[23]With regard to these values Mr. Morrow writes: “At present Hauteville’s quoit is not visible from the centre of great circle. If the stone were erect, however, and any intervening trees and walls removed, the top of the stone would no doubt be within view. The Hauteville quoit line is thus rather a difficult one to obtain with accuracy, but the azimuth given should be correct to the nearest minute.”
[23]With regard to these values Mr. Morrow writes: “At present Hauteville’s quoit is not visible from the centre of great circle. If the stone were erect, however, and any intervening trees and walls removed, the top of the stone would no doubt be within view. The Hauteville quoit line is thus rather a difficult one to obtain with accuracy, but the azimuth given should be correct to the nearest minute.”
We have so far considered the circles at Stonehenge, Stenness, the Hurlers and Stanton Drew, and the avenues in Brittany and on Dartmoor. Before I refer to my later work in the south-west of England or attempt to present a summary of the results of the inquiry, I think it will be convenient to turn for a time to another branch of it, for that there is another closely connected series of facts to be considered in relation to the monuments folklore and tradition abundantly prove.
So far in this book I have dealt chiefly with stones—as I hold, associated with, or themselves composing, sanctuaries. We have become acquainted with circles, menhirs, dolmens, altars, viæ sacræ, various structures built up of stones. Barrows and earthern banks represented them later.
The view which I have been led to bring forward so far is that these structures had in one way or another to do with the worship of the sun and stars; that they had for the most part an astronomical use in connection with religious ceremonials.
The next question which concerns us in an attempt toget at the bottom of the matter is to see whether there are any concomitant phenomena, and, if there be any, to classify them and study the combined results.
Tradition and folklore, which give dim references to the ancient uses of the stones, show in most unmistakable fashion that the stones were not alone; associated with them almost universally were many practices referred to onp. 26, such as the lighting of fires, passing through them, and dancing round them; in the neighbourhood of the stones and associated with the fire practices were also sacred trees and sacred wells or streams.
Folklore and tradition not only thus may help us, but I think they will be helped by such a general survey, brief though it must be. So far as my reading has gone each special tradition has been considered by itself; there has been no general inquiry having for its object the study of the possible origin andconnectionof many of the ancient practices and ideas which have so dimly come down to us in many cases and which we can only completely reconstruct by piecing together the information derived from various sources.
I now propose to refer to all these matters with the view of seeing whether there be any relation between practices apparently disconnected in so many cases if we follow the literature in which they are chronicled. We must not blame the literature, since the facts which remain to be recorded now here, now there, are but a small fraction of those that have been forgotten. Fortunately, the practices forgotten in one locality have been remembered in another, so that it is possible the picture can be restored more completely than one might have thought at first.
It will be seen at once that from the point of view withwhich we are at present concerned, one of the chief relations we must look for is that of time, seeing that my chief affirmation with regard to the stone monuments is that they were used for ceremonial purposes at certain seasons, those seasons being based first upon the agricultural, and later upon the astronomical divisions of the year, to which I drew attention inChapter III.InChapter IV., when referring to the agricultural and astronomical new years’ days, I indicated a possible relation between the temple worship and the floral celebrations of that time, and later on (p. 40), in connection with the monuments in Brittany, I pointed out the coincidence of fire customs at the same time of the year.
But in a matter of this kind it will not do to depend upon isolated cases; the general trend of all the facts available along several lines of inquiry must be found and studied, first separately and theninter se, if any final conclusion is to be reached.
This is what I now propose to do in a very summary manner. It is not my task to arrange the facts of folklore and tradition, but simply to cull from the available sources precise statements which bear upon the questions before us. These statements, I think, may be accepted as trustworthy, and all the more so as many of the various recorders have had no idea either of the existence of a May year at all or of the connection between the different classes of the phenomena which ought to exist if my theory of their common origin in connection with ancient worship and the monuments is anywhere near the truth.
This question of time relations is surrounded by difficulties.
I gave inFig. 7the Gregorian dates of the beginningof the quarters of the May year, if nothing but the sun’s declination of 16° 20′ N. or S., four times in its yearly path, be considered. Thesewere:—
In the table I also give, for comparison, the dates in the Greek and Roman calendars (p. 20).
