diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:13:55 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:13:55 -0700 |
| commit | cab5644ae9799704b6ce48bdab113ffecd8da13c (patch) | |
| tree | 7b7efd99dc284efeb262a8a0307c613e86d2f5e4 /24652-h | |
Diffstat (limited to '24652-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 24652-h/24652-h.htm | 6817 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 24652-h/images/tp.jpg | bin | 0 -> 8145 bytes |
2 files changed, 6817 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/24652-h/24652-h.htm b/24652-h/24652-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5da7a79 --- /dev/null +++ b/24652-h/24652-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6817 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Diversions in Sicily</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.headingsummary { margin-left: 5%;} + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray;} + + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Diversions in Sicily, by H. Festing Jones</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Diversions in Sicily, by H. Festing Jones + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Diversions in Sicily + + +Author: H. Festing Jones + + + +Release Date: February 19, 2008 [eBook #24652] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIVERSIONS IN SICILY*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>This eBook was transcribed by Les Bowler.</p> +<h1><!-- page iii--><a name="pageiii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +iii</span>DIVERSIONS IN<br /> +SICILY</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">by</span><br /> +HENRY FESTING JONES</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/tp.jpg"> +<img alt="Title illustration" src="images/tp.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p style="text-align: center">LONDON: A. C. FIFIELD 1920</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><!-- page iv--><a name="pageiv"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. iv</span><i>First Published</i> . . . 1909<br /> +<i>Re-issued</i> . . . 1920</p> +<h2><!-- page v--><a name="pagev"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +v</span>TO<br /> +ENRICO PAMPALONE</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Enrico</span>,</p> +<p>Your father and I, sitting one summer night on the terrace at +Castellinaria watching the moon on the water, agreed that this book might +be dedicated to you, although you have not yet put it into my power to ask +your permission.</p> +<p>“After all,” exclaimed your father, “what is +existence?” And I was unable to give him a satisfactory +reply.</p> +<p>When Orlando and his Paladins were overcome at Roncisvalle through the +treachery of Gano di Magonza, were they all slain? When “the +Crusaders’ streams of shadowy <!-- page vi--><a +name="pagevi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. vi</span>midnight troops sped +with the sunrise,” did none linger? When the angel carried up +to heaven the soul of Guido Santo, did he never fight another battle? +The young men of your island hardly think so; their thoughts and actions +are still coloured by the magnificent language and the chivalrous exploits +of Christian and Turk. As long as there is an imaginative shoeblack +in the Quattro Canti working for pennies by day, so long will those pennies +be paid for the story to be told by night in the marionette theatre. +Often will Angelica recover her ring, and as often be robbed of it again; +often will the ghostly voice of Astolfo, imprisoned in a myrtle upon +Alcina’s magic isle, reveal the secret of his woe; often will Rinaldo +drink of the Fountains of Hatred and of Love, and, forgetful of the +properties of those waters, return and drink once more.</p> +<p>And what of those other and less heroic figures—the brigadier and +his guards <!-- page vii--><a name="pagevii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +vii</span>gambling among the ruins of Selinunte, the ingenious French +gentleman classifying the procession at Calatafimi, Micio buying his +story-books and chocolate at Castellinaria, and many another whom I should +like to think you will some day meet, palely wandering up and down these +pages?</p> +<p>To pursue the subject might disincline you ever to take leave of the +world of the unborn, whereas I am desirous of making your acquaintance as +soon as possible. Let me, then, rather assure you that life is not +all marionettes and metaphysics, and that I know of no reason why you +should not at once enter upon an existence as real as that enjoyed by your +dear father or your beautiful mother—it would be unbecoming in a son +to expect more. Castellinaria is waiting to welcome you. You +could not have a more delightful birthplace than your native town, or more +charming compatriots than your fellow-townspeople. Only resemble <!-- +page viii--><a name="pageviii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. viii</span>your +parents, and you will never regret having hastened the day when I shall be +entitled to sign myself</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Your affectionate Godfather,<br /> +HENRY FESTING JONES.</p> +<h2><!-- page ix--><a name="pageix"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +ix</span>NOTE</h2> +<p>Chapters VIII–XI have been enlarged and re-written since August, +1903, when they appeared as <i>A Festa on Mount Eryx</i> in <i>The Monthly +Review</i>. I have to thank Mr. John Murray for kindly giving me +permission to reprint them here.</p> +<p>A few sentences in Chapter XIII have been taken from a pamphlet I wrote +and had printed for private circulation in 1904, entitled: <i>Diary of a +Journey through North Italy to Sicily in the spring of 1903</i>, +<i>undertaken for the purpose of leaving the MSS. of three books by Samuel +Butler at Varallo-Sesia</i>, <i>Aci-Reale and Trapani</i>.</p> +<p>It would be impossible to enumerate and thank all the many friends who, +with the courtesy and patience that never desert a <!-- page x--><a +name="pagex"></a><span class="pagenum">p. x</span>Sicilian, have given me +information, explanation and assistance. Among them are two, however, +to whom, and to whose families, I desire to give my special thanks, namely: +Cavaliere Uffiziale Giovanni Grasso, of the Teatro Macchiavelli, Catania; +and Signor Achille Greco, of the Marionette Theatre, in the Piazza Nuova, +Palermo.</p> +<p>Signor Greco wrote to me recently that, for Rosina’s riddle in his +episode of the masks in <i>Samson</i>, he had dipped in the stream of +children’s games current to-day in Palermo; he did not appear to know +that Plato had dipped in his own Athenian stream for the riddle quoted by +Glaucon towards the end of the fifth book of the <i>Republic</i>. The +riddles are similar not because Rosina had read the dialogue, nor because +Glaucon had seen the play, but because the two streams flowed as one until +Greek colonists took their folk-lore with them into Sicily before Plato was +born.</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><!-- page xi--><a name="pagexi"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. xi</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: center">CONTENTS</p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: center">SELINUNTE</p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">chapter</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">page</span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">I.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">The Brigadier and the Lottery</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page3">3</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: center">CASTELLINARIA</p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">II.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">Peppino</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page29">29</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">III.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">The Professor</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page41">41</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">IV.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">The Wine-ship</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page52">52</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: center">CATANIA</p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">V.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">Michelle and the Princess of Bizerta</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page77">77</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: center">TRAPANI</p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">VI.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">Ferraù and Angelica</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page97">97</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">VII.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">The Death of Bradamante</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page113">113</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: center"><!-- page xii--><a name="pagexii"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. xii</span>MOUNT ERYX</p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">VIII.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">Monte san Giuliano</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page131">131</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">IX.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">The Madonna and the Personaggi</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page149">149</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">X.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">The Universal Deluge</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page166">166</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">XI.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">The Return</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page181">181</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: center">CUSTONACI</p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">XII.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">Faith and Superstition</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page189">189</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: center">CALATAFIMI</p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">XIII.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">The Prodigal Son and the Arts</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page213">213</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: center">PALERMO</p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">XIV.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">Samson</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page235">235</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">XV.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">The Conversion of the Emperor Constantine</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page254">254</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: center">CASTELLINARIA</p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +<td> +<p></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">XVI.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">A Great Actor</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page279">279</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">XVII.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">Supper with the Players</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page290">290</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">XVIII.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">A Young Critic</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page304">304</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right">XIX.</p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">Brancaccia</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page317">317</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2><!-- page 3--><a name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +3</span>SELINUNTE</h2> +<h3>CHAPTER I—THE BRIGADIER AND THE LOTTERY</h3> +<p>One wet Saturday evening in May I found myself at Castelvetrano +consulting Angelo, the guide, about the weather. His opinion was that +it would clear up during the night; I said that if it did we would go to +Selinunte, and this confirmed his view; so, on the understanding that there +was to be no rain, I appointed him padrone of the expedition and promised +to acquiesce in all his arrangements.</p> +<p>He was quite right; Sunday morning was brilliantly fine, and at about +8.30 we started. He began by showing me his purchases; he had been +out early, marketing, and his basket contained fresh tunny, the first of +the season, veal, salame, dried fish, bread and oranges, but no wine; he +said we should find that at <!-- page 4--><a name="page4"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 4</span>the locanda, where they would cook the tunny and +the veal for us.</p> +<p>Cicciu, our driver, was one of those queer creatures one sometimes meets +in Italy. At first I took him to be of feeble intellect, for when I +spoke to him or merely looked at him, he shut up his eyes, showed his teeth +and covered his face all over with grinning wrinkles; but on knowing him +better, I found he was really extremely intelligent and perfectly +good. He was about sixteen, but would have passed for twenty. +His general appearance was grey, the actual colour of his face, hands and +clothes being powdered out of sight by the dust which held all together +like a transparent glaze over a painting. He drove us along between +flowery fields of cistus until the temples of Selinunte came in sight, then +down to the Marinella, a handful of houses on the shore under the low +cliff. We drew up at the locanda which distinguished itself by +displaying over the door, in a five-ounce medicine bottle, a sample of a +cloudy, canary-coloured fluid to advertise the wine Angelo had spoken of, +and the forlorn bunch of five or six faded sprigs of camomile which hung on +the same hook constituted the bush. We left our <!-- page 5--><a +name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>basket with instructions +and drove off to inspect the acropolis and the ruins, returning in about an +hour and a half.</p> +<p>The locanda was an immense, cavernous room divided into front and back +by a partition about seven feet high with an opening in the middle. +There was no regular window, but we were only a few feet from the sea which +reflected the sunshine through the open door and up into the arched roof +and illuminated the front part. In the obscurity behind the partition +were dim ladders leading up to trap-doors and, through a few holes in the +roof and in the end wall, blinding rays of light glinted on piles of +earthenware—saucepans, jugs, cups and saucers, coloured crockery +lamps, rough basins glazed green inside, heaped up in stacks and protected +from one another by straw. There were hanks of rope, fans of +hawks’ feathers for blowing the fire, palm-leaf brooms and oil-jars +big enough for thieves. There were horns on the walls to keep off the +evil eye, prints of the Madonna, some with sprigs of camomile stuck into +the frame, a cheapissimo coloured lithograph of S. Giuseppe with the +Bambino, and in front of it on a little bracket, in half a tumbler of <!-- +page 6--><a name="page6"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 6</span>oil, floated +a burning wick. In a corner was the landlord putting his whole soul +into the turning about of a sieve full of coffee beans which he had roasted +and was now cooling. And everything was covered with a grey dust like +the bloom on a plum or like Cicciu.</p> +<p>Our table was spread in a clearing among the pottery in the front part +of the room and everything was ready on a clean white cloth, wine and +all. Besides the landlord and his wife there were two men in uniform, +one a corporal of the coastguards and the other a policeman. There +was also a third man in ordinary clothes—I did not find out what he +was, but they were all, including the landlord, friends of Angelo who, in +his capacity of padrone, invited them to join us at lunch. We were +just about to begin when I missed Cicciu. Angelo said we need not +wait for him, he had only gone to the sea to wash his feet. So we sat +down without him and presently he returned saying he had washed all over, +but he looked just as dusty as before his bath.</p> +<p>There must be something in the air of Selinunte that encourages bathing, +for they told me that in a few days an annual festa was to <!-- page 7--><a +name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>take place there, the +pilgrims arriving the evening before and spending the whole night bathing +in the sea, the men in one part and the women in another; at dawn they +would come out of the water, dress and attend to their religious +duties. I said I should like very much to see it, whereupon the +corporal, who sat next me and clinked glasses with me every time he drank, +invited me to stay—there would be plenty of room in the caserma and +they could make me comfortable for as long as I would remain. I had, +however, made appointments elsewhere, so I told him it was unfortunate, but +I could not alter my plans and was sorry I must decline his invitation.</p> +<p>After lunch by general consent we all went strolling up the cliff and +through a garden belonging to a large house. I assumed that Angelo +had been arranging something in dialect and asked the corporal, who +happened to be next me, where we were going. He first picked a +geranium most politely and stuck it in my button-hole; then he told me we +were going to the big house which was the caserma. It appeared that +he had been so overcome by my hospitality that he had invited Angelo to +bring me to call upon the brigadier and his companions-in-arms at <!-- page +8--><a name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 8</span>the +guard-house. It was really Angelo who had shown the hospitality, +nevertheless, though not directly responsible for all details, I was +responsible for having shifted the responsibility on Angelo by making him +padrone of the expedition, so that the hospitality was in a sense +mine. But if left to myself, I should never have had the courage to +invite two such influential members of the legal profession as a coastguard +and a policeman to lunch with me, not to speak of the third man who might +have been anything from a sheriff’s officer to the Lord Chancellor +himself. But they were all friends of Angelo and so was I and in +Sicily the maxim “Gli amici dei nostri amici sono i nostri” is +acted upon quite literally.</p> +<p>Passing through the door of the caserma we entered a large oblong room; +at each end were three or four beds and on the side opposite the door two +open windows. Through the windows across a barley-field, lightly +stirred by the breeze from the sea, the Temple of Apollo was lying in the +heat, an extinct heap of ruins, as though the naughty boy of some family of +Cyclopes had spilt his brother’s box of bricks. In the middle +of the room ten or twelve men were <!-- page 9--><a name="page9"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 9</span>sitting round a table on which were dishes of +what at first I took to be some kind of frutta di mare, objects about the +size and shape of sea-urchins. The brigadier received me with great +courtesy and put me to sit next him, and the corporal sat on the other side +of me. A dreamy Sunday afternoon feeling pervaded the air, the +brigadier said they were slaughtering time (“bisogna ammazzare un +po’ di tempo”). Being to a certain extent soldiers, their +business was to kill something and they were compassing the destruction of +their present enemy by drinking wine and eating not sea-urchins but cold +boiled artichokes. He gave me some and begged me to make myself at +home. The corporal clinked glasses with me and said that the wine was +better than that at the locanda, wherein I agreed with him, but I did not +tell him I found the artichokes a little uninteresting. They were so +very small and there was so much to do to get what little there was of them +that they were more trouble than shrimps or walnuts. Looked at from +the brigadier’s point of view, as a means of passing the time on +Sunday, they reminded me of the Litany; pulling off each leaf was like +listening to each short clause and eating the unimportant little bit <!-- +page 10--><a name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 10</span>at the end +was like intoning the little response; then the larger piece that was left, +when all the leaves were off, followed like the coda and finale of the +Litany after the more monotonous part has been disposed of. The +Litany has, however, the advantage that it comes only one at a time, we do +not kneel down to a whole plateful of it; on the other hand, there was wine +with the artichokes and they were free from any trace of morbid +introspection.</p> +<p>The brigadier and Angelo were in earnest conversation about something, +and, as my mind began to wander from the artichokes (here again they +resembled the Litany) and was able to attend more to what was going on, I +became aware that they were talking about the lottery. Selinunte +depends for news upon chance visitors and Angelo had brought the winning +numbers which he had got from a cousin of his in one of the lottery offices +at Castelvetrano. The brigadier had lost and in giving his +instructions for the next week’s drawing seemed to experience great +difficulty in making up his mind.</p> +<p>Presently there looked in at one of the windows a hunchback riding on a +mule and carrying a guitar. Several of the guards <!-- page 11--><a +name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 11</span>went to help him in, +greeting him with shouts of—</p> +<p>“Addio, Filippo!”</p> +<p>He lifted one of his legs over the saddle, and then I saw that not only +was he a hunchback but that his legs were withered. He reached up and +hung on to the ledge over the window with both hands and swung himself very +cleverly and with no assistance into a sitting position on the window-sill; +two of the guards then picked him up, carried him into the room, set him on +a chair and gave him some wine and artichokes. Being a jolly fellow, +as cripples often are, he soon tired of the artichokes, asked for his +guitar and began to sing Neapolitan songs. He had not sung more than +two before the brigadier told me I should like to wash my hands and had +better come into his bedroom. I glanced at Angelo who nodded back and +the brigadier took me off with him. He began by showing me his room +which was very clean and tidy. His bed was at one end, his table, +with his official papers and books, in the middle and against the wall hung +his guns which he showed me particularly, declaring that he was +passionately devoted <!-- page 12--><a name="page12"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 12</span>to the chase. After he had done the +honours I washed my hands and so did he; then he led the conversation to +what his manner betrayed was the real business of the interview. He +asked me my name and age, whether I was married or single and particulars +of my family, whether I was an Englishman from London or from New York and +how much a metre I had paid for the stuff my clothes were made of. +This last was the only question that gave me any real trouble, but I made a +hasty calculation, converted the result into francs, deducted five per +cent. for cash and hazarded—</p> +<p>“Fourteen lire.”</p> +<p>In return for his polite interest in my affairs I pretended a similar +interest in his, and it turned out that we had a friend in common—a +maresciallo dei carabinieri whom I had met on Monte San Giuliano and of +whom I was able to give the latest information namely, that he had retired, +gone home to Cremona and married. Carabinieri are not allowed to +marry so long as they are in service, or rather they may marry but only on +condition of depositing a sum of money which is fixed at an amount beyond +<!-- page 13--><a name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +13</span>anything they are likely to be able to lay their hands on.</p> +<p>Having exhausted our questions and answers we returned to the guard-room +and the corporal welcomed us by filling our glasses again. The +brigadier, before sitting down, took Angelo aside and became again immersed +in conversation; this time he appeared to be getting on more satisfactorily +with his instructions. The artichokes were beginning to lose their +attractions for every one, so I took out a packet of cigarettes and offered +them round. In those days there used to be in every packet of Italian +cigarettes a loose piece of paper about the size of a postage stamp with a +number on it. Boxes of biscuits in England sometimes have a similar +paper to identify the person responsible for the packing should anything be +found to be wrong. In my packet there happened to be two pieces of +paper which fluttered out upon the table as I opened it. The +brigadier instantly pounced upon them. There was silence in the +room. Every one watched and waited. Each of my pieces of paper +bore the number thirty-three. The brigadier did me the honour of +cancelling all his previous orders to Angelo and of <!-- page 14--><a +name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>putting his money for +next week’s lottery on thirty-three. The corporal and several +of the men who had not intended to gamble changed their minds and gave +similar instructions.</p> +<p>It was now time to think of returning, so Angelo got out of the window +into the sunlight and went off to fetch the carriage and the guards began +to chaff poor Cicciu about his watch-chain which was a massive and +extensive affair in silver. The corporal said they were playing a +game with him and offered to teach it to me. I am not good at games, +but this one was so simple that I mastered it in less than a minute and +played it thus—</p> +<p>First I asked Cicciu to tell me the time. He shut up his eyes, +showed his teeth and covered his face all over with grinning +wrinkles. Then I asked him the time again. He replied in the +same way. I asked him again and so on till he had overcome his +shyness and at last pulled out his watch which was found to consist of a +circular piece of tin with a paper watch-face gummed on to one side of +it. Then we all laughed at the contrast between this and what his +elaborate watch-chain had led us to expect.</p> +<p><!-- page 15--><a name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +15</span>While we were still laughing, Angelo drove up to the window and +said it was time to go, so we began saying “Good-bye.” +Some of the men departed before us, but the brigadier, the corporal and one +or two others were going our way. The brigadier fetched his gun in +order to enjoy the chase and we all got out of the window. Angelo +accompanied the hunting party, but the corporal came in the carriage with +me and Cicciu drove us round the barley-field to the Temple of Apollo to +wait for the others. On the way we heard the brigadier firing off his +gun and wondered what sport he was having, and I took a leaf out of his +book of politeness and asked the corporal his age and particulars of his +family, after which, of course, I had to tell him all about myself and to +promise I would take the first opportunity of visiting him in his home to +clink glasses and drink wine with him.</p> +<p>We went all over the ruins while waiting for the hunting party which +presently joined us. The brigadier was satisfied with his sport and +permitted himself the pleasure of offering me the spoils—two birds +the size of sparrows—which Angelo was to cook for supper. Then +we said “Good-bye,” promising <!-- page 16--><a +name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 16</span>to exchange picture +postcards when I should be back in England. The corporal, however, +was still going our way and we took him in the carriage a little +further. We asked if he could not come with us all the way to +Castelvetrano and he seemed inclined to do so, but he had to patrol the +coast in the direction of Marsala from eleven o’clock that night till +eleven the next morning, and it was so annoying because, as he must go to +Castelvetrano in a few days, he might almost just as well come with us +now. We hoped he would see his way to doing so and he hesitated and +appeared to be on the point of yielding, but finally made the Herculean +choice of duty before pleasure on the very sensible ground that, if it +should be discovered he had deserted his post, he would be put into prison +for two months. With the brigadier and all the guards in the secret, +it seemed impossible that he should escape detection, so we pressed the +invitation no further and took leave of him after exchanging names and +addresses and promising to send postcards to one another.</p> +<p>As we drove away I could not but draw a comparison in my mind between +the corporal’s refusal of my invitation and mine of his, and <!-- +page 17--><a name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>I was +ashamed of myself for the way I had scamped the bathing festa. I had +made another engagement and there was an end of it. The corporal, on +the other hand, had spared no expense in the manner of his refusal, nothing +short of two months’ imprisonment could have prevented him from +coming with us. We English ought to be able to do this and some of +us, I suppose, can, but there is no Italian who cannot. The French +are polite, but not always to be trusted. A Frenchman, speaking of an +Englishman to whom I had introduced him, said to me—</p> +<p>“He speaks French worse than you do.”</p> +<p>Any Italian, wishing to express a similar idea, would have +said—</p> +<p>“He speaks Italian, it is true, but not so well as you +do.”</p> +<p>My meditations were interrupted by Angelo who had been taking stock of +our possessions and, on looking into the basket, exclaimed with disgust +that we had been robbed of our fish. It was the first I had heard +about our fish, but he said the brigadier had given us ten and he had put +them into the basket. How could they have got out again? All +the afternoon we had been <!-- page 18--><a name="page18"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 18</span>surrounded by coastguards and policemen whose +profession is, as every one knows, to prevent robbery and to take up +thieves. Angelo was furious and wanted to drive back and complain to +the brigadier, but, on looking further through the basket, we found there +were still two fish and I said they would be quite enough for +supper—with the sparrows—and he finally agreed that we had +better do nothing, it might look as though we thought the brigadier was not +up to his business.</p> +<p>“And when the tailor is wearing a coat that does not fit +him,” said Angelo, “it is rude to tell him of it.”</p> +<p>So we drove on among the cistus bushes and I asked him about the +lottery. Every Saturday morning ninety cards numbered from one to +ninety are put into a wheel of fortune and a blind-folded child from the +orphan asylum publicly draws out five. Italy is divided into several +districts and a drawing takes place in the chief town of each, the winning +numbers are telegraphed to the lottery offices all over the country and +afterwards posted up and published in the newspapers. Any one wishing +to try his luck chooses one or more numbers and <!-- page 19--><a +name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 19</span>buys a ticket and this +choosing of the numbers is a very absorbing business. In the +neighbourhood of Castelvetrano at that time the favourite numbers were five +and twenty-six and the people were betting on those numbers when they had +no special reason for choosing any others. Angelo could not tell why +these two numbers were preferred, he could only say that the people found +them sympathetic and, as a matter of fact, twenty-six had come out the day +before. There are many ways of choosing a number if you find five and +twenty-six unsympathetic; you can wait till something remarkable happens to +you, look it out in “the useful book that knows” and then bet +on its number, for everything really remarkable has a number in the book +and, if you do not possess a copy, it can be consulted in a shop as the +<i>Post Office Directory</i> can be consulted in London. Or, if +nothing remarkable happens to you in real life, perhaps you may have dreamt +of a lady in a white dress, or of a man whetting a scythe, or of meeting a +snake in the road—anything will do, so long as it strikes you at the +time. When you see the country people coming into town on market day +you may be sure that each one <!-- page 20--><a name="page20"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 20</span>has received instructions from relations and +friends at home to put something on a number for them.</p> +<p>Some make a practice of gambling every week, others only try their luck +when they have a few spare soldi, others only when they have witnessed +something irresistibly striking. A favourite way of choosing a number +is to get into conversation with certain old monks who have a reputation +for spotting winners, if I may so speak. You do not ask the monk for +a number outright, you engage him in conversation on general topics and as +he understands what is expected of him, though he pretends he does not, he +will presently make some such irrelevant remark as, “Do you like +flowers?” whereupon you rapidly bring the interview to a conclusion +and, if you do not know the number for “flower,” you look it +out in the book and bet on it. It occurred to me that possibly that +was what the brigadier had been doing with me when he took me into his room +to wash.</p> +<p>“Of course it was,” said Angelo; “he did not really +want you to wash your hands, he wanted to get a number out of +you.”</p> +<p>“Did he get one?” said I.</p> +<p><!-- page 21--><a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +21</span>“He told me to put his money on 14.”</p> +<p>“That must have been because I said I paid 14 francs a metre for +this cloth. But he changed that afterwards.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” replied Angelo. “He thought the number +that came out of your packet of cigarettes would be better.”</p> +<p>Angelo was not strictly right about the brigadier not wanting me to +wash, he said so merely to agree with me, for in Sicily, among those who +have not become sophisticated by familiarity with money and its little ways +nor cosmopolitanized by travel, and whose civilization remains unmodified +by northern and western customs, it is usual for the host to give his guest +an opportunity to wash after eating. Sometimes the lady of the house +has herself taken me into her bedroom, poured out the water and held the +basin while I have washed; she has then handed me the towel and presently +escorted me back to the sitting-room.</p> +<p>We soon overtook a man who had caught a rabbit and wanted to sell it for +a lira and a half. Angelo bargained with him for ever so long and, +being at last satisfied that the rabbit was freshly killed, bought it for a +lira and put it into the basket, saying he would <!-- page 22--><a +name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 22</span>cook it for supper, and +that no doubt the Madonna had sent it to make up for the loss of the +fish.</p> +<p>I asked him what I must do to get a ticket in the lottery for the +following Saturday. He replied that his cousin would be happy to sell +me one and, if I would settle how much to risk and what number to put it +on, he would take me to the office in the morning. I said I would +risk a lira, which he thought overdoing it, as he and his friends seldom +risked more than four or five soldi, but there was still the troublesome +matter of the number. He asked whether anything unusual had happened +to me lately, either in real life or in a dream. I told him that I +seldom remembered a dream, but that I had had an unusually delightful day +in real life at Selinunte. In his capacity of padrone he acknowledged +the compliment, but feared there would be no number for that in the +book. Then I asked if there was likely to be a number for having +breakfast with a coastguard as it was the first time I had done so. +He mused and said no doubt there would be a number for breakfast and +another for coastguard, but not for the combination. Could not we add +the two numbers together <!-- page 23--><a name="page23"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 23</span>and bet on whatever they amounted to, if it +were not over 90? Angelo would not hear of anything of the kind; we +must think of something less complicated. It would never have +occurred to him to read for Metaphysics under M and for China under C, and +combine the information into the article that appeared in the <i>Eatanswill +Gazette</i> as a review of a work on Chinese Metaphysics. He asked if +I had not lately had “una disgrazia qualunque.” I +reminded him of the theft of our fish, but that did not satisfy him, he +considered it too trivial, though he had made enough fuss about it at the +time, and 17, which in Sicily is one of the numbers for an ordinary +misfortune, was too general. It seemed a pity I had not been involved +in the fall of a balcony because that was a very good thing to bet on and +he knew it had a number, although he did not remember it at the +moment. Filippo, the hunchback, was no use because, though it is +fortunate to meet hunchbacks, and of course they have a number, there was +nothing remarkable in seeing Filippo at the caserma—he is always +there.</p> +<p>By this time we had reached Castelvetrano, and supper overshadowed the +<!-- page 24--><a name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +24</span>lottery. Angelo cooked everything; we began with maccaroni, +after which we ate the fish and the sparrows, and wound up with the +rabbit. It was all very good, but it seemed hardly right to eat the +sparrows, besides, there was scarcely as much on one of them as there had +been on one of the artichokes at the caserma.</p> +<p>During supper, something—it may have been the sparrows or, +perhaps, the Madonna again—inspired me with an idea for a number that +met with Angelo’s enthusiastic approval. I remembered that my +birthday was near and proposed to put my money upon the number of that day +of the month. Nothing could have been better and he recommended me to +take also my age, that would give me two numbers and I could have an ambo, +I should not win on a single number unless it came out first, whereas, if I +did not specify their positions, my two numbers might come out anywhere and +if they did I should win about 250 francs. Angelo accepted as a good +omen the fact that neither of my numbers exceeded 90, and next morning we +called on his cousin and put a franc on 27 and 52.</p> +<p>Now, a lottery is an immoral thing, <!-- page 25--><a +name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>accordingly I expected +to feel as though I had committed an immoral action, instead of which I +felt just as I usually do. I, therefore, gave my ticket to Angelo in +order that, if I should develop a conscience by the time the numbers came +out, I might silence it by the consciousness of having disclaimed all hope +of gain. This was perhaps a little cowardly, for the effects of a +lottery are said to be most pernicious to those who win. But no harm +was done in the end, the actual numbers drawn the following Saturday being +39, 42, 89, 83, 28, so Angelo lost and likewise the brigadier and the +corporal and the guards who had put their money on 33.</p> +<h2><!-- page 29--><a name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +29</span>CASTELLINARIA</h2> +<h3>CHAPTER II—PEPPINO</h3> +<p>The train passed through the tunnel under the headland on which stands +the Albergo Belvedere, and steamed into the station of Castellinaria, a +town that is not so marked on any map of Sicily. I had written to +Carmelo to meet the train and drive me up, but he was not among the +coachmen. I recognized his brother, and said to him—</p> +<p>“Hullo! Rosario, where have you been all these years?”</p> +<p>“Well, you see,” he replied, “I have been away. +First there was the military service and then I had a disgrazia; but I have +come back now.”</p> +<p>I avoided inquiring into the disgrazia till I could ascertain from some +one else whether he meant what we should call a misfortune or something +more serious and merely said <!-- page 30--><a name="page30"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 30</span>I was glad it was all over and asked after his +brother.</p> +<p>“Carmelo is quite well—he is in private service. He +told me to meet you and sent you his salutes and apologies for not coming +himself; he will call on you this evening.”</p> +<p>“At the Albergo Belvedere?”</p> +<p>“No, excuse me, the Belvedere is closed; he told me to take you to +the Albergo della Madonna, unless you wish to go anywhere else.”</p> +<p>So Rosario drove me with my luggage up the zigzags for an hour and a +half through dust and sunshine, past orchards of lemons and oranges, among +prickly pears and agave overgrown with pink and red geranium, by rocky +slopes of mesembryanthemum, yellow marguerites, broom and sweet peas, +between white walls with roses straggling over them and occasional glimpses +of the sea dotted with fishing boats and, now and then, of the land covered +with olives, almonds, and vines.</p> +<p>We stopped in the corso at the Albergo della Madonna (con giardino) and +were received by a young man who introduced himself as Peppino, the son of +the landlord. He also said he remembered me, that he <!-- page +31--><a name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 31</span>had been a +waiter in a restaurant in Holborn where I used to dine; I did not recognize +him, though, of course, I did not say so. There was something in his +manner as though he had recently been assured by my banker that the balance +to my credit during the last ten years or so had never fallen below a much +larger sum than my passbook had been in the habit of recording. He +would not hear of my doing anything about my luggage or dinner, he knew my +ways and would show me to my room at once. It was a very fine room +with two beds, and he promised that no one should be put into the second +bed, not even during the festa which in a few days would fill the town with +pilgrims. He then departed to bring up my luggage and I went out on +to the balcony.</p> +<p>Before me lay one of those stupendous panoramas which are among the +glories of Sicily. First a garden of flowers with orange and lemon +trees whose blossoms scented the air, then a thicket of almonds full of +glittering goldfinches, then a drop of several hundred feet; beyond, to the +right, a great mountain with snow on its rocky summit, its lower slopes and +the intervening country <!-- page 32--><a name="page32"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 32</span>highly cultivated; to the left the sea, an +illimitable opal gleaming in the sunset. Between the mountain and the +sea the coastline went in and out, in and out, in a succession of bays and +promontories that receded and receded until sea and land and sky were +blended into one distant haze. Across the first bay was the port and, +as the dusk deepened, constellations of lights gathered and glowed among +the shipping. I took possession, thinking that if, like +Peppino’s parents, I might spend my declining days here, the troubles +of life, and especially those attendant upon old age, might be easier to +bear. And yet, possibly, a stupendous panorama might turn out as +deceitful as proficiency at whist, or great riches, or worldly honours, or +any of the other adjuncts of age popularly supposed to be desirable; for I +suspect that most of these things fail and become as naught in the balance +when weighed against a good digestion, a modest competency and a quiet +conscience. These are the abiding securities that smooth our passage +through life and bring a man peace at the last, and each of us has his own +way of going about to win them.</p> +<p>Peppino brought my luggage and, with <!-- page 33--><a +name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 33</span>no nonsense about what +I would have for dinner or when or where I should like it, told me that it +would be ready at 7.30 in the garden. Accordingly I went down +punctually and found a table spread under a trellis of vines from which +hung an electric light. Peppino waited on me as, according to his +account, he used to do in London, and entertained me with reminiscences of +his life there. He had attended divine service at St. Paul’s, +which he called il Duomo di Londra, and had found it a more reverent +function, though less emotional, than Mass at home. He was +enthusiastic about the river Thames, the orators in Hyde Park and the shiny +soldiers riding in the streets. He remembered the lions in the +Zoological Gardens and the “Cock” at Highbury, where he once +drank a whisky-soda and disliked it intensely. He had stood on the +base of La Torre del Duca di Bronte (by which he meant the Nelson Column) +to see the Lord Mayor’s Show, and considered it far finer than any +Sicilian procession—more poetical in conception, he said, and carried +out with greater magnificence. He had been to Brighton from Saturday +to Monday and burst into tears when he saw the sea again. <!-- page +34--><a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 34</span>It is difficult +to travel on the Underground Railway without losing oneself, but Peppino +can do it. He got lost once, but that was in some street near Covent +Garden, soon after his arrival, and before he had ventured alone in the +Underground; he asked his way of a policeman who spoke Italian and told him +the way: he believes that all London policemen speak Italian, but he +himself prefers English if he can get a chance to speak it.</p> +<p>Sicilians always want to speak English, especially those of the lower +orders who invariably consider it as a master-key that will open every door +leading to wealth. Sometimes what they say is, of course, nothing +more than otiose compliment; sometimes they are merely introducing the +subject of their want of money in an artistic manner in the hope of +anything from a soldo to a promise to take them into service as valet, +courier, coachman, or whatever it may be—a sort of shaking of +Fortune’s bag to see what will come out. Sometimes they really +do want to learn English and some of them even make attempts to pick up a +few words and actually retain them.</p> +<p>I went once from Siracusa to Malta at the end of December; it was +abominably rough, <!-- page 35--><a name="page35"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 35</span>and my luggage was thrown about in the cabin +with such violence that some of the things slipped out of my bag. I +was too sea-sick to be sure I had picked them all up, but afterwards +discovered that the only thing left behind was my new diary for the next +year. On returning from Valletta to Siracusa about a fortnight later, +I asked the steward if he had found my diary and it was produced by the +cabin-boy who must have been a youth of considerable energy and +enterprise. He had apparently learnt by ear several English words +and, finding a book full of blank paper, had written them down, spelling +them the best way he could, that is phonetically, according to Italian +pronunciation, and writing the Italian equivalents, spelt in his own way, +in a parallel column. His writing is so distinct that I am certain I +have got every letter right, but I do not recognize his second English word +for latrina, it is probably some corrupt form of lavatory. The +vocabulary, though restricted, seems a fairly useful one for a cabin-boy to +begin with:</p> +<table> +<tr> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">Engl.