THE MAGIC

NUMBERS
MARTIN ANDERSON delves into the world of La Smora, the Italian Cabbalistic cult of
lucky numbers which is alive and well on the streets of modern Naples.
Main illustration by NICK DEWAR.

he Neapolitan cult of La Smorfia has now diffused

somewhat beyond the confines of that most superstitious of Italian cities, but Naples and the linguistic
peculiarities of the Neapolitan dialect remain the
madre terra to which the newer Florentine interpretations pay homage, and nowhere else in Italy are dreams
and the lucrative numbers that they may reveal such serious business.
The Smorfia deals with the assignation of numbers to
events or observations in dreams or in real life (see FT201:6).
The divined numbers are used to play the Italian national
lottery in whichever is the nearest of the 10 cities that host
it. But since the primary and secondary lists of the Smorfia
are so rich in symbolism, the numbers themselves are also
used in everyday life for general divination or as portents to
be noted.
For example, even in a crowded cinema at a popular and
newly-released film, seat 17 will be the last one to be filled,
since 17 is a Disgrazzia (shame or disgrace). Nonetheless, the
number is still playable, once you have presumably gotten
over whatever disgrace you had coming, and the essence of
La Smorfia is the opportunistic use of events that are seen as
synchronicities rather than the detritus of happenstance.
The literal word Smorfia is associated in modern Naples
with the mutable, toothless smile of the elderly widows
thought to be the cults most avid proponents. The word is
widely thought to be derived from the Italian for Morpheus,
the Greek god of dreams.
All Neapolitans have at least a cursory knowledge of the
primary tables of La Smorfia one is Italy, or God; 22 is
o Pazzo (the madman); 28 is e Zzizze (breasts)and 48 is o
Muorto che pparla (the dead that speak). The numbers stop
at 90, since that is the highest playable number in the Italian
lottery.
The secondary tables comprise an encyclopdic tome
that has been on sale in the streets of Naples for nearly 500
years, in much the same form as it is today. The editions are
cheaply printed, since the poor and idly curious have always
been the target audience. The book itself assigns numerical
values 190 to an exhaustive list of things, occurrences and
concepts.

FACING PAGE: NICK DEWAR

44

ALL NEAPOLITANS HAVE

A CURSORY KNOWLEDGE
OF THE PRIMARY TABLES
OF LA SMORFIA
Dreaming of laughing (a resata 19) with your mother (a
Mamma 52) gives you two numbers to play in the lottery,
known as an ambo. If your mother happens to be dead (o
Muorto 47) and drinking coffee (Il Caff 42) at a balcony
(Onna pereta fore o barcone 43), you have been given the
cinquina necessary to play all five available numbers in a
Lotto draw. An ambo pays 250 times your outlay, rising at
irregular increments to a million times the cost of the bet for
a cinquina.
This esoteric dono (gift) is good for three successive
draws, so long as the player bets in them all, and sharing
it even with close family members risks extinguishing the
charm. Which of the Italian lotteries to enter is problematic
unless you happen to live in one of the 10 host cities, but
indicative symbols in the dream or occurrence from which
you divined the numbers will hopefully make this clear.
Dreams are signals by nature, but the inspiration for a bet
will often be an accorgimento (literally a noticing) during
waking hours: spotting a drunken monk while taking a stroll
at Napless Spaccanapoli could prompt an ambo consisting
of 37 (o Monaco, the Monk) and 14 (o Mbriaco, the drunk).
Signs of that nature do not in themselves constitute good
fortune, since the Smorfia participates in the particular
Cabbalistic belief that numeric values thread the very fabric
of reality; rather, the luck is interpretive in nature, emerging either through pre-cooked dream symbolism or by a
moment of insight that penetrates the banal stream of daily
circumstances.
Such moments of supernatural clarity, where the Arcane

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ILLUSTRATIONS BY NICK DEWAR

TABLE OF THE NEAPOLITAN SMORFIA

LANDLORD

61

O CACCIATORE

HUNTER

32 O CAPITONE

BIG-HEAD

62

O MUORTO ACCISO

MURDERED MAN

CAT

33 ILANNEE CRISTO

THE TIME OF CHRIST

63

A SPOSA

BRIDE

O PUORCO

PIG

34 A CAPA

HEAD

64

A SCIAMMERIA

DRESS-COAT

A MANO

HAND

35 LAUCELLUZZ

BIRD

65

O CHIANTO

WEEPING

CHELLA CA GUARDA NTERRA

(THAT WHICH LOOKS TO THE GROUND)

