women and the wine harvest in sicily
it was late in september when i reached catania, on the eastern side of sicily. the city lies at the foot of mt. ætna on the edge of the sea. above it looms the vast bulk of the volcano, its slopes girdled with gardens and vineyards that mount, one terrace above the other, until they lose themselves in the clouds. a wide and fertile valley below the city to the south, through which the railway descends from the mountain to the sea, seemed, as did mt. ætna itself, like one vast vineyard.
this was the more noticeable and interesting because, at the time i reached there, the harvest was in progress; the vineyards were dotted with women carrying baskets; the wine presses were busy, and the air was filled with the fumes of the fermenting grape juice.
although it was sunday morning and the bells in a hundred churches were calling the people to prayers, there was very little of the sunday quiet i had somehow expected to meet. most of the shops were open; in every part of
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the city men were sitting in their doorways or on the pavement in front of their little cell-like houses, busily at work at their accustomed crafts. outside the southern gate of the city a thrifty merchant had set up a hasty wine shop, in order to satisfy the thirst of the crowds of people who were passing in and out of the city and also, perhaps, to escape the tax which the city imposes upon all sorts of provisions that enter the city from the surrounding country. country wine was selling here at a few pennies a litre—i have forgotten the exact sum—and crowds of people from the city celebrated, something after the ancient custom of the country, i suppose, the annual harvest of the grapes.
out of the southern gate of the city, which leads into the fertile vine-clad plain, a dusty and perspiring procession—little two-wheeled carts, beautifully carved and decorated, carrying great casks of grape juice, little donkeys with a pigskin filled with wine on either flank and a driver trotting along beside them—pushed and crowded its way into the city. at the same time a steady stream of peasants on foot, or city people in carriages, mingling with the carts and pack-animals, poured out of the gate along the dusty highway, dividing and dwindling, until the stream lost itself among the cactus hedges that mark the winding country roads.
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it was to me a strange and interesting sight and, not only on this particular sunday but afterward, almost every day i was in the city, in fact, i spent some time studying this procession, noting the different figures and the different types of which it was made up. it was at this gate that i observed one day a peasant woman haggling with the customs officer over the tax she was to pay for the privilege of bringing her produce to town. she was barefoot and travel-stained and had evidently come some distance, carrying her little stock of fruit and vegetables in a sack slung across her back. it seemed, however, that she had hidden, in the bottom of the sack, a few pounds of nuts, covering them over with fruit and vegetables. something in her manner, i suppose, betrayed her, for the customs officer insisted on thrusting his hand down to the very bottom of the little sack and brought up triumphantly, at last, a little handful of the smuggled nuts. i could not understand what the woman said, but i could not mistake the pleading expression with which she begged the officer to let her and her little produce through because, as she indicated, showing him her empty palms, she did not have money enough to pay all that he demanded.
i had heard and read a great deal about the
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hardships and cruelties of the tariff in america, but i confess that the best argument for free trade that i ever met was that offered by the spectacle of this poor woman, with her little store of fruit and nuts, trying to get to market with her goods.
not far outside the city the highway runs close beside a cemetery. from the road one can see the elegant and imposing monuments that have been erected to mark the final resting places of the wealthy and distinguished families of the city. the road to this cemetery passes through a marble archway which is closed, as i remember, by massive iron gates. standing by this gate, i noticed one day a young peasant woman silently weeping. she stood there for a long time, looking out across the fields as if she were waiting for some one who did not come, while the tears streamed down her face. she seemed so helpless and hopeless that i asked the guide who was with me to go across the street and find out what her trouble was. i thought there might perhaps be something that we could do for her.
the guide, with the natural tact and politeness of his race, approached the woman and inquired the cause of her grief. she did not move or change expression, but, while the tears still streamed down her face, pointed to a pair
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of high-heeled slippers which she had taken off and placed beside her on the ground.
