The Dream-Hunters of Corsica - Hardcover

In Corsica, isolated by sea and mountains, occult practices have survived through the millennia, to the present day. In The Dream-Hunters of Corsica Dorothy Carrington, an expert on Corsican life and history, captures and records these unique forms of magic before they finally vanish under the onslaught of the late twentieth century.
The dream-hunters, or mazzeri, are unknown outside Corsica, and probably date from prehistoric times. They are men and women possessed of a particular faculty for foreseeing death. 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.
Whereas 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 bound to transmit their dark visions, the signadori deliberately cast spells, which are infused with light and hope.
Dorothy Carrington draws parallels with the shamanistic practices of the far north and Africa, and with what is known of prehistoric religion, and analyses the odd and uneasy relationship between this pre-Christian religion and the Christianity imposed on Corsica through the centuries.