Pietro Querini e la vera storia del baccalà
(Pietro Querini and the real story of the baccalà)
Excerpts from In Paradise first circuit by Pietro Querini:
“It was a hundred and twenty souls who lived on the island,
and at Easter there were seventy-two who received Holy
Communion and confessed himself as pious and faithful
Catholics. They have nothing but fish to sustain life with,
because it is not possible to grow anything. Three months of
the year, June, July and August, ithe sun never sets, and in
the winter months it is almost always night, and they have
always light from the moon.
During the year fishing the endless amounts of fish. The one
who is most prevalent, indeed immeasurable quantities,
called cane fish (cod), the other being flounder, but of
wonderful size, each fish should I believe weighed two
hundred libre. The fish dries in the Sun and wind without
salt, and because there are fish with little oily liquid, it
becomes hard as wood. When they want to eat it, they
knock it with the back of an ax, which makes the
filamentous equal tendons, then fed butter and spices to
give it flavor. It is a commodity of inestimable importance in
oceans.
Flounder are, since it is so large, quartered and salt. In May,
they go so from the island in a pretty big boat of fifty barrels
and loaded with fish sail to a place in Norway more than a
thousand mil away called Berge (Bergen). There will
likewise ship of three hundred to three hundred and fifty
barrels, loaded with all sorts of goods into Germany,
England, Scotland and Prussia, everything needed to live
and dress. And those who come with fish (and there is an
innumerable amount of boats), it switches the goods they
need, for as mentioned they can not grow crops where they
live. They neither have nor use any kind of coin, so when
they have exchanged goods, they travel back. But they
always make sure with the sufficient fuel for the entire year,
and other necessary things.
The men in these islands is the most spotless people and
has a beautiful appearance, the same applies to their
women. So innocent is that they do not care about locking
anything, not even women suit on. And this was easy to
see, in the same room where husband and wife and
children were sleeping, there lived also we, and clothed the
naked when they should go to bed. Every Thursday they
used to have a sauna and then overlaid those of the house
with them, and went completely naked to the sauna a
stone's throw away, where they mingled with the men. They
are (as I have mentioned before) the most pious Christians,
and on holidays they fail never go to Mass. In the church
kneels always when they pray, and sometimes never at the
muttering incantations, curses saints or mention the devil's
name. When a relative dies, keeping the wives of men the
day of funeral, a great gathering of all the neighbors, who by
custom and ability dressed in magnificent and precious
clothes. The deceased's wife dress in their finest and
dearest finery and serve guests as she often reminds them
that they must be pleased with the deceased's soul peace
sake. They always meet the fast on those particular days,
and all feasts that come during the year keeps those with
Christian piety.
Their dwellings are round and made of wood. They have
only one aperture midst of headroom. In winter it is so
unbearably cold that they cover the opening with mighty fish
skins, which are cooked so they let through much light.
They use thick woolen clothes from London and elsewhere,
leather they use little or nothing of. To accustom children to
the cold and enable them to withstand the better, they take
their newborns when they are four days old and lay them
naked under the skylight, remove the fish skin and lets the
snow fall on them. Throughout the winter, from February 5
to May 14, the time we were there, it snowed almost always.
Those children who survive childhood, are so hardened and
accustomed to the cold that those adults care little or
nothing about it. Imagine then how the rest of us, who were
badly dressed and not used to living in such areas, would
carry us. But with God's help we kept out everything.
In the spring came the countless wild geese and built nest
on the island, many close to the house walls. So tame they
were since they had never been frightened by something,
that when housewives went to the nest, traveled goose
slowly and let the women quietly take the eggs they wanted
and that they fried omelet for us. When they went, came the
goose back to nest and lay down to incubate. We thought
this was quite adventurous, like much else that it will take
too long to tell. (...)
In the time we were there, treated people's friendly after
their best ability, and for two months we ate enormous
quantities of their food, ie butter, fish and occasionally meat.
It was as if we could never get enough, and had it not been
for this food was so easily digested, we had eaten us to
death. Our medicine was fresh milk, for each householder
had four to six small cows subsistence of his family.
When we got to May, it was the end of the month they used
to transport the fish to Bergen, and they were preparing also
to take us. But a few days before had a woman married to
the man who ruled over all the islands, but as it was away,
we heard that we were sent there on the spot. She sent her
chaplain in a boat rowed by twelve vessels, and on behalf of
the woman he handed over to me, who stood above the
others, sixty cane fish dried in the wind, and three large rye
bread, round as with us. (...)
So we sailed between many islands, and the entire time we
navigated south through straits, (...) This continued the
journey in fifteen days with almost only tailwind and
constantly controlled by we cairns which was set on top of
the islands, and that showed us the fastest and deepest
route. The people lived in many of the islands, and these
took merciful against us when they learned of the monk how
it was with us. They gave us what they had, ie milk and fish,
without any payment”
Venezia
Pietro Querini
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