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himself chiefl on bread and dried fi

    Towards the age of fi for a whole summer lduzza was subject to attacks of an unnamed disease, which distressed her parents as if it were some genetic defect. In the midst of her games and her childish prattle, she would suddenly fall silent, tum pale, with the impression that the world was spinning and dissolving around her. In reply to her parents' questions, she would utter only a little animal lament, but it was obvious she had already stopped hearing their voices; and a moment later she would put her hands to her head and throat, in a gesture of defense, while her mouth trembled in an incomprehensible murmuring, as if she were having a frightened dialogue with a shadow. Her breathing became shallow and feverish, and here, she would hurl herself violently to the ground, writhing and shaking in convulsive turm her eyes open, but empty in a total blindness. From some subterr source, a brutal electric current seemed

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    to assail her little body, which at the same time was made invulnerable, never suff wounds or shocks. This would last for a couple of minutes at most, until her movements slackened and diminished, and her body settled again in sweet, seemly repose. Her eyes would swim in a dreamy awakening, and her lips would relax gently, without wholly parting, only curling a little at the comers. The child seemed to be smiling in gratitude for having come home again, to the double protection of her perennial guardian angels who bent their heads over her, at either side : one here, round and rumpled like a sheepdog's; and the other, there, a curly littl nanny-goat's poll.
    But that smile, really, was only a physical illusion, produced by her muscles' natural distension after their harsh tautness. A few more instants would pass before Iduzza really recognized her domestic haven; and at that same moment, no notion remained in her of the frightful exile and return, as if they were events expelled from her memory. She could report only that she had suff red a great dizziness, and then had heard something like the sound of water, and footsteps and confused noises which seemed to come from far away. And in the hours that followed she would look tired, but more carefree and heedless than usual, as if, unknown to her, she had been released from a burden beyond her strength. For her own part, even later, she believed she had suff a common fainting-spell, without realiz ing the theatrical phenomena that had accompanied it. And her parents preferred to leave her in this ignorance, warning her, however, never to tell anyone how she was subject to certain attacks, so as not to compromise her future as a young lady. Thus, in the family, there was now another scandal to keep hidden from the world.
    Ancient folk culture, still rooted in the Calabrian earth and especially among the peasants, put a religious stigma on certain inexplicable maladies, attributing their recurrent attacks to the invasion of sacred spirits, or lower beings, who in this case could be exorcised only through ritual recitations in church. The invading spirit, who most often selected a woman, could also transmit unusual powers, such as the gift of healing or of prophecy. But the invasion, basically, was felt as an immense and guiltless trial, the unconscious selection of an isolated creature who would sum up the collec tive tragedy.
    Naturally, Professor Ramundo, with his social advancement, had gone beyond the magic circle of peasant culture; and moreover, in accord with his philosophical-political ideas, he was a positivist. For him, certain un healthy phenomena could derive only from the malfunctions or infi
    of the body. On this score, he was openly dismayed by the suspicion that he himself, in his very seed, might perhaps have tainted his daughter's blood, through his abuse of alcohol. But Nora, as soon as she saw him

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    worried, immediately did her best to console him, and said,