A boy (or sometimes, it is said, a girl[1]) is stripped naked and then dressed up in wreaths and festoons of leafage, grass, and flowers, and, escorted by a troop of children of his own age, goes the round of the neighbourhood. He is known as the (
Greek characters)[Greek: perpería], and his companions sing as they go,
Perpería goes his way
And to God above doth pray,
Rain, O God, a gentle rain,
Shed, O God, a gentle shower,
That the fields may give their grain,
And the vines may come to flower,
and so forth in such simple strain[2]. At each doorway and more particularly at every spring and well, which it is the special duty of the Perpería to visit, anyone who will may empty a vessel of water over the boy, to whom some compensation for his drenching is usually made in the form of sweetmeats or coppers.
The word (Greek characters)[Greek: perpería] has been the subject of considerable discussion. By-forms (Greek characters)[Greek: perperítsa], [Greek: perperoûna], and (Greek characters)[Greek: papparoûna] also occur. The first two are of the nature of diminutives; the last-named is a corrupt form used only, so far as I know, in one district of Epirus, and means a 'garden-poppy.' The perversion of the word has in this district (Zagorion) affected the rite itself; for it is considered necessary for this flower to be used largely in dressing up the chief actor in the ceremony[3]. But the most general, and, as I think, most correct form is (Greek characters)[Greek: perpería] (or (Greek characters)[Greek: perpereía]). With the ancient word (Greek characters)[Greek: perpereía], derived from the Latin perperus and used in the sense of 'boasting' or 'ostentation,' it can, I feel, have no connexion; and I suggest that it stands for (Greek characters)[Greek: periporeía], with the same abbreviation as in (Greek characters)[Greek: perpatô] for (Greek characters)[Greek: peripatô], 'walk,' and subsequent assimilation of the first two syllables. If my conjecture is right, the word originally meant nothing more than a 'procession round' the village; next it became confined in usage to a procession for the particular purpose of procuring rain; and finally, the words [Greek: poreía][4] and (Greek characters)[Greek: poreúomai] having been lost from popular
- ↑ Passow (Popularia Carmina, Index, s.v. (
Greek characters)[Greek: perpería] speaks of a girl only. He was perhaps influenced by the feminine form of the word.
- ↑ Many versions of the song have been collected, but with little variation in substance. Passow gives three versions, Pop. Carm. nos. 311–313.
- ↑ (Greek characters)[Greek: Lamprídês, Zagoriaká], pp. 172 ff.
- ↑ (Greek characters)[Greek: poreía] belongs to the dialect of the Tsakonians as spoken at Leonidi, but is otherwise obsolete.]
