Word: calabrian
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Calabrian village of Presinaci, whose 100-odd mud-floored houses swarm with flies, black pigs and naked children, the Mafia leaders, in his telling, were a loutish collection of bullyboys dedicated to thievery, twisted honor and senseless violence. But the ritual they practiced was ominous with medieval significance. One night in 1941 Serafino Castagna was taken to a dimly lit hut for induction into the order. His arm was ritually slashed and his blood sucked by all the members present. With his wound still throbbing, he took the oath: "I swear by our noble ancestors, the Spanish Knights Osso, Mastrosso...
...King of the Mountains is locked in jail, and he too dreams of the beloved land," sang Calabrian emigrants in America at the turn of the century when young, handsome, black-mustachioed Giuseppe Mustlino was first imprisoned. Few soldiers of fortune before or since have become so legendary in so short a time. Producing romantic bandit heroes sometimes seems to be a major industry in Sicily, Sardinia and southern Italy. But bandits, though they make news nearly every week, aren't what they used to be-and Musolino's reputation survives in ballads still sung. A young woodcutter...