I

BALDER THE BEAUTIFUL

THE FIRE-FESTIVALS OF EUROPE AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE EXTERNAL SOUL

I I (

BY
LIMITED MADRAS

MACMILLAN AND CO.

LONDON

CALCUTTA BOMBAY MELBOURNE

J.

G. FRAZER, D.C.L., LL.D.,

LITT.D.

THE MACM ILLAN COMPANY

FELLOW OFT RINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL

NEW YORK DALLAS LTD.

BOSTON CUICAGO SAN FRANCISCO

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANAI)A,

TN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I

MACMILLAN ANT) CO., LIMITED ST. MARTINS STREET, LONDON

1919

PREFACE

C)PYEIGHT

BL 310 F7 1911 v.10 cop.2

IN this concluding part of The Go/deit IJouJt I have dis cussed the problem which gives its title to the whole work. If I am right, the Golden Bough over which the King of the Wood, Dianas priest at Aricia, kept watch and ward was no other than a branch of mistletoe growing on an oak within the sacred grove and as the plucking f the bough was a necessary prelude to the dauhter of the prjet, I have been led to institute a parallel bet ecu the King of the Wood at Nemi and the Norse god Balder, who was worshipped in a sacred grove heidc th beautitu. Sogne fiord of Norway and was said to have perished by a stroke of mistletoe, which alone of all things on earth or in heaven On the theiry here su,geted both could wound him. King of the Wood personified in a sense Balder and the the sacred oak of our Aryan forefathers, and both had t deposited their lives or souls for salet in the Parasite hich sometines, though rarely, is found go in ing on an ak and by the very rarity of it-s appearance exeites 11w onder md stimulates the devotion of ignorant men. Though I am now less than ever diposed to lay weight on the anJogy between the Italian priest and the Noise god, 1 ha e allowed it to stand because it furnishes me with a pILtext for discussing not only the general question of the external soul in popular super:tition, but also the fire-festivaL of -Europc, since fire played a part both in the myth of Balder rafld in the ritual of the Arician grove. Thus Balder the
V

vi

PREFA CE

PI?EFA CE

Beautiful in my hands is ljttle nioe than a stalkinghorse facts. And what is true to carry two heavy pae1.luaJ equally to the priest of Neini himself, of Balder applies the nominal hero of the long tragedy of human folly and suffering which has unrolled itself before the readers of these volumes, and on which the curtain is now about to fall. I Ic, tco, for all the quaint garb he wears and the gravity with which he stalks across the stage, is merely a puppet, and it is time to unmask him before laying him up

in the box. lo drop metaphor, while nominally investigating a particular problem of ancient mythology, I have really been discussing luestions of more general interest which concern the gradual evolution of human thought from The enquiry is beset with cIi savagery to civilization. culties of many kinds, for the record of mans mental development is even more imperfect than the record of his physical development, and it is harder to read, not only by reason of the incomparably more subtle and complex nature of the subject, but because the readers eyes are apt to be dimmed by thick mists of passion and prejudice, which cloud in a far less degree the fields of comparative anatomy and geology. My contribution to the history of the human mind consists of little more than a rough and purely pro visional classification of facts gathered almost entirely from printed sources. If there is one general conclusion which seems to emerge from the mass of particiiars, I venture to think that it is the essential similarity in the working of the less developed human mind among all races, which corre sponds to the essential similarity in their bodily frame revealed by comparative anatomy. But while this general mental similarity may, I believe, be taken as established, we must always be on our guard against tracing to it a multi tude of particular resemblances which may be and often are due to simple diffusion, since nothing is more certain than
,

that the various races of men have borrowed from each other many of their arts and crafts, their ideas, customs, and institutions. To sift out the elements of culture which a race has independently evolved and to distinguish them accurately from those which it has derived from other races is a task of extreme difficulty and delicacy, which promises to occupy students of man for a long time to come ; indeed so complex are the facts and Sc) imperfect in most cases is the historical record that it may be doubted whether iu regard to many of the lower races we shall ever arrive at more that) probable conjectures. Since the last edition of The Golden Bough was pub lished some thirteen years ago, I have seen reason to change my views on several matters dscussed in this concluding part of the work, and though I have called attention to thse changes in the text, it may be well for the sake of clearness to recapitulate them here, In the first place, the arguments of Dr. Edward Wester marck have satisfied me that the solar theory of the European firefestivals, which I accepted from \V. i\lannhardt, is very slightly, if at all, supported by the evidence and is probably Ihe true explanation of the festivals I now erroneous. believe to be the one advocated by Dr. Westerinarck himself, namely that they arc purifmcatory in intention, the fire being designed not, as I formerly held, to reinforce the suns light and heat by sympathetic magic, but merely to burn or repel the noxious things, whether conceived as material or spiritual, which threaten the life of man, of animals, and of fhis ispc et of the flue festiv ds h-cd not wholly lants escaped me in former editions I pointed it out c\pllcitly, but, biassed perhaps by the great authority of i\ianmihardt, I treated it as secondary and subordinate imusteacl of primary and dominant. Out of deference to Mannhardt, for whose work I entertain the highest respect, and because the dence for the puriflcatory theory of the fires is perhaps

PAEFl(J. 1JEJiUE.

ix

vhi solid core of hard knocks of life soon abrade, exposing the created by a pasm and savagery hdow, The danger under the bottomless layer of ignorance and superstition the natural crust of civilized society is lessened, not only by also by the torpidity and inertia of the bucolic mind, but d with the urban progressive decrease of the rural as compare it will be found population in modern states ; fcr I believe s are far less that the artisans who congregate in town their rustic retentive of primitive modes of thought than centres and as brethren. In every age cities have been the radiate into the it were the lighthouses from which ideas of mind with surrounding darkness, kindled by the friction it is natural that mind in the crowded haunts of men ; and should partake in at these beacons of intellectual light all No doubt the some measure of the general illumination. have their dark as mental ferment and unrest of great cities evils to be appre well as their bright side ; but among the pagan revival need hended from them the chances of a hardly be reckoned. mind is the Another point on which I have changed my Romans called nature of the great Aryan god whom the formerly argued Jupiter and the Greeks Zeus. Whereas I the sacred oak that he was primarily a personification of ation of the thunder and only in the second place a personific e functions and ing sky, I now invert the order of his divin to be associated believe that he was a sky-god before he came traditional view of with the oak. In fact, I revert to the like a lost sheep Jupiter, recant my heresy, and am gathered The good shepherd into the fold of mythological orthodoxy. \V, \Varde Fowler who has brought inc back is my friend Mr. 1 stumbled in the He has removed the stone over which natural way how wilderness by explaining in a simple and y come to be after a god of the thundering sky might easil anation turns on wards associated with the oak. The expl stics prove, the oak the great frequency with which, as stati

not quite conclusive, I have in this edition repeated and even em forced the arguments or the solar theory of the lest ivals, so that the reader may see for himself what can be saId on both sides of the question and may draw his own Conclusion but for my part 1 cannot but think that the arguments kr the purificatory theory far outweigh the 1)r. Westermarck based arguments for the solar theory. his criticisms largely on his own observations of tOe Moham niedan firefestivals of Morocco, which present a remarkable resemblance to those of Christian Europe, though there seems no reason to assume that herein Africa has borrowed from Europe or Europe from Africa. So far as Europe is comlccrmmcz(l, the evidence tends strongly to shew that the grand evil which the festivals aimed at combating was witchcraft, and that they were conceived to attain their end hv actually burning the witches, whether visible or invisible, in the flames. If that was so, the wide prevalence and the immense popularity of the firefestivals provides us with a measure for estimating the extent of the hold which the 1 chef in witchcraft had on the European mind before the rise of Christianity or rather of rationalism ; for Christianity, hot Ii Catholic and Protestant, accepted the old belief and enforced it in the old way by the faggot and the stake. It was not until human reason at last awoke after the long slumber of the Middle Ages that this dreadful obsession gradually passed away like a dark cloud from the intel

lectual In )rm zon of Europe. Yet we should deceive ourselves if we imagined that the beliet in witchcraft is even now dead in the mass of the evidence to shew people on the contrary there that it only hibernates under the chilling influence of rationalism, and that it would start into active life if that influence were ever seriously relaxed. The truth seems to be that to this day the peasant remains a pgau and savage at heart ; his civilization is merely a thin veneer which the

