In the Parish of Logierait, Beltane is celebrated by the shepherds and cowherds in the following manner.  They assemble in the fields and dress a dinner of milk and eggs.  This dish they eat with a sort of cake baked for the occasion, having small lumps or nipples raised all over its surface.  These knobs are not eaten, but broken off, and given as offerings to the different supposed powers or influences that protect or destroy their flocks, to the one as a thank-offering, to the other as a peace-offering.

Mr. Pennant, in his Tour through Scotland, thus describes the Beltane observances as they were observed at the end of last century.  “The herds of every village hold their Beltane (a rural sacrifice.) They cut a square trench in the ground, leaving the turf in the middle.  On that they make a fire of wood, on which they dress a large caudle of eggs, oatmeal, butter, and milk, and bring besides these plenty of beer and whiskey.  Each of the company must contribute something towards the feast.  The rites begin by pouring a little of the caudle upon the ground, by way of a libation.  Every one then takes a cake of oatmeal, on which are raised nine square knobs, each dedicated to some particular being who is supposed to preserve their herds, or to some animal the destroyer of them.  Each person then turns his face to the fire, breaks off a knob, and, flinging it over his shoulder, says—­’This I give to thee,’ naming the being whom he thanks, ‘preserver of my sheep,’ &c.; or to the destroyer, ‘This I give to thee, (O fox or eagle),’ spare my lambs,’ &c.  When this ceremony is over they all dine on the caudle.”

The shepherds in Perthshire still hold a festival on the 1st of May, but the practices at it are now much modified.

As may readily be surmised, there were a great many superstitious beliefs connected with Beltane, some of which still survive, and tend to maintain its existence.  Dew collected on the morning of the first day of May is supposed to confer witch power on the gatherer, and give protection against an evil eye.  To be seen in a field at day-break that morning, rendered the person seen an object of fear.  A story is told of a farmer who, on the first of May discovered two old women in one of his fields, drawing a hair rope along the grass.  On being seen, they fled.  The farmer secured the rope, took it home with him, and hung it in the byre.  When the cows were milked every spare dish about the farm-house was filled with milk, and yet the udders remained full.  The farmer being alarmed, consigned the rope to the fire, and then the milk ceased to flow.

It was believed that first of May dew preserved the skin from wrinkles and freckles, and gave a glow of youth.  To this belief Ferguson refers in the following lines:—­

   “On May day in a fairy ring,
    We’ve seen them round St. Anthon’s spring,
    Frae grass the caller dew to wring,
      To wet their een;
    And water clear as crystal spring,
      To synd them clean.”