Pour a little oil on the bread." "A man who has the fever may die of eating beans," said Nanna thoughtfully.

"This is also to be considered." "It is true." Paoluccio looked at his wife in silence for a moment.

"But a person who is dead must be buried," he continued, as if he had discovered something.

"When a person is dead, he is dead, whether he dies of eating beans or--" He broke off significantly, and his right hand, as it lay before him, straightened itself and made a very slight vibrating motion, with the fingers all close together.

It is the gesture that means the knife among the southern people.