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Page 49
_Ard-an-teine_--The light of the fire.
_Craig-an-teine_--The rock of the fire.
_Auch-an-teine_--The field of the fire.
_Tillie-bet-teine_--The knoll of the fire; and so through a great many
other names of places we find traces of the Baal and fire worship. So
widespread and numerous are the names which recall this ritual, that we
can see quite clearly that the spirit of their religion thoroughly
dominated the people. In Ireland, at Beltane, the Pagan Kings are said
to have convoked the people for State purposes. The last of these
heathen kings convoked a grand assembly of the nation to meet with him
on _Tara_, at the feast of Beltane, which the old chroniclers say was
the principal feast of the year.
Respecting this feast, Dr. Jamieson says, introducing a quotation from
O'Brien, "_Ignis Bei Dei Aseatica ea lineheil_, or May-day, so called
from large fires which the Druids were used to light on the summits of
the highest hills, into which they drove four-footed beasts, using
certain ceremonies to expiate for the sins of the people. The Pagan
ceremony of lighting these fires in honour of the Asiatic god Belus gave
its name to the entire month of May, which to this day is called
_Me-na-bealtine_, in the Irish, _Dor Keating_." He says again, speaking
of these fires of _Baal_, that the cattle were driven through them and
not sacrificed, the chief design being to avert contagious disorders
from them for the year. And quoting from an ancient glossary, O'Brien
says, "The Druids lighted two solemn fires every year, and drove all
four-footed beasts through them, in order to preserve them from
contagious distempers during the current year." I am inclined to think
that these notices describe a sort of modified or Christianized Beltane,
that driving the cattle through the fire was a substitute for the older
form of sacrificing cattle to the sun. Until very lately in different
parts of Ireland, it was the common practice to kindle fires in milking
yards on the first day of May, and then men, women, and children leaped
through them, and the cattle were driven through in order to avert evil
influences. They were also in the habit of quenching their fires on the
last day of April, and rekindling them on the first day of May. In
certain localities in Perthshire, so lately as 1810, (I have referred to
this before), the inhabitants collected and kindled a fire by friction,
and through the fire thus kindled they drove their cattle in order to
protect them against disease, and at the same time they held a feast of
rejoicing.
As already mentioned, the Romans held several festivals at the beginning
of summer, and many of their observances on these occasions were
introduced into this country, and became incorporated with the Beltane
practices. For example, the Romans held a festival in honour of _Pales_,
the goddess of flocks and sheepfolds. The feast was termed _Palilia_.
Lempriere states that some of the ceremonies accompanying the feast
consisted in "burning heaps of straw, and in leaping over them; no
sacrifices were offered, but purifications were made with the smoke of
horse's blood, and with the ashes of a calf that had been taken from the
belly of its mother after it had been sacrificed, and with the ashes of
beans; the purification of the flocks was also made with the smoke of
sulphur, also of the olive, the pine, the laurel, and rosemary.
Offerings of mild cheese, boiled wine, and cakes of millet were
afterwards made. Some call this festival _Palilia_, because the
sacrifices were offered to the divinity for the fecundity of their
flocks." There was also a large cake prepared for _Pales_, and a prayer
was addressed to the divinity by shepherds, as thus given by Dr.
Jamieson:--
"O let me propitious find,
And to the shepherd and his sheep be kind;
Far from my flocks drive noxious things away,
And let my flocks in wholesome pastures stray.
May I, at night, my morning's number take,
Nor mourn a theft the prowling wolf may make.
May all my rams the ewes with vigour press,
To give my flocks a yearly due increase."
The Romans held another festival in honour of the goddess _Flora_. It
began on the 28th April, and lasted three days. The people wore garlands
of flowers, and carried them about with branches of newly-budded trees.
There was much licentiousness connected with this feast.
Reference has already been made to another Roman festival which was
celebrated early in May. This was called the _Lamuralia_, and its
purport was to propitiate the favour of the ghosts or spirits of their
ancestors. I am of opinion that the English May feasts are a survival of
the _Floralia_, and, as kept during the middle ages, were not free from
some of the indecencies of the _Floralia_. In my remembrance, the first
of May, in the country west of Glasgow, was honoured by decking the
houses with tree branches and flowers. Horses were also similarly
decked. The Church did not attempt to abolish these heathen festivals,
but endeavoured to dominate them, and substitute for legends of heathen
origin connected with them legends of Church origin. In this they
partly succeeded. The following account of the Beltane festival, as it
was kept in some districts in Perthshire at the close of last century,
taken from the statistical accounts of certain parishes, will shew how
persistent these ancient customs were, and also how some other festivals
latterly became amalgamated and identified with Beltane:--
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