diff options
Diffstat (limited to '6381.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 6381.txt | 13996 |
1 files changed, 13996 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/6381.txt b/6381.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ee197e --- /dev/null +++ b/6381.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13996 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Two Years in the French West Indies, by Lafcadio Hearn + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Two Years in the French West Indies + +Author: Lafcadio Hearn + +Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6381] +Last Updated: August 23, 2012 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRENCH WEST INDIES *** + + + + +Produced by Richard Farris + + + + + + +TWO YEARS IN THE FRENCH WEST INDIES + +By Lafcadio Hearn + +Author Of "Chita" Etc. + + +Illustrated + + +"_La facon d'etre du pays est si agreable, la temperature si bonne, +et l'on y vit dans une liberte si honnete, que je n'aye pas vu un seul +homme, ny une seule femme, qui en soient revenues, en qui je n'aye +remarque une grande passion d'y retourner._"-LE PERE DUTERTRE (1667) + + + +A MON CHER AMI LEOPOLD ARNOUX + +NOTAIRE A SAINT PIERRE, MARTINIQUE + +_Souvenir de nos promenades,--de nos voyages,--de nos causeries,--des +sympathies echangees,--de tout le charme d'une amitie inalterable et +inoubliable,--de tout ce qui parle a l'ame au doux Pay des Revenants._ + + + + +PREFACE + + +During a trip to the Lesser Antilles in the summer of 1887, the writer +of the following pages, landing at Martinique, fell under the influence +of that singular spell which the island has always exercised upon +strangers, and by which it has earned its poetic name,--_Le Pays des +Revenants_. Even as many another before him, he left its charmed shores +only to know himself haunted by that irresistible regret,--unlike any +other,--which is the enchantment of the land upon all who wander away +from it. So he returned, intending to remain some months; but the +bewitchment prevailed, and he remained two years. + +Some of the literary results of that sojourn form the bulk of the +present volume. Several, or portions of several, papers have been +published in HARPER'S MAGAZINE; but the majority of the sketches now +appear in print for the first time. + +The introductory paper, entitled "A Midsummer Trip to the Tropics," +consists for the most part of notes taken upon a voyage of nearly three +thousand miles, accomplished in less than two months. During such hasty +journeying it is scarcely possible for a writer to attempt anything more +serious than a mere reflection of the personal experiences undergone; +and, in spite of sundry justifiable departures from simple note-making, +this paper is offered only as an effort to record the visual and +emotional impressions of the moment. + +My thanks are due to Mr. William Lawless, British Consul at St. Pierre, +for several beautiful photographs, taken by himself, which have been +used in the preparation of the illustrations. + +L. H. + +_Philadelphia, 1889._ + + + + +LIST OF CONTENTS + +PART ONE--A MIDSUMMER TRIP TO THE TROPICS + +PART TWO--MARTINIQUE SKETCHES:-- + + I. LES PORTEUSES + II. LA GRANDE ANSE + III. UN REVENANT + IV. LA GUIABLESSE + V. LA VERETTE + VI. LES BLANCHISSEUSES + VII. LA PELEE + VIII. 'TI CANOTIE + IX. LA FILLE DE COULEUR + X. BETE-NI-PIE + XI. MA BONNE + XII. "PA COMBINE, CHE" + XIII. YE + XIV. LYS + + XV. APPENDIX:--SOME CREOLE MELODIES + + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + + A Martinique Metisse (Frontispiece) + La Place Bertin, St. Pierre, Martinique + Itinerant Pastry-seller + In the Cimetiere du Mouillage, St. Pierre + In the Jardin des Plantes, St. Pierre + Cascade in the Jardin des Plantes + Departure of Steamer for Fort-de-France + Statue of Josephine + Inner Basin, Bridgetown, Barbadoes + Trafalgar Square, Bridgetown, Barbadoes + Street in Georgetown, Demerara + Avenue in Georgetown, Demerara + Victoria Regia in the Canal at Georgetown + Demerara Coolie Girl + St. James Avenue, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad + Coolies of Trinidad + Coolie Servant + Coolie Merchant + Church Street, St. George, Grenada + Castries, St. Lucia + 'Ti Marie + Fort-de-France, Martinique + Capre in Working Garb + A Confirmation Procession + Manner of Playing the Ka + A Wayside Shrine, or Chapelle + Rue Victor Hugo, St. Pierre + Quarter of the Fort, St. Pierre + Riviere des Blanchisseuses + Foot of La Pelle, behind the Quarter of the Fort + Village of Morne Rouge + Pelle as seen from Grande Anse + Arborescent Ferns on a Mountain Road + 'Ti Canot + The Martinique Turban + The Guadeloupe Head-dress + Young Mulattress + Coolie Woman in Martinique Costume + Country Girl-pure Negro Race + Coolie Half-breed + Capresse + The Old Market-place of the Fort, St. Pierre + Bread-fruit Tree + Basse-terre, St. Kitt's + + + + + +A TRIP TO THE TROPICS. + + + + + +PART ONE--A MIDSUMMER TRIP TO THE TROPICS. + + + +I. + + +... A long, narrow, graceful steel steamer, with two masts and an +orange-yellow chimney,--taking on cargo at Pier 49 East River. Through +her yawning hatchways a mountainous piling up of barrels is visible +below;--there is much rumbling and rattling of steam-winches, creaking +of derrick-booms, groaning of pulleys as the freight is being lowered +in. A breezeless July morning, and a dead heat,--87 deg. already. + +The saloon-deck gives one suggestion of past and of coming voyages. +Under the white awnings long lounge-chairs sprawl here and there,--each +with an occupant, smoking in silence, or dozing with head drooping to +one side. A young man, awaking as I pass to my cabin, turns upon me a +pair of peculiarly luminous black eyes,--creole eyes. Evidently a West +Indian.... + +The morning is still gray, but the sun is dissolving the haze. Gradually +the gray vanishes, and a beautiful, pale, vapory blue--a spiritualized +Northern blue--colors water and sky. A cannon-shot suddenly shakes the +heavy air: it is our farewell to the American shore;--we move. Back +floats the wharf, and becomes vapory with a bluish tinge. Diaphanous +mists seem to have caught the sky color; and even the great red +storehouses take a faint blue tint as they recede. The horizon now has +a greenish glow, Everywhere else the effect is that of looking through +very light-blue glasses.... + +We steam under the colossal span of the mighty bridge; then for a little +while Liberty towers above our passing,--seeming first to turn towards +us, then to turn away from us, the solemn beauty of her passionless +face of bronze. Tints brighten;--the heaven is growing a little bluer, A +breeze springs up.... + +Then the water takes on another hue: pale-green lights play through it, +It has begun to sound, Little waves lift up their heads as though to +look at us,--patting the flanks of the vessel, and whispering to one +another. + +Far off the surface begins to show quick white flashes here and there, +and the steamer begins to swing.... We are nearing Atlantic waters, The +sun is high up now, almost overhead: there are a few thin clouds in the +tender-colored sky,--flossy, long-drawn-out, white things. The horizon +has lost its greenish glow: it is a spectral blue. Masts, spars, +rigging,--the white boats and the orange chimney,--the bright +deck-lines, and the snowy rail,--cut against the colored light in almost +dazzling relief. Though the sun shines hot the wind is cold: its strong +irregular blowing fans one into drowsiness. Also the somnolent chant of +the engines--_do-do, hey! do-do, hey!_--lulls to sleep. + +..Towards evening the glaucous sea-tint vanishes,--the water becomes +blue. It is full of great flashes, as of seams opening and reclosing +over a white surface. It spits spray in a ceaseless drizzle. Sometimes +it reaches up and slaps the side of the steamer with a sound as of a +great naked hand, The wind waxes boisterous. Swinging ends of cordage +crack like whips. There is an immense humming that drowns speech,--a +humming made up of many sounds: whining of pulleys, whistling of +riggings, flapping and fluttering of canvas, roar of nettings in the +wind. And this sonorous medley, ever growing louder, has rhythm,--a +_crescendo_ and _diminuendo_ timed by the steamer's regular swinging: +like a great Voice crying out, "Whoh-oh-oh! whoh-oh-oh!" We are nearing +the life-centres of winds and currents. One can hardly walk on deck +against the ever-increasing breath;--yet now the whole world is +blue,--not the least cloud is visible; and the perfect transparency and +voidness about us make the immense power of this invisible medium seem +something ghostly and awful.... The log, at every revolution, whines +exactly like a little puppy;--one can hear it through all the roar fully +forty feet away. + +...It is nearly sunset. Across the whole circle of the Day we have been +steaming south. Now the horizon is gold green. All about the falling +sun, this gold-green light takes vast expansion.... Right on the edge +of the sea is a tall, gracious ship, sailing sunsetward. Catching the +vapory fire, she seems to become a phantom,--a ship of gold mist: all +her spars and sails are luminous, and look like things seen in dreams. + +Crimsoning more and more, the sun drops to the sea. The phantom ship +approaches him,--touches the curve of his glowing face, sails right +athwart it! Oh, the spectral splendor of that vision! The whole great +ship in full sail instantly makes an acute silhouette against the +monstrous disk,--rests there in the very middle of the vermilion sun. +His face crimsons high above her top-masts,--broadens far beyond helm +and bowsprit. Against this weird magnificence, her whole shape changes +color: hull, masts, and sails turn black--a greenish black. + +Sun and ship vanish together in another minute. Violet the night comes; +and the rigging of the foremast cuts a cross upon the face of the moon. + + + +II. + + +Morning: the second day. The sea is an extraordinary blue,--looks to me +something like violet ink. Close by the ship, where the foam-clouds +are, it is beautifully mottled,--looks like blue marble with +exquisite veinings and nebulosities.... Tepid wind, and cottony white +clouds,--cirri climbing up over the edge of the sea all around. The sky +is still pale blue, and the horizon is full of a whitish haze. + +... A nice old French gentleman from Guadeloupe presumes to say this is +not blue water--he declares it greenish (_verdatre_). Because I cannot +discern the green, he tells me I do not yet know what blue water is. +_Attendez un peu!_... + +... The sky-tone deepens as the sun ascends,--deepens deliciously. The +warm wind proves soporific. I drop asleep with the blue light in my +face,--the strong bright blue of the noonday sky. As I doze it seems to +burn like a cold fire right through my eyelids. Waking up with a start, +I fancy that everything is turning blue,--myself included. "Do you not +call this the real tropical blue?" I cry to my French fellow-traveller. +_"Mon Dieu! non_," he exclaims, as in astonishment at the +question;--"this is not blue!"...What can be _his_ idea of blue, I +wonder! + +Clots of sargasso float by,--light-yellow sea-weed. We are nearing the +Sargasso-sea,--entering the path of the trade-winds. There is a long +ground-swell, the steamer rocks and rolls, and the tumbling water always +seems to me growing bluer; but my friend from Guadeloupe says that +this color "which I call blue" is only darkness--only the shadow of +prodigious depth. + +Nothing now but blue sky and what I persist in calling blue sea. The +clouds have melted away in the bright glow. There is no sign of life in +the azure gulf above, nor in the abyss beneath--there are no wings or +fins to be seen. Towards evening, under the slanting gold light, the +color of the sea deepens into ultramarine; then the sun sinks down +behind a bank of copper-colored cloud. + + + +III. + + +Morning of the third day. Same mild, warm wind. Bright blue sky, with +some very thin clouds in the horizon,--like puffs of steam. The glow of +the sea-light through the open ports of my cabin makes them seem +filled with thick blue glass.... It is becoming too warm for New York +clothing.... + +Certainly the sea has become much bluer. It gives one the idea of +liquefied sky: the foam might be formed of cirrus clouds compressed,--so +extravagantly white it looks to-day, like snow in the sun. Nevertheless, +the old gentleman from Guadeloupe still maintains this is not the true +blue of the tropics + +... The sky does not deepen its hue to-day: it brightens it--the blue +glows as if it were taking fire throughout. Perhaps the sea may deepen +its hue;--I do not believe it can take more luminous color without being +set aflame.... I ask the ship's doctor whether it is really true that +the West Indian waters are any bluer than these. He looks a moment at +the sea, and replies, "_Oh_ yes!" There is such a tone of surprise in +his "oh" as might indicate that I had asked a very foolish question; +and his look seems to express doubt whether I am quite in earnest.... +I think, nevertheless, that this water is extravagantly, nonsensically +blue! + +... I read for an hour or two; fall asleep in the chair; wake up +suddenly; look at the sea,--and cry out! This sea is impossibly +blue! The painter who should try to paint it would be denounced as a +lunatic.... Yet it is transparent; the foam-clouds, as they sink down, +turn sky-blue,--a sky-blue which now looks white by contrast with the +strange and violent splendor of the sea color. It seems as if one were +looking into an immeasurable dyeing vat, or as though the whole ocean +had been thickened with indigo. To say this is a mere reflection of the +sky is nonsense!--the sky is too pale by a hundred shades for that! This +must be the natural color of the water,--a blazing azure,--magnificent, +impossible to describe. + +The French passenger from Guadeloupe observes that the sea is "beginning +to become blue." + + + +IV. + + +And the fourth day. One awakens unspeakably lazy;--this must be the +West Indian languor. Same sky, with a few more bright clouds than +yesterday;--always the warm wind blowing. There is a long swell. +Under this trade-breeze, warm like a human breath, the ocean seems to +pulse,--to rise and fall as with a vast inspiration and expiration. +Alternately its blue circle lifts and falls before us and behind us--we +rise very high; we sink very low,--but always with a slow long motion. +Nevertheless, the water looks smooth, perfectly smooth; the billowings +which lift us cannot be seen;--it is because the summits of these swells +are mile-broad,--too broad to be discerned from the level of our deck. + +... Ten A.M.--Under the sun the sea is a flaming, dazzling lazulite. +My French friend from Guadeloupe kindly confesses this is _almost_ +the color of tropical water.... Weeds floating by, a little below the +surface, are azured. But the Guadeloupe gentleman says he has seen water +still more blue. I am sorry,--I cannot believe him. + +Mid-day.--The splendor of the sky is weird! No clouds above--only blue +fire! Up from the warm deep color of the sea-circle the edge of the +heaven glows as if bathed in greenish flame. The swaying circle of the +resplendent sea seems to flash its jewel-color to the zenith. Clothing +feels now almost too heavy to endure; and the warm wind brings a languor +with it as of temptation.... One feels an irresistible desire to drowse +on deck--the rushing speech of waves, the long rocking of the ship, the +lukewarm caress of the wind, urge to slumber--but the light is too vast +to permit of sleep. Its blue power compels wakefulness. And the brain +is wearied at last by this duplicated azure splendor of sky and sea. How +gratefully comes the evening to us,--with its violet glooms and promises +of coolness! + +All this sensuous blending of warmth and force in winds and waters more +and more suggests an idea of the spiritualism of elements,--a sense of +world-life. In all these soft sleepy swayings, these caresses of wind +and sobbing of waters, Nature seems to confess some passional mood. +Passengers converse of pleasant tempting things,--tropical fruits, +tropical beverages, tropical mountain-breezes, tropical women It is +a time for dreams--those day-dreams that come gently as a mist, with +ghostly realization of hopes, desires, ambitions.... Men sailing to the +mines of Guiana dream of gold. + +The wind seems to grow continually warmer; the spray feels warm like +blood. Awnings have to be clewed up, and wind-sails taken in;--still, +there are no white-caps,--only the enormous swells, too broad to see, as +the ocean falls and rises like a dreamer's breast.... + +The sunset comes with a great burning yellow glow, fading up through +faint greens to lose itself in violet light;--there is no gloaming. The +days have already become shorter.... Through the open ports, as we lie +down to sleep, comes a great whispering,--the whispering of the seas: +sounds as of articulate speech under the breath,--as, of women telling +secrets.... + + + +V. + + +Fifth day out. Trade-winds from the south-east; a huge tumbling of +mountain-purple waves;--the steamer careens under a full spread of +canvas. There is a sense of spring in the wind to-day,--something that +makes one think of the bourgeoning of Northern woods, when naked trees +first cover themselves with a mist of tender green,--something that +recalls the first bird-songs, the first climbings of sap to sun, and +gives a sense of vital plenitude. + +... Evening fills the west with aureate woolly clouds,--the wool of the +Fleece of Gold. Then Hesperus beams like another moon, and the stars +burn very brightly. Still the ship bends under the even pressure of +the warm wind in her sails; and her wake becomes a trail of fire. +Large sparks dash up through it continuously, like an effervescence of +flame;--and queer broad clouds of pale fire swirl by. Far out, where the +water is black as pitch, there are no lights: it seems as if the steamer +were only grinding out sparks with her keel, striking fire with her +propeller. + + + +VI. + + +Sixth day out. Wind tepid and still stronger, but sky very clear. An +indigo sea, with beautiful white-caps. The ocean color is deepening: +it is very rich now, but I think less wonderful than before;--it is an +opulent pansy hue. Close by the ship it looks black-blue,--the color +that bewitches in certain Celtic eyes. + +There is a feverishness in the air;--the heat is growing heavy; the +least exertion provokes perspiration; below-decks the air is like the +air of an oven. Above-deck, however, the effect of all this light and +heat is not altogether disagreeable;-one feels that vast elemental +powers are near at hand, and that the blood is already aware of their +approach. + +All day the pure sky, the deepening of sea-color, the lukewarm wind. +Then comes a superb sunset! There is a painting in the west wrought of +cloud-colors,--a dream of high carmine cliffs and rocks outlying in a +green sea, which lashes their bases with a foam of gold.... + +Even after dark the touch of the wind has the warmth of flesh. There +is no moon; the sea-circle is black as Acheron; and our phosphor wake +reappears quivering across it,--seeming to reach back to the +very horizon. It is brighter to-night,--looks like another _Via +Lactea_,--with points breaking through it like stars in a nebula. From +our prow ripples rimmed with fire keep fleeing away to right and left +into the night,--brightening as they run, then vanishing suddenly as if +they had passed over a precipice. Crests of swells seem to burst into +showers of sparks, and great patches of spume catch flame, smoulder +through, and disappear.... The Southern Cross is visible,--sloping +backward and sidewise, as if propped against the vault of the sky: it +is not readily discovered by the unfamiliarized eye; it is only after it +has been well pointed out to you that you discern its position. Then +you find it is only the _suggestion_ of a cross--four stars set almost +quadrangularly, some brighter than others. + +For two days there has been little conversation on board. It may be due +in part to the somnolent influence of the warm wind,--in part to the +ceaseless booming of waters and roar of rigging, which drown men's +voices; but I fancy it is much more due to the impressions of space +and depth and vastness,--the impressions of sea and sky, which compel +something akin to awe. + + + +VII. + + +Morning over the Caribbean Sea,--a calm, extremely dark-blue sea. +There are lands in sight,--high lands, with sharp, peaked, unfamiliar +outlines. + +We passed other lands in the darkness: they no doubt resembled the +shapes towering up around us now; for these are evidently volcanic +creations,--jagged, coned, truncated, eccentric. Far off they first +looked a very pale gray; now, as the light increases, they change hue +a little,--showing misty greens and smoky blues. They rise very sharply +from the sea to great heights,--the highest point always with a cloud +upon it;--they thrust out singular long spurs, push up mountain shapes +that have an odd scooped-out look. Some, extremely far away, seem, as +they catch the sun, to be made of gold vapor; others have a madderish +tone: these are colors of cloud. The closer we approach them, the more +do tints of green make themselves visible. Purplish or bluish masses +of coast slowly develop green surfaces; folds and wrinkles of land turn +brightly verdant. Still, the color gleams as through a thin fog. + +... The first tropical visitor has just boarded our ship: a wonderful +fly, shaped like a common fly, but at least five times larger. His body +is a beautiful shining black; his wings seem ribbed and jointed with +silver, his head is jewel-green, with exquisitely cut emeralds for eyes. + +Islands pass and disappear behind us. The sun has now risen well; the +sky is a rich blue, and the tardy moon still hangs in it. Lilac tones +show through the water. In the south there are a few straggling small +white clouds,--like a long flight of birds. A great gray mountain shape +looms up before us. We are steaming on Santa Cruz. + +The island has a true volcanic outline, sharp and high: the cliffs +sheer down almost perpendicularly. The shape is still vapory, varying +in coloring from purplish to bright gray; but wherever peaks and spurs +fully catch the sun they edge themselves with a beautiful green glow, +while interlying ravines seem filled with foggy blue. + +As we approach, sun lighted surfaces come out still more luminously +green. Glens and sheltered valleys still hold blues and grays; but +points fairly illuminated by the solar glow show just such a fiery +green as burns in the plumage of certain humming-birds. And just as the +lustrous colors of these birds shift according to changes of light, so +the island shifts colors here and there,--from emerald to blue, and blue +to gray.... But now we are near: it shows us a lovely heaping of high +bright hills in front,--with a further coast-line very low and long +and verdant, fringed with a white beach, and tufted with spidery +palm-crests. Immediately opposite, other palms are poised; their trunks +look like pillars of unpolished silver, their leaves shimmer like +bronze. + +... The water of the harbor is transparent and pale green. One can see +many fish, and some small sharks. White butterflies are fluttering about +us in the blue air. Naked black boys are bathing on the beach;--they +swim well, but will not venture out far because of the sharks. A +boat puts off to bring colored girls on board. They are tall, and not +uncomely, although very dark;--they coax us, with all sorts of endearing +words, to purchase bay rum, fruits, Florida water.... We go ashore in +boats. The water of the harbor has a slightly fetid odor. + + + +VIII. + + +Viewed from the bay, under the green shadow of the hills overlooking it, +Frederiksted has the appearance of a beautiful Spanish town, with its +Romanesque piazzas, churches, many arched buildings peeping through +breaks in a line of mahogany, bread-fruit, mango, tamarind, and palm +trees,--an irregular mass of at least fifty different tints, from a +fiery emerald to a sombre bluish-green. But on entering the streets the +illusion of beauty passes: you find yourself in a crumbling, decaying +town, with buildings only two stories high. The lower part, of arched +Spanish design, is usually of lava rock or of brick, painted a light, +warm yellow; the upper stories are most commonly left unpainted, and +are rudely constructed of light timber. There are many heavy arcades and +courts opening on the streets with large archways. Lava blocks have been +used in paving as well as in building; and more than one of the narrow +streets, as it slopes up the hill through the great light, is seen to +cut its way through craggy masses of volcanic stone. + +But all the buildings look dilapidated; the stucco and paint is falling +or peeling everywhere; there are fissures in the walls, crumbling +facades, tumbling roofs. The first stories, built with solidity worthy +of an earthquake region, seem extravagantly heavy by contrast with the +frail wooden superstructures. One reason may be that the city was +burned and sacked during a negro revolt in 1878;--the Spanish basements +resisted the fire well, and it was found necessary to rebuild only +the second stories of the buildings; but the work was done cheaply +and flimsily, not massively and enduringly, as by the first colonial +builders. + +There is great wealth of verdure. Cabbage and cocoa palms overlook all +the streets, bending above almost every structure, whether hut or public +building;--everywhere you see the splitted green of banana leaves. In +the court-yards you may occasionally catch sight of some splendid palm +with silver-gray stem so barred as to look jointed, like the body of an +annelid. + +In the market-place--a broad paved square, crossed by two rows of +tamarind-trees, and bounded on one side by a Spanish piazza--you can +study a spectacle of savage picturesqueness. There are no benches, no +stalls, no booths; the dealers stand, sit, or squat upon the ground +under the sun, or upon the steps of the neighboring arcade. Their wares +are piled up at their feet, for the most part. Some few have little +tables, but as a rule the eatables are simply laid on the dusty ground +or heaped upon the steps of the piazza--reddish-yellow mangoes, that +look like great apples squeezed out of shape, bunches of bananas, +pyramids of bright-green cocoanuts, immense golden-green oranges, and +various other fruits and vegetables totally unfamiliar to Northern +eyes.... It is no use to ask questions--the black dealers speak no +dialect comprehensible outside of the Antilles: it is a negro-English +that sounds like some African tongue,--a rolling current of vowels and +consonants, pouring so rapidly that the inexperienced ear cannot detach +one intelligible word, A friendly white coming up enabled me to learn +one phrase: "Massa, youwancocknerfoobuy?" (Master, do you want to buy a +cocoanut?) + +The market is quite crowded,--full of bright color under the tremendous +noon light. Buyers and dealers are generally black;--very few yellow or +brown people are visible in the gathering. The greater number present +are women; they are very simply, almost savagely, garbed--only a skirt +or petticoat, over which is worn a sort of calico short dress, which +scarcely descends two inches below the hips, and is confined about the +waist with a belt or a string. The skirt bells out like the skirt of +a dancer, leaving the feet and bare legs well exposed; and the head is +covered with a white handkerchief, twisted so as to look like a +turban. Multitudes of these barelegged black women are walking past +us,--carrying bundles or baskets upon their heads, and smoking very long +cigars. + +They are generally short and thick-set, and walk with surprising +erectness, and with long, firm steps, carrying the bosom well forward. +Their limbs are strong and finely rounded. Whether walking or standing, +their poise is admirable,--might be called graceful, were it not for the +absence of real grace of form in such compact, powerful little figures. +All wear brightly colored cottonade stuffs, and the general effect of +the costume in a large gathering is very agreeable, the dominant hues +being pink, white, and blue. Half the women are smoking. All chatter +loudly, speaking their English jargon with a pitch of voice totally +unlike the English timbre: it sometimes sounds as if they were trying to +pronounce English rapidly according to French pronunciation and pitch of +voice. + +These green oranges have a delicious scent and amazing juiciness. +Peeling one of them is sufficient to perfume the skin of the hands for +the rest of the day, however often one may use soap and water.... We +smoke Porto Rico cigars, and drink West Indian lemonades, strongly +flavored with rum. The tobacco has a rich, sweet taste; the rum is +velvety, sugary, with a pleasant, soothing effect: both have a rich +aroma. There is a wholesome originality about the flavor of these +products, a uniqueness which certifies to their naif purity: something +as opulent and frank as the juices and odors of tropical fruits and +flowers. + +The streets leading from the plaza glare violently in the strong +sunlight;--the ground, almost dead-white, dazzles the eyes.... There are +few comely faces visible,--in the streets all are black who pass. But +through open shop-doors one occasionally catches glimpses of a pretty +quadroon face,--with immense black eyes,--a face yellow like a ripe +banana. + +... It is now after mid-day. Looking up to the hills, or along sloping +streets towards the shore, wonderful variations of foliage-color meet +the eye: gold-greens, sap-greens, bluish and metallic greens of many +tints, reddish-greens, yellowish-greens. The cane-fields are broad +sheets of beautiful gold-green; and nearly as bright are the masses of +_pomme-cannelle_ frondescence, the groves of lemon and orange; while +tamarind and mahoganies are heavily sombre. Everywhere palm-crests soar +above the wood-lines, and tremble with a metallic shimmering in the blue +light. Up through a ponderous thickness of tamarind rises the spire of +the church; a skeleton of open stone-work, without glasses or lattices +or shutters of any sort for its naked apertures: it is all open to the +winds of heaven; it seems to be gasping with all its granite mouths for +breath--panting in this azure heat. In the bay the water looks greener +than ever: it is so clear that the light passes under every boat +and ship to the very bottom; the vessels only cast very thin green +shadows,--so transparent that fish can be distinctly seen passing +through from sunlight to sunlight. + +The sunset offers a splendid spectacle of pure color; there is only an +immense yellow glow in the west,--a lemon-colored blaze; but when it +melts into the blue there is an exquisite green light.... We leave +to-morrow. + +... Morning: the green hills are looming in a bluish vapor: the long +faint-yellow slope of beach to the left of the town, under the mangoes +and tamarinds, is already thronged with bathers,--all men or boys, and +all naked: black, brown, yellow, and white. The white bathers are Danish +soldiers from the barracks; the Northern brightness of their skins forms +an almost startling contrast with the deep colors of the nature about +them, and with the dark complexions of the natives. Some very slender, +graceful brown lads are bathing with them,--lightly built as deer: these +are probably creoles. Some of the black bathers are clumsy-looking, and +have astonishingly long legs.... Then little boys come down, leading +horses;--they strip, leap naked on the animals' backs, and ride into the +sea,--yelling, screaming, splashing, in the morning light. Some are a +fine brown color, like old bronze. Nothing could-be more statuesque than +the unconscious attitudes of these bronze bodies in leaping, wrestling, +running, pitching shells. Their simple grace is in admirable harmony +with that of Nature's green creations about them,--rhymes faultlessly +with the perfect self-balance of the palms that poise along the +shore.... + +Boom! and a thunder-rolling of echoes. We move slowly out of the harbor, +then swiftly towards the southeast.... The island seems to turn slowly +half round; then to retreat from us. Across our way appears a long band +of green light, reaching over the sea like a thin protraction of color +from the extended spur of verdure in which the western end of the island +terminates. That is a sunken reef, and a dangerous one. Lying high upon +it, in very sharp relief against the blue light, is a wrecked vessel on +her beam-ends,--the carcass of a brig. Her decks have been broken in; +the roofs of her cabins are gone; her masts are splintered off short; +her empty hold yawns naked to the sun; all her upper parts have taken a +yellowish-white color,--the color of sun-bleached bone. + +Behind us the mountains still float back. Their shining green has +changed to a less vivid hue; they are taking bluish tones here and +there; but their outlines are still sharp, and along their high soft +slopes there are white specklings, which are villages and towns. +These white specks diminish swiftly,--dwindle to the dimensions of +salt-grains,--finally vanish. Then the island grows uniformly bluish; it +becomes cloudy, vague as a dream of mountains;--it turns at last gray as +smoke, and then melts into the horizon-light like a mirage. + +Another yellow sunset, made weird by extraordinary black, dense, +fantastic shapes of cloud. Night darkens, and again the Southern +Cross glimmers before our prow, and the two Milky Ways reveal +themselves,--that of the Cosmos and that ghostlier one which stretches +over the black deep behind us. This alternately broadens and narrows +at regular intervals, concomitantly with the rhythmical swing of the +steamer, Before us the bows spout: fire; behind us there is a flaming +and roaring as of Phlegethon; and the voices of wind and sea become so +loud that we cannot talk to one another,--cannot make our words heard +even by shouting. + + + +IX. + + +Early morning: the eighth day. Moored in another blue harbor,--a great +semicircular basin, bounded by a high billowing of hills all green from +the fringe of yellow beach up to their loftiest clouded summit. The +land has that up-tossed look which tells a volcanic origin. There are +curiously scalloped heights, which, though emerald from base to crest, +still retain all the physiognomy of volcanoes: their ribbed sides must +be lava under that verdure. Out of sight westward--in successions of +bright green, pale green, bluish-green, and vapory gray-stretches a +long chain of crater shapes. Truncated, jagged, or rounded, all these +elevations are interunited by their curving hollows of land or by +filaments--very low valleys. And as they grade away in varying color +through distance, these hill-chains take a curious segmented, jointed +appearance, like insect forms, enormous ant-bodies.... This is St. +Kitt's. + +We row ashore over a tossing dark-blue water, and leaving the long +wharf, pass under a great arch and over a sort of bridge into the town +of Basse-Terre, through a concourse of brown and black people. + +It is very tropical-looking; but more sombre than Frederiksted. There +are palms everywhere,--cocoa, fan, and cabbage palms; many bread-fruit +trees, tamarinds, bananas, Indian fig-trees, mangoes, and unfamiliar +things the negroes call by incomprehensible names,--"sap-saps," +"dhool-dhools." But there is less color, less reflection of light +than in Santa Cruz; there is less quaintness; no Spanish buildings, +no canary-colored arcades. All the narrow streets are gray or +neutral-tinted; the ground has a dark ashen tone. Most of the dwellings +are timber, resting on brick props, or elevated upon blocks of lava +rock. It seems almost as if some breath from the enormous and always +clouded mountain overlooking the town had begrimed everything, darkening +even the colors of vegetation. + +The population is not picturesque. The costumes are commonplace; the +tints of the women's attire are dull. Browns and sombre blues and grays +are commoner than pinks, yellows, and violets. Occasionally you observe +a fine half-breed type--some tall brown girl walking by with a swaying +grace like that of a sloop at sea;--but such spectacles are not +frequent. Most of those you meet are black or a blackish brown. Many +stores are kept by yellow men with intensely black hair and eyes,--men +who do not smile. These are Portuguese. There are some few fine +buildings; but the most pleasing sight the little town can offer the +visitor is the pretty Botanical Garden, with its banyans and its palms, +its monstrous lilies and extraordinary fruit-trees, and its beautiful +little mountains. From some of these trees a peculiar tillandsia streams +down, much like our Spanish moss,--but it is black! + +... As we move away southwardly, the receding outlines of the island +look more and more volcanic. A chain of hills and cones, all very green, +and connected by strips of valley-land so low that the edge of the +sea-circle on the other side of the island can be seen through the gaps. +We steam past truncated hills, past heights that have the look of the +stumps of peaks cut half down,--ancient fire-mouths choked by tropical +verdure. + +Southward, above and beyond the deep-green chain, tower other volcanic +forms,--very far away, and so pale-gray as to seem like clouds. Those +are the heights of Nevis,--another creation of the subterranean fires. + +It draws nearer, floats steadily into definition: a great mountain +flanked by two small ones; three summits; the loftiest, with clouds +packed high upon it, still seems to smoke;--the second highest displays +the most symmetrical crater-form I have yet seen. All are still +grayish-blue or gray. Gradually through the blues break long high gleams +of green. + +As we steam closer, the island becomes all verdant from flood to sky; +the great dead crater shows its immense wreath of perennial green. On +the lower slopes little settlements are sprinkled in white, red, +and brown: houses, windmills, sugar-factories, high chimneys are +distinguishable;--cane-plantations unfold gold-green surfaces. + +We pass away. The island does not seem to sink behind us, but to become +a ghost. All its outlines grow shadowy. For a little while it continues +green;--but it is a hazy, spectral green, as of colored vapor. The sea +today looks almost black: the south-west wind has filled the day +with luminous mist; and the phantom of Nevis melts in the vast glow, +dissolves utterly.... Once more we are out of sight of land,--in the +centre of a blue-black circle of sea. The water-line cuts blackly +against the immense light of the horizon,--a huge white glory that +flames up very high before it fades and melts into the eternal blue. + + + +X. + + +Then a high white shape like a cloud appears before us,--on the +purplish-dark edge of the sea. The cloud-shape enlarges, heightens +without changing contour. It is not a cloud, but an island! Its outlines +begin to sharpen,--with faintest pencillings of color. Shadowy valleys +appear, spectral hollows, phantom slopes of pallid blue or green. The +apparition is so like a mirage that it is difficult to persuade oneself +one is looking at real land,--that it is not a dream. It seems to have +shaped itself all suddenly out of the glowing haze. We pass many miles +beyond it; and it vanishes into mist again. + +... Another and a larger ghost; but we steam straight upon it until it +materializes,--Montserrat. It bears a family likeness to the islands we +have already passed--one dominant height, with massing of bright crater +shapes about it, and ranges of green hills linked together by low +valleys. About its highest summit also hovers a flock of clouds. At the +foot of the vast hill nestles the little white and red town of Plymouth. +The single salute of our gun is answered by a stupendous broadside of +echoes. + +Plymouth is more than half hidden in the rich foliage that fringes the +wonderfully wrinkled green of the hills at their base;--it has a curtain +of palms before it. Approaching, you discern only one or two facades +above the sea-wall, and the long wharf projecting through an opening ing +in the masonry, over which young palms stand thick as canes on a sugar +plantation. But on reaching the street that descends towards the heavily +bowldered shore you find yourself in a delightfully drowsy little +burgh,--a miniature tropical town,--with very narrow paved ways,--steep, +irregular, full of odd curves and angles,--and likewise of tiny courts +everywhere sending up jets of palm-plumes, or displaying above their +stone enclosures great candelabra-shapes of cacti. All is old-fashioned +and quiet and queer and small. Even the palms are diminutive,--slim and +delicate; there is a something in their poise and slenderness like the +charm of young girls who have not yet ceased to be children, though soon +to become women.... + +There is a glorious sunset,--a fervid orange splendor, shading starward +into delicate roses and greens. Then black boatmen come astern and +quarrel furiously for the privilege of carrying one passenger ashore; +and as they scream and gesticulate, half naked, their silhouettes +against the sunset seem forms of great black apes. + +... Under steam and sail we are making south again, with a warm wind +blowing south-east,--a wind very moist, very powerful, and soporific. +Facing it, one feels almost cool; but the moment one is sheltered from +it profuse perspiration bursts out. The ship rocks over immense +swells; night falls very black; and there are surprising displays of +phosphorescence. + + + +XI. + + +... Morning. A gold sunrise over an indigo sea. The wind is a great +warm caress; the sky a spotless blue. We are steaming on Dominica,--the +loftiest of the lesser Antilles. While the silhouette is yet all violet +in distance nothing more solemnly beautiful can well be imagined: a +vast cathedral shape, whose spires are mountain peaks, towering in the +horizon, sheer up from the sea. + +We stay at Roseau only long enough to land the mails, and wonder at the +loveliness of the island. A beautifully wrinkled mass of green and blue +and gray;--a strangely abrupt peaking and heaping of the land. Behind +the green heights loom the blues; behind these the grays--all pinnacled +against the sky-glow-thrusting up through gaps or behind promontories. +Indescribably exquisite the foldings and hollowings of the emerald +coast. In glen and vale the color of cane-fields shines like a pooling +of fluid bronze, as if the luminous essence of the hill tints had been +dripping down and clarifying there. Far to our left, a bright green spur +pierces into the now turquoise sea; and beyond it, a beautiful mountain +form, blue and curved like a hip, slopes seaward, showing lighted +wrinkles here and there, of green. And from the foreground, against the +blue of the softly outlined shape, cocoa-palms are curving,--all sharp +and shining in the sun. + +... Another hour; and Martinique looms before us. At first it appears +all gray, a vapory gray; then it becomes bluish-gray; then all green. + +It is another of the beautiful volcanic family: it owns the same hill +shapes with which we have already become acquainted; its uppermost +height is hooded with the familiar cloud; we see the same gold-yellow +plains, the same wonderful varieties of verdancy, the same long green +spurs reaching out into the sea,--doubtless formed by old lava +torrents. But all this is now repeated for us more imposingly, more +grandiosely;--it is wrought upon a larger scale than anything we +have yet seen. The semicircular sweep of the harbor, dominated by the +eternally veiled summit of the Montagne Pelee (misnamed, since it is +green to the very clouds), from which the land slopes down on either +hand to the sea by gigantic undulations, is one of the fairest sights +that human eye can gaze upon. Thus viewed, the whole island shape is +a mass of green, with purplish streaks and shadowings here and there: +glooms of forest-hollows, or moving umbrages of cloud. The city of St. +Pierre, on the edge of the land, looks as if it had slided down the +hill behind it, so strangely do the streets come tumbling to the port in +cascades of masonry,--with a red billowing of tiled roofs over all, and +enormous palms poking up through it,--higher even than the creamy white +twin towers of its cathedral. + +We anchor in limpid blue water; the cannon-shot is answered by a +prolonged thunder-clapping of mountain echo. + +Then from the shore a curious flotilla bears down upon us. There is one +boat, two or three canoes; but the bulk of the craft are simply +wooden frames,--flat-bottomed structures, made from shipping-cases or +lard-boxes, with triangular ends. In these sit naked boys,--boys between +ten and fourteen years of age,--varying in color from a fine clear +yellow to a deep reddish-brown or chocolate tint. They row with two +little square, flat pieces of wood for paddles, clutched in each hand; +and these lid-shaped things are dipped into the water on either side +with absolute precision, in perfect time,--all the pairs of little naked +arms seeming moved by a single impulse. There is much unconscious +grace in this paddling, as well as skill. Then all about the ship +these ridiculous little boats begin to describe circles,--crossing and +intercrossing so closely as almost to bring them into collision, yet +never touching. The boys have simply come out to dive for coins they +expect passengers to fling to them. All are chattering creole, laughing +and screaming shrilly; every eye, quick and bright as a bird's, watches +the faces of the passengers on deck. "'Tention-la!" shriek a dozen +soprani. Some passenger's fingers have entered his vest-pocket, and the +boys are on the alert. Through the air, twirling and glittering, tumbles +an English shilling, and drops into the deep water beyond the little +fleet. Instantly all the lads leap, scramble, topple head-foremost out +of their little tubs, and dive in pursuit. In the blue water their lithe +figures look perfectly red,--all but the soles of their upturned feet, +which show nearly white. Almost immediately they all rise again: one +holds up at arm's-length above the water the recovered coin, and then +puts it into his mouth for safe-keeping; Coin after coin is thrown in, +and as speedily brought up; a shower of small silver follows, and not +a piece is lost. These lads move through the water without apparent +effort, with the suppleness of fishes. Most are decidedly fine-looking +boys, with admirably rounded limbs, delicately formed extremities. The +best diver and swiftest swimmer, however, is a red lad;--his face +is rather commonplace, but his slim body has the grace of an antique +bronze. + +... We are ashore in St. Pierre, the quaintest, queerest, and the +prettiest withal, among West Indian cities: all stone-built and +stone-flagged, with very narrow streets, wooden or zinc awnings, +and peaked roofs of red tile, pierced by gabled dormers. Most of +the buildings are painted in a clear yellow tone, which contrasts +delightfully with the burning blue ribbon of tropical sky above; and no +street is absolutely level; nearly all of them climb hills, descend into +hollows, curve, twist, describe sudden angles. There is everywhere +a loud murmur of running water,--pouring through the deep gutters +contrived between the paved thoroughfare and the absurd little +sidewalks, varying in width from one to three feet. The architecture +is quite old: it is seventeenth century, probably; and it reminds one a +great deal of that characterizing the antiquated French quarter of New +Orleans. All the tints, the forms, the vistas, would seem to have been +especially selected or designed for aquarelle studies,--just to please +the whim of some extravagant artist. The windows are frameless openings +without glass; some have iron bars; all have heavy wooden shutters with +movable slats, through which light and air can enter as through Venetian +blinds. These are usually painted green or bright bluish-gray. + +So steep are the streets descending to the harbor,--by flights of old +mossy stone steps,--that looking down them to the azure water you have +the sensation of gazing from a cliff. From certain openings in the main +street--the Rue Victor Hugo--you can get something like a bird's-eye +view of the harbor with its shipping. The roofs of the street below are +under your feet, and other streets are rising behind you to meet the +mountain roads. They climb at a very steep angle, occasionally breaking +into stairs of lava rock, all grass-tufted and moss-lined. + +[Illustration: LA PLACE BERTIN (THE SUGAR LANDING), ST. PIERRE, +MARTINIQUE.] + +The town has an aspect of great solidity: it is a creation of crag-looks +almost as if it had been hewn out of one mountain fragment, instead of +having been constructed stone by stone. Although commonly consisting of +two stories and an attic only, the dwellings have walls three feet in +thickness;--on one street, facing the sea, they are even heavier, and +slope outward like ramparts, so that the perpendicular recesses +of windows and doors have the appearance of being opened between +buttresses. It may have been partly as a precaution against earthquakes, +and partly for the sake of coolness, that the early colonial architects +built thus;--giving the city a physiognomy so well worthy of its +name,--the name of the Saint of the Rock. + +And everywhere rushes mountain water,--cool and crystal clear, washing +the streets;--from time to time you come to some public fountain +flinging a silvery column to the sun, or showering bright spray over a +group of black bronze tritons or bronze swans. The Tritons on the Place +Bertin you will not readily forget;--their curving torsos might have +been modelled from the forms of those ebon men who toil there tirelessly +all day in the great heat, rolling hogsheads of sugar or casks of +rum. And often you will note, in the course of a walk, little +drinking-fountains contrived at the angle of a building, or in the thick +walls bordering the bulwarks or enclosing public squares: glittering +threads of water spurting through lion-lips of stone. Some mountain +torrent, skilfully directed and divided, is thus perpetually refreshing +the city,--supplying its fountains and cooling its courts.... This is +called the Gouyave water: it is not the same stream which sweeps and +purifies the streets. + +Picturesqueness and color: these are the particular and the unrivalled +charms of St. Pierre. As you pursue the Grande Rue, or Rue Victor +Hugo,--which traverses the town through all its length, undulating over +hill-slopes and into hollows and over a bridge,--you become more and +more enchanted by the contrast of the yellow-glowing walls to right and +left with the jagged strip of gentian-blue sky overhead. Charming also +it is to watch the cross-streets climbing up to the fiery green of the +mountains behind the town. On the lower side of the main thoroughfare +other streets open in wonderful bursts of blue-warm blue of horizon and +sea. The steps by which these ways descend towards the bay are black +with age, and slightly mossed close to the wall on either side: they +have an alarming steepness,--one might easily stumble from the upper +into the lower street. Looking towards the water through these openings +from the Grande Rue, you will notice that the sea-line cuts across the +blue space just at the level of the upper story of the house on the +lower street-corner. Sometimes, a hundred feet below, you see a ship +resting in the azure aperture,--seemingly suspended there in sky-color, +floating in blue light. And everywhere and always, through sunshine or +shadow, comes to you the scent of the city,--the characteristic odor of +St. Pierre;--a compound odor suggesting the intermingling of sugar and +garlic in those strange tropical dishes which creoles love.... + + + +XII. + + +... A population fantastic, astonishing,--a population of the Arabian +Nights. It is many-colored; but the general dominant tint is yellow, +like that of the town itself--yellow in the interblending of all the +hues characterizing _mulatresse, capresse, griffe, quarteronne, metisse, +chabine,_--a general effect of rich brownish yellow. You are among a +people of half-breeds,--the finest mixed race of the West Indies. + +Straight as palms, and supple and tall, these colored women and men +impress one powerfully by their dignified carriage and easy elegance of +movement. They walk without swinging of the shoulders;--the perfectly +set torso seems to remain rigid; yet the step is a long full stride, and +the whole weight is springily poised on the very tip of the bare foot. +All, or nearly all, are without shoes: the treading of many naked feet +over the heated pavement makes a continuous whispering sound. + +... Perhaps the most novel impression of all is that produced by the +singularity and brilliancy of certain of the women's costumes. These +were developed, at least a hundred years ago, by some curious +sumptuary law regulating the dress of slaves and colored people of free +condition,--a law which allowed considerable liberty as to material and +tint, prescribing chiefly form. But some of these fashions suggest +the Orient: they offer beautiful audacities of color contrast; and the +full-dress coiffure, above all, is so strikingly Eastern that one might +be tempted to believe it was first introduced into the colony by some +Mohammedan slave. It is merely an immense Madras handkerchief, which is +folded about the head with admirable art, like a turban;--one bright end +pushed through at the top in front, being left sticking up like a plume. +Then this turban, always full of bright canary-color, is fastened +with golden brooches,--one in front and one at either side. As for the +remainder of the dress, it is simple enough: an embroidered, low-cut +chemise with sleeves; a skirt or _jupe_, very long behind, but caught +up and fastened in front below the breasts so as to bring the hem +everywhere to a level with the end of the long chemise; and finally a +_foulard_, or silken kerchief, thrown over the shoulders. These _jupes_ +and _foulards_, however, are exquisite in pattern and color: bright +crimson, bright yellow, bright blue, bright green,--lilac, violet, +rose,--sometimes mingled in plaidings or checkerings or stripings: black +with orange, sky-blue with purple. And whatever be the colors of +the costume, which vary astonishingly, the coiffure must be +yellow-brilliant, flashing yellow--the turban is certain to have yellow +stripes or yellow squares. To this display add the effect of costly and +curious jewellery: immense earrings, each pendant being formed of five +gold cylinders joined together (cylinders sometimes two inches long, +and an inch at least in circumference);--a necklace of double, triple, +quadruple, or quintuple rows of large hollow gold beads (sometimes +smooth, but generally ally graven)--the wonderful _collier-choux_. +Now, this glowing jewellery is not a mere imitation of pure metal: the +ear-rings are worth one hundred and seventy-five francs a pair; the +necklace of a Martinique quadroon may cost five hundred or even one +thousand francs.... It may be the gift of her lover, her _doudoux_, but +such articles are usually purchased either on time by small payments, or +bead by bead singly until the requisite number is made up. + +But few are thus richly attired: the greater number of the women +carrying burdens on their heads,--peddling vegetables, cakes, fruit, +ready-cooked food, from door to door,--are very simply dressed in a +single plain robe of vivid colors (_douillette_) reaching from neck to +feet, and made with a train, but generally girded well up so as to sit +close to the figure and leave the lower limbs partly bare and perfectly +free. These women can walk all day long up and down hill in the hot sun, +without shoes, carrying loads of from one hundred to one hundred and +fifty pounds on their heads; and if their little stock sometimes fails +to come up to the accustomed weight stones are added to make it heavy +enough. Doubtless the habit of carrying everything in this way from +childhood has much to do with the remarkable vigor and erectness of the +population.... I have seen a grand-piano carried on the heads of four +men. With the women the load is very seldom steadied with the hand +after having been once placed in position. The head remains almost most +motionless; but the black, quick, piercing eyes flash into every +window and door-way to watch for a customer's signal. And the creole +street-cries, uttered in a sonorous, far-reaching high key, interblend +and produce random harmonies very pleasant to hear. + +..._"Ce moune-la, ca qui le bel mango?"_ Her basket of mangoes +certainly weighs as much as herself.... _"Ca qui le bel avocat?,"_ The +alligator-pear--cuts and tastes like beautiful green cheese... _"Ca qui +le escargot?"_ Call her, if you like snails.... _"Ca qui le titiri?"_ +Minuscule fish, of which a thousand would scarcely fill a tea-cup;--one +of the most delicate of Martinique dishes.... _"Ca qui le canna?--Ca +qui le charbon?--Ca qui le di pain aube?_" (Who wants ducks, charcoal, or +pretty little loaves shaped like cucumbers.)... _"Ca qui le pain-mi?"_ A +sweet maize cake in the form of a tiny sugar-loaf, wrapped in a piece of +banana leaf.... _"Ca qui le fromasse" (pharmacie) "lapotecai creole?"_ +She deals in creole roots and herbs, and all the leaves that make +_tisanes_ or poultices or medicines: _matriquin, feuill-corossol, +balai-doux, manioc-chapelle, Marie-Perrine, graine-enba-feuill, bois +d'lhomme, zhebe-gras, bonnet-carre, zhebe-codeinne, zhebe-a-femme, +zhebe-a-chatte, canne-dleau, poque, fleu-papillon, lateigne,_ and +a score of others you never saw or heard of before.... _"Ca qui le +dicaments?"_ (overalls for laboring-men).... _"Ce moune-la, si ou pa le +achete canari-a dans lanmain moin, moin ke craze y."_ The vender of red +clay cooking-pots;--she has only one left, if you do not buy it she will +break it! + +_"He! zenfants-la!--en deho'!"_ Run out to meet her, little children, if +you like the sweet rice-cakes.... _"He! gens pa' enho', gens pa' enbas, +gens di galtas, moin ni bel gououos poisson!"_ Ho! people up-stairs, +people down-stairs, and all ye good folks who dwell in the attics,--know +that she has very big and very beautiful fish to sell!... _"He! ca qui +le mange yonne?"_--those are "akras,"--flat yellow-brown cakes, made of +pounded codfish, or beans, or both, seasoned with pepper and fried in +butter.... And then comes the pastry-seller, black as ebony, but dressed +all in white, and white-aproned and white-capped like a French cook, +and chanting half in French, half in creole, with a voice like a +clarinet: + + _"C'est louvouier de la patisserie qui passe, + Qui te ka veille pou' gagner son existence, + Toujours content, + Toujours joyeux. + Oh, qu'ils sont bons!--Oh, qu'ils sont doux!"_ + +It is the pastryman passing by, who has been up all night to gain his +livelihood,--always content,--always happy.... Oh, how good they are +(the pies)!--Oh, how sweet they are! + +... The quaint stores bordering both sides of the street bear no names +and no signs over their huge arched doors;--you must look well inside to +know what business is being done. Even then you will scarcely be able to +satisfy yourself as to the nature of the commerce;--for they are selling +gridirons and frying-pans in the dry goods stores, holy images and +rosaries in the notion stores, sweet-cakes and confectionery in the +crockery stores, coffee and stationery in the millinery stores, cigars +and tobacco in the china stores, cravats and laces and ribbons in the +jewellery stores, sugar and guava jelly in the tobacco stores! But of +all the objects exposed for sale the most attractive, because the most +exotic, is a doll,--the Martinique _poupee_. There are two kinds,--the +_poupee-capresse_, of which the body is covered with smooth +reddish-brown leather, to imitate the tint of the capresse race; and the +_poupee-negresse_, covered with black leather. When dressed, these dolls +range in price from eleven to thirty-five francs,--some, dressed to +order, may cost even more; and a good _poupee-negresse_ is a delightful +curiosity. Both varieties of dolls are attired in the costume of the +people; but the _negresse_ is usually dressed the more simply. Each doll +has a broidered chemise, a tastefully arranged _jupe_ of bright hues; +a silk _foulard_, a _collier-choux_, ear-rings of five cylinders +(_zanneaux-a-clous_), and a charming little yellow-banded Madras +turban. Such a doll is a perfect costume-model,--a perfect miniature of +Martinique fashions, to the smallest details of material and color: it +is almost too artistic for a toy. + +[Illustration: ITINERANT PASTRY-SELLER. "Tourjours content, Toujours +joyeux."] + +These old costume-colors of Martinique-always relieved by brilliant +yellow stripings or checkerings, except in the special violet +dresses worn on certain religious occasions--have an indescribable +luminosity,--a wonderful power of bringing out the fine warm tints of +this tropical flesh. Such are the hues of those rich costumes Nature +gives to her nearest of kin and her dearest,--her honey-lovers--her +insects: these are wasp-colors. I do not know whether the fact ever +occurred to the childish fancy of this strange race; but there is +a creole expression which first suggested it to me;--in the patois, +_pouend guepe_, "to catch a wasp," signifies making love to a pretty +colored girl.... And the more one observes these costumes, the more +one feels that only Nature could have taught such rare comprehension +of powers and harmonies among colors,--such knowledge of chromatic +witchcrafts and chromatic laws. + +... This evening, as I write, La Pelee is more heavily coiffed than +is her wont. Of purple and lilac cloud the coiffure is,--a magnificent +Madras, yellow-banded by the sinking sun. La Pelee is in _costume de +fete_, like a _capresse_ attired for a baptism or a ball; and in her +phantom turban one great star glimmers for a brooch. + + + +XIII. + + +Following the Rue Victor Hugo in the direction of the Fort,--crossing +the Riviere Roxelane, or Riviere des Blanchisseuses, whose rocky bed is +white with unsoaped linen far as the eye can reach,--you descend through +some tortuous narrow streets into the principal marketplace. [1] + +A square--well paved and well shaded--with a fountain in the midst. Here +the dealers are seated in rows;--one half of the market is devoted to +fruits and vegetables; the other to the sale of fresh fish and meats. On +first entering you are confused by the press and deafened by the storm +of creole chatter;--then you begin to discern some order in this chaos, +and to observe curious things. + +In the middle of the paved square, about the market fountain, are lying +boats filled with fish, which have been carried up from the water +upon men's shoulders,--or, if very heavy, conveyed on rollers.... Such +fish!--blue, rosy, green, lilac, scarlet, gold: no spectral tints these, +but luminous and strong like fire. Here also you see heaps of long thin +fish looking like piled bars of silver,--absolutely dazzling,--of almost +equal thickness from head to tail;--near by are heaps of flat pink +creatures;--beyond these, again, a mass of azure backs and golden +bellies. Among the stalls you can study the monsters,--twelve or fifteen +feet long,--the shark, the _vierge_, the sword fish, the _tonne_,--or +the eccentricities. Some are very thin round disks, with long, +brilliant, wormy feelers in lieu of fins, flickering in all +directions like a moving pendent silver fringe;--others bristle with +spines;--others, serpent-bodied, are so speckled as to resemble shapes +of red polished granite. These are _moringues_. The _balaou, couliou, +macriau, lazard, tcha-tcha, bonnique_, and _zorphi_ severally represent +almost all possible tints of blue and violet. The _souri_ is rose-color +and yellow; the _cirurgien_ is black, with yellow and red stripes; the +_patate_, black and yellow; the _gros-zie_ is vermilion; the _couronne_, +red and black. Their names are not less unfamiliar than their shapes +and tints;-the _aiguille-de-mer_, or sea-needle, long and thin as a +pencil;-the _Bon-Die-manie-moin_ ("the Good-God handled me"), which +has something like finger-marks upon it;--the _lambi_, a huge +sea-snail;--the _pisquette_, the _laline_ (the Moon);--the +_crapaud-de-mer_, or sea-toad, with a dangerous dorsal fin;--the +_vermeil_, the _jacquot_, the _chaponne_, and fifty others.... As the +sun gets higher, banana or balisier leaves are laid over the fish. + +Even more puzzling, perhaps, are the astonishing varieties of green, +yellow, and parti-colored vegetables,--and fruits of all hues and +forms,--out of which display you retain only a confused general memory +of sweet smells and luscious colors. But there are some oddities which +impress the recollection in a particular way. One is a great cylindrical +ivory-colored thing,--shaped like an elephant's tusk, except that it +is not curved: this is the head of the cabbage-palm, or palmiste,--the +brain of one of the noblest trees in the tropics, which must be totally +destroyed to obtain it. Raw or cooked, it is eaten in a great variety of +ways,--in salads, stews, fritters, or _akras_. Soon after this compact +cylinder of young germinating leaves has been removed, large worms begin +to appear in the hollow of the dead tree,--the _vers-palmiste_. You may +see these for sale in the market, crawling about in bowls or cans: they +are said, when fried alive, to taste like almonds, and are esteemed as a +great luxury. + +... Then you begin to look about you at the faces of the black, brown, +and yellow people who are watching at you curiously from beneath their +Madras turbans, or from under the shade of mushroom-shaped hats as large +as umbrellas. And as you observe the bare backs, bare shoulders, bare +legs and arms and feet, you will find that the colors of flesh are even +more varied and surprising than the colors of fruit. Nevertheless, it is +only with fruit-colors that many of these skin-tints can be correctly +be compared; the only terms of comparison used by the colored people +themselves being terms of this kind,--such as _peau-chapotille_, +"sapota-skin." The _sapota_ or _sapotille_ is a juicy brown fruit with +a rind satiny like a human cuticle, and just the color, when flushed and +ripe, of certain half-breed skins. But among the brighter half-breeds, +the colors, I think, are much more fruit-like;--there are banana-tints, +lemon-tones, orange-hues, with sometimes such a mingling of ruddiness as +in the pink ripening of a mango. Agreeable to the eye the darker skins +certainly are, and often very remarkable--all clear tones of bronze +being represented; but the brighter tints are absolutely beautiful. +Standing perfectly naked at door-ways, or playing naked in the sun, +astonishing children may sometimes be seen,--banana-colored or gulf +orange babies, There is one rare race-type, totally unseen like the +rest: the skin has a perfect gold-tone, an exquisite metallic yellow the +eyes are long, and have long silky lashes;--the hair is a mass of thick, +rich, glossy the curls that show blue lights in the sun. What mingling +of races produced this beautiful type?--there is some strange blood in +the blending,--not of coolie, nor of African, nor of Chinese, although +there are Chinese types here of indubitable beauty. [2] + +... All this population is vigorous, graceful, healthy: all you see +passing by are well made--there are no sickly faces, no scrawny limbs. +If by some rare chance you encounter a person who has lost an arm or +a leg, you can be almost certain you are looking at a victim of the +fer-de-lance,--the serpent whose venom putrefies living tissue.... +Without fear of exaggerating facts, I can venture to say that the +muscular development of the working-men here is something which must be +seen in order to be believed;--to study fine displays of it, one should +watch the blacks and half-breeds working naked to the waist,--on the +landings, in the gas-houses and slaughter-houses or on the +nearest plantations. They are not generally large men, perhaps not +extraordinarily powerful; but they have the aspect of sculptural or even +of anatomical models; they seem absolutely devoid of adipose tissue; +their muscles stand out with a saliency that astonishes the eye. At +a tanning-yard, while I was watching a dozen blacks at work, a young +mulatto with the mischievous face of a faun walked by, wearing nothing +but a clout (_lantcho_) about his loins; and never, not even in bronze, +did I see so beautiful a play of muscles. A demonstrator of anatomy +could have used him for a class-model;--a sculptor wishing to shape a +fine Mercury would have been satisfied to take a cast of such a body +without thinking of making one modification from neck to heel. "Frugal +diet is the cause of this physical condition," a young French professor +assures me; "all these men," he says, "live upon salt codfish and +fruit." But frugal living alone could never produce such symmetry and +saliency of muscles: race-crossing, climate, perpetual exercise, healthy +labor--many conditions must have combined to cause it. Also it is +certain that this tropical sun has a tendency to dissolve spare flesh, +to melt away all superfluous tissue, leaving the muscular fibre dense +and solid as mahogany. + +At the _mouillage_, below a green _morne_, is the bathing-place. A rocky +beach rounding away under heights of tropical wood;--palms curving out +above the sand, or bending half-way across it. Ships at anchor in blue +water, against golden-yellow horizon. A vast blue glow. Water clear as +diamond, and lukewarm. + +It is about one hour after sunrise; and the high parts of Montaigne +Pelee are still misty blue. Under the palms and among the lava rocks, +and also in little cabins farther up the slope, bathers are dressing or +undressing: the water is also dotted with heads of swimmers. Women +and girls enter it well robed from feet to shoulders;--men go in very +sparsely clad;--there are lads wearing nothing. Young boys--yellow and +brown little fellows--run in naked, and swim out to pointed rocks that +jut up black above the bright water. They climb up one at a time to dive +down. Poised for the leap upon the black lava crag, and against the blue +light of the sky, each lithe figure, gilded by the morning sun, has +a statuesqueness and a luminosity impossible to paint in words. These +bodies seem to radiate color; and the azure light intensifies the hue: +it is idyllic, incredible;--Coomans used paler colors in his Pompeiian +studies, and his figures were never so symmetrical. This flesh does not +look like flesh, but like fruit-pulp.... + + + +XIV. + + +... Everywhere crosses, little shrines, way-side chapels, statues of +saints. You will see crucifixes and statuettes even in the forks or +hollows of trees shadowing the high-roads. As you ascend these towards +the interior you will see, every mile or half-mile, some chapel, or a +cross erected upon a pedestal of masonry, or some little niche contrived +in a wall, closed by a wire grating, through which the image of a Christ +or a Madonna is visible. Lamps are kept burning all night before these +figures. But the village of Morne Rouge--some two thousand feet +above the sea, and about an hour's drive from St. Pierre--is chiefly +remarkable for such displays: it is a place of pilgrimage as well as +a health resort. Above the village, upon the steep slope of a higher +morne, one may note a singular succession of little edifices ascending +to the summit,--fourteen little tabernacles, each containing a _relievo_ +representing some incident of Christ's Passion. This is called _Le +Calvaire_: it requires more than a feeble piety to perform the religious +exercise of climbing the height, and saying a prayer before each little +shrine on the way. From the porch of the crowning structure the village +of Morne Rouge appears so far below that it makes one almost dizzy to +look at it; but even for the profane one ascent is well worth making, +for the sake of the beautiful view. On all the neighboring heights +around are votive chapels or great crucifixes. + +St. Pierre is less peopled with images than Morne Rouge; but it has +several colossal ones, which may be seen from any part of the harbor. +On the heights above the middle quarter, or _Centre_, a gigantic Christ +overlooks the bay; and from the Morne d'Orange, which bounds the city +on the south, a great white Virgin-Notre Dame de la Garde, patron of +mariners--watches above the ships at anchor in the mouillage. + +... Thrice daily, from the towers of the white cathedral, a superb chime +of bells rolls its _carillon_ through the town. On great holidays the +bells are wonderfully rung;--the ringers are African, and something +of African feeling is observable in their impressive but in cantatory +manner of ringing. The _bourdon_ must have cost a fortune. When it is +made to speak, the effect is startling: all the city vibrates to a weird +sound difficult to describe,--an abysmal, quivering moan, producing +unfamiliar harmonies as the voices of the smaller bells are seized +and interblended by it....One will not easily forget the ringing of a +_bel-midi_. + +... Behind the cathedral, above the peaked city roofs, and at the foot +of the wood-clad Morne d'Orange, is the _Cimetiere du Mouillage_.... +It is full of beauty,--this strange tropical cemetery. Most of the low +tombs are covered with small square black and white tiles, set exactly +after the fashion of the squares on a chess-board; at the foot of each +grave stands a black cross, bearing on its centre a little white plaque, +on which the name is graven in delicate and tasteful lettering. So +pretty these little tombs are, that you might almost believe yourself +in a toy cemetery. Here and there, again, are miniature marble chapels +built over the dead,--containing white Madonnas and Christs and little +angels,--while flowering creepers climb and twine about the pillars. +Death seems so luminous here that one thinks of it unconciously as a +soft rising from this soft green earth,--like a vapor invisible,--to +melt into the prodigious day. Everything is bright and neat and +beautiful; the air is sleepy with jasmine scent and odor of white +lilies; and the palm--emblem of immortality--lifts its head a hundred +feet into the blue light. There are rows of these majestic and symbolic +trees;--two enormous ones guard the entrance;--the others rise from +among the tombs,--white-stemmed, out-spreading their huge parasols of +verdure higher than the cathedral towers. + +[Illustration: IN THE CIMETERE DU MOUILLAGE, ST. PIERRE.] + +Behind all this, the dumb green life of the morne seems striving to +descend, to invade the rest of the dead. It thrusts green hands over the +wall,--pushes strong roots underneath;--it attacks every joint of the +stone-work, patiently, imperceptibly, yet almost irresistibly. + +... Some day there may be a great change in the little city of St. +Pierre;--there may be less money and less zeal and less remembrance of +the lost. Then from the morne, over the bulwark, the green host will +move down unopposed;--creepers will prepare the way, dislocating the +pretty tombs, pulling away the checkered tiling;--then will corne the +giants, rooting deeper,--feeling for the dust of hearts, groping among +the bones;--and all that love has hidden away shall be restored to +Nature,--absorbed into the rich juices of her verdure,--revitalized in +her bursts of color,--resurrected in her upliftings of emerald and gold +to the great sun.... + + + +XV. + + +Seen from the bay, the little red-white-and-yellow city forms but one +multicolored streak against the burning green of the lofty island. There +is no naked soil, no bare rock: the chains of the mountains, rising +by successive ridges towards the interior, are still covered with +forests;--tropical woods ascend the peaks to the height of four and +five thousand feet. To describe the beauty of these woods--even of those +covering the mornes in the immediate vicinity of St. Pierre--seems to +me almost impossible;--there are forms and colors which appear to demand +the creation of new words to express. Especially is this true in regard +to hue;--the green of a tropical forest is something which one familiar +only with the tones of Northern vegetation can form no just conception +of: it is a color that conveys the idea of green fire. + +You have only to follow the high-road leading out of St. Pierre by way +of the Savane du Fort to find yourself, after twenty minutes' walk, +in front of the Morne Parnasse, and before the verge of a high +wood,--remnant of the enormous growth once covering all the island. What +a tropical forest is, as seen from without, you will then begin to feel, +with a sort of awe, while you watch that beautiful upclimbing of green +shapes to the height of perhaps a thousand feet overhead. It presents +one seemingly solid surface of vivid color,--rugose like a cliff. You +do not readily distinguish whole trees in the mass;--you only perceive +suggestions, dreams of trees, Doresqueries. Shapes that seem to +be staggering under weight of creepers rise a hundred feet above +you;--others, equally huge, are towering above these; and still higher, +a legion of monstrosities are nodding, bending, tossing up green arms, +pushing out great knees, projecting curves as of backs and shoulders, +intertwining mockeries of limbs. No distinct head appears except where +some palm pushes up its crest in the general fight for sun. All else +looks as if under a veil,--hidden and half smothered by heavy drooping +things. Blazing green vines cover every branch and stem;--they form +draperies and tapestries and curtains and motionless cascades--pouring +down over all projections like a thick silent flood: an amazing +inundation of parasitic life.... It is a weird awful beauty that you +gaze upon; and yet the spectacle is imperfect. These woods have been +decimated; the finest trees have been cut down: you see only a ruin of +what was. To see the true primeval forest, you must ride well into the +interior. + +The absolutism of green does not, however, always prevail in these +woods. During a brief season, corresponding to some of our winter +months, the forests suddenly break into a very conflagration of color, +caused by blossoming of the lianas--crimson, canary-yellow, blue and +white. There are other flowerings, indeed; but that of the lianas alone +has chromatic force enough to change the aspect of a landscape. + + + +XVI. + + +... If it is possible for a West Indian forest to be described at all, +it could not be described more powerfully than it has been by Dr. E. +Rufz, a creole of Martinique, one of whose works I venture to translate +the following remarkable pages: + +... "The sea, the sea alone, because it is the most colossal of earthly +spectacles,--only the sea can afford us any terms of comparison for the +attempt to describe a _grand-bois_;--but even then one must imagine the +sea on a day of a storm, suddenly immobilized in the expression of +its mightiest fury. For the summits of these vast woods repeat all +the inequalities of the land they cover; and these inequalities are +mountains from 4200 to 4800 feet in height, and valleys of corresponding +profundity. All this is hidden, blended together, smoothed over by +verdure, in soft and enormous undulations,--in immense billowings of +foliage. Only, instead of a blue line at the horizon, you have a green +line; instead of flashings of blue, you have flashings of green,--and in +all the tints, in all the combinations of which green is capable: deep +green, light green, yellow-green, black-green. + +"When your eyes grow weary--if it indeed be possible for them to +weary--of contemplating the exterior of these tremendous woods, try to +penetrate a little into their interior. What an inextricable chaos it +is! The sands of a sea are not more closely pressed together than +the trees are here: some straight, some curved, some upright, some +toppling,--fallen, or leaning against one another, or heaped high upon +each other. Climbing lianas, which cross from one tree to the other, +like ropes passing from mast to mast, help to fill up all the gaps in +this treillage; and parasites--not timid parasites like ivy or like +moss, but parasites which are trees self-grafted upon trees--dominate +the primitive trunks, overwhelm them, usurp the place of their foliage, +and fall back to the ground, forming factitious weeping-willows. You +do not find here, as in the great forests of the North, the +eternal monotony of birch and fir: this is the kingdom of infinite +variety;--species the most diverse elbow each other, interlace, strangle +and devour each other: all ranks and orders are confounded, as in a +human mob. The soft and tender _balisier_ opens its parasol of leaves +beside the _gommier_, which is the cedar of the colonies you see the +_acomat_, the _courbaril_, the mahogany, the _tedre-a-caillou_, the +iron-wood... but as well enumerate by name all the soldiers of an army! +Our oak, the balata, forces the palm to lengthen itself prodigiously in +order to get a few thin beams of sunlight; for it is as difficult here +for the poor trees to obtain one glance from this King of the world, as +for us, subjects of a monarchy, to obtain one look from our monarch. As +for the soil, it is needless to think of looking at it: it lies as far +below us probably as the bottom of the sea;--it disappeared, ever so +long ago, under the heaping of debris,--under a sort of manure that has +been accumulating there since the creation: you sink into it as into +slime; you walk upon putrefied trunks, in a dust that has no name! +Here indeed it is that one can get some comprehension of what vegetable +antiquity signifies;--a lurid light (_lurida lux_), greenish, as wan at +noon as the light of the moon at midnight, confuses forms and lends +them a vague and fantastic aspect; a mephitic humidity exhales from all +parts; an odor of death prevails; and a calm which is not silence (for +the ear fancies it can hear the great movement of composition and of +decomposition perpetually going on) tends to inspire you with that old +mysterious horror which the ancients felt in the primitive forests of +Germany and of Gaul: + +"'Arboribus suus horror inest.'" * + + * "Enquete sur le Serpent de la Martinique (Vipere Fer-de- + Lance, Bothrops Lanceole, etc.)" Par le Docteur E. Rufz. 2 + ed. 1859. Paris: Germer-Balliere. pp. 55-57 (note). + + + +XVII. + + +But the sense of awe inspired by a tropic forest is certainly greater +than the mystic fear which any wooded wilderness of the North could ever +have created. The brilliancy of colors that seem almost preternatural; +the vastness of the ocean of frondage, and the violet blackness of rare +gaps, revealing its in conceived profundity; and the million mysterious +sounds which make up its perpetual murmur,--compel the idea of +a creative force that almost terrifies. Man feels here like an +insect,--fears like an insect on the alert for merciless enemies; and +the fear is not unfounded. To enter these green abysses without a guide +were folly: even with the best of guides there is peril. Nature is +dangerous here: the powers that build are also the powers that putrefy; +here life and death are perpetually interchanging office in the +never-ceasing transformation of forces,--melting down and reshaping +living substance simultaneously within the same vast crucible. There +are trees distilling venom, there are plants that have fangs, there +are perfumes that affect the brain, there are cold green creepers +whose touch blisters flesh like fire; while in all the recesses and the +shadows is a swarming of unfamiliar life, beautiful or hideous,--insect, +reptile, bird,--inter-warring, devouring, preying.... But the great +peril of the forest--the danger which deters even the naturalist;--is +the presence of the terrible _fer-de-lance (trigonocephalus +lanceolatus,--bothrops lanceolatus,--craspodecephalus_),--deadliest of +the Occidental thanatophidia, and probably one of the deadliest serpents +of the known world. + +... There are no less than eight varieties of it,--the most common being +the dark gray, speckled with black--precisely the color that enables +the creature to hide itself among the protruding roots of the trees, by +simply coiling about them, and concealing its triangular head. Sometimes +the snake is a clear bright yellow: then it is difficult to distinguish +it from the bunch of bananas among which it conceals itself. Or the +creature may be a dark yellow,--or a yellowish brown,--or the color +of wine-lees, speckled pink and black,--or dead black with a yellow +belly,--or black with a pink belly: all hues of tropical forest-mould, +of old bark, of decomposing trees.... The iris of the eye is +orange,--with red flashes: it glows at night like burning charcoal. + +And the fer-de-lance reigns absolute king over the mountains and the +ravines; he is lord of the forest and solitudes by day, and by night +he extends his dominion over the public roads, the familiar paths, the +parks, pleasure resorts. People must remain at home after dark, unless +they dwell in the city itself: if you happen to be out visiting after +sunset, only a mile from town, your friends will caution you anxiously +not to follow the boulevard as you go back, and to keep as closely as +possible to the very centre of the path. Even in the brightest noon you +cannot venture to enter the woods without an experienced escort; you +cannot trust your eyes to detect danger: at any moment a seeming branch, +a knot of lianas, a pink or gray root, a clump of pendent yellow It, may +suddenly take life, writhe, stretch, spring, strike.... Then you +will need aid indeed, and most quickly; for within the span of a few +heart-beats the wounded flesh chills, tumefies, softens. Soon it changes +or, and begins to spot violaceously; while an icy coldness creeps +through all the blood. If the _panseur_ or the physician arrives in +time, and no vein has been pierced, there is hope; but it more often +happens that the blow is received directly on a vein of the foot or +ankle,--in which case nothing can save the victim. Even when life is +saved the danger is not over. Necrosis of the tissues is likely to set +in: the flesh corrupts, falls from the bone sometimes in tatters; +and the colors of its putrefaction simuulate the hues of vegetable +decay,--the ghastly grays and pinks and yellows of trunks rotting down +into the dark soil which gave them birth. The human victim moulders as +the trees moulder,--crumbles and dissolves as crumbles the substance of +the dead palms and balatas: the Death-of-the-Woods is upon him. + +To-day a fer-de-lance is seldom found exceeding six feet length; but the +dimensions of the reptile, at least, would seem to have been decreased +considerably by man's warring upon it since the time of Pere Labat, who +mentions having seen a fer-de-lance nine feet long and five inches +in diameter. He also speaks of a _couresse_--a beautiful and harmless +serpent said to kill the fer-de-lance--over ten feet long and thick as +a man's leg; but a large couresse is now seldom seen. The negro woodsmen +kill both creatures indiscriminately; and as the older reptiles are +the least likely to escape observation, the chances for the survival +of extraordinary individuals lessen with the yearly decrease of +forest-area. + +... But it may be doubted whether the number of deadly snakes has been +greatly lessened since the early colonial period. Each female produces +viviparously from forty to sixty young at a birth. The favorite haunts +of the fer-de-lance are to a large extent either inaccessible or +unexplored, and its multiplication is prodigious. It is really only the +surplus of its swarming that overpours into the cane-fields, and makes +the public roads dangerous after dark;--yet more than three hundred +snakes have been killed in twelve months on a single plantation. The +introduction of the Indian mongoos, or _mangouste_ (ichneumon), proved +futile as a means of repressing the evil. The mangouste kills the +fer-de-lance when it has a chance but it also kills fowls and sucks +their eggs, which condemns it irrevocably with the country negroes, who +live to a considerable extent by raising and selling chickens. + +[Illustration: IN THE JARDIN DES PLANTES, ST. PIERRE.] + +... Domestic animals are generally able to discern the presence of their +deadly enemy long before a human eye, can perceive it. If your horse +rears and plunges in the darkness, trembles and sweats, do not try to +ride on until you are assured the way is clear. Or your dog may come +running back, whining, shivering: you will do well to accept his +warning. The animals kept about country residences usually try to fight +for their lives; the hen battles for her chickens; the bull endeavors to +gore and stamp the enemy; the pig gives more successful combat; but the +creature who fears the monster least is the brave cat. Seeing a snake, +she at once carries her kittens to a place of safety, then boldly +advances to the encounter. She will walk to the very limit of the +serpent striking range, and begin to feint,--teasing him, startling +him, trying to draw his blow. How the emerald and the topazine eyes glow +then!