Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 7 1889.djvu/22

14 position it is visible from all parts of the village. Another barrel of tar is emptied into the fire, and the great flames leap up into the black night and roll down the sides of the altar and of the hill. The daring ones of the band jump on the altar and stir up the flaming mass, or hit the sides of the barrel. The spoke of the Clavie is rescued from the flames and sold, while the charred sticks are eagerly snatched up by the villagers and set up in the ingle neuk, to be bringers of good luck and averters of evil in the coming year.—The Evening Dispatch, (Edinburgh), Wednesday, January 16th, 1889.

(5) At Callander, in Perthshire, on All Saints' Eve they set up bonfires in every village. When the materials of the fires were consumed the ashes were carefully collected in the form of a circle. Near the circumference of this a stone was put for every person of the several families interested in the bonfires, and whatever stone was moved out of its place or was injured before next morning the person represented by that stone was devoted or fey, and it was supposed would die within twelve months from that date.—Statistical Account of Scotland, xi. pp. 621, 622.

(6) The same rite prevailed in North Wales, when white stones marked for each individual were put into the great fire called Coel-coeth.—Ellis, Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 389, 390.

Variants.

Geographical Distribution.