Old Calabria

by Norman Douglas


Contents

 I. SARACEN LUCERA
 II. MANFRED’S TOWN
 III. THE ANGEL OF MANFREDONIA
 IV. CAVE-WORSHIP
 V. LAND OF HORACE
 VI. AT VENOSA
 VII. THE BANDUSIAN FOUNT
 VIII. TILLERS OF THE SOIL
 IX. MOVING SOUTHWARDS
 X. THE FLYING MONK
 XI. BY THE INLAND SEA
 XII. MOLLE TARENTUM
 XIII. INTO THE JUNGLE
 XIV. DRAGONS
 XV. BYZANTINISM
 XVI. REPOSING AT CASTROVILLARI
 XVII. OLD MORANO
 XVIII. AFRICAN INTRUDERS
 XIX. UPLANDS OF POLLINO
 XX. A MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL
 XXI. MILTON IN CALABRIA
 XXII. THE “GREEK” SILA
 XXIII. ALBANIANS AND THEIR COLLEGE
 XXIV. AN ALBANIAN SEER
 XXV. SCRAMBLING TO LONGOBUCCO
 XXVI. AMONG THE BRUTTIANS
 XXVII. CALABRIAN BRIGANDAGE
 XXVIII. THE GREATER SILA
 XXIX. CHAOS
 XXX. THE SKIRTS OF MONTALTO
 XXXI. SOUTHERN SAINTLINESS
 XXXII. ASPROMONTE, THE CLOUD-GATHERER
 XXXIII. MUSOLINO AND THE LAW
 XXXIV. MALARIA
 XXXV. CAULONIA TO SERRA
 XXXVI. MEMORIES OF GISSING
 XXXVII. COTRONE
 XXXVIII. THE SAGE OF CROTON
 XXXIX. MIDDAY AT PETELIA
 XL. THE COLUMN
 INDEX

[Illustration: Tower at Manfredonia]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


 TOWER AT MANFREDONIA
 LION OF LUCERA
 AT SIPONTUM
 RUIN OF TRINITÀ: EAST FRONT
 ROMAN ALTAR
 NORMAN CAPITAL AT VENOSA
 SOLE RELIC OF OLD TARAS
 FISHING AT TARANTO
 BY THE INLAND SEA
 FOUNTAINS OF GALAESUS
 TARANTO: THE LAST PALM
 BUFFALO AT POLICORO
 THE SINNO RIVER
 CHAPEL OF SAINT MARK
 SHOEING A COW
 MORANO
 AN OLD SHEPHERD
 THE SARACENIC TYPE
 PEAK OF POLLINO IN JUNE
 CALABRIAN COWS
 THE VALLEY OF GAUDOLINO
 SAN DEMETRIO CORONE
 THE TRIONTO VALLEY
 LONGOBUCCO
 GATEWAY AT CATANZARO
 IN THE CEMETERY OF REGGIO
 TIRIOLO
 EFFECTS OF DEFORESTATION
 OLD SOVERATO
 THE MODERN AESARUS
 CEMETERY OF COTRONE
 ROMAN MASONRY AT CAPO COLONNA




OLD CALABRIA




I
SARACEN LUCERA


I find it hard to sum up in one word the character of Lucera—the effect
it produces on the mind; one sees so many towns that the freshness of
their images becomes blurred. The houses are low but not undignified;
the streets regular and clean; there is electric light and somewhat
indifferent accommodation for travellers; an infinity of barbers and
chemists. Nothing remarkable in all this. Yet the character is there,
if one could but seize upon it, since every place has its genius.
Perhaps it lies in a certain feeling of aloofness that never leaves one
here. We are on a hill—a mere wave of ground; a kind of spur, rather,
rising up from the south—quite an absurd little hill, but sufficiently
high to dominate the wide Apulian plain. And the nakedness of the land
stimulates this aerial sense. There are some trees in the “Belvedere”
or public garden that lies on the highest part of the spur and affords
a fine view north and eastwards. But the greater part were only planted
a few years ago, and those stretches of brown earth, those
half-finished walks and straggling pigmy shrubs, give the place a crude
and embryonic appearance. One thinks that the designers might have done
more in the way of variety; there are no conifers excepting a few
cryptomerias and yews which will all be dead in a couple of years, and
as for those yuccas, beloved of Italian municipalities, they will have
grown more dyspeptic-looking than ever. None the less, the garden will
be a pleasant spot when the ilex shall have grown higher; even now it
is the favourite evening walk of the citizens. Altogether, these public
parks, which are now being planted all over south Italy, testify to
renascent taste; they and the burial-places are often the only spots
where the deafened and light-bedazzled stranger may find a little green
content; the content, respectively, of _L’Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso._
So the cemetery of Lucera, with its ordered walks drowned in the shade
of cypress—roses and gleaming marble monuments in between—is a charming
retreat, not only for the dead.

The Belvedere, however, is not my promenade. My promenade lies yonder,
on the other side of the valley, where the grave old Suabian castle
sits on its emerald slope. It does not frown; it reposes firmly, with
an air of tranquil and assured domination; “it has found its place,” as
an Italian observed to me. Long before Frederick Barbarossa made it the
centre of his southern dominions, long before the Romans had their
fortress on the site, this eminence must have been regarded as the key
of Apulia. All round the outside of those turreted walls (they are
nearly a mile in circumference; the enclosure, they say, held sixty
thousand people) there runs a level space. This is my promenade, at all
hours of the day. Falcons are fluttering with wild cries overhead; down
below, a long unimpeded vista of velvety green, flecked by a few trees
and sullen streamlets and white farmhouses—the whole vision framed in a
ring of distant Apennines. The volcanic cone of Mount Vulture, land of
Horace, can be detected on clear days; it tempts me to explore those
regions. But eastward rises up the promontory of Mount Gargano, and on
the summit of its nearest hill one perceives a cheerful building, some
village or convent, that beckons imperiously across the intervening
lowlands. Yonder lies the venerable shrine of the archangel Michael,
and Manfred’s town. . . .

This castle being a _national monument,_ they have appointed a
custodian to take charge of it; a worthless old fellow, full of
untruthful information which he imparts with the hushed and
conscience-stricken air of a man who is selling State secrets.

“That corner tower, sir, is the King’s tower. It was built by the
King.”

“But you said just now that it was the Queen’s tower.”

“So it is. The Queen—she built it.”

“What Queen?”

“What Queen? Why, the Queen—the Queen the German professor was talking
about three years ago. But I must show you some skulls which we found
_(sotto voce)_ in a subterranean crypt. They used to throw the poor
dead folk in here by hundreds; and under the Bourbons the criminals
were hanged here, thousands of them. The blessed times! And this tower
is the Queen’s tower.”

“But you called it the King’s tower just now.”

“Just so. That is because the King built it.”

“What King?”

“Ah, sir, how can I remember the names of all those gentlemen? I
haven’t so much as set eyes on them! But I must now show you some round
sling-stones which we excavated _(sotto voce)_ in a subterranean
crypt——”

One or two relics from this castle are preserved in the small municipal
museum, founded about five years ago. Here are also a respectable
collection of coins, a few prehistoric flints from Gargano, some quaint
early bronze figurines and mutilated busts of Roman celebrities carved
in marble or the recalcitrant local limestone. A dignified old lion—one
of a pair (the other was stolen) that adorned the tomb of Aurelius,
prastor of the Roman Colony of Luceria—has sought a refuge here, as
well as many inscriptions, lamps, vases, and a miscellaneous collection
of modern rubbish. A plaster cast of a Mussulman funereal stone, found
near Foggia, will attract your eye; contrasted with the fulsome
epitaphs of contemporary Christianity, it breathes a spirit of noble
resignation:—

“In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. May God show
kindness to Mahomet and his kinsfolk, fostering them by his favours!
This is the tomb of the captain Jacchia Albosasso. God be merciful to
him. He passed away towards noon on Saturday in the five days of the
month Moharram of the year 745 (5th April, 1348). May Allah likewise
show mercy to him who reads.”

One cannot be at Lucera without thinking of that colony of twenty
thousand Saracens, the escort of Frederick and his son, who lived here
for nearly eighty years, and sheltered Manfred in his hour of danger.
The chronicler Spinelli[1] has preserved an anecdote which shows
Manfred’s infatuation for these loyal aliens. In the year 1252 and in
the sovereign’s presence, a Saracen official gave a blow to a
Neapolitan knight—a blow which was immediately returned; there was a
tumult, and the upshot of it was that the Italian was condemned to lose
his hand; all that the Neapolitan nobles could obtain from Manfred was
that his left hand should be amputated instead of his right; the Arab,
the cause of all, was merely relieved of his office. Nowadays, all
memory of Saracens has been swept out of the land. In default of
anything better, they are printing a local halfpenny paper called “Il
Saraceno“—a very innocuous pagan, to judge by a copy which I bought in
a reckless moment.

 [1] These journals are now admitted to have been manufactured in the
 sixteenth century by the historian Costanzo for certain genealogical
 purposes of his own. Professor Bernhardi doubted their authenticity in
 1869, and his doubts have been confirmed by Capasso.

This museum also contains a buxom angel of stucco known as the “Genius
of Bourbonism.” In the good old days it used to ornament the town hall,
fronting the entrance; but now, degraded to a museum curiosity, it
presents to the public its back of ample proportions, and the curator
intimated that he considered this attitude quite
appropriate—historically speaking, of course. Furthermore, they have
carted hither, from the Chamber of Deputies in Rome, the chair once
occupied by Ruggiero Bonghi. Dear Bonghi! From a sense of duty he used
to visit a certain dull and pompous house in the capital and forthwith
fall asleep on the nearest sofa; he slept sometimes for two hours at a
stretch, while all the other visitors were solemnly marched to the spot
to observe him—behold the great Bonghi: he slumbers! There is a statue
erected to him here, and a street has likewise been named after another
celebrity, Giovanni Bovio. If I informed the townsmen of my former
acquaintance with these two heroes, they would perhaps put up a marble
tablet commemorating the fact. For the place is infected with the
patriotic disease of monumentomania. The drawback is that with every
change of administration the streets are re-baptized and the statues
shifted to make room for new favourites; so the civic landmarks come
and go, with the swiftness of a cinematograph.

Frederick II also has his street, and so has Pietro Giannone. This
smacks of anti-clericalism. But to judge by the number of priests and
the daily hordes of devout and dirty pilgrims that pour into the town
from the fanatical fastnesses of the Abruzzi—picturesque, I suppose we
should call them—the country is sufficiently orthodox. Every
self-respecting family, they tell me, has its pet priest, who lives on
them in return for spiritual consolations.

There was a religious festival some nights ago in honour of Saint
Espedito. No one could tell me more about this holy man than that he
was a kind of pilgrim-warrior, and that his cult here is of recent
date; it was imported or manufactured some four years ago by a rich
merchant who, tired of the old local saints, built a church in honour
of this new one, and thereby enrolled him among the city gods.

[Illustration: Lion of Lucera]

On this occasion the square was seething with people: few
women, and the men mostly in dark clothes; we are already under Moorish
and Spanish influences. A young boy addressed me with the polite
question whether I could tell him the precise number of the population
of London.

That depended, I said, on what one described as London. There was what
they called greater London——

It depended! That was what he had always been given to understand. . .
. And how did I like Lucera? Rather a dull little place, was it not?
Nothing like Paris, of course. Still, if I could delay my departure for
some days longer, they would have the trial of a man who had murdered
three people: it might be quite good fun. He was informed that they
hanged such persons in England, as they used to do hereabouts; it
seemed rather barbaric, because, naturally, nobody is ever responsible
for his actions; but in England, no doubt_——_

That is the normal attitude of these folks towards us and our
institutions. We are savages, hopeless savages; but a little savagery,
after all, is quite endurable. Everything is endurable if you have lots
of money, like these English.

As for myself, wandering among that crowd of unshaven creatures, that
rustic population, fiercely gesticulating and dressed in slovenly hats
and garments, I realized once again what the average Anglo-Saxon would
ask himself: Are they _all_ brigands, or only some of them? That music,
too—what is it that makes this stuff so utterly unpalatable to a
civilized northerner? A soulless cult of rhythm, and then, when the
simplest of melodies emerges, they cling to it with the passionate
delight of a child who has discovered the moon. These men are still in
the age of platitudes, so far as music is concerned; an infantile aria
is to them what some foolish rhymed proverb is to the Arabs: a thing of
God, a portent, a joy for ever.

You may visit the cathedral; there is a fine _verde antico_ column on
either side of the sumptuous main portal. I am weary, just now, of
these structures; the spirit of pagan Lucera—“Lucera dei Pagani” it
used to be called—has descended upon me; I feel inclined to echo
Carducci’s “_Addio, nume semitico!_” One sees so many of these sombre
churches, and they are all alike in their stony elaboration of
mysticism and wrong-headedness; besides, they have been described, over
and over again, by enthusiastic connaisseurs who dwell lovingly upon
their artistic quaintnesses but forget the grovelling herd that reared
them, with the lash at their backs, or the odd type of humanity—the
gargoyle type—that has since grown up under their shadow and
influence. I prefer to return to the sun and stars, to my promenade
beside the castle walls.

But for the absence of trees and hedges, one might take this to be some
English prospect of the drowsy Midland counties—so green it is, so
golden-grey the sky. The sunlight peers down dispersedly through
windows in this firmament of clouded amber, alighting on some
mouldering tower, some patch of ripening corn or distant city—Troia,
lapped in Byzantine slumber, or San Severo famed in war. This in
spring. But what days of glistering summer heat, when the earth is
burnt to cinders under a heavenly dome that glows like a brazier of
molten copper! For this country is the Sahara of Italy.

One is glad, meanwhile, that the castle does not lie in the natal land
of the Hohenstaufen. The interior is quite deserted, to be sure; they
have built half the town of Lucera with its stones, even as Frederick
quarried them out of the early Roman citadel beneath; but it is at
least a harmonious desolation. There are no wire-fenced walks among the
ruins, no feeding-booths and cheap reconstructions of draw-bridges and
police-notices at every corner; no gaudy women scribbling to their
friends in the “Residenzstadt” post cards illustrative of the
“Burgruine,” while their husbands perspire over mastodontic beer-jugs.
There is only peace.

These are the delights of Lucera: to sit under those old walls and
watch the gracious cloud-shadows dappling the plain, oblivious of
yonder assemblage of barbers and politicians. As for those who can
reconstruct the vanished glories of such a place—happy they! I find the
task increasingly difficult. One outgrows the youthful age of
hero-worship; next, our really keen edges are so soon worn off by
mundane trivialities and vexations that one is glad to take refuge in
simpler pleasures once more—to return to primitive emotionalism. There
are so many Emperors of past days! And like the old custodian, I have
not so much as set eyes on them.

Yet this Frederick is no dim figure; he looms grandly through the
intervening haze. How well one understands that craving for the East,
nowadays; how modern they were, he and his son the “Sultan of Lucera,”
and their friends and counsellors, who planted this garden of exotic
culture! Was it some afterglow of the luminous world that had sunk
below the horizon, or a pale streak of the coming dawn? And if you now
glance down into this enclosure that once echoed with the song of
minstrels
and the soft laughter of women, with the discourse of wits, artists and
philosophers, and the clang of arms—if you look, you will behold
nothing but a green lake, a waving field of grass. No matter. The
ambitions of these men are fairly realized, and every one of us may
keep a body-guard of pagans, an’t please him; and a harem likewise—to
judge by the newspapers.

For he took his Orientalism seriously; he had a harem, with eunuchs,
etc., all proper, and was pleased to give an Eastern colour to his
entertainments. Matthew Paris relates how Frederick’s brother-in-law,
returning from the Holy Land, rested awhile at his Italian court, and
saw, among other diversions, “duas puellas Saracenicas formosas, quae
in pavimenti planitie binis globis insisterent, volutisque globis huo
illucque ferrentur canentes, cymbala manibus collidentes, corporaque
secundum modulos motantes atque flectentes.” I wish I had been there. .
. .

I walked to the castle yesterday evening on the chance of seeing an
eclipse of the moon which never came, having taken place at quite
another hour. A cloudless night, dripping with moisture, the electric
lights of distant Foggia gleaming in the plain. There are brick-kilns
at the foot of the incline, and from some pools in the neighbourhood
issued a loud croaking of frogs, while the pallid smoke of the
furnaces, pressed down by the evening dew, trailed earthward in a long
twisted wreath, like a dragon crawling sulkily to his den. But on the
north side one could hear the nightingales singing in the gardens
below. The dark mass of Mount Gargano rose up clearly in the moonlight,
and I began to sketch out some itinerary of my wanderings on that soil.
There was Sant’ Angelo, the archangel’s abode; and the forest region;
and Lesina with its lake; and Vieste the remote, the end of all things.
. . .

Then my thoughts wandered to the Hohenstaufen and the conspiracy
whereby their fate was avenged. The romantic figures of Manfred and
Conradin; their relentless enemy Charles; Costanza, her brow crowned
with a poetic nimbus (that melted, towards the end, into an aureole of
bigotry); Frangipani, huge in villainy; the princess Beatrix, tottering
from the dungeon where she had been confined for nearly twenty years;
her deliverer Roger de Lauria, without whose resourcefulness and
audacity it might have gone ill with Aragon; Popes and
Palæologus—brilliant colour effects; the king of England and Saint
Louis of France; in the background, dimly discernible, the colossal
shades of Frederick and Innocent, looked in deadly embrace; and the
whole congress of figures enlivened and
interpenetrated as by some electric fluid—the personality of John of
Procida. That the element of farce might not be lacking, Fate contrived
that exquisite royal duel at Bordeaux where the two mighty potentates,
calling each other by a variety of unkingly epithets, enacted a
prodigiously fine piece of foolery for the delectation of Europe.

From this terrace one can overlook both Foggia and Castel
Fiorentino—the beginning and end of the drama; and one follows the
march of this magnificent retribution without a shred of compassion for
the gloomy papal hireling. Disaster follows disaster with mathematical
precision, till at last he perishes miserably, consumed by rage and
despair. Then our satisfaction is complete.

No; not quite complete. For in one point the stupendous plot seems to
have been imperfectly achieved. Why did Roger de Lauria not profit by
his victory to insist upon the restitution of the young brothers of
Beatrix, of those unhappy princes who had been confined as infants in
1266, and whose very existence seems to have faded from the memory of
historians? Or why did Costanza, who might have dealt with her enemy’s
son even as Conradin had been dealt with, not round her magnanimity by
claiming her own flesh and blood, the last scions of a great house? Why
were they not released during the subsequent peace, or at least in
1302? The reason is as plain as it is unlovely; nobody knew what to do
with them. Political reasons counselled their effacement, their
non-existence. Horrible thought, that the sunny world should be too
small for three orphan children! In their Apulian fastness they
remained—in chains. A royal rescript of 1295 orders that they be freed
from their fetters. Thirty years in fetters! Their fate is unknown; the
night of mediævalism closes in upon them once more. . . .

Further musings were interrupted by the appearance of a shape which
approached from round the corner of one of the towers. It came nearer
stealthily, pausing every now and then. Had I evoked, willy-nilly, some
phantom of the buried past?

It was only the custodian, leading his dog Musolino. After a shower of
compliments and apologies, he gave me to understand that it was his
duty, among other things, to see that no one should endeavour to raise
the treasure which was hidden under these ruins; several people, he
explained, had already made the attempt by night. For the rest, I was
quite at liberty to take my pleasure about the castle at all hours. But
as to touching the buried hoard, it was _proibito—_forbidden!

I was glad of the incident, which conjured up for me the Oriental mood
with its genii and subterranean wealth. Straightway this incongruous
and irresponsible old buffoon was invested with a new dignity;
transformed into a threatening Ifrit, the guardian of the gold, or—who
knows?—Iblis incarnate. The gods take wondrous shapes, sometimes.




II
MANFRED’S TOWN


As the train moved from Lucera to Foggia and thence onwards, I had
enjoyed myself rationally, gazing at the emerald plain of Apulia, soon
to be scorched to ashes, but now richly dight with the yellow flowers
of the giant fennel, with patches of ruby-red poppy and asphodels pale
and shadowy, past their prime. I had thought upon the history of this
immense tract of country—upon all the floods of legislation and
theorizings to which its immemorial customs of pasturage have given
birth. . . .

Then, suddenly, the aspect of life seemed to change. I felt unwell, and
so swift was the transition from health that I had wantonly thrown out
of the window, beyond recall, a burning cigar ere realizing that it was
only a little more than half smoked. We were crossing the Calendaro, a
sluggish stream which carefully collects all the waters of this region
only to lose them again in a swamp not far distant; and it was
positively as if some impish sprite had leapt out of those noisome
waves, boarded the train, and flung himself into me, after the fashion
of the “Horla” in the immortal tale.

Doses of quinine such as would make an English doctor raise his
eyebrows have hitherto only succeeded in provoking the Calendaro
microbe to more virulent activity. Nevertheless, _on s’y fait._ I am
studying him and, despite his protean manifestations, have discovered
three principal ingredients: malaria, bronchitis and hay-fever—not your
ordinary hay-fever, oh, no! but such as a mammoth might conceivably
catch, if thrust back from his germless, frozen tundras into the damply
blossoming Miocene.

The landlady of this establishment has a more commonplace name for the
distemper. She calls it “scirocco.” And certainly this pest of the
south blows incessantly; the mountain-line of Gargano is veiled, the
sea’s horizon veiled, the coast-lands of Apulia veiled by its tepid and
unwholesome breath. To cheer
me up, she says that on clear days one can see Castel del Monte, the
Hohenstaufen eyrie, shining yonder above Barletta, forty miles distant.
It sounds rather improbable; still, yesterday evening there arose a
sudden vision of a white town in that direction, remote and dream-like,
far across the water. Was it Barletta? Or Margherita? It lingered
awhile, poised on an errant sunbeam; then sank into the deep.

From this window I look into the little harbour whose beach is dotted
with fishing-boats. Some twenty or thirty sailing-vessels are riding at
anchor; in the early morning they unfurl their canvas and sally forth,
in amicable couples, to scour the azure deep—it is greenish-yellow at
this moment—returning at nightfall with the spoils of ocean, mostly
young sharks, to judge by the display in the market. Their white sails
bear fabulous devices in golden colour of moons and crescents and
dolphins; some are marked like the “orange-tip” butterfly. A gunboat is
now stationed here on a mysterious errand connected with the Albanian
rising on the other side of the Adriatic. There has been whispered talk
of illicit volunteering among the youth on this side, which the
government is anxious to prevent. And to enliven the scene, a steamer
calls every now and then to take passengers to the Tremiti islands. One
would like to visit them, if only in memory of those martyrs of
Bourbonism, who were sent in hundreds to these rocks and cast into
dungeons to perish. I have seen such places; they are vast caverns
artificially excavated below the surface of the earth; into these the
unfortunates were lowered and left to crawl about and rot, the living
mingled with the dead. To this day they find mouldering skeletons,
loaded with heavy iron chains and ball-weights.

A copious spring gushes up on this beach and flows into the sea. It is
sadly neglected. Were I tyrant of Manfredonia, I would build me a fair
marble fountain here, with a carven assemblage of nymphs and
sea-monsters spouting water from their lusty throats, and plashing in
its rivulets. It may well be that the existence of this fount helped to
decide Manfred in his choice of a site for his city; such springs are
rare in this waterless land. And from this same source, very likely, is
derived the local legend of Saint Lorenzo and the Dragon, which is
quite independent of that of Saint Michael the dragon-killer on the
heights above us. These venerable water-spirits, these _dracs,_ are
interesting beasts who went through many metamorphoses ere attaining
their present shape.

Manfredonia lies on a plain sloping very gently
seawards—practically a dead level, and in one of the hottest districts
of Italy. Yet, for some obscure reason, there is no street along the
sea itself; the cross-roads end in abrupt squalor at the shore. One
wonders what considerations—political, aesthetic or hygienic—prevented
the designers of the town from carrying out its general principles of
construction and building a decent promenade by the waves, where the
ten thousand citizens could take the air in the breathless summer
evenings, instead of being cooped up, as they now are, within stifling
hot walls. The choice of Manfredonia as a port does not testify to any
great foresight on the part of its founder—peace to his shade! It will
for ever slumber in its bay, while commerce passes beyond its reach; it
will for ever be malarious with the marshes of Sipontum at its edges.
But this particular defect of the place is not Manfred’s fault, since
the city was razed to the ground by the Turks in 1620, and then built
up anew; built up, says Lenormant, according to the design of the old
city. Perhaps a fear of other Corsair raids induced the constructors to
adhere to the old plan, by which the place could be more easily
defended. Not much of Manfredonia seems to have been completed when
Pacicchelli’s view (1703) was engraved.

Speaking of the weather, the landlady further told me that the wind
blew so hard three months ago—“during that big storm in the winter,
don’t you remember?”—that it broke all the iron lamp-posts between the
town and the station. Now here was a statement sounding even more
improbable than her other one about Castel del Monte, but admitting of
verification. Wheezing and sneezing, I crawled forth, and found it
correct. It must have been a respectable gale, since the cast-iron
supports are snapped in half, every one of them.

Those Turks, by the way, burnt the town on that memorable occasion.
That was a common occurrence in those days. Read any account of their
incursions into Italy during this and the preceding centuries, and you
will find that the corsairs burnt the towns whenever they had time to
set them alight. They could not burn them nowadays, and this points to
a total change in economic conditions. Wood was cut down so heedlessly
that it became too scarce for building purposes, and stone took its
place. This has altered domestic architecture; it has changed the
landscape, denuding the hill-sides that were once covered with timber;
it has impoverished the country by converting fruitful plains into
marshes or arid tracts of stone swept by irregular and intermittent
floods; it has modified, if I mistake
not, the very character of the people. The desiccation of the climate
has entailed a desiccation of national humour.

Muratori has a passage somewhere in his “Antiquities” regarding the old
method of construction and the wooden shingles, _scandulae,_ in use for
roofing—I must look it up, if ever I reach civilized regions again.

At the municipality, which occupies the spacious apartments of a former
Dominican convent, they will show you the picture of a young girl, one
of the Beccarini family, who was carried off at a tender age in one of
these Turkish raids, and subsequently became “Sultana.” Such captive
girls generally married sultans—or ought to have married them; the wish
being father to the thought. But the story is disputed; rightly, I
think. For the portrait is painted in the French manner, and it is
hardly likely that a harem-lady would have been exhibited to a European
artist. The legend goes on to say that she was afterwards liberated by
the Knights of Malta, together with her Turkish son who, as was meet
and proper, became converted to Christianity and died a monk. The
Beccarini family (of Siena, I fancy) might find some traces of her in
their archives. _Ben trovato,_ at all events. When one looks at the
pretty portrait, one cannot blame any kind of “Sultan” for feeling
well-disposed towards the original.

The weather has shown some signs of improvement and tempted me, despite
the persistent “scirocco” mood, to a few excursions into the
neighbourhood. But there seem to be no walks hereabouts, and the hills,
three miles distant, are too remote for my reduced vitality. The
intervening region is a plain of rock carved so smoothly, in places, as
to appear artificially levelled with the chisel; large tracts of it are
covered with the Indian fig (cactus). In the shade of these grotesque
growths lives a dainty flora: trembling grasses of many kinds, rue,
asphodel, thyme, the wild asparagus, a diminutive blue iris, as well as
patches of saxifrage that deck the stone with a brilliant enamel of red
and yellow. This wild beauty makes one think how much better the
graceful wrought-iron balconies of the town would look if enlivened
with blossoms, with pendent carnations or pelargonium; but there is no
great display of these things; the deficiency of water is a
characteristic of the place; it is a flowerless and songless city. The
only good drinking-water is that which is bottled at the mineral
springs of Monte Vulture and sold cheaply enough all over the country.
And the mass of the country people have small charm of feature. Their
faces seem to have been chopped
with a hatchet into masks of sombre virility; a hard life amid burning
limestone deserts is reflected in their countenances.

None the less, they have a public garden; even more immature than that
of Lucera, but testifying to greater taste. Its situation, covering a
forlorn semicircular tract of ground about the old Anjou castle, is _a
priori_ a good one. But when the trees are fully grown, it will be
impossible to see this fine ruin save at quite close quarters—just
across the moat.

I lamented this fact to a solitary gentleman who was strolling about
here and who replied, upon due deliberation:

“One cannot have everything.”

Then he added, as a suggestive afterthought:

“Inasmuch as one thing sometimes excludes another.”

I pause, to observe parenthetically that this habit of uttering
platitudes in the grand manner as though disclosing an idea of vital
novelty (which Charles Lamb, poor fellow, thought peculiar to natives
of Scotland) is as common among Italians as among Englishmen. But
veiled in sonorous Latinisms, the staleness of such remarks assumes an
air of profundity.

“For my part,” he went on, warming to his theme, “I am thoroughly
satisfied. Who will complain of the trees? Only a few makers of bad
pictures. They can go elsewhere. Our country, dear sir, is _encrusted,_
with old castles and other feudal absurdities, and if I had the
management of things——”

The sentence was not concluded, for at that moment his hat was blown
off by a violent gust of wind, and flew merrily over beds of flowering
marguerites in the direction of the main street, while he raced after
it, vanishing in a cloud of dust. The chase must have been long and
arduous; he never returned.

Wandering about the upper regions of this fortress whose chambers are
now used as a factory of cement goods and a refuge for some poor
families, I espied a good pre-renaissance relief of Saint Michael and
the dragon immured in the masonry, and overhung by the green leaves of
an exuberant wild fig that has thrust its roots into the sturdy old
walls. Here, at Manfredonia, we are already under the shadow of the
holy mountain and the archangel’s wings, but the usual representations
of him are childishly emasculate—the negation of his divine and heroic
character. This one portrays a genuine warrior-angel of the old type:
grave and grim. Beyond this castle and the town-walls, which are best
preserved on the north side, nothing in Manfredonia is older than 1620.
There is a fine _campanile,_ but the cathedral looks like a shed for
disused omnibuses.

Along the streets, little red flags are hanging out of the houses, at
frequent intervals: signals of harbourage for the parched wayfarer.
Within, you behold a picturesque confusion of rude chairs set among
barrels and vats full of dark red wine where, amid Rembrandtesque
surroundings, you can get as drunk as a lord for sixpence. Blithe
oases! It must be delightful, in summer, to while away the sultry hours
in their hospitable twilight; even at this season they seem to be
extremely popular resorts, throwing a new light on those allusions by
classical authors to “thirsty Apulia.”

But on many of the dwellings I noticed another symbol: an ominous blue
metal tablet with a red cross, bearing the white-lettered words
“VIGILANZA NOTTURNA.”

Was it some anti-burglary association? I enquired of a serious-looking
individual who happened to be passing.

His answer did not help to clear up matters.

“A pure job, _signore mio_, a pure job! There is a society in Cerignola
or somewhere, a society which persuades the various town
councils—_persuades_ them, you understand——”

He ended abruptly, with the gesture of paying out money between his
finger and thumb. Then he sadly shook his head.

I sought for more light on this cryptic utterance; in vain. What were
the facts, I persisted? Did certain householders subscribe to keep a
guardian on their premises at night—what had the municipalities to do
with it—was there much house-breaking in Manfredonia, and, if so, had
this association done anything to check it? And for how long had the
institution been established?

But the mystery grew ever darker. After heaving a deep sigh, he
condescended to remark:

“The usual camorra! Eat—eat; from father to son. Eat—eat! That’s all
they think about, the brood of assassins. . . . Just look at them!”

I glanced down the street and beheld a venerable gentleman of kindly
aspect who approached slowly, leaning on the arm of a fair-haired
youth—his grandson, I supposed. He wore a long white beard, and an air
of apostolic detachment from the affairs of this world. They came
nearer. The boy was listening, deferentially, to some remark of the
elder; his lips were parted in attention and his candid, sunny face
would have rejoiced the heart of della Robbia. They passed within a few
feet of me, lovingly engrossed in one another.

“Well?” I queried, turning to my informant and anxious to learn what
misdeeds could be laid to the charge of such godlike types of humanity.

But that person was no longer at my side. He had quietly withdrawn
himself, in the interval; he had evanesced, “moved on.”

An oracular and elusive citizen. ...




III
THE ANGEL OF MANFREDONIA


Whoever looks at a map of the Gargano promontory will see that it is
besprinkled with Greek names of persons and places—Matthew, Mark,
Nikander, Onofrius, Pirgiano (Pyrgos) and so forth. Small wonder, for
these eastern regions were in touch with Constantinople from early
days, and the spirit of Byzance still hovers over them. It was on this
mountain that the archangel Michael, during his first flight to Western
Europe, deigned to appear to a Greek bishop of Sipontum, Laurentius by
name; and ever since that time a certain cavern, sanctified by the
presence of this winged messenger of God, has been the goal of millions
of pilgrims.

The fastness of Sant’ Angelo, metropolis of European angel-worship, has
grown up around this “devout and honourable cave”; on sunny days its
houses are clearly visible from Manfredonia. They who wish to pay their
devotions at the shrine cannot do better than take with them
Gregorovius, as cicerone and mystagogue.

Vainly I waited for a fine day to ascend the heights. At last I
determined to have done with the trip, be the weather what it might. A
coachman was summoned and negotiations entered upon for starting next
morning.

Sixty-five francs, he began by telling me, was the price paid by an
Englishman last year for a day’s visit to the sacred mountain. It may
well be true—foreigners will do anything, in Italy. Or perhaps it was
only said to “encourage” me. But I am rather hard to encourage,
nowadays. I reminded the man that there was a diligence service there
and back for a franc and a half, and even that price seemed rather
extortionate. I had seen so many holy grottos in my life! And who,
after all, was this Saint Michael? The Eternal Father, perchance?
Nothing of the kind: just an ordinary angel! We had dozens of them, in
England. Fortunately, I added, I had already received an offer to join
one of the private parties who drive up, fourteen or fifteen persons
behind
one diminutive pony—and that, as he well knew, would be a matter of
only a few pence. And even then, the threatening sky . . . Yes, on
second thoughts, it was perhaps wisest to postpone the excursion
altogether. Another day, if God wills! Would he accept this cigar as a
recompense for his trouble in coming?

In dizzy leaps and bounds his claims fell to eight francs. It was the
tobacco that worked the wonder; a gentleman who will give _something
for nothing_ (such was his logic)—well, you never know what you may not
get out of him. Agree to his price, and chance it!

He consigned the cigar to his waistcoat pocket to smoke after dinner,
and departed—vanquished, but inwardly beaming with bright anticipation.

A wretched morning was disclosed as I drew open the shutters—gusts of
rain and sleet beating against the window-panes. No matter: the
carriage stood below, and after that customary and hateful apology for
breakfast which suffices to turn the thoughts of the sanest man towards
themes of suicide and murder—when will southerners learn to eat a
proper breakfast at proper hours?—we started on our journey. The sun
came out in visions of tantalizing briefness, only to be swallowed up
again in driving murk, and of the route we traversed I noticed only the
old stony track that cuts across the twenty-one windings of the new
carriage-road here and there. I tried to picture to myself the Norman
princes, the emperors, popes, and other ten thousand pilgrims of
celebrity crawling up these rocky slopes—barefoot—on such a day as
this. It must have tried the patience even of Saint Francis of Assisi,
who pilgrimaged with the rest of them and, according to Pontanus,
performed a little miracle here _en passant,_ as was his wont.

After about three hours’ driving we reached the town of Sant’ Angelo.
It was bitterly cold at this elevation of 800 metres. Acting on the
advice of the coachman, I at once descended into the sanctuary; it
would be warm down there, he thought. The great festival of 8 May was
over, but flocks of worshippers were still arriving, and picturesquely
pagan they looked in grimy, tattered garments—their staves tipped with
pine-branches and a scrip.

In the massive bronze doors of the chapel, that were made at
Constantinople in 1076 for a rich citizen of Amalfi, metal rings are
inserted; these, like a true pilgrim, you must clash furiously, to call
the attention of the Powers within to your visit; and on issuing, you
must once more knock as hard as you can, in order
that the consummation of your act of worship may be duly reported:
judging by the noise made, the deity must be very hard of hearing.
Strangely deaf they are, sometimes.

The twenty-four panels of these doors are naively encrusted with
representations, in enamel, of angel-apparitions of many kinds; some of
them are inscribed, and the following is worthy of note:

“I beg and implore the priests of Saint Michael to cleanse these gates
once a year as I have now shown them, in order that they may be always
bright and shining.” The recommendation has plainly not been carried
out for a good many years past.

Having entered the portal, you climb down a long stairway amid swarms
of pious, foul clustering beggars to a vast cavern, the archangel’s
abode. It is a natural recess in the rock, illuminated by candles. Here
divine service is proceeding to the accompaniment of cheerful operatic
airs from an asthmatic organ; the water drops ceaselessly from the
rocky vault on to the devout heads of kneeling worshippers that cover
the floor, lighted candle in hand, rocking themselves ecstatically and
droning and chanting. A weird scene, in truth. And the coachman was
quite right in his surmise as to the difference in temperature. It is
hot down here, damply hot, as in an orchid-house. But the aroma cannot
be described as a floral emanation: it is the _bouquet,_ rather, of
thirteen centuries of unwashed and perspiring pilgrims. “TERRIBILIS EST
LOCUS ISTE,” says an inscription over the entrance of the shrine. Very
true. In places like this one understands the uses, and possibly the
origin, of incense.

I lingered none the less, and my thoughts went back to the East, whence
these mysterious practices are derived. But an Oriental crowd of
worshippers does not move me like these European masses of fanaticism;
I can never bring myself to regard without a certain amount of
disquietude such passionate pilgrims. Give them their new Messiah, and
all our painfully accumulated art and knowledge, all that reconciles
civilized man to earthly existence, is blown to the winds. Society can
deal with its criminals. Not they, but fond enthusiasts such as these,
are the menace to its stability. Bitter reflections; but then—the drive
upward had chilled my human sympathies, and besides—that so-called
breakfast. . . .

The grovelling herd was left behind. I ascended the stairs and,
profiting by a gleam of sunshine, climbed up to where, above the town,
there stands a proud aerial ruin known as the “Castle of
the Giant.” On one of its stones is inscribed the date 1491—a certain
Queen of Naples, they say, was murdered within those now crumbling
walls. These sovereigns were murdered in so many castles that one
wonders how they ever found time to be alive at all. The structure is a
wreck and its gateway closed up; nor did I feel any great inclination,
in that icy blast of wind, to investigate the roofless interior.

I was able to observe, however, that this “feudal absurdity” bears a
number like any inhabited house of Sant’ Angelo—it is No. 3.

This is the latest pastime of the Italian Government: to re-number
dwellings throughout the kingdom; and not only human habitations, but
walls, old ruins, stables, churches, as well as an occasional door-post
and window. They are having no end of fun over the game, which promises
to keep them amused for any length of time—in fact, until the next
craze is invented. Meanwhile, so long as the fit lasts, half a million
bright-eyed officials, burning with youthful ardour, are employed in
affixing these numerals, briskly entering them into ten times as many
note-books and registering them into thousands of municipal archives,
all over the country, for some inscrutable but hugely important
administrative purposes. “We have the employes,” as a Roman deputy once
told me, “and therefore: they must find some occupation.”

Altogether, the weather this day sadly impaired my appetite for
research and exploration. On the way to the castle I had occasion to
admire the fine tower and to regret that there seemed to exist no coign
of vantage from which it could fairly be viewed; I was struck, also, by
the number of small figures of Saint Michael of an ultra-youthful,
almost infantile, type; and lastly, by certain clean-shaven old men of
the place. These venerable and decorative brigands—for such they would
have been, a few years ago—now stood peacefully at their thresholds,
wearing a most becoming cloak of thick brown wool, shaped like a
burnous. The garment interested me; it may be a legacy from the Arabs
who dominated this region for some little time, despoiling the holy
sanctuary and leaving their memory to be perpetuated by the
neighbouring “Monte Saraceno.” The costume, on the other hand, may have
come over from Greece; it is figured on Tanagra statuettes and worn by
modern Greek shepherds. By Sardinians, too. ... It may well be a
primordial form of clothing with mankind.

The view from this castle must be superb on clear days. Standing there,
I looked inland and remembered all the places I had
intended to see—Vieste, and Lesina with its lakes, and Selva Umbra,
whose very name is suggestive of dewy glades; how remote they were,
under such dispiriting clouds! I shall never see them. Spring hesitates
to smile upon these chill uplands; we are still in the grip of winter—

Aut aquilonibus
Querceti Gargani laborent
Et foliis viduantur orni—

so sang old Horace, of Garganian winds. I scanned the horizon, seeking
for his Mount Vulture, but all that region was enshrouded in a grey
curtain of vapour; only the Stagno Salso—a salt mere wherein Candelaro
forgets his mephitic waters—shone with a steady glow, like a sheet of
polished lead.

Soon the rain fell once more and drove me to seek refuge among the
houses, where I glimpsed the familiar figure of my coachman, sitting
disconsolately under a porch. He looked up and remarked (for want of
something better to say) that he had been searching for me all over the
town, fearing that some mischief might have happened to me. I was
touched by these words; touched, that is, by his child-like simplicity
in imagining that he could bring me to believe a statement of such
radiant improbability; so touched, that I pressed a franc into his
reluctant palm and bade him buy with it something to eat. A whole
franc. . . . _Aha!_ he doubtless thought, _my theory of the gentleman:
it begins to work._

It was barely midday. Yet I was already surfeited with the angelic
metropolis, and my thoughts began to turn in the direction of
Manfredonia once more. At a corner of the street, however, certain
fluent vociferations in English and Italian, which nothing would induce
me to set down here, assailed my ears, coming up—apparently—out of the
bowels of the earth. I stopped to listen, shocked to hear ribald
language in a holy town like this; then, impelled by curiosity,
descended a long flight of steps and found myself in a subterranean
wine-cellar. There was drinking and card-playing going on here among a
party of emigrants—merry souls; a good half of them spoke English and,
despite certain irreverent phrases, they quickly won my heart with a
“Here! You drink _this,_ mister.”

This dim recess was an instructive pendant to the archangel’s cavern. A
new type of pilgrim has been evolved; pilgrims who think no more of
crossing to Pittsburg than of a drive to Manfredonia. But their cave
was permeated with an odour of spilt wine and tobacco-smoke instead of
the subtle _Essence des pèlerins_
_des Abruzzes fleuris,_ and alas, the object of their worship was not
the Chaldean angel, but another and equally ancient eastern shape:
Mammon. They talked much of dollars; and I also heard several
unorthodox allusions to the “angel-business,” which was described as
“played out,” as well as a remark to the effect that “only damn-fools
stay in this country.” In short, these men were at the other end of the
human scale; they were the strong, the energetic; the ruthless,
perhaps; but certainly—the intelligent.

And all the while the cup circled round with genial iteration, and it
was universally agreed that, whatever the other drawbacks of Sant’
Angelo might be, there was nothing to be said against its native
liquor.

It was, indeed, a divine product; a _vino di montagna_ of noble
pedigree. So I thought, as I laboriously scrambled up the stairs once
more, solaced by this incident of the competition-grotto and slightly
giddy, from the tobacco-smoke. And here, leaning against the door-post,
stood the coachman who had divined my whereabouts by some dark masonic
intuition of sympathy. His face expanded into an inept smile, and I
quickly saw that instead of fortifying his constitution with sound
food, he had tried alcoholic methods of defence against the inclement
weather. Just a glass of wine, he explained. “But,” he added, “the
horse is perfectly sober.”

That quadruped was equal to the emergency. Gloriously indifferent to
our fates, we glided down, in a vertiginous but masterly vol-plane,
from the somewhat objectionable mountain-town.

An approving burst of sunshine greeted our arrival on the plain.




IV
CAVE-WORSHIP

Why has the exalted archangel chosen for an abode this reeking cell,
rather than some well-built temple in the sunshine? “As symbolizing a
ray of light that penetrates into the gloom,” so they will tell you. It
is more likely that he entered it as an extirpating warrior, to oust
that heathen shape which Strabo describes as dwelling in its dank
recesses, and to take possession of the cleft in the name of
Christianity. Sant’ Angelo is one of many places where Michael has
performed the duty of Christian Hercules, cleanser of Augean stables.

For the rest, this cave-worship is older than any god or devil. It is
the cult of the feminine principle—a relic of that aboriginal obsession
of mankind to shelter in some Cloven Rock of Ages, in the sacred womb
of Mother Earth who gives us food and receives us after death.
Grotto-apparitions, old and new, are but the popular explanations of
this dim primordial craving, and hierophants of all ages have
understood the commercial value of the holy shudder which penetrates in
these caverns to the heart of worshippers, attuning them to godly
deeds. So here, close beside the altar, the priests are selling
fragments of the so-called “Stone of Saint Michael.” The trade is
brisk.

The statuette of the archangel preserved in this subterranean chapel is
a work of the late Renaissance. Though savouring of that mawkish
elaboration which then began to taint local art and literature and is
bound up with the name of the poet Marino, it is still a passably
virile figure. But those countless others, in churches or over
house-doors—do they indeed portray the dragon-killer, the martial
prince of angels? This amiable child with girlish features—can this be
the Lucifer of Christianity, the Sword of the Almighty? _Quis ut Déus!_
He could hardly hurt a fly.

The hoary winged genius of Chaldea who has absorbed the essence of so
many solemn deities has now, in extreme old age, entered upon a second
childhood and grown altogether too
youthful for his _role,_ undergoing a metamorphosis beyond the
boundaries of legendary probability or common sense; every trace of
divinity and manly strength has been boiled out of him. So young and
earthly fair, he looks, rather, like some pretty boy dressed up for a
game with toy sword and helmet—one wants to have a romp with him. No
warrior this! _C’est beau, mais ce n’est pas la guerre._

The gods, they say, are ever young, and a certain sensuous and fleshly
note is essential to those of Italy if they are to retain the love of
their worshippers. Granted. We do not need a scarred and hirsute
veteran; but we need, at least, a personage capable of wielding the
sword, a figure something like this:—

His starry helm unbuckled show’d his prime
In manhood where youth ended; by his side
As in a glist’ring zodiac hung the sword,
Satan’s dire dread, and in his hand the spear. . . .

There! That is an archangel of the right kind.

And the great dragon, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan,
has suffered a similar transformation. He is shrunk into a poor little
reptile, the merest worm, hardly worth crushing.

But how should a sublime conception like the apocalyptic hero appeal to
the common herd? These formidable shapes emerge from the dusk,
offspring of momentous epochs; they stand aloof at first, but presently
their luminous grandeur is dulled, their haughty contour sullied and
obliterated by attrition. They are dragged down to the level of their
lowest adorers, for the whole flock adapts its pace to that of the
weakest lamb. No self-respecting deity will endure this treatment—to be
popularized and made intelligible to a crowd. Divinity comprehended of
the masses ceases to be efficacious; the Egyptians and Brahmans
understood that. It is not giving gods a chance to interpret them in an
incongruous and unsportsmanlike fashion. But the vulgar have no idea of
propriety or fair play; they cannot keep at the proper distance; they
are for ever taking liberties. And, in the end, the proudest god is
forced to yield.

We see this same fatality in the very word Cherub. How different an
image does this plump and futile infant evoke to the stately Minister
of the Lord, girt with a sword of flame! We see it in the Italian
Madonna of whom, whatever her mental acquirements may have been, a
certain gravity of demeanour is to be presupposed, and who, none the
less, grows more childishly
smirking every day; in her Son who—hereabouts at least—has doffed all
the serious attributes of manhood and dwindled into something not much
better than a doll. It was the same in days of old. Apollo (whom Saint
Michael has supplanted), and Eros, and Aphrodite—they all go through a
process of saccharine deterioration. Our fairest creatures, once they
have passed their meridian vigour, are liable to be assailed and
undermined by an insidious diabetic tendency.

It is this coddling instinct of mankind which has reduced Saint Michael
to his present state. And an extraneous influence has worked in the
same direction—the gradual softening of manners within historical
times, that demasculinization which is an inevitable concomitant of
increasing social security. Divinity reflects its human creators and
their environment; grandiose or warlike gods become superfluous, and
finally incomprehensible, in humdrum days of peace. In order to
survive, our deities (like the rest of us) must have a certain
plasticity. If recalcitrant, they are quietly relieved of their
functions, and forgotten. This is what has happened in Italy to God the
Father and the Holy Ghost, who have vanished from the vulgar Olympus;
whereas the devil, thanks to that unprincipled versatility for which he
is famous, remains ever young and popular.

The art-notions of the Cinque-Cento are also to blame; indeed, so far
as the angelic shapes of south Italy are concerned, the influence of
the Renaissance has been wholly malefic. Aliens to the soil, they were
at first quite unknown—not one is pictured in the Neapolitan catacombs.
Next came the brief period of their artistic glory; then the syncretism
of the Renaissance, when these winged messengers were amalgamated with
pagan _amoretti_ and began to flutter in foolish baroque fashion about
the Queen of Heaven, after the pattern of the disreputable little genii
attendant upon a Venus of a bad school. That same instinct which
degraded a youthful Eros into the childish Cupid was the death-stroke
to the pristine dignity and holiness of angels. Nowadays, we see the
perversity of it all; we have come to our senses and can appraise the
much-belauded revival at its true worth; and our modern sculptors will
rear you a respectable angel, a grave adolescent, according to the best
canons of taste—should you still possess the faith that once
requisitioned such works of art.

We travellers acquaint ourselves with the lineage of this celestial
Messenger, but it can hardly be supposed that the worshippers now
swarming at his shrine know much of these things. How
shall one discover their real feelings in regard to this great
cave-saint and his life and deeds?

Well, some idea of this may be gathered from the literature sold on the
spot. I purchased three of these modern tracts printed respectively at
Bitonto, Molfetta and Naples. The “Popular Song in honour of St.
Michael” contains this verse:

Nell’ ora della morte
Ci salvi dall’ inferno
E a Regno Sempiterno
Ci guidi per pietà.

_Ci guidi per pietà. . . ._ This is the Mercury-heritage. Next, the
“History and Miracles of St. Michael” opens with a rollicking dialogue
in verse between the archangel and the devil concerning a soul; it ends
with a goodly list, in twenty-five verses, of the miracles performed by
the angel, such as helping women in childbirth, curing the blind, and
other wonders that differ nothing from those wrought by humbler earthly
saints. Lastly, the “Novena in Onore di S. Michele Arcangelo,” printed
in 1910 (third edition) with ecclesiastical approval, has the following
noteworthy paragraph on the

“DEVOTION FOR THE SACRED STONES OF THE GROTTO OF ST. MICHAEL.

“It is very salutary to hold in esteem the STONES which are taken from
the sacred cavern, partly because from immemorial times they have
always been held in veneration by the faithful and also because they
have been placed as relics of sepulchres and altars. Furthermore, it is
known that during the plague which afflicted the kingdom of Naples in
the year 1656, Monsignor G. A. Puccini, archbishop of Manfredonia,
recommended every one to carry devoutly on his person a fragment of the
sacred STONE, whereby the majority were saved from the pestilence, and
this augmented the devotion bestowed on them.”

The cholera is on the increase, and this may account for the rapid sale
of the STONES at this moment.

This pamphlet also contains a litany in which the titles of the
archangel are enumerated. He is, among other things, Secretary of God,
Liberator from Infernal Chains, Defender in the Hour of Death,
Custodian of the Pope, Spirit of Light, Wisest of Magistrates, Terror
of Demons, Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the Lord, Lash of
Heresies, Adorer of the Word
Incarnate, Guide of Pilgrims, Conductor of Mortals: Mars, Mercury,
Hercules, Apollo, Mithra—what nobler ancestry can angel desire? And
yet, as if these complicated and responsible functions did not suffice
for his energies, he has twenty others, among them being that of
“Custodian of the Holy Family “—who apparently need a protector, a
Monsieur Paoli, like any mortal royalties.

“Blasphemous rubbish!” I can hear some Methodist exclaiming. And one
may well be tempted to sneer at those pilgrims for the more enlightened
of whom such literature is printed. For they are unquestionably a
repulsive crowd: travel-stained old women, under-studies for the Witch
of Endor; dishevelled, anaemic and dazed-looking girls; boys, too weak
to handle a spade at home, pathetically uncouth, with mouths agape and
eyes expressing every grade of uncontrolled emotion—from wildest joy to
downright idiotcy. How one realizes, down in this cavern, the effect
upon some cultured ancient like Rutilius Namatianus of the
catacomb-worship among those early Christian converts, those _men who
shun the light,_ drawn as they were from the same social classes
towards the same dark underground rites! One can neither love nor
respect such people; and to affect pity for them would be more
consonant with their religion than with my own.

But it is perfectly easy to understand them. For thirteen centuries
this pilgrim-movement has been going on. Thirteen centuries? No. This
site was an oracle in heathen days, and we know that such were
frequented by men not a whit less barbarous and bigoted than their
modern representatives—nothing is a greater mistake than to suppose
that the crowds of old Rome and Athens were more refined than our own
(“Demosthenes, sir, was talking to an assembly of brutes”). For thirty
centuries then, let us say, a deity has attracted the faithful to his
shrine—Sant’ Angelo has become a vacuum, as it were, which must be
periodically filled up from the surrounding country. These pilgrimages
are in the blood of the people: infants, they are carried there;
adults, they carry their own offspring; grey-beards, their tottering
steps are still supported by kindly and sturdier fellow-wanderers.

Popes and emperors no longer scramble up these slopes; the spirit of
piety has abated among the great ones of the earth; so much is certain.
But the rays of light that strike the topmost branches have not yet
penetrated to the rank and seething undergrowth. And then—what else can
one offer to these Abruzzi
mountain-folk? Their life is one of miserable, revolting destitution.
They have no games or sports, no local racing, clubs, cattle-shows,
fox-hunting, politics, rat-catching, or any of those other joys that
diversify the lives of our peasantry. No touch of humanity reaches
them, no kindly dames send them jellies or blankets, no cheery doctor
enquires for their children; they read no newspapers or books, and lack
even the mild excitements of church _versus_ chapel, or the vicar’s
daughter’s love-affair, or the squire’s latest row with his
lady—nothing! Their existence is almost bestial in its blankness. I
know them—I have lived among them. For four months in the year they are
cooped up in damp dens, not to be called chambers, where an Englishman
would deem it infamous to keep a dog—cooped up amid squalor that must
be seen to be believed; for the rest of the time they struggle, in the
sweat of their brow, to wrest a few blades of corn from the ungrateful
limestone. Their visits to the archangel—these vernal and autumnal
picnics—are their sole form of amusement.

The movement is said to have diminished since the early nineties, when
thirty thousand of them used to come here annually. It may well be the
case; but I imagine that this is due not so much to increasing
enlightenment as to the depopulation caused by America; many villages
have recently been reduced to half their former number of inhabitants.

And here they kneel, candle in hand, on the wet flags of this foetid
and malodorous cave, gazing in rapture upon the blandly beaming idol,
their sensibilities tickled by resplendent priests reciting
full-mouthed Latin phrases, while the organ overhead plays wheezy
extracts from “La Forza del Destino” or the Waltz out of Boito’s
“Mefistofele”... for sure, it must be a foretaste of Heaven! And likely
enough, these are “the poor in heart” for whom that kingdom is
reserved.

One may call this a debased form of Christianity. Whether it would have
been distasteful to the feelings of the founder of that cult is another
question, and, debased or not, it is at least alive and palpitating,
which is more than can be said of certain other varieties. But the
archangel, as was inevitable, has suffered a sad change. His fairest
attribute of Light-bringer, of Apollo, is no longer his own; it has
been claimed and appropriated by the “Light of the World,” his new
master. One by one, his functions have been stripped from him, all save
in name, as happens to men and angels alike, when they take service
under “jealous” lords.

What is now left of Saint Michael, the glittering hierarch? Can he
still endure the light of sun? Or has he not shrivelled into a spectral
Hermes, a grisly psychopomp, bowing his head in minished glory, and
leading men’s souls no longer aloft but downwards—down to the pale
regions of things that have been? And will it be long ere he, too, is
thrust by some flaming Demogorgon into these same realms of Minos, into
that shadowy underworld where dwell Saturn, and Kronos, and other
cracked and shivered ideals?

So I mused that afternoon, driving down the slopes from Sant’ Angelo
comfortably sheltered against the storm, while the generous mountain
wine sped through my veins, warming my fancy. Then, at last, the sun
came out in a sudden burst of light, opening a rift in the vapours and
revealing the whole chain of the Apennines, together with the peaked
crater of Mount Vulture.

The spectacle cheered me, and led me to think that such a day might
worthily be rounded off by a visit to Sipontum, which lies a few miles
beyond Manfredonia on the Foggia road. But I approached the subject
cautiously, fearing that the coachman might demur at this extra work.
Far from it. I had gained his affection, and he would conduct me
whithersoever I liked. Only to Sipontum? Why not to Foggia, to Naples,
to the ends of the earth? As for the horse, he was none the worse for
the trip, not a bit the worse; he liked nothing better than running in
front of a carriage; besides, _è suo dovere—_it was his duty.

Sipontum is so ancient that it was founded, they say, by that legendary
Diomed who acted in the same capacity for Beneven-tum, Arpi, and other
cities. But this record does not satisfy Monsignor Sarnelli, its
historian, according to whom it was already a flourishing town when
Shem, first son of Noah, became its king. He reigned about the year
1770 of the creation of the world. Two years after the deluge he was
100 years old, and at that age begat a son Arfaxad, after whose birth
he lived yet another five hundred years. The second king of Sipontum
was Appulus, who ruled in the year 2213. . . . Later on, Saint Peter
sojourned here, and baptized a few people.

Of Sipontum nothing is left; nothing save a church, and even that built
only yesterday—in the eleventh century; a far-famed church, in the
Pisan style, with wrought marble columns reposing on lions, sculptured
diamond ornaments, and other crafty stonework that gladdens the eye. It
used to be the seat
of an archbishopric, and its fine episcopal chairs are now preserved at
Sant’ Angelo; and you may still do homage to the authentic Byzantine
Madonna painted on wood by Saint Luke, brown-complexioned, long-nosed,
with staring eyes, and holding the Infant on her left arm. Earthquakes
and Saracen incursions ruined the town, which became wholly abandoned
when Manfredonia was built with its stones.

Of pagan antiquity there are a few capitals lying about, as well as
granite columns in the curious old crypt. A pillar stands all forlorn
in a field; and quite close to the church are erected two others—the
larger of cipollino, beautified by a patina of golden lichen; a marble
well-head, worn half through with usage of ropes, may be found buried
in the rank grass. The plain whereon stood the great city of Sipus is
covered, now, with bristly herbage. The sea has retired from its old
beach, and half-wild cattle browse on the site of those lordly quays
and palaces. Not a stone is left. Malaria and desolation reign supreme.

It is a profoundly melancholy spot. Yet I was glad of the brief vision.
I shall have fond and enduring memories of that sanctuary—the
travertine of its artfully carven fabric glowing orange-tawny in the
sunset; of the forsaken plain beyond, full of ghostly phantoms of the
past.

As for Manfredonia—it is a sad little place, when the south wind moans
and mountains are veiled in mists.

[Illustration: At Sipontum]




V
LAND OF HORACE


Venosa, nowadays, lies off the beaten track. There are only three
trains a day from the little junction of Rocchetta, and they take over
an hour to traverse the thirty odd kilometres of sparsely inhabited
land. It is an uphill journey, for Venosa lies at a good elevation.
They say that German professors, bent on Horatian studies, occasionally
descend from those worn-out old railway carriages; but the ordinary
travellers are either peasant-folk or commercial gentlemen from north
Italy. Worse than malaria or brigandage, against both of which a man
may protect himself, there is no escaping from the companionship of
these last-named—these pathologically inquisitive, empty-headed, and
altogether dreadful people. They are the terror of the south. And it
stands to reason that only the most incapable and most disagreeable of
their kind are sent to out-of-the-way places like Venosa.

One asks oneself whether this town has greatly changed since Roman
times. To be sure it has; domestic calamities and earthquakes (such as
the terrible one of 1456) have altered it beyond recognition. The
amphitheatre that seated ten thousand spectators is merged into the
earth, and of all the buildings of Roman date nothing is left save a
pile of masonry designated as the tomb of the Marcellus who was killed
here by Hannibal’s soldiery, and a few reticulated walls of the second
century or thereabouts known as the “House of Horace”—as genuine as
that of Juliet in Verona or the Mansion of Loreto. Yet the tradition is
an old one, and the builder of the house, whoever he was, certainly
displayed some poetic taste in his selection of a fine view across the
valley. There is an indifferent statue of Horace in the marketplace. A
previous one, also described as Horace, was found to be the effigy of
somebody else. Thus much I learn from Lupoli’s “Iter Venusinum.”

But there are ancient inscriptions galore, worked into the masonry of
buildings or lying about at random. Mommsen has collected numbers of
them in his _Corpus,_ and since that time some sixty new ones have been
discovered. And then—the
stone lions of Roman days, couched forlornly at street corners, in
courtyards and at fountains, in every stage of decrepitude, with broken
jaws and noses, missing legs and tails! Venosa is a veritable infirmary
for mutilated antiques of this species. Now the lion is doubtless a
nobly decorative beast, but—_toujours perdrix!_ Why not a few griffons
or other ornaments? The Romans were not an imaginative race.

The country around must have looked different in olden days. Horace
describes it as covered with forests, and from a manuscript of the
early seventeenth century which has lately been printed one learns that
the surrounding regions were full of “hares, rabbits, foxes, roe deer,
wild boars, martens, porcupines, hedgehogs, tortoises and
wolves”—wood-loving creatures which have now, for the most part,
deserted Venosa. Still, there are left some stretches of oak at the
back of the town, and the main lines of the land cannot change. Yonder
lies the Horatian Forense and “Acherontia’s nest”; further on, the
glades of Bantia (the modern Banzi); the long-drawn Garganian Mount, on
which the poet’s eye must often have rested, emerges above the plain of
Apulia like an island (and such it is: an island of Austrian stone,
stranded upon the beach of Italy). Monte Vulture still dominates the
landscape, although at this nearness the crater loses its shapely
conical outline and assumes a serrated edge. On its summit I perceive a
gigantic cross—one of a number of such symbols which were erected by
the clericals at the time of the recent rationalist congress in Rome.

From this chronicler I learn another interesting fact: that Venosa was
not malarious in the author’s day. He calls it healthy, and says that
the only complaint from which the inhabitants suffered was “ponture”
(pleurisy). It is now within the infected zone. I dare say the
deforestation of the country, which prevented the downflow of the
rivers—choking up their beds with detritus and producing stagnant pools
favourable to the breeding of the mosquito—has helped to spread the
plague in many parts of Italy. In Horace’s days Venosa was immune,
although Rome and certain rural districts were already malarious.
Ancient votive tablets to the fever-goddess Mephitis (malaria) have
been found not far from here, in the plain below the present city of
Potenza.

A good deal of old Roman blood and spirit seems to survive here. After
the noise of the Neapolitan provinces, where chattering takes the place
of thinking, it is a relief to find oneself in the company of these
grave self-respecting folks, who really
converse, like the Scotch, in disinterested and impersonal fashion.
Their attitude towards religious matters strikes me as peculiarly
Horatian; it is not active scepticism, but rather a bland tolerance or
what one of them described as “indifferentismo”—submission to acts of
worship and all other usages (whatever they may be) consecrated by
time: the _pietàs—_the conservative, law-abiding Roman spirit. And if
you walk towards sunset along any of the roads leading into the
country, you will meet the peasants riding home from their field
labours accompanied by their dogs, pigs and goats; and among them you
will recognize many types of Roman physiognomies—faces of orators and
statesmen—familiar from old coins. About a third of the population are
of the dark-fair complexion, with blue or green eyes. But the women are
not handsome, although the town derives its name from Benoth (Venus).
Some genuine Roman families have continued to exist to this day, such
as that of Cenna (Cinna). One of them was the author of the chronicle
above referred to; and there is an antique bas-relief worked into the
walls of the Trinità abbey, depicting some earlier members of this
local family.

One is astonished how large a literature has grown up around this small
place—but indeed, the number of monographs dealing with every one of
these little Italian towns is a ceaseless source of surprise. Look
below the surface and you will find, in all of them, an undercurrent of
keen spirituality—a nucleus of half a dozen widely read and thoughtful
men, who foster the best traditions of the mind. You will not find them
in the town council or at the café. No newspapers commend their
labours, no millionaires or learned societies come to their assistance,
and though typography is cheap in this country, they often stint
themselves of the necessities of life in order to produce these
treatises of calm research. There is a deep gulf, here, between the
mundane and the intellectual life. These men are retiring in their
habits; and one cannot but revere their scholarly and almost ascetic
spirit that survives like a green oasis amid the desert of “politics,”
roguery and municipal corruption.

The City Fathers of Venosa are reputed rich beyond the dreams of
avarice. Yet their town is by no means a clean place—it is twice as
dirty as Lucera: a reposeful dirtiness, not vulgar or chaotic, but
testifying to time-honoured neglect, to a feudal contempt of
cleanliness. You crawl through narrow, ill-paved streets, looking down
into subterranean family bedrooms that must be insufferably damp in
winter, and filled, during the hot months, with an odour hard to
conceive. There is electric lighting,
of course—a paternal government having made the price of petroleum so
prohibitive that the use of electricity for street-lighting became
quite common in the lowliest places; but the crude glare only serves to
show up the general squalor. One reason for this state of affairs is
that there are no quarries for decent paving-stones in the
neighbourhood. And another, that Venosa possesses no large citizen
class, properly so called. The inhabitants are mostly peasant
proprietors and field labourers, who leave the town in the morning and
return home at night with their beasts, having learned by bitter
experience to take up their domiciles in the towns rather than in the
country-side, which was infested with brigandage and in an unsettled
state up to a short time ago. The Cincinnatus note dominates here, and
with an agricultural population no city can be kept clean.

But Venosa has one inestimable advantage over Lucera and most Italian
towns: there is no octroi.

Would it be believed that Naples is surrounded by a towering Chinese
wall, miles upon miles of it, crowned with a complicated apparatus of
alarm-bells and patrolled night and day by a horde of _doganieri_ armed
to the teeth—lest some peasant should throw a bundle of onions into the
sacred precincts of the town without paying the duty of half a
farthing? No nation with any sense of humour would endure this sort of
thing. Every one resents the airs of this army of official loafers who
infest the land, and would be far better employed themselves in
planting onions upon the many miles of Italy which now lie fallow; the
results of the system have been shown to be inadequate, “but,” as my
friend the Roman deputy once asked me, “if we dismiss these fellows
from their job, how are we to employ them?”

“Nothing is simpler,” I replied. “Enrol them into the Town Council of
Naples. It already contains more _employes_ than all the government
offices of London put together; a few more will surely make no
difference?”

“By Bacchus,” he cried, “you foreigners have ideas! We could dispose of
ten or fifteen thousand of them, at least, in the way you suggest. I’ll
make a note of that, for our next session.”

And so he did.

But the _Municipio_ of Naples, though extensive, is a purely local
charity, and I question whether its inmates will hear of any one save
their own cousins and brothers-in-law figuring as colleagues in office.

Every attempt at innovation in agriculture, as in industry,
is forthwith discouraged by new and subtle impositions, which lie in
wait for the enterprising Italian and punish him for his ideas. There
is, of course, a prohibitive duty on every article or implement
manufactured abroad; there is the octroi, a relic of medisevalism, the
most unscientific, futile, and vexatious of taxes; there are municipal
dues to be paid on animals bought and animals sold, on animals kept and
animals killed, on milk and vine-props and bricks, on timber for
scaffolding and lead and tiles and wine—on every conceivable object
which the peasant produces or requires for his existence. And one
should see the faces of the municipal _employes_ who extort these
tributes. God alone knows from what classes of the populace they are
recruited; certain it is that their physiognomy reflects their
miserable calling. One can endure the militarism of Germany and the
bureaucracy of Austria; but it is revolting to see decent Italian
countryfolk at the mercy of these uncouth savages, veritable cave-men,
whose only intelligible expression is one of malice striving to break
through a crust of congenital cretinism.

We hear much of the great artists and speculative philosophers of old
Italy. The artists of modern Italy are her bureaucrats who design and
elaborate the taxes; her philosophers, the peasants who pay them.

In point of method, at least, there is nothing to choose between the
exactions of the municipal and governmental ruffians. I once saw an old
woman fined fifty francs for having in her possession a pound of
sea-salt. By what logic will you make it clear to ignorant people that
it is wrong to take salt out of the sea, whence every one takes fish
which are more valuable? The waste of time employed over red tape alone
on these occasions would lead to a revolution anywhere save among men
inured by long abuses to this particular form of tyranny. No wonder the
women of the country-side, rather than waste three precious hours in
arguments about a few cheeses, will smuggle them past the authorities
under the device of being _enceintes;_ no wonder their wisest old men
regard the paternal government as a successfully organized swindle,
which it is the citizen’s bounden duty to frustrate whenever possible.
Have _you_ ever tried to convey—in legal fashion—a bottle of wine from
one town into another; or to import, by means of a sailing-boat, an old
frying-pan into some village by the sea? It is a fine art, only to be
learnt by years of apprenticeship. The regulations on these subjects,
though ineffably childish, look simple enough on paper; they take no
account of that “personal element” which is everything
in the south, of the ruffled tempers of those gorgeous but inert
creatures who, disturbed in their siestas or mandolin-strummings, may
keep you waiting half a day while they fumble ominously over some
dirty-looking scrap of paper. For on such occasions they are liable to
provoking fits of conscientiousness. This is all very well, my dear
sir, but—Ha! Where, where is that certificate of origin, that stamp,
that _lascia-passare?_

And all for one single sou!

No wonder even Englishmen discover that law-breaking, in Italy, becomes
a necessity, a rule of life.

And, soon enough, much more than a mere necessity. . . .

For even as the traveller new to Borneo, when they offer him a
durian-fruit, is instantly brought to vomiting-point by its odour, but
after a few mouthfuls declares it to be the very apple of Paradise, and
marvels how he could have survived so long in the benighted lands where
such ambrosial fare is not; even as the true connaisseur who, beholding
some rare scarlet idol from the Tingo-Tango forests, at first casts it
aside and then, light dawning as he ponders over those monstrous
complexities, begins to realize that they, and they alone, contain the
quintessential formulae of all the fervent dreamings of Scopas and
Michelangelo; even as he who first, upon a peak in Darien, gazed
awestruck upon the grand Pacific slumbering at his feet, till presently
his senses reeled at the blissful prospect of fresh regions unrolling
themselves, boundless, past the fulfilment of his fondest hopes———

Even so, in Italy, the domesticated Englishman is amazed to find that
he possesses a sense hitherto unrevealed, opening up a new horizon, a
new zest in life—the sense of law-breaking. At first, being an honest
man, he is shocked at the thought of such a thing; next, like a
sensible person, reconciled to the inevitable; lastly, as befits his
virile race, he learns to play the game so well that the horrified
officials grudgingly admit (and it is their highest praise):

Inglese italianizzato—
Diavolo incarnato.

Yes; slowly the charm of law-breaking grows upon the Italianated Saxon;
slowly, but surely. There is a neo-barbarism not only in matters of
art.




VI
AT VENOSA


There has always, no doubt, been a castle at Venosa. Frederick
Barbarossa lived here oftener than in Sicily; from these regions he
could look over to his beloved East, and the security of this
particular keep induced him to store his treasures therein. The
indefatigable Huillard Bréholles has excavated some account of them
from the Hohenstaufen records. Thus we learn that here, at Venosa, the
Emperor deposited that marvel, that _tentorium,_ I mean, _mirifica arte
constructum, in quo imagines solis et lunæ artificialiter motæ, cursum
suum certis et debitis spatiis peragrant, et horas diei et noctis
infallibiliter indicant. Cuius tentorii valor viginti millium marcarum
pretium dicitur transcendisse._ It was given him by the Sultan of
Babylonia. Always the glowing Oriental background!

The present castle, a picturesque block with moat and corner towers,
was built in 1470 by the redoubtable Pierro del Balzo. A church used to
occupy the site, but the warrior, recognizing its strategic advantages,
transplanted the holy edifice to some other part of the town. It is now
a ruin, the inhabitable portions of which have been converted into
cheap lodgings for sundry poor folk—a monetary speculation of some
local magnate, who paid 30,000 francs for the whole structure. You can
climb up into one of the shattered towers whereon reposes an old cannon
amid a wind-sown garden of shrubs and weeds. Here the jackdaws
congregate at nightfall, flying swiftly and noiselessly to their
resting-place. Odd, how quiet Italian jackdaws are, compared with those
of England; they have discarded their voices, which is the best thing
they could have done in a land where every one persecutes them. There
is also a dungeon at this castle, an underground recess with cunningly
contrived projections in its walls to prevent prisoners from climbing
upwards; and other horrors.

The cathedral of Venosa contains a chapel with an unusually fine portal
of Renaissance work, but the chief architectural beauty of the town is
the decayed Benedictine abbey of La Trinità. The building is roofless;
it was never completed, and the ravages
of time and of man have not spared it; earthquakes, too, have played
sad tricks with its arches and columns, particularly that of 1851,
which destroyed the neighbouring town of Melfi. It stands beyond the
more modern settlement on what is now a grassy plain, and attached to
it is a Norman chapel containing the bones of Alberada, mother of
Boemund, and others of her race. Little of the original structure of
this church is left, though its walls are still adorned, in patches,
with frescoes of genuine angels—attractive creatures, as far removed
from those bloodless Byzantine anatomies as from the plethoric and
insipid females of the _settecento._ There is also a queenly portrait
declared to represent Catherine of Siena. I would prefer to follow
those who think it is meant for Sigilgaita.

Small as it is, this place—the church and the abbey—is not one for a
casual visit. Lenormant calls the Trinità a “_Musée épigraphique”—_so
many are the Latin inscriptions which the monks have worked into its
masonry. They have encrusted the walls with them; and many antiquities
of other kinds have been deposited here since those days. The ruin is
strewn with columns and capitals of fantastic devices; the inevitable
lions, too, repose upon its grassy floor, as well as a pagan
altar-stone that once adorned the neighbouring amphitheatre. One thinks
of the labour expended in raising those prodigious blocks and fitting
them together without mortar in their present positions—they, also,
came from the amphitheatre, and the sturdy letterings engraved on some
of them formed, once upon a time, a sentence that ran round that
building, recording the names of its founders.

[Illustration: Ruin of Trinità: East front]

Besides the Latin inscriptions, there are Hebrew funereal stones of
great interest, for a colony of Jews was established here between the
years 400 and 800; poor folks, for the most part; no one knows whence
they came or whither they went. One is apt to forget that south Italy
was swarming with Jews for centuries. The catacombs of Venosa were
discovered in 1853. Their entrance lies under a hill-side not far from
the modern railway station, and Professor Mueller, a lover of Venosa,
has been engaged for the last twenty-five years in writing a ponderous
tome on the subject. Unfortunately (so they say) there is not much
chance of its ever seeing the light, for just as he is on the verge of
publication, some new Jewish catacombs are discovered in another part
of the world which cause the Professor to revise all his previous
theories. The work must be written anew and brought up to date, and
hardly is this accomplished when
fresh catacombs are found elsewhere, necessitating a further revision.
The Professor once more rewrites the whole. . . .

You will find accounts of the Trinità in Bertaux, Schulz and other
writers. Italian ones tell us what sounds rather surprising, namely,
that the abbey was built after a Lombard model, and not a French one.
Be that as it may—and they certainly show good grounds for their
contention—the ruin is a place of rare charm. Not easily can one see
relics of Roman, Hebrew and Norman life crushed into so small a space,
welded together by the massive yet fair architecture of the
Benedictines, and interpenetrated, at the same time, with a
Mephistophelian spirit of modern indifference. Of cynical
_insouciance;_ for although this is a “national monument,” nothing
whatever is done in the way of repairs. Never a month passes without
some richly carven block of stonework toppling down into the weeds,[1]
and were it not for the zeal of a private citizen, the interior of the
building would long ago have become an impassable chaos of stones and
shrubbery. The Trinità cannot be _restored_ without enormous outlay;
nobody dreams of such a thing. A yearly expenditure of ten pounds,
however, would go far towards arresting its fall. But where shall the
money be found? This enthusiastic nation, so enamoured of all that is
exquisite in art, will spend sixty million francs on a new Ministry of
Justice which, barely completed, is already showing signs of
disrupture; it will cheerfully vote _(vide_ daily press) the small item
of eighty thousand francs to supply that institution with pens and
ink—lucky contractor!—while this and a hundred other buildings of
singular beauty are allowed to crumble to pieces, day by day.

 [1] The process of decay can be seen by comparing my photograph of the
 east front with that taken to illustrate Giuseppe de Lorenzo’s
 monograph “Venosa e la Regione del Vulture” (Bergamo, 1906).

Not far from the abbey there stands a church dedicated to Saint Roque.
Go within, if you wish to see the difference between Benedictine
dignity and the buffoonery which subsequently tainted the Catholicism
of the youth. On its gable sits a strange emblem: a large stone dog,
gazing amiably at the landscape. The saint, during his earthly career,
was always accompanied by a dog, and now likes to have him on the roof
of his sanctuary.

The Norman church attached to the Trinità lies at a lower level than
that building, having been constructed, says Lupoli, on the foundations
of a temple to Hymenæus. It may be so; but one distrusts Lupoli. A
remarkable Norman capital, now wrought into a font, is preserved here,
and I was interested in
watching the behaviour of a procession of female pilgrims in regard to
it. Trembling with emotion, they perambulated the sacred stone, kissing
every one of its corners; then they dipped their hands into its basin,
and kissed them devoutly. An old hag, the mistress of the ceremonies,
muttered: “tutti santi—tutti santi!” at each osculation. Next, they
prostrated themselves on the floor and licked the cold stones, and
after wallowing there awhile, rose up and began to kiss a small fissure
in the masonry of the wall, the old woman whispering, “Santissimo!” A
familiar spectacle, no doubt; but one which never fails of its effect.
This anti-hygienic crack in the wall, with its suggestions of
yoni-worship, attracted me so strongly that I begged a priest to
explain to me its mystical signification. But he only said, with a
touch of mediæval contempt:

“_Sono femine!_”

He showed me, later on, a round Roman pillar near the entrance of the
church worn smooth by the bodies of females who press themselves
between it and the wall, in order to become mothers. The notion caused
him some amusement—he evidently thought this practice a speciality of
Venosa.

In my country, I said, pillars with a contrary effect would be more
popular among the fair sex.

Lear gives another account of this phallic emblem. He says that
perambulating it hand in hand with another person, the two are sure to
remain friends for life.

This is pre-eminently a “Victorian” version.

[Illustration: Roman Altar-stone]




VII
THE BANDUSIAN FOUNT


The traveller in these parts is everlastingly half-starved. Here, at
Venosa, the wine is good—excellent, in fact; but the food monotonous
and insufficient. This improper dieting is responsible for much
mischief; it induces a state of chronic exacerbation. Nobody would
believe how nobly I struggle, day and night, against its evil
suggestions. A man’s worst enemy is his own empty stomach. None knew it
better than Horace.

And yet he declared that lettuces and such-like stuff sufficed him. No
doubt, no doubt. “Olives nourish me.” Just so! One does not grow up in
the school of Maecenas without learning the subtle delights of the
simple life. But I would wager that after a week of such feeding as I
have now undergone at his native place, he would quickly have
remembered some urgent business to be transacted in the capital—Caesar
Augustus, me-thinks, would have desired his company. And even so, I
have suddenly woke up to the fact that Taranto, my next resting-place,
besides possessing an agreeably warm climate, has some passable
restaurants. I will pack without delay. Mount Vulture must wait. The
wind alone, the Vulturnus or south-easterly wind, is quite enough to
make one despair of climbing hills. It has blown with objectionable
persistency ever since my arrival at Venosa.

To escape from its attentions, I have been wandering about the secluded
valleys that seam this region. Streamlets meander here amid rustling
canes and a luxuriant growth of mares’ tails and creepers; their banks
are shaded by elms and poplars—Horatian trees; the thickets are loud
with songs of nightingale, black-cap and oriole. These humid dells are
a different country from the uplands, wind-swept and thriftily
cultivated.

It was here, yesterday, that I came upon an unexpected sight—an army of
workmen engaged in burrowing furiously into the bowels of Mother Earth.
They told me that this tunnel would presently become one of the
arteries of that vast system, the
Apulian Aqueduct. The discovery accorded with my Roman mood, for the
conception and execution alike of this grandiose project are worthy of
the Romans. Three provinces where, in years of drought, wine is cheaper
than water, are being irrigated—in the teeth of great difficulties of
engineering and finance. Among other things, there are 213 kilometres
of subterranean tunnellings to be built; eleven thousand workmen are
employed; the cost is estimated at 125 million francs. The Italian
government is erecting to its glory a monument more durable than brass.
This is their heritage from the Romans—this talent for dealing with
rocks and waters; for bridling a destructive environment and making it
subservient to purposes of human intercourse. It is a part of that
practical Roman genius for “pacification.” Wild nature, to the Latin,
ever remains an obstacle to be overcome—an enemy.

Such was Horace’s point of view. The fruitful fields and their hardy
brood of tillers appealed to him;[1] the ocean and snowy Alps were
beyond the range of his affections. His love of nature was heartfelt,
but his nature was not ours; it was nature as we see it in those Roman
landscapes at Pompeii; nature ancillary to human needs, in her
benignant and comfortable moods. Virgil’s _lachrymae rerum_ hints at
mystic and extra-human yearnings; to the troubadours nature was
conventionally stereotyped—a scenic decoration to set off sentiments
more or less sincere; the romanticists wallow in her rugged aspects.
Horace never allowed phantasy to outrun intelligence; he kept his feet
on earth; man was the measure of his universe, and a sober mind his
highest attribute. Nature must be kept “in her place.” Her
extravagances are not to be admired. This anthropocentric spirit has
made him what he is—the ideal anti-sentimentalist and anti-vulgarian.
For excess of sentiment, like all other intemperance, is the mark of
that unsober and unsteady beast—the crowd.

 [1] See next chapter.

Things have changed since those days; in proportion as the world has
grown narrower and the element of fear and mystery diluted, our
sympathies have broadened; the Goth, in particular, has learnt the
knack of detecting natural charm where the Latin, to this day, beholds
nothing but confusion and strife.

[Illustration: Norman Capital at Venosa]

On the spot, I observe, one is liable to return to the antique outlook;
to see the beauty of fields and rivers, yet only when subsidiary to
man’s personal convenience; to appreciate a fair landscape—with a
shrewd worldly sense of its potential uses. “The garden that I love,”
said an Italian once to me, “contains
good vegetables.” This utilitarian flavour of the south has become very
intelligible to me during the last few days. I, too, am thinking less
of calceolarias than of cauliflowers.

A pilgrimage to the Bandusian Fount (if such it be) is no great
undertaking—a morning’s trip. The village of San Gervasio is the next
station to Venosa, lying on an eminence only thirteen kilometres from
there.

Here once ran a fountain which was known as late as the twelfth century
as the Fons Bandusinus, and Ughelli, in his “Italia Sacra,” cites a
deed of the year 1103 speaking of a church “at the Bandusian Fount near
Venosa.” Church and fountain have now disappeared; but the site of the
former, they say, is known, and close to it there once issued a copious
spring called “Fontana Grande.” This is probably the Horatian one; and
is also, I doubt not, that referred to in Cenna’s chronicle of Venosa:
“At Torre San Gervasio are the ruins of a castle and an abundant spring
of water colder than all the waters of Venosa,” _Frigus amabile. . . ._

I could discover no one in the place to show me where this now vanished
church stood. I rather think it occupied the site of the present church
of Saint Anthony, the oldest in San Gervasio.

As to the fountain—there are now two of them, at some considerable
distance from each other. Both of them are copious, and both lie near
the foot of the hill on which the village now stands. Capmartin de
Chaupy has reasons for believing that in former times San Gervasio did
not occupy its present exalted position (vol. iii, p. 538).

One of them gushes out on the plain near the railway station, and has
been rebuilt within recent times. It goes by the name of “Fontana
rotta.” The other, the “Fontana del Fico,” lies on the high road to
Spinazzola; the water spouts out of seven mouths, and near at hand is a
plantation of young sycamores. The basin of this fount was also rebuilt
about ten years ago at no little expense, and has now a thoroughly
modern and businesslike aspect. But I was told that a complicated
network of subterranean pipes and passages, leading to “God knows
where,” was unearthed during the process of reconstruction. It was
magnificent masonry, said my informant, who was an eye-witness of the
excavations but could tell me nothing more of interest.

The problem how far either of these fountains fulfils the conditions
postulated in the last verse of Horace’s ode may be solved by every one
according as he pleases. In fact, there is
no other way of solving it. In my professorial mood, I should cite the
cavern and the “downward leaping” waters against the hypothesis that
the Bandusian Fount stood on either of these modern sites; in favour of
it, one might argue that the conventional rhetoric of all Roman art may
have added these embellishing touches, and cite, in confirmation
thereof, the last two lines of the previous verse, mentioning animals
that could hardly have slaked their thirst with any convenience at a
cavernous spring such as he describes. Caverns, moreover, are not
always near the summits of hills; they may be at the foot of them; and
water, even the Thames at London Bridge, always leaps downhill—more or
less. Of more importance is old Chaupy’s discovery of the northerly
aspect of one of these springs—“thee the fierce season of the blazing
dog-star cannot touch.” There may have been a cave at the back of the
“Fontana del Fico”; the “Fontana rotta” is hopelessly uncavernous.

For the rest, there is no reason why the fountain should not have
changed its position since ancient days. On the contrary, several
things might incline one to think that it has been forced to abandon
the high grounds and seek its present lower level. To begin with, the
hill on which the village stands is honeycombed by hives of caves which
the inhabitants have carved out of the loose conglomerate (which, by
the way, hardly corresponds with the poet’s _saxum);_ and it may well
be that a considerable collapse of these earth-dwellings obstructed the
original source of the waters and obliged them to seek a vent lower
down.

Next, there are the notorious effects of deforestation. An old man told
me that in his early days the hill was covered with timber—indeed, this
whole land, now a stretch of rolling grassy downs, was decently wooded
up to a short time ago. I observed that the roof of the oldest of the
three churches, that of Saint Anthony, is formed of wooden rafters (a
rare material hereabouts). Deforestation would also cause the waters to
issue at a lower level.

Lastly, and chiefly—the possible shatterings of earthquakes.
Catastrophes such as those which have damaged Venosa in days past may
have played havoc with the water-courses of this place by choking up
their old channels. My acquaintance with the habits of Apulian
earthquakes, with the science of hydrodynamics and the geological
formation of San Gervasio is not sufficiently extensive to allow me to
express a mature opinion. I will content myself with presenting to
future investigators the plausible theory—plausible because
conveniently difficult to refute—that
some terrestrial upheaval in past days is responsible for the present
state of things.

But these are merely three hypotheses. I proceed to mention three facts
which point in the same direction; i.e. that the water used to issue at
a higher level. Firstly, there is that significant name “Fontana
rotta”—“the broken fountain.” . . . Does not this suggest that its flow
may have been interrupted, or intercepted, in former times?

Next, if you climb up from this “Fontana rotta” to the village by the
footpath, you will observe, on your right hand as you ascend the slope,
at about a hundred yards below the Church of Saint Anthony, an old well
standing in a field of corn and shaded by three walnuts and an oak.
This well is still running, and was described to me as “molto antico.”
Therefore an underground stream—in diminished volume, no doubt—still
descends from the heights.

Thirdly, in the village you will notice an alley leading out of the
Corso Manfredi (one rejoices to find the name of Manfred surviving in
these lands)—an alley which is entitled “Vico Sirene.” The name arrests
your attention, for what have the Sirens to do in these inland regions?
Nothing whatever, unless they existed as ornamental statuary: statuary
such as frequently gives names to streets in Italy, witness the “Street
of the Faun” in Ouida’s novel, or that of the “Giant” in Naples (which
has now been re-christened). It strikes me as a humble but quite
scholarly speculation to infer that, the chief decorative uses of
Sirens being that of fountain deities, this obscure roadway keeps alive
the tradition of the old “Fontana Grande”—ornamented, we may suppose,
with marble Sirens—whose site is now forgotten, and whose very name has
faded from the memory of the countryfolk.

