SACRED FIRES
The magnificent collection of facts bearing on this subject which has
been brought together by Mr. Frazer in _The Golden Bough_ renders it
unnecessary for me to deal with the details of this part of my subject
at any great length.
We have these records of fires:--
(1) In February, May, August and November of the original May year.
(2) In June and December on the longest and shortest days of the
solstitial year, concerning which there could not be, and has not been,
any such change of date as has occurred in relation to the May year
festivals.
(3) A fire at Easter, in all probability added not long before or at the
introduction of Christianity. I find no traces of a fire festival at the
corresponding equinox in September.
We learn from Cormac that the fires were generally double and that
cattle were driven between them.
Concerning this question of fire, both Mr. Frazer and the Rev. S.
Baring-Gould[34] suggest that we are justified in considering the
Christian treatment of the sacred fire as a survival of pagan times. Mr.
Baring-Gould writes as follows:--“When Christianity became dominant, it
was necessary to dissociate the ideas of the people from the central
fire as mixed up with the old gods; at the same time the central fire
was an absolute need. Accordingly the Church was converted into the
sacred depository of the perpetual fire.”
He further points out that there still remain in some of our churches
(in Cornwall, York, and Dorset) the contrivances--now called
cresset-stones--used. They are blocks of stone with cups hollowed out.
Some are placed in lamp-niches furnished with flues. On these he remarks
(p. 122):--
“Now although these lamps and cressets had their religious
signification, yet this religious signification was an afterthought. The
origin of them lay in the necessity of there being in every place a
central light, from which light could at any time be borrowed; and the
reason why this central light was put in the church was to dissociate it
from the heathen ideas attached formerly to it. As it was, the good
people of the Middle Ages were not quite satisfied with the central
church fire, and they had recourse in times of emergency to other, and
as the Church deemed them unholy, fires. When a plague and murrain
appeared among cattle, then they lighted need-fires from two pieces of
dry wood, and drove the cattle between the flames, believing that this
new flame was wholesome to the purging away of the disease. For kindling
the need-fires the employment of flint and steel was forbidden. The fire
was only efficacious when extracted in prehistoric fashion, out of
wood. The lighting of these need-fires was forbidden by the Church in
the eighth century. What shows that this need-fire was distinctly
heathen is that in the Church new fire was obtained at Easter annually
by striking flint and steel together. It was supposed that the old fire
in a twelvemonth had got exhausted, or perhaps that all light expired
with Christ, and that new fire must be obtained. Accordingly the priest
solemnly struck new fire out of flint and steel. But fire from flint and
steel was a novelty; and the people, Pagan at heart, had no confidence
in it, and in time of adversity went back to the need-fire kindled in
the time-honoured way from wood by friction, before this new-fangled way
of drawing it out of stone and iron was invented.”
The same authority informs us that before Christianity was introduced
into Ireland by St. Patrick there was a temple at Tara “where fire
burned ever, and was on no account suffered to go out.”
Mr. Frazer,[35] quoting Cerbied, shows that in the ancient religion of
Armenia the new fire was kindled at the February festival of the May
year, 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.” This festival now takes place at
Candlemas, February 2.
We must assume, then, that the pagan fires were produced by the friction
of dry wood, and possibly in connection with an ever-burning fire. In
either case the priests officiating at the various circles must have had
a place handy where the wood was kept dry or the fire kept burning, and
on this ground alone we may again inquire whether such structures as
Maeshowe at the Stenness circle, the Fougou at that of the Merry
Maidens, and indeed chambered barrows and cairns generally, were not
used for these purposes amongst others; whether indeed they were not
primarily built for the living and not for the dead, and whether this
will explain the finding of traces of fires and of hollowed stones in
them, as well as some points in their structure. Mr. MacRitchie[36] has
brought together several of these points, among them fireplaces and
flues for carrying away smoke.
At both solstices it would appear that a special fire-rite was
practised. This consisted of tying straw on a wheel and rolling it when
lighted down a hill. There is much evidence for the wheel at the summer,
but less at the winter, solstice; still, we learn from the old Runic
_fasti_ that a wheel was used to denote the festival of Christmas. With
regard to the summer solstice I quote the following from Hazlitt (under
John, St.):--
[Illustration: FIG. 48.--The Carro, Florence. From Baring-Gould’s
_Strange Survivals_.]
