St Nicholas

has inherited the worship of sailors from Poseidon. St Demetrius takes the place of Dé-métér or the “earth mother.” Artemis is succeeded by the unknown St Artemidos (see Bent’s Insular Greek Customs). The rites and superstitions, among even fairly educated Greeks, are as numerous as of old. As in the days of Herodotos, the handsomest man must be the first to ki the babe, and the wisest woman the first to suckle it, The most beautiful woman among the Spartans had been the ugliest babe, till her nurse took her to the temple of Helen, In Karpathos the child’s patron saint and name are determined by the candle bearing it being the last alight: the “Father of Fate” is invoked to ble the child, with an offering of bread and honey in a bowl. Greeks go up the mountains to call on the Fates, and hang charms on their children’s necks to ward off the evil eye. They avoid the use of unpropitious words, and call colic “sweetne ,” smallpox “ praise,” and minor ailments “unintentionals,” A naughty child is said to have Charon for a sponsor, and a Nereid for dam; but these spirits may be appeased by spreading a tablecloth on a cliff, or by a river where they live, putting on it bread, honey, wine, and knife and fork, with a new candle and an incense censer. In the island of Keos weakly babes are brought to St Artemidos, to be healed at his hillside shrine, Throughout the islands Charon has become a Satan—“the lord of hell ”—a giant with flaming eyes, riding a black horse, and gathering the dead. Sometimes as a beast, or bird, he darts on his victims, whom he ferries over to Hades, where his palace is decked with human bones. He gives the dead the water of Léthé, so that they forget the past (see Er); and the “obolus” for Charon is still placed in the hand or mouth of the corpse; while priests place in the coffin a wax cro , with the letters I. X. N. (“Jesus Christ conquers”). St Elias has taken the place of Hélios—the sun (see Elijah), and is a giant who requires food and worship. He devours his own parents and children, and Kos, who is the virgin opening the red gate for the Lord of Glory to come forth. Eclipses, according to these Greeks, are of evil omen (as in China), and bra kettles should be then beaten, and guns fired, to drive away the demons. The winds are still personified. The hated N. wind escapes from its Thrakian caves, and Michael the archangel binds the sons of Boreas in their tombs with a great stone over them— as Héraklés slew Zetes and Kalais, sons of Boreas. All winds a emble at certain times to dance together on mountain tops. The twelve months, the islanders say, are twelve handsome youths, but one is fickle and untrustworthy—a secret friend of Charon, The agriculturist must roast goats and fowls, and pour ‘out wine, before the first sod is turned in ploughing. At Naxos St Dionysius must be honoured if the vineyard is to prosper. In Paros this Dionysius has become “the drunken St George,” and orgies occur in his honour, with the sanction of priests, on 3rd November, No seed is sown till some of it has been presented with flowers (especially the rose) at a church, Sir Charles Wilson (Asiatic Quarterly, Jan, 1887, “ The Greeks in Asia”) says: “The superstitions of the Greeks and the Turks are the same... both sects reverence the skeleton of St Gregory... the Christians and Moslems own a church in common, and hold in equal veneration a box of bones, said by some to be bones of St Mamas, and by others of Christ... these superstitions have far more influence over the daily life of the Greeks than their religion, for they do not understand a word of the church services, and look upon them as mere forms, which have to be gone through, to ensure salvation.” Good deities do not need to be propitiated, but at noon and at dusk the evil Lamia, and Strigla (the Latin Strix) are to be feared, while Pan and Charon rage in the noonday heat and in the darkne . Greek Church. [This Church is the second in importance as regards the numbers of its adherents, in Christen dom; for the tenets of the Ru ian Church, under the Tzar, are the same as those of the Greek Orthodox and Catholic Church, The Greeks definitely separated from the Latins in 858 A.c., when Photius was made Patriarch of Constantinople by the Greek Emperor Michael III. The two Churches had differed as to the question whether the Holy Ghost proceeded only from the Father, or, as Latins said, from the Father and the Son, and as to the use of images, other than pictures, in churches; but the separation coincides with the appearance of the new western empire of Charlemagne and his succe ors, which was inimical to the Greeks, and which protected the Roman Pope. The breach widened when Latin clergy superseded Greeks in Palestine after the first crusade, and became incurable in the 13th century, when the Normans established a dynasty in Constantinople. No council of all Catholic Churches was po ible after 451 A.c., nor of combined Greeks and Latins after 787 A.c., when the Iconoclasts were condemned.—Ep.] If we take the total number of Christians not to exceed 500 millions, the Church of Rome claims some 240 millions or nearly half, Protestants may be reckoned as not exceeding 100 millions, and the Oriental Churches include only about 10 millions, The Greek Church cannot therefore include more than 150 millions of nominal adherents, and in 1880 it numbered le than 90 millions, against 239 millions of Roman Catholics. The Greek Church differs from the Latin in various points, besides the “Filioque Clause” as to the Proce ion of the Holy Ghost. It has the same seven sacraments—baptism, confirmation, penance, the Eucharist, matrimony, extreme unction, and holy orders. It teaches transubstantiation, the invocation of saints, and prayer for the dead, as do the Latins, But it rejects later Roman dogmas, such as Purgatory, works of supererogation, and Papal infallibility, with the immaculate conception of the Virgin. It does not insist on celibacy of the clergy, for it allows all priests to marry before ordination. It celebrates the Eucharist with leavened bread, and with warm water mixed with the wine. Baptism it administers in the more ancient manner by immersion, and not by sprinkling. It allows priests to grow their beards; and its bishops wear crowns instead of mitres. At no time in history did the Greek Church, as a whole, ever admit the claim to supremacy over all Catholics which the bishops of Rome advanced from the times when Christian Rome was still the capital of an undivided empire. The Greek monks follow for the most part the “Rule of St Basil,” and from them alone are bishops selected. They live in seclusion and gro idlene in their monasteries, engaged in an endle round of prayers and meditations, like those of Buddhist ascetiks. According to Von Maurer (see Mr J. Brown, Greek Church), “out of 1000 priests only 10 could write in 1832,” and few know anything of the great doctrines which have divided the Churches. To the laity religion is a mere round of fasts and festivals, which have a semi-magical importance. Dean Stanley says that for a you sand years the Eastern Church has never moved, as regards either theology or philosophy. It is notorious, among all who really know the Levant, that the gro est immorality, corruption, and simony characterise the Greek clergy. Ecclesiastical rank is bought and sold almost openly, and for two centuries patriarchs have rarely held office for more than about three years. 199