Fire-worship in the States of the Mediterranean—Special Sacredness of the public City-fire of Greece and Rome—The sacred Fire of Tlachtga—Ceylon Fire-worship—The Parsees—Persian Monuments—Impiety of Cambyses—Cingalese Terms, Sanscrit, Welsh, &c.—The Yule-log—Fire-worship in England—The Fire of Beltane—Druidical Fires—May-day Fires—November Fires in Ireland—Between Two Fires—Scotland—The Summer Solstice and Fire Ceremonies—Worship of Baal in Ireland—St. John’s Day—Bonfires—Decree of Council of Constantinople.

“All the states of the Mediterranean and Persia had, like India, baptismal forms connected with Fire. With the Greeks and Romans the baptismal ceremony took place between the ninth and twelfth days of birth, and generally commenced by women seizing the infant and running round, or dashing through the fire with it. So also at marriages, fire was the active and ‘covenant god.’ No account was taken of a bride’s faith; to marry was to embrace the husband’s religion, to be to him in filiÆ loco, and to break entirely with her own family; nay, marriage was for long entered into with a show of violence, as if to demonstrate the separation. It certainly reminds one of early times when men thus obtained their wives. The principal part of the marriage ceremony was to bring the bride before her husband’s hearth, anoint her with holy water, and make her touch the sacred fire; after which she broke bread or ate a cake with him. Fire was also the God who witnessed the separation of husband and wife, which, if there were offspring, was a rare and difficult act; but if the couple were childless, divorce was an easy matter.”

“No stranger dared appear before the city-fire either in Greece or Rome, indeed the mere look of a person foreign to the worship would profane a sacred act, and disturb the auspices. The very name of strangers was hostis, or enemy to the gods. When the Roman Pontiff had to sacrifice out-of-doors, he veiled his face so that the chance sight of strangers might be thus atoned for to the gods, who were supposed to dislike foreigners so much, that the most laborious ceremonies were undertaken if any of these passed near, not to say handled any holy object. Every sacred fire had to be re-lit if a stranger entered a temple; and so in India, every sacred place must be carefully purified if a foreigner (ruler and highly respected though he may be) pass too close to a Hindoo shrine. I have seen Government servants under me, and Sepoys, who meant no disrespect, throw away the whole of a day’s food, and dig up the little fire-places they had prepared before cooking and eating, because, by accident or oversight, my shadow had passed over it; though sometimes, if there were no onlookers, this extreme measure was not carried out, partly out of regard for me.”

Dr. Keating, in his “History of Ireland,” speaks of the royal seat of Tlachtga, where the Fire Tlachtga was ordained to be kindled. He says:—“The use of this sacred fire was to summon the Priests, the Augurs, and Druids of Ireland to repair thither and assemble upon the Eve of All Saints, in order to consume the sacrifices that were offered to their Pagan Gods; and it was established under the penalty of a great fine, that no other fire should be kindled upon that night throughout the kingdom; so that the fire that was to be used in the country, was to be derived from this holy fire; for which privilege the people were to pay a Scraball, which amounts to threepence every year as an acknowledgment to the King of Munster, because the palace of Tlachtga, where this fire burned, was the proportion taken from the province of Munster, and added to the country of Meath.

“The second royal palace that was erected was in the proportion taken from the province of Conacht, and here was a general convocation assembled of all the inhabitants of the kingdom that were able to appear, which was called the Convocation of Visneach, and kept upon the first day of May, where they offered sacrifices to the principal deity in the island, whom they adored under the name of Beul. Upon this occasion they were used to kindle two fires in every territory in the kingdom, in honour of this pagan god. It was a solemn ceremony at this time to drive a number of cattle of every kind between these fires; this was conceived to be an antidote and a preservation against the murrain, or any other pestilential distemper among cattle for the year following; and from these fires that were made in worship of the god Beul, the day upon which the Christian festival of St. Philip and St. James is observed, is called in the Irish language Beul-tinne. The derivation of the word is thus: La in Irish signifies a day, Beul is the name of the pagan deity, and Teinne is the same with fire in the English, which words, when they are pronounced together, sound La Beultinne.”

