Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/71

 that the peasant does not draw a hard and fast line of distinction between the two classes with whom for clearness' sake I am bound to deal separately. Thus Charon in many of the folk-*songs which celebrate his doings is made to represent himself as a messenger of God, charged with the duty of carrying off some man's soul and unable to grant a respite. He is occasionally addressed even as Saint Charon ; and his name constantly occurs in the epitaphs of country churchyards. A story too in Bernhard Schmidt's collection illustrates well the way in which pagan and Christian elements are thus interwoven:—

'There was once an old man who had been good his whole life through. In his old age therefore he had the fortune to see his good angel ([Greek: ho kalòs angelós tou]);[There should be a,and not;**] who said to him—for he loved him well—"I will tell thee how thou mayest be fortunate. In such and such a hill is a cave; go thou in there and ever onward till thou comest to a great castle. Knock at the gate, and when it is opened to thee thou wilt see a tall woman before thee, who will straightway welcome thee and ask thee of thine age and business and estate. Answer only that thou art sent by me: then will she know the rest." Even so did the old man:[:not needed**] and the woman within the earth gave unto him a tablecloth and bade him but spread it out and say "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," and lo! everything that he wished would be found thereon. And thus it came to pass.

'Now when the old man had oft made use of it, it came into his heart to bid the king unto his house:[it should be a comma and not:**] who, when he saw the wonder-working cloth, took it from the old man. But because he was no virtuous man, the cloth did not its task in his hands; wherefore he threw it out of the window and straightway it turned to dust. So the old man went again to the woman in the hill, and she gave him this time a hen that laid a golden egg every day. When the king heard thereof, he had the hen too taken away from the old man. Howbeit in his keeping she laid not, and so he threw the hen also out of window, and she likewise turned to dust. So in his anger he bade seize the old man forthwith and cut off his head.

'But scarce was this done when there appeared before the king, p. 159.]