Aryans of Europe, importance of the Midsummer festival among the, ii. 40; the oak the chief sacred tree of the, 89 _sq._ Ascension Day, parasitic rowan should be cut on, ii. 281 Asceticism not primitive, i. 65 Ash Wednesday, effigy burnt on, i. 120 Ash-trees, children passed through cleft ash-trees as a cure for rupture or rickets, ii. 168 _sqq._ Ashes in divination, i. 243, 244, 245. _See also_ Sticks, Charred —— of bonfires put in fowls’ nests, i. 112, 338; increase fertility of fields, 141, 337; make cattle thrive, 141, 338; placed in a person’s shoes, 156; administered to cattle to make them fat, ii. 4 —— of dead, disposal of the, i. 11 —— of Easter bonfire mixed with seed at sowing, i. 121 —— of Hallowe’en fires scattered, i. 233 —— of holy fires a protection against demons, ii. 8, 17 —— of Midsummer fires strewed on fields to fertilize them, i. 170, 190, 203; a protection against conflagration, 174, 196; a protection against lightning, 187, 188; a protection against thunder, 190; put by people in their shoes, 191 _sq._; a cure for consumption, 194 _sq._; rubbed by people on their hair or bodies, 213, 214, 215; good for the eyes, 214 Ashes of the need-fire strewn on fields to protect the crops against vermin, i. 274; used as a medicine, 286 —— of New Year’s fire used to rub sore eyes, i. 218 —— of Yule log strewed on fields, i. 250; used to heal swollen glands, 251 _Ashur_, Arab New Year’s Day, i. 217, 218 Asia Minor, the Celts in, ii. 89; cure for possession by an evil spirit in, 186; creeping through rifted rocks in, 189 Aspen, mistletoe on, ii. 315 _Aspidium filix mas_, the male fern, superstitions as to, ii. 66 _sq._ Ass, child passed under an, as a cure for whooping-cough, ii. 192 _n._ 1 Assam, the Khasis of, ii. 146; the Lushais of, 185 _sq._ Assiga, tribe of South Nigeria, ii. 204 Associations, religious, among the Indian tribes of North America, ii. 267 _sqq._ Assyrian ritual, use of golden axe in, ii. 80 _n._ 3 Aston, W. G., quoted, i. 137 _sq._; on the fire-walk in Japan, ii. 10 _n._ 1 Astral spirit of a witch, i. 317 _Atai_, external soul in the Mota language, ii. 197 _sq._ Ath, in Hainaut, procession of giants at, ii. 36 Athboy, in County Meath, i. 139 Athena, priestess of, uses a white umbrella, i. 20 _n._ 1 Athenians offer cakes to Cronus, i. 153 _n._ 3 Athens, ceremony of the new fire at Easter in, i. 130 Athis, in Normandy, Christmas bonfires at, i. 266 Athos, Mount, mistletoe at, ii. 319, 320 _n._ Atrae, city in Mesopotamia, i. 82 Aubrey, John, on the Midsummer fires, i. 197 Aufkirchen in Bavaria, burning the Easter Man at, i. 144 August, procession of wicker giants in, ii. 36 ——, first of, Festival of the Cross on the, i. 220 —— the eighteenth, feast of Florus and Laurus, i. 220 —— the sixth, festival of St. Estapin, ii. 188 Augustus, triumphal arch of Augustus at Ariminum, ii. 195 _n._ 4