Among Slavonic peoples it appears to have
lingered even longer. The usual occasion for performing the rite was
an outbreak of plague or cattle-disease, for which the need-fire was
believed to be an infallible remedy. The animals which were
subjected to it included cows, pigs, horses, and sometimes geese. As
a necessary preliminary to the kindling of the need-fire all other
fires and lights in the neighbourhood were extinguished, so that not
so much as a spark remained alight; for so long as even a
night-light burned in a house, it was imagined that the need-fire
could not kindle. Sometimes it was deemed enough to put out all the
fires in the village; but sometimes the extinction extended to
neighbouring villages or to a whole parish. In some parts of the
Highlands of Scotland the rule was that all householders who dwelt
within the two nearest running streams should put out their lights
and fires on the day appointed. Usually the need-fire was made in
the open air, but in some parts of Serbia it was kindled in a dark
room; sometimes the place was a cross-way or a hollow in a road.
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