"
The belief of the people that by leaping thrice over the bonfires or
running thrice between them they ensured a plentiful harvest is
worthy of note. The mode in which this result was supposed to be
brought about is indicated by another writer on Welsh folk-lore,
according to whom it used to be held that "the bonfires lighted in
May or Midsummer protected the lands from sorcery, so that good
crops would follow. The ashes were also considered valuable as
charms." Hence it appears that the heat of the fires was thought to
fertilise the fields, not directly by quickening the seeds in the
ground, but indirectly by counteracting the baleful influence of
witchcraft or perhaps by burning up the persons of the witches.
The Beltane fires seem to have been kindled also in Ireland, for
Cormac, "or somebody in his name, says that _belltaine,_ May-day,
was so called from the 'lucky fire,' or the 'two fires,' which the
druids of Erin used to make on that day with great incantations; and
cattle, he adds, used to be brought to those fires, or to be driven
between them, as a safeguard against the diseases of the year.
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