Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/203

Rh the road to Bagheria which leads past the Chiesa dei Decollati. The gallows there was not taken down until nearly the end of the eighteenth century, and, so long as it stood, the rotting members and the bones of many of the victims remained to poison the atmosphere and horrify the passers-by. The neighbouring Ponte dell' Ammiraglio had another name by which it was commonly known, the Ponte delle Teste, from the number of heads constantly on view there. These things could not fail to impress the inhabitants. Accordingly various churches of the city witnessed at different times a cult similar to that which has now concentrated at the Decollati.

The lives of these deceased malefactors had presumably been passed in crime and deeds of blood, and their disembodied souls cannot forget blood. But, whereas in their earthly life they had no pity on their neighbours and paid regard neither to their substance nor their honour, being dead and reconciled to the Church they take the part of the weak; they become the shield and defence of those who are attacked. They hate violence, and, if they do not always punish it in those who commit it, at least they ward off its worst effects from the victims. They frequently interfere to protect their devotees from robbers. An old lithographic print reproduced year after year records one of these miracles. A warm adherent of the cult was once riding by night with a sum of money. Some robbers who had got wind of it were on his track armed with daggers, knives, and guns. The unfortunate man, not knowing what was best to do, turned with true faith, (an indispensable condition in such circumstances), to the Decollati, and all at once you might have seen the skeletons of these executed criminals rising from the grave, laying hold of their bones and running to the help of their adorer, knocking the robbers right and left, killing some outright, and driving the others half-dead with terror to save themselves by flight. But it is not only deeds of blood; blood