pp. 259 _sq._
+
+[565] See _The Scapegoat_, pp. 166 _sq._
+
+[566] E.K. Chambers, _The Mediaeval Stage_ (Oxford, 1903), i. 110 _sqq._
+
+[567] In Eastern Europe to this day the great season for driving out the
+cattle to pasture for the first time in spring is St. George's Day, the
+twenty-third of April, which is not far removed from May Day. See _The
+Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 324 _sqq._ As to the
+bisection of the Celtic year, see the old authority quoted by P.W.
+Joyce, _The Social History of Ancient Ireland_ (London, 1903), ii. 390:
+"The whole year was [originally] divided into two parts--Summer from 1st
+May to 1st November, and Winter from 1st November to 1st May." On this
+subject compare (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London and
+Edinburgh, 1888), pp. 460, 514 _sqq.; id., Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and
+Manx_ (Oxford, 1901), i. 315 _sqq._; J.A. MacCulloch, in Dr. James
+Hastings's _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, iii. (Edinburgh,
+1910) p. 80.
+
+[568] See below, p. 225.
+
+[569] Above, pp. 146 _sqq._; _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_,
+ii. 59 _sqq._
+
+[570] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Folk-lore, Manx and Welsh_ (Oxford,
+1901), i. 316, 317 _sq._; J.A. MacCulloch, in Dr. James Hastings's
+_Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, iii. (Edinburgh, 1910) _s.v._
+"Calendar," p. 80, referring to Kelly, _English and Manx Dictionary_
+(Douglas, 1866), _s.v._ "Blein." Hogmanay is the popular Scotch name for
+the last day of the year. See Dr. J. Jamieson, _Etymological Dictionary
+of the Scottish Language_, New Edition (Paisley, 1879-1882), ii. 602
+_sq._
+
+[571] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx_, i. 316 _sq._
+
+[572] Above, p. 139.
+
+[573] See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 309-318. As I
+have there pointed out, the Catholic Church succeeded in altering the
+date of the festival by one day, but not in changing the character of
+the festival. All Souls' Day is now the second instead of the first of
+November. But we can hardly doubt that the Saints, who have taken
+possession of the first of November, wrested it from the Souls of the
+Dead, the original proprietors. After all, the Saints are only one
+particular class of the Souls of the Dead; so that the change which the
+Church effected, no doubt for the purpose of disguising the heathen
+character of the festival, is less great than appears at first sight.
+
+[574] In Wales "it was firmly believed in former times that on All
+Hallows' Eve the spirit of a departed person was to be seen at midnight
+on every cross-road and on every stile" (Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and
+Folk-stories of Wales_, London, 1909, p. 254).
+
+[575] E. J. Guthrie, _Old Scottish Customs_ (London and Glasgow, 1885),
+p. 68.
+
+[576] A. Goodrich-Freer, "More Folklore from the Hebrides," _Folk-lore_,
+xiii. (1902) p. 53.
+
+[577] (Sir) Jolin Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London and Edinburgh,
+1888), p. 516.
+
+[578] P.W. Joyce, _A Social History of Ancient Ireland_ (London, 1903),
+i. 264 _sq._, ii. 556.
+
+[579] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_, p. 516.
+
+[580] Rev. John Gregorson Campbell, _Superstitions of the Highlands and
+Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1900), pp. 61 _sq._
+
+[581] Ch. Rogers, _Social Life in Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1884-1886), iii.
+258-260.
+
+[582] Douglas Hyde, _Beside the Fire, a Collection of Irish Gaelic Folk
+Stories_ (London, 1890), pp. 104, 105, 121-128.
+
+[583] P.W. Joyce, _Social History of Ancient Ireland_, i. 229.
+
+[584] Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London,
+1909), p. 254.
+
+[585] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_, pp. 514 _sq._ In order to
+see the apparitions all you had to do was to run thrice round the parish
+church and then peep through the key-hole of the door. See Marie
+Trevelyan, _op. cit._ p. 254; J. C. Davies, _Folk-lore of West and
+Mid-Wales_ (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 77.
+
+[586] Miss E. J. Guthrie, _Old Scottish Customs_ (London and Glasgow,
+1885), p. 75.
+
+[587] Rev. John Gregorson Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the
+Highlands and Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1902), p. 282.
