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diff --git a/24652.txt b/24652.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6275aa4 --- /dev/null +++ b/24652.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6467 @@ +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*** + + +This eBook was transcribed by Les Bowler. + + + + + + DIVERSIONS IN + SICILY + + + BY + HENRY FESTING JONES + + [Picture: Title illustration] + + LONDON: A. C. FIFIELD 1920 + + _First Published_ . . . 1909 + _Re-issued_ . . . 1920 + + + + + TO + ENRICO PAMPALONE + + +MY DEAR ENRICO, + +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. + +"After all," exclaimed your father, "what is existence?" And I was +unable to give him a satisfactory reply. + +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 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. + +And what of those other and less heroic figures--the brigadier and his +guards 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? + +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 your parents, +and you will never regret having hastened the day when I shall be +entitled to sign myself + + Your affectionate Godfather, + HENRY FESTING JONES. + + + + +NOTE + + +Chapters VIII-XI have been enlarged and re-written since August, 1903, +when they appeared as _A Festa on Mount Eryx_ in _The Monthly Review_. I +have to thank Mr. John Murray for kindly giving me permission to reprint +them here. + +A few sentences in Chapter XIII have been taken from a pamphlet I wrote +and had printed for private circulation in 1904, entitled: _Diary of a +Journey through North Italy to Sicily in the spring of 1903_, _undertaken +for the purpose of leaving the MSS. of three books by Samuel Butler at +Varallo-Sesia_, _Aci-Reale and Trapani_. + +It would be impossible to enumerate and thank all the many friends who, +with the courtesy and patience that never desert a 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. + +Signor Greco wrote to me recently that, for Rosina's riddle in his +episode of the masks in _Samson_, 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 _Republic_. 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. + CONTENTS + + SELINUNTE + CHAPTER PAGE + I. THE BRIGADIER AND THE 3 + LOTTERY + + CASTELLINARIA + + II. PEPPINO 29 + III. THE PROFESSOR 41 + IV. THE WINE-SHIP 52 + + CATANIA + + V. MICHELLE AND THE 77 + PRINCESS OF BIZERTA + + TRAPANI + + VI. FERRAU AND ANGELICA 97 + VII. THE DEATH OF 113 + BRADAMANTE + + MOUNT ERYX + + VIII. MONTE SAN GIULIANO 131 + IX. THE MADONNA AND THE 149 + PERSONAGGI + X. THE UNIVERSAL DELUGE 166 + XI. THE RETURN 181 + + CUSTONACI + + XII. FAITH AND 189 + SUPERSTITION + + CALATAFIMI + + XIII. THE PRODIGAL SON AND 213 + THE ARTS + + PALERMO + + XIV. SAMSON 235 + XV. THE CONVERSION OF THE 254 + EMPEROR CONSTANTINE + + CASTELLINARIA + + XVI. A GREAT ACTOR 279 + XVII. SUPPER WITH THE 290 + PLAYERS + XVIII. A YOUNG CRITIC 304 + XIX. BRANCACCIA 317 +SELINUNTE + + +CHAPTER I--THE BRIGADIER AND THE LOTTERY + + +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. + +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 the locanda, where they would cook the tunny and +the veal for us. + +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 basket with +instructions and drove off to inspect the acropolis and the ruins, +returning in about an hour and a half. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 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. + +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. + +Presently there looked in at one of the windows a hunchback riding on a +mule and carrying a guitar. Several of the guards went to help him in, +greeting him with shouts of-- + +"Addio, Filippo!" + +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 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-- + +"Fourteen lire." + +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 anything they are likely to be able to lay their hands on. + +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 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. + +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-- + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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-- + +"He speaks French worse than you do." + +Any Italian, wishing to express a similar idea, would have said-- + +"He speaks Italian, it is true, but not so well as you do." + +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 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. + +"And when the tailor is wearing a coat that does not fit him," said +Angelo, "it is rude to tell him of it." + +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 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 _Post +Office Directory_ 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 has received instructions from relations and friends at +home to put something on a number for them. + +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. + +"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." + +"Did he get one?" said I. + +"He told me to put his money on 14." + +"That must have been because I said I paid 14 francs a metre for this +cloth. But he changed that afterwards." + +"Yes," replied Angelo. "He thought the number that came out of your +packet of cigarettes would be better." + +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. + +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 cook it for supper, and +that no doubt the Madonna had sent it to make up for the loss of the +fish. + +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 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 _Eatanswill Gazette_ 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. + +By this time we had reached Castelvetrano, and supper overshadowed the +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. + +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. + +Now, a lottery is an immoral thing, 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. + + + + +CASTELLINARIA + + +CHAPTER II--PEPPINO + + +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-- + +"Hullo! Rosario, where have you been all these years?" + +"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." + +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 I was glad it was all over and asked after +his brother. + +"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." + +"At the Albergo Belvedere?" + +"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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +Peppino brought my luggage and, with 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. +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. + +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. + +I went once from Siracusa to Malta at the end of December; it was +abominably rough, 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: + + + ENGL. ITALY. + Fork Forketa + Spoun Cuchiaio + Neif Coltelo + Pleit Piati + Glas Bichiere + Bootl Butiglia + Voutsch Orologio + Tebl Tavola + Ceaer Sedia + Taul Tavaglia + Serviet Serviette + Dabliusii Latrina + Lavetrim ,, + Vouder Aqua + Badi Letto + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 taking the +hotel, he had learnt all about the ceremonies of the Church. + +"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?" + +He then diverged to ceremonies connected with last illnesses-- + +"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 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? + +"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. + +"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 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." + + + +CHAPTER III--THE PROFESSOR + + +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 well as to himself and is, +therefore, also a jettatore in the other sense, so that Napoleon was +quite right. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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-- + +"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 +horn it is necessary not at all. This is what they believe." + +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. + +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. 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. + +The procession, which was the climax of the festa, did not begin till +11.30 P.M. 