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diff --git a/25077.txt b/25077.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2cc2d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/25077.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9910 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Castellinaria, by Henry 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: Castellinaria + and Other Sicilian Diversions + + +Author: Henry Festing Jones + + + +Release Date: April 15, 2008 [eBook #25077] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CASTELLINARIA*** + + +This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler. + + + + + + CASTELLINARIA + AND OTHER SICILIAN DIVERSIONS + + + BY + HENRY FESTING JONES + + [Picture: Title page] + + LONDON: A. C. FIFIELD 1920 + + _First Published_ . . . 1911 + _Re-issued_ . . . 1920 + + AL + CARO * COMPARE + ALBERTO * AUGUGLIARO + DI * MONTE * ERICE + ALLA + CARA * COMARE + GIUSEPPINA * AUGUGLIARO + E + A * TUTTI + GLI * AMICI * SICILIANI + CHE + GAREGGIANDO + IN + CORTESIA * OSPITALITA * AFFEZIONE + HANNO * FATTO + DELLA * LORO * ISOLA + UNA * SECONDA * PATRIA + PER + L'AUTORE * RICONOSCENTE + + + + +PREFACE + + +It is probable that every book contains, besides misprints, some +statements which the author would be glad to modify if he could. In +Chapter V of _Diversions in Sicily_ it is stated that the seating +arrangements of the marionette theatre in Catania would be condemned by +the County Council, which I believe to be correct, but, on visiting the +theatre since, I find I was wrong in saying that there are no passages; I +did not see them on my first visit because the audience hid them. + +Again, in Chapter XVI it is stated that Giovanni Grasso enters in the +third act of _La Morte Civile_, whereas he enters in the second act. I +have since seen the play several times, and, though it is tedious, it is +not so much so as to justify a spectator in thinking any of its acts long +enough for two. + +In Chapter IV I say that the Government makes an annual profit of +3,000,000 pounds sterling out of the lottery, but I do not say whether +this profit is gross or net. There is a paragraph in the _Morning Post_, +12 September, 1911, which states clearly that never since the union of +Italy has the State lottery been so productive as in the present year of +Jubilee; the gross yield has been 3,715,088 pounds, and the net gain, +after deducting commissions and prizes, 1,489,180 pounds. + +In Chapter XV it is stated that the words of the play in Signor Greco's +marionette theatre in Palermo are always improvised except in the case of +_Samson_. This is incorrect. The words of the long play about the +paladins are improvised, but they have in the theatre the MSS. of several +religious plays by the author of _Samson_, who was a Palermitan, Filippo +Orioles. All who are interested in the legends, folklore, popular +entertainments, superstitions, and traditions of the people of Sicily are +under deep obligations to Giuseppe Pitre, of Palermo, Professore di +Demopsicologia, for his numerous volumes treating of those subjects. In +_Spettacoli e Feste Popolari Siciliane_ he gives the little that is known +of Filippo Orioles, who died in 1793 at the great age of one hundred and +six years. The subject of the most famous of his plays is the Passion of +Jesus Christ, and its title in English signifies The Redemption of Adam. +It has had an immense success throughout Sicily; it has been copied in +MS. many times, printed continually, performed over and over again in +theatres, in churches, in the public squares, and in private houses. It +was written for living actors, and Signor Greco considers it too long for +a performance by marionettes, so when they do it in his teatrino they +treat it even more freely than our London managers treat a play by +Shakespeare. Copies are difficult to procure because their owners keep +them jealously. Professore Pitre has, however, lately added to our +obligations by publishing a reprint of the play: _Il Riscatto d'Adamo +nella Morte di Gesu Cristo_; Tragedia di Filippo Orioles, Palermitano; +Riprodotta sulla edizione di 1750; con prefazione di G. Pitre. Palermo: +Tipografia Vittoria Giliberti, Via Celso 93. 1909. A copy of this +reprint is in the library of the British Museum. + +Many of the friends who have helped me to write this book are named in +the following pages, many more are unnamed. I hereby tender my thanks to +all of them. + +I specially thank Signor Cesare Coppo, of Casale-Monferrato, who, +although he is not a Sicilian, has helped me in a manner which I will +only hint at by saying that he could give a better account than I can of +Peppino Pampalone, of Castellinaria. + +To an English friend, Mr. Joseph Benwell Clark, I am indebted for the +drawing on the title-page and on the cover. When any of the audience +leaves Signor Greco's marionette theatre in Palermo to smoke a cigarette +or to drink a glass of water between the acts he receives a ticket with a +picture of two fighting paladins, which he gives up on returning. I +brought away one of these tickets as a ricordo of the marionettes. The +picture is not very clear, because it is printed from a wood-block that +has been a good deal worn. Mr. Clark has made from it a drawing which +looks more like what the artist originally intended, and I trust that +Signor Greco will not be angry with us for assuming his permission to +reproduce the picture. + +In correcting the proof-sheets I have had the assistance of my sister, +Miss Lilian Isabel Jones, and of my friend Mr. R. A. Streatfeild. I am +much obliged to them both for the care which they have exercised. + +I must not conclude without saying that Castellinaria still remains as in +Chapter II of my previous book, "not so marked on any map of Sicily." + + _September_, 1911 + + + + +CONTENTS + CASTELLINARIA + CHAPTER PAGE + I. CHANGES IN THE TOWN 17 + II. FESTA RIMANDATA 36 + PALERMO + III. MARIONETTISTS AT HOME 53 + IV. MALAGIGI 66 + V. ARGANTINO 73 + VI. THE ESCAPE FROM PARIS 82 + CATANIA + VII. THE BUFFO'S HOLIDAY 93 + TRAPANI + VIII. THE NASCITA 115 + MOUNT ERYX + IX. THE COMPARE 129 + X. COMPARE BERTO 135 + XI. BERTO'S WEDDING 142 + TRABONELLA + XII. SULPHUR 151 + XIII. OMERTA AND THE MAFIA 157 + XIV. MALA VITA 165 + CASTELLINARIA + XV. THE CARDINALESSA 177 + XVI. THE CORPORAL 185 + EARTHQUAKE ECHOES + XVII. TOTO CARBONARA 203 + TURIDDU BALISTRIERI 208 + RAILWAY PORTERS 216 + GIUSEPPE PLATANIA 220 + GIULIO ADAMO 222 + CECE LUNA 223 + FUGITIVES AND VICTIMS 227 + THE SLOPES OF ETNA + XVIII. LAVA 233 + XIX. S. ALFIO 242 + XX. THE NAKED RUNNERS 248 + CATANIA + XXI. HOLY WEEK 261 + ORTIGIA + XXII. O FOUNTAIN ARETHUSE 289 + + +CASTELLINARIA + + +CHAPTER I +CHANGES IN THE TOWN + + +Enrico Pampalone entered the world with a compliment to his godfather, +for of all the days in the year he chose to be born on my birthday. +Peppino sent me a telegram at once, then a formal invitation to the +christening, then a letter, an extract from which I translate: + + With immense joy I inform you that Brancaccia has given to the light + a fine, healthy boy. Mother and child are well and send you their + salutations. We are all beside ourselves with delight at this happy + event and my father is talking of his grandson all day long. In + accordance with your promise, you ought to hold the baby at the + baptism, but, as I absolutely cannot permit you to undertake so long + a journey for this purpose, I am sending you a formal document and I + beg you to return it to me at once signed with your name in order + that the ceremony may take place with as little delay as possible. + + We are all looking forward to the pleasure of seeing you playing with + your godchild which you will be able to do on your next visit. + +The formal document was to the following effect: + + WHEREAS I the undersigned have undertaken the duty of acting as + godfather to Enrico the new-born son of Giuseppe and Brancaccia + Pampalone of the Albergo della Madonna (con giardino) Castellinaria + Sicily AND WHEREAS I am detained in London for several weeks and + desire that the baptism of the said infant shall not be delayed on + that account NOW I DO HEREBY APPOINT Luigi Pampalone the father of + the said Giuseppe Pampalone to be my substitute for me and in my name + to hold the said Enrico Pampalone his grandson at the sacred font on + the occasion of his baptism and to do all such other acts and deeds + as may be necessary in the promises as fully and effectually as I + could do the same if I were present in my own person I hereby + agreeing to ratify and confirm all that the said Luigi Pampalone + shall do by virtue of this writing AS WITNESS my hand this day of + +I filled up the date, signed the document, and returned it to Peppino, +and he told me all about the ceremony. By virtue of the christening I +became the padrino of Enrico, who became my figlioccio, and I also became +the compare of Peppino and Brancaccia and in some spiritual way a member +of the family. Peppino sent me a post-card every week, and so I learnt +that the baby was the finest ever seen, and weighed more and ate more +than any baby that had ever been born in Castellinaria. Then there came +information about the first tooth and the first intelligent, if +unintelligible, sounds. Soon he was three months old, then six, then a +year, and still I had not seen him. + +When at last I returned to Sicily, he was more than a year old, and came +down to the station to meet me. He laughed as soon as he saw me, threw +away his india-rubber ball, and signified that he was to be given to me. +Whatever he wants is always done at once and, as he never wants anything +unreasonable, the method is working out admirably. I took him from +Brancaccia, and he nestled down in my arms, all the time gazing up at me +with an expression of satisfied wonder, as though at last he understood +something that had been puzzling him. Peppino was present, but effaced +himself by helping Carmelo with what he calls my "luggages." I suppose I +exchanged the usual greetings with the parents, but they did not count, I +had seen them since their marriage; this time I had come to see Enrico. +There was some difficulty about getting into the carriage, because they +thought I could not do it unless they took him away, and he did not want +to be taken away. When we were settled, and Carmelo was driving us up +the zig-zags, I said: + +"Of course you don't expect me to know much about babies, not being +married or anything--but isn't he an unusually fine child for his age?" + +Brancaccia was much flattered and replied that recently, when they had +bought him some new clothes, he took the size usually sold for babies of +twice his age. This made Peppino laugh at his wife, and say that the +compare might not know much about babies, but he knew how to get on the +right side of Ricuzzu's mother. + +"Why do you call him Ricuzzu?" I asked. + +"Ricuzzu is Enrico in Sicilian." + +"Then I shall call him Ricuzzu also." + +"Of course, yes." + +The motion of the carriage soon sent the child to sleep. I handed him +back to Brancaccia, and looked at her as she sat with him in her arms. +She was more beautiful than before, because of something that has eluded +the skill of all the painters who have striven to capture it for their +hortus siccus of the Madonna and Child, something that Enrico had +awakened in her heart, and that I saw glowing in her eyes and throbbing +in all her movements. + +"Isn't he like Peppino?" asked Brancaccia. + +"He is the very image of Peppino," I replied; but I noticed that he also +had Brancaccia's blue eyes, and was promising to have her black hair. + +We arrived at the Albergo della Madonna (con giardino) and Peppino took +me up to my room. Brancaccia had been before us, and had put an enormous +bunch of flowers in water on the table to greet me. I went out on the +balcony, just to make sure that the panorama was still there, and, after +putting myself straight, descended into the garden, where I found Peppino +waiting for me, and where we were to have tea in the English +manner--"sistema Inglese," as Brancaccia said. + +The English system is not always in working order at a moment's notice, +so we had time for a walk round. The afternoon breeze was conducting a +symphony of perfumes, and, as we strolled among the blossoms that were +the orchestra, we could identify the part played by each flower; +sometimes one became more prominent, sometimes another, but always +through the changing harmonies we could distinguish the stately canto +fermo of the roses, counterpointed with a florid rhythm from the zagara. +If Flaubert had been writing in Sicilian, he could have said "una corona +di zagara," or, in English, "a wreath of orange-blossoms," and he need +not have worried himself to death by trying to elude the recurrent "de" +of "une couronne de fleurs d'oranger." There was also music of another +kind coming from a passero solitario (the blue rock thrush) who was +hanging in a cage in a doorway. We spoke to him, and he could not have +made more fuss about us if we had been the King of Italy and the Pope of +Rome paying him a visit. + +I said, "Aren't you pleased with your beautiful garden, Peppino?" + +He replied, "Yes, and other things too. Sometimes I am cross with my +life; but I think of Brancaccia and the baby, and I look around me, and +then I says to myself, 'Ah, well, never mind! Be a good boy!'" + +Presently we came to a fountain which, when I turned a tap, twisted round +and round, spouting out graceful, moving curves, and the drops fell in +the basin below and disturbed the rose-leaves that were sleeping on the +water. I also found an image of the Madonna and Bambino in a corner, +with an inscription in front promising forty days' indulgence to anyone +who should recite devoutly an Ave before it. I understood this as well +as one who is not a Roman Catholic can be said to understand such a +promise, and better than I understood another image to which Peppino +called my attention. It was a small coloured crockery S. Giuseppe, +standing on the top of the wall and looking into the garden, protected by +a couple of tiles arranged over him as an inverted V, and held in place +by dabs of mortar. + +I said, "Why do you keep your patron saint on the wall like that?" + +He replied that it had nothing to do with him. The land over the wall +belongs to the monks, and they put the saint up to gaze into the garden +in the hope that Peppino's father might thereby become gradually +illuminated with the idea of giving them a piece of his land; they wanted +it to join to their own, which is rather an awkward shape just there. +The influence of S. Giuseppe had already been at work four years, but +Peppino's father still remained obstinately unilluminated. + +Carmelo brought the tea and set a chair for Ricuzzu, who has his own +private meals like other babies but likes to sit up to the table and +watch his father and mother having theirs, occasionally honouring their +repast by trying his famous six--or is it seven?--teeth upon a crust, +which he throws upon the ground when he has done with it. So we all four +sat together in the shade of the Japanese medlar-tree and talked about +the changes in the town since my last visit. + +First Peppino repeated something he had told me last time I was there, +before Ricuzzu was born. It was about the horror of that fatal night +when he heard his father crying in the dark; he went to his parents' room +to find out what was the matter, and heard the old man babbling of being +lost on Etna, wandering naked in the snow. Peppino struck a light, which +woke his father from his dream, but it did not wake his mother. She had +been lying for hours dead by her husband's side. + +When the body was laid out and the watchers were praying by it at night, +the widower sat in a chair singing. He was not in the room with the +body, he had his own room, and his song was unlike anything Peppino had +ever heard; it had no words, no rhythm, no beginning and no end, yet it +was not moaning, it was a cantilena of real notes. It seemed to be a +comfort to him in his grief to pour these lamenting sounds out of his +broken heart. All the town came to the funeral, for the family is held +in much respect, and there were innumerable letters of condolence and +wreaths of flowers. When it was over, Peppino wrote a paragraph which +appeared in the _Corriere di Castellinaria_: + + A tutte le pie cortesi persone che con assistenza, con scritti, con + l'intervento ai funebri della cara sventurata estinta, con adornarne + di fiori l'ultima manifestazione terrena desiderarono renderne meno + acre it dolore, ringraziamenti vivissimi porge la famiglia PAMPALONE. + +He showed me this and waited while I copied it. When I had finished he +went on, talking more to himself than to me: + +"The life it is not the same when we are wanting someone to be here that +is gone away. When we were young and this person was living, things it +was so; now we can understand this person who is gone, and things it is +other. This is not a good thing. Now is the time this dear person +should be living; now would we be taking much care." + +For many weeks they feared lest the father might follow the mother, but +he began to take a new interest in life on the day when Peppino brought +home his bride, and when Ricuzzu was born he soon became almost his old +self. + +"Things it is like that," said Peppino; "the young ones are coming to dry +the eyes that have tears in them because the old ones are going away." + +Brancaccia's attention was occupied by the tea and the baby, and by +trying to follow Peppino's talk. He has been giving her English lessons +and, though she has not yet got much beyond saying, "Me no speakare +l'Inglese," she is quick enough to know what he is talking about, +especially as she has heard most of it before. She now said a few words +in dialect, evidently reminding him of something, and he at once began to +tell me about their wedding tour. He had told me some of it last time I +was there, and how he had wanted to take his bride to England and show +her London, but they had not time enough, and that journey has been put +off for some future occasion. They went to Venice, which was a +particularly suitable place, because his cousin Vanni was there with his +ship, the _Sorella di Ninu_, unloading a cargo of wine; they crossed by +night to Naples, and Peppino showed Brancaccia Pompeii and all the +sights; then they went to Rome for a few days and on, through Florence, +to Venice. They stayed there a week, and then Vanni, having unloaded his +wine, took them down the Adriatic and brought them safely home again. + +"It was sun," said Peppino, "and we was in Venice, Sammarco Place, where +is--how speak you the colomba?--Excuse me, it is the dove. And there was +different other people also--love-people, the young ones that go to the +field in the spring to take the flower Margherita, and to be pulling the +leaves to know the future, plenty many; also sposi, and some that bring +the macchina to make the picture, and the bride was to be standing with +the colomba in the hand. She put the grain in the hand, and would have a +colomba that was with his feet in her finger and eat the grain; but the +bridegroom was not clever to take the photograph and the colomba +was--what is it?--he was finish his grain and flied away, and she was +telling to her sposo: + +"'Now you are not clever to take the photograph and you shall be obliged +to pay for another packet of grain.' + +"In the second time, not only a colomba was in the hand but also another +one was stopping in the hat very large with the colomba, too large, I am +not certain that the bridegroom was able to take all the photograph." + +Whereupon Brancaccia interposed, producing the result, and I exclaimed: + +"Why, it is Brancaccia herself! I did not know you meant that this +happened to you. I thought you were telling me about other sposi, not +about yourselves." + +Then they laughed together, and I saw that Brancaccia, by showing me the +photograph, had let out more than was intended, unless perhaps it was all +intended; either way, no harm was done, and I was allowed to put the +picture in my pocket. + +Carmelo came to clear away the tea, and I said: + +"It seems to me, Peppino, that you have a new waiter. What has become of +Letterio?" + +"Ah! you do not know about Letterio. Now I shall tell you." + +At this point it became necessary for Brancaccia to disappear somewhat +suddenly with the baby. + +"It was festa," said Peppino, "and Letterio was drinking and his friends +were telling to drink some more, and he was drinking plenty much. Then +was he going out in a very hurry and was telling that he would be married +very directly and was meeting a girl and was telling: 'Please, you, marry +me this day.' And the girl was telling: 'Go away, Letterio, you are a +drunk man.' And he was finding another girl and they was telling the +same things--plenty girls--all that day. Afterwards many weeks are +passing and Letterio don't be asking to be married, he was telling always +that he would not be married never, never, never; also with the suspicion +that no girl would take him. Excuse me, it is like the man who was fell +down from the horse and was telling that he was go down--was not fell +down. And it was festa again and Letterio was drinking plenty much again +and was going on the street again and was meeting a girl again and was +telling: 'Please, you, marry me very directly.' And the girl was +replying: 'Yes.'" + +"But surely," I exclaimed, "surely they were not so silly as to get +married when he was sober, were they?" + +It seemed, however, that they were. To save the expense and avoid the +chaff that would have attended a marriage in Castellinaria, they went to +the next village for a couple of days and returned married. + +"But when the man," said Peppino, "must be finding the courage in the +bottle, this is not a good thing. The courage for the happy marriage +must be in the heart. We know that good wine it is sincero, it makes to +be speaking the truth; yes, very likely. But the wine it is sometimes +traditore, it can also be telling the--what is bugia? Excuse me, it is +the lie." + +"And so Letterio is married?" + +"Look here, he was married. Now I shall tell you. Oh! what a bad woman +she was! Impossible to keep her in the albergo. 'Please go away, +Letterio; I am very sorry; you and your wife also.' And went away, to +his home in Messina and his wife also. In the winter was coming the +disaster, the terremoto, the earthquake, and the city was finished to be +consumed and the train was bringing the fugitives all day and all night. +I was down to the station, Brancaccia was making ready the beds, Carmelo +was driving them up and was bringing more and then more--broken people, +also whole people, all without nothing, very undressed, and the albergo +was became a hospital, a refugio, and the doctors were committing +operations upon them in the bedrooms and were curing them and curing them +till they died and went away in the cimitero--Oh! it was very +pitiful--and sometimes they were repairing them and sending them away in +the train. And I was making the journey with the hopeness to un-dig +Letterio. During three days was I searching the mournful ruins of +Messina but I don't be finding Letterio, nor alive nor dead, nor his +wife, and I am unhappy; also Brancaccia is unhappy. This is why she was +now going away with Ricuzzu." + +"Oh! I thought probably the baby had--" + +"Yes, many times that is the explication, but this time it is other; it +is that she don't like to be hearing the story of Letterio. I shall tell +you that Brancaccia is a gentle person, very tender in the heart." + +"Yes," I agreed, "of course she is. But are not you both making too much +of this? You could not have known there would be an earthquake in +Messina. If there was to be one it might have been in some other city, +and they would not have been destroyed." + +"Look here; perhaps she was not a so bad woman; perhaps some day she +would be making a little Ricuzzu and would be learning to be a good +woman." + +"She might learn very slowly or not at all; and think of her poor husband +all the time!" + +"Let us talk of something other. Do you remember Alfio Mascalucia?" + +"Perhaps; what did he do?" + +"You were always calling him Bellini." + +"In the barber's shop opposite? Of course, I remember him, but I had no +idea he had such a magnificent name or I never should have dared to take +liberties with it." + +I remembered him very well. I remembered going into the shop one day and +he was alone, busy writing at a table in the corner. He said he was +composing a polka. He had ruled his own staves because, like Schubert, +he could not afford to buy music paper; he wanted all the money he could +save to pay a publisher to publish his polka--just as we do in +England--and if it succeeded his fortune would be made. I felt a sinking +at the heart, as though he was telling me he had been gazing on the +mirage of the lottery until he had dreamt a number. He had filled about +two pages and a half with polka stuff, but had not yet composed the +conclusion. + +"You see, what I must do is to make it arrive there where the bars end" +(he had drawn his bar lines by anticipation); "that will not be +difficult; it is the beginning that is difficult--the tema. It does not +much matter now what I write for the coda in those empty bars, but I must +fill them all with something." + +I said, "Yes. That, of course--well, of course, that is the proper +spirit in which to compose a polka." + +As I had shown myself so intelligent, he often talked to me about his +music and his studies; he had an Italian translation of Cherubini's +_Treatise_, and had nearly finished all the exercises down to the end of +florid counterpoint in four parts. His professor was much pleased with +him, and had congratulated him upon possessing a mind full of resource +and originality--just the sort of mind that is required for composing +music of the highest class. He explained to me that counterpoint is a +microcosm. In life we have destiny from which there is no escape; in +counterpoint we have the canto fermo of which not a note may be altered. +Destiny, like the canto fermo, is dictated for us by One who is more +learned and more skilful than we; it is for us to accept what is given, +and to compose a counterpoint, many counterpoints, that shall flow over +and under and through, without breaking any of the rules, until we reach +the full close, which is the inevitable end of both counterpoint and +life. + +I called him Bellini because he told me that the composer of _Norma_ had +attained to a proficiency in counterpoint which was miraculous, and that +he was the greatest musician the world had ever known. This high praise +was given to Bellini partly, of course, because he was a native of +Catania. London is a long way from Catania, and in England perhaps we +rather neglect Italian music of the early part of last century. Once, at +Casale-Monferrato, I heard a travelling company do _I Puritani_; they did +it extremely well, and I thought the music charming, especially one +sparkling little tune sung by Sir Giorgio to warn Sir Riccardo that if he +should see a couple of fantasmas they would be those of Elvira and Lord +Arturo. Alfio may have been thinking of the maxim, "Ars est celare +artem," and may have meant to say that Bellini had shown himself a more +learned contrapuntist than (say) Bach, by concealing his contrapuntal +skill more effectually than Bach had managed to conceal his in the _Mass +in B minor_. While my hair was being cut I examined the polka with +interest; it was quite carefully done, the bass was figured all through +and the discords were all resolved in the orthodox manner; after the shop +was shut he came over to the albergo and played it to us on the piano in +the salon. I should say it was a very good polka, as polkas go, and +certainly more in the manner of the Catanian maestro than in that of the +Leipzig cantor. + +"And what about Alfio?" I asked. "Did he also marry a bad woman?" + +Then Peppino told me the story of the Figlio di Etna. He called him this +because he came from a village on the slopes of the volcano, where his +parents kept a small inn, the Albergo Mongibello, and where also lived +his cousin Maria, to whom he was engaged. In the days when he used to +talk to me about his counterpoint, Alfio was about twenty-four, and +always so exceedingly cheerful and full of his music that no one would +have suspected that his private life was being carried on in an inferno, +yet so it was; a widow had fallen in love with him, and had insisted on +his living with her. "And look here," said Peppino, "the bad day for +Alfio was the day when he went to the house of the widow." He was too +much galantuomo to resist; he had not forgotten Maria but he thought she +could wait, and besides, he was at first flattered by the widow's +attentions and amused by the novelty of the situation; but he never cared +for the widow, and soon his chains became unbearable. As Peppino said, +"There don't be some word to tell the infernalness it is when you are +loved by the woman you hate." He exercised his contrapuntal ingenuity by +devising schemes for circumventing this troublesome passage in the canto +fermo of his life without breaking any of the rules, and finally hit upon +the device of running away. So many men in a similar difficulty have +done the same thing, that his professor, and even the stern Cherubini +himself, would have condemned the progression less on account of its +harshness and irregularity than because of its lack of originality. He +scraped together about fifty francs and disappeared to Livorno where he +soon found work in a barber's shop, cutting hair, trimming and shaving +beards and whiskers, and making wigs for the theatre. He wrote the widow +two letters containing nothing but conventional compliments, and +displayed his resource and originality by posting one in the country and +sending the other to a friend in Genoa who posted it there. + +After about three months of freedom, counterpoint and hair-dressing, he +was sent for to return to his village for a few days and vote; Peppino +anticipated my inquiry about the money for the journey by protesting that +he knew nothing about the details of politics. However it may have been +managed, Alfio got leave from his employer, went home and voted. He said +nothing about the widow, but he promised Maria to return and marry her in +a year, when he should have saved enough money. He did not know how he +was going to do it, but he had to say something. Then the silly fellow +must needs go for a day to Castellinaria to salute his friends in the +barber's shop there--just as murderers seem never to learn that it is +injudicious to re-visit the scenes of their crimes. Naturally the widow +heard of his being in the town, they met in the street and had a terrible +row. What frightened poor Alfio most was a sort of half persuasion that +perhaps he had behaved badly to her. But he did not relent; he returned +to his village, bade farewell to his family, embraced his adorata mamma, +renewed his promise to Maria, went down to Catania, entered the station +and turned pale as he saw the widow sitting in a corner with a parcel and +a bundle. + +"Where are you going?" + +"I am coming with you." + +He had let out that he would return to Livorno in a few days, and she had +resolved to accompany him, wherever he might be going. She had sold all +her furniture in a hurry and come to Catania, knowing that he must start +from there. She waited for him inside the station when it was open, +outside when it was shut; she had to wait four days and four nights. She +refused to leave him. She bought her own ticket and travelled with him. +They settled down in Livorno--if that can be called settling down which +was a continual hurly-burly; the only repose about it appeared in the +bar's rests to which poor Alfio's counterpoint was now reduced. He grew +irritable, abused her and beat her; but she was one of those women who +love their man more passionately the more he knocks them about. Maria +sent him a post-card for his onomastico, and the widow got hold of it. +This led to his leaving the house for a few nights, but she had always +taken his money for housekeeping, so he had not enough to leave the town, +and she came to the shop in the daytime and made such a disturbance that +he was frightened into returning. He dreamt of disguising himself in one +of his own theatrical wigs and escaping so, but the idea was too like +some of those contrapuntal combinations which, as Cherubini says, may be +employed in a study-fugue, but which in practical music, as in practical +life, have to be weeded out by artificial selection. + +Then his mother fell ill, and the family sent him the money to go home to +embrace her. The widow had put some of his money by for an emergency. +She was not going to lose sight of him again, especially now that she +knew about Maria; she bought a ticket and came too. They spent the night +at her brother's house in Catania and Alfio was to go next day to his +village. She said she would come too, he said that nothing would induce +him to take her with him. She implored and stormed and spat and swore, +knowing all the time she could not appear in his village as belonging to +him, and fearing that he intended to manipulate his going home alone into +a way of escape. She pretended to acquiesce but, in the morning, as he +was passing through the Quattro Canti she was there, disguised as a man +in her brother's clothes, and before Alfio could recognise her she had +stabbed him in the back and he fell down dead. + +"But, Peppino," I exclaimed, "this is a worse tragedy than the other. +What a horrible woman!" + +"The Padre Eterno was very angry that day when he made the bad woman." + +"Where is she now?" + +"In prison." + +"That is no satisfaction to poor Alfio." + +"No; and not satisfaction to his family. His mother died of grief during +that they were telling her his murder." + +"And Maria?" + +"Maria is telling that she would becoming a monkey-woman." + +"What do you mean?" + +"How do you say in English the lady-priest, the monaca?" + +"Oh! yes,--a nun. But it seems a pity she should take such a serious +step. It is a dreadful story, Peppino." + +"Yes; and I am fortunate because I also meet the bad woman." + +"Was Alfio's widow a friend of yours?" + +"No; I meet her in London." + +"I'm glad she did not stab you." + +"Not the widow--some other woman." + +"I don't quite understand." + +"It is difficult to understand--difficult to be sure when it is the bad +woman. The bad woman is like mosquitoes--not wanted but would not go +away." + +"Tell me what happened." + +"When I was in London, I was at this place where is the--please, what is +campo? No, not campo, but where is the beast with the horn in the +head--the cervo?" + +"Ah! yes, the deer. You mean the Zoological Gardens." + +"No, no. This place where is the villa with the red palazzo and the +chief labours of painting and beds and chinesy images are over the place +where is coming the fire in the winter-time, and on the wall is also the +armatura and the deer it is in the trees on the side of the river." + +"I believe you mean Hampton Court." + +"Yes, and was telling to the lady--she was a very kind lady--" + +"But please, what lady? Alfio's widow was not at Hampton Court?" + +"She was the wife of the plumber." + +"I am afraid I am very stupid, Peppino, but I don't seem to get hold of +it. Who is the plumber?" + +"I meet him at Margate; also his lady, his wife; they invite me to their +house; I accept their invitation." + +"But Margate is not Hampton Court." + +"No, they inhabit Hampton Court; they go to Margate for the +villeggiatura, for the--how do you say?--for the baths of the sea." + +"Oh, now I understand. You met them at Margate and they invited you to +call on them at their house at Hampton Court." + +"Of course, yes. And when I arrive, the husband, the plumber, he went +away with his tools for his work in a sack, and his lady she says to me, +'Please sit down.' And we talk together. She was a very kind lady. And +presently--she was on the sofa by the window and I was in a chair by the +fire--presently her husband return. I was like a fish not in his water, +but oh! it was my salvation. Why must he be leaving us together? She +was a very kind lady. And then to be returning without noise, so soon +and so sudden. Do you think--?" + +I did not know. It looked rather like it, but the psychology of the +Hampton Court plumber resembles the Italian music of the early part of +last century in that it is but little studied among us. So I +congratulated him on his escape, and inquired whether any of Alfio's +compositions had been published. + +"Alfio don't be writing no compositions." + +"He told me he was composing music." + +"Alfio never compose something. Too busy. Look here, the student that +shall be always making the exercise he don't be never composing the +music." + +"But that polka? Don't you remember he came over to the albergo and +played us his polka?" + +"Alfio don't write the polka. His professor gave him the polka to copy +for study." + +"Oh! I see. Well, now don't you think we have had enough tragedies? Has +nothing pleasant happened in the town since--? What a stupid question! +Here is Brancaccia bringing the answer." + +Brancaccia not only brought the baby, she also brought to show me the +clothes in which he had been christened, just as on my last visit, before +he was born, she had brought and shown me the clothes in which she had +been married. I have a confused recollection of fine muslin and +embroidery and pretty gay ribbons. I remember more clearly her necklace +of Sicilian amber which has been in the family for generations and, in +the natural order of things, will one day be passed on to the wife of +Ricuzzu. Each piece of amber is circular, flat underneath and convex +above, and is surrounded with a fine golden band whereby it is joined to +the next, side by side. The two smallest, at the back of the wearer's +neck, near the clasp, are about as big as threepenny bits, and the pieces +increase in size through sixpences, shillings, florins, half-crowns, +until the one in the middle on her breast is nearly as large as a +five-shilling piece. They are all sorts of colours, honey-yellow, rich +orange, Venetian red, brown sherry, some clear and some clouded, some +have insects in them, some when held properly in the sunlight, have a +fluorescent, hazy tinge like the blue in a horse's eye, some are a +peacock-green and others a deep purple. The largest piece is green, and +has objects in it which Brancaccia says are cherry-blossoms. Peppino +accepts his wife's view because it amuses him to call this piece The +Field of Enna, where Proserpine was gathering flowers when Pluto carried +her off, and these are the flowers she was gathering. But he knows that +this kind of amber is called Simetite, because it is the fossilised resin +of some prehistoric tree that used to grow on the upper reaches of the +river Simeto which rises at the back of Etna, beyond Bronte, and falls +into the sea near Catania; whereas Castrogiovanni, which is the modern +Enna, is not on the Simeto. Castrogiovanni is, however, not far from the +upper part of another river, which falls into the Simeto near the sea. +And he argues that if The Field of Enna was washed down the +Castrogiovanni river it may still have exuded from a tree of the same +kind as those that used to grow on the Simeto, and in any case it had to +pass through the mouth of the Simeto before reaching the sea, and so it +may be called Simetite. Having got into the sea, it was thrown up in a +storm or found in a fisherman's net. + +Then I must be shown the mule, with his beautiful harness, and the new +cart which Ricuzzu had received as a birthday present from his +grandfather; so we went to the stable. The cart was painted with the +story of Orlando's madness, showing first how he had gone to bed in his +boots; or rather how he lay outside a bed that was too short for him with +all his armour on, like a lobster on a dish. This occurred in the house +of a contadino who was standing with a lighted candle in his hand and had +brought his wife. They did not know to whom they were speaking, and were +telling him that the room had been occupied last by a knight and his lady +and that the lady, in gratitude for their hospitality, had given the +contadina a bracelet, saying that she had received it as a present from +Orlando. And Orlando was exclaiming: + +"Show me that bracelet." + +In the second picture the contadina had brought the bracelet, and Orlando +was sitting up, contemplating it and saying: + +"It is the bracelet which I gave to Angelica. The last occupants of this +bed must have been that fatal woman and her husband Medoro. I am Orlando +Paladino." + +These were the two panels on one side of the cart. On the other side, +the third picture showed Orlando, who had got off the bed, and was +standing up delivering a long "Addio" in the manner of Othello--one could +almost hear the words: "Orlando's occupation's gone." The contadino and +his wife were furtively leaving the room, perhaps because poetry bored +these simple folk, but it may have been because Orlando, having no +further use for his arms, was punctuating his speech by throwing away +first la Durlindana, next his shield, then his helmet, his cuirass, front +and back, his leggings, and his shirt. + +In the last picture he had nothing on but a pair of short white drawers; +he had gone quite mad and had knocked down the house; its fall revealed a +smiling landscape across which peasants and sheep were escaping, and the +trees shook with the violence of his fury. He was catching some of the +peasants and throwing them away, shouting and cursing that fatal woman, +and struggling to drown the music and the drum, which made a crescendo +till the curtain fell. I should have recognised it even if the pictures +had not had titles, because I had recently seen it in a marionette +theatre. + +The harness cost as much as the cart, and it took a month to make it. It +was of leather, wood and metal, tasselled with gold and silver and wool +of many colours; here and there were sparkling bits of looking-glass, and +little pictures of ladies; here and there circles and crescents of blue +and red felt, and little pictures of cupids and angels. Other spaces +were covered with silver tinsel and spangles. There were spread eagles +and horses' heads and two bouquets of artificial flowers. There was a +St. George and the Dragon carved in wood and painted, there were bells +and ribbons, and two trophies of coloured feathers, one for the head and +another for the back, each more magnificent, and three or four times +larger, than the plume which the maresciallo dei carabinieri wears with +his gala uniform. + + + +CHAPTER II +FESTA RIMANDATA + + +One day the bells were ringing for the festa of S. Somebody, but it was +not really his day. Peppino told me that his proper day had been stormy +or unsympathetic or the people had had some crops to get in or something +else to do, and so the saint had had his festa shifted; or it may have +been because some greater festival had fallen on S. Somebody's day owing +to the mutability of Easter or for some other reason. I had been wishing +I could have been at Castellinaria for the first anniversary of Ricuzzu's +birth, I ought to have wished to be there for the festa of S. Enrico, but +I did not know when it fell, nor did Peppino; but if festas might be +transferred in this easy way, perhaps we might keep it now and find out +afterwards to what extent it had been shifted. It would have been no use +consulting the baby--besides, he would have been sure to agree--so as +they were not very busy in the albergo it was decided that next day we +would keep the onomastico of Ricuzzu and his padrino by driving down to +the shore, throwing stones into the sea, and perhaps eating a couple of +peperoni with a drop of oil and vinegar and a pinch of salt. + +Next morning the mule, the cart and the harness were brought out; it was +the first time they had all been used together, and when Peppino and +Carmelo had harnessed the little beast, he trotted up and down in the +sunshine as proud as though he had been clothed in a rainbow and +freshened up with dewdrops. + +I said: "Do you keep the onomastico of the mule also? It seems to me +that he is as much pleased with himself as anyone. He looks as though he +thought everything belonged to him. What is his name and when is his +day?" + +"We call him Guido Santo," replied Peppino. "We will make it his festa +also and afterwards we shall be discovering his day in the calendario." + +"And if it comes to that," I said, "why shouldn't we include you and +Brancaccia?" + +"Bravo!" shouted Peppino, "and Carmelo also. Festa rimandata per tutti!" + +A chair for Brancaccia and the baby was tied in the cart among a +multitude of parcels and baskets about which I thought it better not to +inquire. Peppino and I sat on the floor in front, like the driver and +his mate on an illustrated post-card, with our feet dangling down between +the shafts among the mule's hind legs. Carmelo started us off and got in +behind, and we drove to the sea, not the way to the station and the port, +but by the road that descends on the other side of the headland. We +passed by groves of lemon, star-scattered with fruit and blossom and +enclosed in rough walls of black lava; by the grey-green straggling of +the prickly pears and by vines climbing up their canes. We caught +glimpses of promontories dotted with pink and white cottages and of the +thread of foam that outlines the curve of the bay where a train was +busily puffing along by the stony, brown beach, showing how much a little +movement will tell in a still landscape. Behind the shimmering olives, +first on one side, then on the other as we turned with the zig-zags of +the dusty road, was the purple blue of the sea flecked with the white +sails of fishing-boats and with the crests of whiter waves. Every one we +met looked at us and admired the splendour of the cart and the sparkling +newness of the harness until they caught sight of Brancaccia and the +baby, and then they saw nothing but their beauty. We met the man who was +riding up from the fishing village with baskets of fish for the town +because it was Friday. Peppino and Carmelo disputed as to the amount he +was carrying, and agreed at last that it must be about a hundred +kilogrammes, partly by the quantity and partly because it had been good +weather for fishing; when it is bad he cannot bring more than thirty, +forty or fifty. + +Peppino told me that our mule was the offspring of an ass and a mare. +These, he says, are better than those born of a horse and a she-ass. +Mules can be male or female, and Guido Santo was a male but, except for +the fact that the males are stronger than the females, the sex of a +creature that is incapable of reproducing itself is not a very +interesting subject. Our mule was still young, and had not yet learnt +the use of corners, nor how to pass things in the road. Carmelo often +had to get down and continue his education. After one of these lessons +he lighted his pipe with a sulphur match which tainted the morning air +and offended Ricuzzu; but almost immediately we came to a forge and the +blacksmith was striking a piece of iron on his anvil. + +"Ricuzzu bello," said Brancaccia, "listen to the pretty music." + +And Ricuzzu listened and laughed; the pleasant acid flavour of the note +as it followed us corrected the sulphur, and he put up his face for a +kiss. Brancaccia knew how to smooth away his troubles and how to deserve +his thanks. + +We passed a boy singing, and I said how pleasant it was to hear a real +Sicilian melody sung by a modern Theocritus about the delights of his own +country. But Peppino soon put a stop to that. The boy was one of a +theatrical company that had arrived in the town from Piedmont where the +song was popular; he did not know all the words, but it contained these: + + Mamma mia, dammi cento lire + Che in America voglio andar. + Mother darling, give me a hundred lire + For I want to be off to the States. + +"Are they acting here?" I asked. + +"They are reciting _Il Diavolo Verde_. You don't will go and see this +evening?" + +"If Brancaccia is not too tired, let us finish up Ricuzzu's festa by a +visit to the theatre." + +The baby was wide awake all the time, observing everything, and much +interested. I said: + +"I believe Ricuzzu understands that we are keeping his onomastico." + +"Of course, yes," replied Peppino; "Ricuzzu very intelligent." + +"I believe he even understands that it is not S. Enrico's day, and +appreciates the idea of keeping his festa when it is convenient for +everyone." + +"Of course, yes; the idea is the thing. Always it is the idea. Did you +know the idea of the girl who went to confess?" + +"What is that?" + +"Not now. Please expect. I am too much busy with Guido Santo. Please, +when we shall be there." + +On arriving at the shore we first found a cove where Brancaccia and +Ricuzzu could be comfortable while Peppino, Carmelo and I went a little +way off into a secluded place behind the rocks, undressed and bathed. We +swam round and saluted the mother and child in their cove, but could not +get near enough to splash them because the water was only a few inches +deep near the shore and the proprieties had to be observed. When we were +tired of swimming we came out and dressed. Then I took the baby while +Peppino and Brancaccia went round into our dressing-room and he +superintended her bath. Carmelo, in the meantime constructed a fireplace +among the rocks and got his cooking things and all the parcels and +baskets out of the cart. Peppino and Brancaccia returned, and we found a +shallow, shady pool with a sandy bottom, undressed Ricuzzu, and put him +into it. I observed that the baby's clothes were reefed with safety +pins, but I said nothing about it, thinking the reefs could be let out +when he had attained twice the age he was when they were bought. The +proprieties did not matter with this bather, who soon learnt how to +splash us. It may have been his padrino's vanity, but I thought he +laughed loudest when he succeeded in splashing me. + +The couple of peperoni had swelled into a regular colazione. First, of +course, we had pasta, this time it was called lingue di passeri +(sparrows' tongues), they have fifty different names for it according to +its size and shape, but it is always pasta. Carmelo made a sauce for it +over his fire with oil, onions, extract of tomatoes, and certain herbs; +the recipe is a secret which is to be imparted to Ricuzzu when he is +fifteen, but I think Brancaccia has already guessed it, though she is not +supposed to know. As a rule, I try to get only half as much pasta as a +Sicilian takes, and of that I can only eat half, but on this occasion, +either because of Carmelo's cooking or the sea breeze, or the presence of +Ricuzzu, I ate it all, and it made me feel like Rinaldo after the +terrible fight in which he kills the centaur and stands at the wings +panting for breath. + +The pasta was followed by bacon and figs--an unexpectedly delicious +combination; the bacon is uncooked and cut very thin, the figs are fresh +and ripe, but it would not do in England because, although one could +probably find the bacon in Soho, our figs never attain to Sicilian +ripeness. Carmelo then surpassed himself with a pollo alla cacciatora, +after which we had a mixed fry of all sorts of fish. Peaches out of the +garden and cheese followed. Also we drank Peppino's own wine made from +the grapes he had planted with his own hands and trodden with his own +feet, and there was coffee with the cigarettes. + +I said: "I did not know Carmelo was a cook, I thought he was a coachman." + +"Also is he a cook. Also the nurse of Ricuzzu. Also a waiter. Very +good boy Carmelo. We took him when Letterio went away." + +"And Brancaccia is not afraid to have him as Ricuzzu's nurse?" + +"Afraid? No. Why?" + +"Because he has been in prison for stabbing his friend." + +"Oh yes, in prison. But his friend was a bad man, was taking away +Carmelo's girl." + +"Did the friend marry Carmelo's girl?" + +"Yes, and Carmelo got another girl. Plenty girls very fond of Carmelo. +Look here, the girls always are liking the boy that has been in prison." + +"Yes; well, of course, one can understand that. By the by, what was that +about the girl who went to confess?" + +"Did you know what is confess? All right, I shall tell you. The box is +inside for the priest behind the railings, and the other place that is +open is for the man or the woman that have sinned. And the girl is +coming and is saying: + +"'My father, I have sinned. I had the idea to rob my sister of a hen, +but I would not do it. What is this?' + +"The father was telling, 'It is a very bad idea.' + +"And the girl was repeating that she don't be doing the wickedness, only +the idea. + +"'Never mind,' was telling the father, 'it is the idea that is the thing, +and you would be fined with five francs to the church to make the Messa +and the church would give the Messa for the sin and the sin would be +delivered after the Messa.' + +"The girl takes from her pocket the five francs and put to the railings. +The father is telling: + +"'It is not possible to touch. Please give me from the door.' + +"The girl was answering: + +"'Never mind; you have the idea to take the money and it is the idea that +is the thing.' + +"Did you understand? All right, please take to eat. Some more fish?" + +"No, thank you," I replied. + +"Please take some more pollo." + +"Thank you, Peppino, I have eaten too much already." + +"Please take to the drink." + +"I have had quite enough, thank you." + +"Some more wine? Do not think about Letterio. You shall not be meeting +your dolce cuore--your sweetheart, this day. You have not yet taken one +glass." + +"Excuse me, I have drunk quite as much as is good for me--much more than +a glass--nearly a bottle." + +"It is good till you shall drink the three glasses of Noah. Did you know +what is the glass of Noah? All right, I shall tell you." + +Then he told me about Noah and the Devil. + +The patriarch Noah was working in his field one day when the Devil came +along, put his arms on top of the gate, and looking over, said in a +friendly way: + +"Good morning, Mr. Noah." + +"Good morning, Mr. Devil," replied Noah. "And what can I do for you?" + +"Do not let me interrupt; you seem busy this morning." + +"Yes," replied Noah; "I am planting the vine." + +"Oho!" said the Devil, "but this is rather interesting." + +So he slipped inside the field and took a seat on a large white stone. +Noah went on with his work. + +A lion was prowling round and came through the gate which the Devil had +carelessly left open. The Devil killed the lion and watered the vine +with its blood. + +"I wish you wouldn't do that," said Noah testily. + +The Devil paid no attention. A monkey dropped down from a tree and came +skipping up to them to see what was going on. The Devil killed the +monkey and watered the vine with its blood. + +"Can't you leave the poor beasts alone?" said Noah, who had always +deprecated cruelty to animals, and was beginning to lose his temper. + +The Devil paid no attention. A pig was wallowing in the mud close +by--there had been a good deal of rain lately. The Devil killed the pig +and watered the vine with its blood. + +This was too much for Noah. He shouted: "Haven't you got any work of +your own to do, you lazy devil?" He was so angry he forgot to say "Mr." +"You had better go home; your dinner will be getting cold." + +"'Hot' you mean," replied the Devil, looking for his hat, which had +fallen behind the large white stone. "What an ungrateful husbandman you +are! I have been helping you to make your wine. When you have drunk the +first glass, you will feel strong and behave furiously. When you have +drunk the second glass, you will forget how to think for yourself, you +will imitate other people and behave foolishly. When you have drunk the +third glass--Need I continue? I think not. Good morning." + +Whereupon the Devil put his hands into his pockets, tucked his tail up +under his left arm and swaggered away, thinking of his next job and +whistling "La Donna e Mobile." + +"And the glass of Noah," said Peppino in conclusion, "was containing one +bottle. Did you understand? All right; I give you a medal." + +"I hope it will be a real medal and not like the idea of the girl." + +"We shall see. Please take to drink the milk of Ricuzzu." + +The baby had had one bottle of milk, but there was another ready for him. +I said: + +"My dear Peppino, I could not eat or drink another mouthful of anything. +I could not even eat a slice of Ricuzzu himself; besides, I don't believe +Carmelo knows how to cook babies--not so as to make them really tasty." + +Brancaccia understood enough to know we were talking about Ricuzzu. She +left off clearing away, and snatched the baby out of Carmelo's arms, +whispering to me: "I know it is all right, but I shall feel safer if I +have him." + +Peppino, who was lying on his back, observed her agitation out of the +corner of his eye and said to me, maliciously speaking Italian so that +she should understand: + +"If you would like to eat the baby, please say whether Carmelo shall boil +him or cut him up and stew him alla cacciatora." + +"Thank you, no. I prefer Ricuzzu alive." + +"You are a bad papa," said Brancaccia, "and the compare is a good man." + +So she gave me the baby as a reward and slapped her husband's cheek as a +punishment. Peppino naturally retaliated, and in a moment they were +rolling over and over and bear-fighting like a couple of kittens at play, +while Carmelo and I sat and laughed at them, and the baby crowed and +clapped his hands and grew so excited I could scarcely hold him. + +There came a pause and Peppino said: "My dear, if you will leave off +boxing my ears I will tell you a secret." + +Brancaccia instantly desisted and went and sat apart to recover herself. + +Peppino continued: "I knew the compare would refuse to eat the baby. He +does not like our Sicilian dishes. Every time he comes to see us it is a +penitenza for him, because he cannot eat food grown in our island. But I +know what I shall do. I shall send a telegram to London: 'English +gentleman starving in Castellinaria. Please send at once one chop, one +bottle of stout.' + +"Look here," he continued, suddenly sitting up and becoming serious. "It +is the clime. Here is the country not adapted to the beast, few rain, +few grass, few beefs, few muttons, and all too thin and the land is good +only for the goats and we must be eating such things that are doing bad +to the stomaco--the little chickens and the poor fishes and the +pasta--not other. In England shall be falling always the rain and plenty +grass shall be growing and the beefs and the muttons shall be fat and +much nourishment shall come to those who are eating them." + +I said that if I could have chops and stout instead of the few odds and +ends which Carmelo had managed to scrape together for our ridiculously +inadequate luncheon, of course I should stay at Castellinaria and never +go home any more. + +So that was settled for the time, and Brancaccia, having put herself +tidy, proposed a visit to the grottoes. Carmelo packed up his kitchen +and took it off to the cart. On the way he met his cousin, borrowed his +boat and came rowing in it--for Carmelo is also a fisherman. We got in +and rowed round the promontory and into the caves. The baby was a good +deal puzzled, he thought he was indoors, and yet it wasn't right, but he +was pleased. When we were tired of the grottoes we rowed back, restored +the boat to Carmelo's cousin, packed ourselves into the cart and Guido +Santo took us up the zig-zags to Castellinaria after a day which we all +enjoyed very much; Ricuzzu, who understood least, perhaps enjoyed it +most, but then this baby enjoys everything. If we could have remanded +his festa for a few years, instead of only a few days or weeks or +whatever it was, he might have understood more and enjoyed less. + +Ricuzzu did not come to the theatre, he was supposed to be tired, so +Brancaccia put him to bed and, leaving him with Carmelo, accompanied +Peppino and me to see _Il Diavolo Verde_. We took our seats while the +fiancee of Don Giuseppe, assisted by her lady's-maid, was endeavouring to +make up her mind. The difficulty was that Don Giovanni, the brother of +Giuseppe, had sent her a case of jewels and, like Margherita, in _Faust_, +she could not resist the temptation to try them on in front of a +looking-glass. We saw in the glass the reflection of a devil in green +with pink trimmings. He appeared to be standing behind her, looking over +her shoulder, but he was not really present; it must have been a magic +mirror. Don Giovanni came and denounced his brother who, he said, was a +bastard and no gentleman, proving his words by the production of their +father's will written on a sheet of brown paper which he always carried +in his belt. This convinced the lady, and she went off with Giovanni. +Don Giuseppe, who had been carried away by armed men, escaped and +returned to meditate on the crisis of his life. Remembering that the +green devil was a retainer of his family, he summoned him and laid the +case before him. This time the devil really came and told Giuseppe that +there was a way out of his trouble, but that it would involve (1) the +perdition of two souls, (2) the shedding of blood, (3) sacrilege, (4) +perjury, and (5) all his courage. Don Giuseppe agreed and the curtain +fell. + +The next act was in the cemetery in front of the tomb of the father of +the two brothers. Don Giuseppe and the green devil came in, carrying +another will, engrossed on brown paper, but not executed, a bottle of +ink, and a quill pen. They stood in front of the door of the tomb and +spoke some sacrilegious words. The door opened and revealed the corpse +of the father like a Padre Eterno, standing upright, clothed in white, +with a white face, a flowing white beard and white kid gloves. +Brancaccia was, I believe, really as much frightened as Don Giuseppe +pretended to be and I did not like it. The green devil encouraged his +master to approach the corpse, which he did, first dipping the pen in the +ink-bottle. He offered the pen and held in a convenient manner the new +will which would put everything straight, begging his father to sign it. +The corpse slowly raised its stiff right arm, took the pen in its hand +and signed the will; it then dropped the pen on the ground, lowered its +stiff right arm and the door of the tomb closed. Except for this, it did +not move and it did not speak at all. It was a ghastly scene and the +house was as still as though it had been empty. + +In the next act we returned to Don Giovanni whom we found playing dice +with Fernando at an inn. When Fernando had lost his money and his +jewellery and his lands and his castle and his furniture, he played for +his wife, and Don Giovanni won her also. Whereupon Fernando wrote two +letters to his wife, one, which they sent by a messenger, told her to +come to the inn at once, the other was for Don Giovanni to give to her +when she came. Fernando then went away, leaving the coast clear, and the +lady entered. + +DON GIOVANNI: Donna Inez, I love you. + +DONNA INEZ: Silence, Sir. I am here to meet my husband. Where is he? + +DON G (_giving her the second letter_): He left this for you. + +DONNA I (_reads_): "Dear Inez: We have been playing dice. Don Giovanni +has won. You now belong to him. Your affectionate husband, Fernando." +It cannot be! 