Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/352

 *selves and to have a laugh, as I have had several times, at the credulity of these folk .'

Whatever may have been the original method of oracular response—and I suspect that, while the presence or the absence of water furnished a plain 'yea' or 'nay' to the enquirer, a more detailed reply always depended upon the observation and interpretation of any foreign particles floating in the urn—the faith of the people in its virtue is still intense. It can indeed no longer claim a reputation throughout all Greece; but the inhabitants of Amorgos and the maritime population of neighbouring islands still consult it regularly and seriously concerning voyages, business matters, marriage, and other cares and interests; nor are questioners from farther afield altogether unknown.

This oracular property of water was well known in antiquity. In this branch of divination, says Bouché Leclercq, use was made 'of springs and streams which were felt to be endowed with a kind of supernatural discernment. Certain waters were accorded the property of confirming oaths and exposing perjury. The water of the Styx, by which the Olympian gods swore, is the prototype of these means of test, among which may be mentioned the spring of Zeus Orkios, near Tyane, and the water-oracle of the Sicilian Palici .' So too water-deities such as Nereus and Proteus were believed to exercise special prophetic powers; and Ino possessed in the neighbourhood of Epidaurus Limera a pool into which barley-cakes were thrown by those who would consult her; if these offerings sank, she was held to have accepted them and to favour the enquirer; if they floated, his hopes would be disappointed.

The present oracle of Amorgos is of a higher order than this; its method is more complex, and its responses are more detailed. It should surely have ranked high even among the oracles of old, of which, both in the reverence which it inspires and in the medium which it employs, it is a true descendant.

Having thus examined the means by which the gods deign to