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C++ How to Program, 7/e Multiple Choice Test Bank 1 of 5

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Chapter 2: Introduction to C++ Programming

Section 2.2 First Program in C++: Printing a Line of Text

2.2 Q1: End-of-line comments that should be ignored by the compiler are denoted using:
a. Two forward slashes ( // ).
b. Three forward slashes ( /// ).
c. A slash and a star ( /* ).
d. A slash and two stars ( /** ).
ANS: a. Two forward slashes ( // ).

2.2 Q2: Which of the following statements does not cause a syntax error to be reported by the C++
compiler?
a. Mismatched {}.
b. Missing */ in a comment.
c. Missing ; at the end of a statement.
d. Extra blank lines.
ANS: d. Extra blank lines.

2.2 Q3: Which of the following is not a syntax error?

a. std::cout << 'Hello world! ';
b. std::cout << "Hello
world! ";
c. std::cout << "Hello world! ";
d. std::cout << Hello world!;
ANS: c. std::cout << "Hello world! ";

2.2 Q4: The escape sequence for a newline is:

a. \n
b. \t
c. \r
d. \a
ANS: a. \n

2.2 Q5: Which of the following statements would display the phrase C++ is fun?
a. std::cout << "Thisis fun\rC++ ";
b. std::cout << '++ is fun';
c. std::cout << "\"C++ is fun\"";
d. std::cout << C++ is fun;
ANS: a. std::cout << "Thisis fun\rC++ ";

Section 2.3 Modifying Our First C++ Program

2.3 Q1: Which of the following is not a valid C++ identifier?

© Copyright 1992-2011 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. and Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
C++ How to Program, 7/e Multiple Choice Test Bank 2 of 5

a. my Value
b. _AAA1
c. width
d. m_x
ANS: a. my Value (Identifiers may not contain blanks)

2.3 Q2: Which is the output of the following statements?

std::cout << "Hello ";

std::cout << "World";

a. Hello World
b. World Hello
c. Hello
World
d. World
Hello
ANS: a. Hello World

2.3 Q3: Which of the following is the escape character?

a. *
b. \
c. \n
d. “
ANS: b. \

2.3 Q4: Which of the following code segments prints a single line containing hello there with the
words separated by a single space?
a. std::cout << "hello ";
std::cout << " there";
b. std::cout << "hello" , " there";
c. std::cout << "hello";
std::cout << "there";
d. std::cout << "hello";
std::cout << " there";
ANS: d. std::cout << "hello";
std::cout << " there";

Section 2.4 Another C++ Program: Adding Integers

2.4 Q1: Which of the following is a variable declaration statement?

a. int total;
b. #include <iostream>
c. int main()
d. // first string entered by user
ANS: a. int total;

2.4 Q2: The ________ object enables a program to read data from the user.
a. std::cout.
b. std::cin.
c. std::cread.
d. std::cget.
ANS:b. std::cin.

2.4 Q3: The assignment operator ________ assigns the value of the expression on its right to the variable
on its left.

© Copyright 1992-2011 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. and Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
C++ How to Program, 7/e Multiple Choice Test Bank 3 of 5

a. <-
b. ->
c. =
d. #
ANS: c. =.

2.4 Q4: The std::endl stream manipulator________.

a. inputs a newline.
b. flosses the output buffer.
c. outputs a newline and flushes the output buffer.
d. terminates the program.
ANS: c. outputs a newline and flushes the output buffer.

Section 2.5 Memory Concepts

2.5 Q1: Which of the following statements does not overwrite a preexisting value stored in a memory
location?
a. int a;
b. number = 12;
c. y = y + 2;
d. width = length;
ANS: a. int a;

2.5 Q2: Which of the following statements could potentially change the value of number2?
a. std::cin >> number2;
b. sum = number1 + number2;
c. number1 = number2;
d. std::cout << number2;
ANS: a. std::cin >> number2;

Section 2.6 Arithmetic

2.6 Q1: What is the value of result after the following C++ statements execute?

int a, b, c, d, result;
a = 4;
b = 12; c = 37;
d = 51;
result = d % a * c + a % b + a;

a. 119
b. 51
c. 127
d. 59
ANS: a. 119.

2.6 Q2: In what order would the following operators be evaluated

-, *, /, +, %

Assume that if two operations have the same precedence, the one listed first will be evaluated first.
a. +, -, /, *, %
b. -, +, %, *, /
c. -, *, %, +, /

© Copyright 1992-2011 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. and Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
C++ How to Program, 7/e Multiple Choice Test Bank 4 of 5

d. *, /, %, -, +
ANS: d. *, /, %, -, +

2.6 Q3: Which of the following is not an arithmetic operator?

a. +
b. -
c. =
d. %
ANS: c. =

Section 2.7 Decision Making: Equality and Relational Operators

2.7 Q1: What will be the output after the following C++ statements have been executed?

int a, b, c, d;
a = 4;
b = 12;
c = 37;
d = 51;

if ( a < b )
cout << "a < b" << endl;

if ( a > b )
cout << "a > b" << endl;

if ( d <= c )
cout << "d <= c" << endl;

if ( c != d )
cout << "c != d" << endl;

a.a < b
c != d
b. a < b
d <= c
c != d
c. a > b
c != d
d. a < b
c < d
a != b
ANS: a. a < b
c != d

2.7 Q2: Which of the following is a compilation error?

a. Placing a space between the symbols in the <= operator.
b. Using a triple equals sign instead of a double equals sign in the condition of an if statement.
c. Omitting the left and right parentheses for the condition of an if statement.
d. All of the above.
ANS: d. All of the above.

2.7 Q3: Each of the following is a relational or equality operator except:

a. <=
b. =!
c. ==
d. >

© Copyright 1992-2011 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. and Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
C++ How to Program, 7/e Multiple Choice Test Bank 5 of 5

ANS: b. =!

© Copyright 1992-2011 by Deitel & Associates, Inc. and Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
All the family gathered round the blazing Yule log now anxiously expect the
arrival of the special Christmas visiter, who bears the title of polaznik. He is
usually a young boy of a friendly family. No other person, not even the
priest or the mayor of the village, would be allowed to set foot in the house
before the arrival of this important personage. Therefore he ought to come,
and generally does come, very early in the morning. He carries a woollen
glove full of wheat, and when the door is opened at his knock he throws
handfuls of wheat on the family gathered round the hearth, greeting them
with the words, “Christ is born!” They all answer, “He is born indeed,” and
the hostess flings a handful of wheat over the Christmas visiter, who
moreover casts some of his wheat into the corners of the hall as well as
upon the people. Then he walks straight to the hearth, [pg 262] takes a
shovel and strikes the burning log so that a cloud of sparks flies up the
chimney, while he says, “May you have this year so many oxen, so many
horses, so many sheep, so many pigs, so many beehives full of honey, so
much good luck, prosperity, progress, and happiness!” Having uttered these
good wishes, he embraces and kisses his host. Then he turns again to the
hearth, and after crossing himself falls on his knees and kisses the
projecting part of the Yule log. On rising to his feet he places a coin on the
log as his gift. Meanwhile a low wooden chair has been brought in by a
woman, and the visiter is led to it to take his seat. But just as he is about to
do so, the chair is jerked away from under him by a male member of the
family and he measures his length on the floor. By this fall he is supposed to
fix into the ground all the good wishes which he has uttered that morning.
The hostess thereupon wraps him in a thick blanket, and he sits quietly
muffled in it for a few minutes; the thick blanket in which he is swathed is
believed, on the principles of homoeopathic magic, to ensure that the cows
will give thick cream the next year. While he sits thus enriching the milk of
the dairy, the lads who are to herd the sheep in the coming year go to the
hearth and kneeling down before it kiss each other across the projecting
end of the Yule log. By this demonstration of affection they are thought to
seal the love of the ewes for their lambs.671

