Education was available, but as Levi stated, the mayor who taught class spent more time smoking on the balcony than educating the children. The religious values of the villages Levi visited were a mixture of Catholicism and mysticism. While the people were pious in the sense that they were moral and kind, they were motivated more by beliefs in magic and mysticism than religion. They rarely attended church, and in fact ostracized their priest, who was a drunk, and whose reputation had been ruined while he was still young for having sexual relations with a young student; he had been banished from one place to another for years, and eventually ended up in Gagliano. The priest, however, had just as much dislike for the people, as evident by his statement "The people here are donkeys, not Christians." It seems that Christianity was not fully embraced; this is shown by the multitude of priests begetting illegitimate children and the licentious sexual relations that were often overlooked. Superstitions, gnomes, and spells seemed to shape day-to-day tasks, not Christ and the belief in God. People did, however, attend church on holidays like Christmas, and did respect the Madonna. When reading this it becomes apparent that Christianity was an idea introduced but never completely adopted. Lucania: fascism and wars The southern half of Italy did not completely support Mussolini and his fascist government. The southerners were looked upon as inferior citizens. Levi recalls one local man's view that he and his fellow people were not even considered humans, rather dogs. He tells how northerners viewed the southerners with "inherent racial inferiority". The people specifically felt torn from Italy, and looked to America as a beacon of hope and prosperity rather than Rome. Levi writes "Yes, New York, rather than Rome or Naples would be the real capital of the peasants of Lucania, if these men without a country could have a capital at all." He is insinuating that the peasants and people of Lucania have no country which cares for them. The people were in dire shape, they lived in complete destitution and yet nothing was being done to provide for them. The war with Abyssinia only served to remind them of the impossibility of emigrating to America. In 1935 Italy began a quick war in Abyssinia (present day Ethiopia). The people in Levi's village thought little to nothing about it. It did not