Northern mythology

APPENDIX. 285
as a great festival. These customs had apparently an
agrarian object, as it is still believed that so far as the
flame of the Easter-fire spreads its light will the earth be
fertile and the corn thrive for that year. These fires, too,
were, according to the old belief, beneficial for the preservation
of life and health to those who came in contact
with the flame. On which account the people danced
round the St. John^s fire, or sprang over it, and drove
their domestic animals through it. The coal and ashes of
the Easter-fire were carefully collected and preserved as u
remedy for diseases of the cattle. For a similar reason it
was a custom to drive the cattle when sick
over particular
fires called need-fires (Notfeuer), which, with certain ceremonies,
were kindled by friction ^ ; on which account the
St. John^s fire is strictly to be regarded as a need-fire
kindled at a fixed period.
Fire is the sacred, purifying and
propitiating element, which takes away all imperfections^.
A similar salutiferous power is, according to the still existing
popular belief, possessed by water, particularly when
1 Indie. Superst. c. 15. De igne fricato de ligno.
2 Miiller, p. 141. For details relating to these fires see Grimm, D.M.
pp. 570-594. Particularly ^vorthy of notice is the employment of a cartwheel,
by the tm'ning of which the need-fire is kindled. In some places,
at the Easter-fire, a burning wheel is rolled down a bill. In the Mark a
cart-wheel is set on fire and danced round. A wheel, too, is hung over
the doors of the houses for the thriving of the cattle. Mark. Sagen,
p. 362. Corap. Grimm, D. M, 1st edit. Aliergl. No. 307 : 'MYhoever puts
a wheel over his doorway has luck in his house." This custom of kindling
sacred fii'es on certain days prevails tbroughout almost the whole of
Europe, and was known to Antiquity, particularly in Italy. The Kelts
kindled such fires, on the first of May, to the god Beal (tlience even now
called healtine), and on the first of November to the god Sighe. Leo,
Malb. Gl. i. 33. But whether the need-fire is of Keltic origin remains a
doubt. " The fires hghted by the [Scottish] Highlanders on the first of
May, in compliance \