The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-04-04

CleS tney O1IeF IOI sale. AIIoil5 tle
jspecialties of the place are potted black
birds, the liqueur de Myrte-the latter
made from the ripe berries of the myr-
tie. And then such luscious strawber-
ries such red ripe cherries, such pears
and potatoes and onions and radiShes,
and above all, such quantities of toma-
toes, would be hard to find elsewhere.
Toward sunset you should turn out with
the citizens for a stroll in the Corso,
and the Place de Diamant, when the
military band plays and the scene
comes as near to liveiness as anything
in Corsica ever does You are struck
by the fact that, while the women-the
aristocrats wearing black lace wells on
their heads, the lower classes draped in
black faldettas-move to and fro in
chattering groups, the men, whom they
greatly outnumber neither promenade
nor converse, but sit silent and scowl
ing, as if nursing eternal vendettas
A tour of the dim little shops of Ajac-
clio will furnish more than one days
amusement, though their main features
are in the line of killing-mostly dag
gers and stilettoes, But such a collec-
ton! The implements of murder are of
curious forms, only found in Corsica,
manufactured in most elaborate styles,
with such suggestions emblazoned on
the steel as Mort C"DeathD, "Destruc-
ton to the foe, IT seek the heart of
my enemy etc.a Some of them are
very costly, with JeWelled handles, and
have doubtless seen considerable SER
vice. Others are made in the forms of
hair-pins, of gold or silver, with ham
| dies of pearl, onyx or coral Nothwith-
standing the restraining influence Of
| Twentieth-century civilization, there is
no doubt that the spirit of the vendet-
| ii yet exists in all its original, undying
fierceness, in the hearts of both men
and women. Corsicans look upon the
vendetti as a chivalrous duel for life or
death, which, often beginning from
trivial cause, must be taken up by the
relatives of both parties and continued
from generation to generation till the
two families are extinct Thus q halo
of romance is thrown about the, darkest
of tragedies The original offenders
may be long since dead; but that does
not help the vendetta, so long as a vic
tim remains to be stabbed in the dark
or shot from behind a tree. Love for
his relations is religion to the Corsi-
can, and IL one of them is harmed, re-
venge is an equally consecrated pas
sion. Most of the Corsican songs are of
vengeance, are composed by women,
and ., are sung from the mountains to
the seashore. This produces perfect
atmosphere Of revenge, in which people
live and their children grow up; and
thus they imbibe the savage idea Of
vendetta with their mothers milk. In
one Of the commonest of their folk
songs occurs the passage: Twelve
souls are not enough to avenge my
brothers finger nail." Whoever has
cause to fear the vendetta shuts him
self up at once in 1.-THE house and bar
ricades all the doors and windows,
leaving only loop-hoes open. His
kinsmen till his ground or carry on
his business, armed to the teeth and
keeping strict watch both night and
day, for at any moment the fatal bull
let or dagger may find them. | have
been told of men who have spent the
better part of their lives in such
state of siege and constant fear of
death; a well-grounded fear for Corsi-
can revenge neither sleeps nor forgets.
An Illustration of this happened in
Ajaccio not long ago. man who had
remained for fifteen years shut up in
his bedroom, heard that his arch-ene-
my was dead, and at last ventured
forth in the road. In less than half an
hour he was brought back a corpse,
slain by a cousin of the man who had !
made his life such miserable seige.
There is something darkly significant |
in the fact that about the only poetry |
of the Corsicans is the poetry of death; |
and their favorite songs are funeral |
dirges composed exclusively under the
of grief When death has |
entered house the relatives stand |
around the corpse and tell their beads; I
and then raise the "grida" or cry OF la
In an hour or two the body
is laid out in state on table against |
the wall, with a cloth bound around the
neck and chin and tied fast on the
crown, under a cap--the same shapeless
cap for both men and women. If
child, or young girl, she is dressed in
white and decked with flowers; if a
woman, she wears her gayest
gown in which to see so much company; /
but a man wears only the cap and q
long, loose garment called a grave-shirt.
Friends and relatives watch all night in
silences but early in the morning, after
the body is laid in the coffin and before
the funeral friars come to lift the bier,
the grand 1amentation begins A wo-
man, of local fame as poetess and sing
or, leads the chorus Of female lament
ars. They go to the house of mourning,
bowling all the way. Entering the
house, they go to the mother, wife or
Keep silent until she invites them to be-
gin. Then they make circle around
he coffin and perform various evou-
ions, tearing down their hair striking
heir hands together. beating their
breasts, bestrewing themselves with
lust, and all the time bowling, with the
widest tokens of grief. In the noun
ain districts I am told that these pro-
essional mourners scratch their faces
md arms until the blood flows, because
blood is supposed to be pleasant to the
lead. Suddenly the women throw
themselves on the floor amid deathlike {
a sound is heard except
he deep breathing of the crouching la
nenters, who set covered up with their {
loaks, heads dropped upon their
,reasts, in the old Hellenic fashion. At
asst up springs one woman and strikes !