OF THE WELSH. 277 



offering of thankfgiving for the fruits of the harveft. 

 Sometimes fifty or a hundred of thefe fires may be 

 feen at once, and round each the people dance, hand 

 in hand, at the fame time fmging and Ihouting in 

 the moft riotous and frantic manner imaginable. In 

 many places a cuftom is retained of each pcrfon 

 throwing a few nuts into the flame, by which they 

 pretend to foretell the good or ill fortune that will 

 attend them during the enfuing year. If, by the 

 expanfion of air within them, the nuts burft, they 

 immediately conclude that they are doomed to die 

 within twelve months. — On the day after All Saints 

 the poor children go about the towns and villages 

 to beg bread and cheefe. 



On the eve of St. John the Baptift, they place 

 little bundles of the plant called St. John's wort 

 over their doors, or windows. Thefe they believe 

 will purify their houfes, and drive away all fiend s 

 and evil fpirits. The druids had a cuftom fimilar 

 to this, in which they ufed fprigs of vervain. 



The young people have many pretended modes 

 of declaring their future lovers. Moft of thefe are, 

 however, common to the peafantry of our own 

 country, which renders it needlefs to repeat them 

 here. 



I have been informed that a diforder fome-^vhat 

 refembhng St. Anthony's fire, which the Welfh 

 people call 2'r J?ryr, the eagle, is fuppof^d to be at 



T 3 any 



