means.

Should religion also fail, a censer with frankincense in it is placed on the floor, and the child's father, holding it in his arms, jumps three times through the curling smoke.

A good guarantee against the evil eye and all witchery (Tà μáyela) is afforded by a coat worn inside out.1

Horses and mules are safeguarded by means of blue glass beads woven into their bridles and trappings, or into their manes and tails. The Turks supplement these preservatives by the addition of a wild boar's tusk or by a charm hung round the beast's neck.

Houses, besides the heads of garlic already mentioned, are sometimes protected, just as in England, by a horseshoe nailed over the door. This is said to "break the influence of the evil eye" (σTável Tò μári). When the roof is placed over a house in the course of erection, the bricklayers plant on the top two Christmas trees each adorned with a cross, and they stretch a string from one to the other. Upon this string they hang kerchiefs, sashes, and other articles with which the owner of the house, the architect, and friendly neighbours are wont to present them. The Jews in Salonica fix a hand of wood with outstretched fingers high up in a corner of the house, and suspend from it a string of garlic or an old shoe.

Fields, vines, and orchards are protected by the bleached skulls of cattle, stuck on the top of stakes. These serve a double purpose, first to ward off evil and secondly to scare off crows. A similar custom prevails in some of the islands of the Aegean; but it is not confined to the Greeks, who in all probability have inherited it from their forefathers. It is equally popular among the Bulgarians of Macedonia, who regard these ghastly scarecrows as bringers of prosperity.

1 In England it used to be considered lucky to put on any article of dress, particularly stockings, inside out. But it should not be done on purpose. The Book of Days, vol. 1. p. 321. Cp. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, vol. iv. p. 80; 141.

2 W. H. D. Rouse, 'Folklore from the Southern Sporades' in Folk-Lore, June, 1899, p. 181.

3 Wachsmuth, Das alte Griechenland im neuen, p. 62, in Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. 1. p. 383.

As has been observed, the evil eye is not always cast designedly, or with an evil purpose. It often is the effect of sincere, though ill-advised, admiration, which brings down upon its object the wrath of a jealous deity. For a like reason the pious Macedonian forbears to use boastful expressions: "Utter not a big word" (μǹv λès μeyáλo λóyo) is a common saying which recalls the moralizing of the chorus of old men in the tragedy:

μεγάλοι δὲ λόγοι

μεγάλας πληγὰς τῶν ὑπεραύχων
ἀποτίσαντες

γήρᾳ τὸ φρονεῖν ἐδίδαξαν.

"The boastful, having paid a high penalty for their haughty words, by suffering severe affliction, have learnt wisdom in their

old age."

The Turks also express the same fear of uttering “big words" in their homely proverb:

"Eat a big mouthful, but speak not a big word."s

Akin to this is the ancient Roman superstition of the “evil tongue."4

Persons who, after having been weaned in their infancy, took to sucking again, are especially endowed with an evil eye, and are very chary of expressing enthusiasm, or, if they are betrayed into undue praise, they are careful to save the object by spitting and uttering the appropriate formula. There are, however, among them those who either from innate malignity, or prompted by a sense of humour, delight in a wanton exercise of their terrible power. I have heard of an ancient dame of Salonica who had the reputation of possessing an evil eye. Many of her achievements were whispered with becoming awe.

1 Cp. the ideas of the old Greeks on the subject: тò leîov πâv èòv ¿lovepóv, Hdt. I. 32, ΙΙΙ. 40; ὁ δὲ θεὸς... φθονερὸς εὑρίσκεται ἐών, VII. 46, VIII. 109; φιλέει γὰρ ὁ θεὸς τὰ ὑπερέχοντα πάντα κολούειν, VII. 10, etc.

2 Soph. Ant. 1350 foll. Cp. Aesch. Prom. 329: yλwooŋ μaralą Šnμlα πроσтрißeтαι. 3 Booyook lokma ye, booyook shay soileme, which the Greeks render literally: μεγάλη χαψιὰ φάγε, μεγάλο λόγο μὴ λές.

