CALABEIA AND THE CALABEIANS

Bruce Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 1753, 28 May 1886, Page 5

CALABEIA AND THE CALABEIANS

Naples, or Salerno, is usually the southern limit of the wanderings oi tourists in Italy. It is not because this southernmost extremity of the classic land is wanting in natural attractions or historical reminiscences. The combination of rugged mountain scenery with southern luxuriance might worthily tempt a multitude of luurious jtravellers not only to make flying visits there, but to sojourn on the cool hill slopes of this beautiful and neglected land. The only reason of tbe neglect is that the miserable inhabitants of this fair region cannot understand that tbey might obtain a hundredfold more of English and American gold b) providing comfortable hotels and dealing honestly with visitors, than by waylaying them on the road, cutting their throats, or detaining them for ransom. As it is (or has been until lately), there are only two ways of safely seeing Calabria ■' to go well-armed in sufficient numbers to keep cowardly brigands at a respectable distance * or, as I have done in dangerous parts of Italy and Sicily, to travel on foot, with worn-out, mudstained, ragged clothes, no luggage at all, not even a knapsack, and just enough small change to carry on to the next city, where your luggage has been forwarded by post — for carpet bags and portmanteaus may be poßted in Italy. It is worth while to do tbis, if only to study one of the anomalies of human nature. The fellows who would cut a Jrich Englishman's throat for a few sovereigns, are overflowing witb interest, surprise and kindness towards the strange phenomenon of a poor English tramp walking alone, and supposed to be in search of work at the town some miles ahead. Such was usually my assumed character ; and on arriving at a roadside osteria, frequented by the semi-outlaw vagabonds who go about burning charcoal or mending roads, and who do the ordinary brigandage business when opportunity offers, my fellow-guests would gather round and ask a multitude of questions, always including especial inquiries as to whether my mother knew how far I was away from home, whether she cried much when I left her, and so on. Then they filled my glass from their wine-flasks, and would have fed me as well had I been willing _.to share their supper. The general condition of the people of this region south of Salerno may be conceived from the fact that it was then a common thing to see gangs of men and women digging the fields with peculiar long-handled spades, the diggers standing in line, so as to make a ridge and furrow such as is turned up by a plough in civilised countries. Oyer these gangs Btooi a man with a formidable long and thick stick, with which he belaboured anyone that failed to keep pace with the rest. Men and women were treated alike. This was during the reign of Ferdinand Bomba, but probably such agricultural machinery and similar motive power are still in use. — Picturesque Europe.