What, then, does my ramble of two hours at San Gervasio amount to? It
shows that there is a possibility, at least, of a now vanished fountain
having existed on the heights where it might fulfil more accurately the
conditions of Horace’s ode. If Ughelli’s church “at the Bandusian
Fount” stood on this eminence—well, I shall be glad to corroborate, for
once in the way, old Ughelli, whose book contains a deal of dire
nonsense. And if the Abbe Chaupy’s suggestion that the village lay at
the foot of the hill should ever prove to be wrong—well, his amiable
ghost may be pleased to think that even this does not necessitate the
sacrifice of his Venosa theory in favour of that of the scholiast
Akron; there is still a way out of the difficulty.

But whether this at San Gervasio is the actual fountain hymned by
Horace—ah, that is quite another affair! Few poets, to be sure, have
clung more tenaciously to the memories of their childhood than did he
and Virgil. And yet, the whole scene may be a figment of his
imagination—the very word Bandusia may have been coined by him. Who can
tell? Then there is the Digentia hypothesis. I know it, I know it! I
have read some of its defenders, and consider _(entre nous)_ that they
have made out a pretty strong case. But I am not in the mood for
discussing their proposition—not just now.

Here at San Gervasio I prefer to think only of the Roman singer, so
sanely jovial, and of these waters as they flowed, limpid and cool, in
the days when they fired his boyish fancy. Deliberately I refuse to
hear the charmer Boissier. Deliberately, moreover, I shut my eyes to
the present condition of affairs; to the herd of squabbling laundresses
and those other incongruities that spoil the antique scene. Why not?
The timid alone are scared by microscopic discords of time and place.
The sage can invest this prosaic water-trough with all its pristine
dignity and romance by an unfailing expedient. He closes an eye. It is
an art he learns early in life; a simple art, and one that greatly
conduces to happiness. The ever alert, the conscientiously wakeful—how
many fine things they fail to see! Horace knew the wisdom of being
genially unwise; of closing betimes an eye, or an ear; or both.
_Desipere in loco. . . ._




VIII
TILLERS OF THE SOIL


I remember watching an old man stubbornly digging a field by himself.
He toiled through the flaming hours, and what he lacked in strength was
made up in the craftiness, _malizia,_ born of long love of the soil.
The ground was baked hard; but there was still a chance of rain, and
the peasants were anxious not to miss it. Knowing this kind of labour,
I looked on from my vine-wreathed arbour with admiration, but without
envy.

I asked whether he had not children to work for him.

“All dead—and health to you!” he replied, shaking his white head
dolefully.

And no grandchildren?

“All Americans (emigrants).”

He spoke in dreamy fashion of years long ago when he, too, had
travelled, sailing to Africa for corals, to Holland and France; yes,
and to England also. But our dockyards and cities had faded from his
mind; he remembered only our men.

“_Che bella gioventù—che bella gioventù!_” (“a sturdy brood”), he kept
on repeating. “And lately,” he added, “America has been discovered.” He
toiled fourteen hours a day, and he was 83 years old.

Apart from that creature of fiction, the peasant _in fabula_ whom we
all know, I can find little to admire in this whole class of men, whose
talk and dreams are of the things of the soil, and who knows of nothing
save the regular interchange of summer and winter with their unvarying
tasks and rewards. None save a Cincinnatus or Garibaldi can be ennobled
by the spade. In spleenful moments, it seems to me that the most
depraved of city-dwellers has flashes of enthusiasm and self-abnegation
never experienced by this shifty, retrogressive and ungenerous brood,
which lives like the beasts of the field and has learnt all too much of
their logic. But they have a beast-virtue hereabouts which compels
respect—contentment in adversity. In this point they resemble the
Russian peasantry. And yet, who can pity the
moujik? His cheeks are altogether too round, and his morals too
superbly bestial; he has clearly been created to sing and starve by
turns. But the Italian peasant who speaks in the tongue of Homer and
Virgil and Boccaccio is easily invested with a halo of martyrdom; it is
delightful to sympathize with men who combine the manners of Louis
Quatorze with the profiles of Augustus or Plato, and who still recall,
in many of their traits, the pristine life of Odyssean days. Thus, they
wear to-day the identical “clouted leggings of oxhide, against the
scratches of the thorns” which old Laertes bound about his legs on the
upland farm in Ithaka. They call them “galandrine.”

On occasions of drought or flood there is not a word of complaint. I
have known these field-faring men and women for thirty years, and have
yet to hear a single one of them grumble at the weather. It is not
indifference; it is true philosophy—acquiescence in the inevitable. The
grievances of cultivators of lemons and wholesale agriculturalists,
whose speculations are often ruined by a single stroke of the human pen
in the shape of new regulations or tariffs, are a different thing;
_their_ curses are loud and long. But the bean-growers, dependent
chiefly on wind and weather, only speak of God’s will. They have the
same forgiveness for the shortcomings of nature as for a wayward child.
And no wonder they are distrustful. Ages of oppression and misrule have
passed over their heads; sun and rain, with all their caprice, have
been kinder friends to them than their earthly masters. Some day,
presumably, the government will wake up to the fact that Italy is not
an industrial country, and that its farmers might profitably be taken
into account again.

But a change is upon the land. Types like this old man are becoming
extinct; for the patriarchal system of Coriolanus, the glory of
southern Italy, is breaking up.

This is not the fault of conscription which, though it destroys old
dialects, beliefs and customs, widens the horizon by bringing fresh
ideas into the family, and generally sound ones. It does even more; it
teaches the conscripts to read and write, so that it is no longer as
dangerous to have dealings with a man who possesses these
accomplishments as in the days when they were the prerogative of
_avvocati_ and other questionable characters. A countryman, nowadays,
may read and write and yet be honest.

What is shattering family life is the speculative spirit born of
emigration. A continual coming and going; two-thirds of the adolescent
and adult male population are at this moment in Argentina or the United
States—some as far afield as New
Zealand. Men who formerly reckoned in sous now talk of thousands of
francs; parental authority over boys is relaxed, and the girls, ever
quick to grasp the advantages of money, lose all discipline and
steadiness.

“My sons won’t touch a spade,” said a peasant to me; “and when I thrash
them, they complain to the police. They simply gamble and drink,
waiting their turn to sail. If I were to tell you the beatings _we_
used to get, sir, you wouldn’t believe me. You wouldn’t believe me, not
if I took my oath, you wouldn’t! I can feel them still—speaking with
respect—here!”

These emigrants generally stay away three or four years at a stretch,
and then return, spend their money, and go out again to make more.
Others remain for longer periods, coming back with huge incomes—twenty
to a hundred francs a day. Such examples produce the same effect as
those of the few lucky winners in the State lottery; every one talks of
them, and forgets the large number of less fortunate speculators.
Meanwhile the land suffers. The carob-tree is an instance. This
beautiful and almost eternal growth, the “hope of the southern
Apennines” as Professor Savastano calls it, whose pods constitute an
important article of commerce and whose thick-clustering leaves yield a
cool shelter, comparable to that of a rocky cave, in the noonday heat,
used to cover large tracts of south Italy. Indifferent to the scorching
rays of the sun, flourishing on the stoniest declivities, and
sustaining the soil in a marvellous manner, it was planted wherever
nothing else would grow—a distant but sure profit. Nowadays carobs are
only cut down. Although their produce rises in value every year, not
one is planted; nobody has time to wait for the fruit.[1]

 [1] There are a few laudable exceptions, such as Prince Belmonte, who
 has covered large stretches of bad land with this tree. (See Consular
 Reports, Italy, No. 431.) But he is not a peasant!

It is nothing short of a social revolution, depopulating the country of
its most laborious elements. 788,000 emigrants left in one year alone
(1906); in the province of Basilicata the exodus exceeds the birthrate.
I do not know the percentage of those who depart never to return, but
it must be considerable; the land is full of chronic grass-widows.

Things will doubtless right themselves in due course; it stands to
reason that in this acute transitional stage the demoralizing effects
of the new system should be more apparent than its inevitable benefits.
Already these are not unseen; houses are springing up round villages,
and the emigrants return
home with a disrespect for many of their country’s institutions which,
under the circumstances, is neither deplorable nor unjustifiable. A
large family of boy-children, once a dire calamity, is now the soundest
of investments. Soon after their arrival in America they begin sending
home rations of money to their parents; the old farm prospers once
more, the daughters receive decent dowries. I know farmers who receive
over three pounds a month from their sons in America—all under military
age.

“We work, yes,” they will then tell you, “but we also smoke our pipe.”

Previous to this wholesale emigration, things had come to such a pass
that the landed proprietor could procure a labourer at a franc a day,
out of which he had to feed and clothe himself; it was little short of
slavery. The roles are now reversed, and while landlords are
impoverished, the rich emigrant buys up the farms or makes his own
terms for work to be done, wages being trebled. A new type of peasant
is being evolved, independent of family, fatherland or traditions—with
a sure haven of refuge across the water when life at home becomes
intolerable.

Yes; a change is at hand.

And another of those things which emigration and the new order of
affairs are surely destroying is that ancient anthropomorphic way of
looking at nature, with its expressive turns of speech. A small boy,
whom I watched gathering figs last year, informed me that the fig-tree
was _innamorato delle pietre e cisterne—_enamoured of stones and
cisterns; meaning, that its roots are searchingly destructive to
masonry and display a fabulous intuition for the proximity of water. He
also told me, what was news to me, that there are more than two or
three varieties of figs. Will you have his list of them? Here it is:

There is the _fico arnese,_ the smallest of all, and the _fico
santillo,_ both of which are best when dried; the _fico vollombola,_
which is never dried, because it only makes the spring fruit; the _fico
molegnano,_ which ripens as late as the end of October and must be
eaten fresh; the _fico coretorto (“_ wry-heart”—from its shape), which
has the most leathery skin of all and is often destroyed by grubs after
rain; the _fico troiano;_ the _fico arzano;_ and the _fico vescovo,_
which appears when all the others are over, and is eaten in February
(this may be the kind referred to in Stamer’s “Dolce Napoli” as
deriving from Sorrento, where the first tree of its kind was discovered
growing out of the garden wall of the bishop’s palace, whence the
name). All these are _neri—_black.
Now for the white kinds. The _fico paradiso_ has a tender skin, but is
easily spoilt by rain and requires a ridiculous amount of sun to dry
it; the _fico vottato_ is also better fresh; the _fico pez-zottolo_ is
often attacked by grubs, but grows to a large size every two or three
years; the _fico pascarello_ is good up till Christmas; the _fico
natalino;_ lastly, the _fico ——_, whose name I will not record, though
it would be an admirable illustration of that same anthropomorphic turn
of mind. The _santillo_ and _arnese,_ he added, are the varieties which
are cut into two and laid lengthwise upon each other and so dried
(Query: Is not this the “duplex ficus” of Horace?).

“Of course there are other kinds,” he said, “but I don’t remember them
just now.” When I asked whether he could tell these different fig-trees
apart by the leaves and stems alone and without the fruit, he said that
each kind, even in winter, retained its peculiar “faccia” (face), but
that some varieties are more easy to distinguish than others. I
enquired into the mysteries of caprification, and learned that
artificial ripening by means of a drop of oil is practised with some of
them, chiefly the _santillo, vollombola, pascarello_ and _natalino._
Then he gave me an account of the prices for the different qualities
and seasons which would have astonished a grocer.

All of which proves how easy it is to misjudge of folks who, although
they do not know that Paris is the capital of France, yet possess a
training adapted to their present needs. They are specialists for
things of the grain-giving earth; it is a pleasure to watch them
grafting vines and olives and lemons with the precision of a trained
horticulturist. They talk of “governing” _(governare}_ their soil; it
is the word they use in respect to a child.

Now figs are neither white nor black, but such is the terminology.
Stones are white or black; prepared olives are white or black; wine is
white or black. Are they become colour-blind because impregnated, from
earliest infancy, with a perennial blaze of rainbow
hues—colour-blinded, in fact; or from negligence, attention to this
matter not bringing with it any material advantage? Excepting that
sign-language which is profoundly interesting from an artistic and
ethnological point of view—why does not some scholar bring old Iorio’s
“Mimica degli Antichi” up to date?—few things are more worthy of
investigation than the colour-sense of these people. Of blue they have
not the faintest conception, probably because there are so few blue
solids in nature; Max Mueller holds the idea of blue to be quite
a modern acquisition on the part of the human race. So a cloudless sky
is declared to be “quite white.” I once asked a lad as to the colour of
the sea which, at the moment, was of the most brilliant sapphire hue.
He pondered awhile and then said:

“Pare come fosse un colore morto” (a sort of dead colour).

Green is a little better known, but still chiefly connected with things
not out of doors, as a green handkerchief. The reason may be that this
tint is too common in nature to be taken note of. Or perhaps because
their chain of association between green and grass is periodically
broken up—our fields are always verdant, but theirs turn brown in
summer. Trees they sometimes call yellow, as do some ancient writers;
but more generally “half-black” or “tree-colour.” A beech in full leaf
has been described to me as black. _“Rosso”_ does not mean red, but
rather dun or dingy; earth is _rosso._ When our red is to be signified,
they will use the word “turco,” which came in with the well-known
dye-stuff of which the Turks once monopolized the secret. Thus there
are “Turkish” apples and “Turkish” potatoes. But “turco” may also mean
black—in accordance with the tradition that the Turks, the Saracens,
were a black race. Snakes, generally greyish-brown in these parts, are
described as either white or black; an eagle-owl is half-black; a
kestrel _un quasi bianco._ The mixed colours of cloths or silks are
either beautiful or ugly, and there’s an end of it. It is curious to
compare this state of affairs with that existing in the days of Homer,
who was, as it were, feeling his way in a new region, and the propriety
of whose colour epithets is better understood when one sees things on
the spot. Of course I am only speaking of the humble peasant whose
blindness, for the rest, is not incurable.

One might enlarge the argument and deduce his odd insensibility to
delicate scents from the fact that he thrives in an atmosphere
saturated with violent odours of all kinds; his dullness in regard to
finer shades of sound—from the shrieks of squalling babies and other
domestic explosions in which he lives from the cradle to the grave.
That is why these people have no “nerves”; terrific bursts of din, such
as the pandemonium of Piedigrotta, stimulate them in the same way that
others might be stimulated by a quartette of Brahms. And if they who
are so concerned about the massacre of small birds in this country
would devote their energies to the invention of a noiseless and yet
cheap powder, their efforts would at last have some prospects of
success. For it is not so much the joy of killing, as the pleasurable
noise of the gun, which creates these local sportsmen; as the sagacious
“Ultramontain” observed long ago. “Le napolitain est passionné pour la
chasse,” he says, “parce que les coups de fusil flattent son
oreille.”[2] This ingenuous love of noise may be connected, in some
way, with their rapid nervous discharges.

 [2] I have looked him up in Jos. Blanc’s “Bibliographic.” His name was
 C. Haller.

I doubt whether intermediate convulsions have left much purity of Greek
blood in south Italy, although emotional travellers, fresh from the
north, are for ever discovering “classic Hellenic profiles” among the
people. There is certainly a scarce type which, for want of a better
hypothesis, might be called Greek: of delicate build and below the
average height, small-eared and straight-nosed, with curly hair that
varies from blonde to what Italians call _castagno chiaro._ It differs
not only from the robuster and yet fairer northern breed, but also from
the darker surrounding races. But so many contradictory theories have
lately been promulgated on this head, that I prefer to stop short at
the preliminary question—did a Hellenic type ever exist? No more,
probably, than that charming race which the artists of Japan have
invented for our delectation.

Strains of Greek blood can be traced with certainty by their track of
folklore and poetry and song, such as still echoes among the vales of
Sparta and along the Bosphorus. Greek words are rather rare here, and
those that one hears—such as _sciusciello, caruso, crisommele,_
etc.—have long ago been garnered by scholars like De Grandis, Moltedo,
and Salvatore Mele. So Naples is far more Hellenic in dialect, lore,
song and gesture than these regions, which are still rich in pure
latinisms of speech, such as surgere (to arise); scitare (excitare—to
arouse); è (est—yes); fetare (foetare); trasete (transitus—passage of
quails); titillare (to tickle); craje (cras—to-morrow); pastena (a
plantation of young vines; Ulpian has “pastinum instituere”). A woman
is called “muliera,” a girl “figliola,” and children speak of their
fathers as “tata” (see Martial, epig. I, 101). Only yesterday I added a
beautiful latinism to my collection, when an old woman, in whose
cottage I sometimes repose, remarked to me, “Non avete virtù oggi”—you
are not _up to the mark_ to-day. The real, antique virtue! I ought to
have embraced her. No wonder I have no “virtue” just now. This savage
Vulturnian wind—did it not sap the Roman virtue at Cannae?

All those relics of older civilizations are disappearing under the
standardizing influence of conscription, emigration and national
schooling.

And soon enough the _Contranome-_system will become a thing of the
past. I shall be sorry to see it go, though it has often driven me
nearly crazy.

What is a _contranome?_

The same as a _sopranome._ It is a nickname which, as with the Russian
peasants, takes the place of Christian and surname together. A man will
tell you: “My name is Luigi, but they call me, by _contranome,_
O’Canzirro. I don’t know my surname.” Some of these nicknames are
intelligible, such as O’Sborramurella, which refers to the man’s
profession of building those walls without mortar which are always
tumbling down and being repaired again; or O’Sciacquariello (acqua—a
leaking—one whose money leaks from his pocket—a spendthrift); or San
Pietro, from his saintly appearance; O’Civile, who is so uncivilized,
or Cristoforo Colombo, because he is so very wideawake. But eighty per
cent of them are quite obscure even to their owners, going back, as
they do, to some forgotten trick or incident during childhood or to
some pet name which even in the beginning meant nothing. Nearly every
man and boy has his contranome by which, and _by which alone,_ he is
known in his village; the women seldomer, unless they are conspicuous
by some peculiarity, such as A’Sbirra (the spy), or A’Paponnessa (the
fat one)—whose counterpart, in the male sex, would be O’Tripone.

Conceive, now, what trouble it entails to find a man in a strange
village if you happen not to know his contranome (and how on earth are
you to discover it?), if his surname means nothing to the inhabitants,
and his Christian name is shared by a hundred others. For they have an
amazing lack of inventiveness in this matter; four or five Christian
names will include the whole population of the place. Ten to one you
will lose a day looking for him, unless something like this takes
place:

THE HAPPY HAZARDS OF THE CONTRANOME

You set forth your business to a crowd of villagers that have collected
around. It is simple enough. You want to speak to Luigi So-and-so. A
good-natured individual, who seems particularly anxious to help,
summarizes affairs by saying:

“The gentleman wants Luigi So-and-so.”

There is evidently some joke in the mere suggestion of such a thing;
they all smile. Then a confused murmur of voices goes up:

“Luigi—Luigi. . . . Now which Luigi does he mean?”

You repeat his surname in a loud voice. It produces no effect, beyond
that of increased hilarity.

“Luigi—Luigi. . . .”

“Perhaps O’Zoccolone?”

“Perhaps O’Seticchio?”

“Or the figlio d’ O’Zibalocchio?”

The good-natured individual volunteers to beat the surrounding district
and bring in all the Luigis he can find. After half an hour they begin
to arrive, one by one. He is not among them. Dismissed with cigars, as
compensation for loss of time.

Meanwhile half the village has gathered around, vastly enjoying the
fun, which it hopes will last till bedtime. You are getting bewildered;
new people flock in from the fields to whom the mysterious joke about
Luigi must be explained.

“Luigi—Luigi,” they begin again. “Now, which of them can he mean?”

“Perhaps O’Marzariello?”

“Or O’Cuccolillo?”

“I never thought of him,” says the good-natured individual. “Here, boy,
run and tell O’Cuccolillo that a foreign gentleman wants to give him a
cigar.”

By the time O’Cuccolillo appears on the scene the crowd has thickened.
You explain the business for the fiftieth time; no—he is Luigi, of
course, but not the right Luigi, which he regrets considerably. Then
the joke is made clear to him, and he laughs again. You have lost all
your nerve, but the villagers are beginning to love you,

“Can it be O’Sciabecchino?”

“Or the figlio d’ O’Chiappino?”

“It might be O’Busciardiello (the liar).”

“He’s dead.”

“So he is. I quite forgot. Well, then it must be the husband of
A’Cicivetta (the flirt).”

“He’s in prison. But how about O’Caccianfierno?”

Suddenly a withered hag croaks authoritatively:

“I know! The gentleman wants OTentillo.”

Chorus of villagers:

“Then why doesn’t he say so?”

O’Tentillo lives far, far away. An hour elapses; at last he comes, full
of bright expectations. No, this is not your Luigi, he is another
Luigi. You are ready to sink into the earth, but there is no escape.
The crowd surges all around, the news having evidently spread to
neighbouring hamlets.

_“_Luigi—Luigi. . . . Let me see. It might be O’Rappo.”

“O’Massassillo, more likely.”

“I have it! It’s O’Spennatiello.”

“I never thought of him,” says a well-known voice. “Here, boy, run and
tell——”

“Or O’Cicereniello.”

“O’Vergeniello.”

“O’Sciabolone. ...”

“Never mind the G—— d—— son of b——,” says a cheery person in excellent
English, who has just arrived on the scene. “See here, I live fifteen
years in Brooklyn; damn fine! ’Ave a glass of wine round my place. Your
Luigi’s in America, sure. And if he isn’t, send him to Hell.”

Sound advice, this.

“What’s his surname, anyhow?” he goes on.

You explain once more.

“Why, there’s the very man you’re looking for. There, standing right in
front of you! He’s Luigi, and that’s his surname right enough. He don’t
know it himself, you bet.”

And he points to the good-natured individual. . . .

These countryfolk can fare on strange meats. A boy consumed a snake
that was lying dead by the roadside; a woman ate thirty raw eggs and
then a plate of maccheroni; a man swallowed six kilograms of the
uncooked fat of a freshly slaughtered pig (he was ill for a week
afterwards); another one devoured two small birds alive, with beaks,
claws and feathers. Such deeds are sternly reprobated as savagery;
still, they occur, and nearly always as the result of wagers. I wish I
could couple them with equally heroic achievements in the drinking
line, but, alas! I have only heard of one old man who was wont
habitually to en-gulph twenty-two litres of wine a day; eight are
spoken of as “almost too much” in these degenerate days. . . .

Mice, says Movers, were sacrificially eaten by the Babylonians. Here,
as in England, they are cooked into a paste and given to children, to
cure a certain complaint. To take away the dread of the sea from young
boys, they mix into their food small fishes which have been devoured by
larger ones and taken from their stomachs—the underlying idea being
that these half-digested fry are thoroughly familiar with the storms
and perils of the deep, and will communicate these virtues to the boys
who eat them. It is the same principle as that of giving chamois blood
to the goat-boys of the Alps, to strengthen their nerves against
giddiness—pure sympathetic magic, of which there is this, at least, to
be said, that “its fundamental conception is identical with that of
modern science—a faith in the order or uniformity of nature.”

I have also met persons who claim to have been cured of rachitic
troubles in their youth by eating a puppy dog cooked in a saucepan. But
only one kind of dog is good for this purpose, to be procured from
those foundling hospitals whither hundreds of illegitimate infants are
taken as soon as possible after birth. The mothers, to relieve the
discomfort caused by this forcible separation from the new-born, buy a
certain kind of puppy there, bring them home, and nourish them _in loco
infantis._ These puppies cost a franc apiece, and are generally
destroyed after performing their duties; it is they who are cooked for
curing the scrofulous tendencies of other children. Swallows’ hearts
are also used for another purpose; so is the blood of tortoises—for
strengthening the backs of children (the tortoise being a _hard_
animal). So is that of snakes, who are held up by head and tail and
pricked with needles; the greater their pain, the more beneficial their
blood, which is soaked up with cotton-wool and applied as a liniment
for swollen glands. In fact, nearly every animal has been discovered to
possess some medicinal property.

But of the charm of such creatures the people know nothing. How
different from the days of old! These legendary and gracious beasts,
that inspired poets and artists and glyptic engravers—these things of
beauty have now descended into the realm of mere usefulness, into the
pharmacopoeia.

The debasement is quite intelligible, when one remembers what
accumulated miseries these provinces have undergone. Memories of
refinement were starved out of the inhabitants by centuries of misrule,
when nothing was of interest or of value save what helped to fill the
belly. The work of bestialization was carried on by the despotism of
Spanish Viceroys and Bourbons. They, the Spaniards, fostered and
perhaps imported the Camorra, that monster of many heads which has
established itself in nearly every town of the south. Of the
deterioration in taste coincident with this period, I lately came
across this little bit of evidence, curious and conclusive:—In 1558 a
number of the country-folk were captured in one of the usual Corsair
raids; they were afterwards ransomed, and among the Christian names of
the women I note: Livia, Fiula, Cassandra, Aurelia, Lucrezia, Verginia,
Medea, Violanta, Galizia, Vittoria, Diamanta, etc. Where were these
full-sounding noble names two centuries
later—where are they nowadays? Do they not testify to a state of
culture superior to that of the present time, when Maria, Lucia, and
about four others of the most obvious catholic saints exhaust the list
of all female Christian names hereabouts?

All this is changing once more; a higher standard of comfort is being
evolved, though relics of this former state of insecurity may still be
found; such as the absence, even in houses of good families, of clocks
and watches, and convenient storage for clothes and domestic utensils;
their habits of living in penury and of buying their daily food by
farthings, as though one never knew what the next day might bring;
their dread of going out of doors by night (they have a proverb which
runs, _di notte, non parlar forte; di giorno, guardati attorno],_ their
lack of humour. For humour is essentially a product of ease, and nobody
can be at ease in unquiet times. That is why so few poets are humorous;
their restlessly querulous nature has the same effect on their outlook
as an insecure environment.

But it will be long ere these superstitions are eradicated. The magic
of south Italy deserves to be well studied, for the country is a
cauldron of demonology wherein Oriental beliefs—imported direct from
Egypt, the classic home of witchcraft—commingled with those of the
West. A foreigner is at an unfortunate disadvantage; if he asks
questions, he will only get answers dictated by suspicion or a
deliberate desire to mislead—prudent answers; whoso accepts these
explanations in good faith, might produce a wondrous contribution to
ethnology.

Wise women and wizards abound, but they are not to be compared with
that _santa_ near Naples whom I used to visit in the nineties, and who
was so successful in the magics that the Bishop of Pozzuoli, among
hundreds of other clients, was wont to drive up to her door once a week
for a consultation. These mostly occupy themselves with the manufacture
of charms for gaining lucky lottery numbers, and for deluding fond
women who wish to change their lovers.

The lore of herbs is not much studied. For bruises, a slice of the
Opuntia is applied, or the cooling parietaria (known as “pareta” or
“paretone”); the camomile and other common remedies are in vogue; the
virtues of the male fern, the rue, sabina and (home-made) ergot of rye
are well known but not employed to the extent they are in Russia, where
a large progeny is a disaster. There is a certain respect for the
legitimate unborn, and even in cases of illegitimacy some neighbouring
foundling hospital, the house of the Madonna, is much more convenient.
It is a true monk’s expedient; it avoids the risk of criminal
prosecution; the only difference being that the Mother of God, and not
the natural mother of the infant, becomes responsible for its prompt
and almost inevitable destruction.[3]

 [3] The scandals that occasionally arise in connection with that
 saintly institution, the Foundling Hospital at Naples, are enough to
 make humanity shudder. Of 856 children living under its motherly care
 during 1895, 853 “died” in the course of that one year—only three
 survived; a wholesale massacre. These 853 murdered children were
 carried forward in the books as still living, and the institution,
 which has a yearly revenue of over 600,000 francs, was debited with
 their maintenance, while 42 doctors (instead of the prescribed number
 of 19) continued to draw salaries for their services to these
 innocents that had meanwhile been starved and tortured to death. The
 official report on these horrors ends with the words: “There is no
 reason to think that these facts are peculiar to the year 1895.”

That the moon stands in sympathetic relations with living vegetation is
a fixed article of faith among the peasantry. They will prune their
plants only when the satellite is waxing—_al sottile della luna,_ as
they say. Altogether, the moon plays a considerable part in their lore,
as might be expected in a country where she used to be worshipped under
so many forms. The dusky markings on her surface are explained by
saying that the moon used to be a woman and a baker of bread, her face
gleaming with the reflection of the oven, but one day she annoyed her
mother, who took up the brush they use for sweeping away the ashes, and
smirched her face. . . .

Whoever reviews the religious observances of these people as a whole
will find them a jumble of contradictions and incongruities, lightly
held and as lightly dismissed. Theirs is the attitude of mind of little
children—of those, I mean, who have been so saturated with Bible
stories and fairy tales that they cease to care whether a thing be true
or false, if it only amuses for the moment. That is what makes them an
ideal prey for the quack physician. They will believe anything so long
as it is strange and complicated; a straightforward doctor is not
listened to; they want that mystery-making “priest-physician”
concerning whom a French writer—I forget his name—has wisely
discoursed. I once recommended a young woman who was bleeding at the
nose to try the homely remedy of a cold key. I thought she would have
died of laughing! The expedient was too absurdly simple to be
efficacious.

The attitude of the clergy in regard to popular superstitions is the
same here as elsewhere. They are too wise to believe them, and too
shrewd to discourage the belief in others; these things can be turned
to account for keeping the people at
a conveniently low level of intelligence. For the rest, these priests
are mostly good fellows of the live-and-let-live type, who would rather
cultivate their own potatoes than quarrel about vestments or the
Trinity. Violently acquisitive, of course, like most southerners. I
know a parish priest, a son of poor parents, who, by dint of sheer
energy, has amassed a fortune of half a million francs. He cannot
endure idleness in any shape, and a fine mediæval scene may be
witnessed when he suddenly appears round the corner and catches his
workmen wasting their time and his money—

“Ha, loafers, rogues, villains, vermin and sons of _bastardi cornuti!_
If God had not given me these garments and thereby closed my lips to
all evil-speaking (seizing his cassock and displaying half a yard of
purple stocking)—wouldn’t I just tell you, spawn of adulterous
assassins, what I think of you!”

But under the new regime these priests are becoming mere decorative
survivals, that look well enough in the landscape, but are not taken
seriously save in their match-making and money-lending capacities.

The intense realism of their religion is what still keeps it alive for
the poor in spirit. Their saints and devils are on the same familiar
footing towards mankind as were the old gods of Greece. Children do not
know the meaning of “Inferno”; they call it “casa del diavolo” (the
devil’s house); and if they are naughty, the mother says, “La Madonna
strilla”—the Madonna will scold. Here is a legend of Saint Peter,
interesting for its realism and because it has been grafted upon a very
ancient _motif:—_

The apostle Peter was a dissatisfied sort of man, who was always
grumbling about things in general and suggesting improvements in the
world-scheme. He thought himself cleverer even than “N. S. G. C.” One
day they were walking together in an olive orchard, and Peter said:

“Just look at the trouble and time it takes to collect all those
miserable little olives. Let’s have them the size of melons.”

“Very well. Have your way, friend Peter! But something awkward is bound
to happen. It always does, you know, with those improvements of yours.”
And, sure enough, one of these enormous olives fell from the tree
straight on the saint’s head, and ruined his new hat.

“I told you so,” said N. S. G. C.

I remember a woman explaining to me that the saints in Heaven took
their food exactly as we do, and at the same hours.

“The same food?” I asked. “Does the Madonna really eat

beans?”

“Beans? Not likely! But fried fish, and beefsteaks of veal.” I tried to
picture the scene, but the effort was too much for my hereditary
Puritan leanings. Unable to rise to these heights of realism, I was
rated a pagan for my ill-timed spirituality.

_Madame est servie. . . ._




IX
MOVING SOUTHWARDS


The train conveying me to Taranto was to halt for the night at the
second station beyond Venosa—at Spinazzola. Aware of this fact, I had
enquired about the place and received assuring reports as to its hotel
accommodation. But the fates were against me. On my arrival in the late
evening I learnt that the hotels were all closed long ago, the
townsfolk having gone to bed “with the chickens”; it was suggested that
I had better stay at the station, where the manageress of the
restaurant kept certain sleeping quarters specially provided for
travellers in my predicament.

Presently the gentle dame lighted a dim lantern and led me across what
seemed to be a marsh (it was raining) to the door of a hut which was to
be my resting-place. At the entrance she paused, and after informing me
that a band of musicians had taken all the beds save one which was at
my disposal if I were good enough to pay her half a franc, she placed
the lantern in my hand and stumbled back into the darkness.

I stepped into a low chamber, the beds of which were smothered under a
profusion of miscellaneous wraps. The air was warm—the place exhaled an
indescribable _esprit de corps._ Groping further, I reached another
apartment, vaulted and still lower than the last, an old-fashioned
cow-stable, possibly, converted into a bedroom. One glance sufficed me:
the couch was plainly not to be trusted. Thankful to be out of the rain
at least, I lit a pipe and prepared to pass the weary hours till 4 a.m.

It was not long ere I discovered that there was another bed in this
den, opposite my own; and judging by certain undulatory and saltatory
movements within, it was occupied. Presently the head of a youth
emerged, with closed eyes and flushed features. He indulged in a series
of groans and spasmodic kicks, that subsided once more, only to
recommence. A flute projected from under his pillow.

“This poor young man,” I thought, “is plainly in bad case. On account
of illness, he has been left behind by the rest of the
band, who have gone to Spinazzola to play at some marriage festival. He
is feverish, or possibly subject to fits—to choriasis or who knows what
disorder of the nervous system. A cruel trick, to leave a suffering
youngster alone in this foul hovel.” I misliked his symptoms—that
anguished complexion and delirious intermittent trembling, and began to
run over the scanty stock of household remedies contained in my bag,
wondering which of them might apply to his complaint. There was court
plaster and boot polish, quinine, corrosive sublimate and Worcester
sauce (detestable stuff, but indispensable hereabouts).

Just as I had decided in favour of the last-named, he gave a more than
usually vigorous jerk, sat up in bed and, opening his eyes, remarked:

“Those fleas!”

This, then, was the malady. I enquired why he had not joined his
companions.

He was tired, he said; tired of life in general, and of flute-playing
in particular. Tired, moreover, of certain animals; and with a
tiger-like spring he leapt out of bed.

Once thoroughly awake, he proved an amiable talker, though oppressed
with an incurable melancholy which no amount of tobacco and Venosa wine
could dispel. In gravely boyish fashion he told me of his life and
ambitions. He had passed a high standard at school, but—what would
you?—every post was crowded. He liked music, and would gladly take it
up as a profession, if anything could be learnt with a band such as
his; he was sick, utterly sick, of everything. Above all things, he
wished to travel. Visions of America floated before his mind—where was
the money to come from? Besides, there was the military service looming
close at hand; and then, a widowed mother at home—the inevitable
mother—with a couple of little sisters; how shall a man desert his
family? He was born on a farm on the Murge, the watershed between this
country and the Adriatic. Thinking of the Murge, that shapeless and
dismal range of limestone hills whose name suggests its sad monotony, I
began to understand the origin of his pagan wistfulness.

“Happy foreigners!”—such was his constant refrain—“happy foreigners,
who can always do exactly what they like! Tell me something about other
countries,” he said.

“Something true?”

“Anything—anything!”

To cheer him up, I replied with improbable tales of Indian life, of
rajahs and diamonds, of panthers whose eyes shine like
moonbeams in the dark jungle, of elephants huge as battleships, of
sportive monkeys who tie knots in each others’ tails and build
themselves huts among the trees, where they brew iced lemonade, which
they offer in friendliest fashion to the thirsty wayfarer, together
with other light refreshment——

“Cigarettes as well?”

“No. They are not allowed to cultivate tobacco.”

“Ah, that _monopolio,_ the curse of humanity!”

He was almost smiling when, at 2.30 a.m., there resounded a furious
knocking at the door, and the rest of the band appeared from their
unknown quarters in the liveliest of spirits. Altogether, a memorable
night. But at four o’clock the lantern was extinguished and the cavern,
bereft of its Salvator-Rosa glamour, resolved itself into a prosaic and
infernally unclean hovel. Issuing from the door, I saw those murky
recesses invaded by the uncompromising light of dawn, and shuddered. .
. .

The railway journey soon dispelled the phantoms of the night. As the
train sped downhill, the sun rose in splendour behind the Murge hills,
devouring mists so thickly couched that, struck by the first beams,
they glistered like compact snow-fields, while their shaded portions
might have been mistaken for stretches of mysterious swamp, from which
an occasional clump of tree-tops emerged, black and island-like. These
dreamland effects lasted but a brief time, and soon the whole face of
the landscape was revealed. An arid region, not unlike certain parts of
northern Africa.

Yet the line passes through places renowned in history. Who would not
like to spend a day at Altamura, if only in memory of its treatment by
the ferocious Cardinal Ruffo and his army of cut-throats? After a
heroic but vain resistance comparable only to that of Saguntum or
Petelia, during which every available metal, and even money, was
converted into bullets to repel the assailers, there followed a three
days’ slaughter of young and old; then the cardinal blessed his army
and pronounced, in the blood-drenched streets, a general absolution.
Even this man has discovered apologists. No cause so vile, that some
human being will not be found to defend it.

So much I called to mind that morning from the pages of Colletta, and
straightway formed a resolution to slip out of the carriage and arrest
my journey at Altamura for a couple of days. But I must have been
asleep while the train passed through the station, nor did I wake up
again till the blue Ionian was in sight.

At Venosa one thinks of Roman legionaries fleeing from
Hannibal, of Horace, of Norman ambitions; Lucera and Manfredonia call
up Saracen memories and the ephemeral gleams of Hohenstaufen; Gargano
takes us back into Byzantine mysticism and monkery. And now from
Altamura with its dark record of Bourbon horrors, we glide into the
sunshine of Hellenic days when the wise Archytas, sage and lawgiver,
friend of Plato, ruled this ancient city of Tarentum. A wide sweep of
history! And if those Periclean times be not remote enough, yonder lies
Oria on its hilltop, the stronghold of pre-Hellenic and almost
legendary Messapians; while for such as desire more recent associations
there is the Albanian colony of San Giorgio, only a few miles distant,
to recall the glories of Scanderbeg and his adventurous bands.

Herein lies the charm of travel in this land of multiple
civilizations—the ever-changing layers of culture one encounters, their
wondrous juxtaposition.

My previous experiences of Taranto hotels counselled me to take a
private room overlooking the inland sea (the southern aspect is already
intolerably hot), and to seek my meals at restaurants. And in such a
one I have lived for the last ten days or so, reviving old memories.
The place has grown in the interval; indeed, if one may believe certain
persons, the population has increased from thirty to ninety thousand
in—I forget how few years. The arsenal brings movement into the town;
it has appropriated the lion’s share of building sites in the “new”
town. Is it a ripple on the surface of things, or will it truly stir
the spirits of the city? So many arsenals have come and gone, at
Taranto!

This arsenal quarter is a fine example of the Italian mania of _fare
figura—_everything for effect. It is an agglomeration of dreary
streets, haunted by legions of clamorous black swifts, and constructed
on the rectangular principle dear to the Latin mind. Modern, and
surpassingly monotonous. Are such interminable rows of stuccoed
barracks artistic to look upon, are they really pleasant to inhabit? Is
it reasonable or even sanitary, in a climate of eight months’ sunshine,
to build these enormous roadways and squares filled with glaring
limestone dust that blows into one’s eyes and almost suffocates one;
these Saharas that even at the present season of the year (early June)
cannot be traversed comfortably unless one wears brown spectacles and
goes veiled like a Tuareg? This arsenal quarter must be a hell during
the really not season, which continues into October.

For no trees whatever are planted to shade the walking population, as
in Paris or Cairo or any other sunlit city.

And who could guess the reason? An Englishman, at least, would never
bring himself to believe what is nevertheless a fact, namely, that if
the streets are converted into shady boulevards, the rents of the
houses immediately fall. When trees are planted, the lodgers complain
and finally emigrate to other quarters; the experiment has been tried,
at Naples and elsewhere, and always with the same result. Up trees,
down rents. The tenants refuse to be deprived of their chief pleasure
in life—that of gazing at the street-passengers, who must be good
enough to walk in the sunshine for their delectation. But if you are of
an inquisitive turn of mind, you are quite at liberty to return the
compliment and to study from the outside the most intimate details of
the tenants’ lives within. Take your fill of their domestic doings;
stare your hardest. They don’t mind in the least, not they! That
feeling of privacy which the northerner fosters doggedly even in the
centre of a teeming city is alien to their hearts; they like to look
and be looked at; they live like fish in an aquarium. It is a result of
the whole palazzo-system that every one knows his neighbour’s business
better than his own. What does it matter, in the end? Are we not all
“Christians”?

The municipality, meanwhile, is deeply indebted for the sky-piercing
ambitions which have culminated in the building of this new quarter. To
meet these obligations, the octroi prices have been raised to the
highest pitch by the City Fathers. This octroi is farmed out and
produces (they tell me) 120 pounds a day; there are some hundred
toll-collecting posts at the outskirts of the town, and the average
salary of their officials is three pounds a month. They are supposed to
be respectable and honest men, but it is difficult to see how a family
can be supported on that wage, when one knows how high the rents are,
and how severely the most ordinary commodities of life are taxed.

[Illustration: Sole Relic of old Taras]

I endeavoured to obtain photographs of the land as it looked ere it was
covered by the arsenal quarter, but in vain. Nobody seems to have
thought it worth while preserving what would surely be a notable
economic document for future generations. Out of sheer curiosity I also
tried to procure a plan of the old quarter, that labyrinth of
thick-clustering humanity, where the streets are often so narrow that
two persons can barely squeeze past each other. I was informed that no
such plan had ever been drawn up; it was agreed that a map of this kind
might be interesting, and suggested, furthermore, that I might
undertake the task myself; the authorities would doubtless appreciate
my labours. We foreigners, be it understood, have ample means and
unlimited leisure, and like nothing better than doing unprofitable jobs
of this kind.[1]

 [1] There is a map of old Taranto in Lasor a Varea (Savonarola)
 _Universus terrarum etc.,_ Vol. II, p. 552, and another in J. Blaev’s
 _Theatrum Civitatum_ (1663). He talks of the “rude houses” of this
 town.

One is glad to leave the scintillating desert of this arsenal quarter,
and enter the cool stone-paved streets of the other, which remind one
somewhat of Malta. In the days of Salis-Marschlins this city possessed
only 18,000 inhabitants, and “outdid even the customary Italian filth,
being hardly passable on account of the excessive nastiness and stink.”
It is now scrupulously clean—so absurdly clean, that it has quite
ceased to be picturesque. Not that its buildings are particularly
attractive to me; none, that is, save the antique “Trinità” column of
Doric gravity—sole survivor of Hellenic Taras, which looks wondrously
out of place in its modern environment. One of the finest of these
earlier monuments, the Orsini tower depicted in old prints of the
place, has now been demolished.

Lovers of the baroque may visit the shrine of Saint Cataldo, a jovial
nightmare in stone. And they who desire a literary pendant to this
fantastic structure should read the life of the saint written by Morone
in 1642. Like the shrine, it is the quintessence of insipid exuberance;
there is something preposterous in its very title “Cataldiados,” and
whoever reads through those six books of Latin hexameters will arise
from the perusal half-dazed. Somehow or other, it dislocates one’s
whole sense of terrestrial values to see a frowsy old monk[2] treated
in the heroic style and metre, as though he were a new Achilles. As a
_jeu d’esprit_ the book might pass; but it is deadly serious. Single
men will always be found to perpetrate monstrosities of literature; the
marvel is that an entire generation of writers should have worked
themselves into a state of mind which solemnly approved of such freaks.

 [2] This wandering Irish missionary is supposed to have died here in
 the seventh century, and they who are not satisfied with his printed
 biographies will find one in manuscript of 550 pages, compiled in
 1766, in the Cuomo Library at Naples.

Every one has heard of the strange position of this hoary
island-citadel (a metropolis, already, in neolithic days). It is of
oval shape, the broad sides washed by the Ionian Sea and an
oyster-producing lagoon; bridges connect it at one extremity with the
arsenal or new town, and at the other with the so-called commercial
quarter. It is as if some precious gem were set, in a ring, between two
others of minor worth. Or, to vary the simile, this acropolis, with its
close-packed alleys, is the throbbing heart
of Taranto; the arsenal quarter—its head; and that other one—well, its
stomach; quite an insignificant stomach as compared with the head and
corroborative, in so far, of the views of Metchnikoff, who holds that
this hitherto commendable organ ought now to be reduced in size, if not
abolished altogether. . . .

From out of this window I gaze upon the purple lagoon flecked with
warships and sailing-boats; and beyond it, upon the venerable land of
Japygia, the heel of Italy, that rises in heliotrope-tinted undulations
towards the Adriatic watershed. At night-time an exquisite perfume of
flowers and ripe corn comes wafted into my room over the still waters,
and when the sun rises, white settlements begin to sparkle among its
olives and vineyards. My eyes often rest upon one of them; it is
Grottaglie, distant a few miles from Taranto on the Brindisi line. I
must visit Grottaglie, for it was here that the flying monk received
his education.

The flying monk!

The theme is not inappropriate at this moment, when the newspapers are
ringing with the Paris-Rome aviation contest and the achievements of
Beaumont, Garros and their colleagues. I have purposely brought his
biography with me, to re-peruse on the spot. But let me first explain
how I became acquainted with this seventeenth-century pioneer of
aviation.

It was an odd coincidence.

I had arrived in Naples, and was anxious to have news of the
proceedings at a certain aviation meeting in the north, where a rather
inexperienced friend of mine had insisted upon taking a part; the
newspaper reports of these entertainments are enough to disturb
anybody. While admiring the great achievements of modern science in
this direction, I wished devoutly, at that particular moment, that
flying had never been invented; and it was something of a coincidence,
I say, that stumbling in this frame of mind down one of the unspeakable
little side-streets in the neighbourhood of the University, my glance
should have fallen upon an eighteenth-century engraving in a
bookseller’s window which depicted a man raised above the ground
without any visible means of support—flying, in short. He was a monk,
floating before an altar. A companion, near at hand, was portrayed as
gazing in rapturous wonder at this feat of levitation. I stepped within
and demanded the volume to which this was the frontispiece.

The salesman, a hungry-looking old fellow with incredibly dirty hands
and face, began to explain.

[Illustration: CanFishing at Tarantoyon]

“The Flying Monk, sir, Joseph of Copertino. A mighty saint and
conjuror! Or perhaps you would like some other book? I have many, many
lives of _santi_ here. Look at this one of the great Egidio, for
instance. I can tell you all about him, for he raised my mother’s
grand-uncle from the dead; yes, out of the grave, as one may say.
You’ll find out all about it in this book; and it’s only one of his
thousand miracles. And here is the biography of the renowned
Giangiuseppe, a mighty saint and——”

I was paying little heed; the flying monk had enthralled me. An
unsuspected pioneer of aviation . . . here was a discovery!

“He flew?” I queried, my mind reverting to the much-vaunted triumphs of
modern science.

“Why not? The only reason why people don’t fly like that nowadays is
because—well, sir, because they can’t. They fly with machines, and
think it something quite new and wonderful. And yet it’s as old as the
hills! There was Iscariot, for example—Icarus, I mean——”

“Pure legend, my good man.”

“Everything becomes legend, if the gentleman will have the goodness to
wait. And here is the biography of——”

“How much for Joseph of Copertino?” Cost what it may, I said to myself,
that volume must be mine.

He took it up and began to turn over the pages lovingly, as though
handling some priceless Book of Hours.

“A fine engraving,” he observed, _sotto voce._ “And this is the best of
many biographies of the flying monk. It is by Rossi, the
Minister-General of the Franciscan order to which our monk belonged;
the official biography, it might be called—dedicated, by permission, to
His Holiness Pope Clemens XIII, and based on the documents which led to
the saint’s beatification. Altogether, a remarkable volume——”

And he paused awhile. Then continued:

“I possess a cheaper biography of him, also with a frontispiece, by
Montanari, which has the questionable advantage of being printed as
recently as 1853. And here is yet another one, by Antonio Basile—oh, he
has been much written about; a most celebrated _taumaturgo,_
(wonder-worker)! As to this _Life_ of 1767, I could not, with a good
conscience, appraise it at less than five francs.”

“I respect your feelings. But—five francs! I have certain scruples of
my own, you know, and it irks my sense of rectitude to pay five francs
for the flying monk unless you can supply me with six or seven
additional books to be included in that sum.
Twelve _soldi_ (sous) apiece—that strikes me as the proper price of
such literature, for foreigners, at least. Therefore I’ll have the
great Egidio as well, and Montanari’s life of the flying monk, and that
other one by Basile, and Giangiuseppe, and——”

“By all means! Pray take your choice.”

And so it came about that, relieved of a tenuous and very sticky
five-franc note, and loaded down with three biographies of the flying
monk, one of Egidio, two of Giangiuseppe—I had been hopelessly
swindled, but there! no man can bargain in a hurry, and my eagerness to
learn something of the life of this early airman had made me oblivious
of the natural values of things—and with sundry smaller volumes of
similar import bulging out of my pockets I turned in the direction of
the hotel, promising myself some new if not exactly light reading.

But hardly had I proceeded twenty paces before the shopkeeper came
running after me with another formidable bundle under his arm. More
books! An ominous symptom—the clearest demonstration of my defeat; I
was already a marked man, a good customer. It was humiliating, after my
long years’ experience of the south.

And there resounded an unmistakable note of triumph in his voice, as he
said:

“Some more biographies, sir. Read them at your leisure, and pay me what
you like. You cannot help being generous; I see it in your face.”

“I always try to encourage polite learning, if that is what you think
to decipher in my features. But it rains _santi_ this morning,” I
added, rather sourly.

“The gentleman is pleased to joke! May it rain _soldi_ tomorrow.”

“A little shower, possibly. But not a cloud-burst, like today. . . .”




X
THE FLYING MONK


As to the flying monk, there is no doubt whatever that he deserved his
name.

He flew. Being a monk, these feats of his were naturally confined to
convents and their immediate surroundings, but that does not alter the
facts of the case.

Of the flights that he took in the little town of Copertino alone, more
than seventy, says Father Rossi whom I follow throughout, are on record
in the depositions which were taken on oath from eye-witnesses after
his death. This is one of them, for example:

“Stupendous likewise was the _ratto_ (flight or rapture) which he
exhibited on a night of Holy Thursday. . . . He suddenly flew towards
the altar in a straight line, leaving untouched all the ornaments of
that structure; and after some time, being called back by his superior,
returned flying to the spot whence he had set out.”

And another:

“He flew similarly upon an olive tree . . . and there remained in
kneeling posture for the space of half an hour. A marvellous thing it
was to see the branch which sustained him swaying lightly, as though a
bird had alighted upon it.”

But Copertino is a remote little place, already famous in the annals of
miraculous occurrences. It can be urged that a kind of enthusiasm for
their distinguished brother-monk may have tempted the inmates of the
convent to exaggerate his rare gifts. Nothing of the kind. He performed
flights not only in Copertino, but in various large towns of Italy,
such as Naples, Rome, and Assisi. And the spectators were by no means
an assemblage of ignorant personages, but men whose rank and
credibility would have weight in any section of society.

“While the Lord High Admiral of Castille, Ambassador of Spain at the
Vatican, was passing through Assisi in the year 1645, the custodian of
the convent commanded Joseph to descend from the room into the church,
where the Admiral’s lady was waiting
for him, desirous of seeing him. and speaking to him; to whom Joseph
replied, ‘I will obey, but I do not know whether I shall be able to
speak to her.’ And, as a matter of fact, hardly had he entered the
church and raised his eyes to a statue . . . situated above the altar,
when he threw himself into a flight in order to embrace its feet at a
distance of twelve paces, passing over the heads of all the
congregation; then, after remaining there some time, he flew back over
them with his usual cry, and immediately returned to his cell. The
Admiral was amazed, his wife fainted away, and all the onlookers became
piously terrified.”

And if this does not suffice to win credence, the following will
assuredly do so:

“And since it was God’s wish to render him marvellous even in the sight
of men of the highest sphere, He ordained that Joseph, having arrived
in Rome, should be conducted one day by the Father-General (of the
Franciscan Order) to kiss the feet of the High Pontiff, Urban the
Eighth; in which act, while contemplating Jesus Christ in the person of
His Vicar, he was ecstatically raised in air, and thus remained till
called back by the General, to whom His Holiness, highly astonished,
turned and said that ‘if Joseph were to die during his pontificate, he
himself would bear witness to this _successo.’”_

But his most remarkable flights took place at Fossombrone, where once
“detaching himself in swiftest manner from the altar with a cry like
thunder, he went, like lightning, gyrating hither and thither about the
chapel, and with such an impetus that he made all the cells of the
dormitory tremble, so that the monks, issuing thence in consternation,
cried, ‘An earthquake! An earthquake!’” Here, too, he cast a young
sheep into the air, and took flight after it to the height of the
trees, where he “remained in kneeling posture, ecstatic and with
extended arms, for more than two hours, to the extraordinary marvel of
the clergy who witnessed this.” This would seem to have been his
outdoor record—two hours without descent to earth.

Sometimes, furthermore, he took a passenger, if such a term can
properly be applied.

So once, while the monks were at prayers, he was observed to rise up
and run swiftly towards the Confessor of the convent, and “seizing him
by the hand, he raised him from the ground by supernatural force, and
with jubilant rapture drew him along, turning him round and round in a
_violento ballo;_ the Confessor moved by Joseph, and Joseph by God.”

And what happened at Assisi is still more noteworthy, for here
was a gentleman, a suffering invalid, whom Joseph “snatched by the
hair, and, uttering his customary cry of ‘oh!’ raised himself from the
earth, while he drew the other after him by his hair, carrying him in
this fashion for a short while through the air, to the intensest
admiration of the spectators.” The patient, whose name was Chevalier
Baldassarre, discovered, on touching earth again, that he had been
cured by this flight of a severe nervous malady which had hitherto
afflicted him. . . .

Searching in the biography for some other interesting traits of Saint
Joseph of Copertino, I find, in marked contrast to his heaven-soaring
virtues, a humility of the profoundest kind. Even as a full-grown man
he retained the exhilarating, childlike nature of the pure in heart.
“_La Mamma mia_”—thus he would speak, in playful-saintly fashion, of
the Mother of God—“_la Mamma mia_ is capricious. When I bring Her
flowers, She tells me She does not want them; when I bring Her candles,
She also does not want them; and when I ask Her what She wants, She
says, ‘I want the heart, for I feed only on hearts.’” What wonder if
the “mere pronouncement of the name of Maria often sufficed to raise
him from the ground into the air”?

Nevertheless, the arch-fiend was wont to creep into his cell at night
and to beat and torture him; and the monks of the convent were
terrified when they heard the hideous din of echoing blows and jangling
chains. “We were only having a little game,” he would then say. This is
refreshingly boyish. He once induced a flock of sheep to enter the
chapel, and while he recited to them the litany, it was observed with
amazement that “they responded at the proper place to his verses—he
saying _Sancta Maria,_ and they answering, after their manner, _Bah!”_

I am not disguising from myself that an incident like the last-named
may smack of childishness to a certain austere type of northern
Puritan. Childishness! But to go into this question of the relative
hilarity and moroseness of religions would take us far afield; for
aught I know it may, at bottom, be a matter of climatic influences, and
there we can leave it. Under the sunny sky of Italy, who would not be
disposed to see the bright side of things?

Saint Joseph of Copertino performed a variety of other miracles. He
multiplied bread and wine, calmed a tempest, drove out devils, caused
the lame to walk and the blind to see—all of which are duly attested by
eye-witnesses on oath. Though “illiterate,” he had an innate knowledge
of ecclesiastical dogma; he detected persons of impure life by their
smell, and sinners were revealed to
his eyes with faces of black colour (the Turks believe that on judgment
day the damned will be thus marked); he enjoyed the company of two
guardian angels, which were visible not only to himself but to other
people. And, like all too many saints, he duly fell into the clutches
of the Inquisition, ever on the look-out for victims pious or
otherwise.

There is one little detail which it would be disingenuous to slur over.
It is this. We are told that Saint Joseph was awkward and backward in
his development. As a child his boy-comrades used to laugh at him for
his open-mouthed staring habits; they called him “bocca-aperta”
(gape-mouth), and in the frontispiece to Montanari’s life of him, which
depicts him as a bearded man of forty or fifty, his mouth is still
agape; he was, moreover, difficult to teach, and Rossi says he profited
very little by his lessons and was of _niuna letteratura._ As a lad of
seventeen he could not distinguish white bread from brown, and he used
to spill water-cans, break vases and drop plates to such an extent that
the monks of the convent who employed him were obliged, after eight
months’ probation, to dismiss him from their service. He was unable to
pass his examination as priest. At the age of twenty-five he was
ordained by the Bishop of Castro, without that formality.

All this points to a certain weak-mindedness or arrested development,
and were this an isolated case one might be inclined to think that the
church had made Saint Joseph an object of veneration on the same
principles as do the Arabs, who elevate idiots, epileptics, and
otherwise deficient creatures to the rank of marabouts, and credit them
with supernatural powers.

But it is not an isolated case. The majority of these southern saints
are distinguished from the vulgar herd by idiosyncrasies to which
modern physicians give singular names such as “gynophobia,”
“glossolalia” and “demonomania”[1]; even the founder of the flying
monk’s order, the great Francis of Assisi, has been accused of some
strange-sounding mental disorder because, with touching humility, he
doffed his vestments and presented himself naked before his Creator.
What are we to conclude therefrom?

 [1] Good examples of what Max Nordau calls _Echolalie_ are to be found
 in this biography (p. 22).

The flying monk resembles Saint Francis in more than one feature. He,
too, removed his clothes and even his shirt, and exposed himself thus
to a crucifix, exclaiming, “Here I am, Lord, deprived of everything.”
He followed his prototype, further, in that charming custom of
introducing the animal world into his
ordinary talk (“Brother Wolf, Sister Swallow,” etc.). So Joseph used to
speak of himself as _l’asinelio—_the little ass; and a pathetic scene
was witnessed on his death-bed when he was heard to mutter:
“_L’asinelio_ begins to climb the mountain; _l’asinelio_ is half-way
up; _l’asinelio_ has reached the summit; _l’asinelio_ can go no
further, and is about to leave his skin behind.”

It is to be noted, in this connection, that Saint Joseph of Coper-tino
was born in a stable.

This looks like more than a mere coincidence. For the divine Saint
Francis was likewise born in a stable.

But why should either of these holy men be born in stables?

A reasonable explanation lies at hand. A certain Japanese statesman is
credited with that shrewd remark that the manifold excellencies and
diversities of Hellenic art are due to the fact that the Greeks had no
“old masters” to copy from—no “schools” which supplied their
imagination with ready-made models that limit and smother individual
initiative. And one marvels to think into what exotic beauties these
southern saints would have blossomed, had they been at liberty, like
those Greeks, freely to indulge their versatile genius—had they not
been bound to the wheels of inexorable precedent. If the flying monk,
for example, were an ordinary mortal, there was nothing to prevent him
from being born in an omnibus or some other of the thousand odd places
where ordinary mortals occasionally are born. But—no! As a Franciscan
saint, he was obliged to conform to the school of Bethlehem and Assisi.
He was obliged to select a stable. Such is the force of tradition. . .
.

Joseph of Copertino lived during the time of the Spanish viceroys, and
his fame spread not only over all Italy, but to France, Germany and
Poland. Among his intimates and admirers were no fewer than eight
cardinals, Prince Leopold of Tuscany, the Duke of Bouillon, Isabella of
Austria, the Infanta Maria of Savoy and the Duke of Brunswick, who,
during a visit to various courts of Europe in 1649, purposely went to
Assisi to see him, and was there converted from the Lutheran heresy by
the spectacle of one of his flights. Prince Casimir, heir to the throne
of Poland, was his particular friend, and kept up a correspondence with
him after the death of his father and his own succession to the throne.

Towards the close of his life, the flying monk became so celebrated
that his superiors were obliged to shut him up in the convent of Osimo,
in close confinement, in order that his aerial voyages “should not be
disturbed by the concourse of the vulgar.” And here he expired, in his
sixty-first year, on the 18th September,
1663. He had been suffering and infirm for some little time previous to
that event, but managed to take a short flight on the very day
preceding his demise.

Forthwith the evidences of his miraculous deeds were collected and
submitted to the inspired examination of the Sacred Congregation of
Rites in Rome. Their conscientiousness in sifting and weighing the
depositions is sufficiently attested by the fact that ninety years were
allowed to elapse ere Joseph of Copertino was solemnly received into
the number of the Blessed. This occurred in 1753; and though the date
may have been accidentally chosen, some people will be inclined to
detect the hand of Providence in the ordering of the event, as a
challenge to Voltaire, who was just then disquieting Europe with
certain doctrines of a pernicious nature.




XI
BY THE INLAND SEA


The railway line to Grottaglie skirts the shore of the inland sea for
two or three miles, and then turns away. Old Taranto glimmers in lordly
fashion across the tranquil waters; a sense of immemorial culture
pervades this region of russet tilth, and olives, and golden corn.

They led me, at Grottaglie, to the only convent of males now in use,
San Francesco, recently acquired by the Jesuits. In the sacristy of its
church, where I was told to wait, a slender young priest was praying
rapturously before some image, and the clock that stood at hand
recorded the flight of twenty minutes ere his devotions were ended.
Then he arose slowly and turned upon me a pair of lustrous, dreamy
eyes, as though awakened from another world.

This was quite a new convent, he explained; it could not possibly be
the one I was seeking. But there was another one, almost a ruin, and
now converted into a refuge for a flock of poor old women; he would
gladly show me the way. Was I a “Germanese”?[1] No, I replied; I came
from Scotland.

 [1] _Germanese_ or _Allemanno_ = a German. _Tedesco,_ hereabouts,
 signifies an Austrian—a detested nationality, even at this distance of
 time. I have wondered, since writing the above, whether this is really
 the place of which Rossi speaks. He calls it Grot-tole (the difference
 in spelling would be of little account), and says it lies not far
 distant from Copertino. But there may be a place of this name still
 nearer; it is a common appellation in these honeycombed limestone
 districts. This Grottaglie is certainly the birth-place of another
 religious hero, the priest-brigand Ciro, who gave so much trouble to
 Sir R. Church.

“A Calvinist,” he remarked, without bitterness.

“A Presbyterian,” I gently corrected.

“To be sure—a Presbyterian.”

As we walked along the street under the glowing beams of midday I set
forth the object of my visit. He had never heard of the flying monk—it
was astonishing, he said. He would look up the subject without delay.
The flying monk! That a Protestant should come all the way from “the
other end of the world” to enquire about a local Catholic saint of
whose existence he himself was unaware, seemed not so much to surprise
as positively to alarm him.

Among other local curiosities, he pointed out the portal of the parish
church, a fine but dilapidated piece of work, with a large rosette
window overhead. The town, he told me, derives its name from certain
large grottoes wherein the inhabitants used to take refuge during
Saracen raids. This I already knew, from the pages of Swinburne and
Sanchez; and in my turn was able to inform him that a certain
Frenchman, Bertaux by name, had written about the Byzantine
wall-paintings within these caves. Yes, those old Greeks! he said. And
that accounted for the famous ceramics of the place, which preserved
the Hellenic traditions in extraordinary purity. I did not inform him
that Hector Preconi, who purposely visited Grottaglie to study these
potteries, was considerably disappointed.

At the door of the decayed convent my guide left me, with sundry polite
expressions of esteem. I entered a spacious open courtyard; a well
stood in the centre of a bare enclosure whereon, in olden days, the
monks may have cultivated their fruit and vegetables; round this court
there ran an arched passage, its walls adorned with frescoes, now dim
and faded, depicting sacred subjects. The monastery itself was a sombre
maze of stairways and cells and corridors—all the free spaces,
including the very roof, encumbered with gleaming potteries of every
shape and size, that are made somewhere near the premises.

I wandered about this sunless and cobwebby labyrinth, the old woman
pensioners flitting round me like bats in the twilight. I peered into
many dark closets; which of them was it—Joseph’s famous
blood-bespattered cell?

“He tormented his body so continuously and obstinately with pins,
needles and blades of steel, and with such effusion of blood, that even
now, after entire years, the walls of his cell and other places of
retirement are discoloured and actually encrusted with blood.” Which of
them was it—the chamber that witnessed these atrocious macerations? It
was all so gloomy and forlorn.

Then, pushing aside a door in these tenebrous regions, I suddenly found
myself bathed in dazzling light. A loggia opened here, with a view over
stretches of gnarled olives, shining all silvery under the immaculate
sky of noonday and bounded by the sapphire belt of the Ionian. Sunshine
and blue sea! Often must the monks have taken pleasure in this fair
prospect; and the wiser among them, watching the labourers returning
home at nightfall, the children at play, and all the happy life of a
world so alien to their own, may well have heaved a sigh.

[Illustration: By the Inland Sea]

Meanwhile a crowd of citizens had assembled below, attracted
by the unusual novelty of a stranger in their town. The simple
creatures appeared to regard my investigations in the light of a good
joke; they had heard of begging monks, and thieving monks, and monks of
another variety whose peculiarities I dare not attempt to describe; but
a flying monk—no, never!

“The Dark Ages,” said one of them—the mayor, I dare say—with an air of
grave authority. “Believe me, dear sir, the days of such fabulous
monsters are over.”

So they seem to be, for the present.

No picture or statue records the life of this flying wonder, this
masterpiece of Spanish priestcraft; no mural tablet—in this land of
commemorative stones—has been erected to perpetuate the glory of his
signal achievements; no street is called after him. It is as if he had
never existed. On the contrary, by a queer irony of fate, the roadway
leading past his convent evokes the memory of a misty heathen poet,
likewise native of these favoured regions, a man whose name Joseph of
Copertino had assuredly never heard—Ennius, of whom I can now recall
nothing save that one unforgettable line which begins “O Tite tute Tati
tibi——”; Ennius, who never so much as tried to fly, but contented
himself with singing, in rather bad Latin, of the things of this earth.

_Via Ennio. . . ._

It is the swing of the pendulum. The old pagan, at this moment, may be
nearer to our ideals and aspirations than the flying monk who died only
yesterday, so to speak.

But a few years hence—who can tell?

A characteristic episode. I had carefully timed myself to catch the
returning train to Taranto. Great was my surprise when, half-way to the
station, I perceived the train swiftly approaching. I raced it, and
managed to jump into a carriage just as it drew out of the station. The
guard straightway demanded my ticket and a fine for entering the train
without one (return tickets, for weighty reasons of “internal
administration,” are not sold). I looked at my watch, which showed that
we had left six minutes before the scheduled hour. He produced his; it
coincided with my own. “No matter,” he said. “I am not responsible for
the eccentricities of the driver, who probably had some urgent private
affairs to settle at Taranto. The fine must be paid.” A
fellow-passenger took a more charitable view of the case. He suggested
that an inspector of the line had been travelling along with us, and
that the driver, knowing this, was naturally ambitious to show how fast
he could go.

A mile or so before reaching Taranto the railway crosses a stream that
flows into the inland sea. One would be glad to believe those sages who
hold it to be the far-famed Galaesus. It rises near at hand in a marsh,
amid mighty tufts of reeds and odorous flowers, and the liquid bubbles
up in pools of crystalline transparency—deep and perfidious cauldrons
overhung by the trembling soil on which you stand. These fountains form
a respectable stream some four hundred yards in length; another copious
spring rises up in the sea near its mouth. But can this be the river
whose virtues are extolled by: Virgil, Horace, Martial, Statius,
Propertius, Strabo, Pliny, Varrò and Columella? What a constellation of
names around these short-lived waters! Truly, _minuit praesentia
famam,_ as Boccaccio says of the once-renowned Sebethus.

Often have I visited this site and tried to reconstruct its vanished
glories. My enthusiasm even led me, some years ago, to the town hall,
in order to ascertain its true official name, and here they informed me
that “it is vulgarly called Citrezze; but the correct version is ‘Le
Giadrezze,’ which, as you are aware, sir, signifies _pleasantness”_
This functionary was evidently ignorant of the fact that so long ago as
1771 the learned commentator (Carducci) of the “Delizie Tarentine”
already sneered at this popular etymology; adding, what is of greater
interest, that “in the time of our fathers” this region was covered
with woods and rich in game. In the days of Keppel Craven, the vale was
“scantily cultivated with cotton.” Looking at it from above, it
certainly resembles an old river-bed of about five hundred yards in
breadth, and I hold it possible that the deforestation of the higher
lands may have suffocated the original sources with soil carried down
from thence, and forced them to seek a lower level, thus shortening the
stream and reducing its volume of water.

But who shall decide? If we follow Polybius, another brook at the
further end of the inland sea has more valid claims to the title of
Galaesus. Virgil called it “black Galaesus”—a curious epithet, still
applied to water in Italy as well as in Greece (Mavromati, etc.). “For
me,” says Gissing, “the Galaesus is the stream I found and tracked,
whose waters I heard mingle with the little sea.” There is something to
be said for such an attitude, on the part of a dilettante traveller,
towards these desperate antiquarian controversies.

[Illustration: Fountains of Galaesus]

It is an agreeable promenade from the Giadrezze rivulet to Taranto
along the shore of this inland sea. Its clay banks are full of shells
and potteries of every age, and the shallow waters planted
with stakes indicating the places where myriads of oysters and mussels
are bred—indeed, if you look at a map you will observe that the whole
of this lagoon, as though to shadow forth its signification, is split
up into two basins like an opened oyster.

Here and there along this beach are fishermen’s huts constructed of
tree-stems which are smothered under multitudinous ropes of grass,
ropes of all ages and in every stage of decomposition, some fairly
fresh, others dissolving once more into amorphous bundles of hay. There
is a smack of the stone ages, of primeval lake-dwellings, about these
shelters on the deserted shore; two or three large fetichistic stones
stand near their entrance; wickerwork objects of dark meaning strew the
ground; a few stakes emerge, hard by, out of the placid and oozy
waters. In such a cabin, methinks, dwelt those two old fishermen of
Theocritus—here they lived and slumbered side by side on a couch of sea
moss, among the rude implements of their craft.

The habits of these fisherfolk are antique, because the incidents of
their calling have remained unchanged. Some people have detected traces
of “Greek” in the looks and language of these of Taranto. I can detect
nothing of the kind.

And the same with the rest of the population. Hellenic traits have
disappeared from Taranto, as well they may have done, when one
remembers its history. It was completely latinized under Augustus, and
though Byzantines came hither under Nicephorus Phocas—Benjamin of
Tudela says the inhabitants are “Greeks”—they have long ago become
merged into the Italian element. Only the barbers seem to have
preserved something of the old traditions: grandiloquent and terrible
talkers, like the cooks in Athenæus.

I witnessed an Aristophanic scene in one of their shops lately, when a
simple-minded stranger, a north Italian—some arsenal official—brought a
little boy to have his hair cut “not too short” and, on returning from
a brief visit to the tobacconist next door, found it cropped much
closer than he liked.

“But, damn it,” he said (or words to that effect), “I told you not to
cut the hair too short.”

The barber, immaculate and imperturbable, gave a preliminary bow. He
was collecting his thoughts, and his breath.

“I say, I told you not to cut it too short. It looks horrible——”
“Horrible? That, sir—pardon my frankness!—is a matter of opinion. I
fully admit that you desired the child’s hair to be cut not too short.
Those, in fact, were your very words. Notwithstanding, I venture to
think you will come round to my point of
view, on due reflection, like most of my esteemed customers. In the
first place, there is the ethnological aspect of the question. You are
doubtless sufficiently versed in history to know that under the late
regime it was considered improper, if not criminal, to wear a
moustache. Well, nowadays we think differently. Which proves that
fashions change; yes, they change, sir; and the wise man bends to
them—up to a certain point, of course; up to a certain reasonable
point——” “But, damn it——”

“And in favour of my contention that hair should be worn short
nowadays, I need only cite the case of His Majesty the King, whose
august head, we all know, is clipped like that of a racehorse. Horrible
(as you call it) or not, the system has momentarily the approval of
royalty, and that alone should suffice for all loyal subjects to deem
it not unworthy of imitation. Next, there are what one might describe
as hygienic and climatic considerations. Summer is approaching, sir,
and apart from certain unpleasant risks which I need not specify, you
will surely agree with me that the solstitial heat is a needlessly
severe trial for a boy with long hair. My own children are all cropped
close, and I have reason to think they are grateful for it. Why not
yours? Boys may differ in strength or complexion, in moral character
and mental attainments, but they are remarkably unanimous as to what
constitutes personal comfort. And it is obviously the duty of parents
to consult the personal comfort of their offspring—within certain
reasonable limits, of course——”

“But——”

“Lastly, we come to the much-debated point: I mean the aesthetic side
of the matter. No doubt, to judge by some old pictures such as those of
the renowned Mantegna, there must have been a time when men thought
long hair in children rather beautiful than otherwise. And I am not so
rigorous as to deny a certain charm to these portraits—a charm which is
largely due I fancy, to the becoming costumes of the period. At the
same time——”

The stranger did not trust himself to listen any longer. He threw down
a coin and walked out of the shop with his son, muttering something not
very complimentary to the barber’s female relations.

But the other was quite unmoved. “And after all,” he continued,
addressing the half-opened door through which his visitor had fled,
“the true question is this: What is ‘too short’? Don’t cut it too
short, you said. _Che vuol dire?_ An ambiguous phrase!
“Too short for one man may be too long for another. Everything is
relative. Yes, gentlemen” (turning to myself and his shop-assistant),
“everything on this earth is relative.”

With this sole exception, I have hitherto garnered no Hellenic traits
in Taranto.

Visible even from Giadrezze, on the other side of the inland sea and
beyond the arsenal, there stands a tall, solitary palm. It is the last,
the very last, or almost the very last, of a race of giants that
adorned the gardens which have now been converted into the “New
Quarter.”I imagine it is the highest existing palm in Italy, and am
glad to have taken a likeness of it, ere it shall have been cut down
like the rest of its fellows. Taranto was once celebrated for these
queenly growths, which the Saracens brought over from their flaming
Africa.

The same fate has overtaken the trees of the Villa Beaumont, which used
to be a shady retreat, but was bought by the municipality and forthwith
“pulizzato”—i.e. cleaned. This is in accordance with that _mutilomania_
of the south: that love of torturing trees which causes them to prune
pines till they look like paint-brushes that had been out all night,
and which explains their infatuation for the much-enduring robinia that
allows itself to be teased into any pattern suggested by their
unhealthy phantasy. It is really as if there were something offensive
to the Latin mind in the sight of a well-grown tree, as if man alone
had the right of expanding normally. But I must not do the City Fathers
an injustice. They have planted two rows of cryptomerias. Will people
never learn that cryptomerias cannot flourish in south Italy? Instead
of this amateurish gardening, why not consult some competent
professional, who with bougain-villeas, hibiscus and fifty other such
plants would soon transform this favoured spot into a miniature
paradise?

The Villa Beaumont and the road along the Admiralty canal are now the
citizens’ chief places of disport. Before the year 1869 the Corso
Vittorio Emmanuele, that skirts the sea on the south side of the old
town, was their sole promenade. And even this street was built only a
short time ago. Vainly one conjectures where the medieval Tarentines
took the air. It must have been like Manfredonia at the present day.

This Corso, which has a most awkward pavement and is otherwise
disagreeable as looking due south, becomes interesting after sunset.
Here you may see the young bloods of Taranto leaning in rows against
the railing with their backs to the sea—they are
looking across the road whence, from balconies and windows, the fair
sex are displaying their charms. Never a word is spoken. They merely
gaze at each other like lovesick puppies; and after watching the
performance for several evenings, I decided in favour of robuster
methods—I decided that courtship, under conditions such as the Corso
supplies, can only be pursued by the very young or the hopelessly
infatuated. But in the south, this gazing is only part of a huge game.
They are not really in love at all, these excellent young men—not at
all, at all; they know better. They are only pretending, because it
looks manly.

We must revise our conceptions as to the love-passions of these
southerners; no people are more fundamentally sane in matters of the
heart; they have none of our obfuscated sentimentality; they are seldom
naively enamoured, save in early stages of life. It is then that small
girls of eight or ten may be seen furtively recording their feelings on
the white walls of their would-be lovers’ houses; these archaic scrawls
go straight to the point, and are models of what love-letters may
ultimately become, in the time-saving communities of the future. But
when the adolescent and perfumed-pink-paper stage is reached, the
missives relapse into barbarous ambiguity; they grow allegorical and
wilfully exuberant as a Persian carpet, the effigy of a pierced heart
at the end, with enormous blood-drops oozing from it, alone furnishing
a key to the document.

So far they are in earnest, and it is the girl who takes the lead; her
youthful _innamorato_ ties these letters into bundles and returns them
conscientiously, in due course, to their respective senders. Seldom
does a boy make overtures in love; he gets more of it than he knows
what to do with; he is still torpid, and slightly bored by all these
attentions.

But presently he wakes up to the fact that he is a man among men, and
the obsession of “looking manly” becomes a part of his future
artificial and rhetorical life-scheme. From henceforth he plays to the
gallery.

[Illustration: Taranto: the last palm]

Reading the city papers, one would think that south Italian youths are
the most broken-hearted creatures in the world; they are always trying
to poison themselves for love. Sometimes they succeed, of course; but
sometimes—dear me, no! Suicides look manly, that is all. They are part
of the game. The more sensible youngsters know exactly how much
corrosive sublimate to take without immediate fatal consequences,
allowing for time to reach the nearest hospital. There, the kindly
physician and his stomach-pump will perform their duty, and the patient
wears a
feather in his cap for the rest of his life. The majority of these
suicides are on a par with French duels—a harmless institution whereby
the protagonists honour themselves; they confer, as it were, a patent
of virility. The country people are as warmblooded as the citizens, but
they rarely indulge in suicides because—well, there are no hospitals
handy, and the doctor may be out on his rounds. It is too risky by
half.

And a good proportion of these suicides are only simulated. The wily
victim buys some innocuous preparation which sends him into convulsions
with ghastly symptoms of poisoning, and, after treatment, remains the
enviable hero of a mysterious masculine passion. Ask any town
apothecary. A doctor friend of mine lately analysed the results of his
benevolent exertions upon a young man who had been seen to drink some
dreadful liquid out of a bottle, and was carried to his surgery,
writhing in most artistic agonies. He found not only no poison, but not
the slightest trace of any irritant whatever.

The true courtship of these Don Giovannis of Taranto will be quite
another affair—a cash transaction, and no credit allowed. They will
select a life partner, upon the advice of _ma mère_ and a strong
committee of uncles and aunts, but not until the military service is
terminated. Everything in its proper time and place.

Meanwhile they gaze and perhaps even serenade. This looks as if they
were furiously in love, and has therefore been included among the rules
of the game. Youth must keep up the poetic tradition of “fiery.”
Besides, it is an inexpensive pastime—the cinematograph costs forty
centimes—and you really cannot sit in the barber’s all night long.

But catch them marrying the wrong girl!

POSTSCRIPT.—Here are two samples of youthful love-letters from my
collection.

1.—From a disappointed maiden, aged 13. Interesting, because
intermediate between the archaic and pink-paper stages:

“IDOL OF MY HEART,

“Do not the stars call you when you look to Heaven? Does not the moon
tell you, the black-cap on the willow when it says farewell to the sun?
The birds of nature, the dreary country sadly covered by a few flowers
that remain there? Once your look was passionate and pierced me like a
sunny ray, now it seems the flame of a day. Does nothing tell you of
imperishable love?” I love you and love you as (illegible) loves its
liberty, as the
corn in the fields loves the sun, as the sailor loves the sea tranquil
or stormy. To you I would give my felicity, my future; for one of your
words I would spill my blood drop by drop.

“Of all my lovers you are the only ideal consort _(consorto)_ to whom I
would give my love and all the expansion of my soul and youthful
enthusiasm _(intusiamo),_ the greatest enthusiasm _(co-tusiamo)_ my
heart has ever known. O cruel one who has deigned to put his sweet
poison in my heart to-day, while to-morrow you will pass me with
indifference. Cold, proud as ever, serious and disdainful—you
understand? However that may be, I send you the unrepenting cry of my
rebellious heart: I love you!

“It is late at night, and I am still awake, and at this hour my soul is
sadder than ever in its great isolation _(insolamende);_ I look on my
past love and your dear image. Too much I love you and (illegible)
without your affection.

“How sadly I remember your sweet words whispered on a pathetic evening
when everything around was fair and rosy. How happy I then was when
life seemed radiant with felicity and brightened by your love. And now
nothing more remains of it; everything is finished. How sad even to say
it. My heart is shipwrecked far, far away from that happiness which I
sought.”

(Three further pages of this.)

2.—From a boy of 14 who takes the initiative; such letters are rare.
Note the business-like brevity.

“DEAR Miss ANNE,

I write you these few lines to say that I have understood your
character _(carattolo)._ Therefore, if I may have the honour of being
your sweetheart, you will let me know the answer at your pleasure. I
salute you, and remain,

“Signing myself,” SALVATORE. “Prompt reply requested!”




XII
MOLLE TARENTUM


One looks into the faces of these Tarentines and listens to their
casual conversations, trying to unravel what manner of life is theirs.
But it is difficult to avoid reading into their characters what history
leads one to think should be there.

The upper classes, among whom I have some acquaintance, are mellow and
enlightened; it is really as if something of the honied spirit of those
old Greek sages still brooded over them. Their charm lies in the fact
that they are civilized without being commercialized. Their politeness
is unstrained, their suaveness congenital; they remind me of that New
England type which for Western self-assertion substitutes a yielding
graciousness of disposition. So it is with persistent gentle
upbringing, at Taranto and elsewhere. It tones the individual to
reposeful sweetness; one by one, his anfractuosities are worn off; he
becomes as a pebble tossed in the waters, smooth, burnished, and (to
outward appearances) indistinguishable from his fellows.

But I do not care about the ordinary city folk. They have an air of
elaborate superciliousness which testifies to ages of systematic
half-culture. They seem to utter that hopeless word, _connu!_ And what,
as a matter of fact, do they know? They are only dreaming in their
little backwater, like the oysters of the lagoon, distrustful of
extraneous matter and oblivious of the movement in a world of men
beyond their shell. You hear next to nothing of “America,” that
fruitful source of fresh notions; there is no emigration to speak of;
the population is not sufficiently energetic—they prefer to stay at
home. Nor do they care much about the politics of their own country:
one sees less newspapers here than in most Italian towns. “Our middle
classes,” said my friend the Italian deputy of whom I have already
spoken, “are like our mules: to be endurable, they must be worked
thirteen hours out of the twelve.” But these have no industries to keep
them awake, no sports, no ambitions; and this has gone on for long
centuries, In Taranto it is always afternoon. “The Tarentines,” says
Strabo, “have more holidays than workdays in the year.”

And never was city-population more completely cut off from the country;
never was wider gulf between peasant and townsman. There are charming
walks beyond the New Quarter—a level region, with olives and figs and
almonds and pomegranates standing knee-deep in ripe odorous wheat; but
the citizens might be living at Timbuctu for all they know of these
things. It rains little here; on the occasion of my last visit not a
drop had fallen _for fourteen months;_ and consequently the country
roads are generally smothered in dust. Now, dusty boots are a scandal
and an offence in the eyes of the gentle burghers, who accordingly
never issue out of their town walls. They have forgotten the use of
ordinary appliances of country life, such as thick boots and
walking-sticks; you will not see them hereabouts. Unaware of this
idiosyncrasy, I used to carry a stick on my way through the streets
into the surroundings, but left it at home on learning that I was
regarded as a kind of perambulating earthquake. The spectacle of a man
clattering through the streets on horseback, such as one often sees at
Venosa, would cause them to barricade their doors and prepare for the
last judgment.

Altogether, essentially nice creatures, lotus-eaters, fearful of fuss
or novelty, and drowsily satisfied with themselves and life in general.
The breezy healthfulness of travel, the teachings of art or science,
the joys of rivers and green lanes—all these things are a closed book
to them. Their interests are narrowed down to the purely human: a case
of partial atrophy. For the purely human needs a corrective; it is not
sufficiently humbling, and that is exactly what makes them so
supercilious. We must take a little account of the Cosmos nowadays—it
helps to rectify our bearings. They have their history, no doubt. But
save for that one gleam of Periclean sunshine the record, though long
and varied, is sufficiently inglorious and does not testify to undue
exertions.

A change is at hand.

Gregorovius lamented the filthy condition of the old town. It is now
spotless.

He deplored that Taranto possessed no museum. This again is changed,
and the provincial museum here is justly praised, though the traveller
may be annoyed at finding his favourite rooms temporarily closed (is
there any museum in Italy not “partially closed for alterations”?). New
accessions to its store are continually pouring in; so they lately
discovered, in a tomb, a Hellenistic statuette of Eros and Aphrodite,
30 centimetres high, terra-cotta work of the third century. The goddess
stands,
half-timidly, while Eros alights in airy fashion on her shoulders and
fans her with his wings—an exquisite little thing.

He was grieved, likewise, that no public collection of books existed
here. But the newly founded municipal library is all that can be
desired. The stranger is cordially welcomed within its walls and may
peruse, at his leisure, old Galateus, Giovan Giovene, and the rest of
them.

Wandering among those shelves, I hit upon a recent volume (1910) which
gave me more food for thought than any of these ancients. It is called
“Cose di Puglie,” and contains some dozen articles, all by writers of
this province of old Calabria,[1] on matters of exclusively local
interest—its history, meteorology, dialects, classical references to
the country, extracts from old economic documents, notes on the
development of Apulian printing, examples of modern local caricature,
descriptions of mediæval monuments; a kind of anthology, in short, of
provincial lore. The typography, paper and illustrations of this
remarkable volume are beyond all praise; they would do honour to the
best firm in London or Paris. What is this book? It is no commercial
speculation at all; it is a wedding present to a newly married couple—a
bouquet of flowers, of intellectual blossoms, culled from their native
Apulian meadows. One notes with pleasure that the happy pair are
neither dukes nor princes. There is no trace of snobbishness in the
offering, which is simply a spontaneous expression of good wishes on
the part of a few friends. But surely it testifies to most refined
feelings. How immeasurably does this permanent and yet immaterial feast
differ from our gross wedding banquets and ponderous gilt clocks and
tea services! Such persons cannot but have the highest reverence for
things of the mind; such a gift is the fairest efflorescence of
civilization. And this is only another aspect of that undercurrent of
spirituality in south Italy of whose existence the tourist, harassed by
sordid preoccupations, remains wholly unaware.

 [1] It included the heel of Italy.

This book was printed at Bari. Bari, not long ago, consisted of a dark
and tortuous old town, exactly like the citadel of Taranto. It has now
its glaring New Quarter, not a whit less disagreeable than the one
here. Why should Taranto not follow suit in the matter of culture?
Heraclea, Sybaris and all the Greek settlements along this coast have
vanished from earth; only Taranto and Cotrone have survived to carry
on, if they can, the old traditions. They have survived, thanks to
peculiar physical conditions that have safeguarded them from invaders.
. . .

But these very conditions have entailed certain drawbacks—drawbacks
which Buckle would have lovingly enumerated to prove their influence
upon the habits and disposition of the Tarentines. That marine
situation . . . only think of three thousand years of scirocco, summer
and winter! It is alone enough to explain _molle Tarentum—_enough to
drain the energy out of a Newfoundland puppy! And then, the odious dust
of the country roadways—for it _is_ odious. Had the soil been granitic,
or even of the ordinary Apennine limestone, the population might have
remained in closer contact with wild things of nature, and retained a
perennial fountain of enjoyment and inspiration. A particular kind of
rock, therefore, has helped to make them sluggish and incurious. The
insularity of their citadel has worked in the same direction, by
focussing their interests upon the purely human. That inland sea,
again: were it not an ideal breeding-place for shell-fish, the
Tarentines would long ago have learnt to vary their diet. Thirty
centuries of mussel-eating cannot but impair the physical tone of a
people.