</span></p> +</td> +<td> +<p><span class="smcap">Italy</span>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p>Fork</p> +</td> +<td> +<p>Forketa</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p>Spoun </p> +</td> +<td> +<p>Cuchiaio</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p>Neif</p> +</td> +<td> +<p>Coltelo</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p><!-- page 36--><a name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +36</span>Pleit </p> +</td> +<td> +<p>Piati</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p>Glas</p> +</td> +<td> +<p>Bichiere</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p>Bootl </p> +</td> +<td> +<p>Butiglia</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p>Voutsch </p> +</td> +<td> +<p>Orologio</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p>Tebl</p> +</td> +<td> +<p>Tavola</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p>Ceaer </p> +</td> +<td> +<p>Sedia</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p>Taul</p> +</td> +<td> +<p>Tavaglia</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p>Serviet </p> +</td> +<td> +<p>Serviette</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p>Dabliusii </p> +</td> +<td> +<p>Latrina</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p>Lavetrim</p> +</td> +<td> +<p> „</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p>Vouder</p> +</td> +<td> +<p>Aqua</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p>Badi</p> +</td> +<td> +<p>Letto</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<p></p> +<p>Peppino is not exactly of this class, his parents were able to give him +a good education, he took his degree at the University of Palermo and, +though he does not practise his profession, is a qualified engineer. +When he returned from London his English was probably better than the +cabin-boy’s will ever be, but he is a little out of practice.</p> +<p>I had observed a couple of picturesque ruffians hovering about in the +gloom of the garden; towards the end of dinner they wandered into the +circle of the electric light and resolved themselves into Carmelo and +Rosario. We invited them to sit down, gave them wine and cigarettes +and talked over the changes that had taken place in the town since I had +last been there.</p> +<p><!-- page 37--><a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +37</span>When they had gone, I asked Peppino about Rosario’s +misfortune and learnt that he had been put into prison for stabbing his +father. He had only wounded him, and Peppino thought the father had +probably been in the wrong, for he has a bad history in the books of the +police, but Rosario had not done himself any good over it, because, of +course, the crime and its consequences have now gone down into his own +history.</p> +<p>An Englishman may be a mass of prejudices, but I confess I did not like +the idea of hob-nobbing with a would-be parricide and determined that +Rosario should not drive me any more; if I wanted a carriage, Carmelo +should get leave of his padrone and take me.</p> +<p>Next morning, while I was having my coffee, there was a sound of passing +music; I recognized it as belonging to a funeral, and asked Peppino if he +knew who was dead. Several people were dead and he did not know which +this was, unless it was old Baldassare; it must be either a married woman +or a grown-up man. I asked how he knew that. He replied that +when apprenticed to his father, who had been sagrestano before <!-- page +38--><a name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 38</span>taking the +hotel, he had learnt all about the ceremonies of the Church.</p> +<p>“They do this,” he said, “when it is a married lady +dead or a grown man. If it shall be the woman dead unmarried or a boy +dead, then shall it be a different song, a different ring of bell and the +dead shall go very directly in the paradiso; it is like the—please, +what is fuochi artificiali? Excuse me, it is the rocket; prestissimo +and St. Peter he don’t be asking no question. Did you +understand?”</p> +<p>He then diverged to ceremonies connected with last illnesses—</p> +<p>“When the doctor is coming it is telling always that you would be +good of the malady, but when the priest is coming it is telling that you +are finished. This is not a good thing. It is difficult to hope +when the doctor is shaking the head and is telling ‘Please, you; go, +catch the priest quickly, quickly.’ And sometimes the notary, +the man of law, if the malade is having money; if no money, it is the +notary not at all. When the doctor is coming out, the priest is +coming in, and generally after would be the death. But you must +pay. If to pay less would come only one priest and not well <!-- page +39--><a name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 39</span>dressed, if to +pay more, very well dressed and too many priests. If to pay plenty, +plenty, then to ring all the bells and enter by the great door; but if to +pay few, then not many bells and to enter by the second door. Did you +understand?</p> +<p>“When they die the parents always, and also the man that is to +die, they fear the—please, what is not the paradiso? Excuse me, +it is the inferno: and they tell to the priest ‘Please +come.’ Then they pay him to tell all that is good, and +sometimes the priest arrive that you will be dead. If you shall +suicide, very likely you are dead before. Then shall the parents pay +him to tell that the man to die has taken all the functions of religion and +the holy oil to put in the foot to prevent him the death. But it is +prevent not at all.</p> +<p>“Did you know what is sacramento? All right, I shall tell +you. The priest is going with the sacramento on the hand and the +umbrella on the head and you must pay—always must pay, it is the +interesting thing. And the old women are going and are praying +because the man is dead: and the soldiers are going and are taking the arms +before the risorgimento, but now the <!-- page 40--><a +name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 40</span>law it is +redeemed. Then they arrive into the room of the malade and take the +sacramento and up and down and put the holy oil in the foot and pray and +went away, and the malade who is not dead would very soonly die.”</p> +<h3><!-- page 41--><a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +41</span>CHAPTER III—THE PROFESSOR</h3> +<p>The day before the festa there came a professor of pedagogy, and Peppino +was not best pleased to see him because he knew him as a jettatore. I +had supposed this word to mean a person with the evil eye who causes +misfortunes to others, but he used it in the sense of one who causes +misfortunes to himself or, at least, who is always in trouble—a man +who is constitutionally unfortunate, the sort of man with whom Napoleon +would have nothing to do. He will miss his train more often than not; +if he has to attend a funeral it will be when he has a cold in his head, +and all his white pocket-handkerchiefs will be at the wash, so that he must +use a coloured one; he will attempt to take his medicine in the dark, +thereby swallowing the liniment by mistake. Of course, this kind of +man is incidentally disastrous to others as <!-- page 42--><a +name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 42</span>well as to himself and +is, therefore, also a jettatore in the other sense, so that Napoleon was +quite right.</p> +<p>The arrival of the professor led Peppino into giving me a great deal of +information about the evil eye in which he swore he did not believe. +It was all rather indefinite and contradictory, partly, no doubt, because +those who believe in it most firmly are the analfabeti and unaccustomed to +express themselves clearly.</p> +<p>The prevailing idea seems to be that an evil influence proceeds from the +eye of the jettatore who is not necessarily a bad person, at least he need +not be desirous of hurting any one. The misfortunes that follow +wherever he goes may be averted by the interposition of some attractive +object whereby the glance from his eye is arrested, and either the +misfortune does not happen at all, or the force of the evil influence is +expended elsewhere. Therefore, it is as well always to carry some +charm against the evil eye. All over Italy, but especially in the +south, it is rare to meet a man who does not carry a charm, either on his +watch-chain or in his pocket, or on a string or a chain round his neck +under his clothes, and he usually carries <!-- page 43--><a +name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>more than one. +Women, of course, always wear them, which may be because a woman likes to +surround herself with pretty things, and, if she can say that they protect +her, she has a reason, unconnected with vanity, which she may be apt to +profess is her true reason for wearing ornaments. The same applies to +men who, though less in the habit of wearing ornaments, are, as has been +often remarked, no less vain than women. This may be called the +ornamental view and may account for some of the fashions that arise in the +wearing of charms. But there is also the utilitarian view, and a new +form of charm will sometimes become popular, just as a new sanctuary +becomes popular, because it is reported to have been effective in some +particular case. Probably no change of fashion will ever banish horns +made of coral or mother-of-pearl; being pointed, they are supposed to +attract and break up the evil glance as a lightning conductor is supposed +to attract and break up a flash of lightning.</p> +<p>Peppino was very contemptuous about all charms and coral horns +especially. Even assuming that horns in a general way are +prophylactic, it is no use having them made of coral or mother-of-pearl and +wearing them <!-- page 44--><a name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +44</span>on one’s watch-chain, because the Padre Eterno, when he +designed the human form, was careful to provide man with natural means of +making horns so that the evil eye might be averted during the period that +would have to elapse before the wearing of ornaments became +customary. We can still benefit by this happy forethought if we are +threatened with the evil eye when divested of all our charms—when +bathing for instance. The pope, Pio Nono, was believed to have the +evil eye, and pious pilgrims asking his blessing used, at the same time, to +take the precaution of protecting themselves from his malign influence by +pointing two fingers at him under their clothes.</p> +<p>Inanimate things, of course, cannot be said literally to have the evil +eye, but many of them cause misfortunes. A hearse is a most unlucky +thing to meet when it is empty. Peppino says—</p> +<p>“If you shall meet the carriage of the dead man and it is empty, +perhaps it shall be coming to take you; this is not a good thing and then +must you be holding the horn in the hand. But if the dead man shall +be riding in his carriage, then certainly this time it shall not be for you +and the <!-- page 45--><a name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +45</span>horn it is necessary not at all. This is what they +believe.”</p> +<p>He did not mean that you are bound to die if you see an empty hearse, +but that unless you take precautions you will certainly meet with some kind +of misfortune. I should say that the professor meets an empty hearse +every day of his life. He came up to Castellinaria, not knowing there +was to be a festa, found every place full and spent the night wandering +about the streets. It was impossible not to be sorry for the poor man +when I found him the following afternoon dozing on a chair in the kitchen +and, in a fit of expansiveness, I offered him the other bed in my +room. He accepted it with gratitude and said he should retire early +as he was too much fatigued to care about religious festivities.</p> +<p>Peppino took the earliest opportunity of blowing me up for this, saying +that it was most dangerous to sleep with a jettatore in the room. I +told him I did not believe in all that nonsense any more than he did and we +had a long discussion which he ended by producing a coral horn from his +pocket, saying the professor might have the other bed if I would wear the +coral all night. <!-- page 46--><a name="page46"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 46</span>Of course I chaffed him about having the horn +in his pocket after his protestations of disbelief, but it was like talking +to a kitten that has been caught stealing fish and I had to take his charm +and promise to conform on the ground that one cannot be too careful.</p> +<p>The procession, which was the climax of the festa, did not begin till +11.30 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> and was not over till 3.30 the next +morning. On returning to the albergo I found the professor still +dozing on his chair, undisturbed by the constant chatter of all the +servants and their friends. He had not gone to bed because the +padrone, Peppino’s father, with the key of my room in his pocket, had +gone out early in the evening and got lost in the crowd, so there were both +my beds wasted and nothing to be done but to make the best of it. I +settled myself on a chair in a corner and wished for day. Whereupon, +almost immediately, Peppino, who, though I did not know it till afterwards, +had been keeping near me and watching me all night in case I might meet the +evil eye among the people, came in and the discussion rose into a tumult of +dialect, as the situation was made clear to him, and then sank into +complete silence <!-- page 47--><a name="page47"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 47</span>which was broken by his suddenly saying to +me—</p> +<p>“You wish to sleep? All right. I show you the +bed. Come on.”</p> +<p>He preceded me up some back stairs into a room occupied by a lady in one +bed, her female attendant in another and, in various shakedowns on the +floor, another woman, two men and more children than I could count by the +light of one candle. We picked our way among them to the farther end +of the room where there was a door. Peppino produced a key and opened +it; to my surprise it led into my room.</p> +<p>“Buon riposo,” said Peppino, and was about to disappear the +way we had come when I reminded him that the professor was to have the +other bed. I had some difficulty with him, but when I had hung his +coral round my neck he gave way.</p> +<p>After this I saw a great deal of the professor. He said he was +forty-five and he was perhaps the most simple-minded, gentle creature I +have ever known. Being with him was like listening to a child +strumming on a worn-out piano. As we sat down to dinner next day he +asked if he could have a little carbonate of soda. Peppino, with a +<!-- page 48--><a name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +48</span>glance at the bill of fare, regretted that there was none in the +house. The professor then explained to me the advantages of taking +carbonate of soda before meals and said that some chemists gave one an +enormous quantity for two soldi. Evidently the professor had not a +good digestion. He helped me with his own fork to a piece of meat off +his own plate. This is a mark of very great friendliness and makes me +think of Joseph entertaining his brethren when they went down to buy corn +in Egypt.</p> +<p>“And he took and sent messes unto them from before him; but +Benjamin’s mess was five times so much as any of theirs.”</p> +<p>And I think of Menelaus in the <i>Odyssey</i> sending a piece of meat to +Telemachus and Pisistratus when they supped with him at Lacedæmon; +and of Ulysses, at supper in the palace of Alcinous, sending a piece of +meat to Demodocus to thank him for his singing, in spite of the pain his +lays had caused him.</p> +<p>I always accept the gift, after deprecating the honour with words and +gestures, and a little later, in accordance with what I believe to be the +modern practice, return the compliment.</p> +<p><!-- page 49--><a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +49</span>The professor was pleased to have an opportunity of improving his +knowledge of England and asked me many questions. I am afraid he only +pretended to believe some of the things I told him. I said that in +England a man who is the proprietor of the house he lives in is not on that +account necessarily a rich man; he may or may not be, it all depends. +He was surprised to hear that I had travelled from London to Castellinaria +in less than three weeks; that the channel passage takes under twelve hours +and has been known to be smooth; that London is not actually on the coast +but a few miles inland and on a river; that we have other towns even more +inland and that after the death of Queen Victoria, England did not become a +republic.</p> +<p>I had the professor at a disadvantage because, being a Sicilian, his +natural politeness would not permit him to show that in his opinion I was +drawing upon my imagination after the manner of travellers. Moreover +Peppino declared that all I said was quite true and added that what in +Sicily is like this (holding his hand out with the palm upwards) in England +is like that (holding it with the palm downwards). Nevertheless I +<!-- page 50--><a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 50</span>was +beginning to feel that I had gone far enough and had better be careful, so +when he asserted that England refuses Home Rule to New Zealand, and grinds +her colonies down under the iron heel of the oppressor because she cannot +afford to lose the amount they pay us in our iniquitous income tax, I did +not contradict him. It is possible that I misunderstood him, or he +may have guessed I did not agree, or there may have been even more +confusion in his mind than I suspected, for he afterwards said that the +income tax paid by the colonies went into the private pocket of Mr. +Chamberlain, and that explained why the Secretary for the Colonies was so +rich.</p> +<p>“My dear professor,” I said, “permit me to tell you +something; my poor mother had a cousin whose name was James. He was +perhaps the most simple-minded, gentle creature I have ever known. +Being with him was like listening to—well, it was like listening to +certain kinds of music. He lived by himself in the country, with an +old woman to do for him, and was over sixty before we came to know him; +then we were all very fond of him and often wondered what the dear, good +old gentleman could <!-- page 51--><a name="page51"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 51</span>have been like in his early days. It has +just occurred to me that you, sir, are like what cousin James must have +been at your age.”</p> +<p>He was overwhelmed; his eyes filled with tears; he said he should +remember for all his life the flattering words he had just heard; they +constituted the most pleasing and genteel compliment he had ever received; +he shook hands with me and remained silent as a sign that his emotion was +too deep for more words.</p> +<h3><!-- page 52--><a name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +52</span>CHAPTER IV—THE WINE-SHIP</h3> +<p>Peppino usually took half an hour off and came about noon to wherever I +was sketching to fetch me to lunch. One morning as we walked along +nearly every man we met smiled and said to him—</p> +<p>“Buona festa, Peppino,” and he smiled and returned their +salutes with the same words. He accounted for it by saying it was his +onomastico—the day of the saint whose name he bears.</p> +<p>“What?” said I, “is it S. Peppino and you never told +me? I wish you many happy returns of the day. But it cannot be +everybody’s onomastico as well, and you say ‘Buona festa, +Peppino’ to all who speak to you.”</p> +<p>He replied that it was the 19th of March, the festa of S. Giuseppe, and +assured me that he had said “Buona festa, Peppino” <!-- page +53--><a name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 53</span>to no one who +was not a namesake; so that about two-thirds of the men at Castellinaria +must have been baptized Giuseppe.</p> +<p>“Then that explains it,” said I. “I was +beginning to think that you might have become engaged to be married and +they were congratulating you.”</p> +<p>That did not do at all.</p> +<p>“I got no time to be married,” said he, “too much +busy. Besides, marriage very bad thing. Look here, I shall tell +you, listen to me. Marriage is good for the woman, is bad for the +man: every marriage makes to be one woman more in the world, one man +less. Did you understand? And they are not happy +together. We have a bad example in this town.”</p> +<p>“Surely you don’t mean to tell me that here in +Castellinaria, where everything moves so smoothly and so peacefully, you +have an unhappy married couple?”</p> +<p>He replied solemnly, slowly and decidedly, “Not +one—all.”</p> +<p>He continued in his usual manner, “Did you read the ten +commandments for the people who shall be married? If to find, shall +be showing you. It says, ‘Non <!-- page 54--><a +name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 54</span>quarelate la prima +volta.’ Did you understand? ‘Don’t begin to +quarrel,’ because you will never stop. After the quarrel you +make the peace, but it is too late: the man shall forget, perhaps, but the +woman shall forget never, never, never, and you have lost.</p> +<p>“I was telling to my friend,” he continued, +“‘Please do not be married, because when you would be married +you would not love any more that lady.’ And he was telling to +me that he would marry, because it would be a good thing for him, good +wife, good food, good care and many things like this. And I was +telling to him, ‘I would be seeing if you shall be repeating these +words when you shall be married one year.’ The year was passed +but my friend he don’t be saying nothing to me. Excuse me, I am +not so bad man to ask him. I found him many times in the street, but +he would not meet me, would not speak. Oh, no! And he is not +laughing any more. Not one friend; fifteen friends, all +married. Never they are telling they are happy.”</p> +<p>Having disposed of the question of marriage he told me that Carmelo had +been to see me and would call again. He had <!-- page 55--><a +name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>already been several +times, and I was puzzled to know what he wanted. He could hardly be +wanting to propose an excursion, for I had already made him get leave and +take me for several. But as, sooner or later, an opportunity must +occur for clearing up the mystery, I left it alone for the present and +asked Peppino, who always knew everything that was going on in the +neighbourhood, what ship it was I had seen coming into the bay and making +for the port.</p> +<p>He said she was the <i>Sorella di Ninu</i>, returning from Naples, where +she had been with a cargo of wine. He knew because she belonged to +his cousin Vanni, who was a wine merchant and, if I would give up a +morning’s sketching, he would give up a morning’s work, take me +down to the port, introduce me to his cousin and show me over the ship.</p> +<p>Accordingly next morning Carmelo got leave from his padrone and drove us +down the zig-zags among the flowers while Peppino told me about his +cousin. His father had two brothers, one was the father of Vanni and +used to keep a small wine shop down in the port and Vanni, who had a voice, +studied singing and went on the opera stage. <!-- page 56--><a +name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 56</span>The other brother +emigrated to America and never married. Very little was heard of him, +except that he was engaged in some speculative business, until at last news +came of his death. Had he died six months before, he would have left +nothing, but it happened that the markets were favourable and he died +rich. After the usual delays, his money came and was divided between +his surviving brothers. Vanni’s father enlarged the wine shop, +bought vineyards and a ship, took his son away from the stage and sent him +to the University. In course of time he enlarged his business and +took Vanni into partnership. Peppino’s father gave up being +sagrestano, bought vineyards and the Albergo della Madonna (con giardino) +and educated his son. The part of Peppino’s education that was +most useful to him was his two years in England, and that did not cost his +father anything, for he would only take money enough for the journey and +all the time he was away he kept himself and saved, so that he not only +repaid his father and paid for his journey home but had money in the +bank.</p> +<p>By this time we had arrived at the quay and Peppino went off to his +uncle’s shop <!-- page 57--><a name="page57"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 57</span>for information as to approaching the +<i>Sorella di Ninu</i>, leaving me alone with Carmelo. He seized the +opportunity.</p> +<p>“I have been to see you several times because I wanted to tell you +that I also have been in prison.”</p> +<p>“Hullo! Carmelo,” I said, “have you been trying to +murder your father?”</p> +<p>“No,” he said, “it was not my father. It was a +friend. We quarrelled. I drew my knife and stabbed him in the +arm. It happened last year.”</p> +<p>I sympathized as well as I could and assured him that it should make no +difference in the relations between us.</p> +<p>Why did I say this? Why was I so indulgent towards Carmelo and so +implacable to Rosario? It seems as though an Englishman may also be a +mass of contradictions. It is true that parricide is perhaps the most +repulsive form that murder can take, but I do not think this had anything +to do with it, for ordinary murder is sufficiently repulsive. I +believe I was influenced by a conversation we had had during our last +expedition; Carmelo had told me that he intended soon to leave private +service, to marry and go into partnership with Rosario.</p> +<p><!-- page 58--><a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +58</span>“But, Carmelo,” I had objected, “would not that +be rather risky? Don’t you remember that Rosario has been to +prison for trying to kill your father?”</p> +<p>“Oh, that all happened a long time ago and Rosario has married and +settled down since then.”</p> +<p>Evidently Carmelo had thought this over and had felt uncomfortable that +I should shun Rosario for being a jail-bird and not shun him who was one +also. It seemed to indicate considerable delicacy of feeling on his +part and I was pleased with him for taking so much trouble to get the +confession off his chest. Whereas Rosario had treated his disgrazia +as merely an annoying little accident that might happen to any +gentleman.</p> +<p>Peppino returned, stood on the quay and shouted to the ships; presently +a small boat containing Vanni and a sailor detached herself from the +confusion and rowed to our feet. I was introduced and, amid the usual +compliments, we took our seats and glided past the <i>Sacro Cuore</i>, the +<i>Due Sorelle</i>, the <i>Divina Provvidenza</i>, the <i>Maria +Concetta</i>, the <i>Stella Maris</i>, the <i>La Pace</i>, the +<i>Indipendente</i>, the <i>Nuova Bambina</i> and many more. Peppino +called my attention to the names of the ships <!-- page 59--><a +name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>and said how +commonplace and dull they were after the romantic names he had seen on the +beach at Brighton. He gave, as an instance, <i>Pride of the +Ocean</i>, which I remembered having often seen there; it was all very +well, but somehow it had never impressed me as hitting the bull’s-eye +of romance. During their voyage through time the words of one’s +own language become barnacled over with associations so that we cannot see +them in their naked purity as we see the words of a foreign tongue. I +translated <i>Pride of the Ocean</i> into <i>Vanto del Mare</i> and offered +it to Peppino; it seemed to me to gain, but he said I had knocked all the +poetry out of it. One of the ships was the <i>Riunione dei due +Fratelli</i>. I inquired whether the brothers had quarrelled and made +it up.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said he, “that is the worst of family quarrels; +they do not last.”</p> +<p>“What do you mean, Peppino? Surely it is better for brothers +to be friends than to quarrel?”</p> +<p>“If to be friends inside also, then is it a good thing and much +better; but look here, excuse me; the brothers are quarrelling and fighting +and are failing to kill each others <!-- page 60--><a +name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 60</span>and the parents are +telling to don’t be quarrelling and the brothers are telling that +they would be quarrelling and the parents are telling to don’t be +stupid and to embrace and became friends and the brothers are telling, Go +away, parents, and to leave alone to be quarrelling in peace. But it +is too difficult and many months are passing and the brothers +are—please, what is stanchi? Excuse me, it is fatigued, and are +embracing to make pleasure to the parents and to make riunione outside and +to baptize the ship, but inside it is riunione not at all. It is to +kiss with the lips and the heart is hating each others. This is not a +good thing.”</p> +<p>The boat with the name that pleased me best was not there. Peppino +told me about it: it belonged to him before the money came from America and +he used it to ferry tourists across the bay and into the bowels of the +promontory through the mouth of a grotto where the reflected lights are +lovely on a sunny day; he called it the <i>Anime del Purgatorio</i>.</p> +<p>This would have been just the morning to visit the caves, for there were +no clouds. We stood on the deck of the <i>Sorella di Ninu</i>, <!-- +page 61--><a name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>looking up +through the brown masts and the rigging into the blue sky, and watching the +gulls as they glided and circled above us and turned their white wings to +the sun. Vanni did the honours of his ship, showed us his barrels and +casks, nearly all empty now, and made us look down into the hold where +there was a cask capable of holding, I forget how much, but it was so big +that it could never have been got into the ship after it was made, so it +had to be built inside. Then we must taste his wine, of which he +still had some in one of the casks, and the captain brought tumblers and +another queer-shaped glass with a string round its rim in which to fetch +the wine up; it was about the size and shape of a fir-cone, the broad upper +part being hollow to hold the wine, and the pointed lower part solid. +The captain held it by the string and dropped it neatly down through the +bung-hole, as one drops a bucket into a well; its heavy point sank through +the wine without any of that swishing and swashing which happens with a +flat-bottomed, buoyant, wooden bucket, and he drew it up full and gleaming +like a jewel. The first lot was used to rinse the tumblers inside and +out and then thrown overboard, <!-- page 62--><a name="page62"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 62</span>sparkling and flashing in the sunlight as it +fell into the sea. The taster was lowered again and the tumblers +filled.</p> +<p>Vanni, seeing I admired the taster, wanted to give it to me, but it was +the only one he had and was in constant use when customers came to the +ship, so I declined it and he promised to bring one for me next time his +ship made a voyage; in the meantime I took one of the tumblers as a +ricordo. Then we went into the captain’s cabin and sat round +his table listening to his stories and smoking cigarettes. Every now +and then a silence came over us, broken occasionally by one of us saying +suddenly—</p> +<p>“Ebbene, siamo quà!” (“Well, here we +are!”)</p> +<p>This sort of thing formerly used to make me feel nervous; it was as +though I had failed to entertain my friends or as though they had given up +the hope of entertaining me. After experiencing it several times, +however, I came to take a different and more accurate view. There was +no occasion to do or say anything. We were enjoying one +another’s society.</p> +<p>Vanni told us he was thinking of taking a cargo of Marsala to England +and what <!-- page 63--><a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +63</span>would the English people say to it? Now the Marsala was very +good and, according to Vanni, could be put upon the market at a very low +price, but I foresaw difficulties. Knowing that he had sung in opera +in Naples, Palermo, Malta and many other places, I asked if he liked +music. He said he adored it. Music, he declared, was the most +precious gift of God to man—more precious even than poetry. He +had his box at the opera and always occupied it during the season. +And he enjoyed music of all kinds, not only the modern operas of Mascagni, +Puccini and so on, but also the old music of Verdi, Donizetti and +Bellini. I asked if he did not like <i>Le Nozze di Figaro</i>. +He had never heard of it, nor of <i>Don Giovanni</i>, nor of +<i>Fidelio</i>. He had heard the names of Beethoven and Mozart, but +not of Handel, Schubert or Brahms. He had heard also of Wagner, but +had never heard any of his music.</p> +<p>I was not surprised he should not have heard of those composers who are +not famous for operas, nor by his odd list of so-called old musicians, but +I was surprised that he should place music so decidedly above poetry. +I said it appeared to me he had practically <!-- page 64--><a +name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>expressed the opinion +that Donizetti was a more precious gift of God to man than Dante. Put +like that, he did not hold to what he had said and confessed he had been +speaking without due consideration. But Peppino said that in some +respects Donizetti was a better man than Dante; he was smoother and better +tempered, “and many things like this.” Peppino had been +brought up, like every Italian, to worship Dante, but when he went to +London and mastered the English language, when he began to read our +literature and to think for himself, then he saw that Dante was “un +falso idolo.” Every nation gets the poet she deserves and Italy +has her faults; but what, asked Peppino, what has Italy done to deserve her +dreary Dante? On the other hand, with all his admiration for England, +he could hardly believe that we really do deserve our Shakespeare.</p> +<p>I was beginning to feel giddy, as though the <i>Sorella di Ninu</i>, +instead of being quietly in port, was out on the tumbling ocean in a sudden +gale, so very unusual is it to hear such opinions in Italy. But +Peppino is full of surprises. To recover my balance I turned the +conversation back to the wine, taking <!-- page 65--><a +name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span>my way through the +music and telling them that in England we thought very highly of the +Austrian and German composers, and asking Vanni if he would recommend any +one to introduce their compositions into Sicily. He replied that if +it was pleasing music it might be successful, but that if it was very +different from Italian music it would hardly pay to bring it over until the +people had been educated. I feared it would be the same with the +wine. He must first educate us to forsake our old friends, beer, +whisky and tea, before he could create a market on which he could put his +Marsala.</p> +<p>Driving back, I told Peppino about the lottery at Castelvetrano and how +my numbers had lost. He inquired whether my birthday fell during the +week I bought the ticket. It did not.</p> +<p>“Then,” said he, “of course you could not be winning +and Angelo very stupid to let you play those numbers.”</p> +<p>It seems that numbers are no good unless they are connected with +something that happens to you during the week. This explained why at +Selinunte the brigadier had discarded the price of my clothes, which was +not his concern but mine and belonged <!-- page 66--><a +name="page66"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 66</span>to the week in which I +had bought them, and preferred to play the number that fell from the +cigarettes, of which he was at the moment actually smoking one.</p> +<p>“If there shall be a railway accident,” continued Peppino, +“on Thursday night, then shall there be going plenty much people and +shall sleep in the ground to be first on Friday morning, because the office +shall shut early to take the papers to Palermo to turn the wheel the +Saturday. And if to come out the number, the people shall be gaining +many money, but if to don’t come out, shall be gaining no +money. This is not a good thing.</p> +<p>“They think it is fortunate the—please, what is sogno? +Excuse me, it is the dream. But it must be the dream in the week you +play. When the man in the dream shall be coming from the other world +and shall be saying, ‘Please you, play this number,’ then they +believe you shall certainly win. But if to play the number, very +uncertain to win.”</p> +<p>They live in a state of wild hope after buying their tickets until the +numbers are declared and, the odds being enormously in favour of the +government, the gamblers <!-- page 67--><a name="page67"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 67</span>usually lose. Then they live in a state +of miserable despair until the possession of a few soldi, the happening of +something remarkable, or merely the recollection of the departed joys of +hope compared with present actual depression, urges them to try their luck +again. So that the gambler’s life consists of alternations of +feverish expectation and maddening dejection. “This is not a +good thing”; but it is a worse thing for the gambler who wins. +He sees how easy it is and is encouraged to believe he can do it every +time; in his exaltation he stakes again and loses all his winnings, instead +of only a few soldi. If he does not do this he spends the money in +treating his friends and getting into debt over it and has to pawn his +watch. So that the Genovese, by way of wishing his enemy ill-luck, +while appearing to observe the proprieties, says to him—</p> +<p>“Ti auguro un’ ambo.” (“I hope you may win +an ambo.”)</p> +<p>Peppino does not approve of the lottery, yet he has not made up his mind +that it ought to be abolished. It certainly does harm, but so deep is +the natural instinct for gambling that innumerable private lotteries would +spring up to replace it, and they would <!-- page 68--><a +name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>do far more mischief, +because they would be in the hands of rogues, whereas the government +manages the affair quite honestly. The government pays no attention +to dreams or ladies in white dresses or anything that happens during the +week; it bases its calculations on the mathematical theory of chances, and +gathers in the soldi week after week, so that it makes an annual profit of +about three million sterling. Besides, if people are willing to pay +for the pleasure of a week of hope, why should they not be allowed to do +so? The uneducated as a class ought to contribute to the expenses of +governing their country, and the lottery is a sure and convenient way of +collecting their contributions. It is literally what it is often +called—La tassa sull’ ignoranza. (The tax upon +ignorance.)</p> +<p>Peppino even uses the lottery himself, but in a way of his own. He +chooses two numbers every week, according to what occurs to him as though +he were going in for an ambo and, instead of buying a ticket, puts four +soldi into an earthenware money-box. The numbers he has chosen do not +come out and he considers that he has won his four soldi and has put them +by. In this way he has accumulated several money-boxes <!-- page +69--><a name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>full, and if +ever his numbers come out he intends to break his boxes and distribute the +contents among the deserving poor.</p> +<p>As a way of making money Peppino prefers the course of always doing +whatever there is to be done in the house and in the vineyard. A few +years ago his father’s vines were suffering from disease; he made +inquiries, studied the subject, ascertained the best course to pursue and, +with his own hands and some little assistance, rooted up all the plants and +laid down American vines, with the result that the yield is now more than +double what it ever was before. And this he thinks was a great deal +better than losing money week after week in the lottery, not only because +of the result, but because of the interest he took in the work. In +fact, he attends to his own business and finds every moment of the day +occupied. He says—</p> +<p>“Always to begin one thing before to finish some other thing, this +is the good life.”</p> +<p>Certainly it seems to agree with him. There is not much the matter +with Peppino’s health nor with his banking account nor with his +conscience, so far as I can judge. Every one in the town is fond of +him and he is always happy and ready to do any one a good <!-- page 70--><a +name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 70</span>turn. Indeed, his +popularity is the only thing that causes me any uneasiness about him. +There is generally something wrong about a man who has no enemies—but +there are exceptions to every rule.</p> +<p>The poor professor, on the other hand, has at least one enemy and that +the worst a man can have, namely himself. The evening before he went +away he took me into his confidence and consulted me about his future and +his prospects. He is married, but his wife is out of her mind, and he +has three sons, all doing badly, one of them very badly. He told me +he was not at the moment employed as professor, he was living on his +patrimony which consisted of a few acres of vines; he was gradually selling +his land and spending the proceeds, and he thought this the best plan +because the vines were all diseased and did not bring him in enough money +to keep himself and his family. Should I recommend him to come to +England, learn English and try to keep himself by the exercise of his +profession? It was like Vanni’s idea of bringing his wine to +England. I could only say I was afraid we already had enough +professors. Then he thought he might write and earn a little money +that way; he had <!-- page 71--><a name="page71"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 71</span>read all Sir Walter Scott’s novels in a +translation—thirty-two volumes I think he said; he admired them +immensely and was thinking of writing a romance; he had in fact an idea for +one, and would I be so good as to give him my opinion about it? A +young lady is desired by her father to marry a man she does not love, a +rich man, much older than herself. She refuses, but, later on, +consents to make the sacrifice. After a year of unhappy married life +she meets a man of her own age, falls in love with him, and one day her +husband surprises them together, in his rage kills them both and commits +suicide.</p> +<p>“Now,” said the professor, “what do you think of my +theme?”</p> +<p>I said that, so far as I could remember Sir Walter Scott’s novels +at the moment, they contained nothing from which any one could say he had +taken his plot which, of course, was greatly to his credit on the score of +originality, but I begged to be allowed to defer giving any further opinion +until he had finished the work; so much depends upon the way in which these +things are carried out.</p> +<p>He had also written a poem entitled <i>Completo</i>, of which he gave me +a copy. It was, he said, “un grido dell’ +anima.” He had <!-- page 72--><a name="page72"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 72</span>not found a publisher for it yet, but if I +would translate it into English and get it published in London, I could +send him any profits that might accrue. I showed it to Peppino who +swore he remembered something very like it in an Italian magazine and that +the professor had had nothing to do with it beyond copying it. I +translated it without rhymes, the professor not having gone to that +expense. I have not offered the result to any English publisher, none +of them would receive it as Peppino did when I showed it to him. He +said I had performed a miracle, that I had converted a few lines of +drivelling nonsense—just the sort of stuff that would attract the +professor—into a masterpiece. But I am afraid the prestige of +the English language may have blinded Peppino to any little defects, as it +made him see more romance than I could find in the names of the English +boats. This was my “masterpiece”:</p> +<blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center">FULL INSIDE.</p> +<p>The train is full; Ah me! the load of travellers!<br /> +The engine whistles; Ah me! the piercing shriek!<br /> +My heart is burdened; Ah me! the weight of sorrows!<br /> +My soul exclaims; Ah me! the despairing cry!</p> +<p><!-- page 73--><a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 73</span>O +Train! have pity upon me<br /> +For you are strong and I am weak,<br /> +Transfer to my heart the load of your passengers<br /> +And take in exchange the weight of my sorrows.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Next time I saw the professor he was in charge of a newspaper kiosk in +Palermo, looking older and more dilapidated and still waiting for the manna +to fall from heaven. He complained of the slackness of trade. +He also complained that the work was too hard and was killing him; so that, +one way or the other, he intended to shut up the kiosk and look out for +something else.</p> +<h2><!-- page 77--><a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +77</span>CATANIA</h2> +<h3>CHAPTER V—MICHELE AND THE PRINCESS OF BIZERTA</h3> +<p>Educated Sicilians have not a high opinion of the marionettes; it is +sometimes difficult to induce them to talk on the subject. They say +the marionettes are for the lower orders and accuse them of being +responsible for many of the quarrels we read about in the newspapers. +The people become so fascinated by the glamour of the romance in which they +live night after night that they imitate in private life the chivalrous +behaviour of the warriors they see fighting in the little theatres, and +thus what may begin as a playful reminiscence of something in last +night’s performance occasionally leads to a too accurate imitation of +one of last night’s combats and perhaps ends in a fatal wound. +This being like the accounts in English papers about boys becoming +hooligans or <!-- page 78--><a name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +78</span>running off to sea as stowaways in consequence of reading trashy +literature, my desire to attend a performance of marionettes was increased, +but I did not want to go alone for, in the event of a row, with knives, +among the audience it would be better to be accompanied by a native.</p> +<p>I was in Palermo where I knew a few students, whose education was of +course still incomplete, but they were cold on the subject and said that if +they came with me we should probably be turned out for laughing. That +was not what I wanted. It ought to have been possible to do something +with the waiter or the porter, or even with the barber whom I met on the +stairs and in the passages of the hotel when he came in the morning to +shave the commercial travellers; but they all made +difficulties—either they did not get away from their work till too +late, or it was not a place for an Englishman or it was not safe. At +home, of course, one does not go to the theatre with the waiter, but when +in Sicily, though one does not perhaps do altogether as the Sicilians, one +does not do as one does in England. I know a Palermitan barber with +whom I should be proud to be seen walking <!