"they hurt my feet," she said, and then smiled a little, for she, too, saw that there was a certain element of humour in the situation. i looked at her feet and then at her shoes and made up my mind that i could not help her.
farther on we passed some of the large estates which are owned generally by some of the wealthy landed proprietors in the city. the corresponding region outside of palermo is occupied by orange and lemon groves, but around catania all the large estates, apparently, are given up to the culture of the vine.
a large vineyard in the autumn or the time of the grape harvest presents one of the most interesting sights i have ever seen. the grapes, in thick, tempting clusters, hang so heavy on the low vines that it seems they must fall to the ground of their own weight. meanwhile, troops of barefooted girls, with deep baskets, rapidly strip the vines of their fruit, piling the clusters in baskets. when all the baskets are full, they lift them to their heads or shoulders and, forming in line, march slowly in a sort of festal procession in the direction of the wine press.
at the plantation which i visited the wine house was a large, rough building, set deep in the
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ground, so that one was compelled to descend a few steps to reach the ground floor. the building was divided so that one room contained the huge casks in which the wine was stored in order to get with age that delicate flavour that gives it its quality, while in the other the work of pressing the grapes was carried on.
there was at one side of the room a press with a great twisted arm of a tree for a lever, but this was only used, i learned, for squeezing dry the refuse, from which a poorer and cheaper sort of wine was made. directly in front as one entered the building, and high up under the roof, there was a huge, round, shallow tub-like vat. in this vat four or five men, with their trousers rolled up above their knees and their shoes and stockings on, were trotting about in a circle, and, singing as they went, tramping the grapes under their feet.
through an open space or door at the back i caught a glimpse now and then of the procession of girls and men as they mounted the little stairs at the back of the wine house to pour fresh grapes into the press. in the light that came in through this opening the figures of the men trampling the grapes, their bare legs stained with wine, stood out clear and distinct. at the same time the fumes which arose from the grapes filled the wine house so that the
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air, it almost seemed, was red with their odour. it is said that men who work all day in the wine press not infrequently become intoxicated from merely breathing the air saturated with this fermenting grape juice.
i imagine that the harvest season has always been, in every land and in every time, a period of rejoicing and gladness. i remember it was so among the slaves on the plantation when i was a boy. as i watched these men and listened to the quaint and melancholy little songs they sang, while the red wine gushed out from under their trampling feet, i was reminded of the corn-huskings among the slaves, and of the songs the slaves sang at those times.
i was reminded of it the more as i noticed the way in which the leader in the singing bowed his head and pressed his temples, just as i have seen it done before by the one who led the singing at the corn-husking. i recall that, as a boy, the way this leader or chorister bowed his head and pressed his hands against his temples made a deep impression. perhaps he was merely trying in this way to remember the words, but it seemed as if he was listening to music that welled up inside of him, seeking in this way, not merely to recall the words, but catch the inspiration of the song. sometimes, after he had seemed to listen this way for a few
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minutes, he would suddenly fling back his head and burst into a wilder and more thrilling strain.
all this was strangely interesting and even thrilling to me, the more so, perhaps, because it seemed somehow as if i had seen or known all this somewhere before. nevertheless, after watching these men, stained with wine and sweat, crushing the grapes under shoed and stockinged feet, i had even less desire to drink wine than ever before. it perhaps would not have been so bad if the men had not worn their socks.
one thing that impressed me in all that i saw was the secondary and almost menial part the women took in the work. they worked directly under an overseer who directed all their movements—directed them, apparently, with a sharp switch which he carried in his hand. there was no laughter or singing and apparently little freedom among the women, who moved slowly, silently, with the weary and monotonous precision in their work i have frequently noted in gang labour. they had little if any share in the kind of pleasurable excitement which helped to lighten the work of the men.
once or twice every year, at the time of the grape and olive harvests, the girls and women come down from their mountain villages to
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share with the men in the work of the fields. for these two brief periods, as i understand it, the women of each one of these little country villages will be organized into a gang, just as is true of the gangs of wandering harvesters in austria and hungary. i had seen, on the sunday i arrived in catania, crowds of these women trooping, arm in arm, through the streets of the city. a party of them had, in fact, encamped on the pavement in the little open square at the southern gate of the city. they were there nearly all day and, i suppose, all night, also. i was interested to observe the patience with which they sat for hours on the curb or steps, with their heads on their bundles, waiting until the negotiations for hiring them were finished.
this brief period of the harvest time is almost the only opportunity that the majority of these country women have to get acquainted with the outside world. for the remainder of the year, it seems, they are rarely allowed to venture beyond the limits of the street or village in which they live.
