“The neid-fire was resorted to in imminent or actual calamity upon the first day of the quarter, and to ensure success in great or important events.

[The needfire in Arran.]

“The writer conversed with several persons who saw the neid-fire made, and who joined in the ceremony.  As mentioned elsewhere, a woman in Arran said that her father, and the other men of the townland, made the neid-fire on the knoll on La buidhe Bealltain—­Yellow Day of Beltane.  They fed the fire from cuaile mor conaidh caoin—­great bundles of sacred faggots brought to the knoll on Beltane Eve.  When the sacred fire became kindled, the people rushed home and brought their herds and drove them through and round the fire of purification, to sain them from the bana bhuitseach mhor Nic Creafain Mac Creafain—­the great arch witch Mac Crauford, now Crawford.  That was in the second decade of this century.

[The need-fire in North Uist.]

“John Macphail, Middlequarter, North Uist, said that the last occasion on which the neid-fire was made in North Uist was bliadhna an t-sneachda bhuidhe—­the year of the yellow snow—­1829 (?).  The snow lay so deep and remained so long on the ground, that it became yellow.  Some suggest that the snow was originally yellow, as snow is occasionally red.  This extraordinary continuance of snow caused much want and suffering throughout the Isles.  The people of North Uist extinguished their own fires and generated a purification fire at Sail Dharaich, Sollas.  The fire was produced from an oak log by rapidly boring with an auger.  This was accomplished by the exertions of naoi naoinear ciad ginealach mac—­the nine nines of first-begotten sons.  From the neid-fire produced on the knoll the people of the parish obtained fire for their dwellings.  Many cults and ceremonies were observed on the occasion, cults and ceremonies in which Pagan and Christian beliefs intermingled. Sail Dharaich, Oak Log, obtained its name from the log of oak for the neid-fire being there.  A fragment of this log riddled with auger holes marks a grave in Cladh Sgealoir, the burying-ground of Sgealoir, in the neighbourhood.

[The need-fire in Reay, Sutherland.]

“Mr. Alexander Mackay, Edinburgh, a native of Reay, Sutherland, says:—­’My father was the skipper of a fishing crew.  Before beginning operations for the season, the crew of the boat met at night in our house to settle accounts for the past, and to plan operations for the new season.  My mother and the rest of us were sent to bed.  I lay in the kitchen, and was listening and watching, though they thought I was asleep.  After the men had settled their past affairs and future plans, they put out the fire on the hearth, not a spark being allowed to live.  They then rubbed two pieces of wood one against another so rapidly as to produce fire, the men joining in one after the other, and working with the utmost energy and never allowing the friction