-- page 79--><a +name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 79</span>in the Via Macqueda any +day—that is, any day when his Sunday clothes were not in +pawn—and there used to be a conduttore at my hotel who took me round +to many of the sights in the town and who was a person of such +distinguished manners that when with him I felt as though walking with a +Knight-Templar in disguise—a disguise that had to be completed by my +buying him a straw hat, otherwise he would have given us away by wearing +his cap with “Albergo So-and-so” written all round it. +These are the people who really know about the marionettes, for whenever +they get an evening off they go. It seemed, however, that I had met +with a conspiracy of obstruction. Palermo was treating me as a good +woman treats her husband when he wants to do something of which she +disapproves—there was no explanation or arguing; what I wanted was +quietly made impossible. So I replied by treating Palermo as a good +man treats his wife under such circumstances—I pretended to like it +and waited till I could woo some less difficult city.</p> +<p>Catania provided what I wanted. There I knew a professor +interested in folk-lore and kindred subjects to whom I confided <!-- page +80--><a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 80</span>my +troubles. He laughed at me for my failures, assured me there was no +danger and offered to take me. It was a Sunday evening. On +arriving at the teatrino, he spoke to an attendant who showed us in by a +side entrance and gave us the best places in the house, that is, we were +near the only open window. The seating arrangements would have been +condemned by the County Council; there were rows of benches across the +floor and no passages, so that the people had to walk on the seats to get +to their places; two galleries ran round the house very close together, an +ordinary man could not have stood upright in the lower one, and it was +difficult to move in the upper one in which we were, because the arches +supporting the roof nearly blocked it in three places on each side. +Presently a man came round and collected our money, twenty centimes each, +the seats on the ground being fifteen.</p> +<p>There were four boys sitting on the stage, two at each side of the +curtain, as they used to sit in Shakespeare’s theatre. Like the +rest of the audience, these boys were of the class they call Facchini, that +is, porters, coachmen, shop assistants, shoeblacks, water-sellers, and so +on. It sometimes happens <!-- page 81--><a name="page81"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 81</span>when travelling in Sicily that one has to spend +half an hour, half a day, or it may be more, in company with one of these +men. He is usually a delightful person, dignified, kind, courteous, +full of fun and extremely friendly without being obtrusive. During +conversation one may perhaps ask him whether he can read and write; he will +probably reply that at school he was taught both. Presently one may +ask him to read an advertisement, or to write down an address; he will +probably reply that the light is bad, or that he is occupied with the +luggage or the horses. The fact is that reading and writing are to +him very much what the classics and the higher mathematics are to many an +English gentleman—the subjects were included in his youthful studies, +but as they have never been of the slightest use to him in earning his +bread, he has forgotten all he ever learnt of them, and does not care to +say so. The Sicilian, however, no matter how uneducated he may be, +has an appetite for romance which must be gratified and, as it would give +him some trouble to brush up his early accomplishments and stay at home +reading Pulci and Boiardo, Tasso and Ariosto, he prefers to <!-- page +82--><a name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 82</span>follow the +story of Carlo Magno and his paladins and the wars against the Saracens in +the teatrino. Besides, no Sicilian man ever stays at home to do +anything except to eat and sleep, and those are things he does out of doors +as often as not; the houses are for the women, the men live in the +street. It is as though in England the cab-drivers, railway porters +and shop-boys were to spend evening after evening, month after month, +looking on at a dramatized version of the <i>Arcadia</i> or <i>The Faerie +Queene</i>.</p> +<p>Presently the curtain went up and disclosed two flaring gas-jets, each +with a small screen in front of it about halfway down the stage; these were +the footlights, and behind them was a back cloth representing a hall with a +vista of columns. In the rather confined space between the footlights +and the back cloth there came on a knight in armour. He stood +motionless, supporting his forehead with his right fist, the back of his +hand being outward.</p> +<p>“Is he crying?” I inquired.</p> +<p>“No,” replied the professor, “he is meditating; if he +were crying the back of his hand would be against his face.”</p> +<p>He then dropped his fist and delivered a <!-- page 83--><a +name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span>soliloquy, no doubt +embodying the result of his meditation, after which he was joined by his +twin brother. They conversed at length of battles and the King of +Athens, of Adrianopoli and the Grand Turk, of princesses and of journeys by +sea and land. The act of speaking induced a curious nervous +complaint, useful because it showed which was the speaker; not only did he +move his head and his right arm in a very natural and Sicilian manner, but +he was constantly on the point of losing his balance, and only saved +himself from falling by swinging one leg from the hip forwards or backwards +as the case required. The listening knight stood firm till he had to +speak, and then he was attacked by the complaint and the other became +still.</p> +<p>At first I was puzzled as to the actual size of the figures and, +starting with the idea that marionettes are always small, assumed that +these were about three feet high; but, as the novelty wore off, I compared +them with the audience and especially with the boys sitting in the corners +and with various assistants of whom occasional glimpses could be caught at +the wings; sometimes the hand of an operator appeared below the scenery and +gave a hint, and gradually I came to the <!-- page 84--><a +name="page84"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 84</span>conclusion that the +puppets could not be much smaller than life, if at all.</p> +<p>The operators must have been standing on a platform behind the back +scene; the figures were able to pass one another, but never came forward +more than a step or two, the footlights being in the way, and no doubt the +operators could not reach further forward than they did. Each figure +was worked by two iron rods, one to his head and one to his right hand, and +several strings to which after a few minutes I paid no attention; perhaps +their very obviousness saved them from notice. Any attempt to conceal +them would have been a mistake, for what is the use of announcing a +performance by marionettes and then pretending there is no mechanism? +Besides, if one cannot accept a few conventions one had better stay away +from the theatre altogether.</p> +<p>At the conclusion of the interview the knights followed one another off; +and the buoyancy of their walk must be seen to be believed. The +students have seen it and believe it so thoroughly that, when they meet one +another in the Quattro Canti, they not unfrequently adopt it to the +amusement of the bystanders. But the students make <!-- page 85--><a +name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 85</span>the mistake of slightly +overdoing it. The marionettes often take a step or two quite +naturally, and this, while adding to the absurdity (which cannot be the +intention of the operator), also shows what is possible and makes one think +that with a little extra trouble they might be made to walk always as +smoothly as they move their heads and arms. It might, however, be +necessary for them to have more strings, and this would make them more +difficult to manipulate. In Sicily the marionettes who tell the story +of the Paladins do not lay themselves out to be of a mechanism so ingenious +that they shall appear to be alive; such illusion as they do produce, like +the incompetent illustration to Shakespeare which Lamb preferred, is +insufficient to cripple the imagination of the audience who are the more +intimately touched by the romance of the story and by the voice of the +speaker.</p> +<p>The back cloth was raised and we had before us a tranquil sea with two +little islands sleeping under a sunset sky. Michele entered; he was a +very splendid fellow in golden armour with draperies of purple and scarlet +and white, and in his helmet a plume that nearly trailed on the +ground. No <!-- page 86--><a name="page86"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 86</span>playbill was provided, but none was wanted for +Michele, he could not have been taken for anything but an operatic tenor of +noble birth about to proceed against the Saracens. He first meditated +and then soliloquized as he paced the sandy shore. The Princess of +Bizerta in a flowing robe, covered with spangles, though not actually in +sight, was not far off, imparting her griefs to the unsympathetic +ocean. Spying the paladin, she strolled in his direction and spoke to +him, but it was not an assignation; Michele, indeed, was obviously +distressed at having his soliloquy interrupted; nevertheless, being a +knight and a gentleman, he could but reply politely, and so they got into +conversation. She told him who she was, which would not have been +necessary if they had ever met before, then she told him of her unhappy +plight, namely, that she was in the custody of an Arabian giant, and then +she implored his assistance.</p> +<p>Michele was as unsympathetic as the ocean, his mind being full of +Saracens; but before he had time to invent a plausible lie, the giant +entered very suddenly. Physically he was not a particularly gigantic +giant, being but three or four inches taller than Michele. <!-- page +87--><a name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 87</span>If he had been +much more, his head, which like that of all stage giants was undeveloped at +the back, would have been hidden by the clouds that hung from the +sky. His inches, however, were enough, for, in romance, height is +given to a giant to symbolize power, and provided he is perceptibly taller +than the hero, the audience accept him as a giant and a bully and one, +moreover, who is, as a rule, nearing the end of his wicked career. +Accordingly, when, in a voice of thunder, he demanded of Michele an +immediate explanation—wanted to know how he dared address the +princess—we all felt that he was putting himself in the wrong and +that a catastrophe was imminent. Giants, that is, unscrupulous people +in power, are too fond of assuming this attitude of unprovoked hostility +and overbearing insolence, but they assume it once too often. Had he +remembered Adam and Eve and the apple it might have occurred to him to +inquire whether in the present case also the lady had not begun it. +Giants, however, are for the most part unintelligent, not to say downright +stupid people, and seldom have the sense to know how to use their power +wisely—think of the giant in <i>Jack and the Beanstalk</i>, think of +Polyphemus <!-- page 88--><a name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +88</span>and Ulysses, think of the Inquisition and Galileo.</p> +<p>And then this giant made the mistake of losing his temper, and the +further mistake of showing that he had lost it, and when giants do this, it +means that they know they are in the wrong and don’t care. He +insulted Michele most grossly, and the knight very properly drew his sword +and went for him, and a terrible battle ensued throughout which realism was +thrown to the waves. The combatants rose off the ground so high that +Michele’s head and the giant’s head and shoulders were +frequently lost in the clouds; and they clanked down again upon the sandy +shore two or three feet in front of where they had stood—or behind, +just as it happened; and their swords banged against their breast-plates +and shields, proving that they were real metal and not merely tinsel; and +they twirled round and round like beef on a roasting-jack, until at last +Michele dealt the inevitable blow and the giant fell dead on the sand with +a thud that jolted the coast, shook the islands, rippled across the sunset +sky and restored animation to the lifeless form of the princess.</p> +<p>While the battle raged she had been <!-- page 89--><a +name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 89</span>standing by, unmoved, +blankly glaring at the audience; and yet she must have known as well as we +did that it was all about her. The probability is that her operator +had temporarily moored her to a convenient peg in the back of the clouds +while he worked the giant, and that at the conclusion of the duel he was +free to return to her. She first looked round and then swooped +hurriedly across the stage, three inches from the ground; before quite +touching her protector, however, she swung halfway back again, then a +little forwards, and finally, coming to anchor at a suitable distance, +raised her two hands and, as though offering him a tray of refreshments, +said—</p> +<p>“Grazie.”</p> +<p>He, pursuing his policy of frigid politeness, bowed in acknowledgment +and followed her off the stage, leaving the corpse of the giant lying near +the sea.</p> +<p>The back cloth was intentionally too long, so that the bottom was +crumpled into folds which did well enough for little waves breaking on the +shore. These waves now began to be agitated, and gradually rose +gustily and advanced until they had covered the dead giant. It was a +very good effect and <!-- page 90--><a name="page90"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 90</span>avoided the banality of removing the body in +sight of the audience; it looked as though the wind had risen and the +depths had swallowed him. And this, as I afterwards was told, is what +happens to the giant’s body in the story.</p> +<p>When the back cloth went up for the next scene the corpse was gone, and +we were in The House of the Poor Man where Michele came to take +refuge—from what I did not clearly understand, but if from the +Princess of Bizerta he would have been better advised had he sought some +other sanctuary; for no sooner had he performed his usual meditation and +soliloquy and got himself to sit down on The Poor Man’s chair, where +he instantly fell asleep with his head resting on his hand, than Her +Highness entered and, addressing the audience confidentially, said that she +loved him and intended to take this opportunity of giving him a kiss. +She was, however, on the other side of the stage and had first to get to +him, which she did so like a bird with a broken wing that he woke up before +she reached him. She evidently did not consider that this added to +her difficulties, but something else did.</p> +<p><!-- page 91--><a name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 91</span>A +dispute had been simmering in the gallery just opposite where we sat, and +now began to boil over, and threatened to swamp the play as the waves had +submerged the Arabian giant. I thought perhaps we ought to leave, +though it would have been impossible to pass out quickly, but the professor +again assured me there was no danger; the management are accustomed to +disturbances and know how to deal with them. So I sat still, and the +proprietor came on the stage and stood in front of the gas-jets. He +joined his hands as though in prayer and begged us to be quiet, saying that +it was a complicated story and would require all our attention, that +Michele would die on Wednesday, and he hoped we should not cause the +speaker to die of starvation before that day by preventing him from earning +his bread. The appearance of the proprietor among his puppets +confirmed me in the conclusion I had arrived at as to their size; he may +have been a small man, but he was about the size of the giant. He +must have been a strong man, for, with all their armour, the figures must +be very heavy.</p> +<p>The proprietor’s appeal went to all our hearts; silence was +restored and the princess <!-- page 92--><a name="page92"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 92</span>repeated to the warrior what we already +knew—that she loved him and desired to kiss him. Something of +the kind was exactly what poor Michele had been dreading. He turned +to her and, almost choking with despair, said, “Misericordia,” +not meaning to be hostile, but that the killing of her giant had already +delayed him, and if he were to allow himself to yield to her blandishments +he would be too late for the Saracens. No doubt he also had a +vow. But when a lady has made up her mind on a matter of this kind, +to thwart her is to invite disaster—think of Joseph and +Potiphar’s wife. Not that Michele thought of them, nor would it +have influenced him if he had, for he was a paladin and incapable of fear; +but he had the instincts of a gentleman, so, in spite of his anxiety to be +off to the wars, he rose as well as he could, which was unsteadily, and +staggered towards the princess who made every effort to meet him. In +time they drew close enough to fall into one another’s arms, and the +curtain descended as they were accomplishing not a passionate but a quite +creditable embrace.</p> +<p>Then there was a scene between three kings with golden crowns who +conversed <!-- page 93--><a name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +93</span>at length of battles and the King of Athens, of Adrianopoli and +the Grand Turk, of princesses and of journeys by sea and land. These +were the things they spoke about as they stood together in the hall that +had served for the first scene with a vista of columns behind, and when +they had done they followed one another off. Then we also followed +one another out of the theatre, not because of the Saracens, nor because we +had any vow, nor because we feared a repetition of the uproar, nor even +because of the coming-on disposition of the Princess of Bizerta, but +because one open window was not enough.</p> +<h2><!-- page 97--><a name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +97</span>TRAPANI</h2> +<h3>CHAPTER VI—FERRAÙ AND ANGELICA</h3> +<p>My next experience in a marionette theatre was at Trapani. I +approached the subject with Mario, a coachman whom I have known since he +was a boy. He was quite ready to help me, and told me there were two +companies in the town, one of large puppets, about as high as my umbrella, +the others, to which he went every evening, being rather smaller. +Accordingly, at about a quarter to eight, he called for me, wrapped in his +melodramatic cloak, and hurried me through the wet and windy streets to the +teatrino. He kept me on his right hand because he was the host and I +the guest, and if, owing to obstructions, he found me accidentally on his +left he was round in a moment and I was in the place of honour again. +He <!-- page 98--><a name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +98</span>insisted on paying for our seats, fifteen centimes each, and we +went in.</p> +<p>This teatrino was in every way a much smaller place than that in +Catania; it belonged to a private gentleman who had bought the puppets for +his own amusement and spent much of his time among them, sometimes working +them himself. He has since married and parted with them and the +theatre is now (1908) closed. No complaint could be made about the +seating arrangements or the ventilation. There were benches on the +floor with a passage down the middle, a few rows in front were reserved for +boys at ten centimes each and at the other end of the hall was a small +gallery for ladies, twenty centimes each. I asked Mario so many +questions that he proposed we should go behind the scenes, which was +exactly what I wanted. He spoke to one of the authorities, who was +politeness itself and, showing us through a door and up three steps, +introduced us behind the curtain. Our heads were high above the +opening of the proscenium, which was about the size and shape of the +opening of the fireplace in a fairly large room. We were in a grove +of puppets hanging up against the walls like turkeys in a poulterer’s +shop <!-- page 99--><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +99</span>at Christmas—scores and scores of them. There were six +or eight men preparing for the performance and a youth, Pasquale, took +charge of us and pointed out the principal figures.</p> +<p>“This warrior,” he said, “is Ferraù di +Spagna.”</p> +<p>He was in tin armour, carefully made and enriched with brass and copper +ornamentation, all as bright as a biscuit-box. I said—</p> +<p>“He looks a very terrible fellow. Why is he so red about the +eyes?” for the whites of his eyes were redder than his cheeks.</p> +<p>“Because he is always in a rage. And this lady is Angelica, +Empress of Cathay; she wears a crown and will die this evening. This +is her husband, Medoro; he is a black man and wears a crown; he will perish +to-night by the sword of Ferraù.”</p> +<p>I rapidly constructed by anticipation the familiar plot. The +jealous husband would kill his erring wife and would then be killed by her +lover; but, being unversed in the habits of Cathaian emperors and their +entourage, I had run off the track. Pasquale put me straight.</p> +<p><!-- page 100--><a name="page100"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +100</span>“Prima Ferraù uccide Medoro.” +(Ferraù first kills Medoro.)</p> +<p>“And then kills Angelica?” I inquired.</p> +<p>“No. Angelica si uccide personalmente, so as not to marry +Ferraù.”</p> +<p>I was next introduced to Galafrone, the father of Angelica, who also +wore a crown, and to two valorous knights, Sacripante, King of the +Circassians, and the Duca d’Avilla.</p> +<p>There were more than two hundred marionettes altogether, including +Turkish and Spanish soldiers. The knights and ladies were kept in +green holland bags to preserve them from the dust, and taken out as they +were wanted. They varied in height from twenty-four to thirty-two +inches. Ferraù was thirty-one and a half inches from the soles +of his feet to the top of his helmet; Angelica was twenty-six and a half +inches; ordinary Turks and Spanish soldiers were only twenty-four inches +each.</p> +<p>Pasquale was very proud of Ferraù who really was +magnificent. He was made of wood with loose joints. An iron rod +went through his head, and was hooked into a ring between his +collar-bones. Another rod was fastened to his right wrist. +There were three strings—one for his left hand, which <!-- page +101--><a name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>held his +shield, one to raise his vizor and one which passed through his right fist +and across his body to his sword-hilt so that he could draw his +sword. I should have liked to buy him and bring him to London with +me; he would be an ornament to any house. But he was not for sale; +and, besides, it would not have been right to break up the company. +When Don Quixote, carried away by his feelings like a Sicilian facchino, +came to the assistance of Don Gayferos by drawing his sword and attacking +the Moorish puppets, he broke up Master Peter’s company in a very +literal sense, and had to pay four and a half reals for King Marsilio of +Saragossa and five and a quarter for the Emperor Carlo Magno; but it is not +clear how large or how splendid they were.</p> +<p>Each figure requires one operator who stands between the wings, which +are about up to his waist and so solid that he can lean his elbows on them +and reach comfortably more than halfway across the stage. There are +four openings between the wings, and thus there can be eight puppets on the +stage at once, operated by eight manipulators, four on each side. +This could not be done with the life-sized marionettes in Catania, which +<!-- page 102--><a name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +102</span>were all operated from behind, and never came forward. At +Trapani the stage was much deeper in proportion, and the flies from which +the scenery descended were high above the heads of the operators, so that +the figures could walk about backwards and forwards all over the +stage. The footlights were in the usual place in front of the +curtain, and during the performance boys got up from their seats in the +front row and lighted their cigarettes at them.</p> +<p>I had not nearly completed my investigations; but, fearing we might be +in the way, we returned to the front and inquired about play-bills. +There was only one in the house, posted up near the box-office; we went and +inspected it—</p> +<blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Teatro di +Marionette</span>.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">Per questa sera darà 2 recite<br /> +la prima alle 5½ la seconda alle 8<br /> +Pugna fra Sacripante e il Duca d’Avilla—<br /> +Ferraù uccide Medoro e acquista Angelica—<br /> +Morte di Sacripante per mani di Ferraù—<br /> +Morte di Angelica.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">Marionette +Theatre</span>.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">This evening two performances will be +given<br /> +The first at 5.30, the second at 8<br /> +Fight between Sacripante and the Duke of Avilla—<br /> +<!-- page 103--><a name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +103</span>Ferraù kills Medoro and gains possession of +Angelica—<br /> +Death of Sacripante at the hands of Ferraù—<br /> +Death of Angelica.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>There was a pleasant-looking, retiring young man in the box-office, who +was pointed out to me as “Lui che parla”—the one who +speaks. They said he was a native of Mount Eryx and a shoemaker by +trade.</p> +<p>We returned to our places and sat talking, smoking, eating American +pea-nuts and waiting. The audience, which consisted of men of the +class of life to which Mario belonged, all knew one another; most of them +met there every evening. A subscription for one month costs three +lire and entitles the holder to one performance a day, the performance at 8 +being a repetition of that at 5.30.</p> +<p>The play now being performed is <i>The Paladins of France</i>; it was +written by Manzanares in Italian prose and is in three volumes. It +does not always agree with the other versions of the same story; but that +is only as it should be, for romances have always been re-written to suit +the audience they are intended for. It has been going on about four +months, that is, since last October, when it began with Pipino, Re di +Francia ed <!-- page 104--><a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +104</span>Imperatore di Roma, the father of Carlo Magno, and it will +continue day after day till May, like the feuilleton in a journal. +During the hot weather there is no performance in this theatre; but the +same story will be taken up again next October and is long enough to last +through two winters. It could last longer, but they bring it within +reasonable limits by removing some of the boredom. It concludes with +the defeat and death of Orlando and the paladins at Roncisvalle.</p> +<p>The portion of the story appointed for the evening’s performance +was in five acts, divided into a large number of very short scenes, and if +I did not always know quite clearly what was going on, that was partly due +to the distracting uproar, for nearly every scene contained a fight, and +some contained several, the shortest lasting well over a minute. +Whoever had been employed to shorten the story would have earned the thanks +of one member of the audience if he had acted upon Pococurante’s +remarks to Candide about the works of Homer. He ought not to have +left in so many combats; they were as like one another and as tedious as +those in the <i>Iliad</i>, besides being much <!-- page 105--><a +name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 105</span>noisier, at least we +are not told that the Homeric heroes were accompanied by a muscular +pianist, fully armed, and by the incessant stamping of clogged boots. +Nevertheless the majority of the audience enjoyed the fights, for no +Sicilian objects to noise.</p> +<p>This is what I gathered: Angelica had come from far Cathay with the +express intention of sowing discord among the paladins by inducing them to +fall in love with her, and at the present moment Sacripante and the Duca +d’Avilla were her victims. These two knights met in a wood, +raised their vizors and talked matters over; there was to be a fight about +it, of course, but the preliminaries were to be conducted in a friendly +spirit—like a test case in Chancery. They separated, no doubt +to give them an opportunity of going home to make their wills and take +leave of their wives and families, if any. In the second scene they +met again, lowered their vizors, drew their swords and fought till Angelica +supervened. In the next scene the two knights and Angelica were +joined by Medoro with whom one of the knights fought. I recognized +Medoro when his <!-- page 106--><a name="page106"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 106</span>vizor was up because he was a black man, but +Sacripante and the Duca d’Avilla were so much alike that I did not +know which was fighting and which was standing with Angelica looking on; +say it was Sacripante that was fighting, being king of the Circassians he +was probably entitled to precedence over a mere duke. Angelica, after +some time, began to feel qualms of conscience, so she interrupted and +mentioned who Medoro really was. Sacripante, in the most chivalrous +manner, immediately desisted and apologized—he had failed to +recognize his opponent and had no idea he had been fighting with the +lady’s husband. The apology was accepted in the spirit in which +it was offered, all accusations, expressed or implied, were withdrawn, and +friendly relations established. The four then set out together to +pass the night in an albergo. Angelica, however, with her quick, +womanly instinct, mistrusted the knights and, taking her husband aside, +proposed that they two should depart by stealth and escape to Cathay, +leaving Sacripante and the Duca d’Avilla asleep. Medoro +demurred, saying it was a very good inn and he was quite comfortable where +he was. So she told him <!-- page 107--><a name="page107"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 107</span>a few facts which alarmed him to such a degree +that he consented and they decamped.</p> +<p>On their way they encountered Ferraù who entered with a stamp of +the foot, sforzando, attacked Medoro and killed him dead, thus obtaining +possession of Angelica according to the play-bill. But she managed to +get free and appeared upon the coast where she met a sea-captain and, +telling him she was very rich, made terms with him, bought his vessel and +embarked for the Court of her father, Galafrone. She might have made +better terms had she not opened negotiations by telling him she was very +rich, but it was a matter of life or death and she was reckless, knowing +that Ferraù was after her. Sacripante and the Duca +d’Avilla were after Ferraù and presently caught him up and +attacked him. He fought with them both at once and killed one of them +in a minute and a half. With the exception of myself, every one in +the theatre knew which he killed, for they knew all the knights as they +came on. Let us again give Sacripante the precedence and suppose that +he was killed first. Ferraù went on fighting with the Duca +d’Avilla and both were hard at work when the curtain fell.</p> +<p><!-- page 108--><a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +108</span>It rose again, very effectively, on the continuation of the +fight, and almost at once Ferraù cut off the Duca +d’Avilla’s head which rolled about on the stage. +Immediately there came three Turks; Ferraù stabbed each as he +entered—one, two, three—and their bodies encumbered the ground +as the curtain fell.</p> +<p>It rose as soon as the bodies had been removed and disclosed +Ferraù stamping about alone. There came three more Turks; he +stabbed them each as they entered—one, two, three—and their +bodies encumbered the ground. Then there came three knights in +armour; Ferraù fought them all three together for a very +considerable time and it was deafening. He killed them all and their +bodies encumbered the ground with those of the last three Turks. It +was a bloody sight that met the eyes of Galafrone who now entered.</p> +<p>The curtain fell, while Galafrone had the corpses cleared away, and rose +again on the same scene which was the ante-chamber of Angelica’s +bedroom—for somehow we were now in her father’s dominions, and +it was she who had sent the knights and the Turks to kill Ferraù +before he could <!-- page 109--><a name="page109"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 109</span>approach her. Then there was an +interview between Ferraù and Galafrone on the subject of +Angelica. The knight, having made her a widow, now wished to make her +his wife, the king saw no objection and promised to use his influence with +his daughter.</p> +<p>The scene changed to Angelica’s bedroom; her bed was at the far +end of the stage with a patchwork quilt over it, but there was no other +furniture in the room except a sofa near the front. Her father +brought her in and I, knowing that she was to kill herself personally and +that this must be her last entry, examined her closely and detected a +string passing through her right hand and ending in the hilt of a dagger +ostentatiously concealed in her bosom. Of course I knew what that +meant. Her father, true to his promise, began to urge +Ferraù’s suit, saying that he had forgiven him for having +killed Medoro. But Angelica had not forgiven him, and moreover she +hated Ferraù with his bloodshot eyes and his explosive +manners. She made a long speech, admirably delivered by the cobbler +and as full of noble sentiments as a poem by Mrs. Browning, then, suddenly +drawing her dagger with the string, <!-- page 110--><a +name="page110"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 110</span>she stabbed herself +and fell dead on the couch, exclaiming—</p> +<p>“A rivederci.”</p> +<p>It was an extremely neat suicide and her father concluded the +entertainment by weeping over her body.</p> +<p>These marionettes were not nearly so comic in their movements as the +life-sized ones in Catania, not because they were better managed, but +because they attempted less and because, being so small, their defects were +less obvious. A small one may, and generally does, enter like a bird +alighting on a molehill, but he has such a short distance to go that he is +at rest before one realizes that he has not attempted to walk. +Besides it is a mode of progression we are all familiar with, having +practised it in dreams since childhood. A life-sized marionette, on a +larger stage, has, perhaps, two or three yards to traverse; he tries to +take steps and is easily caught tripping, for without strings to his feet +his steps can only be done in a haphazard way. There are marionettes +with strings to their feet, and though they may do <i>The Story of the +Paladins</i>, this is not their usual business, they are more elaborately +articulated, and <!-- page 111--><a name="page111"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 111</span>are intended for operas, ballets and other +complicated things.</p> +<p>And then, again, in Catania a glimpse of the hand of an operator or of +some one standing in the wings offended at once as a blot on the +performance. But looking at the small figures at Trapani one accepted +them almost immediately as men and women, and forgot all about absolute +size, so that when the hand of an operator appeared and it was larger than +the head of a marionette, it seemed to belong to another world, while a +real man standing in the wings could not be seen above his knees, and it +required a mental effort to connect his boots and trousers in any way with +the performance.</p> +<p>The speaker at Catania did well with a good voice; nevertheless one felt +that disaster was in the neighbourhood and was being consciously +avoided. The idea of failure never crossed the mind of the cobbler +from Mount Eryx. His voice was rich and flexible, full of variety and +quick to express a thousand emotions. Listening to it was like +looking long and long into a piece of Sicilian amber in whose infinite +depth, as you turn it about in the sunlight, you see all the colours of the +rainbow, from red, through <!-- page 112--><a name="page112"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 112</span>orange, yellow, green and blue, even to a +glowing purple. There was nothing he could not do with it, and he +managed it with the quiet dignity and easy grace of a young lion at +play.</p> +<h3><!-- page 113--><a name="page113"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +113</span>CHAPTER VII—THE DEATH OF BRADAMANTE</h3> +<p>Before the last act, which concluded with the death of Angelica, a dwarf +had appeared in front of the curtain (not a human dwarf, but a marionette +dwarf) and recited the programme for the following day, stating that the +performance would terminate with the death of Ferraù. +Unfortunately I was not able to witness his end, but I went to the teatrino +the evening after. We arrived early and began by inspecting the +programme—</p> +<blockquote> +<p>Carlo ottiene piena vittoria contro Marsilio—<br /> +Fuga di costui e presa di Barcelona—<br /> +Marfisa trova Bradamante che more fra le sue braccia.</p> +<p>Charles obtains complete victory over Marsilio—<br /> +Flight of the latter and taking of Barcelona—<br /> +Marfisa finds Bradamante who dies in her arms.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>We then went behind the scenes to spend some time among the puppets +before the play began. First I inquired whether Ferraù had +<!-- page 114--><a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +114</span>perished and ascertained that Orlando had duly killed him the +night before with la Durlindana. This famous sword was won by Carlo +Magno in his youth when he overcame Polinoro, the captain-general of +Bramante, King of Africa. Carlo Magno, having another sword of his +own and wishing to keep la Durlindana in the family, passed it on to his +nephew Orlando. That is Pasquale’s version. Others say +that it was given to Orlando by Malagigi the magician. The most usual +account is that la Durlindana belonged to Hector. After the fall of +Troy it came to Æneas; and from him, through various owners, to +Almonte, a giant of a dreadful stature, who slew Orlando’s +father. An angel in a dream directed Orlando, when he was about +eighteen, to proceed to a river on the bank of which he found Carlo Magno +and Almonte fighting. He took his uncle’s part, avenged his +father’s death by killing Almonte, threw his gigantic body into the +stream and appropriated his enchanted possessions, namely, his horse, +Brigliadoro, his horn, his sword and his armour. He had the sword +with him when he was defeated at Roncisvalle and threw it from him, about +two hundred miles, to Rocamadour in France <!-- page 115--><a +name="page115"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 115</span>where it stuck in a +rock and any one can see it to this day.</p> +<p>I do not remember that Homer speaks of Hector’s sword as la +Durlindana; perhaps he did not know. But every one knows that horses +have had names, both in romance and real life, from the days of Pegasus to +our own. Mario calls his horses Gaspare, after one of the Three +Kings, and Totò, which is a form of Salvatore. They were so +called before he bought them, or he would have named them Baiardo and +Brigliadoro. Having no sword, he calls his whip la Durlindana. +He assured me that the barber whom he employs calls all his razors by the +names of the swords of the paladins, and that the shoe-blacks give similar +names to their brushes.</p> +<p>If Pasquale’s statements were at variance with other poetical +versions of the story, they were, as might be expected, still more so with +the prose authorities. In the books, Carlo Magno was born sometimes +in the castle of Saltzburg, in Bavaria, and sometimes at Aix-la-Chapelle; +which may be good history, but could not well be represented by the +marionettes without a double stage, and even then might fail to +convince. The Carlo Magno of romance, son of Pipino, <!-- page +116--><a name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 116</span>King of +France, and Berta, his wife, was not born until many years after the +wedding; for Berta had enemies at the French Court who spirited her away +immediately after the ceremony, substituting her waiting-maid, Elisetta, +who was so like her that Pipino did not notice the difference. +Elisetta became the mother of the wicked bastards Lanfroi and Olderigi, +while Berta lived in retirement in the cottage of a hunter on the banks of +the Magno, a river about five leagues from Paris. Pipino lost himself +while out hunting one day, took refuge in the cottage, saw Berta, did not +recognize his lawful, wedded wife and fell in love with her over +again. Carlo Magno was born in due course in the cottage, and his +second name was given to him, not for the prosaic reason that it means the +Great, but because it is the name of the river. The bastards +afterwards murder their father, which is a warning to any bridegroom among +the audience to be careful not to mistake another lady for his bride upon +the wedding night. And thus Romance becomes the handmaid of +Morality.</p> +<p>Carlo Magno is now on the throne. I was presented to him, and +found him in mourning for a nephew who had been killed <!-- page 117--><a +name="page117"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 117</span>a few evenings before +and whose corpse was still hanging on a neighbouring peg, waiting for the +slight alteration necessary to turn him into some one else. All the +paladins who had recently lost relations were in mourning and wore long +pieces of crape trailing from their helmets. Pasquale took me round, +told me who they all were and explained their genealogies.</p> +<p>I was in a hades peopled with the ghosts of Handel’s operas. +I saw Orlando himself and his cousins “Les quatre fils Aymon,” +namely Rinaldo da Montalbano, Guicciardo, Alardo, and Ricciardetto. I +saw their father, whose name in Italian is Amone, and their sister +Bradamante, the widow of Ruggiero da Risa, and her sister-in-law, the +Empress Marfisa, Ruggiero’s sister. These two ladies were in +armour, showing their legs, and in all respects like the men warriors, +except that they wore their hair long.</p> +<p>“Bradamante will die this evening,” said Pasquale.</p> +<p>I expressed regret, and asked for particulars.</p> +<p>“She will die of grief for the loss of her husband, Ruggiero da +Risa, who has been killed by the treachery of Conte Gano.”</p> +<p><!-- page 118--><a name="page118"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +118</span>Then I saw my fellow-countryman, Astolfo d’Inghilterra; he +it was that brought back from the moon the lost wits of Orlando when he +became furioso because Angelica would have nothing to say to him and +married Medoro. And I saw Astolfo’s father, Ottone +d’Inghilterra, and Il Re Desiderio and Gandellino, who seemed +undersized; but when I said so, Pasquale replied—</p> +<p>“Si, è piccolo, ma è bello—stupendo,” +and so he was.</p> +<p>I took down one of the knights, stood him on the floor and tried to work +him. The number of things I had to hold at once puzzled me a good +deal, especially the strings. Pasquale took another knight and gave +me a lesson, showing me how to make him weep and meditate, how to raise and +lower his vizor, how to draw his sword and fight. It was very +difficult to get him to put his sword back into the scabbard. I could +not do it at all, though I managed the other things after a fashion.</p> +<p>Then I saw the Marchese Oliviero di Allemagna and Uggiero Danese and +Turpino, a priest, but a warrior nevertheless.</p> +<p>“This,” said Pasquale, “is Guidon <!-- page 119--><a +name="page119"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 119</span>Selvaggio, and this +is his sister Carmida. They are the children of Rinaldo.”</p> +<p>“But spurious,” interrupted another youth.</p> +<p>“Yes,” agreed Pasquale; “they are bastards. +Shall I tell you how?”</p> +<p>But I declined to rake up the family scandal and we passed on to +Carmida’s husband, Cladinoro, Re di Bizerta, a spurious son of the +old Ruggiero da Risa, and so valorous that they speak of La Forza di +Cladinoro.</p> +<p>All these knights and ladies were hanging on one side of the stage in +two rows, one row against the wall and the other in front. I asked +Pasquale how he knew which was which. He concealed his astonishment +at such a simple question and replied—</p> +<p>“By the crests on their helmets.”</p> +<p>I then observed that they all wore their proper crests, a lion or an +eagle, or a castle, or whatever it might be; Ferraù had no crest, +but he had a special kind of helmet, and these boys knew them all in the +legitimate way by their armorial bearings, and that was how, on the evening +of Angelica’s death, the audience knew all the knights and said their +names as they entered.</p> +<p>On the other side of the stage were two <!-- page 120--><a +name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 120</span>rows of pagans who in +this hades, where the odium theologicum persists, are not admitted among +Christians. Here hung Il Re Marsilio di Spagna, who was to be +defeated this evening, and his two brothers, Bulugante and Falserone, his +son the Infanta di Spagna, his nephew Ferraù, now dead, and +Grandonio. Then I came upon a miscellaneous collection and could look +at no more knights or ladies after I had found the devil.</p> +<p>He was not The Devil, he was only “un diavolo qualunque,” +but he was fascinating, and he had horns and a tail—Pasquale and the +other youths showed me his tail very particularly and laughed at him +cruelly for having one. But it was not his fault, poor devil, that he +had a tail: except for the wear and tear of his tempestuous youth he was as +he had left the hands of his maker.</p> +<p>There was also a skeleton; they made him dance for me and said that he +is used to appear to any one about to die; but this cannot apply to the +warriors, for they fight and die freely, and put whole families into +mourning nightly, and if the skeleton appeared to them every time, a new +one would be wanted once a month.</p> +<p><!-- page 121--><a name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +121</span>And there was “un gigante qualunque”—the raw +material for a giant, something that could be faked up into this or that +special giant when wanted. Similarly there was a lady having her +dress and wig altered, they told me she was “una donna +qualunque”—the very words I had seen a few weeks previously +written up in Rome to advertise a performance in Italian of <i>A Woman of +no Importance</i>. I suspect there must have been somewhere “un +guerriero qualunque” so constructed that his head could be cut off, +and that he had been disguised as and substituted for the Duca +d’Avilla when Ferraù appeared to kill that warrior, for, +without trickery, no sword in the teatrino, not even la Durlindana, could +have cut off a head which had an iron rod running through it.