[370] _Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century_, from the MSS. of John Ramsay, Esq., of Ochtertyre, edited by Alexander Allardyce (Edinburgh and London, 1888), ii. 439-445. As to the _tein-eigin_ or need-fire, see below, pp. 269 _sqq_. The etymology of the word Beltane is uncertain; the popular derivation of the first part from the Phoenician Baal is absurd. See, for example, John Graham Dalyell, _The Darker Superstitions of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1834), pp. 176 _sq._: "The recognition of the pagan divinity Baal, or Bel, the Sun, is discovered through innumerable etymological sources. In the records of Scottish history, down to the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, multiplied prohibitions were issued from the fountains of ecclesiastical ordinances, against kindling _Bailfires_, of which the origin cannot be mistaken. The festival of this divinity was commemorated in Scotland until the latest date." Modern scholars are not agreed as to the derivation of the name Beltane. See Rev. John Gregorson Campbell, _Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1902), pp. 268 _sq._; J.A. MacCulloch, _The Religion of the Ancient Celts_ (Edinburgh, 1911), p. 264. [371] "_Bal-tein_ signifies the _fire of Baal. Baal_ or _Ball_ is the only word in Gaelic for _a globe_. This festival was probably in honour of the sun, whose return, in his apparent annual course, they celebrated, on account of his having such a visible influence, by his genial warmth, on the productions of the earth. That the Caledonians paid a superstitious respect to the sun, as was the practice among many other nations, is evident, not only by the sacrifice at Baltein, but upon many other occasions. When a Highlander goes to bathe, or to drink waters 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 a company, in the course of the sun. This is called, in Gaelic, going round the right, or the _lucky way_. The opposite course is the wrong, or the _unlucky_ way. And if a person's meat or drink were to affect the wind-pipe, or come against his breath, they instantly cry out _deisheal_! which is an ejaculation praying that it may go by the right way" (Rev. J. Robertson, in Sir John Sinclair's _Statistical Account of Scotland_, xi. 621 note). Compare J.G. Campbell, _Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1900), pp. 229 _sq._: "_The Right-hand Turn_ (_Deiseal_).-- This was the most important of all the observances. The rule is '_Deiseal_ (i.e. the right-hand turn) for everything,' and consists in doing all things with a motion corresponding to the course of the sun, or from left to right.