There is no question that on or about the above days festivals were anciently celebrated in these islands; possibly not all at all holy places, but some at one and some at another; this, perhaps, may help to explain the variation in the local traditions and even some of the groupings of orientations.
The earliest information on this point comes from Ireland.
Cormac, Archbishop of Cashel in the tenth century, states, according to Vallancey, that “in his time four great fires were lighted up on the four great festivals of the Druids, viz., in February, May, August and November.”[24]
I am not aware of any such general statement as early as this in relation to the four festivals of the May year in Great Britain, but in spite of its absence the fact is undoubted that festivals were held, and many various forms of celebration used, during those months.
From the introduction of Christianity attempts of different kinds were made to destroy this ancient time system and to abolish the so-called “pagan” worships and practices connected with it. Efforts were made to change the date and so obliterate gradually the old traditions; another way, and this turned out to be the more efficacious, was to change the venue of the festival, so to speak, in favour of some Christian celebration or saint’s day. The old festivals took no account of week-days, so it was ruled that the festivals were to take place on the first day of the week; later on some of them were ruled to begin on the first day of the month.
When Easter became a movable feast, the efforts of the priests were greatly facilitated, and indeed it would seem as if this result of such a change was not absent from the minds of those who favoured it.
The change of style was, as I have before stated, a fruitful source of confusion, and this was still further complicated by another difficulty. Piers[25]tells us that consequent upon the change “the Roman Catholics light their fires by the new style, as the correction originated from a pope; and for that very same reason the Protestants adhere to the old.”
I will refer to each of the festivals and their changes of date.
Before the movable Easter the February festival had been transformed into Ash Wednesday (February 4). The eve of the festival was Shrove Tuesday, and it isquite possible that the ashes used by the priests on Wednesday were connected with the bonfires of the previous night.
It would seem that initially the festival, with its accompanying bonfire, was transferred to the first Sunday in Lent, February 8.
I quote the following fromHazlitt[26]:—
“Durandus, in his ‘Rationale,’ tells us, Lent was counted to begin on that which is now the first Sunday in Lent, and to end on Easter Eve; which time, saith he, containing forty-two days, if you take out of them the six Sundays (on which it was counted not lawful at any time of the year to fast), then there will remain only thirty-six days: and, therefore, that the number of days which Christ fasted might be perfected, Pope Gregory added to Lent four days of the week before-going, viz., that which we now call Ash Wednesday, and the three days following it. So that we see the first observation of Lent began from a superstitious, unwarrantable, and indeed profane, conceit of imitating Our Saviour’s miraculous abstinence. Lent is so called from the time of the year wherein it is observed: Lent in the Saxon language signifying Spring.”
Whether this be the origin of the lenten fast or not it is certain that the connection thus established between an old pagan feast and a new Christian one is very ingenious: 24 days in February plus 22 days in March (March 22 being originally the fixed date for Easter) gives us 46 days (6 × 7) + 4, and from the point of view of priestcraft the result was eminently satisfactory, for thousands of people still light fires onShrove Tuesday or on the first Sunday of Lent, whether those days occur in February or March. They are under the impression that they are doing homage to a church festival, and the pagan origin is entirely forgotten not only by them but even by those who chronicle the practices as “Lent customs.”[27]
Finally, after the introduction of the movable Easter, the priests at Rome, instead of using the “pagan” ashes produced on the eve of the first Sunday in Lent or Ash Wednesday in each year, utilised those derived from the burning of the palms used on Palm Sunday of the year before.
Further steps were taken to conceal from future generations the origin of the “pagan” custom due on February 4. February 3 was dedicated to St. “Blaze.” How well this answered is shown by the following quotation from Percy.[28]“The anniversary of St. Blazeus is the 3rd February, when it is still the custom in many parts of England to light up fires on the hills on St. Blayse night:a custom antiently taken up perhaps for no better reason than the jingling resemblance of his name to the word Blaze.”
