64.0 REPORT—-1896. 
session records of Elgin, Kinneddar (now Drainie), Duffus, and Inveravon, 
many interesting particulars of the attempt to put down the burning of 
clavies round the boats and the fields of the fisherfolk and peasantry in 
the country round about Burghead, attempts which take back the custom 
to 1655, when it was considered an ancient ‘idolatrous and heathenish 
practice,’ and shows that the custom of ‘burning the clavie is not a 
ceremony peculiar to Burghead, and has no special connection either with 
that spot or with a sea-going community.’' At Warkworth in North- 
umberland every year the farmers kindled a new fire with some ceremony 
at a certain farm agreed upon, and the cattle were then shut up in the 
straw barn, where the fire was kept up among them for some time, after 
which a lighted brand was carried on to the next farm where preparations 
had been made for a similar proceeding. If the brand went out, the virtue 
was gone ; and that year would be looked forward to with dread of many 
deaths among the herd.?_ In Herefordshire and Somersetshire fires were 
made in the fields to bless the apples. It will be readily detected that 
these examples contain four elements which belong also to the group of 
examples just examined, 0, c, g, i, and only one divergent element, namely, 
the Penzance thread-the-needle ceremony (7). Perhaps the Warkworth 
custom of carrying fire from farm to farm is the divergent form (s) of the 
lighting of the house-fire at the village-fire. 
One thing further has to be noticed, and this is of singular interest to 
the present line of enquiry, because it links on fire customs to an im- 
portant social institution. The meeting-place of the tribe, sacred to it 
in many ways, is preserved in many places throughout the kingdom ; and 
some years ago I collected the evidence together in my little book ‘ Primi- 
tive Folk Moots.’ We have seen how the fire is connected with the tribal 
chieftains in Irish evidence, and we know that the care of the tribal fire 
was a part of the chief’s duty as priest-king of the tribe. The relation- 
ship of the place of fire-kindling to the place of meeting is therefore an 
important feature of the cult. Is it to be found among the surviving 
fire customs of the class we have been examining ? 
A splendid example is to be found in Ayrshire. The Torbolton moot 
hill and the ancient so-called altar for kindling the fire adjoin each other, 
The moot hill was used as a meeting-place until recent times, while the 
fire-kindling is carried on to this day. The date is the nearest Tuesday 
to June 3; the fire is kept burning for three days, and the boys of the 
neighbourhood indulge in the ancient practice of ‘leaping on the altar.’ + 
T have not been able yet to give other examples of tbe close connection 
between the tribal meeting-place and the place for j:indling the fire ; but 
I suggest that the various toot hills throughout the country, and the 
many examples of a second and smaller hill, or a second and smaller stone, 
which occur near to the hill or stone of meeting, afford ample ground for 
believing that the necessary evidence will be forthcoming when my 
researches are completed. 
These examples complete the evidence I am able to bring forward as 
to the village phase of the fire custom, and I will now tabulate the results 
up to this point. The following table gives the result of the analysis of 
1 Trans. Antig. Sue. Scot. x. 652, 659. 
2 Denham Tracts, ii. 365, 366. 
3 Aubrey, Remaines [1685], p. 96. 
4 Smith’s Prehistoric Antiquitics of Ayrshire, p. 149. 
