The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-04-11


grow up; and thus they imbibe the
savage idea of vendetta with their
mothers milk. In one of the common
est of their folk-songs occurs the pas
sage: Twelve souls are not enough to
avenge my brothers finger-nail." Who
ever has cause to fear the vendetta,
shuts himself up at once in the house
and barricades all the doors and win
dows. Leaving only loop-holes 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 bullet
or dagger may find them. 1 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 we'll
grounded fear, for Corsican revenge
neither sleeps nor forgets. An illustra-
ton OF this happened in Ajaccio not
long ago. A man who had remained
for fifteen years shut up in his bed
room, heard that his arch-enemy was
dead, and at last ventured forth in the
road. In less than half an hour he
was brought back corpse-slain by
cousin of the man who had made his
life such miserable siege.
There is something darby 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
inspiration of grief. When death has
entered house, the relatives stand
around the corpse and tell their beads;
and then raise the ''grido,' or cry of
lamentation. In an hour or two the
body is laid out in state on a table
against the wall, with cloth bound
around the neck and chin and tied fast
on the crown, under the cap-the same
shapeless cap for both men and women.
If child, a young girl, she is dressed in
| white and decked with flowers; if
married woman, she wears her gayest
gown in which to see SO much company;
but man wears only a cap and a long
| loose garment called grave-shirt
Friends and relatives watch all night
J in silence; but early in the morn
| ing, after the body is laid in the coffin,
and before the funeral friars come to
| lift the bier, the grand lamentation be-
gins. A woman, of local fame as poet
ess and singer, leads the chorus of
female lamenters. They go to the
house of mourning bowling all the way.
Entering the house, they go to the
mother, wife or sister of the dead and
embrace her, but keep silent until she
invites them to begin. Then they make
! circle around the coffin and perform
various evolutions, tearing down their
hair, striking their hands together,
beating their breasts, bestrewing them
selves with dust, and all the time howl
ing. with the widest tokens of grief.
that these professional mourners
scratch their faces and arms until the
blood flows, because blood is supposed
to be pleasant to the dead Suddenly
the women throw themselves on the
floor amid sdeath-like stillness-not
sound is heard except the deep breath
ing of the crouching lamenters, who sit
covered up with their cloaks, heads
dropped upon their breasts, in the old
/ Hellenic fashion. At last up springs
one woman and strikes up song to the
deceased like an inspired seer 1t is a
dismal recitative, every strophe ending
with woi Wo. wo! which is repeated by
the chorus of lamenters, in the manner
of the Greek tragedies. This is kept up
until the funeral friars arrive to carry
the body to the church. Their coming
! is the signal for perfect tempest of
noisy grief, in which the voice of the
hired lamenters is always ahead. They
accompany the funeral train to the
church, bowling all the way, and after
the dead has been blessed, they again
lead the procession to the church yard.
After all is over, the multitude returns
to the house of the deceased, to finish
the ceremony by the conforto, Or
funeral feast. The more elaborate and
costly the meal, the more are the dead
supposed to be honored, and it often
happens that whole family is i'm
poverished for years to come by the
funeral expenses of one of it's members.
AS might be supposed, superstition
runs riot in this island. The people,
high and low, are as firm believers in
the "evil eye' and in witchcraft, as
their ancestors in the Sixteenth century.
They assert that 'strega" witch,
sucks the blood of children like a vam-
pire, and can transform herself at will
into cat, bird, or beautiful girl
that she lays spells upon muskets, SO
that they miss fire, and spreads blight
upon crops. So they have recourse to
amulets and charms to counterfeit these
dreadful influences. The older women
are adopts at soothsaying, by bones.
What is needed is the left shoulder