The Dream Hunters of Corsica

An insight into the prehistoric occult practices still surviving in Corsica. The dream hunters, or mazzeri, are unknown outside Corsica, and probably date from prehistoric times. At night they go hunting - or dream they do so - and kill an animal, in whom they recognize a human face. The next day they announce the death, which always takes place within a year. Where the mazzeri are harbingers of death, the signadori are guardians of life - they practise folk medicine, but more importantly they secure release from the curse of the "Evil Eye". Unlike the mazzeri, who are mere servants of their dark visions, the signadori deliberately cast spells, which are infused with light and hope. Dorothy Carrington investigates these extraordinary phenomena, relics of past times peculiar to this wild, inhospitable land. She draws parallels with the shamanistic practices of the far north and Africa, and with what is known of prehistoric religion, and analyzes the odd and uneasy relationship between this pre-Christian religion and the Christianity imposed on Corsica through the centuries. In Corsica, the occult has retained its everyday place as an explanation of the mysteries of life and death.