treading softly on the floor, which creaks under their ghostly footsteps. The Macedonian spirits of the latter class are in all probability the degraded descendants of the Manes and Lares of classical antiquity, and the kindly feelings with which they are regarded may be the attenuated relics of ancient ancestorworship. To these remnants of classical cult was perhaps at a later period superadded a coating of Slavonic colour. In both the foregoing classes of spirits the English reader will recognize close relatives of the familiar ghosts, which haunt many an English house and form the subject of many a conversation, and of an occasional angry controversy between believers and sceptics. The Teutonic Brownie and the Celtic Glaistig are also branches of the same genealogical treea tree whose boughs may justly be said to overshadow the universe. But a closer relationship can perhaps be established with the Domovoys of the Russian peasant which, like their Macedonian cousins, are of two kinds: benevolent or malevolent, according as they belong to his own family or to that of his neighbour.1 1 Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, pp. 129 foll. CHAPTER XIV. MACEDONIAN MYTHOLOGY. The Drakos. IT is extremely difficult-much more so than folklorists sometimes imagine-in investigating the folklore of a country to fix with absolute certainty where real superstition ends and pure mythology begins. The peasant story-teller, though conscious of the fact that he is narrating a myth, is all the time more than half inclined to believe that the world which he describes is not an improbable world, that in the mysterious “ times of old all things were possible ” ('ς τὸν παλῃὸν κῃρὸ ὅλα yévovvтav). This was the expression with which one of that γένουνταν). class once silenced my prosaic attempts at criticism. He went even farther, and, having once confessed his own belief in the historic truth of mythological creations, launched forth into a tirade against some "learned men and schoolmasters" (ypaμματισμένοι καὶ δασκάλοι) of his acquaintance, who were so stupid as to deny that there ever were such beings as the Lamia and the Drakos. His words, which I quote from notes taken down at the time, will perhaps be of interest to the student of peasant psychology: "Why," he exclaimed in accents of triumph, "I myself remember seeing, as a child, monstrous horned snakes swarming on yonder plain (Téρa's тòv Káμπо). Where are they now? There also used to be lions and bears; but they have disappeared before modern guns. The same thing must surely have happened to the Lamias and the Drakoi." Both these monsters may be said to dwell in the debatable borderland between the two worlds: Faith and avowed Fiction. The Drakos (Δράκος or Δράκοντας) can be described as a cousin-german to the Black Giant already disposed of. Like him he haunts the wells (hence called Apaкovépia), and works mischief on the people by withholding the water. This habit of the monster is alluded to in the following lines, which form the beginning of a song heard at Nigrita: Κάτω 'ς τὸν "Αϊ Θόδωρο, κάτω 'ς τὸν Αϊ Γεώργη Τὸ πανηγύρι 'ταν μικρὸ κ' ἡ πλάση 'ταν μεγάλη. A fair was held, a great fair. The space was narrow and the crowd was large. The Drakos held back the water and the people were athirst, A similar circumstance forms the groundwork of a little tale from Southern Greece: The Drakos and the Bride. Once upon a time there was held a wedding. The groom's party started from his house on their way to the bride's, who lived in a neighbouring village. They got there safely; but on their way back, when they reached the middle of the road, lo and behold there sprang before the procession a Drakos. He was a lame one, 'tis true, but still he was terrible. He held them for half an hour in a ravine with the intention of hurting them, who knows? perhaps even of eating them. The people were all paralyzed with fear. The bride alone retained her presence of mind. She bethought herself of a means of escape, and stepping forth stood in front of the monster and said: Bride: I am Lightning's child, Thunder's grandchild. I am the Hurler of Thunderbolts, she who flashes and booms. 