being to secure the favour of the sun-god, and consequently a good harvest.

The circular trench was, of course, only another form of the same symbolism as the Druidic stone circles, within which the fires of Baal were continually kept burning. A curious proof of this is, the fact recorded by the Lady Baird, of Fern Tower, in Perthshire, that every year at Beltane, a number of men and women assembled at an ancient circle of stones on her property near Creiff, and, having lighted a fire in the centre, as their forefathers had been accustomed to do from time immemorial, proceeded to draw lots for the burnt oatcake as described above, he who drew it having straightway to leap through the flames. A strangely unmeaning ceremony if, as some learned men would have us believe, these circles are merely sepulchral, but very suggestive indeed, if we are content to accept the traditions of our fathers of their having been the temples on whose altars unhallowed fire was wont to burn.

In some districts the shepherds varied the Beltane festival. They cut the circular trench and kindled a fire like their neighbours, and after marching thrice deas-sul round the fire, they sat in a great circle, and shared the mess of eggs, milk and oat-meal, pouring out part thereof as a libation to the spirits. This done, they each took a piece of oat-cake, specially prepared for the occasion, each cake having upon it nine raised nobs of mystic meaning. This they cast into the fire, dedicating it to the eagle, the gled, the weasel, the fox, the brock, and all other baneful creatures, who were thus bribed to spare the flocks.

"In the mysteries, cakes were made in different shapes and patterns. A pyramid-shaped cake was one, other cakes were made with many knobs or bosses. The former represented the male, and the latter the female principle, and corresponded with the Syrian cakes offered to the Queen of Heaven."

It is still the custom in Perthshire for the cow-herd of the village to go his rounds on May morning collecting

fresh eggs and meal, and then to lead the way to some hill top, where a hole is dug and a fire lighted therein; then lots are cast, and he on whom the lot falls must leap seven times over the fire, while the young folk dance round in a circle. Then they cook their eggs and cakes, and all "sit down to eat and drink and rise up to play". Besides this they had a maypole decorated with flowers, round which they had circular dances.

At the village of Holne, on Dartmoor in Devonshire, it is the custom for the young men of the village to assemble before daybreak on May morning in a field sloping to face the east, where stands a mystic granite pillar or Maen Hir. Thence they all proceed together to the moor, where they run down a fine young ram, and bringing it in triumph to the Maen Hir, there cut its throat, and roast it whole-skin, wool, and all. At midday they return thither with all the village lasses to celebrate the ram feast, and a grand struggle takes place for a slice of the ram, a taste of which is supposed to bring luck for the year to lad or lass. Then wrestling and other games commence, with abundant cider, and dancing is kept up till midnight. A similar festival was observed by the ancient Persians at this season; that is, when the sun entered the sign of Aries (the Ram). This animal supplied the favourite Dionysiak sacrifice. Dionysos is sometimes represented on vases reclining on a ram.'

MIDSUMMER EVE.

It is the custom to this day in many parts of France to have bon-fires on this day, and to put a number of live cats into a large wicker-basket, which was thrown into one of the bon-fires. This, and the great figures of wicker-work and canvas, which are or were annually made at Douay and Dunkirk, and moved about by men concealed within them, are obviously traceable to that 1 From the Hebrides to the Himalayas.

2 The Great Dionysiak Myth.

colossal figure of which Cæsar, Strabo, and Pliny have left descriptions.

In Yorkshire, also, some of the old customs still linger. I believe that at Brimham Crags, near Harrogate, the Midsummer-Eve bonfires still blaze as they have done from time immemorial. It is a rocky hill-side, covered with Druidical remains, and was one of the strongholds of the old faith. Its name is said to be a contraction of BethRimmon, under which name the ancient Irish worshipped the sun, moon, and stars collectively.

That the Bell of the Druids was identical both with Baal and the Moloch of the Ammonites (Dionysos Melguarth) is evident, from every allusion in Holy Scripture to the idolatries of the Jews; of whom we are told again and again how they made groves, and set up images under every green tree and on every high hill, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal, or reared up altars for Baal. Also, how they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination, and enchantment, and witchcrafts, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards; and how, even in the Temple of Solomon, men knelt between the porch and the altar, with their faces towards the east, and worshipped the sun toward the east (Ezek. viii, 16).