And had the inland sea not existed, the Government would not have been
tempted to establish that arsenal which has led to the erection of the
new town and consequent municipal exactions. “The arsenal,” said a
grumbling old boatman to me, “was the beginning of our purgatory.” A
milk diet would work wonders with the health and spirits of the
citizens. But since the building of the new quarter, such a diet has
become a luxury; cows and goats will soon be scarce as the megatherium.
There is a tax of a franc a day on every cow, and a herd of ten goats,
barely enough to keep a poor man alive, must pay annually 380 francs in
octroi. These and other legalized robberies, which among a more virile
populace would cause the mayor and town council to be forthwith
attached to the nearest lamp-post, are patiently borne. It is _imbelle
Tarentum—_a race without grit.

I would also recommend the burghers some vegetables, so desirable for
their sedentary habits, but there again! it seems to be a peculiarity
of the local soil to produce hardly a leaf of salad or cabbage.
Potatoes are plainly regarded as an exotic—they are the size of English
peas, and make me think of Ruskin’s letter to those old ladies
describing the asparagus somewhere in Tuscany. And all this to the
waiter’s undisguised astonishment.

“The gentleman is rich enough to pay for meat. Why trouble about this
kind of food?”...

And yet—a change is at hand. These southern regions are waking up from
their slumber of ages. Already some of Italy’s
acutest thinkers and most brilliant politicians are drawn from these
long-neglected shores. For we must rid ourselves of that incubus of
“immutable race characters”: think only of our Anglo-Saxon race! What
has the Englishman of to-day in common with that rather lovable fop,
drunkard and bully who would faint with ecstasy over Byron’s _Parisina_
after pistolling his best friend in a duel about a wench or a lap-dog?
Such differences as exist between races of men, exist only at a given
moment.

And what, I sometimes ask myself—what is now the distinguishing feature
between these southern men and ourselves? Briefly this, I think. In
mundane matters, where the personal equation dominates, their judgment
is apt to be turbid and perverse; but as one rises into questions of
pure intelligence, it becomes serenely impartial. We, on the other
hand, who are pre-eminently clear-sighted in worldly concerns of law
and government and in all subsidiary branches of mentality, cannot
bring ourselves to reason dispassionately on non-practical subjects.
“L’esprit aussi a sa pudeur,” says Remy de Gourmont. Well, this _pudeur
de l’esprit,_ discouraged among the highest classes in England, is the
hall-mark of respectability hereabouts. A very real difference, at this
particular moment. . . .

There is an end of philosophizing.

They have ousted me from my pleasant quarters, the landlady’s son and
daughter-in-law having returned unexpectedly and claiming their
apartments. I have taken refuge in a hotel. My peace is gone; my days
in Taranto are numbered.

Loath to depart, I linger by the beach of the Ionian Sea beyond the new
town. It is littered with shells and holothurians, with antique tesser»
of blue glass and marble fragments, with white mosaic pavements and
potteries of every age, from the glossy Greco-Roman ware whose
delicately embossed shell devices are emblematic of this sea-girt city,
down to the grosser products of yesterday. Of marbles I have found
_cipollino, pavonazzetto, giallo_ and _rosso antico,_ but no harder
materials such as porphyry or serpentine. This, and the fact that the
mosaics are pure white, suggests that the houses here must have dated,
at latest, from Augustan times.[2]

 [2] Nor is there any of the fashionable _verde_ _antico,_ and this
 points in the same direction. Corsi says nothing as to the date of its
 introduction, and I have not read the treatise of Silenziario, but my
 own observations lead me to think that the _lapis_ _atracius_ can
 hardly have been known under Tiberius. Not so those hard ones: they
 imported wholesale by his predecessor Augustus, who was anxious to be
 known as a scorner of luxury (a favourite pose with monarchs), yet
 spent incalculable sums on ornamental stones both for public and
 private ends. One is struck by a certain waste of material; either the
 expense was deliberately disregarded or finer methods of working the
 stones were not yet in vogue. A revolution in the technique of
 stone-cutting must have set in soon after his death, for thenceforward
 we find the most intractable rocks cut into slices thin as card-board:
 too thin for pavements, and presumably for encrusting walls and
 colonnades. The Augustans, unable to produce these effects naturally,
 attempted imitation-stones, and with wonderful success. I have a
 fragment of their plaster postiche copying the close-grained Egyptian
 granite; the oily lustre of the quartz is so fresh and the peculiar
 structure of the rock, with its mica scintillations, so admirably
 rendered as to deceive, after two thousand years, the eye of a trained
 mineralogist.

Here I sit, on the tepid shingle, listening to the plash of the waves
and watching the sun as it sinks over the western mountains that are
veiled in mists during the full daylight, but loom up, at this sunset
hour, as from a fabulous world of gold. Yonder lies the Calabrian Sila
forest, the brigands’ country. I will attack it by way of Rossano, and
thence wander, past Longobucco, across the whole region. It may be
well, after all, to come again into contact with streams and woodlands,
after this drenching of classical associations and formal civic life!

Near me stands a shore-battery which used to be called “Batteria
Chianca.” It was here they found, some twenty years ago, a fine marble
head described as a Venus, and now preserved in the local museum. I
observe that this fort has lately been re-christened “Batteria
Archyta.” Can this be due to a burst of patriotism for the Greek
warrior-sage who ruled Taranto, or is it a subtle device to mislead the
foreign spy?

Here, too, are kilns where they burn the blue clay into tiles and
vases. I time a small boy at work shaping the former. His average
output is five tiles in four minutes, including the carrying to and fro
of the moist clay; his wages about a shilling a day. But if you wish to
see the manufacture of more complicated potteries, you must go to the
unclean quarter beyond the railway station. Once there, you will not
soon weary of that potter’s wheel and the fair shapes that blossom
forth under its enchanted touch. This ware of Taranto is sent by sea to
many parts of south Italy, and you may see picturesque groups of it,
here and there, at the street corners.

Hardly has the sun disappeared before the lighthouse in the east begins
to flash. The promontory on which it stands is called San Vito after
one of the musty saints, now almost forgotten, whose names survive
along these shores. Stoutly this venerable one defended his ancient
worship against the radiant and victorious Madonna; nor did she
dislodge him from a certain famous sanctuary save by the questionable
expedient of adopting his
name: she called herself S. M. “della Vita.” That settled it. He came
from Mazzara in Sicily, whither they still carry, to his lonely shrine,
epileptics and others distraught in mind. And were I in a discursive
mood, I would endeavour to trace some connection between his
establishment here and the tarantella—between St. Vitus’ dance and that
other one which cured, they say, the bite of the Tarentine spider.

But I am not inclined for such matters at present. The Cala-brian
uplands are still visible in the gathering twilight; they draw me
onwards, away from Taranto. It must be cool up there, among the firs
and beeches.

And a land, moreover, of multiple memories and interests—this Calabria.
A land of great men. In 1737 the learned Aceti was able to enumerate
over two thousand celebrated Calabrians—athletes, generals, musicians,
centenarians, inventors, martyrs, ten popes, ten kings, as well as some
sixty conspicuous women. A land of thinkers. Old Zavarroni, born in
1705, gives us a list of seven hundred Calabrian writers; and I, for
one, would not care to bring his catalogue up to date. The recently
acquired _Biblioteca Calabra_ at Naples alone contains God knows how
many items, nearly all modern!

And who shall recount its natural attractions? Says another old writer:

“Here is all sorts of Corn, sundry Wines, and in great abundance, all
kinds of Fruits, Oyle, Hony, Wax, Saffron, Bombace, Annis and Coriander
seeds. There groweth Gum, Pitch, Turpentine and liquid Storax. In
former times it was never without Mettals, but at this present it doth
much abound, having in most parts divers sorts of Mines, as Gold,
Silver, Iron, Marble, Alabaster, Cristal, Marchesite, three sorts of
white Chaulk, Virmilion, Alume, Brimstone, and the Adamant stone, which
being in the fifth degree, draweth not Iron, and is in colour black.
There groweth hemp and flax of two sorts, the one called the male, the
other the female: there falleth Manna from heaven, truly a thing very
rare; and although there is not gathered such abundance of Silk, yet I
dare say there is not had so much in all _Italy_ besides. There are
also bathes, both hot, luke-warm, and cold, to cure many diseases. Near
the Seaside, and likewise on the Mediterrane are goodly Gardens full of
Oringes, Citrons, and Lemons of divers sorts. It is watered with many
Rivers. There are on the hils of the Apennine, thick Woods of high
Firrs, Holms, Platanes, Oaks, where grows the white odoriferous
Mushrome which shineth in the night. Here is bred the soft stone
_Frigia,_ which every month
yields a delicate and wholesome Gum, and the stone _Aetites,_ by us
called the stone _Aquilina._ In this Province there is excellent
hunting of divers creatures, as wild Hoggs, Staggs, Goats, Hares,
Foxes, Porcupines, Marmosets. There are also ravenous beasts, as
Wolves, Bears, Luzards, which are quick-sighted, and have the hinder
parts spotted with divers colours. This kind of Beast was brought from
_France_ to _Rome_ in the sports of _Pompey_ the great, and Hunters
affirm this Beast to be of so frail a memory, that although he eateth
with hunger, if he chance to look back, remembreth no more his meat,
and departing searcheth for other.” Who would not visit Calabria, if
only on the chance of beholding the speckled posterior of the
absent-minded Luzard?




XIII
INTO THE JUNGLE


This short plunge into the jungle was a relief, after the all-too-human
experiences of Taranto. The forest of Policoro skirts the Ionian; the
railway line cleaves it into two unequal portions, the seaward tract
being the smaller. It is bounded on the west by the river Sinno, and I
imagine the place has not changed much since the days when Keppel
Craven explored its recesses.

Twilight reigns in this maze of tall deciduous trees. There is thick
undergrowth, too; and I measured an old lentiscus—a shrub, in
Italy—which was three metres in circumference. But the exotic feature
of the grove is its wealth of creeping vines that clamber up the
trunks, swinging from one tree-top to another, and allowing the merest
threads of sunlight to filter through their matted canopy. Policoro has
the tangled beauty of a tropical swamp. Rank odours arise from the
decaying leaves and moist earth; and once within that verdant
labyrinth, you might well fancy yourself in some primeval region of the
globe, where the foot of man has never penetrated.

Yet long ago it resounded with the din of battle and the trumpeting of
elephants—in that furious first battle between Pyrrhus and the Romans.
And here, under the very soil on which you stand, lies buried, they
say, the ancient city of Siris.

They have dug canals to drain off the moisture as much as possible, but
the ground is marshy in many places and often quite impassable,
especially in winter. None the less, winter is the time when a little
shooting is done here, chiefly wild boars and roe-deer. They are driven
down towards the sea, but only as far as the railway line. Those that
escape into the lower portions are safe for another year, as this is
never shot over but kept as a permanent preserve. I have been told that
red-deer were introduced, but that the experiment failed; probably the
country was too hot and damp. In his account of Calabria, Duret de
Tavel[1] sometimes speaks of killing the fallow-deer, an autochthonous
Tyrrhenian beast which is now extinct on the mainland in its wild
state. Nor can he be confounding it with the roe, since he mentions the
two together—for instance, in the following note from Corigliano
(February, 1809), which must make the modern Calabrian’s mouth water:

 [1] An English translation of his book appeared in 1832.

“Game has multiplied to such an extent that the fields are ravaged, and
we are rendering a real service in destroying it. I question whether
there exists in Europe a country offering more varied species. . . . We
return home followed by carriages and mules loaded with wild boars,
roe-deer, fallow-deer, hares, pheasants, wild duck, wild geese—to say
nothing of foxes and wolves, of which we have already killed an immense
quantity.”

The pheasants seem to have likewise died out, save in royal preserves.
They were introduced into Calabria by that mighty hunter Frederick II.

The parcelling out of many of these big properties has been followed by
a destruction of woodland and complete disappearance of game. It is
hailed as the beginning of a new era of prosperity; and so it well may
be, from a commercial point of view. But the traveller and lover of
nature will be glad to leave some of these wild districts in the hands
of their rich owners, who have no great interests in cultivating every
inch of ground, levelling rocky spaces, draining the land and hewing
down every tree that fails to bear fruit. Split into peasant
proprietorships, this forest would soon become a scientifically
irrigated campagna for the cultivation of tomatoes or what not, like
the “Colonia Elena,” near the Pontine Marshes. The national exchequer
would profit, without a doubt. But I question whether we should all
take the economical point of view—whether it would be wise for humanity
to do so. There is a prosperity other than material. Some solitary
artist or poet, drawing inspiration from scenes like this, might have
contributed more to the happiness of mankind than a legion of
narrow-minded, grimy and litigious tomato-planters.

To all appearances, Italy is infected just now with a laudable mania
for the “exploitation of natural resources”—at the expense, of course,
of wealthy landowners, who are described as withholding from the people
their due. The programme sounds reasonable enough; but one must not
forget that what one reads on this subject in the daily papers is
largely the campaign of a class of irresponsible pressmen and
politicians, who exploit the ignorance of weak people to fill their own
pockets. How one learns to loathe, in Italy and in England, that lovely
word _socialism,_ when one knows a little of the inner workings of the
cause and a few—just a
few!—details of the private lives of these unsavoury saviours of their
country!

The lot of the southern serfs was bad enough before America was
“discovered”; and quite unendurable in earlier times. There is a
village not many hours from Naples where, in 1789, only the personal
attendants of the feudal lord lived in ordinary houses; the two
thousand inhabitants, the serfs, took refuge in caves and shelters of
straw. Conceive the conditions in remote Calabria! Such was the
anguished poverty of the country-folk that up to the eighties of last
century they used to sell their children by regular contracts, duly
attested before the local mayors. But nowadays I listen to their
complaints with comparative indifference.

“You are badly treated, my friend? I quite believe it; indeed, I can
see it. Well, go to Argentina and sell potatoes, or to the mines of
Pennsylvania. There you will grow rich, like the rest of your
compatriots. Then return and send your sons to the University; let them
become _avvocati_ and members of Parliament, who shall harass into
their graves these wicked owners of the soil.”

This, as a matter of fact, is the career of a considerable number of
them.

For the rest, the domain of Policoro—it is spelt _Pelicaro_ in older
maps like those of Magini and Rizzi-Zannone—seems to be well
administered, and would repay a careful study. I was not encouraged,
however, to undertake this study, the manager evidently suspecting some
ulterior motive to underlie my simple questions. He was not at all
responsive to friendly overtures. Restive at first, he soon waxed
ambiguous, and finally taciturn. Perhaps he thought I was a
tax-gatherer in disguise. A large structure combining the features of
palace, fortress and convent occupies an eminence, and is supposed by
some to stand on the site of old Heracleia; it was erected by the
Jesuits; the work-people live in humble dwellings that cluster around
it. Those that are now engaged in cutting the corn receive a daily wage
of two carlini (eightpence)—the Bourbon coinage still survives in name.

You walk to this building from the station along an avenue of eucalypti
planted some forty years ago. Detesting, as I do, the whole tribe of
gum trees, I never lose an opportunity of saying exactly what I think
about this particularly odious representative of the brood, this
eyesore, this grey-haired scarecrow, this reptile of a growth with
which a pack of misguided enthusiasts have
disfigured the entire Mediterranean basin. They have now realized that
it is useless as a protection against malaria. Soon enough they will
learn that instead of preventing the disease, it actually fosters it,
by harbouring clouds of mosquitoes under its scraggy so-called foliage.
These abominations may look better on their native heath: I sincerely
hope they do. Judging by the “Dead Heart of Australia”—a book which
gave me a nightmare from which I shall never recover—I should say that
a varnished hop-pole would be an artistic godsend out there.

But from here the intruder should be expelled without mercy. A single
eucalyptus will ruin the fairest landscape. No plant on earth rustles
in such a horribly metallic fashion when the wind blows through those
everlastingly withered branches; the noise chills one to the marrow; it
is like the sibilant chattering of ghosts. Its oil is called
“medicinal” only because it happens to smell rather nasty; it is
worthless as timber, objectionable in form and hue—objectionable, above
all things, in its perverse, anti-human habits. What other tree would
have the effrontery to turn the sharp edges of its leaves—as if these
were not narrow enough already!—towards the sun, so as to be sure of
giving at all hours of the day the minimum of shade and maximum of
discomfort to mankind?

But I confess that this avenue of Policoro almost reconciled me to the
existence of the anaemic Antipodeans. Almost; since for some reason or
other (perhaps on account of the insufferably foul nature of the soil)
their foliage is here thickly tufted; it glows like burnished bronze in
the sunshine, like enamelled scales of green and gold. These eucalypti
are unique in Italy. Gazing upon them, my heart softened and I almost
forgave the gums their manifold iniquities, their diabolical thirst,
their demoralizing aspect of precocious senility and vice, their
peeling bark suggestive of unmentionable skin diseases, and that system
of radication which is nothing short of a scandal on this side of the
globe. . . .

In the exuberance of his joy at the prospect of getting rid of me, the
manager of the estate lent me a dog-cart to convey me to the forest’s
edge, as well as a sleepy-looking boy for a guide, warning me, however,
not to put so much as the point of my nose inside the jungle, on
account of the malaria which has already begun to infect the district.
One sees all too many wan faces hereabouts. Visible from the
intervening plain is a large building on the summit of a hill; it is
called Acinapura, and this is the place I should have gone to, had time
permitted, for the sake of the fine view which it must afford over the
whole Policoro region.
Herds of buffaloes wallow in the mire. An old bull, reposing in
solitary grandeur, allowed me so near an approach that I was able to
see two or three frogs hopping about his back, and engaged in catching
the mosquitoes that troubled him. How useful, if something equally
efficient and inexpensive could be devised for humanity!

[Illustration: Buffalo at Policoro]

We entered the darksome forest. The boy, who had hitherto confined
himself to monosyllables, suddenly woke up under its mysterious
influence; he became alert and affable; he related thrilling tales of
the outlaws who used to haunt these thickets, lamenting that those
happy days were over. There were the makings of a first-class brigand
in Paolo. I stimulated his brave fancy; and it was finally proposed
that I should establish myself permanently with the manager of the
estate, so that on Sundays we could have some brigand-sport together,
on the sly.

Then out again—into the broad and sunlit bed of the Sinno. The water
now ripples in bland content down a waste of shining pebbles. But its
wintry convulsions are terrific, and higher up the stream, where the
banks are steep, many lives are lost in those angry floods that rush
down from the hill-sides, filling the riverbed with a turmoil of
crested waves. At such moments, these torrents put on new faces. From
placid waterways they are transformed into living monsters, Aegirs or
dragons, that roll themselves seaward, out of their dark caverns, in
tawny coils of destruction.




XIV
DRAGONS


And precisely this angry aspect of the waters has been acclaimed as one
of the origins of that river-dragon idea which used to be common in
south Italy, before the blight of Spaniardism fell upon the land and
withered up the pagan myth-making faculty. There are streams still
perpetuating this name—the rivulet Dragone, for instance, which falls
into the Ionian not far from Cape Colonne.

A non-angry aspect of them has also been suggested as the origin: the
tortuous wanderings of rivers in the plains, like the Meander, that
recall the convolutions of the serpent. For serpent and dragon are apt
to be synonymous with the ancients.

Both these explanations, I think, are late developments in the
evolution of the dragon-image. They leave one still puzzling as to what
may be the aboriginal conception underlying this legendary beast of
earth and clouds and waters. We must go further back.

What is a dragon? An animal, one might say, which looks or regards
(Greek _drakon);_ so called, presumably, from its terrible eyes. Homer
has passages which bear out this interpretation:

Σμερδαλέον δὲ δέδορκεν, etc.

Now the Greeks were certainly sensitive to the expression of animal
eyes—witness “cow-eyed” Hera, or the opprobrious epithet “dog-eyed”;
altogether, the more we study what is left of their zoological
researches, the more we realize what close observers they were in
natural history. Aristotle, for instance, points out sexual differences
in the feet of the crawfish which were overlooked up to a short time
ago. And Hesiod also insists upon the dragon’s eyes. Yet it is
significant that _ophis,_ the snake, is derived, like _drakon,_ from a
root meaning nothing more than to perceive or regard. There is no
connotation of ferocity in either of the words. Gesner long ago
suspected that the dragon was so called simply from its keen or rapid
perception.

One likes to search for some existing animal prototype of a
fabled creature like this, seeing that to invent such things out of
sheer nothing is a feat beyond human ingenuity—or, at least, beyond
what the history of others of their kind leads us to expect. It may
well be that the Homeric writer was acquainted with the Uromastix
lizard that occurs in Asia Minor, and whoever has watched this beast,
as I have done, cannot fail to have been impressed by its contemplative
gestures, as if it were gazing intently _(drakon)_ at something. It is,
moreover, a “dweller in rocky places,” and more than this, a
vegetarian—an “eater of poisonous herbs” as Homer somewhere calls his
dragon. So Aristotle says: “When the dragon has eaten much fruit, he
seeks the juice of the bitter lettuce; he has been seen to do this.”

Are we tracking the dragon to his lair? Is this the aboriginal beast?
Not at all, I should say. On the contrary, this is a mere side-issue,
to follow which would lead us astray. The reptile-dragon was invented
when men had begun to forget what the arch-dragon was; it is the
product of a later stage—the materializing stage; that stage when
humanity sought to explain, in naturalistic fashion, the obscure
traditions of the past. We must delve still deeper. . . .

My own dragon theory is far-fetched—perhaps necessarily so, dragons
being somewhat remote animals. The dragon, I hold, is the
personification of the life within the earth—of that life which, being
unknown and uncontrollable, is _eo ipso_ hostile to man. Let me explain
how this point is reached.

The animal which _looks or regards. . . ._ Why—why an animal? Why not
_drakon =_ that which looks?

Now, what looks?

The eye.

This is the key to the understanding of the problem, the key to the
subterranean dragon-world.

The conceit of fountains or sources of water being things that see
_(drakon)—_that is, eyes—or bearing some resemblance to eyes, is common
to many races. In Italy, for example, two springs in the inland sea
near Taranto are called “Occhi”—eyes; Arabs speak of a watery fountain
as an eye; the notion exists in England top—in the “Blentarn” of
Cumberland, the blind tarn (tarn = a trickling of tears), which is
“blind” because dry and waterless, and therefore lacking the bright
lustre of the open eye.

There is an eye, then, in the fountain: an eye which looks or regards.
And inasmuch as an eye presupposes a head, and a head without body is
hard to conceive, a material existence was presently
imputed to that which looked upwards out of the liquid depths. This, I
think, is the primordial dragon, the archetype. He is of animistic
descent and survives all over the earth; and it is precisely this
universality of the dragon-idea which induces me to discard all
theories of local origin and to seek for some common cause. Fountains
are ubiquitous, and so are dragons. There are fountain dragons in
Japan, in the superstitions of Keltic races, in the Mediterranean
basin. The dragon of Wantley lived in a well; the Lambton Worm began
life in fresh water, and only took to dry land later on. I have
elsewhere spoken of the Manfredonia legend of Saint Lorenzo and the
dragon, an indigenous fable connected, I suspect, with the fountain
near the harbour of that town, and quite independent of the
newly-imported legend of Saint Michael. Various springs in Greece and
Italy are called Dragoneria; there is a cave-fountain Dragonara on
Malta, and another of the same name near Cape Misenum—all are sources
of apposite lore. The water-drac. . . .

So the dragon has grown into a subterranean monster, who peers up from
his dark abode wherever he can—out of fountains or caverns whence
fountains issue. It stands to reason that he is sleepless; all dragons
are “sleepless”; their eyes are eternally open, for the luminous
sparkle of living waters never waxes dim. And bold adventurers may well
be devoured by dragons when they fall into these watery rents, never to
appear again.

Furthermore, since gold and other treasures dear to mankind lie hidden
in the stony bowels of the earth and are hard to attain, the jealous
dragon has been accredited with their guardianship—hence the plutonic
element in his nature. The dragon, whose “ever-open eye” protected the
garden of the Hesperides, was the _Son of Earth._ The earth or
cave-dragon. . . . Calabria has some of these dragons’ caves; you can
read about them in the _Campania. Sotteranea_ of G. Sanchez.

[Illustration: The Sinno River]

In volcanic regions there are fissures in the rocks exhaling
pestiferous emanations; these are the _spiracula,_ the breathing-holes,
of the dragon within. The dragon legends of Naples and Mondragone are
probably of this origin, and so is that of the Roman Campagna (1660)
where the dragon-killer died from the effects of this poisonous breath.
Sometimes the confined monster issues in a destructive
lava-torrent—Bellerophon and the Chimæra. The fire-dragon. ... Or
floods of water suddenly stream down from the hills and fountains are
released. It is the hungry dragon, rushing from his den in search of
prey; the river-dragon. . . . He rages among the mountains with such
swiftness and impetuosity
that wings must be his portion; yes, he can cleave the heavens in the
guise of lightning, or descend upon the fertile fields as a ruinous
thunderstorm; the cloud-dragon. . . . Or again, he remains permanently
overhead, a flaming meteor in the firmament; this is the _draco volans_
of the schoolmen.

In all his protean manifestations, he represents the envious and
devastating principle; the spleenful wrath of untamed (untamable)
telluric forces. Everything strong and spiteful has conspired to
fashion our conception of the dragon. No wonder mankind, impotent,
offers sacrifices to propitiate his rage. These tributary offerings are
the dragon’s due—the toll exacted from the weak by the strong in all
mundane affairs. They are paid until the dragon-killer appears, that
rare mortal who puts an end to his depredations. For the real dragon
must be exterminated; he cannot be mollified by kindness; nobody ever
heard of a domesticated dragon; compromise is out of the question. Only
the victim of Saint George allowed himself to be led like a “meke
beest” into the city. But that was the mediæval dragon, of whom
anything can be expected.

He ultimately received a concrete form from that innate craving on the
part of humanity to give a poetic or pictorial image to its hopes and
fears. This derivative (modern) dragon is winged or unwinged, fiery or
cold, crested or smooth, of manifold hue, four-footed, two-footed,
serpentine or vermiform. Such relative variety of structure is seen in
all imaginings that spring up independently in different regions of the
globe, and are yet due to a common belief or cause. Why has he
assimilated so much of the reptilian physiognomy and framework? Well,
seeing that he had to approximate his shape to some type of beast
familiar to mankind, what better general model could have been found?
The reptile’s glassy eye; its earthward-creeping and cleft-loving
habits; its blood that recalls that chill temperature of stones and
water; its hostile pose; its ferocious tenacity of life and scaly
covering, as of metals? Memories of extinct reptilian monsters may have
helped to colour the picture, as well as that hatred of the serpent
tribe which has haunted us ever since our own arboreal days.

A prehistoric idea like this, interpretive of such diverse natural
phenomena, cannot but absorb into itself all kinds of extraneous
material, ridiculous and sublime. Like some avalanche rolling downhill,
the dragon gathers momentum on his journey athwart the ages, and is
swollen in size both by kindred beliefs that have lain in his path, and
by quite incongruous accretions.
This is chiefly the poets’ work, though the theologians have added one
or two embellishing touches. But in whatever shape he appears, whether
his eyes have borrowed a more baleful fire from heathen basilisks, or
traits of moral evil are instilled into his pernicious physique by
amalgamation with the apocalyptic Beast, he remains the vindictive
enemy of man and his ordered ways. Of late—like the Saurian tribe in
general—he has somewhat degenerated. So in modern Greece, by that
process of stultified anthropomorphism which results from grafting
Christianity upon an alien mythopoesis, he dons human attributes,
talking and acting as a man (H. F. Tozer). And here, in Calabria, he
lingers in children’s fables, as “sdrago,” a mockery of his former
self.

To follow up his wondrous metamorphoses through mediævalism would be a
pastime worthy of some leisured dilettante. How many noble shapes
acquired a tinge of absurdity in the Middle Ages! Switzerland alone,
with its mystery of untrodden crevices, used to be crammed with
dragons—particularly the calcareous (cavernous) province of Rhaetia.
Secondary dragons; for the good monks saw to it that no reminiscences
of the autochthonous beast survived. Modern scholars have devoted much
learning to the local Tazzelwurm and Bergstutz. But dragons of our
familiar kind were already well known to the chroniclers from whom old
Cysat extracted his twenty-fifth chapter (wherein, by the way, you will
learn something of Calabrian dragons); then came J. J. Wagner (1680);
then Scheuchzer, prince of dragon-finders, who informs us that
_multorum draconum historia mendax._

But it is rather a far cry from Calabria to the asthmatic Scheuchzer,
wiping the perspiration off his brow as he clambers among the Alps to
record truthful dragon yarns and untruthful barometrical observations;
or to China, dragon-land _par excellence;_[1] or even to our own
Heralds’ College, where these and other beasts have sought a refuge
from prying professors under such queer disguises that their own
mothers would hardly recognize them.

 [1] In Chinese mythology the telluric element has remained
 untarnished. The dragon is an earth-god, who controls the rain and
 thunder clouds.




XV
BYZANTINISM


Exhausted with the morning’s walk at Policoro, a railway journey and a
long drive up nearly a thousand feet to Rossano in the heat of midday,
I sought refuge, contrary to my usual custom, in the chief hotel,
intending to rest awhile and then seek other quarters. The
establishment was described as “ganz ordentlich” in Baedeker. But,
alas! I found little peace or content. The bed on which I had hoped to
repose was already occupied by several other inmates. Prompted by
curiosity, I counted up to fifty-two of them; after that, my interest
in the matter faded away. It became too monotonous. They were all
alike, save in point of size (some were giants). A Swammerdam would
have been grieved by their lack of variety.

And this, I said to myself, in a renowned city that has given birth to
poets and orators, to saints like the great Nilus, to two popes
and—last, but not least—one anti-pope! I will not particularize the
species beyond saying that they did not hop. Nor will I return to this
theme. Let the reader once and for all take _them_ for granted.[1] Let
him note that most of the inns of this region are quite uninhabitable,
for this and other reasons, unless he takes the most elaborate
precautions. . . .

 [1] They have their uses, to be sure. Says Kircher: _Cunices
 lectularii potens remedium contra quartanum est, si ab inscio aegro
 cum vehiculo congruo potentur; mulierum morbis medentur et uterum
 prolapsum solo odore in suum locum restituunt._

Where, then, do I generally go for accommodation?

Well, as a rule I begin by calling for advice at the chemist’s shop,
where a fixed number of the older and wiser citizens congregate for a
little talk. The cafés and barbers and wine-shops are also
meeting-places of men; but those who gather here are not of the right
type—they are the young, or empty-headed, or merely thirsty. The other
is the true centre of the leisured class, the philosophers’ rendezvous.
Your _speciale_ (apothecary) is himself an elderly and honoured man,
full of responsibility and local knowledge; he is altogether a superior
person, having been
trained in a University. You enter the shop, therefore, and purchase a
pennyworth of vaseline. This act entitles you to all the privileges of
the club. Then is the moment to take a seat, smiling affably at the
assembled company, but without proffering a syllable. If this etiquette
is strictly adhered to, it will not be long ere you are politely
questioned as to your plans, your present accommodation, and so forth;
and soon several members will be vying with each other to procure you a
clean and comfortable room at half the price charged in a hotel.

Even when this end is accomplished, my connection with the pharmacy
coterie is not severed. I go there from time to time, ostensibly to
talk, but in reality to listen. Here one can feel the true pulse of the
place. Local questions are dispassionately discussed, with ample forms
of courtesy and in a language worthy of Cicero. It is the club of the
_élite._

In olden days I used to visit south Italy armed with introductions to
merchants, noblemen and landed proprietors. I have quite abandoned that
system, as these people, bless their hearts, have such cordial notions
of hospitality that from morning to night the traveller has not a
moment he can call his own. Letters to persons in authority, such as
syndics or police officers, are useless and worse than useless. Like
Chinese mandarins, these officials are so puffed up with their own
importance that it is sheer waste of time to call upon them. If wanted,
they can always be found; if not, they are best left alone. For besides
being usually the least enlightened and least amiable of the populace,
they are inordinately suspicious of political or commercial designs on
the part of strangers—God knows what visions are fermenting in their
turbid brains—and seldom let you out of their sight, once they have
known you.

Excepting at Cosenza, Cotrone and Catanzaro, an average white man will
seldom find, in any Calabrian hostelry, what he is accustomed to
consider as ordinary necessities of life. The thing is easily
explicable. These men are not yet in the habit of “handling” civilized
travellers; they fail to realize that hotel-keeping is a business to be
learnt, like tailoring or politics. They are still in the patriarchal
stage, wealthy proprietors for the most part, and quite independent of
your custom. They have not learnt the trick of Swiss servility. You
must therefore be prepared to put up with what looks like very bad
treatment. On your entrance nobody moves a step to enquire after your
wants; you must begin by foraging for yourself, and thank God if any
notice is taken of what you say; it is as if your presence were barely
tolerated. But once the stranger has learnt to pocket his pride and
treat his hosts in the same offhand fashion, he will find among them an
unconventional courtesy of the best kind.

The establishment being run as a rule by the proprietor’s own family,
gratuities with a view to exceptional treatment are refused with quiet
dignity, and even when accepted will not further your interests in the
least; on the contrary, you are thenceforward regarded as tactless and
weak in the head. Discreet praise of their native town or village is
the best way to win the hearts of the younger generation; for the
parents a little knowledge of American conditions is desirable, to
prove that you are a man of the world and worthy, a priori, of some
respect. But if there exists a man-cook, he is generally an importation
and should be periodically and liberally bribed, without knowledge of
the family, from the earliest moment. Wonderful, what a cook can do!

It is customary here not to live _en pension_ or to pay a fixed price
for any meal, the smallest item, down to a piece of bread, being
conscientiously marked against you. My system, elaborated after
considerable experimentation, is to call for this bill every morning
and, for the first day or two after arrival, dispute in friendly
fashion every item, remorselessly cutting down some of them. Not that
they overcharge; their honesty is notorious, and no difference is made
in this respect between a foreigner and a native. It is a matter of
principle. By this system, which must not be overdone, your position in
the house gradually changes; from being a guest, you become a friend, a
brother. For it is your duty to show, above all things, that you are
not _scemo_—witless, soft-headed—the unforgivable sin in the south. You
may be a forger or cut-throat—why not? It is a vocation like any other,
a vocation for _men._ But whoever cannot take care of himself—i.e. of
his money—is not to be trusted, in any walk of life; he is of no
account; he is no man. I have become firm friends with some of these
proprietors by the simple expedient of striking a few francs off their
bills; and should I ever wish to marry one of their daughters, the
surest way to predispose the whole family in my favour would be this
method of amiable but unsmiling contestation.

Of course the inns are often dirty, and not only in their sleeping
accommodation. The reason is that, like Turks or Jews, their owners do
not see dirt (there is no word for dirt in the Hebrew language); they
think it odd when you draw their attention to it. I remember
complaining, in one of my fastidious moments,
of a napkin, plainly not my own, which had been laid at my seat. There
was literally not a clean spot left on its surface, and I insisted on a
new one. I got it; but not before hearing the proprietor mutter
something about “the caprices of pregnant women.” . . .

The view from these my new quarters at Rossano compensates for divers
other little drawbacks. Down a many-folded gorge of glowing red earth
decked with olives and cistus the eye wanders to the Ionian Sea shining
in deepest turquoise tints, and beautified by a glittering margin of
white sand. To my left, the water takes a noble sweep inland; there
lies the plain of Sybaris, traversed by the Crathis of old that has
thrust a long spit of sand into the waves. On this side the outlook is
bounded by the high range of Pollino and Dolcedorme, serrated peaks
that are even now (midsummer) displaying a few patches of snow.
Clear-cut in the morning light, these exquisite mountains evaporate,
towards sunset, in an amethystine haze. A restful prospect.

But great was my amazement, on looking out of the window during the
night after my arrival, to observe the Polar star placed directly over
the Ionian Sea—the south, as I surely deemed it. A week has passed
since then, and in spite of the map I have not quite familiarized
myself with this spectacle, nor yet with that other one of the sun
setting apparently due east, over Monte Pollino.

The glory of Rossano is the image of the Madonna Achiropita.
Bartholomaeus tells us, in his life of Saint Nilus, that in olden days
she was wont to appear, clothed in purple, and drive away with a divine
torch the Saracen invaders of this town. In more recent times, too, she
has often saved the citizens from locusts, cholera, and other
calamitous visitations. Unlike most of her kind, she was not painted by
Saint Luke. She is _acheiropœta_—not painted by any human hands
whatever, and in so far resembles a certain old image of the Magna
Mater, her prototype, which was also of divine origin. It is generally
supposed that this picture is painted on wood. Not so, says Diehl; it
is a fragment of a fresco on stone.

Hard by, in the clock-tower of the square, is a marble tablet erected
to the memory of the deputy Felice Cavalotti. We all remember
Cavalotti, the last—with Imbriani—of the republican giants, a
blustering rhetorician-journalist, annihilator of monarchs and popes; a
fire-eating duellist, who deserved his uncommon and unlovely fate. He
provoked a colleague to an encounter and, during a frenzied attack,
received into his open mouth the point
of his adversary’s sword, which sealed up for ever that fountain of
eloquence and vituperation.

Cavalotti and the Virgin Achiropita—the new and the old. Really, with
such extreme ideals before his eyes, the burghers of Rossano must
sometimes wonder where righteousness lies.

They call themselves Calabrians. _Noi siamo calabresi!_ they proudly
say, meaning that they are above suspicion of unfair dealing. As a
matter of fact, they are a muddled brood, and considerably given to
cheating when there is any prospect of success. You must watch the
peasants coming home at night from their field-work if you wish to see
the true Calabrian type—whiskered, short and wiry, and of dark
complexion. There is that indescribable mark of _race_ in these
countrymen; they are different in features and character from the
Italians; it is an ascetic, a Spanish type. Your Calabrian is strangely
scornful of luxury and even comfort; a creature of few but well-chosen
words, straightforward, indifferent to pain and suffering, and dwelling
by preference, when religiously minded, on the harsher aspects of his
faith. A note of unworldliness is discoverable in his outlook upon
life. Dealing with such men, one feels that they are well disposed not
from impulse, but from some dark sense of preordained obligation. Greek
and other strains have infused versatility and a more smiling exterior;
but the groundwork of the whole remains that old _homo ibericus_ of
austere gentlemanliness.

Rossano was built by the Romans, says Procopius, and during Byzantine
days became a fortress of primary importance. An older settlement
probably lay by the seashore, and its harbour is marked as “good” so
late as the days of Edrisius. Like many of these old Calabrian ports,
it is now invaded by silt and sand, though a few ships still call
there. Wishful to learn something of the past glories of the town, I
enquired at the municipality for the public library, but was informed
by the supercilious and not over-polite secretary that this proud city
possesses no such institution. A certain priest, he added, would give
me all the desired information.

Canonico Rizzo was a delightful old man, with snowy hair and candid
blue eyes. Nothing, it seemed, could have given him greater pleasure
than my appearance at that particular moment. He discoursed awhile, and
sagely, concerning England and English literature, and then we passed
on, _via_ Milton, to Calvin and the Puritan movement in Scotland; next,
_via_ Livingstone, to colonial enterprises in Africa; and finally,
_via_ Egypt, Abyssinia, and

Prester John, to the early history of the eastern churches.
Byzantinism—Saint Nilus; that gave me the desired opportunity, and I
mentioned the object of my visit.

“The history of Rossano? Well, well! The secretary of the municipality
does me too much honour. You must read the Book of Genesis and Hesiod
and Berosus and the rest of them. But stay! I have something of more
modern date, in which you will find these ancient authors conveniently
classified.”

From this book by de Rosis, printed in 1838, I gleaned two facts,
firstly, that the city of Rossano is now 3663 years old—quite a
respectable age, as towns go—and lastly, that in the year 1500 it had
its own academy of lettered men, who called themselves “I spensierati,”
with the motto _Non alunt curas_—an echo, no doubt, of the Neapolitan
renaissance under Alfonso the Magnificent. The popes Urban VIII and
Benedict XIII belonged to this association of “thoughtless ones.” The
work ends with a formidable list of local personages distinguished in
the past for their gentleness of birth and polite accomplishments. One
wonders how all these delicately nurtured creatures can have survived
at Rossano, if their sleeping accommodation——

You might live here some little time before realizing that this place,
which seems to slope gently downhill against a pleasing background of
wooded mountains, is capable of being strongly fortified. It lies, like
other inland Calabrian (and Etruscan) cities, on ground enclosed by
stream-beds, and one of these forms a deep gully above which Rossano
towers on a smooth and perpendicular precipice. The upper part of this
wall of rock is grey sandstone; the lower a bed of red granitic matter.
From this coloured stone, which crops up everywhere, the town may have
drawn its name of Rossano (rosso = red); not a very old settlement,
therefore; although certain patriotic philologers insist upon deriving
it from “rus sanum,” healthy country. Its older names were Roscia, and
Ruscianum; it is not marked in Peutinger. Countless jackdaws and
kestrels nestle in this cliff, as well as clouds of swifts, both Alpine
and common. These swifts are the ornithological phenomenon of Rossano,
and I think the citizens have cause to be thankful for their existence;
to them I attribute the fact that there are so few flies, mosquitoes,
and other aerial plagues here. If only the amiable birds could be
induced to extend their attentions to the bedrooms as well!

This shady glen at the back of the city, with its sparse tufts of
vegetation and monstrous blocks of deep red stone cloven into rifts and
ravines by the wild waters, has a charm of its own. There are
undeniable suggestions of Hell about the place. A pathway
runs adown this vale of Hinnom, and if you follow it upwards to the
junction of the streams you will reach a road that once more ascends to
the town, past the old church of Saint Mark, a most interesting
building. It has five little cupolas, but the interior, supported by
eight columns, has been whitewashed. The structure has now rightly been
declared a “national monument.” It dates from the ninth or tenth
century and, according to Bertaux, has the same plan and the same
dimensions as the famous “Cattolica” at Stilo, which the artistic Lear,
though he stayed some time at that picturesque place, does not so much
as mention. They say that this chapel of Saint Mark was built by
Euprassius, protos-padarius of Calabria, and that in the days of Nilus
it was dedicated to Saint Anastasius.

Here, at Rossano, we are once more _en plein Byzance._

Rossano was not only a political bulwark, the most formidable citadel
of this Byzantine province. It was a great intellectual centre, upon
which literature, theology and art converged. Among the many perverse
historical notions of which we are now ridding ourselves is this—that
Byzantinism in south Italy was a period of decay and torpid dreamings.
It needed, on the contrary, a resourceful activity to wipe out, as did
those colonists from the east, every trace of Roman culture and
language (Latin rule only revived at Rossano in the fifteenth century).
There was no lethargy in their social and political ambitions, in their
military achievements, which held the land against overwhelming numbers
of Saracens, Lombards and other intruders. And the life of those old
monks of Saint Basil, as we now know it, represented a veritable
renaissance of art and letters.

Of the ten Basilean convents that grew up in the surroundings of
Rossano the most celebrated was that of S. M. del Patir. Together with
the others, it succeeded to a period of eremitism

of solitary anchorites whose dwellings honeycombed the warm slopes that
confront the Ionian. . . .

The lives of some of these Greco-Calabrian hermits are valuable
documents. In the _Vitae Sanctorum Siculorum_ of O. Caietanus (1657)
the student will find a Latin translation of the biography of one of
them, Saint Elia Junior. He died in 903. It was written by a
contemporary monk, who tells us that the holy man performed many
miracles, among them that of walking over a river dryshod. And the
Bollandists _(Acta Sanctorum,_ 11th September) have reprinted the
biography of Saint Elia Spelaeotes—the cave-dweller, as composed in
Greek by a disciple. It is yet more
interesting. He lived in a “honesta spelunca” which he discovered in
864 by means of a flight of bats issuing therefrom; he suffered
persecutions from a woman, exactly after the fashion of Joseph and
Potiphar’s wife; he grew to be 94 years old; the Saracens vainly tried
to burn his dead body, and the water in which this corpse was
subsequently washed was useful for curing another holy man’s toothache.
Yet even these creatures were subject to gleams of common sense.
“Virtues,” said this one, “are better than miracles.”

How are we to account for these rock-hermits and their inelegant
habits? How explain this poisoning of the sources of manly
self-respect?

Thus, I think: that under the influence of their creed they reverted
perforce to the more bestial traits of aboriginal humanity. They were
thrust back in their development. They became solitaries, animalesque
and shy—such as we may imagine our hairy progenitors to have been.
Hence their dirt and vermin, their horror of learning, their unkempt
hair, their ferocious independence, their distrust of sunshine and
ordered social life, their foul dieting, their dread of malign spirits,
their cave-dwelling propensities. All bestial characteristics!

This atavistic movement, this retrogression towards primevalism, must
have possessed a certain charm, for it attracted vast multitudes; it
was only hemmed, at last, by a physical obstacle.

The supply of caves ran out.

Not till then were its votaries forced to congregate in those unhealthy
clusters which afterwards grew to be monasteries. Where many of them
were gathered together under one roof there imposed itself a certain
rudimentary discipline and subordination; yet they preserved as much as
they could of their savage traits, cave-like cells and hatred of
cleanliness, terror of demons, matted beards.

[Illustration: Chapel of Saint Mark]

Gradually the social habits of mundane fellow-creatures insinuated
themselves into these hives of squalor and idleness. The inmates began
to wash and to shave; they acquired property, they tilled the ground,
they learnt to read and write, and finally became connaisseurs of books
and pictures and wine and women. They were pleased to forget that the
eunuch and the beggar are the true Christian or Buddhist. In other
words, the allurements of rational life grew too strong for their
convictions; they became reasonable beings in spite of their creed.
This is how coenobitism grew out of eremitism not only in Calabria, but
in every part of the world which has been afflicted with these
eccentrics. Go to Mount Athos, if you wish to see specimens of all the
different stages conveniently arranged upon a small area. . . .

This convent of Patir exercised a great local influence as early as the
tenth century; then, towards the end of the eleventh, it was completely
rebuilt without and reorganized within. The church underwent a thorough
restoration in 1672. But it was shattered, together with the rest of
the edifice, by the earthquake of 1836 which, Madonna Achiropita
notwithstanding, levelled to the ground one-half of the fifteen
thousand houses then standing at Rossano.

These monastic establishments, as a general rule, were occupied later
on by the Benedictines, who ousted the Basileans and were supplanted,
in their turn, by popular orders of later days like the Theatines.
Those that are conveniently situated have now been turned into post
offices, municipalities, and other public buildings—such has been the
common procedure. But many of them, like this of Patir, are too decayed
and remote from the life of man. Fiore, who wrote in 1691, counts up 94
dilapidated Basilean monasteries in Calabria out of a former total of
about two hundred; Patir and thirteen others he mentions as having, in
his day, their old rites still subsisting. Batiffol has recently gone
into the subject with his usual thoroughness.

Nothing is uglier than a modern ruin, and the place would assuredly not
be worth the three hours’ ride from Rossano were it not for the church,
which has been repaired, and for the wondrous view to be obtained from
its site. The journey, too, is charming, both by the ordinary track
that descends from Rossano and skirts the foot of the hills through
olives and pebbly stream-beds, ascending, finally, across an odorous
tangle of cistus, rosemary and myrtle to the platform on which the
convent stands—or by the alternative and longer route which I took on
the homeward way, and which follows the old water conduit built by the
monks into a forest of enormous chestnuts, oaks, hollies and Calabrian
pines, emerging out of an ocean of glittering bracken.

I was pursued into the church of Patir by a bevy of country wenches who
frequented this region for purposes of haymaking. There is a miraculous
crucifix in this sanctuary, hidden behind a veil which, with infinite
ceremony, these females withdrew for my edification. There it was, sure
enough; but what, I wondered, would happen from the presence of these
impure creatures in such a place? Things have changed considerably
since the days of old, for such was the contamination to be expected
from the mere
presence of a woman within these walls that even the Mother of God,
while visiting Saint Nilus—the builder, not the great saint—at work
upon the foundations, often conversed with him, but never ventured to
step within the area of the building itself. And later on it was a
well-authenticated phenomenon recorded by Beltrano and others, that if
a female entered the church, the heavens immediately became cloudy and
sent down thunders and lightnings and such-like signs of celestial
disapproval, which never ceased until the offending monster had left
the premises.

From this ancient monastery comes, I fancy, the Achiropita image.
Montorio will tell you all about it; he learnt its history in June 1712
from the local archbishop, who had extracted his information out of the
episcopal archives. Concerning another of these wonder-working
idols—that of S. M. del Patirion—you may read in the ponderous tomes of
Ughelli.

Whether the celebrated Purple Codex of Rossano ever formed part of the
library of Patirion has not yet been determined. This wonderful
parchment—now preserved at Rossano—is mentioned for the first time by
Cesare Malpica, who wrote some interesting things about the Albanian
and Greek colonies in Calabria, but it was only discovered, in the
right sense of that word, in March 1879 by Gebhardt and Harnack. They
illustrated it in their _Evangeliorum Codex Graecus._ Haseloff also
described it in 1898 _(Codex Purpureus Rossanensis),_ and pointed out
that its iconographical value consists in the fact that it is the only
Greek Testament MS. containing pictures of the life of Christ before
the eighth-ninth century. These pictures are indeed marvellous—more
marvellous than beautiful, like so many Byzantine productions; their
value is such that the parchment has now been declared a “national
monument.” It is sternly guarded, and if it is moved out of Rossano—as
happened lately when it was exhibited at Grottaferrata—it travels in
the company of armed carbineers.

Still pursued by the flock of women, I took to examining the floor of
this church, which contains tesselated marble pavements depicting
centaurs, unicorns, lions, stags, and other beasts. But my
contemplation of these choice relics was disturbed by irrelevant
remarks on the part of the worldly females, who discovered in the head
of the stag some subtle peculiarity that stirred their sense of humour.

“Look!” said one of them to her neighbour. “He has horns. Just like
your Pasquale.”

“Pasquale indeed! And how about Antonio?”

I enquired whether they knew what kind of animals these were.

“Beasts of the ancients. Beasts that nobody knows. Beasts that have
horns—like certain Christians. . . .”

From the terrace of green sward that fronts this ruined monastery you
can see the little town of Corigliano, whose coquettish white houses
lie in a fold of the hills. Corigliano—[Greek: xorion hellaion] (land
of olives): the derivation, if not correct, is at least appropriate,
for it lies embowered in a forest of these trees. A gay place it was,
in Bourbon times, with a ducal ruler of its own. Here, they say, the
remnants of the Sybarites took refuge after the destruction of their
city whose desolate plain lies at our feet, backed by the noble range
of Dolcedorme. Swinburne, like a sensible man, takes the Sybarites
under his protection; he defends their artificially shaded streets and
those other signs of voluptuousness which, to judge by certain modern
researches, seem to have been chiefly contrived for combating the demon
of malaria. Earthly welfare, the cult of material health and ease—such
was _their_ ideal.

In sharpest contrast to these strivings stands the aim of those old
monks who scorned the body as a mere encumbrance, seeking spiritual
enlightenment and things not of this earth.

And now, Sybarites and Basileans—alike in ruins!

A man of to-day, asked which of the two civilizations he would wish
restored, would not hesitate long in deciding for the Hellenic one.
Readers of Lenormant will call to mind his glowing pages on the wonders
that might be found buried on the site of Sybaris. His plan of
excavation sounds feasible enough. But how remote it becomes, when one
remembers the case of Herculaneum! Here, to our certain knowledge, many
miracles of antique art and literature lie within a few feet of our
reach; yet nothing is done. These hidden monuments, which are the
heritage of all humanity, are withheld from our eyes by the
dog-in-the-manger policy of a country which, even without foreign
assistance, could easily accomplish the work, were it to employ thereon
only half the sum now spent in feeding, clothing and supervising a
horde of criminals, every one of whom ought to be hanged ten times
over. Meanwhile other nations are forbidden to co-operate; the
fair-minded German proposals were scornfully rejected; later on, those
of Sir Charles Waldstein.

“What!” says the _Giornale d’ Italia, “_are we to have international
excavation-committees thrust upon us? Are we to be treated like the
Turks?”

That, gentle sirs, is precisely the state of the case.

The object of such committees is to do for the good of mankind what a
single nation is powerless or unwilling to do. Your behaviour at
Herculaneum is identical with that of the Turks at Nineveh. The system
adopted should likewise be the same.

I shall never see that consummation.

But I shall not forget a certain article in an American paper—“The New
York Times,” I fancy—which gave me fresh food for thought, here at
Patirion, in the sight of that old Hellenic colony, and with the light
chatter of those women still ringing in my ears. Its writer, with whom
not all of us will agree, declared that first in importance of all the
antiquities buried in Italian soil come the lost poems of Sappho. The
lost poems of Sappho—a singular choice! In corroboration whereof he
quoted the extravagant praise of J. A. Symonds upon that amiable and
ambiguous young person. And he might have added Algernon Swinburne, who
calls her “the greatest poet who ever was at all.”

Sappho and these two Victorians, I said to myself. . . . Why just these
two? How keen is the cry of elective affinity athwart the ages! _The
soul,_ says Plato, _divines that which it seeks, and traces obscurely
the footsteps of its obscure desire._

The footsteps of its obscure desire——

So one stumbles, inadvertently, upon problems of the day concerning
which our sages profess to know nothing. And yet I do perceive a
certain Writing upon the Wall setting forth, in clearest language, that
1 + 1 = 3; a legend which it behoves them not to expunge, but to
expound. For it refuses to be expunged; and we do not need a German
lady to tell us how much the “synthetic” sex, the hornless but not
brainless sex, has done for the life of the spirit while those other
two were reclaiming the waste places of earth, and procreating, and
fighting—as befits their horned anatomy.




XVI
REPOSING AT CASTROVILLARI


I remember asking my friend the Roman deputy of whom I have already
spoken, and whom I regard as a fountain of wisdom on matters Italian,
how it came about that the railway stations in his country were apt to
be so far distant from the towns they serve. Rocca Bernarda, I was
saying, lies 33 kilometres from its station; and even some of the
largest towns in the kingdom are inconveniently and unnecessarily
remote from the line.

“True,” he replied. “Very true! Inconveniently . . . but perhaps not
unnecessarily. . . .” He nodded his head, as he often does, when
revolving some deep problem in his mind.

“Well, sir?”

“Inasmuch as everything has its reasons, be they geographical,
sociological, or otherwise . . .” and he mused again. “Let me tell you
what I think as regards our respective English and Italian points of
view,” he said at last. “And to begin with—a few generalities! We may
hold that success in modern life consists in correctly appreciating the
principles which underlie our experiences—in what may be called the
scientific attitude towards things in general. Now, do the English
cultivate this attitude? Not sufficiently. They are in the stage of
those mediæval scholars who contentedly alleged separate primary causes
for each phenomenon, instead of seeking, by the investigation of
secondary ones, for the inevitable interdependence of the whole. In
other words, they do not subordinate facts; they co-ordinate them. Your
politicians and all your public men are guided by impulse—by
expediency, as they prefer to call it; they are empirical; they never
attempt to codify their conduct; they despise it as theorizing. What
happens? This old-fashioned hand-to-mouth system of theirs invariably
breaks down here and there. And then? Then they trust to some divine
interposition, some accident, to put things to rights again. The
success of the English is largely built up on such accidents—on the
mistakes of other people. Providence has favoured them so far, on the
whole; but one day it
may leave them in the lurch, as it did the anti-scientific Russians in
their war with the Japanese. One day other people will forget to make
these pleasant mistakes.”

He paused, and I forbore to interrupt his eloquence.

“To come now to the practical application—to this particular instance.
Tell me, does your English system testify to any constructive
forethought? In London, I am assured, the railway companies have built
stations at enormous expense in the very heart of the town. What will
be the consequence of this hand-to-mouth policy? This, that in fifty
years such structures will have become obsolete—stranded in slums at
the back of new quarters yet undreamed of. New depots will have to be
built. Whereas in Italy the now distant city will in fifty years have
grown to reach its station and, in another half-century, will have
encircled it. Thanks to our sagacity, the station will then be in its
proper place, in the centre of the town. Our progeny will be grateful;
and that again, you will admit, is a worthy aim for our politicians.
Besides, what would happen to our coachmen if nobody needed their
services on arriving at his destination? The poor men must not be
allowed to starve! Cold head and warm heart, you know; humanitarian
considerations cannot be thrust aside by a community that prides itself
on being truly civilized. I trust I have made myself intelligible?”

“You always do. But why should I incommode myself to please your
progeny, or even my own? And I don’t like the kind of warm heart that
subordinates my concerns to those of a cab-driver. You don’t altogether
convince me, dear sir.”

“To speak frankly, I sometimes don’t convince myself. My own country
station, for example, is curiously remote from the city, and it is
annoying on wintry nights to drive through six miles of level mud when
you are anxious to reach home and dinner; so much so that, in my
egoistical moments, I would have been glad if our administration had
adopted the more specious British method. But come now! You cannot
raise that objection against the terminus at Rome.”

“Not that one. But I can raise two others. The platforms are
inconveniently arranged, and a traveller will often find it impossible
to wash his hands and face there; as to hot water——”

“Granting a certain deplorable disposition of the lines—why on earth,
pray, should a man cleanse himself at the station when there are
countless hotels and lodging-houses in the city? O you English
originals!”

“And supposing,” I urged, “he is in a hurry to catch another train
going south, to Naples or Palermo?”

“There I have you, my illustrious friend! _Nobody travels south of
Rome.”_

Nobody travels south of Rome. . . .

Often have I thought upon those words.

This conversation was forcibly recalled to my mind by the fact that it
took our creaky old diligence two and a half hours (one of the horses
had been bought the day before, for six pounds) to drive from the
station of Castrovillari to the entrance of the town, where we were
delayed another twenty minutes, while the octroi zealots searched
through every bag and parcel on the post-waggon.

Many people have said bad things about this place. But my once
unpleasant impressions of it have been effaced by my reception at its
new and decent little hostelry. What a change after the sordid filth of
Rossano! Castrovillari, to be sure, has no background of hoary eld to
atone for such deficiencies. It was only built the other day, by the
Normans; or by the Romans, who called it Aprustum; or possibly by the
Greeks, who founded their Abystron on this particular site for the same
reasons that commended it in yet earlier times to certain bronze and
stone age primitives, whose weapons you may study in the British Museum
and elsewhere.[1]

 [1] Even so Taranto, Cumae, Paestum, Metapontum, Monteleone and other
 southern towns were founded by the ancients on the site of prehistoric
 stations.

But what are the stone ages compared with immortal and immutable
Rossano? An ecclesiastical writer has proved that Calabria was
inhabited before the Noachian flood; and Rossano, we may be sure, was
one of the favourite haunts of the antediluvians. None the less, it is
good to rest in a clean bed, for a change; and to feed off a clean
plate.

We are in the south. One sees it in sundry small ways—in the behaviour
of the cats, for instance. . . .

The Tarentines, they say, imported the cat into Europe. If those of
south Italy still resemble their old Nubian ancestors, the beast would
assuredly not have been worth the trouble of acclimatizing. On entering
these regions, one of the first things that strikes me is the
difference between the appearance of cats and dogs hereabouts, and in
England or any northern country; and the difference in their
temperaments. Our dogs are alert in their movements and of wideawake
features; here they are drowsy and degraded mongrels, with
expressionless eyes. Our cats are sleek and slumberous; here they prowl
about haggard,
shifty and careworn, their fur in patches and their ears a-tremble from
nervous anxiety. That domestic animals such as these should be fed at
home does not commend itself to the common people; they must forage for
their food abroad. Dogs eat offal, while the others hunt for lizards in
the fields. A lizard diet is supposed to reduce their weight (it would
certainly reduce mine); but I suspect that southern cats are emaciated
not only from this cause, but from systematic starvation. Many a kitten
is born that never tastes a drop of cow’s milk from the cradle to the
grave, and little enough of its own mother’s.

To say that our English _zoophilomania_—our cult of lap-dogs—smacks of
degeneracy does not mean that I sympathize with the ill-treatment of
beasts which annoys many visitors to these parts and has been
attributed to “Saracenic” influences. Wrongly, of course; one might as
well attribute it to the old Greeks.[2] Poor Saracens! They are a sort
of whipping-boy, all over the country. The chief sinner in this respect
is the Vatican, which has authorized cruelty to animals by its official
teaching. When Lord Odo Russell enquired of the Pope regarding the
foundation of a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals in
Italy, the papal answer was: “Such an association _could not be
sanctioned_ by the Holy See, being founded on a theological error, to
wit, that Christians owed any duties to animals.” This language has the
inestimable and rather unusual merit of being perspicuous.
Nevertheless, Ouida’s flaming letters to “The Times” inaugurated an era
of truer humanity. . . .

 [2] Whose attitude towards animals, by the way, was as far removed
 from callousness as from sentimentalism. We know how those Hellenic
 oxen fared who had laboured to draw up heavy blocks for the building
 of a temple—how, on the completion of their task, they were led into
 green fields, there to pasture unmolested for the rest of their lives.
 We know that the Greeks were appreciative of the graces and virtues of
 canine nature—is not the Homeric Argo still the finest dog-type in
 literature? Yet to them the dog, even he of the tender Anthology,
 remained what he is: a tamed beast. The Greeks, sitting at dinner,
 resented the insolence of a creature that, watching every morsel as it
 disappeared into the mouth of its master, plainly discovered by its
 physiognomy the desire, the presumed right, to devour what he
 considered fit only for himself. Whence that profound word [Greek:
 kunopes]—dog-eyed, shameless. In contrast to this sanity, observe what
 an Englishman can read into a dog’s eye:

                    That liquid, melancholy eye,
                    From whose pathetic, soul-fed springs
                    Seemed surging the Virgilian cry—
                    The sense of tears in mortal things. . . .

That is how Matthew Arnold interprets the feelings of Fido, watching
his master at work upon a tender beefsteak. . . .

[Illustration: Shoeing a Cow]

And the lateness of the dining-hour—another symptom of the south. It
was eleven o’clock when I sat down to dinner on the night of my
arrival, and habitues of the hotel, engineers and so
forth, were still dropping in for their evening meal. Appetite comes
more slowly than ever, now that the heats have begun.

They have begun in earnest. The swoon of summer is upon the land, the
grass is cut, cicadas are chirping overhead. Despite its height of a
thousand feet, Castrovillari must be blazing in August, surrounded as
it is by parched fields and an amphitheatre of bare limestone hills
that exhale the sunny beams. You may stroll about these fields
observing the construction of the line which is to pass through
Cassano, a pretty place, famous for its wine and mineral springs; or
studying the habits of the gigantic grasshoppers that hang in clusters
to the dried thistles and start off, when scared, with the noise of a
covey of partridges; or watching how the cows are shod, at this season,
to thresh the corn. Old authors are unanimous in declaring that the
town was embowered in oak forests; as late as 1844 it was lamented that
this “ancient barbarous custom” of cutting them down had not yet been
discontinued. The mischief is now done, and it would be interesting to
know the difference between the present summer temperature and that of
olden days.

The manna ash used to be cultivated in these parts. I cannot tell
whether its purgative secretion is still in favour. The confusion
between this stuff and the biblical manna gave rise to the legends
about Calabria where “manna droppeth as dew from Heaven.” Sandys says
it was prepared out of the mulberry. He copied assiduously, did old
Sandys, and yet found room for some original blunders of his own. R.
Pococke, by the way, is one of those who were dissatisfied with
Castrovillari. He found no accommodation save an empty house. “A poor
town.” . . .

Driving through modern Castrovillari one might think the place flat and
undeserving of the name of _castrum._ But the old town is otherwise. It
occupies a proud eminence—the head of a promontory which overlooks the
junction of two streams; the newer settlement stands on the more level
ground at its back. This acropolis, once thronged with folk but now
well-nigh deserted, has all the macabre fascination of decay. A mildewy
spirit haunts those tortuous and uneven roadways; plaster drops
unheeded from the walls; the wild fig thrusts luxuriant arms through
the windows of palaces whose balconies are rusted and painted loggias
crumbling to earth ... a mournful and malarious agglomeration of ruins.

There is a castle, of course. It was built, or rebuilt, by the
Aragonese, with four corner towers, one of which became
infamous for a scene that rivals the horrors of the Black Hole of
Calcutta. Numbers of confined brigands, uncared-for, perished miserably
of starvation within its walls. Says the historian Botta:

“The abominable taint prevented the guards from approaching; the dead
bodies were not carried away. The pestilence increased; in pain and
exhaustion, the dying fell shuddering on the dead; the hale on the
dying; all tearing themselves like dogs with teeth and nails. The tower
of Castrovillari became a foul hole of corruption, and the stench was
spread abroad for a long season.”

This castle is now used as a place of confinement. Sentries warned me
at one point not to approach too near the walls; it was “forbidden.” I
had no particular desire to disobey this injunction. Judging by the
number of rats that swarm about the place, it is not exactly a model
prison.

One of the streets in this dilapidated stronghold bears to this day the
inscription “Giudea,” or Jewry. Southern Italy was well stocked with
those Hebrews concerning whom Mr. H. M. Adler has sagely discoursed.
They lived in separate districts, and seem to have borne a good
reputation. Those of Castrovillari, on being ejected by Ferdinand the
Catholic in 1511, obligingly made a donation of their school to the
town. But they returned anon, and claimed it again. Persecuted as they
were, they never suffered the martyrdom of the ill-starred Waldensian
colonies in Calabria.

The houses of this Jewry overlook the Coscile river, the Sybaris of
old, and from a spot in the quarter a steep path descends to its banks.
Here you will find yourself in another climate, cool and moist. The
livid waters tumble gleefully towards the plain, amid penurious plots
of beans and tomatoes, and a fierce tangle of vegetation wherever the
hand of man has not made clearings. Then, mounting aloft once more, you
will do well to visit the far-famed chapel that sits at the apex of the
promontory, Santa Maria del Castello. There is a little platform where
you may repose and enjoy the view, as I have done for some evenings
past—letting the eye roam up-country towards Dolcedorme and its sister
peaks, and westwards over the undulating Sila lands whose highest
point, Botte Donato, is unmistakable even at this distance of forty
miles, from its peculiar shape.

The Madonna picture preserved within the sanctuary has performed so
many miracles in ages past that I despair of giving any account of
them. It is high time, none the less, for a new sign from Heaven.
Shattered by earthquakes, the chapel is in a disruptured and even
menacing condition. Will some returned emigrant from America come
forward with the necessary funds?
That would be a miracle, too, in its way. But gone, for the present,
are the ages of Faith—the days when the peevishly-protestant J. H.
Bartels sojourned here and groaned as he counted up the seven
monasteries of Castrovillari (there used to be nearly twice that
number), and viewed the 130 priests, “fat-paunched rascals, loafing
about the streets and doorways.” . . .

From my window in the hotel I espy a small patch of snow on the hills.
I know the place; it is the so-called “Montagna del Principe” past
which the track winds into the Pollino regions. Thither I am bound; but
so complicated is life that even for a short three days’ ramble among
those forests a certain amount of food and clothing must be provided—a
mule is plainly required. There seem to be none of these beasts
available at Castrovillari.

“To Morano!” they tell me. “It is nearer the mountain, and there you
will find mules plentiful as blackberries. To Morano!”

Morano lies a few miles higher up the valley on the great military road
to Lagonegro, which was built by Murat and cuts through the interior of
Basilicata, rising at Campo Tenese to a height of 1100 metres. They are
now running a public motor service along this beautiful stretch of 52
kilometres, at the cheap rate of a sou per kilometre.

_En route!_

POSTSCRIPT.—Another symptom of the south:

Once you have reached the latitude of Naples, the word _grazie_ (thank
you) vanishes from the vocabulary of all save the most cultured. But to
conclude therefrom that one is among a thankless race is not altogether
the right inference. They have a wholly different conception of the
affair. Our septentrional “thanks” is a complicated product in which
gratefulness for things received and for things to come are
unconsciously balanced; while their point of view differs in nothing
from that of the beau-ideal of Greek courtesy, of Achilles, whose
mother procured for him a suit of divine armour from Hephaistos, which
he received without a word of acknowledgment either for her or for the
god who had been put to some little trouble in the matter. A thing
given they regard as a thing found, a hermaion, a happy hit in the
lottery of life; the giver is the blind instrument of Fortune. This
chill attitude repels us; and our effusive expressions of thankfulness
astonish these people and the Orientals.

A further difference is that the actual gift is viewed quite
extrinsically, intellectually, either in regard to what it would fetch
if bartered or sold, or, if to be kept, as to how far its possession
may raise the recipient in the eyes of other men. This is purely
Homeric, once more—Homeric or primordial, if you prefer. Odysseus told
his kind host Alkinoos, whom he was never to see again, that he would
be glad to receive farewell presents from him—to cherish as a friendly
memory? No, but “because they would make him look a finer fellow when
he got home.” The idea of a keepsake, of an emotional value attaching
to some trifle, is a northern one. Here life is give and take, and
lucky he who takes more than he gives; it is what Professor Mahaffy
calls the “ingrained selfishness of the Greek character.” Speaking of
all below the upper classes, I should say that disinterested
benevolence is apt to surpass their comprehension, a good-natured
person being regarded as weak in the head.

Has this man, then, no family, that he should benefit strangers? Or is
he one of nature’s unfortunates—soft-witted? Thus they argue. They will
do acts of spontaneous kindness towards their family, far oftener than
is customary with us. But outside that narrow sphere, _interesse_
(Odyssean self-advantage) is the mainspring of their actions. Whence
their smooth and glozing manners towards the stranger, and those
protestations of undying affection which beguile the unwary—they wish
to be forever in your good graces, for sooner or later you may be of
use; and if perchance you do content them, they will marvel
(philosophically) at your grotesque generosity, your lack of
discrimination and restraint. Such _malizia_ (cleverness) is none the
more respectable for being childishly transparent. The profound and
unscrupulous northerner quickly familiarizes himself with its
technique, and turns it to his own profit. Lowering his moral notions,
he soon—so one of them expressed it to me—“walks round them without
getting off his chair” and, on the strength of his undeserved
reputation for simplicity and fair dealing, keeps them dangling a
lifetime in a tremble of obsequious amiability, cheered on by the hope
of ultimately over-reaching him. Idle dream, where a pliant and
sanguine southerner is pitted against the unswerving Saxon or Teuton!
This accounts for the success of foreign trading houses in the south.
Business is business, and the devil take the hindmost! By all means;
but they who are not rooted to the spot by commercial exigencies nor
ready to adopt debased standards of conduct will find that a prolonged
residence in a centre like Naples—the daily attrition of its
ape-and-tiger elements—sullies their homely candour and self-respect.

For a tigerish flavour does exist in most of these southern towns.
Camorra, the law of intimidation, rules the city. This is what Stendhal
meant when, speaking of the “simple and inoffensive” personages in the
_Vicar of Wakefield,_ he remarked that “in the sombre Italy, a simple
and inoffensive creature would be quickly destroyed.” It is not easy to
be inoffensive and yet respected in a land of teeth and claws, where a
man is reverenced in proportion as he can browbeat his fellows. So much
ferocity tinctures civic life, that had they not dwelt in towns while
we were still shivering in bogs, one would deem them not yet ripe for
herding together in large numbers; one would say that post-patriarchal
conditions evoked the worst qualities of the race. And we must revise
our conceptions of fat and lean men; we must pity Cassius, and dread
Falstaff.

“What has happened”—you ask some enormous individual—“to your adversary
at law?”

“To which one of them?”

“Oh, Signor M——, the timber merchant.”

“_L’abbiamo mangiato!_” (I have eaten him.)

Beware of the fat Neapolitan. He is fat from prosperity, from, dining
off his leaner brothers.

Which reminds me of a supremely important subject, eating.

The feeding here is saner than ours with its all-pervading animal
grease (even a boiled egg tastes of mutton fat in England), its
stock-pot, suet, and those other inventions of the devil whose awful
effects we only survive because we are continually counteracting or
eliminating them by the help of (1) pills, (2) athletics, and (3)
alcohol. Saner as regards material, but hopelessly irrational in
method. Your ordinary employé begins his day with a thimbleful of black
coffee, nothing more. What work shall be got out of him. under such
anti-hygienic conditions? Of course it takes ten men to do the work of
one; and of course all ten of them are sulky and irritable throughout
the morning, thinking only of their luncheon. Then indeed—then they
make up for lost time; those few favoured ones, at least, who can
afford it.

I once watched a young fellow, a clerk of some kind, in a restaurant at
midday. He began by informing the waiter that he had no appetite that
morning—_sangue di Dio!_ no appetite whatever; but at last allowed
himself to be persuaded into consuming a _hors d’ oeuvres_ of anchovies
and olives. Then he was induced to try the maccheroni, because they
were “particularly good that morning”; he ate, or rather drank, an
immense plateful. After that came some slices of meat and a dish of
green stuff sufficient to satisfy a starving bullock. A little fish?
asked the
waiter. Well, perhaps yes, just for form’s sake—two fried mullets and
some nondescript fragments. Next, he devoured a couple of raw eggs “on
account of his miserably weak stomach,” a bowl of salad and a goodly
lump of fresh cheese. Not without a secret feeling of envy I left him
at work upon his dessert, of which he had already consumed some six
peaches. Add to this (quite an ordinary repast) half a bottle of heavy
wine, a cup of black coffee and three glasses of water—what work shall
be got out of a man after such a boa-constrictor collation? He is as
exasperated and prone to take offence as in the morning—this time from
another cause. . . .

That is why so many of them suffer from chronic troubles of the
digestive organs. The head of a hospital at Naples tells me that
stomach diseases are more prevalent there than in any other part of
Europe, and the stomach, whatever sentimentalists may say to the
contrary, being the true seat of the emotions, it follows that a
judicious system of dieting might work wonders upon their development.
Nearly all Mediterranean races have been misfed from early days; that
is why they are so small. I would undertake to raise the Italian
standard of height by several inches, if I had control of their
nutrition for a few centuries. I would undertake to alter their whole
outlook upon life, to convert them from utilitarians into
romantics—were such a change desirable. For if utilitarianism be the
shadow of starvation, romance is nothing but the vapour of repletion.

And yet men still talk of race-characteristics as of something fixed
and immutable! The Jews, so long as they starved in Palestine, were the
most acrimonious bigots on earth. Now that they live and feed sensibly,
they have learnt to see things in their true perspective—they have
become rationalists. Their less fortunate fellow-Semites, the Arabs,
have continued to starve and to swear by the Koran—empty in body and
empty in mind. No poise or balance is possible to those who live in
uneasy conditions. The wisest of them can only attain to stoicism—a
dumb protest against the environment. There are no stoics among
well-fed people. The Romans made that discovery for themselves, when
they abandoned the cheese-paring habits of the Republic.

In short, it seems to me that virtues and vices which cannot be
expressed in physiological terms are not worth talking about; that when
a morality refuses to derive its sanction from the laws which govern
our body, it loses the right to exist. This being so, what is the most
conspicuous native vice?

Envy, without a doubt.

Out of envy they pine away and die; out of envy they kill one another.
To produce a more placid race,[3] to dilute envious thoughts and the
acts to which they lead, is at bottom a question of nutrition. One
would like to know for how much black brooding and for how many
revengeful deeds that morning thimbleful of black coffee is
responsible.

 [3] By placid I do not mean peace-loving and pitiful in the Christian
 sense. That doctrine of loving and forgiving one’s enemies is based on
 sheer funk; our pity for others is dangerously akin to self-pity, most
 odious of vices. Catholic teaching—in practice, if not in
 theory—-glides artfully over the desirability of these imported
 freak-virtues, knowing that they cannot appeal to a masculine stock.
 By placid I mean steady, self-contained.

The very faces one sees in the streets would change. Envy is reflected
in all too many of those of the middle classes, while the poorest
citizens are often haggard and distraught from sheer hunger—hunger
which has not had time to be commuted into moral poison; college-taught
men, in responsible positions, being forced to live on salaries which a
London lift-boy would disdain. When that other local feature, that
respect for honourable poverty—the reverse of what we see in England
where, since the days of the arch-snob Pope, a slender income has grown
to be considered a subject of reproach.

And yet another symptom of the south——

Enough! The clock points to 6.20; it is time for an evening walk—my
final one—to the terrace of S. M. del Castello.




XVII
OLD MORANO


This Morano is a very ancient city; Tufarelli, writing in 1598, proves
that it was then exactly 3349 years old. Oddly enough, therefore, its
foundation almost coincides with that of Rossano. . . .

There may be mules at Morano; indeed, there are. But they are illusive
beasts: phantom-mules. Despite the assistance of the captain of the
carbineers, the local innkeeper, the communal policeman, the secretary
of the municipality, an amiable canon of the church and several
non-official residents, I vainly endeavoured, for three days, to
procure one—flitting about, meanwhile, between this place and
Castrovillari. For Morano, notwithstanding its size (they say it is
larger than the other town) offers no accommodation or food in the
septentrional sense of those terms.

Its situation, as you approach from Castrovillari, is striking. The
white houses stream in a cataract down one side of a steep conical hill
that dominates the landscape—on the summit sits the inevitable castle,
blue sky peering through its battered windows. But the interior is not
at all in keeping with this imposing aspect. Morano, so far as I was
able to explore it, is a labyrinth of sombre, tortuous and fetid
alleys, where black pigs wallow amid heaps of miscellaneous and
malodorous filth—in short, the town exemplifies that particular idea of
civic liberty which consists in everybody being free to throw their own
private refuse into the public street and leave it there, from
generation to generation. What says Lombroso? “The street-cleaning is
entrusted, in many towns, to the rains of heaven and, in their absence,
to the voracity of the pigs.” None the less, while waiting for mules
that never came, I took to patrolling those alleys, at first out of
sheer boredom, but soon impelled by that subtle fascination which
emanates from the _ne plus ultra_ of anything—even of grotesque
dirtiness. On the second day, however, a case of cholera was announced,
which chilled my ardour for further investigations. It was on that
account that I failed to inspect what was afterwards described to me as
the chief marvel of the place—a carved wooden altar-piece in a certain
church.

_“_It is prodigious and _antichissimo,”_ said an obliging citizen to
whom I applied for information. “There is nothing like it on earth, and
I have been six times to America, sir. The artist—a real artist, mind
you, not a common professor—spent his whole life in carving it. It was
for the church, you see, and he wanted to show what he could do in the
way of a masterpiece. Then, when it was finished and in its place, the
priests refused to pay for it. It was made not for them, they said, but
for the glory of God; the man’s reward was sufficient. And besides, he
could have remission of sins for the rest of his life. He said he did
not care about remission of sins; he wanted money—money! But he got
nothing. Whereupon he began to brood and to grow yellow. Money—money!
That was all he ever said. And at last he became quite green and died.
After that, his son took up the quarrel, but he got as little out of
the priests as the father. It was fixed in the church, you understand,
and he could not take it away. He climbed through the window one night
and tried to burn it—the marks are there to this day—but they were too
sharp for him. And he took the business so much to heart that he also
soon died quite young! And quite green—like his father.”

The most characteristic item in the above history is that about growing
green. People are apt to put on this colour in the south from
disappointment or from envy. They have a proverb which runs “sfoga o
schiatta”—relieve yourself or burst; our vaunted ideal of
self-restraint, of dominating the reflexes, being thought not only
fanciful but injurious to health. Therefore, if relief is thwarted,
they either brood themselves into a green melancholy, or succumb to a
sudden “colpo di sangue,” like a young woman of my acquaintance who,
considering herself beaten in a dispute with a tram-conductor about a
penny, forthwith had a “colpo di sangue,” and was dead in a few hours.
A primeval assertion of the ego . . .

Unable to perambulate the streets of Morano, I climbed to the ruined
fortress along the verdant slope at its back, and enjoyed a fair view
down the fertile valley, irrigated by streamlets and planted with
many-hued patches of culture, with mulberries, pomegranates and
poplars. Some boys were up here, engaged in fishing—fishing for young
kestrels in their nest above a shattered gateway. The tackle consisted
of a rod with a bent piece of wire fixed to one end, and it seemed to
me a pretty unpromising form of sport. But suddenly, amid wild
vociferations, they hooked one, and carried it off in triumph to
supper. The mother bird, meanwhile, sailed restlessly about the aether
watching every movement,
as I could see by my glasses; at times she drifted quite near, then
swerved again and hovered, with vibrating pinions, directly overhead.
It was clear that she could not tear herself away from the scene, and
hardly had the marauders departed, when she alighted on the wall and
began to inspect what was left of her dwelling. It was probably rather
untidy. I felt sorry for her; yet such harebrained imprudence cannot go
unpunished. With so many hundred crannies in this old castle, why
choose one which any boy can reach with a stick? She will know better
next season.

Then an old shepherd scrambled up, and sat on the stone beside me. He
was short-sighted, asthmatic, and unable to work; the doctor had
recommended an evening walk up to the castle. We conversed awhile, and
he extracted a carnation out of his waistcoat pocket—unusual receptacle
for flowers—which he presented to me. I touched upon the all-absorbing
topic of mules.

“ Mules are very busy animals in Morano,” he explained. _“Animali
occupatissimi.”_ However, he promised to exert himself on my behalf; he
knew a man with a mule—two mules—he would send him round, if possible.

Quite a feature in the landscape of Morano is the costume of the women,
with their home-dyed red skirts and ribbons of the same hue plaited
into their hair. It is a beautiful and reposeful shade of red, between
Pompeian and brick-colour, and the tint very closely resembles that of
the cloth worn by the beduin (married) women of Tunisia. Maybe it was
introduced by the Saracens. And it is they, I imagine, who imported
that love of red peppers (a favourite dish with most Orientals) which
is peculiar to these parts, where they eat them voraciously in every
form, particularly in that of red sausages seasoned with these fiery
condiments.

[Illustration: Morano]

The whole country is full of Saracen memories. The name of Morano, they
say, is derived from _moro_,[1] a Moor; and in its little piazza—an
irregular and picturesque spot, shaded by a few grand old elms amid the
sound of running waters—there is a sculptured head of a Moor inserted
into the wall, commemorative, I was told, of some ancient anti-Saracen
exploit. It is the escutcheon of the town. This Moor wears a red fez,
and his features are painted black (this is _de rigueur,_ for
“Saracens”); he bears the legend _Vivit_
_sub arbore morus._ Near at hand, too, lies the prosperous village
Saracena, celebrated of old for its muscatel wines. They are made from
the grape which the Saracens brought over from Maskat, and planted all
over Sicily.[2]

 [1] This is all wrong, of course. And equally wrong is the derivation
 from _morus,_ a mulberry—abundant as these trees are. And more wrong
 still, if possible, is that which is drawn from a saying of the
 mysterious Oenotrians—that useful tribe—who, wandering in search of
 homesteads across these regions and observing their beauty, are
 supposed to have remarked: _Hic moremur—_here let us stay! Morano
 (strange to say) is simply the Roman Muranum.

 [2] See next chapter.

The men of Morano emigrate to America; two-thirds of the adult and
adolescent male population are at this moment on the other side of the
Atlantic. But the oldsters, with their peaked hats (capello pizzuto)
shading gnarled and canny features, are well worth studying. At this
summer season they leave the town at 3.30 a.m. to cultivate their
fields, often far distant, returning at nightfall; and to observe these
really wonderful types, which will soon be extinct, you must take up a
stand on the Castrovillari road towards sunset and watch them riding
home on their donkeys, or walking, after the labours of the day.

Poorly dressed, these peasants are none the less wealthy; the post
office deposit of Morano is said to have two million francs to its
credit, mostly the savings of these humble cultivators, who can
discover an astonishing amount of money when it is a question, for
example, of providing their daughters with a dowry. The bridal dress
alone, a blaze of blue silk and lace and gold embroidery, costs between
six hundred and a thousand francs. Altogether, Morano is a rich place,
despite its sordid appearance; it is also celebrated as the birthplace
of various learned men. The author of the “Calascione Scordato,” a
famous Neapolitan poem of the seventeenth century, certainly lived here
for some time and has been acclaimed as a son of Morano, though he
distinctly speaks of Naples as his home. Among its elder literary
glories is that Leonardo Tufarelli, who thus apostrophizes his
birthplace:

“And to proceed—how many _letterati_ and _virtuosi_ have issued from
you in divers times? Among whom—not to name all of them—there has been
in our days Leopardo de l’Osso of happy memory, physician and most
excellent philosopher, singular in every science, of whom I dare say
that he attained to Pythagorean heights. How many are there to-day,
versed in every faculty, in theology, in the two laws, and in medicine?
How many historians, how many poets, grammarians, artists, actors?”

The modern writer Nicola Leoni is likewise a child of Morano; his
voluminous “Della Magna Grecia e delle Tre Calabrie” appeared in
1844-1846. He, too, devotes much space to the praises of his natal
city, and to lamentations regarding the sad condition of Calabrian
letters during those dark years.

“Closed for ever is the academy of Amantea! Closed for ever is
the academy of Rossano! Rare are the lectures in the academy of
Monteleone! Rare indeed the lectures in the academy of Catanzaro!
Closed for ever is the public library of Monteleone! O ancient days! O
wisdom of our fathers! Where shall I find you?.. .”

To live the intellectual life amid the ferociously squalid surroundings
of Morano argues an enviable philosophic calm—a detachment bordering on
insensibility. But perhaps we are too easily influenced by externals,
in these degenerate times. Or things may have been better in days of
old—who can tell? One always likes to think so, though the evidence
usually points to the contrary.

When least I expected it, a possessor of mules presented himself. He
was a burly ruffian of northern extraction, with clear eyes, fair
moustache, and an insidious air of cheerfulness.

Yes, he had a mule, he said; but as to climbing the mountain for three
or four days on end—ha, ha!—that was rather an undertaking, you know.
Was I aware that there were forests and snow up there? Had I ever been
up the mountain? Indeed! Well, then I must know that there was no
food——

I pointed to my store of provisions from Castrovillari. His eye
wandered lovingly over the pile and reposed, finally, upon sundry odd
bottles and a capacious demijohn, holding twelve litres.

“Wine of family,” I urged. “None of your eating-house stuff.”

He thought he could manage it, after all. Yes; the trip could be
undertaken, with a little sacrifice. And he had a second mule, a
lady-mule, which it struck him I might like to ride now and then; a
pleasant beast and a companion, so to speak, for the other one. Two
mules and two Christians—that seemed appropriate. . . . And only four
francs a day more.

Done! It was really cheap. So cheap, that I straightway grew suspicious
of the “lady-mule.”

We sealed the bargain in a glass of the local mixture, and I thereupon
demanded a _caparra—_a monetary security that he would keep his word,
i.e. be round at my door with the animals at two in the morning, so as
to reach the uplands before the heat became oppressive.

His face clouded—a good omen, indicating that he was beginning to
respect me. Then he pulled out his purse, and reluctantly laid two
francs on the table.

[Illustration: An old Shepherd]

The evening was spent in final preparations; I retired early to bed,
and tried to sleep. One o’clock came, and two o’clock, and
three o’clock—no mules! At four I went to the man’s house, and woke him
out of ambrosial slumbers.

“You come to see me so early in the morning?” he enquired, sitting up
in bed and rubbing his eyes. “Now that’s really nice of you.”

One of the mules, he airily explained, had lost a shoe in the
afternoon. He would get it put right at once—at once.

“You might have told me so yesterday evening, instead of keeping me
awake all night waiting for you.”

“True,” he replied. “I thought of it at the time. But then I went to
bed, and slept. Ah, sir, it is good to sleep!” and he stretched himself
voluptuously.

The beast was shod, and at 5 a.m. we left.




