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Zondon: Ο. J. CLAY anp SONS, 


CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, 
AVE MARIA LANE, 
Glasgow: 50, WELLINGTON STREET. 





Leipsig: F. A. BROCKHAUS. 
Pew Work: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Lrp. 


[All Rights reserved.] 


ἀκ ΟΝΙΑΝ FOLKLORE 


ΒΥ 
GF. ABBOTT; BA. 


EMMANUEL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 





CAMBRIDGE: 
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 


1903 










PRINTED BY J, AND C, F. CLAY, τὰ 











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PREFACE. 


HE present volume contains the .results of some re- 
searchés into the folklore of the Greek-speaking parts 
of Macedonia, carried on in 1900-1 by the author under the 
‘auspices of the Electors to the Prendergast Studentship and 
of the Governing Body of Emmanuel College. The materials 
- thus derived from oral tradition have, in some cases, been sup- 
_ plemented from local publications. Among the latter, special 
- mention must be made of the two excellent booklets on the 
antiquities and folklore of Liakkovikia, by A. D. Gousios, a 
native schoolmaster, frequently quoted in the following pages. 
_ The peasant almanacks have also yielded a few additional 
‘sayings concerning the months. 
The writer has not been content with a bare record of 





Dreams, magic terrors, spells of mighty power, 
Witches, and ghosts who rove at midnight hour, 


but, induced by the example of his betters, has undertaken 
some tentative flights to Zululand, Yungnulgra, Zamboanga, 
the Seranglao and Gorong archipelagoes, and other resorts 
now fashionable among folklorists. Ancient History and 
modern, the Old World and the New have been laid under 
contribution, to the limited extent of the author's reading, 
with the result that many a nursery rhyme, shorn of all its 
_familiar simplicity, has been 

Started at home and hunted in the dark 

To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah’s ark. 


x Preface 


For these spiritual excursions into the vast unknown, the 
author is chiefly indebted to the guidance of Mr Tylor’s and 
Mr Frazer’s monumental works, to some of Mr Andrew Lang’s 
essays, and to various other authorities mentioned in the foot- 
notes. His thanks are also due to his forerunners in the 
pursuit of Modern Greek folklore, and more particularly to 
Mr Tozer, Herr Bernhard Schmidt, MM. Georgeakis et Pineau, 
Sir Rennell Rodd and others whose labours it has been his 
modest ambition to supplement. In conclusion, it is the 
author’s pleasant duty to acknowledge his obligations to the 
readers of the Cambridge University Press, whose conscientious 
and intelligent revision of the proofs has saved him from many 
a slip. ; 

G. F. A. 

EMMANUEL COLLEGE, 

CAMBRIDGE. 
March 25, 1903. 


CONTENTS. 

















“1 The Folklorist in Macedonia. 
IL The Folk-Calendar and the Seasons 
Ul. January, February and March 

1 ΤΥ.  Eastertide 
ca VY. April, May and June 

Be ‘VI. July to December . 
_ VII. Winter Festivities . 
5 VIII. Divination 
IX. Symbolism 
7X (Birth. 

XL _ Marriage . 
Funeral Rites 
Spirits and Spells . 
_ Macedonian Mythology . 

Z Alexander and Philip in Folk- Tradition 
_ Bird Legends . : 
II. Miscellaneous ‘Notes 








᾿ 


CHAPTER 1. 


THE FOLKLORIST IN MACEDONIA. 


In the Near East, as elsewhere, Western civilization is doing 
its wonted work of reducing all racial and individual character- 
istics to a level of dull uniformity. The process, however, is 
much slower in Macedonia than it is in countries like Egypt, 
Greece, or Roumania, The mountainous character of the 
province, the backward state of commerce, lack of security, and 
the conspicuous absence of means of communication obstruct 
the progress of foreign influence. The same causes keep the 
various districts, and their inhabitants, separated from each 
other. To these impediments are further added the barriers 
of language, creed, and race, all tending to foster that luxuriant 
wealth of superstitious growth, which makes glad the heart 
of the folklorist. 

These features, naturally, are less prominent in the cosmo- 
politan cities on the coast than in the interior of the country, 
and in the interior, again, they are less prominent now than 
they were some years ago. The materials which I collected at. 
Salonica and Cavalla were mostly gleaned from the peasants, 
who resort to those centres from the environs for commercial or 
religious purposes, and only in very few cases from native 
citizens. The Khans, or inns, in which these villagers stop, 
may be said to constitute the sole parts of the cities worth 
exploring, and the exploration is neither an easy nor a pleasant 
task. My real harvest was gathered in the thoroughly provin- 
cial towns of Serres and Melenik, the townships of Demir 
- Hissar and Nigrita, and the villages adjacent thereto; as well 
as in places of lesser note, such as Vassilika and Séohos 3 in the 


A. Ρ. 1 


y Macedonian Folklore 


Chalcidic Trident, the settlements in its three prongs, Provista 
in the valley of the Struma, Pravi in the neighbourhood of 
Philippi, and some of the country around, and to the south of, 
Drama. In all and sundry of these districts I found abundance 
of the things of which I was in quest, and more than I could 
possibly gather within the time allowed by circumstances. 

At Serres I was chiefly beholden for my materials to an 
aged and half-blind nurse, whose acquaintance I made through 
the kind offices of certain Greek ladies, the old woman’s 
quondam charges. Kyra Tassio was a rich mine of fairy-lore, 
and though she would insist on going at a rate more in keeping 
with the pace of a motor-car than with the speed of an ordinary 
human hand, I succeeded in filling several note-books from her 
dictation, only to find on examination that a great many of her 
tales had already been substantially: reproduced by Hahn, while 
some of the rest were not worth reproducing at all. Still, 
out of the heap of dross, several nuggets of pure gold were 
secured: enough to satisfy the ambition of a moderately 
sanguine explorer. 

M. Tzikopoulos, a learned professor of that town, was good 
enough to assist me in the elucidation of the stories obtained 
from Kyra Tassio and other ancient sources, and to him I am 
also indebted for much valuable information on the dialect of 
the district, as well as for a number of notes on the language 
and customs of South-Western Macedonia, the part of the 
country from which he hailed.’ I am all the more grateful to 
M. Tzikopoulos because he made no secret of his hearty con- 
tempt for my pursuits. Philology was his particular hobby, 
and, in proportion as he loved lis own hobby, he scorned the 
hobbies of other men. Old wives’ tales had no charm for 
M. Tzikopoulos. “It is all nonsense and sheer waste of time,” 
he assured me solemnly on more occasions than one, and yet he 
never refused to be questioned. 

M. Zographides of Melenik was another genial old teacher 


1 For my introduction to this gentleman I am indebted to the courtesy of 
M. P. N. Papageorgiou, the well-known scholar and archaeologist, whose 
sympathetic interest in my work will always remain as one of the most pleasant 
reminiscences of my tour. 

ad 








The Folklorist in Macedonia 3 


to whose lessons and friendly guidance I owe much. Unlike 
M. Tzikopoulos, this authority was conveniently eclectic in his 
tastes, and his heart was impartially open to all kinds of 
knowledge, from Authropology to Demonology, and from Philo- 
logy to Phrenology, provided the subject ended in -ology. It 
is true that he also professed the learned man’s contempt for 
popular superstition; but, being of a more tolerant disposition, 
he waived his prejudice, and saw no objection to cross-examining 
his wife and all the old ladies of the neighbourhood on my 
behalf. His exertions and those of other local gentlemen were 
crowned with success, as the results amply prove. 

At Melenik I was doomed to a second disappointment at 
the hands of an aged story-teller. Fame described her as a 
walking Arabian Nights’ Entertainments in a complete and 
unexpurgated edition. But, when weighed in the balance, she 
was found sadly wanting, and the few things which I lured out 
of her reluctant mouth had to be expurgated to a point of total 
annihilation. A third female—a renowned witch—on whom I 
had been led to build high hopes, showed her diabolical wicked- 
ness by dying a short time before my arrival. 

These failures shook my faith in old women—of the fair 
sex, at all events. But the fortune that favours the folklorist 
enabled me, before leaving Melenik, to fall in with an old 
woman of the opposite sex. Kyr Liatsos, though a mere 
bearded man, was, from the student’s point of view, worth at 
least a dozen ordinary old dames rolled into one. 

I found him in his workshop, sitting cross-legged on a rush 
mat, with his baggy breeches well-tucked between the knees. 
Though the owner of broad acres in the vicinity of the town, he 
was compelled, by the memory of past experiences at the hands 
of Bulgarian brigands, and by the fear of similar treatment in 
the future, to ply the needle and ell for a livelihood. In short, 
Kyr Liatsos was a tailor. But, like the Great Mel—his col- 
league of Evan Harrington fame—he was an individual far 
above his station. This became patent from the manner in 
which he received and entertained me. Nothing could be 
more generous, kindly, philosophical, eccentric, and unsartorial 
than his behaviour towards the strange collector of nonsense. 

1—2 


πὶ 


4 Macedonian Folklore 


A glance through a pair of brass-rimmed spectacles, un- 
stably poised on an honestly red nose, satisfied Kyr Liatsos 
that his visitor had not called for so commonplace an object as 
a pair of trousers. With remarkable mental agility he adjusted 
himself to these new circumstances. The fur-coat, on which he 
was engaged at the moment of my entrance, flew to the other 
end of the shop, one of the apprentices was despatched for a 
bottle of arrack and tobacco, and in two minutes Kyr Liatsos 
was a tailor transformed. 

There being no chairs in the establishment we reclined, my 
guide and I, ἃ la Grecque on the rush mats which covered the 
floor. I produced my note-books, and my host, after a short. 
and somewhat irrelevant preface concerning the political state 
of Europe, the bloodthirsty cruelty of the Macedonian Com- 
mittee, and the insatiable rapacity of the tax-gatherers, 
plunged into the serious business of the day. It is true that 
his discourse was often interrupted by allusions to matters. 
foreign to the subject in hand, and still more often by impre- 
cations and shoes addressed to the apprentices, who preferred 
to listen to their master’s tales rather than do his work. Yet, 
in spite of these digressions, Kyr Liatsos never missed or 
tangled the threads of his narrative. 

Meanwhile his wife arrived, and after having given vent to. 
some natural astonishment at her lord’s novel occupation, she. 
collapsed into a corner. Her protests, at first muttered in an 
audible aside, grew fainter and fainter, and at last I thought. 
she had fallen asleep. On looking up, however, I discovered 
that she merely stood spell-bound by her gifted husband’s 
eloquence. It was only when the latter got up and began to. 
romp about the room, that she felt it her duty to express her 
strong disapprobation of the proceedings. This she did in the 
following terms: 

“ Art thou not ashamed of thyself, O my husband? Thou 
dancest and makest merry, and thy poor brother has been dead 
scarcely a month.” 

Thereupon I perceived that Kyr Liatsos actually wore. 
round his fez a black crape band which had not yet had time 
to turn green. I sympathized with the lady for an instant. 











The Folklorist in Macedonia 5 


But the next moment I was es, aes reassured by her 
husband’s retort: 

“ Mind thy own (ainda: O woman!” he answered, gravely, 
but without interrupting his waltz, “and I know how to mind 
mine. It is not for unseemly joy that I dance; but in order 
to show this gentleman the steps of our country dance. My 
motive is scientific. But women cannot comprehend such 
things.” 

Having delivered this severe rebuke Kyr Liatsos resumed 
his seat, his pipe and his story. ᾿ 

Soon after happened something which illustrated even more 
vividly the close resemblance between Kyr Liatsos and the 
Great Mel. A customer was announced: a big Turk, who 
wanted to see Master on business. 

“Business and Turks be damned!” was the emphatic and 
highly uncommercial answer, accompanied by a well-aimed 
shoe at the head of a truant apprentice. 

1 insisted that Kyr Liatsos should not neglect his interests 
on my account, and said that I should be extremely sorry if he 
lost any money through his hospitality. 

“Nonsense, sir!” he thundered back, “What is money, 
when compared with the satisfaction of conversing with a man 
like you?” 

I attempted to bow my thanks for the compliment as 
gracefully as my attitude on the floor permitted. 

It was dark ere I left Kyr Liatsos’s cobweb-festooned 
establishment. On my way out I nearly fell over a crowd of 
small Melenikiotes, who, having been apprised of the fact that 
there were glorious doings in the shop, had gathered outside 
the door and were eagerly, though timidly, listening through 
its numerous interstices. 

All my subsequent experiences at Melenik pale beside this 
ever-memorable interview with her Great Tailor. 

My visit to Petritz, though exceedingly fruitful in other 
respects, proved comparatively barren of results so far as my 
special object of research was concerned. I found the district 
in an unsettled condition, and the Turkish authorities, partly 
from genuine fear lest I should come to grief and partly from 


6 Macedonian Folklore 


an equally lively apprehension that I might spy the nakedness 
of the land and the wretchedness thereof, allowed me little 
liberty for folklore. To interview people would have meant 
getting them into trouble, and to be seen taking notes would 
have resulted in getting into trouble myself. All my enquiries 
had, therefore, to be conducted with the utmost secrecy and all 
my writing to be done with curtains drawn closely. 

For this unsuccess I was richly compensated at Nigrita. 
In that township I had the privilege of being the guest of 
a wealthy weaver, whose looms furnished employment to a 
considerable number of hands. His workmen were easily 
induced to dictate to me scores of the songs with which they 
beguiled the tedium of their daylong toil, while many others 
were likewise pressed into the service of Ethnology. So that 
when I departed I had several note-books filled with multi- 
farious information on men and things. In this place I also 
had an opportunity of assisting at a local dance in the ‘ middle- 
space’ (μεσοχῶρι) of the village. But my readers will be spared 
the description of a function which is infinitely more interesting 
in real life than on paper. 

The thing which impressed me most deeply throughout my 
tour was the astonishing facility with which the people entered 
into the spirit of the enterprise. That I was the first person 
who had ever explored the country with the avowed purpose of 
picking up old wives’ tales and superstitions was evident from 
the surprise and incredulity with which my first questions were - 
everywhere received by the peasants. Yet no sooner were their 
fears of being the victims of a practical joke dispelled than they 
evinced the shrewdest comprehension of the nature and value 
of the work. In this I could not help thinking that the 
Macedonian folk presented a most flattering contrast to the 
rural population of western lands. Like the latter they are 
naturally shy of divulging their cherished beliefs to a stranger ; 
but it is not difficult to overcome their shyness. A little tact 
in most cases and a little silver in some are sufficient to loosen 
their tongues. 

Another and more formidable obstacle was the suspicion 
that my curiosity was prompted by sinister motives. The 


-ς ΟΙ͂ΕΒ 


The Folklorist in Macedonia 7 


Christians in Turkey are so frequently harassed by the 
authorities on account of their national aspirations and political 
sympathies that a new-comer is always an object of mistrust. 
Every stranger is a detective until he has proved himself to 
be an honest man. For all these reasons it is imperative to 


‘approach the humble folk through their betters; those who 


are free from superstition themselves, and at the same time are 
enlightened enough to appreciate the importance of the study of 
superstition and courteous enough to exert their influence on 
the student’s behalf. To people of this class I seldom appealed 
in vain. Their native urbanity, quickened by the Greek’s love 
for the Englishman, made them always ready to place their 
services at my disposal.1 On one occasion alone I failed, and 
my failure deserves to be recorded as a warning to others. It 
shows how the work is not to be done. 

It happened in a small village on the eastern coast of the 
Chalcidic Peninsula. I had been informed that two old 
women, who dwelt in a certain cottage, were considered the 
greatest living authorities on funeral laments. Confident in 
my own powers of persuasion, I neglected to secure the support 
of a local magnate; but I forthwith proceeded to the abode of 
the Muses, note-book in hand, and explained to them the 
object of my visit. As soon as the meaning of my errand 
broke on their intelligence, their kindly faces assumed the 
aspect of the Eumenides in pursuit of a matricide: 

“ What!” they exclaimed both in one voice, “ You good-for- 
nothing! You vagabond! You want to hold us up to ridicule 
all over the world? Is that what you mean, eh ?” 

I assured them that nothing was further from my thoughts. 
But my words had no other effect than to intensify the old 
dames’ choler, and I found it advisable to beat a hasty and 
undignified retreat. As I fled, my ears continued ringing with 
the shrill accents and angry expletives of the enraged menads. 


1 Want of space renders it impossible to give a complete list of all the 
individuals who have obliged me with their aid. But I should be wanting in 
common gratitude if I forbore to mention M. Athenaeos, an official of the 
Ottoman Regie at Cavalla, who spared no pains in persuading the peasants, who 
worked in the tobacco-stores, to disclose their treasures to me. 


8 Macedonian Folklore 


I did not repeat the experiment. 

Great part of my material was collected during late summer 
and early autumn, in the open fields and vineyards, whenever 
the relative absence of brigandage and agitation rendered that 
possible, and on the roads while travelling from one place to 
another. On the latter occasions my fellow-travellers, and 
more especially my muleteers, were made to supply me with 
information. Very often the songs with which they cheered 
the way were at the conclusion of the journey dictated to me. 

But my best work was done by the cottage fireside. During 
the long evenings of winter it is the custom for families to 
meet and spend the time in social companionship (νυχτέρι). 
The women in these reunions generally keep their hands 
busy knitting, and, of course, their tongues gossiping. The 
men smoke and discuss politics. Now and again the work 
is laid aside, the debate is adjourned, and they all listen 
attentively to the tale which some ancient dame is telling for 
the benefit of the youngsters. On special occasions, such as 
the eves of saints’ days, these gatherings assume an entirely 
festive character. No work is done, but the time is devoted to 
stories, riddles and songs, hence known as ‘Sitting-up Songs’ 
(καθιστικαλ). 

The old Klephtic ballads are also still sung not only on the 
mountains but in the fields and plains, and in all. places where 
the ear of the police cannot reach. Nay, at feasts and fairs, 
and wherever Greeks are gathered together, a round or two of 
the “bell-mouthed glass” is enough to make them cast fear to 
the winds and give musical expression to their patriotic feelings. 
Even in the towns on the coast, where serenades and love-ditties 
are so much in vogue and the Turkish commissaries of police 
so much in evidence, the epic is not forgotten. At Cavalla 
I met one evening an Epirot highlander, who invited me to 
a tavern and promised to regale me with “such songs as had 
never been heard before.” He fulfilled his promise to the 
letter. When all the habitués were gone, the shutters were 
put up, and the lights, for the fear of the Turks, were turned 
down, my friend cleared his throat and commenced one of the 
wildest and most thrilling melodies that has ever assailed my 


The Folklorist in Macedonia 9 


ear. By little and little his enthusiasm got the better of his 
discretion ; his voice rose and swelled until the grimy apart- 
ment was peopled with the shades of heroes, the dark corners 
were illuminated with the splendour of heroic deeds, and the 
dirty tavern was transformed into a romantic battle-field on 
which Freedom met and overcame Tyranny. It was a pathetic 
scene, notwithstanding its grotesqueness. The tavern-keeper 
and his servant were the only hearers besides myself. Through 
the dim light of the apartment I could see their eyes glittering 
with the sort of fire which has ere now kindled revolutions 
and changed the map of South-Eastern Europe. A deep sigh 
was the only applause which greeted the end of the song; but 
the bard felt richly rewarded. He had relieved his own over- 
burdened heart and had also succeeded in stirring the hearts of 
his audience. He emptied his glass and departed with a brief 
“Good night.” 

Of the blind minstrels who once were so popular through- 
out the Greek world I found few remnants in Macedonia. The 
tribe has fallen on evil days. Civilization and barbarism have 
proved alike fatal to its existence, and its few representatives 
eke out a precarious livelihood by singing the products of their 
rustic muse at village fairs and weddings. Barba Sterios, 
whom I described elsewhere,’ seems to have been in very truth 
the last of the Macedonian minstrels. 

From such sources are drawn most of the materials out of 
which the present work has been compiled.* Even where the 
information is not quite new, I venture to hope that it may be 
found useful as a corroboration or correction at first hand of the 
experiences already recorded by others. It is not to be pre- 
sumed that this volume exhausts the wealth of Macedonian 
folklore. It only represents the harvest gathered by one 
individual of limited means within a limited space of time. 


1 Songs of Modern Greece, pp. 5 foll. 

2 A great many of the tales and songs collected had to be excluded either 
because they were too well known or because they lay beyond the scope of the 
_ present volume. At some future date I may have an opportunity of publishing 
a selection from them. 


10 Macedonian Folklore 


Another student with greater resources at his command might 
find an aftermath well worth the trouble of gleaning. 

Such a student, however, must be one not unwilling to face 
hardship and danger. He must also be one prepared to look 
upon brigands chiefly in the light of auxiliaries to the excite- 
ment of rough travel, and upon Turkish Government officials 
as interesting psychological phenomena. These qualifications, 
a Colt revolver, a Turkish fez, a small medicine chest, a 
moderate stock of humour, and a plentiful stock of insect- 
killing powder are among the absolutely indispensable items 
of the complete Macedonian traveller’s outfit. A kodak may 
or may not prove useful; but in either case it will have to be 
smuggled into the country or imported on the clear under- 
standing that it is not an infernal machine—a point on which 
the Custom House authorities are slow to be convinced, unless 
argument is reinforced by bakshish. Note-books and maps are 
to be used only in the dark, figuratively speaking ; for a sight 
of those suspicious articles may earn the traveller the reputation 
of a secret political agent,—one dealing in “treasons, stratagems, 
and spoils”—and lead to the awkward consequences which such 
a reputation usually entails, including a rapid march under 
escort to the nearest sea-port. The escort will indeed be 
described in official parlance as a guard of honour, and the 
expulsion as a signal proof of the Sultan’s solicitude for the 
traveller’s safety ; but these polite euphemisms will not alter 
the situation to any appreciable extent. 


CHAPTER IL. 


THE FOLK-CALENDAR AND THE SEASONS. 





a ΨΨΊ 


TIME among the peasantry of Macedonia is measured not 
so much by the conventional calendar as by the labours and 
festivals which are proper to the various seasons of the year. 
Seed-time, harvest, and vintage ; the Feast of St George, or the 
bonfires of St John—these are some of the landmarks in the 

peasant’s life. In most cases the Roman designations of the 
- months, meaningless to Greek ears, have been corrupted into 
forms to which popular ingenuity has readily assigned a 
_ plausible derivation; in others they have been replaced by 
_ names descriptive of the occupations which form the principal 
_ feature of every month; while a third class of months is known 
_ by the name of the greatest saint whose feast occurs during 
each one of them. These characteristic appellations lend to the 
folk-calendar a variety and freshness of colour such as one 
_ would vainly seek in the artificial almanacks of more highly 
cultured communities; a possible exception to this rule being 
offered only by the picturesque nomenclature of the Dutch 
months, and by the short-lived, because artificial, return to 
Nature initiated by the French during their Revolution. 
_ There are wise saws attached to each month; some con- 
taining the fruit of past experience, others a shrewd forecast of 
the future. Many of these products of rustic lore are from 
time to time inserted in the cheap publications—Kazamias—of 
Constantinople and Athens, which in some respects correspond 
to our own Old Moore's Almanack. Many more are to be 


J 


Macedonian Folklore 


culled in the country districts directly from the peasants 
themselves. But, whether they are embodied in halfpenny 
pamphlets or flourish freely in the open fields, these sayings 
have their roots deep in the soil of popular conviction. The 
weather is, of course, the theme upon which the village sage 
mostly loves to exercise his wisdom ; for it is upon the weather 
that the well-being of both herdsman and husbandman chiefly 
depends. Several specimens of Macedonian weather-lore will 
be found in the following pages. As a general rule they are in ~ 
verse, terse and concise as behoves the utterances of a popular 
oracle. On the other hand, it must be confessed, these com- 
positions sometimes exhibit all the insensibility to rhyme from 
which suffer the illiterate everywhere. Most of these adages 
are as widely known in Southern Greece as in the Greek- 
speaking parts of Macedonia. 


The Four Seasons. 


The traditional division of the year into four seasons is 
recognized by the popular muse in the following distich: 


Τρεῖς μῆνες εἶν᾽ ἡ "Ανοιξι καὶ τρεῖς TO ΚΚαλοκαῖρι" 
Τρεῖς εἶναι τὸ Χινόπωρο" καὶ τρεῖς βαρὺς Χειμῶνας. 


“Three months are Spring, and three Summer ; 
Three are Autumn, and three keen Winter.” 


1 i.q. φθινόπωρον. 











CHAPTER III. 


JANUARY, FEBRUARY AND MARCH. 


THE first month of the year is known as the ‘Breeder’ 
(Tevvapns), the corruption of the name (from ᾿Ιανουάριος) 
having suggested a meaning according well with the main 
characteristic of the month; for it is at this time of year that 
cattle are wont to breed (γεννοῦν). It is also called the ‘Great’ 
or ‘Long Month’ (Μεγάλος or Tpavos μῆνας), in contradistinc- 
tion to February ; and the ‘Pruner’ (Κλαδευτής). It is good to 
prune and trim trees and vines in this month, regardless of all 
other considerations : 


C Tevvapn μῆνα κλάδευε, φεγγάρι μὴν ξετάζης. 


“In January look thy plants to prune, 
And heed thou not the progress of the moon.” 


The force of the injunction will be fully appreciated by 
those who know how deep and universal is the importance 
attributed to the moon by the popular mind. 

An omen is drawn from the observation of the weather 
on the Epiphany: 

Χαρὰ ᾿ς ta Φῶτα τὰ στεγνὰ καὶ τὴ Λαμπρὴ βρεμένη. 

“A dry Epiphany and dripping Easter-tide 
Betoken joy and plenty through the country-side.” 


This is the reverse of our English adages “A green Yule 
makes a fat churchyard,” “January fair, the Lord have 
mercy!” and other pessimistic proverbs well known to weather- 
lorists.* 


1 See R. Inwards, Weather Lore, pp. 10 foll.; The Book of Days, ed. by 


R. Chambers, vol. 1. p. 22. 


14 Macedonian Folklore 


A piece of culinary advice is conveyed by these rhymes: 


Πῆττα, cotta τὸν [Γεννάρη, 
Κόκκορα τὸν ᾿Αλωνάρη. 
“Tn January make of hen thy pie, 
And leave the cock to fat until July.” 


February. 


February (PeSpovapios) has had its name turned into 
Φλεβάρης, which, according to the folk-etymologist, means the 
‘Vein-sweller, because during this month the veins (φλέβες) of 
the earth are swollen with water—an idea also expressed by our 
own folk appellation of the month: February fill-dyke. The 


same idea is embodied in the ominous saw: 
‘O Φλεβάρης φλέβες ἀνοίγει καὶ πόρταις σφαλνάει. 
“February opens many a vein and closes many a door,” 


that is, it is the cause of many a death. 
But, notwithstanding his ferocity, February still is the 
forerunner of the blissful time in store for us: 


Φλεβάρης κὴ ἂν φλεβίζῃ, 
Καλοκαιριαῖς μυρίζει. 
Μὰ ἂν δώσῃ καὶ κακιώσῃ, 
Μέσ᾽ ᾿ς τὸ χιόνι θά μας χώσῃ. 
“February, though the veins he swell, 
Still of spring and summer will he smell ; 
But if perchance he wrathful grows, 
He'll bury us beneath the snows.” 

February is likewise called Μικρὸς μῆνας or Κουτσο- 
φλέβαρος, that is, ‘Little Month’ or ‘Lame February.’* 

On Feb. 2nd is celebrated the feast of the Purification of 
the Virgin (τῆς Ὑπαπαντῆς), our Candlemas Day. The 
weather which prevails on that day is expected to last forty 
days—a period which occurs constantly in modern Greek 

1 The word κουτσός ‘lame’ is by some identified with the Albanian Koutzi 
‘little,’ as in the word Koutzo-Vlach, where it is said to mean Little Wallach, 
in contradistinction to the Great Wallachs of the mediaeval Μεγαλοβλαχία 
(Thessaly). The usual translation is ‘lame’ or ‘lisping,’ an epithet referring 


to the pronunciation of the Wallachs. These derivations are given under all 
possible reservations and should not be taken for more than they are worth. 


ee ΨΥ ῪΝ 


ee 








January, February and March 15 


_ prognostications concerning the weather and is also familiar 
in the folklore of most European countries. The superstition 
attached to this day is also common. Sir Thomas Browne, 
in his Vulgar Errors, quotes a Latin distich expressive of a 
pparalle! belief: 





Si sol splendescat Maria purificante, 
; Major erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante ; 


which is well reproduced in the homely Scottish rhyme: 


> If Candlemass day be dry and fair, 
The half o’ winter’s to come and mair. 
If Candlemass day be wet and foul, 
The half o’ winter’s gane at Yule.! 


Another Scotch proverb refers distinctly to the “forty days.” 


Saint Swithin’s day, gin ye do rain, 
For forty days it will remain ; 

Saint Swithin’s day, an ye be fair, 
For forty days ’t will rain nae mair.? 


Gay also alludes to the superstition in his Tria: 


How, if on Swithin’s feast the welkin lowers, 
And evry penthouse streams with hasty showers, 
Twice twenty days shall clouds their fleeces drain, 
And wash the pavement with incessant rain.? 


Similar beliefs are still entertained by our own folk with 
regard to other days about this time of year, such as the 
12th of January; the 13th (St Hilary’s); the 22nd (St 
Vincent’s); and the 25th (St Paul’s) of the same month‘; 
while the idea of the guarantaine (in the old sense of the word) 
occurs in some French rhymes concerning St Médard’s Day 
(July 8) and the Day of Saints Gervais and Protais (June 19). 


1 R, Inwards, Weather Lore, Ὁ. 20; The Book of Days, vol. 1. p. 214. 

2 R. Inwards, Weather Lore, pp. 37, 38; The Book of Days, vol. 1. p. 672. 

3 Bk 1. 183-6. 

4 On the last mentioned day the learned writer in The Book of Days 
(vol. I. p. 157) as well as R. Inwards (Weather Lore, pp. 15 foll.) should be 
ees by those interested in the subject. 

S’il pleut le jour de Saint Médard, 
Il pleut quarante jours plus tard; 
Sil pleut le jour de Saint Gervais et de Saint Protais, 
Il pleut quarante jours aprés. 
The Book of Days, vol. τι. p. 63. 


16 Macedonian Folklore 


March. 


᾿Απὸ Μάρτη καλοκαῖρι κἢ an’ Αὔγουστο χειμῶνας. 
“Summer sets in with March and Winter with August,” 


emphatically declares the popular proverb. In accordance with 
this observation omens are especially looked for at this season 
of the awakening of Nature. The sight of a lamb, for instance, 
is a sign that he who has seen one first will be excessively fond 
of sleep during the summer, the animal being regarded as a 
symbol of sloth. The opposite conclusion is drawn from the 
sight of a sprightly and restless kid. 

During the first three days of the month the peasants, and 
more particularly their wives and daughters, rise early in the 
morning and hurry to the fields, vying with each other which of 
them will be the first to hear “the herald melodies of spring.” 
The call of the cuckoo is anxiously expected, and lucky is he or she 
who hears it first. Parties are formed and repair to the fields 
on purpose and, as soon as it is heard, they gather wild berries 
and bring them home. The voice of the bird is accepted as an 
assurance that gloomy winter with its frosts and snows has 
departed, and with it has disappeared the necessity of keeping 
indoors—a necessity peculiarly distasteful to the southern 
temperament. Spring with its congenial freedom is close at 
hand. The trees begin to blossom and to burst into bud, 
impelled thereto by the soft south-easterly breeze hence known 
as the ‘tree-sweller’ (ὁ φουσκοδεντρίτης). This is the glad 
message which the cuckoo brings to the Macedonian. The 
ancients regarded the appearance of the bird with similar 
feelings, as is shown by Hesiod’s words: “When the cuckoo 
begins to cry cuckoo! amidst the foliage of the oak and fills 
the hearts of men over the boundless earth with joy......”2 
However, the modern sage warns us not to be premature in 
our rejoicings; for ἕνας κοῦκκος δὲ κάνει τὴν ἄνοιξι “One 
cuckoo does not make a spring,” another sentiment which finds 
its prototype in antiquity, 

1 W. and D. 486-7. 

2 Cp. the ancient proverb μία χελιδὼν ἔαρ οὐ ποιεῖ. Arist. Eth. N, 1.7, 15. 


January, February and March 17 


The very anticipations which make the farmer and the 
shepherd rejoice are, nevertheless, a source of grief to those 
whose livelihood depends on the duration of “keen winter.” 
Charcoal-burners hate the cuckoo whose notes announce the 

approach of fine weather. Mischievous urchins turn this cir- 
cumstance to account and delight in teasing the unfortunate 
charcoal-burners by shouting cuckoo! cuckoo! after them. 

The bird is also credited with a malicious sense of humour, 
and in order to escape from its ridicule some of the peasants 
avoid partaking of too sumptuous a breakfast during the 
spring. 

The cuckoo, viewed from another standpoint, is considered 
an emblem of dreary desolation, a sentiment which finds ex- 
pression in the popular saying ἔμεινε κοῦκκος, “lonely as a 
cuckoo.” It is further said of one who has wasted much money 
on a profitless enterprise that “he has paid for a cuckoo the 
price of a nightingale ”—rov κόστισεν ὁ κοῦκκος ἀηδόνι. Such 

_ is the penalty which the cuckoo has to pay for its popularity. 

The Russians also regard the cuckoo as “a type of the 
_ orphan state.” But nevertheless they, in common with most 
_ Slavonic races, look upon it with much respect. Our own 
country-folk are not indifferent to the appearance of the cuckoo, 
as the following rhymes, heard in Lancashire, testify : 













“The cuckoo struts in April, 
Sings in May, 
Flies away 
First cock of hay.” 


The mournful notes of the bird known as gyon are likewise 
heard with pleasure and for‘a similar reason. But of all the 





1 The game of Hide and Seek (τὸ κρυφτό) is also known by the name cuck 
(παίζουμε τὸ κούκ), from the cry used by the hiding children. This may be worth 
noting by students of cuckoo-customs. It has already been conjectured that the 
game in question is perhaps related to a custom of hunting the cuckoo. See 
Animal Superstitions and Totemism, by N. W. Thomas, in Folklore, vol. x1. 
p. 260, n. 1. 

2 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, pp. 214 foll. 

3 For other English rhymes and the omens drawn from the call of the 
ird when first heard, etc. see ἢ. Inwards, Weather Lore, pp. 30, 164; The 
ook of Days, vol. 1. pp. 529 foil. 


A. F. 2 


ὝΒ Macedonian Folklore 


forerunners of the vernal season none is greeted with greater 
joy than the swallow. In Macedonia, as in Southern Greece, 
the return of the bird is hailed with hearty enthusiasm. Its 
building under the eaves, or on the rafters of a house is 
welcomed as an omen of wealth, and it is believed that he 
who destroys its nest will be punished with freckles on his 
face and hands. On the first of March the boys are in the 
habit of constructing a wooden image of the bird, revolving on 
a pivot, which they adorn with flowers, and with it in their 
hands they go round the houses in groups a-gooding, that is 
singing a song of congratulations in return for which they receive 
various gifts. The following is a specimen of the Swallow-song 
in use among the inhabitants of Liakkovikia, a village in south- 
eastern Macedonia: 


The Swallow-Song. 


The swallow is coming from across the black sea. 
It has crossed the sea for us and founded a fortress. 
It has sat and sung in the middle of March’s court. 


“Q March, my goodly March, and thou dreadful February, 
How far hast thou travelled to learn thy letters ? 
Letters royal, such as children learn ? 


“The schoolmaster has sent us that thou mayest give us five eggs, 
And if thou hast not five eggs, give us the clucking hen, 
To lay eggs and brood over them and draw her chickens after her.” 


March is come: he is welcome ; 
The blossoms burst forth, the land is filled with scent. 
Out with fleas and bugs, in with health and joy 11 


The allusion to fleas and bugs, irrelevant as it may seem, is 
of considerable interest to the folklorist. Both insects appear 
again and again in the Macedonian spring and summer cere- 
monies, and we shall have an opportunity of returning to them 
more than once in the sequel. 

The custom of going about with the swallow existed among 


* The original is given in A. A. Γουσίου, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Χώρα, p.4 | 
For variants see Songs of Modern Greece, p. 1᾽ 4; Passow, Nos. 305-308. 


January, February and March 19 


the ancient Greeks (χελιεδονίζειν : ἀγείρειν τῇ χελιδόνι), and 
one of the swallow-songs popular in antiquity has fortunately 
come down to us But the Romans also received the “har- 
binger of spring” with cordial hospitality? and so did the 
Teutons and the old Slavonians. The latter looked upon the 
bird’s early arrival as a promise of an abundant harvest, and 
upon its presence among them asa safeguard against fire and 
lightning, and they supposed the robbing of its nest to bring 
down “terrible evils on the head of the robber.”* Indeed the 
springtime customs of the modern Russians are very much like 
those prevalent in Macedonia. The first of March is by tradition 
set apart for the reception of the Spring. Morning excursions 
into the fields are in great vogue. The wooden image of the 
swallow finds a parallel in their clay image of the lark, and the 
swallow-song in similar compositions sung in honour of Vesna, 
the vernal season, or of Lada, the vernal goddess of love and 
fertility.‘ 

On the same day the Macedonian mothers tie round their 
children’s wrists a skein consisting of red and white yarn, 
twisted together and called after the month (ὁ μάρτης, or ἡ 
pdpta). The children at the sight of a swallow throw this 
thread to the bird, as an offering, or place it under a stone. A 
few days after they lift the stone and, if they find beneath it a 
swarm of ants, they anticipate a healthy and prosperous year ; 
the reverse, should the thread lie deserted. The explanation of 
this custom must perhaps be sought in some forgotten notion of 
a sympathetic relation between the skein and the child which 
wore it. A parallel is offered by the practice of some of the 
natives of New South Wales who placed the tooth extracted 

_ from the gums of a lad under the bark of a tree, and “if the 
ants ran over it, the natives believed that the boy would suffer 
from a disease of the mouth.”* The presence of the ants is in 


1 Athen. vir. 360 8. 

2 Fallimur? an veris praenuntia venit hirundo? Ovid, Fast. τι. 853. 

3, 4 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, pp. 211-214. Cp. the Suffolk 
‘sayings about the robin, ‘‘ You must not take robin’s eggs; if you do, you will 
get your legs broken,” ‘‘It is unlucky to kill a robin,” etce., The Book of Days, 

| vol. I. p. 678. 
j \ ὅ F. Bonney, quoted by J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. τ. p. 50. 


| 2—2 


20 Macedonian Folklore 


Macedonia interpreted symbolically as indicating “health and 
abundance”; but the custom bears a strong general analogy to 
the one cited above. Our explanation derives additional support 
from another custom which seems to be based on a similar 
idea. 

The first drawn tooth is kept by the child for a while care- 
fully and then is thrown on the roof, accompanied with this 
invocation of the crow: 


Na, κουρούνα μ᾽, κόκκαλο 
Καὶ δός μου σιδερένιο, 
Na ῥοκανίζω τὰ. κουκκιά, 
Νὰ τρώγω παξιμαάδι. 
“Ὁ dear crow, here is a tooth of bone, 
Take it and give me a tooth of iron instead, 


That I may be able to chew beans 
And to crunch dry biscuits.” 


4 Now, the practice of disposing of a child’s first tooth in a 
more or less mysterious way is well-nigh universal, and so is the 
formula which accompanies the action. The closest parallel 
to the Macedonian custom is, strangely enough, presented by 
the natives of the Seranglao and Gorong archipelagoes, where 
the tooth is thrown on the roof. The South Slavonians teach 
their children to throw the tooth into a dark corner and say, 
“ Mouse, mouse, there is a bone tooth; give me an iron tooth 
instead.” The words, it will be seen, are almost identical with 
those used by the Macedonian children, but the animal appealed 
to is, as in the majority of such cases, a mouse or rat, owing to 
the firmness and excellence by which the teeth of these rodents 
are distinguished. The practice in these cases is explained on the 
doctrine of the sympathy which continues to subsist between the 
extracted tooth and its former owner! This idea connects the 
Macedonian custom with the swallow custom already discussed, 
and the appeal to the crow is probably due to an adaptation 
of the tooth-ceremony to some child’s crow-song correspond- 
ing to the swallow-song, a hypothesis which becomes more than 


1 J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. 1. pp. 52, 53. 


January, February and March 21 


probable when we consider that such a song (κορώνισμα) was 
actually known in antiquity and is mentioned by Athenaeus? 
in connection with the swallow-song (χελιδόνισμα). In both 
cases we find the bird appealed to as a bringer of good luck 
generally, and in both cases something connected with the child 
is thrown to it: a skein to the swallow, a tooth to the crow. 
The motive in both seems to be to draw upon the child 
a blessing through the sympathetic agency of things which 
belonged to it. 

The first three days of March are known by the name of 
Drymiais (Δρύμιαις). During those days the peasants refrain 
from washing clothes and from bathing. They do not prune 
their trees nor do they plant; for they believe that the trees 
will at once wither. The same belief holds with regard to the 
last three days and δι] Wednesdays and Fridays of the month. 
As a proof that those days are unlucky, especially for gardening 
purposes, they advise you to try the following experiment: 
Take seven twigs, strip them of their leaves, mark them each 
with the name of a day of the week, and then put them in a 
jug filled with water. If you examine them a few days later, 
you will find that they have all put forth new leaves, except 
those marked with the names of the fatal days. 

In some parts of Macedonia the superstition prevails that a 
priest should not divulge to his parishioners on which day of 
the week will be the first of March, or he will lose his wife. 
The origin of this belief is enveloped in obscurity, the usual 


attribute of folk-beliefs. It may possibly have arisen in an 
_ effort on the part of the Church to prevent the people from 


a 


continuing the pagan rites customary on this day. In any case, 
it is not devoid of interest as a historic survival from times 
when village communes were so ignorant as to depend entirely 
on their pastors for information regarding days and seasons. 
The Macedonian peasants, partial as they are to March, are 
not blind to his defects. The bitterness of March winds has 
earned the month the nickname of the ‘Flayer’ (Γδαρτης). 


1 Athen. vit. 359. 
2 We shall speak on this subject at greater length in dealing with the same 
superstition in the chapter on August. 


22 Macedonian Folklore 


His mutability of mood and addiction to sudden changes are 
emphasized by numerous sayings: 


‘O Maprns ὡς TO γιῶμα TO ψοφαει, 
ὡς τὸ βράδυ τὸ βρομάει. 
“Sir March before midday 
With frost the lamb will slay ; 


But, ere the sun doth sink, 
With heat he makes it stink.” 


Again, . 
Μάρτης ἔνι καὶ yaidia κάνει" 
Πότε κλαίει, πότε γελάει. 


“March, like a baby spoilt, is full of whims: 
At times he cries, at times with fun he brims.” 


Our own peasants, ἃ propos of the inconstancy of March 
weather, observe: “ March comes in like a lamb, and goes out 
like a lion.”! The reverse is also supposed to be true. 

His apparently unaccountable transitions from a fine to 
a foul temper are explained by the Macedonians on the 
hypothesis that March has two wives, one of whom is young 
and fair, gay and laughter-loving; the other old and ugly, 
morose and peevish. When he looks at the former, he smiles 
with pleasure; when at the latter, he frowns in anger. - 

The appetizing effect of March’s chilly blasts is described as 
the month’s excessive greediness: 


Maprns πεντεγιώματος 
Kal πάλι πεινασμένος. 


“March never, never has his fill ; 
Meals five a day: he’s hungry still.” 


The sun of March is supposed to be fatal to a girl’s 
complexion : 
“πώχει κόρην ἀκριβή, 
Τοῦ Μάρτη ἥλιος μήν τη διῇ. 
“Who has a daughter fair 
Of March’s sun beware.” 


1 R. Inwards, Weather Lore, Ὁ. 24. Cp. ‘‘If the okl year goes out like a 
lion, the new year will come in like a lamb,” ib. p. 5. 


January, February and March 23 


A red and white thread worn round the wrist is supposed 
to act as a charm and to preserve a damsel from the rays 
of March’s sun. 

To revert from the ornamental to the useful, the folk-sage 
counsels his friends in didactic fifteen-syllable verse : 


Tov Maprn ξύλα φύλαγε: μὴν Kans τὰ παλούκια. 


“In the month of March save thy firewood, and do not burn up thy 
stakes.” 


The same idea is implied in another saw, rather too 
Hogarthian for translation : 


Maprtns ὀρθοχέστης Kal παλουκοκαύτης. 


It would not be amiss to conclude the delinquencies of this 
eccentric month with the Macedonian version of a legend 
familiar to students of our own North-country weather-lore. 
It is said that there was once a poor old woman, and she had 
an only goat, which she had preserved most anxiously through 
a long and severe winter. At the end of: March, deceived by 
an exceptionally fine day, she ventured to let her goat out 
to graze, and, in the exuberance of her joy, she defied March 
by snapping her fingers at him and exclaiming in derision, 
“pritz March, I fear thee no longer!” But alas! her self- 
congratulation was premature. March, exasperated by the 
insult, determined to punish the old lady and to this end he 
borrowed three days from his neighbour April. During this 
new lease of life he brought about so keen a frost, that the 
poor old woman’s goat was starved to death. Another form 
of the same story, prevalent at Liakkovikia, allots to the old 
woman three kids, and adds that not only the kids but their 
mistress also were frozen to death on a spot outside the village, 
to this day called The old woman’s leap (Τῆς γρῃᾶς τὸ πήδημα). 


1 A. A. Γουσίου, "Ἢ xara τὸ Πάγγαιον Xdpa,’ p. 44. 


94 Macedonian Folklore 


This story will bring to most readers’ minds the old Scotch — 
rhyme of 


The Borrowing Days. 
March borrowed from Aperill 
Three days and they were ill. 
The first began wi wind and weet, 
The néxt come in with snaw and sleet, 
The third was sic a bitter freeze, 
It froze the birds’ claws to the trees. 


A variant of this rhyme alludes to “three hoggs upon a 
hill” March for the purpose of “ garring them dee,” borrowed 
three days “from Aperill,” and tried the “wind and weet” ete. 
However the sheep, one is glad to hear, survived the ordeal, for 
it is related that 


When the three were past and gane, 
The three silly hoggs came hirpling hame.' 





1 The first version I had from the lips of an old Scotchman, and it differs ~ 


slightly from the text of the Newcastle Leader, reproduced in St James’s Gazette, 
April 2, 1901, whence comes the latier variant given above. For other versions 
see Β. Inwards, Weather Lore, pp. 27 foll. 

Several interesting details concerning this mysterious loan and the kindred 
superstition of the Faoilteach, or the first days of February, borrowed by that 
month from January, are to be found in The Book of Days, vol. 1. p. 448. 





CHAPTER IV. 


EASTERTIDE. 



















| Ir is perhaps more than a coincidence, and δὲ all events 
uite appropriate, that the great Christian feast of the Resurrec- 
on—redemption and universal renovation—should fall at 
tt time of year when Nature herself awakening hears 


The new-creating word, and starts to life, 
In every heighten’d form, from pain and death 
For ever free! 


This coincidence reveals itself in many curious customs con- 
ected with the festival, and enables us to interpret several 
Ps pular practices which otherwise would be unintelligible. 
| fact, we most probably have here one of the numerous 
mstances of old pagan observances surviving beneath the 
jlerant cloak of Christianity—the past peeping through the 
ask of the present. It is a thesis no longer in need of 
emonstration that the new religion, wherever it has penetrated, 
m the shores of Crete to those of Iceland, has everywhere 
splayed a far-seeing eagerness to enlist in its service what 
night assist its own propagation in existing belief and prac- 
ice. Macedonia forms no exception to this general rule. 

The heathen festival on which Easter was grafted in Greek- 
peaking countries most likely was the Lesser Eleusinia, the 
eturr of Persephone, which symbolised the resurrection of 
ature and which the ancient Hellenes celebrated about this 


1 Thomson’s Seasons. 


26 Macedonian Folklore 


time of year. The modern Macedonians are, of course, utterly 
unconscious of any incongruity between the creed which they 
profess and the customs which they observe. To the peasant, 
Easter is simply a season of rejoicing. If he were pressed for 
the reason of his joy, he would probably be unable to give a 
clear answer, or, if he gave one, red eggs and roasted lambs 
would be found to play as important a part in his conception — 
of the festival as the religious ceremonies which accompany and 
sanctify the proceedings. His view is vividly expressed in the 
children’s rhymes which are often heard in Macedonia at this 
season : 

Tlore vdp? ἡ ἸΠασχαλιά, 

Μὲ τὰ κόκκινα τ᾽ avya, 

Μὲ τ᾽ ἀρνοῦδι ᾿ς τὸν ταβα, οἷο. 

“Oh, when will Easter come, bringing with her red eggs, ἃ lamb in a 

tray, etc.” 


The Easter festivities are ushered in by a long period of 
strict abstinence known as the Great Forty-Day Fast (ἡ Μεγάλη 
Lapaxoorn—Lent). The two Sundays before Lent are re- 
spectively called Meat-Sunday (Αποκρεά) and Cheese-Sunday 
(Τυρινή). The week between them answers to the Carnival 
of Western Christendom, and during it, in the big towns on 
the coast the usual merriment is heightened by masquerades 
(καρναβάλια or packapades), a custom which, as the name 
implies, has been borrowed from Italy and is not to be confused: 
with similar observances prevalent in the interior of the 
country at other times of the year. It also corresponds with 
the Russian Mdslyanitsa, or Butter-Week. Cheese-Sunday is 
made the occasion of many interesting observances. Before 
proceeding to a description of these, however, it may be well 
to note some points of resemblance between the new and the 
old celebrations. | 

The modern Western Carnival has been traced to the 
ancient Roman Saturnalia, and this parallelism has led folk- 
lorists to conjecture that Lent also may be the descendant 
“under a thin disguise, of a period of temperance which was 
annually observed, from superstitious motives, by Italian’ 


Eastertide 27 










farmers long before the Christian era.”* Should this hypo- | 
thesis be established, then the Eastern Meat-Week might 
_ likewise be ascribed to the old Cronia, which was the Greek 
counterpart of the Saturnalia. The Eastern Lent might 
further be compared with the fast which preceded the celebra- 
tion of the mysteries of Eleusis, in commemoration of Demeter’s 
long abstinence from food during her search for her lost 
_ daughter. But precise identification is hardly possible owing to 
the slightness of the evidence at our command. What is 
_ absolutely certain is the fact that abstinence from food and 
_ from the gratification of all other appetites was and still is 
_ practised by various races at seed-time “for the purpose of 
_ thereby promoting the growth of the crops,”? a kind of charm, 
_ acting through the sympathetic connection which is supposed 
to exist between the sower and the seed. 


Cheese-Sunday (Κυριακὴ τῆς Τυρινῆς). 


The boys of each village rise early in the morning and, 
divided into several parties, go forth collecting bundles of fire- 
_ wood, which they pile up on the tops of the heights and hills 
in the neighbourhood. These preparations completed, they 
amuse themselves during the rest of the day by throwing 
stones with a sling, each shot accompanied with these mys- 
terious words: “ Whithersoever this arrow hies, may the flea 
_ follow in its track” (67° πάῃ ἡ σαγίτα κὴ ὁ ψύλλος καταπόδι) 
In some districts of Macedonia these slings are replaced by 
actual cross-bows generally constructed of a fragment of a 
barrel-hoop, which is passed through a hole at the end of a 
stock. The missile,—a long nail as a rule—laid in the groove 
of the stock, is propelled by a string drawn tight across the 
bow and held fast by a catch, which is nailed to the stock, 
acting as a sort of trigger. At nightfall the bonfires built up 
in the morning are kindled, and the boys jump over them. 


1 J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. m1. p. 146. 
2 Tb. vol. 1. pp. 209 foll. 
3 A. A. Γουσίου, "Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Χώρα,᾽ p. 41. 





28 Macedonian Folklore 


Identical customs are observed in several Slavonic countries. 
“In some parts of Russia,” says Ralston, “the end or death of 
winter is celebrated on the last day of the Butter-Week, by the 
burning of ‘the straw Mujik’—a heap of straw, to which each 
of the participators in the ceremony contributes his portion.” 
In Bulgaria “during the whole week, the children amuse them- 
selves by shooting with bows and arrows, a custom which...is 
supposed, by some imaginative writers, to have referred in 
olden times to the victory obtained by the sunbeams—the 
arrows of the far-darting Apollo—over the forces of cold and 
darkness.”? 

The custom of kindling bonfires on the first Sunday in Lent 
and of throwing missiles into the air prevails in many parts of 
Western Europe. In Swabia the arrows and stones are replaced 
by thin round pieces of wood. In all these cases of pagan 
survival® the bonfires are built by boys on the crests of moun- 
tains and hills as in Macedonia. Whether the Greeks of this 
province have borrowed the pastime of stone and arrow shooting 
from their Slav neighbours or have inherited it from their own 
remote ancestors,* it would be difficult to say. But in any 
case it is an interesting relic of bygone times. Apart from any 
symbolical or ritual significance which may or may not Jurk 
in the practice, the use of the sling and the bow by the 
Macedonian boys at play is instructive as a conspicuous 
instance of a custom outliving in the form of a game the 
serious business of which it originally was only an imitation. 
Toy bows and slings are extremely popular among boys all 
over Europe at certain times of the year, and keeping up, as 
they do, the memory of a warlike art now extinct, are regarded 
by ethnologists as sportive survivals of ancient culture, if not 
of ancient cult. The bonfires and the flea will reappear in 
connection with the Midsummer festivities. 


1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 210. 

2 J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. 111. pp. 238 foll. 

3 In ancient times the Kaunians in Asia Minor, who regarded themselves as 
being of Cretan origin, used to turn out armed, ‘‘hitting the air with their 
spears and saying that they were expelling the foreign gods.” Hdt. 1. 172. 

4 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. τ. p: 78. 


ἫΝ 


Eastertide 29 


In the evening of Cheese-Sunday it is the custom for the 


younger members of the community to call on their elder 


relatives, godfathers and godmothers, in order to beg forgiveness 
for their trespasses and beseech their blessing. “Women, for some 
reason or other, take with them a cake, an orange or a Jemon 


_ asa propitiatory offering to those on whom they call. The sym- 


as, Δεν ee 


ee sae 


᾿ 


ἼΩΝ 


al ol 





bolic meaning of these gifts, if they ever had one, has long since 
gone the way of all tradition. It may be worth while, however, 
to recall that this amiable act of duty was once in vogue among 
our own folk also. On the mid Sunday of Lent it was the 
custom to go a-mothering, that is to pay a formal visit to one’s 
parents, especially the female one, and to take to them some 
slight gift, such as a cake or a trinket. Whence the day itself 
was named Mothering Sunday.1 The similarity between the 
old English and the modern Macedonian practice is well 
illustrated by Herrick’s lines to Dianeme: 


Ile to thee a simnell? bring, 
’Gainst thou go’st a-mothering ; 

So that, when she blesseth thee, 
Half that blessing thou’lt give me.? 


The analogy extends to the festivity peculiar to the day. 
At supper-time a tripod is set near the hearth, or in the middle 
of the room, and upon it is placed a wooden or copper tray 
(σιν. Round the table thus extemporized sit the members 
of the family cross-legged, with the chief of the household at 
the head. The repast is as sumptuous as befits the eve of a 
long fast, and a cake forms one of the most conspicuous items . 
on the menu. Before they commence eating the younger 
members of the family kneel to their elders (κάνουν or Bafouv 
μετάνοια) and obtain absolution, after which performance the 
banquet begins. 

When the plates are removed there follows an amusing game 


called ‘Gaping’ (χάσκα) and corresponding to our Christmas 


game of Bob-cherry or Bobbing Apple. A long thread is tied 


1 The Book of Days, vol. 1. p. 336. 
2 i.q. Lent-Cake. 
3 Hesperides 685. 


90 Macedonian Folklore 


to the end of a stick, and from it is suspended a bit of con- 
fectionery (χαλβᾶς), or a boiled egg. The person that holds it 
bobs it towards the others who sit in a ring, with their mouths 
wide open, trying to catch the morsel by turns. Their struggles 
and failures naturally cause much jollity and the game soon 
gets exciting. This amusement is succeeded by songs sung 
round the table and sometimes by dancing. 

A quaint superstition attached to the proceedings of this 
evening deserves mention. If anyone of those present happens 
to sneeze, it is imperative that he should tear a bit off the front 
of his shirt, in order to ward off evil influences. 


Καθαρὴ ᾿βδομάδα. 


The days that follow form a sharp contrast to this feast. 
With Monday begins Cleaning-Week (Καθαρὴ ᾿βδομάδα), a 
period of purification both of body and of soul. The cooking 
utensils are washed and polished with a vast deal of bustle and 
noise; the floors are scrubbed, all traces of the preceding 
rejoicings are scrupulously effaced, and the peasant household 
assumes an unwonted look of puritanical austerity. The gloom 
is deepened by the total abstention from meat and drink, 
which is attempted by many and accomplished by a few during 
the first three days of the week. This period of rigid and 
uncompromising fast, called Τρίμερο, is concluded on Wednesday 
evening. Then a truly lenten pie of boiled cabbages and 
pounded walnuts, called Τριμερόπηττα, is solemnly eaten and, 
undoubtedly, relished by those who succeeded in going through 
the three days’ starvation. 

In some places, however, the sanctimonious misery of this 
week is disturbed by certain feeble reflections of the festivities 
which went before. These spectral revivals of gaiety in various 
districts take various forms, and as a rule are confined to 
Monday. At Salonica, for instance, on the Καθαρὴ Δευτέρα a 
band of youths dressed in kilts, so as to represent brigands, but 
wearing their masks on the back of their heads, are allowed by 
the police to play at highwaymen. They parade the streets, 
with a roasted lamb, stuck on the top of a pole, at the head of 


Ἶ 


᾿ 


a 


~ 


Eastertide 31 


_ the procession, singing Klephtic songs, and when they have 
reached the open country, they seize a point of vantage, hold 
up all carriages that happen to pass by, and extort from the not 


oiling passengers a tribute of money. Then they adjourn 
_ to a meadow where they eat, drink, sing, and make merry. 
The proceedings bear a close resemblance to the ‘Montem’ 
_ festivity once popular at Eton." 

At Serres and Melenik the people repair to picnics in the 
country. In the latter place the usual resort is a hill crowned 
by an old monastery. The natives in describing the festival 


- told me that “they went to pull out the serpent” (va βγάλουν 
70 deids)—now a mere and all but meaningless phrase, but 


possibly a survival of a belief akin to the Highland superstition 
that “a week previous to St Bridget’s Day the serpents are 
obliged to leave their holes under ground.”* The date of this 
Western feast (1st Feb. os.) corresponds roughly with the 
time in which Lent usually begins. The evidence which we 
possess does not warrant the assumption that the practice has 
any connection with ophiolatry. Yet it seems to point to some 


_ symbolic meaning of new life derived from the serpent’s annual 


ΨΥ 





“renewal by casting its old slough.”* 

At Sochos, again, during this week they have masquerades. 
Youths dressed in fustanellas execute military dances with 
swords; others array themselves in goat-skins, covering head 
and face beneath a conical cap («adzraxz) decorated with flowers 
and tassels, while strings of monstrous bells dangle from their 
waists. Thus formidably adorned they stop the damsels in the 
street, examining their head-gear for coins and abstracting as- 
many as they can find. They also lie in wait round the corners 
and try to frighten the unwary passer-by into liberality. Finally 
they betake themselves to the open space in the middle of 
the village, reserved for dancing (μεσοχῶρι), and there they 
make merry on the proceeds of their sportive robbery. 


1 For a very interesting account of this festival see The Book of Days, 
vol. τι. p. 665. 


2 J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 
p. 225. 


3 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. τι. p. 241. 


A. F. 


32 Macedonian Folklore 


Tod Aafapov. 


The Feast of Lazarus is also in some districts made the 
occasion of song and rejoicing. At Nigrita, for example, on 
that day girls and boys go about the streets singing and dancing 
and collecting presents—a form of begging known to the 
ancients by the name of ἀγερμός, and to our own peasants as 
going a-corning, gooding, and so forth. The dancers are called 
Aatapivas, and their songs Aafapiava or Λαζαριώτικα (se. 
τραγούδια). Most of these compositions have been handed 
down from mother to daughter for ages, and unfortunately 
have suffered much in transmission. I give below some of the 
least mutilated fragments which I was enabled to pick up. 
As the reader will see, the subject of the song is for the most 
part adapted to the circumstances of the person to whom it is 
addressed. 


I; 
To a damsel betrothed. 


Πῶς παίζ᾽ ὁ Τοῦρκος 7 ἄλογο κὴ ὁ Φράγκος τὸ καράβι 
"Eto παίζει κ᾽ ἕνας νειούτσικος μὲ τὴν καλὴν ἀπώχει. 
Σ τὰ γόνατά την ἔπαιρνε, ᾽ς τὰ μάτια τὴν φιλοῦσε, 

᾽ A , ᾽ \ / \ ? / > A , 

Σ τὰ μάτια, ᾽ς τὰ ματόφυλλα Ky ἀνάμεσα ᾿ς τὰ φρύδια. 
“As the Turk dallies with his steed and the Frank with his ship, 
Even so dallies a youth with his fair one. 


He will take her on his knees and kiss her on the eyes, 
On the eyes, on the eyelids, and between the eyebrows.” 


II. 
To a love-lorn youth. 


Kei ‘mr’ ἀγαπᾷς, λεβέντη μ᾽, στεῖλε γύρεψε, 
Στεῖλε τὴν ἀδερφή σου προξενήτισσα. 

Ky) ἂν dé σου δώσουν, πάλι σύρε μοναχός. 
᾿Ανέβα ᾿ς τὸ πηγάδι Kn ἀργολάβησε, 

Νὰ μαζωχτοῦν κοπέλλαις ὅλο ἔμορφαις, 
Νάρθῇ καὶ κείνη ποῦ θές, κείνη ᾿π᾿ ἀγαπᾷς. 


* 


Eastertide 33 


Κλέψ᾽ την, λεβέντη μ᾽, κλέψ᾽ την, κλέψ᾽ τὴν πέρδικα, 

Lup την ᾿ς τὰ κορβουλόγια, ᾿ς τὰ ψηλὰ βουνά, 

Κεῖ ποῦ λαλοῦν τ᾽ ἀηδόνια καὶ T ἄγρια πουλιά. 
“Where thy love dwells, my brave youth, thither send and ask. 

Send thy sister as a match-maker. 

And if they give her not to thee, go thyself. 

Go up to the fountain and set to wooing, 

That maidens passing fair may be gathered there, 

That amongst them may also come she whom thou lovest. 

Then carry her off, my brave youth, carry her off, carry off the pretty 

partridge, 
Take her to the hills, to the high mountain-peaks, 
Where the nightingales and the wild birds sing.” 


III. 
To a newly-married woman. 


Bovfodda* μ᾽, τί τρανεύεσαι καὶ σέρνεις TO καμάρι; 
Τὸ πῶς νὰ μὴν τρανεύωμαι καὶ σέρνω τὸ καμάρι; 
"Eyo "yo ἄντρα βασιλεᾶ καὶ πεθερὸν ἀφέντη, 
Καὶ πεθερὰ βασίλισσα καὶ ‘yo βασιλοποῦλα. 

“My dear little bride, wherefore dost thou draw thyself up, and hold 
thy head high ?’ 

‘How can I but draw myself up and hold my head high? 


I have a king for a husband and a lord for a father-in-law, 
My mother-in-law is a queen, and a princess I.’” 


IV. 
To a young mother. 
Μάνα ᾿π᾿ σὲ ydp’ce ὁ θεὸς τὰ δυὸ περιστερούδια, 
Μάνα μ᾽, νά τα περικαλῇς Κύριο μ᾽ νά τον δοξάξζῃς, 
Νὰ χαίρησαι ἧς τὸ γάμο της, ν᾿ ἀλλάξῃς ᾿ς τὴ χαρά της. 
Νὰ διῇς xn ᾿πὸ τὸν κόρφο της περδίκια νὰ γυρίζουν, 
Περδίκια, χρυσοπέρδικα, χρυσᾶ μαλαματένια. 


1 This word is new to me, but I take it to be a synonym of κορφοβούνια, 
*hill-tops.’ 

ἢ 2 A synonym of the dim. νυφοῦδα, ‘a dear little bride,’ from the Bulgarian 
_ bozia, ‘ bride.’ 


A. F. 3 


94 , Macedonian Folklore 


“Mother to whom God has given this pair of tender dovelets, 
Mother dear, pray for them and praise the Lord for them. 
Mayest thou rejoice at her marriage, dress for her wedding ; 
Mayest thou witness a flock of young partridges encircling her bosom,” 
Young partridges, golden partridges, partridges of purest gold.” 


Vi 
The enterprising lover. 


Ἕνας λεβέντης καὶ ντελῆς καὶ ‘va ᾽ξιο παλληκάρι 
\ n / ? a \ , / 
Μὲ ταῖς μαχαίραις περ πατεῖ, TH χώρα φοβερίζει" 

Τὴ χώρα ἐφοβέριζε καὶ τοὺς Κοτζαμπασῆδες" 

“Tua δό μ᾽ τε τὴ Καλοῦδά μου, γιὰ δό μ᾽ τε τὴ καλή μου, 
Νὰ φκιάσω σπίτια πετρωτὰ καὶ σκάλαις μαρμαρένιαις. 
᾿ / Ν ᾽ «ς n ‘ > \ ” \ / 
Na φκιάσω καὶ T ἁλῶνί μου ᾽ς τὴν ἄκρα TH Baracoa. 

\ / , \ / > , 
Na κοσκινίζω μάλαμα va wept μαργαριτάρι, 

x 9 \ \ ΄ \ 7.9 a / 2) 
Ky ‘wo τὰ κοσκινίσματα va div’ τῆς Λαζαρίναις. 


“A brave youth, a noble gallant lad, 
Is strolling armed with knives and threatening the village ; 
He threatened the village and its notables thus: 

“Come, give my fair love to me, come give up my fair one, 
That I may build a stone palace with marble stairs, 

That I may build my threshing-floor on the shore of the sea, 
To sift gold, and let pearls drop beneath, 
And of the siftings give a share to the Maids of Lazarus. 


39 


At Liakkovikia the same custom prevails on the morning 
of Palm Sunday (Κυριακὴ τῶν Baiwv). As the congregation 
streams out of church, the girls of the village form parties 
of threes and fours and, each holding a gold-embroidered 
handkerchief or two, go about singing outside each house 
songs appropriate to the age and condition of the occupants, 
The carol is accompanied by more or less elegant contortions 
of the body and vigorous wavings of the handkerchiefs. The 
songstresses are known as Βαΐστραις or ‘Palm Maids’ and 
their carols as Βαΐτικα.} 


1 A. A. Γουσίου, "Ἢ xara τὸ Πάγγαιον Xwpa,’ p. 45, 


ΐ 


! 


Eastertide 35 


Holy Week (Μεγάλη ᾿βδομάδα). 


Holy Thursday (Μεγάλη ἹἸΠέφτη). In some districts on 
this day, as well as on Lady Day (March 25th), the people 
are in the habit of hanging from the balconies and the windows 
of their houses red kerchiefs or sashes. On this day also the 
Paschal eggs are dyed. The peasant mother takes the first 
coloured egg and with it crosses (διασταυρώνει) her child’s face 
and neck, saying: Κόκκινο σὰν τ᾽ αὐγό, καὶ γερὸ σὰν τὴ πέτρα, 
that is, “Mayest thou grow red as is this egg, and strong as a 
stone.” This egg is then placed near the icon of the Panaghia 
and is left there until the following year, when a new one takes 
its place. The red colour of the Easter eggs and of the kerchiefs 
mentioned above is explained by folklorists as referring to the 
brightness of spring. On this day they also make a kind of 
cakes, called from their shape “turtle-doves” (Sexoyrotpais), 
with a clove or a grain of pepper doing duty as an eye. 

Good Friday (Μεγάλη Ilapackevy). On this day the 
peasants eschew all kinds of food prepared with vinegar, 
because, they say, it was on this day that the Jews moistened 
our Lord’s lips with vinegar. 

Holy Saturday (Μεγάλο Σάββατο). They are careful not 
to wash their heads, lest their hair should turn grey. 

Easter Sunday (Πάσχα, lacyadid, or Λαμπρή, “ Bright”). 
This last name corresponds to the Russian Svyetlaya and may 
be compared with our own Easter,! both of which appellations 
suggest brightness. The Resurrection is celebrated twice. 
First at a midnight mass on the eve (Πρώτη ᾿Ανάστασις), and 
again about mid-day on Easter Day (Δευτέρα ’Avactacis). 
The first is also called Καλὸς Λόγος, or the “Good Word.” 
The gospel for the day is read out in the churchyard beneath the 
star-bespangled sky and is immediately followed by the hymn 
beginning with the words “Christ is risen” (Χριστὸς ἀνέστη), 
in which the whole congregation joins. The announcement 


1 A.-Sax. Edstre, O.H.G. Ostard, a goddess of light or spring, in honour of 
whom a festival was celebrated in April, whence this month was called Easter- 
ménath. Dr Annandale’s Dict. s.v. 


3—2 


ὶ 


36 Macedonian Folklore \ 


of the “good word” is greeted with loud peals of fire-arms 
and with the sound of bells or the wood gongs (σήμαντρα) still 
in use in some parts of the country. In the midst of this uproar 
the priest holds up a lighted candle and calls on the congregation 
to “Come and receive light” (Δεῦτε λάβετε φῶς). The faithful 
obey the summons with great alacrity. There is an onrush at 
the priest, and those who get near him first kindle their candles 
at the very fountain-head of light; the less fortunate, or less 
muscular, ones have to be content with illumination at second 
hand! But the result from a purely aesthetic point of view is 
the same. The dark night is suddenly lighted up with hundreds 
of small flickering flames, trembling in the hands of people 
anxious to escape from the fire-arms, squibs, and crackers, which 
boom and hiss in dangerous proximity all round them. 

On the tapers secured at the cost of so much exertion, not 
unattended by some risk to life and limb, is set a propor- 
tionally high value. The miraculous powers attributed to 
these Easter tapers may be compared to those which were 
ascribed to the Candlemas candles in Catholic times in 
England.2 The women, on their return from church, use 
these tapers for the purpose of burning the bugs, in the pious 
hope that they will thus get rid of them for ever—a custom 
which agrees well with the extermination of fleas: the avowed 
object of the Macedonian bonfires. 

The ceremony of “receiving light” is, of course, symbolical, 
and true believers entertain no doubt that the light is the light 
of Christ. Sceptical students, however, have long since arrived 
at the conclusion that here again we are confronted by a survival 
of paganism: that the “new light” is only a cousin german to 
the “new fire” and to the bonfires, customary at this time of 
year in many widely severed lands, and that the real remote 


1 So far as my own experience goes, I am unable to confirm Mr Frazer’s 
impious suspicion ‘‘ that the matches which bear the name of Lucifer have some 
share in the sudden illumination” (The Golden Bough, vol. 11. p. 247). The 
people are too unenlightened to venture on such illicit methods of illumination, 
and far too economical to waste a match, when there are so many candles 
burning close at hand. 

2 For some verses setting forth these wonderful virtues see ΤᾺ Book of | 
Days, vol. 1. p. 213. 


»".. 


erin τεσσ, νυ, ἢ, αἱ... 


ee 


Eastertide | | 37 


meaning of all these kindlings is to procure heat and sunshine 
for the crops by means of magical ceremonies’—the destruction 
of noxious vermin being a later development. The keeping of 
the fire alive throughout the Paschal Week, which is the 
practice in several parts of Macedonia, forms another proof 
of the underlying notion. To make the case stronger, in some 
districts of the country until quite recently the people indulged 
in the annual cremation of a straw ‘Judas’—an effigy which 
finds its counterpart in many quarters and which is interpreted 
as a representative of the old tree-spirit or spirit of vegetation.* 
To return to the service. ‘ 
The congregation having lighted their tapers turn towards 
the church and find the doors closed. They knock upon them 
chanting in chorus: “Lift the gates, O ye rulers of ours, and 
ye eternal gates be lifted; for there will enter Christ, the King 
of glory!” To this a voice from within answers: “Who is this 
King of glory?” Those without reply: “He is a Lord strong 
and powerful. He is a Lord mighty in war!”* Thereupon 


the doors are thrown open, and the congregation troop into the 


building, where the service is resumed. 
The words “Christ is risen” are the signal for breaking the 
long fast of Lent, and many take to church a red egg and 


ἃ bun which, as soon as the words are uttered, they devour 


with pardonable eagerness. After service the peasant mothers 
secretly place under their children’s pillows red eggs, and 
when the little ones wake in the morning, they are told 
that this is a present brought in the dead of night by 
Paschalia, a female personification of Easter, just as English 
children believe, or used to believe, that the stocking which 


1 J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. m1. pp. 245 foll. 

2 Ib. p. 814. The custom still survives in a vigorous form at Therapia, the 
fashionable summer resort of Constantinople. The natives of that suburb are 
in the habit of burning on Good Friday a number of ‘ Jews’ made of cast-off 
clothes stuffed with straw. The Daily Chronicle of May 2, 1902, contains a 
graphic description of the custom by its Constantinople correspondent. 

3 “A pare πύλας οἱ ἄρχοντες ἡμῶν Kal ἐπάρθητε πύλαι αἰώνιαι, εἰσελεύσεται yap ὁ 
βασιλεὺς τῆς δόξης Χριστός." “Τίς οὗτος ὁ βασιλεὺς τῆς δόξης ;᾿ “Κύριος κραταιὸς 
καὶ δυνατός, Κύριος ἰσχυρὸς ἐν πολέμῳ." Α. Δ. Γουσίου, “H κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Χώρα,᾽ 
p. 45. 


98 Macedonian Folklore 


is hung from the bedpost on Christmas Eve is filled by Santa 
Claus. 

To the second service, which takes place in the day-time, 
the people go with lighted tapers, and when it is over, the 
congregation embrace, forgiving and forgetting mutual offences, 
and salute each other with the formula: “Christ is risen,” 
to which the answer is “He is risen indeed!” ( Αληθῶς 
ἀνέστη), and this continues to be the regular form of greeting 
until Ascension Day. The Easter feast lasts three days, during 
which visits are exchanged, the visitors being presented with 
a red egg. The piece de résistance of the Easter banquet is 
a lamb roasted whole ἰσφαχτάρι). Indeed so indispensable 
is this item, that it has given rise to a proverb, Πασχαλιὰ 
χωρὶς ἀρνὶ dé γένεται, “ Easter without a lamb is a thing that 
cannot be,” applied to those whose ambition exceeds their 
means. 

On Easter Tuesday the people resort to the open country, 
where the girls dance and the youths amuse themselves by 
shooting at the mark (σημάδι), wrestling (πάλαιμα), jumping 
(πήδημα), running (τρέξιμο), the throwing of heavy stones 
(pixvovv τὴ πέτρα) and similar sports, all possible successors 
to the old Greek games. 

A favourite song at Easter is one beginning as follows: 


Ἦρθε τὸ Μέγα Σάββατο, ἦρθ᾽ ἡ Μεγάλη Πέφτη 
Ψ ’ ς \ ‘ \ \ Ἂν / 
Ηρθε κ' ἡ Λαμπροκυριακὴ μὲ τὸν καλὸ τὸν λόγο. 
Ἢ μάν᾽ ἀλλάζει τὸν ὑγιὸ κ᾿ ἡ ἀδερφή τον ζώνει, 
Τὸν ζών᾽ τὸ χρυσοζούναρο, χρυσὸ μαλαματένιο. 
Καὶ κίνησαν καὶ πάηναν νὰ πὰν νὰ μεταλάβουν. 


“Holy Saturday is come and Holy Thursday too, 
The Bright Sunday is also come with the Good Word. 
A mother dresses her son and his sister girds him, 
She girds him with a gold girdle, a girdle of pure gold. 
They set out to participate in the sacrament, etc.” 


The sequel is only a variant of the gruesome story published 
elsewhere. 


1 See Songs of Modern Greece, Ὁ. 184, ‘* The Excommunicated.” 


Eastertide ὦ 99 


In some places, as Serres, the fire is not allowed to go out 
through the Paschal Week (Διακαινήσιμος ἑβδομάςν), which is 
considered as one day. 


First Sunday after Easter, or St Thomas’s Day (τοῦ Θωμᾶ). 


This Sunday is also celebrated with great éclat. After 
morning service the villagers go out to an open space where 
the sports are to be held. At Nigrita the favourite spot is on 
the sloping banks of a watercourse (λάκκος). To that place 
may early in the forenoon be seen repairing a miscellaneous 
crowd of country folk in festive mood and attire. A group 
of some twenty or thirty maids, with snow-white kerchiefs 
over their heads, leads the procession, singing various songs, 
among which the following is perhaps the most popular : 


« 
H Μαρουδιὰ ᾿Χινιώτισσα Δευτέρα μέρα κίνησε 
\ / / 
Na πάῃ γιὰ ᾿᾽σημόχωμα, ᾿᾽σημόχωμα, πατόχωμα, 
Κ \ \ \ ” F591"? / > » \ / 
at σκεπαρνιὰ δὲν ἔλαχε, mov’ ᾿λάχε τ᾽ ἀργυρὸ τσαπῖί, 
Καὶ κρούει μιὰ καὶ κρούει δυό, καὶ κρούει τρεῖς καὶ τέσσαρες, 
K \ ’ >? > / \ / \ M , 
al πέσε T ἀσημόχωμα καὶ σκέπασε τὴ Μαρουδιά. 
Ψιλὴ λαλίτσαν ἔβγαζε, “λαλίτσα μ᾽, σκίσε τὰ βουνά, 
Νὰ a > \ , > / \ ri ἂν ὑλαῖ 
ἃ πᾷς ᾿ς τὴ μάνα μ᾽ μήνυμα, νὰ φουκαλίσῃ τῇς αὐλαῖς, 
Νὰ στρώσ᾽ τὸν καμοχᾶ....-..... 


“Maroudia, a maid of Achinos,! set out on a Monday 
To go for silver-earth, flooring-earth.? 
She took not a common spade, but took a silver spade. 
She strikes once, she strikes twice, she strikes three and four times, 
And there fell the silver-earth and covered up Maroudia. 
She sent forth a shrill cry: ‘My voice, rend the mountains 
And carry to my mother a message to sweep the courts clean, 
To spread the carpet.......... “ὦ 


The song is not of a very high order as poetry, yet it is 
interesting as referring to an everyday occupation of the 
women of the district. 


1 A village close to the lake of the same name not far from Nigrita. 
2 A kind of hard earth with which the inhabitants smear the floors of their 
cottages. 


40 Macedonian Folklore 


Having reached the rendezvous, the damsels disperse and 
pick from the stones in the torrent-bed a kind of moss locally 
known as μαχό, and with it they dye their finger-tips and 
palms. In this excursion they are usually escorted by a 
cavalcade of young men, and, while they are busy embellishing 
their hands, their cavaliers run races. In the meantime the 
sports are in full swing. The prizes given to the winners vary 
according to the different events. Thus, for instance, the 
winner at running gets a lamb or a kid. He slings it across 
his shoulders and, preceded by an ear-rending band of drums 
(vraovAca) and pipes (ζουρνάδες), leads the crowd away; the 
damsels follow dancing and singing. This event comes off in 
the morning. After lunch take place wrestling matches, the 
combatants being stripped to the waist. The prize for this 
event is likewise a lamb or kid, and the victor is greeted with 
loud rolling of drums, shrill screaming of pipes, firing of pistols 
and flint-locks, and promiscuous shouting and cheering from 
the crowd. These somewhat discordant noises gradually sub- 
side into song, and dancing ensues. 

This is only a local festival, but on the 2nd of May, I was 
told, there are held international games in which join wrestlers 
from as far as Sirpa, a village fifteen minutes’ walk from 
Nigrita. The prizes on that occasion are on a proportionally 
larger scale, a bull or an ox being awarded to the first winner, 
and a ‘yearling goat’ (μηλιῶρι) to the second best. 


The Feast of Rousa. 


On the feast of Mid-Pentecost (Μεσοπεντηκοστή), that 
is on the twenty-fifth day after Easter, occurs a ceremony 
which has for its object the warding off of scarlatina («ox- 
xwitoa). At Melenik it is called Rousa or Rosa, a designation 
which some of the natives derive from the crimson colour of 
the eruption, accompanying the fever; but which may possibly 
be a remnant of the old Roman Rosalia or Feast of the Roses. 
Before entering upon a description of the rite as performed 
at the present day in Macedonia, it will be well to glance ~ 
at the history of the festival in some other parts of the Greek 


Ζδουϊδονέναξ. . 41 


world. The name of the Roman festival (Poveda) is pre- 
served among the peasants of the Peloponnesus, though it is 
no longer applied to a feast of roses. It is the common 
designation of a Feast of the Dead held on the Saturday 
before Whit-Sunday. -This transference of the name, according 
to some authorities points to a closer relation of the modern 
observance to the ancient Greek Feast of Flowers ( ᾿Ανθεστήρια) 
—a three days’ festival of Dionysos, in the month of Anthe- 
sterion, that is about the end of February and beginning of 
March—which also was in a large measure a Feast of the 
Dead. 

Colonel Leake, writing at the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, records some interesting details concerning the ‘feast 
at Parga. “They (viz. the customs) were collected on the 
Ist of May, and the seven days following, when there was a 
festival (πανηγύρι) at the expense of Venice, which was called 
the Rosalia (ἡ Ῥωσάλια). On the eighth day, the ‘Pwca- 


 λιῶται, or keepers of the feast of Rosalia, had a sham fight 


(πλαστὸν πόλεμον), of two parties dressed, one- as Italians, 
the other as Turks. The latter were made prisoners and 
carried before the Proveditore, who dismissed them with a 
present. It was customary for the Proveditore on this occasion 
to pardon an exile or criminal for whom the archons might 
intercede.”? 

The festival as performed at Melenik has nothing to do 
either with the dead or with customs and criminals. Its aim 
is purely sanitary, and it is exclusively confined to children 
of both sexes. The children rise betimes and assemble in a 
place fixed upon on the eve. Three girls are deputed to go 
round to three different houses and beg at each of them a 
small quantity of flour, which they bring to the meeting-place. 
This flour is handed to a girl who must bear a name unique 
in the neighbourhood. She sifts it with a sieve which she 
holds behind her back, then kneads it and forms it into 


1 See the views of Prof, Politis summarised in Mr Rennell Rodd’s The 
Customs and Lore of Modern Greece, p. 139. 

2 Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, vol. 1. p. 524. Note II. to Ch. V. 
On Parga. 


42 Macedonian Folklore 


ring-shaped cakes (xoAovpia), which are baked in a small 
toy-oven built for the nonce. While this is doing, the rest 
of the girls and boys of the party run round to other houses 
in the neighbourhood and collect flour, butter, honey, sesame- 
oil, etc. Out of these materials the eldest among them make 
a number of little rolls, which are baked in an ordinary public 
oven, and cook other viands. When all is ready, boys and 
girls sit down to a banquet, followed by songs and dancing. 
Towards evening the party breaks up, and the children disperse 
to their several homes. 

The ring-shaped cakes, which were made by the girl of the 
unique name and baked in the specially built little oven, are 
divided among them and are hung up to dry behind a door. 
Whenever anyone of the children who participated in the féte 
is attacked by scarlatina, or any kindred disease, a piece of 
these cakes is pounded and sprinkled over the skin, which 
is previously smeared with molten sugar, honey, or sesame-oil. | 
This is supposed to be an infallible cure. 

In certain other districts the rite has been simplified. The 
children go round begging flour, oil, etc, and out of these 
ingredients a pie (πουγάτσαλν is made in each house separately. 
The children partake of it singing. 

Though I have noticed at some length the possible con- 
nection of the festival with the Rosalia, I am inclined to 
think that the Melenikiote interpretation is most likely correct. 
In that case the Scarlet Fever is by the Macedonians personified 
under the name of ἹῬοῦσα, or the ‘Red Woman ’—a, personi- 
fication highly probable in itself,’ and rendered especially so by 
the circumstance: that the same disease is personified by the 
Persians in the shape of Al—a “blushing maid, with locks of 
flame and cheeks all rosy red.”? : 

: 


Parallel personifications of diseases will be noticed in the sequel. 
2 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 295. 


CHAPTER V. 
APRIL, MAY, AND JUNE. 


THE First of April (Πρωταπριλιά) is in some parts of 
Macedonia, as in most parts of Europe, believed to authorize 
harmless fibs, and many practical jokes are played on that day 
by the Macedonian wags. 

The sheep are shorn in this month, and for days together 
the air is filled with the plaintive voices of lambs unable to 


recognize their close-cropped dams, and by the impatient 
_ bleatings of ewes unable to understand why their offspring 


_ keep aloof. The shearing of sheep is especially associated with 
_ the feast of St George, of which more anon. 


Weather-lore also has something to say about April: 


 ᾿Απρίλης, Mans κοντὰ τὸ θέρος, “ April and May—harvest is 


drawing near,” and ᾽Σ τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν τὴ χώρα τὸν Μαϊόπριλο 


᾿ χιονίζει, “In the land of sinners it snows through April and 
| May.” 


April is also known among the peasants as ‘St George’s 
Month’ (‘Aytoyewpyirns), from the feast of that saint on the 
23rd. St George is a very popular saint. Even the brigands: 
regard him as their patron and, after a successful coup, they 
generally assign a share of their booty to him, in the form of 
offerings to his church or image. It is a somewhat strange 
manifestation of piety; yet the feelings by which it is dictated 
are no less sincere and genuine than were those which prompted 
the ancients to give a tenth of the enemy’s spoil to the god 
who had helped them to win the victory, and perhaps it is quite 
as acceptable as any Te Deum. Besides, the St George of folk 


1 For English folk-sayings concerning April weather see The Book of Days, 
vol. 1. p. 456; R. Inwards, Weather Lore, p. 28. 


44 Macedonian Folklore 


imagination is hardly the St George of the Church. Tradition 
has invested his character with attributes and embellished his 
career with achievements which would have surprised the old 
gentleman considerably. Readers of Percy’s Reliques will re- 
member the romantic ballad? in which St George is described 
as the son of an English lord, borne away in infancy by “the 
weird Lady of the woods,” and all the other incidents woven 
round his attractive personality. 'The Macedonian peasant also 
has many a quaint story to tell of his favourite saint. 

The song given below was dictated to the writer by a. 
peasant girl of Sochos. From this composition it appears that 
St George is regarded as a kind of mediaeval knight on horse- 
back, armed in the orthodox fashion, and as the bearer of gifts 
to those who are fortunate enough to win his favour. 


Τοῦ “Ai Γεώργη τὸ τραγοῦδι. 


“Ai Teapyn καβαλλάρη 
Μὲ σπαθὶ καὶ μὲ κοντάρι, 
Δός με τὸ κλειδάκι σου 
Ν᾽ ἀνοίξω τὸ ματάκι σου [1] 
Νὰ dd τί ἔχεις μέσα." 
“Συτάρι, κριθάρι, 

Σπυρὶ μαργαριτάρι. 
“Δὸς τὴ νύφη κάστανα 
Καὶ τὸν γαμπρὸ καρύδια, 
Καὶ τὴ καλή μας πεθερὰ 
ὋὉλόχρυσα μαντήλια, 

Καὶ τὰ παιδιὰ κοντύλια.᾽ 


I. Ballad of St George. 


“St George, knight of the sword and spear, 
Give me thy little key that I may open thy little eye, [?] 
And see what thou carriest within.” 

“Wheat and barley, and grains of pearl.” 

“Give to the bride chestnuts and to the groom walnuts, 
To our dear mother-in-law kerchiefs of pure gold, 
And to the children pencils.” 


1 The Birth of St George. 


April, May, and June 45 


In another ballad sung, like the above, on the saint’s feast, 
St George plays rather an unchivalrous réle. I will give here 
only the translation, as the text, which I took down at Nigrita, 
is merely a variant of a song already published in Passow’s 
collection (No. 587). 


II. Ballad of St George. 


“A young Turk, the king’s own grandson, falls in love with 
a Christian maid and wishes to make her his. He desires her; 
but she desires him not. She runs away, placing hills and 
mountains between her pursuer and herself. In the way 
which she goes, she finds St George sitting at a deserted little 
chapel. 

‘My lord St George, great be thy name! I beseech thee hide 
me this instant. Oh save me from the hands of the Turk !’ 

The marble walls were rent asunder, and the maid entered. 

At that very moment, lo! the Turk arrived before St 
George. ‘My lord St George, great be thy name! The maid 
whom thou keepest here, I beseech thee give her to me. I 
will bring thee cartloads of candles, cartloads of frankincense, 


1 On comparing my version with Passow’s again I find that the former, 
though by no means perfect, is not only fuller than Passow’s but presents so 
many points of difference that it may be worth while to insert it: 


Ἕνα μικρὸ Τουρκόπουλο, τοῦ βασιλεᾶ ἀγγόνι, 

Μιὰ ἹΡωμῃοποῦλ᾽ ἀγάπησε καὶ θέλει νά Ty πάρῃ. 

Τὴ θέλει, δέ᾽ τον θέλει. 

Παίρνει τὰ ὄρη ὀμπροστὰ καὶ τὰ βουνὰ ᾿᾽πὸ πίσω. 

Σ τὸ δρόμο ὁποῦ πάαινε, ᾿ς τὸ δρόμο ποῦ πααίνει, 
Βρίσκ᾽ τὸν “At Tedpyn κάθουνταν σὲ μιὰ ᾿ρημοκκλησοῦδα" 
“"At Tewpy ἀφέντη μ᾽, μεγάλο τὥνομά σου, 

Αὐτὴ τὴν ὥρα κρύψε με᾿ π᾿ τὰ Τούρκικα τὰ χέρια." 

Τὰ μάρμαρα ραΐστηκαν κ᾿ ἡ κόρη μπαίνει μέσα. 

Νὰ x} ὁ Τοῦρκος πρόφτασε μπροστὰ ᾿ς τὸν “At Tewpyn: 
“"At Tewpy ἀφέντη μ᾽, μεγάλο τὠνομά σου, 

Αὐτὴ τὴ κόρη ᾽πῶώχεις δῶ, θέλω νά μέ τη δώσῃς. 

Θὰ φέρ᾽ ἁμάξι τὸ κερί, ἁμάξι τὸ θυμιάμα 

Καὶ ᾿ς τὰ βουβαλοτόμαρα θὰ κουβαλῷ τὸ λάδι, 

Σ τὴ πίστι σου θὰ βαφτιστῶ καὶ Tedpyn τὥνομά pov.” 
Ta μάρμαρα ραΐστηκαν κ᾿ ἡ κόρη βγῆκε ὄξω. 

Τὴ ‘rip ὁ Τοῦρκος κ᾿ ἔφυγε. 


46 Macedonian Folklore 


and oil will I bring thee in big buffalo-skins. I will also be 
christened into thy faith, and my name shall be George.’ 
The marble walls were rent asunder, and the maid came 
forth. The Turk seized her and sped away,” 
The poet does not say whether the young Turk fulfilled his 
vow; but one would not be sorry to hear that he did not. 


May. 


Sicker this morrow, no longer ago, 

I saw a shoal of shepheards outgo 

With singing, and shouting, and jolly cheer. 
Shepheard’s Calender. 


The First of May (Ilpwtomaia) is spent “in dance and song 
and game and jest.” Parties are formed “to fetchen home 
May” (va πιάσουν tov Μάη) and go to picnic in the plains 
and meadows. The youths weave wreaths of wild flowers and 
of sprays of the fragrant tree called after the day Protomaia, 
and hang them outside the doors of their sweethearts, accord- 
ing to the common European custom which is explained by 
folklorists as due to the belief in the fertilising power of the 
tree-spirit Similar garlands adorn the lintels, beams, and 
windows of each cottage and are allowed to remain there until 
they are quite dry, when they are burnt.? 

One of the flowers gathered on this day is picked out by 
the girls for purposes of divination on the subject which is 
uppermost in maids’ minds the world over. This privileged 
blossom is the humble daisy, in Macedonia called pappas. 
They pluck its white petals one by one, repeating the familiar 
“He loves me; he loves me not” (M’ ἀγαπᾷ, dé’ μ᾽ ἀγαπᾷ)" 
Some of these blossoms are dried, to be used in winter as 
medicine against coughs. 


1 J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. 1. p. 195. 

3 Cp. G. Georgeakis et Léon Pineau, Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, Ὁ. 301. 

3 A. A. Γουσίου, “H κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Χώρα, p. 46. Cp. Memoirs of the 
American Folk-Lore Society, vol. 1v. pp. 44, 45. 


April, May, and June 47 


Among the many songs sung on this occasion the following 
is a great favourite: 

Τώρα ᾽ν ὁ Mans κ᾽ ἡ “Avorki, 

Τώρα τὸ καλοκαῖρι, 

Τώρα κῦ ὁ Eévos βούλεται 

ἜΣ τὸν τόπο του va Tan. 
““Now is May and Spring, 

Now is the fine weather, 

Now the stranger bethinks himself 

To return to his native land.” 

To these simple verses the country girls will dance for 
hours, repeating them again and again. 

Another song, which I heard at Melenik, impressed me with 
its simple sentimentality. An enthusiast might even venture 
to claim for it a place beside Anacreon’s sweet ode, beginning 
with the words Σὺ μὲν φίλη χελιδών. 


Χελιδονάκι μου γλυκό, 
Βασανισμένος ποὗῦμαι ᾿γώ, 

Ὦ ἡλυκό μου χελιδόνι, 

Τῆς γλυκειᾶς αὐγῆς ἀηδόνι, 
Περικαλῶ σε πέταξε, 

Σύρε κὴ ἀλλοῦ καὶ ξέταξε" 
"Ox θἀρθῇ καὶ τὸ πουλί μου, 
Νά μ᾽ ἀκούσῃ τὴ φωνή μου; 

“ Ποῦσαν, πουλί μ᾽, τόσον καιρό, 
Σὲ καρτεροῦσ᾽ σὰν τὸν τρελλό; 
“Ἤμαν ὗς τὰ ὄρη, ᾽ς τὰ βουνά, 
Μέσα ᾿ς τὰ κρούσταλλα νερά. 
Ἤμαν μέσα ᾿ς τῆς δροσάδης, 

Σ τοῦ Μαϊοῦ τῆς πρασινάδῃς." 
“My sweet little swallow, 

See how wretched I am, 

O my dear swallow, 

Sweet Morn’s nightingale, 

I pray thee fly, 

Go abroad and ask: 


Oh will my own bird ever come, 
Will she ever listen to my voice ? 


48 Macedonian Folklore 


‘Where wert thou, my own bird, this long while, 
And I waiting for thee like one demented ?’ 

‘I dwelt in the mountains and in the hills, 
Amidst the crystal springs. 

I dwelt amidst the cooling dews, 

In May’s green plantations.’ ” 


A third ballad, dealing with the balmy beauties of May, 
was dictated to me by a native of the isle of Thasos: 


“Eva πουλὶ θαλασσινὸ κ᾽ ἕνα πουλὶ βουνήσιο" 

Φωνάζει τὸ θαλασσινὸ καὶ λέει τὸ βουνήσιο" 

“Ti με φωνάζεις, Bp’ ἀδερφέ, καὶ τί με παραγγέλνεις ;” 

“Σύρε, πουλί μ᾽, ᾽ς τὸν τόπο μου, σύρε ᾿ς τὴ γυναῖκά μου." 

“Τὼ καρτερῶ τὴν "Ανοιξι, τὸν Μάη, τὸ καλοκαῖρι, 

Νὰ μπουμπουκιάσουν τὰ βουνά, νὰ σκιώσουν τὰ λαγκάδια, 

Νὰ βγοῦν οἱ Brayou’s τὰ βουνά, κ᾽ ἡ Βχάχῃς ᾿ς τὰ λαγκάδια, 

Νὰ πάρω τὸ τουφέκι μου νὰ βγῶ νὰ κυνήγήσω, 

Καὶ ναὕρω τὴν ἀγάπη μου νά τὴ γλυκοφιλήσω." 

“There was a bird of the sea and a bird of the hills. 

The bird of the sea calls, and the bird of the hills replies : 

‘Wherefore dost thou call me, Ὁ brother, what is thy command ?’ 

‘Go, my dear bird, to my native land, go to my. wife.’ 

‘I am waiting for Spring, for May, for the fine weather, 

For the mountains to burst into bud, for the forests to grow shady, 

For the shepherds to come forth on the hills, and the shepherdesses 
into the woods, 


That I may take my musket and go forth a-hunting, 
That I may find my beloved and give her a sweet kiss,’” 


It will be noticed that the conventional metaphor of the 
birds is dropped towards the end of the song, and the speaker 
resumes his human character and tastes.” 

As an instance of the perfect abandon, which characterizes 
the May Day festivities of the modern Greeks, may be mentioned 
a custom which until quite recently prevailed in the island of 


1 Βλάχοι and Βλάχῃς, ‘ shepherds’ and ‘shepherdesses.’ The name Wallach 
is commonly applied to all people leading a pastoral life, whether of Wallachian 
nationality or not, and points to the nomadic character of this mysterious 
tribe. 

2 For English May-Songs ancient and modern, see The Book of Days, 
vol. 1. p. 546, 


April, May, and June 49 


Syra in the Aegean. In the evening of that day the women 
used to go down to the shore en masse and wash their feet 
in the sea. Crowds of admiring males witnessed the per- 
formance, which was accompanied by much laughter and 
good-humoured horse-play. The custom may have originated 
in some solemn ceremony of propitiation of the sea-nymphs, if 
not of Aphrodite herself. The May festivities all over Europe 
are permeated with symbolical allusions to fertility, and such 
an appeal to the spirits of the water would harmonize well 
with the analogous appeals to the tree-spirits, exemplified by 
the wreaths already mentioned. The divinings by the flower 
petals are also obviously connected with a similar idea. 

There are several saws expressing popular opinion on the 
character of this month: ὋὉ Mans ἔχει τ᾽ ὄνομα κὴ ᾿Απρίλης 
τὰ λουλούδια, “ May enjoys the fame, but April brings forth 
the flowers.” Weather-lore pronounces: Mans ἄβρεχος, χρονιὰ 
εὐτυχισμένη, “ A rainless May portends a prosperous year.” The 
serenity of May is, however, occasionally disturbed by hail- 
storms. The folk muse turns this untoward circumstance to 
account : 


‘Avra '᾽πρεπε δὲν ἔβρεχε, τὸν Man χαλαζώνει. 
“When it should it did not even rain; in May it hails,” 


a proverb applied to those who display inopportune energy or 
liberality. 
An equivalent to our saying: 


Change not a clout 
Till May be out,? 


is offered by the Macedonian commandment: Μὴν ξαλαφρώνῃς 
τὸ κορμί σ᾽ ὅσου ὁ "λυμπος εἶναι ἀσπρισμένος, “Do not 
lighten your body so long as Mount Olympus is clad in white,” 
an advice the prosaic import of which is redeemed by the poetic 
form of the expression. 


1 This especially applies to the vines, v. infra September. 
2 For a variety of saws concerning, May see R. Inwards, Weather Lore, 
pp. 31 foll. 


A. F. 4 


δ0 Macedonian Folklore 


June. 


This month is known as the ‘Harvester’ (Θεριστής), 
because harvest begins during it. In fact, it is the beginning 
of the busiest time in the peasant’s year, and the folk poet 
may well complain : 

᾿Απ᾿ τὸ θέρο ὡς τῆς ἐλῃαῖς 
Δὲν ἀπολείπουν ἡ δουλειαῖς. 

“From harvest till the olive’s press’d 
In life there is but little rest.” 


Nevertheless, this month enjoys the distinction of including 
the very crown of Midsummer festivals. On the 24th of June 
is celebrated the feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist 
or, as he is termed in the Calendar of the Greek Church, the 
Precursor (Ὁ Πρόδρομος), and popularly known as St John of 
the Divination (“Ai Γιάννης τοῦ Κλήδονα), a name derived from 
one of the many methods of fortune-telling which constitutes 
the principal feature of the festival. 

On the eve (ἀνήμερα) of the feast parties of village maidens 
are in the habit of gathering together in a purposely darkened 
room, with a mirror. Having thus “taken darkness for an 
ally,” they all look into the magic mirror by turns. Those 
who are to marry within the year see, or fancy that they see, 
the future husband’s face in the glass—peeping over their 
shoulders, as it were. The less fortunate, or less imaginative, 
ones are compelled to possess their souls in patience till 
next year. 

Another form of the same practice is the following: each 
maid separately takes a looking-glass into her bedroom and 
after having undressed stands in front of it, uttering this 
formula : 

Παίρνω τὸν καθρέφτη καὶ τὸν θεὸ περικαλῶ 
“Ὅποιος εἶναι τῆς τύχης μου ἀπόψε νά Tov διώ. 
“JT take up this mirror and God I beseech, 
Whosoever is to be my fate, may I see him this night.” 
She then puts the glass under her pillow and tries hard to 
dream. This ceremony closely corresponds with the Hallowe’en 


April, May, and June 51 


practice of the North, mentioned in Burns’s poem of that name 
(x1). The custom for the Scotch maiden was to go alone 
to a looking-glass, holding a candle. According to some 
authorities she should eat an apple, according to others she 
‘should comb her hair before the glass. Then the face of her 
predestined partner would appear in the depths of the mirror. 
This superstition is related to another, not unknown to 
English school-girls of the present day. The first new moon 
in the year is made to declare to them the husband that is 
to be, and she is invoked in the following words, pronounced 
by the girl standing against a tree, with her foot on a 


stone: 
New Moon, New Moon, I hail thee 


By all the virtue in thy body, 
Grant this night that I may see 
Him who my true love is to be.? 

It is curious that the English girl’s invocation should be 
more pagan in tone than the Macedonian maiden’s prayer. 

The looking-glass form of divination is akin to the familiar, 
and now fashionable, crystal-gazing. It is only one of a number 
of superstitions belonging to an ancient and numerous family. 
Visions are seen on walls or in water, in mirror or the moon; 
but the object is ever the same. “Ancient and modern 
superstition...attributes the phantasms to spiritual agency,” 
says Mr Andrew Lang.* 

A third attempt at peering into futurity is made by means 
of water and molten lead—old spoons and forks often going 
to the pot for this purpose. A basin is filled with water and, 
while an incantation is being muttered, the molten lead is 
dropped into the vessel. The forms which the metal assumes 
in congealing are interpreted symbolically. If, for example, the 
lead spreads into an even surface, that is a sign that his or 
her wishes will be fulfilled without difficulty; should, on the 
contrary, the metal shape itself into a Jump or ‘mountain, 

1 Cp. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. tv. p. 38 ; pp. 55 foll. 
2 School Superstitions, by T. Parker Wilson, in the ‘Royal Magazine’ of 
Sept., 1901. For other versions of this appeal to the Moon see Memoirs of 


the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. 1v. pp. 117 foll. 
3 Cock-Lane and Common-Sense, pp. 69 foll. 


4. 9 


52 Macedonian Folklore 


it signifies that great obstacles lie in the way of his or her 
happiness, and so forth. 

An allusion to this form of divination is to be found in 
a popular love-couplet which I heard at Salonica: 

"Eva κομμάτι μάλαμα θὰ ῥίξω ᾿ς τὸ πηγάδι, 
Νὰ καθαρέψῃ τὸ νερό, νὰ διῶ ποιὸς θά με πάρῃ. 
“A lump of gold shall I drop into the well, 
That the water may grow clear, and I may see who my husband is to be.” 

On the same evening takes place another ceremony with a 
similar end in view. Water is drawn from a well into a jug, in 
perfect silence (βουβὸ or ἀμέίλητο vepo) Into it is thrown the 
white of an egg, and then it is left out in the open air through 
the night. The shapes which the egg assumes are examined 
on the following morning and interpreted in the same. way as 
those of the lead. In Russia a parallel custom prevails on 
Christmas Eve; but, instead of lead or egg, the material used 
is molten wax. ‘The sinful professions of the ‘wax-melter’ 
(knpox’tns) and the ‘lead-melter’ (μολυβδοχύτης) are not 
unknown to the islanders of the Aegean? 

Of like spells we find many traces both in England and in 
Scotland. The ‘Wake of Freya’ still survives as a memory, 
if not as an actual practice.’ Burns in a note to Hallowe'en 
gives an interesting description of the custom as it prevailed 
in Scotland in his day,‘ while Keats has immortalized a kindred 
superstition in his beautiful poem, The Eve of St Agnes : 

They told her how, upon St Agnes’s Eve 
Young virgins might have visions of delight, 
And soft adorings from their loves receive 


Upon the honey’d middle of the night, 
If ceremonies due they did aright.® 


1 This water is also called ἄλαλον, see Ducange, Glossarium ad scriptores 
mediae et infimae Graecitatis, 8. v. μαστραπᾶ. 

2 W. H. Ὁ. Rouse, ‘Folklore from the Southern Sporades’ in Folk-Lore, 
June, 1899, p. 152. Most of these methods of divination are common to many 
parts of the Greek East; see a few notes on Δεισιδαιμονίαι καὶ “Opxo in the 
‘“’EOvixov Ημερολόγιον᾽ Mapivov II. Βρετοῦ, Paris, 1866, pp. 219—220; G. 
Georgeakis et Léon Pineau, Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, pp. 307—308. 

8 G. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. xx. 4 Ν, 10. 

5 VI. For a full description of this superstition see The Book of Days, vol. 1. 
p. 140. 


April, May, and June 53 


Likewise Poor Robin’s Almanack for 1770 tells us how 


On St Mark’s Eve, at twelve o’clock, 
The fair maid will watch her smock, 
To find her husband in the dark, 
By praying unto Good St Mark.! 

But all the above modes of divination are in Macedonia 
eclipsed by the picturesque rite which lends to the feast of the 
Baptist its popular designation. This is the rite known 
throughout the Greek world as ὁ κλήδονας, and it well deserves 
a chapter to itself. It is perhaps the most interesting form of 
hydromancy which can be directly associated with the Mid- 
summer ceremonies prevalent all over Europe and regarded 
by folklorists as having for their object the promotion of 
fertility. The step from a rite of propitiation to one of divina- 
tion is but a short one. Even after the idea had been abandoned 
that the ceremonies in question operated to bring about the 
desired effect, the wish to obtain an omen as to the future of 
individuals, especially on matters matrimonial, might well have 
continued to be cherished. “It is thus that magic dwindles 
into divination.”? 


Ὃ Κλήδονας ὃ 


In Macedonia the ceremony, or pastime—for, like most of 
these rites, it has long been shorn of its serious character*— 
is performed as follows. 

On the eve of the day young people of both sexes,—for 
this is a social spell,—and not unfrequently married men and 
women also, fix upon a certain spot where the performance is 
to be held. Then a child is sent round to collect from the 
members of the party different ‘tokens’ (σημάδια), consisting 


1 Quoted in The Book of Days, vol. 1. p. 550. 

2 J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. τι. p. 129. 

8 The name is a modernized form of the ancient κληδών, an omen contained 
in a word, whence κληδονίζω, to give an omen, etc. The peasants, however, 
regard it as connected with the verb κλειδώνω, to lock, and this opinion has 
given rise to some of the terms employed above. 

4 Indeed κλήδονας sometimes is used as a synonym for a frivolous sport, in 
which any nonsense is permissible. Hence the popular saying, “αὐτὰ ᾿ς τὸν 
κλήδονα νά τα πῆς (or νά Ta wovAjoys)” conveying pretty nearly the same 
meaning as our ‘tell that to the marines.” 


δ4 Macedonian Folklore 


of rings, beads, buttons, or anything that the participators in 
the ceremony are in the habit of wearing about their persons. 
To each of these tokens is attached a flower, or a sprig of 
basil, and then they are all cast into. a jug or pitcher, which 
is also crowned with flowers, especially with basil and the 
blossom of a creeping plant, resembling the honeysuckle and 
from its association with the rite called κλήδονας or St John’s 
Flower (Τοῦ “Αἱ Γιάννη τὸ λουλοῦδι). In some districts a gigantic 
cucumber, or an onion, is cast in along with the tokens. The 
vessel is then carried to the fountain, the spout (σουληνάρι) of 
which is likewise decorated in a manner recalling the well- 
flowering and tap-dressing customs once popular in England. 
The maid who bears the vessel must not utter a single word, 
and if spoken to she must not answer. Having filled the pitcher, 
she carries it back in silence. A red kerchief is spread over 
its mouth and fastened round the edges with a ribbon, or a 
string, and a padlock (κλειδωνιά). The last mentioned article 
seems to be due partly to the mistaken etymology of the name 
κλήδονας (unless, indeed, the etymology has been suggested by 
the article), and partly no doubt to the mystic significance 
attributed by popular superstition to a lock. This part of 
the ceremony is known as the ‘locking’ (τὸ κλείδωμα) and 
in some places, as Nigrita, for example, where the silence rule 
is not observed, the action is accompanied by the following 
song, sung by a chorus of maidens both on the way to the 
fountain and round it, while the pitcher is filling: 


To KrelSwpa.t 


Μαζώνησθη, συνιαζησθη, 
Γιὰ νὰ κλειδωσουμὴ τοὺν κλείδουνα 


1 Cp. the plants used for purposes of divination on St John’s Day in other 
countries, such as the Ciuri di S. Giuvanni in Sicily and St John’s wort 
in Prussia. J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. τι. p. 129. 

2 The Book of Days, vol. τ. p. 819. 

3 On the use of locks and knots as impediments to soreery, see J. G. Frazer, 
The Golden Bough, vol. 1. pp. 400 foll. 

4 This song was taken down by a maid of Nigrita at my request. She could 
only just write and so she unconsciously reproduced in her spelling the local 
pronunciation, which I have endeavoured to retain in the above copy. 


April, May, and June 55 


Μὲ τ᾽ ᾿Αὐγιαννιοῦ τοὺν κλείδουνα. 
Ποιός on φύτηψη, ποιός on πότιση (bis) 
Ky μαράθκαν τὰ λουλούδια σ᾽; 

pda pn φύτηψη, γρ᾽ά μη πότιση. 

Ky μαράθκαν τὰ λουλούδια p’. 
Θουμαή pw, τὴ θυ---, τὴ θυγατέρα σ᾽ 
ΓΑλλουν νειὸ va μὴήν tn δώσῃς. (bis) 
Δούκηνά μ᾽, ἠγὼ τὴν ἀρραβώνιασ᾽ (bis) 
Μ᾿ ἕναν Βούργαρου τζιλέπη (bis) 

Μὲ ἕναν πώχ᾽ τὰ χίλια πρόβατα, 

Ta tp ακόσια δαμαλίδια. 


The locking of the vessel. 


Come together, oh be ye gathered together, 
That we may lock the pitcher 
With St John’s flower. 


“Who planted thee? Who watered thee, 


And thy blossoms are faded ?” 


“An old woman planted me, an old woman watered me, 


Therefore my blossoms are faded.” 


“O Thomaé, dear Thomaé, thy daughter 


Give her not to another youth.” 


“OQ Doukena, dear Doukena, I have betrothed her 


To a Bulgarian gentleman, 
To the one who owns a thousand sheep, 
And three hundred heifers !” 


The pitcher, thus prepared, is exposed “to the light of 
the stars” (᾽ς τὴν ἀστροφεγγιά, or ᾽ς τὸ ξάστερο), or is placed: 
under a rose-tree, where it remains during the night. Early 
next morning it is taken indoors and set in the corner of a 
room. In the afternoon of the festal day the young people 
assemble once more round the pitcher and proceed to ‘ unlock’ 
it, accompanying the action with a variation of the same song: 


To ξεκλείδωμα. 


Μαζώνησθη, συνιάζησθη, 
Γιὰ νὰ ξηκλειδώσουμη τοὺν κλείδουνα, etc. 


56 ‘Macedonian Folklore 


The unlocking of the vessel. 


Come together, oh be ye gathered together, 
That we may unlock the pitcher, etc. 


A little boy, the most guileless-looking that can be found, 
is appointed to lift off the kerchief, which is then thrown over 
his face, and thus blindfolded (᾽ς τὰ τυφλά) he dips his right 
hand into the pitcher. While the boy is doing this, one of the 
bystanders cries out: “ We open the vessel. May good luck 
issue forth!” (Avotyoupe τὸν κλήδονα, va βγῇ τὸ Karoppitixo!). 
Then the boy draws out the first token, singing 

Τινοὺς σημάδι κὴ av ἐβγῇ, 
Νὰ πάῃ ᾿ς τὰ Σέρρας μ᾽ ὅχαν τὰ Kana. 
“Whose token comes forth, 
May they go to Serres and enjoy all manner of happiness.” 


The owner of this first token is cheered by the others and 
congratulated on his or her good luck. Then each of the 
company by turns or some one, generally an old woman well 
versed in Luck-lore, recites or improvises a couplet as each 
token is being drawn. In some districts, in lieu of couplets, 
they propound riddles? In either case the saying is considered 
as foreshadowing the future of the person to whom the token 
belongs. As may be imagined, all the predictions are not 
equally pleasing. Some of them are grotesque and sometimes 
even such as a more cultured audience would pronounce coarse. 
These give rise to many sallies of rustic wit at one another’s 
expense. 

The cucumber is drawn out last and eaten. Then the real 
broad farce begins. The tokens are flung back into the pitcher, 
and the company give free play to their sense of fun in the way 
of sayings which, when the circle is exclusively confined to 
married women, are neither meant nor meet for male ears, 
The festival generally ends with dancing and singing. 


1 For other formulae customary at the opening of the jug elsewhere, see 
Bernhard Schmidt, Lieder verschiedenen Inhalts, No. 63; Passow, Disticha, 
No. 85. ; 

2 A collection of both these kinds of folk literature will be found at the end 
of the volume. ; 


April, May, and June 57 


A performance essentially similar to the Greek κλήδονας, 
though wanting in many of its picturesque details, is popular 
among the Russians. “At the Christmas festival a table is 


covered with a cloth, and on it is set a dish or bowl containing 


--.. 


water. The young people drop rings or other trinkets into the 
dish, which is afterwards covered with a cloth, and then the 
Podblyudnuiya Songs commence. At the end of each song one 
of the trinkets is drawn at random, and its owner deduces an 


omen from the nature of the words which have just been sung.” 


Bonfires. 


Another important feature of the feast are the bonfires 
(φωτιαῖς)" kindled on the eve. It is the custom for boys to leap 
through the flames. This is called ‘leaping the fleas’ (πηδοῦν 


τοὺς ψύλλους), that is leaping over the fire which is supposed to ° 


burn and exterminate these enemies to the peace of southerners. 
The same custom exists in some parts of Russia where “fires 
are lighted on St John’s night and people jump through them 
themselves, and drive their cattle through them.”* St John’s 
fires are also common throughout the Roman Catholic world 
both in Europe and in South America, and the belief prevails 
that the flames cannot hurt those who jump through them. 
They survived until very late days in Ireland. Ralston remarks 
that these festivals, bonfires, etc. connected with St John are 
“of thoroughly heathenish origin.”* The justice of this remark 
is proved by the antiquity of the custom, which certainly dates 
from pre-Christian times. We read in the Old Testament® that 
King Manassch “caused his children to pass through the fire 
in the valley of the son of Hinnom.” We also possess Ovid’s 
testimony chat the practice was popular among the ancient 
Romans: 


Certe ego transilui positas ter in ordine flammas.® 


1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 197. 

® At Polygyros, in the Chalecidic Peninsula, these bonfires are known as 
παρακαμ᾽ vol. ’ 

3 Ib. p. 240. 4 Ib. p. 241. 

5 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6. 6 Ovid. Fast. 1v. 655. 


58 Macedonian Folklore 


In fact leaping through the flames played a prominent part in the 
festival of Pales (Palilia), held on April 21st. “Similarly at the 
time of our Christmas, bonfires were kindled by the Norsemen in 
honour of Thor and Odin, and it was an old Scotch custom to 
light ‘a Candlemas Bleeze’ on February 2, possibly connected 
with the old Italian rites of Februatio.”? Thus far the Eve.? 

On the day itself in some parts of Macedonia the peasants 
are in the habit of festooning their cottages and girding their 
own waists with wreaths of the “St John’s Flower” as a charm 
against various diseases. The village maidens boil the blossoms 
and wash their hair with the elixir extracted therefrom, in the 
same hope which prompts the use of eaux toniques to their 
sisters of the West.’ 


1 6. H. Hallam’s edition of The Fasti of Ovid, note on tv. 655. 

2 For descriptions of the St John’s festivities in certain islands of the Aegean, 
see W. H. D. Rouse, ‘ Folklore from the Southern Sporades’ in Folk-Lore, June 
1899, pp. 178-9; G. Georgeakis et Léon Pineau, Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, pp. 
304 foll., and references to authorities for the custom in other parts of Greece. 

In England also the St John’s celebrations were very popular in olden 
times, the bonfire being made out of contributions collected for the purpose. 
On the superstitious notions about St John’s Eve, prevalent in England 
and Ireland, and other interesting particulars, see The Book of Days, vol. 1. 
pp. 814 foll. Frazer associates these midsummer rites with the ancient 
ceremonies the object of which was to foster the growth of vegetation, one of 
them being the Feast of Adonis, familiar to classical scholars through the 
Fifteenth Idyll of Theocritus: see The Golden Bough, vol. 11. pp. 115 foll. 

3 On ‘magic plants,’ and more especially St John’s wort, culled on this day, 
see J. G. Frazer, ib. vol. 11. pp. 328 foll. 


CHAPTER VI. 
JULY TO DECEMBER. 
July. 


THIS month is known to the peasant as the ‘Thresher’ 
((Αλωνιστής, ᾿Αλωντής, or ᾿Αλωνάρης), as the threshing of 
corn begins in it: 

“Αλωνάρης τ᾽ ἁλωνίζει, 
Ky Αὔγουστος τὸ ξεχωρίζει. 
“July threshes it; but August winnows it.” 


Another popular proverb declares 


"Ero. τὥώχει TO λινάρι 
Ν᾽ ἀνθῇ τὸν ᾿Αλωνάρη. 
“Tis the wont of flax to blossom forth in July,” 


the moral of which is that it is of no use fighting against the 
laws of Nature. 


A third saying contains an allusion to the grasshopper : 
Τζίτζηκας ἐλάλησε, 
Μαύρη ῥῶγα γυάλισε. 
“The grasshopper has chirped ; the black grape has begun to gleam.” 


The song of the grasshopper and the joys of the juice of the 
grape are here coupled together in a manner which Anacreon 
would have appreciated keenly. The Greek’s attitude towards 
this “ melodious insect” has undergone less change than the 
name by which it is known. To the modern Hellene the grass- 
hopper’s chirping is still a “sweet prophetic strain,” and, had 


60 Macedonian Folklore 


he not ceased to believe in the Tuneful Nine and their divine 
leader, he might still exclaim with the old poet: 


“The Muses love thy shrilly tone ; 
Apollo calls thee all his own.” 1 


The farmers of Macedonia out of the newly ground corn 
make a large thin cake, which they take to the village fountain 
or well. They sprinkle it with water and then distribute it 
among the bystanders, who in return wish them ‘a happy 
year. This cake is called ‘ Grasshopper-Cake’ (τζιτζηρόκλικο), 
and is supposed to be a kind of offering to their favourite 
insect. The following rhymes express the insect’s satisfaction 
at the sacrifice: 


᾽Λωνίζετε, θερίζετε κὴ ᾿μένα KriKL κάνετε, 
Καὶ ῥίξτε το ᾽ς τὴ βρύσι νὰ πάω νά το πάρω, 
Νὰ κάτσω νά το φάω μαζὺ μὲ τὰ παιδιά μου, 
Νὰ πέσω va πεθάνω." 
“Thresh and mow and make a cake for me. 

Throw it into the fount that I may go and fetch it, 

And sit and eat it with my children, 

And then lay me down and die.” 


August. 


Fasting and feasting are the two scales in which the modern 
Greek’s existence seems alternately to balance itself. August 
begins with the Feast of the Progress of the Precious and 
Vivifying Cross (Ἡ πρόοδος τοῦ τιμίου καὶ ζωοποιοῦ Σταυροῦ, 
popularly known as Τοῦ Σταυροῦ). Bonfires are the order of 
the evening. The boys jump over them shouting in vigorous, 


1 Anacreon’s ode, or rather the ode which passes under Anacreon’s name, to 
the Τέττιξ, translated by Thomas Moore. Cp. ‘‘This noise was so pleasing to the 
ear of the Ancients, that their Poets are always using it as a simile for sweet 
sounds.” Liddell and Scott s.v. and references. 

2 A. A. Tovotou, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Χώρα,᾽ p. 47. In America also, though 
in some parts the chirping of a cricket foretells sorrow, yet it is generally 
deemed unlucky to kill one. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, 
vol. vi. p. 41. In England “ when crickets chirp unusually, wet is expected.” 
R. Inwards, Weather-Lore, p. 183. 


July to December 61 


but sadly unenlightening, terms: ᾿Ανάχωστε! παράχωστε! “Dig 
up! bury!” whom or what, they know ποὺ This exclamation 
supplies the name by which the custom is known at Melenik. 
At Shatista, in Western Macedonia, the same fires are called 
Κλαδαριά or ‘bush-fires, and at Berat, in Albania, Trikka. 
The evening is a Meat-Feast (’Azroxpea), a preparation for, and 
a fortification against, a fortnight’s fast, which again in its turn 
is a prelude to the Feast of the Repose of the Virgin (Ἡ κοίμησις 
τῆς Θεοτόκου, popularly Τῆς Παναγίας). Nor do these exhaust 
the list of August celebrations. On the 23rd is held the Feast 
of the Return of the Feast of the Virgin (Απόδοσις τῆς ἑορτῆς 
τῆς Θεοτόκου) or of The Holy Merciful (Τῆς ᾿Αγίας "EXeovons). 
This day is solemnized by much dancing and singing of the 
mournful kind common in the East. The mournfulness among 
the Bulgarians of Macedonia is further deepened by the dismal 
droning of the bag-pipe—an instrument whereof the strains 
appear to delight the Bulgarian as much as the Highlander, 
in proportion as they distress all other mortals. Again, on the 
29th, the Cutting-off of the Precious head of St John the 
Forerunner (Ἢ ἀποτομὴ. τῆς τιμίας κεφαλῆς ᾿Ιωάννου τοῦ 
IIpodpopov) is made the occasion of more abstinence. 

It is in harmony with this religious gloom that August is 
considered as the precursor of winter: 


€ BA ? U > \ v7. a a 
O Αὔγουστος ἐπάτησε ᾽ς THY ἄκρα τοῦ χειμῶνα. 
* August has set his foot on Winter’s edge.” 


Μαύρισ᾽ ἡ ῥῶγα ἀπὸ τὸ σταφύλι; 

᾿Ῥάχνιασ᾽ ἡ καρδιὰ τοῦ καραβοκύρη. 

“Has the grape grown black in the cluster ? 
The ship-captain’s heart has grown dark.” 


In this symbolical style the man learned in weather-lore 
warns his audience that summer calms are behind and winter 
storms before us. 


1 May not these words contain a hint of “‘the death and resurrection of 
vegetation,” which are said to be the ideas underlying the midsummer rites? It 
should be noted that παραχώνω and ἀναχώνω (or ξαναχώνω) are the terms 
commonly applied by the people to the burial and exhumation of the dead. 


62 | Macedonian Folklore 


These pessimistic views are, however, contradicted by other 
authorities who declare : 


‘O ἥλιος τοῦ Μαϊοῦ 7 Αὐγούστου τὸ φεγγάρι. 


“ May’s sun is August’s moon.” 


Some even go so far in their enthusiastic appreciation as to 
exclaim : 


a ΝΜ \ a 
Αὔγουστε, καλέ μου μῆνα, νἄσουν δυὸ φοραῖς τὸν χρόνο. 


“OQ August, my fair month, that thou wert twice a year!” 


But this may be mere flattery. 

In any case the wise man puts his trust not in traditional 
lore but in scientific observation. A flock of wild geese flying 
inland is taken as a promise of fine weather, while rains and 
storms are prognosticated if the birds fly towards the sea The 
flight of the crane was similarly considered by the ancients a 
sign of approaching winter—yeiwatos ὥρην δεικνύει du8pnpov.” 

The first twelve days of the month are closely watched, and 
the weather which prevails on each one of them is carefully 
committed to memory; for unerring experience, assisted by a 
profound study of matters meteorological, has established the 
rule that the same kind of weather will also prevail during each 
of the succeeding twelve months. Hence these twelve days are 
designated ‘Month-Days’ (τὰ μερομήνια) In like manner in 
England it was once a common superstition that the wind which 
blew on New Year’s Eve prognosticated the character of the 
ensuing twelve months: 


If New Year’s Eve night-wind blow south, 
It betokeneth warmth and growth ; 

If west, much milk, and fish in the sea; 

If north much cold and storm there will be ; 


and so forth, in Hone’s venerable verse. 


1 Cp. the English omens taken from the flight of geese. R. Inwards, 
Weather-Lore, p. 160. 

2 Hes. W. and D. 450. 

3 Or have we here a survival of the classical ἱερομήνια (rd, Thue. v. 54) ‘ the 
holy days of the month’? 


July to December 63 
The jackdaw is the typical bird of this month: 


, a > \ , Pee 3 \ \ ” 
Κάθε πρᾶμα ᾿ς τὸν καιρό του Kn ὃ κολοιὸς τὸν Αὔγουστο. 


“Everything in due season, and the jackdaw in August.” 


The Drymiais. 


The first three days of August, like the corresponding days 
in March already noticed, are sacred to the Drymiais (Δρύμιαις). 
Who or what these beings are is a mystery as yet unfathomed 
by folklorists. The very name is a problem which still remains 
to be solved The Drymiais appear to be of two kinds: vernal 
and autumnal. During the periods of March and August, 
referred to above, no tree or vine is cut, for fear lest it should 
wither; no one bathes in the sea, for fear that their bodies will 
swell; and no clothes are washed, lest they should decay. To 
these days, which are observed everywhere along the coast and 
in the islands of the Aegean, the Macedonians add the last 
three days of either month as well as all the Wednesdays 
and Fridays of each.’ 

According to one hypothesis the Drymiais are a species of 
nymphs, joining under one name the attributes both of the 
Hamadryads and of the Naiads of old. In Spring they are 
worshipped, or rather dreaded, as wood-nymphs; in Autumn as 
water-nymphs. This view is strengthened to some extent by 
the following popular saying: 


‘O Αὔγουστος γιὰ τὰ πανιά, 
Ky ὁ Μάρτης γιὰ τὰ ξύλα. 
“ August is bad for linen, 

And March for trees.” 


1 Coray gives the name as Δρύμματα and derives it from δρύπτω ‘to tear,’ 
while others spell it Δρύμαις and would have it from δρυμός ‘a wood.’ The 
spelling countenanced by Scarlatos the lexicographer is Δρίμαις, but Δρύμματα 
also is known: see G. Georgeakis et Léon Pineau Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, p. 309. 
In my spelling of the name I have endeavoured to conform as nearly as possible 
to the pronunciation current at Nigrita and other parts of Macedonia. On the 
superstition ep. W. H. D. Rouse, ‘Folklore from the Southern Sporades,’ in 
Folk-Lore, June 1899, p. 179. 

2 v. supra, Ὁ. 21. 


θ4 Macedonian Folklore 


Another version of the same proverb, said to be current in 
the peninsula of Cassandra (ancient Pallene), is still more 
explicit : 

Τ᾽ Αὐγούστ᾽ ἡ Δρύμαις ἧς τὰ πανιά, 
Ky τοῦ Μαρτιοῦ ᾿ς τὰ ξύλα." 
“The Drymiais of August affect the linen, 
And those of March affect the woods.” 


Some additional support for this theory may be derived 
from the custom of bathers in August to arm themselves with 
a rusty nail which, they believe, is efficacious in preventing the 
Drymiais from coming near them. This seems to me to be a 
fair proof that the Drymiais are, at any rate, regarded by the 
popular consciousness in the light of personal beings, though the 
personification is somewhat vague. For we know from other 
sources that iron in any shape or form—nail, ring, etc.—is a 
good defence against fairies,” an idea as widely diffused as any 
in folklore: “The Oriental jinn are in such deadly terror of 
iron, that its very name is a charm against them; and so in 
European folklore iron drives away fairies and elves, and 
destroys their power.”* The old Scholiast on the xIth book 
of the Odyssey, quoted by Mr Andrew Lang,‘ also informs us 
that iron “drives away devils and ghosts.” Mr Tylor’s explana- 
tion is that fairies, elves, and jinn “are essentially, it seems, 
creatures belonging to the ancient Stone Age, and the new 
metal is hateful and hurtful to them.” If that be the case, the 
Drymiais (provided their title to personal existence is first 
established) must have a pretty long pedigree, and should be 
added to the number of shadowy survivals from a long-dead 
past. 


September. 


This is the ‘Month of the Vintage’ (Τρυγητής), also called 
Σταυριώτης, or ‘Month of the Cross, from the Feast of the 


1 See ‘ Oepuats,’ by M. X. Ἰωάννου, Athens, 1879, p. 58. This author holds 
the above theory. 

2 J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, p. 46. 

3 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 140. 

4 Custom and Myth, p. 82. 


—~_— 


July to December 65 


Exaltation of the Precious Cross (Ἢ ὕψωσις τοῦ Τιμίου 
Σταυροῦ), held on the 14th. These events and the following 
two prognostications—one prospective and the other retro- 
spective—are September’s chief claims to the folklorist’s 
attention. 


“Av ἴσως BpéE ὁ Τρυγητής, χαρὰ ᾿ς τὸν τυροκόμο. 
“Tf September brings rain, joy to the cheese-maker !” 


Mans aBpexos, Τρυγητὴς χαρούμενος. 
“A rainless May means a mirthful September,” 


that is, the vintage is particularly rich if the preceding May has 
been dry. 

On September 2nd is observed the Day of St John the 
Faster (Ἰωάννου τοῦ Νηστευτοῦ), so called not because he fasts 
himself—though he probably did in his time—but because he 
is the cause of fasting to others. Not only meat but also 
grapes are forbidden on this day. In return, the pious peasant 
expects the saint to protect him against fevers.’ 


October. 


October is known as the ‘Month of St Demetrius’ (‘Ayuo- 
δημητριάτης or simply Δημητριάτης), from the feast of the 
saint celebrated on the 26th, a feast famous for the number 
of weddings which enliven it, as will be noticed in our chapter | 


1 The following is the form of the same superstition which prevails in 
Southern Greece :—‘‘St John was a physician, and especially skilled in the 
cure of fevers....When he was aware that his death was approaching, he set up 
a column, and bound to its foundations all manner of diseases with silken 
threads of various colours: fevers with a yellow thread, measles with a red one, 
and other diseases with other colours...and said, ‘ When I die, let whosoever is 
sick come and tie to this column a silken thread with three knots of the colour 
that his sickness takes, and say, ‘Dear St John, I bind my sickness to the 
column, and do by thy favour loose it from me,’ and then he will be healed.’” 
Kamporoglou, Hist. Ath. in Rennell Rodd, The Customs and Lore of Modern 
Greece, p. 167. 


ALF, 5 


66 Macedonian Folklore 


on Marriage. It is also the commencement of seed-time, 
according to the adage: 
᾿Οχτώβριο δὲν ἔσπειρες, 
᾿ὈὈὨὐτὼ σωροὺς" δὲν ἔκανες, 
which may be paraphrased thus: 
“Tf in October you forget to sow, 
Expect a passing scanty crop to mow.” 
A spell of fine weather is recognized in the saw: 
“Αγιοδημητριάτη 
Μικρὸ καλοκαιράκι. 


“St Demetrius’ month is a second little summer.” 


November. 


This month is known as the ‘Sower’ (Σποριᾶς) par excel- 
lence. Sowing is so essentially a characteristic of the season, 
and it concerns the peasant so nearly, that even religion is 
forced to enlist the prevailing spirit in its service. The Virgin, 
whose feast occurs on the 21st (Ta Εἰσόδια τῆς Θεοτόκου) 
generally goes by the name of ‘ Patroness of the Seed-time’ 
(Ξεσπορίτισσα). Nevertheless the secular appellation of the 
month is in some parts, supplanted by the religious name 
‘Month of St Andrew’ (‘Avtpeds), due to the feast of the 
Apostle on the last day of the month (“Ai ᾿Αντρέα). The saint 
is pictured as a hoary old man with a long snowy beard, and a 
gentle, though grave, countenance. His is a typical wintry 
figure: frosty but kindly. The first snowfall is attributed to his 
influence. Τ᾽ ἄσπρισε τὰ γένεια τ᾽ 6” Ai’ Avtpéas, “St Andrew has 
washed his beard white,” is the poetical form in which the event 
is described by the country-folk. They also perpetrate a profane 
pun in saying, “ After the feast of St Andrew everything grows 
strong” (ὕστερ᾽ ἀπ᾽ tov” Ai ᾿Αντρέα ὅλα ἀντρειεύουν [ Avdpéas— 
av6peios]), that is, the cold grows severer, and the storms more 
frequent and fierce. 


1 The word σωρὸς is still used in the sense of ‘a heap of corn,’ as it was in 
the days of Hesiod (ὅτε ἴδρις σωρὸν ἀμᾶται, ΤΥ. and D. 778). 


July to December 67 


On the 18th is held the Feast of St Plato the Martyr 
(Πλάτωνος), whose name ingenious ignorance has transformed 
into St Plane-tree (“Ai Πλάτανος). This is a very important 
date in the weather-lore of the coast especially. It is said 
that this holy day witnesses all known kinds of meteorological 
vicissitude. But the weather which finally prevails at sundown 
is the one which will last through the Advent or ‘the Forty 
Days’ (Zapavtanpepo). So deeply-rooted is this belief that a 
learned farmer tried very earnestly to persuade me that the 

failure of Napoleon’s Moscow campaign was due to the omens 
- taken by the Russian Emperor and his counsellors from a careful 
observation of the weather on St Plane-tree’s Day. “The Tsar 
on hearing of Napoleon’s approach called together his Council 
of State. 

‘What are we to do, gentlemen ?’ asked His Majesty. 

‘Wait for St Plane-tree, most serene master,’ answered the 
President of the Council. 

The Tsar followed this sensible advice, and saved his 
empire.” Not a bad paraphrase of Nicholas the First’s 
dictum: “Generals January and February will fight for us,” 
and a good example of the mythopeeic faculty of the people. 


December. 


The last two months of the year together are designated 
‘Twins’ (Δίδυμοι); but December by itself rejoices in the 
name of Nexoraitns or ‘Month of St Nicholas,’ from the 
name of the saint whose feast is held on the 6th. The same 
saint wedded to St Barbara (Dec. 4th) figures in the adage: 

Νικολίτσα, Βαρβαρίτσα, μπρὸς Kal πίσω ὁ χειμῶνας. 

“St Nicholas and St Barbara: before, behind winter.” 

The folk punster also exercises his wit at the expense of 
the most prominent saints of the month in alliterative doggerel 
of this type: 

Dec. 4. “Ai BapBapa BapBapove., 
» ὅ. “Ai Σάββας σαβανώνει, 
» 6. “Ai Νικόλας παραχώνει, 
» 12. “Αἱ Σπυρίδων Eavayover. 
5—2 


68 Macedonian Folklore 


“St Barbara behaves barbarously, 

St Sabbas winds us up in a shroud (caBavov) (of aia 
St Nicholas buries us in the earth, 
St Spyridion exhumes us.” 

He also says that after the Feast of St Spyridion the days 
begin to grow longer by one grain (Zaupidéwv—omrupi). The 
incorrigible one further maintains that on the Feast of 
St Ignatius (“Ai Ἰγνάτιος, Dec. 20th) the sun stands facing 
us (ἀγναντεύει). The English reader, who will miss the point 
of these jokes, need not bewail the loss. 

As a general epilogue to this survey of the peasant’s year, 
we may quote his opinion concerning the seasonableness and 
unseasonableness of indulging in the juice that maketh glad 
the heart of man: 

Μῆνας μὲ TO ρ, 

Τὸ κρασὶ δίχως νερό" 

Μῆνας δίχως p, 

Τὸ κρασὶ μὲ τὸ νερό. 
“Month with r, 
Unmixed jar ; 
Month sans r, 
A mixed jar.”1! 


It should be noted that there are only four months in 
the year “sans r,” as against eight “with r,” but the former 
are the hottest (from May to August). Hence the wisdom 
of the rule which at first sight looks somewhat whimsical. 
On the whole, it is a vast improvement on the Hesiodic 
principle of “three measures of water to one of wine,”? which 
in its severity almost verges on total abstinence. 


Popular Astronomy. 


Ere we proceed to describe the great Winter Festivities, 
it may be well to enlarge a little more on a subject closely 
connected with the weather-lore discussed in the preceding 


1 Cp, the English saying, ‘‘When there is an r in the month oysters are in 
season.” 
2 [pis ὕδατος mpoxéew, τὸ δὲ τέτρατον ἱέμεν οἴνου. W. and Ὁ. 596. 


July to December 69 


pages. The peasant’s notions on the nature and the move- 
ments of the heavenly bodies are as curious as his ideas on 
matters sublunary. The bright starry band, which stretches 
across the sky, and which has been compared by the fancy 
of so many races to a road or way, is called by the Macedonian 
country-folk ‘The Heap of corn’ (Σωρός), or ‘The Priest’s 
Straw’ (To ἄχυρο tod παπᾶ). In explanation of this quaint 
appellation the following story is told: 

᾿ “There was once a village priest, who in the dead of night 
purloined some grain from a heap which lay on a farmer’s 
threshing-floor, waiting to be winnowed. But as the thief 
carried his booty away, the night breeze blew the straw or 
chaff back, and thus laid a trail by means of which the unholy 
father was easily tracked and brought to book.” 

It would be equally easy to track this idea to its oriental 
source. We know that the Syrians, the Persians and the 
Turks give to the Galaxy the name of ‘Straw Road,’ likening 
it to a lane littered with bits of straw that fall from the nets 
in which they are in the habit of carrying it. 

The Man in the Moon of English folklore is a conception 
akin to that of the hero of the Milky Way adventure. Like 
his Eastern cousin, he also is a person detected in the act 
of gathering illicit goods, though in his case these are but 
sticks, the notion being derived from the story of the Sabbath- 
breaker in the Bible (Numb. xv. 32 foll.). Chaucer goes 
farther, and accuses him of actual theft, and by so doing 
he brings him a step nearer to the Macedonian papas, or village 
priest : 

On her brest a chorle painted ful even 


Bearing a bush of thorns on his backe, 
Which for his theft might clime so ne’r the heaven.? 


The Greeks of the south call the Milky Way ‘River 
Jordan.’ 

The tendency to compare the heavenly bodies to objects 
familiar to a husbandman’s mind is also displayed in the 
Macedonian names for various constellations. Thus the Great 


1 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 360. 
2 See The Book of Days, vol. 1. p. 52. 


70 Macedonian Folklore 


Bear, just as among our own peasants, is called the ‘ Plough’ 
(Αλέτρι), and the different parts of that implement furnish 
names for other groups of stars, such as the ‘Yoke’ (Zuyos), 
the ‘Plough-feet’ (τὰ ᾿Αλετροπόδια), three stars in the neigh- 
bourhood of the Pleiades.” 

The constellation of the Pleiades too, known in Greece 
Proper as the ‘ Poulia’ (ἡ Πούλια), is called by the Macedonians 
the ‘ Clucking or Brooding Hen’ (ἡ Κλωσσαριά) The setting 
of this group towards the end of November is regarded as 
an official announcement of the advent of winter, an idea 
embodied in the following folk-rhymes from Southern Greece: 


"> τῆς δεκαφτά, ᾿ς τῆς δεκοχτὼ 
Ἢ Πούλια βασιλεύει 

\ / / 
Kai πίσω παραγγέλνει" 
Μήτε πουλάκι ᾿ς τὸ κλαδί, 
Μήτε γηωργὸς ᾿ς τὸν κάμπο, 


or 


Μηδὲ τσομπάνος ᾿ς τὰ Bovuva, 
Μηδὲ γηωργὸς ᾿ς τοὺς κάμπους. 


“On the seventeenth, on the eighteenth (ο. 5.) 
The Pleiades set 
And leave behind them the command : 
Let no bird rest on the bough 
Nor husbandman in the plain, 


or 


Nor a shepherd in the mountains, 
Nor a farmer in the plains.” 


1 Cp. the Homeric names duata, a wain, ‘the great bear’; foi a 
ploughman, ‘the constellation of Arcturus.’ 

2 The author’s primitive acquaintance with Astronomy forbids any attempt 
at more accurate identification, but he will hazard the suggestion that by the 
‘three stars’ is probably meant the belt of Orion. 

3 This modern conception of the constellation as a bird supports to a certain 
extent the suggestion that the ancient name, πλειάδες, is not derived from πλέω, 
‘to sail,’ but stands for πελειάδες, ‘a flock of doves.’ Mr Walter Leaf, in his 
edition of Homer’s Iliad (xviii. 486), argues with much force in favour of this 
view, pointing out that the other names of stars mentioned by the poet are all 
derived from a pastoral or agricultural and not from a seafaring life. 


July to December 71 


This advice tallies exactly with old Hesiod’s warning: 
“When the Pleiades, flymg from Orion’s mighty strength, 
sink into the shadow-streaked sea, it is then that gales from 
all points of the sky are wont to rage: beware of having 
a boat upon the murky billows at that time of the year.”* 

Consequently, great attention is paid by the peasants to 
the conditions attending the setting of this constellation, and 
from those conditions are drawn omens as to the quantity 
of the forthcoming crop and the fertility of cattle. If it sets 
in a cloudy sky, it is said to portend a rich harvest. 

The rainbow, commonly called “bow” (δόξα or δοξάρι, from 
τόξον), is known at Liakkovikia as κερασουλένη, and in that 
district the belief prevails that if a male child passes beneath 
it, he turns into a girl; if a girl, she turns into a boy.’ In other 
parts of the Greek world the rainbow is called ‘ Heaven’s Girdle’ 
(ζωνάρι Tod οὐρανοῦ) 

The falling of the wind towards evening is popularly ex- 
pressed : “ He is gone to supper” (Πῆγε va φάῃ). 


The New Moon. 


The new moon is observed with a view to ascertaining the | 
state of the weather for the ensuing quarter. Μὲ τί καιρὸ 
πιάστηκε TO φεγγάρι; is the common expression. On this 
notion, which the Macedonian peasants share with many people 
in England—that is, that the weather changes with the moon’s . 
quarterings—Mr Tylor observes: “That educated people to 
whom exact weather records are accessible should still find 
satisfaction in the fanciful lunar rule, is an interesting case 
of intellectual survival.”* According to the same author the 
idea is a counterpart of the tendency to associate the growth 
and death of plants with the moon’s wax and wane, and, we 


1 W. and D. 619 foll. 

2 A. A. Τουσίου, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Xwpa,’ p. 77. 

3 Scarlatos, ‘ Λεξικὸν τῆς καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς Ἑλληνικῆς διαλέκτου," 8.υ. δοξάρι. 
4 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. τ. p. 180. 


72 Macedonian Folklore 


might add, it belongs to the stage of culture which prevailed 
before the line was very rigidly drawn between meteorology 
and theology—to times when sky and heaven meant one and 
the same thing.’ 


Eclipse of the Moon. 


An eclipse of the moon is considered by the Mohammedans 
of Macedonia, as of other parts of the East, a portent of 
bloodshed. It is met with reports of fire-arms, and the Imams 
call from the minarets the faithful to public prayers in the 
mosques. 

This recalls in a striking manner the practices of many 
savage and barbaric nations. The Indians of America, on 
seeing the phenomenon, howled and bewailed and shot at the 
sky in order to drive off the monsters which, they believed, 
were trying to devour the moon. Similar ideas and similar 
methods prevail among many African tribes. The great nations 
of Asia, such as the Hindoos and the Chinese, still cling to the 
belief in the Eclipse-monster. The latter meet it with prayers, 
like the Turks. 

But even in civilized Europe, both ancient and modern, we 
find numerous proofs of this superstition. The Romans came 
to the succour of the afflicted moon by flinging firebrands into 
the air, by the blare of trumpets and the clang of brazen pots. 
The superstition survived through the Middle Ages into a 
very late period. France, Wales and Ireland offer many 
instances as late as the 17th century.’ 


1 For certain curious English superstitions regarding the moon see 
R. Inwards, Weather Lore, p. 64; The Book of Days, vol. u. p, 202; Memoirs 
of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. 1v. pp. 121, 122. On the general 
subject concerning the supposed influence of the moon on the life of plants and 
animals see J. G. Frazer, he Golden Bough, vol. τι. pp. 155 foll. and Note B. 
pp. 457, 458. 

* Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. τ. pp. 328 foll. 





CHAPTER VII. 
WINTER FESTIVITIES. 


Of Christmas’ sports, the wassail bowl, 
That’s tost up after fox-i’-th’-hole ; 

Of Twelfth-tide cakes, of pease and beans, 
Wherewith ye make those merry scenes. 


Herrick, Hesperides. 


‘Solemn scenes’ would have been better than ‘merry 
scenes’ as a description of the Macedonian Yule-tide celebra- 
tions in. their entirety. 

The period of Twelve Days, from the Nativity to the 
Epiphany (Awdexanpepo), is perhaps the most prolific in super- 
stitious lore and practice presented by the Macedonian folk- 
calendar. It is during this season that the natural horrors 
of winter are heightened by the mysterious beings known 
and dreaded under the name of Karkantzari or Skatsantzari?. 


1 Other forms of the name, current in various parts of Greece, are καλη- 
κάντσαρος, καλκάτσαρος, λυκοκάντσαρος, κοληκάντσαρος etc. Some spell it with ε 
instead of 7; but there is little choice as both vowels are pronounced alike, and 
the spelling cannot be determined until the derivation is discovered. This last 
has for many years afforded matter for speculation to the ingenious. The most 
plausible of all the etymologies suggested is Bernhard Schmidt’s (Das Volksleben 
der Neugriechen, pp. 142 foll.). He derives the Greek from the Albanian 
Karkandsoli, which in its turn comes from the Turkish Kara (=black) -kond- 
jolos (=loup-garou). But he does not state whether the Turks actually call the 
monsters by that name, or whether they believe in them at all. For details 
concerning the nature and attributes of these singular beings, as conceived by 
the Greeks of the South, see Rennell Rodd, The Customs and Lore of Modern 
Greece, pp. 197 foil.; W. H. D. Rouse, Folklore from the Southern Sporades in 
Folk-Lore, June 1899, pp. 174 foll.; G. Georgeakis et Léon Pincau, Le Folk-Lore 
de Lesbos, p. 349. The Macedonian conception is substantially the same. 


74 Macedonian Folklore 


These malicious fiends are wont to haunt the peasant’s home 
and make his life well-nigh unbearable. The belief prevails 
that those who have a ‘light’ guardian angel (ἐλαφρὸν ἄγγελον) 
are from Christmas till Twelfth Day—when “the waters are 
blessed by the baptism” (βαφτίξζονται τὰ vepa)—transformed 
into monsters. Their nails suddenly grow to an abnormal 
length, they turn red in the face, their eyes become bloodshot 
and wild, their noses and mouths excrete. In this hideous 
guise they roam from house to house at night, knocking at 
the doors. Should they be refused admittance, they climb 
down through the chimney and terrify the inmates by pinching, 
worrying and defiling them in their sleep. The only way to 
escape from these torturers is to seize and bind them with a 
straw-rope (ψαθόσχοινο). Those who possess no such rope, 
or do not feel equal to the task, take care to retire to their 
dwellings before dark and to close their doors hermetically, 
letting the diabolical creatures continue knocking until 


“The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, 
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat 
Awake the god of day; and at his warning, 


Th’ extravagant and erring spirit hies 
To his confine.” 

During the day the Karkantzari resume their ordinary. 
human shapes. Millers for some reason or other—perhaps for 
their notorious inability to resist the insidious advice of the 
hopper, “tak’ it; tak’ it”—seem to be the favourite victims 
of the unclean monsters. The following characteristic tale 
throws light on the kind of treatment which millers may expect . 
at the hands of the Karkantzari. d 

A miller was one evening riding home from his’ mill, 
between two sacks of flour. Suddenly he espied a party of 
Karkantzari a little way off on the road, and, seized with fear, 
he crouched on the pack-saddle. The enemy soon caught him 
up and set about cudgelling him without mercy, though not 
without some sense of humour, accompanying each blow with — 
the exclamation: “Here goes to the one sack, here to the Ὁ 
other, and here to the load between. The owner where is he 2?” 





Winter Festivities 75 


(Νὰ κὴ ᾿ς τό ᾽να TO φορτιό, va κὴ ᾿ς T ἄλλο, νὰ κὴ ᾿ς TO 
᾿πανωγόμι, ὁ νοικοκύρης ποὖναι ;) 

During the period when the Karkantzari are believed to be 
loose no marriage is solemnized. 

All the three great feasts, which are included in the Twelve 
Days, are signalized by efforts towards the extinction of these 
malevolent demons. In some districts it is the custom on 
Christmas Eve ‘to burn’ (καίουν) the Karkantzari. Early 
at dawn faggots of holm-oak (zovpvapia) are lighted and 
cast out into the streets. In other places, notably at Melenik, 
‘they scald’ (fewarifovv) the Karkantzari to death on New 
Year’s Eve. This is done in the following curious manner. 
The housewife prepares a number of cakes, called λαλαγκίδια 
(elsewhere λαλαγκίταις or λουκουμάδες), which she fries in a 
pan, assisted by her children. While this is going on within 
the cottage, the goodman dressed in a fur coat, wrong side out, 
stands outside the door dancing and singing: 


Ky γὼ σκαντζός, κὴ σὺ oKxavtfos- 
"Aivte νὰ χουρέψουμη, 
Τραχανὰ νὰ βρέξουμη. 

“T am ἃ Skantzos, even as thou art one, 


Come then, let us dance together 
And let us moisten the pastry.” 


He continues romping and singing until he hears the hissing 
of the syrup, as it is poured over the pancakes, and then he 
opens the door and goes in. 

In other districts again faggots are collected during the 
whole of the Twelve Days and laid up by the hearth. On 
Epiphany Eve, fire is set to them in order that the Karkantzari, 
who are supposed to be lurking beneath the ashes, may perish. 
But the orthodox way of getting rid of the demons is to wait till 
the parish priest comes round followed by a verger or a boy, 
carrying a copper vessel (μπακράτζι) filled with holy water. 
In this water the priest dips a cross, decorated with sprigs 
of basil, and therewith sprinkles the rooms, chanting a canticle 
appropriate to the day. The ceremony is the coup de grdce 


70 M acedonian Folklore 


for the Karkantzari, who after this blow vanish completely, not 
to re-appear till next year. 

The Karkantzari seem to be a species of werewolves, akin 
to the Wild Boar and the Vrykolakas, to be described hereafter, 
and the name (λυκάνθρωποι), by which they are known in some 
parts of Southern Greece, leaves little doubt that around them 
still clings a shred of the ancient belief in lycanthropy. 


Christmas Eve. 


At evenfall the village boys form parties and go about 
knocking at the doors of the cottages with sticks, shouting 
‘Kolianda! Kolianda!’ and receiving presents. Both the 
custom and the stick are named after this cry, which, like 
its variants to be noticed in the sequel, is an adaptation of the 
Roman and Byzantine term Kalendae. 

Incense is burnt before supper, a chief item of which is the 
cake known as ‘Christ’s Cake’ (Χριστόπηττα). In Southern 
Greece it is also the custom to make on this day a special 
kind of flat loaves with a cross drawn on the top and called 
‘Christ’s Loaves’ (Χριστόψωμα). The cloth is not removed 
from the table; but everything is left as it is, in the belief 
that “Christ will come and eat” during the night. A log is © 
left burning in the hearth, intended to ward off the Karkantzari. 
In Thessaly an old shoe is also thrown into the fire: the smoke 
and the smell of burnt leather being considered offensive to 
the nostrils of these fiends. 

With the custom of leaving the cloth on the table and a 
burning log in the hearth may be compared the similar ob- 
servance in Brittany and other parts of Western Europe on 
the eve of All Souls’ Day, the theory in those countries being 
that the souls of the departed will come and partake of the 


1 In Southern Greece the name retains more of its original form (Κάλανδα) 
and is applied to the Christmas carols, The Russians also call the Christmas 
festival Kolydda, and the songs sung on Christmas Eve Kolyadki, a word 
apparently introduced into Slavonic countries, along with the Christian religion, 
from Constantinople, 


Winter Festivities 77 


supper and warm themselves at the fire, while their living 
relatives are in bed. 

On Christmas morning, on their way back from church, 
the peasants each pick up a stone which they deposit in 
the hearth-corner (yd), allowing it to remain there till 
Twelfth Day, when it is thrown away. An analogous custom 
prevails on New Year’s Day in some of the islands of the 
Aegean as, for instance, Chios. When the family return home 
from morning service, the father picks up a stone which he 
leaves in the yard, with the wish that the New Year may 
bring with it “as much gold as is the weight of the stone.” 
He also, on entering into the house at the head of his family, 
takes a pomegranate out of his pocket and dashes it upon the 
ground. On the symbolic significance ascribed to this fruit 
I will comment later. 


New Year’s Day. 


Far more interesting and suggestive are the customs con- 
nected with the ‘ First of the Year’ (IIpwroypovia), or St Basil’s 
Day (τοῦ Ai Βασίλη). 

On the Eve every household is provided with ‘St Basil’s 
Cake’ (Βασιλόπηττα), in which is concealed a silver coin and 
a cross made of green twigs. This cake—which corresponds 
to our Ring-cakes of Twelfth Night, but in taste is very much 
like ordinary short-bread—occupies the post of honour on the 
supper table. A candle is lighted by the housewife, who also 
fumigates with frankincense first the table and then every 
part of the dwelling. This ceremony over, the family take 
their seats on cushions round the table. The father and the 
mother seize the cake between them and break it into two 
pieces, which are again subdivided by the head of the family 
into shares. The first portion is destined for St Basil, the 
Holy Virgin, or the patron saint whose icon is in the house. 
The second stands for the house itself. The third for the 
cattle and domestic animals belonging thereto. The fourth 


1 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. τι. p. 38. 


78 Macedonian Folklore 


for the inanimate property, and the rest for each member of 
the household according to age. Each portion is successively 
dipped in a cup of wine, with an appropriate preface, e.g. 
“This is for our grandfather, St Basil” (γιὰ τὸν πάππου τὸν Ai 
Βασίλη), and so forth. 

He who finds the cross or the coin in his share of the cake 
is considered lucky, and whatever he undertakes to do during © 
the coming year is sure to prosper. The money is looked upon 
as sacred and is devoted to the purchase of a votive taper. The 
custom of hiding a ring, a coin, or a bean in a cake about the 
time of the New Year is prevalent in many nations, our own 
included. According to mythologists the ring represents the 
sun, hidden and, as it were, buried by wintry storms and 
clouds'—an ingenious theory, and quite as plausible as most 
mythological interpretations of custom. 

Supper over, the table is removed to a corner of the room, 
with all the remnants of the feast left upon it, that “St Basil 
may come and partake thereof.” The fire is also kept up . 
throughout the night. The rest of the evening is spent in 
games among which Divination holds a prominent position. 
As the household sit round the hearth, some one lays upon 
the hot cinders a pair of wild olive leaves (yapSacina), 
mentally allotting each of them to a youth and a maid. If 
the leaves crumple up and draw near each other, the on- 
lookers conclude that the two young people represented thereby 
love each other dearly, the reverse, if the leaves recoil apart. 
If both leaves, instead of shrinking, flare up and are utterly 
consumed, that is a sign that the couple are excessively fond of 
each other.? This is the form of the game at Liakkovikia. In 
other districts, in lieu of leaves, they use the buds of a cornel- 
branch (xpavia), and name the lad and lass to each particular 


1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 201. 
2 A slightly different meaning is attached to the performance in Herrick’s 


allusion to it: 
“ΟΥ̓ crackling laurel, which fore-sounds 


A plenteous harvest to your grounds.” Hesperides. 
Cp. Divination by nuts in England on St Mark’s Eve (April 25), The Book of 
Days, vol, τ. p. 550. 
3 A. A. Ῥουσίου, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Xwpa,’ Ῥ. 49. 


Winter Festivities 79 


pair. If either of the two buds bursts and jumps up, it is taken 
as a proof that the person for whom it stands is enamoured of 
the other. Should they both burst and jump, the feeling is 
reciprocated, the reverse being augured if the buds remain 
impassive. 

It is hardly necessary to remind the English, and still less 
the Scotch reader, of the similar charm of ‘burning the nuts’ 
practised in the North on the eve or vigil of All Saints’ Day, 
and made classical by Burns’s poem of Hallowe'en. The custom 
seems to be a relic of Roman superstition. On New Year's 
Day (Kal. Jan.) the Romans took omens from pistils of the 
saffron plant; as Ovid, so rich in folk-lore, informs us : 


Cernis, odoratis ut luceat ignibus aether, 
Et sonet accensis spica Cilissa focis ἢ} 


‘Guesses’ or ‘divinings’ (Gadaniya) of various kinds are 
also popular among the Russians, and are especially in vogue 
during the evenings of the Twelve Days (Svyatkz).’ 

Maidens, not satisfied with this method of divination which, 
besides being vague, labours under the disadvantage of being 
regarded more or less in the light of a mere frivolous pastime, 
have recourse to a much more serious and convincing expedient. 
They steal a morsel of St Basil’s Cake and conceal it in their 
bosom, taking good care not to be seen by any one. On going 
to bed they say “St Basil, worker of wonders, grant that what- 
ever is my destiny may appear to-night” (“Ai Βασίλη θαμα- 
Toupyé, ὅ, τι εἶναι ἂς φανῇ ἀπόψε). They then put the morsel 
under their pillow and go to sleep in the certainty of dreaming 
a true dream. 

An aged lady, and a firm believer, related to me some of 
her own early experiences in St Basil’s dreamland. She had 
in her youth been engaged to be married to a man of whom 
she was extremely fond. On the Eve of St Basil’s Feast she 
performed the ceremony described above. She had scarcely 
fallen asleep when her lover appeared to her, pale of face and 
sad of mien. Another youth, whom she had never seen in 


1 Ovid, Fast. 1. 75. 
2 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 195. 


80 Macedonian Folklore 


the flesh, stood behind her betrothed and smiled at her over 
his shoulder. Frightened at the apparition she awoke. Then 
she made the sign of the cross, whispering “far be the evil 
from here!” (μακρυὰ πὸ ᾿᾽δΩ), and relapsed into sleep. Where- 
upon a second vision, more dreadful than the first, visited her. 
A young man of supernatural beauty stood before her, floating 
as it were in the air at a height of some three feet from the | 
ground. He was arrayed in a snow-white kilt and held a 
canary in either hand. He strangled the one bird and pre- 
sented the other to her And the fair maid awoke, and, 
behold, it was a dream. But none the less her ‘spirit was 
troubled’ like Pharaoh’s under similar circumstances. And 
well might it be. For not long after her lover died, and in 
course of time she was wooed and won by the strange youth 
who smiled at her in her sleep, and whom she recognized 
immediately on seeing him in real life. 

The superstition is well-known in England. Girls who wish 
to see their future husbands are in the habit of placing a 
piece of wedding-cake under their pillows “and extracting 
nuptial dreams therefrom,” as Mr Meredith would say. 

In some parts of Macedonia, as Shatista, on New Year’s Eve 
men or boys armed with bells (bebousaria) go about making 
the night hideous, presumably with a view to frightening evil 
spirits away. A similar custom in other districts prevails on 
New Year’s Day itself. Early in the morning, when the church 

bells are ringing for divine service, groups of lads run up and 
down the streets with sticks or clubs in their hands and knock 
the people up, crying: “Health and joy to ye! May St Basil 
bring plenty of wheat, plenty of barley, and plenty of children 
to ye!” (Tea, χαρά, κὴ ὁ “Αἱ Βασίλης πολλὰ σιτάρια, πολλὰ 
κριθάρια, πολλὰ πηδούδια), and persist in doing so until they 
have received a gift: rolls, nuts, dry figs etc., which they deposit 
in a basket or bag carried for the purpose. A refusal to reward 
these noisy well-wishers brings upon the inmates of the house 
the reverse of a blessing.” In some districts the sticks are 


1 This youth she knew to be the Angel of Death. 
2 Cp. the old English Shrovetide custom: ‘‘The boys go round in small 
parties, headed by a leader, who goes up and knocks at the door, leaving his 


Winter Festivities 81 


replaced by green boughs of the cornel or the olive-tree, with 
which the boys touch all whom they meet, shouting, “ Soorva! 
Soorva! (Bulgarian for ‘ boughs’), May I salute thee next year 
also with the soorva.” Those who are thus saluted pay tribute 
in coin or kind. 

The green bough is probably an emblem of summer fruit- 
fulness and life, as contrasted with the deathly barrenness 
of winter.’ But the noises and the hunting with clubs may 
more plausibly be ascribed to the belief in the ‘ethereal 
materiality’ of spirits and be compared to analogous practices 
current among savage races: the Australians who “annually 


followers behind him, armed with a good stock of potsherds, When the door is 
opened the hero sings: 


A-shrovin, a-shrovin, 

I be come a-shrovin; 

A piece of bread, a piece of cheese, 
A bit of your fat bacon, 

Or a dish of dough-nuts, 

All of your own making, etc. 


Sometimes he gets a bit of bread and cheese, and at some houses he is told to 
be gone; in which latter case, he calls up his followers to send their missiles in 
a rattling broadside against the door.”” The Book of Days, vol. τ. p. 239. Also 
Ash-Wednesday, ibid. 

1 Cp., however, the Scotch custom: ‘On the last night of the year they 
(the Fairies) are kept out by decorating the house with holly.” J. G. Campbell, 
Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, p. 20. 

With these celebrations: the procession of the boys, their green boughs, 
their demand for presents, and their imprecations against those who refuse, we 
may compare the May Day festivities in Western Europe, of which Mannhardt, 
quoted by Mr Frazer, says: ‘‘These begging processions with May-trees or 
May-boughs from door to door had everywhere originally a serious and, so to 
speak, sacramental significance ; people really believed that the god of growth 
was present unseen in the bough.” ‘‘In other words, the mummer was 
regarded not as an image but as an actual representative of the spirit of 
vegetation ; hence the wish expressed by the attendants on the May-rose and 
the May-tree that those who refuse them gifts of eggs, bacon, and so forth, may 
have no share in the blessing which it is in the power of the itinerant spirit 
to bestow.”” The Golden Bough, vol. 1. p. 212. The same, or a closely similar 
explanation might be extended to the begging or ‘‘ gooding” processions of the 
1st of March, of the Feast of Lazarus, and of Palm Sunday, already noticed, 
as well as to that of the Feast of St John (Jan. 7th) to be described in the 
sequel. They all have some of the main characteristics in common, though the 
‘* bough” does not figure in all of them. 


A. F. 6 


82 Macedonian Folklore 


drive from their midst the accumulated ghosts of the last year’s 
dead,” for example, or still better, the Gold Coast negroes who 
“from time to time turn out with clubs and torches to drive 
the evil spirits from their towns; rushing about and beating the 
air, with frantic howling.”* 

After service are exchanged the customary wishes “For 
many years” (Ky) ᾿ς ἔτη πολλά), and the boys, holding olive- 
branches in their hands, visit the various houses, singing ‘ The 
Ballad of St Basil’ (Κάλανδα, Κόλιαντα, or Κόλυντρα tod” Ai 
Bacidn)—a somewhat inconsequential composition, of which 
the following is an example. 


First of the month, and first of the year; may it prove a happy year ! 

St Basil is coming from Caesarea, 

He is holding a picture and a book; a book and an inkhorn. 

The inkhorn wrote and the book spoke. 

“OQ my Basil, from whence art thou coming, from whence art thou 
descending ?” 

“From my mother I am coming, to the schoolmaster I am going.” 

“Stay and eat, stay and drink, stay and sing unto us.” 

“1 am learned in book-lore: songs I know not.” 

“Since thou art book-learned, recite us the alpha-beta.” 

He leant upon his staff to recite the alpha-beta. 

And, behold! the staff, dry though it was, put forth green twigs. 

And upon its young twigs little birds were singing, 

And beneath, at its young roots, springs were rippling, 

And the partridges repaired thither to drink with the little birds, 

And all winged things, even the young doves, 

They fill their claws with water, and their wings with musk, 

And they sprinkle our lord, may his years be many !? 


These carols in some places are sung by lantern-bearing 
boys on the eve. The custom corresponds to the practice of 
Russian boys who on New Year’s Eve “go about from house to 
house scattering grain of different kinds, but chiefly oats, 
singing Ovsénevuiya Pyesni.”* It is also interesting to note 


1 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. τι. p. 199; J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, 
vol. m1. pp. 70 foll. 

* The text of this song is given in A. A. Tovolov, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον 
Xudpa,’ p. 38. It presents few points of difference from the well-known versions 
published by Passow (Nos. 294, 296—8, etc.). 

8 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 202. 


Winter Festivities 83 


that the presents which the singers receive are considered by 
Russian mythologists as “standing in lieu of the old contribu- 
tions towards a sacrifice to the gods.”? 

In older days parallel customs were current in Scotland and 
the north of England. But instead of olive-boughs the visitors 
used to carry round from house to house the Wassail bowl 
adorned with ribbons, wishing the inhabitants a prosperous 
year, and begging for the wherewithal to fill it. The songs 
also find their counterparts in the New Year carols of north 
Britain? 

The dry figs and other sweet things, symbols of happiness, 
which are given to the boys on this day, might perhaps be 
traced to the Roman New-Year's gifts.* 


The 2nd of January. 


Early in the morning it is the custom in some districts of 
Macedonia to carry water from the fountain without speaking— 
“silent water ”—and to pour it out across the yard and up the 
stairs, expressing by this symbol the wish that the life of the 
family during the new year may run as smoothly as the water 


1 ib. p. 206. 
2 One of them, a Gloucestershire composition, began : 


Wassail! wassail! over the town, 
Our toast it is white, our ale it is brown: 
Our bowl it is made of the maplin tree, 
We be good fellows all; I drink to thee. 
A still closer parallel is offered by an old English children’s song : 
Here we come a wassailing, 
Among the leaves so green, 
Here we come a wandering 
So fair to be seen. 
Chorus. Love and joy come to you, 
And to your wassel too, 
And God send you a happy New Year, 
A New Year, ete. 
The Book of Days, vol. 1. p. 28. 
3 Ovid, Fast, τ. 185. 


6—2 


84 ι Macedonian Folklore 


flows. The Highlanders also in days gone by indulged in 
mysterious water drawn over-night in solemn silence, of which 
all the members of the household drank, and with which they 
were sprinkled, in order to fortify themselves against the 
attacks of witches and demons during the ensuing year. 

Another superstitious custom belonging to this day is due 
to the belief of the Macedonians in the good or ill influence of 
the ‘first foot.’ He or she who enters a house first is supposed 
to bring into it good or bad luck for the whole twelvemonth. 
This belief gives rise to a curious observance. The visitor 
before crossing the threshold picks up a stone—token of 
strength,—or a green twig—emblem of health and fruitful- 
ness,—and lays it on the hearth. He also brings with him 
some grains of salt which he casts into the flames, and then, 
squatting by the fire-side, wishes his hosts “a prosperous year, 
a plentiful crop, and many blessings” (Καλὴ χρονιά, καλὴ 
᾽σοδιὰ Kal πολλὰ ἀγαθά). Then, as the grains of salt burst 
and crackle in the fire, he utters the following quaint formula : 
“As I am sitting, even so may sit the hen and warm the 
eggs. As this salt splits, even so may split the eggs of the 
clucking hen and the chickens come forth” (Ὅπως κάθουμαι 
yo, ἔτσι va κάθηται κ᾽ ἡ ὀρνίθα va ζεσταίνῃ T avyd. “Ὅπως 
σκάζει αὐτὸ τὸ ἅλας, ἔτσι νὰ σκάζουν καὶ T αὐγὰ τῆς κλωσ- 
σαριᾶς καὶ νὰ βγαίνουν τὰ πουλιά) In some villages, like 
Pravi, the wish takes a slightly different form: “as many sparks 
fly from the splitting salt, so many chickens may be hatched 
by the brooding hen.” In consistency and realistic vividness it 
- would not be easy to match these acts of folk symbolism. 

The salt cast into the flames may perhaps have originally 
been meant as a sacrifice to the ancestral spirits of the family, 
and may be a survival of the mica salts, offered by the Romans 
to the deified shades of the dead during the feast of the 
Parentalia.? 

The ceremony is known as ποδάρκιασμα. The prosperity 
or adversity of the household through the year is attributed 
to the lucky or unlucky ‘footing’ (ποδιακό or ποδαρικό) of the 


1 A. A. Tovolov, " Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Χώρα,᾽ p. 39. 


¥. 2 Ovid, Fast. τι. 414. 


ΨῬ 


Winter Festivities 85 


visitor who was the first ‘to set foot’ (ποδάρκιασε) within the 
house. It is well for those who believe themselves cursed with 
an unlucky foot to refrain from visiting on this day. 

The idea is as old as the Book of Genesis and possibly 
derived thence. Jacob in setting forth the blessings which 
accrued to his uncle Laban since he joined his household, lays 
stress on the good luck due to him: “the Lord hath blessed 
thee since my coming” (Heb. at my foot, Sept. ἐπὶ τῷ ποδί 
prov). 

There is no evidence that the ancient Greeks entertained 
a like superstition, unless the epithet ‘fair footed’ (καλόπους), 
_ mentioned by Suidas, is taken to mean “with good, or auspicious 
feet,’ an interpretation perfectly possible, but hardly sufficient 
by itself to establish the prevalence of a superstition.? 

Nor is the dread of comers of ill omen confined to this 
particular day, though, of course, the evil is most strictly 
guarded against at the beginning of the new year. The same 
omen is taken from every visitor, new-comer, guest or servant, 
throughout the year. It is especially observed in the case of 
a newly-married couple. If the man’s affairs take an excep- 
tionally prosperous turn, it is said that the bride “has brought 
him good luck” (τὸν ἔφερε τύχη), and she is henceforth re- 
garded as a ‘lucky woman’ (τυχερὴ or καλορρίζικη). An 
analogous belief attaches to the ‘first handing’ (yepsxo). 
Some persons are gifted with a good hand, others with an evil 
one (καλορρίζικο and κακορρίζικο χέρι), and a tradesman con- 
strues the success or failure that attends his business during 
the day into the good or evil influence of his first customer in 
the morning. Further, a sponsor is said to have an ‘unlucky 
hand’ if two of the children which he has helped to christen 
die in succession. A cook is also said to possess a ‘nice’ or a 
‘nasty hand’ (νόστιμο or ἄνοστο χέρι) according to the quality 
of his dishes. 


1 Gen. xxx. 30. Cp. ib. xxxix. 5. 
2 For an interesting account of the first-foot custom in Scotland see The 
Book of Days, vol. 1. pp. 28 foll. 


faa 
ee 


86 Macedonian Folklore 


Twelfth-Day. 
(@codavera or ta Dora.) 


On the Eve of the Epiphany a general cleaning is carried _ 
on in every house. The ashes, which accumulated in the 
hearth during the Twelve Days, are swept away and along with 
them the Karkantzari, who are believed to be hiding there. 
In the evening a special! ‘ Epiphany-Cake’ (Φωτόπηττα), cor- 
responding to the old English Twelfth-Cake, is prepared. 
“Silly unidea’d girls” sit up all night in the fond, though not 
unromantic, hope of seeing “the heavens open” (ἀνοίγουν τὰ 
ovpavia). This event is expected to take place at dawn, and it 
is held that all wishes uttered at that propitious moment will 
be instantly realized. 

With this Christian superstition may be compared a 
Mohammedan practice. The followers of the Prophet on the 
27th of Ramazan observe what they call the ‘ Night of Power’ 
(Leil-ul-Kadr), the night which “is worth more than a thousand 
months.” That night, as well as all the four nights from the 
26th to the 29th of the month, is spent in prayer, and the 
belief prevails that at a certain, though unknown, moment 
during that night “all the requests of those who are found 
worshipping are granted ”1—a belief based on the saying of the 
Koran that, “in that night descend the angels and the spirit by 
permission of their Lord, carrying His orders in every matter. 
It is peace till the rising of the dawn.”” 

One is strongly tempted by the close similarity of the two 
customs to suspect that the one is an offshoot of the other—a 
temptation rendered stronger by the proximity in which Moham- 
medans and Christians have lived in Macedonia for so many 
centuries. But this hypothesis is precluded by the fact that 
the same, or closely analogous, superstitions exist in lands 
never trodden by Mohammedan foot. In Russia the Twelve 
or, as they are there termed, Holy Evenings are by the rustic 


1 ἐς Odysseus,” Turkey in Europe, p. 206. 
2 The Koran, Sura xcvu. Alkadr. 


Winter Festivities 87 


mind associated with all sorts of wonderful revelations: hidden 
treasures are disclosed during that period, the new-born Divinity 
comes. down from heaven and wanders about on earth, and, 
above all, at midnight on the eve of Christmas and the 
Epiphany “the heavenly doors are thrown open; the radiant 
realms of Paradise, in which the Sun dwells, disclose their 
treasures ; the waters of springs and rivers become animated, 
turn into wine, and receive a healing efficacy; the trees put 
forth blossoms, and golden fruits ripen upon their boughs.”? 
These ideas are also common among Teutonic races. It will, 
therefore, be seen that the roots of the belief entertained by the 
Christians of Macedonia lie too deep to be directly connected 
with the similar belief held by their Mohammedan neighbours. 

The dawn of the Feast itself is in some districts hailed by 
the cries of the boys, who run about the streets shouting “ Eo! 
Eo!” After divine service the same boys go round from house 
to house singing. But the chief observance on this day is the 
one described below. 

After matins it is the custom—handed down from im- 
memorial antiquity—to thrust some one into the water: the sea 
or the river, if the village happens to be situated near one or 
the other, or, if too far from either, into a pond or a well. He 
who is singled out to play the principal part in the performance 
afterwards receives a prize for his involuntary immersion. The 
person thus distinguished can buy himself off by paying a 
greater sum of money than the reward offered. He also has 
the right to claim that the doubtful honour should be inflicted 
upon the proposer instead—a suggestion acted upon, unless the 
latter bids higher for exemption. The one who is finally 
doused, on emerging from the water sprinkles the bystanders, 
and they all join in a banquet got up with the prize money.” 

This custom in Southern Greece, under the name of ‘Diving 
for the cross, is invested with a quasi-religious character, the 
cross being generally thrown into the water with much pomp 
and circumstance by the officiating priest or bishop at the close 
of morning mass. But in either case, it seems to have its 


1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 201. 
2 A. A. Γουσίου, “Ἢ xara τὸ Πάγγαιον Χώρα,᾽ p. 40. 


88 Macedonian Folklore 


remote origin in the “healing efficacy” and other virtues 
attributed to the waters at this time of year—an idea, like so 
many others, adopted by Christianity, but still retaining enough 
of its primitive character to guide the student to its pre- 
Christian source. It may be worth while to add that in one 
case, in Western Macedonia, I heard the well, used as the scene ~ 
of the performance, called ‘the Well of the Drakos’ (τὸ πηγάδι 
τοῦ Apd«ov). If this was not a simple coincidence, it may be 
taken as a hint—obscure indeed, but not utterly valueless— 
that perhaps in this ceremony lurks a relic of an old human 
sacrifice to the Spirit of the Waters. 


January 7th. 


On the following day is held one of the many feasts of 
St John the Precursor and Baptist (Ἢ σύναξις τοῦ Hpodpopou 
καὶ Βαπτιστοῦ ᾿Ιωάννου). On that day in the villages of the 
interior is observed a custom outwardly analogous to the 
Carnival Festivities, which later in the year are popular in the 
towns on the coast and in the islands of the Aegean. 

Parties of men disguised in old clothes, or goat-skins, and 
girt with chains of bells, go about the streets making a terrific 
noise and levying blackmail. These mummers are called baboyert 
(μπαμπόγεροι), but, so far from conducing to merriment, their 
object seems to be to strike terror into man, woman, and child. 
This practice appears to be the descendant of manners much 
earlier than the Italian carnovale, which has been grafted upon 
it in the localities brought under Frank influence. 

On this day also in some places occurs a custom identical 
with those we have already noticed as belonging to the Day of 
Lazarus and Palm-Sunday. The following details concerning 
the practice at Kataphygi, a village on the slopes of Mount 
Olympus, are culled from an interesting sketch by a native 
of the district, published in an Athenian magazine several years 
ago’. 

The choristers, corresponding to the Lazarus and Palm 


1 Τὶ, Παπαγεωργίου, ‘ Οἱ ΙΤροδρομίται,᾽ in the ‘Eorfa of April 17, 1888. 


Winter Festivities 89 


Maids, are here grown up males and are called from the name 
of the feast ‘Precursor Men’ (Προδρομίται). Groups of these 
minstrels assemble after church in the ‘market place, which in 
common with the rest of the village is at this time of year 
generally covered with snow. Out of the number four are. 
selected to lead the groups. These are considered the best 
rhapsodes of the village, and represent the four parishes into 
which it is divided. Each of them, followed by a cortége of 
eight or ten individuals, goes round from house to house, where 
they find a table ready-spread with sweets and refreshments. 
Having partaken of the good cheer and made themselves 
thoroughly at home, they proceed to fill the skins and bottles, 
which boys carry for them, with everything that they cannot 
carry off in any other way. Then, divided into two semi- 
.choruses, they sing by turns songs addressed to each member 
of the family, beginning with a general panegyric on the 
hospitable house itself. The hyperbolic tone of these com- 
positions detracts nothing from their pretty naiveté. Here 
follow a few typical examples: 


I. To the house. 


’ ἘῸΝ ΄ \ a+ \ \ ΄ 
> 
E86 ᾿σὲ τούτην τὴν αὐλὴ τὴ μαρμαροστρωμένη 
᾿Ἐδώχουν χίλια πρόβατα καὶ δυὸ χιλιάδες γίδια. 
\ 
ἜΣ τὸν κάμπο τὰ κατέβαζαν νά τα περιβοσκήσουν, 
Καὶ ᾿ς τὸ βουνὸ τἀνέβαζαν νά τα νεροποτίσουν. 
Κὴ ὁ βασιληᾶς ἐδιάβαινεν ἀπὸ τὸ ταξειδιό του. 
Τὸ μαῦρό του κοντοκρατεῖ, καὶ τὸ βοσκὸ ῥωτάει" 
“Βρὲ τσιόμπανε, βρὲ πιστικέ € καγκελοφρυδᾶτε, 
bf 

To τίνος εἶν᾽ τὰ πρόβατα τ᾽ ἀργυροκουδωνάτα;" 
“ hi > / \ , > > Ud ” 

ἀφέντη pas τὰ πρόβατα τ᾽ ἀργυροκουδωνάτα. 
“Καὶ τίνος εἶναι τὸ μαντρὶ μὲ τὸ φλωρὶ πλεγμένο ;” 


? 


“T ἀφέντη pas καὶ τὸ μαντρὶ μὲ TO φλωρὶ πλεγμένο.᾽ 
Here in this marble-paved court, 
Here there are a thousand sheep and two thousand goats. 
They were driven down to the plain to browse on the grass, 


They were driven up to the hill to be watered at the springs. 
Behold, the king is passing on his return from abroad. 


90 Macedonian Folklore 


He reins in his steed and of the shepherd asks: 

“OQ shepherd, O tender of flocks, O thou of the arched eyebrows, 
Whose are the sheep with the silver bells?” 

“My lord’s are the sheep with the silver bells.” 

“ And whose is the fold fenced round with a fence of golden coins?” 
“My lord’s is the fold fenced round with a fence of golden coins.” 


II. To the master of the house. 


᾿Αφέντη μου πρωτότιμε καὶ πρωτοτιμημένε, 
al / / e \ ᾽ [2 5 id / ef: 
Πρῶτά σε τίμησεν ὁ θειὸς κ᾿ ὕστερ᾽ ὁ κόσμος ὅλος, 
\ a Ἅ, © an αὖ a \ A 
Σὲ τίμησε κὴ ὁ βασιληᾶς va πᾷς va στεφανώσῃς. 
Φκιάνεις στεφάνια ᾿πὸ φλωρὶ καὶ τὰ κηριὰ ᾿π᾿ ἀσῆμι 
Καὶ τὸ στεφανομάντηλο ὅλο μαργαριτάρι. 


"Oo ἄστρα ‘vat ᾿ς τὸν οὐρανὸ καὶ φύλλα ᾽ναι ᾿ς τὰ δέντρα, 
ΞΕ 3, ἣν ἘΝ ΤΥ 4 \ \ s 
Too ἄσπρ᾽ ἔχει ἀφέντης pas, φλωριὰ καὶ καραγρόσια, 
Μὲ τὸ ταγάρι του μετρᾷ, μὲ τὸ κοιλό του ῥίχνει. 
2 7 rd lal / a ΄ 
Eyétpnoe, ξεμέτρησε, τοῦ λείπουν τρεῖς χιλιάδες, 
Ν \ / ey 4 \ \ / / 
Καὶ τὴν καλή του ῥώτηξε Kai τὴν καλή Tov λέει" 
( (ᾳ 5 3 , \ 5 \ , 3) 
Καλή μου, ποὗναι τἄσπρά μας, καὶ ποὖναι τὰ φλωριά μας; 
“c? i ? / \ ΄ a ς ΄ 
Eyo ἴλεγα, ἀφέντη μου, νὰ μή μοῦ το ῥωτήξῃς, 
Κ \ , a er , , > , 
αἱ τώρα ποῦ με ῥώτηξες θά σοί το ᾿᾽μολογήσω. 
Πολλοὶ φίλοι μᾶς ἔπεσαν καὶ τἄκαμάμε χάρτξι.᾽" 


My lord, worthy of the first honour and honoured first, 

First Heaven hath honoured thee and then the whole world, 

The King hath also honoured thee and summoned thee to be his best-man. 
Thou makest the wedding wreaths of gold, and the tapers of silver, 
And the wedding kerchief broidered with pure pearls. 


As many stars as are in the heavens and leaves upon the trees, 

So many piastres hath my lord, also florins and black ghroshes. 

He measureth them out by the bag, he throweth them away by the 
bushel. 

One day he counted them, and counted them again: three thousand 
are missing. 

He questioned his fair one. His fair one he questioneth: 

“My fair one, where are our piastres, where are our florins?” 

“T hoped, my lord, that thou wouldst not ask me, 

But since thou dost ask me, I will confess unto thee: 

We were beset by too many friends, and have squandered our fortune.” 


Winter Festivities 91 


Ill. To the mistress of the house. 


Δὲν πρέπουν τ᾽ ἀργυρᾶ κομπιὰ ᾿ς TO πράσινο τὸ podyo, 
\ / \ > , \ , \ \ / > 
Δὲν πρέπει τὸν ἀφέντη pas va παίζῃ μὲ τὴν κόρη 
Σ τὰ γόνατα νά την κρατῇ, ᾿ς τὰ μάτια va την x τάζῃ" 
“Κόρη μ᾽, δὲν εἶσαι ῥόδινη, κόρη μ᾽, δὲν εἶσαι ἄσπρη." 
“Sav θέλῃς νάμαι ῥόδινη, σὰν θέλῃς νᾶμαι ἄσπρη, 
Σύ ’ \ > , ΄ ? \ , 
vpe ᾽ς τὴν ᾿Αντριανούπολι, σύρε ᾿ς τὴ Σαλονίκη, 
Ky ἀγόρασέ μου ᾿ξώπλατο, σερβιώτικο ζουνάρι, 
Νὰ σειῶμαι, νὰ λυγίζωμαι, νὰ φαίνωνται τὰ κάλλη." 


Silver buttons become not a garment worn green, 

Nor does it become our lord to toy with a maid’ 

To hold her on his knees, to gaze into her eyes: 

“Maid mine, thou art not rosy; maid mine, thou art not fair.” 
“An thou wouldst me be rosy; an thou wouldst me be fair, 
Hie thee to Adrianople, hie thee to Salonike, 

And purchase me a broad Servian girdle, 

That I may swing and sway in it, and display my charms.” 


IV. To α newly-married pair. 
(A fragment.) 
᾿Αητὸς βαστᾷ τὴν πέρδικα ᾿πὸ πάνω ᾿ς τὰ φτερά Tov, 


Κ᾽ ἡ πέρδικα ᾽λάχεν βαρειὰ καὶ ῥάϊσε τὸ φτερό του. 


Διαλαλητάδες ἔβαζαν ᾿ς ὅλα τὰ βιλαέτια" 

Ποιὸς ἔχ᾽ ἀσῆμι ἄδολο καὶ φλωροκαπνισμένο 

Na δέσ᾽ ὁ νειὸς τὴ φοῦντά του κ᾽ ἡ κόρη τὰ μαλλιά της. 
An eagle carried aloft a partridge upon his wings. 
The aia chanced to be too sk and his wing broke. 


They st criers in ail he ἐροζιμοενς 
“Who owns silver pure or plated with gold (let him produce it), 
That the youth may tie therewith his tassel! and the maid her tresses.” 


1 That is, the tassel of his cap. 


92 Macédonian Folklore 


V. Farewell. 


ἘΦ A > + 4 \ > \ , 
Πολλά ‘rape κὴ ἀποὔπαμε, τώρα κὴ ἀπὸ σιμὰ του. 
ἴω ᾽ > / ᾽ “ \ > “Ὁ ΄ 
Λῦσε τ΄, ἀφέντη μ, λῦσε τὴν ἀργυρῆ σακκούλα, 
Ky av ἔχης ἄσπρα, δὸς μᾶς τα, φλωριὰ μή τα λυπᾶσαι, 
XY δ 4 Ψ “ ΄ / δ , 
Kn ἂν ἔχῃς κἄνα χαϊρλέ, κέρνα τὰ παλληκάρια. 


Interval. 


a ς an ’ a Δ .Ὁ / \ «. ig 
Οσαις ὑγειαῖς τόσαις χαραῖς Kai ᾿φέτο KH ὅλο Eva, 
Na Hons χρόνους ἑκατὸ καὶ πεντακόσια Porta, 

\ V4 Ν \ + \ Me, / 
Na ζήσῃς σὰν τὸν "ἔλυμπο, σὰν τ᾽ ἄγριο περιστέρι. 


We have sung much and have done with singing. Now let us be gone 
Loosen, my lord, loosen the strings of thy silver purse, 

And if thou hast piastres, give of them to us; gold pieces, spare them not 
And if thou happen’st to have a wine-jar, serve out wine to the lads. 


They drink, and then continue: 


As many healths (as we have drunk) so many rejoicings (may there be 
this year and for ever, 

Mayest thou live a hundred years and five hundred Twelfth Days, 

Mayest thou live as long as Olympus, as long as the rock-pigeon. 


The goodman or his wife gives them some money at parting 
These donations are handed over to the churchwarden of the 
parish, who as a reward for their labour invites them on thx 
following day to a sumptuous banquet. In the evening a dancé 
is set up in the public dancing-ground, which is thronged by 


1 On the similarity between these carols and analogous compositions one 
popular in England I have commented in a foregoing chapter. The followin; 
description forms an especially close parallel to the Macedonian custom 
described above: ‘At Harrington, in Worcestershire, it is customary fo’ 
children on St Thomas’s Day to go round the village begging for apples, anc 
singing— : 

Wassail, wassail, through the town, 

If you’ve got any apples, throw them down; 
Up with the stocking, and down with the shoe, 
If you’ve got no apples, money will do; 

The jug is white and the ale is brown, 

This is the best house in the town.” 

A kindred custom still surviving in England is that of the ‘Advent Images 
or going about with a ‘vessel-cup,’ the performers being styled ‘ vessel-cuy 
singers.’ The Book of Days, vol. τι. pp. 724—5. 


Winter Festivities 93 


all the inhabitants of the village. The dance is accompanied 
by various songs, among which the first place is held by the 
Ballad of Captain Stathas, a famous Klepht of Agrapha, in 
Aetolia. It runs as follows: 


ἜΣ τ᾽ "Αλγραφα κλαίει μιὰ παπαδιά, μικρὴ παπαδοπούλα, 
Πῆραν οἱ κλέφταις τὸν ὑγιό, κἢ ἄλλον ὑγιὸ δὲν ἔχει. 
Γράφουν χαρτιὰ καὶ προβοδοῦν, γράφουν χαρτιὰ καὶ στέλνουν" 
ΟΣ ἐσένα, Καπετὰν-Σταθᾶ, ᾿ς ὅλα τὰ παλληκάρια, 

Μή μου χαλᾶστε τὸν ὑγιό, T ἄλλον ὑγιὸ δὲν ἔχω. 
Τσαπράζια ᾿ς τὸν γραμματικό, πιολὶ ᾽ς τὸν καπετάνο, 

Ky ἀπῶνα ᾿σημομάχαιρο ᾿ς ὅλα τὰ παλληκάρια. 

In the town of Agrapha there weeps a priestess, the young wife of a priest ; 
For the brigands have carried off her son, and she has no other son. 
Letters are written and dispatched, letters are written and sent: 

“To thee, O Captain Stathas, and all thy braves :— 

Kill ye not my son, for no other son have I. 


(I promise) fetenat- plates for the Secretary, and a pic ‘a1 for the Captain, 
And a silver knife apiece for all the braves.” 


The Basil. 


In describing the mid-summer and mid-winter ceremonies 
of the Macedonian peasantry I have had occasion more than 
once to allude to the plant known to the ancients as ‘ ocimum 
royal’ (ὦκιμον βασιλικὸν) and now called simply ‘royal’ 
(βασιλικός). We have seen it employed in the decorations of 
the ‘divining pitcher’ in June, and in the sprinkling away of 
the dreadful Karkantzari in January. These are only two of 
the many parts which the basil plays in the peasant’s life, 
religious as well as secular. Its title is not a misnomer. The 
basil is really and truly considered by the peasants as a Prince 
among plants. I know not whether it owes its sovereignty to 
the beautiful greenness of its leaves, or to the white purity of its 
diminutive blossoms, or to the sweet aroma which clings to both, 
even after they are dry and to all appearance dead. However 


1 This is a word the meaning of which I neither know nor can guess. It 
may be a form of πιστόλι ‘a pistol,’ which would balance the ‘breast-plates.’ 


94 Macedonian Folklore 


that may be, the basil is held in very high esteem and seems 
to know it, if any faith can be placed in the poetic conceits of 
the following songs, which I heard at different times in two 
different parts of Macedonia. 


I. (From Melenik.) 


Βασιλικέ μου τρίκλωνε, μὴν πολυπρασινίξζης. 
᾿Ἔγώμαι τὸ γαρόνφυλλο, τὸ πρῶτο τὸ λουλοῦδι, 

Ποῦ το φοροῦν ἡ ἔμορφαις κὴ ὅλαις ἡ μαυρομμάτῃς, 
Ποῦ το φορεῖ ἀγάπη μου ἀνάμεσα ᾿ς τὰ στήθεα. 


The Pink and the Basil. 


“My three-branched basil, bloom thou not so proudly green ! 
I am the pink, first among flowers, 
Which the fair maidens and all the black-eyed ones wear, 
Which my own love wears between her breasts.” 


{ 


Il. (From Nigrita.) 


Ὃ “Svocpos κὴ ὁ βασιλικὸς καὶ τὸ μακεδονῆσι 

Τὰ δυὸ τὰ τρίᾳ μάλωναν καὶ πήγαιναν ᾿ς τὴ κρίσι. 
Γυρίζει ὁ βασῥλικὸς καὶ λέει ᾿ς τὰ λουλούδια" 

“Σωπᾶτε, βρωμολούλουδα, καὶ μὴν πολυπαινέστε! 
᾿Ἔγώμαι ὁ βασιλικὸς ὁ μοσχομυρισμένος, 

᾿Εγὼ pupifo πράσινος καθὼς καὶ στεγνωμένος, 

᾿Εγὼ μπαίνω ᾿ς τοὺς ἁγιασμοὺς κ᾽ εἰς τοῦ παπᾶ τὰ χέρια, 
᾿Εγὼ φιλῶ Ths ἔμορφαις καὶ THs μαυρομματούσαις. 


The Peppermint, the Basil, and the Parsley. 


The peppermint, the basil, and the parsley, 

The two between them, and all three amongst them wrangled and went 
to judgment : 

Then turns the basil and thus addresses the (other) plants: 

“Hold your tongues, ye ill-smelling herbs, and be ye not over-boastful : 

I am basil the musk-scented. 

I am sweetly fragrant when green and also when dry. 

I enter into the Holy Services and into the Priest’s own hands, 

I kiss the fair maidens and the black-eyed ones !” 


CHAPTER VIIL. 


DIVINATION. 


BESIDES the guesses and divinings already discussed in con- 
nection with the Feast of St John in summer, and New Year's 
Eve in winter, there are several methods of divination which 
are not confined to any particular season of the year: the oracle 
is always open and ready to satisfy the cravings of the un- 
tutored mind with predictions certain to be fulfilled—provided 
the questioner has faith, and a moderate capacity for self- 
delusion. 

To the divination by tea, or ‘cup-reading,’ still remembered 
in English, and more especially in Scotch country places, cor- 
responds the Macedonian practice of divining by coffee: One 
solitary bubble in the centre of the cup betokens that the 
person holding it possesses one staunch and faithful friend. If 
there are several bubbles forming a ring close to the edge of 
the cup, they signify that he is fickle in his affections, and that 
his heart is divided between several objects of worship. The 
grounds of coffee are likewise observed and variously explained 
according to the forms which they assume: If they spread 
round the cup in the shape of rivulets and streams money is 
prognosticated, and so forth. 

A memory of another, now, to the best of my knowledge, 
extinct form of divination, probably survives in the proverb: 
κἄποιος δὲν εἶχε ποιὸν va ῥωτήσῃ Kal ῥωτοῦσε TO δικανίκι του. 


1 Coffee bubbles possess a meteorological meaning in English folk-lore, see 
R. Inwards, Weather Lore, p.199. In America, appropriately enough, ‘‘a group 
of bubbles on a cup of coffee signifies money,” Memoirs of the American Folk- 
Lore Society, vol. 1v. p. 87. 


96 Macedonian Folklore 


“Some one in want of a counsellor consulted his staff.” The 
phrase seems to be a reminiscence of an old use of the wand for 
purposes similar to those of the modern ‘divining rod’? At 
any rate, the demanding advice of the staff forcibly recalls the 
biblical passage “My people ask counsel at their stocks, and 
their staff declareth unto them.”? 

“The riddles are working miracles and the sieves are 
dropping” (θαματουργοῦν τὰ κόσκινα καὶ πέφτουν ἡ πυκνάδες) 
is another popular saying, used to describe any unaccountable 
or sudden noise in the house. It probably alludes to the “ feats 
of impulsive pots, pans, beds and chairs,” spoken of by 
Mr Andrew Lang,’ with, perhaps, a faint reference to coscino- 
mancy—one of the commonest of classic and mediaeval methods 
of divination. Its meaning, however, is entirely gone, and it 
remains as a mere phrase or figure of speech. 

It is with a sense of relief that one turns from the shadowy 
regions of conjecture to the realms of reality. To the methods 
of hydromancy, or divination by water, described already, 
deserves to be added the art of divining by bones—an art 
still resting upon the firm rock of credulity. The principal 
instrument used in this kind of divination is the shoulder-blade 
(ὠμοπλάτη) of a lamb or kid, and hence the process is techni- 
cally termed omoplatoscopy. When the bone in question has 
been carefully cleansed of the meat which adheres to it, it is 
held up to the light and subjected to the expert’s scrutiny: if 
its colour is a glowing red, it portends prosperity ; if white, and 
semi-transparent, it forebodes extreme poverty and misery. 
This general interpretation is supplemented and modified by 
various minor details. Thus, for example, black spots round 
the edges and only a small darkish space in the middle are 
omens of impending disaster. A white transparent line running 
across from end to end indicates a journey. Black veins fore- 


1 See A, Lang, Custom and Myth, pp. 180-196. 

2 Hosea iv. 12. 

3 Cock Lane and Common Sense, p. 31. 

The case from Mr Graham Dalyell’s Darker Superstitions of Scotland, quoted 
by the same author (ib. p. 123) where ‘‘ The sive and the wecht dancit throw 
the hous” is particularly in point. 


Divination 97 


shadow discord and war. A hollow or a tumour on the surface 


is a sign of serious calamity, such as dangerous illness or even 


death. The same rules apply to the examination of a fowl’s 


_breast-bone (στηθάρι), which the folk from its shape fantasti- 


cally call ‘saddle’ (σαμάρι) or ‘camel’ (καμήλα). For instance, 
if it is clear and pale with only the three corners shaded, it 


-augurs great happiness to the owner. For this purpose a hen 


or cock is specially kept in the villager’s poultry yard, and 


after it has been immolated and cooked, the breast-bone is 


extracted, and some modern Calchas sets to work “ to look for 
the luck of the household” (va διοῦμε τοῦ σπιτιοῦ τὸ τυχερό). 

Omoplatoscopy chiefly flourishes among the shepherds of 
Western Macedonia, and is also extensively cultivated in 
Albania. But, as folklorists are aware, this quaint art—a 
relic of ancient haruspication—is by no means confined to the 
Balkan Peninsula. At one time it must have been spread far 
and wide through Europe ; for we still find survivals of it both 
on the continent and in the British Isles. In England it is 
very appropriately termed “reading the speal-bone (speal = 
espaule ‘shoulder’).” It 15 related to the old Chinese divination 
by the cracks of a tortoise-shell on the fire. It is very popular 


in Tartary, and on the discovery of the New World the North- 


American Indians were found to be familiar with it. They 
“would put in the fire a certain flat bone of a porcupine 
and judge from its colour if the porcupine hunt would be 
successful.”? 

The prevalence of this method of divination in lands and 
races so remote as, say, Ireland and China, suggests the problem 
which so frequently confronts the student of custom: Is it due 
to transmission from one country to another, or is it a case of 
independent production? If the former, when and how and by 
whom was it transplanted, and did it first see the light in 
the East or in the West? It is perhaps the difficulty, not to 
say the impossibility, of giving a satisfactory answer to these 
questions that usually induces folklorists to adopt the view of 
spontaneous and independent development, though in many 

1 Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. 1. p. 331. 
2 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 124. 


A. F. ν 7 


98 ο Macedonian Folklore 


cases—and this is one of them—it is not quite clear why different 
nations should have hit upon exactly identical modes of action. 

Another custom connected with a fowl’s skeleton ought 
perhaps to be mentioned here, though it is a mere game and 
bears only a distant relation to divination. This is the pastime 
known as Yadis, or ‘Remembrance. The ‘merry-thought’ 
or, as it is still called in some parts of England and Ireland, 
‘wishing-bone’ of the fowl is picked out, and two persons take 
hold of it, each gripping one arm with his little finger and 
tugging until the fork has snapped. From that moment the 
two parties are careful not to accept any object handed by one 
to the other, without saying “ Yadis.” He who is the first 
to forget forfeits something agreed upon beforehand. It is 
a wager, or rather a trial of rival memories. 

Several other superstitions of a kindred nature may be 
noticed in this connection. 

A flickering flame in the fire, or an upright excrescence in 
a burning candle, is interpreted as predicting the arrival of a 
guest, whose stature is judged by the length of the flame or 
excrescence. This mode of divination by the fire is not un- 
known in England. Mrs Elizabeth Berry, for instance, “noted 
a supernatural tendency in her parlour fire to burn all on 
one side,” and she very shrewdly concluded that a wedding 
approached the house—a conclusion fully justified by the 
event, as readers of Mr Meredith’s Richard Feverel will 
remember. 

If in carving bread a thin slice drops out of the loaf, it 
is supposed to indicate the return of a friend or relative from 
foreign parts.’ The same intimation is conveyed by bubbles in 
coffee, or by the accidental fall of a piece of soap on the floor. 

If one drains a glass of the contents of which some one else 
has partaken, he will learn the secrets of the latter. 


1 Persian yad, ‘memory.’ 

3 Fires and candles also prognosticate changes in the weather in English 
folklore; see R. Inwards, Weather Lore, p. 197. 

3 In America “1 you drop a slice of bread with the buttered side up, it is 
a sign of a visitor.” Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. 1v. p. 89; 
see also pp. 90 foll. 


Divination 99 


If two persons wipe their hands on the same towel at the 
same time, they will soon quarrel.1 A similar rupture attends 
the act of receiving a tablet of soap directly from another 
person’s hand. To avoid sad consequences people are careful! 
to lay the soap down, instead of handing it to each other 
straightway. 

If two persons raise their glasses to their lips simultaneously, 
they are destined to die on the same day. 

If a shoe is accidentally turned toes upward, it is im- 
mediately set right, lest its owner should die. For this is the 
position of a dead man’s feet. 

Lying in bed with the head towards the west is also a 
posture to be avoided, as it resembles the position of the corpse 
when lying in state. 

For a similar reason three lights in a room constitute a fatal 
sign, as they recall the three candles burning beside the corpse 
before the funeral.’ 

Likewise it is unlucky to be measured, for it suggests the 
taking of one’s measurements for the construction of one’s coffin.’ 

To sit with the face resting in one’s hands portends the 
loss of one’s mother, or, as the peasants strangely put it, 
“You will devour your own mother’s bones!” (θὰ φᾷς τὰ 
κόκκαλα τῆς μάννας cov). Sitting with the fingers interlocked 
is likewise an evil omen. For both attitudes are typical of a 
state of woe.* 

If one’s girdle becomes loosened, it means that some woman 
enceinte belonging to the family has just been delivered. This 
is undoubtedly an instance of divination derived from sym- 
pathetic or imitative magic. A girdle loosened accidentally is 
construed into an omen of an easy delivery: In olden times 
most probably the girdle was deliberately loosened in order to 


1 Cp. similar superstition in Pennsylvania, Memoirs of the American Folk- 
Lore Society, vol. tv. p. 135. 

3 In America also ‘‘Three lamps or candles burned close together mean 
death.” Ib. p. 126. 

3 Cp. the American superstition ‘If an infant be measured, it will die 
before its growing time is over.” 170. p. 25. 

4. Cp. G. Georgeakis et Léon Pineau, Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, p. 335. 


7—2 


100 Macedonian Folklore 


bring about this effect. Conversely, we are told, “ the physical 
obstacle or impediment of a knot on a cord would create a 
corresponding obstacle or impediment in the body of the 
woman.”? Perhaps a similar idea underlies the ancient Greek 
expression ζώνην λύειν ‘ to unloose the girdle, applied to Artemis 
in her character of patroness of women in travail. 

If one’s leg grows numb, he must spit three times upon it, 
that the stiffness may go to a female relative in an interesting 
condition and accelerate her delivery, 

If the thread gets tangled in sewing, that suggests that the 
garment on which it is employed will bring health and prosperity 
to the person who is to wear it (θά to φορέσῃ μὲ χαρά or μὲ 
ὑγεία), the influence of the tangled thread being akin to that 
of a knot, with which we shall become more familiar in the 
course of this treatise. 

If the hem of a garment turns up on the back, the wearer 
is destined to get a new one soon? an omen resting on the 
notion that a coat worn wrong side out brings luck to the owner 
and protects him against sorcery (δέ τον πιάνουν τὰ μαγεια). 

When one puts on a new dress, it is the custom to wish 
him joy of it: “May you wear it with health”* (Na το χαρῇς. 
Na το φορέσῃς μὲ ᾿γεία, etc.). Like wishes are offered on the 
purchase of anything new, the building of a new house, etc.‘ 

At the end of a meal, or after having partaken of any re- 
freshment, it is polite for the host to wish his guest “with 
health” (Μὲ τῇς ὑγείαις σας). 

If a visitor finds the people on whom he calls at table, it is 
a sign that his mother-in-law will be fond of him, a blessing as 
great as it is rare. 

That he will be loved by his mother-in-law, or that he will 


1 For an exhaustive dissertation on Knots at Childbirth, see J. G. Frazer, 
The Golden Bough, vol. 1. pp. 392 foll. 

2 The same superstition exists in America, Memoirs of the American Folk- 
Lore Society, vol. tv. p. 142. 

* Cp. a similar custom among the Celts: J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the 
Highlands and Islands of Scotland, p. 231. 

4 The Arabs also on these occasions wish the owner that his possession may 
prove ‘prosperous ’ (mabrook). 


Divination 101 


become a priest, is also prognosticated of one who likes to eat 
the crust of bread. 

If one, while eating, leaves a small bit inadvertently, it is 
said that some member of the family is hungry. But if he 
leaves it purposely, he is made to eat it, or else he will lose his 
sweetheart. 

If something is broken, two more things will follow, that 
the number of the Trinity may be completed (ἔγεινε ἁγία 
Τριάδα)" Such an accident is considered as appeasing Nemesis, 
and some housewives console themselves with the reflection 
that the ‘ill luck’ (γουρσουζιά) has spent itself, and greater 
evils have been averted. Others, of a more pessimistic turn, 
however, look upon it as a forerunner of more serious calamities, 
and cross themselves while despondently muttering “may it 
turn out well!” (σὲ καλὸ va μας βγῇ !). 


Eventide observances. 


Sweeping after dark is bad, as it sweeps away the ‘prosperity’ 
of the household (τὸ μπερεκέτι τοῦ σπιτιοῦ). The same super- 
stition exists in some of the islands of the Aegean,? and other 
parts of Greece, as well as in many other countries, including 
America. Nor is it advisable to give water out of the house 
after sunset (ua βασιλέψῃ ὁ ἥλιος). If pressed, one must 
pour out into a cup some of the contents of the pitcher before 
giving it away. The same restriction applies to leaven (προζύμι). 
Vinegar also is not to be drawn after ἀκ." 

Salt or a sieve must not on any account be lent out of the 
house at any time of day or night. It is believed that along 
with these articles will depart the prosperity of the family. 


1 Likewise in America it is held that “if there is a death there will be three 
deaths in the family within a short time,” and ‘‘if you break something, you 
will break two other things,” Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. 1v. 
pp. 130, 134. 

2 W. H. D. Rouse, ‘Folklore from the Southern Sporades,’ in Folk-Lore, 
June, 1899, p. 181. 

3 Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. 1v. pp. 82, 147. 

4 For similar superstitions in Southern Greece, see Rennell Rodd, The 
Customs and Lore of Modern Greece, p. 156. 


102 Macedonian Folklore 


In Lesbos onions, salt and matches are the articles forbidden 
to be given out of the house after sunset. 

It is interesting and instructive to compare with these 
some superstitions prevailing in the Highlands of Scotland : 

“ A sieve should not be allowed out of the house after dark, 
and no meal, unless it be sprinkled with salt. Otherwise, the 
Fairies may, by means of them, take the substance out of the 
whole farm produce.”? 

On certain days of the year also the Scotch forbore giving 
fire out of the house. On Beltane and Lammas especially, 
“it should not be given, even to a neighbour whose fire had gone 
out. It would give him the means of taking the substance or 
benefit (toradh) from the cows.’® 

The reason alleged for the Celt’s custom corresponds with 
the Macedonian expression that these articles, if allowed out 
of the house, “will take away the prosperity of the family.” 
The prohibition concerning the loan of a sieve may more 
particularly be accounted for by the belief that a sieve forms 
a strong safeguard against evil spirits and witches. 

It is further said that you should not “eat bread,” that 
is dine, at sundown. A possible explanation of this. behest 
may be found in several Greek folk-songs. From these com- 
positions we learn that Charontas (Death) and his wife 
Charontissa sup at that time of the day. 


Concerning bread, salt, ete. 


The spilling of wine is a sign of wealth; the spilling of 
pepper betokens a quarrel. But the spilling of oil, vinegar,’ or 
arrack forebodes nothing less than the ruin of the household. 

If one wilfully scatters salt upon the ground and does not 


1 G. Georgeakis et Léon Pineau, Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, Ὁ. 328. 

2 J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 
p. 35. 

3 Ib. p, 284. : 

4 Bernhard Schmidt, Lieder von Charos und der Unterwelt, Nos. 25-27. 

5 It is perhaps significant that in some parts of Greece Proper, the name 
for vinegar is the euphemistic term γλυκάδι ‘sweet,’ instead of ξεῖδι ‘sour,’ 
which is the ordinary word. 


a ΦὅΈΣἅΖΣ Β!ῳ͵.- 


Divination 103 


hasten to pick it up, it is believed that in the next world he 
will be doomed to pick up grains of salt with his eyelids. 
This belief exemplifies in a vivid manner the veneration 
with which salt is regarded by the people. It is looked upon 
as a ‘gift of God,’ and any wanton waste of it is certain to be 
punished as a sacrilege. 

Nor is the value set on salt less high elsewhere. Among 
the Scotch Highlanders and Islanders the theft of salt was 
considered an unpardonable crime to be severely punished both 
in this and in the life to come.’ In America also spilling salt 
is unlucky? 

A like sacredness, even in a higher degree if possible, 
attaches to bread. No crumbs are thrown out in the street. 
When the peasants shake the table-cloth, they take care that the 
crumbs shali fall into some out-of-the-way corner, where they 
can be picked up by the birds. If a piece of bread lies on the 
road, the peasant dares not tread upon it; on the contrary, he 
stoops, picks it up and deposits it in some crevice in a wall or 


hedge, beyond the reach of profane feet. “By the bread Which 


we eat” (Ma τὸ ψωμὶ ποῦ τρῶμε) is a usual form of emphatic 
asseveration. Abuse of an enemy often finds expression in a 
denunciation of his bread, just as of his faith (πίστι), religious 
law (νόμο), the parents who begot him (τὸ yovecd), or the saints 


who protect him (τὰ ἅγια). 


Women in kneading bread frequently draw the sign of the 
cross upon the dough, before they proceed to separate it into 
loaves. A cross is especially drawn on the first kneaded and 
baked loaf (πρωτοψώῶμι), which should not be given out of the 
house. It is also customary to make the sign of the cross with 
the knife on the bottom of a loaf or cake before carving it. 

The Mohammedans go even further in their veneration of 
this divine gift. They never cut bread with a knife, but ‘ break’ 
it, explaining that it is impious to wound bread with steel. 

Similar beliefs concerning this article of food prevail among 


1 J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 


op. 236. 


2 Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. tv. p. 82. 


104 Macedonian Folklore 


the Slavs We have all heard of the ‘bread and salt’ offerings 
of hospitality which in Slavonic lands form a chief item in the 
reception of a guest, and which even figure in the enthrone- 
ment of a new sovereign. 

A kindred superstition was entertained by races even more 
remote than the Slavs, as for example, by the Mexicans, among 
whom “ It was thought that if some grains of maize fell on the 
ground, he who saw them lying there was bound to lift them, 
wherein, if he failed, he harmed the maize, which plained itself 
of him to God, saying, ‘Lord, punish this man, who saw me 
fallen and raised me not again; punish him with famine, that 
he may learn not to hold me in dishonour’.”* 

This Mexican prayer of the maize expresses with remarkable 
accuracy the Macedonian peasant’s feelings on the subject, and 
the motive which dictates his treatment of bread. 


Augury. 


The vast majority of the omens observed by the Macedonian 
peasantry are common to many lands besides Macedonia, and it 
will be one of the present writer’s aims to point out some of 
the most remarkable instances of similarity. Many of these 
omens can easily be traced to the principle of symbolism. The 
origin of others is not quite so plain. The people themselves 
cling to their belief as a matter of tradition handed down to 
them from early times, but they are unable to account for it. 

Omens are often taken from the people or animals one 
meets at the outset of a journey, or on going out in the 
morning. It is, for example, unlucky to encounter a priest on 
leaving one’s house in the morning, or on setting forth on a 
journey. In that case it is best to postpone the expedition. 
It is worse if a priest is the first person you have seen ‘on a 
Monday: everything will go wrong with you throughout the 
week.’ The evil can only be counteracted by tying a knot in 


1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 247. 

2 Sahagun, in A. Lang’s Custom and Myth, p. 20. 

3 The same superstition exists in Russia, where it is explained by some as 
being due to the fact that a priest formerly had the right to fine his parishioners 
for non-attendance at Sunday mass. 


Divination 105 


one’s handkerchief, and thus “binding the ill chance” (δένεις 
τὸ Kako). 

A priest or monk is also considered of ill omen on board 
ship. The presence of such a passenger induces people to look 
out for foul weather This superstition is shared by Italian 
and English seamen: 

“Them two covies are parsons, I allow. If so, stand by for 
foul winds,” says the little sailor in a popular sea-story,’ and 
his remark would be as natural on the lips of a Mediterranean 
mariner as it is on those of the Channel sailor. 

A similar dread attaches to meeting a beardless man 
(c7ravos), such men being regarded as particularly ill-omened. 
The evil character of the Beardless Man is illustrated by many 
folk-tales in which such an individual often plays the réle of 
‘the villain.’ 

Red-haired people are, as among ourselves, considered ill- 
tempered, though not necessarily ill-omened. Still, ‘ Red-hair’ 
(ξανθὴ τρίχα) is an expression to be avoided by all lovers of 
peace. On the other hand, those born with a white tuft among 
their hair are looked upon as lucky, the white tuft being 
interpreted as an omen of wealth. Those who have two 
crowns on the head (δυὸ κορυφαῖς) are destined to marry twice. 

At Liakkovikia a child born with two crowns will rob 
someone of his fortune (ξένο βιὸ θὰ φάῃ) 

Cripples and deformed persons are called ‘ marked’ (σημειω- 
μένοι) by God as a warning to others, and their society is 
eschewed. 

As in England, Scotland, America and elsewhere, so in 
Macedonia it is unlucky to turn back after having gone out of 
the house, a superstition recalling the command given to the ‘man 
of God’; “nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.”® 


1 Cp. the proverb παπᾶ παιδί, διαβόλ᾽ ἀγγόνι, ‘A priest’s child, the Devil’s 
own grandchild.” 

2 W. Clark Russel’s What Cheer! 

3 See, for example, The Bet with the Beardless, in Hahn’s ‘ Contes Populaires 
Grecs,’ ed. by J. Pio. Tr. by Εἰ. M. Geldart, Folk-Lore of Modern Greece, p. 60. 

4 Cp. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. tv. p. 22. 

5 A. A. Γουσίου, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Xwpa,’ p. 76. 

61 Kings xiii. 9. 


106 Macedonian Folklore 


A hare crossing one’s path is regarded as peculiarly un- 
propitious, and the traveller, whether on foot or on horseback, 
must turn back. The same dread extends to rabbits and 
serpents The timidity of the first two animals and the pro- 
verbial malignity of the last may satisfactorily account for the 
significance of the omen.’ 

Some Albanian tribes consider it a sin to kill a hare, or 
even to touch one that is dead. One day a friend of mine shot 
a hare on the road and gave it to one of the two Albanian 
gendarmes, who escorted us, to hold. The gendarme remarked 
that his comrade would not touch the animal for the world. 
In order to try him, we took the hare back and asked his 
comrade to hold it while we remounted. But he refused in a 
determined tone: “ Lay it down on the ground, sir, we in our 
village do not touch hares!” 

The Albanians are not unique in their prejudice. The 
Namaqua of South Africa, for example, object to eating the 
hare and account for it by a curious myth, according to which 
the hare was once sent to Men by the Moon to give this 
message: “ Like as I die and rise to life again, so you also shall 
die and rise to life again,’ but the Hare changed the message 
as follows: “Like as I die and do not rise again, so you shall 
also die and not rise to life again.”® 

A hen crowing like a cock foretells death, and it is im- 
mediately killed. We find the same superstition among the 
Southern Greeks, the modern Albanians‘ and the ancient 
Romans.’ It is also preserved in an English folk-proverb: 


A whistling maid and a crowing hen 
Are hateful alike to God and men.® 


1 Cp. J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 
pp. 223, 254; Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. tv. p. 83; 
vi. p. 29. In Lesbos a rabbit is bad, but a serpent good to meet; see 
G. Georgeakis et Léon Pineau, Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, p. 389. 

2 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 121. 3 10. vol. 1. p. 855. 

4 Hahn, Albanesische Studien. 5 Ter. Phormio, tv. 4, 27. 

6 W. H. Ὁ. Rouse, ‘Folklore from the Southern Sporades,’ in Folk-Lore, 
June 1899, p. 181 π. 2. For some other rhymes on ‘ whistling girls and crowing 
hens’ see Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. tv. p. 188; for the 
omen vol. vil. p. 32. 


Divination 107 


The crowing of a cock before midnight is a portent of 
death, or of a change in the weather. In England also the 
crowing of a cock at an unusual hour sometimes is interpreted 
as prognosticating a change in the weather, and sometimes it is 
construed into a worse omen,’ whereas in Scotland it is regarded 


as an indication of coming news.? In America we find that 


“a rooster crowing at odd times of the night” signifies in some 


_ parts death ; in other parts, if it crows in the early hours of the 
_ night, hasty news.° 


Death is also foreshadowed by the hooting of an owl on the 
roof of the house, or by the howling of a dog either in or near 
the house. The doleful nature of these sounds explains the 
meaning attached to them by the Macedonians as well as by 
other races,* while the unnaturalness of a crowing hen, or a 
cock crowing out of the normal time, obviously suggests that 
they forebode no good. The superstition about the howling 
dog is shared by the modern Albanians, as it was by the ancient 
Greeks : 


, 
Θεστυλί, Tal κύνες dui ava πτόλιν ὠρύονται, 
id θ \ > 50 \ , id U ΝΜ δ 
a θεὸς ἐν τριόδεσσι' τὸ χαλκέον ὡς τάχος ἄχει. 


In exactly the same way the ancient Scandinavians held that 
“the dogs could see Hela the death-goddess move unseen by 
men.”® Modern Jews and Mohammedans share this superstition, 
believing that the dogs howl at the sight of the Angel of Death. 
Beasts are credited by savages with the power of beholding 
spirits invisible to the human eye. We find traces of the same 
belief in ancient literature. Besides the passage from Theocritus 
quoted above the reader will recall the apparition of Athene in 
Homer’ and similar incidents. The belief both in the dog’s 


1 Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’ Urbervilles, ch, xxxitt. 

2 J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 
p. 257. 

3 Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. vu, pp. 31, 32. 

4 Ib. pp. 20, 27, 88. 

5 Theoer. Id. 11. 30-31. 

6 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. τι. p. 196. 

7 Odyss. xvi. 162. 


108 Macedonian Folklore 


superhuman capacity for seeing the invisible, and in the funereal 
significance of its how] still survives among our own peasants. 

A night-bird heard in the middle of the town portends a 
pest or some serious public calamity. A similar meaning 
attaches to the notes of a golden plover in the Highlands. 

The screeching of the eagle-owl (μποῦφος) is especially 
considered as a portent of disaster? and so is the cawing of a 
crow on the housetop or chimney. Women on hearing them 
are in the habit of exclaiming “ Eat thine own head!” (Na φᾷς 
TO κεφάλι σ᾽). 

The ancient Greeks seem to have entertained a like fear of 
a crow “sitting and cawing” on the roof of the house* Nor 
has the character of this bird improved with age. Ingratitude 
is the special vice with which the modern muse charges the 
crow: “Feed a crow that it may peck out your eyes” (τρέφε 
kK potva va σε Byad τὰ ματια). 

If clothes are damaged by rats, it is taken as a hint that 
there is a dishonest servant in the house On the other hand, 
it is a good omen to see a weasel (νυφίτσα). In connection 
with this animal it is interesting to note a superstition pre- 
valent at Melenik, and possibly in other districts of Macedonia. 
Women, if, after having washed their heads with water drawn 


1 J. 6. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 
p. 256. 

2 This bird both in name and in character seems to be a descendant of the 
Latin strix bubo. Cp. the epithets ignavus, profanus, funereus, sinister, ete. 
applied to this bird by the Roman writers. The same idea is embodied in 
Virgil’s lines: 

Solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo 
Saepe queri, et longas in fletum ducere voces. 

Aen. tv. 462—3. 
where the note of the bird is classed among the omens which terribili monitu 
horrificant the wretched Dido and drive her to drown despair in death. 

By the modern Greeks the name of the bird is also used as a contemptuous 
term, denoting a person of superlative simplicity, in the same sense as Wros, 
the horned owl, was used by the ancient Greeks, and gull by us. Needless to 
add that the μποῦφος has nothing but the name in common with the buphus, 
or egret, of Ornithology. 

ὃ. Hes. W. and Ὁ. 746-7. 

4 In America ‘If rats gnaw your clothes, you will soon die,” Memoirs of the 
American Folk-Lore Society, vol. vi. p. 30. 


Divination 109 


overnight, they happen to get a headache, set it down to the 
fact that in that water a weasel had its face reflected as ina 
looking-glass (yvadiornxe), and they carefully refrain from 
mentioning the animal’s name, lest it should cause the clothes 
in the wardrobes to decay. 

This superstition regarding the weasel is explained by a 
legend current in Southern Greece. The name νυφέτσα, or 
‘little bride,’ so the story runs, was given to the animal 
because it once was a bride, who for some forgotten reason was 
transformed into a dumb creature. Hence she is envious of 
brides and destroys their wedding dresses.! 

A tortoise is regarded as lucky, and the killing of one as a 
sin. It is likewise sinful to turn a tortoise upside down, for 
that attitude is explained as an insult to the Deity (μουτζώνει 
τὸν θεό). 

Storks, both among the Christians and the Mohammedans, 
but especially among the latter, are looked upon with a 
favourable eye, and their arrival is hailed as a sign of peace. 
The Turks call them hadjis or pilgrims, interpreting their 
annual migration to the south as a pilgrimage to Mecca, and 
believe that the house on which they breed is safe from plague 
and fire alike. 

Wood pigeons and turtle doves are also birds of good omen, 
and flocks of them live unmolested in the enclosures of mosques. 
Sparrows are likewise respected by the Turks, who usually leave 
holes in the walls of their houses purposely for the birds to 
build their nests. A Greek writer tells a characteristic story 
of a Turkish grandee, Tchelebi Effendi by name, who in ex- 
treme old age was ordered by the doctors to eat nothing but 
rice boiled in broth made of sparrows. The pious Turk 


1 Kamporoglou, Hist. Ath. in Rennell Rodd, The Customs and Lore of 
Modern Greece, p. 163. This legend is also made to account for a wedding 
custom : ‘‘ Therefore, in the house where these (viz. the wedding dresses) are 
collected, sweetmeats and honey are put out to appease her, known as ‘the 
necessary spoonfuls,’ and a song is sung with much ceremony in which the 
weasel is invited to partake and spare the wedding array.” In Macedonia also, 
as will be noted in due time, sweetmeats are mixed with the bridal trousseau, 
but no trace of the weasel is apparent either in the act or in the songs ac- 
companying it. 


110 Macedonian Folklore 


durst not follow this advice until the Imam of the mahallah, 
that is, the parish priest, gave him leave to do so on condition 
that for every sparrow he killed he should contribute a gold piece 
to the Jmaret, or Poor-house.' 

But of all animals the luckiest is the bat, and happy is he 
who keeps a bat’s bone about his person. So much so, that 
people remarkable for their luck are figuratively said to carry 
such a talisman (ἔχει τὸ κόκκαλο τῆς νυχτερίδας). 

An insect, at Liakkovikia called συνεργίτης, which in the 
summer enters the rooms and buzzes round the heads of people, 
is regarded as bringing fever (συνεργιό). One must spit three 
times at it, in order to avoid its evil influence (γιὰ va μήν Tov 
ouvepyion). 

A magpie chattering on the housetop predicts the coming 
of a friend or relative from abroad. Our Lancashire folk derive 
different omens from this bird. According to the popular 
rhyme, if you see 

One, is sorrow, 
Two, is mirth, 
Three, is wedding, 
Four, is birth.? 

The arrival of a friend is also signified by a gad-fly alighting 
on one, and it is lucky to catch it and tie it up in the corner of 
your handkerchief. 

A cat washing its face foretells either the coming of a 
friend or approaching rain.‘ 

The quarrels of cats at night are also regarded as a sign 
of rain. 


τ See “Ἢ Καωνσταντινούπολις.,͵ By Scarlatos Ὁ. Byzantios, Athens, 1851, 
vol. 1. p. 91. 

2 A. A. Γουσίου, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Xw&pa,’ pp. 74, 86. 

For analogous beliefs held by the Greeks and Turks of Asia Minor see 
N. W. Thomas, ‘ Animal Superstitions,’ in Folk-Lore, vol. x11. pp. 189 foll. In 
that article (p. 190) is mentioned an insect as συγχαιριαστής (?). Perhaps this is 
the συνεργίτης of Liakkovikia. 

3 In a Suffolk variant the last word is given as death, see The Book of Days, 
vol. 1. p. 678. The same rhymes are applied to the crow in America, see 
Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. νι. p. 33. 

4 Cp. English superstitions regarding cats, R. Inwards, Weather Lore, 
pp. 151-2. ἢ 


Divination 111 


It is considered unlucky to kill a cat. 

An excessive lowing of the cattle, or chirping of the sparrows, 
portends much rain or a snowfall. 

Omens from words, so far as I know, are no longer in 
fashion among the Greeks. Yet the Macedonians firmly believe 
that to prophesy good or evil is to bring it about: 


Καλομελέτα κ᾽ ἔρχεται, 
“Keep mentioning good, and good will come.” 


Κακομελέτα κ᾽ ἔρχεται, 
“Keep mentioning evil, and evil will come.” 


are two popular sayings. 


Premonitions. 


A ringing or tingling in the ears (βοΐζουν τ᾽ αὐτιά) in 
Macedonia, as in many English country districts, denotes that 
‘absent friends speak of you. In some places the tingling of 
the left ear is considered a sign that they speak well, the 
tingling of the right that they speak ill (σὲ κατασέρνουν). In 
other places it is the reverse. The ancient Greeks held the 
same superstition. Among the Scotch Highlanders the tingling 
is explained as denoting news of a friend’s death,‘ while the 
above interpretation is applied to burning ears,® as is also the 
case in parts of England and America.‘ 

Choking (πνίγεται) while eating or drinking is also a sign 


1 Cp. a similar superstition prevailing in America, Memoirs of the American 
Folk-Lore Society, vol. vit. p. 24. 

2 Cp. ‘If sparrows chirp a great deal, wet weather will ensue,” R. Inwards, 
Weather Lore, p. 168. On cattle Ib. p. 153. 

3 Lucian, Dial. Meretr. 1x. 40. Ed. J. F. Reitz, vol. m. 

4 In America also ‘‘ringing in the ears is a sign of death,” Memoirs of the 
American Folk-Lore Society, vol. tv. p. 129. Cp. pp. 138 foll. 

5 J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 
p. 258. 

6 Cp. ‘an’ if the fust mate’s ears didn’t burn by reason of the things them 
two pore sufferers said about ’im, they ought to.” W. W. Jacobs, Many 
Cargoes, p. 9. 


112 Macedonian Folklore 


that one is ill spoken of So is the hiccough (λόξυγγας). 
The person afflicted must try and guess who his detractor is. 
The hiccough will cease as soon as he has hit on the right 
person. The point of this remedy seems to be to distract one’s 
attention from the hiccough, when it is supposed that it will 
cease. Another ingenious, though more drastic, remedy is this: 
some one present suddenly says something calculated to shock 
or to surprise the sufferer, such as an accusation that the latter 
has been maligning him and the like. In this case sudden 
emotion acts as an antidote. But the simplest remedy is to sip 
water slowly.? 

An itching in the palm of the hand foretells a money 
transaction. If it is the left hand, it means that one will 
receive money, if the right that he will have to pay (ro δεξὶ 
δίνει, τὸ ζερβὶ παίρνει). But the right and left rule is some- 
times reversed. In Scotland “itching of the left hand denotes 
money; of the right, that one is soon to meet a stranger with 
whom he will shake hands.”* In America “if the right hand 
itches, you are going to get money; if the left, you will shake 
hands with a friend.Ӣ 

An analogous superstition is held regarding the eyes. A 
twitching of the right or the left eye (παίζει τὸ μάτι) means 
that a friend or a foe will be seen, or that news good or bad 
is coming. The old Greeks also derived a similar presage 
from the “throbbing of the right eye.” ἽΑλλεταιὶ ὀφθαλμός 
μευ ὁ δεξιός: pa γ᾽ ἰδησῶ αὐτάν; observes the love-lorn 
shepherd in Theocritus,> and the observation seems to inspire 
him with hope.’ 

1 In America it means that ‘‘ someone has told lies about you.” Memoirs of 
the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. tv. p. 147. 

2 On similar principles are based the cures practised in America: ‘scare 
the one troubled with hiccoughs by some startling announcement or accusation, 
repeat long rhymes in one breath, take nine sips of water, etc.” See Memoirs of 
the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. 1v. pp. 98, 99. 

3 J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, p.258. 

4 Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. tv. p. 135. 

5 Td. ἅττ.» 37. 

§ On similar premonitions cp. W. H. D. Rouse, ‘ Folklore from the Southern 


Sporades,’ in Folk-Lore, June, 1899, p. 181; G. Georgeakis et Léon Pineau, Le 
Folk-Lore de Lesbos, pp. 334-5. 


Divination 113 


The diversity of the significance attached to right and left 
respectively in different districts of Macedonia corresponds with 
the difference which prevailed between the Greek and the 
Roman systems of augury in ancient times. The Greek augur, 
turning as he did to the North, regarded the bird’s flight on the 
right, that is from the East, as of good omen. His Roman col- 
league, facing South, considered the flight on his left auspicious, 
and vice versa. It is not improbable that the modern dis- 
crepancy of views is due to a collision between Hellenic and 
Roman traditions. 

An itching in the nose, which in Scotland indicates the 
arrival of a letter,’ and in America is explained as a sign that 
one is loved* or that visitors are coming,’ to the Macedonian 
prophesies corporal chastisement. 

Sneezing is much too serious an act to be dealt with at the 
end of a chapter. 


Sneezing. 


In Macedonia the act of sneezing is interpreted in three 
different ways, and the formula of salutation varies according to 
the occasion. 

First, sneezing is regarded as a confirmation of what the 
person speaking has just said. In that case, he interrupts 
himself in order to address the sneezer as follows: “ Health be 
to thee, for (thou has proved that) I am speaking the truth!” 
(Γειά cov κὴ ἀλήθεια λέγω). 

Secondly, it is taken as a sign that absent enemies are 
speaking ill of the sneezer, and the bystanders express the 
pious wish that those individuals, whoever they be, “ may 
split” (va σκάσουν) 

1 J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 
p. 258. 

2 Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. 1v. p. 63. 

3 Ib. pp. 92; 135; 140. 

4 Cp. W. H. Ὁ. Rouse, ‘ Folklore from the Southern Sporades,’ in Folk-Lore, 
June 1899, p. 181. The writer, however, seems to haye misunderstood the 
meaning of the ejaculation uttered: περίδρομος is a name given to the Devil 


and not ‘to the Deity.” It means one ‘roaming about’ with evil intent—a very 
apt definition of one who is in the habit of “‘ going to and fro in the earth and 


A. Ε΄. 8 


114 Macedonian Folklore 


Thirdly, it is considered as an indication of health, especially 
if the sneezer is just recovering from an illness. The formula 
appropriate in this instance is, “ Health to thee, and joy to 
thee!” (Γειά cov καὶ χαρά cov), to which some, facetiously 
inclined, add by way of a crowning happiness “—and may thy 
mother-in-law burst!” (καὶ va σκάσ᾽ ἡ πεθερά cov). 

On the evening of Cheese Sunday, as has been noticed 
already, a special significance is attributed to sneezing, or at all 
events extraordinary precautions are deemed necessary, and 
the sneezer must tear off a piece from the front of his shirt in 
order to counteract the evil. 

Among the Turks also both the belief and the salutation 
are in great vogue, as is shown by the humorous tale ascribed 
to Nasreddin Khodja, the famous fourteenth century wit and 
sage of Persia : 

“Nasreddin Khodja commanded his disciples, when he sneezed, 
to salute him by clapping their hands and crying out: ‘ Hair 
Ollah, Khodja,’ that is ‘ Prosperity to thee, O Master!’ Now it 
came to pass that on one of the days the bucket fell into the 
well, and Nasreddin bade his pupils climb down and pick it 
out. But they were afraid and refused to obey. So he stripped 
and requested them to bind him with the rope and let him 
gently down. Thus he descended, caught the bucket, and 
the boys were already pulling him up, when, just as he was 
drawing near the edge of the well, he chanced to sneeze. 
Whereupon they, mindful of the master’s behest, let go the 
rope and, clapping their hands in high glee, cried out in 
chorus: ‘Hair Ollah, Khodja!’ Nasreddin was precipitated 
violently into the well, bruising himself sadly against the sides. 
When he was rescued at length, he laid him down upon the 
ground and groaning with pain remarked : ‘ Well, boys, it was 
not your fault, but mine: too much honour is no good thing 
for man.” 


of walking up and down in it.” The Greeks further use such expressions as 
Ἔφαγε τὸν (or ἕνα) περίδρομο, ‘‘He has eaten a devil of a lot.’ Κάνει κρύο 
mepldpouo “It is devilish cold” ete. 

The epithet is employed in an uncomplimentary sense by Theognis: ἐχθαίρω 
δὲ γυναῖκα περίδρομον, “1 hate a lewd woman,” 581. 


Divination 115 


An eighteenth century traveller records that in Guinea, 
“when a principal personage sneezed, all present fell on their 
knees, kissed the earth, clapped their hands, and wished him all 
happiness and prosperity ”'—a form of salutation identical in 
almost every particular with the one prescribed by the worthy 
Khodja. 

The superstition concerning sneezing is based on the notion 
that when sneezing an evil spirit is expelled from the body. 
This idea, utterly forgotten by the higher races among whom 
the salutation still exists as a survival, dimly and vaguely 
realized by the less civilized nations, is plainly shown among 
tribes in the lowest stage of intellectual development, such as 
the Zulus, the Polynesians, the aborigines of America and other 
peoples enumerated by Mr Tylor. 

The superstition, which is also known to the Hindus, the 
Hebrews, the Persians and other nations of Asia, is as ancient 
as it is wide-spread. Homer refers to it in the well-known 
line: 

οὐχ Opaas, 6 μοι vids ἐπέπταρε πᾶσιν ἔπεσσιν ;* 

‘Dost thou not see that my son has sneezed in confirmation of all that 

I have said?” 


Xenophon, clever Athenian that he was, turned the super- 
stition to excellent account at a very critical time. While he 
was addressing the assembly of the Ten Thousand, somebody 
sneezed, and the men, hearing it, with one accord paid homage 
to the god; and Xenophon proceeded : 


** Since, O soldiers, while we were discussing means of escape, an omen 
from Zeus the Preserver has manifested itself.......”4 


In addition to these authors, Aristotle,> Petronius Arbiter,® 
and Pliny’ bear witness to the prevalence of the superstition 
among the Greeks and the Romans. Zed σῶσον and ‘Salve’ 


1 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 99. 

2 Ib. p. 97; A. Lang, Custom and Myth, p. 14. 

3 Odyss. xvit. 545. 

4. Xen. Anab. m1. ii. 9. 

> Probl. xxxvit. 7; epigram in Anthol. Graec. Brunck’s ed., vol, 11. p. 95. 
6 Sat. 98. 

7 xxv. 5. These references are given in Tylor, ubi supra. 


8—2 


116 Macedonian Folklore 


were the classical equivalents for the Macedonian forms of 
salutation already quoted. 

Through the middle ages the custom has lasted on into 
modern Europe, the German salutation ‘ Gott hilf” corresponding 
to the English ‘God bless you,’ the Italian ‘Felicita’ and the 
various other forms of expression current among European 
nations. The English story of the fiddler and his wife, where 
his sneeze and her hearty ‘God bless you!’ brought about 
the removal of the fiddle case, is conceived in exactly the 
same spirit as the tale of Nasreddin Khodja. A propos of 
these salutations Mr Tylor remarks, “The lingering survivals — 
of the quaint old formulas in modern Europe seem an un- 
conscious record of the time when the explanation of sneezing 
had not yet been given over to physiology, but was still in the 
‘theological stage.’” 


Prophets and Prophecies. 


Of seers of the Scottish Highland type I met with no traces 
in Macedonia—the southern atmosphere is far too clear for 
mysticism of that sort. Prophets however there are, and 
though I was not fortunate enough to make the acquaintance 
of any one of them in the flesh, I was favoured with several of 
their predictions and, of course, their fulfilment. Needless to 
say that prophets are popular only among the very lowest 
ranks of the peasantry. Those who make any pretence to 
education answer one’s questions with a compassionate shrug of 
the shoulders and a pantomimic tapping on the forehead, which 
expresses more eloquently than any speech what they think 
about the enquirer’s mental condition. If they are sociably 
inclined, they will even hurl at him the aphorism: “ All 
prophets after Christ are asses!” (πᾶς προφήτης μετὰ Χριστὸν 
ryaidapos). 

The meaner sort, however, are not so critical, or so sceptical. 
Many a farmer possesses and often thumbs a copy of the old 
collection of prophecies which goes under the name of Agathan- 
gelus (Aya@ayyedos), a gentleman who holds in the estima- 
tion of the Macedonian peasant the same high place which 


1 Ib. p. 104. 


Divination 117 


some three and a half centuries ago was filled by Michael 
Nostradamus in the eyes of Westerners of rank. There is one 
great difference, however, between the French mystic and his 
Greek counterpart. The latter never lowers the prestige of his 
calling by attempting to prophesy whether “a black pig or a 
white pig is to be served up at dinner.”! Agathangelus 
attempts higher flights. He talks of ‘the blond race’ (τὸ 
ξανθὸν γένος) from the North driving ‘the sons of Hagar’ out 
- of Europe, and generally speaking deals with the rise and fall 
of empires and-with questions of high diplomacy, entirely 
ignoring matters domestic. 

At Nigrita I also heard of several prophetic utterances 
attributed to a holy hermit of the name of Makarios who lived 
and fasted, prayed and prophesied, in the early days of the 
nineteenth century. He did not specialize in politics, as will 
appear from the following examples of his art: 

“ Oeconomos, the rich and wicked steward who uses his 
trust to indulge himself and who turns the poor from his door, 
shall be lifted up by a cloud and shall be carried off to the 
clouds.” The gentleman in question was actually carried off 
to the high mountain-peaks (the clouds) by a large band (a 
cloud) of Albanians, who wrecked his farm and ruined its 
master by exacting an immense ransom. 

“On the site of his big house a vineyard shall bloom, and 
sheep shall graze where his hearth stands.” This too has come 
to pass. 

The following is an oracle of high import, couched in 
befittingly obscure language: 


“The Agha shall not depart, until people have begun to eat grass. 
Then he shall go, but as poor as they.” 


A more pithy description of the Turkish hand-to-mouth 
administration which, like Lamb’s Chinaman, sets fire to the 
house in order to roast the pig, could not easily be found. 
The natives of Nigrita believe that this prophecy is destined 
to come true as the rest of Makarios’s sayings have done. 


1 Garencieres’s Life of Nostradamus, prefixed to the English edition of the 
Prophecies, 1672, in The Book of Days, vol. τι. p. 13. 


CHAPTER IX. 


SYMBOLISM. 


SYMBOLISM, as we have already seen, pervades modern 
Greek life through all its branches. There is hardly a popular 
festival or ceremony which does not exhibit, in a more or less 
pronounced degree, this tendency to symbolic representation and 
interpretation. The same spirit can be discerned in the religious 
rites of the Eastern Church : every part of the sacred building 
to the minutest architectural detail; every article of use or 
ornament; every vessel or vestment employed in divine service 
contains a meaning, often too occult for the ordinary layman’s 
comprehension, but sometimes so simple as to suggest itself to 
the dullest intelligence. In like manner, birth, marriage, and 
funeral are all attended by observances which to the minds of 
the initiated convey ideas concealed from the profane vulgar. 
In many cases, however, the underlying signification is com- 
pletely lost, and can only be surmised by a laborious comparison 
‘of similar observances in countries where the meaning is still 
apparent. To this category belong several rites relating to 
agricultural life. Some of them are good examples of sym- 
pathetic or symbolic magic based on the principle that like 
produces like. 

In time of drought the peasants have recourse to a curious 
ceremony, which in many of its details resembles the rites 
enacted in savage lands for the purpose of making rain? A 
poor orphan boy is adorned with ferns and flowers, and, accom- 
panied by other boys of about the same age, parades the streets, 
while women shower water and money upon him from the 


1 On this wide-spread custom see Mr Frazer’s exhaustive discourse in The 
Golden Bough, vol. 1. pp. 81 foll. 


Symbolism 119 


windows. The boys, as they march along, sing a kind of prayer 
to the powers on high, beginning with the words : 


Bai, Bai, Ντουντουλέ, 
Ky μυσίρκα, κὴ ψινίτσκα, 
Bai, Bai, ete. 
“Hail, hail, Dudulé, 
(Bring us) both maize and wheat, 
Hail, hail, etc.” 
Dudulé is the name given to the boy clothed in verdure. 
_ This is the form of the ceremony prevailing at Melenik, a 
Greek town surrounded by a Bulgarian-speaking rural popula- 
tion, whence the Bulgarian terms used in the song. In other 
districts of Macedonia, where the same custom exists, the words 
are Greek. At Shatista, for instance, in the south-west, the 
song generally sung on these occasions runs as follows : 


Ilep7repodva περπατεῖ 
Ky) τὸν θεὸ περικαλεῖ" 
“Θέ μου, βρέξε μιὰ βροχή, 
Μιὰ βροχὴ βασιλική, 
"Oo ἀστάχυα ᾿ς τὰ χωράφια, 
Τόσα κούτσουρα ᾿ς τ᾽ ἀμπέλια," 
etc. 
“Perperuna perambulates 
And to God prays: 
‘My God, send a rain, 
A right royal rain, 
That as many (as are the) ears of corn in the fields, 
So many stems (may spring) on the vines,’ 
ete. 

In this alliterative composition the name of the principal 
performer (Περπεροῦνα) is the only Slav word, indicating 
perhaps the origin of the custom. At Kataphygi, again, the 
Slav name, being unintelligible, has been corrupted into 
Piperia, “ Pepper-tree.” 

Ilurepia, πιπεριὰ δροσολογιά, etc. 
“Piperia, dew-collecting piperia” etc.! 
1 For similar songs, collected in other parts of Greece, see Passow, Nos. 
311—313. In one of them the name is more correctly given as Περπεριά. 


120 Macedonian Folklore 


Both the names given above, as well as the custom which 
they designate, are to be met with in many Slavonic lands. In 
Servia the rite is performed in a manner that differs from the 
foregoing description only in one point: the part played by the 
boy among the Macedonians is there assigned to a girl who, 
clad in nothing but leaves and flowers, is conducted through 
the village, accompanied by other girls singing “Dodola Songs.” 
“The people believe that by this means there will be extorted 
from the ‘heavenly women’—the clouds—the rain for which 
thirsts the earth, as represented by the green-clad maiden 
Dodola.”!| The same custom, with slight variations, is kept 
up in Dalmatia, where the chief performer is called Prpats, 
and his companions Prporushe, and in Bulgaria, where we 
again find a maiden undertaking the leading réle and called 
Preperuga—the original of the second name by which the 
rite is known among the Greeks. The Wallachs also have 
turned the same name into Papeluga, and the custom among 
them is in all essentials identical with the Slav and the Greek.? 

The ceremony, now restricted within the limits of these 
countries, once prevailéd in‘many parts of Germany, and Jacob 
Grimm has tried to identify the Dodola and Purpirouna with 
the Bavarian Wasservogel, and the Austrian Pfingstkénig, who, 
according to him, are connected with the ancient rain-preserving 
rites. 

Of the magical ceremonies for making sunshine‘ there is 
no vestige in Macedonia. But a relic of some old religious 
observance still survives in a sportive custom. The children at 


1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, pp. 227 foll. 

2 The Vienna correspondent of the Standard (Aug. 18, 1902) reports a ghastly 
application of the principle underlying this picturesque custom from the district 
of Rogatza in Bosnia: ‘A peasant living in a village called Hrenovieza com- 
mitted suicide by hanging himself. Shortly afterwards a severe drought set in, 
which threatened to destroy the crops. The peasants held a council, and, 
connecting the drought with the man’s suicide, resolved to open the grave and 
pour water on the corpse, in order that this might bring the longed-for rain, 
Their intentions were carried out, and the grave was then filled again, after 
prayer had been offered. The rain, however, did not come, and the villagers © 
who had taken part in this curious rite have been arrested by the gendarmes.” 

8. Ralston, ubi supra. 

4 J.G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. τ. p. 115. 


Symbolism 121 


Melenik are in the habit of offering up a prayer to the Sun, 
that he may come out and ripen the grapes : 


Ἔλα, πάππου “Ἡλιου, 
΄ / / / 
Na σε δώσουμε κόκκινα ποδήματα, 
Νὰ κλωτσᾷς τὰ κλήματα ! 
“Come, Grandfather Sun, 


That we may give thee red boots, 
Wherewith thou mayest kick at the vines!” 


There is in this form of address (“Grandfather Sun”) an 
unmistakable and undisguised ring of paganism, reminding one 
of the mythological idea of parentage still entertained by 
savages: “ Yonder sun is: my father!” exclaimed the Shawnee 
chief, proudly pointing to the luminary, and the boast was 
more than an empty rhetorical figure to him? 

With the promised gift of “red boots” may be compared 
similar offers in Russian folk-tales. The elder brothers on 
going away tell Emilian the fool: “Obey our wives... and we'll 
buy you red boots, and a red caftan, and a red shirt.” When 
the king sends for him, the messengers say: “Go to the king. 
He will give you red boots, and a red caftan, and a red shirt.”® 

Again, when it snows for the first time in the year, the 
boys hail the event with some rhymes which sound like un- 
mitigated nonsense, though they may, and most likely do, 
contain allusions impossible to verify at this time of day. The 
following is a fragment from Melenik : 


Χιονίζει, χιονίζει, 

Τὸ μάρμαρο ἀσπρίζει, 
Ἢ γάτα μαγειρεύει, 

« / 4 

O πόντικας χορεύει, etc. 


“Tt snows, it snows, 
And whité the flagstone grows, 
Now cooks the cat, 
And romps the rat, etc.” 


1 Cp. the custom of children in classical times to address the sun “Héey’, 
ὦ φίλ᾽ ἥλιε, ‘Come out, dear Sun,’ “when the god was overrun by a cloud,” 
Pollux rx. 123. 

2 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 327. 

3 Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, pp. 263—6. 


122 7 Macedonian Folklore 


To return to the subject of symbolism. When the farmers 
have finished digging in the fields, they throw their spades 
up into the air and, catching them again, exclaim: “ May the 
crop grow as high, as the spade has gone!”? 

The first fruit of a tree must not be eaten by a barren 
woman, but by one who has many children. The sympathetic 
influence of the woman’s fecundity is too obvious to need 
explanation. An analogous belief prevails among the Bavarian 
and Austrian peasants, “who think that if you give the first 
fruit of a tree to a woman with child to eat, the tree will bring 
forth abundantly next year.” ? 

When a mother has done plaiting her daughter’s braids 
she swings them thrice upwards saying: 


\ 
Πάνου τὸ κορίτσι, κάτου Ta μαλλιά: 


“May the maid grow up, and her hair long below.” 


On a child’s name-day, which in the East is observed with 
as much ceremony as the birthday is in the West of Europe, 
it is the custom to pull the child’s ear slightly upwards, wishing 
that the child “may live and grow tall” (va tpavéwn). Some 
peasants entertain the ungallant notion that girls need no such 
inducement to grow: “The Devil himself makes them grow by 
pulling them up by the nose, sir,’ an old farmer at Provista 
assured me. 

A jug of water is emptied upon the ground after a departing 
guest, that he may speed well on his journey, “As the water’s 
course is smooth and easy so may the traveller’s path be” 
(ὅπως πάει TO νερὸ γλήγορα ἔτσι νὰ πάῃ κὴ ὁ ἄθρωπος). 


1 This is undoubtedly a survival of what some authorities call imitative 
magic. For parallels—some of them extremely close—to this custom, see 
J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. 1. pp. 36—37. 

2 Ib. p. 88. 

3 A. Δ, Τουσίου, “Ἢ xara τὸ Πάγγαιον Χώρα,᾽ p. 76. 


CHAPTER X. 


BIRTH. 


THE rites and observances which precede and accompany 
the young Macedonian’s entry into the world afford much that 
is of interest to the folk-lorist. When the first symptoms of his 
approach have manifested themselves, great care is taken to 
conceal the fact from the neighbours. Otherwise it is feared 
that the confinement will be attended by much suffering, due 
to the evil influence of ill-wishers or to the evil eye. For the 
same reason the midwife is summoned in all secrecy and under 
a false pretence. During travail the water of which the patient 
drinks is medicated with a plant locally known as ‘The Holy 
Virgin’s Hand’ (τῆς Παναγιᾶς τὸ χέρι), that is, some sprigs of 
it are thrown into the jug. 

This is apparently one of the many plants endowed by 
popular superstition with magic virtues against ill. Such 
plants and herbs have been known in all lands and at all 
periods of the world’s history.’ Perhaps the most familiar of 
them are those in use among the Celts, such as the Mothan, 
or trailing pearlwort, and the Achlasan Challumchille, or St 
John’s wort. The former protected its possessor against fire 
and the attacks of fairies; the latter warded off fevers.? The 
Macedonian equivalent is considered a powerful safeguard 
against both. dangers. 

As soon as the child is born, the servants or the boys of the 
family hasten round to the houses of relatives and friends to 


1 See A. Lang’s essay on ‘Moly and Mandragora,’ in Custom and Myth, 
pp. 148- - δ, é 

2 J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 
p. 49; Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. vu. pp. 100 foll. 


124 Macedonian Folklore 


announce the glad event and receive ‘The reward of congratu- 
lation’ (τὰ σ᾽ yapyxia).1 The midwife then proceeds to hang 
a clove of garlic and a gold ring or a gold coin on the mother’s 
hair,—ornaments which she wears till her purification,—as well 
as on the ‘new-born baby, in order to avert the evil eye. 
A skein of red yarn (γνέμα) is also attached to the bedroom 
door, as a symbol that the evil is “bound,” that is rendered 
helpless. This operation is described at Melenik as “binding the 
Armenos” (δένουν τὴν “Appevov), a word of obscure meaning, but 
evidently used in a personal sense, though who this lady is the 
people, so far as I could discover, have not the faintest idea. 
“ We do this that the patient may not suffer from the Armenos” 
(γιὰ va μὴν ἀρμενιασθῇ ἡ λεχοῦσα). This was their answer to 
my queries. An identical practice with similar intent prevailed 
once in the Highlands of Scotland.” 

On the same day comes the priest, and with the stole round 
his neck reads a special prayer over a bowl of water (διαβάζει 
TO vepo), with which the patient is sprinkled every evening 
during her confinement. 

The members of the family in which there is a woman in 
-child-bed make a point of retiring home before nightfall, or else 
they are fumigated. Contrariwise, no visitor is allowed to 
remain in the house after dark. If he is obliged to do so, he 
throws upon the mother and the infant a shred of his raiment, 
wishing them a peaceful night.’ 

During a whole fortnight the patient is never for a single 
moment left alone, but day and night is watched either by the 
midwife or by some friends, lest she should ἀρμενιασθῇ, and no 
light besides the one in the room is allowed to be brought in. 
In the same way among the Celts “the first care was not to 
leave a woman alone during her confinement. <A houseful of 
women gathered and watched for three days, in some places 
for eight.”4 

All these precautions appear to have one object in view, 


1 Cp. the word εὑρετήκια, ra, “ the reward for a thing found.” 
2 J. G. Campbell, wbi supra, p. 37. 

3 A. A. Τουσίου, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Χιώρα,᾽ p. 75. 

4 J. α. Campbell, ubi supra, p. 36. 


Birth 125 


namely, to prevent the Nereids (Nepaides) from carrying off the 
infant, or hurting its mother. In this respect the modern Greek 
nymphs correspond exactly to the mischievous fairies of the 
north. Like the latter they are very fond either of abducting 
new-born children or substituting their own offspring in their 
stead. The similarity of attributes is all the more striking 
as it can hardly be accounted for by the borrowing theory. 
Nor is it easier to explain it as being the result of independent 
growth. 

The same tendency towards child-abduction “seems to some 
extent to have been attributed to the Nymphs in old times, for 
in many epitaphs on children that died at an early age, they are 
spoken of as having been carried off by Nymphs.”? Hesychius 
also describes Γελλὼ as “a female demon, said by the women to 
be in the habit of carrying off new-born babes.”* 

For forty days friends and relatives bring to the woman 
in child-bed pancakes (λαλαγκίταις) and sweetmeats. During 
the first three nights a small table covered with a cloth is 
placed under the lamp which burns in front of the icon of the 
Panaghia. Upon this table is laid bread, salt, and pieces of 
money. On the third day a maid whose parents are both 
alive makes a honey cake, which in the evening is set upon 
the small table close to the baby’s head. Upon the table is 
likewise placed a mirror; and some gold or silver pieces or 
jewels are laid upon it or under the baby’s pillow. These 
offerings are intended for the Fates (Moitpais) who are expected 
to come during the night and bestow on the infant its destiny 
in life (μοιρώνουν or μοιράζουν). The sweet cake is meant to 
propitiate or conciliate the Goddesses, while the mirror stands 
as a symbol of beauty, and the money and jewels suggest 
wealth. For the same reason a light is left burning all night 
to enable the Fates to find their way to the cradle. In the 
morning the midwife shares with the friends and relatives the 


1 Cp. Pashley, Crete, 1. p. 216, in Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of 
Turkey, vol. τι. p. 314. 

2 Preller, Griechische Mythologie, τ. p. 565 note, in Tozer, ubi supra. 

3 The name of this demon has been derived by some from the verb ρελεῖν in 
analogy with the Teutonic Frau Holda. 


126 Macedonian Folklore 


cake, which is eaten on the spot, not allowing one crumb to 
get out of the room, lest it should fall into the hands of 
enemies who could work a spell upon it. Similarly “the 
German peasant, during the days between his child’s birth and 
baptism, objects to lend anything out of the house, lest witch- 
craft should be worked ‘through it on the yet unchristened 
baby,”*—an idea of which we find many illustrations in 


Macedonia. 


The Three Fates. 


The belief in the Fates and their visit is one of the most 
deeply-rooted and most widely-spread superstitions that have 
survived from ancient times. As in antiquity so at this day 
the Moirais are represented as three in number. Their indi- 
vidual names have been forgotten, but they are still described 
as carrying a spindle and yarn wherewith is spun the infant’s 
destiny. This idea is graphically set forth in the following 
popular distich : 

Ἢ Μοῖρα ποῦ ce potpave ἀδράχτ᾽ εἶχ᾽ ἀσημένιο, 
Καὶ νῆμα ἀπὸ μάλαμα καὶ μοίρανε καὶ σένα. 
“The Fate who fated thee carried a silver spindle 
And thread of gold, wherewith she fated thee.” 


People remarkable for their luck (καλόμοιρος) are believed 
to have received the Fate’s benediction from her right hand: 


Ἢ Μοῖρά μού pe βάφτισε μὲ τὸ δεξί της χέρι, 
“My Fate has blessed me with her right hand,” 
says a folk song. 
The reverse (κακόμοιρος) is expressed by the following : 
Ἢ Moipa μού pe βάφτισε μὲ τὸ CepBi της χέρι, 
“My Fate has blessed me with her left hand.” 
It is interesting that in these phrases the blessing of the 
Fates should be described as “baptism.” We probably have 


here a popular confusion between Christian and Pagan belief 
and practice, instances of which abound at every turn. 


1 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. τ. p. 116. 


Birth 127 


The following complaint, which I heard at Melenik, gives 
utterance to the same superstition : 


Μοῖρά μου καύμένη, 
Καὐμένη Μοῖρα ! 
Δέ᾽ με μοίρανες Kara, 
Aé με μοίρανες κ᾽ ἐμένα 
Σὰν τοῦ κόσμου τὰ παιδιά! 
‘“Wretched Fate mine, 
My wretched Fate! 
- Thou didst not fate me well, 


Thou didst not fate me 
Like other men’s children.” 


Such sentiments are plentiful both in verse and in prose. 
A popular proverb declares that “ Where the poor man is, there 
is his Fate too” (Ὅπου ὁ φτωχὸς κ᾽ ἡ Μοῖρά rov)—so true it 
is that popular sayings, in some cases at all events, are “chips 
of mythology.”? | 

The beliet in the three Fates is also very strong among the 
Wallachs, but they seem to have borrowed it from the Greeks, 
At any rate the name given to the goddesses by them (Mire) 
is thoroughly Greek. The Albanians believe in the Fates 
under the name of Fati, which is derived directly from the 
Italian. Hahn, however, in an Albanian tale introduces them 
by the Greek designation Moeren.? 

The Fates of the ancient Greeks, and consequently their 
modern representatives also, have been indentified with the 
three Scandinavian Norns, whose names are Urdhr, Verdhandi, 
and Skuld—Was, Is, and Shall-be. This division of time 
between them corresponds with the tasks allotted to the three 
ancient Fates; Lachesis sings the past, Kléthéd the present, 
and Atropos the future.® 

The following tales illustrate the impossibility of escaping 


1 For the belief in the Fates and the birth ceremonies observed in various 
parts of Southern Greece see Bernhard Schmidt, Das Volksleben der Neugriechen; 
Rennell Rodd, The Customs and Lore of Modern Greece, ch. 1v.; G. Georgeakis 
et Léon Pineau, Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, p. 330. ‘ 

2 Griechische und Albanesische Marchen, No. 103. 

3 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 352 and authorities referred to there. 


128 Macedonian Folklore 


from the decrees of the Fates—the stern, inexorable daughters 
of dread Necessity. 


1. The Youth and the Fates. 
(From Sochos.) 


A youth once, while travelling, stopped at a peasant’s 
cottage to spend the night. He was received hospitably and 
laid himself down to sleep in a corner of the common bed-room, 
in which his host and hostess also slept. The woman had had a 
female child two days before. As the youth lay on his mattress 
awake, he perceived Fate, Fortune, and Death (Μοῖρα, Τύχη, 
Χάρος) stalk into the room in order to allot to the baby her 
portion in life. They glanced at the stranger and then walked 
out. The youth heard them holding a consultation amongst 
themselves outside the door. At last Fate raised her eyes to 
the bright star-lit sky and said: “The little maid shall become 
the strange youth’s wife.” 

Our traveller was not at all pleased with this off-hand 
way of disposing of him. For he was an ambitious youth, 
and the prospect of marrying a poor peasant’s daughter 
accorded ill with his views. So, in order to avoid the fulfilment 
of the Fatal decree, he got up softly, stole to the baby’s cradle 
and taking her in his arms crept out of the cottage. On the way 
he threw her into a thorny hedge (παλουκάδα) and pursued his 
journey, fondly confident that he had baffled Fate. 

But next morning the peasant and his wife went in quest 
of their offspring. They found and rescued her unscathed, save 
for a scratch across the breast, the mark of which remained. 

Years went by, and the stranger, now grown into a 
prosperous man, chanced to journey that way again. Having 
long forgotten the episode, he put up at an inn opposite the 
peasant’s cottage. A fair damsel appeared at the window, and 
he was so smitten by her beauty that he forthwith stepped 
across the road and asked her in marriage from her parents. 
It was only after the wedding that the sight of the scar led 
to the discovery that she was the infant he had sought to 
destroy. 


Birth . 129 


In this tale Fate figures in the company of Fortune and 
Death. With the former she is very often confused. But 
Τύχη is also sometimes conceived of as a personal deity, cor- 
responding to the Servian Srétya, and to the Turkish Bakht—a 
kind of guardian angel or spirit. 


II. The story of Naidis the Foundling’. 


(From Salonica.) 


Once upon a time there was a very wealthy man. He had 
houses, furniture, sheep, goats, and is there anything he had 
not? He had of all that is good in the world; in his house 
even the cocks laid eggs, as the saying goes. But, in spite of 
all this wealth, he was a miser, and mean as a Tzingan. 

This man chanced to visit a big city, say Salonica; but he 
refrained from putting up at an inn, lest he should spend 
money. Nor would he go to some great man’s palace, lest he 
should incur an obligation. So he stopped δὖ ἃ poor man’s 
cottage. The house was only one big room and the hall, and 
they put him up in a corner of the room—his servant remained 
in the yard with the horses. Now, the poor man’s wife had 
been delivered of a boy which was three days old when this 
wealthy man arrived. 

So they laid them down to sleep in the evening, the guest 
in one corner of the room and the woman in child-bed with her 
husband in the other. These went to sleep at once and slept 
soundly, for the poor have no cares. The wealthy man, however, 
sleep would not seize on him, but he turned now on this side, 
now on the other, thinking and calculating his wealth. While 
he was thinking, all of a sudden he sees the door thrown open, 
and in came three women clad in white. One of them was 
taller and more beautiful than the others. They were the 
three Fates, who allot the child’s destiny on the third day 
after birth. 

So, as we said before, they entered the room and stood 
where the little one lay sleeping. The greatest of the Fates 
touched him with her finger and said : ; 


1 For the original Greek see Appendix I, 


180 Macedonian Folklore 


“What kind of destiny shall we allot him ?” 

Answered the others : 

“Let us make him be the heir to the wealthy man who is 
lying in yon corner.” 

“ Agreed,” said the others. 

Thus they decreed and vanished. 

The wealthy man heard these words and was afraid, and 
could not close an eye from fear. He rose and began to stroll 
up and down in the room till daybreak. When God brought 
the day, and the poor man rose from bed, then the stranger said 
to him: 

“T am going home to-day. Children of my own I have 
none. If you will give me your baby, my wife and I will bring 
it up just as if it were our own flesh and blood. You are young 
and, please God, you may have more.” 

Thereupon the poor man called to his wife to see what she 
had to say, and she at first would not consent, for where is the 
mother who will part with her child? but at length, lest they 
should spoil the child’s chance, she answered, “ Very well,” and 
consented to give it away, although she loved it as a mother 
should. She suckled it well till it had enough milk, then 
she dressed it in the best clothes she had and kissed it cross- 
wise on the forehead. So the wealthy man took the child, 
saddled his horse, was bidden “God speed” and went away 
with his servant. 

When they got outside the city and reached a desert place 
in the midst of the standing corn—it was summer—he reined 
in his mare and said to the servant : 

“Take this babe and slay it with a stone.” 

The servant at first would not do it, for he was a God-fearing 
man; but finally, will he nill he, he obeyed his master and took 
up the baby. However, instead of striking the child he struck 
the earth with the stone, and his master thought that he had 
struck the child. Then he suddenly made as though he saw 
someone from afar, ran to his horse, pretending to be frightened, 
- and made off as speedily as he could. And so the little one 
remained sleeping among the ears of corn. 

Let us now leave the wealthy man and take up the child. 


Birth . 131 


Those fields belonged to a rich farmer who had no children of 
his own, and both his wife and he ever prayed to God that He 
might give them one. They also wished to adopt a child in 
the hope that God might take pity on them. On that evening 
this rich man happened to be strolling in the fields and heard 
the child crying. He stopped short and said to himself: 

“What can this be? it is not a jackal, nor is it a dog. Let 
me go and see.” 

He walked towards the voice and by and by found the little 
one, and he wondered. And seeing the child so pretty and clean 
and plump, he took a fancy to it and lifted it up in his arms 
and carried it to his wife. 

“See what I have found in the fields, wife,” said he. “We 
wished for a child and behold! a child God has sent us.” 

His wife would not believe him. 

“Fie upon thee, who knows who is the child’s mother? But, 
let it be. Ido not mind. Let us keep it.” 

They kept it and engaged a nurse to suckle it, and when it 
grew up they sent it to school. And the boy, being of a kindly 
nature, made progress and was very fond of them, and they in 
their turn were fond of him, and they called him Naidis, which 
is, as we might say, Foundling. 

Now to come to the wealthy man. Time went by, and 
Naidis became sixteen or seventeen years old. Then, one day 
lo and behold! that wicked wealthy man, who had tried to 
destroy Naidis, chanced to come and put up in the very house 
where he lived, and he heard the people call the boy Naidis, 
and he was surprised at the name. He asks his hostess: 

“Tell me, madam, wherefore do you call him so?” 

“We gave him that name because, to tell the truth, he is not 
our own son. My husband found him some seventeen years since 
in the fields amidst the standing crop. We had no children, so 
we brought him up and love him as our own, and he loves us 
very much indeed.” 

The wealthy man on hearing this was grieved at heart, for 
he understood that it was the child which he had ordered his 
servant to kill) Now, what was he to do? He thinks it over 
and over again. At length an idea occurred to him. He turned 


9—2 


132 Macedonian Folklore 


and said that he had a letter to send home and that he wanted 
a trusty man to carry it. 

“ Why, we will send Naidis,” they answered. They prepared 
a cake and other food for Naidis, and he saddled his horse in 
order to go. The wealthy man gave him a letter for his wife, in 
which he told her to send the bearer up to the mountain 
pastures where his flocks were grazing, and to bid the shepherds 
cut him in pieces and fling him into a well. 

Naidis took the letter without any suspicion, mounted his 
horse, and set out. But before he set out his mother advised 
him to take care and not drink water when tired; then she 
kissed him and bade him Good-bye. 

In the way which he was going he reached a fountain under 
a tree, and he alighted in order to rest awhile and then drink, 
according to his mother’s advice; for he was very thirsty. As 
he was sitting there under the shadow of the tree, an old man 
with a long white beard passed by and said to the boy: 

“ Whither, in good time, my son?” 

“A good time to thee, grandfather, I am going to Such- 
and-such a place with a letter for So-and-so.” 

“Give me that letter that I may see it; for methinks I know 
the man.” 

The boy gave him the letter, and the old man passed his 
hand over it, and then returned it and went his way. 

To cut a long tale short, Naidis arrived at the wealthy man’s 
house towards evening. As he was dismounting he looked up 
and saw a maid fair as the moon standing at the window. In 
the twinkling of an eye he became enamoured of her. She 
was the wealthy man’s daughter; for he had lied when he said 
that he had no children: he had a daughter and a son. 


1"Qoa καλή! This is the usual salutation of travellers meeting on the road. 

Sometimes it is amplified into rhyme : 

Ὥρα καλή σου, μάτια μου, 

Κὴ ἀγέρας ᾿ς τὰ πανιά σου, 

Κὴ ἕνα πουλὶ πετούμενο 

Νὰ μὴν βρεθῇ μπροστά σου! 
“(Α good time to thee, my eyes. May thy sails be filled with wind, and may 
not one bird impede thy course.” This wish is specially meant for sailors, but 
it is also humorously offered to sportsmen. 


Birth | 133 


Naidis went into the house, and the wealthy man’s wife 
received him becomingly, “ Welcome,” “Well met.” He de- 
 livered to her the letter, and she read it, and there was written 
in it: 

“Take this youth and our daughter, summon a priest and 
wed them straightway. I am coming home eight days hence, 
and I must find the thing done.” 

Having read the letter, the wife did as her husband bade 
her. She called in a priest and without delay had them wedded. 
They celebrated their wedding with much jollity and music till 
daybreak. 

Eight days after the wealthy man returned, and, as he 
alighted at the gate, he lifted up his eyes and what does he see 
but his own daughter standing by the side of Naidis at the 
balcony. Then he was seized with giddiness—like a fit of 
apoplexy—and fell down upon the ground. They ran and sum- 
moned the doctors, and after a deal of trouble they managed to 
bring him to. 

“ What is amiss with thee?” asks his wife. 

“Oh nothing. I was wearied of the journey, and the sun 
struck me on the head,” he answered. “But why hast thou not 
done as I bade thee in my letter?” 

“T certainly have. Here is thy letter. Look and see what 
thou wrotest.” 

He takes the letter and reads it. He thought that he was 
dreaming. He rubbed his eyes again and again, but could not 
make out how it had all happened; for it was his own writing. 
Then he says: 

“Very well, it matters not. To-morrow thou must call 
Naidis at dawn and send him up to the flocks with a letter 
which I will give thee.” 

And he sat and wrote to the shepherds as before. 

Next morning, very early, his wife got up and went to call 
Naidis. But when she entered into the room and saw him 
sleeping sweetly in her daughter’s arms, she was sorry to wake 
him, and let him sleep on for another hour. Instead, she went 
to her own son and said: 

“ Art thou asleep, my boy ?” 


184 _ Macedonian Folklore 


“No, mother.” 

“Get up, mount thy horse and take this letter to the 
shepherds who tend the flocks.” 

The boy got up, mounted his horse, took the letter and 
set out. 

After a while her husband also got up and asked her: 

“ Hast thou sent him ?” 

“1 was loth to wake Naidis,” she answered, “but be easy 
in thy mind, my husband, thy letter I despatched safely by our 
own son.” | 

“What hast thou done, O woman!” he cried, and in the 
twinkling of an eye he runs out like one possessed to overtake 
his son. 

His wife thought that he was again taken ill as the day 
before and ran after him. When he reached the uplands he 
found that the shepherds had slain his son and thrown him 
into a well. Driven by grief and remorse he flings himself into 
the well and perishes. His wife on seeing her husband fall 
into the well, lost her senses and threw herself into it, too, and 
died. So Naidis remained heir—This is not a fairy tale. It 
is a fact and shows that his Fate no one can escape.! 


Christening. 


Eight or ten days after birth—generally on a Sunday—takes 
place the baptism (τὰ βαφτίσια). The kinsfolk (τὸ cuyyevonrdye), 
having gathered together in the parents’ house, are there joined 


1 A very close parallel to this story is found in Albanian, see ‘ L’enfant 
vendu ou la Destinée,’’ No. 13 in Contes Albanais, par Auguste Dozon, Paris, 
1881. 

Hahn (Griechische und Albanesische Mérchen, No. 20) gives a story em- 
bodying the same idea, only much shorter, and refers for a parallel to Grimm, 
No. 29. 

Classical literature supplies several anecdotes pointing the moral of the force 
of destiny, all too familiar to be even mentioned here. The remark with which 
my informant concluded her narrative: “δείχνει πῶς τὴ μοῖρά του κἀνένας δὲ᾽ 
μπορεῖ νά τη ξεφύγῃ " is almost a literal modern reproduction of what Homer 
said three thousand years ago: 

μοῖραν δ᾽ οὔτινά φημι πεφυγμένον ἔμμεναι ἀνδρῶν. 
͵ Il. νι. 488. 


Birth | 135 


by the sponsor, followed by the invited guests. The sponsor’s 
office is no sinecure among the peasants of Macedonia. The 
respect paid to him by his godchildren is even greater than 
that accorded to their own parents, and his malediction is 
dreaded even more than that of a Bishop. The office is 
hereditary, and the sponsor or his heir is also expected to 
assist as best man at his godchild’s marriage. It is only on 
very rare occasions that a new godfather is invited to perform 
these duties. For instance, if the new-born child is taken 
suddenly ill, and the*family sponsor happens to live a long way 
off, or to be away on a journey, then a friend or relative takes 
his place. The infringement of the rule is then justified by the 
urgency of the case and the fear lest the child should die 
unchristened—a fear before which considerations of etiquette 
must give way. But should the child survive, the regular 
sponsor is afterwards asked to a banquet and is requested to 
give it his blessing. He is likewise expected to waive his 
right, if he proves to be the owner of an ‘unlucky hand,’ as 


‘has been mentioned before.” In case he does not do so, the 


child’s parents are entitled to insist that he should nominate a 
substitute. So great is the veneration paid to the spiritual 
kinship between a godfather and his godchildren that a match 
between a lad and a lass who both have the same godfather or 
godmother is regarded as incest—they being brother and sister 
in Christ. Nor is intermarriage allowed between the godchild’s 
and the godparent’s families, as they are considered to be within 
the prohibited degrees of kinship. The sponsor and the child’s 
father are termed Co-parents (Svvtexvov) and their mutual 
relationship is that of spiritual brotherhood.’ These observa- 
tions will enable the reader to appreciate the sponsor’s position 
in the ceremony that follows. 

The party assembled, a procession is formed, and they all 


1 Καλητάτας, at Melenik ; elsewhere κουμπάρος or νουνός. If a woman, she is 
designated καλημάνα at Melenik; elsewhere κουμπάρα or νουνά. 

2 Supra, p. 85. 

3 The same sacred relationship is implied in our old word gossip [God-sib 
‘related in the service of God’], a word which experienced many vicissitudes ere 
it sank to its present low position. 


136 Macedonian Folklore 


repair to the church. The cortége is headed by the midwife, 
who carries the baby decked out in all possible finery and 
veiled with a thin gauze (σκέπη). At the church-door the 
sponsor relieves the midwife of her burden, and they all march 
up the nave to the font.!| After a preliminary prayer the priest 
asks the sponsor for the name, which is expected by the 
bystanders with breathless eagerness. When it is announced, 
some boys hurry off to the baby’s home to inform the parents. 
They are received on the threshold by the father, who, on 
hearing it, throws to the messengers sugar-plums to scramble 
for. The name given frequently, though not invariably, is that 
of one of the grandparents. Sometimes it belongs to some 
other relative, or to the Saint on whose day the baptism takes 
place. But in all cases the sponsors are entitled to give any 
name: they please, and from their decision there is no appeal. 
Hence the anxiety displayed by all parties concerned until the 
name is announced. 

The ceremony over, the sponsors distribute among the 
children present, and the bystanders generally, dry figs, coins, 
or, in the more highly civilized districts, cheap medals tied 
with a ribbon, as tokens that they have “witnessed” the 
ceremony. For this reason these tokens are called μαρτυριά. 
From the church the party, with the priest at the head, return 
to the house, and offer to the parents their congratulations and 
wishes for the child’s prosperity (va cas ζήσῃ, va προκόψῃ, 
etc.) The sponsor, who carries the baby home, hands it over to 
the mother with these words: 

“JT deliver it unto thee in this life; but I shall ask it back 
from thee in the next. Guard it well from fire, water, and all 
evil!” 

A banquet is then spread. The midwife, who throughout 
plays the part of Mistress of the Ceremonies, takes up a great 
circular cake (κολοῦρα), prepared for the nonce. This cake is 
smeared with honey and covered with sesame and almonds. 
She places some walnuts upon it, and setting it on her head, | 
walks slowly round and round the table, crying thoohoo! 


1 The font in the Greek churches is a movable copper vessel. 


Birth ; 137 


mihoohoo! until all the walnuts have dropped off one by one 
and are picked up by the boys. Then the cake is laid on the 
table, cut, and eaten. 


Purification. 


On the fortieth day after the baby’s birth the mother, 
escorted by the midwife, who carries the baby in her arms, 
betakes herself to church that she may receive the priest’s 
blessing and be purified by special prayers (γειὰ νὰ σαραντίσῃ). 
From that day, and not until then, she is at liberty to attend 
divine service.” On their way home they call upon the sponsor 
and the nearest relatives. The mistress of each house takes an 
egg, sugar, or a sweet cake and, passing it over the child’s face, 
bestows upon it the following benediction : 

“Mayest thou live, my little one. Mayest thou grow old, 
with hoary hair and eyebrows. With (if a male) a hoary beard 
and moustache.” (Na ζήσῃς, μικρό μου, va γεράσῃς, va γένῃς 
μ᾽ ἄσπρα μαλλιὰ καὶ φρύδια, μ᾽ ἄσπρα γένεια καὶ μουστᾶκια.) 
And, having put a lump of sugar into its mouth, she hands the 
other gifts to the mother. 


Superstitious observances connected with childbirth. 


If a woman in an interesting condition suffers from an 
inordinate longing for some particular, and unobtainable, kind 
of food, her friends go out begging bread and other eatables 
from three different houses and make the sufferer partake of 
them. This operation is supposed to cure her. 

When a mother loses child after child (62 στρέγει παιδιά), 
the proper course for her to pursue is to take her last-born 
and expose it in the street. A friend, by previous arrangement, 
_ picks up the child and clothes it. A few days after she returns 
it to the mother, and for three years it is clothed in strange 


1 For a beautiful sketch of the christening ceremony among the peasantry of 
Thessaly, nearly identical with the above description, see X. Χριστοβασίλη, Ta 
Βαφτίσια in ‘ Διηγήματα Θεσσαλικά, Athens, 1900, pp. 39 foll. 

2 In Suffolk ‘‘a mother must not go outside her own house-door till she goes 
to be ‘churched’.” ‘Superstitions about new-born children’ in The Book of 
Days, vol. τι. p. 39. 


138 Macedonian Folklore 


clothes, that is, clothes begged of relatives and friends. Some- 
times, in addition to this ceremony, the child’s right ear is 
adorned with a silver ring which must be worn through life. 

At Liakkovikia the precautions are more elaborate still. 
The family sponsor being dismissed, the midwife takes the 
new-born infant and casts it outside the house-door. The first 
person who happens to pass by is obliged to act as sponsor. If, 
even after this measure, the children persist in dying, the 
mother is delivered of her next in a strange house, surrounded 
by all her kinswomen. As soon as the infant is born, the 
midwife puts it in a large handkerchief and carries it round the 
room, crying “A child for sale!” (aravdt πουλῶ). One of the 
women present buys it for a few silver pieces and returns it to 
the mother. Then forty women, who have been married only 
once (πρωτοστέφανοι), contribute a silver coin apiece, and out 
of these coins a hoop is made through which the child is passed, 
Afterwards this silver hoop is turned into some other ornament, 
which the child must always wear. 

These queer customs agree with the practice once prevalent 
in Scotland. “If the children of a family were dying in 
infancy, one after the other, it was thought that, by changing 
the name, the evil would be counteracted. The new name 
was called a ‘road name, being that of the first person en- 
countered on the road when going with the child to be 
baptized.”? The custom is explained by Mr Campbell on the 
principle of the “luck” of the person met. But by comparing 
it with the Macedonian practice, it is possible to arrive 
at a different interpretation. The stranger’s name, like the 
strange clothes, may well be intended to serve as a disguise 
calculated to deceive the beings, fairies, witches, or what not, 
to whose malevolent agency the evil is attributed. With regard 
to the name, it should be added that in Macedonia, as elsewhere, 
people avoid giving to a child the name of a brother or sister 
recently dead. So much is there in a name—when witches 
and fairies are about. | 


1 A. A. Τουσίου, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Χώρα,᾽ p. 75. 
234. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 
p. 245. 


Birth . 139 


Another superstition connected with birth is the following: 
women in a state of pregnancy do not weave or spin on the 
feast of St Symeon (Feb. 3, o.s.), lest the child should be born 
with a mark (σημαδιακό). This superstition, in its present 
form at all events, is due to a fanciful analogy between the 
saint's name (Συμεών) and the Greek for a “mark” (σημάδι), 
and belongs to a class of notions based on nothing more serious 
than mistaken etymology. 

A woman whose first child has died is not allowed to follow 
a funeral. ! 

As in England so in Macedonia a child born with a caul 
(τσίπαλν is considered fortunate. Pieces of the caul are sewed 
up and worn by the father and the child round their necks. 


The Evil Eye. 


No superstition is more widely held than the belief in 


the harmful influence of the human eye. It is common among 


the Hindoos, the Hebrews, the Arabs, the Turks, and the 
Moors. We find the belief rife amongst the lower classes in 
Spain—especially in Andalusia—and we are also told that one 
of the crimes of which the Gitanas in that country were most 
commonly accused, and for which they suffered in olden times, 
was that of casting the evil eye, or, as they in their own 
peculiar dialect phrase it, “making sick” (querelar nasula).’ 
Even in England those who know the West country are aware 
that to this day the belief amongst the rural population is 
not dead, but only dormant. Fear of ridicule generally compels 
the English farmer to conceal his deep-rooted conviction, but 
there come times when concealment is no longer possible, and 
then the latent superstition is revealed in all its ugliness.* 


1 Cp. G. Georgeakis et Léon Pineau, Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, p. 331; J. G. 
Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. 1. pp. 53 foll. 

2 G. Borrow, The Zincali, Part 1. ch. vit. 

3’ The revelation is not unfrequently occasioned and accompanied by 
circumstances far from laughable, as will be seen from the following report of a 
case heard before the magistrates at Uxbridge in January, 1900. 

ἕξ ἃ man and his wife were charged by the National Society for the Prevention 


140 Macedonian Folklore 


The antiquity of the superstition is equal to its popularity. 
It can with certainty be traced back to the earliest traditions 
of the Hebrew race, recorded in the Talmud. The Greeks and 
the Romans must have borrowed—or independently originated— 
the belief at a very old date. There are several allusions in the 
classical writers, which show that both the fear of the evil eye 
and some of the means of averting it were identical with those 
‘in vogue at the present day. Homer, indeed, is silent on the 
subject. But so he is on the subjects of magic, purification, 
ancestor-worship and many other practices of dateless antiquity. 
These superstitions, avoided by Homer for some ‘reason or 
other} are mentioned by the authors of the other epics, known 
as the Little Iliad, the Sack, the Cypria and the rest. 

In Macedonia the superstition in force and extent is second 
to none. Not only human beings, but also dumb creatures and 
inanimate objects, are liable to be blighted by the evil eye 
(τὸ μάτι). The curse is to be dreaded most when its object 
is in an exceptionally flourishing condition: a very healthy 
and good-looking child, a spirited horse, a blooming garden, 
or a new house, are all subject to its influence. Nor is the 
casting of the evil eye always an act of wilful wickedness. 
The most innocent and well-meant expression of admiration 
can bring about the undesired effect. For this reason people 
are anxious to avoid such expressions, or, when uttered, to 
counteract them. 

One of the oldest and most prevalent methods for avoiding 


of Cruelty to Children with causing the death of two of their children by wilful 
neglect. The unhappy mites had died amid the filthiest of surroundings, and 
three brothers and sisters who still survived were described as being in a 
starving condition. To this most serious charge the prisoners merely replied 
that they had had the misfortune some time ago to incur the wrath of a gypsy, 
and they and theirs had consequently been ‘overlooked.’ Since then nothing 
would prosper with them, and it was through the operation of the curse, and 
not for lack of proper nutriment, that the children had grown emaciated, and 
had finally died.” The Morning Post, Jan, 19, 1900. 

1 Prof. Gilbert Murray (History of Ancient Greek Literature, p. 47) thinks 
that this silence has arisen ‘‘from some conventional repugnance, whether of 
race, or class, or tradition.” In any case, we need not assume that Homer 
deliberately set himself the task of drawing a complete picture of contemporary 
Greek life for the benefit of posterity. 


Birth . 141 


the effects of excessive admiration is that of spitting at the 
object which has evoked it. The shepherd in Theocritus, 
following the instruction of a wise old woman, spits thrice into 
his own lap in order to save himself from the consequences of 
self-admiration.1 The proud city beauty does the same thing 
in order to shun the danger from the eye of the rustic admirer 
whom she scorns. 

The Romans entertained a similar notion concerning the 
evil eye and its cure? 

This is still the orthodox remedy for the evil eye among 
the Greeks of Macedonia and elsewhere. For instance, if one 
is moved to admiration at the sight of a pretty child, he hastens 
to avert the danger by spitting thrice in its face, and ac- 
companies the action with words almost identical with those 
employed by the ancient writers referred to above—Na ce 
φτύσω va μὴ βασκαθῆς! 

Also persons seized by a sudden fright spit thrice into their 
laps, just as the shepherd and the maid of Theocritus ‘did. 
᾿Φτύσε ᾿ς τὸν κόρφο cov! is a common expression often used 
ironically towards those who seem to think too much of their 
own’ beauty.‘ 

Many and various are the safeguards recommended and 
used against the evil eye. But the commonest—perhaps 
because the cheapest—of all is garlic. A clove of that 
malodorous plant is stitched to the cap of the new-born infant, 
and a whole string of it is hung outside the newly-built house, 
or from the branches of a tree laden with fruit. The formula 
“ garlic before your eyes!” (cxopda ᾽ς τὰ μάτια cov) is also very 
commonly used by the child’s mother or nurse to the person 


1 Tdyl. νι. 39. 

2 Ib. Incert, τι. 11. 

3 See Pliny: veniam a deis petimus spuendo in sinum—xxvitt. 4, 7; Tibullus: 
Ter cane, ter dictis despue carminibus, Eleg. 1. ii. 56; Juvenal: conspuiturque 
sinus, Sat. va. 112. On its effect on sheep, cp. Virgil: Nescio quis teneros oculus 
mihi fascinat agnos, Bucol. Ecl. m1. 103. On its general power, Horace: Non 
istic obliquo oculo mea commoda quisquam Limat Epist. I. xiv. 37. 

4 For examples of the vast number of evils that can be averted by means of 
saliva, see Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. vu. pp. 16—19. 


149 Macedonian Folklore 


who ventures to fix his glance upon their charge without 
resorting to the traditional antidotes.’ 

Other articles employed for the safety of babies are a small 
cross, especially one made of rhinoceros’ horn (wovoxepo), an old 
gold coin with the effigy of the Emperor Constantine upon it 
(Κωσταντινάτο), and a cock’s spur (κεντρὶ τοῦ πετεινοῦ). All 
these heterogeneous amulets are attached to the front of the 
baby’s cap. But even then the child is not considered quite 
beyond the reach of witchery. Further precaution is taken in 
the form of a silver phylactery (φυλαχτό), containing cotton 
wool kept from the inauguration ceremony of a new church 
and, when possible, bits of the true cross, or, as it is termed, 
“the precious wood” (τὸ τίμιο ξύλο). This phylactery is 
slung under the child’s arm. 

With these preservatives resorted to by the mothers of 
Macedonia may be compared those employed elsewhere. The 
rhinoceros’ horn, for example, reminds one of the stag’s horn 
which in Spain is considered an excellent safeguard? The 
phylacteries also bear a strong resemblance to the devices 
employed by the Jews and Moors of Barbary.? The Jews of 
Turkey likewise carry about them bits of paper with “ David’s 
shield” (magendavid) drawn upon them. This is the Hexagram 
Kx regarded by them as a symbol of the Almighty and known 
to astrologers as the Macrocosm, while the Pentagram &< is 
the mystic sign of man, or the Microcosm. The first of these 
figures is further embroidered on clothes and engraven on 
door-posts as a talisman against evil spirits and evil influences. 
The Pentagram is also in use among the Jews. The Turks 
have borrowed it from them, and it can be found drawn both 
in their charms (haimalc) and on the walls of their mosques. 
These places of worship are also commonly illuminated. with 


1 Cp. Rennell Rodd, The Customs and Lore of Modern Greece, pp. 161 foll. 

2 «On that account a small horn, tipped with silver, is frequently attached 
to the children’s necks by means of a cord braided from the hair of a black 
mare’s tail. Should the evil glance be cast, it is imagined that the horn 
receives it, and instantly snaps asunder.” G. Borrow, The Zincali, Part 1. 
ch, VIII. 

3 Ib. 


Birth | 143 


oil lamps hanging from a wooden frame in the form of the 
mystic design. 

To return to the child. Sometimes even the armour 
described already is not deemed sufficiently strong to ward off 
the evil. When a child is taken suddenly ill, its indisposition 
is generally put down to the baneful influence of malignant 
eyes. If there is any doubt, it is either dispelled or confirmed 
by the following test. The rhinoceros’ horn cross, or a sea- 
shell, is dropped into a bowl of water. If—as it usually 
happens—bubbles rise to the surface, that is taken as a certain 
proof that the child has been ‘overlooked’ (ματιάσθηκε). 
In that case, it is either sprinkled with that water, or is made 
to drink of it, and the rest is thrown out of the house. The 
child’s face is then marked with the dipped cross (διασταυρώνουν 
τὸ παιδί). In some districts the water used for the experiment 
is what is called ‘speechless or dumb, that is, water drawn 
overnight in perfect silence. 

The cause of the illness thus ascertained, there ensues 
-the cure. Like the amulets, the cure also is of a miscellaneous 
nature. Generally speaking it can be described as an act of 
purification with fire and water. Sometimes it appears as a 
purely Pagan rite: saliva obtained from the person who is 
suspected of having overlooked the child unintentionally is 
mixed with water, and the patient is made to drink it Or 
a piece is torn from that person’s dress and burnt, and the 
victim is fumigated with it. Ifthe culprit cannot be identified, 
or if he refuses to undo the harm, the sufferer is taken to 
church, and the priest reads some prayers over it; for sorcery 
(βασκανίαν) is expressly recognized by the Greek Church as 
one of Satan’s weapons, to be fought against by Christian 


1 The Greeks of Mytilene too were in older days in the habit of using such 
candelabra at weddings as a symbolic wish for the health and general well-being 
of the newly-married pair. Some interesting details about this custom are given 
in a quaint Greek history of the island "Ἢ AecBids,’ by =. A. ᾿Αναγνώστου, 
Smyrna, 1850, p. 201. See also Coray “Araxra, tom. Iv. pp. 405 foll. 

2 An analogous practice was in vogue among the Roman old women: Ecce 
avia...puerum...salivis expiat, urentis oculos inhibere perita. Pers. Sat. τι. 30 foll. 
Cp. Petr. 131. 


144 Macedonian Folklore 


means. Should religion also fail, a censer with frankincense 
in it is placed on the floor, and the child’s father, holding it in 
his arms, jumps three times through the curling smoke. 

A good guarantee against the evil eye and all witchery 
(τὰ μάγεια) is afforded by a coat worn inside out.! 

Horses and mules are safeguarded by means of blue glass 
beads woven into their bridles and trappings, or into their 
manes and tails. The Turks supplement these preservatives 
by the addition of a wild boar’s tusk or by a charm hung round 
the beast’s neck. 

Houses, besides the heads of garlic already mentioned, are 
sometimes protected, just as in England, by a horseshoe nailed 
over the door. This is said to “ break the influence of the evil 
eye” (σπάνει τὸ μάτι). When the roof is placed over a house 
in the course of erection, the bricklayers plant on the top two 
Christmas trees each adorned with a cross, and they stretch a 
string from one to the other. Upon this string they hang 
kerchiefs, sashes, and other articles with which the owner of 
the house, the architect, and friendly neighbours are wont to 
present them. The Jews in Salonica fix a hand of wood with 
outstretched fingers high up in a corner of the house, and 
suspend from it a string of garlic or an old shoe. 

Fields, vines, and orchards are protected by the bleached 
skulls of cattle, stuck on the top of stakes. These serve a 
double purpose, first to ward off evil and secondly to scare 
off crows. A similar custom prevails in some of the islands 
of the Aegean;? but it is not confined to the Greeks, who in 
all probability have inherited it from their forefathers. It is 
equally popular among the Bulgarians of Macedonia, who regard 
these ghastly scarecrows as bringers of prosperity. 


1 In England it used to be considered lucky to put on any article of dress, 
particularly stockings, inside out. But it should not be done on purpose. 
The Book of Days, vol. τι. p. 821, Cp. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore . 
Society, vol. tv. p. 80; 141. 

2 W. H. Ὁ. Rouse, ‘Folklore from the Southern Sporades’ in Folk-Lore, 
June, 1899, p. 181. 

3 Wachsmuth, Das alte Griechenland im neuen, p. 62, in Tozer, Researches in 
the Highlands of Turkey, vol. 1. p. 383. 


Birth 145 


As has been observed, the evil eye is not always cast 
designedly, or with an evil purpose. It often is the effect 
of sincere, though ill-advised, admiration, which brings down 
upon its object the wrath of a jealous deity. For a like reason 
the pious Macedonian forbears to use boastful expressions : 
“Utter not a big word” (μὴν λὲς μεγάλο λόγο) is a common 
saying which recalls the moralizing of the chorus of old men 
in the tragedy : 

μεγάλοι δὲ λόγοι 
μεγάλας πληγὰς τῶν ὑπεραύχων 
ἀποτίσαντες 
γήρᾳ τὸ φρονεῖν ἐδίδαξαν." 


“The boastful, having paid a high penalty for their haughty 
words, by suffering severe affliction, have learnt wisdom in their 
old age.” : 

The Turks also express the same fear of uttering “big 
words” in their homely proverb : 

“Eat a big mouthful, but speak not a big word.”® 

Akin to this is the ancient Roman superstition of the “evil 
tongue.” 

Persons who, after having been weaned in their infancy, 
took to sucking again, are especially endowed with an evil eye, 
and are very chary of expressing enthusiasm, or, if they are 
betrayed into undue praise, they are careful to save the object 
by spitting and uttering the appropriate formula. There are, 
however, among them those who either from innate malignity, 
or prompted by-a sense of humour, delight in a wanton exercise 
of their terrible power. I have heard of an ancient dame of 
Salonica who had the reputation of possessing an evil eye. 
Many of her achievements were whispered with becoming awe. 


1 Cp. the ideas of the old Greeks on the subject: τὸ θεῖον πᾶν ἐὸν φθονερόν, 
Hadt. 1. 32, mm. 40; ὁ δὲ θεὸς.. φθονερὸς... εὑρίσκεται ἐών, vit. 46, vit. 109; φιλέει 
yap ὁ θεὸς τὰ ὑπερέχοντα πάντα κολούειν, vu. 10, ete. 

2 Soph. Ant. 1350 foll. Cp. Aesch: Prom. 829: γλώσσῃ ματαίᾳ ζημία προστρίβεται. 

3 Booyook lokma ye, booyook shay soileme, which the Greeks render literally: 
μεγάλη χαψιὰ φάγε, μεγάλο λόγο μὴ λές. 

4. See Virgil: ne vati noceat mala lingua futuro, Bucol. Ecl. vn. 28; Catullus: 
mala fascinare lingua, vit. 12. 


A. FP. 10 


146 Macedonian Folklore 


One day, it was said, as she sat at her window, she saw a young 
man passing on horseback. He seemed to be so proud of himself 
and his mount that the old lady—who, like the Deity in 
Herodotus, “was fond of laying the exalted low,’—could not 
resist the temptation of humbling him. One dread glance from 
her eye and one short cry from her lips: “Oh, what a gallant 
cavalier!” brought both horse and horseman to their knees. 
On another occasion she noticed a servant carrying a pie from 
the oven in a tray poised on his head. The rosy colour and the 
seductive smell of the pie induced the redoubtable lady to 
express her admiration, and she did it in terms which brought 
about the immediate ruin of the pie. 


1 For a full and comprehensive ‘‘Account of this ancient and widespread 
superstition” the reader is referred to Mr F. T. Elworthy’s work on The Evil 
Eye, London, 1895. 


CHAPTER ΧΙ. 
MARRIAGE. 


Preliminary steps. 


According to the Macedonians the age at which people 
should marry is from fifteen to seventeen for women and from 
eighteen to twenty for men. The match seldom is the result 
of love, but, as in so many other countries, it is arranged 
between the parents on either side, with a keen eye to the 
material welfare of the contracting parties, rather than with 
any reference to their sentimental predilections. And can we 
wonder at the young Macedonian peasant’s willingness to submit 
to the rulings of parental authority, when we reflect that the 
great Achilles himself—the “author of the battle-din” and 
the favoured of the Olympians—in refusing the hand of 
Agamemnon’s daughter, contrasted her with the bride whom, 
“if the Gods spared him and he reached home safely,” his own 
father would choose for him ?? 

Even in democratic Athens the young lady was allowed no 
voice in the matter. Hermione undoubtedly gives utterance 
to the prevailing notions of propriety when she declares: 

“Of my wedding my own father will take care, and ’t is not 
meet for me to decide in these matters.”” 

Notwithstanding, however, this conventional rule, and the 
restrictions by which intercourse between the sexes is circum- 
scribed, the lads and lasses of Macedonia manage to meet 
occasionally either at the village fountain, where the latter 
go for water, or at the public fairs and festivals (πανηγύρια) 
or at weddings and other social gatherings. The classic custom 


1 Hom, Il. 1x, 394. 2 Kur. Andr. 987. 
10—2 


148 Macedonian Folklore 


of wooing a damsel by throwing an apple into her lap’ still exists, 
though it is condemned by public opinion as improper, and is 
strongly resented by the maid’s kinsfolk as an impertinence. 

In many cases the nuptial negotiations are carried on 
through the medium of a ‘match-maker’ male or female 
(προξενήτης or προξενήτραλ)," generally the latter. This matri- 
monial agent is in some parts sent by the youth’s parents to 
the girl’s; in others by the girl’s parents to the youth’s. 
Through this channel a preliminary ‘agreement’ (συμφωνίαν 
is arrived at regarding the terms of the contract, namely, 
whether the maid is to be provided with a trousseau only 
(προῖκα), or with a dowry in coin, kind, or landed property 
as well (τράχωμα). 

Indeed, one regrets to have to record that too often the 
question of money, or money’s worth, is the chief subject of 
these diplomatic negotiations. Even in Macedonia, where so 
much of primitive tradition and culture is still kept up, the 
times when princes wedded poor shepherd-maids—if such times 
ever were—have passed away. An imprudent match, however 
it may be applauded in the plot of a fairy tale, as an occurrence 
in real life cannot be too severely reprobated and deplored. 

The bargain concluded, the match-maker is entrusted by 
the bride’s parents with a ring and a richly broidered hand- 
kerchief, which she brings to the youth’s home and exchanges 
for a ring sewed with red silk thread on a black silk hand- 
kerchief and a golden piece (φλουρί), as well as flowers and 
sweets for the bride, and suitable presents for the rest of the 
family. These mutual gifts are known as ‘tokens’ (σημάδια), 
and their exchange as ‘word of troth’ (λόγος), which on no 
account can be broken. The young people are henceforth 
regarded as practically, though not yet formally, ‘bound to- 
gether’ (συδεμένοιλ) 

1 Theoer. Id. x1. 10. 

2 Cp. the προμνήστρια of the ancient Greeks and the Svat or Svakha of the 
modern Russians. : 

3 Τὴ some of the islands of the Aegean the betrothed are called ἁρμοστὸς. 
and ἁρμοστή, ‘united,’ a word that goes back to the 2nd century a.p. 


W. H. D. Rouse, ‘Folk-lore from the Southern Sporades’ in Folk-Lore, 
June, 1899, p. 180 n. 2. 


Marriage 149 


The Macedonians have no objection to giving away their 
daughters to strangers. They naturally prefer natives of their 
own village} but are not averse to sending their daughters 
“abroad” (᾽ς τὰ ξένα), which often means only two or three 
miles off, or receiving daughters-in-law “from abroad ” (ἀπὸ τ. &.). 
The strong stress laid upon the evils of expatriation in the 
wedding songs, to be noticed in the course of this sketch, is 
a pure matter of fiction—or rather of traditional convention ; 
and the grievance is probably a mere survival of an old practice 
of exogamy long extinct. The same idea seems to underlie the 
complaints of Russian brides, who describe themselves as about 
to be carried: into “ far-off lands,” when, perhaps, they are not 
going to leave their native village. These conventional plaints 
are by Russian folklorists explained as relics of the well-known 
clan system of olden times, according to which the members of 
the same community looked upon themselves as belonging to 
one family, and so neither marrying nor giving in marriage was 
possible within the limits of the clan. The girls had, therefore, 
to go away from home when they married, and, considering the 
relations between barbarous communities, a young bride might 
well regard herself as migrating into the land of potential foes 
to her own kith and kin. 

As a matter of fact, the state of things regarded by the 
Russian folklorist as belonging to the dead past is actually 
flourishing in certain parts of the Balkan Peninsula. The 
Mirdites, a Catholic clan of Northern Albania, to this day 
religiously refrain from intermarrying within their own tribe; 
but as a general rule they carry off wives from among their 
Mohammedan neighbours. Consequently a Mirdite wedding as 


1 The Macedonian peasant is too shrewd and too patriotic not to feel the 

force of the Hesiodic dictum: 
τὴν δὲ μάλιστα γαμεῖν, ἥτις σέθεν ἐγγύθι ναίει. W. and D. 700. 

‘*Marry thy neighbour.” Indeed, he gives expressiort to the same idea in 
more forcibly figurative, though somewhat less elegant, language: Παποῦτσι, 
παλῃοπάπουτσο καὶ νᾶναι πὸ Tov τόπο μου: “1 am content with a shoe, even an 
old shoe, so long as it is one made in my own native village.” 

2 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 308. 

3 Odysseus,” Turkey in Europe, p. 397; Tozer, Researches in the High- 
lands of Turkey, vol. 1. pp. 318, foll. 


150 Macedonian Folklore 


often as not is preceded by a series of funerals. For, although 
the Mohammedan maid may in some cases have no unconquer- 
able aversion to being abducted, it frequently happens that her 
kinsmen consider it a point of honour to defend her in grim 
earnest. Besides, an Albanian lives in a perpetual feud. He 
loves a fight for its own sake; how much more ready he must 
therefore be to shed his blood—or that of his future son-in-law— 
in a cause wherein the honour of his clan is involved ! 

Among the Macedonians the capture of wives has long 
ceased to be an actual practice; but the memory thereof still 
survives in many of the symbolic customs connected with the 
marriage ceremony. Abductions, however, are not rare, and 
love sometimes triumphs over the barriers set up by use 
and wont. 


Betrothal. 


On the Sunday following the ‘agreement,’ takes place the 
formal betrothal (ἡ ἀρραβῶνα). The engagement is sanctified 
by an elaborate ceremony (Σταυρολογία), to which are invited 
the married relatives of both sides (συμπεθεροί). 

The youth’s parents, preceded by the parish priest and 
followed by the friends who are to act as ‘ witnesses’ (μαρτύροι), 
repair to the maid’s house. On entering, they exchange with 
her parents and friends good wishes for the prosperity of the 
young pair. Then they take their seats on the low divan 
which runs round three sides of the room, and after a while 
the ‘match-maker’ rises, and in tones befittingly solemn 
announces the object of the gathering. Thereupon the priest 
and the parents on both sides draw near the icon-stand 
(εἰκονοστάσι), under which is placed a small table with the 
‘tokens’ upon it. The priest in the presence of the ‘ witnesses’ 


1 Among the Bulgarians of Macedonia the purchase of wives seems to survive ὦ 
in a modified form. At Petritz during the Feast of the Nativity of the God- 
mother (Ta γενέθλια τῆς Θεοτόκου Sept. 8 o.s. Popularly τὸ παναγύρι τῆς 
Παναγίας) I witnessed two transactions of this kind. In one case the bridegroom 
agreed to pay for the maid of his choice £13; in the other he beat his 
prospective father-in-law down to £124. The average price of a Macedonian 
cow is, I believe, £T 5. 


Marriage | 151 


proceeds to question the parents concerning the terms of the 
‘agreement, and until the actual marriage he is held officially 
cognizant of the contract, as a representative of the higher 
ecclesiastical authorities. 

This piece of business over, the religious part of the pro- 
ceedings commences. After some prayers suitable to the 
occasion, the priest takes up the rings and hands the youth’s 
to the maid’s parents and wice versa (ἀλλάζει τὰ δαχτυλίδια)ν. 
Then enters the bride and saiutes the assembly by kissing 
every one’s hand (yecpodidnua), while they in their turn present 
her with a gift of one or two golden pieces each. She then 
offers them refreshments: jam (γλυκό), coffee, and wine or 
arrack (xépacua), and presents her future parents-in-law, as 
well as the match-maker, with a pair of woollen socks (cxov- 
govwa) knitted with her own hands. The usual wish to the 
bride is “Mayest thou enjoy the kerchief in good health” 
(Μὲ γειὰ xn TO μαντῆλι). 

The company then rise and repair to the bridegroom’s 
house, where they are received by him on the door-step and 
have their hands kissed. Refreshments follow in the same 
way as before, and the guests while helping themselves wish 
the affianced pair all prosperity. The party then breaks up. 

Meanwhile the bride receives the visits and congratulations 
of her maiden friends, who set up a dance, accompanied by 
songs of which the following are examples. 


I. Τραγοῦδι τῆς ἀρραβώνας. 
(from Thasos). 


“Τρανταφυλλοῦδί μ᾽ κόκκινο, μῆλό μου μαραμένο, 
Σάν σε φιλῶ μαραίνεσαι, σάν σε κρατῶ κλωνιέσαι. 
Κορῆτσί μ᾽, ἄλλον ἀγαπᾷς, ἄλλον θέλεις νὰ πάρῃς." 
« \ \ UA ΝΜ Ν \ 4 

Βρὲ δὲν πιστεύεις, ἄπιστε, καὶ δὲν πολυπιστεύεις, 

, ’ ? \ , , Oe , 
Bave Biya ᾿ς τὰ σπίτια μου, πόρταις καὶ παραθύρια, 
Καὶ σύρε φέρε τοὺς γιατρούς, τοὺς καρδιοδιαλεχτάδες, 
Na μου διαλέξουν τὴ καρδιὰ x1) ὅλα τὰ φυλλοκάρδια, 
Ky ἂν εὕρῃς ᾿π᾿ ἄλλον νειὸν φιλὶ κὴ ἀπ᾽ ἄλλον νειὸν ἀγάπη, 

, » ᾽ , Ul » 9 Te EN \ / / 

Σφάξε μ᾽, ἀφέντη μου, σφάξε μ᾽ aay ᾿ς τὰ γόνατά σου, 


152 Macedonian Folklore 


Kal pace καὶ τὸ αἷμά μου ᾿ς ἕνα χρυσὸ μαντῆλι, 
γε" > 2 \ , 1 23 Ne" ὃ 55. ὃ 
Σύρ᾽ το ᾿ς ἐννεὰ χωριά, σύρ᾽ το ᾿ςὲ δώδεκα καζάδες, 
A » / < a 82} > , 28 ᾽ ᾽ , Α t ”? 
Ky) ἄν σε ρωτήσουν “τί ᾽ν αὐτό; ‘7's ἀγάπης μου τὸ αἷμα. 
, 
᾿Αγάπη θέλει φρόνησι θέλει ταπεινωσύνη, 
Θέλει καὶ μάτια χαμηλὰ νὰ σκύφτουν νὰ πηγαίνουν. 


? 


I. Betrothal Song. 


“My blushing little rose, my bashful apple, 

When I kiss thee thou fadest, when I embrace thee thou tremblest. 

My dear maid, thou lovest another; ’tis another thou wishest to wed.” 

“Friend, thou wilt not trust me. O unbelieving one, thou wilt put no 
faith in my words! 

Set a watch in my house, at both doors and windows, 

And go and fetch the doctors, and the searchers of hearts, 

That they may search my heart and all the petals of the heart, 

And if thou findest therein a kiss from another youth, for another 
youth love, 

Then slay me, my lord, slay me upon thy knees, 

And gather my blood in the folds of a gold-broidered kerchief, 

Take it to nine villages, take it to twelve districts, 

And when they question thee: ‘What is this?’ say: ‘The blood of my 
beloved.’” 

Love needs prudence, love needs modesty, 

It also needs downcast eyes, eyes that are bent low in walking. 


II. “τερον (τοῦ χοροῦ). 

(from Nigrita). 
Αὐτὰ τὰ μάτια σ᾽, Δῆμό μ᾽, τἄμορφα, 
Τὰ φρύδια σ᾽ τὰ γραμμένα, 

—Xé κλαῖν τὰ μάτια μου. 
Αὐτά με κάνουν, Δῆμό μ᾽, Kk) ἀρρωστῶ, 
Μὲ κάνουν καὶ πεθαίνω. 

—Xé κλαῖν τὰ μάτια μου. 
Γιὰ Byare,? Δῆμό μ᾽, 7 ἀργυρὸ σπαθί, 
Καὶ κόψες w τὸ κεφάλι, 

-ῸΖχὲ κλαῖν τὰ μάτια μου. 

1 Another version of this song is to be found in A. A. Γουσίου, ‘Ta Τραγούδια 


τῆς Πατρίδος pov.’ No. 107. 
var. πάρε. 


Marriage 153 


Καὶ pao’ το, Δῆμό μ, καὶ τὸ αἷμά μου 
᾽ - \ a 
Σ ἕνα χρυσὸ μαντῆλι, 
—Xé κλαῖν τὰ μάτια μου. 
a ’ . 
Καὶ σύρ᾽ το, Δῆμό μ, ᾿ς τὰ ἐννεὰ χωριά, 
᾽ 
Σ τὰ δέκα βιλαέτια, 
-Ο-ΟῸἼξὲ κλαῖν τὰ μάτια μου. 
> as 4 f a , 
Ky) ἄν ce ρωτήσουν, Δῆμό p, “ τί ᾽ν αὐτό; 
“ τ ae \ z ” 
ς ἀγάπης μου τὸ αἷμα. 
\ a \ Ul 
—Xé κλαῖν τὰ μάτια pov. 


II. - Another: (Dancing Song).t 
Refrain: My eyes are weeping for thee. 


These fair eyes of thine, O my Demos, 

These pencilled eyebrows, 

’Tis these that make me, O my Demos, fall ill, 
That make me die. 

Come draw, O my Demos, thy silver-hilted sword, 
And cut off my head, 

And gather up, Ο' my Demos, my blood 

In a gold-broidered kerchief, 

And take it, O my Demos, to the nine villages, 
To the ten Governments, 

And if they ask thee, O my Demos, “ What is this?” 
Say “’Tis the blood of my beloved.” 


Next day ‘trays’ (σινιά) of sweets and cakes are exchanged 
between the two families twice: the first instalment being 
distributed among the various members of each family; the 
second destined for the affianced pair. These cakes are also 
accompanied with a number of gifts of a more lasting nature . 
(Sapos). 

A month later, upon a Sunday, takes place an official 
interchange of visits. The bride’s parents invite their nearest 
relatives of both sexes and, accompanied by them, call upon the 
bridegroom. The latter, escorted by his friends, returns the 
call either on the same or on the following Sunday. 


1 The ring of dancers is led by the πρωτόσυρτος who sings out each verse, 
the chorus taking up the refrain (μπαλαντή). 


154 Macedonian Folklore 


The bridegroom is expected to send presents to his be- 
trothed from time to time, and more especially at Christmas 
and Easter. These presents generally consist of articles of 
apparel, such as belts, shoes, silk handkerchiefs, caps and so 
forth. During Cheese-Week he sends sweet cakes, on Easter 
Eve a coloured candle and coloured eggs. The bride returns 
analogous presents, except the candle. 

The path of courtship, rough and beset by obstacles as it 
is before the betrothal, is hardly made smoother by that event. 
The bridegroom, ere he begins visiting his fiancée, must wait 
to be asked by her father to dinner. Nor is he, on these rare 
occasions, allowed a téte-a-téte with his future partner. As 
a rule their intercourse is limited to a hand-shake at meeting, 
when the maid kissing the young man’s hand demurely bids 
him welcome (καλῶς ὁρίστε), and then offers him refreshments, 
and to a similar salutation at parting—all this being done 
under the severe eyes of her parents. No other communication 
is allowed, though, of course, blood being thicker than water, 
the young people often contrive to enjoy a clandestine con- 
versation, which is none the less sweet because forbidden. The 
difficulties and perils by which such an enterprise is attended 
are illustrated by the following anecdote which I heard at 
Nigrita. 

A youth was very anxious to have a few minutes’ chat with 
his betrothed, and on a misty morning waylaid her close to 
the fountain. The maid, the first surprise being over, was 
nothing loth to see her beloved, and, shielded as she was by the 
mist, she allowed him a modest embrace: they fancied them- 
selves alone. At that critical moment, however, some jealous 
demon lifted the veil of vapour and exposed the hapless twain 
to the censorious eyes of a party of women, who had meanwhile 
arrived and, attracted by the sound of the lovers’ whisperings, 
stood listening. The pair shame-faced took to flight; but . 
it was long ere the tongues of the village grew weary of 
wagging at their expense. 


7 
} 


Marriage 155 


The Wedding Preparations. 


The marrying season among the Macedonian peasants is the 
end of October, about the time of the Feast of St. Demetrius 
(Oct. 26th o. s.). At that time of year the labours of the field 
are over, the vintage just concluded, and the villagers are in 
possession of the two essentials of merry-making: leisure 
and wine. The choice of time, as is Seen, is dictated by purely 
practical considerations. Yet, it could hardly be expected 
that so important an event in a man’s life should be entirely 
free from the influence of superstition, which on so many other 
occasions overrules expediency. We accordingly find that there 
are times and seasons, months and days, during which no one 
dare marry. No wedding, for instance, can take place in a leap- 
year. No wedding or even betrothal is celebrated, except on a 
waxing moon.) Monday (Δευτέρα) is a bad day, for a marriage 
solemnized on that day is apt to be ‘repeated’ (δευτερώνει). 


This is a belief evidently arising from the name of the day, 


and it does not hold among non-Greek populations. *On the 
contrary, among the Christian Albanians Monday is said to be 
the day for marriage, and most weddings in that province take 
place upon that day. Tuesday is also an unlucky day for 
marrying as for most other things. But of all days of the week 
the most fatal to conjugal felicity is Wednesday—an opinion 
very positively expressed by the popular saying: 
Ὅλα pas ἀνάποδα Kn ὁ γάμος τὴ Tetpadn 

“Everything is topsy-turvy with us: even our wedding was on a 
Wednesday.” 

Of months May is looked upon as particularly unsuitable 
for marriage. This prejudice against May is not confined to 
Macedonia, or indeed to the Greek race. It is shared by nearly 


1 The Orkney islanders likewise object to marrying on a waning moon, an 
instance of symbolism, based on association of ideas, which imagines a sym- 
pathy of growing and declining nature with the changes of the moon. See 
Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 180. 

2 Cp., however, Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. 1v. p. 61. 

3 «* Odysseus,” Turkey in Europe, p. 386. 


156 Macedonian Folklore 


all European nations. It is met with in England, Italy and 
France. In many French provinces one still hears the proverb: 
“ May wedding, deadly wedding” (Noces de Maz, noces de mort). 
We also know that it existed in a very strong form in ancient 
Rome. Ovid tells us that both maidens and widows avoided 
lighting the bridal torch in that month, for fear lest it should 
soon be turned into a burial torch. The same poet supplies 
us with an explanation of the prevailing superstition. He 
attributes it to the occurrence in that month of the funeral 
rites of the Lemuralia If that explanation is correct, in the 
modern objection to May weddings we have an interesting 
survival, “a striking example how an idea, the meaning of 
which has perished for ages, may continue to exist simply 
because it has existed.”? 

The Macedonians, like the Jews, are fond of stretching out 
a festival to its utmost length, and a Macedonian wedding may 
be compared to a tedious fifteen-act play. It lasts for a whole 
fortnight, each day having its own duties and delights. It 
further resembles a Jewish wedding in its complex and alle- 
gorical character, as will soon appear. 


I. 


When the date for the marriage ceremony has been fixed, 
the bridegroom on the preceding Sunday sends to the bride a 
quantity of henna, and soon after he calls in person. He kisses 
_the hands of his parents-in-law that are to be, and then without 
further ado proceeds to the point, which is a pure matter of 
business. If the bride, according to the ‘agreement,’ is to 
bring him a portion in money, he receives it there and then, or 
if the tpaywpa consists of land or real property he gets a 
written security for it. , 


1 Nec viduae taedis eadem, nec virginis apta 
Tempora. Quae nupsit, non diuturna fuit. 
Hac quoque de causa, si te proverbia tangunt, 
Mense malas Maio nubere volgus ait. 


Ovid. Fast. ν. 487. 
2 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. τ. pp. 70—71. 


a 


Marriage | 157 


In the evening commence the festivities. The bridegroom’s 
comrades assemble in his house, where they sing and make 
merry, while to the bride’s house resort her maiden friends and 
amuse themselves in like manner. These maidens assist in 
the preparations throughout the week. 

First of all, on the Monday they help the bride to dye her 
hair with the henna received from the bridegroom. They also 
dye their own hair with it. This act is accompanied by a 
special song: 


Τραγοῦδι τῆς χαρᾶς." 
(From Cavalla.) 
“Ovras βάνουν τὴ νύφη κανά. 


/ Ld a al 
“Εὐχήσου με, μανούλα pov, va βάλω τῇς μπογιαῖς pov.” 
\ A ”~ 
“Me τὴν εὐχή mw’, παιδάκι μου, va Chote, va προκόψτε." 
«ἃ a Xe ͵ \ , \ \ 59 
Av ζοῦσε κὴ ὁ πατέρας μου, σὰν τί χαρὰ θὰ ἦταν! 
“Av ζοῦσαν καὶ τ᾽ ἀδέρφια μου, σὰν τί χαρὰ θὰ jrav! 
“As εἶν᾽ καλὰ ἡ μάνα μου, πάλι χαρὰ θὰ γένῃ !" 


Wedding Song. 
The dyeing of the bride’s hair. 


“Bless me, my dear mother, that I may apply the dye.” 

“You have my blessing, my dear child: May you both live and prosper.” 
“Tf my father was in life, Oh, what a Rejoicing would there be! 

If my brothers were in life, Oh, what a Rejoicing would there be! 
May my mother be well, still a Rejoicing there shall be!” ? 


Tuesday, being a day of ill-omen, is spent in idleness, 
except that the bride and her maids wash their hair. Wed- 
nesday witnesses the “folding up of the trousseau” (διπλώνουν 
τὴ προῖκα). The ‘Inviter’ (καλέστρα) with a tinsel-covered 


« | Χαρά ‘ Rejoicing’ is the name by which the wedding (γάμος) is very usually 
called. The ‘ Rejoicing Songs’ (τραγούδια τῆς Xapas), however, as will be seen, 
often are of a very unjoyful character. For other songs of this class from 
Kephalonia see Bernhard Schmidt, Hochzeitslieder Nos. 40—43. 

2 It need not be supposed that her father and brothers are really dead. 
The Macedonians like to take their ‘ Rejoicings’ sadly, or, may be, to enhance 
the pleasure by the contrast of pain—a trait of character which must constantly 
be borne in mind. 


158 Macedonian Folklore 


nosegay on her right temple goes round to the houses of 
friends and relatives and asks only married women to come in 
the afternoon to assist at this function. Most of the articles 
are deposited in brand-new and gaily painted chests, but 
others—especially those which are intended as presents for the 
kinsfolk and the best man (xaAntatas)—are exhibited. All 
this is done to the accompaniment of musical instruments. 


ΤΊ: 


Thursday is the busiest day of all, and in some districts the 
preparations do not seriously begin till then. In such districts 
the second dyeing of the bride’s hair takes place in the morning. 
In the afternoon both at the bridegroom’s and the bride’s house 
are gathered their respective female relatives and friends 
(συμπεθέραις) with the ‘best woman’ (καλημάνα) and prepare 
the bread necessary for the feast to follow (πιάνουν τὸ πρωτό- 
Ψψωμο or τὰ προζύμια, παρδαλίζουν or ζυμώνουν, whence they 
are called ζυμώστραις). Among other things, they make seven 
bridal cakes in the following manner: 

Three maidens each take a sieve and sift a small quantity of 
flour. Then a maiden, whose parents are both alive, with 
three once-married women (πρωτοστέφανοι) knead the dough. 
Little children help them by pouring hot water into it: thus 
innocence lends a helping hand to purity: the cakes in the 
circumstances are bound to bring good luck to all concerned. 
In some parts, however, this task is performed by the bride- 
groom’s own sister or, in default of a sister, by one of his 
cousins. 

The married ladies referred to above put into the dough 
coins, with which the maidens afterwards buy buns and honey 
and eat them with much solemnity (τρώγουμε τὸ μίξιο). In 
some districts they mix with the dough a symbolic pair of | 
hooks: eye and hook (ἀρσενικὸ καὶ θηλυκό, lit. ‘male and 
female’), a ring, and a copper coin. 

While this is doing the bystanders sing in chorus various 
songs, beginning with the following: 


= 


Marriage 1. 


I. (From Χιαμκουϊκία.) 


Μέγα μου Σταυρέ, μεγάλε “Ai Γεώργη, 
Νὰ συμμάσουμε τὸ νειὸ ζευγάρι 
Μὲ τὴ ζάχαρι καὶ μὲ τὸ μέλι. 

“Great Holy Cross, and Great St. George, 


Help us to unite together the young pair 
Wath sugar and with honey.” 


II. (From Vassilika.) 


Ὅλα τὰ πουλάκια ζυγά, ξυγά, 
Κ᾽ ἕνα χελιδόνι μοναχὸ 
Περ᾽ πατεῖ ᾿ς ταῖς δάφναις καὶ λαλεῖ, 
Καὶ θλίβεται καὶ λέει" 
. “Πῶς νὰ περάσω τρεῖς θάλασσαις 
Ky) ἄλλαις τρεῖς ᾽ς τὴ μάνα μου νὰ πάω ;” 
All the little birds walk in pairs; 
But one swallow lonely 
Wanders among the laurel-trees singing, 
And wailing and saying : 
“ Ah me, how shall I cross these three«seas, 
And three more, in order to arrive at my mother?” 


Ill. (From Nigrita.) 


᾿Απόψε ὥρα va ᾽ν καλή. Χριστὲ Evroynpéve, 

Νὰ πιάσουμε τὸ νειὸ ψωμί, T ἀφράτο παξιμάδι, 

Κ᾿ ἡ κόρη ποῦ το ζύμωνε μὲ μάνα μὲ πατέρα, 

Θὰ ζυμώσ᾽ τὸ ve.o προζύμι, νὰ φάῃ γαμπρὸς καὶ νύφη, 
Καὶ τὸ ψύκι ὅλο. 

May this eveu:ing be auspicious, O Blessed Christ, 

To knead the new bread, the frothy biscuit. 

The maid who kneads it has both mother and father, 


She will make the new dough, that groom and bride may eat, 
And all their kindred. 


1 A. A. Γουσίου ‘Ta Τραγούδια τῆς Πατρίδος pov.’ No. 37. 


0 Macedonian Folklore 


When the fermentation of the dough is completed (ὅταν 
φτάσουν) the Kalimana smears one of the cakes with honey, 
sprinkles it with sesame, and adorns it with almonds. This is 
the cake which will be used for the holy communion in the 
wedding ceremony. The other six, which are distributed 
among the relatives after the service, are prepared in like 
manner by the Sympetherais. In some districts two big ring- 
shaped cakes (κολούρια) are made, which the bride wears round 
her arms on her way to the bridegroom’s house on the wedding- 
day. She then breaks one of them half-way to the house and 
the other at the entrance, and scatters the pieces among the 
crowd. These pieces are picked up and religiously preserved, 
for they are supposed to possess wondrous virtues for women 
in child-bed. 

While these cakes are in the course of preparation, the 
bridegroom secretly sends to the bride’s house a boy with a 
little flour. Her friends lure her to a corner and there sprinkle 
the flour over her (τὴν ἀλευρώνουν). The same trick is played 
upon any relatives of the bride who happen to call at the 
bridegroom’s during the day and wice versa. This custom of 
“ befiouring,” which is now-a-days regarded as mere horseplay, 
may well have orizinated in the belief that flour keeps evil 
spirits off. We find that oatmeal is used in the Highlands of 
Scotland with an avowedly similar purpose.’ 

In the evening one of the bride’s maiden friends puts on a 
man’s cap—thus symbolically representing the bridegroom— 
and dyes the bride’s hair with henna, while the other maids 
stand round singing. They then take the bride by the hand 
and set up a dance. The following ave some of the songs sung 
on this occasion. Ἣ 


1 It was usual with people going on journeys after nightfall to take some 
with them; the pockets of boys were filled with it; old men spiinkled them-— 
selves with it when going on a night journey. J. G. Campbell, Superstitions 
of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, pp. 47 foll. 


Marriage 161 


I. (From Zichna and Pram.) 


Mia φορά ’v’ ἡ λεβεντια, 

Μιὰ φορά ’v’ τὰ νειάτα. 

Μὲ ζούλεψαν ἡ ἔμορφαις Kn ὅλα τὰ παλληκάρια, 

Μὲ ζούλεψε κ᾽ ἡ μάνα μου καὶ θέλει νά με διώξῃ. 

Διῶξές με, μάνα μ᾽, διῶξές πολὺ μακρυὰ ᾿ς τὰ ξένα 
με, μ μου ᾽ 

Νὰ κάνω ξέναις ἀδερφαῖς καὶ ξέναις παραμάναις, - 

y= BA \ ec 5? \ z+ eh , ’ μὴ \ / 

Ἐέναις va πλέν᾽ τὰ podya μου, ξέναις καὶ τὰ καλά μου, 

Μάνα μου, τὰ λουλούδια μου καλὰ νά τα κυττάζῃς. 

᾿Ακόμα σήμερά “wat δῶ, αὔριο καὶ τὸ Σαββάτο, 

Τὴ Κυριακὴ σ᾽ ἀφίνω γειὰ μὲ μῆλο ζξαχαράτο. 

᾿Αφίνω γειὰ ᾿ς τὸν μαχαλᾷᾶ καὶ γειὰ ᾿ς τὰ παλληκάρια, 

> / Ἦν Ὁ \ , / ‘ / 

Adivw καὶ ᾽ς τὴ μάνα μου τρία yvadia φαρμάκι" 

Téva νὰ πίνῃ τὸ πρωὶ καὶ T ἄλλ᾽ τὸ μεσημέρι, 

Τῶνα τὸ βράδυ va δειπνᾷ, νὰ πέφτῃ νὰ κοιμᾶται". 


Youth comes but once?, 

We are young only once. 

The fair ones and all the brave lads are jealous of me. 

My own mother also envies me and seeks to turn me out. 

Turn me out, my mother, send me far away to foreign parts, 

That I may make sisters of strange women, and foster-mothers of 
foreigners, 

That foreign women may wash my linen, and my best clothes. 

O my mother, tend my dear plants well. 

"Tis but to-day, to-morrow, and on Saturday that I am here, 

On Sunday I bid thee farewell with a sugar-sweet apple’. 

I leave a ‘farewell’ to the village, ‘a farewell’ to the brave lads, 

And to my mother I leave three phials of poison :4 

One of which to drink at morn, the other at mid-day, 

The third on which to sup at eve, and lay her down and sleep.5 


1 A variant of the last four lines is given by Passow, No. 618. 

2 Ancient Greek poetry abounds in similar sentiments. Theognis even 
prefers death to loss of youth: 

"“Adpoves ἄνθρωποι καὶ νήπιοι, οἵτε θανόντας 
κλαίουσ᾽, οὐδ᾽ ἥβης ἄνθος ἀπολλύμενον. 1069. Cp. 877. 

3 When the bride leaves her home, her mother hands her an apple which 
she throws back over her shoulder “ that she may leave sweet memories behind 
her” (ν᾿ ἀφήσῃ γλύκα πίσω τη»). 

4 Cp. Rennell Rodd, The Customs and Lore of Modern Greece, p. 93. 

5 The poison is, of course, figurative of the mother’s grief at missing her 
daughter every hour of the day. 


A. F. 11 


162 Macedonian Folklore 


II. (From Melenik.’) 


᾿Ακόμα σήμερ᾽ εἶμαι δῶ, Ἰ]αρασκευή, Σαββάτο, 

Τὴ Κυριακὴ σ᾽ ἀφίνου γειά, ᾽ς τὰ ἔρημα θὰ πάνου, 

Θὰ wav ᾿ς τ᾽ ἀηδόνια τὰ πολλὰ καὶ ᾿ς τοὺς χοντροὺς τοὺς 
ἴσκιους, 

Νὰ πέσω ν᾿ ἀποκοιμηθῶ, νὰ πάρω ὥραν ὕπνο, 

N’ ἀκούσ᾽ τ᾽ ἀηδόνια πῶς λαλοῦν καὶ τὰ πουλιὰ πῶς κλαί- 
γουν, 

Πῶς καταριοῦνται τὸν ἀητὸ γιὰ τὰ μικρά T's ἁρπάχνει" 

«ῬΑητέ μ, va φᾷς τὰ νύχια σου, τὰ νυχοπόδαρά σου, 

Ilod μ᾽ ἔφαγες τὸ ταῖρί μου ἀπὸ τὴν ἀγκαλιά μου, 

Ποῦ τοὖχα καὶ τ’ ἀγκάλιαξα καί το γλυκοφιλοῦσα.᾽" 

Yet this day I am here, on Friday and Saturday. 

On Sunday I shall bid thee farewell, to the wilderness shall I go. 

I shall go to the flocks of nightingales and to the fat shadows, 

To lay me down and slumber, to snatch an hour’s sleep, 

To listen to the nightingales’ songs and to the birds’ plaints: 

How they curse the eagle for their young ones which he carries off: 

“QO eagle, mayst thou eat away thine own claws, thy claws and talons; 


For thou hast eaten my mate from between my arms, 
The mate whom I was wont to fondle and sweetly kiss.” 


While the kneading of the cakes is going on in the 
bride’s house, the bridegroom, accompanied by his friends, 
calls on the best man and kneeling to him and kissing his 
hand invites him officially to his house. On the same evening 
a pie (zrovyataa) is sent to the bride, and she breaks it herself 
as a symbol that she has finally and irrevocably accepted him 
as her lord and master. A great banquet (φιλιά) at the 
bridegroom’s brings the day’s doings to a close. 

In some districts all these ceremonies occur on the Friday, 
while Thursday is spent otherwise: the bride through the 


1 The above version is word for word as I heard it at Melenik. I picked up 
two more versions, one at Nevrokop and another at Nigrita. They both contain 
the bird’s plaint to the eagle. For parallels to this idea, see Passow, Nos. 
404—407. Another variant will be found in A. A. Τουσίου, ‘Ta Τραγούδια τῆς 
Πατρίδος uwov’ No. 166. 

2 Lit. ‘friendship’ or ‘affection.’ 


Marriage 163 


Καλέστρα invites her maiden friends, who, after having danced 
in her house to the strains of music, accompany her to a public 
bath where they all bathe’, the expenses being defrayed by the 
bridegroom. Then they return to the bride’s house and set 
up another dance. If there is to be a banquet in the evening, 
they stay, and after it a third dance ensues. Later on the 
bridegroom, who has also performed his ablutions with his 
friends and has feasted them, comes with them to the bride’s, 
and lads and lasses dance together till morning. If there is no 
banquet they disperse early. 


ὙΠ 


Friday also is a busy day. In the morning a party of 
youths go forth “for the firewood” (᾽ς τὰ ξύλα) which is to 
be used in the coming feast. This task is performed in true 
Homeric style: 

- With proper instruments they take the road, 
Axes to cut, and ropes to sling the load. 
First march the heavy mules securely slow, 
O’er hills, o’er dales, o’er crags, o’er rocks, they go. 


Then 


The wood the Grecians cleave, prepar’d to burn; 
And the slow mules the same rough road return.” 


The return journey is accomplished with great pomp and 
circumstance. The procession is led by a horse into whose 
saddle is planted a high pole with a banner flying from it. 
An apple or orange is stuck on the top of the pole, and a 
red handkerchief is tied round it. As they draw near the 
village, they are met by a band of drums and pipes, which 
accompanies them home, and on the way a special song 
is sung. 

In the afternoon takes place the “delivery of the trousseau ” 
(προικοπαράδοσι). ‘The priest, accompanied by some of the 

1 The custom of bathing before the marriage ceremony (πρὸ γαμικῶν) was 
religiously observed by the ancient Athenians, the water for this function being 
drawn from the sacred spring known in the time of Thucydides as Kallirhoe or 


Fair-fountain. (Thue. τι. 15; Pollux τα. 3.) 
2 Pope’s Iliad xxut. 138 foll. 


11—2 


164 Macedonian Folklore 


notables of the village (πρόκριτοι), calls at the bride’s and 
makes up an inventory of the trousseau (κάμνουν τὸ προικοσύμ- 
govo). The bride’s parents and herself affix their signatures, 
or their marks, to the document, and then the trousseau is 
“piled up” (στιβάζουν) in a conspicuous place, for the inspec- 
tion and envy of the neighbours. Two hours before nightfall 
various female relatives are invited to come and “turn over 
the trousseau” (γυρίζουν τὴ προῖκα), that is, to arrange and 
put it back into the boxes, throwing into them sugar-plums 
and wishing that it may be “sweet as sugar” (νάναι γλυκειὰ 
σὰν τὴ ζάχαρι) An old woman is appointed to guard it till 
the next day, when the best man gives her a present, that she 
may allow it to be taken to the bridegroom’s. 

The arrangement of the trousseau is accompanied by this 
song: 


Κόρη μ᾽ τὶ σ᾽ ἦρθε μήνυμα ἀπὸ τὴ πεθερά σου, 

Κόρη μ᾽ τὴ προῖκά σ᾽ ὄρθωνε καὶ τὸν δαρό σ᾽ ᾿κονόμα. 
“Ἐγὼ τὴ προῖκά μ᾽ ὥρθωσα καὶ τὸν δαρό μ᾽ ᾿κονόμ᾽σα. 
"Kowa τὸ μαξιλάρι μου ὀργὰ θά το πληρώσω." 

My dear maid, a message has come to thee from thy mother-in-law: 
My dear maid, arrange thy trousseau, and thy gifts prepare. 


“T have arranged my trousseau and my gifts have I prepared. 
My bridal pillow still remains; but I shall soon finish that too.” 


In the evening, soon after sunset, invitations to the wedding 
(καλέσματα) are issued by the two parties to their respective 
friends. This is done as follows: Two boys, one bearing a 
lantern and the other a flagon of wine (boukla), crowned with 
flowers, and a parcel of cloves wrapt up in paper, are sent 
round to deliver this message: “Take this clove, it is from 
So-and-so. Thou art asked to come to the ‘Rejoicing.’” (Νὰ 
αὐτὸ τὸ γαρούφαλλο, εἶναι “wd τὸν τάδε. Εἶσαι καλεσμένος 


1 y, supra p. 109. 

2 πληρώνω in M. Gr. generally means ‘to pay,’ but in some parts of 
Macedonia it is used in the sense of ‘finishing.’ Hence occasionally arise 
amusing incidents: 

Customer: Let me have some wine. 

Tavern keeper: πλήρωσε (‘it is finished ’—none left; but also) ‘pay!’ 

Customer: How can you ask me to pay, before giving me the wine? 


Marriage | 165 


vapOns ᾽ς τὴ Χαρά.) The person thus invited drinks from the 
flagon, accepts the clove, which is kept, and wishes “long life” 
to the betrothed pair. 


IV. 


On Saturday the dowry is taken to the bridegroom’s. His 
young friends, mounted on their steeds, ride to his house where 
they alight, drink toasts, and set up a dance. Meantime two 
of them gallop ostentatiously through the village on two of 
the horses which are to carry the dowry. Then they return 
to the bridegroom’s in order to join their comrades, and the 
whole cavaleade proceeds to the bride’s, with presents from 
the bridegroom to her parents and relatives. Having presented 
these gifts, drunk, and danced, they load the horses with the 
trousseau, placing a little boy on each horse. The bridal pillow 
is carried by a boy on foot. He runs ahead, before the pro- 
cession has started, and delivers it to the bridegroom, from 
-whom he receives a remuneration. When the trousseau has 
arrived, it is piled up in the courtyard and the bridegroom’s 
mother throws sugar-plums upon it from the window. Then 
refreshments are served to the carriers, and singing and dancing 
round the pile follow. 

A barber is subsequently called in, and he shaves the 
bridegroom, surrounded by his friends, with great solemnity. 
I regret that I was not able to obtain a specimen of the songs 
sung on this occasion. 

On the same day the bridegroom sends to the bride the 
flowers, threads of gold (τέλια or tpais), veil (σκέπη), fur-lined 
jacket (xpovcédXa), and cap which she is to wear on the wedding 
day—in a word the whole bridal outfit. These presents are 
called κανίσια. In some districts they are known as ᾿πόθεσις. 

In the evening the bridegroom sends to the bride a dinner 
(ὁ δεῖπνος), consisting of three or four courses, and a cake 
(xAtixc). The bride in the meantime is kept secluded in a 
room with the bridesmaids, who on hearing that the dinner 
has arrived close the door, crying from within “Not unless 
you pay five (piastres) and a cake” (Μὲ ta πέντε καὶ τὸ 


160 Macedonian Folklore 


κλίκι)δ. The cake-bearer, one of the bridegroom’s nearest 
kinswomen, pays a sum of money to the bridesmaids and is 
admitted into the room. The bride receives the cake standing 
in a corner and breaks it upon her knee into two pieces. 
During this performance, the male gift-bearers pass into the 
room and partake of refreshments, while the train of youths 
who accompanied them set up a dance in the courtyard outside. 
In this dance joins the bride escorted by her brother, or nearest 
male relative, her head covered with a gorgeous silk kerchief. 
After three turns of the slow and sedate syrtos she retires, 
and the, guests depart. On their way back they are met by 
the bridegroom, and they all together, with the band playing 
in front, go and take the best man to the bridegroom’s house, 
where they sit down to a banquet. 

A dance follows and lasts till early dawn (βαθειαῖς yapaais), 
when the youths, with the band, escort the best man home 
and afterwards wander about the streets serenading (πατινάδα). 

A similar ‘family feast’ (cuyyevixn) takes place at the 
bride’s. The guests in both cases are invited by special 
‘inviters, termed ‘bystanders’ (παραστόλια or παραστεκά- 
μενοι), who accompany the invitation to the banquet with a 
cake and a bottle of wine or arrack. 

When the guests are assembled they are greeted by the 
host in these words: 


Piro. μ᾽, καλῶς wpicate, φίλοι μ᾽ κὴ ἀγαπημένοι, 

Νὰ φᾶμε τὰ σαράντ᾽ ἀρνιά, τὰ δεκοχτὼ κριάρια, 

Νὰ πιοῦμε τὸ γλυκὸ κρασί, τὸ μοσχομυρισμένο. 
“My friends, my dearly beloved friends, welcome 


To feast on forty sheep and eighteen rams, 
To drink sweet wine, wine scented with musk.” 


To which they answer in chorus: 


Ἡμεῖς ἐδώ δὲν ἤρθαμε va φᾶμε καὶ va πιοῦμε, 
Ἡμεῖς σας ἀγαπούσαμε x ἤρθαμε νά σας διοῦμε. 


“We have not come here to eat and drink, 
We have come to see you because of our love for you.” 


Marriage | 167 


The entertainment is further enlivened by special songs 
called ‘Table-Songs’ (tpamefixa) of which the following is a 
fair example : 


Γιὰ διὲς τραπέζια ἀργυρᾶ, σινιὰ μαλαματένια, 
Τριγύρω γύρω ἄρχοντες, ᾽ς τὴ μέση ὁ Δεσπότης. 
Σὰν εὐλογοῦσε κ᾽ ἔλεγε, σὰν εὐλογᾷ καὶ λέγει: 
ΟΣ αὐτὰ τὰ σπίτια ποὔρθαμε πέτρα νὰ μὴ ῥαγίσῃ, 
Ky ὁ νοικοκύρης τοῦ σπιτιοῦ πολλὰ χρόνια νὰ ζήσῃ." 
Behold tables of silver, trays of gold: 
Round about are sitting lords; in the midst the Bishop. 
He uttered a benediction; in his blessing he said: 
“Of the dwelling wherein we are gathered may not a stone ever crack, 
And the lord of the house, may he live many a year!” 


The burden of these banquets is not entirely borne by the 
bride’s and bridegroom’s parents. The guests contribute their 
quota, which consists of ‘slaughtered lambs’ (σφαχτά) and 
presents such as cooking utensils, lamps, and the like. To each 
_article is affixed a wish, signed with the sender’s name, e.g. 
“May they live to grow old, and may God bestow upon them 
the wealth of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Na ξήσουν, va 
γηράσουν κἢ ὁ θεὸς va Tous χαρίζῃ τοῦ ᾿Αβραάμ, Ἰσαὰκ καὶ 
Ἰακὼβ τὰ ἀγαθά). These gifts are handed over to a specially 
appointed steward (κελλαρτζῆς or cellar-man). 


The Wedding Procession. 


At last the day of days has dawned. Early on Sunday 
morning the bride rises and helps to tidy up the home of 
her maidenhood for the last time. Then she sets about her 
own toilet. Her hair is combed and braided by her sisters 
and bridesmaids. Her relatives, who assist at the performance, 
shower upon her silver pieces, which are picked up by the 
maids and preserved as lucky. She is then dressed in the 
bridal attire sent by the bridegroom on the previous day. Her 
head is adorned with gold threads reaching to the knees and 
her face is covered with a long pink veil. One of her brothers 


1 From A. A. Tougiov, ‘Ta Τραγούδια τῆς Πατρίδος pov,’ No. 31. 


168 Macedonian Folklore 


binds a belt round her waist with three knots. When fully 
arrayed, she kisses the hands of all present and with downcast 
eyes demurely steps across the room and takes up her station 
in a corner, specially decorated with a fine carpet and plants 
of the season, chiefly ivy, which is an emblem of perennial 
youth and freshness. This spot is called “The bride’s corner” 
(νυφοστόλι). 

The bridesmaids then proceed to place on her head ἃ 
wreath of artificial flowers, singing the while the following 
song : 


“Νυφούδά μ᾽, τί pas μάνισες καὶ πλειὰ δέ᾽ pas σμπου- 
pitas, 

Kal δὲ᾽ yupifes va pas duns μηδὲ νά pas pirnons;” 

«Πῶς va γυρίσω va cas διῶ καὶ πῶς νά σας μιλήσω; 

Μὲ ῥάψανε τὰ μάτια μου μ᾽ ἐννεὰ λογιοῦ μετάξι." 

“Dear little bride, wherefore art thou angry with us and wilt no longer 
speak to us ? 

Wherefore dost thou not turn to look at us, nor talk with us?” 


“How can I turn to look at you, how can I talk with you? 
My eyes are stitched with silk of nine sorts.”? 


The bride in return for these attentions presents each of 
the maids with a crape kerchief (capi) as a symbol of a speedy 
entrance into the married state. 

The bridegroom sends presents to her father, mother, sisters 
and brothers, while she has ready a basketful of gifts for his 
people. These mutual donations consist of articles of dress, 
such as skirts, sashes, silk aprons, slippers, lace collars and 
the like. 

While the performance described above is enacted in the 
young lady’s house, the bridegroom also is donning his festive 
attire with his friends’ assistance. In some districts it is the 
custom for the groom, as he is being decked out, to stand upon 
the nether stone of a handmill—the appliance used by the 


1 A Bulgarian synonym of the Greek ὁμιλῶ (1. 2) ‘ to converse.’ 
2 The song alludes to the bride’s stiff and silent attitude prescribed by 
convention. 


δ. ..- 


Marriage 169 


peasants for grinding grits (πληγοῦρι)" When thoroughly 
equipped he kisses his parents’ hands, and they give him their 
blessing. Then he sets out with the priest and the assembled 
guests in procession, headed by a band. On the way he picks 


' up the best man who, accompanied by the ‘best woman’ (his 


wife or mother or sister), joins the train, carrying in his hands a 
flask of wine, decorated with flowers, and a cake, while the 
‘best woman’ bears a basket covered over with a silk *hand- 
kerchief and containing the wedding wreaths (τὰ στέφανα), a 
piece of stuff for a gown, and sugar-plums. Thus escorted the 
bridegroom proceeds to the bride’s: abode. The following song 
is sung on the way: 


(From Eleutheroupolis.’) 


Ἔμπῆκα ᾿σὲ περιβόλι ᾽σὲ βασιλικό, 
Βρίσκω κόρη ποῦ κοιμοῦνταν pov’ καὶ μοναχή. 
"Ἔσκυψα νά τη φιλήσω, δέ᾽ με δέχτηκε, 
Μεταδευτερώνω πάλι, χαμογέλασε, 
a A 8. ͵ , 
Τρέσκασε τὸ κόκνο χεῖλι καί με μίλησε" 
“TI “ / > Ν - “ > > , 
οὗσαν, ξένε μ᾽, TO χειμῶνα ὅντ᾽ ἀρρώστησα, 
᾽ > , -“ lal » 
Κ᾽ ἦρτες τώρα καλοκαῖρι ποῦ ξαρρώστησα; 
wos v ε SF ? Sou 
Ἐένος ἤμουν ἡ Kavpévos, ξένα δούλευα. 
Σ᾽ ἔστειλα γυαλὶ καὶ χτένι καὶ καραμπογιά, 
Γιὰ va βάψης τὰ μαλλάκιά σ᾽, τὰ ξανθὰ μαλλιά." 


I entered into a royal garden 

And there I found a maid sleeping all by herself. 

I stooped to kiss her; but she spurned me. 

I tried again, and she smiled. 

She opened her rosy lips and spoke to me: 

“Where wert thou, O stranger, during the winter when I was ill, 


1 In Molivo, a village of Lesbos, it was once the custom for the bridegroom 
to stand on a large copper tray—a custom in which a Greek writer sees a remi- 
niscence of the Byzantine Coronation ceremony, in which the new Emperor 
stood on ashield. 2. A. ᾿Αναγνώστου, ‘ Λεσβιάς,᾽ p. 195. This theory, though 
somewhat far-fetched at first sight, tallies well with the phraseology of the 
wedding rites and songs (e.g. στεφάνωμα, ἄρχοντες etc.) as well as with the regal 
pomp which pervades the ceremony. 

2 A small town on the coast, a little to the west of Cavalla. 


170 Macedonian Folklore 


And thou comest now in the summer when I am recovered ?” 
“ Alas! I was a wanderer, I was working in foreign parts, 

I sent thee a mirror and a comb and dye, 

Wherewith to colour thy dear tresses, thy golden locks.” 


By this time the cortége has reached its destination. In 
some districts there takes place a sham fight between the 
bridegroom’s and the bride’s friends. In most places, however, 
the capture of the bride has dwindled to a mere shadow. 
The bridesmaids shut the door in the bridegroom’s face and 
will not open it until he has offered them presents. In certain 
parts the bridegroom’s friends are compelled to dance and sing 
to the maids, otherwise the latter refuse to deliver the bride. 

Another trait of the ceremony deserving some notice is the 
rule according to which the bridegroom on nearing the bride’s 
house, must throw an apple or a pomegranate over the roof. 
On the meaning of this we shall have occasion to comment at 
a later stage of the proceedings. 

When the bridegroom has gained admittance, he draws near 
the bride, and accepts a glass of wine from the hands of her 
sister, who afterwards ties a fine handkerchief round his neck 
and slaps him in the face. At the same time the bride is 
tying another handkerchief with three knots round the best 

man’s neck. 

These tyings may be a relic of the capture custom; but it 
is more likely that the knots are meant as a device against 
sorcery. For the same reason among the Russians a net “ from 
its affluence of knots” is sometimes flung over the bride or the 
bridegroom, and his companions are girt with pieces of net “ or 
at least with tight-drawn girdles, for before a wizard can begin 
to injure them he must undo all the knots in the net, or take 
off the girdles, ”? 

The magic significance of the girdle is not unknown to the 
Macedonian peasants. In a popular song a love-lorn prince 
Meets on the way two witches, mother and daughter. 


The daughter wist his woe and thus to her mother spoke: 
‘Seest thou, mother mine, this youth so worn with care? 


1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 390. Cp. G. Georgeakis et Léon 
Pineau, Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, p. 344. 


Marriage | 171 


\ He loves a maiden fair, but she loves him not.’ 


- 


_ The mother then addressed the prince and thus to him she spoke: 


' ‘What wilt thou give me, my son, that I may make her consent?’ 
_ ‘If silver thou desirest take it, or take pearls.’ 
_ *Neither silver do I desire nor even pearls, 


μουν. www =i. + 


Only the girdle which thou wearest, that thou must give me.’ 
He unfastens his girdle and gives it to the witch.! 


The influence of knots and girdles over matters matrimonial 
is not to be denied or disputed. But a knot is a symbol that cuts 
both ways. In the above instances it is the ‘tying’ of one that 
safeguards the newly-married pair against sorcery. The belief 
in the ‘loosening’ efficacy of a knot or a girdle is equally 
popular.” 

The two parties then form one procession and set forth on 
their way to the church. 

The bride on leaving her ‘corner’ makes the sign of the 
cross; when she has reached the threshold of the room, she 
bows three times to the ground—a solemn farewell,—upsets a 
glass of wine with her right foot and moves out of the house 
with feigned reluctance, supported on either side by her maids 
or by her brothers, or, in some districts, by the best man and 
the best woman who, being of the enemy’s camp, thus keep up 
the semblance of carrying her off as a captive. So the pro- 
cession moves on, the bride walking slowly with downcast eyes 
(καμαρώνει) and stopping to kiss the hands of her elders on the 
way. The bridegroom and his cortége lead the van with the 
band at the head, and the bride’s party brings up the rear. 
In some districts this party includes a person carrying a 
gigantic spit with a lamb on his shoulder. Through the din 
of fire-arms, with which the procession is greeted by the 
bystanders, may be heard the voices of the bridesmaids singing: 


1 For the original see A. A. Γουσίου, ‘Ta Τραγούδια τῆς Πατρίδος μου, No. 35. 

2 J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. τ. pp. 394 foll. The sorcery dreaded 
by Greek married couples usually takes the form of rendering the husband 
incapable of fulfilling his conjugal mission. This is technically called ‘“ bind- 
ing.” The process by which he is freed from the fetters of witchcraft is termed 
*‘loosing.” Prescriptions for the latter ceremony will be given in the sequel of 
this work. 


172 Macedonian Folklore 


The Faithful Wifes (From Shatista.) 


The dawn has risen and the Pleiades have set. 

The nightingales repair to their pastures and the fair ones to the fountain, 
I take my black steed and go to give him to drink. 

I meet one maid, I meet two, I meet three and five. 

I find a young woman washing her husband’s handkerchief. 

I beg her for water to give my black steed to drink. 

Forty cups she gave me; but in the eyes I could not look her, 

But after the fortieth I looked and saw them tearful. 

“What ails thee, my dear girl, wherefore dost thou shed black tears ?” 
“JT have a husband who is in foreign parts, a husband who is abroad. 
I have waited for him twelve years, I will wait three more, 

And after the three years a nun will I become, 

I will array myself in black, to the convent will I go.” 

“J, my dear girl, am thy husband, I am thy beloved.” 

“Tf thou truly art my husband, if thou truly art my beloved, 

Show tokens of my body, tokens of my home.” 

“There is a mole between thy breasts, a vine in thy court-yard.” 


In some parts of Macedonia it is the custom for the bride 
and the groom to go to the church on horseback. As the 
distance seldom justifies the habit, that may be taken as 
another reminiscence of times when the bride was carried off by 
force on her abductor’s steed. In other parts again, especially 
among the Wallachs, a pole with an apple on top and a white 
kerchief streaming from it (φλάμπουρο) is carried by a kilted 
youth in front of the wedding procession.” 


1 This is one of the most wide-spread songs in Modern Greek folklore. 
I myself collected no fewer than six different versions in different parts of 
Macedonia. There is another in the “Τραγούδια τοῦ Ὀλύμπου, by A. K. 
Οἰκονομίδης, p. 132; also one from Zakynthos in Bernhard Schmidt’s Liebeslieder, 
No. 57 (see also references there), and six more in Passow, Nos. 441-6. They all 
agree on the main incident, though they vary widely in the setting, and equally 
in diction. The above I have selected not as the best, but as being the shortest 
of my MSS. 

* This custom is also common among the Gipsies of Spain. “ First of all 
marched a villainous jockey-looking fellow, holding in his hands, uplifted, 
a long pole, at the top of which fluttered in the morning air a snow-white 
cambric handkerchief, emblem of the bride’s purity.” George Borrow, The 
Zincali, Part τι. Ch. vii. 


“ΕΟ ΝΝ 


Marriage , 173 


When the procession is within sight of the church the 
- following song is sung—a kind of triumphal paean reminding 
the bride that her resistance was in vain: 


The Boastful Partridge: (From Kiup-Kioi.) 


Μιὰ πέρδικα παινέθηκε τουφέκι 52 φοβᾶται. 
Lav τ᾽ ἄκουσε kn ὁ κυνηγὸς πολύ τον βαρυφάνη" : 
Στήνει τὰ βρόχια᾽᾽ς τὰ βουνά, τὰ ᾿ξόβεργα᾽ς τοὺς κάμπους, 
Πιάνουν τὰ βρόχια πέρδικαις, τὰ ᾿ξόβεργα τρυγώνῃς, 
Καὶ τοῦτα τὰ μεταξωτὰ πιάνουν τῇς μαυρομμάτῃς. 

A partridge boasted that she feared not the gun. 

When the fowler heard that, he was exceedingly offended. 

He spreads his nets over the hills, the lime-twigs on the plains. 


The nets catch partridges, and the lime-twigs turtle-doves, 
And these silken toils catch the black-eyed maids. 


In the Church and After. 


At the entrance of the church the bride halts and bows 
thrice. Then the procession enters and marches up the nave. 

In front of the pair is set a table with the bridal cake 
and a cup of wine upon it, from which the priest prepares 
the holy communion, and administers it to the pair. 

The best man, or his wife, exchanges the wreaths (ἀλλάζουν 
τὰ στέφανα) which in some places are woven by the bridesmaids 
out of vine twigs, currants, and cotton-seed. In other—less 
primitive—districts they are made of artificial flowers and are 
provided by the best man, or lastly they are silver garlands 
belonging to the church.’ 

While performing this task the best man ἤπιανε over the 
bride’s shoulders the stuff brought in the basket. 

When the ‘crowning’ is over, the bride pins bunches of 
a yellow mountain flower (χαντρολούλουδο, lit. ‘bead blossom ’) 


1 Cp. Passow, Nos. 493, 494. 

2 The ‘crowning ceremony’ (στεφάνωμα) has been borrowed by the Russians 
who, just as the Greeks, use the word “" coronation”’ (vyenchanie) as a synonym 
for a wedding. 


174 Macedonian Folklore 


on the guests’ coats. The parents and all the guests in turn 
embrace the newly-married couple, kissing them on the fore- 
head and wishing them ‘unbroken felicity’ (στερεωμένα). In 
some districts these wishes take a quaint turn: “ May you 
live, may you grow white and old” (Na ζῆστε, ν᾿ ἀσπρίστε, 
va ynpaote), each wish being accompanied with a jump. In 
the villages near Mount Olympus to the above expressions is 
added “—like Olympus, like Kissavos” (σὰν τὸν "ἔλυμπο σὰν 
tov Κίσσαβο). 

A bronze ewer (γκιοῦμι) and basin (Aayhve or ληγένι), 
which form part of the bride’s dowry, are then produced. The 
bridegroom holds the basin, and the bride the ewer, and they 
both help the best man and the best woman to wash their 
hands—a service which is requited with money thrown into 
the basin. 

The bridegroom then takes the bride by the arm, and they 
march slowly and decorously homeward. The crowd which 
lines the streets offers them loud congratulations. On ap- 
proaching the house the bridesmaids burst into song: 


I. (From Thasos.) 


Γιὰ EéBya, μάνα τοῦ γαμπροῦ καὶ πεθερὰ τῆς νύφης, 
Νὰ διῇς τὸ γυιό σ᾽ σταυραετὸ τὴ πέρδικα ποῦ φέρνει" 
3 Ν \ τ] / \ > \ , 

Ao φλουρὶ δὲ᾽ φαίνεται x7) ἀπὸ μαργαριτάρι, 

Ky ἀπὸ γαλάξιο καμπουχὰ δὲν ἔχει νὰ λυγίσῃ. 
Γαμπρὲ ἀξιώτατε, νὰ ζήσῃς νὰ γηράσῃς, 


1 Var. Κἢ ἀπὸ γαλάζιο καμπουφὲ ποῦ λάμπει σὰν τὸν ἥλιο. 
“For velvet blue which shines like the sun.” 
In some versions two more lines are given : 
Θά ce χωρίσ᾽ ἀπὸ τὸν γυιό o, ἀπὸ τὸν ἀγαπημένο σ᾽, 
Αὐτὸς μάνα dé’ σ᾽ ἔχει πλειά, καὶ σὺ γυιὸν dé’ τον ἔχεις. 
(A. Δ. Γουσίου, ‘Ta Τραγούδια τῆς Πατρίδος pov,’ No, 40.) 
‘*She will sever thee from thy son, thy beloved one: 
He no longer calls thee mother, nor dost thou call him son!” 

2 Cp. the classical mode of addressing the bridegroom (προσφώνημα) in 
epithalamian songs: “OABie yauBpé, τίμιε y. etc. Sapph. 50, 56; Theocr. 
Id. xv. 16, ete. The modern epithets ἄξιος, ἀξιώτατος etc., which are also 
applied to the sponsor at a baptism and to the best man at a wedding (see 
below Toasts 11. p. 180), seem to be survivals of the Coronation ceremony of the 


Marriage | 175 


Τὴ νύφη ποῦ σε δώκαμε καλὰ νά τη κυττάζῃς, 

Καλὰ νά τη στολίζεσαι γιατὶ δὲν ἔχ᾽ μητέρα. 
Γαμπρὸς εἶναι βασιλικὸς κ᾽ ἡ νύφη μας κανέλλα, 
Γαμπρὸς εἶναι βασιλικὸς κ᾽ ἡ νύφη μαντζουράνα. 
Κουμπάρος ποῦ στεφάνωσε εἶναι χρυσῆ λαμπάδα. 
Σήκωσ᾽, νύφη μ᾽, τὸ χέρι σου καὶ κάνε τὸ σταυρό σου, 
Καὶ περικάλει τὸ θεό, νὰ ζῇ τὸ στέφανό σου. 


Come forth, O mother of the groom and the bride’s mother-in-law, 
To see thy young eagle what a partridge he is bringing home! 
She cannot be seen for gold and pearls, 

She cannot bend for brocade of gold.1 

Most worthy bridegroom, mayest.thou live to a great age, 
The wife we have given thee, be very attentive to her, 

Watch tenderly over her for she has no mother. 

The bridegroom is basil and our bride cinnamon, 

The bridegroom is basil and the bride sweet marjoram. 

The best man who held the crowns is a taper of gold. 

Lift, dear bride, thy hand and make the sign of the cross, 
And pray unto God that thy partner may live long! 


II. (From Ngrita.) 
The bride’s mother sings: 


M \ / θέ ᾽ὔ na , 
ap κυράτσα συμπεθέρα, Ti κακό σε πῆκα γώ, 
, 
Κ᾽ ἔστειλες TO σταυραητό σου, 
Κ ‘ n \ / 
αἱ μὲ πῆρε TO πουλί μου, 
Καὶ ξανόστην ἡ αὐλή μου; 


Byzantine Emperors. There we find the epithet ΓΑ ξιος used in the acclamations 
of the people. It is still used by the Greeks at the Consecration of Bishops, 
who in many respects may be considered as representing in Turkey the old 
secular heads of the Greek nation, and are popularly called by the royal title of 
Despots (Δεσπότης). When the congregation greet a Bishop with the cry 
᾿Ανάξιος, it is time for the unpopular pastor to seek a new flock and pastures 
fresh. 

1 These expressions are not always to be taken as empty hyperboles. They 
often represent reality. But as every peasant cannot afford to deck out his 
daughter in brocade of gold and pearls, these gorgeous articles as well as the 
bridal coronal and girdle are the property of the parish, temporarily used on 
the payment of a fee. So that even the humblest maid can boast of having 
appeared for once in her life in robes fit for a queen. 


176 Macedonian Folklore 


O thou fellow-mother-in-law, what harm have I done to thee, 
That thou shouldst send thine eagle 

To snatch away my dear bird 

And to rob my courtyard of its beauty ? 


Ill. (From Inakkovikia.) 


Τώρα τοῦ γαμπροῦ ἡ μάνα περφανεύεται καὶ λέει" 
Περφανεύεται καὶ λέει: Τώ ἴχω γυιὸν Ky ἄλλος δὲν ἔχει, 
Τώ ᾽χω γυιὸν x) ἄλλος δὲν ἔχει, γώ χω καὶ μιὰ θυγατέρα 
Te ᾽χω καὶ μιὰ θυγατέρα, δέντρο ἔχω ᾿ς τὴν αὐλή μου, 
Δέντρο ἔχω ᾿ς τὴν αὐλή μου, κυπαρίσσι ᾿ς τὴ γωνιά μου. 
Πράσινα κάνει τὰ φύλλα, νερογάλαζα λουλούδια. 

Now the groom’s mother swells with pride and says: 

I have a son and none else beside me (bcs). 

I have also a daughter (δῶ), 

A tree in my courtyard (bis), ' 

A cypress in my home.? 

It brings forth green leaves and sea-blue blossoms. 


The bride on reaching the bridegroom’s house bows three 
times low, makes the sign of the cross with butter upon the 
door-post, and then steps over the threshold, right foot 
foremost.® 

On entering her new home the bride sets her right foot 
upon a ploughshare purposely placed inside the door. This is 
obviously an emblem of plenty, but it may also have a deeper 
meaning, steel in any shape or form being a notorious preserva- 
tive against evil spirits. 

In some parts of Macedonia she breaks upon her own head 
one of the honey cakes and scatters the pieces over her shoulder 
into the yard. In places where two ring-shaped cakes are used 
instead, she throws the pieces of one up the stairs and those of 


1 A. A. Γουσίου, "Τὰ Τραγούδια τῆς Πατρίδος wou,’ No. 41. 

2 Lit. ‘my corner.’ The corner by the hearth is considered as the most 
important part of the house, with which it is identified and for which it is often 
used as a synonym. On the sacredness attaching to the ‘upper corner’ in 
the Russian folk household see Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 135. 

8 This observance has given rise to a proverb ‘‘‘ Throw out thy right foot, 
my bride,’ ‘As though I meant to stay for good!’” (‘Plée, νύφη μ᾽, τὸ δεξί. Σὰν 
νἄχω σκοπὸ νὰ κάτσω πολύ !). 


Marriage 177 


the other into the yard. Sometimes these cakes are given to 
her on leaving her father's roof. In that case she breaks one 
on the way, and the other on entering her husband’s house. 
The pieces of the cake are picked up and kept by the bystanders 
for a reason already stated. 

At the foot of the staircase a ewer is handed to the bride, 
and she pours some water on the steps as she mounts them, or 
a jug full of water is placed in her way, and she upsets it with 
her foot. 

The bridegroom’s mother and the bride’s father, who 
are not present at the wedding,’ stand the while upon the 
landing and throw upon the couple, as they ascend, sugar- 
plums, rice, cotton-seed, barley, chick-peas, and coins which are 
scrambled for by the urchins. In like manner among the 
ancient Greeks and Romans a bride on entering her new home, 
and thus passing from the patria potestas, was welcomed with 
showers of nuts, figs, sugar-plums, and the like, a custom closely 
associated with the idea of a bargain, as is shown by the fact 
that even newly-bought slaves were treated to similar showers. 
The custom survives among us in the rice with which the 
bride is saluted. 

When the pair have reached the topmost step, a woollen 
blanket is spread on the floor with a pomegranate beneath. 
The bride is obliged to stand upon it and crush it with her foot. 
The pomegranate is a well-known symbol of fruitfulness often 
occurring in Eastern folklore, especially Hebrew and Arabic.‘ 

When fairly in the hall, the bride bows to her parents-in-law, 
kisses their hand. and receives from them, into her mouth, 
golden pieces which they hold to her between their teeth. 
This is a pledge that nothing but ‘words of gold’ will ever 


1 Cp. a Suffolk custom: ‘‘It is very remarkable that neither father nor 
mother of bride or bridegroom come with them to,church.”” The Book of Days, 
vol. 1. p. 723. 

2 Cp. Catull. Epithal. 130 Da nuces pueris; Virg. Ecl. vir1. 30 sparge, marite, 
nuces, etc. 

3 Aristoph. Pl. 768; Demosth. 1123. For other references, see Liddell and 
Scott, 8. v. καταχύσματα. 

4 For a typical instance, see ‘The History of Prince Codadad and his 
brothers’ in the Arabian Nights. 


A. F. 15 


178 Macedonian Folklore 


pass between them. Then she salutes all the guests, great and 
small, who also give her presents in money. 

When all the guests have partaken of refreshments 
(xepacpata), the priest reads aloud the inventory of the 
trousseau, which is then ratified by him and the bridegroom, — 
and witnessed by some of those present. It is subsequently 
handed to the bride’s father who keeps it carefully, so that in 
the event of his daughter’s premature death, he may claim 
back the dowry. Thus these practical peasants, while intent on 
symbolism and allegorical ceremonial, do not lose sight of the 
prosaic realities of life. 

The bride’s kinsmen then offer to the bridegroom a cock, 
accompany her parents home with music, and amuse them- 
selves there till evening. 

The bride is shown into a room by an elderly female relative 
and is made to sit on a chair placed for her in a corner by her 
sisters-in-law. As she is sedately strutting to that corner, one 
of the latter holds over her head a loaf of bread with a salt-cellar 
on the top of it. She is surrounded by the best woman and 
other female friends, and they all feast and sing songs together, 
while the bridegroom and his comrades make merry in the hall 
outside, and often become so elevated that they must needs 
express their joy in the form of broken crockery. 

In the midst of this uproar someone rushes downstairs, 
catches the biggest cock in the yard and whirls it round twice. 
Then he flings it off and they all run after it. 

During this banquet many songs are sung: 


I. (From Sochos.) 

Na φᾶμε va πιοῦμε ν᾿ ava ὁ χορός, 
Νὰ ποῦμε va ζήσ᾽ ἡ νύφη κὴ ὁ γαμπρός. 

“Let’s eat and drink and shake the room, 

And wish long life to bride and groom.” 

II. (From Salonica.) 

Mapyapitap’ εἶν᾽ ὁ γαμπρὸς Kal μάλαμα ἡ νύφη, 
Ky ὅποιός τους ἐστεφάνωσε πολλὰ χρόνια νὰ ζήσῃ. 


“A pearl the groom, and golden is the bride ; 
Who held the crowns, long he on earth abide.” 


Marriage | 179 


After the banquet, late in the afternoon, the guests go out 
with the band and set up a dance in the village ‘middle space,’ 
leaving the bridegroom to enjoy his bride’s society in the 
company of her elderly chaperone. 


Wedding Banquets. 


In the evening a dinner is given at which the bride assists 
veiled. The guests drink different toasts of which the following 
are characteristic examples: Ξ 


I. Το the newly married couple. 
Na ζήσουν, στερεωμένα, πάντα τέθοια νἄχουν, λίγο κρασὶ 
καὶ πολλὴ ἀγάπη. 


“May they live long, secure; may they ever be engaged in feasting: 
little wine and much love !” 


Il. To the best man and the best woman. 


Πάντα ἄξιος ὁ Καλητάτας κ᾽ ἡ Καλημάνα. 


“ Everlasting honour to them.” 


Ill. To the priest. 


Κ᾽ εἰς τὰ ἱεροπαίδια σας. 
“Same luck to your holy children.” 


<"V. To lay guests. 


Κ᾿ εἰς τ᾽ ἀρχοντοπαίδια σας. 
“ Same luck to your princely children.” 


V. To the host's family. 


“Oca καρφοπατήματα ᾿ς τοῦ Bapdapiod τὸν κάμπο, τόσα 
καλὰ va δώσ᾽ ὁ θεὸς ᾿ς τὸ σπίτ᾽ ποῦ τραγωδοῦμε. 

* As many as are the nail-prints on the plain of the Vardar, even so 
many blessings may God bestow upon the house within which we are 
singing.” 

12—2 


180 Macedonian Folklore 


The bride pours out wine for the guests, while they sing: 


I. (From Kiup-Kiot.) 


“Περιστεροῦδά μ᾽ ἔμορφη καὶ χαμαγδῆ τρυγῶνα, 
ἜΣ ὅλον τὸν κόσμον ἥμερη ᾿σὲ μένα ἦρθες ἄγρια. 
Ῥίξε τὴν ἀγριοσύνη σου κ᾽ ἔλα κάθου ᾿ς τὸ γόνα pw. 
Νά με κερνᾷς γλυκὸ κρασὶ καὶ σὺ νὰ λάμπῃς μέσα, 
Νὰ λάμπῃς σὰν τὸν ἥλιο, νὰ λάμπῃς σὰν τὸ φεγγάρι." 
«Πώς νἄρθω, βρὲ λεβέντη μου, αὔριο θὰ βγῇς ὄξω, 
Ὄξω ᾿ς τὰ παλληκάρια καὶ θὰ παινηθῆς μπροστά τους" 
Κόκκινο χεῖλι φίλησα κ᾽ ἔβαψε τὸ δικό μου, 
Μὲ τὸ μαντῆλί μ᾽’ σφουγγίσθκα κ᾽ ἔβαψ᾽ τὸ μαντηλοῦδί w 
Σὲ τρία ποτάμια τώπλυνα κ᾽’ ἔβαψαν τὰ ποτάμια 
Τρία wep στερούδια κόνηψαν κ᾽ ἔβαψαν τὰ νυχούδια 7's.” 
“My pretty pigeon, my low-flying turtle-dove, 
To all the world tame, to me thou hast come wild. 
Cast off thy wildness and come and sit on my knee. 
Pour me out a cup of sweet wine and shine thou in it, 
Shine like the sun, shine like the moon.” 
“How can I come, O my gallant youth? to-morrow, methinks, thou 
wilt go forth 
Among thy comrades, and amongst them thou wilt boast : 
I have kissed a pair of red lips and mine became red ; 
I dried them on my handkerchief, and my little handkerchief became 
red 
I δ ἢ it in three streams and the streams became red, 
Three little doves alighted there, and their little claws also became red.” 1 


Il. (From Inakkovikia.’) 


“᾿Αφέντη μου, ᾽ς τὴ τράπεξα θέλω va σε τιμήσω, 
/ / if , \ , 
Na oe nee baxapt, poaXo, καὶ καροθν λα 
"Oo ἄστρά ᾽ναι ’s τὸν οὐρανὸ καὶ φύλλ᾽ ἀπάν᾽ ᾿ς τὰ δέντρα 
Τόσα καλὰ νὰ δώσ᾽ ὁ θεὸς ᾿ς T ἀφέντη τὸ τραπέζι." 


“"Oo ἄστρά ᾽ναι ᾽ς τὸν οὐρανὸ καὶ PUAN ἀπάν᾽ ᾽ς τὰ δέντρα 
νον / 
Too’ ἄσπρα ξώδεψα ἐγώ, ἀγάπη μ᾽, va σε πάρω." 


1 With this conceit cp. Τὸ διαζύγιον (1. 11 foll.) in ἘΠ. Legrand, Recueil de 
Chansons Populaires Grecques, p. 222. 
2 A. A. Γουσίου, ‘Ta Tpayotdia τῆς Πατρίδος μου, No, 34. 


Marriage | 181 


“Δὲν τώξερα, ἀφέντη μου, πῶς ξώδεψες γιὰ μένα, 
Νὰ γένω γῆς νά με πατᾷς, γεφύρι νὰ διαβαίνῃς, 
Νὰ γένω χρυσοτράπεζα μπροστὰ ᾿ς τὴν ἀφεντιά σου, 
Νὰ γένω χρυσοπότηρο μὲ τὸ κρασὶ γεμᾶτο, 
Ἐσὺ νὰ πίνῃς τὸ κρασὶ Kn ᾿γὼ va λάμπω μέσα." 
Bride: “My lord, I wish to honour thee at this board, 
To honour thee with sugar, musk, and clove. 
As many as are the stars in the sky and the leaves upon the 
trees, 
So many blessings may God bestow on my lord’s board !” 
Groom: “As many as are the stars ir the sky, and the leaves upon the 
trees, 
So many pieces have I spent, my love, to secure thee.”! 


Bride: ‘1 knew it not, my lord, that thou hadst spent money for me, 
Or I would have become earth for thee to tread upon, a 
bridge for thee to pass over, 
I would have become a golden table before thy lordship, 
I would have become a golden goblet filled with wine, 
That thou mayst drink from it and I shine within it!” 


In this way the convivial party amuse themselves. Nor 
are the humble musicians forgotten. The guests now and 
again rise from table, fix pieces of money on their foreheads 
and pledge them with bumpers. 

Cooking and eating continue all night promiscuously and 
alternately, so that no one may have reason to complain that 
he was not able “to put off from himself the desire of meat 
and drink.” But in the course of the evening, soon after the 
main banquet is over, tine bride’s father arrives with his own 
guests, and dancing commences. The bridegroom dances at 
the end of the male chain, the best man holding him by the 
right hand, while he clasps his bride’s hand with the other. 


1 Extremely curious is the recurrence of folk ideas. Cp. the following note 
from Suffolk: ‘*‘ The bridegroom sometimes considers it his duty to profess that 
he considers the job a very dear one—not particularly complimentary to the 
bride—and once a man took the trouble to pay my fee entirely in threepenny 
and fourpenny pieces; which was, I suppose, a very good joke; not so much so, 
however, as when a friend of mine had his fee paid in coppers.” The Book of 
Days, vol. τ. p. 723. Is this a survival from the times when a bride was 
purchased in real earnest? 


182 Macedonian Folklore 


Next after the bride comes the best woman, and then follow 
the bridegroom’s kinswomen in due order. Another chain, 
formed by the bride’s female relatives, winds its way behind 
the bridegroom’s ranks. The dance is a mere matter of form 
and ceases after the third round. The new-comers help them- 
selves to refreshments, and then depart. When the majority 
of the guests have gone, the bride takes off her veil, and 
remains with the flowers and gold threads on her head. To- 
wards morning they all leave, and the band accompanies the 
best man and his female colleague home. 


After the Feast. 


On Monday morning the bride enters upon her new duties 
of housekeeper in a manner that emphasizes the state of 
mild servitude, which is the peasant wife’s lot in Macedonia, 
She begins by helping all the members of her husband’s family 
in their matutinal ablutions (viyriuo), then kisses their hands 
respectfully and prepares their breakfast. They, in their turn, 
give her presents. Later in the day she distributes her bridal 
threads of gold among the little girls of the neighbourhood. 

About noon her nearest relatives call, the bridegroom’s 
return the visit, and thence go to the best man’s. The band 
of groomsmen, with music, first call on the bride’s parents, then 
on the best man and subsequently on the other guests, who 
are invited to another banquet. But they each have to con- 
tribute their shares, chiefly a pie (πουγάτσα), a tray of roast 
meat, and a flagon of wine. These dishes and drinks are borne 
to the bridegroom’s house by the youths with much solemnity 
and music. The best man is expected to contribute a larger 
share than anyone else, and he generally sends a lamb roasted 
whole, and a jar of wine. In the evening the banquet is spread, 
and all the remnants of it are given to the poor. 

After dinner an invitation is sent to the bride’s relatives to 
come and dance with her. The feast lasts through the am- 
brosial night, and the guests do not depart until long after the 
rosy-fingered Morn has spread her saffron-veil over the village 
housetops. 


Marriage 183 


In some places a curious custom is observed on this day. 
The cook, who superintends the culinary department of the 
festivities at the bridegroom’s, armed with a huge ladle hanging 
from his girdle sword-fashion, and followed by his assistants, 
comes to the bride’s old home. Her father and mother in 
feigned alarm hide away their goods and chattels, and take 
refuge on the hearthstone. But the inexorable cook claims 
money. They refuse to pay. A brawl ensues, and at last the 
old couple are seized and suspended from the beams. They 
then begin io offer fowls, water-melons, wine, and the like, as 
aransom. But they are not let down until the cook is satisfied. 
This is undoubtedly one more reminiscence of the distant ages 
when such scenes were acted in grim earnest. 

On Tuesday morning the bride presents each of the musicians 
with a kerchief, and each of the groomsmen with a suitable 
gift (Sapos). At midday her nearest relatives assemble, and 
help her make a cake with milk and rice. She stands behind 
a table in the middle of the hall, and as she moulds the dough 
_ the others dance round her, and at intervals pause to cut it 
with coins. When the cake is ready, it is taken in procession, 
with music, to a public oven. In the evening it is fetched 
home in like manner, and is eaten at dinner. 

On Wednesday the bride, arrayed in her second best apparel, 
and accompanied by two of her husband’s nearest kinswomen, 
or by her own mother and mother-in-law, repairs to the village 
fountain. She carries thither a new pitcher, resting upon a 
gorgeously embroidered rug on her left shoulder and held with 
the right hand bent overhead, or, in some districts, two bronze 
ewers. Similar vessels are borne by her companions, and the 
procession looks not unlike a representation from an old Greek 
vase: one of those living pictures which are as common in 
Hellenic countries at the present day as they were in the time 
of Apelles. Into these vessels are thrown cloves, flowers, or 
wheat and barley, and coins, which are then poured out into 
the fountain as propitiatory offerings to the presiding nymph. 
The vessels are washed, filled with water, and emptied outside 
the entrance of the house. This act is repeated thrice at three 
different fountains in succession. 


184 Macedonian Folklore 


On Thursday the bride “is churched” (ἐκκλησιάζεται), that 
is, she attends divine service for the first time in her new 
capacity as a married woman. Early in the morning married 
relatives escort her to church (βγάζουν τὴ νύφη ᾿ς τὴν ἐκ-᾿ 
κλησιά), and after matins accompany her back home, where 
refreshments are served. 

On Friday evening she goes to her mother’s home and has 
her hair washed by her with water medicated with yellow 
flowers and walnut leaves, purposely gathered and dried. The 
bridegroom joins her later, and the newly-wedded pair stay to 
dinner and remain there till Sunday. This visit is termed a 
‘Return’ or ‘Counter-Wedding’ (ἐπιστρόφια, πιστροφίκια, 
ἀπογύρισμα, or ἀντίγαμος). On Sunday, at midday, they are 
fetched back by the bridegroom’s father and closest relatives 
of both sexes. 

Eight days after the same ceremony takes place at the best 
man’s, where a banquet is spread, songs are sung, and gifts 
exchanged. This is the conclusion of the Macedonian peasant’s 
marriage festival. In many of its details it bears a strong 
analogy to the Albanian wedding, and on the whole differs 
little from the corresponding customs prevalent in Southern 
Greece. 


SONGS SUNG AT THE ‘ RETURN’ BANQUETS. 


I. ‘O φυλακισμένος κ᾽ ἡ Βασιλοπούλα. 
(From Eleutheroupolis). 


ἜΣ \ B 7 a \ , , Ν \ a é 
τὴ βρύσι πῆγα γιὰ νερό, κρύο νερὸ va πάρω 
Ν > lal , 

Βαρειὰ ἀδίκια μ᾽ ἔβγαλαν πῶς φίλησα κορασι. 

iy Dy ἐλ a \> Ν > \ , 7» $2 
Ma ᾿γὼ μαῦρος δὲ᾽ ta&€epa ᾿ς τὰ μάτια δέ᾽ το εἶδα. 
Ὁ \ \ Ue, \ t 7 

τὴ φυλακὴ μὲ ῥίξανε διὰ τριάντα μέραις 
Καὶ παραπέσαν τὰ κλειδία, κάνω τριάντα χρόνια, 


1 See descriptions of the latter in Hahn, Albanesische Studien, and in 
Auguste Dozon, Contes Albanais, pp. 189 foll. 

2 A short sketch of the Thessalian folk marriage is given in Songs of 
Modern Greece, pp. 90 foll. See also Rennell Rodd, The Customs and Lore 
of Modern Greece, ch. iii., and cp. ‘ Marriage Superstitions and Customs’ in The 
Book of Days, vol. 1. pp. 719 foll. 


Marriage 185 


7 9 a \ Ν Ν a \ , 

Κ᾽ ἔκανα πῆχες τὰ μαλλιὰ καὶ πιθαμαῖς τὰ νύχια. 
, » > a n \ / 

Λεφτοκαριάνε ἔσπειρα ᾽ς τῆς φυλακῆς τὴ πόρτα 
Καὶ λεφτοκάρυα ἔφαγα μὰ λευτεριὰ δὲν εἶδα. 

"ks \ / \ / Ve Ms ς , 
Mov’ μιὰ Λαμπρή, μιὰ Κυριακή, μιὰ ᾿ΙΠἰσημη ἡμέρα, 
Θυμήθηκα τὰ νειάτα μου καὶ τὴ παλληκαριά μου, 
Ky ἀρχίνησα νὰ τραγουδῶ ᾿ς τῆς φυλακῆς τὴ πόρτα. 
Βασιλοπούλα μ᾽ ἄκουσεν ἀπὸ ψηλὸ παλάτι" 
“ \ ὁ be . τ nr ᾿ a 9 a n \ , 

ἸΠοιὸς εἶν᾽ αὐτὸς ποῦ τραγουδεῖ ᾽ς τῆς φυλακῆς τὴ πόρτα; 
Na τον yapio’ ἐννεὰ χωριὰ καὶ δεκαπέντε κάστρα." 
“ \ ft Sa2N A> ‘ ΄ BA \ / , 

Ae’ θέλω ᾿γὼ Ta ᾽ννεὰ χωριά, οὔτε Ta δεκαπέντε κάστρα, 

ιν / Ν ’ , / 3) 
Μόν᾽ θέλω τὸ κορμάκι τῆς νά πο σφιχταγκαλιάσω. 


The Prisoner and the Princess. 


I went to the fountain, to draw cool water. 

They brought against me a heavy charge: that I kissed a maid, forsooth. 
I, the hapless one, knew her not, had never seen her with my eyes. 
They cast me into prison for thirty days. 

But the keys were mislaid, and I remained there thirty years.! 

My hair grew yard-long, my nails span-long. 

1 planted a hazel-tree at the prison gates, 

I tasted hazels therefrom, yet freedom I tasted not. 

But on a Bright Day, on a Sunday, on an Easter Day, 

I bethought me of my past youth and of my youthful prowess, 
And I began to sing at the prison gates. 

A Princess heard me from a lofty palace: 

“Who is he that sings at the prison gates? 

I will grant him nine villages and fifteen castles,” 

“J wish not for thy nine villages, nor for thy fifteen castles, 

But I wish for thy beauteous body, to clasp it in mine arms!” 


1. ‘H κακοπαντρεμένη. 
(From Zichna and Pravi.) 


Μάνα μ᾽ μὲ κακοπάντρεψες καὶ μ ἔδωκες ᾿ς τοὺς κάμπους. 
Ἐγὼ ᾿ς τὸ Kapa dé βαστῶ, νερὸ ζεστὸ δὲ᾽ πίνω, 

"ES@ τρυγόνια δὲ᾽ λαλοῦν κ᾽ οἱ κοῦκκοι δέ᾽ TO λέγουν, 

Τὸ λέ᾽ν οἱ βλάχοι ᾿ς τό βουνό, τὸ λέ᾽ν σὰν μυριολόγι" 


1 With the incident of the lost keys and consequent undue prolongation of 
imprisonment cp. E. Legrand, Recueil de Chansons Populaires Grecques, No. 145, 
the opening lines. 


186 Macedonian Folklore 


“ Ποιὸς ἔχ᾽ ἄντρα ᾿ς τὴ ξενιτειά, μικρὰ παιδιὰ ᾿ς τὰ ξένα, 
Πές ταῖς νὰ μήν τους καρτεροῦν, νὰ μὴν Tous περιμένουν. 
᾽᾿ἜΞῆντα καράβια βούλιαξαν ᾿ς τῆς Ἰ]Ϊόλης τὰ Μπουγάξια 
’ 3 iq , , > i? » , 
Γιώμωσ᾽ ἡ θάλασσα πανιά, K ἡ ἄκραις παλληκαρίια. 
, ε ἢ \ ὃ \ Yee , \ \ » ” 
Κλαΐγουν ἡ μάναις γιὰ παιδιὰ κ᾽ ἡ χήραις γιὰ τοὺς ἄντρες. 


The Unhappy Bride. 


Mother mine, thou hast wedded me ill, in giving me away to the lowlands. 
I cannot bear the heat, warm water I cannot drink. 

Here are no singing turtle-doves, the cuckoo is not heard here, 

The shepherds sing on the hills, they sing a mournful lay : 

“Who have husbands abroad, little children in foreign parts, 

Tell them to expect them not, to wait for them no more: 

Sixty ships have sunk in the Straits! of the Great City?, 

The sea is covered with rent sails and the shores with the dead swains. 
Mothers weep for their children, and widows for their husbands.” 


Adopted Brothers. 


In some districts of Macedonia the bridegroom’s comrades, 
who play so important a réle throughout the marriage fes- 
tivities, are his ‘adopted brothers’ (ἀδερφοποιτοί, σταυραδερφοί, 
βλάμιδες, or μπράτιμοι)δ. The custom of forming fraternal 
friendships, once very common in the Balkan Peninsula, is now 
dying out; but in some parts it is still kept up. A number of 
youths enter into a solemn compact to aid each other in all 
circumstances even unto death. The relationship thus con- 
tracted is more sacred than natural kinship. Nor is it confined 
to one sex. Three or four ‘brothers’ sometimes agree to take 
an orphan girl and adopt her as their ‘sister’ (μπρατμίνα). 
The ceremony takes place in the church. The parish priest 
sanctifies the compact by administering the sacrament to them 
and binding them together with a blessed or ‘holy belt’ (ἁγία 


1 The Bosphorus. 

2 Constantinople. It is interesting to recall that these are the straits 
dreaded by the ancient mariner as the site of the Justling Rocks (ai Συμ- 
πληγάδες), which, according to the fable, closed on all who sailed between them 
on their way to the Inhospitable Sea. In historic times there stood on the 
Asiatic shore a temple dedicated to Zeus Ourios or ‘Giver of fair winds,’ in 
which voyagers to the Black Sea were wont to register their vows. 


Marriage | 187 


ζώνη) wound round their waists. The damsel henceforth looks 
upon the youths as her brothers, washes their clothes for them, 
and ministers to their comforts, while they, on their part, are 
bound by their vow to protect her and finally to contribute 
towards her settlement in marriage. 

The name μπράτιμος is of Slav origin. The same custom 
prevails among the Albanian tribe of the Mirdites, where the 
ceremony of initiation, is practically the same The tame 
given to the ‘brothers’ in Albania is pobratum, the same as 
among the Servians.? 


Right and Left. 


In treating of the superstitions concerning Birth, we have 
noticed that the favourites of Fate are believed to have been 
blessed in infancy with her right hand, and the unfortunate 
ones with her left. In the wedding ceremony also, the bride 
is bound to enter her husband’s dwelling right foot foremost 
- for luck. These are only two of a great number of examples 
of the widespread association of ideas which connects right and 
left with good and evil respectively. Further instances abound 
among the Macedonians, as well as other members of the Greek 
race. “May things turn out right” (ἄμποτε νἄρθουν δεξιά) is a 
common wish. The Holy Virgin is sometimes worshipped under 
the name of ‘ Right-handed’ (Παναγία Δεξιά or Δέξα), and is 
depicted carrying the Child in her right arm. To her are 
offered up prayers by all those who are about to embark on 
a new ries haw “that she may conduct it to a right, that is, 
auspicious issue” (γιὰ va μᾶς τα φέρῃ Seka). 

The idea was extremely common among the ancient Greeks, 
as the use of the words ‘right’ (δεξιὸς) and ‘left’ (σκαιὸς) in the 
sense of ‘lucky’ and ‘unlucky’ shows. A bird was “of good 
omen” if it flew on the right, that is from the East, the reverse 
if it flew from the left. Wine and lots were handed round 
from left to right (ἐνδέξια), and a beggar begging round a table 


1 Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. τ. pp. 309 foll. 
2 Among the Slavs of the North, this ‘‘ mutual brotherhood by adoption ” is 
known as pobratimstvo. See Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 217. 


188 Macedonian Folklore 


ought to move from left to right." Among the Romans similar 
ideas prevailed, dexter and laevus? being the equivalents for 
‘propitious’ and the opposite. 

The same idea is found underlying the Celtic folk-belief in 
Deiseal, that is, doing everything with a motion from left to 
right, and the German rechtshin. Moreover, German folk-lore 
contains a rule forbidding getting out of bed left foot first, as 
of ill omen*—a superstition likewise expressed in the English 
phrase “getting out of bed wrong foot foremost,” and _ still 
entertained in many parts of the English-speaking world.’ 

In addition to classical and modern civilized nations, as 
might be expected, we meet with the same idea among savage 
races. Like the ancient Greek and Roman augurs, the modern 
savage interprets the flight of birds as boding good or evil, 
according as it is on his right or left.® 


Other superstitions connected with marriage. 


It is not good to sit on the door-step, or the match-maker, 
who may perchance be coming, will turn back. 

A newly-wedded woman is not allowed to sweep the floor 
of her house during the first week, lest she should “sweep 
members of her husband’s family out of this world” —an idea 
derived from symbolic magic. 

She is also forbidden to look upon a corpse, or to assist 
at a wedding. The first act, it is believed, will bring death 
into her own household; the second will cause separation by 
death or divorce to the pair who are just joimed in the bonds 
of matrimony. 

Rain during a wedding is considered a good omen: it bodes 
prosperity and fertility on the principals of the ceremony. It 


1 Hom, Il. 1. 597; vir. 184; Od. xvit. 365. 

2 This Latin word survives in Western Macedonia, At Shatista they call a 
left-handed person Ard Bos. 

3 J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 
p. 229. 

4 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 85. 

5 Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. tv. p. 85, 

6 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 120. 


Marriage 189 


is with a like intent that the bride is made to overturn a vessel 
containing water, or to besprinkle the stairs, on stepping into 
her new home, as has been noticed already. But in some 
districts, if it rains during the ceremony, it is said that the 
bride is in the habit of crying’ or that the newly-married pair 
in their childhood used “to lick the frying-pans” (éyAvdav 
Ta THYyavia).? 

Gnlucky Days. 


The world-old and world-wide belief in unlucky days, known 
to the ancient Greeks as ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι and to the Romans 
as dies nefasti, survives in Macedonia. Indeed, nearly all the 
days of the week, except Sunday, are considered bad for some 
occupation or other, differing only in the degree and direction 
of their badness. 

Monday. Married people must abstain from paring their 
nails on this day. If one of them does so, the other will die. 

Nor is it advisable to pay debts on a Monday, or they will 
be doubled (Sevrepwvovr). 

Tuesday, as a bad day, corresponds to the Western super- 
stition regarding Friday. 

It is unlucky to make purchases on a Tuesday, especially 
to buy a trousseau. No dress—certainly no bridal gown—is 
cut out on this day, nor any enterprise or journey entered upon. 

Some explain the superlative ill-luck attending this day as 
being due to the fact that Constantinople fell on a Tuesday.’ 

1 Cp. in America, “If it rains on the wedding, the bride will cry all her 
married 116. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. tv. p. 61. 

2 A. Δ. Τουσίου, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Xwpa,’ p. 74. 

3 This is historically true. Constantinople was taken by the Turks on 
May 29th, 1453, on the Third day of the week. The event is commemorated 
in the following old ~allad: 

Ὃ θάνωτος τοῦ Κωνσταντίνου Δράγαζη. 
"= τὰ χίλια τετρακόσια καὶ ᾿ς τὰ πενῆντα τρία, 
Ἡμέρᾳ Τρίτῃ, τοῦ Μαϊοῦ ᾿ς ταῖς εἴκοσι ἐννέα, 
Ἐπῆραν οἱ ᾿Αγαρηνοὶ τὴν Κωνσταντίνου πόλιν. 
The Death of Constantine Dragazi. 
In the year one thousand four hundred and fifty-three, 
On a Tuesday, the twenty-ninth of May, 


The sons of Hagar took Constantine’s City. 
E, Legrand, Recueil de Chansons Populaires Grecques, No. 48. 


190 Macedonian Folklore 


The fall of the ‘ City’ being justly regarded by the Macedonians 
and the rest of the Greeks as the fount and origin of all their 
national woes, and the day on which it occurred as a black- 
letter day in their annals. 

Wednesday and Friday. These two days are considered as 
relatively holy. During Lent, the fast is severer on these two 
days. Those who are religiously inclined observe them through- 
out the year as fasting days, that is, they abstain from meat. 
It is generally held unlucky to pare the nails on either of them. 
Clothes are not washed on a Wednesday, and on a Friday 
neither clothes nor their owners must come in contact with 
water. Women in childbed are especially warned not to in- 
dulge in ablutions on a Friday. The following rhymes embody 
this superstition : 


Τετράδη καὶ ἸΠαρασκευὴ τὰ νύχια σου μὴν κόψῃς. 
Τὴ Κυριακὴ μὴν λούζησαι; ἂν θέλῃς νὰ προκόψηῃς. 


On Wednesday and Friday forbear to cut thy nails.? 
On Sunday wash thou not, if thou wishest to prosper. 


It will be seen that they are here compared in sacredness 
to Sunday itself. How much of the modern Greek’s veneration 
for Friday is a remnant of the Roman respect for the “ Day of 
Venus” it is difficult to say. It is worth while, however, to note 


1 Var. μὴν ξουριστῇς, *‘ do not shave.” 
2 The superstition is as old as Hesiod, who in his allegorical style warns us 
On the goodly feasts of the gods not to cut from the five-pointed 
The dry from the quick with flashing iron. 
W. and D., 742—3. Cp. also Pliny’s directions regarding nail- and hair-cutting. 
The Nones are good for the former, the 7th and the 29th day of the month for 
the latter operation. Nat. Hist. xxvm1.2. And the old English rhymes on the 
subject of nail-cutting : 
A man had better ne’er been born 
Than have his nails on a Sunday shorn. 
Cut them on Monday, cut them for health; 
Cut them on Tuesday, cut them for wealth; 
Cut them on Wednesday, cut them for news; 
Cut them on Thursday, for a pair of new shoes; 
Cut them on Friday, cut them for sorrow; 
Cut them on Saturday, see your sweetheart to-morrow. 
The Book of Days, vol. 1. p. 526; and Sir Thomas Browne’s remarks on it, 
Cp. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. tv. p. 144. 


Marriage 191 


that the Slavs also hold similar occupations as sinful on that 
day. According to an old tradition “it is a sin for a woman to 
sew, or spin, or weave, or buck linen on a Friday.”? 

It is needless to refer to the mythological significance of 
the Teutonic ‘ Freya’s Day’ or the Roman Dies Veneris, whenée 
the Germanic and the Latin races derive their respective 
names of this day of the week, and partly their superstitious 
dread of it.? : 

Whatever may be the origin of the sacred character of 
Friday in the eyes of the modern Greeks, there can be little 
doubt that Wednesday owes its- privileged place to Christian 
influence ; Wednesday, like Friday, having been early asso- 
ciated by the Church with some of the most tragic events in 
the life of Jesus Christ. 

Saturday. It is unlucky to finish any work, especially a 
wedding dress, on a Saturday; the end of the week being 
considered as in some way connected with the end of the 
owner's life. 

It is equally unlucky to cut out a new dress, lest the life of 
the person for whom it is intended should be cut short. 


> 1 Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, p. 199. 

2 How far-reaching this superstition is, is shown by the fact that even the 
Brahmins of India share in it. They say that ‘‘on this day no business must 
be commenced.” Dr Buchanan, Asiat. Res., vol. v1. p. 172 in The Book of Days, 
vol. 1. p. 42. 

3 On lucky and unlucky days generally cp. Memoirs of the American Folk- 
Lore Society, vol. 1v. pp. 79, 144 foll. 


CHAPTER XII. 
FUNERAL RITES. 


ΙΝ the funeral rites of the modern Macedonians can still be 
discerned vestiges of primitive ideas concerning death, and the 
state of the soul after death. These beliefs and practices may 
be said to connect the present with the past, on one hand, 
and the remnants of an ancient civilization with contemporary 
savagery, on the other. Many popular observances, which are 
here kept up as mere matters of traditional ceremonial, find 
their true interpretation in like observances among races in 
a lower stage of culture. It is only by investigating the latter 
that we are enabled to recover the half-forgotten meaning of 
the former. In other words, what in Macedonia are but the 
lifeless fossils of old superstition, embedded in the new religion, 
can, by comparison with analogous specimens still living else- 
where, be reconstructed into something resembling their original 
forms. 

The operation, however, is far from being an easy one, 
and it is rendered all the more difficult by the multitude and 
diversity of the extraneous elements, which in the course of ages 
have accumulated round these remnants, have been assimilated 
by them, and have often disguised them to a degree which 
defies all attempts at analysis and classification. As will be 
seen, some of the ceremonies described in the sequel are a 
continuation of Hellenic or Roman ritual, but slightly affected 
by Christianity ; others can be connected with the practices of 
the Slav populations who, on being admitted into the com- 
munion of the Greek Church, retained a great deal of their 


Funeral Rites 193 


pagan forms of belief and helped to modify classic tradition—a 
process facilitated by the close similarity of their own early 
culture with that of the early Greeks and Romans. Yet, both 
classes of ceremonies, whether directly traceable to a classic or 
to a Slavonic origin, bear a strong likeness to ceremonies in 
vogue among races with which neither the civilized Hellene 
nor the homely Slav ever came in contact. 

It is precisely from this point of view that an attempt can 
be made to establish the relation of Macedonian belief and 
custom to savage culture, and thus assign to the former their 
proper place in the field of universal folklore. 


The lying in state. 


After confession and absolution, the dying partakes of the 
sacrament. When he is breathing his last, or, to use the local 
phrase, when “his soul is breaking out of his mouth” (βγαίνει 
ἡ ψυχή του or ψυχορραγεῖ"), only one or two of the nearest 
relatives are allowed to remain by the bedside. Upon them 
devolves the duty of closing the eyes and mouth of the deceased. 
As soon as the latter has given up the ghost, the face is 
sprinkled with a piece of cotton wool soaked in wine—a 
dwindled remnant of the ancient custom of washing the body. 
He is then arrayed in his best clothes or in a brand-new dress 
(ἀλλάζουν τὸν πεθαμένο). If he is betrothed or newly married, 
the wedding wreath is placed on his head. In the case of 
yo.-g women and children, their heads are crowned with 
flowers, and flowers, occasionally mixed with sugar-plums, are 
also scattered over the body. In some districts, Charon’s penny 
is still put under the tongue or in the lap of the deceased. 


1 Cp. the idiom μὲ τὴ ψυχὴ ᾿ς τὰ δόντια, “with the soul between one’s teeth,” 
i.e. to be at one’s last gasp. This is one of the many popular expressions to 
be found in many languages, all pointing to the prevalent idea that the soul 
at death escapes through the mouth. On this subject see J. G. Frazer, The 
Golden Bough, vol. 1. p. 252. It may be interesting to note here that in Modern 
Greek the word ψυχὴ ‘‘soul” is often used by the ignorant to denote that 
which we call ‘‘stomach”; for instance, a Greek will say μὲ πονεῖ ἡ ψυχή and 
clap his hands over his stomach in a manner which shows that his ailment is 
not of a spiritual nature. Hence ψυχόπονος Ξε κοιλόπονος. 


A. F. 13 


194 Macedonian Folklore 


This is, of course, a survival of the Hellenic custom of 
providing the dead with the ferry-boat fee, and has no direct 
relationship with the similar practice of Western peasants. 
The money offerings to the dead in Germany, France, and 
other parts of Europe are intended to furnish the spirit of the 
departed with the means of buying refreshments on his weary 
journey.! 

Thus arrayed and provided for, the corpse is laid out facing 
East—the head and shoulders resting upon a cushion, the hands 
folded upon the breast—and is covered over with a winding 
sheet or shroud (σάβανον). Three candles are lit, two at the 
head and one at the feet. All these duties are usually per- 
formed by the nearest female relatives and not by paid strangers, 
except when unavoidable. The same relatives also watch and 
bewail the dead. The body is especially watched lest a cat 
should jump over it, and that for a reason to be explained later. 

The laments or dirges (μυριολόγια) In some cases are im- 
provised by the mother, wife, or sisters of the deceased; in 
others, they are sung by professional wailers (μυριολογίστραις), 
who make a business of composing or committing to memory 
suitable songs, and are paid for their mournful labour in food, 
rarely in money. In the majority of cases it is some old 
woman, who has witnessed many a funeral in her own family 
and has, by bitter experience, acquired the gift of fluency, who 
volunteers to sing the dirge. If the deceased is a youth or 
damsel, the laments are sung by young maidens. But in all 
cases the best of the wailers, or the most nearly related to the 
deceased, leads the dirge, in which the other women join with 
a refrain ending in exclamations of ah! ah! 

It is almost superfluous to refer for parallel cases -to the 
θρηνῳδοὶ of the ancient Greeks and the praeficae of the Romans. 
Yet anyone who has assisted at the funeral lamentations of the 
modern Greeks, whether in Macedonia or in Greece proper, 
cannot but have recalled to mind the pathetic picture of the 
Trojan women wailing over the body of Hector. The very 


1 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 494. 
2 Tl. xx1v. 720 foll. 


Funeral Rites 195 


words used by Homer (“she led their sore lament”) are illus- 
trated in a forcible manner by these modern performances.! 

The following song is perhaps the most wide-spread of all 
traditional dirges. In my wanderings through Macedonia I 
collected four different versions from Melenik, Nigrita, Kozani, 
and the island of Thasos respectively. 

I give below a translation of that one of my copies. which 
bears the least resemblance to published versions? 


I. 
All the mothers were sending off their sons to prosper, 
Except one mother, a bad mother, Yanni’s mother. 
She sat at the window and uttered bitter curses: 
“Go to foreign lands, O Yanni, and mayst thou never return home ! 
The swallows will come back year after year, - 
But thou, O Yanni, mayst thou never appear, never return home!” 
“Hush, my dear mother, hush! curse thou me not! 
There will come round, my mother, the Feast of St George, the holiest 
day of the year, 
And thou wilt go, my mother, to church, thou wilt go to worship, 
And there thou wilt see maids, thou wilt see youths, thou wilt see the 
gallant lads, 
Thou wilt see my own place empty and my stall tenantless, 
And thou wilt be seized with remorse and shame of the world; 
Thou wilt take thy way over the hills and through the woods, 
To the sea-shore thou wilt descend, and of the seamen thou wilt ask: 
*O se. “en, my dear lads, and ye friendly clerks: 
Have you seen my dear Yanni, my right noble son ?’ 
‘Lady, there are many strangers in foreign ands and 1 know not thy son. 
Show tokens of his body; what was he like?’ 
‘He was tall and slender and had arched eyebrows, 
And on his off-finger he wore a betrothal ring.’ 
‘We saw him, lady, stretched upon the sand. 
Black birds devoured him and white birds circled over him. 
Only one sea-bird paused and wailed : 
Ah! perchance he had a mother; perchance he had a wife !’” 


1 Professional crieresses (Plakal’shchitsa or Voplénitsa) are also employed by 
the Russians, and their funeral wailings (Zaplachki) bear a strong analogy to 
the Greek pup(t)oAéyia. See Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, pp. 332 foll. 

2 See Bernhard Schmidt, Nos. 67, 68 (from the Ionian Islands); Passow, 
Nos. 343—349; Chassiotis, No. 18 (from Epirus); Jeannarakis, No. 195; 
Legrand, Recueil des Chansons Populaires Grecques, No. 123, etc. 


13—2 


196 Macedonian Folklore 


Il. (From Cavalla.) 


M \ , , \ \ 4 , 
la μάνα μυριολόγαε γιὰ τὸν μονάκριβό της" 
Pr ΄ Ν ἢ \ a , 9 
Παιδάκι μου τὸν πόνο σου καὶ ποῦ va τον ἐρίξω; 
, ὍΝ > \ “ , rg \ / 
Na τον ἐρίξω ᾿ς τὸ βουνό τον παίρνουν τὰ πουλάκια, 
͵ 3} ᾽ \ ' , \ , 
Na τον ἐρίξω ᾿ς τὸν γιαλό Tov τρώγουν τὰ ψαράκια, 
Na tov ἐρίξω δίστρατο θά τον πατοῦν διαβάταις. 
w δ. of 5] \ ὃ \ 3 , , 
As τον ἐρίξω ᾿ς τὴ καρδιὰ ποῦναι γεμάτη πόνους, 
Νὰ κάθουμαι σάν σε πονῶ, νὰ γέρνω σάν με σφάζῃ, 
\ ΄ > \ / \ a \ ef ΕΣ] 
Lav πέφτω ᾿ς τὸ προσκέφαλο νὰ λαχταρῶ τὸν ὕπνο. 
\ ¢ a 
Ky ὁ Χάρος ᾿πηλογήθηκε, κὴ ὁ Χάρος ᾿πηλογᾶται" 
““Ὅλον τὸν κόσμο γύρισα, τὴ γῆς, τὴν οἰκουμένη 
Κ᾿ εἶδα μανάδες ᾽ς τὸν γκρημνό, εἶδ᾽ ἀδερφαῖς ᾽ς τὸν βράχο, 
Γυναῖκες τῶν καλῶν ἀντρῶν ᾿ς τὴν ἄκρη ᾿ς τὰ ποτάμια. 
Μὰ πάλι ξαναπέρασα συνάντημα τοῦ χρόνου, 
Κ᾽ εἶδα μανάδες ᾿ς τὸν χορό, εἶδ᾽ ἀδερφαῖς ᾿ς τὸν γάμο, 
Γυναῖκες τῶν καλῶν ἀντρῶν ᾿ς τά ᾽μορφα πανηγύρια." 


Ματάκια ποῦ δὲν γλέποντωι γλήγορα λησμονοῦνται. 


The Mother’s lament. 


A mother was lamenting her only son: 

““My darling child, my grief for thee where shall I cast it ἢ 

If I cast it on the mountains, the little birds will pick it, 

If I cast it into the sea, the little fishes will eat it, 

If I cast it on the highway, the passers-by will trample it under foot. 

Oh, let me cast it into my own heart which swells with many sorrows, 

Let me sit down with my pain, lay me down with my pangs, 

And, when I rest my head upon my pillow, pine for sleep!” 

Death made answer to her, Death answered thus: Ξ 

“Over the world have I wandered, over the universal earth; 

I have seen mothers on the brink of the precipice, sisters on the edge of 
the rock, 

And wives of brave men on the margin of the stream. 

Yet once more I went that way, in the course of the meeting’ years, 


1 This dirge was dictated to me by M. J. Constantinides of that town, a 
gentleman well-versed in folklore and himself a poet of merit. He described it 
as of Epirotic origin. 


Funeral Rites 197 


And lo! I beheld the mothers in the dance, the sisters in the wedding- 
feast, 
And the wives of brave men in the merry fairs.” 


Eyes which are not seen are soon forgotten.! 


These laments are also repeated round the grave before the 
coffin is lowered into it. 


The funeral. 


The corpse is never kept for more than twenty-four hours, 
and seldom even so long. As a general rule the funeral takes 
place on the day after death. At the moment when the coffin 
is carried out of the house, the women break forth into loud 
piercing cries (ξεφωνάγματα). Those amongst them who have 
recently lost a relative bid the newly-departed bear greetings 
(χαιρετήματα) and affectionate messages to their friend in the 
other world. Some of them also thrust an apple, or a quince, 
or some other kind of fruit, between the feet of the dead. This 
gift may be regarded either in the light of an offering to the 
departed, to serve as food on the way to Hades, or as a gift 
committed to his care and meant for the relative who preceded 
him on the dread journey. Objects dear to the deceased are 
also frequently placed in the coffin and buried with the body, 
such as a child’s playthings, a young scholar’s books and 
inksta4, or a maiden’s trinkets. 

Now, it is not clear to the spectator, and hardly to the 
performers themselves, what is the motive which prompts these 
touching acts. If a by-stander is questioned, he will most 
likely explain them as befitting tributes of affection, or as the 
results of custom handed down from “olden times.” Never- 
theless, it is not unprofitable to compare these customs with 
similar practices, prevailing in countries where an adequate 
motive can still be assigned to the action. Both the messages 
and the offerings delivered to the dead are well known among 
savages. The natives of Guinea, for example, are in the habit 
of sending messages to the dead by the dying, while the 


1 This verse is a popular proverb, corresponding to our own “Out of sight 
out of mind,” the French ‘‘ Loin des yeux, loin du ceur ” ete. 


198 Macedonian Folklore 


offering of fruit and other articles figures in the funerals of 
innumerable nations. In many cases these offerings can be 
proved to be the outcome of a widely-held belief according to 
which objects considered by civilized man as inanimate are by 
the savage and barbaric mind endowed with a soul which, on 
the dissolution of the objects in question, either by fire or by 
the decomposing influence of the earth, is set free and at the 
disposal of the disembodied spirit. This belief is again con- 
nected with the similar, and to the ordinary European more 
intelligible, superstition which is responsible for the sanguinary 
sacrifices of human beings and animals, prevailing in ancient 
times among the Greeks, as is shown by Homer's description of 
the burial of Patroklos?; among the Thracians, who slaughtered. 
the favourite wife of the deceased over his tomb?; among the 
Gauls, Scandinavians, and Slavs; and in more recent times 
among the nations of America and Eastern Asia, especially 
India, where it assumed the well-known form of widow-burning; 
a practice which is still carried on by the aborigines of Africa 
and elsewhere.* : 

How closely the kindly ceremonies of the modern Mace- 
donians are related to these ferocious funeral rites, and how 
far they owe their origin to a long-forgotten doctrine of object 
phantoms, it is too late in the day to establish with certainty. 
Yet one thing can safely be asserted, namely, that they are 
based on beliefs never taught or countenanced by the Christian 
Church. 

When the coffin is borne out of the house, an earthenware 
vessel, or a tile, is thrown and smashed after it. With this 
practice may be compared the custom of the Russian Chuwashes 
who “fling a red-hot stone after the corpse is carried out, for 
an obstacle to bar the soul from coming back,” and of the 
Brandenburg peasants who “pour out a pail of water at the 
door after the coffin to prevent the ghost from walking.”* A 
still closer parallel is to be met with in parts of Russia, where 
“after a man’s body has left the house his widow takes a new 

1 Tl. xxim. 170 foll. 2 Hat. v. 5. 


3 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. pp. 458 foll. 
4 Ib. vol. τὰ. pp. 26, 27. 


Funeral Rites 199° 


pitcher and breaks it to pieces on the earth, and afterwards 
strews oats over the ground traversed by the funeral proces- 
sion.”? In all these instances the object is to prevent the 
departed spirit from returning to its earthly habitation, and 
we should not be far wrong in ascribing a like motive to the 
Macedonian mourners. 

The funeral procession offers little food for speculation. 
Yet it is not devoid of interest. The coffin is carried un- 
covered, a custom said to be due to an old decree of the 
Turkish Government, issued in order to prevent the clandestine 
transmission of arms and ammunition in a closed coffin; but 
this explanation is rendered improbable by the fact that the 
same custom prevails in Russia, where the decrees of the 
Turkish Government would be of little avail. The custom 
probably dates from Byzantine, if not from older, times. 

The appearance of the corpse is the subject of reverent 
comment on the part of the spectators. The beauty and 
calmness of a dead youth or maid call forth the ill-suppressed 
admiration of the crowd, and one often hears such remarks as 
“ What a lovely, or what a gentle relic!” (τί ὡραῖο, or Ti ἥμερο 
λείψανο), whispered in awestruck tones. This gratification of 
the aesthetic instinct of the Greek is, however, not unfrequently 
checked by superstitious fear. It is popularly believed that if 
a corpse wears a smile, it is a sign that it will “draw after it 
another member of the family?” (θὰ τραβήξῃ κὴ ἄλλον). 

At the head of the procession marches the bearer of the lid, 
holding it upright and followed by boys carrying bronze candle- 
sticks (μανουάλεα), with burning tapers, a cross, and six-winged 
images of the cherubim (ξεφτέρια = ἑξαπτέρυγα). Then come 
the priests and chanters with lit tapers in their hands, singing 
the funeral service. The coffin is borne by means of bands 


1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 318. 

3 Similarly in Suffolk ‘if a corpse does not stiffen after death, or if the 
rigor mortis disappears before burial, it is a sign that there will be a death in the 
family before the end of the year.” The Book of Days, vol. τι. p. 52. The same 
superstition is alluded to by Sir Thomas Browne in his Vulgar Ervors, Bk. v. 
ch. xxiii. In America also ‘‘if a corpse remains soft and supple after death, 
another death in the family will follow.” Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore 
Society, vol. 1v. p. 126. 


200 Macedonian Folklore 


passed underneath, by four or six men, according to its weight 
and size. The chief mourners march close behind. In country 
districts it is the custom for both sexes to attend, excepting 
newly-married women and women who happen to have lost 
their firstborn. But in the towns the female mourners keep 
decorously aloof. In these places the guilds of artisans (ἐσνάφια) 
are paid to swell the train. People along the road rise at the 
approach of the cortége and stand bareheaded, until it has 
gone by. 

The coffin is first taken to the church where the burial 
service is held; and a profoundly affecting service it is. The 
solemn chant and the twinkle of many candles amidst clouds 
of frankincense involuntarily dispose the mind to reflections on 
the hereafter—a mood intensified by the sonorous hymn: 

“Vanity are all human things that exist not after death” 
(Ματαιότης πάντα τὰ ἀνθρώπινα ὅσα οὐχ ὑπάρχει μετὰ 
θάνατον). 

Service over, the procession resumes its march to the 
burial ground. 

When the coffin is lowered into the grave, a pillow filled 
with earth is placed under the head, the shroud is drawn over 
the face, wine is sprinkled upon it, and a handful of earth is 
thrown in by the priest, after which the coffin is covered with 
the lid. All the bystanders, relatives and friends, make a 
point of casting in a handful of earth, uttering such wishes 
as “May Heaven forgive him or her” (θεὸς σ᾽ χωρέσοι τον 
or tnv); “ May his or her memory live for ever” (aiwvia Tov or 
τῆς ἡ μνήμη); “May the earth lie light upon thee!” (γαῖαν 
ἔχοις ἐλαφράν)---ἃ wish taken from the burial service and 
recalling classical times.! 


1 Cp. κούφα σοι χθὼν ἐπάνωθε πέσοι, γύναι, Eur. Ale, 463; Sit tibi terra levis, 
Mart. 1x. 29. 11, ete. 

The custom of throwing a handful of earth into the grave exists among the 
Russians, and is considered by them as a remnant of a still older custom, 
according to which ‘‘everyone who was present at a funeral deemed it a religious 
duty to assist in the erection of the mound.” Ralston, Songs of the Russian 
People, p. 330. 

Allusions to the funeral service are contained in the following popular 
imprecations : 


Funeral Rites 201 


After the grave is closed in, the mourners spread over it 
baskets full of pieces of bread or buns, also plates of parboiled 
wheat (κόλλυβα), bottles of wine or arrack, and in the case of 
young persons, sweetmeats. All comers are free to partake of 
this sad repast, and express a wish that “his or her soul may 
repose in bliss.” 

All the details of the funeral described above are vividly 
set forth in the following song, which is often sung as a 
lament. 


(From Eleutheroupolis.) 


Περιπλεμένη λεμονιὰ μέσ᾽ ᾿ς T ἄνθη στολισμένη, 

\ et “ > ᾽ / \ 9 / 
Τὴν ὥρα ποῦ σ᾽ ἀγάπησα δὲν ἦταν βλογημένη. 
᾿Αρρώστησα καὶ ἔκανα σαράντα μιὰ ἡμέρα. 

> > 4 ᾽ e , \ “Ὁ > > / 
T ἀκούσανε κ᾽ οἱ φίλοι μου Kai κλαῖνε γιατ᾽ ἐμένα, 
Τ᾽ ἄκουσε κ᾽ ἡ μάνα μου καὶ μπῆκε μέσ᾽ ᾿ς τὰ μαῦρα. 
Ἔλα, τρανταφυλλένια μου, καὶ πιάσε μ᾽ ἀπ᾽ τὸ χέρι, 

\ , \ ΄ “cc , > , ΣΌΝ ΝΡ Ud ”? 
Καὶ ρώτα τὴ μανούλα μου, “Κυρά μ᾽, τί Kav’ ὁ γυιός σου; 
‘ / see a \ \ \ / 

Kai κείνη θὰ ᾿πηλογηθῇ μὲ τὴ καρδιὰ καμένη" 
“Tua tous, γιά Tous ποῦ κείτεται καὶ λέ πῶς ἀποθαίνει." 
"Era, τρανταφυλλένια μου, κάτσε ᾽ς τὴ κεφαλή μου, 
Καὶ πιάσε τὸ χεράκι μου ὅσο νὰ βγῇ ψυχή μου. 
Ὅντας θὰ By> ψυχίτσα μου, τρανταφυλλιᾶς κλωρᾶνι, 
Βάλε με τὸ ζουνάρι μου, τὸ πειὸ λαχοῦρ᾽ ζουνάρι. 
“Ovtas θὰ βγῇ ψυχοῦλά μου, σὺ va με σαβανώσῃς, 
Νὰ κλείσης τὰ ματάκια μου, τὰ χέρια μ᾽ νὰ σταυρώσης. 
"Ovtas θἀρθῇ φημέριος μὲ θυμιατὸ ᾿ς τὸ χέρι, 

\ * a a Os 
Νὰ κλαῖς, νὰ λές, τρανταφυλλιά μ᾽, “ποῦ πᾷς, γλυκό μου ταῖρι ;” 
"“Ovtas θά με σηκώσουνε τέσσαρα παλληκάρια, 
Νὰ κρούῃς τὸ κεφάλι σου μὲ πέτραις μὲ λιθάρια. 


Νά τον πῇ ὁ παπᾶς ᾿ς 7 αὐτί, 
Κὴ ὁ διάκος ᾿ς τὴ κορυφή. 
“May the priest mutter in his ear, and the deacon over his head!” 


Nd cov πῇ τὸν ἀπίλογο, ‘* May (the priest) utter over thee the epilogue,” 
i.e. ‘*For Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory!” 

Nd τον ἰδῇ τὸ ᾿ξόδι, “ May he submit to the carrying out service” (ἐξόδιος 
ἀκολουθία), hence the epithet ᾿ξουδιάρικος ‘‘one deserving death.” 


202 Macedonian Folklore 


ὝὍ θ Ud / 2 Ν Ν lal 

vTas Ga μὲ περάσουνε ἀπὸ TO μαχαλᾷ σου, 

Ἔβγα κρυφὰ am τὴ μάνα σου καὶ τράβα τὰ μαλλιά σου. 
“Ovtas θά με πηγαίνουνε ᾿ς τῆς ἐκκλησιᾶς τὴ πόρτα, 
Νὰ βγάλῃς “μιὰ ψιλὴ φωνή, νὰ μαραθοῦν τὰ χόρτα. 
Ὅντας θὰ μ᾽ ἀκουμπήσουνε ᾿ς τῆς ἐκκλησιᾶς τὴ μέση, 
Νὰ βγάλῃς μιὰ ψιλὴ φωνή, ὁ κράββατος νὰ πέσῃ. 

7 , / Xi RD / U 

Ovras θά με μοιράσουνε τὰ &p ua κόλυβά μου, 

Φάγε καὶ σύ, ἀγάπη μου, γιὰ τὴ παρηγοριά μου. 
“Ovtas θά με μοιράσουνε παπάδες τὰ κερία μου, 

Τότες, τρανταφυλλένια μου, χωρίζεις ᾿π᾿ τὴ καρδιά μου. 


O well-trained lemon-tree, in blossoms arrayed, 

The hour in which I became enamoured of thee was not a propitious hour. 
I fell ill and suffered for forty and one days. 

My friends heard of it, and wept for me. 

My mother also heard of it and put herself in black. 

Come, my rosy One, take me by the hand 

And ask of my dear mother, “Lady, how fares thy son?” 

She will answer thee from a heart charred with grief : 

“Behold him, behold him, he is lying yonder, and says that he is dying.” 
Come, my rosy One, sit by my pillow, 

And hold my hand until my soul has flown forth. 

When my poor soul has flown, O thou bough of a rose-tree, 
Gird me with my sash, my best Lahore sash ; 

When my poor soul has flown, ’tis thou must wind me in the shroud, 
Close my poor eyes and cross my hands upon my breast; 

When the priest is come, censer in hand, 

Weep thou, O my rose-tree, and say: 

“Whither art thou going, O my sweet mate?” 

When four lads have lifted me up, 

Smite thy head with rocks and stones; 

When they carry me past thy neighbourhood, 

Come thou forth, without thy mother’s ken, and tear thy. tresses ; 
When they have taken me to the church-door, 

Give thou a shrill cry that the plants may wither. 

When they have laid me down in the nave of the church, 

Give thou a shrill cry that the coffin may collapse ; 

When they are distributing the wretched boiled-corn, 

Eat thou also, my love, for my soul’s sake. 

When the priests are distributing the candles, 

Then, my rosy One, thou wilt be severed from my heart. 


1 Cp. Passow (Myrologia), Nos. 377, 377a. Somewhat similar in tone and 
structure is No. 122 in E. Legrand, Recueil de Chansons Populaires Grecques. 


Funeral Rites 203 


The funeral-feast. 


When the mourners who have escorted the corpse to its 
resting-place return to the house, they are met at the door by 
a servant holding a ewer and basin, in which they all wash their 
hands by turns before crossing the threshold. Then, inside the 
house, takes place the funeral banquet (μακαριὸ or paxapta,;) 
to which they all sit down, offering their consolations to the 
survivors, “Life to your worships” (ζωὴ ᾿σὲ λόγου cas), and 
their wishes for the welfare of tue departed, whose deeds and 
virtues form the chief subject of conversation. Toasts and 
libations are sometimes indulged in so heartily that the ban- 
queters are apt to forget the mournful occasion of the feast. 
“The dead with the dead, and the living with the living” (Οἱ 
πεθαμέν᾽ μὲ Tsoi πεθαμέν᾽ κ᾽ οἱ ζουντανοὶ μὲ Tsol Covvtavoi)— 
the Macedonian equivalent for our “Let the dead bury their 
dead ”—was the pithy way in which I once heard a merry 


- mourner trying to defend his boisterous resignation to the 


common lot. 

The funeral feast of the modern Greeks may reasonably be 
regarded as a lineal descendant of the classic περίδειπνον, by 
Homer called τάτλος, and the lustration preceding it as a survival 
of the ablution, which in ancient times took place before the 
“carrying out” of the corpse (ékdopa). Even the excessive 
indulgence in funereal pleasures can be shown to be a matter 
of ancient tradition. Solon’s regulations about funerals include 
a strict limitation of the quantity of meat and drink admissible 
for the banquet, whence Grote justly infers that “both in 
Greece and Rome, the feelings of duty and affection on the 
part of surviving relatives prompted them to ruinous expense 
in a funeral, as well as to unmeasured effusions both of grief 
and conviviality.”? 


1 From the ancient αἱμακουρίαι ‘ offerings of blood’ made upon the grave to 
appease the manes, Pind. O. 1.146. The word has probably been modified by 
false analogy to μακαρία ‘bliss.’ Cp. μακαρίτης still commonly used in the 
sense of ‘one blessed,’ i.e. dead, ‘ late,’ just as in Aisch. Pers. 633 ete. 

* History of Greece, vol. 11. p. 506. 


9204 Macedonian Folklore 


Similar survivals from olden times are to be found among 
the Slavs. An old woman, with a vessel containing live coals, 
meets the mourners on their return from the funeral, and they 
pour water on the coals, taking one of them and flinging it 
over their heads. In this instance the purification is performed 
with both fire and water. Water is likewise used by the 
Lusetian Wends in their funeral rites. The repast on the 
tomb and the subsequent banquet are also essential accom- 
paniments of the Slav funeral, the participators in which “eat 
and drink to the memory of the dead,”—a relic of the ancient 
Strava.? 

If we go further afield, we find the concluding features of 
the Macedonian funeral in striking accordance with the practices 
of some rude tribes of North-East India, who after the burial 
“proceed to the river and bathe, and having thus lustrated 
themselves, they repair to the banquet and eat, drink, and make 
merry as though they never were to die.”* The Macedonian’s 
philosophy, it will be observed, is somewhat more advanced and 
in closer agreement with the doctrine expounded on a like 
occasion by the inebriated demigod : 


All mortals are bound to die, 


Therefore, having learnt wisdom from me, 
Make merry, drink, the passing day 
Regard as thine, the rest as Chance’s, 


After the funeral. 


The attentions to the dead do not end with the funeral 
ceremonies. The sense of bereavement is kept alive by the 
mourning, which varies in duration according to the district, 
the average being one year. During that twelvemonth men 
and women appear in old clothes, the former let their beards 
grow, and the latter draw their head-kerchiefs round their faces 
more closely than usual. The mother and the widow of the 
deceased avoid going out of doors altogether. 

1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, pp. 319-20. 


Hodgson, quoted by Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 11. p. 31. 
3 Eur. Alc. 782 foll. 


Funeral Rites 205 


On the third day after the funeral, the friends call on the 
mother of the deceased, and comfort her with mournful music. 
The song given beneath is an example: 


(From Kozani.) 


“ \ / ᾽ > ἂν, 1Φ > > , e -“ 53 ” 
Καλὴ μέρα σ᾽ αὐτοῦ ᾿ς τ᾽ ἀνάθι ὁποῦ εἶσαι. 
“Ti καλὴ μέρα ἔχω γώ, ἐδῶ ᾿ς τ᾽ ἀνάθι ποὗμαι; 
\ \ / ” n » , ‘ (cd 
Τὴ καλὴ μέρα ἔχτε σεῖς ποῦ γλέπετε τὸν ἥλιο, 
-“ / \ wv lal > A , 
Ποῦ γλέπετε τὴν Ανοιξι, πᾶτε ᾽ς τὰ πανηγύρια, 
Καὶ γὼ τὸ ἔρ᾽μο κλείστηκα: μέσα ᾿ς TO μαῦρ᾽ ἀνάθει. 
“Περικαλῶ σε, Μαύρη Γῆ, περικαλιὰ μεγάλη " 
Αὐτὸν τὸ νειὸ ποῦ σ᾽ ἔστειλα, καλὰ νά τον κυττάξης. 
fal , , \ > 
Νάρθῇ Σαββάτο va tov λούσ᾽ς, τὴ Κυριακὴ ν᾿ ἀλλάξῃ, 
Καὶ τὸ ἀργὰ ἀργούτσικα νὰ πᾶτε ᾿ς τὸ σεργιάνι. 
“Δὲν εἶμαι μάνα νὰ πονῶ, πατέρας νὰ λυποῦμαι, 
᾿᾽Μένα με λένε Μαύρη Γῆ καὶ ᾽ραχνιασμέν᾽ ἀνάθι. 


> 


7994 


“Good day to thee who dwellest in this cave!” 

“What kind of a good day can be mine in my cave-home? 

The good day is yours who behold the light of the sun,? 

Who behold the Spring, who go to the fairs, 

Whereas I, the hapless one, am imprisoned in a black cave. 

‘I offer up to thee, Ὁ Black Earth, a great prayer: 

The youth whom I have committed to thy care, tend him lovingly. 

When Saturday comes, wash him; on Sunday clothe him in holiday 
attire ; 


1 With the last six lines cp. a short piece (6 lines) from Zakynthos included 
as a Myrologue (No. 9) in Bernhard Schmidt’s Griechische Méirchen, Sagen und 
Volkslieder. It is an address to the marble slab (πλάκα) or tombstone, praying 
to it to spare the youth and ‘“‘ wither him πού." The slab answers: 

“ Μηγάρις εἶμαι μάνα του, μηγάρις ἀδερφή του, 
Μηγάρις εἶμαι πρωτοθειά, νὰ μήν τονε μαράνω; 
“Ατη I his mother, am I his sister, 
Am I his aunt, that I should wither him not?” 

Also ep. Passow, No. 384, a Myrologue, ‘‘The Stranger’s Tomb” (Ὁ τάφος τοῦ 
ξένου). 

2 Cp. δηρὸν ἐὺ ζώειν καὶ ὁρᾷν φάος ἠελίοιο, Hom. Hyman. tv. 105. 

To live and to see the light of the sun are to the modern, as they were to the 
ancient, Greek synonymous terms; conversely, death and darkness are ideas 
indissolubly associated in the Greek mind, despite the belief in a Paradise 
“resplendent with light”; v. infra, p. 210. 


206 Macedonian Folklore 


Late in the afternoon take him to the village-feast.’ 

‘I am no mother that I should care for him, I am no father that I 
should feel for him. 

The names by which men call me are: Black Earth and gloomy cave !’” 


This grim ballad in a few bold strokes presents to us a most 
vivid picture of the modern Greek’s conception of death—a 
conception which differs little from that of his far-off ancestors. 

Another song, or rather the broken pieces of a song, which 
I picked up at Nigrita, may be worth quoting for the sake of 
the idea which it embodies : 


Ἦταν ἐννεὰ ἀδέρφια καὶ μιὰ καλὴ ἀδερφή, 

Πολὺ ἦταν μαυρομμάτα. 

Ἔβαλαν βουλὴ τὰ ἐννεὰ ἀδέρφια νὰ βγοῦν ἀπὸ τὸν “Abn. 
“To ποῦ θὰ πᾶτε, ἀδέρφια pov, θαρθῷ Kn γὼ κοντά σας." 
“TO ποῦ θὰ πᾷς, pap’ ἀδερφή, πολὺ εἶσαι μαυρομμάτα, 
Ἡμεῖς θὲ va περάσουμε “rr τοῦ Χάροντα τὴ πόρτα, 

Pa βγῇ ὁ Χάροντας νά μας atravrvyaivy....” 

There were nine brothers who had a beauteous sister, 

A maiden with deep black eyes. 

The nine brothers resolved to escape from Hades. 

“‘Whithersoever you go, my dear brothers, thither will I follow you.” 
“Thou canst not follow us, O sister, maiden with the deep black eyes. 
We shall pass through Death’s gates, 

Death will come out and accost us....” 


Unfortunately my informant had only a confused and 
imperfect recollection of the sequel. But the above few lines 
are sufficient to show that the idea, as well as the name of 
Hades, has undergone little modification in the course of ages. 
Time has not prevailed against “the gates of Hell.” They 
are still closed to the Shades, who still make attempts to 
escape.! Charos, however, appears less as a ruler than as 
a porter of the subterranean kingdom, and seems to keep 
watch near its gates, ready to pounce upon the would-be 
fugitive. In fact, we have here a confusion—not unintelligible 
—between the rdles of the ancient Pluto and the monster 

1 A like idea is embodied in some songs published by Passow (Nos. 420—425), 


and translated by Sir Rennell Rodd, The Customs and Lore of Modern Greece, 
p. 121, and Mr Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. 11, p. 327. 


Funeral Rites 207 


Cerberus. Nor are these the only two functions attributed 
to Death by the popular imagination. He is also a messenger 
and a soul-abductor, moving on the back of a fiery steed. 
He is sometimes armed with a sword or with a deadly bow 
and arrows, sometimes he makes his appearance as a black 
bird of prey or as a black swallow, bearing the fatal summons. 
No place is inaccessible to him, except the lofty peaks of 
the mountains. Generally he is represented as a gaunt, 
cruel and crafty old man clad in black, deaf to the prayers. 
of parents, and blind to the charm of beauty. His heart 
is not to be softened by appeals for mercy, not even by those: 
of his own mother. On one occasion she bids him: 


Spare thou mothers who have young children, brothers who have sisters ;. 
Spare thou also newly-wedded pairs. 


But he grimly replies: 
Wherever I find three I carry off two, and where I find two I carry 
off one, 
Where I find one alone, him also do I carry οὔ 
A picture of Death, sombrely magnificent, is drawn in a 
well-known ballad (Ὁ Χάρος καὶ ai ψυχαί): The poet depicts 
Charos on horse-back, driving troops of youthful souls before 
him, dragging crowds of aged souls after him, while his saddle- 
bow is loaded with the souls of little children. At bis passage 
the earth quakes beneath the hoofs of his steed, and the 
mountains are darkened by his shadow.* 


Feasts of the Dead. 


At fixed periods, such as the eighth (᾽ς ταῖς ὀχτώ) and the 
fortieth day (᾽ς ταῖς capdvra) after burial, as well as on the anni- 
versary (᾽ς Tov χρόνο) of the death, a “feast of remembrance” 
(μνημόσυνον is celebrated. The grave is decorated with flowers, 
a mass is sung, and offerings are made in the church. These 


1 Ὃ Χάρος καὶ ἡ μάνα του, Passow, No. 408. 

2 Passow, No. 409, translated by Sir Rennell Rodd, The Customs and Lore of 
Modern Greece, p. 286. 

3 For a brief study of the Modern Greek conception of Death see ‘’Eé@vixéy 
ΗἩμερολόγιον,᾽ Mapivov II. Bperod, Paris, 1866, p. 217. 


208 Macedonian Folklore 


offerings consist of a tray of parboiled wheat (κόλλυβα) mixed 
with pounded walnuts, raisins and parsley, and covered over with 
a coating of sugar, with the sign of the cross, and sometimes the 
initials of the deceased, worked on it in raisins. The wheat is 
interpreted as a symbol of the resurrection: as the grain is 
buried in the earth, rots, and rises again in the shape of a 
blooming plant, so will the soul rise from its tomb. An occult 
meaning is also attached to the sugar and the raisins: the 
sweetness of the one representing the sweets of the heavenly 
paradise, and the shrivelled appearance of the other suggesting 
the state of the soul before it is admitted to the bliss of the 
Christian Elysium. 

In addition to these ceremonies, held in everlasting re- 
membrance of individuals, there are certain days in the year 
set apart for the celebration of feasts of the dead collectively. 
These are called “Souls’ Sabbaths” (ψυχοσάββατα), and the 
times in which they occur coincide roughly with the seasons 
of spring and harvest, of the decline and death of the year. 
Two of these Sabbaths are especially dedicated to “those 
gone to rest” (τῶν κεκοιμημένων). The first falls on the 
eve of Meat Sunday, and the other on the eve of Whitsunday, 
that is in February and May respectively—their exact date 
depending, of course, on the date of Easter—thus corre- 
sponding with the Feralia and Lemuralia of the Romans, 
which were held in those two months. The eve of Cheese 
Sunday and the first Saturday of Lent are likewise devoted 
to the same purpose, the latter being also a Feast “in com- 
memoration of the miracle performed by means of parboiled 
wheat” (Μνήμη τοῦ διὰ κολλύβων θαύματος). The Saturday 
preceding the feast of St Demetrius (Oct. 26 Ο. S.) is anoceher 
of these ‘Souls’ Sabbaths.” 

On the above days sweetmeats, parboiled corn, small loaves 
of pure wheat (Aectovpyias) stamped with a wooden stamp 
(σφραγῖδι or σφραγιστερό), which bears the sign of the cross 
with the words “Jesus Christ prevaileth” abbreviated, and cakes 
are laid on the graves that the people, especially the poor, may 
eat thereof and “absolve the dead ones” (γιὰ va σ᾽ χωρέσοὺν 
τὰ πεθαμένα). The relatives kneel and cry beside the tombs 


Funeral Rites 209 


and employ the priests to read prayers over them.! The 
fragrance of flowers mingles with the fumes of frankincense. 
The piercing wails of the women are blended with the whining 
benedictions of beggars; and the cemetery is a vast scene 
in which the living and the dead seem to meet in a holiday 
of mourning. But from amidst the cries of uncontrolled 
sorrow rises the voice of the praying priest, giving utterance 
to “the hope that keeps despair alive.” 

Similar customs prevail in Russia, but they are cast after 
Greek models, the very names in common use being either 
translated or borrowed directly from the Greek (eg. “chants 
of remembrance *= μνημόσυνα ; ζΚοῖψυο τε κόλλυβο, etc.). The 
corresponding rite in Western Europe is the celebration of 
All Souls’ Day. By comparing these feasts of the dead with 
analogous ceremonies among races in a primitive state of 
culture, ethnologists have arrived at the conclusion that they 
rest upon the view that the souls of the deceased come 
back to the world to visit their living relatives and receive 
from them offerings of food and drink? This seems to have 
been the idea underlying the νεκύσια of the ancients, and 
it can still be dimly recognized in the formalities and ceremonies 
of the Greek Church. 

A practice connected with these celebrations brings into 
relief the meaning which the Macedonian peasants uncon- 
sciously attach to the feasts of the dead. It shows how far 
they believe in the actual presence of the spirits of the 
departed at the banquets prepared for them. It is said that, 
if on going to bed on a Souls’ Sabbath you place under your 
pillow a few grains of parboiled wheat taken from three 
different plates of those offered at church, you will dream 
something true. This superstition tallies with that part of the 
animistic doctrine according to which the ghosts of the dead 
appear to their surviving friends in dreams, a theory shared 
by many widely separated races. How firmly the ancient 


1 Cp. analogous practices in the islands of the Aegean, W. H. D. Rouse, 
‘Folklore from the Southern Sporades’ in Folk-Lore, June 1899, pp. 180—181. 

2 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. τε. pp. 30—43. 

3 Tb. vol, 1. pp. 442 foll. 


A. F. 14 


210 Macedonian Folklore 


Greeks and Romans held this superstition is shown by the 
dreams recorded in classical literature from Homer onwards.’ 


Exhumation. 


Three years after burial the body is disinterred and, if 
found thoroughly decomposed, the bones are carefully washed 
with wine and placed in a linen bag, or a wooden box, labelled 
with the name of the deceased and the date of death. The 
receptacle of the remains is then deposited in a mortuary chapel 
or charnel-house, emphatically called cemetery (κοιμητήριον) 
that is “sleeping place”; the name “burial-ground” (vexpo- 
ταφεῖον) being applied to the graveyard. This performance 
is designated the “ Lifting of the remains” (Avaxousd) τῶν 
λειψάνων). 

Great importance is attributed to the appearance of the 
dead at the opening of the tomb. Complete dissolution is a 
certain proof that the soul of the deceased is at rest. The 
colour and odour of the bones are also critically observed, 
and a yellow redolent skeleton fills the relatives with the 
assurance that their dear departed is enjoying everlasting bliss 
“in the regions resplendent with light and flowers,”? as 
described by the Church in language which sounds not unlike 
an echo of the classic notions concerning 


the Elysian lawns, 
Where paced the Demigods of old. 


Nor is this a mere popular belief. The Church officially 
recognizes it, and a petition that the body may “be dissolved 
into its component elements” (διάλυσον eis τὰ ἐξ ὧν συνετέθη) 
forms an essential part of the burial service. It follows as 
a logical corollary that the partial or total absence of decom- 
position indicates the sinfulness and sad plight of the deceased. 
In that case the body is buried again either in the same or 
in a new grave, and special prayers are offered up for its 


1 Hom, Il. xx111. 59 foll.; Cie. De Divinat. τ. 27, etc. 
2 Ἔν τόπῳ φωτεινῷ, ἐν τόπῳ χλοερῷ is the expression in the Mass or Prayer for 
the Dead (ἐπιμνημόσυνος dénors). 


Funeral Rites 211 


speedy decay. It is especially held that this disaster overtakes 
those who committed suicide, or who died under a: parent's 
curse,' or under the ban of excommunication, or of a Bishop’s 
anathema, This last cause of a soul’s misery is expressly 
mentioned in the Mass for the Dead and is prayed against 
in the words “ Unbind the curse, be it of priest or of arch- 
priest” (Λῦσον κατάραν, εἴτε ἱερέως εἴτε ἀρχιερέως). 

How great is the dread of an ecclesiastic’s wrath can 
be realized from the following anecdote related to the writer 
as a “true story” by a person’ who entertained no doubts 
as to its authenticity. “Many years ago there was an 
Archbishop of Salonica who once in a moment of anger 
cursed a man of his diocese: “ May the earth refuse to receive 
thee!” (ἡ γῆς va μή σε δεχτῇ). Years went by, and the 
Archbishop embraced Islam. Owing to his erudition and 
general ability, he was raised by the Mohammedans to the 
office of head Mullah. Meanwhile, the individual who had 
incurred the prelate’s wrath died, and was buried in the 
usual fashion. Now it came to pass that when, at the 
expiration of three years, the tomb was opened, the inmate 
was found intact, just as if he had been buried the day before, 
Neither prayers nor offerings availed to bring about the desired 
dissolution. He was inhumed once more; but three years 
later he was still found in the same condition. It was then 
recalled to mind by the widow that her late husband had 
been anathematized by the apostate Archbishop. She forthwith 
went to the ex-prelate and implored him to revoke the sen- 
tence. This dignitary promised to exert his influence, which 
it appears had not been diminished a whit by his apostasy ; 
for once a bishop always a bishop. Having obtained the 
Pasha’s permission, he repaired to the open tomb, knelt 
beside it, lifted up his hands and prayed for a few minutes. 
He had hardly risen to his feet when, wondrous to relate, 
the flesh of the corpse crumbled away from the bones, and 
the skeleton remained bare and clean as if it had never 
known pollution.” . 


1 On the terrible power ascribed by the Slavs to a parent’s curse see Ralston, 
Russian Folk-Tales, p. 358. 


14—2 


212 Macedonian Folklore 


In perfect agreement with the foregoing tradition is the 
account of an experiment, made at Constantinople in the 15th 
century by order of Mohammed the Conqueror, and recorded in 
a Byzantine chronicle recently published. According to this 
authority the first Sultan of Constantinople was distinguished 
as much by his liberal curiosity as by his prowess in the battle- 
field. He took an enlightened interest in the religion of the 
people whom he had conquered and delighted in enquiries 
concerning the mysteries of their faith. “Among other things,” 
says the chronicler, “he was informed about excommunication,— 
namely that those who have died in sin and cursed by an 
Archbishop the earth dissolves not; but they remain inflated 
like drums and black for a thousand years. At hearing this he 
marvelled greatly and enquired whether the Archbishops who 
have pronounced the excommunication can also revoke it. On 
being told that they can, he forthwith sent a message to 
the Patriarch bidding him find a person who had been long 
dead under the ban. The Patriarch and the clergy under him 
could not at first think of such an individual, and demanded a 
period of several’ days in which to find one. At last they 
recollected that a woman, a presbyter’s wife, used once upon a 
time to walk in front of the church of the All-Blessed. She 
was a shameless wench and, owing to her personal charms, had 
had many lovers. Once, on being rebuked by the Patriarch, 
she falsely accused him of having had improper relations with 
her. The rumour spread, and some credited it, while others 
disbelieved it. The Patriarch, not knowing what to do, on a 
certain great festival pronounced a heavy sentence of excom- 
munication against the woman who slandered him. This was 
the woman of whom they bethought themselves; for she had 
been long dead. On opening her grave they found her sound, 
not even the hair of her head having fallen off. She was black 
and swollen like a drum and altogether in a lamentable condition. 
They reported the fact to the Sultan, and he sent men of his 
own to inspect her. They were astonished at the sight and 
related to their master how they had found her. He thereupon 
sent other officials with his seal, who deposited the corpse in a 
chapel and sealed it. The Patriarch appointed a day on which 


Funeral Rites 213 


he intended to sing a special mass, when she would be taken 
out, and he also drew up a letter of forgiveness. The ‘Sultan’s 
messengers came on the appointed day and took her out. 
After divine service, the Patriarch standing with tears in his 
eyes read aloud the letter of forgiveness, and all at once, oh 
wonder! while the Patriarch was reading the letter, the joints 
of her hands and feet began to dissolve, and those who siood 
close to the remains heard the noise. At the conclusion of the 
mass, they lifted the corpse and deposited it again in the 
chapel, which they sealed careftlly. Three days later, when 
they came and broke the seals, they found her completely 
dissolved and in dust, and were astonished at the sight. They 
returned to their master and informed him of all they saw, and 
he on hearing their account marvelled greatly and believed 
that the faith of the Christians is a true faith.”? 

The following occurrence, narrated by Csaplovics as an 
eyewitness and quoted by Mr Ralston, brings out more vividly 
the similarity between the Greek practice of exhumation and 
some customs prevailing among the Slavs: “A Slovene, whose 
mother had died, dug up the corpse of his father, collected his 
bones, washed them with red wine, tied them up in a clean 
white towel, placed the bundle on his mother’s coffin, and then 
buried the remains of his two parents together.” The writer 
goes on to remark that in Bulgaria also “it is said,” “if no 
relative dies within the space of three years, the family tomb is 
opened, and any stranger who happens to expire is buried in 
it—a custom due to the lingering influence of the old idea, 
that the grave required a victim.”? 

The opening of the tomb, the collecting, washing, and νὰ 
up of the bones witnessed among the Slovenes, and the period 
of three years observed by the Bulgarians, taken together, 
constitute a complete parallel to what happens in Macedonia, 


1 Ecthesis Chronica, ed. by 5. P. Lambros, Methuen and Co., 1902, pp. 36— 
38. The same story is quoted by Sir Rennell Rodd from Augustine Calmet’s 
book on magic, and another similar tale is given on the authority of Sir Paul 
Ricaut, British Ambassador at Constantinople during the latter part of the 
17th century. See The Customs and Lore of Modern Greece, p. 198. 

2 Songs of the Russian People, p. 332. 


214 Macedonian Folklore 


and among the Greeks generally, as a regular, time-honoured, 
and officially recognized practice. Indeed, so general and 
prominent is the custom that there is hardly any burying 
ground which does not boast a “cemetery” in which the bones 
of past generations are preserved, neatly ranged on shelves, 
like so many deed-boxes in a solicitor’s office. Visitors to the 
monasteries on Mount Athos, and other convents both in 
Macedonia and elsewhere in the Near East, are familiar with 
the crypts, the walls of which are covered with a multitude of 
skulls duly labelled, while the centre is often taken up by a 
miscellaneous heap of thigh-bones, ribs, and other minor con- 
stituents of human anatomy. The washing of the bones with 
wine and the depositing of them in a bag or box, to be kept for 
ever, are probably survivals of the ancient practice of extin- 
guishing the pyre with wine, collecting and washing the bones 
after cremation and then preserving them in a cinerary urn 
(κάλπις) In connection with the significance attached to the 
state of the body in the grave, it is well to refer to a similar 
belief entertained by the Slavs: “The bodies of vampires, of 
wizards, and of witches, as well as those of outcasts from the 
Church, and of people cursed by their parents, are supposed not 
to decay in the grave, for ‘moist mother-earth’ will not take 
them to herself.”? 

Before concluding these remarks on the burial-customs, it 
may be worth while to notice a practice which, though not 
confined to the Macedonians, is popular among them. The 
parings of the nails both of fingers and of toes are collected 
and put into a hole, that, in the resurrection of the dead, they 
may easily join the body again.» The Jews of Salonica also 
preserve the parings of their nails and are careful not to mislay 
them, for they must be buried with them. This custom is said 
to be due to the belief that on the Day of Judgment the nails 
will help the owner to dig his way out of the grave. The Russian 


1 See the Homeric funeral in Il. xxm1. 236 foll. The bones of Patroklos are 
there put in a golden urn or bowl (ἐν χρυσέῃ φιάλῃ) and folded up in fat (δίπλακι 
δημῷ) of the sacrificial victims. 

2 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, Ὁ. 412. 

3 A. A. Tovotov, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Χώρα, p. 76. 


Funeral Rites » 215 


peasants also place the parings of a dead person’s nails along 
_ with the body in the grave, in the belief that the soul has to 
climb a steep hill-side in order to reach the heavenly Paradise 
situated on the summit of a hill? The Jewish habit, however, 
may be explained as being due to the fear lest these cuttings 
should fall into the hands of an enemy who might do a mischief 
to the owner by means of magic—a consideration which induces 
the Parsis to have their cut hair and nails buried with them,? 
and other races to hide them in various ways. But the first 
explanation seems to be the more correct one, as the same custom 
exists among the Turks who keep the parings of their nails “in 
the belief that they will be needed at the resurrection.”* 


The Wild Boar Superstition. 


In the district of Melenik I met with a superstition which 
presents some of the features of the world-wide belief in the 
power possessed by certain individuals to transform themselves 
into wild beasts, such as lions, leopards, hyaenas, or wolves. 
The “were-wolf” of English and the “loup-garou” of French folk- 
lore find in the Macedonian “ wild-boar” (ayproyovpouvo) a not 
unworthy cousin. The belief, though not quite so general at 
present as it used to be, cannot be considered extinct yet. 
According to it, Turks, who have led a particularly wicked life, 
when at the point of death, turn into wild boars, and the ring 
worn by the man on his finger is retained on one of the boar’s 
forefeet. The metamorphosis takes place as follows: the sinner 
first begins to grunt like a pig (ἀρχινάει νὰ μουγκρίξῃ), he then 
falls on all fours (τετραποδίζει), and finally rushes out of the 
house grunting wildly and leaping over hedges, ditches, and 
rivers until he has reached the open country. At night he 
visits the houses of his friends, and more especially those of his 


1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 109. 

2 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 116. 

3 J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. 1. pp. 382 foll. 

4 The People of Turkey, by a Consul’s daughter and wife, quoted in 
J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. 1. p. 385. Mr Frazer discusses the whole 
subject of hair and nail superstitions at great length. Jb. pp. 368 foll. 


216 Macedonian Folklore 


foes, and knocks at their doors for admittance. He chases with 
evil intent all those whom he meets in the way, and generally 
makes himself disagreeable. This he continues doing for forty 
days, and at the end of that period he betakes himself to the 
mountains, where he abides as a wild beast. 

The ring noticed above reminds one forcibly of the ear-ring 
worn by the tribe of Budas in Abyssinia, a tribe much addicted 
to turning into hyaenas. It is said that this ornament has 
been seen “in the ears of hyaenas shot in traps,” and it has 
been suggested that it is put there by the Budas in order “ to 
encourage a profitable superstition.”’ It is not unlikely that in 
the case of the Macedonia boar also the ring might be traced to 
a similar origin. 

This superstition is closely related to a Slav belief, quoted 
as an instance of metempsychosis. The Bulgarians hold that 
Turks who have never eaten pork in life will become wild boars 
after death. It is related that a party assembled to feast on a 
boar was compelled to throw it all away, “for the meat jumped 
off the spit into the fire, and a piece of cotton was found in the 
ears, which the wise man decided to be a piece of the ct-devant 
Turk’s turban.”? 

The Bulgarian superstition is practically the same as that 
of the Melenikiote peasantry, but the latter presents the curious 
point that the transformation of the Turk into a boar is supposed 
to occur before death and to be gradual. This peculiarity seems 
to identify it rather with a process of metamorphosis than of 
metempsychosis, especially as the doctrine of transmigration is 
so rarely found in Christian countries. This belief concerning 
the future state of the Turks is one of several superstitions held 
by other races both geographically and ethnologically allied to 
the Macedonians. The Albanians believe in some strange 
beings which they call liougat or liouvgat, defined by Hahn as 
“Dead Turks, with huge nails, who wrapped up in their winding 
sheets devour whatever they find and throttle men.”* 


1 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 311. 
2 Ib, vol. 1. pp. 15 foll. 
3 Stud. Alb. τ. p. 16. 


Funeral Rites 217 


Akin both to the above superstition and to those that 
follow is the Wallachian belief in a being called priccolitsch 
and described as “a man who wanders by night in the shape of 
a dog over the fields and commons and even villages, and as he 
passes kills by touching horses, cows, sheep, pigs, goats and 
other animals, and derives from them a vitality which makes 
him look always healthy.”? 


Vampire. Z 

A short step from the strange beliefs recorded in the last 
chapter brings us to the equally strange, though better known, 
superstition concerning the vampire. The name given to this 
hideous monster in Macedonia is, generally speaking, the same 
as that by which it is known in some parts of Greece proper ; 
but its form is slightly modified in various districts. Thus at 
Melenik (North-East) it is called Vrykolakas (ὁ βρυκόλακας 
or τὸ βουρκολάκι), or Vampyras (ὁ βάμπυρας); whereas at 
Kataphygi (South-West) it appears as Vroukolakas, or Vompiras, 
the latter form being also used as a term of abuse. The name 
has been variously derived by philologists, some holding that it 
comes from the ancient Greek μορμολυκεῖον, a hobgoblin. This 
is the view of some modern Greek scholars, followed by Hahn. 
Others, like Bernhard Schmidt,? more plausibly assign to it a 
Slavonic origin.’ 

The Macedonian Vrykolakas is conceived of as an animated 
corpse throttling people and sucking the blood of men and 
beasts, or damaging household utensils, ploughs, etc. He is 
described as being in personal appearance like a bull-skin full 
of blood, with a pair of eyes on one side, gleaming like live 


1 Schott, Walachische Mérchen, p. 298. On this and the following 
superstitions see also Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. 1. 
pp. 80 foll. 

3 Das Volksleben der Neugriechen, p. 159. 

3 The following are some of the Slavonic forms of the name: ulkodlak 
(Bohemian), vukodlak (Servian), vrkolak (Bulgarian). The Albanians call it 
vurvulak, and the Turks vurkolak. The form Bdumipas or βόμπιρας also may be 
compared with the Russian vampir or upuir (anc. upir), and the Polish upior. 


218 Macedonian Folklore 


coals in the dark. The Macedonian, and the modern Greek 
Vrykolakas generally, agrees in his attributes with the Slavonic 
creature of the same name, and with the ghouls of the Arabian 
Nights. Like them it is imagined as being a corpse imbued 
with a kind of half-life, and actuated by murderous impulses 
and by an unquenchable thirst for blood. This conception does 
not differ materially from the kindred beliefs of the Scandinavians 
and Icelanders, yet on the whole it is nearer to the Slavonic 
than to any other version of the vampire superstition. But we 
need not, therefore, conclude that the modern Greeks have 
borrowed much more than the name from their Slav neighbours. 
The superstition is closely related to the lycanthropy and to the 
belief in spectres of the ancient Greeks, and the fact that in the 
Greek islands it is known by other and purely Hellenic names* 
goes far to prove that the idea has originated among the Greeks 
independently, though those of the mainland who have come 
into contact with the Slavs may, in adopting the Slav name, 
have also modified their own views and customs respecting the 
vampire in harmony with those of their neighbours. 

The accordance between the Greek and the Slavonic con- 
ceptions of the vampire is nowhere more apparent than in 
Macedonia, a province which for many centuries past has been 
the meeting point of Slav and Hellene. It is believed that a 
dead person turns into a vampire (βρυκολακιάζει)" first, if at 
the unearthing of the body the latter is found undecayed and 
turned face downwards. In such an emergency the relatives of 
the deceased have recourse to a ceremony which fills the 
beholder with sickening horror. I was creditably informed of 
a case of this description occurring not long ago at Alistrati, 
one of the principal villages between Serres and Drama. 
Someone was suspected of having turned into a vampire. The 
corpse was taken out of the grave, was scalded with boiling oil, 


1 It will be seen from this that Mr Tylor’s description of the Vrykolakas as 
“a man who falls into a cataleptic state, while his soul enters a wolf and goes 
ravening for blood” (Prim. Cult. vol. 1. p. 318) is scarcely accurate. 

2 xaraxavas, in Crete and Rhodes ; ἀναικαθούμενος, in Tenos; σαρκωμένος, in 
Cyprus. 

3 βρυκολάκιασε ! is said in jest of one who cannot sleep of nights. 


Funeral Rites 219 


and was pierced through the navel with a long nail. Then the 
tomb was covered in, and millet was scattered over it, that, if 
the vampire came out again, he might waste his time in 
picking up the grains of millet and be thus overtaken by dawn. 
For the usual period of their wanderings is from about two 
hours before midnight till the first crowing of the morning 
cock. At the sound of which “fearful summons” the Vrykolakas, 
like the Gaelic sithche, or fairy, vauishes into his subterranean 
abode.! 

Another cause leading to the transformation of a human 
being into a Vrykolakas is the leaping of a cat over the corpse 
while lying in state. To guard against such an accident the 
body is watched all night by relatives and friends, who consider 
it a deed “good for their own souls” (wuytxo) to wake by the 
dead. If, despite their watchfulness, a cat does jump across 
the body, the latter is immediately pierced with two big “sack- 
needles” (σακκορράφαις) in order to prevent the dread calamity. 

The visits of a vampire are further guarded against by scattering 
mustard seed? over the tiles of the roof, or by barricading the 
door with brambles and thorn-bushes. 

The superstition regarding the leaping of the cat is shared 


1 Tournefort, the eighteenth century French traveller, narrates a similar 
occurrence which he witnessed in the island of Myconos. The body in that 
case was not simply scalded, but actually burnt to ashes. Voyage to the Levant, 
Eng. Tr. 1. pp. 103 foll., in Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, 
vol. 11, pp. 92 foll. See also Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, vol. 1. p. 492; 
vol, rv. p. 216. 

2 The mustard, like the millet mentioned already, is intended to make the 
Vrykolakas waste his time in counting. The same fatal weakness for arithmetic 
seems to beset the Kalikantzari of Southern Greece. If a sieve is handed to one, 
he will set to work to count the holes, as though his life depended on it. As 
his mathematics do not go beyond the figure two, he is overtaken by morning. 
The Italians use a similar antidote on the Eve of St John’s Day, when they 
carry about an onion-flower or a red carnation. This flower is meant for the 
witches, who are believed to be abroad on that evening. When it is given 
to them, they begin to count the petals, and long before they have accomplished 
this feat you are out of their reach. See Sir Rennell Rodd, The Customs and Lore 
of Modern Greece, p. 201. In America also a sieve placed under the door-step, 
or hung over the door, keeps the witches out of the house, for they cannot enter 
until they have counted, or even crawled through, every hole: Memoirs of ‘the 
American Folk-Lore Society, vol. vu. p. 16. 


220 Mi acedonian Folklore 


by both Servians and Bulgarians, for which reason a corpse is 
always carefully watched while it is in the cottage before the 
funeral. But the Slavonic races go even further than the 
Greeks: “In some places the jumping of a boy over the corpse 
is considered as fatal as that of a cat. The flight of a bird 
above the body may also be attended by the same terrible 
result; and so may—in the Ukraine—the mere breath of the 
wind from the Steppe.”? This belief survives in the northern 
counties of England, although its explanation has been long 
forgotten. If a cat or dog pass over a corpse, the animal must 
be killed at once.’ 

The piercing of the corpse is also a practice well-known to 
the Slavs. In Russia they drive a stake through it, and in 
Servia, after having pierced it with a white-thorn stake, they 
commit it to the flames.’ Likewise in Iceland, we are told, in 
order to prevent a dead person from “going again” needles or 
pointed spikes should be driven into the soles of his feet. The 
same end would be attained by driving nails into the tomb 
during high-mass, between the reading of the Epistle and 
the Gospel With the scattering of millet or mustard-seed 
in order to obstruct the vampire’s progress may be compared 
the funeral practice of the Pomeranians, who on “returning 
from the churchyard leave behind the straw from the hearse, 
that the wandering soul may rest there, and not come back 
so far as home.”* Also the Russian custom of the widow, who, 
after the body is carried out, “strews oats over the ground 
traversed by the funeral procession.” ° 

With the blood-sucking Vrykolakas is somewhat distantly 
connected the murony of the Wallachs, which has also the 


1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 412. 

2 Henderson, Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England, p. 43, in 
Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, p. 323, n. 2; Tozer, Researches in the Highlands 
of Turkey, vol. 11. p. 84, n. 10. 

3 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 418. It is with a like intent that 
the negroes of America sometimes drive a stake through a grave, as soon as one 
is buried. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. vit. p. 15. 

4 Islenzkar pjoSsigur, τ. 224, 3—7. 

5 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 11. p. 27. 

6 Ib. p. 318. 


Funeral Rites 221 


power of assuming many shapes, such as that of a cat, frog, 
flea, or spider. 

In addition to the ordinary Vrykolakas who Anhabis in 
human blood, the Macedonians believe in the existence of a 
Vrykolakas of sheep and cattle. He is represented as riding 
on their shoulders, sucking their blood, and killing them. 
Quacks, especially Mohammedan dervishes, profess to have the 
power of exterminating these inferior vampires, whence they 
are known as “ vampire-killers,” and go about ostentatiously 
parading an iron rod ending in a sharp point (shish), or a long 
stick armed with a small axe on the top. 

People born on a Saturday (hence called Σαββατιανοὶ or 
Sabbatarians) are believed to enjoy the doubtful privilege of 
seeing ghosts and phantasms, and of possessing great influence 
over vampires. A native of Sochos assured the writer that such 
a one was known to have lured a Vrykolakas into a barn and 
to have set him to count the grains of a heap of millet. While 
the demon was thus engaged, the Sabbatarian attacked him 
and succeeded in nailing him to the wall. The story presents 
several points of interest. First, the nailing of an evil being to 
a wall is a notion familiar to the Macedonian mind. It may 
even be found embodied in folk-songs. Some children’s rhymes, 
which I heard from a girl of the same village, began with the 
words : 

Στοιχειὸ παραχωμένο, 
Σ τὸν τοῖχο καρφωμένο. 
O thou Ghost buried 

And to the wall nailed ! 


This notion is closely connected with the ancient Roman 
practice of warding off evil by driving a nail into a wall, and 
the kindred superstitions still prevalent among the peasants of 
European countries The Macedonian belief may be regarded 
as more primitive than any of these parallels; for it is based 
on the idea that personal and, so to speak, substantial spirits 
can thus be transfixed; not only abstract calamities. Another 
interesting point offered by the above tale is the belief in the 


1 For illustrations see J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. 11. pp. 33 foll. 


922 Macedonian Folklore 


exceptional endowment of people born at a certain time. With 
this superstition may be compared the one mentioned by 
Mr Andrew Lang as prevailing in Scotland,—namely, “that 
children born between midnight and one o'clock will be 
second-sighted.”* Furthermore, as Saturday—the birthday of 
the Macedonian Sabbatarians—is the seventh day of the week, 
these favoured mortals may claim kinship with the seventh 
sons, who among ourselves are credited with the faculty of 
curing diseases by the touch, and the like? In this connection 
it may also be noted that a firstborn child is in Macedonia 
supposed to possess supernatural powers over a hail-storm. If 
such a child swallows a few grains of hail, the storm will im- 
mediately cease. 

At Liakkovikia it is held that the Sabbatarian owes his 
power to a little dog, which follows him every evening and 
drives away the Vrykolakas. It is further said that the Sabba- 
tarian on those occasions is invisible to all but the little dog.’ 
Perhaps it would not. be a mistake to explain the little dog as 
representing the “Fetch” or natal spirit of the Sabbatarian, a 
spirit which to this day is fond of assuming a canine form in 
Iceland.‘ 


1 Cock Lane and Common Sense, p. 238; cp. the American superstition that 
‘‘a person born on Halloween is said to be possessed of evil spirits” (Memoirs 
of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. tv. p. 149), and that ‘‘ those born with a 
caul over the face can see ghosts,” Ib. vol. vir. p, 22. 

2 For several curious instances of this belief in England see The Book of 
Days, vol. 1. pp. 166 foll. 

3 A. A. Γουσίου, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Xdpa,’ p. 75. 

4 The northern term “ Fylgja” has two meanings: after-birth and fetch, 
which was believed to inhabit the after-birth. It generally assumed the shape 
of some animal: birds, flying dragons, bears, horses, oxen, he-goats, wolves, 
foxes; but in modern times in Iceland its favourite guise is that of a dog. 
This spirit followed through life every man of woman born. See Islenzkar 
pjoSsdgur, τ. 354—357; Finn Magnisson, Eddalaeren, 1v. 35 foll. For this 
note I am indebted to the kindness of my friend Mr Eirikr Magntsson, of 
Trinity College, Cambridge. 


CHAPTER XIII. 
SPIRITS AND SPELLS. 


DISEASES of men and beasts are often regarded as evil 
spirits to be expelled by means of incantations, prayers, and 
other rites analogous to those practised against the Evil Eye. 
In this belief the Macedonian peasants are not singular. It is 
a belief chiefly prevailing among races in the lowest stage of 
culture and thought, but surviving in many forms among 
peoples which’ have long out-grown that early state. The 
Russian peasant, for instance, maintains the same attitude 
as the Macedonian and endeavours to drive away disease “by 
purification with fire and water, and so the popular practice of 
physic is founded on a theory of fumigations, washings, and 
sprinklings attended by exorcisms of various kinds.”? 

At Nigrita, in Southern Macedonia, I had an opportunity 
of witnessing a ceremony of this description—a Benediction of 
Beasts. The cattle of the district had been attacked by a 
disease which was, as a matter of course, set down to the agency 
of the Evil One. The people, therefore, resolved to have it 
exorcised. On a Saturday evening the town-crier (διαλαλητής, 
Turk. dellal) proclaimed that the cattle affected should be 
driven next morning to the enclosure of the church. On the 
morrow many head of cattle of all ages and complexions, and of 
both sexes, congregated in the churchyard, awaiting the special 
ceremony, which was to be performed for their benefit. When 
the ordinary Sunday service was over, the priest came out and, 
with the hand of St Dionysios, the patron saint of the village, 


1 y, supra, p. 143, 
2 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, pp. 379 foll, 


224. Macedonian Folklore 


before him, read the customary prayer, recommending each 
particular ox, cow, and calf by name to the mercy of Heaven. 
At the mention of the bovine names—such as Black, Red, 
Dapple, Moraite, etc..—the officiator was so strongly moved by 
the humour of the situation that he could hardly refrain from 
bursting into laughter—an emotion in which some of the 
farmers themselves were not disinclined to join. But, though 
far from blind to the ludicrous side of the affair, they were too 
much in earnest about their cattle to interrupt the rite.’ 

Another method of delivering suffering cattle from an evil 
spirit is the following. A dervish, or Mohammedan mendicant 
friar, is called, and he draws a circle round the afflicted herd, 
uttering the while some mystic words, or pure gibberish, in an 
undertone. He then proceeds to cast amid the close-gathered 
cattle a charm consisting of a verse of the Koran sewed up in 
leather (nuska). The animal hit by the nuska is the one 
harbouring the evil spirit. The nuska is, therefore, hung round 
its neck. In the case of sheep, they are likewise circumscribed 
with a magic circle, but the nuska, instead of being thrown 
at random, is forthwith suspended from the neck of the leader 
of the flock. 

In the same district I came across several instances of people 
who attributed their physical ailments to the malignity of the 
“Spirits of the Air” (Ayepsxa).2 An old woman was complain- 
ing to me of a chronic low fever. I naturally asked her whether 
she had consulted a physician. “What can physicians do?” 
she answered, peevishly, “it is an Ayeriko, and physic avails 
nothing against it.” 

The marshes and fens which stretch unchecked over the 
valley of the Struma, where the village is situated, are the 
prolific nurseries of malaria and other disorders alike fatal to 


1 Cp. similar religious services performed on St Anthony’s Day in Roman 
Catholic countries. The Book of Days, vol. τ. p. 126. 

2 The Turks also regard diseases as coming ‘‘ from the air” (hawadan) and 
to be cured with a nuska containing a verse of the Koran. This prescription is 
either worn round the neck as a phylactery, or is burned and the patient is 
fumigated with the smoke thereof, or, still better, it is washed in a bowl of water 
which is afterwards drunk by the patient. See “Ἢ Κωνσταντινούπολις᾽ by 
Searlatos D. Byzantios, vol. 1. p. 94. 


Spirits and Spells 225 


bipeds and to quadrupeds. But the people are firmly convinced 
that these things have nothing to do with the disease, which 
can have none but a supernatural origin—a belief corresponding 
to the superstition known throughout Northern Europe as elle- 
skiod, elle-vild, and in some parts of England as elf-shot. 

Women belated on the road are sometimes seized with 
sudden terror, which results in temporary loss of speech, moping 
madness, or malignant ague. These ailments, too, are promptly 
set down to the invisible agency of an Ayeriko. Recourse is 
immediately had to some renowned dervish or khodja (Moham- 
medan religious minister) of the neighbourhood, who pretends 
to trace the evil to its source, and to discover the exact spot 
where the attack occurred. That part of the road is sprinkled 
with petmez, or boiled grape-juice, on three consecutive nights, 
that the “Spirit’s temper may be sweetened” (γιὰ va γλυκαθῇ 
τ᾿ ᾿Αγερικό). 

It should be observed that the Mohammedan ministers and 
monks enjoy a far higher reputation as wielders of magical 
powers than their Christian confréres. Likewise the most 
famous fortune-tellers of either sex belong to the Moham- 
medan persuasion. This is partly due to the fact that the 
Mohammedans, being as a rule far more ignorant than their 
Christian neighbours, are more strongly addicted to superstitious 
belief and practice; but it may also arise from the universal 
tendency to credit an intellectually inferior race with greater 
proficiency in the black arts. 

The dervishes, however, have formidable competitors in old 
Gipsy women, and other hags, suspected of intimate relations 
with the powers of darkness, and propitiated with presents 
accordingly. To these sorceresses (μαΐστραις) the peasants 


1 Cp. the ancient Greek belief that a trance or spiritual ecstasy was due to 
the Nymphs, a belief vividly illustrated by the words of Socrates : ‘‘ Verily the 
place seems to be god-haunted. Therefore, if in the course of our discourse 
I often chance to become entranced (νυμφόληπτος, lit. caught by nymphs), wonder 
thou not.” Plat. Phaedr. 238 p. The Latin epithet lymphaticus, frantic, panic- 
struck, crazy, also embodies the same idea and accurately describes the symptoms 
attributed to the agency of the Ayeriko by the Macedonians. 

2 For illustrations of this principle see Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. 
pp. 113 foll. 


A. F. 15 


226 Macedonian Folklore 


often have recourse for the recovery of lost and for the cure 
of ailing cattle, as well as for the interpretation of dreams. 
Also people who believe themselves to be under the influence 
of an enemy’s witchery (μάγεια) go to these sibyls for a counter- 
charm in order to break the first. Their concoctions (madjoon) 
are likewise supposed to remove barrenness, to restore youth 
and beauty, and to work many other wonderful effects. Their 
methods can best be illustrated by a personal experience. 

An old Gipsy woman at a fair at Petritz, after having told 
the writer his fortune, by looking upon a shell, assured him 
that he was the victim of an enemy’s curse, and that she had 
the means of defeating its operation. It appears that “when I 
was leaving my country, a woman and her daughter had cast 
dust after me and pronounced a spell.” The “casting of dust” 
as an accompaniment of an anathema, by the way, is a well- 
known practice of Hindoo witches. The Prophetess then 
taking me aside offered to supply me, for a consideration, 
with a liquid which I ought to make my enemies drink or 
to pour outside their door. 

These hags provide young people with various philtres which 
sometimes are less innocent than pure water. But lovers need : 
not always resort to a professional magician. There are a few 
recipes familiar to most of those who have ever suffered from 
an unrequited passion. One of the most popular philtres is to 


1 There is little originality in the dreams of the modern Greeks or in their 
interpretation. Some of them are interpreted symbolically, e.g. to dream of an 
ugly old hag forebodes illness ; a serpent indicates an enemy ; raw (indigestible) 
meat signifies trouble. Very often dreams among the Greeks, and in these 
remarks I include the Greeks of Macedonia, are interpreted just as among the 
Zulus, the Maoris and others, on the principle of contraries, e.g. if you dream 
that you are the possessor of a hoard of gold pieces, you are destined to die 
a pauper. Lice, which so often go with extreme poverty, on the other hand, 
are regarded as omens of wealth. The ancient rule that ‘‘he who dreams he 
hath lost a tooth shall lose a friend” still holds its place in modern Greek 
oneiromancy as it does in the chap-books of modern Europe. See Tylor, 
Primitive Culture, vol. 1. pp. 122 foll. The dreams concerning treasure-trove 
are governed by the same law of secrecy as in Southern Greece. A breach 
of this rule involves the transformation of the treasure into coals. Cp. 
W. H. D. Rouse, ‘Folk-lore from the Southern Sporades,’ in Folk-Lore, 
June 1899, p. 182. The dream of Saturday night must come true before 
Sunday noon. 


Spirits and Spells 227 


be obtained by the following simple but efficacious method: 
Take three live fishes and place them in a row upon a gridiron 
over the fire. While the fishes are broiling, hit them in turns 
with two small sticks, repeating this incantation : 

“As these fishes are panting, even so may the maiden whom 
I love pant with longing” (Ὅπως λαχταροῦν αὐτὰ τὰ ψάρια 
ἔτσι νὰ λαχταρήσῃ κ᾽ ἡ νειὰ π᾿ ἀγαπῶ). ; 

When they are thoroughly charred, pound them in a mortar 
and reduce them to fine powder, out of which concoct a potion 


and then endeavour to make the maid drink of it. 


Folk-Medicine. 


Besides the official operations, which are performed by the 
recognized ministers of the Crescent and of the Cross, the 
peasantry have recourse to a good many expedients on their own 
account. An amateur method of curing mild complaints, such 
as swollen glands and the like, is to write an exorcism—any 
passage from the Bible will do—upon the patient’s cheek or 
neck, 

At Cavalla I was shown an old manuscript of the New 
Testament. It seemed to have been used a great deal. To 
my comment to that effect, my hostess eagerly replied : 

“Oh yes, we have been lending it out a lot.” 

“Tt is a pity so many pages have been torn out,” I remarked. 

“That couldn’t be helped. You can’t use the leaves, unless 
you tear them out,” was her naive answer, and it enlightened 
me on the meaning of the word “use.” The leaves of the 
manuscript were used as the leaves of the lemon-tree are used 
for medicinal purposes, that is, by soaking them in water, and 
then washing the ailing part with the juice thereof, or drinking 
the latter 

Like him that took the doctor’s bill, 
And swallowed it instead οὐ th’ pill.} 

The charm of the red and white thread used in Spring has 

already been mentioned. It should be added here that the 


1 Hudibras, Part I, Canto I. 
15—2 


228 Macedonian Folklore 


same amulet is considered highly efficacious against agues, 
fevers, and sun-strokes. The practice is also very common 
among the Russians who sometimes use merely a knotted 
thread, sometimes a skein of red wool wound about the arms and 
legs, or nine skeins fastened round a child’s neck, as a preserva- 
tive against scarlatina.1 The efficacy of these tied or knotted 
amulets depends to a great extent upon the magical force 
of their knots? This is illustrated by the very important part 
played by the ‘binding’ and ‘loosing’ processes in popular magic, 
and by the prominence given to these knots in the marriage 
ceremonies of the Macedonian peasantry described elsewhere. | 
Another point relating to this amulet and deserving attention 
is the fact that in Macedonia it is especially used during the 
month of March, that is in early spring. This circumstance 
connects it with the other springtide observances dealt with in 
a previous chapter, and particularly with the children’s Feast of 
the Rousa, the object of which it is to ward off scarlatina.® 

A practice not confined to young people is resorted to by all 
those who suffer from the irritating little red pimples, which 
burst forth upon the skin in the dog-days of a southern summer. 
These pimples are known as hararet at Melenik; elsewhere as 
δροτσίδια. Relief from them is sought in a very queer fashion: 
the sufferer, male or female, repairs before sunrise to a lonely 
spot, where there is a quince-tree, and, standing naked beneath 
its boughs, pronounces three times the following formula: 

“1 want a man and want him at once!” ("Avtpa θέλω, τώρα 
tov 0é\w)—a phrase which has passed into proverb, applied to 
people who will brook no delay. 

Then they pick up their clothes and walk off forty paces, 
without looking back. Having reached that point, they stop 
and dress. This must be done three days in succession. 

1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 388. 

2 On the subject of ‘ Knots as amulets’ see J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, 
vol. 1, pp. 398 foll. 

3 vy, supra, pp. 40—42. 

4 The formula employed seems to suggest that the ceremony was at one time 
confined to women alone. In that case the custom can be connected with 


numerous similar customs prevalent in various countries and explained as owing 
their origin to ‘‘the belief of the fertilising power of the tree spirit.” For 


Spirits and Spells 229 


The mystic “forty paces” reappear in a recipe against no 
less an ill than lightning. It is believed that if one struck by 
lightning is immediately removed from the spot, where the 
accident befell him, to the prescribed distance, he will recover. 

At Cavalla I came across a cure of rheumatism by the 
sand-bath. There is a spot a little way from the beach, to 
the east of the town, remarkable for its light colour. It is 
a patch of fine yellowish sand which looks very much as though 
it once was the bed of a salt pond, whose waters have been 
evaporated by the sun. A local legend, however, ascribes to it 
a miraculous origin. 

In olden times, it is said, there was a shepherd who had a 
flock of beautiful white sheep. He once made a vow to sacrifice 
one of his sheep, but he failed to fulfil it.. The gods in their 
wrath waited for an opportunity of punishing him, and this 
soon offered itself. One fine afternoon, as the shepherd stood 
on that spot, tending his beautiful white sheep, a monstrous 
wave rose out of the sea and swallowed up both shepherd and 
flock. The spot has ever since remained white, and the flock 
were transformed into fleecy white wavelets, hence called “sheep” 
(πρόβατα): 

The spot is now known as the “ White Sand” (called ΓΑ σπρος 
“Apupos by the Greeks, Bias koom by the Turks) and is supposed 
to possess healing virtues. People suffering from rheumatism 
and paralysis are cured if on three successive days they go there 
and bury themselves up to the waist in the sand. In fact 
“White Sand” of Cavalla is quite a fashionable health resort, 
especially among the Turks of the town and environs.* 


illustrations see J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. 1. p. 195. On the other 
hand, viewed as a cure, it may be compared with the widely-spread practice of 
transferring ills to trees discussed by Mr Fr .zer, vol. mm. pp. 26 foll. The 
injunction against looking back finds many parallels among the cases cited by 
Mr Frazer. 

1 The faithless shepherd appears in a Spanish story. The promise of a lamb 
is there made to March, who revenges himself afterwards by borrowing three 
days from April, see R. Inwards, Weather Lore, p. 27. 

2 Our ‘‘ white horses.” 

3 Cp. Mr Tozer’s account of the same method as practised on Mount Athos, 
Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. τ. p. 75. 


230 Macedonian Folklore 


The cure recommended by the folk-physician for the bite of a 
mad dog is to apply to the wound a tuft of hair cut off from the 
dog that bit you. This isa relic of the ancient and once world-wide 
homeceopathic doctrine, according to which the cause that produced 
the harm can also effect its cure (similia similibus curantur). 
It is mentioned in the Scandinavian Edda “ Dog’s hair heals 
dog’s bite,” and it also survives in the English expression “a hair 
of the dog that bit you,” although its original meaning is no 
longer remembered.!' A bleeding of the nose is stopped by a 
large key placed on the nape of the sufferer’s neck.2 In Russia 
the sufferer grasps a key in each hand, or the blood is allowed 
to drop through the aperture of a locked padlock—a practice 
connected by mythologists with the worship of Perun the 
Thunder-God.2 The key cure is not unknown in this country 
also.4 

A small wart, which sometimes appears on the lower eyelid 
and which, from its shape, is known as a ‘little grain of barley’ 
(κριθαράκι or κριθαρίτσα), is cured if someone bearing a rare 
name barks at it like a dog. 

Nothing shows more clearly how strong and general is the 
conviction that physical ailments are due to non-physical causes 
than the fact that in systematic treatises on folk-medicine 
among the prescribed remedies are frequently included prayers 
and spells. The following are examples, literally translated 
from a tattered old MS. which I obtained in Macedonia, 


Useful Medical Treatise.° 


The above is the modest title of the MS. which is dateless, 
nameless, and endless. So far as the writing is a criterion of 
age, the document seems to be the work of an eighteenth 


1 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 84. 

2 The same cure is used in America, see Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore 
Society, vol. tv. p. 99. 

3 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 96. 

4 For ‘‘superstitions about diseases’ and folk medicine generally in England, 
see The Book of Days, vol. τ. p. 732. 

5 A. Δ, Γουσίου, "Ἢ xara τὸ Πάγγαιον Xwpa,’ p. 76. 

6 For the original Greek see Appendix III. 


Spirits and Spells 231 


century scribe, whose identity, however, in the absence of direct 
evidence, must remain a problem unsolved and insoluble. But 
judging by certain points of similarity between the hand of the 
present and that of another MS. of a similar nature, bound in 
the same volume, I am inclined to attribute it to the author of 
the latter, who reveals his name in an apologetic note appended, 
by way of postface, at the end of his work: “Hand of 
Constantine Rizioti, by trade a physician. If aught be wrong 
in the book, set it right, and grant your forgiveness to me, as to 
one who is ignorant of the science of his own trade. Besides, 
I was a beginner when I wrote it.”? 

The MS. begins with a recipe for sleeplessness. Says the 
author : 


1. “He who wishes to watch and not feel sleepy: there is a bird 
named sparrow ; of this bird the eyes, and the eyes of the crab, and of the 
[blank] likewise, wrap them up in white linen and tie them to his right 
arm, and he shall not be sleepy.” 


This is followed by prescriptions, more or less unconventional, 
for tooth-cleaning, toothache, wounds, stomach-ache (lit. soul- 
ache),? pains in the abdomen, childbirth, headache ; for driving 
away caterpillars from a garden; for pain in a man’s body ; and 
for thirst. 

The caterpillar remedy is characteristic and deserves re- 
production : 


9. “For the chasing of caterpillars: take 3 caterpillars from the garden, 
take also fire [7] and fumigate the garden or park, and they will go away.” 


Next comes another prescription for toothache : 


12. “In the event of pain in the teeth make this sign, and plant the 
knife before the aching tooth, and say the ‘Our Father,’ and the sufferer 
must say the ‘Kyrie eleison.’ And when the pain is gone from the first 
tooth, let him put it in the second, likewise in the third, and, by the grace 
of God, he will be cured.” 


1 yelp k@voravrivoy ριζιότι" Kal τὴν τέχνην ἱατρο[]" καὶ ἥτι σφαλερ᾽ εὔσταται 
ὀρθόσατε αὐτὸ και συγγνώ[μην] μοι δωρήσαται: ὡς ἀμαθεῖς ὑπάρχων τῆς ἰδείας 
τέχνης τὴν ἐπιστήμην" ἅμα δὲ καὶ ἀρχαῖος [-Ξ ἀρχάριος] εἰμὶ ὅτε τὸ ἔγραφα. 

3 ψυχόπονος. 


232 Macedonian Folklore 


There follow recipes for pains in the belly, pains internal 
and external, and for vomiting. To these ensues the heading 
“For loosing a man who is bound or a woman, write:” but the 


prescription does not actually occur till later. Instead of it, we 


here get two recipes for ague : 


17. “In the event of ague-fever : write upon an apple or pear: ‘ Holy 
Angel, chosen of our Lord Jesus Christ, who presidest over ague and fever 
secondary [?], tertian, quartan, and quotidian, break off the ague-fever from 
the servant of God So-and-So, in the name of the Father and of the Son 
and of the Holy Ghost.” 


18. “In the event of fever quotidian and tertian : pound green sow- 
thistle, mix it with blessed water of the Holy Epiphany ; spread it well, 
and water it, and write on the first day at sunrise upon his right shoulder 
‘Christ is born’; on the second day [likewise]; also write upon an apple 
the Trisagion and the ‘ Stand we fairly,’! and let him eat it fasting.” 


After these come recipes for preventing the generation of 
lice, for knife-thrusts, for hemorrhage, and several other 
commonplace complaints, which are followed by the prescrip- 
tion : 


23. ‘For loosing a man who is bound :? take a knife that has 
committed murder, and, when the person who is bound goes to bed, let 
him place the knife between his legs, and go to sleep. And when he 
awakes, let him utter these words: ‘As this knife has proved capable of 
committing murder, that is to say, of killing a man, even so may mine own 
body prove capable of lying with my wife ; and he forthwith lies with his 
wife.” 


24. “When one disowns his wedded wife coeatgue cum scorto, take 
stercus uxoris simile stercoris scorti and therewith fumigate the man’s clothes 
secretly, and he will straightway conceive an aversion for her. Likewise 
in the event of the reverse.” 


25. “For one possessed of demons: let the sufferer wear the glands 
from the mouth of a fish, and let him be fumigated with them, and the 
demons will flee from him.” 


A somewhat similar treatment is recommended for the gout 
(podagra). Then comes: 


1 These are the words which the deacon says in the part of the liturgy known 
as the Anaphora. 

2 y.suprap.171n. Cp. analogous documents from the Aegean W. H. Ὁ, Rouse, 
‘ Folk-lore from the Southern Sporades,’ in Folk-Lore, June 1899, pp. 156 foll. 


Spirits and Spells 233 


27. “For curing [1] the bite of serpents and other wild beasts, and that 
they may not touch him, not even the dogs, but flee from him: pound 
sorrel and [?], and strain [?] them well, and then smear with the juice of 
all, and you shall marvel.” 

28. “To succeed in fishing: let the fisher wear on him sand-fleas, 
bound up in dolphin skin, and he is always successful.” 

29. “To pacify one’s enemies: write the psalm ‘Known in Judaea,’ 
dissolve it in water, and give your enemy to drink thereof, and he will be 
pacified.” 

31. “That wayfarers may not become weary: let them carry in their 
belts nerves from a crane’s legs.” 

32. “For a startled and frightened man: take 3 ee chestnuts and 
sow-thistle and 3 glasses of old wine, and let him drink thereof early and 
late ; write also the ‘In the beginning was the word’ by the aid of Jesus, 
and let him carry it.” 

34. “For ague: cut 3 pieces of bread and write on the Ist ‘ Love the 
Father,’ on the 2nd ‘ Life the Son,’ on the 3rd ‘Comfort the Holy Ghost. 
Amen.’ And when the shivering and the fever commence, let the patient 
perform 3 genuflexions in the name of St John the Forerunner! and let him 
eat the 1st piece, and the fever will leave off. And, if it does not leave off 

at the first, do the same thing at the second. Truth for ever.” 


_ Omitting some comparatively ordinary remedies for ailments 
of the stomach, “for drawing a tooth without the use of forceps 
or iron,” heartache, and a “marvellous” cure for cough, we 
come to a humorous recipe: 


40. “For a bleeding nose: say to the part whence the blood flows, 
secretly in the ear (!) ‘mox, pax, ripx,’ and it will stop.” 


The following is a remedy recommended to the attention of 
advocates of total abstinence : 
41. “For preventing a man from getting drunk: put two ounces of 


[unfortunately the name conveys nothing to the present writer]; give it 
to him every morning to drink, and he will not get drunk.” 

410. “To make a woman have milk: take a cow’s hoof and burn it 
well, give it to the woman to eat or drink it.” 


42. “That thou mayst not fear thief or robber: take the herb named 
azebotanon, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
Ghost, and carry it wherever thou wishest to walk, and, with God’s help, 
thou shalt not be afraid.” 


1 y, supra p. 65 ἢ. 


234 Macedonian Folklore 


43. “To stop a serpent coming towards thee: when thou seest it 
coming towards thee say these words: ‘ Moses set a javelin, deliverer from 
harmful things, upon a column and a rod, in the form of a cross, and upon 
it he tied an earth-crawling serpent, and thereby triumphed over the evil. 
Wherefore we shall sing to Christ our God ; for he has been glorified ’.” 


47. “That a woman may become pregnant : take the gall of a he-goat, 
and let the husband smear his body therewith at the moment when he is 
going to lie with his wife.” 

49. “In case of a fright: write upon new paper : ‘ Elohim God, and 
this character ox ox, and carry it.” 

50. ‘To cure a woman of hemorrhage write on a piece of papyrus, 
and tie it to her belly with 1 thread, and say the ‘Our Father’ and the 
following prayer: ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of 
Jacob, the God who stayed the river Mortham on the 6th day, stay also 
the flowing of the blood of thy servant So-and-So, and the seal of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. Stand we fairly, stand we with fear of God, Amen. And 
may the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, ene and John cure the patient.’ 


Several recipes follow for toothache, eyesores, and swarms 
of ants. ἐλ τὼ comes another prescription for the “ loosing of 
a bound man” 

55. “Take cotton pods and bind them with 12 knots! and say over 
his head: ‘In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 


Ghost,’ and also say these words: ‘ Let the limbs of So-and-So be set free, 
as Lazarus was set free from the tomb’.” 


After an uninteresting prescription for earache we have 
another cure: 


57. ‘*For ague and fever: write on a cup the exorcism : these names: 
‘Christ was born, Christ was crucified, Christ is risen. Our Lord Jesus 
Christ being born in Bethlehem of Judaea, leave, O head-demon, the servant 
of God So-and-So; in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost, now and ever and in the aeons’.” 


After two more ordinary prescriptions, the text continues on 
the favourite subject : 

59. “For the loosing of a man: write these words on a piece of bread, 
and give it to him to eat: ‘akoel, eisvil, ampelouras, perimarias, kame- 


nanton, ektilen, ekpeilen, vriskadedeos, dedeousa.’ Topyphasatanee has 
discovered this loosing.” 


1 y, supra p. 170. 


Spirits and Spells 235 


A remedy for “ heat in the head” and two for sore eyes come 
next, and then the following charm: 


62. “For pain in the breast say this prayer: ‘St Kosmas and 
Damian,' Cyrus and St John, St Nicholas and St Akindynos, who hold 
the scythes and cut the pain, cut also the pain of the servant of God 
So-and-So’.” 

63. ‘When a man is possessed of a demon, or [7/egible], or phantasm, 
write on [illegible] paper on the 6th day, on a waning moon, and let him 
hold it; also say in his right ear: ‘In the name of the Father and of the Son 
and of the Holy Ghost.’ This phylactery was given to Moses in Egypt by 
the Archangel Michael. Afterwards it was given to King Solomon, that 
he might smite therewith every unclean spirit, either of illness, or of fear, or 
of fright, or of ague-fever, either tertian or quotidian, or of encounter, or of 
temptation, or infernal, or oblique [7], or created by magic, or deaf, or once [7], 
or speaking, or speechless,? or of epilepsy, or lying-by, or setting-forth, or of 
first and second encounter or of meeting. God is the helper of thy servant 
So-and-So. Through Diadonael, ebarras. Preserve in every time, day, 
and night, and hour ; preserve him, O God, from all mischief and all peril. 
God hath reigned in the aeons. Amen. Stand we fairly, stand we with 
fear of God "Ὁ 

Two pages of common prescriptions are followed by a dis- 
sertation on the virtues of various herbs, and more prescriptions 
for a large number of diseases. Fumigation is again recom- 
mended for people troubled with demons or phantasms, and 
special herbs are indicated. Then comes a variety of plasters, 
and the MS. ends with a fragment of a prescription : 


106. “Fora man whose wife has run away: write the name of the man 
and the woman on paper [half a word].” 


The rest, most unfortunately, is missing.® 


* On July Ist and Nov. Ist (0. 5.) is held the feast of these two saints who are 
collectively known by the name of Anargyroi (Κοσμᾶ καὶ Δαμιανοῦ τῶν ᾿Αναργύρων). 
In Russian mythology these two saints have usurped the functions of the old 
Slavonic Vulean, or divine blacksmith (Kuznets), and are treated as one under 
the double name Kuz’ma-Dem’yan. See Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, 
p. 199. 

2 Cp. “He rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf 
spirit, I charge thee come out of him.” Mark ix. 25. 

* For some more recipes of the same type see Appendix IV. 


236 Macedonian Folklore 


The Small-Poa. 


Somewhat similar to the Scarlatina rite is the treatment 
prescribed for the Small-pox. This terrible scourge is both 
by the modern Greeks and by the Slavs conceived of, and 
personified, as a supernatural female being. The Servians call 
her bogine or “goddess,” and the Greeks designate her by 
various flattering epithets, such as the “Gracious” or “ Pitiful” 
(Συγχωρεμένη), and Vloya, a name which is by some con- 
sidered a euphemistic term meaning a “Blessing” (BXoysa from 
Εὐλογία); others, however, take it to mean nothing more than 
a vulgar inflammation (εὐφλογία). Among the Greeks of 
Macedonia both the personification and the euphemism are 
emphasized by the term “Lady Small-Pox” (Κυρὰ Βλογιά), 
applied to the disease. 

She is propitiated in the following manner: A stool or a 
small table, covered with a snow-white cloth, is placed beside 
the bed in which the patient is lying. Upon it are laid two 
or three buns (σιμίτια) and bouquets of flowers, adorned 
with gold leaf. The room is kept scrupulously clean and 
tidy, so that the “Lady” may not be offended. No spinning, 
knitting, weaving, or any other “ woman’s labour,” is allowed in 
the dwelling throughout the “ Lady’s” presence in it; for it is 
believed that she likes to repose upon the wool and cotton. 
For a like reason there is no washing of clothes with hot water, 
lest the steam should disturb the goddess. These negative 
attentions are supplemented by the sprinkling of honey over 
the walls in various parts of the house, and especially in the | 
sick-room, that the goddess may taste thereof, and her temper 
may contract some of its sweetness. She is further conciliated 
in some places by sugar-plums scattered over the stairs, and by 
instrumental music, though singing is strictly prohibited. These 
efforts at rendering the goddess sweet-tempered are reinforced 
by the benedictions used by visitors. Instead of the customary 
wish “ May the illness be transient” (περαστικὰ vavat), in case 


1 Cp. the Celtic appellation of the Small-Pox, ‘the good woman,’ J. G. 
Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, p. 237. 


Spirits and Spells 237 


of Small-pox people wish “ May she be sweet as honey” (μὲ τὸ 
μέλι της Vavat). 

The Bulgarians also treat the bogine with every token of 
fear-inspired respect. They also regard her in the light of a 
feminine deity; but, not content with making the best of her 
presence, they endeavour to speed her departure as delicately 
and politely as possible. According to an old tradition, when 
the Small-pox wishes to quit the village, she expresses her 
desire to someone in his sleep and points out the place to which 
she would like to be conveyed. “The person thus designated 
takes bread smeared with honey, salt, and a flask of wine, and 
leaves them, before sunrise, at the appointed spot. After this 
the epidemic disappears, having accompanied the bearer of the 
food out of the village.”? 

The Russians, again, entertain the awkward superstition that 
vaccination is a sin equivalent to impressing upon children “the 
seal of Antichrist,” and that whoever dies of small-pox “ will 
walk in the other world in golden robes”—a superstition which 
Professor Buslaef has attempted to account for by tracing 
a relationship between the modern personification of the 
disease and the spectral creature known to the ancient Greeks 
by the name of ᾿Αλφιτώ,---ἂ bugbear with which nurses 
frightened naughty children. He remarks that this name is 
supposed to be akin to that of the German Elbe, and the 
English Elves, and he refers to the kindred word ἀλῴφός, which 
means a skin disease, apparently a form of leprosy.? 

From this it would seem that the Slavonic conception 
differs little from the modern Greek, and that both are possibly 
connected with a classical goddess, who, in her turn, may be 
regarded as a sort of cousin or aunt to our own Elves. This 
theory elucidates to a certain extent the family connexions of 
the terrible female, but it does not carry us very far towards 
ascertaining her more remote genealogy. 

The Plague (Πανούκλαλ) is also pictured by popular imagina- 
tion as a gaunt and grim old hag, with deep-sunk eyes, hair 


1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, pp. 401-2. 
2 Ib. p. 403. 


238 Macedonian Folklore 


dishevelled, and hollow cheeks. The name πανούκλα is applied 
as a term of abuse to females whose appearance corresponds 
with that picture. It is also used as a synonym for everything 
that is filthy and foul: 


᾽ 
"Am ὄξω κούκλα, 
> \ / , 
Απὸ μέσα πανούκλα 


“Outward fair as a doll, 
Within foul as the plague,” 


a proverb conveying the same idea as the Biblical phrase 
“ whited sepulchres.” 


Charms. 


Protection against evil is sought in many other ways, 
the commonest being the use of phylacteries or charms. At 
Melenik I was favoured by a gentleman of that town with a 
view of a charm of this nature, drawn up by a priest of the 
eighteenth century for the use of the present owner's great 
grandfather. The document was dated 1774 and consisted of 
long strips of paper rolled in a piece of linen and originally 
sewed up in a leather bag, which again was kept in a small 
silver case. The exorcism begins with a long list of gentlemen 
saints and martyrs called upon to protect “the servant of God 
Ducas.” Then follows an invocation of the “ All-Blessed, 
All-Holy Lady Mother of God” to help “the 5. of G, D.” 
After this comes another long list of lady saints and martyrs; 
of prophets and of all the heavenly hosts of angels and 
archangels: dominions, cherubim, and seraphim. These powers 
are adjured to ward off many and manifold diseases, difficult to 
identify. After a doxology: “Glory be to the Father and to 
the Son and to the Holy Ghost,” comes a vigorous and 
exhaustive anathema against the enemies of “the servant of 


God Ducas”’: 


1 This is one of the very few words of Slavonic origin in modern Greek. In 
Russian kukla (dim. kukolka) designates any sort of puppet, or other figure 
representing either man or beast. By the modern Greeks it is chiefly applied 
to a feminine doll. 


Spirits and Spells 239 


“As the leaders [or messengers, lit. spokesmen] of the 
demons were bound and bridled, even so may be bound the 
enemies of the s. of G. D.: their tongues, their lips, and their 
hearts; their nerves, and their joints, and their eyes to the end 
of his life. And, if any of them should assault the s. of G. D., 
bind ye their feet, that they may not be able to run; bind ye 
their hands, that they may not be able to handle musket or 
sword, or to hurl a spear upon thes. of G. D. May the bullet, 
which they may shoot at the 5. of G. D., be turned by the herb? 
into cotton-wool, and may the Archangel Michael push it aside 
to a distance of three fathoms from the s. of G. D., and may 
the s. of G. D. escape scatheless, and may the enemies of the 
s. of G. D. be bound. As were bound the mouths of the lions 
before the holy martyrs, even so may their mouths be bound 
before the 8. of G. D. May the fire of their muskets become 
ether, and their swords cotton-wool. Save, O Lord, the s. of 
G. D. and chase away the Eastern and Northern and Western 
and Southern demons, that they may hold aloof from the 
s. of G. D., and in the name of the Great God Sabaoth 
I exorcise the seventy-two diseases? from which man suffers. 
Flee from the s. of G. D.: whether you come down from the 
sky, or from a star, or from the sun, or from the moon, or from 
darkness, or from a cold wind, or from water, or from lightning, 
or from an earthquake, or from a wound, or from murder, or 
from valley, or from plain, or from river, or from field; either 
in garden, or orchard, or park, or in the crossing of two or 
three roads, or in the way-in or the way-out of a bath, oven, 
consecrated ground; either at a gate or a wicket, in attic or 
cellar, threshing-floor, ete.”* [The strain continues in picturesque 
confusion. | 

Next comes an adjuration of more subtle complaints. 
“From poison or envy, or jealousy, or from evil shameless 

1 This allusion is as obscure as the holy father’s grammar and spelling. 
Perhaps a miraculous herb accompanied the exorcism originally. 

2 With the seventy-two diseases mentioned here cp. the seventy-two veins of 
the head referred to in a charm against sunstroke from the isle of Cos in 
W. Η. Ὁ. Rouse, ‘Folk-lore from the Southern Sporades,’ Folk-Lore, June 


1899, p. 166. 
3 Cp. a charm against erysipelas ib. p. 168. 


240 Macedonian Folklore 


eyes, or from sorcery, or any other exalted calamity, or from 
Spirit of the Air, or Nereid, or one of those that flit through 
the air in darkness and have come to injure the s. of G. D. 
O Lord preserve him! O Lord guard him from rein-disease, 
hand-disease, etc., ete., etc. I exorcise you all; for it is not 
just that you should attack the 5, of G. D.” [The writer 
concludes: with a conscientious, though somewhat tedious 
enumeration of all the parts of Mr Ducas’s face, head, 
limbs, etc.]}? 

This extraordinary document—in tone and style so like 
parts of the Litany—affords a good illustration of the com- 
promise by which Christianity has adopted pagan beliefs too 
firmly-rooted to be swept away. The names of heathen gods, 
which must have figured in ancient charms of this kind, were 
superseded by those of saints and martyrs, of prophets and 
angels, and a Hebrew pantheon was established in the place 
of the Hellenic. The same process occurred in most countries 
where Christianity supplanted an older cult, as for example in 
Russia.” Although Pan has been chased off the highways of 
modern Europe, he is not dead, as has been prematurely reported. 
He has only retired to a quiet country life.® 

The Prophet Elijah (Προφήτ᾽ Ἡλίας or “Ai ἫἩλίας) who 
among the Slavs has inherited the attributes of the Thunder- 
God Perun‘—their representative of the Teutonic Thor—in the 
modern Greek Pantheon seems to fill the throne vacated by 
the ancient Ἥλιος, the Sun, or of Apollo the God of Light. 
The highest summits of mountains are generally dedicated 
to him and are often chosen for his shrines. He is also, like 
Apollo of old, regarded as a Healer—a capacity recognized by 
the Church in whose Hagiology he is described as empowered 
to “drive away diseases and to purify lepers, wherefore he 


1 For extracts from the original see Appendix V. 

2 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 363. 

3 Mr Tylor, ἃ propos of tree-worship in India observes: ‘‘The new 
philosophic religion (viz. Buddhism) seems to have amalgamated, as new 
religions ever do, with older native thoughts and rites.’’ Primitive Culture, 
vol. τι. p. 218. We shall find further instances of this amalgamation in the 
case of the wood and water nymphs of the Macedonians. 

4 Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, pp. 337 foll. 


Spirits and Spells 241 


showers remedies upon those who honour him.” (Νόσους 
ἀποδιώκει καὶ λεπροὺς καθαρίζει, διὸ Kal τοῖς τιμῶσιν αὐτὸν 
βρύει ἰάματα.) The similarity between the names Ἣλίας and 
“Hos seems to have helped, if not originated, this identification 
of characters. 

Lunatics and all persons possessed (δαιμονισμένοι) are 
recommended to the mercy of St Anthony, whose celebrated 
exploits in the field of vision and demoniacal temptation 
render him an appropriate and duly qualified patron of patients 
similarly afflicted! 

Cripples and the blind have a ready succourer in St All- 
Merciful (“Ai Παντελεήμονας), hence the popular saying: “ Be 
they lame, be they blind, they all flock to St All-Merciful.” 
(Κουτσοὶ στραβοὶ ᾿ς tov” Ai Παντέ, )*uova.) | 

St Modestos, in accordance with tne humility implied by 
his name, is content with a provincial practice as cattle-doctor, 
and he is deeply revered by shepherds and farmers. 

St Nicholas is held in even higher esteem by sea-farers. 
There is no vessel, great or small, upon Greek waters, which 
has not the saint’s icon in its stern, with an ever-burning lamp 
in front of it, or a small silver-plated picture of the saint 
attached to its mast. In time of storm and stress it is the 
name of St Nicholas that instinctively rises to the lips of the 
Greek mariner, and to him candles are promised, and vows 
registered. He is to the modern sailor all that Poseidon was 
to his ancestors.” The fires of St Elmo which the ancients 
ascribed to the Twins (Διόσκουροι, Gemini), the tutelar deities 
of sailors, are by the modern Greek mariners called Τελώνια 
or ‘ Devils’ and treated as such: the sailors look upon them as 
presages of disaster and try to frighten them away by dint of 
exorcisms and loud noises—an instance of beneficent pagan 
deities degraded to the rank of malignant demons, a process 
of which we shall see several other illustrations in the sequel. 

1 This, it will be acknowledged, is a far more honourable réle than the one 
assigned to the saint by the Roman Church, where St Anthony is the patron 
and protector of nothing more exalted than pigs. 

2 For further details concerning this substitution of Christian saints for 


Pagan gods in the Greek Church see Sir Rennell Rodd, The Customs and Lore of 
Modern Greece, pp. 140 foll. 


A. Ε΄. 16 


249 Macedonian Folklore 


Nymphs. 


The Ayeriko is only one variety of a group of supernatural 
beings included in the generic name of ᾿ξωτικά. Under this 
comprehensive head are classed many species of spirits, not 
always easy to differentiate. By far the most eminent of them 
are the feminine deities known as Neraides (Νεράϊδες) to 
the Southern Macedonians as well as to the rest of the Greeks, 
and as Samovilas to the inhabitants of the northern districts, 
such as Melenik—a name curiously compounded of two Slavonic 
words Samodiva' and Vila. In default of a more accurate 
equivalent, we may call them Fairies, though, as will soon 
appear, they differ in many important points from the beings 
so designated in Northern Europe. These nymphs of modern 
Greek mythology are very closely related to the Naiads, 
Hamadryads, and Oreads of classical antiquity on one hand, 
and to the Rusalkas of the Russians, the Vilas of the Servians, 
and the Samodivas of the Bulgarians on the other. They are 
represented as tall-and slim, clad in white, with flowing golden 
hair, and divinely beautiful, so much so that the highest 
compliment which can be paid to a Greek maiden is to compare 
her in loveliness to a Neraida—a form of adulation not neglected 
by the Greek lover... In the same way “lovely as a Vila” isa 
common expression among the Servians.? In malice the Greek 
Neraides equal their Servian sisters. In an amatory distich 
the outraged swain can find no stronger language, in which to 
denounce his sweetheart’s cruelty, than by addressing her as 
“a Neraida’s offspring.’® 

The beauty of these southern fairies is fatal to the beholder, 
and many are the stories told of people who, by exposing them- 
selves to its fascination, were bereft of speech, or otherwise 
suffered. The dumbness of an old man near Nigrita was put 
down to an early encounter of this kind. He was returning 
home one night across the fields, when he perceived, under a 


1 See Passow, Disticha Amatoria, No. 692. 
2 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 147. 
3 Passow, ubi supra, No. 653. 


Spirits and Spells 243 


tree by the path-side, a young woman adorned with pieces of 
gold (φλουριά), such as are usually worn by peasant maids on 
festive occasions. She looked “like a bride” (cay' νύφη) and 
was exceedingly fair. But no sooner did the peasant accost 
her than he lost his power of speech; “his tongue was tied” 
(δέθκε ἡ γχῶσσα τ᾽), and remained so ever after. You should 
on no account speak to a Neraida; if you do, “she takes away 
your voice” (σὲ παίρνει τὴ φωνή). A similar opinion was once 
held in England regarding the Fairies: “he that speaks to 
them, shall die,” says Falstaff 

᾿ Unlike the fairies of the North, these beings are all of one 
sex, and they form no community, but generally lead an isolated 
existence, dwelling chiefly in trees and fountains. The traveller 
in Macedonia often sees newly-built fountains decorated with 
cotton or wool threads of many colours. These threads are 
torn by wayfarers from their dress on seeing the fountain for 
the first time. They alight, and, after having slaked their 
thirst in the waters of the fountain, leave these offerings as 
tokens of gratitude to the presiding nymph. In like manner 
the peasants of Little Russia propitiate the Rusalkas by hanging 
on the boughs of oaks and other trees rags and skeins of thread? ; 
the negro tribes of West Africa adorn similarly the trees by the 
road-side, and even in distant Japan we find parallels to this all 
but universal custom. The peasants of that country are in the 
habit of decking out the sacred tree of the village with a fringe 
formed of ἃ straw-rope and pendants of straw and paper.’ 

All springs and wells, all forests and trees, are haunted by 
these wood and water nymphs to-day, as they were in the days 
of yore. Christianity has degraded, but has proved unable to 
suppress their cult. In some cases the water-nymphs have not 
been banished, but only converted to Christianity. The Church 
has sanctioned the popular faith by substituting Christian saints 
in lieu of the old pagan deities. Many springs in Macedonia 
are known and venerated as ‘sacred waters’ (ἁγιάσματα) 


1 Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v. Se. 5. 

2 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 141. 

3H. Munro Chadwick, The Oak and the Thunder-God, Anthropological 
Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Jan. 9, 1900. 


16—2 


244 Macedonian Folklore 


dedicated to St Friday (‘Aqsa Παρασκευή) and St Solomoné 
among feminine saints, or to St Paul and St Elias among their 
male colleagues. The water of such springs is regarded as 
efficacious against diseases, especially eye-complaints. They 
are generally enclosed within a stone parapet, and sometimes 
roofed in, as a protection from accidental pollution. Even 
so stood enclosed the “fair-flowing fountain built by man’s 
hand, whence the citizens of Ithaca drew water,’ and close 
to it “an altar erected in honour of the Nymphs, upon 
which the wayfarers offered sacrifice.” Like the Homeric 
“fountain of the Nymphs,” many a modern ‘holy spring’ is 
overshadowed by “ water-bred poplars,” or broad-leaved fig-trees, 
and weeping willows. 

With regard to the Neraides as tree-spirits, the precise 
relation of the nymph to the tree is not easy to define. 
It is not clear whether the Macedonian folk look upon these 
spirits as dwelling in the trunks of the trees, animating them, 
as a man’s soul animates his body, or whether they regard the 
trees as simply affording shelter to them. The latter view 
seems to be the one most commonly held. Be that as it may, 
trees are most sincerely believed to be the haunts of nymphs, 
and this belief leads the peasant to many curious acts of 
omission and commission. Labourers working out in the fields 
are careful not to lie down in the shade of a tree. They 
especially eschew the plane, the poplar, and the fig-tree; for 
these are the favourite abodes of fairies. It is beneath the 
foliage of these trees that they love to repose at midday, and 
ill fares the mortal who dares disturb them. It is related 
that many, who, neglecting this rule, sought a refuge from the 
scorching rays of the midday sun under such a tree, had reason 
to rue their temerity. The fairy is apt to resent the liberty by 
inflicting a stroke upon the offender. This penalty is known 


1 Hom. Od. xvu1. 206-211. 

2 The same ambiguity attends the worship of tree-spirits in all lands. 
According to one theory the spirit is viewed by the believer “‘as incorporate in 
the tree.” ‘‘But, according to another and probably later opinion, the tree 
is not the body, but merely the abode of the tree-spirit.” J. G. Frazer, The 
Golden Bough, vol. 1. p. 180. 


Spirits and Spells 245 


as ogratisma. The person who has incurred the displeasure 
of the supernatural tenant, or guardian spirit, of the tree can 
only atone for his trespass by a special ceremony. This consists 
in sprinkling honey round the trunk of the tree and in de- 
positing at its root a number of small sweet cakes prepared for 
the purpose. It is believed that the nymph on partaking of 
this expiatory sacrifice will be appeased and restore the patient 
to health. 

In close analogy to this superstition stands the belief of the 
ancients, according to which Pan rested from his labours at 
noon-tide: “’Tis not meet, Ὁ shepherd, for us, ’tis not meet to 
play the pipe at midday. We fear Pan; for in very truth at 
that hour he rests his weary limbs from the fatigue of the 
chase, and he is harsh and cruel: fierce wrath ever sits upon 
his nose!”! Similarly.the Lusatians at the present day hold 
that the Pripolnica—a species of the Rusalka—appears in the 
fields exactly at noon, holding a sickle in her hand.” 

It is a well-established fact that huts and houses and all 
more or less elaborate dwellings are the result of a relatively 
modern invention, and that our remote forefathers were content 
to live and die beneath the roofs afforded by the foliage of the 
trees. An extremely interesting, albeit unconscious, remi- 
niscence of this primordial state of the human race is embedded 
in a Macedonian superstition. As the trees so the projecting 
eaves of the houses (aetpsyiais)—which correspond to the 
outspreading boughs—are believed by the Macedonians to be 
haunted by Nymphs. For this reason it is not lawful to 
commit a nuisance under them. Thus the Nymphs are made 
to fulfil the duties of policemen, and they do it most effectively. 
He who transgresses the regulations of these invisible powers 
is sure to pay for his disobedience with a broken limb or some 
other equally unpleasant experience (θὰ οὐγρατίσῃ). 

The prevailing ideas as to the looks, habits, and character 
of the Macedonian Neraides are well illustrated by a widely- 
known legend which I heard at Melenik. 


1 Theoer, Id. τ. 15 foll. 
2 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 147. 


246 Macedonian Folklore 


The Shepherd and the Nymphs. 


There was once a shepherd who one moonlit summer night 
tended his flock in a meadow. Suddenly he was startled by the 
sound of many musical instruments, such as drums and pipes, 
in the distance. The sounds drew nearer and nearer, and at last 
there appeared before him a long chain of maids dressed in long 
white robes and dancing to the tune. The leader of the dance 
(πρωτόσυρτος) was a youth carrying in one hand the wooden 
wine-flagon (plotska or tchotra) used by the peasants. He 
halted in front of the shepherd and held the flagon out to him. 
The shepherd accepted the offer, but before proceeding to raise 
the flagon to his lips, he, according to the custom of the 
country, made the sign of the cross. When lo and behold! 
both dancers and leader vanished, the music ceased, and the 
shepherd was left alone, holding in his hand in lieu of the 
flagon a human skull! His piety saved him from any con- 
sequences more serious than a wholesome fright. 

One is strongly tempted to see in this legend a lingering 
memory of the Muses and their chorus-leader Apollo. 

A story of a similar type was told me on another occasion 
at Cavalla by a native of Chios. There is in that island a bridge 
called the Maid’s Bridge (τῆς κόρης τὸ γεφύρι) and popularly 
believed to be haunted by a Water-Spirit. Early one morning 
aman was crossing the bridge on his way from the village of 
Daphnona to the capital city (χώρα), when he met a tall young 
woman dressed in white. She took him by the hand and made 
him dance with her. He was foolish enough to speak and was 
immediately struck dumb. He recovered, however, some days 
after, thanks to the prayers and exorcisms of a priest. . 

One more feature these nymphs have in common with our 
Fairies, and that is their propensity to carry off new-born 
children. On this practice, and the means used to avert the 
danger, I have dwelt at some length in a former chapter? 
Here I will try to make the conception of the Nymph a little 
more vivid by relating another story from Melenik. 


1 y, supra, p. 125. 


Spirits and Spells 247 


The Prince and the Nymph. 


There was once a young prince who had a mother, and who 
without her knowledge maintained relations with the sylvan 
nymphs (Yougovitsas) who dwelt in the palace-garden. He 
was wedded to the fairest of them. Neither she nor any of 
her companions would permit the prince to hold oral com- 
munication with any of his friends, or even with his own 
mother, nor would they allow him to admit a mortal into the 
garden. His mother, not knowing the cause of his strange 
behaviour, was deeply distressed, and had recourse to a friend 
of hers who had three daughters exquisitely beautiful. She 
took the eldest of them home to the palace to wait on the 
prince, in the hope that he might be induced by the damsel’s 
charms to break his silence. But all her efforts were in vain. 
He remained dumb. The prince’s mother then brought to the 
palace the second daughter; but she was equally unsuccessful. 
At last the youngest of the three maidens begged to take her 
sister’s place. Her request was granted, and she began to wait 
on the prince. She made his bed, assisted him at his ablutions, 
laid the table for him, but she never addressed a word to him. 
Instead, she carried about with her a kitten, and addressed 
her remarks to it. The prince’s mother, who listened at the 
keyhole, imagined that the maid had succeeded in overcoming 
the youth’s taciturnity and carried on a conversation with him, 
and she was therefore overjoyed and happy. One day she begged 
the maid to ask permission from the prince for herself and her 
to take a walk in the garden. The maid on hearing this 
was plunged into grief, for she never hoped to loosen the 
prince’s tongue. She went in and out of the room in very 
low spirits. The prince, who had already been fascinated by 
the maid’s charms, on seeing her so sad began to speak to his 
candlestick—for, as has been said before, he was forbidden to 
address a human being. He spoke and said: “ My dear candle- 
stick, wherefore art thou so sad ?” 

The maid readily seized the opportunity, and answered: 
“My dear candlestick, I am so sad because thy mother wants 
permission for herself and me to take a walk in the garden.” 





248 Macedonian Folklore 
The prince replied: 


“My dear candlestick, you have my permission to go and 
walk in the garden to- πιόίτον morning; but you must quit the 
grounds before the sun rises.’ | 

On the morrow, long before dawn, the prince’s mother, 
accompanied by the maid and several female servants, entered 
the garden and walked about admiring its many beauties, for 
the Nymphs tended it. When the sun was on the point of 
rising, they hastened to depart; but ere they could reach 
the gates the sun burst upon them. As they were drawing 
near the gates, they perceived a child’s cot hanging from a 
tree, and in the cot there reposed a beautiful baby. Then 
the maid took off the red gauze kerchief, which she wore 
folded across her bosom, and covered the baby’s face with it, 
in order to protect it from the rays of the sun. Soon after 
this they quitted the garden. 

The prince later in the day came to the garden; for he 
was compelled to spend most of his time with his nymph-wife 
and her friends. The latter was so deeply moved by the maid’s 
kindness to her baby, that she gave the prince leave to break 
his silence and marry the fair maid, and all at once both she and 
her nymph-companions vanished from the garden, carrying off 
the baby with them. The prince, elated with joy, returned to 
the palace, embraced his mother with tears in his eyes, and 
explained the cause of his long silence. He solemnized his 
wedding with the poor maid, and they lived happy ever 
after. 

In this story another trait common to the Gaelic sithche or 
Fairy is brought out, namely the anxiety of the nymphs to form 
connexions with mortals who are held in love’s sweet bondage 
sorely against their will These misalliances were familiar to 
the nymphs of old, but they never prospered. The reader will 
remember the romantic attachment of Kalypso, the fairy-queen 
of Ogygeia, to the elderly homesick hero, who scorned her love 
and all her promises of perennial youth and immortality, longing 


1 Cp. J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 
p. 41. 


΄ 


Spirits and Spells _ 249 


for nothing but his middle-aged spouse and the rugged shores 
of his native isle. ; 

From the above sketch it will be seen that the Macedonian 
nymphs, though they bear a certain degree of resemblance to 
the Celtic Fairies, and to the Slavonic Rusalkas, Vilas and 
Samodivas, are really identical with the southern Neraides, 
who, notwithstanding a general likeness to the beings just 
mentioned, have an individuality of their own and are fully 
entitled to be regarded as direct descendants of the classical 
Nymphs.’ It was not, of course, to be expected that the 
ancient idea should have remained unaltered, and we ac- 
cordingly find that it has undergone such modifications as 
lapse of time and intercourse with other nations were bound 
to bring about. The principal point of difference between the 
old and the new nymph is one of character. The modern 
Neraida is as a general rule represented as a malicious fiend 
to be propitiated or conciliated, and failing that, to be exorcised 
as an unclean spirit. This degeneration is most probably due 
to the influence of Christianity. The Nymphs have shared the 
fate of their betters, the greater gods and goddesses of antiquity. 
Their honours, when they could not possibly or conveniently be 
abolished, were transferred to saints, and the poor Nymphs, 
like all dethroned deities, have had to sink to the level of 
demons: discredit a god and exorcise him. 


Wood-Spirits and Water-Spirits. 


In addition to the Neraides, the Macedonians recognize the 
existence of various other supernatural beings known as “Spirits 
of the Elements” (Στοιχειά). The word, in the sense of the 
four primary elements—namely, fire, water, air and earth— 
_ dates from the time of Plato’ The Neo-Platonists ‘subse- 


1 Hom. Od. 1. 13 foll.; v. 13 foll. 

2 See Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. τι. p. 314; Bernhard 
Schmidt, Das Volksleben der Neugriechen und das hellenische Alterthum, passim ; 
Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, preface to 2nd ed. 1872. 

3 στοιχεῖα τοῦ παντός, ‘elements of the universe,’ Plat. Tim. 488. These 
are the ῥιξώματα or ‘roots’ of Empedocles. 


250 Macedonian Folklore 


quently applied it to the spirits which were supposed to 
animate the four elements. At a still later date, the name 
came to mean spirits or demons generally. Nowadays it is 
applied both to demons and to human souls or ghosts, in fact 
to spiritual beings of all denominations. The confusion is 
evidently due to the universal animistic doctrine, according to 
which “Souls of dead men are considered as actually forming 
one of the most important classes of demons or deities.” We 
shall first treat of the Στοιχειὰ as demons, and afterwards as 
ghosts, although it is not always easy to draw the line between 
the two classes. 

These demons reside in woods, hills, dales, rivers and 
fountains. There is hardly a nook or corner of Macedonia 
So insignificant as not to boast one or more of these spirits, 
who make their presence felt and feared in various more or 
less ingenious ways. Thus Mount Kcato, near the village of 
Sochos in the Chalcidic Peninsula, reechoes both by night’ and 
by day with shrill laughter, loud wailing, and other weird 
sounds, which proceed not from mortal lungs. The best thing 
for the traveller to do in the circumstances is to make the 
sign of the cross, muttering: “ Holy Cross assist me!” (Σταυρὲ 
βοήθα με !) and to hurry on his way. 

Noises of this description are by the Russians attributed to 
the wood-demons. The same demons are also held responsible 
for whirlwinds. In Macedonia, whirlwinds and other injurious 
phenomena of a kindred nature are certainly set down to 
supernatural agency; but whether to wood-demons as among 
the Slavs, to Djins as among the Mohammedans, or to the 
Neraides as among the southern Greeks, it is hard to deter- 
mine. In any case, they do not attempt to drive the evil being 
away by violent means, but are content to exorcise it. In 
the district of Liakkovikia, the whirlwind is called aveyo- 
σπλάδα, and during one the people are accustomed to 


1 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. τι. p. 111. 

2 This term seems to be a compound of ἄνεμος, wind, and either σπιλάς, or 
σπληδός (-- σποδός, ashes, or rather dust, as in Hdt. 1v. 172: τῆς χαμᾶθεν 
σποδοῦ ‘dust from the ground’). It is now the fashion among a certain school 
of philologists to ridicule the search for antique terms in Modern Greek. This 


Spirits and Spells 251 


murmur the following curious incantation: “Alexander the 
Great liveth, aye he doth live and reign” (Ζῇ, ζῇ καὶ 
βασιλεύει ὁ Μέγας ᾿Αλέξανδρος )"---ἃὶ formula analogous to 
the one formerly uttered by old women at Athens for a similar 
purpose : “ Milk and honey in your path.”? 

The inhabitants of Vassilika, a village in the valley of the 
river anciently called Anthemus, have some strange experiences 
to relate concerning a phenomenon locally known as the 
“ Passage” (τὸ πέρασμα). It is a rush of wind which suddenly 
rising, as it seems, from the Well of Murat (tod Μουράτη τὸ 
πηγάδι) at one end of the village, sweeps furiously through the 
village and then as suddenly sinks into the Tomb of Ali (τοῦ 
᾿Αλῆ τὸ μνημόρι) on the edge of a watercourse at the other end. 
As it speeds on, it fills the countryside with horrible noises 
which sometimes are like the bellowing of cattle, sometimes 
like the bleating of goats or the grunting of pigs, and often 
like the shrieks and wails of human beings. It blasts every- 
thing it blows upon. Whoever happens to be saluted by its 
blighting breath is instantly struck dumb. Some of the 
peasants boast of having followed these mysterious sounds, and 
affirm that they cease on the spot indicated above. Two 
reasons can be assigned for the alleged sudden ceasing of the 


tendency is a natural reaction against the opposite extreme, which was in vogue 
some thirty or forty years ago. Still, no one who has explored the by-ways of 
the Greek world can fail to notice extremely old words and phrases turning up 
at unexpected corners. For the following example I am indebted to M. P. N. 
Papageorgiou. He one day met at Salonica a peasant woman from Koliakia, a 
small hamlet close to the estuary of the Vardar. She had brought her boy to 
town to consult a doctor. The lad had broken his head by falling ᾿ς τὰ δύσαλα, 
as she expressed it. The word being new to that scholar (as, I venture to think, 
it will be to most Greek scholars), he asked her what she meant by it, and she 
explained ‘‘vd, κεῖ ποῦ κολυμποῦσε ἔπεσε μέσ᾽ ᾿ς τῇς πέτραις." ‘* Don’t you see, as 
he was swimming he fell in among the stones.” This explanation made it quite 
clear that the word was a survival of an extremely ancient term, which, in 
common with many others, did not happen to find its way into Hellenic 
literature. According to my authority it can be nothing but a compound of 
δυσ- (mis-) and ads (the sea) meaning the dangerous or rocky parts of the sea. 

1A. A. Τουσίου, “Ἢ xara τὸ Πάγγαιον Χώρα,᾽ p. 79. On the lingering 
memories of Alexander and Philip of Macedon, v. infra ch. xv. 

2 Ross, Inselreisen, m1. p. 182, in Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of 
Turkey, vol. τι. p. 310. 


252 Macedonian Folklore 


noise at that place. If the “ Passage” is to be regarded as 
the work or the vehicle of demons, it is bound to stop on the 
bank of the stream as no demon can cross “running water.” 
It should be noticed, however, that the gust is said to rise from, 
and to sink into, places connected with the memory of a Turk; 
and, knowing as we do what is the Christian belief concerning 
the ultimate fate of a Turkish soul, we may reasonably surmise 
that the “ Passage” is due to the joint efforts of the two dead 
Turkish worthies Murat and Ali. That it is the work of evil 
spirits none can be such a sceptic as to dispute. The fact rests 
on the unimpeachable authority of an old woman of the village 
who assured the writer in the most confident and confidential 
manner imaginable that her own father, “peace to his soul!” 
(θεὸς σ᾽ χωρέσ᾽ Tov), once as the wind was rushing through the 
village actually saw amid the clouds of dust a child carrying a 
pitcher on either shoulder—a feat of which no ordinary child is 
capable. He pursued the apparition (φάντασμα) down to the 
river-side and there lost sight of it—it vanished as a thing 
of air. 

These manifestations correspond very closely to the gambols 
of the Lyeshy, or wood demon, of Slavonic mythology. He is 
said to be very fond of diverting himself after a similar fashion 
in the woods. “At such times he makes all manner of noises, 
clapping his hands, shrieking with laughter, imitating the 
neighing of horses, the lowing of cows, the barking of dogs...... 
sometimes by night a forest-keeper would hear the wailing of a 
child, or groans apparently proceeding from some one in the 
agonies of death.”? 

It would not be difficult to fill a volume with stories 
illustrating the various forms under which these wicked spirits 
appear to the eyes of men. A caravan, it is said, was one night 
going to Yenidjé, a town to the west of Salonica. On the way 
they were joined by a little dapple dog (σκυλάκι παρδαλό), 
which, coming no one knew whence, kept worrying the mules. 
One of the muleteers mustered sufficient courage to dismount 
and try to catch it; but he failed ignominiously. This hap- 
pened several times, and every time, as soon as the man 

1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 157. 


Spirits and Spells 253 


stretched out his hand, the dog melted into air (γένονταν 
ἀέρας). It did not cease to annoy the party until they reached 
the banks of the Vardar and then it vanished. 

A peasant at Galatista, in the Chalcidic Peninsula, was 
known as Crook-neck (στραβοσνίχης) and was said to owe his 
deformity to a similar accident. One evening, as he was 
walking home from the fields, he perceived what he took to be 
a harmless, though erring, goat, browzing in a meadow. He 
approached it and was lifting the animal on his shoulder, with 
the laudable intention of taking it as a present to his wife, when 
the goat melted into space, leaving its captor a lasting souvenir 
of the adventure. 

Another peasant told me the following experience. He 
one day alighted with his comrades under a fig-tree which 
stood close to a “Holy Spring” dedicated to St Friday. All 
of a sudden a ball of cotton-wool sprang from the ground 
and rolled down the slope. They pursued it until it stopped 
and shot up into a white column. There it stood for a while 
and then disappeared. 

All these tales embody cies familiar to the student of 
comparative folk-lore. For instance, the inability of some 
of the apparitions described above to cross a “running stream” 
is a well-known feature of the evil spirits and spectres of the 
Highlands of Scotland} and it forms the basis of Burns’s Tam 
Ο᾽ Shanter : 

Now, do thy speedy utmost, Meg, 
And win the key-stane of the brig; 


There at them thou thy tail may toss, 
A running stream they dare na cross. 


A similar superstition is alluded to by Scott in the well- 
known lines: 


He? led the boy o’er bank and fell, 
Until they came to a woodland brook; 

The running stream dissolved the spell, 
And his own elvish shape he took. 


1 J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 
p- 50. 


2 Viz. the goblin page, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, c. 111. 13. 


954 Macedonian Folklore 


The Karens of Birma, so little like the Scotch Highlanders 
or the Macedonians in other respects, entertain the same 
common notion and exemplify it by stretching threads across 
forest brooks for the ghosts to pass along.’ 

Again, the shapes which the Macedonian phantasms oc- 
casionally assume remind one of the transformation of Celtic 
fairies into deer, of witches into hares, cats, and the like, of the 
devil into a he-goat, of the Glaistig of Ardnadrochit, which 
appeared in the guise of a dog,” or of the Slav Marui, who 
sometimes turn themselves into horses or tufts of hair. 

The mysterious apparition of a ball of cotton wool may also 
be compared with the practice of Russian witches to change 
into balls of thread and other objects connected, according to 
mythologists, with clouds.‘ 

There are many songs illustrating the belief in Water-spirits 
haunting rivers and wells (στουχειὸ τοῦ ποταμοῦ and στοιχειὸ 
τοῦ πηγαδιοῦ). The following is one of them. 


Τὸ Στοιχειωμένο Πηγάδι." 
(From Zichna.) 


\ , \ / Ν b] , 
Ta τέσσερα, Ta πέντε, Ta ἐννεάδερφα, 
Ta δεκοχτὼ ᾿ξαδέρφια τὰ ᾿λιγόμοιρα, 
\ 3 J 3 Ν \ n 
Ta ἦρθε μήνυμα ἀπὸ τὸν βασιληᾶ 
a la) \ / , > \ A 
Na πᾶν va πολεμήσουν κάτου ᾿ς τὴ Φραγκιά' 
“Μὲ τὴν εὐκή σου, μάνα pm’, νὰ πηγαίνουμε." 
“Na war ἐννεὰ ᾿δερφάκια καὶ νἀρθῆτ᾽ ὀχτώ. 
‘O Τιάννης νὰ μὴν ἔρθῃ ὁ μικρότερος." 
Σὰν κίνησαν καὶ πᾶνε ᾽ς τὸν μακρύκαμπο, 
Σαράντα μέραις κάνουν δίχως τὸ ψωμί, 
Ky) ἄλλαις σαράντα πέντε δίχως τὸ νερό, 
1 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. τ. p. 442. 
2 J. G. Campbell, ubi supra, p. 175. 
3 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 133. 4 Ib. p. 405. 
5 For a much shorter version of the same incident (17 lines = one half of the 
present text) see Passow, No. 523 Ἢ μάγισσα. I picked up another version 
at Nigrita; but it is inferior to the above both in length (26 lines) and in 


workmanship. At Cavalla I obtained a version of Td στοιχειὸ τοῦ ποταμοῦ, 
different from the one embodied in Songs of Modern Greece, p. 178. 


Spirits and Spells 255 


Kal βρίσκουν μιὰ βρυσίτσα, στοιχειοπήγαδο, 
, > > a \ U , »ν 

Τριᾶντ᾽ ὀργυιαῖς τὸ βάθος, πλάτος εἴκοσι. 
“᾿Αστῆτε, ἀδερφάκια, νὰ λαχνίσουμε, 

\ ‘ ‘ (aa e Ἁ »" Ἁ " a2) 

Σὲ ποιὸν θὰ πέσ᾽ ὁ λαχνὸς κεῖνος νὰ ἐμπῇ. 

> \ , , we κ᾿ > \ , 

Σ tov Γιάννη πέφτ᾽ ὁ λαχνὸς ᾿ς TOY μικρότερο. 

Tov ἔδεσαν τὸν Γιάννη καί τον ἀπολνοῦν" 
“Τραβῆτε, ἀδερφάκια, νά με βγάλετε, 

> fal \ \ vw 3 δι - a / ” 

Εδῷ νερὸ δὲν ἔχ᾽, pov’ ἔχει στοίχειωμα. 
“Τραβοῦμε, Γιάνν᾽, τραβοῦμ᾽ μὰ dé ταράξεσαι." 
“Me τύλιξε τὸ φεῖδ᾽, τὸ στοιχειό με κρατεῖ. 

Γιὰ βάλτε καὶ τὸν μαῦρο νά σας βοηθῇ." 

Lav ἄκουσε κὴ ὁ μαῦρος χιλιμέτρισε, 

ΕῚ ‘ / , > ‘ , / 

Σ τὰ γόνατα σηκώθ᾽κε γιὰ va τον βγάλῃ. 

>> \ ‘ ᾽ Ν ’ U A , 

av Byatn τ᾽ ἄρματα Tov, λάμπουν τὰ βουνά, 

, \ \ ’ ‘ 3 δ᾿ , 

Βγάζει καὶ τὸ σπαθί Tov, λάμπ’ ἡ θάλασσα, 

Τὸν βγάλανε τὸν Γιάνν᾽ μαζὺ μὲ τὸ στοιχειό, 

Σήκωσαν τὰ χαντζάρια νά το κόψουνε, 

M’ > \ \ \ ΄ , ‘ ’ 

ἀντὶς στοιχειὸ νὰ κόψουν, κόφτουν τὸ σκοινί, 
\ , [2 , te \ \ \ 4 
Kai πάη ὁ Τιάννης μέσ᾽ μὲ τὸ στοιχειὸ μαζύ" 
««Ὑ 207 ΝΜ \ ἊΣ 
Αστε, ἀδέρφια, ἄστε νὰ πηγαίνετε, 
\ a \ an , > a > a 

Μὴν πῆτε TH μανοῦλά p πῶς ἀπόθανα, 

Νά την εἰπῆτ᾽, ἀδέρφια, πῶς παντρεύτηκα, 

Τὴ πλάκα πῆρα πεθερά, τὴ μαύρη γῆς γυναῖκα, 

Ky αὐτὰ τὰ λειανοχόρταρα ὅλα γυναικαδέρφια." 


The Haunted Weil. 


Four and five, nine brothers, 

Eighteen cousins, lads of little luck: 

A message came to them from the King, bidding them 
To go forth and fight in the far-off land of the Franks : 
“Thy blessing, mother, that we may go forth!” 

“May ye go forth nine brothers and come back eight ; 
May John the youngest never return!” 

They set forth, and as they crossed the vast plain, 
They lived forty days without bread, 

Forty-five more without water, 

And then they-found a dear little fount ; but ’twas a spirit-haunted well : 
*T was thirty fathoms in depth; in breadth twenty. 
“Halt, dear brothers, and let us cast lots, 


256 Macedonian Folklore 


He on whom the lot will fall, let him go in.” 
The lot falls on John, the youngest, 
They bind John and let him down: 
“Draw, dear brothers, draw me out, 
Here there is no water; but only a Spirit.” 
“We are drawing, John, we are drawing; but thou stirrest not.” 
“The serpent has wound itself round my body, the Spirit is holding me. 
Come, set the Black One also to help you.” 
When the Black One heard, he neighed loud, 
He reared on his haunches to draw him out. 
When he drew out his arms, the mountains gleamed. 
He draws out his sword also, and the sea gleamed. 
They drew out John together with the Spirit, 
They lifted their knives to cut it asunder, 
But instead of cutting the Spirit they cut the rope, 
And John falls in together with the Spirit : 
“Leave me, brothers, leave me and go home, 
Do not tell my dear mother that I am dead, 
Tell her, brothers, that I am married, 
That I have taken the tombstone for a mother-in-law, 
Black Earth for a wife, 
And the fine grass-blades all for brothers and sisters-in-law.”! 


In the ballad of The Haunted Well, as the reader may have 
noticed, there occurs a curious, though by no means uncommon, 
blending of ideas. The Spirit or Demon of the Well is con- 
founded with the Water-Serpent. This confusion between the 
spiritual water-demon and the material water-monster pervades 
the folk-lore of many nations: “it runs into the midst of 
European mythology in such conceptions as that of the water- 
kelpie and the sea-serpent.”? We shall meet with still more 
flagrant instances of it in dealing with the mythical being 
Drakos. 

But ere we cross the fine line which divides the regions of 
living belief from those of idle mythological fiction, we must 


1 The sentiment contained in the last four lines is a commonplace of modern 
Greek folklore. The last two lines especially are repeated verbatim in many 
a ballad: cp. Passow, No. 381 last two lines; No. 380 last line; &c. It will b. 
observed that the concluding two lines in the original of the above piece are in 
the fifteen-syllable ballad-metre, whereas the rest of the poem is in a twelve- 
syllable metre. 

2 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 210. 


Spirits and Spells 257 


mention a monster which, like the Water-Spirit, is actually 
supposed to haunt wells, rivers, and fountains. This is the 
Black Giant (Αράπης), a crafty demon of Oriental origin who 
lures the guileless to destruction by various stratagems, as, for 
example, by assuming the form of a fair maid. He is a being 
most sincerely dreaded by the peasantry, and, though not half 
so popular as the Water-Spirit, he is to be met with here.and 
there. At Dervinato, a village in the island of Chios, there is 
a spring, or, to use the common Greek expression, a “ water- 
mother” (μάνα τοῦ νεροῦ, ‘fountain-head’), called Plaghia. 
This spring is reputed to be the haunt of a Black Giant, and 
the natives have many adventures of the usual type to relate. 
The Xrovyero and the ᾿Αράπης may be described as Kindred 
Spirits in every sense of the term. 


House-Spirits. 


Besides the spirit denizens of woods and waters, the 
Macedonian peasant owns his belief in a class of spirits which 
make themselves at home in the ordinary human habitations. 
He has no special name for them, but calls them Στοιχειά, and 
the house “haunted” by them στοιχειωμένο σπίτι. These 
domestic demons may be divided into two categories. First, 
there are the malignant spirits, which occasionally disturb 
the slumbers of the household by making terrible noises, by 
throwing bricks and stones down the chimney, by sitting on 
the sleepers’ chests in the form of a hideous nightmare or 
‘shadow’ (ἴσκιος or ioxtwpa),' and by teasing and worrying the 
inmates of the house at unreasonable hours. These seem to be 
the disembodied souls of people who have met with a violent 
death, or whose mortal remains have been buried secretly, 


1 The Macedonian women are in the habit of saying to their children : ‘‘ Do 
not mock at your shadow, or it will come and sit upon you”’ (Mi περ᾽ γελᾷς τὸν 
ἴσκιό σου γιατὶ θά σε πλακώσῃ) M. X. ᾿Ιωάννου, ‘Oepuais,’ p. 84. From this it 
appears that the shadow is by the Macedonians, as by so many other races, 
identified with the soul (see J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. 1. pp. 285 foll.), 
and as ‘‘the soul of a sleeper is supposed to wander away from his body” 
(ib. pp. 255 foll.), if you anger it, it may return and punish you in the form of a 
nightmare (πλακώσῃ in its technical sense). 


A..F. 17 


258 Macedonian Folklore 


without the usual funeral rites. Such persons become ghosts 
(στοιχειώνουν). They roam restlessly about and visit their 
old haunts, inspired with an intense longing for revenge. This 
idea, so strongly held by the ancient Greeks and Romans, 
survived through the middle ages into modern Europe; but 
at the present day it finds its most emphatic expression in 
the practices of savage races, such as the natives of Australia, 
North and South America, North and South Asia, etc! The 
belief fully accounts for the extreme horror with which the 
modern Greeks contemplate the possibility of a body being 
denied Christian burial. It is partly this fear that makes exile 
so abhorrent to the Greek, and the danger of dying in a remote 
country or being shipwrecked at sea, far from those whose duty 
it is to accord to the remains the funeral rites, is frequently 
dwelt upon in the “Songs of Farewell” (Tpayovdia τῆς 
Ξενιτειᾶς). 

The malevolent spirits belonging to this category can only 
be expelled by a religious ceremony. The papas, or parish 
priest, is summoned. He reads a special service over a bowl 
of water in which, thus sanctified (ἁγιασμός), he dips a cross 
and a bunch of basil, and with this brush besprinkles the 
dwelling, charging the while all evil and unclean spirits to 
depart. But it sometimes happens that the demons defy 
prayers, and, in spite of holy water and exorcisms, persist in 
vexing the inhabitants. In that case the house is deserted 
and henceforth shunned as ‘haunted.’ 

Far different in disposition and behaviour are the spirits 
known and cherished as ‘masters of the house’ (νοικοκύρηδες 
τοῦ σπιτιοῦ). They are supposed to be the ghost-souls of 
ancestors still lingering in their old home and watching over 
the welfare of their posterity, according to a universal doctrine 
which “is indeed rooted in the lowest levels of savage culture, 
extends through barbaric life almost without a break, and 
survives largely and deeply in the midst of civilization.’”? 
These benignant beings manifest their presence at night by 


1 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. pp. 27 foll. 
2 Tylor, ib. pp. 24 foll. 


Spirits and Spells 259 


treading softly on the floor, which creaks under their ghostly 
footsteps. : 

The Macedonian spirits of the latter class are in all pro- 
bability the degraded descendants of the Manes and Lares 
of classical antiquity, and the kindly feelings with which they 
are regarded may be the attenuated relics of ancient ancestor- 
worship. To these remnants of classical cult was perhaps at 
a later period superadded a coating of Slavonic colour. 

In both the foregoing classes of spirits the English reader 
will recognize close relatives of the familiar ghosts, which haunt 
many an English house and form the subject of many a con- 
versation, and of an occasional angry controversy between 
believers and sceptics. The Teutonic Brownie and the Celtic 
Glaistig are also branches of the same genealogical tree— 
a tree whose boughs may justly be said to overshadow the 
universe. But a closer relationship can perhaps be established 
with the Domovoys of the Russian peasant which, like their 
_ Macedonian cousins, are of two kinds: benevolent or male- 
volent, according as they belong to his own family or to that 
of his neighbour.’ 


1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, pp. 129 foll. 


17—2 


CHAPTER XIV. 
MACEDONIAN MYTHOLOGY. 


The Drakos. 


Ir is extremely difficult—much more so than folklorists 
sometimes imagine—in investigating the folklore of a country 
to fix with absolute certainty where real superstition ends 
and pure mythology begins. The peasant story-teller, though 
conscious of the fact that he is narrating a myth, is all the 
time more than half inclined to believe that the world which 
he describes is not an improbable world, that in the mysterious 
“times of old all things were possible” (’s tov παλῃὸν κηρὸ ὅλα 
yévouvtav). This was the expression with which one of that 
class once silenced my prosaic attempts at criticism. He went 
even farther, and, having once confessed his own belief in the 
historic truth of mythological creations, launched forth into 
a tirade against some “learned men and schoolmasters ” (γραμ- 
ματισμένοι καὶ δασκάλοι) of his acquaintance, who were so 
stupid as to deny that there ever were such beings as the 
Lamia and the Drakos. His words, which I quote from notes _ 
taken down at the time, will perhaps be of interest to the 
student of peasant psychology: 

“Why,” he exclaimed in accents of triumph, “I myself 
remember seeing, as a child, monstrous horned snakes swarming 
on yonder plain (πέρα ᾽ς τὸν κάμπο). Where are they now? 
There also used to be lions and bears; but they have dis- 
appeared before modern guns. ‘The same thing must surely 
have happened to the Lamias and the Drakoi.” 

Both these monsters may be said to dwell in the debatable 
borderland between the two worlds: Faith and avowed Fiction. 


Macedonian Mythology 261 


The Drakos (Apdxos or Δράκοντας) can be described as 
a cousin-german to the Black Giant already disposed ef. Like 
him he haunts the wells (hence called Apaxovépia), and works 
mischief on the people by withholding the water. This habit 
of the monster is alluded to in the following lines, which form 
the beginning of a song heard at Nigrita: 
Κάτω ᾿ς tov "Ai Θόδωρο, κάτω ’s τὸν “Ai Tedpyn 
Πανηγυρίτσι yévovtav, μεγάλο πανηγύρι. 
Τὸ πανηγύρι" ᾽ταν μικρὸ κ᾽ ἡ πλάση ‘Tay μεγάλη. 
Κρατεῖ ὁ Δράκος τὸ νερό, διψᾷ τὸ πανηγύρι, 
Διψᾷ καὶ μιὰ ἀρχόντισσα ποῦταν ἀποβαρυμένη. 
Yonder at St Theodore’s, yonder at St George’s 
A fair was held, a great fair. 
The space was narrow and the crowd was large. 
The Drakos held back the water and the people were athirst, 
Athirst was also a lady who was heavy with child. 
A similar circumstance forms the groundwork of a little tale 
from Southern Greece : 


The Drakos and the Bride? 


Once upon a time there was held a wedding. The groom’s 
party started from bis house on their way to the bride’s, who 
lived in a neighbouring village. They got there safely; but 
on their way back, when they reached the middle of the road, 
lo and behold! there sprang before the procession a Drakos. 
He was a lame one, ’tis true, but still he was terrible. He 
held them for half an hour in a ravine with the intention of 
hurting them, who knows? perhaps even of eating them. The 
people were all paralyzed with fear. The bride alone retained 
her presence of mind. She bethought herself of a means of 
escape, and stepping forth stood in front of the monster 
and said : 


Bride: 1 am Lightning’s child, Thunder’s grandchild. 
I am the Hurler of Thunderbolts, she who flashes and booms. 


1 Tt will be noticed that the word is used in three senses: fair, the place 
where the fair is held, and the people at the fair. 
2 * Νεοελληνικὰ Παραμύθια, Athens, I. Nicolaides, 1899, Part I. p. 63. 


262 Macedonian Folklore 


Once when I flashed I burnt up forty Dragons, 
One was left, a lame one: can that be your lordship ? 
Dragon: I am he. 
Bride: Stand aside, friends, that I may flash and burn him up. 
Dragon (frightened): Come, pass.on ; come, go your way ; good luck to 
your wedding.! 


So thanks to the bride’s cleverness they all escaped. 


In another popular legend, a bridegroom had bound himself 
by a solemn vow to go to a Dragon and submit to be treated 
as breakfast. I translate the version of the story current at 
Liakkovikia.? 

B. Wherefore art thou sad, O Yanni, and rejoicest not ? 

Perchance thou art displeased with me, my person or my portion? 

G. I am pleased with thee, my Fair One, both with thy person and 
with thy portion ; 

But the Dragon has asked me to go to breakfast. 

Whithersoever thou goest, my Yanni, thither shall I come with thee. 

Where I am going, my Fair One, no maid can go. 

Whithersoever thou goest, my Yanni, thither shall I come with thee, 

I will cook for thee thy dinner, I will spread for thee thy mattress, 

Where I am going, my Fair One, no maid can go. 

There is nor cooking nor eating; nor mattress-spreading nor sleeping 
there. 

So the two set forth to go, like a pair of pretty doves, 

And they found the Dragon leaning against the fountain. 

When the Dragon espied them, he said in high glee: 

D. Double has come my breakfast, double has come my dinner! 

When Yanni heard this, he said to his Fair One: 


R BAdSw 


Ξ Νύφη 
““᾿ἘἘγγῶμαι 7s ἀστραπῆς παιδί, τῆς βρονταρᾶς ἐγγόνι. 
᾿Ἔγώμαι ἀστραπόβολος ᾿π᾿ ἀστράφτω καὶ μπουμπνίζω. 
Μιὰ φορὰ σὰν ἔστραψα σαράντα Δράκ᾽ οὗλ᾽ 7’s ἔκαψα:" 
Ἕνας κουτσὸς ἀπόμενε: μπὰς x’ elo’ 4 ἀφεντειά σου ;"" 


Δράκος 

“Εγῶμαι.᾽" 
Νύφη 

““Παραμερᾶτ᾽, συμπεθεροί, v’ ἀστράψω νά τον κάψω." 
Δράκος 


(In his fear he apparently forgets the fifteen-syllable metre, and answers lamely) 
‘"Aivre, περάστε, divre ᾿ς τὸ καλό, καλορρίζικ᾽ ἡ χαρά cas.” 
2 A. Δ. ΤΓουσίου, ‘Ta Tpayovdia τῆς Πατρίδος μου No. 180, ‘O Δράκοντας. 
Cp. Passow, Nos 509, 510, which refer to the same subject, treated in a different 
manner. 


Macedonian Mythology 263 


G. Did I not tell thee, my Fair One, that thou shouldst not come 
with me? 

B. Go on, my Yanni, go on; go on and fear not. 
Nine Dragons have I eaten up, and this one will be the tenth. 
When the Dragon heard this, he was mortally afraid : 

D. Pray, friend Yanni, whose daughter is she? 
The Fair One answered and to the Dragon said: 

B. I am Lightning’s daughter, Thunder's grand-daughter, 
If I like, I may flash and thunder and overwhelm thee on the spot. 
She flashed and thundered and overwhelmed the Dragon on the spot. 


In these legends the Drakos figures as a large uncouth 
monster akin to the Troll of Norse, the Ogre of southern, and 
the Giant of our own folk-tales. His simplicity of mind is 
equal to his might, and he is easily outwitted. Indeed, the 
Drakos compares most unfavourably with the Devil of the 
Bible and the Koran. He has none of the subtlety of the 
Tempter of Hebrew and Christian tradition, or of the Moham- 
medan Afrit, who is considered the embodiment of cleverness, 
so much so that to call one afrit is the highest compliment 
_a Mohammedan can pay to one’s intelligence. 

His similarity to the Teutonic Giant is accentuated by the 
fact that the Drakos, like his northern counterpart, is also 
regarded as the performer of feats beyond ordinary human 
strength. As in Ireland, for example, we hear of a Giant’s 
Causeway, so in Macedonia we come across a “ Drakos’s Weight ” 
(rod Apaxov τὸ dpayr)—a big stone to the south of Nigrita; 
a “Drakos’s Shovelful” (ἡ φκυαριὰ tod Apaxov)—a mound 
of earth near the other monument; a “ Drakos’s Tomb” (τοῦ 
Apaxov τὸ μνημόρι)---ὃ rock in the same neighbourhood, in 
which peasant imagination detects a resemblance to a high- 
capped dervish, resting against the slope of the hill; and a 
“Drakos’s Quoits” (Apaxéretpats)'—two solitary rocks standing 


1 Cp. “In the island of Carystos, in the Aegean, the prostrate Hellenic 
columns in the neighbourhood of the city are said to have been flung down 
from above by the Drakos. 

In Tenos, a smooth rock, which descends precipitously into the sea, is called 
the Dragoness’s Washing-board, from its resemblance to the places where Greek 
women wash their clothes.”—Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, 
vol. 11. p. 294. 


264 Macedonian Folklore 


in the plain of Serres, not far from the village of Liakkovikia. 
Concerning these rocks is told the following tale: 


The Princess and the Two Dragons. 


There was once in the country a king who had an only 
daughter. She was a lovely, beautiful maiden, and her name 
was Photeint. Two princes in the neighbourhood were 
enamoured of her. They both were marvellously tall and 
strong, and men called them Dragons. The king feared 
them greatly. One day they both came to Princess Photeine’s 
father and asked for his daughter's hand. The king, on 
hearing the object of their visit, was seized with alarm 
and knew not what to do. For he feared lest, by pre- 
ferring one of them, he should incur the wrath of the 
other. He suddenly bethought himself of this plan. He 
proposed to his daughter’s suitors to throw the quoit, saying 
that the one who beat the other should become Photeiné’s 
husband. They agreed with pleasure, and they each took 
up a‘rock of an equal size and flung it with all their 
might from the same spot. But neither of them won; for 
the rocks both fell in the same place. Photeine’s father then 
bade them build each a castle of the same size, saying that 
the one who finished his first, should take his daughter 
for wife. Again the lovesick Giants began and ended their 
task at exactly the same time. They then decided to engage 
in single combat. They fought with so great a fury that they 
both fell. When the Princess Photeiné heard that these brave 
suitors had fallen victims to their love for her, she grieved 
profoundly and resolved to live and die a maiden. She retired 
to a lonely part of her father’s dominions, and there spent. the 
remainder of her life in saintly seclusion. 

The Drakos when conceived of as a giant sometimes has 
a spouse (Δράκαινα or Δρακόντισσα), quite as big, strong, and 
stupid as himself. The family is occasionally increased by a 
number of daughters who are remarkable for size, strength 


1 A. A. Γουσίου, “Ἢ Kara τὸ Πάγγαιον Χώρα,᾽ pp. 27 foll. 


Macedonian Mythology 265 


and partiality for human flesh, and who inherit their parents’ 
abundant lack of wit. 

But the Drakos is very frequently identified with the 
serpent (δράκων, ‘dragon’), out of whom he was possibly 
evolved in the course of time. The Scythic Nagas are similarly 
confounded with serpents, while in Russian folklore the Snake 
“sometimes retains throughout the story an exclusively reptilian 
character; sometimes he is of a mixed nature, partly serpent 
and partly man?” In Albanian mythology also the Negro, who 
corresponds to the Greek Black Giant and, like the latter, owes 
his origin to the Arabian Nights, absorbs. and is in his turn 
absorbed by the serpent, while in Wallachian folk-tales the 
serpent element has superseded entirely the giant attributes, 
and the Wallachian dragon, like the Russian Zmyei,’ appears 
in all the monstrous glory of wings and claws, breathing fire 
and threatening ruin to all whom it may concern. 

Mythologists agree in regarding the Drakos as a member 
of a large family of children of death, darkness, and natural 
forces hostile to man. The Drakos is said to embody the idea 
of a thunderstorm, and from that point of view he may be 
considered as the modern representative of the ancient Python 
slain by Apollo, even as the thunder-cloud is dispelled and 
destroyed by the rays of the Sun. On the other hand, two of 
the legends given above rather suggest that the Drakos is a 
personification of the drought and therefore dreads the Bride, 
who wields the powers of thunder and lightning. But where 
all is so dark it would be rash to be dogmatic. 


Dk Tinta 


The Lamia (Aaa) is connected with the Drakos by 
affinity of disposition and very often by the bonds of matrimony. 
She shares to the full his cannibal propensities and his infantile 
simplicity of mind. Her voracity has given rise to the proverb 


1 Wheeler, History of India, vol. 1. p. 147. 

2 Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, p. 65. 

3 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 118. 

4 For an exhaustive disquisition on the Modern Greek Drakos see Tozer, 
Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. 1. pp. 294 foll. 


266 Macedonian Folklore 


“to eat like a Lamia” (τρώγει σὰν Λάμια). In spite of this 
unladylike trait, she is of noble descent and can point with 
pride to the pages of classical literature in proof of her pedigree, 
though, it must be added, the circumstances in which she 
figures therein are not such as a noble lady would be anxious 
to recall. 

In Liddell and Scott’s Greek Leawicon Lamia is defined as 
“a fabulous monster said to feed on man’s flesh.” This is true, 
but does not contain the whole truth. Lamia was not always 
a monster. She was once a fair maiden, so fair that Zeus 
himself succumbed to her charms. The result of this admira- 
tion was a number of beautiful children, which, however, Hera, 
the jealous spouse of the “ Father of gods and men,” snatched 
from their mother’s arms. The latter went to hide her grief 
and despair amongst the rocks of the sea, and it was there that 
her beauty decayed, and she became a cruel, hideous monster, 
the terror of children and the laughing-stock of the Athenian 
play-goer. Another ancient tradition describes her as a beau- 
tiful sorceress who upon occasion assumed the form of a snake. 

In the modern conception of the Lamia we recognize these 
ancient traits, and more especially the first. The sudden death 
of a child is sometimes attributed to her cruelty. But on the 
other hand she, like her modern husband, the Drakos, is often 
represented as withholding the water from a district, until a 
human victim is offered to her. In the tale given below she is 
pictured as “a great marvellous monster with crooked claws and 
a pair of wings, each of which reached down to yonder plain ”— 
apparently a winged serpent of the mythical dragon species, 
although she is also given four legs and three heads. 

For this tale I am indebted to Kyr Khaidhevtos (lit. 
Mr Worth-to-be-petted) of Vassilika. Kyr Khaidhevtos is a 

1 For instance, the scandalous story of ὡς ἡ Adapt’ ἁλοῦσ᾽ érépdero (Ar. 
Vesp. 1177) seems to have been notorious at Athens in the year 422 B.c., and 


one can imagine the peals of laughter which must have greeted the comedian’s 
allusion to it on the stage. 

2 Of the Strigla, an evil monster akin to the Lamia and equally popular in 
Southern Greek mythology, I found no vestiges in Macedonia, except the name, 
which is very common but only as a term of abuse, applied to wicked hags, 
pretty nearly in the same way as our witch. 


Macedonian Mythology 267 


character worth-to-be-studied as a type of a large class of 
Macedonian peasanis, who to a plentiful share of native shrewd- 
ness add an equal portion of faith, if we accept the Sunday 
schoolgirl’s definition of faith as a capacity for believing 
“what you know is not true.” 

Kyr Khaidhevtos enjoys the reputation of an ardent lover 
and eloquent retailer of folk-tales. Nor does Fame flatter him, 
as will presently appear. In my search after folklore I could not, 
therefore, do better than apply to Kyr Khaidhevtos for a few 
scraps from his rich store. He readily promised me that favour 
and, unlike some other local folklorists, did not forget to fulfil 
his promise. He called upon me one evening after the day’s 
work was done, and regaled my ears till long after “the Moon 
and the Pleiades had sunk to rest.” 

Kyr Khaidhevtos is a great actor, as well as a great nar- 
rator. His hands, his head, his face were all in perpetual motion, 
and they kept pace with the narrative so well that even one 
deaf could have followed the drift of the story. His eyes now 
glittered in wrath, now vanished behind the swelling curves 
of his rosy cheeks, according as he was engaged in a fierce 
or funny episode. For instance, in order to express the 
hurly-burly of battle and the tug of war, he would hook his 
two forefingers together and, with eyes flashing and bristling 
moustache, tug ferociously at them. To describe the majestic 
flight of an eagle, he spread his arms and swayed them slowly 
upwards, accompanying the action with a solemn look at the 
beams of the ceiling. If he wanted to give an idea of a hero’s 
physique, he would square his own broad shoulders and swell 
his chest. The rapid movement of a man running away from 
danger was indicated with a quick opening and closing of 
the fingers of the right hand. The roar of rushing water was 
likewise made real by a. deep rumbling noise which issued 
from Kyr Khaidhevtos’s inner self. 

It was easy to see that he had worked himself into sincere 
self-delusion—the privilege of genius and the secret of success. 
Though he occasionally helped himself to a pinch of snuff, he 
did not allow this indulgence to interfere with the performance. 
Like a true artist he knew the value of a spell and was anxious 


208 Macedonian Folklore 


not to break it by interrupting the narrative, except now and 
again to moisten his lips with a drop of arrack and water. 
Let us now listen to the raconteur himself. 


The Story of the Prince and the Eagle. 


“Here begins the tale. Good evening to you. 

Once upon a time there was a king who had three sons. 
The youngest was the bravest and handsomest of the lot. 
A time came when the king was taken dangerously ill. He 
was at the point of death, and the doctors said that, in order 
to recover, he should eat the fat of a male hare. He called to 
himself the princes and said to them: 

“ My children, I am dangerously ill, and the doctors have said 
that, in order to recover, I must eat the fat of a male hare. So 
I beg of you to go out to hunt and to bring me a male hare.” 

“Very well, father,” said the boys and, having taken their 
bows and clubs, they set out on their way to the far-off forests, 
in order to find hares. 

The two elder sons did not succeed in killing one, but the 
youngest killed three. Unfortunately, none of them were male. 
His brothers began to be envious of him, because he had proved 
abler than they. Next day they went out once more to hunt, 
and again the same thing happened. The two elder ones failed 
to do anything, while the youngest killed two hares, and one of 
these two hares was a male. Their envy grew thereat, and they 
said one to the other: 

“Let us kill him and then say to our father that robbers 
came and slew him.” 

Close by there was a well, a very ancient well with marble 
slabs round about, and the water issued forth from within 
and flowed over the marble slabs. When the younger brother 
joined them, they said to him: 

“ May we not drink some of the water of this well, especially 
as we are so thirsty?” 

“Right,” answered he, “let us drink.” 


1 For the original Greek see Appendix II. 


Macedonian Mythology 269 


“We must, however, drink in due order,” said the eldest, 
“First one, then the other, and next after him the third.” 

So first drank the eldest, next the second, and last of all the 
youngest. He put his club and his bow under his arm and laid 
himself down upon his face, in order to drink of the water 
_ which flowed over the marble-slabs. Then one of them seized 
him by one foot, and the other by the other, and they flung him 
into the well. So the prince fell in, and his brothers fled and 
returned to the palace. When they got home, they took the 
hare to their father and said: 

“Father, behold, we have succeeded at last in finding a 
male hare; but we have lost our brother ”—and they pretended 
to be overwhelmed with sorrow. 

“What! what did you say? how has that happened?” asks 
the king, rushing out of bed; for he loved his youngest son 
more dearly than the others. 

“What can we say, father?” answered they. “As we were 
hunting, suddenly a band of robbers came, and they meant to 
destroy us all: we two managed to escape; but our poor 
brother perished.” 1 

Then great wailing arose in the palace. The king and the 
queen put on black, and wept bitterly. . 

Now let us leave those wailing, and let us go to the 
prince. The well into which they threw him was exceedingly 
deep. He fell for three years before he touched bottom. After 
three years he set foot on the ground and came out at the 
other end. He opens his eyes and sees that he is in another 
world: it was the Nether World. Far, far away he espies a 
light. He walks on and on and at last arrives at a cottage. 
Within there was an old woman kneading dough in a small 
trough, in order to make a cake. The prince noticed that the 
old woman had no water, but only wept and kneaded the flour 
with her tears, and she also spat. And as she wept and spat 
and kneaded the dough, she sang a sorrowful dirge. 

_The prince wondered greatly at seeing her spitting and 
weeping, and took pity on her. 


1 This part of the narrative recalls, and perhaps is an echo of, the history 
of Joseph. Gen. xxxvii. 


270 Macedonian Folklore 


“Good evening, grandmother,” says he. 

“Good be to my child,” says she, and she looked at him in 
amazement; for he was a big, brave-looking youth and carried 
the club in one hand and his bow on his shoulder. “ Whence 
comest thou my son? ‘Thou art not one of these parts. Art 
thou perchance come from the Upper World ?” 

“Yes, I come from the Upper World; but how did you find 
that out, grandmother ?” 

“Oh, we have no such men like thee here. It is easy to 
see that thou art from above. And how didst thou get down 
here ?” 

Then the prince told her everything: how his brothers had 
thrown him into the well and all the rest. 

“But wilt thou not tell me,” he says to the old woman, 
“Wherefore dost thou not get some water wherewith to knead 
the bread, but thou kneadest it with tears and saliva, and 
wherefore dost thou weep and wail?” 

“ Ah, my son, water we have none in these regions. There 
is a well; but it is guarded by a Lamia, a monster with four 
legs and three heads,’ and it demands every month a maiden to 
devour, in order to let the water issue forth. This month the 
lot fell upon my only daughter Maruda, and she is now bound 
with chains to a plane-tree. To-morrow the monster will come 
out and eat her. Therefore do I weep and wail.” 

When the Prince heard these words, he said: 

“1 will kill this monster and rescue both thy daughter and 
the whole country.2 Only give me a morsel of this cake, when 
it is baked.” 


1 This description sounds like a reminiscence of Cerberus, the three-headed 
dog which guarded the gates of the nether world of the ancients. It.is not 
impossible that the raconteur’s mind had come under classical influence ; for 
he told me that one of the despised tribe of schoolmasters obliged him with 
occasional readings from Greek History, which an artist like Kyr Khaidhevtos 
would find no difficulty in assimilating and turning to good account. 

2 The incident of a monster withholding the water, until a maiden is given 
to him, and the hero killing the monster and rescuing the maiden, is a common- 
place in the folklore of many nations. 

[Cp. Le petit Rouget sorcier, a Modern Greek tale in a French translation 
first published by J. A. Buchon, in his La Gréce Continentale et la Morée, 


Macedonian Mythology 271 


“Ah, my son, how canst thou kill the monster, since even 
the king of this city and his army have been fighting it so 
many years and have not prevailed?” 

“T will kill it,” answers the Prince. 

“Go thou not, or it will devour thee also.” 

“T fear it not. Either shall I destroy this monster, or I 
will die.” 

As. they were talking, he suddenly heard a cry: Kra, kra. 
He turned his head_round and saw a great bird standing in 
a corner of the cottage. It was an eagle golden like an angel. 
He asks: 

“What is this bird?” 

“This bird my husband on dying left to me. It is now a 
hundred years since then. I have reared it, till it grew and 
became as thou seest it.” 

“ And that she-buffalo, what is she ?” 

“That buffalo also my husband left me, a hundred years 
_ ago, and I reared her,” says the old woman. 

So she gave him a morsel of the cake to eat, after having 
baked it, and the Prince set forth, with his club and bow, to go 
where Maruda stood bound, waiting for the monster to come 
out and devour her. 

When he got there and saw her, he said: 

“ Wherefore art thou here?” 

“It is my destiny. The lot has fallen on me and I am 


Paris, 1843, and reproduced by E. Legrand in his Recueil de Contes Populaires 
Grecs, Paris 1881. Also Hahn, Griechische und Albanesische Marchen, No, 98.] 

It recalls vividly the legends of Perseus and Andromeda and of Herakles and 
Hesione, which are by modern mythologists interpreted as “a description of the 
Sun slaying the Darkness.” Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 339. 

The appreciation of water in the Near East, and the common occurrence 
of drought, may have given birth to the idea, apart from all mythological 
allegory. [Cp. Pindar’s ἄριστον μὲν ὕδωρ.) Most travellers from Col. Leake 
to Mr H. F. Tozer, and since, have noticed and commented upon the value set 
on water by the natives of these lands. They often describe one kind of it as 
“light” (€\agpé) and another as ‘‘heavy” (βαρύ) or “hard” (σκληρό) and, 
in a word, display all the delicacy of taste of trained connoisseurs. At one 
place my host, in pressing a huge quantity of food on me at dinner, assured me 
that I need not be afraid of over-eating myself, as their water was good enough 
to bring about the digestion even of stones (καὶ πέτραις vavat ταῖς χωνεύει). 


272 Macedonian Folklore 


waiting for the monster to come out and eat me, in order to let 
the water issue forth.” 

Then the Prince drew his sword, cut the chains asunder, 
and said to her: 

“Fear not, I will rescue thee.” 

She, seeing a youth fair like a star, as he was, took pity on 
him and said: , 

“Flee far from hence, or thou also wilt perish as so many 
others have perished. Look, yonder is the graveyard where lie 
buried all those who have died these many years past in trying 
to rescue the country.” 

“Be thou easy in thy mind,” says the Prince, and he turned 
and looked, and saw the whole plain covered with graves. But 
he was not daunted. And as they were talking, there came a 
fearful din like thunder, and the ground shook as though there 
were an earthquake. 

“The monster is coming out. Flee, flee, or it will eat thee 
also,’ Maruda cries. 

But the Prince seized her in his arms and carried her to 
a height some way off, and then came back to wrestle with the 
Lamia. And the Lamia was a great marvellous monster with 
crooked claws and a pair of wings, each of them reaching 
from here down to yonder plain. She issued from the well and 
clutched the earth with her claws, ready to pounce. And when 
she saw the Prince she said: 

“ Ah, well did my old Lamia-mother tell me: ‘Many a man 
wilt thou eat, but one day there will come such a one, and ot 
him thou must be afraid.” ? 

Then the Prince rushed upon the Lamia, club in hand, and 
belaboured her, and he cut off with his sword first one head 


1 The Cyclops in Homer on a similar occasion bethinks himself, when too 
late, of an old prophecy : 
"Q πόποι, ἦ μάλα δή με παλαίφατα θέσφαθ᾽ ἱκάνει. 
ἔσκε τις ἐνθάδε μάντις ἀνὴρ ἠύς τε μέγας τε, 


eee ee eee ee eee eee eee eee eee eee  " 


eee Pee eee ee eee ee eee ee eee eee ee eee eee eee eee ee eee 


ὅς μοι ἔφη τάδε πάντα τελευτήσεσθαι ὀπίσσω, 
χειρῶν ἐξ Οδυσῆος ἁμαρτήσεσθαι ὀπωπῆς. 
Odyss. 1x. 507 foll. 


Macedonian Mythology 273 


and then another, till he slew her utterly, and there was not 
even a nostril left, as the saying goes. 

The people, great and small, every one of them, and the 
King with his Council of Twelve, were on the walls of the city 
watching the fight. And when the monster was slain, the 
water began to issue forth with a loud roar, and all cisterns and 
fountains were filled, and the cauldrons which the people held 
ready. 

Then the Prince took Maruda by the hand in order to lead 
her back to her mother, and she gave him her ring and said: 

“T am thine now.” 

And when they came to the cottage, and the old woman saw 
them, she would not yet believe that the monster had really 
perished, but in the end she believed. Then says the Prince: 

“T have achieved this feat thanks to the morsel which thou 
gavest me; the morsel which thou hadst kneaded with thy 
tears. It was that which gave me strength, and I overcame 
the monster. Now thou wilt give me thy daughter for wife, 
and I shall be for ever thy son.” 

So they embraced each other, and Maruda gave him her 
ring, and he gave her his, and the betrothal was concluded. 

But the King and his council were displeased that a stranger 
should have succeeded in accomplishing so great a feat, while 
they had fought for so many years and failed. And they wished 
to destroy him. They came forth with bows and swords, a great 
army, and they marched towards the cottage in order to seize 
him. When the old woman heard of this, she said : 

“You two must now flee and escape. I am an old woman, 
leave me here, I do not care if I die.” 

“ How shall we flee, my dear mother?” answers the Prince. 
“Can I become an eagle and fly? I am but aman. Let them 
come, and God’s will be done.” 


1 The combat between the hero and the monster, while the maiden for whom 
they are fighting is looking on from the summit of a height, presents exactly the 
same picture as that drawn by Sophocles in the description of the fight between 
Herakles and the River-god Achelous, the prize being Deianeira ‘‘ the soft and 
beauteous nymph” who all the while “sat on a conspicuous mound awaiting 
him who was to be her spouse.” Trach. 517 foll. 


A. F. 18 


27 4 Macedonian Folklore 


Then the old woman said: 

“This eagle which my husband left me, and which I have 
nourished for so many years, ’tis he who will carry you out.” 

They asked the eagle and said : 

“Tt is thy turn now to help us, who have nourished thee for 
so many years.” 

“This is the very hour for which I have been waiting,” 
answered the eagle. “You two mount on my neck, and take 
with you many provisions. Take three hundred okes of meat 
and three hundred okes of water, and let us fly.” 

“Where shall we find the meat, and where shall we find a 
bottle big enough to hold so much water?” they asked. 

“Slay the she-buffalo which also you have nourished for so 
many years. Flay her and on her flesh we shall feed, and of 
her skin make a bottle and fill it with water.” 

They slew the she-buffalo and loaded the eagle with the 
meat on one side and the skin on the other, and the Prince 
with the maiden mounted on his neck, and the eagle spread 
his wings and by little and little soared up. 

“God be with you,” cried the old woman, and fell down and 
died. 

The eagle soared and soared for twelve long years, and by 
little and little the provisions began to fail. 

“ Kra, kra,” cried the eagle. 

“What dost thou want?” 

“T am hungry.” 

Then the Prince cut off the muscle from his left arm and 
put it into the eagle’s beak. 

“ Kra, kra,” cried the eagle again. 

“What dost thou want?” 

“T am thirsty.” 

Then the Prince set his mouth close to the eagle’s beak and 
gave him saliva to drink. 

So day by day they drew nearer to the Upper World. But 
once more the eagle grew hungry and the Prince cut off the 
muscle from his right arm and gave it to him to eat. Then he 
cut off the muscle from his left leg, and next from his right 
leg. And he watered him from his own mouth, till they | 


Macedonian Mythology 275 


reached the Upper World, and saw the light of the sun, and 
they alighted on a mountain close to the city of his father. 

Then the eagle said: . 

“J will remain on the top of this mountain. You go’ into 
the city, and if perchance you ever be in need, think of me. 
Take this feather, burn it, and I shall understand from the 
smell and come at once.” And he pulled a golden little feather 
from his brow and handed it to them. 

When they reached the city, the Prince asked : 

“Where is the road which leads to the palace?” and the 
people showed it to him. 

Twenty-five or thirty years had gone by since he had left, 
and his father and mother had grown old, and he himself 
had grown taller and looked even more heroic than before. 
Yet his mother, as soon as she saw him, knew him at once. 
Eh, does a mother ever forget her child? Let ever so many 
years go by, when she sees it, she will still know it, even as a 
ewe, when she has lost her young one, seeks for it here and 
there and everywhere, and finds it by the smell. 

Even so the Prince’s mother, as soon as she saw him, rose 
from the throne on which she was sitting with the king, opened 
her arms and cried out : 

“Our son! our son whom we deemed lost. Dost thou not 
know him, husband ?” . 

The King on hearing this, rose too; but the others—the 
~Council of Twelve'—said to him: 

“Thou must first examine him, lest he be an impostor; for 
we know that thy youngest son has been dead ever so many 
years.” 

Then the King set about examining him, and the Prince 
related everything as it had happened; but they would not 
believe him. 

“ How can that be?” says the King. “These things thou 
speakest of: a Nether World and Lamias are things we have 
never heard of.” 

1 The kings in modern Greek fairy-tales are generally constitutional 


monarchs, ruling in accordance with the advice of a Privy Council, or Cabinet, 
of Twelve. 


18—2 


270 Macedonian Folklore 


Then said the Queen: 

“My husband, thou art not right. This is our own child. 
I know him: my heart tells me that.” 

Then the King ordered his secretaries to find in their books 
the time when the Prince disappeared, and other secretaries to 
write down everything as he narrated it now. Afterwards he 
turned to the Prince and said: 

“Well, suppose we credit what thou sayest about going 
down below, how hast thou come back ?” 

Then the Prince related how the eagle had brought them 
to the Upper World, and they wondered even more, and 
refused to believe him. 

“This thing must be attested by witnesses,’ said the 
King. “Where is this eagle? What has become of the 
bird ?” 

“Look at my limbs which I have cut in order to feed him, 
if you will not believe otherwise,” answers the Prince, and he 
showed his arms and his legs, from which he had cut off the 
flesh. But still they found it hard to believe. 

Then Maruda bethought herself of the feather, and said: 

“What hast thou done, my husband, with the feather which 
the eagle gave us? Now is the time to burn it, and he will 
come to bear witness for us.” 

“Thou speakest well,” says the Prince, “I had forgotten it,” 
and he takes the feather from his pocket. And when the 
others saw it, they wondered, for they had never in their lives 
seen such a beautiful golden feather. 

Then the Prince put it close to the fire in the charcoal-pan, 
which stood in the middle of the room, and ignited it, and the 
palace was filled with a fine odour. 

It became known outside in the city that such a bird would 
come, and all the people went out to see it. As they were 
awaiting the eagle’s coming, they suddenly saw a great cloud, 
and by little and little the eagle came down with a loud whirr 
and sat upon the terrace of the palace. 

Then said the Prince: 

“My King, let us all go up to the terrace, and the eagle 
will come there.” 


Macedonian Mythology 277 


And they all went up to the terrace, and saw the eagle, and 
the eagle did homage to the King, and the King asked him: 

“Tell us, O eagle, how didst thou ascend from the Nether 
World 2?” 

And the eagle spoke and related everything. And when he 
finished, he cried glu, glu and vomited forth one piece of flesh. 

“This is,” he said, “from thy left arm, which thou cutst off 
in order to feed me,” and he set it in its place, spat, and stuck 
it. Next he brought out another piece and stuck it to the 
right arm, and likewise to the legs. 

Then they all believed, and the king embraced his son and 
Maruda, and seated them near him, and said: 

“So thy brothers sought to destroy thee?” and he ordered 
them to be seized and slain; but the Prince fell to his feet and 
kissed the hem of his robe, and begged him to forgive them. 

“They sought to do me ill,” he said, “ but it has turned out 
well; for had they not flung me into the well, I should not 
have seen that world, nor should I have performed so many 
feats and deeds of valour, and become famous.” 

After a deal of trouble he prevailed on the king to forgive 
them. Then they embraced all round, and lived happy ever 
after. May we be happier still! 

At that judgment I also was present, and it is there that 
I got the tale which I have told you this evening.”? 

The conclusion of the narrative was followed by a critical 
discussion. My informant’s transcendent contempt for consis- 
tency led me to point out timidly that, if the hero had spent 
three years going down and twelve coming up, and there is 
no allowance made for residence in the Nether World, he 
could hardly be said to have been absent from his native land 
“twenty-five or thirty years.” I thought this an unanswerable 
argument. But I was mistaken. It was beautiful to observe 


1 For a parallel to this story in a French translation, see G. Georgeakis and 
Léon Pineau, Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, pp. 38 foll. Also, in a German translation, 
Hahn, Miirchen, No. 70. The eagle incident also occurs in “La Belle de la 
Terre,” an Albanian story in Auguste Dozon, Contes Albanais, No. 5; other 
eferences are given in Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, pp. 39 and 40, notes. I have 
ἼΘΥΘΙ seen the story in a Greek text. 





278 Macedonian Folklore 


the tolerant smile with which Kyr Khaidhevtos waved aside 
my objections. “ You have no imagination, sir, I can see that, 
and am sincerely sorry for you,” that is what his eyes said. 
But what his courteous lips actually uttered was: “This is but 
a fairy-tale” (αὐτό ᾽ναι παραμύθι)---ἃ stereotyped phrase from 
which he refused to depart. And yet it was Kyr Khaidhevtos 
who later delivered the vigorous denunciation of “learned men 
and schoolmasters” recorded at the beginning of this chapter. 


CHAPTER XV. 
ALEXANDER AND PHILIP IN FOLK-TRADITION. 


EVERYTHING that savours of antiquity is by the Macedonian 
oeasant attributed to the two great kings of his country. His 
songs and traditions, of which he is vastly and justly proud, are 
yften described as having come down “from the times of Philip 
and Alexander—and Herakles,” a comprehensive period to 
which all remnants of the past are allotted with undiscrimi- 
nating impartiality. 

On the way from Drama to Cavalla, and a little back from 
the road, stand the massive relics of an ancient gate, facing the 
ruins of Philippi. This pile is known to the people by the 
name of “ Alexander the Great’s Palace” (τὸ Παλάτι τοῦ 
Μεγάλου ᾿Αλεξάνδρου). 

_ At Demir Hissar, or “The Iron Castle,” on the Salonica- 
Serres railway line, there are some remnants of an old citadel, 
or fortress (κάστρο), overlooking the ravine between the flanks. 
of which the town is wedged. These ruins are assigned to 
King Philip. A big stone jar discovered among them some 
time ago was promptly labelled “King Philip’s money-jar, or 
treasury.” The same romantic tradition discerns in two smooth 
stones, lying on the rocky bank of the local river, the “ Washing- 
boards” on which “The Princesses” (Βασιλοπούλαις)---ἢ 8 
daughters of King Philip—used to bleach (λευκαίνουν) their 
clothes in the manner of Macedonian women at the present day. 

The two solitary rocks in the plain of Serres, already noted 
as the “Dragon’s Quoits,” are by the inhabitants of Nigrita 


280 Macedonian Folklore 


called the “Quoits of Alexander the Great” (Πέτραις τοῦ 
Μεγάλου ᾿Αλεξάνδρου), who is supposed to have thrown them ; 
for did he not live in the age when, according to a muleteer’s 
phrase, “God was wont to vouchsafe heroic might to men” 
(ἀξίωνε τοὺς ἀντρειωμένους) ? 

Again, near the village of Stavros, or “The Cross,” close to 
the eastern coast of the Chalcidic Peninsula, and a little to the 
north of the site where Stageira, Aristotle’s birthplace, is 
generally located, there rises a mountain, unnamed in maps, but 
known to the peasantry as “Alexander’s Mount ” (τὸ Βουνὸ τοῦ 
᾿Αλεξάνδρου, or, less correctly, τῆς “AXeEavdpas)—a designation 
especially appropriate in a neighbourhood which is associated 
with the name of Alexander’s famous tutor. 

To the south of Stavros lies the village of Lympsiasda, 
which the natives derive from the name of Alexander’s mother 
(Olympias), according to Col. Leake “ not without probability.” 
This traveller gives the name, less correctly, as Lybjadha and 
on the local etymology remarks that “the omission of the 
initial o, the third case, and the conversion of Λυμπιάδα into 
Λυμπτζιάδα, are all in the ordinary course of Romaic corrup- 
tion.” 

In the same paragraph he records that “a situation a 
little below the serdi of the ἀρά at Kastro, where some 
fragments of columns are still seen, is said to have been the 
site of Alexander’s mint. Both Turks and Greeks, and even 
the poorest peasants, are full of the history of Alexander, 
though it is sometimes strangely disfigured, and not unfre- 
quently Alexander is confounded with Skanderbeg.”? 

The incantation in which the name of Alexander the Great 
is employed to drive away the demons of the whirlwind? is a 
further instance of the tenacity of tradition, and it also points 
to the curious halo which in the course of centuries of ignorance 


1 Col. Leake thinks that the village itself is on the site of the old Stageirus : 
“These remains (viz. of ancient walls), the position, and the name Stavros, 
which, the accent in Zrdyeipos being on the first syllable, is a natural con- 
traction of that name, seem decisive of Stavros being the site of Stageirus.” 
Travels in Northern Greece, vol. 111. p. 168. 

2 Ib. p. 166. 3 y, supra, p. 251. 


Alexander and Philip in Folk-Tradition 281 


has gathered round the great King’s personality. In popular 
estimation Alexander fills a place analogous to that occupied by 
Solomon in the Arabian Nights and other oriental compositions. 
He is credited with a mysterious power over the spirits of evil, 
and his is a name to conjure with. 


Legendary History of Alexander the Great. 


Alexander the Great has from the earliest times been the 
favourite hero of romance. Even in his life-time, so strong was 
the glamour of his wonderful personality and exploits, that no 
legend was deemed by his contemporaries too wild for credence. 
In Strabo’s words “all those who attended on Alexander pre- 
ferred the marvellous to the true.”* If such was the tendency 
among men. who knew the hero in the flesh, we can easily 
imagine the attitude of people removed from him in time and 
space. Hence arose a cycle of narratives, at first nebulous 
enough, no doubt, but which were soon condensed into the fable 
known as the Alexander story. It has been surmised that this 
extraordinary production, which is redeemed from the charge of 
being a bad history by being a bad romance, originated in the 
Valley of the Nile immediately after the conqueror’s death, and 
thence spread like an epidemic over Europe and Asia. How- 


_ ever that may be, the oldest version that. has come down to us 


| 


is in Greek and goes under the name of Pseudo-Callisthenes, 
who is supposed to have lived in the second century of our era. 
This Greek Life of Alewander (Bios ᾿Αλεξάνδρου) has directly 
or indirectly been the prolific parent of a numerous progeny 
extending through many ages and languages. In the East we 
find the legend popular among the Syrians, the Armenians, the 
Copts, the Abyssinians, the Arabs, the Persians, the Turks, the 
Malays and the Siamese. Hebrew literature is also rich in 


Stories concerning Alexander's career; but for these neither 


Psendo-Callisthenes nor his conjectural Egyptian progenitor 
1 πάντες μὲν yap οἱ περὶ ᾿Αλέξανδρον τὸ θαυμαστὸν ἀντὶ τἀληθοῦς ἀπεδέχοντο 


ΠΟ μᾶλλον. Geoyr. xv. 1. 28. 


3 Several of the extant Greek mss. have been collated and edited. See 
C. Miller, Pseudo-Callisthenes (in Arriani Anabasis, by F. Diibner), Paris, 1846 


_ H. Meusel, Pseudo-Callisthenes, Leipzig, 1871. 


282 Macedonian Folklore 


can be held responsible. In the West the Historia de preliis 
and many other Latin works, both in prose and in verse, held 
the field for centuries until they passed into the vernacular of 
various countries and became known to French, Italians, 
Spaniards, Germans, Dutch, Scandinavians and Slavonians. In 
the hands of the Troubadours Alexander was metamorphosed 
into a mediaeval knight, and in this guise he crossed the 
channel and found a home as Kyng Alisaunder among our old 
English metrical romances. Needless to say, the Macedonian 
in these posthumous peregrinations was obliged to change not 
only his garb and speech but also his religion. In the East, as 
in the West, he frequently adopts the Christian creed and 
distinguishes himself by his piety and scriptural erudition. 
Some of these traits of character will appear in the History of 
the Great Alexander of Macedon: his life, wars, and death*, of 
which a réswmé is given below. 

Whether this modern edition is the lineal descendant of 
a version from an old Greek text, or is derived from some 
mediaeval source, Eastern or Western, is a question to which I 
dare give no answer. Its voca¥Julary and style, though modern 
in the main, reveal numerous traces of a mediaeval origin. 
The story itself bears to that of Pseudo-Callisthenes the same 
degree of relationship which is found in most of the other 
romances. But this is not the place for a minute comparison 
and analysis. For our present purpose it is sufficient to state 
that the story, under the popular designation of “ Chap-book of 
Alexander the Great” (Φυλλάδα τοῦ Μεγάλου ᾿Αλεξάνδρου), 
has long been, and still is, a favourite reading among the lower 
classes all over the Greek world, and has helped more than 
anything else to keep the Conqueror’s memory fresh and 


1 Among the works to be consulted by those interested in the development 
of the Alexander myth are E. A. Wallis Budge, The History of Alexander the 
Great (Syriac version of the Pseudo-Callisthenes ; text with English translation 
and notes), Cambridge, 1889; The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great 
(Translation of the Ethiopic versions of Pseudo-Callisthenes and other writers), 
London, 1896; Giusto Grion, I Nobili Fatti di Alessandro Magno (Old Italian 
versions from the French), Bologna, 1872; etc. 

2 “Ἱστορία τοῦ Μεγάλου ᾿Αλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος : Bios, Τόλεμοι καὶ lodbar i 
αὐτοῦ, Athens, I. Nicolaides, 1898. ᾿ 1 


Alexander and Philip in Folk-Tradition 283 


_confused. Numbers of these pamphlets are yearly sold to the 


peasants of Macedonia by itinerant booksellers, and it was from 


one of these diffusers of doubtful light that I obtained my 
copy for the modest sum of one piastre (equal to 24d. sterling). 


After what has already been said about the other versions 


of the Alexander legend it would be superfluous to add that 
this also is a “History” beside which Milton’s History of 


_ England reads like a sober record of facts. A flippant critic 


might describe it as a work conceived in: dyspepsia and 


executed in delirium. 


In this mytho-historical composition, as in all the kindred 
productions mentioned above, the birth of Alexander is attributed 
to the miraculous intervention of the god Ammon, assisted by 


ἃ somewhat questionable character, Nektenabos, late king of 


Egypt, subsequently Court magician and astrologer in ordinary 
to Philip of Macedon. The child’s entry into the world was 
heralded by much thunder and lightning and other indications of 
an abnormal origin. His education was entrusted to Aristotle and 


_ Nektenabos jointly. “The lad used to go to the former in the 


ων: 


morning and to the latter in the afternoon”: the one taught 
him his letters, the other initiated him into the mysteries of 
the stars. 

Alexander’s boyhood was signalized by many deeds fore- 
shadowing his future pushfulness. One of these was the act 
by which he repaid Nektenabos for his tuition. Master and 
disciple were one evening standing on the top of a high tower 
gazing at the heavenly bodies. Alexander suddenly, and rather 
irrelevantly, remarked : | 

“Ὁ thou who knowest so many things, dost thou know how 
thou wilt’ come by thy death ?” 

“T shall meet my death at the hands of my son,” answered 
the astrologer. 


1 The name Nexrevafos of our text appears in the old mss. of the Pseudo- 
Callisthenes as Nexravefiss or Νεκταναβώς, and occasionally as Νεκτεναβώς; in 
the Syriac version as NaktiiSs; in the Ethiopic as Bektanis ete. In the Italian 
versions it is Nattanabus, Natanabus, Nathabor, Natabor, Natanabor or Natanabo. 
All these and innumerable other forms are corruptions of the Egyptian Nekht- 
neb-f, or Nectanebus II, who was defeated by the Persians in about 358 B.c. 


284 Mi acedonian Folklore 


“ How can a son slay his own father?” said Alexander, and 
forthwith pushed his tutor over the parapet. Then, adding 
insult to injury, he cried after the fallen sage, “ Methinks thou 
hast lost thine art, O master!” 

“Tt is not so, for thou art my son!” 

“ How can I be thy son, since Philip is my father?” retorted 
the disciple in a manner which showed that Aristotle’s lessons 
in Logic had not been wasted on him. 

Thereupon Nektenabos, presumably interrupting his descent 
(for these things happened before the discovery of the law of 
gravitation), narrated to him at great length the secret story of 
his birth, the truth whereof was known only to himself and 
Alexander’s mother, and then expired. 

And now Alexander, having bewailed and buried his real 
father befittingly, and done many other wondrous deeds in the 
meantime, succeeds to the throne vacated by the death of his 
presumed parent and sets out on his grand tour round the 
globe. One of his earliest achievements is the conquest of 
Western Europe, all the Poten*ates whereof were forced to do 
homage and to pay tribute to him. The Romans, among other 
things, endeavoured to win his favour by offering him Solomon’s 
great coat, which that eccentric individual Nebuchadnezzar had 
stolen from Jerusalem ; also twelve jugs full of precious stones, 
which had likewise belonged to Solomon and were kept by him 
in the Holy of Holies in Holy Zion ; also Solomon’s crown, set 
with three gems which at night gleamed like lit candles, and 
encircled with a wreath of twelve diamonds bearing the names 
of the twelve months inscribed on them; also the crown of the 
great “Queen Sibyl”; also the royal armour of Priam, which 
they had carried off from Troy, and a few other trifles of a 
similar kind. 

While doing Rome and the Romans, Alexander visited the 
famous “temple of Apollo in that city,’ and the god’s high- 
priest “presented unto him myrrh, frankincense, and other 
royal gifts.” He likewise produced a bodk and read from it 
the following 

Prophecy from the Book of the Hellenes: “In the year 5,000 
there shall come forth a one-horned he-goat and shall put to flight 


Alexander and Philip in Folk-Tradition 285 


the leopards of the West. To the South shall he also go. And 
in the East he shall meet the marvellous ram of the spread horns, 
one whereof reaches to the South, and the other to the North. 
The one-horned he-goat shall smite the marvellous ram in the 
heart and slay him. Whereby all the rulers of the East shall be 
terror-stricken, and all the swords of Persia shall be broken in 
pieces. He shall also come to mighty Rome and shall be 
unanimously acclaimed King of the Universe.” 

The Greek philosophers who attended the King in his 
travels interpreted the oracle as follows: 

“Ὁ King Alexander, in the Vision of the prophet Daniel? 
the Empires of the West are named leopards, those of the South 
lions, those of the East a two-horned ram—to wit the empire 
of the Medes and the empire of the Phoenicians—and the 
one-horned he-goat is the empire of the Macedonians.” 

King Alexander elated by the prophecy forthwith ordered 
the Lords of England to build him a small fleet of some twelve 
thousand stout galleys (κάτεργα yovdpa ἕως δώδεκα χιλιάδες), 
each galley to hold one thousand armed men and their provisions. 
This was the beginning of his Eastern campaign. He sent his 
cavalry under the command of Ptolemy and Philones to Barbary 
“by land,” while he himself sailed to Egypt. After a prosperous 
yoyage of thirty days and thirty nights he reached the mouth 
of the Gold Stream (ypucoppoas ποταμός), where he built a 
walled city and called it Alexandria. There his generals, 
Ptolemy and Philones, joined him in the evening, fresh from 
the conquest of Barbary. 

Having allowed himself a few days’ rest, Alexander 
proceeded to Troy, the city of Helen, the virtuous woman 
who had said that “she preferred an honourable death to a 
dishonourable life” and refused to become another man’s wife. 
The Lords of Troy crowned him with the Queen’s own crown, 
which shone like the sun, and at night gleamed like the light, 
owing to the precious stones with which it was adorned. They 
likewise presented him with a casket [?]? which had once been 

1 Daniel vii. viii. 

2 κλίβανον, ‘an oven’{?]. Perhaps it is a printer’s error for κιβωτόν, ‘a 
wooden box, chest, coffer.’ 


286 Macedonian Folklore 


Hector’s, and with the Book of Homer, in which is set forth the 
history of the War from the beginning to the fall of the City 
Alexander read, and then gave utterance to the following 
chivalrous sentiment : 

“ Alas! how many heroes have perished for the sake of ὃ 
paltry woman !” 

He then visits the tombs of the heroes and tells them hoy 
sorry he is to find them dead. Had he met them before, he 
would have honoured them with rich gifts. 

“But now,” he pathetically exclaims, “that you have died 
what gifts can I honour you with? There is no other honow 
possible to the dead than that of frankincense and myrrh 
May the gods reward you for the deeds of valour which you 
have performed, according to Homer!” 

After a short trip home to Macedonia, in which he was 
accompanied by all his armies and the captive kings of the 
West, Alexander sets out against Darius; but on the way he 
halts to tamper with the Jews. He pens and despatches the 
following epistle to the Hebrews: 

“ Alexander, by the grace of the Most High, King of Kings 
to you who dwell in Jerusalem, and confess your faith in one 
God of heaven and earth, the All-powerful God Sabaoth— 
cordial greetings. As soon as you have received this, bow down 
to me and come forth to meet me; for I by the might of the 
All-powerful God Sabaoth will deliver you from the hands οἱ 
the image-worshippers. Do not act contrary to my behests 
and I will bestow upon you good laws, such as you will like.” 

But the wily Hebrews were not to be won by empty 
words : 

“OQ King Alexander,’ they answered, “we have duly re- 
ceived thy letter, and have bowed down to thee. May your 
Majesty please to know that we are worshippers of God Sabaoth 
who delivered us once from our bondage in Egypt, and we 
crossed the Red Sea and came to this land to live; but now 
owing to our sins He has delivered us into the hands of Darius. 
If we surrender to thee, without his leave, he will surely come 
~ and reduce us to utter slavery. Go thou, therefore, first against 
Darius and, if thou vanquishest. him, then we will be thy 


Alexander and Philip in Folk-Tradition 287 


faithful’ servants. Come then into Jerusalem, and we will 
hail thee King of the Universe.” 

Thus answered the Hebrews, mindful of their own safety. 
But Alexander’s wrath rose thereat, and he wrote: 

“King Alexander, the servant of the All-powerful God, to 
all who dwell in Jerusalem. I did not think you to be such 
great cowards as to fawn on Darius, you who worship the 
All-powerful God Sabaoth. Wherefore should you be the slaves 
of image-worshippers and not mine, who also worship the same 
God? I will not go against Darius, but will come straightway 
against you, and you may do as you deem best.” 

Shortly after this ultimatum Alexander entered Jerusalem 
and worshipped in the Temple. The Hebrews bowed to the 
inevitable with a good grace. The prophet Jeremiah especially 
distinguished himself by his tact. Accompanied by all the 
notables of the city and loaded with gifts he came to do homage 
to Alexander. But the king generously waived his claims to 
the gifts on behalf of the God Sabaoth, to whom they were 
accordingly presented. Jeremiah, however, by this step won 
the King’s favour, and the two used to take walks together. 
The prophet turned this intimacy to account by confirming the 
King in the faith, and, pleased with his success, one afternoon, 
as they were strolling out, he delivered himself of the following 
prediction : 

“Thou shalt conquer Egypt and slay the Emperor of India, 
and thou shalt fall ill. But our God will help thee, and thou 
shalt become ruler of the Universe. Thou shalt go near Paradise 
and there thou shalt find men and women confined on an island. 
Their food is the fruits of trees, and their name is The Blessed. 
They shall prophesy unto thee concerning thy life and death. 
All these things shalt thou see and many more. My blessing 
be upon thee!” 

Jeremiah, after the fashion of a perfect guide, pressed some 
of the antiquities of the country upon the King: precious stones 
with the name of the God Sabaoth inscribed upon them, from 
Joshua’s helmet; Goliath’s sword; Samson’s casque, adorned with 
the claws of dragons ; “the spear of the diamond point”; Saul’s 
mantle, which steel could not pierce, and many other presents 


288 Macedonian Folklore 


useful as well as ornamental. From Jerusalem Alexander 
proceeded to Egypt, where he caught a chill by bathing while 
warm in a very cold lake, but happily the illness did not prove 
fatal. 

The magician Nektenabos, before he became Court astrologer 
to Philip of Macedon, had been king of the Egyptians. On 
quitting his kingdom—owing to circumstances over which he 
had no control—he had left the following message to his subjects : 

“JT, being unable to withstand the might of Darius, depart 
from amongst you. But I will come back again thirty years 
hence. Erect a pillar in the centre of the city, carve upon it 
my head and round my forehead put the royal crown. There 
will come to you one who will stand under the pillar, and the 
crown will drop upon his head. To him do ye homage: he will 
be my son!” 

In pursuance of these instructions the Egyptians recognized 
Alexander as their king, for the crown did drop on his head, 
according to the prediction. 

It would be tedious to follow the hero in his supernatural 
progress through Asia. Suffice it to say that everywhere he 
went, he saw, and he annexed. Such a life, however, could not 
close quite in the ordinary way. The end of his career was 
signalized on his way to Babylon, among other things, by a 
nocturnal call from his friend Jeremiah, who being unable to 
come in the body (owing to the fact that he was dead) sent his 
spirit to visit the King in a dream and prophesy to him as 
follows : 

“Be ready, O Alexander, to come to the abode prepared for 
thee; for thy days are numbered out, and thou shalt receive thy 
death from the hands of thy nearest and dearest. Go thou to 
Babylon and arrange the affairs of thy kingdom.” i 

Having delivered this message, Jeremiah vanished. 

Soon after the prophet’s departure another visitor came; 
but this one in the body. It was his old tutor Aristotle, who 
was the bearer of gifts and messages from Olympias. His 

1 At the beginning of the narrative the same message is given in the following 


words, “I will return after twenty-four years. I now go as an old man but 
I will return young (meaning thereby his son Alexander).” 


Alexander and Philip in Folk-Tradition 289 


arrival was an agreeable diversion from the painful thoughts 
aroused by the prophet’s visit, and Alexander greeted him with 
royal effusion : 

“Welcome, O precious head,” said he, throwing his arms 
‘round the philosopher’s neck and kissing him affectionately, 
“who shinest like the sun among all the Hellenes!” 

A friendly interchange of news and narratives followed, and 
there was much feasting. But the shadow of death already 
darkened the glory-crowned head. 

In the King’s household there were two brothers Leucadouses 
_and Bryonouses, by name: one of them was master of the horse, 

the other cup-bearer to the King. Their mother, who had seen 

neither of them for years, wrote to them repeatedly urging them 

to return home. But the King always refused to grant 

permission. This circumstance, added to the fact that Alexander 

had knocked the cup-bearer a few days before “with a stick 

on the head” for breaking a valuable goblet, aroused much 
‘disaffection in the brothers’ breasts. The arrival of a fresh 
letter from home added the spark to the fuel. “The crafty 
. devil entered into the cup-bearer’s heart,” and he resolved to 
poison his master. The plot found supporters among many of 
the courtiers—all of them being among the King’s dearest friends. 
Some of the conspirators were actuated by nostalgia, others by 
‘wicked ambition. During a banquet a poisoned cup was offered 
tothe King. He quaffed it unsuspectingly and died. 

The Romance, which has been much condensed in the above 
‘synopsis, ends with the King’s will and testament, his death, 
the death of his murderer, the death of his steed Bucephalus, 
the wailings and demise of his wife Rhoxandra,’ their joint 
funeral, a sermon, and the moral: “ Vanity of vanities; all is 
vanity !” 


1 This is the form under which the name appears in the Romance. 


CHAPTER XVI. 
BIRD LEGENDS. 


CLASSICAL scholars are familar with the beautiful old myths 
in which the origin of certain birds is traced to a transfiguration 
brought about by the direct agency of the gods. The fables οἱ 
Philomela and Procne, of Itys and Tereus, and of Iynx are 
fresh in every student’s memory. Still more so is perhaps the 
metamorphosis of Halcyon, wife of Ceyx, King of Thessaly, who. 
in the words of the poet, “flitting along the rocky ridges on 
the shore of the sea sings her plaintive lay, ever lamenting the 
loss of her spouse.”? . 

Several more or less close parallels to this legend—due 
either to survival or to revival—exist at the present day in 
Macedonia. 

First among them ranks the widely-known story of the 
gyon (γκυών), a bird, which, so far as I could identify it, seems 
to be a species of plover. . 


I. The Gyon. 
(From Salonica and Serres.) 


There lived once two brothers, who were very jealous Οἱ 
each other and were constantly quarrelling. They had a mothe 
who was wont to say to them: 

“Do not wrangle,? my boys, do not wrangle and quarrel, ΟἹ 
Heaven will be wroth against you, and you shall be parted.” 


1 Kur, Iph. in Taur. 1089 foll. 
2 μὴν τρώγεστε, lit. ‘do not eat each other up.” 


Bird Legends 291 


But the youths would not listen to their parent’s wise 
counsels, and at last Heaven waxed wroth and carried off one 
of them. Then the other wept bitterly, and in his grief and 
remorse prayed to God to give him wings, that he might fly in 
quest of his brother. God in His mercy heard the prayer and 
transformed the penitent youth into a gyon. 

The peasants interpret the bird’s mournful note gyon! 
gyon! as Anton! Anton! or Gion! Gion! (Albanian form of 
John)—the departed brother's name—and maintain that it 
lets fall three drops of blood from its beak every time it calls. 
Whether the alleged bleeding is a reminiscence of Philomela’s 
tongue cut off by Tereus, it is impossible to say with certainty. 

Bernhard Schmidt! compares the name of the bird (ὁ γκεών, 
or γκιώνης) with the Albanian form (yjovvé or yjov) and refers to 
Hahn’s Tales? for an Albanian parallel, in which the gyon and ἡ 
the cuckoo are described as brother and sister. He also quotes 
Carnarvon’s account of a Southern Greek legend about a bird 
called κυρά. 

“That bird had once been a woman, who, deprived of all 
her kindred by some great calamity, retired to a solitary moun- 
tain to bewail her loss, and continued on the summit forty days, 
repeating in the sad monotony of grief the lamentation of the 
country ‘Ah me! ah me!’ till at the expiration of that period 
she was changed by pitying Providence into a bird.”* 

The same industrious collector refers to Newton for a 
similar story: “The other day we heard a bird uttering a 
plaintive note, to which another bird responded. When Mehe- 
met Chiaoux (sic) heard this note, he told us with simple 
earnestness that once upon a time a brother and sister tended 
their flocks together. The sheep strayed, the shepherdess 
wandered on in search of them, till at last, exhausted by fatigue 
and sorrow, she and her brother were changed into a pair of 
birds, who go repeating the same sad notes. The female bird 
says: ‘Quzwmlari gheurdunmu—Have you seen my sheep?’ 


1 Griech. Mérchen, Sagen und Volkslieder, τι. 3. Der Vogel Gkién, pp. 
241. 8. 

3 Marchen, No. 104. 

3 Carnarvon, Reminiscences of Athens and the Morea, p. 111. 


19-—2 


7 


1 


292 Macedonian Folklore 


to which her mate replies: ‘Ghewrmedum—I have not seen 
them’.”? 

The “ brother and sister” version is characteristically Moham- 
medan. But with the quest for lost sheep may be compared 
the following Macedonian legend. 


Il. The Pee-wit and the Screech-owl. 
(From Serres.) 


There were once two brothers, the elder called Metro (short 
for Demetrius), and the younger Georgo. They were horse- 
dealers by trade. One day there came to them a stranger who 
wished to purchase eight horses. Metro sent his younger 
brother to fetch them. Georgo came back with seven horses, 
besides the one on which he was riding. Metro, who was not 
remarkable for cleverness, counted only seven, without taking 
into account the one on which his brother rode. So he said 
to him: 

“Go back and find the horse you've lost.” 

Georgo, who apparently was as clever as his brother, went 
away and spent the whole day looking for the missing horse, 
without for a moment reflecting that he was sitting on its back. 

In the evening he returned home empty-handed. His 
brother called to him from afar: 

“Eh, Georgo, have you found the horse?” 

The youth replied : 

“ No, I have found no horse!” 

Thereupon Metro lost his temper and slew his brother. 
He did not realize his mistake until the latter had fallen off 
the horse’s back and lay still upon the ground. In his despair 
Metro called on God to change him into a bird. He was trans- 
formed into a pee-wit, and ever since cries: Poot? poot? 
that is ‘Where is it? where is it?’ (ποῦ το; ποῦ το;). To 
which his brother, who was turned into a screech-owl, replies in 
anguish ‘ Ah! ah !”? 

1 Newton, Travels and Discoveries in the Levant, τι. p. 263. 


2 Cp. ‘ Le chat-huant, le coucou et la huppe,’ G. Georgeakis et Léon Pineau 
Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, pp. 337—8. 


Bird Legends 293 


A third story embodying a similar idea, but possessing a 
more romantic interest, is the one told about the ring-dove 
(δεκοχτοῦρα) 





Ill The Ring-dove.' 
(From Serres.) 


It is said that this gentle and affectionate bird was once a 
young married woman, who was passionately fond of knitting. 
She had a wicked old woman for a mother-in-law, who always 
sought or invented pretexts for scolding and beating her. One 
day, after having maltreated her as usual, she went out to pay 
calls, and left her daughter-in-law to make bread. The latter 
— and baked the bread—eighteen loaves in all—and 

then sat down to her favourite occupation. The old woman on 
her return home found her knitting and began to upbraid her, 
“saying that there were only seventeen loaves and that she had 
stolen one. The poor girl protested that there were eighteen. 
But the other, who could not bear contradiction, grew angry 
and began to beat her ruthlessly. The girl, no longer able to 
submit to this injustice, besought God that she might be trans- 
formed into a bird and thus escape from her cruel tyrant’s 
clutches. Her prayer was answered and she suddenly became 
a ring-dove. She still protests sadly that the loaves were 
eighteen by crying Decochto ! decochto ! (δεκοχτώ), whence her 
“name decochtura, and to this day retains the circular dark 
marking left on her neck by the thread which she had round it, — 
_ while knitting, at the moment of her change. 
| These quaint tales, so full of simple sympathy with the 
feathered creatures to which human passions and human 
_ feelings are naively ascribed, find their counterparts in several 
| Slavonic folk-stories, which, however, are mostly conceived in a 
religious spirit. The piteous cry of the pee-wit has suggested 
ἴω the Russian peasant the notion that it is begging for water 


1 This story was told to me by M. Horologas, the theological master at the 
_ Gymnasium of Serres, who is a native of Asia Minor. But, as I heard it in 
_ Macedonia and have no evidence that it is not known in that province, I venture 
eee =m the prennet collection. 





—— =) 


294 Macedonian Folklore 


(peet, ‘to drink’), and a pious legend has been invented tc 
account for its thirst: it is a punishment for the bird’s dis 
obedience to the Lord’s behest to aid in the creation of the 
seas, rivers, and lakes of the earth. The sparrow’s chirping i 
explained as Jif! Jif! or “He (viz. Christ) is living! He i 
living!” thus urging on His tormentors to fresh cruelties; but 
the swallow, with opposite intent, cried: Umer! Umer! “ He i 
dead! He is dead!” ‘Therefore it is that to kill a swallow is 8 
sin, and that its nest brings good luck to a house.’ 


1 Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, pp. 3831—332, The Indians of America hav 
also construed the notes of birds, like the robin and the tomtit, into humar 
language, see Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. vu. Ὁ. 58. 








CHAPTER XVII. 


MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 


A far-travelled Game. 


ONE of the favourite pastimes of the Macedonian peasantry 
is the game known by the name of “The Meeting of Three 


Roads” (τὸ τριόδι). It is identical with our Nine Men’s Morris 


and is played in the following manner. A diagram consisting 
_ of three squares, one within the other, is drawn with a piece of 


chalk or charcoal upon a flat surface, a stone or board or table, 
as the case may be. The squares are joined with lines drawn 
across from the middle of the inner to the middle of the outer 
sides (fig. 1) and sometimes with diagonals as well (fig. 2). 


































































































Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 


The battle-field thus prepared, each of the two combatants 
is armed with nine pebbles, beans, grains, sticks, bits of paper 
or what not, of a colour different from that of the pieces of his 
opponent. The lead is decided by an appeal to chance. This 
is done in one or the other of several ways. First by means of 


296 Macedonian Folklore 


the familiar odd or even? (μονὰ ἢ Euya;). Next, by concealing 
a small object in one hand and then putting the question: 
cuckoo or wind? (κοῦκκος ἢ ἄνεμος ;), cuckoo representing the 
fist which contains the object, and wind the other. Thirdly, by 
wetting one side of ἃ sherd of pottery and throwing it up into 
the air. Before it has come to the ground the question sun or 
rain? (ἥλιος ἢ βροχή ;) is asked, sun being the dry, and rain 
the wet side. Lastly, by tossing up a coin and asking the 
Greek equivalent of our heads or tails? (τουρᾶς ἢ γράμματα, 
1.6. Imperial cipher or letters 7). 

The winner opens the campaign by planting down one of 
his pieces at some point of intersection, and is followed by 
his opponent. This is done by the two players alternately 
until all the pieces are placed. The end towards which each of 
them strives is to get three pieces in a row—to make a trio 
(νὰ κάνῃ Tpiod.)—and to prevent his adversary from attaining 
the same end. When all the pieces are disposed of, they are 
moved, one place at a time, by turns, with the same object in 
view. He who has made a trio is entitled to one of his 
opponent’s pieces. The struggle goes on with varying fortune 
until one of the combatants is left with only two pieces. Then 
the battle is lost and won. 

The game, as may be imagined, gives scope for considerable 
display of strategical skill both in the placing and in the moving 
of the pieces. By a judicious choice of captives the winner can 
render his enemy helpless. The decisive advantage, and the - 
one at which both sides aim, is the establishment of what is 
technically known as a “double door” (δίπορτο), that is, two 
trios, which can be managed by moving one piece to and fro; 
“ opening” one and “closing” the other simultaneously. When 
this advantage is secured the victory is a foregone conclusion. 

The game is also popular in Southern Greece. Its name 
seems to point to the antiquity of its origin} though evidence 
of its being known in classical times is wanting. An essentially 
similar, though simpler game, however, was known to the Romans. 
The Latin form corresponded to our Elizabethan Nine-holes, 


1 φριόδι(ον) is not used in Modern Greek except in reference to the game, the 
ordinary name for a meeting of three roads being τρίστρατο. 


Miscellaneous Notes 297 


and was played with three instead of nine pebbles. The 
point, nevertheless, was the same: “to range one’s pebbles in a 
continuous line.”? 
Like most popular sports the 7’riodi in various forms, more 
or less developed, has helped many and widely-separated races 
_ to kill the universal enemy. In Rome the game was considered 
favourable to the promotion of friendly intercourse between 
youths and maidens, so much so that Ovid, than whom none 
was more deeply versed in matters of this kind, pronounces it 
“a shame for a damsel not to know how to play it”; for 
“ludendo saepe paratur amor.” The old Egyptians also loved 
their own variant of the game, while the fierce Vikings of the 
North beguiled with it the tedium of their long sea-voyages. 
Their favourite variety of the game, to judge from a fragment 
of a board found in a Viking ship some years ago, corresponds to 
our fig. 1. Shakespeare mentions the more complex form 
of the game, which under various denominations still survives 
in many English counties. The most familiar of all the 
varieties is, of course, the Noughts and Crosses in which school- 
_ boys, those great preservers of ancient tradition, indulge to 
this day.* 


The game of Morra. 


Among the Jews of Salonica, the vast majority of whom are 
the descendants of Spanish refugees expelled by Ferdinand 
and Isabella, there survives a game common throughout 
Southern Europe and known to the French as mourre, and to- 
the Italians and the Spaniards as morra. It is by the latter 
name that the Jews of Salonica call it. Groups of shoeblacks 
can be seen at all times of the day, sitting on the pavement 
either as players or as lookers on. It is played by two, each 

1 parua tabella capit ternos utrimque lapillos, in qua uicisse est continuasse 


suos. Ovid, Ars Am. 11. 365; Trist. τι. 481. 

3 «The nine-men’s morris is fill’d up with mud.” Midsummer Night’s 
Dream, Act τι. Se. 2. 

3 For a full account of the game and its history, so far as it has been 
investigated, see A. R. Goddard, ‘Nine Men’s Morris’ in the Saga-Book of the 
Viking Club, Jan. 1901, pp. 376 foll. 


298 Macedonian Folklore 


throwing out a hand and both vociferating simultaneously the 
sum of all the fingers stretched out. He who succeeds in 
guessing the right number scores a point. 

It is a variety of the class designated “addition games” or 
“counting games,” which under one form or another are 
prevalent in many widely distant parts of the globe. The 
morra, or anear relative to it, under the name of “ finger- 
flashing ” (micare digitis), was very popular among the ancient 
Romans,' who also had a proverb derived from it: “ You can 
play at finger-flashing with him in the dark!”* they used to 
say of an exceptionally scrupulous and honest man. A variety 
of the game can be seen in English nurseries; another in 
English country lanes, the latter being also*mentioned by 
Petronius Arbiter, who lived in the time of Nero. The New 
Zealanders, Samoans, Chinese, and Japanese among modern 
nations, and the sculptures of the ancient Egyptians, supply us 


with a variety of finger-games, more or less closely akin to the 
morra.® 


Fire-Ordeal. 


“Even if he bite red-hot iron, I will not believe him.” 


(Kai σίδερο καμένο va δαγκάσ᾽ δέ᾽ τον πιστεύω.) 


“Even if she tread upon fire, I will not believe her.” 


(Καὶ ᾿ς τὴ φωτιὰ va πατήσ᾽ δὲ᾽ θά την πιστέψω.) 


These two phrases, which I heard on two different occasions 
in two different towns of Macedonia, Salonica and Serres, 
apparently embody a reminiscence of the ancient rite of passing 
through fire or leaping over burning brands or coals—an ordeal 
familiar to the reader of mediaeval histories and not yet quite 
forgotten even in this country.‘ 


1 Cic. De Div. τι. 85; De Off. m1. 90. 

2 dignum esse, dicunt, quicum in tenebris mices, Cic. De Off. 11. 77. 
3 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. pp. 74 foll. 

4 Tylor, Ib. vol. 1. p. 85. 


Η͂ iscellaneous Notes 299 


The two expressions, taken together, form a strikingly close, 
though of course quite fortuitous, paraphrase of the allusion to 
the same ordeal, contained in the Guard’s speech in Sophocles : 

“We are ready to lift masses of red-hot iron in our hands, 
and to pass through fire, and to appeal to the gods by oath 
that we neither did it, ete.”? 


The Ass. 


The peasants of the peninsula of Cassandra (ancient Pallene) 
call the ass by the name of Kyr (Mister) Mendios. The name 
seems to be derived from Mende, an ancient Eretrian colony in 
this part of Macedonia. That the ass was held in high esteem 
among the inhabitants of Mende is a fact resting on the 
tangible evidence of the coins of the colony. The ass, or the 
head of one, is a favourite device on these coins. In the oldest 
specimens the animal figures on the obverse with a phallic 

significance. Most of the later types represent Dionysos in 
various postures, sometimes lying on the back of an ass, or 
bear the effigy of that animal on the reverse. 

The culture of the vine, for which Mende was famed, 
accounts for the veneration paid to the god of wine, and the ass, 
apart from all phallic significance, enjoyed a full share of 
recognition as being the animal above all others useful to the 
Macedonian peasant in olden times, as it is to this day. It is not 
unlikely that for this very reason the asses of Mende may have 
excelled those of less favoured districts, and a ‘“ Mendaean ass ” 
(ὄνος Mevédaios) may have been a common phrase, whence the 
modern humorous appellation Mister Mendios (Mévdnos). 

It must further be observed that in Modern Greek, even 
more than in English, the term ass (yaidapos) suggests an 
insult, and the Greeks (especially the peasants) are always 
anxious to avoid it in ordinary conversation. This feeling of 
delicacy forces them to use euphemisms, for example, “ the 


1*Hyev δ᾽ ἕτοιμοι καὶ μύδρους αἴρειν χεροῖν 
καὶ πῦρ διέρπειν καὶ θεοὺς ὁρκωμοτεῖν 
τὸ μήτε δρᾶσαι etc. Soph. Ant. 264 foll. 


900 Macedonian Folklore 


beast”! (τὸ €@’) par excellence. One of the most amusing 
subterfuges of this description which came to my notice was 
at Nigrita. In that district the title of Exarch (ἔξαρχος) is 
familiarly applied to the ass, the sobriquet having originated as 
an expression of Orthodox Hellenic contempt for the schismatic 
Bulgarian ecclesiastic of that title. 

When a euphemism or a sobriquet is not ready at hand, and 
the Macedonian peasant finds himself compelled to call an ass 
an ass, he introduces the offensive term with the formula 
“begging your pardon” (we συμπάθειο), a formula likewise 
accompanying the mention of a mule (μουλάρι), a cucumber 
(ἀγγοῦρι), and other words which to the rustic ear sound 
impolite. 


The perils of portraature. 


At Salonica I one day witnessed a scene which was both 
entertaining and instructive. An old negress was sitting on 
the pavement with a small basket of baked chick-peas on one 
side, a small tray of honey cakes on the other, and a stout 
staff across her knees. The old lady was on the look out for 
customers and on her guard against the mischievous street 
urchins. Suddenly an enemy of a different type aroused her 
wrath. This was no other than a French tourist who, attracted 
by her picturesque appearance, had taken up his station on 
the opposite side of the street and was complacently placing 
his camera in position, preparatory to snap-shotting the black 
lady. But he was not destined to carry out his design. The 
Frenchman proposed but the negress disposed, and that in 
a manner not calculated to encourage a repetition of the 
attempt. The old lady’s emotion evidently sprang from deeper 
sources than mere feminine modesty. Though I did not deem 
it safe to approach her on the subject, she seemed to be animated 
by the fear lest a portrait of her face should be followed by 
her death. 


1 Cp. the analogous use of the word “animal” for “bullock” in English, 
and of ‘‘irrational”’ (sc. animal) (ἄλογο) for ‘‘ horse ”’ in Modern Greek. 


4 
; 





Miscellaneous Notes 301 


This superstition is exceedingly wide-spread. A parallel 
instance from a Greek island is quoted by Mr Frazer, who 
has also collected and classified a number of analogous cases 
from all parts of the world’, from Scotland to the lands of 
the Battas, the Canelos Indians, and other brother-barbarians 
of East and West. 


A School Superstition. 


Salonica schoolboys hold that a hair stretched across the 
palm of the hand will make the master’s cane split. English 
schoolboys entertain an identical belief in a hair, but it must 
be a horsehair. “If the hair be plucked fresh from the tail 
of a living horse so much the better.”? Their Macedonian 
contemporaries are not so fastidious; any hair will do for 
them, provided it is not thick or dark enough to attract the 
master’s attention. 


Πα The Golden Bough, vol. 1. pp. 295 foll. 


2 Τὶ Parker Wilson, ‘School Superstitions,’ in The Royal Magazine, Sept. 1901. 
Ι 


CHAPTER XVIII. 
RIDDLES.! 


THE riddles given below form an inexhaustible source of 
amusement to the peasants. When conversation flags, it is the 
riddle that saves the face of the host. At weddings and other 
festivals they serve to fill the gaps between the songs. At 
the midsummer feast of the Κλήδονας in some parts the 
riddles take the place of the love-couplets in general vogue. 
This last is the only occasion on which the riddle may be said 
to retain some shred of the dignity which mythologists ascribe 
to it. According to many authorities, Mr Tylor among them, 
“the sense riddle” was in earlier times “an enigma fraught 
with mythical meaning—an oracular utterance, clothed in dark 
language.”* The oracular significance of the riddle has been 
completely lost in Macedonia, with the exception of the dim 
memory which lingers in the KAndovas divining rites. At all 
other times the riddle is a pastime pure and simple. 

Many of the following examples are ingenious; some far- 
fetched, and a few positively absurd, though this is largely a 
matter of taste. They all, or nearly all, however, in order to 
be estimated at their true value, or indeed in order to be at all 
understood, require a certain familiarity with the Macedonian 
peasant’s life. Some of them are purposely couched in am- 


1 These riddles have been collected by the writer during his travels up and 
down the country ; but he afterwards compared his own stock with the contents 
of a booklet already mentioned (A. A. Tovoiov, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Χώρα ἢ 
and found that several of them are given in it. Cp. G. Georgeakis et Léon 
Pineau, Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, pp. 289 foll, 

2 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 346. 





Riddles 303 


biguous phraseology; for the Macedonian farmer, like the 
French wit of a certain class, delights in double-entendre. Of 
this last category I will translate only those which can be 
read without a blush. The rest may remain in the decent 
obscurity of the original In justice to the ingenious authors 
of these risqué compositions, it should be observed that what 
to a school-bred ear may sound coarse, is nothing but legitimate 
humour to the less fastidious and more natural folk of the 
fields. The songs and tales incorporated in the present volume 
amply testify to the Macedonian’s delicacy of taste, where this 
quality is called for. If he occasionally likes to indulge in a 
kind of drollery which reminds one too forcibly of Balzac’s 
tales, the offence may readily be pardoned. 

I have made no attempt at geographical classification ; for, 
with a few exceptions duly noted, I heard the same riddles over 
and over again in different parts of the country, as the number 
of variants shows. With regard to the translations I have 
above all things aimed at accuracy and lucidity, two qualities 
which can best be secured in plain prose; but in some cases 
I have ventured to limp in numbers, when the numbers came. 


1 See Appendix VI. 


904 Macedonian Folklore 


Βρέτα." 


1: 

"Eva πρᾶμα μαγλυνό, 

Ky ἀπὸ μέσα μαλλιαρό, 

Ky ἀπὸ μέσα ᾿ς τὸ μαλλὶ 

Ἔχει μιὰ μπουκιὰ καλή. (κάστανο.) 
2. 


Χιλιοτρύπητο λαῆνι 
Kai ποτὲς νερὸ δὲ᾽ χύνει. (σφουγγάρι.) 


9. 


Πετεινὸς" νυχάτος, νυχοποδαράτος" 
Περπατεῖ καὶ κρίνει τὴ δικαιοσύνη. (καντάρι.) 


4. 


᾿Ασημένιο πηγαδάκι 

Μὲ στενούτσκο στοματάκι, 
Σκύφτ᾽ ὁ λάφταρος καὶ πίνει, 
Οὔτ᾽ ὁ λάφταρος χορταΐνει, 

Οὔτε τὸ πηγάδ᾽ ξηραίνει. (βυζί. 


ὅ. 

"Aotpa μαῦρα πρόβατα, ξυλένιος τσομπάνης. (ἀμπέλι.) 
Or 

Μαῦρα ἄσπρα τὰ λαχτέντα καὶ Enpy ᾽ναι ἡ πέτσα. 


(σταφύλια.)" 


: Lit. ‘things to be found out.’ The modern word βρέτο may either be a 
modification of the.old form εὑρετόν, as is commonly held, or it may: have 
originated in the question which generally follows the enunciation of the riddle: 
Βρέ το (pl. Βρέ ra)! ‘‘find it out!” 

2 var. ἀετός. 

3 var. *Ayyedos vuxdros καὶ σκαντσαρωνάτος. 

4 This variant I obtained at Melenik, but there is strong internal evidence 
to show that it comes from Western Macedonia; for the word λαχτέντα is peculiar 
to the dialect of the latter district. It is Wallachian, and, like its Latin original 
(lactentia), means (1) ‘sucking lambs,’ (2) ‘ milky, i.e. juicy things.’ At Melenik 
my informant vaguely and erroneously interpreted it ‘ trifles’ (μικρὰ πράγματα). 





Riddles 305 


~RIDDLES. 


1. 


Without as smooth as glass, 

Within a woolly mass, 

But hid amid the wool 

There lurks a nice mouthful. (A chestnut.) 


2. 


A pitcher with a thousand chinks, 
Yet ne’er lets out the water it drinks. (A sponge.) 


3. 


A cock with claws and hooked feet, 
He proudly struts along the street 
And gives each man what’s fair and meet. (A steelyard.) 


4. 


To silver spring with narrow chink 

The thirsty stoops his fill to drink. 

But neither does he have his fill, 

Nor does he drain the silver rill. (A mother’s breast.) 


5. 


White sheep and black sheep 
Wooden shepherds keep. (Grapes and the vine stakes.) 
Or 
Black or white are the juicy things,! and dry is their skin. (Grapes.) 


1 See note on the original. 


906 Macedonian Folklore 


6. 
᾽ ” ς A U ’ x , Ν 
M’ ἔστειλεν ἡ μάνα μου va με δώσῃς τὸ τσίντσιλι, τὸ 
μίντσιλι, γιὰ νὰ τσιντσιλιάσουμε καὶ νὰ μιντσιλιάσουμε καὶ 


πάλι νά σ᾽ το φέρω. (καντάρι.) 
i, 
᾿Ασπρομάλλης κῇἢ ἀσπρογένης μέσα ᾿ς TH γῆς χωμένος. 
(πράσο.) 
8. 
᾿Απὸ πάνου σὰν τηγᾶνι, 
᾿Απὸ κάτου σὰν βαμβάκι, 
Ky ἀπὸ πίσου σὰν ψαλίδι. 
Τί εἶμαι; (χελιδόνα.) 
9, . 
(καπνός.) 


Ψηλός, ψηλὸς καλόγερος καὶ κόκκαλα δὲν ἔχει. 


10. 
Σκίζω, plo τὸ δᾳδί, βρίσκω μέσα 
Νύφη καὶ γαμπρό, 
Πεθερὰ καὶ πεθερό. 


11. 


(καρύδι.) 


τὴ Ἢ σ BA 
yo ἕνα κἄτι 
(oe ae 5:. (Ψ , 
Μέσ᾽ ᾿ς ἕνα σεντουκακι 
/ 
Μὲ πολλὰ κλειδιὰ κλεισμένο 
Καὶ καλὰ σηγουρεμένο, 
“ dere > \ \ Ν 
Av To Yao αὕὗτο TO κᾶτι 
, / 
Ti to θέλ᾽ τὸ σεντουκάκι; (ψυχή.) 


12. 


“Orn μέρα τρώει κρέας, καὶ TO Bpad μετρᾷ τὰ ἄστρα 
(γκάτσινος.) 


Riddles 307 


6. 


My mother’s love, and give to me 

The chink-chink, the jingle-jingle, 

To chink-chink and jingle-jingle, 

And then she’ll send it back to thee. (A steelyard.) 


7 


Hoary beard and hoary hair, 
*Neath the earth he has his lair. (A leek.) 


8. 
My back as frying-pan does appear ; 
Beneath a snowy breast ; 


A pair of scissors jut in the rear ; 
What am I? have you guessed? (A swallow.) 


9. 


A lanky monk and lean, 
Yet not a bone is seen. (A column of smoke.) 


10. 


1 chop the pine and find inside 
A mother, father, groom and bride. (A walnut.) 


by, 


I keep a tiny something in a tiny box, 
Secured under many keys and many locks: 
If the tiny something breaketh loose, 

Of the tiny box what is the use? (The soul.) 


12. 


He feeds on beef the livelong day, 
At night he scans the Milky Way. (A prod or goad.) 


1 The prod, with which the husbandman urges on his team in ploughing, is 
left at night outside the cottage in a corner, the sharp point upwards, staring, as 
it were, at the star-bespangled sky, 

20—2 


908 Macedonian Folklore 


13. 
Κλειδώνω μανταλώνω: καὶ τὸν κλέφτ᾽ ἀφίνω" μέσα. 
Or 
Κλειδώνω τὸ σπιτάκι μου καὶ μέσα κλέφτης περπατεῖ. 
(ἥλιος.) 
14. 


"Aompo εἶναι τὸ χωράφι 

\ ‘ ς / 
Καὶ μελαγχροινὸς ὁ σπόρος, 
Καὶ μιλεῖ καὶ συντυχαίνει 
Σὰ > lal “ / U 

ἃν ἐκεῖνον ποῦ To σπέρνει. (γράψιμο.) 

1ὅ. 

Γοῦρνά μου πελεκητή, 
Καὶ σκαμμένη καὶ χυτή, 
Πάει ἡ μάνα μου νὰ πιῇ" 

ἢ Ae HOP . , 7 
Οὔτ᾽ ἡ μάνα μου χορταίνει, 
Οὔτ᾽ ἡ γοῦρνα δὲν ἀδειάζει. (μεταλαβιά.) 


16. 
To φεῖδι tpwy τὴ θάλασσα, x ἡ θάλασσα τὸ φεῖδι. 
(φυτῆλι» 

17; 


Δαάσκαλέ μου, ἀγαθέ μου, 
Μ᾿ ἔδειρες καὶ ἔφυγα. 
᾽ \ ‘ a / 
Σ τὸν δρόμον ὅπου πάαινα 
Μέγα θηριὸ ἀπάντησα" 
Εἶχε κεφάλια πέντε, 
Τέσσεραις ἀναπνοαῖς, 
Χέρια, ποδάρια εἴκοσι, 
Νύχια ἑκατό" ' 
"Av τωὕρῃς, τί ᾽ν αὐτό; (λείψανο.) 
18. 
Βασιλεᾶς δὲν εἶμαι, κορώνα φορῶ, 
’ fw \ » a a a , 
Ῥολόϊ δὲν ἔχω, THs ὥραις μετρῶ. (πετεινός.) 


1 var. μπερατώνω. 
2 var. βρίσκω. 





Riddles 309 


13. 


The doors are fast with locks and chains, 
And yet the thief admittance gains. (The sun.) 


14. 


The seed is dark, but white the field, 
It speaks and talks as he who tilled! (Writing.) 


15. 


To yonder carved, golden lake 

My mother goes her thirst to slake. 

But nor does she her thirst allay, 

Nor fails the carved, golden bay. (Holy Communion.) 


16. 


A little snake swallows the lake, 
And then the lake swallows the snake. (The wick of an oil lamp.) 


17. 
My master, you’d flog me; I fled, 
And on as I sped, 
A horrid beast I meet: 
With twice five hands and feet, 
Of heads it owned five 
With breathings four alive, 
Of nails five score, 
Neither more nor less, 
Master, can’t you guess? (A funeral.) 


18. 
King am I none, 


Yet a crown on my head I wear. 
Watch have I none, 
Yet the time I declare. (A cock.) 
1 Cp. the Albanian riddle: ‘‘The field is white, the seed is black; it is sown 


with the hand and reaped with the mouth—What is it?” ‘‘A letter.” Hahn, 
in Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. τ. p. 211. 


910 Macedonian Folklore 
19. 


Τριγύρω, γύρω κάγκελα καὶ μέσα πάπια κελαϊδεῖ. 
(γλῶσσα. 
20. 
Φορτωμένο καραβάκι ᾿ς τὴ σπηλειὰ πααίν᾽ Ky ἀράζει. 
(χουλιάρι.) 
21. 
Μιὰ μάνα εἶχε ἕνα παιδί, καὶ μιὰ ἄλλη μάνα εἶχέ ᾽ν ἄλλο 
παιδί, καὶ ᾽ς τὸ δοξάτο τρεῖς κάθουνταν. 
(Mana, θυγατέρα κὴ ἀγγονή.) 
22. 
(Of literary or perhaps priestly origin.) 
Ἦλθον λῃσταὶ καταλῦσαι τὴν πόλιν, Kal ἡ μὲν πόλις 
διέφυγεν, οἱ δὲ κάτοικοι συνελήφθησαν. (ἁλιεῖς καὶ γρῖπος.) 


23. 

Μὲ τὸν ἥλιο τὰ βγάζει, 

Μὲ τὸν ἥλιο Ta μπάζει. (τὰ ζῶα.) 
24, 

Τὰ μακρυὰ κοντά, (μάτια), 

Τὰ δύο σὲ τρία, (ποδάρια), 

Μαχαλᾶς χάλασε, (δόντια). (γεράματα.) 
25. 

Σκοινιὰ ἁπλώνει, 

Κουβάρια μαζώνει. 
Or 

Ὄρνιθα Kava, Kava, 

Πηδᾷ ᾿ς τὸν τοῖχο καὶ γεννᾷ. (κολοκυθιά.) 
20. 

Δυὸ κορητσούδια ἀπ᾽ τὰ μαλλιὰ τραβιοῦνται. (λανάρια.) 


1 The Macedonian farmer διώχνει τὰ ζῶα τὸ ταχύ, and τὰ δέχεται τὸ βράδυ. 
These are the technical terms for “αχϊνίηρ out” and ‘driving in” cattle. 





kiddles 311 


19. 


A fence of stakes all round the pen, 
And in the midst a cackling hen. (The tongue.) 


20. 
A hollow ship with freight of slops 
Inside a cave her anchor drops. (A spoon.) 
| 21. 


A daughter had a mother, 
A second had another, 
They sit together in the hall, 
And yet there are but three in all. 
(Grandmother, daughter and granddaughter.) 


22. 


Pirates came a town to sack: 
The folk are caught, the town falls back. 
(Fishermen and the seine; the fish are caught, the sea escapes through 
the meshes of the net.) 


23. 
Out with the sun, 


In with the sun. (The cattle.) 


24. 


The long short, (eyes), 
The two three, (legs plus walking staff), 
The castle ruined, (teeth). (Old age.) 


25. 
It spreads out ropes and gathers up coils. 
Or 


A hen clucks, clucks. She then springs upon the wall and lays her 
eggs there. (The pumpkin-plant.) 


26. 
Two little maids tearing each other’s hair. (A pair of wool-cards.) 


912 Macedonian Folklore 
a. 
Πίσω ς To σπιτάκι μ᾽ νυφίτσα καμαρώνει. (κοπριά.) 


28. 


Ὃ θειός μου Κοντοθόδωρος σὲ σαράντα παπλώματα τυλι- 
μένος. (λάχανο.) 


29, 
Ἕνας Ψψηλός. ψηλὸς καλόγερος καὶ πῆττα ᾿ς τὸ κεφάλι. 
(λυχνιᾶς.) 
30. 
Προσκελώνει ὁ βάθρακας, κάθεται ὁ μαυρογένης. 
(τέντξερες.) 
31. 


᾿Απὸ πάνω πετσοῦδι, 
᾿Απὸ κάτω πετσοῦδι, 
Σ τὴ μέση ἰμτσοῦδι. (κάστανο.) 


32. 

‘O θειός μου XartnOsSwpos μὲ δεκοχτὼ Covvapia. 
Or 

"Exo ἄντρα μὲ δεκοχτὼ᾽ Covvapia. 
Or 


Ὃ θειός μου Κοντοπίθαρος ζουσμένος μὲ σαράντα ξουνάρια. 
(βαγιένι.) 
33. 
Ἔχω ἕνα βαρελάκι 
Μὲ δυὸ λογιῶ κρασάκι. (αὐγό.) 


34. 


Βιρβιρίτσα ἀναιβαΐίνει, 
Βιρβιρίτσα καταιβαΐίνει. 
Ὦ χαρὰ ᾿ς τὴ βιρβιρίτσα 


IP ἀναιβαίν᾽ καὶ καταιβαίνει. (σκοῦπα.) 


1 var. σαραντοχτώ or (English) σαράντα. 





hiddles 313 


27. 
At the back of my cottage there is a little bride standing proudly. 
(A dunghill.) 
28. 
_ My Uncle Theodore the Short wrapt up in forty blankets. 
(A cabbage.) 
29. 


A tall lanky monk with a pie on his head. (The oil-lamp-stand.) 


30. 
The frog spreads out his legs and Blackbeard sits on him. 
(The kettle on the trivet.) 
31. | 
Skin on top, skin beneath, in the middle a morsel. (A chestnut.) 


32. 

My Uncle Hadji-Theodore girt with eighteen belts. 
Or 

I have a husband girt with eighteen belts. 
Or 

My Uncle Stubby-jar girt with forty belts. (A cask.) 


33. 
I have a little barrel containing two sorts of wine. (An egg.) 


34. 


A smart little maid comes up, 

A smart little maid goes down. 

Oh joy to the smart little maid 
Who goes up and down! (A broom.) 


914 Macedonian Folklore 


35. 
Μιὰ κοντὴ κ᾽ ἕνας ψηλός" 
Σφυρίζ᾽ ἡ κοντή, χορεύ᾽ ὁ ψηλός. 
(τσικρίκι Kn ἀνέμη.) 
90. 


Τέσσερα παιδιά, 
"Eva τ᾽ ἄλλο κυνηγᾷ. (ἀνέμη.) 


81. ; 
‘O θειός μου Κοντοθόδωρος μέσ᾽ ᾿ς ᾽τ ἄχυρα κυλιέται. 
(αὐγό.) 
38. 
Χίώλιοι μύλιοι καλογέροι 
Σ ἕνα ῥάσο τυλιμένοι. 
Or 
Χώλιῃς μύλιῃς κερατσούδαις ᾽ς ἕνα πάπλωμα τυλιμέναις. 
Or 
Χίλια μύλια Τενιτσάρια ᾿ς ἕνα ῥοῦχο τυλιμένα. 
(ῥόϊδο.) 
39. 


ἴἜΛλψυχος, ψυχὴ δὲν ἔχει, 
Καὶ τὴ γῆς τρυπᾷ καὶ βγαίνει. (μαντάρι.) 
40. 


ἼἜΛψυχος, ψυχὴ δὲν ἔχει, 
Ψυχαῖς παίρνει καὶ τρέχει. (καράβι. 


41. 


"Aparros μαλλὶ δὲν ἔχει. 
Κῶλον ἔχει, οὐρὰ δὲν ἔχει. (σάλιαγκας.) 


hiddles 315 


35. 
A short maid and a tall youth: 
The short maid plays the pipe, the tall youth dances.! 
(The spinning wheel and the winding frame.) 
36. 


Four boys chasing one another. (The winding frame.) 


My little Uncle Theodore rolling in the straw. (An egg.) 


38. 


A thousand, ten thousand monks wrapt up in one cassock. 
Or 


A thousand, ten thousand maids wrapt up in one blanket. 
| Or 
A thousand, ten thousand Janizaries wrapt up in one cloak. 
(A pomegranate.) 
39. 


He is soulless, has no soul, yet he pierces through the earth and comes 
out. (A mushroom.) 


40. 
She is soulless, has no soul, yet she takes souls and flees. (A ship.) 


41. 


He is hairless, has no hair ; he has a hind part, but has no tail.* 
(A snail.) 


1 The Albanian version of this riddle is ‘‘The monkey dances, while the 
white cow is milked. What is it?” ‘‘The spinning wheel.” Hahn, in Tozer, 
Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. 1. p. 211. 

2 Cp. the Albanian version: “‘Though it is not an ox, it has horns; though 
it is not an ass, it has a pack-saddle; and wherever it goes it leaves silver 
behind.— What is it?” ‘‘A snail.” Hahn, in Tozer, ib. 


916 Macedonian Folklore 
42. 


Τὴ νύχτα κυρά, τὴ μέρα δοῦλα. (σκοῦπα.) 
43. 

Τὴ μέρα τύλει τύλει, 

Τὴ. νύχτα ἀποτύλει. (στρῶμα.) 
44, 

Ὅλη μέρα κρεμασμένος 

Καὶ τὸ βράδυ σηκωμένος. (μάνταλος.) 


45. 
Τὸ μαλλὶ μαλλὶ πλακώνει Kai τὴ τρύπα θεραπεύει. 
(μάτι.) 

46. 


"R r / , 
X@ vEepo; πινω κρασι. 


Δὲν ἔχω νερό; πίνω νερό. (μυλωνᾶς.) 


47. 

Xihua ἀνάσκελα, χίλια προύμυτα. (κεραμίδια.) 
48. 

Πάνω ᾿ς τὸ σπιτάκι μ᾽ ἕνα φιλὶ πεπόνι. (φεγγάρι. 
49, 


, ’ \ / 
Πάνω ᾿ς τὰ κεραμίδια 
“Eva κόσκινο καρύδια. (ἄστρα.) 


1 var. καρύδια ἁπλωμένα. 


hiddles 317 


42. 
At night an idle lady, in the day-time a housemaid. (A broom.) 


43. 
In the day rolled up, at night rolled out. (A mattress.) 


44, 
All day lying down, he rises in the evening.! (The door-bolt.) 


45. 
Hair meets hair, and they protect the hole. (The eye.) 


46. 


Have I water? I drink wine. 
Have I no water? I drink water. (A miller.) 


/ 


41. 
A thousand legs up, a thousand noses down. (The tiles on the roof.)? 


48. 
Over the roof of my cottage there is a slice of melon. (The moon.) 


49. 
Over the tiles of my roof there is a sieve full of nuts.? (The stars.) 


1 Cp. the Zulu riddle on the same subject: 

Q. ‘‘Guess ye a man who does not lie down at night: he lies down in the 
morning until the sun sets; he then awakes, and works all night; he does not 
work by day; he is not seen when he works.” 

A. “The closing-poles of the cattle-pen.” 

Callaway, in Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 91. 

2 The tiles are curved and lie in rows: convex and concave alternately. 

3 With this riddle cp. the Spanish: 

‘What is the dish of nuts that is gathered by day, and scattered by night? ”— 
‘The stars.” Tylor, ib., p. 92. 

A still closer parallel is furnished by the Lithuanian zagdédka in which the 
sky is likened to ‘‘a sieve full of nuts.” The idea is also found in one of its 
Slovak cousins, in which there is further mentioned a very big nut which is the 
moon. Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, pp. 347, 348. Ralston remarks: 
The oldest zagadki seem to have referred to the elements and the heavenly 
bodies, finding likenesses to them in various material shapes. 


΄ 


918 Macedonian Folklore 


50. 
Κόκκινο μοναστῆρι μὲ μαύρους καλογέρους. (καρποῦξι.) 
δ1. . 
To δένω περπατεῖ, τὸ λύνω στέκεται. (τσαροῦχι.) 
58. 


ἼΛκαρπος σὲ ἄκαρπον μὲ δυὸ τσουβάλια ἀνύφαντα ἦρθε καὶ 
γυρεύει αἷμα ἀπὸ ξύλο. 


1 This riddle I heard at Cavalla from a native of Southern Greece. 








Riddles 319 


50. 
A red monastery inhabited by black monks. (A water-melon.) 


51. 
I bind it, and it walks; I loose it, and it stops. (A sandal.) 


52. 


A fruitless one comes to a fruitless one, with two sacks which had not 
been woven, and begs of him blood from wood. (A bachelor comes to 
another bachelor, with a couple of goatskins and asks him for wine.) 


Theological Riddles. 


Perhaps it would not be uninteresting to give in this 
connection a few examples of a branch of popular literature 
which resembles the riddle in form, though its origin is entirely 
different. This is a kind of Catechism, a lesson in scriptural 
lore, consisting of questions and answers; a method of con- 
veying knowledge once extremely popular in the East and by 
no means confined to sacred subjects. Indeed all sciences from 
Theology to Philology were once treated in this manner, and 
the earliest modern text-book of Greek Grammar—the Erote- 
mata of Manuel Chrysoloras, who lectured on Greek at Florence 
from 1397 to 1400—was written in that form.! The volume of 
MSS. which has already yielded a plentiful crop of medical 
lore? supplies me with the following selection of theological 
riddles. 


1 Sir R. C. Jebb, ‘ The Classical Renaissance,’ Cambridge Modern History, 
vol. 1. pp. 541—2. 
2 vy. supra, pp. 230 foll.; infra, Appendix IV. 


320 Macedonian Folklore 


> , \ a Ss ee. 1 
Epwtnots παλαιὰ Kai ἀπόκρισις. 


Ἔ».--- Τίς μὴ γεννηθεὶς ἀπέθανε καὶ ἀποθανὼν eis τὴν 
κοιλίαν τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ ἐτάφη ; 

᾽Απ.---ἰΟ ᾿Αδάμ. 

Ἔρ.--Αλαλος ἄγραφον ἐπιστολὴν βαστάζων ἔρχεται εἰς 
πόλιν ἀθεμελίωτον ; 

᾿Α-.---᾿ πόστολος ἡ περιστερά, ἐπιστολὴ τὸ κάρφος τῆς 

/ / ς Ἂν “ fal 
ἐλαίας, πόλις ἡ κιβωτὸς τοῦ Noe. 

Ἔ.---Πότε ἐχάρη ὅλος ὁ κόσμος; 

᾽᾿Απ.---Ὅταν ἐξῆλθον οἱ μετὰ Noe εἰς [- ἀπὸ 1] τὴν κι- 
βωτόν. 

Ἔρ.---Πότε ἀπέθανε τὸ τέταρτον τοῦ κόσμου; 

᾽Απ.--- Ὅταν ἀπέκτεινεν ὁ Kaiv τὸν "Αβελ. 

Ἔρ.---Τίς ἀπέθανε καὶ οὐκ ὦζησεν, ἀλλ᾽ οὔτε εὑρέθη οὔτε 
ἐτάφη; 

᾽Απ-π.---Γοῦ Λὼτ ἡ γυνή, ὅτε ἀπελιθώθη καὶ ἐγένετο στήλη 
ἅλατος. 

Ἔρ.--- ίς τὴν ἰδίαν θυγατέρα ἔλαβεν εἰς γυναῖκα; 

᾽Απ.---ὀ- Ὁ ᾿Αδὰμ τὴν Εὔαν, [ἢ] ἐκ τῆς πλευρᾶς αὐτοῦ ἦν. 

Ἔ».--- Τίς ψεύματα εἰπὼν σέσωσται, καὶ ἀλήθειαν εὐπὼν 
ἀπώλετο; 

᾽Απ.---Πέτρος ἀρνησάμενος τὸν Χριστὸν ἐσώθη, καὶ ᾿Τούδας 
> / ἃ x / > , by > , 
εἰπών, ὃν av φιλήσω αὐτός ἐστιν, ἀπώλετο. 

Ἔ».---Τί λέγει: παπᾶς ἀχειροτόνητος, διάκονος ἀρνησίθεος, 
κηπουρὸς ἀγέννητος ; 

5 ἴω ’ ͵ > , ς / ie 

Ar.—Ilaras ἀχειροτόνητος ᾿Ιωάννης ὁ Βαπτιστής, διάκονος 
«ς 4 \ ie ΄ ᾿ 
ὁ Πέτρος, κηπουρὸς ὁ ᾿Αδάμ. 

1 The spelling is reduced to the uniformity of accepted rules. A servile 
adherence to the scribe’s orthographical eccentricities would have served no 


purpose but to enhance the reader’s mystification. These eccentricities belong 
to the class abundantly illustrated in Appendices ITI. and IV. 





δι. 


Riddles : 321 


Ancient Questions and Answers. 


@.—Who not being born died, and having died was buried in his 
mother’s womb? 
A,.— Adam. 


Q@.—A messenger that could not speak, bearing a letter that was not 
written, came to a city that had no foundations ? 
A.—Messenger the dove, letter the olive leaf, city Noah’s ark. 


@.—When did the whole of mankind rejoice ? 
A.—When those who were with Noah came out of the ark. 


@.—When did a quarter of mankind die? 
A.—When Cain killed Abel. 


@.—Who died and did not smell, but was neither found nor buried ? 
-A.—The wife of Lot, when she was petrified and became a pillar 
of salt. 


@.—Who took his own daughter to wife ? 
A.—Adam took Eve, who was born of his rib. 


@.—Who having lied was saved, and who having spoken the truth 
perished ? 

A.—Peter by denying Christ was saved, and Judas by saying “ Whom- 
soever I shall kiss, that same is he” perished. 


Q.—What is the meaning of: an unordained priest, a renegade deacon, 


an unborn gardener ? 
A.—The unordained priest is John the Baptist, the deacon is Peter, 


the gardener is Adam. 


322 Macedonian Folklore 


Analogous to these question and answer compositions are 


the old French and English collections which would now be 


called riddle-books. One of them, entitled Demands Joyous, 


which may be rendered Amusing Questions, was printed in 


English by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1511. From this work, of 


which one copy only is said to be extant, the writer in The 
Book of Days has culled a few “demands” with their 
“responses.” ἢ | 

With some of these specimens also compare the riddles 
(ten questions) propounded by the Drakos in Hahn (IIT. Τηνιακά 
1. Τὸ παραμύθι τοῦ Apaxov), where the hero by the help of the 
wise old woman answers them all and the Drakos bursts. 
 Riddle-stories of this description are likewise common among 
the Slavs.* 


a 


Two Poems of Mystic Meaning. 


Extract from Εἰ. B. Tylor’s Primitive Culture, Vol. τ. pp. 86—87. 


“There are two poems kept in remembrance among the modern Jews, 
and printed at the end of their book of Passover services in Hebrew and 


English. One is that known as Chad gadyd: it begins, ‘A kid, a kid, my ) 


father bought for two pieces of money’; and it goes on to tell how a cat 
came and ate the kid, and a dog came and bit the cat, and so on to the 
end.—‘ Then came the Holy One, blessed be He! and slew the angel of 
death, who slew the butcher, who killed the ox, that drank the water, that 
quenched the fire, that burnt the stick, that beat the dog, that bit the cat, 
that ate the kid, that my father bought for two pieces of money, a kid, a 
kid.’ This composition is in the ‘Sepher Haggadah,’ and is looked on by 
some Jews as a parable concerning the past and future of the Holy Land. 
According to one interpretation, Palestine, the kid, is devoured by Babylon 


the cat; Babylon is overthrown by Persia, Persia by Greece, Greece by 


Rome, till at.’ast the Turks prevail in the land; but the Edomites (ce. 
the nations/of Europe) shall drive out the Turks, the angel of death shall 
destroy the enemies of Israel, and his children shall be restored under the 
rule of Messiah. Irrespectively of any such particular interpretation, the 
solemnity of the ending may incline us to think that we really have the 


᾿ 





' 


d 


—_ 





-,»»ὲ 


composition here in something like its first form, and that it was written — 


to convey a mystic meaning. If so, then it follows that our familiar 


1 The Book of Days, vol. τ. p. 332. 
2 Contes Populaires Grecs, edited by J. Pio, Gopenlingen, 1879. 
3 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p, 3538. 





᾿ς Mystic Poems 323 


nursery tale of the old woman who couldn’t get her kid (or pig) over the 
stile, and wouldn’t get home till midnight, must be considered a broken- 
down adaptation of this old Jewish poem. 

The other composition is a counting-poem, and begins thus : 


‘Who knoweth one? I (saith Israel) know One: 
One is God, who is over heaven and earth. 

Who knoweth two? I (saith Israel) know two: 
Two tables of the covenant; but One is our God 

Who is over the heavens and the earth.’ 


(And so forth, accumulating up to the last verse, which is—) 

‘Who knoweth thirteen? I (saith Israel) know thirteen: Thirteen 
divine attributes, twelve tribes, eleven stars, ten commandments, nine 
months preceding childbirth, eight days preceding circumcision, seven 
days of the week, six books of the Mishnah, five books of the Law, four 
matrons, three patriarchs, two tables of the covenant; but One is our God 
who is over the heavens and the earth.’ 

This is one of a family of counting-poems, apparently held in much 
favour in mediaeval Christian times; for they are not yet quite forgotten 
in country places. An old Latin version runs: ‘Unus est Deus,’ etc., and 
one of the still-surviving English forms begins, ‘One’s One all alone, and 
evermore shall be so,’ thence reckoning on as far as ‘Twelve, the twelve 
apostles.’ Here both the Jewish and Christian forms are or have been 
serious, so it is possible that the Jew may have imitated the Christian, 
but the nobler form of the Hebrew poem here again gives it a claim to be 
thought the earlier.”! 


The pieces given below are some of the Macedonian parallels 
to the compositions discussed in the foregoing paragraph. 


1 Mendes, Service for the First Nights of Passover, London, 1862 (in the 
Jewish interpretation, the word shunra,—‘cat,’ is compared with Shindr). 
Halliwell, Nursery Rhymes, p. 288; Popular Rhymes, p. 6. 


21—2 


394 Macedonian Folklore 


L. 
1. (From Salonica.) 
ΠΠῆγες ᾿ς τὸ κυνῆγι; 
Πῆγα. 
/ / 
Σκότωσες λαγό; 
Σκότωσα. 
Τὸν μαγείρεψες; 
Τὸν μαγείρεψα. 
μαγ 
"Edaes ; 
“Edaa. 
\ , τὴν 
Μὲ κράτησες καὶ μένα; 
Σὲ κράτησα. 
Ποῦ ’y τος; 
Σ τὸ ντουλάτπι. 
Κρίκ, κράκ---ἔσπασε τὸ κλειδί. 
Tlod ᾽ν ὁ λαγός; 
Ν BA ς 4 
Tov ἔφαε ἡ γάτα. 
ΤΠ a F_'D ς / 
οὔ ᾽ν ἡ γάτα; 
ἊΝ Ν la \ / 
τὰ κόκκινα τὰ κεραμίδια. 
TI »η 8.4 Ν , \ / 
οὔ ᾽ν τὰ κόκκινα τὰ κεραμίδια; 
Σ τὸ κόκκινο τὸ χῶμα. 
ΤΠ “ὌΠ τ᾿ ῷ Ἂς / \ a 
οὔ ‘vy’ τὸ κόκκινο TO χῶμα; 
᾽ \ ΄ Ε 
Σ τὸ ποτάμι. 
Tl fa BF Ν ,ὔ 
οὔ ᾽ν τὸ ποτάμι; 
Τὸ ῥούφιξε ἡ ἀγελάδα. 
Ποῦ ᾽ν ἡ ἀγελάδα; 
Τὴν ἔσφαξ᾽ ὁ χασάπης. 
Ποῦ ᾽ν ὁ χασάπης; 
Πέθανε. 


/ 
Πράσα, γένεια καὶ μουστάκια. 


2. (From Vassilika.) 
Ἦταν μιὰ μπάμπου, πάει ᾽ς τὴ κοπριά, 
Βρίσκει μιὰ κοριά. 
Πάει ᾿ς τὸ τζορμπατζῆ" 
“Τζορμπατζῆ μ᾽, δό μ᾽ ἕνα τζορμπᾶ, 
Νὰ βρέξω τὴ κοριά, 
Νὰ δροσίσω τὴ καρδιά." 





Mystic Poems 325 


1. The Hare. 


(Played between the nurse and the child.) 
Hast thou been shooting ? 


I have. 

Hast thou killed a hare? 

I have. 

Hast thou cooked it? 

I have. 

Hast thou eaten ? 

I have. 

Hast thou kept a portion for me? 
I have. 

Where is it? 


In the cupboard. 
(Here the child is made to hold its fists tightly clenched one over the 

other so as to represent a cupboard, while the nurse tries to open them 
with her forefinger and thumb.) 

Crick, crack—the key’s broken. 

Where is the hare? 

The cat has eaten it. 

Where is the cat ? 

On the red tiles. 

Where are the red tiles? 

In the red earth. 

Where is the red earth. 

In the river. 

Where is the river? 

The cow has swallowed it up. 

Where is the cow? 

The butcher has slaughtered her. 

Where is the butcher? 

He is dead. 

Leeks, beards and moustaches ! 
—and the nurse proceeds to tickle the child under the chin and make it 
laugh. 


2. The Old Woman. 


There was an old woman. She went to a dung-hill, 
; She found a crumb of bread. 
She goes to the soup-maker: 
“Ὁ Soup-maker, give me some soup, 
That 1 may moisten my crumb, 
That I may refresh my heart.” 


926 Macedonian Folklore 


‘O τζορμπατζῆς γύρεψε τζανάκι. 
Πάει ᾿ς τὸ τζανακτζῆ" 
“«Τζανακτζῆ μ᾽, ἕνα τζανάκει, 
Νὰ πάω τοῦ τζορμπατζῆ, 
Na με δώσ᾽ ἕνα τζορμπᾶ, 
Νὰ βρέξω τὴ κοριά, 
Νὰ δροσίσω τὴ καρδιά." 
Ὃ τζανακτζῆς γύρεψε χῶμα. 
Πάει ᾿ς τὴ γῆς" 
“Τῆς μ᾽, ἕνα χῶμα, 
Νὰ πάω τοῦ τζανακτζῆ, 
Νὰ xav ἕνα τζανάκι, 
etc.” 
Ἢ γῆς γύρεψε δρόσον. 
Πάει ᾿ς τὰ οὐράνια" 
“Οὐράνια μ᾽, ἕνα δρόσο, 
Νὰ δώσω τὴ γῆς, 
Na με δώσ᾽ ἕνα χῶμα, 
ete. 


2? 


Ta οὐράνια γύρεψαν θυμιάμα. 
Πάει ᾿ς τὸ πρα᾿ματευτή᾽" 
« ᾿ / ®. ne , 
Ἱρα᾿ματευτή μ᾽, ἕνα θυμιάμα, 
\ / \ > , 
Νὰ θυμιατίσω τὰ οὐράνια, 
Ν , / \ ol 
Na δώσουν δρόσο τὴ γῆς, 
ete. 


3) 


Ὃ πρα᾿ ματευτὴς γύρεψε φίλημα. 
Πάει ᾿ς τὴ κόρη" 
“ Κόρη μ᾽, ἕνα φίλημα, 
Νὰ δώσω τὸ πρα᾿ ματευτή, 
Νά με δώσ᾽ ἕνα θυμιάμα, 
) etc.” 
Ἢ κόρη γύρεψε κοντούραις. 
; Πάει ᾿ς τὸ κοντουρτζῆ᾽" 
“Κοντουρτζῆ μ᾽, δό με κοντούραις, 
Na δώσω τὴ κόρη, 
Na με δώσ᾽ ἕνα φίλημα, 
ete.” 


Mystic Poems 327 


The soup-maker asked for a bowl. 
' She goes to the bowl-maker : 
“© Bowl-maker, give me a bowl, 
That I may take it to the soup-maker, 
That he may give me some soup, 
To moisten my crumb, 
To refresh my heart.” 


The bowl-maker asked for earth. 
She goes to the earth: 
“O Earth, give me some earth, 
That I may take it to the bowl-maker, 
That he may make a bowl, etc.” 


The earth asked for dew. 
She goes to the heavens. 
“Ὁ Heavens, give me some dew, 
That I may take it to the earth, 
That she may give me some earth, etc.” 


The Heavens asked for frankincense. 
She goes to the merchant: 
“Ὁ merchant, give me some frankincense, 
That I may fumigate the Heavens, 
That they may give some dew to the earth, etc.” 


The merchant asked for a kiss. 
She goes to the maid: 
“Ὁ maid, give me a kiss, 
That I may take it to the merchant, 
That he may give me some frankincense, etc.” 


The maid asked for a pair of shoes. 
She goes to the shoe-maker : 
“OQ shoe-maker, give me a pair of shoes, 
That I may take them to the maid, 
That she may give me a kiss, etc.” 


928 Macedonian Folklore 


Ὃ κοντουρτζῆς γύρεψε μεσίνι. 
Πάει ᾿ς τὴν ἀγελάδα" 
“᾿Αγελάδα m, ἕνα μεσίνι, 
Νὰ δώσ᾽ τὸ κοντουρτζῆ, 
etc. 
Ἢ ἀγελάδα γύρεψε χορτάρι" 


” 


Πάει ᾿ς τὸ μπακτζεβαντζῆ" 
“Μπακτζεβαντζῆ μ᾽, ἕνα χορτάρι, 
Νὰ δώσ᾽ τὴν ἀγελάδα, 

etc. etc. etc.” 





The reciter here broke off out of breath and nothing would 
induce him to proceed. Nor did I insist, as from what he said 
I gathered that the everlasting cow had eaten up the grass and 
was, in her turn, eaten up by the butcher, who in his turn was — 
eaten up by Death, and so the song came to a natural end. 





IL. | _ 
The following two poems are taken from Gousios’ Songs of 
my Fatherland, Nos. 104 and 105. 


1. Οἱ δέκα ἀριθμοί. 





"Eva λόγο θέλ᾽ νὰ πῶ: } 
“Ἕνας μόνος Κύριος." 
᾿Ανυμνοῦμεν, δοξολογοῦμεν, Κύριε. 
Δύο λόγια θέλ᾽ νὰ πῶ: 


———— 


“ Δεύτερ᾽ εἶν᾽ ἡ Παναγιά, 
-“ la 4 ” 
ἕνας μόνος Κύριος. 
> fa) 
Avupvodpev etc. 
Τρία λόγια θέλ᾽ va πῶ" 
᾿ «Τρισυπόστατος Θεός, 
Δεύτερ᾽ εἶν᾽ ἡ Ilavaya, 
« Ἕ 4 3) 
ἕνας μόνος Κύριος. 
᾿Ανυμνοῦμεν ete. 
Τέσσαρα λόγια θέλ᾽ νὰ πῶ: 
“Τέσσαρες Βαγγελισταί, 
, , 
Τρισυπόστατος Θεός, 
3) 
ete. 
᾿Ανυμνοῦμεν etc. 


Mystic Poems 3829 


The shoe-maker asked for leather. 
ν She goes to the cow: 
“Ὁ cow, give me some leather, 
That I may take it to the shoe-maker, etc.” 


The cow asked for grass. 
; She goes to the gardener: 
“Ὁ gardener, give me some grass, | 
That I may take it to the cow, etc.” 


For other songs of the type of “the house that Jack built” 
see Passow Nos. 273--275; A. A. Γουσίου, ‘Ta Τραγούδια τῆς 
Πατρίδος pov’ No. 102. This last and Passow No. 274 are 
very close parallels to the Hebrew Chad gadyd, mentioned by 
Mr Tylor. ) 


1. The Ten Numbers. 


I wish to say one: 
“One only Lord.” 
We praise Thee, we glorify Thee, O Lord! 


I wish to say two: 
“Second is the Holy Virgin, 
One only Lord.” 
We praise Thee, etc. 


I wish to say three: 
“Three are the persons of the Trinity, 
Second is the Holy Virgin, 
One only Lord.” 
We praise Thee, etc. 


I wish to say four: 
“Four are the Evangelists, 
Three are the persons of the Trinity, 
ete.” 
We praise Thee, ‘etc. 


990 Macedonian Folklore 


Πέντε λόγια θέλ᾽ va πῶ" 
«Πέ θέ , 
έντε παρθένων χοροί, 
Τέσσαρες Βαγγελισταί, 
ete.” 
᾿Ανυμνοῦμεν ete. 
“Ἑξη λόγια θέλ᾽ va πῶ" ᾿ ' 
““Kéarrépuya Θεοῦ, 
/ , ΄ 
Πέντε παρθένων χοροί, 
etc.” 
᾿Ανυμνοῦμεν ete, 
“Ἑφτὰ λόγια θέλ᾽ νὰ πῶ" 
““Egta ἀστέρες τ᾽ οὐρανοῦ 
“RE , Θ rn ' 
απτέρυγα Θεοῦ, 
etc.” 
᾿Ανυμνοῦμεν ete. 
᾿Οχτὼ λόγια GEN νὰ πῶ᾽ 
“ Ὄ \ 2 / 
XT@ ἤχοι ψάλλονται, 
«ς \ > la > > lel 
Εφτὰ ἀστέρες τ᾽ οὐρανοῦ, 
etc.” 
᾿Ανυμνοῦμεν etc. 
’Evved λόγια θέλ᾽ va πῶ" 
“"Evved ἀγγέλων τάγματα 
᾽ 
4 pe 7 , ; 
Οχτὼ ἦχοι ψάλλονται, 
etc.” 
᾿Ανυμνοῦμεν etc. 
Δέκα λόγια θέλ᾽ va πῶ, 
Καὶ νὰ σώσω τὸν σκοπό" 
“ Δέ > i? > tal 
EKa val ῃ ἐντολαῖς, 
> \ > , / 
Evved ἀγγέλων τάγματα, 
ae. ἢ 
᾿Ανυμνοῦμεν, etc. 


2, Οἱ δώδεκα ἀριθμοί. 


“Eva, μωρέ, ἕνα. “As To ποῦμε ἕνα" 


“Ἕνα τὸ πουλοῦδι, τὸ χελιδονοῦδι ποῦ λαλεῖ τὸ βράδυ, 
Λαλεῖ καὶ κυρλαλεῖ." 





I wish to say five: 


I wish to say six: 


I wish to say seven: 


I wish to say eight: 


I wish to say nine: 


I wish ten to say, 


And conclude my lay: 


2. 


Mystic Poems 331 


« Five are the choirs of virgins, 
Four are the Evangelists, 
etc.” 
We praise Thee, etc. 


“Six-winged are the angels of God, 
Five are the choirs of virgins, 
etc.” 
We praise Thee, etc. 


“Seven are the stars of heaven, 
Six-winged are the angels of God, 
etc.” 
We praise Thee, etc. 


“Eight tunes are sung at church, 
Seven are the stars of heaven, 
etc.” 
We praise Thee, etc. 


“Nine are the legions of the angels, 
Eight tunes are sung at church, 
etc.” 
We praise Thee, etc. 


“Ten are the Commandments, 
Nine are the legions of the angels, 
etc.” 
We praise Thee, etc. 


The Twelve Numbers. 


One, O friend, one. Let us call it one: 
“One is the little bird, the little swallow that sings in the evening, 


Sings and warbles.” 


992 Macedonian Folklore 


"As To ποῦμε ἕνας. Na πᾶμε καὶ ᾿ς τὰ δυό" 

“ \ , A 
Avo πέρδικες ypaupévacs, 

“Eva τὸ πουλοῦδι etc.” 

"As to ποῦμε δυό. Νὰ πᾶμε xai’s τὰ τρία" 
“Τρία πόδια ᾿᾽λετροπόδια, δυὸ πέρδικες γραμμέναις, 
“Eva τὸ πουλοῦδι ete.” 

v a / \ lal ἌΓ ‘ 7 ἕ 

As to ποῦμε τρία. Νὰ πᾶμε καὶ ᾿ς τὰ τέσσηρα 
“Τέσσηρα βυζιὰ ᾿γελάδας, τρία πόδια ᾿λετροπόδια, 
Δυὸ πέρδικες γραμμέναις ete.” 

ρδικες yp 

"As τὸ ποῦμε τέσσηρα. Νὰ πᾶμε καὶ ᾿ς τὰ πέντε" 
“Πέντε δάχτυλα ᾿ς τὸ χέρι, τέσσηρα βυζιὰ ᾿᾽γελάδας, 
Τρία πόδια ᾿λετροπόδια etc.” : 

"As to ποῦμε πέντε. Νὰ πᾶμε καὶ ᾿ς τὰ ἕξη" 
τὲ n X , L ἢ > ν᾿ ; 

Εξη μῆνες μισὸς χρόνος, πέντε δάχτυλα ᾿ς τὸ χέρι, 
Τέσσηρα βυζιὰ ᾿γελάδας etc.” 
mp Ύ 

"As τὸ ποῦμε ἕξη. Νὰ πᾶμε καὶ ᾿ς τὰ ἑφτα" 
““Ἑφτὰ ἑφτάκοιλο τὸ κλῆμα, ἕξη μῆνες μισὸς χρόνος, 
Πέντε δάχτυλα ᾿ς τὸ χέρι ete.” 

"As to ποῦμ᾽ ἑφτά. Νὰ πᾶμε καὶ ᾿ς τὰ ὀχτώ" 
“Οχταπόδι τοῦ θαλάσσου, ἑφτὰ ἑφτάκοιλο τὸ κλῆμα, 
“ a Ν , 3) 
Εξη μῆνες μισὸς χρόνος etc. 

” = Ag Me ie 4 \ -“ Ἄν \ b] , 

As To ποῦμ ὀχτώ. Na πᾶμε καὶ ᾿ς τὸ ἐννεά" 
“"Evved μῆνες εἶναι τὸ παιδί, ὀχταπόδι τοῦ θαλάσσου, 
“Εφτὰ ἑφτάκοιλο τὸ κλῆμα etc.” 

ν a 3 5 / \ lal + 2 \ / 

As τὸ ποῦμ᾽ évvea, Νὰ πᾶμε καὶ ᾿ς ta δέκα" 
“A , \ / Σ \ a 3 Ν δί 

εκαρίζει τὸ χοιρίδι, ἐννεὰ μῆνες εἶναι τὸ παιδί, 

Ὀχταπόδι τοῦ θαλάσσου etc.” 

"As to ποῦμε δέκα. Νὰ πᾶμε καὶ ᾿ς τὰ ἕντεκα" 
“"Kyrexa μηνῷ φοράδι, δεκαρίζει τὸ χοιρίδει, 
> ‘ an s ‘ ’ὔ 7) 
Evvea μῆνες εἶναι τὸ παιδί ete. 

"As τὸ ποῦμε &vtexa. Νὰ πᾶμε καὶ ᾿ς τὰ δώδεκα" 
“Δώδεκα μηνῶ ὁ χρόνος, ἕντεκα μηνῶ φοράδι, 
Δεκαρίζει τὸ χοιρίδι ete.” 








Mystic Poems 333 


Let us call it one, Let us go to the two: 
“Two striped partridges, one is the little bird etc.” 


Let us call it two. Let us go to the three: 
“Three are the feet of the plough, two striped partridges, 
One is the little bird etc.” 


Let us call it three. Let us go to the four: 
“Four are the teats on a cow’s udder, three the feet of the plough, 
Two striped partridges etc.” 


Let us call it four. Let us go to the five: | 
“Five are the fingers of the hand, four the teats on a cow’s udder, 
Three the feet of the plough etc.” 


Let us call it five. Let us go to the six: 
“Six months make half-a-year, five are the fingers of the hands, 
Four the teats on a cow’s udder etc.” 


Let us call it six. Let us go to the seven: 
“Seven bushels bears the vine, six months make half-a-year, 
Five are the fingers of the hand etc.” 


Let us call it seven. Let us go to the eight: 
“Eight arms has the cuttle-fish, seven bushels bears the vine, 
Six months make half-a-year etc.” 


Let us call it eight. Let us go to the nine: 
“Nine months is the child in the womb, eight arms has the cuttle-fish, 
Seven bushels bears the vine etc.” 


Let us call it nine. Let us go to the ten: 
“Ten months the young pig,! nine months is the child in the womb, 
Eight arms has the cuttle-fish etc.” 


Let us call it ten. Let us go to the eleven: 
“Eleven months the foal, ten months the young pig, 
Nine months is the child in the womb etc.” 


Let us call it eleven. Let us go to the twelve: 
“Twelve months has the year, eleven months the foal, 
Ten months the young pig etc.” 


1 IT am not at all certain of the correctness of my translation of this line, 
Gousios spells χειρίδι, which means nothing; χειρίδα, “the handle of the 
plough,” makes no sense. Nor is the meaning of dexapifw quite clear. It has 
been suggested to me that χειρίδι might mean ‘hand’ and dexapife that the 
hands have ‘ten roots (fingers).’ The suggestion is certainly ingenious ; but, 
I fear, hardly borne out by the Greek as it stands. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


Λειανοτράγουδα." 





[The majority of the following couplets were collected at 
Salonica, those that I picked up in other parts of Macedonia 
are specially indicated. ] 

1. 
᾿Αγάπην εἶχα κ᾽ ἔχασα ἀπ᾽ τὴ κακογνωμιά μου. 
Τώρα τὴ γλέπω ᾿ς ἄλλονε καὶ καίετ᾽ ἡ καρδιά μου. 
2, 
᾿Αγάπη μου χρυσ᾽ ὄνομα, τῆς γειτονειᾶς κορώνα, 
Δός με τὸ δαχτυλίδι σου νὰ κάνουμ᾽ ἀρραβῶνα. 


9. 


᾿Αγάπησα, τί κέρδεψα; τῆς γῆς τὴν ὄψι πῆρα, 
Τοῦ κόσμου ταῖς κατακρισιαῖς ὅλαις ἐγώ ταῖς πῆρα." 


4, 


᾿Αγάπησα, τί κέρδεψα; τῆς γῆς τὴν ὄψι πῆρα, 
Tod. κόσμου ταῖς καταφρονιαῖς, καὶ πάλι δέ᾽ σε πῆρα. 


5. 
> / ᾽ 2 \ 
Ayarnoa κ᾽ ἐγὼ ᾿ρφανὴς ἕνα κομμάτι χιόνι, 
ἣν 5 tal \ 
Κ᾽ ἐκεῖνο τὸ ζουλέψανε of ἄπονοι γειτόνοι. 


1 At Nigrita these distichs are called Galates (T'addras), a word of (to me) 
unknown affinities. 


2 Cp. Passow, Disticha Amatoria, No. 8. 


Love- Couplets 335 


Love-Couplets. 


1. 


I had a ladylove and lost her through my folly. 
Now I see her in another’s arms, and my heart is consumed with grief. 


2. 


O my love, name of gold, crown of the neighbourhood! 
Give me thy ring that we may be betrothed. 


3. 


I have fallen in love. What have I gained? I have assumed the hue 
of the earth, 
And the blame of the world is all mine. 


4 


I have fallen in love. What have I gained? I have earned the hue 
of the earth, 
And the contempt of the world, and yet thee have I earned not. 


5. 


I, poor orphan, am in love with a snow-flake ; 
Even that the cruel neighbours envy me. 


336 Macedonian Folklore 


6. 
᾿Αλλοίμονο τί θὰ γενῇ TO ἰδικό μας χάλι; 
Δέχως παρᾶ, δίχως δουλειὰ κὴ ἀγάπη ᾿ς τὸ κεφάλι! 
if: 
"A 10 “*% ἦν 4 \ \ A \ [2 
νάθεμα τὴ Τύχη μου καὶ τὴ κακιὰ τὴν ὥρα, 
Ποῦ σ᾽ εἶδαν τὰ ματάκια μου, καὶ τί νὰ κάνω τώρα; 
8. 
“Av δώσω καί ce θυμηθῶ ἀπάνω ᾿ς τὴ δουλειά μου, 
To , a a 7 3 \ / 
0 βελονάκι ποῦ βαστῶ To μπήγω ᾿ς TH καρδιά μου. 
9. 
(From Melentk.) 
"Avo.ke, γῆς, μέσα va μπῶ, καὶ χῶμα, σκέπασέ με, 
Γιὰ νὰ γλυτώσ᾽ ἀπὸ σεβντᾷᾶ καὶ πάλι ἔβγαλέ με. 
10. 
᾿Απὸ τὴ πόρτα σου περνῶ καὶ βρίσκω κλειδωμένα. 
Σκύφτω φιλῶ τὴ κλειδωνιά; θαρρῶ φιλῶ ἐσένα. 
ἘΠῚ 
(From Zichna.) 
"Aompn εἶσαι σὰν TO χιόνι, κόκκινη σὰν TH φωτιά, 
Σὰν τὰ μάρμαρα τοῆ Πόλης ποὖναι ἧς τὴν ‘Ayia Σοφιά. 
12. 
"Ades με μή με πειράξῃς, ἄφες με ᾿ς TO χάλι μου, 
Σύ με πῆρες καὶ τὸν νοῦ μου “TO μέσ ᾿π΄, τὸ κεφάλι μου. 
| 13. 
Γιὰ διὲς ἐκεῖνο τὸ βουνό, ποῦ ἄναψε καὶ καίγει, 
Κάπποιος ἀγάπη ἔχασε καὶ κάθεται καὶ κλαίγει. 
14, 
(From Melentk.) ‘ 


᾿Εγὼ σεβντᾶ δὲν ἤξερα, οὐδ᾽ ἀκουστά Tov εἶχα. 





4 





/ \ & 2 \ nee \ , 
Τώρα μὲ περικύκλωσεν ἀπὸ κορφὴ ᾿ς τὰ νύχια. 





Love-Couplets 337 


6. 

Alas! how will this state of ours end? 

No money, no work and love to boot! 
re 

Accursed be my fortune, and the evil hour 

In which my eyes beheld thee. Now what am I to do? 
8. 


If ever I chance to think of thee while at work, 
The needle which I hold in my hand I plunge it into my heart.! 


9. 
Open, O earth, that I may enter, and thou, O dust, cover me up, 
That I may be cured of my passion. Then let me out again. 

10. 


I pass by thy door and find it locked, 
I stoop and kiss the lock, and pretend to be kissing thee. 


Use 


Thou art white as snow, ruddy as the fire, 
Tall and slim like the columns of St Sophia in Constantinople. 


12. 
Leave me alone and tease me not. Leave me alone in my misery: 
*Tis thou who hast taken away even my senses from my head. 

13. 


Behold yon mountain which is kindled and aflame! 
Perhaps some wretch is bewailing his lost love. 


14. 


Once I knew nothing of passion, not even its name. 
But now it has compassed me from head to foot! 


1 This, among several other distichs, was dictated to me by a gifted young 
tailor, and a great gallant, of Salonica. This one was perhaps a product of his 
own genius. 


A. F. 22 


998 Macedonian Folklore 


15. 
(From Zichna.) 

3 ΄ 5 / 5 ed BJ \ / 
Εἶσαι πάπια, εἶσαι χήνα, cio’ ἀγγελικὸ κορμί, 
Ἔχεις μάτια σὰν τὸν ἥλιο, πρόσωπο σὰν γιασεμί. 

16. 
(From Kataphyghi.) 
> , ͵ \ \ \ \ ee. 3 

Εκέρδησά την τὴ χαρὰ καὶ τὴν ἀγάπη ποὗχα, 
Καὶ φαίνεταί με πῶς φορῶ τοῦ βασιληᾶ τὰ ῥοῦχα. 

ik 
᾽ tea ὦ \ 4 Ν \ \ , 

Eov ᾽σαι τὸ σταφύλι Kal yw TO τσάμπουρο, 

I \ 9 ’ > ~ \ oe \ “ 

Φίλα με σὺ ᾿ς T ἀχεῖλι, καὶ YO ¢ τὸ μαγουλο. 
18. 
Ἔσύ ᾽σαι κεῖνο τὸ πουλὶ ποῦ το λέγουν κανάρι, 

4. 3 \ / 4 \ e ὃ f , 1 
Iloty’ τὰ φτερά του Kitpiva καὶ ἡ καρδιά του μαύρη. 
10: 

Καράβι τριοκάταρτο, τρέμεις νὰ πάρῃς βόλτα, 
Ν ς » U “ a > \ , 
Τρέμει καὶ ἡ καρδοῦλά μου ὅντας σε διῶ ᾿ς τὴ πόρτα. 
20. 
Κυπαρισσάκι μου ψηλό, ᾿ς τὴ ῥίζα ἔχεις χώμα, 
Κ᾽ ἐγὼ μικρὸς καὶ σὺ μικρή, καιρός μας δέ᾽ ν᾿ ἀκόμα. 
21. 
/ \ , lal 4 ‘ , 
Ντέρτι καὶ πόνος με κρατεῖ, κοντεύω va ποθάνω, 
Σ τὸν πόνο βρίσκω γιατρειά, ᾿ς τὸ ντέρτι τί νὰ κάνω; 
22. 
‘O ἔρωτας τὸν ἄθρωπο πῶς Tov καταστιβάζξει" 
Κορμὶ σὰν τριαντάφυλλό το κάνει καὶ χτικιάζει. 
23. 
Ὅλος ὁ κόσμος κἢ ὁ ντουνιᾶς τὰ ζέφκια κάνουν yale, 


¢ 


Kai ἡ δική μου ἡ καρδιὰ κλαίγει x) ἀναστενάζει. 


1 Cp. Passow, No. 361, a slightly different version given as a dirge (Μυρολόγι), 
rather improbably. 





Love-Couplets 339 


15. 


You are a duck, you are a goose,! you have the figure of an angel. 
You have eyes like the sun, a face like jasmine. 


16. 


I have won the joy and the love that I courted, 
And it seems to me that I am now arrayed in a king’s robes. 


17. 

Thou art the grape and I am the stalk: 

Kiss me on the lips, and I will kiss thee on the cheek! 
18. 

Thou art the bird which men call canary, 

Whose feathers are golden, but whose heart is black. 

19. 

O three-masted galley, thou art trembling to veer round, 

Even so trembles my poor heart when I behold thee standing at thy door. 
20. 7 

O dear slender cypress, there is still earth about thy roots. 

Both thou and I are too young, our season has not come yet. 
21. 

Love and pain hold me fast, I am at the point of death. 

Against pain I can find a remedy, against love what can I do? 
22. 


Look how love wears out a man! 
A body that is blooming like a rose, decays and dies! 


23. 


All the people, the whole world, enjoys feasting ; 
But my own heart can only weep and sigh. 


1 This word is never used in modern Greek as a term of ridicule. Here it 
refers to the bird’s beauty and grace, without any allusion to its supposed 
intellectual poverty. 


22—2 


940 Macedonian Folklore 
24, 


“Ὅποιος θέλει ν᾿ ἀγαπήσῃ, 
Πρέπει νὰ χασομερήσῃ. 
Πρέπει ἄσπρα νὰ ξἕξοδιάσῃ 
Καὶ νὰ μήν τα λογαριάσῃ. 
25. 
(From Serres.) 

Σὰν πέρδικα περιπατεῖς, σὰν χελιδόνι τρέχεις, 
Χαρὰ ᾿ς τὴν ἐμορφάδα σου καὶ ταῖρι νὰ μὴν ἔχῃς ! 
26. 

Σὰν τέθοια τέθοια λάχανα, σὰν τέθοιαις πικραλήθραις 
Ἔχω κ᾽ ἐγὼ ᾿ς τὸν κῆπό μου σαράντα πέντε ῥίζαις. 
Ὁ, 

(From Kataphyghi.) 


, . / , 
Σὰν τέτοιαις τέτοιαις ῥέπαναις Kal τέτοιαις ῥεπανίδες 








"Ἔχω κ᾽ ἐγὼ ᾿ς τὸν κῆπό μου δέκα χιλιάδες ῥίξαις. 
28. 
(From Nigrita.) 


a τῸ 


Σ τὸν κόμπο, ᾿ς τὴ ῥίζα κόβουν τὴν ἐλῃά, 
Σ τὰ μάτια, ᾿ς τὰ φρύδια φιλοῦν τὴ κοπελλιά.} 
29. ᾿ 
Τὰ μάτια σ᾽ ἔχουν ἔρωτα καὶ μέσα ψιχαλίζουν, 
Ky) ἀπάνω ’s τὸ Ψψιχάλισμα φρεγάδες ἀρμενίζουν. 


90. 





Τὰ παλαιά μας βάσανα περάσανε καὶ πᾶνε. 
T \ \ /, [ὃ \ / ες a 
ἃ τωρινᾶ γενήκανε φείδια γιὰ va μας φᾶνε. 
31. 
Ti va cov πῶ; Ti va μου πῆς; ἐσὺ καλὰ γνωρίζεις, Σ 
Καὶ τὴ ψυχή μ᾽ καὶ τὴ καρδιά μ᾽ ἐσύ μέ την ὁρίζξεις. 





1 The metre is somewhat lame—there is one syllable more than should be in 
the second verse—but the peasants are not over-fastidious, 


Love-Couplets 341 


24. 


He who will court a maiden fair, 

Must needs waste much time. 

He must needs spend many piastres too, 
And count them not.! 


25. 


Thy walk is like the walk of the partridge, thy run is like the flight of the 
swallow. 
Great is thy beauty, and yet thou hast no mate! 


26. 


Oh, of cabbages and radishes of this sort, 
I have forty-five roots in my kitchen-garden. 


27. 


Oh, of radishes and horse-radishes of this sort 
I have ten thousand roots in my kitchen-garden. 


28. 
The olive is plucked at the joint, at the root: 
The maid is kissed in the eyes, between the eye-brows. 
29. 
Thy eyes are brimming with love and are moist with dew, 
And on the bosom of the dew frigates are sailing. 
30. 
Our old troubles are past and gone. 
Our present ones have grown into serpents and will devour us. 
31. 


What need of words? thou art well aware 
That both my heart and my soul are thine to command. 


1 The young tailor often complained to me, with a comical sigh, that his 
heart had well-nigh ruined him. 


942 Macedonian Folklore 
89. 


To ἄχ! δὲ τώξερα ποτὲς va to φωνάξω. 
‘ \ > a \ ‘ \ 3 , 
Τώρα δὲν ἀπερνᾷ στιμὴ νὰ μὴν ἀναστενάξω. 


33. 


To μπόϊ σ᾽ εἶναι pivapés, τὰ χέρια σου λαμπάδες, 
Τὸ στῆθός σου παράδεισος, μπαχτσὲς μὲ πατινάδες. 
μ) 


94, 


Τὸ ντέρτι τῶν παλληκαριῶν ἡ χήραις το γνωρίζουν 
Καὶ τὰ διαβολοκόριτσα κρυφά το μουρμουρίζουν. 


35. 
Φεύγεις καὶ φεύγ᾽ ἡ γνώμη pov. lod πᾶς παρηγοριά pov; 
Ποῦ πᾶς κλειδὶ τοῦ ᾽ρολογειοῦ, π᾿ ἀνοίγεις τὴ καρδιά μου; 
96. 
Din’ οἱ ὀχτροὶ γενήκανε καὶ οἱ δικοί μου ξένοι, 
Κ᾽ ἡ μάνα ποῦ pe γένναε δὲ θέλει va με ξέρῃ. 
37. 


Φύγε πὸ μένα, συλλογή! φύγε πὸ μένα, πίκρα ! 
Δέ᾽ σε στεφανώθηκα νὰ σ᾽ ἔχω μέρα νύχτα ! 


“Ovras Πένουν. 
38. 

Ὃ ὕπνος θρέφει τὸ παιδί, ὁ ἥλιος τὸ μοσχάρι, 
\ Ν \ \ U \ / , 
Καὶ τὸ παληὸ κρασὶ κάνει τὸν γέρο παλληκαρι. 

99. 


Χαρά ᾿ς τον ποῦ το πίνει, 
Χαρά ᾿ς τον ποῦ κερνᾷ, 
Χαρά ᾿ς τὴ κομπανία 

Καὶ ᾿ς ὅλ᾽ τὴ συντροφιά. 











Love-Couplets 343 


32. 


Time was when I knew not how to cry Ah me! 
Now hardly a minute passes without my heaving a sigh. 


33. 


Thy body is a minaret, thy hands a pair of tapers, 
Thy bosom a park: a garden alive with songs of love. 


34. 


The youths’ passion is well-known to the widows, 
And the sly maidens whisper of it secretly amongst themselves. 


35. 


Thou departest, and my senses depart with thee. Whither away, O my 
comfort ? 


Whither art thou going, O key of gold which openest my heart ἢ 
36. 


My foes have become my friends. Yet mine own kindred are estranged 
from me. 
The very mother who bore me will no longer know me! 


37. 


Away from me, O Sorrow! Grief begone ! 
I have not wedded thee, that thou shouldst abide with me day and night. 


Drinking rhymes. 
38. 


Sleep nourishes the child, and the sun the calf, 
And old wine makes the old young. 


39. 
Joy to him who drinks it, 
Joy to him who pours it out, 


Joy to the party, 
And all the good company ! 


944 : Macedonian Folklore 


Γιὰ τῇς γυναῖκες. 


ς \ τ 

Ο Θεὸς τὸν ἄντρα ἔπλασε μὲ διαμαντένια πέτρα 
Ν , a n 

Ky ὅταν ἔφκιαν τὴ γυναῖκα ἐπῆρε μιὰ πελέκα." 


[ἡ 5 \ a > \ \ \? SATS ¥ , 

Οποιος ἔχ᾽ κακὴ yuvaixa’s τὸν νεκρὸ δὲ᾽ πρέπ᾽ νὰ πάῃ" 
Ν \ \ vy > Ὁ \ / > 

Tov νεκρὸ τὸν ἔχ᾽ ᾿ς τὸ σπίτι τ᾽. 

«ς a / ° 

H γυναῖκα εἶν᾽ ἀκόλλα || καὶ χαλεύει ἀπὸ ὅλα. 


Ἢ γυναῖκα μακρυὰ μαλλιὰ καὶ γνώμη κοντή. 
Or 


Tpava μαλλιά, || κοντὰ μυαλά." 





1 This distich I heard at Serres, but it is not of Macedonian origin. My 
informant was a Cretan Mohammedan—one of those who on the declaration 
of Cretan autonomy preferred exile to peaceful existence with the despised 
Christians. 

2 A. A. Γουσίου, “Ἢ xara τὸ Πάγγαιον Χώρα,᾽ p. 89. Cp. μπόϊ τρανὸ καὶ 
μυαλὰ λίγα, ibid. 


Love-Couplets 345 


Greek folk-opinion on the fair sex. 


When God created man, he used a diamond-drill ; 
When he created woman, he used a pickaxe. 


He who has a bad wife need not go to the funeral : 
The funeral is in his own home. 


Woman is like paste: she sticks to everything. 
Woman: long hair, short wits.! 


1 The same proverb, word for word, is common both among the Russians 
and the Tartars: see Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, p. 38. 





APPENDIX I. 


Τὸ trapamy@i τοῦ Νάϊντιο. 


Μιὰ βολὰ κ᾽ ἕναν καιρὸ ἦταν ἕνας ἄθρωπος πολὺ πλούσιος. Εἶχε 
σπίτια, εἰδίσματα, ἀρνιά, κατσίκια καὶ τί δὲν εἶχε; ἀπὸ ὅλα τὰ καλὰ τοῦ 
’ > ἣν , Θ᾽" > e ΄ a ἌΝ a , Sue 4 
κόσμου, ᾽ς τὸ σπίτι τ᾽ ὡς κ᾽ οἱ πέτεινοι γεννοῦσαν αὐγὰ ποῦ λέει κῃ ὁ λόγος. 
Μὰ τί τα θές; ἦταν σφιχτός, τζεγκενές. Αὐτὸς ὁ ἄθρωπος ἔτυχε νἀρθῇ σὲ 
Ν / 4 Ν Ν , ? Ν , ‘ Ν Ν ‘ 
μιὰ πολιτεία μεγάλη, σὰν va λέμε ᾽ς TH Yadovixy, καὶ γιὰ va μὴν 
a 0 Ld x , » ‘ , , ’ Ν / 
ξοδειαστῇ δὲ᾽ θέλσε va κονέψῃ ᾿ς τὴ λοκάντα, μήτε πάησε σὲ κανένα 
A > , Ν Ν ‘ 8 ‘\ ~ ’ ’ > σ 
τρανοῦ T ἀρχοντικό, γιὰ νὰ μὴν λάχῃ Ky ποχρεωθῇ. Μόνο κόνεψε ἧς ἕνα 
a Ν , ‘ 9 Ν Ν. , Ν ΩΣ ΣΝ / 
φτωχοῦ τὴ καλύβα, καλὴ wpa σὰν τὴ Oxy pas. Τὸ σπίτ᾽ ἦταν μονάχα 
σ΄ > A ἈΝ »"«Φ« ὃ / , » Ν -“ Ν Ν / 
ἕνας ὀντᾶς τρανὸς Ky ὃ δοξάτος καί τον ἔβαλαν va κοιμηθῇ σὲ μιὰ γωνιά, 
ε 5 cal ’ » 3 , »” > 4 > ‘ > , Ν ‘ / cal 
ὃ δοῦλός τ᾽ ἀπόμεινε ὄξου ᾽ς τὴν αὐλὴ ἀντάμα μὲ τὰ πράματα. Tod 
φτωχοῦ ἡ γυναῖκα εἶχε λευτερωθῇ δώ καὶ τρεῖς μέραις, γένσε ἕνα παιδὶ 
> a ad > 6 a τὰ ε ’ ἯΙ a r 4 , 
TOUTAY TPL μερῶ ὄντας ἦρθε αὐτὸς 6 πλούσιος. Ἔτσι ποῦ λές, πλάγιασαν 
x , ε ’, Ν Ν ’, οι a Ν Ν μὴ = eee Ν 
τὸ βράδυ, ὃ μουσαφίρης σὲ μιὰ κόχη K ἡ λεχοῦσα μὲ τὸν ἄντρα T's ἧς τὴν 
"» a - a 
ἄλλη. Αὐτοί τους πῆρε ὕπνος ἀγλήγορα καὶ κοιμοῦνταν μιὰ χαρά, yar” 
ε Ν / Ν Ν Ν ε ’ > μ᾿} φ 
ot φτωχοὶ γκαηλέδες δὲν ἔχουν. Μὰ 6 πλούσιος δέ᾽ tov ἔπαιρνε ὕπνος, 
΄“ 2 Ν ‘ Ν , cal Ν Ν »” Ν cal A 
γυρνοῦσε ἀπὸ τὴ μιὰ μεριά, γυρνοῦσε πὸ τὴν ἄλλη Kai συλλογιοῦνταν καὶ 
λογάριαζε τὸ βιό του. 
Κεῖ ποῦ συλλογιοῦνταν ἄξαφνα γλέπει κὴ ἀνοίγ᾽ ἡ πόρτα καὶ σέβκαν 
, “- aA , > | ὧν ε Ν > Ν ‘ Ἀ 
μέσα τρεῖς γυναῖκες ντυμέναις ᾿ς T ἄσπρα. “H μιὰ ἦταν πειὸ ψηλὴ καὶ 
᾿Ξ lal a lal 
πειὸ ἔμορφη πὸ 7's ἄλλαις. Ἦταν ἡ τρεῖς Μοῖραις ποῦ μοιράζουν τὸ 
Ν Ν 7 4 σ > “A A δ A / la , > 
παιδὶ τὴ τρίτη μέρα ὕστερις ἀφοῦ γενθῇ. Ἔτσι ποῦ λές, σέβκαν μέσα ᾿ς 
τὸν ὀντᾶ καὶ στάθκαν κεῖ ποῦ κοιμοῦνταν τὸ μωρό, K ἡ μεγαλείτερη πὸ 
THs Μοίραις τὸ ἄγγιξε μὲ τὸ δάχτυλό 7's καὶ λέει- ““Τί νά το μοιράσουμε; 
Δὲν ἡἡ ἄλλαις: “Na to μοιράσουμε νὰ γένῃ κληρονόμος ᾿ς αὐτὸν τὸν 
μὰ, a? ΄ a , > \ ΄ 7) com e999 ΧΣ ε 
πλούσιο ποῦ ‘vat πλαγιασμένος κεῖ πέρα ἧς τὴ κόχη. apap ” λὲν ἡ 
» , , 7 ¢ 4 ᾿, 
ἄλλαις καί το μοίρασαν K ὕστερις γένκαν ἄφανταις. 
> > 
ὋὉ πλούσιός τ᾽ ἄκουσε αὐτὰ τὰ λόγια Kal τρόμαξε, Ky ar τὸ φόβο τ᾽ 
, δ 
δὲ μποροῦσε νὰ σφαλίξῃ μάτι. Σ᾽ κώθκε καὶ σουλατζάριζε πάνου κάτου 
Ὁ“ ΕἸ , 
᾽ς τὸν ὀντᾷ ws τὸ πρωΐ. “Apa ἔφεξε ὁ θεὸς τὴν ἡμέρα Kai oKWOKE ὃ 
x AS A , ae λέ τ ΩΣ ἘΌΝ ΠΥΡῚ ΄ ΄ 
φτωχὸς πὸ τὸ γιατάκι τ᾽, τότες τὸν λέει ὁ ξένος γὼ φεύγω σήμερις 
x ΄ , , Ν 
γιὰ τὸ χωριό᾽ μ᾽, παιδιὰ θ᾽ κά μ᾽ δὲν ἔχω. “Av στρέγῃς νά με δώσῃς τὸ 
1 My raconteuse informed me that she heard this tale many years ago from 


a Roumanian friend of hers (KapaS\dxa). According to her Naidis is the 
Wallachian for the Greek Εὑρεσημιό, ‘ foundling.” 


948 Macedonian Folklore 


δας eke , A a ἢ Ale: ἃ Ἀν Sis , x > - 
θ᾽κό σ᾽ τὸ μωρό, γὼ κ᾿ ἡ γυναῖκά μ᾽ θά 7 ἀναθρέψουμε σὰν vavar παιδί 
a a , \ oo” ” 
pas. eis εἶστε νέοι, πρῶτα ὃ θεὸς θὰ κάντε κὴ ἀλλα. 
“ a ‘ ε 
Τότες ὁ φτωχὸς ἔκραξε τὴ γυναῖκά τ᾽ νὰ διῇ τί λέει καὶ κείνη. “H 
ἐν αν Os a Ν Ν Ν Ν , s Ν 49 \ @ 
γυναῖκά τ᾽ πρῶτα δὲν ἤθελε, γιατὶ ποιὰ μάνα diver τὸ μικρό T's; μὰ ὕστερις 


7999 Ἢ 
α κ 


ἀπ᾽ τὰ πολλά, γιὰ νὰ μὴν κόψουν τὴ τύχη τοῦ παιδιοῦ, λέει ““Καλ 
᾿ , pos 4 τῷ ἢ a Η͂ Pia > , δι 
ἔστρεξε νά το δώσ᾽ ἂν καί T ἀγαποῦσε σὰν παιδί t's ποὗῦταν. Τότες τὸ 
΄ a ‘ »” ‘ 
βύζαξε καλὰ καλά, ὡς ποῦ χόρτασε γάλα, TwvTVTE μὲ τὰ πειὸ καλλίτερα 
ε“Ἅ“ > Ν δ. , 3 Ν la SOM ’ .Φ - 9 
ῥοῦχα ποὖχε, τὸ φίλσε σταυρωτὰ ἧς τὸ γλέφαρο Ky ὃ πλούσιός TO πῆρε ᾿ς 
\ ΄ > 0-2 Ν / > , ‘ Ν / > Ν 
τὰ χέρια T, σελλών᾽ τὴ φοράδα τ᾽ Ky Tov ξεπροβόδησαν καὶ πάει ᾿ς τὸ 
καλὸ μαζὺ μὲ τὸ δοῦλό τ΄. 
7 a ΜΝ Ν Ν ’ Θ. 4 > a ’ μ᾿ 
Ovras βγῆκαν ὄξου πὸ τὴ πολιτεία κ᾿ ἔφτασαν ᾿ς ἕνα μέρος ἔρημο 
, > N , > a , ‘ , > nN , 
μέσα ἧς τὰ γεννήματα---ἦἾταν καλοκαῖρι---σταματάει τὴ popada τ᾽ καὶ λέει 
\ pT ΑΥ̓ΤῊ Ὁ ΦῚ ἡ τὰς ἃ ᾿ κ᾿ ΄ , . ν᾿ , ” Ὁ 
τὸν δοῦλο T ape αὐτὸ τὸ μωρὸ καὶ νά το σκοτώσῃς μὲ μιὰ πέτρα. 
δὰ 7 2° N pet etek a ΄ ΄ , 5 ” 
δοῦλός τ᾽ ᾽ς τὴν ἀρχὴ δὲν ἤθελε va TO κάνῃ, γιατὶ ἦταν ἄθρωπος θεοφο- 
,ὔ , @ 6 ἐλ. Ν θ ἐλ. Ν Ν Ν > /, 3 la 
Bovpevos, pa vorepis θέλοντας μὴ θέλοντας τὸν ἄκουσε TOV ἀφέντη T καί 
a > , , a“ ‘ 
To πῆρε τὸ μωρό. Μὰ ἀντὶς va χτυπήσῃ τὸ παιδὶ χτυπάει τὴ γῆς μὲ TH 
lal ΄ Ν 
πέτρα καὶ τὸ ἀφεντικό τ᾽ θάρρεψε πώς βάρεσε τὸ παιδί. Τότες ἀξαφνα 
μὲ Ν Ν m” Ν ΄ Ν Ν Ν ΄ > > > , 
ἔκανε σὰν νᾶἄειδε κάποιον πὸ μακρυά, μιὰ καὶ δυὸ πλαλάει ᾿ς τ᾽ ἀλόγατο, 
ς ” , , Gites RP ey ὃν ey » τς 
σὰν νᾶταν τάχατες τρομασμένος, Ky ἀπὸ δῶ πᾶν K οἱ ἄλλοι. Ἔτσι ποῦ 
3 , 
λές, τὸ μωρὸ ἀπόμνε κοιμισμένο μέσ᾽ ᾽ς τ᾽ ἀστάχυα. 
Τώρα ν᾿ ἀφήσουμε τὸν πλούσιο καὶ νὰ πιάσουμε τὸ παιδί Τὰ 
, tal a 
χωράφια κεῖνα ἦταν πὸ ἕνα πλούσιο τζιφληκᾶ. Αὐτὸς ὃ πλούσιος δὲν 
> ‘ ld > Ν - Lal Ν Ν ‘ > Ν > ε -“ / > 
εἶχε παιδὶ θκό τ᾿ Ky ὅλου περικαλοῦσαν τὸν θεὸ Ky αὐτὸς κ᾽ ἡ γυναῖκά τ 
΄ 
va τους δώσῃ ἕνα παιδί. ἬἬθελαν ναὕρουν κανένα ψυχοπαίδι μπέλκε καΐ 
tous λυπηθῇ ὃ θεός. Κείνη τὴ βραδειὰ ἔτυχε νὰ σεργιανίζῃ αὐτὸς ὃ 
΄ 3 Ν ΄, , ὁ Ν Ν Ν , Ν 4 
πλούσιος ᾽ς τὰ χωράφια Kal ἄκουσε TO μωρὸ TwKAaLye. Στάθκε καὶ λέει 
3 
πὸ μέσα τ᾽ “Τί νᾶναι αὐτό; τζακάλι δέν ᾽ναι, σκυλὶ δέν ᾽ναι. “As πάω νὰ 
a? Ν ’, Ν ‘ Ν Ν ’ ‘ ’ Ν Ν Ν 
διῶ." Καὶ πααίνοντας κατὰ τὴ φωνὴ πὸ γάλια γάλια βρίσκει τὸ μωρὸ κὴ 
7 Ν , 5 ld > , ΜΝ Ν Ν 
ἅμα twede ξεπάστικε. Ma γλέποντας αὐτὸ τόσο ἔμορφο καὶ παστρικὸ 


\ Ae ΄ὔ ΄ a > ν > 49> ΄ ΄ὔ > 
και παχουλὸ TO λιμπίστηκε και TO πῆρε ς τὴν ἀγκαλιὰ T καιτὸο TANCE ς 


A lal , > ’ - 39 , -“ Ν 
τὴ γυναῖκά.τ΄. ““Διὲ τί βρῆκα ᾽ς τὸ χωράφι, γυναῖκα," τὴ λέει, “ἐμεῖς 
Ν 4, > > 
παιδὶ γυρεύαμε κῦ ὃ θεὸς παιδί pas ἔστειλε. Ἡ γυναῖκά τ᾽ dé’ τον 
, δ ων Ἢ »” 
πίστεψε “"Aivte πὸ δῶ, ποιὸς E€per σὺ μὲ ποιὰ τώκανες αὐτὸ τὸ παιδί, 


Ἄν, > > 
μὰ ἂς εἶναι dé’ με μέλει, as το φυλάξουμε." 
Ν ῳ 
Τὸ φύλαξαν καὶ τώφεραν μιὰ παραμάνα γιὰ νά το βυζάξῃ Ky ἅμα 
, Ν , ‘ A Ν Ν ” ’ , , > 
tpavepe τὸ σπούδαξαν. Καὶ τὸ παιδὶ ποῦταν σωϊκό, mpoxowe καί 7's 
» aA ’ Ν > , 2 2 a ‘ ” ig Ν Ν / 
ἀγαποῦσε πολύ, KY αὐτοί T ἀγαποῦσαν Kal τώλεγαν Naivtis, σὰν va λέμε 
1 This is a stock form of transition, as hackneyed in Modern Greek folk- 
tales as it is in similar compositions in other languages. Cp. the Italian 


“Lassamu a lu pappa gaddu e pigghiamu a lu cavaleri,’” Fiabe, novelle, 6 
raconti siciliani, by J. Pitré, Palermo, 1875, vol. 1. p. 9. 





Appendix I. 349 


ε , ’ »” > Ν 4 , ’ ΕΣ ‘4 
Ἐύρεσημιό. Τώρα νἄρθουμε ᾿ς τὸν πλούσιο. Πέρασαν χρόνια κἄμποσα κὴ 
ω , ἃς “ , 
6 Naivris γένκε δεκάξ, δεκαεφτὰ χρονῶ Totes μιὰ μέρα va σου κ᾽ 
ἔρχεται ᾿ς τὸ χωριὸ κεῖνος ὃ κακὸς ὃ πλούσιος, 6 τζεγκενές, ποῦ πάσκισε 
΄ , >» »” ε , ‘ , > κ᾿ ΄ > “Ὁ 
νά Tov χάσῃ, K ἔτσι τώφερε ἡ τύχη νὰ καταλύσῃ ᾿ς τὸ σπίτι ποὖταν ὃ 
Naivris. “Axovoe ποῦ tov φώναζαν Ναΐϊντις καὶ παραξενεύτηκε μὲ τ᾽ 
a ΄ 
ὄνομα. Ῥωτάει τὴ γυναῖκα: “Δέ᾽ με λές, κυρά, γιατί τον φωνάζτε ἔτσι; 
ωυ ΄ -“ ΄ 
“Tov βγάλαμε Naivtis γιατί, va σε πῶ τὴν ἀλήθεια, δὲν εἶναι γυιός μας, 
“-“ ? a 
τὸν βρῆκε ὃ ἄντρας μου ᾽ς τὸ χωράφι, μέσ᾽ ᾽ς τὰ γεννήματα δῶ Kal 
a Ν Ν > 
δεκαεφτὰ xpdvia. Melis ἄλλα παιδιὰ δὲν εἴχαμε κ᾽ ἔτσι tov ἀναθρέψαμε 
καί Tov ἀγαποῦμε σὰν παιδί μας, καὶ κεῖνος μᾶς ἀγαπάει πολύ. 
» , > ee | , , / Ν , wn 
Ακούοντας αὐτὰ ὃ πλούσιος πικράθκε κατάκαρδα γιατὶ κατάλαβε πῶς 
-“ cal , , 
ἦταν τὸ παιδὶ ποῦ πρόσταξε τὸν δοῦλο Tov va To χαλάσῃ. Τώρα τί νὰ 
“ ~ ‘ 
κάνῃ; συλλογιέται πὸ δῶ συλλογιέται πὸ κεῖ. ᾿᾽Σ τὰ ὕστερινά Tov ἦρθε 
ἣν ΄ , ‘ la a. Ἁ , Ν ν 3 \ , > 
μιὰ vevon. ΤῸυρίζει καὶ λέει πῶς ἔχει νὰ στείλῃ μιὰ γραφὴ ᾿ς TO χωριό τ' 
, 
καὶ θέλει ἕνα μπιστεμένο ἄθρωπο va τὴν πάῃ." 
a “ la 
“ Mra, va στείλουμε τὸν Naivtis,” τον λέν. 
lew , Ἀ 
‘Eroipacay τὸν Νάϊντις μιὰ πουγάτσα καὶ φαγιά, καὶ σέλλωσε τ᾽ 
ἀλόγατό τ᾽ γιὰ νὰ πάῃ. Ὃ πλούσιός Tov ἔδωκε μιὰ γραφὴ γιὰ τὴ 
- δ ΕἸ la ΕΣ , > Ν Ν rss ΄ , > , 
γυναῖκά τ᾽ καί την ἔλεγε μέσα ᾽ς τὴ γραφὴ αὐτὴ νά τον στείλῃ ἀπάνου 
ὅω πὰς \ a » ‘ ΄ ὑπ. \ ᾿ , Η͂ 
ς τὰ βουνὰ ποῦ ἔβοσκαν τὰ πρόβατά τ᾽ καὶ νὰ παραγγείλῃ τοὺς τσομπα- 
“ψαρέους νά τον κομματιάσουν καὶ νά τον γκρημνίσουν μέσα ᾿ς ἕνα πηγάδι. 
< few “ ἈΝ ‘ ’ Ν , 
O Naivris πῆρε τὴ γραφὴ δίχως καμμιὰ ποψία, καβαλλίκεψε καὶ κίνησε 
Ν β Ν Ἀ , «ε s , ε ’ ‘ ‘ , Ν a 
va πάῃ. Lp va κινήσῃ ἡ μάνα τού Tov ὁρμήνεψε va μὴν λάχῃ Kal πιῇ 
A 3 , σ΄ ’, ’ la > Ἂς , 
νερὸ ἀποσταμένος, K ὕστερίς τον φίλησε καί τον εἶπε τὸ κατευόδιο. 
3 \ ΄ a , ΄, x ν , ok ΄ “ , 
Σ τὸν δρόμο ποῦ πάαινε φτάνει σὲ μιὰ βρύση ἀπὸ κάτου πῶνα δέντρο 
“, > ¢ ‘ - 
καὶ ξεκαβαλλίκεψε γιὰ νὰ ξαποστάσῃ ψίχα κ᾽ ὕστερις νὰ πιῇ νερό, κατὰ 
a < , ε ’ > > Φ , a ~ , 
πῶς Tov ὁρμήνεψε ἡ μάνα τ᾽, yrar ἦταν dupacpevos. Κεῖ ποῦ κάθονταν 
"Ὁ 
ἧς τὸν ἴσκιο va σου καὶ περνάει ἕνας γέρος μὲ μακρυὰ ἄσπρα γένεια καί 
A 7 / ~ 
tov λέει: “Ποῦ wpa καλή, γυιέ pov;” “Ὥρα καλή, παπποῦ, πααίνω ᾿ς τὸ 
/ ? 4 ’ ΄’ -“ 
τάδε τὸ χωριὸ μὲ μιὰ γραφὴ γιὰ τὸν τάδε. “““Δόσε μού τὴ νά TH διῶ 
19," Ν ΄ Ἀ a a ,ὔ δ τα, Ν »” » Ν , 
αὐτὴ τὴ γραφή, γιατὶ θαρρῶ πῶς τον ξέρο αὐτὸν τὸν ἄθρωπο." Τὸ παιδί 
Ν 
τον δίνει τὴ γραφή, κὴ ὁ γέρος πέρασε τὸ χέρι του πὸ πάνου καί TH γύρισε 
“3 7 ¢ , 3 ‘ , > 
πίσου, κ᾽ ὕστερις πάῃ ᾿ς TH δουλειά τ΄. 
, -“ > > , / ε fee > Ν 
Νὰ μήν τα πολυλογοῦμε, ἀνάβραδα ἀνάβραδα φτάνει ὃ Naivris ᾿ς τὸ 
, a 4 ~ a 4 / > / > A , ‘ 
σπίτι τοῦ πλούσιου. Κεῖ ποῦ ξεπέζευε χτάζει ἀπάνου ᾽ς τὸ παραθύρι καὶ 
' , σ 4, a 
γλέπει ἕνα κορίτσι ἔμορφο σὰν τὸ φεγγάρι. “Ape σβύσε τὸν μπῆκε 
΄ > «ε ΄ a , ti σι , a δὲ > 
pupaxt. Ἦταν ἡ κόρη τοῦ πλούσιου, yar εἶχε πῇ ψέματα πῶς dev εἶχε 
ε ie / > ‘ 
παιδιά" εἶχε μιὰ κόρη K ἕνα παλληκάρι. Ὁ Ndivris σέβκε μέσα ᾿ς τὸ 
a a x A Ν a 
σπίτι K ἡ γυναῖκα τοῦ πλούσιου τον δέχτηκε κατὰ πῶς ἔπρεπε. “Καλῶς 
lol Ν ’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ’ Ν ΄ 
apices” “ Καλῶς σας βρήκαμε," τὴ δίνει τὴ γραφὴ καὶ κείνη τὴ διάβασε 
>» ta ςς τιν ’ | PS Ν ‘ Ν Ν ΓΑ ᾿ Ν , 
κ᾿ ἔγραφε μέσα “Na πάρῃς αὐτὸν τὸ νειὸ Kal τὴ κόρη pas καὶ νὰ κράξῃς 


350 Macedonian Folklore 


Ὁ “ tal 
ἕνα παπᾶ καὶ νά τους στεφανώσης T ἀγληγορώτερο. ᾿Εγὼ θἀάρθῶ ᾿ς ὀχτὼ 
μέραις καὶ πρέπει νὰ βρῶ τὸ πρᾶμα τελειωμένο.᾽ 

7 ΄ Ν Ν Ν ’,’ Ν aN , ε 

Αμα διάβασε τὴ γραφὴ ἔκανε κείνη κατὰ πῶς την παράγγελνεν ὃ 
» > ’ὔ Ν “ Ν ‘ Ν / ΄ ὟΝ 
ἄντρας τὶς, κράζει τὸν παπᾶ καὶ μιὰ καὶ δυό τους στεφανώνει. "Exavay 
γάμους, χαραῖς μὲ χοροὺς καὶ μὲ παιχνίδια ὡς τὰ ξημερώματα. 

΄ aA > 
Νὰ μήν ta πολυλογοῦμε, ὕστερις π᾿ ὀχτὼ μέραις νά σου κ᾽ ἔρχεται 


, ε , . “ ~ la > A ΄ ΄ ‘ , > 
πίσου ὁ πλούσιος, Kal κεῖ ποῦ ξεπέζευε ᾽ς τὴ πόρτα σκώνει τὰ μάτια T 


Ν ’ὔ Ν ὃ “7 A , > -“ , ~ ΚΝ 4 tee > , 
και TL VO OLY! τή θυγατέρα τ που στέκονταν σιμα ς TOV Ναΐντις απανου 


> cal ΄ a 
s τὰ κάγκελλα. Τότες τοῦ ἦρθε μιὰ ζάλη σὰν ταβλᾶς καὶ πέφτει 
“ , 
χάμου. Πλαλοῦν, κράζουν γιατροὺς καὶ μὲ τὰ πολλά Tov φέρνουν ἧς τὸν 
λογαριασμό. ‘Ti ἔπαθες, ἄντρα p;” τὸν ρωτάει ἡ γυναῖκά τ΄, ““Ας, 
’ 
τίποτες, ἀπόστασα ᾿ς τὸν δρόμο Ky ὁ ἥλιός με βάρεσε᾽ς τὸ κεφάλι," λέει 
κεῖνος, ““ μὰ γιατὶ δὲν ἔκανες κατὰ πῶς σε παράγγειλα μέσα ᾽ς τὴ γραφή; 
“Πῶς δὲ᾽ τώκανα, νὰ ἡ γραφή σ᾽ διὲ τί μ᾽ ἔγραφες. 
, - 
Τὴ παίρνει τὴ γραφὴ καί τη διαβάζει. ᾿Ἐθάρρεψε πῶς νειρεύονταν, 
/ Ν ’, > ‘ A Ν ott lal ‘ , ~ , 
τρίβει τὰ μάτια τ᾽ καλὰ καλὰ καὶ δὲ μποροῦσε va καταλάβῃ πῶς γένκε 
aA > 4, > 
αὐτὸ τὸ πρᾶμα γιατὶ τὸ γράψιμο ἦταν Oxo τ΄. Τότες λέει “ Καλά, δὲ 
΄ ΜΝ Ν ἣν a a ΄ > , 4 Tes 
πειράζει. Αὔριο τὸ πρωΐ, γλυκειαῖς χαρααῖς va τον σ᾽ κώσῃς τὸν Naivtis 
‘ , , red 4 > ‘ , . \ κ᾿ a θ , 5 , ” 
kal va τον στείλῃς ἀπάνου ᾽ς τὰ πρόβατα μὲ μιὰ γραφὴ ποῦ θα σε δώσω. 


>” » Ὁ > ‘ , Ν “ Ν a 
K E€KATOE K ἔγραψε ς τους τσομπαναρεους κατα πως καὶ πρωτα. 


Τὴν ἄλλη τὸ πρωὶ ταχύνημα σ᾽ κώθκε ἡ γυναῖκά T καὶ πῆγε νὰ ξυπνήσῃ. 


Ν few ' ἴα , > ‘ > a ΄ bg Aa A 
tov Naivris. Ma ἅμα σέβκε ᾿ς τὸν ὀντᾶ καί τον εἶδε ποῦ κοιμοῦνταν 
΄ ΄ , ΄ , 
γλυκὰ γλυκὰ μέσ᾽ τὴ κόρη 7's THY ἀγκαλιά, λυπήθκε va Tov ξυπνήσῃ καί 
ν ἣν ’ ν σ > , ‘ 9 ’ > . ’ > 
τον ἄφκε νὰ χορτάσῃ τὸν ὕπνο ἀκόμα καμμιὰ wpa. Ilae ᾿ς τὸ yuo Ts 
a : * , 299 , ‘ 
καί τον λέει “ Κοιμᾶσαι, παιδί μ᾽; “Ὄχι, μάνα p.” “Σήκου va 
β +>. , Ν \ “ > A ‘ os NA Ἂν , 0 D Bo. 
καβαλλικέψῃς καὶ va πᾷς αὐτὴ TH γραφὴ ᾿ς τοὺς τσομπάνους ποῦ βόσκουν 
Ν , Ν 
τὰ πρόβατα." Σ᾽ κώνεται τὸ παιδὶ καβαλλικεύει παίρνει τὴ γραφὴ καὶ 
κίνησε. 
ἮΝ > Α ΕΣ Γ] > , A ε Ν > , , 
OTEPLS ἀπὸ κἀμποση WPA σ᾽ KWVETAL KY} ὁ ἄντρας TS καί TH ρωτάει 
, ΄ ΄ Ν ἤν. 
“Tov ἔστειλες;" “Tov λυπήθκα νά tov ξυπνήσω τὸν Ναΐντις," λέει 
’, “cc Ν Ἁ /, ” > ε Ν , Ν Ν ’ 3) 
κείνη, “μὰ μὴ νοιάζεσαι, ἄντρα μ᾽, ἡ γραφὴ πάησε μὲ τὸ γυιό μας. 
‘“ oo” ‘ a ” , ~ Ν Ν ‘ ὃ Ν Ν ’,’ 
Τί ἔκανες βρὲ γυναῖκα ) φωνάζει κεῖνος καὶ μιὰ καὶ δυὸ σὰν νά Tov 
a ΕΣ ΄, ΄ ε a? > 
πῆρε μιὰ avadaBy, τρέχει ὄξου γιὰ va τον προφτάσῃ. Ἢ γυναῖκά + 
, “ > , > ‘ ‘ Ν ‘ Ἁ id ’ > 
θάρρεψε πῶς τον ἦρθε πάλι ἀχαμνὰ σὰν καὶ χτὲς καὶ τρέχει καταπόδι τ΄. 
Φτάνοντας ἧς τὸ βουνὸ βρῆκε πώς οἱ τσομπάνοι τον εἶχαν χαλάσῃ τὸν 
τά s ς τὸ βουνὸ βρὴ ς pre xav χαλάσῃ τὸ 
, > ’, > esr fo? Ν (ὃ a iey Set ‘ ,ὔ > pope: ee | Ν 
γυιό τ᾽ καί Tov εἶχαν ῥίξῃ μέσ᾽ ᾽ς τὸ πηγάδι, KY ἀπ᾽ τὴ πίκρα τ᾽ Ky aT τὸ 
2 > Ν s ε -“ ‘ 
ἄχτι T πέφτει Ky αὐτὸς μέσα καὶ χάνεται. “H γυναῖκα γλέποντας τὸν 
” a 2° ΄ »” ν᾿ , \ 
ἄντρα Ts ποῦ πεσε μέσ᾽ ᾿ς TO πηγάδι τἄχασε καὶ ῥίχνεται καὶ κείνη μέσα 
Ν vf Ἂς, 3 Ψ >» > , ε ig ’ 
καὶ πέθανε κὴ αὐτή. Κ᾽ ἔτσι ἀπόμνε ὁ Ναΐντις κληρονόμος. 
ΓΊΦΟΣ ΄ > , > “ A , Ν ’ a ‘ 
Αὐτὸ δέν ᾽ναι παραμύθι. Ἐΐἶναι πρᾶμα ποῦ γένκε καὶ δείχνει πῶς TH 


Μοῖρά τ᾽ κἀνένας δὲ μπορεῖ νά τη ξεφύγῃ. 








APPENDIX IL. 


Τὸ BaciAdtroyAo Kal ὁ ἀητόο. 


᾿Αρχὴ τοῦ παραμυθιοῦ. Καλὴ σπέρα σας. 

Μιὰ Boda κ᾽ ἕναν καιρὸ ἦταν ἕνας βασιλέας κ᾽ εἶχε τρία παιδιά, μὰ ὃ 
μικρότερος ἦταν ὃ πειὸ ἀντρειωμένος Ky ὃ πειὸ ὥμορφος ἀπ᾽ οὗλνοι. 
Ἦρθε καιρὸς xn ἀρρώστησε ὃ βασιλέας πολὺ βαρειά, ἦταν πειὰ γιὰ 
θάνατο, κ᾽ εἶπαν οἱ γιατροὶ πῶς γιὰ νὰ γλυτώσ᾽ πρέπει νὰ φάῃ ξοῦγγι ἀπ᾽ 
ἀρσενικὸ λαγό. Τότες φώναξε τὰ βασιλόπουλα καί τα εἶπε" 

“Παιδιά μ᾽, εἶμαι ἄρρωστος πολὺ βαρειά, κ᾽ οἱ γιατροὶ εἶπαν πῶς γιὰ 
νὰ γένω καλὰ πρέπει νὰ φάω ξοῦγγι ἀπ᾽ ἀρσενικὸ λαγὸς as περικαλῶ 
λοιπὸν va πᾶτε᾽ς τὸ κυνῆγι καὶ νά με φέρτε ἕν᾽ ἀρσενικὸ Aayd.” 

“ Καλὰ, πατέρα," εἶπαν τὰ παιδιὰ καὶ πῆραν ταῖς σαΐταις τους καὶ τ᾽ 
ἅρματά t's καὶ κίνησαν γιὰ νὰ πᾶν. ἸΠῆγαν ἀλάργα ἧς τὰ οὐρμάνια γιὰ νὰ 
βροῦν λαγούς. Οἱ δυὸ οἱ τρανύτεροι οἱ γιοὶ δὲ᾽ κατάφεραν νὰ σκοτώσουν 
κἂν κἀνένα, μὰ ὃ μικρότερος σκότωσε τρεῖς, μὰ κἀνένας ἀπὸ δαύτους δὲν 
ἦταν ἀρσενικός. Οἱ ἀδερφοί τ᾽ ἀρχίνησαν νά tov ζουλεύουν γιατὶ φάνκε 
πειὸ ἄξιος ἀπ᾿ αὐτούς. Τὴν ἄλλη τὴ μέρα ξαναβγῆκαν ᾿ς τὸ κυνῆγι καὶ 
πάλι τὰ ἴδια- οἱ δυὸ οἱ τρανοὶ δὲ᾽ μπόρεσαν νὰ κάνουν τίποτες μὰ ὃ 
μικρότερος σκότωσε δυὸ κ᾿ ἕνας ἀπ᾽ τοὺς δυὸ λαγοὺς ἔλαχε νᾶν᾽ ἀρσενικός. 
Τότες τὸν ζούλεψαν ἀκόμ᾽ πειὸ παρὰ πάνω κ᾽ εἶπαν ὃ ἕνας μὲ τὸν ἀλλο: 

“"As Tov σκοτώσουμε κ᾽ ὕστερις νὰ ποῦμε τοῦ πατέρα μας πῶς ἦρθαν 
κλέφταις καί τον χάλασαν." 

Κεῖ κοντὰ ἦταν ἕνα πηγάδι πολὺ παλῃὸ μὲ μάρμαρα γύρο γύρο καὶ τὸ 
νερὸ ἔβγαινε πὸ μέσα καὶ ξεχείλιζε πὸ τριγύρο ᾽ς τὰ μάρμαρα. “Apa ἦρθε 
Ky ὃ μικρότερος τότες τὸν εἶπαν" 

“ AZ πίνουμε νερὸ π᾿ αὐτὸ τὸ πηγάδι, ἔτσι πῶς εἴμαστε Supacpevor;” 

“ Μπράβο," εἶπε κεῖνος, “va πιοῦμε." 

“Ma πρέπει νὰ πιοῦμε μὲ τὴν ἀράδα," λέει ὃ τρανύτερος, “πρῶτα ὁ 
ἕνας, ὕστερις ὁ ἄλλος καὶ ᾿ς τὰ ὑστερνὰ ὁ τρίτος." 


952 Macedonian Folklore 


, Ν “ ε 4 “ ε 
Τότες ἤπιε πρῶτα ὁ τρανύτερος, ὕστερις ὁ δεύτερος κ᾽ ὑστερνὸς ὁ 
> A > 
μικρότερος. “EBade τὴ mada τ᾽ καὶ τὴ σαΐτα τ᾽ ἀπὸ Kat ἀπ᾿ τὴ μασχάλη 
Ν ΄ Ν ΄ Ν νΝ δ δ᾽... Ν Ν a 3. ἙΝ > ᾧ 
καὶ ξαπλώθκε τὰ μπρούμυτα γιὰ νὰ πιῇ ἀπ᾽ τὸ νερὸ ποῦ ἔτρεχε ἀπ᾽ ὄξω “xr 
Q , , nd Ν a Ee ee 7 / ORES FEY | - > 
τὰ μάρμαρα. Τότες ὁ ἕνας τὸν miav ἀπ᾽ tava ποδάρι Kp ὦ ἄλλος ἀπ᾽ TF 
” > Ν ’ὔ ΕΣ 
ἄλλο καί τον ῥίχνουν μέσα ὗς τὸ πηγάδι. "πεσε τὸ λοιπὸν τὸ βασιλόπουλο 
> 
μέσα κ᾽ οἱ ἀδερφοί του ἔφυγαν καὶ γύρσαν πίσω ᾽ς τὸ παλάτι. “Apa 
ἔφτασαν ἐκεῖ του πῆγαν τοῦ πατέρα τους τὸν λαγὸ καὶ TovTay: 
«Ν , , , , ‘ , 3 x \ , Η͂ 
a, πατέρα, καταφεράμε καὶ βρήκαμε ἀρσενικὸ λαγὸ σήμερις, μὰ 
»" , Ν ὰ ΄ 3 τ Μὴ a »% λὺ , 
ἔχασάμε τὸν ἀδερφό pas,” κ᾽ ἔκαναν πῶς ἦταν πολὺ πικραμένοι. 
“ Μπρέ, τί λέτε; πῶς γένηκε δαῦτο;" ρωτάει ὁ βασιλέας καὶ πετάχτηκε 
” ryt τς ΄ 7 , > a 4 , . ΄ N 
ὄξω “x τὸ κρεββάτι, γιατί τον ἀγαποῦσε τὸν μικρότερο τὸν γιό του πειὸ 
’ ἢ. τὰ > > 
περισσότερο wT TS ἀλνοί. 
, ~ “ ~ 
“Ti va σε ποῦμε, πατέρα," λέν, “Ket ποῦ κυνηγούσαμε ἄξαφνα ἦρθαν 
λέ > 70 δι , ,ὔ 2 ¢ a ε ὃ Ν ΄ , Ν ε 
κλέφταις κ᾽ ἤθελαν νά μας καταποντίσουν, K ἡμεῖς οἱ δυὸ ξέφυγάμε, μὰ ὁ 
> , , ” 
ἀδερφός pas χάθκε. 
, a > \ ΄ “2 
Τότες γένηκε μέγας θρῆνος ᾿ς τὸ παλάτι, κὴ ὁ βασιλέας κ᾽ ἡ βασίλισσα 
΄ > \ a >» ‘ , , 
ντύθκαν ᾿ς τὰ μαῦρα κ᾿ ἔκλαιγαν Kai θλίβουνταν πολύ. 
> Lal -“ - a 
Τώρα va Ts ἀφήσουμε Ket ποῦ θρηνοῦσαν καὶ νὰ Tape ’s TO βασιλό- 
a > 
πουλο. Td πηγάδι ποῦ tov ἔρριξαν μέσα ἦταν πολὺ βαθύ, καὶ τρία 
δ᾽ σ΄ , σ. a 
χρόνια ἔπεφτε δίχως vavpy πάτο. Ὕστερα πὸ τρία χρόνια πάτησε γῆς 
4 - O28 8 ἐν ,ὕ ? 4? \ , > ‘ , a > > 
καὶ Bynxe π᾿ T ἀλλο μέρος. ᾿Ανοίγ τὰ μάτια τ᾽ Kal γλέπει πῶς ἦταν ᾿ς 
᾿ ’, 3 ε / , a 
ἄλλο κόσμο. “Hrave ὁ Κάτω Κόσμος. Kai κεῖ μακρυὰ μακρυὰ γλέπει 
σ Lal Ul , , ’ , Ν Ν λύ 
ἕνα φῶς. Περπατόντας, περπατόντας, περπατόντας φτάνει σὲ μιὰ καλύβα. 
> lal , > ἈΝ Ν >» ’ / ‘ ‘ ’ ‘ 
Ἐκεῖ μέσα ἦταν μιὰ γρῃὰ κ᾽ ἔπλαθε ζυμάρι μέσα σὲ μιὰ κουπανίτσα γιὰ 
,ὔ d Ν ’ , “- 
νὰ κάνῃ μιὰ πουγάτσα. Τότες τὸ βασιλόπουλο χτάζει πῶς ἡ γρῃὰ dev 
> ΄ ’ Ν Ν 4 Ν > “~ Ν Ν , 4 > >» 
εἶχε νερό, μόνο ἔκλαιγε καὶ ζύμωνε τὸ ἀλεῦρι μὲ τὰ δάκρυά 7's κ᾿ ἔφτυνε. 
al lal > a -“ 
Καὶ κεῖ ποῦ ἔκλαιγε κ᾽ ἔφτυνε καὶ ζύμωνε τὸ χαμοῦρι τραγουδοῦσε 
, 
λυπητερά, λυπητερά. 
, , ’ 3 
Τὸ βασιλόπουλο ἀπόρεσε πολὺ γλέποντάς THY νὰ φτάῃ καὶ νὰ κλαί 
γ 0 Y 
kai την ἀλυπήθκε. 
Ν 
“ Καλὴ σπέρα, κυρὰ μανιώ,᾽ τὴ λέει. 
> “~ 
“Καλὸ ᾿ς τὸ παιδί pov,” λέει κείνη καὶ κύτταξε μὲ ἀπορία ἔτσι πῶς 
3 ΄ a ν 9 , Rat τος , wees εἶ ἡ 
ἦταν νέος παλληκαρᾶς κὴ ἀντρειωμένος καὶ μὲ τὴ πάλα καὶ τὴ σαΐτα πάνω 
3 Ν As 6c? Ν “ιν , Εν ἢ δὲ > byt) a 
ς TOV VOLO του. Απὸ ποῦ ἔρχεσαι, γιέ μου; ἐσὺ dev εἶσαι ἀπὸ τοῦτα 
‘ , \ τ ὦ ΓΟ te , ” 
τὰ μέρη, μὴν ἔρχεσαι + τὸν Avw Koopo; 
» / lal > > ’ὔ 
“Μάλιστα, ἔρχομαι πὸ τὸν “Avw Κόσμο, μὰ πῶς T ἀπεικάστηκες, 
pave d; ” ἔ 
lal “ 4 , , 
“Au ἐμεῖς ἐδώ δὲν ἔχουμε τέθοιους ἄντρες σὰν Kal σέναα Φαίνεσαι 
a > a ’ “ , a) 
πῶς εἶσαι 3 ἐκεὶ πάνω. Καὶ πώς κατέφκες ἐδῶ; 
> ΄ ν ΄ ΄ 3) ‘ bed 
Τότες τὴν ἀφηγήθκε τὸ βασιλόπουλο “τὸ καὶ τό με γένηκε," Kal πῶς 





Appendix IT. 353 


tov ἔρριξαν τ᾽ ἀδέρφια τ᾽ μέσ᾽ ᾿ς τὸ πηγάδι. “Ma δέ με dés,” λέει τὴ 
« Ν δὲ , Ν Ν , Ν “a Ν , 4? ‘ 
γρῃά, “γιατὶ δὲ παίρνεις νερὸ va ζυμώσῃς τὸ χαμοῦρι μὲ νερό, pov τὸ 
, Ν Ν , > ‘ Ν Ν , Ν ’ a ‘ 
ζυμώνεις μὲ τὰ δάκρυα σ᾽ καὶ μὲ τὸ φτύμα, καὶ γιατί κλαῖς Kal pupo- 
Ee 
λογᾷς; 
x ‘ , 
“A γιέ μου, νερὸ δὲν ἔχουμε σὲ τοῦτο τὸν τόπο. Εἶν ἕνα πηγάδι, μά 
,ὔ Ν ’ ¢ Ν ΄ Ν 4 ’ ‘ ’ Ν 
το φυλάει μιὰ Λάμια, ἕνα θηριὸ τετράποδο μὲ τρία κεφάλια καὶ ζητάει τὸν 
-“ “ > -, 'τ ’ Ν ’ > » > > ’ Ἀ Ν Ν / 
πᾶσα μῆνα “ro ἕνα κορίτσι νὰ φάῃ x ἔτσι v ἀφήσῃ τὸ νερὸ va τρέξῃ. 
Αὐτὸν τὸν μῆνα ἔπεσε 6 λαχνὸς ᾿ς τὴ μοναχοκόρη μου τὴ Μαροῦδα καί τὴν 
ΡῚ ΄ ᾿ > ‘ ΄ πὸ ον τ ‘ ” κ᾿ a x 
ἔχουν τώρα δεμένη ᾿ς τὸν πλάτανο μὲ T's ἁλυσσίδαις, κὴ αὔριο θὰ βγῇ τὸ 
θηριὸ καὶ θά τη φάῃ. Tra δαῦτο κλαίγω καὶ θρηνῶ." 
σ 
Apa τ᾽ ἄκουσε αὐτὰ τὰ λόγια τὸ βασιλόπουλο εἶπε" 
“cc Ἐ, ‘ 6 / ΄ κὸν Ν Ν Ν ‘ , ‘ ‘ , > 
γὼ θά το σκοτώσω αὐτὸ τὸ θηριὸ Kai θὰ γλυτώσω καὶ TO κορίτσι σ᾽ 
‘ = Ν , / , Ν Ν Ν ΄ > > δ Ν ‘ 
ky) οὗλο τὸν Toro. Μόνο δόσε pov μιὰ μπουκουσιὰ va φάω "x αὐτὴ τὴ 
’ σ Ν » ” 
πουγάτσα apa τὴ ψήσῃς. 
««ἃ λα a ‘ ΄ ΓΝ ΄ ‘ Ν ΄ cal ts 
A γιέ μ᾽, πῶς θὰ μπορέσῃς ἐσὺ va To σκοτώσῃς τὸ θηριό, ποῦ Ky ο 
la , ag | em’ x ’ ‘ e > > ld > [ὦ , , ‘ 
βασιλέας ax’ αὐτὴ τὴ πολιτεία Ky οὗλο τ᾽ ἀσκέρι τ᾽ τόσα χρόνια τώρα TO 
πολεμοῦν καὶ τίποτες δὲ᾽ μποροῦν νὰ κάνουν ;᾽" 
“Ἐγὼ θά το σκοτώσω,᾽" λέει τὸ βασιλόπουλο. 
“ Μὴν πᾷς νὰ μή σε φάῃ κ᾽ ἐσένα." 
“Ἐγὼ 8% φοβοῦμαι. Ἢ θά το καταποντίσω αὐτὸ τὸ θηριὸ ἢ νὰ 
, » 
πεθάνω. 
-“ἶ cal »” 
"Exel ποῦ μιλοῦσε ἀξαφν᾽ ἀκούει μιὰ φωνή, κρά, κρά. Τυρίζει καὶ 
2 ΄ ’ ‘ > ‘ Ν ‘2 ‘ , ΄ > Ν 
γλέπει ἕνα μεγάλο πουλὶ ποῦὗταν σὲ μιὰ γωνιὰ ᾽ς τὴ καλύβα: ἕνας ἀητὸς 
χρυσὸς σὰν ἄγγελος. Ῥωτάει “τίν᾽ αὐτὸ τὸ πουλί; 
{ 2% Ν > ἂν c om 7 @ £6 ἐδ Cod ὌΥ ὦ Ν Δ > 
Αὐτὸ μὲ τ΄ ἄφκε ὁ ἄντρας μ᾽ ὄντας πέθανε ἐδώ κ᾿ ἑκατὸ χρόνια, K 
τ ον "ὁ ε a ΄ ae. », a , 2) 
ἐγὼ τ᾽ ἀνάθρεψα ws ποῦ τράνεψε καὶ γένκε ἔτσι ποῦ το γλέπεις. 
‘Aue κείνη ἡ βουβάλα κεῖ τί εἶναι;" 
“Ky αὐτὴ τὴ βουβάλα μέ την ἄφκε ὁ ἄντρας p ἐδῶ κ᾽ ἑκατὸ χρόνια 
K ἐγώ την ἀνάθρεψα,᾽" λέει ἡ γρῃά. 

Ἔσσι ποῦ λέμε τὸν ἔδωκε κ᾿ ἔφαε πιὰ μπουκουσιὰ ‘x’ τὴ πουγάτσα, 
ἅμα τὴν ἔψησε, καὶ τὸ βασιλόπουλο κίνησε μὲ TH Tada T καὶ τὴ σαΐτα τ᾽ 
a Ν , “~ > ε 4 ld > ‘ , ‘ “-“ 
γιὰ νὰ πάῃ κεῖ ποῦταν ἡ Μαρούδα δεμένη ᾿ς τὸν πλάτανο καὶ καρτεροῦσε 

νὰ βγῇ τὸ θηριὸ νά ty φάῃ. “Apa ἔφτασε κεῖ καί την εἶδε, τὴ λέει" 
“Tlds εἶσαι δώ; τί κάνεις; 
««Ὑ > - , » ε λ x ΦΡι 4, ΄ Ν aA Ν 
Ετσι ἦταν τῆς Τύχης μου, ἔπεσε ο λαχνὸς σὲ μένα καὶ καρτερῶ νὰ 
a > , Ν 4 
βγῇ τὸ θηριὸ καὶ va pe φάῃ γιὰ ν᾿ ἀφήσῃ τὸ vepo.’ 
Τότες τὸ βασιλόπουλο βγάζει τὸ σπαθί τ᾽ καὶ κόβει ταῖς ἁλυσσίδαις 
Kai τη λέει" 
a ’ ) 
“My φοβᾶσαι ἐγὼ θά σε γλυτώσω. 
ὡς » > ΄ \ , 
Κείνη ἔτσι ποῦ τον εἶδε ἕνα νέο σὰν ἄστρο, τὸν ἀλυπήθκε καὶ λέει" 


A. F. 23 


354 Macedonian Folklore 


- a a 9 
“Φεῦγα μακρυὰ ᾿π᾿ ἐδῶ, γιατὶ θὰ χαθῇς κ᾽ ἐσὺ ὅπως χάθκαν τόσοι 
Ν a e 
advo. Διέ, κεῖ πέρα εἶναι τὰ μνημόρια ποὖναι θαμμένοι οὗλοι ποῦ 
6 ἐδ a Ν , ΄ Ν Ν 4 Ν , 3) ςς » 
σώθκαν ἐδῶ καὶ τόσα χρόνια γιὰ νὰ γλυτώσουν τὸν τόπο. Μή σε 
A s 
μέλῃ," λέει τὸ βασιλόπουλο, καὶ γύρσε καὶ κύτταξε ποῦ οὗλος ὁ κάμπος 
> nw > Ἀ ’ Υ be. 10 X “ nw lal 
ἦταν γεμᾶτος ἀπὸ μνημύρια, pa dé φοβήθκε. Καὶ Ket ποῦ μιλοῦσαν 
3 , ψ Ν aA \ , Ν ’ ε a Ν x 
ἀκούγεται ἕνα φοβερὸ ταβατοῦρι σὰν βροντή, καὶ tpavrale ἡ γῆς σὰν νὰ 
’ 
γένουνταν σεισμός. 
“TS θηριὸ βγαίνει, φεῦγα, φεῦγα νὰ μή σε φάῃ καὶ σένα)" φωνάζ᾽ ἡ 
Μαροῦδα, μὰ τὸ βασιλόπουλό την πῆρε ᾿ς τὰ χέρια καί την ἔβαλε ᾿ς ἕνα 
Ν , > 4 ‘ , Ν ’ Ν Ν / 
ψηλὸ μέρος ἀλάργα καὶ yipoe νὰ παλαίψῃ μὲ τὴ Λάμια. 
> ιν τὴν ΄ ’ Ν Ν , > Ν Ν Ν 
Κ᾿ ἦταν αὐτὸ ἕνα μεγάλο θεόρατο θηριὸ μὲ νύχια ἀγκαθωτὰ καὶ δυὸ 
Ν ἮΝ 3 Ν lal % 8 / 3 Ν 4 ‘ A 7 ‘ 
φτερὰ ποῦ ἔφταναν ἀπὸ δῶ Ky ὡς κάτω ᾽ς τὸν κάμπο τὸ πᾶσα ἕνα. Καὶ 
-“ a eh δι ΟὟ Ν ΄ Ν , Ν Ν , > 3s 3 Ν a 
βγῆκε ἀπὸ μέσ᾽ ἀπ᾽ τὸ πηγάδι Kai πιάστηκε μὲ τὰ νύχια τ᾽ ἀπ᾽ τὴ γῆς 
9 
ἕτοιμο γιὰ νὰ χιμήσῃ. Ky) ἅμα εἶδε τὸ βασιλόπουλο elie: 
“Koda μ᾽ ἤλεγε ἡ μάνα μου ἡ Λάμια" πολνοὶ θὰ φᾷς μὰ θἀρθῃῇ μιὰ 
μέρα ἕνας τέθοιος Ky) ἀπὸ κεῖνον νὰ φοβηθῇς." 
/ Ν / ΄ 3 , Ν Ν / Ν Ἢ 
Τότες τὸ βασιλόπουλο ρίχτηκε ἀπάνω του μὲ τὴ πάλα καὶ τώδωκε 
a σ >” 
τώδωκε Kal πρῶτα ἔκοψε μὲ τὸ σπαθὶ Tava τὸ κεφάλι κ᾿ ὕστερα τὸ ἄλλο 
ὡς ποῦ το χάλασε πέρα πέρα καὶ δὲν ἀπόμνε ρουθοῦνι ποῦ λέει κὴ ὁ 
x ρα πέρ μνε p ὴ 
λόγος. 
ε ὔ 4Φ Ν ε “ Ν ’ὔ ε “ σ εἶ ε 
Ο κόσμος οὗλος κῃ ὁ ντουνιᾶς, μικροὶ μεγάλοι, 6 πᾶσας ἕνας Ky ὁ 
΄ Ν \ ὃ ὃ (ὃ oo »»Ρ 3 , 3 Ν ’ ‘ lal Ν 
βασιλέας μὲ τὴ δωδεκάδα μαζύ, ἦταν ἀπάνω ’s τὸ κάστρο καὶ θωροῦσαν τὸ 
, Ν ld »” 
πάλαιμα. Ky ἅμα σώθκε τὸ Onpid, ἀρχίνησε νἄρχεται τὸ νερὸ μὲ βοὴ 
’ \ , ca ε , 914% , \ x , 
μεγάλη, καὶ γέμισαν ὅλαις ἢ στέρναις κ ἢ φουσκίναις καὶ τὰ καζάνια 
ποὖχαν οἱ ἀθρῶποι χαζίρικα. 
Τότες πῆρε τὸ βασιλόπουλο τὴ Μαροῦδα ᾿π᾿ τὸ χέρι γιὰ νά την πάῃ 
, > ‘ , > \ , ‘ ” \ , > , > 
πίσω ᾿ς TH μάνα T's, καὶ κείνη τὸν ἔδωκε TO δαχτυλίδι T's καί Tov εἶπε" 
“Εἶμαι τώρα Oxy σου." 
“- ε ΄ 
Κὴ ἅμα ἦρθαν ᾿ς τὴ καλύβα καί τους εἶδε ἡ γρῃά, δὲν ἤθελε ἀκόμα νὰ 
a ¢ 
πιστέψῃ πῶς τὸ θηριὸ σώθκε, μὰ ὕστερα πίστεψε. Λέει τὸ βασιλόπουλο" 
coms $2, By ‘6 ees nt a δ a 
wKava αὐτὸ τὸ ἀντραγάθημα μὲ τὴ μπουκουσιὰ ποῦ μούδωκες, ποῦ 
> , Ν Ν , > a AN > oF > ’, ΄ὔ , 
τὴν εἶχες ζυμωμένη μὲ τὰ δάκρυα σ᾽, αὐτὸ μ᾽ ἔδωκε ἀντρεία Kai TO νίκησα 
τὸ θηριό. Τώρα θά με δώ ὴ κό αἴκα καὶ θᾶμαι πάντα γιό 
npvo. pa θά με δώσῃς τὴ κόρη σου yuv καὶ θᾶμαι π' γιὸς 
σου." 
ὁ na ~ 
"Ero. φιλήθκαν καί τον ἔδωκε ἡ Mapodda τὸ δαχτυλίδι 7's καὶ κεῖνός 
» Ν ΄, \ ΄, δ τα a : 
τὴν ἔδωκε τὸ θκό του καὶ γένκε ὃ ἀρραβώνας. 
Μὰ ὁ βασιλέας κ᾿ ἡ δωδεκάδα τοὺς κακοφάνκε πῶς ἕνας ξένος κατάφερε 
> » σ΄ 4, ΄ > ‘ “ > Ν , ΄ 
κ᾿ ἔκανε ἕνα τέθοιο μεγάλο ἀντραγάθημα, ποῦ αὐτοὶ τόσα χρόνια πολε- 
μοῦσαν καὶ δὲ μπόρεσαν, x ἤθελαν νά tov καταποντίσουν. Βγῆκαν μὲ 
A ‘ / Ν > , >» Ν Ν Ua x ,ὔ 
σαΐταις καὶ σπαθιά, πολὺ ἀσκέρι, κ᾿ ἔρχουνταν κατὰ τὴ καλύβα γιὰ νά τον 


, ψ 8...» SA Ν ’, 
πιάσουν. Δμα τ᾽ ἄκουσε αὐτὸ ἡ γρῃὰ λέει" 


Appendix II. 355 


~ , 

“Eoeis οἱ δυὸ τώρα πρέπει va φύγητε γιὰ νὰ γλυτώστε. Ἐγώμαι 

‘ a , > 3 , ὃ a ‘ δέ᾽ EX. a 6 , ” 
yen γυναῖκα, vd μ᾽ ἀφήστε δῶ καὶ δέ᾽ με μέλει, ds πεθάνω. 

“Kai πῶς θὰ φύγουμε, μάνα μ᾽," λέει τὸ βασιλόπουλο, “va γένω 

»” 
ἀητὸς va πετάξω; ἄθρωπος εἶμαι. “As ἔρθουν κΥἢ ὅτι θέλ᾽ ὁ θεὸς ἂς 
΄ ” 
“γένῃ. 
’ / ε , 8 A ε » Ν a , »” ec mw 

Τότες λέει ἡ ypya: “Αὐτὸς ὃ ἀητὸς ποῦ μέ Tov ἄφκε ὃ ἄντρας p Kai 
tov ἔθρεψα τόσα χρόνια, αὐτὸς θά σας βγάλῃ ὄξω." 

Τὸν ρώτηξαν τὸν ἀητὸ καὶ λέν" “Twpa πρέπει κ᾽ ἐσὺ νά μας βοηθήσῃς, 

’ 
ποῦ σε θρέψαμε τόσα χρόνια." 

“Αὐτὴ τὴν ὥρα καρτεροῦσα καὶ γώ," λέει ὃ anros. ““᾿Ἐσεῖϊς οἱ δυὸ 
νὰ καβαλλκέψτε᾽ς τὸν λῃμό μ᾽ καὶ νὰ πάρτε θροφαῖς, νὰ πάρτε τριακόσιαις 
» , , ‘ , 3 , , ‘ ‘ , ” 
ὀκάδες κρέας, καὶ τριακόσιαις ὀκάδες νερό, καὶ va φύγουμε. 

“ Καὶ ποῦ θά το βροῦμε τὸ κρέας, καὶ ποῦ θὰ βροῦμε τουλοῦμι μεγάλο 
γιὰ νὰ χωρέσῃ τόσο νερό;" τὸν ρωτοῦν. 

“Na σφαξτε τὴ βουβάλα ποῦ καὶ κείνη τὴ θρέψατε τόσα χρόνια, νά 

δά A x Ν ΄ > 6 ‘ 6 a ἣν Ὅν. Ν 2 ‘ , 
τὴ γδάρτε καὶ μὲ τὸ κρέας 7's θὰ θραφοῦμε, Kp) ἀπ᾽ τὸ πετσί 7's νὰ κάντε 
τουλοῦμι καὶ νά το γεμίστε νερό." 

Τὴν ἔσφαξαν τὴ βουβάλα καὶ φόρτωσαν τὸ κρέας ἀπ᾽ τῶνα τὸ μέρος 
καὶ τὸ τουλοῦμι ἀπ᾽ τ᾽ ἄλλο κῃ ἀνέφκαν τὸ βασιλόπουλο μὲ τὸ κορίτσι 
> 4 > Ν , ‘ , Ν » ‘ , 2 ¢€ 3 Ν Ἀ > lA 
ἀπάνω ᾿ς τὸν λῃμό, καὶ σιγά, σιγὰ ἄνοιξε TA φτερά T ὁ ἀητὸς κὴ ἀρχίνησε 
νὰ πετάῃ. - 

“Opa σας καλή 1" φώναξε ἡ γρῃὰ κ᾽ ἔπεσε καὶ ξεψύχησε. 

Ὅ > A > EB > ἔβα ὃ "ὃ ’ ‘ , 5 50 ε 

ἀητὸς ἀνέβαινε, ἀνέβαινε δώδεκα χρόνια καὶ σιγά, σιγὰ σώθκαν ἡ 
-“ , , 
Opodais. “Kpa, xpa,” φώναξε. 

“Ti θές;" 

“ Πεινώ.᾽" A 

Τότες κόβει τὸ βασιλόπουλο τὸ μποῦτι ᾿᾽π᾿ τὸ ζερβί του χέρι καί το 

βάζεις τὴ μύτη ᾿᾽π᾿ τὸν anro. “Kpa, κρά," φωνάζει πάλι- 

ἐς Ἧς θές; 

“cc Διψώ." 

ψ' ΄ Ν ΄ > 3 ‘ ϑ ’ if ‘ ~ 4 ,΄ > 

Τότες βάζει τὸ στόμα τ᾽ κοντα ᾿ς τὴ μύτη Kai τον δίνῃ va πιῇ τὸ φτύμα τ᾽. 
Ἔτσι μέρα μὲ τὴ μέρα ζύγωναν ᾿ς τὸν “Avw Κόσμόὄ. Ma πάλι ἕανα- 

7 ε > Ν ‘ x ’ »” Ν “ ss Ν , ’ 
πείνασε ὁ ἀητὸς καὶ τὸ βασιλόπουλο ἔκοψε τὸ μποῦτι π᾿ τὸ δεξί του χέρι 
καί τον ἔδωκε νὰ φάῃ. “Yorepts ἔκοψε τὸ μποῦτι a τὸ ζερβί του πόδι κ᾽ 
σ΄ ..5 Ν , ΄ ’ , > 3 Ν , 2 « x see 
ὕστερις ἀπ᾽ τὸ δεξί του πόδι Kai τον πότιζε ᾽π᾿ τὸ στόμα τ᾽ ὡς ποῦ ἀνέφκαν 
> “- -“ 
ἀπάνω κ᾽ εἶδαν φῶς καὶ κατέφκαν ᾿ς ἕνα βουνὸ σιμὰ ᾿ς τὴ πολιτεία τοῦ 
πατέρα τ΄. 

: Τότες ὁ ἀητὸς εἶπε: ““᾿Εγὼ θὰ μείνω δῶ ἀπάνω ᾿ς αὐτὸ τὸ βουνό, καὶ 
σεῖς νὰ πάτε᾽ς τὴ πολιτεία κὴ ἂν τυχόν ποτες ἔχετε τὴν ἀνάγκη μ᾽ νά με 
do a Ν S'S x , , / ‘ ‘ > 3 ΄ > > Ν 

κηθῆτε. Νὰ αὐτὸ τὸ φτερό, νά το κάψτε καὶ γὼ θ᾽ ἀπεικάσω ἀπ᾽ τὴ 


23—2 


956 Macedonian Folklore 























3 Ν , > 
μυρωδιὰ καὶ θᾶρθω ᾿ς τὴ στιμή." Κ᾽ ἔβγαλε ἕνα μικρὸ χρυσὸ φτερὸ ᾿π᾿ τὸ 
, ’ > , ” 
γλέφαρό τ᾽ καί τους τώδωκε. 
» Ν Ἶ 
"Apa ἔφτασαν ᾿ς τὴ πολιτεία τὸ βασιλόπουλο ρώτηξε: “Ποῦ εἶναι 6 
δρόμος ποῦ παει᾿ς τὸ παλάτι; καὶ τοῦ τον ἔδειξαν. 
> x , »” > , id ͵ὔ > > Ν Ἂ a? 
Εἶχαν πειὰ περάσῃ εἴκοσ᾽ πέντε, τριάντα χρόνια ἀπ᾽ τὸν καιρὸ τοῦ ἦταν 
,ὔ ἌΝ , | EA Lap 2 , Φ' ὦ , ‘ Pe , 
φευγάτος ky ὃ πατέρας T K ἡ μάνα T εἶχαν yepacy, κὴ αὐτὸς εἶχε τρανέψῃ 
καὶ φαίνουνταν πειὸ παλληκαρᾶς πὸ πρῶτα. 
΄ Ν : 
“Apa ἡ μάνα τ᾽ τὸν εἶδε τὸν γνώρισε ᾽ς TH στιμή. Al ξεχνάει ποτὲς ἡ 
, Ν Ss ῳ{ , \ ἡ , ΄ a ld Ν ΄ νΝ 
μάνα τὸ παιδί; ὅσα χρόνια Kp ἂν περάσουν νά το διῇ πάλι τὸ γνωρίζει, σὰν 
4 ,ὔ a , Ν / > 4 ,ὔ Ν tal A “~ , ’ὔ 
μιὰ προβατίνα ἅμα χάσῃ τὸ μικρό T's τὸ γυρεύει πὸ δώ πὸ κεῖ καί το βρίσκει 
’ ἊΜ an 
μὲ τὴ μυρωδιά. Ἔτσι ποῦ λέμε κ᾽ ἡ μάνα τ᾽ ἅμα Tov εἶδε σηκώθκε ᾿π' 
θρανίο κεῖ ποῦ κάθουνταν μαζὺ ῥὲ τὸν βασιλέα, ἀνοιξε τὴν ἀγκαλιά τς καὶ 
φώναξε. “Ὁ γιός pas, ὃ γιός μὴ ποῦ Tov εἴχαμε χαμένο! ΔΕ τον 
γνωρίζεις, ἃ ote: μου;" 
Ὅντας τ᾽ ἄκουσεν αὐτὰ ὁ βασιλέας σηκώθκε καὶ κεῖνος, μὰ οἱ ἀλνοί, ἡ 
= »“ 
δωδεκάδα, εἶπαν: “Πρέπει πρῶτα νά τον geragys μὴν εἶναι κανένας 
- fal ΄ “ 
ψεύτης, γιατὶ μεῖς ξέρουμε πῶς ὃ γιός σου ὃ μικρότερος πέθανε δῶ καὶ 
τόσα χρόνια." 
, ~ 
Τότες ὁ βασιλέας ἀρχίνησε va τον ξετάζῃ, καὶ κεῖνός τον ἀφηγήθκε τὸ 
»” 
καὶ τὸ οὗλα ὅπως εἶχαν γένῃ, μὰ δὲν ἤθελαν va τον πιστέψουν. “Πῶς 
γένεται αὐτό;" λέει 6 βασιλέας, “αὐτὰ ποῦ μας λὲς γιὰ τὸν Κάτω Κόσμο 
Ν , ε “ Ν ,? > 3 “4 3) 
καὶ Λάμιαις ἡμεῖς ποτὲς δέ᾽ τ᾽ ἀκούσαμε. 
»” 
Τότες εἶπε ἡ βασίλισσα: “"Avtpa μου δὲν ἔχς δίκηο. Αὐτό ᾽ναι τὸ 
παιδί pas. ᾿Ἐγώ το ἕέρω, ἡ καρδιά μ᾽ μέ το λέει." 
, ε / , “ ‘ ‘ [4] ᾿ & / 
Τότες ὃ βασιλέας πρόσταξε τοῖς γραμματικοὶ νὰ βροῦν ᾿ς τὰ τεφτέρια 
A x a ΄ A ‘ \ om” Ν ra , 
TOV καιρὸ ποῦ χάθκε τὸ βασιλόπουλο Kp ἄλνοι γραμματικοὶ va Ta γράψουν 
“ > σ. 
οὗλα κατὰ πῶς τους Tame τώρα. Ὕστερις γυρίζει ᾽ς τὸ βασιλόπουλο καί 
x» a a 
to λέει" ‘Al καλά, va τα πιστέψουμε αὐτὰ ποῦ pas λές, πῶς κατέφκες 
ἐκεῖ κάτω, μὰ πῶς γύρισες ἀπὸ κεῖ; 
, Ν , / > , ee ye , > 2 > ‘ 
Τότες τὸ βασιλόπουλό Tous ἀφηγήθκε πῶς 6 ἀητός τους avéBace ’s τὸν 
, ΄ ‘ ΄ 2 CF, Ν , ‘ Ν ᾿, Ν 
πάνω κόσμο καὶ θάμαξαν ἀκόμα πειὸ περισσότερο καὶ δὲν ἤθελαν νὰ 
πιστέψουν: ““Αὐτὸ πρέπει νὰ μᾶς το διαμαρτυρήσῃς" λέει ὃ βασιλέας. 
“Ποῦ εἶναι αὐτὸς ὁ ἀητός; τί γένκε τὸ πουλί; 
“Kurragre τὰ κρέατά μ᾽ ποῦ τἄκοψα γιὰ νά tov θρέψω, σὰν oe 
> 
πιστεύτε," λέει τὸ βασιλόπουλο κ᾽ ἔδειξε τὰ χέρια τ᾽ Kal τὰ πόδια τ᾽ κεῖ 
> 79? ς , x oy ὃ , Sk , 
ποὖχε κόψ᾽ τὸ κρέας, μὰ πάλι δυσκολεύονταν γιὰ νὰ πιστέψουν. 
a ” ” 3 
Τότες ἡ Μαροῦδα δοκήθκε τὸ φτερὸ καὶ λέει" “Τί τὥώκαμες, ἄντρα py 
a“ ld , » 
τὸ φτερὸ ποῦ pas ἔδωκε ὃ ἀητός; τώρα ᾽ναι καιρὸς va TO κάψῃς καὶ θᾶρθῃ 
4 »” 
va διαμαρτυρήση. 
, Ν , > > / 4 49? 2-2 
“ Καλὰ λές," λέει τὸ βασιλόπουλο, “τοὖχα ἀστοχήσῃ," καὶ βγάζ᾽ ar 





Appendix ITI. 357 


‘ ’ ΕἸ Ν 7, 3, 2 νΝ > εν id ‘ , 
τὴ τσέπη T τὸ φτερό, κὴ ἅμα τὸ εἶδαν οἱ ἄλνοι θάμαξαν γιατὶ ποτές τους 
δὲν εἴχαν διῇ τέθοιο χρυσὸ Ky ὦμορφο φτερό. Τότες τὸ βασιλόπουλο 
Ν φ» ‘ x. 3? Ν , > > ‘A 43 ‘ ΄ Ἀ 
τὥβαλε κοντὰ ᾿ς τὴ φωτιὰ ᾿ς τὸ μαγκάλι ποὖταν ᾿ς τὴ μέσ᾽ τὴ κάμαρα καὶ 
»» ‘ / 4 ΄ Ν Ν Ν ε [4 
τ᾽ ἄναψε καὶ γέμισε τὸ παλάτι πὸ μιὰ μυρωδιὰ ὡραία. 

Μαθεύτηκε ὄξω ᾿ς τὴ πολιτεία πῶς θἄρθῃ ἕνα τέθοιο πουλὶ καὶ οὗλοι οἱ 
ἀθρῶποι βγῆκαν νά το διοῦν καὶ κεῖ ποῦ καρτεροῦσαν τοῦ ἀητοῦ τὸ ἔρξιμο 
γλέπουν καὶ φανερώνεται ἕνα μεγάλο σύγνεφο xy ἀγάλ᾽ ἀγάλια κατέφκε 

a ‘ >» > ἈΝ ε Ν -“ -“ 
μὲ βοὴ κ᾿ ἔκατσε᾽ς τὸν ἡλιακὸ τοῦ παλατιοῦ. 
Τότες εἶπε τὸ βασιλόπουλο- “ Βασιλέα μ᾽, ν᾿ ἀνεβοῦμε οὗλοι ἀπάνω ’s 
κ᾿ ‘ec ‘ , εν ‘ » a» 
τὸν ἡλιακὸ Ky ὁ ἀητὸς θάρθῃ κεῖ. 
Ky} ἀνέφκαν οὗλοι κ᾿ εἶδαν τὸν ἀητό, Ky) ὃ ἀητὸς προσκύνσε τὸν 
‘\ a 
βασιλέα xy ὁ βασιλέας τὸν ρώτηξε- “és pas, βρὲ anré, πῶς ἀνέφκες 
> > Ν , δ 2? A ¢ > Ν , ‘ > > , e Ν 
ἀπ᾿ τὸν Κάτω Κόσμο;" xy ὁ ἀητὸς μίλησε καὶ τ᾽ ἀφηγήθκε οὗλα, κῃ 
σ oe ‘ 7 , ςς -“ an ‘ , 9 , Ν 
ὄντας ἔσωσε τὸν λόγο κάνει ““γλοῦ, yAov” καὶ ξερνάει Twva κομμάτι τὸ 
κρέας" “Αὐτό ᾽ναι" λέει, “ἀπ᾽ τὸ ζερβί σου χέρι, ποῦ το ἔκοψες γιὰ νά 
με θρέψῃς " καὶ τὠβαλε᾽ς τὸν τόπο του, κ᾿ ἔφτυσε καὶ 7 ἀκόλλησε. Κ᾽ 
ὕστερις ἔβγαλε τ᾽ ἄλλο κομμάτι καὶ τ᾽ ἀκόλλησε ἦς τὸ δεξὶ τὸ χέρι, κ᾽ 
ὕστερις τὰ πόδια. 

Τότες οὗλοι πίστεψαν Ky ὁ βασιλέας ἀγκάλιασε τὸ παιδί τ᾽ καὶ τὴ 

Μαρούδα καί t's ἔβαλε κ᾽ ἔκατσαν κοντά τ᾽ καὶ λέει: ““Ἔτσι λοιπὸν τ᾽ 


ἀδέρφια σ᾽ ἤθελαν νά σε καταποντίσουν;" 


’ὕ 
καὶ πρόσταξε νά τους πιάσουν 
“2 

καὶ νά τους σφάξουν, μὰ τὸ βασιλόπουλο ἔπεσε ᾿ς τὰ γόνατα Kai τον 

φίλησε τὴ ποδιὰ καί τον περικάλεσε νά τους συμπαθήσῃ" “Ἤθελαν νά 

΄ 5” λέ (73 “7; a 3.8 ado. ν ἃ δέ᾽ > » > Ν 

με κάνουν κακό," λέει, “ μὰ βγῆκε ᾽σὲ καλό, γιατὶ ἂν δέ᾽ μ᾽ ἔρριχναν ἧς τὸ 

(ὃ δὲ θᾶ Xr Ἁ ~ Ν ld Ν be θᾶ ᾿ , ~ ‘ 

πηγάδι δὲ᾽ θάγλεπα καὶ κεῖνο τὸν κόσμο Kal δὲ᾽ Oaxava τόσα σημεῖα κῇ 

ἀντραγαθήματα καὶ δὲ θὰ δοξάζουμουν." Kai μὲ τὰ πολλά τον κατάφερε 

‘ , ’ ,΄ ᾿ , e ad Ν » 

τὸν βασιλέα νά τους συμπαθήσῃ καὶ φιλήθκαν οὗλοι κ᾽ ἔζησαν καλὰ καὶ 
μεῖς καιλλίτερα. 

Ἐ ~ ? ἈΝ , » > bis," Ν > A a A ἈΝ -“ > 

κεῖ ᾽ς τὴ κρίση ἥμουνα κ᾽ ἐγὼ Kp ἀπὸ κεῖ τα πῆρα καὶ σᾶς τὶ 


ἀφηγήθκα ἀπόψε. 


APPENDIX III. 


᾿Ιδτροοόφιον ᾿ωφέλιμον. 


¢ 
α΄. Ὅποιος θέλει νὰ ἀγρυπνήσῃ καὶ va μὴν δὲν νυστάξῃ" πουλὶν 
> EE , ΄ ΄ Ν 3 Ν Ν cal ΄ 
εἶναι τὸ ὀνομαζόμενον πυργίτης, τούτου τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ τοῦ καβούρου 
τὰ ὄμματα καὶ τῆς. : . ὁμοίως εἰς ἄσπρον πανὶν ἐντύλιξον, καὶ νά 
, > Ν > ΞΕ , ‘ > , 
ta δέσῃς eis τὸν δεξιόν Tov βραχίονα, καὶ οὐ νυστάξει. 
, ἃς -“ “~ , Ν , 3 > A % ~ 
θ΄. Περὶ τοῦ διῶξαι κάμπας- ἔπαρον καμπίας γ΄ ἀπὸ τὸν κῆπον, 
ΝΜ ‘ > , A , A a“ 1 aA A ’ὔ Ν 
ἔπαρον καὶ ἀπυρίον [Ὁ] καὶ κάπνισον τὸν κῆπον' ἢ τὸ περιβόλιον, καὶ 
φεύγουσι. 
> , 297 2 , a x , ν᾿ a x 
ιβ΄. Eis πόνον ὀδόντων: κάμε τοῦτο τὸ σημάδιν, καὶ στῆσαι τὸ 
a > Ν vO A > ‘ Ν ’ Ν id ε -“ ἅν ἢ “ 
μαχαῖριν εἰς τὸ κακοῦδι τὸ ἐμπρὸς καὶ λέγε τὸ Πάτερ ἡμῶν" Καὶ ἐκεῖνος 
ὁποῦ πονεῖ νὰ λέγῃ τ[ὸ Κύριε]" ἐλέησον: καὶ ὕστατον ἔφυΪ γεν (?)] ἀπὸ τὸ 
a ° Ἂ 
a” καυκοῦδι [sic] ds βάλῃ εἰς τὸ δεύτερον, ὁμοίως καὶ εἰς τὸ τρίτον, καὶ 
χάριν θεοῦ ἰαθήσεται. 
aA a 
Εἰς διὰ νὰ λύσῃς ἄνδρα δεμένον ἢ γυναῖκα, γράφε:--- 
ιζ΄. Bis ῥίγον [sic] πυρετόν: γράψον εἰς μῆλον ἢ εἰς ἀπίδιν- “Aye 
ἄγγελε ἐκλετὲ [sic] τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Id XD ὁποῦ εἶσαι κατὰ πάνου τοῦ 
er . Ν a“ “ 5 ,’ , Ν “ 
ῥίγου [sic] καὶ τοῦ πυρετοῦ διου, [?]* τριταίου, τεταρταίου, καὶ καθημερινοῦ, 
διάρρηξον τὸ[ν] ῥιγοπυρετὸν [sic] ἀπὸ τὸν δοῦλον τοῦ G3 οδ΄ [-- δεῖνα], εἰς 
τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Πρς᾿ καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ᾿Αγίου ΠΡεύμ{ατος]. 
’ > er = 6 x ‘ a , “ 
uy. Eis ῥίγον [sic] καθημερινὸν καὶ τριταῖον: κοπάνισον ζῶχον 
χλωρὸν ὁμοῦ μετὰ ἁγιάσματος τῶν ἁγίων Θεοφανείων, καὶ στρῶσον 
καλῶς καὶ πότιζον καὶ γράψον τῇ at ἡμέρᾳ ὅταν ἀνατέλλει ὁ ἥλιος 
εἰς τὸν δεξιόν του ὦμον". Xs ἐτέχθη, καὶ εἰς τὴν δεύτερην [sic] ἡμέραν" 
‘A , > -“ Ν , Ν Ν a“ ~ , 7 , 7 
καὶ γράψε εἰς μῆλον τὸ Τρισάγιον καὶ τὸ Στῶμεν καλῶς, καὶ as To φάγῃ 
νηστικός. 
κγ΄. Διὰ νὰ λύσῃς ἄνδραν [sic] δεμένον, ἔπαρον paxaipw® ὁποῦ ἔκαμε 
1 κύπον. 2 ὁδώντων. 3 a hole in the ΜΒ. 
4 Kis διὰ να λίσϊς. 5 Perhaps for δευτεραίου. 5 νόμον. 
7 φαγειν. 8 μαχέριν. 








Αρροναϊω LIT. | 359 


φῇ ᾿ ᾧ-. τα Η ae ΄ a ΄ ΡΝ 
φονικόν ᾽- καὶ ὅταν ὑπάγῃ νὰ κοιμηθῇ ὁ δεδεμένος ἂς βάνῃ τὸ μαχαῖριν εἰς 
τὰ σκέλη του, καὶ τότε ἂς κοιμηθῇ" καὶ ὅταν ἐξυπνήσῃ ἂς εἰπῇ τοῦτα τὰ 
΄ ε 2 τοῖς . x a > , x ΄ ΑΝ" ὦ Η 
λόγια- ὡς αὐτοῦτο [sic] τὸ μαχαῖριν ἐδυνήθη νὰ κάμῃ φονικὸν᾽, ἤγουν νὰ 
See ue. ee " ¢ . a ee eee ΄ a x 
σκοτώσῃ" avov [= avOpwrov], οὕτως νὰ δυνηθῇ καὶ τὸ ἐδικόν pov σῶμα νὰ 
πέσω [516] μετὰ τῆς γυναικός μου, τοῦ ωδν΄ [= δεῖνα), καὶ πάραυτα πεύτει 
μὲ τὴν γυναῖκά του. 
» σ > σι ‘ - 7 ‘ > ‘ Ὁ πὰ ΄ 
κδ΄, Ὅταν ἀρνηθῇ τινας τὴν γυναῖκά του τὴν εὐλογητικὴν καὶ ὑπάγῃ 
εἰς πόρνην" ἔπαρον κόπρον τῆς γυναικὸς οἷον τῆς πόρνης καὶ κάπνισον τὰ 
ea a 3 ‘ , Ν > 4 Ld , ε ,’ Ν > Ν 
ῥοῦχα τοῦ ἀνδρὸς κρυφά: καὶ εὐθέως θέλει την μισήσῃ" ὁμοίως καὶ εἰς τὸ 
ἐξ ἀναστρόφωνϑ. 
κε΄. Eis δαιμονιάρην, τῆς βελανίδος τοῦ ὀψαρίου τὸ στόμα ἂς φορεῖ 
ε δα Φ 4 Ν ll ’ ‘ θέλ ’ ι “9 S.2% Ν 
ὁ dayoviapys* καὶ as τα καπνίζεται καὶ θέλουν φύγῃ ἀπ᾽ αὐτὸν τὰ 
δαιμόνια. 
κζ΄... .δακῇ" τινας ἀπὸ [illegible] ὀφιδίων ἢ καὶ ἄλλων θηρίων καὶ νὰ 
‘ , > ‘ > , ‘ ε , 6 δι Δ et > , , 
μὴ δέν tov ἐγγίσουν: ἀκόμη καὶ οἱ σκύλοι νὰ φύγουν ἀπ᾽ αὐτόν: κοπάνι- 
gov τὸ λάπαθον καὶ τὸ κιβλάμενον καὶ ἀποσφουγγίζειν το καλλά [sic]: καὶ 
ἄλειψον τὸν ζωμὸν" ὅλων καὶ θέλεις θαυμάσει. 
, Ν Ν ’ 8 » ld tN , x mae a 
Ky. Aca va κυνηγήσῃ τινας" ὀψάρια καὶ va ἐπιτύχῃ, ἂς φορεῖ ὁ Wapas 
ἐπάνω του τοὺς ψύλλους τῆς θαλάσσης δεμένους εἰς δέρματι [sic] δελφίνου 
[ste], καὶ ἐπιτυχαίνειξ πάντοτε. 
κθ΄. Διὰ νὰ εἰρηνεύσῃ τινὰς τοὺς ἐχθρούς του: γράψον τὸν ψαλμόν᾽ 
Tywords” ἐν τῇ Ιουδαίᾳ, λυῶσέ το μὲ νερὸν" καὶ δὸς τὸν ἐχθρόν σου νὰ 
ig Ν 
πίῃ καὶ θέλει εἰρηνεύσῃ. 
λα΄. Διὰ νὰ μὴν κουράζωνται αὐτίνοι [sic] ὁποῦ περιπατοῦν" νεῦρα 
ἀπὸ τὰ σκέλη τοῦ γερανοῦ ἂς φοροῦσι εἰς τὸ ζουνάριν τους. 
λβ΄. Bis ἐξεσκεπασμένον [sic] καὶ φοβισμένον: ἔπαρον Ὑ ξηρὰ 
’ Ἀ ΄ -“ "Ἂς ΄ ‘ νΝ ‘ ™” 
κάστανα καὶ τζόχον [-- ζῶχον] καὶ Ὑ ποτήρια Kpaciv παλαιὸν Kai as 
,’ Ν Ν > , ‘ ’ Ν Pe > a Φ ε / Ν ~ 
το πίνῃ ταχὺ Kal ἀργά, Kal ypade καὶ τὸ Ev ἀρχῇ ἣν ὁ λόγος, μὲ τοῦ 
τοι fk ΄ . * , 
Id τὴν βοήθειαν, καὶ as to βαστάει. 
λδ΄, Eis ῥίγων [sic] κόψε κομμάτια ψωμίου Υ καὶ γράψον᾽" τὸ a”, 
> ’ ε - > ‘ ε ‘ ε es > ‘ pe , 4 =? x 
ἀγάπη ὁ Ili'p, εἰς τὸ B, ἡ ζωὴ ὁ Υἱός, εἰς τὸ γ΄ ἡ παράκλησις τὸ Iva τὸ 
VA > ’ ,@ > 4 13 S Δ΄ , ¢€ ’ a ΔΕ S,)-F 6 
ἅγιον, ἀμήν. Kai ὅταν apyxifn™ ὁ ῥίγος καὶ ὁ πυρετός, ἂς ποιῇ ὁ ἀσθενι- 
, Φ ,ὔ ἥν, | . ¥ Pe E28 πον A ὃ ͵ὔ Ν 
μένος [sic] μετανοίαις Ὑ εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ ἁγίου 16” τοῦ Προδρόμου, καὶ 
a ΄ nae ΄ . 47 , ε ᾿ς" Aon S14 , > 
as φάγῃ τὸ ἃ κομμάτι καὶ θέλει παύσῃ 6 πυρετός" καὶ ἐὰν δὲν" παύσῃ εἰς 
τὸ πρῶτον, κάμε το εἰς τὸ δεύτερον" ἡ ἀλήθεια" πάντοτε. 


1 φωνικόν. 3 σκωτίσει. 3 ἀναστρόφον. 
4 δεμωνιάρις here. . --αδιακῆ. 6 σκίλοι. 

7 founder. 8 κιἰνηγίσει τινᾶσ. 9 enirixéve. 
10 ηνωστῶς. Ἢ εἰλίωσέ τω μενερὸν. 12 γράψε. 


13 ἀρχίζειν. 14 δὲ, 15 Eladn%. 


360 Macedonian Folklore 


, A v4 ἈΕῚ ε fal ͵ὕ , 9 > ‘ , > Lal 8. a , 
μ΄. Περὶ μύτην" ὁποῦ τρέχει, λέγε" εἰς τὸ μέρος ἐκεῖνο" ὁποῦ τρέχει, 
΄ > cig τὰς , , , ν 42 , 
κρυφίως eis τὸ αὐτί" μόξ, παξ, piré, καὶ θέλει παύσῃ. 
μα΄. Διὰ νὰ μὴ μεθῇ ὁ avos* βάλε πεντόνικα [Ὁ] οὐγγίας B, δίδου 
του πᾶσα [sic] ταχὺ νὰ πίνῃ καὶ οὐ μεθεῖ. 
μαβ΄. Διὰ νὰ ποιήσῃ 7 γυναῖκα γάλα: ἔπαρον ἀγελάδας“ ὀνύχιν" καὶ 
καῦσόν τοῦ καλά, δὸς τῇ αἰκὸς νά το φάγῃ, ἢ νά το Tin? 
Daov τοῦ καλά, δὸς τῆς γυναικὸς νά άγῃ, ἢ in’. 
μβ΄. Διὰ νὰ μὴν φοβᾶσαι πλέπτην καὶ ῥομπάρω [sic]- ἔπαρον τὸ 
χόρτον τὸ λεγόμενον ἀζηβότανον, εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Ips καὶ τοῦ Yiod καὶ 
ον δ᾽ = ‘ , ε a , ‘ a 4 ‘ x 
τοῦ ἁγίου Ilvs, καὶ βάστα το ὅποῦ θέλεις νὰ περιπατῇς, Kal pe τὴν 
βοήθειαν τοῦ θὺ δὲν φοβᾶσαιἥ. 
’ Ν Ν ΄, ἮΝ > / / o sa4 9 
μγ΄. Διὰ νὰ στήσῃς ὄφιν ἐρχόμενον πρός σε: ὅταν tov ἰδῇς ὅτι 
ἔρχεται πρός σε λέγε ταῦτα" 
᾿Ανέθηκεν Μωύσῆς" ἐπὶ στήλης ἄκων [816] φθοροποιῶν atl καὶ 
ξύλον τύπον σταυροῦ τὸν πρὸς γῆς winter ὄφιν πῤοσέδεσε tyxapena 
ἐν τούτῳ θριαμβεύσας τὸ πῆμα, διὸ XG ᾷσωμεν τῷ θῷ ἡμῶν ὅτι δεδό- 
ἕασται. ἱ 
΄ Ν εἶ > a ε a , ‘ ” Ν a 
μζ΄. Διὰ νὰ ἐγγαστρωθῇ ἡ γυναῖκα" τράγου χολὴν ἔπαρον καὶ ἂς 
ἀλείψῃ ὃ ἄνδρας τὸ σῶμά του τὴν ὥραν ὁποῦ τυχαίνει νὰ πέσῃ μὲ τὴν 
γυναῖκά του. 
μθ΄. His φοβερισμόν- γράφε εἰς ἄγγικτον χαρτὶ ἀγύνητον [1]: Ἔλωϊξ 
ὁ Θς- καὶ τὴν [sic] χαρακτῆρα ταύτην: καὶ βάστα ox ox. 
, 5 ε “ ΄ 3 , 4 ‘ vA > ‘ 
ν΄. Eis αἱμορροοῦσαν ypade εἰς βέβρινον χαρτὶ καὶ δέσον eis τὴν 
7 Ν - a Ν , Ν Ν - ε - Ν ‘ 3 ‘ 
κοιλίαν τῆς μετὰ ἃ κλωστῆς καὶ λέγε καὶ τὸ Περ ἡμῶν καὶ τὴν εὐχὴν 
ταύτην" 
‘O Θζ΄ τοῦ ᾿Αβραάμ, ὃ OS τοῦ Ἰσαάκ, ὁ Θς΄ τοῦ Ἰακώβ, ὁ OF ὁ 
΄ Ν \ θὰ > a ey SR a“ ‘ Ν εν 10 a 
στήσας τὸν ποταμὸν Μορθὰμ ἐν τῇ ζ΄ ἡμέρᾳ, στῆσον Kat THY ῥοὴν" τοῦ 
αἵματος τῆς δούλης dy’ [-- δεῖνα], καὶ ἡ σφραγὶς τοῦ Kv’ ἡμῶν Id Xo. 
Στῶμεν καλῶς, στώμεν μετὰ φόβου θῦ, ἀμήν. Οἱ δὲ Ἐαγγελισταὶ 
Ματθαῖος, Μάρκος, Λουκᾶς καὶ Ἰωάννης tavavrvwor [1] ἄρρωστον: γράφε 
εἰς φύλλον δάφνης ELT XFS OO: 
, ΕΙΣ 4 ’ 4 
ve. [Διὰ ν]ὰ λύσῃς ἄνδρα δεμένον: ἔπαρον καρύδια παμπακίου καὶ 
δέ | , Ν 4 3 , ‘ 4 > \ δὲ 
έσον αὑτὰ κόμπους ιβ καὶ λέγε ἀπάνω στὴν κεφαλήν Tov: εἰς τὸ ὄνομα 
Pears. \ yee, Gt ‘ i RS: a? \ , a Ν , > 2 ΄ 
τοῦ τῳ καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ κα τοῦ αγίου is Hover λέγε ταῦτα τὰ οὐδε ἀπολυθή- 
τωσαν᾿᾽" τὰ βέλη τοῦ & [= δεῖνα] ὡς ἀπελύθη Λάζαρος ἀπὸ τὸν τάφον. 
νζ΄. His ῥίγον καὶ πυρετὸν γράφε εἰς κοῦπαν ἀφορισμὸν [ἢ ταῦτα τὰ 
ὀνόματα: Xs ἐγεννήθη, Xs\ ἐσταυρώθη, Χξ ἀνέστη, τοῦ Κύ ἡμῶν Id Xd 


1 μήτην. 2 λέγεν. 3 ἐκείνον. 
4 ἀγελέασ. 5 ὀνίχην. 6 καύσε τω. 
7 πῆ. 8 βοβᾶσαι. 9 μωησεῖς. 


10 plow. Ἡ απεληθητωσαν. 








Appendix ITT. 361 


γεννηθέντος ἐν Βηθλεὲμ τῆς “Tovdaias, παῦσον, δαίμονα κέφαλε, ἀπὸ τὸν 
δοῦλον τοῦ Θῦ ὃν. [-- δεῖνα], εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Ips καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ 
ae g a -“ ae “ἢ, Ν > ‘ 7 * 
ἁγίου Il¥s, viv καὶ dei καὶ εἰς τοὺς ail dvas]. 
νθ΄. Eis λύσιν avov ypdde ταῦτα εἰς ψωμὶν καὶ δός Tov va το φάγῃ" 
ακοήλ, εἰςβήλ, ἀμπελουρᾶς, περιμαριᾶς, καμενάντων, ἔκτιλεν, ἔκπειλεν, 
δέ ὃ δέ \ , ’ φ« 1 Ν 4 4 
βρισκαδεδέος, δεδέουσα, τὸ συφασατοδίος ηὗρε; τὴν λύσιν ταύτην. 
» > , ‘ 2 , 4 Ν 3 ’ σ΄ al Ἀ 
ξβ΄. His πόνον στήθους" λέγε ταύτην τὴν εὐχήν: ἅγιε Κοσμᾶ καὶ 
Δαμιανέ, Κῦρε καὶ 10’, Νικόλαε καὶ ᾿Ακίνδυνε ὁποῦ τὰ δρέπανα" βαστᾷτε 
ν Ν , ΄ ΄ \ x ΄ a , “““΄΄ Qo 
καὶ τὸν πόνον κόπτετε, κόψατε καὶ τὸν πόνον τοῦ δούλου τοῦ θῦ ὃ 
[= δεῖνα]. 
fy’. Ὅταν ἔχῃ ὁ avis δαίμονα, ἢ τὸ γλυ...[] του, ἢ φάντασμα, 
γράφε εἰς ἀγύνητο [1] χαρτὶ ἡμέρᾳ ©’ ὀλίγωσιν τοῦ φεγγαρίου καὶ ἂς 
βαστᾷ, λέγε καὶ εἰς τὸ δεξιόν του αὐτίν᾽ - Ἔν ὀνόματι τοῦ ps καὶ τοῦ 
Υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ᾿Αγίου Πτς. Τοῦτο τὸ φυλακτήριον ἐδόθη τῷ Μωῦσῇ ἐν 
Αἰγύπτῳ ὑπὸ τοῦ ᾿Αρχαγγέλου Μιχαήλ, ὕστερον δὲ ἐδόθη τῷ βασιλεῖδ 
> x a τ , a Sa ie 6 a a>? θ , 6 a 
ολομῶντι ὅπως πατάξῃ πᾶν ἀκάθαρτον πνεῦμα, ἢ ἀσθενείας", ἢ φοβισμοῦ, 
ἢ φρικιασμοῦ, ἢ ῥιγοπυρετοῦϊ, ἢ τριταίου, ἢ ἀφημερινοῦ, ἢ τοῦ συναντή- 
A> ~ a 66 8 ,ἡ ΄ ΓΝ , , 
ματος, ἢ ἐπιβουλῆς, ἢ καταχθόνιον5, ἢ πλαγίου, ἢ μὲ μαγείας πεποιημένον, 
ἢ κωφόν, ἢ ἅπαξ, ἢ λαλοῦν, ἢ ἄλαλον, ἢ ἐπιληπτικὸν, ἢ προσκείμ{ ev ov’, 
ἢ ἄφορμον, ἢ πρώτης καὶ δευτέρας συναντήσεως, ἢ τοῦ ἀπαντήματος, ἢ τοῦ 
> ΄ ε -Φ 9 ΓΤ a , vs a Ν 
ἀπαντήματος. Ὁ Os ἐστιν βοηθὸς" τοῦ δούλου σου ὃν [= δεῖνα] διὰ 
΄ a -“ ε 
Δωναήλ, Ἐ βαρρᾶς, διαφύλαξον ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ, ἡμέρᾳ καὶ νυκτὶ" καὶ wpa, 
διαφύλαξον αὐτὸν ὁ θς΄ ἀπὸ παντὸς κακοῦ καὶ παντὸς κινδύνου. *“EBaci- 
λευσε ὁ θς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, ἀμήν. Στῶμεν καλῶς, στῶμεν μετὰ 
φόβου 6%. 
ps’. Περὶ ἄνδρα [sic] ὁποῦ τον φεύγει ἡ γυναῖκα, γράψον τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ 
3 ὃ Ν ‘\ lal Ν > Ν 3 ’ 
ἀνδρὸς καὶ τῆς γυναικὸς εἰς χαρτὶν ayé—desunt cetera. 


1 ὕβρησε. 2 στιθίου. 3° δέρπανα. 

+ ἀπτήν. 5 νασιλεῖ. 5 ασθενές. 

7 ριγοπύρετον. 8 καταχθωνίων. 9 πρόσκϊμον. 
10 τρηθος. ll νύκταν. 


23—5 


APPENDIX IV. 


[From another ms. probably by the same hand.] 


ton. His μισοκέφαλον καὶ κεφαλαλγίαν :— 





Τράφε εἰς ἀγέντον [1] χαρτί: ὁ θὲ τοῦ "ABpady}, ὁ θὲ τοῦ Ἰσαάκ, 
ὁ θὲ τοῦ Ἰακώβ, λῦσον" τὸ δαιμόνιον τοῦ μισοκεφάλου ἀπὸ τὴν κεφαλὴν 
τοῦ δούλου σου, ὁρκίζω σε τὸ ἀκάθαρτον πνᾶ τὸ καθεζόμενον πάντοτε εἰς 
τὴν κεφαλὴν τοῦ ἀνόυ, ἔπαρον τὸ σὸν πόνημα καὶ μίσευσε ἀπὸ τῆς 
κεφαλῆς" ἀπὸ μισοκεφαλοῦ [sic], μιλίγκους" καὶ σφονδύλου ἀπὸ τὸν 
δοῦλον τοῦ 63 dy’ στμκ Not LETS BO dp: —[ordpev καλῶς, στῶμεν 
μετὰ φόβου θεοῦ ᾿Αμήν]. 

tof’, His παιδὶ ὁποῦ ἔχει κακὸν νοῦν εἰς μάθησιν τῶν ἱερῶν γραμ- 
μάτων: 

ΓΤράψον τὴν a B εἰς δίσκον ὁποῦ κόπτουν τὸ ἀντίδωρον, καὶ δός To νὰ 
λειτουργηθῇ Σαββατωκυριάκα y καὶ ὡσὰν τελειωθῶσιν τὰ γ Σαββατω- 
κυ[ριάκα] λυῶσέ τοῦ μὲ κρασὶ παλαιὸν ἄδολον“ καὶ πότιζε τὸ παιδὶ καὶ ἀπο- 
λ[ύσει] ὁ νοῦς του: καὶ ὅταν ποτίζει τὸ παιδὶ ἂς λέγει ὁ διδάσκαλος τὴν 
εὐχὴν ταύτην --- 

Κέ 6 θὲ ἡμῶν 6 νικήσας καὶ φωτίσας τὰς καρδίας τῶν [alegible}, ᾿ 
πρεσβύτεροι Μελχισεδέκ, Ναβωΐ, Ἰωχαμη [there follows a long list of 
Hebrew names], αὐτοὶ βοηθήσατε πάντες καὶ ἀνοίξατε τὸν νοῦν καὶ τὴν 
καρδίαν τοῦ δούλου τοῦ θῦ ὃν΄ εἰς τὴν μάθησιν τῶν ἱερῶν γραμμάτων. 


[Two more prayers in almost the same terms follow. ] 


*As λέγει καὶ τὸν ψαλμόν" Ἐὐλογήσω" τὸν KV ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ, καὶ ds 
κρατῇ τὸ παιδὶ ἀπὸ τὸ κεφάλιν ὁ διδάσκαλος καὶ as λέγει : 


[Here follows another long prayer. | 


tr. [illegible] νὰ κάψῃς τὴν σπλῆναν :--- 

Νὰ γράψῃς τρία χαρτία, νά τα κάψῃς ἀπάνου εἰς τὰ ῥοῦχα του μέσα 
1 αὐραάμ. 8 Nees 3 g.e. μήνιγγος. 
4 σφονδήλου. 5 λειωσέ τω. 6 ἄδωλον. “ 
7, βοηθήσαται. 8 εὐλογίσω. 


Appendix IV. 363 


9 « ,ὔ > ad ΄ ae “A ae - x id 
εἰς ἕνα χουλιάριν ἐκεῖ ὅπου Tov πονεῖ ἡ σπλῆνα TH ὑστερινῇ τοῦ φεγγαρίου 
-/ 


ε fal / 
ε΄ ἡμέρᾳ: καὶ εἶναι αὐτὰ τὰ σημάδια Sod θέλεις va γράψῃς εἰς τὰ τρία 
χαρτία ταῦτα ---- 





ΕΞ 
Χ 


Be 


x 





ὩΣ ΄ 1 , 
τ περὶ νὰ oraparnons’ χαλαζιν---- 
Ὅταν ἰδῇς ὁποῦ ἀρχίζει νὰ πέφτῃ" χαλάζιν: τῆς ὥρ[ας] νὰ ἔχῃς 
μαυρομάνικον μαχαῖριν" ἢ ξύλινα ἢ κοκαλένια τὰ μανήκια, νά το πάρῃς ἡ 
> Ν , ‘ δ / ‘ ΄ Ν / θὰ > »” s 
εἰς TO χέριν σου τὸ δεξιόν, νὰ σταματήσῃς TA νέφη καθὼς εἶναι, ἤγουν νά 
͵ & 39 κ 3 ΄ πο er . \ κ \ \ 
τα στρώσῃς" εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, ὁποῦ ῥίκτουν [sic] τὴν βροχὴν καὶ τὸ 
χαλάζιν, νὰ εἰπῇς ἔτζη: Ἔν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν GY, 
RAN Δ΄ © yr ν θ ΄ 2 5 \ \ ΄ x - 
καὶ θὲ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ καθώς To εἰπῇς παρευθὺς νὰ καρφώσῃς TO μαχαῖριν 
a a x 
εἰς τάβλαν" ἢ εἰς τὴν γῆν, Kal τῆς Wpas στέκεταιϊ τὸ χαλάζιν. Ei de® ἂν 
Lo > ΄ WER ON, 15 Le , : 
εἶσαι εἰς καράβιν Kai οὐχὶ εἰς ἄλλον τόπον :--- 











[The scribe here changes the subject abruptly. ] 


Translation. 
For megrim and headache : 


Write on a piece of paper: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, 
God of Jacob, loose the demon of the megrim® from the head of 


1 σταματίσεις. 2 πεύτη. 3 μαχέριν. 
4 πάρις. 5 στροσεις. δ ταῦλα. 
7 στέκετε. 8 i δὲ. 


9 τὸ μισοκέφαλον (or ὁ μισοκέφαλος), half-head, is a literal rendering of the 
ancient ἡμικρανία, a neuralgic pain on one side of the' head or face, whence our 
own word megrim (through the French migraine=hemicraine). This pain is 
by the modern folk-physician, consistently enough, attributed to a special 
demon, with whom I personally am not acquainted; but Mr W. H. D. Rouse, 
more fortunate, in his interesting paper on ‘Folk-lore from the Southern 
Sporades’ (Folk-Lore, June 1899, pp. 171—172) was able to quote a charm 
from a Ms. similar to mine, in which this ‘half-head’ demon is described as 


“8 youth standing beyond Jordan and crying with a loud voice that he wants 
man’s flesh to eat.” 


364 Macedonian Folklore . 


















Thy servant. I charge thee, unclean spirit, which ever sittest in 
the head of man, take thy pain and depart from the head: from — 
half-head, membrane, and vertebra, from the servant of God 
So-and-So. Stand we fairly, stand we with fear of God. Amen. 


For a child which has a mind unable to learn the sacred 
letters : ; 

Write the A.B.C. on a platter used for holy bread and give it to 
be blessed in the liturgy on three Saturdays and Sundays, and when 
the three Saturdays and Sundays are complete, dissolve it [?] in 
unadulterated old wine and give the child to drink, and his brain 
will be set free. -And while the child is drinking let the school-— 
master say the prayer: " 

Lord our God, who hast overcome and enlightened the hearts οὗ 
[illegible], presbyters Melchisedeck, Naboi, Jochami, etc. help ye all, 
and open the mind and the heart of the servant of God So-and-So, 
that he may learn the sacred letters. 


Let him also recite the psalm: “I will bless the Lord in all 
time,” and let the schoolmastér hold the child by the head and 


say: 


For affections of the spleen: 


Write on three pieces of paper and burn them in a spoon over 
his clothes, in the part where the spleen ails, on the fifth day of the 
moon; and these are the signs which thou shalt write on these three 
pieces of paper : 


To stay a hail-storm : 


When thou seest that hail begins to fall, at that same time take — 
a black-handled knife, the handle being either wood or bone, hold it — 
in thy right hand, in order to stay the clouds as they are, namely to 
scatter them over the sky, which pour the rain and the hail, and say 
thus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with 
God, and the Word was God,” and as soon as thou hast said this, 
forthwith plant the knife into a table or into the earth, and at once ~ 
the hail-storm ceases. But if thou happenest to be on board ship, 
and not in any other place,...... 


APPENDIX V. 


Extracts from a Phylactery dated 1774, in the possession of 
M. Demetrius Lascaris of Melenik, Macedonia, Copied Sept. 17, 
19007. 


Πανευλογημένη Παναγία Δέσποινα Θεοτόκε, βοήθησον τὸν 6. τ. θ. 
:A: [1.86. δοῦλον τοῦ θεοῦ Δούκαν] 
᾿ : ; . ἐξουσίαι, Χερουβείμ, Sepadeip. 

- - ~ 4, , nw 
ἐξωπύρετον ῥῖγος, κραταιοῦς βροχῆς, κύρηκας λιμητικούς, νόσου βλαβερᾶς, 
νόσου χαλεπῆς, νοσωδύνης, πεμπτικῆς καὶ πεμπτημένης, Δόξα τῷ Πατρὶ 

‘ col cn ‘ at ’ , 
καὶ τῷ Ὑἱῷ καὶ τῷ Αγίῳ Πνεύματι. 

+ t ς « 

Ν ‘ Ph Led ΙΝ / ‘ la σ »” 
καὶ τοὺς ῥήτορας τῶν δαιμόνων δεμένους καὶ χαλινωμένους, οὕτως ἔστωσαν 
οἱ ἐχθροὶ τοῦ δούλου τοῦ θεοῦ : Δούκα: Αἱ γλῶσσαι αὐτῶν, τὰ χείλη 
αὐτῶν καὶ ἡ καρδία αὐτῶν, τὰ νεῦρα αὐτῶν καὶ οἱ ἁρμοὶ- αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ 
ΕΣ “ ᾿ > 7 Ἢ , 7 ε ’ > Ν ’, ‘ 
ὄμματα ἕως τέλος αὐτοῦ. Kal av τις ὑπάγῃ εἰς τὸν ὃ. τ. θ. : A: δέσε τοὺς 
πόδας τους τοῦ μὴ τρέξειν, δέσον τὰς χεῖράς τους τὸ μὴ δυνήσονται πιάσαι 
τουφέκι ἢ σπαθὶ ἢ κοντάρι νὰ ῥίξουν ἀπάνω εἰς τὸν ὃ. τ. θ. :Δ: Τὸ 
μολύβι dod νὰ ῥίξουν ἐπάνω εἰς τὸν ὃ. τ. θ. Δ. μὲ βοτάνι νὰ γίνῃ 
βαμβάκι καὶ ὃ ᾿Αρχάγγελος Μιχαὴλ νὰ τὸ παραμερίσῃ ἕως τρεῖς ὀργυίας 

Ν , 
ἀπὸ κοντὰ τὸν ὃ. τ. 6, A. καὶ ὃ δ. τ. 6. Δ. νὰ γ[λ]υτώσῃ ὑγειὴς Kai of 

- > 

ἐχθροὶ τοῦ δ. τ. 6. Δ. {: δοῦκα :} νὰ εἶναι δεμένοι. ὡς δέθηκαν τὰ στόματα 
τῶν λεόντων εἰς τοὺς μάρτυρας τοὺς ἁγίους οὕτως νὰ δεθοῦν καὶ τὰ στόματα 

2 A x a ε x ‘A , \ , 2a? 
αὐτῶν κατὰ τοῦ ὃ. τ. 6. : A: ἡ φωτιὰ τοῦ τουφεκίου των va γίνῃ αἰθέρας 
καὶ τὸ σπαθί των βαμβάκι. Sadcov, Κύριε, τὸν ὃ. τ. θ. : A: καὶ δίωξον 


1 The text is given with all its eccentricities of spelling, style, and grammar 
faithfully preserved. 


366 Macedonian Folklore 













τοὺς ᾿Ανατολικοὺς καὶ Βορεινοὺς καὶ Δυτικοὺς καὶ Νοτικοὺς δαίμονας va 
ἀπέχωσι ἀπὸ τὸν ὃ. τ. 6. : A: καὶ ἐν ὀνόματι τοῦ μεγάλου θεοῦ Σαβαὼθ, 
ε ΄ Ν ε 80 , ΕΣ. , ΓΕ cm 6 > , 
ὁρκίζω τὰς ἑβδομήκοντα δύο ἀσθένειαις ἃς ἔχει ὁ ἄνθρωπος" ᾿Αναχωρήσατε 
ἀπὸ τὸν δοῦλο τ. θ. : δοῦκα : καὶ ἢ ἀπὸ οὐρανοὺς κατῆλθεν ἀσθένεια καὶ ἢ 
ἀπὸ ἄστρον, ἢ ἀπὸ ἡλιοῦ ἢ ἀπὸ σελήνης ἢ ἀπὸ ζόφου ἢ ἀπὸ κρύου ἀέρος ἢ 
2 Soe ee a pt Pose BIE. AA 3h , a\Q... 
ἀπὸ νερὸ ἢ ἀπὸ ἀστραπῆς κατῆλθεν ἢ ἀπὸ σεισμοῦ ἢ ἀπὸ κτύπου κατῆλθεν, 
a » A , a ? ‘ , xa ’ aA > Ν a xn > an ’ὔ 
ἢ ἀπὸ φόνου ἢ ἀπὸ κάμπου ἢ πεδίου ἢ ἀπὸ ποταμοῦ ἢ ἀγροῦ ἢ περιβόλου 
x 
ἢ ἐν κήπῳ ἢ ἐν παραδείσῳ ἢ ἐν διόδῳ ἢ τριόδῳ ἢ ἐν εἰσόδῳ ἢ ἐν ἐξόδῳ 
λουτροῦ, φούρνου, τροχάλου' ἢ ἐν θύρᾳ ἢ θυρίδᾳ ἀνώγεον, κατώγειον, 
ἁλώνιον. ξ ‘ ξ ; ‘ ν Ἴ ἱ : : 
a peo /, 
ἢ aro φάρμα 
ἀπὸ βασκοσύνης ἢ ἄλλης συμφορᾶς ἐπῃρμένης ἢ ἀγερικοῦ ἢ νεραΐδου ἢ 
τῶν ἐν ζόφῳ ἀεροπετώμενων καὶ ἤλθατε ἀδικῆσαι τὸν ὃ. τ. 6. : A: Κύριε 


κος ἢ φθόνου ἢ ζήλου καὶ ἀπὸ βαρέων αἰσχρῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἢ 


φύλαττε ; : ; : ; : : - F 
’ ’ , 

νεφρόπονον, χειρόπονον, Suroupias . ; ; ; ; 7 

ἐξορκίζω ὑμᾶς ὅτι ἐστι ἄδικον εἰς τὸν δ. τ. θ. :Δ : 


1 ἐργουπᾷ marked out for the erection of a church,’ according to ΤῊ 
informant. 


APPENDIX VI. 


Quaedam Anglice non reddenda, 


% 

Σκύφτω, γονατίζω ᾽μπρός σου, 

Τὸ μακρύ μου ᾿ς τὸ σκιστό σου. (κλειδαριά, a lock.) 
2. 

᾿Ανάμεσα ‘ot δυὸ βουνὰ 

Βουρβούλακας κατρακυλᾷ. (πορδή, crepitus ventris. ) 
3. 

Κοιλιὰ μὲ κοιλιά, 

Τὸ μακρὺ καν᾽ δουλειά. (πιθάρι, a wine-jar.) 
4. 

᾿Ανοίγ᾽ ὁ μάλλιαρος 

Μπαίν᾽ ὁ γκόλιαρος. (τσουράτπι, a sock.) 
ὅ. : 

Χίλιαις, μύλιαις κυρατσοῦδαις μιὰ “x” τὴν ἄλλη κατουριοῦνταν. 
Or 


Χίλιαις, μύλιαις κυρατσοῦδαις ἀνάσκελα Kat ροῦν. 
(στρεχιαῖς, the eaves.) 


Κόκκινη καὶ μαλλιαρὴ 
Tia τὸν κῶλό σου καλή. (γιάμπολη, a woollen blanket.) 
7. 


Κόκκινος Γιανίτσαρος τσακνούδι ᾿ς τὸν κῶλό Tov. 
(κράνο, the cornelian-cherry.) 


368 Macedonian Folklore 
8. 


Μπαίνω, βγαίνω ᾽ς τὸν ὀντᾶ καὶ κοντογονατίζω, 
Βγάζω τὸν καμπᾶ Covpva καί σε καλαφατίζω. 
(σεντοῦκι, a trunk.) 


Βάλ᾽ τη καὶ στάζει, 





Βγάλ᾽ τη κὴ ἀχνίζει. 
(πατσάβρα τοῦ φούρνου, the rag with which the oven is swept.) 
10. 
Σιάταρ, πάταρ, σέ ty βάζω, 
Κη ἀποκουρδωμένη βγαίνει. (πήττα, a pie.) 
11. 
Σ τὸ βουνὸ γεννήθκα, ᾽ς τὸ βουνὸ τράνεψα, 


" ΄, Ν ἮΝ Ν fal 
Τώρα ἀναστήθκα va γλέπω τοῦ ἄντρα Kai TSH γυναίκας. 


(κατώφλι, the door-sill.) 





ADDENDA. 


Pace 13. 


Col. Leake gives a pretty variant of the weather-lore on the Epiphany, from 
Acarnania : 
Χαρὰ στὰ Χριστόγενα στεγνά, 
Ta Dora χιονισμένα, 
Μὲ τὴν Λαμπρὴν βρεχούμενην, 
Τὰ μπάρια γιομισμένα. 
‘“‘Joy to a dry Christmas, a snowy Epiphany, and'a rainy Easter, then the 
barns will be filled.” 


He also quotes the Sicilian saying: Gennaro sicco borghese ricco. 
Travels in Northern Greece, Vol. ut, p. 515. . 


Pace 123. 


Concerning the plant popularly called ‘The Holy Virgin’s Hand,’ Scarlatos 
D. Byzantios says: Χέρι τῆς Παναγίας ὀνομάζουν ἡ γυναῖκες εἶδός τι φυτοῦ, τὸ 
ὁποῖον ἐκθέτουσιν εἰς τὰς γέννας, σεβόμεναι, καὶ μὲ αὐτὸ ῥαντίζουν τὸ οἴκημα τῶν 
λεχώνων. He identifies it with the peony, Λεξικὸν τῆς καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς “Ἑλληνικῆς. 
Διαλέκτου, 8.υ. χέρι. 





INDEX. 


Agathangelus, prophecies of, 116-7 

Alexander the Great, in incantations, 
251; in folk tradition, 279-81; 
legendary history of, 281-9 

ants, omen from, 19 

April, 43-6 

Armenos, 124 

arrack, omen from spilling, 102 

arrow-shooting, 27-8 

ass, the, in ancient and modern Mace- 
donia, 299-300 

augury, 104-111 

Ayeriko, 224-5, 240-2 


Baboyeri, 88 

basil, its uses, 93; songs about the, 94 

bat, superstition about the, 110 

sn men, superstitious dread of, 

beasts, benediction of, 223-4 

bells, on New Year’s Day, 80 

betrothal, 150-4; songs, 152-3 

Bible, the, in folk-medicine, 227 

“binding” of married people, 171, 
232, 234 

birds, legends about, 290-4 

birth, 123-146 

bite, cure for, 230, 233 

_bleeding, cure for, 230, 233 

bones, divination by, 96-7 

bonfires, 27-8, 57, 60 

‘*Borrowing Days,” the, 23-4 

boughs, New Year’s, 81 

bread, superstitions about, 98; sacred- 
ness of, 103-4 

“Breeder,” popular name for January, 
13 


“Bright,” popular name for Easter, 35 
brothers, adopted, 186 
bugs, 18, 36 


candles, Easter, 36. 
Carnival, 26 
carols, New Year’s, 82 


cat, omens from, 110-1; leaping over 


corpse, 219-20 


caterpillars, recipe for driving away, 231 

cattle, weather-lore about, 111; cure 
of ailing, 224 

caul, mysterious veneration of the, 139 

charms, 19, 23, 124, 228, 238-40, 
258-366 

Charos, 102, 128; penny of, 193; 
popular conception of, 206-7 

Cheese-Sunday, 26-7, 29 

child-birth, superstitions connected 
with, 124-6, 137-9 

choking, omen from, 111-2 

christening, 134-7 

Christmas, 76-7 

Cleaning Week, 30 

cock, weather-lore about the, 107 

cock’s spur, safeguard against the Evil 
Eye, 142 

coffee, divination by, 95 

cornel buds, divination by, 78-9 

cripples, superstition about, 105 

Cronia, 27 

Cross, Feast of the, 60; ‘‘ Month of 
the,’ 64; Diving for the, 87-8 

cross-bows, 27-8 

crowns, child born with two, 105 

euckoo, 16-7 

curse, dread of parent’s, 135, 195, 211, 
226; Bishop’s, 211 foll. 


daisy, divination by plucking a, 46 

Days, unlucky, 189-91 

dead, feasts of the, 207-10 

December, 67-8 

dervishes, as .vampire-killers, 221; as 
expellers or propitiators of evil 
spirits, 224-5 

dirges, 194-6, 201-2, 205-6 

divination, 95-117 

dog, omen from a howling, 107; asa 
guardian spirit, 222; as a wood- 
spirit, 252. 

Drakos, wells haunted by the, 18, 
260-1; legends about the, 261-3, 
264; mythological interpretation of 
the, 265 


970 


dreams, 79, 209; interpretation of, 
226 

drinking rhymes, 342-3 

drought, ceremonies in time of, 118-20 

drunkenness, recipe against, 233 

Drymiais, 21, 63-4 

Dudule-song, 119 


Eagle, ‘‘The Prince and the,” 268-77, 
351-7 

ears, premonitions derived from burn- 
ing and ringing, 111 

Easter, weather-lore, 13; rhymes, 26; 
customs, 25-42; Sunday, 35; Tues- 
day, 38; song, 38 

Elijah, the Prophet, 240 

Epiphany, weather-love, 
Feast, 86-8 

Evil Eye, 123-4, 139-46 

exhumation, 210-214 

eyes, premonitions from twitching, 112 


13, 368; 


Fates, 125-8 ; 
128 

fatigue, recipe against, 233 

February, 14 

Fetch, 222 

fever, cause of, 224; 
228, 232-4 

fire, divination by, 98 ; ordeal, 298-9 

first-foot, 84-5 

first-fruit, 122 

fishing, recipe for success in, 233 

‘‘Flayer,” popular name for March, 21 

fiea, 18, 27 

flowers, divination by, 46 

Fortune, 128-9 

forty days, 14-5; paces, 229 

Forty-day fast, 26 

Friday, 21, 63, 190-1 

fright, recipes against, 225, 233-4 

funeral rites, 192-222; procession, 197; 
service, 200; feast, 203-4; mourn- 
ing, 204-6 


‘*The Youth and the,” 


cures for, 225, 


gad-fly, omen from, 110 

games, Easter, 38 ; St Thomas’s, 40 

‘*Gaping,” game of, 29-30 

garlic, as a safeguard against the Evil 
Eye, 124, 141 

geese, wild, weather-lore, 62 

Gipsy fortune-tellers, 225-6 

girdle, superstitions about the, 99-100 

Good Friday, 35 

‘Good Word,” 35 

“ gooding,” 18, 32, 89 

grasshopper, 59-60 

Great Bear, folk names for the, 70 

‘Great Month,” popular name for 
January, 13 


Index 


gyon, forerunner of spring, 17; legend 
of, 290-1 


hair, school superstition about, 301 

half-head, demon of the, 363 ἢ. 

hand, premonitions from itching, 112 

hare, superstition about the, 106 

‘* Harvester,” popular name for June, 
50 


hemorrhage, cure for, 234 

hen, omen from a crowing, 106 

hexagram, symbolic significance of the, 
142 

hide and seek, game of, 17 n. 

holy springs, 243-4; water, 75, 258 

Holy Week, 35 

house-spirits, 257-9 


January, 13-4 
‘* Judas,” 37 
July, 59-60 
June, 50-58 


Karkantzari, 73-6, 219 n. 

kid, omen from the sight of a, 16 

kings, in M. Gr. folk-tales, 275 

Kledonas, rite of, 53—7 

knots, magic significance of, 100, 105, 
170, 228, 234 

Koran, the, in folk-medicine, 224 


lamb, omen from the sight of a, 16; 
Easter, 38 

‘Lame Month,” popular name of 
February, 14 

Lamia, the, 265 foll. 

Lazarus, Feast of, 32-4 

lead, divination by molten, 51-2 

Lent, 26-8 

light, ceremony of receiving, 36 

lightning, recipe against, 229 

** Little Month,” 14 

“Long Month,” 13 


mad dog, cure for the bite of a, 
230 

magpie, omen from a, 110 

Makarios, prophecies of, 117 

March, 16-24 

marriage, 147-91 

May, 43, 46-9 

Meat-Sunday, 26 

medical treatises, 230-6, 358-64 

medicine, folk-, 227-30 

Mid-Pentecost, 40 

Milky Way, popular names for the, 
and legend, 69 

mirror, divination by, 50-1 

Mohammed the Conqueror and ex- 

* communication, 212-3 








Index 


Mohammedan wizards, 225 
Moirais, 126-8 

“ Month-days,” 62 

moon, new, 71; eclipse of the, 72 
morra, game of, 297-8 
**mothering,”’ 29 

munimers, 88 


Naidis, story of, 129-34, 247-50 

nail, a safeguard against evil, 64; 
nailing the Vampire, 221 

nail-cutting, superstition about, 189- 
90; nail-parings, preserved, 214-5 

name-day, 122 

Nasreddin Khodja, story of, 114 

Neraides, 125, 240 foll. 

New Year’s Day, 77-83 

‘Night of Power,’ 86 

nightbird, omen from a, 108 

nose, premonition from itching, 113; 
cure for a bleeding, 230, 233 

November, 66-7 

nuskas, use of, 224 


October, 65-6 

offerings, to the dead, 197, 208-9 
oil, omen from spilt, 102 

olive leaves, divination by, 78 

owl, omen from a hooting, 107, 108 


Palm Sunday, 34 
“‘pappas,”’ popular name for the daisy, 
46 


Paschal eggs, 35 

Paschalia, 37 

pee-wit, legend of the, 290 

pentagram, symbolic significance of 
the, 142 

pepper, omen from spilt, 102 

Perperuna-song, 119 

Philip, in folk tradition, 279 

philtres, 226-7 

phylacteries, 238-40, 365-6 

plague, the, 237-8 

plants, magic, 123, 368 

Pleiades, the, 70 

**Plough,” ‘* Plough-feet,” popular 
names for constellations, 70 

portraiture, superstitious dread of, 
300-1 


possession, by demons, 232, 235, 241 

‘* Precursor Men,” 89 

premonitions, 111-3 

priests, superstition about, 104-5 

Prince and the Eagle, story of the, 
268-77, 351-7 

Princess and the two Dragons, story 
of the, 264 

prophecies, 116-7 

Protomaia, 46 


371 


‘Pruner,’ popular name for January, 
13 


Purification, feast of the, 14-5; after 
child-birth, 137; after a funeral, 
203-4; for the Evil Eye, 143; in 
folk-medicine, 223 


quince-tree, in folk-medicine, 228 


rabbit, omen from the encounter of a, 
106 

rainbow, superstitious belief about 
the, 71 

rats, omen from, 108 

red-haired people, 105 

red yarn, charm of the, 19, 23, 124, 228 

‘*Remembrance,” game of, 98 

rheumatism, cure for, 229 

rhinoceros’ horn, safeguard against 
the Evil Eye, 142-3 

riddles, 302 foll., 367 foll. 

right and left, 113, 187-8 

ring-dove, legend of the, 293 

robbers, charm against, 233 

Rousa, feast of the, 40-2 


Sabbatarians, 221-2 

St Andrew, ‘“* Month of,” 66 

», Anthony, 241 

;, Barbara, 67 

» Basil, 77-83 ; 

,», Demetrius, “Μομίῃ of,” 65 

» Hlias, 240 

», Elmo, fires of, 241 

» Friday, 243 

» George, Feast of, 11, 43-6; ‘‘ Month 
of,” 43 

», Gervais, 15 

s, Hilary, 15 

», Ignatius, 68 

» John, Feast of, 11, 50, 61-88; 
curer of fevers, 65, 233 

», John’s wort, 123 

» Kosmas and Damian, 235 

» Médard, 15 

», Modestos, 241 

» Nicholas, ‘‘Month of,” 67; patron 
of mariners, 241 

», Panteleémon, 241 

» Paul, 15 

» Plato, 67 

», Protais, 15 

» Solomone, 243 

» Spyridion, 68 

», Thomas, Feast of, 39 

», Vineent, 15 

salt, symbolical use in wishing, 84; 
giving out of the house, 101; sacred- 
ness of, 102 

sand-bath, 229 


972 


Saturnalia, 26 

Scarlatina, 40 

Seasons, rhymes on the, 12 

September, 64-5 

serpent, superstition about, 
charms against, 233-4 

shadow, as a nightmare, 257 

Shepherd and his flock, legend of the, 
229 

Shepherd and the Nymphs, story of 
the, 246 

sieve, saying about the, 96; giving 
out of the house, 101; as a safe- 
guard against evil, 219, n. 2 

sleepiness, cure for, 231 

slings, 27-8 

Small-pox, 236-7 

sneezing, 30, 113-6 

snow, children’s rhymes about the, 121 

soul, ideas concerning the, 193 

Souls’ Sabbaths, 208-9 

‘*Sower,” popular name for November, 
66 


sparrows, omen from, 109, 111 
Spirits of the Air, 294. 

storks, omen from, 109 

Strigla, 266 

Struma, 2, 224 

Sun, children’s rhymes to the, 121 
swallow, 18-21; song, 18 
sweeping, after dark, 101 
symbolism, 118-22 

sympathetic magic, 19 


Testament, New, in folk-medicine, 227 
‘«Thresher,” popular name for July, 59 
tooth superstition, 20 


106; 


Index 


toothache, cure for, 231 

tortoise, superstition about the, 109 

Triodi, game of, 295-7 

turning back, unlucky, 105. 

6 turtle-doves,” 35; the bird, 109 

‘ Twelve-Days,”’ 73 

‘*Twins,” popular name for November 
and December, 67 


vinegar, giving out of the house, 101; 
omen from spilt, 102 

Vintage, ‘‘Month of the,” 64 

Virgin, Feasts of the, 61, 66 

Vrykolakas, 217-22 


warts, cure for, 230 

water, ‘speechless,’ 52, 83;. giving 
out of the house, 101; symbolical 
use of, 122; “holy,” 124 

Water-Spirits, 246, 249-56 ; 
256, 265 

wax, divinution by molten, 52 

weasel, omen from the, 108; supersti- 
tion and legend about, 109 

wedding, preparations, 155-67; cere- 
mony, 167-79; banquets, 179-82; 
songs, 157-86; toasts, 179 

Wednesday, 21, 63, 190-1 

whirlwind, incantation, 250-1 

Wild Boar, superstition about the, 
215-6 

wine, rhymes on, 68; 
spilt, 102 

women, popular opinion on, 122; 
rhymes on, 344-5 

wood-pigeons, omen from, 109 

Wood-Spirits, 250 


-serpent, 


omen from 





CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY J. AND C, F, CLAY, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 








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Abbott, George Frederick 
Macedonian folk-lore. 




























































































































































































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