Leslie in his “Early Races of Scotland,” says: “From Dondera Head in Ceylon to the Himalaya Mountains, and from the borders of China to the extremities of Western Europe and its islands, we find clear evidence of the former prevalence of the earliest form of false worship, viz., the adoration of light, the sun, and ‘the whole host of heaven.’ In the Rajpoot state of Marwar, in its capital Udayayoor, ‘The City of the Rising Sun!’ the precedence of Surya, the sun god, is still maintained. The sacred standard of the country bears his image, and the Raja, claiming to be his descendant, appears as his representative.”

“In a complicated form the Parsees of British India still retain that worship of light, symbolised in the sun and fire, for which they became exiles when their faith was proscribed in the land of their ancestors.”

Leslie quotes various authors and travellers who had personally witnessed the remains of many of these altars. “Chardin,” he says, “in his travels in Media in the end of the seventeenth century describes circles of large stones that must have been brought a distance of six leagues to the place where he observed them. The tradition regarding these circles was, that councils were there held, each member of the assembly being seated on a separate stone.”[23]

In the Persian province of Fars, Sir William Ouseley observed a monolith ten or twelve feet high, surrounded by a fence of stones. This rude column had a cavity on the top. Similar instances—viz., of monoliths having a cavity in the top—existed among the primitive monuments of Scotland. In Kincardineshire, at Auchincorthie, there were five circles of stones. On the top of one of the stones which stood on the east side of the largest circle, there was a hollow three inches deep, along the bottom of which, and down the side of the stone, a channel was cut. Another of the stones in this group had a similar cavity and channel. Other examples of such artificial cavities in ancient British monuments could be pointed out.—(Gibson’s Camden, vol. ii., p. 291.) The same traveller remarked a few old trees which grew near this column, and these he supposed to be the remains of a consecrated grove. One of the trees was thickly hung with rags, the native offerings of the inhabitants of the country. Trees with such garniture may commonly be observed in the Dekhan and other parts of India, and not long since might be seen in many places in Britain. The Monolith thus described, and adjacent to the grove, was called by an expression equivalent to “Stone of the Fire Temple.” We know from Herodotus that the ancient Persians, like their expatriated descendants the Parsees, were worshippers of the sun and fire, and the mysterious rites of the heathen inhabitants of Britain must have closely resembled those of the Persians, when the similarity induced Pliny to remark that Britain cultivates magic with ceremonial so august that it might be supposed that the art was first communicated from them to the people of Persia.

Turning to Herodotus as here suggested, speaking of the order given by Cambyses to burn the corpse of Amasis, after his people had failed to tear it apart, owing to its having been embalmed, the historian says:—“This was truly an impious command to give, for the Persians hold fire to be a god, and never by any chance burn their dead. Indeed this practice is unlawful, both with them and with the Egyptians—with them for the reason above mentioned, since they deem it wrong to give the corpse of a man to a god; and with the Egyptians, because they believe fire to be a live animal, which eats whatever it can seize, and then glutted with the food, dies with the matter it feeds upon.”[24]

Leslie says “it is important, as a prelude to the description of rites in a worship common to the early inhabitants of the Indian Peninsula and to the Celtic population of Gaul and Britain, to refer to the cognate expressions which they employed for the object of their adoration. In Cingalese, Ja, Jwala, signifies light, lustre, flame; Jwalana, light; also Agni, or personified and deified fire. Eliya is also Cingalese for light; in Welsh, Lleuer and Lleuad, the moon; in Gaelic, Eibhle, anything on fire. In Sanscrit, Jwala signifies light, flame; in Cornish, Gwawl; in Welsh, Goleu; in Armorican, Goleu. In Gaelic, Geal and Eallaidhe is white; Soillse, light, sunlight; Suil, the eye. In Cingalese, Haili and Hel, and in Sanscrit, Heli or Helis is the sun. In Welsh it is Haul, pronounced Hail; in Armorican, Haul and Heol; in Cornish, Houl and Heul. The great festival of heathen Britain—viz, Yeul—was celebrated at that period of the year when the sun having obtained the greatest distance from the earth, commenced his return to restore warmth and to revivify nature. Although Christmas superseded the heathen festival, not only the ancient name of Yeul, but many of the customs, evidently connected with the heathen rites, are not yet obsolete in South Britain; and in Scotland, at least in the more remote parts, and in agricultural districts, Yeul is still the word in general use for Christmas Day.”