--they are flames! A moment more and the triangular head, hissing +from the coil, flashes swift as if moved by wings. But swifter still +the stroke of the armed paw that dashes the horror aside, flinging +it mangled in the dust. Nevertheless, pussy does not yet dare to +spring;--the enemy, still active, has almost instantly reformed his +coil;--but she is again in front of him, watching,--vertical pupil +against vertical pupil. Again the lashing stroke; again the beautiful +countering;--again the living death is hurled aside; and now the scaled +skin is deeply torn,--one eye socket has ceased to flame. Once more the +stroke of the serpent once more the light, quick, cutting blow. But the +trionocephalus is blind, is stupefied;--before he can attempt to coil +pussy has leaped upon him,--nailing the horrible flat head fast to the +ground with her two sinewy Now let him lash, writhe, twine, strive to +strangle her!--in vain! he will never lift his head: an instant more +and he lies still:--the keen white teeth of the cat have severed the +vertebra just behind the triangular skull!... + + + +XVIII. + + +The Jardin des Plantes is not absolutely secure from visits of the +serpent; for the trigonocephalus goes everywhere,--mounting to the very +summits of the cocoa-palms, swimming rivers, ascending walls, hiding in +thatched roofs, breeding in bagasse heaps. But, despite what has been +printed to the contrary, this reptile fears man and hates light: it +rarely shows itself voluntarily during the day. Therefore, if you +desire, to obtain some conception of the magnificence of Martinique +vegetation, without incurring the risk of entering the high woods, you +can do so by visiting the Jardin des Plantes,--only taking care to use +your eyes well while climbing over fallen trees, or picking your way +through dead branches. The garden is less than a mile from the city, on +the slopes of the Morne Parnasse; and the primitive forest itself has +been utilized in the formation of it,--so that the greater part of the +garden is a primitive growth. Nature has accomplished here infinitely +more than art of man (though such art has done much to lend the place +its charm),--and until within a very recent time the result might have +been deemed, without exaggeration, one of the wonders of the world. + +A moment after passing the gate you are in twilight,--though the sun +may be blinding on the white road without. All about you is a green +gloaming, up through which you see immense trunks rising. Follow the +first path that slopes up on your left as you proceed, if you wish to +obtain the best general view of the place in the shortest possible time. +As you proceed, the garden on your right deepens more and more into a +sort of ravine;--on your left rises a sort of foliage-shrouded cliff; +and all this in a beautiful crepuscular dimness, made by the foliage of +great trees meeting overhead. Palms rooted a hundred feet below you +hold their heads a hundred feet above you; yet they can barely reach +the light.... Farther on the ravine widens to frame in two tiny lakes, +dotted with artificial islands, which are miniatures of Martinique, +Guadeloupe, and Dominica: these are covered with tropical plants, many +of which are total strangers even here: they are natives of India, +Senegambia, Algeria, and the most eastern East. Arbores. cent ferps of +unfammiliar elegance curve up from path-verge lake-brink; and the great +_arbre-du-voyageur_ outspreads its colossal fan. Giant lianas droop +down over the way in loops and festoons; tapering green cords, which are +creepers descending to take root, hang everywhere; and parasites with +stems thick as cables coil about the trees like boas. Trunks shooting +up out of sight, into the green wilderness above, display no bark; you +cannot guess what sort of trees they are; they are so thickly wrapped +in creepers as to seem pillars of leaves. Between you and the sky, where +everything is fighting for sun, there is an almost unbroken vault +of leaves, a cloudy green confusion in which nothing particular is +distinguishable. + +You come to breaks now and then in the green steep to your +left,--openings created for cascades pouring down from one mossed basin +of brown stone to another,--or gaps occupied by flights of stone steps, +green with mosses, and chocolate-colored by age. These steps lead to +loftier paths; and all the stone-work,-the grottos, bridges, basins, +terraces, steps,--are darkened by time and velveted with mossy +things.... It is of another century, this garden: special ordinances +were passed concerning it during the French Revolution (_An. II._);--it +is very quaint; it suggests an art spirit as old as Versailles, or +older; but it is indescribably beautiful even now. + +... At last you near the end, to hear the roar of falling water;--there +is a break in the vault of green above the bed of a river below you; and +at a sudden turn you in sight of the cascade. Before you is the +Morne itself; and against the burst of descending light you discern a +precipice-verge. Over it, down one green furrow in its brow, tumbles the +rolling foam of a cataract, like falling smoke, to be caught below in a +succession of moss-covered basins. The first clear leap of the water is +nearly seventy feet.... Did Josephine ever rest upon that shadowed bench +near by?... She knew all these paths by heart: surely they must have +haunted her dreams in the after-time! + +Returning by another path, you may have a view of other cascades-though +none so imposing. But they are beautiful; and you will not soon forget +the effect of one,--flanked at its summit by white-stemmed palms which +lift their leaves so high into the light that the loftiness of them +gives the sensation of vertigo.... Dizzy also the magnificence of +the great colonnade of palmistes and angelins, two hundred feet +high, through which: you pass if you follow the river-path from the +cascade--the famed _Allee des duels_.... + +The vast height, the pillared solemnity of the ancient trees in +the green dimness, the solitude, the strangeness of shapes but +half seen,--suggesting fancies of silent aspiration, or triumph, or +despair,--all combine to produce a singular impression of awe.... You +are alone; you hear no human voice,--no sounds but the rushing of the +river over its volcanic rocks, and the creeping of millions of lizards +and tree-frogs and little toads. You see no human face; but you see all +around you the labor of man being gnawed and devoured by nature,--broken +bridges, sliding steps, fallen arches, strangled fountains with +empty basins;--and everywhere arises the pungent odor of decay. This +omnipresent odor affects one unpleasantly;--it never ceases to remind +you that where Nature is most puissant to charm, there also is she +mightiest to destroy. + +[Illustration: CASCADE IN THE JARDIN DES PLANTES.] + +The beautiful garden is now little more than a wreck of what it once +was; since the fall of the Empire it has been shamefully abused +and neglected. Some _agronome_ sent out to take charge of it by the +Republic, began its destruction by cutting down acres of enormous and +magnificent trees,--including a superb alley of plants,--for the purpose +of experimenting with roses. But the rose-trees would not be +cultivated there; and the serpents avenged the demolition by making the +experimental garden unsafe to enter;--they always swarm into +underbrush and shrubbery after forest-trees have been clearedd away.... +Subsequently the garden was greatly damaged by storms and torrential +rains; the mountain river overflowed, carrying bridges away +and demolishing stone-work. No attempt was made to repair these +destructions; but neglect alone would not have ruined the lovliness of +the place;--barbarism was necessary! Under the present negro-radical +regime orders have been given for the wanton destruction of trees older +than the colony itself;--and marvels that could not be replaced in a +hundred generations were cut down and converted into charcoal for the +use of public institutions. + + + +XIX. + + +How gray seem the words of poets in the presence is Nature!... The +enormous silent poem of color and light--(you who know only the North +do not know color, do not know light!)--of sea and sky, of the woods and +the peaks, so far surpasses imagination as to paralyze it--mocking the +language of admiration, defying all power of expression. That is before +you which never can be painted or chanted, because there is no cunning +of art or speech able to reflect it. Nature realizes your most hopeless +ideals of beauty, even as one gives toys to a child. And the sight of +this supreme terrestrial expression of creative magic numbs thought. In +the great centres of civilization we admire and study only the results +of mind,--the products of human endeavor: here one views only the work +of Nature,--but Nature in all her primeval power, as in the legendary +frostless morning of creation. Man here seems to bear scarcely more +relation to the green life about him than the insect; and the results of +human effort seem impotent by comparison son with the operation of those +vast blind forces which clothe the peaks and crown the dead craters +with impenetrable forest. The air itself seems inimical to +thought,--soporific, and yet pregnant with activities of dissolution so +powerful that the mightiest tree begins to melt like wax from the +moment it has ceased to live. For man merely to exist is an effort; and +doubtless in the perpetual struggle of the blood to preserve itself from +fermentation, there is such an expenditure of vital energy as leaves +little surplus for mental exertion. + +... Scarcely less than poet or philosopher, the artist, I fancy, would +feel his helplessness. In the city he may find wonderful picturesqueness +to invite his pencil, but when he stands face to face alone with Nature +he will discover that he has no colors! The luminosities of tropic +foliage could only be imitated in fire. He who desires to paint a West +Indian forest,--a West Indian landscape,--must take his view from some +great height, through which the colors come to his eye softened and +subdued by distance,--toned with blues or purples by the astonishing +atmosphere. + +... It is sunset as I write these lines, and there are witchcrafts of +color. Looking down the narrow, steep street opening to the bay, I +see the motionless silhouette of the steamer on a perfectly green +sea,--under a lilac sky,--against a prodigious orange light. + + + + +XX. + + +In these tropic latitudes Night does not seem "to fall,"--to descend +over the many-peaked land: it appears to rise up, like an exhalation, +from the ground. The coast-lines darken first;--then the slopes and the +lower hills and valleys become shadowed;--then, very swiftly, the gloom +mounts to the heights, whose very loftiest peak may remain glowing like +a volcano at its tip for several minutes after the rest of the island is +veiled in blackness and all the stars are out.... + +[Illustration: DEPARTURE OF STEAMER FOR FORT-DE-FRANCE.] + +... Tropical nights have a splendor that seems strange to northern eyes. +The sky does not look so high--so far way as in the North; but the stars +are larger, and the luminosity greater. + +With the rising of the moon all the violet of the sky flushes;--there is +almost such a rose-color as heralds northern dawn. + +Then the moon appears over the mornes, very large, very bright--brighter +certainly than many a befogged sun one sees in northern Novembers; and +it seems to have a weird magnetism--this tropical moon. Night-birds, +insects, frogs,--everything that can sing,--all sing very low on the +nights of great moons. Tropical wood-life begins with dark: in the +immense white light of a full moon this nocturnal life seems afraid to +cry out as usual. Also, this moon has a singular effect on the nerves. +It is very difficult to sleep on such bright nights: you feel such a +vague uneasiness as the coming of a great storm gives.... + + + +XXI. + + +You reach Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique, steamer from +St. Pierre, in about an hour and a... There is an overland route--_La +Trace_, but it twenty-five-mile ride, and a weary one in such a climate, +notwithstanding the indescribable beauty of the landscapes which the +lofty road commands. + +Rebuilt in wood after the almost total destruction by an earthquake +of its once picturesque streets of stone, Fort-de-France (formerly +Fort-Royal) has little of outward interest by comparison with St. +Pierre. It lies in a low, moist plain, and has few remarkable buildings: +you can walk allover the little town in about half an hour. But the +Savane,--the great green public square, with its grand tamarinds and +_sabliers_,--would be worth the visit alone, even were it not made +romantic by the marble memory of Josephine. + +I went to look at the white dream of her there, a creation of +master-sculptors.... It seemed to me absolutely lovely. + +Sea winds have bitten it; tropical rains have streaked it: some +microscopic growth has darkened the exquisite hollow of the throat. And +yet such is the human charm of the figure that you almost fancy you are +gazing at a living presence.... Perhaps the profile is less artistically +real,--statuesque to the point of betraying the chisel; but when you +look straight up into the sweet creole face, you can believe she lives: +all the wonderful West Indian charm of the woman is there. + +She is standing just in the centre of the Savane, robed in the fashion +of the First Empire, with gracious arms and shoulders bare: one hand +leans upon a medallion bearing the eagle profile of Napoleon.... Seven +tall palms stand in a circle around her, lifting their comely heads into +the blue glory of the tropic day. Within their enchanted circle you feel +that you tread holy ground,--the sacred soil of artist and poet;--here +the recollections of memoir-writers vanish away; the gossip of history +is hushed for you; you no longer care to know how rumor has it that she +spoke or smiled or wept: only the bewitchment of her lives under the +thin, soft, swaying shadows of those feminine palms.... Over violet +space of summer sea; through the vast splendor of azure light, she is +looking back to the place of her birth, back to beautiful drowsy +Trois-Islets,--and always with the same half-dreaming, half-plaintive +smile,--unutterably touching.... + +[Illustration: STATUE OF JOSEPHINE.] + + + +XXII. + + +One leaves Martinique with regret, even after so brief a stay: the old +colonial life itself, not less than the revelation of tropic nature, +having in this island a quality of uniqueness, a special charm, unlike +anything previously seen.... We steam directly for Barbadoes;--the +vessel will touch at the intervening islands only on her homeward route. + +... Against a hot wind south,--under a sky always deepening in beauty. +Towards evening dark clouds begin to rise before us; and by nightfall +they spread into one pitch-blackness over all the sky. Then comes a +wind in immense sweeps, lifting the water,--but a wind that is still +strangely warm. The ship rolls heavily in the dark for an hour or +more;--then torrents of tepid rain make the sea smooth again; the clouds +pass, and the viole transparency of tropical night reappears,--ablaze +with stars. + +At early morning a long low land appears on the horizon,--totally unlike +the others we have seen; it has no visable volcanic forms. That +is Barbadoes,--a level burning coral coast,--a streak of green, +white-edged, on the verge of the sea. But hours pass before the green +line begins to show outlines of foliage. + +... As we approach the harbor an overhanging black cloud suddenly bursts +down in illuminated rain,--through which the shapes of moored ships seem +magnified as through a golden fog. It ceases as suddenly as it begun; +the cloud vanishes utterly; and the azure is revealed unflecked, +dazzling, wondrous.... It is a sight worth the whole journey,--the +splendor of this noon sky at Barbadoes;--the horizon glow is almost +blinding, the sea-line sharp as a razor-edge; and motionless upon +the sapphire water nearly a hundred ships lie,--masts, spars, booms, +cordage, cutting against the amazing magnificence of blue.... Mean while +the island coast has clearly brought out all its beauties: first you +note the long white winding thread-line of beach-coral and bright +sand;--then the deep green fringe of vegetation through which roofs and +spires project here and there, and quivering feathery heads of palms +with white trunks. The general tone of this verdure is sombre green, +though it is full of lustre: there is a glimmer in it as of metal. +Beyond all this coast-front long undulations of misty pale, green are +visible,--far slopes of low hill and plain the highest curving line, the +ridge of the island, bears a row of cocoa-palms, They are so far that +their stems diminish almost to invisibility: only the crests are clearly +distinguishable,--like spiders hanging between land and sky. But there +are no forests: the land is a naked unshadowed green far as the eye can +reach beyond the coast-line. There is no waste space in Barbadoes: it +is perhaps one of the most densely-peopled places on the globe--(one +thousand and thirty-five inhabitants to the square mile)--.and it +sends black laborers by thousands to the other British colonies every +year,--the surplus of its population. + +... The city of Bridgetown disappoints the stranger who expects to +find any exotic features of architecture or custom,--disappoints more, +perhaps, than any other tropical port in this respect. Its principal +streets give you the impression of walking through an English town,--not +an old-time town, but a new one, plain almost to commonplaceness, in +spite of Nelson's monument. Even the palms are powerless to lend the +place a really tropical look;--the streets are narrow without being +picturesque, white as lime roads and full of glare;--the manners, the +costumes, the style of living, the system of business are thoroughly +English;--the population lacks visible originality; and its +extraordinary activity, so oddly at variance with the quiet indolence of +other West Indian peoples, seems almost unnatural. Pressure of numbers +has largely contributed to this characteristic; but Barbadoes would be +in any event, by reason of position alone, a busy colony. As the most +windward of the West Indies it has naturally become not only the chief +port, but also the chief emporium of the Antilles. It has railroads, +telephones, street-cars, fire and life insurance companies, good hotels, +libraries and reading-rooms, and excellent public schools. Its annual +export trade figures for nearly $6,000,000. + +[Illustration: INNER BASIN, BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOES.] + +The fact which seems most curious to the stranger, on his first +acquaintance with the city, is that most of this business activity is +represented by black men--black merchants, shopkeepers, clerks. Indeed, +the Barbadian population, as a mass, strikes one as the darkest in the +West Indies. Black regiments march through the street to the sound of +English music,--uniformed as Zouaves; black police, in white helmets and +white duck uniforms, maintain order; black postmen distribute the mails; +black cabmen wait for customers at a shilling an hour. It is by no means +an attractive population, physically,--rather the reverse, and +frankly brutal as well--different as possible from the colored race of +Martinique; but it has immense energy, and speaks excellent English. One +is almost startled on hearing Barbadian negroes speaking English with a +strong Old Country accent Without seeing the speaker, you could scarcely +believe such English uttered by black lips; and the commonest negro +laborer about the port pronounces as well as a Londoner. The purity of +Barbadian English is partly due, no doubt, to the fact that, unlike most +of the other islands, Barbadoes has always remained in the possession +of Great Britain. Even as far back as 1676 Barbadoes was in a very +different condition of prosperity from that of the other colonies, and +offered a totally different social aspect--having a white population of +50,000. At that time the island could muster 20,000 infantry and 3000 +horse; there were 80,000 slaves; there were 1500 houses in Bridgetown +and an immense number of shops; and not less than two hundred ships were +required to export the annual sugar crop alone. + +But Barbadoes differs also from most of the Antilles geologically; and +there can be no question that the nature of its soil has considerably +influenced the physical character of its inhabitants. Although Barbadoes +is now known to be also of volcanic origin,--a fact which its low +undulating surface could enable no unscientific observer to suppose,--it +is superficially a calcareous formation; and the remarkable effect +of limestone soil upon the bodily development of a people is not less +marked in this latitude than elsewhere. In most of the Antilles the +white race degenerates and dwarfs under the influence of climate +and environment; but the Barbadian creole--tall, muscular, large +of bone--preserves and perpetuates in the tropics the strength and +sturdiness of his English forefathers. + + + +XXIII. + + +... Night: steaming for British Guiana;--we shall touch at no port +before reaching Demerara.... A strong warm gale, that compels the taking +in of every awning and wind-sail. Driving tepid rain; and an intense +darkness, broken only by the phosphorescence of the sea, which to-night +displays extraordinary radiance. + +[Illustration: TRAFALGAR SQUARE, BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOES.] + +The steamer's wake is a great broad, seething river of fire,--white like +strong moonshine: the glow is bright enough to read by. At its +centre the trail is brightest;--towards either edge it pales off +cloudily,--curling like smoke of phosphorus. Great sharp lights burst up +momentarily through it like meteors. Weirder than this strange wake are +the long slow fires that keep burning at a distance, out in the dark. +Nebulous incandescences mount up from the depths, change form, and +pass;--serpentine flames wriggle by;--there are long billowing crests of +fire. These seem to be formed of millions of tiny sparks, that light up +all at the same time, glow for a while, disappear, reappear, and swirl +away in a prolonged smouldering. + +There are warm gales and heavy rain each night,--it is the hurricane +season;--and it seems these become more violent the farther south we +sail. But we are nearing those equinoctial regions where the calm of +nature is never disturbed by storms. + +... Morning: still steaming south, through a vast blue day. The azure +of the heaven always seems to be growing deeper. There is a bluish-white +glow in the horizon,--almost too bright to look at. An indigo sea.... +There are no clouds; and the splendor endures until sunset. + +Then another night, very luminous and calm. The Southern constellations +burn whitely.... We are nearing the great shallows of the South American +coast. + + + +XXIV. + + +... It is the morning of the third day since we left Barbadoes, and for +the first time since entering tropic waters all things seem changed. +The atmosphere is heavy with strange mists; and the light of an +orange-colored sun, immensely magnified by vapors, illuminates a +greenish-yellow sea,--foul and opaque, as if stagnant.... I remember +just such a sunrise over the Louisiana gulf-coast. + +We are in the shallows, moving very slowly. The line-caster keeps +calling, at regular intervals: "Quarter less five, sir!" "And a half +four, sir!"... There is little variation in his soundings--a quarter +of a fathom or half a fathom difference. The warm air has a sickly +heaviness, like the air of a swamp; the water shows olive and ochreous +tones alternately;--the foam is yellow in our wake. These might be the +colors of a fresh-water inundation.... + +A fellow-traveller tells me, as we lean over the rail, that this same +viscous, glaucous sea washes the great penal colony of Cayenne--which +he visited. When a convict dies there, the corpse, sewn up in a sack, is +borne to the water, and a great bell tolled. Then the still surface is +suddenly broken by fins innumerable--black fins of sharks rushing to the +hideous funeral: they know the Bell!... + +There is land in sight--very low land,--a thin dark line suggesting +marshiness; and the nauseous color of the water always deepens. + +As the land draws near, it reveals a beautiful tropical appearance. The +sombre green line brightens color, I sharpens into a splendid fringe +of fantastic evergreen fronds, bristling with palm crests. Then a mossy +sea-wall comes into sight--dull gray stone--work, green-lined at all its +joints. There is a fort. The steamer's whistle is exactly mocked by a +queer echo, and the cannon-shot once reverberated--only once: there +are no mountains here to multiply a sound. And all the while the water +becomes a thicker and more turbid green; the wake looks more and more +ochreous, the foam ropier and yellower. Vessels becalmed everywhere +speck the glass-level of the sea, like insects sticking upon a mirror. +It begins, all of a sudden, to rain torrentially; and through the white +storm of falling drops nothing is discernible. + + + +XXV. + + +At Georgetown, steamers entering the river can lie close to the +wharf;--we can enter the Government warehouses without getting wet. In +fifteen minutes the shower ceases; and we leave the warehouses to find +ourselves in a broad, palm-bordered street illuminated by the most +prodigious day that yet shone upon our voyage. The rain has cleared the +air and dissolved the mists; and the light is wondrous. + +[Illustration: STREET IN GEORGETOWN, DEMERARA.] + +My own memory of Demerara will always be a memory of enormous light. The +radiance has an indescribable dazzling force that conveys the idea of +electric fire;--the horizon blinds like a motionless sheet of lightning; +and you dare not look at the zenith.... The brightest summer-day in +the North is a gloaming to this. Men walk only under umbrellas, or +with their eyes down--and the pavements, already dry, flare almost +unbearably. + +... Georgetown has an exotic aspect peculiar to itself,--different from +that of any West Indian city we have seen; and this is chiefly due to +the presence of palm-trees. For the edifices, the plan, the general idea +of the town, are modern; the white streets, laid out very broad to the +sweep of the sea-breeze, and drained by canals running through +their centres, with bridges at cross-streets, display the value of +nineteenth-century knowledge regarding house-building with a view to +coolness as well as to beauty. The architecture might be described as a +tropicalized Swiss style--Swiss eaves are developed into veranda roofs, +and Swiss porches prolonged and lengthened into beautiful piazzas and +balconies. The men who devised these large cool halls, these admirably +ventilated rooms, these latticed windows opening to the ceiling, may +have lived in India; but the physiognomy of the town also reveals a fine +sense of beauty in the designers: all that is strange and beautiful in +the vegetation of the tropics has had a place contrived for it, a home +prepared for it. Each dwelling has its garden; each garden blazes with +singular and lovely color; but everywhere and always tower the palms. +There are colonnades of palms, clumps of palms, groves of palms-sago and +cabbage and cocoa and fan palms. You can see that the palm is cherished +here, is loved for its beauty, like a woman. Everywhere you find palms, +in all stages of development, from the first sheaf of tender green +plumes rising above the soil to the wonderful colossus that holds its +head a hundred feet above the roofs; palms border the garden walks in +colonnades; they are grouped in exquisite poise about the basins of +fountains; they stand like magnificent pillars at either side of gates; +they look into the highest windows of public buildings and hotels. + +... For miles and miles and miles we drive along avenues of +palms--avenues leading to opulent cane-fields, traversing queer coolie +villages. Rising on either side of the road to the same level, the palms +present the vista of a long unbroken double colonnade of dead-silver +trunks, shining tall pillars with deep green plume-tufted summits, +almost touching, almost forming something like the dream of an +interminable Moresque arcade. Sometimes for a full mile the trees are +only about thirty or forty feet high; then, turning into an older alley, +we drive for half a league between giants nearly a hundred feet in +altitude. The double perspective lines of their crests, meeting before +us and behind us in a bronze-green darkness, betray only at long +intervals any variation of color, where some dead leaf droops like an +immense yellow feather. + + + +XXVI. + + +In the marvellous light, which brings out all the rings of their bark, +these palms sometimes produce a singular impression of subtle, fleshy, +sentient life,--seem to move with a slowly stealthy motion as you ride +or drive past them. The longer you watch them, the stronger this idea +becomes,--the more they seem alive,--the more their long silver-gray +articulated bodies seem to poise, undulate, stretch.... Certainly the +palms of a Demerara country-road evoke no such real emotion as +that produced by the stupendous palms of the Jardin des Plantes in +Martinique. That beautiful, solemn, silent life up-reaching through +tropical forest to the sun for warmth, for color, for power,--filled me, +I remember, with a sensation of awe different from anything which I had +ever experienced.... But even here in Guiana, standing alone under the +sky, the palm still seems a creature rather than a tree,--gives you the +idea of personality;--you could almost believe each lithe shape animated +by a thinking force,--believe that all are watching you with such +passionless calm as legend lends to beings super-natural.... And I +wonder if some kindred fancy might not have inspired the name given by +the French colonists to the male palmiste,--_angelin_.... + +[Illustration: AVENUE IN GEORGETOWN, DEMERARA.] + +Very wonderful is the botanical garden here. It is new; and there are +no groves, no heavy timber, no shade; but the finely laid-out +grounds,--alternations of lawn and flower-bed,--offer everywhere +surprising sights. You observe curious orange-colored shrubs; plants +speckled with four different colors; plants that look like wigs of +green hair; plants with enormous broad leaves that seem made of +colored crystal; plants that do not look like natural growths, but like +idealizations of plants,--those beautiful fantasticalities imagined by +sculptors. All these we see in glimpses from a carriage-window,--yellow, +indigo, black, and crimson plants.... We draw rein only to observe in +the ponds the green navies of the Victoria Regia,--the monster among +water-lilies. It covers all the ponds and many of the canals. Close to +shore the leaves are not extraordinarily large; but they increase in +breadth as they float farther out, as if gaining bulk proportionately +to the depth of water. A few yards off, they are large as soup-plates; +farther out, they are broad as dinner-trays; in the centre of the +pond or canal they have surface large as tea-tables. And all have an +up-turned edge, a perpendicular rim. Here and there you see the imperial +flower,--towering above the leaves.... Perhaps, if your hired driver +be a good guide, he will show you the snake-nut,--the fruit of an +extraordinary tree native to the Guiana forests. This swart nut--shaped +almost like a clam-shell, and halving in the same way along its sharp +edges--encloses something almost incredible. There is a pale envelope +about the kernel; remove it, and you find between your fingers a little +viper, triangular-headed, coiled thrice upon itself, perfect in every +detail of form from head to tail. Was this marvellous mockery +evolved for a protective end? It is no eccentricity: in every nut the +serpent-kernel lies coiled the same. + +... Yet in spite of a hundred such novel impressions, what a delight it +is to turn again cityward through the avenues of palms, and to feel once +more the sensation of being watched, without love or hate, by all those +lithe, tall, silent, gracious shapes! + + + +XXVII. + + +Hindoos; coolies; men, women, and children-standing, walking, or sitting +in the sun, under the shadowing of the palms. Men squatting, with hands +clasped over their black knees, are watching us from under their white +turbans-very steadily, with a slight scowl. All these Indian faces have +the same set, stern expression, the same knitting of the brows; and the +keen gaze is not altogether pleasant. It borders upon hostility; it is +the look of measurement--measurement physical and moral. In the mighty +swarming of India these have learned the full meaning and force of +life's law as we Occidentals rarely learn it. Under the dark fixed frown +eye glitters like a serpent's. + +[Illustration: VICTORIA REGIA IN THE CANAL AT GEORGETOWN] + +Nearly all wear the same Indian dress; the thickly folded turban, +usually white, white drawers reaching but half-way down the thigh, +leaving the knees and the legs bare, and white jacket. A few don long +blue robes, and wear a colored head-dress: these are babagees-priests. +Most of the men look tall; they are slender and small-boned, but the +limbs are well turned. They are grave--talk in low tones, and seldom +smile. Those you see heavy black beards are probably Mussulmans: I +am told they have their mosques here, and that the muezzein's call to +prayer is chanted three times daily on many plantations. Others shave, +but the Mohammedans allow all the beard to grow.... Very comely some of +the women are in their close-clinging soft brief robes and tantalizing +veils--a costume leaving shoulders, arms, and ankles bare. The dark arm +is always tapered and rounded; the silver-circled ankle always elegantly +knit to the light straight foot. Many slim girls, whether standing or +walking or in repose, offer remarkable studies of grace; their attitude +when erect always suggests lightness and suppleness, like the poise of a +dancer. + + +... A coolie mother passes, carrying at her hip a very pretty naked +baby. It has exquisite delicacy of limb: its tiny ankles are circled +by thin bright silver rings; it looks like a little bronze statuette, a +statuette of Kama, the Indian Eros. The mother's arms are covered from +elbow to wrist with silver bracelets,--some flat and decorated; others +coarse, round, smooth, with ends hammered into the form of viper-heads. +She has large flowers of gold in her ears, a small gold flower in her +very delicate little nose. This nose ornament does not seem absurd; on +these dark skins the effect is almost as pleasing as it is bizarre. +This jewellery is pure metal;--it is thus the coolies carry their +savings,--melting down silver or gold coin, and recasting it into +bracelets, ear-rings, and nose ornaments. + +[Illustration: DEMERARA COOLIE GIRL.] + +... Evening is brief: all this time the days have been growing shorter: +it will be black at 6 P.M. One does not regret it;--the glory of such a +tropical day as this is almost too much to endure for twelve hours. +The sun is already low, and yellow with a tinge of orange: as he falls +between the palms his stare colors the world with a strange hue--such a +phantasmal light as might be given by a nearly burnt-out sun. The air +is full of unfamiliar odors. We pass a flame-colored bush; and an +extraordinary perfume--strange, rich, sweet--envelops us like a caress: +the soul of a red jasmine.... + + +... What a tropical sunset is this-within two days' steam-journey of +the equator! Almost to the zenith the sky flames up from the sea,--one +tremendous orange incandescence, rapidly deepening to vermilion as the +sun dips. The indescribable intensity of this mighty burning makes one +totally unprepared for the spectacle of its sudden passing: a seeming +drawing down behind the sea of the whole vast flare of light.... +Instantly the world becomes indigo. The air grows humid, weighty with +vapor; frogs commence to make a queer bubbling noise; and some unknown +creature begins in the trees a singular music, not trilling, like the +note of our cricket, but one continuous shrill tone, high, keen, as of +a thin jet of steam leaking through a valve. Strong vegetal scents, +aromatic and novel, rise up. Under the trees of our hotel I hear a +continuous dripping sound; the drops fall heavily, like bodies of clumsy +insects. But it is not dew, nor insects; it is a thick, transparent +jelly--a fleshy liquor that falls in immense drops.... The night grows +chill with dews, with vegetable breath; and we sleep with windows nearly +closed. + + + +XXVIII. + + +... Another sunset like the conflagration of a world, as we steam away +from Guiana;--another unclouded night; and morning brings back to us +that bright blue in the sea-water which we missed for the first time on +our approach to the main-land. There is a long swell all day, and tepid +winds. But towards evening the water once more shifts its hue--takes +olive tint--the mighty flood of the Orinoco is near. + +Over the rim of the sea rise shapes faint pink, faint gray-misty shapes +that grow and lengthen as we advance. We are nearing Trinidad. + +It first takes definite form as a prolonged, undulating, pale gray +mountain chain,--the outline of a sierra. Approaching nearer, we discern +other hill summits rounding up and shouldering away behind the chain +itself. Then the nearest heights begin to turn faint green--very slowly. +Right before the outermost spur of cliff, fantastic shapes of rock are +rising sheer from the water: partly green, partly reddish-gray where the +surface remains unclothed by creepers and shrubs. Between them the sea +leaps and whitens. + +... And we begin to steam along a magnificent tropical coast,--before +a billowing of hills wrapped in forest from sea to summit,--astonishing +forest, dense, sombre, impervious to sun--every gap a blackness as of +ink. Giant palms here and there overtop the denser foliage; and queer +monster trees rise above the forest-level against the blue,--spreading +out huge flat crests from which masses of lianas stream down. This +forest-front has the apparent solidity of a wall, and forty-five miles +of it undulate uninterruptedly by us-rising by terraces, or projecting +like turret-lines, or shooting up into semblance of cathedral forms or +suggestions of castellated architecture.... But the secrets of these +woods have not been unexplored;--one of the noblest writers of our time +has so beautifully and fully written of them as to leave little for +anyone else to say. He who knows Charles Kingsley's "At Last" probably +knows the woods of Trinidad far better than many who pass them daily. + +Even as observed from the steamer's deck, the mountains and forests of +Trinidad have an aspect very different from those of the other Antilles. +The heights are less lofty,--less jagged and abrupt,--with rounded +summits; the peaks of Martinique or Dominica rise fully two +thousand feet higher. The land itself is a totally different +formation,--anciently being a portion of the continent; and its flora +and fauna are of South America. + +... There comes a great cool whiff of wind,--another and another;--then +a mighty breath begins to blow steadily upon us,--the breath of the +Orinoco.... It grows dark before we pass through the Ape's Mouth, to +anchor in one of the calmest harbors in the world,--never disturbed by +hurricanes. Over unruffled water the lights of Port-of-Spain shoot long +still yellow beams. The night grows chill;--the air is made frigid by +the breath of the enormous river and the vapors of the great woods. + + + +XXIX. + + +... Sunrise: a morning of supernal beauty,--the sky of a fairy +tale,--the sea of a love-poem. + +Under a heaven of exquisitely tender blue, the whole smooth sea has a +perfect luminous dove-color,--the horizon being filled to a great height +with greenish-golden haze,--a mist of unspeakably sweet tint, a hue +that, imitated in any aquarelle, would be cried out against as an +impossiblity. As yet the hills are nearly all gray, the forests also +inwrapping them are gray and ghostly, for the sun has but just risen +above them, and vapors hang like a veil between. Then, over the glassy +level of the flood, winds of purple and violet and pale blue and fluid +gold begin to shoot and quiver and broaden; these are the currents of +the morning, catching varying color with the deepening of the day and +the lifting of the tide. + +Then, as the sun rises higher, green masses begin to glimmer among the +grays; the outlines of the forest summits commence to define themselves +through the vapory light, to left and right of the great glow. Only +the city still remains invisible; it lies exactly between us and +the downpour of solar splendor, and the mists there have caught such +radiance that the place seems hidden by a fog of fire. Gradually the +gold-green of the horizon changes to a pure yellow; the hills take soft, +rich, sensuous colors. One of the more remote has turned a marvellous +tone--a seemingly diaphanous aureate color, the very ghost of gold. But +at last all of them sharpen bluely, show bright folds and ribbings +of green through their haze. The valleys remain awhile clouded, as if +filled with something like blue smoke; but the projecting masses of +cliff and slope swiftly change their misty green to a warmer hue. +All these tints and colors have a spectral charm, a preternatural +loveliness; everything seems subdued, softened, semi-vaporized,--the +only very sharply defined silhouettes being those of the little becalmed +ships sprinkling the western water, all spreading colored wings to catch +the morning breeze. + +The more the sun ascends, the more rapid the development of the +landscape out of vapory blue; the hills all become green-faced, reveal +the details of frondage. The wind fills the waiting sails--white, red, +yellow,--ripples the water, and turns it green. Little fish begin to +leap; they spring and fall in glittering showers like opalescent blown +spray. And at last, through the fading vapor, dew-glittering red-tiled +roofs reveal themselves: the city is unveiled-a city full of color, +somewhat quaint, somewhat Spanish-looking--a little like St. Pierre, a +little like New Orleans in the old quarter; everywhere fine tall palms. + + + +XXX. + + +Ashore, through a black swarming and a great hum of creole chatter.... +Warm yellow narrow streets under a burning blue day;--a confused +impression of long vistas, of low pretty houses and cottages, more +or less quaint, bathed in sun and yellow-wash,--and avenues of +shade-trees,--and low garden-walls overtopped by waving banana leaves +and fronds of palms.... A general sensation of drowsy warmth and vast +light and exotic vegetation,--coupled with some vague disappointment +a the absence of that picturesque humanity that delighted us in the +streets of St. Pierre, Martinique. The bright costumes of the French +colonies are not visible here: there is nothing like them in any of +the English islands. Nevertheless, this wonderful Trinidad is as +unique ethnologically as it is otherwise remarkable among all the other +Antilles. It has three distinct creole populations,--English, Spanish, +and French,--besides its German and Madeiran settlers. There is also a +special black or half-breed element, corresponding to each creole race, +and speaking the language of each; there are fifty thousand Hindoo +coolies, and a numerous body of Chinese. Still, this extraordinary +diversity of race elements does not make itself at once apparent to the +stranger. Your first impressions, as you pass through the black crowd +upon the wharf, is that of being among a population as nearly African +as that of Barbadoes; and indeed the black element dominates to such an +extent that upon the streets white faces look strange by contrast. When +a white face does appear, it is usually under the shadow of an Indian +helmet, and heavily bearded, and austere: the physiognomy of one used +to command. Against the fantastic ethnic background of all this colonial +life, this strong, bearded English visage takes something of heroic +relief;--one feels, in a totally novel way, the dignity of a white skin. + +[Illustration: ST. JAMES AVENUE, PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD.] + +... I hire a carriage to take me to the nearest coolie village;--a +delightful drive.... Sometimes the smooth white road curves round +the slope of a forest-covered mountain;--sometimes overlooks a valley +shining with twenty different shades of surface green;--sometimes +traverses marvellous natural arcades formed by the interweaving and +intercrossing of bamboos fifty feet high. Rising in vast clumps, and +spreading out sheafwise from the soil towards the sky, the curves of +their beautiful jointed stems meet at such perfect angles above the way, +and on either side of it, as to imitate almost exactly the elaborate +Gothic arch-work of old abbey cloisters. Above the road, shadowing the +slopes of lofty hills, forests beetle in dizzy precipices of verdure. +They are green--burning, flashing green--covered with parasitic green +creepers and vines; they show enormous forms, or rather dreams of form, +fetichistic and startling. Banana leaves flicker and flutter along the +way-side; palms shoot up to vast altitudes, like pillars of white metal; +and there is a perpetual shifting of foliage color, from yellow-green to +orange, from reddish-green to purple, from emerald-green to black-green. +But the background color, the dominant tone, is like the plumage of a +green parrot. + +... We drive into the coolie village, along a narrower way, lined with +plantain-trees, bananas, flamboyants, and unfamiliar shrubs with large +broad leaves. Here and there are cocoa-palms. Beyond the little ditches +on either side, occupying openings in the natural hedge, are the +dwellings--wooden cabins, widely separated from each other. The narrow +lanes that enter the road are also lined with habitations, half hidden +by banana-trees. There is a prodigious glare, an intense heat. Around, +above the trees and the roofs, rise the far hill shapes, some brightly +verdant, some cloudy blue, some gray. The road and the lanes are almost +deserted; there is little shade; only at intervals some slender brown +girl or naked baby appears at a door-way. The carriage halts before a +shed built against a wall--a simple roof of palm thatch supported upon +jointed posts of bamboo. + +It is a little coolie temple. A few weary Indian laborers slumber in its +shadow; pretty naked children, with silver rings round their ankles, are +playing there with a white dog. Painted over the wall surface, in +red, yellow, brown, blue, and green designs upon a white ground, are +extraordinary figures of gods and goddesses. They have several pairs of +arms, brandishing mysterious things,--they seem to dance, gesticulate, +threaten; but they are all very naif;--remind one of the first efforts +of a child with the first box of paints. While I am looking at these +things, one coolie after another wakes up (these men sleep lightly) and +begins to observe me almost as curiously, and I fear much less kindly, +than I have been observing the gods. "Where is your babagee?" I inquire. +No one seems to comprehend my question; the gravity of each dark face +remains unrelaxed. Yet I would have liked to make an offering unto Siva. + +... Outside the Indian goldsmith's cabin, palm shadows are crawling +slowly to and fro in the white glare, like shapes of tarantulas. Inside, +the heat is augmented by the tiny charcoal furnace which glows beside +a ridiculous little anvil set into a wooden block buried level with the +soil. Through a rear door come odors of unknown known flowers and the +cool brilliant green of banana leaves.... A minute of waiting in the hot +silence;--then, noiselessly as a phantom, the nude-limbed smith enters +by a rear door,--squats down, without a word, on his little mat beside +his little anvil,--and turns towards me, inquiringly, a face half veiled +by a black beard,--a turbaned Indian face, sharp, severe, and slightly +unpleasant in expression. "_Vle beras!_" explains my creole driver, +pointing to his client. The smith opens his lips to utter in the tone of +a call the single syllable "_Ra_!" then folds his arms. + +[Illustration: COOLIES OF TRINIDAD.] + +Almost immediately a young Hindoo woman enters, squats down on the +earthen floor at the end of the bench which forms the only furniture of +the shop, and turns upon me a pair of the finest black eyes I have ever +seen,--like the eyes of a fawn. She is very simply clad, in a coolie +robe leaving arms and ankles bare, and clinging about the figure in +gracious folds; her color is a clear bright brown-new bronze; her face a +fine oval, and charmingly aquiline. I perceive a little silver ring, in +the form of a twisted snake, upon the slender second toe of each bare +foot; upon each arm she has at least ten heavy silver rings; there are +also large silver rings about her ankles; a gold flower is fixed by a +little hook in one nostril, and two immense silver circles, shaped like +new moons, shimmer in her ears. The smith mutters something to her in +his Indian tongue. She rises, and seating herself on the bench beside +me, in an attitude of perfect grace, holds out one beautiful brown arm +to me that I may choose a ring. + +The arm is much more worthy of attention than the rings: it has the +tint, the smoothness, the symmetry, of a fine statuary's work in +metal;--the upper arm, tattooed with a bluish circle of arabesques, is +otherwise unadorned; all the bracelets are on the fore-arm. Very clumsy +and coarse they prove to be on closer examination: it was the fine dark +skin which by color contrast made them look so pretty. I choose the +outer one, a round ring with terminations shaped like viper heads;--the +smith inserts a pair of tongs between these ends, presses outward +slowly and strongly, and the ring is off. It has a faint musky odor, not +unpleasant, the perfume of the tropical flesh it clung to. I would have +taken it thus; but the smith snatches it from me, heats it red in his +little charcoal furnace, hammers it into a nearly perfect circle again, +slakes it, and burnishes it. + +Then I ask for children's _beras_, or bracelets; and the young mother +brings in her own baby girl,--a little darling just able to walk. She +has extraordinary eyes;--the mother's eyes magnified (the father's are +small and fierce). I bargain for the single pair of thin rings on her +little wrists;--while the smith is taking them off, the child keeps her +wonderful gaze fixed on my face. Then I observe that the peculiarity of +the eye is the size of the iris rather than the size of the ball. These +eyes are not soft like the mother's, after all; they are ungentle, +beautiful as they are; they have the dark and splendid flame of the eyes +of a great bird--a bird of prey. + +... She will grow up, this little maid, into a slender, graceful woman, +very beautiful, no doubt; perhaps a little dangerous. She will marry, +of course: probably she is betrothed even now, according to Indian +custom,--pledged to some brown boy, the son of a friend. It will not +be so many years before the day of their noisy wedding: girls shoot up +under this sun with as swift a growth as those broad-leaved beautiful +shapes which fill the open door-way with quivering emerald. And she +will know the witchcraft of those eyes, will feel the temptation to use +them,--perhaps to smile one of those smiles which have power over life +and death. + +[Illustration: COOLIE SERVANT.] + +And then the old coolie story! One day, in the yellowing cane-fields, +among the swarm of veiled and turbaned workers, a word is overheard, +a side glance intercepted;--there is the swirling flash of a cutlass +blade; a shrieking gathering of women about a headless corpse in the +sun; and passing cityward, between armed and helmeted men, the vision of +an Indian prisoner, blood-crimsoned, walking very steadily, very erect, +with the solemnity of a judge, the dry bright gaze of an idol.... + + + +XXXI. + + +... We steam very slowly into the harbor of St. George, Grenada, in dead +silence. No cannon-signal allowed here.... Some one suggests that the +violence of the echoes in this harbor renders the firing of cannon +dangerous; somebody else says the town is in so ruinous a condition that +the report of a gun would shake it down. + +... There are heavy damp smells in the warm air as of mould, or of wet +clay freshly upturned. + +This harbor is a deep clear basin, surrounded and shadowed by immense +volcanic hills, all green. The opening by which we entered is cut off +from sight by a promontory, and hill shapes beyond the promontory;--we +seem to be in the innermost ring of a double crater. There is a +continuous shimmering and plashing of leaping fish in the shadow of the +loftiest height, which reaches half across the water. + +As it climbs up the base of the huge hill at a precipitous angle, the +city can be seen from the steamer's deck almost as in a bird's-eye view. +A senescent city; mostly antiquated Spanish architecture,--ponderous +archways and earthquake-proof walls. The yellow buildings fronting us +beyond the wharf seem half decayed; they are strangely streaked with +green, look as if they had been long under water. We row ashore, land in +a crowd of lazy-looking, silent blacks. + +... What a quaint, dawdling, sleepy place it is! All these narrow +streets are falling into ruin; everywhere the same green stains upon +the walls, as of slime left by a flood; everywhere disjointed brickwork, +crumbling roofs, pungent odors of mould. Yet this Spanish architecture +was built to endure; those yellow, blue, or green walls were constructed +with the solidity of fortress-work; the very stairs are stone; the +balustrades and the railings were made of good wrought iron. In a +Northern clime such edifices would resist the wear and tear of five +hundred years. But here the powers of disintegration are extraordinary, +and the very air would seem to have the devouring force of an acid. All +surfaces and angles are yielding to the attacks of time, weather, and +microscopic organisms; paint peels, stucco falls, tiles tumble, +stones slip out of place, and in every chink tiny green things nestle, +propagating themselves through the jointures and dislocating the +masonry. There is an appalling mouldiness, an exaggerated mossiness--the +mystery and the melancholy of a city deserted. Old warehouses without +signs, huge and void, are opened regularly every day for so many +hours; yet the business of the aged merchants within seems to be a +problem;--you might fancy those gray men were always waiting for ships +that sailed away a generation ago, and will never return. You see no +customers entering the stores, but only a black mendicant from time to +time. And high above all this, overlooking streets too steep for any +vehicle, slope the red walls of the mouldering fort, patched with the +viridescence of ruin. + +[Illustration: COOLIE MERCHANT.] + +By a road leading up beyond the city, you reach the cemetery. The +staggering iron gates by which you enter it are almost rusted from their +hinges, and the low wall enclosing it is nearly all verdant. Within, you +see a wilderness of strange weeds, vines, creepers, fantastic shrubs run +mad, with a few palms mounting above the green confusion;--only here and +there a gleam of slabs with inscriptions half erased. Such as you can +read are epitaphs of seamen, dating back to the years 1800, 1802, 1812. +Over these lizards are running; undulations in the weeds warn you +to beware of snakes; toads leap away as you proceed; and you observe +everywhere crickets perched--grass-colored creatures with two ruby +specks for eyes. They make a sound shrill as the scream of machinery +beveling marble. At the farther end of the cemetery is a heavy ruin that +would seem to have once been part of a church: it is so covered with +creeping weeds now that you only distinguish the masonry on close +approach, and high trees are growing within it. There is something +in tropical ruin peculiarly and terribly impressive: this luxuriant, +evergreen, ever-splendid Nature consumes the results of human endeavor +so swiftly, buries memories so profoundly, distorts the labors of +generations so grotesquely, that one feels here, as nowhere else, how +ephemeral man is, how intense and how tireless the effort necessary +to preserve his frail creations even a little while from the vast +unconscious forces antagonistic to all stability, to all factitious +equilibrium. + +... A gloomy road winds high around one cliff overlooking the hollow of +the bay, Following it, you pass under extraordinarily dark shadows of +foliage, and over a blackish soil strewn with pretty bright green fruit +that has fallen from above. Do not touch them even with the tip of your +finger! Those are manchineel apples; with their milky juice the old +Caribs were wont to poison the barbs of their parrot-feathered arrows. +Over the mould, swarming among the venomous fruit, innumerable crabs +make a sound almost like the murmuring of water. Some are very large, +with prodigious stalked eyes, and claws white as ivory, and a red +cuirass; others, very small and very swift in their movements, are +raspberry-colored; others, again, are apple-green, with queer mottlings +of black and white. There is an unpleasant odor of decay in the +air--vegetable decay. + +Emerging from the shadow of the manchineel-trees, you may follow the +road up, up, up, under beetling cliffs of plutonian rock that seem about +to topple down upon the path-way. The rock is naked and black near the +road; higher, it is veiled by a heavy green drapery of lianas, curling +creepers, unfamiliar vines. All around you are sounds of crawling, dull +echoes of dropping; the thick growths far up waver in the breathless air +as if something were moving sinuously through them. And always the +odor of humid decomposition. Farther on, the road looks wilder, +sloping between black rocks, through strange vaultings of foliage and +night-black shadows. Its lonesomeness oppresses; one returns without +regret, by rusting gate-ways and tottering walls, back to the old West +Indian city rotting in the sun. + +... Yet Grenada, despite the dilapidation of her capital and the seeming +desolation of its environs, is not the least prosperous of the Antilles. +Other islands have been less fortunate: the era of depression has almost +passed for Grenada; through the rapid development of her secondary +cultures--coffee and cocoa--she hopes with good reason to repair some of +the vast losses involved by the decay of the sugar industry. + +Still, in this silence of mouldering streets, this melancholy of +abandoned dwellings, this invasion of vegetation, there is a suggestion +of what any West Indian port might become when the resources of the +island had been exhausted, and its commerce ruined. After all persons of +means and energy enough to seek other fields of industry and enterprise +had taken their departure, and the plantations had been abandoned, and +the warehouses closed up forever, and the voiceless wharves left to rot +down into the green water, Nature would soon so veil the place as to +obliterate every outward visible sign of the past. In scarcely more than +a generation from the time that the last merchant steamer had taken her +departure some traveller might look for the once populous and busy mart +in vain: vegetation would have devoured it. + +... In the mixed English and creole speech of the black population one +can discern evidence of a linguistic transition. The original French +_patois_ is being rapidly forgotten or transformed irrecognizably. + +Now, in almost every island the negro idiom is different. So often have +some of the Antilles changed owners, moreover, that in them the negro +has never been able to form a true _patois_. He had scarcely acquired +some idea of the language of his first masters, when other rulers and +another tongue were thrust upon him,--and this may have occurred three +or four times! The result is a totally incoherent agglomeration of +speech-forms--a baragouin fantastic and unintelligible beyond the power +of anyone to imagine who has not heard it.... + + + +XXXII. + + +... A beautiful fantastic shape floats to us through the morning light; +first cloudy gold like the horizon, then pearly gray, then varying blue, +with growing green lights;--Saint Lucia. Most strangely formed of all +this volcanic family;--everywhere mountainings sharp as broken crystals. +Far off the Pitons--twin peaks of the high coast-show softer contours, +like two black breasts pointing against the sky.... + +... As we enter the harbor of Castries, the lines of the land seem no +less exquisitely odd, in spite of their rich verdure, than when viewed +afar off;--they have a particular pitch of angle.... Other of these +islands show more or less family resemblance;--you might readily mistake +one silhouette for another as seen at a distance, even after several +West Indian journeys. But Saint Lucia at once impresses you by its +eccentricity. + +[Illustration: CHURCH STREET, ST. GEORGE, GRENADA.] + +Castries, drowsing under palm leaves at the edge of its curving +harbor,--perhaps an ancient crater,--seems more of a village than +a town: streets of low cottages and little tropic gardens. It has a +handsome half-breed population: the old French colonial manners have +been less changed here by English influence than in Saint Kitt's and +elsewhere;--the creole _patois_ is still spoken, though the costumes +have changed.... A more beautiful situation could scarcely be +imagined,--even in this tropic world. In the massing of green heights +about the little town are gaps showing groves of palm beyond; but the +peak summits catch the clouds. Behind us the harbor mouth seems spanned +by steel-blue bars: these are lines of currents. Away, on either hand, +volcanic hills are billowing to vapory distance; and in their nearer +hollows are beautiful deepenings of color: ponded shades of diaphanous +blue or purplish tone.... I first remarked this extraordinary coloring +of shadows in Martinique, where it exists to a degree that tempts one +to believe the island has a special atmosphere of its own.... A friend +tells me the phenomenon is probably due to inorganic substances +floating in the air--each substance in diffusion having its own index +of refraction. Substances so held in suspension by vapors would vary +according to the nature of soil in different islands, and might thus +produce special local effects of atmospheric tinting. + +... We remain but half an hour at Castries; then steam along the +coast to take in freight at another port. Always the same delicious +color-effects as we proceed, with new and surprising visions of hills. +The near slopes descending to the sea are a radiant green, with streaks +and specklings of darker verdure;--the farther-rising hills faint blue, +with green saliencies catching the sun;--and beyond these are upheavals +of luminous gray--pearl-gray--sharpened in the silver glow of the +horizon.... The general impression of the whole landscape is one +of motion suddenly petrified,--of an earthquake surging and tossing +suddenly arrested and fixed: a raging of cones and peaks and monstrous +truncated shapes.... We approach the Pitons. + +Seen afar off, they first appeared twin mammiform peaks,--naked and +dark against the sky; but now they begin to brighten a little and show +color,--also to change form. They take a lilaceous hue, broken by gray +and green lights; and as we draw yet nearer they prove dissimilar +both in shape and tint.... Now they separate before us, throwing long +pyramidal shadows across the steamer's path. Then, as they open to our +coming, between them a sea bay is revealed--a very lovely curving bay, +bounded by hollow cliffs of fiery green. At either side of the gap the +Pitons rise like monster pylones. And a charming little settlement, a +beautiful sugar-plantation, is nestling there between them, on the very +edge of the bay. + +Out of a bright sea of verdure, speckled with oases of darker foliage, +these Pitons from the land side tower in sombre vegetation. Very high +up, on the nearer one, amid the wooded slopes, you can see houses +perched; and there are bright breaks in the color there--tiny mountain +pastures that look like patches of green silk velvet. + +... We pass the Pitons, and enter another little craterine harbor, to +cast anchor before the village of Choi-seul. It lies on a ledge above +the beach and under high hills: we land through a surf, running the boat +high up on soft yellowish sand. A delicious saline scent of sea-weed. + +It is disappointing, the village: it is merely one cross of brief +streets, lined with blackening wooden dwellings there are no buildings +worth looking at, except the queer old French church, steep-roofed and +bristling with points that look like extinguishers. Over broad reaches +of lava rock a shallow river flows by the village to the sea, gurgling +under shadows of tamarind foliage. It passes beside the market-place--a +market-place without stalls, benches, sheds, or pavements: meats, +fruits, and vegetables are simply fastened to the trees. Women +are washing and naked children bathing in the stream; they are +bronze-skinned, a fine dark color with a faint tint of red in it.... +There is little else to look at: steep wooded hills cut off the view +towards the interior. + +But over the verge of the sea there is something strange growing +visible, looming up like a beautiful yellow cloud. It is an island, +so lofty, so luminous, so phantom-like, that it seems a vision of the +Island of the Seven Cities. It is only the form of St. Vincent, bathed +in vapory gold by the sun. + +... Evening at La Soufriere: still another semicircular bay in a hollow +of green hills. Glens hold bluish shadows ows. The color of the heights +is very tender; but there are long streaks and patches of dark green, +marking watercourses and very abrupt surfaces. From the western side +immense shadows are pitched brokenly across the valley and over half the +roofs of the palmy town. There is a little river flowing down to the bay +on the left; and west of it a walled cemetery is visible, out of which +one monumental palm rises to a sublime height: its crest still bathes in +the sun, above the invading shadow. Night approaches; the shade of the +hills inundates all the landscape, rises even over the palm-crest. Then, +black-towering into the golden glow of sunset, the land loses all its +color, all its charm; forms of frondage, variations of tint, become +invisible. Saint Lucia is only a monstrous silhouette; all its billowing +hills, its volcanic bays, its amphitheatrical valleys, turn black as +ebony. + +And you behold before you a geological dream, a vision of the primeval +sea: the apparition of the land as first brought forth, all peak-tossed +and fissured and naked and grim, in the tremendous birth of an +archipelago. + + + +XXXIII. + + +Homeward bound. + +Again the enormous poem of azure and emerald unrolls before us, but in +order inverse; again is the island--Litany of the Saints repeated for +us, but now backward. All the bright familiar harbors once more open to +receive us;--each lovely Shape floats to us again, first golden yellow, +then vapory gray, then ghostly blue, but always sharply radiant at last, +symmetrically exquisite, as if chiselled out of amethyst and emerald and +sapphire. We review the same wondrous wrinkling of volcanic hills, the +cities that sit in extinct craters, the woods that tower to heaven, the +peaks perpetually wearing that luminous cloud which seems the breathing +of each island-life,--its vital manifestation.... + +[Illustration: CASTRIES, ST. LUCIA.] + +... Only now do the long succession of exotic and unfamiliar impressions +received begin to group and blend, to form homogeneous results,--general +ideas or convictions. Strongest among these is the belief that the white +race is disappearing from these islands, acquired and held at so vast a +cost of blood and treasure. Reasons almost beyond enumeration have +been advanced--economical, climatic, ethnical, political--all of which +contain truth, yet no single one of which can wholly explain the fact. +Already the white West Indian populations are diminishing at a rate that +almost staggers credibility. In the island paradise of Martinique in +1848 there were 12,000 whites; now, against more than 160,000 blacks and +half-breeds, there are perhaps 5000 whites left to maintain the ethnic +struggle, and the number of these latter is annually growing less. +Many of the British islands have been almost deserted by their former +cultivators: St. Vincent is becoming desolate: Tobago is a ruin; St. +Martin lies half abandoned; St. Christopher is crumbling; Grenada has +lost more than half her whites; St. Thomas, once the most prosperous, +the most active, the most cosmopolitan of West Indian ports, is in full +decadence. And while the white element is disappearing, the dark +races are multiplying as never before;--the increase of the negro and +half-breed populations has been everywhere one of the startling results +of emancipation. The general belief among the creole whites of the +Lesser Antilles would seem to confirm the old prediction that the slave +races of the past must become the masters of the future. Here and there +the struggle may be greatly prolonged, but everywhere the ultimate +result must be the same, unless the present conditions of commerce and +production become marvellously changed. The exterminated Indian peoples +of the Antilles have already been replaced by populations equally fitted +to cope with the forces of the nature about them,--that splendid and +terrible Nature of the tropics which consumes the energies of the races +of the North, which devours all that has been accomplished by their +heroism or their crimes,--effacing their cities, rejecting their +civilization. To those peoples physiologically in harmony with this +Nature belong all the chances of victory in the contest--already +begun--for racial supremacy. + +But with the disappearance of the white populations the ethnical problem +would be still unsettled. Between the black and mixed peoples prevail +hatreds more enduring and more intense than any race prejudices between +whites and freedmen in the past;--a new struggle for supremacy could +not fail to begin, with the perpetual augmentation of numbers, the +ever-increasing competition for existence. And the true black element, +more numerically powerful, more fertile, more cunning, better adapted to +pyrogenic climate and tropical environment, would surely win. All these +mixed races, all these beautiful fruit-colored populations, seem doomed +to extinction: the future tendency must be to universal blackness, if +existing conditions continue--perhaps to universal savagery. Everywhere +the sins of the past have borne the same fruit, have furnished the +colonies with social enigmas that mock the wisdom of legislators, a +dragon-crop of problems that no modern political science has yet proved +competent to deal with. Can it even be hoped that future sociologists +will be able to answer them, after Nature--who never forgives--shall +have exacted the utmost possible retribution for all the crimes and +follies of three hundred years? + + + + + + + + + +PART TWO--MARTINIQUE SKETCHES. + + + + +CHAPTER I. -- LES PORTEUSES. + + + +I. + + +When you find yourself for the first time, upon some unshadowed day, in +the delightful West Indian city of St. Pierre,--supposing that you own +the sense of poetry, the recollections of a student,--there is apt to +steal upon your fancy an impression of having seen it all before, ever +so long ago,--you cannot tell where. The sensation of some happy dream +you cannot wholly recall might be compared to this feeling. In the +simplicity and solidity of the quaint architecture,--in the eccentricity +of bright narrow streets, all aglow with warm coloring,--in the tints +of roof and wall, antiquated by streakings and patchings of mould greens +and grays,--in the startling absence of window-sashes, glass, gas +lamps, and chimneys,--in the blossom-tenderness of the blue heaven, the +splendor of tropic light, and the warmth of the tropic wind,--you find +less the impression of a scene of to-day than the sensation of something +that was and is not. Slowly this feeling strengthens with your pleasure +in the colorific radiance of costume,--the semi-nudity of passing +figures,--the puissant shapeliness of torsos ruddily swart like statue +metal,--the rounded outline of limbs yellow as tropic fruit,--the grace +of attitudes,--the unconscious harmony of groupings,--the gathering and +folding and falling of light robes that oscillate with swaying of free +hips,--the sculptural symmetry of unshod feet. You look up and down the +lemon-tinted streets,--down to the dazzling azure brightness of meeting +sky and sea; up to the perpetual verdure of mountain woods--wondering +at the mellowness of tones, the sharpness of lines in the light, the +diaphaneity of colored shadows; always asking memory: "When?... where +did I see all this... long ago?".... + +Then, perhaps, your gaze is suddenly riveted by the vast and +solemn beauty of the verdant violet-shaded mass of the dead +Volcano,--high-towering above the town, visible from all its ways, and +umbraged, maybe, with thinnest curlings of cloud,--like spectres of its +ancient smoking to heaven. And all at once the secret of your dream +is revealed, with the rising of many a luminous memory,--dreams of the +Idyllists, flowers of old Sicilian song, fancies limned upon Pompeiian +walls. For a moment the illusion is delicious: you comprehend as never +before the charm of a vanished world,--the antique life, the story of +terra-cottas and graven stones and gracious things exhumed: even the sun +is not of to-day, but of twenty centuries gone;--thus, and under such +a light, walked the women of the elder world. You know the fancy +absurd;--that the power of the orb has visibly abated nothing in all the +eras of man,--that millions are the ages of his almighty glory; but for +one instant of reverie he seemeth larger,--even that sun impossible who +coloreth the words, coloreth the works of artist-lovers of the past, +with the gold light of dreams. + +Too soon the hallucination is broken by modern sounds, dissipated +by modern sights,--rough trolling of sailors descending to their +boats,--the heavy boom of a packet's signal-gun,--the passing of an +American buggy. Instantly you become aware that the melodious tongue +spoken by the passing throng is neither Hellenic nor Roman: only the +beautiful childish speech of French slaves. + + + +II. + + +But what slaves were the fathers of this free generation? Your +anthropologists, your ethnologists, seem at fault here: the African +traits have become transformed; the African characteristics have been so +modified within little more than two hundred years--by inter-blending +of blood, by habit, by soil and sun and all those natural powers which +shape the mould of races,--that you may look in vain for verification of +ethnological assertions.... No: the heel does _not_ protrude;--the foot +is _not_ flat, but finely arched;--the extremities are not large;--all +the limbs taper, all the muscles are developed; and prognathism has +become so rare that months of research may not yield a single striking +case of it.... No: this is a special race, peculiar to the island as +are the shapes of its peaks,--a mountain race; and mountain races are +comely.... Compare it with the population of black Barbadoes, where +the apish grossness of African coast types has been perpetuated +unchanged;--and the contrast may well astonish!... + + + +III. + + +The erect carriage and steady swift walk of the women who bear burdens +is especially likely to impress the artistic observer: it is the sight +of such passers-by which gives, above all, the antique tone and color to +his first sensations;--and the larger part of the female population +of mixed race are practised carriers. Nearly all the transportation of +light merchandise, as well as of meats, fruits, vegetables, and food +stuffs,--to and from the interior,--is effected upon human heads. At +some of the ports the regular local packets are loaded and unloaded by +women and girls,--able to carry any trunk or box to its destination. +At Fort-de-France the great steamers of the Compagnie Generale +Transatlantique, are entirely coaled by women, who carry the coal on +their heads, singing as they come and go in processions of hundreds; and +the work is done with incredible rapidity. Now, the creole _porteuse_, +or female carrier, is certainly one of the most remarkable physical +types in the world; and whatever artistic enthusiasm her graceful port, +lithe walk, or half-savage beauty may inspire you with, you can form no +idea, if a total stranger, what a really wonderful being she is.... Let +me tell you something about that highest type of professional female +carrier, which is to the _charbonniere_, or coaling-girl, what the +thorough-bred racer is to the draught-horse,--the type of porteuse +selected for swiftness and endurance to distribute goods in the interior +parishes, or to sell on commission at long distances. To the same class +naturally belong those country carriers able to act as porteuses of +plantation produce, fruits, or vegetables,--between the nearer ports and +their own interior parishes.... Those who believe that great physical +endurance and physical energy cannot exist in the tropics do not know +the creole carrier-girl. + + + +IV. + + +At a very early age--perhaps at five years--she learns to carry small +articles upon her head,--a bowl of rice,--a dobanne, or red earthen +decanter, full of water,--even an orange on a plate; and before long +she is able to balance these perfectly without using her hands to steady +them. (I have often seen children actually run with cans of water upon +their heads, and never spill a drop.) At nine or ten she is able to +carry thus a tolerably heavy basket, or a _trait_ (a wooden tray with +deep outward sloping sides) containing a weight of from twenty to thirty +pounds; and is able to accompany her mother, sister, or cousin on long +peddling journeys,--walking barefoot twelve and fifteen miles a day. +At sixteen or seventeen she is a tall robust girl,--lithe, vigorous, +tough,--all of tendon and hard flesh;--she carries a tray or a basket of +the largest size, and a burden of one hundred and twenty to one hundred +and fifty pounds weight;--she can now earn about thirty francs (about +six dollars) a month, _by walking fifty miles a day_, as an itinerant +seller. Among her class there are figures to make you dream of +Atalanta;--and all, whether ugly or attractive as to feature, are finely +shapen as to body and limb. Brought into existence by extraordinary +necessities of environment, the type is a peculiarly local one,--a type +of human thorough-bred representing the true secret of grace: economy +of force. There are no corpulent porteuses for the long interior routes; +all are built lightly and firmly as those racers. There are no old +porteuses;--to do the work even at forty signifies a constitution of +astounding solidity. After the full force of youth and health is spent, +the poor carrier must seek lighter labor;--she can no longer compete +with the girls. For in this calling the young body is taxed to its +utmost capacity of strength, endurance, and rapid motion. + +As a general rule, the weight is such that no well-freighted porteuse +can, unassisted, either "load" or "unload" (_chage_ or _dechage_, in +creole phrase); the effort to do so would burst a blood-vessel, wrench +a nerve, rupture a muscle. She cannot even sit down under her burden +without risk of breaking her neck: absolute perfection of the balance is +necessary for self-preservation. A case came under my own observation of +a woman rupturing a muscle in her arm through careless haste in the mere +act of aiding another to unload. + +And no one not a brute will ever refuse to aid a woman to lift or to +relieve herself of her burden;--you may see the wealthiest merchant, the +proudest planter, gladly do it;--the meanness of refusing, or of making +any conditions for the performance of this little kindness has only +been imagined in those strange Stories of Devils wherewith the oral and +uncollected literature of the creole abounds. [3] + + + +V. + + +Preparing for her journey, the young _machanne_ (marchande) puts on the +poorest and briefest chemise in her possession, and the most worn of her +light calico robes. These are all she wears. The robe is drawn upward +and forward, so as to reach a little below the knee, and is confined +thus by a waist-string, or a long kerchief bound tightly round the +loins. Instead of a Madras or painted turban-kerchief, she binds a plain +_mouchoir_ neatly and closely about her head; and if her hair be long, +it is combed back and gathered into a loop behind. Then, with a second +mouchoir of coarser quality she makes a pad, or, as she calls it, +_toche_, by winding the kerchief round her fingers as you would coil up +a piece of string;--and the soft mass, flattened with a patting of the +hand, is placed upon her head, over the coiffure. On this the great +loaded trait is poised. + +[Illustration: 'TI MARIE (On the Route from St. Pierre to +Basse-Pointe.)] + +She wears no shoes! To wear shoes and do her work swiftly and well in +such a land of mountains would be impossible. She must climb thousands +and descend thousands of feet every day,--march up and down slopes so +steep that the horses of the country all break down after a few years +of similar journeying. The girl invariably outlasts the horse,--though +carrying an equal weight. Shoes, unless extraordinarily well made, would +shift place a little with every change from ascent to descent, or the +reverse, during the march,--would yield and loosen with the ever-varying +strain,--would compress the toes,--produce corns, bunions, raw places +by rubbing, and soon cripple the porteuse. Remember, she has to walk +perhaps fifty miles between dawn and dark, under a sun to which a single +hour's exposure, without the protection of an umbrella, is perilous to +any European or American--the terrible sun of the tropics! Sandals are +the only conceivable foot-gear suited to such a calling as hers; but she +needs no sandals: the soles of her feet are toughened so as to feel no +asperities, and present to sharp pebbles a surface at once yielding and +resisting, like a cushion of solid caoutchouc. + +Besides her load, she carries only a canvas purse tied to her girdle +on the right side, and on the left a very small bottle of rum, or white +_tafia_,--usually the latter, because it is so cheap.... For she may +not always find the Gouyave Water to drink,--the cold clear pure stream +conveyed to the fountains of St. Pierre from the highest mountains by a +beautiful and marvellous plan of hydraulic engineering: she will have +to drink betimes the common spring-water of the bamboo-fountains on the +remoter high-roads; and this may cause dysentery if swallowed without +a spoonful of spirits. Therefore she never travels without a little +liquor. + + + +VI. + + +... So!--She is ready: "_Chage moin, souple, che!_" She bends +to lift the end of the heavy trait: some one takes the +other,--_yon!-de!--toua!