PREFA CE

is struck by lightning beyond any other tree of the wood in Europe. To our rude forefathers, who dwelt in the gloomy depths of the prirnaeval forest, it might well seem that the riven and blackened oaks must indeed be favourites of the sky-god, who so often descended on them from the murky cloud in a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder, This change of view as to the great Aryan god neces sarily affects my interpretation of the King of the Wood, the priest of Diana at Aricia, if I may take that discarded puppet out of the box again for a moment. On my theory the priest represented Jupiter in the flesh, and accordingly, if Jupiter was primarily a sky-god, his priest cannot have been a mere incarnation of the sacred oak, but must, like the deity whose commission he bore, have been invested in the imagination of his worshippers with the power of overcasting the heaven with clouds and eliciting storms of thunder and rain from the celestial vault. The attribution of weathermaking powers to kings or priests is very common in primi tive society, and is indeed one of the principal levers by which such personages raise themselves to a position of superiority above their fellows. There is therefore no im probability in the supposition that as a representative of Jupiter the priest of Diana enjoyed this reputation, though positive evidence of it appears to be lacking. Lastly, in the present edition I have shewn some grounds for thinking that the Golden Bough itself, or in common parlance the mistletoe on the oak, was supposed to have dropped from the sky upon the tree in a flash of lightning and therefore to contain within itself the seed of celestial fire, a sort of smouldering thunderbolt. This view of the priest and of the bough which he guarded at the peril of his life has the advantage of accounting for the importance which the sanctuary at Nemi acquired and the treasure which it amassed through the offerings of the faithful ; for the shrine would seem to have been to ancient what Loreto

has been to modern Italy, a place of pilgrimage, where princes and nobles as well as commoners poured wealth into the coffers of Diana in her green recess among the Alban hills, just as in modern times kings and queens vied with each other in enriching the black Virgin who from l:ier loly House on the hillside at Loreto looks out on the blue Adriatic and the purple Apennines. Such pious prodigality becomes more intelligible if the greatest of the gods was indeed believed to dwell in human shape with his wife among the woods of Nemi. These are the principal points on which I have altered my opinion since the last edition of my book was published. The mere admission of such changes may suffice to indicate the doubt and uncertainty which attend enquiries of this nature. The whole fabric of ancient mythology is so foreign to our modern ways of thought, and the evidence concerning it is for the most part so fragmentary, obscure, and conflict ing that in our attempts to piece together and interpret it we can hardly hope to reach conclusions that will completely satisfy either ourselves or others. In this as in other hradches of study it is the fate of theories to be washed away like childrens castles of sand by the rising tide of knowledge, and I am not so presumptuous as to expect or desire for I hold them all mine an exemption from the common lot. very lightly and have used them chiefly as convenient pegs on which to hang my collections of facts, For I believe that, while theories are transitory, a record of facts has a permanent value, and that as a chronicle of ancient customs and beliefs my book may retain its utility when my theories are as obsolete as the customs and beliefs themselves deserve to be. I cannot dismiss without some natural regret a task which has occupied and amused me at intervals for many years. But the regret is tempered by thankfulness and hope. I am thankful that I have been able to conclude

IAJgJG! E

at least one chapter of the work I projected a long time ago. [ am hopeful that I may not now b taking a final leave of my indulgent readers, but that, a; I am sensible of little abatement in my bodily strength and of none in my ardour for study, they will bear with me yet a while of it I should attempt to entertain them with fresh subjects the tragedy laughter and tears drawn from the comedy and of mans endless quest after happiness and truth.

CC) NT E NT S
PREFACE
. . . . .

J.
ClLIrr1R
t.

G. FRAZER.

Pp. v-xh F.lrli Pp.

13 I

Ciubol:, 17//i

0,/chew

1913.

LBETWEEN ITEAVEN ANI)

ol Ajicia and the Golden Akt Ic buck Ike Ear//i, pp. 1 i8.---iIie Bough, I sq. ; sacred kiigs and l5s mi bidden o lOud i is 010 utot with their feet, 24 ; certain persons on certain OccsOoIis tcil,io,ten to thought touch the ground with their feet, 4-b ; sacred persons apparently expi dc to be charged with a myst erious virtue which will run o waste ci by contact with th eg round, 0 sq. ; things i steP a pernur with the mysterious virtue of holiness or taboo and therrtbre kept tint contact with the ground, 7 ; test ival of the wild mango, which is not allowed to touch the earth, 71 1 ; other sacred bjeets kent from core act sacred todd tt alien is I ti t cab tie earl ti, with the ground, ii sq. 13 sq. ; magical implements and remedies thought to liar: their vu t by contact with the ground, 4 sq. ; serpents eggs or snake stones, 15 sq.; medicinal plants, water, etc. , ii it allow ed Iii touch the cart l I
-

5 .lu/ to siC Ike Sun, pj. 15-21.- Sacred persons not allOt-it I es th -tue. tabooed persons not allowed to see the sun, so ; certain persons forbidden to see fire, 20 sq. ; the story of Prince Sunless, at GIRLS AT CFIAPTER

I l.Tm SECLUSION OF
PUIJERv
i
. . .
.

Pla
-

22-100

I ;o p .ertv 51 Seclusion of Girls at Juer/) bidden to touch the ground and see the sun, 22 ; seclusion ot girls at puberty atttong the Zulus and kindred tribes, a; among I be A Kaniba of British East i\frica, 2i aittong the ilaganda of ( nat ral .\ Inca, 2; among the tribes of the Tangaityi ka plateau, 24 q. ; a iiiong the tribes 1 rule British Central Africa, 25 sq.; abstinence from salt associated web a bcs, 262 S ; reel usion of irIs at pit bert y ant ng of chastity in many t ri the the tribes about Lake Nyassa and on the Zate et. 25 si. : .ltlonp 29 sq. ; atnoitg the Ca It re tn ties it ,out 1 Attica, Thonga of Delagoa I lay, 31 sq. 30 sq. ; among the Bavili of the Lower Congo,
-

Sill

CHAP. IV

ES THE LEJVTEJV FIR

107

CHAPTER IV

OF EUROPE TIlE FIRE-FESTIVALS

I
[
t

,,

i. The Lenten Fires med from peasants have been accusto Air. over Europe the ea, 1trop of the bonfires on certain days. CSLu of time immemorial to kindle s of kindling leap over them. Custom year, and to dance round or bonires to the k on historical evidence (Ui Ce, tall this kind can be traced bac observed lay of logy to similar customs th year, Middle Ages, and their ana prove that ng internal evidence to daneig in antiquity goes with stro prior to the round them sought in a period long id lcmg their origin must he of of their over Indeed the earliest pro spread of Christianity. attempts Etligies are rope is furnished by the 5,l,letilttCs observance in Northern Eu put them Lui it ii in the eighth century to made by Christian synods . effigies are the fires s. 2 Not uncommonly down as heathenish rite burning a a pretence is made of burned in these fires, or believing there are grounds for living person in them ; and these were actually burned on that anciently human beings n will ey of the customs in questio occasions. A general surv e at the an sacrifice, and will serv bring out the traces of hum 3 their meaning. same time to throw light oil e bonfires are most s of the year when thes The season Seasons of mer ; but in some places the year n commonly lit are spring and midsum the wlwh the end of autumn or during they are kindled also at the hoilires also J. Grimm, are ht. 4q7 sqq. Compare scke Jlyllio
-

n (the thirtyticularly on Hallow Ee course of the winter, par of Twelfth as Day, and the Eve first of October), Christm which they them in the order in Day. We shall consider them is the year. The earliest of occur in the calendar (the Iftll of Eve of Twelfth Day winter festival of the in an earlier been already described January); but as it has and begin shall pass it over here part of this work we fall on the of spring, which usually ster with the fire-festivals vit), 2 Ea (Quadragesi.wa or ]izvoca first Sunday of Lent Eve, and May Day. nday in Custon, bonfires on the first Su The custom of kindling France, and Belgium, the north of ntiias prevailed in Le Ardeniies the first in Sunday Thus in the Belgian many parts of Germany. the great fire, L tnight before the day of for a week r a for collecting Bebian AidLairs. about from farm to farm as it is callcd children go their request licux any one who refuses fuel. At Grands Ha ken his children, who try to blac pursued next d by the has is inct fire. When the day with the ashes qf the ext face broom, especially juniper and e, they cut down ushes, com the heights. t bonfires blaze en all and in the evening gre s should be seen if seven bonfire It is a common saying th the Meuse froniconfiagrations. If village is to be safe the arc lit also d at tle time, bonfires happens to be frozen har up a pole called Halleuxhey set on the ice. At Grand , and the fire of 5 ch, in the midt the pile rnakrai, or the wit in the village. was last Warned is kindled by the man who is burnt of Morlanwelz atraw man the neighbourhood In and sing ple and cbildren darice in the fire. Young peo sp secure good over the ember round the bonfires, and leap as a means rriage within the year, or crops or a happy ma Brabait on the against colic. In of guarding themselves the nineteenth n to the beginning of same Sunday, dow ale attire scd to uised in fem century, women and men disg y danced nd hes to the fields, where the go with burning torc y alleged, of drivifig purpose, as the sang comic songs for the in the Gospet sower, who is mentioned away the wicked Urnand in many villages of the day. At Maeseyck for
The Scapegoat, pp. 3 r6 sqq.
von Reins mass for the day (0. Frh. nder cia s Invacavit is known The first Sunday in Lent from the first word of the Kole berg. Dtiriugsteld, Fostbohmen p 67)
___

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If

1 See JaCob Grttunt, Deia i. 502, 4 loie (Berlin, 18751878), 510, 5th. rnkultus W. Mannhardt, Der buu s1am,ne der G,munen vsnd jhnrjV.clj6ar (Berlin, 1875), PP i8 si. these In the Miowing survey of Man,s ustotn, I tollow chiefly V. ttre-C kap. vi. pp. barth, Der baumkalius,

5oo sqq. 4 ie lo 5 i)utxhe Mythu, i. es of ho/a Walter K, Kelly, Curiositi Folk lore European Tradition and F. Vogt, (London, 1863), pp. 46 sqq.; Fruhlingsfeuer, Seheibentreib,sn und d,, des Vereins fur Voikskien Zeitsthrift 49-3t9; 3 ibid. iv. iii. (1893) PP (1894) pp. 195-197. io

x6o

Ti/li /JJ/1b-F1eSTIf-ii,S OF FUJIOIE

Cit-vP.

errands. On this witching night children in Voigtland also light bonfires on the heights and leap over them. Moreover, they wave httrning brooms or toss them into the air. So far a-c tile I ihht of the bottfirc reaches, so far will a blessing rest on the fields. The kindling of the fires on Walpurgis Night lhe custom of is ctdled driving away the witches, Icittilling Ii res on the eve o May Day (Walpurgis Night) for I In purpose of httt-ning the witches is, or used to be, wide 2 spread in the Tyrol, Moravia, Saxony and Silesia.

