about a yard on each side. If any straw remained, it was made up into
torches at the top of tall sticks. At a given signal the wheel was
lighted, and sent rolling downhill. If this fire-wheel went out before
it reached the bottom of the hill, a very poor harvest was promised. If
it kept lighted all the way down, and continued blazing for a long time,
the harvest would be exceptionally abundant. Loud cheers and shouts
accompanied the progress of the wheel."[512] At Darowen in Wales small
bonfires were kindled on Midsummer Eve.[513] On the same day people in
the Isle of Man were wont to light fires to the windward of every field,
so that the smoke might pass over the corn; and they folded their cattle
and carried blazing furze or gorse round them several times.[514]

[The Midsummer fires in Ireland; passage of people and cattle through
the fires; cattle driven through the fire; ashes used to fertilize the
fields; the White Horse at the Midsummer fire.]

A writer of the last quarter of the seventeenth century tells us that in
Ireland, "on the Eves of St. John Baptist and St. Peter, they always
have in every town a bonfire, late in the evenings, and carry about
bundles of reeds fast tied and fired; these being dry, will last long,
and flame better than a torch, and be a pleasing divertive prospect to
the distant beholder; a stranger would go near to imagine the whole
country was on fire."[515] Another writer says of the South of Ireland:
"On Midsummer's Eve, every eminence, near which is a habitation, blazes
with bonfires; and round these they carry numerous torches, shouting and
dancing, which affords a beautiful sight."[516] An author who described
Ireland in the first quarter of the eighteenth century says: "On the
vigil of St. John the Baptist's Nativity, they make bonfires, and run
along the streets and fields with wisps of straw blazing on long poles
to purify the air, which they think infectious, by believing all the
devils, spirits, ghosts, and hobgoblins fly abroad this night to hurt
mankind."[517] Another writer states that he witnessed the festival in
Ireland in 1782: "At the house where I was entertained, it was told me,
that we should see, at midnight, the most singular sight in Ireland,
which was the lighting of fires in honour of the sun. Accordingly,
exactly at midnight, the fires began to appear; and taking the advantage
of going up to the leads of the house, which had a widely extended view,
I saw on a rad