Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-11-08
A COrsican Custom.

The C%orsican vendetta is the theme
of an interesting article in the Paris
Temps. There are two sorts of ven
detta-the direct (as the son avenging
his father or the brother his brother
or sister, and the indirect or transver-
sal, where the feud is kept up by dis
tant relatives. So long as there re-
mains one member of the two contend
ing families the field is open to repri-
sal. One writer estimates that in
thirty years 10000 men were sacrificed
to this barbarous custom; another
places the murders between 1859 and
Ills at 100000. A report to the
council-general in 1852 stated that
since 1921 nearly 5000 assassinations
had occurred in that island, and the
situation was so serious that Prince
Bonaparte was the only person in the
island allowed by law to carry a gun.
Toward the end of the Second Empire
the prohibition was removed, and the
vendetta broke out again with renewed
force and barbarity, the murders being
absolved and even encouraged by pub
lie opinion. If the mar who falls leaves
an orphan in the cradle, his wife or
sister will keep for twenty years
his blood-stained clothing to nerve
the orphans arm. The most crush
ing reproach that can be offered to a
Corsican is to have failed in his obi
CATION. In the Middle Ages any one
who backed out wasined, and if he re-
NAMED contumaeiOus for a week, ban
ished. In 1851 the person guilty of
~rimbeccare had his tongue slit. Some
times the quarrel extended to villages.
| From 1915 to 1913 the ROco-Seras
and 0tolis of the village of Sartene
had their houses loOp-hOled like fort
tresses, and at times their inhabitants
would have TO stand asiege for months,
when the mar who ventured to the
window or opened the door was likely
to be potted from the premies oppO-
site. Not long since a priest, who
never ventured out save with his gun
on his shoulder and accompanied by
his armed sexton, was shot dead at
mass by his enemy, who was hidden in
the confessional. The eminent PaOli
studied during the last century in a
darkened room, where the window
shutters we're lined with cork. He
was besieged in a convent in 1856 by
his enemies, and would have been
killed had not the mother of another
foe sent her son, Thomas Can
nOni. to his rescue, sacrificing her
hatred to her patriotism. In
1894, Andrea Romannetti shot dead
during the Carnival festivities the son
Of Mariana Pozz0 de BorgO. The
mother dressed herself in male attire,
and, with 8 posse Of friends, hunted
the murderer so closely that he offered
10 surrender if allowed 70 confess him
self She took him 70 the priest.
knelt and prayed with him during his
shrift, then tied him 10 a tree, and
drew up her platoon, with their guns
aimed at him. and suddenly relenting,
unbound and pardoned him. The
seton lives in Corsiean tradition, less
because Of It's generosity than for its
singularity. There are Parolanti, a
sort Of peace-making magistrates,
whose province It Is to arrange such
feuds. and their decisions once pro-
nounced sre usually obeyed; but a
meeting for purposes Of reconciliation
as frequently Eideus and intensihei
the quarrel The number Of men in I
family gives It an importance greater
than the amount Of wealth. Recently
a young man declined to marry a rici
girl, yfefeFFing to wed a poorer on'
who had Seventeen muskets in thi
family lie. s~eyentebh male relatives
who would be bound to defend the HeF
member Of the household in an emery
epcy.