4
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steps and rekindle the sinking flame of the red lamp in his feeble hand. In sot-ne such thoughts as these the midsummer festivals of our European peasantry may perhaps have taken their rise. Whatever their origin, they hay e prevailed all over this quarter of the globe, from Ireland on the west to Russia on the east, and from Norway and Sweden on the north to 1 Spain and Greece on the south. According to a inediaival the bouttires, tie writer, the three great features of the midsumnter celebration torches, were the bonfires, the procession with torches round the and the hurn.ing fields, and the custom of rolling a wheel, i-ic tells us that wheels of boys burned bones and filth of various kinds to make a foul the festival. smoke, and that the smoke drove away certain noxious dragons which at this tune, excited by the summer heat, copulated in the air and poisoned the wells and rivet-s by dropping their seed into them ; and he explains the custom of trundling a wheel to mean that tile SUH, having now reached the highest point in the ecliptic, begins thenceforward to 2 descend,
qane dra, err,

te

1id

ittInt.,.

II

As to the Midstimmer Festival of Europe in general see the evidence collected in tite Specimen Caluttdarii Gentilis, appended to the Fdda Jlhythmica seu Antiquior, vu/go Sat mrauzdina dicta, Pars iii. (Copenhagen,
2828) pp. 1086-1097.
2 in

St

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I.

,Suntennn Zn,uuia/ia, 1/5,-c .rppel.zrnu; inqurv,r a,,r,w,nia it: acre c-cant, iii aquis iralent, in terra ambulant. Scsi quarrdo in acre ad libidinem concilautur (quad fete fl) eaefc ipsurn sperma vel in pierces, eel in aqurs flu IisS iji,i ant iqu?tro- ,rnnus.-l,ihe, ea qua /et/ia/s a U /10CC erg nujnsmsdi 1.. (0111/tm est revectlia,e, iii vuS/i, ci ro,os in assi bar consfrucretur, et un Jbmus hujusmadi ant nra/ia Jtn, aret, RI qute salad 700XZ thC /1,15 Iemj(orejo/at. radii C/i /10 ,,r,lo oh s,ueue/us o/aers,ttur. ..L,,n a, l:eni
it,n ,sl t4a,si5:it JI,an/c/ a iii

But the season at which these firefestivals have been mostly generally held all over Europe is the summer solstice, that is M itlsuminer Eve (the twentythird of June:. or Mid summer 1)a (tile twentyfourth of June). A faint tinge of Christbtttity has been given to them by naming Midsummer Day after St. John the Baptist, but we cannot doubt that the celebuatit ot dates from a time long before the beginning of our era. The summer solstice, or Midsummer Day, is the great turningpoint in the suns career, when, after climbing higher and higher day by day in the sky, the luminary stops and thenceforth retraces his steps down the heavenly road. Such a moment could not but be regarded with anxiety by primitive man so soon as he began to observe and ponder the courses of the great lights across the celestial vault ; and having still to learn his own powerlessness in face of the vast cyclic changes of nature, he may have fancied that he could help the sun in his seeming dcciii te-coulci prop his failing

faculas good Joha noes fuvril ardens sara 1 lucerne, ci gui V/aS .L/ouoini pree vsrit. Ted uod bee re/a vet-ta/ar lanc eaw pu/ant ttu2 In curn sucti/urn
tu,rc ,,o/ a,cei:aSrut :1/ira
,,Iom tao

1 J, A. E. Kdliler, Vu Ts branch, ,iLiobu/icn, .((ti,t)/ iifl(i andre alte oie, 1 oI)crulieii jut I 1/title Let I ilic superstitions ic I 57, p. 37b lat tig to witches at this season are For instance, to SaXOn) and kigioo. Thu [iflgia a ny one who labours under ,lemislt can easily rid himself a l1vCal 01 It by transfcrrtng it to tIle WttvlieS Ott \\ alpuigis Night. lie las only to go Out 10 a cro-,s-road, ittake I lace CEI)15C5 on the blent tab, an say, In the name of (iod the Father, the Son, and the Thus the hicutish, what 5 Holy (;ho cter It 111w be, is left heltind him at the

cross-road, and when the witches sweep by on their way to the Brocken, they must lake It with them, and it sticks Moreover, three to tltvm henrefortlt. Lrosses chal k:d up on the doors of houses and cattlestalls on Walpurgis Night will effectually prevent any of the infernal crew from entering and See E. loing hartit to man or beast. Sottititer,.Saen. j/,r,-hcn turd Geiv-durch, airs t,ac/racit and ihli/uii/,vn (italic, 1846), pp. 148 59. ; Die gesirryelte Rockcnjhilosophic (Chemnilz, i 759), p. ii6. See The Scapegoat, pp. i8 sqq.

john Mitchell Ketnble, ThtSaxons England, New Edition (London, 2876), 1. 361 sq., quoting an ancient MS. written in England, and now in the Harleian Collection, No. 2345, fol. 50. The passage is quoted in part by J. Brand, iojnlar .-lniiqnities of Great Britain (London, 18821883), i. 298 sq., by R. I. Hainpson, Mcdii Aevi Kalendarium (London, 1841), Mannhardt, Der I. 300, and by W Ban,nkultur, p. 509. llie saute ex planations of the M idsunimer lire, atol of the custom of trundling a burning wheel on Midsutsttner Eve are given also by John Beleth, a writer of the See his Jiatianale twelfth century. QJjiciorum (appended to Diviuio,wm the Ratianalt Divinorum Ojtcioru,n 584), V.] 1 of C. [ Durandus, Lyons, roc t recta So/cut parro , ternp. pore [the Eve of St. John the Baptist] cx veteri cansuetudine rnortisorzurn anj inn/ira OSlO combitri, quod hujusmadi
pr. VII. VOL. 1

iau,gt/,n gredi acquit, a jua ,asgIlur 1 dsccndcre, The substance of tlte pass age is repeated in other words by C. Durandus (Wilh. Duratitis), a writer of the thirteenth centurY, in hi B: tionale Divinurum OJlniorum, Iii,. vtt. cap. 14 (p. 442 verSe, ed. Lyons, 1584). Compare J. Grintn Den/sc/ic Mytho 4 ligIe, 1. 526. iVjt h the not ion that the tir is nay,. untnter 5 poisoned at nttd we

1f

(7U

TI/F J/RJ-FTIJi1riLS OF EUROIE

lv

771E MJDS lIMitER FIRES

nao

d,ii,ons

I III

Ml

all sorts ot bie-,:dt,s. Mere contact with tile fire brings low, the lads leapover it, hence when the bonfire is burning is the luck in store for and the higher they hound, the better ws iss this hero of the day them. He who sorpasses his 1db , girls. It is also thought and is much admired by time village steadily at the bonfire to be very good for the eyes ttarc does so will not drowse without blinking ; moreovtr he who On w intel evenings and I mil ash ci> bctmixs mu the lout itt Sesia doors oi houses Midsummer Eve, the windowS and s, especially with the blue corn are crownecL itlu flower in sume villaes long flowers and the bright corn-c tckles ; uc stretched LCIOSS the stimngc of g Irlands amid noses >5 ijight St. John The people believe that on that streets. the flowers and to keep comes down from heaven to bless 1 all evil things from house and home. sin Midsummer tires were 501110cr In Denmark and Norway also hills, tIres 111 open spaeeC, and kindled on St. Johns Eve on roads, the flies banished sickness Slid People in Norway thought that yet the fires are said to be Norway. 1 from among the cattle. Even of June the twenty lighted all over Norway on the night .s many as fifty or third, Midsummer Eve, Old Style. hills often be counted burning on the sixty bonfires may on ratts, ignited, and round Bergen. Sometimes fuel is piled fords in the darkness of allowed to drift blazing across the kindled in order to keep Keeping night. The fires are thought to be ii 111 ft oil he uI it off the witches who mre stid to 5 the big witch lives. that night to the Blocksberg, where

