It would seem that among our Pagan ancestors, before the introduction
of Christianity, the _first day of May_ was the great festival in
honour of the sun, and that fires were then kindled and rejoicings
made, in honour of that great luminary. The first day of May is still
called _Beltan_, or _Baal-tein_, "the fire of Baal." In some parts of
the country the shepherds still make festivals of milk and eggs on
that day, but the custom is rapidly declining. In the Highlands the
festival is still continued with singular ceremonies. On Beltan day
all the boys in a township or hamlet meet in the moors; they cut a
table in the green sod, of a round figure, by casting a trench in the
ground of such circumference as to hold the whole company; they kindle
a fire, and dress a meal of eggs and milk of the consistence of a
custard; and then knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the
embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide the
cake into as many portions, similar in size and shape, as there are
persons in the company. They then daub over one of these portions with
charcoal until it is perfectly black; they put all the bits of the
cake into a bonnet; when each of the company, blindfolded, draws out a
portion. He who holds the bonnet is entitled to the last bit. Whoever
draws the black piece is the devoted person to be sacrificed to Baal,
whose favour they mean to implore in rendering the season productive.
There is little doubt but that such inhuman sacrifices were once
offered in this country as well as in the east; although the act of
sacrifice is now dispensed with, the devoted person being only
compelled to leap three times through the flames, with which the
ceremony of the festival is closed.
That the Caledonians paid a superstitious respect to the sun, as was
the practice among many other nations, is evident, not only from the
sacrifice of Beltan, but from many other circumstances. When a
Highlander goes to bathe, or to drink water out of a consecrated
fountain, he must always approach by going round the place from east
to west on the south side, in imitation of the apparent diurnal motion
of the sun. When the dead are laid in the earth, the grave is
approached by going round in the same manner. The bride is conducted
to her future spouse in the presence of the minister; and the glass
goes round in company in the course of the sun. This is called in
Gaelic, going round in the right or lucky way; the opposite course is
the wrong or unlucky way.