Pashley, Robert: Travels in Crete (Band 1) (Cambridge und London, 1837)

94

MALE WATER-SPIRIT OF MODERN GREECE. [CHAP.

This Water-spirit is of the male sex, and delights to
entice young maidens to visit the chambers of the well-
furnished and splendid palace in which he resides, within
the waters of his well or fountain43.

I suppose these notions to be vestiges of opinions,
once inculcated by Fathers of the Church, respecting the
Pagan water-spirits, which, until they received, as it
were, Christian baptism, and the name of a Saint, were
naturally treated as demoniacal beings44.

puiser de l'eau, on salue trois fois. On m'a dit que c'est pour honorer le
genie qui pre'side au puits, le teloni." Villoison refers to Ab.temidob.us,
Oneiroc. ii. c. 27, whose words are: <&piap <5e ISeTv ev rrfj oiklo. ?J ev dypu>
oxjk ov TrpoTepov, dyadoV ovarian yap eiriKTrjmv (ri]/xaivei' dydfitp <5e /cat
diraioi yvKaiKa kul Traioai. N v p.<pai ydp eiaLV ev t u> <p p e'ot t. The
TeXwvia used to be also called TeXea-pa-ra, and from this word the Arabic
talisman, which has since found its way into English and other European
languages, was derived: see Du Cange, 1. c. 1540. and Getjsius, Victimae
Humanae, P. i. Cap. xx.

43 Leo Allatitjs, de quorund. Graecor. opinat. p. 166. In puteis
itaque, ^TOLxelov, de quo loquimur, sed grandioribus, et qui cavernis in-
ternis, veluti thalamis, distinguuntur, saepissime dicitur ludere: apparet
enim supra puteum Aethiops homuncio sedens, nemini molestus, nihil
dicens, foemellas ad se nutu gestuque advocans; quas, si accesserint, bene-
vole excipit; et tradunt, multa de suo elargiri: si non accesserint, non
curat, nec malus est erga eas. Saepe etiam, repulsa indignatus, in puteum
proripit se; adolescentulas forma honesta ac liberali, quarum amore capi
dignoscitur, solicitando et pollicitando in fraudem illicere conatur. Et, ut
magis admireris, non desunt qui dicant, nonnullas, donis delinitas, homun-
cioni sua obstrinxisse ; ideoque ab eo, tanquam familiares, in puteos delatas,
et in pulcherrimos thalamos, omnium rerum apparatu ditissimos ac splen-
didissimos, intromissas, et post diutinam moram, cibo potuque refectas,
extra puteum asportatas, et cum vellent postea semper, dummodo pusionis
cupidinem non fefellissent, thalami aditus patuisse. Idque inter alios maxime
asseveranter traditur de ingenti puteo, quod in horto Cavaci est, a quo paucis-
simi, propter ejus magnitudinem, et forte etiam religione quadam ducti, aquam
hauriunt. Sic etiam Chii—est puteus—non admodum profundus, ore angusto,
sed caveis undique ac fornicibus subnixus : ex eo quasi semper nocte media
homo, equo, eoque ferocissimo, insidens, egreditur, et ea via concitatius nec
sine strepitu currendo itque reditque, cum demum in eundem puteum, cum
equo cadit: hominem Veniam dicunt: et res ista adeo est rumore omnium
vulgata, ut, si quis ambigeret, insanire a vicinis illis diceretur. Et cum ali-
quem, quasi mentis inopem, ludunt, interrogant, an ex puteo Veniae biberit:
eirtes diro to mjya'o'i tov Bevia.

44 Leo Allatitjs, 1. c. Nec mirum est, similes spiritus ut plurimum
in puteis, et fontibus, aut locis aliis, aquis lutoque obsitis, conspici: nam, ut
testatur Tertullianus libro de Baptismo : immundi Spiritus aquis incu-

bant ;