oman with a baby in arms who was to receive its
cresima at once, in case it might not live to reach Pietro's discreet age
of seven. The bishop in magnificent vestments of brocade and gold stood
with his back to the altar; the woman with the baby knelt before him to
his right and the sagrestano put his hand on the baby's shoulder; Pietro
knelt to the bishop's left and I put my hand on his shoulder. The
ceremony, it seems, is a partial repetition of the baptism, or a
performance of a part omitted from the baptism, or it is an addition to
the baptism--for I did not understand so fully as Michele said I should.
Unless accelerated, as in the case of the baby, it takes place when the
child is old enough to have mastered the more elementary teaching of the
Church but does not yet understand enough to be confirmed; and it
consists in the bishop's using a great many words and gestures and making
the sign of the Cross in oil on the child's forehead. Almost before the
oil was on, the sagrestano wiped it off with cotton-wool and the bishop,
after cleaning his thumb with half a lemon which the sagrestano had
thoughtfully placed on the altar, held out his ring to be kissed by the
woman and by Pietro.

In this way I became compare of Michele Lombardo and padrino of Pietro,
who is my figlioccio. Being Michele's compare I am in a way related to
all the family and, when I arrive at Trapani, Michele brings as many of
his children as he can gather to salute me. Last time he brought five
and said:

"Excuse my not bringing more."

In calling Emanuele her compare, Carolina Greco was not speaking very
strictly; the relationship exists between her father and Emanuele's
brother, whose child he held; but family relationships are so close in
Sicily, and they speak so loosely about them, that a compare of one
member of a family may be said to be compare of them all.

A compare is, however, primarily he who holds a child at its baptism, and
this, no doubt, is why S. Giovanni Battista is padrone of compari. Thus
I am Compare di Battesimo of Peppino and Brancaccia at Castellinaria. It
was the grandfather who actually held Ricuzzu at the baptism, but he did
it as my deputy, and the spiritual relationship of compare which exists
between Peppino and myself is closer than that of padrino and figlioccio
which exists between Ricuzzu and myself.

The first step in establishing the relationship of Compare di Battesimo
is usually taken at the weddi