remonies of which the bonfires
are the remnant, were observed on the hill-tops and other high places
because the latter were already sacred, or, conversely, the hill tops
and other high places were held sacred because of the ceremonies enacted
there; for in either case the sanctity remains. Wells and pools, too,
many of them still held sacred, were in various ways the objects of
superstition at the Midsummer festival; for which the Church, when she
chose to take the practices under her protection, had an ample excuse in
St. John's mission to baptize.[183] Now, whatever spots were the haunt
of pagan divinities, there it was doubtless that those divinities were
expected to appear; and by the same reasoning they would be most likely
to appear during the favoured hours of the holy days. This is exactly
what we find to be the case with Enchanted Princesses, and, so far as
the days are recorded, with Sleeping Heroes. The heroes lie within the
hills, which in many legends are only open on certain days. The
princesses appear upon the hills, or by the sides of pools, the sites,
if we believe the legends, of ancient castles where they dwelt. Once in
the year, or once in a cycle of years, on a certain day, usually
Midsummer Day or Midsummer Eve, they come to wash, or to fetch water, in
their own form, either compelled or permitted by the terms of the curse
that has bound them; and then it is that mortals are admitted to an
interview and may render them the service of disenchantment. The
instances in which the days are specified are so frequent we may perhaps
suspect that they were originally mentioned in all, but that time and
other circumstances have caused them to be forgotten. However this may
be, it is only reasonable to conclude that, in the number of instances
remaining, we have a tradition of the honours long ago paid to these
degraded divinities on the days appointed for their worship.

I may be going too far in suggesting that the feats to be performed
afford some confirmation of this conclusion; yet it seems to me there is
much to be said for such an opinion. The appearance of a god in animal
form--even in a loathsome animal form--would not derogate from his
essential godhead. Where in these stories the deliverer has to deal with
an animal, a kiss is the usual task prescribed. Kissing is a very
ancient and well-known act of worship, which survives among us in many a
practice of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as in the