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 which was broken by his +suddenly saying to me-- + +"You wish to sleep? All right. I show you the bed. Come on." + +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. + +"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. + +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 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. + +"And he took and sent messes unto them from before him; but Benjamin's +mess was five times so much as any of theirs." + +And I think of Menelaus in the _Odyssey_ sending a piece of meat to +Telemachus and Pisistratus when they supped with him at Lacedaemon; 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +"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 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." + +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. + + + +CHAPTER IV--THE WINE-SHIP + + +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-- + +"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. + +"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." + +He replied that it was the 19th of March, the festa of S. Giuseppe, and +assured me that he had said "Buona festa, Peppino" to no one who was not +a namesake; so that about two-thirds of the men at Castellinaria must +have been baptized Giuseppe. + +"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." + +That did not do at all. + +"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." + +"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?" + +He replied solemnly, slowly and decidedly, "Not one--all." + +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 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. + +"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." + +Having disposed of the question of marriage he told me that Carmelo had +been to see me and would call again. He had 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. + +He said she was the _Sorella di Ninu_, 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. + +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. 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. + +By this time we had arrived at the quay and Peppino went off to his +uncle's shop for information as to approaching the _Sorella di Ninu_, +leaving me alone with Carmelo. He seized the opportunity. + +"I have been to see you several times because I wanted to tell you that I +also have been in prison." + +"Hullo! Carmelo," I said, "have you been trying to murder your father?" + +"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." + +I sympathized as well as I could and assured him that it should make no +difference in the relations between us. + +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. + +"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?" + +"Oh, that all happened a long time ago and Rosario has married and +settled down since then." + +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. + +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 _Sacro Cuore_, the +_Due Sorelle_, the _Divina Provvidenza_, the _Maria Concetta_, the +_Stella Maris_, the _La Pace_, the _Indipendente_, the _Nuova Bambina_ +and many more. Peppino called my attention to the names of the ships 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, _Pride of the +Ocean_, 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 _Pride of the Ocean_ into _Vanto del Mare_ 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 _Riunione dei due Fratelli_. +I inquired whether the brothers had quarrelled and made it up. + +"Yes," said he, "that is the worst of family quarrels; they do not last." + +"What do you mean, Peppino? Surely it is better for brothers to be +friends than to quarrel?" + +"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 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." + +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 _Anime del Purgatorio_. + +This would have been just the morning to visit the caves, for there were +no clouds. We stood on the deck of the _Sorella di Ninu_, 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, sparkling +and flashing in the sunlight as it fell into the sea. The taster was +lowered again and the tumblers filled. + +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-- + +"Ebbene, siamo qua!" ("Well, here we are!") + +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. + +Vanni told us he was thinking of taking a cargo of Marsala to England and +what 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 _Le Nozze di Figaro_. He had never heard of it, nor of _Don +Giovanni_, nor of _Fidelio_. 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. + +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 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. + +I was beginning to feel giddy, as though the _Sorella di Ninu_, 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 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. + +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. + +"Then," said he, "of course you could not be winning and Angelo very +stupid to let you play those numbers." + +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 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. + +"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. + +"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." + +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 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-- + +"Ti auguro un' ambo." ("I hope you may win an ambo.") + +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 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.) + +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 full, and if ever +his numbers come out he intends to break his boxes and distribute the +contents among the deserving poor. + +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-- + +"Always to begin one thing before to finish some other thing, this is the +good life." + +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 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. + +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 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. + +"Now," said the professor, "what do you think of my theme?" + +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. + +He had also written a poem entitled _Completo_, of which he gave me a +copy. It was, he said, "un grido dell' anima." He had 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": + + FULL INSIDE. + + The train is full; Ah me! the load of travellers! + The engine whistles; Ah me! the piercing shriek! + My heart is burdened; Ah me! the weight of sorrows! + My soul exclaims; Ah me! the despairing cry! + + O Train! have pity upon me + For you are strong and I am weak, + Transfer to my heart the load of your passengers + And take in exchange the weight of my sorrows. + +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. + + + + +CATANIA + + +CHAPTER V--MICHELE AND THE PRINCESS OF BIZERTA + + +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 +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. + +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 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. + +Catania provided what I wanted. There I knew a professor interested in +folk-lore and kindred subjects to whom I confided 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. + +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 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 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 _Arcadia_ or _The Faerie Queene_. + +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. + +"Is he crying?" I inquired. + +"No," replied the professor, "he is meditating; if he were crying the +back of his hand would be against his face." + +He then dropped his fist and delivered a 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. + +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 conclusion that the puppets +could not be much smaller than life, if at all. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. 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 _Jack and the Beanstalk_, think +of Polyphemus and Ulysses, think of the Inquisition and Galileo. + +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. + +While the battle raged she had been 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-- + +"Grazie." + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +The proprietor's appeal went to all our hearts; silence was restored and +the princess 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. + +Then there was a scene between three kings with golden crowns who +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. 