</p> +<p>There was a confused heap of Turks and Spanish soldiers lying in a +corner, and at the back of the stage, between the farthest scene and the +wall of the theatre, was the stable containing seven war horses and one +centaur. Pasquale told me that the centaur was “un animale +selvaggio” which I knew, but he did not tell me what part he took in +the play. One of the horses, of course, was Baiardo, the special +horse of Rinaldo. <!-- page 122--><a name="page122"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 122</span>Baiardo is still living in the forest of +Ardennes, he formerly belonged to Amadis de Gaul and was found in a grotto +by Malagigi when he found Rinaldo’s sword, Fusberta, which used to +belong to the King of Cyprus.</p> +<p>It appeared to me time to go to the front, but Pasquale said that this +evening I might stay behind during the performance if I liked and I +accepted his invitation, for I had a toy theatre of my own once and used to +do <i>The Miller and His Men</i> with an explosion at the end; it had to be +at the end, not only as a bonne-bouche, but also because my audience, not +being composed of Sicilian facchini, were driven out of the room by its +effects. Smokeless explosions may be possible now, but we did not +then know how to do any better. I would have given much—even +the explosion—if I could have had a teatrino and real marionettes of +my own, as one of my Sicilian friends had when he was a boy; he dressed his +own dolls and made his own scenery, and used to do the +<i>Odyssey</i>—a first-rate subject that could easily be made to last +two winters.</p> +<p>I was so much interested that I may have paid less attention this +evening to the story <!-- page 123--><a name="page123"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 123</span>than to the working of the puppets. The +rods that pass through their heads have wooden handles and end in hooks; +across the stage, pretty high up, were laid two horizontal laths with six +or seven chains hanging from them; when the paladins appeared, marching in +one after another and taking up their positions in two rows, as they +frequently did, what really happened was that an operator on one side +reached across and handed them over one by one to an operator on the other +side, who hooked them up into the chains, choosing the link according to +the height of the particular puppet in such a way that, if possible, its +feet just rested upon the stage. After three or four had been hooked +up, the first operator could hang up the rest, and as soon as the two rows +were in their places Carlo Magno entered in front and addressed them in a +majestic voice. During the pauses of his speech and at its conclusion +the paladins all murmured in agreement or shouted “Evviva” +which was done by us who were behind and, as there were thirteen of us, it +ought to have sounded fairly imposing. Three of the thirteen were +regular operators, pretty constantly employed, who <!-- page 124--><a +name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 124</span>took off their coats, +waistcoats and shirts, and found it very hot work; of the remainder some +were authorized assistants, some were friends and one was the +reader—“Lui che parla.”</p> +<p>The siege of Marsilio’s city was managed in this way. First +a scene was let down as far back as possible on the stage. This, +Pasquale said, represented “una città qualunque.” +The collection of little wooden houses on Captain Shandy’s +bowling-green was not a more perfect Proteus of a town than +Pasquale’s back cloth. This evening it was Barcelona. In +front of it, about halfway to the footlights, was a low wall of +fortifications. Just behind the fortifications the Spaniards were +hooked up into rather high links of the chains, so that, from the front, +they appeared to be looking over the wall and defending the city. +Carlo Magno and his paladins brought ladders, scaled the wall, fought the +Spaniards and effected an entrance. The fights were mostly +duels. At one time there were three duels; that is, six knights were +all fighting at once, three on each side. The places on the stage +occupied by the front pair were worn into hollows by their feet. The +damage <!-- page 125--><a name="page125"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +125</span>sustained by the figures in the fury of the combats is very +great; their armour gets broken, their draperies torn, their joints and the +hinges of their vizors are put out of order and there is much to be done to +them before they can appear again.</p> +<p>For the conclusion we came to the front and took our places as the +curtain drew up on a wood. The Empress Marfisa entered in all her +bravery, riding cross-legged on her charger and looking round, first this +way, then that. She was searching the wood for Bradamante who had +retired from the world to “una grotta oscura” to die of +grief. The empress looked about and rode here and there but could see +Bradamante nowhere, so she rode away to search another part of the wood and +the scene changed. We were now in the obscure grotto and here came +Marfisa, riding on her charger and looking about; she could see her +sister-in-law nowhere and was overcome with anxiety. Presently, in +the dim light, she spied something on the ground; she dismounted, went far +into the cave, and—could it be?—yes, it was the unconscious +form of Bradamante. She knelt down by her, embraced her and called +her by her name, but <!-- page 126--><a name="page126"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 126</span>there was no reply. She kissed her and +called “Bradamante,” still there was no reply. She +fondled her, and called her her “dolce cognata,”—her +sweet sister-in-law—and at length Bradamante raised herself with an +effort, recognized Marfisa and saying, “Farewell, sister, I am +dying,” fell back and expired. An angel fluttered down, +received her soul from her lips and carried it up to heaven, while Marfisa +wept over her body.</p> +<p>Then the dwarf came on and recited the programme for the next +evening. This was, as usual, followed by the last scene. The +paladins all marched in—that is to say, they were handed over and +hooked up in two rows, the audience recognizing each, and saying his name +as he took his place, and Carlo Magna came and addressed them in a +magnificent speech beginning—</p> +<p>“Paladini! noi siamo stanchi.”</p> +<p>Their fatigue was caused by their exertions at the siege of Barcelona +and their Emperor went on to promise them some repose before proceeding +against Madrid.</p> +<p>This epilogue struck me as out of place; nothing ought to have followed +the death of Bradamante, which was as affecting a scene as I have ever +witnessed. The only hitch <!-- page 127--><a name="page127"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 127</span>occurred when Marfisa dismounted; her left +foot came to the ground capitally, but her right would not come over her +saddle for some time; she got it free at last, however, and stood upright +on both feet. I thought again of Master Peter’s puppet-show and +of how the petticoat of the peerless Lady Melisendra caught in one of the +iron rails as she was letting herself down from the balcony, so that she +hung dangling in midair, and Don Gayferos had to bring her to the ground by +main force.</p> +<p>The rest of the scene in the grotto could not have gone better and the +audience were enthralled by it. Yet what was it after all? +Nothing but a couple of loosely jointed wooden dolls, fantastically dressed +up in tin armour, being pulled about on a toy stage. Yet there was +something more; there was the voice of the reader—the voice of +“Lui che parla.” In the earlier part of the evening he +had been giving us fine declamation, which was all that had been +required. The meeting between the two princesses brought him his +opportunity and he attacked the scene and carried it through in a spirit of +simple conviction, his voice throbbing with emotion as he made for himself +a triumph.</p> +<p><!-- page 128--><a name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +128</span>Art abounds in miracles, and not the least is this, that a man +can take a few watery commonplaces and by the magic of his voice transmute +them into the golden wine of romance. The audience drank in the +glowing drops that poured from his lips, and were stilled to a silence that +broke in a great sob as the curtain fell. What did they know of +loosely jointed wooden dolls or of toy stages? They were no longer in +the theatre. They had wandered the woods with Marfisa, they had +sought Bradamante in the leafy glades, they had found her dying in the +grotto, they had received her last breath and the world would never be the +same to them again. A voice that can do this is rare and, like the +power of a giant, rarely found in the possession of one who knows how to +use it worthily.</p> +<h2><!-- page 131--><a name="page131"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +131</span>MOUNT ERYX</h2> +<h3>CHAPTER VIII—MONTE SAN GIULIANO</h3> +<p>Three or four miles inland from Trapani, at the north-west corner of +Sicily, rises a precipitous solitary mountain, nearly 2500 feet high, with +a town on the top. A motor bus makes a circuit of the mountain, +taking one up to the town in about an hour. It proceeds inland, past +the church of the Annunziata, the famous shrine of the Madonna di Trapani, +and the ascent soon begins. As one looks back towards the sea, +Trapani gradually assumes the form that gave it its Greek name of Drepanum, +for it juts out towards the island of Levanzo like a sickle “with the +sea roaring all round it.” Marsala is usually visible beyond +the innumerable salt pans and windmills. One of these windmills is +especially pleasing; it consists of five or six dummy ships with real sails +on a <!-- page 132--><a name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +132</span>pond; these ships form, as it were, the rim of a wheel lying on +its side, the spokes being poles which attach the ships to the axle, an +island in the middle of the pond. The wind blows and the ships race +after one another round and round the pond, causing the poles to work the +mechanism which is inside the island.</p> +<p>The manufacture of salt is one of the chief industries of Trapani and +one of the chief causes of its wealth. In Sicily it practically never +rains during the summer; the sea water is collected in large, open pans, +being raised by means of the screw which has been in use all over the +island for nearly twenty-two centuries, ever since Archimedes invented it +to remove the water from the hold of one of Hiero’s ships at +Siracusa. All through the summer the heat of the sun evaporates the +moisture, leaving the salt which is afterwards exported to Newfoundland, +Norway, the North of France and many other countries and used for salting +fish and other purposes.</p> +<p>The road continues to ascend and the horizon appears to ascend also, so +that the sea takes up with it the Ægadean islands till, presently, +Marettimo looks over the top of Levanzo, while Favognana lies away to the +<!-- page 133--><a name="page133"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +133</span>left. The Isola Grande (S. Pantaleo), the fourth island, is +not a prominent object, being low and near the land, a good deal to the +south towards Marsala; but in former times, when it was Motya, it was the +most important of them all. The sea extends right and left till it is +lost in the haze which so commonly obscures a Sicilian horizon.</p> +<p>The road goes more and more inland and, still rising, diverges from the +shorter road taken by the old horse bus and passes through Paparella. +Presently the mountain shuts out Trapani and the sea, and then the country +lying inland about the base of the mountain comes into view bounded by a +distant amphitheatre and, as the road completes the circuit of the +mountain, and still rising joins the other shorter road at the Trapani gate +of the town, the sea comes into sight again, with the horizon high above +Trapani and the promontory of Capo S. Vito bounding it on the right.</p> +<p>This mountain, formerly world-renowned as Mount Eryx, and still often +called Monte Erice, is now Monte S. Giuliano and gives its name both to the +town on the top and to the comune of which that town is the chief +place. The highest point of the town is <!-- page 134--><a +name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 134</span>towards the east of +the mountain-top, and here are several towers, some belonging to the +Castello, a Norman fortress, and others to Le Torri, the summer residence +of Count Pepoli. On the north, east and south sides of the summit the +mountain is precipitous, but towards the west it slopes from the towers +through a public garden called the Balio, and then through a maze of +narrow, winding streets, down to the Trapani gate. The normal +population of the town is about 4000, but in the summer and autumn this is +largely increased, inasmuch as the great heat of Trapani and the low +country drives as many as can afford it to live on the summit where it is +seldom too hot.</p> +<p>The rest of the comune lies dotted about on the plain at the foot of the +mountain and consists of a dozen small villages, all visible from the +summit. These have mostly grown up within the last hundred years or +so as colonies from the chief town, for when the country was less secure +the women and children were left within the town walls while the men went +down to work in the fields and to fish in the sea, returning for Sundays +and festas, and gradually, as it became possible, settlements were formed +below to which <!-- page 135--><a name="page135"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 135</span>the women and children could safely be +moved. Custonaci, however, one of the villages of the comune, did not +spring up in this way and is of older date than the others.</p> +<p>The peculiar charm of the mountain cannot be fully realized unless one +visits it at all seasons and in all weathers. I have been there in +the winter; the summit was hidden in a cloud which, as we drove up into it, +obscured the view and chilled the marrow. It was before the days of +the motor, when a horse bus did the journey by a shorter route in about +three hours. I was on the box with the coachman who gave me a spare +cloak with a hood to keep me dry and warm. Two of my friends, natives +of the mountain, one a doctor and the other the accountant to the +Municipio, were at the Trapani gate to meet me, both in hooded cloaks, so +that I did not recognize them till they spoke. The wind was +tremendous. The narrow sloping streets were running with water as we +walked up through the town to the albergo, where Donna Anna received +us. There was no blazing fire or warm room as there would have been +in an English inn, only semidarkness and dampness. The damp had <!-- +page 136--><a name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 136</span>patched +the painting on the ceiling and disfigured the whitewashed walls, on which +were hung a few pictures—a lithograph of the Madonna di Custonaci, a +cheap Crucifixion, a reproduction of the design for the monument to +Vittorio Emmanuele in Rome, three shiny chromolithographs of English +country scenes, representing the four seasons minus one, an absurd French +engraving, <i>Education Maternelle</i> and S. Francesco da Paola, with a +shell for holy water. S. Francesco belongs to South Italy, but he is +a favourite in Sicily because he walked across the Straits of Messina to +carry the Last Sacraments to a dying man. On the undulating tiled +floor were a few of the rugs peculiar to the neighbourhood. They are +made by the natives on looms, the length being thin, strong string and the +width white, black and coloured cotton rags—old petticoats, shirts, +aprons and so on, washed clean and torn into narrow strips. With a +little ingenuity they make the colours go in simple patterns, chiefly +diamonds and zigzags; but sometimes they are more daring and attempt +drinking-cups, etc.: the most effective are made by running the strips in +rows without any regard to pattern.</p> +<p><!-- page 137--><a name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +137</span>Some winds blow some clouds away, but the roots of this cloud +were so firmly wedged in among the narrow streets and through the cracks of +the doors and windows, which would not shut close, that this wind could do +nothing with it but blow it more deeply in and the house was full of mist +like the Albert Hall in a winter fog. The natives consider it more +healthy to keep the same temperature indoors and out, so there is not a +house on the mountain with a fireplace, and only a few with stoves. +The absence of chimneys is a feature of the town, as it is of other +Sicilian towns that can bear their absence better. And these are the +people who commiserate an Englishman on being compelled to live in our +cold, damp, foggy island! In support of my statement that we do +occasionally see the sun, I showed them a picture-postcard of a house in +London standing in a garden. It was midday, but we had to have a lamp +to see the picture; nevertheless they supposed that the flowers were +artificial and were renewed when we had a festa because, of course, real +flowers will not grow in our perpetual fog. I told them that our fogs +prevent flowers from growing in England just as much as their brigands +prevent foreigners <!-- page 138--><a name="page138"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 138</span>from travelling in Sicily, and that both are +more spoken of than seen.</p> +<p>It must, however, be admitted that the natives do not appear to suffer +from the effects of their climate. They boast that statistics show +them to be particularly free from pulmonary complaints, and to have an +unusually low death rate. As the doctor said, in a tone of +professional discontent, they enjoy an epidemic of good health.</p> +<p>Supper consisted of maccaroni, bread and wine, and the table-cloth and +napkins were as damp as one’s towels after a bath. My two +friends sat with me and introduced me to a student with a slight cast in +one of his melancholy eyes, a misty tenor voice and the facile Italian +smile, who had come up from Castelvetrano to study a little philosophy, and +supped with me.</p> +<p>When it was bedtime, they all three came with Donna Anna into my bedroom +to make sure that I was comfortable and the old landlady took the +opportunity of consulting the accountant about the prisoners. +Although the inhabitants of the province of Trapani are all good people, +nevertheless now and then some slight crime is committed, an occasional +wounding, a simple stabbing or so, <!-- page 139--><a +name="page139"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 139</span>and consequently it +is convenient to have a prison handy. Part of the castle on the +mountain is used for the purpose and Donna Anna provides the prisoners with +their food and also sees to their sheets, bedding etc. They could not +have a better matron and if she keeps everything in the prison as clean and +good as it is in her house, I am afraid she may perhaps make the prisoners +more comfortable than they deserve.</p> +<p>When she had disposed of her business she asked whether I should like +some fire in my bed. I was going to decline, not being in the habit +of using a warming-pan, but then I thought of the table-cloth and the +napkins at supper—and my friends said that every one on the mountain +always has fire in the bed in cold, damp weather—so I agreed, and +Donna Anna fetched what looked like a flower-pot containing hot +charcoal. She put this between my sheets with a wicker cage over it, +and presently shifted its position. I wanted her to leave it all +night in a corner of the room to take the chill off, but this met with +opposition from all because they did not wish me to be found in the morning +asphyxiated in my sleep like a Parisian milliner in a novel. I would +have chanced it, had I <!-- page 140--><a name="page140"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 140</span>been allowed, for the milliners always have +the greatest difficulty in stopping up all the chinks, and even then +occasionally survive; whereas, although Donna Anna pinned up a blanket +across my window, it did not keep out the gale that was raging all about +the room. The general opinion being against the charcoal, I +acquiesced and it was taken back to its home in the kitchen. It was +the only fire in the house and was what Dickens would have called an honest +and stout little fire. It had cooked the maccaroni for supper and, +after warming all the beds, went back to rest from its labour until the +morning when it would be called to make the coffee for breakfast. It +deserved its rest, not that it dried my sheets, but it warmed them; and the +doctor assured me that it is the coldness and not the dampness of wet +sheets that gives one a chill, so he considered me practically safe. +If only I had had a cold at the time, he said, I should have been +completely safe on the principle that one must be off with the old cold +before one can be on with the new. Owing, doubtless, to the kindly +influence of the good little fire, I passed a comfortable night and took no +harm.</p> +<p>When I came down in the morning there <!-- page 141--><a +name="page141"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 141</span>was the student +immersed in his philosophy; the industrious little fire had obligingly +allowed itself to be coaxed into two, and he had secured part of it in a +flower-pot on the floor between his feet and had a rug over his +knees. The cloud was as thick and the wind as boisterous as it had +been the day before, so I followed his example, got another flowerpot, +split off a bit of fire for myself and sat down with a rug.</p> +<p>The next morning the cloud had gone and I returned to Trapani. The +bus started very early and I had to rise before the sun, but the view would +have repaid sitting up all night. We saw Marettimo hovering over +Levanzo “on the horizon all highest up in the sea to the West,” +as Ithaca is described in the <i>Odyssey</i>. We saw Ustica floating +over Cofano and Capo S. Vito. We looked down on Custonaci, the +Sanctuary of the Madonna and the great curve of the bay from Cofano to the +foot of the mountain. We gazed over the low, undulating country +covered with villages, roads, fields and villas that lay all around us on +the inland sides—the country through which in 1860 Garibaldi marched +to Calatafimi with his thousand volunteers after landing at Marsala. +We saw Monte Inice <!-- page 142--><a name="page142"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 142</span>and the heights above Segesta. We saw +Pantellaria, halfway to Africa, but we could not see Africa itself for Cape +Bon is only visible under very exceptional atmospheric conditions.</p> +<p>I have been on the mountain in the spring and eaten quails for +supper. It was the time of their migration, and they had been caught +as they rested on the islands. I have never been able to ascertain +exactly what it is that the quails do. First I read in a book that +when going north in the spring they rest on Levanzo and when returning +south in the autumn, on Favognana. Levanzo being north of Favognana +this meant that, in both cases, they choose for their resting-place the +second island they come to. There is no mistake about this being what +I read, for I made a memoria technica about it at the time out of what +Rockstro, my old counterpoint master, used to say musicians do in +performing the diatonic major scale unaccompanied. In ascending they +pass over the grave supertonic and take the acute supertonic, and in +descending they pass over the acute supertonic and take the grave +supertonic; the two supertonics being only a comma apart, as the two +islands are only a very little way from one another.</p> +<p><!-- page 143--><a name="page143"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +143</span>Then I was told by a native of Trapani that this is just what the +quails do not do, and that, in fact, they rest on the first island they +come to, namely, on Favognana when going north, and on Levanzo when going +south, being too tired to fly across the geographical comma that divides +the two islands. I was next told by another native of Trapani that +the quails rest on all the three islands indiscriminately and not merely on +Levanzo and Favognana, thus destroying any attempt at purity of intonation +and introducing equal temperament along with Marettimo, which had not +hitherto been touched upon. He also said that if in any year it was +found that the quails avoided any one of the islands, the reason would be +that there were too many people on it. Finally, I was told by another +native that when the quails were going north in the spring of 1906 the wind +suddenly changed and blew most of them into Trapani itself, and people +picked them up by hundreds in the streets. It does not matter, of +course, so long as one gets the quails for supper, but if one really did +want to know, one would have as much difficulty as in finding out how +Orlando got hold of la Durlindana and where it originally came from.</p> +<p><!-- page 144--><a name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +144</span>The student from Castelvetrano was still there with his +melancholy eyes, studying philosophy. He said he found the mountain +more suitable for his purpose than his native town because it was more +tranquil. I had been at Castelvetrano, but had not noticed that it +was a particularly noisy place, indeed, I could no more have distinguished +between the tranquillity of Castelvetrano and that of the mountain than +between the acute and the grave supertonic.</p> +<p>The next time I met this student he had completed his studies and was +employed as a clerk in the Italian railway station at Chiasso, the frontier +town on the S. Gottardo, at an annual salary of 1,080 lire, which is about +£43 4s. He could hardly have been sent to a station more remote +from his native town. He had had a holiday of twelve days, and had +gone home to embrace his adorata mamma. The government gave him a +free pass, so he travelled by rail, crossing from Reggio to Messina, and it +took him forty-six hours. When he arrived at Castelvetrano he was so +knocked up by the journey and the change of air that he was obliged to go +to bed, where he remained till it was time for him to get up and return to +Chiasso, and this <!-- page 145--><a name="page145"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 145</span>means that he was in bed for more than a +fortnight, because his holiday was extended to twenty days in consideration +of his illness. He was quite contented about his position and +prospects and told me these facts without any complaint. On the +whole, Mount Eryx would appear to be not such a bad school for +philosophers: nevertheless, when one considers the large part played in +evolution by the inherited desire of the organism to live beyond its +income, one may doubt whether it is good for a country’s progress +that many of its men should be so philosophically contented with so +little. They do not, however, include the whole of the population, +for Italy cannot be said to be without examples of aggressive +discontent. It is somewhere between the two extremes that practical +commonsense should be looked for. In the meantime, if it is a +question of sharing a supper of spring quails on Mount Eryx, a peaceful, +gentle philosopher is probably a more agreeable companion than a +socialistic nihilist.</p> +<p>If one had the power of choosing one’s company, this philosopher +would counsel one not to exercise it; for he looks upon choosing as a +presumptuous kind of trying <!-- page 146--><a name="page146"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 146</span>to control nature. I pointed out that +one cannot altogether detach oneself from nature and that doing nothing is +still choosing not to choose, but he replied that it is the lesser evil, as +in choosing not to write a tragedy in five acts, which I had to admit can +seldom be wrong. Further he asked, inasmuch as we had neither +arranged our meeting nor ordered the quails, were we not at the moment both +enjoying the advantage of having acted on his philosophy? I bowed and +said I had been particularly fortunate this evening; but in Sicily one is +always safe because the people are so charming that the art of travelling +among them consists in allowing things to happen and in being ready to +welcome whatever may come.</p> +<p>Perhaps the best season for going on the mountain is the late summer and +early autumn, when the Trapanese come up for the villegiatura. It is +not too hot during the day, as it is by the sea, and it can be almost +chilly by night, which it never is below. Every one is in a holiday +frame of mind; even the ladies of Eryx go out, whereas during the winter +they seldom leave the house, unless, perhaps, after a storm for a turn in +the balio to see how the trees look <!-- page 147--><a +name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 147</span>when laden with +snow. There are picnics and excursions to other places on the slopes +of the mountain where friends are passing the summer who presently return +the visits by coming up to breakfast with us. There is a touring +company performing in the theatre, there is music, there are drives and all +manner of quiet amusements.</p> +<p>On the mainland of Italy, tobacconists’ shops display the Royal +Arms with a notice that they are licensed to sell tobacco and salt. +Here a license is necessary only for tobacco, salt being free in +Sicily. This combines with the absence of rain to make the +manufacture of salt profitable; but should a thunderstorm dilute the pans, +the fresh water must be evaporated out again and time and money are +lost. Storms come so rarely in the summer, however, that the caprices +of the weather interfere but little either with the salt works or the +excursions.</p> +<p>If there is no excursion or no special occupation, we go to the +caffé or the club, or call on the chemist who is sure to be +surrounded by friends, or sit in the balio smoking and talking nonsense by +the hour. And there is always the inexhaustible wonder of the great +view. The spacious dome of <!-- page 148--><a +name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 148</span>the sky, which curves +above and around, unites at the horizon with the inverted dome of the earth +and sea, which curves around and below, the two together forming an +enormous hollow globe in the midst of which the top of the mountain seems +to be suspended like the floating island of Laputa. Conte Pepoli can +sit in his castle and watch the half-tame ravens, with little silver bells +on their necks, as they flit around the window and perch on the crazy +wooden balcony where an old priest is asleep in a chair, over the edge of a +precipice of many hundred feet, backed by leagues upon leagues of +Sicily.</p> +<h3><!-- page 149--><a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +149</span>CHAPTER IX—THE MADONNA AND THE PERSONAGGI</h3> +<p>In August, 1901, I was on the mountain and saw a procession representing +Noah’s Ark and the Universal Deluge—one of those strange and +picturesque cavalcades that were formerly more common than they are +now.</p> +<p>Usually, in other parts of Italy, the same story is repeated at the same +season: in one place, always the Passion at Easter; in another, always the +Nativity at Christmas, and so forth. On the mountain they have the +procession at irregular intervals, after perhaps three or four years, and +the story, though now, as a rule, scriptural, is never the same +again. When it does occur, it is as an extra embellishment of the +annual harvest thanksgiving; it takes place by night and always introduces +the Madonna di Custonaci. And now it is time to say <!-- page +150--><a name="page150"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 150</span>a few words +about this famous Madonna, whose influence is felt throughout the whole +comune at all times, but nowhere more than on the Mountain, and at no time +more than during the harvest thanksgiving.</p> +<p>Mount Eryx, as every one knows, was in classical times famous for the +worship of Venus: here stood perhaps the most celebrated of all her +temples—the one with which her name is most familiarly +associated—and here, long before Horace wrote of “Erycina +ridens,” she was worshipped as Aphrodite by the Greeks, and as +Astarte or Ashtaroth by the Phœnicians. Hardly any vestige of a +temple can now be made out, but the remains of the Pelasgic walls that +protected the city in prehistoric ages are still to be seen near the +Trapani gate. The late Samuel Butler (author of <i>Erewhon</i>) wrote +<i>The Authoress of the Odyssey</i> (Longmans, 1897) in support of his view +that the <i>Odyssey</i> was written by a woman who lived at Trapani and +upon the mountain, and who in the poem described her own country. In +Chapter XII. he quotes Thucydides (vi. 2), to show that the Sicans had +inhabited this corner of the island from a very remote period, having come +probably from Spain. <!-- page 151--><a name="page151"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 151</span>After the fall of Troy, some of the Trojans, +who had escaped the Greeks, migrated to Sicily, settled in the +neighbourhood of the Sicans and were all together called Elymi, their +cities being Eryx and Segesta. The city walls were originally built +by the Sicans, and restored by the Phœnicians when they came to the +mountain; on many of the stones the quarrymen’s marks in +Phœnician characters are still visible.</p> +<p>It was believed that at certain seasons of the year the goddess left her +shrine on the mountain and went over into Africa accompanied by all the +pigeons of the neighbourhood, and this was the occasion for a festival of +Anagogia. <a name="citation151"></a><a href="#footnote151" +class="citation">[151]</a> A little later, when the pigeons returned, +the goddess was believed to come back with them, and then there was another +festival of Catagogia. Seeing that she would have had to go +little more than 120 miles in order to reach what is now Cape Bon, and then +only to cross the gulf of Tunis to arrive at the Phœnician colony of +Carthage, one may suppose it probable <!-- page 152--><a +name="page152"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 152</span>that these flittings +began when Astarte was in power.</p> +<p>In our own time the Madonna di Custonaci reigns upon the Mountain, and +is Protectress of the whole comune. Her sacred picture is normally in +her sanctuary down at Custonaci, about 15 kilometres distant, but when any +general calamity afflicts the district, it is brought up to the Matrice or +Mother Church of the comune on Mount Eryx. On these occasions three +days of humiliation are proclaimed, priests and men, their heads crowned +with thorns, their necks encircled with cords, go about the town +flagellating themselves; in the evening fires are lighted in the balio, and +all the villages below answer by lighting fires too, to show that they are +taking part in the general tribulation. A document is signed by the +sindaco, and then the picture is brought from Custonaci and set over the +great altar in the church of the Matrice. When it has become quite +clear that the anger of Heaven has been appeased, the picture is taken back +to Custonaci.</p> +<p>The calamity that most commonly befalls the comune is a drought, or the +fear of a drought. Rain is not wanted while the salt <!-- page +153--><a name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 153</span>is being +made, but as soon as that is all under cover in the autumn it is time for +the rain to begin, otherwise the crops will fail. In 1893 the rain +was delayed until matters began to look so serious that it was determined +to bring the picture up to the mountain. The proper formalities +having been observed, the people all went out in crowds to welcome it and, +as it was borne along, cried—</p> +<p>“Acqua, Maria, acqua!” (“Rain, Maria, +rain!”)</p> +<p>Meanwhile the clouds were gathering and presently a tremendous +thunderstorm came on which drenched them all, and they returned to the +mountain, shouting—</p> +<p>“Basta, Maria, basta!” (“Leave off, Maria, leave +off!”)</p> +<p>The lightning struck the church and injured four persons who were +standing near the altar, but the Madonna was already in her place, and +owing to her presence they recovered.</p> +<p>The picture, like many of the thaumaturgic representations of the +Madonna, is the work of St. Luke the Evangelist—all except the head +which was done by an angel who descended from heaven expressly for the <!-- +page 154--><a name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +154</span>purpose. This being so, one would expect to find its home +on the top of the very Mountain itself, in the chief place of the comune, +and not down at an insignificant little village like Custonaci. Some +have thought that to allow the Sanctuary of a Madonna Ericina to take the +place of the Temple of Venus Erycina would have been to insist on a +parallelism about which it was desirable to say as little as +possible. Others believe the real reason why we have a Madonna di +Custonaci to be preserved in the following legend. <a +name="citation154"></a><a href="#footnote154" +class="citation">[154]</a></p> +<p>A French vessel, laden with precious merchandise and also with this +still more precious picture, was returning to Marseilles from Alexandria in +Egypt, and, while sailing the Sicilian seas, encountered a furious +tempest. The more the unhappy mariners laboured to govern their +craft, the less they succeeded, and at last, despairing of earthly help, +they turned their thoughts to the Madonna. With streaming eyes they +knelt before the painting and prayed without ceasing to the <!-- page +155--><a name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 155</span>Queen of +Heaven that she would be graciously pleased to conduct them safely +home. For a long time they met with no response, but when they were +nearing Cofano, every sailor heard a voice, as though coming from the +picture and declaring that the Madonna desired to be landed on the +neighbouring coast. Whereupon they bound themselves by a vow that if +they reached land in safety they would build a sanctuary then and there in +memory of their miraculous preservation. No sooner was the vow +uttered than the wind fell, the storm ceased and the surface of the waters +became as smooth as polished glass, over which the fortunate bark glided +without guidance into harbour—and this to the great astonishment of +the crew who observed that her course lay among dangerous shoals and sunken +rocks.</p> +<p>The joyful mariners returned thanks to their Blessed Protectress and +immediately began to perform their vow; but while disembarking, they found +themselves surrounded by a crowd of armed peasants who, taking them for +Turkish pirates, ran to the spot with the intention of frustrating their +supposed nefarious designs. Mutual explanations averted bloodshed, +and the peasants <!-- page 156--><a name="page156"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 156</span>then began to dissuade the sailors from +performing their vow in so literal a manner, pointing out that they would +be abandoning their precious charge to the risk, if not the certainty, of +sacrilegious theft at the hands of the corsairs who frequented that +harbour. In the end the simple mariners yielded to the arguments of +the peasants, and with many tears consigned the picture to their +care. The peasants put it into a cart harnessed with two oxen who +started to draw it inland, but would only go in a direction chosen by +themselves and, after proceeding two or three kilometres, lay down and by +no means could be persuaded to go a step further. This was accepted +as an indication of the Madonna’s approval of what had been done and +of her desire that her church should be erected there, and on that spot now +stands the Sanctuary of Custonaci. The poor sailors, grieving +bitterly for the loss of their treasure, returned to the ship and continued +their interrupted voyage till they reached Marseilles in safety.</p> +<p>Owing to the culpable negligence of those who ought to have considered +it a privilege to be permitted to chronicle the many important miracles +which the Madonna performed <!-- page 157--><a name="page157"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 157</span>in honour of the arrival of her picture, we +have particulars of only two cures wrought in those times, one on a cripple +and the other on a mute. Any one, however, who is disposed to doubt +that there were many more has only to visit the sanctuary and take note of +the large number of votive pictures there exhibited. Besides, how +else could the fame of this wonder-working image have travelled abroad so +extensively unless the wonders had been not less numerous than +undoubted?</p> +<p>There is uncertainty as to the exact date of the arrival of the picture +at the Sanctuary: some give the year 1570; others consider this too late, +if only because wills exist dated as far back as 1422 bequeathing gifts to +Santa Maria di Custonaci; others say that this need not have anything to do +with our Madonna, because there has been a church or chapel at Custonaci +dedicated to the Virgin from very early times, and there is nothing to show +that these wills do not refer to the earlier Madonna; others believe 1370, +not 1570, to be the true date. We should have something to guide us +if we could ascertain how often the picture has been transported to the +mountain in times of calamity, but <!-- page 158--><a +name="page158"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 158</span>here again the +culpable negligence of the chroniclers has left us with records of only +fifty-one such occasions from the beginning of the 16th century to 1794, +viz. five when the pestilence walked by midday, four when the mountains +trembled and the earth opened, two when the locusts came without number and +devoured the fruits of the ground, four when war clouds gathered in the sky +and thirty-six when the autumn rains were delayed.</p> +<p>The disputes extend also to the date of the painting, some even denying +that it was painted by St. Luke. But to do this they are obliged to +ignore all the considerations which support the orthodox view, viz. the +place from which the sailors brought it, the many wonders performed by it, +the miraculous preservation of the colouring during all the years that have +elapsed since St. Luke’s time, the widespread belief in the efficacy +of its powers and lastly the fact that, though many have made the attempt, +no artist has yet succeeded in producing a perfect copy of the +original.</p> +<p>I asked several people what St. Luke had to do with Alexandria, and was +always told that St. Mark’s body was brought from there to Venice in +828, why then should not <!-- page 159--><a name="page159"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 159</span>another of the Evangelists have been there +also? Why not indeed? But this reply was as little satisfying +as those with which pre-occupied age endeavours to silence inquisitive +childhood, and produced much the same sort of result, spurring me on to +further investigations.</p> +<p>A musician who desires to compose a tune that shall become popular must +contrive something apparently original and yet not so original as to demand +study; it must also contain echoes of other tunes previously popular, and +yet they must be so indefinite that no one can tell for certain where they +come from, which is what we mean when we say it is a wise tune that knows +its own father. Similarly, the framers of the foregoing legend had to +compose an entirely Christian story, as original as was compatible with the +use of the forms of Christian legend, and yet they could not neglect all +the pagan traditions with which their public had been impregnated for +generations. In the first place the picture must come over the +sea—everything that arrives in an island does so; one of the most +effective of the common forms in legend is the arrival of a boat with a +precious cargo from a distant land, often <!-- page 160--><a +name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 160</span>bringing corn to stay +a famine, and every one is now familiar with the opening of +Lohengrin. Tunis would not do for the point of departure, not only +because it is where pagan Astarte came from when she arrived in Sicily, but +also because it had been Moslem since the seventh century and could not +have been accepted by the people as a Christian seaport. It is quite +likely that the popularity of the St. Mark legend determined the selection +of Alexandria, which had the advantage also of being on the coast of the +same continent as Tunis. The storm, the vow and the oxen are as much +common form in legend as the ship; and the next thing that strikes one is +the curious similarity between the alternate domiciles of the Madonna on +the mountain and at Custonaci, and the flittings of Venus Erycina to and +fro between the mountain and Carthage. If we look upon the arrival of +the picture at Custonaci as involving the transplanting of a piece of +Africa into Sicily, much as an ambassador’s house is regarded as +being part of his own country transplanted into a foreign land, we may then +consider that the Madonna, to all intents and purposes, still travels +between the Mountain and Africa, only she now has an easier journey and +avoids <!-- page 161--><a name="page161"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +161</span>actually dwelling among heretics. In this view the +transporting of her picture backwards and forwards should be looked upon as +the modern version of the feasts of Anagogia and Catagogia.</p> +<p>It is admitted that the picture has, more than once, been placed in the +hands of skilful modern painters whose services have been called in merely +to repair any damage it may have sustained in its journeyings—they +have had nothing to do therefore with the miraculous preservation of the +colouring. What these experts thought about the date of the original +painting is known only to themselves. We need not suppose that they +agreed—that would have been indeed a miracle and quite a fresh +departure for a picture with a reputation earned in a different branch of +thaumaturgy. It does not much matter, however, what they thought, for +experts in matters of art are the victims of such cast-iron prejudices that +if once they fancy they see the influence of Leonardo da Vinci in a picture +and take it into their heads that it comes from Piedmont, it will be found +the most difficult thing in the world to persuade them that it really was +painted in Egypt more than 1000 years before Giotto.</p> +<p><!-- page 162--><a name="page162"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +162</span>We shall probably not be far wrong if we assume that something +like the processions of the Personaggi, involving the display of the most +beautiful men and women that could be found, took place on the mountain in +heathen times as part of the cult of the goddess and that, as a compromise, +they were not abolished but accommodated to Christian usages.</p> +<p>Giuseppe Pitrè, in his <i>Feste Patronali in Sicilia</i>, gives +an account of the procession on the mountain held in 1752. We are to +suppose that the wickedness of the good people of Eryx had attained to such +monstrous proportions that the whole universe, incited thereto by observing +the anger of God against them, took up arms in the cause of justice. +The Madonna di Custonaci, however, intervened and saved her chosen +people. It began with the Wrath of God, personified by a warrior +armed with thunderbolts and lightning and setting forth to destroy the +mountain. Then came the Angry Heavens, the Benignant Moon, Mars and +Mercury ready to avenge the outrages done to God; Jove grasping a +thunderbolt and about to hurl it against the comune, Venus anxious to +overthrow the city, and <!