ETRUSCAN ROMAN REMAINS




218     ETRUSCAN ROMAN REMAINS.



STORIES OF WITCHES AND GOBLINS.


Story-telling in the Tuscan Romagna is an institution with observances. The peasants in winter meet together, "perhaps ten, there may be twenty orthirty, around a fire, and first of all recite with due solemnity a rosario, or five paternosters with the aves and other prayers, and then begin to raccontare or relate tales of fairies, witches and folletti." This very ancient custom is still very generally observed. First of all some old man gives a story, which is commented on, eliciting from the hearers their own reminiscences, then another is suggested, and so the folk-lore is kept alive. In the year 1808 there was published in Bulgnese, or Bolognese–which is, with trifling difference, the same dialect as that which these peasants speak–a translation ofNeapolitan fairy tales, which appears to be in the main taken from the Pentamerone of Gian Battista Basile, but which is very much varied to suitnew surroundings. Hence the same stories, now known all over Italy, have penetrated to the Romagna. But they have, in the Bolognese region, many of which no traces are to be found in the usual range of Italian legends, and very often even the latter have here either taken of later years, or derived from very ancient sources, elements and characteristics which are quite peculiar, and often bewildering; all of which the folk-lorists of the future will doubtless duly consider and sift even to powder.

The following are a few of the tales which I have heard. I could have given many more–several do indeed occur in other portions of this work–but I have been too much occupied with other subjects, nor indeed would space or the publisher permit further addition.


THE WITCHES AND THE BOAT.


"There were two witches, mother and daughter, who lived by the sea-side, and the younger was a beautiful girl, who had a lover, and they were soonto be married. But it began to be reported that the women were given tosorcery and had wild ways, and some one told the young man of it, and that he should not take such a wife. So be resolved to see for himself by going to their house, but intending to remain till midnight, when, he knew, if they were witches they could not remain longer at home. And he went and made love, and sat till it was after eleven, and when they bade himgo home he replied, 'Let me sit a little longer,' and so again, till they were out of patience.

"Then seeing that he would not go, they cast him by their witchcraft intoa deep sleep, and with a small tube sucked all his blood from his veins,and made it into a blood pudding or sausage (migliaccino), which they carried with them. And this gave them the power to be invisible tillthey should return.

"But there was another man on the look-out for them that night, and that was the brother of the youth whom they had put to sleep, for he had long suspected them, and it was he who had warned his brother. Now he had a boat, and as he observed for some time every morning that it had been untied and used by


LA VENDETTA LI PIPPO.     219

some one in the night, he concluded it was done by these witches. So he hid himself on board carefully, and waited and watched well.

"At midnight the two witches came. They wished to go to Jerusalem to get garofani (clove gilly flowers, or the clove plant, much used in magic). And when they got into the boat the mother said:–

  " 'Boat, boat, go for two!'
 
"But the hoat did not move. Then the mother said to the daughter, "Perhaps you are with child–that would make three." But the daughter deniedit. Then the mother cried again:–

  " 'Boat, boat, go for two !'
 
"Still it did not move, so the mother cried again:–

  " 'Vai per due, vni per tre,
Per quattro, per cuanto tu vuoi!'


(" 'Go for two or three or still
For four, as many as you will!')
 
"Then the boat shot away like an arrow, like lightning, like thought, andthey soon came to Jerusalem, where they gathered their flowers, and, re-entering the boat, returned. Then the boatman was well satisfied that thewomen were witches, and went home to tell his brother, whom he found nearly dead and almost out of his mind. So he went to the witches and threatened them, till they gave the youth the migliaccino. And when he had eaten it, all his blood and life returned, and he was well as before. But the witches flew away as he arose, over the house-tops, and over the hill, and unless they have stopped they are flying still.

BERNONI tells this story in his narratives of Venetian witches, but less perfectly, since he makes no mention of a lover or of the witches suckingand restoring his blood. In the classical tales of APULEIUS and others,sucking the blood was the chief occupation of the striga, for which reason I think that this may be the earliest version of the tale. In the Venetian story the boat goes to Alexandria and the boatman while there obtains fresh dates and leaves, which he exhibits on returning as a proof of his adventure. The obtaining the mystic clove flowers gives a far better reason for the voyage. HAWTHORNE has written a story in which a boat full of witches, in the form of cats, make such a trip to obtain rosemary, also a witch-herb.


LA VENDETTA DI PIPPO.


