certain, the Catholic Church threw a Christian cloak over it by boldly declaring that the bonfires were lit in token of the general rejoicing at the birth of the Baptist, who opportunely came into the world at the solstice of summer, just as his greater successor did at the solstice of winter; so that the whole year might be said to revolve on the golden hinges of these two great birthdays.[452] Writing in the seventeenth century Bishop Bossuet expressly affirms this edifying theory of the Midsummer bonfires, and he tells his catechumens that the Church herself participated in the illumination, since in several dioceses, including his own diocese of Meaux, a number of parishes kindled what were called ecclesiastical fires for the purpose of banishing the superstitions practised at the purely mundane bonfires.  These superstitions, he goes on to say, consisted in dancing round the fire, playing, feasting, singing ribald songs, throwing herbs across the fire, gathering herbs at noon or while fasting, carrying them on the person, preserving them throughout the year, keeping brands or cinders of the fire, and other similar practices.[453] However excellent the intentions of the ecclesiastical authorities may have been, they failed of effecting their purpose; for the superstitions as well as the bonfires survived in France far into the nineteenth century, if indeed they are extinct even now at the beginning of the twentieth.  Writing in the latter part of the nineteenth century Mr. Ch.  Cuissard tells us that he himself witnessed in Touraine and Poitou the superstitious practices which he describes as follows:  “The most credulous examine the ways in which the flame burns and draw good or bad omens accordingly.  Others, after leaping through the flames crosswise, pass their little children through them thrice, fully persuaded that the little ones will then be able to walk at once.  In some places the shepherds make their sheep tread the embers of the extinct fire in order to preserve them from the foot-rot.  Here you may see about midnight an old woman grubbing among the cinders of the pyre to find the hair of the Holy Virgin or Saint John, which she deems an infallible specific against fever.  There, another woman is busy plucking the roots of the herbs which have been burned on the surface of the ground; she intends to eat them, imagining that they are an infallible preservative against cancer.  Elsewhere a girl wears on her neck a flower which the touch of St. John’s fire has turned for her into a talisman, and she is sure to marry within the year.  Shots are fired at the tree planted in the midst of the fire to drive away the demons who might purpose to send sicknesses about the country.  Seats are set round about the bonfire, in order that the souls of dead relations may come and enjoy themselves for a little with the living."[454]

[The Midsummer fires in Brittany; uses made of the charred sticks and flowers.]