XVIII
AFRICAN INTRUDERS


There is a type of physiognomy here which is undeniably Semitic—with
curly hair, dusky skin and hooked nose. We may take it to be of
Saracenic origin, since a Phoenician descent is out of the question,
while mediæval Jews never intermarried with Christians. It is the same
class of face which one sees so abundantly at Palermo, the former
metropolis of these Africans. The accompanying likeness is that of a
native of Cosenza, a town that was frequently in their possession.
Eastern traits of character, too, have lingered among the populace. So
the humour of the peddling Semite who will allow himself to be called
by the most offensive epithets rather than lose a chance of gaining a
sou; who, eternally professing poverty, cannot bear to be twitted on
his notorious riches; their ceaseless talk of hidden treasures, their
secretiveness and so many other little Orientalisms that whoever has
lived in the East will be inclined to echo the observation of Edward
Lear’s Greek servant: “These men are Arabs, but they have more clothes
on.”

Many Saracenic words (chiefly of marine and commercial import) have
survived from this period; I could quote a hundred or more, partly in
the literary language (balio, dogana, etc.), partly in dialect (cala,
tavuto, etc.) and in place-names such as Tamborio (the Semitic Mount
Tabor), Kalat (Calatafimi), Marsa (Marsala).

Dramatic plays with Saracen subjects are still popular with the lower
classes; you can see them acted in any of the coast towns. In fact, the
recollection of these intruders is very much alive to this day. They
have left a deep scar.

Such being the case, it is odd to find local writers hardly referring
to the Saracenic period. Even a modern like l’Occaso, who describes the
Castrovillari region in a conscientious fashion, leaps directly from
Greco-Roman events into those of the Normans. But this is in accordance
with the time-honoured ideal of writing such works: to say nothing in
dispraise of your subject (an exception may be made in favour of
Spano-Bolani’s History of Reggio). Malaria and earthquakes and Saracen
irruptions are
awkward arguments when treating of the natural attractions and
historical glories of your native place. So the once renowned
descriptions of this province by Grano and the rest of them are little
more than rhetorical exercises; they are “Laus Calabriæ.” And
then—their sources of information were limited and difficult of access.
Collective works like those of Muratori and du Chesne had not appeared
on the market; libraries were restricted to convents; and it was not to
be expected that they should know all the chroniclers of the
Byzantines, Latins, Lombards, Normans and Hohenstaufen—to say nothing
of Arab writers like Nowairi, Abulfeda, Ibn Chaldun and Ibn Alathir—who
throw a little light on those dark times, and are now easily accessible
to scholars.

Dipping into this old-world literature of murders and prayers, we
gather that in pre-Saracenic times the southern towns were denuded of
their garrisons, and their fortresses fallen into disrepair. “Nec erat
formido aut metus bellorum, quoniam alta pace omnes gaudebant usque ad
tempora Saracenorum.” In this part of Italy, as well as at Taranto and
other parts of old “Calabria,” the invaders had an easy task before
them, at first.

In 873, on their return from Salerno, they poured into Calabria, and by
884 already held several towns, such as Tropea and Amantea, but were
driven out temporarily. In 899 they ravaged, says Hepidanus, the
country of the Lombards (? Calabria). In 900 they destroyed Reggio, and
renewed their incursions in 919, 923, 924, 925, 927, till the Greek
Emperor found it profitable to pay them an annual tribute. In 953, this
tribute not being forthcoming, they defeated the Greeks in Calabria,
and made further raids in 974, 975; 976, 977, carrying off a large
store of captives and wealth. In 981 Otto II repulsed them at Cotrone,
but was beaten the following year near Squillace, and narrowly escaped
capture. It was one of the most romantic incidents of these wars.
During the years 986, 988, 991, 994, 998, 1002, 1003 they were
continually in the country; indeed, nearly every year at the beginning
of the eleventh century is marked by some fresh inroad. In 1009 they
took Cosenza for the third or fourth time; in 1020 they were at
Bisignano in the Crati valley, and returned frequently into those
parts, defeating, in 1025, a Greek army under Orestes, and, in 1031,
the assembled forces of the Byzantine Catapan——[1]

 [1] I have not seen Moscato’s “Cronaca dei Musulmani in Calabria,”
 where these authorities might be conveniently tabulated. It must be a
 rare book. Martorana deals only with the Saracens of Sicily.

No bad record, from their point of view.

But they never attained their end, the subjection of the
mainland. And their methods involved appalling and enduring evils.

Yet the presumable intent or ambition of these aliens must be called
reasonable enough. They wished to establish a provincial government
here on the same lines as in Sicily, of which island it has been said
that it was never more prosperous than under their administration.

Literature, trade, industry, and all the arts of peace are described as
flourishing there; in agriculture they paid especial attention to the
olive; they initiated, I believe, the art of terracing and irrigating
the hill-sides; they imported the date-palm, the lemon and sugar-cane
(making the latter suffice not only for home consumption, but for
export); their silk manufactures were unsurpassed. Older writers like
Mazzella speak of the abundant growth of sugar-cane in Calabria
(Capialbi, who wallowed in learning, has a treatise on the subject);
John Evelyn saw it cultivated near Naples; it is now extinct from
economical and possibly climatic causes. They also introduced the
papyrus into Sicily, as well as the cotton-plant, which used to be
common all over south Italy, where I have myself seen it growing.

All this sounds praiseworthy, no doubt. But I see no reason why they
should have governed Sicily better than they did North Africa, which
crumbled into dust at their touch, and will take many long centuries to
recover its pre-Saracen prosperity. There is something flame-like and
anti-constructive in the Arab, with his pastoral habits and contempt of
forethought. In favour of their rule, much capital has been made out of
Benjamin of Tudela’s account of Palermo. But it must not be forgotten
that his brief visit was made a hundred years after the Norman
occupation had begun. Palermo, he says, has about 1500 Jews and a large
number of Christians and Mohammedans; Sicily “contains all the pleasant
things of this world.” Well, so it did in pre-Saracen times; so it does
to-day. Against the example of North Africa, no doubt, may be set their
activities in Spain.

[Illustration: The “Saracenic” Type]

They have been accused of destroying the old temples of Magna Gracia
from religious or other motives. I do not believe it; this was against
their usual practice. They sacked monasteries, because these were
fortresses defended by political enemies and full of gold which they
coveted; but in their African possessions, during all this period, the
ruins of ancient civilizations were left untouched, while Byzantine
cults lingered peacefully side by side with Moslemism; why not here?
Their fanaticism has been much exaggerated. Weighing the balance
between conflicting writers, it
would appear that Christian rites were tolerated in Sicily during all
their rule, though some governors were more bigoted than others; the
proof is this, that the Normans found resident fellow-believers there,
after 255 years of Arab domination.[2] It was the Christians rather,
who with the best intentions set the example of fanaticism during their
crusades; these early Saracen raids had no more religious colouring
than our own raids into the Transvaal or elsewhere. The Saracens were
out for plunder and fresh lands, exactly like the English.

 [2] The behaviour of the Normans was wholly different from that of the
 Arabs, immediately on their occupation of the country they razed to
 the ground thousands of Arab temples and sanctuaries. Of several
 hundred in Palermo alone, not a single one was left standing.

Nor were they tempted to destroy these monuments for decorative
purposes, since they possessed no palaces on the mainland like the
Palermitan Cuba or Zisa; and that sheer love of destructive-ness with
which they have been credited certainly spared the marbles of Paestum
which lay within a short distance of their strongholds, Agropoli and
Cetara. No. What earthquakes had left intact of these classic relics
was filched by the Christians, who ransacked every corner of Italy for
such treasures to adorn their own temples in Pisa, Rome and
Venice—displaying small veneration for antiquity, but considerable
taste. In Calabria, for instance, the twenty granite pillars of the
cathedral of Gerace were drawn from the ruins of old Locri; those of
Melito came from the ancient Hipponium (Monteleone). So Paestum, after
the Saracens, became a regular quarry for the Lombards and the rich
citizens of Amalfi when they built their cathedral; and above all, for
the shrewdly pious Robert Guiscard. Altogether, these Normans, dreaming
through the solstitial heats in pleasaunces like Ravello, developed a
nice taste in the matter of marbles, and were not particular where they
came from, so long as they came from somewhere. The antiquities
remained intact, at least, which was better than the subsequent system
of Colonna and Frangipani, who burnt them into lime.

Whatever one may think of the condition of Sicily under Arab rule, the
proceedings of these strangers was wholly deplorable so far as the
mainland of Italy was concerned. They sacked and burnt wherever they
went; the sea-board of the Tyrrhenian, Ionian and Adriatic was
depopulated of its inhabitants, who fled inland; towns and villages
vanished from the face of the earth, and the richly cultivated land
became a desert; they took 17,000 prisoners from Reggio on a single
occasion—13,000 from Termula;
they reduced Matera to such distress, that a mother is said to have
slaughtered and devoured her own child. Such was their system on the
mainland, where they swarmed. Their numbers can be inferred from a
letter written in 871 by the Emperor Ludwig II to the Byzantine
monarch, in which he complains that “Naples has become a second
Palermo, a second Africa,” while three hundred years later, in 1196,
the Chancellor Konrad von Hildesheim makes a noteworthy observation,
which begins: “In Naples I saw the Saracens, who with their spittle
destroy venomous beasts, and will briefly set forth how they came by
this virtue. . . .[3]

 [3] He goes on to say, “Paulus Apostolus naufragium passus, apud
 Capream insulam applicuit _[sic]_ quae in Actibus Apostolorum Mitylene
 nuncupatur, et cum multis allis evadens, ab indigenis terrae benigne
 acceptatus est.” Then follows the episode of the fire and of the
 serpent which Paul casts from him; whereupon the Saracens, naturally
 enough, begin to adore him as a saint. In recompense for this kind
 treatment Paul grants to them and their descendants the power of
 killing poisonous animals in the manner aforesaid—i.e. with their
 spittle—a superstition which is alive in south Italy to this day.
 These gifted mortals are called Sanpaulari, or by the Greek word
 Cerauli; they are men who are born either on St. Paul’s night (24-25
 January) or on 29 June.
    Saint Paul, the “doctor of the Gentiles,” is a great wizard
    hereabouts, and an invocation to him runs as follows: “Saint Paul,
    thou wonder-worker, kill this beast, which is hostile to God; and
    save me, for I am a son of Maria.”

It is therefore no exaggeration to say that the coastal regions of
south Italy were practically in Arab possession for centuries, and one
is tempted to dwell on their long semi-domination here because it has
affected to this day the vocabulary of the people, their lore, their
architecture, their very faces—and to a far greater extent than a
visitor unacquainted with Moslem countries and habits would believe.
Saracenism explains many anomalies in their mode of life and social
conduct.

From these troublous times dates, I should say, that use of the word
_cristiano_ applied to natives of the country—as opposed to Mohammedan
enemies.

“Saraceno” is still a common term of abuse.

The fall of Luceria may be taken as a convenient time-boundary to mark
the end of the Saracenic period. A lull, but no complete repose from
attacks, occurs between that event and the fall of Granada. Then begins
the activity of the corsairs. There is this difference between them,
that the corsairs merely paid flying visits; a change of wind, the
appearance of an Italian sail, an unexpected resistance on the part of
the inhabitants, sufficed to unsettle their ephemeral plans. The
coast-lands were never in their possession; they only harried the
natives. The system of the Saracens on the mainland, though it seldom
attained the form of
a provincial or even military government, was different. They had the
_animus manendi._ Where they dined, they slept.

In point of destructiveness, I should think there was little to choose
between them. One thinks of the hundreds of villages the corsairs
devastated; the convents and precious archives they destroyed,[4] the
thousands of captives they carried off—sometimes in such numbers that
the ships threatened to sink till the more unsaleable portion of the
human freight had been cast overboard. And it went on for centuries.
Pirates and slave-hunters they were; but not a whit more so than their
Christian adversaries, on whose national rivalries they thrived.
African slaves, when not chained to the galleys, were utilized on land;
so the traveller Moore records that the palace of Caserta was built by
gangs of slaves, half of them Italian, half Turkish. We have not much
testimony as to whether these Arab slaves enjoyed their lot in European
countries; but many of the Christians in Algiers certainly enjoyed
theirs. A considerable number of them refused to profit by Lord
Exmouth’s arrangement for their ransom. I myself knew the descendant of
a man who had been thus sent back to his relations from captivity, and
who soon enough returned to Africa, declaring that the climate and
religion of Europe were alike insupportable.

 [4] In this particular branch, again, the Christians surpassed the
 unbeliever. More archives were destroyed in the so-called “Age of
 Lead”—the closing period of Bour-bonism—than under Saracens and
 Corsairs combined. It was quite the regular thing to sell them as
 waste-paper to the shopkeepers. Some of them escaped this fate by the
 veriest miracle—so those of the celebrated Certoza of San Lorenzo in
 Padula. The historian Marincola, walking in the market of Salerno,
 noticed a piece of cheese wrapped up in an old parchment. He elicited
 the fact that it came from this Certosa, intercepted the records on
 their way for sale in Salerno, and contrived by a small present to the
 driver that next night two cartloads of parchments were deposited in
 the library of La Cava.

In Saracen times the Venetians actually sold Christian slaves to the
Turks. Parrino cites the severe enactments which were issued in the
sixteenth century against Christian sailors who decoyed children on
board their boats and sold them as slaves to the Moslem. I question
whether the Turks were ever guilty of a corresponding infamy.

This Parrino, by the way, is useful as showing the trouble to which the
Spanish viceroys were put by the perpetual inroads of these Oriental
pests. Local militia were organized, heavy contributions levied, towers
of refuge sprang up all along the coast—every respectable house had its
private tower as well (for the dates, see G. del Giudice, _Del Grande
Archivio di Napoli,_ 1871, p. 108). The daring of the pirates knew no
bounds; they actually landed a fleet at Naples itself, and carried off
a number of prisoners. The
entire kingdom, save the inland parts, was terrorized by their
lightning-like descents.

A particular literature grew up about this time—those “Lamenti” in
rime, which set forth the distress of the various places they
afflicted.

The saints had work to do. Each divine protector fought for his own
town or village, and sometimes we see the pleasing spectacle of two
patrons of different localities joining their forces to ward off a
piratical attack upon some threatened district by means of fiery hail,
tempests, apparitions and other celestial devices. A bellicose type of
Madonna emerges, such as S. M. della Libera and S. M. di
Constantinopoli, who distinguishes herself by a fierce martial courage
in the face of the enemy. There is no doubt that these inroads acted as
a stimulus to the Christian faith; that they helped to seat the
numberless patron saints of south Italy more firmly on their thrones.
The Saracens as saint-makers. . . .

But despite occasional successes, the marine population suffered
increasingly. Historians like Summonte have left us descriptions of the
prodigious exodus of the country people from Calabria and elsewhere
into the safer capital, and how the polished citizens detested these
new arrivals.

The ominous name “Torre di Guardia” (tower of outlook)—a cliff whence
the sea was scanned for the appearance of Turkish vessels—survives all
over the south. Barbarossa, too, has left his mark; many a hill,
fountain or castle has been named after him. In the two Barbarossas
were summed up the highest qualities of the pirates, and it is curious
to think that the names of those scourges of Christendom, Uruj and
Kheir-eddin, should have been contracted into the classical forms of
Horace and Ariadne. The picturesque Uruj was painted by Velasquez; the
other entertained a polite epistolatory correspondence with Aretino,
and died, to his regret, “like a coward” in bed. I never visit
Constantinople without paying my respects to that calm tomb at
Beshiktah, where, after life’s fitful fever, sleeps the _Chief of the
Sea._

And so things went on till recently. K. Ph. Moritz writes that King
Ferdinand of Naples, during his sporting excursions to the islands of
his dominions, was always accompanied by two cruisers, to forestall the
chance of his being carried off by these _Turchi._ But his loyal
subjects had no cruisers at their disposal; they lived _Turcarum
praedonibus semper obnoxii._ Who shall calculate the effects of this
long reign of terror on the national mind?

For a thousand years—from 830 to 1830—from the days when the Amalfitans
won the proud title of “Defenders of the Faith”
up to those of the sentimental poet Waiblinger (1826), these shores
were infested by Oriental ruffians, whose activities were an
unmitigated evil. It is all very well for Admiral de la Gravière to
speak of “Gallia Victrix “—the Americans, too, might have something to
say on that point. The fact is that neither European nor American arms
crushed the pest. But for the invention of steam, the Barbary corsairs
might still be with us.




XIX
UPLANDS OF POLLINO


It has a pleasant signification, that word “Dolcedorme”: it means
_Sweet slumber._ But no one could tell me how the mountain group came
by this name; they gave me a number of explanations, all fanciful and
unconvincing.

Pollino, we are told, is derived from Apollo, and authors of olden days
sometimes write of it as “Monte Apollino.” But Barrius suggests an
alternative etymology, equally absurd, and connected with the medicinal
herbs which are found there. _Pollino,_ he says, _a polleo dictus, quod
nobilibus herbis medelae commodis polleat. Provenit enim ibi, ut ab
herbariis accepi, tragium dictamnum Cretense, chamaeleon bigenum,
draucus, meum, nardus, celtica, anonides, anemone, peucedamum, turbit,
reubarbarum, pyrethrum, juniperus ubertim, stellaria, imperatoria,
cardus masticem fundens, dracagas, cythisus_—whence likewise the
magnificent cheeses; gold and the Phrygian stone, he adds, are also
found here.

Unhappily Barrius—we all have a fling at this “Strabo and Pliny of
Calabria”! So jealous was he of his work that he procured a prohibition
from the Pope against all who might reprint it, and furthermore invoked
the curses of heaven and earth upon whoever should have the audacity to
translate it into Italian. Yet his shade ought to be appeased with the
monumental edition of 1737, and, as regards his infallibility, one must
not forget that among his contemporaries the more discerning had
already censured his _philopatria,_ his immoderate love of Calabria.
And that is the right way to judge of men who were not so much ignorant
as unduly zealous for the fair name of their natal land. To sneer at
them is to misjudge their period. It was the very spirit of the
Renaissance to press rhetorical learning into the service of
patriotism. They made some happy guesses and not a few mistakes; and
when they lied deliberately, it was done in what they held a just
cause—as scholars and gentlemen.

The _Calabria Illustrata_ of Fiore also fares badly at the hands of
critics. But I shall not repeat what they say; I confess to a sneaking
fondness for Father Fiore.

Marafioti, a Calabrian monk, likewise dwells on these same herbs of
Pollino, and gives a long account of a medical secret which he learnt
on the spot from two Armenian botanists. Alas for Marafioti! Despite
his excellent index and seductively chaste Paduan type and paper, the
impartial Soria is driven to say that “to make his shop appear more
rich in foreign merchandise, he did not scruple to adorn it with books
and authors apocryphal, imaginary, and unknown to the whole human
race.” In short, he belonged to the school of Pratilli, who wrote a
wise and edifying history of Capua on the basis of inscriptions which
he himself had previously forged; of Ligorio Pirro, prince of his
tribe, who manufactured thousands of coins, texts and marbles out of
sheer exuberance of creative artistry!

Gone are those happy days of authorship, when the constructive
imagination was not yet blighted and withered. . . .

Marching comfortably, it will take you nearly twelve hours to go from
Morano to the village of Terranova di Pollino, which I selected as my
first night-quarter. This includes a scramble up the peak of Pollino,
locally termed “telegrafo,” from a pile of stones—? an old
signal-station—erected on the summit. But since decent accommodation
can only be obtained at Castrovillari, a start should be made from
there, and this adds another hour to the trip. Moreover, as the peak of
Pollino lies below that of Dolcedorme, which shuts off a good deal of
its view seaward, this second mountain ought rather to be ascended, and
that will probably add yet another hour—fourteen altogether. The
natives, ever ready to say what they think will please you, call it a
six hours’ excursion. As a matter of fact, although I spoke to numbers
of the population of Morano, I only met two men who had ever been to
Terranova, one of them being my muleteer; the majority had not so much
as heard its name. They dislike mountains and torrents and forests, not
only as an offence to the eye, but as hindrances to agriculture and
enemies of man and his ordered ways. “La montagna” is considerably
abused, all over Italy.

It takes an hour to cross the valley and reach the slopes of the
opposite hills. Here, on the plain, lie the now faded blossoms of the
monstrous arum, the botanical glory of these regions. To see it in
flower, in early June, is alone almost worth the trouble of a journey
to Calabria.

On a shady eminence at the foot of these mountains, in a most
picturesque site, there stands a large castellated building, a
monastery. It is called Colorito, and is now a ruin; the French, they
say, shelled it for harbouring the brigand-allies of Bourbonism. Nearly
all convents in the south, and even in Naples, were at one time or
another refuges of bandits, and this association of monks and robbers
used to give much trouble to conscientious politicians. It is a
solitary building, against the dark hill-side; a sombre and romantic
pile such as would have charmed Anne Radcliffe; one longs to explore
its recesses. But I dreaded the coming heats of midday. Leone da
Morano, who died in 1645, belonged to this congregation, and was
reputed an erudite ecclesiastic. The life of one of its greatest
luminaries, Fra Bernardo da Rogliano, was described by Tufarelli in a
volume which I have never been able to catch sight of. It must be very
rare, yet it certainly was printed.[1]

 [1] Haym has no mention of this work. But it is fully quoted in old
 Toppi’s “Biblioteca” (p. 317), and also referred to in Savonarola’s
 “Universus Terrarum,” etc. (1713, Vol. I, p. 216). Both say it was
 printed at Cosenza; the first, in 1650; the second, in 1630.

The path ascends now through a long and wearisome limestone gap called
Valle di Gaudolino, only the last half-hour of the march being shaded
by trees. It was in this gully that an accidental encounter took place
between a detachment of French soldiers and part of the band of the
celebrated brigand Scarolla, whom they had been pursuing for months all
over the country. The brigands were sleeping when the others fell upon
them, killing numbers and carrying off a large booty; so rich it was,
that the soldiers were seen playing at “petis palets”—whatever that may
be—with quadruples of Spain—whatever _that_ may be. Scarolla escaped
wounded, but was afterwards handed over to justice, for a consideration
of a thousand ducats, by some shepherds with whom he had taken refuge;
and duly hanged. His band consisted of four thousand ruffians; it was
one of several that infested south Italy. This gives some idea of the
magnitude of the evil.

It was my misfortune that after weeks of serene weather this particular
morning should be cloudy. There was sunshine in the valley below, but
wreaths of mist were skidding over the summit of Pollino; the view, I
felt sure, would be spoilt. And so it was. Through swiftly-careering
cloud-drifts I caught glimpses of the plain and the blue Ionian; of the
Sila range confronting me; of the peak of Dolcedorme to the left, and
the “Montagna del Principe” on the right; of the large forest region at
my back. Tantalizing visions!

[Illustration: The Peak of Pollino in June]

Viewed from below, this Pollino is shaped like a pyramid, and promises
rather a steep climb over bare limestone; but the ascent is quite easy.
No trees grow on the pyramid. The rock is covered
with a profusion of forget-me-nots and gay pansies; some mezereon and a
few dwarfed junipers—earthward-creeping—nearly reach the summit. When I
passed here on a former trip, on the 6th of June, this peak was
shrouded in snow. There are some patches of snow even now, one of them
descending in glacier fashion down the slope on the other side; they
call it “eternal,” but I question whether it will survive the heats of
autumn. Beyond a brace of red-legged partridges, I saw no birds
whatever. This group of Pollino, descending its seven thousand feet in
a precipitous flight of terraces to the plain of Sibari, is an imposing
_finale_ to the Apennines that have run hitherward, without a break,
from Genoa and Bologna. Westward of this spot there are mountains
galore; but no more Apennines; no more limestone precipices. The
boundary of the old provinces of Calabria and Basilicata ran over this
spot. . . .

I was glad to descend once more, and to reach the _Altipiano di
Pollino—_an Alpine meadow with a little lake (the merest puddle),
bright with rare and beautiful flowers. It lies 1780 metres above
sea-level, and no one who visits these regions should omit to see this
exquisite tract encircled by mountain peaks, though it lies a little
off the usual paths. Strawberries, which I had eaten at Rossano, had
not yet opened their flowers here; the flora, boreal in parts, has been
studied by Terracciano and other Italian botanists.

It was on this verdant, flower-enamelled mead that, fatigued with the
climb, I thought to try the powers of my riding mule. But the beast
proved vicious; there was no staying on her back. A piece of string
attached to her nose by way of guiding-rope was useless as a rein; she
had no mane wherewith I might have steadied myself in moments of
danger, and as to seizing her ears for that purpose, it was out of the
question, for hardly was I in the saddle before her head descended to
the ground and there remained, while her hinder feet essayed to touch
the stars. After a succession of ignominious and painful flights to
earth, I complained to her owner, who had been watching the proceedings
with quiet interest.

“That lady-mule,” he said, “is good at carrying loads. But she has
never had a Christian on her back till now. I was rather curious to see
how she would behave.”

“_Santo Dio!_ And do you expect me to pay four francs a day for having
my bones broken in this fashion?”

“What would you, sir? She is still young—barely four years old. Only
wait! Wait till she is ten or twelve.”

To do him justice, however, he tried to make amends in other
ways. And he certainly knew the tracks. But he was a returned emigrant,
and when an Italian has once crossed the ocean he is useless for my
purposes, he has lost his savour—the virtue has gone out of him. True
Italians will soon be rare as the dodo in these parts. These
_americani_ cast off their ancient animistic traits and patriarchal
disposition with the ease of a serpent; a new creature emerges, of a
wholly different character—sophisticated, extortionate at times, often
practical and in so far useful; scorner of every tradition, infernally
wideawake and curiously deficient in what the Germans call “Gemüt” (one
of those words which we sadly need in our own language). Instead of
being regaled with tales of Saint Venus and fairies and the Evil Eye, I
learnt a good deal about the price of food in the Brazilian highlands.

The only piece of local information I was able to draw from him
concerned a mysterious plant in the forest that “shines by night.” I
dare say he meant the _dictamnus fraxinella,_ which is sometimes
luminous.

The finest part of the forest was traversed in the afternoon. It is
called Janace, and composed of firs and beeches. The botanist Tenore
says that firs 150 feet in height are “not difficult to find” here, and
some of the beeches, a forestal inspector assured me, attain the height
of 35 metres. They shoot up in straight silvery trunks; their roots are
often intertwined with those of the firs. The track is not level by any
means. There are torrents to be crossed; rocky ravines with splashing
waters where the sunshine pours down through a dense network of
branches upon a carpet of russet leaves and grey boulders—the envious
beeches allowing of no vegetation at their feet; occasional meadows,
too, bright with buttercups and orchids. No pines whatever grow in this
forest. Yet a few stunted ones are seen clinging to the precipices that
descend into the Coscile valley; their seeds may have been wafted
across from the Sila mountains.

In olden days all this country was full of game; bears, stags and
fallow-deer are mentioned. Only wolves and a few roe-deer are now left.
The forest is sombre, but not gloomy, and one would like to spend some
time in these wooded regions, so rare in Italy, and to study their life
and character—but how set about it? The distances are great; there are
no houses, not even a shepherd’s hut or a cave; the cold at night is
severe, and even in the height of midsummer one must be prepared for
spells of mist and rain. I shall be tempted, on another occasion, to
provide myself with a tent such as is supplied to military officers.
They are light and handy, and perhaps camping out with a man-cook of
the kind that
one finds in the Abruzzi provinces would be altogether the best way of
seeing the remoter parts of south and central Italy. For decent
food-supplies can generally be obtained in the smallest places; the
drawback is that nobody can cook them. Dirty food by day and dirty beds
by night will daunt the most enterprising natures in the long run.

These tracks are only traversed in summer. When I last walked through
this region—in the reverse direction, from Lagonegro over Latronico and
San Severino to Castrovillari—the ground was still covered with
stretches of snow, and many brooks were difficult to cross from the
swollen waters. This was in June. It was odd to see the beeches rising,
in full leaf, out of the deep snow.

During this afternoon ramble I often wondered what the burghers of
Taranto would think of these sylvan solitudes. Doubtless they would
share the opinion of a genteel photographer of Morano who showed me
some coloured pictures of local brides in their appropriate costumes,
such as are sent to relatives in America after weddings. He possessed a
good camera, and I asked whether he had never made any pictures of this
fine forest scenery. No, he said; he had only once been to the festival
of the Madonna di Pollino, but he went alone—his companion, an
_avvocato,_ got frightened and failed to appear at the last moment.

“So I went alone,” he said, “and those forests, it must be confessed,
are too savage to be photographed. Now, if my friend had come, he might
have posed for me, sitting comically at the foot of a tree, with
crossed legs, and smoking a cigar, like this. ... Or he might have
pretended to be a wood-cutter, bending forwards and felling a tree . .
. tac, tac, tac . . . without his jacket, of course. That would have
made a picture. But those woods and mountains, all by themselves—no!
The camera revolts. In photography, as in all good art, the human
element must predominate.”

It is sad to think that in a few years’ time nearly all these forests
will have ceased to exist; another generation will hardly recognize the
site of them. A society from Morbegno (Valtellina) has acquired rights
over the timber, and is hewing down as fast as it can. They import
their own workmen from north Italy, and have built at a cost of two
million francs (say the newspapers) a special funicular railway, 23
kilometres long, to carry the trunks from the mountain to Francavilla
at its foot, where they are sawn up and conveyed to the railway station
of Cerchiara, near Sibari. This concession, I am told, extends to
twenty-five years—they have now been at work for two, and the results
are already apparent in some almost bare slopes once clothed with these
huge primeval trees.
There are inspectors, some of them conscientious, to see that a due
proportion of the timber is left standing; but we all know what the
average Italian official is, and must be, considering his salary. One
could hardly blame them greatly if, as I have been assured is the case,
they often sell the wood which they are paid to protect.

The same fate is about to overtake the extensive hill forests which lie
on the watershed between Morano and the Tyrrhenian. These, according to
a Castrovillari local paper, have lately been sold to a German firm for
exploitation.

It is useless to lament the inevitable—this modern obsession of
“industrialism” which has infected a country purely agricultural. Nor
is it any great compensation to observe that certain small tracts of
hill-side behind Morano are being carefully reafforested by the
Government at this moment. Whoever wishes to see these beautiful
stretches of woodland ere their disappearance from earth—let him
hasten!

After leaving the forest region it is a downhill walk of nearly three
hours to reach Terranova di Pollino, which lies, only 910 metres above
sea-level, against the slope of a wide and golden amphitheatre of
hills, at whose entrance the river Sarmento has carved itself a
prodigious gateway through the rock. A dirty little place; the male
inhabitants are nearly all in America; the old women nearly all
afflicted with goitre. I was pleased to observe the Calabrian system of
the house-doors, which life in civilized places had made me forget.
These doors are divided into two portions, not vertically like ours,
but horizontally. The upper portion is generally open, in order that
the housewife sitting within may have light and air in her room, and an
opportunity of gossiping with her neighbours across the street; the
lower part is closed, to prevent the pigs in the daytime from entering
the house (where they sleep at night). The system testifies to social
instincts and a certain sense of refinement.

The sights of Terranova are soon exhausted. They had spoken to me of a
house near the woods, about four hours distant, inhabited just now by
shepherds. Thither we started, next day, at about 3 p.m.

The road climbs upwards through bare country till it reaches a dusky
pinnacle of rock, a conspicuous landmark, which looks volcanic but is
nothing of the kind. It bears the name of Pietra-Sasso—the explanation
of this odd pleonasm being, I suppose, that here the whole mass of
rock, generally decked with grass or shrubs, is as bare as any single
stone.

[Illustration: Calabrian Cows]

There followed a pleasant march through pastoral country of streamlets
and lush grass, with noble views downwards on our right, over
many-folded hills into the distant valley of the Sinno. To the left is
the forest region. But the fir trees are generally mutilated—their
lower branches lopped off; and the tree resents this treatment and
often dies, remaining a melancholy stump among the beeches. They take
these branches not for fuel, but as fodder for the cows. A curious kind
of fodder, one thinks; but Calabrian cows will eat anything, and their
milk tastes accordingly. No wonder the natives prefer even the greasy
fluid of their goats to that of cows.

“How?” they will ask, “You Englishmen, with all your money—you drink
the milk of cows?”

Goats are over-plentiful here, and the hollies, oaks and thorns along
the path have been gnawed by them into quaint patterns like the
topiarian work in old-fashioned gardens. If they find nothing to their
taste on the ground, they actually climb trees; I have seen them
browsing thus, at six feet above the ground. These miserable beasts are
the ruin of south Italy, as they are of the whole Mediterranean basin.
What malaria and the Barbary pirates have done to the sea-board, the
goats have accomplished for the regions further inland; and it is
really time that sterner legislation were introduced to limit their
grazing-places and incidentally reduce their numbers, as has been done
in parts of the Abruzzi, to the great credit of the authorities. But
the subject is a well-worn one.

The solitary little house which now appeared before us is called
“Vitiello,” presumably from its owner or builder, a proprietor of the
village of Noepoli. It stands in a charming site, with a background of
woodland whence rivulets trickle down—the immediate surroundings are
covered with pasture and bracken and wild pear trees smothered in
flowering dog-roses. I strolled about in the sunset amid tinkling herds
of sheep and goats that were presently milked and driven into their
enclosure of thorns for the night, guarded by four or five of those
savage white dogs of the Campagna breed. Despite these protectors, the
wolf carried off two sheep yesterday, in broad daylight. The flocks
come to these heights in the middle of June, and descend again in
October.

The shepherds offered us the only fare they possessed—the much-belauded
Pollino cheeses, the same that were made, long ago, by Polyphemus
himself. You can get them down at a pinch, on the principle of the
German proverb, “When the devil is hungry, he eats flies.” Fortunately
our bags still contained a varied assortment, though my man had
developed an appetite and a thirst that did credit to his Berserker
ancestry.

We retired early. But long after the rest of them were snoring hard I
continued awake, shivering under my blanket and choking with the acrid
smoke of a fire of green timber. The door had been left ajar to allow
it to escape, but the only result of this arrangement was that a
glacial blast of wind swept into the chamber from outside. The night
was bitterly cold, and the wooden floor on which I was reposing seemed
to be harder than the majority of its kind. I thought with regret of
the tepid nights of Taranto and Castrovillari, and cursed my folly for
climbing into these Arctic regions; wondering, as I have often done,
what demon of restlessness or perversity drives one to undertake such
insane excursions.




XX
A MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL


Leaving the hospitable shepherds in the morning, we arrived after
midday, by devious woodland paths, at the Madonna di Pollino.

This solitary fane is perched, like an eagle’s nest, on the edge of a
cliff overhanging the Frida torrent. Owing to this fact, and to its
great elevation, the views inland are wonderful; especially towards
evening, when crude daylight tints fade away and range after range of
mountains reveal themselves, their crests outlined against each other
in tender gradations of mauve and grey. The prospect is closed, at
last, by the lofty groups of Sirino and Alburno, many long leagues
away. On all other sides are forests, interspersed with rock. But near
at hand lies a spacious green meadow, at the foot of a precipice. This
is now covered with encampments in anticipation of to-morrow’s
festival, and the bacchanal is already in full swing.

Very few foreigners, they say, have attended this annual feast, which
takes place on the first Saturday and Sunday of July, and is worth
coming a long way to see. Here the old types, uncon-taminated by
modernism and emigration, are still gathered together. The whole
country-side is represented; the peasants have climbed up with their
entire households from thirty or forty villages of this thinly
populated land, some of them marching a two days’ journey; the greater
the distance, the greater the “divozione” to the Mother of God. _Piety
conquers rough tracks,_ as old Bishop Paulinus sang, nearly fifteen
hundred years ago.

It is a vast picnic in honour of the Virgin. Two thousand persons are
encamped about the chapel, amid a formidable army of donkeys and mules
whose braying mingles with the pastoral music of reeds and
bagpipes—bagpipes of two kinds, the common Calabrian variety and that
of Basilicata, much larger and with a resounding base key, which will
soon cease to exist. A heaving ebb and flow of humanity fills the eye;
fires are flickering before extempore shelters, and an ungodly amount
of food is being consumed, as traditionally prescribed for such
occasions—“si mangia
per divozione.” On all sides picturesque groups of dancers indulge in
the old peasants’ measure, the _percorara,_ to the droning of
bagpipes—a demure kind of tarantella, the male capering about with
faun-like attitudes of invitation and snappings of fingers, his partner
evading the advances with downcast eyes. And the church meanwhile, is
filled to overflowing; orations and services follow one another without
interruption; the priests are having a busy time of it.

The rocky pathway between this chapel and the meadow is obstructed by
folk and lined on either side with temporary booths of green branches,
whose owners vociferously extol the merits of their wares—cloths,
woollens, umbrellas, hot coffee, wine, fresh meat, fruit, vegetables
(the spectre of cholera is abroad, but no one heeds)—as well as gold
watches, rings and brooches, many of which will be bought ere to-morrow
morning, in memory of to-night’s tender meetings. The most interesting
shops are those which display ex-votos, waxen reproductions of various
ailing parts of the body which have been miraculously cured by the
Virgin’s intercession: arms, legs, fingers, breasts, eyes. There are
also entire infants of wax. Strangest of all of them is a many-tinted
and puzzling waxen symbol which sums up all the internal organs of the
abdomen in one bold effort of artistic condensation; a kind of
heraldic, materialized stomache-ache. I would have carried one away
with me, had there been the slightest chance of its remaining
unbroken.[1]

 [1] A good part of these, I dare say, are intended to represent the
 enlarged spleen of malaria. In old Greece, says Dr. W. H. D. Rouse,
 votives of the trunk are commonest, after the eyes—malaria, again.

These are the votive offerings which catch the visitor’s eye in
southern churches, and were beloved not only of heathendom, but of the
neolithic gentry; a large deposit has been excavated at Taranto; the
British Museum has some of marble, from Athens; others were of silver,
but the majority terra-cotta. The custom must have entered Christianity
in early ages, for already Theodoret, who died in 427, says, “some
bring images of eyes, others of feet, others of hands; and sometimes
they are made of gold, sometimes of silver. These votive gifts testify
to cure of maladies.” Nowadays, when they become too numerous, they are
melted down for candles; so Pericles, in some speech, talks of selling
them for the benefit of the commonwealth.

One is struck with the feast of costumes here, by far the brightest
being those of the women who have come up from the seven or eight
Albanian villages that surround these hills. In their
variegated array of chocolate-brown and white, of emerald-green and
gold and flashing violet, these dames move about the sward like
animated tropical flowers. But the Albanian girls of Cività stand out
for aristocratic elegance—pleated black silk gowns, discreetly trimmed
with gold and white lace, and open at the breast. The women of Morano,
too, make a brave show.

Night brings no respite; on the contrary, the din grows livelier than
ever; fires gleam brightly on the meadow and under the trees; the
dancers are unwearied, the bagpipers with their brazen lungs show no
signs of exhaustion. And presently the municipal music of
Castrovillari, specially hired for the occasion, ascends an improvised
bandstand and pours brisk strains into the night. Then the fireworks
begin, sensational fireworks, that have cost a mint of money; flaring
wheels and fiery devices that send forth a pungent odour; rockets of
many hues, lighting up the leafy recesses, and scaring the owls and
wolves for miles around.

Certain persons have told me that if you are of a prying disposition,
now is the time to observe amorous couples walking hand in hand into
the gloom—passionate young lovers from different villages, who have
looked forward to this night of all the year on the chance of meeting,
at last, in a fervent embrace under the friendly beeches. These same
stern men (they are always men) declare that such nocturnal festivals
are a disgrace to civilization; that the Greek Comedy, long ago,
reprobated them as disastrous to the morals of females—that they were
condemned by the Council of Elvira, by Vigilantius of Marseilles and by
the great Saint Jerome, who wrote that on such occasions no virgin
should wander a hand’s-breadth from her mother. They wish you to
believe that on these warm summer nights, when the pulses of nature are
felt and senses stirred with music and wine and dance, the _Gran Madre
di Dio_ is adored in a manner less becoming Christian youths and
maidens, than heathens celebrating mad orgies to _Magna Mater_ in
Daphne, or the Babylonian groves (where she was not worshipped at
all—though she might have been).

In fact, they insinuate that——-

It may well be true. What were the moralists doing there?

Festivals like this are relics of paganism, and have my cordial
approval. We English ought to have learnt by this time that the
repression of pleasure is a dangerous error. In these days when even
Italy, the grey-haired _cocotte,_ has become tainted with
Anglo-Pecksniffian principles, there is nothing like a little
time-honoured bestiality for restoring the circulation and putting
things to rights generally. On ethical grounds alone—as
safety-valves—such
nocturnal feasts ought to be kept up in regions such as these, where
the country-folk have not our “facilities.” Who would grudge them these
primordial joys, conducted under the indulgent motherly eye of Madonna,
and hallowed by antiquity and the starlit heavens above? Every one is
so happy and well-behaved. No bawling, no quarrelsomeness, no
staggering tipplers; a spirit of universal good cheer broods over the
assembly. Involuntarily, one thinks of the drunkard-strewn field of
battle at the close of our Highland games; one thinks of God-fearing
Glasgow on a Saturday evening, and of certain other aspects of Glasgow
life. . . .

I accepted the kindly proffered invitation of the priests to share
their dinner; they held out hopes of some sort of sleeping
accommodation as well. It was a patriarchal hospitality before that
fire of logs (the night had grown chilly), and several other guests
partook of it, forestal inspectors and such-like notabilities—one lady
among them who, true to feudal traditions, hardly spoke a word the
whole evening. I was struck, as I have sometimes been, at the
attainments of these country priests; they certainly knew our
Gargantuan novelists of the Victorian epoch uncommonly well. Can it be
that these great authors are more readable in Italian translations than
in the original? One of them took to relating, in a strain of autumnal
humour, experiences of his life in the wilds of Bolivia, where he had
spent many years among the Indians; my neighbour, meanwhile, proved to
be steeped in Horatian lore. It was his pet theory, supported by a
wealth of aptly cited lines, that Horace was a “typical Italian
countryman,” and great was his delight on discovering that I shared his
view and could even add another—somewhat improper—utterance of the
poet’s to his store of illustrative quotations.

They belonged to the old school, these sable philosophers; to the days
when the priest was arbiter of life and death, and his mere word
sufficient to send a man to the galleys; when the cleverest boys of
wealthy and influential families were chosen for the secular career and
carefully, one might say liberally, trained to fulfil those responsible
functions. The type is becoming extinct, the responsibility is gone,
the profession has lost its glamour; and only the clever sons of pauper
families, or the dull ones of the rich, are now tempted to forsake the
worldly path.

Regarding the origin of this festival, I learned that it was
“tradition.” It had been suggested to me that the Virgin had appeared
to a shepherd in some cave near at hand—the usual Virgin, in the usual
cave; a cave which, in the present instance, no one was able to point
out to me. _Est traditio, ne quaeras amplius._
My hosts answered questions on this subject with benignant ambiguity,
and did not trouble to defend the divine apparition on the sophistical
lines laid down in Riccardi’s “Santuari.” The truth, I imagine, is that
they have very sensibly not concerned themselves with inventing an
original legend. The custom of congregating here on these fixed days
seems to be recent, and I am inclined to think that it has been called
into being by the zeal of some local men of standing. On the other
hand, a shrine may well have stood for many years on this spot, for it
marks the half-way house in the arduous two days’ journey between San
Severino and Castrovillari, a summer _trek_ that must date from hoary
antiquity.

Our bedroom contained two rough couches which were to be shared between
four priests and myself. Despite the fact that I occupied the place of
honour between the two oldest and wisest of my ghostly entertainers,
sleep refused to come; the din outside had grown to a pandemonium. I
lay awake till, at 2.30 a.m., one of them arose and touched the others
with a whispered and half-jocular _oremus!_ They retired on tiptoe to
the next room, noiselessly closing the door, to prepare themselves for
early service. I could hear them splashing vigorously at their
ablutions in the icy water, and wondered dreamily how many Neapolitan
priests would indulge at that chill hour of the morning in such a
lustral rite, prescribed as it is by the rules of decency and of their
church.

After that, I stretched forth at my ease and endeavoured to repose
seriously. There were occasional lulls, now, in the carnival, but
explosions of sound still broke the stillness, and phantoms of the
restless throng began to chase each other through my brain. The exotic
costumes of the Albanian girls in their green and gold wove themselves
into dreams and called up colours seen in Northern Africa during still
wilder festivals—negro festivals such as Fromentin loved to depict. In
spectral dance there flitted before my vision nightmarish throngs of
dusky women bedizened in that same green and gold; Arabs I saw, riding
tumultuously hither and thither with burnous flying in the wind;
beggars crawling about the hot sand and howling for alms; ribbons and
flags flying—a blaze of sunshine overhead, and on earth a seething orgy
of colour and sound; methought I heard the guttural yells of the
fruit-vendors, musketry firing, braying of asses, the demoniacal groans
of the camels——

Was it really a camel? No. It was something infinitely worse, and
within a few feet of my ears. I sprang out of bed. There, at the very
window, stood a youth extracting unearthly noises out of the Basilicata
bagpipe. To be sure! I remembered expressing an
interest in this rare instrument to one of my hosts who, with subtle
delicacy, must have ordered the boy to give me a taste of his
quality—to perform a matutinal serenade, for my especial benefit. How
thoughtful these people are. It was not quite 4 a.m. With some regret,
I said farewell to sleep and stumbled out of doors, where my friends of
yesterday evening were already up and doing. The eating, the dancing,
the bagpipes—they were all in violent activity, under the sober and
passionless eye of morning.

A gorgeous procession took place about midday. Like a many-coloured
serpent it wound out of the chapel, writhed through the intricacies of
the pathway, and then unrolled itself freely, in splendid convolutions,
about the sunlit meadow, saluted by the crash of mortars, bursts of
military music from the band, chanting priests and women, and all the
bagpipers congregated in a mass, each playing his own favourite tune.
The figure of the Madonna—a modern and unprepossessing image—was
carried aloft, surrounded by resplendent ecclesiastics and followed by
a picturesque string of women bearing their votive offerings of
candles, great and small. Several hundredweight of wax must have been
brought up on the heads of pious female pilgrims. These multi-coloured
candles are arranged in charming designs; they are fixed upright in a
framework of wood, to resemble baskets or bird-cages, and decked with
bright ribbons and paper flowers.

Who settles the expenses of such a festival? The priests, in the first
place, have paid a good deal to make it attractive; they have improved
the chapel, constructed a number of permanent wooden shelters (rain
sometimes spoils the proceedings), as well as a capacious reservoir for
holding drinking water, which has to be transported in barrels from a
considerable distance. Then—as to the immediate outlay for music,
fireworks, and so forth—the Madonna-statue is “put up to auction”:
_fanno l’incanto della Madonna,_ as they say; that is, the privilege of
helping to carry the idol from the church and back in the procession is
sold to the highest bidders. Inasmuch as She is put up for auction
several times during this short perambulation, fresh enthusiasts coming
forward gaily with bank-notes and shoulders—whole villages competing
against each other—a good deal of money is realized in this way. There
are also spontaneous gifts of money. Goats and sheep, too, decorated
with coloured rags, are led up by peasants who have “devoted” them to
the Mother of God; the butchers on the spot buy these beasts for
slaughter, and their price goes to swell the funds.

[Illustration: The Valley of Gandolino]

This year’s expenditure may have been a thousand francs or so, and the
proceeds are calculated at about two-thirds of that sum.
No matter. If the priests do not make good the deficiency, some one
else will be kind enough to step forward. Better luck next year! The
festival, they hope, is to become more popular as time goes on, despite
the chilling prophecy of one of our friends: “It will finish, this
comedy!” The money, by the way, does not pass through the hands of the
clerics, but of two individuals called “Regolatore” and “Priore,” who
mutually control each other. They are men of reputable families, who
burden themselves with the troublesome task for the honour of the
thing, and make up any deficiencies in the accounts out of their own
pockets. Cases of malversation are legendary.

This procession marked the close of the religious gathering. Hardly was
it over before there began a frenzied scrimmage of departure. And soon
the woodlands echoed with the laughter and farewellings of pilgrims
returning homewards by divergent paths; the whole way through the
forest, we formed part of a jostling caravan along the
Castrovillari-Morano track—how different from the last time I had
traversed this route, when nothing broke the silence save a chaffinch
piping among the branches or the distant tap of some woodpecker!

So ended the _festa._ Once in the year this mountain chapel is rudely
disquieted in its slumbers by a boisterous riot; then it sinks again
into tranquil oblivion, while autumn dyes the beeches to gold. And very
soon the long winter comes; chill tempests shake the trees and leaves
are scattered to earth; towards Yuletide some woodman of Viggianello
adventuring into these solitudes, and mindful of their green summer
revels, discovers his familiar sanctuary entombed up to the door-lintle
under a glittering sheet of snow. . . .

There was a little episode in the late afternoon. We had reached the
foot of the Gaudolino valley and begun the crossing of the plain, when
there met us a woman with dishevelled hair, weeping bitterly and
showing other signs of distress; one would have thought she had been
robbed or badly hurt. Not at all! Like the rest of us, she had attended
the feast and, arriving home with the first party, had been stopped at
the entrance of the town, where they had insisted upon fumigating her
clothes as a precaution against cholera, and those of her companions.
That was all. But the indignity choked her—she had run back to warn the
rest of us, all of whom were to be treated to the same outrage. Every
approach to Morano, she declared, was watched by doctors, to prevent
wary pilgrims from entering by unsuspected paths.

During her recital my muleteer had grown thoughtful.

“What’s to be done?” he asked.

“I don’t much mind fumigation,” I replied.

“Oh, but I do! I mind it very much. And these doctors are so dreadfully
distrustful. How shall we cheat them? ... I have it, I have it!”

And he elaborated the following stratagem:

“I go on ahead of you, alone, leading the two mules. You follow, out of
sight, behind. And what happens? When I reach the doctor, he asks
slyly: ‘Well, and how did you enjoy the festival this year?’ Then I
say: ‘Not this year, doctor; alas, no festival for me! I’ve been with
an Englishman collecting beetles in the forest, and see? here’s his
riding mule. He walks on behind—oh, quite harmless, doctor! a nice
gentleman, indeed—only, he prefers walking; he really _likes_ it, ha,
ha, ha!——”

“Why mention about my walking?” I interrupted. The lady-mule was still
a sore subject.

“I mention about your not riding,” he explained graciously, “because it
will seem to the doctor a sure sign that you are a little”—here he
touched his forehead with a significant gesture—“a little like some
other foreigners, you know. And that, in its turn, will account for
your collecting beetles. And that, in its turn, will account for your
not visiting the Madonna. You comprehend the argument: how it all hangs
together?”

“I see. What next?”

“Then you come up, holding one beetle in each hand, and pretend not to
know a word of Italian—not a word! You must smile at the doctor, in
friendly fashion; he’ll like that. And besides, it will prove what I
said about——” (touching his forehead once more). “In fact, the truth
will be manifest. And there will be no fumigation for us.”

It seemed a needlessly circuitous method of avoiding such a slight
inconvenience. I would have put more faith in a truthful narrative by
myself, suffused with that ingratiating amiability which I would
perforce employ on such occasions. But the stronger mind, as usual, had
its way.

“I’ll smile,” I agreed. “But you shall carry my beetles; it looks more
natural, somehow. Go ahead, and find them.”

He moved forwards with the beasts and, after destroying a considerable
tract of stone wall, procured a few specimens of native coleoptera,
which he carefully wrapped up in a piece of paper. I followed slowly.

Unfortunately for him, that particular doctor happened to be
an _americano_ a snappy little fellow, lately returned from the States.

“Glad to make your acquaintance, sir,” he began, as I came up to where
the two were arguing together. “I’ve heard of your passing through the
other day. So you don’t talk Italian? Well, then, see here: this man of
yours, this God-dam son of Satan, has been showing me a couple of bugs
and telling me a couple of hundred lies about them. Better move on
right away; lucky you struck _me!_ As for this son of a ——, you bet
I’ll sulphur him, bugs and all, to hell!”

I paid the crestfallen muleteer then and there; took down my bags,
greatly lightened, and departed with them. Glancing round near the
little bridge, I saw that the pair were still engaged in heated
discussion, my man clinging despairingly, as it seemed, to the
beetle-hypothesis; he looked at me with reproachful eyes, as though I
had deserted him in his hour of need.

But what could I do, not knowing Italian?

Moreover, I remembered the “lady-mule.”

Fifteen minutes later a light carriage took me to Castrovillari,
whence, after a bath and dinner that compensated for past hardships, I
sped down to the station and managed, by a miracle, to catch the
night-train to Cosenza.




XXI
MILTON IN CALABRIA


you may spend pleasant days in this city of Cosenza, doing nothing
whatever. But I go there a for set purpose, and bristling with energy.
I go there to hunt for a book by a certain Salandra, which was printed
on the spot, and which I have not yet been able to find, although I
once discovered it in an old catalogue, priced at 80 _grani._ Gladly
would I give 8000 for it!

The author was a contemporary of that Flying Monk of whom I spoke in
Chapter X, and he belonged to the same religious order. If, in what I
then said about the flying monk, there appears to be some trace of
light fooling in regard to this order and its methods, let amends be
made by what I have to tell about old Salandra, the discovery of whose
book is one of primary importance for the history of English letters.
Thus I thought at the time; and thus I still think, with all due
deference to certain grave and discerning gentlemen, the editors of
various English monthlies to whom I submitted a paper on this subject—a
paper which they promptly returned with thanks. No; that is not quite
correct. One of them has kept it; and as six years have passed over our
heads, I presume he has now acquired a title by “adverse possession.”
Much good may it do him!

Had the discovery been mine, I should have endeavoured to hide my light
under the proverbial bushel. But it is not mine, and therefore I make
bold to say that Mr. Bliss Perry, of the “Atlantic Monthly,” knew
better than his English colleagues when he published the article from
which I take what follows.

“Charles Dunster (‘Considerations on Milton’s Early Reading,’ etc.,
1810) traces the _prima stamina_ of ‘Paradise Lost’ to Sylvester’s ‘Du
Bartas.’ Masenius, Cedmon, Vondel, and other older writers have also
been named in this connection, while the majority of Milton’s English
commentators—and among foreigners Voltaire and Tiraboschi—are inclined
to regard the ‘Adamus Exul’ of Grotius or Andreini’s sacred drama of
‘Adamo’ as the prototype.
This latter can be consulted in the third volume of Cowper’s ‘Milton’
(1810).

The matter is still unsettled, and in view of the number of recent
scholars who have interested themselves in it, one is really surprised
that no notice has yet been taken of an Italian article which goes far
towards deciding this question and proving that the chief source of
‘Paradise Lost’ is the ‘Adamo Caduto,’ a sacred tragedy by Serafino
della Salandra. The merit of this discovery belongs to Francesco
Zicari, whose paper, ‘Sulla scoverta dell’ originale italiano da cui
Milton trasse il suo poema del paradiso perduto,’ is printed on pages
245 to 276 in the 1845 volume of the Naples ‘Album
scientifico-artistico-letterario’ now lying before me. It is in the
form of a letter addressed to his friend Francesco Ruffa, a native of
Tropea in Calabria.[1]

 [1] Zicari contemplated another paper on this subject, but I am
 unaware whether this was ever published. The Neapolitan
 Minieri-Riccio, who wrote his ‘Memorie Storiche’ in 1844, speaks of
 this article as having been already printed in 1832, but does not say
 where. This is corroborated by N. Falcone (‘Biblioteca
 storica-topo-grafica della Calabria,’ 2nd ed., Naples, 1846, pp.
 152-154), who gives the same date, and adds that Zicari was the author
 of a work on the district of Fuscaldo. He was born at Paola in
 Calabria, of which he wrote a (manuscript) history, and died in 1846.
 In this Milton article, he speaks of his name being ‘unknown in the
 republic of letters.’. He is mentioned by Nicola Leoni (‘Della Magna
 Grecia,’ vol. ii, p. 153).

Salandra, it is true, is named among the writers of sacred tragedies in
Todd’s ‘Milton’ (1809, vol. ii, p. 244), and also by Hayley, but
neither of them had the curiosity, or the opportunity, to examine his
‘Adamo Caduto’; Hayley expressly says that he has not seen it. More
recent works, such as that of Moers (‘De fontibus Paradisi Amissi
Miltoniani,’ Bonn, 1860), do not mention Salandra at all. Byse (‘Milton
on the Continent,’ 1903) merely hints at some possible motives for the
Allegro and the Penseroso.

As to dates, there can be no doubt to whom the priority belongs. The
‘Adamo’ of Salandra was printed at Cosenza in 1647. Richardson thinks
that Milton entered upon his ‘Paradise Lost’ in 1654, and that it was
shown, as done, in 1665; D. Masson agrees with this, adding that ‘it
was not published till two years afterwards.’ The date 1665 is fixed, I
presume, by the Quaker Elwood’s account of his visit to Milton in the
autumn of that year, when the poet gave him the manuscript to read; the
two years’ delay in publication may possibly have been due to the
confusion occasioned by the great plague and fire of London.

The castigation bestowed upon Lauder by Bishop Douglas, followed, as it
was, by a terrific ‘back-hander’ from the brawny arm of Samuel Johnson,
induces me to say that Salandra’s ‘Adamo Caduto,’ though extremely
rare—so rare that neither the British
Museum nor the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale possesses a copy—is _not_
an imaginary book; I have had it in my hands, and examined it at the
Naples Biblioteca Nazionale; it is a small octavo of 251 pages (not
including twenty unnumbered ones, and another one at the end for
correction of misprints); badly printed and bearing all the marks of
genuineness, with the author’s name and the year and place of
publication clearly set forth on the title-page. I have carefully
compared Zicari’s references to it, and quotations from it, with the
original. They are correct, save for a few insignificant verbal
discrepancies which, so far as I can judge, betray no indication of an
attempt on his part to mislead the reader, such as using the word
_tromba_ (trumpet) instead of Salandra’s term _sambuca_ (sackbut). And
if further proof of authenticity be required, I may note that the
‘Adamo Caduto’ of Salandra is already cited in old bibliographies like
Toppi’s ‘Biblioteca Napoletana’ (1678), or that of Joannes a S. Antonio
(‘Biblioteca universa Franciscana, etc.,’ Madrid, 1732-1733, vol. iii,
p. 88). It appears to have been the only literary production of its
author, who was a Franciscan monk and is described as ‘Preacher, Lector
and Definitor of the Reformed Province of Basilicata.’

We may take it, then, that Salandra was a real person, who published a
mystery called ‘Adamo Caduto’ in 1647; and I will now, without further
preamble, extract from Zicari’s article as much as may be sufficient to
show ground for his contention that Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ is a
transfusion, in general and in particular, of this same mystery.

Salandra’s central theme is the Universe shattered by the disobedience
of the First Man, the origin of our unhappiness and sins. The same with
Milton.

Salandra’s chief personages are God and His angels; the first man and
woman; the serpent; Satan and his angels. The same with Milton.

Salandra, at the opening of his poem (the prologue), sets forth his
argument, and dwells upon the Creative Omnipotence and his works. The
same with Milton.

Salandra then describes the council of the rebel angels, their fall
from heaven into a desert and sulphurous region, their discourses. Man
is enviously spoken of, and his fall by means of stratagem decided
upon; it is resolved to reunite in council in Pandemonium or the Abyss,
where measures may be adopted to the end that man may become the enemy
of God and the prey of hell. The same with Milton.

Salandra personifies Sin and Death, the latter being the child of the
former. The same with Milton.

Salandra describes Omnipotence foreseeing the effects of the temptation
and fall of man, and preparing his redemption. The same with Milton.

Salandra depicts the site of Paradise and the happy life there. The
same with Milton.

Salandra sets forth the miraculous creation of the universe and of man,
and the virtues of the forbidden fruit. The same with Milton.

Salandra reports the conversation between Eve and the Serpent; the
eating of the forbidden fruit and the despair of our first parents. The
same with Milton.

Salandra describes the joy of Death at the discomfiture of Eve; the
rejoicings in hell; the grief of Adam; the flight of our first parents,
their shame and repentance. The same with Milton.

Salandra anticipates the intercession of the Redeemer, and the
overthrow of Sin and Death; he dwells upon the wonders of the Creation,
the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, and other human ills; the vices
of the Antediluvians, due to the fall of Adam; the infernal gift of
war. The same with Milton.

Salandra describes the passion of Jesus Christ, and the comforts which
Adam and Eve receive from the angel who announces the coming of the
Messiah; lastly, their departure from the earthly paradise. The same
with Milton.

So much for the general scheme of both poems. And now for a few
particular points of resemblance, verbal and otherwise.

The character of Milton’s Satan, with the various facets of pride,
envy, vindictiveness, despair, and impenitence which go to form that
harmonious whole, are already clearly mapped out in the Lucifero of
Salandra. For this statement, which I find correct, Zicari gives
chapter and verse, but it would take far too long to set forth the
matter in this place. The speeches of Lucifero, to be sure, read rather
like a caricature—it must not be forgotten that Salandra was writing
for lower-class theatrical spectators, and not for refined readers—but
the elements which Milton has utilized are already there.

Here is a coincidence:

Here we may reign secure . . .
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

MILTON (i, 258).

. . . Qui propria voglia,
Son capo, son qui duce, son lor Prence.

SALANDRA (p. 49).

And another:

. . . Whom shall we find
Sufficient? ... This enterprise
None shall partake with me.—MILTON (ii, 403, 465).

A chi basterà l’ anima di voi?
. . . certo che quest’ affare
A la mia man s’ aspetta.—SALANDRA (p. 64).

Milton’s Terror is partially taken from the Megera of the Italian poet.
The ‘grisly Terror’ threatens Satan (ii, 699), and the office of
Megera, in Salandra’s drama, is exactly the same—that is, to threaten
and chastise the rebellious spirit, which she does very effectually
(pages 123-131). The identical monsters—Cerberus, Hydras, and
Chimæras—are found in their respective abodes, but Salandra does not
content himself with these three; his list includes such a mixed
assemblage of creatures as owls, basilisks, dragons, tigers, bears,
crocodiles, sphynxes, harpies, and panthers. Terror moves with dread
rapidity:

. . . and from his seat
The monster moving onward came as fast
With horrid strides.—MILTON (ii, 675).

and so does Megera:

In atterir, in spaventar son . . .
Rapido sì ch’ ogni ripar è vano.—SALANDRA (p. 59).

Both Milton and Salandra use the names of the gods of antiquity for
their demons, but the narrative epic of the English poet naturally
permitted of far greater prolixity and variety in this respect. A most
curious parallelism exists between Milton’s Belial and that of
Salandra. Both are described as luxurious, timorous, slothful, and
scoffing, and there is not the slightest doubt that Milton has taken
over these mixed attributes from the Italian.[2]

 [2] This is one of the occasions in which Zicari appears, at first
 sight, to have stretched a point in order to improve his case,
 because, in the reference he gives, it is Behemoth, and not Belial,
 who speaks of himself as cowardly _(imbelle)._ But in another place
 Lucifer applies this designation to Belial as well,

The words of Milton’s Beelzebub (ii, 368):

Seduce them to our party, that their god
May prove their foe . . .

are copied from those of the Italian Lucifero (p. 52):

. . . Facciam
Acciò, che l’ huom divenga
A Dio nemico . . .

Regarding the creation of the world, Salandra asks (p. 11):

Qual lingua può di Dio,
Benchè da Dio formato
Lodar di Dio le meraviglie estreme?

which is thus echoed by Milton (vii, 112):

... to recount almighty works
What words or tongue of Seraph can suffice?

There is a considerable resemblance between the two poets in their
descriptions of Paradise and of its joys. In both poems, too, Adam
warns his spouse of her frailty, and in the episode of Eve’s meeting
with the serpent there are no less than four verbal coincidences. Thus
Salandra writes (p. 68):

Ravviso gli animal, ch’ a schiera a schiera
Già fanno humil e _reverente_ inclino . . .
Ravveggio il bel serpente _avvolto_ in giri;
O sei bello
Con tanta varietà che certo sembri
Altro stellato ciel, _smaltata_ terra.
O che sento, _tu parli?_

and Milton transcribes it as follows (ix, 517-554):

. . . She minded not, as used
To such disport before her through the field
From every beast, more _duteous_ at her call . . .
Curled many a wanton _wreath_ in sight of Eve.
His turret crest and sleek _enamelled_ neck . . .
What may this mean? Language of man _pronounced_
By tongue of brute?

Altogether, Zicari has observed that Rolli, although unacquainted with
the ‘Adamo Caduto,’ has sometimes inadvertently hit upon the same words
in his Italian translation of Milton which Salandra had used before
him.

Eve’s altered complexion after the eating of the forbidden fruit is
noted by both poets:

Torbata ne la faccia? Non sei quella
Qual ti lasciai contenta . . .—SALANDRA (p. 89).

Thus Eve with countenance blithe her story told;
But in her cheek distemper flushing glowed. —MILTON (ix, 886).

only with this difference, that the Italian Eve adds a half-lie by way
of explaining the change:

. . . Forse cangiata (del che non mi avveggio)
Sono nel volto per la tua partenza.—(p. 89).

In both poems Sin and Death reappear on the scene after the
transgression.

The flight of Innocence from earth; the distempered lust which
dominates over Adam and Eve after the Fall; the league of Sin and Death
to rule henceforward over the world; the pathetic lament of Adam
regarding his misfortune and the evils in store for his progeny; his
noble sentiment, that none can withdraw himself from the all-seeing eye
of God—all these are images which Milton has copied from Salandra.

Adam’s state of mind, after the fall, is compared by Salandra to a boat
tossed by impetuous winds (p. 228):

Qual agitato legno d’Austro, e Noto,
Instabile incostante, non hai pace,
Tu vivi pur . . .

which is thus paraphrased in Milton (ix, 1122):

. . . High winds worse within
Began to rise . . . and shook sore
Their inward state of mind, calm region once
And full of peace, now tossed and turbulent.

Here is a still more palpable adaptation:

... So God ordains:
God is thy law, thou mine.—MILTON (iv, 636)

. . . . Un voler sia d’ entrambi,
E quel’ uno di noi, di Dio sia tutto.—SALANDRA (p. 42).

After the Fall, according to Salandra, _vacillò la terra_ (i), _geme_
(2), _e pianse_ (3), _rumoreggiano i tuoni_ (4), _accompagnati da
grandini_ (5), _e dense nevi_ (6), (pp. 138, 142, 218). Milton
translates this as follows: Earth trembled from her entrails (1), and
nature gave a second groan (2); sky loured and, muttering thunders (4),
some sad drops wept (3), the winds, armed with ice and snow (6) and
hail (5). (‘Paradise Lost,’ ix, 1000, x. 697).

Here is another translation:

. . . inclino il cielo
Giù ne la terra, e questa al Ciel innalza.—SALANDRA (p. 242).

And Earth be changed to Heaven, and Heaven to Earth.—MILTON (vii, 160).

It is not to my purpose to do Zicari’s work over again, as this would
entail a complete translation of his long article (it contains nearly
ten thousand words), to which, if the thing is to be done properly,
must be appended Salandra’s ‘Adamo,’ in order that his
quotations from it can be tested. I will therefore refer to the
originals those who wish to go into the subject more fully, warning
them, _en passant,_ that they may find the task of verification more
troublesome than it seems, owing to a stupid mistake on Zicari’s part.
For in his references to Milton, he claims (p. 252) to use an 1818
Venice translation of the ‘Paradise Lost’ by Rolli. Now Rolli’s
‘Paradiso Perduto’ is a well-known work which was issued in many
editions in London, Paris, and Italy throughout the eighteenth century.
But I cannot trace this particular one of Venice, and application to
many of the chief libraries of Italy has convinced me that it does not
exist, and that 1818 must be a misprint for some other year. The error
would be of no significance if Zicari had referred to Rolli’s
‘Paradiso’ by the usual system of cantos and lines, but he refers to it
by pages, and the pagination differs in every one of the editions of
Rolli which have passed through my hands. Despite every effort, I have
not been able to hit upon the precise one which Zicari had in mind, and
if future students are equally unfortunate, I wish them joy of their
labours.[3]

 [3] Let me take this opportunity of expressing my best thanks to Baron
 E. Tortora Brayda, of the Naples Biblioteca Nazionale, who has taken
 an infinity of trouble in this matter.

These few extracts, however, will suffice to show that, without
Salandra’s ‘Adamo,’ the ‘Paradise Lost,’ as we know it, would not be in
existence; and that Zicari’s discovery is therefore one of primary
importance for English letters, although it would be easy to point out
divergencies between the two works—divergencies often due to the
varying tastes and feelings of a republican Englishman and an Italian
Catholic, and to the different conditions imposed by an epic and a
dramatic poem. Thus, in regard to this last point, Zicari has already
noted (p. 270) that Salandra’s scenic acts were necessarily reproduced
in the form _of visions_ by Milton, who could not avail himself of the
mechanism of the drama for this purpose. Milton was a man of the world,
traveller, scholar, and politician; but it will not do for us to insist
too vehemently upon the probable mental inferiority of the Calabrian
monk, in view of the high opinion which Milton seems to have had of his
talents. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The ‘Adamo
Caduto,’ of course, is only one of a series of similar works concerning
which a large literature has now grown up, and it might not be
difficult to prove that Salandra was indebted to some previous writer
for those words and phrases which he passed on to the English poet.

But where did Milton become acquainted with this tragedy? It was at
Naples, according to Cowper (‘Milton,’ vol. iii, p. 206), that the
English poet may first have entertained the idea of ‘the loss of
paradise as a subject peculiarly fit for poetry.’ He may well have
discussed sacred tragedies, like those of Andreini, with the Marquis
Manso. But Milton had returned to England long before Salandra’s poem
was printed; nor can Manso have sent him a copy of it, for he died in
1645—two years before its publication—and Zicari is thus mistaken in
assuming (p. 245) that Milton became acquainted with it in the house of
the Neapolitan nobleman. Unless, therefore, we take for granted that
Manso was intimate with the author Salandra—he knew most of his
literary countrymen—and sent or gave to Milton a copy of the manuscript
of ‘Adamo’ before it was printed, or that Milton was personally
familiar with Salandra, we may conclude that the poem was forwarded to
him from Italy by some other friend, perhaps by some member of the
_Accademia, degli Oziosi_ which Manso had founded.

A chance therefore seems to have decided Milton; Salandra’s tragedy
fell into his hands, and was welded into the epic form which he had
designed for Arthur the Great, even as, in later years, a chance
question on the part of Elwood led to his writing ‘Paradise
Regained.’[4] For this poem there were not so many models handy as for
the other, but Milton has written too little to enable us to decide how
far its inferiority to the earlier epic is due to this fact, and how
far to the inherent inertia of its subject-matter. Little movement can
be contrived in a mere dialogue such as ‘Paradise Regained’; it lacks
the grandiose _mise-en-scène_ and the shifting splendours of the
greater epic; the stupendous figure of the rebellious archangel, the
true hero of ‘Paradise Lost,’ is here dwarfed into a puny, malignant
sophist; nor is the final issue in the later poem _even for a moment_
in doubt—a serious defect from an artistic point of view. Jortin holds
its peculiar excellence to be ‘artful sophistry, false reasoning, set
off in the most specious manner, and refuted by the Son of God with
strong unaffected eloquence’; merits for which Milton needed no
original of any kind, as his own lofty religious sentiments, his
argumentative talents and long experience of political pamphleteering,
stood him in good stead. Most of us must have wondered how it came
about that Milton could not endure to hear ‘Paradise Lost’ preferred to
‘Paradise Regained,’ in view of the very apparent inferiority of the
latter. If we had known what Milton knew, namely, to how
large an extent ‘Paradise Lost’ was not the child of his own
imagination, and therefore not so precious in his eyes as ‘Paradise
Regained,’ we might have understood his prejudice.

 [4] _Thou hast said much of Paradise Lost, but what hast thou to say
 of Paradise Found?_ He made no answer, but sat some time in a muse. .
 . .

Certain parts of ‘Paradise Lost’ are drawn, as we all know, from other
Italian sources, from Sannazario, Ariosto, Guarini, Bojardo, and
others. Zicari who, it must be said, has made the best of his case,
will have it that the musterings and battles of the good and evil
angels are copied from the ‘Angeleide’ of Valvasone published at Milan
in 1590. But G. Polidori, who has reprinted the ‘Angeleide’ in his
Italian version of Milton (London, 1840), has gone into this matter and
thinks otherwise. These devil-and-angel combats were a popular theme at
the time, and there is no reason why the English poet should copy
continental writers in such descriptions, which necessarily have a
common resemblance. The Marquis Manso was very friendly with the poets
Tasso and Marino, and it is also to be remarked that entire passages in
‘Paradise Lost’ are copied, _totidem verbis,_ from the writings of
these two, Manso having no doubt drawn Milton’s attention to their
beauties. In fact, I am inclined to think that Manso’s notorious
enthusiasm for the _warlike_ epic of Tasso may first of all have
diverted Milton from purely pastoral ideals and inflamed him with the
desire of accomplishing a similar feat, whence the well-known lines in
Milton’s Latin verses to this friend, which contain the first
indication of such a design on his part. Even the familiar invocation,
‘Hail, wedded Love,’ is bodily drawn from one of Tasso’s letters (see
Newton’s ‘Milton,’ 1773, vol. i, pp. 312, 313).

It has been customary to speak of these literary appropriations as
‘imitations’; but whoever compares them with the originals will find
that many of them are more correctly termed translations. The case,
from a literary-moral point of view, is different as regards ancient
writers, and it is surely idle to accuse Milton, as has been done, of
pilferings from Aeschylus or Ovid. There is no such thing as robbing
the classics. They are our literary fathers, and what they have left
behind them is our common heritage; we may adapt, borrow, or steal from
them as much as will suit our purpose; to acknowledge such ‘thefts’ is
sheer pedantry and ostentation. But Salandra and the rest of them were
Milton’s contemporaries. It is certainly an astonishing fact that no
scholar of the stamp of Thyer was acquainted with the ‘Adamo Caduto’;
and it says much for the isolation of England that, at a period when
poems on the subject of paradise lost were being scattered broadcast in
Italy and elsewhere—when, in short, all Europe was ringing with the
doleful history of Adam and Eve—Milton could have ventured to speak of
his work as ‘Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme’—an amazing verse
which, by the way, is literally transcribed out of Ariosto (‘Cosa, non
detta in prosa mai, nè in rima’). But even now the acquaintance of the
British public with the productions of continental writers is
superficial and spasmodic, and such was the ignorance of English
scholars of this earlier period, that Birch maintained that Milton’s
drafts, to be referred to presently, indicated his intention of writing
an _opera_ (!); while as late as 1776 the poet Mickle, notwithstanding
Voltaire’s authority, questioned the very existence of Andreini, who
has written thirty different pieces.

Some idea of the time when Salandra’s tragedy reached Milton might be
gained if we knew the date of his manuscript projects for ‘Paradise
Lost’ and other writings which are preserved at Cambridge. R. Garnett
(‘Life of Milton,’ 1890, p. 129) supposes these drafts to date from
about 1640 to 1642, and I am not sufficiently learned in Miltonian lore
to controvert or corroborate in a general way this assertion. But the
date must presumably be pushed further forward in the case of the
skeletons for ‘Paradise Lost,’ which are modelled to a great extent
upon Salandra’s ‘Adamo’ of 1647, though other compositions may also
have been present before Milton’s mind, such as that mentioned on page
234 of the second volume of Todd’s ‘Milton,’ from which he seems to
have drawn the hint of a ‘prologue spoken by Moses.’

Without going into the matter exhaustively, I will only say that from
these pieces it is clear that Milton’s primary idea was to write, like
Salandra, a sacred tragedy upon this theme, and not an epic. These
drafts also contain a chorus, such as Salandra has placed in his drama,
and a great number of mutes, who do not figure in the English epic, but
who reappear in the ‘Adamo Caduto’ and all similar works. Even Satan is
here designated as Lucifer, in accordance with the Italian Lucifero;
and at the end of one of Milton’s drafts we read ‘at last appears
Mercy, comforts him, promises the Messiah, etc.,’ which is exactly what
Salandra’s Misericordia (Mercy) does in the same place.

Milton no doubt kept on hand many loose passages of poetry, both
original and borrowed, ready to be worked up into larger pieces; all
poets are smothered in odd scraps of verse and lore which they ‘fit in’
as occasion requires; and it is therefore quite possible that some
fragments now included in ‘Paradise Lost’ may have been complete before
the ‘Adamo Caduto’ was printed. I am referring, more especially, to
Satan’s address to the sun, which Philips says was written before the
commencement of the epic.
Admitting Philips to be correct, I still question whether this
invocation was composed before Milton’s visit to Naples; and if it was,
the poet may well have intended it for some other of the multitudinous
works which these drafts show him to have been revolving in his mind,
or for none of them in particular.

De Quincey rightly says that Addison gave the initial bias in favour of
‘Paradise Lost’ to the English national mind, which has thenceforward
shrunk, as Addison himself did, from a dispassionate contemplation of
its defects; the idea being, I presume, that a ‘divine poem’ in a
manner disarmed rational criticism. And, strange to say, even the few
faults which earlier scholars did venture to point out in Milton’s poem
will be found in that of Salandra. There is the same superabundance of
allegory; the same confusion of spirit and matter among the
supernatural persons; the same lengthy astronomical treatise; the same
personification of Sin and Death; the same medley of Christian and
pagan mythology; the same tedious historico-theological disquisition at
the end of both poems.

For the rest, it is to be hoped that we have outgrown our
fastidiousness on some of these points. Theological fervour has abated,
and in a work of the pure imagination, as ‘Paradise Lost’ is now—is it
not?—considered to be, there is nothing incongruous or offensive in an
amiable commingling of Semitic and Hellenic deities after the approved
Italian recipe; nor do a few long words about geography or science
disquiet us any more. Milton was not writing for an uncivilized mob,
and his occasional displays of erudition will represent to a cultured
person only those breathing spaces so refreshing in all epic poetry.
That Milton’s language is saturated with Latinisms and Italianisms is
perfectly true. His English may not have been good enough for his
contemporaries. But it is quite good enough for us. That ‘grand manner’
which Matthew Arnold claimed for Milton, that sustained pitch of kingly
elaboration and fullness, is not wholly an affair of high moral tone;
it results in part from the humbler ministrations of words happily
chosen—from a felicitous alloy of Mediterranean grace and Saxon mettle.
For, whether consciously or not, we cannot but be influenced by the
_colour-effects_ of mere words, that arouse in us definite but
indefinable moods of mind. To complain of the foreign phraseology and
turns of thought in ‘Paradise Lost’ would be the blackest ingratitude
nowadays, seeing that our language has become enriched by steady gleams
of pomp and splendour due, in large part, to the peculiar _lustre_ of
Milton’s comely importations.




XXII
THE “GREEK” SILA


It was to be the Sila in earnest, this time. I would traverse the whole
country, from the Coscile valley to Catanzaro, at the other end.
Arriving from Cosenza the train deposited me, once more, at the
unlovely station of Castrovillari. I looked around the dusty square,
half-dazed by the sunlight—it was a glittering noonday in July—but the
postal waggon to Spezzano Albanese, my first resting-point, had not yet
arrived. Then a withered old man, sitting on a vehicle behind the sorry
skeleton of a horse, volunteered to take me there at once; we quickly
came to terms; it was too hot, we both agreed, to waste breath in
bargaining. With the end of his whip he pointed out the church of
Spezzano on its hilltop; a proud structure it looked at this distance,
though nearer acquaintance reduced it to extremely humble proportions.

The Albanian Spezzano (Spezzano Grande is another place) lies on the
main road from Castrovillari to Cosenza, on the summit of a
long-stretched tongue of limestone which separates the Crati river from
the Esaro; this latter, after flowing into the Coscile, joins its
waters with the Crati, and so closes the promontory. An odd
geographical feature, this low stretch, viewed from the greater heights
of Sila or Pollino; one feels inclined to take a broom and sweep it
into the sea, so that the waters may mingle sooner.

Our road ascended the thousand feet in a sinuous ribbon of white dust,
and an eternity seemed to pass as we crawled drowsily upwards to the
music of the cicadas, under the simmering blue sky. There was not a
soul in sight; a hush had fallen upon all things; great Pan was
brooding over the earth. At last we entered the village, and here, once
more, deathlike stillness reigned; it was the hour of post-prandial
slumber.

At our knocking the proprietor of the inn, situated in a side-street,
descended. But he was in bad humour, and held out no hopes of
refreshment. Certain doctors and government officials, he said, were
gathered together in his house, telegraphically summoned to consult
about a local case of cholera. As to edibles, the
gentlemen had lunched, and nothing was left, absolutely nothing; it had
been _uno sterminio_—an extermination—of all he possessed. The prospect
of walking about the burning streets till evening did not appeal to me,
and as this was the only inn at Spezzano I insisted, first gently, then
forcibly—in vain. There was not so much as a chair to sit upon, he
avowed; and therewith retired into his cool twilight.

Despairing, I entered a small shop wherein I had observed the only
signs of life so far—an Albanian woman spinning in patriarchal fashion.
It was a low-ceilinged room, stocked with candles, seeds, and other
commodities which a humble householder might desire to purchase,
including certain of those water-gugglets of Corigliano ware in whose
shapely contours something of the artistic dreamings of old Sybaris
still seems to linger. The proprietress, clothed in gaudily picturesque
costume, greeted me with a smile and the easy familiarity which I have
since discovered to be natural to all these women. She had a room, she
said, where I could rest; there was also food, such as it was, cheese,
and wine, and——

“Fruit?” I queried.

“Ah, you like fruit? Well, we may not so much as speak about it just
now—the cholera, the doctors, the policeman, the prison! I was going to
say _salami.”_

Salami? I thanked her. I know Calabrian pigs and what they feed on,
though it would be hard to describe in the language of polite society.

Despite the heat and the swarms of flies in that chamber, I felt little
desire for repose after her simple repast; the dame was so affable and
entertaining that we soon became great friends. I caused her some
amusement by my efforts to understand and pronounce her language—these
folk speak Albanian and Italian with equal facility—which seemed to my
unpractised ears as hopeless as Finnish. Very patiently, she gave me a
long lesson during which I thought to pick up a few words and phrases,
but the upshot of it all was:

“You’ll never learn it. You have begun a hundred years too late.”

I tried her with modern Greek, but among such fragments as remained on
my tongue after a lapse of over twenty years, only hit upon one word
that she could understand.

“Quite right!” she said encouragingly. “Why don’t you always speak
properly? And now, let me hear a little of your own language.”

I gave utterance to a few verses of Shakespeare, which caused
considerable merriment.

“Do you mean to tell me,” she asked, “that people really talk like
that?”

“Of course they do.”

“And pretend to understand what it means?”

“Why, naturally.”

“Maybe they do,” she agreed. “But only when they want to be thought
funny by their friends.”

The afternoon drew on apace, and at last the pitiless sun sank to rest.
I perambulated Spezzano in the gathering twilight; it was now fairly
alive with people. An unclean place; an epidemic of cholera would work
wonders here. . . .

At 9.30 p.m. the venerable coachman presented himself, by appointment;
he was to drive me slowly (out of respect for his horse) through the
cool hours of the night as far as Vaccarizza, on the slopes of the
Greek Sila, where he expected to arrive early in the morning. (And so
he did; at half-past five.) Not without more mirth was my leave-taking
from the good shopwoman; something, apparently, was hopelessly wrong
with the Albanian words of farewell which I had carefully memorized
from our preceding lesson. She then pressed a paper parcel into my
hand.

“For the love of God,” she whispered, “silence! Or we shall all be in
jail to-morrow.”

It contained a dozen pears.

Driving along, I tried to enter into conversation with the coachman
who, judging by his face, was a mine of local lore. But I had come too
late; the poor old man was so weakened by age and infirmities that he
cared little for talk, his thoughts dwelling, as I charitably imagined,
on his wife and children, all dead and buried (so he said) many long
years ago. He mentioned, however, the _diluvio,_ the deluge, which I
have heard spoken of by older people, among whom it is a fixed article
of faith. This deluge is supposed to have affected the whole Crati
valley, submerging towns and villages. In proof, they say that if you
dig near Tarsia below the present river-level, you will pass through
beds of silt and ooze to traces of old walls and cultivated land.
Tarsia used to lie by the river-side, and was a flourishing place,
according to the descriptions of Leandro Alberti and other early
writers; floods and malaria have now forced it to climb the hills.

The current of the Crati is more spasmodic and destructive than in
classical times when the river was “navigable”; and to one of its
inundations may be due this legend of the deluge; to the same
one, maybe, that affected the courses of this river and the Coscile,
mingling their waters which used to flow separately into the Ionian. Or
it may be a hazy memory of the artificial changing of the riverbed when
the town of Sybaris, lying between these two rivers, was destroyed. Yet
the streams are depicted as entering the sea apart in old maps such as
those of Magini, Fiore, Coronelli, and Cluver; and the latter writes
that “near the mouth of the Crati there flows into the same sea a river
vulgarly called Cochile.”[1] This is important. It remains to be seen
whether this statement is the result of a personal visit, or whether he
simply repeated the old geography. His text in many places indicates a
personal acquaintance with southern Italy—_Italiam_, says Heinsius,
_non semel peragravit—_and he may well have been tempted to investigate
a site like that of Sybaris. If so, the change in the river courses and
possibly this “deluge” has taken place since his day.

 [1] In the earlier part of Rathgeber’s astonishing “Grossgriechenland
 und Pythagoras” (1866) will be found a good list of old maps of the
 country.

Deprived of converse, I relapsed into a doze, but soon woke up with a
start. The carriage had stopped; it was nearly midnight; we were at
Terranova di Sibari, whose houses were lit up by the silvery beams of
the moon.

Thurii—death-place of Herodotus! How one would like to see this place
by daylight. On the ancient site, which lies at a considerable
distance, they have excavated antiquities, a large number of which are
in the possession of the Marchese Galli at Castrovillari. I endeavoured
to see his museum, but found it inaccessible for “family reasons.” The
same answer was given me in regard to a valuable private library at
Rossano, and annoying as it may be, one cannot severely blame such
local gentlemen for keeping their collections to themselves. What have
they to gain from the visits of inquisitive travellers?

During these meditations on my part, the old man hobbled busily to and
fro with a bucket, bearing water from a fountain near at hand wherewith
to splash the carriage-wheels. He persisted in this singular occupation
for an unreasonably long time. Water was good for the wheels, he
explained; it kept them cool.

At last we started, and I began to slumber once more. The carriage
seemed to be going down a steep incline; endlessly it descended, with a
pleasant swaying motion. . . . Then an icy shiver roused me from my
dreams. It was the Crati whose rapid waves, fraught with unhealthy
chills, rippled brightly in the moonlight. We crossed the malarious
valley, and once more touched the hills.

From those treeless slopes there streamed forth deliciously warm
emanations stored up during the scorching hours of noon; the short
scrub that clothed them was redolent of that peculiar Calabrian odour
which haunts one like a melody—an odour of dried cistus and other
aromatic plants, balsamic by day, almost overpowering at this hour. To
aid and diversify the symphony of perfume, I lit a cigar, and then gave
myself up to contemplation of the heavenly bodies. We passed a solitary
man, walking swiftly with bowed head. What was he doing there?

“Lupomanaro,” said the driver.

A werewolf. . . .

I had always hoped to meet with a werewolf on his nocturnal rambles,
and now my wish was gratified. But it was disappointing to see him in
human garb—even werewolves, it seems, must march with the times. This
enigmatical growth of the human mind flourishes in Calabria, but is not
popular as a subject of conversation. The more old-fashioned werewolves
cling to the true _versipellis_ habits, and in that case only the pigs,
the inane Calabrian pigs, are dowered with the faculty of
distinguishing them in daytime, when they look like any other
“Christian.” There is a record, in Fiore’s book, of an epidemic of
lycanthropy that attacked the boys of Cassano. (Why only the boys?) It
began on 31 July, 1210; and the season of the year strikes me as
significant.

After that I fell asleep in good earnest, nor did I wake up again till
the sun was peering over the eastern hills. We were climbing up a long
slope; the Albanian settlements of Vaccarizza and San Giorgio lay
before us and, looking back, I still saw Spezzano on its ridge; it
seemed so close that a gunshot could have reached it.