'Tis false! My husband would never behave in so +ungentlemanly a manner. + +GIOV: On the contrary, Madama. And is not this his handwriting? + +IN: Now that I look at it again, it is. Ah, Cielo! Betrayed! Surely, +Sir, you do not expect me to consent? + +GIOV: Certainly I do. + +IN: Never. I am a Spanish lady of high degree. + +GIOV: Inez, I love you. Be mine. + +IN: Are you of noble birth? + +GIOV: Yes. + +IN: Are you valorous? + +GIOV: Yes. + +IN: Don Giovanni (_hiding her face_), I love you! + +GIOV: My own, my beautiful one! + +IN: There is, however, one little difficulty about which, of course, you +could have known nothing. Some years ago I foolishly took an oath. I +swore I would be true to my husband during his life. + +GIOV: Well, but--let me see--yes, I did bring my sword with me. Suppose +I were to step round and run him through the heart--if you don't mind +waiting? + +IN: I'm afraid it would be troubling you? + +GIOV: Not at all. Any little thing of that kind. So glad you mentioned +it. + +IN: Thanks. I suppose you could not manage to bring it off within sight +of the window? + +GIOV: I don't see why not. Anyhow, I'll do my best. + + [_Exit_ GIOV. + +IN: Waiter! (_Enter_ WAITER.) Lay the cloth for two (_She meditates +while the waiter lays the cloth_. Exit WAITER.) Being a Spanish lady of +high degree, the only course open to me is suicide. Fortunately, this +ring contains a dose of poison strong enough for two, otherwise I should +have had to die unavenged or to send round to the chemist's for more. +(_She pours out two glasses of wine_, _splits the contents of her ring +between them_, _and goes to the window_.) Ah! here they come. It is +annoying that they are so far off. I cannot distinguish them in the +dark; however, they are fighting. Now one is killed and the other is +coming in. I wonder which it will be. + +_Enter_ DON GIOVANNI. + +GIOV: There! my own, my beautiful one. I'm afraid you did not have a +very good view, but your poor husband was such a damned bad swordsman +that I inadvertently killed him before I could get him as near as I +intended. + +IN: Well, I confess I should like to view the body, just to make sure you +have not killed the wrong gentleman--if you've no objection? + +GIOV: None whatever. You'll find him in the gutter up the street, under +the third lamp post. (_Exit_ DONNA INEZ. DON GIOVANNI _observes the two +glasses of wine and smells them suspiciously_. _Re-enter_ DONNA INEZ.) + +IN: Perfectly satisfactory and I thank you. + +GIOV: My own, my beautiful one! I love you! Be mine. + +IN: Shall we not first have a little supper? You must be fatigued after +your exertions. And see! here is a nice glass of wine for you. + +GIOV: After you, Madama. (DONNA INEZ _hesitates to drink_.) You see, my +beautiful one, I have had some experience in these matters, and now I +never drink anything poured out for me by a lady unless she drinks some +of it herself. + +IN (_aside_): Being a Spanish lady of high degree I cannot possibly +refuse. I can only trust that as he is of noble birth and valorous, he +won't be such a blackguard as not to drink. (_Drinks_.) + +GIOV: Brava! But--do you know?--after all, I think I should prefer a +fresh bottle, if it's quite the same to you, my beautiful one. (_He +empties his glass upon the floor_; _the wine flows about the stage in a +stream of fire_. DONNA INEZ _dies in agony_. _Exit_ DON GIOVANNI +_laughing_. _Curtain_.) + +During the applause that followed, Brancaccia rose, exclaiming: + +"Such a thing could not possibly happen." + +She collected her wraps and we left the theatre, although the play was in +nine acts and we had only seen three. As soon as we got home, she +retired. I said to Peppino: + +"I wish we had not gone to that play. I am sure Brancaccia has been +frightened by it." + +"No," said he, "not frightened." + +"But she's gone away to recover herself?" + +"Look here, Brancaccia don't be thinking of the drama. She don't be +thinking of nothing--only the baby. She go to see if Ricuzzu is +sleeping." + + + + +PALERMO + + +CHAPTER III +MARIONETTISTS AT HOME + + + ALESSANDRO GRECO TO THE AUTHOR. + MARIONETTE THEATRE, + PIAZZA NUOVA, PALERMO, + 4 _June_, 1909. + + MY DEAR ENRICO, + + Since I last wrote to you there has been a continual to-do and no + time for writing letters. What has been the to-do? Is it possible + you have forgotten my telling you that I am studying to be a singer + and that I take lessons every day? Now listen to this: Here in + Palermo, a new opera was performed recently for the benefit of the + victims of the earthquake at Messina. The story was taken from a + great German romance and the music was composed by an Italian who is + now in America. I was asked to sing as a supplementary tenor. We + had a month of rehearsals and in the end the performance was + splendidly successful. O my dear friend! If you had seen me on the + stage! I was dressed as a warrior with a wig of curly hair and a + pair of moustaches. I also received applause, and, when I appeared + before the audience to bow my acknowledgments, I thought: "Oh, if + only my dear friend were present, how he would be applauding me!" + You will understand after that whether I have had any time to write + to you; but now that things have calmed down a little and there is + less going on I can write to you as much as you like. + + As you know, I am always busy in the teatrino; the other evening we + repeated Samson, that play which you once saw here. If you will + believe me, I was thinking of you the whole time because I remembered + that when we gave it two years ago you were present. + + Just now in the _Story of the Paladins_, Orlando is throwing away his + arms and running about naked in the woods, mad for love of Angelica; + and soon we shall have the burning of Bizerta and the destruction of + the Africans. This will finish in July and we shall then begin the + _Story of Guido Santo_. + + What have you done with that photograph of myself which I gave you + and which you put into your cigarette-case? Is still there, or have + you lost it? I have often promised to send you another but have not + done so because when you come to Palermo in September I hope we shall + be photographed together, you and I. Nevertheless I send you this + one now, it was taken by an English lady who came to the teatrino + last summer; you see me getting into a rage with a paladin, I am + talking seriously to him and swearing at him because he will not let + me dress him properly. + + I will not prolong this letter, I do not wish to bore you; but I + promise you that I will never fail to let you know of my doings and I + count on you to tell me of yours. + + Costantino, Sansone, Rinaldo, Rosina, Angelica, Ferrau, Pasquino, + Onofrio and all the other marionettes embrace you and send you their + kind regards. + + I am and always shall be + Your affectionate friend + ALESSANDRO GRECO (Buffo). + +On arriving at Palermo, I went to the teatrino at about ten at night; not +seeing the buffo in his usual place keeping order at the door, I guessed +he must be on the stage and, knowing the way, passed through the +audience, dived under the proscenium, crept along a short passage, +mounted a ladder and appeared among them unannounced. The father, the +buffo and his brother, Gildo, were so much astonished that they dropped +their marionettes all over the stage and shouted: + +"When did you come?" "Why did you not write?" "Why did you not +telegraph?" + +Thereby spreading their astonishment among the audience, who saw no +connection between these ejaculations and the exploits of Guido Santo. +They soon recovered themselves, however, picked up their paladins and +managed to bring the performance to its conclusion, and we shut the +theatre and proceeded upstairs to the house. On the way the buffo took +me aside into his workshop to show me two inflammable Turkish pavilions +which he was making; Ettorina in her madness was to fire them in a few +days, one in the afternoon and the other at the evening repetition, as a +conclusion to the spectacle. I inquired: + +"Who was Ettorina, and why did she go mad?" + +"I will tell you presently," replied the buffo, "we must first go +upstairs." + +As we went up I asked after the singing and he promised to take me to the +house of his professor to hear him have a lesson. Papa and Gildo had +preceded us and we found them with the young ladies, Carolina and +Carmela, and the child, Nina, who is as much a buffa as her brother +Alessandro is a buffo. In a moment, the air was thick with compliments. + +PAPA: And how well you are looking! So much fatter than last year. + +MYSELF (_accepting the compliment_): That is very kind of you. You are +all looking very well also. Let me see, Buffo mio, how old are you now? + +ALESSANDRO: Guess. + +MYSELF: Twenty-five. + +ALESS: Bravo. I completed my twenty-fifth year just three weeks ago. +And you? + +MYSELF: I have also completed my twenty-fifth year, but I did it more +than three weeks ago. + +ALESS: I see. You have twenty-five years on one shoulder; and how many +more on the other? + +MYSELF: Twenty-five. + +ALESS: It seems to me you are making a habit of attaining twenty-five. +Are you going to do it again? + +MYSELF: I have begun, but I shall put off completing it as long as +possible. If you want to know my exact age I will give you the materials +for making the calculation. I went to the Great Exhibition of 1851. + +GILDO: Tell us about it. I have often seen pictures of it in the +illustrated papers, but I have never spoken to anyone who was there. Was +it very beautiful? Were there many people? Did you see Queen Victoria? + +MYSELF: I can't tell you much about it. I was asleep and when I woke up +I was so hungry that I cried till my mother took me into a side room and +gave me my dinner. Then I went to sleep again until they took me home. +I have been to many exhibitions since, but I never enjoyed one so much. +You see, this one did not bore me. + +ALESS: You should not have had your dinner there. I went to the +exhibition in Palermo and the food in the restaurant was not wholesome. + +GILDO: Yes, but you must remember that Alessandro is very particular +about his food. He can only eat the most delicate things and must have +plenty of variety. + +MYSELF: I did not have much variety in those days. I took my restaurant +with me, the one at which I was having all my meals. + +GILDO: Oh well, if one can afford to travel like a prince-- + +MYSELF: Gildo! I was not six weeks old and-- + +PAPA: I have now made the calculation and I find you are my senior by six +years. I hope that when I have caught you up I shall carry my age as +lightly as you carry yours. Do I explain myself? + +ALESS (_to me_): I think you look older. I should have said you were a +well-preserved man of sixty-four or (_stretching a point in my favour_) +perhaps sixty-five. + +MYSELF (_feeling sure that here must be another compliment_): Thank you +very much. + +BUFFO: Not at all; it does you great credit. + +GILDO: Now me, please. Ask me my age. + +MYSELF: Well, Gildo, and how old are you? + +GILDO: A hundred and seventy-four next birthday. + +MYSELF: Santo Diavolo! You don't look it. You must have been very busy +since last autumn when, if I remember right, you were only twenty-one. + +CAROLINA (_tapping my right arm to attract my attention_): Signor Enrico, +Signor Enrico, why do you not ask me my age? + +CARMELA (_tapping my left arm_): Signor Enrico, Signor Enrico, you have +not asked me my age. + +MYSELF: Because I know how old you are. You are both of you the age that +charming young ladies always are, and you do not look a day older. + +NINA: I'm fourteen. + +CARO and CARM (_comparing notes_): Did you hear what he said? He said we +are charming young ladies. + +NINA (_insisting_): I'm fourteen. Do I look it? + +MYSELF: I can compliment you on looking a little older. Since last year +you have grown out of being a child, but you have hardly yet grown into +being a young lady like your sisters, though you are quite as charming. + +ALESS (_taking the opportunity to begin_): First you must know that Carlo +Magno is now dead and the Pope is shut up in Paris and is being-- + +CARO: Signor Enrico, Signor Enrico, do you drink marsala in London? + +MYSELF: Marsala is known in London, but we do not drink it every day as +you do in Palermo. + +GILDO: In England people drink tea; everything is so different in +England. + +MYSELF: That is quite true, Gildo. In England what is like that +(_holding my hand out with the palm up_) in Sicily is like this (_holding +it with the palm down_:_ Peppino Pampalone taught me this gesture_). + +GILDO: And that is why in London the people walk on their feet, whereas +in Palermo they walk on their hands, as you have no doubt observed. + +ALESS: Si; e ecco perche in Londra si mangia colla bocca, ma qui, in +Palermo, si mangia nella maniera che ti faro vedere da un diavolo nel +teatrino. But I was telling you about the Pope. He is shut up in Paris, +where he is guarding the Christians against the-- + +CARO: Signor Enrico, do you ever see the sun in London? + +GILDO: Yes, they see the sun in London, but only on three days of the +week; on the other days they send it to be cleaned. + +CARM: Then it is not the same sun as ours? + +GILDO: It is a different sun. Our sun is made of gold and remains always +bright. The sun of London is made of copper and, being constantly +exposed to the air, it tarnishes more rapidly even than the breastplate +of Carlo Magno, and you know what a lot of cleaning that wants. + +PAPA: All this is very interesting, but listen to me. I have something +to say. When I was a boy at school--are you attending? Very well, then, +I may proceed. When I was a boy at school, we had a professor who told +us that in consequence of-- + +CARO: Signor Enrico, Signor Enrico, what is the English for Grazie? + +MYSELF: It means Thank you. + +CARM: Signor Enrico, Signor Enrico, what is the English for Buona notte? + +MYSELF: Buona notte in English is Good night. + +ALESS:--and Paris is being besieged by four Turkish emperors, namely, +Rodoferro di Siberia, Balestrazzo di Turgovia, Leofine di Cina and +Bracilone d'Africa, and they have two hundred thousand men-- + +GILDO: Now me, please. Teach me to speak English. What did you say is +the English for Grazie? + +MYSELF: Thank you. + +GILDO: And Buona notte? + +MYSELF: Good night. + +GILDO (_tentatively_): Thank you. Good night. + +MYSELF: Bravo, very good. + +CARO: What does that mean? + +MYSELF: Very good means-- + +PAPA:--and this professor of ours told us that in consequence of certain +natural--do I explain myself?--of certain natural causes, it is rare for +a human being to live more than one hundred years. It is therefore +unlikely that-- + +ALESS:--and Paris is being besieged by-- + +MYSELF: Yes, I know, Buffo, by four Turkish emperors and they have two +hundred thousand men. I should think it must be rather a serious +situation. But I want to hear about Ettorina. + +ALESS: It is a very serious situation, but do not be alarmed because-- + +PAPA:--it is therefore unlikely that Gildo will ever reach the age of one +hundred and seventy-four. Do I explain myself? + +CARO: Signor Enrico, Come sta? what does it mean? + +MYSELF: It means How do you do? + +CARO (_trying her hand_): How do you do? + +MYSELF: Brava. Very good. + +(_Nina did not ask to be taught English_._ She was following the +conversation with sympathetic illustrative gestures not caring two straws +whether anyone observed her_, _just as she did not care whether anyone +observed that she was breathing_; _and_, _just as she could not stop +breathing_, _so she appeared unable to stop her gestures_._ She was as +incessant and as resourceful as the orchestra in_ Hansel and Gretel.) + +CARM: Signor Enrico, Signor Enrico, Io t'amo. + +MYSELF: Oh! but this is so sudden. + +ALESS:--do not be alarmed, because-- + +CARM: What does it mean in English? + +MYSELF: Oh, I beg your pardon. It means-- + +ALESS:--do not be alarmed, for it is the will of heaven that-- + +PAPA: I may even go further and say it is unlikely that Gildo-- + +CARO: Signor Enrico, do you know what Carmela is doing? + +MYSELF: She is making lace on a pillow, no doubt for her wedding +trousseau. + +CARM (_demurely_): Not for my wedding. No one will ever want to marry +me. + +MYSELF: Oh, come now, you don't expect me to believe that? + +ALESS:--it is the will of heaven that they shall all escape-- + +MYSELF: Well, if this is not for you, perhaps it is for Carolina's +wedding? + +ALESS:--that they shall all escape to Montalbano-- + +CARO (_demurely_): Not for my wedding. I shall never marry. I shall +stay at home and look after my dear papa and my dear brothers. + +NINA (_recklessly_): That's all very pretty, but I'm going to get +married. (_She was sitting on the edge of the table swinging her legs_.) + +ALESS:--that they shall all escape to Montalbano through the subterranean +road which the devils-- + +MYSELF: Why don't you tell me about Ettorina? Come to Ettorina. + +ALESS: One moment, if you please--which the devils will make on Wednesday +evening-- + +CARM: You have not yet told me what it is in English. + +MYSELF: What what is in English? + +CARM: Io t'amo. + +(_By the time I had given the information Papa_, _who had been proposing +my health in a speech of which I caught little except an occasional_ Do I +explain myself? _had begun perorating towards a close and was about to +crown his remarks with a brindisi in verse_.) + +PAPA: Questa tavola-- + +GILDO (_taking the words out of his mouth_): + + --oggi e assai piu bella. + Enrico! Bevo alla salute di tua sorella. {60} + +ALESS:--which the devils will make on Wednesday evening by command of +Argantino the-- + +PAPA (_beginning again_): + + Questa tavola non e sporca ma e netta. + Enrico! mangia, e non dare a loro retta. {61a} + +MYSELF (_obediently taking a pear_._ It was a fine pear with a maggot in +it_;_ they wanted me to take another but I knew that those with maggots +are usually the best_. _Not seeing why I should not be a poet also_, _I +put it thus_): + + Animale + Non fa male. {61b} + +GILDO (_instantly raising his glass_): + + Ora che ho mangiato non sono piu a dieta; + Bevo alla salute d'Enrico che e poeta. {61c} + +ALESS: + + Anch'io voglio brindar, da povero precoce, + Ad Enrico che sentir vuole la mia voce; + Da un anno non ti vedo, O caro fratello! + Vieni oggi, ti faro sentir l'_Otello_. {61d} + +MYSELF (_bowing my acknowledgments_): Thank you very much. + +GILDO: What did you say? Does that mean Good night? Is that what you +said before? + +MYSELF: Very much means Molto, Thank you means Grazie, and Good night +means Buona notte. + +GILDO: Let me try. Very much thank you good night? + +MYSELF: Bravo, Gildo! You are making progress. + +(_Nina was not so much preoccupied with her comments as to be unable to +take a line of her own when there was nothing particularly inspiring in +the conversation and_, _just now_, _she had laid her head down in an +empty plate and was unostentatiously putting out her tongue and making +faces sideways at me_.) + +GILDO (_taking a fig in one hand and raising his glass with the other_): + + Oggi mi voglio mangiare un fico; + Bevo alla salute del Signor Enrico. {62} + +(_I had to drink each time_, _not much_--_merely to acknowledge the +compliment_--_excusing myself by saying I had not the energy to drink +more_.) + +MYSELF: My dear Buffo, when you have sufficiently got into the habit of +being twenty-five to approach the age Gildo says he is, you will not have +so much energy as you have now. + +ALESS: Yes, I shall. + +MYSELF: No, Buffo mio. + +ALESS: We will make a bet about it, but you will lose. + +GILDO (_to Aless_): By that time Enrico will not be here to pay if he +does lose, so you will not win. + +MYSELF: Bravo, Gildo. + +GILDO (_bowing his acknowledgments_): Thank you very night--Why do you +laugh? That is what you say. Why do you laugh? + +PAPA (_taking his revenge about the brindisi_): Don't talk so much, +Gildo. + +ALESS (_taking his about the bet_): You have been talking all the +evening, Gildo. You are as bad as a conjurer in the piazza. + +(_Gildo proclaimed a general silence and_, _as a guarantee of good +faith_, _pretended to skewer his lips together with a tooth-pick_.) + +ALESS (_whispering to me_): Argantino is the Prince of the Devils and has +commanded them to make the subterranean road from Paris to Montalbano-- + +PAPA: May I speak one word? + +MYSELF (_graciously_): Yes, Papa. You may even speak two words. + +PAPA: I-- + +ALESS and GILDO (_shouting_): One! + +PAPA:--have-- + +ALESS and GILDO: Two! There now, shut up. You've spoken your two words. +Silence. + +CARO: Signor Enrico, last year you only stayed in Palermo four days; this +year you will, of course, stay at least a month. + +MYSELF: I am sorry, my dear young lady, but it is impossible. + +ALESS:--and they will all escape and-- + +MYSELF: Please, Buffo, how many kilometres is it from Paris to +Montalbano? + +ALESS: I do not remember, but it is a long way. + +CARO: Why do you not stay a month? + +CARM: Yes, why are you going away? + +MYSELF: My dear young ladies, I must go to Calatafimi. + +CARO: But why do you go to Calatafimi? + +CARM: Yes, why do you not stay with us? + +(_Nina did not speak_. _She merely gazed at me as though she could not +mind her wheel_, _Mother_.) + +MYSELF: I have friends at Calatafimi whom I have promised to go and see +and I cannot-- + +ALESS:--and arrive in safety at Montalbano. + +MYSELF: I believe you told me once that Montalbano is Rinaldo's castle in +Gascony. Did the devils make a subterranean road right across France? +It is a long way, you know. + +ALESS: The devils must do as Argantino commands them. + +MYSELF: If he is the Prince of the Devils of course they must; but this +seems rather a large order. Come to Ettorina. Why don't you come to +Ettorina? + +ALESS: One moment, if you please; first you must know that-- + +CARO: Signor Enrico, who are your friends at Calatafimi? + +MYSELF: I know a baritone singer and his father and mother, two or three +landed proprietors and the custode of the Temple of Segesta who lives at +Calatafimi and is great friend of mine. I also know another-- + +CARM: It is not true. How many ladies do you know at Calatafimi? + +MYSELF: Well, let me see. I don't think I can exactly-- + +CARO: Tell us about the young ladies of Calatafimi, you like them better +than you like us. + +(_Here sobs were heard_;_ Nina's head and shoulders had fallen over the +back of her chair_, _her hair had come down an she was weeping gently but +inconsolably_.) + +MYSELF: I shall be back in three days. + +(_Whereupon Nina recovered herself and fixed her eyes on the ceiling with +an expression of beatific joy such as is worn by S. Caterina da Siena +when the ring is being put on her finger in the pictures_._ Nina's hair +had now to be done up and it is magnificent hair_, _lustrous_, _black_, +_wavy thick and long--for a girl of fourteen_, _wonderful_._ Her two +sisters did it up as though it usually came down about this time of the +evening and she submitted in the same spirit_._ It was no concern of +ours_.) + +PAPA: It is now one year since you were last in Palermo and it seems like +yesterday--do I explain myself? + +GILDO (_so that everyone could hear_): I have kept all your post-cards in +a secret place. No one suspects that I have received them. + +ALESS: You must know that before Malagigi died he-- + +CARO: Signor Enrico, why do you wear spectacles? + +MYSELF: In order that I may more clearly contemplate your beauty. + +CARO: I do not believe you. + +CARM: Signor Enrico, why do you wear your hair so short? + +MYSELF: In order that-- + +CARO: Signor Enrico, why do you wear that little beard, that barbetta? + +CARM: Signor Enrico, why do you wear--? + +ALESS: Why do you wear a coat and waistcoat? + +GILDO: Why do you wear boots? + +PAPA: Why do you--? + +NINA: I can tell you why he does all these things. It is to make the +young ladies of Calatafimi go mad for love of him as the daughter of +Cladinoro went mad for love of Ruggiero Persiano. + +MYSELF: I have never heard of Ruggiero Persiano. Who was he, a paladin? + +NINA: Yes; a cavaliere errante. + +MYSELF: Then who was the daughter of Cladinoro? + +NINA: Ettorina. + +MYSELF: Do you mean to say that Ettorina went mad for love of Ruggiero +Persiano? + +NINA: Yes. + +MYSELF (_rising to go_): Finalmente! + +ALESS: Yes, but first you must know-- + +MYSELF: All right, Buffo, never mind about that; at last I know who +Ettorina was and why she went mad and that will do for the present. +Thank you very much and good night. + +GILDO: That is what I said. Why did you laugh when I said that? + +MYSELF: Say it again, Gildo, and I won't laugh this time. + +GILDO: Thank you very night and good much. + +MYSELF: Bravo. If you go on at this rate you will soon be speaking +English like a native. + +I took leave of the young ladies, and Papa, Alessandro and Gildo +accompanied me to the albergo, where they left me. As I approached my +bedroom door I looked up over it half-expecting to see there the words +which, years ago, I had seen written over the entrance to a Tuscan +monastery: + + O beata Solitudo! + O sola Beatitudo! + + + +CHAPTER IV +MALAGIGI + + +Next morning I called on the buffo in his workshop. His two combustible +Turkish pavilions were finished, ready to be fired by Ettorina, and he +was full of his devils. I inquired why we were doing Guido Santo so +soon; it was only a year since my last visit to Palermo, when I had +witnessed his lamented end after a fortnight of starvation in prison, +and, at this rate, the story would be over in fourteen months instead of +lasting eighteen. The buffo said they had made the experiment of +shortening it. If one has to shorten a story, probably the _Paladins of +France_ with its continuations would suffer less from the process than +many others. At all events it could scarcely grow longer, as a work of +art so often does when one tries to shorten it. + +The devils were naturally among the dramatis personae of the teatrino, +but they had to be got ready and repaired and provided with all things +necessary for them to make the subterranean road. I said: + +"I am not sure that I quite followed all you told me last night." + +"There was perhaps a little confusion?" he inquired apologetically. + +"Not at all," I replied politely; "but I never heard of Argantino before. +Did you say he was the son of Malagigi?" + +"That is right. He did not happen to be at Roncisvalle, so he was not +killed with Orlando and the other paladins. An angel came to him and +said, 'Now the Turks will make much war against the Christians and, since +the Christians always want a magician, it is the will of heaven that you +shall have the rod of Malagigi, who is no longer here, and that Guido +Santo shall have la Durlindana, the sword of Orlando.' And it was so, +and Argantino thereafter appeared as a pilgrim." + +"I remember about Malagigi; he made all Rinaldo's armour." + +"Excuse me, he made some of his armour; but he did not make his helmet, +nor his sword Fusberta, nor his horse Baiardo. First you must know that +Rinaldo was one of the four brothers, sons of Amone, and their sister was +Bradamante." + +"I saw her die at Trapani. The Empress Marfisa came and found her dying +of grief in a grotto for the loss of her husband, Ruggiero da Risa." + +"Precisely. She was Marfisa's sister-in-law because she married +Marfisa's brother Ruggiero da Risa." + +"Then who was the cavaliere errante, Ruggiero Persiano?" + +"He was the son of Marfisa and Guidon Selvaggio, and this Guidon +Selvaggio was the son of Rinaldo." + +"Had Bradamante no children?" + +"Guido Santo is the son of Bradamante and Ruggiero da Risa." + +"I heard something about Guido Santo at Castellinaria the other day--let +me see, what was it? Never mind. I hope he left children." + +"I told you last year that he never married." + +"Oh yes, of course; that is what I was thinking of. One cannot remember +everything at once and pedigrees are always confusing at first. Then it +is for love of Bradamante's nephew by marriage, Ruggiero Persiano, that +Ettorina has now gone mad?" + +"Bravo. And Malagigi was Bradamante's cousin." + +"How was that?" + +"Amone had a brother Buovo, and Malagigi was the son of Buovo. Therefore +Malagigi was the cousin of Rinaldo and of Bradamante. And that is all +you need know about the pedigree for the present. Malagigi was Emperor +of Magic. Other magicians only commanded a devil or two each, but +Malagigi dominated all the hosts of the inferno, all the devils, harpies, +serpents, gorgons, hydras, furies and also the monster Briareus." + +"Just as the buffo dominates all the marionettes in the teatrino," I +interpolated. + +He bowed and proceeded: "Rinaldo's helmet used to belong to Mambrino." + +"I have read about it in _Don Quixote_." + +"Ah! but that was not a real helmet; that was only a barber's basin +because Cervantes wanted to laugh at Don Quixote. Rinaldo slew Mambrino +and took his helmet, but Mambrino was a giant and his helmet was too +large for Rinaldo, so Malagigi took it down into the laboratory of the +inferno and altered it to fit." + +"And do the audience see all that done on the stage?" + +"Most of it; and what they do not see they imagine. Fusberta, Rinaldo's +sword, formerly belonged to another giant, Atlante. Malagigi always +intended it for Rinaldo, but he was a wise magician and knew that people +do not value things unless they pay for them, so he would not let him +have it till he had earned it by killing Atlante." + +"It's rather like what you told me last year about Orlando's dream and +his going to the river-bank where Carlo Magno and that other giant, +Almonte, were fighting, and his killing Almonte and his taking his sword +and horse and armour." + +"I did not say that Orlando had a dream; it was Carlo Magno who had the +dream about a young man whom he did not know, and I told you that +afterwards, when Orlando came and helped him to fight Almonte, Carlo +Magno recognised him as the young man in his dream." + +"Sorry, Buffo; my mistake. But it is rather like it, isn't it?" + +"About his taking the giant's sword it is rather like it, but that is not +a bad thing in the teatrino, the people must not be puzzled by too much +variety." + +Then he told me about Baiardo, Rinaldo's horse, who formerly belonged to +Amadigi di Gaula, to whom he was given by Berliante, another magician, +who found him in the desert. After the death of Amadigi, Berliante chose +but seven devils, put them inside Baiardo and turned him loose in the +forest, saying: "This horse can only be dominated by a man as strong as +Amadigi." After this, several things happened, of which I only remember +that Baiardo kicked all the sense out of Isolier, a Spanish cavalier who +was trying to tame him with his sword, not knowing the right way to do +it, and a nameless Englishman was involved in a duel. At last Rinaldo +came and, after working hard at Baiardo for an hour, struck him a blow +between the eyes with his mailed fist and thus tamed him. Then Rinaldo +mounted him and boasted of his triumph, shouting in his humorous way: +"Now Baiardo is carrying eight devils." + +"And so you see Rinaldo getting Baiardo is not at all like Orlando +getting his horse Vegliantino; besides, Baiardo is red, the colour of +fire, and Vegliantino is white all over, without one black hair." + +"Why do you call Orlando's horse Vegliantino? Last year he was +Brigliadoro." + +"One moment, if you please. Almonte called him Brigliadoro because he +had a golden bridle; but when Orlando took him he called him Vegliantino +because he was so wide-awake--only slept with one eye at a time--always +kept the other open. You have good horses also in England. I read in +the _Giornale di Sicilia_ that your King Edward has a good horse who won +the great race this year, but I do not remember his name. It was not a +reasonable name." + +"The name was Minoru. Do you think that a bad name for a good horse?" + +"I think Vegliantino is better." + +"Perhaps it is. Let us return to Malagigi. Are you not going to tell me +why he is no longer giving the Christians the benefit of his services as +magician?" + +So he told me about Malagigi, who, it seems, had a quarrel with Carlo +Magno, in the course of which Malagigi boasted: + +"You are the Emperor of the World, but I am the Emperor of the Inferno." + +Carlo Magno did not quite like this and responded by cursing Malagigi, +saying that he would not go to heaven when he died. One would think that +Malagigi must have had the substance of this remark addressed to him +before by persons who had not troubled to wrap it up in the imperial +language employed by Carlo Magno. If so, it had never made any +impression on him, but now he began to think there might be something in +it. He had been a good man on the whole and a Christian, nevertheless, +as a sorcerer he had no doubt diabolised a little too freely. To be on +the safe side, he determined to repent and, as these things do not get +over the footlights unless they are done in the grand manner, he began by +burning his magical books, all except one, and they were the books of +Merlin, whose disciple he had been. He next dropped his name of +Malagigi, because it had been given him by the devils in council, and +called himself Onofrio. He still kept on terms with his confidential +private devil, Nacalone, whom he now summoned and to whom he spoke these +words: + +"Convey me to some peaceful shore where I may repent of my sins and die +of grief in a grotto." + +When we came to this--I could not help it, I was full of small complaints +that morning--I exclaimed: + +"But, my dear Buffo, this makes consecutive fifths with his cousin +Bradamante dying of grief in the grotto at Trapani." + +He admitted that it would have been better if one of them had had the +originality to die in bed as a Christian or an ordinary man does, or to +be killed in mortal combat, but there it was, it was the will of heaven +and could not be altered. It seemed rather an invitation to the +shortener of the story, but the same people do not come to the theatre +every night and those who had missed the death of Bradamante would be +pleased to see Malagigi die. + +The nearest peaceful shore with a suitable grotto known to Nacalone +happened to be in Asia; he put his master on his back and flew off with +him apologising for carrying him so far, but there was not really much +trouble about it, because his wings were strong and the journey was +accomplished in safety. + +Malagigi sat repenting in his Asian grotto, like S. Gerolamo in the +pictures. He found a stone with a hole in it into which he stuck a cross +made of two pieces of wood tied together with dried grass, and to this +cross he prayed. In the intervals of prayer and repentance he gathered +the herb malva, dried it, powdered it, mixed it with water into paste, +formed it into cakes, baked them in the sun and ate them. When his time +came, he died, and gradually his corpse became a skeleton, but his spirit +still dwelt within because it was so ordained. His dying did not +surprise me--to be born is to enter upon the path which even magicians +must tread and which leads to the inevitable door--nor was I alarmed +about his spirit remaining inside his skeleton--it gave him a touch of +originality after all and differentiated his death from that of +Bradamante whose soul I had seen extracted by an angel; but I could not +help being seriously uneasy about his burning all his books. Each book +had a devil chained inside it, and when Malagigi opened a book its devil +used to appear for instructions. As long as he was repenting, they might +perhaps be trusted to behave themselves; but after his death, in spite of +its being somewhat equivocal, I was afraid that all these devils, and +Merlin had an extensive library, would escape and be free to do as they +chose. The buffo assured me, however, that no harm would come of it, and +as he knew what was ordained by the will of heaven I was ready to take +his word; besides, there was still the one unburnt book and this was the +home of Nacalone, who might be powerful enough to avert disasters. So +Malagigi's body remained in the grotto, dead and yet not dead. + +Then a time came when his son Argantino happened to be travelling in Asia +with his second cousin Guido Santo. Accompanied by Costanzo, a Turk, +whom Argantino had defeated and baptised, the two knights came to the +dreadful enchanted grotto and entered it to see whether perhaps it might +contain anything good to eat. Costanzo did not enter, they sent him off +to collect a quantity of wood to make a fire because it was a chilly +evening. When their eyes had become accustomed to the dim light, they +discerned a tomb whereon was this inscription: + + IN HOC LOCO PAX. + +Guido knelt down to pray, saying: "I perceive here a sepulchre." + +"Yes," replied Argantino kneeling by his side; "I wonder who in this +peaceful grotto is sleeping his last long sleep." + +Presently the tomb opened by a miracle and a voice disturbed their +devotions: + +"Malagigi parlera." + +The two cousins trembled with horror as a skeleton rattled up from the +sepulchre and spoke thus: + +"I am the great magician Malagigi, and in obedience to the command of +heaven my spirit has here waited for this day. To you, O my son +Argantino! I confide the one book of magic which remains to me. To you, +O Guido! I confide the horse Sfrenato." + +Here he delivered the two compliments to the two paladins; but for the +moment Sfrenato took the magical book and carried it in his mouth as a +cat carries her kitten. + +"And now, listen to me. Terrible times are in store for the Christians +and it is God's ordinance that you two shall preserve the faith. Swear +to me therefore, O Guido! that you will"--and so forth. + +When he had concluded his address, his prophetic spirit was exhausted, as +might perhaps have been anticipated, for the speech was of portentous +length, and the skeleton clattered down again into the tomb, which closed +by another miracle while a ball of fire ran along upon the ground across +the stage and back again. Then Guido took his oath and spoke thus to +Argantino: + +"Let us now depart. And you Turks! all of you, tremble! for Guido shall +be your destruction." + +With this he vaulted upon Sfrenato, who curveted and whinnied with joy at +recognising his master. And so the two paladins continued their journey; +but before leaving the neighbourhood they naturally made arrangements +with the local marble-mason to have the tomb closed in a proper and +hygienic manner. + +"And all this," said the buffo, "happened only last Friday, and why did +you not come in time to see it? It was very emotional." + + + +CHAPTER V +ARGANTINO + + +As I had missed the emotional interview at the tomb the buffo generously +arranged that there should be a private repetition of the scene specially +for the young ladies and me; but it could not be that afternoon because +it would take time to prepare and we had the appointment to go to his +professor's house for his singing lesson, and that also would take time. +Before singing one does a few exercises, the effect of which is to warm +up the throat and awaken the voice, because the warmer the throat, the +better the quality of the voice, and this had to be got through before +anyone could be allowed to listen. At the proper moment I was taken to +the professor's house and introduced into the studio where the buffo, who +had taken off his collar to do the exercises, sang extracts from his +repertorio, which includes _Otello_, _Rigoletto_, _I Pagliacci_ and +_Cavalleria Rusticana_. + +After he had sung one of his pieces, I made him my compliments and +congratulated his professor on the result of his teaching, whereupon they +made their excuses--I had come on an unfortunate day, the voice was +suffering from fatigue and the piano was out of tune. I had not observed +the fatigue, but they were right about the piano and I agreed with the +maestro, who said it was time to order a new one. Not only was it out of +tune enough to curdle the milk, but they had endeavoured to distract +attention from its defects by crowding its lid with rubbish till it +resembled the parlour chimney-piece in a suburban villa or the altar in a +second-rate church. + +As some old harridan when bidden to the christening of her great-niece +fumbles among such ornaments of her gioventu tempestosa as have been +refused by the pawnbroker, and choosing the least suitable decks herself +out therein, thinking thus to honour the festa--even so on this piano +were accumulated artificial flowers, photographs in metal frames, a +sprinkling of glass vases in wire cages that jangled, a couple of +crockery pigs to bring good luck and a few statuettes and busts. + +"Please, Buffo," I inquired, "who is that silver saint upon the piano?" + +"It is not a saint," he replied, "it is only un musicista qualunque." + +"It looks about the shape of Mozart," I said, wondering what he was doing +in that galley. + +"I do not remember his name," said the buffo, "it is written on him in +front; it is not a reasonable name." + +He brought me the bust and I, thinking that, to harmonise with the +musical atmosphere of the studio, it should have been Leoncavallo or +Mascagni, found that it was even more out of tune than the shameless +piano it had been standing on. It was BETKOVEN, with every letter +distinctly legible through the thick silver paint with which it was +covered. + +These foreign names are so puzzling. At an afternoon party in Palermo I +once had a conversation with a gentleman who told me that Bellini was the +king of opera-writers and the emperor of composers. To pass a few hours +with people who consider Bellini to have written the last note in music +is as restful and refreshing as to dream away an August afternoon in a +peaceful backwater, forgetting that there is a river running to the sea. +After Bellini, the gentleman mentioned Beethoven, who, it seems, studied +in Italy, and that is why his music is so melodious. The more accessible +writers on Beethoven know as little about this studying in Italy as they +know about the Palermitan spelling of his name, but it must be right, +because how otherwise could he have acquired his astonishing power of +producing the true Italian melody? And there is another German musician +who is even more melodious and more Italian in style than Beethoven and +therefore a greater musician. + +"Did he also study in Italy?" I asked. "And what was his name?" + +"They all come here to study, and his name was Sciupe." + +I divined that this German melodist could only be either the Viennese +Schubert or the French Pole Chopin, but with my English pronunciation I +failed to make the distinction. Then a young lady, who had been sitting +near, proposed to clear the matter up by playing a piece composed by +Sciupe, and if I would listen attentively I should understand why he is +known as the German Bellini. By this time I had made up my mind that it +must be Schubert and was expecting one of the songs transcribed by Liszt, +but she played Chopin's Funeral March and told me that the composer had +written besides a number of operas and conducted them at Berlin. I +acquiesced in what appeared to be the will of heaven, saying: + +"Oh! yes, of course. How stupid of me!" + +The buffo has a fine voice and has got far beyond appearing to have +learnt his songs diligently and to be delivering them correctly. I +suspect, however, that he did not pass that way. He will soon have +assimilated all that can be taught about singing, and for the rest he is +naturally an actor, one of those few who are born with the strange power +of appearing to experience inwardly what they express outwardly, a power +that his life among the marionettes has strengthened and perfected. But +as to predicting his future, which is what he wanted me to do, I suppose +that only an expert, and perhaps not even an expert, can tell from +hearing a singer in a small room how he will sound on the stage; and the +voice is not everything, there is the appearance and the question of how +his personality will affect the public, and the further question of how +he will stand the life and amalgamate with his fellows. So, like a good +Sicilian, I told him that there never was such a magnificent voice, that +I had never heard anyone sing so well and that I was sure he would +eclipse all previous tenors, which made everything quite satisfactory. + +The next day we had our private performance, and it began with Guido +Santo and Argantino at the dreadful enchanted grotto of the great +magician Malagigi. I was glad to see Argantino; it was nearly as good as +seeing Malagigi in his habit as he lived because, although the son only +had one diabolical book, yet in his personal appearance he strikingly +resembled the father, being indeed the same marionette and distinguished +chiefly by his wings, which he inherited from his mother Sabina who was a +witch. Argantino always wore his wings even when he used to wear armour, +and on his shield he bore the portrait of a devil so that everyone should +know at a glance the kind of man he was. After the angel tells him he is +to do the magic for the Christians he appears clothed as a pilgrim with +wings, and in this way, although it is the same marionette and both +Malagigi and Argantino are magicians, confusion is avoided--at least the +buffo said that was the intention. + +There was another thing I should have been sorry to miss. I had hitherto +supposed the dictionaries to be right in defining a miracle as an event +contrary to the established course of nature, but the buffo took me +behind the scenes to study the miracle by which the tomb opened. There +were three or four strings so arranged that if anyone pulled them the +tomb could not remain closed. The buffo pulled them and the tomb opened. +Nothing less contrary to the ordinary course of nature could be imagined. +It would be interesting to know whether other miracles would similarly +falsify their definition if one could have a buffo to take one behind and +disclose the secret of how they are performed. + +The second scene was a Ballo Fantastico, which was given to take the +taste of the tomb and the skeleton out of our mouths. It was done by a +heavy Turk who danced cumbrously; presently his arms detached themselves +and became transformed into devils who danced separately; then his legs +followed their example; then his head descended from his trunk and, on +reaching the stage, became transformed into a dancing wizard carrying a +rod of magic and beating time to the music; then, while the body was +dancing by itself, various devils came out of it followed by several +serpents that floated among the devils; after which it developed a head, +a neck, wings and a tail, so that it became transformed into a complete +dragon, and the wizard mounted upon its back and rode about wizarding all +the other creatures. Altogether the original Turk became transformed +into sixteen different marionettes. + +After this we had a funambolo or rope-dancer. The curtain rose +disclosing his rope ready for him, he entered and, after bowing +profusely, leapt up and sat first on the rope, then on a seat at the +back. Here he played with his pole, holding it first with one hand then +with the other, then balancing it on his head and doing tricks with it. +Then he walked along the rope forwards and backwards and danced, doing +his steps with great care and precision. After which he sat down to +recover his breath. Then he rope-walked again, doing impossible +things--that is, they would have been impossible if he had not been +sustained by many invisible strings, which the buffo manipulated with +wonderful skill. I liked the funambolo even better than the wizard, he +was extraordinarily lifelike. + +In the evening I became transformed into an ordinary member of the public +and saw the devils make the subterranean road. The performance contained +a great deal besides about Periglio, a Turkish paladin, who, having been +accused by the son of the Emperor of China of helping the Christians, was +condemned to be beheaded. The father of his accuser with the other three +Emperors came to see him die; they stood at corners relentlessly +smoothing their beards and curling their moustaches with their right +fists and crying "A Morire!" Periglio in chains was led on, blindfolded. +The solemn headsman followed, carrying his axe, and, as the boy left off +turning the handle of the mechanical piano, the cornet blasted a +broken-hearted minor ninth over the last chord of the funeral march and +prolonged it till--well, after all it was a mistake; Periglio had not +really helped the Christians; his brother proved that, on the contrary, +he had done them as much damage as any Turk among the allied armies of +200,000 men. So he was pardoned, and one of his friends gaily kicked the +executioner off the stage. The brothers embraced and then, with their +hands on their breasts, bowed to the audience to acknowledge the +applause; but they did not know they were brothers, they had not yet +recognised each other; that was to be another emotional moment to come +later on. + +The kicking the executioner off the stage and the embracing and bowing of +the brothers were so absurdly natural that I inquired about them, and it +seemed that Gildo had thought of these effects and carried them out. + +"But then," said the buffo, "Gildo is an artist. You should see him with +Truffaldino." + +"What is Truffaldino? Another cavaliere errante?" + +"He is the paladin who is a buffo. You should see him toss his crown +from one side of his head to the other and put both his hands on his +heart when he makes love to Angelica. He only plays the fool a little +the first night, and more and more as the drama proceeds, until he dies +by being pulled to pieces by four horses. It is all done by Gildo, and +the audience laugh every night that Truffaldino appears." + +Then we were taken to Vienna, where Guido Santo and Argantino had +arrived, but we only saw Argantino. + +"Where is Guido?" I asked. "I want to see him." + +"Yes, well, you won't see him this evening," replied the buffo. "He's +only in the next room, but he's much too busy to come." + +"What is he doing?" + +"Baptising Christians--those who couldn't make up their minds before +whether they would be converted or not." + +"Very well, we won't interrupt him." + +So I had to be content with Argantino, who came with his book, his rod of +magic and his wings. After flying about for some time in a hall with +columns, he settled down, and someone entered and told him the +disquieting news about Pope Gregorio III being shut up in Paris. But, +knowing that it was the will of heaven that the inhabitants should not +perish, he summoned his confidential family devil Nacalone by opening the +book, just as a rich man of to-day liberates infernal power by opening +his cheque-book. Nacalone was as comic as the mask Pasquino, and tumbled +to show his willingness to obey. He had a string to his back so that he +could be turned upside down and made to stand on his head. He received +his instructions and flew off to execute them. + +The Viennese columns disappeared and the devils, plenty of them, all with +wings and tails and horns, were shown, as in a vision, working at the +subterranean road. Two were sawing a block of stone; some flew up to use +their hammers and do work in the upper parts of the tunnel; one, who was +perhaps nervous or perhaps more of an artist and wanted to look the part +of a modern Palermitan workman, used his legs to climb a ladder to reach +his work; others were digging up the ground and knocking down the walls; +a devil wheeled an empty Sicilian cart, painted with paladins, rapidly +across the stage and after a moment wheeled it back slowly because it was +now heavily laden with tools and cement; another kept coming with a +basket of stones on his shoulder and emptying them down in heaps. It was +a busy scene and much applauded, especially the cart. The Viennese +columns hid it from view. + +The buffo was very proud of this scene, and no wonder. + +"There is nothing like it in Dante. But then," he continued, "there +would not be likely to be. What is Dante? As versification, as +language, his poem is fine, splendid, supreme, above all other poetry +books; but as sense, what is it? And then again, why should Dante go +about to make me believe in devils? Me! the ruler of all the devils in +the teatrino! As though I did not know more about devils than anyone. +Dante is the Emperor of Words, but the buffo is the Emperor of Deeds. +And then his obscurity! As a theme for discussion Dante is as obscure as +religion. One says: 'It is so.' While another says: 'It is not so.' As +men discuss a melon and one says: 'Inside it is red.' While another +says: 'Inside it is white.' Who can bear testimony to the truth of +Dante's words? We cannot cut his poem open and see his inner meaning. +Whereas I have cut my inferno open for you. I have shown you what it is +like inside, and you can bear testimony to the truth of the subterranean +road." + +The buffo told me that the Christians in Paris were not armed, but they +all got safely away to Montalbano. During the siege, the Pope directed +the defence, and the people, following his commands, threw their +furniture over the walls with the intention of damaging the enemy; but +the Turkish Emperors had made a study of the art of war and taught their +men how to hold their shields over their heads, and thus they warded off +the chairs and tables and were able to creep along under cover, approach +the city, climb up the walls and descend into the piazza. The first who +entered went round to open the gates and let the rest in. As soon as +they had recovered from their surprise at finding that the inhabitants +had all escaped, they began to commit sacrileges. Balestrazzo, Emperor +of Turgovia, occupied the principal church of Paris as a stable for his +horses. Rainello, a nephew of the traitor Gano di Magonza, wishing to do +a bravery, went into a church and cried with a loud voice: + +"Take down that crucifix; it is only wood; if it had been a god I should +not have denied the faith. Take it away. There is only one God and +Mahomet is his prophet." + +With this he leapt on the altar, drew his sword, and was about to hew the +crucifix into pieces when a thunderbolt struck him. As he was the first +to lay hands upon the sacred images, so he was the first to be struck. +But he recovered; he did not die of the thunderbolt; it was the will of +heaven that he should live to be killed by Guido Santo. + +It was a pity that I had to go to Calatafimi and could not stay for all +this, but before I went I had the satisfaction of seeing Ettorina go mad. +At first she was hardly more than slightly unhinged, yet she was mad +enough to enter the enemy's camp by night. The sentinel had just been +awakened by the corporal, but she paid no more attention to them than +they to her. Nor did she shrink from making consecutive fifths, or +downright octaves, with Costanzo as she crossed the stage, going away to +fetch a quantity of wood to light a fire because it was a chilly evening; +but, as the buffo pointed out, she had a sufficient dramatic reason to +justify the licence. Presently, like the laden Sicilian cart, she +staggered back with her faggots and disappeared. In a few moments we saw +the fitful glare from the conflagration she had kindled dancing on the +combustible pavilion which took up all the back of the scene. Various +Turkish soldiers entered to investigate the cause of the unwonted light, +but they did not return to report, she killed them all, one after the +other; and this gave time which the buffo utilised by applying a match +from below, and, while the pavilion blazed and the audience applauded, +Ettorina in her burnished armour went as mad as Tilburina in her white +satin till the curtain fell. + + + +CHAPTER VI +THE ESCAPE FROM PARIS + + +Although I had to miss a great deal that it would have been interesting +to see on the stage, I spent a couple of mornings with the buffo in his +workshop helping to make the scene of the people escaping, which was +perhaps even better than being among the audience later. I think he is +most happy when he is holding up the mirror to nature and reproducing +modern Palermitan life as it appears to him. He enjoyed the devils and +the subterranean road, but the inhabitants of Paris in modern costume, +each saving his most precious object and escaping with the Pope through +the subterranean road to Montalbano, was a larger canvas and gave him +more opportunities. As a creative artist he is in the fortunate position +of being up to a certain point his own impresario, stage-manager and +performer. Nevertheless he has to rely on the co-operation of his father +and Gildo, and there is always the public to be considered, therefore it +is possible that some of the things we made and contemplated in the +workshop did not get so far as to be presented on the stage. + +There was a sluggard carrying a mattress under each arm; and a drunkard +carrying a bottle of wine, a real glass bottle that would catch the light +and make an effect. Another man had on his back a table and was carrying +a plate, a knife, fork, spoon and napkin; he was a glutton. The masks +Pasquino and Onofrio were making a comic escape and talking in dialect; +Pasquino was carrying his wife Rosina on his shoulder and a pillow in his +hand, and Onofrio was saving an article of crockery made at Caltagirone. +And because the buffo was studying to become a singer he had made a +musician: + +"But I cannot show his voice," he complained. + +"He might be practising a solfeggio," I suggested, "which you could sing +for him." But this was not treating the buffo's voice with proper +respect. "Or put a piece of music-paper in his hand and make him a +composer." + +"Bravo! But what is written on the music-paper?" + +I said: "_Stornelli Montagnoli_." + +He began to hum meditatively: + + [Picture: Music in the Play] + +"No," he said, "that won't do. In the first place it is not yet known in +Palermo, and when it is, it will be so popular that no one in particular +will think of saving it." + +"Very well then," I replied, "make it that he has just discovered an +entirely new resolution of the dominant seventh and has written it down +before he forgets it." + +"All right. And this is the painter; he has his easel and a picture +which he has only just begun; that is more precious to him than all the +pictures he has finished because it is so full of hope." + +"Bravo, Buffo. And where is the miser?" + +"Oh Caspita!" he exclaimed. "How clever you are! Of course there must +be a miser. We will make him at once." + +So we selected an old man marionette who happened to have nothing +particular to do at the moment, and got a piece of sacking out of which +we made a bag and filled it--not with gold-- + +"No," said the buffo, "that must be one of the things the people do not +see, they must imagine the gold." Then we loaded the miser with his bag +and added him to the crowd of fugitives. + +And he had made a woman saving a mouse-trap; she was a suffragette. That +was because he had read in the _Giornale di Sicilia_ that in England a +meeting of suffragettes had been dispersed by letting mice in among them. +The buffo's suffragette had argued thus: + +"In all the world there are mice; Montalbano will be no exception. How +do I know what sort of house I shall have there? It will probably be +over-run with mice. If I take this trap with me, at least I shall be +able to catch some of them." + +It turned out that she had to sleep on the floor in someone else's house +like a fugitive from Messina, and the mouse-trap came in very handy. + +And he had made a chemist who was saving a medicine chest and a few +instruments. The chemist had argued thus: + +"In Montalbano there will be no order. Here in Paris the restaurants are +well-managed and the food is good. How can I tell what sort of food they +will give us there? Very likely we shall have to depend a great deal +upon chance. I will take these instruments and medicine and earn money +by curing those who will be sure to be upset by the badness of the food." + +And a man came weeping; his father had died the day before and there had +not been time to bury the body, but it had been put into a coffin and the +undertaker's men were laughing because the son was rich and had promised +to pay them extra for carrying the body to Montalbano and burying it +there; but the son did not see they were laughing, he was in front to +show them the way. + +Two boys came along, each saving a marionette, one had Orlando, the other +Rinaldo; they forgot that they were escaping and stopped to make the +paladins fight; a third boy came and said they were his marionettes and +the others had stolen them, and the boys left Orlando and Rinaldo lying +on the stage and began to fight among themselves till their three mothers +followed. + +"Be quick, be quick, you silly boys, be quick," shouted the mothers, +hustling everything before them--boys, marionettes and all--as an autumn +hurricane sweeps away the fallen leaves. + +"What is that man doing?" I inquired. + +"Which man?" + +"The one standing in the corner there--he seems to have a camera." + +"Yes, that's right. He has been sent by the Cinematograph Company to +reproduce the scene for their show." + +"Oh! I see. That's a capital idea; the people will like that." + +"Yes, won't they?" + +And two men were dragging a heavy bundle along on the ground between +them, and I asked: + +"What's in the bundle?" + +"Clothes," he replied. + +And there was a woman carrying a hen in a basket, and the hen escaped +from the basket, laid an egg in the middle of the stage and cackled back +into Paris; but the woman saved the egg and said: "Better an egg to-day +than a hen to-morrow." + +Another woman was carrying her baby on one arm and leading a child by the +hand, and the child was crying because it had to walk too fast and was +tired. + +"This is the astronomer," said the buffo. + +"Is that his umbrella under his arm? It seems too long and too bright." + +"No; that is Halley's comet which he has predicted for next spring. He +does not want to leave it behind, the Turks might destroy it and he would +lose his reputation." + +There was the boy from the barber's shop opposite; he had been playing +with a black kitten when the alarm came and he joined the fugitives just +as he was, in his white tunic with the kitten in his arms and a comb +stuck in his bushy hair. And there came a troop of old women, chattering +and shuffling along and understanding no more about it all than I should +have understood if I had not had my buffo, my programme raisonne, to +explain it. + +Then I said: "Buffo mio, we have had a musician and a painter, where is +the poet?" + +"Here he comes." And there came a pale, Alfred de Musset youth with long +hair, a roll of paper and a quill pen. "Do you know what he is saying? +He is saying: 'Better to embrace and be betrayed than to suffer and die +in ignorance.'" + +"Is that the philosophy of the buffo?" I inquired. + +"It is the philosophy of the poet," he replied. + +"Isn't it rather beyond the public? Will they understand?" + +"The public won't hear that; it is only for you and me. There are many +things we do not tell the public because they are the public; but we +understand because we are artists." + +"Very well. And then if we have a poet we must have a critic--won't this +one do? he has a book; perhaps he is going to review it, or perhaps it is +his encyclopaedia to save him from making mistakes." + +"If you like, he shall be the critic; only then you ought to tell me what +he is saying." + +"He is saying: 'I despise everything because it is not something else.'" + +"Bravo, bravo! That is better than what the poet said." + +"O my dear Buffo, I am not going to admit that. Besides, it is not true +of all critics." + +"What I said is not true of all poets." + +"Well, if we don't like what we have made them say, let us have someone +to follow and show them where they are both wrong." + +"All right. Let me see. That will be when they have had time to think +it over. That will be the Cold Dawn of the following morning. We will +now make the Aurora." + +So we found a disengaged lady marionette and began to dress her in a +piece of cobwebby grey muslin from which the last few spangles had not +yet dropped. I said: + +"I'm not at all sure that this is not going too far. Do you think we can +really show the Cold Dawn of the following morning escaping out of Paris +by the underground road?" + +"She must go; she will be wanted at Montalbano to show some of the people +that they have saved the wrong things." + +"Very true. Yes. That is what people so often do when they travel, they +leave behind them the things they want most and take a lot of other +things that are useless. Now, that resolution of the dominant seventh +was hardly worth saving--at least it was not really new." + +"Where did you get it from?" + +"I stole it out of the works of the musician whose bust was on your +maestro's piano the other day, the one with the Dutch name who lived in +Vienna." + +"I hope you invented what the critic said?" + +"Not exactly. Your poet reminded me of something in Walt Whitman and I +twisted it round and gave it to the critic." + +"What's Walt Whitman? Is he another Dutchman?" + +"He was an American poet, but his mother had a Dutch name." + +"Did he come to the teatrino?" + +"He never came to Europe. I wish he had been to the teatrino. He would +have liked your Escape from Paris, but perhaps he would not have cared so +much for the paladins. He wrote something about them." + +"What did he say?" + +"If he had seen the end of the story, when the angel takes Guido Santo's +soul out of his mouth, I believe he would have said that instead of +flying up to heaven he flew across the Atlantic with it and installed it +'amid the kitchenware' to animate all the machinery and things in one of +the Exhibitions held by the American Institute in New York." + +"Is that what he said?" + +"No. What he said was that all that world of romance was dead: + + Passed to its charnel vault--laid on the shelf--coffin'd with crown + and armour on, + Blazon'd with Shakespeare's purple page, + And dirged by Tennyson's sweet sad rhyme. + +"Well, it is not true. But of course if he never came to the teatrino he +could not know. Americans do come to the teatrino. I never know which +are Americans and which are English; for the English come too. They come +in the winter and the spring, and when they are pleased with some stage +trick--" + +"I suppose you mean with some miracle?" + +"Of course," he replied; "it is the same thing. When they are pleased +with some stage miracle, they clap their hands and applaud." + +"That is nice and sympathetic of them." + +"Yes, and they shout out loud and cry: 'Bravo, very good night.'" + +"No, Buffo! Is that really what they say?" + +"Yes, they shout: 'Bravo, very good night,' and it is a pleasure to hear +them." + +"I should think so. I must come in the winter next time and hear them +say that." + +"They all ask me some questions. I know what they mean, but I cannot +speak to them, and, if you please, will you write down for me in English +what I shall tell you, so that I can show them the paper?" + +"Certainly, my dear Buffo, any little thing of that kind. If any of them +come to see the Escape from Paris, I should think they will have a good +many questions to ask. For instance, there is the Aurora"--He was +finishing her off by putting a silver fillet round her hair and a shining +star upon her forehead--"I cannot help it, but I still feel unhappy about +her. She does not explain herself." + +"That will not signify. We must leave room for the imagination to +play--not too much, but it is a mistake to be too exact. There must be +some mystery which the public can take in any way they choose. It is +like the nuts on the bicycle, they must not be left loose, but they must +not be screwed too tight." + +I gave way, saying: "I suspect you are right. It flatters the spectators +to feel that they are helping the performance by using their imagination. +And if they don't understand--well, they can think they do and that +flatters them again. And there is another reason why we must not tell +the public everything--it would take too long." + +"Ah yes! We must not bore the public or they will not come again to the +teatrino, and then where would the money come from to pay for my singing +lessons?" + +So we let the Cold Dawn follow among the rest. There were half a dozen +rollicking blue-jackets off the warship in the port, they had been +spending the evening with their girls and were escaping with them. When +I objected that Paris was a sea-port town only in a Bohemian sense, he +replied that that was enough for him; and when I said that if the sailors +really had a ship anywhere near, they would have done better to escape by +sea, he complained that I was being fastidious. + +There were soldiers arm-in-arm and singing, they had been interrupted +while drinking in a wine-shop in a side street off the Via Macqueda and +were saving the marsala which they had not finished. + +After them came the maresciallo dei carabinieri in the uniform he wears +for a festa, with a plume in his three-cornered hat. He was a broad, +beefy fellow, taller than the soldiers, being made of a marionette who is +usually a giant. He came swinging along, all so big and so burly, +followed by a lady, showily dressed, who walked mincingly and was saving +a pair of pink satin shoes and a powder-puff. She kept calling to him to +stop, she wanted to speak to him. But he would not listen, he was not +going to pay any attention to her--not in his gala uniform, it would not +have been proper. Besides, there were people looking. + +A blind musician with a broken nose and a falsetto voice was led by his +mate who carried a 'cello. An interrupted wedding party followed, and +school-children with their professors, sick people out of the hospital +with doctors and nurses to help them, and a rabble of water-sellers, +shoe-blacks, pedlars and men pushing carts. + +Then followed the paladinessa Ettorina still mad, so mad that they were +dragging her along and forcing her to escape while she struggled to get +free and did not want to go, because a mad person does not understand +danger. And paladins and warriors came--Amantebrava, Lungobello, +Ottonetto and many more whose names I do not remember. + +Last of all came Pope Gregorio III. He was not one to leave the city +till the last of his flock had been saved. He wore his tiara and was in +white robes with a red cross front and back; he carried his crosier in +his left hand and on his right thumb was a diamond ring which sparkled as +he blessed the people. So he passed with his Secretary of State, his +cardinals, his bishops, his monsignori, his acolytes, his chamberlains, +his Guardia Nobile and his Swiss Guard; some carried lighted candles, +some carried banners and others crosses; some were swinging incense and +others were intoning the psalm _In Exitu Israel_. The solemn pomp of the +procession disappeared into the opening of the subterranean road and the +sound of the singing could no longer be heard. They were all safely +gone. The stage was empty. Yet the curtain did not fall. + +Then came a poor mad boy, a sordo-muto, who had been overlooked. He was +in a great hurry, making frightful inarticulate noises and running this +way and that, being too much alarmed to go straight. Before he had found +the mouth of the tunnel the curtain fell and we did not see what became +of him. He may have been left behind after all. + + + + +CATANIA + + +CHAPTER VII +THE BUFFO'S HOLIDAY + + +I do not remember who started the idea that the buffo should come to +Catania with me; it grew up, as inevitable ideas do, without any of us +being sure whether he suggested it, or Papa, or Gildo, or one of the +sisters, or I, and it became the chief subject of conversation in the +Greco family for days. + +It would not be true to say that he had never been away from Palermo, +because when he was a boy all the family went to try their fortune in +Brazil and stayed there five years running a marionette theatre; when +they returned to Palermo, they left behind them in South America the +eldest son, Gaetano, who still keeps a teatrino there. But the buffo saw +no more of South America than he has seen of Sicily and, except for this +five years in Brazil and an occasional day in the country round Palermo, +had never been outside his native town. But he knew that Catania was on +the other side of the island and near the sea, and expected it to be +hotter than Palermo because of the propinquity of Etna. He paid no +attention to my assurances that the temperature would be about the same +and said he should bring his great-coat, not on account of the heat, but +because he hoped that if he was seen with it he might be taken for an +English tourist. + +We did not start from Palermo together. I had to go to Caltanissetta, +which is on a line that branches off at S. Caterina Xirbi from the main +line between Palermo and Catania. We arranged to meet at the junction +three days after I left Palermo. I got there from Caltanissetta just +before the train from Palermo arrived, and the buffo was looking out of +the window. As soon as he saw me on the platform he got down and came to +me saying: + +"Oh! I am so glad to see you again; now everything will be all right. I +have been wretched ever since you went away. I have not been able to eat +by night or to sleep by day for thinking of you. And this has been going +on for two whole months; but now I shall recover." + +So we got into the train and pursued our journey. + +"I see you have brought your great-coat," I said. + +"Yes," he said, "if I am to be an English gentleman I shall have to wear +it in Catania." + +"But won't it do if you carry it over your arm?" I inquired. + +"No," he said, "because then they would see my other coat, and that is so +dilapidated they would suspect the truth." + +"Your clothes are quite good enough for any English gentleman anywhere," +I pointed out. + +"They are not so good as yours," he replied; "the teatrino is dirty and +they soon wear out. My great-coat appears to be fresh because I seldom +put it on. I shall use it in Catania to conceal the shabbiness of my +other clothes." + +"You need not be so particular. My father when he travelled in Italy did +not pay so much attention to his personal appearance." + +"You have never told me about your father. Did he travel for some +English firm? Was it tiles? or perhaps sewing-machines? They pay +better, I believe." + +"He did not travel for any firm. He was a barrister, an avvocato, and +travelled for recreation during the Long Vacation. I can tell you how he +used to dress, because just before I left London I copied part of a +letter he wrote to my mother, and I have it in my pocket." + +This is the extract from my father's letter which I read to the buffo; it +is dated Hotel des Bergues, Geneva, 1 October, 1861: + + Reading the _Times_ of Friday this morning I saw a letter signed G.U. + which I have no doubt is a mistake for J.U. and means John Unthank + and which signifies he and his family are in Paris. It is a letter + complaining of the shabby costume of Englishmen and is a foolish + letter but it will have the effect of making me furnish myself with a + new wideawake or something of that sort at Paris for my present + wideawake has got another hole in it and is really very bad though I + don't know why it should wear so fast as I take great care of it and + am rather disappointed that it should fall to pieces. Mr. Unthank + pointed out to me on the Lake of Como that my dressing-gown which I + always wear travelling is out at elbows which indeed I find it is but + that fact seemed to grieve Mr. Unthank less than the shabbiness of my + hat and he offered to give me a new one that is a wideawake of his + own which had been newly lined and not worn as he said since it was + lined if I would throw my old wideawake away. I consented but I left + Milan before he had an opportunity of performing his promise. + +"It was kind of your father's friend to offer him his old hat; don't you +think so?" + +"Yes, very kind of him. But, you see, he had his reasons." + +"Of course, he did not want to be seen with anyone so badly dressed." + +"That is what he says in his letter to the _Times_. I copied that in the +British Museum. He does not mention my father by name, he merely speaks +of well-dressed Englishmen in Paris (by which he means people like +himself) frequently seeing a respectable professional man disguised as an +omnibus conductor or cab-driver and 'being compelled to stand talking +with a vulgar-looking object because they have unfortunately recognised +an old acquaintance and not had time to run across the road to avoid +him.' My father, no doubt, thought of Mr. Unthank's conversations with +him at Como and Milan and said to himself, 'That's me.' The cap fitted +him and he put it on." + +"Excuse me; your father cannot have put the cap on, he says he had to +leave Milan too soon for that." + +"O my dear Buffo, I am so sorry. When I said the cap, I did not mean the +wideawake, I was only using an English idiom." + +"I see, I understand. We also have a similar expression, but it is not +about hats, it is about boots, I think, or coats. I will find out and +tell you." + +"My father does not say he 'had to leave'; he only says he left; and my +mother, who agreed with his friends and thought his taste in dress +deplorable, believed that he ran away to escape from Mr. Unthank's hat." + +"Oh! but a hat is always worth something. I should have waited for the +hat. Was it really a very bad one?" + +"I do not remember it, I should think it must have been pretty bad. The +dressing-gown was awful. It was maroon, and his friends called it his +wife's mantle. After he left off wearing it, it was given to us children +for dressing up. It was no use for anything else and it was not much use +for that. So you see, Buffo, you need not trouble about your clothes if +you want to appear English. You do not look in the least like a +cab-driver." + +"Perhaps not; but I think it will be safer for me not to be an +Englishman. All this about your father's dressing-gown happened half a +century ago, and the letter and the article in the _Times_ must have done +some good because the English gentlemen who come to the teatrino do not +dress like that now. You are always beautifully dressed." + +"Thank you very much, Buffo, but if that is more than merely one of your +Sicilian compliments, it only shows that I inherit my ideas about dress +from my mother rather than from my father." + +"I think I had better be a Portuguese gentleman from Rio, a friend of +yours, over on a visit, and you shall be a Sicilian." + +"We will be a couple of cavalieri erranti like Guido Santo and Argantino +on their travels. But I do not think it will quite do for me to be a +Sicilian. I cannot talk dialect and I cannot gesticulate. And then, am +I not too well dressed?" + +"That will not matter; you shall be an aristocratic Sicilian, they are +often quite well dressed. And as for the dialect and the gesticulation, +it is now the fashion among the upper classes to speak Tuscan and not to +gesticulate. It is considered more--I cannot remember the word, I saw it +in the _Giornale di Sicilia_, it is an English word." + +"Do you mean it is more chic?" + +"It is not exactly that and chic is a French word. One moment, if you +please. It is--we say lo snobismo." + +"I see. Very well; I will play the Sicilian snob, but I never saw one so +I shall have to do it extempore as Snug had to play the part of Lion." + +"What is Snug? another American poet? + +"He was a joiner and lived in Athens at the time when all the good things +happened. But his father, the author of his being, as we say, was an +English poet and cast him for the part of Lion in _Pyramus and Thisbe_." + +"What is Thisbe? a wandering knight?" + +"No. Thisbe was the lady loved by Pyramus and was acted by Flute the +bellows-mender. It's all in that poet who said what I told you when we +were making the Escape from Paris--you remember, about holding the mirror +up to nature." + +"I wish I could read your English poets. I like everything English. The +Englishmen who come to the teatrino are always good and kind--tutti +bravi--I wish I were an Englishman--a real one I mean, like you." + +Here were more compliments, so I replied: "I wish I were a Sicilian +buffo." + +"Ah! but you could not be that," said he. "Now I could have my hair cut +short, grow a beard on my chin, a pair of spectacles on my eyes and heels +on my boots and then I should only have to be naturalised. But you could +never be a buffo--not even an English one." + +"No; I suppose not. You see, I'm too serious. Gildo says I take a +gloomy view of life." + +"Yes," he agreed, "why do you?" + +"I don't know," I replied. "My poor mother--my adorata mamma, as you +call her--used to make the same complaint. She thought I inherited my +desponding temperament from my father." + +"As you inherited your taste in dress from her." + +"Just so. But I think I am like Orlando and your other paladins, and +that I am as I am because it was the will of heaven." + +"That is only another way of saying the same thing," observed the buffo; +which rather surprised me because I did not know he took such a just view +of the significance of evolution. + +On arriving at Catania we went to the albergo and, instead of following +the usual course and giving his Christian name and surname, Alessandro +Greco, he preferred to specify his profession and describe himself as +"Tenore Greco." They posted this up in the hall under my name, with the +unexpected result that the other guests ignored him, thinking the words +applied to me and that I was a tenor singer from Greece. + +The first thing to be done was to go out and get something to eat, and as +we went along the buffo expressed his delight with the appearance of +Catania. He had no idea that such a town could exist outside Palermo or +Brazil. + +"It is beautiful," he exclaimed, "yes, and I shall always declare that it +is beautiful. But, my dear Enrico, will you be kind enough to tell me +why it is so black?" + +"That, my dear Buffo," I replied, "is on account of the lava." + +"But how do you mean--the lava? What is this lava that you speak of, and +how does it darken the houses and the streets?" + +To which I replied as follows: "The lava is that mass of fire which +issues from Etna and then dissolves itself and becomes formed into black +rock, and, as it is excessively hard, the people of Catania use it for +building their houses and for paving their streets." + +I do not remember expressing myself precisely in these words, but the +buffo wrote me an account of his holiday and this is what he says I said. +It seems that I continued thus: + +"This house, for example, is built of lava, this pavement is lava, those +columns are lava, that elephant over the fountain is sculptured in lava, +this is lava, that is lava, everything is lava; even those--" + +"Stop, stop," interrupted the buffo, "for pity's sake stop, or I shall +begin to think that you and I also are made of lava." + +We reached the Birraria Svizzera and sat down. + +"Are you hungry, Buffo?" + +"I am always hungry. My subterranean road is always ready." + +"That's capital," I replied. "And what particular fugitive would you +like to send down it now?" + +"Seppia and interiori di pollo," he replied without hesitation. + +Now the first of these is cuttle-fish and looks as though the cook in +sending to table something that ought to have been thrown away had tried +to conceal it by emptying a bottle of ink into the dish; the second is +un-selected giblets. So I replied: + +"Very well; but I don't think I'll join you. No one will believe I am a +Sicilian unless I eat maccaroni, and perhaps I will have a veal cutlet +afterwards; that will be more suited to my subterranean road." + +"You had better have what I have," said he, "it is exquisite." + +"Not to-day," I replied gently. + +So we ate our dinner and discussed what we should do during the evening. +He wanted to go to the marionette theatre, and I was not surprised, for I +remembered that the vergers of Westminster Abbey and of Salisbury +Cathedral spend their holidays making tours to visit other cathedrals; +cooks go to Food Exhibitions; Scotch station-masters come to London and +spend their time in the Underground railways; and English journalists +when they meet on an outing, say to one another: + +"It is a foggy morning; let us go in and split three or four +infinitives." + +So I took him to the Teatro Sicilia and introduced him to the proprietor, +Gregorio Grasso, a half-brother of Giovanni Grasso, and we went behind +the scenes to study the difference between the Catanian and the +Palermitan systems. He was first struck by the immense size of the place +as compared with his own little theatre; next by the orchestra which, +instead of being a mechanical piano turned by a boy, consisted of a +violin, a guitar and a double-bass played by men; and finally by the +manner of manipulating the figures, which distressed him so seriously +that he forgot he was a Portuguese gentleman and began to give Gregorio a +lesson to show him how much better we do things in Palermo; but it came +to nothing, because a method that produces a good effect when applied to +a small and fairly light marionette will not do when applied to one that +is nearly a metre and a half high and weighs about fifty kilogrammes; it +is like trying to play an elaborate violin passage on the horn. Soon we +were politely invited to go to the front, where we were shown into good +places, and the performance began. In the auditorium there was the +familiar, pleasant, faint crackling of melon seeds and peanuts which the +people were munching as at home, and a man pushing his way about among +them selling lemonade, and water with a dash of anise in it. + +The buffo thought the marionettes of Catania were magnificent, +well-modelled and sumptuously dressed; but their size and their weight +make it impossible for them to move with the delicacy and naturalness +which he and his father and brother know so well how to impart to those +at home. They may start fairly well, but sooner or later the figure will +betray to the public the fatigue of the operator who is standing +exhausted on the platform behind, no longer capable of communicating any +semblance of life to the limbs of the puppet. He did not, however, +arrive at this conclusion all at once, for, in the course of the +performance when I asked him how it was that the marionettes of Catania +were not more expressive, he replied: + +"I suppose it must be on account of the lava." + +The figures appear against the back-cloth and the operator cannot reach +forward to bring them nearer to the audience, thus the front part of the +stage is free--or rather it would be free, but the public are permitted +to stray on to it, and thus the stage presents a picture of marionettes +with two or three live people sitting at each side. + +"Buffo mio," I said, "does it appear to you to be a good plan that the +public should go on the stage and mingle with the paladins? It is not +allowed in our own theatre at home." + +"I am not sure that it is a bad plan," he replied, "it is true we do not +allow it in Palermo; but one moment, if you please, there is something +coming into my head. Ah! yes, it is about holding up the mirror to +nature. Now here, in Catania, this stage presents a truer mirror of +nature than ours in Palermo. For have you not observed in life that, +with the exception of a few really sensible people like you and me, most +men are merely puppets in the hands of others? They do not act on their +own ideas nor do they think for themselves; also they adopt any words +that are put into their mouths. Now, it seems to me that the proportion +of real men compared with marionettes is not greater on this stage than +we observe it to be in life, and therefore we may say that the proprietor +of this theatre is following the advice of your poet." + +He noticed that one of the chief characteristics of the Catanian +marionettes comes into evidence when they are fighting. Two of them take +up their positions opposite each other, sidling round and round like +fighting cocks preparing to set to; they raise their scimitars, cross +them and rub them one against the other, like butchers sharpening their +knives; after a certain time spent in this sword exercise, they cross the +stage and, turning suddenly round, face one another and strike; the +consequence of this manoeuvre is that they both fall to the ground. We +were looking on at such a duel and when the climax came the buffo rose to +his feet and clapped his hands expecting the rest of the public to join, +but to his surprise they remained cold, and declined "to crown his +applause with their acquiescence," as he expressed it. He turned +wonderingly to the young man who was selling lemonade and said, speaking +with difficulty in broken Tuscan, as a Portuguese gentleman from Rio +might be expected to do: + +"Tell me, Caro mio, why do not the public join me in applauding?" + +"My dear Sir," replied the young man, "it is out of the question. You do +not seem to be aware of the identity of the marionette who has just been +killed. He is a Christian and the brother-in-law of Rinaldo. He is +Ruggiero, a very noble youth. The public do not applaud, because they +are sorry for his death and, besides, it would be an insult to Rinaldo if +they were to applaud at the death of his brother-in-law." + +On hearing this the buffo borrowed my handkerchief and wiped away two +tears, one from each of his eyes, then he returned it politely and began +mumbling to himself. + +"What are you saying?" I inquired. "Why do you speak so low?" + +"Oh, it's nothing," he replied, "I was merely reciting a prayer for the +repose of the soul of poor Ruggiero." + + * * * * * + +The next morning I was down before him and had nearly finished my coffee +when he came slowly and sadly into the dining-room. I said: + +"Good morning, Buffo mio, and I hope you have had a good night and slept +well after your long journey and your evening at the theatre." + +He sat down, put his arm on the table and mournfully rested his head on +his hand. + +"My dear Enrico," he said, "I have passed a night of horror. I did not +get to sleep at all, and then I was continually waking up again--" + +"Nonsense, Buffo," I exclaimed. + +"But it's not nonsense. Ah! you do not know what it is to lie awake all +night, sleepless and trembling, between sheets that are made of lava, and +to hear footsteps and the clanking of armour and to see Rinaldo shining +in the dark and threatening you as he holds over you his sword, Fusberta, +and shouts in your ear: 'How dare you applaud when my brother-in-law is +killed?'" + +He seemed to enjoy his coffee, however, and to be ready for plenty of +exertion. He wanted a piece of lava to take home with him, and would it +not be possible to pick up a piece if we went to the slopes of Etna? So +we made inquiries and were told where to find the station of the +Circum-Etnea Railway and started soon after breakfast for Paterno. The +soil was black with lava and the wind was tremendous and carried the +gritty dust into our mouths and down our necks. In that way he got +plenty of lava to take home, but he wanted a large piece, and we could +not stop the train and get out and break a piece of rock off, besides, we +had nothing to break it with. We were like that old sailor in the poem +who was surrounded by water, water everywhere, but not a drop of a kind +to satisfy his immediate requirements. It was just as bad at Paterno; +from the station to the town all our energies were required to get along +in the blinding wind and the stinging dust and then we had to have our +luncheon. + +"And what would you like for colazione, Buffo?" + +"Seppia and interiori di pollo, if you please." + +But he had to be a Sicilian and eat maccaroni with me, because the inn +could not provide what he wanted. Altogether the day was perhaps +something of a failure, and we returned without the piece of lava. + +In the evening we went to the Birraria Svizzera, and he ate his seppia +while I got through my maccaroni. When his interiori di pollo came I +said: + +"I will do my best to eat what you eat, not exactly but as nearly as I +can. Instead of a veal cutlet I will have part of an esteriore di pollo. +It rather surprises me that you should always eat the same things. Gildo +said you like plenty of variety." + +"So I do," he replied. "Look at my plate. Can you imagine a more +delicious variety?" + +I looked and said: "Certainly there is variety; I doubt whether our +English fowls could show so much. But--well, as long as you like it--" + +Being rather tired after our day in the country we did not go to any +theatre, we stayed in the Birraria till bed-time talking and listening to +the music. + + * * * * * + +Next day was the last of the buffo's holiday, and I proposed another +excursion, but he said: + +"Suppose we pretend that we have come to Catania on an excursion, and +then we can spend the day in the city. I want to buy some things to take +home with me for my sisters." + +Accordingly we looked in the shop-windows and chose three ornamental +combs made of celluloid for the three sisters, a snuff-box for papa, made +of dried bergamot skin smelling so as to scent the snuff, and a pair of +braces for Gildo. It seemed a pity that the buffo should not have +something also, so he chose for himself a handkerchief with a picture of +the elephant of lava over the fountain in the piazza and he gave me in +return a metal pencil-case. Then the question of the piece of lava had +to be taken up again. We consulted the landlord, who produced a +bit--exactly what was wanted and only one franc fifty. We had been +wandering about in search of it and there it was all the time in the same +house with us. + +"What on earth are you going to do with it, Buffo?" + +"Why, everyone who goes to Catania brings home a piece of lava." + +"Yes, but what do they want it for? It might be a neat chimney ornament, +but you have no fireplace in your house. Or you might use it as a +paper-weight, but in your family you scarcely ever write a letter." + +He looked at me sadly for a moment and then said: + +"I thought you were an artist and now you are being practical. +Usefulness is not everything. This piece of lava will be for me an +object of eternal beauty, and when I contemplate it I shall think of the +happy time we have spent here together." + +I said: "O Buffo! don't go on like that or you will make me cry." + +In the evening we went to the Teatro Machiavelli and saw a performance by +living players. In the first act a good young man introduced Rosina to +the cavaliere, who congratulated him on having won the affections of so +virtuous and lovely a girl. The cavaliere gave a bad old woman one +hundred francs, and in return she promised to procure him an interview +with Rosina. The bad old woman persuaded Rosina to enter a house in +which we knew the cavaliere was. The good young man asked the bad old +woman what she had done with his girl; of course she had done nothing +with her, but we heard shrieks. The good young man became suspicious, +broke open the door of the house and, on learning the worst, shot the bad +old woman dead and was taken by the police. + +"This seems as though it were going to be a very interesting play," said +the buffo when the curtain had fallen. + +"Yes," said I, "what do you think will happen next?" + +"You ought to know that," he replied; "it's no use asking me. I never +saw a Sicilian play in Rio." + +"Of course not; I was forgetting. I should say that the good young man +will be acquitted because it was justifiable homicide or that he will +return after a short term of imprisonment; in any case I think he will +marry Rosina and live happily ever after." + +"I see," he replied. "You think it will be a comedy. People who take a +gloomy view of life naturally expect something cheerful in the theatre. +But what if it is a tragedy? And how are you going to dispose of the +cavaliere? Is he to carry his wickedness through your comedy?" + +"You want it to be a tragedy because you are a buffo, I suppose. Now let +me think. If you are right--" + +Before I could see my way to a tragic plot, the curtain rose on Act II. +The women of the village were going to Mass, but Rosina, reduced to +ragged misery, fell on the steps, not worthy to enter. The cavaliere +came by and offered her money, which she indignantly spurned. A good old +woman, who happened to be passing, scowled at the cavaliere and kindly +led Rosina away. An old man returned from America, where he had been for +twenty years to escape the consequences of a crime the details of which +he ostentatiously suppressed. This was his native village; he began +recognising things and commenting on the changes. Rosina came to him +begging. He looked at her and passed his hand over his eyes as he said: + +"My girl, why are you begging at your age--so young, so fair?" + +"Ah! Old man, I am in ragged misery because my father committed a +crime." + +"A crime! What crime?" + +So Rosina told him about it and the escape of the criminal to America. +The tears in her voice were so copious that her words were nearly +drowned, but that did not signify; we were intelligent enough to have +already guessed the relationship between them and we knew that she must +be supplying the details which he had suppressed. + +He struggled with his surging emotions as he watched her delivering her +sad tale and we felt more and more certain that we must be right. There +came a pause. She buried her face in her hands. The old man spoke: + +"Twenty years, did you say?" + +"Twenty years." + +"And what was your mother's name?" + +"Concetta." + +"Dio mio! And your name?" + +"Rosina." + +"Mia figlia!" + +"Mio padre!" + +Here they fell into each other's arms and the orchestra let loose a +passage of wild allegria which it had been holding in reserve. The +revelation of the cause of the ragged misery followed and was nearing its +conclusion when the cavaliere happened to pass by. Rosina pointed him +out to her father, who first made a speech at him and then shot him dead. +Rosina wept over his body, although she hated him, and the curtain fell. + +"That was very beautiful," said the buffo. "Do you still think it will +be a comedy? I still believe it will be a tragedy." + +"I am not sure," I replied, "but we shall soon know. Did not the old man +listen well?" + +"Yes. It was like life. Did you observe how he made little calculations +for himself while she told him the story?" + +"Yes, and one could see it all agreed with what he knew." + +"He was like your father reading his friend's letter. The cap fitted him +and he put it on." + +"Bravo, Buffo!" + +"And when he made as though he would stroke her hair and drew back +because he was not yet sure--oh, it was beautiful! But there was one +thing I did not quite understand. Why did the cavaliere fall dead?" + +"Because the father shot him," I replied. + +"He aimed in the other direction." + +"I also noticed that the old man fired to the right and the cavaliere +fell on his left, but that was only because of a little defect of stage +management. It does not do to be fastidious. You must not forget that +they are doing the play as Snug the joiner did Lion, it has never been +written. It will go more smoothly next time." + +"Thank you. You see, I am not a regular theatre-goer. There is another +thing that puzzled me. You remember the bad old woman in the first act +who was shot? Should you think I was being too fastidious if I asked you +why she rose from the dead and led Rosina kindly away in the second act? +No doubt it will be explained presently, but, in the meantime, if you--" + +"She did not rise from the dead; it was a different woman." + +"It was the same woman." + +"Anyone could tell you are a Portuguese or an Englishman or whatever you +are--a foreigner of some kind; no Sicilian would make such an objection. +It was the same actress, but a different character in the drama. That +was either because they have not enough ladies in the company, or because +the lady who ought to have taken one part or the other is away on a +holiday, or because the lady who acted wanted to show she could do a good +old woman and a bad old woman equally well." + +"Thank you very much. You can hardly expect--But hush! they are +beginning the third act, which will explain everything." + +The curtain rose again. The background represented an elegant circular +temple built of sponge cake, strawberry ice and spangles; it stood at the +end of a perspective of columns constructed of the same materials, and +between the columns were green bushes in ornamental flower-pots--all very +pretty and gay--"molto bellissimo," as the buffo said. The orchestra +struck up a jigging tune in six-eight time in a minor key with a refrain +in the tonic major, and a washed-out youth in evening dress with a +receding forehead, a long, bony nose, an eye-glass, prominent +upper-teeth, no chin, a hat on the back of his head, a brown greatcoat +over his arm, shiny boots, a cigarette and a silver-topped cane, entered. +I whispered: + +"Is he dressed well enough for an Englishman? + +"Yes," whispered the buffo, "but this is no Englishman. Don't you see +who it is and where we are? This is the good young man in paradise. His +punishment has been too much for him and he has died in prison." + +"But, Buffo mio," I objected, "it's a different person altogether; it's +not a bit like him." + +"It may be a different actor--I think it is--but it is the same character +in the drama. That is either because they have too many men in the +company, or because the actor who did the good young man in the first act +has gone home to supper and another is finishing his part for him, or +because--I can't think of any other reason just now, and I want to hear +what he is saying." + +Except for his clothes, the creature on the stage was little more than a +limp and a dribble, but there was enough of him to sing a song telling us +in the Neapolitan dialect that his notion of happiness was to stroll up +and down the Toledo ogling the girls. When he had finished acknowledging +the applause he departed and his place was taken by a lady no longer +young, in flimsy pale blue muslin, a low neck and sham diamonds. There +lingered about her a hungry wistfulness, as though she were still hoping +to get a few more drops of enjoyment out of the squeezed orange of her +wasted life. + +"And this must be Rosina," whispered the buffo; "Dio mio, how death has +aged her!" Seeing I was about to speak, he interrupted me: "It does not +do to be fastidious. No real Sicilian would make any objection." + +The lady sang a song telling us in the Neapolitan dialect that her notion +of happiness was to stroll up and down the Toledo ogling the men. When +she had finished acknowledging the applause she departed and, almost +immediately, they both came on together. + +"I told you so," exclaimed the buffo triumphantly; "they have met in +paradise and are happy at last." + +They performed a duet in the Neapolitan dialect and showed us how they +strolled up and down the Toledo ogling one another. After they had +finished acknowledging the applause the curtain fell and we all left the +theatre. I said: + +"I do not know whether you are aware of what you have done, but by making +that temple of spangled pastry into heaven you have wrecked your +tragedy." + +"Oh, I gave up my tragedy as soon as I saw where we were, and the play +ended quite in your manner, didn't it? like the Comedy of Dante. Or do +you mean that you have any doubts about that last act taking place in +heaven?" + +"I have many doubts about that." + +"I admit, of course, that it would have been more satisfactory, and much +clearer as a comedy, if we could have seen them both die before they went +to paradise." + +"Would you like me to tell you the plain, straightforward, honest, manly, +brutal truth about it?" + +"Very much indeed, if you don't mind; but I should not like you to strain +yourself on my account." + +"All right, Buffo, I'll be careful. Now listen. I don't believe that +the last act, as you call it, had anything to do with the story. It was +a music-hall turn added at the end of the play merely to close the +entertainment and send the audience away in good spirits." + +"But that wrecks your comedy. And if the play was neither comedy nor +tragedy, what was it? You cannot expect a simple Portuguese gentleman +from Rio to understand your Sicilian dramas all at once." + +"And we have not time now to discuss the question exhaustively, for if +you do not go to bed immediately you will never be up to-morrow in time +to catch your train back to Palermo, and if you are late what will papa +say and what will the public think when they find nothing ready in the +teatrino?" + +"That is true. Good night and thank you very much for my holiday and for +all you have done for me." + +"Prego, prego; I thank you for giving me the pleasure of your company." + +"Not at all." + +"But I assure you--" + +"If you go on like this I shall begin to cry, and then I shall not sleep +at all, and that will be worse than sitting up to discuss the play. So +good night, finally." + +"Good night, Buffo. You will forgive me if I do not see you off in the +morning; I do not want to get up at half-past five. I wish you Buon +viaggio. Give my love to papa and Gildo and my respectful compliments to +the sisters. Have you got your lump of lava and all your other goods? +That's right. Sleep well and do not dream of Rosina and the good young +man." + +"Arrivederci." + + + + +TRAPANI + + +CHAPTER VIII +THE NASCITA + + +Once I was at Trapani in September, and observed in a small shop in a +back street some queer little dolls' heads made of wax. They seemed to +form a set, some women and some men, and there were hands of wax to +match. I did not think much about them, one cannot very well investigate +everything one notices in a Sicilian town, and, as I turned away, these +little heads were driven out of mine by Ignazio Giacalone, who was coming +down the street. He is a young avvocato whom I have known since he was a +student. He told me that he was going to be married next day, and +invited me to his wedding. + +In the evening another friend of mine, also an avvocato, Alberto Scalisi, +came to the albergo to take his coffee and, as we all sat smoking and +talking, something was said about an article on the Nascita written by +him and recently published in _L'Amico_, a Trapanese Sunday newspaper. I +knew nothing about the Nascita, but I knew something about the avvocato +whose acquaintance I had made a few years previously at the house of my +friend Signor Decio D'Ali, with whom I had been dining. After dinner +many guests, including the avvocato Scalisi, came to the house to +rehearse a play they were preparing for a charity performance; they were +all amateurs, and I never saw amateurs act so well. The Signora Decio +D'Ali and the Avvocato Scalisi were the best; his was a comic part, and +he did it with so much natural humour that I was anxious to read his +article whatever the Nascita might be, as to which they gave me some +preliminary information. They reminded me of the Presepio, the +representation of the Nativita at Bethlehem, which it is the custom in +many places to make at Christmas; there is a most elaborate one, treated +as though the event had happened in modern times, preserved in the +convent of S. Martino, in Naples; there is one in the Musee de Cluny in +Paris, _L'Adoration des Rois et des Bergers_, Art Napolitain XVIII +siecle. I was most familiar with such things in the chapels on the Sacro +Monte at Varallo-Sesia, where the figures are the size of life. When +they saw I had got hold of the idea, they told me that in Trapani it is +the custom in the homes of the sailors to celebrate the 8th September by +making a representation of the house of S. Joachim as it appeared on the +occasion of the birth of his daughter, the Madonna, and to keep it on +view for three weeks, till S. Michael's day. They do not do this in any +other town, and the avvocato's article was about one he had seen. + +Next morning about 7.30 Ignazio's father most politely called for me in a +carriage and pair and, accompanied by two other guests, we drove to the +house of the bride's family, where there was a crowd of people, and we +were all presented; then we proceeded to the Municipio, where the civil +part of the marriage was performed; after which we returned to the +bride's house and went through the religious service at an altar that had +been erected in one of the rooms. We admired the presents and the +flowers, partook of refreshments and exchanged compliments till it was +time to go, and I carried away with me a copy of _L'Amico_ given me by +the Avvocato Scalisi, who was one of the guests. + +While reading his article I recognised that the little waxen heads and +hands must be part of the raw material for a Nascita, and in my mind I +identified certain figures in the museum which Conte Pepoli was then +arranging in the disused convent of the Annunziata as remains of old +examples of the Nascita and of the Nativita. Nothing would do for it +then but I must see a Nascita, and the difficulty was how to proceed. +One cannot very well go round knocking at all the doors in a Sicilian +town and asking if they have made a Nascita; the Avvocato Scalisi had +gone off to another wedding or to defend a mafioso, or to transact +whatever business falls to the lot of a Trapanese avvocato. Mario, my +coachman, takes no interest in anything to do with religion in any shape, +so he was no use, and everyone else I spoke to was very kind about it but +evidently did not know how to help me. + +I considered what I should do if at Hastings or Grimsby or Newlyn I +wanted to get inside a fisherman's cottage, and it occurred to me that I +should consult the parson. I knew a priest at Trapani whose acquaintance +I had made at Custonaci, but I did not know where he was. I boldly +stopped a couple of strange priests in the street and asked if they knew +my priest; they did, and one of them took me to his house. It was rather +mean of me to call upon him merely to ask him to help me to find a +Nascita, I ought to have wanted to salute him and enjoy his company; but +he did not appear to think it rude, and we went together to the old part +of the town where the sailors live and asked at a house where he knew +they always used to make a Nascita, but this year there was none. They +told us of another likely house, but again we were disappointed. We +tried several more without success, and at last I exclaimed: + +"What a lack of faith!" + +But my priest replied that that was not the explanation; it was lack of +money, because these things cannot be made for nothing. + +We could not then call at more houses because he was busy with his own +affairs; it was his dinner-time, or he had to go to a wedding or a +funeral or to do whatever it is that Trapanese priests do in the +afternoon, so we postponed our search till the evening, when he returned +with his brother, another priest, who knew a family who had made a +Nascita, and we went to their house. + +We were shown into a large room, at the end of which, on a long table, +was a sort of rabbit hutch or doll's house, all on one floor, about +eighteen inches high, with the front off showing that it was divided into +eight square compartments, so that the whole hutch was about twelve feet +long, the width of the room. These compartments were the rooms of +Joachim's house or flat, as we should say, and the figures in them were +about eight inches high. In the arts actual size counts for little and, +as with the marionettes, I soon accepted the dolls as representatives of +men and women and felt as though I were present at some such family +festival as Ignazio's wedding, and the rooms, all leading one into the +other, contributed to the illusion. + +We were asked to begin with the entrance. The front part of it had been +let to a cobbler who was sitting at his bench mending a shoe, and if it +had been real life he would have been singing. Behind him was a garden +of artificial flowers with a fountain of real water that was not playing +that evening. A door led through the side wall into the second +compartment, which was a salone. The porter, in evening dress, was +introducing a married couple, also in evening dress, who had been invited +and were accompanied by their baby in the arms of the wet-nurse. This +compartment was divided by a partition with an open door through which +one saw an alcove, or back room, with a buffet loaded with sweets, cakes, +and ices, at which the guests were to refresh themselves as they passed. +At Ignazio's wedding footmen carried the refreshments about on trays. A +door in the side led to the third compartment, where children were +dancing to a toy piano with four real notes. I struck one and it +sounded. A lady doll was playing, and I looked at her music, but the +notes were too small for my eyes, so I asked our hostess what music it +was, and she replied that it was a selection from the _Geisha_. I +remembered then that there had recently been in the town a travelling +opera company performing that work which is so popular in Italy that one +often hears the boys whistling the airs in the streets. A surname is not +of much practical use in Sicily, and some of my friends have not mastered +mine, but by those who know it, and who also know that it is the same as +that of the composer of the _Geisha_, I have sometimes been credited with +the music of his opera, a compliment which it distresses me to be +compelled to decline. In the alcove behind were musicians playing +guitars. I did not strike a note on a guitar, feeling sure that it would +be out of tune with the piano. + +A door in the side wall led to the fourth room, where S. Joachim was +entertaining four kings who wore their crowns. These kings have nothing +to do with Gaspare, Melchiorre, and Baldassare, who fall down and worship +the infant Jesus, opening their treasures and presenting unto him gifts, +gold and frankincense and myrrh, on the occasion of the Nativita. Those +three were led from the East to the manger at Bethlehem by the miraculous +star; these in Joachim's room came in response to the usual cards of +invitation sent by the family, just as the relations and guests came to +Ignazio's wedding. The Madonna had, I think my priest told me, forty +kings and sixty condottieri in her pedigree. Invitations had been issued +to all their descendants, and no doubt all had accepted, but, owing to +want of means on the part of the artist who made this Nascita and want of +space in the rabbit hutch, only four kings could be shown. It is not +everyone who can entertain so many as four kings; there were none at +Ignazio's wedding. In this room there was also a monsignore with red +buttons to his sottana, he had an attendant who, my priest told me, was a +seminarista. In the alcove behind was Joachim's bed, and the empty cup +from which he had drunk his morning black coffee stood on the table by +his bedside. + +The door leading to the fifth room was partly concealed by a notice with +these words: "E Nata Maria," and, accordingly, here we found the new-born +child in an elaborate cradle attended by three angels who were planted on +the floor in front of her, rather a Christmas-cardy group. Four queens +with crowns had come, no doubt they were the wives of Joachim's kings, +and there was a Jewish priest whom I took to be Simeon, he had a +head-covering with horns such as Caiaphas wears at Varallo. My priest, +however, assured me that Simeon was not a priest, he was only "un uomo +qualunque"; and he would have it that the figure represented Melchizedek. +This occasion must not be confused with a subsequent one when the _Nunc +Dimittis_ was improvised by Simeon, who, he said, could not have lived +long enough to be present on both occasions. + +"Reverend Father," I objected, "pardon me if I give you an example which +points in the other direction. The best man or, as you would say, the +compare at my grandfather's wedding not only lived to perform the +ceremony of marrying my father and mother, but lived long enough also to +marry my brother." + +The priest wavered, but was not convinced; he repeated that this was +Melchizedek and that he always appears at the birth of the Madonna, and I +was so much under the spell of the Nascita that I could not remember +precisely when Melchizedek lived. Whoever this personage was, he had +passed into this room from Joachim's room on the day of the Sacred Name +of Maria, that is on the Sunday after the birth, and he had officiated at +the baptism. On the floor was a bath of water with cinnamon, in which +the baby had been washed and with which the guests were to cross +themselves. S. Anna was in her bedroom in the alcove behind, but not in +bed, she got up and sat in a chair on the ninth day after the birth. + +Through the door in the side the guests were to pass to the sixth room, +where there were nuns engaged in household duties, mending the linen, +darning the stockings, and so on. One was working a sewing-machine, and +in the alcove behind was their bedroom. + +The side door led to the seventh room, where there was another nun +ironing and directing the servants who were making quince marmalade and +extract of pomidoro and discharging similar autumnal duties; behind was +the servants' bedroom. + +Lastly we came to the eighth room, which, like the front entrance, filled +the whole compartment and had no alcove. This was the kitchen and +dining-room in one. The hospitable board was spread with such profusion +that there was not room on it for another egg-cup. Here Joachim was to +entertain the kings and queens to dinner later on. Three Turks and one +female servant were controlling affairs, making the cuscuso and preparing +the maccaroni. There were young chickens in a corner; I inquired for +their mother, and was told she was busy making the soup; then I saw that +a saucepan was simmering on the stove. The walls were hung with brightly +polished copper cooking utensils and there were baskets of maccaroni on +the floor. + +The three principal rooms were carpeted with tissue-paper advertisements +of a new bar in the Via Torrearsa which has lately been opened by +relations of our host. Each room was lighted by a naked candle kept in +place upon the floor by a drop of wax. All the walls were hung with +wall-papers, originally designed for larger apartments, and adorned with +pictures, among which I observed Carlo Dolci's _Ecce Homo_. The Avvocato +Scalisi saw, or says he saw, two saints flanking an advertisement of +cod-liver oil, and in Joachim's room was a portrait of Pope Pius X +blessing the company which included besides the kings a couple of +officers in uniform. But then the Avvocato Scalisi is a humorist, and +the trouble with humorists is that they are too fond of assuming all +their readers to be humorists also, whereas they sometimes have a reader +of another kind who is puzzled to know whether what they say is to be +taken seriously or not. + +We were about to make our compliments preliminary to departure, when our +host produced a tray with marsala and biscuits, so we sat down for a few +minutes and I observed what I took to be a little waxen paladin among the +wine-glasses. He was, however, no paladin, though he wore armour and a +helmet; he was S. Michele waiting to arrive on his festa, the 29th +September. It was now the 20th and, partly to please me and partly +because it did not much matter for a day or two, he arrived at once. He +had wings, but they wanted repairing, so I carried him carefully from the +tray and deposited him in the corner of the room in which the baby lay. + +My priest found several other examples of the Nascita and took me to see +them before I left Trapani. The differences were slight; in one case +there were only three rooms; in another the rooms were divided so as to +vary in size; in another the rooms had windows at the back with +balconies. Sometimes the guests were reading the _Giornale di Sicilia_, +and I saw opera-glasses on the table in one room and in another the +gentlemen had deposited their tall hats on the sofa. There were +book-cases full of books and the bedrooms were furnished down to the most +insignificant but necessary details. S. Joachim in one of the houses was +entertaining only three friends, and they had no kingly marks upon them; +they were perhaps descendants of the condottieri. I thought afterwards +of going back to inquire, but one cannot very well return to a house +where one has seen a Nascita and ask to be allowed to look again to make +sure whether or not the guests have hung up their crowns on the hat pegs +of the umbrella-stand at the front entrance. There was something about +these gentlemen, something in their costume as they sat at a round table +with S. Joachim, a queer 1830 feeling that put me in mind of Mr. Pickwick +and his three friends sitting in their private room at the "George and +Vulture," George Yard, Lombard Street, except that they were only +drinking coffee. + +In the garden at the entrance to one house was a baby taking the air in a +perambulator and a band of eight musicians with a conductor. There was +real water with a tap and a basin in the kitchen so that the guests might +wash their hands after dinner. There was a mouse-trap in the corner of +the kitchen. In one room the guests were playing cards, in another +eating ices, and I observed a toy piano with the extended compass of six +notes. + +In all the kitchens there was a Turk for the cuscuso. It is made with +fish, semolina, and onions in a double saucepan which in England is +called a steamer. In the bottom part water is boiled; in the top part, +over the holes, they put a layer of chopped onions, and over that the +semolina which has been previously made into very small balls by damping +it. The onions prevent the semolina from falling through the holes into +the water, and the steam of the water coming through cooks the semolina +and the onions. The fish are put into the water at the right moment and +are boiled while the semolina is being steamed. It is all served +together like bouillabaisse, the semolina answering to the bread, and +extract of pomidoro is added. One would not be likely to meet with +cuscuso in the houses of the well-to-do; one might get it in the albergo +by insisting on it, but they would rather not provide it because, like +the Discobolus in Butler's poem _A Psalm of Montreal_, it is vulgar. I +have eaten it only once when I dined with my compare Michele Lombardo, a +jeweller, to whose son I stood as padrino at his cresima, and I do not +care to eat it again, not because it is vulgar, but because I did not +find it nearly so good as bouillabaisse. The recipe for it has +penetrated to Trapani from Africa as a result of the constant intercourse +between Sicily and the French colony of Tunis, the fishermen of Trapani +going over to the African