-- page 163--><a name="page163"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 163</span>Saturn whetting his golden scythe. The +Sun is obscured, the Four Winds blow terribly, the Four Elements assist in +the work of desolation, the Four Seasons threaten misery and +affliction. Mount Eryx being convinced by this display that it is in +a great danger, the Genius of the city appears next, bearing in his hand a +figure of the Madonna di Custonaci. He calls to his assistance Divine +Counsel, Devotion, Beneficence and Piety, and the procession closes with +the Guardian Angel.</p> +<p>It must have been a magnificent spectacle. Many clouds have rested +on Mount Eryx since 1752 and we do not now expose our bedrock of paganism +quite so openly. This, indeed, but for the slight veneer of +Christianity, might have passed for a downright pagan procession.</p> +<p>In 1894, <i>L’Aurora Consurgens della Cantica</i> was the +subject. There were twelve figures showing the growth of idolatry and +culminating with the Emperor Julius Cæsar who, it will be remembered, +accepted worship as a god; moreover, his death having occurred not half a +century before the birth of Christ, he was naturally followed by the +Aurora, symbolizing the Madonna di Custonaci, and <!-- page 164--><a +name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 164</span>the explanatory +pamphlet contained a reference to the <i>Song of Solomon</i> vi. 10: +“Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, +clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?” After +the Aurora came the Rising Sun, Faith, Christian Civilization, Mount Eryx, +Charity and Youth—meaning, probably, that Christianity will never +grow old. In conclusion came a car with a copy of the sacred picture +and a chorus of youths.</p> +<p>It would seem that the personages formerly appeared on foot, for the +earliest record states that in 1750 they appeared for the first time on +horseback. In 1897 the subject was <i>Jael</i>, and the cavalcade +consisted of eight figures, of whom Deborah, seated in the shade of a palm +tree surrounded with a chorus of damsels, Jael in the tent with Sisera +nailed to the ground, and Triumph, appeared on cars, each of the others +being on horseback and the horses being led by grooms suitably +attired. A nocturnal procession, whether the figures go on foot, on +horseback, or on cars, does not strike one as being a particularly +favourable medium for the telling of a story. Nevertheless, by +choosing a subject with which the people are more or less <!-- page +165--><a name="page165"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 165</span>familiar, by +emphasizing the climax and by providing an explanatory pamphlet for 2d., a +more satisfactory result is produced than one would have supposed probable, +as I realized when I saw the procession in August, 1901. The sacred +picture had been on the mountain since 1893, an unusually long time, and +was now to be taken back to the sanctuary at Custonaci, which, during its +absence, had been beautified “in the Gothic style.” The +two events of the Procession and the Return synchronizing, there was a +double festa, lasting four days on the mountain and four days more at +Custonaci.</p> +<h3><!-- page 166--><a name="page166"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +166</span>CHAPTER X—THE UNIVERSAL DELUGE</h3> +<p>On the morning of Sunday, 25th August, 1901, every one on Monte San +Giuliano was up early and at 7.30 a brass band began to perambulate the +town to announce that the festa had begun. At 8.30 the band entered +the Matrice, and before Mass the sacred picture was unveiled, the band +saluting it with a burst of music. Much may be done in music by +allusion and suggestion. The service concluded with an extremely +graceful movement in six-eight time, that drove the Madonna out of the mind +of at least one listener and substituted a vision of laughing girls swaying +lightly to the rhythm and singing of the dancing waves whose foam gave +birth to Venus.</p> +<p>When the church emptied we got a better view of the picture. It is +about 6 ft. high <!-- page 167--><a name="page167"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 167</span>by 3 broad, painted in oils on wood prepared +with gesso, and represents a smiling Madonna with the Child at her +breast. She is seated on a throne in a landscape; two angels hold +over her head a massive golden crown; the Child is crowned also and in His +hand are three ears of corn, to signify fruitfulness; He also holds the +keys. The crowns are really only half-crowns, but they are gold or +silver-gilt, and are fastened into the wood of the picture. All round +the Madonna’s nimbus is a raised band of gold set with twelve diamond +stars, valued at 14,000 lire. A large diamond earring hangs in her +right ear, the only one that is visible; three large diamond rings are on +the fingers of her right hand and one on the finger of her left which +supports the Child, and suspended all over her skirts is an immense +quantity of jewellery. The frame is of wood entirely coated with +silver, in the form of a Renaissance doorway with a fluted column on each +side and a broken pediment over the top. It is almost concealed by +the jewellery hung about it, earrings, chains, necklaces, rings, watches +etc. These are offerings from the faithful, but what is shown is +nothing like all. There is a large chest containing much <!-- page +168--><a name="page168"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 168</span>more and +what has been given this year is exposed in a separate case. These +valuables constitute the Madonna’s dowry and she carries it with her +on her journeys; but some of the more important articles never leave the +mountain; her diamond stars, for instance, are removed from the picture +when it goes down, and their place is taken by less valuable stars of +gold.</p> +<p>In the afternoon there were horse-races outside the Trapani gate on a +fairly level piece of road, and a concert and illumination in the balio in +the evening.</p> +<p>In the course of the day I bought a copy of the explanatory +pamphlet. Its title was <i>L’Arca Noetica</i>. <i>Simbolo +Mariano</i>. <i>Processione notturna figurativa</i> (<i>I +Personaggi</i>) <i>in omaggio alla Diva di Custonaci Celeste Patrone degli +Erecini</i>. <i>Ultimo Lunedì d’Agosto</i>, 1901. +It was to be a procession of cars, there were to be no figures on +horseback. Having introduced cars, as in <i>Jael</i>, to give special +importance to the three points of the story, viz. the opening, the climax, +and the conclusion (or, as the pamphlet expressed it, Causa, Consequenza e +Termine), it was, no doubt, felt that more could be done with them than +with single figures on horseback <!-- page 169--><a +name="page169"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 169</span>in presenting the +somewhat intractable subject of <i>Noah’s Ark and the Universal +Deluge</i>.</p> +<p>The preparations had taken a month or six weeks. The course is for +the arciprete of the Matrice, who is the head of the clergy of the +district, to determine what the story shall be and how it is to be +told. The designing of each personaggio, or of each group of +personaggi, is then confided to one of the inhabitants, who, provided he +bears in mind the general scheme, is free to follow his natural artistic +instincts. The dresses are hired from Palermo, and an astonishing +quantity of jewellery is lent by the families of the comune; in 1897 the +personaggi carried 85 lbs. weight of it, and far more is always lent than +can possibly be used. It is all gold and precious stones, no silver +is to be seen, and nothing is ever lost, stolen, or mislaid; even the +thieves become honest on these occasions. It is sewn on to the +dresses in various designs and makes them look very rich, so that what is +hired from Palermo is only the costumes in the rough, so to speak.</p> +<p>In wandering about the town next day, I came upon four or five of the +cars lurking <!-- page 170--><a name="page170"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +170</span>in obscure churches where they had been prepared. It was +not easy to make much of them; there were a few rocks, banks and clouds, +also the waters of the deluge, all made of papier maché painted to +appear real, and in among the rocks and banks were real plants, mostly the +dwarf palm which grows plentifully on the mountain. There were wooden +supports for the figures, to help them to stand in their places. Each +car carried under it an apparatus to supply it with acetylene gas, used in +1901 for the first time.</p> +<p>All day long people kept on coming up the mountain and pouring into the +town. Those who did not come on foot left their carts and horses +outside, and they all swarmed up through the narrow, irregular, roughly +paved streets from the Trapani gate to the balio, till by nightfall the +Piazza was as crowded as Piccadilly on Mafeking night. Every one who +has been present at an Italian festa knows what it is like—men +shouting and elbowing their way through the people with flaming lamps +fitted to their baskets, selling water and syrups, cakes and confectionery, +melon seeds and peanuts—others going about with halfpenny buttonholes +of <!-- page 171--><a name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +171</span>gelsomina, each neatly folded up in a vine-leaf to keep the scent +in—three independent piano-organs and a brass band in the middle +distance—an enthusiastic blind singer, a survival of Demodocus in the +<i>Odyssey</i>, with a falsetto voice and no bridge to his nose keeping a +group of listeners spellbound in the foreground with their favourite +ballad, illustrated by a large sheet of oil paintings in eight tableaux, +about the man who murdered his wife and mother with one bloody +knife—there it is lying on the supper-table—and was ultimately +taken by the carabinieri and executed.</p> +<p>This blind singer with no bridge to his nose is a humorist; on one +occasion when he was fibbing in a particularly flagrant manner, he enforced +his remarks by calling upon heaven to strike him blind and smash his nose +if he was not speaking the truth.</p> +<p>While you are thinking that the tumult must be at its height, peaceful +nuns are creeping up the convent stair, silently, one by one, they reach +the roof, every one can see them collecting together in the moonlight and +taking hold of the dangling bell-ropes. All of a sudden you realize +what <!-- page 172--><a name="page172"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +172</span>a mistake you had been making about the tumult as the riotous +bells fling their additional accompaniments out into the night, all over +the town, over the whole comune, down to Trapani, to Cofano and out to the +islands.</p> +<p>In the meantime those in charge of the cars had been giving their final +directions and seeing that everything was in order, and the personaggi, who +had been being dressed ever since early in the afternoon, were ready to +receive visitors. About 10 p.m. each of them began to hold an At +Home. They sat there silent and motionless in their houses among +trays full of superfluous jewellery and surrounded by lighted candles, +gazing imperturbably in front of them while people streamed through the +room admiring them, fingering their dresses and jewels, and asking +questions of their relations and friends. About 11.30 I was conducted +along the illuminated streets through the crowd to a house where I stood on +a balcony looking up a street down which the procession was to come.</p> +<p>We had to wait till long after midnight, but at last the moving lights +began to shine on the high houses in the distance, the band <!-- page +173--><a name="page173"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 173</span>was heard +approaching, and at 1.45 the first car staggered into sight. It +represented <i>The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men</i>; there were +three of each, reclining in the front part of the car and offering flowers +to one another, instigated so to do by the Monster of Iniquity, a loathsome +dragon, who was insinuating himself among them from rocks behind, while the +Angel of the Lord, a singularly beautiful child, stood on a high cloud in +the background, in an attitude of horror, about to take wing from such a +world of wickedness. Cupid was there also, sitting at the feet of the +daughters of men and taking aim generally.</p> +<p>The second car brought <i>Sin</i>, a bearded man in an imperial attitude +with a golden sceptre resting on his hip. He dominated a globe round +which the old Serpent had coiled himself. He was dressed in dark-blue +velvet, and wore a voluminous red cloak. On his breast was a bunch of +grapes, made entirely of diamond rings; each grape was a separate ring +isolated from the others and so sewn on that the hoop, being passed through +a hole in the material, was not visible, and only the rose of diamonds was +displayed. There were fifty-five grapes, and they sparkled and <!-- +page 174--><a name="page174"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +174</span>glittered in the flickering lights as the car lurched down the +street and passed the balcony.</p> +<p>The third car represented <i>The Voice of God</i>, a beautiful figure of +an Angel blowing a trumpet, and the words written on the cloud behind were +“Delebo hominem.” In the front of the car sat a youth and +a girl holding hands to represent the wicked population destined to +destruction.</p> +<p>Then <i>The Universal Deluge</i> came pitching and tossing round the +corner—rather an ambitious car. The foreground was occupied by +the water, with the head of a drowning man throwing up his arms, and the +indication of another entirely submerged. The waves were beating +against a steep bank up which a tigress was climbing, carrying her cub in +her mouth. On the top of the bank stood a lovely woman endeavouring +to save her terrified child. She was the only living figure on the +car, everything else, even the terrified child, being of papier +maché.</p> +<p><i>The Ark</i> came on the fifth car and had no living figure at all, +being merely Noah’s Ark resting on Mount Ararat with a dove in +front. This may sound rather uninteresting <!-- page 175--><a +name="page175"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 175</span>and as though +designed to support home industries, but, to the initiated, it palpitated +with significance, for it symbolized the Madonna herself, the only means of +salvation from the waters of punishment; and as the Ark rested on Mount +Ararat while the flood subsided, so does the Madonna di Custonaci rest upon +Mount Eryx while the calamity is stayed.</p> +<p>No. 6 was <i>The Sacrifice</i> and represented Noah, an imposing old man +with long white hair and beard, standing at an altar where a real sheep lay +dead under a net and his three sons were in front praying.</p> +<p>No. 7 was <i>The Rainbow</i>, another lovely girl as an angel standing +between a bank of clouds and a rainbow. On the breast of this figure +was worked in jewels Noah’s dove with an olive-branch; this was +particularly appropriate, as it happens also to be the badge of the +town.</p> +<p>The procession was closed by a long car carrying first a band of +musicians, then a chorus of youths attired as angels and crowned with +roses, the whole backed by a sort of temple front framing a copy of the +sacred picture. This car had to stand still from time to time while +its occupants performed <!-- page 176--><a name="page176"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 176</span>music composed specially for the occasion, and +the continual stopping dictated the movements of the other cars and was +signalled to them by bells, so that there might always be about the same +space between them.</p> +<p>The cars were drawn by men and the figures made no attempt to stand +rigidly still—anything of the kind would have been out of the +question, for they must have been on the move between five and six +hours. The last car passed my balcony at 3.30, an hour and +three-quarters after the first had come into sight, and one could tell the +next day that they had been through nearly the whole town, for hardly a +street was safe to walk in—they were all so slippery with the wax +that had dropped from the candles. The constant moving of their limbs +by the figures, though they never lost the general idea of the attitude, +together with the tottering motion caused by the roughness of the paving, +prevented any sense of the pose plastique or living picture.</p> +<p>Every one of the female figures, except <i>The Voice of God</i>, had her +breast encrusted with jewels, usually in a floral design, and the borders +of their dresses were heavy with <!-- page 177--><a +name="page177"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 177</span>jewellery; the male +figures also wore as much as could be suitably sewn on their costumes.</p> +<p>Omitting consideration of the final car, which was there to close the +procession and bring on the music and the Madonna, and also of the Ark, +which could hardly have been otherwise, there were six cars, three carrying +groups and three practically single figures, for the boy and girl at the +feet of <i>The Voice of God</i>, though they were the children of Donna +Anna, my landlady, were not really necessary. Of the groups, the one +representing <i>The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men</i> was certainly +the finest. It told its story in the right way and was full of the +right kind of imagination. <i>The Sacrifice</i> was next best, and +owed much to the extreme dignity of the principal figure. I should +have liked <i>The Flood</i> better if it had had more living figures and +less papier maché, though I am not ashamed to admit that I have no +idea how this could have been done. Shakespeare himself, who +apologizes for trying to make a cockpit hold the vasty fields of France, +might have been excused for not attempting to decant The Universal Deluge +into a receptacle scarcely bigger than a <!-- page 178--><a +name="page178"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 178</span>costermonger’s +barrow. Of the three remaining cars, <i>Sin</i> was beyond comparison +the finest both in conception and execution. Perhaps he would have +looked the part more obviously if he had had more of a +once-aboard-the-lugger expression on his kind and gentle face; on the other +hand, the designer of this car may have intended that Sin is most +successful in seducing the righteous when he appears with nothing repulsive +in his aspect. The other two were merely just what they should have +been—ordinary business cars, so to speak. Had these three +single figures appeared on horseback with grooms to lead them, as in former +times, the procession would have gained in variety and the importance of +the groups on the cars would have been emphasized.</p> +<p>But this is a small matter. The procession as it was, with its car +after car jolting along under an August full moon, the sparkling of the +jewels, the flashing of the torches, the blazing of the gas, the beauty of +the figures and the immense multitude of reverent worshippers made up a +scene never to be forgotten. The impressiveness was deepened by the +knowledge that this Mountain, where Astarte, Aphrodite and Venus have all +reigned <!-- page 179--><a name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +179</span>in turn, is also a place where much that has helped to mould the +poetry and history of the world has happened since the Sicans first girded +it with its megalithic cincture. Added to this was the conviction +that for many and many an age some such procession has been winding through +these narrow, irregular streets, the form changing, but the intention +remaining ever the same—Praise to the Giver of the Increase.</p> +<p>The programme for the next day contained nothing till 5 p.m., when there +were more horse-races, then Vespers in the Matrice, brilliantly +illuminated; after dusk fireworks outside the Trapani Gate, and at night a +concert in the illuminated balio.</p> +<p>In the afternoon of Wednesday, the 28th, a procession of fifty-nine +mules and horses passed through the town. Each animal was accompanied +by its owner, a peasant of the comune, and was loaded with bags of grain, +an offering for the Madonna. This grain was to be sold and, in the +mean time, was estimated to be worth 2500 lire. About 1500 lire was +collected during the festa, partly at the church doors and partly in the +value of unused wax candles, and the municipio gave 1000, so that +altogether <!-- page 180--><a name="page180"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +180</span>the receipts were about 5000 lire. Against this the +expenses of the festa were expected to amount to about 4000 lire, and the +balance will go towards the expenses of the next.</p> +<h3><!-- page 181--><a name="page181"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +181</span>CHAPTER XI—THE RETURN</h3> +<p>The procession of the grain closed the harvest home and in the evening +of the same day began the proceedings relating to the Return of the Madonna +to Custonaci. At 8 p.m. another procession started. First came +the band to clear the way, then a man beating a drum; this is a feature of +Sicilian processions and is said to date from the time when the Saracens +had possession of the island; it continues as long as the procession lasts, +which may be for hours, and produces an unexpected effect. There is +so much else going on that after a time you forget to notice it. But +you have not really got away from it; you are being unconsciously +saturated, and after the festa is over you become aware that you are +suffering from a surfeit of drum; the rhythm runs in your <!-- page +182--><a name="page182"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 182</span>head and +keeps you awake at night; when you go out of doors you expect to hear it in +the distance; when you turn a corner you listen for it, and as it is not +there you find yourself listening for it all the more anxiously. But +this wears off after two or three days.</p> +<p>Behind the drum came peasants walking two and two, carrying candles and +an occasional banner; then the Society of the Misericordia, wearing those +mysterious dresses that cover them entirely from head to foot, with holes +for the eyes; then priests and men with lamps, and, lastly, the sacred +picture out of the Matrice, carried by men, the whole frame quivering with +its fringes of jewellery. Every few yards the procession stopped, +partly to rest the bearers and partly to give the crowd an opportunity of +seeing the picture.</p> +<p>Every church that lay on the route was lighted up and not till long past +midnight, when the picture had been taken into each one of them to pay a +farewell visit, was it carried back to the Matrice.</p> +<p>On Thursday, 29th, the day appointed for transporting the picture back +to Custonaci, there was early Mass in the Matrice, where <!-- page 183--><a +name="page183"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 183</span>there was not nearly +room for all the people, and after Mass a short sermon. The preacher +contrasted the sadness of the present occasion with the joy of that happy +day in 1893 when the Madonna had come to dwell among them, bringing the +rain with her. He told them of her love for her people, of all she +had done for them, of all they owed her and of how deeply she entered into +the life of each one of them. He reminded them that the first name +they had been taught to lisp at their mother’s knee was Maria; that +she to whom they raised their prayers in time of tribulation was Maria; +that the one they blessed for benefits received was always Maria. And +now her gracious presence was to depart from her beloved Mountain; the time +had come to utter the last farewell. Here the preacher spoke a few +words so touching in their eloquence that all the women and most of the men +burst into tears and made no attempt to conceal their emotion.</p> +<p>It would not occur to an Englishman to weep because a picture is taken +from one place to another. Not so long ago quite a number of pictures +were taken and put away in the Tate Gallery, and yet London looked stolidly +on and not a tear was shed. Had <!-- page 184--><a +name="page184"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 184</span>one been shed, it +would have been laughed at; and had only one or two of the congregation in +the Matrice been so powerfully affected, it might have passed unnoticed, +but the simultaneousness and spontaneity of their almost hysterical grief +was very impressive, and no one could have had any idea of laughing who saw +the weeping crowd that accompanied the Madonna out of the church while the +band played a funeral march. She was carried on men’s +shoulders, her face constantly turned towards the town, through the Trapani +gate and down the road to the little church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, +while the drum went in front, filling the air with the mournfulness of its +perpetual rhythm. As the picture passed among the people one of the +women cried out—</p> +<p>“See how pale the face of the Madonna has become; it is with +sorrow to leave the Mountain.”</p> +<p>Another lifted up her voice and prayed that it might not be long before +a calamity befell the comune—as that it might not rain till December, +for example—in order that she might soon return. The bearers +stopped at the little church, where a large chest had been prepared in +which she was to repose <!-- page 185--><a name="page185"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 185</span>during the rest of the journey, and the +people’s grief culminated as the chest received her out of their +sight.</p> +<p>In <i>The Marriage of Heaven and Hell</i>, Blake tells us that, when the +Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with him, he asked, “Does a firm +persuasion that a thing is so make it so?” and Isaiah replied, +“All poets believe that it does, and in ages of imagination this firm +persuasion removed mountains; but many are not capable of a firm persuasion +of anything.” Certainly most of the Ericini are capable of a +firm persuasion of something and probably, if Blake could have visited them +at a time when the Madonna was going away from the mountain or coming back +to it, he would have agreed that the age of imagination still lingers in +this classic spot.</p> +<p>Those who did not accompany the picture beyond Santa Maria delle Grazie +now proceeded to the balio, and the beating of the drum floated up +continuously as the chest, followed by an immense crowd on foot, in carts, +and on horseback, was carried down the zigzags and along the winding road +to Custonaci. In many places booths had been erected, where wine and +bread were given freely to all while the bearers rested. At <!-- page +186--><a name="page186"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 186</span>other points +were pulpits, and here they stopped to listen to a short sermon. A +crowd had come out from Paparella to meet and join the throng, other crowds +from Fico, Ragosia, Crocevia, Palazzolo and the other villages forming the +comune, were waiting at various points along the road. From the balio +the whole journey was visible, except when the windings of the road hid +part of the crowd, and, with the help of glasses, the arrival at the +sanctuary could be seen distinctly at about 5 p.m., nearly nine hours after +the morning start. On ordinary occasions the journey takes about +three hours. In the evening there were fireworks and illuminations at +Custonaci and bonfires in many of the other villages.</p> +<p>When the picture is on the mountain it is the custom for the women of +the town to go to the Matrice in the evening to pray. When it is at +Custonaci they go to the balio, where a stone prie-Dieu has been built for +them from which they can see the sanctuary. Here they will go and +pray every evening until such time as the next calamity brings the picture +up among them again.</p> +<h2><!-- page 189--><a name="page189"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +189</span>CUSTONACI</h2> +<h3>CHAPTER XII—FAITH AND SUPERSTITION</h3> +<p>The brigadier and the corporal both sent illustrated postcards to me +from Selinunte and I sent them postcards in return, but the corporal +unaccountably desisted after being transferred to another station; for +instead of returning home in about a month, as he had intended, he signed +on for a further term of service. Perhaps on his change of address +one of my cards may have gone wrong in the post, and he may have considered +that I was neglecting him. I have never seen him again. The +next time I went to Trapani the brigadier, who had been transferred to +Custonaci, was guarding the coast between Monte San Giuliano and Cofano; I +put off going to see him, however, because it was cold and wet and windy, +not weather for excursions into places beyond <!-- page 190--><a +name="page190"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 190</span>the reach of +civilization. I talked to Mario, the coachman, about it, and he said +he would be ready to take me if a fine day occurred. I had another +reason for wishing to go to Custonaci: I thought it due to the Madonna di +Custonaci that I should pay my respects to her in her sanctuary after +having been present at her festa on the mountain.</p> +<p>Suddenly there came a fine Saturday. I went out immediately after +breakfast, found Mario, told him to be ready in half an hour, ordered a +basket of provisions from the hotel, put a few things together in case they +might be wanted, and we started.</p> +<p>The road took us inland and round the foot of Mount Eryx, through +Paparella and the other villages where some of the wealthy Trapanese have +their summer villas, and after a most lovely drive of three hours, we +arrived at Custonaci. The village is on a low rocky cliff which rises +not from the sea but from an extensive plain. Standing on the cliff +one looks over the plain with Monte San Giuliano closing the view on the +left and on the right the mountain promontory of Cofano, a great, isolated, +solemn, grey rock, full of caves, sprinkled with green and splashed with +raw sienna; between them, <!-- page 191--><a name="page191"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 191</span>two or three kilometres away, is the sea +which, I suppose, formerly covered the plain and washed the foot of the +cliff. Prominent on the shore, rather nearer to Cofano than to Monte +Erice, is the caserma, an oblong white bungalow, and scattered upon the +plain are a few fishermen’s cottages, but no other dwellings. +We first sent a boy off to the caserma to tell the brigadier I had come, +and then Mario, after attending to his horses, joined me in the only +trattoria in the place and we ate our provisions.</p> +<p>After lunch we went to the sanctuary, the home of the famous +wonder-working picture of the Madonna which hangs over the altar. The +sagrestano pulled aside the curtains while another man pulled a cord which +operated a wheel hung with bells of different sizes, thereby making a +tremendous and discordant noise and signifying to all within earshot that +the Madonna was being unveiled, in case any one might care to offer up a +petition.</p> +<p>The light is better in the sanctuary than in the Matrice upon the +Mountain, but this picture of the happy Mother with the Child at her breast +holding three golden ears of corn did not thereby seem to gain as a work +<!-- page 192--><a name="page192"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 192</span>of +art. The people, however, look upon it less as a work of art than as +the representation of a divinity who lives for them as surely as Venus +lived for the Romans, Aphrodite for the Greeks and Astarte for the +Phœnicians, and as surely as other goddesses have lived here for +other peoples. Cofano, looking across to Mount Eryx, saw the earliest +appear on some prehistoric morning when man, born of a woman and living by +the fruits of the earth, fashioned his first image of the Giver of Life and +Increase, vivified it with the spirit of his faith and offered before it +the homage of his praise and gratitude. His faith gradually lost its +freshness and suffered corruption like the manna which the disobedient +children of Israel left until the morning, so that the image of the goddess +became a sepulchre and a breeding-place of unclean imaginings. Then +man, seeing that virtue had gone out of the work of his hands, fashioned a +new one, scarcely different in form, and breathed into it the breath of a +new faith, scarcely different from the old. Again his faith carried +with it into its stagnant prison the germs of its own decay. Thus was +established the recurrent rhythm of the death and resurrection of the +deity. <!-- page 193--><a name="page193"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +193</span>Cofano has watched them come and go and will one day see the +Madonna dethroned to make way for her successor. But that day will +not dawn until, in the Sanctuary or upon the Mountain, the peasants shall +stand unmoved before this touching symbol of the universal worship of +Motherhood.</p> +<p>The brigadier was in sight when we came out of the church and before we +had met in the piazza I became aware that I had caught cold—not a +very remarkable thing in a wet January with a Sicilian wind. He was +as courteous as ever, though a little inclined to grumble because I had not +let him know when to expect me so that he could have met me on my +arrival. I pleaded uncertainty caused by the bad weather, and he +promised to forgive me if I would spend the night at the caserma instead of +returning to Trapani. He would give me his own room all to myself, +for he had to be out on duty guarding the coast between Monte San Giuliano +and Cofano from 9 p.m. till 6 a.m. and, if he should find the coast quiet +and wish to lie down in the early morning, there would be no difficulty, +because one of his men had left him, so that he had four beds and only +three guards to put into them.</p> +<p><!-- page 194--><a name="page194"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +194</span>It was getting late; we had taken longer to come than I had +anticipated, the horses were tired. There is no inn at Custonaci, but +I knew that Mario could manage somehow; so I accepted, and we went through +the village, down the cliff by a steep and difficult path, and across the +plain. On the way we talked of our day at Selinunte and I asked after +his companions there, but he had heard nothing further of any of +them. Soon we met one of the guards who had come from the caserma to +look for us. He crossed himself as he told us that, coming along, he +had heard the bells ring and knew that the picture of the Madonna was being +unveiled. He was a man of few words, or found our conversation +uninteresting, for he said nothing else all the rest of the way.</p> +<p>The caserma is quite close to and facing the sea. All round the +door is a skeleton porch of wood, which in the summer is fitted with wire +gauze to keep out the mosquitoes. Going through this, we were in the +general room where I was introduced to the other two guards. Behind +this room, with windows looking inland over the plain towards Custonaci, is +the kitchen, and these two rooms make up the middle of the bungalow. +<!-- page 195--><a name="page195"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +195</span>The right wing consists of the brigadier’s sitting-room, +out of which a door leads to his bedroom, and the left wing is all one +large room, occupied by the men as their bedroom.</p> +<p>The brigadier took me into his sitting-room to rest. There were +only a few things in it, merely his table with his books and official +papers and three or four chairs; but everything, as at Selinunte, was clean +and tidy. On the wall was an extensive eruption of postcards and +among them those that had come from me. As I looked on the tranquil +whitewash of this secluded caserma, dotted with views of our complicated +and populous London, with its theatres and motor buses and the feverish +rush of its tumult, I found myself wondering what it would be like to +listen to the <i>Pastoral Symphony</i> in the <i>Messiah</i>, performed +with occasional interpolations from <i>Till Eulenspiegel</i>.</p> +<p>The brigadier proposed a stroll while the guards prepared +supper—they take it by turns to be cook, one each day, but this being +an occasion, all three would be cooks to-night. We called at a +cottage in the hope of buying some fish, but the weather had been too bad +and there was none. We met <!-- page 196--><a +name="page196"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 196</span>a young man, however, +who had a kid for sale and wanted 95 centesimi per kilo; the brigadier +would only give 80. The young man could not deal; the kid belonged to +his father, and he had no power to exceed his instructions; he would go +home and call at the caserma in the morning with the ultimissimo +prezzo. We passed a great hole in the ground like a dry well. +The brigadier said that if it were not so very near the caserma, it might +do as a hiding-place for any one flying from justice, or for brigands to +conceal a prisoner.</p> +<p>“Or for smugglers to keep their spoils in,” I said; and the +brigadier chuckled.</p> +<p>He showed me the stone that had been put up to mark the spot at which +the Madonna was landed by the French sailors as they returned from +Alexandria. We strolled back and tied up the pig which had broken +loose and, the brigadier said, was not yet old enough, meaning that there +would be no pork for supper yet awhile. With all this difficulty +about pork and fish and kid, the simple life, as lived at the caserma, +appeared to be less simple than it might have been if the shops had been a +little nearer.</p> +<p><!-- page 197--><a name="page197"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +197</span>Supper consisted of chicory served with the water it had been +boiled in, to which was added some oil; there was also bread and wine, then +chicken and afterwards poached eggs which they call eggs in their +shirtsleeves. Before we had finished I told them that we have a +proverb in England that too many cooks spoil the broth, and added that I +had never known precisely how many were supposed to be too many, but that, +judging by the excellence of the repast, certainly more than three would be +required in the caserma of Custonaci. I said this because I was +beginning to feel it was time that something of the kind should come from +me. Sicilians are not only polite in themselves, but the cause that +politeness or an attempt at it, is in other men; and this was the best I +could do at the moment in their manner. Knowing I was among experts, +I had not much fear as to their reception of my little compliment, just as +a student of the violin is less nervous when performing before a master of +the instrument than before the general public. The brigadier and his +guards accepted it as though it were of the finest quality, and even +complimented me upon it.</p> +<p><!-- page 198--><a name="page198"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +198</span>After supper there came a large moth which fluttered about the +lamp; one of the guards called it a “farfalla notturna,” a +nocturnal butterfly, and said it had come to bring us good fortune. +Another of the men, who was of a sceptical temperament, said it might be +so, but that in matters of this kind one never can be sure what one’s +fortune would have been if the moth had not come. I said that if +there was to be any good fortune for me I should like it to take the form +of curing the cold which, for my sins, I had caught that morning as I came +out of the sanctuary. The guard who believed in the moth—after +returning my compliment about the cooking by saying I must be wrong to talk +about my sins, for he was sure I had never committed any—said that as +to the kind of luck the moth would bring, Fortune would not submit to +dictation, the most I could do to control her would be to look out farfalla +notturna in the book and put a few soldi on the number in the next +lottery. I told him I had had enough of the lottery at +Castelvetrano. The brigadier was interested, so I told him about it +and said I was afraid the reason I had lost was that my numbers had nothing +to do with anything that had happened to me during <!-- page 199--><a +name="page199"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 199</span>the week. He +confirmed what Peppino had said and added that he was always very careful +about the choosing of his numbers.</p> +<p>“But surely,” I said, “you do not always win when you +follow that rule?”</p> +<p>“I have played every week for twenty years,” said the +brigadier, “and have only won four times; but I always +hope.”</p> +<p>“One can hope,” I said, “without spending any +soldi.”</p> +<p>Here the guard who believed in the moth interposed, seeing that I did +not know much about it—</p> +<p>“It is no use hoping unless you do something. It would be +absurd to hope for two hundred and fifty francs next week unless you +encouraged Fortune to send you the money. Buy a ticket with a likely +number and you will have the right to hope.”</p> +<p>“It is like praying for rain,” added the brigadier; +“the Madonna may not answer the prayer, but those who pray have done +their best and are entitled to hope that rain will follow.”</p> +<p>“This,” I said, “reminds me of an old lady who always +insisted on her daughter taking a dose of the medicine her doctor +prescribed for her own imaginary complaints. <!-- page 200--><a +name="page200"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 200</span>’How can you +hope to be well,’ she used to say, ‘if you never take any +medicine?’“</p> +<p>“Exactly,” said the guard who believed in the moth, +“we do not know how the medicine works any more than we know how the +Madonna works, or how a dream affects the lottery, but if you do nothing it +is no use hoping.”</p> +<p>With regard to my cold, the sceptical guard, with a twinkle in his eye, +recommended me to repent of the sins for which I had said it was a +punishment. I was ready to do so if I could be sure as to which sins +it was more particularly aimed at. The sceptical guard thought he +knew.</p> +<p>“Did you not tell us you had been on the Mountain at the +festa? When the sagrestano unveiled the picture in the sanctuary this +morning, the Madonna heard the bells ring and looked round the church; no +doubt she recognized you as the heretical Englishman she had seen prying +into her mysteries. She probably regretted she had not paid you out +at the time and, as you came her way this morning, took the opportunity of +doing it now.”</p> +<p>I agreed that it would have been more of a miracle had she done it in a +balmy August, <!-- page 201--><a name="page201"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 201</span>in the midst of other occupations, instead of +in a tempestuous January when business was slack; but, on the whole, I did +not believe that either the Madonna or my sins had had anything to do with +my cold which I considered to be a natural, or non-miraculous, consequence +of the rain and the wind. But the sceptical guard objected that even +so the Madonna could not get quite clear, for, if she is credited with the +rain, as she certainly is, she must be debited with its unpleasant +consequences, if any.</p> +<p>The guard who had heard the bells ring, when he came to meet us, gravely +nodded his approval, not seeing that the sceptical guard was speaking +ironically, but he began to suspect presently. The guard who believed +in the moth told us that he had been stationed once on the coast a little +east of Girgenti, near a town where the peasants pray for rain to their +patron, S. Calogero, whose painted image, carved in wood, stands in their +church. If it rains at once, well and good, they return thanks, and +there is an end of the matter. But if their prayers are unanswered +after what they consider a reasonable time, they hold a service and +punctuate their prayers with threatening cries—</p> +<p><!-- page 202--><a name="page202"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +202</span>“Corda, o pioggia!”</p> +<p>The saint sometimes chooses the second alternative and sends the +rain—the peasants return thanks, and all goes well. But if he +is still obdurate, they assume he has chosen the first, put the threat into +execution, take down S. Calogero, tie a cord about his neck and reverently +cast him into the sea where they leave him till it does rain. If one +waits long enough the rain always comes at last, even on the south coast of +Sicily. Then they pull the poor saint out of the water, dry him, give +him a fresh coat of paint and carry him back to his place in the church, +with a brass band and thanksgiving—another form of the recurrent +death and resurrection of the god, imitating sunset and sunrise.</p> +<p>“We call this treatment of S. Calogero an act of faith,” +said the sceptical guard, “and yet when a gambler puts a few soldi on +any number he may have dreamt of, we call it superstition. The +peasant and the gambler are both playing for material gain, and S. Calogero +in the sea has as much connection with the meteorological conditions as the +dream has with the lottery numbers; yet the treatment of the saint has the +sanction of the Church and the <!-- page 203--><a name="page203"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 203</span>act of the gambler is branded as +superstitious. But to abuse a thing is not to alter its +nature.”</p> +<p>The guard who had heard the bells ring now began to remonstrate gently +and begged there might be no confusing of faith with superstition.</p> +<p>The sceptical guard replied that it was difficult to keep them apart, +or, indeed, to look upon them as two different things. The only +confusion there was arose because of the imperfections of language—a +clumsy instrument, though the best we have for its purpose. We call a +kiss a kiss whether it be given by an old woman to her grandchild or by a +young man to his bride; but the having one word for two things does not +make them the same in intention, and so the having two words for faith and +superstition does not make them fundamentally different. The guard +who had heard the bells was beginning to look uncomfortable, if not +actually offended, the tendency of all this being to depreciate his faith +in the Madonna and treat it as superstition. The brigadier and the +guard who believed in the moth, on the other hand, were rather pleased, +their superstition about the lottery numbers was <!-- page 204--><a +name="page204"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 204</span>being elevated into +faith. The brigadier was an unselfish man and anxious to spare from +further annoyance the guard who had heard the bells. He was also a +sensible man and knew that discussions of this kind, endless if left to +develop, will generally yield to surgical treatment. He rose, saying +it was time for him to begin protecting the coast. I took the hint, +thanked them all for a very pleasant evening and wished them “Buon +riposo.” The brigadier shut me in for the night, promising to +call me in the morning, and the legend above my bedroom door was—</p> +<p>“Comandante della Brigata.”