In New England, when only open fireplaces were in use, it was customary to rake up the fire at night, and, standing the andirons in a straight line in front, lay the shovel across them.
More than once I have been told by an intelligent person that, to prevent any annoyance from a mosquito-bite, "you should score a cross with your thumb-nail on the bitten place; it will never smart again."
All these, I think, are survivals of the ancient custom. (Pamela McArthur Cole. "Journal of American Folk-Lore," vol. vi. (1893), p. 146.)
These superstitions about fire are of course nothing but vestiges of pyrodulia, but whether derived from a Castilian or an aboriginal source, or both, it would be hard to say. In "The Snake Dance of the Moquis," I gave a picture of "The Little God of Fire," and a brief outline of the fire procession of the Zuñis. Mr. James Stephenson has treated exhaustively upon the fire dance of the Navajos, and Mr. F. H. Cushing is quoted as follows: "Mr. Cushing's explanation, derived from Zuñi folk-lore and belief, is this: 'The matriarchal grandmother, or matron of the household deities, is the fire. It is considered the guardian, as it is also, being used for cooking, the principal "source of life" of the family.'" Frank H. Cushing, quoted by Dr. Washington Matthews, U. S. A., vol. vi., Seventh Memoir, Nat. Acad. of Sciences. "The Human Bones of the Hemenway Southwestern Archæological Exploration, in U. S. A. Med. Museum, Washington, D. C.," p. 149.
Another form of pyrodulia to be detected in the religious ceremonies of the Mexicans, the Pueblos, the Tarasco and the Opata Indians, is the burning of copal as an incense; this may be a survival from Aztec or other aboriginal pyromancy; the same custom exists among the peasantry of the rural portions of Italy. "Powdered resin was thrown in the flames." "Roman Etruscan Remains," Leland, page 318.
The same peasantry still recite invocations to the spirit of fire. Idem, page 312.
Fishing.—Mexicans during Holy Week fish in the Rio Grande, and march to the river bank to the music of guitars.
Fits and Swoons.—Maria Antonia had a little boy who had reached the age of eighteen months. Retarded dentition made him critically ill; he had fits and was "dead" for twenty-four hours. She made a vow to Our Lady that, if the child should be "restored to life," she would offer an appropriate "milagro," in silver, and hear mass, on bended knees, holding a lighted wax taper in each hand. The child recovered; the vow was paid; the mass and the tapers cost one dollar.
Guinea Worm.—In the summer of 1891, Surgeon Theodore DeWitt had a patient who stated that once, on a very hot day, he