These non-Italian villages date from the centuries that followed the
death of Scanderbeg, when the Grand Signior consolidated his power. The
refugees arrived in flocks from over the sea, and were granted tracts
of wild land whereon to settle—some of them on this incline of the
Sila, which was accordingly called “Greek” Sila, the native confusing
these foreigners with the Byzantines whose dwellings, as regards
Calabria, are now almost exclusively confined to the distant region of
Aspromonte. Colonies of Albanians are scattered all over South Italy,
chiefly in Apulia, Calabria, Basilicata, and Sicily; a few are in the
north and centre—there is one on the Po, for instance, now reduced to
200 inhabitants; most of these latter have become absorbed into the
surrounding Italian element. Angelo Masci (reprinted 1846) says there
are 59 villages of them, containing altogether 83,000
inhabitants—exclusive of Sicily; Morelli (1842) gives their total
population for Italy and Sicily as 103,466. If these figures are
correct, the race must have multiplied latterly, for I am told there
are now some 200,000 Albanians in the kingdom, living in about 80
villages. This gives approximately 2500 for each settlement—a likely
number, if it includes those who are at present emigrants in America.
There is a voluminous literature on the subject of these strangers, the
authors of which are nearly all Albanians themselves. The fullest
account of older conditions may well be that contained in the third
volume of Rodotà’s learned work (1758); the ponderous Francesco Tajani
(1886) brings affairs up to date, or nearly so. If only he had provided
his book with an index!

There were troubles at first. Arriving, as they did, solely “with their
shirts and rhapsodies” (so one of them described it to me)—that is,
despoiled of everything, they indulged in robberies and depredations
somewhat too freely even for those free days, with the result that
ferocious edicts were issued against them, and whole clans wiped out.
It was a case of necessity knowing no law. But in proportion as the
forests were hewn down and crops sown, they became as respectable as
their hosts. They are bilingual from birth, one might almost say, and
numbers of the men also express themselves correctly in English, which
they pick up in the United States.

These islands of alien culture have been hotbeds of Liberalism
throughout history. The Bourbons persecuted them savagely on that
account, exiling and hanging the people by scores. At this moment there
is a good deal of excitement going on in favour of the Albanian revolt
beyond the Adriatic, and it was proposed, among other things, to
organize a demonstration in Rome, where certain Roman ladies were to
dress themselves in Albanian costumes and thus work upon the sentiments
of the nation; but “the authorities” forbade this and every other
movement. None the less, there has been a good deal of clandestine
recruiting, and bitter recriminations against this turcophile attitude
on the part of Italy—this “reactionary rigorism against every
manifestation of sympathy for the Albanian cause.” Patriotic
pamphleteers ask, rightly enough, why difficulties should be placed in
the way of recruiting for Albania, when, in the recent cases of Cuba
and Greece, the despatch of volunteers was actually encouraged by the
government? “Legality has ceased to exist here; we Albanians are
watched and suspected exactly as our compatriots now are by the Turks.
. . . They sequestrate our manifestos, they forbid meetings and
conferences, they pry into our postal correspondence. . . .
Civil and military authorities have conspired to prevent a single voice
of help and comfort reaching our brothers, who call to us from over the
sea.” A hard case, indeed. But Vienna and Cettinje might be able to
throw some light upon it.[2]

 [2] This was written before the outbreak of the Balkan war.

The Albanian women, here as elsewhere, are the veriest beasts of
burden; unlike the Italians, they carry everything (babies, and wood,
and water) on their backs. Their crudely tinted costumes would be
called more strange than beautiful under any but a bright sunshiny sky.
The fine native dresses of the men have disappeared long ago; they even
adopted, in days past, the high-peaked Calabrian hat which is now only
worn by the older generation. Genuine Calabrians often settle in these
foreign villages, in order to profit by their anti-feudal institutions.
For even now the Italian cultivator is supposed to make, and actually
does make, “voluntary” presents to his landlord at certain seasons;
gifts which are always a source of irritation and, in bad years, a real
hardship. The Albanians opposed themselves from the very beginning
against these mediæval practices. “They do not build houses,” says an
old writer, “so as not to be subject to barons, dukes, princes, or
other lords. And if the owner of the land they inhabit ill-treats them,
they set fire to their huts and go elsewhere.” An admirable system,
even nowadays.

One would like to be here at Easter time to see the _rusalet_—those
Pyrrhic dances where the young men group themselves in martial array,
and pass through the streets with song and chorus, since, soon enough,
America will have put an end to such customs. The old Albanian guitar
of nine strings has already died out, and the double tibia—_biforem dat
tibia cantum_—will presently follow suit. This instrument, familiar
from classical sculpture and lore, and still used in Sicily and
Sardinia, was once a favourite with the Sila shepherds, who called it
“fischietto a pariglia.” But some years ago I vainly sought it in the
central Sila; the answer to my enquiries was everywhere the same: they
knew it quite well; so and so used to play it; certain persons in
certain villages still made it—they described it accurately enough, but
could not produce a specimen. Single pipes, yes; and bagpipes galore;
but the _tibiæ pares_ were “out of fashion” wherever I asked for them.

Here, in the Greek Sila, I was more fortunate. A boy at the village of
Macchia possessed a pair which he obligingly gave me, after first
playing a song—a farewell song—a plaintive ditty that required, none
the less, an excellent pair of lungs, on account of the two
mouthpieces. Melodies on this double flageolet are played
principally at Christmas time. The two reeds are about twenty-five
centimetres in length, and made of hollow cane; in my specimen, the
left hand controls four, the other six holes; the Albanian name of the
instrument is “fiscarol.”

From a gentleman at Vaccarizza I received a still more valuable
present—two neolithic celts (aenolithic, I should be inclined to call
them) wrought in close-grained quartzite, and found not far from that
village. These implements must be rare in the uplands of Calabria, as I
have never come across them before, though they have been found, to my
knowledge, at Savelli in the central Sila. At Vaccarizza they call such
relics “pic”—they are supposed, as usual, to be thunderbolts, and I am
also told that a piece of string tied to one of them cannot be burnt in
fire. The experiment might be worth trying.

Meanwhile, the day passed pleasantly at Vaccarizza. I became the guest
of a prosperous resident, and was treated to genuine Albanian
hospitality and excellent cheer. I only wish that all his compatriots
might enjoy one meal of this kind in their lifetime. For they are poor,
and their homes of miserable aspect. Like all too many villages in
South Italy, this one is depopulated of its male inhabitants, and
otherwise dirty and neglected. The impression one gains on first seeing
one of these places is more than that of Oriental decay; they are not
merely ragged at the edges. It is a deliberate and sinister chaos, a
note of downright anarchy—a contempt for those simple forms of
refinement which even the poorest can afford. Such persons, one thinks,
cannot have much sense of home and its hallowed associations; they seem
to be everlastingly ready to break with the existing state of things.
How different from England, where the humblest cottages, the roadways,
the very stones testify to immemorial love of order, to neighbourly
feelings and usages sanctioned by time!

They lack the sense of home as a fixed and old-established
topographical point; as do the Arabs and Russians, neither of whom have
a word expressing our “home” or “Heimat.” Here, the nearest equivalent
is _la famiglia._ We think of a particular house or village where we
were born and where we spent our impressionable days of childhood;
these others regard home not as a geographical but as a social centre,
liable to shift from place to place; they are at home everywhere, so
long as their clan is about them. That acquisitive sense which
affectionately adorns our meanest dwelling, slowly saturating it with
memories, has been crushed out of them—if it ever existed—by hard blows
of fortune; it is safer, they think,
to transform the labour of their hands into gold, which can be moved
from place to place or hidden from the tyrant’s eye. They have none of
our sentimentality in regard to inanimate objects. Eliza Cook’s
feelings towards her “old arm-chair” would strike them as savouring of
childishness. Hence the unfinished look of their houses, within and
without. Why expend thought and wealth upon that which may be abandoned
to-morrow?

The two churches of Vaccarizza, dark and unclean structures, stand side
by side, and I was shown through them by their respective priests,
Greek and Catholic, who walked arm in arm in friendly wise, and meekly
smiled at a running fire of sarcastic observations on the part of
another citizen directed against the “bottega” in general—the _shop,_
as the church is sometimes irreverently called. The Greco-Catholic cult
to which these Albanians belong is a compromise between the Orthodox
and Roman; their priests may wear beards and marry wives, they use
bread instead of the wafer for sacramental purposes, and there are one
or two other little differences of grave import.

Six Albanian settlements lie on these northern slopes of the Sila—San
Giorgio, Vaccarizza, San Cosimo, Macchia, San Demetrio Corone, and
Santa Sofia d’ Epiro. San Demetrio is the largest of them, and thither,
after an undisturbed night’s rest at the house of my kind host—the
last, I fear, for many days to come—I drove in the sunlit hours of next
morning. Along the road one can see how thoroughly the Albanians have
done their work; the land is all under cultivation, save for a dark
belt of trees overhead, to remind one of what once it was. Perhaps they
have eradicated the forest over-zealously, for I observe in San
Demetrio that the best drinking water has now to be fetched from a
spring at a considerable distance from the village; it is unlikely that
this should have been the original condition of affairs; deforestation
has probably diminished the water-supply.

It was exhilarating to traverse these middle heights with their aerial
views over the Ionian and down olive-covered hill-sides towards the
wide valley of the Crati and the lofty Pollino range, now swimming in
midsummer haze. The road winds in and out of gullies where rivulets
descend from the mountains; they are clothed in cork-oak, ilex, and
other trees; golden orioles, jays, hoopoes and rollers flash among the
foliage. In winter these hills are swept by boreal blasts from the
Apennines, but at this season it is a delightful tract of land.




XXIII
ALBANIANS AND THEIR COLLEGE


San Demetrio, famous for its Italo-Albanian College, lies on a fertile
incline sprinkled with olives and mulberries and chestnuts, fifteen
hundred feet above sea-level. They tell me that within the memory of
living man no Englishman has ever entered the town. This is quite
possible; I have not yet encountered a single English traveller, during
my frequent wanderings over South Italy. Gone are the days of Keppel
Craven and Swinburne, of Eustace and Brydone and Hoare! You will come
across sporadic Germans immersed in Hohenstaufen records, or searching
after Roman antiquities, butterflies, minerals, or landscapes to
paint—you will meet them in the most unexpected places; but never an
Englishman. The adventurous type of Anglo-Saxon probably thinks the
country too tame; scholars, too trite; ordinary tourists, too dirty.
The accommodation and food in San Demetrio leave much to be desired;
its streets are irregular lanes, ill-paved with cobbles of gneiss and
smothered under dust and refuse. None the less, what noble names have
been given to these alleys—names calculated to fire the ardent
imagination of young Albanian students, and prompt them to valorous and
patriotic deeds! Here are the streets of “Odysseus,” of “Salamis” and
“Marathon” and “Thermopylae,” telling of the glory that was Greece;
“Via Skanderbeg” and “Hypsilanti” awaken memories of more immediate
renown; “Corso Dante Alighieri” reminds them that their Italian hosts,
too, have done something in their day; the “Piazza Francesco Ferrer”
causes their ultra-liberal breasts to swell with mingled pride and
indignation; while the “Via dell’ Industria” hints, not obscurely, at
the great truth that genius, without a capacity for taking pains, is an
idle phrase. Such appellations, without a doubt, are stimulating and
glamorous. But if the streets themselves have seen a scavenger’s broom
within the last half-century, I am much mistaken. The goddess “Hygeia”
dost not figure among their names, nor yet that Byzantine Monarch whose
infantile exploit might be re-enacted in ripest maturity without
attracting any attention in San Demetrio. To the pure all things are
pure.

The town is exclusively Albanian; the Roman Catholic church has fallen
into disrepair, and is now used as a shed for timber. But at the door
of the Albanian sanctuary I was fortunate enough to intercept a native
wedding, just as the procession was about to enter the portal. Despite
the fact that the bride was considered the ugliest girl in the place,
she had been duly “robbed” by her bold or possibly blind lover—her
features were providentially veiled beneath her nuptial _flammeum,_ and
of her squat figure little could be discerned under the gorgeous
accoutrements of the occasion. She was ablaze with ornaments and
embroidery of gold, on neck and shoulders and wrist; a wide lace collar
fell over a bodice of purple silk; silken too, and of brightest green,
was her pleated skirt. The priest seemed ineffably bored with his task,
and mumbled through one or two pages of holy books in record time;
there were holdings of candles, interchange of rings, sacraments of
bread and wine and other solemn ceremonies—the most quaint being the
_stephanoma,_ or crowning, of the happy pair, and the moving of their
respective crowns from the head of one to that of the other. It ended
with a chanting perlustration of the church, led by the priest: this is
the so-called “pesatura.”

I endeavoured to attune my mind to the gravity of this marriage, to the
deep historico-ethnologico-poetical significance of its smallest
detail. Such rites, I said to myself, must be understood to be
appreciated, and had I not been reading certain native commentators on
the subject that very morning? Nevertheless, my attention was diverted
from the main issue—the bridegroom’s face had fascinated me. The
self-conscious male is always at a disadvantage during grotesquely
splendid buffooneries of this kind; and never, in all my life, have I
seen a man looking such a sorry fool as this individual, never;
especially during the perambulation, when his absurd crown was
supported on his head, from behind, by the hand of his best man.

[Illustration: San Demetrio Corone]

Meanwhile a handful of boys, who seemed to share my private feelings in
regard to the performance, had entered the sacred precincts, their
pockets stuffed with living cicadas. These Albanian youngsters, like
all true connaisseurs, are aware of the idiosyncrasy of the classical
insect which, when pinched or tickled on a certain spot, emits its
characteristic and ear-piercing note—the “lily-soft voice” of the Greek
bard. The cicadas, therefore, were duly pinched and then let loose;
like squibs and rockets they careered among the congregation, dashing
in our faces and clinging to our garments; the church resounded like an
olive-copse at noon. A hot little hand conveyed one of these
tremulously throbbing
creatures into my own, and obeying a whispered injunction of “Let it
fly, sir!” I had the joy of seeing the beast alight with a violent buzz
on the head of the bride—doubtless the happiest of auguries. Such
conduct, on the part of English boys, would be deemed very naughty and
almost irreverent; but here, one hopes, it may have its origin in some
obscure but pious credence such as that which prompts the populace to
liberate birds in churches, at Easter time. These escaping cicadas, it
may be, are symbolical of matrimony—the individual man and woman freed,
at last, from the dungeon-like horrors of celibate existence; or, if
that parallel be far-fetched, we may conjecture that their liberation
represents the afflatus of the human soul, aspiring upwards to merge
its essence into the Divine All. . . .

The pride of San Demetrio is its college. You may read about it in
Professor Mazziotti’s monograph; but whoever wishes to go to the
fountain-head must peruse the _Historia Erectionis Pontifici Collegi
Corsini Ullanensis, etc.,_ of old Zavarroni—an all-too-solid piece of
work. Founded under the auspices of Pope Clement XII in 1733 (or 1735)
at San Benedetto Ullano, it was moved hither in 1794, and between that
time and now has passed through fierce vicissitudes. Its president,
Bishop Bugliari, was murdered by the brigands in 1806; much of its
lands and revenues have been dissipated by maladministration; it was
persecuted for its Liberalism by the Bourbons, who called it a
“workshop of the devil.” It distinguished itself during the
anti-dynastic revolts of 1799 and 1848 and, in 1860, was presented with
twelve thousand ducats by Garibaldi, “in consideration of the signal
services rendered to the national cause by the brave and generous
Albanians.”[1] Even now the institution is honeycombed with
Freemasonry—the surest path to advancement in any career, in modern
Italy. Times indeed have changed since the “Inviolable Constitutions”
laid it down that _nullus omnino Alumnus in Collegio detineatur, cuius
futuræ Christianæ pietatis significatio non extet._ But only since 1900
has it been placed on a really sound and prosperous footing. An
agricultural school has lately been added, under the supervision of a
trained expert. They who are qualified to judge speak of the college as
a beacon of learning—an institution whose aims and results are alike
deserving of high respect. And certainly it can boast of a fine list of
prominent men who have issued from its walls.

 [1] There used to be regiments of these Albanians at Naples. In Pilati
 de Tassulo’s sane study (1777) they are spoken of as highly prized.

This little island of stern mental culture contains, besides
twenty-five teachers and as many servants, some three hundred scholars
preparing for a variety of secular professions. About fifty of them are
Italo-Albanians, ten or thereabouts are genuine Albanians from over the
water, the rest Italians, among them two dozen of those unhappy orphans
from Reggio and Messina who flooded the country after the earthquake,
and were “dumped down” in colleges and private houses all over Italy.
Some of the boys come of wealthy families in distant parts, their
parents surmising that San Demetrio offers no temptations to youthful
folly and extravagance. In this, so far as I can judge, they are
perfectly correct.

The heat of summer and the fact that the boys were in the throes of
their examinations may have helped to make the majority of them seem
pale and thin; they certainly complained of their food, and the cook
was the only prosperous-looking person whom I could discover in the
establishment—his percentages, one suspects, being considerable. The
average yearly payment of each scholar for board and tuition is only
twenty pounds (it used to be twenty ducats); how shall superfluities be
included in the bill of fare for such a sum?

The class-rooms are modernized; the dormitories neither clean nor very
dirty; there is a rather scanty gymnasium as well as a physical
laboratory and museum of natural history. Among the recent acquisitions
of the latter is a vulture _(Gyps fulvus)_ which was shot here in the
spring of this year. The bird, they told me, has never been seen in
these regions before; it may have come over from the east, or from
Sardinia, where it still breeds. I ventured to suggest that they should
lose no time in securing a native porcupine, an interesting beast
concerning which I never fail to enquire on my rambles. They used to be
encountered in the Crati valley; two were shot near Corigliano a few
years ago, and another not far from Cotronei on the Neto; they still
occur in the forests near the “Pagliarelle” above Petilia Policastro;
but, judging by all indications, I should say that this animal is
rapidly approaching extinction not only here, but all over Italy.
Another very rare creature, the otter, was killed lately at Vaccarizza,
but unfortunately not preserved.

Fencing and music are taught, but those athletic exercises which led to
the victories of Marathon and Salamis are not much in vogue—_mens sana
in corpore sana_ is clearly not the ideal of the place; fighting among
the boys is reprobated as “savagery,” and corporal punishment
forbidden. There is no playground or workshop, and their sole exercise
consists in dull promenades along the high road under the supervision
of one or more teachers, during which the
youngsters indulge in attempts at games by the wayside which are truly
pathetic. So the old “Inviolable Constitutions” ordain that “the
scholars must not play outside the college, and if they meet any one,
they should lower their voices.” A rule of recent introduction is that
in this warm weather they must all lie down to sleep for two hours
after the midday meal; it may suit the managers, but the boys consider
it a great hardship and would prefer being allowed to play. Altogether,
whatever the intellectual results may be, the moral tendency of such an
upbringing is damaging to the spirit of youth and must make for
precocious frivolity and brutality. But the pedagogues of Italy are
like her legislators: theorists. They close their eyes to the cardinal
principles of all education—that the waste products and toxins of the
imagination are best eliminated by motor activities, and that the
immature stage of human development, far from being artificially
shortened, should be prolonged by every possible means.

If the internal arrangement of this institution is not all it might be
as regards the healthy development of youth, the situation of the
college resembles the venerable structures of Oxford in that it is too
good, far too good, for mere youngsters. This building, in its
seclusion from the world, its pastoral surroundings and soul-inspiring
panorama, is an abode not for boys but for philosophers; a place to
fill with a wave of deep content the sage who has outgrown earthly
ambitions. Your eye embraces the snow-clad heights of Dolcedorme and
the Ionian Sea, wandering over forests, and villages, and rivers, and
long reaches of fertile country; but it is not the variety of the
scene, nor yet the historical memories of old Sybaris which kindle the
imagination so much as the spacious amplitude of the whole prospect. In
England we think something of a view of ten miles. Conceive, here, a
grandiose valley wider than from Dover to Calais, filled with an
atmosphere of such impeccable clarity that there are moments when one
thinks to see every stone and every bush on the mountains yonder,
thirty miles distant. And the cloud-effects, towards sunset, are such
as would inspire the brush of Turner or Claude Lorraine. . . .

For the college, as befits its grave academic character, stands by
itself among fruitful fields and backed by a chestnut wood, at ten
minutes’ walk from the crowded streets. It is an imposing edifice—the
Basilean convent of St. Adrian, with copious modern additions; the
founders may well have selected this particular site on account of its
fountain of fresh water, which flows on as in days of yore. One thinks
of those communities of monks in the Middle Ages, scattered over this
wild region and holding rare converse with
one another by gloomy forest paths—how remote their life and ideals! In
the days of Fiore (1691) the inmates of this convent still practised
their old rites.

The nucleus of the building is the old chapel, containing a remarkable
font; two antique columns sawn up (apparently for purposes of
transportation from some pagan temple by the shore)—one of them being
of African marble and the other of grey granite; there is also a
tessellated pavement with beast-patterns of leopards and serpents akin
to those of Patir. Bertaux gives a reproduction of this serpent; he
assimilates it, as regards technique and age, to that which lies before
the altar of Monte Cassino and was wrought by Greek artisans of the
abbot Desiderius. The church itself is held to be two centuries older
than that of Patir.

The library, once celebrated, contains musty folios of classics and
their commentators, but nothing of value. It has been ransacked of its
treasures like that of Patir, whose _disjecta membra_ have been tracked
down by the patience and acumen of Monsignor Batiffol.

Batiffol, Bertaux—Charles Diehl, Jules Gay (who has also written on San
Demetrio)—Huillard-Bréholles—Luynes—Lenor-mant. . . here are a few
French scholars who have recently studied these regions and their
history. What have we English done in this direction?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Such thoughts occur inevitably.

It may be insinuated that researches of this kind are gleanings; that
our English genius lies rather in the spade-work of pioneers like Leake
or Layard. Granted. But a hard fact remains; the fact, namely, that
could any of our scholars have been capable of writing in the large and
profound manner of Bertaux or Gay, not one of our publishers would have
undertaken to print his work. Not one. They know their business; they
know that such a book would have been a dead loss. Therefore let us
frankly confess the truth: for things of the mind there is a smaller
market in England than in France. _How much smaller_ only they can
tell, who have familiarized themselves with other departments of French
thought.

Here, then, I have lived for the past few days, strolling among the
fields, and attempting to shape some picture of these Albanians from
their habits and such of their literature as has been placed at my
disposal. So far, my impression of them has not changed since the days
when I used to rest at their villages, in Greece. They remind me of the
Irish. Both races are scattered over the earth and
seem to prosper best outside their native country; they have the same
songs and bards, the same hero-chieftains, the same combativeness and
frank hospitality; both are sunk in bigotry and broils; they resemble
one another in their love of dirt, disorder and display, in their
enthusiastic and adventurous spirit, their versatile brilliance of
mind, their incapacity for self-government and general (Keltic) note of
inspired inefficiency. And both profess a frenzied allegiance to an
obsolete tongue which, were it really cultivated as they wish, would
put a barrier of triple brass between themselves and the rest of
humanity.

Even as the Irish despise the English as their worldly and effete
relatives, so the Albanians look down upon the Greeks—even those of
Pericles—with profoundest contempt. The Albanians, so says one of their
writers, are “the oldest people upon earth,” and their language is the
“divine Pelasgic mother-tongue.” I grew interested awhile in Stanislao
Marchianò’s plausibly entrancing study on this language, as well as in
a pamphlet of de Rada’s on the same subject; but my ardour has cooled
since learning, from another native grammarian, that these writers are
hopelessly in the wrong on nearly every point. So much is certain, that
the Albanian language already possesses more than _thirty different
alphabets_ (each of them with nearly fifty letters). Nevertheless they
have not yet, in these last four (or forty) thousand years, made up
their minds which of them to adopt, or whether it would not be wisest,
after all, to elaborate yet another one—a thirty-first. And so
difficult is their language with any of these alphabets that even after
a five days’ residence on the spot I still find myself puzzled by such
simple passages as this:

. . . Zilji,
mosse vet, ce asso mbremie
te ngcriret me iljiζ, praa
gjiθ e miegculem, mhi ζiaarr
rriij i sgjuat. Nje voogh e keljbur
ζorrevet te ljosta
ndjej se i oχtenej
e pisseroghej. Zuu shiu
menes; ne mee se ljinaar
chish ljeen pa-shuatur
sκiotta, e i ducheje per moon.

I will only add that the translation of such a passage—it contains
twenty-eight accents which I have omitted—is mere child’s play to its
pronunciation.




XXIV
AN ALBANIAN SEER


Sometimes I find my way to the village of Macchia, distant about three
miles from San Demetrio. It is a dilapidated but picturesque cluster of
houses, situate on a projecting tongue of land which is terminated by a
little chapel to Saint Elias, the old sun-god Helios, lover of peaks
and promontories, whom in his Christian shape the rude Albanian
colonists brought hither from their fatherland, even as, centuries
before, he had accompanied the Byzantines on the same voyage and,
fifteen centuries yet earlier, the Greeks.

At Macchia was born, in 1814, of an old and relatively wealthy family,
Girolamo de Rada,[1] a flame-like patriot in whom the tempestuous
aspirations of modern Albania took shape. The ideal pursued during his
long life was the regeneration of his country; and if the attention of
international congresses and linguists and folklorists is now drawn to
this little corner of the earth—if, in _1902,_ twenty-one newspapers
were devoted to the Albanian cause (eighteen in Italy alone, and one
even in London)—it was wholly his merit.

 [1] Thus his friend and compatriot, Dr. Michele Marchianò, spells the
 name in a biography which I recommend to those who think there is no
 intellectual movement in South Italy. But he himself, at the very
 close of his life, in 1902, signs himself Ger. de Rhada. So this
 village of Macchia is spelt indifferently by Albanians as Maki or
 Makji. They have a fine Elizabethan contempt for orthography—as well
 they may have, with their thirty alphabets.

He was the son of a Greco-Catholic priest. After a stern religious
upbringing under the paternal roof at Macchia and in the college of San
Demetrio, he was sent to Naples to complete his education. It is
characteristic of the man that even in the heyday of youth he cared
little for modern literature and speculations and all that makes for
exact knowledge, and that he fled from his Latin teacher, the
celebrated Puoti, on account of his somewhat exclusive love of
grammatical rules. None the less, though con-genitally averse to the
materialistic and subversive theories that were then seething in
Naples, he became entangled in the anti-Bourbon movements of the late
thirties, and narrowly avoided the
death-penalty which struck down some of his comrades. At other times
his natural piety laid him open to the accusation of reactionary
monarchical leanings.

He attributed his escape from this and every other peril to the hand of
God. Throughout life he was a zealous reader of the Bible, a firm and
even ascetic believer, forever preoccupied, in childlike simplicity of
soul, with first causes. His spirit moved majestically in a world of
fervent platitudes. The whole Cosmos lay serenely distended before his
mental vision; a benevolent God overhead, devising plans for the
prosperity of Albania; a malignant, ubiquitous and very real devil,
thwarting these His good intentions whenever possible; mankind on
earth, sowing and reaping in the sweat of their brow, as was ordained
of old. Like many poets, he never disabused his mind of this
comfortable form of anthropomorphism. He was a firm believer, too, in
dreams. But his guiding motive, his sun by day and star by night, was a
belief in the “mission” of the Pelasgian race now scattered about the
shores of the Inland Sea—in Italy, Sicily, Greece, Dalmatia, Roumania,
Asia Minor, Egypt—a belief as ardent and irresponsible as that which
animates the _Lost Tribe_ enthusiasts of England. He considered that
the world hardly realized how much it owed to his countryfolk;
according to his views, Achilles, Philip of Macedon, Alexander the
Great, Aristotle, Pyrrhus, Diocletian, Julian the Apostate—they were
all Albanians. Yet even towards the end of his life he is obliged to
confess:—

“But the evil demon who for over four thousand years has been hindering
the Pelasgian race from collecting itself into one state, is still
endeavouring by insidious means to thwart the work which would lead it
to that union.”

Disgusted with the clamorous and intriguing bustle of Naples, he
retired, at the early age of 34, to his natal village of Macchia,
throwing over one or two offers of lucrative worldly appointments. He
describes himself as wholly disenchanted with the “facile fatuity” of
Liberalism, the fact being, that he lacked what a French psychologist
has called the _function of the real;_ his temperament was not of the
kind to cope with actualities. This retirement is an epoch in his
life—it is the Grand Renunciation. Henceforward he loses personal touch
with thinking humanity. At Macchia he remained, brooding on Albanian
wrongs, devising remedies, corresponding with foreigners and
writing—ever writing; consuming his patrimony in the cause of Albania,
till the direst poverty dogged his footsteps.

I have read some of his Italian works. They are curiously
oracular, like the whisperings of those fabled Dodonian oaks of his
fatherland; they heave with a darkly-virile mysticism. He shares
Blake’s ruggedness, his torrential and confused utterance, his
benevolence, his flashes of luminous inspiration, his moral background.
He resembles that visionary in another aspect: he was a consistent and
passionate adorer of the _Ewig-weibliche._ Some of the female
characters in his poems retain their dewy freshness, their exquisite
originality, even after passing through the translator’s crucible.

At the age of 19 he wrote a poem on “Odysseus,” which was published
under a pseudonym. Then, three years later, there appeared a collection
of rhapsodies entitled “Milosao,” which he had garnered from the lips
of Albanian village maidens. It is his best-known work, and has been
translated into Italian more than once. After his return to Macchia
followed some years of apparent sterility, but later on, and especially
during the last twenty years of his life, his literary activity became
prodigious. Journalism, folklore, poetry, history, grammar, philology,
ethnology, aesthetics, politics, morals—nothing came amiss to his
gifted pen, and he was fruitful, say his admirers, even in his errors,
Like other men inflamed with one single idea, he boldly ventured into
domains of thought where specialists fear to tread. His biographer
enumerates forty-three different works from his pen. They all throb
with a resonant note of patriotism; they are “fragments of a heart,”
and indeed, it has been said of him that he utilized even the grave
science of grammar as a battlefield whereon to defy the enemies of
Albania. But perhaps he worked most successfully as a journalist. His
“Fiamuri Arberit” (the Banner of Albania) became the rallying cry of
his countrymen in every corner of the earth.

These multifarious writings—and doubtless the novelty of his central
theme—attracted the notice of German philologers and linguists, of all
lovers of freedom, folklore and verse. Leading Italian writers like
Cantù praised him highly; Lamartine, in 1844, wrote to him: “Je suis
bien-heureux de ce signe de fraternité poétique et politique entre vous
et moi. La poésie est venue de vos rivages et doit y retourner. . . .”
Hermann Buchholtz discovers scenic changes worthy of Shakespeare, and
passages of Æschylean grandeur, in his tragedy “Sofonisba.” Carnet
compares him with Dante, and the omniscient Mr. Gladstone wrote in
1880—a post card, presumably—belauding his disinterested efforts on
behalf of his country. He was made the subject of many articles and
pamphlets, and with reason. Up to his time, Albania had been a
myth. He it was who divined the relationship between the Albanian and
Pelasgian tongues; who created the literary language of his country,
and formulated its political ambitions.

Whereas the hazy “Autobiologia” records complicated political intrigues
at Naples that are not connected with his chief strivings, the little
“Testamento politico,” printed towards the end of his life, is more
interesting. It enunciates his favourite and rather surprising theory
that the Albanians cannot look for help and sympathy save only to their
_brothers,_ the Turks. Unlike many Albanians on either side of the
Adriatic, he was a pronounced Turco-phile, detesting the “stolid
perfidy” and “arrogant disloyalty” of the Greeks. Of Austria, the most
insidious enemy of his country’s freedom, he seems to have thought
well. A year before his death he wrote to an Italian translator of
“Milosao” (I will leave the passage in the original, to show his cloudy
language):

“Ed un tempo propizio la accompagna: la ricostituzione dell’ Epiro nei
suoi quattro vilayet autonomi quale è nei propri consigli e nei propri
desideri; ricostituzione, che pel suo Giornale, quello dell’ ottimo A.
Lorecchio—cui precede il principe Nazionale Kastriota, Chini—si
annuncia fatale, e quasi fulcro della stabilità dello impero Ottomano,
a della pace Europea; preludio di quella diffusione del regno di Dio
sulla terra, che sarà la Pace tra gli Uomini.”

Truly a remarkable utterance, and one that illustrates the
disadvantages of living at a distance from the centres of thought. Had
he travelled less with the spirit and more with the body, his opinions
might have been modified and corrected. But he did not even visit the
Albanian colonies in Italy and Sicily. Hence that vast confidence in
his mission—a confidence born of solitude, intellectual and
geographical. Hence that ultra-terrestrial yearning which tinges his
apparently practical aspirations.

He remained at home, ever poor and industrious; wrapped in bland
exaltation and oblivious to contemporary movements of the human mind.
Not that his existence was without external activities. A chair of
Albanian literature at San Demetrio, instituted in 1849 but suppressed
after three years, was conferred on him in 1892 by the historian and
minister Pasquale Villari; for a considerable time, too, he was
director of the communal school at Corigliano, where, with
characteristic energy, he set up a printing press; violent journalistic
campaigns succeeded one another; in 1896 he arranged for the first
congress of Albanian language in that town, which brought together
delegates from every part of Italy and elicited a warm telegram of
felicitation from the minister
Francesco Crispi, himself an Albanian. Again, in 1899, we find him
reading a paper before the twelfth international congress of
Orientalists at Rome.

But best of all, he loved the seclusion of Macchia.

Griefs clustered thickly about the closing years of this unworldly
dreamer. Blow succeeded blow. One by one, his friends dropped off; his
brothers, his beloved wife, his four sons—he survived them all; he
stood alone at last, a stricken figure, in tragic and sublime
isolation. Over eighty years old, he crawled thrice a week to deliver
his lectures at San Demetrio; he still cultivated a small patch of
ground with enfeebled arm, composing, for relaxation, poems and
rhapsodies at the patriarchal age of 88! They will show you the trees
under which he was wont to rest, the sunny views he loved, the very
stones on which he sat; they will tell you anecdotes of his poverty—of
an indigence such as we can scarcely credit. During the last months he
was often thankful for a crust of bread, in exchange for which he would
bring a sack of acorns, self-collected, to feed the giver’s pigs.
Destitution of this kind, brought about by unswerving loyalty to an
ideal, ceases to exist in its sordid manifestations: it exalts the
sufferer. And his life’s work is there. Hitherto there had been no
“Albanian Question” to perplex the chanceries of Europe. He applied the
match to the tinder; he conjured up that phantom which refuses to be
laid.

He died, in 1903, at San Demetrio; and there lies entombed in the
cemetery on the hill-side, among the oaks.

But you will not easily find his grave.

His biographer indulges a poetic fancy in sketching the fair monument
which a grateful country will presently rear to his memory on the snowy
Acroceraunian heights. It might be well, meanwhile, if some simple
commemorative stone were placed on the spot where he lies buried. Had
he succumbed at his natal Macchia, this would have been done; but death
overtook him in the alien parish of San Demetrio, and his remains were
mingled with those of its poorest citizens. A microcosmic illustration
of that clannish spirit of Albania which he had spent a lifetime in
endeavouring to direct to nobler ends!

He was the Mazzini of his nation.

A Garibaldi, when the crisis comes, may possibly emerge from that
tumultuous horde.

Where is the Cavour?




XXV
SCRAMBLING TO LONGOBUCCO


A driving road to connect San Demetrio with Acri whither I was now
bound was begun, they say, about twenty years ago; one can follow it
for a considerable distance beyond the Albanian College. Then,
suddenly, it ends. Walking to Acri, however, by the old track, one
picks up, here and there, conscientiously-engineered little stretches
of it, already overgrown with weeds; these, too, break off as abruptly
as they began, in the wild waste. For purposes of wheeled traffic these
picturesque but disconnected fragments are quite useless.

Perhaps the whole undertaking will be completed some day—_speriamo!_ as
the natives say, when speaking of something rather beyond reasonable
expectation. But possibly not; and in that case—_pazienza!_ meaning,
that all hope may now be abandoned. There is seldom any great hurry,
with non-governmental works of this kind.

It would be interesting if one could learn the inner history of these
abortive transactions. I have often tried, in vain. It is impossible
for an outsider to pierce the jungle of sordid mystery and intrigue
which surrounds them. So much I gathered: that the original contract
was based on the wages then current and that, the price of labour
having more than doubled in consequence of the “discovery” of America,
no one will undertake the job on the old terms. That is sufficiently
intelligible. But why operations proceeded so slowly at first, and why
a new contract cannot now be drawn up—who can tell! The persons
interested blame the contractor, who blames the engineer, who blames
the dilatory and corrupt administration of Cosenza. My private opinion
is, that the last three parties have agreed to share the swag between
them. Meanwhile everybody has just grounds of complaint against
everybody else; the six or seven inevitable lawsuits have sprung up and
promise to last any length of time, seeing that important documents
have been lost or stolen and that half the original contracting parties
have died in the interval: nobody knows what is going to happen in the
end. It all depends upon whether some patriotic
person will step forward and grease the wheels in the proper quarter.

And even then, if he hails from Acri, they of San Demetrio will
probably work against the project, and vice versa. For no love is lost
between neighbouring communities—wonderful, with what venomous feudal
animosity they regard each other! United Italy means nothing to these
people, whose conceptions of national and public life are those of the
cock on his dung-hill. You will find in the smallest places intelligent
and broad-minded men, tradespeople or professionals or landed
proprietors, but they are seldom members of the _municipio;_ the
municipal career is also a money-making business, yes; but of another
kind, and requiring other qualifications.

Foot-passengers like myself suffer no inconvenience by being obliged to
follow the shorter and time-honoured mule-track that joins the two
places. It rises steeply at first, then begins to wind in and out among
shady vales of chestnut and oak, affording unexpected glimpses now
towards distant Tarsia and now, through a glade on the right, on to the
ancient citadel of Bisignano, perched on its rock.

I reached Acri after about two and a half hours’ walking. It lies in a
theatrical situation and has a hotel; but the proprietor of that
establishment having been described to me as “the greatest brigand of
the Sila” I preferred to refresh myself at a small wineshop, whose
manageress cooked me an uncommonly good luncheon and served some of the
best wine I had tasted for long. Altogether, the better-class women
here are far more wideawake and civilized than those of the Neapolitan
province; a result of their stern patriarchal up-bringing and of their
possessing more or less sensible husbands.

Thus fortified, I strolled about the streets. One would like to spend a
week or two in a place like this, so little known even to Italians, but
the hot weather and bad feeding had begun to affect me disagreeably and
I determined to push on without delay into cooler regions. It would
never do to be laid up at Acri with heatstroke, and to have one’s last
drops of life drained away by copious blood-lettings, relic of
Hispano-Arabic practices and the favourite remedy for every complaint.
Acri is a large place, and its air of prosperity contrasts with the
slumberous decay of San Demetrio; there is silk-rearing, and so much
emigration into America that nearly every man I addressed replied in
English. New houses are rising up in all directions, and the place is
celebrated for its rich citizens.

But these same wealthy men are in rather a dilemma. Some local
authority, I forget who, has deduced from the fact that there are so
many forges and smiths’ shops here that this must be the spot to which
the over-sensitive inhabitants of Sybaris banished their workers in
metal and other noisy professions. Now the millionaires would like to
be thought Sybarites by descent, but it is hardly respectable to draw a
pedigree from these outcasts.

They need not alarm themselves. For Acri, as Forbiger has shown, is the
old Acherontia; the river Acheron, the Mocone or Mucone of to-day,
flows at its foot, and from one point of the town I had a fine view
into its raging torrent.

A wearisome climb of two hours brought me to the _Croce Greca,_ the
Greek Cross, which stands 1185 metres above sea-level. How hot it was,
in that blazing sun! I should be sorry to repeat the trip, under the
same conditions. A structure of stone may have stood here in olden
days; at present it is a diminutive wooden crucifix by the roadside. It
marks, none the less, an important geographical point: the boundary
between the “Greek” Sila which I was now leaving and the Sila Grande,
the central and largest region. Beyond this last-named lies the lesser
Sila, or “Sila Piccola”; and if you draw a line from Rogliano (near
Cosenza) to Cotrone you will approximately strike the watershed which
divides the Sila Grande from this last and most westerly of the three
Sila divisions. After that comes Catanzaro and the valley of the
Corace, the narrowest point of the Italian continent, and then the
heights of Serra and Aspromonte, the true “Italy” of old, that continue
as far as Reggio.

Though I passed through some noble groves of chestnut on the way up,
the country here was a treeless waste. Yet it must have been forest up
to a short time ago, for one could see the beautiful vegetable mould
which has not yet had time to be washed down the hill-sides. A driving
road passes the Croce Greca; it joins Acri with San Giovanni, the
capital of Sila Grande, and with Cosenza.

It was another long hour’s march, always uphill, before I reached a
spacious green meadow or upland with a few little buildings. The place
is called Verace and lies on the watershed between the upper Crati
valley and the Ionian; thenceforward my walk would be a descent along
the Trionto river, the Traeis of old, as far as Longobucco which
overlooks its flood. It was cool here at last, from the altitude and
the decline of day; and hay-making was going on, amid the pastoral din
of cow-bells and a good deal of blithe love-making and chattering.

After some talk with these amiable folks, I passed on to where
the young Traeis bubbles up from the cavernous reservoirs of the earth.
Of those chill and roguish wavelets I took a draught, mindful of the
day when long ago, by these same waters, an irreparable catastrophe
overwhelmed our European civilization. For it was the Traeis near whose
estuary was fought the battle between 300,000 Sybarites (I refuse to
believe these figures) and the men of Croton conducted by their
champion Milo—a battle which led to the destruction of Sybaris and,
incidentally, of Hellenic culture throughout the mainland of Italy.
This was in the same fateful year 510 that witnessed the expulsion of
the Tarquins from Rome and the Pisistratidae from Athens.

Pines, the characteristic tree of the Sila, now begin to appear.
Passing through Verace I had already observed, on the left, a high
mountain entirely decked with them. It is the ridge marked Paleparto on
the map; the Trionto laves its foot. But the local pronunciation of
this name is Palépite, and I cannot help thinking that here we have a
genuine old Greek name perpetuated by the people and referring to this
covering of hoary pines—a name which the cartographers, arbitrary and
ignorant as they often are, have unconsciously disguised. (It occurs in
some old charts, however, as Paleparto.) An instructive map of Italy
could be drawn up, showing the sites and cities wrongly named from
corrupt etymology or falsified inscriptions, and those deliberately
miscalled out of principles of local patriotism. The whole country is
full of these inventions of _litterati_ which date, for the most part,
from the enthusiastic but undisciplined Cinque-Cento.

The minute geographical triangle comprised between Cosenza, Longobucco
and San Demetrio which I was now traversing is one of the least known
corners of Italy, and full of dim Hellenic memories. The streamlet
“Calamo” flows through the valley I ascended from Acri, and at its
side, a little way out of the town, stands the fountain “Pompeio” where
the brigands, not long ago, used to lie in wait for women and children
coming to fetch water, and snatch them away for ransom. On the way up,
I had glimpses down a thousand feet or more into the Mucone or Acheron,
raging and foaming in its narrow valley. It rises among the mountains
called “Fallistro” and “Li Tartari”—unquestionably Greek names.

On this river and somewhere above Acri stood, according to the
scholarly researches of Lenormant, the ancient city of Pandosia. I do
not know if its site has been determined since his day. It was “very
strong” and rich and at its highest prosperity in the fourth century
B.C.; after the fall of Sybaris it passed under the supremacy
of Croton. The god Pan was figured on some of its coins, and
appropriately enough, considering its sylvan surroundings; others bear
the head of the nymph Pandosia with her name and that of the river
Crathis, under the guise of a young shepherd: they who wish to learn
his improper legend will find it in the pages of Aelian, or in chapter
xxxii of the twenty-fifth book of Rhodiginus, beginning _Quae sit
brutorum affectio,_ etc.[1] We have here not the Greece of mediæval
Byzantine times, much less that of the Albanians, but the sunny Hellas
of the days when the world was young, when these ardent colonists
sailed westwards to perpetuate their names and legends in the alien
soil of Italy.

 [1] _Brunii a brutis moribus:_ so say certain spiteful writers, an
 accusation which Strabo and Horace extend to all Calabrians. As to the
 site of Pandosia, a good number of scholars, such as old Prosper
 Parisius and Luigi Maria Greco, locate it at the village of Mendicino
 on the river Merenzata, which was called Arconte (? Acheron) in the
 Middle Ages. So the Trionto is not unquestionably the Traeis, and in
 Marincola Pistoia’s good little “Cose di Sibari” (1845) the
 distinction is claimed for one of four rivers—the Lipuda, Colognati,
 Trionto, or Fiuminicà.

The Mucone has always been known as a ferocious and pitiless torrent,
and maintains to this day its Tartarean reputation. Twenty persons a
year, they tell me, are devoured by its angry waters: _mangia venti
cristiani all’ anno!_ This is as bad as the Amendolea near Reggio. But
none of its victims have attained the celebrity of Alexander of
Molossus, King of Epirus, who perished under the walls of Pandosia in
326 B.C. during an excursion against the Lucanians. He had been warned
by the oracle of Dodona to avoid the waters of Acheron and the town of
Pandosia; once in Italy, however, he paid small heed to these words,
thinking they referred to the river and town of the same name in
Thesprotia. But the gods willed otherwise, and you may read of his
death in the waters, and the laceration of his body by the Lucanians,
in Livy’s history.

It is a strange caprice that we should now possess what is in every
probability the very breastplate worn by the heroic monarch on that
occasion. It was found in 1820, and thereafter sold—some fragments of
it, at least—to the British Museum, where under the name of “Bronze of
Siris” it may still be admired: a marvellous piece of repoussée work,
in the style of Lysippus, depicting the combat of Ajax and the Amazons.
. . .

The streamlet Trionto, my companion to Longobucco, glides along between
stretches of flowery meadow-land—fit emblem of placid rural
contentment. But soon this lyric mood is spent. It enters a winding
gorge that shuts out the sunlight and the landscape abruptly assumes an
epic note; the water tumbles wildly
downward, hemmed in by mountains whose slopes are shrouded in dusky
pines wherever a particle of soil affords them foothold. The scenery in
this valley is as romantic as any in the Sila. Affluents descend on
either side, while the swollen rivulet writhes and screeches in its
narrow bed, churning the boulders with hideous din. The track,
meanwhile, continues to run beside the water till the passage becomes
too difficult; it must perforce attack the hill-side. Up it climbs,
therefore, in never-ending ascension, and then meanders at a great
height above the valley, in and out of its tributary glens.

I was vastly enjoying this promenade—the shady pines, whose fragrance
mingled with that of a legion of tall aromatic plants in full
blossom—the views upon the river, shining far below me like the thread
of silver—when I observed with surprise that the whole mountain-side
which the track must manifestly cross had lately slipped down into the
abyss. A cloud-burst two or three days ago, as I afterwards learned,
had done the mischief. On arrival at the spot, the path was seen to be
interrupted—clean gone, in fact, and not a shred of earth or trees
left; there confronted me a bare scar, a wall of naked rock which not
even a chamois could negotiate. Here was a dilemma. I must either
retrace my steps along the weary road to Verace and there seek a
night’s shelter with the gentle hay-makers, or clamber down into the
ravine, follow the river and—chance it! After anxious deliberation, the
latter alternative was chosen.

But the Trionto was now grown into a formidable torrent of surging
waves and eddies, with a perverse inclination to dash from one side to
the other of its prison, so as to necessitate frequent fordings on my
part. These watery passages, which I shall long remember, were not
without a certain danger. The stream was still swollen with the recent
rains, and its bed, invisible under the discoloured element,
sufficiently deep to inspire respect and studded, furthermore, with
slippery boulders of every size, concealing insidious gulfs. Having
only a short walking-stick to support me through this raging flood, I
could not but picture to myself the surprise of the village maidens of
Cropolati, lower down, on returning to their laundry work by the
river-side next morning and discovering the battered anatomy of an
Englishman—a rare fish, in these waters—stranded upon their familiar
beach. Murdered, of course. What a galaxy of brigand legends would have
clustered round my memory!

[Illustration: The Trionto Valley]

Evening was closing in, and I had traversed the stream so often and
stumbled so long amid this chaos of roaring waters and
weirdly-tinted rocks, that I began to wonder whether the existence of
Longobucco was not a myth. But suddenly, at a bend of the river, the
whole town, still distant, was revealed, upraised on high and framed in
the yawning mouth of the valley. After the solitary ramble of that
afternoon, my eyes familiarized to nothing save the wild things of
nature, this unexpected glimpse of complicated, civilized structures
had all the improbability of a mirage. Longobucco, at that moment,
arose before me like those dream-cities in the Arabian tale, conjured
by enchantment out of the desert waste.

The vision, though it swiftly vanished again, cheered me on till after
a good deal more scrambling and wading, with boots torn to rags, lame,
famished and drenched to the skin, I reached the bridge of the Rossano
highway and limped upwards, in the twilight, to the far-famed “Hotel
Vittoria.”

Soon enough, be sure, I was enquiring as to supper. But the manageress
met my suggestions about eatables with a look of blank astonishment.

Was there nothing in the house, then? No cheese, or meat, or
maccheroni, or eggs—no wine to drink?

“Nothing!” she replied. “Why should you eat things at this hour? You
must find them yourself, if you really want them. I might perhaps
procure you some bread.”

_Avis aux voyageurs,_ as the French say.

Undaunted, I went forth and threw myself upon the mercy of a citizen of
promising exterior, who listened attentively to my case. Though far too
polite to contradict, I could see that nothing in the world would
induce him to credit the tale of my walking from San Demetrio that
day—it was tacitly relegated to the regions of fable. With considerable
tact, so as not to wound my feelings, he avoided expressing any opinion
on so frivolous a topic; nor did the reason of his reluctance to
discuss my exploit dawn upon me till I realized, later on, that like
many of the inhabitants he had never heard of the track over Acri, and
consequently disbelieved its existence. They reach San Demetrio by a
two or even three days’ drive over Rossano, Corigliano, and Vaccarizza.
He became convinced, however, that for some reason or other I was
hungry, and thereupon good-naturedly conducted me to various places
where wine and other necessities of life were procured.

The landlady watched me devouring this fare, more astonished than
ever—indeed, astonishment seemed to be her chronic condition so long as
I was under her roof. But the promised bread was
not forthcoming, for the simple reason that there was none in the
house. She had said that she could procure it for me, not that she
possessed it; now, since I had given no orders to that effect, she had
not troubled about it.

Nobody travels south of Rome. . . .

Strengthened beyond expectation by this repast, I sallied into the
night once more, and first of all attended an excellent performance at
the local cinematograph. After that, I was invited to a cup of coffee
by certain burghers, and we strolled about the piazza awhile, taking
our pleasure in the cool air of evening (the town lies 794 metres above
sea-level). Its streets are orderly and clean; there are no Albanians,
and no costumes of any kind. Here, firm-planted on the square, and
jutting at an angle from the body of the church, stands a massive
bell-tower overgrown from head to foot with pendent weeds and grasses
whose roots have found a home in the interstices of its masonry; a
grimly venerable pile, full of character.

Weary but not yet satiated, I took leave of the citizens and
perambulated the more ignoble quarters, all of which are decently
lighted with electricity. Everywhere in these stiller regions was the
sound of running waters, and I soon discerned that Longobucco is an
improvement on the usual site affected by Calabrian hill-towns—the
Y-shaped enclosure, namely, at the junction of two rivers—inasmuch as
it has contrived to perch itself on a lofty platform protected by no
less than three streams that rush impetuously under its walls: the
Trionto and two of its affluents. On the flank inclined towards the
Ionian there is a veritable chasm; the Trionto side is equally
difficult of approach—the rear, of course, inaccessible. No wonder the
brigands chose it for their chief citadel.

I am always on the look-out for modern epigraphical curiosities;
regarding the subject as one of profound social significance (postage
stamps, indeed!) I have assiduously formed a collection, the envy of
connaisseurs, about one-third of whose material, they tell me, might
possibly be printed at Brussels or Geneva. Well, here is a mural
_graffito_ secured in the course of this evening’s walk:

_Abaso [sic] questo paese sporco incivile:_ down with this dirty savage
country!

There is food for thought in this inscription. For if some bilious
hyper-civilized stranger were its author, the sentiments might pass.
But coming from a native, to what depths of morbid discontent do they
testify! Considering the recent progress of these regions that has led
to a security and prosperity formerly undreamed of, one is driven to
the conjecture that these words can only have been
penned by some cantankerous churl of an emigrant returning to his
native land after an easeful life in New York and compelled—“for his
sins,” as he would put it—to reside at the “Hotel Vittoria.”

Towards that delectable hostelry I now turned, somewhat regretfully, to
face a bedroom whose appearance had already inspired me with anything
but confidence. But hardly were the preliminary investigations begun,
when a furious noise in the street below drew me to the window once
more. Half the town was passing underneath in thronged procession, with
lighted torches and flags, headed by the municipal band discoursing
martial strains of music.

Whither wending, at this midnight hour?

To honour a young student, native of the place, now returning up the
Rossano road from Naples, where he had distinguished himself
prominently in some examination. I joined the crowd, and presently we
were met by a small carriage whence there emerged a pallid and frail
adolescent with burning eyes, who was borne aloft in triumph and
cheered with that vociferous, masculine heartiness which we Englishmen
reserve for our popular prize-fighters. And this in the classic land of
brigandage and bloodshed!

The intellectual under-current. . . .

It was an apt commentary on my _graffito._ And another, more personally
poignant, not to say piquant, was soon to follow: the bed. But no. I
will say nothing about the bed, nothing whatever; nothing beyond this,
that it yielded an entomological harvest which surpassed my wildest
expectations.




XXVI
AMONG THE BRUTTIANS


Conspicuous among the wise men of Longobucco in olden days was the
physician Bruno, who “flourished” about the end of the thirteenth
century. He called himself _Longoburgensis Calaber,_ and his great
treatise on anatomical dissection, embodying much Greek and Arabic
lore, was printed many years after his death. Another was Francesco
Maria Labonia; he wrote, in 1664, “De vera loci urbis Timesinae
situatione, etc.,” to prove, presumably, that his birthplace occupied
the site whence the Homeric ore of Temese was derived. There are modern
writers who support this view.

The local silver mines were exploited in antiquity; first by Sybaris,
then by Croton. They are now abandoned, but a good deal has been
written about them. In the year 1200 a thousand miners were employed,
and the Anjous extracted a great deal of precious metal thence; the
goldsmiths of Longobucco were celebrated throughout Italy during the
Middle Ages. The industrious H. W. Schulz has unearthed a Royal
rescript of 1274 charging a certain goldsmith Johannes of Longobucco
with researches into the metal and salt resources of the whole kingdom
of Naples.

Writing from Longobucco in 1808 during a brigand-hunt, Duret de Tavel
says:

“The high wooded mountains which surround this horrible place spread
over it a sombre and savage tint which saddens the imagination. This
borough contains a hideous population of three thousand souls, composed
of nail-makers, of blacksmiths and charcoal-burners. The former
government employed them in working the silver mines situated in the
neighbourhood which are now abandoned.”

He tells a good deal about the brigandage that was then rife here, and
the atrocities which the repression of this pest entailed. Soon after
his arrival, for instance, four hundred soldiers were sent to a village
where the chiefs of the brigand “insurrection” were supposed to be
sheltered. The soldiers, he says, “poured into the streets like a
torrent in flood, and there began a horrible massacre,
rendered inevitable by the obstinacy of the insurgents, who fired from
all the houses. This unhappy village was sacked and burnt, suffering
all the horrors inseparable from a capture by assault.” Two hundred
dead were found in the streets. But the brigand chiefs, the sole
pretext of this bloodshed, managed to escape. Perhaps they were not
within fifty miles of the place.

Be that as it may, they were captured later on by their own
compatriots, after the French had waited a month at Longobucco. Their
heads were brought in, still bleeding, and “l’identité ayant été
suffisamment constatée, la mort des principaux acteurs a terminé cette
sanglante tragédie, et nous sommes sortis de ces catacombes apénnines
pour revoir le plus brillant soleil.”

Wonderful tales are still told of the brigands in these forests. They
will show you notches on the trees, cut by such and such a brigand for
some particular purpose of communication with his friends; buried
treasure has been found, and even nowadays shepherds sometimes discover
rude shelters of bark and tree trunks built by them in the thickest
part of the woods. There are legends, too, of caverns wherein they
hived their booty—caverns with cleverly concealed entrances—caverns
which (many of them, at least) I regard as a pure invention modelled
after the authentic brigand caves of Salerno and Abruzzi, where the
limestone rock is of the kind to produce them. Bourbonism fostered the
brood, and there was a fierce recrudescence in the troubled sixties.
They lived in bands, _squadrigli,_ burning and plundering with
impunity. Whoever refused to comply with their demands for food or
money was sure to repent of it. All this is over, for the time being;
the brigands are extirpated, to the intense relief of the country
people, who were entirely at their mercy, and whose boast it is that
their district is now as safe as the streets of Naples. Qualified
praise, this. . . .[1]

 [1] See next chapter.

It is an easy march of eight hours or less, through pleasing scenery
and by a good track, from Longobucco to San Giovanni in Fiore, the
capital of the Sila. The path leaves Longobucco at the rear of the town
and, climbing upward, enters a valley which it follows to its head. The
peasants have cultivated patches of ground along the stream; the slopes
are covered, first with chestnuts and then with hoary firs—a rare
growth, in these parts—from whose branches hangs the golden bough of
the mistletoe. And now the stream is ended and a dark ridge blocks the
way; it is overgrown with beeches, under whose shade you ascend in
steep curves. At
the summit the vegetation changes once more, and you find yourself
among magnificent stretches of pines that continue as far as the
governmental domain of Galoppano, a forestal station, two hours’ walk
from Longobucco.

This pine is a particular variety _(Pinus lancio,_ var. _Calabra),_
known as the “Pino della Sila”—it is found over this whole country, and
grows to a height of forty metres with a silvery-grey trunk, exhaling a
delicious aromatic fragrance. In youth, especially where the soil is
deep, it shoots up prim and demure as a Nuremberg toy; but in old age
grows monstrous. High-perched upon some lonely granite boulder, with
roots writhing over the bare stone like the arms of an octopus, it sits
firm and unmoved, deriding the tempest and flinging fantastic limbs
into the air—emblem of tenacity in desolation. From these trees, which
in former times must have covered the Sila region, was made that
Bruttian pitch mentioned by Strabo and other ancient writers; from them
the Athenians, the Syracusans, Tarentines and finally the Romans built
their fleets. Their timber was used in the construction of Caserta
palace.

A house stands here, inhabited by government officials the whole year
round—one may well puzzle how they pass the long winter, when snow lies
from October to May. So early did I arrive at this establishment that
the more civilized of its inhabitants were still asleep; by waiting, I
might have learnt something of the management of the estate, but gross
material preoccupations—the prospect of a passable luncheon at San
Giovanni after the “Hotel Vittoria” fare—tempted me to press forwards.
A boorish and unreliable-looking individual volunteered three pieces of
information—that the house was built thirty years ago, that a large
nursery for plants lies about ten kilometres distant, and that this
particular domain covers “two or four thousand hectares.” A young
plantation of larches and silver birches—aliens to this region—seemed
to be doing well.

Not far from here, along my track, lies Santa Barbara, two or three
huts, with corn still green—like Verace (above Acri) on the watershed
between the Ionian and upper Grati. Then follows a steep climb up the
slopes of Mount Pettinascura, whose summit lies 1708 metres above
sea-level. This is the typical landscape of the Sila Grande. There is
not a human habitation in sight; forests all around, with views down
many-folded vales into the sea and towards the distant and fairy-like
Apennines, a serrated edge, whose limestone precipices gleam like
crystals of amethyst between the blue sky and the dusky woodlands of
the foreground.

[Illustration: Longobucco]

Here I reposed awhile, watching the crossbills, wondrously tame, at
work among the branches overhead, and the emerald lizard peering out of
the bracken at my side. This _lucertone,_ as they call it, is a local
beast, very abundant in some spots (at Venosa and Patirion, for
example); it is elsewhere conspicuous by its absence. The natives are
rather afraid of it, and still more so of the harmless gecko, the
“salamide,” which is reputed highly poisonous.

Then up again, through dells and over uplands, past bubbling streams,
sometimes across sunlit meadows, but oftener in the leafy shelter of
maples and pines—a long but delightful track, winding always high above
the valleys of the Neto and Lese. At last, towards midday, I struck the
driving road that connects San Giovanni with Savelli, crossed a bridge
over the foaming Neto, and climbed into the populous and dirty streets
of the town—the “Siberia of Calabria,” as it may well be, for seven
months of the year.

At this season, thanks to its elevation of 1050 metres, the temperature
is all that could be desired, and the hotel, such as it is, compares
favourably indeed with the den at Longobucco. Instantly I felt at home
among these good people, who recognized me, and welcomed me with the
cordiality of old friends.

“Well,” they asked, “and have you found it at last?”

They remembered my looking for the double flute, the _tibiae pares,_
some years ago.

It will not take you long to discover that the chief objects of
interest in San Giovanni are the women. Many Calabrian villages still
possess their distinctive costumes—Marcellinara and Cimigliano are
celebrated in this respect—but it would be difficult to find anywhere
an equal number of handsome women on such a restricted space. In olden
days it was dangerous to approach these attractive and mirthful
creatures; they were jealously guarded by brothers and husbands. But
the brothers and husbands, thank God, are now in America, and you may
be as friendly with them as ever you please, provided you confine your
serious attentions to not more than two or three. Secrecy in such
matters is out of the question, as with the Arabs; there is too much
gossip, and too little coyness about what is natural; your friendships
are openly recognized, and tacitly approved. The priests do not
interfere; their hands are full.

To see these women at their best one must choose a Sunday or a
feast-day; one must go, morever, to the favourite fountain of Santa
Lucia, which lies on the hill-side and irrigates some patches of corn
and vegetables. Their natural charms are enhanced by
elaborate and tasteful golden ornaments, and by a pretty mode of
dressing the hair, two curls of which are worn hanging down before
their ears with an irresistibly seductive air. Their features are
regular; eyes black or deep gentian blue; complexion pale; movements
and attitudes impressed with a stamp of rare distinction. Even the
great-grandmothers have a certain austere dignity—sinewy,
indestructible old witches, with tawny hide and eyes that glow like
lamps.

And yet San Giovanni is as dirty as can well be; it has the accumulated
filth of an Eastern town, while lacking all its glowing tints or
harmonious outlines. We are disposed to associate squalor with certain
artistic effects, but it may be said of this and many other Calabrian
places that they have solved the problem how to be ineffably squalid
without becoming in the least picturesque. Much of this sordid look is
due to the smoke which issues out of all the windows and blackens the
house walls, inside and out—the Calabrians persisting in a prehistoric
fashion of cooking on the floor. The buildings themselves look crude
and gaunt from their lack of plaster and their eyeless windows; black
pigs wallowing at every doorstep contribute to this slovenly
_ensemble._ The City Fathers have turned their backs upon civilization;
I dare say the magnitude of the task before them has paralysed their
initiative.

Nothing is done in the way of public hygiene, and one sees women
washing linen in water which is nothing more or less than an open
drain. There is no street-lighting whatever; a proposal on the part of
a North Italian firm to draw electric power from the Neto was
scornfully rejected; one single tawdry lamp, which was bought some
years ago “as a sample” in a moment of municipal recklessness, was
lighted three times in as many years, and on the very day when it was
least necessary—to wit, on midsummer eve, which happens to be the
festival of their patron saint (St. John). “It now hangs”—so I wrote
some years ago—“at a dangerous angle, and I doubt whether it will
survive till its services are requisitioned next June.” Prophetic
utterance! It was blown down that same winter, and has not yet been
replaced. This in a town of 20,000 (?) inhabitants—and in Italy, where
the evening life of the populace plays such an important role. No
wonder North Italians, judging by such external indications, regard all
Calabrians as savages.

Some trees have been planted in the piazza since my last stay here; a
newspaper has also been started—it is called “Co-operation: Organ of
the Interests of San Giovanni in Fiore,” and its first and possibly
unique number contains a striking article on the public
health, as revealed in the report of two doctors who had been
despatched by the provincial sanitary authorities to take note of local
conditions of hygiene. “The illustrious scientists” (thus it runs)
“were horrified at the filth, mud and garbage which encumbered, and
still encumbers, our streets, sending forth in the warm weather a
pestilential odour. . . . They were likewise amazed at the vigorously
expressed protest of our mayor, who said: ‘_My people cannot live
without their pigs wallowing in the streets. San Giovanni in Fiore is
exempt from earthquakes and epidemics because it is under the
protection of Saint John the Baptist, and because its provincial
councillor is a saintly man.’_” Such journalistic plain speaking, such
lack of sweet reasonableness, cannot expect to survive in a world
governed by compromise, and if the gift of prophecy has not deserted
me, I should say that “Co-operation” has by this time ended its useful
mission upon earth.

This place is unhealthy; its water-supply is not what it should be, and
such commodities as eggs and milk are rather dear, because “the
invalids eat everything” of that kind. Who are the invalids? Typhoid
patients and, above all, malarious subjects who descend to the plains
as agricultural labourers and return infected to the hills, where they
become partially cured, only to repeat the folly next year. It is the
same at Longobucco and other Sila towns. Altogether, San Giovanni has
grave drawbacks. The streets are too steep for comfort, and despite its
height, the prospect towards the Ionian is intercepted by a ridge; in
point of situation it cannot compare with Savelli or the neighbouring
Casino, which have impressive views both inland, and southward down
undulating slopes that descend in a stately procession of four thousand
feet to the sea, where sparkles the gleaming horn of Cotrone. And the
surroundings of the place are nowise representative of the Sila in a
good sense. The land has been so ruthlessly deforested that it has
become a desert of naked granite rocks; even now, in midsummer, the
citizens are already collecting fuel for their long winter from
enormous distances. As one crawls and skips among these unsavoury
tenements, one cannot help regretting that Saint John the Baptist, or
the piety of a provincial councillor, should have hindered the
earthquakes from doing their obvious duty.

Were I sultan of San Giovanni, I would certainly begin by a general
bombardment. Little in the town is worth preserving from a cataclysm
save the women, and perhaps the old convent on the summit of the hill
where the French lodged during their brigand-wars, and that other one,
famous in the ecclesiastical annals of Calabria—the monastery of
Floriacense, founded at the
end of the twelfth century, round which the town gradually grew up. Its
ponderous portal is much injured, having been burnt, I was told, by the
brigands in 1860. But the notary, who kindly looked up the archives for
me, has come to the conclusion that the French are responsible for the
damage. It contains, or contained, a fabulous collection of pious
lumber—teeth and thigh-bones and other relics, the catalogue of which
is one of my favourite sections of Father Fiore’s work. I would make an
exception, also, in favour of the doorway of the church, a finely
proportioned structure of the Renaissance in black stone, which looks
ill at ease among its ignoble environment. A priest, to whom I applied
for information as to its history, told me with the usual Calabrian
frankness that he never bothered his head about such things.

San Giovanni was practically unknown to the outside world up to a few
years ago. I question whether Lenormant or any of them came here.
Pacicchelli did, however, in the seventeenth century, though he has
left us no description of the place. He crossed the whole Sila from the
Ionian to the other sea. I like this amiable and loquacious creature,
restlessly gadding about Europe, gloriously complacent, hopelessly
absorbed in trivialities, and credulous beyond belief. In fact (as the
reader may have observed), I like all these old travellers, not so much
for what they actually say, as for their implicit outlook upon life.
This Pacicchelli was a fellow of our Royal Society, and his accounts of
England are worth reading; here, in Calabria (being a non-southerner)
his “Familiar Letters” and ”Memoirs of Travel” act as a wholesome
corrective. Which of the local historians would have dared to speak of
Cosenza as “città aperta, scomposta, e disordinata di fabbriche”?

That these inhabitants of the Sila are Bruttians may be inferred from
the superior position occupied by their women-folk, who are quite
differently treated to those of the lowlands. There—all along the
coasts of South Italy—the _cow-woman_ is still found, unkempt and
uncivilized; there, the male is the exclusive bearer of culture. Such
things are not seen among the Bruttians of the Sila, any more than
among the grave Latins or Samnites. These non-Hellenic races are,
generally speaking, honest, dignified and incurious; they are bigoted,
not to say fanatical; and their women are not exclusively beasts of
burden, being better dressed, better looking, and often as intelligent
as the men. They are the fruits of a female selection.

But wherever the mocking Ionic spirit has penetrated—and the Ionian
women occupied even a lower position than those of the
Dorians and Aeolians—it has resulted in a glorification of masculinity.
Hand in hand with this depreciation of the female sex go other
characteristics which point to Hellenic influences: lack of commercial
morality, of veracity, of seriousness in religious matters; a
persistent, light-hearted inquisitiveness; a levity (or sprightliness,
if you prefer it) of mind. The people are fetichistic, amulet-loving,
rather than devout. We may certainly suspect Greek or Saracen strains
wherever women are held in low estimation; wherever, as the god Apollo
himself said, “the mother is but the nurse.” In the uplands of Calabria
the mother is a good deal more than the nurse.

For the rest, it stands to reason that in proportion as the
agricultural stage supplants that of pasturage, the superior strength
and utility of boys over girls should become more apparent, and this in
South Italy is universally proclaimed by the fact that everything large
and fine is laughingly described as “maschio” (male), and by some odd
superstitions in disparagement of the female sex, such as these: that
in giving presents to women, uneven numbers should be selected, lest
even ones “do them more good than they deserve”; that to touch the hump
of a female hunchback brings no luck whatever; that if a woman be the
first to drink out of a new earthenware pitcher, the vessel may as well
be thrown away at once—it is tainted for ever.[2] Yet the birth of a
daughter is no Chinese calamity; even girls are “Christians” and
welcomed as such, the populace having never sunk to the level of our
theologians, who were wont to discuss _an fæmina sint monstra._

 [2] In Japan, says Hearn, the first bucketful of water to be drawn out
 of a cleaned well must be drawn by a man; for if a woman first draw
 water, the well will always hereafter remain muddy. Some of these
 prejudices seem to be based on primordial misreadings of physiology.
 There is also a strong feeling in favour of dark hair. No mother would
 entrust her infant to a fair wet-nurse; the milk even of white cows is
 considered “lymphatic” and not strengthening; perhaps the eggs of
 white hens are equally devoid of the fortifying principle. There is
 something to be said for this since, in proportion as we go south, the
 risk of irritation, photophobia, and other complaints incidental to
 the xanthous complexion becomes greater.

All over the Sila there is a large preponderance of women over men,
nearly the whole male section of the community, save the quite young
and the decrepit, being in America. This emigration brings much money
into the country and many new ideas; but the inhabitants have yet to
learn the proper use of their wealth, and to acquire a modern standard
of comfort. Together with the Sardinians, these Calabrians are the
hardiest of native races, and this is what makes them prefer the
strenuous but lucrative life in North American mines to the easier
career in Argentina, which Neapolitans favour. There they learn
English. They remember their
families and the village that gave them birth, but their patriotism
towards Casa Savoia is of the slenderest. How could it be otherwise? I
have spoken to numbers of them, and this is what they say:

“This country has done nothing for us; why should we fight its battles?
Not long ago we were almost devouring each other in our hunger; what
did they do to help us? If we have emerged from misery, it is due to
our own initiative and the work of our own hands; if we have decent
clothes and decent houses, it is because they drove us from our old
homes with their infamous misgovernment to seek work abroad.”

Perfectly true! They have redeemed themselves, though the new regime
has hardly had a fair trial. And the drawbacks of emigration (such as a
slight increase of tuberculosis and alcoholism) are nothing compared
with the unprecedented material prosperity and enlightenment. There has
also been—in these parts, at all events—a marked diminution of crime.
No wonder, seeing that three-quarters of the most energetic and
turbulent elements are at present in America, where they recruit the
Black Hand. That the Bruttian is not yet ripe for town life, that his
virtues are pastoral rather than civic, might have been expected; but
the Arab domination of much of his territory, one suspects, may have
infused fiercer strains into his character and helped to deserve for
him that epithet of _sanguinario_ by which he is proud to be known.




XXVII
CALABRIAN BRIGANDAGE


The last genuine bandit of the Sila was Gaetano Ricca. On account of
some trivial misunderstanding with the authorities, this man was
compelled in the early eighties to take to the woods, where he lived a
wild life _(alla campagna; alla macchia}_ for some three years. A price
was set on his head, but his daring and knowledge of the country
intimidated every one. I should be sorry to believe in the number of
carbineers he is supposed to have killed during that period; no doubt
the truth came out during his subsequent trial. On one occasion he was
surrounded, and while the officer in command of his pursuers, who had
taken refuge behind a tree, ordered him to yield, Ricca waited
patiently till the point of his enemy’s foot became visible, when he
pierced his ankle-bone with his last bullet and escaped. He afterwards
surrendered and was imprisoned for twenty years or so; then returned to
the Sila, where up to a short time ago he was enjoying a green old age
in his home at Parenti—Parenti, already celebrated in the annals of
brigandage by the exploit of the perfidious Francatripa (Giacomo
Pisani), who, under pretence of hospitality, enticed a French company
into his clutches and murdered its three officers and all the men, save
seven. The memoirs of such men might be as interesting as those of the
Sardinian Giovanni Tolù which have been printed. I would certainly have
paid my respects to Ricca had I been aware of his existence when, some
years back, I passed through Parenti on my way—a long day’s march!—from
Rogliano to San Giovanni. He has died in the interval.

But the case of Ricca is a sporadic one, such as may crop up anywhere
and at any time. It is like that of Musolino—the case of an isolated
outlaw, who finds the perplexed geographical configuration of the
country convenient for offensive and defensive purposes. Calabrian
brigandage, as a whole, has always worn a political character.

The men who gave the French so much trouble were political brigands,
allies of Bourbonism. They were commanded by
creatures like Mammone, an anthropophagous monster whose boast it was
that he had personally killed 455 persons with the greatest refinements
of cruelty, and who wore at his belt the skull of one of them, out of
which he used to drink human blood at mealtime; he drank his own blood
as well; indeed, he “never dined without having a bleeding human heart
on the table.” This was the man whom King Ferdinand and his spouse
loaded with gifts and decorations, and addressed as “Our good Friend
and General—the faithful Support of the Throne.” The numbers of these
savages were increased by shiploads of professional cut-throats sent
over from Sicily by the English to help their Bourbon friends. Some of
these actually wore the British uniform; one of the most ferocious was
known as “L’Inglese”—the Englishman.

One must go to the fountain-head, to the archives, in order to gain
some idea of the sanguinary anarchy that desolated South Italy in those
days. The horrors of feudalism, aided by the earthquake of 1784 and by
the effects of Cardinal Ruffo’s Holy Crusade, had converted the country
into a pandemonium. In a single year (1809) thirty-three thousand
crimes were recorded against the brigands of the Kingdom of Naples; in
a single month they are said to have committed 1200 murders in Calabria
alone. These were the bands who were described by British officers as
“our chivalrous brigand-allies.”

It is good to bear these facts in mind when judging of the present
state of this province, for the traces of such a reign of terror are
not easily expunged. Good, also, to remember that this was the period
of the highest spiritual eminence to which South Italy has ever
attained. Its population of four million inhabitants were then consoled
by the presence of no less than 120,000 holy persons—to wit, 22
archbishops, 116 bishops, 65,500 ordained priests, 31,800 monks, and
23,600 nuns. Some of these ecclesiastics, like the Bishop of Capaccio,
were notable brigand-chiefs.

It must be confessed that the French were sufficiently coldblooded in
their reprisals. Colletta himself saw, at Lagonegro, a man impaled by
order of a French colonel; and some account of their excesses may be
gleaned from Duret de Tavel, from Rivarol (rather a disappointing
author), and from the flamboyant epistles of P. L. Courier, a
soldier-scribe of rare charm, who lost everything in this campaign.
“J’ai perdu huit chevaux, mes habits, mon linge, mon manteau, mes
pistolets, mon argent (12,247 francs). . . . Je ne regrette que mon
Homère (a gift from the Abbé Barthélemy), et pour le ravoir, je
donnerais la seule chemise qui me reste.”

But even that did not destroy the plague. The situation called
for a genial and ruthless annihilator, a man like Sixtus V, who asked
for brigands’ heads and got them so plentifully that they lay “thick as
melons in the market” under the walls of Rome, while the Castel Sant’
Angelo was tricked out like a Christmas tree with quartered corpses—a
man who told the authorities, when they complained of the insufferable
stench of the dead, that the smell of living iniquity was far worse.
Such a man was wanted. Therefore, in 1810, Murat gave _carte blanche_
to General Manhes, the greatest brigand-catcher of modern times, to
extirpate the ruffians, root and branch. He had just distinguished
himself during a similar errand in the Abruzzi and, on arriving in
Calabria, issued proclamations of such inhuman severity that the
inhabitants looked upon them as a joke. They were quickly undeceived.
The general seems to have considered that the end justified the means,
and that the peace and happiness of a province was not to be disturbed
year after year by the malignity of a few thousand rascals; his threats
were carried out to the letter, and, whatever may be said against his
methods, he certainly succeeded. At the end of a few months’ campaign,
every single brigand, and all their friends and relations, were wiped
off the face of the earth—together with a very considerable number of
innocent persons. The high roads were lined with decapitated bandits,
the town walls decked with their heads; some villages had to be
abandoned, on account of the stench; the Crati river was swollen with
corpses, and its banks whitened with bones. God alone knows the
cruelties which were enacted; Colletta confesses that he “lacks courage
to relate them.” Here is his account of the fate of the brigand chief
Benincasa:

“Betrayed and bound by his followers as he slept in the forest of
Cassano, Benincasa was brought to Cosenza, and General Manhes ordered
that both his hands be lopped off and that he be led, thus mutilated,
to his home in San Giovanni, and there hanged; a cruel sentence, which
the wretch received with a bitter smile. His right hand was first cut
off and the stump bound, not out of compassion or regard for his life,
but in order that all his blood might not flow out of the opened veins,
seeing that he was reserved for a more miserable death. Not a cry
escaped him, and when he saw that the first operation was over, he
voluntarily laid his left hand upon the block and coldly watched the
second mutilation, and saw his two amputated hands lying on the ground,
which were then tied together by the thumbs and hung round his neck; an
awful and piteous spectacle. This happened at Cosenza. On the same day
he began his march to San Giovanni in Fiore, the escort resting at
intervals; one of them offered the man food, which he accepted;
he ate and drank what was placed in his mouth, and not so much in order
to sustain life, as with real pleasure. He arrived at his home, and
slept through the following night; on the next day, as the hour of
execution approached, he refused the comforts of religion, ascended the
gallows neither swiftly nor slowly, and died admired for his brutal
intrepidity.”[1]

 [1] This particular incident was flatly denied by Manhes in a letter
 dated 1835, which is quoted in the “Notizia storica del Conte C. A.
 Manhes” (Naples, 1846)—one of a considerable number of pro-Bourbon
 books that cropped up about this time. One is apt to have quite a
 wrong impression of Manhes, that inexorable but incorruptible scourge
 of evildoers. One pictures him a grey-haired veteran, scarred and
 gloomy; and learns, on the contrary, that he was only thirty-two years
 old at this time, gracious in manner and of surprising personal
 beauty.

For the first time since long Calabria was purged. Ever since the
Bruttians, irreclaimable plunderers, had established themselves at
Cosenza, disquieting their old Hellenic neighbours, the recesses of
this country had been a favourite retreat of political malcontents.
Here Spartacus drew recruits for his band of rebels; here “King
Marcone” defied the oppressive Spanish Viceroys, and I blame neither
him nor his imitators, since the career of bandit was one of the very
few that still commended itself to decent folks, under that régime.

During the interregnum of Bourbonism between Murat and Garibaldi the
mischief revived—again in a political form. Brigands drew pensions from
kings and popes, and the system gave rise to the most comical
incidents; the story of the pensioned malefactors living together at
Monticello reads like an extravaganza. It was the spirit of Offenbach,
brooding over Europe. One of the funniest episodes was a visit paid in
1865 by the disconsolate Mrs. Moens to the ex-brigand Talarico, who was
then living in grand style on a government pension. Her husband had
been captured by the band of Manzi (another brigand), and expected to
be murdered every day, and the lady succeeded in procuring from the
chivalrous monster—“an extremely handsome man, very tall, with the
smallest and most delicate hands”—an exquisite letter to his colleague,
recommending him to be merciful to the Englishman and to emulate his
own conduct in that respect. The letter had no effect, apparently; but
Moens escaped at last, and wrote his memoirs, while Manzi was caught
and executed in 1868 after a trial occupying nearly a month, during
which the jury had to answer 311 questions.

His villainies were manifold. But they were put in the shade by those
of others of his calling—of Caruso, for example, who was known to have
massacred in one month (September, 1863) two
hundred persons with his own hands. Then, as formerly, the Church
favoured the malefactors, and I am personally acquainted with priests
who fought on the side of the brigands. Francis II endeavoured to
retrieve his kingdom by the help of an army of scoundrels like those of
Ruffo, but the troops shot them down. Brigandage, as a governmental
institution, came to an end. Unquestionably the noblest figure in this
reactionary movement was that of José Borjès, a brave man engaged in an
unworthy cause. You can read his tragic journal in the pages of M.
Monnier or Maffei. It has been calculated that during these last years
of Bourbonism the brigands committed seven thousand homicides a year in
the kingdom of Naples.

Schools and emigration have now brought sounder ideas among the people,
and the secularization of convents with the abolition of ecclesiastical
right of asylum (Sixtus V had wisely done away with it) has broken up
the prosperous old bond between monks and malefactors. What the
government has done towards establishing decent communications in this
once lawless and pathless country ranks, in its small way, beside the
achievement of the French who, in Algeria, have built nearly ten
thousand miles of road. But it is well to note that even as the
mechanical appliance of steam destroyed the corsairs, the external
plague, so this hoary form of internal disorder could have been
permanently eradicated neither by humanity nor by severity. A
scientific invention, the electric telegraph, is the guarantee of peace
against the rascals.

These brigand chiefs were often loaded with gold. On killing them, the
first thing the French used to do was to strip them. “On le dépouilla.”
Francatripa, for instance, possessed “a plume of white ostrich
feathers, clasped by a golden band and diamond Madonna” (a gift from
Queen Caroline)—Cerino and Manzi had “bunches of gold chains as thick
as an arm suspended across the breasts of their waistcoats, with
gorgeous brooches at each fastening.” Some of their wealth now survives
in certain families who gave them shelter in the towns in winter time,
or when they were hard pressed. These _favoreggiatori_ or _manutengoli_
(the terms are interconvertible, but the first is the legal one) were
sometimes benevolently inclined. But occasionally they conceived the
happy idea of being paid for their silence and services. The brigand,
then, was hoist with his own petard and forced to disgorge his
ill-gotten summer gains to these blood-suckers, who extorted heavy
blackmail under menaces of disclosure to the police, thriving on their
double infamy to such an extent that they acquired immense riches. One
of the wealthiest men in Italy descends from this
class; his two hundred million (?) francs are invested, mostly, in
England; every one knows his name, but the origin of his fortune is no
longer mentioned, since (thanks to this money) the family has been able
to acquire not only respectability but distinction.




XXVIII
THE GREATER SILA


A great project is afoot.

As I understand it, a reservoir is being created by damming up the
valley of the Ampollina; the artificial lake thus formed will be
enlarged by the additional waters of the Arvo, which are to be led into
it by means of a tunnel, about three miles long, passing underneath
Monte Nero. The basin, they tell me, will be some ten kilometres in
length; the work will cost forty million francs, and will be completed
in a couple of years; it will supply the Ionian lowlands with pure
water and with power for electric and other industries.

And more than that. The lake is to revolutionize the Sila; to convert
these wildernesses into a fashionable watering-place. Enthusiasts
already see towns growing upon its shores—there are visions of gorgeous
hotels and flocks of summer visitors in elegant toilettes,
villa-residences, funicular railways up all the mountains, sailing
regattas, and motor-boat services. In the place of the desert there
will arise a “Lucerna di Calabria.”

A Calabrian Lucerne. H’m. ...

It remains to be seen whether, by the time the lake is completed, there
will be any water left to flow into it. For the catchment basins are
being so conscientiously cleared of their timber that the two rivers
cannot but suffer a great diminution in volume. By 1896 already, says
Marincola San Fioro, the destruction of woodlands in the Sila had
resulted in a notable lack of moisture. Ever since then the vandalism
has been pursued with a zeal worthy of a better cause. One trembles to
think what these regions will be like in fifty years; a treeless and
waterless tableland—worse than the glaring limestone deserts of the
Apennines in so far as they, at least, are diversified in contour.

So the healthfulness, beauty, and exchequer value of enormous tracts in
this country are being systematically impaired, day by day. Italy is
ready, said D’Azeglio, but where are the Italians?

Let us give the government credit for any number of good ideas. It
actually plants bare spaces; it has instituted a “Festa degli alberi”
akin to the American Arbour Day, whereby it is hoped, though scarcely
believed, that the whole of Italy will ultimately be replenished with
trees; it encourages schools of forestry, supplies plants free of cost
to all who ask for them, despatches commissions and prints reports.
Above all, it talks prodigiously and very much to the purpose.

But it omits to administer its own laws with becoming severity. A few
exemplary fines and imprisonments would have a more salutary effect
than the commissioning of a thousand inspectors whom nobody takes
seriously, and the printing of ten thousand reports which nobody reads.

With a single stroke of the pen the municipalities could put an end to
the worst form of forest extirpation—that on the hill-sides—by
forbidding access to such tracts and placing them under the “vincolo
forestale.” To denude slopes in the moist climate and deep soil of
England entails no risk; in this country it is the beginning of the
end. And herein lies the ineptitude of the Italian regulations, which
entrust the collective wisdom of rapacious farmers with measures of
this kind, taking no account of the destructively utilitarian character
of the native mind, of that canniness which overlooks a distant profit
in its eagerness to grasp the present—that beast avarice which Horace
recognized as the root of all evil. As if provisions like this of the
“vincolo forestale” were ever carried out! Peasants naturally prefer to
burn the wood in their own chimneys or to sell it; and if a landslide
then crashes down, wrecking houses and vineyards—let the government
compensate the victims!

An ounce of fact—

In one year alone (1903), and in the sole province of Cosenza wherein
San Giovanni lies, there were 156 landslides; they destroyed 1940
hectares of land, and their damage amounted to 432,738 francs. The two
other Calabrian provinces—Reggio and Catanzaro—doubtless also had their
full quota of these catastrophes, all due to mischievous deforestation.
So the bare rock is exposed, and every hope of planting at an end.

_Vox clamantis!_ The Normans, Anjou and Aragonese concerned themselves
with the proper administration of woodlands. Even the Spanish Viceroys,
that ineffable brood, issued rigorous enactments on the subject; while
the Bourbons (to give the devil his due) actually distinguished
themselves as conservators of forests. As to Napoleon—he was busy
enough, one would think, on this
side of the Alps. Yet he found time to frame wise regulations
concerning trees which the present patriotic parliament, during half a
century of frenzied confabulation, has not yet taken to heart.

How a great man will leave his mark on minutiæ!

I passed through the basin of this future lake when, in accordance with
my project, I left San Giovanni to cross the remaining Sila in the
direction of Catanzaro. This getting up at 3.30 a.m., by the way,
rather upsets one’s daily routine; at breakfast time I already find
myself enquiring anxiously for dinner.

The Ampollina valley lies high; here, in the dewy grass, I enjoyed what
I well knew would be my last shiver for some time to come; then moved
for a few miles on the further bank of the rivulet along that driving
road which will soon be submerged under the waters of the lake, and
struck up a wooded glen called Barbarano. At its head lies the upland
Circilla.