"There was a man named PIPPO, and he had not been long married to a youngand beautiful wife when, he was obliged to go on a long journey. And itso chanced that this journey was by accident prolonged, nor did his letters reach home, so that his wife, who was young and very simple, believing all the gossip and mischievous hints of everybody, soon thought that her husband had run away. Now there was a priest in


220     ETRUSCAN ROMAN REMAINS.

the village who was bastanza furbo–not a little of a knave–and to him she bitterly complained that her husband had abandoned her,leaving her incinta, or with child.

"At this the priest looked very grave, and said that it was very wicked in her husband to act as he had done; yes, that it was a mortal sin for which both she and PIPPO would be damned, even to the lowest depth of hell,because she would give birth to a child which had only been begun, and not finished, for that it would probably be born without a head or limbs, and she would be very lucky if only a hand and foot, or the eyes were wanting. And that all women who bear such monsters would be certainly condemned to the worst.

"Now the wife, being only a simple contadina, was very devout, andwent frequently to confession, and, believing every word which the priest said, was terribly frightened, and asked him what could be done in thiscase? Then he replied that there was a way to remedy it, which he shouldmost unwillingly employ, yet still to save her soul, and for the child'ssake, he would try it. And this was that she should pass the night withhim, when by his miraculous power as a priest, and by his prayers, he would so effect it that the infant would be perfected–and so she couldbe freed from sin. But he made her swear an oath not to tell a word of all this to any human being, and especially not to PIPPO, else all would fail. So she assented, and the priest had his will.

"Now no one knew it, but PIPPO was a streghone, or wizard, and casting his mind forth to know how all was going on at home, learned all this fine affair which had passed. Then returning, instead of going to his house, he put on the form of a beautiful nun, and went to the priest's. The priest had two young sisters, famous for their extraordinary beauty, and PIPPO was very kindly received by them as well as by the brother. And when he begged for a night's lodging, the two young girls bade him sleep with them, which he did, of course seducing them thoroughly.

"The next morning, being alone with the priest, he first ogled him, and as the other caught eagerly at the chance of sinning with a nun, he plainly asked him if they should not go into the cellar, per fare l'amore. At which the priest was enraptured; but when they were alone together PIPPO assumed his natural form, which was a terrible one, and said: 'I amPIPPO, whose wife thou didst wrong with thy lies. Evil hast thou done to me, but I have done worse to thy sisters, and worst of all to thee, fornow thou art accursed before God, thou false priest!' And the prete could do nothing and say nothing. And there came before him all the time many spirits who mocked him, and he had to leave holy orders. And this was the revenge of PIPPO."

I should have omitted this very Bocaccian tale had it not been that it illustrates very strikingly the antipathy of the believers in witchcraft and the spirits of old for the priests. A merely loose, licentious story makes no such deep moral or immoral impression on the Southern European mind as it does on the Northern, but the distinctly placing wizard against priest, or old sorcery against Christianity, is, if the reader will reflect, a very singular incident. It is in this that the point lies for a strega, and it is most remarkable as showing that such antagonism between Shamanism and the Church should still exist, as it has undoubtedly existed through the ages. I may add that among the tales received after this work had gone to press is one entitled The priest Arrimini, in which a priest becomes a wizard, manifesting, like this narrative, a marked heathen or anti-Christian spirit.


THE WITCH CAT.     221

PISPI.


"In a district of La Romagna, there was a man named PISPI, who was a great robber; yes, one who carried away vast treasures and yet was never detected. He would go to a café and meet gentlemen whom he hadplundered immensely, and on departing he would say, 'Signori, I am PISPI, the famous robber,' but nobody could catch him or lay hands on him, andwhen they met him they did not recognise him at any time, for he changedhis face and form continually, until at last it was generally believed that he was a devil.

"But he really was a wizard. And at last he lay dying, but could not die.And he groaned, and implored those present to take his power, but none would accept it because he was believed to be a devil. At last some one put two brooms under his bed, and so he died. But his spirit had no peace,for he had left a treasure. Now PISPI was really a good spirit, becausehe robbed very rich people and gave a great deal to the poor. Then he sought about for some poor and deserving man, and finally found one in a prisoner who was condemned to the galleys for life, and he said to him, 'I will by my conjuring deliver thee from thy sufferings and set thee free.Then go into the woods in such a place, and there stands an oak-tree called Istia, buried one yard's depth you will find a treasure, it isin a boot and in an earthen pot. And when thou art rich and free do notforget the poor!' And so PISPI had peace, and the poor prisoner became rich and happy."

