Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/205

Rh But the time is a fast, and nothing of the kind is to be had; so the man who waits answers:

This charm startles the monsters, who thus say hurriedly, as though ready to be content with anything:

He eats then what is provided and departs.

I have now a number of notes on various customs and superstitions, and I will begin with customs observed on some special day.

On New Year's Eve the brute beasts are supposed to be endowed with reason and speech, to bear witness for good or evil according to the condition they may be in. Hence, on the day preceding the last night of the year, they are specially well fed and taken care of.

On January 6 takes place the ceremony of Diving for the Cross, which is described in a pretty little sketch by a Greek writer, Argyris Eftaliotis. By the Scala, or quay, of the town of Cos, the cross is thrown into the sea, and it is a point of honour with all the young pallikars to fetch it up. A collection is made in the villages of the island for the successful diver. There is some danger for him if the sea be rough or the weather cold. The First of April is called, or the Feast of Fibs, and all sorts of pranks and jests are made. On the vigil of the, Easter Day,