Note 533 — Chapter IV
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Footnote 533
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(return)
Letter from Dr. Otero Acevado of Madrid, published in Le Temps, September 1898. An extract from the newspaper was sent me, but without mention of the day of the month when it appeared. The fires on St. John's Eve in Spain are mentioned also by J. Brand, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, i. 317. Jacob Grimm inferred the custom from a passage in a romance (Deutsche Mythologie,4 i. 518). The custom of washing or bathing on the morning of St. John's Day is mentioned by the Spanish historian Diego Duran, Historia de las Indias de Nueva España, edited by J.F. Ramirez (Mexico, 1867-1880), vol. ii. p. 293. To roll in the dew on the morning of St. John's Day is a cure for diseases of the skin in Normandy, Périgord, and the Abruzzi, as well as in Spain. See J. Lecoeur, Esquisses du Bocage Normand, ii. 8; A. de Nore, Coutumes, Mythes et Traditions des Provinces de France, p. 150; Gennaro Finamore, Credenze, Usi e Costumi Abruzzesi (Palermo, 1890), p. 157.