Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/28

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Annual Address to the Folk-Lore Society.
(2) The construction of the clavie with stone implements.
(3) The lighting of the clavie with a burning peat, and the taboo against a lucifer.
(4) The honour received by being the bearer of the clavie.
(5) The want of pity shown if an accident happen to the bearer and the unluck caused to the town by such accident.
(6) The circuit of the burning clavie round the old boundaries and round the ships.
(7) The final placing of the clavie on the circular heap of stones.
(8) The hurling of the blazing pile down the hill.
(9) The struggle for the lighted brand by members of the community.
(10) The lighting of the house-fire with the lighted brand.
(11) The perpetuation of the house-fire throughout the year until the next clavie day.
(12) The sacredness attributed to the possession of a brand.

This custom is comparable with others of equal significance, and its more ancient features preserved to us from the early seventeenth century supply us with further details; but the comparison is not needed, because the custom contains within itself a perfect record of the prehistoric original.

At Whitsuntide, in the parish of King's Teignton, Devonshire, a custom is thus described. A lamb is drawn about the parish on Whitsun Monday in a cart covered with garlands of lilac, laburnum, and other flowers, when persons are requested to give something towards the animal and attendant expenses; on Tuesday it is then killed and roasted whole in the middle of the village. The lamb is then sold in slices to the poor at a cheap rate. The origin of the custom is forgotten, but a tradition, supposed to