Saint / folklore
pazzariello
A traditional Neapolitan costumed figure, part street-advertiser, part exorcist; ‘one is born a pazzariello, not made one’.
In the book
Cocked hat, stick, drummers and piper, hired to caper into a newly reopening shop — explained as advertising for the illiterate, but ‘his real function is that of an exorcist’, driving out evil spirits and the evil eye. Lewis sees his first on the Via San Pasquale.
Appears in 1 diary entry.
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February 28 1944The arrival of spring in Naples is marked by seasonal foods, street cries, and a burst of communal spring-cleaning and song.
hereditary exorcist/joker figure warding off evil spirits and the evil eye
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