The ritual of the Yule log is observed in a similar form by the Servians who
inhabit the southern provinces of Austria. Thus in Syrmia, a district of
Slavonia which borders on Servia, the head of the house sends out one or
two young men on Christmas Eve to cut the Yule log in the nearest forest.
On being brought in, the log is not mixed with the ordinary fuel but placed
by itself, generally leaning against a fruit-tree till the evening shadows begin
to fall. When a man carries it into the kitchen and lays it on the fire, the
master of the house throws corn over him, and the two greet each other
solemnly, the one saying, “Christ is born,” and the other answering, “He is
born indeed.” Later in the evening the master of [pg 263] the house pours a
glass of wine on the charred end of the log, whereupon one of the younger
men takes the burnt piece of wood, carries it to the orchard, and sets it up
against one of the fruit-trees. For this service he is rewarded by the master
of the house with a piece of money. On Christmas Day, when the family is
assembled at table, they expect the arrival of the special Christmas visiter
(called polazenik), the only person who is allowed to enter the house that
day. When he comes, he goes to the hearth, stirs the fire with the poker and
says, “Christ is born. May the family enjoy all good luck and happiness in
this year! May the cattle increase in number like the sparks I have struck!”
As he says these words, the mistress of the house pours corn over him and
leads him to the parlour, where he takes the place of honour beside the
master of the house. He is treated with marked attention and respect. The
family are at pains to entertain him; they sing their best songs for his
amusement, and after midnight a numerous band of men and maidens
escorts him by torchlight, with songs and jubilation, to his own house.672

Among the Servians of Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro it is

customary on Christmas Eve (Badnyi Dan) to fetch a great Yule log
(badnyak), which serves as a symbol of family luck. It is generally cut from
an evergreen oak, but sometimes from an olive-tree or a beech. At nightfall
the master of the house himself brings in the log and lays it on the fire.
Then he and all present bare their heads, sprinkle the log with wine, and
make a cross on it. After that the master of the house says, “Welcome, O
log! May God keep you from mishap!” So saying he strews peas, maize,
raisins, and wheat on the log, praying for God's blessing on all members of
the family living and dead, for heaven's blessing on their undertakings, and
for domestic prosperity. In Montenegro they meet the log with a loaf of
bread and a jug of wine, drink to it, and pour wine on it, whereupon the
whole family drinks out of the same beaker. In Dalmatia and other places,
for example in Rizano, the Yule logs are decked by young women with red
silk, flowers, [pg 264] laurel leaves, ribbons, and even gold wire; and the
lights near the doorposts are kindled when the log is brought into the
house. Among the Morlaks, as soon as the master of the house crosses the
threshold with the Yule log, one of the family must sprinkle corn on him and
say, “God bless you,” to which he answers, “The same to you.” A piece of
the log is kept till New Year's Day to kindle a light with or it is carried out to
the fields to protect them from hail. It is customary to invite before hand a
Christmas visiter (polažaynik) and to admit no one else into the house on
that day. He comes early, carrying in his sleeves a quantity of corn which he
throws into the house, saying, “Christ is born.” One of the household replies,
“He is born indeed,” and throws corn on the visiter. Then the newcomer
goes up to the hearth, pokes the fire and strikes the burning log with the
poker so hard that sparks fly off in all directions. At each blow he says, “I
wish the family as many cows, calves, sucking pigs, goats, and sheep, and
as many strokes of good luck, as the sparks that now fly from the log.” With
these words he throws some small coins into the ashes.673 In Albania down
to recent years it was a common custom to burn a Yule log at Christmas,
and with it corn, maize, and beans; moreover, wine and rakia were poured
on the flames, and the ashes of the fire were scattered on the fields to
make them fertile.674 The Huzuls, a Slavonic people of the Carpathians,
kindle fire by the friction of wood on Christmas Eve (Old Style, the fifth of
January) and keep it burning till Twelfth Night.675

It is remarkable how common the belief appears to have been that the
remains of the Yule-log, if kept throughout the year, had power to protect
the house against fire and especially against lightning.676 As the Yule log was
[pg 265] frequently of oak,677 it seems possible that this belief may be a
relic of the old Aryan creed which associated the oak-tree with the god of
thunder.678 Whether the curative and fertilizing virtues ascribed to the ashes
of the Yule log, which are supposed to heal cattle as well as men, to enable
cows to calve, and to promote the fruitfulness of the earth,679 may not be
derived from the same ancient source, is a question which deserves to be
considered.

Thus far we have regarded only the private or domestic celebration of the
fire-festival at midwinter. The public celebration of such rites at that season
of the year appears to have been rare and exceptional in Central and
Northern Europe. However, some instances are on record. Thus at
Schweina, in Thuringia, down to the second half of the nineteenth century,
the young people used to kindle a great bonfire on the Antonius Mountain
every year on Christmas Eve. Neither the civil nor the ecclesiastical
authorities were able to suppress the celebration; nor could the cold, rain,
and snow of the season damp or chill the enthusiasm of the celebrants. For
some time before Christmas the young men and boys were busy building a
foundation for the bonfire on the top of the mountain, where the oldest
church of the village used to stand. The foundation consisted of a pyramidal
structure composed of stones, turf, and moss. When Christmas Eve came
 round, a strong pole, with bundles of brushwood tied to it, was erected on
the pyramid. The young folk also provided themselves with poles to which
old brooms or faggots of shavings were attached. These were to serve as
torches. When the evening grew dark and the church bells rang to service,
the troop of lads ascended the mountain; and soon from the top the glare
of the bonfire lit up the darkness, and the sound of a hymn broke the
stillness of night. In a circle round the great fire lesser fires were kindled;
and last of all the lads ran about swinging their lighted torches, till these
twinkling points of fire, moving down the mountain-side, went out one by
one in the darkness. At midnight the bells rang out from the church [pg
266] tower, mingled with the blast of horns and the sound of singing.
Feasting and revelry were kept up throughout the night, and in the morning
young and old went to early mass to be edified by hearing of the light
eternal.680

In the Bocage of Normandy the peasants used to repair, often from a

distance of miles, to the churches to hear the midnight mass on Christmas
Eve. They marched in procession by torchlight, chanting Christmas carols,
and the fitful illumination of the woods, the hedges, and the fields as they
moved through the darkness, presented a succession of picturesque scenes.
Mention is also made of bonfires kindled on the heights; the custom is said
to have been observed at Athis near Condé down to recent years.681

