Nel miglio salotto di recevimento. This is all an accurate picture of old Florentine customs. NecessitÀ fa la vecchia trottare. On which proverb Matteo Villani comments as follows: “And thus he truly verified the saying of Valerius Maximus, that ‘the wants caused by human weakness are a common bond of security,’ all of which is briefly expressed in the French proverb, ‘Need makes the old woman (or old age) bestir herself.’” Valerius Maximus was the prototype of Guicciardini. “Chiese alla regina di dormir seco.” Which was certainly very plain blunt speaking, even for the time. “Le cattive nove volano,
Le male son sempre vere;
Prima l’annunzio, poi malanno,
Chi me ne da una calda, e chi una fredda.”
—Italian Proverb. The cappa is a cloak with a hood or “capuchin;” a cotta is the stole worn by Catholic priests. Folletto. This, which meant originally an airy tricksy sprite, is now applied not only to fairies and goblins in general, but also to every kind of supernatural apparition. I have a book in which even comets are described as folletti. Redi’s Bacco in Toscana is known to the most ignorant in Florence, there being very cheap editions of it constantly sold. “Can a horn play second fiddle?” inquires Flaxius. “This comes of trying to improve on the simple Italian text.” Zoccoloni or Zoccolanti, sandalled friars of the lowest order, who are indeed common beggars. The partial inscription referred to is still on the column. This is strikingly like the ceremony for the same purpose used by the ancient Romans, the object in both being to frighten away evil spirits. Vide “Etruscan Roman Remains,” by C. G. Leland, p. 305. Una vecchietta, tutta GesÙ e Maria. I have elsewhere explained that the fata in these traditions is a witch or sorcerer become a spirit. It may be conjectured from this context that the child was partly human in form, perhaps like the Pig-faced Lady, or not more swinish than William of Ardennes in face. Truly she was, to use a really ancient phrase, “ready to go the whole hog.” It is said that Mahomet told his disciples that there was one part of a pig which they must not touch; but as he did not specify what it was, they among them devoured the entire animal. “Symbola Heroica,” Antwerp, 1583. Raised footway, high curbstone, causeway, bench. “D’una gran purga bisogna avete,
E questa purga davero dovete
Farla all’ anima, cosi guarirete!” It appears from this story that La Certosa was “even then as now” visited by strangers as one of the lions of Florence. This word is apparently allied to MarrÁno, an infidel Moor, miscreant, traitor, or to amaro, bitter or painful. A peculiarly Florentine word. Renajo, sand-pit, a place so called near the Arno in Florence (Barretti’s Dictionary). I can see several of these renaioli with their boats from the window at work before me as I write. Vide “The Spirit of the Arno.” “Echoes of Old Florence,” by Temple Leader. Like Proteus, the evasive slippery nature of water and the light which plays on it accounts for this. “Well, yes, I think you might;
A cart of hay went through this afternoon.”
I believe this is by Peter Pindar. The Italian proverb probably suggested it. Rizzar l’uovo di Pippo sÙ un pÍano. “To do a difficult thing, or achieve it by tact and skill.” This hints at the egg of Columbus. But Columbus set the egg upright by breaking its end, which was not a fair game. Any egg can be set on end on a marble table (I have done it), by patient balancing, without breaking. “Florentine Life during the Renaissance,” by Walter B. Scaife. Baltimore, 1893. The diavolino of Gian di Bologna is of bronze, but popular tradition makes light of accuracy. This is supposed to be addressed to another, not to the fairy. Ucellato, caught like a bird, or, as they say on the Mississippi, “sniped.” The reader may observe that these popular names of Oratorio and Orto are most likely to have given the prefix Or’. Ha tanta lingua che spazzarebbe un forno, Ò un cesso. Said of virulent gossips. Mago, which, like magus, implies more dignity than magician or sorcerer. “The Mugnone, whose course has been shifted to the west, formerly flowed into the Arno, through the heart of the city.”—Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy. L’anguilla si rizzo in piedi—“The eel rose upon her feet.” This will remind the reader of some of the difficulties experienced by Gothic artists in depicting Eve and the Serpent. There is much confusion here. It appears that the fairy made the fountain now in the Signoria, and that Biancone saw this in a vision. This refers to the satyrs who are among the bronze figures below Neptune. I here omit a long, detailed, and wearisome account of the research, which, however, indicates the accuracy with which the tradition had been preserved, and the full belief in it of the narrator. A kind of cruel pillory. In allusion to seeing it from behind the squares formed by the grates of iron before prison windows. Landucci, 233, cited by Scaife. Una medichessa. Not a fairy here, but a witch of a certain degree. Si la Messa de Villani era finito. E appunto hora comincia quella delle puttane, pero caminate, che farete a tempo con l’altre. Nella guerra d’amor, che fugge vince. Viene tutte le mattine
Colle sue belle manine.
Though very rude, even to illiteracy in form, the train of thought is here very gracefully managed in the original. So called because criminals passed through it on their way to execution. “Da qualche bacio
Vi chascha il vero bacio d’amor.”
—Original. “Altrimenti
L’avrebbero levato il collare.”—Original. “In una altra stella
Per raggiungere la sua bella.”—Original. Faceva il verso del lupo, the deep baying which is a subject of superstition in all countries. Friedrich, “Symbolik der Natur.” A humming-top. The Philological Society (Circolo), has also its rooms in this building. Perche si rendeva alle persone troppo triviale—A graphic sketch of a character who would be peculiarly offensive in a highly patrician community. “Col mio pugnale ammazato,
Col pugnale e sotterato.” Since writing the foregoing, I have found in Am Urquelle, vol. vi. 3, May 1895, a legend credited to a book by A. Bondeson, Historic Gulbar pÅ Dal (Stockholm, 1886), or a story entitled “The Lover with a Green Beard,” which is much the same in incident as this. The editor, H. Feilberg, notices the affinity of this and other tales to the Vampyre and Burger’s “Leonora.” Zufolo—a rude flageolet, such as is still commonly played by the shepherds all over Italy. Il suo spirito lo fa presentare qualunque ombra, that is, in any or varied shadow; a haunting shade, and not strictly the mere shadow of the one who is haunted. That which here follows of the invocation was obtained subsequently by my agent, I think, from another source. What precedes is evidently only a fragment. The concluding portion of this chapter is taken from the Italian original paper read by me at the first meeting of the Italian Folklore Society in the Collegio Romano, Rome, November 20, 1894. These references to Marietta Pery are in regard to a certain Italian poetess, of whose work I originally intended to give specimens in this book, but which were omitted as want of space did not permit their insertion. I hope to include them in another volume of legends.—C. G. Leland. Such incantations are intoned or chanted in a very peculiar style, so that those who can only hear the sound know that it is a magic spell. Therefore they must be expressed very accurately to the letter. It may be observed that there is a contradiction in the original MS., which here speaks of three companions, and subsequently of two. I believe the latter to be correct. Here the name of the lover is pronounced by the friends. Now in possession of Mrs. January of St. Louis, Missouri. “Moon Lore,” p. 152. I have no doubt that originally all the spoken parts of this narrative were sung. Thorns here plainly mean suffering, Fasio di pruini che ai messo al tuo fratello. It is amusing that this stealing oil wherewith to make love-charms, which was denounced so bitterly as damnable sorcery at one time, and frequently punished by death, i.e., by burning alive, is now tacitly encouraged by the priests. There are churches about Rome in which the oil is placed where it may be stolen or taken, it being understood that a soldo or two shall be left to pay for it.