coast not only for fish, but also for coral and +for sponges. + +My priest was inclined to treat the Nascita with tolerant contempt; he +muttered the word "Anacronismo" several times and, since I have +ascertained that Melchizedek was a contemporary of Abraham, I think he +should not have done so. I said that the anachronisms did not disturb +me. I told him that in the marionette theatre in Palermo, when +Cristoforo Colombo embarks from the port of Palos in Spain to discover +America, a sailor, sitting on the paddle-box of the piroscafo, the +steamboat, sings that Neapolitan song _Santa Lucia_. I passed over the +anticipation of steam and contented myself with asking the buffo whether +the song had been composed so long ago and also whether its popularity +had extended from Naples into Spain. He replied that it had extended to +Palermo and that his audience connected it in their minds with the sea, +and as for the date of its composition he had made no inquiries, but he +knew it was older than "O Sole Mio"; we do not go to the arts for +accurate archaeological details. + +"I will make you a paragon," said the buffo. "When I was returning from +Catania I looked out of the side windows of the train and saw that the +telegraph posts, as we passed by, were some distance apart. But I made +friends with the guard, who took me into his van, and when I looked at +them again out of the back window of the train they seemed to get closer +and closer together in the distance until, far away, there appeared to be +no space between them; but I knew that there was always the same space +between them. So it is with the centuries, when they are in the distant +past it is difficult to distinguish in what century any particular event +happened. History may settle such points, but the arts come to us from a +country of the imagination whose laws of time and space are not as our +laws. Art is trying to get the people to realise that a thing happened, +not to teach them precisely when." + +I quoted this to my priest, and he admitted its justice; also he was so +polite as to waive his objection about anacronismo, which, I then saw, +had only been started in consideration of my being a professor; not that +I am really a professor but he had introduced me to our host as one, and +I had accepted the distinction so as to avoid the dreary explanation that +would have been forced upon me after a disclaimer. He having waived his +anacronismo so generously, it was now my turn to trump up an objection +which I could deal with afterwards as circumstances might require. In +making my choice I did not forget his cloth and, imitating as well as I +could his tone of tolerant contempt, muttered the word "Irriverenza" +several times. He saw what I meant at once and, in his reply, somewhat +followed my lead. + +"Where," he asked, "is the irreverence in making S. Joachim's friends +arrive in tall hats and dress clothes? Why should they not read the +_Giornale di Sicilia_ and play cards? Where is the irreverence in making +the children celebrate his daughter's birth by dancing to a piano? Why +should not the Madonna have her baby-linen made on an American +sewing-machine?" + +As he took this line so decidedly and we had given up the anacronismo, I +gave up the irreverence at once and agreed with him that there is no +reason against any of these things being done if it helps the spectators. +The arts are concerned more with faith than with reason, more with the +spirit than with the flesh, more with truth than with fact, and we can +never get away from the intention of the artist. Even in that Art of +Arts which we call Life, our judgment must always be influenced by the +spirit in which we believe that a thing is done. I have read somewhere +that one coachman will flick flies off his horse with the intention of +worrying the flies, while another (Mario, for instance) does the same +thing with the intention of relieving the horse. When a modern Frenchman +in the spirit of the _Scenes de la Vie de Boheme_ paints the guests in +modern evening dress at a _Marriage in Cana of Galilee_ we are offended. +The Nascita is not done by such an artist; it is peculiarly a woman's +subject, being a picture of home life with a birth for its occasion, and +is usually made by a girl who has never heard of Bohemia. She has seen +trains in the railway station and ships in the port, but probably has +never herself travelled in either. Her father or her brother has perhaps +been fishing for sponges off Sfax and may have returned with stories of +the wonders of Tunis, and so she may have heard of a boulevard, but she +is not affected by it. She makes her Nascita as the medieval painters +made their pictures, and is not seeking to attract attention or to +astonish or to advertise herself or to make money. Sicilians are all +artists, and the Nascita is the girl's pretext for making as close a +representation as she can of the life to which she and her friends are +accustomed. It is for her what the Shield of Achilles was for Homer, +what the Falstaff scenes in _King Henry IV_ were for Shakespeare, or what +the Escape from Paris was for my buffo in Palermo. + + + + +MOUNT ERYX + + +CHAPTER IX +THE COMPARE + + +Michele Lombardo, a goldsmith of Trapani, came to me one day and said he +wished me to be his compare. I at once had a vision of myself as a black +man riding round a circus on a bare-backed horse and jumping through +hoops. That was because, at the time, all my knowledge about a compare +was derived from a conversation I had had in the house of the Greco +family at Palermo. Among the photographs grouped on the wall was one of +a pleasant-looking nigger in European costume. I asked who he was, and +Carolina said he was an African, a compare. I asked what she meant and +she said that her father had held the African's niece at its cresima. +The African's name was Emanuele, but she had never known his family name. +I asked whether he had a profession and she replied: + +"Faceva cavallerizza." + +I knew no more about cavallerizza than about a compare or a cresima. She +explained the first by saying that the horse goes round and Emanuele on +the horse's back performs gymnastics. That is, he used to do so, but he +went to Paris, where a duchess saw him performing and, on account of his +agility and his attractive physiognomy, fell in love with him. She was +an Egyptian duchess and wore diamonds because she was rich. She was so +rich she could do as she liked in other respects besides diamonds, and, +liking to marry Emanuele, she did so and made him padrone of a grand +hotel in Madrid or Vienna, I forget which, but it was a hotel of the +first class, frequented by Russian princesses and American millionaires. + +I told Michele about this and he assured me that his proposal concealed +no equestrian circus and no Egyptian duchess; to become his compare I +should only have to hold his eldest son Pietro, aged seven, at his +cresima. Here was an opportunity of solving the mysteries of the cresima +and the compare, which Michele, who took my consent for granted, assured +me would solve themselves as we proceeded. We went to the bishop's +palace and were shown into his private chapel, where the sagrestano +entertained us with conversation while we waited. Only once before had +he ever approached an Englishman, and that was at Messina. He was a very +rich Englishman and a devout son of the Church; his card with his name +and address was still preserved as a ricordo in the sagrestano's house. +This gentleman afterwards died in Naples under dramatic circumstances. +He had stepped out one evening to take a mouthful of air, and on +returning went upstairs to his room; as he put his latch-key into the +door he fell down dead. By his will, which was found in the drawer of +his writing-table, he bequeathed all his great wealth to the church of S. +Antonio. I wanted to know whether this church is in Messina, or Naples, +or England; or, it might be in America or Australia, for they sometimes +speak of an Inglese Americano and of an Inglese Australiano. Once I took +some of my superfluous luggage to a forwarding agent in Palermo to have +it sent to England by piccola velocita. It included a figure of Buddha +which I had bought in a curiosity-shop in Malta. The clerk declined to +forward the image because it was a product of art, and such things may +not be sent out of Italy. I said it was a product of religion; he +accepted my correction and proposed to describe it in the form he was +filling up as a Madonna. Again I objected, pointing out that anyone +could see it was not a lady; it was Buddha. He was as puzzled as I had +been over the compare. I attempted a short sketch from memory of +Buddha's life and works, and was so far successful that the figure +travelled to London as a Cristo Indiano. + +The arrival of the bishop cut short the sagrestano's reminiscences. +There also came a woman with a baby in arms who was to receive its +cresima at once, in case it might not live to reach Pietro's discreet age +of seven. The bishop in magnificent vestments of brocade and gold stood +with his back to the altar; the woman with the baby knelt before him to +his right and the sagrestano put his hand on the baby's shoulder; Pietro +knelt to the bishop's left and I put my hand on his shoulder. The +ceremony, it seems, is a partial repetition of the baptism, or a +performance of a part omitted from the baptism, or it is an addition to +the baptism--for I did not understand so fully as Michele said I should. +Unless accelerated, as in the case of the baby, it takes place when the +child is old enough to have mastered the more elementary teaching of the +Church but does not yet understand enough to be confirmed; and it +consists in the bishop's using a great many words and gestures and making +the sign of the Cross in oil on the child's forehead. Almost before the +oil was on, the sagrestano wiped it off with cotton-wool and the bishop, +after cleaning his thumb with half a lemon which the sagrestano had +thoughtfully placed on the altar, held out his ring to be kissed by the +woman and by Pietro. + +In this way I became compare of Michele Lombardo and padrino of Pietro, +who is my figlioccio. Being Michele's compare I am in a way related to +all the family and, when I arrive at Trapani, Michele brings as many of +his children as he can gather to salute me. Last time he brought five +and said: + +"Excuse my not bringing more." + +In calling Emanuele her compare, Carolina Greco was not speaking very +strictly; the relationship exists between her father and Emanuele's +brother, whose child he held; but family relationships are so close in +Sicily, and they speak so loosely about them, that a compare of one +member of a family may be said to be compare of them all. + +A compare is, however, primarily he who holds a child at its baptism, and +this, no doubt, is why S. Giovanni Battista is padrone of compari. Thus +I am Compare di Battesimo of Peppino and Brancaccia at Castellinaria. It +was the grandfather who actually held Ricuzzu at the baptism, but he did +it as my deputy, and the spiritual relationship of compare which exists +between Peppino and myself is closer than that of padrino and figlioccio +which exists between Ricuzzu and myself. + +The first step in establishing the relationship of Compare di Battesimo +is usually taken at the wedding of the parents, when he who holds the cup +or tazza containing the ring becomes Compare di Anello of the bride and +bridegroom and also receives the privilege, or undertakes the obligation, +of holding the first baby at its baptism. At Ignazio's wedding someone +held the tazza with the ring and handed it to the priest at the right +moment, but I did not see this done because between the happy couple and +myself the lady-guests interposed a forest of hats, but I saw the tazza +among the wedding presents and thought it was an ash-tray till one of +them corrected me. There must have been a Compare di Anello also at the +wedding of S. Joachim and S. Anna, and this person, whoever he was, ought +to have appeared, and perhaps did appear, in the Nascita as padrino of +the Madonna at her baptism, but I did not visit a Nascita on the Day of +the Sacred Name of Maria, so I did not see the baptism. + +A fourth kind of compare is the Compare di Parentela; the name is used +for those relationships by marriage which have no special name. The +brother-in-law, for instance, though he may be a compare is not +necessarily one, he is a cognato; but the parents of a husband and the +parents of his wife are compari to one another, and the husband's cugino, +or cousin, is compare of the wife and so on. + +There is yet a fifth kind--the Compare di San Giovanni. The first time I +saw Turiddu Balistrieri after his escape from the earthquake at Messina +(see Chapter XVII post) it seemed an occasion proper to be solemnised in +some way, and we determined to become compari to one another, but as +there was no wedding and no baptism or cresima we did not know how to +proceed. We consulted an expert in Catania, Peppino Fazio, who said it +was an exceptional case. This did not alarm us because exceptional cases +are treated tenderly in Sicily. Our expert took time to consider and in +a day or two gave his opinion:--The relationship could be established by +our going into the country on the 24th June, the day of S. Giovanni, and +exchanging cucumbers or pots of basil. Nothing could be simpler, and +accordingly on the 24th of June, 1910, Turiddu and I went into the +country. He was in Catania, so he spent the day on the slopes of Etna. +I was staying with friends at Bath, so I went for a walk on Lansdown. In +choosing our tokens we had regard to the arrangements of the postal +union; he sent me a few dried leaves of basil and an elaborate drawing of +an emerald-green plant in a gamboge pot tied round with a vermilion +ribbon as a sign of goodwill and friendship. He drew the design out of +his own imagination and coloured it with paints which we had bought +together in Naples. I might have sent him a volume of Keats containing a +_Pot of Basil_ in an equally transmissible form, but as he does not read +English he would not have understood; so I sent him a young cucumber +about three inches long. The ceremony was complete, and we are as good a +pair of compari as any in the island. + +Thus there are five kinds of compari, namely:-- + +1. The Compare di Battesimo. + +2. The Compare di Cresima. + +3. The Compare di Anello. + +4. The Compare di Parentela. + +5. The Compare di San Giovanni. + +It may be said that there are more kinds; the woman who washes the cap in +which a baby is baptised becomes comare, but I do not know whether this +is so anywhere but in Catania. And the word is sometimes used in a +figurative sense as a term of endearment in addressing a partner or any +intimate friend, and sometimes with the intention of inspiring confidence +in addressing a stranger in a lower station of life. When two plump +gentlemen and one thin one entered the yard of the "White Hart" where Mr. +Samuel Weller happened to be burnishing a pair of painted tops, the thin +gentleman advanced. + +"My friend," said the thin gentleman. + +"You're one o' the adwice gratis order," thought Sam, "or you wouldn't be +so wery fond of me all at once." But he only said, "Well, Sir." + +A Sicilian Mr. Perker might have said, "Compare" instead of "Amico," and +one is expected to believe that no unworthy suspicion would have crossed +the mind of a Sicilian Sam Weller. + +Between compari there is such complete trust and devotion that no request +is ever refused; there is also the conviction, based first on intuition +and afterwards on experience, that no request which ought to be refused +will ever be made--a conviction which is, I suppose, an element in all +friendship. A compare is received in the house as a member of the family +and is looked upon as a relation closer than a brother. One can choose +as compare a friend in whom one has confidence, whereas there is no +choosing a brother, and cases have been known in which brothers did not +agree. But any compare taking advantage of his position would be a +contemptible traitor and among the sulphur-miners would provide material +for a play at the Teatro Machiavelli. Talking it over with Peppino +Pampalone he told me that sometimes things do go wrong, so that they say +there are three relations more dangerous than enemies--the cognato (the +brother-in-law) the cugino (the cousin), and the compare. And they say: + + Dagli amici mi guardi Iddio + Che dai nemici mi guardo io. + + May God protect me from my friends + For I can protect myself from my enemies. + +Peppino says: "If it is the man that would robber you in the street, this +man would put his life in danger because every movement of this man you +are looking. But if it is a friend then is it other; then you are +depending in him that he is coming to salvare you, you are embracing him, +kissing him, don't be regarding the revolver that shall be in his pocket +and sometimes would kill you. If it would not be Bruto, he would not +succeed to take the life of Cesare. Did you understand?" + +But these are exceptional cases. + + + +CHAPTER X +COMPARE BERTO + + +In 1901 I spent ten days on Mount Eryx, now usually called Monte San +Giuliano, near Trapani, where I went to see the nocturnal procession of +_Noah's Ark and the Universal Deluge_ (_Diversions in Sicily_, Chapter +X). During those days I made the acquaintance of about twenty young men +of whom Alberto Augugliaro, the son of the professor of mathematics in +the Ginnasio, was the chief. I have seen him nearly every year since, +first as a student at Trapani, then at the University of Palermo, and +again when he was at home on the Mountain for the holidays, in +villeggiatura, or doing the practical work for his diploma in the +chemist's shop of his uncle. When he became qualified, his uncle handed +the shop over to him and he is now established in it. + +One starry September evening in 1909 we were walking together in the +balio (the garden on the top of the Mountain), and I asked whether, as he +was now over thirty, it was not time for him to think of getting married. +He confessed that negotiations were in progress. I inquired the lady's +name, and he came close to me, took my arm and whispered a word in my +ear. If he had shouted the word it would have reached no other ear but +mine. We were alone upon the Mountain; the Ericini were sleeping within +their walls of stone; over their tiled and terraced roofs the stars were +pacing through the night; in front of us and to our right and left, far +below, encircled by its mountainous amphitheatre, the spacious plain was +cooling after the heat of yesterday; behind us, the sea was drowsily +patting the shore round the foot of Monte Cofano and along by happy +Bonagia, swaying idly in and out of the harbours of Trapani and among the +islands--Levanzo, Favognana, and distant Marettimo. Berto need not have +whispered the word; but it was a secret--it was the name of his lady. + +Soon after Christmas he announced in the most open manner, that is to say +on a post-card, that the preliminaries were over and that his engagement +to Giuseppina had been made public; I sent congratulations to them both +and he replied in a letter which, omitting the formalities, runs thus in +English: + + I, on my part, and Giuseppina, on hers, are extremely contented + because we both love you with that love which is strong and powerful + enough to raise the heart and to transport us above the breathable + air; and, as our thoughts frequently fly to you, our distant English + friend, we make you a proposition, but you will understand that we + lay no obligation upon you and we do not ask you to take any trouble. + Here it is in two words: It is our most vivid desire that you should + become our compare: that is, that you should hold the tazza + containing the ring at our wedding. I repeat, it is our most vivid + desire that you will accede to our request for this honour and we + shall be most grateful to you if you will content us. It is for you + to send your answer which we await with anxiety. + +Now, I cannot be more dear to Berto than he is to me--I am not sure about +the breathable air, but he is one of the best fellows I know--so I wrote +saying I was more flattered, honoured, and pleased by his request than I +could express in words. Moreover, it fell out very conveniently because +the ceremony was to take place in the following April at a time when I +intended to be in Sicily. Then came the difficulty about the wedding +present, and whether there was any special duty for a compare to perform +besides holding the ring. I remembered Ignazio's ash-tray and asked +whether perhaps I ought to bring something of the kind from London. +Berto replied that the tazza is a sacred object belonging to the church +and is lent for the ceremony and, as I did not seem to know much about +it, he kindly informed me that the customs of his country on the occasion +of a wedding are as follows: + + The father and the mother of the bridegroom and the father and the + mother of the bride invite the relations and friends, who all offer + presents of greater or less value according to the degree of + relationship and friendship. The ring is chosen by the bridegroom in + consultation with the bride. The compare, of his own accord, offers + a present to the couple, more usually he offers it only to the bride. + + All this I have told you merely as information with regard to the + customs of my country; it is not necessary for you to give any + present but, if you wish to do so, do as you wish. Wedding presents + are lifelong records of relationship and of friendship. + + If I am to speak frankly, loyally and sincerely to you as the friend + I have always been to you, I recommend you to bring some present for + the bride because, as you who have travelled so much must know, in + small places not to receive a present from the compare would be to + provoke the remark among all who talk that the bride and bridegroom + were not complimented by the compare. I tell you this because you + are my dearest friend and not because I wish to be critical. Bring + anything you choose and be sure that whatever may be offered by you + will be accepted by my bride. For me--nothing. I have sufficient in + the thought and the comfort of your friendship. + +So I consulted my sister, who recommended me to visit a jeweller's shop. +There is one in Regent Street where I take my sleeve-links to be repaired +when I have the misfortune to break them. She approved and I went and +explained the situation to the young man, who was very kind about it and, +after a few false starts, cordially advised one of a line of gold +pendants much in vogue to be worn with a light chain. He had an +apparently inexhaustible stock, and I became as confused and helpless as +when some change is necessary in my spectacles and the oculist wants to +know whether I see better with this or with that. I have no idea how +long I was there, but in the end I selected a meaningless object of a +design which the young man assured me was original and exclusive, and +which I hoped would appear fairly unobjectionable to the recipient. +After which, not being at all content to leave Berto resting solely on +the thought and comfort of my friendship, I chose for him a dozen silver +teaspoons. My sister, to whom I showed these articles, approved and, of +her own unprompted generosity, added a piece of Irish lace as a special +gift from herself to the bride, though she is unacquainted with any of +the family except from my description. Thus loaded I travelled to +Trapani and went up the Mountain in the public automobile, arriving on a +Thursday morning early in April, 1910, the wedding being fixed for the +following Saturday. + +Berto met me at the Trapani gate of the town and took me to the Albergo +Sicilia, where I had stayed when I was on the Mountain in 1901. Signor +Bosco has died since, and his widow keeps on the inn with the help of +some members of her family of six daughters and four sons. One of these +sons is Peppi, a blacksmith, who plays a trombone in the municipal band. +Another is Alberto, one of the chauffeurs who drive the automobile up and +down the Mountain. Alberto and one of his sisters appeared as children +in the procession of the _Universal Deluge_. They were sitting at the +feet of Sin and holding one another's hands to represent the wicked +population destined to destruction. Alberto is now married. His wedding +took place in the morning, and at three o'clock in the afternoon three +hundred guests were entertained at dinner in the Albergo Sicilia, after +which they danced till dawn and, as the wedding was in December, they +must have been rather tired; but it was an exceptional case. + +In the afternoon Berto came for me and took me to the house of his bride +to pay my respects. The house belongs to her; she has two brothers and a +sister all married and settled, and on Berto's marriage he will leave the +house of his parents and go and live in his wife's house. We entered +through a door that led through a high blank wall into a courtyard where +there were flowering plants in pots, and steps leading up to the +living-rooms on the first floor over a basement which is used partly as +stabling and partly as storage. This is the form of most of the houses +on the Mountain, and the blank wall and courtyard give them an air of +seclusion. We went up the steps and were received by the bride and many +of her relations, some of whom I had already met, for Giuseppina is a +cousin of Berto's mother. They showed me over the house; the rooms all +led into one another and, though they were not in a row, it was rather +like going over S. Joachim's house when it is being prepared for the +family festa of the Nascita. It would have been still more like it if we +had come in by the other front door, for the side we entered is on a +street that goes up-hill and the house is at a corner with another front +door in the other street at the top of the hill and level with the +living-rooms. This other front door leads straight into a hall, which +will be occupied by the musicians on the evening of the wedding, from +this one passes to the dining-room where the servants are to dance, then +to the salone where the guests are to dance. + +We sat in the salone, about twenty of us in a circle, talking the usual +talk, and one of the young ladies asked me whether we had compari at an +English wedding. I said we had something of the kind. She inquired what +I should be called if I were compare at an English wedding, and, seeing +no way out of it, I modestly murmured: + +"In England I should be called the Best Man." + +This naturally led to a torrent of compliments, which I battled with for +some moments, and finally subdued by asking to see the rest of the house. +We went to the room which had been arranged as the buffet; the walls were +adorned with large looking-glasses, and in the middle was a table for the +cakes and sweets. The buffet is to be my bedroom next time I come to the +Mountain. We passed through two other saloni and then inspected two +bedrooms, one for the happy couple, the other for Berto's mother, who is +to stay with them for the first few days. The presents were arranged on +a table by the side of the nuptial couch, which had arrived that morning +from Palermo together with the rest of the bedroom suite, very handsome, +and made of Hungarian ash. The presents were rather as I have seen +wedding presents in England, plenty of spoons and forks, gold brooches, +rings, bracelets, some set with diamonds and some with other stones, and +I was glad I was not really back in Regent Street choosing my pendant. + +We went into the courtyard and into the stable where we saw Mille-lire +the donkey, who is scarcely bigger than a Saint Bernard dog and only cost +thirty-five lire. It was Berto who gave him the name of Mille-lire to +signify that his value far exceeds his price. He has a cart to match and +can take four people, but I think they must be rather small people. He +shares his stable with thirty-eight chickens, old and young, and two +ducks, who all come out into the courtyard to be fed in the sun. There +are also three pigeons, making a total of forty-four creatures. In +addition there are two cats who live in the house and two tortoises who +live in the courtyard. Tortoises are found wild among the rocks in the +mountains and the peasants bring them up to the town and sell them. +These came from Monte Asparacio, which is near Cofano; they cost forty +centimes each, and bring good luck to the house. On Mount Eryx there is +a convent of nuns of S. Teresa, to whom flesh is forbidden, but the +prohibition does not extend to tortoises, which the nuns eat with tomato +sauce. When the nuns begin to feel the infirmities of age they are no +longer limited to this strange meat, the prohibition is withdrawn, and +they live like other old ladies, eating what they choose. I have no idea +how many fourpenny tortoises would make a meal for a healthy young nun on +Monte San Giuliano, where one's appetite is sharpened by the air. They +occasionally add a few snails, which are also permitted; there is a kind +of snail which is found underground and is considered a luxury by others +besides the nuns of S. Teresa. + +After the stable and the courtyard we went to the terrace whence, over +the roofs and cupolas and among the towers and belfries of the town, +there is a view of the sea and the plain. Then we visited the kitchen +and saw the oven for baking the bread. All the well-to-do families on +the Mountain possess land on the campagna where they grow their own corn; +they take it to the mill to be weighed and ground, and fetch back the +flour which is also weighed; they know that if they leave a hundred +kilograms of grain they must receive ninety-nine of flour, and in this +wasted kilogram of flour lurks the true reason why the miller wears a +white hat. They bake their own bread and sometimes make their own +maccaroni at home. They grow their own grapes and make their own wine. +They have olive trees for oil, and goats whose milk they drink, +considering it lighter and more digestible than cows' milk. Berto's +sister has a private goat of her own, who lives down in the country and +comes up every morning, a journey of three-quarters of an hour, and she +milks it herself. Thus they pass their lives very close to Mother Earth, +and the seasons sensibly affect their comfort. They have little use for +money except to buy coffee, fish, sugar, meat, and clothes, or the stuff +of which they make their clothes, and some of them raise their own linen +and wool. But they want money when there is a family festa; Berto told +me he had spent 700 lire merely for the sweetmeats and cakes at his +wedding. + +All Friday and most of Saturday I spent in being presented to various +members of the family and in making preparations. Berto recommended me +to visit the barber on Saturday afternoon and, as a good Sicilian, I +followed his advice and went to the salone of Peppino. When Samuel +Butler first came to Mount Eryx in 1892 to see whether he could identify +the localities with those described as Scheria and Ithaca in the +_Odyssey_, he slipped in the street and put his ankle out of joint. The +doctor was away, and his foot was set by Peppino, who is a barber-surgeon +with a salone close to the spot where the accident happened. Accordingly +Peppino is the barber I employ when I am on the Mountain. While he was +attending to me I observed a change in the salone, and, on asking where +the looking-glasses were, was told they had been lent to Berto to +ornament the buffet of his wedding festa. + +After the barber, I had my dinner, as I found there would be no +opportunity to do so when once the wedding ceremonies had begun, and then +I dressed. In the meantime a cloud began to collect on the Mountain and +the wind began to blow. + + + +CHAPTER XI +BERTO'S WEDDING + + +A Sicilian wedding is conducted either on system _a_, when the happy +couple go away for their honeymoon and the ceremony is performed in the +morning, or on system _b_, when they do not go away but have a ball at +home, and then the ceremony is performed in the evening. The wedding of +Ignazio proceeded on system _a_, that of Berto and Giuseppina on system +_b_. As for Alberto Bosco, his wedding was either a combination of _a_ +and _b_ or an exceptional case. + +Berto's brother Nicolao came to fetch me at 5.30 p.m. and took me to the +house of the bride's brother in the piazza, where the bride was waiting. +Her dress was of pale grey crepe trimmed with dull silver embroidery and +she wore zagara in her bonnet. Exceptional cases being excepted, it may +be said that brides only wear white silk and a veil and wreath of orange +blossom, as Ignazio's bride did at the religious ceremony, when the +wedding is conducted on system _a_. I failed to discover any rule about +a cortege of bridesmaids, if there is such a rule it is probably elastic. +The other ladies wore dresses as for a dance in England in the country in +the winter. The gentlemen, like the guests at the Nascita, wore evening +dress. And of course we all had cloaks or over-coats. + +When we were about to leave the house, Peppi Bosco, with his trombone and +the rest of the municipal band, began to play, and to the strains of +their music we crossed the piazza in the fog. The bride was conducted by +her brother, the bridegroom came next escorting a lady cousin, I +followed, as compare, with Berto's mother, and the others came after. We +entered the municipio and went upstairs into a large room. The sindaco +sat behind a table, the bride and bridegroom sat facing one another in +two armchairs on the opposite side of the table and we ranged ourselves +about the room. + +The sindaco had often before sat at that table and received other wedding +parties, nevertheless he appeared at a loss, or perhaps he disapproved of +matrimony. At any rate he was not going to acquiesce in the proceedings +until he had dwelt, as elderly people will, on the serious nature of the +duties the young people were proposing to undertake. He went so far as +to put clearly before them aspects of the case which they might have +overlooked and to read them legal extracts of a discouraging nature. +They were unmoved, and the sindaco, still dissatisfied, asked Berto +point-blank whether he really wished, under the circumstances, to take +Giuseppina to be his wife. Berto replied in the affirmative. Concealing +his surprise, the sindaco turned to Giuseppina and asked her whether she +wished to be married to Berto. She said she did; and indeed it was the +reason why we were all there, as the sindaco must have known if he had +given the matter a thought, for the wedding had been the talk of the town +since Christmas; but the law does not regard hearsay evidence. Finding +there was no help for it, he pronounced the necessary words and, no doubt +with a view of disclaiming personal responsibility should he hereafter be +taxed with marriage-mongering, invited them to sign the book with a pen +made entirely of gold in the form of a feather, which he afterwards +offered them as a wedding present with his best wishes and a paper on +which his clerk had neatly engrossed the legal extracts. + +We descended into the piazza now vacated by Peppi Bosco, who had been +playing in it with his municipal music during the ceremony, and, forming +ourselves into a procession as before, walked down the principal street +of the town, and I was thinking of many things. As we passed the club I +remembered how once in the winter Berto had taken me there and introduced +me to all the notabilities of the place and I had wondered how the fog +agreed with the billiard table. We passed the farmacia where Berto +spends his time making up prescriptions and gossiping with his friends. +We went on down the street and my thoughts wandered to other subjects. +In the first place there was my hat, or rather Berto's uncle's hat, for, +though I had remembered about the guests at the Nascita wearing evening +clothes, I had forgotten that they brought their cylindrical hats, and +Berto had borrowed one for me, which was so small I had to hold it on. +And the wind blew and roared and shook the shutters and banged the +windows and doors and smashed the glass down on to the roughly paved +streets, and the dense, chilly cloud went through the cracks and +penetrated into every house and damped the beds and discoloured the +whitewash of the walls. And I had Berto's mother on one arm and could +not keep his uncle's hat on my head. At last I took it off and carried +it under my other arm, putting on my head a cap which I happened to have +in my pocket. + +We came to the steep part of the street near the salone of Peppino and I +thought of his looking-glasses that were temporarily adorning the future +bedroom of Berto's compare, and I thought of Butler's accident and of the +authoress of the _Odyssey_ writing her poem up here three thousand years +ago. And what are three thousand years to Time in his flight? An +interval that he can clear with a flap or two of his mighty wings. No +one knows how often he has flapped them since these narrow roughly paved +streets began to give the town its irregular shape; no one knows anything +of the prehistoric incarnations of her who has reigned here as Phoenician +Astarte, as Greek Aphrodite, as Roman Venus, and who now reigns here as +Italian Maria. We were adding one more to the processions that during +unnumbered ages have passed along the streets of Mount Eryx worshipping +the Mystery of Birth. + +We turned down by the Palazzo Platamone and at last reached the Matrice. +The floor was hidden by the people standing on it and the ceiling by +thousands of wax candles hanging from it. The organ was playing +antiphonally with Peppi Bosco, who had preceded us with his trombone and +his municipal music. We went into the sagrestia and I did not at first +recognise the Arciprete Messina who received us, for I had not previously +seen him in his vestments, but he knew me. We had met in the street when +he was wearing his ordinary clothes the day before and I had told him I +had his photograph taken by Butler, who wanted his face because it is +particularly round, like that of so many of the Ericini, and Butler used +to say they are descended from the Cyclopes who formerly lived +here--Cyclopes means circle-faced, not one-eyed. + +After signing the register we left the sagrestia, pushed our way through +the people, and stood outside the altar-rails in a circle, the arciprete, +Berto, Giuseppina, myself and another priest. I held an old silver +tazza, on which the ring was placed. The music was tremendous and had to +be made to play piano. The arciprete read the words and, at the proper +moment, I handed the tazza, from which he took the ring and gave it to +the bridegroom, who placed it upon the bride's finger. And the Madonna +di Custonaci sat over the altar with the Child at her breast smiling down +upon our little circle and giving her blessing to Berto and Giuseppina +who, with the sanction of their relations and friends, were taking the +first step on the path that leads to motherhood. + +We were not in the church ten minutes, and the music became forte again +as our procession passed out into the fog. We went to the bride's house +and entered by the door that leads into the courtyard which was occupied +by Peppi Bosco, who had again preceded us with his trombone and municipal +music. The bride retired and, after a few moments, reappeared among the +guests, escorted by Berto and accompanied by someone bearing a large +tea-tray piled up with sugared almonds, which she ladled to us in +handfuls with a silver coffee-cup. On whatever system a Sicilian wedding +is conducted it would be incomplete without sugared almonds, and they are +sent in boxes to all friends who are unable to attend. Several boxes +were given to me for my near relations who, by virtue of my having become +compare of Berto and Giuseppina, are now in a manner related to them. +And the bride also gave me for my sister a special gift of a handkerchief +embroidered by someone in the neighbourhood. + +After the almonds, the music began in the front hall and we danced. +There were waltzes, polkas and contraddanze, also games involving dances. +I did not try to dance the waltzes or the polkas, they were quite +different from those I used to be taught; Berto said they were dancing +the ballo figurato. Nor did I dance the tarantella, which I never was +taught in any form, but I saw it danced by Berto's mother and a brother +of the bride. I danced in three contraddanze, first with Berto's mother, +then with his bride, then with his sister. One of the dancers called out +in French what we were to do, and the mistakes we made added to the +amusement. Frequently there was a promenade, the partners walking +arm-in-arm round the room, which gave time to recover ourselves when we +had got into any great confusion. Sometimes he who directs the +contraddanza is so fertile in invention that he can make it last two +hours. I do not think any that I danced lasted above half an hour, and +they always ended by our promenading away to the buffet, which was under +the joyous direction of Berto's father. Here we ate sweetmeats and cakes +and drank rosolio, which is any kind of light liqueur. + +Berto's brother Nicolao took me away at 3 a.m., and I wanted someone to +show me the road because the cloud was still on the Mountain, and they do +not keep the streets lighted all night. But the rest danced for another +hour and then departed, leaving Berto's mother to attend to the bride and +to stay in the house. + +Next day at noon we all called to inquire and I remained to dinner at +two. While we were at table we heard the drum beating a Saracen rhythm +and went to the window. It was the festa of S. Francesco da Paola; he +was coming out of his church and going up to the balio on the top of the +Mountain. The fog had cleared away, leaving a few light clouds whose +shadows chased one another across the campagna and out to sea, where they +played with the islands that were swimming in it, each separate and +distinct in the brightness like those on a China plate. S. Francesco +turned his back to the islands; he had not come out to bless the sea. +Nor had he come to bless Cofano; he knew it was beyond his power to make +that rocky wilderness to blossom as a rose. The translucent mountains +stood back in a rugged amphitheatre before him, reverently saluting the +throne of Venus; he acknowledged their salute, but he did not bless the +barren mountains; he remembered the words of his Master: To him that hath +shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken away even that +which he seemeth to have. + +Good old San Cicciu da Paola turned his eyes away from the mountains and +looked down upon the exuberance of the campagna. Every patch was a +mother's breast suckling the young bread and wine and oil, making the +little figs to swell on their branches and the big blobby oranges to grow +bigger and blobbier among their leaves. The salad was pushing, pushing +up through the soil; peaches, apples, pears, medlars and plums were +forming inside their faint pink and snowy blooms; there were almonds and +blossoming pomegranates, asparagus and tomatoes, artichokes in disorderly +tufts and beans combed into tidy rows. In the hollow places, like marshy +pools reflecting the sky, lay beds of pale blue flax to be woven into +wedding sheets for Mount Eryx. + +San Cicciu looked upon it and saw that it was good, and he blessed all +that fertility. He was doing for the campagna what the Cyclopean +arciprete had asked the Madonna to do for Berto and Giuseppina. + + + + +TRABONELLA + + +CHAPTER XII +SULPHUR + + +Caltanissetta is a busy town of some 45,000 inhabitants near the middle +of the island and about 2000 feet above the sea. It depends for its +prosperity on almonds, grapes, olives and sulphur, especially the last, +for there is much sulphur in the pores of the rock. I have several +friends there of whom one, Beppe (Giuseppe) Catena, is an engineer with +an interest in Trabonella, the largest sulphur mine in the neighbourhood, +and another, Gigino (Luigi) Cordova, is an advocate. Sometimes Beppe is +in the town and sometimes Gigino and I go to Trabonella and find him +there. It is an hour's drive along a road that winds among rolling +hills. Through the depressions between the near hills other hills +appear, and through their depressions higher hills, and beyond these are +higher hills again until the view is bounded by the Monti delle Madonie +where the snow lingers until May. It must have been some such country as +this that was in the mind of him who first spoke of the sea running +mountains high. + +I do not know whether it is more beautiful in spring or in autumn. I +know that in spring the grass under the orange trees is spotted with +purple flowers, and that crimson vetch incarnadines the hills, as though +Lady Macbeth had dipped her little hand into their multitudinous green; +the hedges bloom with rosemary and scarlet geranium, the banks with sweet +pea and brilliant mesembryanthemum, and the rough places are full of +asphodel; there are a few eucalyptus trees and now and then a solemn row +of cypresses; we may pass a hut of grey thatch and perhaps a few horses +or a sprinkling of tethered goats; sometimes we see a herd of bullocks +tended by a boy who has come out this morning in black sheep-skin +leggings up to his hips, and I think he learnt his song from happy +nightingales that set the April moonlight to music. + +But in autumn the prospect is as fair. The harvest is over; the earth, +bronzed by the summer heat, is resting after her labour and nature is +making variations in the ochres and umbers that in spring were half +hidden, huddled together in the steep places where nothing will flourish; +the stubble shows in lines of pale yellow on the brown earth among +patches of almost colourless green and other patches black with burning +which change the value of the olives, pistachios, carubas and aloes; here +and there is a shrivelled thistle, here and there a lone pine; sometimes +we see a string of mules winding in and out on its way home, losing and +finding itself among the undulations like a little fleet of fishing boats +that rise and fall with the swell, and I think Schubert must have passed +this way when he felt stirring within him the mellow loveliness of the +second Entr'acte to _Rosamunde_: + + [Picture: Rosamunde] + +We need not choose one or the other, we need only wait to have both; for +spring is the modulation to the dominant, the awakening, the going out in +search of adventure, while autumn is the return to the tonic, the coming +home in search of repose, the falling asleep; the first leads to the +second as naturally as youth leads to age. + +Last time Gigino and I went to Trabonella it was spring, and we took with +us his young brother Michelino, aged thirteen, who had never been there +before. We arrived in the afternoon and found Beppe, who took us round, +and we showed Michelino the works. Empty trucks were gliding down a +sloping railway into the mine, while others were gliding up filled with +the harvest of the deep. We saw the broken pieces of rock being put into +great furnaces and we watched the treacly sulphur that was melted out of +the pores and came oozing through a tap into a mould. It is then +purified and made into shapes like candles, and I thought of Kentish +giants handling such bars of sulphur to fumigate the hops in the glow of +an oast-house fire. We introduced Michelino to the overseers, directors +and managers and to the doctor. We returned to the hut where Beppe +lives, and dined out of doors in the yard behind. It all seemed to me +very healthy and like the accounts one reads and the illustrations one +sees of life in a new country, with the advantage that Caltanissetta is +only about eight kilometres away. But Beppe objected that the nearness +of Caltanissetta was no advantage because it induces a feeling of "Well, +it doesn't matter; I can always go to town for that," and so they put up +with much that they might remedy if they were really beyond the reach of +civilisation. Consequently he was not able to treat us as we deserved. +We replied that we were glad it was so, because he was treating us much +better. + +After dinner we joined the other managers and directors in a room of a +larger building; a mandoline and guitar were brought and some of them +played. Presently Michelino sang. He surprised me by the beauty and +power of his young voice and by his management of it, also by his musical +intelligence and by his complete self-possession. He sang the tenor +songs of many operas and other popular melodies, especially I remember +his singing the _Stornelli Montagnoli_, which is so beautiful that the +buffo said it would save itself in the Escape from Paris. To all this +the guitar-player vamped an accompaniment which Michelino relentlessly +silenced by a gesture when it became unbearable. It was absurd to see +him lording it over the company, nearly a dozen of us and the youngest +nearly old enough to be his father. When it was time to retire, beds +were found for the visitors and I passed a comfortable night in Beppe's +hut. + +Next day we were taken into the mine to see what goes on underneath the +freedom of the rolling hills. We dived down in a lift, ever so deep into +the darkness, and probably it was dangerous, but when I go down lifts and +see over mines, as when I wander among the tottering ruins of Messina, I +have learnt to hope that the accident will be some other day. We saw +nearly naked men, monsters of the abyss, crouching in cavernous places, +pick-axing the sulphurous rock in the dim light of their miner's lamps, +while others were bringing broken pieces along the low, dark galleries +and sending them up in the trucks to the light. And the workers were +groaning and moaning as they worked. Day after day, always the same +monotonous groaning and moaning, always the same monotonous pick-axing +the rock in the dim light, always the same monotonous sending up the +broken pieces. It was very hot in some places and very cold in others, +and I was glad to follow the broken pieces up and return to the fresh air +and the sunshine. + +Beppe told me that Trabonella is the largest sulphur mine in Europe, that +the total length of its galleries is thirty kilometres, which is about as +far as from the Albert Hall to Windsor Castle. They employ a thousand +miners, and the boys begin work outside the mine at twelve and inside at +fifteen. There has been an alteration in the law; formerly they began +younger and were deprived of the little education for which they now have +time, and the hard work so deformed their tender bodies that they could +not pass the army test. This is their modulation to the dominant, their +awakening to life. It is not a pleasing prospect; nor is the early +autumn of ill-health and decrepitude to which it naturally leads any more +pleasing. They pass their lives in the dark, morally and physically, and +frequently a sudden fall of rock cripples, if it does not destroy, the +victim; then there are broken pieces of a different kind to be taken +along the low dark galleries and brought up to the light. + +I was in Caltanissetta one Saturday evening and saw the funeral of two +who had been killed in this way that morning. First came a band playing +a funeral march, that was all the more melancholy because the instruments +were distressingly discordant, as though in their grief the men had not +had time to tune them. Then came comrades carrying candles, and comrades +bearing first one coffin, then the second, plain wooden coffins with no +pall. Others carried chairs on which the coffins were rested when the +bearers were changed. There were no priests. But there were priests the +next day for the wedding of another comrade. Beppe told me that about 90 +per cent of their funerals are conducted without priests and about 90 per +cent of their weddings are conducted with priests. + +They told me of one sulphur-miner who, having seen enough funerals, left +the mine and went to Palermo in search of work. He was taken on by a +contractor who was levelling a piece of high ground, on which blocks of +dwellings have since been erected behind the Teatro Massimo, and began +work at six o'clock one morning. Five minutes later he was killed and +buried by a fall of earth. + +In the mine they are in constant fear of this death. They work very hard +and the air is bad; they come up to sleep, to eat and to gamble. The air +they sleep in cannot be much better than that in the mine, for they are +laid out in close huts on shelves, like rolls of stuff in a draper's +shop. They hardly know the difference between youth and age, between +spring and autumn. They scarcely get a glimpse of the landscape except +on Saturdays and Sundays, and then they are intent upon something else. +After their week of labour they feel the necessity of expansion; they +receive their wages and go to Caltanissetta; those who are married sleep +with their wives, while those who are unmarried sleep quite alone as the +soldiers did after the death and burial of l'Invincible Monsieur +d'Malbrough. They become free human beings for two days. I have seen +the piazza full of them on Sunday morning--so full that I thought it +would have been easier to walk across it, treading on their heads, than +to push through the crowd. Unfortunately their notion of the life of a +free human being does not stop at loafing about in the piazza. They also +go to the wine shops, where they offer one another the means of +forgetting that their oases of rest lie in a desert of drudgery, and +sometimes this becomes the means of their forgetting everything else as +well. + +Gigino has written a paper upon the connection between alcoholism and +crime. He told me that the consumption of alcohol in Sicily is less than +in northern countries, but that there is more crime. I naturally +inquired whether it would not tend to lessen the crime if the Sicilians +would drink rather more. He replied that, as so often happens at the +beginning of any inquiry, there are other considerations and I must not +be in a hurry. As for the sulphur-miners, they need not drink more, but +if they would spread fairly over the week the amount they consume during +Saturday and Sunday, then, although they would risk incurring the +consequences of chronic alcoholism, they would avoid those of acute +alcoholism. For the need of expansion causes them to drink more than +they can stand all at once, then they quarrel and commit murders. So +that many of those who begin life as boys in the mine, and week after +week escape the falling rocks, live to be killed in a drunken brawl, and +one does not know which prospect is the more ugly. + +I asked whether their condition could not be improved by raising their +wages. They asked whether I wished to dislocate the commerce of the +world by raising the price of sulphur. I had no such desire and, indeed, +did not know, till they told me, that sulphur enters into so many +manufactures as it does. Here again in seeking to ameliorate conditions +with which one is imperfectly familiar one must not be in a hurry. It is +not altogether a question of raising their wages, they receive from four +and a half to five francs a day, which, for five days, amounts to between +twenty-two francs fifty and twenty-five francs a week; there are many +labourers who receive less and do more with it. Of course, they would +like more wages--everyone would like more wages--but what the +sulphur-miners really want is the intelligence to use wisely what they +have and also some change, if it were possible, in the conditions under +which their work is done. Beppe assured me that the question is not +being overlooked, but it has roots which extend further and are more +complicated than the galleries in the mine--roots which are tangled with +the roots of other questions affecting other interests, and these again +affect others. So I bowed before the other considerations and hoped that +with the changes that are continually taking place in Sicily something +may soon be done for the sulphur-miners, trusting that in the meantime we +are not paying too dearly for the advantage of getting our sulphur so +cheap. + + + +CHAPTER XIII +OMERTA AND THE MAFIA + + +When the drunken sulphur-miners quarrel and kill one another on Saturdays +and Sundays, the murderers are seldom brought to justice because of +Omerta; a word which is said to be derived from uomo and to signify +manliness in the sense of power of endurance, the power, for example, of +keeping silence even under torture; hence it comes to be used for an +exaggeration of that natural sense of honour, that Noblesse Oblige or +Decency Forbids, which makes an English schoolboy scorn to become a +sneak. It may be false and foolish, it may be noble and chivalrous, +whatever it is, they say, it has such a firm growth among them because +the history of Sicily is the history of an island which has for centuries +been misgoverned by foreigners, and the people have lost any faith they +may ever have had in professional justice. If one were to be involved +with a Sicilian in committing a crime, one might be perfectly certain +that he would never turn King's evidence, he would say, "Io son uomo, io +non parlo" ("I am a man, I know how to hold my tongue") and he would +rather die than betray an accomplice who is his friend and probably his +compare. Nor need the criminal fear that the victim or anyone in the +secret whether accomplice or not, will blab. A man with a wound on his +face, made obviously by a knife, will swear to the police that in drawing +a cork he fell and cut himself with the bottle. He does not intend his +assailant to go unpunished, but he will not have the police interfering +if he can prevent it; he means to look after his own affairs himself. If +a murder has been committed a crowd will collect round the murdered +man--a crowd that includes the police and also the murderer--but no one +has any idea who committed the crime, not even those who saw it done, and +not even the dying man, who may carry his assumption of ignorance so far +as to call his murderer to his side, embrace him affectionately and give +him a Judas-kiss which bears a double meaning; for the police and the +general public it is evidence that there can have been no ill-feeling +between the two, while for the friends of the murdered man it confirms +their suspicions as to the one on whom the vendetta is to be executed. +So many have told me this that I cannot help thinking that, if it really +is done as often as they say, it must by now have lost some of its power +of deceiving the police. Probably it was done on some occasion which +took the public fancy, and they keep on repeating it because it makes a +dramatic close. + +Giovanni Grasso has a play called _Omerta_:_ La Legge del Silenzio_. Don +Andrea has been murdered by or at the instigation of Don Toto +(Salvatore), who is an overbearing bully, nevertheless Saru (Rosario) has +been sent to prison for the crime and, during his absence, his girl has +married Don Toto. The play opens with the return from prison of Saru, +acted by Giovanni. He comes to the house of his mother, with whom Don +Toto and his wife are living. The length of the play is provided by the +disappointments attending his return: his setting up for himself and +painting paladins on Sicilian carts; a scene of passionate tenderness +with his mother, during which he convinces her of his innocence, but +refuses to reveal the name of the murderer which he has learnt in prison; +a beautiful interview with Pasqualino, his young brother, who shows he is +the right sort of boy by declaring of his own accord that he hates Don +Toto; a magnificent interrupted quarrel with Don Toto, and scenes with +the police and with the priest to whom Saru refuses to give any +information about the murder. Towards the end Saru staggers in wounded. +They all try to make him tell the name of his murderer, but he will not. +Finally, he is left alone with Pasqualino to whom he gives his revolver +with these dying words: + +"For Don Toto, when you shall be eighteen." + +Pasqualino understands, kisses the pistol and accepts the obligation, +saying: + +"I will see to it." + +The others return and ask Pasqualino whether Saru told him anything +before he died, and Pasqualino, concealing the pistol in his bosom as the +Spartan boy concealed the fox, bravely answers: + +"Nothing." + +One may object to the play on the ground that it breaks off instead of +coming to a conclusion--one is left wishing to see Pasqualino, grown up +and acted by Giovanni, executing the vendetta--but it is a good play and +shows what is meant by omerta. The dramatic critic of the _Times_ (2 +March, 1910), on the morning after Giovanni produced it in London, opened +his notice of it thus: "Omerta must make things very difficult for the +Sicilian police." This is precisely what they intend. + +Without omerta the mafia would hardly flourish, and the mafia is not so +easy to understand. I suppose the reason why Sicilians explain it badly +is that they understand it too well. The inquiring outsider cannot see +the trees for the wood, and the explaining insider cannot see the wood +for the trees. They labour to make clear things with which I am +familiar, and take for granted things which are strange to me, treating +me rather as my father treated the judges before whom he was arguing some +legal point. Their lordships interrupted him: + +"Yes, Mr. Jones, you say this is so and that is so, but you do not +produce any authority in support of your statements." + +"Authority, my lord?" exclaimed my father, as though perhaps he might +have forgotten something: then, leaning over the desk, he said, in a +stage whisper: "Usher, bring me _Blackstone_--or some other elementary +work." + +Thus we do not make much progress, but by degrees one picks up a few +ideas about it. + +My friend Peppino Fazio, of Catania, allowed me to copy and translate +part of an article he wrote in a newspaper. He is speaking of Palermo as +long ago as 1780: + + The Albergheria was the quarter that harboured those men who were + most ready