The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1911-09-07
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The Man. FaI'tlrgSt Down
By BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
By BOOKER T. WASHINGTON

| superstitions If the common people
of the country and gave me an in
lsight, such as I had not had before,
into the way in which the masses of
people feel toward the Catholic church
with all it's religious ceremonies and
| symbols. 1t led me to suspect, also.
| that much in the religious life of the
Sicilian people which looked, perhaps,
, to those who have had a different
training, like superstition, is in fact
merely the natural expression Of the
reverence and piety of a simple-mind-
ed, perhaps, and ignorant people.
was told, while1 was in that city,
that Catania has two hundred and
fifty churches, and though 1 do not
know that this statement is correct
would easily believe it from the in
| terminable changing church bells that
smote my ears the first Sunday morn
ing l was in the city. At any rate
no one can go through the city and
look at the public buildings, or study
int people in their home without
| meeting abundant evidence of the all
pervading influence of the church.
Everywhere, built into the buildings,
on the street corners, and in every
! possible public place, one sees little
images of the Virgin, with perhaps a
burning lamp before them. Once I
ran across one such image, with a
| lamp before it, planted in a field. I
was told it was there to protect the
crops from the Influence Of evil
spirits.
1t did not seem to have occurred to
anyone that the image Of the Virgin
and the blessing of the Church, which
were intended to protect the fields
| from evil spirits, might protect them,
also from thieves, or Danish from the
community the. evil spiris that in
spired men to rob and steal. If this
opinion had been very widely held
among the masses of tht people it
would hardly have been necessary to
guard the fields night and day. dur
ing the harvest season, by men armed
with shot guns.
This brings me to another point in
l
masses of the Sicilian people with
the masses Of the Negroes in the
Southern States, namely, in respect
to their religious life.
Naturally, the first thing that strik-
es one, in attempting to make such
q comparison, is the wide difference
in the situation Of the average black
in ho
corresponding class in Sicily. In oil
the external religious life, at least,
the Sicilian is far ahead of the Ne
gro.
| Sicily was one OF the nrst countries
in the world in which Christianity
was planted. St. Paul stopped three
days in Syracuse on his way to Rome
and there is still standing a building
ii Catania in which St. Peter is said
to have preached
Sicily has inherited the traditions,
the organization and the splendid
churches and buildings which have
grown up and accumulated through a
thousand years and more. The Black
man, on the contrary, gained his first
knowledge of Christianity in slavery
and in very imperfect and uusatisfac-
tory form. 1t is only since freedom
came that the Negro church has had
an opportunity to extend and establish
its influence among the masses of the
people, while out Of their poverty Ne
groes, who are even yet struggling to
build and own their own homes, and
SO establish family life, have had to
build churches and training schools
for ministers to establish a religious
press, TO support missionary societies
and all the other aids and accessories
of organized religion.
In view Of the wide difference be-
tween the people Of Sicily and the Ne
grocs in America, SO far as concerns
the external side of their religious
life, 1T struck me as curious that
should hear. almost exactly the same
criticism Of the people in Sicily in
respect to their religion, that | have
frequently heard Of the Negroes In
/ America. A very large number of the
popular superStiticms Of Sicily what
/ we sometimes call the folklore of a
country, are very much like the sim
liar notions that the Negroes are sup
posed to have imported to America
from Africa. Any one who has listen
ed to any Of the older generation of
colorcd people tell of tho various ways
OF working the roots, as they call
It, Will learn great many things that
can be almost exactly duplicated in
the popular notions about drugs and
phiItcrs among the people Of Sicily
1t Is said Of the Sicilian, among
other things, that their Christianity
IS saturated with Pagan supcrstitions
and that for the average Sicilian, re-
| liRiOns has no connection with moral