substance. As the holes are not deep enough to split the rocks, the same
little batteries serve for many years. On these nights, Mount's Bay has
a most animating appearance, although not equal to what was annually
witnessed at the beginning of the present century, when the whole coast,
from the Land's End to the Lizard, wherever a town or a village existed,
was lighted up with these stationary or moving fires. In the early part
of the evening, children may be seen wearing wreaths of flowers--a
custom in all probability originating from the ancient use of these
ornaments when they danced around the fires. At the close of the
fireworks in Penzance, a great number of persons of both sexes, chiefly
from the neighbourhood of the quay, used always, until within the last
few years, to join hand in hand, forming a long string, and run through
the streets, playing 'thread the needle,' heedless of the fireworks
showered upon them, and oftentimes leaping over the yet glowing embers.
I have on these occasions seen boys following one another, jumping
through flames higher than themselves."[511]

[The Midsummer fires in Wales and the Isle of Man; burning wheel rolled
down hill.]

In Wales the midsummer fires were kindled on St. John's Eve and on St.
John's Day. Three or nine different kinds of wood and charred faggots
carefully preserved from the last midsummer were deemed necessary to
build the bonfire, which was generally done on rising ground. Various
herbs were thrown into the blaze; and girls with bunches of three or
nine different kinds of flowers would take the hands of boys, who wore
flowers in their buttonholes and hats, and together the young couples
would leap over the fires. On the same two midsummer days roses and
wreaths of flowers were hung over the doors and windows. "Describing a
midsummer fire, an old inhabitant, born in 1809, remembered being taken
to different hills in the Vale of Glamorgan to see festivities in which
people from all parts of the district participated. She was at that time
about fourteen, and old enough to retain a vivid recollection of the
circumstances. People conveyed trusses of straw to the top of the hill,
where men and youths waited for the contributions. Women and girls were
stationed at the bottom of the hill. Then a large cart-wheel was thickly
swathed with straw, and not an inch of wood was left in sight. A pole
was inserted through the centre of the wheel, so that long ends extended