Of all supernatural Christmas visitors, the most vividly realized and believed in at the present day are probably the Greek _Kallikantzaroi_ or _Karkantzaroi_.{69} They are the terror of the Greek peasant during the Twelve Days; in the soil of his imagination they flourish luxuriantly, and to him they are a very real and living nuisance. Traditions about the _Kallikantzaroi_ vary from region to region, but in general they are half-animal, half-human monsters, black, hairy, with huge heads, glaring red eyes, goats' or asses' ears, blood-red tongues hanging out, ferocious tusks, monkeys' arms, and long curved nails, and commonly they have the foot of some beast. "From dawn till sunset they hide themselves in dark and dank places ... but at night they issue forth and run wildly to and fro, rending and crushing those who cross their path. Destruction and waste, greed and lust mark their course." When a house is not prepared against their coming, "by chimney and door alike they swarm in, and make havoc of the home; in sheer wanton mischief they overturn and break all the furniture, devour the Christmas pork, befoul all the water and wine and food which remains, and leave the occupants half dead with fright or violence." Many like or far worse pranks do they play, until at the crowing of the third cock they get them away to their dens. The signal for their final departure does not come until the Epiphany, when, as we saw in Chapter IV., the "Blessing of the Waters" takes place. Some of the hallowed water is put into vessels, and with these and with incense the priests sometimes make a round of the village, sprinkling the people and their houses. The fear of the |245| _Kallikantzaroi_ at this purification is expressed in the following lines:-- "Quick, begone! we must begone, Here comes the pot-bellied priest, With his censer in his hand And his sprinkling-vessel too; He has purified the streams And he has polluted us." Besides this ecclesiastical purification there are various Christian precautions against the _Kallikantzaroi_--_e.g._, to mark the house-door with a black cross on Christmas Eve, the burning of incense and the invocation of the Trinity--and a number of other means of aversion: the lighting of the Yule log, the burning of something that smells strong, and--perhaps as a peace-offering--the hanging of pork-bones, sweetmeats, or sausages in the chimney. Just as men are sometimes believed to become vampires temporarily during their lifetime, so, according to one stream of tradition, do living men become _Kallikantzaroi_. In Greece children born at Christmas are thought likely to have this objectionable characteristic as a punishment for their mothers' sin in bearing them at a time sacred to the Mother of God. In Macedonia{70} people who have a "light" guardian angel undergo the hideous transformation.