Tag Archives: Faris

The “Remedies” and the “Good Doctors” for Teeth Before Medicines and Dentists in our Villages

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by Panagiota / Tania G. Kalkanis – Argyris
published in The Faris Newsletter, Issue #77, December 2022, page 12

Two articles published in our journal concern the medical practices that were applied and pharmaceutical means available to our compatriots in the past. Specifically, they refer to the era of the great uprising of 1821 and the time of the 1918 flu (see Stavros Th. Kalkanis, “Empirical doctors and medical practices in our region – and elsewhere – in ’21”, Faris 68 (2018) 3-6, and “The Spanish flu of 1918 as experienced (?) by a family in Goranoi”, Faris 73 (2020) 5-8.

Injuries in 1821 were treated with amputations and improvised poultices, while the 1918 flu, which wiped out entire families in our villages, was dealt with by our compatriots (and the entire world) with a little quinine and whitewashing of houses.  

Similar was the treatment of the problems that our compatriots had with their teeth up to the middle of the past century. They used improvised “remedies” (or concoctions), which were essentially herbal remedies from the region. Unfortunately, these dealt with pain and other dental problems in a rudimentary way. They usually resulted in painful tooth extractions.

Our compatriots of today – especially the young – do not know or can hardly imagine the conditions, the means and possibilities of treatment but also the usual outcome of dental problems until the beginning of – at least – the past century.

Medicines and extractions were usually applied or carried out by elderly village women, and men or women who had the reputation of experienced and skilled “specialists”. They were the so-called “good doctors” of the teeth or “kompogiannites”, in other words empirical doctors who lacked the primary knowledge and the tools or materials available today.

The herbs (or botanicals or drugs) were placed on the gums of the aching tooth (after being crushed in oil or dried and ground into powder) or were soaked in water for days (compresses) or dissolved in boiling water (extracts) or in alcohol (tincture)…

With these, they made gargles, pads, or compresses, but some were swallowed (pills). Almost always, however, they started with tsipouro and olive oil, which they gargled for a long time to alleviate the pain. When the tsipouro was swallowed, it naturally acted as a “dizzying” substance… However, there was always the question – and the concern – of dosage or possible toxicity.

We have gathered information and memories from our wider region and documented the most common herbal remedies from our land, as well as their common uses and actions. Some of these were:

• anise (as powder or toothpaste or by chewing seeds, as decoction, extract, compress, essential oil, …for loose teeth and gums, tonic), lavender (as a decoction for toothache relief or as a tooth fixative…), orange (as an oil for calming effect / relaxation…)

 • nettle (crushed, dried or boiled as a compress or wash and as a decoction to stop bleeding of the gums…), honeysuckle (as an ointment or poultice or gargle against toothache but also as a remedy for bad breath…), mulberry (as a thick decoction of its leaves for gargle against tooth and gum pain…)

• cloves -mainly, thyme, ginger, and marjoram (as a toothpaste, as a powder or mashed ointment for compresses, as crushed oil, as infusions or extracts…against tooth pain and breath freshening,… and as antiseptic, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory…)

• mint, spearmint, and pennyroyal-which are related plants- (as ointments in compresses and poultices, as extracts and essences, oils, patches of their fresh leaves…, for aroma, antiseptics…)

The women from our villages usually undertook the collection, processing, and administering of the above-mentioned medicines. The names of most of the men or women in our area who had these capabilities have unfortunately been lost or are only maintained in the memory of their family members. With this note, we preserve the name of Stavroula Sourtzi (née Stratakou, originating from Goranoi) who died bedridden in Xirokampi. Her daughter, Ourania Panteli Frangi, who lived in Xirokampi (and her later years in Canada), has narrated and written that many who collected some of the herbs we mentioned would give them to her mother for processing.

However, even then – and now for those who still use them – special attention should (and must be) paid to their dosage or toxicity. Especially today with the existence of sprays and pesticides. Herbs are not a panacea.

Rarely in the past did our compatriots take care of their teeth as long as they did not have problems. One of the practices they used to take care of them was chewing the ends of thin twigs, or roots of some of the plants mentioned above, that were easy to find. By chewing these, they created tassels that facilitated cleaning the teeth and prevented plaque buildup.

A more drastic method was the use of improvised “toothbrushes” with long handles (also called “tooth-rubbers”). They were made from animal hair (mainly from pig bristles), and with these, they rubbed the teeth, applying powders or paste / ointment or oil from some of the above-mentioned herbs (such as chamomile, ginger, clove, or mint…).

