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628 ELEMENTS.
hoop-trundling on Shrove Tuesday is mentioned by Schm. 1,
544; the day is called fwnkentag (spunk.),
in the Rheingau hall-
l
feuer, in France la fete des brandons.
It is likely that similar
fires take place here and there in connexion with the vintage.
In the Yoigtland on Mayday eve, which would exactly agree with
the bealteine, you may see fires on most of the hills, and children
with blazing brooms (Jul. Schmidt s Reichenf. 118). Lastly, the
Servians at Christmas time light a log of oak newly cut, badniah,
and pour wine upon it. The cake they bake at such a fire and
hand round (Vuk s Montenegro, 105) recalls the Gaelic practice
(p. 613). The Slavs called the winter solstice koleda, Pol.
koleda, Euss. koliada, answering
2
chalendes above ;
to the Lat. calendae and the
they had games and dances, but the burning
of fires is not mentioned. In Lower Germany too kaland had
become an expression for feast and revelry (we hear of kaland-
gilden, kalandbriider), without limitation to Christmas time, or
any question of fires accompanying it (see Suppl.).
If in the Mid. Ages a confusion was made of the two Johns,
the Baptist and the Evangelist, I should incline to connect with
St. John s fire the custom of St. John s minne (p. 61), which by
rights only concerns the beloved disciple. It is true, no fire
is spoken of in connexion with it, but fires were an essential
part of the old Norse minne-drinking, and I should think the
Sueves with their barrel of ale (p. 56) burnt fires too. In the
Saga Hakonar gofta, cap. 16, we are told: c
eldar scyldo vera a
midjo golfi i hofino, oc J>ar katlar yfir, oc scyldi full of eld bera, 3
should bear the cups round the fire. Very striking to my mind
is the dricka eldborgs sMl still practised in a part of Sweden
and Norway (Sup. K, 122-3). At Candlemas two tall candles
are set, each member of the household in turn sits down between
them, takes a drink out of a wooden beaker, then throws the
vessel backwards over his head. If it fall bottom upwards, the
thrower will die; if upright,
he remains alive. 3
Early
in the
morning the good wife has been up making her fire and baking ;
she now assembles her servants in a half-circle before the oven
1
Sup. K, 16. Mem. des antiquaires 1, 236. 4, 371.
2 Other derivations have been attempted, Hanusch 192-3. [See note, p. 627.
on Lith. kalledos.]
3 A similar throwing backwards of an emptied glass on other occasions, Sup. I
514. 707.