It would not have been worth while to give this vulgar and rather flat tale, had it not been for the name of its hero. PISPI is a typical thief, and in Holland the mandrake, which is there supposed to grow from the droppings of a thief's brain, &c., on the gallows, is called Pisdifje, or little brain-thief. He who has this pisdifje can enter all houses, open all doors, and rob freely, without being detected. This root was called by many names, such as mandrake, mandragora, alraun, gallows, mannikin and earth-mannikin in Germany, and was regarded as a demon and received offerings or a kind of worship. There is of course no rational philological connection between the names of Pispi and Pisdifje, but the connection of associations between these names and the thief who couldnever be detected, and the root-demon who enables a thief to avoid detection, is very curious indeed. It may be remarked in this connection thatthe Vocabulario delle Lingue Furbesche–or Vocabulary of Thieves' Tongues–indicates much intercourse in common between the thieves of Northern Italy and those of Germany.


THE WITCH CAT.


It has been well said that one half the world does not know how the otherhalf lives, and while collecting these instances of strange superstitions, I am tempted to think that almost one half does not at all understand how the others think, feel, or what is the moral atmosphere which they breathe. We know that there is no truth in anything supernatural, but these others who appear to be so ignorant and indifferent live in a different life, and see and hear–or believe they see and hear–ghosts and marvels and all strange things. Witness the


222     ETRUSCAN ROMAN REMAINS.

following, which the woman who told it to me certainly believed she had witnessed:–

"When I was a small child I went frequently to the house of a woman who had a bambina–a girl baby–and we often made a noise when playing together, but woe to us whenever we did so, playing with the cat,for the child's mother said that cats are all wizards and witches. As Iindeed learned only too soon how true it was.

"There lived near us another woman who had also a little girl; this childwas very impertinent. One day while we three were playing together and making a tumult, my friend gave this other one a cuff. So she ran howling to her mother, and the woman said to the mother of my friend, 'I will be revenged for this;' and, per troppo fu vero, it was only too true. For after a few days my little friend fell ill and no one knew what was the matter, nor could any doctor explain the malady.

"Then her mother began to think that the woman who had threatened vengeance was a witch. And she was sure of it when she observed that a cat cameby night into her house, and that it, instead of lying down always remained standing! So she watched, and when at midnight the cat came again, she took it and bound it to the child's bed and beat it with all her might,saying, 'Cure my child or I will kill you!'

"Then the cat spoke with a human voice, and said, 'I can endure no more.Let me go and your child shall be well.' But at that instant there was heard a horrible roar and clanking of chains as if many demons were about, and the mother instead of letting the cat free went and called the priest that he might give his blessing. And the mother clipped the hair fromthe cat, and in the morning when the church-bell rang the cat became nothing more nor less–non divento altro–than the woman who had vowed revenge. And so she could no longer be a witch; and all the neighbours seeing her naked, and without a hair left, knew what she was, and so she practised witchcraft no more."

This is interesting because it shows plainly the belief derived from pre-Christian times, that the witch once detected, or stripped–in this case literally–of her disguise, can no longer be a witch. Here it isnot a question of a soul sold to the devil, but only of power held on a very precarious condition.

Apropos of this subject, I have the following in a letter by Miss Mary A.Owen:–

The negroes in Missouri say some cats are real cats and some are devils, you never can tell "which is which," so for safety it is well to whip them all soundly. The voodoo does not whip her own cat, but she excepts none other. A strange black cat that runs in at one of your doors and out atanother, puts "a trick" on somebody in the house. A grown-up black cat which comes and cannot be driven away voodoos the whole house in spite ofblows.


THE DWARFS.


  "Von wilden Getwergen
Han ich gehoeret sagen,
Sie sin in Holn Bergen."
Das Nibelungenlied.
 

One day I inquired if there were any Elves, or little dwarfs, in La Romagna; and I was at once informed that there were, in these words:–


THE DWARFS.     223

"Dei nani! Dwarfs! There are many. They dwell in lonely places, far away in the mountians, deep in them, in caves or among old ruins, and rocks. Sometimes a contadino sees one or more; he may behold themfar away, going home very early between night and day, hurrying before the sun rises to get into their homes. They live like other people, they are good and bad like other people, but they are folletti, really.I will tell you an old, a very old, story about them:–

"Once there was a girl who had been betrayed by her lover and abandoned for another, and so she, in a wild fit, determined to go in search of him.