_--it is on her head. Perhaps she winces an +instant;--the weight is not perfectly balanced; she settles it with her +hands,--gets it in the exact place. Then, all steady,--lithe, light, +half naked,--away she moves with a long springy step. So even her walk +that the burden never sways; yet so rapid her motion that however good a +walker you may fancy yourself to be you will tire out after a sustained +effort of fifteen minutes to follow her uphill. Fifteen minutes;--and +she can keep up that pace without slackening--save for a minute to eat +and drink at mid-day,--for at least twelve hours and fifty-six minutes, +the extreme length of a West Indian day. She starts before dawn; tries +to reach her resting-place by sunset: after dark, like all her people, +she is afraid of meeting _zombis_. + +Let me give you some idea of her average speed under an average weight +of one hundred and twenty-five pounds,--estimates based partly upon +my own observations, partly upon the declarations of the trustworthy +merchants who employ her, and partly on the assertion of habitants of +the burghs or cities named--all of which statements perfectly agree. +From St. Pierre to Basse-Pointe, by the national road, the distance is +a trifle less than twenty-seven kilometres and three-quarters. She +makes the transit easily in three hours and a half; and returns in the +afternoon, after an absence of scarcely more than eight hours. From St. +Pierre to Morne Rouge--two thousand feet up in the mountains (an ascent +so abrupt that no one able to pay carriage-fare dreams of attempting to +walk it)--the distance is seven kilometres and three-quarters. She makes +it in little more than an hour. But this represents only the +beginning of her journey. She passes on to Grande Anse, twenty-one and +three-quarter kilometres away. But she does not rest there: she returns +at the same pace, and reaches St. Pierre before dark. From St. Pierre +to Gros-Morne the distance to be twice traversed by her is more than +thirty-two kilometres. A journey of sixty-four kilometres,--daily, +perhaps,--forty miles! And there are many machannes who make yet longer +trips,--trips of three or four days' duration;--these rest at villages +upon their route. + + + +VII. + + +Such travel in such a country would be impossible but for the excellent +national roads,--limestone highways, solid, broad, faultlessly +graded,--that wind from town to town, from hamlet to hamlet, over +mountains, over ravines; ascending by zigzags to heights of twenty-five +hundred feet; traversing the primeval forests of the interior; now +skirting the dizziest precipices, now descending into the loveliest +valleys. There are thirty-one of these magnificent routes, with a total +length of 488,052 metres (more than 303 miles), whereof the construction +required engineering talent of the highest order,--the building of +bridges beyond counting, and devices the most ingenious to provide +against dangers of storms, floods, and land-slips. Most +have drinking-fountains along their course at almost regular +intervals,--generally made by the negroes, who have a simple but +excellent plan for turning the water of a spring through bamboo pipes +to the road-way. Each road is also furnished with mile-stones, or rather +kilometre-stones; and the drainage is perfect enough to assure of the +highway becoming dry within fifteen minutes after the heaviest rain, so +long as the surface is maintained in tolerably good condition. Well-kept +embankments of earth (usually covered with a rich growth of mosses, +vines, and ferns), or even solid walls of masonry, line the side +that overhangs a dangerous depth. And all these highways pass through +landscapes of amazing beauty,--visions of mountains so many-tinted and +so singular of outline that they would almost seem to have been created +for the express purpose of compelling astonishment. This tropic Nature +appears to call into being nothing ordinary: the shapes which she +evokes are always either gracious or odd,--and her eccentricities, her +extravagances, have a fantastic charm, a grotesqueness as of artistic +whim. Even where the landscape-view is cut off by high woods the forms +of ancient trees--the infinite interwreathing of vine growths all on +fire with violence of blossom-color,--the enormous green outbursts +of balisiers, with leaves ten to thirteen feet long,--the columnar +solemnity of great palmistes,--the pliant quivering exqisiteness of +bamboo,--the furious splendor of roses run mad--more than atone for +the loss of the horizon. Sometimes you approach a steep covered with a +growth of what, at first glance, looks precisely like fine green fur: it +is a first-growth of young bamboo. Or you see a hill-side covered with +huge green feathers, all shelving down and overlapping as in the tail +of some unutterable bird: these are baby ferns. And where the road leaps +some deep ravine with a double or triple bridge of white stone, note +well what delicious shapes spring up into sunshine from the black +profundity on either hand! Palmiform you might hastily term them,--but +no palm was ever so gracile; no palm ever bore so dainty a head of green +plumes light as lace! These likewise are ferns (rare survivors, maybe, +of that period of monstrous vegetation which preceded the apparition +of man), beautiful tree-ferns, whose every young plume, unrolling in a +spiral from the bud, at first assumes the shape of a crozier,--a +crozier of emerald! Therefore are some of this species called +"archbishop-trees," no doubt.... But one might write for a hundred years +of the sights to be seen upon such a mountain road. + + + +VIII. + + +In every season, in almost every weather, the porteuse makes her +journey,--never heeding rain;--her goods being protected by double and +triple water-proof coverings well bound down over her trait. Yet these +tropical rains, coming suddenly with a cold wind upon her heated and +almost naked body, are to be feared. To any European or un-acclimated +white such a wetting, while the pores are all open during a profuse +perspiration, would probably prove fatal: even for white natives the +result is always a serious and protracted illness. But the porteuse +seldom suffers in consequences: she seems proof against fevers, +rheumatisms, and ordinary colds. When she does break down, however, +the malady is a frightful one,--a pneumonia that carries off the victim +within forty-eight hours. Happily, among her class, these fatalities are +very rare. + +And scarcely less rare than such sudden deaths are instances of failure +to appear on time. In one case, the employer, a St. Pierre shopkeeper, +on finding his _marchande_ more than an hour late, felt so certain +something very extraordinary must have happened that he sent out +messengers in all directions to make inquiries. It was found that the +woman had become a mother when only half-way upon her journey home. The +child lived and thrived;--she is now a pretty chocolate-colored girl of +eight, who follows her mother every day from their mountain ajoupa down +to the city, and back again,--bearing a little trait upon her head. + +Murder for purposes of robbery is not an unknown crime in Martinique; +but I am told the porteuses are never molested. And yet some of these +girls carry merchandise to the value of hundreds of francs; and all +carry money,--the money received for goods sold, often a considerable +sum. This immunity may be partly owing to the fact that they travel +during the greater part of the year only by day,--and usually in +company. A very pretty girl is seldom suffered to journey unprotected: +she has either a male escort or several experienced and powerful women +with her. In the cacao season-when carriers start from Grande Anse +as early as two o'clock in the morning, so as to reach St. Pierre by +dawn--they travel in strong companies of twenty or twenty-five, singing +on the way. As a general rule the younger girls at all times go two +together,--keeping step perfectly as a pair of blooded fillies; only the +veterans, or women selected for special work by reason of extraordinary +physical capabilities, go alone. To the latter class belong certain +girls employed by the great bakeries of Fort-de-France and St. Pierre: +these are veritable caryatides. They are probably the heaviest-laden +of all, carrying baskets of astounding size far up into the mountains +before daylight, so as to furnish country families with fresh bread +at an early hour; and for this labor they receive about four dollars +(twenty francs) a month and one loaf of bread per diem.... While +stopping at a friend's house among the hills, some two miles from +Fort-de-France, I saw the local bread-carrier halt before our porch +one morning, and a finer type of the race it would be difficult for +a sculptor to imagine. Six feet tall,--strength and grace united +throughout her whole figure from neck to heel; with that clear black +skin which is beautiful to any but ignorant or prejudiced eyes; and the +smooth, pleasing, solemn features of a sphinx,--she looked to me, as she +towered there in the gold light, a symbolic statue of Africa. Seeing +me smoking one of those long thin Martinique cigars called _bouts_, she +begged one; and, not happening to have another, I gave her the price of +a bunch of twenty,--ten sous. She took it without a smile, and went her +way. About an hour and a half later she came back and asked for me,--to +present me with the finest and largest mango I had ever seen, a monster +mango. She said she wanted to see me eat it, and sat down on the ground +to look on. While eating it, I learned that she had walked a whole mile +out of her way under that sky of fire, just to bring her little gift of +gratitude. + +[Illustration: FORT-DE-FRANCE, MARTINIQUE--(FORMERLY FORT ROYAL.)] + + + +IX. + + +Forty to fifty miles a day, always under a weight of more than a hundred +pounds,--for when the trait has been emptied she puts in stones for +ballast;--carrying her employer's merchandise and money over the +mountain ain ranges, beyond the peaks, across the ravines, through +the tropical forest, sometimes through by-ways haunted by the +fer-de-lance,--and this in summer or winter, the deason of rains or the +season of heat, the time of fevers or the time of hurricanes, at a franc +a day!... How does she live upon it? + +There are twenty sous to the franc. The girl leaves St. Pierre with her +load at early morning. At the second village, Morne Rouge, she halts +to buy one, two, or three biscuits at a sou apiece; and reaching +Ajoupa-Bouillon later in the forenoon, she may buy another biscuit or +two. Altogether she may be expected to eat five Sous of biscuit or bread +before reaching Grande Anse, where she probably has a meal waiting for +her. This ought to cost her ten sous,--especially if there be meat +in her ragout: which represents a total expense of fifteen sous for +eatables. Then there is the additional cost of the cheap liquor, which +she must mix with her drinking-water, as it would be more than dangerous +to swallow pure cold water in her heated condition; two or three sous +more. This almost makes the franc. But such a hasty and really erroneous +estimate does not include expenses of lodging and clothing;--she may +sleep on the bare floor sometimes, and twenty francs a year may keep her +in clothes; but she must rent the floor and pay for the clothes out +of that franc. As a matter of fact she not only does all this upon her +twenty sous a day, but can even economize something which will enable +her, when her youth and force decline, to start in business for herself. +And her economy will not seem so wonderful when I assure you that +thousands of men here--huge men muscled like bulls and lions--live upon +an average expenditure of five sous a day. One sou of bread, two sous of +manioc flour, one sou of dried codfish, one sou of tafia: such is their +meal. + +There are women carriers who earn more than a franc a day,--women with +a particular talent for selling, who are paid on commission--from ten to +fifteen per cent. These eventually make themselves independent in many +instances;--they continue to sell and bargain in person, but hire a +young girl to carry the goods. + + + +X. + + +... "_Ou 'le machanne!_" rings out a rich alto, resonant as the tone of +a gong, from behind the balisiers that shut in our garden. There are +two of them--no, three--Maiyotte, Chechelle, and Rina. Maiyotte and +Chechelle have just arrived from St. Pierre;--Rina come from Gros-Morne +with fruits and vegetables. Suppose we call them all in, and see what +they have got. Maiyotte and Chechelle sell on commission; Rina sells for +her mother, who has a little garden at Gros-Morne. + +... "_Bonjou', Maiyotte;--bonjou', Chechelle! coument ou kalle, Rina, +che!_"... Throw open the folding-doors to let the great trays pass.... +Now all three are unloaded by old Thereza and by young Adou;--all +the packs are on the floor, and the water-proof wrappings are being +un-corded, while Ah-Manmzell, the adopted child, brings the rum and +water for the tall walkers.... "Oh, what a medley, Maiyotte!"... +Inkstands and wooden cows; purses and paper dogs and cats; dolls and +cosmetics; pins and needles and soap and tooth-brushes; candied fruits +and smoking-caps; _pelotes_ of thread, and tapes, and ribbons, and +laces, and Madeira wine; cuffs, and collars, and dancing-shoes, and +tobacco _sachets_.... But what is in that little flat bundle? Presents +for your _guepe_, if you have one.... _Fesis-Maia!_--the pretty +foulards! Azure and yellow in checkerings; orange and crimson +in stripes; rose and scarlet in plaidings; and bronze tints, and +beetle-tints of black and green. + +"Chechelle, what a _bloucoutoum_ if you should ever let that tray +fall--_aie yaie yaie!_" Here is a whole shop of crockeries and +porcelains;--plates, dishes, cups,--earthen-ware _canaris_ and +_dobannes_, and gift-mugs and cups bearing creole girls' names,--all +names that end in _ine_. "Micheline," "Honorine," "Prosperine" [you will +never sell that, Chechelle: there is not a Prosperine this side of St. +Pierre], "Azaline," "Leontine," "Zephyrine," "Albertine," "Chrysaline," +"Florine," "Coralline," "Alexandrine."...And knives and forks, and cheap +spoons, and tin coffee-pots, and tin rattles for babies, and tin flutes +for horrid little boys,--and pencils and note-paper and envelopes!... + +... "Oh, Rina, what superb oranges!--fully twelve inches round--! + +... "and these, which look something like our mandarins, what do you +call them?" "Zorange-macaque!" (monkey-oranges). And here are +avocados--beauties!--guavas of three different kinds,--tropical cherries +(which have four seeds instead of one),--tropical raspberries, whereof +the entire eatable portion comes off in one elastic piece, lined with +something like white silk.... Here are fresh nutmegs: the thick green +case splits in equal halves at a touch; and see the beautiful heart +within,--deep dark glossy red, all wrapped in a bright net-work of flat +blood-colored fibre, spun over it like branching veins.... This big +heavy red-and-yellow thing is a _pomme-cythere_: the smooth cuticle, +bitter as gall, covers a sweet juicy pulp, interwoven with something +that seems like cotton thread.... Here is a _pomme-cannelle_: inside its +scaly covering is the most delicious yellow custard conceivable, with +little black seeds floating in it. This larger _corossol_ has almost as +delicate an interior, only the custard is white instead of yellow.... +Here are _christophines_,--great pear-shaped things, white and green, +according to kind, with a peel prickly and knobby as the skin of a +horned toad; but they stew exquisitely. And _melongenes_, or egg-plants; +and palmiste-pith, and _chadeques_, and _pommes-d' Haiti_,--and +roots that at first sight look all alike, but they are not: there are +_camanioc_, and _couscous_, and _choux-caraibes_, and _zignames_, +and various kinds of _patates_ among them. Old Thereza's magic will +transform these shapeless muddy things, before evening, into pyramids +of smoking gold,--into odorous porridges that will look like messes of +molten amber and liquid pearl;--for Rina makes a good sale. + +Then Chechelle manages to dispose of a tin coffee-pot and a big +canari.... And Maiyotte makes the best sale of all; for the sight of a +funny _biscuit_ doll has made Ah-Manmzell cry and smile so at the same +time that I should feel unhappy for the rest of my life if I did not +buy it for her. I know I ought to get some change out of that six +francs;--and Maiyotte, who is black but comely as the tents of Kedar, as +the curtains of Solomon, seems to be aware of the fact. + +Oh, Maiyotte, how plaintive that pretty sphinx face of yours, now turned +in profile;--as if you knew you looked beautiful thus,--with the great +gold circlets of your ears glittering and swaying as you bend! And +why are you so long, so long untying that poor little canvas +purse?--fumbling and fingering it?--is it because you want me to think +of the weight of that trait and the sixty kilometres you must walk, +and the heat, and the dust, and all the disappointments? Ah, you are +cunning, Maiyotte! No, I do not want the change! + + + +XI. + + +... Travelling together, the porteuses often walk in silence for hours +at a time;--this is when they feel weary. Sometimes they sing,--most +often when approaching their destination;--and when they chat, it is in +a key so high-pitched that their voices can be heard to a great distance +in this land of echoes and elevations. But she who travels alone is +rarely silent: she talks to herself or to inanimate things;--you may +hear her talking to the trees, to the flowers,--talking to the high +clouds and the far peaks of changing color,--talking to the setting sun! + +Over the miles of the morning she sees, perchance, the mighty Piton +Gele, a cone of amethyst in the light; and she talks to it: "_Ou jojoll, +oui!--moin ni envie monte assou ou, pou moin oue bien, bien!_" (Thou art +pretty, pretty, aye!--I would I might climb thee, to see far, far off!) +By a great grove of palms she passes;--so thickly mustered they are that +against the sun their intermingled heads form one unbroken awning of +green. Many rise straight as masts; some bend at beautiful angles, +seeming to intercross their long pale single limbs in a fantastic dance; +others curve like bows: there is one that undulates from foot to crest, +like a monster serpent poised upon its tail. She loves to look at +that one--"_joli pie-bois-la!_"--talks to it as she goes by,--bids it +good-day. + +Or, looking back as she ascends, she sees the huge blue dream of the +sea,--the eternal haunter, that ever becomes larger as she mounts the +road; and she talks to it: "_Mi lanme ka gaude moin!_" (There is the +great sea looking at me!) "_Mache toujou deie moin, lanme!_" (Walk after +me, 0 Sea!) + +Or she views the clouds of Pelee, spreading gray from the invisible +summit, to shadow against the sun; and she fears the rain, and she talks +to it: "_Pas mouille moin, laplie-a! Quitte moin rive avant mouille +moin!_" (Do not wet me, 0 Rain! Let me get there before thou wettest +me!) + +Sometimes a dog barks at her, menaces her bare limbs; and she talks +to the dog: "_Chien-a, pas mode moin, chien--anh! Moin pa fe ou arien, +chien, pou ou mode moin!_" (Do not bite me, 0 Dog! Never did I anything +to thee that thou shouldst bite me, 0 Dog! Do not bite me, dear! Do not +bite me, _doudoux_!) + +Sometimes she meets a laden sister travelling the opposite way.... +"_Coument ou ye, che?_" she cries. (How art thou, dear?) And the other +makes answer, "_Toutt douce, che,--et ou?_" (All sweetly, dear,--and +thou?) And each passes on without pausing: they have no time! + +... It is perhaps the last human voice she will hear for many a +mile. After that only the whisper of the grasses--_graie-gras, +graie-gras!_--and the gossip of the canes--_chououa, chououa!_--and the +husky speech of the _pois-Angole, ka babille conm yon vie fenme_,--that +babbles like an old woman;--and the murmur of the _filao_-trees, like +the murmur of the River of the Washerwomen. + + + +XII. + + +... Sundown approaches: the light has turned a rich yellow;--long +black shapes lie across the curving road, shadows of balisier and palm, +shadows of tamarind and Indian-reed, shadows of ceiba and giant-fern. +And the porteuses are coming down through the lights and darknesses of +the way from far Grande Anse, to halt a moment in this little village. +They are going to sit down on the road-side here, before the house of +the baker; and there is his great black workman, Jean-Marie, looking +for them from the door-way, waiting to relieve them of their loads.... +Jean-Marie is the strongest man in all the Champ-Flore: see what a +torso,--as he stands there naked to the waist!... His day's work is +done; but he likes to wait for the girls, though he is old now, and has +sons as tall as himself. It is a habit: some say that he had a daughter +once,--a porteuse like those coming, and used to wait for her thus at +that very door-way until one evening that she failed to appear, and +never returned till he carried her home in his arms dead,--stricken by a +serpent in some mountain path where there was none to aid.... The roads +were not as good then as now. + +... Here they come, the girls--yellow, red, black. See the flash of the +yellow feet where they touch the light! And what impossible tint the +red limbs take in the changing glow!... Finotte, Pauline, Medelle,-all +together, as usual,--with Ti-Cle trotting behind, very tired.... Never +mind, Ti-Cle!--you will outwalk your cousins when you are a few years +older,--pretty Ti-Cle.... Here come Cyrillia and Zabette, and Fefe +and Dodotte and Fevriette. And behind them are coming the two +_chabines_,--golden girls: the twin-sisters who sell silks and threads +and foulards; always together, always wearing robes and kerchiefs of +similar color,--so that you can never tell which is Lorrainie and which +Edoualise. + +And all smile to see Jean-Marie waiting for them, and to hear his deep +kind voice calling, "_Coument ou ye, che? coument ou kalle?_" ...(How art +thou, dear?--how goes it with thee?) + +And they mostly make answer, _"Toutt douce, che,--et ou?_" (All sweetly, +dear,--and thou?) But some, over-weary, cry to him, "_Ah! dechage moin +vite, che! moin lasse, lasse!_" (Unload me quickly, dear; for I am very, +very weary.) Then he takes off their burdens, and fetches bread for +them, and says foolish little things to make them laugh. And they are +pleased, and laugh, just like children, as they sit right down on the +road there to munch their dry bread. + +... So often have I watched that scene!... Let me but close my eyes +one moment, and it will come back to me,--through all the thousand +miles,--over the graves of the days.... + +Again I see the mountain road in the yellow glow, banded with umbrages +of palm. Again I watch the light feet coming,--now in shadow, now in +sun,--soundlessly as falling leaves. Still I can hear the voices crying, +"_Ah! dechage moin vite, che! moin lasse!_"--and see the mighty arms +outreach to take the burdens away. ... Only, there is a change',--I +know not what!... All vapory the road is, and the fronds, and the comely +coming feet of the bearers, and even this light of sunset,--sunset that +is ever larger and nearer to us than dawn, even as death than birth. +And the weird way appeareth a way whose dust is the dust of +generations;--and the Shape that waits is never Jean-Marie, but one +darker; and stronger;--and these are surely voices of tired souls. I who +cry to Thee, thou dear black Giver of the perpetual rest, "_Ah! dechage +moin vite, che! moin lasse!_" + + + + +CHAPTER II. -- LA GRANDE ANSE. + + + +I. + + +In the village of Morne Rouge, I was frequently impressed by the +singular beauty of young girls from the north-east coast--all porteuses, +who passed almost daily on their way from Grande Anse to St. Pierre and +back again--a total trip of thirty-five miles.... I knew they were from +Grande Anse, because the village baker, at whose shop they were wont to +make brief halts, told me a good deal about them: he knew each one +by name. Whenever a remarkably attractive girl appeared, and I would +inquire whence she came, the invariable reply (generally preceded by +that peculiarly intoned French "Ah!" signifying, "Why, you certainly +ought to know!") was "Grand Anse."..._Ah! c'est de Grande Anse, ca!_ +And if any commonplace, uninteresting type showed itself it would +be signalled as from somewhere else--Gros-Morne, Capote, Marigot, +perhaps,--but never from Grand Anse. The Grande Anse girls were +distinguished by their clear yellow or brown skins, lithe light figures +and a particular grace in their way of dressing. Their short robes were +always of bright and pleasing colors, perectly contrasting with the ripe +fruit-tint of nude limbs and faces: I could discern a partiality for +white stuffs with apricot-yellow stripes, for plaidings of blue and +violet, and various patterns of pink and mauve. They had a graceful way +of walking under their trays, with hands clasped behind their heads, +and arms uplifted in the manner of caryatides. An artist would have +been wild with delight for the chance to sketch some of them.... On the +whole, they conveyed the impression that they belonged to a particular +race, very different from that of the chief city or its environs. + +"Are they all banana-colored at Grande Anse?" I asked,--"and all as +pretty as these?" + +"I was never at Grande Anse," the little baker answered, "although I +have been forty years in Martinique; but I know there is a fine class of +young girls there: _il y a une belle jeunesse la, mon cher!_" + +Then I wondered why the youth of Grande Anse should be any finer than +the youth of other places; and it seemed to me that the baker's own +statement of his never having been there might possibly furnish a +clew.... Out of the thirty-five thousand inhabitants of St. Pierre and +its suburbs, there are at least twenty thousand who never have been +there, and most probably never will be. Few dwellers of the west coast +visit the east coast: in fact, except among the white creoles, who +represent but a small percentage of the total population, there are few +persons to be met with who are familiar with all parts of their native +island. It is so mountainous, and travelling is so wearisome, that +populations may live and die in adjacent valleys without climbing the +intervening ranges to look at one another. Grande Anse is only about +twenty miles from the principal city; but it requires some considerable +inducement to make the journey on horseback; and only the professional +carrier-girls, plantation messengers, and colored people of peculiarly +tough constitution attempt it on foot. Except for the transportation of +sugar and rum, there is practically no communication by sea between the +west and the north-east coast--the sea is too dangerous--and thus the +populations on either side of the island are more or less isolated +from each other, besides being further subdivided and segregated by the +lesser mountain chains crossing their respective territories.... In view +of all these things I wondered whether a community so secluded might +not assume special characteristics within two hundred years--might not +develop into a population of some yellow, red, or brown type, according +to the predominant element of the original race-crossing. + + + +II. + + +I had long been anxious to see the city of the Porteuses, when the +opportunity afforded itself to make the trip with a friend obliged to go +thither on some important business;--I do not think I should have ever +felt resigned to undertake it alone. With a level road the distance +might be covered very quickly, but over mountains the journey is slow +and wearisome in the perpetual tropic heat. Whether made on horseback +or in a carriage, it takes between four and five hours to go from St. +Pierre to Grand Anse, and it requires a longer time to return, as the +road is then nearly all uphill. The young porteuse travels almost as +rapidly; and the bare-footed black postman, who carries the mails in a +square box at the end of a pole, is timed on leaving Morne Rouge at +4 A.M. to reach Ajoupa-Bouillon a little after six, and leaving +Ajoupa-Bouillon at half-past six to reach Grande Anse at half-past +eight, including many stoppages and delays on the way. + +Going to Grande Anse from the chief city, one can either hire a horse +or carriage at St. Pierre, or ascend to Morne Rouge by the public +conveyance, and there procure a vehicle or animal, which latter is the +cheaper and easier plan. About a mile beyond Morne Rouge, where the old +Calebasse road enters the public highway, you reach the highest point of +the journey,--the top of the enormous ridge dividing the north-east +from the western coast, and cutting off the trade-winds from sultry +St. Pierre. By climbing the little hill, with a tall stone cross on its +summit, overlooking the Champ-Flore just here, you can perceive the +sea on both sides of the island at once--_lapis lazuli_ blue. From +this elevation the road descends by a hundred windings and lessening +undulations to the eastern shore. It sinks between mornes wooded to +their summits,--bridges a host of torrents and ravines,--passes gorges +from whence colossal trees tower far overhead, through heavy streaming +of lianas, to mingle their green crowns in magnificent gloom. Now and +then you hear a low long sweet sound like the deepest tone of a silver +flute,--a bird-call, the cry of the _siffleur-de-montagne_; then all is +stillness. You are not likely to see a white face again for hours, but +at intervals a porteuse passes, walking very swiftly, or a field-hand +heavily laden; and these salute you either by speech or a lifting of the +hand to the head.... And it is very pleasant to hear the greetings and +to see the smiles of those who thus pass,--the fine brown girls +bearing trays, the dark laborers bowed under great burdens of +bamboo-grass,--_Bonjou', Missie!_ Then you should reply, if the speaker +be a woman and pretty, "Good-day, dear" (_bonjou', che_), or, "Good-day, +my daughter" (_mafi_) even if she be old; while if the passer-by be a +man, your proper reply is, "Good-day, my son" (_monfi_).... They are +less often uttered now than in other years, these kindly greetings, but +they still form part of the good and true creole manners. + +[Illustration: A CREOLE CAPRE IN WORKING GARB.] + +The feathery beauty of the tree-ferns shadowing each brook, the grace +of bamboo and arborescent grasses, seem to decrease as the road +descends,--but the palms grow taller. Often the way skirts a precipice +dominating some marvellous valley prospect; again it is walled in by +high green banks or shrubby slopes which cut off the view; and always it +serpentines so that you cannot see more than a few hundred feet of +the white track before you. About the fifteenth kilometre a glorious +landscape opens to the right, reaching to the Atlantic;--the road still +winds very high; forests are billowing hundreds of yards below it, and +rising miles away up the slopes of mornes, beyond which, here and there, +loom strange shapes of mountain,--shading off from misty green to violet +and faintest gray. And through one grand opening in this multicolored +surging of hills and peaks you perceive the gold-yellow of cane-fields +touching the sky-colored sea. Grande Anse lies somewhere in that +direction.... At the eighteenth kilometre you pass a cluster of little +country cottages, a church, and one or two large buildings framed in +shade-trees--the hamlet of Ajoupa-Bouillon. Yet a little farther, and +you find you have left all the woods behind you. But the road continues +its bewildering curves around and between low mornes covered with +cane or cocoa plants: it dips down very low, rises again, dips once +more;--and you perceive the soil is changing color; it is taking a red +tint like that of the land of the American cotton-belt. Then you pass +the Riviere Falaise (marked _Filasse_ upon old maps),--with its shallow +crystal torrent flowing through a very deep and rocky channel,--and the +Capote and other streams; and over the yellow rim of cane-hills the long +blue bar of the sea appears, edged landward with a dazzling fringe of +foam. The heights you have passed are no longer verqant, but purplish +or gray,--with Pelee's cloud-wrapped enormity overtopping all. A very +strong warm wind is blowing upon you--the trade-wind, always driving the +clouds west: this is the sunny side of Martinique, where gray days and +heavy rains are less frequent. Once or twice more the sea disappears +and reappears, always over canes; and then, after passing a bridge and +turning a last curve, the road suddenly drops down to the shore and into +the burgh of Grande Anse. + + + +III. + + +Leaving Morne Rouge at about eight in the morning, my friend and I +reached Grande Anse at half-past eleven. Everything had been arranged +to make us comfortable, I was delighted with the airy corner room, +commanding at once a view of the main street and of the sea--a very high +room, all open to the trade-winds--which had been prepared to receive +me. But after a long carriage ride in the heat of a tropical June day, +one always feels the necessity of a little physical exercise. I lingered +only a minute or two in the house, and went out to look at the little +town and its surroundings. + +As seen from the high-road, the burgh of Grande Anse makes a long patch +of darkness between the green of the coast and the azure of the water: +it is almost wholly black and gray--suited to inspire an etching, High +slopes of cane and meadow rise behind it and on either side, undulating +up and away to purple and gray tips of mountain ranges. North and south, +to left and right, the land reaches out in two high promontories, mostly +green, and about a mile apart--the Pointe du Rochet and the Pointe de +Seguinau, or Croche-Mort, which latter name preserves the legend of +an insurgent slave, a man of color, shot dead upon the cliff. These +promontories form the semicircular bay of Grande Anse. All this Grande +Anse, or "Great Creek," valley is an immense basin of basalt; and narrow +as it is, no less than five streams water it, including the Riviere de +la Grande Anse. + +There are only three short streets in the town. The principal, or Grande +Rue, is simply a continuation of the national road; there is a narrower +one below, which used to be called the Rue de la Paille, because the +cottages lining it were formerly all thatched with cane straw; and there +is one above it, edging the cane-fields that billow away to the meeting +of morne and sky. There is nothing of architectural interest, and all is +sombre,--walls and roofs and pavements. But after you pass through the +city and follow the southern route that ascends the Seguinau promontory, +you can obtain some lovely landscape views a grand surging of rounded +mornes, with farther violet peaks, truncated or horned, pushing up their +heads in the horizon above the highest flutterings of cane; and looking +back above the town, you may see Pelee all unclouded,--not as you see +it from the other coast, but an enormous ghostly silhouette, with steep +sides and almost square summit, so pale as to seem transparent. Then +if you cross the promontory southward, the same road will lead you into +another very beautiful valley, watered by a broad rocky torrent,--the +Valley of the Riviere du Lorrain. This clear stream rushes to the sea +through a lofty opening in the hills; and looking westward between them, +you will be charmed by the exquisite vista of green shapes piling and +pushing up one behind another to reach a high blue ridge which forms the +background--a vision of tooth-shaped and fantastical mountains,--part of +the great central chain running south and north through nearly the whole +island. It is over those blue summits that the wonderful road called _La +Trace_ winds between primeval forest walls. + +But the more you become familiar with the face of the little town +itself, the more you are impressed by the strange swarthy tone it +preserves in all this splendid expanse of radiant tinting. There are +only two points of visible color in it,--the church and hospital, built +of stone, which have been painted yellow: as a mass in the landscape, +lying between the dead-gold of the cane-clad hills and the delicious +azure of the sea, it remains almost black under the prodigious blaze +of light. The foundations of volcanic rock, three or four feet high, +on which the frames of the wooden dwellings rest, are black; and the +sea-wind appears to have the power of blackening all timber-work here +through any coat of paint. Roofs and facades look as if they had been +long exposed to coal-smoke, although probably no one in Grande Anse +ever saw coal; and the pavements of pebbles and cement are of a deep +ash-color, full of micaceous scintillation, and so hard as to feel +disagreeable even to feet protected by good thick shoes. By-and-by you +notice walls of black stone, bridges of black stone, and perceive that +black forms an element of all the landscape about you. On the roads +leading from the town you note from time to time masses of jagged rock +or great bowlders protruding through the green of the slopes, and +dark as ink. These black surfaces also sparkle. The beds of all the +neighboring rivers are filled with dark gray stones; and many of these, +broken by those violent floods which dash rocks together,--deluging the +valleys, and strewing the soil of the bottom-lands (_fonds_) with dead +serpents,--display black cores. Bare crags projecting from the green +cliffs here and there are soot-colored, and the outlying rocks of the +coast offer a similar aspect. And the sand of the beach is funereally +black--looks almost like powdered charcoal; and as you walk over it, +sinking three or four inches every step, you are amazed by the +multitude and brilliancy of minute flashes in it, like a subtle silver +effervescence. + +This extraordinary sand contains ninety per cent of natural steel, and +efforts have been made to utilize it industrially. Some years ago a +company was formed, and a machine invented to separate the metal from +the pure sand,--an immense revolving magnet, which, being set in motion +under a sand shower, caught the ore upon it. When the covering thus +formed by the adhesion of the steel became of a certain thickness, the +simple interruption of an electric current precipitated the metal into +appropriate receptacles. Fine bars were made from this volcanic steel, +and excellent cutting tools manufactured from it: French metallurgists +pronounced the product of peculiar excellence, and nevertheless +the project of the company was abandoned. Political disorganization +consequent upon the establishment of universal suffrage frightened +capitalists who might have aided the undertaking under a better +condition of affairs; and the lack of large means, coupled with the cost +of freight to remote markets, ultimately baffled this creditable attempt +to found a native industry. + +Sometimes after great storms bright brown sand is flung up from the +sea-depths; but the heavy black sand always reappears again to make the +universal color of the beach. + + + +IV. + + +Behind the roomy wooden house in which I occupied an apartment there +was a small garden-plot surrounded with a hedge strengthened by bamboo +fencing, and radiant with flowers of the _loseille-bois_,--the creole +name for a sort of begonia, whose closed bud exactly resembles a pink +and white dainty bivalve shell, and whose open blossom imitates the +form of a butterfly. Here and there, on the grass, were nets drying, and +_nasses_--curious fish-traps made of split bamboos interwoven and held +in place with _mibi_ stalks (the mibi is a liana heavy and tough as +copper wire); and immediately behind the garden hedge appeared the white +flashing of the surf. The most vivid recollection connected with my trip +to Grande Anse is that of the first time that I went to the end of that +garden, opened the little bamboo gate, and found myself overlooking the +beach--an immense breadth of soot-black sand, with pale green patches +and stripings here and there upon it--refuse of cane thatch, decomposing +rubbish spread out by old tides. The one solitary boat owned in the +community lay there before me, high and dry. It was the hot period of +the afternoon; the town slept; there was no living creature in sight; +and the booming of the surf drowned all other sounds; the scent of the +warm strong sea-wind annihilated all other odors. Then, very suddenly, +there came to me a sensation absolutely weird, while watching the +strange wild sea roaring over its beach of black sand,--the sensation of +seeing something unreal, looking at something that had no more tangible +existence than a memory! Whether suggested by the first white vision of +the surf over the bamboo hedge,--or by those old green tide-lines on the +desolation of the black beach,--or by some tone of the speaking of the +sea,--or something indefinable in the living touch of the wind,--or by +all of these, I cannot say;--but slowly there became defined within me +the thought of having beheld just such a coast very long ago, I could +not tell where,--in those child-years of which the recollections +gradually become indistinguishable from dreams. + +Soon as darkness comes upon Grande Anse the face of the clock in the +church-tower is always lighted: you see it suddenly burst into yellow +glow above the roofs and the cocoa-palms,--just like a pharos. In my +room I could not keep the candle lighted because of the sea-wind; but +it never occurred to me to close the shutters of the great broad +windows,--sashless, of course, like all the glassless windows of +Martinique;--the breeze was too delicious. It seemed full of something +vitalizing that made one's blood warmer, and rendered one full of +contentment--full of eagerness to believe life all sweetness. Likewise, +I found it soporific--this pure, dry, warm wind. And I thought there +could be no greater delight in existence than to lie down at night, +with all the windows open,--and the Cross of the South visible from +my pillow,--and the sea-wind pouring over the bed,--and the tumultuous +whispering and muttering of the surf in one's ears,--to dream of that +strange sapphire sea white-bursting over its beach of black sand. + + + +V. + + +Considering that Grande Anse lies almost opposite to St. Pierre, at a +distance of less than twenty miles even by the complicated windings of +the national road, the differences existing in the natural conditions +of both places are remarkable enough. Nobody in St. Pierre sees the +sun rise, because the mountains immediately behind the city continue to +shadow its roofs long after the eastern coast is deluged with light and +heat. At Grande Anse, on the other hand, those tremendous sunsets which +delight west coast dwellers are not visible at all; and during the +briefer West Indian days Grande Anse is all wrapped in darkness as early +as half-past four,--or nearly an hour before the orange light has ceased +to flare up the streets of St. Pierre from the sea;--since the great +mountain range topped by Pelee cuts off all the slanting light from the +east valleys. And early as folks rise in St. Pierre, they rise still +earlier at Grande Anse--before the sun emerges from the rim of the +Atlantic: about half-past four, doors are being opened and coffee is +ready. At St. Pierre one can enjoy a sea bath till seven or half-past +seven o'clock, even during the time of the sun's earliest rising, +because the shadow of the mornes still reaches out upon the bay;--but +bathers leave the black beach of Grande Anse by six o'clock; for once +the sun's face is up, the light, levelled straight at the eyes, becomes +blinding. Again, at St. Pierre it rains almost every twenty-four hours +for a brief while, during at least the greater part of the year; at +Grande Anse it rains more moderately and less often. The atmosphere at +St. Pierre is always more or less impregnated with vapor, and usually +an enervating heat prevails, which makes exertion unpleasant; at +Grande Anse the warm wind keeps the skin comparatively dry, in spite +of considerable exercise. It is quite rare to see a heavy surf at St, +Pierre, but it is much rarer not to see it at Grande Anse.... A curious +fact concerning custom is that few white creoles care to bathe in front +of the town, notwithstanding the superb beach and magnificent surf, both +so inviting to one accustomed to the deep still water and rough +pebbly shore of St, Pierre. The creoles really prefer their rivers as +bathing-places; and when willing to take a sea bath, they will walk up +and down hill for kilometres in order to reach some river mouth, so as +to wash off in the fresh-water afterwards. They say that the effect +of sea-salt upon the skin gives _bouton chauds_ (what we call "prickly +heat"). Friends took me all the way to the mouth of the Lorrain one +morning that I might have the experience of such a double bath; but +after leaving the tepid sea, I must confess the plunge into the river +was something terrible--an icy shock which cured me of all further +desire for river baths. My willingness to let the sea-water dry upon me +was regarded as an eccentricity. + + + +VI. + + +It may be said that on all this coast the ocean, perpetually moved by +the blowing of the trade-winds, never rests--never hushes its roar, Even +in the streets of Grande Anse, one must in breezy weather lift one's +voice above the natural pitch to be heard; and then the breakers come in +lines more than a mile long, between the Pointe du Rochet and the Pointe +de Seguinau,--every unfurling thunder-clap. There is no travelling by +sea. All large vessels keep well away from the dangerous coast. There +is scarcely any fishing; and although the sea is thick with fish, fresh +fish at Grande Anse is a rare luxury. Communication with St. Pierre is +chiefly by way of the national road, winding over mountain ridges two +thousand feet high; and the larger portion of merchandise is transported +from the chief city on the heads of young women. The steepness of the +route soon kills draught-horses and ruins the toughest mules. At +one time the managers of a large estate at Grande Anse attempted the +experiment of sending their sugar to St. Pierre in iron carts, drawn +by five mules; but the animals could not endure the work. Cocoa can be +carried to St. Pierre by the porteuses, but sugar and rum must go by +sea, or not at all; and the risk and difficulties of shipping these +seriously affect the prosperity of all the north and north-east coast. +Planters have actually been ruined by inability to send their products +to market during a protracted spell of rough weather. A railroad +has been proposed and planned: in a more prosperous era it might be +constructed, with the result of greatly developing all the Atlantic side +of the island, and converting obscure villages into thriving towns. + +Sugar is very difficult to ship; rum and tafia can be handled with less +risk. It is nothing less than exciting to watch a shipment of tafia from +Grande Anse to St. Pierre. + +A little vessel approaches the coast with extreme caution, and anchors +in the bay some hundred yards beyond the breakers. She is what they call +a _pirogue_ here, but not at all what is called a pirogue in the United +States: she has a long narrow hull, two masts, no deck; she has usually +a crew of five, and can carry thirty barrels of tafia. One of the +pirogue men puts a great shell to his lips and sounds a call, very +mellow and deep, that can be heard over the roar of the waves far up +among the hills. The shell is one of those great spiral shells, weighing +seven or eight pounds--rolled like a scroll, fluted and scalloped about +the edges, and pink-pearled inside,--such as are sold in America for +mantle-piece ornaments,--the shell of a _lambi_. Here you can often +see the lambi crawling about with its nacreous house upon its back: an +enormous sea-snail with a yellowish back and rose-colored belly, with +big horns and eyes in the tip of each horn--very pretty yes, having a +golden iris. This creature is a common article of food; but Its thick +white flesh is almost compact as cartilage, and must be pounded before +being cooked. [4] + +At the sound of the blowing of the lambi-shell, wagons descend to the +beach, accompanied by young colored men running beside the mules. +Each wagon discharges a certain number of barrels of tafia, and +simultaneously the young men strip. They are slight, well built, and +generally well muscled. Each man takes a barrel of tafia, pushes +it before him into the surf, and then begins to swim to the +pirogue,--impelling the barrel before him. I have never seen a swimmer +attempt to convey more than one barrel at a time; but I am told there +are experts who manage as many as three barrels together,--pushing them +forward in line, with the head of one against the bottom of the next. It +really requires much dexterity and practice to handle even one barrel +or cask. As the swimmer advances he keeps close as possible to his +charge,--so as to be able to push it forward with all his force against +each breaker in succession,--making it dive through. If it once glide +well out of his reach while he is in the breakers, it becomes an enemy, +and he must take care to keep out of its way,--for if a wave throws +it at him, or rolls it over him, he may be seriously injured; but the +expert seldom abandons a barrel. Under the most favorable conditions, +man and barrel will both disappear a score of times before the +clear swells are reached, after which the rest of the journey is not +difficult. Men lower ropes from the pirogue, the swimmer passes them +under his barrel, and it is hoisted aboard. + +... Wonderful surf-swimmers these men are;--they will go far out for +mere sport in the roughest kind of a sea, when the waves, abnormally +swollen by the peculiar conformation of the bay, come rolling in thirty +and forty feet high. Sometimes, with the swift impulse of ascending +a swell, the swimmer seems suspended in air as it passes beneath him, +before he plunges into the trough beyond. The best swimmer is a young +capre who cannot weigh more than a hundred and twenty pounds. Few of the +Grande Anse men are heavily built; they do not compare for stature and +thew with those longshoremen at St. Pierre who can be seen any busy +afternoon on the landing, lifting heavy barrels at almost the full reach +of their swarthy arms. + +... There is but one boat owned in the whole parish of Grande Anse,--a +fact due to the continual roughness of the sea. It has a little mast and +sail, and can hold only three men. When the water is somewhat less angry +than usual, a colored crew take it out for a fishing expedition. There +is always much interest in this event; a crowd gathers on the beach; +and the professional swimmers help to bring the little craft beyond the +breakers. When the boat returns after a disappearance of several hours, +everybody runs down from the village to meet it. Young colored women +twist their robes up about their hips, and wade out to welcome it: there +is a display of limbs of all colors on such occasions, which is not +without grace, that untaught grace which tempts an artistic pencil. +Every _bonne_ and every house-keeper struggles for the first chance to +buy the fish;--young girls and children dance in the water for delight, +all screaming, "_Rhale bois-canot!_"... Then as the boat is pulled +through the surf and hauled up on the sand, the pushing and screaming +and crying become irritating and deafening; the fishermen lose patience +and say terrible things. But nobody heeds them in the general clamoring +and haggling and furious bidding for the _pouesson-ououge_, the +_dorades_, the _volants_ (beautiful purple-backed flying-fish +with silver bellies, and fins all transparent, like the wings of +dragon-flies). There is great bargaining even for a young shark,--which +makes very nice eating cooked after the creole fashion. So seldom can +the fishermen venture out that each trip makes a memorable event for the +village. + +The St. Pierre fishermen very seldom approach the bay, but they do much +fishing a few miles beyond it, almost in front of the Pointe du Rochet +and the Roche a Bourgaut. There the best flying-fish are caught,--and +besides edible creatures, many queer things are often brought up by the +nets: monstrosities such as the _coffre_-fish, shaped almost like a box, +of which the lid is represented by an extraordinary conformation of +the jaws;--and the _barrique-de-vin_ ("wine cask"), with round boneless +body, secreting in a curious vesicle a liquor precisely resembling wine +lees;--and the "needle-fish" (_aiguille de mer_), less thick than a +Faber lead-pencil, but more than twice as long;--and huge cuttle-fish +and prodigious eels. One conger secured off this coast measured over +twenty feet in length, and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds--a +veritable sea-serpent.... But even the fresh-water inhabitants of Grande +Anse are amazing. I have seen crawfish by actual measurement fifty +centimetres long, but these were not considered remarkable. Many are +said to much exceed two feet from the tail to the tip of the claws and +horns. They are of an iron-black color, and have formidable pincers with +serrated edges and tip-points inwardly converging, which cannot crush +like the weapons of a lobster, but which will cut the flesh and make a +small ugly wound. At first sight one not familiar with the crawfish +of these regions can hardly believe he is not viewing some variety of +gigantic lobster instead of the common fresh-water crawfish of the east +coast. When the head, tail, legs, and cuirass have all been removed, +after boiling, the curved trunk has still the size and weight of a large +pork sausage. + +These creatures are trapped by lantern-light. Pieces of manioc root +tied fast to large bowlders sunk in the river are the only bait;--the +crawfish will flock to eat it upon any dark night, and then they are +caught with scoop-nets and dropped into covered baskets. + + + +VII. + + +One whose ideas of the people of Grande Anse had I been formed only by +observing the young porteuses of the region on their way to the other +side of the Island, might expect on reaching this little town to find +its population yellow as that of a Chinese city. But the dominant hue is +much darker, although the mixed element is everywhere visible; and I +was at first surprised by the scarcity of those clear bright skins I +supposed to be so numerous. Some pretty children--notably a pair of +twin-sisters, and perhaps a dozen school-girls from eight to ten years +of age--displayed the same characteristics I have noted in the adult +porteuses of Grande Anse; but within the town itself this brighter +element is in the minority. The predominating race element of the whole +commune is certainly colored (Grande Anse is even memorable because of +the revolt of its _hommes de couleur_ some fifty years ago);--but the +colored population is not concentrated in the town; it belongs rather +to the valleys and the heights surrounding the _chef-lieu_. Most of the +porteuses are country girls, and I found that even those living in the +village are seldom visible on the streets except when departing upon a +trip or returning from one. An artist wishing to study the type might, +however, pass a day at the bridge of the Riviere Falaise to advantage, +as all the carrier-girls pass it at certain hours of the morning and +evening. + +But the best possible occasion on which to observe what my friend the +baker called _la belle jeunesse_, is a confirmation day,--when the +bishop drives to Grande Anse over the mountains, and all the population +turns out in holiday garb, and the bells are tapped like tam-tams, and +triumphal arches--most awry to behold!--span the road-way, bearing in +clumsiest lettering the welcome, _Vive Monseigneur_. On that event, +the long procession of young girls to be confirmed--all in white robes, +white veils, and white satin slippers--is a numerical surprise. It is +a moral surprise also,--to the stranger at least; for it reveals the +struggle of a poverty extraordinary with the self-imposed obligations of +a costly ceremonialism. + +No white children ever appear in these processions: there are not half +a dozen white families in the whole urban population of about seven +thousand souls; and those send their sons and daughters to St. Pierre or +Morne Rouge for their religious training and education. But many of +the colored children look very charming in their costume of +confirmation;--you could not easily recognize one of them as the same +little _bonne_ who brings your morning cup of coffee, or another as the +daughter of a plantation _commandeur_ (overseer's assistant),--a brown +slip of a girl who will probably never wear shoes again. And many of +those white shoes and white veils have been obtained only by the hardest +physical labor and self-denial of poor parents and relatives: fathers, +brothers, and mothers working with cutlass and hoe in the snake-swarming +cane-fields;--sisters walking bare-footed every day to St. Pierre and +back to earn a few francs a month. + +[Illustration: A CONFIRMATION PROCESSION.] + +... While watching such a procession it seemed to me that I could +discern in the features and figures of the young confirmants something +of a prevailing type and tint, and I asked an old planter beside me if +he thought my impression correct. + +"Partly," he answered; "there is certainly a tendency towards an +attractive physical type here, but the tendency itself is less stable +than you imagine; it has been changed during the last twenty years +within my own recollection. In different parts of the island particular +types appear and disappear with a generation. There is a sort of +race-fermentation going on, which gives no fixed result of a positive +sort for any great length of time. It is true that certain elements +continue to dominate in certain communes, but the particular +characteristics come and vanish in the most mysterious way. As to color, +I doubt if any correct classification can be made, especially by a +stranger. Your eyes give you general ideas about a red type, a yellow +type, a brown type; but to the more experienced eyes of a creole, +accustomed to live in the country districts, every individual of mixed +race appears to have a particular color of his own. Take, for instance, +the so-called capre type, which furnishes the finest physical examples +of all,--you, a stranger, are at once impressed by the general red tint +of the variety; but you do not notice the differences of that tint +in different persons, which are more difficult to observe than +shade-differences of yellow or brown. Now, to me, every capre or +capresse has an individual color; and I do not believe that in all +Martinique there are two half-breeds--not having had the same father and +mother--in whom the tint is precisely the same." + + + +VIII. + + +I thought Grande Anse the most sleepy place I had ever visited. I +suspect it is one of the sleepiest in the whole world. The wind, +which tans even a creole of St. Pierre to an unnatural brown within +forty-eight hours of his sojourn in the village, has also a peculiarly +somnolent effect. The moment one has nothing particular to do, and +ventures to sit down idly with the breeze in one's face, slumber comes; +and everybody who can spare the time takes a long nap in the afternoon, +and little naps from hour to hour. For all that, the heat of the east +coast is not enervating, like that of St. Pierre; one can take a great +deal of exercise in the sun without feeling much the worse. Hunting +excursions, river fishing parties, surf-bathing, and visits to +neighboring plantations are the only amusements; but these are enough to +make existence very pleasant at Grande Anse. The most interesting of my +own experiences were those of a day passed by invitation at one of the +old colonial estates on the hills near the village. + +It is not easy to describe the charm of a creole interior, whether in +the city or the country. The cool shadowy court, with its wonderful +plants and fountain of sparkling mountain water, or the lawn, with its +ancestral trees,--the delicious welcome of the host, whose fraternal +easy manner immediately makes you feel at home,--the coming of the +children to greet you, each holding up a velvety brown cheek to be +kissed, after the old-time custom,--the romance of the unconventional +chat, over a cool drink, under the palms and the ceibas,--the visible +earnestness of all to please the guest, to inwrap him in a very +atmosphere of quiet happiness,--combine to make a memory which you will +never forget. And maybe you enjoy all this upon some exquisite site, +some volcanic summit, overlooking slopes of a hundred greens,--mountains +far winding in blue and pearly shadowing,--rivers singing seaward behind +curtains of arborescent reeds and bamboos,--and, perhaps, Pelee, in +the horizon, dreaming violet dreams under her foulard of vapors,--and, +encircling all, the still sweep of the ocean's azure bending to the +verge of day. + +... My host showed or explained to me all that he thought might interest +a stranger. He had brought to me a nest of the _carouge_, a bird +which suspends its home, hammock-fashion, under the leaves of the +banana-tree;--showed me a little fer-de-lance, freshly killed by one of +his field hands; and a field lizard (_zanoli te_ in creole), not green +like the lizards which haunt the roofs of St. Pierre, but of a beautiful +brown bronze, with shifting tints; and eggs of the _zanoli_, little soft +oval things from which the young lizards will perhaps run out alive as +fast as you open the shells; and the _matoutou falaise_, or spider of +the cliffs, of two varieties, red or almost black when adult, and bluish +silvery tint when young,--less in size than the tarantula, but +equally hairy and venomous; and the _crabe-c'est-ma-faute_ (the +"Through-my-fault Crab"), having one very small and one very large +claw, which latter it carries folded up against its body, so as to have +suggested the idea of a penitent striking his bosom, and uttering the +sacramental words of the Catholic confession, "Through my fault, through +my fault, through my most grievous fault."... Indeed I cannot recollect +one-half of the queer birds, queer insects, queer reptiles, and queer +plants to which my attention was called. But speaking of plants, I +was impressed by the profusion of the _zhebe-moin-mise_--a little +sensitive-plant I had rarely observed on the west coast. On the +hill-sides of Grande Anse it prevails to such an extent as to +give certain slopes its own peculiar greenish-brown color. It has +many-branching leaves, only one inch and a half to two inches long, but +which recall the form of certain common ferns; these lie almost flat +upon the ground. They fold together upward from the central stem at the +least touch, and the plant thus makes itself almost imperceptible;--it +seems to live so, that you feel guilty of murder if you break off a +leaf. It is called _Zhebe-moin-mise_, or "Plant-did-I-amuse-myself," +because it is supposed to tell naughty little children who play truant, +or who delay much longer than is necessary in delivering a message, +whether they deserve a whipping or not. The guilty child touches the +plant, and asks, "_Ess moin amise moin?_" (Did I amuse myself?); and if +the plant instantly shuts its leaves up, that means, "Yes, you did." Of +course the leaves invariably close; but I suspect they invariably tell +the truth, for all colored children, in Grande Anse at least, are much +more inclined to play than work. + +The kind old planter likewise conducted me over the estate. He took +me through the sugar-mill, and showed me, among other more recent +inventions, some machinery devised nearly two centuries ago by the +ingenious and terrible Pere Labat, and still quite serviceable, in +spite of all modern improvements in sugar-making;--took me through the +_rhummerie_, or distillery, and made me taste some colorless rum which +had the aroma and something of the taste of the most delicate gin;--and +finally took me into the _cases-a-vent_, or "wind-houses,"--built as +places of refuge during hurricanes. Hurricanes are rare, and more rare +in this century by far than during the previous one; but this part of +the island is particularly exposed to such visitations, and almost every +old plantation used to have one or two cases-a-vent. They were +always built in a hollow, either natural or artificial, below the +land-level,--with walls of rock several feet thick, and very strong +doors, but no windows. My host told me about the experiences of his +family in some case-a-vent during a hurricane which he recollected. It +was found necessary to secure the door within by means of strong ropes; +and the mere task of holding it taxed the strength of a dozen powerful +men: it would bulge in under the pressure of the awful wind,--swelling +like the side of a barrel; and had not its planks been made of a wood +tough as hickory, they would have been blown into splinters. + +I had long desired to examine a plantation drum, and see it played +upon under conditions more favorable than the excitement of a holiday +_caleinda_ in the villages, where the amusement is too often terminated +by a _voum_ (general row) or a _goumage_ (a serious fight);--and when +I mentioned this wish to the planter he at once sent word to his +commandeur, the best drummer in the settlement, to come up to the +house and bring his instrument with him. I was thus enabled to make the +observations necessary, and also to take an instantaneous photograph of +the drummer in the very act of playing. + +The old African dances, the _caleinda_ and the _bele_ (which latter is +accompanied by chanted improvisation) are danced on Sundays to the sound +of the drum on almost every plantation in the island. The drum, indeed, +is an instrument to which the country-folk are so much attached that +they swear by it,--_Tambou!_ being the oath uttered upon all ordinary +occasions of surprise or vexation. But the instrument is quite as often +called _ka_, because made out of a quarter-barrel, or _quart_,--in the +patois "ka." Both ends of the barrel having been removed, a wet hide, +well wrapped about a couple of hoops, is driven on, and in drying the +stretched skin obtains still further tension. The other end of the ka +is always left open. Across the face of the skin a string is tightly +stretched, to which are attached, at intervals of about an inch apart, +very short thin fragments of bamboo or cut feather stems. These lend a +certain vibration to the tones. + +In the time of Pere Labat the negro drums had a somewhat different form. +There were then two kinds of drums--a big tamtam and a little one, which +used to be played together. Both consisted of skins tightly stretched +over one end of a wooden cylinder, or a section of hollow tree trunk. +The larger was from three to four feet long with a diameter of fifteen +to sixteen inches; the smaller, called _baboula_, [5] was of the same +length, but only eight or nine inches in diameter. + +Pere Labat also speaks, in his West Indian travels, of another musical +instrument, very popular among the Martinique slaves of his time--"a +sort of guitar" made out of a half-calabash or _coui_, covered with some +kind of skin. It had four strings of silk or catgut, and a very long +neck. The tradition or this African instrument is said to survive in the +modern "_banza_" (_banza neg Guinee_). + +The skilful player (_bel tambouye_) straddles his ka stripped to +the waist, and plays upon it with the finger-tips of both hands +simultaneously,--taking care that the vibrating string occupies a +horizontal position. Occasionally the heel of the naked foot is pressed +lightly or vigorously against the skin, so as to produce changes +of tone. This is called "giving heel" to the drum--_baill y talon_. +Meanwhile a boy keeps striking the drum at the uncovered end with a +stick, so as to produce a dry clattering accompaniment. The sound of the +drum itself, well played, has a wild power that makes and masters all +the excitement of the dance--a complicated double roll, with a +peculiar billowy rising and falling. The creole onomatopes, +_b'lip-b'lib-b'lib-b'lip_, do not fully render the roll;--for each +_b'lip_ or _b'lib_ stands really for a series of sounds too rapidly +filliped out to be imitated by articulate speech. The tapping of a ka +can be heard at surprising distances; and experienced players often play +for hours at a time without exhibiting wearisomeness, or in the least +diminishing the volume of sound produced. + +It seems there are many ways of playing--different measures familiar to +all these colored people, but not easily distinguished by anybody else; +and there are great matches sometimes between celebrated _tambouye_. The +same _commande_ whose portrait I took while playing told me that he once +figured in a contest of this kind, his rival being a drummer from the +neighboring burgh of Marigot.... "_Aie, aie, yaie! mon che!--y fai +tambou-a pale!_" said the commande, describing the execution of his +antagonist;--"my dear, he just made that drum talk! I thought I was +going to be beaten for sure; I was trembling all the time--_aie, aie, +yaie!_ Then he got off that ka, mounted it; I thought a moment; then I +struck up the 'River-of-the-Lizard,'--_mais, mon che, yon larivie-Leza +toutt pi!_--such a River-of-the-Lizard, ah! just perfectly pure! I gave +heel to that ka; I worried that ka;--I made it mad--I made it crazy;--I +made it talk;--I won!" + +During some dances a sort of chant accompanies the music--a long +sonorous cry, uttered at intervals of seven eight seconds, which +perfectly times a particular measure in the drum roll. It may be the +burden of a song: a mere improvisation: + + "Oh! yoie-yoie!" + (Drum roll.) + "Oh! missie-a!" + (Drum roll.) + "Y bel tambouye!" + (Drum roll.) + "Aie, ya, yaie!" + (Drum roll.) + "Joli tambouye!" + (Drum roll.) + "Chauffe tambou-a!" + (Drum roll.) + "Gene tambou-a!" + (Drum roll.) + "Craze tambou-a!" etc., etc. + +... The _crieur_, or chanter, is also the leader of the dance. The +caleinda is danced by men only, all stripped to the waist, and twirling +heavy sticks in a mock fight, Sometimes, however--especially at +the great village gatherings, when the blood becomes oyerheated by +tafia--the mock fight may become a real one; and then even cutlasses are +brought into play. + +But in the old days, those improvisations which gave one form of dance +its name, _bele_ (from the French _bel air_), were often remarkable +rhymeless poems, uttered with natural simple emotion, and full of +picturesque imagery. I cite part of one, taken down from the dictation +of a common field-hand near Fort-de-France. I offer a few lines of the +creole first, to indicate the form of the improvisation. There is a +dancing pause at the end of each line during the performance: + + Toutt fois lanmou vini lacase moin + Pou pale moin, moin ka reponne: + "Khe moin deja place," + Moin ka crie, "Secou! les voisinages!" + Moin ka crie, "Secou! la gade royale!" + Moin ka crie, "Secou! la gendamerie! + Lanmou pouend yon poigna pou poignade moin!" + +The best part of the composition, which is quite long, might be rendered +as follows: + + Each time that Love comes to my cabin + To speak to me of love I make answer, + "My heart is already placed," + I cry out, "Help, neighbors! help!" + I cry out, "Help, _la Garde Royale!_" + I cry out, "Help, help, gendarmes! + Love takes a poniard to stab me; + How can Love have a heart so hard + To thus rob me of my health!" + When the officer of police comes to me + To hear me tell him the truth, + To have him arrest my Love;-- + When I see the Garde Royale + Coming to arrest my sweet heart, + I fall down at the feet of the Garde Royale,-- + I pray for mercy and forgiveness. + "Arrest me instead, but let my dear Love go!" + How, alas! with this tender heart of mine, + Can I bear to see such an arrest made! + No, no! I would rather die! + Dost not remember, when our pillows lay close together, + How we told each to the other all that our hearts thought?... etc. + +[Illustration: MANNER OF PLAYING THE KA] + +The stars were all out when I bid my host good-bye;--he sent his lack +servant along with me to carry a lantern and keep a sharp watch for +snakes along the mountain road. + + + +IX. + + +... Assuredly the city of St. Pierre never could have seemed more +quaintly beautiful than as I saw it on the evening of my return, while +the shadows were reaching their longest, and sea and sky were turning +lilac. Palm-heads were trembling and masts swaying slowly against an +enormous orange sunset,--yet the beauty of the sight did not touch me! +The deep level and luminous flood of the bay seemed to me for the first +time a dead water;--I found myself wondering whether it could form +a part of that living tide by which I had been dwelling, full of +foam-lightnings and perpetual thunder. I wondered whether the air about +me--heavy and hot and full of faint leafy smells--could ever have been +touched by the vast pure sweet breath of the wind from the sunrising. +And I became conscious of a profound, unreasoning, absurd regret for the +somnolent little black village of that bare east coast,--where there are +no woods, no ships, no sunsets,...only the ocean roaring forever over +its beach of black sand. + + + + +CHAPTER III. --UN REVENANT + + + +I. + + +He who first gave to Martinique its poetical name, _Le Pays des +Revenants_, thought of his wonderful island only as "The Country of +Comers-back," where Nature's unspeakable spell bewitches wandering souls +like the caress of a Circe,--never as the Land of Ghosts. Yet either +translation of the name holds equal truth: a land of ghosts it is, +this marvellous Martinique! Almost every plantation has its familiar +spirits,--its phantoms: some may be unknown beyond the particular +district in which fancy first gave them being;--but some belong to +popular song and story,--to the imaginative life of the whole people. +Almost every promontory and peak, every village and valley along the +coast, has its special folk-lore, its particular tradition. The legend +of Thomasseau of Perinnelle, whose body was taken out of the coffin +and carried away by the devil through a certain window of the +plantation-house, which cannot be closed up by human power;--the +Demarche legend of the spectral horseman who rides up the hill on bright +hot days to seek a friend buried more than a hundred years ago;--the +legend of the _Habitation Dillon_, whose proprietor was one night +mysteriously summoned from a banquet to disappear forever;--the +legend of l'Abbe Piot, who cursed the sea with the curse of perpetual +unrest;--the legend of Aimee Derivry of Robert, captured by Barbary +pirates, and sold to become a Sultana-Valide-(she never existed, +though you can find an alleged portrait in M. Sidney Daney's history of +Martinique): these and many similar tales might be told to you even on +a journey from St. Pierre to Fort-de-France, or from Lamentin to La +Trinite, according as a rising of some peak into view, or the sudden +opening of an _anse_ before the vessel's approach, recalls them to a +creole companion. + +And new legends are even now being made; for in this remote colony, to +which white immigration has long ceased,--a country so mountainous that +people are born (and buried) in the same valley without ever seeing towns +but a few hours' journey beyond their native hills, and that distinct +racial types are forming within three leagues of each other,--the memory +of an event or of a name which has had influence enough to send one echo +through all the forty-nine miles of peaks and craters is apt to create +legend within a single generation. Nowhere in the world, perhaps, is +popular imagination more oddly naive and superstitious; nowhere are +facts more readily exaggerated or distorted into unrecognizability; and +the forms of any legend thus originated become furthermore specialized +in each separate locality where it obtains a habitat. On tracing back +such a legend or tradition to its primal source, one feels amazed at the +variety of the metamorphoses which the simplest fact may rapidly assume +in the childish fancy of this people. + +I was first incited to make an effort in this direction by hearing +the remarkable story of "Missie Bon." No legendary expression is more +wide-spread throughout the country than _temps coudvent Missie Bon_ +(in the time of the big wind of Monsieur Bon). Whenever a hurricane +threatens, you will hear colored folks expressing the hope that it may +not be like the _coudvent Missie Bon_. And some years ago, in all the +creole police-courts, old colored witnesses who could not tell their age +would invariably try to give the magistrate some idea of it by referring +to the never-to-be-forgotten _temps coudvent Missie Bon_. + +... "_Temps coudvent Missie Bon, moin te ka tete enco_" (I was a child +at the breast in the time of the big wind of Missie Bon); or "_Temps +coudvent Missie Bon, moin te toutt piti manmaill,--moin ka souvini y +pouend caiie manman moin pote alle._" (I was a very, very little child in +the time of the big wind of Missie Bon,--but I remember it blew mamma's +cabin away.) The magistrates of those days knew the exact date of the +_coudvent_. + +But all could learn about Missie Bon among the country-folk was this: +Missie Bon used to be a great slave-owner and a cruel master. He was a +very wicked man. And he treated his slaves so terribly that at last the +Good-God (_Bon-Die_) one day sent a great wind which blew away Missie +Bon and Missie Bon's house and everybody in it, so that nothing was ever +heard of them again. + +It was not without considerable research that I suceeded at last in +finding some one able to give me the true facts in the case of Monsieur +Bon. My informant was a charming old gentleman, who represents a New +York company in the city of St. Pierre, and who takes more interest in +the history of his native island than creoles usually do. He laughed +at the legend I had found, but informed me that I could trace it, with +slight variations, through nearly every canton of Martinique. + +"And now" he continued "I can tell you the real history of 'Missie +Bon'--for he was an old friend of my grandfather; and my grandfather +related it to me. + +"It may have been in 1809--I can give you the exact date by reference to +some old papers if necessary--Monsieur Bon was Collector of Customs at +St. Pierre: and my grandfather was doing business in the Grande Rue. +A certain captain, whose vessel had been consigned to my grandfather, +invited him and the collector to breakfast in his cabin. My grandfather +was so busy he could not accept the invitation;--but Monsieur Bon went +with the captain on board the bark." + +... "It was a morning like this; the sea was just as blue and the sky as +clear. All of a sudden, while they were at breakfast, the sea began to +break heavily without a wind, and clouds came up, with every sign of a +hurricane. The captain was obliged to sacrifice his anchor; there was +no time to land his guest: he hoisted a little jib and top-gallant, and +made for open water, taking Monsieur Bon with him. Then the hurricane +came; and from that day to this nothing has ever been heard of the bark +nor of the captain nor of Monsieur Bon." [6] + +"But did Monsieur Bon ever do anything to deserve the reputation he has +left among the people?" I asked. + +"_Ah! le pauvre vieux corps_!... A kind old soul who never uttered a +harsh word to human being;--timid,--good-natured,--old-fashioned even +for those old-fashioned days.... Never had a slave in his life!" + + + +II. + + +The legend of "Missie Bon" had prepared me to hear without surprise the +details of a still more singular tradition,--that of Father Labat.... +I was returning from a mountain ramble with my guide, by way of the +Ajoupa-Bouillon road;--the sun had gone down; there remained only a +blood-red glow in the west, against which the silhouettes of the hills +took a velvety blackness indescribably soft; the stars were beginning +to twinkle out everywhere through the violet. Suddenly I noticed on the +flank of a neighboring morne--which I remembered by day as an apparently +uninhabitable wilderness of bamboos, tree-ferns, and balisiers--a +swiftly moving point of yellow light. My guide had observed it +simultaneously;--he crossed himself, and exclaimed: + +"_Moin ka coue c'est fanal Pe Labatt!_" (I believe it is the lantern of +Pere Labat.) + +"Does he live there?" I innocently inquired. + +"Live there?--why he has been dead hundreds of years!... _Ouill!_ you +never heard of Pe Labatt?"... + +"Not the same who wrote a book about Martinique?" + +"Yes,--himself.... They say he comes back at night. Ask mother about +him;--she knows."... + +...I questioned old Thereza as soon as we reached home; and she told +me all she knew about "Pe Labatt." I found that the father had left +a reputation far more wide-spread than the recollection of "Missie +Bon,"--that his memory had created, in fact, the most impressive legend +in all Martinique folk-lore. + +"Whether you really saw Pe Labatt's lantern," said old Thereza, "I +do not know;--there are a great many queer lights to be seen after +nightfall among these mornes. Some are zombi-fires; and some are +lanterns carried by living men; and some are lights burning in ajoupas +so high up that you can only see a gleam coming through the trees now +and then. It is not everybody who sees the lantern of Pe Labatt; and it +is not good-luck to see it. + +"Pe Labatt was a priest who lived here hundreds of years ago; and he +wrote a book about what he saw. He was the first person to introduce +slavery into Martinique; and it is thought that is why he comes back at +night. It is his penance for having established slavery here. + +"They used to say, before 1848, that when slavery should be abolished, +Pe Labatt's light would not be seen any more. But I can remember very +well when slavery was abolished; and I saw the light many a time after. +It used to move up the Morne d'Orange every clear night;--I could see it +very well from my window when I lived in St. Pierre. You knew it was Pe +Labatt, because the light passed up places where no man could walk. +But since the statue of Notre Dame de la Garde was placed on the Morne +d'Orange, people tell me that the light is not seen there any more. + +"But it is seen elsewhere; and it is not good-luck to see it. Everybody +is afraid of seeing it.... And mothers tell their children, when +the little ones are naughty: '_Mi! moin ke fai Pe Labatt vini pouend +ou,--oui!_' (I will make Pe Labatt come and take you away.)".... + +What old Thereza stated regarding the establishment of slavery in +Martinique by Pere Labat, I knew required no investigation,--inasmuch +as slavery was a flourishing institution in the time of Pere Dutertre, +another Dominican missionary and historian, who wrote his book,--a queer +book in old French, [7] --before Labat was born. + +But it did not take me long to find out that such was the general belief +about Pere Labat's sin and penance, and to ascertain that his name is +indeed used to frighten naughty children. _Eh! ti manmaille-la, moin +ke fai Pe Labatt vini pouend ou!_--is an exclamation often heard in the +vicinity of ajoupas just about the hour when all found a good little +children ought to be in bed and asleep. + +... The first variation of the legend I heard was on a plantation in the +neighborhood of Ajoupa-Bouillon. There I was informed that Pere Labat +had come to his death by the bite of a snake,--the hugest snake that +ever was seen in Martinique. Pere Labat had believed it possible to +exterminate the fer-de-lance, and had adopted extraordinary measures for +its destruction. On receiving his death-wound he exclaimed, "_C'est pe +toutt sepent qui te ka mode moin_" (It is the Father of all Snakes that +has bitten me); and he vowed that he would come back to destroy the +brood, and would haunt the island until there should be not one snake +left. And the light that moves about the peaks at night is the lantern +of Pere Labat still hunting for snakes. + +"_Ou pa pe suive ti limie-la piess!_" continued my informant. "You +cannot follow that little light at all;--when you first see it, it is +perhaps only a kilometre away; the next moment it is two, three, or four +kilometres away." + +I was also told that the light is frequently seen near Grande Anse, on +the other side of the island,--and on the heights of La Caravelle, the +long fantastic promontory that reaches three leagues into the sea south +of the harbor of La Trinite. [8] + +And on my return to St. Pierre I found a totally different version of +the legend;--my informant being one Manm-Robert, a kind old soul who +kept a little _boutique-lapacotte_ (a little booth where cooked food is +sold) near the precipitous Street of the Friendships. + +... "_Ah! Pe Labatt, oui!_" she exclaimed, at my first question,--"Pe +Labatt was a good priest who lived here very long ago. And they did +him a great wrong here;--they gave him a wicked _coup d'langue_ (tongue +wound); and the hurt given by an evil tongue is worse than a serpent's +bite. They lied about him; they slandered him until they got him sent +away from the country. But before the Government 'embarked' him, when he +got to that quay, he took off his shoe and he shook the dust of his shoe +upon that quay, and he said: 'I curse you, 0 Martinique!--I curse you! +There will be food for nothing, and your people will not even be able +to buy it! There will be clothing material for nothing, and your people +will not be able to get so much as one dress! And the children will beat +their mothers!... You banish me;--but I will come back again.'" [9] + +"And then what happened, Manm-Robert?" + +"_Eh! fouinq! che_, all that Pe Labatt said has come true. There is food +for almost nothing, and people are starving here in St. Pierre; there is +clothing for almost nothing, and poor girls cannot earn enough to buy +a dress. The pretty printed calicoes (_indiennes_) that used to be two +francs and a half the metre, now sell at twelve sous the metre; but +nobody has any money. And if you read our papers,--_Les Colonies, La +Defense Coloniale_,--you will find that there are sons wicked enough to +beat their mothers: _oui! yche ka batt manman!_ It is the malediction of +Pe Labatt." + +This was all that Manm-Robert could tell me. Who had related the +story to her? Her mother. Whence had her mother obtained it? From +her grandmother.... Subsequently I found many persons to confirm the +tradition of the curse,--precisely as Manm-Robert had related it. + +Only a brief while after this little interview I was invited to pass +an afternoon at the home of a gentleman residing upon the Morne d' +Orange,--the locality supposed to be especially haunted by Pere Labat. +The house of Monsieur M-- stands on the side of the hill, fully five +hundred feet up, and in a grove of trees: an antiquated dwelling, with +foundations massive as the walls of a fortress, and huge broad balconies +of stone. From one of these balconies there is a view of the city, the +harbor and Pelee, which I believe even those who have seen Naples would +confess to be one of the fairest sights in the world.... Towards evening +I obtained a chance to ask my kind host some questions about the legend +of his neighborhood. + +... "Ever since I was a child," observed Monsieur M--, "I heard it said +that Pere Labat haunted this mountain, and I often saw what was alleged +to be his light. It looked very much like a lantern swinging in the hand +of some one climbing the hill. A queer fact was that it used to come +from the direction of Carbet, skirt the Morne d'Orange a few hundred +feet above the road, and then move up the face of what seemed a sheer +precipice. Of course somebody carried that light,--probably a negro; and +perhaps the cliff is not so inaccessible as it looks: still, we could +never discover who the individual was, nor could we imagine what his +purpose might have been.... But the light has not been seen here now for +years." + + + +III. + + +And who was Pere Labat,--this strange priest whose memory, weirdly +disguised by legend, thus lingers in the oral literature of the colored +people? Various encyclopedias answer the question, but far less fully +and less interestingly than Dr. Rufz, the Martinique historian, whose +article upon him in the _Etudes Statistiques et Historiques_ has +that charm of sympathetic comprehension by which a master-biographer +sometimes reveals himself a sort of necromancer,--making us feel a +vanished personality with the power of a living presence. Yet even the +colorless data given by dictionaries of biography should suffice to +convince most readers that Jean-Baptiste Labat must be ranked among the +extraordinary men of his century. + +Nearly two hundred years ago--24th August, 1693--a traveller wearing +the white habit of the Dominican order, partly covered by a black camlet +overcoat, entered the city of Rochelle. He was very tall and robust, +with one of those faces, at once grave and keen, which bespeak great +energy and quick discernment. This was the Pere Labat, a native of +Paris, then in his thirtieth year. Half priest, half layman, one might +have been tempted to surmise from his attire; and such a judgement +would not have been unjust. Labat's character was too large for +his calling,--expanded naturally beyond the fixed limits of the +ecclesiastical life; and throughout the whole active part of his strange +career we find in him this dual character of layman and monk. He had +come to Rochelle to take passage for Martinique. Previously he had +been professor of philosophy and mathematics at Nancy. While watching a +sunset one evening from the window of his study, some one placed in his +hands a circular issued by the Dominicans of the French West Indies, +calling for volunteers. Death had made many wide gaps in their ranks; +and various misfortunes had reduced their finances to such an extent +that ruin threatened all their West Indian establishments. Labat, with +the quick decision of a mind suffering from the restraints of a life +too narrow for it, had at once resigned his professorship, and engaged +himself for the missions. + +... In those days, communication with the West Indies was slow, +irregular, and difficult. Labat had to wait at Rochelle six whole months +for a ship. In the convent at Rochelle, where he stayed, there were +others waiting for the same chance,--including several Jesuits and +Capuchins as well as Dominicans. These unanimously elected him their +leader,--a significant fact considering the mutual jealousy of the +various religious orders of that period, There was something in the +energy and frankness of Labat's character which seems to have naturally +gained him the confidence and ready submission of others. + +... They sailed in November; and Labat still found himself in the +position of a chief on board. His account of the voyage is amusing;--in +almost everything except practical navigation, he would appear to +have regulated the life of passengers and crew. He taught the captain +mathematics; and invented amusements of all kinds to relieve the +monotony of a two months' voyage. + +... As the ship approached Martinique from the north, Labat first beheld +the very grimmest part of the lofty coast,--the region of Macouba; +and the impression it made upon him was not pleasing. "The island," he +writes, "appeared to me all one frightful mountain, broken everywhere +by precipices: nothing about it pleased me except the verdure which +everywhere met the eye, and which seemed to me both novel and agreeable, +considering the time of the year." + +Almost immediately after his arrival he was sent by the Superior of the +convent to Macouba, for acclimation; Macouba then being considered the +healthiest part of the island. Whoever makes the journey on horseback +thither from St. Pierre to-day can testify to the exactitude of Labat's +delightful narrative of the trip. So little has that part of the +island changed since two centuries that scarcely a line of the father's +description would need correction to adopt it bodily for an account of a +ride to Macouba in 1889. + +At Macouba everybody welcomes him, pets him,--finally becomes +enthusiastic about him. He fascinates and dominates the little +community almost at first sight. "There is an inexpressible charm," +says Rufz,--commenting upon this portion of Labat's narrative,--"in the +novelty of relations between men: no one has yet been offended, no envy +has yet been excited;--it is scarcely possible even to guess whence that +ill-will you must sooner or later provoke is going to come from;--there +are no rivals;--there are no enemies. You are everybody's friend; and +many are hoping you will continue to be only theirs."... Labat knew +how to take legitimate advantage of this good-will;--he persuaded his +admirers to rebuild the church at Macouba, according to designs made by +himself. + +At Macouba, however, he was not permitted to sojourn as long as the good +people of the little burgh would have deemed even reasonable: he had +shown certain aptitudes which made his presence more than desirable at +Saint-Jacques, the great plantation of the order on the Capesterre, +or Windward coast. It was in debt for 700,000 pounds of sugar,--an +appalling condition in those days,--and seemed doomed to get more +heavily in debt every successive season. Labat inspected everything, and +set to work for the plantation, not merely as general director, but +as engineer, architect, machinist, inventor. He did really wonderful +things. You can see them for yourself if you ever go to Martinique; for +the old Dominican plantation-now Government property, and leased at an +annual rent of 50,000 francs--remains one of the most valuable in the +colonies because of Labat's work upon it. The watercourses directed by +him still excite the admiration of modern professors of hydraulics; the +mills he built or invented are still good;--the treatise he wrote on +sugar-making remained for a hundred and fifty years the best of its +kind, and the manual of French planters. In less than two years Labat +had not only rescued the plantation from bankruptcy, but had made it +rich; and if the monks deemed him veritably inspired, the test of +time throws no ridicule on their astonishment at the capacities of the +man.... Even now the advice he formulated as far back as 1720--about +secondary cultures,--about manufactories to establish,--about imports, +exports, and special commercial methods--has lost little of its value. + +Such talents could not fail to excite wide-spread admiration,--nor to +win for him a reputation in the colonies beyond precedent. He was wanted +everywhere.... Auger, the Governor of Guadeloupe, sent for him to +help the colonists in fortifying and defending the island against the +English; and we find the missionary quite as much at home in this new +role-building bastions, scarps, counterterscarps, ravelins, etc.