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. + + + + +TRAPANI + + +CHAPTER VI--FERRAU AND ANGELICA + + +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 insisted on +paying for our seats, fifteen centimes each, and we went in. + +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 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. + +"This warrior," he said, "is Ferrau di Spagna." + +He was in tin armour, carefully made and enriched with brass and copper +ornamentation, all as bright as a biscuit-box. I said-- + +"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. + +"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 Ferrau." + +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. + +"Prima Ferrau uccide Medoro." (Ferrau first kills Medoro.) + +"And then kills Angelica?" I inquired. + +"No. Angelica si uccide personalmente, so as not to marry Ferrau." + +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. + +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. +Ferrau 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. + +Pasquale was very proud of Ferrau 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 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. + +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 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. + +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-- + + TEATRO DI MARIONETTE. + + Per questa sera dara 2 recite + la prima alle 5.5 la seconda alle 8 + Pugna fra Sacripante e il Duca d'Avilla-- + Ferrau uccide Medoro e acquista Angelica-- + Morte di Sacripante per mani di Ferrau-- + Morte di Angelica. + + MARIONETTE THEATRE. + + This evening two performances will be given + The first at 5.30, the second at 8 + Fight between Sacripante and the Duke of Avilla-- + Ferrau kills Medoro and gains possession of Angelica-- + Death of Sacripante at the hands of Ferrau-- + Death of Angelica. + +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. + +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. + +The play now being performed is _The Paladins of France_; 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 +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. + +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 +_Iliad_, besides being much 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. + +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 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 a few facts which alarmed him +to such a degree that he consented and they decamped. + +On their way they encountered Ferrau 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 Ferrau was after her. Sacripante and the Duca d'Avilla were after +Ferrau 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. Ferrau went on +fighting with the Duca d'Avilla and both were hard at work when the +curtain fell. + +It rose again, very effectively, on the continuation of the fight, and +almost at once Ferrau cut off the Duca d'Avilla's head which rolled about +on the stage. Immediately there came three Turks; Ferrau stabbed each as +he entered--one, two, three--and their bodies encumbered the ground as +the curtain fell. + +It rose as soon as the bodies had been removed and disclosed Ferrau +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; Ferrau 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. + +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 Ferrau before he could +approach her. Then there was an interview between Ferrau 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. + +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 Ferrau's suit, saying that +he had forgiven him for having killed Medoro. But Angelica had not +forgiven him, and moreover she hated Ferrau 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, she stabbed herself +and fell dead on the couch, exclaiming-- + +"A rivederci." + +It was an extremely neat suicide and her father concluded the +entertainment by weeping over her body. + +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 _The Story of the +Paladins_, this is not their usual business, they are more elaborately +articulated, and are intended for operas, ballets and other complicated +things. + +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. + +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 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. + + + +CHAPTER VII--THE DEATH OF BRADAMANTE + + +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 Ferrau. 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-- + + Carlo ottiene piena vittoria contro Marsilio-- + Fuga di costui e presa di Barcelona-- + Marfisa trova Bradamante che more fra le sue braccia. + + Charles obtains complete victory over Marsilio-- + Flight of the latter and taking of Barcelona-- + Marfisa finds Bradamante who dies in her arms. + +We then went behind the scenes to spend some time among the puppets +before the play began. First I inquired whether Ferrau had 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 AEneas; 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 where it stuck in a rock and any +one can see it to this day. + +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 Toto, +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. + +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, 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. + +Carlo Magno is now on the throne. I was presented to him, and found him +in mourning for a nephew who had been killed 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. + +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. + +"Bradamante will die this evening," said Pasquale. + +I expressed regret, and asked for particulars. + +"She will die of grief for the loss of her husband, Ruggiero da Risa, who +has been killed by the treachery of Conte Gano." + +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-- + +"Si, e piccolo, ma e bello--stupendo," and so he was. + +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. + +Then I saw the Marchese Oliviero di Allemagna and Uggiero Danese and +Turpino, a priest, but a warrior nevertheless. + +"This," said Pasquale, "is Guidon Selvaggio, and this is his sister +Carmida. They are the children of Rinaldo." + +"But spurious," interrupted another youth. + +"Yes," agreed Pasquale; "they are bastards. Shall I tell you how?" + +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. + +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-- + +"By the crests on their helmets." + +I then observed that they all wore their proper crests, a lion or an +eagle, or a castle, or whatever it might be; Ferrau 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. + +On the other side of the stage were two 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 Ferrau, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _A Woman of no Importance_. 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 Ferrau 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. + +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. +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. + +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 _The Miller and His Men_ 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 _Odyssey_--a +first-rate subject that could easily be made to last two winters. + +I was so much interested that I may have paid less attention this evening +to the story 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 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." + +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 citta 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 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. + +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 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. + +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-- + +"Paladini! noi siamo stanchi." + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +MOUNT ERYX + + +CHAPTER VIII--MONTE SAN GIULIANO + + +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 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. + +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. + +The road continues to ascend and the horizon appears to ascend also, so +that the sea takes up with it the AEgadean islands till, presently, +Marettimo looks over the top of Levanzo, while Favognana lies away to the +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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, +_Education Maternelle_ 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. + +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 +from travelling in Sicily, and that both are more spoken of than seen. + +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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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 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. + +When I came down in the morning there 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. + +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 _Odyssey_. 