Old Calabria

common in south Italy, before the blight of Spaniardism fell upon the land and withered up the pagan myth-making faculty. There

nderings of rivers in the plains, like the Meander, that recall the convolutions

n-image. They leave one still puzzling as to what may be the aboriginal conception un

gards (Greek drakon); so called, presumably, from its terribl

daleon de de

vers 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

for some existing

0

gon

d 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 "dwel

h 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 mat

. The dragon, I hold, is the personification of the life within the earth--of that life which, bei

ds. . . . Why--why an animal? W

what

e

nding of the problem, the key t

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 "Bl

gards. And inasmuch as an eye presupposes a head, and a head wit

ld Ca

tous, 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 fab

ins issue. It stands to reason that he is sleepless; all dragons are "sleepless "; their eyes are eternally open, for the luminous sparkle of li

ccredited with their guardianship--hence the plutonic element in his nature. The dragon, whose "ever-open eye" protected the garden of the Hesperides, was th

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 Chimsera. The fire-dragon. ... Or

inno

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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

larly 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 alrea

truthful dragon yarns and untruthful barometrical observations; or to China, dragon-land par excellence; * or even to our own Heralds' College, whe

s remained untarnished. The dragon is an earth

YZAN

en 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 curiosi

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 g

I generally go f

re 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

edium contra quartanum est, si ab inscio aegro cum vehiculo congrua potentur; m

0

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t, 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

me, ostensibly to talk, but in reality to listen. Here one can feel the true pulse of the place. Local questions are d

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 alo

lers; 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

tinis

ide and treat his hosts in the same offhand fashion, he will

ard 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 ma

o 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 vo

e reason is that, like Turks or Jews, their owners do not see dirt (there is no word

aining, in one of my

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t a clean spot left on its surface, and I insisted on a new one. I got it; but not befo

ified 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 fand into the waves. On this side the outlook is bounded by

ctly 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 quit

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 acheiropoeta--not painted by any human hands what

ast--with Imbriani--of the republican giants, a blustering rhetorician-journalist, annihilator of monarchs and popes; a fire-eating duellist, who de

tinis

sealed up for ever that founta

eally, with such extreme ideals before his eyes, the burghe

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 th

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 municipa

ppearance at that particular moment. He discoursed awhile, and sagely, concerning England and English literature, and then we passed on, via Milto

early history of the

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me the desired opportunity, and

ou must read the Book of Genesis and Hesiod and Berosus and the rest of them. But stay! I have so

themselves "I spensierati," with the motto Non alunt curai--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 w

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 jackda

trous blocks of deep red stone cloven into rifts and ravines by the wild waters, has

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lumns, 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 stay

sm 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 lethar

of Rossano the most celebrated was that of S. M. del Patir.

llings honeycombed the warm slop

y 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

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he 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 wa

and their inelegant habits? How explain this

me 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 feroci

m, must have possessed a certain charm, for it attracted vast

y of cave

ny of them were gathered together under one roof there imposed itself a certain rudimentary discipline and subordination; yet they

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

of Sa

tints

o see specimens of all the different stages

without and reorganized within. The church underwent a thorough restoration in 1672. But it was shattered, together with the rest of the edifice, by t

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 dilapi

ing, 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-

ry, 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 th

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t 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, t

istory in June 1712 from the local archbishop, who had extracted his information out of the episcopal archives. Concer

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 centur

g centaurs, unicorns, lions, stags, and other beasts. But my contemplation of these choice relics was disturbed by irrelevant remarks

her neighbour. "He has hor

eed! And how

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hey knew what kind o

t nobody knows. Beasts that have ho

rest 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 Sy

hose old monks who scorned the body as a mere encumbrance,

es and Basileans

mbers 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

have international excavation-committees thrus

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is precisely the

ion is powerless or unwilling to do. Your behaviour at Herculaneum is identical

r see that c

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 singula

keen is the cry of elective affinity athwart the ages! The soul, says Plato, divi

of its obscu

uage, 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

ING AT CA

t 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, li

erhaps not unnecessarily. . . ." He nodded his head, as he

l, s

, do the English cultivate this attitude? Not sufficiently. They are in the stage of those mediaeval 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; t

