PTRE, COOKING^ AND VESSELS. 255 



compared tOj or spoken of as, a rpviravov, whidi instrument, 

 as appears in the passage quoted from the Odyssey at page 240, 

 was a drill driven by a thong. ^ 



The traces of the old fire-making in modern Europe lie, for 

 the most part, in close connexion with the ancient and wide- 

 spread rite of the New Fii-e, which belongs to the Aryans 

 among other branches of the human race, and especially with 

 one variety of this rite, which has held its own even in Germany 

 and England into quite late times, in spite of all the efforts of 

 the Church to put it down. This is what the Germans call 

 notJifeuer, and we needfire ; though whether the term is to be 

 understood literally, or whether it has dropped a guttural, and 

 stands for fire made by lineading or rubbing, is not clear. 



What the nature and object of the needfire is, may be seen 

 in Reiske's account of the practice in Germany in the seven- 

 teenth century : — " When a murrain has broken out among the 

 great and small cattle, and the herds have suffered much harm, 

 the farmers determine to make a needfire. On an appointed 

 day there must be no single flame of fire in any house or on 

 any hearth. From each house straw, and water, and brush- 

 wood must be fetched, and a stout oak-post driven fast into the 

 ground, and a hole bored through it ; in this a wooden wind- 

 lass is stuck, well smeared with cart-pitch and tar, and turned 

 round so long that, with the fierce heat and force, it gives forth 

 fire. This is caught in proper materials, increased with straw, 

 heath, and brushwood, till it breaks out into a full needfire ; 

 and this must be somewhat spread out lengthways between 

 walls or fences, and the cattle and horses hunted with sticks 

 and whips two or three times through it," etc.^ Various ways 

 of arranging the apparatus are mentioned by Reiske and other 

 authorities quoted by Grimm, such as fixing the spindle be- 

 tween two posts, etc. How the spindle is turned is some- 

 times doubtful; but in several places the Indian practice of 

 driving it with a rope wound round it, and pulled backwards 

 and forwards, comes clearly into view ; while sometimes a cart 

 wheel is spun round upon an axle ; or a spindle is worked round 



' Kulin, ' Herabkunft des Feuers,' etc., pp. 36-40, citing Theoplirastus, Hesy- 

 chiuB, Simplicius, Festus, etc. - Grimm, D. M., p. 570. 



