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See also:BELTANE, BELTENE, BELTINE , Or BEAL-TENE (Scottish Gaelic, bealltain), the See also:Celtic name for May-See also:day, on which also was held a festival called by the same name, originally See also:common to all the Celtic peoples, of which traces still linger in See also:Ireland, the See also:Highlands of See also:Scotland and See also:Brittany. This festival, the most important ceremony of which in later centuries was the See also:lighting of the bonfires known as "beltane fires," is believed to represent the Druidical See also:worship of the See also:sun-See also:god. The See also:fuel was piled on a See also:- HILL
- HILL (0. Eng. hyll; cf. Low Ger. hull, Mid. Dutch hul, allied to Lat. celsus, high, collis, hill, &c.)
- HILL, A
- HILL, AARON (1685-175o)
- HILL, AMBROSE POWELL
- HILL, DANIEL HARVEY (1821-1889)
- HILL, DAVID BENNETT (1843–1910)
- HILL, GEORGE BIRKBECK NORMAN (1835-1903)
- HILL, JAMES J
- HILL, JOHN (c. 1716-1775)
- HILL, MATTHEW DAVENPORT (1792-1872)
- HILL, OCTAVIA (1838– )
- HILL, ROWLAND (1744–1833)
- HILL, SIR ROWLAND (1795-1879)
hill-See also:top, and at the See also:fire the beltane cake was cooked. This was divided into pieces corresponding to the number of those See also:present, and one piece was blackened with See also:charcoal. For these pieces lots were See also:drawn, and be who had the misfortune to get the See also:black See also:bit became cailleach bealtine (the beltane carline)—a See also:term of See also:great reproach. He was pelted with See also:egg-shells, and afterwards for some See also:weeks was spoken of as dead. In the See also:north-See also:east of Scotland beltane fires were still kindled in the latter See also:half of the 18th See also:century. There were many superstitions connecting them with the belief in See also:witchcraft. According to Cormac See also:archbishop of See also:Cashel about the See also:year. 908, who furnishes in his glossary the earliest See also:notice of beltane, it was customary to See also:light two fires See also:close together, and between these both men and See also:cattle were driven, under the belief that See also:health was thereby promoted and disease warded off. (See Transactions of the Irish See also:Academy, xiv. pp. 100, 122, 123.) The Highlanders have a See also:- PROVERB (Lat. proverbium, from pro, forth, publicly, verbum, word; the Greek equivalent is irapolµia, from 7rapa, alongside, and oiµos, way, road, i.e. a wayside saying; Ger. Sprichwort)
proverb, " he is between two beltane fires." The Strathspey Highlanders used to make a hoop of rowan See also:wood through which on beltane day they drove the See also:sheep and See also:lambs both at See also:dawn and sunset.
As to the derivation of the word beltane there is considerable obscurity. Following Cormac, it has been usual to regard it as representing a See also:combination of the name of the god See also:Bel or See also:Baal or Bil with the Celtic teine, fire. And on this See also:etymology theories have been erected of the connexion of the Semitic Baal with Celtic See also:mythology, and the See also:identification of the beltane fires with the worship of this deity. This etymology is now repudiated by scientific philologists, and the New See also:English See also:Dictionary accepts Dr Whitley See also:Stokes's view that beltane in its Gaelic See also:form can have no connexion with teine, fire. Beltane, as the 1st of May, was in See also:ancient Scotland one of the four See also:quarter days, the others being Hallowmas, See also:Candlemas, and See also:Lammas.
For a full description of the beltane celebration in the Highlands of Scotland during the 18th century, see See also:John See also:Ramsay, Scotland and Scotsmen in the 18th Century, from See also:MSS. edited by A. Allardyce (1888) ; and see further J. See also:Robertson in See also:Sinclair's Statistical See also:Account of Scotland, xi. 620; See also:- THOMAS
- THOMAS (c. 1654-1720)
- THOMAS (d. 110o)
- THOMAS, ARTHUR GORING (1850-1892)
- THOMAS, CHARLES LOUIS AMBROISE (1811-1896)
- THOMAS, GEORGE (c. 1756-1802)
- THOMAS, GEORGE HENRY (1816-187o)
- THOMAS, ISAIAH (1749-1831)
- THOMAS, PIERRE (1634-1698)
- THOMAS, SIDNEY GILCHRIST (1850-1885)
- THOMAS, ST
- THOMAS, THEODORE (1835-1905)
- THOMAS, WILLIAM (d. 1554)
Thomas See also:Pennant, Tour in Scotland (1769–1770) ; \V. Gregor, " Notes on Beltane Cakes," See also:Folklore, vi. (1895), p. 2; and " Notes on the Folklore of the North-East of Scotland," p. 167 (Folklore See also:Soc. vii. 1881) ; A. See also:Bertrand, La See also:Religion See also:des Gaulois (1897) ; See also:Jamieson, Scottish Dictionary (1808). Cormac's Glossary has been edited by O'See also:Donovan and Stokes (1862).
End of Article: BELTANE, BELTENE, BELTINE
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