Untitled - Centrostudirpinia.it

MIDSUMMEE FIKES. 621
secundum quod ipse testimonium perhibet, dicens : me
oportet
minui, ilium autem crescere/ Much older, but somewhat vague,
is the testimony of Eligius : Nullus in festivitate S. Johannis
vel quibuslibet sanctorum solemnitatibus solstitia (?) aut valla-
tiones vel saltationes aut casaulas aut cantica diabolica exerceat/ 1
In great cities, Paris, Metz, and many more, as late as the
15-1 6-1 7th centuries, the pile of wood was reared in the public
square before the town hall, decorated with flowers and foliage,
and set on fire by the Maire himself. 2
districts in the
Many
south have retained the custom to this day. At Aix, at
Marseille, all the streets and squares are cleaned up on St. John s
Day, early in the morning the country folk bring flowers into the
town, and everybody buys some, every house is decked with
greenery, to which a healing virtue is ascribed if plucked before
sunrise: f
aco soun dherbas de san Jean/ Some of the plants
are thrown into the flame, the young people jump over it, jokes are
played on passers-by with powder trains and hidden fireworks,
or they are squirted at and soused with water from the windows.
In the villages they ride on mules and donkeys, carrying lighted
branches of fir in their hands. 3
In many places they drag some of the charred brands and
charcoal to their homes : salutary and even magical
effects are
supposed to flow from these (Superst. French 27. 30. 34).
In Poitou, i\LQj jump three times round the fire with a branch of
walnut in their hands (Mem. des antiq. 8, 451). Fathers of
families whisk a bunch of white mullein (bouillon blanc) and a
leafy spray of walnut through the flame, and both are afterwards
nailed up over the cowhouse door ; while the youth dance and
sing, old men put some of the coal in their wooden shoes as
a safeguard against innumerable woes (ibid. 4, 110).
In the department of Hautes Pyrenees, on the 1st of May,
1
The Kaiserchronik (Cod. pal. 361, l b on ) the celebration of the Sunday:
Swenne in kom der sunnintac,
so vlizete sich Borne al diu stat (all K. bestirred itself),
wie si den got mohten geeren (to honour the god),
die allirwisisten herren (wisest lords)
vuorten einiz al umbe die stat (carried a thing round the city)
daz was geschaffen same ein rat (shapen like a wheel)
mit brinnenden liehten (with burning lights) ;
6 wie groze sie den got zierten (greatly glorified the god) !
- Mem. de 1 acad. celt. 2, 77-8. 3, 447.
3 Millin s Voyage dans le midi 3, 28. 341-5.