Evening star., 1943-06-22
Surdiniu

lie ldIe -. n. Lawrence wrote OF
Sardinia that it "has no history, no
date, no race, no Offering" But he
was not pretending to be accurate
in such an adventurous affirmation.
Nor did he mean to be strictly
truthful when he declared: Neither
Romans nor Phoenicians, Greeks nor
Arabs ever subdued Sardinia. I"
Americans who have visited the Sec
ond largest island of the Mediter-
ranean are conscious of a vast an
tiquity there-a sense Of time as
living influence coming down the
ages out Of the distant East. Sar-
DINA has something in common with
the Basque territories of the Iberian
Peninsula.
Mr.. Lawrence insists There Is
an uncaptured Sardinia still. 1t lies
within the net Of this European
civilization, but it isn't landed yet"
Perhaps he has in mind the noun
famous, wild, uncultivated surface
of the island, dressed as it notably
is with tree-heath, broom, rock-roses
and lentisks. Only along the coasts
do the oranges, lemons, olives grow.
Deer and boar and a black-fronted
fox range the high hills, volcanic in
the west. Nobody can be quite sure
about when human beings first
settled in the neighborhood of the
natural harbors of Terranova and
Cagliari. But there is reason to be-
lieve that the present inhabitants
nearly million Of them-are de-
scended from "the so-called Medi-
terranean stock" Possibly there
were two colonies at the start. In
any case, there are two principal
Sardinian dialects dating back for
countless generations. Dwellers in
the south communicate with north
erners In Italian, but their own native
media are much, much older.
Costume art is guide of sort
to the cultural origins Of the Sar-
dinians. They know the magic Of
the stark and vibrant colors-red,
white and black. Designs differ from
village to village, yet in the aggre-
gate single creative impulse is
manifest. The people of Sardinia re-
semble in that respect the lost COM
munities Of Crete and the mountain
tribes Of Macedonia, the Scots and
the Welsh. Muirhead's Guide testi-
fies for them that they are honest
and proud and cherish a strong clan
spirit; their hospitality is cordial and
generous; and they are devoted ad-
herents of the Catholic Church."
The island gets its name from San
daliota-because of a fancied like
ness in shape to a sandal. Prehis-
toric remains show the influence of
Aegean work. There are many ruins
in which flint implements and bronze
jewelry are found. More interesting,
however, are the three or four thou
sand "nuraghi"-conical towers of
unmortared stone, placed for the
most part in strategical positions
guarding fords, passes, ETC., so that
their function as defensive structures
scarcely can be doubted"
Carthage was in possession of Sar-
DINA in the sixth century before
Christ. Then came the Romans,
later the Vandals, the Genoese, the
PiSans, the Saracens as raiders, even
tually the Spanish and the Austrians.
Cicero, critical of the islands resi-
dents, complained about their "Sar-
donic SMILE" 1t is an open secret,
as Mr.. Lawrence observes, that they
love freedom, have no particular re-
spect for the House of Savoy and
would welcome a chance to be indie
pendent. The war now moving in
their direction conceivably might be
their liberation.