Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 7 1889.djvu/413

Rh oaths and forms of salutation. The art of gesticulating seems to improve as we go further south. I have heard it assorted by one who knew them well that he could tell from his window what any two Neapolitans in the Piazza below were talking about from the gestures which mingled themselves with their conversation; but the Sicilians possess the art in a much more artistic form, for they can convey their meaning to each other without any accompaniment of words, so that no one present who was not closely on the watch would detect that any communication at all was going on. The history of the custom and various theories concerning it are carefully analysed, and numbers of the most frequently adopted gestures minutely explained.

Vol. 3 (xvi.) is filled with popular ideas of various matters classed under the heading of the corresponding sciences: Astronomy; Meteorology, including weather prognostics; Agriculture, including superstitions about the times for sowing and planting, blessing the fields, harvest, vintage, and olive-reaping customs, &c.; Botany, including "the language of flowers;" Zoology, under which at page 355 we are a little disappointed not to find more particular mention of the tarantula. On the other hand, pp. 490—510, we find something new to England about silkworm culture (bachicultura) and tunny-fishing.

The most fascinating volume of the series is the last. It divides in five sections. 1. Esseri soprannaturali. This contains some remarkable ideas concerning what may be called the transmigration of the souls of those who die a violent death, or, as it is here more definitely put, which are thought to be imprisoned in such creatures as lizards and bats, with the faculty of appearing in their own forms on certain occasions. At page 26 there is mention of a curious idea that obtains in some parts, that the remaining portion of the term of a man's natural length of life (originally assigned to him when he was born) cut short by execution or act of violence is spent in agonising wanderings, and that to curtail his miseries such an one is always on the look out to enter into possession of some one else's body. The souls of those who wrong the poor wander similarly until restitution has been made. Priests who have taken money for masses and have not