The following extract contains a distinct and interesting account of
this very ancient superstition, as used in Caithness:
"In 1788, 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 _needfire_. 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 end 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, &c.) 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, &c. was immediately quenched with water, a fire
kindled from this _needfire_, both in the farm-house and
offices, and the cattle brought to feel the smoke of this new and
sacred fire, which preserved them from the murrain. So much for
superstition.--It is handed down by tradition, that the ancient
Druids superintended a similar ceremony of raising a sacred fire,
annually, on the first day of May. That day is still, both in the
Gaelic and Irish dialects, called _Lâ-bealtin, i.e._ the day
of Baal's fire, or the fire dedicated to Baal, or the sun."
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