Balder the Beautiful, Volume I. / A Study in Magic and Religion: the Golden Bough, Part VII., The / Fire-Festivals of Europe and the Doctrine of the External Soul

by James George Frazer

Footnote 448: [(return)]

J.B. Holzmayer, "Osiliana," Verhandlungen der gelehrten Estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat, vii. (1872) pp. 62 sq. Wiedemann also observes that the sports in which young couples engage in the woods on this evening are not always decorous (Aus dem inneren und äusseren Leben der Ehsten, p. 362).

Footnote 449: [(return)]

J.G. Kohl, Die deutsch-russischen Ostseeprovinzen, ii. 447 sq.

Footnote 450: [(return)]

J.G. Georgi, Beschreibung aller Nationen des russischen Reichs (St. Petersburg, 1776), p. 36; August Freiherr von Haxthausen, Studien über die innere Zustände das Volksleben und insbesondere die ländlichen Einrichtungen Russlands (Hanover, 1847), i. 446 sqq.

Footnote 451: [(return)]

Alfred de Nore, Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de France (Paris and Lyons, 1846), p. 19.

Footnote 452: [(return)]

It is notable that St. John is the only saint whose birthday the Church celebrates with honours like those which she accords to the nativity of Christ. Compare Edmond Doutté, Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord (Algiers, 1908), p. 571 note I.

Footnote 453: [(return)]

Bossuet, Oeuvres (Versailles, 1815-1819), vi. 276 ("Catéchisme du diocèse de Meaux"). His description of the superstitions is, in his own words, as follows: "Danser à l'entour du feu, jouer, faire des festins, chanter des chansons deshonnètes, jeter des herbes par-dessus le feu, en cueillir avant midi ou à jeun, en porter sur soi, les conserver le long de l'année, garder des tisons ou des charbons du feu, et autres semblables." This and other evidence of the custom of kindling Midsummer bonfires in France is cited by Ch. Cuissard in his tract Les Feux de la Saint-Jean (Orleans, 1884).

Footnote 454: [(return)]

Ch. Cuissard, Les Feux de la Saint-Jean (Orleans, 1884), pp. 40 sq.

Footnote 455: [(return)]

A. Le Braz, La Légende de la Mort en Basse-Bretagne (Paris, 1893), p. 279. For an explanation of the custom of throwing a pebble into the fire, see below, p. [240].

Footnote 456: [(return)]

M. Quellien, quoted by Alexandre Bertrand, La Religion des Gaulois (Paris, 1897), pp. 116 sq.

Footnote 457: [(return)]

Collin de Plancy, Dictionnaire Infernal (Paris, 1825-1826), iii. 40; J.W. Wolf, Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie (Göttingen, 1852-1857), i. p. 217, § 185; A. Breuil, "Du Culte de St. Jean Baptiste," Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie, viii. (Amiens, 1845) pp. 189 sq.