There is no rock scenery worth mentioning in all this Sila country; no
waterfalls or other Alpine features. It is a venerable granitic
tableland, that has stood here while the proud Apennines were still
slumbering in the oozy bed of ocean[1]—a region of gentle undulations,
the hill-tops covered with forest-growth, the valleys partly arable and
partly pasture. Were it not for the absence of heather with its
peculiar mauve tints, the traveller might well imagine himself in
Scotland. There is the same smiling alternation of woodland and meadow,
the same huge boulders of gneiss and granite which give a distinctive
tone to the landscape, the same exuberance of living waters. Water,
indeed, is one of the glories of the Sila—everywhere it bubbles forth
in chill rivulets among the stones and trickles down the hill-sides to
join the larger streams that wend their way to the forlorn and
fever-stricken coastlands of Magna Graecia. Often, as I refreshed
myself at these icy fountains, did I thank Providence for making the
Sila of primitive rock, and not of the thirsty Apennine limestone.

 [1] Nissen says that “no landscape of Italy has lost so little of its
 original appearance in the course of history as Calabria.” This may
 apply to the mountains; but the lowlands have suffered hideous
 changes.

“Much water in the Sila,” an old shepherd once observed to me, “much
water! And little tobacco.”

One of the largest of these rivers is the Neto, the classic Neaithos
sung by Theocritus, which falls into the sea north of Cotrone; San
Giovanni overlooks its raging flood, and, with the help of a little
imagination here and there, its whole course can be traced from
eminences like that of Pettinascura. The very name of these
streams—Neto, Arvo, Lese, Ampollina—are redolent of pastoral life. All
of them are stocked with trout; they meander in their upper reaches
through valleys grazed by far-tinkling flocks of sheep and goats and
grey cattle—the experiment of acclimatizing Swiss cattle has proved a
failure, I know not why—and their banks are brilliant with blossoms.
Later on, in the autumn, the thistles begin to predominate—the finest
of them being a noble ground thistle of pale gold, of which they eat
the unopened bud; it is the counterpart of the silvery one of the Alps.
The air in these upper regions is keen. I remember, some years ago,
that during the last week of August a lump of snow, which a goat-boy
produced as his contribution to our luncheon, did not melt in the
bright sunshine on the summit of Monte Nero.

From whichever side one climbs out of the surrounding lowlands into the
Sila plateau, the same succession of trees is encountered. To the
warmest zone of olives, lemons and carobs succeeds that of the
chestnuts, some of them of gigantic dimensions and yielding a sure
though moderate return in fruit, others cut down periodically as
coppice for vine-props and scaffoldings. Large tracts of these old
chestnut groves are now doomed; a French society in Cosenza, so they
tell me, is buying them up for the extraction out of their bark of some
chemical or medicine. The vine still flourishes at this height, though
dwarfed in size; soon the oaks begin to dominate, and after that we
enter into the third and highest region of the pines and beeches. Those
accustomed to the stony deserts of nearly all South European mountain
districts will find these woodlands intensely refreshing. Their
inaccessibility has proved their salvation—up to a short time ago.

Nearly all the cattle on the Sila, like the land itself, belongs to
large proprietors. These gentlemen are for the most part invisible;
they inhabit their palaces in the cities, and the very name of the Sila
sends a cold shudder through their bones; their revenues are collected
from the shepherds by agents who seem to do their work very
conscientiously. I once observed, in a hut, a small fragment of the
skin of a newly killed kid; the wolf had devoured the beast, and the
shepherd was keeping this _corpus delicti_ to prove to his superior,
the agent, that he was innocent of the murder. There was something
naive in his honesty—as if a shepherd could not eat a kid as well as
any wolf, and keep a portion of its skin! The agent, no doubt, would
hand it on to his lord, by way of _confirmation and verification._
Another time I saw the debris of a goat hanging from
a tree; it was the wolf again; the boy had attached these remains to
the tree in order that all who passed that way might be his witnesses,
if necessary, that the animal had not been sold underhand.

You may still find the legendary shepherds here—curly-haired
striplings, reclining _sub tegmine fagi_ in the best Theocritean style,
and piping wondrous melodies to their flocks. These have generally come
up for the summer season from the Ionian lowlands. Or you may encounter
yet more primitive creatures, forest boys, clad in leather, with wild
eyes and matted locks, that take an elvish delight in misdirecting you.
These are the Lucanians of old. “They bring them up from childhood in
the woods among the shepherds,” says Justinus, “without servants, and
even without any clothes to cover them, or to lie upon, that from their
early years they may become inured to hardiness and frugality, and have
no intercourse with the city. They live upon game, and drink nothing
but water or milk.” But the majority of modern Sila shepherds are
shrewd fellows of middle age (many of them have been to America), who
keep strict business accounts for their masters of every ounce of
cheese and butter produced. The local cheese, which Cassiodorus praises
in one of his letters, is the _cacciacavallo_ common all over South
Italy; the butter is of the kind which has been humorously, but quite
wrongly, described by various travellers.

Although the old wolves are shot and killed by spring guns and dynamite
while the young ones are caught alive in steel traps and other
appliances, their numbers are still formidable enough to perturb the
pastoral folks. One is therefore surprised to see what a poor breed of
dogs they keep; scraggy mongrels that run for their lives at the mere
sight of a wolf who can, and often does, bite them into two pieces with
one snap of his jaws. They tell me that there is a government reward
for every wolf killed, but it is seldom paid; whoever has the good
fortune to slay one of these beasts, carries the skin as proof of his
prowess from door to door, and receives a small present everywhere—half
a franc, or a cheese, or a glass of wine.

The goats show fight, and therefore the wolf prefers sheep. Shepherds
have told me that he comes up to them _delicatamente,_ and then, fixing
his teeth in the wool of their necks, pulls them onward, caressing
their sides with his tail. The sheep are fascinated with his gentle
manners, and generally allow themselves to be led up to the spot he has
selected for their execution; the truth being that he is too lazy to
carry them, if he can possibly avoid it.
He will promptly kill his quarry and carry its carcase downhill on the
rare occasions when the flocks are grazing above his haunt; but if it
is an uphill walk, they must be good enough to use their own legs.
Incredible stories of his destructiveness are related.

Fortunately, human beings are seldom attacked, a dog or a pig being
generally forthcoming when the usual prey is not to be found. Yet not
long ago a sad affair occurred; a she-wolf attacked a small boy before
the eyes of his parents, who pursued him, powerless to help—the head
and arms had already been torn off before a shot from a neighbour
despatched the monster. Truly, “a great family displeasure,” as my
informant styled it. Milo of Croton, the famous athlete, is the most
renowned victim of these Sila wolves. Tradition has it that, relying on
his great strength, he tried to rend asunder a mighty log of wood which
closed, however, and caught his arms in its grip; thus helpless, he was
devoured alive by them.

By keeping to the left of Circilla, I might have skirted the forest of
Gariglione. This tract lies at about four and a half hours’ distance
from San Giovanni; I found it, some years ago, to be a region of real
“Urwald” or primary jungle; there was nothing like it, to my knowledge,
on this side of the Alps, nor yet in the Alps themselves; nothing of
the kind nearer than Russia. But the Russian jungles, apart from their
monotony of timber, foster feelings of sadness and gloom, whereas these
southern ones, as Hehn has well observed, are full of a luminous
beauty—their darkest recesses being enlivened by a sense of benignant
mystery. Gariglione was at that time a virgin forest, untouched by the
hand of man; a dusky ridge, visible from afar; an impenetrable tangle
of forest trees, chiefest among them being the “garigli” _(Quercus
cerris)_ whence it derives its name, as well as thousands of pines and
bearded firs and all that hoary indigenous vegetation struggling out of
the moist soil wherein their progenitors had lain decaying time out of
mind. In these solitudes, if anywhere, one might still have found the
absent-minded luzard (lynx) of the veracious historian; or that
squirrel whose “calabrere” fur, I strongly suspect, came from Russia;
or, at any rate, the Mushroom-stone _which shineth in the night_.[2]

 [2] As a matter of fact, the mushroom-stone is a well-known commodity,
 being still collected and eaten, for example, at Santo Stefano in
 Aspramente. Older travellers tell us that it used to be exported to
 Naples and kept in the cellars of the best houses for the enjoyment of
 its fruit—sometimes in lumps measuring two feet in diameter which,
 being soaked in water, produced these edible fungi. A stone yielding
 food—a miracle! It is a porous tufa adapted, presumably, for
 sheltering and fecundating vegetable spores. A little pamphlet by
 Professor A. Trotter (“Flora Montana della Calabria”) gives some idea
 of the local plants and contains a useful bibliography. A curious
 feature is the relative abundance of boreal and Balkan-Oriental forms;
 another, the rapid spread of _Genista anglica,_ which is probably an
 importation.

Well, I am glad my path to-day did not lead me to Gariglione, and so
destroy old memories of the place. For the domain, they tell me, has
been sold for 350,000 francs to a German company; its primeval silence
is now invaded by an army of 260 workmen, who have been cutting down
the timber as fast as they can. So vanishes another fair spot from
earth! And what is left of the Sila, once these forests are gone? Not
even the charm, such as it is, of Caithness. . . .

After Circilla comes the watershed that separates the Sila Grande from
the westerly regions of Sila Piccola. Thenceforward it was downhill
walking, at first through forest lands, then across verdant stretches,
bereft of timber and simmering in the sunshine. The peculiar character
of this country is soon revealed—ferociously cloven ravines, utterly
different from the Sila Grande.

With the improvidence of the true traveller I had consumed my stock of
provisions ere reaching the town of Taverna after a march of nine hours
or thereabouts. A place of this size and renown, I had argued, would
surely be able to provide a meal. But Taverna belies its name. The only
tavern discoverable was a composite hovel, half wine-shop, half
hen-house, whose proprietor, disturbed in his noonday nap, stoutly
refused to produce anything eatable. And there I stood in the blazing
sunshine, famished and un-befriended. Forthwith the strength melted out
of my bones; the prospect of walking to Catanzaro, so alluring with a
full stomach, faded out of the realm of possibility; and it seemed a
special dispensation of Providence when, at my lowest ebb of vitality,
a small carriage suddenly hove in sight.

“How much to Catanzaro?”

The owner eyed me critically, and then replied in English:

“You can pay twenty dollars.”

Twenty dollars—a hundred francs! But it is useless trying to bargain
with an _americano_ (their time is too valuable).

“A dollar a mile?” I protested.

“That’s so.”

“You be damned.”

“Same to you, mister.” And he drove off.

Such bold defiance of fate never goes unrewarded. A two-wheeled cart
conveying some timber overtook me shortly afterwards on my way from the
inhospitable Taverna. For a small
consideration I was enabled to pass the burning hours of the afternoon
in an improvised couch among its load of boards, admiring the scenery
and the engineering feats that have carried a road through such
difficult country, and thinking out some further polite remarks to be
addressed to my twenty-dollar friend, in the event of our meeting at
Catanzaro. . . .

One must have traversed the Sila in order to appreciate the manifold
charms of the mountain town—I have revelled in them since my arrival.
But it has one irremediable drawback: the sea lies at an inconvenient
distance. It takes forty-five minutes to reach the shore by means of
two railways in whose carriages the citizens descend after wild
scrambles for places, packed tight as sardines in the sweltering heat.
Only a genuine enthusiast will undertake the trip more than once. For
the Marina itself—at this season, at least—is an unappetizing spot; a
sordid agglomeration of houses, a few dirty fruit-stalls, ankle-deep
dust, swarms of flies. I prefer to sleep through the warm hours of the
day, and then take the air in that delightful public garden which, by
the way, has already become too small for the increasing population.

At its entrance stands the civic museum, entrusted, just now, to the
care of a quite remarkably ignorant and slatternly woman. It contains
two rooms, whose exhibits are smothered in dust and cobwebs; as
neglected, in short, as her own brats that sprawl about its floor. I
enquired whether she possessed no catalogue to show where the objects,
bearing no labels, had been found. A catalogue was unnecessary, she
said; she knew everything—everything!

And everything, apparently, hailed from “Stromboli.” The Tiriolo
helmet, the Greek vases, all the rest of the real and sham treasures of
this establishment: they were all discovered at Stromboli.

“Those coins—whence?”

“Stromboli!”

Noticing some neolithic celts similar to those I obtained at
Vaccarizza, I would gladly have learnt their place of origin. Promptly
came the answer:

“Stromboli!”

“Nonsense, my good woman. I’ve been three times to Stromboli; it is an
island of black stones where the devil has a house, and such things are
not found there.” (Of course she meant Strongoli, the ancient Petelia.)

[Illustration: Gateway at Catanzaro]

This vigorous assertion made her more circumspect. Thenceforward
everything was declared to come from the province—_dalla provincia;_ it
was safer.

_“_That bad picture—whence?”

“Dalla provincia!”

“Have you really no catalogue?”

“I know everything.”

“And this broken statue—whence?”

“Dalla provincia!”

“But the province is large,” I objected.

“So it is. Large, and old.”

I have also revisited Tiriolo, once celebrated for the “Sepulchres of
the Giants” (Greek tombs) that were unearthed here, and latterly for a
certain more valuable antiquarian discovery. Not long ago it was a
considerable undertaking to reach this little place, but nowadays a
public motor-car whirls you up and down the ravines at an alarming pace
and will deposit you, within a few hours, at remote Cosenza, once an
enormous drive. It is the same all over modern Calabria. The diligence
service, for instance, that used to take fourteen hours from San
Giovanni to Cosenza has been replaced by motors that cover the distance
in four or five. One is glad to save time, but this new element of
mechanical hurry has produced a corresponding kind of traveller—a
machine-made creature, devoid of the humanity of the old; it has done
away with the personal note of conviviality that reigned in the
post-carriages. What jocund friendships were made, what songs and tales
applauded, during those interminable hours in the lumbering chaise!

You must choose Sunday for Tiriolo, on account of the girls, whose
pretty faces and costumes are worth coming any distance to see. A good
proportion of them have the fair hair which seems to have been
eliminated, in other parts of the country, through the action of
malaria.

Viewed from Catanzaro, one of the hills of Tiriolo looks like a broken
volcanic crater. It is a limestone ridge, decked with those
characteristic flowers like _Campanula fragilis_ which you will vainly
seek on the Sila. Out of the ruins of some massive old building they
have constructed, on the summit, a lonely weather-beaten fabric that
would touch the heart of Maeterlinck. They call it a seismological
station. I pity the people that have to depend for their warnings of
earthquakes upon the outfit of a place like this. I could see no signs
of life here; the windows were broken, the shutters decaying, an old
lightning-rod dangled disconsolately from the roof; it looked as
abandoned as any old tower in a tale. There is a noble view from this
point over both seas and into the
riven complexities of Aspromonte, when the peak is not veiled in mists,
as it frequently is. For Tiriolo lies on the watershed; there (to quote
from a “Person of Quality”) “where the Apennine is drawn into so narrow
a point, that the rain-water which descendeth from the ridge of some
one house, falleth on the left in the Terrene Sea, and on the right
into the Adriatick. . . .”

My visits to the provincial museum have become scandalously frequent
during the last few days. I cannot keep away from the place. I go there
not to study the specimens but to converse with their keeper, the woman
who, in her quiet way, has cast a sort of charm over me. Our relations
are the whispered talk of the town; I am suspected of matrimonial
designs upon a poor widow with the ulterior object of appropriating the
cream of the relics under her care. Regardless of the perils of the
situation, I persevere; for the sake of her company I forswear the
manifold seductions of Catanzaro. She is a noteworthy person, neither
vicious nor vulgar, but simply the _dernier mot_ of incompetence. Her
dress, her looks, her children, her manners—they are all on an even
plane with her spiritual accomplishments; at no point does she sink, or
rise, beyond that level. They are not as common as they seem to be,
these harmoniously inefficient females.

Why has she got this job in a progressive town containing so many folks
who could do it creditably? Oh, that is simple enough! She needs it. On
the platform of the Reggio station (long before the earthquake) I once
counted five station-masters and forty-eight other railway officials,
swaggering about with a magnificent air of incapacity. What were they
doing? Nothing whatever. They were like this woman: they needed a job.

[Illustration: In the Cemetery of Reggio]

We are in a patriarchal country; work is pooled; it is given not to
those who can do it best, but to those who need it most—given, too, on
pretexts which sometimes strike one as inadequate, not to say
recondite. So the street-scavengering in a certain village has been
entrusted to a one-armed cripple, utterly unfit for the business—why?
Because his maternal grand-uncle is serving a long sentence in gaol.
The poor family must be helped! A brawny young fellow will be removed
from a landing-stage boat, and his place taken by some tottering old
peasant who has never handled an oar—why? The old man’s nephew has
married again; the family must be helped. A secretarial appointment was
specially created for an acquaintance of mine who could barely sign his
own name, for the obvious reason that his cousin’s sister was
rheumatic. One must help that family.
A postman whom I knew delivered the letters only once every three days,
alleging, as unanswerable argument in his defence, that his brother’s
wife had fifteen children.

One must help that family!

Somebody seems to have thought so, at all events.




XXIX
CHAOS


I have never beheld the enchantment of the Straits of Messina, that
Fata Morgana, when, under certain conditions of weather, phantasmagoric
palaces of wondrous shape are cast upon the waters—not mirrored, but
standing upright; tangible, as it were; yet diaphanous as a veil of
gauze.

A Dominican monk and correspondent of the Naples Academy, Minasi by
name, friend of Sir W. Hamilton, wrote a dissertation upon this
atmospheric mockery. Many have seen and described it, among them Pilati
de Tassulo; Nicola Leoni reproduces the narrative of an eye-witness of
1643; another account appears in the book of A. Fortis (“Mineralogische
Reisen, 1788”). The apparition is coy. Yet there are pictures of it—in
an article in “La Lettura” by Dr. Vittorio Boccara, who therein refers
to a scientific treatise by himself on the subject, as well as in the
little volume “Da Reggio a Metaponto” by Lupi-Crisafi, which was
printed at Gerace some years ago. I mention these writers for the sake
of any one who, luckier than myself, may be able to observe this
phenomenon and become interested in its history and origin. . . .

The chronicles of Messina record the scarcely human feats of the diver
Cola Pesce (Nicholas the Fish). The dim submarine landscapes of the
Straits with their caves and tangled forests held no secrets from him;
his eyes were as familiar with sea-mysteries as those of any fish. Some
think that the legend dates from Frederick II, to whom he brought up
from the foaming gulf that golden goblet which has been immortalized in
Schiller’s ballad. But Schneegans says there are Norman documents that
speak of him. And that other tale, according to which he took to his
watery life in pursuit of some beloved maiden who had been swallowed by
the waves, makes one think of old Glaucus as his prototype.

[Illustration: Tiriolo]

Many are the fables connected with his name, but the most portentous is
this: One day, during his subaqueous wanderings, he discovered the
foundations of Messina. They were insecure! The city rested upon three
columns, one of them intact, another
quite decayed away, the third partially corroded and soon to crumble
into ruin. He peered up from, his blue depths, and in a fateful couplet
of verses warned the townsmen of their impending doom. In this
prophetic utterance ascribed to the fabulous Cola Pesce is echoed a
popular apprehension that was only too justified.

F. Muenter—one of a band of travellers who explored these regions after
the earthquake of 1783—also gave voice to his fears that Messina had
not yet experienced the full measure of her calamities. . . .

I remember a night in September of 1908, a Sunday night, fragrant with
the odours of withered rosemary and cistus and fennel that streamed in
aromatic showers from the scorched heights overhead—a starlit night,
tranquil and calm. Never had Messina appeared so attractive to me.
Arriving there generally in the daytime and from larger and sprightlier
centres of civilization, one is prone to notice only its defects. But
night, especially a southern night, has a wizard touch. It transforms
into objects of mysterious beauty all unsightly things, or hides them
clean away; while the nobler works of man, those facades and cornices
and full-bellied balconies of cunningly wrought iron rise up, under its
enchantment, ethereal as the palace of fairies. And coming, as I then
did, from the sun-baked river-beds of Calabria, this place, with its
broad and well-paved streets, its glittering cafés and demure throng of
evening idlers, seemed a veritable metropolis, a world-city.

With deliberate slowness, _ritardando con molto sentimento,_ I worked
my way to the familiar restaurant.

At last! At last, after an interminable diet of hard bread, onions and
goat’s cheese, I was to enjoy the complicated menu mapped out weeks
beforehand, after elaborate consideration and balancing of merits; so
complicated, that its details have long ago lapsed from my memory. I
recollect only the sword-fish, a local speciality, and (as crowning
glory) the _cassata alla siciliana,_ a glacial symphony, a
multicoloured ice of commingling flavours, which requires far more time
to describe than to devour. Under the influence of this Sybaritic fare,
helped down with a crusted bottle of Calabrian wine—your Sicilian stuff
is too strong for me, too straightforward, uncompromising; I prefer to
be wheedled out of my faculties by inches, like a gentleman—under this
genial stimulus my extenuated frame was definitely restored; I became
mellow and companionable; the traveller’s lot, I finally concluded, is
not the worst on earth. Everything was as it should be. As for
Messina—Messina was unquestionably a pleasant city. But why were all
the shops shut so early in the evening?

_“_These Sicilians,” said the waiter, an old Neapolitan acquaintance,
in reply to my enquiries, “are always playing some game. They are
pretending to be Englishmen at this moment; they have the
Sunday-closing obsession on the brain. Their attacks generally last a
fortnight; it’s like the measles. Poor people.”

Playing at being Englishmen!

They have invented a new game now, those that are left of them. They
are living in dolls’ houses, and the fit is likely to last for some
little time.

An engineer remarked to me, not long ago, among the ruins:

“This _baracca,_ this wooden shelter, has an interior surface area of
less than thirty square metres. Thirty-three persons—men, women, and
children—have been living and sleeping in it for the last five months.”

“A little overcrowded?” I suggested.

“Yes. Some of them are beginning to talk of overcrowding. It was all
very well in the winter months, but when August comes. . . . Well, we
shall see.”

No prophetic visions of the Messina of to-day, with its minute sheds
perched among a wilderness of ruins and haunted by scared shadows in
sable vestments of mourning, arose in my mind that evening as I sat at
the little marble table, sipping my coffee—over-roasted, like all
Italian coffee, by exactly two minutes—and puffing contentedly at my
cigar, while the sober crowd floated hither and thither before my eyes.
Yes, everything was as it should be. And yet, what a chance!

What a chance for some God, in this age of unbelief, to establish his
rule over mankind on the firm foundations of faith! We are always
complaining, nowadays, of an abatement of religious feeling. How easy
for such a one to send down an Isaiah to foretell the hour of the
coming catastrophe, and thus save those of its victims who were
disposed to hearken to the warning voice; to reanimate the flagging
zeal of worshippers, to straighten doubts and segregate the sheep from
the goats! Truly, He moves in a mysterious way, for no divine message
came; the just were entombed with the unjust amid a considerable deal
of telegraphing and heart-breaking.

A few days after the disaster the Catholic papers explained matters by
saying that the people of Messina had not loved their Madonna
sufficiently well. But she loved them none the less, and sent the
earthquake as an admonishment. Rather a robust method of conciliating
their affection; not exactly the _suaviter in modo. . . ._

But if genuine prophets can only flourish among the malarious
willow swamps of old Babylon and such-like improbable spots, we might
at least have expected better things of our modern spiritualists. Why
should their apparitions content themselves with announcing the
decease, at the Antipodes, of profoundly uninteresting relatives? Alas!
I begin to perceive that spirits of the right kind, of the useful kind,
have yet to be discovered. Our present-day ghosts are like
seismographs; they chronicle the event after it has happened. Now, what
we want is——

“The Signore smokes, and smokes, and smokes. Why not take the tram and
listen to the municipal music in the gardens?”

“Music? Gardens? An excellent suggestion, Gennarino.”

Even as a small Italian town would be incomplete without its piazza
where streets converge and commercial pulses beat their liveliest
measure, so every larger one contrives to possess a public garden for
the evening disport of its citizens; night-life being the true life of
the south. Charming they are, most of them; none more delectable than
that of old Messina—a spacious pleasaunce, decked out with trim palms
and flower-beds and labyrinthine walks freshly watered, and cooled,
that evening, by stealthy breezes from the sea. The grounds were
festively illuminated, and as I sat down near the bandstand and watched
the folk meandering to and fro, I calculated that no fewer than thirty
thousand persons were abroad, taking their pleasure under the trees, in
the bland air of evening. An orderly, well-dressed crowd. We may smile
when they tell us that these people will stint themselves of the
necessities of life in order to wear fine clothes, but the effect, for
an outsider, is all that it should be. For the rest, the very urchins,
gambolling about, had an air of happy prosperity, different from the
squalor of the north with its pinched white faces, its over-breeding
and under-feeding.

And how well the sensuous Italian strains accord with such an hour and
scene! They were playing, if I remember rightly, the ever-popular Aida;
other items followed later—more ambitious ones; a Hungarian rhapsody,
Berlioz, a selection from Wagner.

“_Musica filosofica”_ said my neighbour, alluding to the German
composer. He was a spare man of about sixty; a sunburnt, military
countenance, seamed by lines of suffering. “_Non và in Sicilia_—it
won’t do in this country. Not that we fail to appreciate your great
thinkers,” he added. “We read and admire your Schopenhauer, your
Spencer. They give passable representations of Wagner in Naples. But——”

“The climate?”

“Precisely. I have travelled, sir; and knowing your Berlin, and London,
and Boston, have been able to observe how ill our Italian
architecture looks under your grey skies, how ill our music sounds
among the complex appliances of your artificial life. It has made you
earnest, this climate of yours, and prone to take earnestly your very
pastimes. Music, for us, has remained what it was in the Golden Age—an
unburdening of the soul on a summer’s night. They play well, these
fellows. Palermo, too, has a respectable band—Oh! a little too fast,
that _recitativo!”_

“The Signore is a musician?”

“A _proprietario._ But I delight in music, and I beguiled myself with
the fiddle as a youngster. Nowadays—look here!” And he extended his
hand; it was crippled. “Rheumatism. I have it here, and here”—pointing
to various regions of his body—“_and_ here! Ah, these doctors! The
baths I have taken! The medicines—the ointments—the embrocations: a
perfect pharmacopcœia! I can hardly crawl now, and without the help of
these two devoted boys even this harmless little diversion would have
been denied me. My nephews—orphans,” he added, observing the direction
of my glance.

They sat on his other side, handsome lads, who spoke neither too much
nor too little. Every now and then they rose with one accord and
strolled among the surging crowd to stretch their legs, returning after
five minutes to their uncle’s side. His eyes always followed their
movements.

“My young brother, had he lived, would have made men of them,” he once
observed.

The images revive, curiously pertinacious, with dim lapses and gulfs. I
can see them still, the two boys, their grave demeanour belied by
mobile lips and mischievous fair curls of Northern ancestry; the other,
leaning forward intent upon the music, and caressing his moustache with
bent fingers upon which glittered a jewel set in massive gold—some
scarab or intaglio, the spoil of old Magna Graecia. His conversation,
during the intervals, moved among the accepted formulas of
cosmopolitanism with easy flow, quickened at times by the individual
emphasis of a man who can forsake conventional tracks and think for
himself. Among other things, he had contrived an original project for
reviving the lemon industry of his country, which, though it involved a
few tariff modifications—“a mere detail”—struck me as amazingly
effective and ingenious. The local deputy, it seems, shared my view,
for he had undertaken to bring it before the notice of Parliament.

What was it?

I have forgotten!

So we discussed the world, while the music played under the starlit
southern night.

It must have been midnight ere a final frenzied galop on the part of
the indefatigable band announced the close of the entertainment. I
walked a few paces beside the lame “proprietor” who, supported on the
arms of his nephews, made his way to the spot where the cabs were
waiting—his rheumatism, he explained, obliging him to drive. How he had
enjoyed walking as a youth, and what pleasure it would now have given
him to protract, during a promenade to my hotel, our delightful
conversation! But infirmities teach us to curtail our pleasures, and
many things that seem natural to man’s bodily configuration are found
to be unattainable. He seldom left his rooms; the stairs—the diabolical
stairs! Would I at least accept his card and rest assured how gladly he
would receive me and do all in his power to make my stay agreeable?

That card has gone the way of numberless others which the traveller in
Southern Europe gathers about him. I have also forgotten the old man’s
name. But the _palazzo_ in which he lived bore a certain historical
title which happened to be very familiar to me. I remember wondering
how it came to reach Messina.

In the olden days, of course, the days of splendour.

Will they ever return?

It struck me that the sufferings of the survivors would be alleviated
if all the sheds in which they are living could be painted white or
pearl-grey in order to protect them, as far as possible, from the
burning rays of the sun. I mentioned the idea to an overseer.

“We are painting as fast as we can,” he replied. “An expensive matter,
however. The Villagio Elena alone has cost us, in this respect, twenty
thousand francs—with the greatest economy.”

This will give some notion of the scale on which things have to be
done. The settlement in question contains some two hundred sheds—two
hundred out of over ten thousand.

But I was alluding not to these groups of hygienic bungalows erected by
public munificence and supplied with schools, laboratories, orphanages,
hospitals, and all that can make life endurable, but to the
others—those which the refugees built for themselves—ill-contrived
hovels, patched together with ropes, potato-sacks, petroleum cans and
miscellaneous odds and ends. A coat of whitewash, at least, inside and
out. ... I was thinking, too, of those still stranger dwellings, the
disused railway trucks which the
government has placed at the disposal of homeless families. At many
Stations along the line may be seen strings of these picturesque
wigwams crowded with poor folk who have installed themselves within,
apparently for ever. They are cultivating their favourite flowers and
herbs in gaudy rows along the wooden platforms of the carriages; the
little children, all dressed in black, play about in the shade
underneath. The people will suffer in these narrow tenements under the
fierce southern sun, after their cool courtyards and high-vaulted
chambers! There will be diseases, too; typhoids from the disturbed
drainage and insufficient water-supply; eye troubles, caused by the
swarms of flies and tons of accumulated dust. The ruins are also
overrun with hordes of mangy cats and dogs which ought to be
exterminated without delay.

If, as seems likely, those rudely improvised sheds are to be inhabited
indefinitely, we may look forward to an interesting phenomenon, a
reversion to a corresponding type of man. The lack of the most ordinary
appliances of civilization, such as linen, washing-basins and cooking
utensils, will reduce them to the condition of savages who view these
things with indifference or simple curiosity; they will forget that
they ever had any use for them. And life in these huts where human
beings are herded together after the manner of beasts—one might almost
say _fitted in,_ like the fragments of a mosaic pavement—cannot but be
harmful to the development of growing children.

The Calabrians, I was told, distinguished themselves by unearthly
ferocity; Reggio was given over to a legion of fiends that descended
from the heights during the week of confusion. “They tore the rings and
brooches off the dead,” said a young official to me. “They strangled
the wounded and dying, in order to despoil them more comfortably. Here,
and at Messina, the mutilated corpses were past computation; but the
Calabrians were the worst.”

Vampires, offspring of Night and Chaos.

So Dolomieu, speaking of the _dépravation incroyable des moeurs_ which
accompanied the earthquake of 1783, recounts the case of a householder
of Polistena who was pinned down under some masonry, his legs emerging
out of the ruins; his servant came and took the silver buckles off his
shoes and then fled, without attempting to free him. We have seen
something of this kind more recently at San Francisco.

“After despoiling the corpses, they ransacked the dwellings. Five
thousand beds, sir, were carried up from Reggio into the mountains.”

“Five thousand beds! _Per Dìo!_ It seems a considerable number.”

A young fellow, one of the survivors, attached himself to me in the
capacity of guide through the ruins of Reggio. He wore the
characteristic earthquake look, a dazed and bewildered expression of
countenance; he spoke in a singularly deliberate manner. Knowing the
country, I was soon bending my steps in the direction of the cemetery,
chiefly for the sake of the exquisite view from those windswept
heights, and to breathe more freely after the dust and desolation of
the lower parts. This burial-ground is in the same state as that of
Messina, once the pride of its citizens; the insane frolic of nature
has not respected the slumber of the dead or their commemorative
shrines; it has made a mockery of the place, twisting the solemn
monuments into repulsive and irreverential shapes.

But who can recount the freaks of stone and iron during those
moments—the hair-breadth escapes? My companion’s case was miraculous
enough. Awakened from sleep with the first shock, he saw, by the dim
light of the lamp which burns in all their bedrooms, the wall at his
bedside weirdly gaping asunder. He darted to reach the opening, but it
closed again and caught his arm in a stony grip. Hours seemed to
pass—the pain was past enduring; then the kindly cleft yawned once
more, allowing him to jump into the garden below. Simultaneously he
heard a crash as the inner rooms of the house fell; then climbed aloft,
and for four days wandered among the bleak, wet hills. Thousands were
in the same plight.

I asked what he found to eat.

“_Erba, Signore._ We all did. You could not touch property; a single
orange, and they would have killed you.”

Grass!

He bore a name renowned in the past, but his home being turned into a
dust-heap under which his money, papers and furniture, his two parents
and brothers, are still lying, he now gains a livelihood by carrying
vegetables and fruit from the harbour to the collection of sheds
honoured by the name of market. Later in the day we happened to walk
past the very mansion, which lies near the quay. “Here is my house and
my family,” he remarked, indicating, with a gesture of antique
resignation, a pile of wreckage.

Hard by, among the ruins, there sat a young woman with dishevelled
hair, singing rapturously. “Her husband was crushed to death,” he said,
“and it unhinged her wits. Strange, is it not, sir? They used to fight
like fiends, and now—she sings to him night and day to come back.”

Love—so the Greeks fabled—was the child of Chaos.

In this part of the town stands the civic museum, which all readers of
Gissing’s “Ionian Sea” will remember as the closing note of those
harmonious pages. It is shattered, like everything else that he visited
in Reggio; like the hotel where he lodged; like the cathedral whose
proud superscription _Circumlegentes devenimus Rhegium_ impressed him
so deeply; like that “singular bit of advanced civilization, which gave
me an odd sense of having strayed into the world of those romancers who
forecast the future—a public slaughter-house of tasteful architecture,
set in a grove of lemon trees and palms, suggesting the dreamy ideal of
some reformer whose palate shrinks from vegetarianism.” We went the
round of all these places, not forgetting the house which bears the
tablet commemorating the death of a young soldier who fell fighting
against the Bourbons. From its contorted iron balcony there hangs a
rope by which the inmates may have tried to let themselves down.

A friend of mine, Baron C—— of Stilo, is a member of that same
patriotic family, and gave me the following strange account. He was
absent from Reggio at the time of the catastrophe, but three others of
them were staying there. On the first shock they rushed together,
panic-stricken, into one room; the floor gave way, and they suddenly
found themselves sitting in their motor-car which happened to be placed
exactly below them. They escaped with a few cuts and bruises.

An inscription on a neighbouring ruin runs to the effect that the
_mansion having been severely damaged in the earthquake of_ 1783, _its
owner had rebuilt it on lines calculated to defy future shattering!._
Whether he would rebuild it yet again?

Nevertheless, there seems to be some chance for the revival of Reggio;
its prognosis is not utterly hopeless.

But Messina is in desperate case.

That haughty sea-front, with its long line of imposing edifices—imagine
a painted theatre decoration of cardboard through which some sportive
behemoth has been jumping with frantic glee; there you have it. And
within, all is desolation; the wreckage reaches to the windows; you
must clamber over it as best you can. What an all-absorbing
post-tertiary deposit for future generations, for the crafty
antiquarian who deciphers the history of mankind out of kitchen-middens
and deformed heaps of forgotten trash! The whole social life of the
citizens, their arts, domestic economy, and pastimes, lies embedded in
that rubbish. “A musical race,” he will conclude, observing the number
of decayed pianofortes,
guitars, and mandolines. The climate of Messina, he will further argue,
must have been a wet one, inasmuch as there are umbrellas everywhere,
standing upright among the debris, leaning all forlorn against the
ruins, or peering dismally from under them. It rained much during those
awful days, and umbrellas were at a premium. Yet fifty of them would
not have purchased a loaf of bread.

It was Goethe who, speaking of Pompeii, said that of the many
catastrophes which have afflicted mankind few have given greater
pleasure to posterity. The same will never be said of Messina, whose
relics, for the most part, are squalid and mean. The German poet, by
the way, visited this town shortly after the disaster of 1783, and
describes its _zackige Ruinenwüste_—words whose very sound is
suggestive of shatterings and dislocations. Nevertheless, the place
revived again.

But what was 1783?

A mere rehearsal, an amateur performance.

Wandering about in this world of ghosts, I passed the old restaurant
where the sword-fish had once tasted so good—an accumulation of stones
and mortar—and reached the cathedral. It is laid low, all save the
Gargantuan mosaic figures that stare down from behind the altar in
futile benediction of Chaos; inane, terrific. This, then, is the house
of that feudal lady of the _fortiter in re,_ who sent an earthquake and
called it love. Womanlike, she doted on gold and precious stones, and
they recovered her fabulous hoard, together with a copy of a Latin
letter she sent to the Christians of Messina by the hand of Saint Paul.

And not long afterwards—how came it to pass?—my steps were guided amid
that wilderness towards a narrow street containing the ruins of a
_palazzo_ that bore, on a tablet over the ample doorway, an inscription
which arrested my attention. It was an historical title familiar to me;
and forthwith a train of memories, slumbering in the caverns of my
mind, was ignited. Yes; there was no doubt about it: the old
“proprietor” and his nephews, he of the municipal gardens. . . .

I wondered how they had met their fate, on the chill wintry morning.
For assuredly, in that restricted space, not a soul can have escaped
alive; the wreckage, hitherto undisturbed, still covered their remains.

And, remembering the old man and his humane converse that evening under
the trees, the true meaning of the catastrophe began to disentangle
itself from accidental and superficial aspects. For I confess that the
massacre of a myriad Chinamen leaves me cool and self-possessed;
between such creatures and ourselves there is
hardly more than the frail bond of a common descent from the ape; they
are altogether too remote for our narrow world-sympathies. I would as
soon shed tears over the lost Pleiad. But these others are our
spiritual cousins; we have deep roots in this warm soil of Italy, which
brought forth a goodly tithe of what is best in our own lives, in our
arts and aspirations.

And I thought of the two nephews, their decent limbs all distorted and
mangled under a heap of foul rubbish, waiting for a brutal disinterment
and a nameless grave. This is no legitimate death, this murderous
violation of life. How inconceivably hateful is such a leave-taking,
and all that follows after! To picture a fair young body, that divine
instrument of joy, crushed into an unsightly heap; once loved, now
loathed of all men, and thrust at last, with abhorrence, into some
common festering pit of abominations. . . . The Northern type—a mighty
bond, again; a tie of blood, this time, between our race and those
rulers of the South, whose exploits in this land of orange and myrtle
surpassed the dreamings of romance.

Strange to reflect that, without the ephemeral friendship of that
evening, Messina of to-day might have represented to my mind a mere
spectacle, the hecatomb of its inhabitants extorting little more than a
conventional sigh. So it is. The human heart has been constructed on
somewhat ungenerous lines. Moralists, if any still exist on earth, may
generalize with eloquence from the masses, but our poets have long ago
succumbed to the pathos of single happenings; the very angels of
Heaven, they say, take more joy in one sinner that repenteth than in a
hundred righteous, which, duly apprehended, is only an application of
the same illiberal principle.

A rope of bed-sheets knotted together dangled from one of the upper
windows, its end swaying in mid-air at the height of the second floor.
Many of them do, at Messina: a desperate expedient of escape. Some pots
of geranium and cactus, sadly flowering, adorned the other windows,
whose glass panes were unbroken. But for the ominous sunlight pouring
through them from _within,_ the building looked fairly intact on this
outer side. Its ponderous gateway, however, through which I had hoped
to enter, was choked up by internal debris, and I was obliged to climb,
with some little trouble, to the rear of the house.

If a titanic blade had sheared through the _palazzo_ lengthwise, the
thing could not have been done more neatly. The whole interior had gone
down, save a portion of the rooms abutting on the street-front; these
were literally cut in half, so as to display an ideal section of
domestic architecture. The house with its inmates and
all it contained was lying among the high-piled wreckage within, under
my feet; masonry mostly—entire fragments of wall interspersed with
crumbling mortar and convulsed iron girders that writhed over the
surface or plunged sullenly into the depths; fetid rents and gullies in
between, their flanks affording glimpses of broken vases, candelabras,
hats, bottles, birdcages, writing-books, brass pipes, sofas,
picture-frames, tablecloths, and all the paltry paraphernalia of
everyday life. No attempt at stratification, horizontal, vertical, or
inclined; it was as if the objects had been thrown up by some playful
volcano and allowed to settle where they pleased. Two immense chiselled
blocks of stone—one lying prone at the bottom of a miniature ravine,
the other proudly erect, like a Druidical monument, in the upper
regions—reminded me of the existence of a staircase, a _diabolical_
staircase.

Looking upwards, I endeavoured to reconstruct the habits of the
inmates, but found it impossible, the section that remained being too
shallow. Sky-blue seems to have been their favourite colour. The
kitchen was easily discernible, the hearth with its store of charcoal
underneath, copper vessels hanging in a neat row overhead, and an open
cupboard full of household goods; a neighbouring room (the
communicating doors were all gone), with lace window-curtains, a table,
lamp, and book, and a bedstead toppling over the abyss; another one,
carpeted and hung with pictures and a large faded mirror, below which
ran a row of shelves that groaned under a multitudinous collection of
phials and bottles.

The old man’s embrocations. . . .




XXX
THE SKIRTS OF MONTALTO


After such sights of suffering humanity—back to the fields and
mountains!

Aspromonte, the wild region behind Reggio, was famous, not long ago,
for Garibaldi’s battle. But the exploits of this warrior have lately
been eclipsed by those of the brigand Musolino, who infested the
country up to a few years ago, defying the soldiery and police of all
Italy. He would still be safe and unharmed had he remained in these
fastnesses. But he wandered away, wishful to leave Italy for good and
all, and was captured far from his home by some policemen who were
looking for another man, and who nearly fainted when he pronounced his
name. After a sensational trial, they sentenced him to thirty odd
years’ imprisonment; he is now languishing in the fortress of Porto
Longone on Elba. Whoever has looked into this Spanish citadel will not
envy him. Of the lovely little bay, of the loadstone mountain, of the
romantic pathway to the hermitage of Monserrato or the glittering beach
at Rio—of all the charms of Porto Longone he knows nothing, despite a
lengthy residence on the spot.

They say he has grown consumptive and witless during the long solitary
confinement which preceded his present punishment—an eternal night in a
narrow cell. No wonder. I have seen the condemned on their release from
these boxes of masonry at the island of Santo Stefano: dazed shadows,
tottering, with complexions the colour of parchment. These are the
survivors. But no one asks after the many who die in these dungeons
frenzied, or from battering their heads against the wall; no one knows
their number save the doctor and the governor, whose lips are sealed. .
. .

I decided upon a rear attack of Aspromonte. I would go by rail as far
as Bagnara on the Tyrrhenian, the station beyond Scylla of old renown;
and thence afoot via Sant’ Eufemia[1] to Sinopoli, pushing on, if day
permitted, as far as Delianuova, at the foot of
the mountain. Early next morning I would climb the summit and descend
to the shores of the Ionian, to Bova. It seemed a reasonable programme.

 [1] Not to be confounded with the railway station on the gulf of that
 name, near Maida.

All this Tyrrhenian coast-line is badly shattered; far more so than the
southern shore. But the scenery is finer. There is nothing on that side
to compare with the views from Nicastro, or Monteleone, or Sant’ Elia
near Palmi. It is also more smiling, more fertile, and far less
malarious. Not that cultivation of the land implies absence of
malaria—nothing is a commoner mistake! The Ionian shore is not
malarious because it is desert—it is desert because malarious. The
richest tracts in Greece are known to be very dangerous, and it is the
same in Italy. Malaria and intensive agriculture go uncommonly well
together. The miserable anopheles-mosquito loves the wells that are
sunk for the watering of the immense orange and lemon plantations in
the Reggio district; it displays a perverse predilection for the minute
puddles left by the artificial irrigation of the fields that are
covered with fruit and vegetables. This artificial watering, in fact,
seems to be partly responsible for the spread of the disease. It is
doubtful whether the custom goes back into remote antiquity, for the
climate used to be moister and could dispense with these practices.
Certain products, once grown in Calabria, no longer thrive there, on
account of the increased dryness and lack of rainfall.

But there are some deadly regions, even along this Tyrrhenian shore.
Such is the plain of Maida, for instance, where stood not long ago the
forest of Sant’ Eufemia, safe retreat of Parafante and other brigand
heroes. The level lands of Rosarno and Gioia are equally ill-reputed. A
French battalion stationed here in the summer of 1807 lost over sixty
men in fourteen days, besides leaving two hundred invalids in the
hospital at Monteleone. Gioia is so malarious that in summer every one
of the inhabitants who can afford the price of a ticket goes by the
evening train to Palmi, to sleep there. You will do well, by the way,
to see something of the oil industry of Palmi, if time permits. In good
years, 200,000 quintals of olive oil are manufactured in the regions of
which it is the commercial centre. Not long ago, before modern methods
of refining were introduced, most of this oil was exported to Russia,
to be burned in holy lamps; nowadays it goes for the most part to
Lucca, to be adulterated for foreign markets (the celebrated Lucca oil,
which the simple Englishman regards as pure); only the finest quality
is sent elsewhere, to Nice. From Gioia there runs a postal diligence
once a day to Delianuova of which I might have availed myself, had I
not preferred to traverse the country on foot.

The journey from Reggio to Bagnara on this fair summer morning, along
the rippling Mediterranean, was short enough, but sufficiently long to
let me overhear the following conversation:

A.—What a lovely sea! It is good, after all, to take three or four
baths a year. What think you?

B.—I? No. For thirteen years I have taken no baths. But they are
considered good for children.

The calamities that Bagnara has suffered in the past have been so
numerous, so fierce and so varied that, properly speaking, the town has
no right to exist any longer. It has enjoyed more than its full share
of earthquakes, having been shaken to the ground over and over again.
Sir William Hamilton reports that 3017 persons were killed in that of
1783. The horrors of war, too, have not spared it, and a certain modern
exploit of the British arms here strikes me as so instructive that I
would gladly extract it from Grant’s “Adventures of an Aide-de-Camp,”
were it not too long to transcribe, and far too good to abbreviate.

A characteristic story, further, is told of the methods of General
Manhes at Bagnara. It may well be an exaggeration when they say that
the entire road from Reggio to Naples was lined with the heads of
decapitated brigands; be that as it may, it stands to reason that
Bagnara, as befits an important place, was to be provided with an
appropriate display of these trophies. The heads were exhibited in
baskets, with strict injunctions to the authorities that they were not
to be touched, seeing that they served not only for decorative but also
moral purposes—as examples. Imagine, therefore, the General’s feelings
on being told that one of these heads had been stolen; stolen,
probably, by some pious relative of the deceased rascal, who wished to
give the relic a decent Christian burial.

“That’s rather awkward,” he said, quietly musing. “But of course the
specimen must be replaced. Let me see. . . . Suppose we put the head of
the mayor of Bagnara into the vacant basket? Shall we? Yes, we’ll have
the mayor. It will make him more careful in future.” And within half an
hour the basket was filled once more.

There was a little hitch in starting from Bagnara. From the windings of
the carriage-road as portrayed by the map, I guessed that there must be
a number of short cuts into the uplands at the back of the town,
undiscoverable to myself, which would greatly shorten the journey.
Besides, there was my small bag to be carried. A porter familiar with
the tracks was plainly required, and soon enough I found a number of
lusty youths leaning against a wall and
doing nothing in particular. Yes, they would accompany me, they said,
the whole lot of them, just for the fun of the thing.

“And my bag?” I asked.

“A bag to be carried? Then we must get a woman.”

They unearthed a nondescript female who undertook to bear the burden as
far as Sinopoli for a reasonable consideration. So far good. But as we
proceeded, the boys began to drop off, till only a single one was left.
And then the woman suddenly vanished down a side street, declaring that
she must change her clothes. We waited for three-quarters of an hour,
in the glaring dust of the turnpike; she never emerged again, and the
remaining boy stoutly refused to handle her load.

“No,” he declared. “She must carry the bag. And I will keep you
company.”

The precious morning hours were wearing away, and here we stood idly by
the side of the road. It never struck me that the time might have been
profitably employed in paying a flying visit to one of the most sacred
objects in Calabria and possibly in the whole world, one which Signor
N. Marcone describes as reposing at Bagnara in a rich reliquary—the
authentic Hat of the Mother of God. A lady tourist would not have
missed this chance of studying the fashions of those days.[2]

 [2] See next chapter.

Finally, in desperation, I snatched up the wretched luggage and poured
my griefs with unwonted eloquence into the ears of a man driving a
bullock-cart down the road. So much was he moved, that he peremptorily
ordered his son to conduct me then and there to Sinopoli, to carry the
bag, and claim one franc by way of payment. The little man tumbled off
the cart, rather reluctantly.

“Away with you!” cried the stern parent, and we began the long march,
climbing uphill in the blazing sunshine; winding, later on, through
shady chestnut woods and across broad tracts of cultivated land. It was
plain that the task was beyond his powers, and when we had reached a
spot where the strange-looking new village of Sant’ Eufemia was
visible—it is built entirely of wooden shelters; the stone town was
greatly shaken in the late earthquake—he was obliged to halt, and
thenceforward stumbled slowly into the place. There he deposited the
bag on the ground, and faced me squarely.

“No more of this!” he said, concentrating every ounce of his virility
into a look of uncompromising defiance.

“Then I shall not pay you a single farthing, my son. And,
moreover, I will tell your father. You know what he commanded: to
Sinopoli. This is only Sant’ Eufemia. Unless——”

“You will tell my father? Unless——?”

“Unless you discover some one who will carry the bag not only to
Sinopoli, but as far as Delianuova.” I was not in the mood for
repeating the experiences of the morning.

“It is difficult. But we will try.”

He went in search, and returned anon with a slender lad of unusual
comeliness—an earthquake orphan. “This big one,” he explained, “walks
wherever you please and carries whatever you give him. And you will pay
him nothing at all, unless he deserves it. Such is the arrangement. Are
you content?”

“You have acted like a man.”

The earthquake survivor set off at a swinging pace, and we soon reached
Sinopoli—new Sinopoli; the older settlement lies at a considerable
distance. Midday was past, and the long main street of the town—a
former fief of the terrible Ruffo family—stood deserted in the
trembling heat. None the less there was sufficient liveliness within
the houses; the whole place seemed in a state of jollification. It was
Sunday, the orphan explained; the country was duller than usual,
however, because of the high price of wine. There had been no murders
to speak of—no, not for a long time past. But the vintage of this year,
he added, promises well, and life will soon become normal again.

The mule track from here to Delianuova traverses some pretty scenery,
both wild and pastoral. But the personal graces of my companion made me
take small heed of the landscape. He was aglow with animal spirits, and
his conversation naively brilliant and of uncommon import.
Understanding at a glance that he belonged to a type which is rather
rare in Calabria, that he was a classic (of a kind), I made every
effort to be pleasant to him; and I must have succeeded, for he was
soon relating anecdotes which would have been neither instructive, nor
even intelligible, to the _jeune fille;_ all this, with angelic
serenity of conscience.

This radiantly-vicious child was the embodiment of the joy of life, the
perfect immoralist. There was no cynicism in his nature, no cruelty, no
obliquity, no remorse; nothing but sunshine with a few clouds sailing
across the fathomless blue spaces—the sky of Hellas. _Nihil humani
alienum;_ and as I listened to those glad tales, I marvelled at the
many-tinted experiences that could be crammed into seventeen short
years; what a document the adventures of such a frolicsome demon would
be, what a feast for the initiated, could some one be induced to make
them known! But
such things are hopelessly out of the question. And that is why so many
of our wise people go into their graves without ever learning what
happens in this world.

Among minor matters, he mentioned that he had already been three times
to prison for “certain little affairs of blood,” while defending
“certain friends.” Was it not dull, I asked, in prison? “The time
passes pleasantly anywhere,” he answered, “when you are young. I always
make friends, even in prison.” I could well believe it. His affinities
were with the blithe crew of the Liber Stratonis. He had a roving eye
and the mouth of Antinous; and his morals were those of a condescending
tiger-cub.

Arriving at Delianuova after sunset, he conceived the project of
accompanying me next morning up Montalto. I hesitated. In the first
place, I was going not only up that mountain, but to Bova on the
distant Ionian littoral——

“For my part,” he broke in, “_ho pigliato confidenza._ If you mistrust
me, here! take my knife,” an ugly blade, pointed, and two inches in
excess of the police regulation length. This act of quasi-filial
submission touched me; but it was not his knife I feared so much as
that of “certain friends.” Some little difference of opinion might
arise, some question of money or other argument, and lo! the friends
would be at hand (they always are), and one more stranger might
disappear among the clefts and gullies of Montalto. Aspromonte, the
roughest corner of Italy, is no place for misunderstandings; the knife
decides promptly who is right or wrong, and only two weeks ago I was
warned not to cross the district without a carbineer on either side of
me.

But to have clothed my thoughts in words during his gracious mood would
have been supremely unethical. I contented myself with the trite but
pregnant remark that things sometimes looked different in the morning,
which provoked a pagan fit of laughter; farewelled him “with the
Madonna!” and watched as he withdrew under the trees, lithe and
buoyant, like a flame that is swallowed up in the night.

Only then did the real business begin. I should be sorry to say into
how many houses and wine-shops the obliging owner of the local inn
conducted me, in search of a guide. We traversed all the lanes of this
straggling and fairly prosperous place, and even those of its suburb
Paracorio, evidently of Byzantine origin; the answer was everywhere the
same: To Montalto, yes; to Bova, no! Night drew on apace and, as a last
resource, he led the way to the dwelling of a gentleman of the old
school—a retired brigand, to wit, who, as I afterwards learned, had
some ten or twelve homicides
to his account. Delianuova, and indeed the whole of Aspromonte, has a
bad reputation for crime.

It was our last remaining chance.

We found the patriarch sitting in a simple but tidy chamber, smoking
his pipe and playing with a baby; his daughter-in-law rose as we
entered, and discreetly moved into an adjoining room. The cheery
cut-throat put the baby down to crawl on the floor, and his eyes
sparkled when he heard of Bova.

“Ah, one speaks of Bova!” he said. “A fine walk over the mountain!” He
much regretted that he was too old for the trip, but so-and-so, he
thought, might know something of the country. It pained him, too, that
he could not offer me a glass of wine. There was none in the house. In
his day, he added, it was not thought right to drink in the modern
fashion; this wine-bibbing was responsible for considerable mischief;
it troubled the brain, driving men to do things they afterwards
repented. He drank only milk, having become accustomed to it during a
long life among the hills. Milk cools the blood, he said, and steadies
the hand, and keeps a man’s judgment undisturbed.

The person he had named was found after some further search. He was a
bronzed, clean-shaven type of about fifty, who began by refusing his
services point-blank, but soon relented, on hearing the ex-brigand’s
recommendation of his qualities.




XXXI
SOUTHERN SAINTLINESS


Southern saints, like their worshippers, put on new faces and vestments
in the course of ages. Old ones die away; new ones take their place.
Several hundred of the older class of saint have clean faded from the
popular memory, and are now so forgotten that the wisest priest can
tell you nothing about them save, perhaps, that “he’s in the
church”—meaning, that some fragment of his holy anatomy survives as a
relic amid a collection of similar antiques. But you can find their
histories in early literature, and their names linger on old maps where
they are given to promontories and other natural features which are
gradually being re-christened.

Such saints were chiefly non-Italian: Byzantines or Africans who, by
miraculous intervention, protected the village or district of which
they were patrons from the manifold scourges of mediævalism; they took
the place of the classic tutelar deities. They were men; they could
fight; and in those troublous times that is exactly what saints were
made for.

With the softening of manners a new element appears. Male saints lost
their chief _raison d’être,_ and these virile creatures were superseded
by pacific women. So, to give only one instance, Saint Rosalia in
Palermo displaced the former protector Saint Mark. Her sacred bones
were miraculously discovered in a cave; and have since been identified
as those of a goat. But it was not till the twelfth century that the
cult of female saints began to assume imposing dimensions.

Of the Madonna no mention occurs in the songs of Bishop Paulinus
(fourth century); no monument exists in the Neapolitan catacombs.
Thereafter her cult begins to dominate.

She supplied the natives with what orthodox Christianity did not give
them, but what they had possessed from early times—a female element in
religion. Those Greek settlers had their nymphs, their Venus, and so
forth; the Mother of God absorbed and continued their functions. There
is indeed only one of these female pagan divinities whose role she has
not endeavoured to
usurp—Athene. Herein she reflects the minds of her creators, the
priests and common people, whose ideal woman contents herself with the
duties of motherhood. I doubt whether an Athene-Madonna, an
intellectual goddess, could ever have been evolved; their attitude
towards gods in general is too childlike and positive.

South Italians, famous for abstractions in philosophy, cannot endure
them in religion. Unlike ourselves, they do not desire to learn
anything from their deities or to argue about them. They only wish to
love and be loved in return, reserving to themselves the right to
punish them, when they deserve it. Countless cases are on record where
(pictures or statues of) Madonnas and saints have been thrown into a
ditch for not doing what they were told, or for not keeping their share
of a bargain. During the Vesuvius eruption of 1906 a good number were
subjected to this “punishment,” because they neglected to protect their
worshippers from the calamity according to contract (so many candles
and festivals = so much protection).

For the same reason the adult Jesus—the teacher, the God—is practically
unknown. He is too remote from themselves and the ordinary activities
of their daily lives; he is not married, like his mother; he has no
trade, like his father (Mark calls him a carpenter); moreover, the
maxims of the Sermon on the Mount are so repugnant to the South Italian
as to be almost incomprehensible. In effigy, this period of Christ’s
life is portrayed most frequently in the primitive monuments of the
catacombs, erected when tradition was purer.

Three tangibly-human aspects of Christ’s life figure here: the
_bambino-cult,_ which not only appeals to the people’s love of babyhood
but also carries on the old traditions of the Lar Familiaris and of
Horus; next, the youthful Jesus, beloved of local female mystics; and
lastly the Crucified—that grim and gloomy image of suffering which was
imported, or at least furiously fostered, by the Spaniards.

The engulfing of the saints by the Mother of God is due also to
political reasons. The Vatican, once centralized in its policy, began
to be disquieted by the persistent survival of Byzantinism (Greek cults
and language lingered up to the twelfth century); with the Tacitean
_odium fratrum_ she exercised more severity towards the sister-faith
than towards actual paganism.[1] The Madonna was a fit instrument for
sweeping away the particularist tendencies of the
past; she attacked relic-worship and other outworn superstitions; like
a benignant whirlwind she careered over the land, and these now
enigmatical shapes and customs fell faster than leaves of Vallombrosa.
No sanctuary or cave so remote that she did not endeavour to expel its
male saint—its old presiding genius, whether Byzantine or Roman. But
saints have tough lives, and do not yield without a struggle; they
fought for their time-honoured privileges like the “daemons” they were,
and sometimes came off victorious. Those sanctuaries that proved too
strong to be taken by storm were sapped by an artful and determined
siege. The combat goes on to this day. This is what is happening to the
thrice-deposed and still triumphant Saint Januarius, who is hard
pressed by sheer force of numbers. Like those phagocytes which
congregate from all sides to assail some weakened cell in the body
physical, even so Madonna-cults—in frenzied competition with each
other—cluster thickest round some imperilled venerable of ancient
lineage, bent on his destruction. The Madonna dell’ Arco, del Soccorso,
and at least fifty others (not forgetting the newly-invented Madonna di
Pompei)—they have all established themselves in the particular domain
of St. Januarius; they are all undermining his reputation, and claiming
to possess his special gifts.[2]

 [1] Greek and Egyptian anchorites were established in south Italy by
 the fourth century. But paganism was still flourishing, locally, in
 the sixth. There is some evidence that Christians used to take part in
 pagan festivals.

 [2] He is known to have quelled an outbreak of Vesuvius in the fifth
 century, though his earliest church, I believe, only dates from the
 ninth. His blood, famous for liquefaction, is not mentioned till 1337.

Early monastic movements of the Roman Church also played their part in
obliterating old religious landmarks. Settling down in some remote
place with the Madonna as their leader or as their “second Mother,”
these companies of holy men soon acquired such temporal and spiritual
influence as enabled them successfully to oppose their divinity to the
local saint, whose once bright glories began to pale before her
effulgence. Their labours in favour of the Mother of God were part of
that work of consolidating Papal power which was afterwards carried on
by the Jesuits.

Perhaps what chiefly accounts for the spread of Madonna-worship is the
human craving for novelty. You can invent most easily where no fixed
legends are established. Now the saints have fixed legendary attributes
and histories, and as culture advances it becomes increasingly
difficult to manufacture new saints with fresh and original characters
and yet passable pedigrees (the experiment is tried, now and again);
while the old saints have been exploited and are now inefficient—worn
out, like old toys. Madonna, on the other hand, can subdivide with the
ease of an amoeba, and yet never lose her identity or credibility;
moreover, thanks to her divine
character, anything can be accredited to her—anything good, however
wonderful; lastly, the traditions concerning her are so conveniently
vague that they actually foster the mythopoetic faculty. Hence her
success. Again: the man-saints were separatists; they fought for their
own towns against African intruders, and in those frequent and bloody
inter-communal battles which are a feature of Italian mediævalism.
Nowadays it is hardly proper that neighbouring townsmen, aided and
abetted by their respective saints, should sally forth to cut each
others’ throats. The Madonna, as cosmopolitan Nike, is a fitter
patroness for settled society.

She also found a ready welcome in consequence of the pastoral
institutions of the country in which the mother plays such a
conspicuous role. So deeply are they ingrained here that if the Mother
of God had not existed, the group would have been deemed incomplete; a
family without a mother is to them like a tree without roots—a thing
which cannot be. This accounts for the fact that their Trinity is not
ours; it consists of the Mother, the Father (Saint Joseph), and the
Child—with Saint Anne looming in the background (the grandmother is an
important personage in the patriarchal family). The Creator of all
things and the Holy Ghost have evaporated; they are too intangible and
non-human.

But She never became a true cosmopolitan Nike, save in literature. The
decentralizing spirit of South Italy was too strong for her. She had to
conform to the old custom of geographical specialization. In all save
in name she doffed her essential character of Mother of God, and became
a local demi-god; an accessible wonder-worker attached to some
particular district. An inhabitant of village A would stand a poor
chance of his prayers being heard by the Madonna of village B; if you
have a headache, it is no use applying to the _Madonna of the Hens,_
who deals with diseases of women; you will find yourself in a pretty
fix if you expect financial assistance from the Madonna of village C:
she is a weather-specialist. In short, these hundreds of Madonnas have
taken up the qualities of the saints they supplanted.

They can often outdo them; and this is yet another reason for their
success. It is a well-ascertained fact, for example, that many holy men
have been nourished by the Milk of the Mother of God, “not,” as a
Catholic writer says, “in a mystic or spiritual sense, but with their
actual lips”; Saint Bernard “among a hundred, a thousand, others.” Nor
is this all, for in the year 1690, a painted image of the Madonna, not
far from the city of Carinola, was observed to “diffuse abundant milk”
for the edification of a great concourse of spectators—a miracle which
was recognized as such by
the bishop of that diocese, Monsignor Paolo Ayrola, who wrote a report
on the subject. Some more of this authentic milk is kept in a bottle in
the convent of Mater Domini on Vesuvius, and the chronicle of that
establishment, printed in 1834, says:

“Since Mary is the Mother and Co-redeemer of the Church, may she not
have left some drops of her precious milk as a gift to this Church,
even as we still possess some of the blood of Christ? In various
churches there exists some of this milk, by means of which many graces
and benefits are obtained. We find such relics, for example, in the
church of Saint Luigi in Naples, namely, two bottles full of the milk
of the Blessed Virgin; and this milk becomes fluid on feast-days of the
Madonna, as everybody can see. Also in this convent of Mater Domini the
milk sometimes liquefies.” During eruptions of Vesuvius this bottle is
carried abroad in procession, and always dispels the danger. Saint
Januarius must indeed look to his laurels! Meanwhile it is interesting
to observe that the Mother of God has condescended to employ the method
of holy relics which she once combated so strenuously, her milk
competing with the blood of Saint John, the fat of Saint Laurence, and
those other physiological curios which are still preserved for the
edification of believers.

All of which would pass if a subtle poison had not been creeping in to
taint religious institutions. Taken by themselves, these infantile
observances do not necessarily harm family life, the support of the
state; for a man can believe a considerable deal of nonsense, and yet
go about his daily work in a natural and cheerful manner. But when the
body is despised and tormented the mind loses its equilibrium, and when
that happens nonsense may assume a sinister shape. We have seen it in
England, where, during the ascetic movement of Puritanism, more witches
were burnt than in the whole period before and after.

The virus of asceticism entered South Italy from three principal
sources. From early ages the country had stood in commercial relations
with the valley of the Nile; and even as its black magic is largely
tinged with Egyptian practices, so its magic of the white kind—its
saintly legends—bear the impress of the self-macerations and perverted
life-theories of those desert-lunatics who called themselves
Christians.[3] But this Orientalism fell at first upon
unfruitful soil; the Vatican was yet wavering, and Hellenic notions of
conduct still survived. It received a further rebuff at the hands of
men like Benedict, who set up sounder ideals of holiness, introducing a
gleam of sanity even in that insanest of institutions—the herding
together of idle men to the glory of God.

 [3] These ascetics were here before Christianity (see Philo Judaeus);
 in fact, there is not a single element in the new faith which had not
 been independently developed by the pagans, many of whom, like Seneca,
 Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, were ripe for the most abject
 self-abasement.

But things became more centralized as the Papacy gained ground. The
strong Christian, the independent ruler or warrior or builder saint,
was tolerated only if he conformed to its precepts; and the
inauspicious rise of subservient ascetic orders like the Franciscans
and Dominicans, who quickly invaded the fair regions of the south, gave
an evil tone to their Christianity.

There has always been a contrary tendency at work: the Ionic spirit,
heritage of the past. Monkish ideals of chastity and poverty have never
appealed to the hearts of people, priests or prelates of the south;
they will endure much fondness in their religion, but not those
phenomena of cruelty and pruriency which are inseparably connected with
asceticism; their notions have ever been akin to those of the sage
Xenocrates, who held that “happiness consists not only in the
possession of human virtues, but _in the accomplishment of natural
acts.”_ Among the latter they include the acquisition of wealth and the
satisfaction of carnal needs. At this time, too, the old Hellenic
curiosity was not wholly dimmed; they took an intelligent interest in
imported creeds like that of Luther, which, if not convincing, at least
satisfied their desire for novelty. Theirs was exactly the attitude of
the Athenians towards Paul’s “New God”; and Protestantism might have
spread far in the south, had it not been ferociously repressed.

But after the brilliant humanistic period of the Aragons there followed
the third and fiercest reaction—that of the Spanish viceroys, whose
misrule struck at every one of the roots of national prosperity. It is
that “seicentismo” which a modern writer (A. Niceforo, “L’Italia
barbara,” 1898) has recognized as the blight, the evil genius, of south
Italy. The Ionic spirit did not help the people much at this time. The
greatest of these viceroys, Don Pietro di Toledo, hanged 18,000 of them
in eight years, and then confessed, with a sigh, that “he did not know
what more he could do.” What more _could_ he do? As a pious Spaniard he
was incapable of understanding that quarterings and breakings on the
rack were of less avail than the education of the populace in certain
secular notions of good conduct—notions which it was the business of
his Church not to teach. Reading through the legislation of the
viceregal period, one is astonished to find how little was done for the
common people, who lived like the veriest beasts of earth.
Their civil rulers—scholars and gentlemen, most of them—really believed
that the example of half a million illiterate and vicious monks was all
the education they needed. And yet one notes with surprise that the
Government was perpetually at loggerheads with the ecclesiastical
authorities. True; but it is wonderful with what intuitive alacrity
they joined forces when it was a question of repelling their common
antagonist, enlightenment.

From this rank soil there sprang up an exotic efflorescence of
holiness. If south Italy swarmed with sinners, as the experiences of
Don Pietro seemed to show, it also swarmed with saints. And hardly one
of them escaped the influence of the period, the love of futile
ornamentation. Their piety is overloaded with embellishing touches and
needless excrescences of virtue. It was the baroque period of
saintliness, as of architecture.

I have already given some account of one of them, the Flying Monk
(Chapter X), and have perused the biographies of at least fifty others.
One cannot help observing a great uniformity in their lives—a kind of
family resemblance. This parallelism is due to the simple reason that
there is only one right for a thousand wrongs. One may well look in
vain, here, for those many-tinted perversions and aberrations which
disfigure the histories of average mankind. These saints are all
alike—monotonously alike, if one cares to say so—in their chastity and
other official virtues. But a little acquaintance with the subject will
soon show you that, so far as the range of their particular
Christianity allowed of it, there is a praiseworthy and even
astonishing diversity among them. Nearly all of them could fly, more or
less; nearly all of them could cure diseases and cause the clouds to
rain; nearly all of them were illiterate; and every one of them died in
the odour of sanctity—with roseate complexion, sweetly smelling corpse,
and flexible limbs. Yet each one has his particular gifts, his strong
point. Joseph of Copertino specialized in flying; others were
conspicuous for their heroism in sitting in hot baths, devouring
ordure, tormenting themselves with pins, and so forth.

Here, for instance, is a good representative biography—the Life of
Saint Giangiuseppe della Croce (born 1654), reprinted for the occasion
of his solemn sanctification.[4]

 [4] “Vita di S. Giangiuseppe della Croce . . . Scritta dal P. Fr.
 Diodato dell’ Assunta per la Beatificazione ed ora ristampata dal
 postulatore della causa P. Fr. Giuseppe Rostoll in occasione della
 solenne Santificazione.” Roma, 1839.

He resembled other saints in many points. He never allowed the “vermin
which generated in his bed” to be disturbed; he wore the same clothes
for sixty-four years on end; with women his
behaviour was that of an “animated statue,” and during his long life he
never looked any one in the face (even his brother-monks were known to
him only by their voices); he could raise the dead, relieve a duchess
of a devil in the shape of a black dog, change chestnuts into apricots,
and bad wine into good; his flesh was encrusted with sores, the result
of his fierce scarifications; he was always half starved, and when
delicate viands were brought to him, he used to say to his body: “Have
you seen them? Have you smelt them? Then let that suffice for you.”

He, too, could fly a little. So once, when he was nowhere to be found,
the monks of the convent at last discovered him in the church, “raised
so high above the ground that his head touched the ceiling.” This is
not a bad performance for a mere lad, as he then was. And how useful
this gift became in old age was seen when, being almost incapable of
moving his legs, and with body half paralysed, he was nevertheless
enabled to accompany a procession for the length of two miles on foot,
walking, to the stupefaction of thousands of spectators, at about a
cubit’s height above the street, on air; after the fashion of those
Hindu gods whose feet—so the pagans fable—are too pure to touch mortal
earth.

His love of poverty, moreover, was so intense that even after his death
a picture of him, which his relatives had tried to attach to the wall
in loving remembrance, repeatedly fell down again, although nailed very
securely; nor did it remain fixed until they realized that its costly
gilt frame was objectionable to the saint in heaven, and accordingly
removed it. No wonder the infant Jesus was pleased to descend from the
breast of Mary and take rest for several hours in the arms of Saint
Giangiuseppe, who, on being disturbed by some priestly visitor,
exclaimed, “O how I have enjoyed holding the Holy Babe in my arms!”
This is an old and favourite motif; it occurs, for example, in the
Fioretti of Saint Francis; there are precedents, in fact, for all these
divine favours.

But his distinguishing feature, his “dominating gift,” was that of
prophecy, especially in foretelling the deaths of children, “which he
almost always accompanied with jocular words _(scherzi)_ on his lips.”
He would enter a house and genially remark: “O, what an odour of
Paradise”; sooner or later one or more of the children of the family
would perish. To a boy of twelve he said, “Be good, Natale, for the
angels are coming to take you.” These playful words seem to have
weighed considerably on the boy’s mind and, sure enough, after a few
years he died. But even more charming—_più grazioso,_ the biographer
calls it—was the
incident when he once asked a father whether he would give his son to
Saint Pasquale. The fond parent agreed, thinking that the words
referred to the boy’s future career in the Church. But the saint meant
something quite different—he meant a career in heaven! And in less than
a month the child died. To a little girl who was crying in the street
he said: “I don’t want to hear you any more. Go and sing in Paradise.”
And meeting her a short time after, he said, “What, are you still
here?” In a few days she was dead.

The biography gives many instances of this pretty gift which would
hardly have contributed to the saint’s popularity in England or any
other country save this, where—although the surviving youngsters are
described as “struck with terror at the mere name of the Servant of
God”—the parents were naturally glad to have one or two angels in the
family, to act as _avvocati_ (pleaders) for those that remained on
earth.

And the mention of the legal profession brings me to one really
instructive miracle. It is usually to be observed, after a saint has
been canonized, that heaven, by some further sign or signs, signifies
approval of this solemn act of the Vicar of God; indeed, to judge by
these biographies, such a course is not only customary but, to use a
worldly expression, _de rigueur._ And so it happened after the decree
relative to Saint Giangiuseppe had been pronounced in the Vatican
basilica by His Holiness Pius VI, in the presence of the assembled
cardinals. Innumerable celestial portents (their enumeration fills
eleven pages of the “Life”) confirmed and ratified the great event, and
among them this: the notary, who had drawn up both the ordinary and the
apostolic _processi,_ was cured of a grievous apoplexy, survived for
four years, and finally died on the very anniversary of the death of
the saint. Involuntarily one contrasts this heavenly largesse with the
sordid guineas which would have contented an English lawyer. . . .

Or glance into the biography of the Venerable Sister Orsola Benincasa.
She, too, could fly a little and raise men from the dead. She cured
diseases, foretold her own death and that of others, lived for a month
on the sole nourishment of a consecrated wafer; she could speak Latin
and Polish, although she had been taught nothing at all; wrought
miracles after death, and possessed to a heroic degree the virtues of
patience, humility, temperance, justice, etc. etc. So inflamed was she
with divine love, that almost every day thick steam issued out of her
mouth, which was observed to be destructive to articles of clothing;
her heated body, when ice was applied, used to hiss like a red-hot iron
under similar conditions.
As a child, she already cried for other people’s sins; she was always
hunting for her own and would gladly, at the end of her long and
blameless career, have exchanged her sins for those of the youthful
Duchess of Aquaro. An interesting phenomenon, by the way, the theory of
sinfulness which crops up at this particular period of history. For our
conception of sin is alien to the Latin mind. There is no “sin” in
Italy (and this is not the least of her many attractions); it is an
article manufactured exclusively for export.[5]

 [5] “Vita della Venerabile Serva di Dio Suor Orsola Benincasa, Scritta
 da un cherico regolare,” Rome, 1796. There are, of course, much
 earlier biographies of all these saints; concerning Sister Orsola we
 possess, for instance, the remarkable pamphlet by Cesare d’Eboli
 (“Caesaris Aevoli Neapolitani Apologia pro Ursula Neapolitana quæ ad
 urbem accessit MDLXXXIII,” Venice, 1589), which achieves the
 distinction of never mentioning Orsola by name: she is only once
 referred to as “mulier de qua agitur.” But I prefer to quote from the
 more recent ones because they are authoritative, in so far as they
 have been written on the basis of miracles attested by eye-witnesses
 and accepted as veracious by the Vatican tribunal. Sister Orsola,
 though born in 1547, was only declared Venerable by Pontifical decree
 of 1793. Biographies prior to that date are therefore ex-parte
 statements and might conceivably contain errors of fact. This is out
 of the question here, as is clearly shown by the author on p. 178.

Orsola’s speciality, however, were those frequent trance-like
conditions by reason of which, during her lifetime, she was created
“Protectress of the City of Naples.” I cannot tell whether she was the
first woman-saint to obtain this honour. Certainly the “Seven Holy
Protectors” concerning whom Paolo Regio writes were all musty old
males. . . .

And here is quite another biography, that of Alfonso di Liguori (born
1696), the founder of the Redemptorist order and a canonized saint. He,
too, could fly a little and raise the dead to life; he suffered
devil-temptations, caused the clouds to rain, calmed an eruption of
Vesuvius, multiplied food, and so forth. Such was his bashfulness, that
even as an aged bishop he refused to be unrobed by his attendants; such
his instinct for moral cleanliness that once, when a messenger had
alighted at his convent accompanied by a soldier, he instantly
detected, under the military disguise, the lineaments of a young
woman-friend. Despite these divine gifts, he always needed a confessor.
An enormous batch of miracles accompanied his sanctification.

But he only employed these divine graces by the way; he was by
profession not a _taumaturgo,_ but a clerical instructor, organizer,
and writer. The Vatican has conferred on him the rare title of “Doctor
Ecclesiæ,” which he shares with Saint Augustine and some others.

The biography from which I have drawn these details was
printed in Rome in 1839. It is valuable because it is modern and so far
authentic; and for two other reasons. In the first place, curiously
enough, it barely mentions the saint’s life-work—his writings.
Secondly, it is a good example of what I call the pious palimpsest. It
is over-scored with contradictory matter. The author, for example,
while accidentally informing us that Alfonso kept a carriage, imputes
to him a degrading, Oriental love of dirt and tattered garments, in
order (I presume) to make his character conform to the grosser ideals
of the mendicant friars. I do not believe in these traits—in his hatred
of soap and clean apparel. From his works I deduce a different
original. He was refined and urbane; of a casuistical and prying
disposition; like many sensitive men, unduly preoccupied with the
sexual life of youth; like a true feudal aristocrat, ever ready to
apply force where verbal admonition proved unavailing. . . .

In wonder-working capacities these saints were all put in the shade by
the Calabrian Francesco di Paola, who raised fifteen persons from the
dead in his boyhood. He used to perform a hundred miracles a day, and
“it was a miracle, when a day passed without a miracle.” The index
alone of any one of his numerous biographies is enough to make one’s
head swim.

The vast majority of saints of this period do not belong to that third
sex after which, according to some, the human race has ever striven—the
constructive and purposeful third sex. They are wholly sexless,
unsocial and futile beings, the negation of every masculine or feminine
virtue. Their independence fettered by the iron rules of the Vatican
and of their particular order, these creatures had _nothing to do;_ and
like the rest of us under such conditions, became vacuously
introspective. Those honourable saintly combats of the past with
external enemies and plagues and stormy seasons were transplanted from
without into the microcosm within, taking the shape of hallucinations
and demon-temptations. They were no longer actors, but sufferers;
automata, who attained a degree of inanity which would have made their
old Byzantine prototypes burst with envy.

Yet they vary in their gifts; each one, as I have said, has his or her
strong point. Why? The reason of this diversity lies in the furious
competition between the various monastic orders of the time—in those
unedifying squabbles which led to never-ending litigation and
complaints to head-quarters in Rome. Every one of these saints, from
the first dawning of his divine talents, was surrounded by an
atmosphere of jealous hatred on the part of his
co-religionists. If one order came out with a flying wonder, another,
in frantic emulation, would introduce some new speciality to eclipse
his fame—something in the fasting line, it may be; or a female mystic
whose palpitating letters to Jesus Christ would melt all readers to
pity. The Franciscans, for instance, dissected the body of a certain
holy Margaret and discovered in her heart the symbols of the Trinity
and of the Passion. This bold and original idea would have gained them
much credit, but for the rival Dominicans, who promptly discovered, and
dissected, another saintly Margaret, whose heart contained three stones
on which were engraven portraits of the Virgin Mary.[6] So they
ceaselessly unearthed fresh saints with a view to disparaging each
other—all of them waiting for a favourable moment when the Vatican
could be successfully approached to consider their particular claims.
For it stands to reason that a Carmelite Pope would prefer a Carmelite
saint to one of the Jesuits, and so forth.

 [6] These and other details will be found in the four volumes “Das
 Heidentum in der romischen Kirche” (Gotha, 1889-91), by Theodor Trede,
 a late Protestant parson in Naples, strongly tinged with
 anti-Catholicism, but whose facts may be relied upon. Indeed, he gives
 chapter and verse for them.

And over all throned the Inquisition in Rome, alert, ever-suspicious;
testing the “irregularities” of the various orders and harassing their
respective saints with Olympic impartiality.

I know that mystics such as Orsola Benincasa are supposed to have
another side to their character, an eminently practical side. It is
perfectly true—and we need not go out of England to learn it—that piety
is not necessarily inconsistent with nimbleness in worldly affairs. But
the mundane achievements, the monasteries and churches, of nine-tenths
of these southern ecstatics are the work of the confessor and not of
the saint. Trainers of performing animals are aware how these differ in
plasticity of disposition and amenability to discipline; the spiritual
adviser, who knows his business, must be quick to detect these various
qualities in the minds of his penitents and to utilize them to the best
advantage. It is inconceivable, for instance, that the
convent-foundress Orsola was other than a neuropathic nonentity—a blind
instrument in the hands of what we should call her backers, chiefest of
whom (in Naples) were two Spanish priests, Borli and Navarro, whose
local efforts were supported, at head-quarters, by the saintly Filippo
Neri and the learned Cardinal Baronius.

This is noticeable. The earlier of these godly biographies are written
in Latin, and these are more restrained in their language; they were
composed, one imagines, for the priests and
educated classes who could dispense to a certain degree with prodigies.
But the later ones, from the viceregal period onwards, are in the
vernacular and display a marked deterioration; one must suppose that
they were printed for such of the common people as could still read (up
to a few years ago, sixty-five per cent of the populace were
analphabetic). They are pervaded by the characteristic of all
contemporary literature and art: that deliberate intention to _astound_
which originated with the poet Marino, who declared such to have been
his object and ideal. The miracles certainly do astound; they are as
_strepitosi_ (clamour-arousing) as the writers claim them to be; how
they ever came to occur must be left to the consciences of those who
swore on oath to the truth of them.

During this period the Mother of God as a local saint increased in
popularity. There was a ceaseless flow of monographs dealing with
particular Madonnas, as well as a small library on what the Germans
would doubtless call the “Madonna as a Whole.” Here is Serafino
Montorio’s “Zodiaco di Maria,” printed in 1715 on the lines of that
monster of a book by Gumppenberg. It treats of over two hundred
subspecies of Madonna worshipped in different parts of south Italy
which is divided, for these celestial purposes, into twelve regions,
according to the signs of the Zodiac. The book is dedicated by the
author to his “Sovereign Lady the _Gran Madre di Dio”_ and might, in
truth, have been written to the glory of that protean old Magna Mater
by one of Juvenal’s “tonsured herd” possessed of much industry but
little discrimination.[7] Such as it is, it reflects the crude mental
status of the Dominican order to which the author belonged. I warmly
recommend this book to all Englishmen desirous of understanding the
south. It is pure, undiluted paganism—paganism of a bad school; one
would think it marked the lowest possible ebb of Christian
spirituality. But this is by no means the case, as I shall presently
show.

 [7] The Mater Dei was officially installed in the place of Magna Mater
 at the Synod of Ephesus in 431.

How different, from such straightforward unreason, are the
etherealized, saccharine effusions of the “Glories of Mary,” by Alfonso
di Liguori! They represent the other pole of Mariolatry—the gentlemanly
pole. And under the influence of Mary-worship a new kind of saintly
physiognomy was elaborated, as we can see from contemporary prints and
pictures. The bearded men-saints were extinct; in the place of them
this mawkish, sub-sexual love for the Virgin developed a corresponding
type of
adorer—clean-shaven, emasculate youths, posing in ecstatic attitudes
with a nauseous feminine smirk. Rather an unpleasant sort of saint.

The unwholesome chastity-ideal, without which no holy man of the period
was “complete,” naturally left its mark upon literature, notably on
that of certain Spanish theologians. But good specimens of what I mean
may also be found in the Theologia Moralis of Liguori; the kind of
stuff, that is, which would be classed as “curious” in catalogues and
kept in a locked cupboard by the most broad-minded paterfamilias.
Reading these elucubrations of Alfonso’s, one feels that the saint has
pondered long and lovingly upon themes like _an et quando peccata sint
oscula_ or _de tactu et adspectu corporis;_ he writes with all the
authority of an expert whose richly-varied experiences in the
confessional have been amplified and irradiated by divine inspiration.
I hesitate what to call this literature, seeing that it was obviously
written to the glory of God and His Virgin Mother. The congregation of
the Index, which was severe in the matter of indecent publications and
prohibited Boccaccio’s Decameron on these grounds, hailed with approval
the appearance of such treatises composed, as they were, for the
guidance of young priests.

Cruelty (in the shape of the Inquisition) and lasciviousness (as
exemplified by such pious filth)—these are the prime fruits of that
cult of asceticism which for centuries the Government strove to impose
upon south Italy. If the people were saved, it was due to that
substratum of sanity, of Greek _sophrosyne,_ which resisted the one and
derided the other. Whoever has saturated himself with the records will
marvel not so much that the inhabitants preserved some shreds of common
sense and decent feeling, as that they survived at all—he will marvel
that the once fair kingdom was not converted into a wilderness, saintly
but uninhabited, like Spain itself.

For the movement continued in a vertiginous crescendo. Spaniardism
culminated in Bourbonism, and this, again, reached its climax in the
closing years of the eighteenth century, when the conditions of south
Italy baffled description. I have already (p. 212) given the formidable
number of its ecclesiastics; the number of saints was commensurate,
but—as often happens when the quantity is excessive—the quality
declined. This lazzaroni-period was the debâcle of holiness. So true it
is that our gods reflect the hearts that make them.

The Venerable Fra Egidio, a native of Taranto, is a good example of
contemporary godliness. My biography of him was
printed in Naples in 1876,[8] and contains a dedicatory epistle
addressed to the Blessed Virgin by her “servant, subject, and most
loving son Rosario Frungillo”—a canon of the church and the author of
the book.

 [8] “Vita del Venerabile servo di Dio Fra Egidio da S. Giuseppe laico
 professo alcantarino,” Napoli, 1876.

This “taumaturgo” could perform all the ordinary feats; I will not
linger over them. What has made him popular to this day are those
wonders which appealed to the taste of the poorer people, such as, for
example, that miracle of the eels. A fisherman had brought fourteen
hundredweight of these for sale in the market. Judge of his
disappointment when he discovered that they had all died during the
journey (southerners will not pay for dead eels). Fortunately, he saw
the saint arriving in a little boat, who informed him that the eels
were “not dead, but only asleep,” and who woke them up again by means
of a relic of Saint Pasquale which he always carried about with him,
after a quarter of an hour’s devout praying, during which the
perspiration oozed from his forehead. The eels, says the writer, had
been dead and slimy, but now turned their bellies downwards once more
and twisted about in their usual spirals; there began a general weeping
among the onlookers, and the fame of the miracle immediately spread
abroad. He could do the same with lobsters, cows, and human beings.

Thus a cow belonging to Fra Egidio’s monastery was once stolen by an
impious butcher, and cut up into the usual joints with a view to a
clandestine sale of the meat. The saint discovered the beast’s remains,
ordered that they should be laid together on the floor in the shape of
a living cow, with the entrails, head and so forth in their natural
positions; then, having made the sign of the cross with his cord upon
the slaughtered beast, and rousing up all his faith, he said: “In the
name of God and of Saint Pasquale, arise, Catherine!” (Catherine was
the cow’s name.) “At these words the animal lowed, shook itself, and
stood up on its feet alive, whole and strong, even as it had been
before it was killed.”

In the case of one of the dead men whom he brought to life, the
undertakers were already about their sad task; but Fra Egidio, viewing
the corpse, remarked in his usual manner that the man was “not dead,
but only asleep,” and after a few saintly manipulations, roused him
from his slumber. The most portentous of his wonders, however, are
those which he wrought _after his own death_ by means of his relics and
otherwise; they have been sworn to by many persons. Nor did his hand
lose its old cunning, in these posthumous manifestations, with the
finny tribe. A certain woman,
Maria Scuotto, was enabled to resuscitate a number of dead eels by
means of an image of the deceased saint which she cast among them.