with their hands and most quarrelsome; they were expert + also in using their knives, with which they fenced by rule and + according to art; they obeyed a certain code of chivalry of their + own, not permitting the weak or the unarmed to be bullied, treating + as criminals those who used fraud and treachery, and not brooking the + intervention of the police. They were men whom an exaggerated + sentiment of honour and of individual courage had decoyed from the + path of social conventions, but in whom there was a fundamental + notion of right conduct and a generosity at times magnanimous. They + held each other in great mutual respect, free from any element of + servility or cowardice, not recognising grades, nor conferring any + right to command--a respect that was the more profound according as + its object was the more distinguished for acts of valour and grandeur + of soul. It was the tacit homage that one pays to heroes, poets, + artists and to every kind of genius. + + These men, slowly degenerating, have produced the mafia, which is + associated with bullying, blackmailing and crime. The word mafia has + been applied in this bad sense only in more recent times, as we are + assured by those who have studied the subject. The ancestors of the + mafiosi used to call themselves Cristiani--that is Men in the sense + of men of courage and silence. + + The Cristiano carried in one pocket his rosary and in the other his + knife. Outside his own class he recognised the higher social + distinctions and, while preserving his own self-respect and never + stooping to obsequiousness, felt for the galantuomini (that is for + the townspeople) and for the signori (that is for the patricians) a + real submission which he displayed both in acts and words by + protecting their persons and their reputations; so that no thief or + evil-liver dared to commit any crime against one who was known to be + protected by a Cristiano. + +One recognises about this something of the chivalry of Robin Hood and of +more modern highwaymen. The conditions of life in the albergheria are +not identical with those of life in the open country, either in England +or in Sicily, nor with those of life in the orange-groves of the Conca +d'Oro round about Palermo. Both in the Conca d'Oro and in the open +fields the guardians employed to protect the crops are all mafiosi and +are able to prevent the employment of any who are not. The conditions in +a sulphur-mine again are different. Confusion arises unless one knows +which conditions are present to the mind of him who is trying to explain +the mafia. Besides which, the words mafia and mafioso are still often +used in a good sense. + +There was something mafioso about Michelino when he was singing to us at +the mine, keeping us all in order and silencing the guitar with a wave of +his hand. There is something of it in a girl who is not ashamed of her +beauty and does not blush to be admired. It was the mafiosita of Guido +Santo, the mule, at Castellinaria, that sunny morning when he trotted up +and down in his new harness before taking us to the shore, which put it +into our heads to make it also his festa. There is something of it in +the attitude of King Henry VIII, with his hat on one side and his arm +a-kimbo, as he appears in a full-length portrait by Holbein. There was a +good deal of it in the conduct of Giovanni in his Teatro Machiavelli on +one occasion when a lady music-hall singer failed to please; the public +hissed her and made such an uproar that she could not proceed. Giovanni +was, or pretended to be, furious. He behaved to his audience as Nino +Bixio behaved to his men on the Sicilian expedition. He came on and +abused them with gesticulation and language; he swore and stormed at +them; he appealed to their sense of chivalry; he threatened to come down +among them and teach them manners; he declared that they should hear her. +He made the piano-man play; he went and fetched the lady; he stood by her +side, frowning, with his arms folded, ready to break out, the +personification of angry determination and suppressed energy. The people +acquiesced and listened. When the singer had finished, they applauded; +and they were applauding not only her, but also Giovanni because he had +dominated them. It is a small theatre and their numbers may have been +four or five hundred--it would depend upon the programme and the kind of +evening it was--but if it had been the Teatro Bellini he would have +subdued them just as well, unless there had been present someone to +resist him with a stronger personality, and his experience had taught him +that the chances were against that. + +An imposing personality is a useless possession unless there are others +willing to be imposed upon, and it is this willingness to be dominated +quite as much as the love of dominating that makes the mafia possible. +If I may "quote from memory": + + Surely the pleasure is as great + Of being beaten as to beat. + +Possibly the Sicilian charm contains among its many ingredients a trace +of this love of being dominated which, in England, we associate more +particularly with women, spaniels and walnut trees; and if it were not +so, history might contain less about the misgovernment of the island by +foreigners. + +The mafia is not like the Neapolitan Camorra, it is not an organised +society such as one reads about in books for boys, nor is it a recognised +trade union with a president, secretary, officers and so on. It is +rather an esprit de corps, and no more a secret society than omerta is a +secret society; nevertheless, they speak of the mafia as being more +highly organised in some districts than in others, and there are secret +societies whose members are mafiosi, so that for a foreigner to speak of +the mafia as a secret society would appear to be an excusable error. + +Among every collection of men, and even in a herd of bullocks, one is +always the acknowledged leader, and in a sulphur-mine it naturally +happens that one man has a more dominating personality, more prepotenza, +than any of the others; this capo-mafioso takes the lead and is king. +When, as often happens, he is a man with a respect for law and order, +willing to be useful to the managers, the mafia can and does supplement +in an amateur fashion the deficiencies of professional justice. If +Giovanni Grasso were really a worker in a sulphur-mine, as he sometimes +appears to be on the stage, he would certainly take the lead, and no one +who knows him will believe that he could ever be capable of a bad action. +But few men can safely be trusted with absolute power. Sometimes this +capo-mafioso is a villain who glories in a record of crime, a +brow-beating bully who will stick at nothing. Here is a situation for a +melodrama--the Wicked Despot. He does as he chooses with those around +him, who fear lest he should treat them as Don Toto treated Don Andrea +before the opening of _Omerta_, and as he treats Saru in the course of +the play; and they not only fear, they also admire an unscrupulousness of +which they feel themselves to be incapable. They refer their disputes to +him and execute his orders. They do not pay him money for adjudicating +between them, it is enough for him to have the satisfaction of being +asked to arbitrate and, by giving his decision and seeing that it is +carried out, he consolidates his power. But he exacts from them a +percentage of their winnings at cards as tribute, and they pay it +willingly so as to keep on good terms with him. Of course, under the +throne of any of these tyrants, among those who have sufficient daring, +conspiracies are continually surging and, sooner or later, whether he is +a good or a bad man, he has to give way to a stronger--perhaps a fresh +arrival, who takes the public fancy. Sometimes there are two with +apparently an equal power of dominating; they agree not to quarrel +openly, but, between themselves, each is on the look-out for an +opportunity to annihilate the other's influence. + +One Saturday, in the street at Caltanissetta, Beppe showed me marks of +bullets on the wall. He said that only a week before there had been a +row among a score of men with revolvers about some question of precedence +among the mafiosi in a neighbouring mine arising out of the terms +proposed for ending a strike. One of the men was killed and several were +wounded, but the question of precedence could not be settled that day +because the survivors were all put into prison. + +According to the plays, the prisons are to the mafiosi what the ganglia +are to the nerves, and give the prisoners an opportunity for talking +matters over, thus providing an effective means of continuing the plot of +the drama. And though the criminals feel secure in the knowledge that +omerta will prevent their confederates from giving information, yet the +police, of course, know who is who all the time, just as the police in +London know who are the criminals; the law, however, is jealous of the +rights of the people and does not move on suspicion. And too much of the +modern police methods would not combine well with the requirements of +melodrama. + +Beppe assured me that in his mine the mafiosi are mostly good fellows and +do not do any harm, except among themselves when they quarrel, get drunk +and murder one another. He admits that the making use of them in the +management of the men is like playing with fire, but he agrees with all +who have gone into the matter that a stranger falling among them, +wherever he might meet them, would be treated with the most extreme +respect and courtesy. This is not because they are afraid of giving +themselves away, distrusting the stranger's omerta, it is because they +have a real self-respect and wish to pass in the eyes of the world for +men of good position. The presence of a stranger among them is a +challenge to their chivalry and to their oriental sense of hospitality. + +Anyone wishing to study the mafia from books might begin with _La Mafia e +I Mafiosi_, by Antonio Cutrera, Delegato di Pubblica Sicurezza (Palermo. +Alberto Reber, 1900), and continue with _La Mala Vita di Palermo_ (_I +Ricottari_), by the same author. If he will also read all the numerous +books by other authors cited in the notes to these two works he ought to +gain a fair knowledge of the subject. + + + +CHAPTER XIV +MALA VITA + + +Sicilians sometimes claim that much of what has been stated in the +foregoing chapter is now out of date, and that, with the advance of +civilisation, the power of the mafia and the respect for omerta are +giving way to confidence in the police. And they go on to regret that +Giovanni Grasso should have so much success with his plays in foreign +countries, because they contain a great deal of mafia and mala vita which +he presents with so much realism that foreigners are encouraged in the +idea that all Sicilians are for ever sleeplessly going about with knives +in their belts seeking to execute vendettas. But most theatre-goers know +by this time that melodramas are not made up of the events of ordinary +life. A man does not discover every day that he has been deceived by his +wife or that his sister has been betrayed by his compare; when he does +make such a discovery he may be pardoned if he loses his self-control. +Anyhow, the sleepless vendetta notion is so ludicrously contrary to the +fact that Sicily can afford to take the risk. One might as well treat +seriously the complaint against the marionettes, that the swaggering talk +of Orlando and Rinaldo encourages the boys to behave in real life as +though every fancied insult must be wiped out with blood. The boys +certainly do fight--they can be seen fighting in the fish-market, one +armed with a basket for his shield and another with a stick for his +sword, his Durlindana. But boys fight, even in England, with no +marionettes to inflame their imaginations, and sometimes they cut one +another; still, no one would take too seriously the exclamation of that +schoolmaster who, on being called to deal with some such incident, +hurried from his study muttering: + +"Knives, knives--dangerous weapons; would to heaven they had never been +invented!" + +What was he going to do at dinner-time? And if the marionettes are to be +abolished, what is the Sicilian boy to do when it is time for him to sit +down to his evening meal of romance? It is even possible that if he were +starved of his marionettes he would more frequently substitute the +dangerous weapon for the stick. + +We see Sicilian life only in bits at a time and any bit we see may turn +out on investigation to be only a bit of acting; and, whether real life +or acting, we see it through the veil of romance which is held in front +of it by their language and by their gestures, which cause their acting +to appear more real--that is, which help it to be more deceptive. By +their language I do not mean merely their words and their grammar--we +also have a grammar, and our dictionary contains words as many and as +expressive as theirs--the romance is rather in their attitude of mind and +the consequent use they make of their words. I have read with disgust in +an English newspaper an account of a squalid Pentonville murder which, as +described in a contemporary Italian journal, appeared worthy to be set to +music by Puccini. We are like the audience in Giovanni's +theatre--dominated by the imposing romance of the language, and we prefer +to be so dominated. Or we are like the audience in the teatrino at +Palermo, when the buffo performs a miracle; as soon as we get behind "la +mala vita" and see it as "the life of the criminal classes" we have +caught a glimpse of how the illusion is worked. + +By their gestures I mean something about which in England, in France and +even in Northern Italy, nothing is known. It is true that we Northerners +can and do communicate with one another in gesture, but in England we +mostly omit gesture and use speech, while in France and Northern Italy +the gesture is only slight. A Sicilian sometimes omits words, but if he +omits gestures it is only by exercising great self-control. When he is +talking naturally, every muscle of his body is at work helping him to +express his meaning. It is as though he had not yet learnt to trust +speech, everything must be acted too, as half-educated people have not +yet learnt to trust the written word and if they read must read aloud. +At a cinematograph show, when a letter or telegram or the title of the +piece is shown on the screen, a murmur goes round the hall; it is the +people reading the writing out loud to assure themselves of its meaning. +So the talking Sicilian is telling everything twice, once with his voice +and once with his gestures and there is so much oil in his backbone that +there is nothing creaky, awkward or grudging in his movements; the +gestures are made with an exuberance, an intensity and a natural +unconscious beauty which seem to lift the matter above the plane of +ordinary life. So habitual is this gesticulation that it is often +useless. I have been behind the scenes in a marionette theatre, watching +the man declaiming for the figures. His energy was tremendous, no wonder +he drank out of a black bottle from time to time. I knew he was hidden +from the audience and thought he might be suggesting movements for the +marionettes to the man who was manipulating them, but that man could not +see him either and was improvising the movements of the figures unaided. + +The gesticulating Sicilian, however, is not more deeply moved by what he +is describing than the phlegmatic Englishman is when he is quietly +telling something. I have sometimes ventured to laugh at the Sicilian +for his unnecessary vehemence, and he has stopped in the middle of it all +and joined in the laughter. It would be extremely interesting to see +Giovanni Grasso in the part of an English gentleman, a Wyndham or a +Hawtrey part. I believe he would succeed because I believe he would +succeed in anything he set his mind to do, but for him to reproduce an +Englishman's tranquillity would be as much of an effort as it would be +for an English actor to reproduce a Sicilian's mobility. + +Their power of acting is not confined to those who are actors by +profession; the love of improvising little scenes in daily life may be +said to be characteristic of them. To suppose that they do this from a +love of lying would be to simplify unduly; they have the artist's power +of seeing a thing in two senses at once, and they assume that they will +not be misunderstood, at all events, they are not going to give it all +away by explaining, and if the stranger is taken in--well, as a rule, it +does not very much signify. Just as omerta makes things difficult for +the Sicilian police, so this love of acting makes things difficult for +the foreign traveller. There is a story in the form of a dialogue +between a foreigner in Palermo inquiring of a native about a tree that +was clipped into a fantastic shape. It can hardly be given in English +because it turns on the double meaning of "naturale," which means +sometimes "natural" and sometimes "naturally," but if it be added that +"scusi" = "excuse me"; "quest' albero" = "this tree"; "e" = "is"; "o" = +"or," any reader will be able to understand it: + +FOREIGNER: Scusi, Signore; quest' albero e artificiale o naturale? + +PALERMITAN: Artificiale. + +FOR: Oh, artificiale? + +PAL: Naturale. + +FOR: E naturale? + +PAL: Artificiale. + +FOR: (_getting irritated_): Scusi, Signore; quest' albero e artificiale o +naturale? + +PAL: Artificiale, naturale. + +And then the foreigner goes home and writes a book about his travels, +saying that the natives are so stupid they do not even know whether their +trees are clipped into odd shapes by nature or art. But the apparently +grave and courteous Palermitan knew what he was doing all the time and +was enjoying it as a child enjoys committing a harmless piece of +mischief. + +If one were to pierce through it and understand them as they may be +supposed to understand themselves, one would not necessarily be in a +position to give an opinion about the mafia, for, besides those who speak +of the growing confidence in the police, there are others who assert that +the improvement, if any, is slight and only on the surface, and that the +spirit of the mafia is not confined to the mala vita, but extends to the +upper classes and influences even the administration of justice and the +elections. When the natives differ on such a point, a mere foreigner can +hardly decide; but I have more frequently heard the opinion expressed in +favour of improvement. Certainly, in the Teatro Machiavelli, when +murderers are taken by the police it is often done now with the approval +of the audience, which they tell me would not have been the case some +years back. + +Before writing about the mala vita one ought at least to have seen a man +murdered in the street. I have never seen this, nor have I ever even +seen the body of a murdered man lying in the street. All that I know +about the mala vita in Sicily has been gathered from conversation, books +and plays. Lest it should be thought that in thus disclaiming practical +knowledge of the subject I am inspired by omerta--as a traveller may shut +his eyes to unpleasant incidents out of regard for his hosts--I will here +collect together all the occasions when I have thought myself to be in +the immediate neighbourhood of the mala vita. + +At Castellinaria the barber who keeps the shop opposite the Albergo della +Madonna--the shop in which Alfio Mascalucia was assistant--always seemed +to me to be a man one would readily trust with all one's possessions. He +must be now over forty, married and with a family. Peppino told me the +other day that in his youth, meaning between the ages of eighteen and +twenty-six, this barber had been a notorious ricottaro and had often been +in prison for crimes of various kinds. When I heard this, his extremely +courteous manner reminded me of the Robin Hood side of the Cristiani, and +of the oriental hospitality of the mafiosi towards strangers. I asked +Peppino whether I ought to discontinue my custom. He said not unless I +was dissatisfied with him as a barber. Then I realised that I must have +forgotten where I was for the moment. + +Carmelo and his brother Rosario at Castellinaria have both been in prison +for attempting to murder, but they can neither of them be said ever to +have belonged to the class of habitual criminals. + +In the Teatro Machiavelli Peppino Fazio gave me as a ricordo one of the +knives used by the mafiosi. The blade doubles on the handle, so that +when open it is about twice as long as when shut; some are as long as +twenty-four inches when open, mine is only eighteen. Being intended for +the theatre, it has never been sharpened or pointed but, except for this +it is a real mala vita knife. They told me there would be nothing to +fear so long as I continued the life of blameless respectability which +had no doubt become habitual to me--or some nonsense of that kind--but +that if I should happen to be caught by the police in doubtful +surroundings and searched, even this knife, in spite of its arrested +adolescence, might get me into trouble. + +"So you had better be careful," said one of them; "but if you do get put +into prison, let us know and you shall be treated as well as any +ricottaro. I will bring you a good dinner every day." + +"Yes," said another, "and I will bring you cigarettes." + +"And I," said a third, "will fetch your linen and bring it back to you +nicely washed and ironed." + +Whenever I show my knife to any of my English friends, for I am happy to +say I got it safely home, they always exclaim that it is an entirely +prosaic object. And so it is. It is as unromantic as an escape of gas. + +Several times I have been in a theatre when the performance has been +interrupted by a disturbance among the audience, but I have never seen it +develop into a serious row. + +Once in Palermo my bedroom looked over a small piazza, and one night I +heard talking and looked out. I saw a crowd and distinguished a man +disputing from below with another man on a balcony about fifteen feet +from mine, and there was a woman in the room behind him. The dispute was +all in dialect, but evidently they were very angry. Presently the man on +the balcony drew a revolver, it shone in the doubtful light, and he +threatened the man below; but nothing further happened and presently the +crowd dispersed, the man on the balcony retired and all was quiet. +Perhaps this was the prelude to a murder, and I may have read about it +afterwards in the newspaper without knowing how near I had been to the +crime. + +There was one other occasion when I thought I was going to see something +of the mala vita. On the cliff at Castellinaria are some remains of +polygonal buildings which have been made a national monument. The +custode's cabin is just below, in a sheltered place where Peppino and I +sometimes go and sit after supper. One moonlight evening, it was rather +late, but the lamp was still shining in the cabin and the custode was +still hanging about, I heard someone approaching and, looking up, saw, +against the sky, a sinewy, slight woman in a long black dress with a +black shawl over her head. She was coming rapidly along the edge of the +cliff with a shuffling, swaying motion, and as she came she was +continually rearranging the shawl over her head and chattering volubly to +herself in a hoarse, coarse, raucous voice. The custode glanced at her +as she drew near and I thought he flinched. I do not know how I knew it, +but I was sure she was his wife. She was beside herself with passion. +She must have found out something--something about some other woman. I +felt as I have felt at an Ibsen play--as though I were looking through +the keyhole into a room where dirty linen was about to be washed. She +shook and trembled all over like an express train approaching a country +station. Reason told me that Peppino and I were safe, we were on the +platform; nevertheless accidents do happen and there was the poor custode +on the line. She drew up in front of us, and her draperies swirled round +her with the suddenness of her stopping. She became silent and still, +while she looked at me as though fixing my appearance on her brain for +this life and the next; she looked at Peppino in the same way and at the +custode. Then the chattering began again and the restless rearranging of +her shawl over her head. Suddenly she turned, poured herself into the +cabin and exploded. It was not as with an earthquake, for the walls were +left standing and the roof and foundations were unshaken, and an +earthquake, they say, seems to last for an eternity, whereas this woman +seemed to take but a moment to complete her work of desolation. She +pounced upon something among the debris and laughed hysterically as she +hid it in her bosom. + +The storm was over. She was transformed into a rather beautiful and +extremely graceful woman of about thirty. She exchanged a few words of +friendly chaff with her husband, smiled at Peppino and bowed to me as she +passed out, went up the path against the moonlit sky and faded into the +night. + +All this was about a pack of cards. She had promised to lend the cards +to a neighbour that evening; her husband was to have brought them home +early in the day; he had forgotten to do so and she had come to fetch +them. So there was no murder and no dirty linen, but the cabin had to be +tidied. + +What would this woman do had she the motive and the cue for passion that +I had supposed for her? If her husband ever does entertain another lady +in his cabin and his wife hears of it, I hope I may not be in the +neighbourhood. But if I were to be there and to witness the crime, +omerta would forbid me, as a good Sicilian, to say anything about it. I +should have to forget the claims of justice and go to prison, if +necessary, rather than give such information as might lead to the +conviction of the person or persons guilty. + +Lastly, there was the lady in the restaurant-car--but perhaps she ought +not to be included in the list. Let her have the benefit of the doubt +and a chapter to herself. + + + + +CASTELLINARIA + + +CHAPTER XV +THE CARDINALESSA + + +One day, as I was travelling through the island by rail, I lunched in the +restaurant-car and divided my attention between the colazione, the view +and the other lunchers. + +At the table in front of me sat three gentlemen; beyond them, at a +separate table, sat a distinguished-looking lady, quietly but well +dressed in foamy white musliny stuff, with a good deal of lace and a few +touches of pale green. She had a lovely hat and a veil, which she wore +in such a way that I thought how well she would look in a motor-car. She +did not appear to be much over thirty, and she was alone except that she +had a little dog, whom she fed from her plate and who was evidently very +fond of her. She was not strictly beautiful, her face depended for its +charm more on its expression than on the regularity of its features, but +there was about her a certain indescribable combination of dignity and +vivacity that was curiously attractive, and that soon attracted the three +gentlemen, who, I presently became aware, had entered into conversation +with her. Possibly they had asked the waiter to introduce them while I +was looking out of the window. Certainly they cannot have met her +before, because I heard them ask her her nationality, and she told them +that her father was an Italian, a native of Rome, and that her mother was +French. And where was she going? To some place whose name I did not +catch. Then she must change at the junction. Yes, but there would be no +difficulty because she was accustomed to travelling, she had travelled in +China, India, Egypt and America. No doubt she was gifted by nature with +that happy temperament which enables its possessor to make friends +easily, and her extensive travels had provided opportunities for its +cultivation. I supposed the three gentlemen to be accountants or +advocates or perhaps engineers; but I thought from her manner that she +would have been just as much at her ease if they had been carabinieri. I +heard her tell them she was twenty-two; she must have been very young +when she began her travels. + +While the waiter was making out our bills, one of the gentlemen begged +her to grant him a favour. She smiled in her frank open way as an +encouragement to him to name it, and he declared that he should consider +it an honour if she would permit him to pay for her luncheon. The lady +accepted his generosity, and granted his request with a smile of such +queenly condescension that I had a vision of great Elizabeth stepping +upon Raleigh's cloak. + +Presently this gentleman went and sat by himself at a table for two and +the lady joined him. This appeared to me a little odd; he might just as +well have sat at her table, or have invited her to sit at his with the +other two gentlemen, there was room and it would have been less marked. +But they seemed to prefer to start a little colony of their own, as it +were, on neutral ground. The gentleman made another proposal: A glass of +wine? With pleasure. So the waiter brought it, and then the lady +accepted a cigarette. + +At the junction the lady and the gentleman both got out, and I saw him +help her into her train, which started first for the place whose name I +had not caught. Then he got into his train, which was labelled +"Castellinaria," and I went on without changing. A few days later, +however, I returned to the junction, changed there and followed the +accountant to Castellinaria, where I was going to see my friend Antonio, +who happened to be engaged there on an engineering job. In the evening I +told him about the lady in the restaurant-car. He laughed and said: + +"But this lady is a particular friend of mine. She is often here, she +returned two days ago and told me all this herself, only last night. If +you would like to make her acquaintance I will take you to see her." + +So we went to her hotel, which was not the Albergo della Madonna. She +received us in her bedroom, for which she apologised charmingly--so +charmingly as to make it appear the most natural thing in the world to be +received by her in her bedroom. She remembered seeing me in the train, +and begged me to sit down. She had a visitor--a gentleman. It was the +gentleman who had paid for her luncheon in the restaurant-car. I was +introduced, and he was, as I had supposed, an accountant. The lady was +less elaborately clad than on the occasion of our previous meeting. Just +as her other costume was precisely what it should have been for a +restaurant-car, so this was precisely adapted to her present +surroundings. She evidently understood dress. And very pretty it was to +see her busying herself about the room, entertaining her guests and +playing with her little dog. He was not the only little dog she had ever +had. Her previous companion, who had been given her by a Neapolitan +gentleman, died, and she wept for six weeks and was inconsolable until +another friend gave her this one. She thought first of calling him +Vesuvio, which was the name of his predecessor, but could not bring +herself to do so. Then she had the inspiration to call him Etna, which +suited him better, because he was a trifle bigger; it was also a kind of +complimentary reference to her first love. While she told us this she +was making coffee with a spirit lamp on the chest of drawers. She had a +speciality for making coffee, and really it was quite drinkable. + +She gave us the story of her life. She was the niece of a cardinal, in +whose person were accumulated all the apostolic virtues, and her mother +was a French lady of noble birth and almost incredible beauty, who, when +Mary, or Mery as she prefers to write it, was about two months old, +married the cardinal's coachman and had eleven more children. When one +draws a conclusion from insufficient data, it is always satisfactory to +discover, as one too seldom does, that one was right. I had been right +about the gentleman being an accountant, and here I was right again in my +surmise that the lady was exceptionally highly connected, so highly that +one could overlook her mother's mesalliance with the coachman. Her uncle +was only a bishop at the time of her birth, he became a cardinal soon +after Mery's mother married the coachman, and then he forced the coachman +to legitimise Mery, and in this way the coachman became Mery's legal +father; and all this was part of a scheme to accelerate the +ecclesiastical preferment of her uncle. Ah! but he was an ambitious man +and aspired to the throne of S. Peter. His scheme failed, however, owing +to the wicked intrigues of the Jesuits. + +Parts of this might have borne, I do not say amplification, for it was +quite long enough, but a word or two of elucidation. I have no doubt +Mery would have been quite ready to explain everything, for she had +nothing to conceal and the subject would have done as well as any other +to display her feminine charm, but I did not interrupt, because I have +observed that when a thorough woman of business undertakes to elucidate a +point of law, she does it so much in the manner of Mrs. Nickleby that she +not infrequently leaves it more obscure than she finds it. Mery did not +expressly say she was a woman of business, she, in fact, disclaimed any +such pretension, but she did it with a delightful mock modesty that +forbade us to take her words literally. + +No expense was spared over Mery's education. She was sent to a convent +at Marseilles and the nuns were very kind to her, not because of her +ecclesiastical connection, but because they were holy women with large +and noble hearts. Before her education was completed, however, she was +sent for to return home, and oh, what a home it was! Her mother's health +had broken down because the cardinal beat her, her legal father drank +instead of protecting his wife, the younger children were uncared-for and +the elder children, though they were growing up, had not Mery's business +capacity and powers of management. She put her shoulder to the wheel, +did the marketing, the cooking and the cleaning; she washed and mended +the children's clothes and saw to everything. She hated the life, but +woman was born to suffer and she did her duty. + +In time her next sister married a music-hall singer--I should say a +dramatic artist. Mery, who was now entering upon the heyday of her youth +and beauty, was naturally introduced to the friends of her sister's +husband. Every man in the company fell in love with her; all the +bachelors proposed, and without her natural firmness, reinforced by the +teaching of the holy nuns, she could scarcely have escaped matrimony. +There was another thing that helped to save her--she was waiting for her +anima gemella. I may here say that her anima gemella has not yet crossed +her path and that her real age is twenty-seven. She told us this in +confidence and it is not to go any further. For people in +restaurant-cars she is any age she thinks proper at the moment, they do +not matter, but she will never deceive her friends. + +Her sister's husband was a man of real insight; he divined that Mery was +a heaven-inspired dancer, and devoted himself to the development of her +genius. She did not say he had taught her to dance; she said he +encouraged and developed her natural genius for dancing. She made her +debut with a success which the newspapers declared to be even more +"phenomenal" than that which attends the debut of every artist. +Engagements followed, and soon she was dancing practically all over the +globe, creating a furore wherever she went and leaving the younger +children's socks to wash and darn themselves. Her mother was too ill and +her legal father too drunk to know what she was doing or where she was +doing it, but His Eminence heard and was so much scandalised that when +she danced into the Eternal City the doors of the Vatican were closed to +her. Cardinals are delightful men, most of them--and Mery knows because +she is on terms of intimacy with every member of the College--but too +frequently they have a fault; they do not understand the artistic +temperament. Nevertheless, if her uncle could have heard the cheers that +greeted her in Shanghai and New York, and the encores that called her +back in Cairo and Calcutta, if he could have seen the flowers that choked +the wheels of her carriage in St. Petersburg and the diamonds that were +showered upon her in Brazil, even his commonplace heart must have been +moved. + +She did not dance for us because, it seems, they do not dance when they +are resting, which was perhaps the psychological reason, but there was +also a geographical reason in the want of space, for the room was small +and contained, besides Mery and Etna in one arm-chair, another arm-chair +and two ordinary chairs occupied by her visitors; also there was the +chest of drawers on which she had made the coffee and all such other +articles of furniture as one usually sees in a hotel bedroom, including +two beds. The extra bed was there because Mery was, she confessed it, of +luxurious habits and in the hot weather liked to be able to change and +finish the night in a cool bed. + +Here there came a pause, not that she was exhausted, but something had +happened about the little dog, who required attention. When Etna's +business had been settled I thought it might be tactful if I suspended +the inconvenience, as they say, so I asked Antonio whether we ought not +to go and we begged leave to retire. She wished us good night in her +frank, open way, thanked me for my visit, inquired how long I was staying +in the town and concluded with the hope that I would call again, she +never went out, so I should be sure to find her at any time. It should +not be Addio, it should be Arrivederci. + +There are few places where I am more at home than I am in Castellinaria, +but as I had come there this time expressly to see Antonio he considered +it his duty to look after me; he was engaged next day, however, so he +deputed two of his friends to amuse me, and they invited me to come for a +drive to the lighthouse. On the way, one of them said: + +"And so Antonio took you yesterday to pass an intellectual evening with +the cardinalessa." + +"Yes," I replied. "What a charming woman and what a strange life!" + +They agreed, somewhat coldly as it seemed to me, and they rather markedly +refrained from developing the subject I had offered them; but they +proposed a counter subject. In a few days it would be Mery's onomastico +and they were going to send flowers. I should be in Palermo, would not I +send her a message on a picture post-card? Of course I would. So +between us we composed it:-- + + Auguri per l' onomastico. Ringraziamenti per la serata intellettuale + e per il caffe. Saluti--non piu, per timore di ingelosire nostro + amico Antonio. + + Devotissimo suo Enrico. {183} + +This was the address:-- + + ALL' EMINENTISSIMA CARDINALESSA, + MERY SO-AND-SO, + ALBERGO DELL' ALLEGRIA, + CASTELLINARIA. + +I chose a card with a picture of St. Peter's; this seemed more +appropriate than una ballerina qualunque, which I might have had for the +same money, because her onomastico was the 8th September, the birthday of +the Madonna, and it was her uncle who had given her the name of Mery and +had himself baptised her. + +I left Castellinaria next day with the card in my pocket ready to be +posted on the 7th September, and went to Palermo, where I know a young +doctor. I told him all about it and showed him the post-card. When he +saw Mery's real name he burst out laughing. + +"Oh! that woman! Why, I know her quite well. She was here with a friend +of mine, who asked me to attend her professionally--I mean in my +professional capacity. Oh! nothing serious, but we had to communicate +with her people and I know all about her. She is not a normal woman. Of +course, that rigmarole about the cardinal is all nonsense. She is the +daughter of a fisherman of Siracusa. She did dance here once for a few +nights, but only at the Biondo, and no one noticed her, she was in one of +the back rows of the ballet. Did they tell you why she returned to +Castellinaria?" + +They had said nothing about it, and my doctor, not being a friend of +Antonio and therefore not bound by any ties of omerta, gave me an account +of it. + +It happened a few months previously: Mery was living in Palermo in a +hotel, and her room had a balcony; the next balcony belonged to a room +occupied by a young lady and her family, and the young lady was engaged +to an officer. One day Etna strayed on to the neighbouring balcony and +behaved in a manner that displeased the young lady whose betrothed +complained to the proprietor and Mery was requested to leave. She, of +course, saw that all this about her dog was merely a casus belli +concealing a conspiracy to insult her, and indignantly refused to go. +Next day, while the officer was sitting with his friends outside his +usual caffe, Mery happened to pass on her way to buy a stamp and post a +letter. She spoke to the officer, saying: + +"You think a lot of yourself, don't you?" + +The officer requested her not to address him, whereupon, taking the law +into her own hands, she went up to him and made a hole in her manners by +scratching his face. A crowd began to collect. Mery permitted herself +the use of an expression. It was a Sicilian word, my doctor told me what +it was and also its meaning; it appeared to me rather silly than +offensive, but he assured me that it is never used except by people of +the very lowest class. Mery then made more holes in her manners, +reducing them to the condition of one of her father's fishing-nets, and +was attempting to do the same with the officer's face when the crowd +interfered; Mery was hissed and handed over to the police, who prepared +her papers, took her to the railway station and turned her out of the +town. + +Incidents such as this, by showing Mery that Sicily is no longer being +misgoverned by foreigners, may in time, perhaps, teach her not to +distrust professional justice. They also may in time, perhaps, teach +travellers not to trust to conclusions based upon insufficient data about +distinguished-looking ladies in restaurant-cars. + +But I sent her the post-card all the same. + + + +CHAPTER XVI +THE CORPORAL + + +One makes friends rapidly in Sicily. I made friends for life with all +the coast-guards during three or four hours which I spent with them in +their caserma. The corporal was the most demonstrative, and after I +returned to England we exchanged post-cards for some months. Then he +suddenly left off writing, and I drew the conclusion that it is as easy +to unmake friends as to make them. But I was wrong. After four and a +half years of undeserved neglect I received another post-card: + + Since the death of one of my sisters and the occurrence of several + other family troubles I have not been able before this day to write + and assure you of the great affection which I continue to nourish + towards you. For this I beg your pardon and your indulgence. I + should have much pleasure in writing you a long letter and in telling + you many things. Do you permit me to do so? + +I gave the required permission, and presently received the long +letter--much too long to be reproduced, but amounting to this: + +That he was sorry to hear I had had a cold, and wished he could have had +it instead; we could only hope that heaven would give me good health for +a hundred years; that he was now writing the long letter about which +there had been delay in consequence of his having been away at home on +leave when the necessary permission reached him; that he had no words in +which to express his joy at hearing that I was soon coming to Sicily, as +it was now sixty-three months since he had been in my presence. "Year +after year and I have not seen you, spring after spring and I have not +seen you, autumn after autumn and I have not seen you, and I have always +looked for your coming and have not seen you." + +He went on to say that the young lady to whom he was engaged was a +beautiful and honest girl, well educated and of a superior but +unfortunately poor family. He was longing for the day when he might +introduce her to me, for he had now been engaged over four years, and his +misery was that he did not know when they could be married. He was +thirty-five, and had been in service fifteen years and a half; on +attaining forty he would be able to retire from the service and marry, +but in the meantime he was losing all his youth under military +discipline; he had applied for a permanent government post which might be +given him at any moment, and then he could retire from the coast-guard +service and return to his business; he was a carpenter by trade, and +there would then be no obstacle to his marrying. And sometimes he was in +despair because he could marry at once if only he could deposit 8000 +francs--a sum that was beyond his means. He saw no way out of his +trouble. He had been very unfortunate ever since he was born, and +supposed he should continue to be so until he died; but he had always +been economical, and had saved about half the sum required; if only he +could get the remaining 4000 francs it would be a great good fortune, and +in a few days he hoped to send me his photograph together with that of +his young lady. + +I replied congratulating him on his engagement and regretting that it was +not in my power to help him to hasten his marriage. Even if there had +been any reason why I should help him I should not have contemplated +mixing myself up with the regulations regarding the marriage of +coast-guards made by a friendly nation. If one were to begin, it would +take a great deal of money to go round Italy endowing all the coastguards +who want to marry; not that he had asked me to do this, he had not even +asked me to help him, but it is as well to be prepared for what seems +likely to happen next, and I was using a sanctified form of refusal. + +In his reply he did not mention the subject; he said he had been +transferred to Castellinaria and had been promoted. He was now Caporale +Maggiore. I did not know before that coastguard corporals, like musical +scales and Hebrew prophets, could be either major or minor. + +I again congratulated him, and hoped his promotion might help to hasten +his marriage. Next time I was at Castellinaria I asked Peppino where I +should find the caserma of the Guardia di Finanza. + +"It is in the church," said Peppino. + +"What church? Not the duomo?" + +"No; this other church where is no longer the praying and they shall +enchant no more the Glory of the Mass with music and the bells are not +ringing and there is the cortile near the sea. It is not very long far." + +Then I knew he meant the disused church of S. Maria dell' Aiuto which I +had often admired. I called there the following day about three in the +afternoon and inquired for the corporal. His comrade who let me in took +me along two sides of a beautiful cloister, with sculptured marble +columns, and upstairs into the barber's shop, where we found the corporal +with a towel round his neck being shaved. He was so surprised to see me +that I was afraid there would be an accident, but the barber was clever +and nothing serious happened. After the shaving he took me into the +dormitory, which extends all along one side of the cloister on the first +floor with windows looking on the grass and flowers of the cortile on one +side and over the sea on the other--very fresh and healthy. Some of his +comrades, who had been on duty all night, were sleeping in their beds, +other beds were empty, and their owners were blacking their boots and +polishing their buttons. He told them to entertain me, which they did +while he finished his dressing. He then returned and proposed taking me +out. + +As we went along he asked whether he might take me to see his young lady. +I was surprised to hear she was in the town, knowing it was not her +native place, and asked whether the remaining 4000 francs had dropped +from heaven. He replied that he was still waiting. He was to have a +month's leave soon, and intended to take the girl to his home and +introduce her to his family; in the meantime he had hired a room, and it +was very expensive--twenty francs a month, in the house of most +respectable people. I foresaw complications when they should arrive at +home, at least I thought the journey might provoke remark among the +friends of the family, but I said nothing, and we went to the house of +the respectable people. Here I was introduced to the fidanzata, whose +name was Filomena, and who appeared to be, as he had said, rather above +him in station and of refined and lady-like manners. She was +embroidering the top part of a sheet--the part that is turned down and +lies over the pillow when the bed is made--no doubt for her trousseau. +The design had been traced and traced again from the tracing so often +that it was difficult to say what it represented. There was a balustrade +of columns like those that were taken from old Kew Bridge and sold to +support sun-dials; there were cauliflowery arabesques, and among the +spiky foliage there were meaningless ponds of open-work made by gathering +the threads of the linen together into wonderful patterns. In the middle +of all this stood one who after a few more tracings will have quite lost +the semblance of a woman; the five fingers of her hands and the five toes +of her feet had already become so conventionalised that all one could be +sure of was that there were still five of each. The corporal said that +this monster was Helen gazing out to sea from the topless towers of +Ilium. She was really looking the other way, exhibiting to the spectator +all that remained of the face that launched the thousand ships of which +half a dozen were shown riding at anchor behind her back. I did not +venture to criticise, because the corporal knew all about it, having seen +the _Story of Hector_ done by the marionettes. Filomena was embroidering +this most beautifully; I should say that the needle-working of it was as +much above all praise as the design of it was beneath all blame. + +Most of the room was taken up by a bed large enough to hold three or four +Filomenas without crowding, and upon it lay a mandoline and a guitar. +The corporal called for music; Filomena cheerfully complied, left her +broidery-frame, and took up the mandoline, whose only title to be +considered a musical instrument is that Mozart uses it for the pizzicato +accompaniment which Don Giovanni plays while he sings "Deh Vieni." +Filomena, knowing nothing about Mozart, used her mandoline for the +delivery of a melody which she performed with great skill, though it was +but a silly tune and sounded sillier than it was because of the +irritating tremolo. It was like her embroidery--very well done but not +worth doing. She had been taught the mandoline by the nuns, who had also +taught her needlework. I expected the corporal to accompany her on the +guitar; he admitted that he was passionately devoted to music, but +excused himself from performing on the ground that he had not studied it. +This is not usually put forward as an objection; the rule is for them to +play and tell one, unnecessarily but with some pride, that they are doing +it all by ear. And in their accompaniment they show themselves to be +artists of the school that preaches "Simplify, simplify, simplify" in +that they exclude all harmonies except those of the tonic, dominant and +sub-dominant. But they make the mistake of not being careful always to +play each in its right place; they carry their simplifying process to the +length of using their chosen harmonies in regular order, one after the +other, two bars each--it may come right and it may not, and when it does +not the resulting complexities ruin the simplicity. This sort of thing +might become unbearable, but I know how to escape from people of the +corporal's class without being rude. I do not tell them I have another +engagement--that is not accepted because, as there is no time in Sicily, +punctuality is not recognised. If they have a proverb about it, it ought +to be, "Never put off till to-morrow what can be done the day after." +Nor do I say I have letters to write--that only provokes discussion: + +"We thought you had come all this way to see us, and now you want to +write to England! You can talk to your English friends when you are at +home." + +The course is to say one wants to sleep; one need not sleep, but no +objection is made, and one is usually allowed to depart at once. I have +not ventured to try this among my aristocratic friends, I doubt whether +it would work with them--besides, they disarm me by handing round +tea--but with corporals I employ it freely, and the knowledge that I can +always get away in a moment, even if I choose to remain, imparts to their +company a sense of freedom which I regret to say I have sometimes looked +for in vain in the educated drawing-rooms of the upper classes. + +Before Filomena could begin her third piece I put my method in practice, +and for once it did not work quite smoothly, but the result was not +unsatisfactory. + +Certainly I might sleep, said the corporal; but why go away? He hoped I +should dine with them. I might name my own hour and, as for sleeping, +there was the bed. Besides, his brother was coming to dinner: + +"I want you to know my brother," said the corporal; "he is not like me." + +"But, my dear Corporal, that is no recommendation," I replied. "Is he +also a coast-guard?" + +"No. He is a dentist and very clever. He is an artificial dentist and +he had to work to learn his profession." + +"Well, I suppose every dentist must learn his profession before he is +qualified. Dentists have to be made, they are not like poets. No one is +a natural born dentist." + +"He had to work very hard. For a whole year he went to the hospital +every day four times a week." + +"A clever dentist is a useful ally. I should like to know him. I might +want his help while I am here. What is his name?" + +"Ah yes! That will interest you, he has an English name." Then he said +something that sounded like "He ran away" with the "r" and the "w" both +misty. As I did not recognise it, he wrote it down for me--"Ivanhoe." + +"If you send him your teeth," continued the corporal, "he will repair +them and return them to you as good as new." + +"Some of them are getting loose," I admitted, "but they wouldn't come out +so easily as you think, and how should I ever get them in again?