The embers of the Yule log were kept carefully, for they were believed to be a protection against lightning.[640]

[The Yule log in Belgium.]

“The Christmas fires, which were formerly lit everywhere in the Low Countries, have fallen into disuse.  But in Flanders a great log of wood, called the kersavondblok and usually cut from the roots of a fir or a beech, is still put on the fire; all the lights in the house are extinguished, and the whole family gathers round the log to spend part of the night in singing, in telling stories, especially about ghosts, were-wolves, and so on, and also in drinking gin.  At Grammont and in the neighbourhood of that town, where the Yule log is called Kersmismot, it is customary to set fire to the remainder of the gin at the moment when the log is reduced to ashes.  Elsewhere a piece of the log is kept and put under the bed to protect the house against thunder and lightning.  The charcoal of the log which burned during Christmas Night, if pounded up and mixed with water, is a cure for consumption.  In the country of Limburg the log burns several nights, and the pounded charcoal is kept as a preventive (so they say), of toothache."[641]

[The Yule log in France.]

In several provinces of France, and particularly in Provence, the custom of the Yule log or trefoir, as it was called in many places, was long observed.  A French writer of the seventeenth century tells us that on Christmas Eve the log was prepared, and when the whole family had assembled in the kitchen or parlour of the house, they went and brought it in, walking in procession and singing Provencal verses to the following effect:—­

“Let the log rejoice,
To-morrow is the day of bread;
Let all good enter here;
Let the women bear children;
Let the she-goats bring forth kids;
Let the ewes drop lambs;
Let there be much wheat and flour,
And the vat full of wine.”

Then the log was blessed by the smallest and youngest child of the house, who poured a glass of wine over it saying, In nomine patris, etc.; after which the log was set on the fire.  The charcoal of the burnt wood was kept the whole year, and used as an ingredient in several remedies.[642]

[French superstitions as to the Yule log.]

Amongst the superstitions denounced by the same writer is “the belief that a log called the trefoir or Christmas brand, which you put on the fire for the first time on Christmas Eve and continue to put on the fire for a little while every day till Twelfth Night, can, if kept under the bed, protect the house for a whole year from fire and thunder; that it can prevent the inmates from having chilblains on their heels in winter; that it can cure the cattle of many maladies; that if a piece of it be steeped in the water which cows drink it helps them to calve; and lastly that if the ashes of the log be strewn on the fields it can save the wheat from mildew."[643]