VENDETTA, (vengeance), the term used to denote the practice, as it prevails in Cor sica. of individuals taking private vengeance upon those who have shed the blood of their relations. In Corsica, when a murder has been committed, the murderer is pur sued not only by the officers of justice whose duty it is, to punish offenses against soci ty, but also by tY. relatives of the slain, upon whom the received views of social duty impose the oblimailon of personally revenging his death. In such a case, the -Pla.tives of the murdered man take up their arms, and hasten to pursue, and if they can find him, to slay the murderer. If be succeed in eluding their pursuit, the murder may be revenged upon his relatives; and as the vengeance may be taken whenever an opportu nity occurs, the relatives of a murderer whose crime is unavenged have to live in a state of incessant precaution. When they go to the fields they take their arms with them, and set a watch; at home they have their doors well fastened, and their windows barri caded; and since the avenger is never far distant, they live, in fact, in a state of siege. Instances are on record of persons who were, as the phrase is, "suffering the vendetta," having lived shut up in their houses for 10 or 15 years, and being, after all, shot on the first cceasion on which they ventured out of doors. Formerly,svhen blood had been shed, there was a custom of proclaiming the war of revenge, and sanotineing to what degree of relationship it should extend; but this custom is gone out of use. Frequently, in the practice of this system of vengeance, each of two sets of relatives has a murder revenge upon the other; the vendetta, that is, crosse. This is called the vendetta trans versa& The duty of taking vengeance lies primarily and especially upon the next of kin. Not to take revenge is deemed in the highest degree dishonorable; and any delay in doing so on the part of time next of kin is made matter of reproach by his relatives When the Genoese were masters of the islai:d, their laws declared the rinibieco—the uttering of such reproaches—punishable, as an incitement to murder. But there is seldom occasion for the rimbiceo, for the Corsican is brought up to regard the vendetta. as the most sacred duty of man. The women instigate the men to revenge by singing songs of vengeance over the body of the slain, and displaying his blood-stained gar ments. Often a mother affixes to her son's dress a bloody shred from the dead man's
shirt, that he may have a constant reminder of the ditty of taking vengeance. Although the vendetta usually has its origin in bloodshed, smaller injuries may give rise to it, and even purely casual occurrences. Mediators, termed parolanti, often interpose to make up a quarrel. When they succeed, an oath of reconcilement is taken, and this oath is regarded as specially binding. It is infamous to break it; nevertheless, it is broken • now and then. Brigandage prevails to a great extent in Corsica, and the origin of the career of a brigand, in almost every instance, can be traced to the vendetta. A man commits a murder out of vengeance; he flees to the hills; it never is safe for him to resume his former life again, and so he turns robber for a living. Besides the vendetta, properly so called, hereditary family feuds are very common in Corsica; and some times there are hereditary feuds between whole villages. The great families of the island hand down feuds from generation to generation, iu which not only theta selves and all their relatives. but all their servants and dependents are involved—the kind of fetid which was common in the Italian towns of the middle ages, and which is illustrated in the play of Romeo and Juliet.
The origin of the vendetta has often been refer-ed to time lawlessness which pre vailed in many parts of Corsica during the period of the Genoese domination, and to the venality which vitiated the Genoese administration of justice. And, no doubt, the inse curity and the maladministration of justice which existed in Corsica for ages, helped to consolidate this barbarous custom; which, thus consolidated, has been perpetuated by the isolated position of the country, and the absence of civilizing influences. But the explanation of its origin must be sought in more general causes, for it is not exclusively a Corsican Custom. On the contrary, it may be safely affirmed that a system of private vengeance, almost precisely similar, has existed among every people during certain stages of its progress—never entirely passing away until government became strong enough to insure redress of injuries, and to restrain the passions of individuals.