prosperity, or
removed barrenness. Hence also cattle were driven through the fire. But
if any one stumbled as he leaped, ill-luck was supposed to follow him.
He was devoted to the _fadets_ or spirits,[931] and perhaps, like the
"devoted" Beltane victim, he may formerly have been sacrificed. Animal
sacrifices are certainly found in many survivals, the victims being
often placed in osier baskets and thrown into the fire. In other
districts great human effigies of osier were carried in procession and
burned.[932]

The connection of such sacrifices with the periodical slaying of a
representative of the vegetation-spirit has been maintained by Mannhardt
and Dr. Frazer.[933] As has been seen, periodic sacrifices for the
fertility of the land are mentioned by Caesar, Strabo, and Diodorus,
human victims and animals being enclosed in an osier image and
burned.[934] These images survive in the osier effigies just referred
to, while they may also be connected with the custom of decking the
human representatives of the spirit of vegetation in greenery. The
holocausts may be regarded as extensions of the earlier custom of
slaying one victim, the incarnation of a vegetation-spirit. This slaying
was gradually regarded as sacrificial, but as the beneficial effect of
the sacrifice on growth was still believed in, it would naturally be
thought that still better effects would be produced if many victims were
offered. The victims were burned in a fire representing the sun, and
vegetation was thus doubly benefited, by the victims and by the sun-god.

The oldest conception of the vegetation-spirit was that of a tree-spirit
which had power over rain, sunshine, and every species of fruitfulness.
For this reason a tree had a prominent place both in the Beltane and
Midsummer feasts. It was carried in procession, imparting its benefits
to each house or field. Branches of it were attached to each house for
the same purpose. It was then burned, or it was set up to procure
benefits to vegetation during the year and burned at the next Midsummer
festival.[935] The sacred tree was probably an oak, and, as has been
seen, the mistletoe rite probably took place on Midsummer eve, as a
preliminary to cutting down the sacred tree and in order to secure the
life or soul of the tree, which must first be secured before the tree
could be cut down. The life of the tree was in the mistletoe, still
alive in winter when the tree itself seemed to be dead. Such belie