18S9.] OOJ [Mooney. 



attendance. The cake to be danced for is provided at the charge of the 

 ale-wife, and is advanced on a board on the top of a pike about ten feet 

 liigh ; this board is round, and from it riaeth a kind of a garland, beset and 

 tied round with meadow flowers, if it be early in the summer; if later, the 

 garland has the addition of apples set round on pegs fastened unto it ; the 

 whole number of dancers begin all at once in a large ring, a man and a 

 woman, and dance round about the bush, so is this garland call'd, and the 

 pipor, as long as they are able to hold out ; they that hold out longest at 

 the exercise win the cake and apples, and then the ale-wife's trade goes 

 on." * 



If any one who has kept the Lent wel wil rise earlj'- on Easter morning, 

 he wil be able to see the sun dance in the sky for joy at the resurrection, 

 altho some persons assert that the sun givs but three leaps on this occa- 

 sion. A favorit method is to observ the reflection in a wel or stream of 

 water. In Kerry, the fish ar said to be asleep on this day, and the old peo- 

 ple declare positivly tliat they can easily be caught with the hand in 

 shallow water. In IMeath, the day is held so sacred that it is said, that if 

 one should black his shoes in the morning and then rub the brush against 

 a tree, the tree would be dead before that day twelv-month. More wil be 

 given in this connection in speaking of the next festival. 



May-day or Bealtuine, May 1. 



The next great festival is May-day, the first day of May, which, being 

 generally regarded as the beginning of summer, has been observd as a 

 holiday throughout Europe and in many parts of the Orient from the most 

 ancient times. In Rome the feast of Maia was held upon this day and 

 was preceded by the Floralia, lasting four days and celebrated in honor of 

 Flora, goddess of fruits and flowers. It is probable that the ancient 

 Irish festival also lasted several days, as in Gaelic Scotland the Bealtuine 

 period is stil considerd to extend from the first to the eighth of May.f 

 The old Scandinavians observd the day with feasting and dancing and a 

 mock fight between winter and su.mmer.:I: The ancient Persians cele- 

 brated the festival upon the 21st of April, when every fire was extinguisht, 

 to be relighted with sacred fire from the temples. § The essential features 

 of this modern celebration, as wel as the beliefs connected with the day, 

 vary but little throughout Europe, the festivities consisting chiefly of 

 dancing around bonfires, or poles decorated with flowers and ribbons, 

 while the omens relate to the prosperity of the dairy or the wedded lot of 

 the girls. Certain trees ar held particularly sacred in connection with 

 these observances, the May-pole being of oak in England, an elm in Corn- 

 wall and a birch in Wales, || while in Ireland the chosen tree is the crann- 



* Piers, Westmeath, 123. 



f See note in Pop. Sup., 51. 



J Brand, Antiquities, i, 222. 



gLady Wilde, i, 194. 



II Brand, Antiquities (quoted), i, 236-7. 



