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:
Footnote 796: [(return)]
Above, pp. [116] sq., [119], [143], [165], [166], [168] sq., [172].
Footnote 797: [(return)]
Above, pp. [116], [117] sq., [119], [141], [143], [161], [162] sq., [163] sq., [173], [191], [201].
Footnote 798: [(return)]
W. Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstämme (Berlin, 1875), pp. 521 sqq.
Footnote 799: [(return)]
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.
Footnote 800: [(return)]
E. Mogk, "Sitten und Gebräuche im Kreislauf des Jahres," in R. Wuttke's Sächsische Volkskunde,2 (Dresden, 1901), pp. 310 sq.
Footnote 801: [(return)]
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."
Footnote 802: [(return)]
The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 311 sqq.
Footnote 803: [(return)]
See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 254 sqq.
Footnote 804: [(return)]
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."
Footnote 805: [(return)]
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.
Footnote 806: [(return)]
"The sun is a little warm, when this star appears in winter" (Editors of Specimens of Bushman Folklore).
Footnote 807: [(return)]
"With the stick that he had held in the fire, moving it up and down quickly" (Editors).
Footnote 808: [(return)]
"They take one arm out of the kaross, thereby exposing one shoulder blade to the sun" (Editors).
Footnote 809: [(return)]
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).
Footnote 810: [(return)]
Above, p. [169].
Footnote 811: [(return)]
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.
Footnote 812: [(return)]
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."
Footnote 813: [(return)]
Above, pp. [144] sq., [147] sq., [155], [169] sq., [175], [177], [179].
Footnote 814: [(return)]
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.
Footnote 815: [(return)]
A. Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks,2 (Gütersloh, 1886), p. 47.
Footnote 816: [(return)]
Above, p. [179].
Footnote 817: [(return)]
F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie (Munich, 1848-1855), ii. 240, § 443.
Footnote 818: [(return)]
Above, p. [177].
Footnote 819: [(return)]
Above, pp. [187] sq.
Footnote 820: [(return)]
Above, pp. [279] sq.
Footnote 821: [(return)]
Above, p. [188].
Footnote 822: [(return)]
Above, p. [159].
Footnote 823: [(return)]
Above, p. [116].
Footnote 824: [(return)]
Above, p. [201].
Footnote 825: [(return)]
L. Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa (London, 1898), pp. 160 sq.
Footnote 826: [(return)]
Rev. J. Shooter, The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country (London, 1857), p. 18.
Footnote 827: [(return)]
Footnote 828: [(return)]
Footnote 829: [(return)]
Above, p. [140].
Footnote 830: [(return)]
Above, p. [121].
Footnote 831: [(return)]
Footnote 832: [(return)]
Above, p. [251].
Footnote 833: [(return)]
Footnote 834: [(return)]
Footnote 835: [(return)]
Above, p. [201].
Footnote 836: [(return)]
Above, p. [203].
Footnote 837: [(return)]
Above, p. [250].
Footnote 838: [(return)]
Footnote 839: [(return)]
Above, p. [112].
Footnote 840: [(return)]
Above, p. [141].
Footnote 841: [(return)]
Above, p. [214].
Footnote 842: [(return)]
Above, p. [204].
Footnote 843: [(return)]
Above, p. [194].
Footnote 844: [(return)]
Footnote 845: [(return)]
Above, p. [166].
Footnote 846: [(return)]
Footnote 847: [(return)]
Above, pp. [107], [109], [111], [119]; compare pp. [116], [192], [193].
Footnote 848: [(return)]
Above, p. [115].
Footnote 849: [(return)]
Above, p. [180].
Footnote 850: [(return)]
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.
Footnote 851: [(return)]
Above, p. [203].
Footnote 852: [(return)]
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.
Footnote 853: [(return)]
Br. Jelínek, "Materialen zur Vorgeschichte mid Volkskunde Böhmens," Mittheilungen der anthropolog. Gesellschaft in Wien xxi. (1891) p. 13 note.
Footnote 854: [(return)]
Mrs. Bishop, Korea and her Neighbours (London, 1898), ii. 56 sq.
Footnote 855: [(return)]
Above, pp. [190] sq.
Footnote 856: [(return)]
Footnote 857: [(return)]
See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 311 sqq.
Footnote 858: [(return)]
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]).
Footnote 859: [(return)]
Footnote 860: [(return)]
"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."
Footnote 861: [(return)]
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.).
Footnote 862: [(return)]
The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 330 sqq.
Footnote 863: [(return)]
Footnote 864: [(return)]
Footnote 865: [(return)]
Above, pp. [121], [122], [124], [140] sq., [145], [146], [174], [176], [183], [184], [187], [188], [190], [191], [192], [249], [250], [252], [253], [254], [258].
Footnote 866: [(return)]
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.
Footnote 867: [(return)]
Above, pp. [108], [121], [140], [146], [165], [183], [188], [196], [250], [255], [256], [258].
Footnote 868: [(return)]
Footnote 869: [(return)]
Footnote 870: [(return)]
A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube,2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 351, § 395.
Footnote 871: [(return)]
Footnote 872: [(return)]
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.
Footnote 873: [(return)]
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?
Footnote 874: [(return)]
F.S. Krauss, Volksglaube und religiöser Brauch der Südslaven (Münster i. W., 1890), pp. 118 sq.
Footnote 875: [(return)]
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.