Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I. by Sir James George Frazer

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A STUDY IN MAGIC AND RELIGION

_THIRD EDITION_

PART VII

BALDER THE BEAUTIFUL

VOL. I

BALDER
THE BEAUTIFUL

THE FIRE-FESTIVALS OF EUROPE
AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE EXTERNAL SOUL

J.G. FRAZER, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D.

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL.

IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I

1913

PREFACE

In this concluding part of _The Golden Bough_ I have discussed the
problem which gives its title to the whole work. If I am right, the
Golden Bough over which the King of the Wood, Diana's priest at Aricia,
kept watch and ward was no other than a branch of mistletoe growing on
an oak within the sacred grove; and as the plucking of the bough was a
necessary prelude to the slaughter of the priest, I have been led to
institute a parallel between the King of the Wood at Nemi and the Norse
god Balder, who was worshipped in a sacred grove beside the beautiful
Sogne fiord of Norway and was said to have perished by a stroke of
mistletoe, which alone of all things on earth or in heaven could wound
him. On the theory here suggested both Balder and the King of the Wood
personified in a sense the sacred oak of our Aryan forefathers, and both
had deposited their lives or souls for safety in the parasite which
sometimes, though rarely, is found growing on an oak and by the very
rarity of its appearance excites the wonder and stimulates the devotion
of ignorant men. Though I am now less than ever disposed to lay weight
on the analogy between the Italian priest and the Norse god, I have
allowed it to stand because it furnishes me with a pretext for
discussing not only the general question of the external soul in popular
superstition, but also the fire-festivals of Europe, since fire played a
part both in the myth of Balder and in the ritual of the Arician grove.
Thus Balder the Beautiful in my hands is little more than a
stalking-horse to carry two heavy pack-loads of facts. And what is true
of Balder applies equally to the priest of Nemi himself, the nominal
hero of the long tragedy of human folly and suffering which has unrolled
itself before the readers of these volumes, and on which the curtain is
now about to fall. He, too, for all the quaint garb he wears and the
gravity with which he stalks across the stage, is merely a puppet, and
it is time to unmask him before laying him up in the box.

To drop metaphor, while nominally investigating a particular problem of
ancient mythology, I have really been discussing questions of more
general interest which concern the gradual evolution of human thought
from savagery to civilization. The enquiry is beset with difficulties of
many kinds, for the record of man's mental development is even more
imperfect than the record of his physical development, and it is harder
to read, not only by reason of the incomparably more subtle and complex
nature of the subject, but because the reader's eyes are apt to be
dimmed by thick mists of passion and prejudice, which cloud in a far
less degree the fields of comparative anatomy and geology. My
contribution to the history of the human mind consists of little more
than a rough and purely provisional classification of facts gathered
almost entirely from printed sources. If there is one general conclusion
which seems to emerge from the mass of particulars, I venture to think
that it is the essential similarity in the working of the less developed
human mind among all races, which corresponds to the essential
similarity in their bodily frame revealed by comparative anatomy. But
while this general mental similarity may, I believe, be taken as
established, we must always be on our guard against tracing to it a
multitude of particular resemblances which may be and often are due to
simple diffusion, since nothing is more certain than that the various
races of men have borrowed from each other many of their arts and
crafts, their ideas, customs, and institutions. To sift out the elements
of culture which a race has independently evolved and to distinguish
them accurately from those which it has derived from other races is a
task of extreme difficulty and delicacy, which promises to occupy
students of man for a long time to come; indeed so complex are the facts
and so imperfect in most cases is the historical record that it may be
doubted whether in regard to many of the lower races we shall ever
arrive at more than probable conjectures.

Since the last edition of _The Golden Bough_ was published some thirteen
years ago, I have seen reason to change my views on several matters
discussed in this concluding part of the work, and though I have called
attention to these changes in the text, it may be well for the sake of
clearness to recapitulate them here.

