but so far as traces do remain, they appear to indicate that it was celebrated much after the same manner as the Scottish Celts are said to have celebrated Beltane.  Indeed, the Celtic Irish hold their Beilteme feast on the 21st June, and their fires are kindled on the tops of hills, and each member of a family is, in order to secure good luck, obliged to pass through the fire.  On this occasion also, a feast is held.  A similar practice was common in West Cornwall at midsummer.  Fires were kindled, and the people danced round them, and leaped singly through the flames to ensure good luck and protection against witchcraft.  The following passage occurs in Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, by William Bottreill, 1873:—­“Many years ago, on Midsummer eve, when it became dusk, very old people in the west country would hobble away to some high ground whence they obtained a view of the most prominent high hill, such as Bartinney-Chapel, Cambrae, Sancras Bickan, Castle-au-dinas, Cam-Gulver, St. Agnes-Bickan, and many other beacon hills far away to the north and east which vied with each other in their midsummer night blaze.  They counted the fires, and drew a presage from the number of them.  There are now but few bonfires to be seen on the western heights; yet we have observed that Tregonan, Godolphin, and Carnwath hills, with others far away towards Redruth, still retain their Baal fires.  We would gladly go many miles to see the weird-looking, yet picturesque dancers around the flames, on a cairn or high hill top, as we have seen them some forty years ago.”  The ancient Egyptians had their midsummer feasts, as also had the Greeks and Romans.  During these festivals, we are told that the people, headed by the priests, walked in procession, carrying flowers and other emblems of the season in honour of their gods.  Such processions were continued during the early years of the Christian Church, and the Christian priests in their vestments went into the fields to ask a blessing on the agricultural produce of the year.  Towards the beginning of the twelfth century the Church introduced the Feast of God, and fixed the 19th June for its celebration.  The eucharistic elements were declared to be the actual presence of God, and this, the consecrated Host or God himself was carried through the open streets by a procession of priests, the people turning out to do it honour, kneeling and worshipping as it passed.  This feast of God may have absorbed some of the ancient midsummer practices, but the Feast of St. John’s Day, which is held upon the 24th June, has in its customs a greater similarity to the ancient sun feast.  On the eve of St. John’s day, people went to the woods and brought home branches of trees, which they fixed over their doorways.  Towards night of St. John’s Day, bonfires were kindled, and round them the people danced with frantic mirth, and men and boys leaped through the flames.  Leaping through the flames is a common practice at these survivals of sun festivals, and although done now, partly for luck and partly for sport, there can be little doubt but that originally human sacrifices were then offered to the sun god.