One reason assigned for it is a
wish to escape from the fleas. According to another account, the
women cry out, as they leap over the fire, "I leave my sins behind
me." In Lesbos the fires on St. John's Eve are usually lighted by
threes, and the people spring thrice over them, each with a stone on
his head, saying, "I jump the hare's fire, my head a stone!" In
Calymnos the midsummer fire is supposed to ensure abundance in the
coming year as well as deliverance from fleas. The people dance
round the fires singing, with stones on their heads, and then jump
over the blaze or the glowing embers. When the fire is burning low,
they throw the stones into it; and when it is nearly out, they make
crosses on their legs and then go straightway and bathe in the sea.
The custom of kindling bonfires on Midsummer Day or on Midsummer Eve
is widely spread among the Mohammedan peoples of North Africa,
particularly in Morocco and Algeria; it is common both to the
Berbers and to many of the Arabs or Arabic-speaking tribes. In these
countries Midsummer Day (the twenty-fourth of June, Old Style) is
called _l'?nsara.
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