--Oh, I +see what you mean, he is a dentist in artificial teeth." + +"Of course. When I say he is not like me, I mean that he is a man of +great learning, really well educated. He is very clever. You will see +him at dinner. I must not keep you talking, you wish to sleep. There is +the bed; why not lie down? If only we were in my own house at home--" +and so on. + +There was the bed, certainly, if I could conquer my bashfulness and make +use of it. Filomena treated the proposal as quite natural, and put the +guitar and the mandoline on the chest of drawers, though there would have +been plenty of room for them on the bed with me; she and the corporal +prepared to leave the room, and I accepted their hospitality with excuses +which I fancy I made with some realism because Peppino had kept me up +talking half the night. They went away, I took off my boots, lay down on +Filomena's bed, and was asleep in a moment. + +At about six o'clock the noise of the corporal opening the door woke me. +He hoped he had not disturbed me, he had been in several times to fetch +things and had tried to make no noise. I had known nothing about it. +Ivanhoe had come and was very hungry. Then he showed me the cupboard +containing the basin and water for me to wash, and told his fidanzata we +were ready for the dinner which she had been cooking while I slept. He +seemed to consider the room as his instead of hers--but then it was he +who was paying the twenty francs a month. Still I had a sense as though +there was something wrong. + +I was introduced to Ivanhoe, and we sat down to Filomena's dinner, which +was like her embroidery and like her music--it was very well cooked, but +the materials on which her skill had been expended were not worth +cooking, they ought not to have been bought. The young lady was one of +those artists who think more of treatment than of subject. The corporal, +on the other hand, in the management of his matrimonial affairs, had +chosen a good subject but was treating it in a way which my English +prejudices made me think too free. + +"I have not asked after your cold," said the corporal to his brother. "I +hope it is better." + +"It is quite well, thank you," replied Ivanhoe. "I have cured it with a +remedy that never fails." + +"I wish you could tell me what it is," I said. + +"Willingly," said Ivanhoe. "You take a pail of water and a piece of +iron; you make the iron red-hot and plunge it into the water; at first +the water fizzles, but when the iron is cold the water is still; you put +the water into bottles and drink one every day with your dinner. It +always cures a cold." + +"I must try it," I said. But I don't think I shall. + +"Surely you know how to cure colds in England, where you all live in a +perpetual fog and everyone is so rich that they can afford to make +experiments?" + +"We have poor people also in England." + +But Ivanhoe knew better. "No," he said, smiling indulgently, "that is +your English modesty; there are no poor people in your country." + +"I assure you I have seen plenty. And as for modesty, I don't care very +much about modesty--not for myself; I don't mind it in others." + +"Ah! but you English are so practical." + +"You have great men in England," said the corporal. "Chamberlain, +Lincoln, you call him il presidente, and Darwin and--" + +"Yes," interrupted Ivanhoe, "and great poets, Byron and Milton--il +Paradiso Perduto--and that other one who wrote the drama named--what is +his name? Gladstone." + +"Some of our poets have written drama," I said. "What particular drama +do you mean?" + +"The one--it is from the History of Rome," replied Ivanhoe. "A man kills +his wife, but I do not remember his name." + +"Was it Romeo?" suggested the corporal. + +"No; not Romeo. This was a black man. I read that Giovanni Grasso acted +it in London." + +"It was Amleto," said the corporal. + +"No, it was not," replied Ivanhoe. "And now I remember he was not black; +he lived in Holland." + +"Where is Holland?" inquired the corporal. + +"Holland is in the north. The people who live there are called +Aragonesi." + +While Filomena prepared the coffee, I asked the corporal whether she +allowed smoking in her bedroom. She did, so I gave him a cigarette and +he admired my case saying it was sympathetic. I also gave Ivanhoe a +cigarette, but Filomena did not smoke. There is a prejudice against +ladies smoking in Sicily unless they wish to be considered as belonging +either to the very highest or to the very lowest class, and Filomena is +content to belong to her own class. So she looked on while we smoked and +drank our coffee. + +I said: "When we were speaking of English poets just now, you mentioned a +name which we are more accustomed to associate with politics, the name of +Gladstone." + +"Ah! politics!" said Ivanhoe. "You have now in England a struggle +between your House of Lords and your House of Commons, is it not so?" + +I replied that I had heard something about it. + +"It is civil war," said Ivanhoe, "that is, it would have been civil war +some years ago, but people are now beginning to see that it is +intolerable that everyone should not be allowed to have his own way." + +"I am afraid I do not quite follow you," I said. + +"Well," he explained, "it is not difficult. Your House of Commons is +composed entirely of poor men, so poor that they cannot afford to pay for +legislation. Your House of Lords is rich, and rich people are egoists +and will not pay; so the House of Commons is angry." + +I did not ask where all the poor Members of the House of Commons were +found in a country that had no poor people; Ivanhoe was too full of his +subject to give me an opportunity. + +"If the House of Lords still continues refusing to pay for legislation +there will be no war, but the House of Lords will be +abolished--annihilated." + +"My dear Ivanhoe," I exclaimed, "what a head you have for politics!" + +"Politics are quite simple if one studies the newspapers. I know all the +politics of Italy, of France, Germany, England, Argentina, Russia. Don't +you read the papers?" + +"Yes, I read the papers, but I do not find our English papers--" + +"Perhaps they are not so well edited as ours?" + +"That may be the explanation," I agreed. "They certainly do not state +things so clearly and simply as you do." + +"Surely," he continued, "you do not approve of war?" + +I replied that war was a "terrible scourge." + +"It is worse," said Ivanhoe. "It is a survival of barbarism that men +should make a living out of killing each other. War must be abolished." + +"Will not that be rather difficult?" I objected. + +"Not at all," he replied. "Soldiers are the instruments of war. If +there were no soldiers there would be no war; just as if there were no +mandolines there would be no music. And the money we now pay to the +soldiers could then be distributed among the poor--an act pleasing to God +and the saints." + +But this did not suit the corporal who, being a coastguard, had no +sympathy with cutting down the pay of the army. + +"It is better as it is," said the corporal. "It is better to pay the +money to soldiers, who are earning an honest living, than to pay it to +poor people and encourage them in their idleness." + +"But soldiers are receiving money for making war possible and that is not +earning an honest living. There must be no more war. Soldiers must be +abolished--obliterated." + +"Obliterated" woke the corporal up thoroughly. It was all very well to +talk about annihilating the House of Lords, which he had understood to +mean demolishing some palace, but the army was a body of men, and if we +were to begin obliterating them--why, he had friends in the army and it +would never do, because--and so on, with interruptions by Ivanhoe, until +Filomena began to grow restless about washing up and I began to take my +leave. I thanked her for her charming hospitality and the corporal and +Ivanhoe accompanied me back to the Albergo della Madonna. On the way I +said: + +"Please tell me, Corporal, you say that Filomena is your fidanzata, but +it seems to me you are as good as--" + +"We are not married," he interrupted, "but she has consented to become +the mother of my children." + +"Do I understand that you have already taken steps to ensure the +attainment of that happy result?" + +He said he had, and that she was coming home with him in order that the +baby might be born there. His people, who understood the sincerity of +his nature and the purity of his motives-- + +"Ah yes, indeed," interrupted Ivanhoe, "my brother has a heart of gold +and we are all satisfied with his conduct." + +"But Filomena's family," continued the corporal, "are suspicious and +unfriendly and dissatisfied. Her adorata mamma and all her aunts and +female cousins wept when she left home, and they are still weeping. But +what else could we do? She was getting ill after waiting so long and +could not--" + +"Yes," interrupted Ivanhoe, "she was becoming like Ettorina, and my poor +brother also was unhappy." + +They admitted that the situation, though the best possible, was not +ideal. The corporal has to sleep at the caserma and pretend to the +authorities that he is a free bachelor, he can only visit the mother of +his future children in his spare time. And this regrettable state of +things had arisen in consequence, or partly in consequence, of my respect +for law and order. I did not put it like that to him. I pointed out +that if I had sent the 4000 francs I should have been obliged to deny +myself the pleasure of coming to see him in Sicily. He concurred and +thanked me for my consideration. His experience of life had already +taught him that the same money cannot be spent on two different objects, +and he was grateful to me for choosing the one which gave him the +pleasure of making me acquainted with his fidanzata. The 4000 francs +from some other source or the government appointment might drop into his +lap at any moment, and at the latest, he could regularise his position in +five years, when he should be forty, by leaving the service, returning to +the carpentry, marrying and legitimising any children that might have +been born. + +So I said good-bye to the brothers, wished the corporal every happiness +and gave him my sympathetic cigarette-case as a non-wedding present, or +rather as something that by an enharmonic change should become +transformed into a wedding present on the solemnisation of his marriage, +and he swore to keep it till death as a ricordo of our friendship. + + * * * * * + +Next morning Ivanhoe called upon me and said: + +"My dear Signor Enrico, I am in want. Would it be possible for you to +lend me five francs till next week?" + +I replied, "My dear Ivanhoe, it distresses me to hear you are in want and +it lacerates my heart that you should have made a request which I am +compelled to decline." + +"I do not ask for myself. It is for my children." + +"Would you mind telling me, merely as a matter of idle curiosity and +without prejudice to the question of the five francs, whether the mother +of your children is your wife or your fidanzata?" + +"She is my wife. We have been married thirteen months." + +"And how many children have you?" + +"I have two." + +"Only two!" + +"I am expecting another in a few weeks." + +"Bravo. Of course that alters the situation. Now suppose we settle it +this way: Let us pretend that you ask me to lend you three francs, one +for each child; I refuse, but propose, instead, to give you one franc on +the faith of the new baby." + +"Do you mean you abandon all hope of ever seeing the one franc again?" + +"I do." + +"Make it two francs and I agree." + +"No, Ivanhoe. One franc is quite enough for an unborn baby." + +"If you think so." + +So I gave him one franc. + +"I am very much obliged to you," he said, "and now there is one more +favour I wish to ask of you. Will you hold the new baby at the baptismal +font and thus do me the honour of becoming my compare?" + +This did not suit me at all. I replied: "My dear Ivanhoe, let us forget +all we have said since you told me you were expecting another baby, let +us return to your original request and here--take four more francs. It +will be better for me in the end than if I become your compare." + +"If you think so," said Ivanhoe. + +I had no doubt about it, so I gave him four more francs and abandoned all +hope of ever seeing them again; but I got my money's worth, or part of +it, in the shape of a registered letter soon after my return to London; +in English the letter runs thus, and I was brutal enough to leave it +unanswered: + + CASTELLINARIA. + + My most esteemed friend, Signor Enrico! + + First of all I must inform you that my health is excellent and I hope + that yours also is good. I wish you all the happiness that it is + possible for anyone to have in this world and I would that I could + transport my presence into London so that I might be with you for a + few days and thus augment your domestic joy. But there is one thing + wanting--I allude to money. So many misfortunes have happened to me + in this sad year that I have not the means to undertake a long + journey. I should be much obliged to you if you would kindly forward + me 300 francs, of which I am in urgent need as I have to pay a debt. + This money I will repay you immediately the next time I have the + pleasure of seeing you in Castellinaria or, if you prefer it, I will + promise to pay you in seven months from this date by sending the + money through the post; it is for you to choose which course would + suit you best. You will find in me an honest man. You will be doing + me a favour for which I shall be grateful all the rest of my life, + for you will be extricating me from a position of extreme discomfort. + The Padre Eterno will bless your philanthropic and humane action and + I shall have a memory sculptured on my heart as long as I live. + + I will ever pray for your health and for that of all your family. + The favour I am now asking I should like you to grant during the week + after you receive this letter. I will not write more except to say + that, relying on the goodness of your heart, I thank you cordially + and await your favourable reply. + + With infinite salutations, + I subscribe myself yours for life, + IVANHOE. + + + + +EARTHQUAKE ECHOES + + +CHAPTER XVII +TOTO CARBONARO + + +One morning, in the autumn of 1908, I was sitting in front of one of the +windows of the albergo looking out across the harbour at the mountains of +Calabria, waiting for coffee and thinking of _Omerta_. I had been +spending a week in Messina with Giovanni Grasso and his company of +Sicilian Players, and _Omerta_ was the play they had performed the +preceding evening. I remembered how at the end Giovanni had staggered in +mortally wounded and refused to give the name of his murderer--though the +audience guessed who it must have been--and then how he had given his +knife to Pasqualino, his young brother, and with his last breath had +spoken these words; "Per Don Toto, quando avrai diciotto anni"; and I had +left the theatre wishing I could see Giovanni as Pasqualino grown up and +executing the vendetta. Giovanni now uses a revolver as being a nobler +weapon, but when I was with him in Messina it was a knife. + +The big waiter brought the coffee and stood on my left, the little waiter +followed him, and stood on my right. During the week I had often seen +this boy who was not yet a real waiter, he was learning his business by +waiting on the waiters, and hitherto I had respected the convention by +which I was supposed to be unaware of his existence, except that when he +had made way for me on the stairs we had exchanged greetings. I said to +the big waiter: + +"How old is this little fellow?" + +"Thirteen." + +I glanced at him and saw by his smile of expansive friendliness that he +was pleased to be the subject of our conversation. + +"What do you call him?" + +"Toto." + +I took my knife off the breakfast table and imitating Giovanni, as well +as I could, handed it to the big waiter saying: + +"For Don Toto when he shall be eighteen years old." + +This was perhaps wrong, it was certainly risky to play with edged tools +in this way in a country where one ought not to give a handkerchief as a +ricordo lest one should be supposed to be intending to pass the tears it +contains. But I assumed he had seen the play and, although the quotation +was not exact, expected him to recognise it, instead of which he was +furious with me: + +"You are not to do that. Toto is a very good boy and I shall not accept +the knife." + +He said this so sternly that I made up my mind he could know nothing +about the theatre--he must be a foreigner who had yet to learn that a +Sicilian child's confidence is not destroyed by a mere threat to stick a +knife into him, the idea that anyone is going to hurt him is too +preposterous to be taken seriously. Or perhaps he had invested all his +imagination in superstitious securities. Or perhaps I had acted better +than I knew and had seriously alarmed him. But I had not imitated +Giovanni's realism so closely as to deceive Toto. I looked at him. He +was beaming all over his face as he shook his head and said: + +"I am not afraid." + +The big waiter scowled and went away, abandoning the reckless child to +his fate. Toto put his hand on my arm to attract my attention and +emphasise what he was going to say: + +"When you are at home, please will you send me a postcard with a picture +of London?" + +"Certainly, my boy; I'll send you as many as you like." + +This is all the conversation I had with Toto before I left Messina, which +I did that day, but we have corresponded. On returning to London I sent +him a card with a view of Oxford Circus full of traffic and, not knowing +his full name, addressed it: + + A Don Toto, + Piccolo Cameriere all' Albergo Trinacria, + Messina. + +He replied at once, thanking me profusely for the beautiful view of what +he called I Quattro Canti di Londra and promising to send me some prickly +pears as soon as they were at their best, having heard that they do not +mature in London. Presently I sent him another post-card secretly hoping +he would show them both to the stupid big waiter. He replied at once +and, among other things, asked if I should like him to come to London. + +I never like them to come to London unless they are sure of some settled +employment, and even then I would rather see them in their native +surroundings; so I replied: + + No, Toto. Here we already have too many Italians, Austrians, Swiss + and Germans. They come because they believe that the streets of + London are paved with gold, but too many of them find our streets + guttered by the tears of foreign waiters who have failed to find + work. You had much better stay where you are like a good boy, and I + will come to Messina and see you next autumn. + +Then a basket arrived containing the prickly pears in a state of pulp, +exuding juice from every pore because he had not attempted to pack them, +and accompanied by a card wishing me a Merry Christmas. + +Early in the morning of the 28th December, 1908, Messina was destroyed by +an earthquake. The newspapers particularly mentioned that the Albergo +Trinacria had fallen, killing everyone who was sleeping there that night. +I chanced a card to Toto asking whether he had escaped. On the 6th +January I received a letter from him; he had evidently not received my +card, which was returned to me about eight months later. This is a +translation of Toto's letter: + + CATANIA, + 1 _Jan._, 1909. + + Egregious Signor Enrico, + + You must have already heard of the destruction of Messina. By a + miracle I am saved, also my family, except that I do not yet know the + fate of two of my sisters, my father, three nephews and one + brother-in-law. My father was at Reggio Calabria, which was also + destroyed. The Albergo Trinacria was not merely shaken down, it was + also burnt. It was my good fortune not to be on guard that night in + the hotel, otherwise I too should have died. The few who have + escaped have been brought to Catania naked, without a soldo. We are + sleeping in the Municipio, on the floor, with a rug, a piece of bread + and cheese and a glass of wine which the Municipio gives us. They + have made me a present of a shirt because, as the earthquake was at + five in the morning, everyone was asleep and they escaped just as + they were. You may imagine in what a condition I find myself, in + what misery, it is such that you will excuse my posting this letter + without a stamp, but I have not a centesimo to send you the news of + the disaster of Messina. On the post-card which you sent me you + speak of coming in the autumn, but there will be no more coming to + Messina. + + Enough! I could tell you in detail of many misfortunes that have + overtaken me, but I have not the courage to write more. + + I send you my respects. You will pardon me for being obliged to post + this without a stamp. + + TOTO. + +He gave me an address in Catania to which I wrote, and he replied 24th +January from Naples, where he and his family had been taken. + +Then he left off writing and I thought I had heard the last of him. In +the spring of 1910 I went to Sicily again, and within an hour of arriving +at my hotel in Catania one of the waiters came up to me and said in a +friendly way: + +"Good day, sir." + +"Good day," I replied, "but I do not recognise you." + +He said, "Toto. Messina." + +"It is not possible! You were only thirteen at Messina, and how old are +you now?" + +"Eighteen." + +"How have you managed to become five years older in eighteen months? Is +it an effect of the earthquake?" + +"I was sixteen at Messina." + +"Then why did that stupid big waiter say you were only thirteen?" + +"Ah! well, he is dead now." + +I thought of the fate of Ananias and said: "Poor fellow! Do you remember +how angry he was when I wanted to give him my knife and said those words +from _Omerta_?" + +"Yes, but he was not really angry with you, he was only pretending." + +"No, Toto! Not really? Do you mean he was acting?" + +"Yes. I thought you understood. He was always like that, full of fun, +not stupid at all. He was a good man and very kind to me." And poor +Toto's eyes filled with tears. + +So it was someone else who had been stupid, and I left off thinking of +Ananias and began to think of those eighteen upon whom the Tower of +Siloam fell. + +Toto told me that he was sleeping at home when the earthquake woke him +up, and that he and the others in his house ran out naked as they were +into the street and saw the house fall; they were only just in time. His +father, who was in Reggio, was saved, but one of his sisters was killed +with her husband and three children. + +This is all the conversation I had with Toto in Catania; next day on my +inquiring for him they told me he had caught cold and had not come to the +Albergo. I left without seeing him again and next time I was in Catania +they told me he had gone away and they did not know his address. +Possibly he has disappeared for ever, but it is more probable that, like +other meteoric bodies, he will cross my path again some day. + + + +TURIDDU BALISTRIERI + + +Among the members of Giovanni's company whose acquaintance I made during +my week in Messina were two ladies who acted under their maiden names, +viz. Marinella Bragaglia and Carolina Balistrieri; the first is married +to Vittorio Marazzi and the second to Corrado Bragaglia, Corrado being +the brother of Marinella. I also often saw in the theatre Turiddu +(Salvatore) Balistrieri, brother of Carolina and therefore brother-in-law +to Corrado and brother-in-law by marriage (or whatever the correct +expression may be and, if there is no correct expression, then compare di +parentela) to Vittorio and Marinella Marazzi. He was just over eleven, +not a member of the company but, being at school in Messina, his sister +had taken him to stay with her for the week, and we became great friends. +I was thinking of him when writing about Micio buying chocolate and +story-books at Castellinaria in Chapter XVIII of _Diversions in Sicily_. +When Giovanni and the company departed from Messina to continue their +tour, Turiddu and his younger brother, Gennaro, remained in Messina with +their professor and, as their mother, Signora Balistrieri, was touring +with another company in South America, they had no home to go to for +Christmas and remained with the professor for the holidays. + +On the 27th December, Giovanni and his company, after being in Egypt and +in Russia, arrived at Udine, north of Venice. They heard nothing of the +earthquake until the evening of the 29th December, about forty hours +after the event, when the news reached them in the theatre during the +performance of _La Figlia di Jorio_. The next day Giovanni and six of +the company started for Messina; they wanted to ascertain for themselves +the extent of the disaster and whether the earthquake had affected +Catania, where most of their relations and friends were. Among the six +were Corrado Bragaglia and Vittorio Marazzi, whose particular object was +to find out what had happened to Turiddu and Gennaro. When the company +came to London in the spring of 1910 Corrado gave me an account of their +adventures. They arrived in Naples where they were delayed a day, which +they spent in meeting fugitives, but they heard no news of the boys. +They reached Messina on the 1st January and, taking a basket of +provisions and medicines, started for the professor's house, treading on +dead bodies as they walked through the falling rain and fearing lest +another shock might come or that at any moment some already shattered +house might fall on them. The professor's apartments were on the first +and second floors of one side of a courtyard that stood between a street +and a torrent; the front doors of the different apartments opened into +the court as in a college building; the professor's side of the court was +nearest the torrent and did not fall, but the other three sides of the +court fell and the houses on the opposite side of the street fell, so +that the debris made it difficult to approach the street door of the +court and still more difficult afterwards to approach the doors of the +different sets of apartments. + +They found the landlord of the house, and he showed them that the +professor's part of the house had not fallen and told them that the +professor and his family had escaped and, he believed, had been taken to +Naples or Catania, or--he did not know where. This was satisfactory, at +least they no longer thought the children were buried in the ruins, but +it did not give much information as to their whereabouts. They went to +the station and got a permission to go to Catania. The train was crowded +with fugitives, some wounded, some unhurt, and during the journey a +passenger gave birth to a baby. + +In Catania they asked of Madama Ciccia (i.e. Signora Grasso, Giovanni's +mother), who would certainly have heard if the children had been seen in +the city, but she knew nothing. They sought out the boys' grandmother, +the mother of Signora Balistrieri, but she was not at home, she had +deserted her house for fear of another earthquake and had been sleeping +in the piazza. They inquired at the hospital and at the institutions +where fugitives had been taken. They advertised. They actually found a +professor from Messina with pupils, but it was not the one they wanted. +They went to Siracusa, to Malta, to Palermo, to Trapani; they got no +information and returned to Catania. Then they were struck with remorse +for not having entered the professor's house in Messina--they had only +spoken to the landlord--the boys might be buried there after all, alive +or dead. They returned to Messina and entered the house; it was all in +confusion; they looked through it, but found no trace of the children. + +All this took them seven days, during which they scarcely ate and +scarcely slept. They knew that if the boys had really been taken to +Naples they were probably safe, and now they went there considering that +they had done their best with Sicily. In Naples they inquired at the +official places, at the hospitals and at the offices of the newspapers +where they could see the lists of names before they were published. They +found nothing and their thoughts went back to Messina; they wondered +whether the children might perhaps have been crushed by a falling house +in the streets, and whether they ought to return. In the evening they +went to a caffe to read the lists, and by chance took up a Roman paper. +They could hardly believe their eyes when they read the names of Turiddu +and Gennaro among those who had been taken to the Instituto Vittoria +Colonna in Naples. They went there at once, but it was already late at +night and the place was shut. Unable to think of eating or sleeping they +walked about the streets till six in the morning, when they returned and +were admitted. They stated their business, inquired for the children, +produced photographs and, after a little delay, Turiddu and Gennaro came +running to them naked. It took some days of red tape, including a legal +act whereby Corrado constituted himself their second father, before they +were allowed to remove the boys. At last on the 11th January they took +possession of them and dressed them in the street with clothes they had +bought. Corrado had telegraphed to his wife and to the other relations, +and they left Naples and rejoined the company at Udine, where they +arrived on the 14th. One of the actors when he saw the children fainted +and Corrado was ill for days with a fever. + +Turiddu wrote to me from Naples to tell me he was saved, and by August, +1909, when I went to Sicily again, he had left Giovanni and the company +and returned to Naples, where I found him and Gennaro with the professor +and his family, living in two rooms of an establishment where emigrants +are put to wait for their ships to take them to America. They told me +their experiences. In Messina the family had consisted of the professor, +his wife, his niece (a studentessa), Turiddu and Gennaro with two of +their school-fellows, one named Peppino, son of a well-to-do dealer in +iron bedsteads, and another named Luigi, son of a well-to-do +orange-merchant, who had gone to visit his uncle for Christmas. There +was also a servant girl who had gone that night to stay with her people. +The parents of Peppino and Luigi were both killed in their houses; +fortunately for Peppino he had not gone home or he would probably have +been killed. Luigi also escaped because the house of his uncle did not +fall or, if it fell, it did not kill him. The servant, who had gone +home, was killed. + +They puzzled me by their attempts to explain why the professor's side of +the courtyard did not fall. It seems it was partly because, being near +the torrent, it had been built more strongly than the other three sides; +that was not all, there was also something about a Japanese gentleman who +had studied earthquakes at home and who had hurried to Messina, visited +the spot and declared that the direction of the shock was from (say) east +to west, had it been from west to east the side near the torrent would +certainly have fallen. It may have been north to south--my thoughts had +wandered again to the Tower of Siloam. Turiddu, however, had a reason +for not being killed in the earthquake; he is naturally lucky because he +was born with a caul; he keeps most of it at home and speaks of it as his +cammisedda, which is Sicilian for camicetta, his little shirt. He +carries a small piece of it in his watch-case, and offered to give it to +me as a ricordo, but I thought he had better keep it all; it cannot be +lucky to give away any of one's luck. + +While Turiddu was with Giovanni and the company touring in North Italy, +he wrote, by desire of his professor, a sort of holiday task about the +earthquake. He gave it to me afterwards, when I saw him in Naples, and I +have translated it. The passages in square brackets are additions I have +made from information the family gave me in Naples. + + SUBJECT + + Describe all that you saw before and after the earthquake. + + DESCRIPTION + + It was an ugly winter evening and the last day of the Christmas + holidays. I was playing with nuts with my companions. About six + o'clock we dined and, after we had finished, we began to play at + Sette e Mezzo Reale [a game of cards]. We re-charged the acetylene + lamps, for we intended to sit up late. The professor opened [the + window and went out on] the balcony to see what the weather was like; + observing that the sky was frightful and of a reddish colour, he said + to his wife: + + "My dear Nunzia, listen to these few words and bear them in mind: + This is a fatal night, it is a horrible night." + + His wife asked, "What are you saying?" + + Then the professor replied, "Either we shall have some kind of storm + or there will be a great earthquake or a deluge." To these words we + paid no attention, but went on with our game. + + At one o'clock after midnight we extinguished the acetylene gas and + went to bed, where we immediately fell asleep. + + At half-past five after midnight there came a great earthquake. I + and my companions began to cry and recommend ourselves to God who can + save from every calamity. + + After the earthquake was over we dressed in haste and frenzy and went + out [into the courtyard], but we could not pass the front door [into + the street] because it was blocked with ruins. Presently our + professor crawled out through a hole and we followed him. + + In the piazza we saw sights that tore our hearts, and we wept as we + thought of those poor unhappy children left without parents or + relations. And we thanked God who had saved us from such a great + disaster. Every few moments there came more shocks, and there were + we weeping and recommending ourselves to the Lord. + + As day broke we saw many wretched creatures being dragged out from + under the heaps of rubbish and being put on carts or laid on the + ground. + + We began to feel hungry and begged our professor to buy us some + bread, but he replied: + + "There is no place where bread can be bought, we must therefore take + courage, climb back into the house and get a few nuts." + + [This re-entering the house was dangerous because it might have + fallen when they were inside, but they managed it in safety and + returned with some maccaroni and bread, also some nuts and two sticks + of dried figs which were there for the festa of Christmas.] + + We began to eat the food and, seeing some children near us who also + were hungry, were moved to compassion for their condition and gave + them each something. + + In this way we supported life for two days, but on the third day the + food was finished. + + [During these two days they were in the ruins of a fish-market, which + was better than being out in the open, but not much because the roof + was broken. They only had such clothes as they had snatched up in + their haste and these were wet through and saturated with mud up to + the knees. They caught colds and the professor was ill for months.] + + All day long, bodies were being extricated from the ruins and we + could hardly bear the stench; to make matters worse it was raining, + the houses were on fire, the air was heavy with smoke and there were + constant shocks of earthquake. It seemed like the end of the world. + + On the third day I went with our professor to the port to inquire + whether the survivors would be taken to Naples. The captain replied + "Yes." We returned to the market and our path lay among the wounded + and the dead. + + When we had reached shelter our professor said: + + "Let us take courage and return into the house to bring out some + clothes and linen and the certificates of my niece." We went to the + house, but the door was jammed by reason of the earthquake. While we + were shaking it, there came another shock. We remembered another + door, which we opened, we went in and found the certificates and + brought away all such other things as we thought likely to be useful + for the moment and gradually carried them down. Our professor's + niece made the things up into bundles and put them on our shoulders + and so, passing the heaps of dead bodies, of rubbish and ruins, we + went to the railway station. + + Here they made us get into a second-class carriage, which we supposed + would start for Catania, and we had nothing to eat but oranges, which + were given us by a soldier. + + [It must have been while they were in this carriage that Corrado and + Vittorio went to the station and took train for Catania, passing + quite close to them and not seeing them. There were twelve + waggon-loads of oranges which had come from Catania before the + disaster in the course of trade, and orders were given that they were + to be distributed among the survivors. Thus the waggons were emptied + and people could be put into them.] + + Opposite us was a waggon full of soldiers and sailors. Our + professor's niece called a soldier and begged him not to forget us. + He immediately brought us three loaves of bread, five flasks of wine, + three tins of preserved meat and some sausage. + + Imagine our happiness when we saw that meat after those days of + hunger! We drank the wine at once because we had nowhere else to put + it and the soldiers wanted their flasks back. We were eating oranges + all the time, because they gave us plenty. + + After we had been in this waggon two days, one of the railway-men + told us that there had come a German steamer which would take us to + Naples. We took with us some bread, some oranges and a little salame + which we had over, and went to the port, where, fortunately, we found + a boat which took us to the steamer. + + At five minutes past eleven on the sixth day as the steamer departed + from Messina, the professor, his wife and his niece began to cry. + + The German sailors prepared bread and also basins of soup with pasta + in it, and when the bell sounded at noon they distributed the food + among us all. + + When we had eaten it, we went below to see whether the women required + anything. + + At half-past four they gave us soup with rice in it and plenty of + meat. Then the captain ordered that the fugitives should go below. + We were taken into the second-class cabin which was set apart for the + women and children. + + Next day when we arrived at Naples they would not let us disembark + till we had had coffee, after which we all collected and were landed + in boats. First, however, they made all the men descend into one + boat and in another boat all the women. + + When we had disembarked at Naples they at once wanted all our names + and then took us to an institution called "Vittoria Colonna," where + in order to restore us we were each given a good cup of coffee and + milk. + + THIS LITTLE DESCRIPTION + OF + 28 DECEMBER 1908 + WRITTEN AT BOLOGNA 27. 1. 09 + IS PRESENTED TO + MR. HENRY FESTING JONES + WHO WILL PRESERVE IT AS A LASTING RECORD + OF + TURIDDU BALISTRIERI + FUGITIVE FROM MESSINA + +While they were in Messina the children and the niece slept at night, but +the professor and his wife did not sleep at all, and for two of the days +the professor and his wife ate nothing and drank nothing. They were able +to collect drops of rain water, especially when they were in the railway +carriage where they had a roof, and they sometimes collected a little +wood and made a fire. Earthquake shocks were continually occurring. + +The professor is also an imbalsamatore and, as an example of his skill, +gave me a stuffed bird which I was to take to London. He said it was a +kind of quail, a bird that reposes near Messina when migrating. His +niece, the studentessa, gave me as a ricordo a pin-cushion; on one side +it has an advertisement of a shop in Messina and on the other a picture +of a lady trying on a new garter, which has been bought at the shop and +which fits perfectly to the delight of her maid and the astonishment of +her grandmother. They had saved these things after the earthquake. One +does not look a gift-horse in the mouth, but I have sometimes wondered +whether the buffo's Cold Dawn had followed the professor and the +studentessa in their flight and whispered to them that they had saved the +wrong objects. Still, a pin-cushion is always useful. + + + +RAILWAY PORTERS + + +Some years ago the station porter who attended to my luggage at Messina +gave me his name and address, saying that if I would send him a post-card +next time I came, he would meet me and look after me. Since then I have +passed through Messina once, and sometimes twice, a year and he has +always met me. I wrote to him from London after the earthquake inquiring +whether he was alive or dead, but he did not receive my card till nearly +eight months later, after it had been returned to me and I had sent it to +him again. I had in the meantime heard, in an indirect way, that he was +one of the station porters who had survived. In the August following the +earthquake I sent him a card to say I was coming by steamer from Naples, +and he was in a little boat in the port to meet me. + +There was a difference in his manner and a new look in his eyes. When he +had been talking some time, I mentioned it, and he admitted that he felt +different since the earthquake. His house fell and he lay buried in the +ruins with nothing to eat or drink and seriously wounded. A friend came +looking for him and after three days he was extricated, restored to life +and properly taken care of. But his wife and child were killed and his +home destroyed. He has been born again naked into the world, no wonder +there is a strange look in his eyes. We were joined by his cousin, +another porter, who was seven days in the ruins, starved into +unconsciousness. When the soldiers rescued him they thought he was dead, +but they took him where the doctors gradually brought him back to life. +He did not mind the dying after it had once set in, everything gave way +to the indolent pleasure of irresponsible drifting, but the restoration +was a difficult and exhausting business. He will be thought to be dead +again some day, and will be allowed to continue his sleep in peace +without any troublesome awakening. + +I looked in the eyes of the men who were hanging about among the +temporary wooden sheds in the piazza in front of the station, and saw in +many of them the expression that was in my porter's eyes, the expression +that betrays those who are the figli del terremoto, those who have been +born again with the earthquake for their second mother, and I remembered +that the same expression was in the eyes of Turiddu's professor in +Naples. I had supposed it to be normal with the professor, but it was +the first time I had seen him; now I understood that it was not there +before. They have not all this look. Turiddu has not got it, nor has my +porter's cousin. The professor is sixty-two, Turiddu is only twelve and +was able to sleep. My porter is about forty-two, his cousin is not yet +thirty. Again, the professor had the responsibility of his party; +Turiddu had none. My porter has lost his wife and child; his cousin is +unmarried. + +These two porters told me a great deal that I had read in the papers in +England; to hear it from them on the spot made it more real, and +especially to see their gestures describing how the earthquake took the +houses and worried them as a terrier worries a rat. Few houses were not +wrecked. I pointed to one which I knew to be the Palazzo dei Carabinieri +at a corner of a street leading out of the station piazza, but my porter +replied: + +"You are looking at a corner of it and can only see two walls. The other +walls and the floors have fallen. If the shutters were open you would +see the sky where the rooms ought to be." + +At the other corner of the street used to stand the Albergo di Francia, +where I stayed once when all the other hotels were full because the wind +was so strong that the ferry-boat could not get out of the harbour to +take the travellers across the straits. The albergo was lying in a heap +on the ground; in its fall it had crushed and killed and buried the young +landlord, Michele;--"God rest his soul in heaven, so merry!" + +I uttered some banality about their having passed through a terrible +time. They accepted my remark as a final summing up and said it was +better not to talk about it. It was evidently a relief to them to talk +of something else. + +Before Messina can be rebuilt on its old site, the ruins must be cleared +away and the disputes about the boundaries must be settled, and this will +take time. Meanwhile the people are living in the wooden bungalows of a +New Messina which is growing up outside the old town. I spent two days +there in the spring of 1910 and again in 1911. The Viale San Martino is +the principal street. There are hotels, bookshops, sweet-shops, +tobacconists, jewellers, butchers, restaurants with tables ready spread, +and the lottery offices are open. Most of the huts have no upper storey +and some are no bigger than half a dozen sentry boxes knocked into one. +It is very dusty. The boys are crying papers up and down the street, +there are barbers' saloni and shops with silver-topped canes. The +earthquake seems to be forgotten in the intensity of the bubbling life. +As I passed the Municipio in a side street, I saw a wedding party going +in. One evening I went to the theatre and saw _Feudalismo_ with Giovanni +Grasso, a homonymous cousin of the great Giovanni, in the principal part +and Turiddu's mother, Signora Balistrieri, as one of the women. + +The first time I was in Messina after the earthquake all this was only +beginning and many of the people were living in railway waggons in the +sidings, of which few now remain. It was strange to see rows of railway +carriages with curtains to the windows and some with steps up to the door +and a little terrace outside with creepers growing over it. The cabins +and the waggons are supposed to be safe, because they would not crush +their tenants in another earthquake. But they do not seriously fear +another earthquake; Messina has been so thoroughly destroyed that it must +now be the turn of some other town. + +I replied: "Yes, the Veil of S. Agata preserved Catania this time, but it +may desert her next time as the Letter of the Madonna deserted you last +winter. By the by, what has become of that miraculous Letter? Was it +destroyed or did anyone save it?" + +They did not know and muttered something about "stupidagini," and perhaps +there will be no need to trouble oneself with any such thoughts when one +is living the life after death. Later on, in another part of the island, +I asked a dignitary of the Church, who had not been through the +earthquake, what had become of the Madonna's Letter and he assured me +that it had been preserved. I had pretty well made up my mind that this +would be his answer before putting the question; but if the earthquake +had destroyed Girgenti and I had asked him about the letter from the +Devil, which is said to be preserved in the cathedral there, I should +have expected him to tell me that that letter had not survived the shock. + + + +GIUSEPPE PLATANIA + + +In Catania I saw my friend Lieutenant Giuseppe Platania, who was +quartered in Messina during the winter of 1908-9. He was away for +Christmas and returned about midnight on the 27th December and went to +bed at two in the morning on the 28th. He was awakened by the falling of +a picture, which hit him. He guessed the reason, covered his head with +the pillows and lay still, waiting. He had to wait fifty-seven +seconds--at least many people told me the earthquake lasted fifty-seven +seconds, but the recording instruments were broken, so it is not certain +how long it lasted. When the room left off rocking, Giuseppe put out his +hand for the match-box, but the table was no longer by his bedside. He +heard cries for help, and a man who was sleeping in the next room came +with a light, then he saw that the floor of his room had fallen, but not +under his bed, which was in a corner. He and the man with the light +managed to get to the window and let themselves down into a side street, +but they saw no way out because the exit was closed by the fallen houses. +Their window was on the first floor and they climbed back into the house, +helped another man who was there, got themselves some clothes and +returned into the side street. Here they felt no better off and were +afraid of the houses falling on them, but Giuseppe's soldier servant, +Giulio Giuli, a contadino of Nocera, appeared among them. He had come to +look for his master and crept through the ruins into the side street. He +told them that Messina was destroyed, which they would not believe; +everyone seems to have supposed at first that the earthquake had only +damaged his own house. Giulio showed them the way out, and so they got +into the town and realised the extent of the disaster. If Giulio had not +come, Giuseppe and his friends would probably have been destroyed by more +houses falling into their narrow street before they could have found a +way out. + +Giuseppe had changed his bedroom about ten days previously. The house he +used to live in was completely destroyed, he showed me a photograph of +its ruins. His mother and his brother Giovanni, in Catania, heard of the +disaster, but could get no particulars because communication was broken. +Giovanni went to Messina to inquire for his brother, not knowing where +his new room was, but he knew the number of his regiment. He stopped a +soldier in the street who was wearing the number in his cap and who told +him where to find Giuseppe. In the meantime Giulio had walked about +fifteen miles to Ali, whence he took the train to Catania, told the +mother her son was safe, and returned to Messina to help in the work of +rescuing victims. + +Giuseppe directed his soldiers in the rescue work and afterwards received +a medal "Per speciali benemerenze." While at work they saw a hand among +the ruins and began to dig round it, all the time in fear lest the +disturbing of the rubbish might make matters worse for the victim and for +themselves. The hand belonged to a woman whose head had been protected +by being under a wooden staircase. She showed no sign of life and it was +already four days since the disaster. They wetted her lips with marsala +and poured some into her mouth and thus restored her. Giuseppe told me +that nothing made more impression on him than seeing this woman's breast +begin to heave as life returned. + +The soldiers had to shoot the horses and dogs for eating the corpses, and +the thieves for pilfering. The horses had escaped from their stables, +which were broken by the earthquake, and the dogs had come in from the +country. And besides the pilfering they told me of other things the +doing of which had better be ignored by those who seriously cultivate the +belief that civilisation and education have already so transformed human +nature that all restraints may be safely removed, things which, +nevertheless, were done by human beings in Messina while the houses were +tottering during the closing days of 1908 and the opening weeks of 1909. +I inquired whether the townspeople were themselves guilty of these +horrors and they said: No. The bad things were done by people who came +into the city from the country, like the dogs, and across the straits +from Calabria to take advantage of the catastrophe. As my friend Peppino +Fazio in Catania put it: + +"The earthquake was very judiciously managed; it killed only the wicked +townspeople; it did not touch the good ones, they all escaped." + +Giuseppe's brother, Giovanni Platania, is a scientific man and a +professor; he went often from Catania to Messina during the early part of +1909 to study the behaviour of the sea during the earthquake--the +maremoto. He has embodied the results of his researches in an opuscolo +on the subject _Il Maremoto dello Stretto di Messina del 28 Dicembre_ +1908 (Modena. Societa Tipografica Modenese, 1909). It took him twelve +hours to return to Catania from one of his first visits; the journey in +ordinary times is performed by the express in two hours and a half. +There was no charge for the tickets because it was the policy of the +authorities to empty the town; in this way malefactors who escaped from +the prison got easily away. In the train was a woman who talked, saying +that no one could blame her for travelling to Catania free, especially as +she had not deserved to be put in prison--she had been put there for +nothing. There was also a man who did not exactly say he was a thief, +but he informed his fellow-travellers that the bundle he had with him had +been confided to his care by the padrone of his house. There was no +reason why he should have told them this, no one had asked him about his +bundle, and Giovanni drew his own conclusions. + + + +GIULIO ADAMO + + +In Trapani I talked with another friend, a doctor, Giulio Adamo of +Calatafimi. Communication was broken and it was not until the evening of +the 29th that they began to know in Trapani that there had been an +earthquake in Messina. Giulio went with others by train to Milazzo and +the train could go no further. They continued the journey by boat from +Milazzo to Messina, where he arrived on the 30th. When they approached +the city and saw the row of houses facing the harbour where the Albergo +Trinacria was, they thought the disaster could not have been so very +great. But it was only the facciata that was standing, the houses behind +were down. There was great disorder, heaps of bodies, no water to drink +because the pipes were broken, and for the three days Giulio was there +they only had bread from Palermo and the oranges which were in the +railway-waggons. + + + +CECE LUNA + + +In Palermo I talked with another doctor, Cece (Francesco) Luna, of +Trapani, whose acquaintance I made many years ago on Monte Erice when he +was there as a student in villeggiatura. In September, 1909, I found him +in the children's hospital at Palermo. As soon as news of the earthquake +reached the city, the _Regina Margherita_ was fitted out to help the +wounded and Cece went in her among the doctors. When they arrived at +Messina, they could neither enter the harbour nor take anyone on board +because they had to obey orders. It was raining, the sea was rough and +covered with little boats full of fugitives, some unhurt, some wounded. +One boat contained a young man holding an umbrella over his mother, who +was wounded and lying on two tables. + +"I am strong. I can wait seven or eight days without food, it is not for +me, it is for my mother." + +He cried and prayed till the orders came and she was taken on board. + +Cece, who was put in charge of the taking on board of the fugitives, +ordered that the wounded were to be taken first. He was somewhat +surprised that this order was attended to; it was so, however, the +wounded were taken in without confusion; but afterwards among the +unwounded there was confusion. There was a boy who tried to get on board +first, Cece pulled the boy's cap off and threw it away, intending it to +fall in the sea, but it fell in another boat and the boy went after his +cap and gave no more trouble. + +The earthquake was at about 5.20 a.m. on 28th December; the _Regina +Margherita_ arrived at Messina at 8 a.m. on the 30th December. As soon +as Cece landed, he began searching with others and at 10 a.m. found, in a +well-furnished house, a woman dead in bed, killed by a beam which had +fallen across her. Under the beam, close to her body, lay a baby girl, +very dirty but alive and untouched. It was impossible to say precisely +when the child had been born, but certainly only a few hours before the +earthquake, just time enough for the midwife to leave the house, for they +found no trace of her. Cece took the baby to the steamer and gave it +sugar and water, and when they returned to Palermo they got it a +wet-nurse and it was baptised Maria in the children's hospital. If one +has an earthquake in one's horoscope, surely it could not be placed at a +less inconvenient part of one's life. New-born babies can live three or +four days without food; but if this child had not been born before the +earthquake, she would not have been born at all, and if she had been born +earlier, she would have died of starvation or exposure before she was +found. As it happened she was sheltered and her life preserved by the +beam which killed her mother. Maria was adopted by a lady of Palermo, +and in April, 1910, Cece told me he had lately seen her and she was +beginning to walk. + +Cece had had twenty earthquake babies in his hospital, all with fathers +and mothers unknown, and, of course, other hospitals were equally full. +When I was at Palermo in 1909 he had only seven of the twenty, the rest +having been taken away, some by their fathers and mothers, others by +people who adopted them. Travelling back to England I saw in the railway +stations at Rome, Milan, and other places, frames of photographs of +unclaimed babies put up in the hope that they might be recognised by +chance travellers. + +The _Regina Margherita_ stayed at Messina one day, loading, and then +returned to Palermo with five hundred unwounded and eighty-two wounded. +Cece remained in Messina, searching, but joined the ship when she +returned to Messina, where she took up her station in port as a floating +hospital. + +He told me of a woman who was in the ruins, alive but unable to move. +Her daughter lay dead beside her. It was raining, there was a dripping +and she was getting wet. With the morning light she saw it was not the +rain that was wetting her, but the blood of her husband and two grown-up +sons who were dead in the room above. + +He told me of a law-student in Palermo, twenty-four years old, engaged to +a young lady who lived in Messina; this young man went to pass his +Christmas holidays with his betrothed. He was not in the same house and +the earthquake did him no harm; as soon as it was over his first thought +was for his fidanzata. He got into the street and made for her house, +paying no attention to the cries that issued from the ruins. But, like a +wandering knight on his way to assist his lady and embarrassed by meeting +other adventures, he was stopped and forced to help in searching a +particular house, from which he extricated a beautiful girl, nineteen +years of age, unhurt. She would not let him go till he had saved her +mother. All the others in the house were killed. Still the girl would +not let him go. + +"Are you rich?" she asked. + +"No." + +"Then take this ring and tell me who you are." + +He took the ring and after giving her all the information she required +was allowed to proceed. When he came to the house of his betrothed he +found that she and all her family had perished. He returned to Palermo +weeping. + +Two months later he received a letter: + +I asked if you were rich; you replied "No" and I gave you my ring. You +saved my mother and you saved me. My mother has since died from the +effects of the shock. If you are free I am ready to marry you and I have +money enough for both. + +On this they became engaged and after a suitable time intend to marry. +Cece wanted to apologise for the conventionality of this story, but I +begged him not to trouble; if unassisted nature were to be always +original, the occupation of poets and romancers would be gone. + +In one house was a servant, a Roman woman; she was devoted to a young +lady of the family and all the family were buried in the ruins, but the +Roman servant was unhurt. She could get no help, the house was on the +outskirts of the city and such passers-by as there were would not stop. +She set to work searching for her young mistress and incidentally saved +the whole family. It took her twenty-four hours; they were all wounded +and her young mistress was the last she found. + +A woman kept a small shop opposite another shop kept by a man who sold +coal. The woman had saved money and the carbonajo knew she had her money +in her house. He entered the woman's house after the earthquake, +accompanied by another malefactor. The woman's daughter was killed, but +the woman was under the ruins alive and they pulled her out. She +exclaimed: + +"I do not know you." + +But she did know the carbonajo quite well, or at least well enough to +know he was a bad man and to suspect his intention. They asked her where +her money was concealed. She only repeated: + +"I do not know you." + +They believed her, thinking she was confused by the shock of the +earthquake; this was what she intended, otherwise she feared they would +have killed her. They threatened her, and at last she told them where +the money was, still protesting that she did not know them. They took +her money and then, being afraid she might give the alarm and they might +be caught before they could escape, they pinned her down with a large +piece of the ruins on her left arm and departed, taking the risk of her +being rescued later and saying she had been robbed by unknown men. She +was rescued and brought to Palermo. In the hospital she begged Cece to +put an end to her: + +"What is the use of living? My daughter is dead, my arm is gangrened, my +money is stolen. Let me die and have done with it." + +Cece did not kill her, he chloroformed her and amputated her arm. She +gave information about the carbonajo, who was arrested in Messina. His +accomplice escaped, but the woman got back her money and thanked Cece for +amputating her arm instead of killing her. + + + +FUGITIVES AND VICTIMS + + +At Caltanissetta they told me that the trains were bringing fugitives +from Messina all day and all night. The fugitives were mostly naked and +all very dirty, some with rugs, some with cloaks, some with rags. A +woman got out of the train clothed, like Monna Vanna, in nothing but a +cloak which a soldier had given her. They asked her: + +"What do you want done for you?" + +She opened her cloak and showed that she wanted everything. + +Another woman came with her daughter whose leg was broken and they were +both naked. The doctor said to the mother: + +"And what do you want?" + +"Help for my daughter." + +To another destitute woman: "And you?" + +"Shoes for my baby." + +Michele, a young man, was known to be in Reggio where he was employed in +the Municipio. His father went from Caltanissetta to look for him and +returned after four days, during which he had searched for his son and +suffered mental anguish and physical discomfort. His friends went to the +station to meet him. He talked politics to them and asked their opinion +about the rotation of crops. + +"And Michele?" they inquired. + +"Oh! Michele," here he began to laugh: "Michele; yes, he is buried under +the ruins of a house three storeys high." + +They could get nothing more out of him except laughter and that Michele +was lying under a house three storeys high. A few months later, +Michele's body was found, with no traces of decay, brought to +Caltanissetta and buried. Then his friends wrote elegies in verse about +him and handed them round for approval. + +Plenty of people went mad besides Michele's father. The streets of +Messina were full of mad people. They told me of one who lost his wife. +Within a fortnight he married a widow whose husband had been destroyed. +This happy couple spent their honeymoon in digging out the bodies of +their previous spouses and having them suitably buried. + +When I say they married, a widow may not legally marry for ten months +after the death of her husband, but this couple married on credit, as +they call it. There were many fugitives who found a temporary asylum in +a prison in Catania and who similarly married on credit, intending to +return later and contribute to the population of the new Messina. + +There was a family living on the top floor of a house close to the +railway station near the port in Reggio. They were not hurt, but they +could not get down because the earthquake had destroyed the stairs. The +man made a rope of sheets, with the help of which he carried his wife +down, then he went up and fetched his children one after another, three +or four children. He went up again to fetch his money and while in his +room the house fell with him, killing and burying him in the ruins. But +he had saved his wife and children. + +They told me of a victim, pinned down in a cellar, unable to rise; a +chicken, whose coop had been broken, escaped and passed near; the victim +caught the chicken, killed it, plucked it and ate it raw. They told me +of others, not pinned down but imprisoned in rooms, who ate what they +found in cupboards--oil, biscuits, salame, uncooked maccaroni. These +victims were saved and lived to recount their sufferings. But there were +others, pinned down and imprisoned, whose bodies were not extricated till +they had lain for weeks and months beside their emptied cupboards, no +longer on the watch for escaping chickens. I was in Catania about a year +and a half after the earthquake and saw the funeral of one whose body had +recently been found; it was not the last. + + + + +THE SLOPES OF ETNA + + +CHAPTER XVIII +LAVA + + +We started from Catania at three o'clock on a dull afternoon at the end +of March to see one of the streams of lava that Etna was sending out +during the eruption of 1910. Peppino Di Gregorio had arranged everything +and provided four of his friends to make company for us and to act as +guides, some of them having been before. He and I went in a one-horse +carriage with two of the friends and the other two came on their +bicycles. There was, first, another Peppino who had been in America, +where he earned his living by making cigars. He had forgotten how it was +done and, besides, it required special tools, so he could not have shown +me even if he had remembered. Since his return home to Catania he has +been employed by the municipio. He begged me to call him not Peppino but +Joe, because he would be so English. Then there was Ninu, also employed +by the municipio, a great bullock of a fellow bursting with health, whose +legs were too short for him and his smile a dream of romance. The other +two were Alessandro, about whom I got no information, and a grave +brigadier of the Guardia Municipale. + +The road took us up-hill among villas and between walls enclosing fields +of volcanic soil, very fertile, and occasionally a recent eruption had +buried the fertility under fresh lava, hard and black, on which nothing +will grow for years. + +Patrick Brydone went to Sicily in 1770, and wrote an account of his +journey: _A Tour through Sicily and Malta in a Series of Letters to +William Beckford_, _Esquire_, _of Somerly_, _in Suffolk_, _from Patrick +Brydone_, _F.R.S._ Near Catania he saw some lava covered with a scanty +soil, incapable of producing either corn or vines; he imagined from its +barrenness that + + it had run from the mountain only a few ages ago; but was surprised + to be informed by Signor Recupero, the historiographer of Etna, that + this very lava is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus to have burst from + Etna in the time of the second Punic war, when Syracuse was besieged + by the Romans. + +It seems that the stream ran from Etna to the sea, and cut off the +passage of a detachment of soldiers who were on their way from Taormina +to the relief of the besieged, and Diodorus took his authority from +inscriptions on Roman monuments found on the lava itself. So that after +about 2000 years this lava had scarcely begun to be fertile. Afterwards +Recupero, who was a canonico, "an ingenious ecclesiastic of this place," +told Brydone of a pit sunk near Jaci, where they had pierced through +seven parallel surfaces of lava, most of them covered with a thick bed of +rich earth. + + Now, says he [Recupero], the eruption which formed the lowest of + these lavas, if we may be allowed to reason from analogy, must have + flowed from the mountain at least 14,000 years ago. Recupero tells + me, he is exceedingly embarrassed by these discoveries in writing the + history of the mountain.--That Moses hangs like a dead weight on him, + and blunts all his zeal for enquiry; for that really he has not the + conscience to make his mountain so young as that prophet makes the + world.--What do you think of these sentiments from a Roman Catholic + divine?