1

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fic Russians in their war with the Japanese. One day ot

forbore to interr

e--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, yo

even my own? And I don't like the kind of warm heart that subordinates my c

y 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 b

nconveniently arranged, and a traveller will often find it imp

pray, should a man cleanse himself at the station when there are coun

at Castro

n a hurry to catch another train g

lustrious friend! Nobody

els south o

thought upo

the horses had been bought the day before, for six pounds) to drive from the station of Castrovillari to the entrance of the tow

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 fo

Calabria was inhabited before the Noachian flood; and Rossano, we may be sure, was one of the favourite haunts of

n sundry small ways--in the behavi

ring 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 temperam

nteleone and other southern towns were founded by

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rage 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 c

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: "S

uth. It was eleven o'clock when I sat down to dinner on the ni

heir 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, watc

id, melan

athetic, sou

ing the Vir

ears in mortal

he feelings of Fido, watching his maste

ing

at Castro

evening meal. Appetite comes more slowly

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 th

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

eams; 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 r

lt, or rebuilt, by the Aragonese, with f

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Calcutta. Numbers of confined brigands, uncared-for, perished mi

in pain and exhaustion, the dying fell shuddering on the dead; the hale on the dying; all tearing themselves like dogs with te

ach too near the walls; it was "forbidden." I had no particular desire to disobey this injuncti

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 d

d 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

y account of them. It is high time, none the less, for a new sign from Heaven. Shattered by earthquakes, the chapel is in

at Castro

testant J. H. Bartels sojourned here and groaned as he counted up the seven monasteries of Castrovillari (there used to be

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

the mountain, and there you will find mul

nd cuts through the interior of Basilicata, rising at Campo Tenese to a height of noo metres. They are now runni

rou

nother symptom

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 eithe

t is viewed quite extrinsically, intellectu

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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

tent 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 obse

does exist in most of

at Castro

d." 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

k some enormous individual-

ch one

----, the tim

ngiato!" (I h

e is fat from prosperity, from,

a supremely import

ting them by the help of (1) pills, (2) athletics, and (3) alcohol. Saner as regards material, but hopelessly irrational in method. Your ordinary employe begins his day with a thimbleful of black coffee, nothing more. What work shall be got out of him. under such anti-hygie

; 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 th

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f 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

eat 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

heir 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 c

not worth talking about; that when a morality refuses to derive its sanction from the laws which go

ithout

at Castro

envious thoughts and the acts to which they lead, is at bottom a question of nutrition. One would like to know fo

unger 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 lo

er symptom of

time for an evening walk--my final one

nk; our pity for others is dangerously akin to self-pity, most odious of vices. Catholic teaching--in practice, if not in theory---glides artfully

OLD M

roves that it was then exactly 3349 years old. Oddly enough, ther

eman, 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, b

f 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

2

M or

he 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 an

t; 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 "c

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

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rom 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;

e doctor had recommended an evening walk up to the castle. We conversed awhile, and he extracted a carnation out of his wa

patissimi." However, he promised to exert himself on my behalf; he kn

mpeian 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 l

ed 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-Sar

ssible, is that which is drawn from a saying of the mysterious Oenotrians--that useful tribe--who, wandering in search of homesteads across these re

ra

Mora

, celebrated of old for its muscatel wines. They are made from the grape

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 thes

ters 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 "Calas

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

delle Tre Calabrie" appeared in 1844-1846. He, too, devotes much space to the praises of his natal

the academy of Amant

next c

3

Cala

eed the lectures in the academy of Catan-zaro! Closed for ever is the public library

ent bordering on insensibility. But perhaps we are too easily influenced by externals, in these degenerate times. Or things may

elf. He was a burly ruffian of northern extraction, with clea

ha!--that was rather an undertaking, you know. Was I aware that there were forests and snow up t

