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At Vaccarizza they call such relics "pic" they are supposed, as usual, to be thunderbolts, and I am also told that a piece of string tied to one of them cannot be burnt in fire. The experiment might be worth trying. Meanwhile, the day passed pleasantly at Vaccarizza. I became the guest of a prosperous resident, and was treated to genuine Albanian hospitality and excellent cheer.
Noticing some neolithic celts similar to those I obtained at Vaccarizza, I would gladly have learnt their place of origin. Promptly came the answer: "Stromboli!" "Nonsense, my good woman. I've been three times to Stromboli; it is an island of black stones where the devil has a house, and such things are not found there." This vigorous assertion made her more circumspect.
After that I fell asleep in good earnest, nor did I wake up again till the sun was peering over the eastern hills. We were climbing up a long slope; the Albanian settlements of Vaccarizza and San Giorgio lay before us and, looking back, I still saw Spezzano on its ridge; it seemed so close that a gunshot could have reached it.
The two churches of Vaccarizza, dark and unclean structures, stand side by side, and I was shown through them by their respective priests, Greek and Catholic, who walked arm in arm in friendly wise, and meekly smiled at a running fire of sarcastic observations on the part of another citizen directed against the "bottega" in general the shop, as the church is sometimes irreverently called.
Another very rare creature, the otter, was killed lately at Vaccarizza, but unfortunately not preserved. Fencing and music are taught, but those athletic exercises which led to the victories of Marathon and Salamis are not much in vogue mens sana in corpare sana is clearly not the ideal of the place; fighting among the boys is reprobated as "savagery," and corporal punishment forbidden.
They reach San Demetrio by a two or even three days' drive over Rossano, Corigliano, and Vaccarizza. He became convinced, however, that for some reason or other I was hungry, and thereupon good-naturedly conducted me to various places where wine and other necessities of life were procured.
Six Albanian settlements lie on these northern slopes of the Sila San Giorgio, Vaccarizza, San Cosimo, Macchia, San Demetrio Corone, and Santa Sofia d' Epiro. San Demetrio is the largest of them, and thither, after an undisturbed night's rest at the house of my kind host the last, I fear, for many days to come I drove in the sunlit hours of next morning.
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