Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/213

 and women are forcibly carried off to be the monsters' wives. In some accounts they even make a meal of their human prey.

The fact that the activities of the Callicantzari are always limited to the night-time has given them a special claim to the name [Greek: Parôritais] or [Greek: Nychtoparôritais], formed from [Greek: parôra], 'the hour before cockcrow,' for then it is that their excesses and depredations have reached their zenith; but the word cannot correctly be called a by-name of the Callicantzari, for it is also, if more rarely, applied to other nocturnal visitants.

The only redeeming qualities in these creatures' characters, from the point of view of men who fall into their clutches, are their stupidity and their quarrelsomeness. They have indeed a chieftain who sometimes tries to marshal and to discipline them, and who is at least wise enough to warn them when the hour of their departure draws near. But in general 'the Great Callicantzaros ,' as he is called, or 'the lame demon ,' is too like the rest of them to be of much avail; and indeed his place is not at the head of the riotous mob where he might control them, but he limps along, a grotesque and usually ithyphallic figure, in the rear. Thus in the popular stories it often happens that either the Callicantzari go on quarrelling about the treatment of some man or the possession of some woman whom they have captured, or else their prisoner is shrewd enough to keep them amused, until cock-crow brings release. For at that sound (or, to be more precise, at the crowing of the third cock, who is black and more potent to scare away demons than the white and red cocks who precede him ) they vanish away, like all terrors of the night in ancient as well as modern times, to their dark lairs.

The tales told by the peasants about the Callicantzari are extremely numerous, though there is a certain sameness about the main themes. Three types of story however are deserving, 1256.]or [Greek: ho prôtos kallikantzaros]. Also, according to [Greek: Politês, Parad.] p. 369, [Greek: ho archikallikantzaros]. In Constantinople (acc. to [Greek: Politês, Parad.] 343) he has a proper name [Greek: Mantrakoukos], which however I cannot interpret satisfactorily.], or simply [Greek: ho koutsos, ho chôlos]. Cf. B. Schmidt, Das Volksleben, pp. 152-4.]