Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/246

 of [Greek: katsimpoucheroi] totally inexplicable. For my own part I consider it far more probable that the word [Greek: katsimpoucheroi] is a humorously compounded name, of which the second half is the word [Greek: mpouchari] (an Arabic word which has passed, probably through Turkish, into Greek) meaning 'chimney,' and that the whole by-name has reference simply to the common belief that Callicantzari try to extinguish the fire on the hearth and thus to gain access to the house by the chimney. As to the meaning of [Greek: katsi-], the first half of the compound, I can only hazard the conjecture that it is connected with the verb [Greek: katsiazô], which ordinarily means to blight, to wither, to dry up, and so forth, though its passive participle, [Greek: katsiasmenos], is said by Skarlatos to be applied to clothes which are 'difficult to wash.' If then the compound [Greek: katsimpoucheroi] is a descriptive title of the Callicantzari, meaning those who render the chimney difficult to wash, the coarse and eminently rustic humour of the allusion to their habits needs no further explanation; and it is the mummers of Crete who owe their name to the Callicantzari, not vice versa.

While therefore I acknowledge and appreciate to the full the value of Polites' researches into the history of the Twelve Days, the inferences which he draws from the material collected seem to me no more sound than the derivations which they are designed to corroborate. My own interpretation of the historical facts which Polites has brought together is as follows.

The superstitions and customs connected by the modern folk with the Twelve Days are undoubtedly an inheritance from ancestors who celebrated the Brumalia and other pagan festivals at the same season of the year. These ancient festivals, though Roman in name, probably differed very little in the manner of their observance from certain old Greek festivals, chief among which was some festival of Dionysus. This is rendered probable both by the date of these festivals and by the manner of their celebration. For the worship of Dionysus was practically confined to the winter-*time; at Delphi his cult superseded that of Apollo during the three, [Greek: Paradoseis], p. 356.],  [Greek: katsiasmenos].]