48 



The Gra]pe Culturist. 



should bo. Let us drop petty jealousies, 

 let us become cognizant of the fact, 

 that the world contains room for tis 



all, and we will soon teach Europe to 

 look Avith respect upon the wine trade 

 of America. — Ed. 



THE YINTNEE'S FESTIVAL IN ITALY. 



Everywhere, as far as the dominion 

 of the Vine is extended, the approach- 

 ing Autumn will stir up the people 

 to a brisk and happy movement, and 

 will spread a general merriness all 

 over the Vinelands. A magical being 

 gifted with the wings of an eagle, 

 waves over the vineyards of the Ehine, 

 the Moselle, the Danube, the Aland, 

 the Gironde, down to the shores of 

 the Mediteranean. On the bare slopes 

 of the hills, where all through the 

 Summer only the industrious vintner 

 was seen, laboring hard under the 

 bui'ning rays of the Sun, there appear 

 now troups of happy men and women, 

 to gather in baskets and buts the ma- 

 tured grapes. Thundering guns carry 

 the Echo i'ar away through the narrow 

 valleys. When darkness sets in, bon- 

 fires send their light from all the hill- 

 tops, and lightening rockets rise to 

 the sky. You would think, that all 

 distress and misery has been forgot- 

 ten, and left behind in the lowlands; 

 and that mischief and trouble could 

 find no room in the free and airy re- 

 gions of the mountains. The Spirit 

 of fire, characteristic to the wine, 

 from the moment, when the grape is 

 plucked ; imtil the goblet, filled with 

 the aromatic liquid, invites you to 

 drink, never will disown its divine 

 nature. 



Everywhere this happy exiteraent 

 bears the character of a festival, and 



this has been since the time when the 

 cultivation of the grapevine was first 

 introduced. Thousands of years ago 

 the Hebrews, the Greeks and the Eo- 

 mans celebrated the days, when the 

 precious fruit was gathered, like holi- 

 days. But the further 5' ou go to the 

 South, the more attractive and the 

 more characteristic you Vv^ill find this 

 festival; while it appears as the most 

 antique and picturesque of all in the 

 vineyards of Italy, known for such a 

 long time for her full bodied, so called 

 Grecian Wines, for her sweet, dark 

 red Falernian, her lovely Chiarelly 

 and Lacrimae Ohristi from the foot 

 of the Vesuvius, her fiery Syracusian, 

 Muscatel, Hercolesian &c. 



The vintage festival comes in the 

 latter part of September. It is the 

 remains of the old Eoman Dionysia, 

 purged of its ancient licentiousness, 

 but retaining many of its most salient 

 peculiarieties. Bacchus alone, of all 

 the antique gods of Eom, still survives. 

 In some places on the confines of Na- 

 ples, his oscilla or masks are still hung 

 upon the trees in the vineyards for 

 luck, and songs are sung in his praise 

 and masks are worn in the procession 

 of the vintage as in the ancient days. 



Bacchus also has survived in the 

 speech of the people, who still swear 

 'per Bacco — per Dingi (Dionygi)£acco;' 

 and the ancient bassi relitvi repres- 

 sentiug the triumphal return of Bac- 



