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sensibilities of people, so that while the paintings did not alter, the way in which they were viewed was now completely different.
    One fresco in particular made me think of this. It showed two life-size figures, the man on the left was writhing, his mouth wide open and he was vomiting a large, black-winged devil. Before him stood a flat, blank-faced friar in a brown habit, his right hand raised. It was he who was casting out the devil from the man, to join the dark, spiky-winged swarm at the top- right-hand corner of the picture. This fresco had shocked me the first time I saw it, and even after having seen it so many times, it could still unsettle me. I used to be amazed at how often I would see people standing in front of it, laughing. I didn’t laugh. I took evil seriously. I knew that since I had arrived in Italy I had met no one who was haunted as I was.
    A strange thing had happened just after I arrived in S. Giorgio. I had complained to Franca about the pillows on the bed, because they were made of foam-rubber and were too high and uncomfortable . She had looked a bit sheepish, and said, ‘I don’t know if I can do anything for you, Aisling. I can’t get you a feather pillow, because Davide’s mother is so superstititious, she won’t allow a feather pillow in the house.’ I asked what the link was between pillows and superstition.
    ‘Because of the fattura – il malocchio, you know, the evil eye.’ She could see then that I hadn’t an inkling of what she was talking about, so very patiently she explained.
    ‘Here, if someone wishes ill on you he puts a curse on you, and if you have a feather pillow, something strange happens. Some of the feathers in the pillow weave themselves into a knot. A person couldn’t do it, and it’s a thing that just couldn’t happen naturally, it must be supernatural. Davide saw it once, when he was young. His brother Mario was sick when he was about thirteen, really sick, with pains in his stomach. He was wasting away and they thought he was going to die, the doctors had no idea what was wrong with him. And so then they thought it might be the malocchio, so they sent for Don Antonio, because he’s an exorcist.’
    I started at that, but Francesca didn’t notice, she just kept on talking.
    ‘So, Don Antonio came and he cut the pillow open, and found this knot of feathers. Davide himself saw it. He said that it was a tight, hard knot, and they were all so frightened when they saw it. His mother began to cry. But Don Antonio knew all the special prayers to say, and from that moment on, Mario began to get better.’
    She told me that you could find the same sort of lumps in your mattress, sometimes, and then what you had to do was take it to a crossroads and burn it. She dropped her voice to a whisper.
    ‘They say Don Antonio was called to a house one day, and when he cut open the pillow, what do you think he found?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘A turd,’ said Franca. ‘Still hot, like it had just been done. Can you imagine how the person in the bed felt?’
    I said that I couldn’t. I asked her if Don Antonio still worked as an exorcist.
    ‘Yes, but he does a lot less now, because he’s so old. He does things in a different way, too. During the last war, Davide’s mother saw him exorcise a young girl, right in the church. She saw her screaming and writhing on the floor. I don’t think that they’re allowed to do it like that any longer. He has a pendulum too. When people are having a lot of bad luck in their lives, their kids are sick and their business going really badly, and they suspect that it might be because someone’s put the evil eye on them, they come to see Don Antonio. They come from all over, too, from Tuscany and Lazio, and I even heard that a woman once came down the whole way from Bologna. He holds the pendulum over them, and if it swings in a certain way, then it’s bad news. Don Antonio says the prayers to take the curse away.’ Suddenly, she looked at me