ear the Castle
Ditches at Llantwit Major, in the Vale of Glamorgan, was a familiar spot
for the Beltane on May third and on Midsummer Eve.... Sometimes the
Beltane fire was lighted by the flames produced by stone instead of wood
friction. Charred logs and faggots used in the May Beltane were
carefully preserved, and from them the next fire was lighted. May fires
were always started with old faggots of the previous year, and midsummer
from those of the last summer. It was unlucky to build a midsummer fire
from May faggots. People carried the ashes left after these fires to
their homes, and a charred brand was not only effectual against
pestilence, but magical in its use. A few of the ashes placed in a
person's shoes protected the wearer from any great sorrow or woe."[380]

[Welsh belief that passage over or between the fires ensured good
crops.]

From the foregoing account we learn that bonfires were kindled in Wales
on Midsummer Eve and Hallowe'en (the thirty-first of October), as well
as at the beginning of May, but that the Beltane fires in May were
deemed the most important. To the Midsummer Eve and Hallowe'en fires we
shall return presently. The belief of the people that by leaping thrice
over the bonfires or running thrice between them they ensured a
plentiful harvest is worthy of note. The mode in which this result was
supposed to be brought about is indicated by another writer on Welsh
folk-lore, according to whom it used to be held that "the bonfires
lighted in May or Midsummer protected the lands from sorcery, so that
good crops would follow. The ashes were also considered valuable as
charms."[381] Hence it appears that the heat of the fires was thought to
fertilize the fields, not directly by quickening the seeds in the
ground, but indirectly by counteracting the baleful influence of
witchcraft or perhaps by burning up the persons of the witches.

[Beltane fires in the Isle of Man to burn the witches; Beltane fires in
Nottinghamshire.]

"The Druidical anniversary of Beil or Baal is still celebrated in the
Isle of Man. On the first of May, 1837, the Baal fires were, as usual on
that day, so numerous as to give the island the appearance of a general
conflagration."[382] By May Day in Manx folk-lore is meant May Day Old
Style, or _Shenn Laa Boaldyn_, as it is called in Manx. The day was one
on which the power of elves and witches was particularly dreaded, and
the people resorted to many precautions in order t