— THE NOMADS OF THE BALKANS
132
The custom
trinkets they call klidhone
klidhone
is
which
is
Greek, and this
on St John's Day by means of Modern Greek folklore. The custom however has been borrowed by the Vlachs and is well known in all the Vlach villages of the south and centre. At Khsura and Neveska for example the girls go out to the meadows on the eve of St John's Day and pick a special flower to which they tie their trinkets. They have a procession in much the same way as at Samarina and as they pass through the streets people put money in the jug. At Samarina however they do not regard the custom merely as that of the klidhone, but as a rain-charm. There seems little doubt hat we have here two observances blended into one, the klidhone and the other wellknown custom of Pirpirund. The Pirpirund custom is used of
telling fortunes
well
known
in
Balkans in times of drought Samarina it seems to have been in the summer, but here at made annual. We have never heard of the Pirpirund observances, as such, being done at Samarina, but the word is well known in the village. For instance, " Mi adrai Pirpirund dip," " I became a regular Pirpirund," is a slang phrase for " I was wet through." The Pirpirund custom amongst the Vlachs is in brief as follows. If after the day of St Thomas, April 21st, it does not rain for three weeks it is very serious for the crops and meadows, because the early summer rains are most important as a rain-charm throughout the
Then a girl, usually a poor girl taken and stripped and then dressed in leaves and flowers and made to walk in procession through the village. The girls with her sing suitable songs and she herself dances. As she passes the houses people throw water over her and wet her thoroughly. The song usually sung is the following for their proper development.
or a gipsy,
or
is
some variant
of
it
:
Pirpiruna, Saranduna, give rain, give, that the fields the fields and the vineyards, the grass and the meadows.
We
have heard
of this
may
grow,
being done at Turia where the
girl
not naked, but lightly clad and decked with leaves and flowers. Wherever there are Vlachs this custom is known
is
now