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 pounds 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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +If there is no excursion or no special occupation, we go to the caffe 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 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. + + + +CHAPTER IX--THE MADONNA AND THE PERSONAGGI + + +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. + +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 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. + +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 Phoenicians. +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 +_Erewhon_) wrote _The Authoress of the Odyssey_ (Longmans, 1897) in +support of his view that the _Odyssey_ 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. 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 Phoenicians when they came to the +mountain; on many of the stones the quarrymen's marks in Phoenician +characters are still visible. + +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. {151} A little later, when the pigeons returned, the goddess +was believed to come back with them, and then there was another festival +of Catagogia. {151} 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 Phoenician colony of Carthage, +one may suppose it probable that these flittings began when Astarte was +in power. + +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. + +The calamity that most commonly befalls the comune is a drought, or the +fear of a drought. Rain is not wanted while the salt 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-- + +"Acqua, Maria, acqua!" ("Rain, Maria, rain!") + +Meanwhile the clouds were gathering and presently a tremendous +thunderstorm came on which drenched them all, and they returned to the +mountain, shouting-- + +"Basta, Maria, basta!" ("Leave off, Maria, leave off!") + +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. + +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 +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. {154} + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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? + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +Giuseppe Pitre, in his _Feste Patronali in Sicilia_, 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 +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. + +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. + +In 1894, _L'Aurora Consurgens della Cantica_ was the subject. There were +twelve figures showing the growth of idolatry and culminating with the +Emperor Julius Caesar 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 the explanatory pamphlet contained a reference +to the _Song of Solomon_ 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. + +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 _Jael_, 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 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. + + + +CHAPTER X--THE UNIVERSAL DELUGE + + +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. + +When the church emptied we got a better view of the picture. It is about +6 ft. high 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 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. + +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. + +In the course of the day I bought a copy of the explanatory pamphlet. +Its title was _L'Arca Noetica_. _Simbolo Mariano_. _Processione +notturna figurativa_ (_I Personaggi_) _in omaggio alla Diva di Custonaci +Celeste Patrone degli Erecini_. _Ultimo Lunedi d'Agosto_, 1901. It was +to be a procession of cars, there were to be no figures on horseback. +Having introduced cars, as in _Jael_, 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 in presenting the somewhat intractable +subject of _Noah's Ark and the Universal Deluge_. + +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. + +In wandering about the town next day, I came upon four or five of the +cars lurking 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 mache 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. + +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 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 _Odyssey_, 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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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 was heard +approaching, and at 1.45 the first car staggered into sight. It +represented _The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men_; 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. + +The second car brought _Sin_, 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 glittered +in the flickering lights as the car lurched down the street and passed +the balcony. + +The third car represented _The Voice of God_, 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. + +Then _The Universal Deluge_ 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 mache. + +_The Ark_ 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 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. + +No. 6 was _The Sacrifice_ 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. + +No. 7 was _The Rainbow_, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +Every one of the female figures, except _The Voice of God_, had her +breast encrusted with jewels, usually in a floral design, and the borders +of their dresses were heavy with jewellery; the male figures also wore as +much as could be suitably sewn on their costumes. + +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 _The Voice of God_, though they were the children of +Donna Anna, my landlady, were not really necessary. Of the groups, the +one representing _The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men_ was certainly +the finest. It told its story in the right way and was full of the right +kind of imagination. _The Sacrifice_ was next best, and owed much to the +extreme dignity of the principal figure. I should have liked _The Flood_ +better if it had had more living figures and less papier mache, 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 costermonger's barrow. Of the three remaining cars, _Sin_ +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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 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. + + + +CHAPTER XI--THE RETURN + + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +On Thursday, 29th, the day appointed for transporting the picture back to +Custonaci, there was early Mass in the Matrice, where 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. + +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 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-- + +"See how pale the face of the Madonna has become; it is with sorrow to +leave the Mountain." + +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 during the rest of the journey, and the people's grief culminated +as the chest received her out of their sight. + +In _The Marriage of Heaven and Hell_, 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. + +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 +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. + +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. + + + + +CUSTONACI + + +CHAPTER XII--FAITH AND SUPERSTITION + + +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 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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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 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 +Phoenicians, 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. 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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 +_Pastoral Symphony_ in the _Messiah_, performed with occasional +interpolations from _Till Eulenspiegel_. + +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 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. + +"Or for smugglers to keep their spoils in," I said; and the brigadier +chuckled. + +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. + +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. + +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 +the week. He confirmed what Peppino had said and added that he was +always very careful about the choosing of his numbers. + +"But surely," I said, "you do not always win when you follow that rule?" + +"I have played every week for twenty years," said the brigadier, "and +have only won four times; but I always hope." + +"One can hope," I said, "without spending any soldi." + +Here the guard who believed in the moth interposed, seeing that I did not +know much about it-- + +"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." + +"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." + +"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. 