A curious incident is reported from Ireland. A number of
Catholics were, on the 20th inst., sentenced to three months' imprisonment for taking part in "an unlawful assembly on St. John's Eve." The peasantry, it appears, of Ballyvally, in Down, have been accustomed for ages on that night to assemble round bonfires, and sometimes carry away live coals to sprinkle on their fields. The ceremony is believed to be a relic of Baal worship, and is one of the oldest superstitions in the world. Like all those which have survived the establishment. of Christianity, it is performed "for luck," i.e. to deprecate some unknown but malignant power. No genial or congratu- latory superstition has lasted so long, but it seems impossible- to drive out of man's heart the secret notion that Providence hates him. Paganisms are all based at bottom on that idea.
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