Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/233

 [Greek: skatsantzaroi], a Macedonian form, and [Greek: kalkatzonia], a diminutive form from the district of Cynouria, both so extraordinarily corrupt that I can find no place for them in the table: [Greek: lykokantzaroi], which has been thought to be [Greek: kollikantzaros] with the first two syllables reversed in order—a change to which I can find no parallel—but is, as I shall show later, a distinct and very important compound of the word [Greek: kantzaros]: and lastly [Greek: kal[i(]ontzêdes] which has nothing at all to do with [Greek: kallikantzaroi] etymologically, but is an euphemistic and not particularly good pun upon it, really meaning the 'sailors of a galleon ' (Turkish qālioundji), and humorously substituted for the dreaded name of the Callicantzari.

To conclude this compilation, it must be added that the wives of Callicantzari are denoted by feminine forms with the termination [Greek: -ina] or [Greek: -ou], and their children by neuter forms ending in [Greek: -aki] or [Greek: -oudi] in place of the masculine [Greek: -os].

From a careful analysis of this material two main facts seem to emerge. First, the form [Greek: kallikantzaros], the commonest in use, is also the centre from which the other dialectic forms diverge in many directions; and therefore if one of the rarer dialectic forms be selected as the parent-form and the basis of any etymological explanation, the advocate of the particular etymology not only assumes the burden of showing how his original form came to be so generally superseded by the form [Greek: kallikantzaros], but also will require many more steps in his genealogical table of existing varieties of the word. Secondly, the words [Greek: kallikantzaros] and [Greek: lykokantzaros] (if, as I hold, they cannot be connected through the mediation of the form [Greek: kollikantzaros]) show that we have to deal with a compound word of which the second half is [Greek: kantzaros]: and corroboration of this view is afforded by the existence of a form of the uncompounded word in the dialect of Cynouria, where [Greek: skatzaria] ([Greek: ta])—i.e. a diminutive form of [Greek: kantzaros] with [Greek: s] prefixed and [Greek: n] lost—is used side by side with the words [Greek: kallikantzaroi] and [Greek: lykokantzaroi] to denote the same beings.

In View of the latter inference, or perhaps even apart from it, there is no need to delay long over a derivation propounded by, p. 209.]. The Turks themselves borrowed the word qālioum (our 'galleon') from the Franks.] pp. 1242 and 1244.]