n on
the north to Spain and Greece on the south.[395] According to a mediaeval
writer, the three great features of the midsummer celebration were the
bonfires, the procession with torches round the fields, and the custom
of rolling a wheel. He tells us that boys burned bones and filth of
various kinds to make a foul smoke, and that the smoke drove away
certain noxious dragons which at this time, excited by the summer heat,
copulated in the air and poisoned the wells and rivers by dropping their
seed into them; and he explains the custom of trundling a wheel to mean
that the sun, having now reached the highest point in the ecliptic,
begins thenceforward to descend.[396]

[T. Kirchmeyer's description of the Midsummer Festival.]

A good general account of the midsummer customs, together with some of
the reasons popularly alleged for observing them, is given by Thomas
Kirchmeyer, a writer of the sixteenth century, in his poem _The Popish
Kingdome_:--

"_Then doth the joyfull feast of John the Baptist take his turne,
When bonfiers great with loftie flame, in every towne doe burne;
And yong men round about with maides, doe daunce in every streete,
With garlands wrought of Motherwort, or else with Vervain sweete,
And many other flowres faire, with Violets in their handes,
Whereas they all do fondly thinke, that whosoever standes,
And thorow the flowres beholds the flame, his eyes shall feele no paine.
When thus till night they daunced have, they through the fire amaine
With striving mindes doe runne, and all their hearbes they cast therin,
And then with wordes devout and prayers, they solemnely begin,
Desiring God that all their illes may there consumed bee,
Whereby they thinke through all that yeare from Agues to be free.
Some others get a rotten wheele, all worne and cast aside,
Which covered round about with strawe, and tow, they closely hide:
And caryed to some mountaines top, being all with fire light,
They hurle it downe with violence, when darke appeares the night:
Resembling much the Sunne, that from the heavens downe should fal,
A straunge and monstrous sight it seemes, and fearfull to them all;
But they suppose their mischiefes all are likewise throwne to hell,
And that from harmes and daungers now, in safetie here they dwell_."[397]

From these general descriptions, which to some extent still hold good,
or did so till lately, we see that the main features of the midsummer
fire-festival resemble those which we h