Footnote 388: [(return)]
Above, p. [147].
Footnote 389: [(return)]
Geoffrey Keating, D.D., The History of Ireland, translated by John O'Mahony (New York, 1857), pp. 300 sq.
Footnote 390: [(return)]
(Sir) John Rhys, "Manx Folk-lore and Superstition," Folk-lore, ii. (1891) p. 303; id., Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and Manx (Oxford, 1901), i. 309. Compare P.W. Joyce, A Social History of Ancient Ireland (London, 1903), i. 291: "The custom of driving cattle through fires against disease on the eve of the 1st of May, and on the eve of the 24th June (St. John's Day), continued in Ireland, as well as in the Scottish Highlands, to a period within living memory." In a footnote Mr. Joyce refers to Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, ii. 340, for Scotland, and adds, "I saw it done in Ireland."
Footnote 391: [(return)]
L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden (London, 1870), pp. 233 sq.
Footnote 392: [(return)]
Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen (Prague, N.D.), pp. 211 sq.; Br. Jelínek, "Materialien zur Vorgeschichte und Volkskunde Böhmens," Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, xxi. (1891) p. 13; Alois John, Sitte, Branch, und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen (Prague, 1905), p. 71.
Footnote 393: [(return)]
J.A.E. Köhler, Volksbrauch, Aberglauben, Sagen und andre alte Ueberlieferungen im Voigtlande (Leipsic, 1867), p. 373. The superstitions relating to witches at this season are legion. For instance, in Saxony and Thuringia any one who labours under a physical blemish can easily rid himself of it by transferring it to the witches on Walpurgis Night. He has only to go out to a cross-road, make three crosses on the blemish, and say, "In the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." Thus the blemish, whatever it may be, is left behind him at the cross-road, and when the witches sweep by on their way to the Brocken, they must take it with them, and it sticks to them henceforth. Moreover, three crosses chalked up on the doors of houses and cattle-stalls on Walpurgis Night will effectually prevent any of the infernal crew from entering and doing harm to man or beast. See E. Sommer, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Sachsen und Thüringen (Halle, 1846), pp. 148 sq.; Die gestriegelte Rockenphilosophie (Chemnitz, 1759), p. 116.
Footnote 394: [(return)]
See The Scapegoat, pp. 158 sqq.
Footnote 395: [(return)]
As to the Midsummer Festival of Europe in general see the evidence collected in the "Specimen Calendarii Gentilis," appended to the Edda Rhythmica seu Antiquior, vulgo Saemundina dicta, Pars iii. (Copenhagen, 1828) pp. 1086-1097.
Footnote 396: [(return)]
John Mitchell Kemble, The Saxons in England, New Edition (London, 1876), i. 361 sq., quoting "an ancient MS. written in England, and now in the Harleian Collection, No. 2345, fol. 50." The passage is quoted in part by J. Brand, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain (London, 1882-1883), i. 298 sq., by R.T. Hampson, Medii Aevi Kalendarium (London, 1841), i. 300, and by W. Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus, p. 509. The same explanations of the Midsummer fires and of the custom of trundling a burning wheel on Midsummer Eve are given also by John Beleth, a writer of the twelfth century. See his Rationale Divinorum Officiorum (appended to the Rationale Divinorum Officiorum of G. [W.] Durandus, Lyons, 1584), p. 556 recto: "Solent porro hoc tempore [the Eve of St. John the Baptist] ex veteri consuetudine mortuorum animalium ossa comburi, quod hujusmodi habet originem. Sunt enim animalia, quae dracones appellamus.... Haec inquam animalia in aere volant, in aquis natant, in terra ambulant. Sed quando in aere ad libidinem concitantur (quod fere fit) saepe ipsum sperma vel in puteos, vel in aquas fluviales ejicunt ex quo lethalis sequitur annus. Adversus haec ergo hujusmodi inventum est remedium, ut videlicet rogus ex ossibus construeretur, et ita fumus hujusmodi animalia fugaret. Et quia istud maxime hoc tempore fiebat, idem etiam modo ab omnibus observatur.... Consuetum item est hac vigilia ardentes deferri faculas quod Johannes fuerit ardens lucerna, et qui vias Domini praeparaverit. Sed quod etiam rota vertatur hinc esse putant quia in eum circulum tunc Sol descenderit ultra quem progredi nequit, a quo cogitur paulatim descendere." The substance of the passage is repeated in other words by G. Durandus (Wilh. Durantis), a writer of the thirteenth century, in his Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, lib. vii. cap. 14 (p. 442 verso, ed. Lyons, 1584). Compare J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,4 i. 516.
With the notion that the air is poisoned at midsummer we may compare the popular belief that it is similarly infected at an eclipse. Thus among the Esquimaux on the Lower Yukon river in Alaska "it is believed that a subtle essence or unclean influence descends to the earth during an eclipse, and if any of it is caught in utensils of any kind it will produce sickness. As a result, immediately on the commencement of an eclipse, every woman turns bottom side up all her pots, wooden buckets, and dishes" (E.W. Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part i. (Washington, 1899) p. 431). Similar notions and practices prevail among the peasantry of southern Germany. Thus the Swabian peasants think that during an eclipse of the sun poison falls on the earth; hence at such a time they will not sow, mow, gather fruit or eat it, they bring the cattle into the stalls, and refrain from business of every kind. If the eclipse lasts long, the people get very anxious, set a burning candle on the mantel-shelf of the stove, and pray to be delivered from the danger. See Anton Birlinger, Volksthümliches aus Schwaben (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1861-1862), i. 189. Similarly Bavarian peasants imagine that water is poisoned during a solar eclipse (F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie, ii. 297); and Thuringian bumpkins cover up the wells and bring the cattle home from pasture during an eclipse either of the sun or of the moon; an eclipse is particularly poisonous when it happens to fall on a Wednesday. See August Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen (Vienna, 1878), p. 287. As eclipses are commonly supposed by the ignorant to be caused by a monster attacking the sun or moon (E.B. Tylor, Primitive Culture,2 London, 1873, i. 328 sqq.), we may surmise, on the analogy of the explanation given of the Midsummer fires, that the unclean influence which is thought to descend on the earth at such times is popularly attributed to seed discharged by the monster or possibly by the sun or moon then in conjunction with each other.
Footnote 397: [(return)]
The Popish Kingdome or reigne of Antichrist, written in Latin verse by Thomas Naogeorgus and Englyshed by Barnabe Googe, 1570, edited by R.C. Hope (London, 1880), p. 54 verso. As to this work see above, p. [125 note 1.]