Calamity; even girls
are "Christians" and welcomed as such, the populace having never sunk
to the level of our theologians, who were wont to discuss an faemina
sint monstra.
All over the Sila there is a large preponderance of women over men,
nearly the whole male section of the community, save the quite young and
the decrepit, being in America. This emigration brings much money into
the country and many new ideas; but the inhabitants have yet to learn
the proper use of their wealth, and to acquire a modern standard of
comfort. Together with the Sardinians, these Calabrians are the hardiest
of native races, and this is what makes them prefer the strenuous but
lucrative life in North American mines to the easier career in
Argentina, which Neapolitans favour. There they learn English. They
remember their families and the village that gave them birth, but their
patriotism towards Casa Savoia is of the slenderest. How could it be
otherwise? I have spoken to numbers of them, and this is what they say:
"This country has done nothing for us; why should we fight its battles?
Not long ago we were almost devouring each other in our hunger; what did
they do to help us? If we have emerged from misery, it is due to our own
initiative and the work of our own hands; if we have decent clothes and
decent houses, it is because they drove us from our old homes with their
infamous misgovern-ment to seek work abroad."
Perfectly true! They have redeemed themselves, though the new regime has
hardly had a fair trial. And the drawbacks of emigration (such as a
slight increase of tuberculosis and alcoholism) are nothing compared
with the unprecedented material prosperity and enlightenment. There has
also been - in these parts, at all events - a marked diminution of crime.
No wonder, seeing that three-quarters of the most energetic and
turbulent elements are at present in America, where they recruit the
Black Hand. That the Bruttian is not yet ripe for town life, that his
virtues are pastoral rather than civic, might have been expected; but
the Arab domination of much of his territory, one suspects, may have
infused fiercer strains into his character and helped to deserve for him
that epithet of sanguinario by which he is proud to be known.
XXVII
CALABRIAN BRIGANDAGE
The last genuine bandit of the Sila was Gaetano Ricca. On account of
some trivial misunderstanding with the authorities, this man was
compelled in the early eighties to take to the woods, where he lived a
wild life (alla campagna; alla macchia) for some three years. A price
was set on his head, but his daring and knowledge of the country
intimidated every one. I should be sorry to believe in the number of
carbineers he is supposed to have killed during that period; no doubt
the truth came out during his subsequent trial.
