One of the highest and most central in Icolmkil is called
_Cnoch-nan-ainneal_--i.e., the hill of the fires. There is another of
the same name near the kirk of Balquhidder; and at Killin there is a
round green eminence which seems to have been raised by art. It is
called _Tom-nan-ainneal_--i.e., the eminence of the fires. Around it
there are the remains of a circular wall about two feet high. On the top
a stone stands upon end. According to the tradition of the inhabitants,
it was a place of Druidical worship; and it was afterwards pitched on as
the most venerable spot for holding courts of justice for the country of
Breadalbane. The earth of this eminence is still thought to be possessed
of some healing virtue, for when cattle are observed to be diseased some
of it is sent for, which is rubbed on the part affected."[370]
[Local differences in the Beltane cakes; evidence of two fires at
Beltane; Beltane pies and cakes in the parish of Callander.]
In the parish of Callander, a beautiful district of western Perthshire,
the Beltane custom was still in vogue towards the end of the eighteenth
century. It has been described as follows by the parish minister of the
time: "Upon the first day of May, which is called _Beltan_, or
_Bal-tein_ day, all the boys in a township or hamlet, meet in the moors.
They cut a table in the green sod, of a round figure, by casting a
trench in the ground, of such circumference as to hold the whole
company.
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