Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/324

 the surname [Greek: kleêdonios] existed also at Pitane, which place may be the actual site of that 'sanctuary of chance utterances' ([Greek: klêdonôn hieron]) to which, according to Pausanias, the people of Smyrna resorted for oracles. And at Thebes again Apollo Spodios gave his replies in like manner.

Clearly then in antiquity divination from chance words was a well-established religious institution; and at the present day, though the practice is rarer, its character is unchanged. The religious nature of the two customs which I have described is shown by their association with the festivals of St Catharine and St John the Baptist; and though in different localities or periods a certain amount of divination by the lot or other means has been mixed up with divination from chance words, the latter obviously forms the essence of both rites, supplying as it does to the one its very name, and supplementing in the other the meagre indications of the lot with more detailed information. A girl may learn from the colour of the ribband attached to the piece of salt-cake which she happens to draw whether her future husband is bachelor, widower, or stranger; but only from the chance utterance accepted as an answer to her own secret questionings can she learn the name and home and occupation and appearance of her destined husband.

The next branch of divination, the science of reading omens of success or failure in the objects which a traveller meets on his road, is still largely cultivated. In old days indeed it was so elaborate a science that a treatise, as Suidas tells us, could be written on this one method of divination alone. Possibly the same feat might be accomplished at the present day if a complete collection were made of all the superstitions on the subject of 'meeting' ([Greek: apantêma]) in all the villages of Greece. How instructive the results might be, I cannot forecast; but at any rate the task is beyond me, and I must content myself with mentioning a few of the commonest examples. To meet a priest is always unlucky, and for men even more so than for women, for, unless they take due precautions as they pass him, their virility is likely to be im-*1724^a.]a sou kala]. Si per viam sacerdoti occurres, testiculos tuos teneto.]