great fires are kindled in the streets, squares, and market
places of the towns and villages of the Island, and as fire after fire
blazes out of the darkness of that summer night, the effect is
singularly striking. These fires are sometimes kept up for hours, being
continually fed by the scores of bystanders, who take great delight in
throwing amidst the flames some old rickety piece of furniture which
they consider as lumber in their houses. Lots of happy and reckless
children, and very often men, are seen merrily leaping in succession
over and through the crackling flames. At the time of the Order of St.
John of Jerusalem, the Grand Master himself, soon after the _Angelus_,
used to leave his palace, accompanied by the Grand Prior, the Bishop,
and two bailiffs, to set fire to some pitch barrels which were placed
for the occasion in the square facing the sacred Hospital. Great crowds
used to assemble here in order to assist at this ceremony. The setting
ablaze of the five casks, and later on of the eight casks, by the Grand
Master, was a signal for the others to kindle their fires in the
different parts of the town."[542]

[The Midsummer fires in Greece; the Midsummer fires in Macedonia and
Albania.]

In Greece, the custom of kindling fires on St. John's Eve and jumping
over them is said to be still universal. One reason assigned for it is a
wish to escape from the fleas.[543] According to another account, the
women cry out, as they leap over the fire, "I leave my sins behind
me."[544] In Lesbos the fires on St. John's Eve are usually lighted by
threes, and the people spring thrice over them, each with a stone on his
head, saying, "I jump the hare's fire, my head a stone!" On the morning
of St. John's Day those who dwell near the coast go to bathe in the sea.
As they go they gird themselves with osiers, and when they are in the
water they let the osiers float away, saying, "Let my maladies go away!"
Then they look for what is called "the hairy stone," which possesses the
remarkable property not only of keeping moths from clothes but even of
multiplying the clothes in the chest where it is laid up, and the more
hairs on the stone the more will the clothes multiply in the chest.[545]
In Calymnos the midsummer fire is supposed to ensure abundance in the
coming year as well as deliverance from fleas. The people dance round
the fires singing, with stones on their heads, and then jump over the
blaze or the glowing embers. Wh