This even did not suffice. A great candle church festival was established on February 2. This was called “Candlemas,” and Candlemas is still the common name of the beginning of the Scotch legal year. In the Cathedral of Durham when Cosens was bishop he “busied himself from two of the clocke in the afternoone till foure, in climbing long ladders to stick up wax candles in the said Cathedral Church; the number of all the candles burnt that eveningwas 220, besides 16 torches; 60 of those burning tapers and torches standing upon and near the high altar.”[29]
There is evidence that the pagan fires at other times of the year were also gradually replaced by candles in the churches.
The May festival has been treated by the Church in the same way as the February one. With a fixed Easter Sunday on March 22, 46 days after brought us to a Thursday (May 7), hence Holy Thursday[30]and Ascension Day. With Easter movable there of course was more confusion. Whit Sunday, the Feast of Pentecost, was only nine days after Holy Thursday, and it occurred, in some years, on the same day of the month as Ascension Day in others. In Scotland the festival now is ascribed to Whit Sunday.
It is possibly in consequence of this that the festival before even the change of style was held on the 1st of the month.
In Cornwall, where the celebrations still survive, the day chosen is May 8.
For the migrations of the dates of the “pagan” festival in the beginning of August from the 1st to the 12th, migrations complicated by the old and new style, I refer toProf. Rhys’ Hibbert Lectures, p. 418, in which work a full account of the former practices in Ireland and Wales is given. The old festival in Ireland was associated with Lug, a form of the Sun-God; the most celebrated one was held at Tailetin. This feast—Lugnassad—was changed into the church celebration Lammas, from A.S. hl’áfmaesse—that is loaf-mass or bread-mass, so named as a mass or feast of thanksgiving for the first fruits of the corn harvest. The old customs in Wales and the Isle of Alan included the ascent of hills in the early morning, but so far I have found no record of fires in connection with this date.[31]
The facts that November 11 is quarter day in Scotland, that mayors are elected on or about that date, show, I think, pretty clearly that we are here dealing with the old “pagan” date.
The fact that the Church anticipated it by the feast of All Souls’ on November 1 reminds us of what happened in the case of the February celebration; later I give a reference to the change of date; and perhaps this date was also determined by the natural gravitation to the first of the month, as in the case of May, and because it marked at one time the beginning of the Celtic year.
But what seems quite certain is that the feast which should have been held on November 8 on astronomical grounds was first converted by the Church into the feast of St. Martin on November 11. TheEncyclopædia Britannicatells us: “The feast of St. Martin (Martinmas) took the place of an old pagan festival,and inherited some of its usages, such as the Martinsmännchen, Martinsfeuer, Martinshorn, and the like, in various parts of Germany.”
St. Martin lived aboutA.D.300. As the number of saints increased, it became impossible to dedicate a feast-day to each. Hence it was found expedient to have an annual aggregate commemoration of such as had not special days for themselves. So a church festival “All Hallows,” or “Hallowmass,” was instituted aboutA.D.610 in memory of the martyrs, and it was to take place on May 1. For some reason or another this was changed inA.D.834; May was given up, and the date fixed as November 1. This was a commemoration of all the saints, so we get the new name “All Saints’ Day.”
There can be little doubt that the intention of the Church was to anticipate, and therefore gradually to obliterate the pagan festival still held at Martinmas, and it has been successful in many places. In Ireland, for instance; at Samhain,[32]November 1, “the proper time for prophecy and the unveiling of mysteries.”... It was then that fire was lighted at a place called after Mog Ruith’s daughter Tlachtga. From Tlachtga all the hearths in Ireland are said to have been annually supplied, just as the Lemnians had once a year to put their fires out and light them anew from that brought in the sacred ship from Delos. The habit of celebratingNos Galan-galafin Wales by lighting bonfires on the hills is possibly not yet extinct.
Here, then, we find the pagan fires transferred from the 8th to the 1st of November in Ireland, but inthe Isle of Man this is not so. I will anticipate another reference to Rhys by stating that Martinmas had progressed from the 11th to the 24th before the change of style brought it back, “old Martinmas,” November 24, being one of the best recognised “old English holidays,” “old Candlemas” being another, at the other end of the May year; this last had slipped from February 2 to February 15 before it was put back again.
