Prejudices and superstitious practices in 19th century Karpathos

Written by the author Minas Houvardas (book "Karpathos - In the cove of the archipelago")

The Case of James Theodore Bent

Of those foreign travelers who visited Karpathos in the 19th century, James Theodore Bent is the only one who gives detailed information about the ethnological composition of Karpathos, the archaeological findings, about the manners and customs of the island as he experienced them at the time found there, for the Carpathian dialect, for the daily life and occupations of the inhabitants. Surprisingly, his most important work, which mainly concerns the folklore of the island at the end of the 19th century, has gone unnoticed by modern scholars. Thanks to his two-month stay in Karpathos, he records a wealth of information about the prejudices and superstitious practices of the Carpathians.

According to the traveler, the influence of superstitions on the island was very great:

"The Carpathians live in the depths of superstition, with their prophecies and spells. A physician is in the capital; but he tells me that his practices are almost exclusively confined to Turks and a few enlightened Greeks.

In the mountain villages they never think of calling anyone to the sick, but only the old witches, who mutter incantations and wave a mysterious sickle with strange gestures over their patients; or sometimes a priest is called in, because they claim that they can bind diseases, especially fevers, on trees, by writing on a piece of paper the occult words "the holiness of God, divine mystery."

These are tied with a red thread round the sufferer's neck; the next morning they take them off and go out to the hillside, where they tie them to a tree and imagine that they are thus transferring the fever from the patient to the branch..."

Going up the path from the port of Pigadia to Aperi, the then capital of the island, he records the "existence" of fairies in the place of the stream "Ha" (Chaos):

“we landed in the most populous corner of the island, where a number of villages are situated above a fertile gorge far in the mountains, down to where a rushing stream, which is called the Chaos, flows foaming through chasms only two yards wide. It is considered the strangest stream, which no man dares to approach at night for fear of the fairies and other spirits of the water…”

During his stay in the village of Volada, he found himself in a very unpleasant position, when old women of the village realized that he was sketching them, while he was talking with them:

“…every evening a group of old women would come to keep us company with their faces wrapped in handkerchiefs. They told us local customs and beliefs of a paradoxical nature. One night I tried to sketch these elderly gyozas and it was revealed what I was doing. I thought they were going to put out my eyes and my sketch was destroyed because of my "impudence", they were so enraged; because they believed that if their portraits were depicted, they would perish and die...".

On the occasion of the death of a young woman, he describes the burial practices and beliefs concerning them:

"they never place the body in a coffin in Karpathos, because there is a popular belief that if the soul is locked in wood it cannot escape. A year after death the bones are exhumed, placed in an embroidered bag and thrown into an ossuary under the chapel. They believe that unless the flesh is completely decomposed from the bones, the soul does not rest in peace; consequently the process of opening a grave is very stressful for the living, who can thereby ascertain the destination of the soul of their dead friends. their.

When there is any suspicion that the deceased does not rest in Hades, his name is entered without delay on the "paper of souls", the list of souls in the priest's memorial services, for which he should pray during the holy sacrament. Many superstitious practices exist associated with the concern of souls.

Sometimes the ashes are carried to a rocky island, because the ghosts cannot cross the water; at other times they are burned and scattered to the winds; and a dying man should never be covered with any material of goat's hair, because it will imprison the spirit, nor should anything be given opposite a corpse for the same reason; and they never fasten the clothes they put on after death: at the end they take off all the rings, because the spirit, they say, can be held in the little finger and cannot to rest...".

Bent, observing the bones of the dead in the cemetery, judges negatively the custom that prevailed in Karpathos of keeping ossuary:

“even with all this excessive sadness, it is amazing to see how ephemeral is the respect paid to the bare bones. Many of the family ossuary have fallen into ruins through neglect, and the embroidered bags, which I was almost tempted to steal, were scattered about, with the bones thrown out. One particular case impressed us: it was the ossuary belonging to the high priest of the village, which was almost washed away by the winter rain.

All around were the skulls and bones, horribly jumbled, of his dead relatives, among whom an old gyosa-like witch would roam one night to collect such bones as they were considered useful for spells. For example, a skull placed upon a place in the direction they wish the wind to blow is considered effective in producing the desired current of air, and it does not seem to them, as a horrible idea, that one's skull be used for this purpose deceased loved one...".

Finally, according to the English traveler, there were also many precautions regarding infants in Karpathos.

There was a widespread belief that infants, as weak organisms, were more subject than any other person to disease, misery and death itself. To avoid them, there were various preventions, such as e.g. not to expose the infant's baby clothes or linen at night in the open air, so that it does not acquire rashes as a result of the influence of the stars:

“The teacher told us a lot about the superstitions associated with births that afternoon. At sunset, for many days, the doors of the houses are kept hermetically closed to anyone who might come. Even if it were the father returning from a long journey, he would have to seek rest elsewhere, for from sunset to dawn the demons of the air roam and might enter and harm the child.

The child's clothes should not be exposed to the stars, and if they have accidentally been exposed, they should be incensed with the censer; if this is not done the child will develop rashes... The fairies desire nothing better than to beat children. with a mysterious decay; greedy lamia will drink their blood.

The evil eye affects them more than adults and to deal with these dangers mothers will subject their children to innumerable sufferings. If the child is weak and fairy-imprinted, it must be left naked on the cold marble altar of the church for a few hours; if a child is for any reason perverted, it is said to have been struck by the fairy's laughter, and the only salvation is the exorcism of the priest …”

More information about customs and life in Karpathos from iWrite publications