'How can you hope to be well,' she used to say, +'if you never take any medicine?'" + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +I agreed that it would have been more of a miracle had she done it in a +balmy August, 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. + +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-- + +"Corda, o pioggia!" + +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. + +"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 act of the gambler is branded as +superstitious. But to abuse a thing is not to alter its nature." + +The guard who had heard the bells ring now began to remonstrate gently +and begged there might be no confusing of faith with superstition. + +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 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-- + +"Comandante della Brigata." + +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 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. + +"I am not a Sicilian," he replied, "I come from another mountain near +Rome where there was once another temple dedicated to Fortune." + +"Are you from Palestrina?" + +"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." + +"Perhaps her temple was too prosperous and too near the shrine of St. +Peter." + +"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 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." + +"It was a neglected opportunity." + +"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." + +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. + +The brigadier called to us that coffee was ready and we turned to go in. +The young 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 5.5 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. + +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 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. + +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 Toto 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. + +"You see all these young men?" said the shoemaker. "In another couple of +months they will be in America." + +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 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 pounds) 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. + + + + +CALATAFIMI + + +CHAPTER XIII--THE PRODIGAL SON AND THE ARTS + + +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 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. + +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 _Erewhon_, who often stayed there when writing _The Authoress +of the Odyssey_, 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. + +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 the afternoon, the town for the +rest of the day was choked with processions. + +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. + +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 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. + +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, _A Psalm of Montreal_, 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, 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. + +Finally, rather late in the day, came the Procession of the Personaggi, +telling the story of _The Prodigal Son_. 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 +_Pyramus and Thisbe_ should be performed-- + + For never anything can be amiss + When simpleness and duty tender it. + +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. + + +THE PRODIGAL SON +PART I +_Introduction_ + + +I. _Divine Mercy_.--A majestic matron robed as a sovereign, resplendent +with jewels and sheltering sinners under the voluminous folds of her +mantle. + +2. _The Blind Design of the Prodigal_.--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. + +3. _The Evil Spirit_.--Clothed in skins like a faun, he is lying in wait +for the preceding figure. + + +PART II +_The Story of the Prodigal_ + + +4. _The Young Son_.--His sword by his side, with haughty mien he demands +his portion. + +5. _The Father of the Prodigal_.--A grave personage, sad and tearful, in +the act of handing over his keys and caskets which are carried by a +servant. + +6. _The Departure of the Prodigal_.--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." + +7. _The Prodigal far from Home_.--He flaunts his rich raiment and +carries a lute; one would say he is enjoying life. + +8. _The Allegory of the False Friends_.--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." + +9. _The Prodigal reduced to poverty_--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." + +10. _The Citizen Patron_--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. + +11. _The Son's Resolution_.--In tattered rags, unshod and leaning on a +stick, the wretch is saying, "I will arise and go to my father." + +12. _The Father's Welcome_.--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 again--was +lost and is found." The son is saying, "Father, I have sinned." + +13. _The Rejoicings at Home_.--A group of youths and maidens crowned +with flowers and playing upon instruments of music. + +14. _A Servant_ presenting the prodigal with sumptuous apparel and a +golden ring. + +15. _The Elder Son_.--He has returned from the country, angry and +resentful, and is astonished to see the prodigal. + +16. _The Good Father_ 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. + + +PART III +_The Allegorical Sense of the Parable_ + + +17. _The Wicked Man in Prosperity_ 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. + +18. _The Divine Warning_.--A prophet who contemplates the preceding +figure threateningly while he records the fatal sentence: "Thou fool; +this night thy soul shall be required of thee." + +19. _The Punishment of Tribulation_.--Divine Love that desireth not the +death of a sinner. A celestial winged messenger carrying a scourge: +"Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." + +20. _The Remorse of Conscience_.--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. + +21. _The Contrite Sinner_ 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." + +22. _A Holy Minister_ supplicating the Crucifix with these words: "A +broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt Thou not despise." + +23. _Divine Grace_.--A beautiful girl in white with a transparent veil, +radiant and joyful, carries a branch of palm. + +24. _Peace of Mind_.--The soul reconciled with Jesus Christ. Jesus of +Nazareth comforting the soul and opening His arms to receive her: "Come +my Beloved, my Bride." + +25. _The Soul_.--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." + +26. _The Joy of the Angels_.--They appear as nymphs and sing a hymn of +glory to God and of welcome to the repentant sinner. + +27. _The Holy Cross_, decorated with flowers and rays of glory, carried +on high by a seraph. + +28. _The Holy Virgin with the Cross_.--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. + +29. _Calatafimi_.--A handsome, smiling youth in Trojan attire devoutly +offering his heart to the crucified Saviour with these words: "Thy +blessing be upon us evermore." + + * * * * * + +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 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 _The Prodigal Son_ which had interested him +very much but puzzled him dreadfully. He could not classify it. + +"Why not procession--a branch of drama?" I inquired. + +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. + +"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 painting. We may call this third art painting, that being its most +popular phase." + +"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." + +"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. + +"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 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?" + +"Very," I replied. "I am afraid, however, that you have not a high +opinion of the executive artist." + +"I will confess that he sometimes reminds me of the proverb, 'God sends +the tune and the devil sends the singer.'" + +I laughed and said, "We have not exactly that proverb in English, though +I have heard something like it. It can, however, only 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." + +"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." + +"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?" + +"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 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." + +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. + +"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 artist to direct and for the +performing artists to execute the combination so that it shall please and +convince the public. And now, _revenons a nos processions_, where can we +find a place for them?" + +"Surely," said I, "some such combination will include them--unless they +have nothing to do with art." + +"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." + +It was plain the procession was not going to be allowed to escape. I +considered for a moment and said-- + +"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." + +"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." + +"Oh, but that," I replied modestly, "was only thrown out