e last recorded case of the need-fire in Caithness happened in 1809 or
1810. At Houstry, Dunbeath, a crofter named David Gunn had made for
himself a kail-yard and in doing so had wilfully encroached on one of
those prehistoric ruins called _brochs_, which the people of the
neighbourhood believed to be a fairy habitation. Soon afterwards a
murrain broke out among the cattle of the district and carried off many
beasts. So the wise men put their heads together and resolved to light a
_teine-eigin_ or need-fire as the best way of stopping the plague. They
cut a branch from a tree in a neighbouring wood, stripped it of bark,
and carried it to a small island in the Houstry Burn. Every fire in the
district having been quenched, new fire was made by the friction of wood
in the island, and from this sacred flame all the hearths of the houses
were lit afresh. One of the sticks used in making the fire was preserved
down to about the end of the nineteenth century; apparently the mode of
operation was the one known as the fire-drill: a pointed stick was
twirled in a hole made in another stick till fire was elicited by the
friction.[731]

[Another account of the need-fire in the Highlands.]

Another account of the use of need-fire in the Highlands of Scotland
runs as follows: "When, by the neglect of the prescribed safeguards
[against witchcraft], the seeds of iniquity have taken root, and a
person's means are decaying in consequence, the only alternative, in
this case, is to resort to that grand remedy, the _Tein Econuch_, or
'Forlorn Fire,' which seldom fails of being productive of the best
effects. The cure for witchcraft, called _Tein Econuch_, is wrought in
the following manner:--A consultation being held by the unhappy sufferer
and his friends as to the most advisable measures of effecting a cure,
if this process is adopted, notice is privately communicated to all
those householders who reside within the nearest of two running streams,
to extinguish their lights and fires on some appointed morning. On its
being ascertained that this notice has been duly observed, a
spinning-wheel, or some other convenient instrument, calculated to
produce fire by friction, is set to work with the most furious
earnestness by the unfortunate sufferer, and all who wish well to his
cause. Relieving each other by turns, they drive on with such
persevering diligence, that at length the spindle of the wheel, ignited
by excessive friction, emits 'forl