I found a little ghost story in my researches for Venice. It has what we’d call a revener in Ars Magica (see Realms of Power: The Infernal). I’m not usuing this story in the Venice material, although I suggest a valle, as described later, might make a good navigable point outside The Shoruded Glen ritual which hides a covenant on a lost island.

For many centuries the lagoons of Venice have been divided into districts for the purposes of fishing . These tracts of water are not distinguished by any boundaries visible to the eye ; but their limits are well known to the fishermen who make their living upon them . In the shallower parts , where the oozy bed of the lagoon is left bare by each receding tide , the fishermen mark off a certain portion , and surround it by a palisade of wattled cane, called a grisiola . Inside this palisade the mud is dug into deep ditches , so that there shall always be water in them , even when the tide is low. These enclosures are called valli, and here the fish are driven in spring to spawn . Each valle has a little hut belonging to it, built either on piles or on forced soil , and made of bricks or of wattled cane, plastered with mud . The hut usually contains one square room , a door , and two windows . The fishermen require these cabins , for they some times spend three or four days together in the remote lagoon , sending their fish to market every morning by one of their number , just as the deep – sea fishers of Chioggia do.

In the fifteenth century there were sixty -one of these valli ; but many have now been destroyed ; and the high tides flow uninterruptedly over the larger portion of the lagoon surface . Those which still exist lie , for the most part , in the remote and little frequented reaches, and follow closely the line of the mainland , while towards the lidi hardlyany are in work. For though The landscape of these distant fishing -grounds is vast and solitary. The sense of loneliness is heightened by the isolated hut , rising square from the water, the only habitation visible . On all sides. the seeming -endless plain stretches away . these valli lie near the mainland , the earth is so low there that the eye perceives no difference of level, but passes on until it rests at length upon the faint blue Euganean Hills ; or, on the other side , across the long grey water levels the sight may range —mile upon mile of pearly surface trending away -till on
the very offing it finds Venice , a rosy -orange lotus basking on the water ; or the Armenian convent , a burning crimson point ; or, further still to the right, some few solitary trees by the port of Malamocco….

And the very names of some of these valli have a suggestion of the uncanny about them -the Val dell’Inferno, or the Valle dei Sette Morti , for example . Of the Valle dei Sette Morti there is a story current among the gondoliers and fishermen . There were six men fishing once in this ” Valle ” of the Seven Dead. They had with them a little boy , the son of one of their number . The boy did not go fishing with his father , but stayed behind to take care of the hut , and to cook the food for the men when they returned . He spent the nights alone in the cabin , for most of the fishing was done between sunset and sunrise . One day , as the dawn was beginning across the water , the men stopped their fishing and began to row home with their load, as usual .

As they rowed along they met the body of a drowned man going out to sea with the tide. They
picked the body up and laid it on the prow, the head resting upon the arm , and rowed on slowly to the hut. The little boy was watching for them , and went down to the edge of the canal to meet them . He saw the body of the seventh man lying on the prow , but thought that he was asleep. So, when the boat came near, he cried to his father , ” Breakfast is ready ; come along ! ” and with that he turned and went back to the hut. The men followed the boy, and left the dead man lying on the prow. When they had sat down the boy looked round and said , “Where is the other man ? Why don’t you bring him in to breakfast too ? “

“Oh ! isn’t he here ?’ cried one ; and then added , with a laugh , ” You had better go and call him ; he must be asleep.”

The boy went down to the canal , and shouted , ” Why don’t you come to breakfast ? it is all ready for you .” But the man on the prow never moved nor answered a word . So the boy returned to the hut, and said , “What is the matter with the man ? he won’t answer .”

” Oh ! ” said they, “he is a deaf old fool . You must shout and swear at him .”

The boy went back again , and cried , ” Come along , you fool ; the others are waiting for you .” But the man on the prow never moved nor answered a word . Then the boy ran back to the hut, and said , “ Come , one of you ; for I can’t wake him up.”

But they laughed , and answered , “Go out again and shake him by the leg ; tell him we can’t wait till doomsday for him.” The boy went down to the water once more . He got into the boat and shook the man by the leg .

Then the man turned and sat up on the prow, and said to the boy, ” What do you want ? “
” Why on earth don’t you come ? Are they all to wait till doomsday for you ? ”

” Go back and tell them that I am coming.” So the boy went back to the hut and found the men laughing and joking .

” Well ! what did he say ? ” they cried .

” It is all right,” answered the boy ; “he says he is coming .” The men turned pale and looked at one another , and sat quite still and laughed no more .

Then outside they heard footsteps coming slowly up the path . The door was pushed open , and the dead man came in and sat down in the boy’s place , the seventh at the table . But the eyes of the other six were fixed upon the seventh , their guest . They could not move nor speak. Their gaze was fastened on the dead man’s face . The blood flowed chiller and chiller in their veins till, as the sun arose , there were seven dead men sitting round the table in the room+.

Leave a comment