before I had the +advantage of hearing your scheme of classification. May it not be +that--" + +"I have it," he interrupted. "Of course, how stupid I have been! The +procession does not move." + +"Does not move!" I echoed. "Why, it moved all through the town." + +"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." + +I regret that the French gentleman left Calatafimi so early next morning +that I had no opportunity of ascertaining whether he slept well after +determining that processions do not proceed. + + + + +PALERMO + + +CHAPTER XIV--SAMSON + + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +There was a dispute and it was to be submitted to the king, whom they +addressed as Pharaoh. I said to Turiddu-- + +"But Pharaoh was king of Egypt and all this happened in Palestine--if, +indeed, it happened anywhere." + +"Pharaoh also governed Palestine," replied Turiddu. + +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. + +Samson then propounded his riddle: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and +out of the strong came forth sweetness." + +The golden Highlander winked his eyes, put his fist up to his forehead +and meditated anxiously for some time. Then he said-- + +"Sono confuso." + +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-- + +"Sono confuso." + +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-- + +"Sono confuso." + +The lady did not mind how stupid he 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. + +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-- + +"No, no, no, non posso!" + +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 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. + +"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the lady. + +Samson smelt mischief and brought the curtain down with a fine speech, +threatening her with his wrath if she should betray him. + +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. 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. + +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. + +The four questions and answers were-- + +Q. A man that was no man--A. An eunuch-- + +Q. Threw a stone that was no stone--A. A pumice-stone-- + +Q. At a bird that was no bird--A. A bat-- + +Q. Sitting on a tree that was no tree--A. An elder-tree. + +This being a riddle and in dialect and, 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. + +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 mediaeval 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. + +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-- + +"What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion?" + +Samson glared at the lady who ostentatiously shook her head. + +"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 +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 soldiers, heaps upon heaps, writhing in +their death agonies. + +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. + +"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-- + +"Here is the end of all your rage, O Sansone!" + +Samson listened with great forbearance and, when it was his turn, replied +in a speech full of dignity, containing a great deal about 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-- + +"Arrest him, arrest him; I'm off," amid the derisive laughter of the +audience. + +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. + +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. + +The silence was prolonged. Nothing happened. It was a pause of +expectation. + +Then we heard a voice, a solemn, cavernous voice with a vibrato like a +cinematograph, calling loud and slow-- + +"Sansone, Sansone, Sansone!" + +"Whose voice is that?" exclaimed Samson, looking round and seeing no one. + +The voice repeated its call two or three times and at last Samson +recognized it. + +"E la voce del mio genitore." + +"Sansone, Sansone, Sansone! In questa torre sono incarcerato." + +Then Samson understood that Manoah had been arrested and imprisoned and +must be delivered. He approached the castle and knocked. + +"Chi e?" said the porter. + +"Son io, Sansone." + +We heard a movement of consternation within the castle and then Samson +called out-- + +"Aprite." + +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. + +"Open the door and give me my father," said Samson with suppressed rage. +Throughout Samson behaved with extreme moderation. 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. + +"Aprite," said Samson. + +Then several messengers came, sometimes singly, sometimes two together, +and once four soldiers came and said-- + +"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. + +"Aprite," said Samson, "datemi il mio genitore." + +Then there came a comic dwarf; Samson looked at him scornfully, and +saying-- + +"Cosa vuoi, Insetto?" took him up, twirled him round and round and threw +him away. + +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 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. + +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. + +If I had been as strong as Samson I would 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-- + +"The Philistines be upon thee, Samson," and he would rise powerless and +be taken and bound in fetters of brass. + +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 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 _Total Eclipse_. +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. + +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, 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. + + + +CHAPTER XV--THE CONVERSION OF THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE + + +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. + +"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 his end. But it is the last night and +to-morrow they will come because the story will begin all over again." + +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. + +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 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 _Samson_ 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. + +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 _Samson_, 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 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 _Samson_, +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. + +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 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. + +They told me all about the story, or rather stories, of the paladins. +First there is an _Introduction_ 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-- + +I. _The Story of the Paladins of France_ 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-- + +II. _The Story of the Sons of the Paladins_ with Palmerino d'Oliva, +Tarquasso, Scolimmaro and the crusades. This lasts about three months +and is followed by-- + +III. _The Story of Balocco_ 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-- + +IV. _The Story of Michele_, Emperor of Belgium, against the Saracens. +This lasts about three months and ends with the death of Guido Santo. + +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. + +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, la +Velenatrice, detta la Vecchia dell' Aceto, who sold poisoned vinegar. +There is no regular day for _Samson_; 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. + +They also occasionally give a kind of music-hall entertainment and I was +so fortunate as to see one. + + PICCOLA SERATA BALLABILE + + 1. Passo a due eseguito da due ballerini di rango Francese, viz. + Miss Ella e Monsieur Canguiu. + + 2. Dansa del Gran Turco, fumatore di pipa. + + 3. L'Ubbriaco. Scena buffa. + +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 Canguiu then danced alone; he was slightly less complicated, and +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 +Genee 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. + +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. + +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, threw them away and went on +dancing in his shirt. + +"He is a very common man," said the buffo apologetically; "a fellow of no +education." + +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. + +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 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 pounds), the elaborate +ones, with tricks, and the dancers probably more; ordinary Turks and +pages unarmed will cost less, say perhaps 50 francs (2 pounds) 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. + +There was nothing the buffo and his brother could not explain, and what +this implies a glance through the notes to the _Orlando Furioso_, 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +Amid shouts of "Evviva Costantino," two Christians were brought on in +chains. 