Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/241

Rh Rite at saint's tomb.—At Axó or Hasákeui, in the plain of Cappadocia, is the tomb of St. Makrina, sister of Gregory Theológos. It is a marble structure with a gable top. We were directed to walk round it three times widdershins. In the event of meeting robbers a small vow to the Saint would preserve our property. I find the tomb mentioned in the work quoted above, p. 204, where it is stated that the tomb is a cenotaph, that incubation is practised at it, and that those who make a vow and do not pay it are unable to walk round the tomb.

Wells and springs.—Below the church, in which the above tomb stands, down a steep stair in one of those burrows in the rock which are so common in the plains of Cappadocia, is an, or sacred spring. The rock is porous, and the water filters freely through it into small basins cut in the side. It once flowed at a point higher up in this underground passage, and the dry basin is there to testify. A woman turned Moslem and came and washed her baby in it; the holy water thus defiled miraculously ceased, but reappeared in its present basins lower down (July 9, 1911).

At Strovitsi in the Peloponnese, near the site of the ancient Lepreum, is a spring which is said to have aphrodisiac properties when drunk by men. My informant was, a native of the neighbouring village of Zourtsa, and by profession a muleteer (Feb. 17, 1911).

In the island of Melos, in the hills south of Palaiochóra, is said to be a salt well much used by women and of great medicinal value in all feminine diseases according to our muleteer (Nov. 27, 1910),

Near Phárasa, a village in the Taurus, is the spring of St. Chrysostom, which is said to flow from the Saint's eyes. When a wicked man approaches it, it dries up. When I visited it, it was pouring out of the hillside and falling in large waterfalls. The water was clear, but slightly oily in appearance. I could see steps underneath the stream leading into the hole from which it flowed, and my guide, a boy of the village called, told me that, if the water was not flowing, you could go down thirty steps into a cavern where a mysterious "Boom Boom" was incessantly audible. About 100 yards from the spring was a small chapel.