Memoirs Of The Freemasons Of Naples.

MEMOIRS OF THE FREEMASONS OF NAPLES .

LONDON , SATURDAY , JULY 20 , 1 SG 1 .

( Continued from p . 2 . ) Eerdinand at this time , 1 S 24 , always weak hy nature , but now become infirm from old age arid depressed hy a relig ion which , in him was only fear , became alarmed that his end was fast apjjroaching ; and though he believed himself humanhis people his slavesand his

,, , right to their property and lives sacred , yet he had the fear of death and future judgment . lie turned more than ever to the easy mode of what he called devotion , viz ., paying money to the priests for their prayers on his behalf , and paying large sums for the building of churches , which he believed would purchase from the G-. A . O . T . TJ .

a passport to heaven . Ferdinand , too , was very superstitious . On hearing of the insurrection at Naples , he said , " I knew some evil would befal me , for I saw a jettatore to-day whilst I was hunting . " He would frequentl y turn back if he saw a monk . He bad superstitious notions about everything : he would take certain

numbers in a lottery , making sure of success , and on one occasion gained an enormous sum , the whole of which he gave to a hospital . It may not be uninteresting to our readers to describe the character of the jettatura , more especially as many of the Carbonari had faith in this superstition .

The jettatwa we may consider as nearly equivalent to the faseinwn of the ancients . Derived from the verb jettare ( quasi , gettare ) , it appears to indicate an evil influence thrown on one person by another . Many and various are the circumstances which invest a Neapolitan with this dangerous powerand cause him to be shunned

, as a jettatore , like a bird of evil omen , and as various are the modes of its operation . Of these and of the charms used to counteract them , some idea may be gained from an extract taken from Signor de Oaradenc ' s Avorks . *

urbin , Duke of Eosano , is a young nobleman , who comes to Naples in 1819 to take possession of his property , and to claim from the King the office of Grand Chamberlain , which his late father held . Unfortunatel y , the duchino has a slight cast in one eye ( a sure and infallible mark of jettatore ) , and , by some fatal coincidence , all sorts of misfortunes arose wherever he made his

appearance , and the lower class of Neapolitans looked , upon him with an involuntary awe and horror . Ninetta , a peasant girl , the most interesting person in the novel , while dancing the Tarantella , falls clown at his approach , and breaks her leg . His rival candidate relates this and some other similar eventsno doubt with great embellishments

, , to the King , whose well known dread of the jettura gives a probable colouring to the novel ; and , accordingly , at the Baciamano ( a set of levee ) , Eerdinand treats our hero with marked rudeness . One glance at his visage and unluck y eye has confirmed the King in the belief of the awful truth , and the duchino leaves the court in

disgust . He become a Carbonaro , and heads the revolution of 1820—but we leave those of our readers who feel inclined to pursue the story while we pursue our subject . The minor personages in the novel are amusing enough , and their conversations characteristic . Those of Ninetta , while on her bed of sickness , with the nurse , disclose many curious ramifications of the belief in the jettatwa . The following extract is part of a conversation between

a petty village judge and the peasant who manages his vineyard . They had been attracted among the crowd collected together by the overturning of a carriage containing a priest in spectacles . A man in spectacles is , to the Neapolitans , a person of fearful bad omen—a porie-malheuras the Erench say—in shorta jettatore ;

, , and was it to be expected that a carriage containing so dangerous a person could meet with Urbin Eosano ' s and no evil accident arise ? On leaving the scene of the accident , our friend , the judge , and Gaetano , the vinedresser , a man of dark and glossy hair , of brilliant restless eye , such as one sees only in Italy , and with no

other covering than a brown shirt and a pair of drawers , discuss the jettur a , thus : — " By the blood of St . Janarius , " says Gaetano , "this is a sad adventure . "Who knows what misfortune may have happened at my house during my absence ? " " Ah , bah ! my dear Gaetano , " replied his companion in a patronizing tone , " you must gain more strength of

mind . "What can you have to fear ? Your door is guarded by the finest horns in the Two Sicilies ; your wife has three rows of coral at her neck ; and your hat is decorated with a piece of a wolf's tail . " " These are preservations , I know , Signor Podestat ; but I cannot help trembling in the presence of a jettatore . Don't you know that the very day on which my poor

mother died , after being bed-ridden for seven months , I met , on returning from your vineyard , the old schoolmaster of San Germans , -whose left eye sees at Pausilippo what is done in-Sorrento ? Aye , and on the self same day , the first person I had seen on setting out , was a Capuchin . Ah , by heaven ! my poor mother never survived this

dreadful jettatura ; often had she told me that a monk in the morning , and a one-eyed man in the evening , were sure tokens of some fatal event . " " Every person has his ' own peculiar jettatm'a , Gaetano . The monks have no influence on me , but the sight of a woman with child always augurs some misfortune to me . "

"Alas ! to what evils is man condemned here below ? labour , lawsuits , and the jettatura , " ejaculated Gaetano . " Aye , Gaetano , for the two former there are consolations and remedies . As to the jettatura , that comes to us from above , and there is no remedy for it ; unless , perhapssaying an Ave Maria at the siht of a woman

, g with child . " " And to touch iron when one sees a Capuchin , Signor Podestat ; and to send to the devil all those whose vision is not as direct as that of St . Luke ' s Madonna . "

In regard to the horns on poor Gfaetano ' s door , this belief is so popular , that the most unobservant traveller may gather traces of it in the horns that decorate the houses of the Neapolitans , the little coral horns they carry at ther watch chains , & c . Even a large portion of the upper classes have faith in it ; they believein its

_ power especially at cards , and will often say , "fuggite , me-la jettate" " go , you bring me ill luck . " And various Neapolitan authors of great merit have written in favour of this belief . Towards the end of the year 182-1-, King Eerdinand fell ill ; at first it was only considered a slight

indisposition , and he was enabled to follow his ordinary amusements of the theatre and of the chase . But on the evenhig of the 3 rd of January , 1825 , after his usual game of cards and prayers , he retired to sleep . He was in the habit of calling a servant about eight o ' clock , but on the morning of the fourth , the clock struck without any

such summons ; the servants waited patiently ; those on guard in the next room said they had heard the King cough twice about sis o ' clock ; time passed ; they listened