Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/222

 art, but implies it would seem at least a predominance of the bestial over the human element.

What then is the explanation of these wide divergences of type? The answer is really very simple and final. The Callicantzari were originally believed to possess the power, which many supernatural beings share, of transforming themselves at their pleasure into any shape. The shapes most commonly assumed differed in different districts, and gradually, as the belief in the metamorphosis of Callicantzari here, there, and almost everywhere was forgotten, what had once been the commonest form locally assumed by Callicantzari became in the several districts their fixed and only form.

The correctness of this explanation was first proved to me by information obtained from the best source for all manner of stories and traditions about the Callicantzari, the villages on Mount Pelion. There I was definitely told that the Callicantzari are believed to have the power of assuming any monstrous shape which they choose; and the accuracy of this statement is, I find, now confirmed by information obtained independently by Prof. Polites from one of these same villages, Portariá; he adds that there the shapes most frequently affected by Callicantzari are those of women, bearded men, and he-goats. Further evidence of the same belief existing also in Cyprus is adduced by the same writer. 'The Planetari ([Greek: planêtaroi]),' so runs the popular tradition which he quotes from a work which I have been unable to consult, 'who are also called in some parts of Cyprus Callicantzari, come to the earth at Christmas and remain all the Twelve Days. They are seen by persons who are [Greek: alaphrostoiche[i(]ôtoi] (i.e., to give the nearest equivalent, 'fey'). Sometimes they appear as dogs, sometimes as hares, sometimes as donkeys or as camels, and often as bobbins. Men who are 'fey' stumble over them, and stoop down to pick them up, when suddenly the bobbin rolls along of its own accord and escapes them. Further on it turns into a donkey or camel and goes on its way. The man, i. p. 334.]a], on which see the next section) are 'light' ([Greek: alaphros]) instead of being solid and steady. The temperament of such persons is ill-balanced in ordinary affairs, but peculiarly sensitive to supernatural influences; it often involves the gift of second sight and other similar faculties.]