In the earliest systematic account of the western islands of Scotland we read that “the inhabitants here did also make use of a fire called Tin-egin, i.e. a forced fire, or fire of necessity, which they used as an antidote against the plague or murrain in cattle; and it was performed thus:  all the fires in the parish were extinguished, and then eighty-one married men, being thought the necessary number for effecting this design, took two great planks of wood, and nine of them were employed by turns, who by their repeated efforts rubbed one of the planks against the other until the heat thereof produced fire; and from this forced fire each family is supplied with new fire, which is no sooner kindled than a pot full of water is quickly set on it, and afterwards sprinkled upon the people infected with the plague, or upon the cattle that have the murrain.  And this they all say they find successful by experience:  it was practised in the main land, opposite to the south of Skie, within these thirty years."[727]

[The need-fire in the island of Mull; sacrifice of a heifer.]

In the island of Mull, one of the largest of the Hebrides, the need-fire was kindled as late as 1767.  “In consequence of a disease among the black cattle the people agreed to perform an incantation, though they esteemed it a wicked thing.  They carried to the top of Carnmoor a wheel and nine spindles of oakwood.  They extinguished every fire in every house within sight of the hill; the wheel was then turned from east to west over the nine spindles long enough to produce fire by friction.  If the fire were not produced before noon, the incantation lost its effect.  They failed for several days running.  They attributed this failure to the obstinacy of one householder, who would not let his fires be put out for what he considered so wrong a purpose.  However, by bribing his servants they contrived to have them extinguished and on that morning raised their fire.  They then sacrificed a heifer, cutting in pieces and burning, while yet alive, the diseased part.  They then lighted their own hearths from the pile and ended by feasting on the remains.  Words of incantation were repeated by an old man from Morven, who came over as master of the ceremonies, and who continued speaking all the time the fire was being raised.  This man was living a beggar at Bellochroy.  Asked to repeat the spell, he said, the sin of repeating it once had brought him to beggary, and that he dared not say those words again.  The whole country believed him accursed."[728] From this account we see that in Mull the kindling of the need-fire as a remedy for cattle disease was accompanied by the sacrifice of one of the diseased animals; and though the two customs are for the most part mentioned separately by our authorities, we may surmise that they were often, perhaps usually, practised together for the purpose of checking the ravages of sickness in the herds.[729]

[The need-fire in Caithness.]