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NEED-FIEE. 605
collected pile of wood is again pulled asunder, yet in such wise in
sundry places, that every householder shall take a brand with him,
quench it in the wash or swill tub, and put the- same by for a
time in the crib wherein the cattle are fed. The stakes driven in
for the extorting of this fire, and the wood used for a roller, are
sometimes carried away for fuel, sometimes laid by in safety, when
the threefold chasing of the cattle through the flame hath been
accomplished/ In the Marburg Records of Inquiry, for 1605, it
is ordered, that a new cartwheel with an unused a-xle be taken
and worked round until it give fire, and with this a fire be
lighted between the gates, and all the oxen driven through it ; but
before the fire be kindled, every citizen shall put his own fire clean
out, and afterward fetch him fire again from the other. 1 Kuhn s
Markische sagen p. 369 informs us, that in many parts of the
Mark the custom prevails of making a nothfeuer on certain occa
sions, and particularly when there is disease among swine. Before
sunrise two stakes of dry wood are dug into the ground amid solemn
silence, and hempen ropes that go round them are pulled back
and forwards till the wood catches fire ; the fire is fed with learves
and twigs, and the sick animals are driven through. In some
places the fire is produced by the friction of an old cartwheel.
The following description, the latest of all, is communicated from
Hohenhameln, bailiw. Baldenberg, Hildesheim : In many villages
of Lower Saxony, especially in the mountains, it is common, as a
precaution against cattle plague, to get up the so-called wild fire,
through which first the pigs, then the cows, lastly the geese are
driven. 2 The established procedure in the matter is this. The
farmers and all the parish assemble, each inhabitant receives
notice to extinguish every bit of fire in his house, so that not a
spark is left alight in the whole village. Then old and young
walk to a hollow way, usually towards evening, the women carry
ing linen, the men wood and tow. Two oaken stakes are driven
into the ground a foot and a half apart, each having a hole on the
inner side, into which fits a cross-bar as thick as an arm. The
holes are stuffed with linen, then the cross-bar is forced in as
tight as possible, the heads of the stakes being held together with
1 Zeitschr. des Less, vereins 2, 281.
2 Not a word about sheep : supposing
cocks and hens were likewise hunted over
the coals, it would explain a hitherto unexplained proverb (Eeinhart xciv.).