Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/172

 to supply the town. The spring is within a cave, artificially enlarged at the entrance, over which stands a fine fig-tree. Standing outside while a companion entered first, I noticed that our guides (for several persons had escorted us out of curiosity or hospitality) were distinctly perturbed, and I heard one say to another, 'See, he is going in, he is not afraid.' Inferring thence that the place was haunted, and remembering that mid-day, the hour at which we happened to be there, was fraught with special peril, I determined to test my guides, and so sat down under the fig-tree. Then remarking that the sun was hot at noon, I invited them to come and sit in the shade and smoke a cigarette. But the bait was insufficient; they would stand in the sun rather than approach either the spring or the tree, though they were ready enough to accept cigarettes when I moved out of the zone of danger. Afterwards by enquiries made elsewhere I learnt that the spot was the reputed home of Nereids—but whether their abode was tree or water, who should say? Close neighbours in their habitations, indistinguishable in their appearance and attributes, it is pardonable to confuse those sister nymphs,

'Centum quae siluas, centum quae flumina seruant .'

It is exactly this kind of confusion of the two classes of nymphs which has produced the twofold injunctions for the observance of the days known as [Greek: drymais]: for evidence is forthcoming that this word originally denoted a class of nymphs and not, as generally now, their August festival. From Stenimachos in Thrace comes the statement that by [Greek: drymiais] the people there understand female deities who live in water and are always hostile to man, but specially dangerous only during the first six days of August. Here the name [Greek: drymiais], if the derivation which I prefer is right, points to the identification of these beings with the ancient Dryads; while their watery habitations proclaim them rather Naiads. Reversely again in Syme, where the word [Greek: drymais] is not in use, there are certain nymphs known as [Greek: Aloustinai] who live in mountain-torrents, in trees, and elsewhere, and who are seen only at mid-day and at midnight during the first three days of August; but, far from being hurtful to men, they may even themselves be captured by certain magical ceremonies and employed as, in [Greek: Pandôra],. p. 472.]