Hone, in his “Every-day Book” vol. I. p. 204, says: “The Yeul feast and Yeul log can be clearly traced to their original source. The blaze of lights, and the kindling of the great Yule log on Christmas Eve by a portion of the Yule brand of the former year, is as clearly a heathen ceremony, and for the same object of worship, as the fires on Midsummer Eve. As to the feast, in times comparatively recent, the Greenlanders held a sun-feast at the winter solstice, to rejoice in the conmencement of returning light and warmth.”

“From Teinidh and Tein, Irish and Gaelic for fire, is probably derived the obsolete English word ‘to teend.’ Herrich, speaking of the Christmas brand, says part must be kept wherewith to teend the Christmas by next year.”

Evidence of some sort of fire-worship in England at various times is to be found in the Confessional of Ecgbert, Archbishop of York (8th century) and the Penitential of Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury (7th century), and that this included the adoration of the light of the sun and moon seems probable from the prohibition of the practice of passing children through fire extending to that of exposing them on the house-tops for the benefit of their health.Leslie remarks that it is curious to compare these restrictions and penalties to be enforced by English ecclesiastical authorites with the denunciation of the same heathen practices by the prophet Zephaniah, (Chap. I., 4, 5.) “I will cut off the remnant of Baal, and them that worship the host of heaven upon the house-tops.”

The allusion to the Midsummer Eve Fire in Hone, reminds us of the “Fire of Bel” or Beltane of Scotland, a festival generally celebrated on May-day old style. Leslie says, in other Celtic countries of Western Europe the same expression, with slight variations in sound, was also used for the great heathen festival which was held about the beginning of the month of May. He further says: “Beltane is also used to express the fires that were kindled in honour of Bel on that and on other days connected with his worship, as on Midsummer Eve, afterwards called the vigil of St. John, on All-Hallowe’en, and on Yeule, which is now Christmas. Of the ceremonies practised at Beltane, and continued almost to our own times, the most remarkable and general were the fires lighted in honour of Bel.”

“Kindling fires at Beltane, on the hills and conspicuous places in level districts, was so universal in Scotland—also in Ireland and Cornwall—that it is unnecessary to refer to records for proof of events which may still be witnessed in this year 1865.

“Conjoined with Apollo in the inscription on a Roman altar found at Inveresk is an epithet bearing a considerable resemblance to the name of the sun in Gaelic. Apollini-Granno is the commencement of the inscription. Grian or Greine is the sun in Gaelic, and Grianach is ‘the sunny.’ This resemblance it is as well to notice, for epithets not similar in sound but identical in meaning are used for Apollo or the sun by classic authors and the Scottish Celts, as Gruagach, the fair-haired. Enclosures called Grianan or Greinham, ‘the house of the sun,’ where the people worshipped the sun, are to be met with everywhere. On the Gruagach stones libations of milk were poured. A clergyman of the Western Isles says that about a century ago (this was in 1774), Gruagach got credit for being the father of a child at Shulista, near Duntulme, the seat of M’Donald. Gruagach, the sun, was represented by certain rude stones of large size. On the island of Bernera, in the parish of Harris, a circle, defined by long sharp pointed stones, has in the centre a stone in the form of an inverted pyramid, called Clach-na-Greine, ‘the stone of the sun.’”

Toland, in his “History of Druids,” gathers together a good deal of important information relative to Fire Customs in various parts of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and the adjacent islands. He speaks of the carns (cairns) or heaps of stones which are found on mountain tops and other eminencies in different localities, and after alluding to the uses they served in course of time as beacons, being conveniently situated for such a purpose, says—“They were originally designed for fires of another nature. The fact stood thus. On May-eve the Druids made prodigious fires on those carns, which being every one in sight, could not but afford a glorious show over a whole nation. These fires were in honour of Beal or Bealan, latinised by the Roman authors into Belenus, by which name the Gauls and their colonies understood the sun: and, therefore, to this hour the first day of May is by the aboriginal Irish called La Bealteine, or the day of Belen’s fire.”

