They were also in the habit of quenching their fires on the
last day of April, and rekindling them on the first day of May. In
certain localities in Perthshire, so lately as 1810, (I have referred to
this before), the inhabitants collected and kindled a fire by friction,
and through the fire thus kindled they drove their cattle in order to
protect them against disease, and at the same time they held a feast of
rejoicing.
As already mentioned, the Romans held several festivals at the beginning
of summer, and many of their observances on these occasions were
introduced into this country, and became incorporated with the Beltane
practices. For example, the Romans held a festival in honour of _Pales_,
the goddess of flocks and sheepfolds. The feast was termed _Palilia_.
Lempriere states that some of the ceremonies accompanying the feast
consisted in "burning heaps of straw, and in leaping over them; no
sacrifices were offered, but purifications were made with the smoke of
horse's blood, and with the ashes of a calf that had been taken from the
belly of its mother after it had been sacrificed, and with the ashes of
beans; the purification of the flocks was also made with the smoke of
sulphur, also of the olive, the pine, the laurel, and rosemary.
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