The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-01-10


lily. The SONS marry other shepherds
daughters; the daughters, other sheE
herds sons. Himself perhaps born i
the grass by the side Of the "traturo,
| in cleft OF some rock in the edge OF
torrents gravina, or in some low hut o.
hill or moor, ne emerges from babyhoot
to childhood nomad; is q nomad il
youth and manhood; he mates as
nomad; and never ceases nomadic lii
until the qnicklime Of some yillag
Campo Santo consumes his bones. s.
that to every flock belongs family.
The tatterdemalion group possesse
no home but that of the daily graZinl
| land OF the flock. Their sole possession
never equal five dollars in value. Thei
total earnings never exceed eleven cent
per day. Like Waitachian Gipsies
they squat anywhere for rest and sleep
and eat anything that will sustain life
II they possess q single aspiration or
earth, It is that secret one OF so many
other Italian field and moor laborers, tC
take to the hills" that is, TO become
outright brigands. Universal Incidence
and repugnance to effort are safeguards
against this. The Apulian shepherd
himself is q picturesque fellow enough,
despite your consciousness Of his vaCu'
Gus ignorance, his unvarying cruelty to
hia fioCks, and his utter soden, rather
Il a, active, brutality to his wife and
chudren, who serve as his pack-mules,
like the American sQuaws, for trans
porting his slender belongings to the
hills. Tall, and straight as an arrow, he
is clad from head to foot in undressed
skins. A bifurcated garnet OF Unframed
hide, fashioned after the pattern OF that
one so well known to American dress
reform ladies, forms sort OF waistcoat
aud trogsers combined. Tho latter are
opened at the pides, below the knees
often displaying gaudy buttons ornG-
menting the sides of his half gaiter, IN.
dressed skin boots. Over his waistcoat
is a long, loose, armless jacket OF hide.
provided with numberless pockets, his
rain.proof storehouse of meager treas
ures. A jaunty, brigandish hat sets
perkily upon his fine, curly head, and
brings into striking relief his olive skin,
his large, grave eyes and crinkIy, curly
beard-a half Egyptian type, ons would
say, to see 1t reproduced in painting.
Stung from his right shoulder across his
left hip by broad band OF hide, With
occasionally tho priceless treasure Of a
polished brass or bronze buckle, is the
inseparable capsella or shepherds pouch.
A rusty carbine, which 10 never dis
charged, or q stout staff as high as his
breass-but never the shepherds' crook
OF olden tales and modern tGJledur
viudRts-complete the picture. Aud It
is always picture; for this fellow with
the face Of an apostle and the eyes Of a
saint is so deliCiously languid and mex.
pressibly lazy, that his splendid form is
forever in pose and repose.
On the mountain side the life OF this
shepherd family is changeless one the
whole summer long, unless the terrible
hail storms OF Southern Italy fall upon
the mountalns, or the still more destruc-
tive wind storms, that frequently fling
both shepherds and flocks from theCrags
to death, come whistliDg over peak or
bowling through gravina. Then the
human marmot awakens from his leth-
argy and accompanies prodigious feats
OF strength and wondrous acts of valor,
rescuiDg endangered members OF the
flock or OF his own terrified brood. His
food is polenta and chestnut.hour bread.
He is the one Italian who drinks water
instead OF wine. His feld.lore, though
unconscious TO himself, Is marvellous
When spurred by extreme hunger, all
mountain moorland birds are doomed
where he sets his snare. 1t is a wild,
strange, melancholy land he looksdown
upon, II he have the energy for looking
His wife and children around him are
as yoiceless as himself and his focks.
The very melody Of the sheep.bells be-
comes a meaningless din. One carries
away from his environment and com.
with him only pathetic
sense OF his hopelessnees and degreda.
lion. You can only remember him as
another animal in hairy hide, insensate
TO the trnmpetings OF eternal nature
around him. The sheep browsing at
his side arc his equals in intelligence;
his superiors in demonstrgble forces
md activities. The lone kestral wheel
ing above thig Apulian shepherd has q
wider horizon OF view.
But there are other shepherds in Italy
OF whom SUMMER picture can be drawn.
These are the shepherds and shepherd
esses OF the peasants Lesser focks in
in Lombardy, In radiant Tus-
cany, and even in pestiferous, death.
breeding Maremme on the Tyrrhene sea.
There are many among those who, like
the Apulian shepherds, have descended
from shepherd ancestors, and who all
their lives soddenly follow the one voCa.
tion. But in the main they are the little
folks and the youths and wives OF all the
peasantry. In nothern Italy the peas
autry are happier folk than those OF
the South. The beauty OF the cities,
nuaintness and peaceiulness OF the viii
lagos and hamlets, the radience Of the
valleys and the noble picturesqueness
Of the forests and mountains, seem
to have given q retexive peaceful.
ness, sunniness and even yirility TO the
people. Their shepherds do not possess
the grave, sad, vacuous faces OF the
South. Companionship accounts largely
for this. In the North the shepherd Is
always one OF the villagers. He or she
shares their everyday life. The feasts,
espousals, marriages, funerals, all are
theirs for enjoyment and contemplation.
Nearly every family has it's OWE little
flock. Often several Of .nese are merged
into a larger flock and taken 10 the high
est mouutain.lands for the entire sum.
mer. In such cases a shepherd and his
family accompany them, and they live
much as do their kind in Apulia. In
October the came flock will be driven to
the moors and marshes Of Maremme,
where the shepherd aud his family
subsiss almost entirely on shared Wild
fowl which come here in myriadS to
escape the winters OF the British Isles,
the Baltic regions and the German
forests.
But tens OF thousands OF little aocks,
led by tens Of thousands Of little shep-
herds and shepherdessee, leave the vii
lage gregia or sheep.iold and home every
morning for the higher Glades. Some.
times dog, often apig, trained to herd
the flock, goes with them. II O maiden
has charge Of the flock, she will have
her spindle or knitting, aud will work
and sing and tend flock the hole day
long. II lad or STRIPPING lead flock,
he will let the pig or the dog tend the