--as +he seemed to be upon the plantation of Saint-Jacques. We find him +even taking part in an engagement;--himself conducting an artillery +duel,--loading, pointing, and firing no less than twelve times after the +other French gunners had been killed or driven from their posts. After a +tremendous English volley, one of the enemy cries out to him in French: +"White Father, have they told?" (_Pere Blanc, ont-ils porte?_) He +replies only after returning the fire with, a better-directed aim, and +then repeats the mocking question: "Have they told?" "Yes, they have," +confesses the Englishman, in surprised dismay; "but we will pay you back +for that!"... + +... Returning to Martinique with new titles to distinction, Labat was +made Superior of the order in that island, and likewise Vicar-Apostolic. +After building the Convent of the Mouillage, at St. Pierre, and many +other edifices, he undertook that series of voyages in the interests +of the Dominicans whereof the narration fills six ample volumes. As +a traveller Pere Labat has had few rivals in his own field;--no one, +indeed, seems to have been able to repeat some of his feats. All the +French and several of the English colonies were not merely visited by +him, but were studied in their every geographical detail. Travel in +the West Indies is difficult to a degree of which strangers have little +idea; but in the time of Pere Labat there were few roads,--and a far +greater variety of obstacles. I do not believe there are half a dozen +whites in Martinique who thoroughly know their own island,--who have +even travelled upon all its roads; but Labat knew it as he knew the palm +of his hand, and travelled where roads had never been made. Equally well +he knew Guadeloupe and other islands; and he learned all that it was +possible to learn in those years about the productions and resources of +the other colonies. He travelled with the fearlessness and examined +with the thoroughness of a Humboldt,--so far as his limited science +permitted: had he possessed the knowledge of modern naturalists and +geologists he would probably have left little for others to discover +after him. Even at the present time West Indian travellers are glad to +consult him for information. + +These duties involved prodigious physical and mental exertion, in a +climate deadly to Europeans. They also involved much voyaging in waters +haunted by filibusters and buccaneers. But nothing appears to daunt +Labat. As for the filibusters, he becomes their comrade and personal +friend;--he even becomes their chaplain, and does not scruple to make +excursions with them. He figures in several sea-fights;--on one occasion +he aids in the capture of two English vessels,--and then occupies +himself in making the prisoners, among whom are several ladies, enjoy +the event like a holiday. On another voyage Labat's vessel is captured +by a Spanish ship. At one moment sabres are raised above his head, and +loaded muskets levelled at his breast;--the next, every Spaniard is on +his knees, appalled by a cross that Labat holds before the eyes of the +captors,--the cross worn by officers of the Inquisition,--the terrible +symbol of the Holy Office. "It did not belong to me," he says, "but to +one of our brethren who had left it by accident among my effects." He +seems always prepared in some way to meet any possible emergency. +No humble and timid monk this: he has the frame and temper of those +medieval abbots who could don with equal indifference the helmet or +the cowl. He is apparently even more of a soldier than a priest. +When English corsairs attempt a descent on the Martinique coast at +Sainte-Marie they find Pere Labat waiting for them with all the negroes +of the Saint-Jacques plantation, to drive them back to their ships. + +For other dangers he exhibits absolute unconcern. He studies the +phenomena of hurricanes with almost pleasurable interest, while his +comrades on the ship abandon hope. When seized with yellow-fever, then +known as the Siamese Sickness (_mal de Siam_), he refuses to stay in bed +the prescribed time, and rises to say his mass. He faints at the altar; +yet a few days later we hear of him on horseback again, travelling over +the mountains in the worst and hottest season of the year.... + +... Labat was thirty years old when he went to the Antilles;--he was +only forty-two when his work was done. In less than twelve years he +made his order the most powerful and wealthy of any in the West +Indies,--lifted their property out of bankruptcy to rebuild it upon +a foundation of extraordinary prosperity. As Rufz observes without +exaggeration, the career of Pere Labat in the Antilles seems to more +than realize the antique legend of the labors of Hercules. Whithersoever +he went,--except in the English colonies,--his passage was memorialized +by the rising of churches, convents, and schools,--as well as mills, +forts, and refineries. Even cities claim him as their founder. The +solidity of his architectural creations is no less remarkable than their +excellence of design;--much of what he erected still remains; what has +vanished was removed by human agency, and not by decay; and when the old +Dominican church at St. Pierre had to be pulled down to make room for +a larger edifice, the workmen complained that the stones could not be +separated,--that the walls seemed single masses of rock. There can be +no doubt, moreover, that he largely influenced the life of the colonies +during those years, and expanded their industrial and commercial +capacities. + +He was sent on a mission to Rome after these things had been done, +and never returned from Europe. There he travelled more or less in +after-years; but finally settled at Paris, where he prepared and +published the voluminous narrative of his own voyages, and other curious +books;--manifesting as a writer the same tireless energy he had shown +in so many other capacities. He does not, however, appear to have +been happy. Again and again he prayed to be sent back to his beloved +Antilles, and for some unknown cause the prayer was always refused. To +such a character, the restraint of the cloister must have proved a slow +agony; but he had to endure it for many long years. He died at Paris in +1738, aged seventy-five. + +... It was inevitable that such a man should make bitter enemies: his +preferences, his position, his activity, his business shrewdness, his +necessary self-assertion, yet must have created secret hate and jealousy +even when open malevolence might not dare to show itself. And to +the these natural results of personal antagonism or opposition were +afterwards superadded various resentments--irrational, perhaps, but +extremely violent,--caused by the father's cynical frankness as a +writer. He spoke freely about the family origin and personal failings of +various colonists considered high personages in their own small world; +and to this day his book has an evil reputation undeserved in those old +creole communities, but where any public mention of a family scandal is +never just forgiven or forgotten.... But probably even before his work +appeared it had been secretly resolved that he should never be permitted +to return to Martinique or Guadeloupe after his European mission. +The exact purpose of the Government in this policy remains a +mystery,--whatever ingenious writers may have alleged to the contrary. +We only know that M. Adrien Dessalles,--the trustworthy historian of +Martinique,--while searching among the old _Archives de la Marine_, +found there a ministerial letter to the Intendant de Vaucresson in which +this statement occurs;-- + +... "Le Pere Labat shall never be suffered to return to the colonies, +whatever efforts he may make to obtain permission." + + + +IV. + + +One rises from the perusal of the "Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de +l'Amerique" with a feeling approaching regret; for although the six +pursy little volumes composing it--full of quaint drawings, plans, and +odd attempts at topographical maps--reveal a prolix writer, Pere +Labat is always able to interest. He reminds you of one of those slow, +precise, old-fashioned conversationalists who measure the weight of +every word and never leave anything to the imagination of the audience, +yet who invariably reward the patience of their listeners sooner or +later by reflections of surprising profundity or theories of a totally +novel description. But what particularly impresses the reader of these +volumes is not so much the recital of singular incidents and facts as +the revelation of the author's personality. Reading him, you divine a +character of enormous force,--gifted but unevenly balanced; singularly +shrewd in worldly affairs, and surprisingly credulous in other respects; +superstitious and yet cynical; unsympathetic by his positivism, but +agreeable through natural desire to give pleasure; just by nature, yet +capable of merciless severity; profoundly devout, but withal tolerant +for his calling and his time. He is sufficiently free from petty bigotry +to make fun of the scruples of his brethren in the matter of employing +heretics; and his account of the manner in which he secured the services +of a first-class refiner for the Martinique plantation at the Fond +Saint-Jacques is not the least amusing page in the book. He writes: "The +religious who had been appointed Superior in Guadeloupe wrote me that +he would find it difficult to employ this refiner because the man was +a Lutheran. This scruple gave me pleasure, as I had long wanted to have +have him upon our plantation in the Fond Saint-Jacques, but did not know +how I would be able to manage it! I wrote to the Superior at once that +all he had to do was to send the man to me, because it was a matter +of indifference to me whether the sugar he might make were Catholic or +Lutheran sugar, provided it were very white." [10] + +He displays equal frankness in confessing an error or a discomfiture. He +acknowledges that while Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy, he used +to teach that there were no tides in the tropics; and in a discussion as +to whether the _diablotin_ (a now almost extinct species of West Indian +nocturnal bird) were fish flesh, and might or might not be eaten in +Lent, he tells us that he was fairly worsted,--(although he could cite +the celebrated myth of the "barnacle-geese" as a "fact" in justification +of one's right to doubt the nature of diablotins). + +One has reason to suspect that Pere Labat, notwithstanding his +references to the decision of the Church that diablotins were not birds, +felt quite well assured within himself that they were. There is a sly +humor in his story of these controversies, which would appear to imply +that while well pleased at the decision referred to, he knew all +about diablotins. Moreover, the father betrays certain tendencies +to gormandize not altogether in harmony with the profession of an +ascetic.... There were parrots in nearly all of the French Antilles in +those days [11] and Pere Labat does not attempt to conceal his fondness +for cooked parrots. (He does not appear to have cared much for them as +pets: if they could not talk well, he condemned them forthwith to the +pot.) "They all live upon fruits and seeds," he writes, "and their flesh +contracts the odor and color of that particular fruit or seed they feed +upon. They become exceedingly fat in the season when the guavas are +ripe; and when they eat the seeds of the _Bois d'Inde_ they have an odor +of nutmeg and cloves which is delightful (_une odeur de muscade et +de girofle qui fait plaisir_)." He recommends four superior ways of +preparing them, as well as other fowls, for the table, of which the +first and the best way is "to pluck them alive, then to make them +swallow vinegar, and then to strangle them while they have the vinegar +still in their throats by twisting their necks"; and the fourth way is +"to skin them alive" (_de les ecorcher tout en vie_).... "It is certain," +he continues, "that these ways are excellent, and that fowls that have +to be cooked in a hurry thereby obtain an admirable tenderness (_une +tendrete admirable_)." Then he makes a brief apology to his readers, +not for the inhumanity of his recipes, but for a display of culinary +knowledge scarcely becoming a monk, and acquired only through those +peculiar necessities which colonial life in the tropics imposed upon all +alike. The touch of cruelty here revealed produces an impression which +there is little in the entire work capable of modifying. Labat seems to +have possessed but a very small quantity of altruism; his cynicism on +the subject of animal suffering is not offset by any visible sympathy +with human pain;--he never compassionates: you may seek in vain through +all his pages for one gleam of the goodness of gentle Pere Du Tertre, +who, filled with intense pity for the condition of the blacks, prays +masters to be merciful and just to their slaves for the love of God. +Labat suggests, on the other hand, that slavery is a good means of +redeeming negroes from superstition and saving their souls from hell: +he selects and purchases them himself for the Saint-Jacques plantation, +never makes a mistake or a bad bargain, and never appears to feel a +particle of commiseration for their lot. In fact, the emotional feeling +displayed by Pere Du Tertre (whom he mocks slyly betimes) must have +seemed to him rather condemnable than praiseworthy; for Labat regarded +the negro as a natural child of the devil,--a born sorcerer,--an evil +being wielding occult power. + +Perhaps the chapters on negro sorcery are the most astonishing in the +book, displaying on the part of this otherwise hard and practical nature +a credulity almost without limit. After having related how he had a +certain negro sent out of the country "who predicted the arrival of +vessels and other things to come,--in so far, at least, as the devil +himself was able to know and reveal these matters to him," he plainly +states his own belief in magic as follows: + +"I know there are many people who consider as pure imagination, and +as silly stories, or positive false-hoods, all that is related about +sorcerers and their compacts with the devil. I was myself for a long +time of this opinion. Moreover, I am aware that what is said on this +subject is frequently exaggerated; but I am now convinced it must be +acknowledged that all which has been related is not entirely false, +although perhaps it may not be entirely true."... + +Therewith he begins to relate stories upon what may have seemed +unimpeachable authority in those days. The first incident narrated +took place, he assures us, in the Martinique Dominican convent, shortly +before his arrival in the colony. One of the fathers, Pere Fraise, had +had brought to Martinique, "from the kingdom of Juda (?) in Guinea," a +little negro about nine or ten years old. Not long afterwards there was +a serious drought, and the monks prayed vainly for rain. Then the negro +child, who had begun to understand and speak a little French, told his +masters that he was a Rain-maker, that he could obtain them all the rain +they wanted. "This proposition," says Pere Labat, "greatly astonished +the fathers: they consulted together, and at last, curiosity overcoming +reason, they gave their consent that this unbaptized child should make +some rain fall on their garden." The unbaptized child asked them if +they wanted "a big or a little rain"; they answered that a moderate rain +would satisfy them. Thereupon the little negro got three oranges, +and placed them on the ground in a line at a short distance from one +another, and bowed down before each of them in turn, muttering words +in an unknown tongue. Then he got three small orange-branches, stuck +a branch in each orange, and repeated his prostrations and +mutterings;--after which he took one of the branches, stood up, and +watched the horizon. A small cloud appeared, and he pointed the branch +at it. It approached swiftly, rested above the garden, and sent down +a copious shower of rain. Then the boy made a hole in the ground, and +buried the oranges and the branches. The fathers were amazed to find +that not a single drop of rain had fallen outside their garden. They +asked the boy who had taught him this sorcery, and he answered them +that among the blacks on board the slave-ship which had brought him +over there were some Rain-makers who had taught him. Pere Labat declares +there is no question as to the truth of the occurrence: he cites the +names of Pere Fraise, Pere Rosie, Pere Temple, and Pere Bournot,--all +members of his own order,--as trust-worthy witnesses of this incident. + +Pere Labat displays equal credulity in his recital of a still more +extravagant story told him by Madame la Comtesse du Genes. M. le Comte +du Genes, husband of the lady in question, and commander of a French +squadron, captured the English fort of Gorea in 1696, and made +prisoners of all the English slaves in the service of the factory there +established. But the vessel on which these were embarked was unable to +leave the coast, in spite of a good breeze: she seemed bewitched. Some +of the the slaves finally told the captain there was a negress on board +who had enchanted the ship, and who had the power to "dry up the hearts" +of all who refused to obey her. A number of deaths taking place among +the blacks, the captain ordered autopsies made, and it was found that +the hearts of the dead negroes were desiccated. The negress was taken +on deck, tied to a gun and whipped, but uttered no cry;--the ship's +surgeon, angered at her stoicism, took a hand in the punishment, and +flogged her "with all his force." Thereupon she told him that inasmuch +as he had abused her without reason, his heart also should be "dried +up." He died next day; and his heart was found in the condition +predicted. All this time the ship could not be made to move in any +direction; and the negress told the captain that until he should put her +and her companions on shore he would never be able to sail. To convince +him of her power she further asked him to place three fresh melons in a +chest, to lock the chest and put a guard over it; when she should tell +him to unlock it, there would be no melons there. The capttain made the +experiment. When the chest was opened, the melons appeared to be there; +but on touching them it was found that only the outer rind remained: +the interior had been dried up,--like the surgeon's heart. Thereupon +the captain put the witch and her friends all ashore, and sailed away +without further trouble. + +Another story of African sorcery for the truth of which Pere Labat +earnestly vouches is the following: + +A negro was sentenced to be burned alive for witchcraft at St. Thomas +in 1701;--his principal crime was "having made a little figure of baked +clay to speak." A certain creole, meeting the negro on his way to the +place of execution, jeeringly observed, "Well, you cannot make your +little figure talk any more now;--it has been broken." "If the gentleman +allow me," replied the prisoner," I will make the cane he carries in his +hand speak." The creole's curiosity was strongly aroused: he prevailed +upon the guards to halt a few minutes, and permit the prisoner to make +the experiment. The negro then took the cane, stuck it into the ground +in the middle of the road, whispered something to it, and asked the +gentleman what he wished to know. "I, would like to know," answered the +latter, "whether the ship has yet sailed from Europe, and when she will +arrive." "Put your ear to the head of the cane," said the negro. On +doing so the creole distinctly heard a thin voice which informed him +that the vessel in question had left a certain French port on such a +date; that she would reach St. Thomas within three days; that she had +been delayed on her voyage by a storm which had carried away her foretop +and her mizzen sail; that she had such and such passengers on board +(mentioning the names), all in good health.... After this incident the +negro was burned alive; but within three days the vessel arrived in +port, and the prediction or divination was found to have been absolutely +correct in every particular. + +... Pere Labat in no way disapproves the atrocious sentence inflicted +upon the wretched negro: in his opinion such predictions were made by +the power and with the personal aid of the devil; and for those who +knowingly maintained relations with the devil, he could not have +regarded any punishment too severe. That he could be harsh enough +himself is amply shown in various accounts of his own personal +experience with alleged sorcerers, and especially in the narration of +his dealings with one--apparently a sort of African doctor--who was a +slave on a neighboring plantation, but used to visit the Saint-Jacques +quarters by stealth to practise his art. One of the slaves of the order, +a negress, falling very sick, the wizard was sent for; and he came with +all his paraphernalia--little earthen pots and fetiches, etc.--during +the night. He began to practise his incantations, without the least +suspicion that Pere Labat was watching him through a chink; and, after +having consulted his fetiches, he told the woman she would die within +four days. At this juncture the priest suddenly burst in the door and +entered, followed by several powerful slaves. He dashed to pieces the +soothsayer's articles, and attempted to reassure the frightened negress, +by declaring the prediction a lie inspired by the devil. Then he had the +sorcerer stripped and flogged in his presence. + +"I had him given," he calmly observes, "about (_environ_) three hundred +lashes, which flayed him (_l'ecorchait_) from his shoulders to his +knees. He screamed like a madman. All the negroes trembled, and assured +me that the devil would cause my death.... Then I had the wizard put in +irons, after having had him well washed with a _pimentade_,--that is to +say, with brine in which pimentos and small lemons have been crushed. +This causes a horrible pain to those skinned by the whip; but it is a +certain remedy against gangrene."... + +And then he sent the poor wretch back to his master with a note +requesting the latter to repeat the punishment,--a demand that seems +to have been approved, as the owner of the negro was "a man who feared +God." Yet Pere Labat is obliged to confess that in spite of all his +efforts, the sick negress died on the fourth day,--as the sorcerer had +predicted. This fact must have strongly confirmed his belief that the +devil was at the bottom of the whole affair, and caused him to doubt +whether even a flogging of about three hundred lashes, followed by a +pimentade, were sufficient chastisement for the miserable black. Perhaps +the tradition of this frightful whipping may have had something to do +with the terror which still attaches to the name of the Dominican in +Martinique. The legal extreme punishment was twenty-nine lashes. + + +Pere Labat also avers that in his time the negroes were in the habit of +carrying sticks which had the power of imparting to any portion of +the human body touched by them a most severe chronic pain. He at first +believed, he says, that these pains were merely rheumatic; but after all +known remedies for rheumatism had been fruitlessly applied, he became +convinced there was something occult and diabolical in the manner of +using and preparing these sticks.... A fact worthy of note is that this +belief is still prevalent in Martinique! + +One hardly ever meets in the country a negro who does not carry either +a stick or a cutlass, or both. The cutlass is indispensable to those who +work in the woods or upon plantations; the stick is carried both as +a protection against snakes and as a weapon of offence and defence in +village quarrels, for unless a negro be extraordinarily drunk he will +not strike his fellow with a cutlass. The sticks are usually made of +a strong dense wood: those most sought after of a material termed +_moudongue_, [12] almost as tough, but much lighter than, our hickory. + +On inquiring whether any of the sticks thus carried were held to possess +magic powers, I was assured by many country people that there were men +who knew a peculiar method of "arranging" sticks so that to touch any +person with them even lightly, _and through any thickness of clothing_, +would produce terrible and continuous pain. + +Believing in these things, and withal unable to decide whether the sun +revolved about the earth, or the earth about the sun, [13] Pere Labat +was, nevertheless, no more credulous and no more ignorant than the +average missionary of his time: it is only by contrast with his +practical perspicacity in other matters, his worldly rationalism and +executive shrewdness, that this superstitious naivete impresses one as +odd. And how singular sometimes is the irony of Time! All the wonderful +work the Dominican accomplished has been forgotten by the people; while +all the witchcrafts that he warred against survive and flourish +openly; and his very name is seldom uttered but in connection with +superstitions,--has been, in fact, preserved among the blacks by the +power of superstition alone, by the belief in zombis and goblins.... +"_Mi! ti manmaille-la, moin ke fai Pe Labatt vini pouend ou!_"... + + + +V. + + +Few habitants of St. Pierre now remember that the beautiful park behind +the cathedral used to be called the Savanna of the White Fathers,--and +the long shadowed meadow beside the Roxelane, the Savanna of the Black +Fathers: the Jesuits. All the great religious orders have long since +disappeared from the colony: their edifices have been either converted +to other uses or demolished; their estates have passed into other +hands.... Were their labors, then, productive of merely ephemeral +results?--was the colossal work of a Pere Labat all in vain, so far as +the future is concerned? The question is not easily answered; but it is +worth considering. + +Of course the material prosperity which such men toiled to obtain for +their order represented nothing more, even to their eyes, than the means +of self-maintenance, and the accumulation of force necessary for the +future missionary labors of the monastic community. The real ultimate +purpose was, not the acquisition of power for the order, but for the +Church, of which the orders represented only a portion of the force +militant; and this purpose did not fail of accomplishment. The orders +passed away only when their labors had been completed,--when Martinique +had become (exteriorly, at least) more Catholic than Rome itself,--after +the missionaries had done all that religious zeal could do in moulding +and remoulding the human material under their control. These men could +scarcely have anticipated those social and political changes which the +future reserved for the colonies, and which no ecclesiastical sagacity +could, in any event, have provided against. It is in the existing +religious condition of these communities that one may observe and +estimate the character and the probable duration of the real work +accomplished by the missions. + +... Even after a prolonged residence in Martinique, its visible +religious condition continues to impress one as somethmg phenomenal. A +stranger, who has no opportunity to penetrate into the home life of +the people, will not, perhaps, discern the full extent of the religious +sentiment; but, nevertheless, however brief his stay, he will observe +enough of the extravagant symbolism of the cult to fill him with +surprise. Wherever he may choose to ride or to walk, he is certain to +encounter shrines, statues of saints, or immense crucifixes. Should he +climb up to the clouds of the peaks, he will find them all along the +way;--he will perceive them waiting for him, looming through the mists +of the heights; and passing through the loveliest ravines, he will +see niches hollowed out in the volcanic rocks, above and below him, +or contrived in the trunks of trees bending over precipices, often in +places so difficult of access that he wonders how the work could have +been accomplished. All this has been done by the various property-owners +throughout the country: it is the traditional custom to do it--brings +good-luck! After a longer stay in the island, one discovers also that in +almost every room of every dwelling--stone residence, wooden cottage, +or palm-thatched ajoupa--there is a _chapelle_: that is, a sort of large +bracket fastened to the wall, on which crosses or images are placed, +with vases of flowers, and lamps or wax-tapers to be burned at +night. Sometimes, moreover, statues are placed in windows, or above +door-ways;--and all passers-by take off their hats to these. Over the +porch of the cottage in a mountain village, where I lived for some +weeks, there was an absurd little window contrived,--a sort of purely +ornamental dormer,--and in this a Virgin about five inches high had +been placed. At a little distance it looked like a toy,--a child's doll +forgotten there; and a doll I always supposed it to be, until one day +that I saw a long procession of black laborers passing before the house, +every, one of whom took off his hat to it.... My bedchamber in the same +cottage resembled a religious museum. On the chapelle there were no less +than eight Virgins, varying in height from one to sixteen inches,--a St. +Joseph,--a St. John,--a crucifix,--and a host of little objects in +the shape of hearts or crosses, each having some special religious +significance;--while the walls were covered with framed certificates +of baptism, "first-communion," confirmation, and other documents +commemorating the whole church life of the family for two generations. + +[Illustration: A WAYSIDE SHRINE, OR CHAPELLE.] + +... Certainly the first impression created by this perpetual display of +crosses, statues, and miniature chapels is not pleasing,--particularly +as the work is often inartistic to a degree bordering upon the +grotesque, and nothing resembling art is anywhere visible. Millions +of francs must have been consumed in these creations, which have +the rudeness of mediaevalism without its emotional sincerity, and +which--amid the loveliness of tropic nature, the grace of palms, the +many-colored fire of liana blossoms--jar on the aesthetic sense with +an almost brutal violence. Yet there is a veiled poetry in these silent +populations of plaster and wood and stone. They represent something +older than the Middle Ages, older than Christianity,--something +strangely distorted and transformed, it is true, but recognizably +conserved by the Latin race from those antique years when every home had +its beloved ghosts, when every wood or hill or spring had its gracious +divinity, and the boundaries of all fields were marked and guarded by +statues of gods. + +Instances of iconoclasm are of course highly rare in a country of which +no native--rich or poor, white or half-breed--fails to doff his hat +before every shrine, cross, or image he may happen to pass. Those +merchants of St. Pierre or of Fort-de-France living only a few miles out +of the city must certainly perform a vast number of reverences on their +way to or from business;--I saw one old gentleman uncover his white head +about twenty times in the course of a fifteen minutes' walk. I never +heard of but one image-breaker in Martinique; and his act was the result +of superstition, not of any hostility to popular faith or custom: it +was prompted by the same childish feeling which moves Italian fishermen +sometimes to curse St. Antony or to give his image a ducking in bad +weather. This Martinique iconoclast was a negro cattle-driver who +one day, feeling badly in need of a glass of tafia, perhaps, left the +animals intrusted to him in care of a plaster image of the Virgin, with +this menace (the phrase is on record):-- + +"_Moin ka quitte bef-la ba ou pou gade ba moin. Quand moin vini, si moin +pa trouve compte-moin, moin ke foute ou vingt-nef coudfouett!_" (I leave +these cattle with you to take care of for me. When I come back, if I +don't find them all here, I'll give you twenty-nine lashes.) + +Returning about half an hour later, he was greatly enraged to find his +animals scattered in every direction;--and, rushing at the statue, +he broke it from the pedestal, flung it upon the ground, and gave it +twenty-nine lashes with his bull-whip. For this he was arrested, tried, +and sentenced to imprisonment, with hard labor, for life! In those days +there were no colored magistrates;--the judges were all _bekes_. + +"Rather a severe sentence," I remarked to my informant, a planter who +conducted me to the scene of the alleged sacrilege. + +"Severe, yes," he answered;--"and I suppose the act would seem to you +more idiotic than criminal. But here, in Martinique, there were large +questions involved by such an offence. Relying, as we have always done +to some extent, upon religious influence as a factor in the maintenance +of social order, the negro's act seemed a dangerous example."... + +That the Church remains still rich and prosperous in Martinique there +can be no question; but whether it continues to wield any powerful +influence in the maintenance of social order is more than doubtful. A +Polynesian laxity of morals among the black and colored population, and +the history of race-hatreds and revolutions inspired by race-hate, would +indicate that neither in ethics nor in politics does it possess any +preponderant authority. By expelling various religious orders; by +establishing lay schools, lycees, and other educational institutions +where the teaching is largely characterized by aggressive antagonism +to Catholic ideas;--by the removal of crucifixes and images from public +buildings, French Radicalism did not inflict any great blow upon +Church interests. So far as the white, and, one may say, the wealthy, +population is concerned, the Church triumphs in her hostility to the +Government schools; and to the same extent she holds an educational +monopoly. No white creole would dream of sending his children to a lay +school or a lycee--notwithstanding the unquestionable superiority of the +educational system in the latter institutions;--and, although obliged, +as the chief tax-paying class, to bear the burden of maintaining these +establishments, the whites hold them in such horror that the Government +professors are socially ostracized. No doubt the prejudice or pride +which abhors mixed schools aids the Church in this respect; she herself +recognizes race-feeling, keeps her schools unmixed, and even in her +convents, it is said, obliges the colored nuns to serve the white! For +more than two centuries every white generation has been religiously +moulded in the seminaries and convents; and among the native whites one +never hears an overt declaration of free-thought opinion. Except among +the colored men educated in the Government schools, or their foreign +professors, there are no avowed free-thinkers;--and this, not because +the creole whites, many of whom have been educated in Paris, are +naturally narrow-minded, or incapable of sympathy with the mental +expansion of the age, but because the religious question at Martinique +has become so intimately complicated with the social and political one, +concerning which there can be no compromise whatever, that to divorce +the former from the latter is impossible. Roman Catholicism is an +element of the cement which holds creole society together; and it is +noteworthy that other creeds are not represented. I knew only of one +Episcopalian and one Methodist in the island,--and heard a sort +of legend about a solitary Jew whose whereabouts I never could +discover;--but these were strangers. + +It was only through the establishment of universal suffrage, which +placed the white population at the mercy of its former slaves, that +the Roman Church sustained any serious injury. All local positions are +filled by blacks or men of color; no white creole can obtain a public +office or take part in legislation; and the whole power of the black +vote is ungenerously used against the interests of the class thus +politically disinherited. The Church suffers in consequence: her power +depended upon her intimate union with the wealthy and dominant class; +and she will never be forgiven by those now in power for her sympathetic +support of that class in other years. Politics yearly intensify this +hostility; and as the only hope for the restoration of the whites to +power, and of the Church to its old position, lies in the possibility of +another empire or a revival of the monarchy, the white creoles and their +Church are forced into hostility against republicanism and the republic. +And political newspapers continually attack Roman Catholicism,--mock its +tenets and teachings,--ridicule its dogmas and ceremonies,--satirize its +priests. + +In the cities and towns the Church indeed appears to retain a large +place in the affection of the poorer classes;--her ceremonies are always +well attended; money pours into her coffers; and one can still wittness +the curious annual procession of the "converted,"--aged women of +color and negresses going to communion for the first time, all wearing +snow-white turbans in honor of the event. But among the country people, +where the dangerous forces of revolution exist, Christian feeling is +almost stifled by ghastly beliefs of African origin;--the images and +crucifixes still command respect, but this respect is inspired by a +feeling purely fetichistic. With the political dispossession of the +whites, certain dark powers, previously concealed or repressed, have +obtained, formidable development. The old enemy of Pere Labat, the +wizard (the _quimboiseur_), already wields more authority than the +priest, exercises more terror than the magistrate, commands more +confidence than the physician. The educated mulatto class may affect +to despise him;--but he is preparing their overthrow in the dark. +Astonishing is the persistence with which the African has clung to these +beliefs and practices, so zealously warred upon by the Church and so +mercilessly punished by the courts for centuries. He still goes to mass, +and sends his children to the priest; but he goes more often to the +quimboiseur and the "_magnetise_." He finds use for both beliefs, +but gives large preference to the savage one,--just as he prefers +the pattering of his tam tam to the music of the military band at the +_Savane du Fort_.... And should it come to pass that Martinique be +ever totally abandoned by its white population,--an event by no +means improbable in the present order of things,--the fate of the +ecclesiastical fabric so toilsomely reared by the monastic orders is not +difficult to surmise. + + + +VI. + + +From my window in the old Rue du Bois-Morin,--which climbs the foot of +Morne Labelle by successions of high stone steps,--all the southern +end of the city is visible as in a bird's-eye view. Under me is a long +peaking of red-scaled roofs,--gables and dormer-windows,--with clouds +of bright green here and there,--foliage of tamarind and +corossolier;--westward purples and flames the great circle of the +Caribbean Sea;--east and south, towering to the violet sky, curve the +volcanic hills, green-clad from base to summit;--and right before me +the beautiful Morne d'Orange, all palm-plumed and wood-wrapped, trends +seaward and southward. And every night, after the stars come out, I see +moving lights there,--lantern fires guiding the mountain-dwellers home; +but I look in vain for the light of Pere Labat. + +And nevertheless,--although no believer in ghosts,--I see thee very +plainly sometimes, thou quaint White Father, moving through winter-mists +in the narrower Paris of another century; musing upon the churches +that arose at thy bidding under tropic skies; dreaming of the primeval +valleys changed by thy will to green-gold seas of cane,--and the strong +mill that will bear thy name for two hundred years (it stands solid unto +this day),--and the habitations made for thy brethren in pleasant palmy +places,--and the luminous peace of thy Martinique convent,--and odor +of roasting parrots fattened upon _grains de bois d'Inde_ and +guavas,--"_l'odeur de muscade et de girofle qui fait plaisir_."... + +Eh, _Pere Labat_!--what changes there have been since thy day! The White +Fathers have no place here now; and the Black Fathers, too, have been +driven from the land, leaving only as a memory of them the perfect and +ponderous architecture of the Perinnelle plantation-buildings, and the +appellation of the river still known as the Riviere des Peres. Also the +Ursulines are gone, leaving only their name on the corner of a crumbling +street. And there are no more slaves; and there are new races and colors +thou wouldst deem scandalous though beautiful; and there are no more +parrots; and there are no more diablotins. And the grand woods thou +sawest in their primitive and inviolate beauty, as if fresh from the +Creator's touch in the morning of the world, are passing away; the +secular trees are being converted into charcoal, or sawn into timber for +the boat-builders: thou shouldst see two hundred men pulling some forest +giant down to the sea upon the two-wheeled screaming thing they call a +"devil" (_yon diabe_),--cric-crac!--cric-crac!--all chanting together;-- + + "_Soh-soh!--yaie-yah! + Rhale bois-canot!_" + +And all that ephemeral man has had power to change has been +changed,--ideas, morals, beliefs, the whole social fabric. But the +eternal summer remains,--and the Hesperian magnificence of azure sky +and violet sea,--and the jewel-colors of the perpetual hills;--the same +tepid winds that rippled thy cane-fields two hundred years ago still +blow over Sainte-Marie;--the same purple shadows lengthen and dwindle +and turn with the wheeling of the sun. God's witchery still fills this +land; and the heart of the stranger is even yet snared by the beauty of +it; and the dreams of him that forsakes it will surely be haunted--even +as were thine own, Pere Labat--by memories of its Eden-summer: the +sudden leap of the light over a thousand peaks in the glory of tropic +dawn,--the perfumed peace of enormous azure noons,--and shapes of +palm wind-rocked in the burning of colossal sunsets,--and the silent +flickering of the great fire-flies through the lukewarm darkness, when +mothers call their children home... "_Mi fanal Pe Labatt!--mi Pe Labatt +ka vini pouend ou!_" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. -- LA GUIABLESSE. + + + +I. + +Night in all countries brings with it vaguenesses and illusions which +terrify certain imaginations;--but in the tropics it produces effects +peculiarly impressive and peculiarly sinister. Shapes of vegetation that +startle even while the sun shines upon them assume, after his setting, +a grimness,--a grotesquery,--a suggestiveness for which there is no +name.... In the North a tree is simply a tree;--here it is a personality +that makes itself felt; it has a vague physiognomy, an indefinable _Me_: +it is an Individual (with a capital I); it is a Being (with a capital +B). + +From the high woods, as the moon mounts, fantastic darknesses descend +into the roads,--black distortions, mockeries, bad dreams,--an endless +procession of goblins. Least startling are the shadows flung down by the +various forms of palm, because instantly recognizable;--yet these take +the semblance of giant fingers opening and closing over the way, or a +black crawling of unutterable spiders.... + +Nevertheless, these phasma seldom alarm the solitary and belated Bitaco: +the darknesses that creep stealthily along the path have no frightful +signification for him,--do not appeal to his imagination;--if he +suddenly starts and stops and stares, it is not because of such shapes, +but because he has perceived two specks of orange light, and is not yet +sure whether they are only fire-flies, or the eyes of a trigonocephalus. +The spectres of his fancy have nothing in common with those indistinct +and monstrous umbrages: what he most fears, next to the deadly serpent, +are human witchcrafts. A white rag, an old bone lying in the path, might +be a _malefice_ which, if trodden upon, would cause his leg to blacken +and swell up to the size of the limb of an elephant;--an unopened bundle +of plantain leaves or of bamboo strippings, dropped by the way-side, +might contain the skin of a _Soucouyan._ But the ghastly being who +doffs or dons his skin at will--and the Zombi--and the _Moun-Mo_--may +be quelled or exorcised by prayer; and the lights of shrines, the white +gleaming of crosses, continually remind the traveller of his duty to the +Powers that save. All along the way there are shrines at intervals, not +very far apart: while standing in the radiance of one niche-lamp, you +may perhaps discern the glow of the next, if the road be level and +straight. They are almost everywhere,--shining along the skirts of the +woods, at the entrance of ravines, by the verges of precipices;--there +is a cross even upon the summit of the loftiest peak in the island. And +the night-walker removes his hat each time his bare feet touch the soft +stream of yellow light outpoured from the illuminated shrine of a white +Virgin or a white Christ. These are good ghostly company for him;--he +salutes them, talks to them, tells them his pains or fears: their +blanched faces seem to him full of sympathy;--they appear to cheer him +voicelessly as he strides from gloom to gloom, under the goblinry of +those woods which tower black as ebony under the stars.... And he has +other companionship. One of the greatest terrors of darkness in other +lands does not exist here after the setting of the sun,--the terror +of _Silence_.... Tropical night is full of voices;--extraordinary +populations of crickets are trilling; nations of tree-frogs are +chanting; the _Cabri-des-bois_, [14] or _cra-cra_, almost deafens you +with the wheezy bleating sound by which it earned its creole name; birds +pipe: everything that bells, ululates, drones, clacks, guggles, joins +the enormous chorus; and you fancy you see all the shadows vibrating to +the force of this vocal storm. The true life of Nature in the tropics +begins with the darkness, ends with the light. + +And it is partly, perhaps, because of these conditions that the coming +of the dawn does not dissipate all fears of the supernatural. _I ni pe +zombi menm gran'-jou_ (he is afraid of ghosts even in broad daylight) is +a phrase which does not sound exaggerated in these latitudes,--not, at +least, to anyone knowing something of the conditions that nourish or +inspire weird beliefs. In the awful peace of tropical day, in the hush +of the woods, the solemn silence of the hills (broken only by torrent +voices that cannot make themselves heard at night), even in the amazing +luminosity, there is a something apparitional and weird,--something that +seems to weigh upon the world like a measureless haunting. So still all +Nature's chambers are that a loud utterance jars upon the ear brutally, +like a burst of laughter in a sanctuary. With all its luxuriance +of color, with all its violence of light, this tropical day has its +ghostliness and its ghosts. Among the people of color there are many who +believe that even at noon--when the boulevards behind the city are most +deserted--the zombis will show themselves to solitary loiterers. + + + +II. + + +... Here a doubt occurs to me,--a doubt regarding the precise nature of +a word, which I call upon Adou to explain. Adou is the daughter of +the kind old capresse from whom I rent my room in this little mountain +cottage. The mother is almost precisely the color of cinnamon; the +daughter's complexion is brighter,--the ripe tint of an orange.... Adou +tells me creole stories and _tim-tim_. Adou knows all about ghosts, and +believes in them. So does Adou's extraordinarily tall brother, Yebe,--my +guide among the mountains. + +--"Adou," I ask, "what is a zombi?" + +The smile that showed Adou's beautiful white teeth has instantly +disappeared; and she answers, very seriously, that she has never seen a +zombi, and does not want to see one. + +--"_Moin pa te janmain oue zombi,--pa 'le oue ca, moin!_" + +--"But, Adou, child, I did not ask you whether you ever saw It;--I asked +you only to tell me what It is like?"... + + Adou hesitates a little, and answers: + --"_Zombi? Mais ca fai desode lanuitt, zombi!_" + +Ah! it is Something which "makes disorder at night." Still, that is not +a satisfactory explanation. "Is it the spectre of a dead person, Adou? +Is it _one who comes back?_" + +--"_Non, Missie,--non; ce pa ca._" + +--"Not that?... Then what was it you said the other night when you were +afraid to pass the cemetery on an errand,--_ca ou te ka di_, Adou?" + +--"Moin te ka di: 'Moin pa le k'alle bo cimetie-la pa ouappo +moun-mo;--moun-mo ke barre moin: moin pa se pe vini enco.'" (_I said, "I +do not want to go by that cemetery because of the dead folk,--the dead +folk will bar the way, and I cannot get back again._") + +--"And you believe that, Adou?" + +--"Yes, that is what they say... And if you go into the cemetery at +night you cannot come out again: the dead folk will stop you--_moun-mo +ke barre ou._"... + +--"But are the dead folk zombis, Adou?" + +--"No; the moun-mo are not zombis. The zombis go everywhere: the dead +folk remain in the graveyard.... Except on the Night of All Souls: then +they go to the houses of their people everywhere." + +--"Adou, if after the doors and windows were locked and barred you were +to see entering your room in the middle of the night, a Woman fourteen +feet high?"... + +--"_Ah! pa pale ca!!_"... + +--"No! tell me, Adou?" + +--"Why, yes: that would be a zombi. It is the zombis who make all those +noises at night one cannot understand.... Or, again, if I were to see +a dog that high [she holds her hand about five feet above the floor] +coming into our house at night, I would scream: '_Mi Zombi!_'" + +... Then it suddenly occurs to Adou that her mother knows something +about zombis. + +--"_Ou Manman!_" + +--"_Eti!_" answers old Thereza's voice from the little out-building +where the evening meal is being prepared over a charcoal furnace, in an +earthen canari. + +--"_Missie-la ka mande save ca ca ye yonne zombi;--vini ti bouin!_"... +The mother laughs, abandons her canari, and comes in to tell me all she +knows about the weird word. + +"_I ni pe zombi_"--I find from old Thereza's explanations--is a phrase +indefinite as our own vague expressions, "afraid of ghosts," "afraid of +the dark." But the word "Zombi" also has special strange meanings.... +"Ou passe nans grand chimin lanuitt, epi ou ka oue gouos dife, epi plis +ou ka vini assou dife-a pli ou ka oue dife-a ka mache: ce zombi ka fai +ca.... Enco, chouval ka passe,--chouval ka ni anni toua patt: ca zombi." +(You pass along the high-road at night, and you see a great fire, and +the more you walk to get to it the more it moves away: it is the zombi +makes that.... Or a horse _with only three legs_ passes you: that is a +zombi.) + +--"How big is the fire that the zombi makes?" I ask. + +--"It fills the whole road," answers Thereza: "_li ka rempli toutt +chimin-la_. Folk call those fires the Evil Fires,--_mauvai dife_;--and +if you follow them they will lead you into chasms,--_ou ke tombe adans +labime_."... + +And then she tells me this: + +--"Baidaux was a mad man of color who used to live at St. Pierre, in the +Street of the Precipice. He was not dangerous,--never did any harm;--his +sister used to take care of him. And what I am going to relate is +true,--_ce zhistoue veritabe!_ + +"One day Baidaux said to his sister: 'Moin ni yonne yche, va!--ou pa +connaitt li!' [I have a child, ah!--you never saw it!] His sister paid +no attention to what he said that day; but the next day he said it +again, and the next, and the next, and every day after,--so that his +sister at last became much annoyed by it, and used to cry out: 'Ah! mais +pe guiole ou, Baidaux! ou fou pou embete moin conm ca!--ou bien fou!'... +But he tormented her that way for months and for years. + +"One evening he went out, and only came home at midnight leading a child +by the hand,--a black child he had found in the street; and he said to +his sister:-- + +"'Mi yche-la moin mene ba ou! Tou lejou moin te ka di ou moin tini yonne +yche: ou pa te 'le coue,--eh, ben! MI Y!' [Look at the child I have +brought you! Every day I have been telling you I had a child: you would +not believe me,--very well, LOOK AT HIM!] + +"The sister gave one look, and cried out: 'Baidaux, oti ou pouend +yche-la?'... For the child was growing taller and taller every +moment.... And Baidaux,--because he was mad,--kept saying: 'Ce +yche-moin! ce yche moin!' [It is my child!] + +"And the sister threw open the shutters and screamed to all the +neighbors,--'_Secou, secou, secou! Vini oue ca Baidaux mene ba moin!_' +[Help! help! Come see what Baidaux has brought in here!] And the child +said to Baidaux: '_Ou ni bonhe ou fou!_' [You are lucky that you are +mad!]... Then all the neighbors came running in; but they could not see +anything: the Zombi was gone."... + + + +III. + + +... As I was saying, the hours of vastest light have their weirdness +here;--and it is of a Something which walketh abroad under the eye +of the sun, even at high noontide, that I desire to speak, while the +impressions of a morning journey to the scene of Its last alleged +apparition yet remains vivid in my recollection. + +You follow the mountain road leading from Calebasse over long meadowed +levels two thousand feet above the ocean, into the woods of La Couresse, +where it begins to descend slowly, through deep green shadowing, by +great zigzags. Then, at a turn, you find yourself unexpectedly looking +down upon a planted valley, through plumy fronds of arborescent +fern. The surface below seems almost like a lake of gold-green +water,--especially when long breaths of mountain-wind set the miles of +ripening cane a-ripple from verge to verge: the illusion is marred only +by the road, fringed with young cocoa-palms, which serpentines across +the luminous plain. East, west, and north the horizon is almost +wholly hidden by surging of hills: those nearest are softly shaped and +exquisitely green; above them loftier undulations take hazier verdancy +and darker shadows; farther yet rise silhouettes of blue or violet tone, +with one beautiful breast-shaped peak thrusting up in the midst;--while, +westward, over all, topping even the Piton, is a vapory huddling of +prodigious shapes--wrinkled, fissured, horned, fantastically tall.... +Such at least are the tints of the morning.... Here and there, between +gaps in the volcanic chain, the land hollows into gorges, slopes down +into ravines;--and the sea's vast disk of turquoise flames up through +the interval. Southwardly those deep woods, through which the way winds +down, shut in the view.... You do not see the plantation buildings till +you have advanced some distance into the valley;--they are hidden by a +fold of the land, and stand in a little hollow where the road turns: +a great quadrangle of low gray antiquated edifices, heavily walled and +buttressed, and roofed with red tiles. The court they form opens upon +the main route by an immense archway. Farther along ajoupas begin to +line the way,--the dwellings of the field hands,--tiny cottages built +with trunks of the arborescent fern or with stems of bamboo, and +thatched with cane-straw: each in a little garden planted with bananas, +yams, couscous, camanioc, choux-caraibes, or other things,--and hedged +about with roseaux d'Inde and various flowering shrubs. + +Thereafter, only the high whispering wildernesses of cane on +either hand,--the white silent road winding between its swaying +cocoa-trees,--and the tips of hills that seem to glide on before you as +you walk, and that take, with the deepening of the afternoon light, such +amethystine color as if they were going to become transparent. + + + +IV. + + +... It is a breezeless and cloudless noon. Under the dazzling downpour +of light the hills seem to smoke blue: something like a thin yellow fog +haloes the leagues of ripening cane,--a vast reflection. There is no +stir in all the green mysterious front of the vine-veiled woods. The +palms of the roads keep their heads quite still, as if listening. The +canes do not utter a single susurration. Rarely is there such absolute +stillness among them: on the calmest days there are usually rustlings +audible, thin cracklings, faint creepings: sounds that betray the +passing of some little animal or reptile--a rat or a wa manicou, or a +zanoli or couresse,--more often, however, no harmless lizard or snake, +but the deadly _fer-de-lance_. To-day, all these seem to sleep; and +there are no workers among the cane to clear away the weeds,--to uproot +the pie-treffe, pie-poule, pie-balai, zhebe-en-me: it is the hour of +rest. + +A woman is coming along the road,--young, very swarthy, very tall, and +barefooted, and black-robed: she wears a high white turban with dark +stripes, and a white foulard is thrown about her fine shoulders; she +bears no burden, and walks very swiftly and noiselessly.... Soundless +as shadow the motion of all these naked-footed people is. On any quiet +mountain-way, full of curves, where you fancy yourself alone, you may +often be startled by something you _feel_, rather than hear, behind +you,--surd steps, the springy movement of a long lithe body, dumb +oscillations of raiment;--and ere you can turn to look, the haunter +swiftly passes with creole greeting of "bon-jou'" or "bonsoue, Missie." +This sudden "becoming aware" in broad daylight of a living presence +unseen is even more disquieting than that sensation which, in absolute +darkness, makes one halt all breathlessly before great solid objects, +whose proximity has been revealed by some mute blind emanation of force +alone. But it is very seldom, indeed, that the negro or half-breed +is thus surprised: he seems to divine an advent by some specialized +sense,--like an animal,--and to become conscious of a look directed upon +him from any distance or from behind any covert;--to pass within the +range of his keen vision unnoticed is almost impossible.... And the +approach of this woman has been already observed by the habitants of the +ajoupas;--dark faces peer out from windows and door-ways;--one half-nude +laborer even strolls out to the road-side under the sun to her coming. He +looks a moment, turns to the hut and calls:-- + +--"Ou-ou! Fafa!" + +--"Eti! Gabou!" + +--"Vini ti bouin!--mi bel negresse!" + +Out rushes Fafa, with his huge straw hat in his hand: "Oti, Gabou?" + +--"Mi!" + +--"'Ah! quimbe moin!" cries black Fafa, enthusiastically; "fouinq! li +bel!--Jesis-Maia! li doux!"...Neither ever saw that woman before; and +both feel as if they could watch her forever. + +There is something superb in the port of a tall young mountain-griffone, +or negress, who is comely and knows that she is comely: it is a +black poem of artless dignity, primitive grace, savage exultation of +movement.... "Ou marche tete enlai conm couresse qui ka passelarivie" +(_You walk with your head in the air, like the couresse-serpent swimming +a river_) is a creole comparison which pictures perfectly the poise of +her neck and chin. And in her walk there is also a serpentine elegance, +a sinuous charm: the shoulders do not swing; the cambered torso seems +immobile;--but alternately from waist to heel, and from heel to waist, +with each long full stride, an indescribable undulation seems to pass; +while the folds of her loose robe oscillate to right and left behind +her, in perfect libration, with the free swaying of the hips. With +us, only a finely trained dancer could attempt such a walk;--with the +Martinique woman of color it is natural as the tint of her skin; and +this allurement of motion unrestrained is most marked in those who have +never worn shoes, and are clad lightly as the women of antiquity,--in +two very thin and simple garments;--chemise and _robe--d'indienne_.... +But whence is she?--of what canton? Not from Vauclin, nor from Lamentin, +nor from Marigot,--from Case-Pilote or from Case-Navire: Fafa knows +all the people there. Never of Sainte-Anne, nor of Sainte-Luce, nor of +Sainte-Marie, nor of Diamant, nor of Gros-Morne, nor of Carbet,--the +birthplace of Gabou. Neither is she of the village of the Abysms, which +is in the Parish of the Preacher,--nor yet of Ducos nor of Francois, +which are in the Commune of the Holy Ghost.... + + + +V. + + +... She approaches the ajoupa: both men remove their big straw hats; and +both salute her with a simultaneous "Bonjou', Manzell." + +--"Bonjou', Missie," she responds, in a sonorous alto, without appearing +to notice Gabou,--but smiling upon Fafa as she passes, with her great +eyes turned full upon his face.... All the libertine blood of the man +flames under that look;--he feels as if momentarily wrapped in a blaze +of black lightning. + +--"Ca ka fai moin pe," exclaims Gabou, turning his face towards the +ajoupa. Something indefinable in the gaze of the stranger has terrified +him. + +--"_Pa ka fai moin pe--fouinq!_" (She does not make me afraid) laughs +Fafa, boldly following her with a smiling swagger. + +--"Fafa!" cries Gabou, in alarm. "_Fafa, pa fai ca!_" But Fafa does +not heed. The strange woman has slackened her pace, as if inviting +pursuit;--another moment and he is at her side. + +--"Oti ou ka rete, che?" he demands, with the boldness of one who knows +himself a fine specimen of his race. + +--"Zaffai cabritt pa zaffai lapin," she answers, mockingly. + +--"Mais pouki au rhabille toutt noue conm ca." + +--"Moin pote deil pou name main mo." + +--"Aie ya yaie!... Non, voue!--ca ou kalle atouelement?" + +--"Lanmou pati: moin pati deie lanmou." + +--"Ho!--on ni guepe, anh?" + +--"Zanoli bail yon bal; epi maboya rentre ladans." + +--"Di moin oti ou kalle, doudoux?" + +--"Jouq larivie Leza." + +--"Fouinq!--ni plis passe trente kilomett!" + +--"Eh ben?--ess ou 'le vini epi moin?" [15] + +And as she puts the question she stands still and gazes at him;--her +voice is no longer mocking: it has taken another tone,--a tone soft +as the long golden note of the little brown bird they call the +_siffleur-de-montagne_, the mountain-whistler.... Yet Fafa hesitates. He +hears the clear clang of the plantation bell recalling him to duty;--he +sees far down the road--(_Ouill!_ how fast they have been walking!)--a +white and black speck in the sun: Gabou, uttering through his joined +hollowed hands, as through a horn, the _oukle_, the rally call. For an +instant he thinks of the overseer's anger,--of the distance,--of the +white road glaring in the dead heat: then he looks again into the black +eyes of the strange woman, and answers: + +--"Oui;--moin ke vini epi ou." + +With a burst of mischievous laughter, in which Fafa joins, she walks +on,--Fafa striding at her side.... And Gabou, far off, watches them +go,--and wonders that, for the first time since ever they worked +together, his comrade failed to answer his _oukle_. + +--"Coument yo ka crie ou, che" asks Fafa, curious to know her name. + +--"Chache nom moin ou-menm, duvine." + +But Fafa never was a good guesser,--never could guess the simplest of +tim-tim. + +--"Ess Cendrine?" + +--"Non, ce pa ca." + +--"Ess Vitaline?" + +--"Non ce pa ca." + +--"Ess Aza?" + +--"Non, ce pa ca." + +--"Ess Nini?" + +--"Chache enco." + +--"Ess Tite" + +--"Ou pa save,--tant pis pou ou!" + +--"Ess Youma?" + +--"Pouki ou 'le save nom moin?--ca ou ke epi y?" + +--"Ess Yaiya?" + +--"Non, ce pa y." + +--"Ess Maiyotte?" + +--"Non! ou pa ke janmain trouve y!" + +--"Ess Sounoune?--ess Loulouze?" + +She does not answer, but quickens her pace and begins to sing,--not as +the half-breed, but as the African sings,--commencing with a low +long weird intonation that suddenly breaks into fractions of notes +inexpressible, then rising all at once to a liquid purling bird-tone, +and descending as abruptly again to the first deep quavering strain:-- + + "A te--moin ka domi toute longue; + Yon paillasse se fai main bien, Doudoux! + A te--moin ka domi toute longue; + Yon robe biese se fai moin bien, + Doudoux! + + A te--moin ka domi toute longue; + De jolis foula se fai moin bien, + Doudoux! + + A te--moin ka domi toute longue; + Yon joli madras se fai moin bien, + Doudoux! + + A te--moin ka domi toute longue: Ce a te..." + +... Obliged from the first to lengthen his stride in order to keep up +with her, Fafa has found his utmost powers of walking overtaxed, and has +been left behind. Already his thin attire is saturated with sweat; his +breathing is almost a panting;--yet the black bronze of his companion's +skin shows no moisture; her rhythmic her silent respiration, reveal no +effort: she laughs at his desperate straining to remain by her side. + +--"Marche toujou' deie moin,--anh, che?--marche toujou' deie!"... + +And the involuntary laggard--utterly bewitched by supple allurement of +her motion, by the black flame of her gaze, by the savage melody of her +chant--wonders more and more who she may be, while she waits for him +with her mocking smile. + +But Gabou--who has been following and watching from afar off, and +sounding his fruitless oukle betimes--suddenly starts, halts, turns, and +hurries back, fearfully crossing himself at every step. + +He has seen the sign by which She is known... + + + +VI. + + +... None ever saw her by night. Her hour is the fulness of the sun's +flood-tide: she comes in the dead hush and white flame of windless +noons,--when colors appear to take a very unearthliness of +intensity,--when even the flash of some colibri, bosomed with living +fire, shooting hither and thither among the grenadilla blossoms, seemeth +a spectral happening because of the great green trance of the land.... + +Mostly she haunts the mountain roads, winding from plantation to +plantation, from hamlet to hamlet,--sometimes dominating huge sweeps +of azure sea, sometimes shadowed by mornes deep-wooded to the sky. +But close to the great towns she sometimes walks: she has been seen at +mid-day upon the highway which overlooks the Cemetery of the Anchorage, +behind the cathedral of St. Pierre.... A black Woman, simply clad, +of lofty stature and strange beauty, silently standing in the light, +_keeping her eyes fixed upon the Sun!_... + + + +VII. + + +Day wanes. The further western altitudes shift their pearline gray +to deep blue where the sky is yellowing up behind them; and in the +darkening hollows of nearer mornes strange shadows gather with the +changing of the light--dead indigoes, fuliginous purples, rubifications +as of scoriae,--ancient volcanic colors momentarily resurrected by the +illusive haze of evening. And the fallow of the canes takes a faint warm +ruddy tinge. On certain far high slopes, as the sun lowers, they look +like thin golden hairs against the glow,--blond down upon the skin of +the living hills. + +Still the Woman and her follower walk together,--chatting loudly, +laughing--chanting snatches of song betimes. And now the valley is +well behind them;--they climb the steep road crossing the eastern +peaks,--through woods that seem to stifle under burdening of creepers. +The shadow of the Woman and the shadow of the man,--broadening from +their feet,--lengthening prodigiously,--sometimes, mixing, fill all the +way; sometimes, at a turn, rise up to climb the trees. Huge masses of +frondage, catching the failing light, take strange fiery color;--the +sun's rim almost touches one violet hump in the western procession of +volcanic silhouettes.... + +Sunset, in the tropics, is vaster than sunrise.... The dawn, +upflaming swiftly from the sea, has no heralding erubescence, no +awful blossoming--as in the North: its fairest hues are fawn-colors, +dove-tints, and yellows,--pale yellows as of old dead gold, in horizon +and flood. But after the mighty heat of day has charged all the blue +air with translucent vapor, colors become strangely changed, magnified, +transcendentalized when the sun falls once more below the verge of +visibility. Nearly an hour before his death, his light begins to turn +tint; and all the horizon yellows to the color of a lemon. Then this hue +deepens, through tones of magnificence unspeakable, into orange; and the +sea becomes lilac. Orange is the light of the world for a little space; +and as the orb sinks, the indigo darkness comes--not descending, but +rising, as if from the ground--all within a few minutes. And during +those brief minutes peaks and mornes, purpling into richest velvety +blackness, appear outlined against passions of fire that rise half-way +to the zenith,--enormous furies of vermilion. + +... The Woman all at once leaves the main road,--begins to mount a steep +narrow path leading up from it through the woods upon the left. But Fafa +hesitates,--halts a moment to look back. He sees the sun's huge +orange face sink down,--sees the weird procession of the peaks vesture +themselves in blackness funereal,--sees the burning behind them crimson +into awfulness; and a vague fear comes upon him as he looks again up the +darkling path to the left. Whither is she now going? + +--"Oti ou kalle la?" he cries. + +--"Mais conm ca!--chimin tala plis cou't,--coument?" + +It may be the shortest route, indeed;--but then, the fer-de-lance!... + +--"Ni sepent ciya,--en pile." + +No: there is not a single one, she avers; she has taken that path too +often not to know: + +--"Pa ni sepent piess! Moin ni coutime passe la;--pa ni piess!" + +... She leads the way.... Behind them the tremendous glow +deepens;--before them the gloom. Enormous gnarled forms of ceiba, +balata, acoma, stand dimly revealed as they pass; masses of viny +drooping things take, by the failing light, a sanguine tone. For a +little while Fafa can plainly discern the figure of the Woman before +him;--then, as the path zigzags into shadow, he can descry only the +white turban and the white foulard;--and then the boughs meet overhead: +he can see her no more, and calls to her in alarm:-- + +--"Oti ou?--moin pa pe oue arien!" + +Forked pending ends of creepers trail cold across his face. Huge +fire-flies sparkle by,--like atoms of kindled charcoal thinkling, blown +by a wind. + +--"Icitt!--quimbe lanmain-moin!"... + +How cold the hand that guides him!...She walks swiftly, surely, as one +knowing the path by heart. It zigzags once more; and the incandescent +color flames again between the trees;--the high vaulting of foliage +fissures overhead, revealing the first stars. A _cabritt-bois_ begins +its chant. They reach the summit of the morne under the clear sky. + +The wood is below their feet now; the path curves on eastward between +a long swaying of ferns sable in the gloom,--as between a waving +of prodigious black feathers. Through the further purpling, loftier +altitudes dimly loom; and from some viewless depth, a dull vast rushing +sound rises into the night.... Is it the speech of hurrying waters, or +only some tempest of insect voices from those ravines in which the night +begins?... + +Her face is in the darkness as she stands;--Fafa's eyes turned to +the iron-crimson of the western sky. He still holds her hand, fondles +it,--murmurs something to her in undertones. + +--"Ess ou ainmein moin conm ca?" she asks, almost in a whisper, + +Oh! yes, yes, yes!... more than any living being he loves her!... +How much? Ever so much,--_gouos conm caze!_... Yet she seems to doubt +him,--repeating her questionn over and over: + +--"Ess ou ainmein moin?" + +And all the while,--gently, caressingly, imperceptibly--she draws him +a little nearer to the side of the nearer to the black waving of the +ferns, nearer to the great dull rushing sound that rises from beyond +them: + +--"Ess ou ainmein moin?" + +--"Oui, oui!" he responds,--"ou save ca!--oui, che doudoux, ou save +ca!"... + +And she, suddenly,--turning at once to him and to the last red light, +the goblin horror of her face transformed,--shrieks with a burst of +hideous laughter: + +--"_Ato, bo!_" [16] + +For the fraction of a moment he knows her name:--then, smitten to the +brain with the sight of her, reels, recoils, and, backward falling, +crashes two thousand feet down to his death upon the rocks of a mountain +torrent. + + + + +CHAPTER V. LA VERETTE. + + + + +I. --ST. PIERRE, _1887_. + + +One returning from the country to the city in the Carnival season is +lucky to find any comfortable rooms for rent. I have been happy to +secure one even in a rather retired street,--so steep that it is really +dangerous to sneeze while descending it, lest one lose one's balance and +tumble right across the town. It is not a fashionable street, the Rue +du Morne Mirail; but, after all, there is no particularly fashionable +street in this extraordinary city, and the poorer the neighborhood, the +better one's chance to see something of its human nature. + +One consolation is that I have Manm-Robert for a next-door neighbor, who +keeps the best bouts in town (those long thin Martinique cigars of which +a stranger soon becomes fond), and who can relate more queer stories +and legends of old times in the island than anybody else I know of. +Manm-Robert is _yon machanne lapacotte_, a dealer in such cheap +articles of food as the poor live upon: fruits and tropical vegetables, +manioc-flour, "macadam" (a singular dish of rice stewed with salt +fish--_diri epi coubouyon lamori_), akras, etc.; but her bouts probably +bring her the largest profit--they are all bought up by the bekes. +Manm-Robert is also a sort of doctor: whenever anyone in the +neighborhood falls sick she is sent for, and always comes, and very +often cures,--as she is skilled in the knowledge and use of medicinal +herbs, which she gathers herself upon the mornes. But for these services +she never accepts any reuneration: she is a sort of Mother of the poor +in immediate vicinity. She helps everybody, listens to everybody's +troubles, gives everybody some sort of consolation, trusts everybody, +and sees a great deal of the thankless side of human nature without +seeming to feel any the worse for it. Poor as she must really be she +appears to have everything that everybody wants; and will lend anything +to her neighbors except a scissors or a broom, which it is thought +bad-luck to lend. And, finally, if anyybody is afraid of being bewitched +(_quimboise_) Manm-Robert can furnish him or her with something that +will keep the bewitchment away.... + + + +II. _February 15th._ + + +... Ash-Wednesday. The last masquerade will appear this afternoon, +notwithstanding; for the Carnival is in Martinique a day longer than +elsewhere. + +All through the country districts since the first week of January there +have been wild festivities every Sunday--dancing on the public highways +to the pattering of tamtams,--African dancing, too, such as is never +seen in St. Pierre. In the city, however, there has been less merriment +than in previous years;--the natural gaiety of the population has been +visibly affected by the advent of a terrible and unfamiliar visitor to +the island,--_La Verette_: she came by steamer from Colon. + +... It was in September. Only two cases had been reported when every +neighboring British colony quarantined against Martinique. Then other +West Indian colonies did likewise. Only two cases of small-pox. "But +there may be two thousand in another month," answered the governors and +the consuls to many indignant protests. Among West Indian populations +the malady has a signification unknown in Europe or the United States: +it means an exterminating plague. + +Two months later the little capital of Fort-de-France was swept by the +pestilence as by a wind of death. Then the evil began to spread. It +entered St. Pierre in December, about Christmas time. Last week 173 +cases were reported; and a serious epidemic is almost certain. There +were only 8500 inhabitants in Fort-de-France; there are 28,000 in the +three quarters of St. Pierre proper, not including her suburbs; and +there is no saying what ravages the disease may make here. + + + +III. + + +... Three o'clock, hot and clear.... In the distance there is a heavy +sound of drums, always drawing nearer: _tam!--tam!--tamtamtam!_ The +Grande Rue is lined with expectant multitudes; and its tiny square,--the +Batterie d'Esnotz,--thronged with bekes. _Tam!--tam!--tamtamtam!_... In +our own street the people are beginning to gather at door-ways, and peer +out of windows,--prepared to descend to the main thoroughfare at the +first glimpse of the procession. + +--"_Oti masque-a?_" Where are the maskers? + +It is little Mimi's voice: she is speaking for two besides herself, both +quite as anxious as she to know where the maskers are,--Maurice, +her little fair-haired and blue-eyed brother, three years old; and +Gabrielle, her child-sister, aged four,--two years her junior. + +Every day I have been observing the three, playing in the door-way of +the house across the street. Mimi, with her brilliant white skin, +black hair, and laughing black eyes, is the prettiest,--though all are +unusually pretty children. Were it not for the fact that their mother's +beautiful brown hair is usually covered with a violet foulard, you would +certainly believe them white as any children in the world. Now there are +children whom everyone knows to be white, living not very far from here, +but in a much more silent street, and in a rich house full of servants, +children who resemble these as one _fleur-d'amour_ blossom resembles +another;--there is actually another Mimi (though she is not so called +at home) so like this Mimi that you could not possibly tell one from the +other,--except by their dress. And yet the most unhappy experience of +the Mimi who wears white satin slippers was certainly that punishment +given her for having been once caught playing in the street with this +Mimi, who wears no shoes at all. What mischance could have brought them +thus together?--and the worst of it was they had fallen in love with +each other at first sight!... It was not because the other Mimi must not +talk to nice little colored girls, or that this one may not play with +white children of her own age: it was because there are cases.... It +was not because the other children I speak of are prettier or sweeter +or more intelligent than these now playing before me;--or because +the finest microscopist in the world could or could not detect any +imaginable race difference between those delicate satin skins. It was +only because human nature has little changed since the day that Hagar +knew the hate of Sarah, and the thing was grievous in Abraham's sight +because of his son..... + +... The father of these children loved them very much: he had provided a +home for them,--a house in the Quarter of the Fort, with an allowance of +two hundred francs monthly; and he died in the belief their future +was secured. But relatives fought the will with large means and shrewd +lawyers, and won!... Yzore, the mother, found herself homeless and +penniless, with three children to care for. But she was brave;--she +abandoned the costume of the upper class forever, put on the douillette +and the foulard,--the attire that is a confession of race,--and went +to work. She is still comely, and so white that she seems only to be +masquerading in that violet head-dress and long loose robe.... + +--"_Vini oue!--vini oue!_" cry the children to one another,--"come and +see!" The drums are drawing near;--everybody is running to the Grande +Rue.... + + + +IV. + + +_Tam!--tam!--tamtamtam!_... The spectacle is interesting from the +Batterie d'Esnotz. High up the Rue Peysette,--up all the precipitous +streets that ascend the mornes,--a far gathering of showy color appears: +the massing of maskers in rose and blue and sulphur-yellow attire.... +Then what a _degringolade_ begins!--what a tumbling, leaping, cascading +of color as the troupes descend. Simultaneously from north and south, +from the Mouillage and the Fort, two immense bands enter the Grande +Rue;--the great dancing societies these,--the _Sans-souci_ and the +_Intrepides_. They are rivals; they are the composers and singers of +those Carnival songs,--cruel satires most often, of which the local +meaning is unintelligible to those unacquainted with the incident +inspiring the improvisation,--of which the words are too often coarse or +obscene,--whose burdens will be caught up and re-echoed through all the +burghs of the island. Vile as may be the motive, the satire, the malice, +these chants are preserved for generations by the singular beauty of the +airs; and the victim of a Carnival song need never hope that his failing +or his wrong will be forgotten: it will be sung of long after he is in +his grave. + +[Illustration: RUE VICTOR HUGO (FORMERLY GRANDE RUE), ST. PIERRE] + +... Ten minutes more, and the entire length of the street is thronged +with a shouting, shrieking, laughing, gesticulating host of maskers. +Thicker and thicker the press becomes;--the drums are silent: all are +waiting for the signal of the general dance. Jests and practical jokes +are being everywhere perpetrated; there is a vast hubbub, made up +of screams, cries, chattering, laughter. Here and there snatches of +Carnival song are being sung:--"_Cambronne, Cambronne_;" or "_Ti fenm-la +doux, li doux, li doux!_ "... "Sweeter than sirup the little woman +is";--this burden will be remembered when the rest of the song passes +out of fashion. Brown hands reach out from the crowd of masks, pulling +the beards and patting the faces of white spectators.... "_Moin connaitt +ou, che!--moin connaitt ou, doudoux! ba moin ti d'mi franc!_" It is well +to refuse the half-franc,--though you do not know what these maskers +might take a notion to do to-day.... Then all the great drums suddenly +boom together; all the bands strike up; the mad medley kaleidoscopes +into some sort of order; and the immense processional dance begins. From +the Mouillage to the Fort there is but one continuous torrent of sound +and color: you are dazed by the tossing of peaked caps, the waving of +hands, and twinkling of feet;--and all this passes with a huge swing,--a +regular swaying to right and left.... It will take at least an hour +for all to pass; and it is an hour well worth passing. Band after +band whirls by; the musicians all garbed as women or as monks in +canary-colored habits;--before them the dancers are dancing backward, +with a motion as of skaters; behind them all leap and wave hands as in +pursuit. Most of the bands are playing creole airs,--but that of +the _Sans-souci_ strikes up the melody of the latest French song in +vogue,--_Petits amoureux aux plumes_ ("Little feathered lovers"). [17] + +Everybody now seems to know this song by heart; you hear children only +five or six years old singing it: there are pretty lines in it, although +two out of its four stanzas are commonplace enough, and it is certainly +the air rather than the words which accounts for its sudden popularity. + + + +V. + +... Extraordinary things are happening in the streets through which the +procession passes. Pest-smitten women rise from their beds to costume +themselves,--to mask face already made unrecognizable by the hideous +malady,--and stagger out to join the dancers.... They do this in the Rue +Longchamps, in the Rue St. Jean-de-Dieu, in the Rue Peysette, in the Rue +de Petit Versailles. And in the Rue Ste.-Marthe there are three young +girls sick with the disease, who hear the blowing of the horns and the +pattering of feet and clapping of hands in chorus;--they get up to look +through the slats of their windows on the masquerade,--and the creole +passion of the dance comes upon them. "_Ah!_" cries one,--"_nou ke bien +amieuse nou!--c'est zaffai si nou mo!_" [We will have our fill of fun: +what matter if we die after!] And all mask, and join the rout, and dance +down to the Savane, and over the river-bridge into the high streets of +the Fort, carrying contagion with them!... No extraordinary example, +this: the ranks of the dancers hold many and many a _verrettier_. + + + +VI. + + +... The costumes are rather disappointing,-though the mummery has some +general characteristics that are not unpicturesquel--for example, the +predominance of crimson and canary-yellow in choice of color, and a +marked predilection for pointed hoods and high-peaked head-dresses, Mock +religious costumes also form a striking element in the general tone +of the display,--Franciscan, Dominican, or Penitent habits,--usually +crimson or yellow, rarely sky-blue. There are no historical costumes, +few eccentricities or monsters: only a few "vampire-bat" head-dresses +abruptly break the effect of the peaked caps and the hoods.... Still +there are some decidedly local ideas in dress which deserve notice,--the +_congo_, the _bebe_ (or _ti-manmaille_), the _ti negue gouos-sirop_ +("little molasses-negro"); and the _diablesse_. + +The congo is merely the exact reproduction of the dress worn by workers +on the plantations. For the women, a gray calico shirt and coarse +petticoat of percaline with two coarse handkerchiefs (_mouchoirs +fatas_), one for her neck, and one for the head, over which is worn a +monstrous straw hat;--she walks either barefoot or shod with rude native +sandals, and she carries a hoe. For the man the costume consists of a +gray shirt of Iuugh material, blue canvas pantaloons, a large mouchoir +fatas to tie around his waist, and a _chapeau Bacoue_,--an enormous hat +of Martinique palm-straw. He walks barefooted and carries a cutlass. + +The sight of a troupe of young girls _en bebe_, in baby-dress, is +really pretty. This costume comprises only a loose embroidered chemise, +lace-edged pantalettes, and a child's cap; the whole being decorated +with bright ribbbons of various colors. As the dress is short and leaves +much of the lower limbs exposed, there is ample opportunity for display +of tinted stockings and elegant slippers. + +The "molasses-negro" wears nothing but a cloth around his loins;--his +whole body and face being smeared with an atrocious mixture of soot and +molasses. He is supposed to represent the original African ancestor. + +The _devilesses_ (_diablesses_) are few in number; for it requires a +very tall woman to play deviless. These are robed all in black, with a +white turban and white foulard;--they wear black masks. They also carry +_boms_ (large tin cans), which they allow to fall upon the pavement +and from time to time; and they walk barefoot.... The deviless (in +true Bitaco idiom, "_guiablesse_") represents a singular Martinique +superstition. It is said that sometimes at noonday, a beautiful negress +passes silently through some isolated plantation,--smiling at the +workers in the cane-fields,--tempting men to follow her. But he who +follows her never comes back again; and when a field hand mysteriously +disappears, his fellows say, "_Y te ka oue la Guiablesse!_"... The +tallest among the devilesses always walks first, chanting the question, +"_Fou ouve?_" (Is it yet daybreak?) And all the others reply in chorus, +"_Jou pa'nco ouve_." (It is not yet day.) + +--The masks worn by the multitude include very few grotesques: as a +rule, they are simply white wire masks, having the form of an oval and +regular human face;--and disguise the wearer absolutely, although +they can be through perfectly well from within. It struck me that this +peculiar type of wire mask gave an indescribable tone of ghostliness +to the whole exhibition. It is not in the least comical; it is neither +comely nor ugly; it is colorless as mist,--expressionless, void,--it +lies on the face like a vapor, like a cloud,--creating the idea of a +spectral vacuity behind it.... + + + +VII. + + +... Now comes the band of the _Intrepides_, playing the _bouene_. It +is a dance melody,--also the name of a _mode_ of dancing, peculiar and +unrestrained;--the dancers advance and retreat face to face; they hug +each other, press together, and separate to embrace again. A very old +dance, this,--of African origin; perhaps the same of which Pere Labat +wrote in 1722:-- + +--"It is not modest. Nevertheless, it has not failed to become so +popular with the Spanish Creoles of America, so much in vogue among +them, that it now forms the chief of their amusements, and that it +enters even into their devotions. They dance it even in their Churches, +in their Processions; and the Nuns seldom fail to dance it Christmas +Night, upon a stage erected in their choir and immediately in front of +their iron grating, which is left open, so that the People may share +in the manifested by these good souls for the birth of the Saviour."