With regard to the Isle of Man Rhys writes[33]that the feast is there called Hollantide, and is kept on November 12, a reckoning which he states “is according to the old style.” The question is, are we not dealing here with the Martinmas festivalnotantedated to November 1? He adds, “that is the day when the tenure of land terminates, and when serving men go to their places. In other words it is the beginning of a new year.” This is exactly what happens in Scotland, and the day is still called Martinmas.
There is a custom in mid-England which strikingly reminds us of the importance of Martinmas in relation to old tenures, if even the custom does not carry us still further back. This is the curious and interesting ceremony of collecting the wroth silver, due and payable to his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury on “Martinmas Eve.” The payment is made on an ancient mound on the summit of Knightlow Hill, about five miles out of Coventry, and in the parish of Ryton-on-Dunsmore. One feature about this singular ceremonial is that it must take place before sun-rising.
[24]Hazlitt,Dictionary of Faiths and Folklore, under Gule of August.[25]Survey of the South of Ireland, p. 232.[26]Under Ash Wednesday.[27]Frazer,Golden Bough, iii., 238et seq.[28]Notes to Northumberland Household Book, 1770, p. 333.[29]Quoted by Hazlitt.[30]Much confusion has arisen with regard to the Holy Thursday in Rogation week because there is another Holy or Maundy Thursday in Easter week. Archæologists have also been often misled by the practice of many writers of describing the May festivals as midsummer festivals. The first of May, of course, marked the beginning of summer.[31]Mr. Frazer informs me that the 13th August was Diana’s day at Nemi and there was a fire festival.[32]Rhys’ Hibbert Lectures, p. 514.[33]Celtic Folklore, p. 315.
[24]Hazlitt,Dictionary of Faiths and Folklore, under Gule of August.
[25]Survey of the South of Ireland, p. 232.
[26]Under Ash Wednesday.
[27]Frazer,Golden Bough, iii., 238et seq.
[28]Notes to Northumberland Household Book, 1770, p. 333.
[29]Quoted by Hazlitt.
[30]Much confusion has arisen with regard to the Holy Thursday in Rogation week because there is another Holy or Maundy Thursday in Easter week. Archæologists have also been often misled by the practice of many writers of describing the May festivals as midsummer festivals. The first of May, of course, marked the beginning of summer.
[31]Mr. Frazer informs me that the 13th August was Diana’s day at Nemi and there was a fire festival.
[32]Rhys’ Hibbert Lectures, p. 514.
[33]Celtic Folklore, p. 315.
The magnificent collection of facts bearing on this subject which has been brought together by Mr. Frazer inThe Golden Boughrenders it unnecessary for me to deal with the details of this part of my subject at any great length.
We have these records offires:—
(1) In February, May, August and November of the original May year.
(2) In June and December on the longest and shortest days of the solstitial year, concerning which there could not be, and has not been, any such change of date as has occurred in relation to the May year festivals.
(3) A fire at Easter, in all probability added not long before or at the introduction of Christianity. I find no traces of a fire festival at the corresponding equinox in September.
We learn from Cormac that the fires were generally double and that cattle were driven between them.
Concerning this question of fire, both Mr. Frazer and the Rev. S. Baring-Gould[34]suggest that we are justifiedin considering the Christian treatment of the sacred fire as a survival of pagan times. Mr. Baring-Gould writes as follows:—“When Christianity became dominant, it was necessary to dissociate the ideas of the people from the central fire as mixed up with the old gods; at the same time the central fire was an absolute need. Accordingly the Church was converted into the sacred depository of the perpetual fire.”