Philo

COOl

roam] ; sometimes they are dcaply burnt and blackened. like explanation of them is this, j\ bout midsummer, but especially on M idsunmnmer Day, two such holes arc bored opposite each other, into u hich the extremities of a strong pale are tixed, The holes are then stuffed with tow steeped in resin and oil ; a rope is looped round the pole, and two young men, who must be brothers or must have the same e 1 baptismal name, and must be of the same age, pull tl ends of the rope backwards and forwards so as to make the pole spirks issue from the two revolve rapidly, till sin kc The sparks are caught and blown holes in the doorposts. up with tinder, and this is the new and pure fire, the of aupearance of which is greeted with cries of joy. I leaps corn hustible materials are now ignited with the new fire, and blazing bundles arc i laced on boards and sent floating down the brook. The boys light: torches at the new fire and run to fumigate the pastures. This is believed to drive away all the demons and witches that molest the cattle. Finally the d to torches are thu wn in a heap on the meadow and allowe w iy b n. I thc bo S Sti LW the ishes over burn out (in their the fields, which is supposed to make them fertile, If a ts if farmer has taken possession of a new house, or 1 servan have changed masters, the boys fumigate the ne\v abode anti ime iew nded by the farm m wIth suppcr In hilm_sm i from th outh e stcrn pri of the Sudeten md no> th 1 stw trd -e f n s Lausiti the mountains i mgI are ablaze with bonfires an Midsr6mer Eve ; and from the dt, valleys and the plaills round aSout LeobschUtz, Neusta a. 1. Lnw( mit v hre tvinklu tiui ough / oh (id S irid at hI r pl \Vlule they ne smouldering mud the d I imw loom smoke across the fields, young men sending forth volumctgof and kindle broomstumps, soaked in pitch, at the bonfires , which epit showers of sparks, then, brandishing the stumps the they chase one another or dance with the girls round fhe Sm ed md shout, I used ii hum no pmk ,hots too tire, the swhke, the shots, and the shouts are all intended to g scare away the witches, who are let louse on this witchin work harm to the crops and the lay, nd who would certainly res. cattle, if they were not deterred by these salutary measu
their great isalbadts 011 t he Eve of May 1kw (WaIpirgis Night) and Mid. 111.01 solon/er Es. jS1 till/I IllS ot with the BloCkS), the OgICCI peas the 11 are mountains. I ut in Meek len eli. hers, ln,rlIttia, il/Il witci ii, villages have their 011 0 I Cat Iiloeksberg, which is generally a hill iii 11.1 II dIflO 1110 II op n lia gIl 19 a number of p11/es ill lOtOr/StiiS See j. I lie name of thi Bloekslcrg. 6 1 1 Grj,,,n,. D,,. .i7tllaIs. ii. 575 ho, 1f,.re,/1rse)t ///C sq. ; Eltich Zau/strci in .Itstnatern (13/esiati, i886), Jim. l6. I 3.1 sat II 4 17. Sattin, iaSt, 1)/C) it 11)/li /C,sn
,.

> C. L.

ii. 144 sqq. l,chiioIz, I6uls iw GIIidw und Thac, (Berlin, 1867),

Walde, Sell/es/CO in (Berlin, NO.), p. .I.C UIIII li/al/CS Paul 1)iecl,slcr. .5///e, 16 atoll, 124 , itiid Lolkgglaube in .ScIt/esin (Leipic 1903_1906), 1. 136 Sq. 4 J. Orimm. Deti/sc/ic dfvtlwlgl/e, i. 517 sq. Front information 51111)11(16 by Mr. Sigurd. K. Ileibeig, pieer, 01 Bergen, Nor way, WhO II his I)/ 911006 regularly collected fuel for the fires. I have to thank SI es Anderson, of liar. 511 looting, Mauchhne, Ayrshire, for lon for kindly procuring the II) f000at mc Irom Mr. Iletberg. the Blocksberg, where (,,e[IuaO as for well as Norwegian witches gather

329.

CHAP

IV

ES TIlE LEATEV FiR

107

Een (time thirtyparticularly on Hallow course of the winter, I xc of I wr 11th i istmas D iy and Ca ich thcy first of Octobci), Ch iq in Cit. idi in wh We shall considcm thc I) my thr in is thm 1 he cat In_st of year occur in thc calendar 1) ry (th filth of l the Eve of fix clith wintcr festiv ii of in iii Li lid becn already describcd iii Januaiy) nbUt as it1 has ox ci here nid bc rk wc sh ill pass it Lit of this wo fall on thc p ily f spi 1n, which n_stim I istcr with the Inc festii als ma 01 JHvocaSnl), ia.osz y of Lcnt (Quad
,

fist

Sunda

CIT \P1LR TV
1 t [lvii 8 01 1 URO1 P

1 Hi

P11 1

Ike Lntln Ines

ttnuiui

/01

Snuu/uctInu/r

nt

tn/es

from have been accustomed r Europe the peaants ove s of the uirc on ccrt un d t ii to 1 indlc_ bon cuslnre/ of 1mb 1 nm 111011 Customs of m kin unit, ii n or It ip ovm r thc the md to d nice i ou ri tuomuhres toi ictl cx idence to nun uris fl this I md c u hr. tiaccd hick on his customs obsered ninny nO y to similar ira! thcu m nog Middle r\ iht vein, to pro& that ng intcrnal evidcncc iii /0/1/4 itx gos with stro mn uttmu g )1 101 to the rn,runuul ought in a ix i iod lon itn mu,t b //un amnci tnnjn hr U 01 of of their lndccd tin c uhcst pio i$un,nu 3 (hi ttm int us ru/u ,ptc id o hed by thc ttcinpt ii I uwpc is fpinis L. iii Nurthci tla_m oh scm V LU cn,hth Century to put un burr Clii ii in svitods in the igics irt P0 1(11 by tine Not unqonmonl eff ritcs Ls he-mthc nisn do x 0 td of bui fling 1 pi ctence i in tOt I in 1 o. fircs, ro m bui Or giuricis for belit_vin in thcm md therc -mrc i lix it p ned on thcc n s xx cit. ictu tily bur ici}t13 liun in bci n will ih rt LiIc the customs in qucstio d _,cnci ii s irxr y & 005 Or r 151 serxr. at the in s rcrifici_ md $ it ji out tht tr Ices of hum hi n hilg itlu ow li_,ht on their nit mn s iinr I Iifl& to se boiihr irc most of Cit xc u whc ii the S I hc sc in some p1 icL Seasniro of iiitl PP i(lSUifliiici but ike year nut cummonly lit I. S1 1I1L the l of iutumn 01 duting nvtniiu ire risu it thr cur tiir v tic knirilemI I u/u S r u, S e also J. G rim in, 407 sq. Compar lie It. 1 500 S i 0 nm I)e1sch Jfj/hoCe J 1I5/II /190 nOr/ic /8 ti tO I 502 //es rmf Judo

(I

1/

1875

51),

0-

( n torn Lx and M my 1)ay fit st Suod my in ng bontmrcs on the I hi. ciNtOtfl of kindli r mncc inch I Bclgiutn thc north of nco thr fit Lcnthas picx iilcd in in thc Bcl_,i in Ardcn fhu Gcim my many parts of thm rt at ftc ht bcfure the d iy of III rn for a wck or foitnm n to I inn clh cting Uoe.nurs. ldicn gn but fioni fuu iS c thlcd thi s their request x any one who refuse fuel. At rand Halleu try to bi ickcn his by thc chilclrcn who ay, t is puisuccl 1\et day \\ hcn tiic ( has thu cxtinct firc 5 face with time mshes of r nid b(oom hes espcci dly Junipe conic thcy cut, down bus 1ie hcq,hts nrc it bonfues hi LZc on all and in the evdning uld be scn if that scvcn bonfncs sho It is a common tyni If thu \lcusc c from cool] imp -it ions the vi1la.c is to bsaf I i cs tic lit also Ii ird it thu time, hon h mppens to be It oh_n sut up i. oin c nh d nia 5 At Gd Ii illcux thcy on thc icc pm c nid tim hi c , in thc nmnnist of the makrril or the xx itch itt thc xiii icc Who xx is last marricd nt is kiridlcd by thc man lix fl Lii 15 but oi Moilanxx eli m sti In thc i cii.,hboui hood and sing chtldicn it mcc Younr, pcoplc nd in thc firc to -ccuie good Ic Li,over t1 cmbcms round the bonflrcs, and or is i incans n iac within thc y c m1, . crops or a happy ma In Ihobitit on tin es against colic of gu nrdin thcmseiv numctcenth 1km to the bethhnig of rI to samu Sund ny down c in fcni tit ittirr U-r in4 7nefl lsguis ccntury xx owcn tnccd ansi yd s to thc ficlds xx In_ic thc xini, go with but nnmng tom chc as dir x tllnt d of dni thc purposu san, os1lic sonqs for tile Co pcI in cr who is menttoitci un aw my thc mx ml cd sow in in mnyd xiii ics of I At Ma scy ck and foi thu d my

I biu,nkidlems W M annhardt, i9ins!thi me mnsr ul i/r,-or\iehd dot Ge, nrn,j i . 5 ( hen i i iii niitoy of these In liiifollow chieui W. Mann0/rIO I iii eis, kap. vi. pp. hardi, 13cr Raumkultu

Cur/eel Waiter K. Kelly, n ann lo1k iorc Lurojeai 7 9aditio Vogt, Sb ; ), pp. 40 s-qq. F. ( London, i treiben und Fruhi i npnfeucr, n Seheibe lan f/u 1b/ies/.urnd/, ZeitecliriR dcs Vere 549-369; ibid. iv. fit. (i Sq;) pp. 7. 11894) pp. 195-19

lust word of the as Javecavit from the

. 1 The SiapuWoa/, pp. 316 su/q known 2 The first Sunday in Lent IS

von Ruinsnuass for thh day (0. 1rh /cadet azus fktrinpsfr/ld, iGe/- JOt berg I 67. iu%lumcn,