in the course of my journey across the island i had seen, high up in the mountains, some of these inaccessible little nests from which, perhaps, these girls had come. in one or two cases, and especially at the time i visited the
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sulphur mines, i had an opportunity to see something of the life of these mountain villages. now that i have come to speak especially of the women of the labouring and agricultural classes, i may as well tell here what i saw and learned of the way they live in their homes.
such a village as i have referred to consists, for the most part, of rows of low, one-story stone buildings, ranged along a street that is dirty beyond description. the wells are frequently built without mortar or plaster, and roofed sometimes with wood, but more frequently with tiles. in a corner there is a stone hearth upon which the cooking is done, when there is anything to cook. as there is no chimney, the smoke filters out through the roofing.
i remember well a picture i saw in passing one such house. in front of the house a woman was standing holding in her arms a perfectly naked child. another child, with nothing on but a shirt, was standing beside her holding her skirt. through the open door i could see the whole of the single room in which this family lived. back of the living-room and connected with it was a stall for the cattle. this was typical of many other homes that i saw.
during the day the women, the children, the pigs, and the chickens spend most of their time in
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the dirty, crowded street. as a rule the men, unless they are engaged in some sort of handicraft, are away in the fields at work. in many cases they do not come home once a month.
in my journeys through these villages and the poor streets of the larger cities one question constantly arose in my mind for which i was never able to find an answer. it was this: what becomes of these people, together with their pigs, goats, chickens, and other animals, at night? how does the interior of these homes look after sundown?
i have gone through some of the poorer streets of catania at night, but invariably found them in almost total darkness. i could hear the people talking as they sat in their doorways, but i could not see them. in fact, i could not see anything but the dim outlines of the buildings, because nowhere, apparently, were there any lights.
a german author, mr. s. wermert, who has studied conditions closely in sicily, and has written a great book on the social and economic conditions of the people, says, in regard to the way the people live in the little villages:
"in the south, as is well known, people live for the most part out of doors. every one sits in the street before the house door; there the craftsman works at his trade; there the mother of the family carries on her domestic labours. at evening, however,
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all crowd into the cave, parents and children, the mule or the donkey. the fattening pig, which, decorated with a collar, has been tied during the day in front of the house, where, with all the affection of a dog, it has glided about among the children, must also find a place in the house. the cock and hens betake themselves at sunset into this same space, in which the air is thick with smoke, because there is no chimney to the house. all breathe this air. one can imagine what a fearful atmosphere pervades the place. every necessity of physical cleanliness and moral decency is lacking. in the corner there is frequently only one bunk, upon which the entire family sleeps, and for the most part it consists of nothing more than a heap of straw. in the fierce heat of the summer one naturally sleeps without a cover; in winter every one seeks to protect himself under the covers. even when there are separate sleeping places all the most intimate secrets of family life become known to the children at an early age. brothers and sisters almost always sleep in the same bed. frequently a girl sleeps at the feet of her parents. the stupidity and coarseness of such a family existence is beyond description. there is naturally no such thing as a serious conception of morality among a people that for generations has grown up without education. for that reason, it frequently happens that the most unspeakable crimes are committed. it is, therefore, frequently difficult to determine with exactness the parentage of the children born into the family. the saying of the romans, that 'paternity is always uncertain,' holds good here. in fact, it is quite possible that this legal conception owes its origin to observations in regard to the condition of the rural population of that period. it is, however, probable that in the country districts of sicily conditions have changed very little since roman times."
from all that i can learn, the filthy promiscuity of these crowded houses and dirty streets have made the sicilian rural villages breeding places of vices and crimes of a kind of which
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the rural negro population in the united states, for example, probably never heard. there are some things, in connection with this ancient civilization, concerning which it is better the negro should not know, because the knowledge of them means moral and physical degeneration, and at the present time, whatever else may be said about the condition of the negro, he is not, in the rural districts at least, a degenerate. even in those parts of the southern states where he has been least touched by civilization, the negro seems to me to be incomparably better off in his family life than is true of the agricultural classes in sicily.
