being smirched they made sure of a happy marriage.  Elsewhere in order to get a good husband it was necessary to see seven of the bonfires from one spot.  In Famenne, a district of Namur, men and cattle who traversed the Lenten fires were thought to be safe from sickness and witchcraft.  Anybody who saw seven such fires at once had nothing to fear from sorcerers.  An old saying ran, that if you do not light “the great fire,” God will light it for you; which seems to imply that the kindling of the bonfires was deemed a protection against conflagrations throughout the year.[269]

[Bonfires on the first Sunday of Lent in the French department of the Ardennes.]

In the French department of the Ardennes the whole village used to dance and sing round the bonfires which were lighted on the first Sunday in Lent.  Here, too, it was the person last married, sometimes a man and sometimes a woman, who put the match to the fire.  The custom is still kept up very commonly in the district.  Cats used to be burnt in the fire or roasted to death by being held over it; and while they were burning the shepherds drove their flocks through the smoke and flames as a sure means of guarding them against sickness and witchcraft.  In some communes it was believed that the livelier the dance round the fire, the better would be the crops that year.[270] In the Vosges Mountains it is still customary to light great fires on the heights and around the villages on the first Sunday in Lent; and at Rupt and elsewhere the right of kindling them belongs to the person who was last married.  Round the fires the people dance and sing merrily till the flames have died out.  Then the master of the fire, as they call the man who kindled it, invites all who contributed to the erection of the pile to follow him to the nearest tavern, where they partake of good cheer.  At Dommartin they say that, if you would have the hemp tall, it is absolutely necessary that the women should be tipsy on the evening of this day.[271] At Epinal in the Vosges, on the first Sunday in Lent, bonfires used to be kindled at various places both in the town and on the banks of the Moselle.  They consisted of pyramids of sticks and faggots, which had been collected some days earlier by young folks going from door to door.  When the flames blazed up, the names of various couples, whether young or old, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, were called out, and the persons thus linked in mock marriage were forced, whether they liked it or not, to march arm in arm round the fire amid the laughter and jests of the crowd.  The festivity lasted till the fire died out, and then the spectators dispersed through the streets, stopping under the windows of the houses and proclaiming the names of the fechenots and fechenottes or Valentines whom the popular voice had assigned to each other.  These couples had to exchange presents; the mock bridegroom gave his mock bride something for her toilet, while she in turn