o days after, to make themselves amends
for the fast they had kept in prison, they began again to empty the
stone bottles of wine belonging to those persons who were silly enough
to forsake their houses at night. Thus, then, they were again obliged
to have recourse to prayers.

"One day as certain orisons were being recited, after having stuck I
know not how many naked swords upon the grave of this corpse, which
was disinterred three or four times a day, according to the caprice of
the first comer, an Albanian, who chanced to be at Mico accidentally,
bethought himself of saying in a sententious tone, that it was very
ridiculous to make use of the swords of Christians in such a case. Do
you not see, blind as ye are, said he, that the hilt of these swords,
forming a cross with the handle, prevents the devil from coming out of
that body? why do you not rather make use of the sabres of the Turks?
The advice of this clever man was of no use; the vroucolaca did not
appear more tractable, and everybody was in a strange consternation;
they no longer knew to which saint to pay their vows; when, with one
voice, as if the signal word had been given, they began to shout in
all parts of the town that they had waited too long: that the
vroucolaca ought to be burnt altogether; that after that, they would
defy the devil to return and ensconce himself there; that it would be
better to have recourse to that extremity than to let the island be
deserted. In fact, there were whole families who were packing up in
the intention of retiring to Sira or Tina.

"So they carried the vroucolaca, by order of the administration, to
the point of the Island of St. George, where they had prepared a great
pile made up with a mixture of tow, for fear that wood, however dry it
might be, would not burn quickly enough by itself. The remains of this
unfortunate corpse were thrown upon it and consumed in a very little
time; it was on the first day of January, 1701. We saw this fire as we
returned from Delos: it might be called a real _feu de joie_; since
then, there have been no more complaints against the vroucolaca. They
contented themselves with saying that the devil had been properly
caught that time, and they made up a song to turn him into ridicule.

"Throughout the Archipelago, the people are persuaded that it is only
the Greeks of the Greek church whose corpses are reanimated by the
devil. The inhabitants of the Isle of Santorin have great
apprehens