106

172
CHAP.

THE FJRE-F/SSTJVALS 01 EUROPE

lv

THE MIDSUMMER FIRES

173

In Sweden the Eve of St. John (St. Hans) is the most j )yUUS night. of the whole year. Throughout some parts of the country, especially in the provinces of Bohus and Scania and in districts bordering on Norway, it is cele bra ted 1w the frequent discharge of firearms and by huge bo!lbre-, formerly called Balders Balefires (Ba/dirs BJ/ar), which are kindled at dusk on hills and eminences and throw a glare of light over the surrounding landscape. The pople dance round the fires and leap over or through them. In parts of Norrland on St. Johns Eve the bon fires are lit at the cross-roads, The fuel consists of nine clilferent sorts of wood, and the spectators cast into the flames a kind of toad-stool ?3irau) in order to counteract the p wer of the Trolls and other evil Spirits, who are believed to be abroad that night ; for at that mystic season the mountains open and from their cavernous depths the uncanny crew pours forth to dance and disport themselves for a time. The peasants believe that should any of the Trolls be in the vicinity they will shew themselves ; and if an animal, for example a he or she goat, happens to be SCCfl itear the blazing, crackling pile, the peasattts are firmly perstt led that it is no other than the Evil One in person. Further, it deserves to le remarked that in Sweden St. Johns Eve is a festival ol water as well as of fire ; for certain holy s)rings arc then supposed to he endowed with wonderful medicinal virtues, and mati sick people resort to them for the healing of their infirmities. 2 In Switzerland on Midsummer fve fires are, or used to be, kindled on hieh places in the cantons of Bern, Neuchatel, Mais, T \ and Genevid In Austria the midsummer customs a ud superstitions resemble those of Germany. Thus in some parts of the Tyrol bonfires are kindled and burning discs hurled into the air. In the lower valley of the Inn a tater 4 (lemalian effigy is carted about the village on Midsummer
imnolatia

(L. Lloyd, op. cit. p.

26

F. IIoftmann-krayer, Fm/c nod

Ii
iit,hc

Day and then burned. He is called the Letter, which has Ettigies been corrupted into Luther. At Ambras, one of the viiages where Martin Luther is thus burned in effigy, they say that if you go through the village between eleven and twelve on St. Johns Night and wash yourself in three wells, oui will see all who are to die in the following year. c\ t G rat z on 1 St. Johns Eve (the twenty-third of June) the common people used to make a puppet called the Tatermann, which they dragged to the bleaching ground, and peltel with I inruing besoms till it took fire. At Reutte, in tIe Tvrol, people 2 believed that the flax would grow as high as they leaped over the midsummer bonfire, and they took pieces of charred wood from the fire and stuck them in their flax-fields the same night, leaving them there till the tax harvest had been got in. In Lower Austria fires are lit in the fields, 3 commonly in front of a cross, and the people dance and sing round them and throw flowers into the ilames. Before each handful of flowers is tossed into the fire, a set pcccb is made ; then the dance is resumed and the dancers sing in chorus the last words of the speech. At evening bonfires are kindled on the heights, and the boys caper round them, brandishing lighted torches drenched in pitch. Who ever jumps thrice across the fire will not suffer fron fever within the year. Cart-wheels are often smeared with pitch, Burning ignited, and sent rolling and blazing down the hiiloides. 4 All over Bohemia bonfires still burn on Midsummer down hIt Eve. In the afternoon boys go about with handcarts Mid from house to house collecting fuel, such as sticks, brushwood, old besoms, and so forth. They make their recluest Behemit. at each house in rhyming verses, threatening with evil consequences the curmudgeons who refuse them a dole. Sometims the young men fell a tall straight fir in the woods an set it up on a height, where the girls deck it with nosegays, wreaths of leaves, and red ribbons. Then brushwood is piled about it, and at nightfall the whole is set on fire. While the flames break out, the young men climb
1

des .Srhzueiserze/kes (Zurich,

Rrduciie

ic 1 JfyiIo/g (Munich, 1848 1855), i. p.

19 I 1

2 Vdekes

210,

1 L. Lloyd, Jiasat !/e in Sweden (I )itdOfl, 1870), PP. 259, z6. 2 L. lloyd, c/. cit. pp. 261 sq. 1 lose sp ii are -a lcd sacri tic is I Pu t -i (C /ir k.m) an I ire so tIlled because iii Iieatlwii times the limbs of the slangliterd victim, whether man or beast, were here washed prior to

31, P. 1114. J gnaz V. Zingerle, Sit/en,

nod Jlieinungcn des 7iroier (Innsbruek, 1871), ii. p. 159,

1354.

I. V. Zingerle, e. cit. ). I 59, 1353, 1355. 1356; W. Mannhardt, .Der Bau,,r%Ultus, p. 513. 2 w Mannhardl, i.e. F. Panzer, Beitrag zzcr deutsche

rhod irnalkeit, let%n

231.

unit

Braise/ic des Idikcs in Qesterreichi (Vienna, 1859), pp. 307 sq.

174

I]f THE FJREEESTJVALS OF EUAO

cirr.

iv

Ti/F MJJJ.UJtJ i/I/F 1FfRE.S

all that year. In sonic parts of Bohemia they used to drive catee the cows through the midsummer fire to guard them against v. ajerait. witchcraft. Miii The Germans of Moravia in like manner still light The bonfires on open grounds and high places on Midsummer Moravia, Eve ; and they kindle besoms in the flames and then stick the charred stumps in the cabbage flclds as a On the same the diattict powerful protection against caterpillars. mystic evening Moravian girls gather flowers of nine sorts and lay them under their pillow when they go to sleep theii they dream every one of him who is to be her partner for life. For ii, Moravia maidens in their beds as well as poets by haunted streams have their i\1 idsuminer \ighits 2 dreams. In Austrian Silesia the custom also prevails of lighting great bonfires on hilltops on Midsummer Eve, and here too the boys swing blazing besoms or hurl them hkh in the air, while they shout and: leap and dance wildly. Next morning every door is decked with flowers and hirchen saplings. In the district of Cracow, especially towards the Carpathian Mountains, great fires are kindled b the peasants in the fields or on the heights at nightfall on Midsummer Eve, which among them goes by the name of Kupalos Night. The fire must be kindled by the friction Fire 1. he youn people dance i onnd o, h p o ci of two sticks it ; and a band of sturdy fellows run a race with lighted of wood, torches, the winner being rewarded with a peacocks feather, distinction. Cattle which he keeps throughout the year belief that this is a also are driven round the tire in the 4 charm against pestilence and disease of every sort,
,

4 /04/c, i.

Sdte, Irauch un,:i Vi/ksg/deehe /to i/euro/en If cat/how,: ( Iragu, 1905), pp. 84.86 tVilljhaiil Iiiliir. J?eif,dgc stir I o/eskiin/e ocr /)e:it (Otis en _1!oOl 5ie (Vienna and Olnttttz, 1893), pp. 263265.

Antuit Peter, 1h/kathesm/ic/tcs otis (Troppitit. Osterrczc/uscis Sc/i/tsi:n

-

it. 257.

s which the girls had the tree and htch down the wreath stand on opposite placed on it. After that, lads and lasses \Vreath r through the wreaths thrown sides of the fire and look at one anothe eras tie each other and marry to see whether they will be true to lire. the vreaths across within the year. Also the girls throw the awkward swain who the flames to the men, and woe to him by his sweetheart. fails to catch the wreath thrown each couple takes hands. When the blaze has died down, or she who does so and leaps thrice across the fire. He the year, and the flax will be free from ague throughout leap. A girl who sees will grow as high as the young folks Eve will marry before the year fliflC bontires on Midsummer and carefully The singed wreaths are carried home I Yvi tide is out. thunderstorms a f the preserved throughout the year. During hearth with a prayer bit of the wreath is burned on the ri 1 tlr,. that are sick or calving, and some some of it is given to kine stall, that man and of h serves to fumigate house and cattle Sometimes an old cart well. beast may keep hale and FturititiO and sent rolling down wheel is smeared with resin, ignited, roliud collect all the worn-out besoms iiotvtt liii. the hill. Often the boys and having set them they can get hold of, dip them in pitch, throw them high into the air. on fire wave them about or troops, brandishing the Or they rush down the hillside in only however to return to the flaming brooms and shouting, brooms have burnt out. bun fire on the summit when the and embers from the fire are the brooms triers ii The stumps of s to protect the tie hi preservel and stuck in cabbage garden stiiak in guam. Some people insert cabbages froi ii caterpillars and in their sown charred sticksand ashes from the bonfire nil houses gardei and the roofs of their fields and meadows, in their as a and foul weather talon. it houses, as a talisman against lightning agaittat in the roof will prevent or they fancy that the ashes placed I iglitni In some districts LIII fire from breaking out in the house. ti:it5r:it to ii. any with mugwort while the they crown or grtl themselves 0,t it ed to be a pro It igwort. midsummer fire is burning, for this is suppos sickness ; in particular, tection against ghosts, witches, and preventive of sore eyes. a wreath of mugwort is a sure s through garlands Sometimes the girls look at the bonfire hen their eyes and of wild flowers, praying the fire to strengt have no sore eyes eyelids. She who does this thrice will
. 10 i1t/ Deutsche 5 Grimm, 519 ; Theodor V&rnaiekeu, slfyt/ien und Briuchc atss /.dkcs in Outstcrrich Vienna, 1559), p. o8 J oseph Virgil Grohmann, A1tr/ul:n and So/onto ails (;c/1ZUciiC imd /fa/rcu (Prague and Leijoit:, 864), p. So, 636 ; Reinsi erg-I )tiringstdld, Just-Fe/coder near Boh men (Prague, N. o.), pp. 306-311; Br. Jelind:, Materialien cur Vorgesrhichte tend olkslutnde T \ I d1ttnens, JJJitthcilunre,e dee anthropo/gischen Gese/lsch aft in (Vien, xxi. (1891) p. 13 ; Abs John,

Jh. Vernalekett, /biI3en toil 5,/tic/c aFt f ,/kcs in On terre/c/i (tiemta, 1859), pp. oS ,rg.