He further points out that there still remain in some of our churches (in Cornwall, York, and Dorset) the contrivances—now called cresset-stones—used. They are blocks of stone with cups hollowed out. Some are placed in lamp-niches furnished with flues. On these he remarks (p.122):—
“Now although these lamps and cressets had their religious signification, yet this religious signification was an afterthought. The origin of them lay in the necessity of there being in every place a central light, from which light could at any time be borrowed; and the reason why this central light was put in the church was to dissociate it from the heathen ideas attached formerly to it. As it was, the good people of the Middle Ages were not quite satisfied with the central church fire, and they had recourse in times of emergency to other, and as the Church deemed them unholy, fires. When a plague and murrain appeared among cattle, then they lighted need-fires from two pieces of dry wood, and drove the cattle between the flames, believing that this new flame was wholesome to the purging away of the disease. For kindling the need-fires the employment of flint and steel was forbidden. The fire was only efficacious when extractedin prehistoric fashion, out of wood. The lighting of these need-fires was forbidden by the Church in the eighth century. What shows that this need-fire was distinctly heathen is that in the Church new fire was obtained at Easter annually by striking flint and steel together. It was supposed that the old fire in a twelvemonth had got exhausted, or perhaps that all light expired with Christ, and that new fire must be obtained. Accordingly the priest solemnly struck new fire out of flint and steel. But fire from flint and steel was a novelty; and the people, Pagan at heart, had no confidence in it, and in time of adversity went back to the need-fire kindled in the time-honoured way from wood by friction, before this new-fangled way of drawing it out of stone and iron was invented.”
The same authority informs us that before Christianity was introduced into Ireland by St. Patrick there was a temple at Tara “where fire burned ever, and was on no account suffered to go out.”
Mr. Frazer,[35]quoting Cerbied, shows that in the ancient religion of Armenia the new fire was kindled at the February festival of the May year, in honour of the fire-god Mihr. “A bonfire was made in a public place, and lamps kindled at it were kept burning throughout the year in each of the fire-god’s temples.” This festival now takes place at Candlemas, February 2.
We must assume, then, that the pagan fires were produced by the friction of dry wood, and possibly in connection with an ever-burning fire. In either case the priests officiating at the various circles must have had a place handy where the wood was kept dry or thefire kept burning, and on this ground alone we may again inquire whether such structures as Maeshowe at the Stenness circle, the Fougou at that of the Merry Maidens, and indeed chambered barrows and cairns generally, were not used for these purposes amongst others; whether indeed they were not primarily built for the living and not for the dead, and whether this will explain the finding of traces of fires and of hollowed stones in them, as well as some points in their structure. Mr. MacRitchie[36]has brought together several of these points, among them fireplaces and flues for carrying away smoke.
At both solstices it would appear that a special fire-rite was practised. This consisted of tying straw on a wheel and rolling it when lighted down a hill. There is much evidence for the wheel at the summer, but less at the winter, solstice; still, we learn from the old Runicfastithat a wheel was used to denote the festival of Christmas. With regard to the summer solstice I quote the following from Hazlitt (under John,St.):—
Fig. 48.—The Carro, Florence. From Baring-Gould’sStrange Survivals.
Fig. 48.—The Carro, Florence. From Baring-Gould’sStrange Survivals.
“Durandus, speaking of the rites of the Feast of St. John Baptist, informs us of this curious circumstance, that in some places they roll a wheel about to signify that the sun, then occupying the highest place in the Zodiac, is beginning to descend. ‘Rotam quoque hoc die in quibusdam locis volvunt, ad significandum quod Sol altissimum tunc locum in Cœlo occupet, et descendere incipiat in Zodiaco.’ Harl. MSS. 2345 (on vellum), Art. 100, is an account of the rites of St. John Baptist’s Eve, in which the wheel is also mentioned.In the amplified account of these ceremonies given by Naogeorgus, we read that this wheel was taken up to the top of a mountain and rolled down thence; and that, as it had previously been covered with straw, twisted about it and set on fire, it appeared at a distance as if the sun had been falling from the sky. And he further observes, that the people imagine that all their ill-luck rolls away from them together with this wheel. At Norwich, says a writer inCurrent Notesfor March, 1854, the rites of St. John the Baptist were anciently observed, ‘when it was the custom to turn or roll a wheel about, in signification of the sun’s annual course, or the sun, then occupying the highest place in the Zodiac, was about descending.’”
At Magdalen College, Oxford, the May and June years are clearly differentiated. There is a vocal service at sunrise on May morning, followed by boys blowing horns. At the summer solstice there is a sermon preached during the day in the quadrangle.
