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When the flames of the fire had ceased, " the lord of the 
place, or his son, walked barefoot over the ashes, carrying 
the entrails of the victims to the Druid ; if he escaped injury, 
it was regarded as an omen of good to himself and people, 
but if not, it was a presage of evil." This old custom was 
not forgotten in Ireland at the close of the 17th century. 
The people would eagerly jump through the St. John's fires, 
not by way of sport, but because they thought that by so 
doing they obtained some blessing. Is it not possible that 
the English custom of jumping through bonfires may also 
be a remains of old forgotten ceremonies, and not merely a 
rash feat of agility ? It is strange to compare with this the 
words of Silius Italicus, v. 175 : — 
" Exta ter innocuos late portare per ignes," &c. 
" Then seeing Equamis, near Soracte born, 
Whose country manner is, when the archer keen, 
Divine Apollo, joys in burning heaps, 
The sacred entrails thro' the fire unhurt 
To carry thrice : so may you always tread 
AVith unscorched feet the consecrated coals, 
And o'er the heat victorious swiftly bear 
The solemn gifts to pleased Apollo's altar." 
Why was Apollo surnamed " Carnus " by the Greeks ? 
Why, too, was May called "the Carnean month"? Most 
probably the word was derived from the Celtic tribes, and 
" Carnus " became Apollo's name, from the heap or cairn on 
which he was worshipped. It is not too much to suppose 
this, nor is it ascribing too great a notoriety to the Celtic 
race; for, setting aside the question of "Who the Celts 
were," Iamblichus, in his life of Pythagoras, distinctly states 
that Pythagoras having studied in Egypt, among the Chal- 
deans and Magi, in Eleusis, Samothrace, and Delos, and also 
for a long time in the temple on Mount Carmel, learned 
much from the Celts. And if Abaris, the priest of the 