the negro is better off in his family, in the first place, because, even when his home is little more than a primitive one-room cabin, he is at least living in the open country in contact with the pure air and freedom of the woods, and not in the crowded village where the air and the soil have for centuries been polluted with the accumulated refuse and offscourings of a crowded and slatternly population.
in the matter of his religious life, in spite of all that has been said in the past about the ignorance and even immorality of certain of the rural negro preachers, i am convinced, from what i learned while i was in sicily, that the negro has a purer type of religion and a better
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and more earnest class of ministers than is true of the masses of these sicilian people, particularly in the country districts.
in this connection, it should not be forgotten also that the negro is what he is because he has never had a chance to learn anything better. he is going forward. the people of sicily, who have been christians almost since the time that the apostle paul landed in syracuse, have, on the other hand, gone backward. all kinds of barbarous superstitions have grown up in connection with their religious life and have crowded out, to a large extent, the better elements.
while the condition of negro education in the southern states is by no means perfect, the negro, and particularly the negro woman, has some advantages which are so far beyond the reach of the peasant girl in sicily that she has never dreamed of possessing them. for example, every negro girl in america has the same opportunities for education that are given to negro boys. she may enter the industrial school, or she may, if she choose, as she frequently does, go to college. all the trades and the professions are open to her. one of the first negro doctors in alabama was a woman. every year there are hundreds and, perhaps, thousands of negro girls who go up from the
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farming districts of the southern states to attend these higher schools, where they have an opportunity to come under the influence of some of the best and most cultivated white people in the united states. in the country villages, i venture to say, not one girl in a hundred ever learns so much as to read and write.
i was much impressed, as i went about in sicily, with the substantial character of the buildings and improvements, such as they were. everything is of stone. even the most miserable house is built as if it were expected to last for centuries, and an incredible amount of labour has been spent everywhere throughout the country in erecting stone walls.
one reason for this is that there is almost no wood to be had for building. everything is necessarily built of stone and tiles. another reason, i suspect, why sicilian people build permanently is because they never expect any change in their condition. if one asks them why they have built their villages on the most inconvenient and inaccessible places, they do not know. they know only that these towns have always been there and they haven't the least idea but what they will remain always where they are. as a matter of fact, in order to find an explanation for the location of these
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towns, students, i learned, have had to go back several centuries before christ to the time when the greeks and the phœnicians were contending for the possession of the island. at that time the original population took refuge in these mountain fastnesses, and through all the changes since, these towns, with, perhaps, some remnants of the race that originally inhabited the island, have remained.
everywhere in sicily one is confronted with the fact that he is among a people that is living among the ruins and remains of an ancient civilization. for example, in seeking to understand the difference in the position of women in sicily from that of other parts of europe i learned that one had to go back to the greeks and the saracens, among whom women held a much lower position and were much less free than among the peoples of europe. not only that, but i met persons who professed to be able to distinguish among the women greek and saracen types. i remember having my attention called at one time to a group of women, wearing very black shawls over their heads, who seemed more shrinking and less free in their actions than other women i had seen in sicily. i was informed that these women were of the saracen type and that the habit of wearing these dark shawls over their heads and holding
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them tight under their chins was a custom that had come from the arabs. the shawls, i suppose, took the place in a sort of way of the veils worn by oriental women.
now all these ancient customs and habits, and all the quaint superstitions with which life among the ignorant classes is overgrown, have, i suppose, the same kind of interest and fascination as some of the ancient buildings. but very few people realize, i am convinced, to what degree these ancient customs weigh upon the people, especially the women, and hinder their progress.
in the midst of these conditions the sicilian women, who are looked upon by the men as inferior creatures and guarded by them as a species of property, live like prisoners in their own villages. bound fast, on the one hand, by age-long customs, and on the other surrounded by a wall of ignorance which shuts out from them all knowledge of the outer world, they live in a sort of mental and moral slavery under the control of their husbands and of the ignorant, and possibly vicious, village priests.
for this reason, the journey to america is for the woman of sicily a real emancipation. in fact, i do not know of any more important work that is going on for the emancipation of
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women anywhere than that which is being done, directly and indirectly, through the emigration from sicily and italy to the united states, in bringing liberty of thought to the women of southern italy.
