Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/395

 influence is very conspicuous in the modern superstition as I have described it, yet the whole superstition has not been transplanted root and branch from Slavonic to Greek soil, but the growth, as we now see it and as the writers of the seventeenth century saw it, is the result of the grafting of Slavonic branches upon an Hellenic stock; and further, that before that process began the old pagan Greek element in the superstition had been modified in certain respects by ecclesiastical influence. This is the view which I propose to develop in this section; and my method will be to work back from the modern superstition, removing first the Slavonic and then the ecclesiastical elements in it, and so leaving a residue of purely Hellenic belief.

To Slavonic influence is due first of all the actual word vrykolakas, the derivation of which need not long detain us. Patriotic attempts have indeed been made by Greeks to deny its Slavonic origin, the most plausible being that of Coraës, who selecting the local form [Greek: borbolakas] sought to identify it with a supposed ancient form [Greek: mormolyx] (= [Greek: mormolykê, mormolykeion]), a 'bugbear' or 'hobgoblin' of some kind. But there need be no hesitation in pronouncing this suggestion wrong and in asserting the identity of the modern Greek word with a word which runs through all the Slavonic languages. This word is in form a compound of which the first half means 'wolf' and the second has been less certainly identified with dlaka, the 'hair' of a cow or horse. But, however the meaning of the compound has been obtained, it is, in the actual usage of all Slavonic languages save one, the exact equivalent of our 'were-wolf .' That one exception is the Serbian, Old Slav., vlk[Cyrillic: **], wolf

Old Slav., vlk[Cyrillic: **]odlak[Cyrillic: **]; Slovenian, volkodlak, vukodlak, vulkodlak; Bulg., vr[Cyrillic: **]kolak; Kr., vukodlak; Serb., vukodlak; Cz., vlkodlak; Pol., wilkodak; Little Russian, vokoak; White Russian, vokoak; Russian, volkulak[Cyrillic: **]; Roum. vlkolak, vrkolak; Alb., vurvolak; cf. Lith., vilkakis.

'Der vl[Cyrillic: **]kodlak ist der Werwolf der Deutschen, woraus m. Lat. guerulfus, mann-*wolf, der in Wolfgestalt gespenstisch umgehende Mann.' The second half of the compound is less certainly identified with dlaka, Old Slav., New Slav., Serb., = 'hair' (of cow or horse).

I am indebted for this note to the kindness of Mr E. H. Minns, of Pembroke College, Cambridge. It will be found to corroborate the view pronounced by B. Schmidt, Das Volksleben der Neugriechen, p. 159.]