l leaps."

In Buckland's Land and Water it is stated that on the first of May all
the choristers of Magdalene College, Oxford, still meet on the summit
of their tower, 150 feet high, and sing a Latin hymn as the sun rises,
during which time ten bells are rung "to welcome the gracious Apollo."
Formerly, high mass was celebrated here and early mass for Sol was
held in the College chapel, but, as at the time of the Reformation this
service was forbidden, "it has since been performed on the top of the
tower." After the hymn is sung "boys blow loud blasts to Sol through
bright new tin horns."

Perhaps none of the ideas which enter into present religious rites and
ceremonies proclaims its eastern origin more forcibly than do those
connected with the veneration of fire. The testimony of all writers upon
this subject agrees that in Europe, down to a late date in the Christian
era, fire was still adored, and in some mysterious manner was connected
with the Creator.

Upon the subject of the continuation of sun and fire worship to modern
times, it is stated that the ancient bonfires with which the North
German hills used to be ablaze mile after mile are not altogether given
up by local custom. In Ireland as late as the year 1829, the ancient
Canaanitish and Jewish rite of passing children through fire as a
cleansing or regenerating process was still in operation. It is related
that at stated seasons great fires were lighted in public places, on
which occasions, fathers, taking their children in their arms, would
leap and run through the flames. At the same time, two large fires were
kindled a short distance from each other through which the cattle were
driven. It was believed that by means of this ceremony, fecundity is
imparted both to man and beast. May, the month in which all Nature
revives, and in which life starts anew, is the time selected for the
lighting of those sacred fires. May is the month of the fires of Baal.
According to Maurice in his work on the Antiquities of India, the
festival and the May-pole of Great Britain are the remnants of a
religious ceremony once common in Egypt, India, and Phoenicia, which
nations all worshipping the same Deity, celebrated the entrance of
the sun into the sign of Taurus at the vernal equinox, but which in
consequence of the precession of the equinoxes is removed far in the
year from its original situation. This festival is thought to be coeval
with a time when the equinox actually