256 PIEEj COOKINGj AND VESSELS. 



witli leverSj or two planks are rubbed violently together, till 

 the fire comes. ^ 



The last two recorded accounts of the needfire known to 

 Kuhn are from Hanover in 182 8j and from England in 1826.^ 

 The ' Mirror ' of June 24th of that year takes from the ' Perth 

 Courier ' a description of the rite, as performed not far from 

 Perth, by a farmer who had lost several cattle by some dis- 

 ease : — "A few stones were piled together in the barn-yard, 

 and wood-coals having been laid thereon, the fuel was ignited 

 by will-fire, that is, fire obtained by friction : the neighbours 

 having been called in to witness the solemnity, the cattle were 

 made to pass through the flames, in the order of their dignity 

 and age, commencing with the horses and ending with the 

 swine." 



Some varieties of the rite of the New Fire, connected with 

 the Sun-worship so deeply rooted in the popular mind from 

 before the time of the Vedas, were countenanced, or at least 

 tolerated, by the Church. Such are the bonfires at Easter, 

 Midsummer Eve, and some other times ; and, in one case, 

 there is ground for supposing that the old rite was taken up 

 into the Roman Church, in the practice of putting out the 

 church candles on Easter Eve, and lighting them again with 

 consecrated new-made fire, — 



" On Easter Eve the fire all is quencht in every place, 

 And fresh againe from out the flint is fetcht with solemne grace : 

 The priest doth halow this against great daungers many one, 

 A brande whereof doth every man with greedie mind take home. 

 That, when the feareful storme appeares, or tempest black arise, 

 By lighting this he safe may be from stroke of hurtful skies. "^ 



Here the traces of the Indian mythology come out with 

 beautiful clearness. The lightning is the fire that flies from the 

 heavenly fire-churn, as the gods whirl it in the clouds. The 

 New Fire is its representative on earth ; and, like the thunder- 

 bolt, preserves from the lightning-flash the house in which it is, 

 for the lightning strikes no place twice. 



But in this ceremony the flint and steel has superseded the 



' Grimm, D. M., pp. 570-9. = Kuhn, p. 45. 



' Brand, 'Popular Antiquities ; ' London, 1853, vol. i. p. 157. 



