MARKET-DAY IN PERUGIA
[Illustration: RAFFAELLE.]
The day after our arrival we went up some steps near the hotel,
bordered by aloes not yet in bloom, and gemmed with brilliant-eyed
lizards darting in and out in the sunshine; presently we found
ourselves under the lofty walls that once supported the fortress built
by command of Pope Paul III., on the site of the Baglioni palaces. In
this wall is bricked up an ancient Etruscan gate--the Porta Marzia,
which came in the way of this erection.
One is glad, for the sake of freedom, to think that not so many years
ago the citizens of Perugia pulled down and utterly destroyed this
hated fortress, set up by the tyrant Pope when the hill-city submitted
to his dominion.
From a picturesque point of view, the fortress was probably more in
harmony with the old streets behind it, especially with the frowning
walls, than are the modern buildings that now border the new Piazza
Vittor Emanuele, and take off the charm of approach on this side.
One need not, however, enter Perugia by way of Piazza Vittor Emanuele.
Keeping below the huge wall, beside an avenue of green acacias, we
climbed by a wide flight of shallow brick steps past the picturesque
church of San Ercolano, then went through a lofty archway, with huge
projecting imposts, into a street with tall, grey houses on either
side.
One of these was evidently the back of a palace, and indeed it forms
part of the Palazzo Baglione which fronts the next street, Via Riario;
the very name Baglione made one shiver, remembering the chronicles of
that bloodthirsty race.
We halted here before a shop, to its owner, a well-to-do merchant of
Perugia, we had been given an introduction; he most courteously
offered to show us his wine cellar, in which is a portion of the
veritable Etruscan wall of Perugia, in excellent preservation. Some of
the stones are about thirteen feet long and eighteen inches thick,
huge uncemented blocks of travertine. The floor of the cellar is
formed by the ancient way, so that one actually treads the road used
by Etruscans before Rome was thought of!
The amount of forced labour represented by these walls of Perugia is
painful to think of, for the stones in the merchant's cellar must have
been brought from a very great distance. The blocks of travertine are
certainly the finest specimens we saw in the city. The old wall went
on from them by way of the Porta Marzia to the Porta Eburnea, then
northwards (there are visible fragments of it in the Rione Eburnea)
till it reached the famous arch near the Piazza Grimani, and so on
eastward to Monte Sole, where it took a southern course again, to join
the remains in Signor Betti's cellar.
The house stands on the edge of the hill, and from its back windows
there is an extended view over the country on that side, and, looking
south, over the garden of San Pietro de Casinensi, then kept in order
by the boys of the reformatory. The fine old machicolated spire of San
Pietro and the quaint campanile of San Domenico are striking landmarks
from the high road winding out to the Tiber and Ponte San Giovanni.
We discovered one secret in the charm of Perugia when we turned from
this lovely and varied landscape to the vivid contrast offered by the
old grey street.
[Illustration: SAN DOMENICO _PERUGIA_]
Near to Signor Betti's house is a little curiosity shop, and in its
window was a proof that the belief in "mal occhio" still exists
among the peasants. Hanging from a rough brass watch chain, much the
worse for wear, was a little bunch of hairs from a horse's tail, set
as a charm, and considered to be a specific against "mal occhio," or
any spell cast on horses, cows, etc. Near it was an irregular, stumpy
bit of coral, a man's safeguard against a like disaster.
During our stay in Perugia we made acquaintance with Signor Bellucci,
a very learned and courteous professor of the university, who most
kindly showed us in his rooms, not only a very interesting and
valuable collection of implements and other articles, beginning at the
Stone Age, but also a collection of amulets and charms. Some of these,
especially those for protection from lightning, are bits of
prehistoric stones, and exhibit a grotesque mingling of pagan and
mediæval superstition.
A little case embroidered with the Agnus Dei contained a triangular
stone arrow-head, and this, the Professor said, used to be hung at
the bed-head of the owner, between pictures of saints; on the occasion
of a storm, candles were lighted, and prayers were offered before the
amulet.
This collection of charms amounts to nearly two hundred specimens; it
is full of interest, and it would require many pages to do it justice.
A very curious amulet was the fragment of a human skull enclosed in a
little brass reliquary, considered to be a sovereign protection
against epilepsy and kindred disorders. Tradition said that this bit
of bone had belonged to the skull of a person, dead some two hundred
years before, who had worked so many wonderful cures by his skill in
medicine, and had lived such a long and saintly life, that he had been
loved and venerated by all.
The Professor told us it was not uncommon, when a body was dug up in
the course of excavations, to find a bit of the skull missing, and
this amulet doubtless explained the use that had been made of such
lost fragments.
Another charm was a little cross of holly-wood carved by Capuchin
friars; it had been found hanging at an old woman's bed-head, to
protect her from the spells of a witch. She would only part from it on
condition that she might reserve some splinters of the wood, so as to
prevent the witch from visiting her, and tormenting her for having
parted from her safeguard.
In Brittany we often saw a branch of holly hanging beside the bed for
the same purpose. There were corals in this Perugian collection of
various shapes, for women and children, for safety in teething, for
protection against "mal occhio," to stop bleeding, and above all, for
the cure of melancholy. The dark stone with red spots, which I have
heard called in England bloodstone, is said to be infallible in
checking bleeding; it must be useful in a country where blood-letting
and leeching are still common and frequent remedies.
One of the most amusing of the charms was a heart-shaped agate with a
hole through the top. This was found in a house not far from Perugia,
where from time immemorial it had been held in reverence, and in which
its influence was supposed to have maintained perfect harmony among
the inmates of the house. Professor Bellucci did not tell us why its
possessors were willing to give it up: did they want a little change
from this perpetual harmony?
