Respect Your Ghosts
Page 5
SPEAKING WITH HANDS
FOR thousands of years, the people of southern Italy have used their hands to help them speak. Until very recently this was necessary because languages changed from one town to the next—sometimes from one neighborhood to the next. The language of the hands, however, was universal.
1. The Eye: This is a warning. Pay attention!
2. The Marameo: For making fun of somebody. Na-nuh-na-na-NA-na!
3a. The One-Handed Mundza: For insulting somebody. You idiot!
3b. The Two-Handed Mundza: For starting a vendetta with somebody. You $*&#!
4. The Pazzo: This is especially good for little brothers. You’re driving me crazy!
5. The Word of Honor: For promises. I swear!
6. The Horns: Gestures aren’t only for speaking! This sign wards off trickster sprites, evil eyes, and most of your everyday bad magic. Puh-tooey!
Life was very different in Benevento in the 1820s.
HERE’S HOW THEY LIVED.
Could kids read? No way! Not many of them, anyway. Their parents couldn’t read either. Reading was considered weird.
Eyeglasses were rare. Since folks couldn’t read anyway, there wasn’t much point.
Shoes were only for fancy people.
Stairs were on the outside of houses, even if the same family lived on both floors.
Not only did many people never live anywhere but the home they were born in, many families stayed in the same home for generation upon generation. This was very convenient for ancestor ghosts.
There was no electricity. For light, you used a candle or an oil lamp.
Houses didn’t have water, either. To get some, you needed to take a bucket to a well or fountain. To wash clothes, you went to the river. Oh, and if you needed to use a toilet, you had to go outside for that, too!
Going back to Roman times, parents often gave their kids a number for a name. A first-born boy might be called Primo. The fifth, sixth, and seventh born might be Quinto, Sessimo, and Settimo.
Most people had only two outfits: fancy suits for feasts, and the clothes they wore every other day of the year.
If you want to learn MORE, please visit www.witchesofbenevento.com.
HISTORICAL NOTE
THE WITCHES OF BENEVENTO is set in 1820s Benevento.
Benevento was an important crossroads in Roman times and was the capital of the Lombards in Southern Italy during the early Middle Ages.
Even before the Romans conquered it, the town was famous as a center of witches. (Its original name, Maleventum—“bad event”—was switched by the Romans to Beneventum—“good event”—in hope of changing things. It didn’t work.) For hundreds of years, Benevento was believed to be the place where all the witches of the world gathered, attending their peculiar festivals at a walnut tree near the Sabato River.
The people of Benevento, however, never believed there was anything wrong with witches, and maybe that’s why they had—or thought they had—so many of them.
JOHN BEMELMANS MARCIANO
I grew up on a farm taking care of animals. We had one spectacularly nice chicken, the Missus, who lived in a stall with an ancient horse named Gilligan, and one rooster, Leon, who pecked our heads on our way home from school. Leon, I have no doubt, was a demon. Presently I take care of two cats, one dog, and a daughter.
SOPHIE BLACKALL
I’ve illustrated many books for children, including the Ivy and Bean series. I drew the pictures in this book using ink made from black olives and goat spit. This year, I received a shiny gold Caldecott Medal for Finding Winnie. I grew up in Australia, but now my boyfriend and I live in Brooklyn with a cat who never moves and a bunch of children who come and go like the wind.
Read the other books in the
WITCHES of BENEVITO
series!
MISCHIEF SEASON:
A Twins Story
Emilio and Rosa are tired of all the nasty tricks the Janara are playing when they ride at night making mischiefs. Maybe the fortune-teller Zia Pia will know how to stop the witches.
THE ALL-POWERFUL RING:
A Primo Story
Primo wants to prove he is the bravest, but will the ring really protect him from all danger—even from the Manalonga, who hide in wells and under bridges?
BEWARE THE CLOPPER!
A Maria Beppina Story
Maria Beppina, the timid tagalong cousin, is also the slowest runner of the five. She is always afraid that the Clopper, the old witch who chases the children, will catch her. She's also curious, so one day she decides to stop—just stop—and see what the Clopper will do.
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