As the holes are not deep enough to split the rocks, the same
little batteries serve for many years. On these nights, Mount's Bay has
a most animating appearance, although not equal to what was annually
witnessed at the beginning of the present century, when the whole coast,
from the Land's End to the Lizard, wherever a town or a village existed,
was lighted up with these stationary or moving fires. In the early part
of the evening, children may be seen wearing wreaths of flowers--a
custom in all probability originating from the ancient use of these
ornaments when they danced around the fires. At the close of the
fireworks in Penzance, a great number of persons of both sexes, chiefly
from the neighbourhood of the quay, used always, until within the last
few years, to join hand in hand, forming a long string, and run through
the streets, playing 'thread the needle,' heedless of the fireworks
showered upon them, and oftentimes leaping over the yet glowing embers.
I have on these occasions seen boys following one another, jumping
through flames higher than themselves."[511]
[The Midsummer fires in Wales and the Isle of Man; burning wheel rolled
down hill.]
In Wales the midsummer fires were kindled on St. John's Eve and on St.
John's Day. Three or nine different kinds of wood and charred faggots
carefully preserved from the last midsummer were deemed necessary to
build the bonfire, which was generally done on rising ground.
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