--The bishop, who is strenuously orthodox--for it is an + excellent see--has already warned him to be upon his guard, and not + to pretend to be a better natural historian than Moses; nor to + presume to urge anything that may in the smallest degree be deemed + contradictory to his sacred authority. . . . + + The lava, being a very porous substance, easily catches the dust that + is carried about by the wind; which, at first I observe, only yields + a kind of moss; this rotting, and by degrees increasing the soil, + some small meagre vegetables are next produced; which rotting in + their turn, are likewise converted into soil. But this process, I + suppose, is often greatly accelerated by showers of ashes from the + mountain, as I have observed in some places the richest soil, to the + depth of five or six feet and upwards; and still below that, nothing + but rocks of lava. It is in these spots that the trees arrive at + such an immense size. Their roots shoot into the crevices of the + lava, and lay such hold of it, that there is no instance of the winds + tearing them up; though there are many of its breaking off their + longest branches. + +We passed several villages, and on one of the churches there was a group +of three saints--S. Alfio, the padrone of the district, and his two +brothers. I had never heard of S. Alfio, who they told me was a +physician and lived in the third century; one of his brothers, S. +Filiberto (whom the people call S. Liberto), was a surgeon, and his other +brother, S. Cirino, was a chemist. They performed miracles, endured +persecution, and were finally martyred for the faith in this way: First +they had their three tongues cut out, then they were put into a saucepan +such as the maccaroni is boiled in, only larger--large enough to hold +three saints--and full of boiling oil: the saucepan was placed on a fire +and they were cooked in it. Their bodies were afterwards burnt on a +gridiron. This took place out of doors opposite a tavern, and three men, +who had come to the tavern to drink, saw it all done. Having seen it, +they went to sleep for three hundred years; then they woke up and wanted +to pay for their drinks with the money they had in their pockets, which +was money made of leather. + +"What is this?" asked the landlord. + +"It is money," they replied. + +"It is no use," said the landlord. While they had been asleep that kind +of money had gone out of circulation. + +"It is good money," they insisted. + +"It is not money at all, it is only a piece of leather." + +"It was money yesterday evening," said the spokesman, "when I saw Alfio, +Cirino, and Liberto being martyred." This is how the martyrdom of the +three saints is represented on carts belonging to those +spiritually-minded owners who prefer the Story of S. Alfio to the Story +of the Paladins. It seemed to me that the painter had been suspiciously +obsessed by the number Three; it was in the third century, there were +three saints, they were each martyred three times over, though they +cannot have known much about the boiling or the grilling, and there were +three drunkards who went to sleep for three centuries. But I said +nothing. I thought I would wait till I could see a cart. + +By this time we had reached Nicolosi, that is we had nearly traversed the +first of the three zones into which the Slopes of Etna are divided. This +lowest one is the Regione Piemontese and Nicolosi is about 2250 feet +above the sea--the place from which tourists often start to make the +ascent of the volcano. Here we spent a declamatory half-hour discussing +where we should eat the provisions we had brought from Catania and drink +the wine we had bought at Mascalucia on the way. The discussion ended by +our being received in a peasant's hut, where we spread a table for +ourselves and the woman stood a low paraffin lamp in the middle of the +cloth. This is a bad plan, the light dazzles one for seeing those +sitting opposite and their shadows are thrown big and black on the wall +and ceiling so that one cannot see the room, but I should say it was like +Orlando's bedroom in the contadino's cottage on Ricuzzu's cart, the only +room in the house, poorly furnished and used for all purposes. The woman +of the hut had a baby in her arms and I said to Ninu: + +"I wonder whether I may look at the baby?" + +"Of course you may," he replied, "why not?" + +So I asked the woman, who smiled proudly and gave me the baby at once. +She called it Turi (Salvatore) and said it was three weeks old. It was +asleep and I nursed it till the table was ready, which was not long, for +everything was cold. I handed Turi back to his mother and sat down, with +Joe on one side of me and Ninu on the other. Presently Ninu inquired why +I had asked whether I might look at the baby. I replied that I had heard +that Sicilian peasants are so superstitious they do not like strangers to +look at their babies for fear of the evil eye; I admitted that I had +never yet met with a peasant so superstitious as to refuse to show me her +baby, but on the Slopes of Etna, during an eruption, I had thought it +wise to be careful. + +Ninu, in the Sicilian manner, was about to say that anyone could tell by +my appearance that there was nothing to fear from me, when Joe +interrupted him: + +"She is an intelligent woman," said Joe. + +I said: "I suppose you mean that she throws her intelligence into the +scale with her maternal pride, and together they overbalance any little +superstition which the proximity of the volcano may have fostered." + +"That's the way to put it," he replied. + +"Why do people talk so much about the evil eye? Do they think it is +picturesque, or do they really believe in it?" + +Joe considered for a moment. Then he said: "Sometimes a peasant may +decline to hand over her baby because she thinks the stranger looks +clumsy and is likely to drop it; it would be rude to let him suspect +this, so she allows him to think she has a superstitious reason. And +some of her neighbours believe--at least--well, what do you mean by +believing? What is faith?" + +"I'm sure I don't know. Sometimes one thing, sometimes another. It is a +difficult question." + +"Perhaps it is that she believes that her neighbours believe," said Joe, +tentatively. + +"That is not the faith of S. Alfio and his brothers, that is not the +faith that wins a martyr's crown or that removes mountains." + +"No, but it has its reward if it enables the believer to feel that he is +not singular, it is comfortable to feel that one thinks as one's +neighbours think." + +I said: "Thou art a happy man, Poins, to think as other men think." + +"I do not know anyone called Poins," said Joe, "it is not a Sicilian +name; but to think as other men think is as comfortable as a crown of +martyrdom, and if it can be won without any martyrdom worth speaking +of--why, so much the better." + +I agreed, and went on: "And then there are the men who never think of +religion or theology, but go to Mass to please their wives." + +"Plenty of them," he said, "and by pleasing their wives they reap the +reward of avoiding domestic friction, whereby they perform a miracle +greater than removing Etna." + +I thought of my poor mother who used to say: + +"But, my dear, if you never go to church what hold have you over the +servants?" + +At the time, I remember, I pigeon-holed her problem among others that are +still awaiting solution, and she died before I realised how well she had +translated into the language of modern Bayswater the "Paris vaut bien une +Messe" of Henri Quatre. + +"If you want to see faith," said Peppino Di Gregorio, "why don't you stay +and go to the festa of S. Alfio at Trecastagne? You might even see a +miracle there." + +It seems that when anyone is in hospital with a broken leg after an +accident or suffering from any illness, especially hernia, he cries in +his despair, making use of this form: + +"O, S. Alfio! cure me of this illness, restore my broken leg or cure my +hernia" (or as may be) "and for the love of my wife, of my children, of +my mother" (or as may be) "I will run naked to Trecastagne and light a +candle before your shrine." + +After making this vow, the patient recovers and then he must not fail. +With any other saint there may be failure, but not with S. Alfio, for he +is more powerful than the Madonna or than the Padre Eterno or than the +Redeemer. He is the Padrone and performs miracles. + +"But how long should I have to stay? When is this festa?" + +It would not be till the 10th of May, nearly six weeks ahead, and that +made it a matter requiring consideration and, as it was now half-past +seven and dark, we had to leave off talking and start for the lava. + +Those of our friends who had made the excursion before were delightful as +company, but we hardly wanted them as guides, because the way was shown +by hundreds of people who were returning, many of them carrying torches, +and we only had to walk in the opposite direction. We also carried a +light--the acetylene lamp off Ninu's bicycle, and it functioned as +inefficiently as the bull's-eye lantern which Mr. Pickwick took with him +on his nocturnal expedition at Clifton. The road was broad enough, but +strewn with big lumps of lava lying half-hidden in lava sand. I stumbled +frequently, but I never fell, because one of my friends was always at my +elbow and caught me; either it was the brave brigadier or Alessandro or +Joe or the other Peppino or that great hulking Ninu with his operatic +smile lighted up by his fitful lamp. They took care of me all the way +until, after about an hour, we turned into a vineyard, called the +Contrada Fra Diavolo, and our progress was stopped by a sloping +embankment over twenty feet high. + +This was the broad nose of the stream of lava. It was coming towards us +at about eighty feet an hour, but its velocity varies according to the +slope of the ground and the cooling and consistency of the material. The +course of the stream described a curve from the mouth to the place where +we stood, and the width of it gradually increased until opposite us it +was about a quarter of a mile broad. There was plenty of smoke, fiery +with the light reflected from the glowing stream, and especially thick in +the direction of the mouth. The lava was sluggish, viscous, heavy stuff, +full of bubbles, pushing itself along and kneading itself like dough. +Red-hot boulders and shapeless lumps of all manner of sizes were +continually losing their balance and rolling lazily down the slope +towards us; as they rolled they disengaged little avalanches of rapid +sparks, and when they reached the ground they sometimes fell against a +vine stump and set it in a blaze for a moment. They said that this is +Etna's cunning way of taking a glass of wine; he opens a mouth and +consumes a vineyard. All the time there was a roaring noise like coals +being thrown on the fire, only much louder, and the great sloping wall +glowed in the places where open crevasses left by the crumbling blocks +had stirred it. It was too hot for us to go very near, nevertheless, my +companions were not content to leave without bringing some pieces of lava +away. They went towards it with canes which the vines will not want this +year, unless the stream stops before it has broadened over the contrada, +and with much difficulty and scorching, manipulated bits of red-hot lava +until they had got them far enough away to deal with them, and then, +balancing them on the end of two canes, they brought them to where I was +resting near a doomed hut. + +After spending an hour, fascinated by the spectacle, we returned by the +sandy, rocky road to Nicolosi. While the carriage was being got ready, I +said to Joe: + +"You know, if I lived on the Slopes of Etna, close to such a sight as we +have been contemplating, I think I should believe in the evil eye and S. +Alfio and everything else." + +He assured me that it would not have any such effect unless, perhaps, +during the periods of actual eruption--as soon as the eruption was over I +should forget all about it. + +"Do we not all live on the slopes of volcanoes?" asked Joe. "An eruption +cannot do more than ruin you or kill you. And without coming to live on +the Slopes of Etna you might be ruined or die at any moment. How do you +know that you have not now in you the seeds of some fatal disease that +will declare itself before you return home? Or you may be run over in +the street or killed in a railway accident any day. And as for ruin, +next time you look into an English newspaper you may see that all your +investments have left off paying dividends and have gone down to an +unsaleable price. Perhaps at this moment, in some Foreign Office, a +despatch is being drafted that will lead to a declaration of war and the +ruin of England and you with it. And yet you never worry about all +this." + +"Then perhaps I had better begin to believe in S. Alfio at once?" + +"Especially if you are threatened with hernia." + +"You said something about hernia before. What has hernia to do with it?" +I inquired. + +"S. Alfio's first miracle was to cure one of his brothers of that +complaint, which he had contracted while carrying a beam." + +"But was not S. Alfio a medical man? Why do you call it a miracle when a +medical man cures his patient? Have you been reading the plays of +Moliere?" + +"Who is Moliere?" asked one of them. "Did he write his plays in the +Catanian dialect?" + +It does not do to make these allusions when talking with Sicilians who +are employed in the municipio. One might as well quote _Candide_ to some +young schoolmaster who thinks the only thing worth knowing is the date of +the Battle of Salamis. So I returned to S. Alfio and asked whether he +always answers all prayers; they said the people believe he does or they +hope he will. One of them, thinking I was inclined to scoff, rebuked me, +saying: + +"If you had been to Trecastagne and seen what I have seen, you would +believe. I saw in the church there a dumb man. He tried to shout 'Viva +S. Alfio,' but could only make inarticulate noises. The people +encouraged him, and he went on trying till at last he said the words +distinctly. I heard him say them. You are making a mistake in not going +to Trecastagne. You might also behold a miracle and then you would +believe as I do." + +I thought of Geronte when his daughter recovers her speech in _Le Medecin +Malgre Lui_ and wanted to ask how long this dumb man retained his +miraculous power and whether his relations and friends were pleased about +it and whether, after the novelty had worn off, they continued shouting +"Viva S. Alfio." But I said nothing; I was afraid of confirming them in +the notion that I was scoffing, whereas I was very much impressed; the +influence of the stream of lava was still upon me and all that Joe had +said about living on the slopes of volcanoes. And I was wondering +whether I could manage to be back in Catania for the 10th of May and see +the people running naked to Trecastagne. I was not anxious to go there +myself, not because I should have had to run naked all the thirteen +kilometres, they would have let me wear my clothes and drive in a painted +cart, but because there is no albergo there and it would have meant being +up all night. If S. Alfio had earned his reputation by restoring those +who spend sleepless nights in the street, I might have given him a chance +of exercising his power on me. + +There is generally some way of doing anything one really wants to do, and +by the time we were separating in Catania, at one o'clock in the morning +I was promising to try to return in time for the Festa di S. Alfio. + + + +CHAPTER XIX +S. ALFIO + + +I was back in Catania before the 9th of May and began talking about S. +Alfio in the Teatro Machiavelli. One of the actors whose name is Volpes, +the one who did the listening father in the play about Rosina and the +good young man, is employed by day in the cathedral, his department being +the brass-work; he is therefore something of a hagiologist. He was going +on business to Lentini, which is situated to the south of Catania on the +way to Siracusa, it is the place where the three saintly brothers were +martyred, and there he bought for me a book--_Storia dei Martiri e della +Chiesa di Lentini_, by Sebastiano Pisano Baudo (Lentini: Giuseppe Saluta, +1898)--from which I have collected particulars for this story of the Life +of S. Alfio. + +Towards the end of the first half of the third century after Christ, at +Prefetta in Gascony, the wealthy and noble Prince Vitale lived a life of +singular piety, united in matrimony to Benedetta di Locusta. Heaven had +blessed them with three sons, Alfio born in 230, Filiberto born one year +and eight months later and Cirino born one year and four months later +again. Prefetta was not only in Gascony, it was also in Aquitaine, and, +notwithstanding this, it was in Spain and also in the Abruzzi, which is a +region of Italy between Naples and Taranto, if I understand correctly. +Owing to its unsettled habits geographers do not mark it on the maps, but +they and the historians are agreed that it certainly existed, and perhaps +it exists still, if only in a Castellinarian sense. The interesting +point is that it was the birthplace of S. Alfio. + +The noble and saintly Benedetta, having been brought up in the school of +sacrifice, ardently desired to die for the faith. Her husband placed no +obstacle in her way. She obtained an interview with the prefect, abused +his gods and awaited the sentence which took the form of decapitation. + +Prince Vitale after the death of his wife was free to consecrate himself +to the education of his three sons. I expected to find that he had them +taught medicine, surgery and chemistry, but there is not a word about any +of these subjects. Evodio di Bisanzio, flying from country to country to +avoid the persecution of Massimino, happened upon Prefetta; he was +welcomed by Vitale, who appointed him tutor of his boys. Evodio was +learned in the sacred sciences, the Greek fables and how to live rightly. +These were the subjects which he taught to his pupils. Alfio copied out +the Books of the Prophets, Filiberto the Gospels and Cirino the Letters +of S. Paul and the Acts of the Apostles. Thus they developed a manly +spirit, angelic habits and an intelligence, a piety, a devotion which are +the rare gifts of a few privileged souls. + +Onesimo was their next tutor, a man of deep learning and a fervent +missionary who came to Prefetta with a following of thirteen or fourteen +disciples and boarded and lodged with Prince Vitale. He was more the +kind of tutor Vitale wanted for his boys. Onesimo had no sympathy with +flying from persecution; he took the view that it was not enough to copy +the sacred Books, his pupils must know how to sacrifice their frail +bodies for the glory of the Cross. He instructed them in the practical +work of martyrdom. + +In the year 249, Decio ascended the imperial throne and issued an edict +against the Christians. Vitale and Onesimo heard of it and welcomed this +opportunity for the three brothers who swore on the ashes of their mother +that they would profit by it. They did not have to wait long. +Nigellione, the imperial minister, came to execute the decree. Onesimo +and his pupils, in spite of tortures, professed their unalterable faith +in the Cross and were sent to Rome together with fourteen other +Christians. Vitale, being thus freed from all family responsibilities, +exiled himself with his friends and awaited his end in a sacred retreat +so retired that our author does not specify it. + +In Rome, Onesimo and his band of Christians suffered tortures. While in +prison S. Peter and S. Paul appeared to them, healed their wounds, +exhorted them to persevere and promised ultimate victory. On the seventh +day they were taken before Valeriano, the imperial minister. Failing, as +Nigellione had failed, to shake their faith, he sent them with a letter +to Diomede, Prince of Pozzuoli, telling him that if he could not win the +captives over from their new faith he was to put to death Onesimo and the +fourteen disciples by means of fierce tortures, and to send Alfio, +Filiberto and Cirino into Sicily to be dealt with according to +instructions contained in another letter addressed to the crafty +Tertullo, Governor of Sicily, at Lentini. + +Diomede carried out his instructions. The Christians all refused to +sacrifice to the false gods. Onesimo died in consequence of an unusually +large stone being placed upon his chest, the fourteen disciples were +decapitated and Alfio, Filiberto and Cirino were handed over to fifty +soldiers under Captain Silvano, a man of a proud and cruel nature, and +taken in a ship to Messina. + +The voyage occupied three days; they reposed in Messina for two hours and +then, chained together and barefooted, proceeded to Taormina, where +Tertullo happened to be hunting for Christians, and to him Captain +Silvano delivered the letter from Valeriano. Tertullo's instructions +were to make the most of his attractive appearance and his agreeable +manners and by means of cajolery to persuade the three holy brethren to +sacrifice to the gods of Rome; in case of failure he was to cause them to +suffer many and various tortures and then to deprive them of their lives. + +Tertullo concocted a scheme worthy of the devil. No sooner were the +youths brought into his presence than he assumed the appearance of an +affectionate father, embraced them and inquired sympathetically about +their parents and their home. On their telling him they were Christians +he endeavoured, with apparent kindness, to turn them from a faith which +had brought them nothing but suffering. He promised that if they would +sacrifice to the gods of Rome they should enjoy the pleasures of a court +life. But there was none of the _Paris vaut bien une Messe_ about the +sons of the saintly Benedetta. They spurned his promises and continued +to declare themselves firm believers in the true Cross. Tertullo, +defeated and angry, thereupon showed himself in his true colours; he +dropped the affectionate parent and ordered the brothers to be tortured. +He then sent them with Captain Mercurio and a squadron of forty soldiers +to Lentini to await his return to that city. + +At Mascali they were fatigued, especially Filiberto, who almost +succumbed. They prayed to the Omnipotent and, before they had risen from +their knees, the azure heavens became obscured, the wind blew, the +thunder roared, the lightning flashed and there was a great rain. The +forty soldiers fell upon their faces, frightened nearly to death, and in +the tempest onward came a venerable man, believed by all who saw him to +be S. Andrea. This personage restored the youths; whereupon the rain +ceased, the clouds dispersed, the heavens smiled again and the forty +soldiers rose from the ground declaring that the God worshipped by their +prisoners must be more powerful than they had supposed. + +In those days the usual road from Taormina to Lentini passed along by the +seashore, but Captain Mercurio took the three brothers by an inland route +passing through Trecastagni, perhaps because the road by the shore was +encumbered with lava from an eruption of Etna which occurred in the year +251 or 252. When I came to this I thought of Diodorus Siculus and the +second Punic war, but I repressed the suspicion that the compiler of the +story was consciously borrowing a bit of local colour in order to get S. +Alfio to Trecastagni in a picturesque manner. + +It was the end of August or the beginning of September in the year 252 +when the three saints reached Trecastagni. Here they sat on a rock which +diversified the uniformity of the landscape, partook of food and reposed. +Exhilarated by a laughing sky of rarest beauty, the holy brethren +unloosed their tongues and sang hymns of joy and praise to the Lord for +that he had given them the strength and spirit to face their anticipated +martyrdom. On the spot where they reposed now stands the parish church +of Trecastagni. + +The three saints proceeded to Catania, where they passed an uncomfortable +night singing hymns in an obscure prison, and at daybreak were taken on +towards Lentini. The river Simeto was in flood owing to the recent +abundant rain, which is perhaps a reference to the storm at Mascali; as +soon as the saints put their feet in the stream it shrank and they passed +over. Eight of the soldiers attempted to follow in their footsteps, but +a sudden rush of water engulfed them together with their horses; this +danger caused the remaining thirty-two soldiers to stay where they were, +and they patiently waited four days till they were fetched by their +comrades who, I suppose, had got over the river and employed the time in +drying their uniforms and recovering from their wetting, but at first I +feared they had been drowned. + +Eight hundred paces to the north of Lentini the glorious brothers met a +young man of the Jewish religion who had eaten nothing for a month. +Captain Mercurio, having seen and been much touched by the portents +performed by his prisoners during the journey, begged them to restore the +youth. Immediately, with no assistance from anyone, the saints broke the +ropes that bound them, prayed to heaven, approached the sufferer, infused +new life into his exhausted frame and restored him to perfect health. +The youth and his parents confessed their faith in the Nazarene, Captain +Mercurio also declared himself converted and twenty of the soldiers, +dismounting from their horses, threw their arms on the ground and prayed +to be bound with chains since they now abhorred the false pagan gods and +intended for the future to worship only the God of the three brothers. + +They entered Lentini on Wednesday the 3rd of September, 252, their hands +bound behind them, their heads uncovered and their feet bare, presenting +to the emotional crowd an appearance of great nobility. They were put in +prison with the twenty converted soldiers, tortured and starved; but a +venerable man girdled with grace and celestial light miraculously brought +food to them, embraced them and blessed them, their wounds were healed, +their strength was restored, their courage was reinforced. Their +tortures were increased after this, and so it went on till the 10th of +May, 253, when S. Alfio was killed by having his tongue pulled out, S. +Filiberto was burnt on a gridiron and S. Cirino was boiled in pitch and +bitumen. + +Eight years later, in June, 261, Vitale in his retirement was cheered by +a visit from Neofito and Aquila, who brought to him, as tokens of the +martyrdom of his three sons, the mantle of Alfio, the girdle of Filiberto +and the veil of Cirino, saturated with blood. + +The geographers write Trecastagne on the maps as though the village took +its name from Three Chestnut Trees, but the learned say it should be +Trecastagni--Tre Casti Agni, that is Three Chaste Lambs, after the three +saints who rested on the site of the parish church. Their memory is +perpetuated also at Mascali, Catania and Lentini. And they are adored at +Aci-reale, Pedara and at other places on the eastern slopes, whence the +faithful come to their shrine at Trecastagne on the 10th of May. + + + +CHAPTER XX +THE NAKED RUNNERS + + +One may see in the foregoing story of S. Alfio the foundation of some of +the incidents painted on the carts, and perhaps the saints' travelling +bareheaded and barefooted is the origin of the people running so to +Trecastagne, but I can find nothing in the book to support the belief +that S. Alfio was a medical man or that he ever cured anyone of hernia. +Nevertheless that he was a medical man, especially successful in treating +hernia, is believed by everyone in and round Catania. Fortified by my +book I ventured to doubt it and asked my friends in what university he +took his diploma. They replied that I was confusing cause and effect; +for in the beginning it was not the universities that made the doctors, +it was the doctors that made the universities. + +I then pointed out that he could not even cure himself from the wounds +made by the tortures; SS. Peter and Paul had to come to the Roman prison, +S. Andrea had to be called in at Mascali and the old man girdled with +grace and celestial light at Lentini. But they disposed of this by +reminding me that medical men are notoriously powerless to cure +themselves. + +Then I objected that a saint who was born in 230 and who died in 253 was +too young to have got together anything of a practice. They replied that +the carts show him exercising his profession. + +"Where are these carts?" I exclaimed. "If they are in Catania, let them +be called and give their evidence in the usual manner." + +So we looked at all the carts we met that were not going too fast. On +one of them Garibaldi was landing at Marsala and overcoming the Bourbons +at Calatafimi; on another Cristoforo Colombo was receiving a bag of gold +from Ferdinand and Isabella, who wanted to put an end to all this wearing +delay about the discovery of America; on another Don Jose was being made +a fool of by Carmen in the wine-shop of Lillas Pastia; we saw the +enthusiasm of the Crusaders on catching sight of Jerusalem; Otello was +smothering Desdemona; we saw the Rape of the Sabines and somebody before +the Soldan. But none of these pictures threw any light on S. Alfio. + +Peppino Di Gregorio said we must have patience. So we patiently turned +down another street and saw King Ruggero dismissing the ambassadors: +"Return at once to your Lord and tell him that we Sicilians are not--" +something for which the artist had left so little room that it was +illegible, but the noble attitude of King Ruggero conveyed the meaning: +we saw Mazeppa bound to a white horse rushing through a rocky wood and +frightening the lions and tigers; Etna was in eruption; banners were +being blessed by the Pope; Musolino was tripping over that cursed wire +and being taken by the carabinieri; Paolo and Francesca were abandoning +the pursuit of literature in favour of an eternity of torment--anything +rather than go on reading in that book. Still there was nothing about S. +Alfio. + +They then proposed a visit to the workshop of a man who earns his living +by painting carts. We found him at work on the birth of Rinaldo who came +into the world with his right hand closed. The doctors and nurses were +standing round, wondering; they all tried but they could do nothing. +After eight days the baby, yielding to the incessant caresses of his +adorata mamma, opened his fist and lo! it contained a scrap of paper with +his name--Rinaldo--written upon it. + +We begged the artist to show us a cart with the Life of S. Alfio, or the +designs for such a life. And he could not. He said such carts were rare +and he had no designs; when asked to paint the story of S. Alfio he does +it out of his head, putting in anything that his patrons particularly +order. We asked how old he makes the saints and he replied that his +instructions usually are to make them about sixteen. So that the carts, +if we could find them, would not be evidence of anything but the +well-known habit of artists to flatter their sitters. Still I should +have liked to see pictures of the young doctor, the young surgeon and the +young chemist curing patients of hernia and being martyred for the faith. + +On the 9th of May in the evening we all went to the Teatro Machiavelli +and, coming out a little before midnight, walked up the Via Stesicoro +Etnea to the Piazza Cavour. The pavements were lined with people who had +come to see the sight and the roadway was left for those who were going +to Trecastagne. There were innumerable painted carts, some of them +nearly as fine as Ricuzzu's birthday present; the horses and mules were +so splendidly harnessed and so proud of themselves that Peppino Di +Gregorio called them "cavalli mafiosi"; they were driving fast out of the +city with coloured lights and fireworks. Every now and then came a naked +man running in the road and carrying a large wax candle. They speak of +them as I Nudi, but they were not really naked; they wore white cotton +drawers down to their knees, a broad red waist-band and a broad red scarf +and some of them wore a flannel jersey. They were all bare-headed and +bare-footed, or rather without boots, for they wore socks; this is enough +to satisfy S. Alfio, who, being a doctor, does not insist on their taking +needless risk. Nevertheless the socks must get torn to pieces before +they are out of the town, and their feet must be bleeding long before +they reach Trecastagne. Some of the so-called nudi, both men and women, +were fully dressed except that they were without hats or boots. They all +ran, occasionally they may rest by walking, but they may not dance and +they may not stop and they may not greet their friends in the crowd +except by shouting "Con vera fede, Viva S. Alfio!" Each of them carries +his candle in his hand and it may cost five or ten francs, some cost as +much as twenty francs. For days before the festa they go about Catania +with trays collecting soldi from all they meet. But if one of them meets +the doctor who attended him in the hospital, he is careful not to make +the mistake of asking the doctor for a subscription. So they ran and +shouted, and I said: + +"These are the carts that ought to have the story of S. Alfio. Couldn't +we stop one and look at it?" + +They recommended me not to try, it would block the stream of traffic and +the people would not like it. So we sat in the piazza till about two in +the morning and watched them passing. + +That was not all we were to see. In the afternoon of the 10th of May +everyone who was left in Catania went out towards Trecastagne to see the +return of the people, who are said to be drunk after their religious +devotions. In order to do this in comfort Peppino Di Gregorio had +arranged that we should go to colazione with Giovanni Bianca, a friend of +his who has a country house on the Slopes of Etna near the route, and +afterwards we would go where we could see the return of the devout. +First, he said, we must go to the station and fetch Joe, because he was +to come too. + +I said: "With pleasure, but why go to the station? I thought Joe was +employed in the municipio?" + +"We shall find him keeping order among the coachmen in the station-yard," +replied Peppino. + +And there he was in the uniform of a guardia municipale. + +"Why, Joe!" I exclaimed, "I thought you were writing at a desk all day in +the Mansion House. I did not know you were a policeman." + +He replied that he was a guardia municipale, which is not exactly the +same thing, and was going on to explain the difference between the +carabinieri, the pubblica sicurezza, the guardia municipale, the guardia +campestre and all the rest of it, when I interrupted him: + +"I shall never remember what you are telling me; I shall always think of +you as a policeman." + +"All right," he replied, "I'll be Joe the Policeman, and Ninu is a +policeman too." + +"I can quite believe it," I said. "When we went to the lava you both +treated me just as our policemen in London treat the old ladies and +gentlemen who are afraid of the traffic; you helped me along and never +let me fall down, and looked after me as though I had been given +specially into your charge. London policemen are just like that--very +kind and helpful. I know one of them in private life and he is a capital +fellow. I made his acquaintance over my bicycle." + +"How was that?" inquired Joe. "Did you get run over and did he pick you +up? What did I tell you about living on the slopes of volcanoes?" + +"It was not exactly that," I replied; "it was because I wanted to avoid +being run over that I gave my bicycle to a man to sell it for me when the +motor-cars began to get on my nerves, and this policeman bought it. He +did not give much for it, but if the value of his friendship is taken +into the account I think I made rather a good bargain." + +"Tell me about him." + +"Oh, there's nothing to tell. He comes to see me sometimes, when he is +free. We have tastes in common; for instance, we do not like knock-about +brothers at a music-hall--they bore us. And then books; our tastes in +literature, however, are less alike; but he is quite a reader. Once he +had in his pocket The _Beauties of Nature_, by Sir John Lubbock--that was +to improve his mind--and _Little Lord Fauntleroy_, which he was reading +for pure enjoyment. I told him that I also had written a book and he +wanted to read it, so I lent it to him." + +"I hope he appreciated it?" inquired Joe sympathetically. + +"He was extremely polite about it. Next time I saw him he said: 'Well, +I've been reading your book'; (he spoke with great deliberation) 'I can +get on with it. Yes. It doesn't drag upon me. I don't feel it's time +wasted. But, you know, if I ever do anything of that sort, I think it +will be more in the style of Charlie Dickens.'" + +"I should not call that very polite of him, was it?" + +"I am not so sure. We must distinguish. He was not thinking of the +Dickens of _Pickwick_ with all his beaux moments, he was thinking of that +other Dickens of the _Christmas Books_ with all his mauvais quarts +d'heure." + +"But have you two authors named Dickens in England?" + +Then I saw that to my audience Dickens was as much a sealed book as +Moliere and that my literary policeman must be reserved until I can write +_Diversions in London_. So I turned the conversation by telling Joe that +Dickens is not an uncommon name in England and is a form of Riccardo, as +Jones is a form of Giovanni. + +While talking we were on our way to Joe's house, where he changed from +his uniform to his private clothes, and then we took the tram to Cibali. +Here we bought provisions and carried them with us to the country house, +which was not yet properly open for the summer. We had picked up our +host, Giovanni Bianca, on the way, and he took us round and showed us the +garden, which was full of flowers and fruit trees and vines; he showed us +also the lava of 1669 which destroyed part of Catania. He gave me a +piece of primeval lava from the bottom of the well which his father had +dug, about 150 feet down. I inquired how old that lava would be. He was +not sure, but it would be older than the Romans, older than the Greeks, +older than the Sikels or the Sikans. + +"Say ten thousand years old," said Giovanni, and he said it without being +in the least embarrassed, but then he is not a canonico and has not Moses +hanging as a dead weight on him. He went on to say that he did not +really know. "The memory of man," he said, "works very imperfectly, and +to understand these things one ought to study the science of geology." + +In the afternoon we went across country to a spot on the route, past +which the people had already begun to come. I asked, what they had been +doing at Trecastagne all night. They told me that the journey from +Catania takes about three hours, more or less according to the ability of +the runner, so that they begin to arrive somewhere about 3 a.m. and keep +on arriving all the morning; and others come from other villages on the +eastern slopes. Then they make a row till the church is opened and the +nudi go in and light their candles before S. Alfio. Some of them go on +their knees and lick the stone floor of the church all the way from the +entrance to the altar, but this is being discouraged because it covers +the floor with blood and is considered not to be hygienic. Perhaps it +might also be well to prohibit the running with bare feet, for that must +also make the floor in an unhygienic condition, to say nothing of the +roads that lead to the village. Some take stones and beat their breasts, +and they all shout continually "Con buona fede, Viva S. Alfio!" After +Mass they dress and eat and drink. Some of them have carried their food +on their backs, others have friends who have brought it in their carts, +and the food includes eels, which come from the Lake of Lentini; thus +they enjoy the luxury of eating fish on the Slopes of Etna and moreover +fish from the place of S. Alfio's martyrdom. At midday the car bearing +the three saints is brought out into the street, but this, it seems, does +not interest the nudi; they have run naked to the shrine, they have +lighted their candles, they have performed their vow and are now free to +enjoy themselves. Of course, those who suffer from hernia do not attempt +to run until after they believe themselves to be cured of that complaint; +but rheumatic patients are often much better after running to +Trecastagne, the exertion has upon them an effect like that of a Turkish +bath, but it knocks them up in other ways. + +By the afternoon, when it is time to return, what with the running, the +walking, the driving, the fasting, the shouting, the religious +exaltation, the want of sleep, the eating and drinking, the fireworks and +the jollity of the festa, many of them are drunk. Joe says the festa is +a continuation of some Bacchic festival, and this is more than likely, +just as it is more than likely that the Bacchic festival was a +continuation of some earlier one. He wants S. Alfio to be a +transformation of Bacchus, just as Bacchus was a transformation of +Dionysus and Dionysus of some earlier divinity, and so on back to him who +first discovered wine, ages and ages before the vates sacer who +immortalised Noah. + +"And how much do the people believe?" I asked. + +"Ah!" replied Joe; "who knows? And what is faith?" + +"I'm sure I don't know," I said; "sometimes one thing and sometimes +another. It is a difficult question." + +Then I remembered that he had asked me the same question, and I had made +the same reply at Nicolosi six weeks before, and I also remembered +something that had happened in between. "The other day," I continued, "I +had to wait in the station at Messina, and I asked the porter who was +helping me with my baggage whether he had seen the comet. He replied, +'No, I have not seen the comet, and I shall not even look for it; I do +not believe in the comet.'" + +"Oh, well, you know what he meant by that? He had heard that it was +going to destroy the world, so he did not want to believe in it; he did +not want it to exist; he was not going to encourage such a dangerous +phenomenon by having anything to do with it. 'I'll leave you alone and I +expect you to leave me alone.'" + +"Yes; I suppose he thought that if he removed his custom the comet would +fail." + +"Precisely. But it is not quite that with S. Alfio; they want him to +exist; they are afraid that if they don't believe in him, he will leave +off performing miracles and will no longer cure them." + +"It seems to me," I said, "that they are dominated by the prepotenza of +S. Alfio very much as the sulphur-miners are dominated by the prepotenza +of their capo-mafioso." + +"With this distinction," he replied, "that the capo-mafioso has the +power, and sometimes the will, to hurt them; it would require a struggle +to destroy his prepotenza and there is the risk of failure. With S. +Alfio, if they cared to be master in their own house, they have only got +to leave off believing in him, there need be no struggle and there could +be no risk." + +"You speak as though they could believe or leave off believing at will." + +"So they can, in the loose sense in which they use the word. They only +go on believing because their vanity is involved--it flatters them to +attribute the gift of miracles to a creature of their own imagination +and, by being satisfied with very little and very poor evidence, they +make things easy for S. Alfio. But they could not tell you this +themselves, they are half asleep about it." + +I said: "Of course they are half asleep about it, and all S. Alfio's +interests are bound up in their remaining so. They are not only asleep, +they are dreaming, as the Red King dreamt of Alice. If they were to wake +up S. Alfio would go out--bang!--just like a candle." + +Alice and the Red King were as unknown to Joe as Poins or Moliere or +Dickens. I did my best to explain the allusion, but I doubt whether I +succeeded, for when I had finished he only said that Tweedledum and +Tweedledee had better not go about saying things like that, or their +bishop would be warning them to be on their guard as he warned the +Canonico Recupero. I must try whether he will understand better if I +send him a copy of _Through the Looking-Glass_ for his next onomastico. +He told me something which makes me suspect that the people must have a +dim feeling of how things really are. It seems that sometimes, though +rarely, it pleases them to pretend to believe that their padrone has +displeased them. Then they half wake up and depose him; but nothing +comes of it, they only choose a new one or, after a short time, reinstate +the old one. + +We went to a house on the route and sat on a balcony in the sunset and +the drunken people pelted down-hill, smothered in the golden glory of the +dust they raised, banging their tambourines, blowing their whistles, and +singing that now the festa was over they must go home and work to pay the +debts it had run them into. It was no more use to think of stopping them +to see the pictures now than when they were going out; so I pigeon-holed +what the carts say about S. Alfio with my poor mother's problem about +what influence people who never go to church have over their servants. +The cavalli mafiosi and the carts were stuck about with coloured feathers +and festooned with bunches of garlic, with flowers, with lumps of lard, +with little flags and ribbons, with garlands of caruba beans and with +vetch. The flags, the ribbons, the flowers and the feathers were, I +suppose, for gaiety and festa--pour faire la frime--but garlic has some +magically beneficent properties; not only does it avert the evil eye, it +is also a symbol of robust health, so that instead of replying to "How do +you do?" by saying "As right as rain," they reply, "As right as garlic." +They believe that to put three crosses of garlic under the bed of a woman +in child-birth will ensure a happy issue. There is something fortunate +or healthy also about vetch and, no doubt, some special significance +about lard and the beans of the carob. These beliefs are based lower +than Giovanni Bianca's primeval lava, and I know no more about their +origin than he does, but I suppose they are older than the Romans, older +than the Greeks, older than the Sikels and the Sikans--probably much more +than ten thousand or fourteen thousand years old. They spring from a +soil which has become fertile by catching the dust of ages, tossed to and +fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, wherein generations of +beliefs have grown up, flourished and decayed. There is no more +fertilising manure for a struggling young faith than the rotting remains +of a dead superstition. And the roots pierce down beneath the soil and +shoot into the crevices of an intolerance more unyielding than buried +lava. To understand these things, one ought to become a pupil of +Professore Pitre, and make a study of the science of demopsicologia, and +even then one would only get glimpses of the more recent deposits of +civilisation that lie crushed one under the other like the parallel +surfaces of rich earth in the pit sunk near Jaci. + +Whatever the significance of the things they carried or the origin of +their belief in them, the people in the carts kept flinging them to the +boys in the road, who caught them and picked them up and carried them off +to make their festa with them later on. They were all very lively, but +no one seemed to me very drunk, not more drunk than the nudi were naked; +there were drunken people among them, but not enough to make me feel sure +that S. Alfio ought to be identified with Bacchus. One can see more +drunkenness on Hampstead Heath on a Bank Holiday, but one does not +hastily identify Saint Lubbock with Dionysus. + + + + +CATANIA + + +CHAPTER XXI +HOLY WEEK + + +PALM SUNDAY + + +Being in Catania for Holy Week I went to the cathedral on Palm Sunday. +The archbishop in his yellow mitre, red inside because he is also a +cardinal, accompanied by nine canons in white mitres and many priests and +others, passed out of the church by a side exit and proceeded to the +western entrance, which was closed against him. I heard him knock and +listened to the chanted dialogue which he carried on with those inside. +I saw the great doors thrown open and watched the procession enter and +pass up the nave among crowds of people who waved palm-branches. + +After this I called at the Teatro Sicilia, the marionette theatre of +Gregorio Grasso, and discovered that he was devoting all the week to the +Story of the Passion and would begin that evening with the event which I +had seen commemorated by the procession in the cathedral. Here was an +opportunity to see something which I had often wished to see and about +which I had talked with Achille Greco and his sons in their theatre at +Palermo, where they also do the Passion in Holy Week, using a play in +verse written by Filippo Orioles of which they have a MS. copy; but they +have not performed it recently because it takes too much preparation. +Orioles wrote his play for living actors, and it is laid out to get all +the events into one performance instead of being a series of seven +performances extending over a whole week as in Catania. + +Gregorio Grasso took me behind, where one of his assistants, Carmelo, +showed me the preparations and told me about the performance. The first +scene was to be the meeting of the Sanhedrin and the beginning of the +conspiracy of Annas and Caiaphas to destroy the Nazarene; this makes a +firm foundation on which the rest of the drama is built. The second +scene would be the departure of Christ with Mary; after that would come +the Entry with Palms into Jerusalem, and the evening was to conclude with +a cinematograph show. + +As a rule in this theatre the back scene is only about a third of the way +down the stage, the figures appear in front of it and are manipulated by +men who stand on a platform behind, leaning over a strong bar which runs +along the top of the scene, their heads, shoulders and arms being +concealed by a piece of scenery which falls just low enough. The entry +into Jerusalem had been prepared behind this back scene; it was a set +group representing Christ on the ass, surrounded by apostles carrying +palms, and was to be disclosed by the removal of the back scene, the bar +and the platform in front of which the meeting of the Sanhedrin would be +shown. + +But I was not to witness the performance because Turiddu Balistrieri +wanted me to go to the Teatro Giacinta Pezzana and see a special +performance of _La Signora dalle Camelie_ in which he and some of his +family, who are all artists, were to take part. I could not go to both +and chose Dumas because, in the first place, being Turiddu's compare it +was my duty to support the family. In the second place I had seen the +Entry with Palms at the duomo in the morning and had all the rest of the +week free to see the marionettes do the rest of the story. So I went to +the Teatro Pezzana in the evening. It is a small place, small enough to +have been formerly used for marionettes, and was now being used by a +Society of Lovers of the Drama. Turiddu was presiding over the +box-office and had considered my requirements. He sent me in with his +young brother Gennaro, who found me a place, and I saw a play which +cannot be considered seriously except as an opportunity for the actress +who undertakes the part of Margherita Gautier. On this occasion it was +undertaken by Desdemona Balistrieri, Turiddu's sister, a girl of fifteen +years and ten months, two years older than himself; I had never expected +to see so young a Margherita Gautier. She gave a remarkable performance +with nothing childish about it and nothing--but it would be unbecoming in +me to praise the sister of my compare. Her grandmother, the old lady +referred to in Chapter XVII (_ante_) who slept in the piazza after the +earthquake, was Prudenza, and her mother, Signora Balistrieri, was +Olimpia and appeared between the old generation and the young, joining +and yet separating them. Turiddu's part was small; he was merely a page +bringing a letter or a message. + + +MONDAY + + +In the afternoon I went to the Teatro Sicilia and found everything +prepared for the evening. Christ and the apostles were sitting at the +supper-table as in Leonardo's fresco in Milan; not that they were +imitating Leonardo, the early mosaics and the miracle plays, influencing +and counter-influencing one another, must have determined the composition +of the representations of the Last Supper before Leonardo's time; he was +not inventing, he was giving the people something they were accustomed to +see and the marionettes were similarly following their own traditions. I +do not think the apostles were all in their usual places, S. John was +next to Christ, but Judas was at one end of the table--a terrible fellow +with shaggy black hair falling over his face--and he had not spilt the +salt. There was no salt for him to spill. Signor Greco told me that +when they perform the Orioles play at Palermo, they use a horse-shoe +table, Judas sits near one end and not only spills the salt, but behaves +like a naughty child, putting his elbows on the table and throwing the +plates on the floor so that they break. On the supper-table at Catania +there was a wooden model of a roasted lamb, with jointed neck and legs, +lying on a dish. There were plates with lettuces cut up, bread and wine, +oil and vinegar and oranges, all real. Each apostle had a glass and +there was a metal chalice for Christ. I forget all the things that are +on the table in the chapel of the Last Supper at Varallo-Sesia, but I +remember they have ripe figs, which is a mistake, because figs do not +become ripe till later in the year. Oranges are at their best in Sicily +in the spring and lettuces are in season. The audience understand this +and know that lettuces are appropriate for supper because they contain +some narcotic, so that a raw lettuce is often eaten after dinner. The +supper had been prepared in front of the back scene, and behind it, ready +to be disclosed at the proper moment, was the garden wherein the capture +of Christ was to take place. + +Soon after seven o'clock in the evening I was sitting in my room at the +albergo and saw a great light which I supposed might have something to do +with the electric tram. After this I heard a roaring noise which I +supposed might be occasioned by an explosive motor bicycle in the street. +Then the glass in the window rattled for a considerable time, which I +supposed might be due to a slight shock of earthquake. At about +half-past eight I went to the Teatro Sicilia. Gregorio and his +assistants were all outside, and received me with congratulations on my +courage; I was the only one of their patrons bold enough to think of +witnessing the performance, all the others had been too much frightened +by the earthquake--if it had been an earthquake; and in about ten minutes +we shut up the theatre and came away. I went to the Teatro Machiavelli +to see what effect had been produced there. There was some anxiety about +the phenomenon, but more, it seemed, as to whether enough people would +come to make it worth while to have a performance. We were waiting for +instructions when someone brought in a bolletino hastily prepared in a +newspaper office with an account of the avvenimento celeste. We sat +round and listened while one of the actors read about the convulsion of +nature, the trembling of the palaces, the flashes of flame at a great +height in the sky, the terror of the inhabitants of Catania. Was the +phenomenon of telluric origin--Etna or an earthquake? Was it of +atmospheric origin--a thunderbolt or a waterspout? Or could it be a +miracle in the dictionary sense of something contrary to the course of +nature? No one knew. Gradually a sufficient number of the public +overcame their fright and took places in the theatre; and thus I saw a +play by Peppino Fazio called _I Delitti del Caporale_ of which I have +forgotten a great deal, but it contained one incident which I have not +forgotten. + +There was a scene in the cottage of a brigand who lived with his sister, +he was out and she was alone. A corporal of infantry entered and made +infamous proposals which she rejected; a struggle followed and was ended +by the man shooting the girl through the heart. Overcome by remorse and +filled with respect for the dead, he reverently raised the corpse, laid +it along the floor by the wall at the back of the cottage and covered it +with a sheet. He placed an oil lamp on the floor so that the head, the +breast, the hips, the knees and the toes caught the light, while shadows +fell in the depressions between. He knelt in prayer and then crept from +the solemn scene on which the curtain slowly descended. + +We were then transported to a country road outside the caserma of the +carabinieri; they were carousing and plotting how to take the brigand. A +countryman came and gave information on which they settled a plan of +action and the scene ended, but it had occupied a good deal of time and +had distracted the mind. + +The curtain rose again on the brigand's cottage. Nothing had been moved. +Three carabinieri entered furtively, they noticed what was on the floor, +lying by the wall, but did not disturb it, they had other business in +hand and concealed themselves behind doors and furniture. There was a +pause and the house was very still. The brigand came home, noisily threw +down his gun, clanked about the cottage in his great boots, took his +knife and his pistols from his belt and banged them down on the table. +As he turned he caught sight of the sheet covering something the form of +which was emphasised by the oil lamp burning at its head. He did not +speak, but surprise and alarm seized him and appeared in his face and in +his attitude. He approached it, raised the sheet and with a yell of +terror and grief fell on his knees by the corpse as he recognised his +sister. The three carabinieri came from their hiding and took him. + +It was a typical drama for the Machiavelli. Notwithstanding the want of +variety in their plots--and the title of one of their plays signifies as +little as the title of a London pantomime--I have seldom passed an +evening there without seeing some incident as striking as this return to +the house of death. They know how to do these things with a simplicity +and an apparent unconsciousness of the effect they are producing which +bring with them a strange astonishment. + +This was not the corporal's only crime, but to clear up this one it may +be added that the hand of the corpse clutched a button which, in the +struggle, the girl had torn off the man's coat; this led to his +identification, and in prison he met the brigand, who shot him and thus +avenged the murder. I have seen happy endings that were more artificial. + + +TUESDAY + + +Compare Turiddu came early to inquire whether I was much alarmed by the +disturbance and to tell me what had happened. A bolide had fallen into +the Catanian sea--he took me to the port and showed me precisely where. + +"It was near that ship," he said. + +The people had rushed to the cathedral to pray S. Agata to avert further +harm. They also went to the Piazza S. Nicola hoping it might be large +enough to hold them all in case there was an earthquake, for they were +all thinking of Messina. The sailors, believing that what they saw fall +into the sea was the moon, drew their boats up into safety. The sea did +rise, but only eight centimetres, not so much as it would have risen if +the moon had really fallen into it. When the newspapers came out I read +more particulars: that a barber in the Via Lincoln had been so much +frightened that he cut the throat of the customer he was shaving, +fortunately, however, no damage was done as the wound was only skin-deep; +that a woman ran naked into the Via Garibaldi, not having time in her +fright to put any clothes on; that a waiter handing a dish to a lady in +the Birraria Svizzera dropped it on her silk dress, which was ruined; and +that a priest in the Quattro Canti was seen moving his arms like an +electric fan and was heard to exclaim "God save me!" He did not say "God +save us" because he was an egoist. + +It should be added that the article was written by Peppino Fazio, who +confessed to me that though these things may have happened he did not see +them. He found them in his imagination. It should perhaps be added +further that he knows his public and is not afraid of being taken +seriously. + +I also saw an account of an interview with Professor Ricco of the +Observatory, who stated that an aerolite had fallen out of the profundity +of space and that it had not been ascertained where it had struck our +planet. + +As no one had gone to the Teatro Sicilia on Monday the marionettes were +thrown a day late and the programme arranged for the Monday was remanded +to the Tuesday, like a festa. I half feared I might be prevented again +from seeing it because some friends from England arrived in Catania for +the night and I did not know whether they would care to go. They were, +however, much interested when I made the proposal. We were rather late, +and missed the Last Supper, arriving just before the curtain rose on the +garden. It was a beautiful scene. Christ was kneeling at a rock in the +background, the disciples were sleeping in the foreground and the wings +were hidden by branches of real trees. An angel descended with a cup +from which the principal figure drank. When the angel had departed there +was a pause--the lights changed and through the silence we heard the +tramp, tramp of approaching people; soldiers came on preceded by Judas, +who betrayed his Master with a kiss, Peter cut off Malchus's right ear, +the Nazarene was taken and the curtain fell. + + +WEDNESDAY + + +Turiddu came in the morning and we conducted my friends round the town. +We went to the shop where the old Swiss watchmaker sells the amber of +which Brancaccia's necklace is made; we went to the market, where we ate +a prickly pear, just to see what it was like, and the man politely +refused payment because we were foreigners; in the market also we bought +bergamot snuff-boxes; we then showed them the port, where they bought +crockery, and the Villa Bellini, where they took photographs; after which +we went back to the albergo, where we had luncheon. Then we accompanied +them to the station and saw them off for Taormina. Turiddu was as +pleased as anyone, he liked making the acquaintance of his compare's +English friends and they thought him a delightful boy. Strictly speaking +they were not English; the two ladies were Inglesi Americane, which +Turiddu said he understood because his mother had acted in the Argentina +and, though South America is not North America, it appeared pedantic to +insist on the distinction. The two gentlemen, again, were really Inglesi +Irlandesi, and here also we were in trouble because he mistook Irlandesi +for Olandesi and thought they were what we should call Boers. + +After they had gone I went to the Teatro Sicilia to learn what I had +missed by not seeing the Cena. Carmelo told me that when Christ has +spoken the words "This is my body" he breaks the bread and gives each of +the apostles a piece. Judas does not eat his piece, he steals it and +leaves the room. In his absence Christ blesses the wine and gives the +others to drink, he washes their feet and they go out to the Mount of +Olives. This is followed by a scene of Judas coming to Annas and +Caiaphas, showing his piece of bread and telling them that he had heard +Christ speak blasphemy. Carmelo explained that the priests were +Hebrews--there were Hebrews, he said, in those days, living in that +country--and Hebrews believe that bread is the Body of God; therefore for +a man--and they thought Christ was merely a man--to declare that the +bread was his body amounted to blasphemy. This was evidence against the +Nazarene; it carried the story on a step and the plotting priests +prepared everything for the betrayal and capture of Christ--the final +scene which we saw. + +I did not know, or had forgotten, that Hebrews were so particular about +bread, but Carmelo assured me that they never throw bread away, and if +they find a piece on the floor they pick it up and put it in a hole in +the wall and keep it. It may be eaten, but may never