Chapter II

FIRE OR SUN WORSHIP AND ITS ATTENDANT SUPERSTITIONS.

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