grass, and are kindled in the fields near the
villages or on high ground. As they blaze up, the people dance round or
over them. In leaping across the flames the boys cry out, "St. John,
preserve my thighs and legs!" Formerly it used to be common to light the
bonfires also in the towns in front of churches of St. John, and the
remains of the sacred fire were carried home by the people; but this
custom has mostly fallen into disuse. However, at Celano the practice is
still kept up of taking brands and ashes from the bonfires to the
houses, although the fires are no longer kindled in front of the
churches, but merely in the streets.[538] In the Abruzzi water also is
supposed to acquire certain marvellous and beneficent properties on St.
John's Night. Hence many people bathe or at least wash their faces and
hands in the sea or a river at that season, especially at the moment of
sunrise. Such a bath is said to be an excellent cure for diseases of the
skin. At Castiglione a Casauria the people, after washing in the river
or in springs, gird their waists and wreath their brows with sprigs of
briony in order to keep them from aches and pains.[539] In various parts
of Sicily, also, fires are kindled on Midsummer Eve (St. John's Eve),
the twenty-third of June. On the Madonie mountains, in the north of the
island, the herdsmen kindle them at intervals, so that the crests of the
mountains are seen ablaze in the darkness for many miles. About
Acireale, on the east coast of the island, the bonfires are lit by boys,
who jump over them. At Chiaromonte the witches that night acquire
extraordinary powers; hence everybody then puts a broom outside of his
house, because a broom is an excellent protective against
witchcraft.[540] At Orvieto the midsummer fires were specially excepted
from the prohibition directed against bonfires in general.[541]

[The Midsummer fires in Malta ]

In Malta also the people celebrate Midsummer Eve (St. John's Eve) "by
kindling great fires in the public streets, and giving their children
dolls to carry in their arms on this day, in order to make good the
prophecy respecting the Baptist, _Multi in nativitate ejus gaudebunt_.
Days and even weeks before this festival, groups of children are seen
going out into the country fields to gather straw, twigs, and all sorts
of other combustibles, which they store up for St. John's Eve. On the
night of the twenty-third of June, the day before the festival of the
Saint,