At Aix they shower squibs and crackers on the passers-by, which has often had disagreeable consequences.  At Marseilles they drench each other with scented water, which is poured from the windows or squirted from little syringes; the roughest jest is to souse passers-by with clean water, which gives rise to loud bursts of laughter."[487] At Draguignan, in the department of Var, fires used to be lit in every street on the Eve of St. John, and the people roasted pods of garlic at them; the pods were afterwards distributed to every family.  Another diversion of the evening was to pour cans of water from the houses on the heads of people in the streets.[488] In Provence the midsummer fires are still popular.  Children go from door to door begging for fuel, and they are seldom sent empty away.  Formerly the priest, the mayor, and the aldermen used to walk in procession to the bonfire, and even deigned to light it; after which the assembly marched thrice round the burning pile, while the church bells pealed and rockets fizzed and sputtered in the air.  Dancing began later, and the bystanders threw water on each other.  At Ciotat, while the fire was blazing, the young people plunged into the sea and splashed each other vigorously.  At Vitrolles they bathed in a pond in order that they might not suffer from fever during the year, and at Saintes-Maries they watered the horses to protect them from the itch.[489] At Aix a nominal king, chosen from among the youth for his skill in shooting at a popinjay, presided over the festival.  He selected his own officers, and escorted by a brilliant train marched to the bonfire, kindled it, and was the first to dance round it.  Next day he distributed largesse to his followers.  His reign lasted a year, during which he enjoyed certain privileges.  He was allowed to attend the mass celebrated by the commander of the Knights of St. John on St. John’s Day:  the right of hunting was accorded to him; and soldiers might not be quartered in his house.  At Marseilles also on this day one of the guilds chose a king of the badache or double axe; but it does not appear that he kindled the bonfire, which is said to have been lighted with great ceremony by the prefet and other authorities.[490]

[The Midsummer fires in Belgium; bonfires on St. Peter’s Day in Brabant; the King and Queen of the Roses; effigies burnt in the Midsummer fires.]

In Belgium the custom of kindling the midsummer bonfires has long disappeared from the great cities, but it is still kept up in rural districts and small towns of Brabant, Flanders, and Limburg.  People leap across the fires to protect themselves against fever, and in eastern Flanders women perform similar leaps for the purpose of ensuring an easy delivery.  At Termonde young people go from door to door collecting fuel for the fires and reciting verses, in which they beg the inmates to give them “wood of St. John” and to keep some wood for St. Peter’s Day (the twenty-ninth of June); for in Belgium the Eve of St.