naturally be considered criminal for one neighbour to give it to another at the
seasons when every man was bound to purchase it for himself. Of course, though
the old customs are still retained, their original meaning is utterly forgotten; and
the man who throws a live peat after a woman who is about to increase the
population, or he who on Halloween throws a lighted brand over his own
shoulder without looking at whom he aims, little dreams whence sprang these
time-honoured games.” It is said that in many parts of the remote glens of
Perthshire there are women still living who on Beltane morn always throw ashes
and a live peat over their heads, repeating a certain formula of words to bring
them back. But the strictest secrecy is observed, lest such practices should reach
the ear of “the minister:” so the stronger their belief, the less willing are they to
confess to any knowledge of such matters.
We cannot pass from this subject without an allusion to the Fire-Churn or Need-
Fire, which is held a sovereign charm against cattle-plague. When in a Highland
district an invasion of murrain was apprehended, a small shanty or hut was
erected near loch or river, and in it were placed various wooden posts, vertical
and horizontal: the horizontal were provided with several spokes, and being
rapidly turned round against the upright, quickly generated a flame by the
friction. Then all other fires upon the farm were extinguished, to be re-lighted
from the Need-fire, which all the cattle were afterwards made to smell, until the
charm was complete.
It was on Halloween, or All Hallows’ Eve—the evening of the 31st of October—
that Superstition ran riot, because on that particular evening the supernatural
influences of the other world were supposed to be specially prevalent, and the
power of divination was likewise believed to be at its height. Spirits then walked
about with unusual freedom, and readily responded to the call of those armed
with due authority. In the prehistoric past, the Druids at this time celebrated their
great autumn Fire-Festival, insisting that all fires, except their own, should be
extinguished, so as to compel men to purchase the sacred fire at a certain price.
This sacred fire was fed with the peeled wood of a certain tree, and that it might
not be polluted, was never blown with human breath.
Needless to say that the sacred fire has vanished with the Druids, but the
Halloween customs which still survive may be traced back to a hoar antiquity.
For instance, various kinds of divination are practised, and chiefly with apples