SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 597 



in the form : ' Ge's a peat t' bum the -witches.' At Balmoral the witch assumed the 

 form of the effigy of a hideous old woman or witch called the Shandy Dann. At an 

 earlier period the fire was believed to destroy all malignant powers. 



The Midsummer fires still blaze on at least one sequestered knoll, and within living 

 memory, in one ancient town, there was wont to be a midsummer celebration. 



At Kirkwall there was a ' fiery fight ' on May 24, associated with the Royal 

 Birthday. It was really the old midsummer bonfire. The leaping through the 

 flames was another mark of an ancient rite. 



To this day, on June 24, the midsummer fire is kindled on the hill of Caimshee, in 

 Durris, Kincardineshire, owing to a bequest for the purpose. 



But it is the Yule fires of which there is the most widespread evidence. Even in 

 their present attenuated form the rites bear marks of high antiquity. There is the 

 burning of the Clavie at Burghead. 



At Lens'ick there used to be a fire ceremonial on New Year's Day (O.S.). There 

 was a procession through the town of a number of youths, dragging large blazing 

 barrels, filled with chips and tar, and mounted on platforms of wood. 



Dingwall some sixty years ago had a similar ceremonial, known as the ' burning 

 of the crate.' On the last night of the year the crate, filled with combustibles and 

 dragged by a horse, was set on fire to the accompaniment of much shouting and 

 dancing. The blazing contents of the crate were scattered. This was popularly 

 believed to be the burning of the effigy of the Norse Jarl Thorfinn. But the rite 

 antedates the Norse Conquest, and is really the burning of the witch at the close of 

 the year. 



At Stonehaven the last night of the year still witnesses the ceremonial of the 

 ' Fireballs.' The balls are circular in shape and about the size of a bee's skep. They 

 are made of combustibles and well inoculated with tar. To each ball a piece of wire 

 is attached by which it may be swung by the celebrants. Some sixty balls are now 

 employed and swung with great gusto as the procession marches backwards and 

 forwards along the High Street of the old town. 



(2) In ancient times pillars of stone were objects of veneration. The megaliths 

 that abound in Aberdeenshire were believed till recent times to be the abodes of spirits 

 or demons. In 1649 Andro Man was brought before the Kirk Session of Elgin, charged 

 with idolatry in setting up a stone and using some superstitious ceremonies to it, 

 such as taking off his ' bonat ' to it. Like his namesake the noted Warlock of Rathven, 

 who * laid off wards to the Hind Knyght,' the Elgin man is perpetuating an ancient 

 worship. The practice does not seem to have died out, for according to Bishop 

 Chisholm a farmer in Glenlivet 200 years later went round the marches of the farm 

 of Auchorachan reciting certain words and placing upright stones. 



(3) In the uplands of the north-eastern counties there are many evidences of the 

 survival till quite recently of primitive agricultural rites. 



There was the ceremonial associated with the ' streeking of the plough ' in the 

 autumn. When the plough was first put into the soil after harvest, a semi-religious 

 rite was observed. There was a meal partaken of in the field of a sacrificial nature. 

 There was an offering to Ceres laid upon the plough and to be touched by none or 

 else put under the first furrow. This custom — the proarosia of Greece — continued 

 till well through the nineteenth century. It was found in Buchan, Caimey, Strathdon, 

 Glenlivet, Strachan. 



The ' clyack sheaf,' or ' maiden,' has been cut and gathered by many still living. 

 The best part of the field was left to be cut last for ,' the maiden.' 



(4) Beliefs associated with birth and death. 



(a) Birth. — Fecundation was believed by some to be due to partaking food on 

 which a male cat had deposited semen. In 1654 Jean Sympson, a parishioner of 

 Rothiemay, asserted she had ' cats in her bellie.' Her mother shared this belief. 



The belief is not wholly extinct yet, for in some parts of the Highlands of Banfifshire 

 there are people who have a great dread of a male cat jumping upon the table. 



Other rites to promote conception were performed by married women who had 

 remained childless. 



At Melshach Well, near Wardhouse, Aberdeenshire, a fertility rite is described 

 by an observer. A large number of women — childless matrons — were seen with their 

 garments fastened under their arms, hands joined, dancing in a circle. An old woman 

 in the centre kept sprinkling them with water from the well, A well of similar virtue 

 was the Bride's Well at CorgafiF, 



Contact with a stone of virtue might induce pregnancy in barren women. Such a 



