Need-fire

In European folklore, a need-fire (Albanian: zjarri i gjallë; German: Notfeuer, Old High German: nodfyr, Scottish Gaelic: tein'-éigin, Russian: Живой огонь) is a fire kindled by friction, which is lit in a ritual and used as protective magic against murrain (infectious diseases affecting cattle), plague and witchcraft.

[1][3] In one case, the kindling of the need-fire in a village near Quedlinburg, Germany was hindered by a night light burning in the parsonage.

[4] In parts of the Scottish Highlands, the rule that all other fires be doused applied only to the land between the two nearest streams.

[1] In Serbia, the need-fire was sometimes kindled by a boy and girl, between eleven and fourteen years of age, who worked naked in a dark room.

[1][3] In the Scottish Highlands, a pot of water was heated with the new fire, mixed with some of the ash, and sprinkled on sick people and cattle.

[1] According to Sir James George Frazer, on the Isle of Mull, a sick heifer would be cut up and burned as a sacrifice.