The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1902-04-12

| cousins. There was no man there to
carry on the vendetta. The mother
alone thought of it.
| On the other side of the strait she
saw from morning till night white
| spot on the cliffs. 1t was little Sar-
dinian village, Longosardo, the refuge
/, of Corsican banditti who were hunted
too closely. They made up nearly the
entire population of this hamlet.
which faces the shores of their home
land, and they waited there until they
might return. She knew Nicolas Ra-
vollati was in this village.
All alone, all day long, sitting at
| her window, she looked across, think
! ing of the revenge. What could she
do without anyone, feeble and near to
death? But she had promised, she
had sworn upon the corpse. She could
not forget, she could not wait. What
would she do? She could not sleep
at night; she had no longer either
peace or rest; she sought obstinately.
The dog at her feet slept, and now
| and then, raising her head, howled
into the distance. Since her master
was no longer there she howled often
in this manner, as though she were
calling, as though her beast soul, in
consolable, had also memory which
would not be erased.
One night when Semillant had re-
commenced her waiting, the mother,
all of sudden, had an idea-the idea
of ferocious savage. She meditated
upon it until the morning; then rising
with the coming of the dawn, went
to the church. She prayed, Frustrated
upon the pavement, humbled before
God, beseeeching him to aid her, to
uphold her, to give her poor, wearied
body strength to revenge her son.
Then she went home. There was in
her little yard an old, battered barrel,
which gathered the rainwater from
the caves.
She emptied it and turned it upside
down, made it fast in the ground with
heavy logs and stones; then she
chained Semillant to the barrel and
went into the house.
She walked then, continuously, in
her room, her eye always fixed on the
| shores of Sardinia. He was there, the
murderer.
The dog howled all day and all night.
In the morning the old woman
brought her water in an earthern jar.
but nothing else; no soup, no bread.
The next day ended. Semillant slept,
stretched out. In the morning her
eyes were burning, her coat rough and
awry, and she pulled. desperately at
her chain.
Again the old woman gave her moth
ing to eat. The beast, become wild,
barked with hoarsened voice. The
next night passed. Then, the next day,
Mother Savorini begged two bundles
of straw from neighbor.
She took some old clothes which her
husband used to wear and filed them
with the straw, so that a human body
was represented.
Having stuck long stick in the
ground in front of the barrel, she tied
| to it the manikin, which seemed in this
way to be standing up. Then she made
head out oil old ciOtn.
The dog, surprised, looked at the
man of straw and became silent,
though devoured with hunger. That
night the woman bought at the gro
GERS two pounds of meat pudding, re-
turned home and lit wood fire near
| the barrel, and fried the pudding.
Semillant, crazed, ieaped and foamed
at the mouth, her eyes fixed on the
pan, from which the smoke entered
her very stomach.
Then the mother made of the smok-
| ing pudding a cravat for the man OF
straw. She took great pains in arrang-
| ing it about his neck, as though she
wished the grease to soak in. When
she had done this she unclaimed the
dog. With ono bound the animal
reached the throat of the manikin. and
with her feet on his shoulders began
to tear. She fell back with piece OF
her prey in her NAV. Then she
launched herself again burying her
| fangs in the strings around the throat
and, Selling some bits of food, fell
back again, and then, maddened with
excitement, leaped again on the figure.
She carried off the entire face by great
bites, tearing the throat into rags.
| The old woman, motionless, watched
with illuminated eyes. Then she re-
chained her beast and, having fastened
| it again for two days, went over the
strange proceeding. For three months
| she accustomed the animal to this ex-
ercise, to this meal gained by savage
teeth attack. She didn't chain the dog
now, but urged her on with gestures
upon the manikin.
She taught the dog to tear it, to de-
YOUR it, even when there was no food
hidden in its throat. She would ther
reward the dog with fried pudding.
Whenever Semillant would see the
manikin, she would begin to tremble
violently, then turn her eyes to her
mistress. The woman would scream
Eva" in a piercing voice, raising her
finger.
When she judged the time come
Mother Savorini went one Sunday to
communion and confession. Then,
having dressed in mems clothes, like
those of a.poor old man, she was rowed
by Sandman fisherman across the
strait.
She carried large piece of meat
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