So firmly was this belief held that the
successful performance of the ceremony entitled the villagers to
levy a tax upon the owners of the neighbouring vineyards. Here the
unextinguished wheel might be taken to represent an unclouded sun,
which in turn would portend an abundant vintage. So the waggon-load
of white wine which the villagers received from the vineyards round
about might pass for a payment for the sunshine which they had
procured for the grapes. Similarly in the Vale of Glamorgan a
blazing wheel used to be trundled down hill on Midsummer Day, and if
the fire were extinguished before the wheel reached the foot of the
hill, the people expected a bad harvest; whereas if the wheel kept
alight all the way down and continued to blaze for a long time, the
farmers looked forward to heavy crops that summer. Here, again, it
is natural to suppose that the rustic mind traced a direct connexion
between the fire of the wheel and the fire of the sun, on which the
crops are dependent.
But in popular belief the quickening and fertilising influence of
the bonfires is not limited to the vegetable world; it extends also
to animals.
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