Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/173

 servants in the house for a period, after which the spell is broken and they return again to their homes. Their name [Greek: Aloustinai] , said to be formed from [Greek: Aloustos][1], the local name for the month of August, clearly means 'anti-washing,' and at once identifies them with those Naiads whose festival, as I believe, has rendered the waters sacred and therefore harmful if disturbed during these days; but on the other hand their dwelling-places include trees. These two pieces of evidence from places so wide apart as Stenimachos and Syme are reinforced by a popular expression formerly, and perhaps still, in use, [Greek: ton ep[i(]asan hê drymais], 'the "drymes" have seized him'; where the word denoting 'seizure' is one of those already noted as proper to 'seizure' by nymphs.

From the usage of the word therefore as well as from its formation we may conclude that the word [Greek: drymais] is the modern equivalent of the ancient [Greek: dryades]: and the widely-spread custom of abstaining both from tree-cutting and from the use of water during the early days of August is a survival of an old joint festival of wood-nymphs and water-nymphs.

But it is not in the relics of ancient worship only that traces of the Dryads are now to be found. The traveller in Greece will commonly hear that such and such a tree is haunted by a Nereid. Particularly famous in North Arcadia is a magnificent pine-tree on the path from the monastery of Megaspélaeon to the village of Solos. My muleteer enthusiastically compared it to the gigantic tree which is believed to uphold the world; and piously crossed himself, as we passed it, for fear of the nymph who made it her home. In general the trees thus reputed are the fruit-bearing trees which were comprehensively denoted by the term [Greek: drys], from which the Dryads took their name—the fig-tree, the olive, the holly-oak, and the plane. Such trees, especially when conspicuous for age or for luxuriance, are readily suspected to be the abode of Nereids. One Nereid only, it would seem, is assigned to each tree (though, if her retreat be violated, she may swiftly call othersand either [Greek: Aloustinais] or [Greek: Aloustinais] would be usual. As regards the whole form [Greek: Aloustos], it cannot I think be a dialectic change of [Greek: Augoustos], but is probably a pun upon it with reference to the custom of not washing during the first days of the month.], [Greek: Lexikon], s.v. [Greek: drimais].], ancient [Greek: prinos].]