hat the English May feasts are a survival of
the _Floralia_, and, as kept during the middle ages, were not free from
some of the indecencies of the _Floralia_. In my remembrance, the first
of May, in the country west of Glasgow, was honoured by decking the
houses with tree branches and flowers. Horses were also similarly
decked. The Church did not attempt to abolish these heathen festivals,
but endeavoured to dominate them, and substitute for legends of heathen
origin connected with them legends of Church origin. In this they
partly succeeded. The following account of the Beltane festival, as it
was kept in some districts in Perthshire at the close of last century,
taken from the statistical accounts of certain parishes, will shew how
persistent these ancient customs were, and also how some other festivals
latterly became amalgamated and identified with Beltane:--

"In the Parish of Callander, upon the first day of May," says the
minister of the parish, "all the boys in the town or hamlet meet on the
moors. They cut a table on the green sod, of a round shape, to hold the
whole company. They 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
baked at the fire upon a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they
divide the cake into as many portions, and as similar as possible, as
there are persons in the company. They blacken one of these portions
with charcoal until it is perfectly black. They put all the bits of cake
into a bonnet. Every one blindfolded draws a portion--he who holds the
bonnet is entitled to the last. Who draws the black bit is the devoted
person to be sacrificed to Baal, whose favour they mean to implore in
rendering the year productive of substance for man and beast. There is
little doubt of these human sacrifices being once offered in the
country, but the youth who has got the black bit must leap through the
flame of the fire three times." I have myself conversed with old men
who, when boys, were present at, and took part in these observances; and
they told me that in their grandfathers' time it was the men who
practised these rites, but as they were generally accompanied with much
drinking and riot, the clergy set their faces against the customs, and
subjected the parties observing them to church discipline, so that in
course of time the practices became merely the frolic of boys.

In the Parish of Logierait, Beltane is celebrated