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IN the Near East, as elsewhere, Western civilization is doing its wonted work of reducing all racial and individual characteristics to a level of dull uniformity. The process, however, is much slower in Macedonia than it is in countries like Egypt, Greece, or Roumania. The mountainous character of the province, the backward state of commerce, lack of security, and the conspicuous absence of means of communication obstruct the progress of foreign influence. The same causes keep the various districts, and their inhabitants, separated from each other. To these impediments are further added the barriers of language, creed, and race, all tending to foster that luxuriant wealth of superstitious growth, which makes glad the heart of the folklorist.

These features, naturally, are less prominent in the cosmopolitan cities on the coast than in the interior of the country, and in the interior, again, they are less prominent now than they were some years ago. The materials which I collected at Salonica and Cavalla were mostly gleaned from the peasants, who resort to those centres from the environs for commercial or religious purposes, and only in very few cases from native citizens. The Khans, or inns, in which these villagers stop, may be said to constitute the sole parts of the cities worth exploring, and the exploration is neither an easy nor a pleasant task. My real harvest was gathered in the thoroughly provincial towns of Serres and Melenik, the townships of Demir Hissar and Nigrita, and the villages adjacent thereto; as well as in places of lesser note, such as Vassilika and Sochos in the 1

A. F.

Chalcidic Trident, the settlements in its three prongs, Provista in the valley of the Struma, Pravi in the neighbourhood of Philippi, and some of the country around, and to the south of, Drama. In all and sundry of these districts I found abundance of the things of which I was in quest, and more than I could possibly gather within the time allowed by circumstances.

At Serres I was chiefly beholden for my materials to an aged and half-blind nurse, whose acquaintance I made through the kind offices of certain Greek ladies, the old woman's quondam charges. Kyra Tassio was a rich mine of fairy-lore, and though she would insist on going at a rate more in keeping with the pace of a motor-car than with the speed of an ordinary human hand, I succeeded in filling several note-books from her dictation, only to find on examination that a great many of her tales had already been substantially reproduced by Hahn, while some of the rest were not worth reproducing at all. Still, out of the heap of dross, several nuggets of pure gold were secured enough to satisfy the ambition of a moderately sanguine explorer.

M. Tzikopoulos, a learned professor of that town, was good enough to assist me in the elucidation of the stories obtained from Kyra Tassio and other ancient sources, and to him I am also indebted for much valuable information on the dialect of the district, as well as for a number of notes on the language and customs of South-Western Macedonia, the part of the country from which he hailed. I am all the more grateful to M. Tzikopoulos because he made no secret of his hearty contempt for my pursuits. Philology was his particular hobby, and, in proportion as he loved his own hobby, he scorned the hobbies of other men. Old wives' tales had no charm for M. Tzikopoulos. "It is all nonsense and sheer waste of time," he assured me solemnly on more occasions than one, and yet he never refused to be questioned.

M. Zographides of Melenik was another genial old teacher

1 For my introduction to this gentleman I am indebted to the courtesy of M. P. N. Papageorgiou, the well-known scholar and archaeologist, whose sympathetic interest in my work will always remain as one of the most pleasant reminiscences of my tour.

to whose lessons and friendly guidance I owe much. Unlike M. Tzikopoulos, this authority was conveniently eclectic in his tastes, and his heart was impartially open to all kinds of knowledge, from Anthropology to Demonology, and from Philology to Phrenology, provided the subject ended in -ology. It is true that he also professed the learned man's contempt for popular superstition; but, being of a more tolerant disposition, he waived his prejudice, and saw no objection to cross-examining his wife and all the old ladies of the neighbourhood on my behalf. His exertions and those of other local gentlemen were crowned with success, as the results amply prove.

At Melenik I was doomed to a second disappointment at the hands of an aged story-teller. Fame described her as a walking Arabian Nights' Entertainments in a complete and unexpurgated edition. But, when weighed in the balance, she was found sadly wanting, and the few things which I lured out of her reluctant mouth had to be expurgated to a point of total annihilation. A third female-a renowned witch-on whom I had been led to build high hopes, showed her diabolical wickedness by dying a short time before my arrival.

These failures shook my faith in old women-of the fair sex, at all events. But the fortune that favours the folklorist enabled me, before leaving Melenik, to fall in with an old woman of the opposite sex. Kyr Liatsos, though a mere bearded man, was, from the student's point of view, worth at least a dozen ordinary old dames rolled into one.

I found him in his workshop, sitting cross-legged on a rush mat, with his baggy breeches well-tucked between the knees. Though the owner of broad acres in the vicinity of the town, he was compelled, by the memory of past experiences at the hands of Bulgarian brigands, and by the fear of similar treatment in the future, to ply the needle and ell for a livelihood. In short, Kyr Liatsos was a tailor. But, like the Great Mel-his colleague of Evan Harrington fame-he was an individual far above his station. This became patent from the manner in which he received and entertained me. Nothing could be more generous, kindly, philosophical, eccentric, and unsartorial than his behaviour towards the strange collector of nonsense.

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