At Balme I was told that there was once a man who did not believe in God, or the Devil, or anything else. One day, when he was drinking wine in the inn, a companion asked him if he would sell himself to the Devil for a litre of wine, if the Devil really existed. Without hesitation he said he would. For some time nothing happened, and no more was thought about the matter. Then a young man came in and sat at the same table. He ordered some wine, and, when he had drunk it, he said to the man,—"Did you not say that you would sell yourself to the Devil for a litre of wine?" "Gladly," answered the man. The newcomer sent for the wine, calling on those present to be witnesses of what had passed. When the wine was finished, the stranger told the man that now he must go with him, as he was the Devil. The man did not want to go, and made a great fuss, but the Devil appealed to the witnesses, and finally disappeared with his prey amidst fire and smoke.
The folletti.3—On the slope of the picturesque hill of Santa Brigida, near Pinerolo, there stands a pillar called d'fumna morta (Dead Woman's Pillar). One very bleak winter evening some maidens sat in a stable talking about the "good folk" in the woods. "I even know," said one, "where they hold their gatherings," and she pointed to a chestnut-tree. "I'll wager anything that I will go and stick my spindle at the foot of the tree." Her companions turned pale with terror, but in spite of their warnings she ran out of the stable. She never returned, and next morning they found her lying dead at the foot of the tree, with her spindle stuck through her gown into the ground. The pillar was erected and named in memory of this event, and formerly only the most venturesome would go near the place at night. It was thought that the pillar was enchanted, and that anyone passing at midnight would be struck dead. Until a few years ago one side of the pillar had painted on it the figure of a woman kneeling down and putting a spindle into the ground, but this has been altered to the figure of a saint.
Estella Canziani.