In the first place, the arguments of Dr. Edward Westermarck have
satisfied me that the solar theory of the European fire-festivals, which
I accepted from W. Mannhardt, is very slightly, if at all, supported by
the evidence and is probably erroneous. The true explanation of the
festivals I now believe to be the one advocated by Dr. Westermarck
himself, namely that they are purificatory in intention, the fire being
designed not, as I formerly held, to reinforce the sun's light and heat
by sympathetic magic, but merely to burn or repel the noxious things,
whether conceived as material or spiritual, which threaten the life of
man, of animals, and of plants. This aspect of the fire-festivals had
not wholly escaped me in former editions; I pointed it out explicitly,
but, biassed perhaps by the great authority of Mannhardt, I treated it
as secondary and subordinate instead of primary and dominant. Out of
deference to Mannhardt, for whose work I entertain the highest respect,
and because the evidence for the purificatory theory of the fires is
perhaps not quite conclusive, I have in this edition repeated and even
reinforced the arguments for the solar theory of the festivals, so that
the reader may see for himself what can be said on both sides of the
question and may draw his own conclusion; but for my part I cannot but
think that the arguments for the purificatory theory far outweigh the
arguments for the solar theory. Dr. Westermarck based his criticisms
largely on his own observations of the Mohammedan fire-festivals of
Morocco, which present a remarkable resemblance to those of Christian
Europe, though there seems no reason to assume that herein Africa has
borrowed from Europe or Europe from Africa. So far as Europe is
concerned, the evidence tends strongly to shew that the grand evil which
the festivals aimed at combating was witchcraft, and that they were
conceived to attain their end by actually burning the witches, whether
visible or invisible, in the flames. If that was so, the wide prevalence
and the immense popularity of the fire-festivals provides us with a
measure for estimating the extent of the hold which the belief in
witchcraft had on the European mind before the rise of Christianity or
rather of rationalism; for Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant,
accepted the old belief and enforced it in the old way by the faggot and
the stake. It was not until human reason at last awoke after the long
slumber of the Middle Ages that this dreadful obsession gradually passed
away like a dark cloud from the intellectual horizon of Europe.

Yet we should deceive ourselves if we imagined that the belief in
witchcraft is even now dead in the mass of the people; on the contrary
there is ample evidence to show that it only hibernates under the
chilling influence of rationalism, and that it would start into active
life if that influence were ever seriously relaxed. The truth seems to
be that to this day the peasant remains a pagan and savage at heart; his
civilization is merely a thin veneer which the hard knocks of life soon
abrade, exposing the solid core of paganism and savagery below. The
danger created by a bottomless layer of ignorance and superstition under
the crust of civilized society is lessened, not only by the natural
torpidity and inertia of the bucolic mind, but also by the progressive
decrease of the rural as compared with the urban population in modern
states; for I believe it will be found that the artisans who congregate
in towns are far less retentive of primitive modes of thought than their
rustic brethren. In every age cities have been the centres and as it
were the lighthouses from which ideas radiate into the surrounding
darkness, kindled by the friction of mind with mind in the crowded
haunts of men; and it is natural that at these beacons of intellectual
light all should partake in some measure of the general illumination. No
doubt the mental ferment and unrest of great cities have their dark as
well as their bright side; but among the evils to be apprehended from
them the chances of a pagan revival need hardly be reckoned.

Another point on which I have changed my mind is the nature of the great
Aryan god whom the Romans called Jupiter and the Greeks Zeus. Whereas I
formerly argued that he was primarily a personification of the sacred
oak and only in the second place a personification of the thundering
sky, I now invert the order of his divine functions and believe that he
was a sky-god before he came to be associated with the oak. In fact, I
revert to the traditional view of Jupiter, recant my heresy, and am
gathered like a lost sheep into the fold of mythological orthodoxy. The
good shepherd who has brought me back is my friend Mr. W. Warde Fowler.
He has removed the stone over which I stumbled in the wilderness by
explaining in a simple and natural way how a god of the thundering sky
might easily come to be afterwards associated with the oak. The
explanation turns on the great frequency with which, as statistics
prove, the oak is struck by lightning beyond any other tree of the wood
in Europe. To our rude forefathers, who dwelt in the gloomy depths of
the primaeval forest, it might well seem that the riven and blackened
oaks must indeed be favourites of the sky-god, who so often descended on
them from the murky cloud in a flash of lightning and a crash of
thunder.

This change of view as to the great Aryan god necessarily affects my
interpretation of the King of the Wood, the priest of Diana at Aricia,
if I may take that discarded puppet out of the box again for a moment.
On my theory the priest represented Jupiter in the flesh, and
accordingly, if Jupiter was primarily a sky-god, his priest cannot have
been a mere incarnation of the sacred oak, but must, like the deity
whose commission he bore, have been invested in the imagination of his
worshippers with the power of overcasting the heaven with clouds and
eliciting storms of thunder and rain from the celestial vault. The
attribution of weather-making powers to kings or priests is very common
in primitive society, and is indeed one of the principal levers by which
such personages raise themselves to a position of superiority above
their fellows. There is therefore no improbability in the supposition
that as a representative of Jupiter the priest of Diana enjoyed this
reputation, though positive evidence of it appears to be lacking.

