Page:A Glossary of Words Used In the Neighbourhood of Sheffield - Addy - 1888.djvu/57



When I read these lines it occurred to me in a moment that of such a kind were the chafers which we used to make when we were boys. I had forgotten all about it, but I have seen other boys make, and I, following their example, have made chafers of common clay. We used to call them 'touch burners,' for the material burnt in them was touchwood, or, as it is sometimes called, wasp-wood, because wasps use it to make their nests. The manner of making these 'touch-burners' was on this wise. A lump of clay was taken and laid on a flat stone. It was beaten into a round or square block—mostly square—and then hollowed out by means of a knife. Its height was about three inches. A small hole was made near the bottom of the chafer, to blow through, and the fire was generally kept up by taking it in one's hand and running with it against the wind. As soon as the chafer was moulded it used to be baked dry and then filled with touchwood. When we consider the great antiquity of words, and the unchanged forms in which so many of them survive in the folk-speech, there is no difficulty in supposing that the 'touch-burners' were, or are—for they are still made by children in this district—a survival of an ancient mode of carrying or kindling fire. They may have carried the need-fire, or will-fire mentioned on a previous page. There seems to be no doubt that the smaller vessels found inside cinerary urns served some religious purpose. We may be sure that they played an essential part in the last vain tribute paid to the dead. There is an evolution of religion, as of other things. Is not the lamp which burns day and night before the altars of the Roman church a survival or a custom borrowed from a more ancient religion; from a church, so to speak, upon whose altars a sacred fire was burnt unquenchably? If it were so, we can understand why a few small embers or ashes borrowed from that sacred fire were carried in chafers to burial places at some distance from the altar.

Less than a mile and a quarter from the place where the urns were found, and upon the same high ground, is a place called Bell Hagg, adjacent to which is Burnt Stones. In 1637 Bell Hagg was an open common, including Burntstones, and containing about