Sleeps, but not forgets the dead
To show betimes his anger dread.
For the dead the living moan,
That the murderer may be known.
They who mourn for parent slain
Shall not pour the wail in vain.
Bright disclosure shall not lack
Who through darkness hunts the track."[C]
Some of these seeresses, who may be compared to the Germanic Velleda, become celebrated for their inspired singing; as Mariola delle Piazzole, a leader of the dirge-choruses, whose improvisations were everywhere in request; and Clorinda Franceschi of Casinca. In Sardinia, the women of the chorus are called Piagnoni or prefiche; in Corsica, vecoratrici or ballatrici. It is not always a practised leader of choruses who sings; in many cases it is some relative of the deceased—the mother, the wife, very frequently the sister. For the grief-burdened heart relieves itself in plaints that are eloquent without art, and renders the thoughts poetical, and the language elevated, even though the improvisatrice may be gifted with no special poetic talent. Moreover, the dirges have a standing form; and long before a death occurs, the Corsican woman has familiarized herself with the popular laments, which pass from mouth to mouth as other songs do with us. A cast of gloom is thus diffused over the whole life of the people here. When the Corsicans are sitting together, and begin to sing, they choose very frequently a Lamento, as if they wished to practise for that lament which, perhaps, each of them will yet sing in earnest over the tola of a brother, a husband, or a child.
The pantomimic dance that accompanies the lament is called in Corsica the ballata (ballo funebre); ballatare sopra un cadavere, is to dance over a corpse. The wailing is termed vocerare, the dirge Vocero, Compito, or Ballata. In Sardinia these obsequies are called Titio or Attito. This word is said to be derived from the cry of grief ahi! ahi! ahi! with which the leader of the chorus concludes each strophe, and which the wailers repeat. The corresponding cry with the Latins was atat, and in the Greek tragedies we find otototoi; among the Germans the vehement cry of suffering is frequently ahtatata, as any one may remark who notices what he ejaculates when he has burnt his fingers, and is dancing a ballata with the pain.[D]