As already mentioned, the Romans held several festivals at the beginning of summer, and many of their observances on these occasions were introduced into this country, and became incorporated with the Beltane practices. For example, the Romans held a festival in honour of _Pales_, the goddess of flocks and sheepfolds. The feast was termed _Palilia_. Lempriere states that some of the ceremonies accompanying the feast consisted in "burning heaps of straw, and in leaping over them; no sacrifices were offered, but purifications were made with the smoke of horse's blood, and with the ashes of a calf that had been taken from the belly of its mother after it had been sacrificed, and with the ashes of beans; the purification of the flocks was also made with the smoke of sulphur, also of the olive, the pine, the laurel, and rosemary. Offerings of mild cheese, boiled wine, and cakes of millet were afterwards made. Some call this festival _Palilia_, because the sacrifices were offered to the divinity for the fecundity of their flocks." There was also a large cake prepared for _Pales_, and a prayer was addressed to the divinity by shepherds, as thus given by Dr. Jamieson:-- "O let me propitious find, And to the shepherd and his sheep be kind; Far from my flocks drive noxious things away, And let my flocks in wholesome pastures stray. May I, at night, my morning's number take, Nor mourn a theft the prowling wolf may make. May all my rams the ewes with vigour press, To give my flocks a yearly due increase." The Romans held another festival in honour of the goddess _Flora_. It began on the 28th April, and lasted three days. The people wore garlands of flowers, and carried them about with branches of newly-budded trees. There was much licentiousness connected with this feast. Reference has already been made to another Roman festival which was celebrated early in May. This was called the _Lamuralia_, and its purport was to propitiate the favour of the ghosts or spirits of their ancestors. I am of opinion that the English May feasts are a survival of the _Floralia_, and, as kept during the middle ages, were not free from some of the indecencies of the _Floralia_. In my remembrance, the first of May, in the country west of Glasgow, was honoured by decking the houses with tree branches and flowers. Horses were also similarly decked. The Church did not attempt to abolish these heathen festivals, but endeavoured to dominate them, and substitute for legends of heathen origin connected with them legends of Church origin. In this they partly succeeded. The following account of the Beltane festival, as it was kept in some districts in Perthshire at the close of last century, taken from the statistical accounts of certain parishes, will shew how persistent these ancient customs were, and also how some other festivals latterly became amalgamated and identified with Beltane:--