be a protection against lightning.[640]

[The Yule log in Belgium.]

"The Christmas fires, which were formerly lit everywhere in the Low
Countries, have fallen into disuse. But in Flanders a great log of wood,
called the _kersavondblok_ and usually cut from the roots of a fir or a
beech, is still put on the fire; all the lights in the house are
extinguished, and the whole family gathers round the log to spend part
of the night in singing, in telling stories, especially about ghosts,
were-wolves, and so on, and also in drinking gin. At Grammont and in the
neighbourhood of that town, where the Yule log is called _Kersmismot_,
it is customary to set fire to the remainder of the gin at the moment
when the log is reduced to ashes. Elsewhere a piece of the log is kept
and put under the bed to protect the house against thunder and
lightning. The charcoal of the log which burned during Christmas Night,
if pounded up and mixed with water, is a cure for consumption. In the
country of Limburg the log burns several nights, and the pounded
charcoal is kept as a preventive (so they say), of toothache."[641]

[The Yule log in France.]

In several provinces of France, and particularly in Provence, the custom
of the Yule log or _trefoir_, as it was called in many places, was long
observed. A French writer of the seventeenth century tells us that on
Christmas Eve the log was prepared, and when the whole family had
assembled in the kitchen or parlour of the house, they went and brought
it in, walking in procession and singing Provencal verses to the
following effect:--

"_Let the log rejoice,
To-morrow is the day of bread;
Let all good enter here;
Let the women bear children;
Let the she-goats bring forth kids;
Let the ewes drop lambs;
Let there be much wheat and flour,
And the vat full of wine_."

Then the log was blessed by the smallest and youngest child of the
house, who poured a glass of wine over it saying, _In nomine patris_,
etc.; after which the log was set on the fire. The charcoal of the burnt
wood was kept the whole year, and used as an ingredient in several
remedies.[642]

[French superstitions as to the Yule log.]

Amongst the superstitions denounced by the same writer is "the belief
that a log called the _trefoir_ or Christmas brand, which you put on the
fire for the first time on Christmas Eve and continue to put on the fire
for a little while every day till Twelfth Night, can, if kept under the
bed, protect