One of the most controversial figures in Sardinian folklore is the Femina Accabadora, literally the one who ends up. She was a mysterious woman, dressed in black and with a veiled face, who was called by the relatives of a dying man to put an end to their suffering.
Accabadora showed up in the middle of the night and sent away the relatives of the sick, according to some stories she removed all the religious symbols and amulets present in the room, because the practice of euthanasia was prohibited by the clergy.
The killing could take place in various ways, through a sharp blow on the forehead or the back of the head obtained with su matzolu or mazzuccu, a wooden hammer, or by suffocation.
When the patient struggled to die it was said that the cause was linked to a wickedness he had done in life and that prevented his spirit from leaving the body, in that case the Accabadora used a small wooden yoke, which she placed under the pillow and through a magical ritual it accelerated his death.
Once the task was done, all in perfect silence, the woman left as she had arrived, never saying a word.
In reality, there is no documented historical evidence of the existence of the Accabadora but only tales handed down orally. It is thought that there were women in charge of caring for the sick, who accompanied his last moments until his death, without causing it directly, and that the legends about Accabadora were the figment of popular imagination, tales to be told near the fire to instill fear. Yet there are several direct testimonies of people who would have seen her act, who tell the whole ritual in detail, as well as the existence of a specimen of matzolu, preserved in the Ethnographic Museum of Luras, seems to support the existence of this funeral figure.
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Silent death Men
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