. . The delegato (head of the
police) of that town is so young - a mere boy - that I marvelled how he
could possibly have obtained a position which is usually filled by
seasoned and experienced officers. He was a "son of the white hen," they
told me; that is, a socially favoured individual, who was given this job
for the simple reason that there was hardly any serious work for him to
do. Cosenza, on the other hand, has a very different reputation
nowadays. And it is perfectly easy to explain how malaria might have
contributed to this end. For the disease - and herein lies its
curse - lowers both the physical and social standard of a people; it
breeds misery, poverty and ignorance - fit soil for callous rapacity.
But how about his theory of "pessimism" infecting the outlook of
generations of malaria-weakened sages? I find no trace of pessimism
here, not even in its mild Buddhistic form. The most salient mental
trait of cultured Calabrians is a subtle detachment and contempt of
illusions - whence their time-honoured renown as abstract thinkers and
speculators. This derives from a philosophic view of life and entails,
naturally enough, the outward semblance of gravity - a Spanish gravity,
due not so much to a strong graft of Spanish blood and customs during
the viceregal period, as to actual affinities with the race of Spain.
But this gravity has nothing in common with pessimism, antagonistic
though it be to those outbursts of irresponsible optimism engendered
under northern skies by copious food, or beer.
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