|   Referred 
                                to lotto, the beneficiary is the person who receives 
                                the numbers to play even one month, one year or 
                                one century before. He is also called "santon" 
                                (because he contacts the paranormal) or "diavolillo" 
                                (devil) (if he contacts the bad spirits). Tradition 
                                hands down that after his youth, the beneficiary 
                                realizes his capability to receive the numbers, 
                                to evoke the spirits using a magic book and that 
                                he can experience altered states of counsciousness. 
                                People think the beneficiary is an eccentric person, 
                                he is not realistic and practical; he is not interested 
                                in our world problems. Inspite of this, these 
                                characteristics do not make him be a stranger: 
                                he is accepted by all for his divinatory faculties 
                                and he has an important social function. People 
                                offer him gifts and money in order to receive 
                                the numbers to play. Many beneficiaries proved 
                                to be dishonests or unemployeds lokoking for fortune 
                                but we should not believe that every beneficiary 
                                is dishonest. There is an important rule - ordered 
                                by the spirits themselves - among the beneficiary 
                                and the lotto players: the beneficiary can not 
                                play the numbers he receives from the deads. The 
                                beneficiaries have great prestige among the common 
                                people: they never give wrong numbers but the 
                                players can interpret in the wrong way the beneficiary 
                                words and gestures. Even the sneeze of the beneficiary 
                                can correspond to a number that will be chosen 
                                through the Smorfia consultation. Just few women 
                                can be considered beneficiaries as they usually 
                                have the role to interpret one's dreams. The monk or the hermit, especially when they are 
                                phisically marked, have a divinatory power just 
                                for the fact they lead a spiritual life in the 
                                cloister. He should not use his power for people 
                                vices, but traditionally he is linked to the lotto. 
                                As it happens to the beneficiary, people give 
                                him some gifts or invite him for lunch; it is 
                                told he prefers giving the numbers to women, rather 
                                than to men but in this case we make reference 
                                to popular beliefs.
 In reference to their diversity and to the fact 
                                they are not just women or men, the "femminielli" 
                                have their own social function. They are accepted 
                                by people who believe they have got magic powers.
 Also the Smorfia pedlar has divinatory powers, 
                                as he always keeps in touch with the numbers book. 
                                You can ask him to interpret your dreams; sometimes 
                                he is therefore identified with the wizard because 
                                he knows the magic rites .
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