Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

288 Rain-magic in modern Greece

and lastly became the title of the leader in that procession. The
Macedonian P erperoiind1 and the Imbrian Porpaterd2, are both
expressly said to 'go their round.'

Another Bulgarian name for the chief performer is Djuldjid,
corresponding with the Serbian Dodola?. The Serbian usage is as
follows. A girl called the Dodola is stripped naked, but so wrapped
up in grass, herbs, and flowers that nothing of her can be seen, not
even her face. Escorted by other girls, she then passes from house
to house. Before each house her comrades form a ring. She stands
in the middle and dances alone. Out comes the goodwife and
empties a bucket of water over her. But still she keeps dancing and
whirling, while her companions sing4 :

To God doth our Doda call, oy Dodo oy Dodo le!

That dewy rain may fall, oy Dodo oy Dodo le !

And drench the diggers all, oy Dodo oy Dodo le !

The workers great and small, oy Dodo oy Dodo le!

Even those in house and stall, oy Dodo oy Dodo le!

Sometimes they sing, not a prayer for rain, but a rain-charm of
a simple order5:

We go through the village,
The clouds go across the sky;
We go faster,
Faster go the clouds;
They have overtaken us
And wetted the corn and the vine.

Or:

We go through the village,
The clouds go across the sky;
From the clouds fell a ring,—
Our leader seized it.

At Melenik in Makedonia, where the surrounding rustics speak
Bulgarian, the corypheus is saluted as Ntountoidd*:

Hail, hail, Ductule,
(Bring us) both maize and wheat,
Hail, hail, etc.

It should be added that, whereas in Serbia and Bulgaria the
principal part in this performance is always assigned to a girl, i'1

1 Supra p. 285 n. 2. 2 Supra p. 286 n. It

'■' W. Mannhardt op. tit? i. 329 f.

4 J. Grimm Teutonic Mythology trans. J. S. Stallybrass London 1883 ii. 593 f.
6 W. R. S. Ralston op. at.2 p. 228, W. Mannhardt op. cit? i. 330, Frazer Gold"1
Bough'3: The Magic Art i. 273.

6 G. F. Abbott Macedonian Folklore Cambridge 1903 p. 119.