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. + +This was the cue for the family doctor to enter with a specialist. + +"Come sta vostra Maiesta stamattina?" inquired the family doctor, and the +patient declared himself no better--he was much the same. + +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. + +The doctors consulted, and with unexpected unanimity and rapidity +recommended the emperor to bathe in the blood of six children. He +agreed, and said to the sentinel-- + +"Let six children be arrested at once and brought to me." + +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-- + +"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--" + +Here he was interrupted by the sobs and cries of the children-- + +"We do not want to die, your Majesty!" + +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. + +"Pieta, Maiesta, pieta!" + +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-- + +"Pieta, Maiesta, pieta!" + +He was touched with compassion, he wavered, he could resist no longer. + +"It is not just," he declared, "to kill all these children; if that is +the only remedy, I am content to die." + +So he pardoned them and they danced away, joyfully shouting, "Evviva +Costantino!" + +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. + +"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 +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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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 Sirach (_i.e._ 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. 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. + +The second act passed before the hermit's grotto on Monte Sirach. 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. + +"Come out, come out, come out," exclaims Captain Mucioalbano. + +"You are a pagan," says a voice within. + +"Yes, I know," shouts the captain, "but never mind that. Come out, I +want to speak to you." + +Enter, from the grotto, Silvestro who declares he will have no dealings +with Turks. + +"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. + +Silvestro bows his head, crosses himself, and says-- + +"I understand." + +"Then do not keep his Majesty waiting," says the captain. "Come at once +and cure him." + +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. + +"But we are hungry," they say. "You don't fast all the year; what do you +eat?" + +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. + +An angel descends with ballet-girl feet, performs an elegant dance and +blesses the seed, which by a simple stage trick immediately grows up in +two flower-pots. The angel dances again and disappears. + +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. + +"Ah!" he says musingly, "yes; that, I suppose, would be so." + +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-- + +"What about that food?" + +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. + +For the third act we returned to the palace in Rome. Costantino was +still in 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. + +"Let them be brought in," said the emperor. + +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-- + +"Can you propose any remedy?" + +"Become a Christian. The water of baptism will wash away your disease." + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CASTELLINARIA + + +CHAPTER XVI--A GREAT ACTOR + + +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 _La +Morte Civile_ rather dull. He admitted that it was so, but things would +improve as soon as Giovanni appeared. + +In the third act a haggard, hunted creature, in a peasant's dress which +he had borrowed 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. + +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 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-- + +"Thank you. Yes; that is because of the realism; that is my art." + +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 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 _Cavalleria Rusticana_. 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. + +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. + +In the first act Pietro Longo discovers that his sister has been +betrayed, shoots her seducer and is taken by the police. + +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, 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. + +"Pietro Longo." + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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 _Cavalleria Rusticana_, 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. + +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 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 that here was an impromptu interpolation, +and would applaud the actor both for the idea and for the way it was +carried out. + +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 forget how crude and transpontine the bare theme is. + +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. + +"Never is he alone," said Peppino. "Surely now shall he be suppering by +his friends." + +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. + + + +CHAPTER XVII--SUPPER WITH THE PLAYERS + + +Next evening the play was _Feudalismo_. 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. + +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-- + +"If you are going to supper presently, may I be allowed to accompany +you?" + +He was delighted, patted me on the back and exclaimed, "Bravo, bravo!" + +It took us some time to get away; most 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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-- + +"The five quarters of the globe are four in number and they are the three +following, viz. Europe and Asia." + +"Bravo, bravo!" shouted Giovanni, and repeated the sentence several times +in his deep, rich voice. + +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. + +"Tell us about it," he said, leaning forward. + +"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. 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." + +"Oh, bel!" exclaimed Giovanni. "Let us drink the health of the good +queen." + +"She died some years ago," said the actor in a warning tone. + +"Then," said Giovanni, bowing his head reverently and crossing himself, +"let us drink to the repose of her blessed soul." + +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 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. + +"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! Pieta, pieta!" + +With this he knelt at the feet of Colombo who pardoned him, and the +sailors embraced and wept for joy. + +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. + +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-- + +"Quattro sono le cinque parti del mondo e sono le tre seguenti: Sicilia, +Inghilterra." + +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 had spilt my wine. He saw my distress and at once +took charge of the situation-- + +"Oh, che bel augurio!" he exclaimed. + +I tried to apologize. + +"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. + +Presently a greasy, throaty voice began to infect the air with +reminiscences of _O Sole Mio_! Nearer and nearer it came until it +floated into the piazza and a drunken vagabond reeled past us and out of +sight. It was a disturbance and we rose to go. I paid sevenpence for my +supper, _i.e._ 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 caffe, had some +more tables out and ordered coffee. _O Sole Mio_! sailed towards us +again, followed by the drunken man. They wanted to send him away, but +Giovanni, watching him, said-- + +"Let him stay. Give me a cigarette, some one"--as usual he had smoked +all his own. + +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. + +I said, "You have been taking a lesson for your next drunken man." + +"Of course I have," he replied. + +It was past three by the time we left the second caffe, 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 _Feudalismo_ was a better play than _La Morte Civile_ (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-- + +"Enrico mio! Caro fratello! Io ti voglio bene assai, assai, assai!" + +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." + +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 company, +which numbers in all forty-four persons. + +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 _La Zolfara_. 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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-- + +"For goodness' sake, do send that child to bed." + +Lola was at home upon the stage and was acting accordingly, if it can +properly be called 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. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII--A YOUNG CRITIC + + +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 and his sister had got him a week's +holiday and taken him to stay with her. + +"And so they call you Domenico," said I, just to keep things going. + +"No," he replied, "they call me Micio." + +"Why do they do that if your name is Domenico?" + +"Because they are all very fond of me. Domenico is my name as I said, +but Micio is a caress." + +"I see; then may I also call you Micio?" + +"Of course you may, and I hope you will." + +He was very fond of reading and wanted me to lend him a story-book, but +_Tristram Shandy_, 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 face and his curly +black head in her white skirts; she might as well have shaken her finger +at the scirocco. + +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. + +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 _Uno Strano +Delitto_ but, the crime being too strange to be comprehensible, we passed +on to _Guirlanda Sanguinosa_, 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. _Il Bacio del +Cadavere_ 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, _Bacio Infame_, 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 +_Tristram Shandy_ and to be thankful that my copy was not in Italian. +Finally he took _La Mano del Defunto_: 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 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 _Carlo Magno and the Paladins_ or the _Life of Musolino_, or +_Robinson Crusoe_, or _Don Quixote_, or _The Three Musketeers_, but he +had read them all, years ago. _The Arabian Nights_ 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. + +"Now," said Micio as we approached the chocolate shop, "we did rather +well over the _Arabian Nights_--saved seven francs--do you think it would +be extravagant if we were to have an ice to restore us after our +struggles?" + +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. + +"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." + +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 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. + +"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." + +"What is the stupid fellow to do?" I inquired, "the play was made for +him." + +"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. + +"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?" + +I replied that it was a fine play. + +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. + +"That is how a play should be," said Micio. + +I took a leaf out of Giovanni's book and patted him on the back. + +"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." + +"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." + +"There! now you have done it a third 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?" + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +"What do you eat in England if you do not eat maccaroni? Do you eat +chocolate?" + +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. + +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 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-- + + (Indirizzo) + ALL' EGREGIO GIOVANOTTO MICIO BOCCADIFUOCO, + Casa Educativa Garibaldi, + Via Fata Morgana No. 92, Castellinaria. + +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 _Quo +Vadis_? 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. + +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. + +"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." + +I had not expected this and looked into his eye for a twinkle, I saw +nothing but 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-- + +"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. + +"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." + +"Bravo, Giovanni, bravo!" + +"You are coming to see me act this evening?" + +"Of course I am." + +"And to supper afterwards?" + +"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." + +"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. + +Four o'clock P.M. is not such a bad dinner-hour when one is going to bed +at four A.M. And four A.M. 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. + + + +CHAPTER XIX--BRANCACCIA + + +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. + +"Of course I saw it, but I did not know what it was all about." + +"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." + +"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?" + +"Yes," said Peppino, "it is right to pray to win the battle, and we +battle the tunnies so we may pray." + +"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." + +"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." + +"I should like to see that procession," I said. + +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. 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +The guests on the chairs left space for only two couples at a time. At +the first opportunity Peppino began to dance, choosing 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. + +"Who is that wonderfully beautiful girl you have been dancing with, +Peppino?" said I. + +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. + +"How long has this been going on, Peppino? Why did you never mention +Brancaccia to me before?" + +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. + +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 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. + +"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." + +"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." + +Peppino paid no attention: he was off and busy superintending the +preparations for the contraddanza. + +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 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-- + +"Signorina, will you do me the favour of dancing with me?" + +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-- + +"What is Peppino saying to the gentleman?" + +She, looking up and smiling, in an amused and friendly way, said-- + +"Oh! Peppino is always talking to people." + +"Some of them seem to enjoy his conversation." + +"Do you mean the gentleman?" she said, looking away. + +"No, I do not," I replied, and she blushed delightfully. + +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." + +She replied, "Thank you very much, but I do not suppose Peppino will ask +you anything about me." + +"I shall tell him what I think of you whether he asks me or not," said I, +bowing. + +It was now nearly two o'clock and I got Peppino to take me away. +Remembering what Brancaccia had said, I began at once-- + +"What a wonderfully beautiful and charming 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." + +"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." + +"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?" + +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, +for he had made up his mind never to marry any one, and certainly not +Brancaccia. + + * * * * * + +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. {329} + + "CASTELLINARIA. + + "PREGIATISSIMO E INDIMENTICABILE SIGNORE! + + "Sono gia piu di dodeci mesi che non ho il piacere di vedere la sua + grata persona sulla nostra spiaggia. + + "Con vero piacere Le faccio sapere che mio caro padre gode buonissima + salute e che desidera grandemente di rivederla. + + "Tre mesi fa il mio cuore e stato distrutto, 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, perche non prendero piu alcun piacere nella vita. + + "Vi annuncio che Domenica prossima si celebrera il mio matrimonio. + + "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 saro, a Lei legato di affezione, divozione e + rispetto. + + "PAMPALONE GIUSEPPE." + +I replied in a letter of congratulation to the bride and bridegroom, +wishing them every happiness, sending them a wedding present 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. + + THE END + + PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, + LONDON AND BECCLES. + + + + +Footnotes. + + +{151} [Greek text] offerings made at departure, a feast of Aphrodite at +Eryx. [Greek text] the festival of the return opp. to [Greek +text].--Liddell and Scott's Lexicon. + +{154} Taken partly from oral tradition and partly from _Le Glorie di +Maria SS. Immaculata_, _sotto il titolo di Custonaci_, by Maestro F. +Giuseppe Castronuovo, and _Feste Patronali in Sicilia_, by Giuseppe +Pitre. Torino Palermo Carlo Clausen, 1900. + +{329} Translation: + + CASTELLINARIA. + + MOST PRECIOUS AND UNFORGETTABLE SIR! + + It is now more than twelve months since I had the pleasure of seeing + your grateful person upon our shore. + + 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. + + 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. + + I announce to you that on Sunday next my wedding will be celebrated. + + 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. + + PAMPALONE GIUSEPPE. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DIVERSIONS IN SICILY*** + + +******* This file should be named 24652.txt or 24652.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. 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