Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/227

 inasmuch as a longer form [Greek: kaïmpilides] appears side by side with [Greek: kaêdes] in Carpathos, I hesitate to accept this interpretation of the one while the other remains to me wholly unintelligible. At any rate to the people themselves the word has ceased to convey any idea of murderous propensities; for in the island of Syme, where the name is in use, the beings denoted by it are held to be harmless.

The issue before us is well summarised in two popular traditions which Polites adduces from Oenoë and from Tenos, and which are in clear mutual contradiction. The tradition of Oenoë begins thus: '"Leave-us-good-sirs" ([Greek: As-emas-kaloi]) is the name which we give them (the Callicantzari), though they are really evil demons ([Greek: xôtika]).' The tradition of Tenos opens with the words: 'The Callicantzari are not demons ([Greek: zôt'ka]) ; they are men; as New Year's Day approaches, they are stricken with a fit of madness and leave their houses and wander to and fro.' How are we to decide which of these two traditions is the older?

The evidence in favour of either is at the present day abundant; the two chief authorities on the subject, Schmidt and Polites, both acknowledge this; and, in my own experience, I should have difficulty in saying which view of the Callicantzari I have the more frequently heard expressed. On the mainland they are most commonly demons; in the islands of the Aegean, more usually human. But in a matter of this kind it would be of no value to count heads; even if the whole population of Greece could be polled on the question, the view of the majority would have no more value than that of the minority. The issue must be decided on other than numerical grounds.

And clearly the first consideration which suggests itself must be the nature of the earliest evidence on the subject. The earliest authority then is Leo Allatius, and his statement is in brief as, [Greek: Karpathiaka], p. 130.], [Greek: Paradoseis] p. 344.]which is sometimes heard in the Cyclades is, I suspect, merely a corrupt form of [Greek: xôtika] (on which see above, p. 67); some writers however have derived it from the root of [Greek: zaô]. But at any rate in usage it denotes the same class of beings as the commoner form [Greek: xôtika].]