VAGINA

36 E CCASTAGNELLE

CASTANETS

66

E DDOIE ZETELLE

TWO OLD MAIDS

VASE

VASE

37 O MONACO

MONK

67

O TOTARO INTA
CHITARRA

SQUID IN A GUITAR

A MADONNA

THE VIRGIN MARY

38 E MMAZZATE

BLOWS

68

A ZUPPA COTTA

SOUP

A FIGLIATA

BABY GIRL

39 A FUNA NGANNA

AT GUN-POINT

69

SOTTE NCOPPA

UPSIDE-DOWN

10 E FASULE

BEANS

40 A PAPOSCIA

HERNIA

70

O PALAZZO

APARTMENT-BUILDING

11

E SURICILLE

THE RATS

41

KNIFE

71

LOMMO E MERDA

12

O SURDATE

THE SOLDIER

42 IL CAFFE

COFFEE

72

A MARAVIGLIA

ASTONISHMENT

13

SANT ANTONIO

SAINT ANTHONY 43

WOMAN AT
BALCONY

73

O SPITALE

HOSPITAL

14

O MBRIACO

THE DRUNK

44 A CCANCELLE

JAIL

74

A ROTTA

CAVE

15

O GUAGLIONE

BOY

45 O VINO BBUONO

GOOD WINE

75

PULCINELLA

PUNCH

16

O CULO

THE ARSE

46 E DENARE

MONEY

76

A FUNTANA

FOUNTAIN

17

A DISGRAZZIA

MISFORTUNE/SHAME

47 O MUORTO

DEAD MAN

77

E RIAVULILLE

THE DEVIL

18 O SANGHE

BLOOD

48

DEAD MAN TALKING

78

A BELLA FIGLIOLA

PROSTITUTE

19

LAUGH

49 O PIEZZO E CARNE

MEAT

79

O MARIUOLO

THIEF

20 A FESTA

CELEBRATION/PARTY/
DINNER

50 O PPANE

BREAD

80 A VOCCA

MOUTH

21

NUDE WOMAN

51

GARDEN

81

E SCIURE

FLOWERS

22 O PAZZO

MADMAN

52 A MAMMA

MOTHER

82

A TAVULA MBANDITA

A LAID TABLE

23 O SCEMO

FOOL

53 O VIECCHIO

OLD MAN

83

O MALE TIEMPO

BAD WEATHER

24 E GGUARDIE

POLICE

54 O CAPPIELLO

HAT

84

A CCHIESA

CHURCH

25 NATALE

CHRISTMAS

55 A MUSECA

MUSIC

85

LL ANEME O
PRIATORIO

SOULS IN
PURGATORY

26 NANNINELLA

LITTLE ANNA

56 A CARUTA

FALL

86

A PUTECA

SHOP

27 O CANTERO

CHAMBER-POT

57 O SCARTELLATO

HUNCHBACK

87

E PERUCCHIE

LICE

28 E ZZIZZE

BREASTS

58 O PACCOTTO

BUNDLE

88 E CASECAVALLE

CHEESES

29

O PATE DE CCRIATURE

PENIS

59 E PILE

HAIR

89

OLD WOMAN

30

LE PALLE D O TENENTE

THE LIEUTENANTS BALLS

60 SE LAMENTA

COMPLAINER

90 A PAURA

46

LITALIA

ITALY

31

A PICCERELLA

YOUNG GIRL

A GATTA

A RESATA

A FEMMENA ANNURA

(ITALIAN CULTURE)

O PADRONE E CASA

O CURTIELLO

ONNA PERETA
O BARCONE

O MUORTO CHE PPARLA

O CIARDINO

A VECCHIA

REPREHENSIBLE MAN
(MAN OF SHIT)

