Brands taken from the bonfires preserve houses from
being struck by lightning; and the ashes increase the fertility of
the fields, protect them from mice, and mixed with the
drinking-water of cattle make the animals thrive and ensure them
against plague. As the flames die down, young and old leap over
them, and cattle are sometimes driven through the smouldering
embers. In some places tar-barrels or wheels wrapt in straw used to
be set on fire, and then sent rolling down the hillside. In others
the boys light torches and wisps of straw at the bonfires and rush
about brandishing them in their hands.
In M?nsterland these Easter fires are always kindled upon certain
definite hills, which are hence known as Easter or Paschal
Mountains. The whole community assembles about the fire. The young
men and maidens, singing Easter hymns, march round and round the
fire, till the blaze dies down. Then the girls jump over the fire in
a line, one after the other, each supported by two young men who
hold her hands and run beside her. In the twilight boys with blazing
bundles of straw run over the fields to make them fruitful.
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