fuel is heaped upon the flames, which flare up higher and brighter than ever.  Formerly the Clavie was allowed to burn here the whole night, but now, after blazing for about half an hour, it is lifted from the socket and thrown down the western slope of the hill.  Then the crowd rushes upon it, demolishes it, and scrambles for the burning, smoking embers, which they carry home and carefully preserve as charms to protect them against witchcraft and misfortune.[683] The great antiquity of Burghead, where this curious and no doubt ancient festival is still annually observed, appears from the remains of a very remarkable rampart which formerly encircled the place.  It consists of a mound of earth faced on both sides with a solid wall of stone and strengthened internally by oak beams and planks, the whole being laid on a foundation of boulders.  The style of the rampart agrees in general with Caesar’s description of the mode in which the Gauls constructed their walls of earth, stone, and logs,[684] and it resembles the ruins of Gallic fortifications which have been discovered in France, though it is said to surpass them in the strength and solidity of its structure.  No similar walls appear to be known in Britain.  A great part of this interesting prehistoric fortress was barbarously destroyed in the early part of the nineteenth century, much of it being tumbled into the sea and many of the stones used to build the harbour piers.[685]

[Procession with burning tar-barrels on Christmas Eve (Old Style) at Lerwick.]

In Lerwick, the capital of the Shetland Islands, “on Christmas Eve, the fourth of January,—­for the old style is still observed—­the children go a guizing, that is to say, they disguising themselves in the most fantastic and gaudy costumes, parade the streets, and infest the houses and shops, begging for the wherewithal to carry on their Christmas amusements.  One o’clock on Yule morning having struck, the young men turn out in large numbers, dressed in the coarsest of garments, and, at the double-quick march, drag huge tar barrels through the town, shouting and cheering as they go, or blowing loud blasts with their ’louder horns.’  The tar barrel simply consists of several—­say from four to eight—­tubs filled with tar and chips, placed on a platform of wood.  It is dragged by means of a chain, to which scores of jubilant youths readily yoke themselves.  They have recently been described by the worthy burgh officer of Lerwick as ’fiery chariots, the effect of which is truly grand and terrific.’  In a Christmas morning the dark streets of Lerwick are generally lighted up by the bright glare, and its atmosphere blackened by the dense smoke of six or eight tar barrels in succession.  On the appearance of daybreak, at six A.M., the morning revellers put off their coarse garments—­well begrimed by this time—­and in their turn become guizards.  They assume every imaginable form of costume—­those of soldiers, sailors, Highlanders, Spanish chevaliers, etc.  Thus disguised, they either go in pairs, as man and wife, or in larger groups, and proceed to call on their friends, to wish them the compliments of the season.  Formerly, these adolescent guizards used to seat themselves in crates, and accompanied by fiddlers, were dragged through the town."[686]