A summer goblin, invoked in Sardinia to frighten children out of the sun.
[5]
In Sardinia, farm labourers often own cattle which are either turned out with their master's herds (whose partners they thus, in a manner, become), or are confided to some other shepherd, who receives half the profits in return for looking after them.
[6]
Ispana trista or santa, from which, according to tradition, the crown of thorns was made. The people use the leaves of this tree for medicinal purposes.
[7]
The custom of burying a person bitten by a tarantula in a dunghill, and putting him in an oven, is not so unreasonable as it at first appears, the effect of the poison being neutralised if the sufferer can be made to perspire freely; while the sickening odours of the dunghill induce nausea, also supposed to be very beneficial. Now, however, the people completely ignoring these practical results, the ceremony has come to be an act of pure superstition. The account given above describes such scenes as they have actually been known to occur.
[8]
Head of cattle.
[9]
In Sardinia the fireplaces almost always consist of four stones placed so as to form a square in the centre of the kitchen. They have no chimneys.
