Mooney.] OJ\) [May 3, 



caoraii {crawn-ceeran), the rowan or mountain ash. The May season, and 

 especially May eve, is universally regarded as a favorit time for fairy rev- 

 els and witches' spels. 



The Gaelic name of May-day is La BenUuine [Law Bawlthinny), "the 

 day of the Beal fire," Beal being the fire god of the Keltic nations and 

 almost identical with Baal or Bel, the sun god of the Phcenicians and A.s- 

 syrians. The month itself is calld "the month of Bealtuine." The 

 pagan Irish wer fire worshipers, and this was one of the five great fire 

 festivals of the year, the others being celebrated respectivly at the begin- 

 ning of spring — about Saint Bridget's day ; at midsummer on Saint John's 

 day ; at Lughnas or the beginning of August, and on the first day of 

 November, the celebration in each case beginning on the preceding eve, 

 as already stated. Fire stil holds an important place in the May-day 

 and midsummer festivities, and Grimm states that in Wales, where a 

 Keltic language is yet spoken, the "holy fires" ar also lighted on the 

 first of Isovember.* 



The worship of fire and of its glorious embodiment, the sun, was a form 

 of religious belief at once so ancient and universal that the subject need 

 not be here discusst. The system probably attaind its highest develop- 

 ment and greatest splendor in Persia in the east and in Ireland in the west, 

 and in both countries, as wel as elsewhere, an impressiv ceremony of the 

 ritual was the simultaneous extinction of every hearth-fire throughout the 

 land, to be rekindled from the new fire solemnly lighted by the priests of 

 the sun. 



In Ireland the great festival of the new fire took place on the eve of 

 Bealtuine, and the first fire was kindled by the druid priests either on the 

 hil of Uisneach, which occupied a central position in the kingdom, or 

 upon the hil of Tara, where stood the royal palace of the monarch. f Both 

 hlls ar in the county Meath. As soon as the blaze appeard above the 

 trees other piles wer lighted on the surrounding hil-tops, until in a short 

 time the circle of fire ran round the whole island. Death was the penalty 

 for lighting a fire before the great one was kindled by the druids in Meath. 

 Smiddy, who has investigated the druidic religion to some extent, is in- 

 clined to think that this new fire was procured from the rays of the sun 

 by some simple mechanical apparatus, but as the ceremonies took place at 

 night, it is difficult to see how it could hav been obtaind in this way, un- 

 less the fire was actually lighted before darkness came on, which does not 

 appear to hav been the case. It is more probable that fire was obtaind by 

 the friction of two pieces of dry wood, the method still in use among 

 primitiv peoples, and often retaind in religious ceremonials after it has 

 been superseded in every-day life by some more convenient invention. 

 The particular method used was probably the twirling of a stick in a solid 

 block or wheel of wood until sufficient heat was produced to ignite the 



* Grimm, Mythologie, i, 580. 



t Smiddy (Essay on the Druids, 97) favors the first location, while other writers think 

 Tara more probably the true one. 