In the Isle of Man, “on the twenty-first of December, a day dedicated to

Saint Thomas, the people went to the mountains to catch deer and sheep
for Christmas, and in the evenings always kindled a large fire on the top of
every fingan or cliff. Hence, at the time of casting peats, every one laid
aside a large one, saying, ‘Faaid mooar moayney son oie'l fingan’; that is, ‘a
large turf for Fingan Eve.’ ”682 At Burghead, an ancient village on the
f
southern shore of the Moray Firth, about nine miles from the town of Elgin,
a festival of fire called “the Burning of the Clavie” has been celebrated from
time immemorial on Hogmanay, the last day of December. A tar-barrel is
sawn in two, one half of it is set on the top of a stout pole, and filled with
tar and other combustibles. The half-barrel is fastened to the pole by means
of a long nail, which is made for the purpose and furnished gratuitously by
the village blacksmith. The nail must be knocked in with a stone; the use of
a hammer is forbidden. When the shades of evening have begun to fall, the
Clavie, as it is called, is set on fire by means of a burning peat, which is
always fetched from the same house; it may not be kindled with a match.
As soon as it is in a blaze, it is shouldered by a man, who proceeds to carry
it at a run, flaring and dripping melted tar, round the old [pg 267]
boundaries of the village; the modern part of the town is not included in the
circuit. Close at his heels follows a motley crowd, cheering and shouting.
One bearer relieves another as each wearies of his burden. The first to
shoulder the Clavie, which is esteemed an honour, is usually a man who has
been lately married. Should the bearer stumble or fall, it is deemed a very ill
omen for him and for the village. In bygone times it was thought necessary
that one man should carry it all round the village; hence the strongest man
was chosen for the purpose. Moreover it was customary to carry the burning
Clavie round every fishing-boat and vessel in the harbour; but this part of
the ceremony was afterwards discontinued. Finally, the blazing tar-barrel is
borne to a small hill called the Doorie, which rises near the northern end of
the promontory. Here the pole is fixed into a socket in a pillar of freestone,
and fresh fuel is heaped upon the flames, which flare up higher and brighter
than ever. Formerly the Clavie was allowed to burn here the whole night,
but now, after blazing for about half an hour, it is lifted from the socket and
thrown down the western slope of the hill. Then the crowd rushes upon it,
demolishes it, and scrambles for the burning, smoking embers, which they
carry home and carefully preserve as charms to protect them against
witchcraft and misfortune.683 The great antiquity of Burghead, where this
curious and no doubt ancient festival is still annually observed, appears from
the remains of a very remarkable rampart which formerly encircled the
place. It consists of a mound of earth faced on both sides with a solid wall
of stone and strengthened internally by oak beams and planks, the whole
being laid on a foundation of boulders. The style of the rampart agrees in
general with Caesar's description of the mode in which the Gauls
constructed their walls of earth, stone, and logs,684 and it resembles the
ruins of Gallic fortifications which have been discovered [pg 268] in France,
though it is said to surpass them in the strength and solidity of its structure.
No similar walls appear to be known in Britain. A great part of this
interesting prehistoric fortress was barbarously destroyed in the early part of
the nineteenth century, much of it being tumbled into the sea and many of
the stones used to build the harbour piers.685

In Lerwick, the capital of the Shetland Islands, “on Christmas Eve, the
fourth of January,—for the old style is still observed—the children go a
guizing, that is to say, they disguising themselves in the most fantastic and
gaudy costumes, parade the streets, and infest the houses and shops,
begging for the wherewithal to carry on their Christmas amusements. One
 o'clock on Yule morning having struck, the young men turn out in large
numbers, dressed in the coarsest of garments, and, at the double-quick
march, drag huge tar barrels through the town, shouting and cheering as
they go, or blowing loud blasts with their ‘louder horns.’ The tar barrel
simply consists of several—say from four to eight—tubs filled with tar and
chips, placed on a platform of wood. It is dragged by means of a chain, to
which scores of jubilant youths readily yoke themselves. They have recently
been described by the worthy burgh officer of Lerwick as ‘fiery chariots, the
effect of which is truly grand and terrific.’ In a Christmas morning the dark
streets of Lerwick are generally lighted up by the bright glare, and its
atmosphere blackened by the dense smoke of six or eight tar barrels in
succession. On the appearance of daybreak, at six a.m., the morning
revellers put off their coarse garments—well begrimed by this time—and in
their turn become guizards. They assume every imaginable form of costume
—those of [pg 269] soldiers, sailors, highlanders, Spanish chevaliers, etc.
Thus disguised, they either go in pairs, as man and wife, or in larger groups,
and proceed to call on their friends, to wish them the compliments of the
season. Formerly, these adolescent guizards used to seat themselves in
crates, and accompanied by fiddlers, were dragged through the town.”686

The Persians used to celebrate a festival of fire called Sada or Saza at the
winter solstice. On the longest night of the year they kindled bonfires
everywhere, and kings and princes tied dry grass to the feet of birds and
f animals, set fire to the grass, and then let the birds and beasts fly or run
blazing through the air or over the fields and mountains, so that the whole
air and earth appeared to be on fire.687
§ 8. The Need-fire.

The fire-festivals hitherto described are all celebrated periodically at certain

stated times of the year. But besides these regularly recurring celebrations
the peasants in many parts of Europe have been wont from time
immemorial to resort to a ritual of fire at irregular intervals in seasons of
distress and calamity, above all when their cattle were attacked by epidemic
disease. No account of the popular European fire-festivals would be
complete without some notice of these remarkable rites, which have all the
greater claim on our attention because they may perhaps be regarded as
the source and origin of all the other fire-festivals; certainly they must date
from a very remote antiquity. The general name by which they are known
among the Teutonic peoples is need-fire.688

[pg 270]

The history of the need-fire can be traced back to the early Middle Ages; for
in the reign of Pippin, King of the Franks, the practice of kindling need-fires
was denounced as a heathen superstition by a synod of prelates and nobles
held under the presidency of Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz.689 Not long
afterwards the custom was again forbidden, along with many more relics of
expiring paganism, in an “Index of Superstitions and Heathenish
Observances,” which has been usually referred to the year 743 a.d., though
some scholars assign it a later date under the reign of Charlemagne.690 In
Germany the need-fires would seem to have been popular down to the
second half of the nineteenth century. Thus in the year 1598, when a fatal
cattle-plague was raging at Neustadt, near Marburg, a wise man of the
name of Joh. Köhler induced the authorities of the town to adopt the
following remedy. A new waggon-wheel was taken and twirled round an
axle, which had never been used before, until the friction elicited fire. With
this fire a bonfire was next kindled between the gates of the town, and all
the cattle were driven through the smoke and flames. Moreover, every
householder had to rekindle the fire on his hearth by means of a light taken
from the bonfire. Strange to say, this salutary measure had no effect
whatever in staying the [pg 271] cattle-plague, and seven years later the
sapient Joh. Köhler himself was burnt as a witch. The farmers, whose pigs
 and cows had derived no benefit from the need-fire, perhaps assisted as
spectators at the burning, and, while they shook their heads, agreed among
themselves that it served Joh. Köhler perfectly right.691 According to a writer
who published his book about nine years afterwards, some of the Germans,
especially in the Wassgaw mountains, confidently believed that a cattle-
plague could be stayed by driving the animals through a need-fire which
had been kindled by the violent friction of a pole on a quantity of dry oak
wood; but it was a necessary condition of success that all fires in the village
should previously be extinguished with water, and any householder who
failed to put out his fire was heavily fined.692