“May-day is likewise called La Bealteine by the Highlanders of Scotland, who are no contemptible part of the Celtic offspring. So it is in the Isle of Man; and in Armoric a priest is still called Belec, or the Servant of Bel, and priesthood Belegieth. Two such fires as we have mentioned were kindled by one another on May-eve in every village of the nation (as well throughout all Gaul, as in Britain, Ireland, and the adjoining lesser islands), between which fires the men and the beasts to be sacrificed were to pass; from whence came the proverb, Between Bel’s two fires, meaning one in a great strait, not knowing how to extricate himself. One of the fires was on the carn, another on the ground. On the eve of the first day of November there were also such fires kindled, accompanied (as they constantly were) with sacrifices and feasting. These November fires were in Ireland called Tine tlach’d gha, from tlach’d-gha, a place hence so called in Meath where the Archdruid of the realm had his fire on the said eve; and for which piece of ground, because originally belonging to Munster, but appointed by the supreme monarch for this use, there was an annual acknowledgement (called sgreaboll) paid to the king of that province.“On the aforesaid eve all the people of the country, out of a religious persuasion instilled into them by the Druids, extinguished their fires as entirely as the Jews are wont to sweep their houses the night before the feast of unleavened bread. Then every master of a family was religiously obliged to take a portion of the consecrated fire home, and to kindle the fire anew in his house, which for the ensuing year was to be lucky and prosperous. He was to pay, however, for his future happiness whether the event proved answerable or not; and though his house should be afterwards burnt, yet he must deem it the punishment of some new sin, or ascribe it to anything rather than to want of virtue in the consecration of the fire, or of validity in the benediction of the Druid, who, from officiating at the carns, was likewise called Cairnech, a name that continued to signify priest even in Christian times. But if any man had not cleared with the Druids for the last year’s dues, he was neither to have a spark of this holy fire from the carns, nor durst any of his neighbours let him take the benefit of theirs under pain of excommunication, which, as managed by the Druids, was worse than death. If he would brew, therefore, or bake, or roast, or boil, or warm himself and family; in a word, if he would live the winter out, the Druid’s dues must be paid by the last of October, so that this trick alone was more effectual than are all the Acts of Parliament made for securing our present clergy’s dues.

“As to the fire-worship which (by the way) prevailed over all the world, the Celtic nations kindled other fires on Midsummer-eve, which are still continued by the Roman Catholics of Ireland; making them in all their grounds, and carrying flaming brands about their corn-fields. This they do likewise all over France and in some of the Scottish Isles. These midsummer fires and sacrifices were to obtain a blessing on the fruits of the earth, now becoming ready for gathering; as those of the first of May, that they might prosperously grow; and those of the last of October were a thanksgiving for finishing their harvest. But in all of them regard was also had to the several degrees of increase and decrease in the heat of the sun’s rays.”

With regard to the proverb “Between Bel’s two fires,” Mr. Huddleston in his new edition of Toland (1814) adds a note in which he says:—“As Mr. Toland in his note on this passage, informs us the Irish phrase is Ittir dha theine Bheil; Dr. Smith has also given us the Scottish phrase, Gabha Bheil, i.e., the jeopardy of Bel. Both agree that these expressions denote one in the most imminent danger. Mr. Toland says the men and beasts to be sacrificed passed between two fires, and that hence the proverb originated. Dr. Smith, on the contrary, imagines that this was one of the Druidical ordeals whereby criminals were tried; and instead of making them pass betwixt the fires, makes them march directly across them. Indeed, he supposed the Druids were kind enough to anoint the feet of the criminals, and render them invulnerable to the flames. If so there could have been neither danger nor trial. It may also be remarked, that had the doctor’s hypothesis been well founded, there was no occasion for two fires, whereas by the phrase, between Bel’s two fires, we know that two were used. Doctor Smith has evidently confounded the Gabha Bheil with a feat practised by the Hirpins on Mount Soracte.”

