Kallikantzaros has all the characteristics of nightmare, rampaging
abroad and jumping on men's shoulders, then leaving them half senseless
on the ground."{72}

Such theories are ingenious and suggestive, and may be true to a certain
degree, but they hardly cover all the facts. It is possible that the
_Kallikantzaroi_ may have some connection with the departed; they
certainly appear akin to the modern Greek and Slavonic vampire, "a corpse
imbued with a kind of half-life," and with eyes gleaming like live
coals.{73} They are, however, even more closely related to the werewolf,
a man who is supposed to change into a wolf and go about ravening. It is
to be noted that "man-wolves" ([Greek: lykanthropoi]) is the very name
given to the _Kallikantzaroi_ in southern Greece, and that the word
_Kallikantzaros_ itself has been conjecturally derived by Bernhard
Schmidt from two Turkish words meaning "black" and "werewolf."{74} The
connection between Christmas and werewolves is not confined to Greece.
According to a belief not yet extinct in the north and east of Germany,
even where the real animals have long ago been extirpated, children born
during the Twelve Nights become werewolves, while in Livonia and Poland
that period is the special season for the werewolf's ravenings.{75}

Perhaps on no question connected with primitive religion is there more
uncertainty than on the ideas of early man about the nature of animals
and their relation to himself and the world. When we meet with
half-animal, half-human beings we must be prepared to find much that is
obscure.

With the _Kallikantzaroi_ may be compared some goblins of the Celtic
imagination; especially like is the Manx _Fynnodderee_ (lit. "the
hairy-dun one"), "something between a man and a beast, being covered with
black shaggy hair and having fiery eyes," and prodigiously strong.{76}
The Russian _Domovy_ or house-spirit is also a hirsute creature,{77} and
the Russian _Ljeschi_, goat-footed woodland sprites, are, like the
_Kallikantzaroi_, supposed to be got rid of by the "Blessing of the
Waters" at the Epiphany.{78} Some of the monstrous German figures
already dealt with here |247| bear strong resemblances to the Greek
demons. And, of course, on Greek ground one cannot help thinking of Pan
and the Satyrs and Centaurs.[98]

|248| |249| |250| |251|

CHAPTER X

THE YULE LOG

The Log as Centre of the Domestic Christmas--Customs of the Southern
Slavs--The _Po