Lastly, in the present edition I have shewn some grounds for thinking
that the Golden Bough itself, or in common parlance the mistletoe on the
oak, was supposed to have dropped from the sky upon the tree in a flash
of lightning and therefore to contain within itself the seed of
celestial fire, a sort of smouldering thunderbolt. This view of the
priest and of the bough which he guarded at the peril of his life has
the advantage of accounting for the importance which the sanctuary at
Nemi acquired and the treasure which it amassed through the offerings of
the faithful; for the shrine would seem to have been to ancient what
Loreto has been to modern Italy, a place of pilgrimage, where princes
and nobles as well as commoners poured wealth into the coffers of Diana
in her green recess among the Alban hills, just as in modern times kings
and queens vied with each other in enriching the black Virgin who from
her Holy House on the hillside at Loreto looks out on the blue Adriatic
and the purple Apennines. Such pious prodigality becomes more
intelligible if the greatest of the gods was indeed believed to dwell in
human shape with his wife among the woods of Nemi.

These are the principal points on which I have altered my opinion since
the last edition of my book was published. The mere admission of such
changes may suffice to indicate the doubt and uncertainty which attend
enquiries of this nature. The whole fabric of ancient mythology is so
foreign to our modern ways of thought, and the evidence concerning it is
for the most part so fragmentary, obscure, and conflicting that in our
attempts to piece together and interpret it we can hardly hope to reach
conclusions that will completely satisfy either ourselves or others. In
this as in other branches of study it is the fate of theories to be
washed away like children's castles of sand by the rising tide of
knowledge, and I am not so presumptuous as to expect or desire for mine
an exemption from the common lot. I hold them all very lightly and have
used them chiefly as convenient pegs on which to hang my collections of
facts. For I believe that, while theories are transitory, a record of
facts has a permanent value, and that as a chronicle of ancient customs
and beliefs my book may retain its utility when my theories are as
obsolete as the customs and beliefs themselves deserve to be.

I cannot dismiss without some natural regret a task which has occupied
and amused me at intervals for many years. But the regret is tempered by
thankfulness and hope. I am thankful that I have been able to conclude
at least one chapter of the work I projected a long time ago. I am
hopeful that I may not now be taking a final leave of my indulgent
readers, but that, as I am sensible of little abatement in my bodily
strength and of none in my ardour for study, they will bear with me yet
a while if I should attempt to entertain them with fresh subjects of
laughter and tears drawn from the comedy and the tragedy of man's
endless quest after happiness and truth.

J.G. FRAZER.

CAMBRIDGE, 17_th October_ 1913.

CONTENTS

PREFACE, Pp. v-xii

CHAPTER I.--BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH, Pp. 1-21

Sec. 1. _Not to touch the Earth_, pp. 1-18.--The priest of Aricia and the
Golden Bough, 1 _sq._; sacred kings and priests forbidden to touch the
ground with their feet, 2-4; certain persons on certain occasions
forbidden to touch the ground with their feet, 4-6; sacred persons
apparently thought to be charged with a mysterious virtue which will run
to waste or explode by contact with the ground, 6 _sq._; things as well
as persons charged with the mysterious virtue of holiness or taboo and
therefore kept from contact with the ground, 7; festival of the wild
mango, which is not allowed to touch the earth, 7-11; other sacred
objects kept from contact with the ground, 11 _sq._; sacred food not
allowed to touch the earth, 13 _sq._; magical implements and remedies
thought to lose their virtue by contact with the ground, 14 _sq._;
serpents' eggs or snake stones, 15 _sq._; medicinal plants, water, etc.,
not allowed to touch the earth, 17 _sq._

Sec. 2. _Not to see the Sun_, pp. 18-21.--Sacred persons not allowed to see
the sun, 18-20; tabooed persons not allowed to see the sun, 20; certain
persons forbidden to see fire, 20 _sq._; the story of Prince Sunless,
21.

