When the fire burns
still lower, the young girls leap the flame, and those who leap clean
over three times back and forward will be certain of a speedy marriage
and good luck in after-life, with many children. The married women then
walk through the lines of the burning embers; and when the fire is
nearly burnt and trampled down, the yearling cattle are driven through
the hot ashes, and their back is singed with a lighted hazel twig. These
rods are kept safely afterwards, being considered of immense power to
drive the cattle to and from the watering places. As the fire diminishes
the shouting grows fainter, and the song and the dance commence; while
professional story-tellers narrate tales of fairy-land, or of the good
old times long ago, when the kings and princes of Ireland dwelt amongst
their own people, and there was food to eat and wine to drink for all
comers to the feast at the king's house. When the crowd at length
separate, every one carries home a brand from the fire, and great virtue
is attached to the lighted _brone_ which is safely carried to the house
without breaking or falling to the ground. Many contests also arise
amongst the young men; for whoever enters his house first with the
sacred fire brings the good luck of the year with him."[524]
[Holy water resorted to on Midsummer Eve in Ireland.]
In Ireland, as elsewhere, water was also apparently thought to acquire a
certain mystical virtue at midsummer.
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