told in Hutchinson (History of Cumberland), 1794, that the wake at Cumwhitton on the eve of St. John (Midsummer), was then kept with fires, dancing, etc. The writer calls it the "old Beltain," but this must be a mistake, as that name was restricted to the first of May.

The old Midsummer custom of the bone-fire is still observed at Melmerby, perhaps the only place in these counties at which this remnant of fireworship now lingers. At the alteration of the calendar in this country, Midsummer eve, old style, fell on the fourth of July, and this is still the time of observance at Melmerby. There is thus a singular retrogression of a day, but the cause of the change does not appear. The following day, until within two or three years since, was kept as the annual village festival. It was a holiday for a considerable extent of the fell-sides, and used to be attended by a great concourse of people. Preparations on a most extensive scale were made, partly for the accommodation of the general public, but still more for the private entertainment of friends. For several days previous to the feast, the village ovens were in continual daily and nightly requisition. Sports were held out of doors, and in every house there was merry-making, which never ended with the first day. To such a ruinous extent was the hospitality of the season carried, that many persons, it is said, felt its effects for the ensuing twelve months. But this re-union of friends, which was, however, already declining, has been quite discontinued since the establishment of certain cattle fairs in the Spring and Autumn, and for these times the annual visits are now reserved.

The superstition of the Need-fire is the only other remains of fireworship in these counties. It was once an annual observance, and is still occasionally employed in the dales and some other localities (according to the import of the name, cattle-fire) as a charm for various diseases to which cattle are liable. All the fires in the village are first carefully put out, a deputation going round to each house to see that not a spark remains. Two pieces of wood are then ignited by friction, and within the influence of the fire thus kindled the cattle are brought. The scene is one of dire bellowing

REMAINS OF THE FIREWORSHIP.

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and confusion, but the owner is especially anxious that his animals should get "plenty of the reek." The charm being ended in one village, the fire may be transferred to the next, and thus propagated as far as it is required. Miss Martineau (Lake Guide) remarks the continuance of this custom, and relates a story of a certain farmer, who, when all his cattle had been passed through the fire, subjected an ailing wife to the influence of the same potent charm.

At various times attempts were made to suppress those remains of fireworship. The sixth council of Constantinople, 680, interdicted" bone-fires;" the Synodus Francica, 742, inhibited Nedfri (need-fires), with what success we have seen. These customs, which, by the change of religion alone, were rendered harmless, continued until their latest names lost all special significance. Bale-fire became the general term for a signal-fire, and bone-fire is now the name of any fire made at a public rejoicing. Scott (Lay of the Last Minstrel) has even mistaken the need-fire (D. nöd, cattle), and used the name for beacon-fire. And there is no doubt that for many centuries, those who were prepared to do battle for their Beltain or their bone-fire, could no otherwise account for either, than as an inherited custom. Those professors of Christianity who transferred the various pagan observances to the saints, according to the coincidences of days and seasons, were wiser than councils or synods; for being most in contact with the ancient rites, they best saw the necessity of tolerating what they were powerless to combat.

CHAPTER III.

GIANTS.

EASTERN nations agree in representing a pre-historic period of the world, intervening, as it were, between the geological ages and the deluge. This primitive time is expressly treated by them in their traditions as mythic: gods and spirits live upon the earth,at first in peace and happiness; then commences the increasing might of the bad,—the giant race, the struggle of the opposing powers, and the consummation of this period by the flood. present human family has no part in that time, they are only now created, that is to say, only subsequent to the deluge history begins. Shem, Cham, and Japhet, under various names, become the progenitors of three different stocks of nations; but the giants appear no more-they were an antediluvian creation.

The

Scandinavian mythology has its giants, which likewise represent the world of the bad, in perpetual contest with the Asa or gods. But at this point the resemblance to the Eastern tradition ceases; the struggle of the good and evil powers does not end with a deluge, but continues to the destruction of the universe, including heaven itself. The giants of the Edda, therefore, whose progenitor was Ymir, still exist, and their dwelling is at the extreme point of the earth. Amongst the intermediate creations of the mythology we find the Trold, an inhabitant of the mountains, of enormous size, and with some confused likeness to the giant race. His dwelling

is a cave, which he illumines with precious stones, and whither he entices unwary people to their destruction. But he is more humanlike than the giant; and in common with all the beings of his class, at one time inclines to evil, at another to good.