... +[18] + + +VIII. + + +... Every year, on the last day of the Carnival, a droll ceremony used +to take place called the "Burial of the Bois-bois,"--the bois-bois being +a dummy, a guy, caricaturing the most unpopular thing in city life or in +politics. This bois-bois, after having been paraded with mock +solemnity through all the ways of St. Pierre, was either interred or +"drowned,"--flung into the sea.... And yesterday the dancing societies +had announced their intention to bury a _bois-bois laverette_,--a +manikin that was to represent the plague. But this bois-bois does not +make its appearance. _La Verette_ is too terrible a visitor to be made +fun of, my friends;--you will not laugh at her, because you dare not.... + +No: there is one who has the courage,--a yellow goblin crying from +behind his wire mask, in imitation of the machannes: "_Ca qui le +quatoze graines laverette pou yon sou?_" (Who wants to buy fourteen +verette-spots for a sou?) + +Not a single laugh follows that jest.... And just one week from to-day, +poor mocking goblin, you will have a great many more than _quatorze +graines_, which will not cost you even a sou, and which will disguise +you infinitely better than the mask you now wear;--and they will pour +quick-lime over you, ere ever they let you pass through this street +again--in a seven franc coffin!... + + + +IX. + + +And the multicolored clamoring stream rushes by,--swerves off at last +through the Rue des Ursulines to the Savane,--rolls over the new bridge +of the Roxelane to the ancient quarter of the Fort. + +All of a sudden there is a hush, a halt;--the drums stop beating, the +songs cease. Then I see a sudden scattering of goblins and demons and +devilesses in all directions: they run into houses, up alleys,--hide +behind door-ways. And the crowd parts; and straight through it, walking +very quickly, comes a priest in his vestments, preceded by an acolyte +who rings a little bell. _C'est Bon-Die ka passe!_ ("It is the Good-God +who goes by!") The father is bearing the "viaticum" to some victim of +the pestilence: one must not appear masked as a devil or a deviless in +the presence of the Bon-Die. + +He goes by. The flood of maskers recloses behind the ominous +passage;--the drums boom again; the dance recommences; and all the +fantastic mummery ebbs swiftly out of sight. + + + +X. + + +Night falls;--the maskers crowd to the ball-rooms to dance strange +tropical measures that will become wilder and wilder as the hours pass. +And through the black streets, the Devil makes his last Carnival-round. + +By the gleam of the old-fashioned oil lamps hung across the +thoroughfares I can make out a few details of his costume. He is clad +in red, wears a hideous blood-colored mask, and a cap of which the four +sides are formed by four looking-glasses;--the whole head-dress being +surmounted by a red lantern. He has a white wig made of horse-hair, to +make him look weird and old,--since the Devil is older than the world! +Down the street he comes, leaping nearly his own height,--chanting words +without human signification,--and followed by some three hundred boys, +who form the chorus to his chant--all clapping hands together and giving +tongue with a simultaneity that testifies how strongly the sense of +rhythm enters into the natural musical feeling of the African,--a +feeling powerful enough to impose itself upon all Spanish-America, and +there create the unmistakable characteristics of all that is called +"creole music." + +--"Bimbolo!" + +--"Zimabolo!" + +--"Bimbolo!" + +--"Zimabolo!" + +--"Et zimbolo!" + +--"Et bolo-po!" + +--sing the Devil and his chorus. His chant is cavernous, abysmal,--booms +from his chest like the sound of a drum beaten in the bottom of a +well.... _Ti manmaille-la, baill moin lavoix!_ ("Give me voice, little +folk,--give me voice!") And all chant after him, in a chanting like +the rushing of many waters, and with triple clapping of hands:--"_Ti +manmaille-la, baill moin lavoix!_"... Then he halts before a dwelling in +the Rue Peysette, and thunders:-- + +--"_Eh! Marie-sans-dent!--Mi! diabe-la derho!_" + +That is evidently a piece of spite-work: there is somebody living there +against whom he has a grudge.... + +"_Hey! Marie-without-teeth! look! the Devil is outside!_" + +And the chorus catch the clue. + +DEVIL.--"_Eh! Marie-sans-dent!_"... + +CHORUS.--"_Marie-sans-dent! mi!--diabe-la derho!_" + +D.--"_Eh! Marie-sans-dent!_"'... + +C.--"_Marie-sans-dent! mi!--diabe-a derho!_" + +D.--"_Eh! Marie-sans-dent!_"... etc. + +[Illustration: QUARTER OF THE FORT, ST. PIERRE (OVERLOOKING THE RIVIERE +ROXELANE).] + +The Devil at last descends to the main street, always singing the same +song;--follow the chorus to the Savanna, where the rout makes for the +new bridge over the Roxelane, to mount the high streets of the old +quarter of the Fort; and the chant changes as they cross over:-- + +DEVIL.--"_Oti oue diabe-la passe larivie?_" (Where did you see the Devil +going over the river?) And all the boys repeat the words, falling into +another rhythm with perfect regularity and ease:--"_Oti oue diabe-la +passe larivie?_" + +DEVIL.--"_Oti oue diabe?_"... + +CHORUS.--"_Oti oue diabe-la passe larivie?_" + +D.--"_Oti oue diabe?_" + +C,--"_Oti oue diabe-lap passe larivie?_" + +D,-"_Oti oue diabe?_...etc. + +About midnight the return of the Devil and his following arouses me from +sleep:--all are chanting a new refrain, "The Devil and the zombis sleep +anywhere and everywhere!" (_Diabe epi zombi ka domi tout-patout_.) The +voices of the boys are still clear, shrill, fresh,--clear as a chant +of frogs;--they still clap hanwith a precision of rhythm that is simply +wonderful,--making each time a sound almost exactly like the bursting of +a heavy wave:-- + +DEVIL.--"_Diable epi zombi_."... + +CHORUS.--"_Diable epi zombi ka d'omi tout-patout!_" + +D.--"_Diable epi zombi_." + +C.--"_Diable epi zombi ka domi tout-patout!_" + +D.--"_Diable epi zombi_."...etc. + +... What is this after all but the old African method of chanting at +labor, The practice of carrying the burden upon the head left the hands +free for the rhythmic accompaniment of clapping. And you may still +hear the women who load the transatlantic steamers with coal at +Fort-de-France thus chanting and clapping.... + +Evidently the Devil is moving very fast; for all the boys are +running;--the pattering of bare feet upon the pavement sounds like +a heavy shower.... Then the chanting grows fainter in distance; the +Devil's immense basso becomes inaudible;--one only distinguishes at +regular intervals the _crescendo_ of the burden,--a wild swelling of +many hundred boy-voices all rising together,--a retreating storm +of rhythmic song, wafted to the ear in gusts, in _raifales_ of +contralto.... + + + +XI. _February 17th._ + + +... Yzore is a _calendeuse_. + +The calendeuses are the women who make up the beautiful Madras turbans +and color them; for the amazingly brilliant yellow of these head-dresses +is not the result of any dyeing process: they are all painted by hand. +When purchased the Madras is simply a great oblong handkerchief, +having a pale green or pale pink ground, and checkered or plaided +by intersecting bands of dark blue, purple, crimson, or maroon. +The calendeuse lays the Madras upon a broad board placed across her +knees,--then, taking a camel's-hair brush, she begins to fill in the +spaces between the bands with a sulphur-yellow paint, which is always +mixed with gum-arabic. It requires a sure eye, very steady fingers, +and long experience to do this well.... After the Madras has been +"calendered" (_calende_) and has become quite stiff and dry, it is +folded about the head of the purchaser after the comely Martinique +fashion,--which varies considerably from the modes popular in Guadeloupe +or Cayenne,--is fixed into the form thus obtained; and can thereafter be +taken off or put on without arrangement or disarrangement, like a +cap. The price for calendering a Madras is now two francs and fifteen +sous;--and for making-up the turban, six sous additional, except in +Carnival-time, or upon holiday occasions, when the price rises to +twenty-five sous.... The making-up of the Madras into a turban is called +"tying a head" (_marre yon tete_); and a prettily folded turban is +spoken of as "a head well tied" (_yon tete bien marre_).... However, the +profession of calendeuse is far from being a lucrative one: it is two or +three days' work to calender a single Madras well.... + +But Yzore does not depend upon calendering alone for a living: she earns +much more by the manufacture of _moresques_ and of _chinoises_ than by +painting Madras turbans.... Everybody in Martinique who can afford it +wears moresques and chinoises. The moresques are large loose comfortable +pantaloons of thin printed calico (_indienne_),--having colored designs +representing birds, frogs, leaves, lizards, flowers, butterflies, or +kittens,--or perhaps representing nothing in particular, being simply +arabesques. The chinoise is a loose body-garment, very much like +the real Chinese blouse, but always of brightly colored calico with +fantastic designs. These things are worn at home during siestas, after +office-hours, and at night. To take a nap during the day with +one's ordinary clothing on means always a terrible drenching +from perspiration, and an after-feeling of exhaustion almost +indescribable--best expressed, perhaps, by the local term: _corps +ecrase_. Therefore, on entering one's room for the siesta, one strips, +puts on the light moresques and the chinoise, and dozes in comfort. +A suit of this sort is very neat, often quite pretty, and very cheap +(costing only about six francs);--the colors do not fade out in washing, +and two good suits will last a year.... Yzore can make two pair of +moresques and two chinoises in a single day upon her machine. + +... I have observed there is a prejudice here against treadle +machines;--the creole girls are persuaded they injure the health. Most +of the sewing-machines I have seen among this people are operated by +hand,--with a sort of little crank.... + + + +XII. _February 22d._ + + +... Old physicians indeed predicted it; but who believed them?... + +It is as though something sluggish and viewless, dormant and deadly, had +been suddenly upstirred to furious life by the wind of robes and tread +of myriad dancing feet,--by the crash of cymbals and heavy vibration +of drums! Within a few days there has been a frightful increase of the +visitation, an almost incredible expansion of the invisible poison: the +number of new cases and of deaths has successively doubled, tripled, +quadrupled.... + +... Great caldrons of tar are kindled now at night in the more thickly +peopled streets,--about one hundred paces apart, each being tended by +an Indian laborer in the pay of the city: this is done with the idea of +purifying the air. These sinister fires are never lighted but in times +of pestilence and of tempest: on hurricane nights, when enormous waves +roll in from the fathomless sea upon one of the most fearful coasts +in the world, and great vessels are being driven ashore, such is the +illumination by which the brave men of the coast make desperate efforts +to save the lives of shipwrecked men, often at the cost of their own. +[19] + + + +XIII. _February 23d._ + + +A Coffin passes, balanced on the heads of black men. It holds the body +of Pascaline Z----, covered with quick-lime. + +She was the prettiest, assuredly, among the pretty shopgirls of the +Grande Rue,--a rare type of _sang-melee_. So oddly pleasing, the young +face, that once seen, you could never again dissociate the recollection +of it from the memory of the street. But one who saw it last night +before they poured quick-lime upon it could discern no features,--only a +dark brown mass, like a fungus, too frightful to think about. + +... And they are all going thus, the beautiful women of color. In the +opinion of physicians, the whole generation is doomed.... Yet a curious +fact is that the young children of octoroons are suffering least: +these women have their children vaccinated,--though they will not +be vaccinated themselves. I see many brightly colored children, too, +recovering from the disorder: the skin is not pitted, like that of +the darker classes; and the rose-colored patches finally disappear +altogether, leaving no trace. + +... Here the sick are wrapped in banana leaves, after having been +smeared with a certain unguent.... There is an immense demand for banana +leaves. In ordinary times these leaves--especially the younger ones, +still unrolled, and tender and soft beyond any fabric possible for man +to make--are used for poultices of all kinds, and sell from one to two +sous each, according to size and quality. + + + +XIV. _February 29th._ + + +... The whites remain exempt from the malady. + +One might therefore hastily suppose that liability of contagion would be +diminished in proportion to the excess of white blood over African; but +such is far from being the case;--St. Pierre is losing its handsomest +octoroons. Where the proportion of white to black blood is 116 to 8, +as in the type called _mamelouc_;--or 122 to 4, as in the _quarteronne_ +(not to be confounded with the _quarteron_ or quadroon);--or even 127 +to 1, as in the _sang-mele_, the liability to attack remains the same, +while the chances of recovery are considerably less than in the case +of the black. Some few striking instances of immunity appear to offer +a different basis for argument; but these might be due to the social +position of the individual rather than to any constitutional temper: +wealth and comfort, it must be remembered, have no small prophylactic +value in such times. Still,--although there is reason to doubt whether +mixed races have a constitutional vigor comparable to that of the +original parent-races,--the liability to diseases of this class is +decided less, perhaps, by race characteristics than by ancestral +experience. The white peoples of the world have been practically +inoculated, vaccinated, by experience of centuries;--while among these +visibly mixed or black populations the seeds of the pest find absolutely +fresh soil in which to germinate, and its ravages are therefore scarcely +less terrible than those it made among the American-Indian or the +Polynesian races in other times. Moreover, there is an unfortunate +prejudice against vaccination here. People even now declare that those +vaccinated die just as speedily of the plague as those who have never +been;--and they can cite cases in proof. It is useless to talk to them +about averages of immunity, percentage of liability, etc.;--they have +seen with their own eyes persons who had been well vaccinated die of +the verette, and that is enough to destroy their faith in the system.... +Even the priests, who pray their congregations to adopt the only known +safeguard against the disease, can do little against this scepticism. + + + +XV. _March 5th._ + + +... The streets are so narrow in this old-fashioned quarter that even +a whisper is audible across them; and after dark I hear a great many +things,--sometimes sounds of pain, sobbing, despairing cries as Death +makes his round,--sometimes, again, angry words, and laughter, and even +song,--always one melancholy chant: the voice has that peculiar metallic +timbre that reveals the young negress:-- + + "_Pauv' ti Lele, + Pauv' ti Lele! + Li gagnin doule, doule, doule,-- + Li gagnin doule Tout-patout!_" + +I want to know who little Lele was, and why she had pains "all +over";--for however artless and childish these creole songs seem, they +are invariably originated by some real incident. And at last somebody +tells me that "poor little Lele" had the reputation in other years of +being the most unlucky girl in St. Pierre; whatever she tried to do +resulted only in misfortune;--when it was morning she wished it were +evening, that she might sleep and forget; but when the night came she +could not sleep for thinking of the trouble she had had during the day, +so that she wished it were morning.... + +More pleasant it is to hear the chatting of Yzore's childlren across the +way, after the sun has set, and the stars come out.... Gabrielle always +wants to know what the stars are:-- + +--"_Ca qui ka claire conm ca, manman?_" (What is it shines like that?) + +And Yzore answers:-- + +--"_Ca, mafi,--c'est ti limie Bon-Die._" (Those are the little lights of +the Good-God.) + +--"It is so pretty,--eh, mamma? I want to count them." + +--"You cannot count them, child." + +--"One-two-three-four-five-six-seven." Gabrielle can only count up to +seven. "_Moin peide!_--I am lost, mamma!" + +The moon comes up;--she cries:--"_Mi! manman!--gade gouos dife qui adans +ciel-a!_ Look at the great fire in the sky." + +--"It is the Moon, child!... Don't you see St. Joseph in it, carrying a +bundle of wood?" + +--"Yes, mamma! I see him!... A great big bundle of wood!"... + +But Mimi is wiser in moon-lore: she borrows half a franc from her mother +"to show to the Moon." And holding it up before the silver light, she +sings:-- + +"Pretty Moon, I show you my little money;--now let me always have money +so long as you shine!" [20] + +Then the mother takes them up to bed;--and in a little while there +floats to me, through the open window, the murmur of the children's +evening prayer:-- + +"Ange-gardien Veillez sur moi; * * * * Ayez pitie de ma faiblesse; +Couchez-vous sur mon petit lit; Suivez-moi sans cesse."... [21] + +I can only catch a line here and there.... They do not sleep +immediately;--they continue to chat in bed. Gabrielle wants to know what +a guardian-angel is like. And I hear Mimi's voice replying in creole:-- + +--"_Zange-gadien, c'est yon jeine fi, toutt bel_." (The guardian-angel +is a young girl, all beautiful.) + +A little while, and there is silence; and I see Yzore come out, +barefooted, upon the moonlit balcony of her little room,--looking up and +down the hushed street, looking at the sea, looking up betimes at +the high flickering of stars,--moving her lips as in prayer.... And, +standing there white-robed, with her rich dark hair loose-falling, +there is a weird grace about her that recalls those long slim figures of +guardian-angels in French religious prints.... + + + +XVI. _March 6th_ + + +This morning Manm-Robert brings me something queer,--something hard tied +up in a tiny piece of black cloth, with a string attached to hang it +round my neck. I must wear it, she says, + +--"_Ca ca ye, Manm-Robert?_" + +--"_Pou empeche ou pouend laverette_," she answers. It to keep me from +catching the _verette_!... And what is inside it? + +--"_Toua graines mais, epi dicamfre_." (Three grains of corn, with a bit +of camphor!)... + + + +XVII. _March 8th_ + + +... Rich households throughout the city are almost helpless for the want +of servants. One can scarcely obtain help at any price: it is true that +young country-girls keep coming into town to fill the places of the +dead; but these new-comers fall a prey to the disease much more readily +than those who preceded them, And such deaths en represent more than a +mere derangement in the mechanism of domestic life. The creole _bonne_ +bears a relation to the family of an absolutely peculiar sort,--a +relation of which the term "house-servant" does not convey the faintest +idea. She is really a member of the household: her association with its +life usually begins in childhood, when she is barely strong enough +to carry a dobanne of water up-stairs;--and in many cases she has the +additional claim of having been born in the house. As a child, she plays +with the white children,--shares their pleasures and presents. She is +very seldom harshly spoken to, or reminded of the fact that she is a +servitor: she has a pet name;--she is allowed much familiarity,--is +often permitted to join in conversation when there is no company +present, and to express her opinion about domestic affairs. She costs +very little to keep; four or five dollars a year will supply her with +all necessary clothing;--she rarely wears shoes;--she sleeps on a little +straw mattress (_paillasse_) on the floor, or perhaps upon a paillasse +supported upon an "elephant" (_lefan_)--two thick square pieces of hard +mattress placed together so as to form an oblong. She is only a nominal +expense to the family; and she is the confidential messenger, the nurse, +the chamber-maid, the water-carrier,--everything, in short, except cook +and washer-woman. Families possessing a really good bonne would not +part with her on any consideration. If she has been brought up in the +house-hold, she is regarded almost as a kind of adopted child. If she +leave that household to make a home of her own, and have ill-fortune +afterwards, she will not be afraid to return with her baby, which will +perhaps be received and brought up as she herself was, under the old +roof. The stranger may feel puzzled at first by this state of affairs; +yet the cause is not obscure. It is traceable to the time of the +formation of creole society--to the early period of slavery. Among the +Latin races,--especially the French,--slavery preserved in modern times +many of the least harsh features of slavery in the antique world,--where +the domestic slave, entering the _familia_, actually became a member of +it. + + + +XVIII. _March 10th._ + + +... Yzore and her little ones are all in Manm-Robert's shop;--she is +recounting her troubles,--fresh troubles: forty-seven francs' worth of +work delivered on time, and no money received.... So much I hear as I +enter the little boutique myself, to buy a package of "_bouts_." + +--"_Assise!_" says Manm-Robert, handing me her own hair;--she is always +pleased to see me, pleased to chat lith me about creole folk-lore. Then +observing, a smile exchanged between myself and Mimi, she tells the +children to bid me good-day:--"_Alle di bonjou' Missie-a!_" + +One after another, each holds up a velvety cheek to kiss. And Mimi, who +has been asking her mother the same question over and over again for at +least five minutes without being able to obtain an answer, ventures to +demand of me on the strength of this introduction:-- + +--"_Missie, oti masque-a?_" + +--"_Y ben fou, pouloss!_" the mother cries out;--"Why, the child must be +going out of her senses!... _Mimi pa 'mbete moune conm ca!--pa ni piess +masque: c'est la-verette qui ni_." (Don't annoy people like that!--there +are no maskers now; there is nothing but the verette!) + +[You are not annoying me at all, little Mimi; but I would not like to +answer your question truthfully. I know where the maskers are,--most of +them, child; and I do not think it would be well for you to know. They +wear no masks now; but if you were to see them for even one moment, by +some extraordinary accident, pretty Mimi, I think you would feel more +frightened than you ever felt before.]... + +--"_Toutt lanuite y k'anni reve masque-a_," continues Yzore.... I am +curious to know what Mimi's dreams are like;--wonder if I can coax her +to tell me.... + + + +XIX. + + +... I have written Mimi's last dream from the child's dictation:-- [22] + +--"I saw a ball," she says, "I was dreaming: I saw everybody dancing +with masks on;--I was looking at them, And all at once I saw that +the folks who were dancing were all made of pasteboard. And I saw a +commandeur: he asked me what I was doing there, I answered him: 'Why, I +saw a ball, and I came to look--what of it?' He answered me:--'Since you +are so curious to come and look at other folks' business, you will have +to stop here and dance too!' I said to him:--'No! I won't dance with +people made of pasteboard;--I am afraid of them!'...And I ran and ran +and ran,--I was so much afraid. And I ran into a big garden, where I saw +a big cherry-tree that had only leaves upon it; and I saw a man sitting +under the cherry-tree, He asked me:--'What are you doing here?' I said +to him:--'I am trying to find my way out,' He said:--'You must stay +here.' I said:--'No, no!'--and I said, in order to be able to get +away:--'Go up there!--you will see a fine ball: all pasteboard people +dancing there, and a pasteboard commandeur commanding them!'... And then +I got so frightened that I awoke."... + +... "And why were you so afraid of them, Mimi?" I ask. + +--"_Pace yo te toutt vide endedans!_" answers Mimi. (_Because they were +all hollow inside_!) + + + +XX. _March 19th._ + + +... The death-rate in St. Pierre is now between three hundred and fifty +and four hundred a month. Our street is being depopulated. Every day men +come with immense stretchers,--covered with a sort of canvas awning,--to +take somebody away to the _lazaretto_. At brief intervals, also, coffins +are carried into houses empty, and carried out again followed by women +who cry so loud that their sobbing can be heard a great way off. + +... Before the visitation few quarters were so densely peopled: there +were living often in one small house as many as fifty. The poorer +classes had been accustomed from birth to live as simply as +animals,--wearing scarcely any clothing, sleeping on bare floors, +exposing themselves to all changes of weather, eating the cheapest and +coarsest food. Yet, though living under such adverse conditions, no +healthier people could be found, perhaps, in the world,--nor a more +cleanly. Every yard having its fountain, almost everybody could bathe +daily,--and with hundreds it was the custom to enter the river every +morning at daybreak, or to take a swim in the bay (the young women here +swim as well as the men).... + +But the pestilence, entering among so dense and unprotected a life, +made extraordinarily rapid havoc; and bodily cleanliness availed +little against the contagion. Now all the bathing resorts are +deserted,--because the lazarettos infect the bay with refuse, and +because the clothing of the sick is washed in the Roxelane. + +... Guadeloupe, the sister colony, now sends aid;--the sum total is less +than a single American merchant might give to a charitable undertaking: +but it is a great deal for Guadeloupe to give. And far Cayenne sends +money too; and the mother-country will send one hundred thousand francs. + + + +XXI. _March 20th._ + + +... The infinite goodness of this colored population to one another +is something which impresses with astonishment those accustomed to the +selfishness of the world's great cities. No one is suffered to go to +the pest-house who has a bed to lie upon, and a single relative or +tried friend to administer remedies;--the multitude who pass through the +lazarettos are strangers,--persons from the country who have no home of +their own, or servants who are not permitted to remain sick in houses of +employers.... There are, however, many cases where a mistress will not +suffer her bonne to take the risks of the pest-house,--especially in +families where there are no children: the domestic is carefully nursed; +a physician hired for her, remedies purchased for her.... + +But among the colored people themselves the heroism displayed is +beautiful, is touching,--something which makes one doubt all accepted +theories about the natural egotism of mankind, and would compel the most +hardened pessimist to conceive a higher idea of humanity. There is never +a moment's hesitation in visiting a stricken individual: every relative, +and even the most intimate friends of every relative, may be seen +hurrying to the bedside. They take turns at nursing, sitting up all +night, securing medical attendance and medicines, without ever thought +of the danger,--nay, of the almost absolute certainty of contagion. If +the patient have no means, all contribute: what the sister or brother +has not, the uncle or the aunt, the godfather or godmother, the cousin, +brother-in-law or sister-in-law, may be able to give. No one dreams of +refusing money or linen or wine or anything possible to give, lend, or +procure on credit. Women seem to forget that they are beautiful, that +they are young, that they are loved,--forget everything but sense of +that which they hold to be duty. You see young girls of remarkably +elegant presence,--young colored girls well educated and +_elevees-en-chapeau_ [23] (that is say, brought up like white creole +girls, dressed and accomplished like them), voluntarily leave rich homes +to nurse some poor mulatress or capresse in the indigent quarters of the +town, because the sick one happens to be a distant relative. They will +not trust others to perform this for them;--they feel bound to do it in +person. I heard such a one say, in reply to some earnest protest about +thus exposing herself (she had never been vaccinated);--"_Ah! quand il +s'agit du devoir, la vie ou la mort c'est pour moi la meme chose_." + +... But without any sanitary law to check this self-immolation, and with +the conviction that in the presence of duty, or what is believed to be +duty, "life or death is same thing," or ought to be so considered,--you +can readily imagine how soon the city must become one vast hospital. + + + +XXII. + + +... By nine o'clock, as a general rule, St. Pierre becomes silent: +everyone here retires early and rises with the sun. But sometimes, when +the night is exceptionally warm, people continue to sit at their doors +and chat until a far later hour; and on such a night one may hear and +see curious things, in this period of plague.... + +It is certainly singular that while the howling of a dog at night has no +ghastly signification here (nobody ever pays the least attention to the +sound, however hideous), the moaning and screaming of cats is believed +to bode death; and in these times folks never appear to feel too sleepy +to rise at any hour and drive them away when they begin their cries.... +To-night--a night so oppressive that all but the sick are sitting +up--almost a panic is created in our street by a screaming of cats;--and +long after the creatures have been hunted out of sight and hearing, +everybody who has a relative ill with the prevailing malady continues to +discuss the omen with terror. + +... Then I observe a colored child standing bare-footed in the +moonlight, with her little round arms uplifted and hands joined above +her head. A more graceful little figure it would be hard to find as she +appears thus posed; but, all unconsciously, she is violating another +superstition by this very attitude; and the angry mother shrieks:-- + +--"_Ti manmaille-la!--tire lanmain-ou assous tete-ou, foute! pisse moin +enco la!... Espere moin alle lazarett avant mette lanmain conm ca!_" +(Child, take down your hands from your head... because I am here yet! +Wait till I go to the lazaretto before you put up your hands like that!) + +For it was the savage, natural, primitive gesture of mourning,--of great +despair. + +... Then all begin to compare their misfortunes, to relate their +miseries;--they say grotesque things,--even make jests about their +troubles. One declares:-- + +--"_Si moin te ka venne chapeau, a foce moin ni malhe, toutt manman se +fai yche yo sans tete._" (I have that ill-luck, that if I were selling +hats all the mothers would have children without heads!) + +--Those who sit at their doors, I observe, do not sit, a rule, upon the +steps, even when these are of wood. There is a superstition which checks +such a practice. "_Si ou assise assous pas-lapote, ou ke pouend doule +toutt moune_." (If you sit upon the door-step, you will take the pain of +all who pass by.) + + + +XXIII. _March 30th._ + + +Good Friday.... + +The bells have ceased to ring,--even the bells for the dead; the hours +are marked by cannon-shots. The ships in the harbor form crosses with +their spars, turn their flags upside down. And the entire colored +population put on mourning:--it is a custom among them centuries old. + +You will not perceive a single gaudy robe to-day, a single calendered +Madras: not a speck of showy color visible through all the ways of St. +Pierre. The costumes donned are all similar to those worn for the death +relatives: either full mourning,--a black robe with violet foulard, and +dark violet-banded headkerchief; or half-mourning,--a dark violet robe +with black foulard and turban;--the half-mourning being worn only by +those who cannot afford the more sombre costume. From my winndow I can +see long processions climbing the mornes about the city, to visit the +shrines and crucifixes, and to pray for the cessation of the pestilence. + +... Three o'clock. Three cannon-shots shake the hill: it is the supposed +hour of the Saviour's death. All believers--whether in the churches, on +the highways, or in their homes--bow down and kiss the cross thrice, or, +if there be no cross, press their lips three times to the ground or the +pavement, and utter those three wishes which if expressed precisely at +this traditional moment will surely, it is held, be fulfilled. Immense +crowds are assembled before the crosses on the heights, and about the +statue of Notre Dame de la Garde. + +... There is no hubbub in the streets; there is not even the customary +loud weeping to be heard as the coffins go by. One must not complain +to-day, nor become angry, nor utter unkind words,--any fault committed +on Good Friday is thought to obtain a special and awful magnitude in the +sight of Heaven.... There is a curious saying in vogue here. If a son or +daughter grow up vicious,--become a shame to the family and a curse +to the parents,--it is observed of such:--"_Ca, c'est yon peche +Vendredi-Saint!_" (Must be a _Good-Friday sin!_) + +There are two other strange beliefs connected with Good Friday. One is +that it always rains on that day,--that the sky weeps for the death +of the Saviour; and that this rain, if caught in a vessel, will never +evaporate or spoil, and will cure all diseases. + +The other is that only Jesus Christ died precisely at three o'clock. +Nobody else ever died exactly at that hour;--they may die a second +before or a second after three, but never exactly at three. + + + +XXIV. _March 31st._ + + +... Holy Saturday morning;--nine o'clock. All the bells suddenly ring +out; the humming of the bourdon blends with the thunder of a hundred +guns: this is the _Gloria!_... At this signal it is a religious custom +for the whole coast-population to enter the sea, and for those living +too far from the beach to bathe in the rivers. But rivers and sea are +now alike infected;--all the linen of the lazarettos has been washed +therein; and to-day there are fewer bathers than usual. + +But there are twenty-seven burials. Now they are ring the dead two +together: the cemeteries are over-burdened.... + + + +XXV. + + +... In most of the old stone houses you will occasionally see spiders +of terrifying size,--measuring across perhaps as much as six inches from +the tip of one out-stretched leg to the tip of its opposite fellow, as +they cling to the wall. I never heard of anyone being bitten by them; +and among the poor it is deemed unlucky to injure or drive them away.... +But early this morning Yzore swept her house clean, and ejected through +door-way quite a host of these monster insects. Manm-Robert is quite +dismayed:-- + +--"_Fesis-Maia!_--ou 'le malhe enco pou fai ca, che?" (You want to have +still more bad luck, that you do such a thing?) + +And Yzore answers:-- + +--"_Toutt moune icitt pa ni yon sou!--gouos conm ca fil zagrignin, et +moin pa menm mange! Epi laverette enco.... Moin coue toutt ca ka pote +malhe!_" (No one here has a sou!--heaps of cobwebs like that, and +nothing to eat yet; and the verette into the bargain... I think those +things bring bad luck.) + +--"Ah! you have not eaten yet!" cries Manm-Robert. "_Vini epi moin!_" +(Come with me!) + +And Yzore--already feeling a little remorse for her treatment of the +spiders--murmurs apologetically as she crosses over to Manm-Robert's +little shop:--"_Moin pa tchoue yo; moin chasse yo--ke vini enco_." (I +did not kill them; I only put them out;--they will come back again.) + +But long afterwards, Manm-Robert remarked to me that they never went +back.... + + + +XXVI. _April 5th._ + +--"_Toutt bel bois ka alle_," says Manm-Robert. (All the beautiful trees +are going.)... I do not understand. + +--"_Toutt bel bois--toutt bel moune ka alle_," she adds, +interpretatively. (All the "beautiful trees,"--all the handsome +people,--are passing away.)... As in the speech of the world's primitive +poets, so in the creole patois is a beautiful woman compared with a +comely tree: nay, more than this, the name of the object is actually +substituted for that of the living being. _Yon bel bois_ may mean a fine +tree: it more generally signifies a graceful woman: this is the very +comparison made by Ulysses looking upon Nausicaa, though more naively +expressed. ... And now there comes to me the recollection of a creole +ballad illustrating the use of the phrase,--a ballad about a youth of +Fort-de-France sent to St. Pierre by his father to purchase a stock of +dobannes, [24] who, falling in love with a handsome colored girl, spent +all his father's money in buying her presents and a wedding outfit:-- + +"Moin descenne Saint-Pie Achete dobannes Aulie ces dobannes C'est yon +_bel-bois_ moin mennein monte!" + +("I went down to Saint-Pierre to buy dobannes: instead of the dobannes, +'tis a pretty tree--a charming girl--that I bring back with me") + +--"Why, who is dead now, Manm-Robert?" + +--"It is little Marie, the porteuse, who has got the verette. She is +gone to the lazaretto." + + + +XXVII. _April 7th._ + +--_Toutt bel bois ka alle_.... News has just come that Ti Marie died +last night at the lazaretto of the Fort: she was attacked by what they +call the _laverette-pouff_,--a form of the disease which strangles its +victim within a few hours. + +Ti Marie was certainly the neatest little machanne I ever knew. Without +being actually pretty, her face had a childish charm which made it a +pleasure to look at her;--and she had a clear chocolate-red skin, a +light compact little figure, and a remarkably symmetrical pair of little +feet which had never felt the pressure of a shoe. Every morning I used +to hear her passing cry, just about daybreak:--"_Qui 'le cafe?--qui 'le +sirop?_" (Who wants coffee?--who wants syrup?) She looked about sixteen, +but was a mother. "Where is her husband?" I ask. "_Nhomme-y mo laverette +'tou_." (Her man died of the verette also.) "And the little one, her +_yche_?" "Y lazarett." (At the lazaretto.)... But only those +without friends or relatives in the city are suffered to go to the +lazaretto;--Ti Marie cannot have been of St. Pierre? + +--"No: she was from Vauclin," answers Manrn-Robert. "You do not often +see pretty red girls who are natives of St. Pierre. St. Pierre has +pretty _sang-melees_. The pretty red girls mostly come from Vauclin. The +yellow ones, who are really _bel-bois_, are from Grande Anse: they are +banana-colored people there. At Gros-Morne they are generally black."... + + + +XXVIII. + + +... It appears that the red race here, the _race capresse_, is +particularly liable to the disease. Every family employing capresses +for house-servants loses them;--one family living at the next corner has +lost four in succession.... + +The tint is a cinnamon or chocolate color;--the skin is naturally +clear, smooth, glossy: it is of the capresse especially that the term +"sapota-skin" (_peau-chapoti_) is used,--coupled with all curious creole +adjectives to express what is comely,--_jojoll, beaujoll_, etc. [25] +The hair is long, but bushy; the limbs light and strong, and admirably +shaped.... I am told that when transported to a colder climate, the +capre or capresse partly loses this ruddy tint. Here, under the tropic +sun, it has a beauty only possible to imitate in metal.... And because +photography cannot convey any idea of this singular color, the capresse +hates a photograph.--"_Moin pas noue_," she says;--"_moin ououge: ou +fai moin noue nans potrait-a_." (I am not black: I am red:--you make +me black in that portrait.) It is difficult to make her pose before the +camera: she is red, as she avers, beautifully red; but the malicious +instrument makes her gray or black--_noue conm poule-zo-noue_ ("black as +a black-boned hen!") + +... And this red race is disappearing from St. Pierre--doubtless also +from other plague-stricken centres. + + + +XXIX. _April 10th._ + + +Manm-Robert is much annoyed and puzzled because the American +steamer--the _bom-mange_, as she calls does not come. It used to bring +regularly so many barrels of potatoes and beans, so much lard and cheese +garlic and dried pease--everything, almost, of which she keeps a stock. +It is now nearly eight weeks since the cannon of a New York steamer +aroused the echoes the harbor. Every morning Manm-Robert has been +sending out her little servant Louis to see if there is any sign of +the American packet:--"_Alle oue Batterie d' Esnotz si bom-mange-a pas +vini_." But Louis always returns with same rueful answer:-- + +--"_Manm-Robert, pa ni piess bom-mange_" (there is not so much as a bit +of a _bom-mange_). + +... "No more American steamers for Martinique:" that is the news +received by telegraph! The disease has broken out among the shipping; +the harbors have been delared infected. United States mail-packets drop +their Martinique mails at St. Kitt's or Dominica, and pass us by. There +will be suffering now among the _canotiers_, the _caboteurs_, all those +who live by stowing or unloading cargo;--great warehouses are being +closed up, and strong men discharged, because there will be nothing for +them to do. + +... They are burying twenty-five _verettiers_ per day in city. + +But never was this tropic sky more beautiful;--never was this circling +sea more marvellously blue;--never were the mornes more richly robed in +luminous green, under a more golden day.... And it seems strange that +Nature should remain so lovely.... + +... Suddenly it occurs to me that I have not seen Yzore nor her children +for some days; and I wonder if they have moved away.... Towards evening, +passing by Manm-Robert's, I ask about them. The old woman answers me +very gravely:-- + +--"_Ato, mon che, c'est Yzore qui ni laverette!_" + +The mother has been seized by the plague at last. But Manm-Robert will +look after her; and Manm-Robert has taken charge of the three little +ones, who are not now allowed to leave the house, for fear some one +should tell them what it were best they should not know.... _Pauv ti +manmaille!_ + + + +XXX. _April 13th._ + + +... Still the verette does not attack the native whites. But the whole +air has become poisoned; the sanitary condition of the city becomes +unprecedentedly bad; and a new epidemic makes its appearance,--typhoid +fever. And now the bekes begin to go, especially the young and strong; +and the bells keep sounding for them, and the tolling bourdon fills the +city with its enormous hum all day and far into the night. For these +are rich; and the high solemnities of burial are theirs--the coffin +of acajou, and the triple ringing, and the Cross of Gold to be carried +before them as they pass to their long sleep under the palms,--saluted +for the last time by all the population of St. Pierre, standing +bareheaded in the sun.... + +... Is it in times like these, when all the conditions are febrile, that +one is most apt to have queer dreams? + +Last night it seemed to me that I saw that Carnival dance again,--the +hooded musicians, the fantastic torrent of peaked caps, and the spectral +masks, and the swaying of bodies and waving of arms,--but soundless as +a passing of smoke. There were figures I thought I knew;--hands I had +somewhere seen reached out and touched me in silence;--and then, all +suddenly, a Viewless Something seemed to scatter the shapes as leaves +are blown by a wind.... And waking, I thought I heard again,--plainly +as on that last Carnival afternoon,--the strange cry of fear:--"_C'est +Bon-Die ka passe!_"... + + + +XXXI. _April 20th._ + + +Very early yesterday morning Yzore was carried away under a covering of +quick-lime: the children do not know; Manm-Robert took heed they should +not see. They have been told their mother has been taken to the country +to get well,--that the doctor will bring her back.... All the furniture +is to be sold at auction to debts;--the landlord was patient, he waited +four months; the doctor was kindly: but now these must have their due. +Everything will be bidden off, except the chapelle, with its Virgin +and angels of porcelain: _yo pa ka pe venne Bon-Die_ (the things of the +Good-God must not be sold). And Manm-Robert will take care little ones. + +The bed--a relic of former good-fortune,--a great Martinique bed of +carved heavy native wood,--a _lit-a-bateau_ (boat-bed), so called +because shaped almost like a barge, perhaps--will surely bring three +hundred francs;--the armoire, with its mirror doors, not less than two +hundred and fifty. There is little else of value: the whole will not +fetch enough to pay all the dead owes. + + + +XXXII. _April 28th._ + + +_--Tam-tam-tam!--tam-tam-tam!_... It is the booming of the auction-drum +from the Place: Yzore's furniture is about to change hands. + +The children start at the sound, so vividly associated in their minds +with the sights of Carnival days, with the fantastic mirth of the +great processional dance: they run to the sunny street, calling to each +other.--_Vini oue!_--they look up and down. But there is a great quiet +in the Rue du Morne Mirail;--the street is empty. + +... Manm-Robert enters very weary: she has been at the sale, trying +to save something for the children, but the prices were too high. In +silence she takes her accustomed seat at the worn counter of her little +shop; the young ones gather about her, caress her;--Mimi looks up +laughing into the kind brown face, and wonders why Manm-Robert will not +smile. Then Mimi becomes afraid to ask where the maskers are,--why they +do not come, But little Maurice, bolder and less sensitive, cries out:-- + +--"_Manm-Robert, oti masque-a?_" + +Manm-Robert does not answer;--she does not hear. She is gazing directly +into the young faces clustered about her knee,--yet she does not see +them: she sees far, far beyond them,--into the hidden years. And, +suddenly, with a savage tenderness in her voice, she utters all the dark +thought of her heart for them:-- + +--"_Toua ti blancs sans lesou!--qutitte moin chache papaou qui adans +cimetie pou vini pouend ou tou!_" (Ye three little penniless white +ones!--let me go call your father, who is in the cemetery, to come and +take you also away!) + + + + +CHAPTER VI. LES BLANCHISSEUSES. + + + +I. + + +Whoever stops for a few months in St. Pierre is certain, sooner or +later, to pass an idle half-hour in that charming place of Martinique +idlers,--the beautiful Savane du Fort,--and, once there, is equally +certain to lean a little while over the mossy parapet of the river-wall +to watch the _blanchisseuses_ at work. It has a curious interest, this +spectacle of primitive toil: the deep channel of the Roxelane winding +under the palm-crowned heights of the Fort; the blinding whiteness of +linen laid out to bleach for miles upon the huge bowlders of porphyry +and prismatic basalt; and the dark bronze-limbed women, with faces +hidden under immense straw hats, and knees in the rushing torrent,--all +form a scene that makes one think of the earliest civilizations. Even +here, in this modern colony, it is nearly three centuries old; and it +will probably continue thus at the Riviere des Blanchisseuses for fully +another three hundred years. Quaint as certain weird Breton legends +whereof it reminds you,--especially if you watch it before daybreak +while the city still sleeps,--this fashion of washing is not likely to +change. There is a local prejudice against new methods, new inventions, +new ideas;--several efforts at introducing a less savage style of +washing proved unsuccessful; and an attempt to establish a steam-laundry +resulted in failure. The public were quite contented with the old +ways of laundrying, and saw no benefits to be gained by forsaking +them;--while the washers and ironers engaged by the laundry proprietor +at higher rates than they had ever obtained before soon wearied of +in-door work, abandoned their situations, and returned with a sense of +relief to their ancient way of working out in the blue air and the wind +of the hills, with their feet in the mountain-water and their heads in +the awful sun. + +... It is one of the sights of St. Pierre,--this daily scene at the +River of the Washerwomen: everybody likes to watch it;--the men, because +among the blanchisseuses there are not a few decidedly handsome girls; +the wormen, probably because a woman feels always interested in woman's +work. All the white bridges of the Roxelane are dotted with lookers-on +during fine days, and particularly in the morning, when every bonne on +her way to and from the market stops a moment to observe or to greet +those blanchisseuses whom she knows. Then one hears such a calling and +clamoring,--such an intercrossing of cries from the bridge to the river, +and the river to the bridge.... "Ouill! Noemi!"... +"Coument ou ye, che?"... "Eh! Pascaline!",..."Bonjou', +Youtte!--Dede!-Fifi!--Henrillia!"... "Coument ou kalle, Cyrillia?"... +"Toutt douce, che!--et Ti Meme?"... "Y bien;--oti Ninotte?"... "Bo ti +manmaille pou moin, che--ou tanne?"... But the bridge leading to the +market of the Fort is the poorest point of view; for the better +classes of blanchisseuses are not there: only the lazy, the weak, or +non-professionals--house-servants, who do washing at the river two or +three times a month as part of their family-service--are apt to get so +far down. The experienced professionals and early risers secure the +best places and choice of rocks; and among the hundreds at work you +can discern something like a physical gradation. At the next bridge the +women look better, stronger; more young faces appear; and the further +you follow the river-course towards the Jardin des Plantes, the more the +appearance of the blanchisseuses improves,--so that within the space +of a mile you can see well exemplified one natural law of life's +struggle,--the best chances to the best constitutions. + +[Illustration: RIVIERE DES BLANCHISSEUSES.] + +You might also observe, if you watch long enough, that among the +blanchisseuses there are few sufficiently light of color to be +classed as bright mulatresses;--the majority are black or of that +dark copper-red race which is perhaps superior to the black creole in +strength and bulk; for it requires a skin insensible to sun as well +as the toughest of constitutions to be a blanchisseuse. A porteuse can +begin to make long trips at nine or ten years; but no girl is strong +enough to learn the washing-trade until she is past twelve. The +blanchisseuse is the hardest worker among the whole population;--her +daily labor is rarely less than thirteen hours; and during the greater +part of that time she is working in the sun, and standing up to her +knees in water that descends quite cold from the mountain peaks. Her +labor makes her perspire profusely and she can never venture to cool +herself by further immersion without serious danger of pleurisy. The +trade is said to kill all who continue at it beyond a certain number of +years:--"_Nou ka mo toutt dleau_" (we all die of the water), one told +me, replying to a question. No feeble or light-skinned person can +attempt to do a single day's work of this kind without danger; and a +weak girl, driven by necessity to do her own washing, seldom ventures +to go to the river. Yet I saw an instance of such rashness one day. A +pretty sang-melee, perhaps about eighteen or nineteen years old,--whom +I afterwards learned had just lost her mother and found herself thus +absolutely destitute,--began to descend one of the flights of stone +steps leading to the river, with a small bundle upon her head; and two +or three of the blanchisseuses stopped their work to look at her. A tall +capresse inquired mischievously:-- + +--"_Ou vini pou pouend yon bain?_" (Coming to take a bath?) For the +river is a great bathing-place. + +--"_Non; moin vini lave_." (No; I am coming to wash.) + +--"_Aie! aie! aie!--y vini lave!_"... And all within hearing laughed +together. "Are you crazy, girl?--_ess ou fou?_" The tall capresse +snatched the bundle from her, opened it, threw a garment to her nearest +neighbor, another to the next one, dividing the work among a little +circle of friends, and said to the stranger, "_Non ke lave toutt ca ba ou +bien vite, che,--va, amise ou!_" (We'll wash this for you very quickly, +dear--go and amuse yourself!) These kind women even did more for the +poor girl;--they subscribed to buy her a good breakfast, when the +food-seller--the machanne-mange--made her regular round among them, with +fried fish and eggs and manioc flour and bananas. + + + +II. + + +All of the multitude who wash clothing at the river are not professional +blanchisseuses. Hundreds of women, too poor to pay for laundrying, do +their own work at the Roxelane;--and numerous bonnes there wash the +linen of their mistresses as a regular part of their domestic duty. But +even if the professionals did not always occupy a certain well-known +portion of the channel, they could easily be distinguished from others +by their rapid and methodical manner of work, by the ease with which +immense masses of linen are handled by them, and, above all, by their +way of whipping it against the rocks. Furthermore, the greater number +of professionals are likewise teachers, mistresses (_bou'geoises_), and +have their apprentices beside them,--young girls from twelve to sixteen +years of age. Among these _apprenti_, as they are called in the patois, +there are many attractive types, such as idlers upon the bridges like to +look at. + +If, after one year of instruction, the apprentice fails to prove a good +washer, it is not likely she will ever become one; and there are some +branches of the trade requiring a longer period of teaching and of +practice. The young girl first learns simply to soap and wash the +linen in the river, which operation is called "rubbing" (_frotte_ in +creole);--after she can do this pretty well, she is taught the curious +art of whipping it (_fesse_). You can hear the sound of the fesse a +great way off, echoing and re-echoing among the mornes: it is not a +sharp smacking noise, as the name might seem to imply, but a heavy +hollow sound exactly like that of an axe splitting dry timber. In fact, +it so closely resembles the latter sound that you are apt on first +hearing it to look up at the mornes with the expectation of seeing +woodmen there at work. And it is not made by striking the linen with +anything, but only by lashing it against the sides of the rocks.... +After a piece has been well rubbed and rinsed, it is folded up into a +peculiar sheaf-shape, and seized by the closely gathered end for the +fesse. Then the folding process is repeated on the reverse, and the +other end whipped. This process expels suds that rinsing cannot remove: +it must be done very dexterously to avoid tearing or damaging the +material. By an experienced hand the linen is never torn; and even pearl +and bone buttons are much less often broken than might be supposed. The +singular echo is altogether due to the manner of folding the article for +the fesse. + +After this, all the pieces are spread out upon the rocks, in the sun, +for the "first bleaching" (_pouemie lablanie_). In the evening they +are gathered into large wooden trays or baskets, and carried to what is +called the "lye-house" (_lacaie lessive_)--overlooking the river from a +point on the fort bank opposite to the higher end of the Savane. +There each blanchisseuse hires a small or a large vat, or even +several,--according to the quantity of work done,--at two, three, or ten +sous, and leaves her washing to steep in lye (_coule_ is the creole word +used) during the night. There are watchmen to guard it. Before daybreak +it is rinsed in warm water; then it is taken back to the river,--is +rinsed again, bleached again, blued and starched. Then it is ready for +ironing. To press and iron well is the most difficult part of the trade. +When an apprentice is able to iron a gentleman's shirt nicely, and +a pair of white pantaloons, she is considered to have finished her +time;--she becomes a journey-woman (_ouvouiye_). + +Even in a country where wages are almost incredibly low, the +blanchisseuse earns considerable money. There is no fixed scale of +prices: it is even customary to bargain with these women beforehand. +Shirts and white pantaloons figure at six and eight cents in laundry +bills; but other washing is much cheaper. I saw a lot of thirty-three +pieces--including such large ones as sheets, bed-covers, and several +douillettes (the long Martinique trailing robes of one piece from +neck to feet)--for which only three francs was charged. Articles are +frequently stolen or lost by house-servants sent to do washing at the +river; but very seldom indeed by the regular blanchisseuses. Few of them +can read or write or understand owners' marks on wearing apparel; +and when you see at the river the wilderness of scattered linen, the +seemingly enormous confusion, you cannot understand how these women +manage to separate and classify it all. Yet they do this admirably,--and +for that reason perhaps more than any other, are able to charge +fair rates;--it is false economy to have your washing done by the +house-servant;--with the professionals your property is safe. And cheap +as her rates are, a good professional can make from twenty-five to +thirty francs a week; averaging fully a hundred francs a month,--as much +as many a white clerk can earn in the stores of St. Pierre, and quite as +much (considering local differences in the purchasing power of money) as +$60 per month would represent in the United States. + +Probably the ability to earn large wages often tempts the blanchisseuse +to continue at her trade until it kills her. The "water-disease," as she +calls it (_maladie-dleau_), makes its appearance after middle-life: the +feet, lower limbs, and abdomen swell enormously, while the face becomes +almost fleshless;--then, gradually tissues give way, muscles yield, and +the whole physical structure crumbles. Nevertheless, the blanchisseuse +is essentially a sober liver,--never a drunkard. In fact, she is sober +from rigid necessity: she would not dare to swallow one mouthful of +spirits while at work with her feet in the cold water;--everybody +else in Martinique, even the little children, can drink rum; the +blanchisseuse cannot, unless she wishes to die of a congestion. Her +strongest refreshment is _mabi_,--a mild, effervescent, and, I think, +rather disagreeable, beer made from molasses. + + + +III. + + +Always before daybreak they rise to work, while the vapors of the mornes +fill the air with scent of mouldering vegetation,--clayey odors,--grassy +smells: there is only a faint gray light, and the water of the river +is very chill. One by one they arrive, barefooted, under their burdens +built up tower-shape on their trays;--silently as ghosts they descend +the steps to the river-bed, and begin to unfold and immerse their +washing. They greet each other as they come, then become silent again; +there is scarcely any talking: the hearts of all are heavy with the +heaviness of the hour. But the gray light turns yellow; the sun climbs +over the peaks: light changes the dark water to living crystal; and all +begin to chatter a little. Then the city awakens; the currents of its +daily life circulate again,--thinly and slowly at first, then swiftly +and strongly,--up and down every yellow street, and through the Savane, +and over the bridges of the river. Passers-by pause to look down, and +cry "_bonjou', che!_" Idle men stare at some pretty washer, till +she points at them and cries:--"_Gade Missie-a ka guette +nou!--anh!--anh!--anh!_" And all the others look up and repeat the +groan--"_anh!--anh!--anh!_" till the starers beat a retreat. The air +grows warmer; the sky blue takes fire: the great light makes joy for +the washers; they shout to each other from distance to distance, jest, +laugh, sing. Gusty of speech these women are: long habit of calling to +one another through the roar of the torrent has given their voices a +singular sonority and force: it is well worth while to hear them sing. +One starts the song,--the next joins her; then another and another, till +all the channel rings with the melody from the bridge of the Jardin +des Plantes to the Pont-bois:- "C'est main qui te ka lave, Passe, +raccommode: Y te nef he disoue Ou mette moin derho,--Yche main assous +bouas moin;--Laplie te ka tombe--Lefan moin assous tete moin! Doudoux, +ou m'abandonne! Moin pa ni pesonne pou soigne moin." [26] + +... A melancholy chant--originally a Carnival improvisation made to +bring public shame upon the perpetrator of a cruel act;--but it contains +the story of many of these lives--the story of industrious affectionate +women temporarily united to brutal and worthless men in a country where +legal marriages are rare. Half of the creole songs which I was able to +collect during a residence of nearly two years in the island touch upon +the same sad theme. Of these, "Che Manman Moin," a great favorite +still with the older blanchisseuses, has a simple pathos unrivalled, I +believe, in the oral literature of this people. Here is an attempt +to translate its three rhymeless stanzas into prose; but the childish +sweetness of the patois original is lost:-- + + +CHE MANMAN MOIN. + +I. + +... "Dear mamma, once you were young like I;--dear papa, you also have +been young;--dear great elder brother, you too have been young. Ah! let +me cherish this sweet friendship!--so sick my heart is--yes, 'tis +very, very ill, this heart of mine: love, only love can make it well +again."... + +II. + +"0 cursed eyes he praised that led me to him! 0 cursed lips of mine +which ever repeated his name! 0 cursed moment in which I gave up my +heart to the ingrate who no longer knows how to love."... + +III. + +"Doudoux, you swore to me by heaven!--doudoux, you swore to me by your +faith!... And now you cannot come to me?... Oh! my heart is withering +with pain!... I was passing by the cemetery;--I saw my name upon a +stone--all by itself. I saw two white roses; and in a moment one faded +and fell before me.... So my forgotten heart will be!"... + +The air is not so charming, however, as that of a little song which +every creole knows, and which may be often heard still at the river: I +think it is the prettiest of all creole melodies. "To-to-to" (patois for +the French _toc_) is an onomatope for the sound of knocking at a door. + +"_To, to, to!_--Ca qui la?'-- +'C'est moin-menme, lanmou;--Ouve lapott ba moin!' + +"_To, to, to!_--Ca qui la?'-- +'C'est moin-menme lanmou, Qui ka ba ou khe moin!' + +"_To, to, to!_--Ca qui la?'-- +'C'est moin-menme lanmou, Laplie ka mouille moin!'" + +[_To-to-to_... "Who taps there?"--"'Tis mine own self Love: open the +door for me." _To-to-to_... "Who taps there?"--"'Tis mine own self Love, +who give my heart to thee." _To-to-to_... "Who taps there?"--" "'Tis mine +own self Love: open thy door to me;--the rain is wetting me!"] + +... But it is more common to hear the blanchisseuses singing merry, +jaunty, sarcastic ditties,--Carnival compositions,--in which the African +sense of rhythmic melody is more marked:--"Marie-Clemence maudi," "Loema +tombe," "Quand ou ni ti mari jojoll." + +--At mid-day the machanne-mange comes, with her girls,--carrying trays +of fried fish, and _akras_, and cooked beans, and bottles of mabi. The +blanchisseuses buy, and eat with their feet in the water, using rocks +for tables. Each has her little tin cup to drink her mabi in... Then +the washing and the chanting and the booming of the fesse begin again. +Afternoon wanes;--school-hours close; and children of many beautiful +colors come to the river, and leap down the steps crying, "_Eti! +manman!"--"Sese!"--"Nenneine!_" calling their elder sisters, mothers, and +godmothers: the little boys strip naked to play in the water a while.... +Towards sunset the more rapid and active workers begin to gather in +their linen, and pile it on trays. Large patches of bald rock appear +again.... By six o'clock almost the whole bed of the river is bare;--the +women are nearly all gone. A few linger a while on the Savane, to watch +the last-comer. There is always a great laugh at the last to leave the +channel: they ask her if she has not forgotten "to lock up the river." + +--"_Ou feme lapote larivie, che-anh?_" + +--"_Ah! oui, che!--moin feme y, ou tanne?--moin ni lacle-a!_" (Oh yes, +dear. I locked it up,--you hear?--I've got the key!) + +But there are days and weeks when they do not sing,--times of want or +of plague, when the silence of the valley is broken only by the sound of +linen beaten upon the rocks, and the great voice of the Roxelane, which +will sing on when the city itself shall have ceased to be, just as it +sang one hundred thousand years ago.... + +"Why do they not sing to-day?" I once asked during the summer of 1887, + +--a year of pestilence. "_Yo ka pense toutt lanmize yo,--toutt lapeine +yo_," I was answered. (They are thinking of all their trouble, all their +misery.) Yet in all seasons, while youth and strength stay with them, +they work on in wind and sun, mist and rain, washing the linen of the +living and the dead,--white wraps for the newly born, white robes for +the bride, white shrouds for them that pass into the Great Silence. And +the torrent that wears away the ribs of the perpetual hills wears +away their lives,--sometimes slowly, slowly as black basalt is +worn,--sometimes suddenly,--in the twinkling of an eye. + +For a strange danger ever menaces the blanchisseuse,--the treachery of +the stream!... Watch them working, and observe how often they turn their +eyes to the high north-east, to look at Pelee. Pelee gives them warning +betimes. When all is sunny in St. Pierre, and the harbor lies blue as +lapis-lazuli, there may be mighty rains in the region of the great woods +and the valleys of the higher peaks; and thin streams swell to raging +floods which burst suddenly from the altitudes, rolling down rocks and +trees and wreck of forests, uplifting crags, devastating slopes. And +sometimes, down the ravine of the Roxelane, there comes a roar as of +eruption, with a rush of foaming water like a moving mountain-wall; and +bridges and buildings vanish with its passing. In 1865 the Savane, high +as it lies above the river-bed, was flooded;--and all the bridges were +swept into the sea. + +So the older and wiser blanchisseuses keep watch upon Pelee; and if +a blackness gather over it, with lightnings breaking through, +then--however fair the sun shine on St. Pierre--the alarm is given, the +miles of bleaching linen vanish from the rocks in a few minutes, and +every one leaves the channel. But it has occasionally happened that +Pelee gave no such friendly signal before the river rose: thus lives +have been lost. Most of the blanchisseuses are swimmers, and good +ones,--I have seen one of these girls swim almost out of sight in the +harbor, during an idle hour;--but no swimmer has any chances in a +rising of the Roxelane: all overtaken by it are stricken by rocks and +drift;--_yo craze_, as a creole term expresses it,--a term signifying to +crush, to bray, to dash to pieces. + +... Sometimes it happens that one who has been absent at home for a +brief while returns to the river only to meet her comrades fleeing from +it,--many leaving their linen behind them. But she will not abandon the +linen intrusted to her: she makes a run for it,--in spite of warning +screams,--in spite of the vain clutching of kind rough fingers. She +gains the river-bed;--the flood has already reached her waist, but +she is strong; she reaches her linen,--snatches it up, piece by piece, +scattered as it is--"one!--two!--five!--seven!"--there is a roaring in +her ears--"eleven!--thirteen!" she has it all... but now the rocks are +moving! For one instant she strives to reach the steps, only a few +yards off;--another, and the thunder of the deluge is upon her,--and the +crushing crags,--and the spinning trees.... + +Perhaps before sundown some canotier may find her floating far in the +bay,--drifting upon her face in a thousand feet of water,--with faithful +dead hands still holding fast the property of her employer. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. LA PELEE. + + + +I. + + +The first attempt made to colonize Martinique was abandoned almost as +soon as begun, because the leaders of the expedition found the country +"too rugged and too mountainous," and were "terrified by the prodigious +number of serpents which covered its soil." Landing on June 25, 1635, +Olive and Duplessis left the island after a few hours' exploration, or, +rather, observation, and made sail for Guadeloupe,--according to the +quaint and most veracious history of Pere Dutertre, of the Order of +Friars-Preachers. + +A single glance at the topographical map of Martinique would suffice to +confirm the father's assertion that the country was found to be +_trop hache et trop montueux_: more than two-thirds of it is peak and +mountain;--even to-day only 42,445 of its supposed 98,782 hectares have +been cultivated; and on page 426 of the last "Annuaire" (1887) I find +the statement that in the interior there are extensive Government lands +of which the area is "not exactly known." Yet mountainous as a country +must be which--although scarcely forty-nine miles long and twenty miles +in average breadth--remains partly unfamiliar to its own inhabitants +after nearly three centuries of civilization (there are not half a +dozen creoles who have travelled all over it), only two elevations in +Martinique bear the name _montagne_. These are La Montagne Pelee, in the +north, and La Montagne du Vauclin, in the south. The term _morne_, +used throughout the French West Indian colonies to designate certain +altitudes of volcanic origin, a term rather unsatisfactorily translated +in certain dictionaries as "a small mountain," is justly applied to +the majority of Martinique hills, and unjustly sometimes even to its +mightiest elevation,--called Morne Pele, or Montagne Pelee, or simply +"La Montagne," according, perhaps, to the varying degree of respect it +inspires in different minds. But even in the popular nomenclature one +finds the orography of Martinique, as well as of other West Indian +islands, regularly classified by _pitons_, _mornes_, and _monts_ or +_montagnes_. Mornes usually have those beautiful and curious forms which +bespeak volcanic origin even to the unscientific observer: they are +most often pyramidal or conoid up to a certain height; but have summits +either rounded or truncated;--their sides, green with the richest +vegetation, rise from valley-levels and coast-lines with remarkable +abruptness, and are apt to be curiously ribbed or wrinkled. The pitons, +far fewer in number, are much more fantastic in form;--volcanic +cones, or volcanic upheavals of splintered strata almost at right +angles,--sometimes sharp of line as spires, and mostly too steep for +habitation. They are occasionally mammiform, and so symmetrical that one +might imagine them artificial creations,--particularly when they +occur in pairs. Only a very important mass is dignified by the name +_montagne_... there are, as I have already observed, but two thus called +in all Martinique,--Pelee, the head and summit of the island; and La +Montagne du Vauclin, in the south-east. Vauclin is inferior in height +and bulk to several mornes and pitons of the north and north-west,--and +owes its distinction probably to its position as centre of a system +of ranges: but in altitude and mass and majesty, Pelee far outranks +everything in the island, and well deserves its special appellation, "La +Montagne." + +No description could give the reader a just idea of what Martinique is, +configuratively, so well as the simple statement that, although less +than fifty miles in extreme length, and less than twenty in average +breadth, there are upwards of _four hundred mountains_ in this little +island, or of what at least might be termed mountains elsewhere. +These again are divided and interpeaked, and bear hillocks on their +slopes;--and the lowest hillock in Martinique is fifty metres high. Some +of the peaks are said to be totally inaccessible: many mornes are so +on one or two or even three sides. Ninety-one only of the principal +mountains have been named; and among these several bear similar +appellations: for example, there are two Mornes-Rouges, one in the north +and one in the south; and there are four or five Gros-Mornes. All the +elevations belong to six great groups, clustering about or radiating +from six ancient volcanic centres,--1. La Pelee; 2. Pitons du Carbet; +3. Roches Carrees; [27] 4. Vauclin; 5. Marin; 6. Morne de la Plaine. +Forty-two distinct mountain-masses belong to the Carbet system +alone,--that of Pelee including but thirteen; and the whole Carbet area +has a circumference of 120,000 metres,--much more considerable than that +of Pelee. But its centre is not one enormous pyramidal mass like that +of "La Montagne": it is marked only by a group of five remarkable +porphyritic cones,--the Pitons of Carbet;--while Pelee, dominating +everything, and filling the north, presents an aspect and occupies an +area scarcely inferior to those of AEtna. + +--Sometimes, while looking at La Pelee, I have wondered if the +enterprise of the great Japanese painter who made the Hundred Views of +Fusiyama could not be imitated by some creole artist equally proud of +his native hills, and fearless of the heat of the plains or the snakes +of the slopes. A hundred views of Pelee might certainly be made: for +the enormous mass is omnipresent to dwellers in the northern part of the +island, and can be seen from the heights of the most southern mornes. It +is visible from almost any part of St. Pierre,--which nestles in a fold +of its rocky skirts. It overlooks all the island ranges, and overtops +the mighty Pitons of Carbet by a thousand feet;--you can only lose +sight of it by entering gorges, or journeying into the valleys of the +south.... But the peaked character of the whole country, and the hot +moist climate, oppose any artistic undertaking of the sort suggested: +even photographers never dream of taking views in the further interior; +nor on the east coast. Travel, moreover, is no less costly than +difficult: there are no inns or places of rest for tourists; there are, +almost daily, sudden and violent rains, which are much dreaded (since +a thorough wetting, with the pores all distended by heat, may produce +pleurisy); and there are serpents! The artist willing to devote a few +weeks of travel and study to Pelee, in spite of these annoyances and +risks, has not yet made his appearance in Martinique. [28] + +[Illustration: FOOT OF PELEE, BEHIND THE QUARTER OF THE FORT.] + +Huge as the mountain looks from St. Pierre, the eye under-estimates its +bulk; and when you climb the mornes about the town, Labelle, d'Orange, +or the much grander Parnasse, you are surprised to find how much vaster +Pelee appears from these summits. Volcanic hills often seem higher, by +reason of their steepness, than they really are; but Pelee deludes in +another manner. From surrounding valleys it appears lower, and from +adjacent mornes higher than it really is: the illusion in the former +case being due to the singular slope of its contours, and the remarkable +breadth of its base, occupying nearly all the northern end of the +island; in the latter, to misconception of the comparative height of the +eminence you have reached, which deceives by the precipitous pitch of +its sides. Pelee is not very remarkable in point of altitude, however: +its height was estimated by Moreau de Jonnes at 1600 metres; and by +others at between 4400 and 4500 feet. The sum of the various imperfect +estimates made justify the opinion of Dr. Cornilliac that the extreme +summit is over 5000 feet above the sea--perhaps 5200. [29] The clouds of +the summit afford no indication to eyes accustomed to mountain scenery +in northern countries; for in these hot moist latitudes clouds hang very +low, even in fair weather. But in bulk Pelee is grandiose: it spurs out +across the island from the Caribbean to the Atlantic: the great chains +of mornes about it are merely counter-forts; the Piton Pierreux and the +Piton Pain-a-Sucre (_Sugar-loaf Peak_), and other elevations varying +from 800 to 2100 feet, are its volcanic children. Nearly thirty rivers +have their birth in its flanks,--besides many thermal springs, variously +mineralized. As the culminant point of the island, Pelee is also the +ruler of its meteorologic life,--cloud-herder, lightning-forger, and +rain-maker. During clear weather you can see it drawing to itself +all the white vapors of the land,--robbing lesser eminences of their +shoulder-wraps and head-coverings;--though the Pitons of Carbet (3700 +feet) usually manage to retain about their middle a cloud-clout,--a +_lantcho_. You will also see that the clouds run in a circle about +Pelee,--gathering bulk as they turn by continual accessions from other +points. If the crater be totally bare in the morning, and shows the +broken edges very sharply against the blue, it is a sign of foul rather +than of fair weather to come. [30] + +Even in bulk, perhaps, Pelee might not impress those who know the +stupendous scenery of the American ranges; but none could deny it +special attractions appealing to the senses of form and color. There is +an imposing fantasticality in its configuraion worth months of artistic +study: one does not easily tire of watching its slopes undulating +against the north sky,--and the strange jagging of its ridges,--and the +succession of its terraces crumbling down to other terraces, which again +break into ravines here and there bridged by enormous buttresses of +basalt: an extravaganza of lava-shapes overpitching and cascading into +sea and plain. All this is verdant wherever surfaces catch the sun: you +can divine what the frame is only by examining the dark and ponderous +rocks of the torrents. And the hundred tints of this verdure do not +form the only colorific charms of the landscape. Lovely as the long +upreaching slopes of cane are,--and the loftier bands of forest-growths, +so far off that they look like belts of moss,--and the more +tender-colored masses above, wrinkling and folding together up to the +frost-white clouds of the summit,--you will be still more delighted +by the shadow-colors,--opulent, diaphanous. The umbrages lining the +wrinkles, collecting in the hollows, slanting from sudden projections, +may become before your eyes almost as unreally beautiful as the +landscape colors of a Japanese fan;--they shift most generally during +the day from indigo-blue through violets and paler blues to final lilacs +and purples; and even the shadows of passing clouds have a faint blue +tinge when they fall on Pelee. + +... Is the great volcano dead?... Nobody knows. Less than forty years +ago it rained ashes over all the roofs of St. Pierre;--within twenty +years it has uttered mutterings. For the moment, it appears to sleep; +and the clouds have dripped into the cup of its highest crater till it +has become a lake, several hundred yards in circumference. The crater +occupied by this lake--called L'Etang, or "The Pool"--has never been +active within human memory. There are others,--difficult and dangerous +to visit because opening on the side of a tremendous gorge; and it was +one of these, no doubt, which has always been called _La Souffriere_, +that rained ashes over the city in 1851. + +The explosion was almost concomitant with the last of a series of +earthquake shocks, which began in the middle of May and ended in the +first week of August,--all much more severe in Guadeloupe than in +Martinique. In the village Au Precheur, lying at the foot of the western +slope of Pelee, the people had been for some time complaining of an +oppressive stench of sulphur,--or, as chemists declared it, sulphuretted +hydrogen,--when, on the 4th of August, much trepidation was caused by +a long and appalling noise from the mountain,--a noise compared by +planters on the neighboring slopes to the hollow roaring made by a +packet blowing off steam, but infinitely louder. These sounds continued +through intervals until the following night, sometimes deepening into a +rumble like thunder. The mountain guides declared: "_C'est la Souffriere +qui bout!_" (the Souffriere is boiling); and a panic seized the negroes +of the neighboring plantations. At 11 P.M. the noise was terrible enough +to fill all St. Pierre with alarm; and on the morning of the 6th the +city presented an unwonted aspect, compared by creoles who had lived +abroad to the effect of a great hoar-frost. All the roofs, trees, +balconies, awnings, pavements, were covered with a white layer of ashes. +The same shower blanched the roofs of Morne Rouge, and all the villages +about the chief city,--Carbet, Fond-Corre, and Au Precheur; also +whitening the neighboring country: the mountain was sending up columns +of smoke or vapor; and it was noticed that the Riviere Blanche, usually +of a glaucous color, ran black into the sea like an outpouring of +ink, staining its azure for a mile. A committee appointed to make an +investigation, and prepare an official report, found that a number of +rents had either been newly formed, or suddenly become active, in the +flank of the mountain: these were all situated in the immense gorge +sloping westward from that point now known as the Morne de la Croix. +Several were visited with much difficulty,--members of the commission +being obliged to lower themselves down a succession of precipices +with cords of lianas; and it is noteworthy that their researches were +prosecuted in spite of the momentary panic created by another outburst. +It was satisfactorily ascertained that the main force of the explosion +had been exerted within a perimeter of about one thousand yards; that +various hot springs had suddenly gushed out,--the temperature of the +least warm being about 37 deg. Reaumur (116 deg. F.);--that there was no change +in the configuration of the mountain;--and that the terrific sounds had +been produced only by the violent outrush of vapor and ashes from some +of the rents. In hope of allaying the general alarm, a creole priest +climbed the summit of the volcano, and there planted the great cross +which gives the height its name and still remains to commemorate the +event. + +There was an extraordinary emigration of serpents from the high woods, +and from the higher to the lower plantations,--where they were killed by +thousands. For a long time Pelee continued to send up an immense +column of white vapor; but there were no more showers of ashes; and the +mountain gradually settled down to its present state of quiescence. + + + +II. + + +From St. Pierre, trips to Pelee can be made by several routes;--the most +popular is that by way of Morne Rouge and the Calebasse; but the summit +can be reached in much less time by making the ascent from different +points along the coast-road to Au Precheur,--such as the Morne St. +Martin, or a well-known path further north, passing near the celebrated +hot springs (_Fontaines Chaudes_). You drive towards Au Precheur, and +begin the ascent on foot, through cane-plantations.... The road by +which you follow the north-west coast round the skirts of Pelee is very +picturesque:--you cross the Roxelane, the Riviere des Peres, the +Riviere Seche (whose bed is now occupied only by a motionless torrent +of rocks);--passing first by the suburb of Fond-Corre, with its cocoa +groves, and broad beach of iron-gray sand,--a bathing resort;--then +Pointe Prince, and the Fond de Canonville, somnolent villages that +occupy wrinkles in the hem of Pelee's lava robe. The drive ultimately +rises and lowers over the undulations of the cliff, and is well +shadowed along the greater part of its course: you will admire many huge +_fromagers_, or silk-cotton trees, various heavy lines of tamarinds, +and groups of _flamboyants_ with thick dark feathery foliage, and +cassia-trees with long pods pending and blackening from every branch, +and hedges of _campeche_, or logwood, and calabash-trees, and +multitudes of the pretty shrubs bearing the fruit called in creole +_raisins-bo-lanme_, or "sea-side grapes." Then you reach Au Precheur: a +very antiquated village, which boasts a stone church and a little public +square with a fountain in it. If you have time to cross the Riviere du +Precheur, a little further on, you can obtain a fine view of the coast, +which, rising suddenly to a grand altitude, sweeps round in a semicircle +over the Village of the Abysses (_Aux Abymes_),--whose name was +doubtless suggested by the immense depth of the sea at that point.... +It was under the shadow of those cliffs that the Confederate cruiser +_Alabama_ once hid herself, as a fish hides in the shadow of a rock, and +escaped from her pursuer, the _Iroquois_. She had long been blockaded in +the harbor of St. Pierre by the Northern man-of-war,--anxiously +awaiting a chance to pounce upon her the instant she should leave +French waters;--and various Yankee vessels in port were to send up +rocket-signals should the _Alabama_ attempt to escape under cover of +darkness. But one night the privateer took a creole pilot on board, and +steamed out southward, with all her lights masked, and her chimneys so +arranged that neither smoke nor sparks could betray her to the enemy +in the offing. However, some Yankee vessels near enough to discern +her movements through the darkness at once shot rockets south; and the +_Iroquois_ gave chase. The _Alabama_ hugged the high shore as far as +Carbet, remaining quite invisible in the shadow of it: then she suddenly +turned and recrossed the harbor. Again Yankee rockets betrayed her +manreuvre to the _Iroquois;_ but she gained Aux Abymes, laid herself +close to the enormous black cliff, and there remained indistinguishable; +the _Iroquois_ steamed by north without seeing her. Once the Confederate +cruiser found her enemy well out of sight, she put her pilot ashore and +escaped into the Dominica channel. The pilot was a poor mulatto, who +thought himself well paid with five hundred francs! + +... The more popular route to Pelee by way of Morne Rouge is otherwise +interesting... Anybody not too much afraid of the tropic sun must find +it a delightful experience to follow the mountain roads leading to the +interior from the city, as all the mornes traversed by them command +landscapes of extraordinary beauty. According to the zigzags of the way, +the scenery shifts panoramically. At one moment you are looking down +into valleys a thousand feet below, at another, over luminous leagues +of meadow or cane-field, you see some far crowding of cones and cratered +shapes;--sharp as the teeth of a saw, and blue as sapphire,--with +further eminences ranging away through pearline color to high-peaked +remotenesses of vapory gold. As you follow the windings of such a way +as the road of the Morne Labelle, or the Morne d'Orange, the city +disappears and reappears many times,--always diminishing, till at last +it looks no bigger than a chess-board. Simultaneously distant mountain +shapes appear to unfold and lengthen;--and always, always the sea +rises with your rising. Viewed at first from the bulwark (_boulevard_) +commanding the roofs of the town, its horizon-line seemed straight and +keen as a knife-edge;--but as you mount higher, it elongates, begins +to curve; and gradually the whole azure expanse of water broadens out +roundly like a disk. From certain very lofty summits further inland you +behold the immense blue circle touching the sky all round you,--except +where a still greater altitude, like that of Pelee or the Pitons, breaks +the ring; and this high vision of the sea has a phantasmal effect hard +to describe, and due to vapory conditions of the atmosphere. There are +bright cloudless days when, even as seen from the city, the ocean-verge +has a spectral vagueness; but on any day, in any season, that you ascend +to a point dominating the sea by a thousand feet, the rim of the visible +world takes a ghostliness that startles,--because the prodigious light +gives to all near shapes such intense sharpness of outline and vividness +of color. + +Yet wonderful as are the perspective beauties of those mountain routes +from which one can keep St. Pierre in view, the road to Morne Rouge +surpasses them, notwithstanding that it almost immediately leaves the +city behind, and out of sight. Excepting only _La Trace_,--the long +route winding over mountain ridges and between primitive forests south +to Fort-de-France,--there is probably no section of national highway in +the island more remarkable than the Morne Rouge road. Leaving the Grande +Rue by the public conveyance, you drive out through the Savane du Fort, +with its immense mango and tamarind trees, skirting the Roxelane. Then +reaching the boulevard, you pass high Morne Labelle,--and then the +Jardin des Plantes on the right, where white-stemmed palms are lifting +their heads two hundred feet,--and beautiful Parnasse, heavily timbered +to the top;--while on your left the valley of the Roxelane shallows +up, and Pelee shows less and less of its tremendous base. Then you pass +through the sleepy, palmy, pretty Village of the Three Bridges (_Trois +Ponts_),--where a Fahrenheit thermometer shows already three degrees of +temperature lower than at St. Pierre;--and the national road, making a +sharp turn to the right, becomes all at once very steep--so steep that +the horses can mount only at a walk. Around and between the wooded hills +it ascends by zigzags,--occasionally overlooking the sea,--sometimes +following the verges of ravines. Now and then you catch glimpses of the +road over which you passed half an hour before undulating far below, +looking narrow as a tape-line,--and of the gorge of the Roxelane,--and +of Pelee, always higher, now thrusting out long spurs of green and +purple land into the sea. You drive under cool shadowing of mountain +woods--under waving bamboos like enormous ostrich feathers dyed +green,--and exquisite tree-ferns thirty to forty feet high,--and +imposing ceibas, with strangely buttressed trunks,--and all sorts of +broad-leaved forms: cachibous, balisiers, bananiers.... Then you reach a +plateau covered with cane, whose yellow expanse is bounded on the right +by a demilune of hills sharply angled as crystals;--on the left it +dips seaward; and before you Pelee's head towers over the shoulders of +intervening mornes. A strong cool wind is blowing; and the horses can +trot a while. Twenty minutes, and the road, leaving the plateau, becomes +steep again;--you are approaching the volcano over the ridge of a +colossal spur. The way turns in a semicircle,--zigzags,--once more +touches the edge of a valley,--where the clear fall might be nearly +fifteen hundred feet. But narrowing more and more, the valley becomes +an ascending gorge; and across its chasm, upon the brow of the opposite +cliff, you catch sight of houses and a spire seemingly perched on the +verge, like so many birds'-nests,--the village of Morne Rouge. It is two +thousand feet above the sea; and Pelee, although looming high over it, +looks a trifle less lofty now. + +One's first impression of Morne Rouge is that of a single straggling +street of gray-painted cottages and shops (or rather booths), dominated +by a plain church, with four pursy-bodied palmistes facing the main +porch. Nevertheless, Morne Rouge is not a small place, considering its +situation;--there are nearly five thousand inhabitants; but in order to +find out where they live, you must leave the public road, which is on a +ridge, and explore the high-hedged lanes leading down from it on +either side. Then you will find a veritable city of little wooden +cottages,--each screened about with banana-trees, Indian-reeds, and +_pommiers-roses_. You will also see a number of handsome private +residences--country-houses of wealthy merchants; and you will find that +the church, though uninteresting exteriorly, is rich and impressive +within: it is a famous shrine, where miracles are alleged to have been +wrought. Immense processions periodically wend their way to it from +St. Pierre,--starting at three or four o'clock in the morning, so as to +arrive before the sun is well up.... But there are no woods here,--only +fields. An odd tone is given to the lanes by a local custom of planting +hedges of what are termed _roseaux d' Inde_, having a dark-red foliage; +and there is a visible fondness for ornamental plants with crimson +leaves. Otherwise the mountain summit is somewhat bare; trees have a +scrubby aspect. You must have noticed while ascending that the palmistes +became smaller as they were situated higher: at Morne Rouge they are +dwarfed,--having a short stature, and very thick trunks. + +In spite of the fine views of the sea, the mountain-heights, and the +valley-reaches, obtainable from Morne Rouge, the place has a somewhat +bleak look. Perhaps this is largely owing to the universal slate-gray +tint of the buildings,--very melancholy by comparison with the apricot +and banana yellows tinting the walls of St. Pierre. But this cheerless +gray is the only color which can resist the climate of Morne Rouge, +where people are literally dwelling in the clouds. Rolling down like +white smoke from Pelee, these often create a dismal fog; and Morne Rouge +is certainly one of the rainiest places in the world. When it is dry +everywhere else, it rains at Morne Rouge. It rains at least three +hundred and sixty days and three hundred and sixty nights of the year. +It rains almost invariably once in every twenty-four hours; but oftener +five or six times. The dampness is phenomenal. All mirrors become +patchy; linen moulds in one day; leather turns while woollen goods feel +as if saturated with moisture; new brass becomes green; steel crumbles +into red powder; wood-work rots with astonishing rapidity; salt is +quickly transformed into brine; and matches, unless kept in a very warm +place, refuse to light. Everything moulders and peels and decomposes; +even the frescos of the church-interior lump out in immense blisters; +and a microscopic vegetation, green or brown, attacks all exposed +surfaces of timber or stone. At night it is often really cold;--and +it is hard to understand how, with all this dampness and coolness and +mouldiness, Morne Rouge can be a healthy place. But it is so, beyond +any question: it is the great Martinique resort for invalids; strangers +debilitated by the climate of Trinidad or Cayenne come to it for +recuperation. + +[Illustration: VILLAGE OF MORNE ROUGE, MARTINIQUE] + +Leaving the village by the still uprising road, you will be surprised, +after a walk of twenty minutes northward, by a magnificent view,--the +vast valley of the Champ-Flore, watered by many torrents, and +bounded south and west by double, triple, and quadruple surging of +mountains,--mountains broken, peaked, tormented-looking, and tinted +(_irisees_, as the creoles say) with all those gem-tones distance gives +in a West Indian atmosphere. Particularly impressive is the beauty of +one purple cone in the midst of this many-colored chain: the Piton Gele. +All the valley-expanse of rich land is checkered with alternations of +meadow and cane and cacao,--except northwestwardly, where woods billow +out of sight beyond a curve. Facing this landscape, on your left, are +mornes of various heights,--among which you will notice La Calebasse, +overtopping everything but Pelee shadowing behind it;--and a grass-grown +road leads up westward from the national highway towards the volcano. +This is the Calebasse route to Pelee. + + + +III. + + +We must be very sure of the weather before undertaking the ascent of +Pelee; for if one merely selects some particular leisure day in advance, +one's chances of seeing anything from the summit are considerably +less than an astronomer's chances of being able to make a satisfactory +observation of the next transit of Venus. Moreover, if the heights +remain even partly clouded, it may not be safe to ascend the Morne de la +Croix,--a cone-point above the crater itself, and ordinarily invisible +from below. And a cloudless afternoon can never be predicted from the +aspect of deceitful Pelee: when the crater edges are quite clearly cut +against the sky at dawn, you may be tolerably certain there will be bad +weather during the day; and when they are all bare at sundown, you have +no good reason to believe they will not be hidden next morning. Hundreds +of tourists, deluded by such appearances, have made the weary trip in +vain,--found themselves obliged to return without having seen anything +but a thick white cold fog. The sky may remain perfectly blue for weeks +in every other direction, and Pelee's head remain always hidden. In +order to make a successful ascent, one must not wait for a period of +dry weather,--one might thus wait for years! What one must look for is a +certain periodicity in the diurnal rains,--a regular alternation of sun +and cloud; such as characterizes a certain portion of the _hivernage_, +or rainy summer season, when mornings and evenings are perfectly limpid, +with very heavy sudden rains in the middle of the day. It is of no use +to rely on the prospect of a dry spell. There is no really dry weather, +notwithstanding there recurs--in books--a _Saison de la Secheresse_. In +fact, there are no distinctly marked seasons in Martinique:--a little +less heat and rain from October to July, a little more rain and heat +from July to October: that is about all the notable difference! Perhaps +the official notification by cannon-shot that the hivernage, the +season of heavy rains and hurricanes, begins on July 15th, is no more +trustworthy than the contradictory declarations of Martinique authors +who have attempted to define the vague and illusive limits of the +tropic seasons. Still, the Government report on the subject is more +satisfactory than any: according to the "Annuaire," there are these +seasons:--1. _Saison fraiche_. December to March. Rainfall, about 475 +millimetres. 