Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/131

 Mis cell a nea. 121

In the District Court of Larnaca. Full Court. 27th October, 1899. Vassili Papakyriaco

V.

Haralampo H. Rafail.

Plaintiff in person.

Mr. Efthymiades for Defendant.

Vassali Papakyriaco (sworn) : The value of horn was this : If a man or a beast was bitten by a snake, people came to me, and I put my horn in a glass of water. After it was taken out I washed the wound with that water. After that, the wound would heal and the man get all right. I only did this for charity, and do not say that I made any profit out of it. Si quis coire cum uxore non posset, potandam ei dedi aquam in qua cornu illud positum erat, et continuo potuit. It was given the Defen- dant for a purpose of this kind. This Defendant was Artemis' best man at the marriage. The marriage took place on a Sun- day or Tuesday night. Defendant came to me and told me that his cumbaros^ Artemis was tied up (meaning that he was pre- vented by the Devil from performing his conjugal duties). He came and asked me to give him my horn, and I gave it to him.

Now this horn is small, something about three-quarters of an inch long. As thin as that ( I I . It is hollow. One

day, about eleven years ago, I was clearing bushes in my land, when a boy named Nicola came and told me he was going to untie his mule when he saw a great snake and dare not take it away. He took me to the place and showed me in a hollow in the ground a snake. It was rolled round. I had a pickaxe with me, and I killed it. I cut off its head. The head was severed with a small piece of the body and it walked. As she walked she moved upwards a thin horn just above the right eye. I went up to the snake, pressed the head to the ground with the axe, and seized the little horn and pulled it out. It was stuck in just above the right eyelid. When she lay down, the horn lay down ;

' Cwnba)-os or Ciiniparos (from the Italian compare) = Brother by the cere- mony of adoption, or one related by the ecclesiastical tie of sponsorship. One standing in this relation is usually the " best man" at his adopted brother's wedding. Hence the term is used of " best man " simply. Reference may perhaps be permitted to T/ie Legend of Perseus, vol. ii. p. 363. — Ed.