“Durandus, speaking of the rites of the Feast of St. John Baptist,
informs us of this curious circumstance, that in some places they roll a
wheel about to signify that the sun, then occupying the highest place in
the Zodiac, is beginning to descend. ‘Rotam quoque hoc die in quibusdam
locis volvunt, ad significandum quod Sol altissimum tunc locum in Cœlo
occupet, et descendere incipiat in Zodiaco.’ Harl. MSS. 2345 (on
vellum), Art. 100, is an account of the rites of St. John Baptist’s Eve,
in which the wheel is also mentioned. In the amplified account of these
ceremonies given by Naogeorgus, we read that this wheel was taken up to
the top of a mountain and rolled down thence; and that, as it had
previously been covered with straw, twisted about it and set on fire, it
appeared at a distance as if the sun had been falling from the sky. And
he further observes, that the people imagine that all their ill-luck
rolls away from them together with this wheel. At Norwich, says a writer
in _Current Notes_ for March, 1854, the rites of St. John the Baptist
were anciently observed, ‘when it was the custom to turn or roll a wheel
about, in signification of the sun’s annual course, or the sun, then
occupying the highest place in the Zodiac, was about descending.’”
At Magdalen College, Oxford, the May and June years are clearly
differentiated. There is a vocal service at sunrise on May morning,
followed by boys blowing horns. At the summer solstice there is a sermon
preached during the day in the quadrangle.
One of the most picturesque survivals of this ancient custom takes place
at Florence each year at Easter. This is fully described by
Baring-Gould. The moment the sacred fire is produced at the high altar a
dove (in plaster) carries it along a rope about 200 yards long to a car
in the square outside the west door of the cathedral and sets fire to a
fuse, thus causing the explosion of fireworks.
The car with its explosives is the survival of the ancient bonfire.
It would appear that the lighting of these fires on a large scale
lingered longest in Ireland and Brittany.
A correspondent of the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ (February, 1795) thus
describes the Irish Beltane fires in 1782, “the most singular sight in
Ireland”:--
“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.”
It will have been observed with reference to these fire festivals that
although there were undoubtedly four, in May, August, November and
February, those in May and November were more important than the others.
This no doubt arose from the fact that at different times the May and
November celebrations were _New Year_ festivals. With regard to the New
Year in November in Celtic and later times. Rhys writes as follows
(_Hibbert Lectures_, p. 514):--
“The Celts were in the habit formerly of counting winters, and of
giving precedence in their reckoning to night and winter over day and
summer (p. 360); I should argue that the last day of the year in the
Irish story of Diarmait’s death meant the eve of November or
All-halloween, the night before the Irish _Samhain_, and known in Welsh
as _Nos Galan-gaeaf_, or the Night of the Winter Calends. But there is
no occasion to rest on this alone, as we have the evidence of Cormac’s
Glossary that the month before the beginning of winter was the last
month; so that the first day of the first month of winter was also the
first day of the year.”
That the November bonfire was recognised as heralding the dominion of
the gods and spirits of darkness,[37] that the old ideas surrounding
Horus and Set in Egypt were not forgotten, is evidenced by the fact that
when it was extinct the whole company round it would suddenly take to
their heels, shouting at the top of their voices:--
Yr hwch đu gwta | The cropped black sow
A gipio ’r ola’! | Seize the hindmost!
A piecing together of the folklore and traditions of different districts
suggests that sacrifices were made in connection with the fire
festivals, in fact that the fire at one of the critical times of the May
year at least was a sacrificial one.
I will quote two cases given by Gomme[38] for May Day and All Souls’ Day
respectively:--
“At the village of Holne, situated on one of the spurs of Dartmoor, is a
field of about two acres, the property of the parish, and called the
Ploy Field. In the centre of this field stands a granite pillar (Menhir)
six or seven feet high. On May-morning, before daybreak, the young men
of the village used to assemble there, and then proceed to the moor,
where they selected a ram lamb, and after running it down, brought it in
triumph to the Ploy Field, fastened it to the pillar, cut its throat and
then roasted it whole, skin, wool, &c. At midday a struggle took place,
at the risk of cut hands, for a slice, it being supposed to confer luck
for the ensuing year on the fortunate devourer. As an act of gallantry
the young men sometimes fought their way through the crowd to get a
slice for the chosen amongst the young women, all of whom, in their best
dresses, attended the Ram Feast, as it was called. Dancing, wrestling,
and other games, assisted by copious libations of cider during the
afternoon, prolonged the festivity till midnight.”