One of the most picturesque survivals of this ancient custom takes place at Florence each year at Easter. This is fully described by Baring-Gould. The moment the sacred fire is produced at the high altar a dove (in plaster) carries it along a rope about 200 yards long to a car in the square outside the west door of the cathedral and sets fire to a fuse, thus causing the explosion of fireworks.
The car with its explosives is the survival of the ancient bonfire.
It would appear that the lighting of these fires on a large scale lingered longest in Ireland and Brittany.
A correspondent of theGentleman’s Magazine(February, 1795) thus describes the Irish Beltane fires in 1782, “the most singular sight inIreland”:—
“Exactly at midnight, the fires began to appear, and taking the advantage of going up to the leads of the house, which had a widely extended view, I saw on a radius of thirty miles, all around, the fires burning on every eminence which the country afforded. I had a farther satisfaction in learning, from undoubted authority, that the people danced round the fires, and at the close went through these fires, and made their sons and daughters, together with their cattle, pass through the fire; and the whole was conducted with religious solemnity.”
It will have been observed with reference to these fire festivals that although there were undoubtedly four, in May, August, November and February, those in May and November were more important than the others. This no doubt arose from the fact that at different times the May and November celebrations wereNew Yearfestivals. With regard to the New Year in November in Celtic and later times. Rhys writes as follows (Hibbert Lectures, p.514):—
“The Celts were in the habit formerly of countingwinters, and of giving precedence in their reckoning to night and winter over day and summer (p. 360); I should argue that the last day of the year in the Irish story of Diarmait’s death meant the eve of November or All-halloween, the night before the IrishSamhain, and known in Welsh asNos Galan-gaeaf, or the Night of the Winter Calends. But there is no occasion to rest on this alone, as we have the evidence of Cormac’s Glossary that the month before the beginning of winter was the last month; so that the first day of the first month of winter was also the first day of the year.”
That the November bonfire was recognised as heralding the dominion of the gods and spirits of darkness,[37]that the old ideas surrounding Horus and Set in Egypt were not forgotten, is evidenced by the fact that when it was extinct the whole company round it would suddenly take to their heels, shouting at the top of theirvoices:—
Yr hwch đu gwtaA gipio ’r ola’!The cropped black sowSeize the hindmost!
Yr hwch đu gwtaA gipio ’r ola’!
Yr hwch đu gwtaA gipio ’r ola’!
Yr hwch đu gwtaA gipio ’r ola’!
The cropped black sowSeize the hindmost!
The cropped black sowSeize the hindmost!
The cropped black sowSeize the hindmost!
A piecing together of the folklore and traditions of different districts suggests that sacrifices were made in connection with the fire festivals, in fact that the fire at one of the critical times of the May year at least was a sacrificial one.
I will quote two cases given by Gomme[38]for May Day and All Souls’ Dayrespectively:—
“At the village of Holne, situated on one of the spurs of Dartmoor, is a field of about two acres, theproperty of the parish, and called the Ploy Field. In the centre of this field stands a granite pillar (Menhir) six or seven feet high. On May-morning, before daybreak, the young men of the village used to assemble there, and then proceed to the moor, where they selected a ram lamb, and after running it down, brought it in triumph to the Ploy Field, fastened it to the pillar, cut its throat and then roasted it whole, skin, wool, &c. At midday a struggle took place, at the risk of cut hands, for a slice, it being supposed to confer luck for the ensuing year on the fortunate devourer. As an act of gallantry the young men sometimes fought their way through the crowd to get a slice for the chosen amongst the young women, all of whom, in their best dresses, attended the Ram Feast, as it was called. Dancing, wrestling, and other games, assisted by copious libations of cider during the afternoon, prolonged the festivity till midnight.”
In the parish of King’s Teignton, Devonshire, “a lamb is drawn about the parish on Whitsun Monday in a cart covered with garlands of lilac, laburnum and other flowers, when persons are requested to give something towards the animal and attendant expenses; on Tuesday it is then killed and roasted whole in the middle of the village. The lamb is then sold in slices to the poor at a cheap rate.”
The popular legend concerning the origin of this custom introduces two important elements—a reference to “heathen days” and the title of “sacrifice” ascribed to the killing of the lamb (p. 31).
