108 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, 



" a basket, filled with bread and cheese, on the pot-hook that 

 " impended over the fire in the middle of the room, which the 

 M company sit around, and the child is thrice handed across. 

 " the fire, with the design to frustrate all attempts of evil spi- 

 " rits, or evil eyes. This," he adds, " originally seems to have 

 " been designed as a purification, and of idolatrous origin, as 

 " the Israelites made their children to pass through the fire to- 

 « Moloch*" 



The mode of performing this unhallowed rite is different in 

 some parts of the Highlands. One holds the new-born child 

 by the shoulders, and another by the feet, while they shove it 

 backwards and forwards across the fire. This is sometimes 

 used as a test, whether the child be of the right blood, or mere- 

 ly a fairy urchin substituted in lieu of the genuine offspring. 

 If, after this operation, the child, on being put to bed, fall into 

 a copious perspiration, it is viewed as an infallible proof that 

 there has been no elvish imposition. It must be admitted, in- 

 deed, that scarcely any method could be adopted more likely 

 to ensure the wished for favourable omen. It may be obser- 

 ved, that, in the investigation of ancient superstitions, we have 

 many examples of a change of the reason assigned for a pecu- 

 liar rite, especially if there has been a change of the religious 

 creed of a people > when there is no ground to doubt that the 

 rite itself has remained unaltered. 



I have met with one superstition in the low country, (for it 

 still exists in the county of Angus), which seems to claim the 

 same origin. A burning coal is put into the water in which a 

 new-born child is to be washed. Were this important ceremo- 

 ny neglected, it is believed by many that the infant could not 



thrive. 



The 



* Tour in Scotland, 17712, p. 46, 