2. _Saison chaude et seche_. April to July. Rainfall, about +140 millimetres. 3. _Saison chaude et pluvieuse_. July to November. +Rainfall average, 121 millimetres. + +Other authorities divide the _saison chaude et seche_ into two periods, +of which the latter, beginning about May, is called the _Renouveau_; and +it is at least true that at the time indicated there is a great burst +of vegetal luxuriance. But there is always rain, there are almost always +clouds, there is no possibility of marking and dating the beginnings +and the endings of weather in this country where the barometer is almost +useless, and the thermometer mounts in the sun to twice the figure +it reaches in the shade. Long and patient observation has, however, +established the fact that during the hivernage, if the heavy showers +have a certain fixed periodicity,--falling at midday or in the heated +part of the afternoon,--Pelee is likely to be clear early in the +morning; and by starting before daylight one can then have good chances +of a fine view from the summit. + + + +IV. + + +At five o'clock of a September morning, warm and starry, I leave St. +Pierre in a carriage with several friends, to make the ascent by the +shortest route of all,--that of the Morne St. Martin, one of Pelee's +western counterforts. We drive north along the shore for about half an +hour; then, leaving the coast behind, pursue a winding mountain road, +leading to the upper plantations, between leagues of cane. The sky +begins to brighten as we ascend, and a steely glow announces that day +has begun on the other side of the island. Miles up, the crest of the +volcano cuts sharp as a saw-edge against the growing light: there is not +a cloud visible. Then the light slowly yellows behind the vast cone; +and one of the most beautiful dawns I ever saw reveals on our right +an immense valley through which three rivers flow. This deepens very +quickly as we drive; the mornes about St. Pierre, beginning to catch +the light, sink below us in distance; and above them, southwardly, an +amazing silouette begins to rise,--all blue,--a mountain wall capped +with cusps and cones, seeming high as Pelee itself in the middle, +but sinking down to the sea-level westward. There are a number of +extraordinary acuminations; but the most impressive shape is the +nearest,--a tremendous conoidal mass crowned with a group of peaks, of +which two, taller than the rest, tell their name at once by the beauty +of their forms,--the Pitons of Carbet. They wear their girdles of cloud, +though Pelee is naked to-day. All this is blue: the growing light only +deepens the color, does not dissipate it;--but in the nearer valleys +gleams of tender yellowish green begin to appear. Still the sun has +not been able to show himself;--it will take him some time yet to climb +Pelee. + +Reaching the last plantation, we draw rein in a village of small wooden +cottages,--the quarters of the field hands,--and receive from the +proprietor, a personal friend of my friends, the kindest welcome. At his +house we change clothing and prepare for the journey;--he provides for +our horses, and secures experienced guides for us,--two young colored +men belonging to the plantation. Then we begin the ascent. The guides +walk before, barefoot, each carrying a cutlass in his hand and a package +on his head--our provisions, photographic instruments, etc. + +The mountain is cultivated in spots up to twenty-five hundred feet; and +for three-quarters of an hour after leaving the planter's residence we +still traverse fields of cane and of manioc. The light is now strong in +the valley; but we are in the shadow of Pelee. Cultivated fields end at +last; the ascending path is through wild cane, wild guavas, guinea-grass +run mad, and other tough growths, some bearing pretty pink blossoms. +The forest is before us. Startled by our approach, a tiny fer-de-lance +glides out from a bunch of dead wild-cane, almost under the bare feet of +our foremost guide, who as instantly decapitates it with a touch of his +cutlass. It is not quite fifteen inches long, and almost the color of +the yellowish leaves under which it had been hiding.... The conversation +turns on snakes as we make our first halt at the verge of the woods. + +Hundreds may be hiding around us; but a snake never shows himself by +daylight except under the pressure of sudden alarm. We are not likely, +in the opinion of all present, to meet with another. Every one in the +party, except myself, has some curious experience to relate. I hear for +the first time, about the alleged inability of the trigonocephalus to +wound except at a distance from his enemy of not less than one-third of +his length;--about M. A--, a former director of the Jardin des Plantes, +who used to boldly thrust his arm into holes where he knew snakes were, +and pull them out,--catching them just behind the head and wrapping the +tail round his arm,--and place them alive in a cage without ever getting +bitten;--about M. B--, who, while hunting one day, tripped in the coils +of an immense trigonocephalus, and ran so fast in his fright that the +serpent, entangled round his leg, could not bite him;--about M. C--, who +could catch a fer-de-lance by the tail, and "crack it like a whip" +until the head would fly off;--about an old white man living in the +Champ-Flore, whose diet was snake-meat, and who always kept in his +ajoupa "a keg of salted serpents" (_yon ka sepent-sale_);--about a +monster eight feet long which killed, near Morne Rouge, M. Charles +Fabre's white cat, but was also killed by the cat after she had been +caught in the folds of the reptile;--about the value of snakes as +protectors of the sugar-cane and cocoa-shrub against rats;--about an +unsuccessful effort made, during a plague of rats in Guadeloupe, +to introduce the fer-de-lance there;--about the alleged power of a +monstrous toad, the _crapaud-ladre_, to cause the death of the snake +that swallows it;--and, finally, about the total absence of the idyllic +and pastoral elements in Martinique literature, as due to the presence +of reptiles everywhere. "Even the flora and fauna of the country remain +to a large extent unknown,"--adds the last speaker, an amiable old +physician of St. Pierre,--"because the existence of the fer-de-lance +renders all serious research dangerous in the extreme." + +My own experiences do not justify my taking part in such a +conversation;--I never saw alive but two very small specimens of the +trigonocephalus. People who have passed even a considerable time +in Martinique may have never seen a fer-de-lance except in a jar of +alcohol, or as exhibited by negro snake-catchers, tied fast to a bamboo, +But this is only because strangers rarely travel much in the interior +of the country, or find themselves on country roads after sundown. It is +not correct to suppose that snakes are uncommon even in the neighborhood +of St. Pierre: they are often killed on the bulwarks behind the city and +on the verge of the Savane; they have been often washed into the streets +by heavy rains; and many washer-women at the Roxelane have been bitten +by them. It is considered very dangerous to walk about the bulwarks +after dark;--for the snakes, which travel only at night, then descend +from the mornes towards the river, The Jardin des Plantes shelters great +numbers of the reptiles; and only a few days prior to the writing of +these lines a colored laborer in the garden was stricken and killed by a +fer-de-lance measuring one metre and sixty-seven centimetres in length. +In the interior much larger reptiles are sometimes seen: I saw one +freshly killed measuring six feet five inches, and thick as a man's leg +in the middle. There are few planters in the island who have not some +of their hands bitten during the cane-cutting and cocoa-gathering +seasons;--the average annual mortality among the class of _travailleurs_ +from serpent bite alone is probably fifty, [31]--always fine young men +or women in the prime of life. Even among the wealthy whites deaths from +this cause are less rare than might be supposed: I know one gentleman, a +rich citizen of St, Pierre, who in ten years lost three relatives by +the trigonocephalus,--the wound having in each case been received in +the neighborhood of a vein. When the vein has been pierced, cure is +impossible. + + + +V. + + +... We look back over the upreaching yellow fan-spread of cane-fields, +and winding of tortuous valleys, and the sea expanding beyond an opening +in the west. It has already broadened surprisingly, the sea appears to +have risen up, not as a horizontal plane, but like an immeasurable azure +precipice: what will it look like when we shall have reached the top? +Far down we can distinguish a line of field-hands--the whole _atelier_, +as it is called, of a plantation slowly descending a slope, hewing +the canes as they go. There is a woman to every two men, a binder +(_amarreuse_): she gathers the canes as they are cut down; binds them +with their own tough long leaves into a sort of sheaf, and carries them +away on her head;--the men wield their cutlasses so beautifully that +it is a delight to watch them. One cannot often enjoy such a spectacle +nowadays; for the introduction of the piece-work system has destroyed +the picturesqueness of plantation labor throughout the island, with rare +exceptions. Formerly the work of cane-cutting resembled the march of an +army;--first advanced the cutlassers in line, naked to the waist; then +the amareuses, the women who tied and carried; and behind these the +ka, the drum,--with a paid _crieur_ or _crieuse_ to lead the song;--and +lastly the black Commandeur, for general. And in the old days, too, it +was not unfrequent that the sudden descent of an English corsair on the +coast converted this soldiery of labor into veritable military: more +than one attack was repelled by the cutlasses of a plantation atelier. + +At this height the chatting and chanting can be heard, though not +distinctly enough to catch the words. Suddenly a voice, powerful as a +bugle, rings out,--the voice of the Commandeur: he walks along the line, +looking, with his cutlass under his arm. I ask one of our guides what +the cry is:-- + +--"_Y ka coumande yo pouend gade pou sepent_," he replies. (He is +telling them to keep watch for serpents.) The nearer the cutlassers +approach the end of their task, the greater the danger: for the +reptiles, retreating before them to the last clump of cane, +become massed there, and will fight desperately. Regularly as the +ripening-time, Death gathers his toll of human lives from among +the workers. But when one falls, another steps into the vacant +place,--perhaps the Commandeur himself: these dark swordsmen never +retreat; all the blades swing swiftly as before; there is hardly any +emotion; the travailleur is a fatalist.... [32] + + + +VI. + + +... We enter the grands-bois,--the primitive forest,--the "high woods." + +As seen with a field-glass from St. Pierre, these woods present only the +appearance of a band of moss belting the volcano, and following all +its corrugations,--so densely do the leafy crests intermingle. But on +actually entering them, you find yourself at once in green twilight, +among lofty trunks uprising everywhere like huge pillars wrapped with +vines;--and the interspaces between these bulks are all occupied +by lianas and parasitic creepers,--some monstrous,--veritable +parasite-trees,--ascending at all angles, or dropping straight down from +the tallest crests to take root again. The effect in the dim light +is that of innumerable black ropes and cables of varying thicknesses +stretched taut from the soil to the tree-tops, and also from branch +to branch, like rigging. There are rare and remarkable trees +here,--acomats, courbarils, balatas, ceibas or fromagers, acajous, +gommiers;--hundreds have been cut down by charcoal-makers; but the +forest is still grand. It is to be regretted that the Government has +placed no restriction upon the barbarous destruction of trees by the +_charbonniers_, which is going on throughout the island. Many valuable +woods are rapidly disappearing. The courbaril, yielding a fine-grained, +heavy, chocolate-colored timber; the balata, giving a wood even heavier, +denser, and darker; the acajou, producing a rich red wood, with a +strong scent of cedar; the bois-de-fer; the bois d'Inde; the superb +acomat,--all used to flourish by tens of thousands upon these volcanic +slopes, whose productiveness is eighteen times greater than that of +the richest European soil. All Martinique furniture used to be made of +native woods; and the colored cabinet-makers still produce work which +would probably astonish New York or London manufacturers. But to-day the +island exports no more hard woods: it has even been found necessary +to import much from neighboring islands;--and yet the destruction +of forests still goes on. The domestic fabrication of charcoal from +forest-trees has been estimated at 1,400,000 hectolitres per annum. +Primitive forest still covers the island to the extent of 21.37 per +cent; but to find precious woods now, one must climb heights like those +of Pelee and Carbet, or penetrate into the mountains of the interior. + +[Illustration: LA MONTAGNE PELEE, AS SEEN FROM GRANDE ANSE.] + +Most common formerly on these slopes were the gommiers, from which +canoes of a single piece, forty-five feet long by seven wide, used to +be made. There are plenty of gommiers still; but the difficulty of +transporting them to the shore has latterly caused a demand for the +gommiers of Dominica. The dimensions of canoes now made from these trees +rarely exceed fifteen feet in length by eighteen inches in width: the +art of making them is an inheritance from the ancient Caribs. First the +trunk is shaped to the form of the canoe, and pointed at both ends; it +is then hollowed out. The width of the hollow does not exceed six inches +at the widest part; but the cavity is then filled with wet sand, which +in the course of some weeks widens the excavation by its weight, and +gives the boat perfect form. Finally gunwales of plank are fastened on; +seats are put in--generally four;--and no boat is more durable nor more +swift. + +... We climb. There is a trace rather than a foot-path;--no visible +soil, only vegetable detritus, with roots woven over it in every +direction. The foot never rests on a flat surface,--only upon surfaces +of roots; and these are covered, like every protruding branch along the +route, with a slimy green moss, slippery as ice. Unless accustomed to +walking in tropical woods, one will fall at every step. In a little +while I find it impossible to advance. Our nearest guide, observing my +predicament, turns, and without moving the bundle upon his head, cuts +and trims me an excellent staff with a few strokes of his cutlass. This +staff not only saves me from dangerous slips, but also serves at times +to probe the way; for the further we proceed, the vaguer the path +becomes. It was made by the _chasseurs-de-choux_ (cabbage-hunters),--the +negro mountaineers who live by furnishing heads of young cabbage-palm to +the city markets; and these men also keep it open,--otherwise the woods +would grow over it in a month. Two chasseurs-de-choux stride past us +as we advance, with their freshly gathered palm-salad upon their heads, +wrapped in cachibou or balisier leaves, and tied with lianas. The +palmiste-franc easily reaches a stature of one hundred feet; but the +young trees are so eagerly sought for by the chasseurs-de-choux that in +these woods few reach a height of even twelve feet before being cut. + +... Walking becomes more difficult;--there seems no termination to the +grands-bois: always the same faint green light, the same rude natural +stair-way of slippery roots,--half the time hidden by fern leaves and +vines. Sharp ammoniacal scents are in the air; a dew, cold as ice-water, +drenches our clothing. Unfamiliar insects make trilling noises in dark +places; and now and then a series of soft clear notes ring out, almost +like a thrush's whistle: the chant of a little tree-frog. The path +becomes more and more overgrown; and but for the constant excursions of +the cabbage-hunters, we should certainly have to cutlass every foot of +the way through creepers and brambles. More and more amazing also is +the interminable interweaving of roots: the whole forest is thus spun +together--not underground so much as overground. These tropical trees +do not strike deep, although able to climb steep slopes of porphyry and +basalt: they send out great far-reaching webs of roots,--each such web +interknotting with others all round it, and these in turn with further +ones;--while between their reticulations lianas ascend and descend: +and a nameless multitude of shrubs as tough as india-rubber push up, +together with mosses, grasses, and ferns. Square miles upon square miles +of woods are thus interlocked and interbound into one mass solid enough +to resist the pressure of a hurricane; and where there is no path +already made, entrance into them can only be effected by the most +dexterous cutlassing. + +An inexperienced stranger might be puzzled to understand how this +cutlassing is done. It is no easy feat to sever with one blow a liana +thick as a man's arm; the trained cutlasser does it without apparent +difficulty: moreover, he cuts horizontally, so as to prevent the severed +top presenting a sharp angle and proving afterwards dangerous. He never +appears to strike hard,--only to give light taps with his blade, which +flickers continually about him as he moves. Our own guides in cutlassing +are not at all inconvenienced by their loads; they walk perfectly +upright, never stumble, never slip, never hesitate, and do not even seem +to perspire: their bare feet are prehensile. Some creoles in our party, +habituated to the woods, walk nearly as well in their shoes; but they +carry no loads. + +... At last we are rejoiced to observe that the trees are becoming +smaller;--there are no more colossal trunks;--there are frequent +glimpses of sky: the sun has risen well above the peaks, and sends +occasional beams down through the leaves. Ten minutes, and we reach a +clear space,--a wild savane, very steep, above which looms a higher belt +of woods. Here we take another short rest. + +Northward the view is cut off by a ridge covered with herbaceous +vegetation;--but to the south-west it is open, over a gorge of which +both sides are shrouded in sombre green-crests of trees forming a +solid curtain against the sun. Beyond the outer and lower cliff +valley-surfaces appear miles away, flinging up broad gleams of +cane-gold; further off greens disappear into blues, and the fantastic +masses of Carbet loom up far higher than before. St. Pierre, in a curve +of the coast, is a little red-and-yellow semicircular streak, less than +two inches long. The interspaces between far mountain chains,--masses of +pyramids, cones, single and double humps, queer blue angles as of raised +knees under coverings,--resemble misty lakes: they are filled with +brume;--the sea-line has vanished altogether. Only the horizon, +enormously heightened, can be discerned as a circling band of faint +yellowish light,--auroral, ghostly,--almost on a level with the tips of +the Pitons. Between this vague horizon and the shore, the sea no longer +looks like sea, but like a second hollow sky reversed. All the landscape +has unreal beauty:--there are no keen lines; there are no definite +beginnings or endings; the tints are half-colors only;--peaks rise +suddenly from mysteries of bluish fog as from a flood; land melts +into sea the same hue. It gives one the idea of some great aquarelle +unfinished,--abandoned before tones were deepened and details brought +out. + + + +VII. + + +We are overlooking from this height the birthplaces of several rivers; +and the rivers of Pelee are the clearest and the coolest of the island. + +From whatever direction the trip be undertaken, the ascent of the +volcano must be made over some one of those many immense ridges sloping +from the summit to the sea west, north, and east,--like buttresses +eight to ten miles long,--formed by ancient lava-torrents. Down the deep +gorges between them the cloud-fed rivers run,--receiving as they descend +the waters of countless smaller streams gushing from either side of the +ridge. There are also cold springs,--one of which furnishes St. Pierre +with her _Eau-de-Gouyave_ (guava-water), which is always sweet, clear, +and cool in the very hottest weather. But the water of almost everyone +of the seventy-five principal rivers of Martinique is cool and clear and +sweet. And these rivers are curious in their way. Their average fall +has been estimated at nine inches to every six feet;--many are +cataracts;--the Riviere de Case-Navire has a fall of nearly 150 feet to +every fifty yards of its upper course. Naturally these streams cut for +themselves channels of immense depth. Where they flow through forests +and between mornes, their banks vary from 1200 to 1600 feet high,--so +as to render their beds inaccessible; and many enter the sea through +a channel of rock with perpendicular walls from 100 to 200 feet high. +Their waters are necessarily shallow in normal weather; but during +rain-storms they become torrents thunderous, and terrific beyond +description. In order to comprehend their sudden swelling, one must +know what tropical rain is. Col. Boyer Peyreleau, in 1823, estimated the +annual rainfall in these colonies at 150 inches on the coast, to 350 on +the mountains,--while the annual fall at Paris was only eighteen inches. +The character of such rain is totally different from that of rain in +the temperate zone: the drops are enormous, heavy, like hailstones,--one +will spatter over the circumference of a saucer;--and the shower roars +so that people cannot hear each other speak without shouting. When there +is a true storm, no roofing seems able to shut out the cataract; the +best-built houses leak in all directions; and objects but a short +distance off become invisible behind the heavy curtain of water. The +ravages of such rain may be imagined! Roads are cut away in an hour; +trees are overthrown as if blown down;--for there are few West Indian +trees which plunge their roots even as low as two feet; they merely +extend them over a large diameter; and isolated trees will actually +slide under rain. The swelling of rivers is so sudden that washer-women +at work in the Roxelane and other streams have been swept away and +drowned without the least warning of their danger; the shower occurring +seven or eight miles off. + +Most of these rivers are well stocked with fish, of which the _tetart_, +_banane_, _loche_, and _dormeur_ are the principal varieties. The tetart +(best of all) and the loche climb the torrents to the height of 2500 and +even 3000 feet: they have a kind of pneumatic sucker, which enables them +to cling to rocks. Under stones in the lower basins crawfish of the most +extraordinary size are taken; some will measure thirty-six inches from +claw to tail. And at all the river-mouths, during July and August, are +caught vast numbers of "_titiri_" [33] --tiny white fish, of which a +thousand might be put into one teacup. They are delicious when served in +oil,--infinitely more delicate than the sardine. Some regard them as +a particular species: others believe them to be only the fry of larger +fish,--as their periodical appearance and disappearance would seem to +indicate. They are often swept by millions into the city of St. Pierre, +with the flow of mountain-water which purifies the streets: then +you will see them swarming in the gutters, fountains, and +bathing-basins;--and on Saturdays, when the water is temporarily shut +off to allow of the pipes being cleansed, the titiri may die in the +gutters in such numbers as to make the air offensive. + +[Illustration: ARBORESCENT FERNS ON A MOUNTAIN ROAD.] + +The mountain-crab, celebrated for its periodical migrations, is +also found at considerable heights. Its numbers appear to have been +diminished extraordinarily by its consumption as an article of negro +diet; but in certain islands those armies of crabs described by the old +writers are still occasionally to be seen. The Pere Dutertre relates +that in 1640, at St. Christophe, thirty sick emigrants, temporarily left +on the beach, were attacked and devoured alive during the night by a +similar species of crab. "They descended from the mountains in such +multitude," he tells us, "that they were heaped higher than houses over +the bodies of the poor wretches... whose bones were picked so clean that +not one speck of flesh could be found upon them."... + + + +VIII. + + +... We enter the upper belt of woods--green twilight again. There are +as many lianas as ever: but they are less massive in stem;--the trees, +which are stunted, stand closer together; and the web-work of roots is +finer and more thickly spun. These are called the _petits-bois_ +(little woods), in contradistinction to the grands-bois, or high woods. +Multitudes of balisiers, dwarf-palms, arborescent ferns, wild guavas, +mingle with the lower growths on either side of the path, which has +narrowed to the breadth of a wheel-rut, and is nearly concealed by +protruding grasses and fern leaves. Never does the sole of the foot +press upon a surface large as itself,--always the slippery backs of +roots crossing at all angles, like loop-traps, over sharp fragments +of volcanic rock or pumice-stone. There are abrupt descents, sudden +acclivities, mud-holes, and fissures;--one grasps at the ferns on both +sides to keep from falling; and some ferns are spiked sometimes on the +under surface, and tear the hands. But the barefooted guides stride +on rapidly, erect as ever under their loads,--chopping off with their +cutlasses any branches that hang too low. There are beautiful flowers +here,--various unfamiliar species of lobelia;--pretty red and +yellow blossoms belonging to plants which the creole physician calls +_Bromeliacoe_; and a plant like the _Guy Lussacia_ of Brazil, with +violet-red petals. There is an indescribable multitude of ferns,--a very +museum of ferns! The doctor, who is a great woodsman, says that he never +makes a trip to the hills without finding some new kind of fern; and he +had already a collection of several hundred. + +The route is continually growing steeper, and makes a number of turns +and windings: we reach another bit of savane, where we have to walk over +black-pointed stones that resemble slag;--then more petits-bois, still +more dwarfed, then another opening. The naked crest of the volcano +appears like a peaked precipice, dark-red, with streaks of green, over a +narrow but terrific chasm on the left: we are almost on a level with the +crater, but must make a long circuit to reach it, through a wilderness +of stunted timber and bush. The creoles call this undergrowth _razie_: +it is really only a prolongation of the low jungle which carpets the +high forests below, with this difference, that there are fewer creepers +and much more fern.... Suddenly we reach a black gap in the path about +thirty inches wide--half hidden by the tangle of leaves,--_La Fente_. It +is a volcanic fissure which divides the whole ridge, and is said to have +no bottom: for fear of a possible slip, the guides insist upon holding +our hands while we cross it. Happily there are no more such clefts; +but there are mud-holes, snags, roots, and loose rocks beyond counting. +Least disagreeable are the _bourbiers_, in which you sink to your +knees in black or gray slime. Then the path descends into open light +again;--and we find ourselves at the Etang,--in the dead Crater of the +Three Palmistes. + +An immense pool, completely encircled by high green walls of rock, which +shut out all further view, and shoot up, here and there, into cones, or +rise into queer lofty humps and knobs. One of these elevations at the +opposite side has almost the shape of a blunt horn: it is the Morne +de la Croix. The scenery is at once imposing and sinister: the shapes +towering above the lake and reflected in its still surface have the +weirdness of things seen in photographs of the moon. Clouds are circling +above them and between them;--one descends to the water, haunts us a +moment, blurring everything; then rises again. We have travelled too +slow; the clouds have had time to gather. + +I look in vain for the Three Palmistes which gave the crater a name: +they were destroyed long ago. But there are numbers of young ones +scattered through the dense ferny covering of the lake-slopes,--just +showing their heads like bunches of great dark-green feathers. + +--The estimate of Dr. Rufz, made in 1851, and the estimate of the last +"Annuaire" regarding the circumference of the lake, are evidently both +at fault. That of the "Annuaire," 150 metres, is a gross error: the +writer must have meant the diameter,--following Rufz, who estimated the +circumference at something over 300 paces. As we find it, the Etang, +which is nearly circular, must measure 200 yards across;--perhaps it +has been greatly swollen by the extraordinary rains of this summer. Our +guides say that the little iron cross projecting from the water about +two yards off was high and dry on the shore last season. At present +there is only one narrow patch of grassy bank on which we can rest, +between the water and the walls of the crater. + +The lake is perfectly clear, with a bottom of yellowish shallow mud, +which rests--according to investigations made in 1851--upon a mass of +pumice-stone mixed in places with ferruginous sand; and the yellow mud +itself is a detritus of pumice-stone. We strip for a swim. + +Though at an elevation of nearly 5000 feet, this water is not so cold +as that of the Roxelane, nor of other rivers of the north-west and +north-east coasts. It has an agreeable fresh taste, like dew. Looking +down into it, I see many larvae of the _maringouin_, or large mosquito: +no fish. The maringouins themselves are troublesome,--whirring around us +and stinging. On striking out for the middle, one is surprised to feel +the water growing slightly warmer. The committee of investigation in +1851 found the temperature of the lake, in spite of a north wind, 20.5 +Centigrade, while that of the air was but 19 (about 69 F. for the water, +and 66.2 for the air). The depth in the centre is over six feet; the +average is scarcely four. + +Regaining the bank, we prepare to ascend the Morne de la Croix. The +circular path by which it is commonly reached is now under water; and we +have to wade up to our waists. All the while clouds keep passing over us +in great slow whirls. Some are white and half-transparent; others opaque +and dark gray;--a dark cloud passing through; a white one looks like +a goblin. Gaining the opposite shore, we find a very rough path over +splintered stone, ascending between the thickest fern-growths possible +to imagine. The general tone of this fern is dark green; but there are +paler cloudings of yellow and pink,--due to the varying age of the +leaves, which are pressed into a cushion three or four feet high, and +almost solid enough to sit upon. About two hundred and fifty yards from +the crater edge, the path rises above this tangle, and zigzags up the +morne, which now appears twice as lofty as from the lake, where we had +a curiously foreshortened view of it. It then looked scarcely a hundred +feet high; it is more than double that. The cone is green to the top +with moss, low grasses, small fern, and creeping pretty plants, like +violets, with big carmine flowers. The path is a black line: the rock +laid bare by it looks as if burned to the core. We have now to use our +hands in climbing; but the low thick ferns give a good hold. Out of +breath, and drenched in perspiration, we reach the apex,--the highest +point of the island. But we are curtained about with clouds,--moving in +dense white and gray masses: we cannot see fifty feet away. + +The top of the peak has a slightly slanting surface of perhaps twenty +square yards, very irregular in outline;--southwardly the morne pitches +sheer into a frightful chasm, between the converging of two of those +long corrugated ridges already described as buttressing the volcano on +all sides. Through a cloud-rift we can see another crater-lake twelve +hundred feet below--said to be five times larger than the Etang we have +just left: it is also of more irregular outline. This is called the +_Etang Sec_, or "Dry Pool," because dry in less rainy seasons. It +occupies a more ancient crater, and is very rarely visited: the path +leading to it is difficult and dangerous,--a natural ladder of roots and +lianas over a series of precipices. Behind us the Crater of the Three +Palmistes now looks no larger than the surface on which we stand;--over +its further boundary we can see the wall of another gorge, in which +there is a third crater-lake. West and north are green peakings, ridges, +and high lava walls steep as fortifications. All this we can only note +in the intervals between passing of clouds. As yet there is no landscape +visible southward;--we sit down and wait. + + + +IX. + + +... Two crosses are planted nearly at the verge of the precipice; a +small one of iron; and a large one of wood--probably the same put up by +the Abbe Lespinasse during the panic of 1851, after the eruption. This +has been splintered to pieces by a flash of lightning; and the fragments +are clumsily united with cord. There is also a little tin plate let +into a slit in a black post: it bears a date,--_8 Avril, 1867_.... The +volcanic vents, which were active in 1851, are not visible from the +peak: they are in the gorge descending from it, at a point nearly on a +level with the Etang Sec. + +The ground gives out a peculiar hollow sound when tapped, and is covered +with a singular lichen,--all composed of round overlapping leaves about +one-eighth of an inch in diameter, pale green, and tough as fish-scales. +Here and there one sees a beautiful branching growth, like a mass of +green coral: it is a gigantic moss. _Cabane-Jesus_ ("bed of-Jesus") the +patois name is: at Christmas-time, in all the churches, those decorated +cribs in which the image of the Child-Saviour is laid are filled +with it. The creeping crimson violet is also here. Fire-flies with +bronze-green bodies are crawling about;-I notice also small frogs, large +gray crickets, and a species of snail with a black shell. A solitary +humming-bird passes, with a beautiful blue head, flaming like sapphire. +All at once the peak vibrates to a tremendous sound from somewhere +below.... It is only a peal of thunder; but it startled at first, +because the mountain rumbles and grumbles occasionally.... From the +wilderness of ferns about the lake a sweet long low whistle comes--three +times;-a _siffleur-de-montagne_ has its nest there. There is a +rain-storm over the woods beneath us: clouds now hide everything but the +point on which we rest; the crater of the Palmistes becomes invisible. +But it is only for a little while that we are thus befogged: a wind +comes, blows the clouds over us, lifts them up and folds them like a +drapery, and slowly whirls them away northward. And for the first +time the view is clear over the intervening gorge,--now spanned by the +rocket-leap of a perfect rainbow. + +... Valleys and mornes, peaks and ravines,--succeeding each other +swiftly as surge succeeds surge in a storm,--a weirdly tossed world, but +beautiful as it is weird: all green the foreground, with all tints of +green, shadowing off to billowy distances of purest blue. The sea-line +remains invisible as ever: you know where it is only by the zone of pale +light ringing the double sphericity of sky and ocean. And in this double +blue void the island seems to hang suspended: far peaks seem to come +up from nowhere, to rest on nothing--like forms of mirage. Useless +to attempt photography;--distances take the same color as the sea. +Vauclin's truncated mass is recognizable only by the shape of its indigo +shadows. All is vague, vertiginous;--the land still seems to quiver with +the prodigious forces that up-heaved it. + +High over all this billowing and peaking tower the Pitons of Carbet, +gem-violet through the vapored miles,--the tallest one filleted with a +single soft white band of cloud. Through all the wonderful chain of the +Antilles you might seek in vain for other peaks exquisite of form as +these. Their beauty no less surprises the traveller today than it did +Columbus three hundred and eighty-six years ago, when--on the thirteenth +day of June, 1502--his caravel first sailed into sight of them, and he +asked his Indian guide the name of the unknown land, and the names of +those marvellous shapes. Then, according to Pedro Martyr de Anghiera, +the Indian answered that the name of the island was Madiana; that those +peaks had been venerated from immemorial time by the ancient peoples of +the archipelago as the birthplace of the human race; and that the +first brown habitants of Madiana, having been driven from their +natural heritage by the man-eating pirates of the south--the cannibal +Caribs,--remembered and mourned for their sacred mountains, and gave +the names of them, for a memory, to the loftiest summits of their new +home,--Hayti.... Surely never was fairer spot hallowed by the legend +of man's nursing-place than the valley blue-shadowed by those +peaks,--worthy, for their gracious femininity of shape, to seem the +visible breasts of the All-nourishing Mother,--dreaming under this +tropic sun. + +Touching the zone of pale light north-east, appears a beautiful peaked +silhouette,--Dominica. We had hoped to perceive Saint Lucia; but the +atmosphere is too heavily charged with vapor to-day. How magnificent +must be the view on certain extraordinary days, when it reaches from +Antigua to the Grenadines--over a range of three hundred miles! But the +atmospheric conditions which allow of such a spectacle are rare indeed. +As a general rule, even in the most unclouded West Indian weather, the +loftiest peaks fade into the light at a distance of one hundred miles. + +A sharp ridge covered with fern cuts off the view of the northern +slopes: one must climb it to look down upon Macouba. Macouba occupies +the steepest slope of Pelee, and the grimmest part of the coast: its +little _chef-lieu_ is industrially famous for the manufacture of native +tobacco, and historically for the ministrations of Pere Labat, who +rebuilt its church. Little change has taken place in the parish since +his time. "Do you know Macouba?" asks a native writer;--"it is not +Pelion upon Ossa, but ten or twelve Pelions side by side with ten or +twelve Ossae, interseparated by prodigious ravines. Men can speak to +each other from places whence, by rapid walking, it would require hours +to meet;--to travel there is to experience on dry land the sensation of +the sea." + +With the diminution of the warmth provoked by the exertion of climbing, +you begin to notice how cool it feels;--you could almost doubt the +testimony of your latitude. Directly east is Senegambia: we are well +south of Timbuctoo and the Sahara,--on a line with southern India. The +ocean has cooled the winds; at this altitude the rarity of the air is +northern; but in the valleys below the vegetation is African. The best +alimentary plants, the best forage, the flowers of the gardens, are +of Guinea;--the graceful date-palms are from the Atlas region: those +tamarinds, whose thick shade stifles all other vegetal life beneath it, +are from Senegal. Only, in the touch of the air, the vapory colors of +distance, the shapes of the hills, there is a something not of Africa: +that strange fascination which has given to the island its poetic creole +name,--_le Pays de Revenants_. And the charm is as puissant in our +own day as it was more than two hundred years ago, when Pere Dutertre +wrote:--"I have never met one single man, nor one single woman, of +all those who came back therefrom, in whom I have not remarked a most +passionate desire to return thereunto." + +Time and familiarity do not weaken the charm, either for those born +among these scenes who never voyaged beyond their native island, or for +those to whom the streets of Paris and the streets of St. Pierre are +equally well known. Even at a time when Martinique had been forsaken by +hundreds of her ruined planters, and the paradise-life of the old days +had become only a memory to embitter exile,--a Creole writes:-- + +"Let there suddenly open before you one of those vistas, or _anses_, +with colonnades of cocoa-palm--at the end of which you see smoking the +chimney of a sugar-mill, and catch a glimpse of the hamlet of negro +cabins (_cases_);--or merely picture to yourself one of the most +ordinary, most trivial scenes: nets being hauled by two ranks of +fishermen; a _canot_ waiting for the _embellie_ to make a dash for the +beach; even a negro bending under the weight of a basket of fruits, and +running along the shore to get to market;--and illuminate that with +the light of our sun! What landscapes!--O Salvator Rosa! 0 Claude +Lorrain,--if I had your pencil!... Well do I remember the day on which, +after twenty years of absence, I found myself again in presence of these +wonders;--I feel once more the thrill of delight that made all my body +tremble, the tears that came to my eyes. It was my land, my own land, +that appeared so beautiful."... [34] + + + +X. + + +At the beginning, while gazing south, east, west, to the rim of the +world, all laughed, shouted, interchanged the quick delight of new +impressions: every face was radiant.... Now all look serious;--none +speak. The first physical joy of finding oneself on this point in violet +air, exalted above the hills, soon yields to other emotions inspired by +the mighty vision and the colossal peace of the heights. Dominating +all, I think, is the consciousness of the awful antiquity of what one is +looking upon,--such a sensation, perhaps, as of old found utterance in +that tremendous question of the Book of Job:--"_Wast thou brought +forth before the hills?_"... And the blue multitude of the peaks, +the perpetual congregation of the mornes, seem to chorus in the vast +resplendence,--telling of Nature's eternal youth, and the passionless +permanence of that about us and beyond us and beneath,--until something +like the fulness of a great grief begins to weigh at the heart.... For +all this astonishment of beauty, all this majesty of light and form and +color, will surely endure,--marvellous as now,--after we shall have lain +down to sleep where no dreams come, and may never arise from the dust of +our rest to look upon it. [34] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. 'TI CANOTIE + + + + +I. + + +One might almost say that commercial time in St. Pierre is measured +by cannon-shots,--by the signal-guns of steamers. Every such report +announces an event of extreme importance to the whole population. To +the merchant it is a notification that mails, money, and goods have +arrived;--to consuls and Government officials it gives notice of fees +and dues to be collected;--for the host of lightermen, longshoremen, +port laborers of all classes, it promises work and pay;--for all it +signifies the arrival of food. The island does not feed itself: cattle, +salt meats, hams, lard, flour, cheese, dried fish, all come from +abroad,--particularly from America. And in the minds of the colored +population the American steamer is so intimately associated with the +idea of those great tin cans in which food-stuffs are brought from the +United States, that the onomatope applied to the can, because of the +sound outgiven by it when tapped,--_bom!_--is also applied to the ship +itself. The English or French or Belgian steamer, however large, is only +known as _packett-a_, _batiment-la_; but the American +steamer is always the "bom-ship"--_batiment-bom-a_, or, the +"food-ship"--_batiment-mange-a_.... You hear women and men asking each +other, as the shock of the gun flaps through all the town, "_Mi! gade +ca qui la, che?_" And if the answer be, "_Mais c'est bom-la, +che,--bom-mange-a ka rive_" (Why, it is the bom, dear,--the food-bom +that has come), great is the exultation. + +Again, because of the sound of her whistle, we find a steamer called in +this same picturesque idiom, _batiment-cone_,--"the horn-ship." There is +even a song, of which the refrain is:-- + +"Bom-la rive, che.-Batiment-cone-la rive." + +... But of all the various classes of citizens, those most joyously +excited by the coming of a great steamer, whether she be a "bom" or +not,--are the _'ti canotie_, who swarm out immediately in little canoes +of their own manufacture to dive for coins which passengers gladly throw +into the water for the pleasure of witnessing the graceful spectacle. +No sooner does a steamer drop anchor--unless the water be very rough +indeed--than she is surrounded by a fleet of the funniest little boats +imaginable, full of naked urchins screaming creole. + +These _'ti canotie_--these little canoe-boys and professional +divers--are, for the most part, sons of boatmen of color, the real +_canotiers_. I cannot find who first invented the _'ti canot_: the shape +and dimensions of the little canoe are fixed according to a tradition +several generations old; and no improvements upon the original model +seem to have ever been attempted, with the sole exception of a tiny +water-tight box contrived sometimes at one end, in which the _palettes_, +or miniature paddles, and various other trifles may be stowed away. +The actual cost of material for a canoe of this kind seldom exceeds +twenty-five or thirty cents; and, nevertheless, the number of canoes is +not very large--I doubt if there be more than fifteen in the harbor;--as +the families of Martinique boatmen are all so poor that twenty-five sous +are difficult to spare, in spite of the certainty that the little son +can earn fifty times the amount within a month after owning a canoe. + +For the manufacture of a Canoe an American lard-box or kerosene-oil +box is preferred by reason of its shape; but any well-constructed +shipping-case of small size would serve the purpose. The top is removed; +the sides and the corners of the bottom are sawn out at certain angles; +and the pieces removed are utilized for the sides of the bow and +stern,--sometimes also in making the little box for the paddles, or +palettes, which are simply thin pieces of tough wood about the form and +size of a cigar-box lid. Then the little boat is tarred and varnished: +it cannot sink,--though it is quite easily upset. There are no seats. +The boys (there are usually two to each canot) simply squat down in the +bottom,--facing each other, they can paddle with surprising swiftness +over a smooth sea; and it is a very pretty sight to witness one of their +prize contests in racing,--which take place every 14th of July.... + +[Illustration: 'TI CANOT.] + +... It was five o'clock in the afternoon: the horizon beyond the harbor +was turning lemon-color;--and a thin warm wind began to come in weak +puffs from the south-west,--the first breaths to break the immobility of +the tropical air. Sails of vessels becalmed at the entrance of the bay +commenced to flap lazily: they might belly after sundown. + +The _La Guayra_ was in port, lying well out: her mountainous iron +mass rising high above the modest sailing craft moored in her +vicinity,--barks and brigantines and brigs and schooners and +barkentines. She had lain before the town the whole afternoon, +surrounded by the entire squadron of _'ti canots_; and the boys were +still circling about her flanks, although she had got up steam and +was lifting her anchor. They had been very lucky, indeed, that +afternoon,--all the little canotiers;--and even many yellow lads, not +fortunate enough to own canoes, had swum out to her in hope of sharing +the silver shower falling from her saloon-deck. Some of these, tired +out, were resting themselves by sitting on the slanting cables of +neighboring ships. Perched naked thus,--balancing in the sun, against +the blue of sky or water, their slender bodies took such orange from the +mellowing light as to seem made of some self-luminous substance,--flesh +of sea-fairies.... + +Suddenly the _La Guayra_ opened her steam-throat and uttered such a +moo that all the mornes cried out for at least a minute after;--and the +little fellows perched on the cables of the sailing craft tumbled into +the sea at the sound and struck out for shore. Then the water all at +once burst backward in immense frothing swirls from beneath the stern +of the steamer; and there arose such a heaving as made all the little +canoes dance. The _La Guayra_ was moving. She moved slowly at first, +making a great fuss as she turned round: then she began to settle down +to her journey very majestically,--just making the water pitch a little +behind her, as the hem of a woman's robe tosses lightly at her heels +while she walks. + +And, contrary to custom, some of the canoes followed after her. A dark +handsome man, wearing an immense Panama hat, and jewelled rings upon his +hands, was still throwing money; and still the boys dived for it. But +only one of each crew now plunged; for, though the _La Guayra_ was yet +moving slowly, it was a severe strain to follow her, and there was no +time to be lost. + +The captain of the little band--black Maximilien, ten years old, and his +comrade Stephane--nicknamed _Ti Chabin_, because of his bright hair,--a +slim little yellow boy of eleven--led the pursuit, crying always, +"_Enco, Missie,--enco!_"... + +The _La Guayra_ had gained fully two hundred yards when the handsome +passenger made his final largess,--proving himself quite an expert in +flinging coin. The piece fell far short of the boys, but near enough to +distinctly betray a yellow shimmer as it twirled to the water. That was +gold! + +In another minute the leading canoe had reached the spot, the other +canotiers voluntarily abandoning the quest,--for it was little use +to contend against Maximilien and Stephane, who had won all the canoe +contests last 14th of July. Stephane, who was the better diver, plunged. + +He was much longer below than usual, came up at quite a distance, panted +as he regained the canoe, and rested his arms upon it. The water was so +deep there, he could not reach the coin the first time, though he could +see it: he was going to try again,--it was gold, sure enough. + +--"_Fouinq! ca fond icitt!_" he gasped. + +Maximilien felt all at once uneasy. Very deep water, and perhaps sharks. +And sunset not far off! The _La Guayra_ was diminishing in the offing. + +--"_Boug-la 'le fai nou neye!--laisse y, Stephane!_" he cried. (The +fellow wants to drown us. _Laisse_--leave it alone.) + +But Stephane had recovered breath, and was evidently resolved to try +again. It was gold! + +--"_Mais ca c'est lo!_" + +--"_Assez, non!_" screamed Maximilien. "_Pa plonge 'nco, moin ka di ou! +Ah! foute!_"... + +Stephane had dived again! + +... And where were the others? "_Bon-Die, gade oti yo ye!_" They were +almost out of sight,--tiny specks moving shoreward.... The _La Guayra_ +now seemed no bigger than the little packet running between St. Pierre +and Fort-de-France. + +Up came Stephane again, at a still greater distance than +before,--holding high the yellow coin in one hand. He made for the +canoe, and Maximilien paddled towards him and helped him in. Blood was +streaming from the little diver's nostrils, and blood colored the water +he spat from his mouth. + +--"_Ah! moin te ka di ou laisse y!_" cried Maximilien, in anger and +alarm.... "_Gade, gade sang-a ka coule nans nez ou,-nans bouche ou!...Mi +oti Iezautt!_" + +_Lezautt_, the rest, were no longer visible. + +--"_Et mi oti nou ye!_" cried Maximilien again. They had never ventured +so far from shore. + +But Stephane answered only, "_C'est lo!_" For the first time in his life +he held a piece of gold in his fingers. He tied it up in a little rag +attached to the string fastened about his waist,--a purse of his own +invention,--and took up his paddles, coughing the while and spitting +crimson. + +--"_Mi! mi!--mi oti nou ye!_" reiterated Maximilien. "_Bon-Die!_ look +where we are!" + +The Place had become indistinct;--the light-house, directly behind +half an hour earlier, now lay well south: the red light had just been +kindled. Seaward, in advance of the sinking orange disk of the sun, was +the _La Guayra_, passing to the horizon. There was no sound from the +shore: about them a great silence had gathered,--the Silence of seas, +which is a fear. Panic seized them: they began to paddle furiously. + +But St. Pierre did not appear to draw any nearer. Was it only an +effect of the dying light, or were they actually moving towards the +semicircular cliffs of Fond Corre?... Maximilien began to cry. The +little chabin paddled on,--though the blood was still trickling over his +breast. + +Maximilien screamed out to him:-- + +--"_Ou pa ka pagaye,--anh?--ou ni bousoin domi?_" (Thou dost not paddle, +eh?--thou wouldst go to sleep?) + +--"_Si! moin ka pagaye,--epi fo!_" (I am paddling, and hard, too!) +responded Stephane.... + +--"_Ou ka pagaye!--ou ka menti!_" (Thou art paddling!--thou liest!) +vociferated Maximilien.... "And the fault is all thine. I cannot, all by +myself, make the canoe to go in water like this! The fault is all thine: +I told thee not to dive, thou stupid!" + +--"_Ou fou!_" cried Stephane, becoming angry. "_Moin ka pagaye!_" (I am +paddling.) + +--"Beast! never may we get home so! Paddle, thou lazy!--paddle, thou +nasty!" + +--"_Macaque_ thou!--monkey!" + +--"_Chabin!_--must be chabin, for to be stupid so!" + +--"Thou black monkey!--thou species of _ouistiti!_" + +--"Thou tortoise-of-the-land!--thou slothful more than _molocoye!_" + +--"Why, thou cursed monkey, if thou sayest I do not paddle, thou dost +not know how to paddle!"... + +... But Maximilien's whole expression changed: he suddenly stopped +paddling, and stared before him and behind him at a great violet band +broadening across the sea northward out of sight; and his eyes were big +with terror as he cried out:-- + +--"_Mais ni qui chose qui douole icitt!_... There is something queer, +Stephane; there is something queer."... + +--"Ah! you begin to see now, Maximilien!-it is the current!" + +--"A devil-current, Stephane.... We are drifting: we will go to the +horizon!"... + +To the horizon--"_nou kalle lhorizon!_"--a phrase of terrible +picturesqueness.... In the creole tongue, "to the horizon" signifies to +the Great Open--into the measureless sea. + +--"_C'est pa lapeine pagaye atouelement_" (It is no use to paddle now), +sobbed Maximilien, laying down his palettes. + +--"_Si! si!_" said Stephane, reversing the motion: "paddle with the +current." + +--"With the current! It runs to La Dominique!" + +--"_Pouloss_," phlegmatically returned Stephane,--"_ennou!_--let us make +for La Dominique!" + +--"Thou fool!--it is more than past forty kilometres.... _Stephane, mi! +gade!--mi quz" gouos requ'em!_" + +A long black fin cut the water almost beside them, passed, and +vanished,--a _requin_ indeed! But, in his patois, the boy almost +re-echoed the name as uttered by quaint Pere Dutertre, who, writing +of strange fishes more than two hundred years ago, says it is called +REQUIEM, because for the man who findeth himself alone with it in the +midst of the sea, surely a requiem must be sung. + +--"Do not paddle, Stephane!--do not put thy hand in the water again!" + + + +III. + + +... The _La Guayra_ was a point on the sky-verge;--the sun's face had +vanished. The silence and the darkness were deepening together. + +--"_Si lanme ka vini plis fo, ca nou ke fai?_" (If the sea roughens, +what are we to do?) asked Maximilien. + +--"Maybe we will meet a steamer," answered Stephane: "the _Orinoco_ was +due to-day." + +--"And if she pass in the night?" + +--"They can see us."... + +--"No, they will not be able to see us at all. There is no moon." + +--"They have lights ahead." + +--"I tell thee, they will not see us at all,--piess! piess! piess!" + +--"Then they will hear us cry out." + +--"NO,--we cannot cry so loud. One can hear nothing but a steam-whistle +or a cannon, with the noise of the wind and the water and the +machine.... Even on the Fort-de-France packet one cannot hear for the +machine. And the machine of the _Orinoco_ is more big than the church of +the 'Centre.'" + +--"Then we must try to get to La Dominique." + +... They could now feel the sweep of the mighty current;--it even +seemed to them that they could hear it,--a deep low whispering. At long +intervals they saw lights,--the lights of houses in Pointe-Prince, +in Fond-Canonville,--in Au Precheur. Under them the depth was +unfathomed:--hydrographic charts mark it _sans-fond_. And they passed +the great cliffs of Aux Abymes, under which lies the Village of the +Abysms. + +The red glare in the west disappeared suddenly as if blown out;--the +rim of the sea vanished into the void of the gloom;--the night narrowed +about them, thickening like a black fog. And the invisible, irresistible +power of the sea was now bearing them away from the tall coast,--over +profundities unknown,--over the _sans-fond_,--out to the horizon. + + + +IV. + + +... Behind the canoe a long thread of pale light quivered and twisted: +bright points from time to time mounted up, glowered like eyes, and +vanished again;--glimmerings of faint flame wormed away on either +side as they floated on. And the little craft no longer rocked as +before;--they felt another and a larger motion,--long slow ascents and +descents enduring for minutes at a time;--they were riding the great +swells,--_riding the horizon!_ + +Twice they were capsized. But happily the heaving was a smooth one, and +their little canoe could not sink: they groped for it, found it, righted +it, and climbed in, and baled out the water with their hands. + +From time to time they both cried out together, as loud as they +could,--"_Sucou!--sucou!--sucou!_"--hoping that some one might be +looking for them.... The alarm had indeed been given; and one of +the little steam-packets had been sent out to look for them,--with +torch-fires blazing at her bows; but she had taken the wrong direction. + +--"Maximilien," said Stephane, while the great heaving seemed to grow +vaster,--"_fau nou ka prie Bon-Die_."... + +Maximilien answered nothing. + +--"_Fau prie Bon-Die_" (We must pray to the Bon-Die), repeated Stephane. + +--"_Pa lapeine, li pas pe oue nou ato!_" (It is not worth while: He +cannot see us now) answered the little black.... In the immense darkness +even the loom of the island was no longer visible. + +--"O Maximilien!--_Bon-Die ka oue toutt, ka connaitt toutt_" (He sees +all; He knows all), cried Stephane. + +--"_Y pa pe oue non piess atoueelement, moin ben sur!_" (He cannot see +us at all now,--I am quite sure) irreverently responded Maximilien.... + +--"Thou thinkest the Bon-Die like thyself!--He has not eyes like thou," +protested Stephane. "_Li pas ka tini coule; li pas ka tini zie_" (He has +not color; He has not eyes), continued the boy, repeating the text +of his catechism,--the curious creole catechism of old Pere Goux, of +Carbet. [Quaint priest and quaint catechism have both passed away.] + +--"_Moin pa save si li pa ka tini coule_" (I know not if He has not +color), answered Maximilien. "But what I well know is that if He has not +eyes, He cannot see.... _Fouinq!_--how idiot!" + +--"Why, it is in the Catechism," cried Stephane.... "_'Bon-Die, li conm +vent: vent tout-patout, et nou pa save oue li;-li ka touche nou,--li +ka boulvese lanme.'_" (The Good-God is like the Wind: the Wind is +everywhere, and we cannot see It;--It touches us,--It tosses the sea.) + +--"If the Bon-Die is the Wind," responded Maximilien, "then pray thou +the Wind to stay quiet." + +--"The Bon-Die is not the Wind," cried Stephane: "He is like the Wind, +but He is not the Wind."... + +--"_Ah! soc-soc--fouinq!_... More better past praying to care we be not +upset again and eaten by sharks." + +* * * * * * * + +... Whether the little chabin prayed either to the Wind or to the +Bon-Die, I do not know. But the Wind remained very quiet all that +night,--seemed to hold its breath for fear of ruffling the sea. And in +the Mouillage of St. Pierre furious American captains swore at the Wind +because it would not fill their sails. + + + +V. + + +Perhaps, if there had been a breeze, neither Stephane nor Maximilien +would have seen the sun again. But they saw him rise. + +Light pearled in the east, over the edge of the ocean, ran around the +rim of the sky and yellowed: then the sun's brow appeared;--a current of +gold gushed rippling across the sea before him;--and all the heaven at +once caught blue fire from horizon to zenith. Violet from flood to cloud +the vast recumbent form of Pelee loomed far behind,--with long reaches +of mountaining: pale grays o'ertopping misty blues. And in the north +another lofty shape was towering,--strangely jagged and peaked and +beautiful,--the silhouette of Dominica: a sapphire Sea!... No wandering +clouds:--over far Pelee only a shadowy piling of nimbi.... Under them +the sea swayed dark as purple ink--a token of tremendous depth.... Still +a dead calm, and no sail in sight. + +--"_Ca c'est la Dominique_," said Maximilien,--"_Ennou pou ouivage-a!_" + +They had lost their little palettes during the night;--they used their +naked hands, and moved swiftly. But Dominica was many and many a mile +away. Which was the nearer island, it was yet difficult to say;--in the +morning sea-haze, both were vapory,--difference of color was largely due +to position.... + +_Sough!--sough!--sough!_--A bird with a white breast passed overhead; +and they stopped paddling to look at it,-a gull. Sign of fair +weather!--it was making for Dominica. + +--"_Moin ni ben faim_," murmured Maximilien. Neither had eaten since the +morning of the previous day,--most of which they had passed sitting in +their canoe. + +--"_Moin ni anni soif_," said Stephane. And besides his thirst he +complained of a burning pain in his head, always growing worse. He still +coughed, and spat out pink threads after each burst of coughing. + +The heightening sun flamed whiter and whiter: the flashing of waters +before his face began to dazzle like a play of lightning.... Now the +islands began to show sharper lines, stronger colors; and Dominica was +evidently the nearer;--for bright streaks of green were breaking at +various angles through its vapor-colored silhouette, and Martinique +still remained all blue. + +... Hotter and hotter the sun burned; more and more blinding became his +reverberation. Maximilien's black skin suffered least; but both lads, +accustomed as they were to remaining naked in the sun, found the heat +difficult to bear. They would gladly have plunged into the deep water +to cool themselves, but for fear of sharks;--all they could do was to +moisten their heads, and rinse their mouths with sea-water. + +Each from his end of the canoe continually watched the horizon. Neither +hoped for a sail, there was no wind; but they looked for the coming of +steamers,--the _Orinoco_ might pass, or the English packet, or some one +of the small Martinique steamboats might be sent out to find them. + +Yet hours went by; and there still appeared no smoke in the ring of the +sky,--never a sign in all the round of the sea, broken only by the two +huge silhouettes.... But Dominica was certainly nearing;--the green +lights were spreading through the luminous blue of her hills. + +... Their long immobility in the squatting posture began to tell upon +the endurance of both boys,--producing dull throbbing aches in thighs, +hips, and loins.... Then, about mid-day, Stephane declared he could not +paddle any more;--it seemed to him as if his head must soon burst open +with the pain which filled it: even the sound of his own voice hurt +him,--he did not want to talk. + + + +VI. + + +... And another oppression came upon them,--in spite of all the pains, +and the blinding dazzle of waters, and the biting of the sun: the +oppression of drowsiness. They began to doze at intervals,--keeping +their canoe balanced in some automatic way,--as cavalry soldiers, +overweary, ride asleep in the saddle. + +But at last, Stephane, awaking suddenly with a paroxysm of coughing, +so swayed himself to one side as to overturn the canoe; and both found +themselves in the sea. Maximilien righted the craft, and got in again; +but the little chabin twice fell back in trying to raise himself upon +his arms. He had become almost helplessly feeble. Maximilien, attempting +to aid him, again overturned the unsteady little boat; and this time it +required all his skill and his utmost strength to get Stephane out of +the water. Evidently Stephane could be of no more assistance;--the boy +was so weak he could not even sit up straight. + +--"_Aie! ou ke jete nou enco_," panted Maximilien,--"_mette ou toutt +longue_." + +Stephane slowly let himself down, so as to lie nearly all his length in +the canoe,--one foot on either side of Maximilien's hips. Then he lay +very still for a long time,--so still that Maximilien became uneasy. + +--"_Ou ben malade?_" he asked.... Stephane did not seem to hear: his +eyes remained closed. + +--"Stephane!" cried Maximilien, in alarm,--"Stephane!" + +--"_C'est lo, papoute_," murmured Stephane, without lifting his +eyelids,--"_ca c'est lo!--ou pa janmain oue yon bel piece conm ca?_" +(It is gold, little father.... Didst thou ever see a pretty piece like +that?... No, thou wilt not beat me, little father?--no, _papoute!_) + +--"_Ou ka domi, Stephane?_"--queried Maximilien, wondering,--"art +asleep?" + +But Stephane opened his eyes and looked at him so strangely! Never had +he seen Stephane look that way before. + +--"_C'a ou ni, Stephane?--what ails thee?--aie, Bon-Die, Bon-Die!_" + +--"_Bon-Die!_"--muttered Stephane, closing his eyes again at the sound +of the great Name,--"He has no color!--He is like the Wind."... + +--"Stephane!"... + +--"He feels in the dark--He has not eyes."... + +--"_Stephane, pa pale ca!!_" + +--"He tosses the sea.... He has no face;--He lifts up the dead... and +the leaves."... + +--"_Ou fou_" cried Maximilien, bursting into a wild fit of +sobbing,--"Stephane, thou art mad!" + +And all at once he became afraid of Stephane,--afraid of all he +said,--afraid of his touch,--afraid of his eyes... he was growing like a +_zombi!_ + +But Stephane's eyes remained closed!--he ceased to speak. + +... About them deepened the enormous silence of the sea;--low swung +the sun again. The horizon was yellowing: day had begun to fade. Tall +Dominica was now half green; but there yet appeared no smoke, no sail, +no sign of life. + +And the tints of the two vast Shapes that shattered the rim of the light +shifted as if evanescing,--shifted like tones of West Indian fishes,--of +_pisquette_ and _congre_,--of _caringue_ and _gouos-zie_ and _balaou_. +Lower sank the sun;--cloud-fleeces of orange pushed up over the edge +of the west;--a thin warm breath caressed the sea,--sent long lilac +shudderings over the flanks of the swells. Then colors changed again: +violet richened to purple;--greens blackened softlY;--grays smouldered +into smoky gold. + +And the sun went down. + + + +VII. + + +And they floated into the fear of the night together. Again the ghostly +fires began to wimple about them: naught else was visible but the +high stars. Black hours passed. From minute to minute Maximilien cried +out:--"_Sucou! sucou!_" Stephane lay motionless and dumb: his feet, +touching Maximilien's naked hips, felt singularly cold. + +... Something knocked suddenly against the bottom of the canoe,--knocked +heavily--making a hollow loud sound. It was not Stephane;--Stephane +lay still as a stone: it was from the depth below. Perhaps a great fish +passing. + +It came again,--twice,--shaking the canoe like a great blow. Then +Stephane suddenly moved,--drew up his feet a little,--made as if to +speak:--"_Ou..._"; but the speech failed at his lips,--ending in a sound +like the moan of one trying to call out in sleep;--and Maximilien's +heart almost stopped beating.... Then Stephane's limbs straightened +again; he made no more movement;--Maximilien could not even hear him +breathe.... All the sea had begun to whisper. + +A breeze was rising;--Maximilien felt it blowing upon him. All at once +it seemed to him that he had ceased to be afraid,--that he did not care +what might happen. He thought about a cricket he had one day watched in +the harbor,--drifting out with the tide, on an atom of dead bark.--and +he wondered what had become of it Then he understood that he himself was +the cricket,--still alive. But some boy had found him and pulled off +his legs. There they were,--his own legs, pressing against him: he could +still feel the aching where they had been pulled off; and they had been +dead so long they were now quite cold.... It was certainly Stephane who +had pulled them off.... + +The water was talking to him. It was saying the same thing over and over +again,--louder each time, as if it thought he could not hear. But he +heard it very well:--"_Bon-Die, li conm vent... li ka touche nou... nou +pa save oue li_." (But why had the Bon-Die shaken the wind?) "_Li pa ka +tini zie_," answered the water.... _Ouille!_--He might all the same care +not to upset folks in the sea!... _Mi!_... + +But even as he thought these things, Maximilien became aware that +a white, strange, bearded face was looking at him: the Bon-Die was +there,--bending over him with a lantern,--talking to him in a language +he did not understand. And the Bon-Die certainly had eyes,--great gray +eyes that did not look wicked at all. He tried to tell the Bon-Die how +sorry he was for what he had been saying about him;--but found he could +not utter a word, He felt great hands lift him up to the stars, and lay +him down very near them,--just under them. They burned blue-white, and +hurt his eyes like lightning:--he felt afraid of them.... About him he +heard voices,--always speaking the same language, which he could not +understand.... "_Poor little devils!--poor little devils!_" Then he +heard a bell ring; and the Bon-Die made him swallow something nice and +warm;--and everything became black again. The stars went out!... + +... Maximilien was lying under an electric-light on board the great +steamer _Rio de Janeiro_, and dead Stephane beside him.... It was four +o'clock in the morning. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. LA FILLE DE COULEUR. + + + +I. + + +Nothing else in the picturesque life of the French colonies of the +Occident impresses the traveller on his first arrival more than the +costumes of the women of color. They surprise the aesthetic sense +agreeably;--they are local and special: you will see nothing resembling +them among the populations of the British West Indies; they belong to +Martinique, Guadeloupe, Desirade, Marie-Galante, and Cayenne,--in +each place differing sufficiently to make the difference interesting, +especially in regard to the head-dress. That of Martinique is quite +Oriental;--more attractive, although less fantastic than the Cayenne +coiffure, or the pretty drooping mouchoir of Guadeloupe. + +These costumes are gradually disappearing, for various reasons,--the +chief reason being of course the changes in the social condition of the +colonies during the last forty years. Probably the question of health +had also something to do with the almost universal abandonment in +Martinique of the primitive slave dress,--_chemise_ and _jupe_,--which +exposed its wearer to serious risks of pneumonia; for as far as +economical reasons are concerned, there was no fault to find with it: +six francs could purchase it when money was worth more than it is now. +The douillette, a long trailing dress, one piece from neck to feet, has +taken its place. [35] + +[Illustration: THE MARTINIQUE TURBAN, OR MADRAS CALENDE.] + +But there was a luxurious variety of the jupe costume which is +disappearing because of its cost; there is no money in the colonies now +for such display:--I refer to the celebrated attire of the pet +slaves and _belles affranchies_ of the old colonial days. A full +costume,--including violet or crimson "petticoat" of silk or +satin; chemise with half-sleeves, and much embroidery and lace; +"trembling-pins" of gold (_zepingue tremblant_) to attach the folds of +the brilliant Madras turban; the great necklace of three or four strings +of gold beads bigger than peas (_collier-choux_); the ear-rings, immense +but light as egg-shells (_zanneaux-a-clous_ or _zanneaux-chenilles_); +the bracelets (_portes-bonheur_); the studs (_boutons-a-clous_); the +brooches, not only for the turban, but for the chemise, below the +folds of the showy silken foulard or shoulder-scarf,--would sometimes +represent over five thousand francs expenditure. This gorgeous attire is +becoming less visible every year: it is now rarely worn except on very +solemn occasions,--weddings, baptisms, first communions, confirmations. +The _da_ (nurse) or "porteuse-de-bapteme" who bears the baby to church +holds it at the baptismal font, and afterwards carries it from house to +house in order that all the friends of the family may kiss it, is thus +attired; but nowadays, unless she be a professional (for there are +professional _das_, hired only for such occasions), she usually borrows +the jewellery. If tall, young, graceful, with a rich gold tone of skin, +the effect of her costume is dazzling as that of a Byzantine Virgin. +I saw one young da who, thus garbed, scarcely seemed of the earth and +earthly;--there was an Oriental something in her appearance difficult to +describe,--something that made you think of the Queen of Sheba going to +visit Solomon. She had brought a merchant's baby, just christened, to +receive the caresses of the family at whose house I was visiting; and +when it came to my turn to kiss it, I confess I could not notice the +child: I saw only the beautiful dark face, coiffed with orange and +purple, bending over it, in an illumination of antique gold.... What +a da!... She represented really the type of that _belle affranchie_ of +other days, against whose fascination special sumptuary laws were +made; romantically she imaged for me the supernatural god-mothers and +Cinderellas of the creole fairy-tales. For these become transformed +in the West Indian folklore,--adapted to the environment, and to local +idealism:--Cinderella, for example, is changed to a beautiful metisse, +wearing a quadruple _collier-choux_, _zepingues tremblants_, and all the +ornaments of a da. [36] Recalling the impression of that dazzling +_da_, I can even now feel the picturesque justice of the fabulist's +description of Cinderella's creole costume: _Ca te ka baille ou mal +zie!_--(it would have given you a pain in your eyes to look at her!) + +[Illustration: THE GUADELOUPE HEAD-DRESS.] + +... Even the every-day Martinique costume is slowly changing. Year by +year the "calendeuses"--the women who paint and fold the turbans--have +less work to do;--the colors of the _douiellette_ are becoming less +vivid;--while more and more young colored girls are being _elevees en +chapeau_ ("brought up in a hat")--i.e., dressed and educated like the +daughters of the whites. These, it must be confessed, look far less +attractive in the latest Paris fashion, unless white as the whites +themselves: on the other hand, few white girls could look well in +_douillette_ and _mouchoir_,--not merely because of color contrast, but +because they have not that amplitude of limb and particular cambering +of the torso peculiar to the half-breed race, with its large bulk and +stature. Attractive as certain coolie women are, I observed that all +who have adopted the Martinique costume look badly in it: they are too +slender of body to wear it to advantage. + +Slavery introduced these costumes, even though it probably did not +invent them; and they were necessarily doomed to pass away with the +peculiar social conditions to which they belonged. If the population +clings still to its _douillettes_, _mouchoirs_, and _foulards_, the fact +is largely due to the cheapness of such attire. A girl can dress very +showily indeed for about twenty francs--shoes excepted;--and thousands +never wear shoes. But the fashion will no doubt have become cheaper and +uglier within another decade. + +At the present time, however, the stranger might be sufficiently +impressed by the oddity and brilliancy of these dresses to ask about +their origin,--in which case it is not likely that he will obtain any +satisfactory answer. After long research I found myself obliged to +give up all hope of being able to outline the history of Martinique +costume,--partly because books and histories are scanty or defective, +and partly because such an undertaking would require a knowledge +possible only to a specialist. I found good reason, nevertheless, to +suppose that these costumes were in the beginning adopted from certain +fashions of provincial France,--that the respective fashions of +Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Cayenne were patterned after modes +still worn in parts of the mother-country. The old-time garb of the +_affranchie_--that still worn by the _da_--somewhat recalls dresses worn +by the women of Southern France, more particularly about Montpellier. +Perhaps a specialist might also trace back the evolution of the various +creole coiffures to old forms of head-dresses which still survive among +the French country-fashions of the south and south-west provinces;--but +local taste has so much modified the original style as to leave +it unrecognizable to those who have never studied the subject. The +Martinique fashion of folding and tying the Madras, and of calendering +it, are probably local; and I am assured that the designs of the curious +semi-barbaric jewellery were all invented in the colony, where the +_collier-choux_ is still manufactured by local goldsmiths. Purchasers +buy one, two, or three _grains_, or beads, at a time, and string them +only on obtaining the requisite number.... This is the sum of all that I +was able to learn on the matter; but in the course of searching various +West Indian authors and historians for information, I found something +far more important than the origin of the _douillette_ or the +_collier-choux_: the facts of that strange struggle between nature and +interest, between love and law, between prejudice and passion, which +forms the evolutional history of the mixed race. + + + +II. + + +Considering only the French peasant colonist and the West African slave +as the original factors of that physical evolution visible in the modern +_fille-de-couleur_, it would seem incredible;--for the intercrossing +alone could not adequately explain all the physical results. To +understand them fully, it will be necessary to bear in mind that both +of the original races became modified in their lineage to a surprising +degree by conditions of climate and environment. + +[Illustration: YOUNG MULATTRESS.] + +[Illustration: PLANTATION COOLIE WOMAN IN MARTINIQUE COSTUME.] + +The precise time of the first introduction of slaves into Martinique is +not now possible to ascertain,--no record exists on the subject; but it +is probable that the establishment of slavery was coincident with the +settlement of the island. Most likely the first hundred colonists from +St. Christophe, who landed, in 1635, near the bay whereon the city of +St. Pierre is now situated, either brought slaves with them, or else +were furnished with negroes very soon after their arrival. In the time +of Pere Dutertre (who visited the colonies in 1640, and printed his +history of the French Antilles at Paris in 1667) slavery was already a +flourishing institution,--the foundation of the whole social structure. +According to the Dominican missionary, the Africans then in the +colony were decidedly repulsive; he describes the women as "hideous" +(_hideuses_). There is no good reason to charge Dutertre with prejudice +in his pictures of them. No writer of the century was more keenly +sensitive to natural beauty than the author of that "Voyage aux +Antilles" which inspired Chateaubriand, and which still, after two +hundred and fifty years, delights even those perfectly familiar with the +nature of the places and things spoken of. No other writer and traveller +of the period possessed to a more marked degree that sense of generous +pity which makes the unfortunate appear to us in an illusive, almost +ideal aspect. Nevertheless, he asserts that the negresses were, as a +general rule, revoltingly ugly,--and, although he had seen many strange +sides of human nature (having been a soldier before becoming a monk), +was astonished to find that miscegenation had already begun. Doubtless +the first black women thus favored, or afflicted, as the case might +be, were of the finer types of negresses; for he notes remarkable +differences among the slaves procured from different coasts and various +tribes. Still, these were rather differences of ugliness than aught +else: they were all repulsive;--only some were more repulsive than +others. [37] Granting that the first mothers of mulattoes in the colony +were the superior rather than the inferior physical types,--which would +be a perfectly natural supposition,--still we find their offspring +worthy in his eyes of no higher sentiment than pity. He writes in his +chapter entitled "_De la naissance honteuse des mulastres_": + +--"They have something of their Father and something of their +Mother,--in the same wise that Mules partake of the qualities of the +creatures that engendered them: for they are neither all white, like the +French; nor all black, like the Negroes, but have a livid tint, which +comes of both."