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— which has been practised in our own day. The "needfire," 

 which was probably the last remains of fire worship in this country, 

 took its name from the Danish word nod (pronounced need), which 

 signifies cattle ; whence our English neat herd. " It was once," 

 says Mr. Sullivan, "an annual observance, and is still occasionally 

 employed in the dales and some other localities, as a charm for 

 the various diseases to which cattle are liable. All the fires in the 

 village are first carefully put out — a deputation going round to 

 each house to see that not a spark remains. Two pieces of wood are 

 then ignited by friction, and within the influence of the fire thus 

 kindled the cattle are brought. The scene is one of dire bellowing 

 and confusion : but the owner is especially anxious that his animals 

 should get 'plenty of the reek.' The charm being ended in one 

 village, may be transferred to the next, and thus propagated as far 

 as it is required." Miss Martineau, in her Guide to the Lakes, tells 

 a story of a certain farmer who, " when all his cattle had been 

 passed through the fire, subjected an ailing wife to the same 

 potent charm." The last time the "needfire" was used in this 

 neighbourhood was in 1841, when in some parts of Cumberland 

 and Westmorland there was an epidemic amongst the cattle. It 

 was brought over the Raise, and transferred from farm to farm 

 through the vales. But, at one farm a few miles out of Keswick, 

 the sacred fire was allowed to become extinct, the owner, a well- 

 known "statesman," not having sufficient faith in its virtue to take 

 the trouble to transmit it, or even to keep it alight. He tells me 

 that he was severely rated at the time for his lack of faith. It is 

 now upwards of thirty years since the "needfire" was last used as 

 a charm to preserve cattle from infection ; and during that time a 

 great change has been effected in the enlightenment of the people. 

 The rinderpest was the severest visitation of the kind we have had 

 this century, but no one thought of trying the "needfire," which 

 has no doubt gone its last round. 



We still have among us men of the old school, who believe in 

 charms and ghosts and the like, but their number grows "small by 

 degrees and beautifully less." Some people, especially the aged, 

 are apt to talk of the "good old times," as if at some indefinite 



