"[519] In County
Leitrim on St. John's Eve, which is called Bonfire Day, fires are still
lighted after dusk on the hills and along the sides of the roads.[520]
All over Kerry the same thing continues to be done, though not so
commonly as of old. Small fires were made across the road, and to drive
through them brought luck for the year. Cattle were also driven through
the fires. On Lettermore Island, in South Connemara, some of the ashes
from the midsummer bonfire are thrown on the fields to fertilize
them.[521] One writer informs us that in Munster and Connaught a bone
must always be burned in the fire; for otherwise the people believe that
the fire will bring no luck. He adds that in many places sterile beasts
and human beings are passed through the fire, and that as a boy he
himself jumped through the fire "for luck."[522] An eye-witness has
described as follows a remarkable ceremony observed in Ireland on
Midsummer Eve: "When the fire burned for some hours, and got low, an
indispensable part of the ceremony commenced. Every one present of the
peasantry passed through it, and several children were thrown across the
sparkling embers; while a wooden frame, of some eight feet long, with a
horse's head fixed to one end, and a large white sheet thrown over it
concealing the wood and the man on whose head it was carried, made its
appearance. This was greeted with loud shouts of 'The white horse!' and
having been safely carried by the skill of its bearer several times
through the fire with a bold leap, it pursued the people, who ran
screaming and laughing in every direction.
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