+
+[588] Thomas Pennant, "Tour in Scotland, and Voyage to the Hebrides in
+1772," in John Pinkerton's _Voyages and Travels_, iii. (London, 1809)
+pp. 383 _sq._ In quoting the passage I have corrected what seem to be
+two misprints.
+
+[589] John Ramsay, of Ochtertyre, _Scotland and Scotsmen in the
+Eighteenth Century_, edited by Alexander Allardyce (Edinburgh and
+London, 1888), ii. 437 _sq._ This account was written in the eighteenth
+century.
+
+[590] Rev. James Robertson, Parish minister of Callander, in Sir John
+Sinclair's _Statistical Account of Scotland_, xi. (Edinburgh, 1794), pp.
+621 _sq._
+
+[591] Rev. Dr. Thomas Bisset, in Sir John Sinclair's _Statistical
+Account of Scotland_ v. (Edinburgh, 1793) pp. 84 _sq._
+
+[592] Miss E. J. Guthrie, _Old Scottish Customs_ (London and Glasgow,
+1885), p. 67.
+
+[593] James Napier, _Folk Lore, or Superstitious Beliefs in the West of
+Scotland within this Century_ (Paisley, 1879), p. 179.
+
+[594] J. G. Frazer, "Folk-lore at Balquhidder," _The Folk-lore Journal_,
+vi. (1888) p. 270.
+
+[595] Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of
+Scotland_ (London, 1881), pp. 167 _sq._
+
+[596] Rev. A. Johnstone, as to the parish of Monquhitter, in Sir John
+Sinclair's _Statistical Account of Scotland_, xxi. (Edinburgh, 1799) pp.
+145 _sq._
+
+[597] A. Macdonald, "Some former Customs of the Royal Parish of Crathie,
+Scotland," _Folk-lore_, xviii. (1907) p. 85. The writer adds: "In this
+way the 'faulds' were purged of evil spirits." But it does not appear
+whether this expresses the belief of the people or only the
+interpretation of the writer.
+
+[598] Rev. John Gregorson Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the
+Highlands and Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1902), pp. 282 _sq._
+
+[599] Robert Burns, _Hallowe'en_, with the poet's note; Rev. Walter
+Gregor, _op. cit._ p. 84; Miss E.J. Guthrie, _op. cit._ p. 69; Rev. J.G.
+Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 287.
+
+[600] R. Burns, _l.c._; Rev. Walter Gregor, _l.c._; Miss E.J. Guthrie,
+_op. cit._ pp. 70 _sq._; Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 286.
+
+[601] R. Burns, _l.c._.; Rev. W. Gregor, _l.c._; Miss E.J. Guthrie, _op.
+cit._ p. 73; Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 285; A. Goodrich-Freer,
+"More Folklore from the Hebrides," _Folk-lore_, xiii. (1902) pp. 54
+_sq._
+
+[602] R. Burns, _l.c._; Rev. W. Gregor, _op. cit._ p. 85; Miss E.J.
+Guthrie, _op. cit._ p. 71; Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 285.
+According to the last of these writers, the winnowing had to be done in
+the devil's name.
+
+[603] R. Burns, _l.c._; Rev. W. Gregor, _l.c._; Miss E.J. Guthrie, _op.
+cit._ p. 72; Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 286; A. Goodrich-Freer,
+"More Folklore from the Hebrides," _Folklore_, xiii. (1902) p. 54.
+
+[604] Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 283.
+
+[605] Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ pp. 283 _sq._; A. Goodrich-Freer,
+_l.c._
+
+[606] Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 284.
+
+[607] R. Burns, _l.c._; Rev. W. Gregor, _op. cit._ p. 85; Miss E.J.
+Guthrie, _op. cit._ p. 70; Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 284. Where
+nuts were not to be had, peas were substituted.
+
+[608] Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit._ p. 284.
+
+[609] Rev. J.G. Campbell, _l.c._ According to my recollection of
+Hallowe'en customs observed in my boyhood at Helensburgh, in
+Dumbartonshire, another way was to stir the floating apples and then
+drop a fork on them as they bobbed about in the water. Success consisted
+in pinning one of the apples with the fork.
+
+[610] R. Burns, _l.c._; Rev. W. Gregor, _op. cit_. pp. 85 _sq_.; Miss
+E.J. Guthrie, _op. cit_. pp. 72 _sq_.; Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit_. p.