When the medicines were not effective or sufficient for treating dental problems and pain from bleeding, then skilled or simply calm old women usually took further action, which was the only way. Extraction of the tooth. Many resorted to the “good doctors” or “kombogiannites” who were villagers or wanderers. They were called “good doctors” because they referred to themselves and advertised as such, and they were also called “kombogiannites” because they used to keep their medical remedies secret, wrapped in handkerchiefs tied in knots (“kompoi”). Many of them were simply skilled individuals who also practiced the profession of barber, or even specializing in bloodletting with leeches collected from stagnant waters.

Many tooth specialists had special pincers (called “tooth forceps” or “dental pliers”) for extracting teeth. It is known that sometimes they missed and extracted (instead of the painful tooth) another nearby tooth or teeth. These pliers were passed down from generation to generation in the families who owned them. Two of these pliers are saved by the family of Petros Stavros Rigakos (see photo). These were brought to Goranoi from America (around 1950) by the mother of Georgios K. Rigakos (or Stavrakos), Stavroula (nee Kyriakakou). “During those years, these pliers relieved many Goranites by removing their damaged teeth…” notes Aimilia P. Rigakou.

Two examples of “dental pliers” (from 1950) retrieved from the family of Petros Rigakos

We record, finally, one of the many superstitions of the inhabitants of our village who attributed the falling out of teeth to the fact that some sufferers had their mouths open while a number of pine caterpillars crawled on the ground in front of them.

We also record one of the many scams that were attempted at that time. In the 1950s, glass bottles or jars – called “yalakia” or “gyalakia” – containing, according to labels, “tooth tonic” were circulated and sold in the cities of Athens and Patras. This was advertised “as the only healing medicine that relieves pain and protects teeth from any possible disease…”. These jars, according to testimonies of older people, had even reached our villages.

All these remedies, practices, and quack doctors ended or, at least, slowly disappeared (?) when the first dentists graduated from the University and settled in our area.

But let this note be a memorial for those well-intentioned “doctors” whose purpose was to ease pain and heal the sick.

I (Carol Kostakos Petranek) am honored to receive permission from the Katsoulakos family to translate and share articles from The Faris. Translation verification and corrections have been made by GreekAncestry.net. This is the fourteenth article of the ongoing series. Previous articles can be viewed here.

Three Old Stories of Barter Economy

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Author: Theofanis G. Kalkanis
published in The Faris Newsletter, Issue 78, July 2023, page 32

Barter economy (or labor) was a common practice in the past in our region and elsewhere. More common was the exchange of labor in olive picking and other agricultural and livestock tasks among families. Usually, barter labor occurred between families, but also between professionals, involving building houses or other activities or even household production of cheese, soap, pasta, etc. However, there were also notable and characteristic cases and stories of barter economy between communities or even between ecclesiastical authorities and the residents or professionals of the villages.

A first case/story is the one that has come down to us and concerns the painting of some of the icons of the altarpiece (iconostasis) of the Holy Trinity of Xirokambi. These are the 14 small icons in a row at the top of the iconostasis. As the old resident of the village, Dim. Men. Xanthakos, narrated before his death, an iconographer, Pan. Lazaris, lived in our area during the time of the Italian-German occupation. He painted icons for churches in exchange for olive oil. Each icon of the iconostasis that he painted (in one day, as remembered by D. M. X.) was “exchanged” for a can of oil!

Holy Trinity Church, Xirokampi showing the 14 icons across the iconostasis
Photo by Carol Kostakos Petranek, June 2023

Another story that is characteristic of barter labor (and on a large scale) is the following: In Xirokambi until the early 1960s, long queues of residents lined up in front of the communal faucets at a few points in the village. Everyone waited to fill containers or pitchers, wooden barrels, or metal jugs with drinking water for all uses. At that time, the community council with presidents Georgios and Nikolaos Koumoustiotis successively, commissioned contractors for a large project for the village and its residents. Water was to be supplied to all houses with underground metal pipes from the tank that had been built in Anakolo. The “contract” with all the residents entailed their mandatory personal labor, “exchanging it” for the provision of water to each house. Instead of personal labor, some residents exchanged with the community a worker or an animal for transportation or a skilled craftsman with money or oil. The project was completed in the early 1970s and changed life in our village and elsewhere.

