BELTANE, or Beltein, a festival originally common to all the Celtic peoples, of which traces were to be found in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland down to the beginning of the present century. The name is compounded of bel or beal, the Celtic god of light, and tin or teine, meaning fire. The principal Beltane celebration was held annually in the beginning (generally on the first day) of May, though the name is also applied to a similar festival which occurred in the beginning of November. According to Cormac, archbishop of Cashel about the year 908, who furnishes the earliest notice of Beltane, it was customary to kindle, in very close proximity, two fires, between which both men and cattle were driven, under the belief that health was thereby promoted and disease warded off. (See Transactions of the Irish Academy, xiv. pp. 100; 122, 123.) Of the celebration in more recent times an account is given by Armstrong in his Gaelic Dictionary, s. v. “Bealtainn.” The whole subject is fully treated by J. Grimm in his Deτctsche Mythologie, c. xx.