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These same sea-nymphs—θαλασσιναὶς νεράϊδες—play also a part in the daily life of the people of this district[348]. It is said that every Saturday night these Nereids join battle with the Nereids of the mountains, and according as these or those win, their protégés, the upland or the maritime population, are found on Sunday morning in higher or lower spirits, booty-laden or despoiled. It is indeed an imaginative folk which can thus make its deities responsible for drunken brawls and sober thefts; but some of them have humour enough to smile at their own imaginings.

A class of maleficent beings known to the inhabitants of Tenos, Myconos, Amorgos, and other islands of the same group under the name of ἀγιελοῦδες or γιαλοῦδες[349], have been reckoned as sea-nymphs by several writers, who would derive the name from ’γιαλός (i.e. αἰγιαλός), the ‘sea-shore[350].’ But there is no evidence advanced to show that the common-folk regard them as a species of Nereid; and there is, on the contrary, evidence of their identity with certain female demons whose name more commonly appears in the form γελλοῦδες[351], and with whom I shall deal later.