smell of roasting pork, has been put to rout by having the hot joint
or the spit on which it was turning thrust in his face. In one version
also of the song which the Callicantzari are supposed to sing as they
depart, ‘the pot-bellied priest with censer and sprinkling-vessel’ is
accompanied by his wife carrying hot water to scald them[547]. In other
stories again the rescue of a man from the clutches of Callicantzari is
effected by his neighbours with fire-brands as their only weapons; and
where such help cannot be obtained, a man may sometimes free himself
merely by ejaculating ξύλα, κούτσουρα, δαυλιὰ καμμένα, ‘sticks, logs,
and brands ablaze!’ for the very thought of fire will sometimes scare
the monsters away.
Other safeguards are also mentioned; you are recommended for instance
to keep a black cock in the house, or you may render the Callicantzaros
harmless by binding him with a red thread or a straw rope[548]; but the
latter method would in most cases be like putting salt on a bird’s tail.
Such, on a general view, are the monsters whose origin I now propose
to examine; and the first step in the investigation must be to
account for the extraordinary variations in shape exhibited by the
Callicantzari in different districts.
I have already observed that the Callicantzari are sometimes conceived
to be of ordinary human form, but that more commonly there is an
admixture of something beast-like. Among the animals which are
laid under contribution, first comes the he-goat, from which the
Callicantzari borrow ears, horns, and legs. Almost equally common is
a presentment of Callicantzari with the ears and the legs of an ass
combined with a body in other respects human; or again the head of an
ass, according to Pouqueville[549], may be combined with the body and
legs of a man. In other districts again the wolf has once been a factor
in the conception of Callicantzari. Thus in Messenia, in Cynouria
(a district in the east of Laconia), and in parts of Crete[550] the
Callicantzari are called also Λυκοκάντζαροι, in which the first half of
the compound name is undoubtedly λύκος, ‘wolf.’ Similarly in some parts
of Macedonia Callicantzari are often called simply ‘wolves’ (λύκοι),
and both names are also applied metaphorically to any particularly
ill-favoured man[551]. Resemblances to apes are also mentioned,
particularly in the long, lean, hairy arms of the Callicantzari;
and Pouqueville speaks also of their monkey-like tails[552]. Next
from Phoeniciá in Epirus comes the suggestion that Callicantzari may
resemble squirrels; for there they have the two by-names σκιορίσματα
and καψιούρηδες[553], in which it is not hard to recognise the two
ancient Greek names for the squirrel, σκίουρος and καμψίουρος.
Concerning the local character of these I have no information; but
it is fairly safe to surmise that they possess the power, commonly
ascribed to the smaller sort of Callicantzari, of climbing with great
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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