wandered lovingly over the pile and reposed, finally, upon sun

urged. "None of your

ond mule, a lady-mule, which it struck him I might like to ride now and then; a pleasant beast and a companion, so to

cheap, that I straightway grew

a--a monetary security that he would keep his word, i.e. be round at my door with the an

as beginning to respect me. Then he pulled out his

s; I retired early to bed, and tried to sl

d She

Mora

I went to the man's house, and wo

?" he enquired, sitting up in bed and rubbi

had lost a shoe in the afternoon. He

day evening, instead of keeping m

ut then I went to bed, and slept. Ah, sir, it is go

shod, and at 5

FRICAN

polis 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;

e a hundred or more, partly in the literary language (balio, dogana, etc.), partly in dialect (cala, tavuto

; you can see them acted in any of the coast towns. In fact, the recollection

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:

3

Intrud

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

rrisons, and their fortresses fallen into disrepair. "Nec erat formido aut metus bellorum, quoniam alta pace omnes gaudebant usque ad tempora Sa

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,

, from their

ained their end, t

where these authorities might be conveniently tabulated. It must

3

Cala

thods involved appalli

y wished to establish a provincial government here on the same lines as in Sicily, of which

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 s

structive 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 begu

e 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

racenic

Intrud

dent fellow-believers there, after 255 years of Arab domination.* It was the Christians rather, who with the best intentions set the example of fanaticism during their crusades; the

d 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

d. 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 village

n their occupation of the country they razed to the ground thousands of Arab temples an

3

Cala

er 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

eir 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 grea

hat use of the word cristiano applied to natives

still a common

he 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 inh

re 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 mann

an invocation to him runs as follows: "Saint Paul, thou wonder-worker, kil

Intrud

nt, was different. They had the animus

turies. 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

which were issued in the sixteenth century against Christian sailors who decoyed children on board their boats

zed, 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, De

em 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 o

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nd parts, was terrorized by t

e--those "Lamenti" in rime, which set forth th

ed 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

Summonte have left us descriptions of the prodigious exodus of the country people from Calabria

s 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

ns, 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

from the days when the Amalfitans won th

Intrud

l. 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.

ANDS OF

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. Pro-venit enim ibi, ut ab herbariis accepi, tragium dictamnum Cretens

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

he hands of critics. But I shall not repeat what they

4

of Pol

d 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

p, when the constructive imagination w

de from there, and this adds another hour to the trip. Moreover, as the peak of Pollino lies below that of Dolcedorme, which shuts oil 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

plain, lie the now faded blossoms of the monstrous arum, the botanical glory of these regions.

cturesque site, there stands a large castellated building, a mon

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ns. 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 con

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

er 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

omises rather a steep climb over bare limestone; but the ascent

(p. 317), and also referred to in Savonarola's "Universus Terrarum," etc. (1713, Vol. I

of Pollin

of Pol

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

s 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 p

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 desc

. But she has never had a Christian on her back till

o pay four francs a day for having

oung--barely four years old. Only wa

owever, he tried to

4

Cala

cani 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 wide

erned a mysterious plant in the forest that "shines by night." I dar

traight 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 envi

, 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

of Pol

ral Italy. For decent food-supplies can generally be obtained in the smallest places; the drawback is that nobody

r Latronico and San Severino to Castrovillari--the ground was still covered with stretches of snow, and many brooks were diffic

e 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

f 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 jacke

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 an

4

Cala

but we all know what the average Italian official is, and must be, considering his salary. One could hardly bla

he watershed between Morano and the Tyrrhenian. These, according to a Castro

is it any great compensation to observe that certain small tracts of hill-side behind Morano are being carefully reafforested by the Go

ale 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

of a house near the woods, about four hours distant, inhabited j

ooks volcanic but is nothing of the kind. It bears the name of Pietra-Sasso--the explanation of this odd pleonasm bein

bria

of Pol

on. 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,

glishmen, with all your money

en 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 fu

iate 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 th

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 o

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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