Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/125

 Only in one folk-song, recorded from Zacynthos, can I find the old literary representation of Charon as ferryman of the Styx unmistakably reproduced. The following is a literal rendering:—'Across the river that none may ford Charos was passing, and one soul was on the bank and gave him greeting. "Good Charos, long life to thee, well-beloved; take me, even me, with thee, take me, dear Charos! A poor man's soul was I, even of a poor man and a beggar; men left me destitute and I perished for lack of a crumb of barley-bread. No last rites did they give me, they gave me none, poor soul, not even a farthing in my mouth for thee who dost await me. Poor were my children, poor and without hope; destitute were they and lay in death unburied, poor souls. Them thou did'st take, good Charos, them thou did'st take, I saw thee, when thy cold hand seized them by the hair. Take me too, Charos, take me, take me, poor soul; take me yonder, take me yonder, no other waiteth for thee." Thus cried to him the poor man's soul, and Charos made answer, "Come, soul, thou art good, and God hath pitied thee." Then took he the soul and set her on the other bank, and spreading then his sail he sped far away .'

In another song of the same collection, hailing also from Zacynthos, there may be a reminiscence of the same old tradition. In it Charos has a caïque with black sails and black oars and goes to and fro—whence and whither is not told—with cargoes of the dead. But more probably the imagery is borrowed from seafaring; the Greek peasant would hardly imagine a caïque plying on a river; the streams of his own country will seldom carry even a small bark. A sea-voyage on the other hand is, especially in the imagination of islanders, the most natural method of departure to a far-off country. From the sea certainly comes the metaphor in a funeral dirge from Zacynthos in which the mourner asks of the dead,

[Greek: se ti karabi tha brethês kai 's ti porto th' araxês];

'In what boat wilt thou be and at what haven wilt thou land?'

This too is claimed by Schmidt as a reminiscence of