Under the Shadow of Etna Part 10

Her son-in-law, when she fixed those eyes on his face, always began to laugh, and would pull out his cloth talisman, with its effigy of the Madonna, to cross himself with.

Maricchia stayed at home to nurse her children, and her mother went out to work in the fields with the men, just like a man,--to weed, to dig, to guide the animals, to dress the vines, whether it were during the Greek-Levant winds[13] of January, or during the August sirocco, when mules let their heads droop, and men sleep p.r.o.ne on their bellies under the shadow of the North wall.

[13] North-east.

In that time between vespers and nones, when, according to the saying, no good woman is seen going about, _gna_ Pina was the only living creature to be seen wandering across the campagna, over the fiery hot stones of the narrow streets, among the parched stubble of the wide, wide fields that stretched away into the burning haze toward cloudy Etna, where the sky hangs heavy on the horizon.

"Wake up!" said _la Lupa_ to Nanni, who was asleep in the ditch next the dusty harvest-field, with his head on his arms. "Wake up, for I've brought you some wine to cool your throat."

Nanni opened his eyes, half awake, and saw her sitting up straight and pale before him, with her swelling breast, and her eyes as black as coal, and drew back waving his arms,--

"No! a good woman does not go about between vespers and nones,"

groaned Nanni, thrusting his face in amongst the dried weeds of the ditch as far as he could, and putting his fingers into his hair. "Go away! Get you gone! And don't you come to the threshing-floor any more."

She turned and went away,--_la Lupa_,--knotting up her splendid tresses again, looking down steadily as she made her way among the hot stubble, with her eyes black as coal.

But she did go back to the threshing-floor, and Nanni no longer reproached her; and when she failed to come, in that hour between vespers and nones, he went, and with perspiration on his brow, waited for her at the top of the white deserted footpath, but afterwards he would thrust his hands through his hair, and every time he would say, "Go away! Go away! Don't come to the threshing-floor again."

Maricchia wept night and day, and she looked into her mother's face with eyes blazing with tears and jealousy, like a _lupachiotta_, a young wolf herself, every time that she saw her coming back from the fields, silent and pale.

"Vile! _scellerata!_" she would say, "Vile mamma."

"Hold your tongue!"

"Thief! thief!"

"Hold your tongue!"

"I'll go to the _brigadiere_!"[14]

[14] Brigadiere is the station or the Commandant of the detachment of the Carabaneers in a small town.

And she actually went with her infants in her arms, without a sign of fear, and without shedding a tear, like a crazy woman, because now she pa.s.sionately loved that husband whom she had been forced to marry, greasy and dirty as he was from the olives set to fermenting.

The _brigadiere_ summoned Nanni, and threatened him with the galleys and the gallows. Nanni began to weep, and pull his hair; he denied nothing, did not try to justify himself.

"The temptation was too much," said he, "'twas the temptation of h.e.l.l." He flung himself at the _brigadiere's_ feet, begging him to send him to the galleys.

"For mercy's sake, _Signor brigadiere_, take me out of this h.e.l.l! Have me shot! Send me to prison! Don't let me see her ever again! never again!"

"No," replied _la Lupa_, to the _brigadiere's_ question. "I kept a corner of the kitchen to sleep in when I gave him my house as my daughter's dowry. The house is mine. I do not intend to go away."

Shortly after, Nanni was kicked in the chest by a mule, and was like to die; but the priest refused to bring him the Holy Unction unless _la Lupa_ was out of the house.

_La Lupa_ went away, and her son-in-law was then permitted to pa.s.s away like a good Christian; he confessed and partook of the Sacrament with such signs of penitence and contrition that all the neighbors and inquisitive visitors wept as they surrounded the dying man's bed.

And it would have been better for him if he had died then and there, before the devil had a chance to return to tempt him, and take possession of him, mind and body, when he got well again.

"Let me be!" he said to _la Lupa_; "for mercy's sake, leave me in peace! I have seen death with my own eyes! Poor Maricchia is in despair. Now the whole region knows about it! If I don't see you, it's better for you and better for me."

