rbers, the old indigenous
inhabitants of the country. Dr. Westermarck may also be right in holding
that, in spite of the close similarity which obtains between the
midsummer festival of Europe and the midsummer festival of North Africa,
the latter is not a copy of the former, but that both have been handed
down independently from a time beyond the purview of history, when such
ceremonies were common to the Mediterranean race.[562]

Sec. 5. _The Autumn Fires_

[Festivals of fire in August; Russian feast of Florus and Laurus on
August 18th; "Living fire" made by the friction of wood.]

In the months which elapse between midsummer and the setting in of
winter the European festivals of fire appear to be few and unimportant.
On the evening of the first day of August, which is the Festival of the
Cross, bonfires are commonly lit in Macedonia and boys jump over them,
shouting, "Dig up! bury!" but whom or what they wish to dig up or bury
they do not know.[563] The Russians hold the feast of two martyrs,
Florus and Laurus, on the eighteenth day of August, Old Style. "On this
day the Russians lead their horses round the church of their village,
beside which on the foregoing evening they dig a hole with two mouths.
Each horse has a bridle made of the bark of the linden-tree. The horses
go through this hole one after the other, opposite to one of the mouths
of which the priest stands with a sprinkler in his hand, with which he
sprinkles them. As soon as the horses have passed by their bridles are
taken off, and they are made to go between two fires that they kindle,
called by the Russians _Givoy Agon_, that is to say, living fires, of
which I shall give an account. I shall before remark, that the Russian
peasantry throw the bridles of their horses into one of these fires to
be consumed. This is the manner of their lighting these _givoy agon_, or
living fires. Some men hold the ends of a stick made of the plane-tree,
very dry, and about a fathom long. This stick they hold firmly over one
of birch, perfectly dry, and rub with violence and quickly against the
former; the birch, which is somewhat softer than the plane, in a short
time inflames, and serves them to light both the fires I have
described."[564]

[Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin on the eighth of September at Capri
and Naples.]

The Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin on the eighth day of September
is celebrated at Naples and Capri with fireworks, bonfires, and