to relax.  From this friction-fire they rekindled the fire on the hearth, from which all the men present carried away a kindling to their own homes.  Whether their success was due to their skill, their industry, their perseverance, or to the neid-fire, I do not know, but I know that they were much the most successful crew in the place.  They met on Saturday, and went to church on Sunday like the good men and the good Christians they were—­a little of their Pagan faith mingling with their Christian belief.  I have reason to believe that other crews in the place as well as my father’s crew practised the neid-fire.’

“A man at Helmsdale, Sutherland, saw the tein-eigin made in his boyhood.

“The neid-fire was made in North Uist about the year 1829, in Arran about 1820, in Helmsdale about 1818, in Reay about 1830."[733]

[The Beltane fire a precaution against witchcraft.]

From the foregoing account we learn that in Arran the annual Beltane fire was regularly made by the friction of wood, and that it was used to protect men and cattle against a great witch.  When we remember that Beltane Eve or the Eve of May Day (Walpurgis Night) is the great witching time of the year throughout Europe, we may surmise that wherever bonfires have been ceremonially kindled on that day it has been done simply as a precaution against witchcraft; indeed this motive is expressly alleged not only in Scotland, but in Wales, the Isle of Man, and many parts of Central Europe.[734] It deserves, further, to be noticed that in North Uist the wood used to kindle the need-fire was oak, and that the nine times nine men by whose exertions the flame was elicited were all first-born sons.  Apparently the first-born son of a family was thought to be endowed with more magical virtue than his younger brothers.  Similarly in the Punjaub “the supernatural power ascribed to the first born is not due to his being unlucky, but the idea underlying the belief seems to be that being the first product of the parents, he inherits the spiritual powers (or magnetism) in a high degree.  The success of such persons in stopping rain and hail and in stupefying snakes is proverbial.  It is believed that a first child born with feet forward can cure backache by kicking the patient in the back, on a crossing."[735]

[The need-fire in Aberdeenshire.]

In the north-east of Aberdeenshire and the neighbourhood, when the cattle-disease known as the “quarter-ill” broke out, “the ‘muckle wheel’ was set in motion and turned till fire was produced.  From this virgin flame fires were kindled in the byres.  At the same time, if neighbours requested the favour, live coals were given them to kindle fires for the purification of their homesteads and turning off the disease.  Fumigating the byres with juniper was a method adopted to ward off disease.  Such a fire was called ‘needfyre.’  The kindling of it came under the censure of the Presbytery at times."[736]