Ancient Rome and Modern Italy 29 



Just how long it was after birth that loving Roman parents 

 began to put on their baby ornaments as well as garments can 

 only be conjectured. I am tempted to believe that it may have 

 been rather early because I have had pass through my possession, 

 and have seen in collections of antiquities such tiny earrings and 

 fingerrings. Certainly today among the Italians personal dec- 

 oration begins early in life. In the third-class compartment of 

 a railroad train you are likely to see a mere infant nestled in its 

 mother's arms wearing in the tiny lobes of its ears a pair of rather 

 heavy gold earrings. The illusion that it must be already pretty 

 well grown up may be furthered by the sight of a piece of sausage 

 which it is sucking in place of its thumb. 



In Roman Catholic Italy it is necessary to make a new arrival 

 in the world a Christian by baptizing it as soon as possible. Baby 

 can be clothed and bound to a pillow, and, with its near baldness 

 duly capped, be already on its way to the font within a few hours 

 after its arrival in this world of sin. 139 Only after the priest has 

 finished the rite — so runs an Italian belief — should "the little 

 darling" receive its first kiss — until baptized he may figure merely 

 as un ebreo — and the promptness of his Christening is said to free 

 a soul from Purgatory. 140 During the inclemencies of the winter 

 season, in order to avoid the risk of having sudden death from 

 exposure consign the infant to Limbo instead of Paradise, it may 

 be carried to the baptistery in a coffin-like box. It is visible 

 through a pane of glass, while safeguarded against any current of 

 air, that dread of hypochondriacs whom one can never hope to 

 escape in train travel even in sunny Italy unless he rides third- 

 class. In cases where the trip to church is quite impossible, an 

 altar erected in the house of the parents may be used for the 

 performance of the rite. 



At the baptismal font, if the teaching of the Roman Catholic 

 church be fully respected, the infant receives for its good fortune 

 the name of a saint as its Christian name. 141 The vocabulary of 

 appellatives available has its limits. Consequently, if the patron 

 saint of the place where he is born is selected to be his protector, 

 and it happens to be, let us say, Giuseppe, an occasion can readily 

 arise in his maturer years when his mother's call of "Bepe, Bepe", 

 may assemble from various directions a considerable number of 

 unwanted boys from whom to single out her own. 