1 It will be noticed that the word is used in three senses: fair, the place where the fair is held, and the people at the fair. 2 Neoenviκà ПIapaμúlia,' Athens, I. Nicolaïdes, 1899, Part I. p. 63. Once when I flashed I burnt up forty Dragons, One was left, a lame one can that be your lordship? Dragon: I am he. Bride: Stand aside, friends, that I may flash and burn him up. Dragon (frightened): Come, pass on; come, go your way; good luck to your wedding.1 So thanks to the bride's cleverness they all escaped. In another popular legend, a bridegroom had bound himself by a solemn vow to go to a Dragon and submit to be treated as breakfast. I translate the version of the story current at Liakkovikia.2 B. Wherefore art thou sad, O Yanni, and rejoicest not? Perchance thou art displeased with me, my person or my portion? G. I am pleased with thee, my Fair One, both with thy person and with thy portion; But the Dragon has asked me to go to breakfast. B. Whithersoever thou goest, my Yanni, thither shall I come with thee. G. Where I am going, my Fair One, no maid can go. B. Whithersoever thou goest, my Yanni, thither shall I come with thee, I will cook for thee thy dinner, I will spread for thee thy mattress. G. Where I am going, my Fair One, no maid can go. There is nor cooking nor eating; nor mattress-spreading nor sleeping So the two set forth to go, like a pair of pretty doves, D. Double has come my breakfast, double has come my dinner! “Εγώμαι τ'ς ἀστραπῆς παιδί, τῆς βρονταρᾶς ἐγγόνι. “Εγώμαι.” Δράκος Νύφη “Παραμερᾶτ', συμπεθεροί, ν ̓ ἀστράψω νά τον κάψω.” Δράκος (In his fear he apparently forgets the fifteen-syllable metre, and answers lamely) 66*Αϊντε, περάστε, ἄϊντε 'ς τὸ καλό, καλορρίζικ ̓ ἡ χαρά σας.” 2 Α. Δ. Γουσίου, ‘Τα Τραγούδια τῆς Πατρίδος μου Νο. 130, Ο Δράκοντας. Cp. Passow, Nos 509, 510, which refer to the same subject, treated in a different manner. G. Did I not tell thee, my Fair One, that thou shouldst not come with me? B. Go on, my Yanni, go on; go on and fear not. Nine Dragons have I eaten up, and this one will be the tenth. D. Pray, friend Yanni, whose daughter is she? The Fair One answered and to the Dragon said: B. I am Lightning's daughter, Thunder's grand-daughter, If I like, I may flash and thunder and overwhelm thee on the spot. In these legends the Drakos figures as a large uncouth monster akin to the Troll of Norse, the Ogre of southern, and the Giant of our own folk-tales. His simplicity of mind is equal to his might, and he is easily outwitted. Indeed, the Drakos compares most unfavourably with the Devil of the Bible and the Koran. He has none of the subtlety of the Tempter of Hebrew and Christian tradition, or of the Mohammedan Afrit, who is considered the embodiment of cleverness, so much so that to call one afrit is the highest compliment a Mohammedan can pay to one's intelligence. His similarity to the Teutonic Giant is accentuated by the fact that the Drakos, like his northern counterpart, is also regarded as the performer of feats beyond ordinary human strength. As in Ireland, for example, we hear of a Giant's Causeway, so in Macedonia we come across a “ Drakos's Weight" (TOû Apákov To Spáμ)—a big stone to the south of Nigrita; a "Drakos's Shovelful" (ý prvаρià тоû Aрáкov)—a mound of earth near the other monument; a "Drakos's Tomb" (TOÛ Aрáкоν тò μνημópɩ)—a rock in the same neighbourhood, in which peasant imagination detects a resemblance to a highcapped dervish, resting against the slope of the hill; and a "Drakos's Quoits” (Apaкóπeтpais)1—two solitary rocks standing 1 Cp. "In the island of Carystos, in the Aegean, the prostrate Hellenic columns in the neighbourhood of the city are said to have been flung down from above by the Drakos. In Tenos, a smooth rock, which descends precipitously into the sea, is called the Dragoness's Washing-board, from its resemblance to the places where Greek women wash their clothes."-Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey, vol. II. p. 294. |