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The function of the "intermediaries" in the lotto  

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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