CHAPTER II.--THE SECLUSION OF GIRLS AT PUBERTY, Pp. 22-100

Sec. 1. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Africa_, pp. 22-32.--Girls at
puberty forbidden to touch the ground and see the sun, 22; seclusion of
girls at puberty among the Zulus and kindred tribes, 22; among the
A-Kamba of British East Africa, 23; among the Baganda of Central Africa,
23 _sq._; among the tribes of the Tanganyika plateau, 24 _sq._; among
the tribes of British Central Africa, 25 _sq._; abstinence from salt
associated with a rule of chastity in many tribes, 26-28; seclusion of
girls at puberty among the tribes about Lake Nyassa and on the Zambesi,
28 _sq._; among the Thonga of Delagoa Bay, 29 _sq._; among the Caffre
tribes of South Africa, 30 _sq._; among the Bavili of the Lower Congo,
31 _sq._

Sec. 2. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in New Ireland, New Guinea, and
Indonesia_, pp. 32-36.--Seclusion of girls at puberty in New Ireland,
32-34; in New Guinea, Borneo, Ceram, and the Caroline Islands, 35 _sq._

Sec. 3. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in the Torres Straits Islands and
Northern Australia_, pp. 36-41.--Seclusion of girls at puberty in
Mabuiag, Torres Straits, 36 _sq._; in Northern Australia, 37-39; in the
islands of Torres Straits, 39-41.

Sec. 4. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of North America_,
pp. 41-55.--Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Indians of
California, 41-43; among the Indians of Washington State, 43; among the
Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island, 43 _sq._; among the Haida Indians of
the Queen Charlotte Islands, 44 _sq._; among the Tlingit Indians of
Alaska, 45 _sq._; among the Tsetsaut and Bella Coola Indians of British
Columbia, 46 _sq._; among the Tinneh Indians of British Columbia, 47
_sq._; among the Tinneh Indians of Alaska, 48 _sq._; among the Thompson
Indians of British Columbia, 49-52; among the Lillooet Indians of
British Columbia, 52 _sq._; among the Shuswap Indians of British
Columbia, 53 _sq._; among the Delaware and Cheyenne Indians, 54 _sq._;
among the Esquimaux, 55 _sq._

Sec. 5. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty among the Indians of South America_,
pp. 56-68.--Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Guaranis,
Chiriguanos, and Lengua Indians, 56 _sq._; among the Yuracares of
Bolivia, 57 _sq._; among the Indians of the Gran Chaco, 58 _sq._; among
the Indians of Brazil, 59 _sq._; among the Indians of Guiana, 60 _sq._;
beating the girls and stinging them with ants, 61; stinging young men
with ants and wasps as an initiatory rite, 61-63; stinging men and women
with ants to improve their character or health or to render them
invulnerable, 63 _sq._; in such cases the beating or stinging was
originally a purification, not a test of courage and endurance, 65
_sq._; this explanation confirmed by the beating of girls among the
Banivas of the Orinoco to rid them of a demon, 66-68; symptoms of
puberty in a girl regarded as wounds inflicted on her by a demon, 68.

Sec. 6. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in India and Cambodia_, pp.
68-70.--Seclusion of girls at puberty among the Hindoos, 68; in Southern
India, 68-70; in Cambodia, 70.

Sec. 7. _Seclusion of Girls at Puberty in Folk-tales_, pp. 70-76.--Danish
story of the girl who might not see the sun, 70-72; Tyrolese story of
the girl who might not see the sun, 72; modern Greek stories of the maid
who might not see the sun, 72 _sq._; ancient Greek story of Danae and
its parallel in a Kirghiz legend, 73 _sq._; impregnation of women by the
sun in legends, 74 _sq._; traces in marriage customs of the belief that
women can be impregnated by the sun, 75; belief in the impregnation of
women by the moon, 75 _sq._

Sec. 8. _Reasons for the Seclusion of Girls at Puberty_, pp. 76-100.--The
reason for the seclusion of girls at puberty is the dread of menstruous
blood, 76; dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the aborigines
of Australia, 76-78; in Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea, Galela, and
Sumatra, 78 _sq._; among the tribes of South Africa, 79 _sq._; among the
tribes of Central and East Africa, 80-82; among the tribes of West
Africa, 82; powerful influence ascribed to menstruous blood in Arab
legend, 82 _sq._; dread and seclusion of menstruous women among the Jews
and in Syria, 83 _sq._; in India, 84 _sq._; in Annam, 85; among the
Indians of Central and South America, 85 _sq._; among the Indians of
North America, 87-94; among the Creek, Choctaw, Omaha and Cheyenne
Indians, 88 _sq._; among the Indians of British Columbia, 89 _sq._;
among the Chippeway Indians, 90 _sq._; among the Tinneh or Dene Indians,
91; among the Carrier Indians, 91-94; similar rules of seclusion
enjoined on menstruous women in ancient Hindoo, Persian, and Hebrew
codes, 94-96; superstitions as to menstruous women in ancient and modern
Europe, 96 _sq._; the intention of secluding menstruous women is to
neutralize the dangerous influences which are thought to emanate from
them in that condition, 97; suspension between heaven and earth, 97; the
same explanation applies to the similar rules of seclusion observed by
divine kings and priests, 97-99; stories of immortality attained by
suspension between heaven and earth, 99 _sq._

