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 here are indications in literature as well as folklore studies that fires of this type were lit for specific purposes. In his Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, (c1695) Martin describes the practice of using a "tinegin" a forced-fire or fire of necessity, as an antidote against the plague and diseases in cattle. In Frazer's Golden Bough we find note of a practice still in use in 1767 on the island of Mull when an outbreak of Murrain threatened local cattle. In this case a wheel with nine spindles was used to light the flame. This wheel was carried to the top of a hill, with the condition that every fire in sight of the hill had been extinguished, if one still burned the fire-ritual would not be successful. The wheel was set on an axle and turned, specifically east to west, long enough to produce fire by friction. If the fire was not produced before moon-rise then the incantation, which was repeated during the whole time by and old man from Morven, had no effect. Once the fire was blazing, an infected heifer was killed and the diseased part thrown into the blaze. The people then carried home an ember or brand from the blaze to light their own hearth fires and feasted on what remained of the heifer. One interesting use of fire for healing is the Beannachadh na Cuairte, the Blessing of the Circle, which was still preformed in the last century. In this case, the word for circle means a circuit or revolution rather than a circular object or space. This could refer to an older practice from which this one descended. This ritual was used for a sick or failing child, to counter-act the "evil-eye" which was considered responsible for the child's failure to thrive. An iron hoop, often the one from the wash-tub, was used. Around it, leaving a space on each side by which it could be held, the wise woman of the district wound a straw rope. The rope was saturated with oil and lit on fire. Two other women held the hoop vertically while the "wise-woman" passed the child through the burning hoop while reciting the appropriate incantation. An interesting way of infusing a weak child with the safeguarding and life giving fire of the sun What about the individual household hearth-fires? A question appropriate in this column…The hearth fire was the central point in the house. By design in a wooden, tatched-roof, round or rectangular house, the center is the safest and most convenient place to have an open blaze. It is the center of all domestic activity. Even in the largest feasting halls, fires had a central location. A 12th century artist who drew the interior of the great banquet hall at Tara, showed a line of fires running down the middle of the floor. The household fire became the heart and soul of the house. A house without a fire was dark, cold, devoid of sustenance. In Ireland it was said that if the fire went out, the soul went out of the people. The house's rooms were described by their relationship to the wall behind the fireplace, which usually separated the kitchen from the main bedroom. In the days before central heating, keeping the fire burning was a constant source of awareness of the connection between fire and life. Blessings were spoken when smooring or banking the fire at night to ensure that it lived thought till morning, further blessing were said upon re-kindling the blaze with the rising of the sun. One Highland smooring blessing goes like this:
To save To shield To surround The hearth The house The household This eve This night And every night
Customs regarding the hearth-fire evolved such as that of putting a live cinder into the butter churn to guard to butter from its enemies while it was being churned. During the process, no one was to take a live ember from the hearth. One interesting association between butter, fire and the ancient Gods of Ireland is a reference in Dinneen's Gaelic dictionary to Goibniu, the original Irish deity of smithcraft, being invoked to get a good yield of butter. Bibliography
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