IN THE POPULAR customs connected with the fire-festivals of Europe there are certain features which appear to point to a former practice of human sacrifice. We have seen reasons for believing that in Europe living persons have often acted as representatives of the tree-spirit and corn-spirit and have suffered death as such. There is no reason， therefore， why they should not have been burned， if any special advantages were likely to be attained by putting them to death in that way. The consideration of human suffering is not one which enters into the calculations of primitive man. Now， in the fire-festivals which we are discussing， the pretence of burning people is sometimes carried so far that it seems reasonable to regard it as a mitigated survival of an older custom of actually burning them. Thus in Aachen， as we saw， the man clad in peas-straw acts so cleverly that the children really believe he is being burned. At Jumièges in Normandy the man clad all in green， who bore the title of the Green Wolf， was pursued by his comrades， and when they caught him they feigned to fling him upon the midsummer bonfire.
Similarly at the Beltane fires in Scotland the pretended victim was seized， and a show made of throwing him into the flames， and for some time afterwards people affected to speak of him as dead. Again， in the Hallowe'en bonfires of Northeastern Scotland we may perhaps detect a similar pretence in the custom observed by a lad of lying down as close to the fire as possible and allowing the other lads to leap over him. The titular king at Aix， who reigned for a year and danced the first dance round the midsummer bonfire， may perhaps in days of old have discharged the less agreeable duty of serving as fuel for that fire which in later times he only kindled. In the following customs Mannhardt is probably right in recognising traces of an old custom of burning a leaf-clad representative of the spirit of vegetation. At Wolfeck， in Austria， on Midsummer Day， a boy completely clad in green fir branches goes from house to house， accompanied by a noisy crew， collecting wood for the bonfire. As he gets the wood he sings：
Forest trees I want， No sour milk for me， But beer and wine， So can the wood-man be jolly and gay.
In some parts of Bavaria， also， the boys who go from house to house collecting fuel for the midsummer bonfire envelop one of their number from head to foot in green branches of firs， and lead him by a rope through the whole village. At Moosheim， in Wurtemberg， the festival of St. John's Fire usually lasted for fourteen days， ending on the second Sunday after Midsummer Day. On this last day the bonfire was left in charge of the children， while the older people retired to a wood. Here they encased a young fellow in leaves and twigs， who， thus disguised， went to the fire， scattered it， and trod it out. All the people present fled at the sight of him.
But it seems possible to go farther than this. Of human sacrifices offered on these occasions the most unequivocal traces， as we have seen， are those which， about a hundred years ago， still lingered at the Beltane fires in the Highlands of Scotland， that is， among a Celtic people who， situated in a remote corner of Europe and almost completely isolated from foreign influence， had till then conserved their old heathenism better perhaps than any other people in the West of Europe. It is significant， therefore， that human sacrifices by fire are known， on unquestionable evidence， to have been systematically practised by the Celts. The earliest description of these sacrifices has been bequeathed to us by Julius Caesar. As conqueror of the hitherto independent Celts of Gaul， Caesar had ample opportunity of observing the national Celtic religion and manners， while these were still fresh and crisp from the native mint and had not yet been fused in the melting-pot of Roman civilisation. With his own notes Caesar appears to have incorporated the observations of a Greek explorer， by name Posidonius， who travelled in Gaul about fifty years before Caesar carried the Roman arms to the English Channel.
The Greek geographer Strabo and the historian Diodorus seem also to have derived their descriptions of the Celtic sacrifices from the work of Posidonius， but independently of each other， and of Caesar， for each of the three derivative accounts contain some details which are not to be found in either of the others. By combining them， therefore， we can restore the original account of Posidonius with some probability， and thus obtain a picture of the sacrifices offered by the Celts of Gaul at the close of the second century before our era. The following seem to have been the main outlines of the custom. Condemned criminals were reserved by the Celts in order to be sacrificed to the gods at a great festival which took place once in every five years. The more there were of such victims， the greater was believed to be the fertility of the land. If there were not enough criminals to furnish victims， captives taken in war were immolated to supply the deficiency. When the time came the victims were sacrificed by the Druids or priests. Some they shot down with arrows， some they impaled， and some they burned alive in the following manner. Colossal images of wicker-work or of wood and grass were constructed； these were filled with live men， cattle， and animals of other kinds； fire was then applied to the images， and they were burned with their living contents.