The method of kindling the need-fire is described as follows by a writer

towards the end of the seventeenth century: “When an evil plague has
f broken out among the cattle, large and small, and the herds have thereby
suffered great ravages, the peasants resolve to light a need-fire. On a day
appointed there must be no single flame in any house nor on any hearth.
From every house a quantity of straw and water and underwood must be
brought forth; then a strong oaken pole is fixed firmly in the earth, a hole is
bored in it, and a wooden winch, well smeared with pitch and tar, is inserted
in the hole and turned round forcibly till great heat and then fire is
generated. The fire so produced is caught in fuel and fed with straw, heath,
and underwood till it bursts out into a regular need-fire, which must then be
somewhat spread out between walls or fences, and the cattle and horses
driven through it twice or thrice with sticks and whips. Others set up two
posts, each with a hole in it, and insert a winch, along with old greasy rags,
in the holes. Others use a thick rope, collect nine kinds of wood, and keep
them in violent motion till fire leaps forth. Perhaps there may be other [pg
272] ways of generating or kindling this fire, but they are all directed simply
at the cure of the cattle. After passing twice or thrice through the fire the
cattle are driven to their stalls or to pasture, and the heap of wood that had
been collected is destroyed, but in some places every householder must
take with him a brand, extinguish it in a washing-tub or trough, and put it in
the manger where the cattle are fed, where it must lie for some time. The
poles that were used to make the need-fire, together with the wood that
was employed as a winch, are sometimes burned with the rest of the fuel,
sometimes carefully preserved after the cattle have been thrice driven
through the flames.”693

Sometimes the need-fire was known as the “wild fire,” to distinguish it no

doubt from the tame fire produced by more ordinary methods. The following
is Grimm's account of the mode of kindling it which prevailed in some parts
of Central Germany, particularly about Hildesheim, down apparently to the
first half of the nineteenth century: “In many places of Lower Saxony,
especially among the mountains, the custom prevails of preparing the so-
called ‘wild fire’ for the purpose of preventing cattle-plague; and through it
first the pigs, then the cows, and last of all the geese are driven. The
proceedings on the occasion are as follows. The principal farmers and
parishioners assemble, and notice is served to every inhabitant to extinguish
entirely all fire in his house, so that not even a spark remains alight in the
whole village. Then young and old repair to a road in a hollow, usually
towards evening, the women carrying linen, and the men wood and tow.
Two oaken poles are driven into the ground about a foot and a half from
each other. Each pole has in the side facing the other a socket into which a
cross-piece as thick as a man's arm is fitted. The sockets are stuffed with
linen, and the cross-piece is rammed in as tight as possible, while the poles
are bound together at the top by ropes. A rope is wound about the round,
smooth cross-piece, and the free ends of the rope at both sides are gripped
by several [pg 273] persons, who pull the cross-piece to and fro with the
utmost rapidity, till through the friction the linen in the sockets takes fire.
The sparks of the linen are immediately caught in tow or oakum and waved
about in a circle until they burst into a bright glow, when straw is applied to
it, and the flaming straw used to kindle the brushwood which has been
stacked in piles in the hollow way. When this wood has blazed up and the
fire has nearly died out again, the people hasten to the herds, which have
been waiting in the background, and drive them forcibly, one after the other,
through the glow. As soon as all the beasts are through, the young folk rush
wildly at the ashes and cinders, sprinkling and blackening each other with
them; those who have been most sprinkled and blackened march in triumph
behind the cattle into the village and do not wash themselves for a long
time. If after long rubbing the linen should not catch fire, they guess that
there is still fire somewhere in the village; then a strict search is made from
house to house, any fire that may be found is put out, and the householder
is punished or upbraided. The ‘wild fire’ must be made by prolonged friction;
it may not be struck with flint and steel. Some villages do not prepare it
yearly as a preventive of cattle-plague, but only kindle it when the disease
has actually broken out.”694 In the Halberstadt district the ends of the rope
which was used to make the cross-piece revolve in the sockets had to be
pulled by two chaste young men.695
In the Mark down to the first half of the nineteenth century the practice was
similar. We read that “in many parts of the Mark there still prevails on
certain occasions the custom of kindling a need-fire, it happens particularly
when a farmer has sick pigs. Two posts of dry wood are planted in the earth
amid solemn silence before the sun rises, and round these posts hempen
ropes are pulled to and fro till the wood kindles; whereupon the fire is fed
with dry leaves and twigs and the sick beasts are driven through it. In some
places the fire is produced by the friction of an old cart-wheel.”696

[pg 274]

In Mecklenburg the need-fire used to be lighted by the friction of a rope

wound about an oaken pole or by rubbing two boards against each other.
Having been thus elicited, the flame was fed with wood of seven kinds. The
practice was forbidden by Gustavus Adolphus, Duke of Mecklenburg, in
1682; but the prohibition apparently had little effect, for down to the end of
the eighteenth century the custom was so common that the inhabitants
even of large towns made no scruple of resorting to it. For example, in the
month of July 1792 sickness broke out among the cattle belonging to the
town of Sternberg; some of the beasts died suddenly, and so the people
resolved to drive all the survivors through a need-fire. On the tenth day of
July the magistrates issued a proclamation announcing that next morning
before sunrise a need-fire would be kindled for the behoof of all the cattle of
the town, and warning all the inhabitants against lighting fires in their
kitchens that evening. So next morning very early, about two o'clock, nearly
the whole population was astir, and having assembled outside one of the
gates of the town they helped to drive the timid cattle, not without much
ado, through three separate need-fires; after which they dispersed to their
homes in the unalterable conviction that they had rescued the cattle from
destruction. But to make assurance doubly sure they deemed it advisable to
administer the rest of the ashes as a bolus to the animals. However, some
people in Mecklenburg used to strew the ashes of the need-fire on fields for
the purpose of protecting the crops against vermin. As late as June 1868 a
traveller in Mecklenburg saw a couple of peasants sweating away at a rope,
which they were pulling backwards and forwards so as to make a tarry roller
revolve with great speed in the socket of an upright post. Asked what they
were about, they vouchsafed no reply; but an old woman who appeared on
the scene from a neighbouring cottage was more communicative. In the
fulness of her heart she confided to the stranger that her pigs were sick,
that the two taciturn bumpkins were her sons, who were busy extracting a
need-fire from the roller, and that, when they succeeded, the flame would
be used to ignite a heap of rags and brushwood, through which [pg 275]
the ailing swine would be driven. She further explained that the persons
who kindle a need-fire should always be two brothers or at least bear the
same Christian name.697

In the summer of 1828 there was much sickness among the pigs and the
cows of Eddesse, a village near Meinersen, in the south of Hanover. When
all ordinary measures to arrest the malady failed, the farmers met in solemn
conclave on the village green and determined that next morning there
should be a need-fire. Thereupon the head man of the village sent word
from house to house that on the following day nobody should kindle a fire
before sunrise, and that everybody should stand by ready to drive out the
cattle. The same afternoon all the necessary preparations were made for
giving effect to the decision of the collective wisdom. A narrow street was
enclosed with planks, and the village carpenter set to work at the machinery
for kindling the fire. He took two posts of oak wood, bored a hole about
three inches deep and broad in each, and set the two poles up facing each
other at a distance of about two feet. Then he fitted a roller of oak wood
into the two holes of the posts, so that it formed a cross-piece between
them. About two o'clock next morning every householder brought a bundle
of straw and brushwood and laid it down across the street in a prescribed
order. The sturdiest swains who could be found were chosen to make the
need-fire. For this purpose a long hempen rope was wound twice round the
oaken roller in the oaken posts: the pivots were well smeared with pitch and
tar: a bundle of tow and other tinder was laid close at hand, and all was
ready. The stalwart clodhoppers now seized the two ends of the rope and
went to work with a will. Puffs of smoke soon issued from the sockets, but
to the consternation of the bystanders not a spark of fire could be elicited.
Some people openly declared their suspicion that some rascal had not put
out the fire in his house, when suddenly the tinder burst into flame. The
cloud passed away from all faces; the fire was applied to the heaps of fuel,
and when the flames had somewhat died down, the herds were forcibly
driven through the fire, first the pigs, [pg 276] next the cows, and last of all
the horses. The herdsmen then drove the beasts to pasture, and persons
whose faith in the efficacy of the need-fire was particularly robust carried
home brands.698

