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From this friction-fire they rekindled the fire on the hearth, from which all the men present carried away a kindling to their own homes. Whether their success was due to their skill, their industry, their perseverance, or to the neid-fire, I do not know, but I know that they were much the most successful crew in the place.
"The neid-fire was resorted to in imminent or actual calamity upon the first day of the quarter, and to ensure success in great or important events. "The writer conversed with several persons who saw the neid-fire made, and who joined in the ceremony.
They met on Saturday, and went to church on Sunday like the good men and the good Christians they were a little of their Pagan faith mingling with their Christian belief. I have reason to believe that other crews in the place as well as my father's crew practised the neid-fire. "A man at Helmsdale, Sutherland, saw the tein-eigin made in his boyhood.
"The fire of purification was kindled from the neid-fire, while the domestic fire on the hearth was re-kindled from the purification fire on the knoll. Among other names, the purification fire was called Teine Bheuil, fire of Beul, and Teine mor Bheuil, great fire of Beul. The fire of Beul was divided into two fires between which people and cattle rushed australly for purposes of purification.
As mentioned elsewhere, a woman in Arran said that her father, and the other men of the townland, made the neid-fire on the knoll on La buidhe Bealltain Yellow Day of Beltane. They fed the fire from cuaile mor conaidh caoin great bundles of sacred faggots brought to the knoll on Beltane Eve.
By the influence of this operation, the machinations and spells of witchcraft are rendered null and void." In various parts of the Highlands of Scotland the needfire was still kindled during the first half of the nineteenth century, as we learn from the following account: "Tein-eigin, neid-fire, need-fire, forced fire, fire produced by the friction of wood or iron against wood.
"The neid-fire was made in North Uist about the year 1829, in Arran about 1820, in Helmsdale about 1818, in Reay about 1830." From the foregoing account we learn that in Arran the annual Beltane fire was regularly made by the friction of wood, and that it was used to protect men and cattle against a great witch.
This was accomplished by the exertions of naoi naoinear ciad ginealach mac the nine nines of first-begotten sons. From the neid-fire produced on the knoll the people of the parish obtained fire for their dwellings. Many cults and ceremonies were observed on the occasion, cults and ceremonies in which Pagan and Christian beliefs intermingled.
Sail Dharaich, Oak Log, obtained its name from the log of oak for the neid-fire being there. A fragment of this log riddled with auger holes marks a grave in Cladh Sgealoir, the burying-ground of Sgealoir, in the neighbourhood. "Mr. Alexander Mackay, Edinburgh, a native of Reay, Sutherland, says: 'My father was the skipper of a fishing crew.
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