d-fire was accompanied by the sacrifice of a calf. Thus in
Northamptonshire, at some time during the first half of the nineteenth
century, "Miss C---- and her cousin walking saw a fire in a field and a
crowd round it. They said, 'What is the matter?' 'Killing a calf.' 'What
for?' 'To stop the murrain.' They went away as quickly as possible. On
speaking to the clergyman he made enquiries. The people did not like to
talk of the affair, but it appeared that when there is a disease among
the cows or the calves are born sickly, they sacrifice (i.e. kill and
burn) one 'for good luck.'"[743] It is not here said that the fire was a
need-fire, of which indeed the two horrified ladies had probably never
heard; but the analogy of the parallel custom in Mull[744] renders it
probable that in Northamptonshire also the fire was kindled by the
friction of wood, and that the calf or some part of it was burnt in the
fire. Certainly the practice of burning a single animal alive in order
to save all the others would seem to have been not uncommon in England
down to the nineteenth century. Thus a farmer in Cornwall about the year
1800, having lost many cattle by disease, and tried many remedies in
vain, consulted with some of his neighbours and laying their heads
together "they recalled to their recollections a tale, which tradition
had handed down from remote antiquity, that the calamity would not cease
until he had actually burned alive the finest calf which he had upon his
farm; but that, when this sacrifice was made, the murrain would afflict
his cattle no more." Accordingly, on a day appointed they met, lighted a
large fire, placed the best calf in it, and standing round the blazing
pile drove the animal with pitchforks back into the flames whenever it
attempted to escape. Thus the victim was burned alive to save the rest
of the cattle.[745] "There can be no doubt but that a belief prevailed
until a very recent period, amongst the small farmers in the districts
remote from towns in Cornwall, that a living sacrifice appeased the
wrath of God. This sacrifice must be by fire; and I have heard it argued
that the Bible gave them warranty for this belief.... While correcting
these sheets I am informed of two recent instances of this superstition.
One of them was the sacrifice of a calf by a farmer near Portreath, for
the purpose of removing a disease which had long followed his horses and
his cows. The other was the burning of a living lamb, to