SURVIVALS OF SUN-WORSHIP. 251 



charms. It was an old popular belief in the Highlands of Perth- 

 shire that if on Hallow-eve one were to go alone around one of 

 the fairy hillocks nine times withershins (sinistrorsum), a door 

 would open by which he could enter the subterranean abode of 

 the good people.* 



In Joseph Jacobs's version of the fairy tale of Childe Rowland 

 it was because in seeking the ball lost by her brothers in their 

 play their sister Burd Ellen ran around a church withershins that 

 the fairies carried her away. Also, when the third brother seeks 

 her in Elfland, it is by following the direction given him by the 

 hen-wife viz., to go three times withershins around the fairy 

 hill that he obtains entrance to the Dark Tower, from which he 

 safely carries the long-lost sister and the two elder brothers, f 



As contra-sunwise motions were thought to be of ill omen or 

 to be able to work in supernatural ways, so it came to be believed 

 that to reverse other acts as, for instance, reading the Bible or 

 repeating the Lord's prayer backward might produce powerful 

 counter-charms. The negroes in the Southern States often resort 

 to both of these latter practices to lay disturbing ghosts. In the 

 ring games of our school children they always move sunwise, 

 though whether because of convenience or from some forgotten 

 reason who can say ? 



The weight of authority concerning the English May-day fes- 

 tivities and ceremonies goes to prove that their origin was in the 

 old Roman Floralia, but there is some evidence to show that such 

 celebrations are at least in part of Gothic origin. I suppose that 

 there is little or no doubt that the northern European nations did 

 welcome the return of the spring sun with dancing, and Brand 

 quotes Borlase as stating that the May rejoicings in Cornwall are 

 a gratulation to the spring. The old Beltane games and dances 

 so named from a corrupted spelling of the compound derived 

 from the Phoenician word Baal, the sun, and the Gaelic word tein, 

 meaning fire that were practiced in Perthshire and other parts 

 of Scotland until the beginning of this century, contained many 

 survivals of sun-worship. J 



Lady "Wilde says that the Beltane dance in a circle about a 

 bush hung with ribbons and garlands, or about a lighted bush or 

 a bonfire, celebrating the returning power of the sun, is still kept 

 up in parts of Ireland on May-day, and that those taking part in 

 the dance always move sunwise.* It seems highly probable that 



* Dr. Grahame's Scenery of the Perthshire Highlands, quoted by Scott in notes to Lady 

 of the Lake, canto iv. 



\ English Fairy Tales, p. 1 1 1 ei seq. 



\ See Napier's Folklore in the West of Scotland, pp. 161-1 70. 



# Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland, p. 106. 



