The record-union., 1893-02-25


and crinkly, curly beard. Slung from
his right shoulder across his left hip by a
broad band of hide, with occasionally the
priceless treasure of polished brass OF
bronze buckle, is the inseparable capsella
or shepherds pouch. A rusty carbine
which Is never discharged. or a stout staff
as hign as his breast-but never the shep-
herds crook of olden tales and modern
td6teGu1 UiUdnts-complete the picture
And 1t Is always picture; for this fellow
with the face of an apostle and the eyes oi
a saint, is so deliciously languid and in
eXpressibly lazy that his splendid form is
forever in pose and repose.
Nearly every shepherd of Southern
Italy is married. He marries young. He
rears, or rather there grows, seemingly
all unconscious to himself, large fam
lily. The sons marry other shepherds
daughters; the daughters other shep-
herds sons. Himself perhaps born in the
grass by the side of the ''traturo,' in a
| cleft OF some rock in the edge OF q tor
| rents gravina, or in some low hut on hill
or moor, he emerges from childhood TO
manhood nomad; is a nomad in youth
and manhood; he mates a nomad, and
never ceases nomadic life until the
quicklime of some village Campo Santo
| consumes his bones. So that to every
flock belongs family.
The tatterdemalion group possesses no
home but that OF the daily grazing-l Ian d
OF the flock. Their sole possessions never
! equal flve dollars in value. Their total
earnings do not exceed eleven cents per
day. Like Wallachian gipsies, they
squat anywhere for rest and Sleep and
eat anything that will sustain lie. Ii
they possess a single aspiration on earth,
IL IS that secret one OF so many other
Italian field and moor laborers to take
to the hills,' that is, to become outright
I n n 'YNIt Il flAlA
pugnance to effort are safeguards against
| this. The Apuliau shepherd himself is IL
picturesque fellow enough. despite your
consciousness of his vacuous ignorance
his unvarying cruelty to his 1iocks, and
his utter sodden, rather than active bru-
tality TO his wife and children, who serve
as his packmules, like the American
squaws, for transporting his slender be-
Iongings TO the hills.
On the mountain sides. the life of this
shepherd family is a changeless one the
whole summer long, unless the terrible
hail-storms OF southern Italy fall upon
the mountains, or the stillmore destrac-
tive wind-storms, that frequently fling
both shepherds and tioclls from the crags
to death, come whistling over peak or
bowling through gravina. Then the
human marmot awakens from his leth-
argy and accomplishes prodigious teats of
strength and wondrouS acts of Yalor, in
rescuing endangered members of the
flock or OF his own terrified brood. His
food is polenta and chestnuttlour bread.
He is the ono Italian who drinks water
instead of wine. His neld-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 4 wild,
strange, melancholy land he looks down
upon. ii he have the energy for looking.
His wife and children around him are as
voiceless as himself and his tlocks. The
very melody of the sheep-bells becomes
meaningless din. one carries away
from his environment and companion
ship with him only pathetic sense of his
hopelessness and degradation. You eau
only remember him as another animal
in hairy hide, insensate to the trumpet
ings OF eternal nature around him.
The sheep browsing at his side are his
equals in intelligence; his superiors in
demonstrabie forces and activities. The
lone kestral wheeling above this Apulian
shepherd has wider horizon of view.
Those who care for the flocks of Pied
mont, LON bardy and radiant Tuscany are
a different folk of whom q summer pict-
ure can be drawn. In the main they are
the little children and youths and wives
of all the peasantry. In Northern and
Alpine Italy the beauty of the cities.
quaintnesS and peacefulness of the viii
lages and hamlets, the radiance Of the
valleys and the noble picturesqueuess of
the forests and mountains, seem to have
given a refieXive peacetulness, sunniness
and even virIlity TO the people.
:, The shepherd is always one of the viii
layers. 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 own little flock. Often several of these
are merged into larger flock and taken
to the highest mountain lands for the en-
tire summer. IN such cases a shepherd
and his family accompany them, and
they live much as do their kind in Apulia
In October the same flock will be driven
to the moors and marshes of Maremme.
where the shepherd and his family sub
sist almost entirely on shared wild-fowl
which come here in myriads to escape
the winters of the British Isles, the Bal
tic regions and the German forests.
But tens of thousands OF little flocks led
by tens of thousands of little shepherds
and ShepherdeSses leave the village greg
gia or sheepfold and home every morn
ing for the higher glaues. Sometimes a
dog, often pig trained to herd the flock,
goes with them. II maiden has charge of
the flock, she will have her spindle or
knitting, and will work and sing and
tend her flock the whole day long. If a
lad or STRIPPING lead flock, he will let
| the pig or The dog tend the sheep, with
an occasional moment of executive OBJ
servation, and the rest of the day he
gathers mushrooms, hunts the young of
birds, all of which are eagerly eaten save
those of the swallow and hawk, snares
forest fowl, or pipes on his flute in idle
fantasy.
Both must bring backload of ferns,
grass, oak, elm or vine leaves, with the
tiocks at night. Some of this is for tenn
| porary use; but the winter store is thus
chiefly gathered. L have counted more
than one hundred of these little hocks
descending from the mountains with the
shepherds at eventide. The valleys are
| voiceful with thousands of tinkling bells,
with the notes from hundreds of shep-
! herds flutes, with the trilli of scores OF
! shepherds songs. Then, as the shadows
! fall softly upon the hanlets, comes the
| housing OF the sheep in the greggia and
the pastoral yields to the prosaic while
''Ravella' and "Nencia" gain new
strength for the morrow from their bowl
Of steaming polenta, or porridge OF
crushed white beans.
! The fairest possession of all Italy is
sunny Sicily. Yet Sicily has no homes
for the lowly of the countrysides as we
know and love even the lowliest home.
Nearly all Slcllians are serfs of the few.
Doubtless 100000 souls out Of Sicily's
entire population Of 1854, 900 inhabitants
| hold this relation to the nobility, govern
ing classes and eeclesiastics. An infinite
compassion fires ones heart for the hope
lessness of such a people, and when in
terest in tremendous natural phenomena,
classic regions and dead age remains
lessons, the pathetic side of life begins to
possess and hurt you. Any land boasting
no progressive farming ponulation
masters of the soil they till, or without a
fairly contented peasantry possessing
secure and well-Gefned rights in their