</p> +<p>In the morning he knocked while it was still dark. I got up, +dressed, and as the sun began to stir behind Custonaci, came through the +general room and the porch of the bungalow into the translucent freshness +where the sceptical guard was already smoking an early cigarette. To +the right of us rose Cofano and to our left, on the top of Mount Eryx, +where formerly stood the temple of Venus, were the towers of Conte +Pepoli’s castle, touched by the rising sun and so distinct that we +could almost count the stones. In front of us, between <!-- page +205--><a name="page205"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 205</span>these two +enormous headlands, lay the sea as calm as when the Madonna stayed the +tempest, and all along the great curve of the shore little waves were +lazily playing in the morning stillness. I asked the sceptical guard +what part of Sicily he came from.</p> +<p>“I am not a Sicilian,” he replied, “I come from +another mountain near Rome where there was once another temple dedicated to +Fortune.”</p> +<p>“Are you from Palestrina?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” he replied. “You cannot see much here of +what the temple of Venus was, but on my mountain you can see what the +temple of Fortune must have been. In the days when she flourished, +kings and princes travelled from distant lands to consult her oracle; now +no one ever comes near the place except a tourist or two, passing to some +more prosperous town, who may stay an hour to gaze upon the remains of her +fallen greatness.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps her temple was too prosperous and too near the shrine of +St. Peter.”</p> +<p>“St. Peter should have seized her temple and preserved her +popularity for his own profit instead of condemning the faith in her as +superstition and allowing the control <!-- page 206--><a +name="page206"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 206</span>of it to pass into +the hands of the state. For if Fortune ever died she rose again and +is worshipped as much as ever she was, only she is now called the +Lottery.”</p> +<p>“It was a neglected opportunity.”</p> +<p>“And it would have been so easy to invent a legend of the arrival +of a picture or a statue of la Madonna di Palestrina to inherit the +prestige of Fortune. Then I should never have left home to join the +guardia di finanza.”</p> +<p>I said that possibly something of the kind had been attempted, and that +there may have been insuperable obstacles of which we knew nothing; and in +any case, whatever the desolation of Palestrina, Custonaci was not in a +particularly thriving condition, while the prosperity of Monte San Giuliano +is due more to the salt than to the Madonna. But he would not be +comforted; so I asked him what he would have done if he had not left home, +and he told me that he had been educated to be a chemist and had taken his +diploma at Rome with the intention of succeeding to his uncle’s shop, +but he could not stand the dulness of the life.</p> +<p>The brigadier called to us that coffee was ready and we turned to go +in. The young <!-- page 207--><a name="page207"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 207</span>man came about the kid, which meant that his +father had agreed to take 80 centesimi per kilo. So the kid had to be +weighed and it was some time before we could persuade the vendor that it +was just under and not just over 5½ kilos. To tell the truth, +it was a delicate job, for the steelyard was a clumsy instrument, though, +like the sceptical guard’s language, the best we had. The +brigadier paid the young man entirely in coppers, so he had a good deal of +weight to carry home with him.</p> +<p>After coffee we started to walk across the plain back to Custonaci, +calling again at the settlement of cottages and waiting for the boats to +come in, thinking it possible that the luck brought by the farfalla +notturna might take the form of fish. But the boats brought +nothing. We agreed therefore to consider that the beauty of the +morning had exhausted the good fortune and, if so, the farfalla had done +the thing handsomely. It was a day of blue sky and brown earth, with +flocks of sheep and goats tinkling their bells in the distance; a day of +dwarf palm and almond-blossom, and the bark of a dog now and then; of aloes +and flitting birds, of canes with feathery tops, of prickly pears and <!-- +page 208--><a name="page208"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +208</span>blooming red geranium. The bastone di S. Giuseppe had begun +to come up and the tufts of grass were full of lily-leaves preparing for +the spring.</p> +<p>We climbed the cliff and scrambled into the village. It was Sunday +morning; the first Mass was over and half the population was coming out of +the sanctuary, the other half waiting to go in for the second Mass. +Among them, talking to a shoemaker, who seemed to be the principal man of +the place, we found Mario. I inquired what he had done with his +horses and how he had passed the night. He said he had found a stable +for Gaspare and Totò and had himself slept in the carriage. I +trusted he had not been very uncomfortable and he replied that he always +slept in his carriage. So I had travelled to Custonaci and was about +to return to Trapani in Mario’s bed. He introduced me to the +shoemaker.</p> +<p>“You see all these young men?” said the shoemaker. +“In another couple of months they will be in America.”</p> +<p>I spoke to some of those who had returned from the States and from South +America. Those who have been to the States like an opportunity to +speak English, but they are <!-- page 209--><a name="page209"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 209</span>not very strong at it, and it is more than +tinged with Yankeeisms. One of them told me that in New York he was +treated very well by his Capo-Boss. They earn more over there than +they can at home; every week brings American money-orders to Custonaci and +on mail days the post-office is crowded with wives, mothers and +sweethearts. When they have saved anything up to 5000 lire +(£200) they return and buy a bit of land on which a family of +contadini can live, or they embellish the family shop or open a new one and +hope for the best. If business is bad and they lose their money +before they are too old, they can go back and make some more. It is +the same on the Mountain; the young men emigrate and bring back money and +new ideas. The time will come when Cofano will see what influence +this wooing of Fortune in a foreign land by the sons of Mount Eryx and +Custonaci may have on the next incarnation of the goddess who reigns in +this corner of the island.</p> +<h2><!-- page 213--><a name="page213"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +213</span>CALATAFIMI</h2> +<h3>CHAPTER XIII—THE PRODIGAL SON AND THE ARTS</h3> +<p>Calatafimi is a town of 10,000 inhabitants about twenty miles inland +from Trapani. A slight eminence to the west of the town, 1115 feet +above the sea, crowned by the ruins of a castle of the Saracens (hence the +name of the place, Cal’ at Eufimi), commands an extensive and +beautiful view which includes three monuments—first, the famous Greek +temple of Segesta; secondly, the theatre and the remains of the city above +it; thirdly, the obelisk commemorating Garibaldi’s first victory over +the Neapolitans in May, 1860. These three monuments are considered to +be the chief attractions of Calatafimi; but one should not suppose that, +after one has seen its principal monuments, there is nothing more to be got +out of a Sicilian town. I had <!-- page 214--><a +name="page214"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 214</span>picnicked in the +temple of Segesta, climbed up through the site of the ancient city to the +theatre and seen Garibaldi’s monument over and over again and in all +kinds of weather, before I knew anything of the processions which occur at +Calatafimi early in May.</p> +<p>I was there one year when the annual festa was conducted with more than +the usual ceremony. I went to the Albergo Samuel Butler, named after +the author of <i>Erewhon</i>, who often stayed there when writing <i>The +Authoress of the Odyssey</i>, and was well known in the town. Owing +to the death of Don Paolo who, with his wife, Donna Maria, used to manage +the hotel, it is now (1908), I regret to say, closed, and the traveller +must do the best he can at one of the other inns. Butler’s +memory is, however, still preserved in the name of one of the streets.</p> +<p>The day after my arrival was the great day of the festa, and opened with +rain. The people, who had come from all the country round, hung about +listlessly during the morning, hoping that the weather might clear up and +by noon the authorities decided that the ceremonies should proceed, so +that, as they all had to be crowded into <!-- page 215--><a +name="page215"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 215</span>the afternoon, the +town for the rest of the day was choked with processions.</p> +<p>There was first the Procession of the Maestranza, of unascertainable +antiquity. Those who took part in it came riding on horses and mules +covered with gaudy trappings and carrying something to indicate their +trades. The Oil-pressers, suitably dressed, carried a model of an +oil-press; the Millers carried a little mill; and these two companies +carried their money on trays. The Vetturini, who came next, carried +their money stuck into little wooden horses, like almonds in a hedgehog +pudding. The Tillers of the Ground carried a model of a plough. +There were men carrying long lighted candles with circular loaves of bread +threaded on them; others carried bags full of nuts and sugar-plums which +they continually scattered among the crowd and threw in at the open +windows.</p> +<p>There was the procession with the traditional Car of the Massari, made +by fixing a square wooden framework on a cart and covering the outside of +it with green leaves which were again nearly hidden by loaves in the shape +of rings about eight inches across. It looked like a square +Jack-in-the-Green on <!-- page 216--><a name="page216"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 216</span>wheels and the men inside it, standing on +chairs and looking over the top of the framework, cut off the loaves and +threw them to the crowd. They hit me full on the chest with one and I +clutched it before it fell, to the great delight of some children who were +standing near and who said I must take it home and keep it and it would +never go bad, but would bring me good luck.</p> +<p>Then there was the Procession of the Holy Crucifix, the Padrone of +Calatafimi. For many years no one knew of its existence; it stood, +like the Discobolus in Butler’s poem, <i>A Psalm of Montreal</i>, +stowed away, in a lumber room, turning its face to the wall, and when +brought out was found to be so black that it might have come from Egypt and +so intensely thaumaturgic that the church of Il Crocefisso had to be built +to hold it. That particular crucifix, however, like the letter of the +Madonna at Messina, no longer exists; it was burnt and the one in use is a +copy, made, one must suppose, from memory. They had the good sense, +however, to make it, if anything, blacker than the original, and happily it +has turned out to be at least equally thaumaturgic. One cannot see +how black it really is, for it is covered with silver, <!-- page 217--><a +name="page217"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 217</span>like the frame of the +picture of the Madonna di Custonaci, and festooned with votive offerings, +earrings, necklaces, watches and chains which glitter and glisten as the +procession passes along the streets.</p> +<p>Finally, rather late in the day, came the Procession of the Personaggi, +telling the story of <i>The Prodigal Son</i>. It consisted of +twenty-nine principal and many accessory figures, the more important ones +carrying scrolls stating who they were. The dresses were not equal to +those one expects to see at a leading London theatre, but the peasants of +the neighbourhood are unaccustomed to contemplate the triumphs of the +modern theatrical costumier. There may have been much else in the +procession that would have failed to win praise from a metropolitan crowd +of spectators, and such justice as was done to it by the author of the +little book, which was on sale for a few centesimi, might have struck an +exacting critic as being tempered with more mercy than it fairly +deserved. But the author was not thinking of the exacting critic, his +attitude of mind was rather that of Theseus when he determined that +<i>Pyramus and Thisbe</i> should be performed—</p> +<blockquote> +<p><!-- page 218--><a name="page218"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +218</span>For never anything can be amiss<br /> +When simpleness and duty tender it.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Moreover, the little book was not intended to be the exact description +of something the writer had seen; it was written to ensure that the people +should miss nothing they had come to see, and I believe I can best convey +an idea of what this procession appeared to them by translating from the +book. In the group No. 6—the Prodigal departing with his +friends—the figures were on horseback; but all the other personages +went on foot, following each other at distances of about ten yards, and +walking slowly through the middle of the streets between wondering rows of +solemn and delighted people.</p> +<h4>THE PRODIGAL SON<br /> +PART I<br /> +<i>Introduction</i></h4> +<p>I. <i>Divine Mercy</i>.—A majestic matron robed as a +sovereign, resplendent with jewels and sheltering sinners under the +voluminous folds of her mantle.</p> +<p><!-- page 219--><a name="page219"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +219</span>2. <i>The Blind Design of the Prodigal</i>.—His +departure from his father’s house. A resolute youth in the garb +of nudity, with a bandage over his eyes; his right hand is tied behind him +and in his left is a bunch of flowers; he turns and gives ear to the Evil +Spirit.</p> +<p>3. <i>The Evil Spirit</i>.—Clothed in skins like a faun, he +is lying in wait for the preceding figure.</p> +<h4>PART II<br /> +<i>The Story of the Prodigal</i></h4> +<p>4. <i>The Young Son</i>.—His sword by his side, with haughty +mien he demands his portion.</p> +<p>5. <i>The Father of the Prodigal</i>.—A grave personage, sad +and tearful, in the act of handing over his keys and caskets which are +carried by a servant.</p> +<p>6. <i>The Departure of the Prodigal</i>.—A gay young man +mounted on a courser and attended by friends also on horseback. One +of his companions carries a scroll: “Invenies multos, si res tibi +floret, amicos;” another carries another scroll: “Si fortuna +perit, nullus amicus erit.”</p> +<p>7. <i>The Prodigal far from Home</i>.—He flaunts <!-- page +220--><a name="page220"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 220</span>his rich +raiment and carries a lute; one would say he is enjoying life.</p> +<p>8. <i>The Allegory of the False Friends</i>.—They have +consumed his wealth and now conspire to abandon him. A man of double +aspect, with two faces, carries swallows taking wing: “Ita falsi +amici.”</p> +<p>9. <i>The Prodigal reduced to poverty</i>—despised and +spurned by his friends. A youth in mean attire, compelled by hunger +to beg, he shades his eyes with his left hand and in his right carries a +scroll: “Confusion hath covered my face. To beg I am +ashamed.”</p> +<p>10. <i>The Citizen Patron</i>—to whom the unhappy youth +offers his services. An austere man, gazing on him with a harsh +countenance, gives him a crust of bread and a rod and sends him forth into +the country to tend the swine.</p> +<p>11. <i>The Son’s Resolution</i>.—In tattered rags, +unshod and leaning on a stick, the wretch is saying, “I will arise +and go to my father.”</p> +<p>12. <i>The Father’s Welcome</i>.—Descrying him from +afar, he goes with open arms to meet his boy, embraces him, folds him +tenderly to his bosom and, exulting with joy, exclaims, “My son was +dead and is alive <!-- page 221--><a name="page221"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 221</span>again—was lost and is +found.” The son is saying, “Father, I have +sinned.”</p> +<p>13. <i>The Rejoicings at Home</i>.—A group of youths and +maidens crowned with flowers and playing upon instruments of music.</p> +<p>14. <i>A Servant</i> presenting the prodigal with sumptuous +apparel and a golden ring.</p> +<p>15. <i>The Elder Son</i>.—He has returned from the country, +angry and resentful, and is astonished to see the prodigal.</p> +<p>16. <i>The Good Father</i> goes to meet him and, calming his anger +with soft words, exhorts him to become reconciled to his brother. He +blesses them both and foretells peace, brotherly love and happiness.</p> +<h4>PART III<br /> +<i>The Allegorical Sense of the Parable</i></h4> +<p>17. <i>The Wicked Man in Prosperity</i> contented with his state +and persisting in evil, a fit subject for reproof. A voluptuary and a +miser, magnificently attired, is clasping to his heart a purse full of +money and a bunch of flowers and corn.</p> +<p>18. <i>The Divine Warning</i>.—A prophet who contemplates +the preceding figure threateningly while he records the fatal sentence: +<!-- page 222--><a name="page222"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +222</span>“Thou fool; this night thy soul shall be required of +thee.”</p> +<p>19. <i>The Punishment of Tribulation</i>.—Divine Love that +desireth not the death of a sinner. A celestial winged messenger +carrying a scourge: “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.”</p> +<p>20. <i>The Remorse of Conscience</i>.—The awakening of +Repentance. A man in sorrowful garments expressing the emotions of +his heart, now weeping, now confused, now raising his eyes to Heaven, now +looking on the serpent that gnaws his heart.</p> +<p>21. <i>The Contrite Sinner</i> hearkening to the whisperings of +grace. A penitent, his heart pierced by an arrow, weeping and +carrying a scourge: “Against Thee only have I sinned and done this +evil in Thy sight.”</p> +<p>22. <i>A Holy Minister</i> supplicating the Crucifix with these +words: “A broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt Thou not +despise.”</p> +<p>23. <i>Divine Grace</i>.—A beautiful girl in white with a +transparent veil, radiant and joyful, carries a branch of palm.</p> +<p>24. <i>Peace of Mind</i>.—The soul reconciled with Jesus +Christ. Jesus of Nazareth comforting the soul and opening His arms to +<!-- page 223--><a name="page223"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +223</span>receive her: “Come my Beloved, my Bride.”</p> +<p>25. <i>The Soul</i>.—A lovely maiden, modestly clad, with +precious gems on her bosom and a garland of white roses on her brow: +“My Beloved is mine and I am His.”</p> +<p>26. <i>The Joy of the Angels</i>.—They appear as nymphs and +sing a hymn of glory to God and of welcome to the repentant sinner.</p> +<p>27. <i>The Holy Cross</i>, decorated with flowers and rays of +glory, carried on high by a seraph.</p> +<p>28. <i>The Holy Virgin with the Cross</i>.—It is partly +wrapped in a precious cloth and the Madonna, full of joy and +lovingkindness, invites the people to kiss the holes from which the nails +have been drawn.</p> +<p>29. <i>Calatafimi</i>.—A handsome, smiling youth in Trojan +attire devoutly offering his heart to the crucified Saviour with these +words: “Thy blessing be upon us evermore.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>A stranger had arrived at the albergo and Donna Maria did not know how +to manage unless he supped with me; I was delighted to make his +acquaintance and to have his company, especially as he turned <!-- page +224--><a name="page224"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 224</span>out to be an +ingenious French gentleman with a passion for classification. He had +come from Palermo and spent the morning at the Temple of Segesta which had +pleased him very much and given him no difficulty. It was +architecture—a branch of painting. His plans were upset by the +rain and, instead of returning to Palermo, he had come on for the night to +Calatafimi, where he arrived in time for the procession of <i>The Prodigal +Son</i> which had interested him very much but puzzled him +dreadfully. He could not classify it.</p> +<p>“Why not procession—a branch of drama?” I +inquired.</p> +<p>He said it was perhaps not so simple as I thought, and that he had been +trying unsuccessfully to work it in with his scheme. I begged him to +expound his scheme, which he was so ready to do that I suspected he had +intended me to ask this.</p> +<p>“There are,” he said, “three simple creative +arts. In the first, ideas are expressed in words; this is +literature. In the second, ideas are expressed in the sounds of the +scale; this is music. In the third, ideas are expressed in rigid +forms either round, as in sculpture, or flat, as in <!-- page 225--><a +name="page225"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 225</span>painting. We +may call this third art painting, that being its most popular +phase.”</p> +<p>“I see your difficulty,” said I. “If drama is +not one of the arts, the procession cannot be a branch of drama. But +I think the drama is one of the arts all the same.”</p> +<p>“Please do not be in a hurry,” said the French +gentleman. “Any two of these arts cover some ground in common +where they can meet, unite and give birth to another distinct art related +to both as a child is related to its parents, and inheriting qualities from +both. It is to these happy marriages that we owe drama—the +offspring of literature and painting; song—the offspring of +literature and music; and dance—the offspring of music and +painting. This gives us altogether six creative arts.</p> +<p>“And now observe what follows. In the first place, these six +arts exist for the purpose of expressing ideas. In the next place, +painting is without movement, its descendants, drama and dance, inherit +movement, the one from literature, and the other from music. Again, +inasmuch as a painter must paint his own pictures, painting does not <!-- +page 226--><a name="page226"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +226</span>tolerate the intervention of a third person to interpret between +the creator and the public. The painter is his own executive artist; +when his creative work is done, nothing more is wanted than a frame and a +good light. Literature permits such intervention, for a book can be +read aloud. Music and song demand performance, and will continue to +do so until the public can read musical notation, and probably afterwards, +for even Mozart said that it does make a difference when you hear the music +performed; while in the case of the drama and the dance the performers are +so much part of the material of the work of art that it can hardly be said +to exist without them. Is not this a striking way of pointing the +essential difference between the creative artist and the +executive?”</p> +<p>“Very,” I replied. “I am afraid, however, that +you have not a high opinion of the executive artist.”</p> +<p>“I will confess that he sometimes reminds me of the proverb, +‘God sends the tune and the devil sends the singer.’“</p> +<p>I laughed and said, “We have not exactly that proverb in English, +though I have heard something like it. It can, however, only <!-- +page 227--><a name="page227"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 227</span>apply +to the performer at his worst, whereas you are inclined to look upon him, +even at his best, as nothing more than a picture frame.”</p> +<p>“And a good light,” he added. “Don’t +forget the good light. Frame or no frame, a picture presented in a +bad light or in the dark is no more than a sonata performed badly or not at +all.”</p> +<p>“Well, let us leave the performer for the present and return to +your second trio of arts. Are you now going to combine them, as you +did the first, and raise a third family in which a place may be found for +such things as processions?”</p> +<p>“That,” he replied, “may hardly be, for there is no +couple of them that has not a parent in common. But there is no +reason why any two or more of the six arts should not appear +simultaneously, assisting one another to express an idea. Thus an +illustrated book is not drama—it is literature assisted by +painting. And so a symphony illustrating a poem is not song—it +is music assisted by literature, or vice versa, and is sometimes called +Programme Music. When we look at dissolving views accompanied by a +piano, we are not contemplating a <!-- page 228--><a +name="page228"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 228</span>dance—we are +looking at painting illustrated by music; and, if there is some one to +explain the views in words, literature is also present. When you come +to think of it, it is rare to find music and painting either alone or +together without literature. Except in the case of fugues or sonatas +and symphonies, which are headed ‘Op. ---’ so-and-so, or +‘No. ---’ whatever it may be, music usually has a title. +And except in the case of such things as decorative arabesques and +sometimes landscapes, painting usually has a title. The opportunity +of supplying a title is peculiarly tempting to literature who produces so +many of her effects by putting the right word in the right +place.”</p> +<p>I said that this was all very interesting, but what had become of the +procession? He replied that he was giving me, as I had requested, a +preliminary exposition of his scheme.</p> +<p>“Comic opera,” he continued, “is drama interrupted by +song and dance. Grand opera is the simultaneous presentation of most, +perhaps all, of the six arts. There is no reason in nature against +any conceivable combination; it is for the creative <!-- page 229--><a +name="page229"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 229</span>artist to direct and +for the performing artists to execute the combination so that it shall +please and convince the public. And now, <i>revenons à nos +processions</i>, where can we find a place for them?”</p> +<p>“Surely,” said I, “some such combination will include +them—unless they have nothing to do with art.”</p> +<p>“I have thought that perhaps they have nothing to do with art, for +art should not be tainted with utility; but religious pictures are tainted +with utility just as much. Besides, I do not like to confess myself +beaten.”</p> +<p>It was plain the procession was not going to be allowed to escape. +I considered for a moment and said—</p> +<p>“I suppose we may not classify the procession as literature +assisted by dance, because literature ought to have words and dance ought +to have music.”</p> +<p>“The words are not omitted,” he replied; “they are in +the little book. Besides, we have the story in our minds as with +programme music. The omission of the music from the dance is more +serious. It may be that we shall have to call it a variety of drama, +as you originally suggested.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but that,” I replied modestly, “was <!-- page +230--><a name="page230"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 230</span>only thrown +out before I had the advantage of hearing your scheme of +classification. May it not be that—”</p> +<p>“I have it,” he interrupted. “Of course, how +stupid I have been! The procession does not move.”</p> +<p>“Does not move!” I echoed. “Why, it moved all +through the town.”</p> +<p>“Yes, I know; but things like that often happen in +classification,” he replied calmly. “Properly considered, +each figure and each group illustrated a separate point in the story, and +was rigid. They went past us, of course; and if they had gone on cars +it would have been less puzzling; but these good people cannot afford cars +and so the figures had to walk. It would have done as well if the +public had walked past the figures, but that would have been difficult to +manage. The only movement in the procession was in the story which we +held in our minds, and of which we were reminded both by the title and by +the little book which we held in our hands. The procession must be +classified as literature illustrated by living statuary, or sculpture, +which, of course, is a branch of painting.”</p> +<p>I regret that the French gentleman left <!-- page 231--><a +name="page231"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 231</span>Calatafimi so early +next morning that I had no opportunity of ascertaining whether he slept +well after determining that processions do not proceed.</p> +<h2><!-- page 235--><a name="page235"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +235</span>PALERMO</h2> +<h3>CHAPTER XIV—SAMSON</h3> +<p>The next time I was in Palermo, Turiddu, the conduttore, who used to +take me about the town, had returned after being for a year in +Naples. He was employed at another hotel, but that did not prevent +his making an appointment to take me to the marionettes. My +experiences at Trapani had removed all sense of danger, and I now felt as +safe in the theatre as in the streets of London. Statistics may or +may not support the view, but I am inclined to attribute the general +impression that Sicily is more dangerous than other countries, less to the +frequency of crime there than to the operatic manner in which it is +committed. So that I no longer wanted Turiddu to protect me. As +the figures on the stage were to interpret the drama to the public, so he +was to <!-- page 236--><a name="page236"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +236</span>interpret to me their interpretation. The ingenious French +gentleman at Calatafimi would, perhaps, have classified him as an +incarnation of the book of the words.</p> +<p>The theatre was already full when we arrived. We had had to buy +another straw hat on the way, to preserve our dignity and incognito; this +had delayed us, and the play had begun, but the audience politely made room +for us in the gallery at the side.</p> +<p>We were in a wood and there was a picturesque, half-naked, wild man on +the stage with loose, brown hair hanging down to his waist; he wore a +short, green skirt trimmed with silver braid, a wreath of pink and white +roses, yellow leather boots and gaiters; a mantle fell from his shoulders +to the ground and made a background of green to his figure. He was +actually, as I afterwards discovered, about thirty inches high and his +roses were as large as real roses, so that his wreath was enormous and +looked very well. Turiddu whispered to me that he was Samson, which +made me inquire whether they were going through the whole Bible this +winter, but he said this was an exceptional evening, after which they would +return to the usual story.</p> +<p><!-- page 237--><a name="page237"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +237</span>Samson had already killed the lion with a blow of his sinewy +right arm; its body lay in the middle of the stage, and the busy bees were +at work filling its carcase with honey. He observed them, commented +upon their industry, tasted the honey and composed his riddle.</p> +<p>The next scene was the hall of audience in the king’s +palace. Guards came in and placed themselves at corners. They +were followed by a paladin in golden armour with short trousers of Scotch +plaid made very full, so that when he stood with his legs together he +appeared to be wearing a kilt. Turiddu and I both took him for a +Scotchman and, as I had seen Ottone and Astolfo d’Inghilterra in the +teatrino at Trapani, there seemed to be no reason why he should not be +one. Highlanders, of course, do not wear trousers, but we supposed +that his Sicilian tailor had had little experience in the cutting of +kilts. Whatever he was, he had an unusually animated appearance, for, +by a simple mechanism, he could open and shut his eyes. Then came a +lady, and the knight kissed her. She was followed by a king and his +prime minister, neither of them very splendid, their robes being apparently +<!-- page 238--><a name="page238"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +238</span>dressing-gowns, such as one might pick up cheap at any +second-hand clothes shop in the Essex Road, Islington. As each of +these personages entered, the courtiers, who were not in view, shouted +“Evviva.” Last of all came Samson.</p> +<p>There was a dispute and it was to be submitted to the king, whom they +addressed as Pharaoh. I said to Turiddu—</p> +<p>“But Pharaoh was king of Egypt and all this happened in +Palestine—if, indeed, it happened anywhere.”</p> +<p>“Pharaoh also governed Palestine,” replied Turiddu.</p> +<p>The dispute arose out of the killing of the lion which had been about to +attack the lady, and Samson, having delivered her, was by every precedent +of romance bound to marry her and wished to do so. But she was +already engaged to the golden Scotchman, and that was why he had kissed +her. After much discussion it was agreed that if the paladin should +guess the riddle to be put forth by Samson he might marry the lady, +otherwise Samson should have her. All was done regularly and in the +presence of King Pharaoh.</p> +<p>Samson then propounded his riddle: <!-- page 239--><a +name="page239"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 239</span>“Out of the +eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth +sweetness.”</p> +<p>The golden Highlander winked his eyes, put his fist up to his forehead +and meditated anxiously for some time. Then he said—</p> +<p>“Sono confuso.”</p> +<p>He wanted to give it up, but the lady would not allow this, and King +Pharaoh, taking in the situation, ruled that he must have time; so they all +went away except the knight and the lady. Then the poor paladin made +the best use of his time and gave his whole attention to the riddle; +sometimes he winked his eyes, and sometimes he put his fist up to his head +and meditated as hard as ever he could, turning first one way and then the +other. But nothing came of it; he only repeated—</p> +<p>“Sono confuso.”</p> +<p>The lady continued her encouragement, saying that riddles were seldom +easy to guess, that he must not worry too much and the true answer would +come into his head, probably while he was thinking of something else; but +he only turned away and said again—</p> +<p>“Sono confuso.”</p> +<p>The lady did not mind how stupid he <!-- page 240--><a +name="page240"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 240</span>was, for she was +really in love with him; but she began to perceive that, unless something +were done, she might have to marry a man who, though very strong and clever +enough to compose a riddle, was unable to wink his eyes, so she undertook +to see Samson alone and try to inveigle the answer out of him. The +knight, having had some experience of her powers of persuasion, was +comforted, discontinued his meditations, dropped his fist, said +“Addio,” embraced her and left the stage.</p> +<p>Samson now came on and the first thing he did was to put his arm round +the lady’s neck. She was quite ready for him and put her arm +round his. Thus they stood indulging in a little preliminary fondling +till she asked him point-blank to tell her “il mistero dell’ +oscuro problema.” He instantly removed his arm and stood off, +exclaiming with great firmness—</p> +<p>“No, no, no, non posso!”</p> +<p>Thereupon she began to go away as though all was over between +them. It was a simple ruse, but it deceived the framer of the riddle; +he drew her towards him in repentance, put his arm round her neck again and +whispered into her ear. She took a moment to <!-- page 241--><a +name="page241"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 241</span>consider, and then +laughed. It was not the spontaneous laugh of a person overwhelmed by +the irresistible humour of a good joke, it could not well have been that, +assuming that he had told her the true answer; nor was it the perfunctory +laugh of a person pretending to be amused. It was a laugh of +heartless mockery.</p> +<p>“Ha, ha, ha!” laughed the lady.</p> +<p>Samson smelt mischief and brought the curtain down with a fine speech, +threatening her with his wrath if she should betray him.</p> +<p>The next act passed in the same hall of audience; soldiers entered and +stood as guards, and then came Pharaoh. He was followed by two +obviously comic men, who might have been costermongers or knockabout +brothers from a music hall, and one comic woman. The men wore modern +shirts and trousers and long-tailed coats, or rather dressing-gowns, that +had once been as good as those worn by Pharaoh and his prime +minister. Turiddu told me they were Pasquino and Onofrio, and the +woman, who seemed to be just an ordinary woman out of the market with an +apron, was Colombina. But the people give Pasquino the pet name of +Peppinino and call the woman Rosina. <!-- page 242--><a +name="page242"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 242</span>These are the masks +of Palermo, whose origin, like that of other Italian masks, is of great +antiquity. They grew up to supply a want just as in our own day we +have seen Ally Sloper growing up to supply a want of the people of +London.</p> +<p>There was a dispute as to which of the two men Rosina was to marry, and +the question had been referred to King Pharaoh who decided that it was a +case for trial by riddle, and, accordingly, Rosina propounded a riddle +which was in four questions; after each question Onofrio turned away his +head to meditate, while Rosina, unobserved, whispered the answer into the +ear of Pasquino who presently announced it in a loud voice and then danced +with Rosina in triumph.</p> +<p>The four questions and answers were—</p> +<p>Q. A man that was no man—A. An eunuch—</p> +<p>Q. Threw a stone that was no stone—A. A +pumice-stone—</p> +<p>Q. At a bird that was no bird—A. A bat—</p> +<p>Q. Sitting on a tree that was no tree—A. An +elder-tree.</p> +<p>This being a riddle and in dialect and, <!-- page 243--><a +name="page243"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 243</span>moreover, dialect +spoken in the presence of a king, certainly was, or rather was intended to +be, humorous. Nevertheless, King Pharaoh was as little amused as our +own Queen Victoria would have been if Ally Sloper and his companions had +been taken to Windsor to perform in cockney slang before her. Pharaoh +had to sit it out because he was there to see fair play, but he was so +bored that he failed to observe how shamelessly Rosina was cheating; so she +won her cause and danced off with Pasquino.</p> +<p>Turiddu explained to me that elder-trees are in the habit of drying up +and falling down dead, a thing not done by properly conducted trees. +I asked him what all this had to do with the play. He had just bought +a handful of melon seeds from a man who was pushing his way about among the +audience, and was munching them contentedly, not in the least put out by +the course the story had taken. He said we had been witnessing a +comic interlude intentionally introduced to amuse the boys by burlesquing +the situation in the principal story the extreme seriousness of which might +otherwise have depressed them unduly. I had read of such things being +done in <!-- page 244--><a name="page244"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +244</span>mediæval mystery plays, and here was an instance in my +presence and not as an imitation or resuscitation of a dead archaism but as +a vital growth.</p> +<p>The interlude being over, the original story was resumed. The +paladin and the lady entered, followed by Pharaoh and his prime minister, +who had gone off to make room for the final dance, and lastly, by +Samson. The golden paladin took the stage, winking excessively, and, +in a triumphant, overbearing manner, said—</p> +<p>“What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a +lion?”</p> +<p>Samson glared at the lady who ostentatiously shook her head.</p> +<p>“Ha, ha, ha!” jeered the paladin, and Samson covered his +face for shame. The lady continued to shake her head, but, like the +lady in another play, she did protest too much and Samson’s +suspicions were confirmed. He exercised great self-control and +appealed to Pharaoh, pointing out that it was absurd to suppose his riddle +could have been guessed by an unassisted Scotchman, no matter how bright +his armour, and concluded his speech by openly accusing the lady of having +betrayed him. This was too <!-- page 245--><a +name="page245"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 245</span>much for the paladin; +he drew his sword and approached Samson to pay him out for his rudeness and +for not admitting that he had been fairly beaten. Before he could +finish the speech that usually precedes a stage duel, Samson, who was +unarmed, knocked him down in self-defence with one blow of his fist. +He fell back upon Pharaoh who happened to be standing behind him; Pharaoh +fell back upon his prime minister who happened to be standing behind him; +the prime minister fell back upon the lady who happened to be shaking her +head in protest behind him, and all four came to the ground together. +Trumpets sounded, the piano struck up, the operators stamped with their +clogged feet, the audience applauded and there were calls for +“Sansone,” but it was not a moment for responding to +calls. Soldiers came on one by one and Samson knocked them down; they +came two by two and he knocked them down; they came three by three and he +knocked them down. Between his feats of strength he frequently put +his long hair back with his hand, so that it should fall behind and not +hinder his movements or obstruct his sight. When he had done, the +curtain fell on about thirty <!-- page 246--><a name="page246"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 246</span>soldiers, heaps upon heaps, writhing in their +death agonies.</p> +<p>The next act was in a wood and there was the Highland paladin who had +not been killed when Samson knocked him down; he had, however, been a good +deal hurt and was winking more than ever. There were also a few +soldiers who had either recovered or had not been knocked down in the +previous scene; in these cases, as with earthquakes, one has to wait to +find out who is killed and who survives. Turiddu said that Samson was +being arrested and presently some more soldiers entered with a prisoner, +but it was the wrong man; it was, in fact, Samson’s father. He +was led away in chains. Then they brought on Samson with several +yards of iron chain coiled round and hanging down from his joined +hands.</p> +<p>“Andiamo, andiamo,” said the soldiers, but the jubilant +paladin could not resist the temptation to stop the soldiers and make a +taunting speech which amounted to—</p> +<p>“Here is the end of all your rage, O Sansone!”</p> +<p>Samson listened with great forbearance and, when it was his turn, +replied in a speech full of dignity, containing a great deal about <!-- +page 247--><a name="page247"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 247</span>gloria +and vendetta and the weight of his chains and il cuore di Sansone, and he +threatened them over and over again, and struggled and shook himself and +made great efforts to get free, so that the soldiers shrank back. +Suddenly he broke his chains, and the soldiers all ran away and Samson +after them, leaving the paladin alone. A soldier soon returned and +announced that Samson was committing deeds of violence behind. This +frightened the paladin; he winked nervously and hurried away, +exclaiming—</p> +<p>“Arrest him, arrest him; I’m off,” amid the derisive +laughter of the audience.</p> +<p>Then Samson came on in his fury, armed with the jawbone of an ass; +Turiddu said it was of a horse, but I knew better, at least, I knew what it +ought to have been. The soldiers did their best, but he knocked them +all down again as before amid immense cheering.</p> +<p>The next scene was outside a castle in the country. Samson came on +alone with his jawbone, and stood silent, very terrible, and waiting for an +opportunity to break out.</p> +<p>The silence was prolonged. Nothing happened. It was a pause +of expectation.</p> +<p><!-- page 248--><a name="page248"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +248</span>Then we heard a voice, a solemn, cavernous voice with a vibrato +like a cinematograph, calling loud and slow—</p> +<p>“Sansone, Sansone, Sansone!”</p> +<p>“Whose voice is that?” exclaimed Samson, looking round and +seeing no one.</p> +<p>The voice repeated its call two or three times and at last Samson +recognized it.</p> +<p>“E la voce del mio genitore.”</p> +<p>“Sansone, Sansone, Sansone! In questa torre sono +incarcerato.”</p> +<p>Then Samson understood that Manoah had been arrested and imprisoned and +must be delivered. He approached the castle and knocked.</p> +<p>“Chi è?” said the porter.</p> +<p>“Son io, Sansone.”</p> +<p>We heard a movement of consternation within the castle and then Samson +called out—</p> +<p>“Aprite.”</p> +<p>There was more consternation and the voice of Pasquino or Onofrio was +heard speaking in dialect which made the audience laugh. The castle +sent a messenger who came on and asked what Samson wanted.</p> +<p>“Open the door and give me my father,” said Samson with +suppressed rage. Throughout Samson behaved with extreme +moderation. <!-- page 249--><a name="page249"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 249</span>But the messenger, instead of doing as he was +told, approached Samson in a hostile manner. Samson took him in his +arms and, with his great strength, threw him up and out of sight. We +heard his body fall inside the castle walls.</p> +<p>“Aprite,” said Samson.</p> +<p>Then several messengers came, sometimes singly, sometimes two together, +and once four soldiers came and said—</p> +<p>“Va via, Sansone,” but they only got themselves into +trouble, for he took them all up and threw them back into the castle and we +heard each of them fall separately.</p> +<p>“Aprite,” said Samson, “datemi il mio +genitore.”</p> +<p>Then there came a comic dwarf; Samson looked at him scornfully, and +saying—</p> +<p>“Cosa vuoi, Insetto?” took him up, twirled him round and +round and threw him away.</p> +<p>Then Pasquino and Onofrio came on; Samson, after doing them some damage, +but not so much as they deserved because they were favourites with the +audience, passed by them and disappeared in the direction of the castle +gate. We heard him knock and we heard the movement within, indicating +serious <!-- page 250--><a name="page250"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +250</span>alarm, while the masks made comments in dialect. This was +repeated and repeated with a roaring crescendo until, with a crash, the +walls of the castle fell upon the stage—a bushel of stones—and +Samson entered carrying the castle gates under his left arm and his father +on his right, and the delighted audience applauded as the curtain fell.</p> +<p>After this we came away, which I have often regretted since, because +these marionettes were the best I had seen. They were worked by +artists who understood the handling of repose and the value of small things +well placed. Occasionally, it is true, the figures moved too much and +were unintentionally comic, but wonderful effects were produced by very +slight movements. When a puppet was delivering a tirade, the +listener, standing as motionless as one of the knights at Catania, would +sometimes turn his head almost imperceptibly, or shift his weight from one +leg to the other, or place his right hand on his hip with his arm +a-kimbo. The action not only expressed contempt, acquiescence, or +boredom as the case required, but vivified the whole scene, spreading over +it like the ripples from a pebble thrown into a pond.</p> +<p>If I had been as strong as Samson I would <!