. In the Abruzzi . neighbouringtowns or villages, with licence to beg for food, or forpence, which go into the little pictured box. It ismostly from the poor they reap enough to keep themfrom want. Some wear their old shepherds cloak, butgenerally they have a distinctive dress—a black or brownfrock, with a leathern girdle, and a wide-brimmed beaverhat. You meet them toiling up the steep roads, withtheir wallet and their box, on their appointed beggingdays, and in the market-places, and in and out of thehouses of the little towns ; and not a peasant woman willpass without kissing their holy pic
. In the Abruzzi . neighbouringtowns or villages, with licence to beg for food, or forpence, which go into the little pictured box. It ismostly from the poor they reap enough to keep themfrom want. Some wear their old shepherds cloak, butgenerally they have a distinctive dress—a black or brownfrock, with a leathern girdle, and a wide-brimmed beaverhat. You meet them toiling up the steep roads, withtheir wallet and their box, on their appointed beggingdays, and in the market-places, and in and out of thehouses of the little towns ; and not a peasant woman willpass without kissing their holy picture, and giving it toher little child to kiss. Odd, rough, uncouth, are theseshepherd hermits of the Abruzzi, and their lives throughthe long solitary winter are of the hardest; but from thelonely scattered sanctuaries they would be missed. Theirbell rings the herdsman and the labourer home. Theirlittle chapels are resting-places and shelters along fearfulroads, and as the shadow of a great rock in a A SANCTUARY IN THE ABRUZZI CHAPTER V FOLK-LORE AND FOLK TALES Pagan survivals—Demons—Treasure-hunting—Witches—The Malocchio—New Year, Easter, May Day, and St. Johns Day celebrations—TheBond of the Comiiiare—The tede pagane—Evocation of the dead—FolkTales—The Land where Death is not—The Creation of theWorld—Misery. Amongst a people still so largely primitive there is noclear distinction between their religion, so far as it istraditional, and their folk-lore. The stories of the saintsare often refurbished legends of the rustic gods, of thevanished fairies, or of magic men of the antique Domenico of Cocullo is a reincarnation of the oldpriest-enchanter of the Marsi; and Ceres is now calledthe Virgin Mary. There has been no conscious accept-ance of the transference by the Church, of course ; but anatural process has gone on amongst the people, who inall primitive Catholic countries make their own religionto a much larger extent than Prot
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