Chelidonia
(
χελιδόνια). In the island of Rhodes, when the swallows
returned (i. e. in the month Boëdromion), boys, called
χελιδονισταί, went from house to house asking gifts, professedly for the
swallows, and singing a song that has been preserved in Athenaeus (viii. 360). The practice
(
χελιδόνια) was said to have been introduced by Cleobulus of
Lindus at a time when the town was in great distress.