Again, at a village near Quedlinburg, in the Harz Mountains, it was resolved

to put a herd of sick swine through the need-fire. Hearing of this intention
the Superintendent of Quedlinburg hurried to the spot and has described for
us what he saw. The beadles went from house to house to see that there
was no fire in any house; for it is well known that should there be common
fire burning in a house the need-fire will not kindle. The men made their
rounds very early in the morning to make quite sure that all lights were out.
At two o'clock a night-light was still burning in the parsonage, and this was
of course a hindrance to the need-fire. The peasants knocked at the window
and earnestly entreated that the night-light might be extinguished. But the
parson's wife refused to put the light out; it still glimmered at the window;
and in the darkness outside the angry rustics vowed that the parson's pigs
should get no benefit of the need-fire. However, as good luck would have it,
just as the morning broke, the night-light went out of itself, and the hopes
of the people revived. From every house bundles of straw, tow, faggots and
so forth were now carried to feed the bonfire. The noise and the cheerful
bustle were such that you might have thought they were all hurrying to
witness a public execution. Outside the village, between two garden walls,
an oaken post had been driven into the ground and a hole bored through it.
In the hole a wooden winch, smeared with tar, was inserted and made to
revolve with such force and rapidity that fire and smoke in time issued from
the socket. The collected fuel was then thrown upon the fire and soon a
great blaze shot up. The pigs were now driven into the upper end of the
street. As soon as they saw the fire, they turned tail, but the peasants drove
them through with shrieks and shouts and lashes of whips. At the other end
of the street there was another crowd waiting, who [pg 277] chased the
swine back through the fire a second time. Then the other crowd repeated
the manœuvre, and the herd of swine was driven for the third time through
the smoke and flames. That was the end of the performance. Many pigs
were scorched so severely that they gave up the ghost. The bonfire was
broken up, and every householder took home with him a brand, which he
washed in the water-barrel and laid for some time, as a treasure of great
price, in the manger from which the cattle were fed. But the parson's wife
had reason bitterly to repent her folly in refusing to put out that night-light;
for not one of her pigs was driven through the need-fire, so they died.699

In Brunswick, also, the need-fire is known to have been repeatedly kindled

during the nineteenth century. After driving the pigs through the fire, which
was kindled by the friction of wood, some people took brands home, dipped
them in water, and then gave the water to the pigs to drink, no doubt for
the purpose of inoculating them still more effectually with the precious
virtue of the need-fire. In the villages of the Drömling district everybody
who bore a hand in kindling the “wild fire” must have the same Christian
name; otherwise they laboured in vain. The fire was produced by the friction
of a rope round the beams of a door; and bread, corn, and old boots
contributed their mites to swell the blaze through which the pigs as usual
were driven. In one place, apparently not far from Wolfenbüttel, the need-
fire is said to have been kindled, contrary to custom, by the smith striking a
spark from the cold anvil.700 At Gandersheim down to about the beginning of
the nineteenth century the need-fire was lit in the common way by causing
a cross-bar to revolve rapidly on its axis between two upright posts. The
rope which produced the revolution of the bar had to be new, but it was if
possible woven from threads taken from a gallows-rope, with which people
had been hanged. While the need-fire was being kindled in this fashion,
every other fire in the town had to be put out; [pg 278] search was made
through the houses, and any fire discovered to be burning was
extinguished. If in spite of every precaution no flame could be elicited by
the friction of the rope, the failure was set down to witchcraft; but if the
efforts were successful, a bonfire was lit with the new fire, and when the
flames had died down, the sick swine were driven thrice through the
glowing embers.701 On the lower Rhine the need-fire is said to have been
kindled by the friction of oak-wood on fir-wood, all fires in the village having
been previously extinguished. The bonfires so kindled were composed of
wood of nine different sorts; there were three such bonfires, and the cattle
were driven round them with great gravity and devotion.702

In Silesia, also, need-fires were often employed for the purpose of curing a
murrain or preventing its spread. While all other lights within the boundaries
were extinguished, the new fire was produced by the friction of nine kinds
of wood, and the flame so obtained was used to kindle heaps of brushwood
or straw to which every inhabitant had contributed. Through these fires the
cattle, both sick and sound, were driven in the confident expectation that
thereby the sick would be healed and the sound saved from sickness.703
When plague breaks out among the herds at Dobischwald, in Austrian
Silesia, a splinter of wood is chipped from the threshold of every house, the
cattle are driven to a cross-road, and there a tree, growing at the boundary,
is felled by a pair of twin brothers. The wood of the tree and the splinters
from the thresholds furnish the fuel of a bonfire, which is kindled by the
rubbing of two pieces of wood together. When the bonfire is ablaze, the
horns of the cattle are pared and the parings thrown into the flames, after
which the animals are driven through the fire. This is believed to guard the
herd against the plague.704 The Germans of Western Bohemia resort to
similar measures for staying a murrain. You set up a post, bore a hole in it,
and insert in the hole a stick, which you have first of all smeared [pg 279]
with pitch and wrapt in inflammable stuffs. Then you wind a rope round the
stick and give the two ends of the rope to two persons who must either be
brothers or have the same baptismal name. They haul the rope backwards
and forwards so as to make the tarred stick revolve rapidly till the rope first
smokes and then emits sparks. The sparks are used to kindle a bonfire,
through which the cattle are driven in the usual way. And as usual no other
fire may burn in the village while the need-fire is being kindled; for
otherwise the rope could not possibly be ignited.705 In Upper Austria sick
pigs are reported to have been driven through a need-fire about the
beginning of the nineteenth century.706

