Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-03-02

inseparable capsella or shepherds pouch.
rusty carbine. which is never discharged,
or stout staff as high as his breast-but
never the shepherds crook of olden tales
ana modern tablCauX yivants-complote
the picture. Aud It il always picture for
tins fellow with the face of All apostle and
tue eyes of saint Is so delCously languid
ana lnexpresSbly lazy, that his splendid
form ~ forever in pose and repose.
Nearly every shepherd of southern Italy
IS married. Hc marries young. He rears
or rather there grows, seemingly all I'M.
conscious to himself, a large family. The
sons marry other shepherds daughters
lhe daughters other shepherds sons
Himself perhaps born in the grass by the
side Of the 'traturo," in cleft of some
ruck III the edge OF torrents gravinn, or
~ some low hut OH hill or moor, he
elncrges from childhood to manhood u
humai; is nomad in youth and man.
hood he mates Us u nOmad; and never
ceases II homadic life until the quicklimc
of some village Campo Santo consumes his
bones. So that to every flock belongs n
family.
The tatterdemalion group possesses no
home but that of the daily grazing land of
the flock. Their sole possessions never
equal 50 in value. Their total earnings
do not exceed II cents per day. Like
Walachian gypsies they squat anywhere
Tor rest and sleep and cat anything that
will sustain life. If they possess a single
aspiration on earth it is that secret one of
so many other Italian field and moor
laborcrs to take to the hills that is, to
become outright brigands. Universal indO-
lence and repugnance to effort are safe.
guards against this. The Apulian shep-
nerd himself is picturesque fellow
enough, despite your consciousness of his
vacuous Ignorance, his unvarying cruelty
TO his ilucka, and his utter soddel, rather
than active, brutality to his wife and
children, who serve as his pack mules,
like the American sqnaws, for trans.
porting his slender belongings 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 still more destructive
wind storms, that frequently fling both
shepherds and tl0cks from the crags to
death, come whistling over peak or howl
ing through gravina. Then the human
maTmot awakens from his lethargy and
accomplishes prodigious ieats Of strength
and wondrous acts of yalUr, in rCscuing
endangered members of the flock or of his
own terrified brood. His food is polenta
and chestnut flour bread. lie is the one
Italian who drinks water instead of wine
Ills Held lore, though unconscious to him.
self, is marvellous.
When spurred by extreme hunger, all
mountain moorland birds are doomed
where he sets his snaie. 1t is n wild,
strange, melancholy land he looks down
upon, II he have the energy for looking,
Ills VIE and children around him are as
voicelcss as himself and his tlocks. The
very melody Of the sheep-bels becomes a
meaningless din. One carries away from
his environment and mpanionship with
him only u pathetic sense Of his hopeless
ness and degradation. You can only re.
member him as another animal in hairy
hide insensate to the trumpe;ings of ctcr.
nal nature around him. The sheep brows-
ing at his side are his equals in intelli-
gence; his superiors in dcmonstrabc forces
and activities. The lone kestral wheeling
above this Apulian shepherd has wider
horizon Of view.
EDGAR l., WAKENNN.