+287.
+
+[611] R. Burns, _l.c._; Rev. W. Gregor, _op. cit_. p. 85; Miss E.J.
+Guthrie, _op. cit_. pp. 69 _sq_.; Rev. J.G. Campbell, _op. cit_. p. 285.
+It is the last of these writers who gives what may be called the
+Trinitarian form of the divination.
+
+[612] Miss E.J. Guthrie, _Old Scottish Customs_ (London and Glasgow,
+1885), pp. 74 _sq_.
+
+[613] A. Goodrich-Freer, "More Folklore from the Hebrides," _Folk-lore_,
+xiii. (1902) p. 55.
+
+[614] Pennant's manuscript, quoted by J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of
+Great Britain_ (London, 1882-1883), i. 389 _sq_.
+
+[615] Sir Richard Colt Hoare, _The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin
+through Wales A.D. MCLXXXVIII. by Giraldus de Barri_ (London, 1806), ii.
+315; J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, i. 390. The passage quoted in the
+text occurs in one of Hoare's notes on the Itinerary. The dipping for
+apples, burning of nuts, and so forth, are mentioned also by Marie
+Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London, 1909), pp.
+253, 255.
+
+[616] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Heathendom_ (London and Edinburgh, 1888),
+pp. 515 _sq._ As to the Hallowe'en bonfires in Wales compare J.C.
+Davies, _Folk-lore of West and Mid-Wales_ (Aberystwyth, 1911), p. 77.
+
+[617] See above, p. 183.
+
+[618] See above, p. 231.
+
+[619] Marie Trevelyan, _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_ (London,
+1909), pp. 254 _sq._
+
+[620] (General) Charles Vallancey, _Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis_,
+iii. (Dublin, 1786), pp. 459-461.
+
+[621] Miss A. Watson, quoted by A.C. Haddon, "A Batch of Irish
+Folk-lore," _Folk-lore_, iv. (1893) pp. 361 _sq._
+
+[622] Leland L. Duncan, "Further Notes from County Leitrim,"
+_Folk-lore_, v. (1894) pp. 195-197.
+
+[623] H.J. Byrne, "All Hallows Eve and other Festivals in Connaught,"
+_Folk-lore_, xviii. (1907) pp. 437 _sq._
+
+[624] Joseph Train, _Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle of
+Man_ (Douglas, Isle of Man, 1845), ii. 123; (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic
+Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford, 1901), i. 315 _sqq._
+
+[625] (Sir) John Rhys, _Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford,
+1901), i. 318-321.
+
+[626] John Harland and T.T. Wilkinson, _Lancashire Folk-lore_
+(Manchester and London, 1882), pp. 3 _sq_.
+
+[627] J. Harland and T.T. Wilkinson, _op. cit_. p. 140.
+
+[628] Annie Milner, in William Hone's _Year Book_ (London, preface dated
+January, 1832), coll. 1276-1279 (letter dated June, 1831); R.T. Hampson,
+_Medii Aevi Kalendarium_ (London, 1841), i. 365; T.F. Thiselton Dyer,
+_British Popular Customs_ (London, 1876), p. 395.
+
+[629] _County Folk-lore_ vol. iv. _Northumberland_, collected by M.C.
+Balfour (London, 1904), p. 78. Compare W. Henderson, _Notes on the
+Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England_ (London, 1879), pp. 96
+_sq_.
+
+[630] Baron Dupin, in _Memoires publiees par la Societe Royale des
+Antiquaires de France_, iv. (1823) p. 108.
+
+[631] The evidence for the solar origin of Christmas is given in
+_Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 254-256.
+
+[632] For the various names (Yu-batch, Yu-block, Yule-log, etc.) see
+Francis Grose, _Provincial Glossary_, New Edition (London, 1811), p.
+141; Joseph Wright, _The English Dialect Dictionary_ (London,
+1898-1905), vi. 593, _s.v._ "Yule."
+
+[633] "I am pretty confident that the Yule block will be found, in its
+first use, to have been only a counterpart of the Midsummer fires, made
+within doors because of the cold weather at this winter solstice, as
+those in the hot season, at the summer one, are kindled in the open
+air." (John Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_, London,
+1882-1883, i. 471). His opinion is approved by W. Mannhardt _(Der
+Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstaemme_, p. 236).
