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, 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.