"
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 the house for a whole year from fire and thunder; that it
can prevent the inmates from having chilblains on their heels in winter;
that it can cure the cattle of many maladies; that if a piece of it be
steeped in the water which cows drink it helps them to calve; and lastly
that if the ashes of the log be strewn on the fields it can save the
wheat from mildew."[643]
[The Yule log at Marseilles and in Perigord; virtues ascribed to the
charcoal and ashes of the burnt log; the Yule log in Berry.]
In Marseilles the Yule log used to be a great block of oak, which went
by the name of _calendeau_ or _calignau_; it was sprinkled with wine and
oil, and the head of the house kindled it himself.[644] "The Yule log
plays a great part at the festival of the winter solstice in Perigord.
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