joints of the baby's skull, not yet closed, are the writing. They make a feast, and leave the remains on the table all night for the Three Fates.
Burial.—The priest takes a taper, makes the sign of the cross, and lays the taper on the dead man's mouth; else he would become a vampire.
Building of Houses.—When a house is built, sacrifice is made of a fowl, or something else. When it is done, they erect two poles with a crosspiece, and all the friends bring gifts—shawl, kerchief, what they will—and hang upon it.
Ghosts.—The καλοικύτξαροι, Kali-Kántchari are a peculiar kind of ghost or goblin which appear only at the Epiphany. To keep them away, the women rub the walls of a house with ashes, repeating some lines of which my informant only knew this:—τξάγγουρ τξάγγουρ τὰ λανάρια, "twang twang the wool-carders." (See also Georgeakis op. cit.)
Times and Seasons: May 1.—The people make garlands of flowers and nettles, with garlic or onions, and hang them over the door. I saw these withered wreaths in all parts of the island five months later. They take a garlic, a vine-sprout, and some wine, and eat it before they hear the donkey bray on that day.
Elias' Day: July 21 .—They sacrifice a sheep on the hill where is a church of the prophet Elias.
New Year's Eve.—Girls throw holly in the fire, and divine by its crackling about their future husbands, and all matters of interest, whether the mare will have a foal, or the like.
On New Year's Day the people go out early in the morning to the sea, and seek the μαλλιάρμς πέτρα, or "woolly stone," i.e. a stone with seaweed upon it; this they keep in their houses. Those who wish to be beloved break a pomegranate upon it, because the pomegranate means faithfulness, and the stone means steadfastness, as it must lie long in one place for seaweed to grow on it.