Belief in witches is still very prevalent in Umbria. They are said to
haunt cross-roads persistently at night-time, it is also said that he
who walks late in the environs of Perugia will do well to carry a few
small coins in his pocket, and to fling them abroad as an offering
when he comes near to a cross-road, for assuredly a witch lies there
in ambush, ready to work him harm. Also, when the traveller sees in
some unfrequented by-road a heap of stones beside the way, he must at
once add another stone to this cairn, so that he may keep down the
phantom of the murdered traveller, whose unblessed body has been
hastily put underground in the lonely spot.
[Illustration: FOUNTAIN OUTSIDE SAN DOMENICO.]
Among these ciottoli, however, I did not see any of the charming
little coral hands to be found farther south, with the forefinger and
little finger, the other fingers closed, pointed in defence against
"mal occhio." It is possible that this belief in the virtue of coral
may have originated the custom of the long coral necklace so
frequently worn by the peasant women of Umbria.
San Domenico is near the Professor's house; a flight of steps leads up
to the church, and before it is a fountain bearing on its side the
Griffin of Perugia. The lofty campanile makes this church conspicuous
from every part of the city. It must have been tall, indeed, before
the tyrannical Pope ordered its two upper storeys to be demolished.
The original church is said to have been built early in the fourteenth
century, from the designs of Giovanni Pisano; it was, however, almost
all rebuilt three centuries later. The very large and richly coloured
east window, and the beautiful tomb with its remarkable canopy, were
both in the first church. The tomb, that of Pope Benedict XI., who
died in Perugia from eating poisoned figs, is the work of Giovanni
Pisano. Some intarsia work in the choir stalls is very good, but with
this exception, and the Pope's monument, San Domenico is not nearly so
interesting as San Pietro de' Casinensi.
Past the little Gothic church of San Ercolano, and a line of acacias
with exquisite yellow-green foliage, the tender greys of the city
seemed suddenly galvanised into vivacious colour, for Piazza Sopra
Mura was thronged with merry chattering crowds of market buyers and
sellers; many of the handsome peasant women standing or sitting
behind their wares wore a necklace of coral beads.
[Illustration: PIAZZA SOPRA MURA.]
This long Piazza is built on substructures which connect the two hills
on which Perugia stands; these substructures are said to be in some
places built on the foundation of the Etruscan wall. The Piazza itself
is full of infinite variety: on the right are two quaint grey mediæval
palaces, with balconies and windows; the Palazzo del Capitano del
Popolo or del Podestà, and the ancient university, are now used as Law
Courts. One can fancy the sometimes inflammatory, sometimes soothing
discourses that have been pronounced from the ringhiera of the ancient
Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo. Nearly opposite this building stands
a fountain. The laughing, gesticulating, ever-moving crowd in the
market-place, and the brilliant hues of tomatoes, melons, and
vegetables, made one's eyes ache. There was a certain sobriety in the
colour of the women's gowns, for the most part pale lilac or yellow
cotton prints, with sometimes white jackets enlivened by the favourite
necklace of coral beads.
The dark eyes, brilliant skins, and the red-gold hair of many of these
women actually seemed to burn under the gay flower-like headkerchiefs,
which looked at a little distance like some huge tulip-bed, so bright
was the orange, chocolate, scarlet, and rose colour mingled with white
and green. The laughing women mostly showed white, even teeth. The
buzz of talk and laughter was so gay and animated that one wondered
they could manage the buying and selling in such a hubbub.
We especially noticed an old dame, her white hair showing under a gay
kerchief with a sea-green border, and a bunch of roses in the corner
hanging behind her head. She too had a long string of coral, that set
off the orange-brown of her skin and her clear blue eyes. Her features
were regular; she had not lost her teeth, so that the form of her
mouth was still good. She had been bargaining and gesticulating with a
dark lustrous-eyed girl, with blue-black hair, for a pair of snowy
struggling pigeons, and when she went back to her place behind a
basket of ripe figs she moved like an old Juno.
Some of the young women were singularly handsome. Among these peasants
and the people of Perugia we noticed two distinct types of face:
regular features and deeply set eyes, like the faces in the old tomb
of the Volumni, were frequent; some of these faces had blue eyes and
beautiful red-gold hair, and were set on round pillar-like throats and
well-developed figures. Others--and perhaps the greater number of the
town shop-keeping class--had a far less refined type of face,
turned-up noses and sensual mouths; though many of them were very
attractive, especially when they wore the graceful black lace
mantilla, so well suited to their brilliant complexions, dark shining
eyes, and full red lips. Some of the men were also handsome, but not
so well grown as the women were.
Probably the custom of carrying a huge basket or a tall pitcher on her
head, up and down the hills and hilly streets, gives to the peasant
woman in Umbria the stately grace that distinguishes her movements.
These peasants seem to take an interest in foreigners, and are much
pleased to be spoken to by them. One girl who kept a handkerchief
stall greatly amused us. I had been trying to bargain with her for
some of her gaily-coloured wares, but she asked such a price that I
turned away; she came after me, almost crying:
"If the signora will explain her ideas on the subject, we may be able
to arrange," she said.
I am bound to say that we met with much courtesy and fair dealing in
Perugia. Even at the fruit-stalls, where we stood studying heaps of
lemons, full of colour from bluish green to most golden of yellows,
the owner left us in peace, and seemed pleased that we should take our
fill of gazing.
But the market is soon over; the baskets empty quickly; the unhappy
turkeys and cocks and hens, tied by the feet, are soon handed over
head downwards to fresh owners; the lemon heaps, some exquisitely
green, with a leaf or so hanging from the fruit stalks, have dwindled
till the remaining fruit lies flat on the large board near the
fountain; of the scarlet army of tomatoes not one is left, and all the
cool, pink-fleshed slices of water melon, sown with black seeds, have
disappeared.