Woman at communal water faucet in the plateia (village square), Xirokampi, July 2018
Photo by Carol Kostakos Petranek

The third case concerns the operation (in the mid-1960s) in Xirokambi of a Branch of the Gymnasium [high school] of Sparta for the students of our area until an independent Gymnasium was established. At that time, many students used to stop their studies after Primary School or continue their studies in Sparta by renting rooms and receiving baskets of food every day… With the initiative of some residents, pharmacist Theof. G. Kalkanis and merchants Elias Chr. Kapetanakos and Ilias N. Liakakos, the establishment and operation of the branch became possible (after persistent efforts). The original and remarkable thing is that the teachers who were transferred from the Gymnasium of Sparta were “bartered” with the oil collected by the parents from the committee (…)

I (Carol Kostakos Petranek) am honored to receive permission from the Katsoulakos family to translate and share articles from The Faris. Translation verification and corrections have been made by GreekAncestry.net. This is the fourteenth article of the ongoing series. Previous articles can be viewed here.

Faris at the Library of Congress

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I am so pleased to share exciting news that the Faris (Φαρις) newsletter of Xirokampi, Lakonia, is now in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Archivist Nevila Pahumi, who oversees the “Greece and Cyprus” collection in the European Reading Room, enthusiastically received the printed copies for the years 1979 to present. Earlier copies (1966-1977) which were published under the title Xirokampi, will be reprinted and donated at a later date.

Nevila Pahumi welcomes the donation of Faris, July 18, 2023

Last month in Athens, Dimitris Katsoulakos brought me forty-four years of printed editions of Faris. It was a thrilling experience to bring these back to the U.S. and donate them to the Library.  Ms. Pahumi explained that it is quite difficult for the Library to obtain printed copies of publications that are created at the local level, especially from rural villages. “We are very happy to have it in our collections, so that generations of future users can access it in both physical and digital form. The ability to service it to users in both formats increases the likelihood that they can work with the historical and more current issues. This kind of primary resource is invaluable, and I thank you for personally bringing it in all the way from Xirokampi.”

Faris is unique because its contents are not only empirical research, but also — and more importantly — it has captured oral histories and first-person accounts of village life and historic events. People who are conducting research about life in Greece will use Faris as a prototype of village life. It is exciting to think of our village of Xirokampi as being a primary source for academicians worldwide!

To access digital copies of Faris, click here. I am honored to have permission to translate and republish selected articles from Faris on an ongoing basis. These posts can be found here.

European Reading Room at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., July 18, 2023

If you know of other publications from Greece which could possibly be donated to the Library of Congress, please email me. Ms. Pahumi is seeking to expand the Greece collection.

While at the Library, I also brought copies of the family history books that I have written about my maternal and paternal grandparents. These were donated to the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room. Please note: the Library gratefully accepts ALL books which are biographical, family history or local history. They can be mailed to:

Library of Congress
U.S. Special Acquisitions Section – RG
101 Independence Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20540-4275

The archivist suggests sending books via UPS or FedEx, not U.S. Mail, because the U.S. Post Office irradiates all incoming mail which could permanently damage or destroy books. If possible, also provide the carrier’s name and tracking number.

The Smells of Parcels from America

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written and translated by Stratis A. Solomos
published in The Faris Newsletter, Issue 77, December 2022, page 6

During the 1950s and early 1960s, immigrants to America and Canada wanted to help Greece, which was poor at the time. They sent, especially to their relatives, parcels containing various useful items, generally clothes. It is not certain whether this aid was essential to the then rapidly economically developing petty-bourgeois society, but it was certainly welcomed by the poorest. These parcels mainly contained clothes and objects that had new and rather pleasant smells.

The strongest smell was that of clothes. The explanation for most was that they had been disinfected, which reassured those who feared germs. But the reality was that this smell was due to the synthetic fragrance of modern detergent powders, which had been used to wash them. They were still unknown in Greece. They did not arrive until the end of the 1950s. The first and most widespread was the American Tide. Along with this powdered “soap” also came the American “soap-opera,” a long-running sentimental radio and later TV series. The first such Greek soap opera was “Πικρή μικρή μου αγάπη” (My Bitter Little Love), the endless sentimental story of Alexis and Vana, played by Stefanos Linaios and Elli Fotiou.

The parcels were usually sent by relatives. In addition to clothing, they also contained other items, often unknown in the villages. Chewing gum with new flavors and aromas. Toothpastes which it is said that some people, who did not know their use, tried to eat!

