1889.] ^\Jo [Mooney. 



Coals from the Saint John's fire ar also sewn into the clothes of women 

 to prevent their being carried off by fairies. According to Grimm, a cere- 

 mony similar to tliis singeing or passing of the cattle through the fires on 

 Saint .John's eve exists also in France, Germany, Russia, Bohemia and 

 Servia,* but the writer has not been able to learn of the existence in Ire- 

 land of the custom mentiond by the same author in this connection, of 

 throwing flowers into the fire or putting herbs over the doorway of the 

 dwelling house or stable. 



A writer quoted in the Qentleman's Magazine for 1843, in describing a 

 celebration witnesst on Saint John's eve in the King's county, mentions 

 one curious feature, which is evidently a local substitute for driving the 

 cattle through the fire, and which closely resembles a Christmas custom 

 in Wales, another Keltic country, as described in the same article. After 

 speaking of the brilliant effect of the bonfires blazing on every hil, the 

 author continues : 



"But something was to follow that puzzled me not a little ; when the 

 fire had burned for some hours and got low, an indispensable part of 

 tlie ceremony commenced. Every one present of the peasantry passed 

 through it, and several children were tlirown across the sparkling embers, 

 while a wooden frame of some eight feet long, with a horse's head fixed 

 to one end and a large white sheet thrown over it, concealing the wood 

 and the man on whose head it was carried, made its appearance. This 

 was greeted with loud shouts of 'The white horse!' and having been 

 safely carried by the skill of its bearer several times through the fire with 

 a bold leap, it pursued the people, who ran screaming and laughing in 

 every direction. I asked what the horse was meant for, and was told 

 it represented all cattle." f 



Saint John's eve is also a favorit fairy season, when the "good people" 

 hold their midnight revels in every green fort. That the same belief 

 existed in England is evident from Shakespeare's " Midsummer Night's 

 Dream." On this night especially the fairies ar on the watch to carry off 

 incautious mortals, particularly women and infants who ar not protected 

 by a sprig of lusmor (foxglove), or some other safeguard against fairy 

 influence. An old Avriter of 1723, quoted by Brand, mentions a belief 

 tliat on this eve every human soul leaves its liodily habitation and takes a 

 journey to that place on land or sea where death shal finally separate 

 them forever.:]: This is also a chosen time for visiting many holy places, 

 especially the numerous wels calld after Saint John.§ 



The following account of the celebration, as stil carried out in the west, 

 is given by Lady Wilde : "The fires are still lighted on St. John's eve 

 on every hill in Ireland. When the fire has burned down to a red glow, 



* Grimm, Mythologie, i, 588-591, 

 t Pop. Sup., 90. 

 X Brand, Antiquities, i, 305. 



g Seethe author's "Medical Mythology of Ireland," in Proc. Am. Philos. See., xxiv, 

 No. 125, 152, Philadelphia, 1887 ; also. Hall, Ireland, iii, 117, note. 