It seems that the expression used by the Scotch expressive of a man in difficulties, “He is between the two fires of Bel,” was common enough to attract the attention of other writers than those we have cited, and of most travellers in the Highlands. Martin mentions it in his “Western Isles,” as also Shaw and the Rev. D. M’Queen. The latter is cited by Leslie as a Gaelic scholar of the last century, who in regard to the expression, “He is betwixt two Beltein fires,” gives as an explanation that the Celtic tribes in their sacred enclosures offered sacrifices, commonly horses, that were burnt between two large fires, and Leslie adds, “On this it may be remarked that horses were sacrificed to the sun by the Arian race from the earliest times; and this continued to be practised by Hindus, Persians, and other nations. In Britain it is probable that our heathen ancestors sacrificed horses, and it is certain that they ate them.”

Jamieson’s splendid “Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language,” supplies us with valuable information on the point we are discussing, drawn from a variety of reliable authorities. Under “BELTANE, Beltein, the name of a sort of festival observed on the first day of May, O.S.;” we have:—“A town in Perthshire, on the borders of the Highlands, is called Tillie- (or Tullie) beltane, i.e. the eminence or rising ground of the fire of Baal. In the neighbourhood is a druidical temple of eight upright stones, where it is supposed the fire was kindled. At some distance from this is another temple of the same kind, but smaller, and near it a well still held in great veneration. On Beltane morning superstitious people go to this well, and drink of it; then they make a procession round it, as I am informed, nine times. After this, they in like manner go round the temple. So deep rooted is this heathenish superstition in the minds of many who reckon themselves good Protestants, that they will not neglect these rites, even when Beltane falls on Sabbath.”

Quoting from P. Loudon, Statist. Acc. iii., 105, the writer proceeds:—“The custom still remains [in the West of Scotland] among the herds and young people to kindle fires in the high grounds, in honour of Beltan. Beltan, which in Gaelic signifies Baal or Bel’s fire, was anciently the time of this solemnity. It is now kept on St. Peter’s Day.”

Just here we may turn to Mr. Pennant’s “Tour in Scotland,” for the following interesting particulars. “On the first of May, the herdsmen of every village hold their Beltein, a rural sacrifice. They cut a square trench on the ground, leaving the turf in the middle; on that they make a fire of wood, on which they dress a large caudle of eggs, butter, oatmeal, and milk; and bring, besides the ingredients of the caudle, plenty of beer and whisky; for each of the company must contribute something. The rites begin with spilling some of the caudle on the ground by way of libation: on that every one takes a cake of oatmeal, upon which are raised nine square knobs, each dedicated to some particular being, the supposed preserver of their flocks and herds, or to some particular animal, the real destroyer of them: each person then turns his face to the fire, breaks off a knob, and flinging it over his shoulder, says—This I give to thee, preserve thou my horses; this to thee, preserve thou my sheep; and so on. After that they use the same ceremony to the noxious animals; This I give to thee, O Fox! spare thou my lambs; this to thee, O hooded Crow! this to thee, O Eagle!”[25]

Further on the same traveller writes:—“The Beltein, or the rural sacrifice on the first of May, O.S., has been mentioned before. Hallow-eve is also kept sacred: as soon as it is dark, a person sets fire to a bush of broom fastened round a pole, and attended with a crowd, runs round the village. He then flings it down, keeps a great quantity of combustible matters in it, and makes a great bonfire. A whole tract is thus illuminated at the same time, and makes a fine appearance. The carrying of the fiery pole appears to be a relic of Drudism.”[26]