  "Over the high blue mountain,
Over the rolling rivers,
Through the wet grass,
Along the hard highway,
Into noisy cities, in churches,
Where there were people or none,
Si mise in cammino
D'andare in cerca di lui
,
She set herself on the journey
To go in search of him.
 

"And when she had travelled many days and longed for a little rest, she came to a small house far away among the rocks and knocked at the door. There came out a little dwarf, who asked her what she wanted. And she answered:–

  " 'Good friend, a little lodging,
I beg it in charity,
For my feet are weak and weary;
I am seeking, seeking my lover,
Whom I wish to kill for his falsehood,
Yet I hope I shall not find him,
Because I love him still.'
 

"Then she entered and supped and went to bed. And at midnight there cameleaping and laughing and frolicking into the room swarms of little dwarfs or goblins–tutti uomini piccioli–who shouted for joy atseeing her. And they pulled her hair and danced on her, and tweaked herears and nose, and she, in a rage, pushed and beat them and gathered them up and threw them as she could against the wall, but they did not mind it in the least, but climbed in crowds like bees on her bed till dawn came, when they disappeared, when she fell asleep.

"And waking she rose and went her way, when from a hill came out another dwarf, who said:–

  " 'Stop and talk with me;
I can truly tell thee
Where to find thy lover,
And if thou would'st find him
Come to me at midnight,
And I'll truly tell thee
Where to find thy lover!'
 


224     ETRUSCAN ROMAN REMAINS.

"Then the girl replied–

  " 'Dammi la tua mano,
Pegno de la parola
!'

("'Give me, then, thy hand,
Pledge that truth thou speakest.')
 

"But the dwarf answered–

  " 'I cannot give my hand,
As 'tis given by mortals,
For I am a spirit,
And spirits were the goblins
Who this night did tease thee,
Still thou didst well please them
For thou didst show spirit.'
 

"Then at midnight the girl went to the dwarf, and he gave her a feather, and she was turned into a swallow, and he said–

  " 'Fly upon the wind
As the wind directs thee;
Follow, follow, follow,
And thou'lt find thy lover
And when thou hast found him
Then thou wilt have travelled
Two months' distance, but I
By my incantation
Truly shall have made thee
Fly it in a minute.
When thou seest thy lover
Touch him with this feather,
Then he'll love thee only,
Nor think upon the other.'
 

"Then he will wed thee after three days, but during the time thou must come every day at noon to my grotto and say–

  " 'Grotto, grotto, grotto
By the incantation
To call on all good spirits,
Enchant, I pray, my lover,
So that he may never
Love another woman!
So that three days over,
He may be my husband!'
 

"And when the three days had passed she touched him with the feather, andresumed her own form, and by his side–

  "E si incominciaro
A baciare,
E altre donne
Non potiede più amare
 


THE APPLE-TREE.     225

  La sua prima amante
Le tocco sposare.
Tutto e finito
Non voglio più narrare."

"Then the pair began
Kissing as before;
And to other women
He made love no more,
But married her; the story
Now is fairly o'er."
 

The swallow as the bird of spring brings luck; hence in Tuscany swallows'feathers tied with a red string form an amulet. This story is only a variation from one in Grimm's Kinder und Haus Mährchen, but it may be observed that there is in the Tuscan tale more of chiaro-oscuro and incantation. In fact I cannot imagine one of this country without the latter. The magic song enters into everything of the kind. This was probably the case in ancient times in Germany, but as stories become fairy tales for children alone, it naturally disappears, and the narrative aloneis then the subject of interest. These Romagnolo stories are all in that state when the narrator–as I have often tested–will tell or sing them just as requested. This is the case among all primitive people in the magic epoch, and I might with truth, had I pleased, have given anystory in rude metre as well as prose. Sometimes the rhymes and attempt at metre are unmistakable, and in such cases I have given them in a form as near to the original as I could make it. But in the original, two or even three lines are often run into one and the voice modulated to suit the variation.


THE APPLE-TREE.


Had I found the following story in any country save the Romagna Tuscana, I might have passed it by as possibly modern. But in this region the peasantry have learned so very little that is new, that novelty in their legends and customs is very exceptional. This is the tale, which I have somewhat abridged–

"Once there was a beautiful lady who married a wealthy and handsome lord.And the great desire of his heart was to have an heir, but as his wife bore no children he became almost mad with disappointment and rage, threatening her with the worst ill-usage and torture unless she became a mother. And she spent all her time in prayer and all her money on the poor, but in vain. Then her husband hated her altogether, and took a maid-servant in her place. And finding her one day giving a piece of bread to some poor person, he had her hands cut off, so that she could no more give alms. And she lived among the lowest servants in great distress.

