Baltinglas.[219]--This name of a town and mountain in the county of Wicklow, and province of Leinster, is equivalent to Baal-tinne-glass, that is, “Baal’s-fire-green,” alluding to the colour of the grass at the spring season. These _igneous_ betrayals of human frailty and superstition were celebrated throughout Ireland at both the _vernal_ and _autumnal_ equinoxes, in honour of the twin divinities so often adverted to in the course of this book. The eve of the vernal one was called _Aiche Baal-tinne_, that is, the night of Baal’s fire, the eve of the autumnal, _Aiche Shamain_, that is, the night of the moon’s solemnity; on both which occasions fires were lighted on all “_the high places_” dedicated to their worship. The return of these respective seasons gave rise to various superstitions amongst the illiterate populace, one of which was that of borrowing a piece of money at the first sight of the new-moon, if they had it not themselves, as an omen of plenty throughout the month.[220] And their praying to that luminary, when first seen after its change, is so well known as to be mentioned even by a French writer, whom Selden, _De Diis Syriis_, quotes in these words:--“Se mittent a genoux en voyant la lune nouvelle, et disent en parlant a lune, laise nous ausi sains que tu nous as trouvé.”[221] The new moon nearest to the winter solstice was celebrated with peculiar ceremonies. On that night the chief Druid, attended by crowds of the people, used to go into the woods, and cut with a golden sickle a branch of the mistletoe of the oak, which he would carry in procession to the sacred grove. This golden sickle or crescent corresponded in form and nature with that which Aurelius Antoninus, the Roman emperor, wore at his coronation, to intimate his adherence to the Phœnician doctrines in which he had been early instructed--his adopted name still further intimating that he had been, what _it_ literally signifies, Heliogabalus, that is, priest of the sun.[222] The crescent itself is the favourite badge of _Sheevah_, the _matrimonial_ deity of the Indians, which he is represented as wearing in front of his crown. After the introduction of Christianity, its first preachers wishing to defer to the prejudices of the inhabitants, yet not so as to interfere with the celebration of Easter at the vernal equinox, with an accommodating policy, retained the Baal-tinne ceremonial, only transferring it to the _saints’ days_; thus _diverting_ their attention from their former devotion, and fixing it upon those who, in their zealous propagation of the gospel truths, may be considered as Christian _stars_;--conformably to that gracious character of “a burning and shining light,” which our Saviour Himself applied to His precursor, St. John. In honour of this apostle, June 24th, the day of his nativity, was substituted, in the old ecclesiastical calendar, for the pagan solstice festival, and called solstitium vulgi, the vulgar solstice.