“At St. Peter’s, Athlone, every family of a village on St. Martin’s Day kills an animal of some kind orother; those who are rich kill a cow or sheep, others a goose or turkey, while those who are poor kill a hen or cock; with the blood of the animal they sprinkle the threshold and also the four corners of the house, and ‘this performance is done to exclude every kind of evil spirit from the dwelling where the sacrifice is made till the return of the same day the following year’” (p. 163).
Other traditions indicate that human sacrifices were in question, and that lots were drawn, or some other method of the choice of a victim was adopted. I quote from Hazlitt (i., 44) the following report of the Minister of Callender in1794:—
“The people of this district have two customs, which are fast wearing out, not only here, but all over the Highlands, and therefore ought to be taken notice of, while they remain. Upon the first day of May, which is called Beltan, or Bàl-tein-day, all the boys in a township or hamlet meet in the moors. They cut a table in the green sod, of a round figure, by casting a trench in the ground of such a circumference as to hold the whole company. They kindle a fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide the cake into so many portions, as similar as possible to one another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. They daub one of these portions all over with charcoal, until it be perfectly black. They put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet. Everyone, blindfold, draws out a portion. He who holds the bonnet is entitled to thelast bit. Whoever draws the black bit is the devoted person, who is to be sacrificed to Baal, whose favour they mean to implore in rendering the year productive of the sustenance of man and beast. There is little doubt of these inhuman sacrifices having been once offered in this country as well as in the East, although they now pass from the act of sacrificing, and only compel the devoted person to leap three times through the flames; with which the ceremonies of the festival are closed.”
I may conclude this chapter by referring to similar practices in Brittany, where Baring-Gould[39]has so successfully studied them.
The present remnants of the old cult in the different parishes are now called “pardons”;[40]they are still numerous. I give those for the May and August festivals (p. 83).
Judging by the “pardons,” the solstitial celebrations are not so numerous as those connected with the May year; the bonfire is built up by the head of a family in which the right is hereditary. The fire has to be lighted only by a pure virgin, and the sick and feeble are carried to the spot, as the bonfire flames are held to be gifted with miraculous healing powers.
When the flames are abated, stones are placed for the souls of the dead to sit there through the remainder of the night and enjoy the heat. “Every member of the community carries away a handful of ashes as a sovereign cure for sundry maladies. The whole proceeding is instinct with paganism” (p. 75). With regard to the accompanying sacrifices we read: “In ancient times sacrifices were made of cocks and oxen at certain shrines—now they are still presented, but it is to the chapels of saints. S. Herbot receives cow’s tails, and these may be seen heaped upon his altar in Loqeffret. At Coadret as many as seven hundred are offered on the day of the “pardon.” At S. Nicolas-des-Eaux, it is S. Nicodemus who in his chapel receives gifts of whole oxen, and much the same takes place at Carnac.”
[34]Strange Survivals, p. 120et seq.[35]Golden Bough, iii. 248.[36]The Testimony of Tradition.[37]Hibbert Lectures, p. 516;Dawn of Astronomy, p. 215.[38]Ethnology in Folklore, pp. 32 and 163.[39]A Book of Brittany.[40]These “pardons” run strangely parallel with the “Feast Days” in E. and W. Penrith, in Cornwall, where of 26 feasts, 13 occur around the chief days of the May year.
[34]Strange Survivals, p. 120et seq.
[35]Golden Bough, iii. 248.
[36]The Testimony of Tradition.
[37]Hibbert Lectures, p. 516;Dawn of Astronomy, p. 215.
[38]Ethnology in Folklore, pp. 32 and 163.
[39]A Book of Brittany.
[40]These “pardons” run strangely parallel with the “Feast Days” in E. and W. Penrith, in Cornwall, where of 26 feasts, 13 occur around the chief days of the May year.
The subject of tree-worship is a vast one, as anyone may gather who will read theGolden Bough. Fortunately for my readers it is not necessary to discuss the whole or even any great part of it in connection with the inquiry which now concerns us. I may say that only rarely is the old tree-worship considered with its concomitant of temple-worship, so that I now have to bring together information widely separated because the connection which I have to show was intimate has not been enlarged upon; indeed, in many cases it has not been suspected.