The need-fire is still in use in some parts of Switzerland, but it seems to

have degenerated into a children's game and to be employed rather for the
dispersal of a mist than for the prevention or cure of cattle-plague. In some
cantons it goes by the name of “mist-healing,” while in others it is called
“butter-churning.” On a misty or rainy day a number of children will shut
themselves up in a stable or byre and proceed to make fire for the purpose
of improving the weather. The way in which they make it is this. A boy
places a board against his breast, takes a peg pointed at both ends, and,
setting one end of the peg against the board on his breast, presses the
other end firmly against a second board, the surface of which has been
flaked into a nap. A string is tied round the peg, and two other boys pull it
to and fro, till through the rapid motion of the point of the peg a hole is
burnt in the flaked board, to which tow or dry moss is then applied as a
tinder. In this way fire and smoke are elicited, and with their appearance the
children fancy that the mist will vanish.707 We may conjecture that this
method of dispersing a mist, which is now left to children, was formerly
practised in all seriousness by grown men in Switzerland. It is thus that
religious or magical rites dwindle away into the sports [pg 280] of children.
In the canton of the Grisons there is still in common use an imprecation,
“Mist, go away, or I'll heal you,” which points to an old custom of burning up
the fog with fire. A longer form of the curse lingers in the Vallée des Bagnes
of the canton Valais. It runs thus: “Mist, mist, fly, fly, or St. Martin will come
with a sheaf of straw to burn your guts, a great log of wood to smash your
brow, and an iron chain to drag you to hell.”708
In Sweden the need-fire is called, from the mode of its production, either
vrid-eld, “turned fire,” or gnid-eld, “rubbed fire.” Down to near the end of
the eighteenth century the need-fire was kindled, as in Germany, by the
violent rubbing of two pieces of wood against each other; sometimes nine
different kinds of wood were used for the purpose. The smoke of the fire
was deemed salutary; fruit-trees and nets were fumigated with it, in order
that the trees might bear fruit and the nets catch fish. Cattle were also
driven through the smoke.709 In Sundal, a narrow Norwegian valley, shut in
on both sides by precipitous mountains, there lived down to the second half
of the nineteenth century an old man who was very superstitious. He set
salmon-traps in the river Driva, which traverses the valley, and he caught
many fish both in spring and autumn. When his fishing went wrong, he
kindled naueld (“need-fire”) or gnideild (“rubbed fire,” “friction fire”) to
counteract the witchcraft, which he believed to be the cause of his bad luck.
He set up two planks near each other, bored a hole in each, inserted a
pointed rod in the holes, and twisted a long cord round the rod. Then he
pulled the cord so as to make the rod revolve rapidly. Thus by reason of the
friction he at last drew fire from the wood. That contented him, for “he
believed that the witchery was thus rendered powerless, and that good luck
in his fishing was now ensured.”710

Slavonic peoples hold the need-fire in high esteem. [pg 281] They call it
“living fire,” and attribute to it a healing virtue. The ascription of medicinal
power to fire kindled by the friction of wood is said to be especially
characteristic of the Slavs who inhabit the Carpathian Mountains and the
Balkan peninsula. The mode in which they produce the need-fire differs
somewhat in different places. Thus in the Schar mountains of Servia the
task is entrusted to a boy and girl between eleven and fourteen years of
age. They are led into a perfectly dark room, and having stripped
themselves naked kindle the fire by rubbing two rollers of lime wood against
each other, till the friction produces sparks, which are caught in tinder. The
Serbs of Western Macedonia drive two oaken posts into the ground, bore a
round hole in the upper end of each, insert a roller of lime wood in the
holes, and set it revolving rapidly by means of a cord, which is looped round
the roller and worked by a bow. Elsewhere the roller is put in motion by two
men, who hold each one end of the cord and pull it backwards and forwards
forcibly between them. Bulgarian shepherds sometimes kindle the need-fire
by drawing a prism-shaped piece of lime wood to and fro across the flat
surface of a tree-stump in the forest.711 But in the neighbourhood of
Küstendil, in Bulgaria, the need-fire is kindled by the friction of two pieces of
oak wood and the cattle are driven through it.712

In many districts of Russia, also, “living fire” is made by the friction of wood
on St. John's Day, and the herds are driven through it, and the people leap
over it in the conviction that their health is thereby assured; when a cattle-
plague is raging, the fire is produced by rubbing two pieces of oak wood
against each other, and it is used to kindle the lamps before the holy
pictures and the censers in the churches.713 Thus it appears that in Russia
the need-fire is kindled for the sake of the cattle periodically as well as on
special emergencies. Similarly in Poland the peasants are said to kindle fires
in [pg 282] the village streets on St. Rochus's day and to drive the cattle
thrice through them in order to protect the animals against the murrain. The
fire is produced by rubbing a pole of poplar wood on a plank of poplar or fir
wood and catching the sparks in tow. The embers are carried home to be
used as remedies in sickness.714 As practised in Slavonia, the custom of the
need-fire used to present some interesting features, which are best
described in the words of an eye-witness:—“In the year 1833 I came for the
first time as a young merchant to Slavonia; it was to Gaj that I went, in the
Požega district. The time was autumn, and it chanced that a cattle-plague
was raging in the neighbourhood, which inflicted much loss on the people.
The peasants believed that the plague was a woman, an evil spirit (Kuga),
who was destroying the cattle; so they sought to banish her. I had then
occasion to observe the proceedings in the villages of Gaj, Kukunjevac,
Brezina, and Brekinjska. Towards evening the whole population of the
village was busy laying a ring of brushwood round the boundaries of the
village. All fires were extinguished throughout the village. Then pairs of men
in several places took pieces of wood, which had been specially prepared for
the purpose, and rubbed them together till they emitted sparks. The sparks
were allowed to fall on tinder and fanned into a flame, with which the dry
brushwood was kindled. Thus the fire burned all round the village. The
peasants persuaded themselves that thereupon Kuga must take her
departure.”715

This last account leaves no doubt as to the significance of the need-fire in

the minds of Slavonian peasantry. They regard it simply as a barrier
interposed between their cattle and the evil spirit, which prowls, like a
hungry wolf, round the fold and can, like a wolf, be kept at bay by fire. The
same interpretation of the need-fire comes out, hardly less clearly, in the
account which another writer gives of a ceremony witnessed by him at the
village of Setonje, at the foot of the Homolje mountains in the great forest
of Servia. An [pg 283] epidemic was raging among the children, and the
need-fire was resorted to as a means of staying the plague. It was produced
by an old man and an old woman in the first of the ways described above;
that is, they made it in the dark by rubbing two sticks of lime wood against
each other. Before the healing virtue of the fire was applied to the
inhabitants of the village, two old women performed the following
ceremony. Both bore the name of Stana, from the verb stati, “to remain
standing”; for the ceremony could not be successfully performed by persons
of any other name. One of them carried a copper kettle full of water, the
other an old house-lock with the key. Thus equipped they repaired to a spot
outside of the village, and there the old dame with the kettle asked the old
dame with the lock, “Whither away?” and the other answered her, “I came
to shut the village against ill-luck.” With that she locked the lock and threw
it with the key into the kettle of water. Then they marched thrice round the
village, repeating the ceremony of the lock and key at each round.
Meantime all the villagers, arrayed in their best clothes, were assembled in
an open place. All the fires in the houses had been previously extinguished.
Two sturdy yokels now dug a tunnel through a mound beside an oak tree;
the tunnel was just high enough to let a man creep through it on all fours.
Two fires, lit by the need-fire, were now laid, one at each end of the tunnel;
and the old woman with the kettle took her stand at the entrance of the
tunnel, while the one with the lock posted herself at the exit. Facing the
latter stood another woman with a great pot of milk before her, and on the
other side was set a pot full of melted swine's fat. All was now ready. The
villagers thereupon crawled through the tunnel on hands and knees, one
behind the other. Each, as he emerged from the tunnel, received a spoonful
of milk from the woman and looked at his face reflected in the pot of melted
swine's fat. Then another woman made a cross with a piece of charcoal on
his back. When all the inhabitants had thus crept through the tunnel and
been doctored at the other end, each took some glowing embers home with
him in a pot wherewith to rekindle the fire on the domestic hearth. Lastly
they put some of the charcoal in a vessel [pg 284] of water and drank the
mixture in order to be thereby magically protected against the epidemic.716