And he would rather have put his eyes out, than see _la Lupa's_, for when hers were fastened on him, they made him lose soul and body. He did not know what to do to overcome the enchantment. He paid for Ma.s.ses to be sung for the souls in Purgatory, and he went for aid to the priest and the _brigadiere_. At Easter he went to confession, and as a penance, publicly stood on the flint stones of the holy ground in front of the church, putting out six handbreadths of tongue, and then, when _la Lupa_ returned to tempt him,--

"See here," said he, "don't you come on the threshing-floor again, because if you do come to seek me again, as sure as G.o.d exists, I'll kill you."

"All right, kill me!" replied _la Lupa_. "It makes no difference to me; but I can not live without you."

When he saw her afar off coming through the green corn field, he left off pruning the vines, and went and got his axe from the elm.

_La Lupa_ saw him coming to meet her, with his face pale and his eyes rolling wildly, with the axe shining in the sun; but she did not hesitate an instant, did not look away. She went straight forward with her hands full of bunches of red poppies, and devouring him with those black eyes of hers.

"Ah! a curse on your soul!" stammered Nanni.

THE STORY OF THE ST. JOSEPH'S a.s.s.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE DEATH OF THE ST. JOSEPH'S a.s.s.]

THE STORY OF THE ST. JOSEPH'S a.s.s.

They had bought it at the Fair of Buccheri when it was still a young colt, and if it caught sight of a she a.s.s, it would run to it and try to nurse; for this reason, it had got blows and kicks on its rump, and it was all in vain for them to shout "_arricca_"--get up--to it.

_Compare_ Neli, when he saw how lively and obstinate it was, and how it licked its nostrils when the blows fell, and how it kept wagging its ears, said,--

"That's the one for me."

And he went straight up to the proprietor, with his hand in his pocket on thirty-five _lire_.

"The colt is handsome," said the proprietor, "and is worth more than thirty-five _lire_. No matter if it has a white and black skin like a magpie. There, I'll show you its mother; we keep her over yonder in that little grove, because the colt's all the time wanting to nurse.

You shall see what a pretty dark hide it's got! Why, she does more work for me than a mule would, and has given me more colts than she has hairs on her back. My conscience! I don't know where this colt got its magpie coat. But it is well built, I tell you. Even men aren't judged by their moustaches. Look, what a chest! and what thick, solid legs! See how it holds its ears. An a.s.s that holds its ears up like that can be put in a cart or to a plow as you please, and it will carry four bushels of corn better than a mule, I swear it will--by all the saints. Just feel that tail--strong enough to hold up you and all your kith and kin."

_Compare_ Neli knew that as well as the other, but he wasn't dunce enough to say so, and he stood with his hand in his pocket, shrugging his shoulders and making grimaces while the proprietor of the colt made it turn round before them.

"Huh!" grunted _compare_ Neli, "with a skin like that, it looks like Saint Joseph's a.s.s. Animals of that color are always _vigliacche_,[15]

and when you ride them about, people laugh in your face. Am I going to be made a laughing stock for a Saint Joseph's a.s.s?"

[15] Cowardly, ridiculous, vile.

It was the _padrone's_ turn to turn his back on him in a pa.s.sion, screaming that some people didn't know a good animal when they saw one, and if they hadn't any money to buy with, they'd better not come to the fair, and waste good Christian's time--on a saint's day, too.

_Compare_ Neli let him fume away, and he went off with his brother, who pulled the sleeve of his jacket, and whispered in his ear, that if he was going to throw away his money on that good-for-nothing animal he would deserve to be kicked.

While the _padrone_ pretended to be sh.e.l.ling some young beans, holding the halter between his legs, _compare_ Neli, not really losing sight of the Saint Joseph's a.s.s, went off on a tour of inspection among the mules and horses, now and again stopping to criticise or even haggle over the price of this one or of that among the better animals; but he did not open his hand, which still clasped safely in his pocket the thirty-five _lire_ as if it were going to buy half the fair. But his brother kept telling him in a whisper, pointing to the a.s.s, which they called Saint Joseph's,--