Our bonfires, torches, and tar-barrels, with the peculiar hand-in-hand dance around the blazing piles, remind us of ancient times when similar customs were regarded as sacred rites by our forefathers; and it would seem as if some vestiges of these time-honoured religious notions were still connected with Midsummer bonfires in the minds of old-fashioned people, living in remote and primitive districts, where the good folks still believe that dancing in a ring over the embers, around a bonfire, or leaping (singly) through the flames, is calculated to ensure good luck to the performers, and to serve as a protection from witchcraft and other malign influences during the ensuing year.
Many years ago, on Midsummer’s 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 hills, such as Bartinney, Chapel Carn-brea, Sancras Bickan, Castle-an-dinas, Trecrobben, Carn Galvar, St. Ann’s Bickan, and many other beacon hills far away to north and east, which vied with each other in their Midsummer’s blaze. Some of them anxiously watched for a sight of the first fire. From its position, with respect to them, they drew a presage of good or bad luck. If first beheld in the east it was a good sign. There are now but few bonfires seen on the western heights; yet we have observed that Tregonan, Godolphin, and Carn Marth hills, with others 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 carn, or high hill top, as we have beheld them some thirty years ago.
We are sorry to find that another pleasing Midsummer’s observance, which also appears to be ancient, has almost died out. Yet within the memory of many who would not like to be called old, or even aged, on a Midsummer’s eve, long before sunset, groups of girls, of from ten to twenty years of age, neatly dressed and decked with garlands, wreaths, or chaplets of flowers, would be seen dancing in the streets.
One favourite mode of adornment was to sew or pin on the skirt of a white dress, rows of laurel-leaves, often spangled with gold leaf. Before Midsummer small wooden hoops were in great demand, to be wreathed with green boughs and flowers for garlands, [180]to be worn over one shoulder and under the opposite arm. Towards sunset, groups of graceful damsels, joined by their brothers, friends or lovers, would be seen “threading the needle,” playing at “kiss-in-the-ring,” or simply dancing along, every here and there from Chyandour to Alverton, from the Quay to Caunsehead, as the upper part of the town used then to be called, perhaps with more propriety than Causewayhead.
And here, at Caunsehead, this innocent pastime was most generally observed and lingered longest.
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