On the other hand, the reverence with which the holy fire was guarded in this and many other lands seems almost like the tradition of the worship of Israel, of that Altar of the Most High, whereon the fire was, by divine command, to be kept "for ever burning", never to be put out or suffered to go out. It was carelessness concerning the sacred flame which cost the sons of Aaron so dear, when they ventured to offer incense before the Lord with strange fire, which He commanded them not, so that there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them. (Lev. vi, 13; Lev. x, 1.)

We find also that the worship of the Serpent was prac

This cult is exactly the same as that of Dionysos Stylos at Tyre and Gades, or Cadiz. In these temples no images are allowed.

tised by the Israelites, for when numbers of that chosen people had been slain by pestilence in the wilderness, Moses, by the command of the Most High, set up the image of a pendant Brazen Serpent upon an Upright Pole or Stauros, in order that by worshipping the serpent they might be healed, and their numbers replenished. A Serpent twines round the staff upon which Asklepios (Esculapius) rests himself.

The night of the 1st of November was sacred to the God Sanin, Zanan, or Samhan. It was a night for special intercession by the living for the souls of those who had died in the preceding year. For the office of Samhan was to judge these souls, and either award them their place of reward or punishment. He was also called Bal Sab, or Lord of Death. At this harvest festival he only needed offerings of the fruits of the earth; and his name, Samhein or Samtheine, or Samtein, denotes peace-fire.

On the 25th of December, when the shortest day was past, the great winter festival called Yule was celebrated, to mark the turn of the year-the new birth of the Sun. It was a day of solemn worship and a night of feasting. Fires blazed on every hill, which were re-kindled on the twelfth night subsequent to Yule. All manner of sacred plants were cut, more especially the ivy, the mistletoe, and the fir-tree.

In Persia and Babylon this day was held in high honour; and in the latter country it was sacred to Rhea and Nin, the latter being the Child of the Sun by a human mother. That mother was Semiramis the Great Queen, who was called the Spouse of the Sun and Queen of Heaven, and taught the people to reverence her son accordingly, just as the Christians represent the Virgin Mary, the human mother of Jesus Christ.

The custom of having a fir-tree as a Christmas-tree, is traceable to the remotest antiquity. The Chaldeans on this day worshipped their new-born god, under this symbol, as Baal-berith, or berith, i.e., the Lord of the Firtree or the Covenant.

The fir is one of the trees particularly sacred to the

Sun as Helios Dionysos, who "flames with the beaming fir-torch", which he bears on his thyrsos. (Oid. Tyr., 214.)

The name of Yule is said to be derived from the Arabic "Yul", the day of revolution of the Sun. The Norse Yol and Icelandic Hoil bear much the same meaning, and here we have the very name, Haul in Welsh, Heul in Cornish, and Heol in Briton, under which the ancient Britons worshipped the Sun-God, Helios.1

Captain Burnaby, during his last "ride", passed through a Persian village, where every evening, the people all turn out to watch the sun sink slowly to rest below the horizon. They assured the traveller that there was no idea of worship in this custom; they only do it because their forefathers did it from time immemorial.

Bryant says (vol. i, p, 284):—

"The worship of Ham, or the sun, as it was the most ancient, so it was the most universal of any in the world. It was the first prevailing religion of Greece, and was promulgated over all the sea-coast of Europe, from whence it extended itself into the inland provinces. It was established in Gaul and Britain, and was the original religion of this island, which the Druids in after times adopted.

'Throughout the ancient world, the birth of the god Sol, personified as Bacchus, Osiris, Heracles, Dionysos, Adonis, etc., was celebrated on December 25th, and on this day the Christian Church says that Jesus Christ was born. The Egyptian Christians say that the right season was in January. Wagenseil thought February or August, but inclined to the latter. Bochart was for March. Some good Christians mentioned by Clement Alexandrinus placed his birthday in April, and others in May. Epiphanius states that some other Christians say that Jesus was born in June or July; Lightfoot says September 15th; Scaliger, Casaubon, and Calvisius are for October; several others put it in November. The Latin Church decided on December 25th. This was decreed by Pope Julius I, in 337, and he fixed it on the same day that the ancient Romans celebrated the feast of their goddess Pomona, a festival much observed by the heathen world in the winter solstice. It would appear, however, as if December could lay even less claim to this honour than most of the other months

1 From the Hebrides to the Himalayas, by Miss Gordon Cumming.