Mooney.] 4U0 [May 3, 



precautions has resulted fatally. Death is not inevitable, however, for 

 only one hour of all this time is fatal, but as no one may know which is 

 the hour, or even on which of the three days it occurs, the only way to 

 avoid the evil consequences is to observ the prohibition until the period 

 has terminated. According to Lady Wilde, the fairies ar also to be feard 

 at this season, so that holy water must be sprinkled about the house to 

 keep tliem away, and at this time also the water spirits come up out of the 

 sea to hold their revels on the shore, and the water horse rises from the 

 lough to graze at midnight in the green pastures upon its banks.* A 

 dance was formerly held also on Whitsunday, as already described in 

 speaking of Easter Sunday. 



Saint John's Eve, June 23. 



Next comes Saint John's eve, June 23, better known, perhaps, as mid- 

 summer night, after wliich the sun begins its backward course and the 

 days grow shorter. This was one of the most solemn festivals of the 

 ancient pagan world, and numerous vestiges of it stil exist tliroughout the 

 greater part of Europe, after nearly two thousand years of Christianity. 

 In fact, such a hold had the old fire worship upon the minds of the people 

 that in many instances, especially in Germany, the teachers of the new 

 faith found it necessary to incorporate the pagan ceremonies into the 

 accepted rites of the church. f In France, Germany, Austria, Italy and 

 the Slavic countries, the observances connected with this festival ar prac- 

 tically identical with those in Ireland. In Servia and the other sou'li 

 Slavic countries, according to Krauss, the very names of Saint John's day 

 and Saint John's fire "wie elektrische Funken ini Herzen und Gemlitlie 

 des siidslavischen Bauernvolkes tausend tolle, lebenslustige, verliebte und 

 gliickliche Gedanken entziinden ! Wann um mitternachtlicher Stunde auf 

 steiler Hohe der machtig aufgeschichtete Holzstoss helllodernd gen 

 dunkelblauen sternebesiieten Himmel harzduftende Feuerflammen ziingelt, 

 da tanzen Burschen und Miidchen jauchzcnd und singend um das Feuer 

 gar schnellfiissigen Reigen. Zauherhaft die Nacht, die Feuergluth, zau- 

 berliaft der schnelle Reigen, Alles ist bezaubert, Alles zaubert."| 



As has been stated, the fires of Bealtuine hav paled before the Easter 

 tapers, but the midsummer fires stil blaze from every hil top in Ireland on 

 the eve of June 33, now calld in Gaelic, Oid'ce Tein'' Seng'an {Elm or 

 Ed Chin Shawn), or the "Night of John's Fire." The introduction of 

 the new calendar in 1752 seems to hav causd some confusion for a time.g 

 but this can hav been but temporary. Speaking of the old fire worship, 

 Smiddy says, in this connection : "There was a sort of poetry and of 

 mystery about this system, which certainly exercised a powerful fascina- 

 tion over the human mind. The altar and the earn of the Druid have 



* Lady Wilde, i, 204-5. 



+ Sf e Kelly, Folk-lore, 46-8. 



X F. S. Krauss, bitte und Brauch der Sudslaven, 176, Wien, ISS."). 



l Writer quoted in Brand, Antiquities. 