be otherwise +destroyed. I thought of Ruskin telling his readers in _The Elements of +Drawing_ that stale crumb of bread is better than india-rubber to rub out +their mistakes, but "it crumbles about the room and makes a mess; and +besides, you waste the good bread, which is wrong; and your drawing will +not for a long while be worth the crumbs. So use india-rubber very +lightly." + +"Are you a Christian?" asked Carmelo suddenly. + +I was not embarrassed. A few days before, when one of the priests at +Tindaro asked me the same question, I replied that I had been baptised +into the Christian faith soon after birth. The priest said that between +the two Churches of Rome and England there were unfortunate differences +as to the mysteries but I need not concern myself with them. "Nature +does not believe in the mysteries," said my priest, who was a most +friendly person, and as I had been baptised, if I lived a good life, and +he was politely certain I did, then I was a Christian. So I considered +myself justified in answering Carmelo's question in the affirmative. + +In the evening I returned to the Teatro Sicilia; Carmelo put me into a +good place and this time I saw the whole performance. The Nazarene was +taken before Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod. The priests taxed him +with being a magician. Herod proposed that he should perform a miracle +if he could, but Christ was silent and did nothing. Herod therefore +concluded that the priests were wrong and that Christ must be mad. He +directed that he should be clothed in white and taken back to Pilate, and +this was done. + +We were then in the house of the Madonna, and S. John came and told her +and the other Maries all that had happened to her son. Each of the holy +women carried a handkerchief and the lamentation became monotonous. + +Judas had received the thirty pieces of silver and began his remorse by +taking them, in a red purse, back to the priests, who scoffed at him and +turned him out. His rage and despair were extreme and gave the audience +an opportunity to relieve their feelings by laughing. + +Before the last scene Gregorio in his ordinary clothes came on and told +the audience the programme for the next day. He also apologised for +presenting the Passion with marionettes, he usually performs it with +living actors, he himself being the Nazarene. This year, however, he did +not feel strong enough to undertake the part or to get all the other +actors together; and he appealed to our consideration and begged us to +accept marionettes. + +In the days when Giovanni Grasso acted in his own Machiavelli theatre, +before he went on tour and acquired his world-wide reputation, they used +to do the Passion there also, and he was Judas. Sometimes he doubled his +part and did Annas as well, or Pilate or the good centurion, making any +necessary alterations in those places where his two characters ought to +have appeared together. It would be a great thing to see Giovanni as +Judas, but I suppose he will never do it again. + +I noticed that all the figures had been newly dressed and painted for the +occasion and the pupils of their eyes were freshly varnished to catch the +light. About the soldiers there was still some reminiscence of paladins, +but the principal characters had been prepared with due regard to the +works of the great masters--though here again I suppose they were really +following the traditions of the theatre as preserved by the pictures. +The figures gained by hiding their legs, but Joseph of Arimathaea and +Nicodemus had not this advantage. They were princes and were like +Shakespearean young men of the brilliant water-fly type, such as Osric. +Misandro was also a prince. He was a swaggerer and behaved as badly as +any paladin, but he was not a buffo. When they do the Nativita at +Christmas a buffo is permitted, he accompanies the Shepherds as their +servant, and I should like to see him. Misandro was all in golden +armour, as fine a figure as one could expect a Prince of Judaea to be. +He had a contrast in Claudio Cornelio the good centurion. Claudio was +left alone with Christ and confessed his faith, while a bright light from +the cinematograph box illuminated the stage as though to signify that if +we believe, all will become clear. The most successful of the figures +was Pilate. He was in black with a red sash and his robes fell in folds +of great dignity. + +The words were all declaimed either from memory or extempore, and there +were several speakers. The one who had most to do did it with a great +deal of energy, especially as Judas and Misandro. Gregorio spoke for +Christ and a woman spoke for the women and the angels. + +The Christ was of course a failure, in art all Christs are failures, even +the Christ in the chapels at Varallo-Sesia, even the Christ in the +pictures by the masters. The Child Christ may be a success, at least we +can sometimes fancy that that baby might become the Saviour of the World, +he reminds us of those babies we have all seen in real life with a look +in their eyes as though they had solved the riddle of the universe. But +the Man Christ does not convince; we only tolerate him because we have +been brought up to acquiesce in the convention. The Christs of pictures +and statues are not, however, such failures as the Christ at +Ober-Ammergau; by keeping still and not trying to appear so real they +leave more to the imagination. If all these fail how can a marionette be +expected to succeed? Hiding its legs when it moves is not enough. +Gregorio knew he was attempting the impossible and did his best to save +the figure from being worse than it might have been, but the result was +rather as though it were all the time apologising for having undertaken +the part. He made it move very little and very slowly, so slowly that +the action of the drama was interrupted. He allowed it no gestures, +except an occasional raising of the hand. He spoke for it only the few +words given to Christ in the gospels. When it caused a miracle, there +came a great light, as when the good centurion confessed his faith, and +there was music. When it entered, the drum beat a Saracen rhythm and +there was music again. By these means the figure was detached from the +others and appeared as though belonging to another world. When the +marionettes do the Orioles play at Palermo, Christ speaks much more than +the words from the gospels and is treated more like one of the other +characters, at least nothing is done to suggest that they are giving the +Passion with the part of Christ as nearly omitted as possible. + +The music at Catania was faint and scrappy. Gounod's _Meditation on +Bach's First Prelude_ occurred frequently, but it seldom got beyond the +first ten or twelve bars, sometimes not beyond the second or third. And +there were similar short references to some of the more sentimental +melodies of Bellini and Verdi. It was not intended to distract the +attention; it was rather to provide an unobtrusive background for the ear +against which the voice spoke, as the scenery was a background for the +eye against which the figures moved. + + +THURSDAY + + +This was the day for visiting the sepulchres in the churches. Turiddu +took me to the cathedral, and we saw a procession moving slowly down the +nave. It turned up one of the aisles and entered a sepulchre which had +been prepared, passing between a double file of dismal creatures entirely +shrouded in white except for two eye-holes, like those ghouls that issued +stealthily from charnel-houses in German fairy tales, and used to pursue +me in dreams when I was a boy. One by one the lights on the altar were +extinguished, Phrygian cadences dropped inconclusively from the choir +above, the archbishop came out of the sepulchre and the hooded ghosts +crept with him. A Dominican occupied the pulpit and began a sermon, but +as we could not get near enough to hear what he said, we came away. +Turiddu afterwards took me to visit a few more sepulchres, and it was a +gloomy business. + +In the evening, at the Teatro Sicilia, the curtain rose on Christ bound +to the column, and there were two Turks armed with scourges. They did +not actually scourge him, it was enough that they told Misandro they had +executed their orders. Peter denied his master and the cock crew thrice. +While Judas was continuing his remorse, Peter appeared to him, and, +confessing his sin of denying Christ, proposed to expiate it by throwing +himself into a well; he tempted Judas to follow his example and preceded +him to show the way. But we saw that it was not really Peter, it was a +devil. Judas was about to follow the devil when an angel appeared and +stopped him. He was to die a different death, and not yet. + +A tearful scene between mother and son came next; I did not care for it, +but the dream of Claudia, the wife of Pilate, was, as Carmelo said, "una +visione tremenda." In a dress of scarlet satin trimmed with gold and +lace, she sat in an arm-chair in a garden and went to sleep. Christ +appeared to her. She spoke to him, but he did not reply, and as she woke +he vanished. She slept again, and Annas appeared to her in red fire, +threatening her if she yielded to the emotions which the vision of the +Man of Sorrows had raised in her heart. She woke in dismay as he +vanished. She slept again, and saw Pilate in hell surrounded by devils. +She woke in fright. She slept again, and a devil appeared and talked to +her, justifying Pilate. S. Michele came and killed the devil. + + +GOOD FRIDAY + + +The Machiavelli was closed. At the Sicilia the performance began with +the trial of Christ. Pilate sat in the middle with Joseph of Arimathaea +and Nicodemus on his right, Caiaphas, Annas, and Misandro on his left. +Beyond Nicodemus was the Nazarene in a red cloak holding a reed and +crowned with thorns; and beyond Misandro was Barabbas. Pilate made the +opening speech. Caiaphas then spoke for the prosecution; the question in +debate was whether Christ was the Son of God, and he accused Christ of +being a deceiver. Nicodemus followed for the defence. Then Annas for +the prosecution. He said: "The voice of God is the voice of the people." +He was followed by Joseph, who maintained that the wonders performed by +Christ were not done by magic, they were miracles; that is he was not a +magician, he was the Son of God. Misandro spoke last. + +Here a messenger arrived from Claudia telling her dream and begging +Pilate to go to her. The Court rose and Pilate went home to comfort his +wife, while the others talked among themselves just as barristers do in +the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand when the sitting is suspended. + +Pilate returned and took his seat. He proposed to liberate Christ and to +sacrifice Barabbas. He presented Christ to the people, saying: + +"Ecce Homo." + +And the crowd shouted: "Not this man, but Barabbas." + +Pilate ironically congratulated them: + +"You are right, O ignorant People!" and, telling Barabbas to go and +thieve again, he liberated him. + +Then the false witnesses came. One was a soldier, the other a Turk. +They took the oath to speak the truth and nothing but the truth. They +were both of them stupid and comic, confused and contradictory, and made +the audience laugh, and when one of them admitted that he had been +bribed, Annas in his rage gobbled like a turkey. + +Pilate closed the debate and washed his hands in a basin held by a +servant. Then he wrote the sentence and made Misandro read it. The +trial lasted a whole hour, the intention being, I suppose, to reproduce +that tediousness which is so characteristic of real trials. + +In the next scene Judas continued his remorse and Peter--it was really +Peter this time--came and counselled him to ask pardon of Jesus, but he +would not listen. + +Then came the journey to Calvary and the meeting with the Daughters of +Jerusalem and S. Veronica, Misandro ill-treating the women and Claudio +Cornelio protecting them. + +The last scene was the Crucifixion. The thieves were in place. At the +back was the Cross lying on the ground. The figure of Christ was nailed +to it by a Turk with a hammer; the Cross was raised; Misandro approved; +the Turk gave the sponge; Misandro reviled Christ, saying: "Thou that +destroyest the temple of God and buildest it in three days, save +thyself"; Christ and the thieves held their dialogue; the Madonna and S. +John stood at the foot of the Cross while Christ spoke the sentences and +inclined his head. Then there was the earthquake, and we saw the souls +in purgatory surrounding the Cross and heard them welcoming their Lord. + + +SATURDAY + + +Compare Turiddu came early and we went to the duomo to see the Gloria. +The church was full and he told me to be careful about my watch and my +money because--"picketi pocketi"; and then he asked me whether I +understood those two words which his mother had brought back from one of +her tours. + +His Eminence, the Cardinal Archbishop, was conducting a service in a side +chapel--blessing the baptismal water, or the font, or both, or perhaps +doing something else, for Turiddu is not such an authority on +ecclesiastical matters as Carmelo is on matters theatrical. He knows +more than I do, however; it was he who made me go to see the Gloria on +the Saturday, without him I should have missed it by waiting till the +Sunday. The western doors were thrown open and we looked through into +the sunshine and up to the arch that stands at the top of the Via +Garibaldi. The archbishop finished his service and returned through the +congregation to the space within the rails of the principal altar. +Behind him as he stood and concealing the altar and the east end of the +church hung a curtain from the roof to the floor. There was chanting and +movement among the priests; they continually kept going and coming, +disappearing into the secret place behind the great curtain and +reappearing; they were preparing the mystery. Presently the curtain +shook and the congregation understood. The suppressed excitement grew +and a murmuring began, caused, I suppose, by everyone telling everyone +else, as Turiddu told me, that the curtain was about to fall. Another +instant--and its fall revealed the Gloria. + +Above the altar was a tomb and above the tomb was the figure of the risen +Christ triumphing over death; in his left hand he held a banner and, with +his right, he blessed the people. There were lights, and sudden music +from the organ and from the choir; the deafening bells clanged and, +through the great open doors, we heard the sound of revolvers being shot +off into the air and of fireworks being exploded. + +Turiddu could not see over the heads of the people; I lifted him up, he +looked at the Gloria and turning himself round in my arms kissed me as he +said: + +"Buona Pasqua, Compare." + +Everyone was saying "Buona Pasqua" to everyone else, everyone standing +near a friend or a relation was exchanging kisses with him or her as a +sign of goodwill; many were weeping for joy, and those who had been +quarrelling became reconciled, forgiving one another their offences and +entering upon a new life, vowing that, with the help of their Heavenly +Father, who had revealed to them the Mystery of the Resurrection, they +would from this day avoid all further disputes even though, in order to +perform the vow, it should be necessary to avoid one another's company. +This is not imaginative writing, like Peppino Fazio's account of the +effect of the bolide, it is what I saw--the effect of the Gloria. + +And the spirit of the Gloria floated down the nave and through the open +doors and out into the piazza, where the elephant of lava stands over the +fountain. It passed up the Via Garibaldi, down the Corso, along the +Stesicoro Etnea, it spread itself through the city and became identified +with the morning sunshine. + +"Come along," said Turiddu, "let's go and buy a paschal lamb for mother." + +We followed the Gloria into the piazza among the fireworks and the +revolvers. + +I said: "What about the plates, Turiddu? Don't the people throw the +crockery out of window in their joy? We must be careful." + +He replied that they only do that in the poorer parts of the town, and +they always look first to make sure that no one is passing. But we had +better be careful, all the same, because the revolvers are loaded and the +squibs are dangerous. + +He took me past the municipio, where the band was playing, and we came to +a sweet-shop, where paschal lambs made of almond paste and sugar were +flocking together on all the tables and shelves. They were not like the +one at the Last Supper, they were in their fleeces and were standing or +lying among candied fruits and tufts of dried grass that had been +artificially dyed unlikely colours. Turiddu chose one, and I sent him +off home with it as an Easter offering of goodwill to his mother. + +Peppino Fazio was standing at a kiosk near the Quattro Canti with two +young cousins, buying button-holes of violas; he gave me the one he had +intended for himself. + +"Wear this," he said, "it is the primavera. Proserpine has risen from +the underworld, she has returned to Enna and is scattering flowers again. +Stay; let us exchange; I will take another bunch and you shall pay the +man for it one soldo. Buona Pasqua." + +So we exchanged bunches. "Wear this," I said, echoing his words, "it is +the primavera; the time for visiting sepulchres is over. Proserpine has +sent these flowers down from Castrogiovanni by the morning train. Buona +Pasqua." + +In the next piazza, in the shadow of the statue of Bellini, was one of +the men from the Teatro Machiavelli; he had brought out his dog and +talked of going a-birding, he hoped it was not too early for quail, he +had already seen ripe strawberries in the market. Buona Pasqua. + +Then I came upon Joe, the Policeman, keeping order in the street. + +He said: "Buona Pasqua. You are very good-looking this morning." He +meant I was looking very well, but he will be so English. + +I replied: "Buona Pasqua. But, my dear Joe, you ought not to be wearing +flowers in uniform, ought you?" + +"It is the primavera," he said. He also told me that the revolvers and +the squibs and the plates had not done much damage this year--perhaps ten +or a dozen accidents, but none fatal, so far as was yet known. + +I went along the Via Stesicoro, not considering my steps because I was +looking up the street, wondering how long the Gloria would take to melt +the snow on Etna, and I stumbled across Carmelo. + +"Buona Pasqua, Carmelo, and have you been to church this morning?" + +No, he had been to the port with his friends to see the steamer in which +they were to go to Naples; there they would change into another steamer +and be taken to the States. They had begged, borrowed, stolen, or, it +may be, possibly even earned enough soldi to begin their new life upon +another soil and under other skies in a new world. Buona Pasqua. + +I returned to the albergo and found that Turiddu had been and had left +for me a characteristic Sicilian cake--a ring of bread on one side of +which, half embedded in the pasta, were four new-laid eggs. This was +accompanied by a note from his mother begging me to accept it as her +Easter offering of goodwill. She was telling me more than that the hens +had begun to lay again. She was reminding me of how I had seen her at +the Teatro Pessana as the link between her mother and her children, +joining them and separating them like a passage of modulation. I +understood her to mean that for the future I was to see an egg as a +transitional something between the hen that laid it and the chicken that +will burst from its shell, as a secret place of repose where the one is +transmuted into the other, as a sacred temple wherein is prepared a +mystery of resurrection. Mothers know some things that cannot be told +except in symbolism, and not very clearly then, symbols being as +perplexing as unresolved diminished sevenths which may be understood in +many different senses. I read the riddle of the eggs in the sense +suggested by the context of the Gloria, and I think I read it aright, for +in Catania on that Easter morning we were all of one mind, we were all +breathing the Gloria, we were all filled with the spirit of the new life, +the spirit that animated also our far-away English monk as he sat in his +Berkshire cell making music for + + Summer is icumen in, + Lhude sing cuccu. + +In the evening I went to the Machiavelli. The theatre had been taken by +a young amateur who carries on a business of forwarding oranges and other +fruit. He gave a performance of one of Giovanni Grasso's plays, +_Feudalismo_, part of which I was obliged to see because in the second +act there is a song sung behind, and Turiddu had been asked to sing it; +on such a day the claims of the family were stronger even than on Palm +Sunday. His voice has not yet broken, but if it turns out to be as good +for a man as it is now for a boy, he ought to do well with it. I must +not continue--it would be more unbecoming in me to praise my compare for +his singing than to praise his sister for her acting. + +After the song in _Feudalismo_ there was time also for the second +representation at the Teatro Sicilia. The performance began with the +wounding of Christ. Then Annas and Caiaphas discussed the question of +whether, after all, they might not have made a mistake in treating Christ +as a magician. They had been alarmed by the earthquake, the atmospheric +disturbances and the rising of the dead from their graves. Could these +phenomena signify that he was the Son of God? And something else +troubled them; on consideration they did not like the wording of Pilate's +sentence. They went to his palace, but Pilate was not disposed to listen +to their objections. + +"What I have written I have written," said Pilate. + +They had brought the sentence with them and pointed out to him that he +had condemned "il Re dei Giudei" the King of the Jews and, inasmuch as +condemning a king is a serious step and might get him into trouble, +suggested that for his own safety he should add the letter "o" to the +word "Re." This would make it that he had condemned "Il Reo dei Giudei," +the Criminal of the Jews. Pilate was persuaded and agreed to add the +letter. He went away and fetched his pen, which looked like a feather +from the tail of a hawk, and Annas held the paper; but Pilate's pen +refused to write, it was wafted from his hand by a power stronger than +his, it hung in the air before their eyes and fluttered away to heaven. + +This miracle was accompanied by music; and, if I had been consulted, I +should not have advised the _Marcia Reale Italiana_, because that +composition, on account of its inherent frivolity, has always seemed to +me unfit for the accompaniment of any manifestation of power. To despise +Bellini because he is not Schubert would be to adopt the attitude of the +buffo's critic who escaped from Paris in the teatrino at Palermo; +nevertheless the countrymen of Schubert have known how to appear before +the world clothed in the solemn splendour of Haydn's majestic Hymn to the +Emperor, while the Italians come mountebanking along in an ill-fitting, +machine-made suit of second-hand flourishes, as though that were the best +they could lay their hands on. They have not done themselves justice. +But this is not the place for a digression; before returning to Pilate +and his visitors, however, let me say distinctly that the music was the +Italian _Marcia Reale_ played, not as the other scraps were played, but +with a loud and jaunty heartlessness as though the miraculous pen were +jeering at the priests: + +"There! you didn't expect that; now, did you?" + +Joseph and Nicodemus also came to Pilate begging the body of Jesus. The +priests objected, for they had not forgotten the prophecy about building +the Temple of God in three days, and they feared trickery. Pilate +compromised, granting the request but setting a guard. + +Next we saw the Descent from the Cross, effected by Joseph and Nicodemus; +and while the body lay on a couch, a melancholy Miserere was sung behind. +The Entombment followed, the Madonna in black lamenting and weeping. + +The last scene was in a wood, where Judas came to finish his remorse. He +refused all comfort and all the benevolent suggestions of the angels who +visited him. They told him that God is ever willing to pardon the sinner +who sincerely repents and freely confesses his sin. It is with God +always as it is with men at the season of the Gloria. But the wretched +Judas could not think of repentance and confession; his cowardly soul was +not torn by sorrow for past sin, it was paralysed by fear of future +punishment; or we may have been intended to understand that the road to +perdition lies through madness. He spoke three sentences, and the last +word of each was echoed by a diabolical voice and then appeared written +in letters of blood and fire:--Giuda:--Dio:--Stesso. These words made a +sentence by themselves and signified: "_Judas_ is against _God_ and +against _Himself_." Faith, Hope, and Charity appeared to him separately; +he would have nothing to do with any of them and they all deserted him. +A devil approached and Judas trembled, knowing his time had come. He +went and fetched a rope, and with the devil's help accomplished his fatal +destiny by hanging himself to one of the trees of the wood, and as his +wicked soul came out of his mouth the devil greedily snatched it away and +carried it down to be eternally tormented in hell. It was like an untidy +black hen. + + +EASTER DAY + + +I had to go into the country for the night, and so was obliged to miss +the Resurrection as presented by the marionettes. I did not, however, +much mind, because I had seen the Gloria in the cathedral, where the +Christ over the altar was modelled much better than any figure in the +theatre. Besides, I called on Gregorio in the course of the day and had +a talk with him and his son, Angiolino, who told me what is done on the +last evening of the drama, and showed me the preparations. The first +scene, representing the tomb, was nearly ready. After the curtain rises +there is an earthquake, and Misandro comes to see whether the watching +soldiers are doing their duty; he finds them asleep and wakes them. This +is repeated, and the third time Misandro sees the tomb open with a loud +noise and a bright light--"like the bolide," said Angiolino. Christ +rises, and Misandro, seeing the actual Resurrection, is convinced that +Christ is the Son of God and not a magician; he goes to spend the rest of +his life preaching the gospel among the heathen. I did not ask what +music accompanies the miracle of the Resurrection; I confess I was afraid +to do so after what I had heard accompanying the flight of the pen. If I +had been consulted here I should have advised silence to suggest that no +music could be found suitable for the tremendous mystery that was being +accomplished. But I do not think such advice would have been accepted. + +Then Herod is ill and commands Pilate to send Jesus to cure him. Pilate +commands the priests to produce Jesus, reminding them that he had washed +his hands; but each of the priests accuses the other of being +responsible, and so they enter upon their eternal punishment of mutual +recrimination. + +Christ appears to the Magdalene, to Luke, to Matthew and to a contadino. +He takes two of them to a tavern, where he breaks bread and vanishes. So +they recognise him and go to tell the good news to the Madonna and the +other holy women. Doubting Thomas is convinced. Jesus breathes the Holy +Spirit upon them and they receive the gift of tongues. The last scene is +the Ascension, and Christ as he is received into heaven speaks words of +comfort to his mother, telling her it will not be long before she joins +him. + +The marionettes were behindhand with their Gloria, because the bolide +having transferred Monday's programme to Tuesday had syncopated the +succeeding performances into counterpoint of the fourth order, and +everything that happened after that was one beat late. Had they moved +concurrently with the Church, and reached the Resurrection on the +Saturday, they would have repeated it on the Sunday to fill up the time +till Easter Monday, when they were to return to _Erminio della Stella +d'Oro_, a story of romance and chivalry invented by Angelo Grasso, the +father of Gregorio and of Giovanni. + +I asked Gregorio where he had found the particulars for Misandro and the +remorse of Judas and for the dream of Pilate's wife and the pen that flew +away. He replied that he did not know where they came from, they are +traditional in the theatre and had probably come out of the libraries. +As to Judas and the angel preventing him from drowning himself in the +well, I asked whether they have in Sicily the saying about a man being +born to be hanged and whether any allusion was intended. Angiolino said +they have such a saying, or something like it, but it had never occurred +to him to suppose that any allusion was intended, it might be so, but he +thought not. + +The Christ that had been prepared for the Resurrection in the Teatro +Sicilia was not the marionette that had been on the Cross; the stigmata +were there, the spear wound was wanted in the scene with Thomas, and the +people were free to take it as being the same figure with all the other +marks of suffering removed, or they might think it was a different one, +or they might come behind the scenes and find out for themselves as I +did. Dwellers in another planet, if they watch the recurrence of the +mystery of our spring, may think the flowers they saw sinking into the +earth last autumn return again with the marks of decay removed, they +cannot come behind our scenes and make sure; but we know that a new +generation is born. The marionettes are not didactic; if the people +choose to see in the Resurrection of Christ any one of Nature's ageless +mysteries they may do so; they may see the birth of the younger +generation, the blossoming of fresh flowers after winter, the awakening +to a new day after sleep; or, if they prefer it, they may see the +resurrection of their own dead bodies at the sound of the Last Trump--one +of those mysteries in which, as my priest at Tindaro told me, Nature does +not believe, and with which I need not concern myself. + +I do not think they saw in it any of these meanings. At Ober-Ammergau +the play is presented so that Mendelssohn need not have hesitated to +advise the late Prince Consort to honour a performance with his presence. +In the Teatro Sicilia other tastes have to be consulted. I think the +audience looked on at the Passion of Christ as they are accustomed to +look on at _I Delitti del Caporale_ or _Feudalismo_ or at the _Story of +the Paladins_ or _Erminio della Stella d'Oro_; if they suspected any +symbolism or mystery, the melodrama with which they were saturated +provided a context that determined the direction of the resolution. They +saw wicked priests conspiring with a cowardly traitor and an overbearing +bully to bring about the destruction of an innocent man. They saw the +innocent man passing through misfortune and in the end triumphing over +his enemies by means of a happy ending, which reminded them of the happy +ending of a Machiavelli play, when the hero returns from prison and the +bad people are punished. They saw a mother weeping for her son, but they +saw no allusion to Ceres weeping for loss of Proserpine, although their +Castrogiovanni was her Enna--just as Angiolino saw no reference to Judas +having been born to be hanged, although they have the saying in Sicily, +and he is the son of the house. I do not think they saw any significance +in the fact that this mystery of the Death and Resurrection of the God is +repeated every spring. I imagine that the point made by Joseph of +Arimathaea in his speech for the defence, that the wonders done by Christ +on earth were miracles and were not occasioned by magic, was lost upon +them. It would take a long time to make one of them understand that la +Durlindana, the sword of Orlando, was a magical sword and not a +miraculous one. And yet this distinction between miracle and magic was +the pivot of the plot as it was presented to them. If they had felt +themselves lifted out of their ordinary routine I do not think they would +have done what they did after the curtain had fallen on the section of +the story presented each evening. + +At the Machiavelli they are accustomed to remain for the farce and the +Canzonettisti Napoletani which close the performance; so at the Sicilia +they remain for the cinematograph. Every evening during Holy Week the +programme posted up at the door concluded with these words "Indi +Cinematografo," and there were always three parts to the show. First +there was cruelty--victorious tyrants forcing conquered queens to drink +their lovers' blood, or some horror of the Inquisition, or the barrel of +Regulus bumping down-hill and coming to smash at the bottom. The second +part was a modern comedy carried on in Parisian drawing-rooms or on board +an electric launch on an American river. The third part was always a +wild farce and usually contained an impossible chase. Not till after the +cinematograph had concluded its show did the audience go away contented. + + + + +ORTIGIA + + +CHAPTER XXII +O FOUNTAIN ARETHUSE + + +When "Arethusa arose From her couch of snows In the Acroceraunian +mountains" she had scarcely reached the age at which women begin to dream +of love. She spied the approaching river-god Alpheus and, to preserve +what was dearer to her than life, for she was a nymph of Diana, plunged +heroically into the earth. Alpheus, who had reached the age when men +desire to act, plunged in after her. They flowed along inside the ground +and under the sea, he following her, all the way from Greece to Sicily +and, according to the recognised habit of gods and demi-gods believed to +be dead and buried, they rose again. The place of Arethusa's +resurrection is the island of Ortigia, but, although I have the story +from the fountain head, it all happened so long ago that I have not been +able to ascertain whether Alpheus rose there or at a spot on the mainland +of Sicily nearer Etna where S. Alfio is the patron saint, and although +the "e" in Alpheus takes the stress and the "i" in Alfio does not, +nevertheless, the custode of the spring, who was himself my informant, +may confuse the two names. The difference between the versions is that +between tragedy and comedy. If they, the pursued and her pursuer, rose +in the same place it can hardly be that he did not catch her. If he rose +somewhere else, then she may still preserve her everlasting virginity and +they will neither of them ever reach the age when experience teaches both +men and women to regret. She will be ever flying, he ever pursuing, like +the maiden and the lover on that Grecian Urn which an eminent authority, +baffled in his attempts at identification, thinks was "probably imagined" +by Keats. + +I possess a Bible and Prayer-book bound together in one volume which was +given me on leaving Rottingdean by my sincere friend, the master of the +preparatory school there. It contains, just before the First Chapter of +Genesis, a Chronological Map "with remarkable persons and events +collaterally placed." I remember how I used to mitigate the tedium of +divine service by reading to myself that the creation of the world +occupied one of the weeks of the year 4004 B.C.; that Egypt was founded +about 2190 B.C.; that Troy fell about 1180 B.C., seventy years or so +before the birth of King David; and that Homer and Elijah flourished +contemporaneously between 1000 and 900 B.C. My schoolmaster wrote my +name in the book with a suitable inscription and a reference to Psalm +cxix. 105. I turned up the passage and drew the conclusion that he +desired his gift to be a lantern unto my feet and a light unto my paths. +And so it was until other knowledge, the rudiments of which he had +himself endeavoured to impart to me, threw glimmerings across my way and +I passed through a distracted period of inability to distinguish the +signals of danger from those of safety. Much the same thing has happened +to many others and assistance has sometimes been found in compromise and +accommodation. Thus the statement about 4004 B.C., when read by the +light of another statement in the Book, does not seriously conflict with +the teachings of modern science. Until further knowledge shall eclipse +the few feeble lanterns that are now doing their best to illuminate my +course I shall continue to hold the opinion that, as in the sight of Him, +who is the Life of the Universe, a thousand years are but as yesterday, +so in the sight of man, who has been God's image upon earth for more ages +than anyone can tell, six thousand years are but as last week. And I +shall keep my thousands in a condition as elastic as may be necessary to +bear any stretching that future discoveries may put upon them. + +It was many thousands of such weeks ago, when Mother Earth was herself in +her infancy, before her baby bones had hardened, that Arethusa first came +to the island she has made her home. She is still coming and can be seen +to-day still rising as fresh as ever. The story of the early days of her +exile was not told by Clio because Clio was only a modern Agamemnon in +history, many a brave muse had flourished before she was thought of. One +of them took for her infinite papyrus the firmament of space, those +heavens which shall one day be rolled together as a scroll, whereon she +inscribed chapters in stars and volumes in constellations. We cannot see +all her works, nor can we read all we see, but we know that she put us +into one of her books. A few paragraphs of that chapter which forms our +planet lie scattered around Siracusa; we recognise her manuscript in the +shape of the Great Harbour, in the depth of the sea, in the height of the +hills, in the strata of the rocks, in the soil, in the vegetation. + +There were early muses who employed flint implements and arrow-heads for +records, and neglected to clear away the remains of prehistoric meals in +caverns. Others preferred to write their chronicles upon pots, urns and +tombs or to scrawl placid monosyllables upon polygonal walls. But with +all their industry the muses have never been able to keep pace with the +material that has accumulated round the dwellings of men and women. They +have done their best and, when their mother Mnemosyne began to fail and +the business was split up first into three, then four, seven, eight, and +ultimately into nine departments, it was hoped that a better result would +be shown; but they have never had an adequate allowance, and have always +been in financial difficulties, besides which they have disagreed among +themselves, and quarrelling wastes time. + +Clio in her matter-of-fact way built a storehouse wherein to preserve her +treasures; her curious, imaginative sisters peeped through the key-hole. + +"Dear me!" they said to one another. "What a collection! Do you think +we could get inside and see it properly?" + +They waited till Clio went one day with Neptune to pay a visit to the +Ethiopians "who lie in two halves, one half looking on to the Atlantic +and the other on to the Indian Ocean," they induced Vulcan to come and +pick the lock for them and soon they were roaming all over the palace. + +"How admirably arranged!" exclaimed one of them. + +"It must be nearly exhaustive!" said another. + +"Observe the collateral placing of remarkable persons and events," said a +third. + +"One could find almost anything one wanted," said a fourth. + +"Ah!" they exclaimed; "oh! now if only we could manage to get a little +life into some of these dead bones, how pleased Clio would be!" + +They rifled the show-cases and carried off the most attractive details, +each taking whatever pleased her best. They stole from Clio her +transient facts and made them live again as their own by breathing into +them the spirit of eternal truth and re-stating them in folk-lore, in +tradition, in verse, in romance, in melody, in superstition, in outline, +in colour, in modelling, in the movements of the dance; they set them up +in libraries, in concert-rooms, in picture-galleries, in theatres, in +churches, in corridors of sculpture, in the hearts of the people. This +was not what Clio had intended; she was not at all pleased; she +complained that her sisters had meddled, they had robbed her of her chief +possessions and left the remainder in disorder; her collection no longer +corresponded with the catalogue. In attempting to reconstruct she +floundered into such blunders that the saying has come down to us: +Blessed are the people that have no history, for they shall not be +misrepresented. + +Strictly speaking, of course, every man has history, such as it is, and +the beatitude was intended to refer only to those whose history has +escaped the attention of the muses as that of Arethusa did for many ages. +We know enough, however, to guess that her exile cannot have been passed +in solitude and, if only we had her Visitors' Book complete, we should +have something that would keep many learned persons busy. We get an +early glimpse of her on her underground journey, passing near enough to +the dread abode of Pluto to overhear some scandal about + + That fair field + Of Enna where Proserpine, gathering flowers, + Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis + Was gathered. + +She did not fully understand, but the nymph Cyane, who dwelt in another +fountain up the river Anapo and remembered the affair, gave her full +particulars; she made a mental note of it all and imparted the +information to Ceres, who came weeping and telling her grief as she +wandered the world in search of her lost daughter. + +Venus, in one or other of her manifestations, was and is a welcome +visitor; she rises from the sea as constantly as Arethusa falls into it, +and some little time ago gave the nymph, for a keepsake, a portrait of +herself as Venere Anadiomene done in marble. I know enough about +painting not to be afraid to own that I know nothing about it, whereas +with regard to sculpture my ignorance is so unfathomable that I can have +no hesitation in saying what I think about this statue, which is that it +is a pity it has been broken. If only it had its head and its right arm +it would be an entry of which the owner of any visitors' book might well +be proud. It is now in the museum of Ortigia, where there is also a +marble portrait of Cupid as he comes riding into the Great Harbour +mounted on his dolphin's back. + +Diana, sailing through the night, seated in her silver chair, comes +regularly to Ortigia. Arethusa always receives her with the respect and +honour due to her Queen and Huntress, chaste and fair. Some centuries +ago she built her a temple with Doric columns and everything handsome +about it; she put inside it a statue of the goddess, and the people +forsook their old deity, whatever she was called, and went to the new +temple worshipping Diana. + +Phoenician traders came and did business with Arethusa, some of it not +very straight business; for Ctesius, the king of the place, had a +woman-servant, very tall and comely, who was from their own country; they +cajoled her in ways that no woman can resist and, partly by means of "a +necklace of gold with amber beads strung among it," induced her to go +away with them one evening, and she took with her out of the palace three +cups and the king's son, a child just able to run about. She may have +thought of taking the boy because she had herself been kidnapped from +Sidon, brought to Ortigia and sold to Ctesius. Before they had been a +week on the voyage, Diana struck the woman dead and the traders threw her +body overboard to the seals and fishes. We should never have known her +tragic end but for the fact that the _Odyssey_ was written by a woman +jealous for the honour of her sex. The boy was afterwards sold to +Laertes, the father of Ulysses, in whose service he put on immortality as +the swineherd Eumaeus. {294} + +Early Greeks also did business with Arethusa and left with her vases, +gold rings, glass beads, ivory combs and other objects which she still +preserves in her museum. Later on, in quite modern days, about the time +that Rome was being founded, less than eight centuries before Christ, +other Greeks came from Corinth, turned out the Sikels and established a +colony of their own in Ortigia. + +After this Arethusa was no longer among those who have no history in any +sense of the word. The records become less scanty, even voluminous, and +they are more legible. The books are full of the great names of her +visitors and of those native to her island. We read of the Tyrants, of +AEschylus and Pindar, of Theocritus and Archimedes; of the great siege +when the Athenians failed to take the city; of Cicero coming to view the +locality when preparing his speeches against Verres; of the five parts +into which ancient Siracusa was divided, namely, Ortigia, on the island, +and those four others with the beautiful names on the mainland, +Achradina, Tyche, Neapolis, Epipolae, the memory of whose former +splendour still trembles among their ruins. + +I do not know whether Ptolemy Philadelphos actually visited the nymph, +but I have read somewhere that the papyrus which now grows where she +rises was originally a present from him. It does not look so healthy as +that which grows in the Fontana Cyane up the river Anapo across the +harbour, and which he also sent to her. + +About three hundred years after the statue of Venus was made, S. Paul, +being on his way to Rome, was shipwrecked at Malta, where he remained +three months. He sailed away in the _Castor and Pollux_ of Alexandria, +landed at Siracusa and tarried there three days. We know what S. Paul +must have thought of Diana from the account of what happened at Ephesus, +where the goddess was also worshipped; it is probable that he was among +those who disbelieved in the eternal virginity of Arethusa, and he surely +must have disapproved of the frequent visits of Venus and Cupid. In time +the people of Ortigia professed themselves converted to his views and +made a change, but they made it in a half-hearted way; for instead of +pulling down the heathen temple, so that not one stone should be left +upon another, they allowed the Doric columns to remain and merely filled +up the intercolumniations with building material and baptised it into the +Christian faith with a coat of whitewash and a new name. In other +respects they went on very much as before. + +Saracens visited the nymph, and Normans; Egyptians, Germans, Goths, +Spaniards, Frenchmen, Albanians all came and all bequeathed some record +of their coming. Many of them left their autographs written one over the +other upon the forms and features of the ancestors of those who still +have their dwelling in her island. + +Lord Nelson on his way to the Nile, where the papyrus came from, sailed +into the Great Harbour with his fleet and did business with the nymph. +He wrote to Sir William and Lady Hamilton: + + Thanks to your exertions we have victualled and watered; and surely, + having watered at the fountain of Arethusa we must have victory. + +What a picture these words call up of Arethusa welcoming Nelson's jolly +tars! They are coming in their pinnaces and filling their barrels and +kegs with the waters of the sacred spring and, as they row back across +the harbour to the ships, one can almost hear them singing of "Tom +Bowling," "Black-eyed Susan" and "The Roast Beef of Old England." + +I have myself seen the German Emperor visiting Arethusa. His yacht, the +_Hohenzollern_, was in the Great Harbour, and one afternoon I watched his +suite being put ashore in little boats, like Nelson's sailors, only there +was no singing, and presently he came in a little boat and they all drove +away in carriages to the Cappuccini, where I read in the _Giornale di +Sicilia_ that they inspected the latomia and took tea. They passed quite +close to me and, although I had never seen His Majesty before, I was bold +enough to raise my hat to him; he observed my salute and most affably +returned it. I thought him looking extremely well. + +The Kaiser landed at the Passeggiata Aretusa, a promenade that runs under +shady trees between the Great Harbour and the cliff on which the city is +built. It leads south to a garden, and further progress appears to be +blocked by a buttress of the cliff; but the buttress is pierced by a +tunnel, through which a path leads to another garden lying in an +enclosure protected from the harbour by a wall which encircles it; the +wall slopes down and on the top of it runs a path up which one can walk +and so enter the town without returning through the tunnel. + +In this enclosure is the famous Fontana Aretusa, but there is nothing +about it that reminds one of the fountains of the Crystal Palace or of +Versailles. One first catches sight of a pond and then of a spring +bubbling into it with irresistible volubility at the north end; at the +south end the water tumbles out into the harbour through a hole in the +sea wall. The surface of the pond is below the level of the passeggiata +and probably the bed of it is below the level of the water in the +harbour, so that, as Cicero observed, it is the wall that keeps out the +waves and if the hole had been pierced lower the pond would be submerged +by the sea. On the sides of the cliff and on the wall grow plants with +aromatic leaves and flowers, and one can walk round the pond and watch +the fish which are, or ought to be, the descendants of those which Cicero +saw, as they swim about among the roots of Ptolemy's papyrus. The water +is not now used for washing, but I suspect that the Sidonian woman who +stole the little Eumaeus was so using it, for she was washing near the +ship of her countrymen when they got into conversation with her, and +their ship would be moored in the Great Harbour, close by the fountain. + +I drank of this water, following the example of all visitors and of many +of the inhabitants who believe it to produce a beneficial effect upon the +digestion. It may have been good enough for Nelson, and I trust that the +digestions of his sailors derived benefit from it--anyhow, they had +victory at the battle of the Nile--but for a modern Londoner, accustomed +to do business with the Metropolitan Water Board, it is too salt, which +is perhaps why the papyrus here looks less flourishing than that up the +Anapo. The water tastes as though Arethusa had been the heroine of +another story besides the one with the uncertain ending about +Alpheus--one with Neptune as the villain and an ending tragic enough to +justify S. Paul in his attitude towards the nymph. Some who adopt this +view suppose that Neptune's designs were forwarded by an earthquake +which, they think, must have occurred since Nelson's time, because he +speaks as though he gave his sailors the water of the spring; but that is +not enough to date the disturbance. It is some distance from Greece to +Sicily, and along all those miles, during all those ages, there may have +been many earthquakes, any one of which would have served Neptune's turn; +some may have been before S. Paul's time, some before Eumaeus was born, +some in still earlier days. If the earthquake had already been, Nelson +must have observed the brackishness of the spring and he would then have +preferred to take his water from the usual fresh source which supplied +the inhabitants of his day, and, in speaking of "having watered at the +fountain of Arethusa," he would be trusting to Lady Hamilton's +familiarity with that figure which permits the part to be put for the +whole. + +I have visited Arethusa many times. Once, on a calm evening in early +summer, Diana was high up in the sky, shining over the harbour; although, +like others, she may not have been sure which was her temple and which +was Minerva's, she could not help wondering whether anything was ever +going to be done about openly restoring them both to their ancient +worship. She was, however, comforting herself in the meantime with the +reflection that neither she nor Minerva had much to complain of, inasmuch +as it was clear that if it were not for the support of those Doric +columns the modern Church would not stand as it does, and after all, she +thought, "What's in a name?" Down below in the passeggiata, officers and +young men were strolling about, listening to a pot-pourri of _Faust_. +Their cheeks were shaved smooth to show the modelling and their +moustaches gave evidence of hours of toil and even suffering; they met +their friends and gesticulated with them, smoking cigarettes and being +polite to everyone. Mothers and elder sisters in cool white dresses sat +under the trees, and little parties of children darted away from them, +hand in hand, returning after breathless excursions. I took a seat among +it all and, as the King of Thule, in honour of his lady, was drinking for +the last time out of his golden cup, a young voice over my shoulder +demanded two soldi. I turned and thought I recognised the speaker; +surely he must have left his dolphin in the Great Harbour where the +Phoenician traders used to moor their ships, and put on his sailor suit +at the Custom House. + +"Very well, Cupid," I replied, "I don't mind giving you two soldi, but +why do you ask as though you were entitled to them? And why do you wear +that red tam-o'-shanter? And how old are you, if you please?" + +He said he was seven and the cap was his uniform; he was collecting the +pennies for the chairs. So I gave him two soldi and another for himself +and saw him scamper happily away and join a knot of brother Cupids who +were playing together round a lamp-post. He showed them the soldo I had +given him for himself and the meeting became as ebullient and full of +excitement as the Arethusa herself. + +He reappeared while Siebel, with the voice of a clarinet, was beginning +to tell the flowers what they were to say to Margherita. This time he +brought a foreign penny and wanted to know why they had refused to take +it at the marionette theatre. I looked at it and said: + +"If you want to know about this coin, mount your dolphin again and direct +his course to distant Argentina, the people of that country will tell you +all about it and will give you its full value. You will have a +delightful voyage and, if I were not such a bad sailor, I believe I +should ask you to take me with you." + +It seemed, however, that his dolphin was tired and I was to give him ten +centimes down and done with it. He was such a jolly little fellow that +just for the pleasure of seeing him smile again I gave him the soldi in +exchange for his coin and he danced away in delight. + +Margherita in prison was crazily recalling the strains of the waltz she +had heard--Ah, what ages ago it seemed!--when she was yet a happy girl, +as pure as Arethusa in Hellas, and through the waltz I heard the young +voice again over my shoulder. He was asking me to give him bronze for an +Italian nickel piece of twenty centesimi. It was a bad one. I told him +so and accused him of attempting to utter counterfeit coin. He laid his +two hands on his breast, raised his elbows, threw back his head with +conscious innocence and swore on the honour of his mother that the coin +was good. He did it so well--so beautifully--that for a moment I was +tempted to wonder whether he might perhaps be speaking the truth, but I +glanced again at his coin and recovered myself. + +"Now look here, Cupid," I said, "I don't want to breathe a syllable +against the honour of your mother, but you know better than anyone that +when a woman loses her head you are generally to blame. This is your +doing"--and I took out of my pocket and showed him a post-card I had +bought that morning in the Via Roma with a reproduction of the Venere +Anadiomene. "And men also have lost their heads because of you. I am +not the only one who has heard about the Duca di Bronte and Lady +Hamilton. Look round at these beautiful ladies and at these brave +officers and young men--do they not bear upon their forms and features +the signatures of Arethusa's foreign visitors? You ought to be able to +decipher that palimpsest, if anyone can, for it was you who taught them +to write; Ortigia would never have seen them if it had not been for you. +And why are they sitting under the trees and walking about in the +moonlight, do you suppose?" + +He replied that they had come out to listen to the music and he wished +there were more of them because then he would get more pennies. + +"What!" I exclaimed; "people who do not even recognise a modulation to +the dominant when they hear one come out to listen to music! You know +better than that. They have not come out because of Gounod, they have +come because of you. It is always the same old story. It was your fault +that Alpheus chased Arethusa out of Greece and that Proserpine was +carried off from Enna. It was you who suggested to those Phoenician +traders that the nurse of the little Eumaeus would be good company for +them, and you who made her consent to go. This music, of which I should +have heard more this evening but for your frequent interruptions, you +were at the bottom of it all. And it is because you are always hanging +about the theatre that those wretched puppets are so constantly going mad +for love of one another." + +He pouted and said I was making myself disagreeable and that there had +been plenty to praise him. + +I replied: "Yes; you swallow the praise, but you won't listen to the +blame." + +He said that as for the praise or the blame it was nothing to him one way +or the other. He was too much interested in the future of the race to +care about any of those old stories--they bored him--and, please, +wouldn't I leave off preaching and give him four soldi? + +I replied: "You have immortal youth without the troublesome necessity of +periodically dying and rising again; on that stage of the world where we +mortals, untrained amateurs, improvise the drama of our lives, you have +always been behind the scenes, inspiring and stage-managing more history +and more poetry than has ever been written; without you Clio would never +have built herself a treasure-house or, if she had made one, her sisters +would have found in it nothing worth stealing; it is you who direct the +modulation from the old generation to the young; it is your voice that is +heard every Easter behind the bells and the music of the Gloria. And now +you ask for riches! No wonder we complain that you are unreasonable. +Can you not be satisfied and, in looking after the future of the race, +put a little more variety into its history and its poetry? Why do you so +often begin a story as comedy and end it as tragedy? It is unworthy of +you to play fast and loose with us; great poets do not do so. But there! +you are too young to know what conscience is, and I am afraid you are too +old to learn." + +He replied that he was not accustomed to be talked to in this way and did +not know what I meant by it. + +I said: "Very well, I will leave off preaching, and perhaps you will +allow me to conclude with a piece of advice that ought to be acceptable +to one whose ambition it is to become a millionaire. You cannot have +forgotten where you put your mother's head. Now, be a sensible boy for +once, run away and find it, take it to Dr. Orsi up there in the museum +and he will give you plenty of soldi for it--more than you can count, and +no questions asked about honour." + +He laughed and said I seemed to take a good deal of interest in the +personal appearance of his mother who, he thought, could be trusted to +look after herself, and that so long as a woman's heart was in the right +place it did not much matter what she did with her head. Besides, even +if he were to find the head, he knew nothing about business and a +scientific man in a museum would be sure to get the better of him. + +There is no resisting Cupid, so I let him think he had got the better of +me, gave him four soldi and added his coin to my collection of similar +pieces, while he frisked away back to his friends boasting of his +success, as Cupid will. He had not quite done with me, however, he came +once more to see whether I should be likely to give him a cigarette, but +a rough man caught him, told him not to worry the gentry, boxed his ears +for him and drove him from me. + +Fancy boxing the ears of a young Greek god off a dolphin's back within +sound of the Fontana Aretusa! + +And yet, perhaps the rough man was right. I have sometimes thought since +that it cannot have been really Cupid who came to me that evening; I must +have been wasting my time and money, as others have done before, upon +some false god, false as his counterfeit coin, one of those who go up and +down the world seeking whom they may despoil. Well, let it be so. One +does not keep an account of the hours and minutes one spends in a country +where the existence of time is scarcely recognised, and as for the +money--of all the multitudes of men who have been fooled by Commerce in +the guise of Love only a few have had the luck to escape with a total +loss not exceeding four-pence half-penny. + + THE END + + + + +NOTES. + + +{60} This table-- + + --is much merrier than usual this evening. + Enrico! I drink to the health of your sister. + +{61a} This table is not dirty, it is clean. +Enrico! Eat, and do not pay attention to them. + +{61b} The animal +Will not do it any harm. + +{61c} Now that I have eaten I am no longer fasting; +I drink to the health of Enrico, who is a poet. + +{61d} I also, if I may make so bold, wish to drink the health of Enrico +who desires to hear me sing; for a year I have not seen you, O, my dear +brother! Come to-day and I will sing you _Otello_. + +{62} To-day I feel inclined to eat a fig; +I drink to the health of Signor Enrico. + +{183} Best wishes for your festa. Thanks for the intellectual evening +and for the coffee. Greetings--no more, for fear of making our friend +Antonio jealous. + + Your most devoted Enrico. + +{294} _The Authoress of the Odyssey_, by Samuel Butler. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CASTELLINARIA*** + + +******* This file should be named 25077.txt or 25077.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/0/7/25077 + + + +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. 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