... + +To-day, however, the traveller would look in vain for a _livid_ +tint among the descendants of those thus described: in less than two +centuries and a half the physical characteristics of the race have +been totally changed. What most surprises is the rapidity of the +transformation. After the time of Pere Labat, Europeans never could +"have mistaken little negro children for monkeys." Nature had begun to +remodel the white, the black, and half-breed according to environment +and climate: the descendant of the early colonists ceased to resemble +his fathers; the creole negro improved upon his progenitors; [38] the +mulatto began to give evidence of those qualities of physical and mental +power which were afterwards to render him dangerous to the integrity of +the colony itself. In a temperate climate such a change would have been +so gradual as to escape observation for a long period;--in the tropics +it was effected with a quickness that astounds by its revelation of the +natural forces at work. + +[Illustration: COOLIE HALF-BREED] + +--"Under the sun of the tropics," writes Dr. Rufz, of Martinique, "the +African race, as well as the European, becomes greatly modified in its +reproduction. Either race gives birth to a totally new being. The Creole +African came into existence as did the Creole white." + +And just as the offspring of Europeans who emigrated to the tropics from +different parts of France displayed characteristics so identical that +it was impossible to divine the original race-source,--so likewise the +Creole negro--whether brought into being by the heavy thick-set Congo, +or the long slender black of Senegambia, or the suppler and more active +Mandingo,--appeared so remodelled, homogeneous, and adapted in such +wise to his environment that it was utterly impossible to discern in his +features anything of his parentage, his original kindred, his original +source.... The transformation is absolute. All that In be asserted +is: "This is a white Creole; this is a black Creole";--or, "This is a +European white; this is an African black";--and furthermore, after +a certain number of years passed in the tropics, the enervated and +discolored aspect of the European may create uncertainty, as to his +origin. But with very few exceptions the primitive African, or, as he is +termed here, the "Coast Black" (_le noir de la Cote_), can be recognized +at once.... + +[Illustration: COUNTRY-GIRL--PURE NEGRO RACE.] + +... "The Creole negro is gracefully shaped, finely proportioned: his +limbs are lithe, his neck long;--his features are more delicate, his +lips less thick, his nose less flattened, than those of the African;--he +has the Carib's large and melancholy eye, better adapted to express +the emotions.... Rarely can you discover in him the sombre fury of the +African, rarely a surly and savage mien: he is brave, chatty, boastful. +His skin has not the same tint as his father's,--it has become more +satiny; his hair remains woolly, but it is a finer wool;... all his +outlines are more rounded;--one may perceive that the cellular tissue +predominates, as in cultivated plants, of which the ligneous and savage +fibre has become transformed."... [39] + +This new and comelier black race naturally won from its masters a +more sympathetic attention than could have been vouchsafed to its +progenitors; and the consequences in Martinique and elsewhere seemed to +have evoked the curinus Article 9 of the _Code Noir_ of 1665,--enacting, +first, that free men who should have one or two children by slave +women, as well as the slave-owners permitting the same, should be each +condemned to pay two thousand pounds of sugar; secondly, that if the +violator of the ordinance should be himself the owner of the mother +and father of her children, the mother and the children should be +confiscated for the profit of the Hospital, and deprived for their lives +of the right to enfranchisement. An exception, however, was made to +the effect that if the father were unmarried at the period of his +concubinage, he could escape the provisions of the penalty by marrying, +"according to the rites of the Church," the female slave, who +would thereby be enfranchised, and her children "rendered free and +legitimate." Probably the legislators did not imagine that the first +portion of the article could prove inefficacious, or that any violator +of the ordinance would seek to escape the penalty by those means offered +in the provision. The facts, however, proved the reverse. Miscegenation +continued; and Labat notices two cases of marriage between whites and +blacks,--describing the offspring of one union as "very handsome little +mulattoes." These legitimate unions were certainly exceptional,--one +of them was dissolved by the ridicule cast upon the father;--but +illegitimate unions would seem to have become common within a very brief +time after the passage of the law. At a later day they were to become +customary. The Article 9 was evidently at fault; and in March, 1724, +the Black Code was reinforced by a new ordinance, of which the sixth +provision prohibited marriage as well as concubinage between the races. + +It appears to have had no more effect than the previous law, even in +Martinique, where the state of public morals was better than in Santo +Domingo. The slave race had begun to exercise an influence never +anticipated by legislators. Scarcely a century had elapsed since the +colonization of the island; but in that time climate and civilization +had transfigured the black woman. "After one or two generations," writes +the historian Rufz, "the _Africaine_, reformed, refined, beautified in +her descendants, transformed into the creole negress, commenced to exert +a fascination irresistible, capable of winning anything (_capable +de tout obtenir_)." [40] Travellers of the eighteenth century were +confounded by the luxury of dress and of jewellery displayed by swarthy +beauties in St. Pierre. It was a public scandal to European eyes. But +the creole negress or mulattress, beginning to understand her power, +sought for higher favors and privileges than silken robes and necklaces +of gold beads: she sought to obtain, not merely liberty for herself, but +for her parents, brothers, sisters,--even friends. What successes she +achieved in this regard may be imagined from the serious statement of +creole historians that if human nature had been left untrammelled to +follow its better impulses, slavery would have ceased to exist a century +before the actual period of emancipation! By 1738, when the white +population had reached its maximum (15,000), [41] and colonial +luxury had arrived at its greatest height, the question of voluntary +enfranchisement was becoming very grave. So omnipotent the charm of +half-breed beauty that masters were becoming the slaves of their slaves. +It was not only the creole _negress_ who had appeared to play a part +in this strange drama which was the triumph of nature over interest and +judgment: her daughters, far more beautiful, had grown up to aid her, +and to form a special class. These women, whose tints of skin rivalled +the colors of ripe fruit, and whose gracefulness--peculiar, exotic, +and irresistible--made them formidable rivals to the daughters of +the dominant race, were no doubt physically superior to the modern +_filles-de-couleur_. They were results of a natural selection which +could have taken place in no community otherwise constituted;--the +offspring of the union between the finer types of both races. But that +which only slavery could have rendered possible began to endanger the +integrity of slavery itself: the institutions upon which the whole +social structure rested were being steadily sapped by the influence +of half-breed girls. Some new, severe, extreme policy was evidently +necessary to avert the already visible peril. Special laws were passed +by the Home-Government to check enfranchisement, to limit its reasons +or motives; and the power of the slave woman was so well comprehended +by the Metropole that an extraordinary enactment was made against it. +It was decreed that whosoever should free a woman of color would have to +pay to the Government _three times her value as a slave!_ + +Thus heavily weighted, emancipation advanced much more slowly than +before, but it still continued to a considerable extent. The poorer +creole planter or merchant might find it impossible to obey the impulse +of his conscience or of his affection, but among the richer classes +pecuniary considerations could scarcely affect enfranchisement. The +country had grown wealthy; and although the acquisition of wealth may +not evoke generosity in particular natures, the enrichment of a whole +class develops pre-existing tendencies to kindness, and opens new ways +for its exercise. Later in the eighteenth century, when hospitality had +been cultivated as a gentleman's duty to fantastical extremes,--when +liberality was the rule throughout society,--when a notary summoned +to draw up a deed, or a priest invited to celebrate a marriage, might +receive for fee five thousand francs in gold,--there were certainly +many emancipations.... "Even though interest and public opinion in the +colonies," says a historian, [42] "were adverse to enfranchisement, the +private feeling of each man combated that opinion;--Nature resumed her +sway in the secret places of hearts;--and as local custom permitted a +sort of polygamy, the rich man naturally felt himself bound in honor to +secure the freedom of his own blood.... It was not a rare thing to +see legitimate wives taking care of the natural children of their +husbands,--becoming their godmothers (_s'en faire les marraines_)."... +Nature seemed to laugh all these laws to scorn, and the prejudices +of race! In vain did the wisdom of legislators attempt to render +the condition of the enfranchised more humble,--enacting extravagant +penalties for the blow by which a mulatto might avenge the insult of +a white,--prohibiting the freed from wearing the same dress as their +former masters or mistresses wore;--"the _belles affranchies_ found, +in a costume whereof the negligence seemed a very inspiration of +voluptuousness, means of evading that social inferiority which the law +sought to impose upon them:--they began to inspire the most violent +jealousies." [43] + + + +III. + + +What the legislators of 1685 and 1724 endeavored to correct did not +greatly improve with the abolition of slavery, nor yet with those +political troubles which socially deranged colonial life. The +_fille-de-couleur_, inheriting the charm of the belle _affranchie_, +continued to exert a similar influence, and to fulfil an almost +similar destiny. The latitude of morals persisted,--though with less +ostentation: it has latterly contracted under the pressure of necessity +rather than through any other influences. Certain ethical principles +thought essential to social integrity elsewhere have always been largely +relaxed in the tropics; and--excepting, perhaps, Santo Domingo--the +moral standard in Martinique was not higher than in the other French +coloniei. Outward decorum might be to some degree maintained; but +there was no great restraint of any sort upon private lives: it was +not uncommon for a rich man to have many "natural" families; and +almost every individual of means had children of color. The superficial +character of race prejudices was everywhere manifested by unions, +which although never mentioned in polite converse, were none the less +universally known; and the "irresistible fascination" of the half-breed +gave the open lie to pretended hate. Nature, in the guise of the _belle +affranchie_, had mocked at slave codes;--in the _fille-de-couleur_ she +still laughed at race pretensions, and ridiculed the fable of physical +degradation. To-day, the situation has not greatly changed; and with +such examples on the part of the cultivated race, what could be expected +from the other? Marriages are rare;--it has been officially stated that +the illegitimate births are sixty per cent; but seventy-five to eighty +per cent would probably be nearer the truth. It is very common to see +in the local papers such announcements as: _Enfants legitimes_, 1 (one +birth announced); _enfants naturels_, 25. + +In speaking of the _fille-de-couleur_ it is necessary also to speak of +the extraordinary social stratification of the community to which +she belongs. The official statement of 20,000 "colored" to the total +population of between 173,000 and 174,000 (in which the number of pure +whites is said to have fallen as low as 5,000) does not at all indicate +the real proportion of mixed blood. Only a small element of unmixed +African descent really exists; yet when a white creole speaks of the +_gens-de-couleur_ he certainly means nothing darker than a mulatto skin. +Race classifications have been locally made by sentiments of political +origin: at least four or five shades of visible color are classed as +negro. There is, however, some natural truth at the bottom of this +classification: where African blood predominates, the sympathies are +likely to be African; and the turning-point is reached only in the true +mulatto, where, allowing the proportions of mixed blood to be nearly +equal, the white would have the dominant influence in situations +more natural than existing politics. And in speaking of the +_filles-de-couleur_, the local reference is always to women in whom the +predominant element is white: a white creole, as a general rule, deigns +only thus to distinguish those who are nearly white,--more usually he +refers to the whole class as mulattresses. Those women whom wealth and +education have placed in a social position parallel with that of +the daughters of creole whites are in some cases allowed to pass for +white,--or at the very worst, are only referred to in a whisper as being +_de couleur_. (Needless to say, these are totally beyond the range of +the present considerations: there is nothing to be further said of them +except that they can be classed with the most attractive and refined +women of the entire tropical world.) As there is an almost infinite +gradation from the true black up to the brightest _sang-mele_, it is +impossible to establish any color-classification recognizable by the +eye alone; and whatever lines of demarcation can be drawn between castes +must be social rather than ethnical. In this sense we may accept the +local Creole definition of _fille-de-couleur_ as signifying, not so much +a daughter of the race of visible color, as the half-breed girl destined +from her birth to a career like that of the _belle affranchie_ of +the old regime;--for the moral cruelties of slavery have survived +emancipation. + +Physically, the typical _fille-de-couleur_ may certainly be classed, +as white creole writers have not hesitated to class her, with the "most +beautiful women of the human race." [44] She has inherited not only the +finer bodily characteristics of either parent race, but a something else +belonging originally to neither, and created by special climatic and +physical conditions,--a grace, a suppleness of form, a delicacy of +extremities (so that all the lines described by the bending of limbs or +fingers are parts of clean curves), a satiny smoothness and fruit-tint +of skin,--solely West Indian.... Morally, of course, it is much more +difficult to describe her; and whatever may safely be said refers rather +to the fille-de-couleur of the past than of the present half-century. +The race is now in a period of transition: public education and +political changes are modifying the type, and it is impossible to guess +the ultimate consequence, because it is impossible to safely predict +what new influences may yet be brought to affect its social development. +Befare the present era of colonial decadence, the character of the +fille-de-couleur was not what it is now. Even when totally uneducated, +she had a peculiar charm,--that charm of childishness which has power to +win sympathy from the rudest natures. One could not but feel attracted +towards this naif being, docile as an infant, and as easily pleased or +as easily pained,--artless in her goodnesses as in her faults, to all +outward appearance;--willing to give her youth, her beauty, her caresses +to some one in exchange for the promise to love her,--perhaps also to +care for a mother, or a younger brother. Her astonishing capacity for +being delighted with trifles, her pretty vanities and pretty follies, +her sudden veerings of mood from laughter to tears,--like the sudden +rainbursts and sunbursts of her own passionate climate: these touched, +drew, won, and tyrannized. Yet such easily created joys and pains did +not really indicate any deep reserve of feeling: rather a superficial +sensitiveness only,--like the _zhebe-m'amise_, or _zhebe-manmzelle_, +whose leaves close at the touch of a hair. Such human manifestations, +nevertheless, are apt to attract more in proportion as they are more +visible,--in proportion as the soul-current, being less profound, flows +more audibly. But no hasty observation could have revealed the whole +character of the fille-de-couleur to the stranger, equally charmed and +surprised: the creole comprehended her better, and probably treated +her with even more real kindness. The truth was that centuries of +deprivation of natural rights and hopes had given to her race--itself +fathered by passion unrestrained and mothered by subjection +unlimited--an inherent scepticism in the duration of love, and a +marvellous capacity for accepting the destiny of abandonment as one +accepts the natural and the inevitable. And that desire to please--which +in the fille-de-couleur seemed to prevail above all other motives of +action (maternal affection excepted)--could have appeared absolutely +natural only to those who never reflected that even sentiment had been +artificially cultivated by slavery. + +She asked for so little,--accepted a gift with such childish +pleasure,--submitted so unresistingly to the will of the man +who promised to love her. She bore him children--such beautiful +children!--whom he rarely acknowledged, and was never asked +to legitimatize;--and she did not ask perpetual affection +notwithstanding,--regarded the relation as a necessarily temporary +one, to be sooner or later dissolved by the marriage of her children's +father. If deceived in all things,--if absolutely ill-treated and left +destitute, she did not lose faith in human nature: she seemed a born +optimist, believing most men good;--she would make a home for another +and serve him better than any slave.... "_Nee de l'amour_," says +a creole writer, "_la fille-de-couleur vit d'amour, de rires, et +d'oublis_."... [45] + +[Illustration: CAPRESSE.] + +Then came the general colonial crash!... You cannot see its results +without feeling touched by them. Everywhere the weird beauty, the +immense melancholy of tropic ruin. Magnificent terraces, once +golden with cane, now abandoned to weeds and serpents;--deserted +plantation-homes, with trees rooted in the apartments and pushing +up through the place of the roofs;--grass-grown alleys ravined by +rains;--fruit-trees strangled by lianas;--here and there the stem of +some splendid palmiste, brutally decapitated, naked as a mast;--petty +frail growths of banana-trees or of bamboo slowly taking the place of +century-old forest giants destroyed to make charcoal. But beauty enough +remains to tell what the sensual paradise of the old days must have +been, when sugar was selling at 52. + + +And the fille-de-couleur has also changed. She is much less humble and +submissive,--somewhat more exacting: she comprehends better the moral +injustice of her position. The almost extreme physical refinement and +delicacy, bequeathed to her by the freedwomen of the old regime, are +passing away: like a conservatory plant deprived of its shelter, she is +returning to a more primitive condition,--hardening and growing perhaps +less comely as well as less helpless. She perceives also in a vague way +the peril of her race: the creole white, her lover and protector, is +emigrating;--the domination of the black becomes more and more probable. +Furthermore, with the continual increase of the difficulty of living, +and the growing pressure of population, social cruelties and hatreds +have been developed such as her ancestors never knew. She is still +loved; but it is alleged that she rarely loves the white, no matter how +large the sacrifices made for her sake, and she no longer enjoys that +reputation of fidelity accorded to her class in other years. Probably +the truth is that the fille-de-couleur never had at any time capacity +to bestow that quality of affection imagined or exacted as a right. +Her moral side is still half savage: her feelings are still those of a +child. If she does not love the white man according to his unreasonable +desire, it is certain at least that she loves him as well as he +deserves. Her alleged demoralization is more apparent than real;--she is +changing from an artificial to a very natural being, and revealing more +and more in her sufferings the true character of the luxurious social +condition that brought her into existence. As a general rule, even while +questioning her fidelity, the creole freely confesses her kindness of +heart, and grants her capable of extreme generosity and devotedness +to strangers or to children whom she has an opportunity to care for. +Indeed, her natural kindness is so strikingly in contrast with the +harder and subtler character of the men of color that one might almost +feel tempted to doubt if she belong to the same race. Said a +creole once, in my hearing:--"The gens-de-couleur are just like the +_tourtouroux_: [46] one must pick out the females and leave the males +alone." Although perhaps capable of a double meaning, his words were not +lightly uttered;--he referred to the curious but indubitable fact that +the character of the colored woman appears in many respects far superior +to that of the colored man. In order to understand this, one must bear +in mind the difference in the colonial history of both sexes; and a +citation from General Romanet, [47] who visited Martinique at the end of +the last century, offers a clue to the mystery. Speaking of the tax upon +enfranchisement, he writes:-- + +--"The governor appointed by the sovereign delivers the certificates of +liberty,--on payment by the master of a sum usually equivalent to the +value of the subject. Public interest frequently justifies him in making +the price of the slave proportionate to the desire or the interest +manifested by the master. It can be readily understood that the tax upon +the liberty of the women ought to be higher than that of the men: the +latter unfortunates having no greater advantage than that of being +useful;--the former know how to please: they have those rights and +privileges which the whole world allows to their sex; they know how to +make even the fetters of slavery serve them for adornments. They may +be seen placing upon their proud tyrants the same chains worn by +themselves, and making them kiss the marks left thereby: the master +becomes the slave, and purchases another's liberty only to lose his +own." + +Long before the time of General Romanet, the colored male slave might +win liberty as the guerdon of bravery in fighting against foreign +invasion, or might purchase it by extraordinary economy, while working +as a mechanic on extra time for his own account (he always refused to +labor with negroes); but in either case his success depended upon the +possession and exercise of qualities the reverse of amiable. On the +other hand, the bondwoman won manumission chiefly through her power to +excite affection. In the survival and perpetuation of the fittest of +both sexes these widely different characteristics would obtain more and +more definition with successive generations. + +I find in the "Bulletin des Actes Administratifs de la Martinique" +for 1831 (No. 41) a list of slaves to whom liberty was accorded _pour +services rendus a leurs maitres_. Out of the sixty-nine enfranchisements +recorded under this head, there are only two names of male adults to +be found,--one an old man of sixty;--the other, called Laurencin, the +betrayer of a conspiracy. The rest are young girls, or young mothers and +children;--plenty of those singular and pretty names in vogue among +the creole population,--Acelie, Avrillette, Melie, Robertine, Celianne, +Francillette, Adee, Catharinette, Sidollie, Celine, Coraline;--and the +ages given are from sixteen to twenty-one, with few exceptions. Yet +these liberties were asked for and granted at a time when Louis Philippe +had abolished the tax on manumissions.... The same "Bulletin" contains a +list of liberties granted to colored men, _pour service accompli dans la +milice_, only! + +Most of the French West Indian writers whose works I was able to obtain +and examine speak severely of the _hommes-de-couleur_ as a class,--in +some instances the historian writes with a very violence of hatred. As +far back as the commencement of the eighteenth century, Labat, who, +with all his personal oddities, was undoubtedly a fine judge of men, +declared:--"The mulattoes are as a general rule well made, of good +stature, vigorous, strong, adroit, industrious, and daring (_hardis_) +beyond all conception. They have much vivacity, but are given to their +pleasures, fickle, proud, deceitful (_caches_), wicked, and capable of +the greatest crimes." A San Domingo historian, far more prejudiced +than Pere Labat, speaks of them "as physically superior, though morally +inferior to the whites": he wrote at a time when the race had given to +the world the two best swordsmen it has yet perhaps seen,--Saint-Georges +and Jean-Louis. + +Commenting on the judgment of Pere Labat, the historian Borde +observes:--"The wickedness spoken of by Pere Labat doubtless relates to +their political passions only; for the women of color are, beyond any +question, the best and sweetest persons in the world--_a coup sur, +les meilleures et les plus douces personnes qu'il y ait au +monde_."--("Histoire de l'Ile de la Trinidad," par M. Pierre Gustave +Louis Borde, vol. i., p. 222.) The same author, speaking of their +goodness of heart, generosity to strangers and the sick says "they are +born Sisters of Charity";--and he is not the only historian who has +expressed such admiration of their moral qualities. What I myself saw +during the epidemic of 1887-88 at Martinique convinced me that these +eulogies of the women of color are not extravagant. On the other hand, +the existing creole opinion of the men of color is much less favorable +than even that expressed by Pere Labat. Political events and passions +have, perhaps, rendered a just estimate of their qualities difficult. +The history of the _hommes-de-couleur_ in all the French colonies has +been the same;--distrusted by the whites, who feared their aspirations +to social equality, distrusted even more by the blacks (who still +hate them secretly, although ruled by them), the mulattoes became an +Ishmaelitish clan, inimical to both races, and dreaded of both. In +Martinique it was attempted, with some success, to manage them by +according freedom to all who would serve in the militia for a certain +period with credit. At no time was it found possible to compel them +to work with blacks; and they formed the whole class of skilled city +workmen and mechanics for a century prior to emancipation. + +... To-day it cannot be truly said of the _fille-de-couleur_ that her +existence is made up of "love, laughter, and forgettings." She has aims +in life,--the bettering of her condition, the higher education of her +children, whom she hopes to free from the curse of prejudice. She still +clings to the white, because through him she may hope to improve her +position. Under other conditions she might even hope to effect some sort +of reconciliation between the races. But the gulf has become so much +widened within the last forty years, that no rapprochement now appears +possible; and it is perhaps too late even to restore the lost prosperity +of the colony by any legislative or commercial reforms. The universal +creole belief is summed up in the daily-repeated cry: "_C'est un +pays perdu!_" Yearly the number of failures increase; and more whites +emigrate;--and with every bankruptcy or departure some fille-de-couleur +is left almost destitute, to begin life over again. Many a one has been +rich and poor several times in succession;--one day her property is +seized for debt;--perhaps on the morrow she finds some one able and +willing to give her a home again,... Whatever comes, she does not die +for grief, this daughter of the sun: she pours out her pain in song, +like a bird, Here is one of her little improvisations,--a song very +popular in both Martinique and Guadeloupe, though originally composed in +the latter colony:-- + + --"Good-bye Madras! + Good-bye foulard! + Good-bye pretty calicoes! + Good-bye collier-choux! + That ship + Which is there on the buoy, + It is taking + My doudoux away. + + --"Adieu Madras! + Adieu foulard! + Adieu dezinde! + Adieu collier-choux! + Batiment-la + Qui sou laboue-la, + Li ka mennein + Doudoux-a-moin alle. + + --"Very good-day,-- + Monsieur the Consignee. + I come + To make one little petition. + My doudoux + Is going away. + Alas! I pray you + Delay his going" + + --"Bien le-bonjou', + Missie le Consignataire. + Moin ka vini + Fai yon ti petition; + Doudoux-a-moin + Y ka pati,--T'enprie, helas! + Retade li." + +[He answers kindly in French: the _bekes_ are always kind to these +gentle children.] + + --"My dear child, + It is too late. + The bills of lading + Are already signed; + The ship + Is already on the buoy. + In an hour from now + They will be getting her under way." + + --"Ma chere enfant + Il est trop tard, + Les connaissements + Sont deja signes, + Est deja sur la bouee; + Dans une heure d'ici, + Ils vont appareiller." + + --"When the foulards came.... + I always had some; + When the Madras-kerchiefs came, + I always had some; + When the printed calicoes came, + I always had some. + ... That second officer--Is such a kind man! + + --"Foulard rive, + Moin te toujou tini; + Madras rive, + Moin te toujou tini; + Dezindes rive, + Moin te toujou tini.--Capitaine sougonde + C'est yon bon gacon! + + "Everybody has" + Somebody to love; + Everybody has + Somebody to pet; + Every body has + A sweetheart of her own. + I am the only one + Who cannot have that,--I!" + + "Toutt moune tini + Yon moune yo aime; + Toutt moune tini + Yon moune yo cheri; + Toutt moune tini + Yon doudoux a yo. + Jusse moin tou sele + Pa tini ca--moin!" + +... On the eve of the _Fete Dieu_, or Corpus Christi festival, in all +these Catholic countries, the city streets are hung with banners and +decorated with festoons and with palm branches; and great altars are +erected at various points along the route of the procession, to serve +as resting-places for the Host. These are called _reposoirs_; in creole +patois, "_reposoue Bon-Die_." Each wealthy man lends something to +help to make them attractive,--rich plate, dainty crystal, bronzes, +paintings, beautiful models of ships or steamers, curiosities from +remote parts of the world.... The procession over, the altar is +stripped, the valuables are returned to their owners: all the splendor +disappears.... And the spectacle of that evanescent magnificence, +repeated year by year, suggested to this proverb-loving people a +similitude for the unstable fortune of the fille-de-couleur:--_Fortune +milatresse c'est reposoue Bon-Die_. (The luck of the mulattress is the +resting-place of the Good-God). + + + + +CHAPTER X. BETE-NI-PIE. + + + +I. + + +St. Pierre is in one respect fortunate beyond many tropical cities;--she +has scarcely any mosquitoes, although there are plenty of mosquitoes +in other parts of Martinique, even in the higher mountain villages. The +flood of bright water that pours perpetually through all her streets, +renders her comparatively free from the pest;--nobody sleeps under a +mosquito bar. + +Nevertheless, St. Pierre is not exempt from other peculiar plagues of +tropical life; and you cannot be too careful about examining your bed +before venturing to lie down, and your clothing before you dress;--for +various disagreeable things might be hiding in them: a spider large as a +big crab, or a scorpion or a _mabouya_ or a centipede,--or certain large +ants whose bite burns like the pricking of a red-hot needle. No one who +has lived in St. Pierre is likely to forget the ants.... There are three +or four kinds in every house;--the _fourmi fou_ (mad ant), a little +speckled yellowish creature whose movements are so rapid as to delude +the vision; the great black ant which allows itself to be killed before +it lets go what it has bitten; the venomous little red ant, which is +almost too small to see; and the small black ant which does not bite at +all,--are usually omnipresent, and appear to dwell together in +harmony. They are pests in kitchens, cupboards, and safes; but they are +scavengers. It is marvellous to see them carrying away the body of +a great dead roach or centipede,--pulling and pushing together like +trained laborers, and guiding the corpse over obstacles or around them +with extraordinary skill.... There was a time when ants almost destroyed +the colony,--in 1751. The plantations, devastated by them are described +by historians as having looked as if desolated by fire. Underneath the +ground in certain places, layers of their eggs two inches deep were +found extending over acres. Infants left unwatched in the cradle for a +few hours were devoured alive by them. Immense balls of living ants +were washed ashore at the same time on various parts of the coast (a +phenomenon repeated within the memory of creoles now living in the +north-east parishes). The Government vainly offered rewards for the best +means of destroying the insects; but the plague gradually disappeared as +it came. + +None of these creatures can be prevented from entering a dwelling;--you +may as well resign yourself to the certainty of meeting with them from +time to time. The great spiders (with the exception of those which are +hairy) need excite no alarm or disgust;--indeed they are suffered to +live unmolested in many houses, partly owing to a belief that they bring +good-luck, and partly because they destroy multitudes of those enormous +and noisome roaches which spoil whatever they cannot eat. The scorpion +is less common; but it has a detestable habit of lurking under beds; and +its bite communicates a burning fever. With far less reason, the mabouya +is almost equally feared. It is a little lizard about six inches long, +and ashen-colored;--it haunts only the interior of houses, while the +bright-green lizards dwell only upon the roofs. Like other reptiles of +the same order, the mabouya can run over or cling to polished surfaces; +and there is a popular belief that if frightened, it will leap at one's +face or hands and there fasten itself so tightly that it cannot be +dislodged except by cutting it to pieces. Moreover, it's feet are +supposed to have the power of leaving certain livid and ineffaceable +marks upon the skin of the person to whom it attaches itself:--_ca ka +ba ou lota_, say the colored people. Nevertheless, there is no creature +more timid and harmless than the mabouya. + +But the most dreaded and the most insolent invader of domestic peace is +the centipede. The water system of the city banished the mosquito; but +it introduced the centipede into almost every dwelling. St. Pierre has a +plague of centipedes. All the covered drains, the gutters, the crevices +of fountain-basins and bathing-basins, the spaces between floor and +ground, shelter centipedes. And the _bete a-mille-pattes_ is the terror +of the barefooted population:--scarcely a day passes that some child or +bonne or workman is not bitten by the creature. + +The sight of a full-grown centipede is enough to affect a strong set +of nerves. Ten to eleven inches is the average length of adults; but +extraordinary individuals much exceeding this dimension may be sometimes +observed in the neighborhood of distilleries (_rhommeries_) and +sugar-refineries. According to age, the color of the creature varies +from yellowish to black;--the younger ones often have several different +tints; the old ones are uniformly jet-black, and have a carapace of +surprising toughness,--difficult to break. If you tread, by accident or +design, upon the tail, the poisonous head will instantly curl back and +bite the foot through any ordinary thickness of upper-leather. + +As a general rule the centipede lurks about the court-yards, +foundations, and drains by preference; but in the season of heavy rains +he does not hesitate to move upstairs, and make himself at home in +parlors and bed-rooms. He has a provoking habit of nestling in your +_moresques_ or your _chinoises_,--those wide light garments you put on +before taking your siesta or retiring for the night. He also likes to +get into your umbrella,--an article indispensable in the tropics; and +you had better never open it carelessly. He may even take a notion to +curl himself up in your hat, suspended on the wall. (I have known a +trigonocephalus to do the same thing in a country-house). He has also a +singular custom of mounting upon the long trailing dresses (douillettes) +worn by Martinique women,--and climbing up very swiftly and lightly to +the wearer's neck, where the prickling of his feet first betrays his +presence. Sometimes he will get into bed with you and bite you, because +you have not resolution enough to lie perfectly still while he is +tickling you.... It is well to remember before dressing that merely +shaking a garment may not dislodge him;--you must examine every part +very patiently,--particularly the sleeves of a coat and the legs of +pantaloons. + +The vitality of the creature is amazing. I kept one in a bottle without +food or water for thirteen weeks, at the end of which time it remained +active and dangerous as ever. Then I fed it with living insects, +which it devoured ravenously;--beetles, roaches, earthworms, several +_lepismaoe_, even one of the dangerous-looking millepedes, which have a +great resemblance in outward structure to the centipede, but a thinner +body, and more numerous limbs,--all seemed equally palatable to the +prisoner.... I knew an instance of one, nearly a foot long, remaining in +a silk parasol for more than four months, and emerging unexpectedly +one day, with aggressiveness undiminished, to bite the hand that had +involuntarily given it deliverance. + +In the city the centipede has but one natural enemy able to cope with +him,--the hen! The hen attacks him with delight, and often swallows him, +head first, without taking the trouble to kill him. The cat hunts him, +but she is careful never to put her head near him;--she has a trick of +whirling him round and round upon the floor so quickly as to stupefy +him: then, when she sees a good chance, she strikes him dead with her +claws. But if you are fond of your cat you will let her run no risks, as +the bite of a large centipede might have very bad results for your pet. +Its quickness of movement demands all the quickness of even the cat for +self-defence.... I know of men who have proved themselves able to seize +a fer-de-lance by the tail, whirl it round and round, and then flip it +as you would crack a whip,--whereupon the terrible head flies off; but I +never heard of anyone in Martinique daring to handle a living centipede. + +There are superstitions concerning the creature which have a good effect +in diminishing his tribe. If you kill a centipede, you are sure +to receive money soon; and even if you dream of killing one it +is good-luck. Consequently, people are glad of any chance to kill +centipedes,--usually taking a heavy stone or some iron utensil for the +work;--a wooden stick is not a good weapon. There is always a little +excitement when a _bete-ni-pie_ (as the centipede is termed in the +patois) exposes itself to death; and you may often hear those who kill +it uttering a sort of litany of abuse with every blow, as if addressing +a human enemy:--"_Quitte moin tchoue ou, maudi!--quitte moin tchoue +ou, scelerat!--quitte moin tchoue ou, Satan!--quitte moin tchoue +ou, abonocio!_" etc. (Let me kill you, accursed! scoundrel! Satan! +abomination!) + +The patois term for the centipede is not a mere corruption of the French +_bete-a-mille-pattes_. Among a population of slaves, unable to read or +write, [48] there were only the vaguest conceptions of numerical values; +and the French term bete-a-mille-pattes was not one which could appeal +to negro imagination. The slaves themselves invented an equally vivid +name, _bete-anni-pie_ (the Beast-which-is-all-feet); _anni_ in creole +signifying "only," and in such a sense "all." Abbreviated by subsequent +usage to _bete-'ni-pie_, the appellation has amphibology;--for there are +two words _ni_ in the patois, one signifying "to have," and the other +"naked." So that the creole for a centipede might be translated in three +ways,--"the Beast-which-is-all-feet"; or, "the Naked-footed Beast"; or, +with fine irony of affirmation, "the Beast-which-has-feet." + + + +II. + + +What is the secret of that horror inspired by the centipede?... It +is but very faintly related to our knowledge that the creature is +venomous;--the results of the bite are only temporary swelling and a +brief fever;--it is less to be feared than the bite of other tropical +insects and reptiles which never inspire the same loathing by their +aspect. And the shapes of venomous creatures are not always shapes of +ugliness. The serpent has elegance of form as well as attractions +of metallic tinting;--the tarantula, or the _matoutou-falaise_, have +geometrical beauty. Lapidaries have in all ages expended rare skill +upon imitations of serpent grace in gold and gems;--a princess would not +scorn to wear a diamond spider. But what art could utilize successfully +the form of the centipede? It is a form of absolute repulsiveness,--a +skeleton-shape half defined:--the suggestion of some old reptile-spine +astir, crawling with its fragments of ribs. + +No other living thing excites exactly the same feeling produced by the +sight of the centipede,--the intense loathing and peculiar fear. The +instant you see a centipede you feel it is absolutely necessary to kill +it; you cannot find peace in your house while you know that such a life +exists in it: perhaps the intrusion of a serpent would annoy and +disgust you less. And it is not easy to explain the whole reason of this +loathing. The form alone has, of course, something to do with it,--a +form that seems almost a departure from natural laws. But the form alone +does not produce the full effect, which is only experienced when you see +the creature in motion. The true horror of the centipede, perhaps, must +be due to the monstrosity of its movement,--multiple and complex, as of +a chain of pursuing and inter-devouring lives: there is something about +it that makes you recoil, as from a sudden corrupt swarming-out. It is +confusing,--a series of contractings and lengthenings and, undulations +so rapid as to allow of being only half seen: it alarms also, because +the thing seems perpetually about to disappear, and because you know +that to lose sight of it for one moment involves the very unpleasant +chance of finding it upon you the next,--perhaps between skin and +clothing. + +But this is not all:--the sensation produced by the centipede is still +more complex--complex, in fact, as the visible organization of the +creature. For, during pursuit,--whether retreating or attacking, in +hiding or fleeing,--it displays a something which seems more than +instinct: calculation and cunning,--a sort of malevolent intelligence. +It knows how to delude, how to terrify;--it has marvellous skill in +feinting;--it is an abominable juggler.... + + + +III. + + +I am about to leave my room after breakfast, when little Victoire who +carries the meals up-stairs in a wooden tray, screams out:--"_Gade, +Missie! ni bete-ni-pie assous dos ou!_" There is a thousand-footed beast +upon my back!. + +Off goes my coat, which I throw upon the floor;--the little servant, who +has a nervous horror of centipedes, climbs upon a chair. I cannot see +anything under the coat, nevertheless;--I lift it by the collar, turn it +about very cautiously--nothing! Suddenly the child screams again; and I +perceive the head close to my hand;--the execrable thing had been hiding +in a perpendicular fold of the coat, which I drop only just in time to +escape getting bitten. Immediately the centipede becomes invisible. +Then I take the coat by one flap, and turn it over very quickly: just +as quickly does the centipede pass over it in the inverse direction, and +disappear under it again. I have had my first good look at him: he +seems nearly a foot long,--has a greenish-yellow hue against the black +cloth,--and pink legs, and a violet head;--he is evidently young.... I +turn the coat a second time: same disgusting manreuvre. Undulations of +livid color flow over him as he lengthens and shortens;--while running +his shape is but half apparent; it is only as he makes a half pause in +doubling round and under the coat that the panic of his legs becomes +discernible. When he is fully exposed they move with invisible +rapidity,--like a vibration;--you can see only a sort of pink haze +extending about him,--something to which you would no more dare advance +your finger than to the vapory halo edging a circular saw in motion. +Twice more I turn and re-turn the coat with the same result;--I observe +that the centipede always runs towards my hand, until I withdraw it: he +feints! + +With a stick I uplift one portion of the coat after another; and +suddenly perceive him curved under a sleeve,--looking quite small!--how +could he have seemed so large a moment ago?... But before I can strike +him he has flickered over the cloth again, and vanished; and I discover +that he has the power of _magnifying himself_,--dilating the disgust of +his shape at will: he invariably amplifies himself to face attack.... + +It seems very difficult to dislodge him; he displays astonishing +activity and cunning at finding wrinkles and folds to hide in. Even at +the risk of damaging various things in the pockets, I stamp upon the +coat;--then lift it up with the expectation of finding the creature +dead. But it suddenly rushes out from some part or other, looking larger +and more wicked than ever,--drops to the floor, and charges at my feet: +a sortie! I strike at him unsuccessfully with the stick: he retreats +to the angle between wainscoting and floor, and runs along it fast as +a railroad train,--dodges two or three pokes,--gains the +door-frame,--glides behind a hinge, and commences to run over the wall +of the stair-way. There the hand of a black servant slaps him dead. + +--"Always strike at the head," the servant tells me; "never tread on the +tail.... This is a small one: the big fellows can make you afraid if you +do not know how to kill them." + +... I pick up the carcass with a pair of scissors. It does not look +formidable now that it is all contracted;--it is scarcely eight +inches long,--thin as card-board, and even less heavy. It has no +substantiality, no weight;--it is a mere appearance, a mask, a +delusion.... But remembering the spectral, cunning, juggling something +which magnified and moved it but a moment ago,--I feel almost tempted to +believe, with certain savages, that there are animal shapes inhabited by +goblins.... + + + +IV. + +--"Is there anything still living and lurking in old black drains +of Thought,--any bigotry, any prejudice, anything in the moral world +whereunto the centipede may be likened?" + +--"Really, I do not know," replied the friend to whom I had put the +question; "but you need only go as far as the vegetable world for a +likeness. Did you ever see anything like this?" he added, opening a +drawer and taking therefrom something revolting, which, as he pressed it +in his hand, looked like a long thick bundle of dried centipedes. + +--"Touch them," he said, holding out to me the mass of articulated flat +bodies and bristling legs. + +--"Not for anything!" I replied, in astonished disgust. He laughed, and +opened his hand. As he did so, the mass expanded. + +--"Now look," he exclaimed! + +Then I saw that all the bodies were united at the tails--grew together +upon one thick flat annulated stalk... a plant!--"But here is the +fruit," he continued, taking from the same drawer a beautifully embossed +ovoid nut, large as a duck's egg, ruddy-colored, and so exquisitely +varnished by nature as to resemble a rosewood carving fresh from the +hands of the cabinet-maker. In its proper place among the leaves and +branches, it had the appearance of something delicious being devoured +by a multitude of centipedes. Inside was a kernel, hard and heavy as +iron-wood; but this in time, I was told, falls into dust: though the +beautiful shell remains always perfect. + +Negroes call it the _coco-macaque_. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. MA BONNE. + + + +I. + + +I cannot teach Cyrillia the clock;--I have tried until both of us had +our patience strained to the breaking-point. Cyrillia still believes she +will learn how to tell the time some day or other;--I am certain that +she never will. "_Missie_," she says, "_lezhe pa aien pou moin: c'est +minitt ka foute moin yon travail!_"--the hours do not give her any +trouble; but the minutes are a frightful bore! And nevertheless, +Cyrillia is punctual as the sun;--she always brings my coffee and a +slice of corossol at five in the morning precisely. Her clock is the +_cabritt-bois_. The great cricket stops singing, she says, at half-past +four: the cessation of its chant awakens her. + +--"_Bonjou', Missie. Coument ou passe lanuitt?_"--"Thanks, my daughter, +I slept well."--"The weather is beautiful: if Missie would like to go +to the beach, his bathing-towels are ready."--"Good! Cyrillia; I will +go."... Such is our regular morning conversation. + +Nobody breakfasts before eleven o'clock or thereabout; but after an +early sea-bath, one is apt to feel a little hollow during the morning, +unless one take some sort of refreshment. Cyrillia always prepares +something for me on my return from the beach,--either a little pot of +fresh cocoa-water, or a _cocoyage_, or a _mabiyage_, or a _bavaroise_. + +The _cocoyage_ I like the best of all. Cyrillia takes a green cocoa-nut, +slices off one side of it so as to open a hole, then pours the +opalescent water into a bowl, adds to it a fresh egg, a little Holland +gin, and some grated nutmeg and plenty of sugar. Then she whips up the +mixture into effervescence with her _baton-lele_. The _baton-lele_ is an +indispensaple article in every creole home: it is a thin stick which is +cut from a young tree so as to leave at one end a whorl of branch-stumps +sticking out at right angles like spokes;--by twirling the stem between +the hands, the stumps whip up the drink in a moment. + +The _mabiyage_ is less agreeable, but is a popular morning drink among +the poorer classes. It is made with a little white rum and a bottle of +the bitter native root-beer called _mabi_. The taste of _mabi_ I can +only describe as that of molasses and water flavored with a little +cinchona bark. + +The _bavaroise_ is fresh milk, sugar, and a little Holland gin or +rum,--mixed with the baton-lele until a fine thick foam is formed. +After the _cocoyage_, I think it is the best drink one can take in the +morning; but very little spirit must be used for any of these mixtures. +It is not until just before the mid-day meal that one can venture to +take a serious stimulant,--_yon ti ponch_,--rum and water, sweetened +with plenty of sugar or sugar syrup. + +The word _sucre_ is rarely used in Martinique,--considering that sugar +is still the chief product;--the word _doux_, "sweet," is commonly +substituted for it. _Doux_ has, however, a larger range of meaning: it +may signify syrup, or any sort of sweets,--duplicated into _doudoux_, it +means the corossole fruit as well as a sweetheart. _Ca qui le doudoux?_ +is the cry of the corossole-seller. If a negro asks at a grocery store +(_graisserie_) for _sique_ instead of for _doux_, it is only because he +does not want it to be supposed that he means syrup;--as a general rule, +he will only use the word _sique_ when referring to quality of +sugar wanted, or to sugar in hogsheads. _Doux_ enters into domestic +consumption in quite remarkable ways. People put sugar into fresh milk, +English porter, beer, and cheap wine;--they cook various vegetables +with sugar, such as peas; they seem to be particularly fond of +sugar-and-water and of _d'leau-pain_,--bread-and-water boiled, strained, +mixed with sugar, and flavored with cinnamon. The stranger gets +accustomed to all this sweetness without evil results. In a northern +climate the consequence would probably be at least a bilious attack; but +in the tropics, where salt fish and fruits are popularly preferred to +meat, the prodigal use of sugar or sugar-syrups appears to be decidedly +beneficial. + +... After Cyrillia has prepared my _cocoyage_, and rinsed the +bathing-towels in fresh-water, she is ready to go to market, and wants +to know what I would like to eat for breakfast. "Anything creole, +Cyrillia;--I want to know what people eat in this country." She always +does her best to please me in this respect,--almost daily introduces me +to some unfamiliar dishes, something odd in the way of fruit or fish. + + + +II. + + +Cyrillia has given me a good idea of the range and character of +_mange-Creole_, and I can venture to write something about it after a +year's observation. By _mange-Creole_ I refer only to the food of the +people proper, the colored population; for the _cuisine_ of the small +class of wealthy whites is chiefly European, and devoid of local +interest:--I might observe, however, that the fashion of cooking is +rather Provencal than Parisian;--rather of southern than of northern +France. + +Meat, whether fresh or salt, enters little into the nourishment of the +poorer classes. This is partly, no doubt, because of the cost of all +meats; but it is also due to natural preference for fruits and +fish. When fresh meat is purchased, it is usually to make a stew or +_daube_;--probably salt meats are more popular; and native vegetables +and manioc flour are preferred to bread. There are only two popular +soups which are peculiar to the creole cuisine,--_calalou_, a +gombo soup, almost precisely similar to that of Louisiana; and the +_soupe-d'habitant_, or "country soup." It is made of yams, carrots, +bananas, turnips, _choux-caraibes_, pumpkins, salt pork, and pimento, +all boiled together;--the salt meat being left out of the composition on +Fridays. + +The great staple, the true meat of the population, is salt codfish, +which is prepared in a great number of ways. The most popular and the +rudest preparation of it is called "Ferocious" (_feroce_); and it is +not at all unpalatable. The codfish is simply fried, and served with +vinegar, oil, pimento;--manioc flour and avocados being considered +indispensable adjuncts. As manioc flour forms a part of almost every +creole meal, a word of information regarding it will not be out of place +here. Everybody who has heard the name probably knows that the manioc +root is naturally poisonous, and that the toxic elements must be removed +by pressure and desiccation before the flour can be made. Good manioc +flour has an appearance like very coarse oatmeal; and is probably quite +as nourishing. Even when dear as bread, it is preferred, and forms +the flour of the population, by whom the word _farine_ is only used +to signify manioc flour: if wheat-flour be referred to it is always +qualified as "French flour" (_farine-Fouance_). Although certain flours +are regularly advertised as American in the local papers, they are still +_farine-Fouance_ for the population, who call everything foreign French. +American beer is _bie-Fouance_; American canned peas, _ti-pois-Fouance_; +any white foreigner who can talk French is _yon beke-Fouance_. + +Usually the manioc flour is eaten uncooked: [49] merely poured into a +plate, with a little water and stirred with a spoon into a thick paste +or mush,--the thicker the better;--_dleau passe farine_ (more water +than manioc flour) is a saying which describes the condition of a very +destitute person. When not served with fish, the flour is occasionally +mixed with water and refined molasses (_sirop-battrie_): this +preparation, which is very nice, is called _cousscaye_. There is also a +way of boiling it with molasses and milk into a kind of pudding. This +is called _matete_; children are very fond of it. Both of these names, +_cousscaye_ and _matete_, are alleged to be of Carib origin: the art of +preparing the flour itself from manioc root is certainly an inheritance +from the Caribs, who bequeathed many singular words to the creole patois +of the French West Indies. + +Of all the preparations of codfish with which manioc flour is eaten, +I preferred the _lamori-bouilli_,--the fish boiled plain, after having +been steeped long enough to remove the excess of salt; and then served +with plenty of olive-oil and pimento. The people who have no home of +their own, or at least no place to cook, can buy their food already +prepared from the _machannes lapacotte_, who seem to make a specialty +of _macadam_ (codfish stewed with rice) and the other two dishes already +referred to. But in every colored family there are occasional feasts +of _lamori-au-laitt_, codfish stewed with milk and potatoes; +_lamori-au-grattin_, codfish boned, pounded with toast crumbs, and +boiled with butter, onions, and pepper into a mush;--_coubouyon-lamori_, +codfish stewed with butter and oil;--_bachamelle_, codfish boned and +stewed with potatoes, pimentos, oil, garlic, and butter. + +_Pimento_ is an essential accompaniment to all these dishes, whether +it be cooked or raw: everything is served with plenty of pimento,-_en +pile_, _en pile piment._ Among the various kinds I can mention only the +_piment-cafe_, or "coffee-pepper," larger but about the same shape as a +grain of Liberian coffee, violet-red at one end; the _piment-zoueseau_, +or bird-pepper, small and long and scarlet;--and the _piment-capresse_, +very large, pointed at one end, and bag-shaped at the other. It takes a +very deep red color when ripe, and is so strong that if you only break +the pod in a room, the sharp perfume instantly fills the apartment. +Unless you are as well-trained as any Mexican to eat pimento, you will +probably regret your first encounter with the _capresse_. + +Cyrillia told me a story about this infernal vegetable. + + +II + +ZHISTOUE PIMENT. + +Te ni yon manman qui te ni en pile, en pile yche; et yon jou y pa te ni +aien pou y te baill yche-la mange. Y te ka leve bon matin-la sans yon +sou: y pa sa ca y te doue fai,--la y te ke baill latete. Y alle +lacaie macoume-y, raconte lapeine-y. Macoume baill y toua chopine +farine-manioc. Y alle lacaill liautt macoume, qui baill y yon grand +trai piment. Macoume-la di y venne trai-piment-a, epi y te pe achete +lamori,--pisse y ja te ni farine. Madame-la di: "Meci, macoume;"--y di y +bonjou'; epi y alle lacaie-y. + +Lhe y rive acaie y lime dife: y mette canari epi dleau assous dife-a; +epi y casse toutt piment-la et mette yo adans canari-a assous dire. + +Lhe y oue canari-a ka boui, y pouend _baton-lele_, epi y lele piment-a: +aloss y ka fai yonne calalou-piment. Lhe calalou-piment-la te tchouitt, +y pouend chaque zassiett yche-li; y mette calalou yo fouete dans +zassiett-la; y mette ta-mari fouete, assou, epi ta-y. Epi lhe calalou-la +te bien fouete, y mette farine nans chaque zassiett-la. Epi y crie toutt +moune vini mange. Toutt moune vini mette yo a-tabe. + +Pouemie bouchee mari-a pouend, y rete,--y crie: "Aie! ouaill! mafenm!" +Fenm-la reponne mari y: "Ouaill! monmari!" Ces ti manmaille-la crie: +"Ouaill! manman!" Manman-a. reponne:--"Ouaill! yches-moin!"... Yo toutt +pouend couri, quitte caie-la sele,--epi yo toutt tombe larvie a touempe +bouche yo. Ces ti manmaille-la boue dleau sitellement jusse temps yo +toutt neye: te ka rete anni manman-la epi papa-la. Yo te la bo larivie, +qui te ka pleire. Moin te ka passe a lhe-a;--moin ka mande yo: "Ca zautt +ni?" + +Nhomme-la leve: y baill moin yon sele coup d'pie, y voye moin lautt bo +larivie-ou oue moin vini pou conte ca ba ou. + + +II. + +PIMENTO STORY. + +There was once a mamma who had ever so many children; and one day she +had nothing to give those children to eat. She had got up very early +that morning, without a sou in the world: she did not know what to do: +she was so worried that her head was upset. She went to the house of a +woman-friend, and told her about her trouble. The friend gave her three +_chopines_ [three pints] of manioc flour. Then she went to the house +of another female friend, who gave her a big trayful of pimentos. The +friend told her to sell that tray of pimentos: then she could buy some +codfish,--since she already had some manioc flour. The good-wife said: +"Thank you, _macoume_,"--she bid her good-day, and then went to her own +house. + +The moment she got home, she made a fire, and put her _canari_ [earthen +pot] full of water on the fire to boil: then she broke up all the +pimentos and put them into the canari on the fire. + +As soon as she saw the canari boiling, she took her _baton-lele_, and +beat up all those pimentos: then she made a _pimento-calalou_. When the +pimento-calalou was well cooked, she took each one of the children's +plates, and poured their calalou into the plates to cool it; she also +put her husband's out to cool, and her own. And when the calalou was +quite cool, she put some manioc flour into each of the plates. Then +she called to everybody to come and eat. They all came, and sat down to +table. + +The first mouthful that husband took he stopped and screamed:--"_Aie! +ouaill!_ my wife!" The woman answered her husband: "_Ouaill_! my +husband!" The little children all screamed: "_Ouaill!_ mamma!" Their +mamma answered: "_Ouaill!_ my children!"... They all ran out, left the +house empty; and they tumbled into the river to steep their mouths. +Those little children just drank water and drank water till they were +all drowned: there was nobody left except the mamma and the papa, They +stayed there on the river-bank, and cried. I was passing that way just +at that time;--I asked them: "What ails you people?" That man got up and +gave me just one kick that sent me right across the river; I came here +at once, as you see, to tell you all about it.... + + + +IV. + + +... It is no use for me to attempt anything like a detailed description +of the fish Cyrillia brings me day after day from the Place du Fort: the +variety seems to be infinite. I have learned, however, one curious fact +which is worth noting: that, as a general rule, the more beautifully +colored fish are the least palatable, and are sought after only by the +poor. The _perroquet_, black, with bright bands of red and yellow; +the _cirurgien_, blue and black; the _patate_, yellow and black; the +_moringue_, which looks like polished granite; the _souri_, pink +and yellow; the vermilion _Gouos-zie_; the rosy _sade_; the red +_Bon-Die-manie-moin_ ("the-Good-God-handled-me")--it has two queer marks +as of great fingers; and the various kinds of all-blue fish, _balaou_, +_conliou_, etc. varying from steel-color to violet,--these are seldom +seen at the tables of the rich. There are exceptions, of course, to this +and all general rules: notably the _couronne_, pink spotted beautifully +with black,--a sort of Redfish, which never sells less than fourteen +cents a pound; and the _zorphie_, which has exquisite changing lights +of nacreous green and purple. It is said, however, that the zorphi is +sometimes poisonous, like the _becunne_; and there are many fish which, +although not venomous by nature, have always been considered dangerous. +In the time of Pere Dutertre it was believed these fish ate the apples +of the manchineel-tree, washed into the sea by rains;--to-day it is +popularly supposed that they are rendered occasionally poisonous by +eating the barnacles attached to copper-plating of ships. The _tazard_, +the _lune_, the _capitaine_, the _dorade_, the _perroquet_, the +_couliou_, the _congre_, various crabs, and even the _tonne_,--all +are dangerous unless perfectly fresh: the least decomposition seems +to develop a mysterious poison. A singular phenomenon regarding the +poisoning occasionally produced by the becunne and dorade is that the +skin peels from the hands and feet of those lucky enough to survive +the terrible colics, burnings, itchings, and delirium, which are early +symptoms, Happily these accidents are very rare, since the markets have +been properly inspected: in the time of Dr. Rufz, they would seem to +have been very common,--so common that he tells us he would not eat +fresh fish without being perfectly certain where it was caught and how +long it had been out of the water. + +The poor buy the brightly colored fish only when the finer qualities +are not obtainable at low rates; but often and often the catch is so +enormous that half of it has to be thrown back into the sea. In the hot +moist air, fish decomposes very rapidly; it is impossible to transport +it to any distance into the interior; and only the inhabitants of the +coast can indulge in fresh fish,--at least sea-fish. + +Naturally, among the laboring class the question of quality is less +important than that of quantity and substance, unless the fish-market be +extraordinarily well stocked. Of all fresh fish, the most popular is the +_tonne_, a great blue-gray creature whose flesh is solid as beef; next +come in order of preferment the flying-fish (_volants_), which often +sell as low as four for a cent;--then the _lambi_, or sea-snail, which +has a very dense and nutritious flesh;--then the small whitish fish +classed as _sadines_;--then the blue-colored fishes according to price, +_couliou_, _balaou_, etc.;--lastly, the shark, which sells commonly at +two cents a pound. Large sharks are not edible; the flesh is too hard; +but a young shark is very good eating indeed. Cyrillia cooked me a slice +one morning: it was quite delicate, tasted almost like veal. + +[Illustration: OLD MARKET-PLACE OF THE FORT, ST. PIERRE.--(REMOVED IN +1888).] + +The quantity of very small fish sold is surprising. With ten sous the +family of a laborer can have a good fish-dinner: a pound of _sadines_ is +never dearer than two sous;--a pint of manioc flour can be had for the +same price; and a big avocado sells for a sou. This is more than enough +food for any one person; and by doubling the expense one obtains a +proportionately greater quantity--enough for four or five individuals. +The _sadines_ are roasted over a charcoal fire, and flavored with a +sauce of lemon, pimento, and garlic. When there are no _sadines_, there +are sure to be _coulious_ in plenty,--small _coulious_ about as long as +your little finger: these are more delicate, and fetch double the price. +With four sous' worth of _coulious_ a family can have a superb _blaffe_. +To make a _blaffe_ the fish are cooked in water, and served with +pimento, lemon, spices, onions, and garlic; but without oil or butter. +Experience has demonstrated that _coulious_ make the best _blaffe_; and +a _blaffe_ is seldom prepared with other fish. + + + +V. + + +There are four dishes which are the holiday luxuries of the +poor:--_manicou_, _ver-palmiste_, _zandouille_, and _poule-epi-diri_. +[50] + +The _manitou_ is a brave little marsupial, which might be called +the opossum of Martinique: it fights, although overmatched, with the +serpent, and is a great enemy to the field-rat. In the market a manicou +sells for two francs and a half at cheapest: it is generally salted +before being cooked. + +The great worm, or caterpillar, called _ver-palmiste_ is found in the +heads of cabbage-palms,--especially after the cabbage has been cut out, +and the tree has begun to perish. It is the grub of a curious beetle, +which has a proboscis of such form as suggested the creole appellation, +_lefant_: the "elephant." These worms are sold in the Place du Fort at +two sous each: they are spitted and roasted alive, and are said to taste +like almonds. I have never tried to find out whether this be fact or +fancy; and I am glad to say that few white creoles confess a liking for +this barbarous food. + +The _zandouilles_ are delicious sausages made with pig-buff,--and only +seen in the market on Sundays. They cost a franc and a half each; and +there are several women who have an established reputation throughout +\Martinique for their skill in making them. I have tasted some not less +palatable than the famous London "pork-pies." Those of Lamentin are +reputed the best in the island. + +But _poule-epi-diri_ is certainly the most popular dish of all: it is +the dearest, as well, and poor people can rarely afford it. In Louisiana +an almost similar dish is called _jimbalaya_: chicken cooked with rice. +The Martiniquais think it such a delicacy that an over-exacting person, +or one difficult to satisfy, is reproved with the simple question:--"_Ca +ou le 'nco-poule, epi-diri?_" (What more do you want, great +heavens!--chicken-and-rice?) Naughty children are bribed into absolute +goodness by the promise of poule-epi-diri:-- + + --"_Aie! che, bo doudoux! + Doudoux ba ou poule-epi-diri; + Aie! che, bo doudoux!_"... + +(Aie, dear! kiss _doudoux!--doudoux_ has rice-and-chicken for +you!--_aie_, dear! kiss _doudoux!_) + +How far rice enters into the success of the dish above mentioned I +cannot say; but rice ranks in favor generally above all cereals; it is +at least six times more in demand than maize. _Diri-doux_, rice boiled +with sugar, is sold in prodigious quantities daily,--especially at +the markets, where little heaps of it, rolled in pieces of banana +or _cachibou_ leaves, are retailed at a cent each. _Diri-aulaitt_, a +veritable rice-pudding, is also very popular; but it would weary the +reader to mention one-tenth of the creole preparations into which rice +enters. + + + +VI. + + +Everybody eats _akras_;--they sell at a cent apiece. The akra is a small +fritter or pancake, which may be made of fifty different things,--among +others codfish, titiri, beans, brains, _choux-caraibes_, little +black peas (_poix-zie-noue_, "black-eyed peas"), or of crawfish +(_akra-cribiche_). When made of carrots, bananas, chicken, palm-cabbage, +etc. and sweetened, they are called _marinades_. On first acquaintance +they seem rather greasy for so hot a climate; but one learns, on +becoming accustomed to tropical conditions, that a certain amount of +oily or greasy food is both healthy and needful. + +First among popular vegetables are beans. Red beans are preferred; but +boiled white beans, served cold with vinegar and plenty of oil, form a +favorite salad. Next in order of preferment come the _choux-caraibes_, +_patates_, _zignames_, _camanioc_, and _cousscouche_: all immense +roots,--the true potatoes of the tropics. The camanioc is finer than the +choux-caraibe, boils whiter and softer: in appearance it resembles the +manioc root very closely, but has no toxic element. The cousscouche is +the best of all: the finest Irish potato boiled into sparkling flour +is not so good. Most of these roots can be cooked into a sort of mush, +called _migan_: such as _migan-choux_, made with the choux-caraibe; +_migan-zignames_, made with yams; _migan-cousscouche_, etc.,--in which +case crabs or shrimps are usually served with the _migan_. There is a +particular fondness for the little rosy crab called _tourlouroux_, in +patois _touloulou_. _Migan_ is also made with bread-fruit. Very large +bananas or plantains are boiled with codfish, with _daubes_, or +meat stews, and with eggs. The bread-fruit is a fair substitute for +vegetables. It must be cooked very thoroughly, and has a dry potato +taste. What is called the _fleu-fouitt-a-pain_, or "bread-fruit +flower"--a long pod-shaped solid growth, covered exteriorly with tiny +seeds closely set as pin-heads could be, and having an interior pith +very elastic and resistant,--is candied into a delicious sweetmeat. + + + +VII. + + +The consumption of bananas is enormous: more bananas are eaten than +vegetables; and more banana-trees are yearly being cultivated. The negro +seems to recognize instinctively that economical value of the banana to +which attention was long since called by Humboldt, who estimated that +while an acre planted in wheat would barely support three persons, an +acre planted in banana-trees would nourish fifty. + +Bananas and plantains hold the first place among fruits in popular +esteem;--they are cooked in every way, and served with almost every sort +of meat or fish. What we call bananas in the United States, however, are +not called bananas in Martinique, but figs (_figues_). Plantains seem +to be called _bananes_. One is often surprised at popular nomenclature: +_choux_ may mean either a sort of root (_choux-caraibe_), or the top +of the cabbage-palm; _Jacquot_ may mean a fish; _cabane_ never means +a cabin, but a bed; _crickett_ means not a cricket, but a frog; and at +least fifty other words have equally deceptive uses. If one desires +to speak of real figs--dried figs--he must say _figues-Fouanc_ (French +figs); otherwise nobody will understand him. There are many kinds +of bananas here called _figues_,--the four most popular are the +_figues-bananes_, which are plantains, I think; the _figues-makouenga_, +which grow wild, and have a red skin; the _figues-pommes_ +(apple-bananas), which are large and yellow; and the _ti-figues-desse_ +(little-dessert-bananas), which are to be seen on all tables in St. +Pierre. They are small, sweet, and always agreeable, even when one has +no appetite for other fruits. + +It requires some little time to become accustomed to many tropical +fruits, or at least to find patience as well as inclination to eat them. +A large number, in spite of delicious flavor, are provokingly stony: +such as the ripe guavas, the cherries, the barbadines; even the +corrossole and _pomme-cannelle_ are little more than huge masses of +very hard seeds buried in pulp of exquisite taste. The _sapota_, or +_sapodtilla_, is less characterized by stoniness, and one soon learns to +like it. It has large flat seeds, which can be split into two with the +finger-nail; and a fine white skin lies between these two halves. It +requires some skill to remove entire this little skin, or pellicle, +without breaking it: to do so is said to be a test of affection. Perhaps +this bit of folk-lore was suggested by the shape of the pellicle, which +is that of a heart. The pretty fille-de-couleur asks her doudoux:--"_Ess +ou ainmein moin?--pouloss tire ti lapeau-la sans casse-y_." Woe to +him if he breaks it!... The most disagreeable fruit is, I think, the +_pomme-d'Haiti_, or Haytian apple: it is very attractive exteriorly; +but has a strong musky odor and taste which nauseates. Few white creoles +ever eat it. + +Of the oranges, nothing except praise can be said; but there are +fruits that look like oranges, and are not oranges, that are far more +noteworthy. There is the _chadeque_, which grows here to fully three +feet in circumference, and has a sweet pink pulp; and there is the +"forbidden-fruit" (_fouitt-defendu_), a sort of cross between the orange +and the chadeque, and superior to both. The colored people declare that +this monster fruit is the same which grew in Eden upon the fatal tree: +_c'est ca menm qui fai moune ka fai yche conm ca atouelement!_ The +fouitt-defendu is wonderful, indeed, in its way; but the fruit which +most surprised me on my first acquaintance with it was the _zabricot_. + +--"_Ou le yon zabricot?_" (Would you like an apricot?) Cyrillia asked +me one day. I replied that I liked apricots very much,--wanted more than +one. Cyrillia looked astonished, but said nothing until she +returned from market, and put on the table _two_ apricots, with the +observation:--"_Ca ke fai ou malade mange toutt ca!_" (You will get sick +if you eat all that.) I could not eat even half of one of them. Imagine +a plum larger than the largest turnip, with a skin like a russet apple, +solid sweet flesh of a carrot-red color, and a nut in the middle bigger +than a duck's egg and hard as a rock. These fruits are aromatic as well +as sweet to the taste: the price varies from one to four cents each, +according to size. The tree is indigenous to the West Indies; the +aborigines of Hayti had a strange belief regarding it. They alleged that +its fruits formed the nourishment of the dead; and however pressed by +hunger, an Indian in the woods would rather remain without food than +strip one of these trees, lest he should deprive the ghosts of their +sustenance.... No trace of this belief seems to exist among the colored +people of Martinique. + +[Illustration: BREAD-FRUIT TREE.] + +Among the poor such fruits are luxuries: they eat more mangoes than +any other fruits excepting bananas. It is rather slobbery work eating +a common mango, in which every particle of pulp is threaded fast to +the kernel: one prefers to gnaw it when alone. But there are cultivated +mangoes with finer and thicker flesh which can be sliced off, so that +the greater part of the fruit may be eaten without smearing and sucking. +Among grafted varieties the _mangue_ is quite as delicious as the +orange. Perhaps there are nearly as many varieties of mangoes in +Martinique as there are varieties of peaches with us: I am acquainted, +however, with only a few,--such as the _mango-Bassignac_;--_mango-peche_ +(or peach-mango);--_mango-vert_ (green mango), very large +and oblong;--_mango-greffe_;--_mangotine_, quite round +and small;--_mango-quinette_, very small also, almost +egg-shaped;--_mango-Zeze_, very sweet, rather small, and of +flattened form;--_mango-d'or_ (golden mango), worth half a franc +each;--_mango-Lamentin_, a highly cultivated variety--and the superb +_Reine-Amelie_ (or Queen Amelia), a great yellow fruit which retails +even in Martinique at five cents apiece. + + + +VIII. + + +... "_Ou c'est bonhomme caton?-ou c'est zimage, non?_" (Am I a +pasteboard man, or an image, that I do not eat?) Cyrillia wants to know. +The fact is that I am a little overfed; but the stranger in the tropics +cannot eat like a native, and my abstemiousness is a surprise. In the +North we eat a good deal for the sake of caloric; in the tropics, unless +one be in the habit of taking much physical exercise, which is a very +difficult thing to do, a generous appetite is out of the question. +Cyrillia will not suffer me to live upon _mange-Creole_ altogether; she +insists upon occasional beefsteaks and roasts, and tries to tempt me +with all kinds of queer delicious, desserts as well,--particularly those +cakes made of grated cocoanut and sugar-syrup (_tablett-coco-rape_) +of which a stranger becomes very fond. But, nevertheless, I cannot eat +enough to quiet Cyrillia's fears. + +Not eating enough is not her only complaint against me. I am perpetually +doing something or other which shocks her. The Creoles are the most +cautious livers in the world, perhaps;--the stranger who walks in the +sun without an umbrella, or stands in currents of air, is for them +an object of wonder and compassion. Cyrillia's complaints about my +recklessness in the matter of hygiene always terminate with the refrain: +"_Yo pa fai ca ici_"--(People never do such things in Martinique.) Among +such rash acts are washing one's face or hands while perspiring, taking +off one's hat on coming in from a walk, going out immediately after +a bath, and washing my face with soap. "Oh, Cyrillia! what +foolishness!--why should I not wash my face with soap?" "Because it will +blind you," Cyrillia answers: "_ca ke tchoue limie zie ou_" (it will +kill the light in your eyes). There is no cleaner person than Cyrillia; +and, indeed among the city people, the daily bath is the rule in all +weathers; but soap is never used on the face by thousands, who, like +Cyrillia, believe it will "kill the light of the eyes." + +One day I had been taking a long walk in the sun, and returned so +thirsty that all the old stories about travellers suffering in waterless +deserts returned to memory with new significance;--visions of simooms +arose before me. What a delight to see and to grasp the heavy, red, +thick-lipped _dobanne_, the water-jar, dewy and cool with the exudation +of the _Eau-de-Gouyave_ which filled it to the brim,--_toutt vivant_, +as Cyrillia says, "all alive"! There was a sudden scream,--the +water-pitcher was snatched from my hands by Cyrillia with the question: +"_Ess ou le tchoue co-ou?--Saint Joseph!_" (Did I want to kill my +body?)... The Creoles use the word "body" in speaking of anything that +can happen to one,--"hurt one's body," "tire one's body," "marry +one's body," "bury one's body," etc.;--I wonder whether the expression +originated in zealous desire to prove a profound faith in the soul.... +Then Cyrillia made me a little punch with sugar and rum, and told me +I must never drink fresh-water after a walk unless I wanted to kill my +body. In this matter her advice was good. The immediate result of a +cold drink while heated is a profuse and icy perspiration, during which +currents of air are really dangerous. A cold is not dreaded here, and +colds are rare; but pleurisy is common, and may be the consequence of +any imprudent exposure. + +I do not often have the opportunity at home of committing even an +unconscious imprudence; for Cyrillia is ubiquitous, and always on the +watch lest something dreadful should happen to me. She is wonderful as +a house-keeper as well as a cook: there is certainly much to do, and +she has only a child to help her, but she always seems to have time. +Her kitchen apparatus is of the simplest kind: a charcoal furnace +constructed of bricks, a few earthenware pots (_canar_), and some +grid-irons;--yet with these she can certainly prepare as many dishes as +there are days in the year. I have never known her to be busy with her +_canari_ for more than an hour; yet everything is kept in perfect order. +When she is not working, she is quite happy in sitting at a window, and +amusing herself by watching the life of the street,--or playing with +a kitten, which she has trained so well that it seems to understand +everything she says. + + + +IX. + + +With darkness all the population of the island retire to their +homes;--the streets become silent, and the life of the day is done. +By eight o'clock nearly all the windows are closed, and the lights put +out;--by nine the people are asleep. There are no evening parties, no +night amusements, except during rare theatrical seasons and times of +Carnival; there are no evening visits: active existence is almost timed +by the rising and setting of the sun.... The only pleasure left for the +stranger of evenings is a quiet smoke on his balcony or before his door: +reading is out of the question, partly because books are rare, partly +because lights are bad, partly because insects throng about every lamp +or candle. I am lucky enough to have a balcony, broad enough for a +rocking-chair; and sometimes Cyrillia and the kitten come to keep me +company before bedtime. The kitten climbs on my knees; Cyrillia sits +right down upon the balcony. + +One bright evening, Cyrillia was amusing herself very much by watching +the clouds: they were floating high; the moonlight made them brilliant +as frost. As they changed shape under the pressure of the trade-wind, +Cyrillia seemed to discover wonderful things in them: sheep, ships with +sails, cows, faces, perhaps even _zombis_. + +--"_Travaill Bon-Die joli,--anh?_" (Is not the work of the Good-God +pretty?) she said at last.... "There was Madame Remy, who used to sell +the finest _foulards_ and Madrases in St. Pierre;--she used to study the +clouds. She drew the patterns of the clouds for her _foulards_: whenever +she saw a beautiful cloud or a beautiful rainbow, she would make a +drawing of it in color at once; and then she would send that to France +to have _foulards_ made just like it.... Since she is dead, you do not +see any more pretty _foulards_ such as there used to be."... + +--"Would you like to look at the moon with my telescope, Cyrillia?" I +asked. "Let me get it for you." + +--"Oh no, no!" she answered, as if shocked. + +--"Why?" + +--"_Ah! faut pa gade baggaie Bon-Die conm ca!_" (It is not right to look +at the things of the Good-God that way.) + +I did not insist. After a little silence, Cyrillia resumed:-- + +--"But I saw the Sun and the Moon once fighting together: that was what +people call an _eclipse_,--is not that the word?... They fought together +a long time: I was looking at them. We put a _terrine_ full of water +on the ground, and looked into the water to see them. And the Moon is +stronger than the Sun!--yes, the Sun was obliged to give way to the +Moon.... Why do they fight like that?" + +--"They don't, Cyrillia." + +--"Oh yes, they do. I saw them!... And the Moon is much stronger than +the Sun!" + +I did not attempt to contradict this testimony of the eyes. Cyrillia +continued to watch the pretty clouds. Then she said:--"Would you not +like to have a ladder long enough to let you climb up to those clouds, +and see what they are made of?" + +--"Why, Cyrillia, they are only vapor,--brume: I have been in clouds." + +She looked at me in surprise, and, after a moment's silence, asked, with +an irony of which I had not supposed her capable:-- + +--"Then you are the Good-God?" + +--"Why, Cyrillia, it is not difficult to reach clouds. You see clouds +always upon the top of the Montagne Pelee;--people go there. I have been +there--in the clouds." + +--"Ah! those are not the same clouds: those are not the clouds of the +Good-God. You cannot touch the sky when you are on the Morne de la +Croix." + +--"My dear Cyrillia, there is no sky to touch. The sky is only an +appearance." + +--"_Anh, anh, anh!_ No sky!--you say there is no sky?... Then, what is +that up there?" + +--"That is air, Cyrillia, beautiful blue air." + +--"And what are the stars fastened to?" + +--"To nothing. They are suns, but so much further away than our sun that +they look small." + +--"No, they are not suns! They have not the same form as the sun... You +must not say there is no sky: it is wicked! But you are not a Catholic!" + +--"My dear Cyrillia, I don't see what that has to do with the sky." + +--"Where does the Good-God stay, if there be no sky? And where is +heaven?--and where is hell?" + +--"Hell in the sky, Cyrillia?" + +--"The Good-God made heaven in one part of the sky, and hell in another +part, for bad people.... Ah! you are a Protestant;--you do not know the +things of the Good-God! That is why you talk like that." + +--"What is a Protestant, Cyrillia?" + +--"You are one. The Protestants do not believe in religion,--do not love +the Good-God." + +--"Well, I am neither a Protestant nor a Catholic, Cyrillia." + +--"Oh! you do not mean that; you cannot be a _maudi_, an accursed. There +are only the Protestants, the Catholics, and the accursed. You are not a +_maudi_, I am sure, But you must not say there is no sky"... + +--"But, Cyrillia"-- + +--"No: I will not listen to you:--you are a Protestant. Where does the +rain come from, if there is no sky,"... + +--"Why, Cyrillia,... the clouds"... + +--"No, you are a Protestant.... How can you say such things? There are +the Three Kings and the Three Valets,--the beautiful stars that come +at Christmas-time,--there, over there--all beautiful, and big, big, +big!... And you say there is no sky!" + +--"Cyrillia, perhaps I am a _maudi_." + +--"No, no! You are only a Protestant. But do not tell me there is no +sky: it is wicked to say that!" + +--"I won't say it any more, Cyrillia--there! But I will say there are no +_zombis_." + +--"I know you are not a _maudi_;--you have been baptized." + +--"How do you know I have been baptized?" + +--"Because, if you had not been baptized you would see _zombis_ all +the time, even in broad day. All children who are not baptized see +_zombis_."