-- page 251--><a +name="page251"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 251</span>have stayed to the +end, for I knew he could not be wearing all that loose, brown hair merely +to toss it back when he was fighting. The Philistines would come +later on and bribe the lady to entice him and see wherein his great +strength lay, and he would be enticed and, forgetting how she had betrayed +him over the riddle, would tell her everything; for he had a guileless, +generous nature, and every time he was deceived thought it an exceptional +case and no rule for future conduct. And presently the lady would +make him sleep upon her knees and a young man would come with a pair of +scissors and crouch under her mantle and cut off his locks and drop them +into a shallow round box upon the floor, as in Carpaccio’s picture in +Milan, and she would wake him up, exclaiming—</p> +<p>“The Philistines be upon thee, Samson,” and he would rise +powerless and be taken and bound in fetters of brass.</p> +<p>Nevertheless, the marionettes, with all the romance of their story and +the unexpected way in which their movements stimulate the imagination, +would certainly fail without the wizardry of the voice of the speaker, for +the voice is the soul of the marionettes. And <!-- page 252--><a +name="page252"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 252</span>as the cobbler from +Mount Eryx found his opportunity in the Death of Bradamante at Trapani, so +the voice at Palermo would surely have done something with the Blinding of +Samson—something perhaps not unworthy of <i>Total Eclipse</i>. +It communicated to us the dignity and beauty of Samson’s character; +when he was observing the industrious bees it was full of pity for the dead +lion, and we knew that the poor beast had had every chance of escape and +had only been killed after a delay that was longer than it was +judicious. And so we knew that he did not kill the soldiers till his +great patience had been exhausted and the voice was full of sorrow for +their death.</p> +<p>Why should he be so constantly driven to use his strength? Why +could he never use it without harming some one? Why was he born into +a world where men played on his simplicity and women charmed him to +destruction? These were the riddles that confused Samson. It +seemed to him that he was no better than the Arabian giant who held the +Princess of Bizerta in thrall—that cruel bully who cared not how many +he killed, nor who they were, and believed every man to be as wicked as +himself. Samson, <!-- page 253--><a name="page253"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 253</span>each time his patience was exhausted, hated +himself for what he had to do, yet no experience could shake his faith in +that melancholy but attractive swindle—the ultimate goodness of +man. Both Samson and the giant were as mistaken as they were +powerful, but Samson, by virtue of his weakness, was the stronger man, for, +while the giant’s brutality aroused our hatred, Samson’s +nobility compelled our love.</p> +<h3><!-- page 254--><a name="page254"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +254</span>CHAPTER XV—THE CONVERSION OF THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE</h3> +<p>Being alone one autumn evening in Palermo, about a year and a half after +I had seen Samson, I returned to the teatrino and found it open. On +asking the young man at the door whether the performance had begun and +whether there was room for me, he pulled aside the curtain at the entrance +and disclosed the stage full of fighting paladins and the auditorium half +empty. I paid three soldi and took a seat. After the first act, +I congratulated the young man at the door on the performance and told him +it was not the first time I had been to his theatre, and that I was sorry +to see it so empty.</p> +<p>“There is no one here,” he agreed; “do you know +why? It is because to-night will die Guido Santo, a marionette very +sympathetic to the public, they cannot bear to see <!-- page 255--><a +name="page255"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 255</span>his end. But it +is the last night and to-morrow they will come because the story will begin +all over again.”</p> +<p>Feeling I could bear to witness the death of Guido Santo, I returned to +my seat. Before the curtain drew up on the last act there entered a +page who took his hat off with his right hand and stood politely bowing +until the audience should be ready to listen to what he had to say. +He then recited the programme for the next evening, telling us that all who +came would see the baptism of Costantino, Imperatore del Mondo. As +soon as he had gone, Pasquino and Onofrio came on and in dialect comically +commented upon the programme.</p> +<p>At the end of the entertainment, after Guido Santo was dead and the +angel had come down, taken his white soul out of his mouth and carried it +up to heaven, I resumed conversation with the young man at the door, and +soon perceived that he was a fine natural actor who will commit a crime if +he does not go on the stage as a buffo. He told me that the theatre +is open all the year round; they do not make much money in the summer +because the people prefer to be in the open air, but in the winter—! +and his gestures <!-- page 256--><a name="page256"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 256</span>indicating how they sat shoulder to shoulder +and craned their necks to see over one another’s heads and wiped the +perspiration off their foreheads and scattered it upon the floor, were +rapid, precise and eloquent. He remembered the performance of +<i>Samson</i> and the crowd and, as soon as he saw I was interested, became +like a puppy that has found some one to play with. If I would come +to-morrow he would show me all the marionettes and tell me all the secrets +of the business.</p> +<p>I went and was introduced to his brother, his three sisters and his +father who is the proprietor of the show. It was the father’s +voice that I had heard in <i>Samson</i>, the buffo and his brother help in +working the marionettes and in cleaning and repairing them after the +performance, the sisters do the housekeeping, speak for the women and make +the dresses. They told me a great deal that I wanted to hear. +For instance, they knew all about Michele and the Princess of Bizerta and +told me that she is the sister of Agramante, King of Campinas and Emperor +of Yundiay, and her name is Fulorinda di Nerbof di Bizerta; the name of her +wicked Arabian giant is Alaballak Aizan. I had asked Pasquale <!-- +page 257--><a name="page257"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 257</span>in the +teatrino at Trapani about them, but he had never heard of them. These +professional marionettists at Palermo had a poor opinion of the teatrino at +Trapani and, from what I told them about it, said it could only be an +amateur affair. They were particularly contemptuous of the management +for allowing the words to be read out of a book. They ought to be +improvised. At Palermo the only play that is ever read is +<i>Samson</i>, which was written by a Sicilian, and even in that the comic +episode of the masks with the riddle of Rosina is a home-made, unwritten +interpolation.</p> +<p>Pharaoh has nothing to do with the Egyptian Pharaohs. Faraone is +his private name and he is the king of the Philistines. The name of +the paladin is Acabbo and he is a Philistine and not a Scotchman; but they +excused me for falling into the error, and showed me that many of the +knights wear stuff sufficiently like a Scotch plaid to deceive a mere +Englishman. Moreover, Scotch knights do come into the story; Carlo +Magno sends Rinaldo off to fetch recruits and he returns with an army of +Scotch paladins under Zerbino, the Prince of Scotland. Samson ranks +with Christians because <!-- page 258--><a name="page258"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 258</span>he is on the right side in religion and that +is why his skirt was really a skirt. Acabbo ranks with Turks because +he is on the wrong side in religion and that is why he wears +trousers. The lady is Tanimatea, but Dalila is brought on afterwards +and it is she who cuts Samson’s hair. The buffo nearly wept +when I told him I had gone away without seeing the operation. +However, he explained how it was done: his long brown hair is a wig and is +pulled off when she uses the scissors.</p> +<p>They told me all about the story, or rather stories, of the +paladins. First there is an <i>Introduction</i> beginning with the +conversion of the Emperor Constantine, and passing rapidly through his son +Fiovo and his descendants to Pipino King of France and father of Carlo +Magno. It lasts about a month and is followed by—</p> +<p>I. <i>The Story of the Paladins of France</i> with Carlo Magno, +Orlando, Rinaldo, Gano di Magonza and many others. This lasts about +six months and ends with the defeat and death of Orlando and the paladins +at Roncisvalle. It is followed by—</p> +<p>II. <i>The Story of the Sons of the Paladins</i> with Palmerino +d’Oliva, Tarquasso, Scolimmaro <!-- page 259--><a +name="page259"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 259</span>and the +crusades. This lasts about three months and is followed by—</p> +<p>III. <i>The Story of Balocco</i> with the valiant Paladins +Trufaldino, Nitto, Vanni Caccas, Pietro Fazio, Mimico Alicata and the giant +Surchianespole. This lasts about six months, and is followed +by—</p> +<p>IV. <i>The Story of Michele</i>, Emperor of Belgium, against the +Saracens. This lasts about three months and ends with the death of +Guido Santo.</p> +<p>I had come on the last night and if I had come a few nights before, I +might have happened upon the Palermitan version of what I had seen at +Catania.</p> +<p>Among all this, which by itself would last over a year and a half, they +celebrate certain anniversaries by interpolating other plays, each of which +lasts one, two, or three days. Thus, at Christmas they do the +Nativity, at Easter the Passion, at Midsummer the story of S. Giovanni +Battista; on the 11th of May, the day Garibaldi landed at Marsala, they do +the Sicilian episodes from his life; on the anniversary of the day that +Musolino, the famous brigand, was arrested, they do his life and on the +proper day they commemorate the execution of Anna Bonanno, <!-- page +260--><a name="page260"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 260</span>la +Velenatrice, detta la Vecchia dell’ Aceto, who sold poisoned +vinegar. There is no regular day for <i>Samson</i>; they do it +whenever they feel inclined, that is whenever they want a few more soldi +than usual, for they look upon the paladins as the pane quotidiano and on +the interpolations, for which they charge extra, as feasts.</p> +<p>They also occasionally give a kind of music-hall entertainment and I was +so fortunate as to see one.</p> +<blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Piccola Serata Ballabile</span></p> +<p>1. Passo a due eseguito da due ballerini di rango Francese, viz. +Miss Ella e Monsieur Canguiù.</p> +<p>2. Dansa del Gran Turco, fumatore di pipa.</p> +<p>3. L’Ubbriaco. Scena buffa.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In private life, that is behind the scenes, the ballerini are called +Miss Helvet and Monsieur Mastropinnuzza. Miss Helvet first danced +alone; she had six strings and two wires, not rods, and was dressed like +the conventional ballet-girl with a red bodice and a diamond necklace, and +she wriggled her white muslin skirts and waved a broad green ribbon. +Monsieur Canguiù then danced alone; he was slightly less +complicated, and <!-- page 261--><a name="page261"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 261</span>kissed his hand with great frequency. +They wound up by dancing together. They twinkled their toes and +alighted on the tips of them like Adeline Genée and, as their heels +were cunningly jointed and balanced, they could also walk like ordinary +mortals, or at least as well as any marionette. He assisted her to +leap up and pose in an attitude while standing on his knee, and they +waltzed round one another and did all the things that one has learnt to +expect from opera dancers.</p> +<p>The name of the Gran Turco was Piriteddu cu Giummu. He was +accompanied by Pasquino and danced while Pasquino went and fetched him a +lighted candle. He lighted his pipe at the flame and puffed real +smoke out of his mouth. After which Pasquino blew out the candle and +they danced together.</p> +<p>The Ubbriaco, whose name was Funcia, asked Pasquino for wine, and drank +it out of the bottle with consequences that might have been anticipated, +but may not be described. When he had done drinking, he threw the +bottle away, dancing all the time. He took off his coat and threw it +away, then unbuttoned his trousers and took them off, <!-- page 262--><a +name="page262"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 262</span>threw them away and +went on dancing in his shirt.</p> +<p>“He is a very common man,” said the buffo apologetically; +“a fellow of no education.”</p> +<p>This constant introduction of Pasquino must not be taken as involving +any anachronism. Pasquino is like Love, he is not Time’s +fool. Never having been born, he can never die, and never to die is +to be immortal. Accordingly, whenever a comic servant is wanted, +whether as a messenger from a castle which is being stormed by Samson, or +to assist a Grand Turk or a drunkard of no definite period, or to accompany +a paladin on a journey, be put into prison with him and help him to escape, +or merely on behalf of the proprietor of the show to invite the people to +to-morrow’s performance, Pasquino is always there, with his dialect +and his comic relief, to undertake the job. He works harder than any +other marionette and consequently is always requiring renovation.</p> +<p>There is so much renovation going on among the puppets that the buffo +cannot tell exactly how many there are at any particular time. He +says their number is fluid, and <!-- page 263--><a name="page263"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 263</span>supposes that it rises and falls round about +five hundred. They are very heavy, especially those in armour, and +vary in height from twenty-six to thirty inches, giants being thirty-four +inches. They must represent a large capital, for a well-made +marionette in full armour will cost as much as 150 francs (£6), the +elaborate ones, with tricks, and the dancers probably more; ordinary Turks +and pages unarmed will cost less, say perhaps 50 francs (£2) +each. Some of them have glass eyes which catch the light and brighten +them up wonderfully. Many have eyes that move like Acabbo. +There are two paladins who can be cut in half, one horizontally and other +perpendicularly.</p> +<p>There was nothing the buffo and his brother could not explain, and what +this implies a glance through the notes to the <i>Orlando Furioso</i>, +which is only a fragment of the complete story, will show. Orlando +squints, both his eyeballs are close to his nose. They told me that +this is because when his uncle, Carlo Magno, met him as a child, not +knowing who he was and taking a fancy to the boy, he told him to look at +him, and Orlando came close and looked at him so fixedly that his eyes +never returned to <!-- page 264--><a name="page264"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 264</span>their normal position. He also has two +little holes, one on each side of the bridge of his nose. This is +because at Roncisvalle he called for help by winding his magic horn; +Oliviero told him to blow louder and he blew so forcibly that he broke a +blood-vessel and the blood poured out of the little holes so that he +died. He could not die by being mortally wounded in the usual way, +because his flesh was made of diamonds, which was a gift of God to help him +to propagate the faith and to conquer the heathen.</p> +<p>They showed me the three separate Christs which they use at Easter, the +first as he walks among the people, the second as he is on the cross and +the third as he rises from the tomb, and all, especially the last, were +beautiful and impressive figures.</p> +<p>They give two performances every day, from six to eight and from nine to +eleven, all the year round, Sundays and festas included, unless some +irremovable obstacle, such as an illness or a wedding in the family, or the +death of the king or an earthquake, necessitates the closing of the +theatre. Nearly all the rest of every day they are cleaning up and +preparing for the next performance.</p> +<p><!-- page 265--><a name="page265"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +265</span>On the evening when Constantine was converted to Christianity I +went to both performances, being behind the scenes for the first so as to +see how everything was done. Before we began, I was let into the +secret of how the emperor had his leprosy lightly stitched on him in such a +way that the thread could be drawn, and it would fall off at the right +moment. The first performance was to a certain extent a rehearsal for +the second, at least in the second there were modifications—always +improvements. The father stood on one side of the stage, working some +of the marionettes and speaking for them. He had a MS. book which +contained little more than a list of the characters and properties and a +short statement of what was to happen in each scene. He also directed +his younger son who stood at the other side of the stage, working other +figures and speaking for some of them, and, when there were many puppets on +at once, the buffo was sent for from the front door, where he was keeping +order. When there were women or angels or children to speak, one or +more of the girls came down a ladder through a trap-door from the house +above. To speak improvised words on a given <!-- page 266--><a +name="page266"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 266</span>subject, as the +father did, is called “recitare a soggetto.” When the +girls spoke, the father prompted, if necessary, and this they call +“recitare col suggeritore”—to speak, with the assistance +of a prompter, words that have been learnt.</p> +<p>For the second performance I was among the audience, and this is what I +saw. It may not be in every detail in complete accordance with the +received views of historians, but the marionettes take their history +wherever they find it. In this case they found it not in Gibbon but +in a favourite legend of the people, and, considering that they depend upon +the favour of the people, to take it from that source was a judicious +proceeding.</p> +<p>The curtain rose on a bedroom in the palace in Rome. Constantine, +Emperor of the World, was lying in just such a bed as Pasquino or Onofrio +might have, with pillows and sheets and a red flowered counterpane. +He was endeavouring to allay the irritation of his skin caused by the +painful malady from which he had been suffering for twelve years. A +sentinel stood at the foot of the bed.</p> +<p>Amid shouts of “Evviva Costantino,” two Christians were +brought on in chains. <!-- page 267--><a name="page267"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 267</span>They knelt to the emperor who offered to spare +their lives if they would become Saracens or Turks or pagans—that is, +if they would adopt his religion. Of course, they indignantly refused +and were led off to be burnt, leaving the emperor restlessly soliloquizing +to the effect that all Christians must be burnt and all doctors, too, if +they could not cure him.</p> +<p>This was the cue for the family doctor to enter with a specialist.</p> +<p>“Come sta vostra Maiestà stamattina?” inquired the +family doctor, and the patient declared himself no better—he was much +the same.</p> +<p>I expected the doctor to feel his pulse and look at his tongue, but the +buffo told me that this is not done in leprosy and that it was wrong of his +brother at the afternoon performance to outrage realism by making one of +them lay his hand upon the emperor’s fevered brow; his father had +reproved him for it and the action was not repeated in the evening. +One cannot be too careful in dealing with diseases of a contagious +nature.</p> +<p>The doctors consulted, and with unexpected unanimity and rapidity +recommended the emperor to bathe in the blood of six <!-- page 268--><a +name="page268"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 268</span>children. He +agreed, and said to the sentinel—</p> +<p>“Let six children be arrested at once and brought to +me.”</p> +<p>The sentinel showed the doctors out and departed to execute the order, +returning with six children already half dead with fright. The +emperor addressed him—</p> +<p>“Children,” he said, “for twelve years I have suffered +from a painful and irritating disease. My learned physicians advise +me that a bath of your blood will restore me to health. The remedy is +so simple that I have resolved to try it. Of course, the first step +will be to put you all to death. This I regret, but—”</p> +<p>Here he was interrupted by the sobs and cries of the children—</p> +<p>“We do not want to die, your Majesty!”</p> +<p>He assured them of his sympathy, but begged them not to stray from the +point, explaining that, as it was a question of saving the life of the +Emperor of the World, their personal wishes could not be consulted and they +had better prepare to have their blood shed at once. They trembled +violently and, choking with tears and anguish, knelt to him for mercy.</p> +<p><!-- page 269--><a name="page269"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +269</span>“Pietà, Maiestà, pietà!”</p> +<p>It was a view of the situation which had not occurred to him. The +children, being too young to understand the nature of his complaint, rashly +leapt on the bed and embraced him. The noble sufferer reconsidered +while the children continued to cry—</p> +<p>“Pietà, Maiestà, pietà!”</p> +<p>He was touched with compassion, he wavered, he could resist no +longer.</p> +<p>“It is not just,” he declared, “to kill all these +children; if that is the only remedy, I am content to die.”</p> +<p>So he pardoned them and they danced away, joyfully shouting, +“Evviva Costantino!”</p> +<p>The doctors puzzled me. After languishing for twelve years, why +should the patient suddenly call in a specialist? I wondered whether +perhaps he disbelieved entirely in doctors, and had at last yielded to the +reiterated entreaties of his adorata mamma.</p> +<p>“Now do, my dear, be guided by those who must know better than +yourself. It is such a pity you will persist in going on like +this. If only you would try to realize how much it distresses me to +witness your <!-- page 270--><a name="page270"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +270</span>sufferings! Why not take a second opinion? What I +always say is: Make proper inquiries, go to a good man, follow his +treatment and you will derive benefit.”</p> +<p>Twelve years of this sort of thing would bring round the most obstinate +emperor. The buffo, however, assured me that nothing of the kind had +happened; no specialist had been called in, those two doctors had had +charge of the case from the beginning, the emperor was an orphan who had +never known a mother’s loving care and I must have been drawing upon +my imagination or my personal reminiscences. Nevertheless, like a +true Sicilian, he congratulated me upon the modification and promised to +speak to his father about it with a view to introducing it next time the +doctors come to see the emperor—that is in about a year and a +half.</p> +<p>And then, what became of the doctors? Were they also +pardoned?—they stood more in need of pardon than the poor +children. Or were they burnt for failing to cure the +emperor?—which would not have been fair, seeing that he would not +give their proposal a trial. The buffo explained that they knew this +was to be their last chance, and that if they did not cure him in two hours +they were <!-- page 271--><a name="page271"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +271</span>to be burnt with the Christians. They had proposed their +barbarous treatment not expecting it to have any beneficial effect on his +health but merely to gain time, and they had escaped.</p> +<p>As soon as the children had danced away, the patient pulled up the +bed-clothes, which had become disarranged owing partly to his restlessness +and partly to the children’s terror, and composed himself to +slumber. He slept, woke and told his dream. He slept again, +woke and told his dream. He slept again and this time we saw his +dream. There was a juggling with the lights and a red gauze was let +down. Two quivering clouds descended from heaven; St. Peter, with the +keys at his girdle, and St. Paul, with a sword, burst through. They +made passes at the sleeping emperor and spoke antiphonally, one being a +tenor and the other a bass. They announced that the Padre Eterno was +pleased with him for pardoning the six children, and that if he would send +for Silvestro, a hermit living on Monte Siràch (<i>i.e.</i> Soracte, +near Rome, where there is now a church dedicated to S. Silvestro), he would +be told what to do. The saints and the quivering clouds rose and +disappeared. <!-- page 272--><a name="page272"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 272</span>The emperor woke for the third time, called +Captain Mucioalbano, told him his dream and sent him to fetch +Silvestro. It was all carried out with extreme reverence and the +applause was enthusiastic.</p> +<p>The second act passed before the hermit’s grotto on Monte +Siràch. Enter Captain Mucioalbano with two comic Saracen +soldiers. They have searched all the mountain and this is the only +grotto they have found; they hope it will prove to be the right one, for +they are tired and hungry.</p> +<p>“Come out, come out, come out,” exclaims Captain +Mucioalbano.</p> +<p>“You are a pagan,” says a voice within.</p> +<p>“Yes, I know,” shouts the captain, “but never mind +that. Come out, I want to speak to you.”</p> +<p>Enter, from the grotto, Silvestro who declares he will have no dealings +with Turks.</p> +<p>“That has nothing to do with it,” says the captain. +“I come from Constantine, Emperor of the World,”—and he +tells him about the twelve years’ illness, the constant irritation +and the mysterious vision.</p> +<p>Silvestro bows his head, crosses himself, and says—</p> +<p>“I understand.”</p> +<p><!-- page 273--><a name="page273"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +273</span>“Then do not keep his Majesty waiting,” says the +captain. “Come at once and cure him.”</p> +<p>Silvestro agrees to come, but not till he has celebrated Mass, at which +he invites them to be present. They laugh at the idea—Saracens +at Mass, indeed!—and when they see that he is serious they laugh +more; it is, in fact, such a good joke that in a spirit of What next? they +accept his invitation, intending to jeer. First, however, they want +something to eat. Silvestro has nothing for them; besides, one does +not eat before Mass.</p> +<p>“But we are hungry,” they say. “You don’t +fast all the year; what do you eat?”</p> +<p>Silvestro, like so many hermits, lives on roots, but he has not yet sown +the seed—he will sow it now. The soldiers object, they are not +going to wait four months for their dinner. Silvestro did not mean +that they should: the seed will grow during Mass and they shall eat the +roots afterwards. They are more amused than ever, but consent to +wait. Silvestro sows his seed in two places and they all go off to +Mass.</p> +<p>An angel descends with ballet-girl feet, performs an elegant dance and +blesses the <!-- page 274--><a name="page274"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +274</span>seed, which by a simple stage trick immediately grows up in two +flower-pots. The angel dances again and disappears.</p> +<p>Silvestro returns from Mass with the captain, who is deep in thought, +and the two soldiers, who show comic incredulity in every movement. +The captain tells Silvestro that during Mass he had a vision of the +Passion. Silvestro is not surprised.</p> +<p>“Ah!” he says musingly, “yes; that, I suppose, would +be so.”</p> +<p>The captain is so much impressed he is not at all sure he ought not to +be baptized. The soldiers, who are too hungry to pay any attention, +interrupt—</p> +<p>“What about that food?”</p> +<p>They had been standing with their backs to the full-blown turnips. +Silvestro turns them round and they are stupefied to see that the miracle +has been performed. They are all three converted and insist on being +baptized instantly. Silvestro performs the ceremony, somewhat +perfunctorily, and promises to cure the emperor. They shout, +“Evviva Silvestro!” and dance for joy as the curtain falls.</p> +<p>For the third act we returned to the palace in Rome. Costantino +was still in <!-- page 275--><a name="page275"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +275</span>bed, his son Fiovo and his nephew Sanguineo were with him +attempting to comfort him; he was pointing out that it is little use trying +to comfort a man who is, and has been for twelve years, enduring such +extreme discomfort. They were interrupted by a messenger who +announced the return of the captain with Silvestro.</p> +<p>“Let them be brought in,” said the emperor.</p> +<p>Accordingly they came, and the patient repeated to Silvestro all about +the twelve years’ illness and the constant irritation. +Silvestro imitated the emperor’s action to show he understood how +unpleasant it must be. The patient then recounted his vision and +asked—</p> +<p>“Can you propose any remedy?”</p> +<p>“Become a Christian. The water of baptism will wash away +your disease.”</p> +<p>The emperor hesitated not a moment. Silvestro retired to have a +cup fixed into his right fist and filled with real water, while the +sufferer cleverly turned down the bedclothes and, with the assistance of +Fiovo and Sanguineo, got out of bed and stood upright, showing his body and +arms covered with the dreadful marks of the leprosy.</p> +<p><!-- page 276--><a name="page276"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +276</span>Silvestro returned and solemnly performed the sacrament of +baptism, pouring all the water over the kneeling emperor who shivered +violently with the cold, so violently that, while he rose, his leprosy fell +from him as it had been a garment and his flesh became as the flesh of +Samson—which in fact it was, for ordinary naked men are so seldom +required that by changing his head one marionette can double the parts.</p> +<p>Then Costantino danced for joy and embraced Silvestro, he embraced +Fiovo, embraced Sanguineo, embraced Captain Mucioalbano, embraced the comic +soldiers, embraced Silvestro again and made him bishop over all +bishops—that is Pope of Rome. They were all dancing and +embracing one another indiscriminately as the curtain fell.</p> +<h2><!-- page 279--><a name="page279"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +279</span>CASTELLINARIA</h2> +<h3>CHAPTER XVI—A GREAT ACTOR</h3> +<p>Last time I was at Castellinaria there came to the town for a week a +company of Sicilian actors. I was afraid the dialect would be beyond +me, but Peppino assured me that it would matter very little if it were, +because I should understand the gestures, and he promised to come with me +and give me any explanation I wanted. So we went to the theatre the +first evening. He was right about the gestures which were wonderfully +expressive and, as for the dialect, it may have been because he interpreted +the long speeches that I found the first two acts of <i>La Morte Civile</i> +rather dull. He admitted that it was so, but things would improve as +soon as Giovanni appeared.</p> +<p>In the third act a haggard, hunted creature, in a peasant’s dress +which he had borrowed <!-- page 280--><a name="page280"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 280</span>or stolen, wandered in among the actors; +Peppino whispered that he had escaped from prison. I could not take +my eyes off him; every movement, every attitude, every gesture was full of +beauty, nobility and significance, and his voice was a halo of +romance. I thought no more about leaving the theatre. The part +has been played by many famous actors, but the long account of how and why +he killed his man can never have been more finely delivered. I saw +him do the deed. I saw him turn and gaze upon the body while he wiped +the blood off the knife and wrung it from his hands. He sat on a +chair during the whole speech and I was surprised into believing I +understood every word, whereas I understood none, for it was all in the +dialect of Catania and Peppino, who was as much carried away as I was, +forgot to interpret. And when, still sitting on his chair, he came to +his escape from prison, he seemed to lift the roof off the theatre and to +fill the place with freedom and fresh air.</p> +<p>Peppino, before his uncle died, thought of going on the stage and passed +a year with Giovanni and his company in Catania and on tour, he therefore +knew him quite well and <!-- page 281--><a name="page281"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 281</span>at the end of the play took me round to his +dressing-room. It was Carlo Magno in his palace receiving a couple of +friendly sovereigns, though we were none of us dressed for our parts. +I told him that he was the greatest dramatic artist I had ever seen and +that he had given me a new standard whereby to judge of acting. I +said that when he first appeared I thought he really was an escaped convict +who had lost his way in the streets and come on the stage for shelter, and +that he was going to interrupt the play, as the theatre cat sometimes +does. Suddenly, in a flash, I saw what was before me in two senses at +once, and knew that it must be Giovanni acting, and the sorrow for the poor +hunted wretch was turned to joy at seeing a man do something supremely +well. He was as pleased as a boy with a new half-sovereign, +particularly when I compared him to the theatre cat, and said, with +charming simplicity—</p> +<p>“Thank you. Yes; that is because of the realism; that is my +art.”</p> +<p>Peppino and I sat up late that night talking about him. He was +then about thirty-five, with a large repertoire and a reputation extending +through Europe and <!-- page 282--><a name="page282"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 282</span>America. When he was about fourteen his +father, who owned and worked the most famous marionette theatre in Catania, +died suddenly, leaving the family unprovided for. He took over the +business and kept his mother, his sister and his young brother. He +spoke for the men figures himself, and his sister for the women. He +says that in this way he learned his art, but other men have had similar +training without arriving at such mastery. He has a passion for doing +things thoroughly, and so thoroughly well did he manage his theatre that +Catania was delighted with him. Three or four years after his +father’s death, one of the celebrated Italian actors came to the town +and they gave him a private performance of the <i>Cavalleria +Rusticana</i>. The celebrated actor advised him not to waste his time +with marionettes, but to act himself. The theatre was barely large +enough, only six or seven paces across, but it could be made to do, and he +followed the advice, giving, at first, in the Catanian dialect, plays of +which nothing was written except, perhaps, a sketch of the plot. +Formerly, when reading was a rarer accomplishment than it is now, it would +have been of little use to write the words.</p> +<p><!-- page 283--><a name="page283"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +283</span>These plays are full of violence and vendetta, jealousy, murder +and the elementary passions. The audience are uneducated, simple +people who look for the same thing over and over again, as children love +the same story and resent any radical change. This makes it easier to +carry one through than it would be if subtleties or much novelty were to be +attempted. I had seen some of these plays in Catania, and it may make +matters clearer to give a short account of one; it was not until Peppino +told me about them that I understood that the words were improvised.</p> +<p>In the first act Pietro Longo discovers that his sister has been +betrayed, shoots her seducer and is taken by the police.</p> +<p>The second act passes in prison. Two convicts are talking and a +third, a stupid fellow, old, dirty, only half clothed, is sitting apart, +stitching together a few more rags. Singing is heard without. +Every one in the theatre who had passed under prison walls by night had +heard such music and had seen the singers crouching in the shadows; we all +knew it was a signal. The two convicts go to the window and +reply. A stone is thrown in, wrapped up in a letter, <!-- page +284--><a name="page284"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 284</span>which tells +them that Pietro Longo has killed one of their gang and will be taken to +their prison; it is for them to avenge the murder. They confer and +agree that the stupid fellow shall be their instrument. They call him +from his occupation and instruct him. They tell him that a prisoner +will be brought in, he is to ask his name, if he replies “Pietro +Longo,” he is to stab him with the knife which they give him. +He is so stupid that they have to act it for him, and to make him imitate +them till they think he can be trusted. They hide. A prisoner +is brought in and talks to the stupid fellow. The stupid fellow has +been in prison for years and has talked to hundreds of prisoners. In +the course of conversation, without any particular intention, for he has +forgotten all about his lesson, he asks the prisoner his name.</p> +<p>“Pietro Longo.”</p> +<p>The stupid fellow remembers that this is his cue for doing something, +but cannot remember what. His arm accidentally hits the knife which +is stuck in his belt; of course, this is the prisoner he is to kill; he +takes out his knife, opens it with his teeth and attacks Pietro who, though +unarmed, is <!-- page 285--><a name="page285"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +285</span>able to defend himself. This puts the stupid fellow out, he +was told nothing about the prisoner defending himself. The two +convicts, who have been watching, get impatient, come from their hiding and +encourage him. This makes matters worse, he was told nothing about +this either. He is irritated, he grows wilder and, in a fury, +suddenly turns from Pietro and murders the two convicts instead.</p> +<p>The two acts were of about equal length; the first existed merely to +introduce the second, and the second merely to introduce the stupid fellow +whose part was nearly all gesture and, as I afterwards ascertained, was +taken by Giovanni’s brother, Domenico. He may have spoken +twenty words, he was too stupid to speak more; the others spoke a good +deal, but, except that they had been told beforehand, as to each act, about +as much as the reader has been told about the second, all they said was +impromptu, so that each repetition, like a Japanese netsuke, would be a +unique work of art.</p> +<p>Remembering how continually Sicilians use gesture in ordinary life, it +will be understood that in such a play the actual words are of secondary +importance. Giovanni, in <!-- page 286--><a name="page286"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 286</span>working the marionettes had become familiar +with all the types that in different grades of society reappear in all +plays—the good king, the proud tyrant, the traitor, the faithful +friend, the young lover, the noble mother and so on; and, as the words were +always improvised, except in such plays as <i>Cavalleria Rusticana</i>, +which are exceptional with the Sicilian marionettes, his memory had become +stored with conventional phrases suitable for all the usual stage +emergencies and always ready for impromptu delivery. His +fellow-actors were also familiar with them, having heard the phrases over +and over again, and seen the types with their appropriate gestures from +their early youth as members of the marionette audience.</p> +<p>It is claimed for this kind of impromptu acting that the actors are +freer than when speaking words they have learnt, and can therefore behave +with more naturalness. It is the difference between delivering an +extempore speech and reciting one that has been learnt—the difference +between “recitare a soggetto” and “recitare col +suggeritore.” So great is the freedom that an actor may +introduce anything appropriate that occurs to him at the moment, and the +others must be <!-- page 287--><a name="page287"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 287</span>ready to fall in with it. Peppino told +me that one night in Catania, after the performance, he was sitting in the +cool with Giovanni’s family on the pavement and in the road, outside +the theatre, when an old beggar stopped to beg. He had come a long +way, he knew no one in the town, he had nothing to eat, nowhere to sleep, +no money. The mother gave him a penny, Giovanni gave him another, his +brother, Domenico, another—every one gave something. The +beggar, seeing all that wealth lying in the hollow of his hand, and knowing +that he was now safe for a few days, burst into tears and turned away +speechless. At the sight of this, Domenico called to him, went after +him, met him, emptied his pockets, gave him all he had, took his head in +his hands, kissed him on both cheeks, dismissed him, returned to his family +and was received with an approval that was too deep for words. Such +an improvised incident, the sudden outcome of uncontrollable emotion, may +be seen any day in Sicily and might be introduced any evening into one of +these unwritten plays by any actor who should take it into his head to do +it. The audience, who would probably have seen the play before, would +recognize <!-- page 288--><a name="page288"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +288</span>that here was an impromptu interpolation, and would applaud the +actor both for the idea and for the way it was carried out.</p> +<p>Gradually Giovanni added written plays and a prompter, and was the first +to take on tour a company of actors performing in a Sicilian dialect. +He also included plays written in Italian. These written plays, +though constructed with more care, did not depart far from the style with +which he began. Giovanni still frequently returns from prison, but as +he never forfeits the sympathy of the audience, if he really committed the +crime it was in self-defence. Whatever the play may be, it always +contains, besides the inevitable scenes of violence, many other passages +such as hearing a letter read (he is then a simple fellow who cannot read), +collapsing in the presence of the Madonna (he is then deeply religious), +dancing at a festa (he is a perfect dancer), confiding, with his last +breath, the name of his murderer to his young brother who promises to +execute the vendetta. In these passages his humour, his delicacy, his +grace, his tenderness, his voice and, most wonderful of all, his apparently +intense belief in the reality of everything he says and does make one <!-- +page 289--><a name="page289"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 289</span>forget +how crude and transpontine the bare theme is.</p> +<p>On my saying I should like to see more of him, Peppino asked why I had +come away so soon. I had thought he must be tired and would want to +be alone and change his dress.</p> +<p>“Never is he alone,” said Peppino. “Surely now +shall he be suppering by his friends.”</p> +<p>We thought it too late to go and look for him then, so we determined to +ask ourselves to supper after the play the following evening.</p> +<h3><!-- page 290--><a name="page290"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +290</span>CHAPTER XVII—SUPPER WITH THE PLAYERS</h3> +<p>Next evening the play was <i>Feudalismo</i>. Giovanni does not +return from prison; he is a shepherd and is made to marry a girl without +being told of the relations that had subsisted between her and his +lord. He and his wife fall in love with one another, he discovers the +deception, kills his lord and carries his wife off on his shoulders to live +happily with him among his sheep in the mountains.</p> +<p>We went round to his dressing-room after the performance to congratulate +him; when he began to bring the interview to a close, saying that no doubt +it was now my bedtime, I interrupted—</p> +<p>“If you are going to supper presently, may I be allowed to +accompany you?”</p> +<p>He was delighted, patted me on the back and exclaimed, “Bravo, +bravo!”</p> +<p>It took us some time to get away; most <!-- page 291--><a +name="page291"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 291</span>of the company came +into his dressing-room to say “Good-night” to him, men, women +and children all came; each of the children expected some little attention, +and Giovanni playing with a child is a beautiful sight. Then there +were congratulating friends clustering round him and managers and +secretaries waiting for instructions. At last, with only about +fifteen others, we proceeded, stopping on the way for a prickly drink to +cool us after the performance, and the barman was so overcome by the honour +of serving Giovanni that we had the greatest difficulty in forcing him to +accept payment. We arrived at a small piazza where five or six more +of the company were waiting for us at a restaurant.</p> +<p>Tables were set out under the stars and we sat down to supper which was +the same for all: stock fish (which they called pesce stocco and sometimes +stocca fiscia), bread and wine. Giovanni kissed the loaf before +cutting it, as he does on the stage.</p> +<p>After supper it was proposed that we should play at Tocco. I did +not thoroughly understand the game, but it was something of this kind: Wine +was sent for and we all threw out one or more fingers of one hand, perhaps +<!-- page 292--><a name="page292"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +292</span>there might be seventy-two fingers; then we were counted, +beginning with the one who had proposed the game and going over us again +and again until seventy-two was reached with some one who thereupon became +padrone of the wine. He was entitled to drink it all, but every +Sicilian is a born gentleman, so he appointed one of the company presidente +and another sotto-presidente, poured out a little wine for himself and +handed the bottle to the presidente, who again might drink it all if he +liked. But the game was that he made a speech proposing so-and-so as +a suitable person to be invited to drink, and the sotto-presidente made +another speech giving his reasons for agreeing or differing. Any one +who considered himself aggrieved might plead for himself, and there was +some risk in giving the verdict against him because sooner or later he was +pretty certain to become presidente or sotto-presidente and to take his +revenge. This gave opportunities for declamation and gesticulation +and resulted in much merriment.</p> +<p>Some discussion presently arose as to how far Africa and America are the +same place: one of the actors, who had not forgotten his geography, said it +was well known that they <!-- page 293--><a name="page293"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 293</span>are separate countries, being, in fact, two of +the quarters of the globe. Whereupon Peppino remembered how when he +was at school one of the boys, on being asked to name the quarters of the +globe, replied—</p> +<p>“The five quarters of the globe are four in number and they are +the three following, viz. Europe and Asia.”</p> +<p>“Bravo, bravo!” shouted Giovanni, and repeated the sentence +several times in his deep, rich voice.</p> +<p>But however amusing this might be, it did not convince us all that the +two names might not apply to one place; so the geographical actor went +further and told us that Africa had been known since the earliest ages, +that it was not very far from Sicily and contained Tunis, a city which the +company had visited on one of their tours, whereas America was a long way +off, on the other side of the world, and had been discovered in +comparatively recent times, and, strange to say, by an Italian. +Giovanni at once showed great interest.