Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

204 Old h'ish Religions,
sight of a blaze afar, when no Hght could be raised but by
the Sovereign's command.
Orders were issued for the arrest of the bold intruders.
St. Patrick and his shaven companions were brought into
the presence of the Master of Fire. Then he told his tale
and lighted a flame in Erin never to be quenched. The
story, as given us there by a bent old woman of seventy
years, will not be soon forgotten. Leaning on her stick
with one hand, and pointing over the almost deserted
region to the hill of the Saint's fire with the other, heaving
a sigh over the departed glories of Tara, she might have
been taken for a Druidess herself.
That Paschal fire was the victor over pagan fires, with
their abominable Moloch associations.
Midsummer fires served as sun charms to keep up the
heat. Midsummer Eve, however, afterwards nominated
as John the Baptist's Eve, was a great fire-day far and
wide. Von Buch, the traveller, speaks of seeing the
custom observed within the Arctic Circle.
An old writer about Ireland remarked— " A stranger
would imagine the whole country was on fire." Brand
writes of the Vigil of St. John — " They make bonfires, and
run along the streets and fields with wisps of straw blazing
on long poles, to purify the air which they think infectious,
by believing all the devils, spirits, ghosts, and hobgoblins fly
abroad this night to hurt mankind." One. writing in 1S67,
said— "The old pagan fire-worship still survives in Ireland,
though nominally in honour of St. John. On Sunday night
bonfires were observed throughout nearly every county in
the province of Leinster."
As Easter Day was of old devoted to Astarte, the Eastern
goddess, so was St. John's Day to Baal.
But the eve of the
first of November was the Hallow Eve or Sanihain, when
the fires were a thanksgiving to the sun at the end of