When the
blaze has died down, each couple takes hands and leaps thrice across
the fire. He or she who does so will be free from ague throughout
the year, and the flax will grow as high as the young folks leap. A
girl who sees nine bonfires on Midsummer Eve will marry before the
year is out. The singed wreaths are carried home and carefully
preserved throughout the year. During thunderstorms a bit of the
wreath is burned on the hearth with a prayer; some of it is given to
kine that are sick or calving, and some of it serves to fumigate
house and cattle-stall, that man and beast may keep hale and well.
Sometimes an old cart-wheel is smeared with resin, ignited, and sent
rolling down the hill. Often the boys collect all the worn-out
besoms they can get hold of, dip them in pitch, and having set them
on fire wave them about or throw them high into the air. Or they
rush down the hillside in troops, brandishing the flaming brooms and
shouting. The stumps of the brooms and embers from the fire are
preserved and stuck in cabbage gardens to protect the cabbages from
caterpillars and gnats.
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