CHAP. 10. 1. ANTIQUITIES, &c. 2i)3 



dressed up, and the music of Sacred Bells was 

 heard, while flowers were strewed on the 

 ground.* 



On the Vigil of St. John the Baptist, June 

 24, the old custom is still kept up in many 

 parts of England, of lighting bonfires Nume- 

 rous Pagan rites adopted afterwards by the 

 Christians are still observed on Midsummer 

 Day. According to Durantl, there is a curious 

 custom of rolling a large wheel, bound with 

 straw set on fire, down a hill on this day, which 

 evidently signifies that the Sun, the Orb of Day, 

 begins to roll down again from his greatest 

 height. Naorgeorgus mentions the same, and 

 adds, that the folks used to imagine that they 

 could roll down and get rid of their ill luck 

 with this wheel. As a counterpart to this, it 

 may be observed, that Yuletide or Christmas is 

 really Wheeltide, and signifies the return of 

 the revolving Sun to his ascending course, as 

 is observed by Gebelinf and Bede4 



They used to leap exultingly over the Mid- 

 summer Fires, which were anciently Feux de 



* See Barnaby Googe above cited. 



t Gebelin, Allegories Orientales. 



See Ellis' edit, of Brund. Antiq. vol. i. p, 238, 



