When I was a boy, my father regaled me with stories about the history of Sicily. I remember him telling me about coastal watchtowers passing warnings via signal fires from the shores of the island into the interior. (According to historian Robert C. Davis, there are 137 such watchtowers on the coasts of Sicily. Isn’t it great when family legends match up with history?)

When I visited Sicily later, I heard similar tales of how the fires from the coastal towers could be seen in Caccamo, and then the message would be passed along to our hometown of Vicari. The fires were lighted to warn the people of raids from the Barbary Pirates, a notorious band of slave traders. One pirate in particular loomed as a bogeyman in stern warnings passed down through the generations. “You had better be a good boy and stay close to home, or Mohammed Dragut will get you.”