The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-01-10
abe Sntelligeuttr.
onleos Nus, 5nnd 81 Tourtepnths Street.
VAKEMAN'S TRAVELS.
Italian Shepherds.
Tr,n,Hi1hi 1901
pnndlnel d M IntaIinennr.

Special Correspondence Of he IlidlioenecT.
FLORENCE, ITALY, Nov. 27.-About tn
year 1850, at the dawn of the golden az
in Italy, there were daily gathered a
the table Of the chief citizen Of Florenc,
such men as Pulcl, Filipino, Llppi
Botticello, Ghirlandaio and Michae
Angelo. The host, whose wealth ant
matchless attainments made him know
among the potentates and savants o
Southern Europe ss Lorenzo, th,
Magnificent" wrote a pastoral poem o
wondrous sweetness and power called
Ia Nencia Da Barbarino." was onct
In position (being an editor, worsl
luck y to have this little known though
surprising composition translated FOL
the frat time into English, in the orig
inal metre, by no less q scholar and poei
than Sir Edwin Arnold. The poem
comprising 300 lines, depicts in simple
though glowing words and imagery the
hopeless and consuming passion OF the
shepherd lad, "Rav6lla," for dainty
peasant girl, "Nencia." 0ue cannot
read this lowly.li life heart-cry without the
awakening in his own soul Of a thrilling
and commemorative tenderness for the
humble lives it SO plainly reveals; and
1t was with this feeling that l sought,
perhaps over.much for the poetic and
romantic side OF the Picture, to know
the real everyday lives OF those who
tend the hocks and herds Of Italy.
My last wanderiDgswere in Southern
Italy, the territory OF olden ApClia
Once this was part OF Grccia Magma.
It's great cities werO Arpinum, LuCeTia,
Arpi and Canusium. Partly on foot,
partly by the antique cabriolet Of pro.
vincial Italy, partly by lettiga, the lectia
Of the ancient Romans, and partly on
the backs Of tiny donkeys OF wondrous
shogginess and marvellous power, l
made my way in q zig-zsg course back
and forth actoss the intFeqaently traT-
eled, little.known, weird and lonely, yet
always trauscendently beautiful and
fascinating peninsula. Upwards OF 800
castles, modern, medieval and in ruins,
strikingly recalling the splendor aud
decay Of Ireland, were counted. The
few remaining relics of Gamma, where
the Romans met their crushing defeat
OF b. @. PIG, and where the historic city
vas finally destroyed, III 1883, by Rob.
ert Guiscard, one Of Tasso's heroes,
were found. Bari, upon the Adriatic,
ss famous now for il fish as in the time
Of Horace, was seen. The ancient alb.
hey and church Of S. Niccolo, where are
found the paintings Of one Of the earli-
est Italian masters, Vivarini, and where
in 1908, Pope Urban II. held the famous
council which sought 10 reconcile the
church OF Greece with that of Rome,
was visited. I climbed past Melf,
with its glorious castle Of the old Nor.
man sovereigns, to the extinct vol
cano, Monte Vulture, the "Apuli-
an Yultur" OF Horace, whose
crater, cyergrown with oaks snd
beeches, now contains two lakes, perched
above one Of which is the most eerie
monastery Of Europe, possibly excepting
Monserrat, in Spain, and from whose
towers the blue waters OF the Meditcrra-
mean on the west, and those Of the Adri.
attic on the east, can be discerned. l
tramped, too, with hundreds Of return
pilgrims, camping with them at night by
the wayside; sat with the carrettajo as
his cart and OK waited by the fountains;
climbed to the shrines with reVereHtial
prilgtims; waited by the mounting
blocks with roadside beggars; made
countless and astounding excuses to get
into tho interior Of cabins for draughts
acqua di latte and mania, buttermilk
and orange water, which you can get
everywhere in the country for the value
Of haitian American cent; struggled from
town to mountain with the pecore and
his floCks; assisted more than one shep-
herd in building rude hut of stone,
after the manner OF the Pagan "bee-
hive" cell upon wind.swept mocrs; and
after making my home for brief season
among the shepherds Of the eastern
mountain range OF 0tranto, followed on
foot the classic Appain Way to the shep-
herd haunts OF the olive and vine girt
hills oil Tuscany. Shepherds, shepherds
everywhere; but nowhere was the
dream Of shepherd life breathing from
Ia Nencia," as the altar from the heart
OF rose, fulfilled.
One Of the most interesting facts re-
garding the shepherds Of southern Italy
Is that they are not only distinct class,
but, though holding themselves aloot
from all other peasant classes, are almost
a distinct rsCe. In ancient times all this
country was subject to scourgibR depre-
dationB by the saracens, to an extent re-
quiring that people should herd together
in walled towns for protection OF life and
property. Then nearly the entire popu-
lation OF old Apulia were shepherds.
They drove their herds from the towns
to the mountains, returning Tor safety at
night. The descendants OF these in
direct line for more than two thousand
years, are doing that identical thing to-
day, not for safety, but from tradition
ary custom. All those who exist in
southern Italy to-day who are not shep-
herds, goatherds or herdsmen, form the
population Of cities and towns and con-
prise the Contadlni or field tsborers;
and the ancestors Of all these may be
said 10 have gradually grown away
from the shepherds life rather than
that the shepherds Of our
time are product Of new forms OF rural
economic necessities. They rarely inter
marry with other classes. When they
do, they instantly depart from the
flocks, are absorbed in lower orders OF
the cities, or become the most desper-
Gtely hopeless OF the human cattle that
labor in the fields. The pride in their
own descent, in the exclusiveness Of
their class, in the long line Of shepherd
ancestry they can trace, amounts almost
to passion. 1t is practically the one
pride they possess. This isolation oil
blood and interest has preserved inter-
esting traces in physiognomy. They
are wonderfully Saracenic in their look.
The tall, slender, supple figure, the oval
face and shining skin, the neck, tiny
at the throat, spreading quickly and
heavily in protuberent muscles, like a
brosd.butted tree, to the shoulders, the
yellowish.blue tinge Of the white OF
the eye, the distended nostrils, and the
dazzling teeth, all pronounce the East
ern origin and retained physiological
atIinities.
In every part Of southern Italy you
will come upon broad grass'grown
highway. Itiscalled the "traturo." For
twenty centuries 1t has served the same
nurpoBa. It can be nearly likened TO