ng of the parents, when he who holds the cup
or tazza containing the ring becomes Compare di Anello of the bride and
bridegroom and also receives the privilege, or undertakes the obligation,
of holding the first baby at its baptism. At Ignazio's wedding someone
held the tazza with the ring and handed it to the priest at the right
moment, but I did not see this done because between the happy couple and
myself the lady-guests interposed a forest of hats, but I saw the tazza
among the wedding presents and thought it was an ash-tray till one of
them corrected me. There must have been a Compare di Anello also at the
wedding of S. Joachim and S. Anna, and this person, whoever he was, ought
to have appeared, and perhaps did appear, in the Nascita as padrino of
the Madonna at her baptism, but I did not visit a Nascita on the Day of
the Sacred Name of Maria, so I did not see the baptism.

A fourth kind of compare is the Compare di Parentela; the name is used
for those relationships by marriage which have no special name. The
brother-in-law, for instance, though he may be a compare is not
necessarily one, he is a cognato; but the parents of a husband and the
parents of his wife are compari to one another, and the husband's cugino,
or cousin, is compare of the wife and so on.

There is yet a fifth kind--the Compare di San Giovanni. The first time I
saw Turiddu Balistrieri after his escape from the earthquake at Messina
(see Chapter XVII post) it seemed an occasion proper to be solemnised in
some way, and we determined to become compari to one another, but as
there was no wedding and no baptism or cresima we did not know how to
proceed. We consulted an expert in Catania, Peppino Fazio, who said it
was an exceptional case. This did not alarm us because exceptional cases
are treated tenderly in Sicily. Our expert took time to consider and in
a day or two gave his opinion:--The relationship could be established by
our going into the country on the 24th June, the day of S. Giovanni, and
exchanging cucumbers or pots of basil. Nothing could be simpler, and
accordingly on the 24th of June, 1910, Turiddu and I went into the
country. He was in Catania, so he spent the day on the slopes of Etna.
I was staying with friends at Bath, so I went for a walk on Lansdown. In
choosing our tokens we had regard to the arrangements of the postal
union; he sent me a few dried leaves of basil and an elaborate drawing of
an emerald-green plant in