4 See Virgil: ne vati noceat mala lingua futuro, Bucol. Ecl. vII. 28; Catullus: mala fascinare lingua, vII. 12.

A. F.

10

One day, it was said, as she sat at her window, she saw a young man passing on horseback. He seemed to be so proud of himself and his mount that the old lady-who, like the Deity in Herodotus, "was fond of laying the exalted low,"-could not resist the temptation of humbling him. One dread glance from her eye and one short cry from her lips: "Oh, what a gallant cavalier!" brought both horse and horseman to their knees. On another occasion she noticed a servant carrying a pie from the oven in a tray poised on his head. The rosy colour and the seductive smell of the pie induced the redoubtable lady to express her admiration, and she did it in terms which brought about the immediate ruin of the pie.1

1 For a full and comprehensive "Account of this ancient and widespread superstition" the reader is referred to Mr F. T. Elworthy's work on The Evil Eye, London, 1895.

CHAPTER XI.

MARRIAGE.

Preliminary steps.

According to the Macedonians the age at which people should marry is from fifteen to seventeen for women and from eighteen to twenty for men. The match seldom is the result of love, but, as in so many other countries, it is arranged between the parents on either side, with a keen eye to the material welfare of the contracting parties, rather than with any reference to their sentimental predilections. And can we wonder at the young Macedonian peasant's willingness to submit to the rulings of parental authority, when we reflect that the great Achilles himself-the "author of the battle-din" and the favoured of the Olympians-in refusing the hand of Agamemnon's daughter, contrasted her with the bride whom, "if the Gods spared him and he reached home safely," his own father would choose for him?1

Even in democratic Athens the young lady was allowed no voice in the matter. Hermione undoubtedly gives utterance to the prevailing notions of propriety when she declares:

"Of my wedding my own father will take care, and 't is not meet for me to decide in these matters."

"2

Notwithstanding, however, this conventional rule, and the restrictions by which intercourse between the sexes is circumscribed, the lads and lasses of Macedonia manage to meet occasionally either at the village fountain, where the latter go for water, or at the public fairs and festivals (πavnyúpia) or at weddings and other social gatherings. The classic custom

1 Hom. Il. IX. 394.

2 Eur. Andr. 987.

of wooing a damsel by throwing an apple into her lap1 still exists, though it is condemned by public opinion as improper, and is strongly resented by the maid's kinsfolk as an impertinence.

2

In many cases the nuptial negotiations are carried on through the medium of a 'match-maker' male or female (πросεvýτηs ог πρo§evýτρa),2 generally the latter. This matrimonial agent is in some parts sent by the youth's parents to the girl's; in others by the girl's parents to the youth's. Through this channel a preliminary agreement' (ovμowvía) is arrived at regarding the terms of the contract, namely, whether the maid is to be provided with a trousseau only (πроîña), or with a dowry in coin, kind, or landed property as well (τράχωμα).

Indeed, one regrets to have to record that too often the question of money, or money's worth, is the chief subject of these diplomatic negotiations. Even in Macedonia, where so much of primitive tradition and culture is still kept up, the times when princes wedded poor shepherd-maids—if such times ever were—have passed away. An imprudent match, however it may be applauded in the plot of a fairy tale, as an occurrence in real life cannot be too severely reprobated and deplored.

The bargain concluded, the match-maker is entrusted by the bride's parents with a ring and a richly broidered handkerchief, which she brings to the youth's home and exchanges for a ring sewed with red silk thread on a black silk handkerchief and a golden piece (pλoupí), as well as flowers and sweets for the bride, and suitable presents for the rest of the family. These mutual gifts are known as 'tokens' (onμádia), and their exchange as word of troth' (λóyos), which on no account can be broken. The young people are henceforth regarded as practically, though not yet formally, 'bound together" (συδεμένοι).

1 Theocr. Id. xI. 10.

2 Cp. the πроμvýστpia of the ancient Greeks and the Svat or Svakha of the modern Russians.

3 In some of the islands of the Aegean the betrothed are called åpμoσtòs and ȧpμoorn, 'united,' a word that goes back to the 2nd century A.D. W. H. D. Rouse, 'Folk-lore from the Southern Sporades' in Folk-Lore, June, 1899, p. 180 n. 2.