Several explanations have been offered of the Scandinavian giants: the first, or historical, that they were the aborigines of the country, who disputed the possession of the north with the invading Goths. Late traditions represent them as being expelled by Odhin, and finally exterminated and spell-bound in various ways by Christian saints. In proof of this theory is cited the name of Jutland, as connected with the Jotuns of mythology, but we have no certainty of the identity of the words. It is singular, too, that the belief in giants is found associated, both in mythology and tradition, with that in dwarfs. A race of giants, but of a very undecided kind, found its way into Irish fable, probably from Scandinavian mythology. At their head stand Finn mac Cumhail, his son Oisin, and grandson Oscar. The belief once general in Ireland, that immense treasures, protected by spells, exist in Denmark, seems to be taken from the superstition of the Trolds, who have in their possession inexhaustible riches.

The second explanation given of the giants, namely, the physical, considers them as the elements during the first era of the world, whilst yet agitated and unarranged, the action of which produced on the crust of the earth the effects necessary to fit it for the habitation of man. The removal of boulders naturally followed as the work of giants. In the south of Ireland a large rock and two huge boulders are said to have been brought from the extreme north of the country by Finn, Oisin, and Oscar, on the occasion of a reported invasion of the island, being intended as stepping stones. for a wide river which they were informed lay in their route. The river being only half a mile across, was found to require no steppingstones, the boulders and rock were thrown away as useless, and now lie many miles apart. Not far from Bala lake in Wales stand three large stones, said to be so many grains of gravel which the giant Idris shook out of his shoe. The traditional name of the Giants' Causeway is also evidence in favour of the physical theory.

The third, or mythological explanation, represents the giants as defiant, angry forms peopling wild districts, mountain torrents, cataracts, rocky caverns, ice and stone masses, vast and fearful forests, in short, as the personifications of the terrors and perils of

unexplored and inaccessible regions. The Trold, who was an inhabitant of the mountains, is in accordance with this view, and corresponds with the Ghool of the East,-a gigantic being of vast strength, possessed of accumulated treasures, the produce of plundered caravans.

The actual history of the post-diluvian giant race divides into two distinct periods: the first, when giants are supposed to inhabit certain unknown parts of the country; the second, when their former existence alone is believed in, and when the fables connected therewith assume really gigantic proportions. Yet those historical fragments of the first period that have been handed down to us, are in general so mixed up with the fabulous traditions of the second, that it is now difficult to discover on what incidents of the former time, the fables of the latter are founded. The achievements of Jack the Giant-killer in Cornwall and Wales are the result of both periods, and, according to the historical theory above-mentioned, have doubtless a substratum of fact; Cormoran, Blunderbore, Galligantus and the rest being certainly Celtic monsters. One of the incidents in Jack's career, the blows he receives from the club of the giant, has its parallel in the prose Edda, a certain proof that all the inventions of northern mythology are not exclusively Scandinavian.

Gog and Magog, the well-known giants of Guildhall-names which by the way have just as little claim on this country as Baal -are traceable through the two periods. Near Plymouth the place is shown where Corinæus, having wrestled with Gogmagog, threw him from a rock into the sea. Gogmagog, so says Geoffrey of Monmouth, was the chief giant of Britain when it was conquered` by Brutus. In later times the "giants" formed part of the Midsummer pageants. The going of the giants was abolished by a mayor of Chester, 1599; and in the London pageants, we are informed, 1589,"are set forth great and uglie gyants, marching as if they were alive, and armed at all points; but within they are stuffed full of browne paper and tow." On the authority of Dr. Milner (Hist. of Winchester, 1798) we have it that at Dunkirk, Douay, and other places, was an immemorial custom on a certain