If the names on the two slips are the same, it is the
name of her future husband. Young men do the same with girls' names.
Once more, if a girl rises at sunrise, goes out into the street, and
asks the first passer-by his Christian name, that will be her husband's
name.[534] Some of these modes of divination resemble those which are or
used to be practised in Scotland at Hallowe'en.[535] In Corsica on the
Eve of St. John the people set fire to the trunk of a tree or to a whole
tree, and the young men and maidens dance round the blaze, which is
called _fucaraia_.[536] We have seen that at Ozieri, in Sardinia, a
great bonfire is kindled on St. John's Eve, and that the young people
dance round it.[537]
[The Midsummer fires in the Abruzzi; bathing on Midsummer Eve in the
Abruzzi; the Midsummer fires in Sicily; the witches at Midsummer.]
Passing to Italy, we find that the midsummer fires are still lighted on
St. John's Eve in many parts of the Abruzzi. They are commonest in the
territory which was inhabited in antiquity by the Vestini; they are
rarer in the land of the ancient Marsi, and they disappear entirely in
the lower valley of the Sangro. For the most part, the fires are fed
with straw and dry grass, and are kindled in the fields near the
villages or on high ground. As they blaze up, the people dance round or
over them. In leaping across the flames the boys cry out, "St. John,
preserve my thighs and legs!" Formerly it used to be common to light the
bonfires also in the towns in front of churches of St.
Pages:
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351