Every one of the statements in this biography is drawn from the
_processi_ to which I will presently refer; there were 202 witnesses
who deposed “under the rigour and sanctity of oath” to the truth of
these miracles; and among those who were personally convinced of the
Venerable’s rare gifts was the Royal Family of Naples, the archbishop
of that town, as well as innumerable dukes and princes. An embittered
rationalist would note that the reading of Voltaire, at this period,
was punished with three years’ galley-slavery and that several thousand
citizens were hanged for expressing liberal opinions; he will suggest
that belief in the supernatural, rejected by the thinking classes,
finds an abiding shelter among royalty and the proletariat.

It occurs to me, à propos of Fra Egidio, to make the obvious statement
that an account of an occurrence is not necessarily true, because it
happened long ago. Credibility does not improve, like violins and port
wine, with lapse of years. This being the case, it will not be
considered objectionable to say that there are certain deeds attributed
to holy men of olden days which, to speak frankly, are open to doubt;
or at least not susceptible of proof. Who were these men, if they ever
existed? and who vouches for their prodigies? This makes me think that
Pope Gelasius showed no small penetration in excluding, as early as the
fifth century, some few _acta sanctorum_ from the use of the churches;
another step in the same direction was taken in the twelfth century
when the power of canonizing saints, which had hitherto been claimed by
all bishops, became vested in the Pope alone; and yet another, when
Urban VIII forbade the nomination of local patron saints by popular
vote. Pious legends are supposed to have their uses as an educative
agency. So be it. But such relations of imperfectly ascertained and
therefore questionable wonders suffer from one grave drawback: they
tend to shake our faith in the evidence of well-authenticated ones.
Thus Saint Patrick is also reported to have raised a cow from the
dead—five cows, to be quite accurate; but who will come forward and
vouch for the fact? No one. That is because Saint Patrick belongs to
the legendary stage; he died, it is presumed, about 490.

Here, with Saint Egidio, we are on other ground; on the ground of bald
actuality. He expired in 1812, and the contemporaries who have attested
his miraculous deeds are not misty phantoms of the Thebais; they were
creatures of flesh and blood, human, historical
personages, who were dressed and nourished and educated after the
fashion of our own grandfathers. Yet it was meet and proper that the
documentary evidence as to his divine graces should be conscientiously
examined. And only in 1888 was the crowning work accomplished. In that
year His Holiness Leo XIII and the Sacred Congregation of Cardinals
solemnly approved the evidence and inscribed the name of Egidio in the
book of the Blessed.

To touch upon a few minor matters—I observe that Fra Egidio, like the
Flying Monk, was “illiterate,” and similarly preserved up to a decrepit
age “the odorous lily of purity, which made him appear in words and
deeds as a most innocent child.” He was accustomed to worship before a
favourite picture of the Mother of God which he kept adorned with
candles; and whenever the supply of these ran out, he was wont to
address Her with infantile simplicity of heart and in the local
dialect: “Now there’s no wax for You; so think about it Yourself; if
not, You’ll have to go without.” The playful-saintly note. . . .

But there is this difference between him and earlier saints that
whereas they, all too often, suffered in solitude, misunderstood and
rejected of men, he enjoyed the highest popularity during his whole
long life. Wherever he went, his footsteps were pursued by crowds of
admirers, eager to touch his wonder-working body or to cut off shreds
of his clothing as amulets; hardly a day passed that he did not return
home with garments so lacerated that only half of them was left; every
evening they had to be patched up anew, although they were purposely
stitched full of wires and small chains of iron as a protection. The
same passionate sympathy continued after death, for while his body was
lying in state a certain Luigi Ascione, a surgeon, pushed through the
crowd and endeavoured to cut off one of his toe-nails with the flesh
attached to it; he admitted being driven to this act of pious
depredation by the pleading request of the Spanish Ambassador and a
Neapolitan princess, who held Fra Egidio in great veneration.

This is not an isolated instance. Southerners love their saints, and do
not content themselves with chill verbal expressions of esteem. So the
biographer of Saint Giangiuseppe records that “one of the deceased
saint’s toes was bitten off with most regretable devotion by the teeth
of a man in the crowd, who wished to preserve it as a relic. And the
blood from the wound flowed so copiously and so freely that many pieces
of cloth were saturated with it; nor did it cease to flow till the
precious corpse was interred.” It is hard to picture such proofs of
fervid popularity falling to the lot of English deans and bishops.

He was modern, too, in this sense, that he did not torment himself with
penitences (decay of Spanish austerity); on the contrary, he even kept
chocolate, honey and suchlike delicacies in his cell. In short, he was
an up-to-date saint, who despised mediæval practices and lived in a
manner befitting the age which gave him birth. In this respect he
resembles our English men of holiness, who exercise a laudable
self-denial in resisting the seductions of the ascetic life.

Meanwhile, the cult of the Mother of God continued to wax in favour,
and those who are interested in its development should read the really
remarkable book by Antonio Cuomó, “Saggio apologetico della belezza
celeste e divina di Maria S.S. Madre di Dio” (Castellamare, 1863). It
is a diatribe against modernism by a champion of lost causes, an
exacerbated lover of the “Singular Virgin and fecund Mother of the
Verb.” His argument, as I understand it, is the _consensus gentium_
theory applied to the Virgin Mary. In defence of this thesis, the book
has been made to bristle with quotations; they stand out like quills
upon the porcupine, ready to impale the adventurous sceptic. Pliny and
Virgil and the Druids and Balaam’s Ass are invoked as foretelling Her
birth; the Old Testament—that venerable sufferer, as Huxley called
it—is twisted into dire convulsions for the same purpose; much evidence
is also drawn from Hebrew observances and from the Church Fathers. But
the New Testamentary record is seldom invoked; the Saviour, on the rare
occasions when He is mentioned, being dismissed as “G. C.” The volume
ends with a pyrotechnical display of invective against non-Catholic
heretics; a medley of threats and abuse worthy of those breezy days of
Erasmus, when theologians really said what they thought of each other.
The frank polytheism of Montorio is more to my taste. This outpouring
of papistical rhetoric gives me unwarrantable sensations—it makes me
feel positively Protestant.

Another sign of increasing popularity is that the sacred bacchanals
connected with the “crowning” of various Madonnas were twice as
numerous, in Naples, in the nineteenth as in the eighteenth century.
Why an image of the Mother of God should be decked with this worldly
symbol, as a reward for services rendered, will be obscure only to
those who fail to appreciate the earthly-tangible complexion of
southern religion. Puerility is its key-note. The Italian is either
puerile or adult; the Englishman remains everlastingly adolescent. . .
.

Now of course it is open to any one to say that the pious records from
which I have quoted are a desolation of the spirit; that they
possess all the improbability of the “Arabian Nights,” and none of
their charm; that all the distempered dreamings to which our poor
humanity is subject have given themselves a rendezvous in their pages.
I am not for disputing the point, and I can understand how one man may
be saddened by their perusal, while another extracts therefrom some
gleams of mirth. For my part, I merely verify this fact: the native has
been fed with this stuff for centuries, and if we desire to enter into
his feelings, we must feed ourselves likewise—up to a point. The past
is the key to the present. That is why I have dwelt at such length on
the subject—in the hope of clearing up the enigma in the national
character: the unpassable gulf, I mean, between the believing and the
unbelieving sections of the community.

An Anglo-Saxon arriving at Bagnara and witnessing a procession in
honour of that Sacred Hat of the Mother of God which has led me into
this disquisition, would be shocked at the degree of bigotry implied.
“The Hat of the Virgin Mary,” he would say—“what next?” Then, accosting
some ordinary citizen not in the procession—any butcher or baker—he
would receive a shock of another kind; he would be appalled at the
man’s language of contemptuous derision towards everything which he,
the Anglo-Saxon, holds sacred in biblical tradition. There is no
attempt, here, at “reconciliation.” The classes calling themselves
enlightened are making a clean sweep of the old gods in a fashion that
bewilders us who have accustomed ourselves to see a providential design
in everything that exists (possibly because our acquaintance with a
providentially-designed Holy Office is limited to an obsolete statute,
the genial _de haeretico comburendo)._ The others, the fetishists, have
remained on the spiritual level of their own saints. And there we stand
today. That section so numerous in England, the pseudo-pagans,
crypto-Christians, or whatever obscurantists like Messrs. A. J. Balfour
and Mallock like to call themselves (the men who, with disastrous
effects, transport into realms of pure intelligence the spirit of
compromise which should be restricted to practical concerns)—that
section has no representatives hereabouts.

Fully to appreciate their attitude as opposed to ours, we must also
remember that the south Italian does not trouble himself about the
objective truth of any miracle whatever; his senses may be perverted,
but his intelligence remains outside the sphere of infection. This is
his saving grace. To the people here, the affair of Moses and the
Burning Bush, the raising of Lazarus, and Egidio’s cow-revival, are on
the identical plane of authenticity; the Bible is one of a thousand
saints’ books; its stories may be as true as
theirs, or just as untrue; in any case, what has that to do with his
own worldly conduct? But the Englishman with ingenuous ardour thinks to
believe in the Burning Bush wonder, and in so far his intelligence is
infected; with equal ardour he excludes the cow-performance from the
range of possibility; and to him it matters considerably which of the
miracles are true and which are false, seeing that his conduct is
supposed to take colour from such supernatural events. Ultra-credulous
as to one set of narratives, he has no credulity left for other sets;
he concentrates his believing energies upon a small space, whereas the
Italian’s are diffused, thinly, over a wide area. It is the old story:
Gothic intensity and Latin spaciousness. So the Gothic believer takes
his big dose of irrationalism on one fixed day; the Latin, by attending
Mass every morning, spreads it over the whole week. And the sombre
strenuousness of our northern character expects a remuneration for this
outlay of faith, while the other contents himself with such sensuous
enjoyment as he can momentarily extract from his ceremonials. That is
why our English religion has a _democratic_ tinge distasteful to the
Latin who, at bottom, is always a philosopher; democratic because it
relies for its success, like democratic politicians, upon
promises—promises that may or may not be kept—promises that form no
part (they are only an official appendage) of the childlike paganism of
the south. . . .

Fifteen francs will buy you a reliable witness for a south Italian
lawsuit; you must pay a good deal more in England. Thence one might
argue that the cult of credulity implied by these saintly biographies
is responsible for this laxness, for the general disregard of veracity.
I doubt it. I am not inclined to blame the monkish saint-makers for
this particular trait; I suspect that for fifteen francs you could have
bought a first-class witness under Pericles. Southerners are not yet
pressed for time; and when people are not pressed for time, they do not
learn the time-saving value of honesty. Our respect for truth and fair
dealing, such as it is, derives from modern commerce; in the Middle
Ages nobody was concerned about honesty save a few trading companies
like the Hanseatic League, and the poor mediæval devil (the only
gentleman of his age) who was generally pressed for time and could be
relied upon to keep his word. Even God, of whom they talked so much,
was systematically swindled. Where time counts for nothing, expeditious
practices between man and man are a drug in the market. Besides, it
must be noted that this churchly misteaching was only a fraction of
that general shattering which has disintegrated all the finer fibres of
public life. It stands to reason that the fragile
tissues of culture are dislocated, and its delicate edges defaced, by
such persistive governmental brutalization as the inhabitants have
undergone. None but the grossest elements in a people can withstand
enduring misrule; none but a mendacious and servile nature will survive
its wear and tear. So it comes about that up to a few years ago the
nobler qualities which we associate with those old Hellenic
colonists—their intellectual curiosity, their candid outlook upon life,
their passionate sense of beauty, their love of nature—all these things
had been abraded, leaving, as residue, nothing save what the Greeks
shared with ruder races. There are indications that this state of
affairs is now ending.

The position is this. The records show that the common people never
took their saints to heart in the northern fashion—as moral exemplars;
from beginning to end, they have only utilized them as a pretext for
fun and festivals, a means of brightening the catacombic, the
essentially sunless, character of Christianity. So much for the popular
saints, the patrons and heroes. The others, the ecclesiastical ones,
are an artificial product of monkish institutions. These monkeries were
established in the land by virtue of civil authority. Their continued
existence, however, was contingent upon the goodwill of the Vatican.
One of the surest and cheapest methods of obtaining this goodwill was
to produce a satisfactory crop of saints whose beatification swelled
the Vatican treasury with the millions collected from a deluded
populace for that end. The monks paid nothing; they only furnished the
saint and, in due course, the people’s money. Can we wonder that they
discovered saints galore? Can we wonder that the Popes were gratified
by their pious zeal?

So things went on till yesterday. But now a large proportion of the ten
thousand (?) churches and monasteries of Naples are closed or actually
in ruins; wayside sanctuaries crumble to dust in picturesque fashion;
the price of holy books has fallen to zero, and the godly brethren have
emigrated to establish their saint-manufactories elsewhere. Not without
hope of success; for they will find purchasers of their wares wherever
mankind can be interested in that queer disrespect of the body which is
taught by the metaphysical ascetics of the East.

It was Lewes, I believe, who compared metaphysics to ghosts by saying
that there was no killing either of them; one could only dissipate them
by throwing light into the dark places they love to inhabit—to show
that nothing is there. Spectres, likewise, are these saintly
caricatures of humanity, perambulating metaphysics, the application _in
corpore vili_ of Oriental fakirism.
Nightmare-literature is the crazy recital of their deeds and
sufferings. Pathological phantoms! The state of mind which engenders
and cherishes such illusions is a disease, and it has been well said
that “you cannot refute a disease.” You cannot nail ghosts to the
counter.

But a ray of light . . .




XXXII
ASPROMONTE, THE CLOUD-GATHERER


Day was barely dawning when we left Delianuova and began the long and
weary climb up Montalto. Chestnuts gave way to beeches, but the summit
receded ever further from us. And even before reaching the uplands, the
so-called Piano di Carmelia, we encountered a bank of bad weather. A
glance at the map will show that Montalto must be a cloud-gatherer,
drawing to its flanks every wreath of vapour that rises from Ionian and
Tyrrhenian; a west wind was blowing that morning, and thick fogs clung
to the skirts of the peak. We reached the summit (1956 metres) at last,
drenched in an icy bath of rain and sleet, and with fingers so numbed
that we could hardly hold our sticks.

Of the superb view—for such it must be—nothing whatever was to be seen;
we were wrapped in a glacial mist. On the highest point stands a figure
of the Redeemer. It was dragged up in pieces from Delianuova some seven
years ago, but soon injured by frosts; it has lately been refashioned.
The original structure may be due to the same pious stimulus as that
which placed the crosses on Monte Vulture and other peaks throughout
the country—a counterblast to the rationalistic congress at Rome in
1904, when Giordano Bruno became, for a while, the hero of the country.
This statue does not lack dignity. The Saviour’s regard turns towards
Reggio, the capital of the province; and one hand is upraised in calm
and godlike benediction.

Passing through magnificent groves of fir, we descended rapidly into
anothsr climate, into realms of golden sunshine. Among these trees I
espied what has become quite a rare bird in Italy—the common
wood-pigeon. The few that remain have been driven into the most
secluded recesses of the mountains; it was different in the days of
Theocritus, who sang of this amiable fowl when the climate was colder
and the woodlands reached as far as the now barren seashore. To the
firs succeeded long stretches of odorous pines interspersed with
Mediterranean heath (bruyère), which here grows to a height of twelve
feet; one thinks of the number of briar
pipes that could be cut out of its knotty roots. A British Vice-Consul
at Reggio, Mr. Kerrich, started this industry about the year 1899; he
collected the roots, which were sawn into blocks and then sent to
France and America to be made into pipes. This Calabrian briar was
considered superior to the French kind, and Mr. Kerrich had large sales
on both sides of the Atlantic; his chief difficulty was want of labour
owing to emigration.

We passed, by the wayside, several rude crosses marking the site of
accidents or murders, as well as a large heap of stones, where-under
lie the bones of a man who attempted to traverse these mountains in
winter-time and was frozen to death.

“They found him,” the guide told me, “in spring, when the snow melted
from off his body. There he lay, all fresh and comely! It looked as if
he would presently wake up and continue his march; but he neither spoke
nor stirred. Then they knew he was dead. And they piled all these
stones over him, to prevent the wolves, you understand——”

Aspromonte deserves its name. It is an incredibly harsh agglomeration
of hill and dale, and the geology of the district, as I learned long
ago from my friend Professor Cortese, reveals a perfect chaos of rocks
of every age, torn into gullies by earthquakes and other cataclysms of
the past—at one place, near Scido, is an old stream of lava. Once the
higher ground, the nucleus of the group, is left behind, the wanderer
finds himself lost in a maze of contorted ravines, winding about
without any apparent system of watershed. Does the liquid flow north or
south? Who can tell! The track crawls in and out of valleys, mounts
upwards to heights of sun-scorched bracken and cistus, descends once
more into dewy glades hemmed in by precipices and overhung by drooping
fernery. It crosses streams of crystal clearness, rises afresh in
endless gyrations under the pines only to vanish, yet again, into the
twilight of deeper abysses, where it skirts the rivulet along
precarious ledges, until some new obstruction blocks the way—so it
writhes about for long, long hours. . . .

Here, on the spot, one can understand how an outlaw like Musolino was
enabled to defy justice, helped, as he was, by the fact that the vast
majority of the inhabitants were favourable to him, and that the
officer in charge of his pursuers was paid a fixed sum for every day he
spent in the chase and presumably found it convenient not to discover
his whereabouts.[1]

 [1] See next chapter.

We rested awhile, during these interminable meanderings, under the
shadow of a group of pines.

“Do you see that square patch yonder?” said my man. “It is a cornfield.
There Musolino shot one of his enemies, whom he suspected of giving
information to the police. It was well done.”

“How many did he shoot, altogether?”

“Only eighteen. And three of them recovered, more or less; enough to
limp about, at all events. Ah, if you could have seen him, sir! He was
young, with curly fair hair, and a face like a rose. God alone can tell
how many poor people he helped in their distress. And any young girl he
met in the mountains he would help with her load and accompany as far
as her home, right into her father’s house, which none of us would have
risked, however much we might have liked it. But every one knew that he
was pure as an angel.”

“And there was a young fellow here,” he went on, “who thought he could
profit by pretending to be Musolino. So one day he challenged a
proprietor with his gun, and took all his money. When it came to
Musolino’s ears, he was furious—furious! He lay in wait for him, caught
him, and said: “How dare you touch fathers of children? Where’s that
money you took from Don Antonio?” Then the boy began to cry and tremble
for his life. “Bring it,” said Musolino, “every penny, at midday next
Monday, to such and such a spot, or else——” Of course he brought it.
Then he marched him straight into the proprietor’s house. “Here’s this
wretched boy, who robbed you in my name. And here’s the money: please
count it. Now, what shall we do with him?” So Don Antonio counted the
money. “It’s all there,” he said; “let him off this time.” Then
Musolino turned to the lad: “You have behaved like a mannerless puppy,”
he said, “without shame or knowledge of the world. Be reasonable in
future, and understand clearly: I will have no brigandage in these
mountains. Leave that to the syndics and judges in the towns.”

We did not traverse Musolino’s natal village, Santo Stefano; indeed, we
passed through no villages at all. But after issuing from the
labyrinth, we saw a few of them, perched in improbable
situations—Roccaforte and Roghudi on our right; on the other side,
Africo and Casalnuovo. Salis Marschlins says that the inhabitants of
these regions are so wild and innocent that money is unknown;
everything is done by barter. That comes of copying without
discrimination. For this statement he utilized the report of a
Government official, a certain Leoni, who was sent hither after the
earthquake of 1783, and found the use of money not unknown, but
forgotten, in consequence of this terrible catastrophe.

These vales of Aspromonte are one of the last refuges of living
Byzantinism. Greek is still spoken in some places, such as Roccaforte
and Roghudi. Earlier travellers confused the natives with the
Albanians; Niehbuhr, who had an obsession on the subject of Hellenism,
imagined they were relics of old Dorian and Achaean colonies. Scholars
are apparently not yet quite decided upon certain smaller matters. So
Lenormant (Vol. II, p. 433) thinks they came hither after the Turkish
conquest, as did the Albanians; Batiffol argues that they were chased
into Calabria from Sicily by the Arabs after the second half of the
seventh century; Morosi, who treats mostly of their Apulian
settlements, says that they came from the East between the sixth and
tenth centuries. Many students, such as Morelli and Comparetti, have
garnered their songs, language, customs and lore, and whoever wants a
convenient résumé of these earlier researches will find it in
Pellegrini’s book which was written in 1873 (printed 1880). He gives
the number of Greek inhabitants of these places—Roghudi, for example,
had 535 in his day; he has also noted down these villages, like Africo
and Casalnuovo, in which the Byzantine speech has lately been lost.
Bova and Condofuri are now the head-quarters of mediæval Greek in these
parts.

From afar we had already descried a green range of hills that shut out
the seaward view. This we now began to climb, in wearisome ascension;
it is called _Piè d’Impisa,_ because “your feet are all the time on a
steep incline.” Telegraph wires here accompany the track, a survival of
the war between the Italian Government and Musolino. On the summit lies
a lonely Alp, Campo di Bova, where a herd of cattle were pasturing
under the care of a golden-haired youth who lay supine on the grass,
gazing at the clouds as they drifted in stately procession across the
firmament. Save for a dusky charcoal-burner crouching in a cave, this
boy was the only living person we encountered on our march—so deserted
are these mountain tracks.

At Campo di Bova a path branches off to Staiti; the sea is visible once
more, and there are fine glimpses, on the left, towards Staiti (or is
it Ferruzzano?) and, down the right, into the destructive and dangerous
torrent of Amendolea. Far beyond it, rises the mountain peak of
Pentedattilo, a most singular landmark which looks exactly like a molar
tooth turned upside down, with fangs in air. The road passes through a
gateway in the rock whence, suddenly, a full view is disclosed of Bova
on its hill-top, the houses nestling among huge blocks of stone that
make one think of some cyclopean citadel of past ages. My guide stoutly
denied that this
was Bova; the town, he declared, lay in quite another direction. I
imagine he had never been beyond the foot of the “Piè d’Impisa.”

Here, once more, the late earthquake has done some damage, and there is
a row of trim wooden shelters near the entrance of the town. I may add,
as a picturesque detail, that about one-third of them have never been
inhabited, and are never likely to be. They were erected in the heat of
enthusiasm, and there they will stay, empty and abandoned, until some
energetic mayor shall pull them down and cook his maccheroni with their
timber.

Evening was drawing on apace, and whether it was due to the joy of
having accomplished an arduous journey, or to inconsiderate potations
of the Bacchus of Bova, one of the most remarkable wines in Italy, I
very soon found myself on excellent terms with the chief citizens of
this rather sordid-looking little place. A good deal has been written
concerning Bova and its inhabitants, but I should say there is still a
mine of information to be exploited on the spot. They are bilingual,
but while clinging stubbornly to their old speech, they have now
embraced Catholicism. The town kept its Greek religious rites till the
latter half of the sixteenth century; and Rodotà has described the
“vigorous resistance” that was made to the introduction of Romanism,
and the ceremonies which finally accompanied that event.

Mine hostess obligingly sang me two or three songs in her native
language; the priest furnished me with curious statistics of folklore
and criminology; and the notary, with whom I conversed awhile on the
tiny piazza that overlooks the coastlands and distant Ionian, was a
most affable gentleman. Seeing that the Christian names of the populace
are purely Italian, I enquired as to their surnames, and learned what I
expected, namely, that a good many Greek family names survive among the
people. His own name, he said, was unquestionably Greek: _Condemi;_ if
I liked, he would go through the local archives and prepare me a list
of all such surnames as appeared to him to be non-Italian; we could
thus obtain some idea of the percentage of Greek families still living
here. My best thanks to the good Signor!

After some further liquid refreshment, a youthful native volunteered to
guide me by short cuts to the remote railway station. We stepped
blithely into the twilight, and during the long descent I discoursed
with him, in fluent Byzantine Greek, of the affairs of his village.

It is my theory that among a populace of this kind the words relative
to agricultural pursuits will be those which are least likely to suffer
change with lapse of years, or to be replaced by others.
Acting on this principle, I put him through a catechism on the subject
as soon as we reached our destination, and was surprised at the
relative scarcity of Italian terms—barely 25 per cent I should say.
Needless to add, I omitted to note them down. Such as it is, be that my
contribution to the literature of these sporadic islets of mediæval
Hellenism, whose outstanding features are being gnawed away by the
waves of military conscription, governmental schooling, and emigration.

Caulonia, my next halting-place, lay far off the line. I had therefore
the choice of spending the night at Gerace (old Locri) or Rocella
Ionica—intermediate stations. Both of them, to my knowledge, possessing
indifferent accommodation, I chose the former as being the nearest, and
slept there, not amiss; far better than on a previous occasion, when
certain things occurred which need not be set down here.

The trip from Delianuova over the summit of Montalto to Bova railway
station is by no means to be recommended to young boys or persons in
delicate health. Allowing for only forty-five minutes’ rest, it took me
fourteen hours to walk to the town of Bova, and the railway station
lies nearly three hours apart from that place. There is hardly a level
yard of ground along the whole route, and though my “guide” twice took
the wrong track and thereby probably lost me some little time, I
question whether the best walker, provided (as I was) with the best
maps, will be able to traverse the distance in less than fifteen hours.

Whoever he is, I wish him joy of his journey. Pleasant to recall,
assuredly; the scenery and the mountain flowers are wondrously
beautiful; but I have fully realized what the men of Delianuova meant,
when they said:

“To Montalto, Yes; to Bova, No.”




XXXIII
MUSOLINO AND THE LAW


Musolino will remain a hero for many long years to come. “He did his
duty”: such is the popular verdict on his career. He was not a brigand,
but an unfortunate—a martyr, a victim of the law. So he is described
not only by his country-people, but by the writers of many hundred
serious pamphlets in every province of Italy.

At any bookstall you may buy cheap illustrated tracts and poems setting
forth his achievements. In Cosenza I saw a play of which he was the
leading figure, depicted as a pale, long-suffering gentleman of the
“misunderstood” type—friend of the fatherless, champion of widows and
orphans, rectifier of all wrongs; in fact, as the embodiment of those
virtues which we are apt to associate with Prometheus or the founder of
Christianity.

Only to those who know nothing of local conditions will it seem strange
to say that Italian law is one of the factors that contribute to the
disintegration of family life throughout the country, and to the
production of creatures like Musolino. There are few villages which do
not contain some notorious assassins who have escaped punishment under
sentimental pleas, and now terrorize the neighbourhood. This is one of
the evils which derange patriarchalism; the decent-minded living in
fear of their lives, the others with a conspicuous example before their
eyes of the advantages of evil-doing. And another is that the innocent
often suffer, country-bred lads being locked up for months and years in
prison on the flimsiest pretexts—often on the mere word of some
malevolent local policeman—among hardened habitual offenders. If they
survive the treatment, which is not always the case, they return home
completely demoralized and a source of infection to others.

It is hardly surprising if, under such conditions, rich and poor alike
are ready to hide a picturesque fugitive from justice. A sad state of
affairs, but—as an unsavoury Italian proverb correctly says—_il pesce
puzza dal capo._

For the fault lies not only in the fundamental perversity of all Roman
Law. It lies also in the local administration of that law,
which is inefficient and marked by that elaborate brutality
characteristic of all “philosophic” and tender-hearted nations. One
thinks of the Byzantines. . . . That justices should be well-salaried
gentlemen, cognizant of their duties to society; that carbineers and
other police-functionaries should be civilly responsible for outrages
upon the public; that a so-called “habeas-corpus” Act might be as
useful here as among certain savages of the north; that the Baghdad
system of delays leads to corruption of underpaid officials and
witnesses alike (not to speak of judges)—in a word, that the method
pursued hereabouts is calculated to create rather than to repress
crime: these are truths of too elementary a nature to find their way
into the brains of the megalomaniac rhetoricians who control their
country’s fate. They will never endorse that saying of Stendhal’s: “In
Italy, with the exception of Milan, the death-penalty is the preface of
all civilization.” (To this day, the proportion of murders is still 13
per cent higher in Palermo than in Milan.)

Speak to the wisest judges of the horrors of cellular confinement such
as Musolino was enduring up to a short time ago, as opposed to capital
punishment, and you will learn that they invoke the humanitarian
Beccaria in justification of it. Theorists!

For less formidable criminals there exists that wondrous institution of
_domicilio coatto,_ which I have studied in the islands of Lipari and
Ponza. These evil-doers seldom try to escape; life is far too
comfortable, and the wine good and cheap; often, on completing their
sentences, they get themselves condemned anew, in order to return. The
hard-working man may well envy their lot, for they receive free lodging
from the Government, a daily allowance of money, and two new suits of
clothes a year—they are not asked to do a stroke of work in return, but
may lie in bed all day long, if so disposed. The law-abiding citizen,
meanwhile, pays for the upkeep of this horde of malefactors, as well as
for the army of officials who are deputed to attend to their wants.
This institution of _domicilio coatto_ is one of those things which
would be incredible, were it not actually in existence. It is a school,
a State-fostered school, for the promotion of criminality.

But what shall be expected? Where judges sob like children, and jurors
swoon away with emotionalism; where floods of bombast—go to the courts,
and listen!—take the place of cross-examination and duly-sworn
affidavits; where perjury is a humanly venial and almost praiseworthy
failing—how shall the code, defective as it is, be administered?
Rhetoric, and rhetoric alone, sways the decision of the courts.
Scholars are only now beginning
to realize to what an extent the ancient sense of veracity was tainted
with this vice—how deeply all classical history is permeated with
elegant partisan non-truth. And this evil legacy from Greco-Roman days
has been augmented by the more recent teachings of Jesuitry and the
Catholic theory of “peccato veniale.” Rhetoric alone counts; rhetoric
alone is “art.” The rest is mere facts; and your “penalista” has a
constitutional horror of a bald fact, because _there it is,_ and there
is nothing to be done with it. It is too crude a thing for cultured men
to handle. If a local barrister were forced to state in court a plain
fact, without varnish, he would die of cerebral congestion; the judge,
of boredom.

In early times, these provinces had a rough-and-ready cowboy justice
which answered simple needs, and when, in Bourbon days, things became
more centralized, there was still a never-failing expedient: each judge
having a fixed and publicly acknowledged tariff, the village elders, in
deserving cases, subscribed the requisite sum and released their
prisoner. But Italy is now paying the penalty of ambition. With one
foot in the ferocity of her past, and the other on a quicksand of
dream-nurtured idealism, she contrives to combine the disadvantages of
both. She, who was the light o’ love of all Europe for long ages, and
in her poverty denied nothing to her clientèle, has now laid aside a
little money, repenting of her frivolous and mercenary deeds (they
sometimes do), and becoming puritanically zealous of good works in her
old age—all this, however, as might have been expected from her
antecedent career, without much discrimination.

It is certainly remarkable that a race of men who have been such ardent
opponents of many forms of tyranny in the past, should still endure a
system of criminal procedure worthy of Torquemada. High and low cry out
against it, but—_pazienza!_ Where shall grievances be ventilated? In
Parliament? A good joke, that! In the press? Better still! Italian
newspapers nowise reflect the opinions of civilized Italy; they are
mere cheese-wrappers; in the whole kingdom there are only three
self-respecting dailies. The people have learnt to despair of their
rulers—to regard them with cynical suspicion. Public opinion has been
crushed out of the country. What goes by that name is the gossip of the
town-concierge, or obscure village cabals and schemings.

I am quite aware that the law-abiding spirit is the slow growth of
ages, and that a serious mischief like this cannot be repaired in a
short generation. I know that even now the Italian code of criminal
procedure, that tragic farce, is under revision. I know, moreover, that
there are stipendiary magistrates in south Italy
whose discernment and integrity would do honour to our British courts.
But—take the case out of their hands into a higher tribunal, and you
may put your trust in God, or in your purse. Justice hereabouts is in
the same condition as it was in Egypt at the time of Lord Dufferin’s
report: a mockery.

It may be said that it does not concern aliens to make such criticism.
A fatuous observation! Everything concerns everybody. The foreigner in
Italy, if he is wise, will familiarize himself not only with the
cathedrals to be visited, but also, and primarily, with the technique
of legal bribery and subterfuge—with the methods locally employed for
escaping out of the meshes of the law. Otherwise he may find unpleasant
surprises in store for him. Had Mr. Mercer made it his business to
acquire some rudiments of this useful knowledge, he would never have
undergone that outrageous official ill-treatment which has become a
byword in the annals of international amenities. And if these
strictures be considered too severe, let us see what Italians
themselves have to say. In 1900 was published a book called “La
Quistione Meridionale” (What’s Wrong with the South), that throws a
flood of light upon local conditions. It contains the views of
twenty-seven of the most prominent men in the country as to how south
Italian problems should be faced and solved. Nearly all of them deplore
the lack of justice. Says Professor Colajanni: “To heal the south, we
require an honest, intelligent and sagacious government, _which we have
not got.”_ And Lombroso: “In the south it is necessary to introduce
justice, _which does not exist, save in favour of certain classes.”_

I am tempted to linger on this subject, not without reason. These
people and their attitude towards life will remain an enigma to the
traveller, until he has acquainted himself with the law of the land and
seen with his own eyes something of the atrocious misery which its
administration involves. A murderer like Musolino, crowned with an
aureole of saintliness, would be an anomaly in England. We should think
it rather paradoxical to hear a respectable old farmer recommending his
boys to shoot a policeman, whenever they safely can. On the spot,
things begin to wear a different aspect. Musolino is no more to be
blamed than a child who has been systematically misguided by his
parents; and if these people, much as they love their homes and
families, are all potential Musolinos, they have good reasons for
it—excellent reasons.

No south Italian living at this present moment, be he of what social
class you please—be he of the gentlest blood or most refined culture—is
_a priori_ on the side of the policeman. No; not _a priori._ The abuses
of the executive are too terrific to warrant such an
attitude. Has not the entire police force of Naples, up to its very
head, been lately proved to be in the pay of the camorra; to say
nothing of its connection with what Messrs. King and Okey
euphemistically call “the unseen hand at Rome”—a hand which is held out
for blackmail, and not vainly, from the highest ministerial benches?
Under such conditions, the populace becomes profoundly distrustful of
the powers that be, and such distrust breeds bad citizens. But so
things will remain, until the bag-and-baggage policy is applied to the
whole code of criminal procedure, and to a good half of its present
administrators.

The best of law-systems, no doubt, is but a compromise. Science being
one thing, and public order another, the most enlightened of
legislators may well tremble to engraft the fruits of modern
psychological research upon the tree of law, lest the scion prove too
vigorous for the aged vegetable. But some compromises are better than
others; and the Italian code, which reads like a fairy tale and works
like a Fury, is as bad a one as human ingenuity can devise. If a
prisoner escape punishment, it is due not so much to his innocence as
to some access of sanity or benevolence on the part of the judge, who
courageously twists the law in his favour. Fortunately, such humane
exponents of the code are common enough; were it otherwise, the
prisons, extensive as they are, would have to be considerably enlarged.
But that ideal judge who shall be paid as befits his grave calling, who
shall combine the honesty and common sense of the north with the
analytical acumen of the south, has yet to be evolved. What interests
the student of history is that things hereabouts have not changed by a
hair since the days of Demosthenes and those preposterous old Hellenic
tribunals. Not by a single hair! On the one hand, we have a deluge of
subtle disquisitions on “jurisprudence,” “personal responsibility” and
so forth; on the other, the sinister tomfoolery known as _law—_that is,
babble, corruption, palæolithic ideas of what constitutes evidence, and
a court-procedure that reminds one of Gilbert and Sullivan at their
best.

There was a report in the papers not long ago of the trial of an old
married couple, on the charge of murdering a young girl. The bench
dismissed the case, remarking that there was not a particle of evidence
against them; they had plainly been exemplary citizens all their long
lives. They had spent five years in prison awaiting trial. Five years,
and innocent! It stands to reason that such abuses disorganize the
family, especially in Italy, where the “family” means much more than it
does in England; the land lies barren, and savings are wasted in paying
lawyers and bribing greedy court
officials. What are this worthy couple to think of _Avanti, Savoia!_
once they have issued from their dungeon?

I read, in yesterday’s Parliamentary Proceedings, of an honourable
member (Aprile) rising to ask the Minister of Justice (Gallini) whether
the time has not come to proceed with the trial of “Signori Camerano
and their co-accused,” who have been in prison for six years, charged
with voluntary homicide. Whereto His Excellency sagely replies that “la
magistratura ha avuto i suoi motivi”—the magistrates have had their
reasons. Six years in confinement, and perhaps innocent! Can one
wonder, under such circumstances, at the anarchist schools of Prato and
elsewhere? Can one wonder if even a vindictive and corrupt rag like the
socialistic “Avanti” occasionally prints frantic protests of
quasi-righteous indignation? And not a hundredth part of such accused
persons can cause a Minister of the Crown to be interpellated on their
behalf. The others suffer silently and often die, forgotten, in their
cells.

And yet—how seriously we take this nation! Almost as seriously as we
take ourselves. The reason is that most of us come to Italy too
undiscerning, too reverent; in the pre-critical and pre-humorous
stages. We arrive here, stuffed with Renaissance ideals or classical
lore, and viewing the present through coloured spectacles. We arrive
here, above all things, too young; for youth loves to lean on tradition
and to draw inspiration from what has gone before; youth finds nothing
more difficult than to follow Goethe’s advice about grasping that
living life which shifts and fluctuates about us. Few writers are
sufficiently detached to laugh at these people as they, together with
ourselves, so often and so richly deserve. I spoke of the buffoonery of
Italian law; I might have called it a burlesque. The trial of the
ex-minister Nasi: here was a _cause célèbre_ conducted by the highest
tribunal of the land; and if it was not a burlesque—why, we must coin a
new word for what is.




XXXIV
MALARIA


A black snake of alarming dimensions, one of the monsters that still
infest the Calabrian lowlands, glided across the roadway while I was
waiting for the post carriage to drive me to Caulonia from its
railway-station. Auspicious omen! It carried my thoughts from old
Æsculapius to his modern representatives—to that school of wise and
disinterested healers who are ridding these regions of their curse, and
with whom I was soon to have some nearer acquaintance.

We started at last, in the hot hours of the morning, and the road at
first skirts the banks of the Alaro, the Sagra of old, on whose banks
was fought the fabled battle between the men of Croton and Locri. Then
it begins to climb upwards. My companion was a poor peasant woman,
nearly blind (from malaria, possibly). Full of my impressions of
yesterday, I promptly led the conversation towards the subject of
Musolino. She had never spoken to him, she said, or even seen him. But
she got ten francs from him, all the same. In dire distress, some years
ago, she had asked a friend in the mountains to approach the brigand on
her behalf. The money was long in coming, she added, but of course it
came in the end. He always helped poor people, even those outside his
own country.

The site of the original Caulonia is quite uncertain. Excavations now
going on at Monasterace, some ten miles further on, may decide that the
town lay there. Some are in favour of the miserable village of Focà,
near at hand; or of other sites. The name of Focà seems to point,
rather, to a settlement of the regenerator Nicephorus Phocas. Be that
as it may, the present town of Caulonia used to be called Castelvetere,
and it appropriated the Greek name in accordance with a custom which
has been largely followed hereabouts.[1] It contains some ten thousand
inhabitants, amiable, intelligent and distinguished by a _philoxenia_
befitting the traditions
of men who sheltered Pythagoras in his hour of need. As at Rossano,
Catanzaro and many other Calabrian towns, there used to be a ghetto of
Jews here; the district is still called “La Giudeca”; their synagogue
was duly changed into a church of the Madonna.

 [1] It is represented with two towers in Peutinger’s Tables. But
 these, says an editor, should have been given to the neighbouring
 Scilatio, for Caulon was in ruins at the time of Pliny, and is not
 even mentioned by Ptolemy. Servius makes another mistake; he confuses
 the Calabrian Caulon with a locality of the same name near Capua.

So much I learn from Montorio, who further informs me that the
ubiquitous Saint Peter preached here on his way to Rome, and converted
the people to Christianity; and that the town can boast of three
authentic portraits of the Mother of God painted by Saint Luke (“Lukas
me pinxit”). One is rather bewildered by the number of these
masterpieces in Italy, until one realizes, as an old ecclesiastical
writer has pointed out, that “the Saint, being excellent in his art,
could make several of them in a few days, to correspond to the great
devotion of those early Christians, fervent in their love to the Great
Mother of God. Whence we may believe that to satisfy their ardent
desires he was continually applying himself to this task of so much
glory to Mary and her blessed Son.” But the sacristan of the church at
Caulonia, to whom I applied for information regarding these local
treasures, knew nothing about them, and his comments gave me the
impression that he has relapsed into a somewhat pagan way of regarding
such matters.

You may obtain a fairly good view of Caulonia from the southeast; or
again, from the neighbouring hillock of San Vito. The town lies some
300 metres above sea-level on a platform commanding the valleys of the
Amusa and Alaro. This position, which was clearly chosen for its
strategic value, unfortunately does not allow it to expand, and so the
inhabitants are deprived of that public garden which they amply
deserve. At the highest point lies a celebrated old castle wherein,
according to tradition, Campanella was imprisoned for a while. In the
days of Pacicchelli, it was a fine place—“magnifico nelle regole di
Fortezza, con cinque baloardi provveduti di cannoni di bronzo, ed una
riccha Armeria, degna habitazione di don Carlo Maria Carrafa, Prencipe
della Roccella, che se ne intitola Marchese.” Mingled with the stones
of its old walls they have recently found skeletons—victims, possibly,
of the same macabre superstition to which the blood-drenched masonry of
the Tower of London bears witness. Here, too, have been unearthed
terra-cotta lamps and other antiquities. What are we to surmise from
this? That it was a Roman foundation? Or that the malaria in older
times forced Caulonia to wander towards healthier inland heights after
the example of Sybaris-Terranova, and that the Romans continued to
occupy this same site? Or, assuming Castelvetere to date only from
mediæval times, that these ancient relics found their way into it
accidentally? The low-lying
district of Foca, at this day, is certainly very malarious, whereas the
death-rate up here is only about 12 per 1000.

Dr. Francesco Genovese of Caulonia, to whom I am indebted for much
kindness and who is himself a distinguished worker in the humanitarian
mission of combating malaria, has published, among other interesting
pamphlets, one which deals with this village of Focà, a small place of
about 200 inhabitants, surrounded by fertile orange and vine
plantations near the mouth of the Alaro. His researches into its vital
statistics for the half-century ending 1902 reveal an appalling state
of affairs. Briefly summarized, they amount to this, that during this
period there were 391 births and 516 deaths. In other words, the
village, which in 1902 ought to have contained between 600 and 800
inhabitants, not only failed to progress, but devoured its original
population of 200; and not only them, but also 125 fresh immigrants who
had entered the region from the healthy uplands, lured by the hope of
gaining a little money during the vintage season.

A veritable Moloch!

Had the old city of Caulonia, numbering perhaps 20,000 inhabitants,
stood here under such conditions of hygiene, it would have been
expunged off the face of the earth in fifty years.

Yet—speaking of malaria in general—a good deal of evidence has been
brought together to show that the disease has been endemic in Magna
Græcia for two thousand years, and the customs of the Sybarites seem to
prove that they had some acquaintance with marsh fever, and tried to
guard against it. “Whoever would live long,” so ran their proverb,
“must see neither the rising nor the setting sun.” A queer piece of
advice, intelligible only if the land was infested with malaria. Many
of their luxurious habits assume another import, on this hypothesis.
Like the inhabitants of the malarious Etruscan region, they were adepts
at draining, and their river is described, in one of the minor works
attributed to Galen, as “rendering men infertile”—a characteristic
result of malaria. What is still more significant is that their new
town Thurii, built on the heights, was soon infected, and though twice
repeopled, decayed away. And that they had chosen the heights for their
relative healthfulness we can infer from Strabo, who says that Paestum,
a colony from Sybaris, was removed further inland from the shore, on
account of the pestilential climate of the lowlands.

But the Ionian shores cannot have been as deadly as they now are. We
calculate, for example, that the town walls of Croton measured eighteen
kilometres in circumference, a figure which the modern visitor to
Cotrone only brings himself to believe when he
remembers what can be actually proved of other Hellenic colonies, such
as Syracuse. Well, the populace of so large a city requires a
surrounding district to supply it with agricultural produce. The
Marchesato, the vast tract bordering on Cotrone, is now practically
uninhabitable; the population (including the town) has sunk to 45 to
the square kilometre. That is malaria.

Or rather, only one side of the evil. For these coastlands attract
rural labourers who descend from the mountains during the season of
hay-making or fruit-harvest, and then return infected to their homes.
One single malarious patient may inoculate an entire village, hitherto
immune, granted the anophelines are there to propagate the mischief. By
means of these annual migrations the scourge has spread, in the past.
And so it spreads to-day, whenever possible. Of forty labourers that
left Caulonia for Cotrone in 1908 all returned infected save two, who
had made liberal use of quinine as a prophylactic. Fortunately, there
are no anophelines at Caulonia.

Greatly, indeed, must this country have changed since olden days; and
gleaning here and there among the ancients, Dr. Genovese has garnered
some interesting facts on this head. The coast-line, now unbroken sand,
is called _rocky,_ in several regions, by Strabo, Virgil and Persius
Flaccus; of the two harbours, of Locri, of that of Metapontum, Caulonia
and other cities, nothing remains; the promontory of Cocynthum
(Stilo)—described as the longest promontory in Italy—together with
other capes, has been washed away by the waves or submerged under silt
carried down from the hills; islands, like that of Calypso which is
described in Vincenzo Pascale’s book (1796), and mentioned by G.
Castaldi (1842), have clean vanished from the map.

The woodlands have retired far inland; yet here at Caulonia, says
Thucydides, was prepared the timber for the fleets of Athens. The
rivers, irregular and spasmodic torrents, must have flowed with more
equal and deeper current, since Pliny mentions five of them as
navigable; snow, very likely, covered the mountain tops; the rainfall
was clearly more abundant—one of the sights of Locri was its daily
rainbow; the cicadas of the territory of Reggio are said to have been
“dumb,” on account of the dampness of the climate. They are anything
but dumb nowadays.

Earth-movements, too, have tilted the coast-line up and down, and there
is evidence to show that while the Tyrrhenian shore has been raised by
these oscillations, the Ionian has sunk. Not long ago four columns were
found in the sea at Cotrone two hundred yards from the beach; old
sailors remember another group of columns
visible at low tide near Caulonia. It is quite possible that the Ionian
used to be as rocky as the other shore, and this gradual sinking of the
coast must have retarded the rapid outflow of the rivers, as it has
done in the plain of Paestum and in the Pontine marshes, favouring
malarious conditions. Earthquakes have helped in the work; that of 1908
lowered certain parts of the Calabrian shore opposite Messina by about
one metre. Indeed, though earthquakes have been known to raise the soil
and thereby improve it, the Calabrian ones have generally had a
contrary effect. The terrific upheavals of 1783-1787 produced two
hundred and fifteen lakes in the country; they were drained away in a
style most creditable to the Bourbons, but there followed an epidemic
of malaria which carried off 18,800 people!

These Calabrian conditions are only part of a general change of climate
which seems to have taken place all over Italy; a change to which
Columella refers when, quoting Saserna, he says that formerly the vine
and olive could not prosper “by reason of the severe winter” in certain
places where they have since become abundant, “thanks to a milder
temperature.” We never hear of the frozen Tiber nowadays, and many
remarks of the ancients as to the moist and cold climate seem strange
to us. Pliny praises the chestnuts of Tarentum; I question whether the
tree could survive the hot climate of to-day. Nobody could induce
“splendid beeches” to grow in the _lowlands_ of Latium, yet
Theophrastus, a botanist, says that they were drawn from this region
for shipbuilding purposes. This gradual desiccation has probably gone
on for long ages; so Signor Cavara has discovered old trunks of white
fir in districts of the Apennines where such a plant could not possibly
grow to-day.

A change to a dry and warm atmosphere is naturally propitious to
malaria, granted sufficient water remains to propagate the mosquito.
And the mosquito contents itself with very little—the merest teacupful.

Returning to old Calabria, we find the woods of Locri praised by
Proclus—woods that must have been of coniferous timber, since Virgil
lauds their resinous pitch. Now the Aleppo pine produces pitch, and
would still flourish there, as it does in the lowlands between Taranto
and Metaponto; the classical Sila pitch-trees, however, could not grow
at this level any more. Corroborative evidence can be drawn from
Theocritus, who mentions heath and arbutus as thriving in the marine
thickets near Cotrone—mountain shrubs, nowadays, that have taken refuge
in cooler uplands,
together with the wood-pigeon which haunted the same jungles. It is
true that he hints at marshes near Cotrone, and, indeed, large tracts
of south Italy are described as marshy by the ancients; they may well
have harboured the anopheles mosquito from time immemorial, but it does
not follow that they were malarious.

Much of the healthy physical conditions may have remained into the
Middle Ages or even later; it is strange to read, for example, in
Edrisius, of the pitch and tar that were exported to all parts from the
Bradano river, or of the torrential Sinno that “ships enter this
river—it offers excellent anchorage”; odd, too, to hear of coral
fisheries as late as the seventeenth century at Rocella Ionica, where
the waves now slumber on an even and sandy beach.

But malaria had made insidious strides, meanwhile. Dr. Genovese thinks
that by the year 1691 the entire coast was malarious and abandoned like
now, though only within the last two centuries has man actively
co-operated in its dissemination. So long as the woodlands on the
plains are cut down or grazed by goats, relatively little damage is
done; but it spells ruin to denude, in a country like this, the steep
slopes of their timber. Whoever wishes to know what mischief the goats,
those picturesque but pernicious quadrupeds, can do to a mountainous
country, should study the history of St. Helena.[2] Man, with his
charcoal-burning, has completed the disaster. What happens? The friable
rock, no longer sustained by plant-life, crashes down with each
thunderstorm, blocks up the valleys, devastating large tracts of
fertile land; it creates swamps in the lowlands, and impedes the
outflow of water to the sea. These ravenous _fiumare_ have become a
feature in Calabrian scenery; underneath one of the most terrible of
them lies the birthplace of Praxiteles. Dry or half-dry during the warm
months, and of formidable breadth, such torrent-beds—the stagnant water
at their skirts—are ideal breeding-places for the anophelines from
their mouth up to a height of 250 metres. So it comes about that,
within recent times, rivers have grown to be the main arteries of
malaria. And there are rivers galore in Calabria. The patriotic Barrius
enumerates 110 of them—Father Fiore, less learned, or more prudent, not
quite so many. Deforestation and malaria have gone hand in hand here,
as in Greece, Asia Minor, North Africa, and other countries.

 [2] By J. C. Melliss (London, 1875). Thanks to the goats, Maltese
 fever has lately been introduced into Calabria.

Thus year after year, from one cause or another, the conditions have
become more favourable for the disease to do its fatal work.

[Illustration: Effects of deforestation (Aspromonte)]

That much of this harm has been done quite lately can often be
proved. At Caulonia, for instance, the woodlands are known to have
reached the shore a hundred years ago, and there are bare tracts of
land still bearing the name of “foresta.” In a single summer (1807) a
French regiment stationed at Cosenza lost 800 men from fever, and when
Rath visited the town in 1871 it was described to him as a “vast
hospital” during the hot months; nevertheless, says he, the disease has
only been so destructive during the last two centuries, for up to that
time the forests touched the outskirts of the town and regulated the
Crati-bed, preventing the formation of marshes. The literary record of
Cosenza is one of exceptional brilliance; for acute and original
thought this town can hardly be surpassed by any other of its size on
earth. Were statistics available, I have not the slightest doubt that
fever could be shown to be largely responsible for the withering of its
spiritual life.

The same fate—the same relapse from prosperity to decay—and for the
same reasons, has overtaken many other riverside villages, among them
that of Tarsia, the Caprasia of the Antonine Itinerary. “It was
described to us,” says Rath, “as the most miserable and dirty village
in Calabria; but we found it worse.” It remains, to-day, a highly
infected and altogether pitiable place, concerning which I have made
certain modest researches that would require, none the less, a chapter
to themselves. . . .

Perhaps I have already said over-much on the subject. An Englishman
unacquainted with malaria might think so, oblivious of the fact that
Sir Ronald Ross has called it “perhaps the most important of human
diseases.” But let him go to a malarious country and see with his own
eyes something of the degradation it involves; how it stamps its
accursed imprimatur upon man and nature alike! It is the blight of
youth—the desert-maker. A well-known Italian senator has declared that
the story of south Italy is, was, and will be the story of malaria; and
the greater part of Calabria will certainly remain an enigma to the
traveller who ignores what is meant by this plague.

Malaria is the key to a correct understanding of the landscape; it
explains the inhabitants, their mode of life, their habits, their
history.




XXXV
CAULONIA TO SERRA


“How do you treat your malaria patients?” I once enquired of a doctor
in India.

A few good stiff doses, he said, when the attack is on; that generally
settles them. If not, they can begin again. To take quinine as a
prophylactic, he considered folly. It might grow into a habit; you
never know. . . .

It is to be hoped that such types are extinct, out there. They are
extinct hereabouts. None but an ignorant person would now traverse
malarious tracts in summer without previous quininization; or, if
infected, deal with the disease otherwise than by an amply protracted
treatment of cure. Yet it is only quite lately that we have gained our
knowledge of a proper use of the drug; and this accounts for the great
mortality long after its specific effects had been recognized by the
profession. It was given both inefficiently and insufficiently. It was
sold at a prohibitive price. The country people were distrustful;
so-and-so had taken it for three or four days; he had improved, yes;
but the fever was on him once more. Why waste money on such
experiments?

I remember accosting a lad, anemic, shivering with the tertian, and
marked by that untimely senility which is the sign-manual of malaria. I
suggested quinine.

“I don’t take doctors’ stuff,” he said. “Even if I wanted to, my father
would not let me. And if he did, there’s no money to pay for it. And if
there were, it would do no good. He’s tried it himself.”

“Well, but how are you feeling?”

“Oh, all right. There’s nothing much the matter with me. Just the bad
air.”

Such types, too, are practically extinct nowadays; the people are being
educated to recognize their peril and how to avoid it; they begin to
follow Professor Celli’s advice in the matter of regarding quinine as
their “daily bread.” For since the discovery of the anophelic origin of
malaria many devices have been put into execution to combat the
disease, not the least of them being a
popularized teaching of its causes and consequences by means of
pamphlets, lectures to school-children, and so forth.

Now, you may either fight the anopheles—the vehicle, or the disease
itself. The first entails putting the country into such a state that
the mosquito finds it unpleasant to live there, a labour of Hercules.
Yet large sums are being expended in draining marshy tracts, regulating
river-beds and afforesting bare spaces; and if you are interested in
such works, you will do well to see what is going on at Metaponto at
this moment. (A considerable portion of the Government grant for these
purposes has lately been deflected for use in the Tripolitan war.)
Exemplary fines are also imposed for illicit timber-cutting and
grazing,—in those towns, at least, where the magistrate has sufficient
sense to perceive the ulterior benefits to be derived from what
certainly entails a good deal of temporary hardship on poor people.
Certain economic changes are helping in this work; so the wealth
imported from America helps to break up the big properties, those
latifundia which, says an Italian authority, “are synonymous with
malaria.” The ideal condition—the extirpation of anophelines—will never
be attained; nor is it of vital importance that it should be.

Far more pressing is the protection of man against their attacks.
Wonderful success has crowned the wire-netting of the windows—an
outcome of the classical experiments of 1899, in the Roman Campagna.

But chiefest and most urgent of all is the cure of the infected
population. In this direction, results astonishing—results well-nigh
incredible—have attended the recently introduced governmental sale of
quinine. In the year 1895 there were 16,464 deaths from malaria
throughout Italy. By 1908 the number had sunk to 3463. Eloquent
figures, that require no comment! And, despite the fact that the drug
is now sold at a merely nominal rate or freely given away to the
needy—nay, thrust down the very throats of the afflicted peasantry by
devoted gentlemen who scour the plains with ambulances during the
deadly season—despite this, the yearly profits from its sale are
amounting to about three-quarters of a million francs.

So these forlorn regions are at last beginning to revive.

And returning to Focà, of whose dreadful condition up to 1902 (year of
the introduction of Government quinine) I have just spoken, we find
that a revolution has taken place. Between that year and 1908 the
birth-rate more than doubled the death-rate. In 1908 some two hundred
poor folks frequented the ambulance, nearly six kilogrammes of quinine
being gratuitously distributed;
not one of the natives of the place was attacked by the disease; and
there was a single death—an old woman of eighty, who succumbed to
senile decay.[1]

 [1] Doctor Genovese’s statistical investigations have brought an
 interesting little fact to light. In the debilitating pre-quinine
 period there was a surplus of female births; now, with increased
 healthfulness, those of the males preponderate.

This is an example of what the new quinine-policy has done for Italy,
in briefest space of time. Well may the nation be proud of the men who
conceived this genial and beneficial measure and carried it through
Parliament, and of those local doctors without whose enlightened zeal
such a triumph could not have been achieved. . . .

Sir Ronald Ross’s discovery, by the way, has been fruitful not only in
practical humanitarian results. For instance, it has reduced North’s
laborious “Roman Fever” to something little better than a curiosity.
And here, on these deserted shores that were once resplendent with a
great civilization—here is the place to peruse Mr. W. M. Jones’s
studies on this subject. I will not give even the shortest précis of
his conscientious researches nor attempt to picture their effect upon a
mind trained in the old school of thought; suffice to say, that the
author would persuade us that malaria is implicated, to an hitherto
unsuspected extent, in the decline of ancient Greece and Rome. And he
succeeds. Yes; a man accustomed to weigh evidence will admit, I think,
that he has made out a suggestively strong case.

How puzzled we were to explain why the brilliant life of Magna Graecia
was snuffed out suddenly, like a candle, without any appreciably
efficient cause—how we listened to our preachers cackling about the
inevitable consequences of Sybaritic luxury, and to the warnings of
sage politicians concerning the dangers of mere town-patriotism as
opposed to worthier systems of confederation! How we drank it all in!
And how it warmed the cockles of our hearts to think that we were not
vicious, narrow-minded heathens, such as these!

And now a vulgar gnat is declared to be at the bottom of the whole
mystery.

Crudely disconcerting, these scientific discoveries. Or is it not
rather hard to be dragged to earth in this callous fashion, while
soaring heavenward on the wings of our edifying reflections? For the
rest—the old, old story; a simple, physical explanation of what used to
be an enigma brimful of moral significance.

That Mr. Jones’s facts and arguments will be found applicable to
other decayed races in the old and new worlds is highly probable.
Meanwhile, it takes one’s breath away quite sufficiently to realize
that they apply to Hellas and her old colonies on these shores.

“‘AUTOS. Strange! My interest waxes. Tell me then, what affliction, God
or Devil, wiped away the fair life upon the globe, the beasts, the
birds, the delectable plantations, and all the blithe millions of the
human race? What calamity fell upon them?’

“‘ESCHATA. A gnat.’

“‘AUTOS. A gnat?’

“‘ESCHATA. Even so.’”

Thus I wrote, while yet unaware that such pests as anophelines existed
upon earth. . . .

At the same time, I think we must be cautious in following certain
deductions of our author; that theory of brutality, for example, as
resulting from malaria. Speaking of Calabria, I would almost undertake
to prove, from the archives of law-courts, that certain of the most
malarial tracts are precisely those in which there is least brutality
of any kind. Cotrone, for instance. . . . The _delegato_ (head of the
police) of that town is so young—a mere boy—that I marvelled how he
could possibly have obtained a position which is usually filled by
seasoned and experienced officers. He was a “son of the white hen,”
they told me; that is, a socially favoured individual, who was given
this job for the simple reason that there was hardly any serious work
for him to do. Cosenza, on the other hand, has a very different
reputation nowadays. And it is perfectly easy to explain how malaria
might have contributed to this end. For the disease—and herein lies its
curse—lowers both the physical and social standard of a people; it
breeds misery, poverty and ignorance—fit soil for callous rapacity.

But how about his theory of “pessimism” infecting the outlook of
generations of malaria-weakened sages? I find no trace of pessimism
here, not even in its mild Buddhistic form. The most salient mental
trait of cultured Calabrians is a subtle detachment and contempt of
illusions—whence their time-honoured renown as abstract thinkers and
speculators. This derives from a philosophic view of life and entails,
naturally enough, the outward semblance of gravity—a Spanish gravity,
due not so much to a strong graft of Spanish blood and customs during
the viceregal period, as to actual affinities with the race of Spain.
But this gravity has nothing in common with pessimism, antagonistic
though it be to those outbursts of irresponsible optimism engendered
under northern skies by copious food, or beer.

To reach the uplands of Fabbrizia and Serra, whither I was now bound, I
might have utilized the driving road from Gioioso, on the Reggio side
of Caulonia. But that was everybody’s route. Or I might have gone _via_
Stilo, on the other side. But Stilo with its memories of Campanella—a
Spanish type, this!—and of Otho II, its winding track into the
beech-clad heights of Ferdinandea, was already familiar to me. I
elected to penetrate straight inland by the shortest way; a capable
muleteer at once presented himself.

We passed through one single village, Ragona; leaving those of S.
Nicola and Nardo di Pace on the right. The first of them is celebrated
for its annual miracle of the burning olive, when, armed to the teeth
(for some ancient reason), the populace repairs to the walls of a
certain convent out of which there grows an olive tree: at its foot is
kindled a fire whose flames are sufficient to scorch all the leaves,
but behold! next day the foliage is seen to glow more bravely green
than ever. Perhaps the roots of the tree are near some cistern. These
mountain villages, hidden under oaks and vines, with waters trickling
through their lanes, a fine climate and a soil that bears everything
needful for life, must be ideal habitations for simple folks. In some
of them, the death-rate is as low as 7: 1000. Malaria is unknown here:
they seem to fulfil all the conditions of a terrestrial paradise.

There is a note of joyous vigour in this landscape. The mule-track
winds in and out among the heights, through flowery meadows grazed by
cattle and full of buzzing insects and butterflies, and along
hill-sides cunningly irrigated; it climbs up to heathery summits and
down again through glades of chestnut and ilex with mossy trunks, whose
shadow fosters strange sensations of chill and gloom. Then out again,
into the sunshine of waving corn and poppies.

For a short while we stumbled along a torrent-bed, and I grew rather
sad to think that it might be the last I should see for some time to
come, my days in this country being now numbered. This one was narrow.
But there are others, interminable in length and breadth. Interminable!
No breeze stirs in those deep depressions through which the merest
thread of milky water trickles disconsolately. The sun blazes overhead
and hours pass, while you trudge through the fiery inferno;
scintillations of heat rise from the stones and still you crawl
onwards, breathless and footsore, till eyes are dazed and senses reel.
One may well say bad things of these torrid deserts of pebbles which,
up till lately, were the only highways from the lowlands into the
mountainous parts. But they are sweet in memory. One calls to mind the
wild savours that hang in
the stagnant air; the cloven hill-sides, seamed with gorgeous patches
of russet and purple and green; the spectral tamarisks, and the glory
of coral-tinted oleanders rising in solitary tufts of beauty, or
flaming congregations, out of the pallid waste of boulders.

After exactly six hours Fabbrizia was reached—a large place whose name,
like that of Borgia, Savelli, Carafa and other villages on these
southern hills, calls up associations utterly non-Calabrian; Fabbrizia,
with pretentious new church and fantastically dirty side-streets. It
lies at the respectable elevation of 900 metres, on the summit of a
monstrous landslide which has disfigured the country.

While ascending along the flank of this deformity I was able to see how
the authorities have attempted to cope with the mischief and arrest
further collapses. This is what they have done. The minute channels of
water, that might contribute to the disintegration of the soil by
running into this gaping wound from the sides or above, have been
artfully diverted from their natural courses; trees and shrubs are
planted at its outskirts in order to uphold the earth at these spots by
their roots—they have been protected by barbed wire from the grazing of
cattle; furthermore, a multitude of wickerwork dykes are thrown across
the accessible portions of the scar, to collect the downward-rushing
material and tempt winged plant-seeds to establish themselves on the
ledges thus formed. To bridle this runaway mountain is no mean task,
for such _frane_ are like rodent ulcers, ever enlarging at the edges.
With the heat, with every shower of rain, with every breath of wind,
the earth crumbles away; there is an eternal trickling, day and night,
until some huge boulder is exposed which crashes down, loosening
everything in its wild career; a single tempest may disrupture what the
patience and ingenuity of years have contrived.

Three more hours or thereabouts will take you to Serra San Bruno along
the backbone of southern Italy, through cultivated lands and pasture
and lonely stretches of bracken, once covered by woodlands.

It may well be that the townlet has grown up around, or rather near,
the far-famed Carthusian monastery. I know nothing of its history save
that it has the reputation of being one of the most bigoted places in
Calabria—a fact of which the sagacious General Manhes availed himself
when he devised his original and effective plan of chastising the
inhabitants for a piece of atrocious conduct on their part. He caused
all the local priests to be arrested and imprisoned; the churches were
closed, and the town placed under
what might be called an interdict. The natives took it quietly at
first, but soon the terror of the situation dawned upon them. No
religious marriages, no baptisms, no funerals—the comforts of heaven
refused to living and dead alike. . . . The strain grew intolerable
and, in a panic of remorse, the populace hunted down their own
brigand-relations and handed them over to Manhes, who duly executed
them, one and all. Then the interdict was taken off and the priests set
at liberty; and a certain writer tells us that the people were so
charmed with the General’s humane and businesslike methods that they
forthwith christened him “Saint Manhes,” a name which, he avers, has
clung to him ever since.

The monastery lies about a mile distant; near at hand is a little
artificial lake and the renowned chapel of Santa Maria. There was a
time when I would have dilated lovingly upon this structure—a time when
I probably knew as much about Carthusian convents as is needful for any
of their inmates; when I studied Tromby’s ponderous work and God knows
how many more—ay, and spent two precious weeks of my life in
deciphering certain crabbed MSS. of Tutini in the Brancacciana
library—ay, and tested the spleenful Perrey’s “Ragioni del Regio Fisco,
etc.,” as to the alleged land-grabbing propensities of this order—ay,
and even pilgrimaged to Rome to consult the present general of the
Carthusians (his predecessor, more likely) as to some administrative
detail, all-important, which has wholly escaped my memory. Gone are
those days of studious gropings into blind alleys! The current of zeal
has slowed down or turned aside, maybe, into other channels. They who
wish, will find a description of the pristine splendour of this
monastery in various books by Pacicchelli; the catastrophe of 1783 was
described by Keppel Craven and reported upon, with illustrations, by
the Commission of the Naples Academy; and if you are of a romantic turn
of mind, you will find a good story of the place, as it looked during
the ruinous days of desolation, in Misasi’s “Calabrian Tales.”

It is now rebuilt on modern lines and not much of the original
structure remains upright. I wandered about the precincts in the
company of two white-robed French monks, endeavouring to reconstruct
not the convent as it was in its younger days, but _them._ That older
one, especially—he had known the world. . . .

Meat being forbidden, the godly brethren have a contract for fish to be
brought up every day by the post-carriage from the distant Soverato.
And what happens, I asked, when none are caught?

“Eh bien, nous mangeons des macaroni!”

[Illustration: Old Soverato]

Such a diet would never suit me. Let me retire to a monkery where
carnivorous leanings may be indulged. Methinks I could pray more
cheerfully with the prospect of a rational _déjeuner à la fourchette_
looming ahead.

At the back of the monastery lies a majestic forest of white
firs—nothing but firs; a unique region, so far as south and central
Italy are concerned. I was there in the golden hour after sunset, and
yet again in the twilight of dew-drenched morning; and it seemed to me
that in this temple not made by hands there dwelt an enchantment more
elemental, and more holy, than in the cloistered aisles hard by. This
assemblage of solemn trees has survived, thanks to rare conditions of
soil and climate. The land lies high; the ground is perennially moist
and intersected by a horde of rills that join their waters to form the
river Ancinale; frequent showers descend from above. Serra San Bruno
has an uncommonly heavy rainfall. It lies in a vale occupying the site
of a pleistocene lake, and the forest, now restricted to one side of
the basin, encircled it entirely in olden days. At its margin they have
established a manufactory which converts the wood into paper—blissful
sight for the utilitarian.

Finding little else of interest in Serra, and hungering for the
flesh-pots of Cotrone, I descended by the postal diligence to Soverato,
nearly a day’s journey. Old Soverato is in ruins, but the new town
seems to thrive in spite of being surrounded by deserts of malaria.
While waiting for supper and the train to Cotrone, I strolled along the
beach, and soon found myself sitting beside the bleached anatomy of
some stranded leviathan, and gazing at the mountains of Squillace that
glowed in the soft lights of sunset. The shore was deserted save for
myself and a portly dogana-official who was playing with his little
son—trying to amuse him by elephantine gambols on the sand, regardless
of his uniform and manly dignity. Notwithstanding his rotundity, he was
an active and resourceful parent, and enjoyed himself vastly; the boy
pretending, as polite children sometimes do, to enter into the fun of
the game.




XXXVI
MEMORIES OF GISSING


Two new hotels have recently sprung up at Cotrone. With laudable
patriotism, they are called after its great local champions, athletic
and spiritual, in ancient days—Hotel Milo and Hotel Pythagoras. As
such, they might be expected to make a strong appeal to the muscles and
brains of their respective clients. I rather fancy that the chief
customers of both are commercial travellers who have as little of the
one as of the other, and to whom these fine names are Greek.

As for myself, I remain faithful to the “Concordia” which has twice
already sheltered me within its walls.

The shade of George Gissing haunts these chambers and passages. It was
in 1897 that he lodged here with that worthy trio: Gibbon, Lenormant
and Cassiodorus. The chapters devoted to Cotrone are the most lively
and characteristic in his “Ionian Sea.” Strangely does the description
of his arrival in the town, and his reception in the “Concordia,”
resemble that in Bourget’s “Sensations.”

The establishment has vastly improved since those days. The food is
good and varied, the charges moderate; the place is spotlessly clean in
every part—I could only wish that the hotels in some of our English
country towns were up to the standard of the “Concordia” in this
respect. “One cannot live without cleanliness,” as the housemaid,
assiduously scrubbing, remarked to me. It is also enlarged; the old
dining-room, whose guests are so humorously described by him, is now my
favourite bedroom, while those wretched oil-lamps sputtering on the
wall have been replaced by a lavish use of electricity. One is hardly
safe, however, in praising these inns over-much; they are so apt to
change hands. So long as competition with the two others continues, the
“Concordia” will presumably keep to its present level.

Of freaks in the dining-room, I have so far only observed one whom
Gissing might have added to his collection. He is a _director_ of some
kind, and his method of devouring maccheroni I unreservedly admire—it
displays that lack of all effort which distinguishes true art from
false. He does not eat them with
deliberate mastication; he does not even—like your ordinary
amateur—drink them in separate gulps; but he contrives, by some
swiftly-adroit process of levitation, that the whole plateful shall
rise in a noiseless and unbroken flood from the table to his mouth,
whence it glides down his gullet with the relentless ease of a river
pouring into a cavern. Altogether, a series of films depicting him at
work upon a meal would make the fortune of a picture-show company—in
England. Not here, however; such types are too common to be remarked,
the reason being that boys are seldom sent to boarding schools where
stereotyped conventions of “good form” are held up for their imitation,
but brought up at home by adoring mothers who care little for such
externals or, if they do, have no great authority to enforce their
views. On entering the world, these eccentricities in manner are
proudly clung to, as a sign of manly independence.

Death has made hideous gaps in the short interval. The kindly
Vice-Consul at Catanzaro is no more; the mayor of Cotrone, whose permit
enabled Gissing to visit that orchard by the riverside, has likewise
joined the majority; the housemaid of the “Concordia,” the domestic
serf with dark and fiercely flashing eyes—dead! And dead is mine
hostess, “the stout, slatternly, sleepy woman, who seemed surprised at
my demand for food, but at length complied with it.”

But the little waiter is alive and now married; and Doctor Sculco still
resides in his aristocratic _palazzo_ up that winding way in the old
town, with the escutcheon of a scorpion—portentous emblem for a
doctor—over its entrance. He is a little greyer, no doubt; but the same
genial and alert personage as in those days.

I called on this gentleman, hoping to obtain from him some
reminiscences of Gissing, whom he attended during a serious illness.

“Yes,” he replied, to my enquiries, “I remember him quite well; the
young English poet who was ill here. I prescribed for him. Yes—yes! He
wore his hair long.”

And that was all I could draw from him. I have noticed more than once
that Italian physicians have a stern conception of the Hippocratic
oath: the affairs of their patients, dead or alive, are a sacred trust
in perpetuity.

The town, furthermore, has undergone manifold improvements in those few
years. Trees are being planted by the roadsides; electric light is
everywhere and, best of all, an excellent water-supply has been led
down from the cool heights of the Sila, bringing cleanliness, health
and prosperity in its train. And a stately cement-bridge is being built
over the Esaro, that “all but stagnant
and wholly pestilential stream.” The Esaro _glides pleasantly,_ says
the chronicler Nola Molisi. Perhaps it really glided, in his day.

One might do worse than spend a quiet month or two at Cotrone in the
spring, for the place grows upon one: it is so reposeful and orderly.
But not in winter. Gissing committed the common error of visiting south
Italy at that season when, even if the weather will pass, the country
and its inhabitants are not true to themselves. You must not come to
these parts in winter time.

Nor yet in the autumn, for the surrounding district is highly
malarious. Thucydides already speaks of these coastlands as depopulated
(relatively speaking, I suppose), and under the Romans they recovered
but little; they have only begun to revive quite lately.[1] Yet this
town must have looked well enough in the twelfth century, since it is
described by Edrisius as “a very old city, primitive and beautiful,
prosperous and populated, in a smiling position, with walls of defence
and an ample port for anchorage.” I suspect that the history of Cotrone
will be found to bear out Professor Celli’s theory of the periodical
recrudescences and abatements of malaria. However that may be, the
place used to be in a deplorable state. Riedesel (1771) calls it “la
ville la plus affreuse de l’Italie, et peut-être du monde entier”;
twenty years later, it is described as “sehr ungesund ... so ärmlich
als möglich”; in 1808 it was “réduite à une population de trois mille
habitants rongés par la misère, et les maladies qu’occasionne la
stagnation des eaux qui autrefois fertilisaient ces belles campagnes.”
In 1828, says Vespoli, it contained only 3932 souls.

 [1] Between 1815—1843, and in this single province of Catanzaro, there
 was an actual decline in the population of thirty-six towns and
 villages. Malaria!

I rejoice to cite such figures. They show how vastly Cotrone, together
with the rest of Calabria, has improved since the Bourbons were ousted.
The sack of the town by their hero Cardinal Ruffo, described by Pepe
and others, must have left long traces. “Horrible was the carnage
perpetrated by these ferocious bands. Neither age nor sex nor condition
was spared. . . . After two days of pillage accompanied by a multitude
of excesses and cruelties, they erected, on the third day, a
magnificent altar in the middle of a large square” —and here the
Cardinal, clothed in his sacred purple, praised the good deeds of the
past two days and then, raising his arms, displayed a crucifix,
absolving his crew from the faults committed during the ardour of the
sack, and blessed them.

[Illustration: The modern Aesarus]

I shall be sorry to leave these regions for the north, as leave them I
must, in shortest time. The bathing alone would tempt me to prolong my
stay, were it possible. Whereas Taranto, despite its
situation, possesses no convenient beach, there are here, on either
side of the town, leagues of shimmering sand lapped by tepid and
caressing waves; it is a sunlit solitude; the land is your own, the sea
your own, as far as eye can reach. One may well become an amphibian, at
Cotrone.

The inhabitants of this town are well-mannered and devoid of the
“ineffable” air of the Tarentines. But they are not a handsome race.
Gissing says, à propos of the products of a local photographer, that it
was “a hideous exhibition; some of the visages attained an incredible
degree of vulgar ugliness.” That is quite true. Old authors praise the
beauty of the women of Cotrone, Bagnara, and other southern towns; for
my part, I have seldom found good-looking women in the coastlands of
Calabria; the matrons, especially, seem to favour that ideal of the
Hottentot Venus which you may study in the Jardin des Plantes; they are
decidedly centripetal. Of the girls and boys one notices only those who
possess a peculiar trait: the eyebrows pencilled in a dead straight
line, which gives them an almost hieratic aspect. I cannot guess from
what race is derived this marked feature which fades away with age as
the brows wax thicker and irregular in contour. We may call it Hellenic
on the old-fashioned principle that everything attractive comes from
the Greeks, while its opposite is ascribed to those unfortunate “Arabs”
who, as a matter of fact, are a sufficiently fine-looking breed.

And there must be very little Greek blood left here. The town—among
many similar vicissitudes—was peopled largely by Bruttians, after
Hannibal had established himself here. In the Viceregal period, again,
there was a great infusion of Spanish elements. A number of Spanish
surnames still linger on the spot.

And what of Gissing’s other friend, the amiable guardian of the
cemetery? “His simple good nature and intelligence greatly won upon me.
I like to think of him as still quietly happy amid his garden walls,
tending flowers that grow over the dead at Cotrone.”

Dead, like those whose graves he tended; like Gissing himself. He
expired in February 1901—the year of the publication of the “Ionian
Sea,” and they showed me his tomb near the right side of the entrance;
a poor little grave, with a wooden cross bearing a number, which will
soon be removed to make room for another one.

This cemetery by the sea is a fair green spot, enclosed in a high wall
and set with flowering plants and comely cypresses that look well
against their background of barren clay-hills. Wandering here, I called
to mind the decent cemetery of Lucera, and that of
Manfredonia, built in a sleepy hollow at the back of the town which the
monks in olden days had utilized as their kitchen garden (it is one of
the few localities where deep soil can be found on that thirsty
limestone plain); I remembered the Venosa burial-ground near the site
of the Roman amphitheatre, among the tombs of which I had vainly
endeavoured to find proofs that the name of Horace is as common here as
that of Manfred in those other two towns; the Taranto cemetery, beyond
the railway quarter, somewhat overloaded with pretentious ornaments; I
thought of many cities of the dead, in places recently explored—that of
Rossano, ill-kept within, but splendidly situated on a projecting spur
that dominates the Ionian; of Caulonia, secluded among ravines at the
back of the town. . . .

They are all full of character; a note in the landscape, with their
cypresses darkly towering amid the pale and lowly olives; one would
think the populace had thrown its whole poetic feeling into the choice
of these sites and their embellishments. But this is not the case; they
are chosen merely for convenience—not too far from habitations, and yet
on ground that is comparatively cheap. Nor are they truly venerable,
like ours. They date, for the most part, from the time when the
Government abolished the old system of inhumation in churches—a system
which, for the rest, still survives; there are over six hundred of
these _fosse carnarie_ in use at this moment, most of them in churches.

And a sad thought obtrudes itself in these oases of peace and verdure.
The Italian law requires that the body shall be buried within
twenty-four hours after decease (the French consider forty-eight hours
too short a term, and are thinking of modifying their regulations in
this respect): a doctor’s certificate of death is necessary but often
impossible to procure, since some five hundred Italian communities
possess no medical man whatever. Add to this, the superstitions of
ignorant country people towards the dead, testified to by extraordinary
beliefs and customs which you will find in Pitré and other collectors
of native lore—their mingled fear and hatred of a corpse, which prompts
them to thrust it underground at the earliest possible opportunity. . .
. Premature burial must be all too frequent here. I will not enlarge
upon the theme of horror by relating what gravediggers have seen with
their own eyes on disturbing old coffins; if only half what they tell
me is true, it reveals a state of affairs not to be contemplated
without shuddering pity, and one that calls for prompt legislation.
Only last year a frightful case came to light in Sicily. _Videant
Consules._

[Illustration: The Cemetery of Cotrone]

Here, at the cemetery, the driving road abruptly ends;
thenceforward there is merely a track along the sea that leads,
ultimately, to Capo Nau, where stands a solitary column, last relic of
the great temple of Hera. I sometimes follow it as far as certain wells
that are sunk, Arab-fashion, into the sand, and dedicated to Saint
Anne. Goats and cows recline here after their meagre repast of scorched
grasses, and the shepherds in charge have voices so soft, and manners
so gentle, as to call up suggestions of the Golden Age. These pastoral
folk are the primitives of Cotrone. From father to son, for untold ages
before Theocritus hymned them, they have kept up their peculiar habits
and traditions; between them and the agricultural classes is a gulf as
deep as between these and the citizens. Conversing with them, one
marvels how the same occupation can produce creatures so unlike as
these and the goat-boys of Naples, the most desperate _camorristi._

The cows may well be descendants of the sacred cattle of Hera that
browsed under the pines which are known to have clothed the bleak
promontory. You may encounter them every day, wandering on the way to
the town which they supply with milk; to avoid the dusty road, they
march sedately through the soft wet sand at the water’s edge, their
silvery bodies outlined against a cærulean flood of sky and sea.

On this promenade I yesterday observed, slow-pacing beside the waves, a
meditative priest, who gave me some details regarding the ruined church
of which Gissing speaks. It lies in the direction of the cemetery,
outside the town; “its lonely position,” he says, “made it interesting,
and the cupola of coloured tiles (like that of the cathedral of Amalfi)
remained intact, a bright spot against the grey hills behind.” This
cupola has recently been removed, but part of the old walls serve as
foundation for a new sanctuary, a sordid-looking structure with
red-tiled roof: I am glad to have taken a view of it, some years ago,
ere its transformation. Its patroness is the Madonna del Carmine—the
same whose church in Naples is frequented by thieves and cut-throats,
who make a special cult of this Virgin Mother and invoke Her blessing
on their nefarious undertakings.

The old church, he told me, was built in the middle of the seventeenth
century; this new one, he agreed, might have been constructed on more
ambitious lines, “but nowadays——” and he broke off, with eloquent
aposiopesis.

It was the same, he went on, with the road to the cemetery; why should
it not be continued right up to the cape of the Column as in olden
days, over ground _dove ogni passo è una memoria:_ where every footstep
is a memory?

_“_Rich Italians,” he said, “sometimes give away money to benefit the
public. But the very rich—never! And at Cotrone, you must remember,
every one belongs to the latter class.”

We spoke of the Sila, which he had occasionally visited.

“What?” he asked incredulously, “you have crossed the whole of that
country, where there is nothing to eat—nothing in the purest and most
literal sense of that word? My dear sir! You must feel like Hannibal,
after his passage of the Alps.”

Those barren clay-hills on our right of which Gissing speaks (they are
like the _balze_ of the Apennines) annoyed him considerably; they were
the malediction of the town, he declared. At the same time, they
supplied him with the groundwork of a theory for which there is a good
deal to be said. The old Greek city, he conjectured, must have been
largely built of bricks made from their clay, which is once more being
utilized for this purpose. How else account for its utter
disappearance? Much of the finer buildings were doubtless of stone, and
these have been worked into the fort, the harbour and _palazzi_ of new
Cotrone; but this would never account for the vanishing of a town
nearly twelve miles in circumference. Bricks, he said, would explain
the mystery; they had crumbled into dust ere yet the Romans rebuilt,
with old Greek stones, the city on the promontory now occupied by the
new settlement.

The modern palaces on the rising ground of the citadel are worthy of a
visit; they are inhabited by some half-dozen “millionaires” who have
given Cotrone the reputation of being the richest town of its size in
Italy. So far as I can judge, the histories of some of these wealthy
families would be curious reading.

“Gentlemen,” said the Shepherd, “if you have designs of Trading, you
must go another way; but if you’re of the admired sort of Men, that
have the thriving qualifications of Lying and Cheating, you’re in the
direct Path to Business; for in this City no Learning flourisheth;
Eloquence finds no room here; nor can Temperance, Good Manners, or any
Vertue meet with a Reward; assure yourselves of finding but two sorts
of Men, and those are the Cheated, and those that Cheat.”

If gossip at Naples and elsewhere is to be trusted, old Petronius seems
to have had a prophetic glimpse of the _dessus du panier_ of modern
Cotrone.




XXXVII
COTRONE


The sun has entered the Lion. But the temperature at Cotrone is not
excessive—five degrees lower than Taranto or Milan or London. One grows
weary, none the less, of the deluge of implacable light that descends,
day after day, from the aether. The glistering streets are all but
deserted after the early hours of the morning. A few busy folks move
about till midday on the pavements; and so do I—in the water. But the
long hours following luncheon are consecrated to meditation and repose.

A bundle of Italian newspapers has preceded me hither; upon these I
browse dispersedly, while awaiting the soft call to slumber. Here are
some provincial sheets—the “Movement” of Castrovillari—the “New
Rossano”—the “Bruttian” of Corigliano, with strong literary flavour.
Astonishing how decentralized Italy still is, how brimful of purely
local patriotism: what conception have these men of Rome as their
capital? These articles often reflect a lively turmoil of ideas,
well-expressed. Who pays for such journalistic ventures? Typography is
cheap, and contributors naturally content themselves with the ample
remuneration of appearing in print before their fellow-citizens; a
considerable number of copies are exported to America. Yet I question
whether the circulation of the “New Rossano,” a fortnightly in its
sixth year, can exceed five hundred copies.

But these venial and vapid Neapolitan dailies are my pet aversion. We
know them, _nous autres,_ with their odious personalities and playful
blackmailing tactics; many “distinguished foreigners,” myself included,
could tell a tale anent that subject. Instead of descending to such
matters, let me copy—it is too good to translate—a thrilling item of
news from the chiefest of them, the _Mattino,_ which touches,
furthermore, upon the all-important subject of Calabrian progress.

“CETRARO. Per le continuate premure ed insistenze di questo egregio
uffiziale postale Signor Rocca Francesco—che nulla lascia
pel bene avviamento del nostro uffizio—presso l’ on. Direzione delle
poste di Cosenza, si è ottenuta una cassetta postale, che affissa lungo
il Corso Carlo Pancaso, ci dà la bella commodità di imbucare le nostre
corrispondenze per essere rilevate tre volte al giorno non solo, quanto
ci evita persino la dolorosa e lunga via crucis che dovevamo percorrere
qualvolta si era costretti d’ imbuccare una lettera, essendo il nostro
uffizio situato all’ estremità del paese.

“Tributiamo perciò sincera lode al nostro caro uffiziale postale Sig.
Rocca, e ci auguriamo che egli continui ancora al miglioramento dell’
uffizio istesso, e mercè l’ opera sua costante ed indefessa siamo
sicuri che l’ uffizio postale di Cetraro assurgerà fra non molto ad un’
importanza maggiore di quella che attualmente.”

The erection of a letter-box in the street of a small place of which 80
per cent of the readers have never so much as heard. ... I begin to
understand why the cultured Tarentines do not read these journals.

By far the best part of all such papers is the richly-tinted personal
column, wherein lovers communicate with each other, or endeavour to do
so. I read it conscientiously from beginning to end, admiring, in my
physical capacity, the throbbing passion that prompts such public
outbursts of confidence and, from a literary point of view, their
lapidary style, model of condensation, impossible to render in English
and conditioned by the hard fact that every word costs two sous. Under
this painful material stress, indeed, the messages are sometimes
crushed into a conciseness which the females concerned must have some
difficulty in unperplexing: what on earth does the parsimonious
_Flower_ mean by his Delphic fourpenny worth, thus punctuated—

“(You have) not received. How. Safety.”

One cannot help smiling at this circuitous and unromantic method of
touching the hearts of ladies who take one’s fancy; at the same time,
it testifies to a resourceful vitality, striving to break through the
barriers of Hispano-Arabic convention which surround the fair sex in
this country. They are nothing if not poetic, these love-sick swains.
_Arrow_ murmurs: “My soul lies on your pillow, caressing you softly”;
_Strawberry_ laments that “as bird outside nest, I am alone and lost.
What sadness,” and _Star_ finds the “Days eternal, till Thursday.” And
yet they often choose rather prosaic pseudonyms. Here is _Sahara_ who
“suffers from your silence,” while _Asthma_ is “anticipating one
endless kiss,” and _Old England_ observing, more ir sorrow than in
anger, that he “waited vainly one whole hour.”

