A French writer of the seventeenth
century denounces as superstitious "the belief that a log called the
_tr?foir_ or Christmas brand, which you put on the fire for the
first time on Christmas Eve and continue to put on the fire for a
little while every day till Twelfth Night, can, if kept under the
bed, protect the house for a whole year from fire and thunder; that
it can prevent the inmates from having chilblains on their heels in
winter; that it can cure the cattle of many maladies; that if a
piece of it be steeped in the water which cows drink it helps them
to calve; and lastly that if the ashes of the log be strewn on the
fields it can save the wheat from mildew."
In some parts of Flanders and France the remains of the Yule log
were regularly kept in the house under a bed as a protection against
thunder and lightning; in Berry, when thunder was heard, a member of
the family used to take a piece of the log and throw it on the fire,
which was believed to avert the lightning. Again, in Perigord, the
charcoal and ashes are carefully collected and kept for healing
swollen glands; the part of the trunk which has not been burnt in
the fire is used by ploughmen to make the wedge for their plough,
because they allege that it causes the seeds to thrive better; and
the women keep pieces of it till Twelfth Night for the sake of their
chickens.
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