On St. Nicholas Day, “the boys who put a plate or a shoe on the window sill in the evening before bedtime for the holy bishop to place the gifts, found, upon waking up in the morning, in addition to the delicacies that could be purchased in the stores of the Glessig, the Paulin’s or the Alpi’s, also toys from the Lazzar, the Potatzky (zujatui dal Potaschi), which consisted of boxes with brightly painted wooden houses (ciazùtis), trumpets (pìvis) also made of wood, toy soldiers made of lead and, for some, there was no lack of a bundle of rods tied with a red ribbon … donated by compare Satan (diàu), who had come to bring gifts to the bad boys instead of St. Nicholas. On that morning the boys sang the old adage:

San Nicolò di Bari,
La festa dei scolari.
Se no faremo festa,

Ghe

tajaremo la testa.”

– Gorizia d’altri tempi, R. M. Cossar