"One day there came to the castle a friar, who begged for something in charity of her; and she replied


226     ETRUSCAN ROMAN REMAIN

that she had nothing to give, and that if she had aught she could not give it, being without hands. And so he learned how she had been treated, for she said–

  " 'Because I have not bore a child
My husband is with anger wild,
For giving alms, the truth I say,
He had my hands both cut away;
Heaven help me, and help the poor!
For I can give them nothing more!'
 
"Then the friar looked a long time at her in silence, considering her extreme misery and goodness, and said–

  " 'Lady, in the garden go,
Where an apple-tree doth grow,
Fairer one did never see;
Lady fair, embrace that tree,
And as you embrace it, say
These words as closely as you may:

"'Pano o mio bel pomo!
A te con grande amore,
Ti voglio abbraciare,
Che mio marito
In letto con se questa notte,
Mi possa portare,
E cosi possa ingravidare
B che il mio marito
Mi possa amare!"'

(" 'Apple-tree, fair apple-tree
With my love I come to thee.
I would be to-night in bed
With my husband as when wed:
May I so become a mother.
Grant this favour; and another
Still I earnestly implore–
May he love me as before! " ')
 
" 'And this done, take from the tree two apples and eat them. And go to your husband and he will love you and take you to his bed, and you will intime bear two beautiful babes.'

"And so it came to pass, and the husband bitterly regretted his cruelty and the loss of her hands. And she bore the two children; but the girl who had been a servant and his mistress persuaded him that his wife had been unfaithful, and that they were not his. Then he took a donkey, on it were two panniers, and he put a babe into each and sat her in the middle, and bade her ride away.

"So she rode on in utter grief and sorrow, hardly able with her stumps ofarms to manage the children or to drive. But at last she came to a welland stooped to drink. And lo ! as soon as she did this her hands grew again, for it was the fountain which renews youth and life. Then her heart grew light, for she felt that fortune had not left her. And indeed allwent well, for she came to a castle where no one was to be seen. And sheentered and found food on the tables, and wine and all she required everywhere, and when she and


IL SPIRITO DEL GIUOCO.     227

the children had eaten, at the next meal there was food again. Now this castle belonged to fairies, who, seeing her there, pitied her and cared for her in this manner.

"And considering her case they sent a Dream to her husband. And the Dreamcame to him by night and told him all the truth, how his wife had been true to him, and how evilly he had done. Then he rode forth and sought farfor the castle till he found it. And he took her and the children home. And as they came near the gate they saw before it a statue which had never been there. Now the wicked servant had said, 'May I be turned to stone if this be not true which I have said of thy wife.' And the words wereremembered by the fairies (spirits), for they hear all things. And the statue was the figure of the girl turned to stone. But the husband and thewife lived together happily ever after."

The story is the widely spread one of patient Griselda and Genevieve de Brabant, and was perhaps in truth that of many a suffering wife in early times. But the conception from the apple-tree suggests the story of Juno,who conceived Mars without the help of Jupiter from the touch of a flower (OVID, Fasti v. 253). The fountain of youth in this story alsorecalls the golden apples of the Hesperides, and especially those guarded by the Scandinavian Iduna, which kept the gods young. There is a mass of myths in all countries connecting the apple-tree with generation andbirth. So in this story, as in all which come from this country, there are through-out sketches and touches which are possibly copied from more ancient pictures. It is worth observing, that even in this story the incantation must be spoken to the tree before it exerts its fertilising power.


IL SPIRITO DEL GIUOCO.


This is a curious and evidently very ancient tale, probably modernised–

"He is an evil spirit now–as one may say, a devil–but he was once long ago, before any tree which is now growing had begun to sprout, a handsome and rich young lord : yes, he had as many olive-trees as I ever ate olives, and more vines than I ever drank glasses of wine; but he wanted more, and so he gambled. Now some men spend all their patrimony in a jolly way, but he wasted his, quarrelling, cursing, and blaspheming. And at last, when nothing was left of all he had but some barren fields, and he was mad for money to play with, he looked at the wretched farm which remained and said–

  " 'This, too, I would sell,
Yes, and to the devil,
And give him my soul to boot
When my life comes to an end:
Yes; he might kill me with lightning.
And a roaring crash of thunder
Bursting up from the earth,
If, when I went, I could burn
All the crops of grain,
Vines, mulberries, figs,
And the olives--blast them!
 






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