+
+[634] "_Et arborem in nativitate domini ad festivum ignem suum
+adducendam esse dicebat_" (quoted by Jacob Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,
+i. 522).
+
+[635] Montanus, _Die deutschen Volksfeste, Volksbrauche und deutscher
+Volksglaube_ (Iserlohn, N.D.), p. 12. The Sieg and Lahn are two rivers
+of Central Germany, between Siegen and Marburg.
+
+[636] J.H. Schmitz, _Sitten und Sagen, Lieder, Spruechwoerter und Raethsel
+des Eifler Volkes_ (Treves, 1856-1858), i. 4.
+
+[637] Adalbert Kuhn, _Sagen, Gebraeuche und Maerchen aus Westfalen_
+(Leipsic, 1859), ii. Sec. 319, pp. 103 _sq_.
+
+[638] A. Kuhn, _op. cit._ ii. Sec. 523, p. 187.
+
+[639] August Witzschel, _Sagen, Sitten und Gebraeuche aus Thueringen_
+(Vienna, 1878), p. 172.
+
+[640] K. Hoffmann-Krayer, _Feste und Braeuche des Schweizervolkes_
+(Zurich, 1913), pp. 108 _sq._
+
+[641] Le Baron de Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, _Calendrier Belge_ (Brussels,
+1861-1862), ii. 326 _sq._ Compare J.W. Wolf, _Beitraegezur deutschen
+Mythologie_ (Goettingen, 1852-1858), i. 117.
+
+[642] J.B. Thiers, _Traite des Superstitions_*[5] (Paris, 1741), i. 302
+_sq._; Eugene Cortet, _Essai sur les Fetes Religieuses_ (Paris, 1867),
+pp. _266 sq._
+
+[643] J.B. Thiers, _Traite des Superstitions_ (Paris, 1679), p. 323.
+
+[644] Aubin-Louis Millin, _Voyage dans les Departemens du Midi de la
+France_ (Paris, 1807-1811), iii. 336 _sq._ The fire so kindled was
+called _caco fuech_.
+
+[645] Alfred de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 151 _sq._ The three festivals
+during which the Yule log is expected to burn are probably Christmas Day
+(December 25th), St. Stephen's Day (December 26th), and St. John the
+Evangelist's Day (December 27th). Compare J.L.M. Nogues, _Les Moeurs
+d'autrefois en Saintonge et en Aunis_ (Saintes, 1891), pp. 45-47.
+According to the latter writer, in Saintonge it was the mistress of the
+house who blessed the Yule log, sprinkling salt and holy water on it; in
+Poitou it was the eldest male who officiated. The log was called the
+_cosse de No_.
+
+[646] Laisnel de Salle, _Croyances et Legendes du Centres de la France_
+(Paris, 1875), i. 1-3.
+
+[647] Jules Lecoeur, _Esquisses du Bocage Normand_ (Conde-sur-Noireau,
+1883-1887), ii. 291. The author speaks of the custom as still practised
+in out-of-the-way villages at the time when he wrote. The usage of
+preserving the remains of the Yule-log (called _trefouet_) in Normandy
+is mentioned also by M'elle Amelie Bosquet, _La Normandie Romanesque et
+Merveilleuse_ (Paris and Rouen, 1845), p. 294.
+
+[648] A. de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes, et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 256.
+
+[649] Paul Sebillot, _Coutumes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris,
+1886), pp. 217 _sq._
+
+[650] Albert Meyrac, _Traditions, Coutumes, Legendes et Contes des
+Ardennes_ (Charleville, 1890), pp. 96 _sq._
+
+[651] See above, p. 251.
+
+[652] Lerouze, in _Memoires de l'Academie Celtique_, iii. (1809) p. 441,
+quoted by J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 469 note.
+
+[653] L.F. Sauve, _Le Folk-lore des Hautes-Vosges_ (Paris, 1889), pp.
+370 _sq._
+
+[654] Charles Beauquier, _Les Mois en Franche-Comte_ (Paris, 1900), p.
+183.
+
+[655] A. de Nore, _Coutumes, Mythes, et Traditions des Provinces de
+France_ (Paris and Lyons, 1846), pp. 302 _sq._
+
+[656] John Brand, _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_ (London,
+1882-1883), i. 467.
+
+[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._
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I.
+by Sir James George Frazer
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