But the sagacious _Cooked Lobster_ desires, before commiting himself
further, “a personal interview.” He has perhaps been cooked once
before.

Letters and numbers are best, after all. So thinks F. N. 13, who is
utterly disgusted with his flame—

“Your silence speaks. Useless saying anything. Ça ira.” And likewise
7776—B, a designing rogue and plainly a spendthrift, who wastes
ninepence in making it clear that he “wishes to marry rich young lady,
forgiving youthful errors.” If I were the girl, I would prefer to take
my chances with “Cooked Lobster.”

_“Will much-admired young-lady cherries-in-black-hat indicate method
possible correspondence_ 10211, _Post-Office?”_

How many of these arrows, I wonder, reach their mark?

Ah, here are politics and News of the World, at last. A promising
article on the “Direttissimo Roma-Napoli”—the railway line that is to
connect the two towns by way of the Pontine Marshes. . . . Dear me!
This reads very familiarly. . . . Why, to be sure, it is the identical
dissertation, with a few changes by the office-boy, that has cropped up
periodically in these pages for the last half-century, or whenever the
railway was first projected. The line, as usual, is being projected
more strenuously than before, and certain members of the government
have gone so far as to declare. . . . H’m! Let me try something else:
“The Feminist Movement in England” by Our London Correspondent (who
lives in a little side street off the Toledo); that sounds stimulating.
. . . The advanced English Feminists—so it runs—are taking the lead in
encouraging their torpid sisters on the Continent. . . . Hardly a day
passes, that some new manifestation of the Feminist Movement ... in
fact, it may be avowed that the Feminist Movement in England. . . .

The air is cooler, as I awake, and looking out of the window I perceive
from the mellow light-effects that day is declining.

Towards this sunset hour the unbroken dome of the sky often undergoes a
brief transformation. High-piled masses of cloud may then be seen
accumulating over the Sila heights and gathering auxiliaries from every
quarter; lightning is soon playing about the livid and murky
vapours—you can hear the thunders muttering, up yonder, to some
drenching downpour. But on the plain the sun continues to shine in
vacuously benevolent fashion; nothing is felt of the tempest save
unquiet breaths of wind that raise dust-eddies from the country roads
and lash the sea into a mock frenzy of crisp little waves. It is the
merest interlude. Soon the blue-black drifts have fled away from the
mountains that stand out, clear and
refreshed, in the twilight. The wind has died down, the storm is over
and Cotrone thirsts, as ever, for rain that never comes. Yet they have
a Madonna-picture here—a celebrated _black_ Madonna, painted by Saint
Luke—who “always procures rain, when prayed to.”

Once indeed the tail of a shower must have passed overhead, for there
fell a few sad drops. I hurried abroad, together with some other
citizens, to observe the phenomenon. There was no doubt about the
matter; it was genuine rain; the drops lay, at respectable intervals,
on the white dust of the station turnpike. A boy, who happened to be
passing in a cart, remarked that if the shower could have been
collected into a saucer or some other small receptacle, it might have
sufficed to quench the thirst of a puppy-dog.

I usually take a final dip in the sea, at this time of the evening.
After that, it is advisable to absorb an ice or two—they are excellent,
at Cotrone—and a glass of Strega liqueur, to ward off the effects of
over-work. Next, a brief promenade through the clean, well-lighted
streets and now populous streets, or along the boulevard Margherita to
view the rank and fashion taking the air by the murmuring waves, under
the cliff-like battlements of Charles the Fifth’s castle; and so to
dinner.

This meal marks the termination of my daily tasks; nothing serious is
allowed to engage my attention, once that repast is ended; I call for a
chair and sit down at one of the small marble-topped tables in the open
street and watch the crowd as it floats around me, smoking a Neapolitan
cigar and imbibing, alternately, ices and black coffee until, towards
midnight, a final bottle of _vino di Cirò_ is uncorked—fit seal for the
labours of the day.

One might say much in praise of Calabrian wine. The land is full of
pleasant surprises for the œnophilist, and one of these days I hope to
embody my experiences in the publication of a wine-chart of the
province with descriptive text running alongside—the purchasers of
which, if few, will certainly be of the right kind. The good Dr.
Barth—all praise to him!—has already done something of the kind for
certain parts of Italy, but does not so much as mention Calabria. And
yet here nearly every village has its own type of wine and every
self-respecting family its own peculiar method of preparation, little
known though they be outside the place of production, on account of the
octroi laws which strangle internal trade and remove all stimulus to
manufacture a good article for export. This wine of Cirò, for instance,
is purest nectar, and so is that which grows still nearer at hand in
the classical vale of the
Neto and was praised, long ago, by old Pliny; and so are at least two
dozen more. For even as Gregorovius says that the smallest Italian
community possesses its duly informed antiquarian, if you can but put
your hand upon him, so, I may be allowed to add, every little place
hereabouts can boast of at least one individual who will give you good
wine, provided—provided you go properly to work to find him.

Now although, when young, the Calabrian Bacchus has a wild-eyed _beauté
du diable_ which appeals to one’s expansive moods, he already begins to
totter, at seven years of age, in sour, decrepit eld. To pounce upon
him at the psychological moment, to discover in whose cool and cobwebby
cellar he is dreaming out his golden summer of manhood—that is what a
foreigner can never, never hope to achieve, without competent local
aid.

To this end, I generally apply to the priests; not because they are the
greatest drunkards (far from it; they are mildly epicurean, or even
abstemious) but by reason of their unrivalled knowledge of
personalities. They know exactly who has been able to keep his liquor
of such and such a year, and who has been obliged to sell or partially
adulterate it; they know, from the confessional of the wives, the why
and wherefore of all such private family affairs and share, with the
chemist, the gift of seeing furthest into the tangled web of home life.
They are “gialosi,” however, of these acquirements, and must be
approached in the right spirit—a spirit of humility. But if you
tactfully lead up to the subject by telling of the manifold hardships
of travel in foreign lands, the discomfort of life in hostelries, the
food that leaves so much to be desired and, above all, the coarse wine
that is already beginning, you greatly fear, to injure your sensitive
spleen (an important organ, in Calabria), inducing a hypochondriacal
tendency to see all the beauties of this fair land in an odious and
sombre light—turning your day into night, as it were—it must be an odd
priest, indeed, who is not compassionately moved to impart the desired
information regarding the whereabouts of the best _vino di famiglia_ at
that moment obtainable. After all, it costs him nothing to do a double
favour—one to yourself and another to the proprietor of the wine,
doubtless an old friend of his, who will be able to sell his stuff to a
foreigner 20 per cent dearer than to a native.

And failing the priests, I go to an elderly individual of that tribe of
red-nosed connaisseurs, the coachmen, ever thirsty and mercenary souls,
who for a small consideration may be able to disclose not only this
secret, but others far more mysterious.

As to your host at the inn—he raises not the least objection to
your importing alien liquor into his house. His own wine, he tells you,
is last year’s vintage and somewhat harsh (slightly watered, he might
add)—and why not? The ordinary customers are gentlemen of commerce who
don’t care a fig what they eat and drink, so long as there is enough of
it. No horrible suggestions are proffered concerning corkage; on the
contrary, he tests your wine, smacks his lips, and thanks you for
communicating a valuable discovery. He thinks he will buy a bottle or
two for the use of himself and a few particular friends. . . .

Midnight has come and gone. The street is emptying; the footsteps of
passengers begin to ring hollow. I arise, for my customary stroll in
the direction of the cemetery, to attune myself to repose by shaking
off those restlessly trivial images of humanity which might otherwise
haunt my slumbers.

Town visions are soon left behind; it is very quiet here under the hot,
starlit heavens; nothing speaks of man save the lighthouse flashing in
ghostly activity—no, it is a fixed light—on the distant Cape of the
Column. And nothing breaks the stillness save the rhythmic breathing of
the waves, and a solitary cricket that has yet to finish his daily task
of instrumental music, far away, in some warm crevice of the hills.

A suave odour rises up from the narrow patch of olives, and figs loaded
with fruit, and ripening vines, that skirts the path by the beach. _The
fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender
grape give a good smell._

And so I plough my way through the sand, in the darkness, encompassed
by tepid exhalations of earth and sea. Another spirit has fallen upon
me—a spirit of biblical calm. Here, then, stood _the rejoicing city
that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none
beside me: how is she become a desolation!_ It is indeed hard to
realize that a town thronged with citizens covered all this area. Yet
so it is. Every footstep is a memory. Along this very track walked the
sumptuous ladies of Croton on their way to deposit their vain jewels
before the goddess Hera, at the bidding of Pythagoras. On this spot,
maybe, stood that public hall which was specially built for the
delivery of his lectures.

No doubt the townsfolk had been sunk in apathetic luxury; the time was
ripe for a Messiah.

And lo! he appeared.




XXXVIII
THE SAGE OF CROTON


The popularity of this sage at Croton offers no problem: the
inhabitants had become sufficiently civilized to appreciate the charm
of being regenerated. We all do. Renunciation has always exercised an
irresistible attraction for good society; it makes us feel so
comfortable, to be told we are going to hell—and Pythagoras was very
eloquent on the subject of Tartarus as a punishment. The Crotoniates
discovered in repentance of sins a new and subtle form of pleasure;
exactly as did the Florentines, when Savonarola appeared on the scene.

Next: his doctrines found a ready soil in Magna Graecia which was
already impregnated with certain vague notions akin to those he
introduced. And then—he permitted and even encouraged the emotional sex
to participate in the mysteries; the same tactics that later on
materially helped the triumph of Christianity over the more exclusive
and rational cult of Mithra. Lastly, he came with a “message,” like the
Apostle of the Gentiles; and in those times a preaching reformer was a
novelty. That added a zest.

We know them a little better, nowadays.

He enjoyed the specious and short-lived success that has attended,
elsewhere, such efforts to cultivate the _ego_ at the expense of its
environment. “A type of aspiring humanity,” says Gissing, echoing the
sentiments of many of us, “a sweet and noble figure, moving as a dim
radiance through legendary Hellas.” I fancy that the mist of centuries
of undiscriminating admiration has magnified this figure out of all
proportion and contrived, furthermore, to fix an iridescent nimbus of
sanctity about its head. Such things have been known to happen, in
foggy weather.

Was Greece so very legendary, in those times? Why, on the contrary, it
was full of real personages, of true sages to whom it seemed as if no
secrets of heaven or earth were past fathoming; far from being
legendary, the country had never attained a higher plane of
intellectual curiosity than when Pythagoras made his appearance. And it
cannot be gainsaid that he and his disciples gave the
impetus away from these wise and beneficial researches into the arid
regions of metaphysics. It is so much more gentlemanly (and so much
easier) to talk bland balderdash about soul-migrations than to
calculate an eclipse of the moon or bother about the circulation of the
blood.

That a man of his speculative vigour, knowing so many extra-Hellenic
races, should have hit upon one or two good things adventitiously is
only to be expected. But they were mere by-products. One might as well
praise John Knox for creating the commons of Scotland with a view to
the future prosperity of that country—a consummation which his black
fanaticism assuredly never foresaw.

The chief practical doctrine of Pythagoras, that mankind are to be
governed on the principle of a community of eastern monks, makes for
the disintegration of rational civic life.

And his chief theoretical doctrines, of metempsychosis and the
reduction of everything to a system of numbers[1]—these are sheer
lunacy.

 [1] Vincenzo Dorsa, an Albanian, has written two pamphlets on the
 survival of Greco-Roman traditions in Calabria. They are difficult to
 procure, but whoever is lucky enough to find them will be much helped
 in his understanding of the common people. In one place, he speaks of
 the charm-formula of _Otto-Nave!_ (Eight-Nine) It is considered meet
 and proper, in the presence of a suckling infant, to spit thrice and
 then call out, three times, Otto-Nove! This brings luck; and the
 practice, he thinks, is an echo of the number-system of Pythagoras.

Was it not something of a relapse, after the rigorous mental discipline
of old, to have a man gravely assuring his fellows that he is the son
of Hermes and the divinely appointed messenger of Apollo; treating
diseases, like an Eskimo Angekok, by incantation; recording veracious
incidents of his experiences during a previous life in Hell, which he
seems to have explored almost as thoroughly as Swedenborg; dabbling in
magic, and consulting dreams, birds and the smoke of incense as
oracles? And in the exotic conglomerate of his teachings are to be
found the _prima stamina_ of much that is worse: the theory of the
pious fraud which has infected Latin countries to this day; the
Jesuitical maxim of the end justifying the means; the insanity of
preferring deductions to facts which has degraded philosophy up to the
days of Kant; mysticism, demon-worship and much else of pernicious
mettle—they are all there, embryonically embedded in Pythagoras.

We are told much of his charity; indeed, an English author has written
a learned work to prove that Pythagoreanism has close affinities with
Christianity. Charity has now been tried on an ample scale, and has
proved a dismal failure. To give, they say, is more blessed than to
receive. It is certainly far easier, for the most
part, to give than to refrain from giving. We are at last shaking off
the form, of self-indulgence called charity; we realize that if mankind
is to profit, sterner conceptions must prevail. The apotheosis of the
god-favoured loafer is drawing to a close.

For the rest, there was the inevitable admixture of quackery about our
reforming sage; his warmest admirers cannot but admit that he savours
somewhat strongly of the holy impostor. Those charms and amulets, those
dark gnomic aphorisms which constitute the stock-in-trade of all
religious cheap-jacks, the bribe of future life, the sacerdotal tinge
with its complement of mendacity, the secrecy of doctrine, the
pretentiously-mysterious self-retirement, the “sacred quaternion,” the
bean-humbug . . .

He had the true maraboutic note.

And for me, this regenerator crowned with a saintly aureole remains a
glorified marabout—an intellectual dissolvent; the importer of that
oriental introspectiveness which culminated in the idly-splendid
yearnings of Plato, paved the way for the quaint Alexandrian
_tutti-frutti_ known as Christianity, and tainted the well-springs of
honest research for two thousand years. By their works ye shall known
them. It was the Pythagoreans who, not content with a just victory over
the Sybarites, annihilated their city amid anathemas worthy of those
old Chaldeans (past masters in the art of pious cursings); a crime
against their common traditions and common interests; a piece of
savagery which wrecked Hellenic civilization in Italy. It is ever thus,
when the soul is appointed arbiter over reason. It is ever thus, when
gentle, god-fearing dreamers meddle with worldly affairs. Beware of the
wrath of the lamb!

So rapidly did the virus act, that soon we find Plato declaring that
all the useful arts are _degrading;_ that “so long as a man tries to
study any sensible object, he can never be said to be learning
anything”; in other words, that the kind of person to whom one looks
for common sense should be excluded from the management of his most
refined republic. It needed courage of a rather droll kind to make such
propositions in Greece, under the shadow of the Parthenon. And hand in
hand with this feudalism in philosophy there began that unhealthy
preoccupation with the morals of our fellow-creatures, that miasma of
puritanism, which has infected life and literature up to this moment.

The Renaissance brought many fine things to England. But the wicked
fairy was there with her gift: Pythagoras and Plato. We were not like
the Italians who, after the first rapture of discovery was over, soon
outgrew these distracted dialectics; we stuck fast in
them. Hence our Platonic touch: our _demi-vierge_ attitude in matters
of the mind, our academic horror of clean thinking. How Plato hated a
fact! He could find no place for it in his twilight world of
abstractions. Was it not he who wished to burn the works of Democritus
of Abdera, most exact and reasonable of old sages?

They are all alike, these humanitarian lovers of first causes. Always
ready to burn something, or somebody; always ready with their cheerful
Hell-fire and gnashing of teeth.

_Know thyself:_ to what depths of vain, egocentric brooding has that
dictum led! But we are discarding, now, such a mischievously narrow
view of the Cosmos, though our upbringing is still too rhetorical and
mediæval to appraise its authors at their true worth. Youth is prone to
judge with the heart rather than the head; youth thrives on vaporous
ideas, and there was a time when I would have yielded to none in my
enthusiasm for these mellifluous babblers; one had a blind, sentimental
regard for their great names. It seems to me, now, that we take them
somewhat too seriously; that a healthy adult has nothing to learn from
their teachings, save by way of warning example. Plato is food for
adolescents. And a comfort, possibly, in old age, when the judicial
faculties of the mind are breaking up and primitive man, the visionary,
reasserts his ancient rights. For questioning moods grow burdensome
with years; after a strain of virile doubt we are glad to acquiesce
once more—to relapse into Platonic animism, the logic of
valetudinarians. The dog to his vomit.

And after Plato—the deluge. Neo-platonism. . . .

Yet it was quite good sport, while it lasted. To “make men better” by
choice dissertations about Utopias, to sit in marble halls and have a
fair and fondly ardent _jeunesse dorée_ reclining about your knees
while you discourse, in rounded periods, concerning the salvation of
their souls by means of transcendental Love—it would suit me well
enough, at this present moment; far better than croaking, forlorn as
the night-raven, among the ruins of their radiant lives.

Meanwhile, and despite our Universities, new conceptions are
prevailing, Aristotle is winning the day. A fresh kind of thinker has
arisen, whose chief idea of “virtue” is to investigate patiently the
facts of life; men of the type of Lister, any one of whom have done
more to regenerate mankind, and to increase the sum of human happiness,
than a wilderness of the amiably-hazy old doctrinaires who professed
the same object. I call to mind those physicians engaged in their
malaria-campaign, and wonder what Plato would have thought of them.
Would he have recognized the
significance of their researches which, while allaying pain and misery,
are furthering the prosperity of the country, causing waters to flow in
dry places and villages to spring up in deserts—strengthening its
political resources, improving its very appearance? Not likely. Plato’s
opinion of doctors was on a par with the rest of his mentality. Yet
these are the men who are taking up the thread where it was dropped,
perforce, by those veritable Greek sages, whelmed under turbid floods
of Pythagorean irrationalism. And are such things purely utilitarian?
Are they so grossly mundane? Is there really no “philosophy” in the
choice of such a healing career, no romance in its studious
self-denial, no beauty in its results? If so, we must revise that
classic adage which connects vigour with beauty—not to speak of several
others.




XXXIX
MIDDAY AT PETELIA


Day after day, I look across the six miles of sea to the Lacinian
promontory and its column. How reach it? The boatmen are eager for the
voyage: it all depends, they say, upon the wind.

Day after day—a dead calm.

“Two hours—three hours—four hours—according!” And they point to the
sky. A little breeze, they add, sometimes makes itself felt in the
early mornings; one might fix up a sail.

“And for returning at midday?”

“Three hours—four hours—five hours—according!”

The prospect of rocking about for half a day in a small boat under a
blazing sky is not my ideal of enjoyment, the novelty of such an
experience having worn off a good many years ago. I decide to wait; to
make an attack, meanwhile, upon old Petelia—the “Stromboli” of my
lady-friend at the Catanzaro Museum....

It is an easy day’s excursion from Cotrone to Strongoli, which is
supposed to lie on the site of that ancient, much-besieged town. It
sits upon a hill-top, and the diligence which awaits the traveller at
the little railway-station takes about two hours to reach the place,
climbing up the olive-covered slopes in ample loops and windings.

Of Strongoli my memories, even at this short distance of time, are
confused and blurred. The drive up under the glowing beams of morning,
the great heat of the last few days, and two or three nights’
sleeplessness at Cotrone had considerably blunted my appetite for new
things. I remember seeing some Roman marbles in the church, and being
thence conducted into a castle.

Afterwards I reposed awhile in the upper regions, under an olive, and
looked down towards the valley of the Neto, which flows not far from
here into the Ionian. I thought upon Theocritus, trying to picture this
vale of Neaithos as it appeared to him and his
shepherds. The woodlands are gone, and the rains of winter, streaming
down the earthen slopes, have remodelled the whole face of the country.

Yet, be nature what it may, men will always turn to one who sings so
melodiously of eternal verities—of those human tasks and needs which no
lapse of years can change. How modern he reads to us, who have been
brought into contact with the true spirit by men like Johnson-Cory and
Lefroy! And how unbelievably remote is that Bartolozzi-Hellenism which
went before! What, for example—what of the renowned pseudo-Theocritus,
Salamon Gessner, who sang of this same vale of Neto in his “Daphnis”?
Alas, the good Salamon has gone the way of all derivative bores; he is
dead—deader than King Psammeticus; he is now moralizing in some
decorous Paradise amid flocks of Dresden-China sheep and sugar-watery
youths and maidens. Who can read his much-translated masterpiece
without unpleasant twinges? Dead as a doornail!

So far as I can recollect, there is an infinity of kissing in
“Daphnis.” It was an age of sentimentality, and the Greek pastoral
ideal, transfused into a Swiss environment of 1810, could not but end
in slobber and _Gefühlsduselei._ True it is that shepherds have ample
opportunities of sporting with Amaryllis in the shade; opportunities
which, to my certain knowledge, they do not neglect. Theocritus knew it
well enough. But, in a general way, he is niggardly with the precious
commodity of kisses; he seems to have thought that in literature, if
not in real life, one can have too much of a good thing. Also, being a
southerner, he could not have trusted his young folks to remain
eternally at the kissing-stage, after the pattern of our fish-like
English lovers. Such behaviour would have struck him as improbable;
possibly immoral. . . .

From where I sat one may trace a road that winds upwards into the Sila,
past Pallagorio. Along its sides are certain mounded heaps and the
smoke of refining works. These are mines of that dusky sulphur which I
had observed being drawn in carts through the streets of Cotrone. There
are some eight or ten of them, they tell me, discovered about thirty
years ago—this is all wrong: they are mentioned in 1571—and employing
several hundred workmen. It had been my intention to visit these
excavations. But now, in the heat of day, I wavered; the distance, even
to the nearest of them, seemed inordinately great; and just as I had
decided to look for a carriage with a view of being driven there (that
curse of
conscientiousness!) an amiable citizen snatched me up as his guest for
luncheon. He led me, weakly resisting, to a vaulted chamber where, amid
a repast of rural delicacies and the converse of his spouse, all such
fond projects were straightway forgotten. Instead of
sulphur-statistics, I learnt a little piece of local history.

“You were speaking about the emptiness of our streets of Strongoli,” my
host said. “And yet, up to a short time ago, there was no emigration
from this place. Then a change came about: I’ll tell you how it was.
There was a _guardia di finanze_ here—a miserable octroi official. To
keep up the name of his family, he married an heiress; not for the sake
of having progeny, but—well! He began buying up all the land round
about—slowly, systematically, cautiously—till, by dint of threats and
intrigues, he absorbed nearly all the surrounding country. Inch by
inch, he ate it up; with his wife’s money. That was his idea of
perpetuating his memory. All the small proprietors were driven from
their domains and fled to America to escape starvation; immense tracts
of well-cultivated land are now almost desert. Look at the country! But
some day he will get his reward; under the ribs, you know.”

By this purposeful re-creation of those feudal conditions of olden,
days, this man has become the best-hated person in the district.

Soon it was time to leave the friendly shelter and inspect in the
glaring sunshine the remaining antiquities of Petelia. Never have I
felt less inclined for such antiquarian exploits. How much better the
hours would have passed in some cool tavern! I went forth, none the
less; and was delighted to discover that there are practically no
antiquities left—nothing save a few walls standing near a now ruined
convent, which is largely built of Roman stone-blocks and bricks. Up to
a few years ago, the municipality carried on excavations here and
unearthed a few relics which were promptly dispersed. Perhaps some of
these are what one sees in the Catanzaro Museum. The paternal
government, hearing of this enterprise, claimed the site and sat down
upon it; the exposed remains were once more covered up with soil.

A goat-boy, a sad little fellow, sprang out of the earth as I dutifully
wandered about here. He volunteered to show me not only Strongoli, but
all Calabria; in fact, his heart’s desire was soon manifest: to escape
from home and find his way to America under my passport and protection.
Here was his chance—a foreigner (American) returning sooner or later to
his own country! He pressed the matter with naif forcefulness. Vainly I
told him that there were other lands on earth; that I was not going to
America. He shook his head and sagely remarked:

“I have understood. You think my journey would cost too much. But you,
also, must understand. Once I get work there, I will repay you every
farthing.”

As a consolation, I offered him some cigarettes. He accepted one;
pensive, unresigned.

The goat-herds had no such cravings—in the days of Theocritus.




XL
THE COLUMN


“Two hours—three hours—four hours: according!”

The boatmen are still eager for the voyage. It all depends, as before,
upon the wind.

And day after day the Ionian lies before us—immaculate, immutable.

I determined to approach the column by land. A mule was discovered, and
starting from the “Concordia” rather late in the morning, reached the
temple-ruin in two hours to the minute. I might have been tempted to
linger by the way but for the intense sunshine and for the fact that
the muleteer was an exceptionally dull dog—a dusky youth of the
taciturn and wooden-faced Spanish variety, whose anti-Hellenic profile
irked me, in that landscape. The driving road ends at the cemetery.
Thence onward a pathway skirts the sea at the foot of the clay-hills;
passes the sunken wells; climbs up and down steepish gradients and so
attains the plateau at whose extremity stands the lighthouse, the
column, and a few white bungalows—summer-residences of Cotrone
citizens.

A day of shimmering heat. . . .

The ground is parched. Altogether, it is a poor and thinly peopled
stretch of land between Cotrone and Capo Rizzuto. No wonder the wolves
are famished. Nine days ago one of them actually ventured upon the road
near the cemetery, in daylight.

Yet there is some plant-life, and I was pleased to see, emerging from
the bleak sand-dunes, the tufts of the well-known and conspicuous sea
lily in full flower. Wishful to obtain a few blossoms, I asked the boy
to descend from his mule, but he objected.

“Non si toccano questi fiori,” he said. These flowers are not to be
touched.

Their odour displeased him. Like the Arab, the uncultivated Italian is
insensitive to certain smells that revolt us; while he cannot endure,
on the other hand, the scent of some flowers. I have seen a man
professing to feel faint at the odour of crushed geranium
leaves. They are _fiori di morti,_ he says: planted (sometimes) in
graveyards.

The last remarkable antiquity found at this site, to my knowledge, is a
stone vase, fished up some years ago out of the sea, into which it may
have fallen while being carried off by pious marauders for the purpose
of figuring as font in some church (unless, indeed, the land has sunk
at this point, as there is some evidence to show). I saw it, shortly
after its return to dry land, in a shed near the harbour of Cotrone;
the Taranto museum has now claimed it. It is a basin of purple-veined
pavonazzetto marble. Originally a monolith, it now consists of two
fragments; the third and smallest is still missing. This noble relic
stands about 85 centimetres in height and measures some 215 centimetres
in circumference; it was never completed, as can be seen by the rim,
which is still partially in the rough. A similar vessel is figured, I
believe, in Tischbein.

The small villa-settlement on this promontory is deserted owing to lack
of water, every drop of which has to be brought hither by sea from
Cotrone. One wonders why they have not thought of building a cistern to
catch the winter rains, if there are any; for a respectable stone crops
up at this end of the peninsula.

One often wonders at things. . . .

The column has been underpinned and strengthened by a foundation of
cement; rains of centuries had begun to threaten its base, and there
was some risk of a catastrophe. Near at hand are a few ancient walls of
reticulated masonry in strangely leaning attitudes, peopled by black
goats; on the ground I picked up some chips of amphoræ and vases, as
well as a fragment of the limb of a marble statue. The site of this
pillar, fronting the waves, is impressively forlorn. And it was rather
thoughtful, after all, of the despoiling Bishop Lucifero to leave two
of the forty-eight columns standing upright on the spot, as a sample of
the local Doric style. One has fallen to earth since his day. Nobody
would have complained at the time, if he had stolen all of them,
instead of only forty-six. I took a picture of the survivor; then
wandered a little apart, in the direction of the shore, and soon found
myself in a solitude of burning stones, a miniature Sahara.

The temple has vanished, together with the sacred grove that once
embowered it; the island of Calypso, where Swinburne took his ease (if
such it was), has sunk into the purple realms of Glaucus; the corals
and sea-beasts that writhed among its crevices are engulphed under
mounds of submarine sand. There was life, once, at this promontory.
Argosies touched here, leaving priceless gifts;
fountains flowed, and cornfields waved in the genial sunshine.
Doubtless there will be life again; earth and sea are only waiting for
the enchanter’s wand.

All now lies bare, swooning in summer stagnation.

Calabria is not a land to traverse alone. It is too wistful and
stricken; too deficient in those externals that conduce to comfort. Its
charms do not appeal to the eye of romance, and the man who would
perambulate Magna Graecia as he does the Alps would soon regret his
choice. One needs something of that “human element” which delighted the
genteel photographer of Morano—comrades, in short; if only those sages,
like old Nola Molisi, who have fallen under the spell of its ancient
glories. The joys of Calabria are not to be bought, like those of
Switzerland, for gold.

_Sir Giovan Battista di Nola Molisi, the last of bis family and name,
having no sons and being come to old age without further hope of
offspring, has desired in the place of children to leave of himself an
eternal memory to mankind—_to wit, this Chronicle of the most Ancient,
Magnificent, and Faithful City of Cotrone. A worthier effort at
self-perpetuation than that of Strongoli. . . .

A sturgeon, he notes, was caught in 1593 by the Spanish Castellan of
the town. This nobleman, puzzling whom he could best honour with so
rare a dainty, despatched it by means of a man on horseback to the Duke
of Nocera. The Duke was no less surprised than pleased; he thought
mighty well of the sturgeon and of the respectful consideration which
prompted the gift; and then, by another horseman, sent it to Nola
Molisi’s own uncle, accompanied, we may conjecture, by some ceremonious
compliment befitting the occasion.

A man of parts, therefore, our author’s uncle, to whom his Lordship of
Nocera sends table-delicacies by mounted messenger; and himself a
mellow comrade whom I am loath to leave; his pages are distinguished by
a pleasing absence of those saintly paraphernalia which hang like a fog
athwart the fair sky of the south.

Yet to him and to all of them I must bid good-bye, here and now. At
this hour to-morrow I shall be far from Cotrone.

Farewell to Capialbi, inspired bookworm! And to Lenormant.

[Illustration: Roman Masonry at Capo Colonna]

On a day like this, the scholar sailed at Bivona over a sea so
unruffled that the barque seemed to be suspended in air. The water’s
surface, he tells us, is “unie comme une glace.” He sees the vitreous
depths invaded by piercing sunbeams that light up its mysterious
forests of algae, its rock-headlands and silvery stretches of sand; he
peers down into these “prairies pélagiennes” and
beholds all their wondrous fauna—the urchins, the crabs, the floating
fishes and translucent medusae “semblables a des clochettes d’opale.”
Then, realizing how this “population pullulante des petits animaux
marins” must have impressed the observing ancients, he goes on to
touch—ever so lightly!—upon those old local arts of ornamentation
whereby sea-beasts and molluscs and aquatic plants were reverently
copied by master-hand, not from dead specimens, but “pris sur le vif et
observés au milieu des eaux”; he explains how an entire school grew up,
which drew its inspiration from the dainty ... apes and movements of
these frail creatures. This is _du meilleur Lenormant._ His was a
full-blooded yet discriminating zest of knowledge. One wonders what
more was fermenting in that restlessly curious brain, when a miserable
accident ended his short life, after 120 days of suffering.

So Italy proved fatal to him, as Greece to his father. But one of his
happiest moments must have been spent on the sea at Bivona, on that
clear summer day—a day such as this, when every nerve tingles with joy
of life.

Meanwhile it is good to rest here, immovable but alert, in the
breathless hush of noon. Showers of benevolent heat stream down upon
this desolation; not the faintest wisp of vapour floats upon the
horizon; not a sail, not a ripple, disquiets the waters. The silence
can be felt. Slumber is brooding over the things of earth:

Asleep are the peaks of the hills, and the vales,
The promontories, the clefts,
And all the creatures that move upon the black earth. . . .

Such torrid splendour, drenching a land of austerest simplicity,
decomposes the mind into corresponding states of primal contentment and
resilience. There arises before our phantasy a new perspective of human
affairs; a suggestion of well-being wherein the futile complexities and
disharmonies of our age shall have no place. To discard these
wrappings, to claim kinship with some elemental and robust archetype,
lover of earth and sun——

How fair they are, these moments of golden equipoise!

Yes; it is good to be merged awhile into these harshly-vibrant
surroundings, into the meridian glow of all things. This noontide is
the “heavy” hour of the Greeks, when temples are untrodden by priest or
worshipper. _Controra_ they now call it—the ominous hour. Man and beast
are fettered in sleep, while spirits walk abroad, as at midnight. _Non
timebis a timore noctuno: a sagitta_
_volante in die: a negotio perambulante in tenebris: ab incursu et
demonio meridiano._ The midday demon—that southern Haunter of calm blue
spaces. . . .

So may some enchantment of kindlier intent have crept over Phædrus and
his friend, at converse in the noontide under the whispering
plane-tree. And the genius dwelling about this old headland of the
Column is candid and benign.

This corner of Magna Graecia is a severely parsimonious manifestation
of nature. Rocks and waters! But these rocks and waters are
actualities; the stuff whereof man is made. A landscape so luminous, so
resolutely scornful of accessories, hints at brave and simple forms of
expression; it brings us to the ground, where we belong; it medicines
to the disease of introspection and stimulates a capacity which we are
in danger of unlearning amid our morbid hyperborean gloom—the capacity
for honest contempt: contempt of that scarecrow of a theory which would
have us neglect what is earthly, tangible. What is life well lived but
a blithe discarding of primordial husks, of those comfortable
intangibilities that lurk about us, waiting for our weak moments?

The sage, that perfect savage, will be the last to withdraw himself
from the influence of these radiant realities. He will strive to knit
closer the bond, and to devise a more durable and affectionate
relationship between himself and them. Let him open his eyes. For a
reasonable adjustment lies at his feet. From these brown stones that
seam the tranquil Ionian, from this gracious solitude, he can carve
out, and bear away into the cheerful din of cities, the rudiments of
something clean and veracious and wholly terrestrial—some tonic
philosophy that shall foster sunny mischiefs and farewell regret.




INDEX


Abruzzi peasants, their lives, 27.

Abulfeda, historian, 135.

Abystron, 119. See _Castrovillari._

Aceti, T., 93.

Acheron, river. See _Mu.com._

Acherontia (? Acri), 195.

“Acherontia’s Nest” (Acerenza), 32.

Achilles, his notions of gratitude, 123.

Achiropita image. See _Madonna._

Acinapura, near Policoro, 98.

Acri, town, 193-196, 199.

_Ada Sanctorum,_ in.

_Adamo Caduto,_ a sacred tragedy, inspires “Paradise Lost,” 160 _seq._

Adler, H. M., 122.

Aelian, 197.

Afforestation, at Morano, 148; governmental schemes for, 218.

Africo, village, 271, 272.

Agropoli, Saracen stronghold, 137.

Akron, commentator, 45. Alaro (Sagra), river, 281-283.

Albanians, their colonies, 176, 189; confused with Byzantines, 176,
272; their liberalism, 177, 183; wedding ceremony, 182; compared with
Irish, 186; their training college, 183; preposterous language,
173,187. See _Costumes_ and _Rada, G. de._

Alberada, her tomb, 38.

Alberti, L., 174.

Alburno, mount, 151.

Alexander of Molossus, his death, 197.

Alfonso the Magnificent, no.

Altamura, sack of, 64, 65.

Altipiano di Pollino, upland, 145.

Amendolea, river, 197, 272.

America. See _Emigration._

Amphitheatre of Venosa, 31, 38.

Ampollina, river, 217, 219, 220.

Amusa, river, 282.

Analphabetics, percentage of, 259.

Anastasius, saint, 111.

Anchoretism, its charms, 112.

Ancinale, river, 295.

Angels, injured by art-notions of Renaissance, 25; frescoes at Venosa,
38.

Animals, utilized as drugs, 57; cruelty to, 120.

Anne, saint, 250; wells dedicated to, 301.

Anopheles mosquito. See _Malaria._

Anthology, its dog-types, 120.

Apennines, their terminal peak, 145. Aphrodite, 25.

Apollo, 25, 27, 28, 209.

Appulus, King of Sipontum, 29.

Aprustum, 119. See _Castrovillari._

Aqueduct, the Apulian, 42.

Arabs, bigots because half-starved, 126. See _Corsairs_ and _Saracens._

Archytas, lav.-giver, 65, 92.

Aretino, P., 140.

Arfaxad, fabled king, 29.

Argo, highest literary dog-type, 120.

Aristotle, 100, 101, 312.

Arnold, Matthew, 120, 171.

Arpi, town, 29.

Arum lily _(A. aracunculus),_ 143.

Arvo, river, 217, 220.

Asceticism, introduction into south Italy, 251 _seq.;_ its pernicious
effects, 260.

Aspromonte, 195, 240; reputation for crime, 245, 246; its contorted
structure, 270; Byzantine settlements in, 272.

Athos, mount, 113.

Augustine, saint, 256.

Augustus, professes scorn of luxury, 92.

“Avanti,” a corrupt rag, 280.

Ayrola, P., bishop, 251.

Babylonia, Sultan of, 37.

Baedeker, 105.

Bagnara, town, 240, 242.

Bagpipes, 151, 155.

Balfour, A. J., 265.

Balzo, Pierro del, 37.

Bandusian Fount, 43-46.

Bantia (Banzi), 32.

Barbarano, a glen, 219.

Barbarossa. See _Frederick II._

Barbarossa, pirate-brothers, 140.

Barbers, their Hellenic loquacity, 81-82.

Bari, compared with Taranto, 89.

Barletta, town, II.

Baronius, cardinal, 258.

Barrius, his _philopatria,_ 142; on Calabrian rivers, 286.

Bartels, J. H., 123.

Earth, Dr. H., 306.

Bartholomaeus, saint, 108.

Basile, A., 69.

Basilean monks, their convents, in, 113; supplanted by Benedictines,
113; their ideals, 115; convent of St. Adrian, 185.

Basilicata, province, emigration from, 49; military road through, 123;
old boundary of, 145; its bagpipes, 151, 155.

Batiffol, P., 113, 186, 272.

Bears in Calabria, 94, 146.

Beatrix, princess, 7, 8.

Beccaria, C. de, 276.

Beccarini family, 13.

Beeches at Pollino, 146; in old Latium, 285.

Bellerophon, a dragon-slayer, 102.

Belmonte, prince, 49.

Beltrano, O., 114.

Benedict XIII, no.

Benedict, saint, 252.

Benedictines, their architecture, 39; displace Basileans, 113,

Beneventana, 29.

Benincasa, Venerable Orsola, 255-256, 258.

Benincasa, brigand, 213.

Benjamin of Tudela, 81, 136.

Benoth (Venus), 33.

Bernard, saint, 250.

Bernardo da Rogliano, biography of, 144.

Bernhardi, Prof., 3.

Bertaux, E., 39, 78, in, 186.

_Biblioteca Calabra_ in Naples, 93.

Birds, how to diminish slaughter of, 52; eaten raw, 56.

Bisignano, town, 135, 194.

Bivona, town, 320.

Black colour, of Saracens, 52, 130; of water, 80.

Blaev, J., 67.

Blake, W., 190.

Blanc, Jos., 53.

Blood-letting, popular treatment of disease, 194.

Blue, deficient colour-sense for, 51, 52.

Boccaccio, 80, 260.

Boccara, V., 228.

Boemund, 38.

Boissier, G., 46.

Bollandists, in.

Bonghi, R., statesman, 4.

Bordeaux, royal duel at, 8.

Borgia, village, 293.

Borjès, J., 215.

Botta, C., _quoted,_ 122.

Botte Donato, mount, 122.

Bourbons, their treatment of prisoners, n; persecute Albanians, 177,
183; protectors of forests, 218; their ecclesiastics and saints, 212,
260; conditions of Calabria under, 97, 298. See _Brigandage._

Bourget, P., 296.

Bova, town, 241, 245, 272-273.

Bovio, G., statesman, 4.

Bradano, river, 286.

Breakfast in Italy, dislocates moral stability, 18, 125; responsible
for homicides, 127.

Briar (bruyère), manufacture of pipes, 269.

Brigands, at Venosa, 34; Longobucco, 202; in the Sila, 211 _seq.;_
pensioned by Bourbons, 214; their crimes, 212, 215; their wealth, 215;
interview with one, 245.

Brigandage, extent of evil, 144; fostered by the church, 144, 215; by
Bourbons, 203, 212, 214, 215; by English, 212; its political character,
211, 214; repression of, 212-215.

“Bronze of Siris,” 197.

Bruno, Giordano, 269.

Bruno, physician of Longobucco, 202.

Bruttians, misrepresented, 197; their characteristics, 208; respect for
women, 209; reputation for bloodthirstiness, 210.

Buchholtz, H., 190.

Buckle, H. T., 90.

Buffaloes at Policoro, 99.

Bugliari, bishop, 183.

Bugs, their medicinal properties, 105.

Burial, premature, 300.

Burnous, surviving in Italy, 20.

Byzantines, at Gargano, 17; a period of revival, in; their convents,
113, 186; survive in Aspramente, 272-274; confused with Albanians, 176,
272.

Caietanus, O., 111.

“Calabrere” fur, 222.

Calabria, used to include Apulia, 89; its great men and natural
attractions, 93; wild animals, 94; its inns, 106; race-character of
natives, 109; their hardiness, 209; their philosophical bent, 291;
inhabited before the flood, 119; situation of inland towns, i io, 200;
their squalor, 128,206; older descriptions of, 134, 142; English
travellers in, 181; modern French researches, 186;
changeinlandscapeandclimate, 219, 241, 284-287; its rivers, 286;
wistfulness of scenery, 320. See _Malaria._

Calamo, river, 196.

_Calascione Scordato,_ a poem, 131.

Calendaro, river, io, 21.

Calypso, island, 284, 319.

Camorra, 57, 125, 279.

Campanella, T., philosopher, 282, 292.

_Campanula fragilis,_ 225.

Campo di Bova, upland, 272.

Campo Tenese, village, 123.

Cantù, C., 190.

Capaccio, bishop of, 212.

Capasso, B., 3.

Capialbi, V., 136, 320.

Capmartin de Chaupy, on Bandusian Fount, 43-45.

Caprasia. See _Tarsia._

Carafa, village, 293.

Carducci, commentator, 80.

Carducci, poet, 5.

Carob-tree, its cultivation neglected, 49.

Caroline, Queen, 215.

Carthusian monasteries, 293-294.

Caruso, brigand, 214.

Casalnuovo, village, 271, 272.

Caserta, palace of, 139, 204.

Casimir of Poland, prince, 75.

Casino, village, 207.

Cassano, town, 121, 176.

Cassiodorus, 221.

Castaldi, G., 284. Castel del Monte, 11, 12.

Castel del Monte, 11, 12.

Castel Fiorentino, 8.

Castelvetere. See _Caulonia. “_

Castle of the Giant,” 19.

Castrovillari, its origin, 119; old town, 121; colony of Jews, 122.

Catacomb-worship, 27; at Venosa, 38.

“Cataldiados,” a baroque poem, 67.

Cataldo, saint, his shrine and biographies, 67.

Catanzaro, 172, 223; its museum, 224, 226.

Catherine of Siena, saint, 38.

Cats in south Italy, 119-120.

Caulonia, a mediæval site, 281; its castle, 282; immunity from malaria,
284.

Cavalotti, F., politician, 108-109.

Cavara, Signor, 285.

Cave-worship, its origins and priestly uses, 23.

Celli, Prof., 288, 298.

Cellular confinement, 240, 276.

Cemeteries in Italy, their charm, 2, 299.

Cemetery of Reggio, 235.

Cenna, surviving Roman family, chronicler of Venosa, 32, 33, 43.

_Cerauli,_ snake-killers, 138.

Cerchiara, village, 147.

Cerino, brigand, 215.

Cetara, Saracen stronghold, 137.

Cetraro, erection of postal letter-box at, 304.

Charity, a form of self-indulgence, 311.

Charles of Anjou, 7-8.

Chastity-ideal, poisons literature, 260.

Cheeses of Pollino, 142, 149; of Sila, 221.

Chemists, an authoritative class, 105, 307.

Cherub, a decayed conception, 24.

Chestnuts, destruction of, 220; of Tarentum, 285.

Children, as wage-earners in America, 50; massacre of illegitimate, 59;
sold by contract, 97; kidnapped for sale to Turks, 139.

China, its dragon-god, 104.

Cholera, 26, 128, 157, 172, 173.

Christian names, degeneration in, 57-58.

Church, Sir R., 77.

Cicadas, their uses, 182; of Reggio, 284.

Cimigliano, village, 205.

Circilla, upland, 219, 222.

Ciro, priest-brigand, 77.

Cirò, its wine, 306.

Cività, village, 153.

Cluver, Ph., 175.

Coachmen, how to manage, 17.

Cocynthum promontory (Punta di Stilo), 284.

Codex of Rossano, 114.

Cœnobitism develops out of eremitism, 112-113.

Colajanni, Prof., 278.

Cola Pesce, the diver, 228-229.

Colletta, P., 64, 212; _quoted,,_ 213.

Colognati, river, 197.

“Colonia Elena,” 96.

Colorito, convent, 143-144.

Colour-sense of peasantry, 51-52.

Columella, 80, 285.

Column, Cape and temple-ruin at Cotrone, 301, 308, 318 _seq._

Commercial travellers, an objectionable brood, 31, 296.

Comparetti, D., 272.

Condofuri, village, 272.

Confessors and penitents, 258.

Conradin, 7-8.

_Contranome,_ the Happy Hazards of, 54-56.

_Controra,_ the ominous hour, 321.

Cook, Eliza, 180.

Cookery, English contrasted with Italian, 125.

“Co-operation,” a local journal, 206.

Copertino, town, 71.

Corace, river, 195.

Coral fisheries, abandoned, 286.

Corigliano, town, 96, 115, 173, 184, 191.

Coronelli, V., 175.

Corsairs, destroy Manfredonia, 12; contrasted with Saracens, 138; their
destructiveness, 139; depopulate sea-board, 140; crushed by steam, 141.

Corsi, F., 91.

Cortese, Prof., 270.

Coscile (Sybaris), river, 122, 172, 175.

“Cose di Puglie,” a remarkable book, 89.

Cosenza, Saracenism at, 134, 135; a pleasant town, 160; corrupt
administration of, 193; described by Pacicchelli, 208; intellectual
record and malaria, 287, 291.

Costanza, Queen, 7, 8.

Costanzo, A., 3.

Costumes, female, of Morano, 130; of Albanian colonies, 152-153, 178,
182; of San Giovanni, 205-206; of Tiriolo, 225.

Cotrone (Croton), 135, 207; its former size, 283; marshy surroundings,
286; recent revival, 297; lack of rainfall, 305.

Cotronei, 184.

Cotton-plant, 136. .

Courier, P. L., _quoted,_ 212.

Cows, shod for threshing corn, 121; their milk disparaged, 149; in the
Sila, 220; resuscitated from death, 261; of Cotrone, 301.

Crati (Crathis), river, 108, 213, 287; its “deluge,” 174; change of
course, 175; legend of, 197.

Craven, Keppel, 80, 95, 294.

Crimes committed by brigands, 212, 215.

Crispi, F., 191.

“Cristiano,” origin of term, 138.

Croce Greca, a landmark, 195.

Cropolati, village, 198.

Crossbills, 205.

Cruelty to animals, 120.

Cryptomerias, futile love of, I, 83.

Cuma;, 119.

Cuomo, A., 264.

Cuomo Library, Naples, 67.

Cysat, J. L., 104.

Date-palm, 83, 136.

D’Azeglio, _quoted,_ 217.

Death-penalty, preface of civilization, 276.

Decentralization of south Italy, 194, 250, 303.

Deforestation, impairs climate and national character, 12-13; fosters
malaria, 32, 286; in Apulia, 44; at Castrovillari, 121; in Pollino
region, 147-148; in “Greek” Sila, 180, 195; in Greater Sila, 207, 217,
218, 223; diminishes water-supply, 180, 217; in Crati-valley, 287.

Deities, sullied by vulgar contact, 24; must be plastic to survive, 25.

Delianuova, town, 240, 241, 245, 274.

_Delizie Tarentine,_ 80.

Deluge, legend of, 174.

Democritus of Abdera, 312.

Demon of Midday, 321.

Demosthenes, 27, 279.

Deputy, my friend the Roman, on the need of employing employes, 20;
discusses octroi officials, 34; how to manage the bourgeoisie, 87;
disapproves of English methods, 117-119.

Devil, his perennial popularity, 25; his honesty, 266.

Diabetic tendency inherent in all gods, 25.

Diehl, C., 108, 186.

Dieting, improper, responsible for moral delinquencies, 126-127.

Diomed, city-founder, 29.

“Dog-eyed,” opprobrious epithet, too, 120.

Dogs, eaten as medicine, 57; their diet and appearance, 119; Greek
attitude towards, 120.

Dolcedorme, mountain-range, 108, 142, 143.

Dolomieu, C. de, 234.

_Domicilio coatto,_ system of, 276.

Dominican monks, 252, 258, 259.

Dorsa, V., 310.

_Draco volans._ See _dragon._

Dragonara, Dragoneria, 112.

Dragone, rivulet, 100.

Dragon, synonymous with serpent, 100; possible prototypes in nature,
101; an animistic conception, 102; dragon-attributes and shapes, 103;
recent degeneration of, 104.

Duret de Tavel, on game in Calabria, 95; on brigands, 202, 212.

Earth-movements, 284-285.

Earthquakes, injure Venosa, 31, 38; Rossano, 113; Reggio and Messina,
230-239; Bagnara, 242; Sant’ Eufemia, 243; Bova, 273; their effect on
coast-line, 285. Eboli, C. d’, 256.

Ecclesiastics under Bourbons, prodigious numbers of, 212.

Edrisius, _quoted,_ 109, 286, 298.

Education, Italian ideas on, 185.

Eels, resuscitated from death, 261.

Egidio, saint, 260-264.

Elba, island, 240.

Elia Junior, saint, in.

Elia Spelaeotes, saint, 111-112.

Elias, saint, displaces Helios, 188.

Elvira, Council of, 153.

Emigrants to America, their wine-bibbing propensities and intelligence,
21-22; other characteristics, 146, 209.

Emigration, reduces population, 28, 49, 209; its effect on the race,
48, 50, 97, 194, 210; breaks up big properties, 289.

English government, encourages brigandage, 212,

Englishmen, considered savages, 5.

English mentality, contrasted with Italian, 66, 91, 117, 123, 124, 179,
248, 265, 311.

English travellers in south Italy, 181, 280.

Ennius, 79.

Envy, prevalent native vice, 126, 127, 129.

Ephesus, synod of, 259.

Epictetus, 251.

Erasmus, 264.

Eros, degenerates into Cupid, 25.

Esaro, river (i), 172.

Esaro, river (2), 297.

Espedito, saint, 4.

Eucalyptus trees, a scandalous growth, 97, 98.

Euprassius, protospadarius of Calabria, 111.

Evelyn, John, 136.

Exmouth, Lord, 139.

Eye-like appearance of fountains, originates dragon-legends, 100.

Fabbrizia, town, 292, 293.

Fair complexion, at Venosa, 33; prejudice against, 209; eliminated by
malaria, 225.

Falcone, N., 161.

Fallistro, mountain, 196.

Fallow-deer, now extinct, 95, 146.

Family, south Italian sense of, 124, 179, 279.

_Fare figura,_ an Italian trait, 65.

Fata Morgana, 228.

Ferdinand, king, 140, 212.

Ferdinand the Catholic, 122.

Ferdinandea, upland, 292.

Festivals, nocturnal, 153.

Feudal conditions in Calabria, 97; re-creation of, 316.

Fever. See _Malaria._

Fever, Maltese, 286.

“Fiamuri Arberit,” Albanian journal, 190.

Figs, different varieties of, 50-51.

Fiore, G., 113, 142, 175, 176, 186, 208, 286.

Firs, 146, 203, 222, 269; used as cow-fodder, 149; white firs, 285,
295.

Fishermen, their antique habits, 81.

Fulminicà, river, 197.

Fleas, at Spinazzola, 63.

Flora, of mountain parts, 145, 223; change in distribution, 285.

Floriacense, monastery, 207.

Flute, the double, 178.

Flying Monk. See _Joseph of Copertino._

Focà, village, 281; depopulated by malaria, 283; revival of, 289.

Foggia, 7, 8, 10.

Forbiger, A., 195.

Forense (Fiorenza), 32.

Forests, of Policoro, 95; Pollino, 146-148; Sila, 204, 220; Italian,
contrasted with Russian, 222; Gariglione, 222-223; of Serra, 295.

Forgeries, literary, 143.

Fortis, A., 228.

_Fosse canarie,_ 300.

Fossombrone, town, 72.

Fountains, connected with dragon-legends, 101-104.

Francatripa, brigand, 211, 215.

Francavilla, town, 147.

Francesco di Paola, saint, 257.

Francis II, king, 214.

Francis of Assisi, saint, 18, 74, 75, 254.

Franciscan monks, 75, 160, 252, 258.

Frangipani, 7, 137.

Frederick II (Barbarossa), fortifies Lucera, 2; his affection for
Saracens, 3; a modern type, 6; keeps a harem, 7; his treasures at
Venosa, 37; introduces pheasants, 96.

Freemasonry, prevalence of, 183.

French, their repression of brigandage, 144, 202, 212.

Frida, river, 151.

Frogs, as mosquito-catchers, 99.

Fromentin, E., 155.

Frungillo, R., 261.

Galaesus, river, 80.

Galateus (Ferrari, A. de’), 89.

Galen, 283.

Galoppano, forestal station, 204.

Gardens, public, at Lucera, I; Manfredonia, 14; Taranto, 83; Catanzaro,
224; Messina, 231.

Gargano, mount, 2, 7, 21, 32; Byzantine influence at, 17.

Garibaldi, 183, 214, 240.

Gariglione, forest, 222.

Gaudolino, valley of, 144, 157.

Gay, Jules, 186.

Gebhardt & Harnack, on Codex of Rossano, 114.

Gecko, reputed poisonous, 205, Gelasius, pope, 262.

_Genista anglica,_ 223.

Genovese, Dr. F., his malaria researches, 283, 284, 286, 290.

George, saint, his dragon, 103.

Gerace (Locri), 137, 274, 284, 285.

_Germanese_ and _tedesco,_ contradistinguished, 77.

Gesner, Konrad, 100.

Gessner, Salamon, 315.

Giadrezze, fountain, 80.

Giangiuseppe della Croce, saint, 253-255, 263.

Giannone, P., 4.

Gioia, town, 241.

Gioioso, town, 292.

“Giornale d’ Italia,” _quoted,_ 115.

Giovene, G., 89.

Gissing, G., on Galaesus, 80; description of Reggio, 236; at Cotrone,
296-301; on Pythagoras, 309.

Giudice, G. del, 139.

Gladstone, W. E., 190.

Glasgow, its morality, 154.

“Glories of Mary,” 259.

Goats, a baneful quadruped, 149, 286.

Goethe, 237, 280.

Gothic attitude towards nature, 42; towards religion, 266.

Gourmont, R. de, 91.

_Graffiti,_ their sociological import, 200.

Grandis, de, 53.

Grano, panegyrist of Calabria, 135.

Grant, J., 242.

Gratitude, southern sense of, 123.

Gravière, J. de la, 141.

“Grazie,” a word seldom used, 123.

Greco, L. M., 197.

Greek Comedy, 153.

Greeks, medieval. See _Byzantines._

Greeks, their treatment of animals, 120; notions of gratitude, 123-124;
survival of traits and words, 53, 81, 196, 209, 310; close observers of
natural history, 100.

Green colour, in nature, 52; in mankind, 129.

Gregorovius, F., 17, 88, 307. Grottaglie, town, 68, 77-79. Grottole,
77.

Grotto-apparitions, 23, 154. Guiscard, Robert, 137. Gumppenberg, G.,
259.

Guiscard, Robert, 137.

Gumppenberg, G., 259.

Haller, C., 53.

Hair-cutting, æsthetics of, 81.

Hamilton, Sir W., 228, 242.

Hannibal, 31, 64, 299.

Harnack, A., 114.

Haseloff, H. E. G., on purple Codex, 114.

Hat of the Virgin Mary, 243, 265.

Haym, N. F., 144.

Hearn, L., 209.

Hehn, V., 222.

Heinsius, D., 175.

Helios, survives as St. Elias, 188.

Hellenic art, its originality explained, 75. See _Greeks._

Hepidanus, chronicler, 135.

Hera, temple of. See _Column._

Heraclea, 89, 97.

Herbs, lore of, 58; on Mount Pollino, 142-143.

Herculaneum, its buried treasures, 115.

Hercules, 23, 27.

Hermits in Calabria, 111-112.

Herodotus, 175.

Hesiod, 100.

Hippocratic oath, 297.

Hipponium. See _Montdeone,_

Hohenstaufen, their fate avenged, 6-8.

Home, south Italian feeling for, 179.

Homer, his colour-sense, 52; on dragons, 100, 101; his idea of gifts,
123-124; his “Ore of Temese,” 202.

_Homo ibericus,_ 109.

Horace, 80, 154, 197; on Garganian winds, 21; his house at Venosa, 31;
praises the simple life but enjoys good food, 41; the perfect
anti-sentimentalist, 42; on Bandusian Fount, 43 _seq.;_ approves of
being genially unwise, 46; his _duplex ficus,_ 51; hatred of avarice,
218.

Huillard-Bréholles, I. L. A., 37, 186.

Humanitarians, their ferocity, 312.

Humour in south Italy, 58.

Huxley, T. H., 264.

Hymenæus, 39.

Ibn Alathir, 135.

Ibn Chaldun, 135.

Illegitimate infants, massacre of, 58-59.

“Il Saraceno,” journal, 4.

Imbriani, politician, 108.

Index, Congregation of, 260.

Industrialism, Italian craze for, 48, 148.

Inn-keepers, how to deal with, 106-108.

Innocent IV., 7.

Inquisition, 258, 260.

Intellectual undercurrent in south Italy, 33, 89, 188, 201.

“Interesse” (self-advantage), a guiding motive, 124.

Ionic spirit, traces of, 208; defies religious asceticism, 252.

Iorio, A. di, 51.

Italian government, plays at numbering houses, 20; punishes original
ideas, 35.

Italian heritage from Romans, 42, 277.

Italian music, its primitive appeal, 5, 231-232.

Italy, the original district so called, 195.

Jackdaws, discard their voices, 37.

Janace, forest, 146.

Januarius, saint, 249, 251.

Japygia, land of, 68.

Jerome, saint, 153.

Jesuits, 97, 249.

Jesus Christ, how regarded, 248.

Jews, colony at Venosa, 38; at Castrovillari, 122; at Caulonia and
elsewhere, 282; change in their race-characteristics, 126.

Johannes a S. Antonio, 162.

Johannes of Longobucco, 202.

John, saint, his blood, 251.

Johnson-Cory, W., 315.

Jones, W. M., on malaria, 290.

Joseph, saint, 250.

Joseph of Copertino, saint, his biographies, 69; feats of aviation,
71-72; takes a passenger, 73; his semi-cretinism, 74; why born in a
stable, 75; beatification and penitences, 76, 78.

Justice in south Italy, 278, 279.

Justinus, _quoted,_ 221.

Juvenal, 259.

Kant, E., 310.

Kerrich, Mr., his briar-industry, 270.

Kestrels, fishing for, 129.

Kheir-eddin, pirate, 140.

King and Okey, _quoted,_ 279.

“King Marcone,” brigand, 214.

Kircher, A., _quoted,_ 105.

Kissing, in life and literature, 315.

Knox, John, 310.

Konrad von Hildesheim, _quoted,_ 138.

Labonia, F. M., 202.

“La Cattolica,” church at Stilo, ill.

Lagonegro, town, 147.

Lakes, construction of artificial, 217; created by earthquakes, 285.

Lamartine, A. M., 190.

Lamb, Charles, 14.

Lambton Worm, a dragon, 102.

“Lamenti,” plaints in rime, 140.

Landslides, their destructive frequency, 218; how repaired, 293.

“La Quistione Meridionale,” a book, 278.

Lasor a Varea (Savonarola), 67, 144.

Latin points of view, opposed to Gothic, 42, 266.

Latinisms of speech, survival of, 53.

Latronico, village, 147.

Laurentius, bishop of Sipontum, 17.

Lauria, Roger de, 7, 8.

Law-breaking, unsuspected joys of, 36.

Lear, E., 40, in, 134.

Lefroy, E. C., 315.

Lenormant, F., on Manfredonia, 12; on Trinità abbey, 38; on Sybaris,
115; on Pandosia, 196; on Byzantine colonies, 272; at Bivona, 320; his
zest of knowledge, 321.

Leone da Morano, 144.

Leoni, N., 131, 161, 228.

Leoni (government official), 271.

Leo XIII, 263.

Lese, river, 205, 220.

Lesina, 7, 21.

Lewes, G. H., 267.

Ligorio, P., arch-forger, 143.

Liguori, A. di, saint, 256, 257, 259, 260.

“L’ Inglese,” brigand, 212.

Lions of Lucera, 3; of Venosa, 32.

Lipari, island, 276.

Lipuda, river, 197.

Lister, Lord, 312.;

Li Tartari, mountain, 196.

Livy, 197.

Lizard, the emerald, 205.

L’ Occaso, author, 134.

Locri. See _Gerace._

Lombroso, C., 128, 278.

Longobucco, 195; its “Hotel Vittoria,” 199, 201; situation, 200;
intellectual life, 201; silver mines, 202.

Lorenzo, G. de, 39.

Lorenzo (Lawrence), saint, his dragon-legend, n, 102; his fat, 251.

Louis of France, saint, 7.

Love of noise, a local trait, 53.

Love-affairs, how managed, 84-86.

Lucanians, 197, 221.

Lucca oil, 241.

Lucera, its castle, 2, 6; museum, 3; landscape in spring, 6.

Lucifero, a sacrilegious bishop, 319.

Ludwig II, complains of Saracens, 138.

Luke, saint, paints Madonna portraits at Sipontum, 30; at Caulonia,
282; at Cotrone, 306.

Lupi-Crisafi, author, 228.

Lupoli, M. A., 31, 39.

Luther, his creed repressed, 252.

Luynes, duc de, 186.

Luzard (lynx), an absent-minded beast, 94, 222.

Lycanthropy, epidemic of, 176.

Maccheroni, the art of engulphing, 297.

Macchia, village, 178, 180, 188 _seq._

Madonna, declines in artistic worth, 24; her realistic diet, 61; _della
Fita,_ 93; _acbiropita,_ 108, 113, 114; _del Patir,_ in; her friendship
with St. Nilus, 114; _del Castello,_ 122; _della Libera,_ 140; _di
Constantinopoli,_ 140; of Pollino, picnic in honour of, 151 _seq.; put
up to auction,_ 156; of Messina, 230, 237; absorbs Greek deities, 247;
_dell’ Arco,_ 249; _del Soccorso,_ 249; of Pompei, 249; _of the Hens,_
250; displaces saint-worship, 248-251; her Sacred Hat, 243, 265; her
Milk, 250; increases in popularity, 259, 264; _del Carmine,_ 301.

Maecenas, 41.

Maffei, A., 215.

Magic, instances of sympathetic, 57; imported from Egypt, 58, 251.

Magini, G. A., 97, 175.

Magna Mater, 108, 153, 259.

Mahaffy, J. P., 124.

Maida, plain of, 240, 241.

Malaria, at Manfredonia, 12; at Sipontum, 30; Venosa, 32; Policoro, 98;
old Sybaris, 115, 282-283; on Tyrrhenian sea-board, 241; at Focà, 283,
289; at Cotrone, 284, 291, 298; at Cosenza, 287, 291.

Malaria, votive offerings due to, 152; eliminates fair complexion, 225;
propagated by deforestation, 32, 286, 287; by artificial irrigation,
241; by migrations of labourers, 284; by recent climatic changes, 285;
by earthquake subsidences, 285; follows river-beds, 286; endemic for
two thousand years, 283; contributes to decline of old civilizations,
290; ravages among French troops, 241, 287; spread and significance of
the disease, 287, 291; methods of combating, 288; results of
quinine-policy, 289.

Male selection, among Hellenic races, 209.

_Malizia_ (cleverness), 47, 124.

Mallock, W. H., 265.

Malpica, C., 114.

Mammon, the god of emigrants, 22.

Mammone, brigand, 212.

Manfred, his infatuation for Saracens, 3; fate of his sons, 8 j) his
name survives, 45.

Manfredonia, its harbour, II; burnt by Corsairs, 12; wineshops and
burglaries, 15.

Manhes, General, his methods, 213, 214; at Bagnara, 242; at Serra, 293.

Manna ash, 93, 121.

Manzi, brigand, 214, 215.

Marafioti, G., 143.

Marbles, on beach at Taranto, 9!; Roman technique of cutting, 92.

Marcellinara, village, 205.

Marcellus, tomb of, 31.

Marchesato, district, 284.

Marchianò, M., 188.

Marchianò, S., 187.

Marcone, N., 243.

Marcus Aurelius, 251.

Margaret, saint, gratifying results of her autopsy, 258.

Marino, poet, 23, 169, 259.

Mariolatry, engenders effeminate saints, 259.

Marincola, L., 139.

Marincola Pistoia, D., 197.

Mark, saint, his church at Rossano, III; displaced by St. Rosalia, 247.

Mars, 27.

Martial, 53, 80.

Martorana, C., 135.

Mary, Virgin. See _Madonna._

Masci, A., 176.

Mater Domini, convent, 251.

Matera, town, 138.

Matthew Paris, _quoted,_ 7.

“Mattino,” a venal daily, 303.

Mazzara, town, 93.

Mazzella, Sc., 136.

Mazziotti, Prof. G., 183.

Meander, river, 100.

Medicines, compounded from animals, 57.

Mele, S., 53.

Melfi, town, 38.

Melito, town, 137.

Melliss, J. C., 286.

Mendicino, village, 197.

Mephitis, goddess of malaria, 32.

Mercer, Mr., 278.

Mercury, 26, 27.

Merenzata, river, 197.

Messapians, 65.

Messina, its Fata Morgana, 228; legend of Cola Pesce, 228-229; public
gardens, 231; effects of earthquake, 236-239.

Metapontum, 119, 284, 289.

Metchnikoff, E., 68.

Mice, eaten as medicine, 56.

Michael, saint, pre-renaissance relief of, 14; a cave-saint on Gargano,
17; childish and emasculate character, 23-29; affinities with older
gods, 23, 26, 27; stripped of his higher attributes, 28; a mere ghost,
29.

Middle Ages, their influence upon dragon-idea, 104.

Milk of the Virgin Mary, 250-251.

“Millionaires” of Acri, 195; of Cotrone, 302.

Milo of Croton, defeats Sybarites, 196; devoured by wolves, 222.

“Milosao,” Albanian rhapsodies, 190, 191.

Milton, indebtedness to S. della Salandra, 160 _seq.;_ to other Italian
poets, 169; friendship with Marquis Manzo, 168, 169; manuscripts at
Cambridge, 170; his “grand manner,” 171.

Minasi, A., 228.

Minieri-Riccio, C., 160.

Misasi, N., 294.

Mistletoe, on fir-trees, 203.

Mithra, 27, 309.

Moens, Mr., captured by brigands, 214.

Moltedo, F. T., 53.

Mommsen, T., 31.

Monasterace, village, 281.

Monasteries, develop out of hermitages, 112; refuge of brigands, 144,
215.

Monastic orders, competition between, 258.

Mondragone, mountain, 102.

Monk, the Flying. See _Joseph of Copertina._

Monnier, M., 215.

“Montagna del Principe,” 123, 144.

Montalto, mountain, 269, 274.

Montanari, G. I., 69, 74.

Monteleone (Hipponium), town, 119, 137, 241.

Monte Nero, 217, 220.

Montorio, S., 114, 259, 264, 282.

Monumentomania, an Italian disease, 4.

Moon, superstitions regarding, 59.

Moore, John, 139.

Morality, to be expressed in physiological terms, 126.

Morano, its great age and greater filth, 128; Saracen memories, 130;
its literary glories, 131, 132.

Morelli, T., 177, 272.

Moritz, K. P., 140.

Morone, C., 67.

Morosi, G., 272.

Moscato, author, 135.

Motor services, replace diligence, 123, 225.

Mountains, Italian dislike of, 143.

Movers, F. C., 56.

Mucone (? Acheron), river, 195-197.

Müller, Max, 51.

Müller, Prof., 38.

Münter, F., 229.

Murat, 123, 213, 214.

Muratori, L. A., 13, 135.

Murders, due to wine-bibbing, 244, 246.

Murge hills, 63, 64.

Museum, of Lucera, 3; Taranto, 88; British, 119, 161, 197; of
Catanzaro, 224, 226, 316; Reggio, 236.

Mushroom-stone, 93, 222.

Musolino, brigand, 211, 270, 272; his fate, 240; episodes of, 271, 281;
a victim of inept legislation, 275, 278.

Mussulman epitaph, 3.

Mutilomania, an Italian disease, 83.

Mythopoetic faculty, blighted by misrule, 100.

Naples, its catacombs, 25, 247; municipality and octroi-system, 34;
survival of Hellenic traits at, 53; scandal of Foundling Hospital, 59;
camorra, 125; corrupt police-force, 279; its daily press, 303.

Napoleon, protects trees, 218.

Nardo di Pace, village, 292.

Nasi, ex-minister, his trial, 280.

Nau, cape. See _Column._

National monuments, neglected, 39.

Neaithos, river. See _Neto._

Neri, Filippo, saint, 258.

Neto (Neaithos), river, 205, 206, 219, 220; wine of district, 307;
change in landscape, 314.

Newspapers andpublic opinion, 277; characteristics of local,3O3-305.

“New York Times,” on Sybaris, 116.

Nicastro, town, 241.

Niceforo, A., 252.

Nicephoras Phocas, 81, 281.

Niehbuhr, B. G., 272.

Nilus, builder-saint, 114.

Nilus, saint, 105, 108, no.

Nissen, H., 219.

Noepoli, village, 149.

Nola-Molisi, G. B., 298, 320.

Nordau, M., 74.

Normans, buried at Venosa, 38; their behaviour in Sicily, 137.

North, W., 290.

Nowairi, historian, 135.

Nutrition, its effect upon physique and morals, 125-127.

Oaks (_Quercus cerris_), 222.

Octroi, a mediæval abomination, 34-36, 66, 90.

Odours, susceptibility of natives to, 52, 318.

Oenotrians, a useful tribe, 130.

Okey, T., 279.

Olive oil, export from Palmi, 241.

Oria, town, 65.

Orsini tower, Taranto, 67.

Otter, a rare animal, 184.

Otto II., 135, 292.

_Otto-Nove!_ charm-formula, 310.

Ouida, 45, 120.

Oysters of Taranto, 81.

Pacicchelli, G. B., 12, 208, 282, 294.

Paestum, 119, 137, 283, 285.

Paganism, survival of, 248.

Paleparto, mountain, 196.

Palermo, behaviour of Normans in, 137; metropolis of Saracens, 138; its
percentage of homicides, 276.

Pallagorio, village, 315.

Palmi, its oil-industry, 241.

Pandosia, ancient city, 196, 197.

Paoli, Monsieur, 27.

Paracorio, village, 245.

“Paradise Lost,” its presumable prototypes, 160; derived from
Salandra’s work, 161 _seq._

Parafante, brigand, 241.

Parenti, village, 211.

Parisio, P., 197.

Parrino, D. A., 139.

Pascale, V., 284.

Patir (Patirion), monastery, in, 113-116, 186.

Patriarchalism, its break-up in South Italy, 48 _seq.;_ makes for
inefficiency, 226; shattered by judiciary abuses, 275, 279. See
_Peasantry._

Patrick, saint, 262.

Paul, saint, invoked against poisonous beasts, 138.

Paulinus, bishop, 151, 247.

Peasantry, oppressed by taxes, 35; their virtues and vices, 47;
break-up of patriarchal habits, 48, 53; their anthropomorphic language,
50; defective colour-sense, 51-52; their system of nicknames, 54-56;
degeneration in culture and modern revival, 57, 58, 97; their
destructive avarice, 218. See _Emigration._

_Pecorara,_ a rustic dance, 152.

Pelasgic language and race, 187, 189, 191.

Pelicaro, district, 97.

Pellegrini, A., 272.

Penal code of Italy, need for its revision, 276, 278, 279.

Pentedattilo, mountain, 272.

Pepe, G., 298.

Pericles, 152.

Perrey, G., 294.

Persius Flaccus, 284.

Petelia. See _Strongoli._

Petelia Policastro, town, 184.

Peter, saint, baptizes natives, 29, 282; legend of, 60.

Petronius, 302.

Pettinascura, mountain, 204, 220.

Peutinger’s Tables, no, 281.

Phædrus, 322.

Phallic cult at Venosa, 40.

Pharmacy-club, how to secure membership, 106.

Pheasants, 96.

Philo Judseus, 251.

Physical conditions affecting race-character, 90, 126.

Piano di Carmelia, upland, 269.

Piedigrotta, festival, 52.

Piè d’ Impisa, mountain, 272.

Pietra-Sasso, a landmark, 148.

Pigs, in streets, 128, 206, 207; their food, 173; can detect
werewolves, 176.

Pilgrims, at Lucera, 4; at Sant’ Angelo, 18; their specific odour and
capacity for mischief, 19; foul appearance, 27; a debased Christianity,
28; behaviour at Venosa, 40.

Pines, absent in Pollino forests, 146; the Calabrian variety, 196, 204;
of Aleppo, 285.

Pious legends, their drawback, 262.

Piracy. See _Corsairs_ and _Saracens._

Pitch, the Bruttian, 204, 285, 286.

Pitrè, G., 300.

Platitudes, Italian and English love of, 14.

Plato, _quoted,_ 116; his cloudy philosophy, 311; food for adolescents,
312.

Pleasure, danger of repressing, 153.

Pliny the Elder, 80, 281, 284, 285, 307.

Pococke, R., 121.

Poets, why deficient in humour, 58.

Policoro, forest, 95 _seq.;_ its game, 96; eucalyptus avenue, 97;
buffaloes, 99.

Polistena, town, 234.

Pollino, mountain,, 108; derivation of the name, 142; the peak,
143-145; terminates Apennines, 145; its forests, 145-148.

Polybius, 80.

Pompeio, fountain, 196.

Pontanus, humanist, 18.

Ponza, island, 276.

Pope, A., prince of snobs, 127.

Porcupine, approaching extinction, 184.

Potenza, 32.

Potteries of Grottaglie, 78; of Taranto, 92; of Corigliano, 173.

Pratilii, F. M., 143.

Praxiteles, 286.

Preconi, H., 78.

Prehistoric stations in South Italy, 119; weapons, 3, 119, 179, 224.

Priests, parasitic on families, 4; their attitude towards
superstitions, 59; their acquisitiveness, 60; a decayed profession, 60,
154; fight on side of brigands, 215; connaisseurs of wine, 3O7-

Privacy, lack of feeling for, 66.

Procida, John of, 8.

Proclus, 285.

Procopius, 109.

Properties, large, their break-up, 96; synonymous with malaria, 289.

Propertius, 80.

Ptolemy, 281.

Public opinion, non-existent, 277.

Puccini, archbishop, recommends fetishism, 26.

Pythagoras, 282; explanation of his popularity, 309; a glorified
marabout, 311.

Quinine-policy, governmental. See _Malaria._

Race-characters, delusion as to their immutability, 91, 126. Rada, G.
de, Albanian prophet, 187; his mystic tendencies, 189; patriotic
labours, 190 _seq.;_ his death, 192.

Ragona, village, 292.

Railway stations in Italy, 117, 118.

Rainfall, diminution in, 217, 241, 285, 306.

Rath, G. von, 287.

Rathgeber, G., 175.

Rationalist Congress of 1904, leads to counter-demonstration, 32, 269.

Reggio, 135, 137; effects of earthquake, 234, 236; its cemetery, 235.

Regio, P., 256.

Relics, sacred, 208, 247, 251, 263.

Religion in south Italy, its intense realism, 60; contrasted with
English, 265.

Renaissance, injures angelic shapes, 25; produces historical
panegyrists, 142; falsifies place-names, 196; imports Pythagoras and
Plato, 311.

Rhaetia, its dragons, 104.

Rhetoric, perverts course of justice, 276, 277.

Rhodiginus (Richerius, L. C.), 197.

Ricca, brigand, 211.

Riccardi, A., 155.

Riedesel, J. H., 298.

Rivarol, J. E. A., 212.

Rivers in Calabria, their destructive floods, 99, 197, 286; their
numbers, 286; once navigable, 174, 284; arteries of malaria, 286.

Rizzi-Zannone, G. A., 97.

Rizzo, an amiable priest, 109.

Rizzuto, cape, 318.

Robinias, why beloved of municipalities, 83.

Rocca Bernarda, town, 117.

Roccaforte, village, 271, 272.

Rocchetta, station, 31.

Rocella Ionica, town, 274, 286.

Rodotà, P. P., 177, 273.

Roghudi, village, 271, 272.

Rogliano, town, 195, 211.

Romans, their lack of imagination, 32; their _pittas,_ 33; pacification
of wild nature, 42; marble-cutting technique, 92; their republican
stoicism, 126.

Romanticists, their feeling for nature, 42.

Roque, saint, 39.

Rosalia, saint, 247.

Rosarno, town, 241.

Roscia (Rossano), no.

Rosis, de, no.

Ross, Sir R., 287, 290.

Rossano, accommodation at, 105-108; character of inhabitants, 109; its
situation, no; importance under Byzantines, 111.

Rossi, D. A., 69, 71, 74, 77.

Rouse, Dr. W. H. D., 152.

Ruffo, cardinal, 64, 212, 215, 298.

_Rusalet,_ a dance, 178.

Ruscianum (Rossano), 110.

Ruskin, J., 90.

Russell, Lord Odo, 120.

Rutilius Namatianus, 27.

Sagra, river. See _Alaro._

Saints, their pathological symptoms, 74; unavoidable lack of
originality, 75, 253; male type replaced by females, 247-251; their
baroque period, 253-257; manufactured by monks and confessors, 258,
267; mutilated after death, 263; their Bourbon period, 260 _seq._

Salandra, S. della, his “Adamo Caduto” inspires ”Paradise Lost,” 160
_seq._

Salis Marschlins, U. von, 67, 271.

San Benedetto Ullano, town, 183.

Sanchez, G., 78, 102.

San Cosimo, village, 180.

San Demetrio Corone, its dirty streets, 181; Albanian church, 182;
college for boys, 183-185; convent of Sant’ Adriano, 185.

Sandys, G., 121.

San Floro, M., 217.

San Francesco, convent, 77.

San Gervasio, old church and fountain at, 43; fountains identified with
_Fons Bandusiae,_ 43-46.

San Giorgio (Apulia), 65.

San Giorgio (Calabria), 176, 180.

San Giovanni in Fiore, 195, 203; its women, 205; unhygienic conditions,
206.

San Nicola, village, 292.

_Sanpaulari,_ snake-killers, 138.

San Severo, town, 6.

San Severino, village, 147, 155

Sant’ Adriano, convent, 185-186.

Sant’ Angelo and its shrine, 17; modern worshippers in the cave, 19,
27-28.

Santa Barbara, upland, 204.

Sant’ Eufemia, village, 240, 243.

Santa Sofia d’ Epiro, village, 180.

Santo Stefano, village, 222, 271.

Santo Stefano, island, 240.

Sappho, 116.

Saracena, village, 131.

Saraceno, mountain, 20.

_“_Saraceno,” term of abuse, 138.

Saracens, at Lucera, 3; at Gargano, 20; their “black” colour, 52, 130;
at Morano, 130; Saracenic survivals, 134, 138; raids into south Italy,
135, 137; their benefits, 136; excesses, 137; contradistinguished from
Corsairs, 138.

Sarmento, river, 148.

Sarnelli, P., 29.

Saserna, 285.

Savastano, L., 49.

Savelli, village, 179, 205, 207, 293.

Savonarola, author. See _Lasor a Varea._

Savonarola, monk, 309.

Scanderbeg, 65, 176.

Scarolla, brigand, 144.

“Scemo” (soft-witted), the unforgivable sin, 107, 124.

Scheuchzer, J. J., 104.

Schneegans, A., 228.

Schulz, H. W., 39, 202.

Scido, village, 270.

Scilatio, 281.

Scirocco, south wind, its effect upon landscape, io; on character, 90.

Sculco, Dr., 297.

Scylla, 240.

“Sdrago,” the dragon, 104.

Sebethus, river, 80.

“Seicentismo,” blight of south Italy, 252.

Selva Umbra, forest, 21.

Semi-starvation, demoralizing effects of, 41.

Seneca, 251.

Serpents, assimilated with dragons, 100; our early hatred of, 105.

Serra San Bruno, 293, 295.

Servius, 281.

Sheep, and wolves, 221.

Shem, son of Noah, 29.

Shepherds, of Sila, 221; of Cotrone, 301; their kissing propensities,
315.

Sicily, under Saracens, 136; under Normans, 137.

Sigilgaita, 38.

Sila, mountain plateau, its three divisions, 195; the “Greek” Sila,
176; Greater Sila, its landscape, 204; Bruttian inhabitants, 208;
compared with Scotland, 219; vegetation, 220; the Lesser Sila, 223.

Silenziario, P., 91.

Silver mines, of Longobucco, 202.

Sin, an export-article, 256.

Sinno, river, 95, 99, 149, 286.

Sinopoli, 240, 243, 244.

Sipontum, its famous church, 29; wholly desolate, 30.

Sirens, as fountain ornaments, 45.

Sirino, mountain, 151.

Siris, ancient city, 95.

Sixtus V, 213, 215.

Slavery, 139.

Snakes, their colour, 52; medicinal uses, 57; destroyed with spittle,
138.

Socialism in Italy, 96.

Soria, F. A., 143.

South Italy, its recent revival, 91, 298.

Soverato, town, 295.

Spanish Viceroys, blighting effects of their rule, 57, 252, 253;
enactments against Barbary pirates, 139; conservators of forests, 218.

Spano-Bolani, D., 134.

Spartacus, 214.

Spezzano Albanese, town, 172-174.

Spinazzola, town, 62-64.

Spinelli’s chronicle, a forgery, 3.

Spleen, importance of this organ, 152, 307.

Squillace, town, 135, 295.

Stagno Salso, lake, 21.

Staiti, town, 272. Stamer, W. J. A., 50.

Statius, 80.

Stendhal, _quoted,_ 125, 276.

Stilo, town, in, 292.

Stoics, victims of misfeeding, 126.

Stomach-diseases, prevalence of, 126.

“Stone of Saint Michael,” a fraudulent article, 23, 26.

Strabo, 23, 80, 87, 197, 204, 283, 284.

Strongoli (Petelia), 224, 314, 316.

Sturgeon, caught at Cotrone, 320.

Sugar-cane, formerly cultivated, 136.

Suicides look manly, 84.

Sulphur mines, 315.

Summonte, G. A., 140.

Swammerdam, J., 105.

Swedenborg, E., 310.

Swinburne, A., 116.

Swinburne, H., 78, 115, 319.

Sybaris, 89, 108, 195; its buried wealth, 115; destruction of, 175,
196, 311; presumably malarious of old, 115, 282-283.

Sybaris, river. See _Coscile._

Sybarites, contrasted with Byzantine monks, 115.

Symonds, J. A., 115.

Tajani, F., 177.

Talarico, brigand, 214.

Tarantolla, dance, 93.

Taranto, the arsenal quarter, 65-67; its octroi impositions, 66, 90;
old town, 67; inland sea, 68, 80, 90; fishermen and barbers, 81;
love-making on the Corso, 84; its slumberous inhabitants, 87-90; museum
and public library, 88, 89; marbles on the beach, 91.

Tarsia (Caprasia), village, 174, 194; its malaria, 287.

Tassulo, Pilati de, 183, 228.

Taverna, town, 223.

Temese, ore of, 202.

Temples, destruction of, 136, 137. .

Tenore, M., 146.

Termula (Termoli), 137.

Terracciano, N., 145.

Terranova di Pollino, 143, 148.

Terranova di Sibari (Thurii), 175, 282, 283.

Theatine monks, 113.

Theocritus, 8i, 269, 285, 301, 314; his human appeal, 315.

Theodoret, bishop, _quoted,_ 152.

Theophrastus, 285.

Third sex, its significance, 116, 257.

“Thirsty Apulia,” origin of the phrase, 15.

Thucydides, 284, 298.

Thurii. See _Terranova ài Sibari._

Timber construction replaced by stone, 12.

Tiriolo, town, 225-226.

Tischbein, J. H. W., 319.

Toledo, Pietro di, 252-253.

Tolù, brigand, 211.

Toppi, N., 144, 162.

Torrent-beds, their charm, 292.

Tortoises, used as medicine, 57.

Tozer, H. F., 104.

Traeis, river. See _Trionto._

Treasure, buried at Lucera, 8, 9.

Trede, T., 258.

Tree-planting, discouraged in cities, 65, 66.

Tree-torturing, a southern trait, 83.

Tremiti islands, n.

Trinità, abbey at Venosa, 37-40.

Trinità, column at Taranto, 67.

Trinity, southern conception of, 250.

Trionto (? Traeis), river, 195-200.

Troia, town, 6.

Tromby, B., 294.

Trotter, Prof. A., 223.

Troubadours, their idea of nature, 42.

Truthfulness, a modern virtue, 266.

Tufarelli, G. L., 128, 131, 144.

“Turco,” colour known as, 52.

Tutini, C., 294.

Ughelli, F., 43, 45, 114.

Ulpian, 53.

“Ultramontain,” author, 53.

Urban VIII, 72, 110, 262.

Uromastix lizard, 101.

Uruj, pirate, 140.

Utilitarianism in south Italy, 43, 57, 126, 218.

Vaccarizza, village, 174, 176, 179, 180, 184, 224.

Varrò, 80.

Vatican, authorizes cruelty to animals, 120; attitude towards
Byzantinism, 248.

Velasquez, 140.

Venosa, survival of Roman blood and habits, 32; its rustic dirt, 33;
castle, 37; abbey of Trinità, 37-40; catacombs, 38; bad food, 41.

Venus, gives name to Venosa, 33; marble head of, 92.

Verace, watershed, 195, 196, 204.

_Verde antico,_ marble, 91.

Vespoli, G. F., 298.

Viceregal period. See _Spanish Viceroys._

Vieste, village, 7, 21.

Viggianello, village, 157.

Vigilantius of Marseilles, 153.

Villa Beaumont, Taranto, 83.

Villari, P., 191.

_Vincolo forestale,_ its provisions disregarded, 218.

Virgil, 42, 46, 80, 284, 285.

“Virtù,” retains antique meaning, 53.

Vitiello, night-quarters at, 149-150.

Vito, saint, struggles with Madonna, 92.

Voltaire, 76, 170, 262.

Votive offerings, 152.

Vulture _(Gyps fulvus),_ 184.

Vulture, mountain, 2, 13, 21, 32, 41.

Vulturnus wind, 41, 53.

Wagner, J. J., 104.

Waiblinger, F. W., 141.

Waldensian colonies, 122.

Waldstein, Sir C., 115.

Wantley, dragon of, 102.

Wedding, an Albanian, 182.

Wedding-present, a civilized, 89.

Werewolves, 176.

Wine, of Sant’ Angelo, 22; Venosa, 41; Bova, 273; of Calabria, 306-307.

Witchcraft, 58.

Wolves, at Pollino, 149; in Sila, 220-222; at Cotrone, 318. Women, of
San Giovanni, 205; respected among non-Hellenic races, 208;
superstitions regarding, 209; of coast-towns, 299.

Wood-pigeon, 269.

Xenocrates, _quoted,_ 252.

Yoni-worship, at Venosa, 40.

Zavarroni, A., 93, 183.

Zicari, F., his literary record, 161; on “Paradise Lost,” 161-168.

“Zodiaco di Maria,” exemplifies Catholic paganism, 259.

Zoophilomania, an English disease, 120.