roken up and
distributed, and the person who received a certain blackened portion was
called the "Beltane carline" or "devoted." A pretence was made of
throwing him into the fire, or he had to leap three times through it,
and during the festival he was spoken of as "dead."[924] Martin says
that malefactors were burned in the fire,[925] and though he cites no
authority, this agrees with the Celtic use of criminals as victims.
Perhaps the victim was at one time a human representative of the
vegetation-spirit.

Beltane cakes or bannocks, perhaps made of the grain of the sacred last
sheaf from the previous harvest, and therefore sacramental in character,
were also used in different ways in folk-survivals. They were rolled
down a slope--a magical imitative act, symbolising and aiding the course
of the sun. The cake had also a divinatory character. If it broke on
reaching the foot of the slope this indicated the approaching death of
its owner. In another custom in Perthshire, part of a cake was thrown
over the shoulder with the words, "This I give to thee, preserve thou my
horses; this to thee, preserve thou my sheep; this to thee, O fox,
preserve thou my lambs; this to thee, O hooded crow; this to thee, O
eagle." Here there is an appeal to beneficial and noxious powers,
whether this was the original intention of the rite.[926] But if the
cakes were made of the last sheaf, they were probably at one time eaten
sacramentally, their sacrificial use emerging later.

The bonfire was a sun-charm, representing and assisting the sun.
Rain-charms were also used at Beltane. Sacred wells were visited and the
ceremony performed with their waters, these perhaps being sprinkled over
the tree or the fields to promote a copious rainfall for the benefit of
vegetation. The use of such rites at Beltane and at other festivals may
have given rise to the belief that wells were especially efficacious
then for purposes of healing. The custom of rolling in the grass to
benefit by May dew was probably connected with magical rites in which
moisture played an important part.[927]

The idea that the powers of growth had successfully combated those of
blight may have been ritually represented. This is suggested by the
mimic combats of Summer and Winter at this time, to which reference has
already been made. Again, the May king and queen represent earlier
personages who were regarded as embodying the spirits of vegetation and
fertility at this festival,