ppino
Pampalone he told me that sometimes things do go wrong, so that they say
there are three relations more dangerous than enemies--the cognato (the
brother-in-law) the cugino (the cousin), and the compare. And they say:

Dagli amici mi guardi Iddio
Che dai nemici mi guardo io.

May God protect me from my friends
For I can protect myself from my enemies.

Peppino says: "If it is the man that would robber you in the street, this
man would put his life in danger because every movement of this man you
are looking. But if it is a friend then is it other; then you are
depending in him that he is coming to salvare you, you are embracing him,
kissing him, don't be regarding the revolver that shall be in his pocket
and sometimes would kill you. If it would not be Bruto, he would not
succeed to take the life of Cesare. Did you understand?"

But these are exceptional cases.

CHAPTER X
COMPARE BERTO

In 1901 I spent ten days on Mount Eryx, now usually called Monte San
Giuliano, near Trapani, where I went to see the nocturnal procession of
_Noah's Ark and the Universal Deluge_ (_Diversions in Sicily_, Chapter
X). During those days I made the acquaintance of about twenty young men
of whom Alberto Augugliaro, the son of the professor of mathematics in
the Ginnasio, was the chief. I have seen him nearly every year since,
first as a student at Trapani, then at the University of Palermo, and
again when he was at home on the Mountain for the holidays, in
villeggiatura, or doing the practical work for his diploma in the
chemist's shop of his uncle. When he became qualified, his uncle handed
the shop over to him and he is now established in it.

One starry September evening in 1909 we were walking together in the
balio (the garden on the top of the Mountain), and I asked whether, as he
was now over thirty, it was not time for him to think of getting married.
He confessed that negotiations were in progress. I inquired the lady's
name, and he came close to me, took my arm and whispered a word in my
ear. If he had shouted the word it would have reached no other ear but
mine. We were alone upon the Mountain; the Ericini were sleeping within
their walls of stone; over their tiled and terraced roofs the stars were
pacing through the night; in front of us and to our right and left, far
below, encircled by its mountainous amphitheatre, the spacious plain was
cooling after the heat of yesterday; behind us,