or any devils spide,
Nor fearefull sprites that walke by night, nor hurts of frost or
haile."{64}

Still, in many Roman Catholic regions, the candles blessed in church at
the Purification are believed to have marvellous powers. In Brittany,
Franche-Comte, and elsewhere, they are preserved and lighted in time of
storm or sickness.{65} In Tyrol they are lighted on important family
occasions such as christenings and funerals, as well as on the approach
of a storm{66}; in Sicily in time of earthquake or when somebody is
dying.{67}

In England some use of candles on this festival continued long after the
Reformation. In 1628 the Bishop of Durham gave serious offence by
sticking up wax candles in his cathedral at the Purification; "the number
of all the candles burnt that evening was two hundred and twenty, besides
sixteen torches; sixty of |354| those burning tapers and torches
standing upon and near the high Altar."{68} Ripon Cathedral, as late as
the eighteenth century, was brilliantly illuminated with candles on the
Sunday before the festival.{69} And, to come to domestic customs, at
Lyme Regis in Dorsetshire the person who bought the wood-ashes of a
family used to send a present of a large candle at Candlemas. It was
lighted at night, and round it there was festive drinking until its going
out gave the signal for retirement to rest.{70}

There are other British Candlemas customs connected with fire. In the
western isles of Scotland, says an early eighteenth-century writer, "as
Candlemas Day comes round, the mistress and servants of each family
taking a sheaf of oats, dress it up in woman's apparel, and after putting
it in a large basket, beside which a wooden club is placed, they cry
three times, 'Briid is come! Briid is welcome!' This they do just before
going to bed, and as soon as they rise in the morning, they look among
the ashes, expecting to see the impression of Briid's club there, which
if they do, they reckon it a true presage of a good crop and prosperous
year, and the contrary they take as an ill-omen."{71} Sir Laurence Gomme
regards this as an illustration of belief in a house-spirit whose
residence is the hearth and whose element is the ever-burning sacred
flame. He also considers the Lyme Regis custom mentioned above to be a
modernized relic of the sacred hearth-fire.{72}

Again, the feast of the Purification was the time to kindle a "brand"
preserved from the Christmas log. Herrick's Can