If he were excommunicate, a service of pardon revoking the sentence of excommunication sets him free. If not, he must be moved to another "virgin" tomb, or even burnt to ashes. Old travellers were sometimes witnesses of this horrid ceremony; but although the belief is still strong, the burning is probably no longer practised.
As it is not my plan to collect the evidence already to hand, I say no more of the Vampires, but beg leave to refer students to Bernhard Schmidt's account of them in his Volksleben der Neugriechen, pp. 157-171. Schmidt has also a chapter on the Kalikazari, and some of the verses I have collected occur there.[1]
These curious monsters are believed in all over the Greek world, and they go by a variety of different names: (
Greek characters). They are described as (Greek characters), "ugly-faced," (Greek characters), "impotent," (Greek characters), "goat-footed," (Greek characters), "ass-headed." Besides these associations with animals such as wolf, ass, and goat, they are connected in different places with other animals as to head, hands, or feet, and are believed to be fond of dance and of women. There is clearly an accretion here of werewolf legends, with perhaps a reminiscence of the satyrs.
Children conceived on the day of the Immaculate Conception (March 25), and so born on Christmas Day, are supposed to be accursed because they impiously mimic the beginnings of our Lord's life on earth, and when born they become Kalikazari. They are not born as infants, but by the power of Beelzebub they become full-grown men and women, or take upon them some other shape. They remain on earth for twelve days, until the Epiphany; for on that day, by the baptism, the whole earth was made holy, and all demons are forced to depart from it. The Kalikazari flee away, crying out—
- ↑ Pages 142-152.—My authority is Mr. Zarraftes.