CHAPTER III.--THE MYTH OF BALDER, Pp. 101-105

How Balder, the good and beautiful god, was done to death by a stroke of
mistletoe, 101 _sq._; story of Balder in the older _Edda_, 102 _sq._;
story of Balder as told by Saxo Grammaticus, 103; Balder worshipped in
Norway, 104; legendary death of Balder resembles the legendary death of
Isfendiyar in the epic of Firdusi, 104 _sq._; the myth of Balder perhaps
acted as a magical ceremony; the two main incidents of the myth, namely
the pulling of the mistletoe and the burning of the god, have perhaps
their counterpart in popular ritual, 105.

CHAPTER IV.--THE FIRE FESTIVALS OF EUROPE, Pp. 106-327

Sec. 1. _The Lenten Fires_, pp. 106-120.--European custom of kindling
bonfires on certain days of the year, dancing round them, leaping over
them, and burning effigies in the flames, 106; seasons of the year at
which the bonfires are lit, 106 _sq._; bonfires on the first Sunday in
Lent in the Belgian Ardennes, 107 _sq._; in the French department of the
Ardennes, 109 _sq._; in Franche-Comte, 110 _sq._; in Auvergne, 111-113;
French custom of carrying lighted torches (_brandons_) about the
orchards and fields to fertilize them on the first Sunday of Lent,
113-115; bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in Germany and Austria,
115 _sq._; "burning the witch," 116; burning discs thrown into the air,
116 _sq._; burning wheels rolled down hill, 117 _sq._; bonfires on the
first Sunday in Lent in Switzerland, 118 _sq._; burning discs thrown
into the air, 119; connexion of these fires with the custom of "carrying
out Death," 119 _sq._

Sec. 2. _The Easter Fires_, 120-146.--Custom in Catholic countries of
kindling a holy new fire on Easter Saturday, marvellous properties
ascribed to the embers of the fire, 121; effigy of Judas burnt in the
fire, 121; Easter fires in Bavaria and the Abruzzi, 122; water as well
as fire consecrated at Easter in Italy, Bohemia, and Germany, 122-124;
new fire at Easter in Carinthia, 124; Thomas Kirchmeyer's account of the
consecration of fire and water by the Catholic Church at Easter, 124
_sq._; the new fire on Easter Saturday at Florence, 126 _sq._; the new
fire and the burning of Judas on Easter Saturday in Mexico and South
America, 127 _sq._; the new fire on Easter Saturday in the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, 128-130; the new fire and the burning of
Judas on Easter Saturday in Greece, 130 _sq._; the new fire at Candlemas
in Armenia, 131; the new fire and the burning of Judas at Easter are
probably relics of paganism, 131 _sq._; new fire at the summer solstice
among the Incas of Peru, 132; new fire among the Indians of Mexico and
New Mexico, the Iroquois, and the Esquimaux, 132-134; new fire in Wadai,
among the Swahili, and in other parts of Africa, 134-136; new fires
among the Todas and Nagas of India, 136; new fire in China and Japan,
137 _sq._; new fire in ancient Greece and Rome, 138; new fire at
Hallowe'en among the old Celts of Ireland, 139; new fire on the first of
September among the Russian peasants, 139; the rite of the new fire
probably common to many peoples of the Mediterranean area before the
rise of Christianity, 139 _sq._; the pagan character of the Easter fire
manifest from the superstitions associated with it, such as the belief
that the fire fertilizes the fields and protects houses from
conflagration and sickness, 140 _sq._; the Easter fires in Muensterland,
Oldenburg, the Harz Mountains, and the Altmark, 141-143; Easter fires
and the burning of Judas or the Easter Man in Bavaria, 143 _sq._; Easter
fires and "thunder poles" in Baden, 145; Easter fires in Holland and
Sweden, 145 _sq._; the burning of Judas in Bohemia, 146.

