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;V26THE HISTORYand Western lies, as well as inIreland) withoutany need of having recourse to Gothland, or otherforen countries.VII. To return to our earn- fires, it was customaryfor the lord of the place, or his son, or someOther person of distinction, to take the entrails ofthe sacrific'd animal in his hands, and walkin^^barefoot over the coals thrice, after the flames hadeeas'd, to carry them strait to the Druid, whowaited in a whole skin at the altar. If the noblemanescap'd harmless, it was reckoned a sfoodomen, welcom'd with loud acclamations :but if hereceiv'd any hurt, it was deem'd unlucky both tothe community and to himself. Thus I have seenthe people running and leaping thro' the St.John's fires in Ireland, and not onely proud ofpassing unsing'd : but, as if it were some kind ofIristration, thinking themselves in a special mannerblest by this ceremony, of whose original neverthelessthey were wholly ignorant intheir imperfectimitation of it.of all this,Yet without being apprizedno reader, however otherwise learned,can truely apprehend the beginning of the Consulriaminius^s speech to Equanus the Sabin, at thebattleof Thrasimenus, thus intelligently relatedby Silius Italic us *.* Turn Scracie satuEi, praestantera corporc et armis,iEquanurn noscens;patrio cui ritus in arvo,Dum pius Arcitenens incensis gaudet Jtcervis,Exta ter inaocuos late portare per ignes