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This is the case of the abbanniati or the street calls of the cart-drivers of Bagharia, Villabate and
Misilmori (document 2a.) and of Giuseppe Celano of Palermos (document 2b.), more famous as a
cantastorie, but who can culturally be placed among the cart-drivers of Palermo. Among other
things, he has also been an itinerant peddler.

It is impossible to translate the text of the abbanniati in full; however, the essence of each of the
cries is the advertising of the good quality of the merchandise, and its low cost – both being
invitations to its purchase. Quite often these also contain allusive phrases or playful provocations.
Recorded: 4a. at Bagheria (Palermo), on November 8, 1970, by Elsa Guggino and Gaetano
Pagano; 4b. at Palermo, on November 22, 1970 by Elsa Guggino.

5. SONGS OF THE SALT WORKERS a-b-c

The songs of the salt workers accompanied and cadenced the work of salt gathering and transport,
which, until fifteen or twenty years ago, was performed in the traditional manner of gathering salt
from the sea. The final stage of the work in the holes was done by the spalatura and the
cartiddrara; the spalatura used wooden shovels to transfer the salt previously gathered in mounds,
into baskets. The baskets were carried on the shoulders of another group of men, the cartriddara,
who, as quickly as they could, passed along each group of spalatura, to leave an empty basket and
gather up a filled one. These baskets were then placed on rudimental cushions that covered both
shoulders and were fastened with a strip of cloth that wrapped the head of the salt worker from
the back of the neck to the forehead. The team of salt workers was called avena. From the middle
of June until the first rains the avenna worked at gathering and transporting salt, starting their
work at 2:00 A.M. and finishing at 4:00 P.M.

The songs of the salt workers are for the most part a computation of the baskets of salt. At times
groups of verses on various other subjects are introduced between one count and the other. Many
terms are incomprehensible and several phrases lack any meaning at all. The reason for his is
explained b the importance given to the expression rather than to the content; as is typical of most
work songs. It is the counting while singing that is necessary, therefore requiring that the phrases
or the single words serve, above all, as rhythmic elements, and only in second place to project a
particular concept.

Of the three songs presented here, the third has a different, more hurried rhythm, since its purpose
was to accelerate the work.

a. Somebody has a salaletti/we go up and we go down seventeen/the ferryboat arrives at
eighteen/I touch it and it doesn’t move nineteen/how beautiful is my avenna and I had
twenty of them.

b. Some have a salaotto/we go up and down and count to four/one day I took a job with
Campanella/who gave me bread in slices/and with the bread a piece of hazelnut/to
wrinkle my stomach/with mine I had thirteen.

c. Some come and some go and some have two/and I have three and I have four/and five
behind me/some come and some go and I have six/salaletti and I have seven/I have eight
young men/salamore and I have nine/O how beautiful these salt workers/that makes ten
and I have eleven/I have eleven here and more to come/from the other side thirteen/you
some have salad/we have fourteen and I have fifteen; I have sixteen salaletti/on this side
seventeen/young men eighteen/salamore nineteen/salasulu and twenty-one/I danced with
you and twenty-two/salalini and twenty-three/I danced with you and twenty-two/salalini
and twenty-three/the first to come gives a signal/if only I had this ship half-filled.

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