76
17

TIlE FIR Jf-FFS77LIlS OF EUROPE

CHAP.

lv

TiLE JtIIDS(LrjJp FiRES

The MidSun r tires aniong

Ilie name of Kupalus Nigilt, applied in this part of ilicia to \ I IdumnR r I c remind, us th it e ha a now the Slays passed from German to Slavonic ground ; even in Bohemia 01 RUSSIa. the midsummer celebration is common to Slays and Germans. We have already seen that in Russia the summer solstice or Eve of St. John is celebrated by young men and maidcnc, who jump over a bonfire in couples 1 carrying a straw effigy of Kupalo in their arms. In some parts of Russia an image of Kupalo is burnt or thrown into 2 a stream on St. JolJns Night. Again, in some districts of Russia the young folk wear garlands of flowers and girdles of holy herbs when they spring through the smoke or flames; and sometimes they drive the cattle also through Cattle tcted the tue in oidu to prot( at the amm us against izards and 8 In Little w,ishcraft. witches, who are then ravenous after milk. Russia a stake is driven into the ground on St. Johns Night, wrapt in straw, and set on fire. As the flames rise the casant women throw birchen boughs into them, The ttis In i\liiy my flax be as tall as this bough I saying, iY 1 lid Ruthenia the bonfires are lighted by a flame procured by of wood, the friction of wood. While the elders of the party are engaged in thus churning the fire, the rest maintain a respectful silence ; but when the flame bursts from the wood, they break forth into joyous songs. As soon as the biinfircs are kindled, the young people take hands and leap in islirs through the smoke, if not through the flames ; and 5 after that the cattle in their turn are driven through the fire. The MidIn many parts of Prussia and Lithuania great fires are uninwr kindled on Midsummer Eve. All the heights are ablaze Prussiaand with them, as far as the eye can see. The fires are supposed to be a protection against witclicraft, thunder, hail, and protect cattle disease, especially if next morning the cattle are Above all, witchcraft, driven over the Places where the fires burned. thunder, the boniires ensure the farmer awainst the arts of witches, is hail, and his cows by charms and who try to steal the milk from canto
. . .

disease.

1 7hz Dying Gd, p. 262. Compare M. Kowalewsky, in Folk-lore, l. (1890) p. 4f7. \\. R. S. Ralston, &ggs f (lie Ru,wian People, Second Edition (Lou don, i S7), p. 240.

4 J. Grimm, Deutsche iWythologie, i. 519; V. R. S. Ralston, Songs of the Jtu.rsian Pigple (London, 8872), pp. 240, 391. tV. FL S. Ralstnn, op. cit. p. 240. .V. R. S. Ralston, i.e.

Temme, Die Volkssage,, OStprC:ISSC,ZS, und Wis,-zusscns (Berlin, 1837), p. 277. M. foppeu, .l1Di1ii/,,,

spells. That is why next morning you may see tile young fellows who lit the bonfire going from house to house and receiving jugfuls of milk. And for the same reason they stick burs and mugwort on the gate or the hedge through which the cows go to pasture, because that is supposed to be a preservative against witchcraft. In Masuren, a district The tire ) of Eastern I russia inhabited by a branch of the 1 olish kiztda,d by iii, fr, ton rnily, it is the custom on the evening of Midsummer Day of anod. to put out all the fires in the village. Then an oaken stake is driven into the ground and a wheel is fixed on it as on an axle. This wheel the villagers, working by relays, cause to revolve with great rapidity till fire is produced by friction. Every one takes home a lighted brand from the new fire and with it rekindles the fire on the domestic hearth. 2 In tile sixteenth century Martin of rzedow, T L a Polish priest, denounced the heathen practices of the women who on St. Johns Eve (Midsummer Eve) kindled fires by the friction of wood, danced, and sang songs in honour of the devil. 1 Among tile Letts who inhabit the Baltic provinces of The Mid Kussia the most joyiul festival ol the year is held on Mid summer summer Day. ihe people drink and dance and sing and the Lens el adorn themselves and their houses with flowers and branches. Chopped boughs of fir are strewn about the rooms, and leaves are stuck in the roofs. In ever tarnl-vai-d a birch tree is set up, and every person of the name of Jnltn who enters tile farm that day must break off a twig from the tree and hang up on its branches in return a small present (hr the family. When the serene twilight of the summer night has veiled the iandscpe, bonfimes lcam on all the hills nd wild shouts of Ligho I igho echo from the woods md fields. In Riga the day is a festival of flowers. From all the neighbourhood the peasants stream into the city laden with flowers and garlands. A market of flowers is held in an open square and on tile chief bridge over the river ; here wreaths of inlmortelles which grow wild in the meadows and woods, are sold in great profusion and deck the houses W. J. A. von Tetixu undJ, D. H. AIaziere,S (Danzig, 1867),
p.
71.

Pt. Vii. VOL. 1

F. 8. Krauss, Alh,las-jscbe Fetiergewinnung Glour, lix. (i 8c i) 3 iS.

N

178
Iv

TI/if FIR1f-FESTJLALS OF EUROPE

CHAP.

THE JI!DSUMIIER FIRES

179

of Ria for long afterwards. Roses, too, are now at the prime of their beauty, and masses of them adorn the flowerstalls. Till far into the night gay crowds parade the streets to music or float on the river in gondolas decked with f1,wers) So long ago in ancient Rome barges crowned Mtd sum tIer with flowers and crowded with revellers used to float down Day in 2 Itelelit the Tiber on Midsummer Day, the twenty-fourth of June, and Igutne. no doubt the strains of music were wafted as sweetly across the water to listeners on the banks as they still are to the throngs of merrymakers at Riga. BonfIres are commonly kindled by the South Slavonian l m 1 lie ivii sum leer peasantry on Midsummer Eve, and lads and lasses dance tires among The very names the Soutit and shout round them in the usual way. Slays. of St. J olins Day (fvanjk) and the St. Johns fires (kries) are said to act like electric sparks on the hearts and minds of these swains, kindling a thousand wild, merry, and happy fancies and ideas in their rustic breasts. At Kamenagora in Croatia the herdsmen throw nine three-year old vines into the bonfire, and when these burst into flames the young men who are candidates for matrimony jump through the blaze. I Ic who succeeds in leaping over the fire without singeing himself will he married within the year. At Vidovec in Croatia parties of two girls and one lad unite to kindle a Midsummer bonfire and to leap through the flames ; he or she who leaps furthest will soonest ved. Afterwards lads and lasses dance in separate rings, but the ring of lads bumps up against the ring of girls and breaks it, and the girl who has to let go her neighbours hand will forsake her true love hereafter. In Servia on Midsummer Eve herds men light torches of birch bark and march round the sheepfolds and cattlestalls ; then they climb the hills and 1 there allow the torches to burn out. Among the Magyars in Hungary the midsummer firerite Md sHunner festival is marked by the same features that meet us in so tires an tong the Mag many parts of Europe, On Midsummer Eve in many

yars of

11111) gi I}.

places it is customary to kindle bonfires oii heights and to leap over them, and from the manner in which the yl/ung people leap the bystanders predict whether they will narry soon. At Nograd Ludany the young men and wonmen, each carrying a truss of straw, repair to a meadow, where they pile the straw in seven or twelve heaps and set it on fire. Then they go round the fire singing, and h 1d a bunch of ironwort in the smoke, while they say, No boil on my body, no sprain in my foot This holding of the flowers over the flames is regarded, we are old, as equally important with the practice of walking through the fire barefoot and stamping it out. On this day also many Ilungarian swineherds make fire by rotating a wheel tound a wooden axle wrapt in hemp, and through the fire thus made they drive their pigs to preserve them from sickness. In villages on the Danube, where the population is a truss between Magyar and German, the young men and maidens go to the high banks of the river on Midsummer Eve and while the girls post themselves low down the slope. tL iads on the height above set fire to little wooden wheels and, after swinging them to and fro at the end of a wand, send them whirling through the air to fall into the Danube. As lie does so, each lad sings out the name of his sweetheart, and she listens well pleased down below. 2 The Esthonians of Russia, who, like the Magyars, belong Iiu Midto the great furanian family of mankind, also celebrate the suiruner solstice in the usual way. On the Eve of St. John the Esthon all the peope of a farm, a village, or aim estate, walk solemnly iti procession, the girls decked with flowers, the men with leaves amid carrying bundles of straw under their arms. The lads carry lighted torches or flaming hoops steeped in tar at the top of long poles. Thus they go singing to the cattle-sheds, the granaries, and so forth, and afterwards march thrice round the dwellinghouse. Firially, preceded by the shrill music of the bagpipes and shawms, they repair to a neighbouring bill, where the materials of a bonfire have
1

Friederwh S. Krauss, Si/fe und Ldamoa ,Icr S/IL Lirc,z (Vienna, iSS), PP- 176 sq.