The “Statistical Account of Scotland, Parish of Callander, Perths,” supplies several important and interesting facts relating to this. “The people of this district have two customs which are fast wearing out, not only here, but all over the Highlands, and therefore ought to be taken notice of while they remain. Upon the first day of May, which is called Beltau or Baltein Day, all the boys in a township or hamlet meet in the moors. They cut a table in the green sod, of a round figure, by casting a trench in the ground of such circumference as to hold the whole company. They kindle a fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide the cake into so many portions, as similar as possible to one another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. They daub one of these portions all over with charcoal, until it be perfectly black. They put all the bits of cake into a bonnet. Every one, blindfold, draws out a portion. He who holds the bonnet is entitled to the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit is the devoted person who is to be sacrificed to Baal, whose favour they mean to implore, in rendering the year productive of the sustenance of man and beast. There is little doubt of these inhuman sacrifices having been once offered in this country, as well as in the east, although they now pass from the act of sacrificing, and only compel the devoted person to leap three times through the flames; with which the ceremonies of this festival are closed.”

Again referring to Jamieson, he says:—“The respect paid by the ancient Britons to Belus, or Belinus, is evident from the names of some of their kings. As the Babylonians had their Beletis or Belibus, Rige-Belus, Merodoch-Baladan and Belshazzar; the Tyrians their Ich-baals and Balator, the Britons had their Cassi-belin, and their Cuno-belin.

“The Gael and Ir. word Beal-tine or Beil-teine signifies Belus’ Fire; as composed of Baal or Belis, one of the names of the sun in Gaul, and tein signifying fire. Even in Angus a spark of fire is called a tein or teind.”

Martin’s Western Islands bears similar testimony, thus:—“Another god of the Britons was Belus or Belinus, which seems to have been the Assyrian god Bel, or Belus; and probably from this Pagan deity comes the Scots’ term of Beltin—having its first rise from the custom practised by the Druids in the isles, of extinguishing all the fires in the parish until the tythes were paid; and upon payment of them, the fires were kindled in each family, and never till then. In those days malefactors were burnt between two fires; hence when they would express a man in a great strait, they say, He is between two fires of Bel, which in their language they express thus, Edir da hin Veaul or Bel.”

It has been remarked that the Pagan rites of the festival of Midsummer Eve, the Summer Solstice may be considered as a counterpart of those used at the Winter Solstice of Yule-tide. “There is one thing,” says Brand, “that seems to prove this beyond the possibility of a doubt. In the old Runic Fasti, a wheel was used to denote the festival of Christmas. Thus Durandus, when speaking of the Rites of the Feast of St. John Baptist, informs us of this curious circumstance, that in some places they roll a wheel about to signify that the Sun, then occupying the highest place in the Zodiac, is beginning to descend; and in the amplified account given by Naogeorgus, we read that this wheel was taken up to the top of a mountain and rolled down from thence; and that, as it had been previously covered with straw, twisted about it and set on fire, it appeared at a distance as if the sun had been falling from the sky. And he further observes, that the people imagine that all their ill-luck rolls away from them together with this wheel.”

“Leaping over the fires is mentioned among the superstitious rites used at the Palilia in Ovid’s Fasti. The Palilia were feasts instituted in honour of Pales, the goddess of shepherds (though Varro makes Pales masculine), on the calends of May. In order to drive away wolves from the folds, and distempers from the cattle, the shepherds on this day kindled several heaps of straw in their fields, which they leaped over.”

“Bourne tells us that it was the custom in his time, in the North of England, chiefly in country villages, for old and young people to meet together and be merry over a large fire, which was made for that purpose in the open street. This, of whatever materials it consisted, was called a Bone-fire. Over and about this fire they frequently leap, and play at various games such as running, wrestling, dancing, &c.; this, however, is generally confined to the younger sort; for the old ones, for the most part, sit by as spectators only, and enjoy themselves over their bottle, which they do not quit till midnight, and sometimes till cock-crow the next morning.”