My father and teacher Alexander Solomos, who also did educational research, received beautifully bound American elementary school books. With these books, he taught me my first English lessons. These books also had a particular smell, which has since remained an indelible and pleasant memory. I don’t know what caused that smell, perhaps the binding glue used. I rediscovered this smell in my teenage years when I frequented the American Library of Athens and later read American science books.

Sometimes there were also more valuable items like watches, which after consultation were carefully hidden in certain pockets, but most of the contents were clothes of all kinds. Taffeta ball gowns and hats for women. Suits for men. Colorful Hawaiian shirts and plaid pants. Belts with large cowboy buckles. Jackets that featured monstrous comic book characters on the back. With the exception of a few young people from the big cities, American fashion had not yet reached the conservative Greek society of these times. Few dared to wear them, except perhaps during Carnival. T-shirts with visible inscriptions and brands were only seen in the cinema. So it was very funny to see a Greek peasant picking olives wearing a Harvard University t-shirt.

The skillful seamstresses and several equally competent housewives did wonders to transform the eccentric American gowns into dresses compatible with the European fashions of the time propagated by the women’s magazines Ρομάντζο (Romance), Θησαυρός (Treasure) and Γυναίκα (Woman) . The men’s suits, those whose fabric was not too colorful, were transformed by our local Xirokambi tailor Charalambos Arabatzidis. These clothes weren’t worn very much. They were often new. But they were still deliberately wrinkled and a few buttons were removed to make them look second-hand. It seems that there were special customs exemptions for these aid parcels with used clothes. Later, when American jeans, jackets and cowboy boots became fashionable, some shrewd traders devised the ploy of passing off imported goods as packages of “gifts from America’s uncle “.

The Field Guard

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by Dimitrios G. Prevas, Palaiopanagia, February 7, 2011

Published in The Faris Newsletter, Issue 54, July 2011, page 20

There’s a scientific principle that any gap that is created in nature is inevitably and typically filled by other elements of inferior quality. We all tend to forget this when old values are abandoned or lost.

The field guard is also one of the old values, who protected the land, the countryside, the outdoors that is now unguarded and where countless outlaws roam freely, terrorizing the elderly, taking their wages, stealing everything, whatever they can find: lambs, chickens, kettles, irrigation valves, with a great risk of killing you or, you killing them and going to jail.

Every village used to have a capable field guard, the protector of nature. Every day, alone but also with other field guards, he roamed the land, a vigilant sentinel, observing everything in his grey uniform with boots and a hat, like a constable.

A juvenile Greek shepherd guarding his flock; photo courtesy of the Library of Congress; http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/stereo.1s26252

And although before you saw him passing, in another part of the village you heard him whistling. He was a fickle person, an excellent tracker who could find any trace, even in the mud or dust. He investigated the tracks and acted accordingly. He knew the owner of every field, the flocks, and every estate whether it was sown, fallow or obstructed. He settled the villagers’ disputes and always made a proper assessment of their damages. At night he conducted raids, frequently patrolling and setting up several ambushes, and even staying up all night. So, no one would dare to break the law because the invisible guard would punish fairly. He did his job right and the farmers acknowledged him. Well done, they said to themselves, and they slept peacefully. The field guards guarded the outdoors which is now unguarded and countless outlaws roam freely. They terrorize, burn and loot. This phenomenon is in great need of the government to address it. When you guard yourself from all danger, then you will learn to guard ordinary citizens as well.

Aristotle had said that, when there are law-abiding citizens, there is no need for the state. For this reason, the real power must institute draconian laws to secure order.

Field guards I have known:
Anogeia: Petros Vivliotis, Leonidas Stathakos, Christos Menoutis.
Palaiopanagia: Vasilis Kourniotis, Dimos Giannopoulos, Giannos Smyrnios, Panagiotis Perentesis, Pavlos Mylonas.
Trapezonti: Evaggelos Asimakis; Achilleas Miridis, Dimitrios Roumeliotis.
Xirokampi: Georgios Kalogeras, Athanasios Vergados, Giannis Mpouzas.
Kaminia: Apostolos Kritikos.
Gorani: Evaggelos Katounas.

I am honored to receive permission from the Katsoulakos family to translate and share articles from The Faris. Translation verification and corrections have been made by GreekAncestry.net. This is the ninth  article of the ongoing series. Previous articles can be viewed here.