Note (return) — Chapter V

Again, the bonfires are often supposed to protect the fields against hail864 and the homestead against thunder and lightning.865 But both hail and thunderstorms are frequently thought to be caused by witches;866 hence the fire which bans the witches necessarily serves at the same time as a talisman against hail, thunder, and lightning. Further, brands taken from the bonfires are commonly kept in the houses to guard them against conflagration;867 and though this may perhaps be done on the principle of homoeopathic magic, one fire being thought to act as a preventive of another, it is also possible that the intention may be to keep witch-incendiaries at bay. Again, people leap over the bonfires as a preventive of colic,868 and look at the flames steadily in order to preserve their eyes in good health;869 and both colic and sore eyes are in Germany, and probably elsewhere, set down to the machinations of witches.870 Once more, to leap over the Midsummer fires or to circumambulate them is thought to prevent a person from feeling pains in his back at reaping;871 and in Germany such pains are called "witch-shots" and ascribed to witchcraft.872