[31] Mr. Frazer informs me that the 13th August was Diana’s day at Nemi and there was a fire festival. [32] _Rhys’ Hibbert Lectures_, p. 514. [33] _Celtic Folklore_, p. 315. CHAPTER XIX SACRED FIRES The magnificent collection of facts bearing on this subject which has been brought together by Mr. Frazer in _The Golden Bough_ renders it unnecessary for me to deal with the details of this part of my subject at any great length. We have these records of fires:-- (1) In February, May, August and November of the original May year. (2) In June and December on the longest and shortest days of the solstitial year, concerning which there could not be, and has not been, any such change of date as has occurred in relation to the May year festivals. (3) A fire at Easter, in all probability added not long before or at the introduction of Christianity. I find no traces of a fire festival at the corresponding equinox in September. We learn from Cormac that the fires were generally double and that cattle were driven between them. Concerning this question of fire, both Mr. Frazer and the Rev. S. Baring-Gould[34] suggest that we are justified in considering the Christian treatment of the sacred fire as a survival of pagan times. Mr. Baring-Gould writes as follows:--“When Christianity became dominant, it was necessary to dissociate the ideas of the people from the central fire as mixed up with the old gods; at the same time the central fire was an absolute need. Accordingly the Church was converted into the sacred depository of the perpetual fire.” He further points out that there still remain in some of our churches (in Cornwall, York, and Dorset) the contrivances--now called cresset-stones--used. They are blocks of stone with cups hollowed out. Some are placed in lamp-niches furnished with flues. On these he remarks (p. 122):--