Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/196

 children in the same way was also imputed to a whole class of witches. 'Hence,' comments Allatius, 'it has come about that at the present day Striges (i.e. the witches of whom Ignatius speaks), because they practise evil arts upon infants and by sucking their blood or in other ways cause their death, are called Gellones .' In the story also which exhibits the chief qualities of this demon, her name (in the form [Greek: Gylou]) appears still as a proper name.

But the multiplication of the single demon into a whole class dates from long before the time of Allatius. John of Damascus in the eighth century used the plural [Greek: geloudes] as a popular word, the meaning of which he took to be the same as that of Striges ([Greek: stringai]); and Michael Psellus too in the eleventh century evidently regarded these two words as interchangeable designations of a class of beings (whether of demons or of witches, he leaves uncertain); for after an exact account of the Striges and their thirst for children's blood, he says that new-born infants who waste away (as if from the draining of their blood by these Striges) are called [Greek: Gillobrôta], 'Gello-eaten.'

The story of Leo Allatius, which sets forth the chief qualities of Gello, is a legend of which the Saints Sisynios and Synidoros are the heroes. The children of their sister Melitene had been devoured by this demon, and they set themselves to capture her. She, to effect her escape, at once changed her shape, and became first a swallow and then a fish; but, for all her slippery and elusive transformations, they finally caught her in the form of a goat's hair adhering to the king's beard. Then addressing to her the words 'Cease, foul Gello, from slaying the babes of Christians,' they worked upon her fears until they extorted from her a confession of her twelve and a half names, the knowledge of which was a safeguard against her assaults.

It is this list of names in which the various aspects of her activity appear. The first is [Greek: Gylou], one of the forms of the name Gello; the second [Greek: Môra], the name of a kind of Lamia;.]. The word in form [Greek: Morê] also occurs in conjunction with the mention of Striges and Geloudes in a MS. of [Greek: nomokanones] obtained by Dr W. H. D. Rouse. See Folklore, vol. no. 2, p. 151.]