Shell Stories - English

woman kept making her smell the savoury food to excite her. Theyreached Longosa,rdo, a,nd theold Cpr:sican woman hobbled along to the· b~ker's and ~nquited for Nicolas Ravolati's house. He had resumed his old trade as a joiner, and was working alone at the back ofhis shop. . The old woman pushed open the door and shouted: 'Rullo:! Nicolas!' He turned round; then, slippin'g the dog's lead, she cried: 'At him! Go for him, tear him to pieces!' The starving animal leapt at him and seized his throat. The man, throwing out his arms, grappled with the dog and fell to the.ground. For a few seconds he writhed, kick ing the. ground with·· his hee1s. Then he lay still, while Frisky wrenched .at his throat, tearing it to ribbons. Two nei~hbours, sitting at theiJr,doors, remembered distinctly seemg an old beggar come out ofthe shop with an emacia ted black dog; as it walked, it was eating something brown, which its master gave it. · · . . The old woman ·returned home. in the evening. That night she slept soundly. ·

With one terrific bound the animal leapt at the dummy's throat, and with her paws on the shoulders began to teat at jit. She dropped to the ground with some of the meat in h~r mouth; then she returned to the attack, burying her tee~h in the string, and tore out more bits of sausage, dropp~d once more to the ground, and again attacked with rriad fury. She tore the face to pieces and reduced the whole throat to ribbons. The old wom~n, motionless and silent, watched the dog with tense exci*ment. Then_ she chained her up again, kept her without food for another two days and repeated the strange perf~rman:ce. · For three mopths she trained the dog to this kind of fight, making her use her teeth to get her food. Now she no longer chained ~er up, but set her on the dummy with a gest:ure. She had taught her to go for the figure and tear it to pieces, even when there was no food hidden in the neck., Afterwards she rewarded the animal with thesausage she had grilled for her. Whenever the dog saw the dummy, she. immediately quivered all over, and looked towards her mistr~ss, who cried in a shrill voice, pointing: 'At him!' * When she. thought the time had come, she went to Confession and received the Sacram~n{ one Sunday morning with e.cstatic fervour; then, dressing in man's clothes to look like an old ragged beggar, she ·struck a bargain with a Sardinian fisherman, •who took her,_ together with the dog, across the strait. She carried ~ big piece of sausage in a canvas bag., Frisky had had! nothing to eat for two days. The old ' 32

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