372 The Magical and Ceremonial Uses of Fire.
I understood from him, been used in later years in this ceremony. Mr. Mulford has been most kind in obtaining the details of this yearly festival for me. I presented the steel to the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford., where it is now to be seen among many other ceremonial fire-making appliances which have been collected from different parts of the world. I believe a very similar custom was practised by the lacemakers in Buckinghamshire. Up to now I have not been able to find out any details about this locality. There is no such festival, apparently, in Devonshire, where I have made inquiries.
I should like to draw attention to a custom in Nubia which takes place after a birth. All the information I have I obtained from my brother, Mr. Ayhvard M. Blackman, who had just heard of the custom, but could not get any further details. An open saucer lamp of pottery is filled with oil and the wick is made of the umbilical cord. This lamp is lighted and is placed on the Nile to float down the river. It would be interesting to obtain more particulars of this custom, if possible.
Fire as a Fertility Cliarni.
The house-fire is among many people looked upon as sacred, the exclusive possession of the family, the place where the woman reigns supreme. Perhaps this has given rise to the idea of its power as a charm to ensure children.
In the old days the Mindu led his bride round the fire, saying the following words : " Mayest thou give back, Agni, to the husband the wife, together with the ofi"- spring." ^
One of the ancient Parsi books says that the house that does not keep the fire properly burning has less pregnancy
ij. G. Frazer, The Magic Art, vol. ii. p. 230, quoting from \\\e Sacred Books of the Eait, vol. xxix. trans, by H. Oldenburg, vol. i. p. 283.
