This chapter is mostly worthless: what a disappointment.
Hunt does mention some places that need fleshed out for a gazeteer. The places are:
- Sacrificing Rock at Carn Brae
- Main (or Men) Rock in Constantine
- The altar rocks in Treen and Rokestall
- The Garrick Zans (“Holy Rock”) in Ecols – a local family is cursed, after the games period, for using the stone as building materials. In 1220, people use it for minor judicial magic. If something has been stolen, a large fire is lit on the rock and each person takes a burning faggot out. They spit on their stick and if it sizzles (or goes out: Hunt is unclear) they are innocent. Hunt says its because guilty people have dry mouths, but I’d use something more mythic.
Hunt then goes really off the rails, by claiming the Midsummer fires lit in Cornwall are “Baal Fires” which are, like the Beltaine fires of Ireland, a Celtic, pagan survival of the worship of the sun god Bel, or Belus. I’m an amateur at these things, so I wanted to check who this Bel was, given that the name Hunt prefers, Baal, is a Semitic word for a whole heap of gods and demons from the Middle East and Northern Africa. Belus has a Latin ending, and Bel just means “bright” and describes the fire. There’s no sun god there, and even if there was, the festival in on the wrong night.
Richard Edmonds, one of Hunt’s sources says as much: the tradition is, to him, a Roman one. The account is from far later, hence the tar barrels. It describes the gaining of a sort of personal magic resistance, and the laying of wards around fields.
“It is the immemorial usage in Penzance and the neighbouring towns and villages to kindle bonfires and torches on Midsummer-eve ; and on Midsummer-day to hold a fair on Penzance quay, where the country folks assemble from the adjoining parishes in great numbers to make excursions on the water. St Peter’s-eve is distinguished by a similar display of bonfires and torches, although the ‘ quay-fair ‘ on St Peter’s-day has been discontinued upwards of forty years. ” On these eves a line of tar-barrels, relieved occasionally by large bonfires, is seen in the centre of each of the principal streets in Penzance. On either side of this line young men and women pass up and down swinging round their heads heavy torches made of large pieces of folded canvas steeped in tar, and nailed to the ends of sticks between three and four feet long ; the flames of some of these almost equal those of the tar-barrels.
Rows of lighted candles also, when the air is calm, are fixed outside the windows or along the sides of the streets….On these nights Mount’s Bay has a most animating appearance, although not equal to what was annually witnessed at the beginning of the present century, when the whole coast, from the Land’s End to the Lizard, wherever a town or village existed, was lighted up with these stationary or moving fires. In the early part of the evening, children may be seen wearing wreaths of flowers, a custom in all probability originating from the ancient use of these ornaments when they danced around the fires. At the close of the fireworks in Penzance, a great number of persons of both sexes, chiefly from the neighbourhood of the quay, used always, until within the last few years, to join hand in hand, forming a long string, and run through the streets, playing ‘ thread the needle,’ heedless of the fireworks showered upon them, and oftentimes leaping over the yet glowing embers. I have on these occasions seen boys following one another, jumping through flames higher than themselves. But whilst this is now done innocently in every sense of the word, we all know that the passing of children through fire was a very common act of idolatry ; and the heathen believed that all persons, and all living things, submitted to this ordeal, would be preserved from evil throughout the ensuing year. A similar blessing was supposed to be imparted to their fields by running around them with flaming torches.” Richard Edmonds The Land’s End District t p. 66.
Hunt then notes that you can lead beasts over fire, or have humans jump over fire, to break curses. This includes the Evil Eye. The use of the Evil Eye is called “overlooking” in one of the stories he gives, and for the curse to be broken, the fire leapt over need to be from the hearth of the person who placed the curse. There is also a mention of drawing blood from sick animals and burning it, to chase away negative influences. Finally, he mentions that Cornish people feel you can ensure good luck, or ward off expected misfortune, by taking your best calf and forcing it alive into a fire, so that it is burned to death. He also mentions a lamb being used in the same way to break a curse on a flock of sheep.
I’m inclined to wonder that House Flambeau isn’t in the thick of all this, everywhere it happens. I know there are similar festivals in various parts of Europe, but this seems like the centre for Fire Tourism.
This was such a weak chapter from Hunt, and so brief, I have time for an extra episode this month. See you on Hallow’ween for a shaggy dog story from Dunsany.
Games From Folktales 