This wheel the
villagers, working by relays, cause to revolve with great rapidity
till fire is produced by friction. Every one takes home a lighted
brand from the new fire and with it rekindles the fire on the
domestic hearth. In Serbia on Midsummer Eve herdsmen light torches
of birch bark and march round the sheepfolds and cattle-stalls; then
they climb the hills and there allow the torches to burn out.
Among the Magyars in Hungary the midsummer fire-festival is marked
by the same features that meet us in so many parts of Europe. On
Midsummer Eve in many places it is customary to kindle bonfires on
heights and to leap over them, and from the manner in which the
young people leap the bystanders predict whether they will marry
soon. On this day also many Hungarian swineherds make fire by
rotating a wheel round a wooden axle wrapt in hemp, and through the
fire thus made they drive their pigs to preserve them from sickness.
The Esthonians of Russia, who, like the Magyars, belong to the great
Turanian family of mankind, also celebrate the summer solstice in
the usual way.
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