It would be superfluous to point out in detail how admirably these measures

are calculated to arrest the ravages of disease; but for the sake of those, if
there are any, to whom the medicinal effect of crawling through a hole on
hands and knees is not at once apparent, I shall merely say that the
procedure in question is one of the most powerful specifics which the wit of
man has devised for maladies of all sorts. Ample evidence of its application
will be adduced in a later part of this work.717

In Bulgaria the herds suffer much from the raids of certain blood-sucking
vampyres called Ustrels. An Ustrel is the spirit of a Christian child who was
born on a Saturday and died unfortunately before he could be baptized. On
the ninth day after burial he grubs his way out of the grave and attacks the
cattle at once, sucking their blood all night and returning at peep of dawn to
the grave to rest from his labours. In ten days or so the copious draughts of
blood which he has swallowed have so fortified his constitution that he can
undertake longer journeys; so when he falls in with great herds of cattle or
flocks of sheep he returns no more to the grave for rest and refreshment at
night, but takes up his quarters during the day either between the horns of
a sturdy calf or ram or between the hind legs of a milch-cow. Beasts whose
blood he has sucked die the same night. In any herd that he may fasten on
he begins with the fattest animal and works his way down steadily through
the leaner kine till not one single beast is left alive. The carcases of the
victims swell up, and when the hide is stripped off you can always perceive
the livid patch of flesh where the monster sucked the blood of the poor
creature. In a single night he may, by working hard, kill five cows; but he
seldom exceeds that number. He can change his shape and weight very
easily; for example, when he is sitting by day between the horns of a ram,
the animal scarcely feels his weight, but at night he will sometimes throw
himself on an ox or a cow [pg 285] so heavily that the animal cannot stir,
and lows so pitifully that it would make your heart bleed to hear. People who
were born on a Saturday can see these monsters, and they have described
them accurately, so that there can be no doubt whatever about their
existence. It is, therefore, a matter of great importance to the peasant to
protect his flocks and herds against the ravages of such dangerous
vampyres. The way in which he does so is this. On a Saturday morning
before sunrise the village drummer gives the signal to put out every fire in
the village; even smoking is forbidden. Next all the domestic animals, with
the exception of fowls, geese, and ducks, are driven out into the open. In
front of the flocks and herds march two men, whose names during the
ceremony may not be mentioned in the village. They go into the wood, pick
two dry branches, and having stript themselves of their clothes they rub the
two branches together very hard till they catch fire; then with the fire so
obtained they kindle two bonfires, one on each side of a cross-road which is
known to be frequented by wolves. After that the herd is driven between
the two fires. Coals from the bonfires are then taken back to the village and
used to rekindle the fires on the domestic hearths. For several days no one
may go near the charred and blackened remains of the bonfires at the
cross-road. The reason is that the vampyre is lying there, having dropped
from his seat between the cow's horns when the animals were driven
between the two fires. So if any one were to pass by the spot during these
days, the monster would be sure to call him by name and to follow him to
the village; whereas if he is left alone, a wolf will come at midnight and
strangle him, and in a few days the herdsmen can see the ground soaked
with his slimy blood. So that is the end of the vampyre.718 In this Bulgarian
custom, as in the Slavonian custom described above, the conception of the
need-fire as a barrier set up between the cattle and a dangerous spirit is
clearly worked out. The spirit rides the cow till he comes to the narrow pass
between the two fires, but the heat there is too much for him; he drops in a
faint from the saddle, or rather from the horns, and the now riderless animal
escapes safe and sound [pg 286] beyond the smoke and flame, leaving her
persecutor prostrate on the ground on the further side of the blessed
barrier.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina there are some local differences in the mode of
kindling the need-fire, or “living fire,” as it is called. Thus at Jablanica both
the uprights and the roller or cross-piece, which by its revolution kindles the
fire, are made of cornel-tree wood; whereas at Dolac, near Sarajevo, the
uprights and the cross-piece or roller are all made of lime wood. In Gacko,
contrary to the usual custom, the fire is made by striking a piece of iron on
an anvil, till sparks are given out, which are caught in tinder. The “living fire”
thus produced is employed for purposes of healing. In particular, if any one
suffers from wounds or sores, ashes of the need-fire are sprinkled on the
ailing part. In Gacko it is also believed that if a pregnant woman witnesses a
conflagration, her child will either be born with a red eruption on its skin or
will contract the malady sooner or later afterwards. The only remedy
consists in ashes of the need-fire, which are mixed with water and given to
the child to drink.719

In England the earliest notice of the need-fire seems to be contained in the

Chronicle of Lanercost for the year 1268. The annalist tells with pious horror
how, when an epidemic was raging in that year among the cattle, “certain
beastly men, monks in garb but not in mind, taught the idiots of their
country to make fire by the friction of wood and to set up an image of
Priapus, whereby they thought to succour the animals.”720 The use of the
need-fire is particularly attested for the counties of Yorkshire and
Northumberland. Thus in Yorkshire down to the middle of the eighteenth
century “the favourite remedy of the country [pg 287] people, not only in
the way of cure, but of prevention, was an odd one; it was to smoke the
cattle almost to suffocation, by kindling straw, litter, and other combustible
matter about them. The effects of this mode of cure are not stated, but the
most singular part of it was that by which it was reported to have been
discovered. An angel (says the legend), descended into Yorkshire, and there
set a large tree on fire; the strange appearance of which or else the savour
of the smoke, incited the cattle around (some of which were infected) to
draw near the miracle, when they all either received an immediate cure or
an absolute prevention of the disorder. It is not affirmed that the angel staid
to speak to anybody, but only that he left a written direction for the
neighbouring people to catch this supernatural fire, and to communicate it
from one to another with all possible speed throughout the country; and in
case it should be extinguished and utterly lost, that then new fire, of equal
virtue, might be obtained, not by any common method, but by rubbing two
pieces of wood together till they ignited. Upon what foundation this story
stood, is not exactly known, but it put the farmers actually into a hurry of
communicating flame and smoke from one house to another with wonderful
speed, making it run like wildfire over the country.”721 Again, we read that
“the father of the writer, who died in 1843, in his seventy-ninth year, had a
perfect remembrance of a great number of persons, belonging to the upper
and middle classes of his native parish of Bowes, assembling on the banks
of the river Greta to work for need-fire. A disease among cattle, called the
murrain, then prevailed to a very great extent through that district of
Yorkshire. The cattle were made to pass through the smoke raised by this
miraculous fire, and their cure was looked upon as certain, and to neglect
doing so was looked upon as wicked. This fire was produced by the violent
and continued friction of two dry pieces of wood until such time as it was
thereby obtained. ‘To work as though one was working for need-fire’ [pg
288] is a common proverb in the North of England.”722 At Ingleton, a small
town nestling picturesquely at the foot of the high hill of Ingleborough in
western Yorkshire, “within the last thirty years or so it was a common
practice to kindle the so-called ‘Need-fire’ by rubbing two pieces of wood
briskly together, and setting ablaze a large heap of sticks and brushwood,
which were dispersed, and cattle then driven through the smoking brands.
This was thought to act as a charm against the spread or developement of
the various ailments to which cattle are liable, and the farmers seem to have
had great faith in it.”723 Writing about the middle of the nineteenth century,
Kemble tells us that the will-fire or need-fire had been used in Devonshire
for the purpose of staying a murrain within the memory of man.724

