Ancient Rome and Modern Italy 63 



Romagna", Archivio, III (1884), 321-333. On the old crones and "wise women" 

 who may be assembled at the parturition see Z. Zanetti, La medicina, 120, note 1. 



92 C. Simiani, "Usi, leggende e pregiudizi popolari trapanesi", Archivio, X 

 (1891), 488-489; G. Pitre, op. cit. (see note 86), 18; op. cit. (see note 58), 281. 



93 Z. Zanetti, La medicina, 121; cf. G. Finamore, op. cit. (see note 5), 22. 



94 P. H. Williams, op. cit. (see note 4), 88, 94a. For a fuller account cf. Walton 

 Brooks McDaniel, "Some Roman Remedies in Italian Folkmedicine", Trans, and 

 Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Ser. 4, vol. XII (1944) , 74-76. 



95 Z. Zanetti, op. cit., 125. 



96 Z. Zanetti, op. cit., 127. 



97 Z. Zanetti, op. cit., 134. 



98 We may give a few illustrations of this line of thought out of many available. 

 The red misura of S. Restituta is used for an attack of measles: G. Pitre, op. cit. 

 (see note 58), 291. We are told that a red bed-covering or the red mantle of a 

 friar of S. Giuseppe may also help. If a woman in a fever keeps under the bed 

 clothes close to her a red handkerchief during an entire day, it should rid her of it: 

 Z. Zanetti, La medicina, 69. There is also a misura for arthritis: G. Pitre, op. cit. 

 (see note 46), 269. 



99 E. Canziani, op. cit. (see note 45), 214. 



ioo J accept Politian's emendation qui in Verg. Eel. 4.62 and in Quint. 9.3.8. 



101 1. Nieri, op. cit. (see note 58), 356-357. See on this Fanny D. Bergen, 

 Current Superstitions Collected from the Oral Tradition of English-Speaking Folk, 

 24, no. 42; E. M. Fogel, op. cit. (see note 24), 49, No. 124. 



102 Cf. A. F. Chamberlain, The Child and Childhood in Folkthought, 156. On 

 the notion that a moth or a butterfly is a soul cf. Notes and Queries, Ser. 1, III 

 (1850), 220; Ser. 5, VII (1877), 284. 



103 Z. Zanetti, La medicina, 140-141. 



104 Z. Zanetti, op. cit. 140-141 ; 161. In a case of rickets, the only thing to do 

 with the donne di fuora who have substituted a changeling is to placate them. 

 G. Pitre, op. cit. (see note 46), 270-271. 



105 Cf., e.g. Lucret. 5.222-227; Plin. N.H. 7.2-3; 11.269. We are told that 

 Vergil did not cry at his birth: Verg. Vita Donatiana (Edit, of Brummer) 2, 

 line 13. According to Pliny, babies begin to speak when they are a year old. 

 It was a portent if one spoke at the age of six months. Those who talk early, 

 walk late: N.H. 11.270. Modern babies are not supposed to smile until the 

 second month, but doting parents may insist that they detect a risus much 

 earlier: cf., e.g., G. Sellew, Pediatric Nursing, 22. See, also, the Scientific 

 Monthly, R. W. Gerard, "The Biological Basis of Imagination", June, 1946, 487. 

 At nine months they reach the "dada" and "mama" stage of speech: cf., e.g., J. 

 Garland, The Youngest of the Family, 26. 



106 Even American travelers note the lack of discipline, and, of course, the 

 Germans censure it: cf., e.g., W. Frey, Italia sempiterna, II, 24. On the other 

 hand, Italians themselves note that among the Sicilians the authority of the 

 paterfamilias is strong: Encic. ital., s.v. "Sicilia", 697. P. D. Fischer {Italien und 

 die Italiener 2 , 348) quotes the words of Torquato Tasso: alia virtu latina, o nulla 

 manca o sol la disciplina. The ancients give us a picture of punishment at home 

 and at school that contrasts strongly with anything to be seen now in an upper- 

 class family: cf. O. Kiefer, Sexual Life in Ancient Rome, 68-74. 



