’I am sure the observance will surprise you; I am even afraid that you will think it rather fantastic, but you may rely on my information.  The danse de feu was described long ago in a Bulgarian periodical by one of our best known writers.  What you are about to read only confirms his account.  What I send you is from the Recueil de Folk Lore, de Litterature et de Science (vol. vi. p. 224), edited, with my aid and that of my colleague, Mastov, by the Minister of Public Instruction.  How will you explain these hauts faits de l’extase religieuse?  I cannot imagine!  For my part, I think of the self-mutilations and tortures of Dervishes and Fakirs, and wonder if we have not here something analogous.’

The article in the Bulgarian serial is called ‘The Nistinares.’  The word is not Bulgarian; possibly it is Romaic.

The scene is in certain villages in Turkey, on the Bulgarian frontier, and not far from the town of Bourgas, on the Euxine, in the department of Lozen Grad.  The ministrants (Nistinares) have the gift of fire-walking as a hereditary talent; they are specially just, and the gift is attributed as to a god in Fiji, in Bulgaria to St. Constantine and St. Helena.

’These just ones feel a desire to dance in the flames during the month of May; they are filled at the same time with some unknown force, which enables them to predict the future.  The best Nistinare is he who can dance longest in the live flame, and utter the most truthful prophecies.’

The Nistinares may be of either sex.

On May 1 the Nistinares hold a kind of religious festival at the house of one of their number.  Salutations are exchanged, and presents of food and raki are made to the chief Nistinare.  The holy icones of saints are wreathed with flowers, and perfumed with incense.  Arrangements are made for purifying the holy wells and springs.

On May 21, the day of St. Helena and St. Constantine, the parish priest says Mass in the grey of dawn.  At sunrise all the village meets in festal array; the youngest Nistinare brings from the church the icones of the two saints, and drums are carried behind them in procession.  They reach the sacred well in the wood, which the priest blesses.  This is parallel to the priestly benediction on ‘Fountain Sunday’ of the well beneath the Fairy Tree at Domremy, where Jeanne d’Arc was accused of meeting the Good Ladies. {169} Everyone drinks of the water, and there is a sacrifice of rams, ewes, and oxen.  A festival follows, as was the use of Domremy in the days of the Maid; then all return to the village.  The holy drum, which hangs all the year before St. Helena in the church, is played upon.  A mock combat between the icones which have visited the various holy wells is held.