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NEED-FIEE. BEALTINE. 613
teine or tine fire, and beal, beil, is understood to be the name of
a god, not directly connected with the Asiatic Belus, 1 but a deity
of light peculiar to the Celts. This Irish Beal, Beil, Gaelic
Beal, appears in the Welsh dialect as Beli, and his 0. Celtic
name of Belenus, Belinus is preserved in Ausonius, Tertullian and
numerous inscriptions (Forcellini sub v.). The present custom
is thus described by Armstrong sub v. bealtainn :
t
In some parts
of the Highlands the young folks of a hamlet meet in the moors
on the first of May. They cut a table in the green sod, of a
round figure, by cutting a trench in the ground of such circum
ference as to hold the whole company. They then kindle a fire,
and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a
custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the
embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they
divide the cake in so many portions, as similar as possible to one
another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company.
They daub one of these portions with charcoal until it is perfectly
black. They then put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet, and
The bonnet-holder is
every one, blindfold, draws out a portion.
entitled to the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit is the
devoted person who is to be
sacrificed
to Baal, ivhose favour they
mean to implore in rendering the year productive. The devoted
person is compelled to leap three times over the flames. Here the
reference to the worship of a deity is too plain to be mistaken :
we see by the leaping over the flame, that the main point was, to
select a human being to propitiate the god and make him merci
ful, that afterwards an animal sacrifice was substituted for him,
and finally, nothing remained of the bodily immolation but a leap
through the fire for man and beast. The holy rite of friction is
not mentioned here, but as it was necessary for the needfire that
purged pestilence, it must originally
have been much more in
requisition at the great yearly festival.
The earliest mention of the beiltine is found in Cormac, arch
bishop of Cashel (d. 908). Two fires were lighted side by side,
and to pass unhurt between them was wholesome for men and
cattle. Hence the phrase, to express a great danger : itir dha
theinne beil/ i.e. between two fires. 2 That the sacrifice was
1
Bel, Bal, Isidor. Etym. 8, 23.
2 O Flaherty in Transact, of Irish Acad., vol. 14, pp. 100. 122-3.