ven for a Neapolitan Bourbon to
comply with, and in that case they must indeed have been pretty startling.
Malignant fairies are, in short, quite common upon the Sorrentine plain,
where exasperated mothers are sometimes in the habit of frightening their
squalling children into silence by threatening to introduce them to
_Mammone_--perhaps a corruption of the old Greek word _mormo_--a terrible
ghost, that must be a near relation to the "Big Black Man" of English
nurseries, who is ever ready to carry off naughty boys and girls in his
sack.

But the whole of the Sorrentine Peninsula is full of local superstitions,
the vast majority of which can easily be traced to the influence of
Catholicism, whilst comparatively few seem to be the legacy of ancient
Greek or Roman mythology. Belief in witchcraft is universal in these
parts, but the witch herself (_strega_) is regarded somewhat in the light
of a beneficent "wise woman," who can arrest the far more dreaded spell of
the Evil Eye, rather than as the malevolent old hag of bucolic England in
the past. Certainly there has never been recorded in Southern Italy any
such popular persecution of poor harmless old crones as once disgraced
English countrysides; nor has any Italian jurist, like the erudite Sir
Matthew Hale, ever condescended to supply legal information concerning the
peculiarities of witches, and the best methods of prosecuting and burning
them. But the _strega_, though not as a rule dangerous to mankind,
provided she be not disturbed or insulted, has the same supernatural power
of transit on a broomstick that is possessed by her northern sister. On
many a dark night have the peasants crossed themselves with fear on
hearing the witches flying through the storm-vexed air to keep their
unholy tryst beside the famous walnut tree of Benevento, which has been
described for us by the learned Pietro Piperno in his mysterious treatise,
entitled _De Nuce Beneventana_. Even snatches of the witches' song can
sometimes be distinguished above the howling of the gale--

"Sott' aero e sopra vento,
Sotto la Nuce di Benevento!"

Perhaps it may afford some consolation to those who have a dread of
witches that the word "Sabato," solemnly pronounced on these awful
occasions, is of real service to the utterer; whilst such as have had the
good fortune to be born on a Friday in March are permanently placed
outside the evil power of their spells, since our Saviour was crucified on
a Fri