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The Mizzotiru oversaw each operation carried out by the oil mill. He was helped by the Cannavaru who was also responsible for the accounting and the galley, while the Palieri had the job of spading the olives with a wooden spade under the mill stone which was turned by oxen. The troppitari, who took in the olives to be pressed, gave them back to their owners as oil. The ritual through which the collecting of the new oil happened was an important moment in the life of the oil mill. After being milled in the Squeda, the olives were pressed in the Consu, then the oil which emerged was collected in the Tinedi. These were wooden vats containing a layer of water which held the oil in suspension. In the presence of the proprietor of the olives, the Mizzotiru helped by the Cannavaru, began the final counting of the oil.

  With the first half Cafiso (8 litre measure) the Cannavaru recieved payment from the olive owner for   the work of his oxen; this first measure was known as Tagghiatura. After this sort of tax, the   Mizzotiru continued measuring out the oil with the half cafiso chanting a different exclamation each   time: “in the name of God”, “to the Virgin Mary”, “for all the Saints”, “for Saint Nicola and four”, “five”,   “six”, “seven”. The ritual continued, after all the exclamations, by asking the owner of the olives if he   wished to pay  a minuto or all’ingrosso.

  A minuto meant that the counting of the half cafisi ended with “seven” and the owner would pay the   mill with a token 4 litres of oil.
  All’ingrosso meant that there were more olives to mill, so the Mizzotiru would carry on counting from   “eight” and then on from “fourteen” so that the fifteenth half cafiso was what was due to the mill as   payment.

  The peak moment of the season was the division of the remaining oil left as payment at the mill   between the owner of the mill and the Troppitari. This was followed by a meal based on goats meat   and local wine.

  The group would break up at the end of the meal agreeing to meet again the following year in the   hope of another copious season to welcome in August.

  This last auspicious comment, along with the popular saying given at the beginning of this section,   goes a long way to showing how, in the farming world, the general lifestyle and particularly the   productive system obeyed a well defined cycle. Organised, set out over the months and used again   and again so that it could be both foreseen and controlled.

  This so liturgically preordained system was upheld and pervaded by and with a religiousness   endemic to catholic culture, and was certainly present in dominant and practical terms which nearly   always had a taste of magic.

  In a world where no other support could offer any guarantees, the need for security on a   psychological level to counter the negativity that is so pervasive and overcrowding, often meant the   need for a practical, fortune bearing, sometimes exorcising ritual.

 

Alla riscoperta delle nostre radici:
Mizzotaru, Cannavaru, Paleri and Troppitari
by Teresa Giamba and Gustavo Cannizzaro
Corriere di Caulonia - Febbraio 1988
Translated by Alexia Mazza

Thanks to Luigi Briglia
for his splendid photography

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