Sec. 3. _The Beltane Fires_, pp. 146-160.--The Beltane fires on the first
of May in the Highlands of Scotland, 146-154; John Ramsay of Ochtertyre,
his description of the Beltane fires and cakes and the Beltane carline,
146-149; Beltane fires and cakes in Perthshire, 150-153; Beltane fires
in the north-east of Scotland to burn the witches, 153 _sq._; Beltane
fires and cakes in the Hebrides, 154; Beltane fires and cakes in Wales,
155-157; in the Isle of Man to burn the witches, 157; in
Nottinghamshire, 157; in Ireland, 157-159; fires on the Eve of May Day
in Sweden, 159; in Austria and Saxony to burn the witches, 159 _sq._

Sec. 4. _The Midsummer Fires_, pp. 160-219.--The great season for
fire-festivals in Europe is Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day, which the
church has dedicated to St. John the Baptist, 160 _sq._; the bonfires,
the torches, and the burning wheels of the festival, 161; Thomas
Kirchmeyer's description of the Midsummer festival, 162 _sq._; the
Midsummer fires in Germany, 163-171; burning wheel rolled down hill at
Konz on the Moselle, 163 _sq._; Midsummer fires in Bavaria, 164-166; in
Swabia, 166 _sq._; in Baden, 167-169; in Alsace, Lorraine, the Eifel,
the Harz district, and Thuringia, 169; Midsummer fires kindled by the
friction of wood, 169 _sq._; driving away the witches and demons, 170;
Midsummer fires in Silesia, scaring away the witches, 170 _sq._;
Midsummer fires in Denmark and Norway, keeping off the witches, 171;
Midsummer fires in Sweden, 172; Midsummer fires in Switzerland and
Austria, 172 _sq._; in Bohemia, 173-175; in Moravia, Austrian Silesia,
and the district of Cracow, 175; among the Slavs of Russia, 176; in
Prussia and Lithuania as a protection against witchcraft, thunder, hail,
and cattle disease, 176 _sq._; in Masuren the fire is kindled by the
revolution of a wheel, 177; Midsummer fires among the Letts of Russia,
177 _sq._; among the South Slavs, 178; among the Magyars, 178 _sq._;
among the Esthonians, 179 _sq._; among the Finns and Cheremiss of
Russia, 180 _sq._; in France, 181-194; Bossuet on the Midsummer
festival, 182; the Midsummer fires in Brittany, 183-185; in Normandy,
the Brotherhood of the Green Wolf at Jumieges, 185 _sq._; Midsummer
fires in Picardy, 187 _sq._; in Beauce and Perche, 188; the fires a
protection against witchcraft, 188; the Midsummer fires in the Ardennes,
the Vosges, and the Jura, 188 _sq._; in Franche-Comte, 189; in Berry and
other parts of Central France, 189 _sq._; in Poitou, 190 _sq._; in the
departments of Vienne and Deux-Sevres and in the provinces of Saintonge
and Aunis, 191 _sq._; in Southern France, 192 _sq._; Midsummer festival
of fire and water in Provence, 193 _sq._; Midsummer fires in Belgium,
194-196; in England, 196-200; Stow's description of the Midsummer fires
in London, 196 _sq._; John Aubrey on the Midsummer fires, 197; Midsummer
fires in Cumberland, Northumberland, and Yorkshire, 197 _sq._; in
Herefordshire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, 199 _sq._; in
Wales and the Isle of Man, 200 _sq._; in Ireland, 201-205; holy wells
resorted to on Midsummer Eve in Ireland, 205 _sq._; Midsummer fires in
Scotland, 206 _sq._; Midsummer fires and divination in Spain and the
Azores, 208 _sq._; Midsummer fires in Corsica and Sardinia, 209; in the
Abruzzi, 209 _sq._; in Sicily, 210; in Malta, 210 _sq._; in Greece and
the Greek islands, 211 _sq._; in Macedonia and Albania, 212; in South
America, 212 _sq._; among the Mohammedans of Morocco and Algeria,
213-216; the Midsummer festival in North Africa comprises rites of water
as well as fire, 216; similar festival of fire and water at New Year in
North Africa, 217 _sq._; the duplication of the festival probably due to
a conflict between the solar calendar of the Romans and the lunar
calendar of the Arabs, 218 _sg._; the Midsummer festival in Morocco
apparently of Berber origin, 219.

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