650 REPORT—1896, 
specific ceremonials of marriage and birth. In north-east Scotland the 
bride was led straight to the hearth, and into her hands were put the tongs, 
with which she made up the fire. The besom was at times substituted for 
the tongs, when she swept the hearth. The crook was then swung three 
times round her head, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
and with the prayer, ‘May the Almichty mack this umman a gueedwife.’ 
The last act of her installation as ‘ gueedwife ’ was leading her to the gir- 
nal or mehl-bowie, and pressing her hand into the meal as far as possible. 
This last action, it was believed, secured in all time coming abundance 
of the staff of life in the household.'’ Again, when the bride is entering 
her future home, two of her female friends meet her at the door, the 
one bearing a towel or napkin, and the other a dish filled with various 
kinds of bread. The towel or napkin is spread over her head, and the 
bread is then poured over her. It is gathered up by the children who 
have collected round the door. In former times the bride was then led up 
to the hearth, and, after the fire had been scattered, the tongs were put 
into her hand, and she made it up.? 
In Scotland, according to Mr. Gregor’s account, on the birth of the 
child the mother and offspring were sained, a ceremony which was done 
in the following manner : A fir-candle was lighted and carried three times 
round the bed, if it was in a position to allow of this being done, and if 
this could not be done, it was whirled three times round their heads ; a 
Bible and bread and cheese, or a Bible and a biscuit, were placed under 
the pillow, and the words were repeated, ‘ May the Almichty debar a ill 
frae this umman, an be aboot ir, an bliss ir an ir bairn.’ When the biscuit 
or the bread and cheese had served their purpose, they were distributed 
among the unmarried friends and acquaintances, to be placed under their 
pillows to evoke dreams. Among some of the fishing population a fir- 
candle or a basket containing bread and cheese was placed on the bed to 
keep the fairies at a distance.* Dalyell records the following curious 
custom : ‘The child put on a cloth spread over a basket containing pro- 
visions was conveyed thrice round the crook of the chimney ’ 1—thus pre- 
serving the proximity of fire. Pennant describes a christening feast in 
the Highlands, wherein the father placed a basket of food across the fire, 
and handed the infant three times over the food and flame.’ 
In West Galway we meet with the curious notion that no fire must be 
removed out of a house in which a child is born until the mother is up 
and well.® 
The mothers of Scotland are much afraid of the household fairy who 
changes the new-born babe ; and the question is put to the test by an 
appeal to the house-fire. Mr. Gregor says the hearth was piled with peat, 
and when the fire was at its strength, the suspected changeling was placed 
in front of it and as near as possible not to be scorched, or it was sus- 
pended in a basket over the fire. If it was a ‘changeling child’ it made 
its escape by the Jwm, throwing back words of scorn as it disappeared.’ 
? Gregor’s Folklore of the North-east of Scotland, p. 93. See also Henderson, 
Folklore of Northern Counties, p. 36. 
2 Gregor, op. cit. p. 99. 
3 Thid. p. 5. 
4 Dalyell’s Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 176. 
5 Pennant’s Tour in Highlands, iii. p. 46. Cf. Miss Gordon Cumming’s Jn the 
Hebrides, p. 101. 
6 Folklore Record, iv. p. 108. 
% Folklore of the North-east of Scotland, pp. 8-9. 
