Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/27

Rh the results. But I should next like to draw attention to the clavie burning at Burghead. It has been described over and over again with but little additional information until the ceremony of 1889, which was described in greater minuteness than usual in our. I will not, however, describe the whole ceremony, which is very well known, but draw attention to the additional features which are not so well known.

At the making of the clavie no stranger may join the band of workers but as an onlooker only. The sons of the original inhabitants only handle the primitive tools that make the clavie. Unwritten, but invariable, laws regulate all their actions, and every article required is borrowed, not bought.

The barrel having been sawn in two, the lower half is nailed into a long spoke of firewood, which serves for a handle. This nail must not be struck by a hammer, but driven in by a stone. The half-barrel is then filled with dry wood saturated with tar, and built up like a pyramid, leaving only a hollow to receive a burning peat, for no lucifer-match must be applied. Should the bearer stumble or fall, the consequences would be unlucky to the town and to himself. The clavie is thrown down the western side of the hill, and a desperate scramble ensues for the burning brands, possession of which is accounted to bring good luck, and the embers are carried home and carefully preserved till the following year as a safeguard against all manner of evil. In bygone times it was thought necessary that one man should carry it right round the town, so the strongest was selected for the purpose. It was also customary to carry the clavie round every ship in the harbour, a part of the ceremony which has lately been discontinued.

The analysis of the whole custom gives us the following important details:—