A correspondent of the Gentleman’s Magazine for February, 1795, writing from Skye, gives us:—“Curious fact relating to the worship of Baal in Ireland. The Irish have ever been worshippers of fire, and of Baal, and are so to this day. The chief festival in honour of the sun and fire, is upon the twenty-first of June, when the sun arrives at the Summer Solstice, or rather begins its retrograde movement. I was so fortunate, in the summer of 1782, as to have my curiosity gratified by a sight of this ceremony over a very great extent of country. At the house where I was entertained, it was told me that we should see at midnight the most singular sight in Ireland, which was the lighting of Fires in honour of the Sun. Accordingly, exactly at midnight, the Fires began to appear; and taking the advantage of going up to the leads of the house, which had a widely-extended view, I saw on a radius of thirty miles, all around, the Fires burning on every eminence which the country afforded. I had a farther satisfaction, in learning from undoubted authority, that the people danced round the Fires, and at the close went through these Fires, and made their sons and daughters, together with their cattle, pass through the Fire; and the whole was conducted with religious solemnity. This account is exceedingly curious, and though I forbear the mention of names, I can venture to assure you that it is authentic.”The remarks of Borlase in his “Antiquities of Cornwall,” come in here very suitably. He says—“Of the fires we kindle in many parts of England, at some stated time of the year, we know not certainly the rise, reason or occasion, but they may probably be reckoned among the relicks of the Druid superstitious fires. In Cornwall, the festival fires called Bonfires, are kindled on the Eve of St. John the Baptist and St. Peter’s Day; and Midsummer is thence, in the Cornish tongue, called ‘Golnan,’ which signifies both light and rejoicing. At these fires the Cornish attend with lighted torches, tarred and pitched at the end, and make their perambulations round their fires, and go from village to village carrying their torches before them, and this is certainly the remains of the Druid superstition, for ‘faces prÆferre,’ to carry lighted torches, was reckoned a kind of Gentilism, and as such particularly prohibited by the Gallick Councils. They were in the eye of the law ‘accensores facularum,’ and thought to sacrifice to the devil, and to deserve capital punishment.”

Brand mentions a few additional particulars which we here transcribe.

“Torreblanca, in his ‘Demonology,’ has a passage in which he tells us how the ancients were accustomed to pass their children of both sexes through the fire for the sake of securing them a prosperous and fortunate lot, and he adds that the Germans imitated this profane usage in their Midsummer pyres in honour of the anniversary of St. John’s Day.

“Moresin appears to have been of opinion that the custom of leaping over these fires is a vestige of the ordeal, where to be able to pass through fires with safety was held to be an indication of innocence. To strengthen the probability of this conjecture, we may observe that not only the young and vigorous, but even those of grave characters used to leap over them, and there was an interdiction of ecclesiastical authority to deter clergymen from this superstitious instance of agility. A note at the foot of the page says that Mr. Brand saw in the possession of Douce, a French print, entitled ‘L’este le Feu de la St. Jean,’ from the hand of Mariette. In the centre was the fire made of wood piled up very regularly, and having a tree stuck up in the midst of it. Young men and women were represented dancing round it hand in hand. Herbs were stuck in their hats and caps, and garlands of the same surrounded their waists or were slung across their shoulders.

“In the ‘Traite des Superstitions,’ we read ‘Whoever desires to know the colour of his future wife’s hair, has only to walk three times round the fire of St. John, and when the fire is half extinguished he must take a brand, let it go out, and then put it under his pillow, and the next morning he will find encircling it threads of hair of the desired colour.’ But this must be done with the eyes shut. We are further told, where there is a widow or a marriageable girl in a house, it is necessary to be very careful not to remove the brands, as this drives away lovers.

“The third Council of Constantinople, A.D. 680, in its sixty-fifth canon, enacted the following interdiction:—‘Those Bonefires that are kindled by certaine people on New Moones before their shops and houses, over which also they do foolishly leape, by a certaine ancient custome, we command them from henceforth to cease. Whoever, therefore, shall doe any such thing; if he be a clergyman, let him be deposed; if a layman, let him be excommunicated. For, in the Fourth Book of the Kings it is written: And Manasseh built an altar to all the host of heaven, in the two courts of the Lord’s house, and made his children to passe through the Fire, &c.’ Prynne observes upon this: ‘Bonefires, therefore, had their originall from this idolatrous custome, as this Generall Councell hath defined; therefore all Christians should avoid them.’ And the Synodus Francica under Pope Zachary, A.D. 742, inhibits ‘those sacrilegious Fires which they call Nedfri (or Bonefires), and all other observations of the Pagans whatsoever.’”