So in Northumberland, down to the first half of the nineteenth century,

“when a contagious disease enters among cattle, the fires are extinguished
in the adjacent villages. Two pieces of dried wood are then rubbed together
until fire be produced; with this a quantity of straw is kindled, juniper is
thrown into the flame, and the cattle are repeatedly driven through the
smoke. Part of the forced fire is sent to the neighbours, who again forward
it to others, and, as great expedition is used, the fires may be seen blazing
over a great extent of country in a very short space of time.”725 “It is
strange,” says the antiquary William Henderson, writing about 1866, “to find
the custom of lighting ‘need-fires’ on the occasion of epidemics among
cattle still lingering among us, but so it is. The vicar of Stamfordham writes
thus [pg 289] respecting it: ‘When the murrain broke out among the cattle
about eighteen years ago, this fire was produced by rubbing two pieces of
dry wood together, and was carried from place to place all through this
district, as a charm against cattle taking the disease. Bonfires were kindled
with it, and the cattle driven into the smoke, where they were left for some
time. Many farmers hereabouts, I am informed, had the need-fire.’ ”726

In the earliest systematic account of the western islands of Scotland we

read that “the inhabitants here did also make use of a fire called Tin-egin,
i.e. a forced fire, or fire of necessity, which they used as an antidote against
the plague or murrain in cattle; and it was performed thus: all the fires in
the parish were extinguished, and then eighty-one married men, being
thought the necessary number for effecting this design, took two great
planks of wood, and nine of them were employed by turns, who by their
repeated efforts rubbed one of the planks against the other until the heat
thereof produced fire; and from this forced fire each family is supplied with
new fire, which is no sooner kindled than a pot full of water is quickly set on
it, and afterwards sprinkled upon the people infected with the plague, or
upon the cattle that have the murrain. And this they all say they find
successful by experience: it was practised in the main land, opposite to the
south of Skie, within these thirty years.”727

In the island of Mull, one of the largest of the Hebrides, the need-fire was
kindled as late as 1767. “In consequence of a disease among the black
cattle the people agreed to perform an incantation, though they esteemed it
a wicked thing. They carried to the top of Cammoor a wheel and nine
 spindles of oakwood. They extinguished every fire in [pg 290] every house
f within sight of the hill; the wheel was then turned from east to west over
the nine spindles long enough to produce fire by friction. If the fire were not
produced before noon, the incantation lost its effect. They failed for several
days running. They attributed this failure to the obstinacy of one
householder, who would not let his fires be put out for what he considered
so wrong a purpose. However, by bribing his servants they contrived to have
them extinguished and on that morning raised their fire. They then
sacrificed a heifer, cutting in pieces and burning, while yet alive, the
diseased part. They then lighted their own hearths from the pile and ended
by feasting on the remains. Words of incantation were repeated by an old
man from Morven, who came over as master of the ceremonies, and who
continued speaking all the time the fire was being raised. This man was
living a beggar at Bellochroy. Asked to repeat the spell, he said, the sin of
repeating it once had brought him to beggary, and that he dared not say
those words again. The whole country believed him accursed.”728 From this
account we see that in Mull the kindling of the need-fire as a remedy for
cattle disease was accompanied by the sacrifice of one of the diseased
animals; and though the two customs are for the most part mentioned
separately by our authorities, we may surmise that they were often, perhaps
usually, practised together for the purpose of checking the ravages of
sickness in the herds.729

In the county of Caithness, forming the extreme north-east corner of the

mainland of Scotland, the practice of the need-fire survived down at least to
about 1788. We read that “in those days, 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 need-fire. 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 [pg 291] 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 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, etc.), 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 need-fire would be
accomplished. The fire in the farmer's house, etc., was immediately
quenched with water, a fire kindled from this need-fire, both in the farm-
houses and offices, and the cattle brought to feel the smoke of this new and
sacred fire, which preserved them from the murrain.”730

The last recorded case of the need-fire in Caithness happened in 1809 or

1810. At Houstry, Dunbeath, a crofter named David Gunn had made for
himself a kail-yard and in doing so had wilfully encroached on one of those
prehistoric ruins called brochs, which the people of the neighbourhood
believed to be a fairy habitation. Soon afterwards a murrain broke out
among the cattle of the district and carried off many beasts. So the wise
men put their heads together and resolved to light a teine-eigin or need-fire
as the best way of stopping the plague. They cut a branch from a tree in a
neighbouring wood, stripped it of bark, and carried it to a small island in the
Houstry Burn. Every fire in the [pg 292] district having been quenched, new
fire was made by the friction of wood in the island, and from this sacred
flame all the hearths of the houses were lit afresh. One of the sticks used in
making the fire was preserved down to about the end of the nineteenth
century; apparently the mode of operation was the one known as the fire-
drill: a pointed stick was twirled in a hole made in another stick till fire was
elicited by the friction.731

Another account of the use of need-fire in the Highlands of Scotland runs as

follows: “When, by the neglect of the prescribed safeguards [against
witchcraft], the seeds of iniquity have taken root, and a person's means are
decaying in consequence, the only alternative, in this case, is to resort to
that grand remedy, the Tein Econuch, or ‘Forlorn Fire,’ which seldom fails of
being productive of the best effects. The cure for witchcraft, called Tein
Econuch, is wrought in the following manner:—A consultation being held by
the unhappy sufferer and his friends as to the most advisable measures of
effecting a cure, if this process is adopted, notice is privately communicated
to all those householders who reside within the nearest of two running
streams, to extinguish their lights and fires on some appointed morning. On
its being ascertained that this notice has been duly observed, a spinning-
wheel, or some other convenient instrument, calculated to produce fire by
friction, is set to work with the most furious earnestness by the unfortunate
sufferer, and all who wish well to his cause. Relieving each other by turns,
they drive on with such persevering diligence, that at length the spindle of
the wheel, ignited by excessive friction, emits ‘forlorn fire’ in abundance,
which, by the application of tow, or some other combustible material, is
widely extended over the whole neighbourhood. Communicating the fire to
the tow, the tow communicates it to a candle, the candle to a fir-torch, the
torch to a cartful of peats, which the master of the ceremonies, with pious
ejaculations for the success of the experiment, distributes to messengers,
who will proceed with portions of it to the different houses within the said
two running streams, to kindle the different fires. By the influence [pg 293]
of this operation, the machinations and spells of witchcraft are rendered null
and void.”732

In various parts of the Highlands of Scotland the need-fire was still kindled
during the first half of the nineteenth century, as we learn from the
following account:—

“Tein-eigin, neid-fire, need-fire, forced fire, fire produced by the friction of

wood or iron against wood.

“The fire of purification was kindled from the neid-fire, while the domestic
fire on the hearth was re-kindled from the purification fire on the knoll.
Among other names, the purification fire was called Teine Bheuil, fire of
Beul, and Teine mor Bheuil, great fire of Beul. The fire of Beul was divided
into two fires between which people and cattle rushed australly for purposes
of purification. The ordeal was trying, as may be inferred from phrases still
current. Is teodha so na teine teodha Bheuil, ‘Hotter is this than the hot fire
of Beul.’ Replying to his grandchild, an old man in Lewis said ... ‘Mary!
sonnie, it were worse for me to do that for thee than to go between the two
great fires of Beul.’

“The neid-fire was resorted to in imminent or actual calamity upon the first
day of the quarter, and to ensure success in great or important events.

“The writer conversed with several persons who saw the neid-fire made,
and who joined in the ceremony. As mentioned elsewhere, a woman in
Arran said that her father, and the other men of the townland, made the
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