"Cut indiscriminately": why the Italians were considered the most savage fighters on the knives?

Since the Middle ages to the mid twentieth century the Italians were famed throughout Europe as the most savage and skilled fighters on the knives. Slaughter of the enemy was an honor, and to convey to the authorities for "honest" murder with a knife could only mean-spirited people. But most foreigners were not struck by the daring and savagery of the customs. For example, young Bons vivants loved this game: extinguish the light, get the knives and start cutting indiscriminately. Why? Because in their view it's fun.

This great tool copes equally well with meats products, woodwork, cleaning game and fish.

Disassembly of the medieval mafia

Since the Middle ages, the Italian Peninsula was a real hotbed of proud, the polls armed and just grabbing for the knives people. The reason was not so much the stereotypical southern passion, as political fragmentation.

Principalities and republics of the Peninsula was constantly at odds with each other and with the surrounding countries, like Spain or France. Regular internal and external war made people's lives unstable, causing them to be constantly on the alert. Therefore, the nobles, and townspeople, and the peasants tried to carry a weapon.

Noble you could go with a sword and a sword, but the citizens and peasants were forced to arm themselves korotchenkove weapons — knives and daggers.

Any member of the group from the very boyhood he learned to wield a specific knife for any reason was able to use it in a duel. The members of subsidiarity was not entitled to challenge the more respected counterparts. Curious looked and the fight itself. It was called "Sonata", that is "jumping the duel". This name it received because the opponents are constantly moving, spring is on his toes, and could dramatically jump on the opponent, inflicting a lightning-fast stab.

Bully — but with the margins

But not only the bandits were famous throughout Italy as rabid fans of knives. Much more popularity among the people was bully — an interesting subculture, formed on the outskirts of cities and slums, it is a mixture of English dandies-the dandy and our modern Gopnik.

But their fights weren't just a drunken brawl. Most often, they had all the signs of a duel — a call to battle, the seconds, and other attributes. The fact that this happened in the slums, and opponents released each other's guts with knives, not precious swords, didn't matter. Often was a group battle.

Bully Roman factions solve their disputes through "isolate" — battle on the ruins of the Roman forum.

There was all so: when young Bons vivants has already been warmed by the wine, someone threw a shout, shouting that it's time to play cacciato. Everyone happily agreed and quickly vacated the room from the tables and benches, and the door was locked — not raided by the police. After all this playing took the knives and stood face to the wall.

The host extinguished the light and in the darkness the players rushed to each other, dealing blows with a knife in the body, mainly in the abdominal area.

Tavern after this game was like a slaughterhouse, so the name of the game this is the most suitable, because the word "ciccia" in Italian was translated as "meat." With bullies and their knives only managed the French occupation administration, which after the capture of Italy in the early nineteenth century, any man, who was arrested with a knife and subjected to public humiliation. And it made the proud to leave the knives at home.

Sicilian duel with the biting of the ear

In addition to Italian gangsters and muggers, knives deftly possessed and ordinary peasants, because nobody protected them from the tyranny or robbery. The fights could be both conventional and "noble" by the rules "shepherd's duel".

The left hand one of the enemy was attached to his left hand the other. In the right hands they held knives. In a milder version of the duelists were just holding on to one rope or a handkerchief.

By the way, the Italian peasants even existed such a style of knife fighting, when in one hand was a knife and the other with twine, which clever men tried to throw an armed hand of the opponent. As it looked in reality, we can only guess. And of course, one of the most dangerous fighters in Italy were the Sicilians. Even the last peasant in Sicily had a knife and a strict sense of honor, therefore, to strike a cold blade could literally run due to oblique view, or absurd jokes. A curious ritual was accompanied by a challenge to a duel. In his work on Sicily, the famous Explorer of the late nineteenth century, Giuseppe Pitre gives a detailed description of this process.

Before the duel calling for a duel hugged his opponent, and kissed him. This meant — "for life and for death." After he lightly bit the enemy in the ear is translated as "one of us will die."

Then the opponents of the appointed time and place and fought for the two types of rules: beat or only in hands and feet, or body, to be sure. According to the tradition of the winner kissing a defeated opponent and walked away with a look like he's got nothing to do with it.

Arditi — Italian assault troops of the First World

The Italian authorities could not get rid of the custom knife fights until the beginning of XX century, and helped them in the First world. In Italian society of that time to kill the enemy with a knife was an honor, and to convey to the police — shameful. But by the end of the XIX century the laws have been tightened and erupted a huge war was the last bright episode in the history of knife fighting. However, it happened already at the front.

Italian soldiers recruited especially in the South of Italy and Sicily, the terror of the Austro-Hungarian army during melee fights.

Essayist Paolo Giudici, who witnessed the training Arditi, said:

Skill fighters assault troops was so great that they could throw knives at the enemy, and one of their entertainment, according to another witness, Mario Paglieri, was one of the Arditi were stood with your back to the door, and his friends metal daggers, stukalina near the head. One of the men who was holding the head still, was considered the most brave.

But the First World war claimed an enormous number of lives and impressed everyone with its senseless cruelty, so those who survived, first and foremost wanted peace and tranquility. So the widespread practice of dueling gradually died out. Although in criminal circles, she probably still exists.

In 1993, one of the bosses of the mafia, Maurizio Abatino, mentioned in an interview that knife fights are still practiced. Moreover, even "shepherd's duel" still not sunk into Oblivion.

For those who want to learn about Italian knife duels more, suggest a book D Cherevichniy. "World history of stabbing".