J von Wlisloeki, Voiksgiauhe and

J.
I. l9.

4 Grimm, De:ttshe J!j/1ia/se,

reiis,Iser RI-inch tier /JDgyar (M hnsler

i. W.,
i8,

I J 0. 1oh1, Die ioi/schrossisciiin this?tt vinz flu e.sdcn and I eip.h, sq. Ligho 1841), 1. m78l$O, ii, as an old heal hen deity, whose joyous t levi vat ued Is 1st I in spring. i, /hti, o. 77 sqq.

vun

P1- 40.44. JpDyi, lien rage

zur

deutschen iilytItoiogie. aus Ungarn, /ci/schriji /3ir amtrcke AL/ho/tgii stud .Su/Ic,iiunnc, i. ( [S53) Ii- .7t)

THE F1REFESTJViLS 0/ EURO1E

ChAP

IV

TIlE MiDSUMMER FiRES

i8i

USe .1id sub ne-r fires in

Oesel.

been collected. Tar-barrels filled with combustibles are hung on poles, or the trunk of a feLled tree has been set up with a great mass of juniper piled about it in the fonn of a pyramid. When a light has been set to the pile, old and young gather about it and pass the time merrily with song and music till break of day. Every one who comes brings fresh fuel for the fire, and they say, Now we all gather together, where St. Johns fire burns. He who comes not to St. Johns fire will have his barley full of thistles, and his oats full of weeds. Three logs are thrown into the fire with special ceremony ; in throwing the first they say, Gold of pleasure (a plant with yellow flowers) into the in throwing the second they say, \Veeds to the fire but in throwing the third they cry, utiploughed land The fire is said to keep the witches hiax on nw field from the cattle. According to others, it ensures that for the whole year the milk shall be as pure as silver and as the stars in the sky, and the butter as yellow as the sun and the fire and the gold. In the Esthonian island of ()esel, while they throw fuel into the midsummer fire, they call out, Weeds to the fire, flax to the field, or they fling Flax grow long three billets into the flames, saying, And they take charred sticks from the bonfire home with them and keep them to make the cattle thrive. In some parts of the island the bonfire is formed by piling brushwood and other combustibles round i tree, at the top of which a flag flies. \Vhoover succeeds in knocking down the flag with a pole befOre it begins to burn will have good luck. Formerly the festivities lasted till daybreak, and ended in scenes of debauchery which looked doubly hideous by the growing light of a summer morning. Still farther north, among a people of the same Turanian

stock, we learn from an eye-witness that Midsummer Night The Mid used to witness a sort of witches sabbath on the top of every 100(11101 ites oiiong hill in Finland. The bonfire was made by setting up four tall 157 leros birches in a square and piling the intermediate space with fuel. and Chore ,ohs of Round the roaring flames the people sang and cirank and Russi(L gambolled in the uswil way, Farther east, in the valley of the Volga, the Cheremiss celebrate about midsummer a festival which Haxthausen regarded as identical with the midsummer ceremonies of the rest of Europe. A sacred tree in the forest, generally a tall and solitary oak, marks the scene of the solemnity. All the males assemble there, hut no woman may be present. A heathen priest lights seven fires in a row from north-west to south-east ; cattle are sacriiced and their blood poured in the fires, each of which is dedicated to a separate deity. Afterwards the holy toe is illumined by lighted candies placed on its branches ; the 150 ple fOil on their knees and with faces bowed to the earth pray that God would be pleased to bless them, their children, their cattle, and their bees, grant them success in trade, in travel, and irj the chase, enable them to pty the Czars taxes, and 2 so forth. V hen v e pass Im om the ist to thc e t ot 1 UI e e rs \1s1 still find the summer solstice cek bi itcd with ritc of the same general char tcter Down to ibont the middle of tin Frsnce nineteenth century the custom of lighting bonfires Lt mid summer prevailed so commonly in France that there was hardly a town or a village, we are told, where they were not kindled. Though the agnn origin of the custom may he regarded as ccrtiin,_th Catholic Chuich thrv Chiisti in cio-tk over it by boldly declaring th it the bnhrc ierc lit in token of the gener il rejoicing at the birth of the Biptist who opportunely came into the world at the so!stice of summer just as his greater successor did it th so ICC ci iintcr , so that the hole y ar might be siid o mc ohc on
1

Osireepi

in so

Wi I IL 1,1(515,1

1 /e /, i(f,/L-,USSZS,IiCfl j, ( Hoist, F. Os/see/I lnsefl, ii. 268 sq. (1115/ \Viedemann, Ails 1/Cm iflW)C1L ausso-en /,eben des //is/en (St. Peters Hag, x876), p. 362. The word which WI-all is in I have ir.s,idst,d l/allii,iaii /.:.t ,i,inla, 111 1 ,riiahi eiitly it i, the IiaIIIe d t 5 a si-s-i, k ii ol wet-ri.

Fr.

Kreutzwat,I

nod 11.

Neus,

ische 1 i/v/h/sc/it und Ma I in/er dir Ehs/en (St. Petersburg, iS54), p. 62. Osiliana, J. B. Holzinayer, Verhan&ungeil dergelehrtenEstflisc/iCfl Gesellscithft Ill i)orpat, vii. (1872) Pp 62 sq. Wiede,nann also observes iha: the sports in which young couples engage ni the woods on this evening are n, si at ways decorous (_-lus deni ii,nr,i, itud do seen Leben dcr if/is/en, p. 362).

Kohl Die & i,scIs , ussr ehei II 447 tq 2 J H. Georgi, JdSI7iSCI300g al/c, IiTa/ionen des russiscijen Re/c/is (Si. Petersburg, 1776), p. 36 ; August Fretis I r von Ha\l h ,ii tn S/u ii n ur, die inn , e Des/anile dos Ja/slr4en nod

,sL renders the 6zd6ehen iu H (00. 1 1 847) 44t sqq.

1.

Alfred de N no, (el/ames. . /i/hcs 1 ci / , adi , , / (Paris inS Lyons i Sb) 1 19

ChAP V

ON TIlE

IN GENERAL

CHAPTER V

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRE-FESTIVALS

i.

On

1/ic Fire-Js1ivals in general

Tiii foregoing survey of the popular fire-festivals of Europe suggests some general observations, In the first place w can hardly help being struck by the resemblance which the ceremonies bear to each other, at whatever time of th year and in whatever part of Europe they are celebrated The custom of kindling great bonfires, leaping over then and driving cattle through or round them would seem to have been practically universal throughout Europe, and the same may be said of the processions or races with blazing torches round fields, orchards, pastures, or cattlestalls. Less widespread are the customs of hurling lighted discs into the air 1 and trundling a burning wheel down hill 2 for to j by the evidence which I have collected these modes of distributing the beneficial influence of the fire have been confined in the main to Central Europe, The ceremonial of the Yule log is distinguished from that of the other fire festivals by the privacy and domesticity which characterize it ; but, as we have already seen, this distinction may well he due simply to the rough weather of midwinter, which is apt not only to render a public assembly in the open air dis agreeable, but also at any moment to defeat the object of the assembly by extinguishing the all-important fire under a downpour of rain or a fall of snow. Apart from these local or seasonal differences, the general resemblance between
141, 143,
173, 191, 201.

i6, 162 sq., 163 sq., i66,

in all places is times of the year and the fire-festivals at all resemble ceremonies themselves tolerably close. And as the expect tO benefits which the people each other, so do the bonfires applied in the form of reap from them. Whether about from or of torches carried blazing at fixed points, from the embers and ashes taken place to place, or of promote the is believed to smouldering heap of fuel, the fire beast, either the welfare of man and growth of the crops and averting the them, or negativelY by positively by stimulating causes threaten them from such dangers and calamities which vermin, conf)agration, blight, mildew, as thunder and lightning, least of all witchcraft. sterility, disease, and not bene- Two piaflatOw did it come about that But we naturally ask, How be attained by suggested manifold were supposed to tirefits so great and imagine that oft In what way did people mean so simple? ills by g goods or avoid so many they could procure so many embers and ashes? In and smoke, of the application of fire the practice of 1hey underlay and prompted are charnO short, what theory of the festivals to secUre a For that the institutioll be supply of these customs? of reasoning may of a definite train first was the outcome man acted the view that primitive is to Dr. l taken for granted; actions afterwards, his invented his reasons to suit and repre know of his nearest living not borne out by what we Two different they are the peasant. sentatives, the savage and by modern firefestiValS have been given being inexplanations of the held that they are it has been enquirers. On the one hand principle ceremonies intended, on the aII 1 er sun-charms or magical supply of sunshine needful imitative magic, to ensure a of which mimic nfluences. plants by kindling fires for men, animals, and in the sky. This of light and heat on earth the great source the Mannhardt. It may be called was the view of Wilhelm been maintained other hand it has solar theory. On the to the have no necessary reference that the ceremonial fires being designed in intention, sun but are simply purificatory whether these all harmful influences, to burn up and destroy demons, and personal form as witches, are conceived in a of pervading form asa sort monsters, or in an impersonal of Dr. the air. This is the view taint or corruption of ywiibar 4
-

1 Above, pp. I 16 sq., 119, 143, ib, i66, 168 sq., 172. Above, pp. i i6, 117 rq., 119,

iluer lJau.i,ikuliia dee Germanefl und W. Mannhardt, Der 521 sqq. s/amine (Berlin, t875), pp.