FEAR

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FT236

GETTY IMAGES / FRANCO ORIGLIA

MUNACIELLO IS BELIEVED
TO LEAVE LOTTERY
NUMBERS AS SIGNS IN
SUMS OF SMALL CHANGE

signals itself like a mountain illuminated briefly in a flash of lightning at night, were referred to as Hitbodedut by the Canaanites, and
for several centuries were intimately associated with the Cabbalistic knowledge from which the Smorfia is popularly thought to be
derived. 1
Indeed, the concept of numbers as phantom entities is intrinsic
to the Hebrew language, which has no separate numeric alphabet,
but compounds tokenised letters to assemble longer numbers, and
which, in the practice known as gematria, assigns transcendent
significance to the relationship between words and numbers. Since
gematria was practised by the ancient Greeks and the relationship
between numbers and fate was explored yet earlier by the Tao Te
Ching, the Smorfia can claim cultural antecedents of far greater
iated with the Pulcinella (Mr Punch) character disseminated with
antiquity than Hebraic Cabbalism.
great success throughout Europe by the Commedia DellArte in the
Nonetheless, the Cabbala more specifically the artificial
16th century. Along with pizza and coffee, Punch is thought (mostly
Cabbala may be the Smorfias only living relative. This artificial
by Neapolitans) to have originated in Naples, and he is without
Cabbala propounds complex interrelationships, paradigms and
doubt the civic mascot, appearing as a figurehead in the pageantry
symbology between numbers and words; most famously, it expands
and instruments of many semi-catholicised pagan rites throughout
upon the traditional Cabbalistic belief that every word of the
the city.
Hebrew Bible has a corresponding and meaningful numeric value.
Munaciello is Punch for the post-watershed, a fearsome and
Gematria is only one of the three
capricious spirit that can bring calamity or
methods that the artificial Cabbala
fortune. To this day, hunchbacks successuses to define these relationships, but
fully panhandle the patrons sitting outside
it is the most attractive for writers and
the elegant cafs at Piazza Bellini, who
occultists such as Aleister Crowley,
pay a euro or two for the good fortune of
who based his own religion Thelema
rubbing the hump or from fear of being
upon it.
cursed.
The 13th-century mystic Abraham
Munaciello can enter houses via
Abulafia whose ecstatic Cabbala
chimneys and door-jambs, much like
produced at least one literary work
Babbo Natale (Father Christmas), but
written entirely in numbers is conwith less guarantee of a happy outcome.
sidered a direct ancestor of the NeapolHe is reportedly the illicit offspring of
itan cult of La Smorfia, although
a contested union between Caterinella
his one known trip to Italy saw him
Frezza, a merchants daughter, and Stefano
thrown out of Sicily after attempting
Mariconda, a young nobleman of Naples
to set himself up there as a prophet
in 1445. After the suitor was assassinated
(FT231:29, 7678).
in the couples usual meeting place, Frezza
Though the concept of, and belief in,
sought refuge in a convent and gave birth
magic numbers precedes the advent
to the deformed fruit of her lost love some
of the Italian lottery at Genoa in 1539
months later.
by several millennia, the lottery itself
One notable appearance of the itinerant
was only a pragmatic legitimisation of
hunchback-spirit in Neapolitan Smorfia
an equally ancient social vice, and one
mythology concerns the ghostly occupation
which to this day remains associated
of the house of a poor young widow with
with the south of Italy through the
children. The struggling family had many
numbers racket of gangster films old
sorrows, but had no objection to the occasand new (Naples is even more commional manifestations and signs of their
only associated in the public mind
guest, who one day took pity on the mothwith La Camorra the Southern-Italers sorrow at her state of life, and began to
YOUR LUCKY DAY: Hopeful Italians queue for the lottery.
ian Mafia than with La Smorfia).
leave sums of money around the house for
Despite Napless now invincible association with the Italian lotther to find. The widows brother used the secondary tables of the
ery, there was actually no Neapolitan version of it until 1682. The
Smorfia to equate the amounts left with lottery numbers, and won
current 90-number limit exists because the original Genoan lottery
a terno (three-number lottery bet). The family was set up for life,
evolved from illegal bets regarding which 90 political candidates
acquiring a hotel on the citys long central road, the Corso Umberto.
would fill the senate at election-time.
Even today, Munaciello is believed to leave lottery numbers as
Perennially disapproved of by the Church, the lottery occasionsigns in sums of small change.
ally found itself under threat of abolition by the state: Vittorio
The writer and journalist Matilde Serao a relentless critic of
Amadeo II was the first to ban it in 1713, but Giuseppe Garibaldis
the Italian lottery noted in 1891 that Neapolitans are sober by
1860 prohibition was eventually abandoned because control of the
nature, which is still true, but endlessly devoted to Il Lotto, and to
lottery had become crucial to ailing government finances.
the superstitions that abound in that city regarding it also still
There is no known reason why the Italian lottery remains hosted
true.
in exactly 10 cities; could it be anything to do with the Cabbalistic
belief that ten Sefirot (numerations) reveal God through numbers in
NOTES
10 different ways?
1 The word Hitbodedut has since been reclaimed into the Breslov branch of
Neapolitans themselves have more personal and elegant
Hassidic Judaism to describe the only prayer performed in the supplicants
creation-myths for La Smorfia, all predictably bound up with the
mother tongue instead of Hebrew.
citys obsession with evil spirits. Neapolitan occultism holds not
only that evil can be used against itself as with malocchio, the
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
evil eye still frequently found daubed upon doors all around the
Meditaterranean (see FT160:3439) but also that the most-feared
MARTIN ANDERSON writes on computing and popular culture
of Napless numerous phantoms, O Munaciello, is highly disposed to
for various magazines and websites, and lives in London. He
divulge winning lottery numbers if treated well by the living.
lived in Italy for seven years, four of those in Naples.
Munaciello is a deformed, hunchbacked figure intimately assoc-

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