Fire worship denounced by the earlier ecclesiastics. Remnant in modern times. Allhalloween. Beltain fires. Derbyshire tindles and Lancashire teanlas. African notions of the Sun and Moon. Bonfires. The gunpowder plot. Midsummer fires. The elder Aryan fire-gods Agni and Rudra, and their attendants. Prometheus, the fire-bringer, the inventor of the chark, or earliest fire-kindling instrument. Original or "need-fire." Cattle disease. Fire superstitions. Burning wheels, etc. Sacrifices to the god Bel, and to the sun-god Fro or Fricco, in the North of England, etc. The feast of St. John the Baptist. Bone-fires. Dragons and serpents. Agni and the Midsummer demons. Ahi and Kuyava the destroyers of vegetation. The great Vedic serpent Sesha. St. George and other dragon slayers. Dragons, fiery serpents, and huge worms of the North of England, "blasters of the harvest." The Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf. The monster Grendel, of Hartlepool. Dragons and imprisoned maidens, and treasure hid in caves. Merlin's prophecy. Red and white dragons. Dragon poison converted into medical balm. Figurative interpretation. The thunderstorm reduces the heat, waters the parched earth, and promotes vegetable growth. A modern hypothesis as to the origin of dragon superstitions. Page 28 CHAPTER III. CHRISTMAS AND YULE-TIDE SUPERSTITIONS AND OBSERVANCES. Christmas amusements. Date of the nativity. Remnants of pagan superstition denounced by the Church. Etymology of the word Yule. Commencement of the year at the vernal equinox. Old and new styles. Old style yet in use in Lancashire. Clerical denunciation of New Year's gifts. Curious gifts on New Year's Day in Elizabeth's reign. The wassail bowl. The Saxon "wacht heil" and "drinc heil." Singular New Year's day superstitions. Meat, drink, money, and candles interred with the dead. No fire-light or business credit given on New Year's day. Recent instances in Lancashire. Divination at Christmas. Red and dark-haired visitors on New Year's morn. Antagonism of the Celtic and Teutonic races. Forecasting the weather. Twelve days' sleep of the Vedic Ribhus in the house of the sun-god Savitar. The mistletoe and other plants sprung from the lightning. The oak and the ash. The heavenly asvattha, the _ficus religiosa_, of the Aryan mythology, the prototype of the yggdrasil or cloud-tree of the Scandinavians. Merlin's tree that covers Great Britain and Ireland. Jack and the bean-stalk. Thorns blossoming on old Christmas eve. German Christmas trees. The boar's head. The boar an Aryan type of the wind. His tusks the lightning. Popular belief that pigs can see the wind. Page 53 CHAPTER IV. EASTER SUPERSTITIONS AND CEREMONIES.