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Dante comedy6/20/2023 ![]() Toward the end of the ceremony, the moment came for the sponsors to “renounce Satan and . . . Some tried to touch his hands, to see if the color would rub off there was a sense of awe among them, as if one of the Magi had come to visit. That morning, the baby’s godfather, an expatriate writer, had caused a stir in the church, since none of the villagers, most of them farmers, had ever seen a Black man in person. The blood sacrifice took place after the baptism. It came, however, with a condition: we had to watch the lamb being slaughtered. My friends were penniless bohemians, so the gift was welcome. ![]() The girl’s father politely declined, and the shepherd, to show that he had no hard feelings, offered us a lamb for our Paschal dinner. Among our party was a beauty of fifteen, an artist’s daughter, and the shepherd took such a fancy to her that he asked for her hand. He was a wild-looking man with matted hair whose harsh dialect was hard to understand. ![]() A Sardinian shepherd who tended the flocks of a local landowner came to pay his respects to the new parents. ![]() Fifty years ago, I was a guest at the baptism of a friend’s son in the ancient church of a Tuscan hamlet. ![]()
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