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._