Note 7 — Chapter X · RETURN TO THE BORDER RANGES—ΘΆΛΑΤΤΑ, ΘΆΛΑΤΤΑ!

Not that all the people one meets of distinctively Greek type are Christians. Especially in the valleys most remote from the coast, as in that of the Kharshut, the inhabitants of Greek race have largely been converted to Mohammedanism, or have become Mohammedan for prudential or worldly motives. So complete has been the transformation in some places, that, when I asked my host at Besh Kilisa—a man whose physiognomy showed him to be a typical Greek—to what nationality he belonged, he replied “Osmanli.” A section of the inhabitants of Hamsi Keui—a village south of the Zigana—represent a transitional stage. Their children are baptized, but a mollah recites prayers over them. They bear a Mohammedan and a Christian name, as, for instance, that of Ahmed Apostolos. When they die the papa and the mollah dispute the corpse. They have neither church nor mosque. When they meet a Greek they bid him kallispera, and, when a Mohammedan, merhaba. ↑