PEAT SUPERSTITIONS

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3715, 19 October 1926, Page 7

PEAT SUPERSTITIONS

SOME QUAINT HIGHLAND BELIEFS The coal stoppage has had a farreaching effect among the Highlands of Scotland, where the commercial value of peat fuel has become more strongly emphasised than ever before (writes Kingsley Howard, in the 1 Weekly Scotsman’). At present almost unprecedented quantities of peat are being cut to cope with the existing shortage of coal. If the demand for peat could be only maintained for any length of time, peat cutting might easily become the staple industry of the Highlands. The resources are unbounded, ior hitherto the cottagers have only taken enough fuel from the peat hags to satisfy the wants of their own firesides.

A visitor to the Highlands can hardly fail to notice signs of peat cutting activity. Stacks of peat clods arc commonly seen near the heather-bordered marshes so frequently met with on the Scottish moors. They may be anything from 6ft to 12ft high, and are very often picturesquely built round a tree. Where trees are numerous the larger the colony of peat stacks is likely to be. for a trunk .considerably strengthens the pile of clods and leaves protect it from rain and wind. When the clods are thoroughly dry (they require Jong exposure to the open air, for they arc often saturated with the brown water of the jieat hags) carts and barrows are used to bring them to their destination. Sometimes, when the roads are bad, women carry the fuel home in huge baskets strapped on their backs. This is particularly the case in Shetland, where the women industriously knit on their journeys to and from the peat hags. “ SHOCKING ” THE FIRE. Many are the superstitions connected with peat burning. In the life of the true Celt the peat lire was, and to a lesser degree, still is, a hallowed recollection. On his birth he was perhaps handed over the fire to avert the influence of the evil eye, in accordance with a time-honored Celtic custom. A blazing peat carried in the tongs round the bed where mother and child lay was another ritual seldom neglected in a superstitious household. Here again the object was to avert evil from the

infant. Any friends who were present j at the time used to eat some “ blithe , meat,” a mixture of meal and water, ! which was supposed to be a sacrifice to J propitiate the powers of evil. 'I his, i however, was lield to he useless unless , the meat had been previously passed I over the smouldering fire. j “ Smooring ” the fire was another i ritual connected with childhood. Its j observance shows the almost absurd re- j vcrence paid to the peat fire. The | .embers were first spread out in a circle j on the hearth, and the circle was then divided into three parts representing ! the God of Life, the God of Peace, and j the God of Grace. With due regard to the profound sanctity of the ceremony j ashes were piled on the whole, and the following incantation crooned softly: — j The sacred three, to save, to shield, to surround The hearth, the house, the hj u.ehold; This eve. this night, oh, this -eve, this night, And every night, this single night! Amen. “TO BORROW FIRE.” How sacred the fire was held to be may be judged from the fact that tram] dug out a neighbor’s hearth flame was a crime equal to murder in Celtic eyes. At least, as much is inferred by an old Gaelic folk song still in existence. which tells how a ghost must lor ever wander in a sunless desert, not because lie committed a murder, but because he tramjied “ his neighbor’s hearth flame out.” This idea of wronging a neighbor by interfering with his fire is a very persistent one; many a Highlander still says sarcastically to a person who is paying a brief visit: “Was it to borrow fire you came? When a death occurs in a Celtic home it is still the custom to leave the ashes of flic fire undisturbed, lest the dead one should be hindered on his journey. This belief persists in one of the best known of the many Gaelic proverbs connected with peat burning:—“ Who steals the fire steals the blessing.” As is only to be expected, many hurts and diseases were supposed to be cured by the magic properties of the peat fire. Childish ills, especially, were treated with various peat preparations. If a child running barefoot across the moors chanced to receive an adder bite a piece of burning peat was quickly pounded down in a stocking and applied to the sufferer’s leg. Sprains were dealt with in a different manner. Soot collected from the chimney was rubbed on the sprain, and the rubbing accompanied by a certain muttered charm. Instantaneous relief was guaranteed in this case, though the actual cures were no doubt rare indeed. If an epidemic broke out in the village it must have sorely tried the villagers’ faith in these simple cures, especially as they thought to ward off its evil effects merely by'" carrying a blazing peat round the house. ■ Besides its ordinary uses peat has a peculiar preservative quality which is reminiscent of amber. In the museum of a northern town is a curious jar of butter, centuries old, which was taken from a neighboring peat hag. A far more gruesome 'instance of this same preservative quality comes from tho Orkney Islands. A CENTURY-OLD SECRET. In a lonelv district lived a certain couple who, Vo all appearances, were happy together. One day the man was i seen crossing the moor alone, and on being questioned by the neighbors he 1 said he was going to join his wife, who Iliad set out for Cromarty a few days before him. No more was thought of the matter until the news came, long afterwards, that the woman had never been seen on the mainland. Time passed on, and nothing happened to confirm the horrible suspicions of the villagers. Then one spring a partv of peat cutters working on the moor near the couple’s former homo came on the pcrfectly r prescrvcd body ot a woman lying buried in a moss. She was dressed in a striped petticoat and short gown, and had peculiar shoes of nut a lined leather, laced on her feet with leathern thongs. The shoes were ohvionslv not in use at the tune, and tho body was thus proved to have lain hidden for a considerable period. Finally one of tho oldest men in the country came forward and said that he remembered seeing as a hoy several people wearing sandals, or ‘ revohns, ils be called them, similar to those found on the dead woman’s feet. Other facts subsequently came to light, and the hodv was identified'as that of the woman who had disappeared 100 years before.