_Festival of Baal._--The late Lady Baird, of Ferntower, in Perthshire, told
me that, every year at "Beltane" (or the 1st of May), a number of men and
women assembled at an ancient druidical circle of stones on her property,
near Crieff. They light a fire in the centre; each person puts a bit of
oatcake into a shepherd's bonnet; they all sit down and draw blindfold a
piece of cake from the bonnet. One piece has been previously blackened, and
whoever gets that piece has to jump through the fire in the centre of the
circle and to pay a forfeit. This is, in fact, a part of the ancient
worship of Baal, and the person on whom the lot fell was formerly burnt as
a sacrifice; now, the passing through the fire represents that, and the
payment of the forfeit redeems the victim. It is curious that staunch
Presbyterians, as the people of that part of Perthshire now are, should
unknowingly keep up the observance of a great heathen festival.