18S9 ] 4Ui [[Mooney. 



been dcsertecl for ages, and yet, to this day, there are living vestiges and 

 memorials of his anniversary fire in Ireland. At a certain period of the 

 summer, when the shades of evening gather over the face of the land, 

 flames of fire are seen to spring like magic from hill to hill, through the 

 whole expanse of the country. They are also lighted in the hamlets and 

 Villages and in many of the towns. A few of these take place at Beiltinne, 

 that is, at the beginning of May ; but the great blaze is reserved for the 

 eve of St. John the Baptist, the 23d of June."* 



In pre-Christian times the first fire was lighted on the hil of Howth, on 

 the east coast of Ireland, near Dublin, and the moment the flame appeard 

 through the darkness a great shout went up from the watchers on all the 

 surrounding hil-tops, where other fires wer quickly kindled until soon 

 the whole country was in a blaze f 



The modern ceremonies hav changed but little in the last two centu- 

 ries. Sir Henry Piers, writing in 1682, says that on this eve there was a 

 bonfire in every town, and that the people carried about blazing torches of 

 dried rushes, so that "a stranger would go near to imagine the whole 

 country was on fire. "J Another author quoted in Brand, writing in 1728, 

 says, "they make bonfires and run along the streets and fields with wisps 

 of straw blazing on long poles to purify the air, which they think infec- 

 tious, by believing all the devils, spirits, ghosts and hobgoblins fly abroad 

 this night to hurt mankind. "§ These bundles of straw tied to long poles 

 ar calld "clears," and the custom is stil kept up. || 



It is here in place to say something in regard to the word bonfire. As 

 commonly pronounced and as given in the dictionary the word is bonfire, 

 and is derived by most etymologists from the Teutonic hoen or blessing. 

 It seems probable, however, that the original form and meaning was hone- 

 fire. The word is so pronounced in the English-speaking districts of 

 Ireland — where many archaic English forms ar preservd — and the Gaelic 

 name, tein'na cnam' {chin na cnaio), means exactly the same thing. 

 This may indeed be a mere translation of the English name, but such 

 does not appear to be the case. Kelly, writing upon the midsummer 

 fires, gives the account of a mediaeval author as follows : "The bonfires, 

 he says, were lighted for the purpose of scaring away the dragons that 

 poisoned the waters with the slime that fell from them at that hot sea- 

 son, and therefore bones and all sorts of filth were thrown into the fire, 

 that the smoke might be the fouler and more ofiensive to the dragons." ^ 

 In several parts of the west of Ireland, especially in Connemara, the bones 

 are stil saved up to burn in the midsummer fires. 



The piles for the Saint John's fires ar built of turf, bog deal and furz, 



* Smiddy, Druids, 97-98, i, 304. 

 t Lady Wilde, i, 214. 

 X Piers, Westmeath, 123. 

 § Brand, Antiquities, 1, 305. 



Il See quotation from the Parochial Survey of Ireland, in the Folk-lore Journal, ii, 213, 

 London, 1884. 

 % Kelly, Folk-lore, 57. 



PROC, AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXVI. 130. 2y. PRINTED MAY 37, 1889. 



