cked on the
door with the chain, scraped the ground with the rake, and made a noise
of sweeping with the broom.{20} The suggestion of a clearing away of
evils is here very strong.

In connection with the _Kallikantzaroi_ mention has already been made of
the purification of houses with holy water, performed by Greek priests on
the Epiphany. In Roumania, where a similar sprinkling is performed, a
curious piece of imitative magic is added--the priest is invited to sit
upon the bed, in order that the brooding hen may sit upon her eggs.
Moreover there should be maize grains under the mattress; then the hen
will lay eggs in abundance.{21}

* * * * *

We noted in an earlier chapter the name _Berchtentag_ applied in southern
Germany and in Austria to the Epiphany, and we saw also how the
mysterious Frau Berchta was specially connected with the day. On the
Epiphany and its Eve in the Moellthal in Carinthia a female figure, "the
Berchtel," goes the round of the houses. She is generally dressed in a
hide, wears a hideous wooden mask, and hops wildly about, inquiring as to
the behaviour of children, and demanding gifts.{22}

|343| Something of the terrible, as well as the beneficent, belongs to
the "Befana," the Epiphany visitor who to Italian children is the great
gift-bringer of the year, the Santa Klaus of the South. "Delightful," say
Countess Martinengo, "as are the treasures she puts in their shoes when
satisfied with their behaviour, she is credited with an unpleasantly
sharp eye for youthful transgressions."{23} Mothers will sometimes warn
their children that if they are naughty the Befana will fetch and eat
them. To Italian youngsters she is a very real being, and her coming on
Epiphany Eve is looked forward to with the greatest anxiety. Though she
puts playthings and sweets in the stockings of good children, she has
nothing but a birch and coal for those who misbehave themselves.{24}

Formerly at Florence images of the Befana were put up in the windows of
houses, and there were processions through the streets, guys being borne
about, with a great blowing of trumpets.{25} Toy trumpets are still the
delight of little boys at the Epiphany in Italy.

The Befana's name is obviously derived from _Epiphania_. In Naples the
little old woman who fills children's stockings is called "Pasqua
Epiphania,"[117] the northern contraction not having been acclimatized
there.{26}

In Spain as well as It