There is another limitation of the inquiry. We have only to deal chiefly with those plants and trees recorded as worshipped at the chief festival times of the year, which have already been marked out for us by the fire ceremonials. These fires were like the chronofer installed in modern days at the General Post Office, their practical function being to give the time; they announced the beginning of a new season.
InChapter IV.I referred to the association of Mistletoe with the Solstitial worship. When we deal with the May year we meet constantly with references to the Rowan and the Hawthorn in the folklore connected with it. We seem in presence, then, not only of tree cult generally, but of sacred trees special to each of the two worships we have been considering. I propose now, therefore, to bring together some of the information to be gathered from a very cursory reference to the vast literature which exists on the subject.
In the first instance I begged my friend, Professor Bayley Balfour, Keeper of the King’s Garden at Edinburgh, to give me some particulars of the Rowan Tree, which I imagined (1) to have been chosen on account of its flowers being prominent about May Day (Beltane) and its berries in early November (Hallowe’en), and (2) to have a different habitat from the Mistletoe. I have to thank my friend for much valuable information.
The Rowan Tree, called also the Mountain Ash (Pyrus Aucuparia), seems to grow pretty freely all over theNorthernparts of Europe. Professor Balfour tells me: “Rowan is essentially a Northern plant—an immigrant to Europe from N.W. Asia—and now is spread all over North and Central Europe in abundance, with only some ‘feelers’ passing south into the Mediterranean Basin. It does not go south of Cappadocia in Asia Minor. It does not reach Greece. In Italy it occurs on the Eastern Apennines, and also in N.E. Sicily. In Spain it runs over the higher regions in the N. and into the centre, passing just into Portugal. Its occurrence in Madeira is not certainly established as a natural phenomenon; perhaps it is only introduced there. In allthese Southern outruns the tree cannot be said to have any dominance, and its area and abundance are infinitely less than in the North. Scandinavia is one of its best homes. Everywhere it is found right north to 71°, there becoming a bush only, but yet ripening seed. It reaches Iceland, where trees of some size occur. All over Great Britain and Ireland it is generally spread. You may certainly say there is much in Norway, and there is equally certainly less, even little, in Italy.”
In Pratt’sFlowering Plants of Great Britain(vol. 2, p. 260) it is stated, “The flowers, which grow in dense clusters, and are greenish-white, appear in May.... In autumn, however, the tree is more beautiful than in summer, for at that season the rich cluster of red fruits gleams among the foliage, each berry having the form of a tiny apple, and containing a little core and seeds within.”
At Christiania the mean of ten years’ flowering is given by Professor Schübeler[41]as—first flowers, June 19; general flowering, June 30. This, then, is later than in Britain. On high grounds the fruit is conspicuous here on November 1; on lower levels the birds attack it and reduce its striking appearance before that date.
Associated with the Rowan in the folklore connected with temple worship is the Hawthorn, Whitethorn or “May” (Crategus oxyocantha), which also flowers at the beginning of May, while its berries or “haws,” like those of the Rowan, are conspicuous in November. We see, then, that there is a most obvious reason in this for the association of the two trees. According to Rhys,[42]the Englishname appears to be of Scandinavian origin, the Old Norse beingreynir, Danishrönne, Swedishrönn; and the old Norsemen treated the tree as holy and sacred to Thor.
These two trees interest us from three points of view. We find them connectedwith:—
1. May and November celebrations.
2. Superstitions concerning witchcraft, &c.
3. Holy wells.
In this chapter I shall deal with the two former.
Seeing that the year beginning in May was established because that month really opened the vegetation year, it is little to be wondered at that among the chief features of New Year’s Day was what we may term a flower worship; it is probable that we are here dealing with the sacred-tree side of the general festival at all the monuments erected in connection with the May year worship. The old traditions have lingered longest around the things we have still with us, the trees and flowers; and it is in connection with this side of the worship that most information is available. From the facts I have already stated, for Britain the Rowan and Hawthorn were most naturally selected as the typical forms.[43]
Many poets have written of this festival[44]: Chaucer,Shakspere, Milton, Bourne, Herrick and others. Chaucer writes: