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Leipsig: F. A. BROCKHAUS. flew Work: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Lrp.
[All Rights reserved.]
MACEDONIAN FOLKLORE
BY G. F. ABBOTT, B.A.
EMMANUEL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
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PREFACE.
HE present volume contains the results of some re- searches 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.
Χ 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.
GF A.
EMMANUEL COLLEGE,
CAMBRIDGE. March 25, 1903.
“αὐ a
INDEX
CONTENTS.
The Folklorist in Macedonia . The Folk-Calendar and the Seasons J anuary, February and March Eastertide :
April, May and June
July to December .
Winter Festivities . Divination
Symbolism
Birth
Marriage .
Funeral Rites
Spirits and Spells . Macedonian Mythology .
Alexander and Philip in Folk- Tradition
Bird Legends . Miscellaneous Notes Riddles
Aevavorpayovda
118 123 147 192 223 260 279 290 295 302 334
347 351 358 362 365 367
369
ry \
᾿
CHAPTER ἢ
THE FOLKLORIST IN MACEDONIA.
tly 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 Sochos in the
A. F, 1
2 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 his 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. ᾿
Μ. 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.
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 Anthropology 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 ae 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 Hvan 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
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. Withremarkable 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. 3
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 completely reassured by her husband’s retort:
“ Mind thy own business, 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.
I 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
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 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’ (καθιστικά).
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 II.
THE FOLK-CALENDAR AND THE SEASONS.
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—K azamias—of Constantinople and Athens, which in some respects correspond to our own Old Moore's Almanack. * Many more are to be
12 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 Χειμώῶνας.
‘Three months are Spring, and three Summer ; Three are Autumn, and three keen Winter.”
1 2,4. φθινόπωρον.
CHAPTER III.
JANUARY, FEBRUARY AND MARCH.
THE first month of the year is known as the ‘Breeder’ (Γεννάρης), 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 :
Tevvapn μῆνα κλάδευε, φεγγάρι μὴν ξετάζῃς.
“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 τὰ Φῶτα ta 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, κόττα 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 φλεβέίζῃ, 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.
Ἂ
27 e δι΄ ΝΣ
January, February and Rar — 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 parallel 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 T'rivia :
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. τ. p. 214.
2 R. Inwards, Weather Lore, pp. 37, 38; The Book of Days, vol. 1. p. 672.
3 Bk τ. 183-6.
4 On the last mentioned day the learned writer in The Book of Days (vol. 1. p. 157) as well as R. Inwards (Weather Lore, pp. 15 foll.) should be consulted by those interested in the subject.
- 5] pleut le jour de Saint Médard,
Il pleut quarante jours plus tard; S’il 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 xn ἀπ᾿ 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 πόλεις 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...... +3 However, the modern sage warns us not to be premature in our rejoicings; for ἕνας κοῦκκος δὲ κάνει τὴν ἄνοιξι “One cuckoo does ποῦ make a spring,” another sentiment which finds its prototype in antiquity.
1 W. and D. 486-7.
2 Op. the ancient proverb ula χελιδὼν ἔαρ od moet. 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.2 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. xt. 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 bird when first heard, etc. see R. Inwards, Weather Lore, pp. 30, 164; The Book of Days, vol. 1. pp. 529 foll.
A. F. 2
18 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 1}
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
1 The original is given in A. A. Γουσίου, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Xwpa,’ p. 43. For variants see Songs of Modern Greece, p. 174; 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 as a 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 μάρτα). 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. vii. 360 8. :
? Fallimur? an veris praenuntia venit hirundo? Ovid, Fast. 1. 853.
%, 4 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, pp. 211-214. Op. 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,” etc., The Book of Days, vol. 1. p. 678.
ἢ 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 κουκκια, Νὰ τρώγω παξιμαδι.
(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.”
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. τ. 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 (χελιδόνεισμα). 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 all 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 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’ ((éaprns).
1 Athen. vit. 359. 2 We shall speak on this subject at greater oad 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:
Ὃ Mdprns ὡς τὸ γιῶμα τὸ ψοφάει, 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 é καὶ χάϊδια 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 : Ὃπώχει κόρην ἀκριβή. Τοῦ Μάρτη ἥλιος μήν τη διῇ. “Who has a daughter fair Of March’s sun beware.”
ad
1 R. Inwards, Weather Lore, p. 24. Cp. ‘‘If the old 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 κάψῃς τὰ παλούκια.
“Tn 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 :
Μάρτης ὀρθοχέστης καὶ 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 yends τὸ πήδημαλ.
1 A. A. Γουσίου, "Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Xwpa,’ p. 44.
24 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 next 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” etc. 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 Gazetie, April 2, 1901, whence comes the latter variant given above. For other versions see R. 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.
It is perhaps more than a coincidence, and at all events quite appropriate, that the great Christian feast of the Resurrec- tion—redemption and universal renovation—should fall at that 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.t
This coincidence reveals itself in many curious customs con- nected with the festival, and enables us to interpret several popular practices which otherwise would be unintelligible. In fact, we most probably have here one of the numerous instances of old pagan observances surviving beneath the tolerant cloak of Christianity—the past peeping through the mask of the present. It is a thesis no longer in need of demonstration that the new religion, wherever it has penetrated, from the shores of Crete to those of Iceland, has everywhere displayed a far-seeing eagerness to enlist in its service what might assist its own propagation in existing belief and _ prac- tice. Macedonia forms no exception to this general rule.
The heathen festival on which Easter was grafted in Greek- speaking countries most likely was the Lesser Eleusinia, the return of Persephone, which symbolised the resurrection of Nature 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, Kaster 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 :
Πότε νἄρθ᾽ ἡ ἸΙασχαλιά,
Μὲ τὰ κόκκινα τ᾽ avya,
Μὲ 7 ἀρνοῦδι ᾿ς τὸν taBa, etc.
“Oh, when will Easter come, bringing with her red eggs, a 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 LapaxooTn—Lent). The two Sundays before Lent are re- spectively called Meat-Sunday ('Azroxpea) and Cheese-Sunday (Tupi). 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 μασκαράδες), 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” (ὅπ᾽ πάῃ ἡ σαγίτα κὴ ὁ ψύλλος καταπόδιλ) 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 Ib. vol. τι. 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 lurk 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.” MHdt. 1. 172.
4 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. p. 73.
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 as a propitiatory offering to those on whom they call. The sym- 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.! 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 (owt). 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 βάζουν 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 iq. Lent-Cake. 3 Hesperides 685.
90 Macedonian Folklore
to the end of a stick, and from it is suspended a bit of con- fectionery (yaA Bas), 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 Tpiwepo, 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
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 unwilling 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 τὸ detds)—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 “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 (καλπάκι) 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 οἵ 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. 1. p. 665.
2 J. G. Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, p. 225.
3 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. τι. p. 241.
8. 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 Aagfapivats, and their songs Aafapiava or Λαζαριώτικα (sc. 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 waif’ ὁ Τοῦρκος τ᾽ ἄλογο xn ὁ Φράγκος τὸ καράβι "Eto παίζει « ἕνας νειούτσικος μὲ τὴν καλὴν ἀπώχει. Σ τὰ γόνατά την ἔπαιρνε, ᾽ς τὰ μάτια τὴν φιλοῦσε,
᾿] ‘\ / 5 \ / \ > / Ε] \ /
Σ τὰ μάτια, ᾽ς τὰ ματόφυλλα κὴ 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.”
Il.
To a love-lorn youth.
Κεῖ ᾿π᾿ ἀγαπᾷς, λεβέντη μ᾽, στεῖλε γύρεψε, Στεῖλε τὴν ἀδερφή σου προξενήτισσα.
Ky ἂν δέ᾽ σου δώσουν, πάλι σύρε μοναχός. ᾿Ανέβα ᾿ς τὸ πηγάδι KN ἀργολάβησε,
Νὰ μαζωχτοῦν κοπέλλαις ὅλο ἔμορφαις, Νἀρθῇ καὶ κείνη ποῦ θές, κείνη ᾿π᾿ ἀγαπᾷς.
Eastertide 33
Κλέψ᾽ την, λεβέντη μ᾽, κλέψ᾽ την, κλέψ᾽ THY πέρδικα,
Σύρ᾽ 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.”
ITI. To a newly-married woman.
a > Βουζοῦδά" μ᾽, τί τρανεύεσαι Kal σέρνεις TO καμάρι; \ [οἷ \ \ t
To πῶς va μὴν τρανεύωμαι Kal σέρνω τὸ καμάρι; 3 ΠΑΝ. 5» “Ὁ \ \ ’ / Eyo ‘yo ἄντρα βασιλεᾶ καὶ πεθερὸν ἀφέντη,
\ a Kai 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 χάρ᾽σε ὁ θεὸς τὰ δυὸ περιστερούδια, Μάνα μ᾽, νά τα περικαλῇς Κύριο μ᾽ νά τον δοξάζῃης, Νὰ χαΐίρησαι ᾽ς τὸ γάμο της, ν᾿ ἀλλάξῃς ᾽ς τὴ χαρά της. Νὰ διῇς κὴ ᾿πὸ τὸν κόρφο της περδίκια νὰ γυρέζουν, Περδίκια, χρυσοπέρδικα, χρυσᾶ μαλαματένια.
1 This word is new to me, but I take it to be a synonym of κορφοβούνια, ‘ hill-tops.’
2 A synonym of the dim. νυφοῦδα, ‘a dear little bride,’ from the Bulgarian bozia, ‘ bride.’
A. F. 3
34 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.”
Υ. The enterprising lover.
Ἕνας λεβέντης καὶ ντελῆς καὶ ‘va ᾽ξιο παλληκάρι Μὲ ταῖς μαχαίραις mep πατεῖ, τὴ χώρα φοβερίζει"
\ 7 \ nr Tn χώρα ἐφοβέριζε καὶ τοὺς Κοτζαμπασῆδες" “ Γιὰ δό μ᾽ τε τὴ Καλοῦδά μου, γιὰ δό μ᾽ τε τὴ καλή μου, Νὰ φκιάσω σπίτια πετρωτὰ καὶ σκάλαις μαρμαρένιαις. Νὰ φκιάσω καὶ τ᾽ ἁλῶνί μου ᾿ς τὴν ἄκρα τὴ θαλάσσα. Νὰ κοσκινίζω μάλαμα νὰ πέφτ᾽ μαργαριτάρι,
v2 \ \ 4 \ / 5 lad 7 37 Ky ‘wo τὰ κοσκινίσματα va div τῇς Λαζαρίναις.
ῶν
“Α 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 Βαΐων). 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 Βαΐὔτικα."
1 A. A. Tovatov, "Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Xdpa,’ p. 45.
Eastertide 35 -
Holy Week (Μεγάλη ᾿βδομάδα).
Holy Thursday (Μεγάλη Iléprn). 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” (δεκοχτοῦραις), 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 SaBBato). They are careful not to wash their heads, lest their hair should turn grey.
Easter Sunday (Πάσχα, Πασχαλιά, 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
“ χὰ -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
96 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 isan 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. 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. 111. 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 The Book of Days, vol. 1. p. 213.
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!” ΤῸ 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 a 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. 111. pp. 245 foll,
2 Ib. p. 314. 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 “"Apare πύλας ol 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." A.A. Γουσίου, “Ἢ 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 préce de résistance of the Easter banquet is a lamb roasted whole (og@ayrtdpz). Indeed so indispensable is this item, that it has given rise to a proverb, Πασχαλιὰ χωρὶς ἀρνὶ dé γένεται, “ Kaster 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 (wdXatpa), 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, 7p ἡ Μεγάλη Πέφτη 3 ᾽ e \ \ \ \ \ / Ἦρθε « ἡ Λαμπροκυριακὴ μὲ τὸν καλὸ τὸν λόγο. Ἢ μάν᾽ ἀλλάζει τὸν ὑγιὸ κ᾿ ἡ ἀδερφή τον ζώνει, Tov fav τὸ χρυσοζούναρο, χρυσὸ μαλαματένιο. Καὶ κίνησαν καὶ πάηναν νὰ πᾶν 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, p. 184, ‘‘ The Excommunicated.”
Eastertide 39
In some places, as Serres, the fire is not allowed to go out through the Paschal Week (Διακαινήσιμος ἑβδομάς), 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 :
Ἢ Μαρουδιὰ ᾿Χινιώτισσα Δευτέρα μέρα κίνησε Νὰ πάῃ γιὰ ᾿᾽σημόχωμα, ᾽σημόχωμα, πατόχωμα, Καὶ σκεπαρνιὰ δὲν ἔλαχε, pov’ ᾿λάχε T ἀργυρὸ τσαπῖί, Καὶ κρούει μιὰ καὶ κρούει δυό, καὶ κρούει τρεῖς καὶ τέσσαρες, Καὶ πέσε 7 ἀσημόχωμα καὶ σκέπασε τὴ Μαρουδιά. Ψιλὴ λαλίτσαν ἔβγαζε, “λαλίτσα μ᾽, σκίσε τὰ βουνά, Νὰ πᾷς ᾿ς τὴ μάνα μ᾽ μήνυμα, νὰ φουκαλίσῃ τῇς αὐλαῖς, Νὰ στρώσ᾽ τὸν καμοχῶᾶ......... “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.......... τ
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.
a
Ν
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 (νταούλια) and pipes (fovpvades), 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 (κοκ- κινίτσα). 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
᾿
Eastertide 41
world. The name of the Roman festival (Povcadva) 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 (Av@eornpia) —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 ‘Pwoadia). On the eighth day, the ‘Paca- 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. τ. 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 (7rovyatoa) 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 ‘Podca, 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.”?
1 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, Μάης 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’ ((Αγιογεωργίτης), 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 15 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. ῷ
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.
Tod “Ai Γεώργη τὸ τραγοῦδι.
““Α Γεώργη καβαλλάρη Μὲ σπαθὶ καὶ μὲ κοντάρι, Δός με τὸ κλειδάκι σου Ν᾽ ἀνοίξω τὸ ματάκι σου [1] Νὰ διῶ τί ἔχεις μέσα." “Σιυτάρι, 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, 1 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:
"Eva μικρὸ Τουρκόπουλο, τοῦ βασιλεᾶ ἀγγόνι,
Μιὰ ἹΡωμῃοποῦλ ἀγάπησε καὶ θέλει νά τη πάρῃ.
Τὴ θέλει, δέ᾽ τον θέλει.
Παίρνει τὰ ὄρη ὀμπροστὰ καὶ τὰ βουνὰ rd πίσω.
"= τὸ δρόμο ὁποῦ πάαινε, ᾿ς τὸ δρόμο ποῦ πααίνει, Βρίσκ᾽ τὸν “At Tewpyn κάθουνταν σὲ μιὰ ᾽ρημοκκλησοῦδα" “"At Τεώργ ἀφέντη μ᾽, μεγάλο τὠνομά σου,
Αὐτὴ τὴν ὥρα κρύψε we’m τὰ Τούρκικα τὰ χέρια."
Τὰ μάρμαρα ραΐστηκαν x’ ἡ κόρη μπαίνει μέσα.
Na κὴ ὁ Τοῦρκος πρόφτασε μπροστὰ ’s τὸν “Αἴ Γεώργη᾽" “"At ΤεώργΥ ἀφέντη μ᾽, μεγάλο τὠώνομά σου,
Αὐτὴ τὴ κόρη ᾽πώχεις δῶ, θέλω vd μέ τη δώσῃς.
Θὰ φέρ᾽ ἁμάξι τὸ κερί, ἁμάξι τὸ θυμιάμα
Καὶ ᾿ς τὰ βουβαλοτόμαρα θὰ κουβαλῶ τὸ λάδι,
Σ τὴ πίστι σου θὰ βαφτιστῶ καὶ Tedpyn τὠνομά pov.” Τὰ μάρμαρα ραΐστηκαν κ᾿ ἡ κόρη βγῆκε ὄξω.
ΣῚΡ ἢ
Τὴ ‘rip ὁ Τοῦρκος x’ 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, oe 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 (IIpwropaia) is spent “in dance and song and game and jest.” Parties are formed “to fetchen home May” (va πιάσουν tov Man) 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” (Μ᾿ ἀγαπᾷ, δέ᾽ 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.
2 Cp. G. Georgeakis et Léon Pineau, Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, p. 301.
3 A. A. Γουσίου, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Xdpa,’ p. 46. Cp. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. 1v. pp. 44, 45.
3
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 "Avork:, Τώρα τὸ καλοκαίρι, Τώρα xn ὁ ξένος βούλεται Σ τὸν τόπο του va πάῃ.
ΝΟΥ 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 ‘yo,
Ὦ, γλυκό μου χελιδόνι,
Τῆς γλυκειᾶς αὐγῆς ἀηδόνι, Περικαλῶ σε πέταξε,
Σύρε κὴ ἀλλοῦ καὶ ξέταξε" "Ox θἀάρθῇ καὶ τὸ πουλί μου, Νά μ᾽ ἀκούσῃ τὴ φωνή μου; “οὖσαν, πουλί μ᾽, τόσον καιρό, Σὲ καρτεροῦσ᾽ σὰν τὸν τρελλό; “Ἤμαν ᾿ς τὰ ὄρη, ᾽ς τὰ βουνά, Μέσα ᾿ς τὰ κρούσταλλα νερά. Ἤμαν μέσα ’s τῇς 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"
Φωνάξει τὸ θαλασσινὸ καὶ λέει τὸ βουνήσιο"
“Τί pe φωνάζεις, Bp ἀδερφέ, καὶ τί με παραγγέλνεις ;” “Σύρε, πουλί μ᾽, ᾽ς τὸν τόπο μου, σύρε ᾿ς τὴ γυναῖκά pov.” “Τὼ καρτερῶ τὴν "Ανοιξι, τὸν Μάη, τὸ καλοκαίρι,
Νὰ μπουμπουκιάσουν τὰ βουνά, νὰ σκιώσουν τὰ λαγκάδια, Νὰ βγοῦν οἱ BXayou!’s τὰ βουνά, κ᾽ ἡ Brayns’s τὰ λαγκάδια, Νὰ πάρω τὸ τουφέκι μου νὰ βγῶ νὰ κυνηγήσω,
Καὶ ναὕρω τὴν ἀγάπη μου νά τη 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.
999
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 xn ᾿Απρίλης Ta λουλούδια, “ May enjoys the fame, but April brings forth the flowers.” Weather-lore pronounces: Mans &Bpeyos, 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 Earkadpawvns τὸ κορμί σ᾽ ὅσου ὁ "Ἄλυμπος 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 :
"Am’ 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 rod 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 :
Παίέρνω τὸν καθρέφτη καὶ τὸν θεὸ περικαλῶ “Ὅποιος εἶναι τῆς τύχης μου ἀπόψε νά Tov διώ. 41 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 lump or ‘mountain,’
1 Cp. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. 1v. 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’ ἦν found in a popular love-couplet which I heard at Salonica:
Ἕνα κομμάτι μάλαμα θὰ ῥίξω ᾿ς τὸ πηγάδι, Νὰ καθαρέψη τὸ νερό, νὰ διώ 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 ἀμίλητο vepd)! 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’ (κηροχύτης) 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. D. 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 “Opxor in the «Ἐθνικὸν Ἡ μερολόγιον᾽ Mapivov II. Bperod, Paris, 1866, pp. 219—220; G. Georgeakis et Léon Pineau, Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, pp. 307—308.
3 G. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. xx. 4N. 10.
5 VI. For a full description of this superstition see The Book of Days, vol. 1. p. 140.
April, May, and J: une 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 KAnéovas?
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.
3 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 vd Ta πῆς (or νά τα πουλήσῃς) " conveying pretty nearly the same meaning as our “tell that to the marines.”
54 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 «Andovas or St John’s Flower (Τοῦ Ai 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 (covAnvapr) 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 Κλείδωμα."
Μαζώνησθη, συνιάξζησθη, Γιὰ νὰ κλειδώσουμη 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. 1. p. 819.
3 On the use of locks and knots as impediments to sorcery, 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᾽ ᾿Αἰγιαννιοῦ τοὺν κλείδουνα. Ποιός on φύτηψη, ποιός on πότιση (bis) Ky μαράθκαν τὰ λουλούδια σ᾽;
Γρ᾿ά μη φύτηψη, γρ᾽ά μη πότιση
Ky μαράθκαν τὰ λουλούδια p’. Θουμαή μ᾽, τὴ Ov—, τὴ θυγατέρα σ᾽ "AdXouv νειὸ νὰ μήν τη δώσῃς. (bis) Δούκηνά μ᾽, ἠγὼ τὴν ἀρραβώνιασ᾽ (bis) M’ ἕναν Βούργαρου τζιλέπη (bis)
Μὲ ἕναν wey’ τὰ χίλια πρόβατα,
Τὰ τρ᾿᾽ 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.”
“OQ 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 wnlocking 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 τυφλὰ) 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!” (Avoiyoupe τὸν κλήδονα, va βγῇ τὸ καλορρίζξικο 1). Then the boy draws out the first token, singing
Τινοὺς σημάδι κὴ ἂν ἐβγῇ, Νὰ πάῃ ᾿ς τὰ Σέρρας μ᾽ Grav τὰ Kanda. “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 Manasseh “caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom.” We also possess Ovid’s testimony that 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.
2 At Polygyros, in the Chalcidic Peninsula, these bonfires are known as TapaKkap vot.
3 Ib. p. 240. 4 Tb. p. 241.
5 2 Chron, xxxiii. 6. 6 Ovid. Fast. 1v. 655.
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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.”1 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 G. 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
Ἔτσι τώχει 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.” !
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 xn ᾽μένα κλίκι κάνετε, > \ / Kal ῥίξτε το ᾽ς τὴ βρύσι νὰ πάω νά το πάρω, \ 4 7 / \ \ \ / Na κάτσω νά to φάω μαζὺ μὲ τὰ παιδιά μου, Νὰ πέσω νὰ 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 (Ἢ 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. Tovolov, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Xwpa,’ 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. vu. 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, 7’rikka. 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 (Ἢ 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 “Ayias "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 deepéned 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 Προδρόμου) is made the occasion of more abstinence.
It is in harmony with this religious gloom that August is considered as the precursor of winter:
‘O Αὔγουστος ἐπάτησε ᾽ς τὴν ἄκρα τοῦ χειμῶνα. “ August has set his foot on Winter’s edge.”
Μαύρισ᾽ ἡ ῥῶγα ἀπὸ τὸ σταφύλι;
᾿᾽Ράχνιασ᾽ 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 rapaxdévw and ἀναχώνω (or ξαναχώνω) are the terms commonly applied by the people to the burial and exhumation of the dead.
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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 :
"4 a + \ al 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—yeiuaros ὥρην δεικνύει ὀμβρηροῦ."
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 iepounvia (τά, Thuc. v. 54) ‘ the holy days of the month’?
July to December 63
The jackdaw is the typical bird of this month : Κάθε πρᾶμα ᾿ς τὸν καιρό του Kn ὁ 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 Apiuas, 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 cp. W. H. Ὁ. Rouse, ‘ Folklore from the Southern Sporades,’ in Folk-Lore, June 1899, p. 179.
2 vy. supra, Ὁ. 21.
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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 ᾿ς 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 ‘ Θερμαΐς,᾽ by M. Χ. 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 (H 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.
Ἂν ἴσως βρέξ᾽ ὁ Τρυγητής, χαρὰ ᾿ς τὸν τυροκόμο.
“Tf September brings rain, joy to the cheese-maker !”
Mans ἄβρεχος, 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’ (Ayio- Snuntpratns 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.
A. F, 5
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on Marriage. It is also the commencement of seed-time, according to the adage: ᾿Οχτώβριο δὲν ἔσπειρες, ᾿Οχτὼ 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 Eloddsa 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 ’Avrpéa). 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᾽ dompice τὰ γένεια τ᾽ ὁ 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᾽ am tov” Ai ᾿Αντρέα ὅλα ἀντρειεύουν |’ Avdpéas— ἀνδρεῖος), 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, W. 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’ (Σαρανταήμερο). 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 Νικολαΐτης 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 καὶ 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 βαρβαρώνει, 5. “Ati Σάββας σαβανώνει,
» 6. “At Νικόλας παραχώνει, 2. “Ai Σπυρίδων ξαναχώνει.
5—2
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“St Barbara behaves barbarously, St Sabbas winds us up in a shroud (σάβανον) (of snow), 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 ({wvupidwyv—orupi). The incorrigible one further maintains that on the Feast of St Ignatius (“Ai Ἰγνάτιος, Dec. 20th) the sun stands facing us (ayvavtevet). 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 p, To κρασὶ δίχως νερό"
Μῆνας δίχως ρ, Τὸ κρασὶ μὲ τὸ νερό.
“Month with r,
Unmixed jar ;
Month sans r,
A mixed jar.”!
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 pls ὕδατος mpoxéew, τὸ δὲ τέτρατον ἱέμεν οἴνου. W. and D. 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’ (Zwpos), 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. 32foll.). 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. τ. p. 360. 2 See The Book of Days, vol. τ. p. 52.
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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’ (Ζυγός), the ‘ Plough-feet’ (ra ᾿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:
"> τῇς δεκαφτά, ᾿ς τῆς δεκοχτὼ Ἢ Πούλια βασιλεύει
Καὶ πίσω παραγγέλνει"
Μήτε πουλάκι ᾿ς τὸ κλαδί, Μήτε γηωργὸς ᾿ς τὸν κάμπο,
or
Μηδὲ τσομπάνος ᾿ς τὰ βουνα, 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’; Bowrns, 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 (xvui1. 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 7
This advice tallies exactly with old Hesiod’s warning: “When the Pleiades, flying 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 τοῦ 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 Χώρα,᾽ p. 77.
5. 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, Walés 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. τι. p. 202; Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. tv. pp. 121, 122. On the general subject concerning the supposed infiuence of the moon on the life of plants and animals see J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. τι. pp. 155 foll. and Note B. pp. 457, 458.
2 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1. pp. 328 foll.
CHAPTER VII. WINTER FESTIVITIES.
Of Christmas’ sports, the wassail bow], 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 (Δωδεκαήμερο), 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 x 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 foll.; 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” (βαφτίζονται 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.
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 other, and here to the load between. The owner where is he ?”
Winter Festivities 75
(Νὰ «7 ᾿ς τό ᾽να τὸ φορτιό, va κὴ ᾿ς τ᾽ ἄλλο, νὰ KH ᾿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 T welve 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 (πουρνάρια) are lighted and cast out into the streets. In other places, notably at Melenik, ‘they scald’ (ζεματέζουν) 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 NovKovpades), 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 yo σκαντζός, Kn σὺ σκαντζός" "Aivte va χουρέψουμη, Τραχανὰ va 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 (μπακράτξζι) 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
76 Macedonian 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 Kurope 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 av
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 (γωνιά), 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’ (IIpwroypovic), or St Basil’s Day (τοῦ At 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.
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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 (χαρβασίλα), 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. 1. p. 550. 3 A. A. ΤΓουσίου, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Xwpa,’ p. 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 71
‘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 (Svyatk).’
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, 6, 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. τ. 75. 2 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 195.
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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 8), 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. 1. 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
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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” (Κη) ’s 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 τοῦ “Αἱ BaciAn)—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,
"293
singing Ovsénevuiya Pyesni.”* It is also interesting to note
1 Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. τι. p. 199; J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. ur. pp. 70 foll.
2 The text of this song is given in A. A. Γουσίου, “Ἢ κατὰ τὸ Πάγγαιον Xuwpa,’ p. 38. It presents few points of difference from the well-known versions published by Passow (Nos. 294, 296—8, etc.).
3 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. 8 Ovid, Fast. τ. 185.
6—2
84 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 κἀὶ T αὐγὰ τῆς κλωσ- σαριᾶς καὶ νὰ βγαίνουν τὰ πουλιά) In some villages, like Pravi, the wish takes a slightly different form: “85 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 salis, 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 Xwpa,’ p. 39. 2 Ovid, Fast. τι. 414.
ἴον" 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 μου).
There is no evidence that the ancient Greeks entertained a like superstition, unless the epithet ‘fair footed’ (κἀλόπους), 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 “bas brought him good luck” (τὸν ἔφερε τύχη), and she is henceforth re- garded as a ‘lucky woman’ (τυχερὴ or Kkadoppifixn). 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. ? For an interesting account of the first-foot custom in Scotland see The Book of Days, vol. 1. pp. 28 foll.
86 Macedonian Folklore
Twelfth-Day. (Θεοφάνεια or ta Para.)
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 οὐράνια). 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 ”!—a belief based on the saying of the Koran that, “in that night descend the ahgels 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 « Odysseus,” Turkey in Europe, p. 206. 2 The Koran, Sura xcvir. 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! Ko!” ‘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 κατὰ 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 Δράκου). 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 Tth.
On the following day is held one of the many feasts of St John the Precursor and Baptist (Ἢ σύναξις τοῦ ἸἹΤροδρόμου 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, ‘ Oi ΠΙροδρομίται,᾽ in the ‘Eoria 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.
᾽ =e ὉΡΑ͂Ν" 4 \ 2+ \ \ LA Εδῶ ‘ce τούτην THY αὐλὴ TH μαρμαροστρωμένη, ᾿Ἐδώχουν χίλια πρόβατα καὶ δυὸ χιλιάδες γίδια. ΚΡ \ ΄ \ / / / Tov κάμπο τὰ κατέβαζαν va Ta περιβοσκήσουν, \ \ Kai ᾿ς to βουνὸ tavéBafav νά ta νεροποτίσουν. \ e a > Ky ὁ βασιληᾶς ἐδιάβαινεν ἀπὸ τὸ ταξειδιό Tov. \ a , a , To padpo του κοντοκρατεῖ, Kai τὸ βοσκὸ ῥωταει" Ἂν / “Βρὲ τσιόμπανε, βρὲ πιστικέ, βρὲ καγκελοφρυδάτε, Τὸ ' > ὦ \ / > > ὃ / ? ὁ τίνος εἶν τὰ πρόβατα τ᾽ ἀργυροκουδωνάτα; “ ye > 7] \ ’ » > , 3) ἀφέντη μας τὰ πρόβατα T ἀργυροκουδωνάτα. \ , 3 \ “Kat τίνος εἶναι TO μαντρὶ μὲ TO φλωρὶ πλεγμένο;" Ὁ > “T° ἀφέντη pas καὶ TO 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 ici 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. Yo the master of the house.
᾽ / , Αφέντη μου πρωτότιμε καὶ πρωτοτιμημένε, Π a / / e θ Ν > @ > ¢€ / Ψ Ἰρῶτά σε τίμησεν ὁ θειὸς K ὕστερ ὁ κόσμος ὅλος, \ / e A A Σὲ τίμησε Kn ὁ βασιληᾶς va πᾷς va στεφανώσῃς. Φκιάνεις στεφάνια ‘TO φλωρὶ καὶ τὰ κηριὰ ᾿π᾿ ἀσῆμι \ \ / ee , Kai τὸ στεφανομάντηλο ὅλο μαργαριτάρι.
/ » "Oo ἄστρα ᾽ναι ᾽ς τὸν οὐρανὸ καὶ φύλλα ᾽ναι ᾿ς τὰ δέντρα, To 9 Res Sot > / \ \ ΄ ὁσ ἄσπρ ἔχει ἀφέντης pas, φλωρια καὶ καραγρόσια, Ν , A Μὲ τὸ ταγάρι του μετρᾷ, μὲ TO κοιλό του ῥίχνει. Eye Ἵ ῦ λείπου ϊ Awad μέτρησε, ξεμέτρησε, τοῦ λείπουν τρεῖς χιλιάδες, K \ \ / es \ \ / / at τὴν καλή του ῥώτηξε Kal τὴν καλή του λέει" “K / i 5 / \ 5S \ , >> αλή μου, ποὗναι τἄσπρά μας, Kal ποὖναι Ta φλωριά μας; Bayes? 2 f \ ΄ 5 ε , yo ἴλεγα, ἀφέντη μου, νὰ μή μοῦ το ῥωτήξης, Καὶ τώρα ποῦ με ῥώτηξες θά σοί το ᾿᾽μολογήσω. Πολλοὶ φίλοι μᾶς ἔπεσαν καὶ τἄκαμάμε χάρτξζει."
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
III. 70. the mistress of the house.
Δὲν πρέπουν τ᾽ ἀργυρᾶ κομπιὰ ᾿ς TO πράσινο TO povyo, \ / \ > / \ , \ \ / 3 Δὲν πρέπει τὸν ἀφέντη μας νὰ παίζῃ μὲ τὴν κόρη ! a , ’ ἜΣ Ta γόνατα νά την κρατῇ, ᾿ς τὰ μάτια va την χ᾽ τάζῃ" τέ ἢ ᾽ \ 3 cr ’ > \ 3 oo ” Κόρη μ᾽, δὲν εἶσαι ῥόδινη, κόρη μ᾽, δὲν εἶσαι ἄσπρη. / 53 “Σὰν θέλῃς νάμαι ῥόδινη, σὰν θέλῃς νᾶμαι ἄσπρη, / ᾽ \ > / / Ἅ \ / Σύρε ᾿ς τὴν ᾿Αντριανούπολι, σύρε ᾿ς τὴ Σαλονίκη, Κ \ > U / ᾽ξ / Xr € Bu / l ξ 4 ἰ ἢ ἀγόρασέ μου ᾿ξώπλατο, σερβιώτικο ζουνάρι, nw ‘ , , Na σειῶμαι, va χυγίζωμαι, νὰ φαίνωνται τὰ KAN.”
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 a newly-married pair. (A fragment.) ᾿Αητὸς βαστᾷ τὴν πέρδικα "TO πάνω ᾿ς Ta 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 cobs: chanced to be too att and his wing broke.
They aot criers in alt the provinces :
“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.
99 Macedonian Folklore
V. Farewell.
Πολλά "rape Ky ἀποὔπαμε, τώρα κὴ ἀπὸ σιμά του. Λῦσε τ᾽. ἀφέντη μ᾽, λῦσε τὴν ἀργυρῆ σακκούλα,
Ky ἄν ἔχῃς ἄσπρα, δὸς μᾶς τα, φλωριὰ μή τα λυπᾶσαι, Ky ἂν ἔχῃς κἄνα χαϊρλέ, κέρνα τὰ παλληκάρια.
Interval.
“ ς a , a » Spa / \ al 4 Ὁ. Ocais ὑγειαῖς τόσαις χαραῖς καὶ ᾿φέτο κὴ ὅλο ἕνα, Νά ἕήσῃς χρόνους ἑκατὸ καὶ πεντακόσια Dota,
\ / \ 4 " \ > 9+ / Na €nons σὰν τὸν *EXuytro, 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 the following day to a sumptuous banquet. In the evening a dance is set up in the public dancing-ground, which is thronged by
1 On the similarity between these carols and analogous compositions once popular in England I have commented in a foregoing chapter. The following description forms an especially close parallel to the Macedonian customs described above: ‘At Harrington, in Worcestershire, it is customary for children on St Thomas’s Day to go round the village begging for apples, and 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-cup singers.’ The Book of Days, vol. τι. pp. 724—5.
i Cae A OF 4 ΝΥ ! Pari P A UNIVcocaoc.- EASITY
\
ἢ 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:
Σ τ᾽ "“Aypada κλαίει μιὰ παπαδιά, μικρὴ παπαδοπούλα, Πῆραν οἱ κλέφταις τὸν ὑγιό, KH 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) breast-plates for the Secretary, and a pioli! 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 [ have had occasion more than once to allude to the plant known to the ancients as ‘ ocimum royal’ (ὠκιμον 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 πολυπρασινίξῃς.
- Ἐγώμαι τὸ γαρόνφυλλο, τὸ πρῶτο τὸ λουλοῦδι, Ποῦ to φοροῦν ἡ ἔμορφαις Ky ὅλαις ἡ μαυρομμάτῃς, Ποῦ το φορεῖ ἀγάπη μου ἀνάμεσα ἧς 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 ᾿δυόσμος Kn ὁ βασιλικὸς Kal TO μακεδονῆσι
Τὰ δυὸ τὰ τρία μάλωναν καὶ πήγαιναν ᾿ς τὴ κρίσι. Γυρίζει ὁ βασιλικὸς καὶ λέει ᾽ς τὰ λουλούδια"
“Σωπᾶτε, βρωμολούλουδα, καὶ μὴν πολυπαινέστε! "Eyouat ὁ βασιλικὸς ὁ μοσχομυρισμένος,
᾿Εγὼ μυρίζω πράσινος καθὼς καὶ στεγνωμένος,
᾿Εγὼ μπαίνω ᾿ς τοὺς ἁγιασμοὺς K εἰς τοῦ παπᾶ τὰ χέρια, ᾿Εγὼ φιλῶ τῆς ἔμορφαις καὶ τῆς 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 :
IT 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 VIII
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 νὰ ῥωτήσῃ Kal ῥωτοῦσε τὸ 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: tv. 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 is 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. 7
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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.’
2 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 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.
* In America also ‘‘Three lamps or candles burned close together mean death.” Ib. p. 126.
* Cp. the American superstition ‘“‘If an infant be measured, it will die before its growing time is over.” Ib. p. 25.
4 Cp. G. Georgeakis et Léon Pineau, Le Folk-Lore de Lesbos, p. 335.
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