In the parish of King’s Teignton, Devonshire, “a lamb is drawn about the
parish on Whitsun Monday in a cart covered with garlands of lilac,
laburnum and other flowers, when persons are requested to give something
towards the animal and attendant expenses; on Tuesday it is then killed
and roasted whole in the middle of the village. The lamb is then sold in
slices to the poor at a cheap rate.”
The popular legend concerning the origin of this custom introduces two
important elements--a reference to “heathen days” and the title of
“sacrifice” ascribed to the killing of the lamb (p. 31).
“At St. Peter’s, Athlone, every family of a village on St. Martin’s Day
kills an animal of some kind or other; those who are rich kill a cow or
sheep, others a goose or turkey, while those who are poor kill a hen or
cock; with the blood of the animal they sprinkle the threshold and also
the four corners of the house, and ‘this performance is done to exclude
every kind of evil spirit from the dwelling where the sacrifice is made
till the return of the same day the following year’” (p. 163).
Other traditions indicate that human sacrifices were in question, and
that lots were drawn, or some other method of the choice of a victim was
adopted. I quote from Hazlitt (i., 44) the following report of the
Minister of Callender in 1794:--
“The people of this district have two customs, which are fast wearing
out, not only here, but all over the Highlands, and therefore ought to
be taken notice of, while they remain. Upon the first day of May, which
is called Beltan, or Bàl-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 a 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. Everyone,
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, 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 the festival are
closed.”
I may conclude this chapter by referring to similar practices in
Brittany, where Baring-Gould[39] has so successfully studied them.
The present remnants of the old cult in the different parishes are now
called “pardons”;[40] they are still numerous. I give those for the May
and August festivals (p. 83).
_May._
Ascension Day. Bodilis, Penhars, Spezet (at the well of
S. Gouzenou), Landevennec, Plougonnec.
Sunday after Ascension Day. Trégoat, S. Divy.
Whit Sunday. Kernilis; Plouider; Edern; Coray; Spezet
(Chapel of Cran).
Whit Monday. Quimperlé (Pardon des Oiseaux); Pont
l’Abbé (Pardon des Enfants); Ergué-Armel,
La Forêt, Landudal, Ploneis, Landeleau,
Carantec.
Whit Thursday. Gouezec (Les Fontaines).
_August._
1st Sunday in August. Pleyben (horse races); Plébannalec;
Pouldreuzic; Plougomelin; Huelgoët; S.
Nicodème in Plumeliau (M.) (Cattle
blessed; second day horse fair, and girls
sell their tresses to hair merchants).
Judging by the “pardons,” the solstitial celebrations are not so
numerous as those connected with the May year; the bonfire is built up
by the head of a family in which the right is hereditary. The fire has
to be lighted only by a pure virgin, and the sick and feeble are carried
to the spot, as the bonfire flames are held to be gifted with miraculous
healing powers.
When the flames are abated, stones are placed for the souls of the dead
to sit there through the remainder of the night and enjoy the heat.
“Every member of the community carries away a handful of ashes as a
sovereign cure for sundry maladies. The whole proceeding is instinct
with paganism” (p. 75). With regard to the accompanying sacrifices we
read: “In ancient times sacrifices were made of cocks and oxen at
certain shrines--now they are still presented, but it is to the chapels
of saints. S. Herbot receives cow’s tails, and these may be seen heaped
upon his altar in Loqeffret. At Coadret as many as seven hundred are
offered on the day of the “pardon.” At S. Nicolas-des-Eaux, it is S.
Nicodemus who in his chapel receives gifts of whole oxen, and much the
same takes place at Carnac.”
[34] _Strange Survivals_, p. 120 _et seq._
[35] _Golden Bough_, iii. 248.
[36] _The Testimony of Tradition._
[37] _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 516; _Dawn of Astronomy_, p. 215.
[38] _Ethnology in Folklore_, pp. 32 and 163.
[39] _A Book of Brittany._
[40] These “pardons” run strangely parallel with the “Feast Days” in E.
and W. Penrith, in Cornwall, where of 26 feasts, 13 occur around the
chief days of the May year.