</p> +<p>“Tell us about it,” he said, leaning forward.</p> +<p>“His name was Cristoforo Colombo,” said the actor. +“He was poor and confided his difficulty to a priest who happened to +be the queen’s confessor and a kind-hearted man. <!-- page +294--><a name="page294"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 294</span>This priest +went to the queen and said, ‘May it please your Majesty, I have a +friend, Cristoforo Colombo, who wishes to discover America but he has no +money to buy ships.’ The queen thought it would be a good thing +that America should be discovered and promised to give him as much money as +he wanted for the purpose.”</p> +<p>“Oh, bel!” exclaimed Giovanni. “Let us drink the +health of the good queen.”</p> +<p>“She died some years ago,” said the actor in a warning +tone.</p> +<p>“Then,” said Giovanni, bowing his head reverently and +crossing himself, “let us drink to the repose of her blessed +soul.”</p> +<p>We did so and had all about the voyage and the tunnies, the flight of +the birds, the alarm of the crew when the meteor appeared, their +disappointment when the fancied land vanished in the morning, their wonder +at the distant moving light, their impatience and their turbulence. +All this he did, still sitting on his seat and gesticulating. When he +came to the mutiny he rose. He was peculiarly well able to tell us +about the mutiny because, in addition to the usual sources of information, +he had recently taken part in a performance of the story got up for a +charity in <!-- page 295--><a name="page295"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +295</span>Palermo and he had been the one chosen by lot to kill +Colombo. He conspired apart with imaginary sailors, occasionally +glancing and pointing furtively towards the other end of the piazza. +When the murder had been sufficiently agreed upon, he snatched a knife off +the supper-table and, hiding himself behind our chairs, crept cautiously +towards that part of the deck where Colombo stood busily discovering +America through a telescope, the invention of another Italian named Galileo +(who was born some seventy years later). He took the knife from +between his teeth where he had been carrying it, and was about to commit +the dastardly act when Colombo turned round, seized him by the collar, +flung him away and had him put into chains. He was brought up again +when land was in sight and told to look ahead.</p> +<p>“But what do I see?” said the sailor, shading his +eyes. “What strange vegetation is yonder and what unknown +beasts? When I look upon these potatoes, this tobacco for the nose, +all these elephants and cucumbers and trees full of monkeys, it appears to +me that I am taking part in the discovery of America. O noble +captain! Pietà, pietà!”</p> +<p>With this he knelt at the feet of Colombo <!-- page 296--><a +name="page296"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 296</span>who pardoned him, and +the sailors embraced and wept for joy.</p> +<p>And all the time Giovanni sat gazing and listening with all his eyes, +his ears, his expressive hands and his eloquent back as though it was the +first he had ever heard of it, which can hardly have been the case. +More probably he was considering and criticizing the speaker’s +delivery and mentally casting him for a part in a new play, for he lives in +his art; his meals, his sleep, his recreations are all arranged with a view +to the theatre whose only rival in his affections is his mother.</p> +<p>Then we went on with the game, if this did not form part of it, and I +was given some wine and invited to drink. It was an occasion not to +be passed over in silence, so, although I am not good at speech-making, I +rose with my glass in my right hand and, laying my left on Giovanni’s +shoulder said—</p> +<p>“Quattro sono le cinque parti del mondo e sono le tre seguenti: +Sicilia, Inghilterra.”</p> +<p>Giovanni led the applause with shouts of “Bravo, bravo!” but +before I could drink, my glory slipped off me, the stars went out and the +world came to an end. I <!-- page 297--><a name="page297"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 297</span>had spilt my wine. He saw my distress +and at once took charge of the situation—</p> +<p>“Oh, che bel augurio!” he exclaimed.</p> +<p>I tried to apologize.</p> +<p>“No, no, it will bring us good fortune,” and turning sorrow +into joy again, he dipped his finger in the spilt wine and anointed my +forehead and the back of my neck; I did the same to him; he took up the +bottle, flourished it in the air, sprinkling every one of us with wine, and +then flung it away empty over our heads, so that it crashed down on the +pavement and the pieces skated across the piazza, bang up against the +opposite house. Thus we baptized our friendship and in a fresh bottle +drank to its eternal continuance. He then became Carlo Magno again +and declared that I was padrone of the theatre, and that if I did not come +every night to see him act, and to supper afterwards, there would be an +eruption of Mount Etna and he would never speak to me again.</p> +<p>Presently a greasy, throaty voice began to infect the air with +reminiscences of <i>O Sole Mio</i>! Nearer and nearer it came until +it floated into the piazza and a drunken vagabond reeled past us and out of +sight. It <!-- page 298--><a name="page298"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 298</span>was a disturbance and we rose to go. I +paid sevenpence for my supper, <i>i.e.</i> fourpence for the pesce stocco +and bread, a penny for the wine, a penny for my share of the tocco wine and +a penny for the waiter. Giovanni was pleased with me for giving the +waiter a penny. He said I had done quite right because the waiter +(who had never seen me before) was very fond of me. It was now +half-past two and I supposed we might be going to bed, but on the way we +sat down outside a second caffè, had some more tables out and +ordered coffee. <i>O Sole Mio</i>! sailed towards us again, followed +by the drunken man. They wanted to send him away, but Giovanni, +watching him, said—</p> +<p>“Let him stay. Give me a cigarette, some one”—as +usual he had smoked all his own.</p> +<p>He handed the cigarette to the man who accepted it and stood +gesticulating, trying to light it and mumbling unsteadily till he veered +off and capsized in a heap, spluttering and muttering in the gutter.</p> +<p>I said, “You have been taking a lesson for your next drunken +man.”</p> +<p>“Of course I have,” he replied.</p> +<p><!-- page 299--><a name="page299"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +299</span>It was past three by the time we left the second caffè, +but we drifted into a third and, after liqueur, really did at last set +about going seriously to bed; but what with seeing one another home, trying +to find the reason why <i>Feudalismo</i> was a better play than <i>La Morte +Civile</i> (no one had any doubt that it was, but the reason was involved +in declamation and gesticulation) and one thing and another, it was past +four before we separated. We were standing on the pavement outside +the albergo, our numbers reduced to ten or twelve; instead of saying +“Good-night” to me in the usual way, Giovanni put his hands on +my shoulders and said—</p> +<p>“Enrico mio! Caro fratello! Io ti voglio bene assai, +assai, assai!”</p> +<p>These were his words, but, without his voice, they can convey no idea of +the great burst of emotion with which he pronounced the “bene,” +or of the sobbing diminuendo with which he repeated the +“assai.”</p> +<p>Next morning there was a rehearsal at noon and plenty of work to be got +through, because the tour was only beginning, and there were six new plays +added to the repertoire and fifteen new performers to the <!-- page +300--><a name="page300"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 300</span>company, +which numbers in all forty-four persons.</p> +<p>Giovanni sat with the prompter at a table and the actors went through +various passages requiring consideration. He was too intent upon +getting things right to waste any time by losing his temper, nor did I ever +see any sign of irritation or hear him speak a hasty word. It is true +he kicked Pietro off the stage one day, but he did it with the volcanic +energy of Vanni kicking his wife out of the house at the end of the second +act of <i>La Zolfara</i>. And Pietro was not really touched, he had +acted in many unwritten dramas, understood in a moment, played up with the +correct stage exit and we all laughed at the impromptu burlesque—or +modificazione, as one of them called it.</p> +<p>If Giovanni was not satisfied, he got up and showed the actor how he +wanted the passage done. If Berto still failed to satisfy him, he was +immediately replaced by Ernesto, if Ernesto could not do it, there was +always Pietro who could do nearly anything. Berto was the only one of +the company who had any self-consciousness in his acting or, rather, in his +attempts at acting. Probably he will return to the drapery shop in +which he has <!-- page 301--><a name="page301"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +301</span>hitherto been an assistant, after a pleasant wanderjahr with the +company. Ernesto has been some time on the stage and was formerly a +barber; he is, in fact, still a barber and shaves the company, thereby +adding to his salary, the greater part of which he sends every week to his +wife who is at home with his two children.</p> +<p>Sicilians do not like being separated from their families and, as +travelling expenses are paid, if the husband and wife are both employed in +the theatre, it costs no more to bring the children than to leave them at +home. The principal lady is the wife of one of the young actors and +they have brought the baby. The brother of this lady is chief stage +carpenter and property-man, and is married to another lady of the +company. One of the under-carpenters is stepson of the chief comic +who was formerly a fruit seller and is a little fellow of inexhaustible +drollery with a flavour of Dan Leno in his method.</p> +<p>I dined one day with the actor who does old priests, respectable +commissaries of police, chief peasants and anything of that kind, a man of +about forty who formerly kept a shop and sold grain. His wife, the +daughter of <!-- page 302--><a name="page302"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +302</span>artists, is about the same age and does comic mothers, women who +know a thing or two and won’t stand any nonsense, garrulous duennas +and so on. They had brought four of their children and occupied a +fairly large room with a kitchen, which they had taken for the week. +The children also act if required; one of them, Lola, a girl between five +and six, was on the stage all through the first act of one of the plays; +she had only a few words to speak, and all the rest of the time was moving +about; she tried the rocking-chair, she stood irresolute on the side of one +foot leaning against a table with a finger to her mouth, she found a ball, +tossed it up, missed it and ran after it, she climbed up to a table, got a +piece of bread and ate it. She had not been taught any of this +business. They had merely said to her, “Play about, +Lola,” and, being the daughter of artists, she had played about with +an unconscious spontaneity that was startling. Had there been an +irritable uncle on the scene he must have exclaimed—</p> +<p>“For goodness’ sake, do send that child to bed.”</p> +<p>Lola was at home upon the stage and was acting accordingly, if it can +properly be called <!-- page 303--><a name="page303"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 303</span>acting, at any rate she was playing. +What was Giovanni doing at supper? Is Giovanni only an actor when on +the stage and when everything he says and does has been thought out? +Is he a great actor by virtue of producing the illusion of being a +Lola? And is Lola not really an actress at all, because she has not +prepared what she is doing and is not even trying to produce any +illusion? What is acting? And what is realism? Here are +more problems for discussion at supper under the stars and on the way to +bed at four o’clock in the morning—problems not easily solved +by a company of gesticulating freebooters who are for ever making raids, +first into stage-land, then into real life, and lifting incidents across +the border into that buffer-state where they lead a joyous life between the +two.</p> +<h3><!-- page 304--><a name="page304"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +304</span>CHAPTER XVIII—A YOUNG CRITIC</h3> +<p>One day after rehearsal I had an appointment with a young man whose +acquaintance I had made the previous evening behind the scenes. He +was sitting on a packing-case, exchanging compliments with the head +fireman, and inquired whether I was looking for anything; finding I wanted +a seat he took me under his protection, scoured the theatre for a chair, +and put it for me in a corner with a view of the stage. There was +only room for one chair, so he sat on my knee and put his arm round my neck +to keep himself in place. He was absorbed by the performance, but, +while the curtain was down, had leisure to tell me that his name was +Domenico, that he was nearly thirteen years old and brother to one of the +ladies of the company; he was at school in the town <!-- page 305--><a +name="page305"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 305</span>and his sister had +got him a week’s holiday and taken him to stay with her.</p> +<p>“And so they call you Domenico,” said I, just to keep things +going.</p> +<p>“No,” he replied, “they call me Micio.”</p> +<p>“Why do they do that if your name is Domenico?”</p> +<p>“Because they are all very fond of me. Domenico is my name +as I said, but Micio is a caress.”</p> +<p>“I see; then may I also call you Micio?”</p> +<p>“Of course you may, and I hope you will.”</p> +<p>He was very fond of reading and wanted me to lend him a story-book, but +<i>Tristram Shandy</i>, which was the nearest approach to a story-book I +had with me, was in English, so that would not do. Then he began +searching my pockets for chocolate, but there, again, he was +disappointed. It was to give me an opportunity of remedying these +deficiencies in my equipment that we made our appointment, and he was to do +the bargaining. During rehearsal I consulted his sister, which I +suppose would have been the correct thing to do in England, but she only +shook her finger at him, and he only laughed and played at hiding his fresh +brown <!-- page 306--><a name="page306"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +306</span>face and his curly black head in her white skirts; she might as +well have shaken her finger at the scirocco.</p> +<p>The child put his hand in mine and avoiding the glare of the big +streets, led me through narrow lanes to one of the gates of the town. +There had been a storm the previous night, so sudden that our supper had +been spoilt before we could get it under cover and we had to begin again +inside the restaurant. The clouds had all cleared away and the +panorama, as seen from the gate, was at its best with the sun beating down +on the slopes of the mountain-side and sprinkling sapphires all over the +sea.</p> +<p>Micio, however, had not come to admire the view; he turned from it to +the books that were laid out on a shady ledge of the town-wall and began to +consider those with the illustrated covers. He wanted them all, not +simultaneously but one after the other. He paused before <i>Uno +Strano Delitto</i> but, the crime being too strange to be comprehensible, +we passed on to <i>Guirlanda Sanguinosa</i>, a lady dressed in bridal +attire but, doubtless through exposure to the weather, the blood had faded +off the wreath of orange blossoms, so we took up another. <!-- page +307--><a name="page307"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 307</span><i>Il Bacio +del Cadavere</i> was about a lady in evening dress who had got out of cab +No. 3402 which was waiting for her in the moonlight while she conversed +with the porter at the gates of the cemetery; Micio’s anxiety to +ascertain whether the interview was preliminary or subsequent to the +corpse’s kiss was not acute enough to induce him to buy the +book. There was another about a kiss, <i>Bacio Infame</i>, on which a +lady with a stiletto was defending herself from a bad man. All these +were enticing, but we hoped to do better, and I began to blush for the +somewhat thin plot of <i>Tristram Shandy</i> and to be thankful that my +copy was not in Italian. Finally he took <i>La Mano del Defunto</i>: +at the back of a sepulchral chamber in a violated coffin, from which the +lid had been removed, lay the body of a woman, shockingly disarranged, over +the edge hung her right arm, the hand had been cut off and was being +carried away by a city gent in tall hat, unbuttoned frock coat, jaunty tie, +yellow boots and streaky trousers; he had a dark lantern with the help of +which he had committed the sacrilege—very horrible which attracted +Micio, and only twenty-five centimes which attracted <!-- page 308--><a +name="page308"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 308</span>me. We might +possibly have done better, but we should have had to search a long +time. So we bought it and thought we might take something else as +well. Now, it seemed to me, was the time for <i>Carlo Magno and the +Paladins</i> or the <i>Life of Musolino</i>, or <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>, or +<i>Don Quixote</i>, or <i>The Three Musketeers</i>, but he had read them +all, years ago. <i>The Arabian Nights</i> was new to him, but it was +marked ten francs. In voluble Sicilian he expressed my views by +telling the bookseller it was ridiculously too expensive and that he could +give no more than two francs fifty centimes—he never gave more for a +book. The man held out for five francs. The boy laughed at +him. They declaimed and gesticulated and swore at each other until, +at last, Micio, a baffled paladin, wiped his brow wearily as though there +was no doing anything with these people, and told me to take three francs +out of my purse and give them to the brigand, who politely wrapped up our +purchases and we strolled off.</p> +<p>“Now,” said Micio as we approached the chocolate shop, +“we did rather well over the <i>Arabian Nights</i>—saved seven +francs—do you think it would be extravagant if we <!-- page 309--><a +name="page309"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 309</span>were to have an ice +to restore us after our struggles?”</p> +<p>Of course I agreed, though I had not myself done any struggling, and, as +we sat at our little table eating our ices, we talked about the +theatre. I said I had never seen such acting; leaving Giovanni out of +consideration, all the company knew how to produce the illusion of reality +even down to Lola. Micio had no opinion of Lola. She was not to +be considered seriously as an actress; she might become one some day, but +she was only a child. All the children of artists can do as well as +she, but no one can really act who has not suffered. He himself used +to act quite as well as Lola, but had not appeared on the stage for a long +while—not since he had been at school. He could do better +now.</p> +<p>“When I see the others acting,” he said, “I am not +moved, it is like reading an index. But when I see Giovanni, it is +all different, it is like reading a romance and it makes me cry.”</p> +<p>He found fault with some of the plays for not being worthy of the +actor. Too many of them were little more than disconnected incidents, +strung together to provide <!-- page 310--><a name="page310"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 310</span>opportunities for effects, but with no more +plot than the doings of the paladins in the marionette theatres. They +were like the Pietro Longo play, which I had told him about, and he said +that, if that was really all of it, it began with one story and ended with +another and cried aloud for a third act to hold it together.</p> +<p>“Pietro must escape from prison,” said Micio; “he must +return home and we must know whether his sister died or went into a convent +or married the policeman.”</p> +<p>“What is the stupid fellow to do?” I inquired, “the +play was made for him.”</p> +<p>“He must escape too, Pietro will help him because they will become +friends; besides, any one can escape from a stage prison, especially if the +knives are not taken away from the convicts. And then he can do +whatever the author likes.</p> +<p>“But it is always so in life,” he continued, with a sigh, +“we must not be discontented because the best we can get is not the +best we can imagine. I am still young, but not too young to have +kn--- Let us not talk about that. What did you think of the +play last night?”</p> +<p>I replied that it was a fine play.</p> +<p><!-- page 311--><a name="page311"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +311</span>He agreed, saying it was “strepitosamente +bello.” It opened with a state of things easily comprehensible +and of great interest. There were no tedious explanatory speeches, +but plenty of action leading naturally to a catastrophe which was at once +seen to be inevitable, though no one could have predicted precisely +that. And the conclusion sent the audience away feeling that +something tremendous had happened, and that the state of things existing at +the beginning could never exist again.</p> +<p>“That is how a play should be,” said Micio.</p> +<p>I took a leaf out of Giovanni’s book and patted him on the +back.</p> +<p>“Bravo, Micio, bravo! No one has yet said anything like that +at supper. This is the second time this morning that you have +expressed my thoughts for me. We must get your sister to let you sit +up with us one of these evenings. You would keep us +straight.”</p> +<p>“They know all about it,” he replied, “especially +Giovanni, he knows everything. But they don’t say it because +they like to go on talking.”</p> +<p>“There! now you have done it a third <!-- page 312--><a +name="page312"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 312</span>time. You +appear to me to know all about it too. How did you find it all +out? They did not teach it you at school, did they?”</p> +<p>“I do not remember that any one ever taught it me,” he +replied; “I seem to have known it always. It cannot be +otherwise. It is like eating cheese with maccaroni.”</p> +<p>“We seldom eat maccaroni in England,” said I, in defence, +“and when we do we usually eat sugar with it; perhaps that is why we +are so slow.”</p> +<p>This was a mistake because I wanted him to talk more about the theatre, +and there is something quicksilverish in Micio’s temperament; having +got on the maccaroni he did not care to return to art.</p> +<p>“What do you eat in England if you do not eat maccaroni? Do +you eat chocolate?”</p> +<p>Which reintroduced the original question, and when we had attended to +that, it was nearly four o’clock, his sister’s dinner-hour and +time for him to go home.</p> +<p>In the natural order of things, Micio, being the son of artists, will +return to the stage. Should he fail as an adult actor, he will +perhaps travel in tiles or in ecclesiastical millinery, or he may get +employment on the railway, or as a clerk in the office of the <!-- page +313--><a name="page313"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +313</span>cemetery. I should like to know when the time comes, for I +feel towards him somewhat as he feels towards Pietro Longo. And there +is a chance that he will tell me, for we promised to exchange postcards, +and before parting he gave me his address—</p> +<blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center">(Indirizzo)<br /> +<span class="smcap">All’ Egregio Giovanotto Micio +Boccadifuoco</span>,<br /> +Casa Educativa Garibaldi,<br /> +Via Fata Morgana No. 92, Castellinaria.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Four o’clock was also Giovanni’s dinner-hour, and this was +the day he had promised to dine with me. I was in some fear lest I +might choose the wrong restaurant or order something that would disagree +with him; the evening’s entertainment, on which the whole town +depended, was at stake. But I need not have worried about it. +Giovanni lives so entirely among people who are devoted to him that he +habitually takes the lead in everything. Consequently he chose the +restaurant, and its name was <i>Quo Vadis</i>? He also brought a +couple of friends, ordered the dinner and, as a matter of course, took me +for a drive afterwards to the lighthouse and back.</p> +<p><!-- page 314--><a name="page314"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +314</span>As we drove through the town, he pointed out the municipio, the +post-office, the old Saracen palace, and the other objects of +interest. When we got into the country, it occurred to me that I +might not again have Giovanni all to myself, it was the first time we had +been alone. If I could now get him to talk about his art, he might +tell me exactly how deeply he feels the emotions which he expresses with so +much conviction. I considered how to begin. I had better ask +him first which was his favourite character. I turned to put the +question. He had fallen asleep, and gave me rather an anxious time, +for he repeatedly seemed to be on the point of rolling out of the +carriage. It was a relief when, at last, the clattering of the +horse’s hoofs on the paved streets woke him up, and there was no +longer any necessity to hold him in by the coat-tail.</p> +<p>“There now,” said Giovanni, as he helped me out, “we +have had a delightful drive. Is this your umbrella?” he added, +handing it to me; “if I had known you had brought that, I would have +put it up to keep the sun off you while you were asleep.”</p> +<p>I had not expected this and looked into his eye for a twinkle, I saw +nothing but <!-- page 315--><a name="page315"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +315</span>grave politeness and the kindest consideration for my +comfort. There are moments when one may regret not having been +brought up on impromptu plays; Pietro would have known at once what to +do. I could only ask, rather feebly—</p> +<p>“Have I been to sleep?”—a question to which, of +course, he did not know the answer; he was quite capable of inventing one, +however, so I hastily went on about the umbrella: “Thank you very +much. I am afraid it would have been of no use. I intended to +take it to be mended. I had an accident with it in the storm last +night. Look,” and I opened it.</p> +<p>“You will never get that mended. You must buy a new +one. Why, it is broken into as many pieces as the quarters of the +globe. Ha, ha! The two parts of Enrico’s umbrella are +three in number and they are the four following, viz. the handle, the ribs, +the silk, most of the stick and—and—yes, and this little bit +broken off from the end.”</p> +<p>“Bravo, Giovanni, bravo!”</p> +<p>“You are coming to see me act this evening?”</p> +<p>“Of course I am.”</p> +<p>“And to supper afterwards?”</p> +<p><!-- page 316--><a name="page316"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +316</span>“Certainly, if I may. I do not want to cause an +eruption of Mount Etna, and I do not want you to leave off speaking to +me.”</p> +<p>“Bravo, bravo!” And away he went, apologizing for +leaving me by saying he really must try to get a little sleep before nine +o’clock or he would be no good at the performance. And this +time I fancied there was something of a twinkle in his eye.</p> +<p>Four o’clock <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> is not such a bad +dinner-hour when one is going to bed at four <span +class="smcap">a.m.</span> And four <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> is +not such a bad time for going to bed in Sicily. At some seasons it is +better for getting up and then one takes one’s siesta during the heat +of the day. Either way some alteration of one’s usual habits is +a good thing on a holiday, and any one in want of a thorough change from +the life of the ordinary Londoner might do worse—or, as I should +prefer to say, could hardly do better—than spend a week with a +Sicilian Dramatic Company.</p> +<h3><!-- page 317--><a name="page317"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +317</span>CHAPTER XIX—BRANCACCIA</h3> +<p>After the players were gone I resumed my normal habits. One +morning, as Peppino and I were returning to colazione he asked me whether I +had seen the procession down on the shore.</p> +<p>“Of course I saw it, but I did not know what it was all +about.”</p> +<p>“That,” said he, “was the bishop; he go to bless the +sea and pray God to send the tunnies. Every spring shall be coming +always the tunnies, but if to don’t bless the sea, then to be coming +few tunnies; if to bless the sea then to be coming plenty many +tunnies.”</p> +<p>“It was a beautiful procession,” I said. “I knew +it was the bishop; I saw his mitre and the vestments and the gilded crosses +and the smoke of the incense in the sunlight. But do you think it is +quite sportsmanlike to pray that many tunnies may be killed?”</p> +<p><!-- page 318--><a name="page318"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +318</span>“Yes,” said Peppino, “it is right to pray to +win the battle, and we battle the tunnies so we may pray.”</p> +<p>“It is not quite the same thing,” said I. “In +battle the enemy has a religion too and can pray against us: it may be fair +if both pray equally, especially if both have the same religion. But +it is taking a mean advantage of the poor tunnies to pray against them, for +they have no religion.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps they have,” said Peppino. “Perhaps they +have Signor Vescovo down in the sea and make a procession with tunny +priests very well dressed, and bells and banners and incense and singing, +and to pray against the death and the boiling in oil, and to escape to be +eaten.”</p> +<p>“I should like to see that procession,” I said.</p> +<p>I knew that Peppino had sporting instincts to which I could appeal +because, a few days before, he had taken me into his room and shown me the +cups he had won. Some of them were English, for when in London he was +not occupied as a waiter without intermission; his recreation was to retire +from business occasionally for a few weeks, go into training and appear as +a champion bicyclist. <!-- page 319--><a name="page319"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 319</span>So that, after my frugal chop and potato in +Holborn, I had been in the habit of giving twopence to an athlete famous +enough to have had his portrait in the illustrated papers—that is, if +his recollection of me in Holborn was not his invention; anyhow, there were +the cups.</p> +<p>It had come to pass by this time that Peppino and I took our meals +together and we were attended by the waiter, a native of Messina, named +Letterio. This name is given to many of the boys of Messina, and the +girls are called Letteria. It seems that when St. Paul was at Messina +the citizens gave him a congratulatory address for the Madonna; he took it +back with him and gave it to her in Jerusalem. She, in reply, sent +them a letter in Hebrew which they have now in the cathedral. At +least they have a translation of it. Or, to be exact, a translation +of a translation of it. The first translation was into Greek and the +second into Latin. This is the letter after which the children are +baptized. It is to be hoped they have another translation ready in +Sicilian, or perhaps in Tuscan, to take its place in case anything should +happen to it. Letterio could not tell me the contents of the letter, +but he <!-- page 320--><a name="page320"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +320</span>knew it was in the Duomo and was his padrona, and was sure that, +though only a translation, the meaning of the original had been religiously +preserved.</p> +<p>Peppino never spoke a word to Letterio; he talked to me and +gesticulated. When he held out one hand flat and patted it with the +other, I did not pay much attention to the gesture, assuming that he was +merely emphasizing what he was saying to me, and that Letterio brought +cutlets because it was time for them. When he tumbled his hands +rapidly one over the other and Letterio brought salad, I did not see that +it was cause and effect. But when he put his hand to his mouth as +though drinking and Letterio brought another bottle of wine, I saw that +Peppino had not been saying everything twice over to me, once with words +and once with gestures, as a Sicilian usually does, but that he had been +carrying on two independent conversations with two people +simultaneously.</p> +<p>Talking about Letterio’s name naturally led us to talk about +baptisms, and so we returned to the subject of marriage. Another +friend of Peppino’s was to be married that evening—yes, poor +man! The church was to bless the union at four o’clock next +<!-- page 321--><a name="page321"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +321</span>morning, after which the happy pair would drive down to the +station in a cart, the side panels painted with scenes from the story of +Orlando out of the marionette theatre, and the back panel with a ballet +girl over the words “Viva la Divina Provvidenza.” Then +they would take the train to Palermo for a honeymoon of three days. +The interval between the two ceremonies was to be spent in dancing and, if +I liked, Peppino would take me to see it.</p> +<p>So in the evening we went to a house at the other end of the town, +“far away—beyond the Cappucini,” as Peppino said. +We entered by a back door which led directly into a small bedroom +containing the music: one clarionet, a quartet of Saxhorns, and one +trombone. The room also contained four babies in one bed, and two +more on a mattress on the floor, all peacefully sleeping. These were +the babies that had succumbed to the late hour, their mothers having +brought them because they wanted their suppers, and would presently want +their breakfasts. We sat among the band and the babies for some time +to get accustomed to the noise, and then passed into the room where the +dancing was going <!-- page 322--><a name="page322"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 322</span>on. All round sat the friends and +relations, some with babies, some without; and all the ladies very serious, +the bride in the middle chair of a row along one wall was so desperately +serious that she was quite forbidding.</p> +<p>As when the traveller asks the chambermaid if he can have his linen back +from the wash in time to catch an early train, and notices an expression +passing across her face as she replies, +“Impossibilissimo!”—well knowing that nothing is easier, +only she wants an extra fifty centimes—even such an expression did I +see not passing across the face of the bride, but frozen upon it as she sat +with her back up against the wall frowning on the company. Peppino +said she was all right. Brides have to behave like this; they +consider it modest and maiden-like to appear to take no interest or +pleasure in their wedding ceremonies.</p> +<p>The bridegroom was a very different sort of person—gay, alert and +all the time dancing, talking, laughing and gesticulating with every one, +as though his good spirits and vitality were inexhaustible.</p> +<p>The guests on the chairs left space for only two couples at a +time. At the first opportunity Peppino began to dance, choosing <!-- +page 323--><a name="page323"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 323</span>for his +partner a young lady who was not merely the prettiest girl in the room, but +the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. She was also an exception +to the other ladies in that she looked happy, especially when dancing with +Peppino. She had a quantity of fine, black, curly hair, a dark +complexion and surprising eyes, like Love-in-a-mist when the morning sun +shines on it, full of laughter and good humour. Her eyelids, her nose +and chin, her full lips and the curves of her cheeks were modelled with the +delicate precision of a violin, and when she moved it was with that +wave-o’-the-sea motion which Florizel observed in Perdita’s +dancing. I put her black hair and complexion down to some Arabian +ancestor, and her blue eyes to some Norman strain.</p> +<p>“Who is that wonderfully beautiful girl you have been dancing +with, Peppino?” said I.</p> +<p>He replied, with a rather bored air, that her name was Brancaccia, and +that she was the daughter of a distant cousin of his father who kept a +curiosity shop in the corso.</p> +<p>“How long has this been going on, Peppino? Why did you never +mention Brancaccia to me before?”</p> +<p><!-- page 324--><a name="page324"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +324</span>He replied in a tone, as though closing the discussion, that +there had never been any reason to mention her, that he had known her all +her life, and she was nothing to him.</p> +<p>I changed the subject and, saying it was a long time since I had been to +a ball, asked if there was anything I ought to do. He said that I was +expected to dance. Now my dancing days terminated many years ago when +I was told that my dancing was the very prose of motion, but I did not want +to say so, because I thought it just possible I might be allowed to dance +with Brancaccia if I played my cards judiciously; so I merely said modestly +I was afraid of knocking up against the other couple. Peppino +silenced this objection by promising to dance with me himself, and to see +that all went well. So I danced a waltz with Peppino. He, of +course, complimented me upon my proficiency, and told me I ought now to +dance with the bridegroom. So I danced another waltz with the +bridegroom. He then said it was expected that I should dance with the +bride. This naturally alarmed me, but I boldly asked her and she +consented with a stiff bow: we performed a polka together <!-- page +325--><a name="page325"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 325</span>and I +restored her to her seat, feeling as though I had crossed from Siracusa to +Valletta in a storm, more frightened than hurt, it is true, but glad it was +over, especially as I now considered myself entitled to introduce the +subject of dancing with Brancaccia. Peppino received the proposition +without enthusiasm, saying she was her own mistress and I could do as I +liked.</p> +<p>“But first,” he said, “there shall be a contraddanza; +did you know what is contraddanza? All right, I shall tell you. +A dancing man shall be crying to the people to do and they shall do, but if +to don’t know, better to don’t dance or would come confusion; +better to see and to expect.”</p> +<p>“All right, Peppino,” I said. “I don’t +know enough about it; I will look on and wait, and when it is over I shall +ask Brancaccia to dance a waltz with me.”</p> +<p>Peppino paid no attention: he was off and busy superintending the +preparations for the contraddanza.</p> +<p>Eight couples stood in the middle of the room, space being made for them +by removing the chairs they left unoccupied, and by the remaining guests +packing themselves more closely into the corners. The dancers <!-- +page 326--><a name="page326"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 326</span>stood +in a circle, men and women alternately, and the circle sometimes became a +square, as in a quadrille, and sometimes two parallel rows, as in Sir Roger +de Coverley. One of the men dancers, shouting in dialect, gave short +staccato directions which the others carried out. This brightened up +the party, and some of the women began to look less gloomy, but a week of +contraddanze would not have brought the best of them up to the standard of +Brancaccia. I approached her and said—</p> +<p>“Signorina, will you do me the favour of dancing with +me?”</p> +<p>Another man was about to make a similar request and the girl might have +been in a difficulty had not Peppino, who happened to be hovering near, +made a gesture and taken the other man away. She rose and we danced a +waltz. As we went round and round I saw Peppino talking with the +other man and watching us, and then it flashed into my head that he had +planned all this. He and Brancaccia were in love with one another, +any one could tell that, and he wanted me to meet her so that he could talk +to me about her afterwards. I said to Brancaccia—</p> +<p><!-- page 327--><a name="page327"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +327</span>“What is Peppino saying to the gentleman?”</p> +<p>She, looking up and smiling, in an amused and friendly way, +said—</p> +<p>“Oh! Peppino is always talking to people.”</p> +<p>“Some of them seem to enjoy his conversation.”</p> +<p>“Do you mean the gentleman?” she said, looking away.</p> +<p>“No, I do not,” I replied, and she blushed delightfully.</p> +<p>As I led her back to her seat, I said, “If Peppino asks me about +my partner, I shall tell him that I have just danced with the most +beautiful and charming young lady in the world, and that her future +husband, whoever he may be, will be an extremely fortunate man.”</p> +<p>She replied, “Thank you very much, but I do not suppose Peppino +will ask you anything about me.”</p> +<p>“I shall tell him what I think of you whether he asks me or +not,” said I, bowing.</p> +<p>It was now nearly two o’clock and I got Peppino to take me +away. Remembering what Brancaccia had said, I began at +once—</p> +<p>“What a wonderfully beautiful and charming <!-- page 328--><a +name="page328"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 328</span>girl Brancaccia is; +she seems to me to be the most desirable young lady I have ever +met.” There was a pause, and I added, “You are a +bachelor, Peppino, Brancaccia is unmarried and she is quite different from +all the other young ladies.”</p> +<p>“That,” he replied, “is what says my mother. But +womans it is always like that. First she will be mother, not +satisfied; then she will be grandmother, not satisfied.”</p> +<p>“Of course, if you are too much occupied there is an end of the +matter. But, you know, you have as much time as any one else, +twenty-four hours in the day, and some of the others find that +enough. Would not Brancaccia be exactly the woman to help you to run +the albergo and to look after your parents in their old age?”</p> +<p>He admitted that she had the reputation of being an admirable +housekeeper and that he had never heard anything against her. So I +went on and said all I could think of in favour of matrimony, to which he +listened without attempting to interrupt. I finished by saying that +if he did marry Brancaccia and it turned out unsuccessful he was not to +blame me. He replied with great decision that I need not fear +anything of the kind, <!-- page 329--><a name="page329"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 329</span>for he had made up his mind never to marry any +one, and certainly not Brancaccia.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>Soon after the wedding festa I returned to London. Peppino and I +exchanged several postcards, but Brancaccia’s name was never +mentioned in any of his. After a year I received a letter from him. +<a name="citation329"></a><a href="#footnote329" +class="citation">[329]</a></p> +<blockquote> +<p style="text-align: right">“<span +class="smcap">Castellinaria</span>.</p> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Pregiatissimo e Indimenticabile +Signore</span>!</p> +<p>“Sono già più di dodeci mesi che non ho il piacere +di vedere la sua grata persona sulla nostra spiaggia.</p> +<p>“Con vero piacere Le faccio sapere che mio caro padre gode +buonissima salute e che desidera grandemente di rivederla.</p> +<p>“Tre mesi fa il mio cuore è stato distrutto, <!-- page +330--><a name="page330"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 330</span>causa la +salita al cielo della mia adorata mamma. Non posso trovare parole per +esprimerle il mio cordoglio. Sarebbe stato meglio che il buon Dio +avesse preso anche me, perchè non prenderò più alcun +piacere nella vita.</p> +<p>“Vi annuncio che Domenica prossima si celebrerà il mio +matrimonio.</p> +<p>“Non posso mai dimenticare la sua squisita cortesia ed il gentile +pensiero che nutre a mio riguardo. La prego credere che io sono ora, +e per tutta la mia vita sarò, a Lei legato di affezione, divozione e +rispetto.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“<span class="smcap">Pampalone +Giuseppe</span>.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I replied in a letter of congratulation to the bride and bridegroom, +wishing them every happiness, sending them a wedding present <!-- page +331--><a name="page331"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 331</span>and +promising to come and see them as soon as possible. In due course I +received a box of sugar-plums and a letter signed by Peppino and Brancaccia +asking me to be godfather to their first son when he should he +born—an honour which, of course, I accepted. I trust that at +the christening festa this book may not be thought unworthy to take the +place of the more conventional silver mug.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">THE END</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">printed by william clowes +and sons</span>, <span class="smcap">limited</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">london and beccles</span>.</p> +<h2>Footnotes.</h2> +<p><a name="footnote151"></a><a href="#citation151" +class="footnote">[151]</a> +’Αναγωγια (Sc. +ιερά) offerings made at departure, a feast of +Aphrodite at Eryx. +Καταγωγια the festival +of the return opp. to +αναγωγια.—Liddell and +Scott’s Lexicon.</p> +<p><a name="footnote154"></a><a href="#citation154" +class="footnote">[154]</a> Taken partly from oral tradition and +partly from <i>Le Glorie di Maria SS. Immaculata</i>, <i>sotto il titolo di +Custonaci</i>, by Maestro F. Giuseppe Castronuovo, and <i>Feste Patronali +in Sicilia</i>, by Giuseppe Pitrè. Torino Palermo Carlo +Clausen, 1900.</p> +<p><a name="footnote329"></a><a href="#citation329" +class="footnote">[329]</a> Translation:</p> +<blockquote> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Castellinaria</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Most Precious and Unforgettable Sir</span>!</p> +<p>It is now more than twelve months since I had the pleasure of seeing +your grateful person upon our shore.</p> +<p>I have real pleasure in telling you that my dear father is in the +enjoyment of good health and greatly desires to see you again.</p> +<p>Three months ago my heart was destroyed in consequence of the ascent +into heaven of my adored mamma. I cannot find words to express to you +my grief. It would have been better if the good God had taken me as +well, for I shall have no more pleasure in life.</p> +<p>I announce to you that on Sunday next my wedding will be celebrated.</p> +<p>I can never forget your exquisite courtesy and the kind thoughts you +nourish with regard to me. I beg you to believe that I am now, and +for all my life shall be, bound to you by affection, devotion and +respect.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Pampalone +Giuseppe</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIVERSIONS IN SICILY***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 24652-h.htm or 24652-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/5/24652 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +</pre></body> +</html> diff --git a/24652-h/images/tp.jpg b/24652-h/images/tp.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..13dae29 --- /dev/null +++ b/24652-h/images/tp.jpg |