328

331

330

[iVEERPRE TA PlOt! OF THE FIRE-FESTIVALS

CHAP

v of the purificatory marck has argued powerfully in favour that his arguments say theory alone, and I am bound to of the facts weight, and that on a fuller review carry great incline decidedly in to the balance of evidence seems to me justify However, the case is not so clear as to his favour. discussion, and without us in dismissing the solar theory which propose to adduce the considerations accordingly I those which tell tell for it before proceeding to notice support of so learned against it. A theory which had the Mannhardt is entitled and sag;tcious an investigator as W. to a respectful hearing.

GENERAL ON TIlE FIREFEST/VAi> LV

Edward Westermarck and apparently of Professor Eugen Mogk. It may be called the puriflcatory theory. Ob viously the two theories postulate two very different con ceptions of thc flue which phys the principal pait in the rites On the one view, the fire, like sunshine in our latitude, is a genial creative power which fosters the growth of plants anc the development of all that makes for health arid happiness on the other view, the fire is a fierce destructive power which blasts and consumes all the noxious elements, whethe. spiritual or material, that menace the life of men, of anim and of plants. According to the one theory the fire is stimulant, according to the other it is a disinfectant ; on t one view its virtue is positive, on the other it is negative. Yet the two explanations, different as they are in L character which they attribute to the fire, are perhaps not wholly irreconcilable, If we assume that the fires kindled at these festivals were primarily intended to imitate ti suns light and heat, may we not regard the purificatory disinfecting qualities, which popular opinion certainly appeart to have ascribed to them, as attributes derived directly fron the purificatory and disinfecting qualities of sunshine? I this way we might conclude that, while the imitation sunshine in these ceremonies was primary and original, ft purification attributed to them was secondary and derivativ Such a conclusion, occupying an intermediate position I tween the two opposing theories and recognizing an elem of truth in both of them, was adopted by me in earlie: editions of this work ; but in the meantime Dr. Wester

2.

he Wcstcnnarck, Midsummer Customs in h occo, So/he/ore, xvi. (1905) pp. 44 egg. ; dL, The Origin

enS Deve/apment of the Moral ideas (London, 1906 1908), 1. 56 ; id,, Cssm,mies and Be/iefr connected with .diricu/ture, certain Dates of the Solar Liar, and the 1f/cot her in ilforocco

(Helsingfors,

1913),

The So/ar Theory of the Fire-JstivalS saw that savages Theory the In an earlier part of this work we and it would he no resort to charms for making sunshine, the same. Indeed, etwls wonder if primitive man in Europe did climate of Europe when we consider the end and cloudy find it natural that PP one. during a great part of the year, we shall have played a much more prominent sun-charms should of European peoples part among the superstitious practices nearer the equator than among those of savages who live the course of nature and who consequently are apt to get in view of the festivals more sunshine than they want. This drawn partly may be supported by various arguments of the rites, and from their dates, partly from the nature believed to exert partly from the influence which they are on vegetation. upon the weather and can he no (/ohlei First, in regard to the dates of the festivals it deuce of of the most important and widely tWO of tile mere accident that two more or less lestivals spread of the festivals are timed to coincide that is, with exactly with the summer and winter soistices, in the suns apparent course in the the two turning-points and his lowest sky when he reaches respectively his highest Indeed with respect to the midwinter elevation at noon. conjecture; we celebration of Christmas we are not left to
class of cases this aspect of file niiy be secondary, if indeed it is more than a later misinterpretation of the cuslon3.
1

S. Mogk, Kreislauf

PP- 93-102. Sittcn und Gebrauche des ahres, in R.

Shtchsische

in Vuttkes Dresden,

190 I

The Go/den iGoGh, Second Edi

), ps 3 10

2 Volkskunde sq.

The Ahggde Art and the livo/ution

o/ Ainge, i. 31 I sqq.

non (London, 1900), iii. 312 Ihe euxons of leaping over the fire

end dosing cattle through It may be intended, on the one hand, to secure for man and beast a share of the vita energy of the Sun, and, on the ot hand, to purge them pf all cv,, fluences; for to the primitive mind ii is the most powerful of all purificato agents; and again, id, iii. 314 is quite possible that in these custom the idea of the quickening power c fire may be combined with the con ception of itas a purgative agent fo the expulsion Or destruction of cvi beings, such as witches and the vermil that destroy the fruits of the earth Certainly the fires are often intc

preted in the latter way by the persons who light thenl ; and this purgative use of tile clement conIes out very prominently, as we have seen, in the general explIlSiOn of demons from towns and villages. But in the present

332

hVTJa Il//IL.! liON 01 TIll. JJJ?b,IJt.SiIkALS

CHAP

RJ-J.ESlILl 7 TILE J. SOLAR yl/JIORY OF

333

Attenipt uf the I3ush men to warm Up the tire ot Sirius in

midwinter

liv kiridluig sticks.

know fron the express testimony of the ancients that it w instiiuted by the church to supersede an old heathen festir of the birth of the sun, which was apparently conceived to be born again on the shortest day of the year, after which his light and heat were seen to grow till they attained ti_: full maturity at midsummer. Therefore it is no very far fetched conjecture to suppose that the Yule log, whk figures so prominently in the popular celebration of Christrr was originally designed to help the labouring sun of mid vintcr to rekindle his seemingly expiring light. The idea that by lighting a log on earth you can rekiz a fire in heaven or fan it into a brighter blaze, naturall seems to us absurd ; but to the savage mind it wears different aspect. and the institution of the great firefestivals which we are considering probably dates from a time when Ft i p i is still sunk in six or it most in b irbat ism Now it can be shewn that in order to increase the celestial source of heat at midwinter savages resort to a practice analogous to that of our Yule log, if the kindling of tL Yule log was originally a magical rite intended to rekindle the sun, In the southern hemisphere, where the order of the seasons is the reverse of ours, the rising of Sirius or the I )og Star in July marks the season of the greatest instead of, as with us, the greatest heat ; and just as thc civilized ancients ascribed the torrid heat of midsummer t that brilliant star, so the modern savage of South Africa 2 attributes to it the piercing cold of midwinter and seeks to mitigate its rigour by warming up the chilly star w the genial heat of the sun. How he does so may be described in his own words as follows :_1
nd
oiiines

Sc 1dm/c, .1/fis. (

b/i Li,
Sr/US
ingois

Sec

,eli,,iie conjessuin infer

I P

54

S/.

\lm,iilium, 1 . .IcI,onun,. V. 201) sqi. ,n ,:to in si/uS si,r,f ,tc/fi,z,IiS !,iafus, ]/..t rurque Caizis, lafiafjitc Cvii ( u/a f/vu mas I/f ia/i? ,ue soc ,mciiiiuafqui in ,,nii a/is,

quad ,anLr in.fiict 7OCa,iiiiS, OilS far/rn pimam leonk i,,rcsso. J./c A so.sflfcu.n l,,VfJ/. die. Senliani 1 /1 ,,zaria ci icrrae, mu//ac vero etferac, of cu/s bc/s diximus. iVequc vi u ci vencrailo quasu descriptis in iS s/c//ic, accenduique so/cm ci ma,i,nrno acs/les ok//net enuesarn.

to a child Canopus, they say The Bushmen perceive put the end of may wood, that Give me yonder piece of grand point it burning towards may it in the fire, that I rice ; grandmother carries Bushman mother, for grandmother comes out for us for she coldly shall make a little warmth Sirius comes grandmoth5 eye for us. the sun shall warm Sirius comes out to one another out ; the people call burn a stick for another : Ye must yonder ; they say to one Who was it say to one another us towards Sirius. They Our brother man says to the other who saw Sirius? One I StLV Sirius. man says to him : saw Sirius. The other burn a stick him 1 wish thee to The other man says to come out that the sun may shining for us towards Sirius ; The other out. not coldly come for us that Sirius may Bring me says to his son Sirius) man (the one who saw put the end yonder, that I may the small piece of wood grandmother may burn it towards of it in the fire, that I other one, ascend the sky, like the that grandmother may he (the him the piece of wood, Canopus. The child brings it burning in the fire. He points father) holds the end of it like that Sirius shall twinkle towards Sirius ; he says he sings sings about CanopS, Canopus. He sings he they may 2 to them with fire, that about Sirius ; he points He He throws fire at them. twinkle like each other. his kaross (including his head) in covers himself U entirely does not he sits down while he and lies down. He arises, worked, pnttiitg because he feels that he has again lie clown so that Sirius may warmly Sirius into the suns warmth ; Bushman out early to seek for come out. The women go \Vha the their shoulder blades, rice ; they walk, sunning the the cold of midwinter in Bushmen thus do to temper fires may blowing up the celestial southern hemisphere by corrcspo1itig rude forefathers at the have been doae by our hemispher season in the northern

u/ic/i

/ac,,n

il -) 15

uc 1 ia/ios

?ii,fl,iIfi, ct.

IIint, ,Vfu,a/is iiis,, cc, xvii. 20) sq. Jiwnrd,,i,i jtiSf fz:duum /re

.i/eimen.r of Bus/u man Folk/ore, ,ullected by the late W. 1-1. I. I/leek, Ii,. 1)., and L. C. Lloyd (Lc..2 iqii), 339, 34t. In quoting 11

brackets passage I have omitted the purpoSe the which the editors print for words which a, e of indicating the in the implied, hut not exprcsed, teat. original sun is a little warm. when The (Editors of star appea in winter this

Folk/ore). Spec/mcis of Bmlimaii held 2 With the stick that he bad ami clown lfl the ire, moving it up quickly (Editors). take one xi ni ct ol the hey thereby i.xpoi1ik one kar ,ss, blade to the sun