... + + + +X. + + +Cyrilla's solicitude for me extends beyond the commonplaces of hygiene +and diet into the uncertain domain of matters ghostly. She fears much +that something might happen to me through the agency of wizards, witches +(_socies_), or _zombis_. Especially zombis. Cyrillia's belief in zombis +has a solidity that renders argument out of the question. This belief +is part of her inner nature,--something hereditary, racial, ancient +as Africa, as characteristic of her people as the love of rhythms +and melodies totally different from our own musical conceptions, but +possessing, even for the civilized, an inexplicable emotional charm. + +_Zombi!_--the word is perhaps full of mystery even for those who made +it. The explanations of those who utter it most often are never quite +lucid: it seems to convey ideas darkly impossible to define,--fancies +belonging to the mind of another race and another era,--unspeakably old. +Perhaps the word in our own language which offers the best analogy is +"goblin": yet the one is not fully translated by the other. Both have, +however, one common ground on which they become indistinguishable,--that +region of the supernatural which is most primitive and most vague; and +the closest relation between the savage and the civilized fancy may be +found in the fears which we call childish,--of darkness, shadows, and +things dreamed. One form of the _zombi_-belief--akin to certain ghostly +superstitions held by various primitive races--would seem to have +been suggested by nightmare,--that form of nightmare in which familiar +persons become slowly and hideously transformed into malevolent beings. +The _zombi_ deludes under the appearance of a travelling companion, an +old comrade--like the desert spirits of the Arabs--or even under the +form of an animal. Consequently the creole negro fears everything living +which he meets after dark upon a lonely road,--a stray horse, a cow, +even a dog; and mothers quell the naughtiness of their children by +the threat of summoning a zombi-cat or a zombi-creature of some kind. +"_Zombi ke nana ou_" (the zombi will gobble thee up) is generally an +effectual menace in the country parts, where it is believed zombis may +be met with any time after sunset. In the city it is thought that their +regular hours are between two and four o'clock in the morning. At least +so Cyrillia says:-- + +--"Deezhe, toua-zhe-matin: c'est lhe zombi. Yo ka soti dezhe, toua zhe: +c'est lhe yo. A quattrhe yo ka rentre;--angelus ka sonne." (At four +o'clock they go back where they came from, before the _Angelus_ rings.) +Why? + +--"_C'est pou moune pas joinne yo dans larue_." (So that people may not +meet with them in the street), Cyrillia answers. + +--"Are they afraid of the people, Cyrillia?" I asked. + +--"No, they are not afraid; but they do not want people to know their +business" (_pa le moune oue zaffai yo_). + +Cyrillia also says one must not look out of the window when a dog howls +at night. Such a dog may be a _mauvais vivant_ (evil being): "If he sees +me looking at him he will say, '_Ou tropp quiriese quittee cabane ou pou +gade zaffai lezautt_.'" (You are too curious to leave your bed like that +to look at other folks' business.) + +--"And what then, Cyrillia?" + +--"Then he will put out your eyes,--_y ke coqui zie ou_,--make you +blind." + +--"But, Cyrillia," I asked one day, "did you ever see any zombis?" + +--"How? I often see them!... They walk about the room at night;--they +walk like people. They sit in the rocking-chairs and rock themselves +very softly, and look at me. I say to them:--'What do you want here?--I +never did any harm to anybody. Go away!' Then they go away." + +--"What do they look like?" + +--"Like people,--sometimes like beautiful people (_bel moune_). I am +afraid of them. I only see them when there is no light burning. While +the lamp bums before the Virgin they do not come. But sometimes the oil +fails, and the light dies." + +In my own room there are dried palm leaves and some withered flowers +fastened to the wall. Cyrillia put them there. They were taken from +the _reposoirs_ (temporary altars) erected for the last Corpus Christi +procession: consequently they are blessed, and ought to keep the zombis +away. That is why they are fastened to the wall, over my bed. + +Nobody could be kinder to animals than Cyrillia usually shows herself +to be: all the domestic animals in the neighborhood impose upon +her;--various dogs and cats steal from her impudently, without the least +fear of being beaten. I was therefore very much surprised to see her +one evening catch a flying beetle that approached the light, and +deliberately put its head in the candle-flame. When I asked her how she +could be so cruel, she replied:-- + +--"_Ah ou pa connaitt choie pays-ci_." (You do not know Things in this +country.) + +The Things thus referred to I found to be supernatural Things. It is +popularly believed that certain winged creatures which circle about +candles at night may be _engages_ or _envoyes_--wicked people having the +power of transformation, or even zombis "sent" by witches or wizards to +do harm. "There was a woman at Tricolore," Cyrillia says, "who used to +sew a great deal at night; and a big beetle used to come into her room +and fly about the candle, and and bother her very much. One night she +managed to get hold of it, and she singed its head in the candle. Next +day, a woman who was her neighbor came to the house with her head +all tied up. '_Ah! macoume_,' asked the sewing-woman, '_ca ou ni dans +guiole-ou?_' And the other answered, very angrily, '_Ou ni toupet mande +moin ca moin ni dans guiole moin!--et cete ou qui te brile guiole moin +nans chandelle-ou hie-soue_.'" (You have the impudence to ask what +is the matter with my mouth! and you yourself burned my mouth in your +candle last night.) + +Early one morning, about five o'clock, Cyrillia, opening the front door, +saw a huge crab walking down the street. Probably it had escaped from +some barrel; for it is customary here to keep live crabs in barrels and +fatten them,--feeding them with maize, mangoes, and, above all, green +peppers: nobody likes to cook crabs as soon as caught; for they may have +been eating manchineel apples at the river-mouths. Cyrillia uttered +a cry of dismay on seeing that crab; then I heard her talking to +herself:--"_I_ touch it?--never! it can go about its business. How do +I know it is not _an arranged crab_ (_yon crabe range_), or an +_envoye_?--since everybody knows I like crabs. For two sous I can buy +a fine crab and know where it comes from." The crab went on down the +street: everywhere the sight of it created consternation; nobody dared +to touch it; women cried out at it, "_Miserabe!--envoye Satan!--allez, +maudi!_"--some threw holy water on the crab. Doubtless it reached the +sea in safety. In the evening Cyrillia said: "I think that crab was +a little zombi;--I am going to burn a light all night to keep it from +coming back." + +Another day, while I was out, a negro to whom I had lent two francs came +to the house, and paid his debt Cyrillia told me when I came back, and +showed me the money carefully enveloped in a piece of brown paper; but +said I must not touch it,--she would get rid of it for me at the market. +I laughed at her fears; and she observed: "You do not know negroes, +Missie!--negroes are wicked, negroes are jealous! I do not want you to +touch that money, because I have not a good opinion about this affair." + +After I began to learn more of the underside of Martinique life, I could +understand the source and justification of many similar superstitions +in simple and uneducated minds. The negro sorcerer is, at worst, only a +poisoner; but he possesses a very curious art which long defied serious +investigation, and in the beginning of the last century was attributed, +even by whites, to diabolical influence. In 1721, 1723, and 1725, +several negroes were burned alive at the stake as wizards in league with +the devil. It was an era of comparative ignorance; but even now +things are done which would astonish the most sceptical and practical +physician. For example, a laborer discharged from a plantation vows +vengeance; and the next morning the whole force of hands--the entire +atelier--are totally disabled from work. Every man and woman on the +place is unable to walk; everybody has one or both legs frightfully +swollen. _Yo te ka pile malifice_: they have trodden on a "malifice." +What is the "malifice"? All that can be ascertained is that certain +little prickly seeds have been scattered all over the ground, where the +barefooted workers are in the habit of passing. Ordinarily, treading on +these seeds is of no consequence; but it is evident in such a case that +they must have been prepared in a special way,--soaked in some poison, +perhaps snake-venom. At all events, the physician deems it safest to +treat the inflammations after the manner of snake wounds; and after many +days the hands are perhaps able to resume duty. + + + +XI. + + +While Cyrillia is busy with her _canari_, she talks to herself or sings. +She has a low rich voice,--sings strange things, things that have been +forgotten by this generation,--creole songs of the old days, having a +weird rhythm and fractions of tones that are surely African. But more +generally she talks to herself, as all the Martiniquaises do: it is +a continual murmur as of a stream. At first I used to think she was +talking to somebody else, and would call out:-- + +--"_Epi quiless moune ca ou ka pale-a?_" + +But she would always answer:--"_Moin ka pale anni co moin_" (I am only +talking to my own body), which is the creole expression for talking to +oneself. + +--"And what are you talking so much to your own body about, Cyrillia?" + +--"I am talking about my own little affairs" (_ti zaffai-moin_).... That +is all that I could ever draw from her. + +But when not working, she will sit for hours looking out of the window. +In this she resembles the kitten: both seem to find the same silent +pleasure in watching the street, or the green heights that rise above +its roofs,--the Morne d'Orange. Occasionally at such times she will +break the silence in the strangest way, if she thinks I am not too busy +with my papers to answer a question:-- + +--"_Missie?_"--timidly. + +--"Eh?" + +--"_Di moin, che, ti manmaille dans pays ou, toutt piti, piti,--ess ca +pale Anglais?_" (Do the little children in my country--the very, very +little children--talk English?) + +--"Why, certainly, Cyrillia." + +--"_Toutt piti, piti?_"--with growing surprise. + +--"Why, of course!" + +--"_C'est drole, ca_" (It is queer, that!) She cannot understand it. + +--"And the little _manmaille_ in Martinique, Cyrillia--_toutt +piti, piti_,--don't they talk creole?" + +--"'_Oui; mais toutt moune ka pale negue: ca facile_." (Yes; but anybody +can talk negro--that is easy to learn.) + + + +XII. + + +Cyrillia's room has no furniture in it: the Martinique bonne lives as +simply and as rudely as a domestic animal. One thin mattress covered +with a sheet, and elevated from the floor only by a lefant, forms her +bed. The _lefant_, or "elephant," is composed of two thick square pieces +of coarse hard mattress stuffed with shavings, and placed +end to end. Cyrillia has a good pillow, however,--_bourre epi +fleches-canne_,--filled with the plumes of the sugar-cane. A cheap +trunk with broken hinges contains her modest little wardrobe: a few +_mouchoirs_, or kerchiefs, used for head-dresses, a spare _douillette_, +or long robe, and some tattered linen. Still she is always clean, neat, +fresh-looking. I see a pair of sandals in the corner,--such as the women +of the country sometimes wear--wooden soles with a leather band for the +instep, and two little straps; but she never puts them on. Fastened to +the wall are two French prints--lithographs: one representing Victor +Hugo's _Esmeralda_ in prison with her pet goat; the other, Lamartine's +_Laurence_ with her fawn. Both are very old and stained and bitten by +the _bete-a-ciseau_, a species of _lepisma_, which destroys books +and papers, and everything it can find exposed. On a shelf are two +bottles,--one filled with holy water; another with _tafia camphree_ +(camphor dissolved in tafia), which is Cyrillia's sole remedy for colds, +fevers, headaches--all maladies not of a very fatal description. There +are also a little woollen monkey, about three inches high--the +dusty plaything of a long-dead child;--an image of the Virgin, even +smaller;--and a broken cup with fresh bright blossoms in it, the +Virgin's flower-offering;--and the Virgin's invariable lamp--a +night-light, a little wick floating on olive-oil in a tiny glass. + +I know that Cyrillia must have bought these flowers--they are garden +flowers--at the Marche du Fort. There are always old women sitting there +who sell nothing else but bouquets for the Virgin,--and who cry out to +passers-by:--"_Gagne ti bouquet pou Viege-ou, che!_... Buy a nosegay, +dear, for your Virgin;--she is asking you for one;--give her a little +one, _che cocott_."... Cyrillia says you must not smell the flowers you +give the Virgin: it would be stealing from her.... The little lamp is +always lighted at six o'clock. At six o'clock the Virgin is supposed to +pass through all the streets of St. Pierre, and wherever a lamp burns +before her image, she enters there and blesses that house. "_Faut lime +lampe ou pou fai la-Viege passe dans caie-ou_," says Cyrillia. (You must +light the lamp to make the Virgin come into your house.)... Cyrillia +often talks to her little image, exactly as if it were a baby,--calls it +pet names,--asks if it is content with the flowers. + +This image of the Virgin is broken: it is only half a Virgin,--the upper +half. Cyrillia has arranged it so, nevertheless, that had I not been +very inquisitive I should never have divined its mishap. She found a +small broken powder-box without a lid,--probably thrown negligently out +of a boudoir window by some wealthy beauty: she filled this little box +with straw, and fixed the mutilated image upright within it, so that you +could never suspect the loss of its feet. The Virgin looks very funny, +thus peeping over the edge of her little box,--looks like a broken toy, +which a child has been trying to mend. But this Virgin has offerings +too: Cyrillia buys flowers for her, and sticks them all round her, +between the edge of the powder-box and the straw. After all, Cyrillia's +Virgin is quite as serious a fact as any image of silver or of ivory in +the homes of the rich: probably the prayers said to her are more simply +beautiful, and more direct from the heart, than many daily murmured +before the _chapelles_ of luxurious homes. And the more one looks at it, +the more one feels that it were almost wicked to smile at this little +broken toy of faith. + +--"Cyrillia, _mafi_," I asked her one day, after my discovery of the +little Virgin,--"would you not like me to buy a _chapelle_ for you?" +The _chapelle_ is the little bracket-altar, together with images and +ornaments, to be found in every creole bedroom. + +--"_Mais non, Missie_," she answered, smiling, "_moin aimein ti Viege +moin, pa le gagnin dautt_. I love my little Virgin: do not want any +other. I have seen much trouble: she was with me in my trouble;--she +heard my prayers. It would be wicked for me to throw her away. When I +have a sou to spare, I buy flowers for her;--when I have no money, I +climb the mornes, and pick pretty buds for her.... But why should Missie +want to buy me a _chapelle?_--Missie is a Protestant?" + +--"I thought it might give you pleasure, Cyrillia." + +--"No, Missie, I thank you; it would not give me pleasure. But Missie +could give me something else which would make me very happy--I often +thought of asking Missie...but--" + +--"Tell me what it is, Cyrillia." + +She remained silent a moment, then said:-- + +--"Missie makes photographs...." + +--"You want a photograph of yourself, Cyrillia?" + +--"Oh! no, Missie, I am too ugly and too old. But I have a daughter. She +is beautiful--_yon bel bois_,--like a beautiful tree, as we say here. I +would like so much to have her picture taken." + +A photographic instrument belonging to a clumsy amateur suggested this +request to Cyrillia. I could not attempt such work successfully; but I +gave her a note to a photographer of much skill; and a few days later +the portrait was sent to the house. Cyrillia's daughter was certainly a +comely girl,--tall and almost gold-colored, with pleasing features; and +the photograph looked very nice, though less nice than the original. +Half the beauty of these people is a beauty of tint,--a tint so +exquisite sometimes that I have even heard white creoles declare +no white complexion compares with it: the greater part of the charm +remaining is grace,--the grace of movement; and neither of these can be +rendered by photography. I had the portrait framed for Cyrillia, to hang +up beside her little pictures. + +When it came, she was not in; I put it in her room, and waited to see +the effect. On returning, she entered there; and I did not see her for +so long a time that I stole to the door of the chamber to observe her. +She was standing before the portrait,--looking at it, talking to it as +if it were alive. "_Yche moin, yche moin!... Oui! ou toutt bel!--yche +moin bel_." (My child, my child!... Yes, thou art all beautiful: my +child is beautiful.) All at once she turned--perhaps she noticed +my shadow, or felt my presence in some way: her eyes were wet;--she +started, flushed, then laughed. + +--"Ah! Missie, you watch me;--_ou guette moin_.... But she is my child. +Why should I not love her?... She looks so beautiful there." + +--"She is beautiful, Cyrillia;--I love to see you love her." + +She gazed at the picture a little longer in silence;--then turned to me +again, and asked earnestly:-- + +--"_Pouki yo ja ka fai potrai pale--anh?... pisse yo ka tire y toutt +samm ou: c'est ou-menm!... Yo doue fai y pale 'tou_." + +(Why do they not make a portrait talk,--tell me? For they draw it just +all like you!--it is yourself: they ought to make it talk.) + +--"Perhaps they will be able to do something like that one of these +days, Cyrillia." + +--"Ah! that would be so nice. Then I could talk to her. _C'est yon bel +moune moin fai--y bel, joli moune!... Moin se cause epi y_."... + +... And I, watching her beautiful childish emotion, thought:--Cursed +be the cruelty that would persuade itself that one soul may be +like another,--that one affection may be replaced by another,--that +individual goodness is not a thing apart, original, untwinned on earth, +but only the general characteristic of a class or type, to be sought and +found and utilized at will!... + +Self-cursed he who denies the divinity of love! Each heart, each brain +in the billions of humanity,--even so surely as sorrow lives,--feels and +thinks in some special way unlike any other; and goodness in each +has its unlikeness to all other goodness,--and thus its own infinite +preciousness; for however humble, however small, it is something all +alone, and God never repeats his work. No heart-beat is cheap, no +gentleness is despicable, no kindness is common; and Death, in removing +a life--the simplest life ignored,--removes what never will reappear +through the eternity of eternities,--since every being is the sum of +a chain of experiences infinitely varied from all others.... To some +Cyrillia's happy tears might bring a smile: to me that smile would seem +the unforgivable sin against the Giver of Life!... + + + + +CHAPTER XII. "PA COMBINE, CHE!" + + + +I. + + +... More finely than any term in our tongue does the French word +_frisson_ express that faint shiver--as of a ghostly touch thrilling +from hair to feet--which intense pleasure sometimes gives, and which is +felt most often and most strongly in childhood, when the imagination is +still so sensitive and so powerful that one's whole being trembles +to the vibration of a fancy. And this electric word best expresses, +I think, that long thrill of amazed delight inspired by the first +knowledge of the tropic world,--a sensation of weirdness in beauty, like +the effect, in child-days, of fairy tales and stories of phantom isles. + +For all unreal seems the vision of it. The transfiguration of all +things by the stupendous light and the strange vapors of the West Indian +sea,--the interorbing of flood and sky in blinding azure,--the sudden +spirings of gem-tinted coast from the ocean,--the iris-colors and +astounding shapes of the hills,--the unimaginable magnificence of +palms,--the high woods veiled and swathed in vines that blaze like +emerald: all remind you in some queer way of things half forgotten,--the +fables of enchantment. Enchantment it is indeed--but only the +enchantment of that Great Wizard, the Sun, whose power you are scarcely +beginning to know. + +And into the life of the tropical city you enter as in dreams one enters +into the life of a dead century. In all the quaint streets--over whose +luminous yellow facades the beautiful burning violet of the sky appears +as if but a few feet away--you see youth good to look upon as ripe +fruit; and the speech of the people is soft as a coo; and eyes of brown +girls caress you with a passing look.... Love's world, you may have +heard, has few restraints here, where Nature ever seems to cry out, like +the swart seller of corossoles:--"_ca qui le doudoux?_"... + +How often in some passing figure does one discern an ideal almost +realized, and forbear to follow it with untired gaze only when another, +another, and yet another, come to provoke the same aesthetic fancy,--to +win the same unspoken praise! How often does one long for artist's power +to fix the fleeting lines, to catch the color, to seize the whole exotic +charm of some special type!... One finds a strange charm even in the +timbre of these voices,--these half-breed voices, always with a tendency +to contralto, and vibrant as ringing silver. What is that mysterious +quality in a voice which has power to make the pulse beat faster, even +when the singer is unseen?... do only the birds know? + +... It seems to you that you could never weary of watching this +picturesque life,--of studying the costumes, brilliant with butterfly +colors,--and the statuesque semi-nudity of laboring hundreds,--and the +untaught grace of attitudes,--and the simplicity of manners. Each day +brings some new pleasure of surprise;--even from the window of your +lodging you are ever noting something novel, something to delight the +sense of oddity or beauty.... Even in your room everything interests +you, because of its queerness or quaintness: you become fond of the +objects about you,--the great noiseless rocking-chairs that lull to +sleep;--the immense bed (_lit-a-bateau_) of heavy polished wood, with +its richly carven sides reaching down to the very floor;--and its +invariable companion, the little couch or _sopha_, similarly shaped +but much narrower, used only for the siesta;--and the thick red earthen +vessels (_dobannes_) which keep your drinking-water cool on the hottest +days, but which are always filled thrice between sunrise and sunset with +clear water from the mountain,--_dleau toutt vivant_, "all alive";--and +the _verrines_, tall glass vases with stems of bronze in which your +candle will burn steadily despite a draught;--and even those funny +little angels and Virgins which look at you from their bracket in the +corner, over the oil lamp you are presumed to kindle nightly in their +honor, however great a heretic you may be.... You adopt at once, and +without reservation, those creole home habits which are the result of +centuries of experience with climate,--abstention from solid food before +the middle of the day, repose after the noon meal;--and you find each +repast an experience as curious as it is agreeable. It is not at all +difficult to accustom oneself to green pease stewed with sugar, eggs +mixed with tomatoes, salt fish stewed in milk, palmiste pith made into +salad, grated cocoa formed into rich cakes, and dishes of titiri cooked +in oil,--the minuscule fish, of which a thousand will scarcely fill +a saucer. Above all, you are astonished by the endless variety of +vegetables and fruits, of all conceivable shapes and inconceivable +flavors. + +And it does not seem possible that even the simplest little recurrences +of this antiquated, gentle home-life could ever prove wearisome by daily +repetition through the months and years. The musical greeting of +the colored child, tapping at your door before sunrise,--"_Bonjou', +Missie_,"--as she brings your cup of black hot coffee and slice of +corossole;--the smile of the silent brown girl who carries your meals +up-stairs in a tray poised upon her brightly coiffed head, and who +stands by while you dine, watching every chance to serve, treading +quite silently with her pretty bare feet;--the pleasant manners of +the _machanne_ who brings your fruit, the _porteuse_ who delivers your +bread, the _blanchisseuse_ who washes your linen at the river,--and all +the kindly folk who circle about your existence, with their trays and +turbans, their _foulards_ and _douillettes_, their primitive grace +and creole chatter: these can never cease to have a charm for you. You +cannot fail to be touched also by the amusing solicitude of these good +people for your health, because you are a stranger: their advice about +hours to go out and hours to stay at home,--about roads to follow and +paths to avoid on account of snakes,--about removing your hat and +coat, or drinking while warm.... Should you fall ill, this solicitude +intensifies to devotion; you are tirelessly tended;--the good people +will exhaust their wonderful knowledge of herbs to get you well,--will +climb the mornes even at midnight, in spite of the risk of snakes and +fear of zombis, to gather strange plants by the light of a lantern. +Natural joyousness, natural kindliness, heart-felt desire to please, +childish capacity of being delighted with trifles,--seem characteristic +of all this colored population. It is turning its best side towards you, +no doubt; but the side of the nature made visible appears none the less +agreeable because you suspect there is another which you have not seen. +What kindly inventiveness is displayed in contriving surprises for you, +or in finding some queer thing to show you,--some fantastic plant, +or grotesque fish, or singular bird! What apparent pleasure in taking +trouble to gratify,--what innocent frankness of sympathy!... Childishly +beautiful seems the readiness of this tinted race to compassionate: you +do not reflect that it is also a savage trait, while the charm of its +novelty is yet upon you. No one is ashamed to shed tears for the death +of a pet animal; any mishap to a child creates excitement, and evokes an +immediate volunteering of services. And this compassionate sentiment is +often extended, in a semi-poetical way, even to inanimate objects. One +June morning, I remember, a three-masted schooner lying in the bay +took fire, and had to be set adrift. An immense crowd gathered on the +wharves; and I saw many curious manifestations of grief,--such grief, +perhaps, as an infant feels for the misfortune of a toy it imagines to +possess feeling, but not the less sincere because unreasoning. As the +flames climbed the rigging, and the masts fell, the crowd moaned as +though looking upon some human tragedy; and everywhere one could hear +such strange cries of pity as, "_Pauv' malhere!_" (poor unfortunate), +"_pauv' diabe!_"... "_Toutt baggaie-y pou alle, casse!_" (All its +things-to-go-with are broken!) sobbed a girl, with tears streaming down +her cheeks.... She seemed to believe it was alive.... + +... And day by day the artlessness of this exotic humanity touches you +more;--day by day this savage, somnolent, splendid Nature--delighting in +furious color--bewitches you more. Already the anticipated necessity +of having to leave it all some day--the far-seen pain of bidding it +farewell--weighs upon you, even in dreams. + + + +II. + + +Reader, if you be of those who have longed in vain for a glimpse of that +tropic world,--tales of whose beauty charmed your childhood, and made +stronger upon you that weird mesmerism of the sea which pulls at the +heart of a boy,--one who had longed like you, and who, chance-led, +beheld at last the fulfilment of the wish, can swear to you that the +magnificence of the reality far excels the imagining. Those who know +only the lands in which all processes for the satisfaction of human +wants have been perfected under the terrible stimulus of necessity, can +little guess the witchery of that Nature ruling the zones of color and +of light. Within their primeval circles, the earth remains radiant and +young as in that preglacial time whereof some transmitted memory +may have created the hundred traditions of an Age of Gold. And the +prediction of a paradise to come,--a phantom realm of rest and perpetual +light: may this not have been but a sum of the remembrances and the +yearnings of man first exiled from his heritage,--a dream born of the +great nostalgia of races migrating to people the pallid North?... + +... But with the realization of the hope to know this magical Nature you +learn that the actuality varies from the preconceived ideal otherwise +than in surpassing it. Unless you enter the torrid world equipped with +scientific knowledge extraordinary, your anticipations are likely to be +at fault. Perhaps you had pictured to yourself the effect of perpetual +summer as a physical delight,--something like an indefinite prolongation +of the fairest summer weather ever enjoyed at home. Probably you had +heard of fevers, risks of acclimatization, intense heat, and a swarming +of venomous creatures; but you may nevertheless believe you know what +precautions to take; and published statistics of climatic temperature +may have persuaded you that the heat is not difficult to bear. By that +enervation to which all white dwellers in the tropics are subject you +may have understood a pleasant languor,--a painless disinclination +to effort in a country where physical effort is less needed than +elsewhere,--a soft temptation to idle away the hours in a hammock, under +the shade of giant trees. Perhaps you have read, with eyes of faith, +that torpor of the body is favorable to activity of the mind, and +therefore believe that the intellectual powers can be stimulated and +strengthened by tropical influences:--you suppose that enervation will +reveal itself only as a beatific indolence which will leave the brain +free to think with lucidity, or to revel in romantic dreams. + + + +III. + + +You are not at first undeceived;--the disillusion is long delayed. +Doubtless you have read the delicious idyl of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre +(this is not Mauritius, but the old life of Mauritius was wellnigh the +same); and you look for idyllic personages among the beautiful humanity +about you,--for idyllic scenes among the mornes shadowed by primeval +forest, and the valleys threaded by a hundred brooks. I know not whether +the faces and forms that you seek will be revealed to you;--but you +will not be able to complain for the lack of idyllic loveliness in the +commonest landscape. Whatever artistic knowledge you possess will merely +teach you the more to wonder at the luxuriant purple of the sea, the +violet opulence of the sky, the violent beauty of foliage greens, the +lilac tints of evening, and the color-enchantments distance gives in +an atmosphere full of iridescent power,--the amethysts and agates, the +pearls and ghostly golds, of far mountainings. Never, you imagine, +never could one tire of wandering through those marvellous valleys,--of +climbing the silent roads under emeraldine shadow to heights from which +the city seems but a few inches long, and the moored ships tinier than +gnats that cling to a mirror,--or of swimming in that blue bay whose +clear flood stays warm through all the year. [51] + +Or, standing alone, in some aisle of colossal palms, where humming-birds +are flashing and shooting like a showering of jewel-fires, you feel +how weak the skill of poet or painter to fix the sensation of that +white-pillared imperial splendor;--and you think you know why creoles +exiled by necessity to colder lands may sicken for love of their +own,--die of home-yearning, as did many a one in far Louisiana, after +the political tragedies of 1848.... + +... But you are not a creole, and must pay tribute of suffering to the +climate of the tropics. You will have to learn that a temperature of +90 deg. Fahr. in the tropics is by no means the same thing as 90 deg. Fahr. in +Europe or the United States;--that the mornes cannot be climbed with +safety during the hotter hours of the afternoon;--that by taking a long +walk you incur serious danger of catching a fever;--that to enter the +high woods, a path must be hewn with the cutlass through the creepers +and vines and undergrowth,--among snakes, venomous insects, venomous +plants, and malarial exhalations;--that the finest blown dust is full +of irritant and invisible enemies;--that it is folly to seek repose on +a sward, or in the shade of trees,--particularly under tamarinds. Only +after you have by experience become well convinced of these facts can +you begin to comprehend something general in regard to West Indian +conditions of life. + + + +IV. + + +... Slowly the knowledge comes.... For months the vitality of a strong +European (the American constitution bears the test even better) may +resist the debilitating climate: perhaps the stranger will flatter +himself that, like men habituated to heavy labor in stifling +warmth,--those toiling in mines, in founderies in engine-rooms of ships, +at iron-furnaces,--so he too may become accustomed, without losing his +strength to the continuous draining of the pores, to the exhausting +force of this strange motionless heat which compels change of clothing +many times a day. But gradually he finds that it is not heat alone which +is debilitating him, but the weight and septic nature of an atmosphere +charged with vapor, with electricity, with unknown agents not less +inimical to human existence than propitious to vegetal luxuriance. If +he has learned those rules of careful living which served him well in a +temperate climate, he will not be likely to abandon them among his new +surroundings; and they will help him; no doubt,--particularly if he be +prudent enough to avoid the sea-coast at night, and all exposure to dews +or early morning mists, and all severe physical strain. Nevertheless, +he becomes slowly conscious of changes extraordinary going on within +him,--in especial, a continual sensation of weight in the brain, daily +growing, and compelling frequent repose;--also a curious heightening +of nervous sensibility to atmospheric changes, to tastes and odors, to +pleasure and pain. Total loss of appetite soon teaches him to follow the +local custom of eating nothing solid before mid-day, and enables him +to divine how largely the necessity for caloric enters into the +food-consumption of northern races. He becomes abstemious, eats +sparingly, and discovers his palate to have become oddly exacting--finds +that certain fruits and drinks are indeed, as the creoles assert, +appropriate only to particular physical conditions corresponding with +particular hours of the day. Corossole is only to be eaten in the +morning, after black coffee;--vermouth is good to drink only between the +hours of nine and half-past ten;--rum or other strong liquor only before +meals or after fatigue;--claret or wine only during a repast, and then +very sparingly,--for, strangely enough, wine is found to be injurious +in a country where stronger liquors are considered among the prime +necessaries of existence. + +And he expected, at the worst, to feel lazy, to lose some physical +energy! But this is no mere languor which now begins to oppress him;--it +is a sense of vital exhaustion painful as the misery of convalescence: +the least effort provokes a perspiration profuse enough to saturate +clothing, and the limbs ache as from muscular overstrain;--the lightest +attire feels almost insupportable;--the idea of sleeping even under a +sheet is torture, for the weight of a silken handkerchief is discomfort. +One wishes one could live as a savage,--naked in the heat. One burns +with a thirst impossible to assuage--feels a desire for stimulants, a +sense of difficulty in breathing, occasional quickenings of the heart's +action so violent as to alarm. Then comes at last the absolute dread of +physical exertion. Some slight relief might be obtained, no doubt, by +resigning oneself forthwith to adopt the gentle indolent manners of the +white creoles, who do not walk when it is possible to ride, and never +ride if it is equally convenient to drive;--but the northern nature +generally refuses to accept this ultimate necessity without a protracted +and painful struggle. + +... Not even then has the stranger fully divined the evil power of this +tropical climate, which remodels the characters of races within a couple +of generations,--changing the shape of the skeleton,--deepening +the cavities of the orbits to protect the eye from the flood of +light,--transforming the blood,--darkening the skin. Following upon the +nervous modifications of the first few months come modifications and +changes of a yet graver kind;--with the loss of bodily energy ensues a +more than corresponding loss of mental activity and strength. The whole +range of thought diminishes, contracts,--shrinks to that narrowest of +circles which surrounds the physical sell, the inner ring of merely +material sensation: the memory weakens appallingly;--the mind operates +faintly, slowly, incoherently,--almost as in dreams. Serious reading, +vigorous thinking, become impossible. You doze over the most important +project;--you fall fast asleep over the most fascinating of books. + +Then comes the vain revolt, the fruitless desperate striving with this +occult power which numbs the memory and enchants the will. Against +the set resolve to think, to act, to study, there is a hostile rush of +unfamiliar pain to the temples, to the eyes, to the nerve centres of +the brain; and a great weight is somewhere in the head, always growing +heavier: then comes a drowsiness that overpowers and stupefies, like the +effect of a narcotic. And this obligation to sleep, to sink into coma, +will impose itself just so surely as you venture to attempt any mental +work in leisure hours, after the noon repast, or during the heat of the +afternoon. Yet at night you can scarcely sleep. Repose is made feverish +by a still heat that keeps the skin drenched with thick sweat, or by +a perpetual, unaccountable, tingling and prickling of the whole +body-surface. With the approach of morning the air grows cooler, and +slumber comes,--a slumber of exhaustion, dreamless and sickly; and +perhaps when you would rise with the sun you feel such a dizziness, such +a numbness, such a torpor, that only by the most intense effort can you +keep your feet for the first five minutes. You experience a sensation +that recalls the poet's fancy of death-in-life, or old stories of sudden +rising from the grave: it is as though all the electricity of will +had ebbed away,--all the vital force evaporated, in the heat of the +night.... + + + +V. + + +It might be stated, I think, with safety, that for a certain class of +invalids the effect of the climate is like a powerful stimulant,--a +tonic medicine which may produce astonishing results within a fixed +time,--but which if taken beyond that time will prove dangerous. After +a certain number of months, your first enthusiasm with your new +surroundings dies out;--even Nature ceases to affect the senses in the +same way: the _frisson_ ceases to come to you. Meanwhile you may have +striven to become as much as possible a part of the exotic life into +which you have entered,--may have adopted its customs, learned its +language. But you cannot mix with it mentally;--You circulate only as an +oil-drop in its current. You still feel yourself alone. + +The very longest West Indian day is but twelve hours fifty-six +minutes;--perhaps your first dissatisfaction was evoked by the brevity +of the days. There is no twilight whatever; and all activity ceases with +sundown: there is no going outside of the city after dark, because of +snakes;--club life here ends at the hour it only begins abroad;--there +is no visiting of evenings; after the seven o'clock dinner, everyone +prepares to retire. And the foreigner, accustomed to make evening a time +for social intercourse, finds no small difficulty in resigning himself +to this habit of early retiring. The natural activity of a European +or American mind requires some intellectual exercise,--at least some +interchange of ideas with sympathetic natures; the hours during the +suspension of business after noon, or those following the closing of +offices at sunset, are the only ones in which busy men may find time +for such relaxation; and these very hours have been always devoted to +restorative sleep by the native population ever since the colony began. +Naturally, therefore, the stranger dreads the coming of the darkness, +the inevitable isolation of long sleepless hours. And if he seek those +solaces for loneliness which he was wont to seek at home,--reading, +study,--he is made to comprehend, as never before, what the absence of +all libraries, lack of books, inaccessibility of all reading-matter, +means for the man of the nineteenth century. One must send abroad to +obtain even a review, and wait months for its coming. And this +mental starvation gnaws at the brain more and more as one feels less +inclination and less capacity for effort, and as that single enjoyment, +which at first rendered a man indifferent to other pleasures,--the +delight of being alone with tropical Nature,--becomes more difficult to +indulge. When lethargy has totally mastered habit and purpose, and you +must at last confess yourself resigned to view Nature from your chamber, +or at best from a carriage window,--then, indeed, the want of all +literature proves a positive torture. It is not a consolation to +discover that you are an almost solitary sufferer,--from climate as +well as from mental hunger. With amazement and envy you see young girls +passing to walk right across the island and back before sunset, under +burdens difficult for a strong man to lift to his shoulder;--the same +journey on horseback would now weary you for days. You wonder of what +flesh and blood can these people be made,--what wonderful vitality +lies in those slender woman-bodies, which, under the terrible sun, and +despite their astounding expenditure of force, remain cool to the sight +and touch as bodies of lizards and serpents! And contrasting this savage +strength with your own weakness, you begin to understand better how +mighty the working of those powers which temper races and shape race +habits in accordance with environment. + +... Ultimately, if destined for acclimatation, you will cease to suffer +from these special conditions; but ere this can be, a long period of +nervous irritability must be endured; and fevers must thin the blood, +soften the muscles, transform the Northern tint of health to a dead +brown. You will have to learn that intellectual pursuits can be +persisted in only at risk of life;--that in this part of the world +there is nothing to do but to plant cane and cocoa, and make rum, +and cultivate tobacco,--or open a magazine for the sale of Madras +handkerchiefs and _foulards_,--and eat, drink, sleep, perspire. You +will understand why the tropics settled by European races produce no +sciences, arts, or literature,--why the habits and the thoughts of +other centuries still prevail where Time itself moves slowly as though +enfeebled by the heat. + +And with the compulsory indolence of your life, the long exacerbation +of the nervous system, will come the first pain of nostalgia,--the first +weariness of the tropics. It is not that Nature can become ever less +lovely to your sight; but that the tantalization of her dangerous +beauty, which you may enjoy only at a safe distance, exasperates at +last. The colors that at first bewitched will vex your eyes by their +violence;--the creole life that appeared so simple, so gentle, will +reveal dulnesses and discomforts undreamed of. You will ask yourself how +much longer can you endure the prodigious light, and the furnace heat +of blinding blue days, and the void misery of sleepless nights, and the +curse of insects, and the sound of the mandibles of enormous roaches +devouring the few books in your possession. You will grow weary of the +grace of the palms, of the gemmy colors of the ever-clouded peaks, of +the sight of the high woods made impenetrable by lianas and vines and +serpents. You will weary even of the tepid sea, because to enjoy it as a +swimmer you must rise and go out at hours while the morning air is +still chill and heavy with miasma;--you will weary, above all, of tropic +fruits, and feel that you would gladly pay a hundred francs for the +momentary pleasure of biting into one rosy juicy Northern apple. + + + +VI. + +--But if you believe this disillusion perpetual,--if you fancy the old +bewitchment has spent all its force upon you,--you do not know this +Nature. She is not done with you yet: she has only torpefied your +energies a little. Of your willingness to obey her, she takes no +cognizance;--she ignores human purposes, knows only molecules and their +combinations; and the blind blood in your veins,--thick with Northern +heat and habit,--is still in dumb desperate rebellion against her. + +Perhaps she will quell this revolt forever,--thus:-- + +One day, in the second hour of the afternoon, a few moments after +leaving home, there will come to you a sensation such as you have never +known before: a sudden weird fear of the light. + +It seems to you that the blue sky-fire is burning down into your +brain,--that the flare of the white pavements and yellow walls is +piercing somehow into your life,--creating an unfamiliar mental +confusion,--blurring out thought.... Is the whole world taking +fire?... The flaming azure of the sea dazzles and pains like a +crucible-glow;--the green of the mornes flickers and blazes in some +amazing way.... Then dizziness inexpressible: you grope with eyes shut +fast--afraid to open them again in that stupefying torrefaction,--moving +automatically,--vaguely knowing you must get out of the flaring and +flashing,--somewhere, anywhere away from the white wrath of the sun, +and the green fire of the hills, and the monstrous color of the +sea.... Then, remembering nothing, you find yourself in bed,--with an +insupportable sense of weight at the back of the head,--a pulse beating +furiously,--and a strange sharp pain at intervals stinging through your +eyes.... And the pain grows, expands,--fills all the skull,--forces you +to cry out, replaces all other sensations except a weak consciousness, +vanishing and recurring, that you are very sick, more sick than ever +before in all your life. + +... And with the tedious ebbing of the long fierce fever, all the heat +seems to pass from your veins. You can no longer imagine, as before, +that it would be delicious to die of cold;--you shiver even with all the +windows closed;--you feel currents of air,--imperceptible to nerves in +a natural condition,--which shock like a dash of cold water, whenever +doors are opened and closed; the very moisture upon your forehead is +icy. What you now wish for are stimulants and warmth. Your blood has +been changed;--tropic Nature has been good to you: she is preparing you +to dwell with her. + +... Gradually, under the kind nursing of those colored people,--among +whom, as a stranger, your lot will probably be cast,--you recover +strength; and perhaps it will seem to you that the pain of lying a +while in the Shadow of Death is more than compensated by this rare and +touching experience of human goodness. How tirelessly watchful,--how +naively sympathetic,--how utterly self-sacrificing these women-natures +are! Patiently, through weeks of stifling days and sleepless +nights,--cruelly unnatural to them, for their life is in the open +air,--they struggle to save without one murmur of fatigue, without +heed of their most ordinary physical wants, without a thought of +recompense;--trusting to their own skill when the physician abandons +hope,--climbing to the woods for herbs when medicines prove, without +avail. The dream of angels holds nothing sweeter than this reality of +woman's tenderness. + +And simultaneously with the return of force, you may wonder whether +this sickness has not sharpened your senses in some extraordinary +way,--especially hearing, sight, and smell. Once well enough to +be removed without danger, you will be taken up into the mountains +somewhere,--for change of air; and there it will seem to you, perhaps, +that never before did you feel so acutely the pleasure of perfumes,--of +color-tones,--of the timbre of voices. You have simply been +acclimated.... And suddenly the old fascination of tropic Nature seizes +you again,--more strongly than in the first days;--the _frisson_ of +delight returns; the joy of it thrills through all your blood,--making a +great fulness at your heart as of unutterable desire to give thanks.... + + + +VII. + + +... My friend Felicien had come to the colony fresh from the region of +the Vosges, with the muscles and energies of a mountaineer, and cheeks +pink as a French country-girl's;--he had never seemed to me physically +adapted for acclimation; and I feared much for him on hearing of his +first serious illness. Then the news of his convalescence came to me as +a grateful surprise. But I did not feel reassured by his appearance the +first evening I called at the little house to which he had been removed, +on the brow of a green height overlooking the town. I found him seated +in a _berceuse_ on the veranda. How wan he was, and how spectral his +smile of welcome,--as he held out to me a hand that seemed all of bone! + +... We chatted there a while. It had been one of those tropic days whose +charm interpenetrates and blends with all the subtler life of sensation, +and becomes a luminous part of it forever,--steeping all after-dreams +of ideal peace in supernal glory of color,--transfiguring all fancies of +the pure joy of being. Azure to the sea-line the sky had remained since +morning; and the trade-wind, warm as a caress, never brought even one +gauzy cloud to veil the naked beauty of the peaks. + +And the sun was yellowing,--as only over the tropics he yellows to +his death. Lilac tones slowly spread through sea and heaven from the +west;--mornes facing the light began to take wondrous glowing color,--a +tone of green so fiery that it looked as though all the rich sap of +their woods were phosphorescing. Shadows blued;--far peaks took +tinting that scarcely seemed of earth,--iridescent violets and +purples interchanging through vapor of gold.... Such the colors of the +_carangue_, when the beautiful tropic fish is turned in the light, and +its gem-greens shift to rich azure and prism-purple. + +Reclining in our chairs, we watched the strange splendor from the +veranda of the little cottage,--saw the peaked land slowly steep itself +in the aureate glow,--the changing color of the verdured mornes, and of +the sweep of circling sea. Tiny birds, bosomed with fire, were shooting +by in long curves, like embers flung by invisible hands. From far below, +the murmur of the city rose to us,--a stormy hum. So motionless we +remained that the green and gray lizards were putting out their heads +from behind the columns of the veranda to stare at us,--as if wondering +whether we were really alive. I turned my head suddenly to look at +two queer butterflies; and all the lizards hid themselves again. +_Papillon-lanmo_,--Death's butterflies,--these were called in the speech +of the people: their broad wings were black like blackest velvet;--as +they fluttered against the yellow light, they looked like silhouettes of +butterflies. Always through my memory of that wondrous evening,--when I +little thought I was seeing my friend's face for the last time,--there +slowly passes the black palpitation of those wings.... + +... I had been chatting with Felicien about various things which I +thought might have a cheerful interest for him; and more than once I +had been happy to see him smile.... But our converse waned. +The ever-magnifying splendor before us had been mesmerizing our +senses,--slowly overpowering our wills with the amazement of its beauty. +Then, as the sun's disk--enormous,--blinding gold--touched the lilac +flood, and the stupendous orange glow flamed up to the very zenith, we +found ourselyes awed at last into silence. + +The orange in the west deepened into vermilion. Softly and very swiftly +night rose like an indigo exhalation from the land,--filling the +valleys, flooding the gorges, blackening the woods, leaving only the +points of the peaks a while to catch the crimson glow. Forests +and fields began to utter a rushing sound as of torrents, always +deepening,--made up of the instrumentation and the voices of numberless +little beings: clangings as of hammered iron, ringings as of dropping +silver upon a stone, the dry bleatings of the _cabritt-bois_, and the +chirruping of tree-frogs, and the _k-i-i-i-i-i-i_ of crickets. Immense +trembling sparks began to rise and fall among the shadows,--twinkling +out and disappearing all mysteriously: these were the fire-flies +awakening. Then about the branches of the _bois-canon_ black shapes +began to hover, which were not birds--shapes flitting processionally +without any noise; each one in turn resting a moment as to nibble +something at the end of a bough;--then yielding place to another, and +circling away, to return again from the other side...the _guimbos_, the +great bats. + +But we were silent, with the emotion of sunset still upon us: that +ghostly emotion which is the transmitted experience of a race,--the sum +of ancestral experiences innumerable,--the mingled joy and pain +of a million years.... Suddenly a sweet voice pierced the +stillness,--pleading:-- + +--"_Pa combine, che!--pa combine conm ca!_" (Do not think, dear!--do not +think like that!) + +... Only less beautiful than the sunset she seemed, this slender +half-breed, who had come all unperceived behind us, treading soundlessly +with her slim bare feet.... "And you, Missie", she said to me, in a tone +of gentle reproach;--"you are his friend! why do you let him think? It +is thinking that will prevent him getting well." + +_Combine_ in creole signifies to think intently, and therefore to be +unhappy,--because, with this artless race, as with children, to +think intensely about anything is possible only under great stress of +suffering. + +--"_Pa combine,--non, che_," she repeated, plaintively, stroking +Felicien's hair. "It is thinking that makes us old.... And it is time to +bid your friend good-night."... + +--"She is so good," said Felicien, smiling to make her pleased;--"I +could never tell you how good. But she does not understand. She believes +I suffer if I am silent. She is contented only when she sees me laugh; +and so she will tell me creole stories by the hour to keep me amused, as +if I were a child."... + +As he spoke she slipped an arm about his neck. + +--"_Doudoux_," she persisted;--and her voice was a dove's coo,--"_Si ou +ainmein moin, pa combine-non!_" + +And in her strange exotic beauty, her savage grace, her supple caress, +the velvet witchery of her eyes,--it seemed to me that I beheld a +something imaged, not of herself, nor of the moment only,--a something +weirdly sensuous: the Spirit of tropic Nature made golden flesh, and +murmuring to each lured wanderer:--"_If thou wouldst love me, do not +think_"... + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. YE. + + + +I. + + +Almost every night, just before bedtime, I hear some group of children +in the street telling stories to each other. Stories, enigmas or +_tim-tim_, and songs, and round games, are the joy of child-life +here,--whether rich or poor. I am particularly fond of listening to the +stories,--which seem to me the oddest stories I ever heard. + +I succeeded in getting several dictated to me, so that I could write +them;--others were written for me by creole friends, with better +success. To obtain them in all their original simplicity and naive humor +of detail, one should be able to write them down in short-hand as fast +as they are related: they lose greatly in the slow process of dictation. +The simple mind of the native story-teller, child or adult, is seriously +tried by the inevitable interruptions and restraints of the dictation +method;--the reciter loses spirit, becomes soon weary, and purposely +shortens the narrative to finish the task as soon as possible. It seems +painful to such a one to repeat a phrase more than once,--at least +in the same way; while frequent questioning may irritate the most +good-natured in a degree that shows how painful to the untrained brain +may be the exercise of memory and steady control of imagination required +for continuous dictation. By patience, however, I succeeded in obtaining +many curiosities of oral literature,--representing a group of stories +which, whatever their primal origin, have been so changed by local +thought and coloring as to form a distinctively Martinique folk-tale +circle. Among them are several especially popular with the children of +my neighborhood; and I notice that almost every narrator embellishes the +original plot with details of his own, which he varies at pleasure. + +I submit a free rendering of one of these tales,--the history of Ye and +the Devil. The whole story of Ye would form a large book,--so numerous +the list of his adventures; and this adventure seems to me the most +characteristic of all. Ye is the most curious figure in Martinique +folk-lore. Ye is the typical Bitaco,--or mountain negro of the lazy +kind,--the country black whom city blacks love to poke fun at. As for +the Devil of Martinique folk-lore, he resembles the _travailleur_ at a +distance; but when you get dangerously near him, you find that he has +red eyes and red hair, and two little horns under his _chapeau-Bacoue_, +and feet like an ape, and fire in his throat. _Y ka sam yon gouos, gouos +macaque_.... + + + +II. + + +_Ca qui pa te connaitt Ye?_... Who is there in all Martinique who never +heard of Ye? Everybody used to know the old rascal. He had every fault +under the sun;--he was the laziest negro in the whole island; he was +the biggest glutton in the whole world. He had an amazing number [52] of +children; and they were most of the time all half dead for hunger. + +Well, one day Ye went out to the woods to look for something to eat. +And he walked through the woods nearly all day, till he became ever so +tired; but he could not find anything to eat. He was just going to +give up the search, when he heard a queer crackling noise,--at no great +distance. He went to see what it was,--hiding himself behind the big +trees as he got nearer to it. + +All at once he came to a little hollow in the woods, and saw a great +fire burning there,--and he saw a Devil sitting beside the fire. The +Devil was roasting a great heap of snails; and the sound Ye had heard +was the crackling of the snail-shells. The Devil seemed to be very +old;--he was sitting on the trunk of a bread-fruit tree; and Ye took a +good long look at him. After Ye had watched him for a while, Ye found +out that the old Devil was quite blind. + +--The Devil had a big calabash in his hand full of _feroce_,--that is +to say, boiled salt codfish and manioc flour, with ever so many pimentos +(_epi en pile piment_),--just what negroes like Ye are most fond of. And +the Devil seemed to be very hungry; and the food was going so fast down +his throat that it made Ye unhappy to see it disappearing. It made him +so unhappy that he felt at last he could not resist the temptation to +steal from the old blind Devil. He crept quite close up to the Devil +without making any noise, and began to rob him. Every time the Devil +would lift his hand to his mouth, Ye would slip his own fingers into +the calabash, and snatch a piece. The old Devil did not even look +puzzled;--he did not seem to know anything; and Ye thought to himself +that the old Devil was a great fool. He began to get more and more +courage;--he took bigger and bigger handfuls out of the calabash;--he +ate even faster than the Devil could eat. At last there was only one +little bit left in the calabash. Ye put out his hand to take it,--and +all of a sudden the Devil made a grab at Ye's hand and caught it! Ye was +so frightened he could not even cry out, _Aie-yaie_. The Devil finished +the last morsel, threw down the calabash, and said to Ye in a terrible +voice:--"_Ato, saff!--ou c'est ta moin!_" (I've got you now, you +glutton;--you belong to me!) Then he jumped on Ye's back, like a great +ape, and twisted his legs round Ye's neck, and cried out:---"Carry me to +your cabin,--and walk fast!" + +... When Ye's poor children saw him coming, they wondered what their +papa was carrying on his back. They thought it might be a sack of bread +or vegetables or perhaps a _regime_ of bananas,--for it was getting +dark, and they could not see well. They laughed and showed their +teeth and danced and screamed: "Here's papa coming with something to +eat!--papa's coming with something to eat!" But when Ye had got near +enough for them to see what he was carrying, they yelled and ran away to +hide themselves. As for the poor mother, she could only hold up her two +hands for horror. + +When they got into the cabin the Devil pointed to a corner, and said to +Ye:--"Put me down there!" Ye put him down. The Devil sat there in the +corner and never moved or spoke all that evening and all that night. He +seemed to be a very quiet Devil indeed. The children began to look at +him. + +But at breakfast-time, when the poor mother had managed to procure +something for the children to eat,--just some bread-fruit and yams,--the +old Devil suddenly rose up from his corner and muttered:-- + +--"_Manman mo!--papa mo!--touttt yche mo!_" (Mamma dead!--papa +dead!--all the children dead!) + +And he blew his breath on them, and they all fell down stiff as if they +were dead--_raidi-cadave!_. Then the Devil ate up everything there was +on the table. When he was done, he filled the pots and dishes with dirt, +and blew his breath again on Ye and all the family, and muttered:-- + +--"_Toutt moune leve!_" (Everybody get up!) + +Then they all got up. Then he pointed to all the plates and dishes full +of dirt, and said to them:--* + +[* In the original:--"Y te ka monte assous tabe-la, epi y te ka fai caca +adans toutt plats-a, adans toutt zassiett-la."] + +--"_Gobe-moin ca!_" + +And they had to gobble it all up, as he told them. + +After that it was no use trying to eat anything. Every time anything was +cooked, the Devil would do the same thing. It was thus the next day, and +the next, and the day after, and so every day for a long, long time. + +Ye did not know what to do; but his wife said she did. If she was only +a man, she would soon get rid of that Devil. "Ye," she insisted, "go +and see the Bon-Die [the Good-God], and ask him what to do. I would go +myself if I could; but women are not strong enough to climb the great +morne." + +So Ye started off very, very early one morning, before the peep of day, +and began to climb the Montagne Pelee. He climbed and walked, and walked +and climbed, until he got at last to the top of the Morne de la Croix.* + +[*A peaklet rising above the verge of the ancient crater now filled with +water.] + +Then he knocked at the sky as loud as he could till the Good-God put his +head out of a cloud and asked him what he wanted:-- + +--"_Eh bien!--ca ou ni, Ye fa ou le?_" + +When Ye had recounted his troubles, the Good-God said:-- + +--"_Pauv ma pauv!_ I knew it all before you came, Ye. I can tell you +what to do; but I am afraid it will be no use--you will never be able to +do it! Your gluttony is going to be the ruin of you, poor Ye! Still, you +can try. Now listen well to what I am going to tell you. First of all, +you must not eat anything before you get home. Then when your wife has +the children's dinner ready, and you see the Devil getting up, you must +cry out:--'_Tam ni pou tam ni be!_' Then the Devil will drop down dead. +Don't forget not to eat anything--_ou tanne?_"... + +Ye promised to remember all he was told, and not to eat anything on his +way down;--then he said good-bye to the Bon-Die (_bien conm y faut_), +and started. All the way he kept repeating the words the Good-God had +told him: "_Tam ni pou tam ni be!"--"tam ni pou tam ni be!_"--over and +over again. + +--But before reaching home he had to cross a little stream; and on both +banks he saw wild guava-bushes growing, with plenty of sour guavas +upon them;--for it was not yet time for guavas to be ripe. Poor Ye was +hungry! He did all he could to resist the temptation, but it proved too +much for him. He broke all his promises to the Bon-Die: he ate and ate +and ate till there were no more guavas left,--and then he began to eat +_zicaques_ and green plums, and all sorts of nasty sour things, till he +could not eat any more. + +--By the time he got to the cabin his teeth were so on edge that he +could scarcely speak distinctly enough to tell his wife to get the +supper ready. + +And so while everybody was happy, thinking that they were going to be +freed from their trouble, Ye was really in no condition to do anything. +The moment the supper was ready, the Devil got up from his corner as +usual, and approached the table. Then Ye tried to speak; but his teeth +were so on edge that instead of saying,--"_Tam ni pou tam ni be_," he +could only stammer out:---"_Anni toque Diabe-la cagnan_." + +This had no effect on the Devil at all: he seemed to be used to it! He +blew his breath on them all, sent them to sleep, ate up all the supper, +filled the empty dishes with filth, awoke Ye and his family, and ordered +them as usual;-- + +--"_Gobe-moin ca!_" And they had to gobble it up,--every bit of it. + +The family nearly died of hunger and disgust. Twice more Ye climbed the +Montagne Pelee; twice more he climbed the Morne de la Croix; twice more +he disturbed the poor Bon-Die, all for nothing!--since each time on his +way down he would fill his paunch with all sorts of nasty sour things, +so that he could not speak right. The Devil remained in the house night +and day;--the poor mother threw herself down on the ground, and pulled +out her hair,--so unhappy she was! + +But luckily for the poor woman, she had one child as cunning as a +rat,--* + + [* The great field-rat of Martinique is, in Martinique folk- + lore, the symbol of all cunning, and probably merits its + reputation.] + +a boy called Ti Fonte (little Impudent), who bore his name well. When he +saw his mother crying so much, he said to her:-- + +--"Mamma, send papa just once more to see the Good-God: I know something +to do!" + +The mother knew how cunning her boy was: she felt sure he meant +something by his words;--she sent old Ye for the last time to see the +Bon-Die. + +Ye used always to wear one of those big long coats they call +_lavalasses_;--whether it was hot or cool, wet or dry, he never went +out without it. There were two very big pockets in it--one on each side. +When Ti Fonte saw his father getting ready to go, he jumped _floup!_ +into one of the pockets and hid himself there. Ye climbed all the way +to the top of the Morne de la Croix without suspecting anything. When he +got there the little boy put one of his ears out of Ye's pocket,--so as +to hear everything the Good-God would say. + +This time he was very angry,--the Bon-Die: he spoke very crossly; he +scolded Ye a great deal. But he was so kind for all that,--he was so +generous to good-for-nothing Ye, that he took the pains to repeat the +words over and over again for him:--"_Tam ni pou tam ni be_."... And +this time the Bon-Die was not talking to no purpose: there was somebody +there well able to remember what he said. Ti Fonte made the most of his +chance;--he sharpened that little tongue of his; he thought of his mamma +and all his little brothers and sisters dying of hunger down below. As +for his father, Ye did as he had done before--stuffed himself with all +the green fruit he could find. + +The moment Ye got home and took off his coat, Ti Fonte jumped out, +_plapp!_--and ran to his mamma, and whispered:-- + +--"Mamma, get ready a nice, big dinner!--we are going to have it all to +ourselves to-day: the Good-God didn't talk for nothing,--I heard every +word he said!" + +Then the mother got ready a nice _calalou-crabe_, a _tonton-banane_, +a _matete-cirique_,--several calabashes of _couss-caye_, two +_regimes-figues_ (bunches of small bananas),--in short, a very fine +dinner indeed, with a _chopine_ of tafia to wash it all well down. + +The Devil felt as sure of himself that day as he had always felt, and +got up the moment everything was ready. But Ti Fonte got up too, and +yelled out just as loud as he could:---"_Tam ni pou tam ni be!_" + +At once the Devil gave a scream so loud that it could be heard right +down to the bottom of hell,--and he fell dead. + +Meanwhile, Ye, like the old fool he was, kept trying to say what the +Bon-Die had told him, and could only mumble:-- + +--"_Anni toque Diabe-la cagnan!_" + +He would never have been able to do anything;--and his wife had a great +mind just to send him to bed at once, instead of letting him sit down to +eat all those nice things. But she was a kind-hearted soul; and so she +let Ye stay and eat with the children, though he did not deserve it. And +they all ate and ate, and kept on eating and filling themselves until +daybreak--_pauv piti!_ + +But during this time the Devil had begun to smell badly and he had +become swollen so big that Ye found he could not move him. Still, they +knew they must get him out of the way somehow. The children had eaten so +much that they were all full of strength--_yo te plein lafoce_; and Ye +got a rope and tied one end round the Devil's foot; and then he and the +children--all pulling together--managed to drag the Devil out of the +cabin and into the bushes, where they left him just like a dead dog. +They all felt themselves very happy to be rid of that old Devil. + +But some days after old good-for-nothing Ye went off to hunt for birds. +He had a whole lot of arrows with him. He suddenly remembered the Devil, +and thought he would like to take one more look at him. And he did. + +_Fouinq!_ what a sight! The Devil's belly had swelled up like a morne: +it was yellow and blue and green,--looked as if it was going to burst. +And Ye, like the old fool he always was, shot an arrow up in the air, +so that it fell down and stuck into the Devil's belly. Then he wanted +to get the arrow, and he climbed up on the Devil, and pulled and pulled +till he got the arrow out. Then he put the point of the arrow to his +nose,--just to see what sort of a smell dead Devils had. + +The moment he did that, his nose swelled up as big as the refinery-pot +of a sugar-plantation. + +Ye could scarcely walk for the weight of his nose; but he had to go and +see the Bon-Die again. The Bon-Die said to him:-- + +--"Ah! Ye, my poor Ye, you will live and die a fool!--you are certainly +the biggest fool in the whole world!... Still, I must try to do +something for you;--I'll help you anyhow to get rid of that nose!... +I'll tell you how to do it. To-morrow morning, very early, get up and +take a big _taya_ [whip], and beat all the bushes well, and drive all +the birds to the Roche de la Caravelle. Then you must tell them that I, +the Bon-Die, want them to take off their bills and feathers, and take a +good bath in the sea. While they are bathing, you can choose a nose for +yourself out of the heap of bills there." + +Poor Ye did just as the Good-God told him; and while the birds were +bathing, he picked out a nose for himself from the heap of beaks,--and +left his own refinery-pot in its place. + +The nose he took was the nose of the _coulivicou_.* And that is why the +_coulivicou_ always looks so much ashamed of himself even to this day. + +[* The _coulivicou_, or "Colin Vicou," is a Martinique bird with a long +meagre body, and an enormous bill. It has a very tristful and taciturn +expression.... _Maig conm yon coulivicou_, "thin as a coulivicou," is +a popular comparison for the appearance of anybody much reduced by +sickness.] + + + +III. + + +... Poor Ye!--you still live for me only too vividly outside of those +strange folk-tales of eating and of drinking which so cruelly reveal the +long slave-hunger of your race. For I have seen you cutting cane on peak +slopes above the clouds;--I have seen you climbing from plantation to +plantation with your cutlass in your hand, watching for snakes as you +wander to look for work, when starvation forces you to obey a master, +though born with the resentment of centuries against all masters;--I +have seen you prefer to carry two hundred-weight of bananas twenty miles +to market, rather than labor in the fields;--I have seen you +ascending through serpent-swarming woods to some dead crater to find +a cabbage-palm,--and always hungry,--and always shiftless! And you +are still a great fool, poor Ye!--and you have still your swarm of +children,--your _rafale yche_,--and they are famished; for you have +taken into your _ajoupa_ a Devil who devours even more than you can +earn,--even your heart, and your splendid muscles, and your poor artless +brain,--the Devil Tafia!... And there is no Bon-Die to help you rid +yourself of him now: for the only Bon-Die you ever really had, your old +creole master, cannot care for you any more, and you cannot care for +yourself. Mercilessly moral, the will of this enlightened century has +abolished forever that patriarchal power which brought you up strong +and healthy on scanty fare, and scourged you into its own idea of +righteousness, yet kept you innocent as a child of the law of the +struggle for life. But you feel that law now;--you are a citizen of the +Republic! you are free to vote, and free to work, and free to starve +if you prefer it, and free to do evil and suffer for it;--and this new +knowledge stupefies you so that you have almost forgotten how to laugh! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV LYS + + + +I. + + +It is only half-past four o'clock: there is the faintest blue light of +beginning day,--and little Victoire already stands at the bedside with +my wakening cup of hot black fragrant coffee. What! so early?... +Then with a sudden heart-start I remember this is my last West Indian +morning. And the child--her large timid eyes all gently luminous--is +pressing something into my hand. + +Two vanilla beans wrapped in a morsel of banana-leaf,--her poor little +farewell gift!... + +Other trifling souvenirs are already packed away. Almost everybody that +knows me has given me something. Manm-Robert brought me a tiny packet of +orange-seeds,--seeds of a "gift-orange": so long as I can keep these +in my vest-pocket I will never be without money. Cyrillia brought me +a package of _bouts_, and a pretty box of French matches, warranted +inextinguishable by wind. Azaline, the blanchisseuse, sent me a little +pocket looking-glass. Cerbonnie, the _machanne_, left a little cup of +guava jelly for me last night. Mimi--dear child!--brought me a little +paper dog! It is her best toy; but those gentle black eyes would stream +with tears if I dared to refuse it.... Oh, Mimi! what am I to do with a +little paper dog? And what am I to do with the chocolate-sticks and the +cocoanuts and all the sugar-cane and all the cinnamon-apples?... + + + +II. + + +... Twenty minutes past five by the clock of the Bourse. The hill +shadows are shrinking back from the shore;--the long wharves reach out +yellow into the sun;--the tamarinds of the Place Bertin, and the pharos +for half its height, and the red-tiled roofs along the bay are catching +the glow. Then, over the light-house--on the outermost line depending +from the southern yard-arm of the semaphore--a big black ball suddenly +runs up like a spider climbing its own thread.... _Steamer from the +South!_ The packet has been sighted. And I have not yet been able to +pack away into a specially purchased wooden box all the fruits and +vegetable curiosities and odd little presents sent to me. If Radice the +boatman had not come to help me, I should never be able to get ready; +for the work of packing is being continually interrupted by friends and +acquaintances coming to say good-bye. Manm-Robert brings to see me a +pretty young girl--very fair, with a violet foulard twisted about her +blonde head. It is little Basilique, who is going to make her _pouemie +communion_. So I kiss her, according to the old colonial custom, once on +each downy cheek;--and she is to pray to _Notre Dame du Bon Port_ that +the ship shall bear me safely to far-away New York. + +And even then the steamer's cannon-call shakes over the town and into +the hills behind us, which answer with all the thunder of their phantom +artillery. + + + +III. + + +... There is a young white lady, accompanied by an aged negress, already +waiting on the south wharf for the boat;--evidently she is to be one +of my fellow-passengers. Quite a pleasing presence: slight graceful +figure,--a face not precisely pretty, but delicate and sensitive, with +the odd charm of violet eyes under black eye-brows.... + +A friend who comes to see me off tells me all about her. Mademoiselle +Lys is going to New York to be a governess,--to leave her native island +forever. A story sad enough, though not more so than that of many a +gentle creole girl. And she is going all alone, for I see her bidding +good-bye to old Titine,--kissing her. "_Adie enco, che;--Bon-Die ke beni +ou!_" sobs the poor servant, with tears streaming down her kind black +face. She takes off her blue shoulder-kerchief, and waves it as the boat +recedes from the wooden steps. + +... Fifteen minutes later, Mademoiselle and I find ourselves under the +awnings shading the saloon-deck of the _Guadeloupe_. There are at least +fifty passengers,--many resting in chairs, lazy-looking Demerara chairs +with arm-supports immensely lengthened so as to form rests for the lower +limbs. Overhead, suspended from the awning-frames, are two tin cages +containing parrots;--and I see two little greenish monkeys, no bigger +than squirrels, tied to the wheel-hatch,--two _sakiwinkis_. These are +from the forests of British Guiana. They keep up a continual thin sharp +twittering, like birds,--all the while circling, ascending, descending, +retreating or advancing to the limit of the little ropes attaching them +to the hatch. + +The _Guadeloupe_ has seven hundred packages to deliver at St. Pierre: we +have ample time,--Mademoiselle Violet-Eyes and I,--to take one last look +at the "Pays des Revenants." + +I wonder what her thoughts are, feeling a singular sympathy for +her,--for I am in that sympathetic mood which the natural emotion of +leaving places and persons one has become fond of, is apt to inspire. +And now at the moment of my going,--when I seem to understand as never +before the beauty of that tropic Nature, and the simple charm of the +life to which I am bidding farewell,--the question comes to me: "Does +she not love it all as I do,--nay, even much more, because of that in +her own existence which belongs to it?" But as a child of the land, +she has seen no other skies,--fancies, perhaps, there may be brighter +ones.... + +... Nowhere on this earth, Violet-Eyes!--nowhere beneath this sun!... +Oh! the dawnless glory of tropic morning!--the single sudden leap of the +giant light over the purpling of a hundred peaks,--over the surging of +the mornes! And the early breezes from the hills,--all cool out of +the sleep of the forests, and heavy with vegetal odors thick, sappy, +savage-sweet!--and the wild high winds that run ruffling and crumpling +through the cane of the mountain slopes in storms of papery sound!-- + +And the mighty dreaming of the woods,--green-drenched with silent +pouring of creepers,--dashed with the lilac and yellow and rosy foam of +liana flowers!-- + +And the eternal azure apparition of the all-circling sea,--that as you +mount the heights ever appears to rise perpendicularly behind you,--that +seems, as you descend, to sink and flatten before you!-- + +And the violet velvet distances of eyening;--and the swaying of palms +against the orange-burning,--when all the heaven seems filled with +vapors of a molten sun!... + + + +IV. + + +How beautiful the mornes and azure-shadowed hollows in the jewel +clearness of this perfect morning! Even Pelee wears only her very +lightest head-dress of gauze; and all the wrinklings of her green robe +take unfamiliar tenderness of tint from the early sun. All the quaint +peaking of the colored town--sprinkling the sweep of blue bay with red +and yellow and white-of-cream--takes a sharpness in this limpid light as +if seen through a diamond lens; and there above the living green of the +familiar hills I can see even the faces of the statues--the black Christ +on his white cross, and the White Lady of the Morne d'Orange--among +curving palms.... It is all as though the island were donning its utmost +possible loveliness, exerting all its witchery,--seeking by supremest +charm to win back and hold its wandering child,--Violet-Eyes over +there!... She is looking too. + +I wonder if she sees the great palms of the Voie du Parnasse,--curving +far away as to bid us adieu, like beautiful bending women. I wonder if +they are not trying to say something to her; and I try myself to fancy +what that something is:-- + +--"Child, wilt thou indeed abandon all who love thee!... Listen!--'tis +a dim grey land thou goest unto,--a land of bitter winds,--a land of +strange gods,--a land of hardness and barrenness, where even Nature may +not live through half the cycling of the year! Thou wilt never see us +there.... And there, when thou shalt sleep thy long sleep, child--that +land will have no power to lift thee up;--vast weight of stone will +press thee down forever;--until the heavens be no more thou shalt not +awake!... But here, darling, our loving roots would seek for thee, would +find thee: thou shouldst live again!--we lift, like Aztec priests, the +blood of hearts to the Sun."... + + + +IV. + + +... It is very hot.... I hold in my hand a Japanese paper-fan with a +design upon it of the simplest sort: one jointed green bamboo, with a +single spurt of sharp leaves, cutting across a pale blue murky double +streak that means the horizon above a sea. That is all. Trivial to my +Northern friends this design might seem; but to me it causes a pleasure +bordering on pain.... I know so well what the artist means; and they +could not know, unless they had seen bamboos,--and bamboos peculiarly +situated. As I look at this fan I know myself descending the Morne +Parnasse by the steep winding road; I have the sense of windy heights +behind me, and forest on either hand, and before me the blended azure of +sky and sea with one bamboo-spray swaying across it at the level of +my eyes. Nor is this all;--I have the every sensation of the very +moment,--the vegetal odors, the mighty tropic light, the wamrth, the +intensity of irreproducible color.... Beyond a doubt, the artist who +dashed the design on this fan with his miraculous brush must have had a +nearly similar experience to that of which the memory is thus aroused in +me, but which I cannot communicate to others. + +... And it seems to me now that all which I have tried to write about +the _Pays des Revenants_ can only be for others, who have never beheld +it,--vague like the design upon this fan. + + + +VI. + + +_Brrrrrrrrrrr!_... The steam-winch is lifting the anchor; and the +_Guadeloupe_ trembles through every plank as the iron torrent of her +chain-cable rumbles through the hawse-holes.... At last the quivering +ceases;--there is a moment's silence; and Violet-Eyes seems trying to +catch a last glimpse of her faithful _bonne_ among the ever-thickening +crowd upon the quay.... Ah! there she is--waving her foulard. +Mademoiselle Lys is waving a handkerchief in reply.... + +Suddenly the shock of the farewell gun shakes heavily through our +hearts, and over the bay,--where the tall mornes catch the flapping +thunder, and buffet it through all their circle in tremendous mockery. +Then there is a great whirling and whispering of whitened water behind +the steamer--another,--another; and the whirl becomes a foaming stream: +the mighty propeller is playing!.... All the blue harbor swings slowly +round;--and the green limbs of the land are pushed out further on the +left, shrink back upon the right;--and the mountains are moving their +shoulders. And then the many-tinted facades,--and the tamarinds of the +Place Bertin,--and the light-house,--and the long wharves with their +throng of turbaned women,--and the cathedral towers,--and the fair +palms,--and the statues of the hills,--all veer, change place, and begin +to float away... steadily, very swiftly. + +[Illustration: BASSE-TERRE ST. KITTS.] + +Farewell, fair city,--sun-kissed city,--many-fountained city!--dear +yellow-glimmering streets,--white pavements learned by heart,--and faces +ever looked for,--and voices ever loved! Farewell, white towers with +your golden-throated bells!--farewell, green steeps, bathed in the light +of summer everlasting!--craters with your coronets of forest!--bright +mountain paths upwinding 'neath pomp of fern and angelin and feathery +bamboo!--and gracious palms that drowse above the dead! Farewell, +soft-shadowing majesty of valleys unfolding to the sun,--green golden +cane-fields ripening to the sea!... + +... The town vanishes. The island slowly becomes a green silhouette. So +might Columbus first have seen it from the deck of his caravel,--nearly +four hundred years ago. At this distance there are no more signs of life +upon it than when it first became visible to his eyes: yet there are +cities there,--and toiling,--and suffering,--and gentle hearts that +knew me.... Now it is turning blue,--the beautiful shape!--becoming a +dream.... + + + +VII. + + +And Dominica draws nearer,--sharply massing her hills against the vast +light in purple nodes and gibbosities and denticulations. Closer and +closer it comes, until the green of its heights breaks through the +purple here and there,--in flashings and ribbings of color. Then +it remains as if motionless a while;--then the green lights go out +again,--and all the shape begins to recede sideward towards the south. + +... And what had appeared a pearl-grey cloud in the north slowly +reveals itself as another island of mountains,--hunched and horned and +mammiform: Guadeloupe begins to show her double profile. But Martinique +is still visible;--Pelee still peers high over the rim of the south.... +Day wanes;--the shadow of the ship lengthens over the flower-blue water. +Pelee changes aspect at last,--turns pale as a ghost,--but will not fade +away.... + +... The sun begins to sink as he always sinks to his death in the +tropics,--swiftly,--too swiftly!--and the glory of him makes golden all +the hollow west,--and bronzes all the flickering wave-backs. But still +the gracious phantom of the island will not go,--softly haunting us +through the splendid haze. And always the tropic wind blows soft and +warm;--there is an indescribable caress in it! Perhaps some such breeze, +blowing from Indian waters, might have inspired that prophecy of Islam +concerning the Wind of the Last Day,--that "Yellow Wind, softer than +silk, balmier than musk,"--which is to sweep the spirits of the just to +God in the great Winnowing of Souls.... + +Then into the indigo night vanishes forever from my eyes the ghost of +Pelee; and the moon swings up,--a young and lazy moon, drowsing upon her +back, as in a hammock.... Yet a few nights more, and we shall see this +slim young moon erect,--gliding upright on her way,--coldly beautiful +like a fair Northern girl. + + + +VIII. + + +And ever through tepid nights and azure days the _Guadeloupe_ rushes +on,--her wake a river of snow beneath the sun, a torrent of fire beneath +the stars,--steaming straight for the North. + +Under the peaking of Montserrat we steam,--beautiful Montserrat, +all softly wrinkled like a robe of greenest velvet fallen from the +waist!--breaking the pretty sleep of Plymouth town behind its screen +of palms... young palms, slender and full of grace as creole children +are;-- + +And by tall Nevis, with her trinity of dead craters purpling through +ocean-haze;--by clouded St. Christopher's mountain-giant;--past ghostly +St. Martin's, far-floating in fog of gold, like some dream of the +Saint's own Second Summer;-- + +Past low Antigua's vast blue harbor,--shark-haunted, bounded about by +huddling of little hills, blue and green. + +Past Santa Cruz, the "Island of the Holy Cross,"--all radiant with +verdure though well nigh woodless,--nakedly beautiful in the tropic +light as a perfect statue;-- + +Past the long cerulean reaching and heaping of Porto Rico on the left, +and past hopeless St. Thomas on the right,--old St. Thomas, watching +the going and the coming of the commerce that long since abandoned +her port,--watching the ships once humbly solicitous for patronage now +turning away to the Spanish rival, like ingrates forsaking a ruined +patrician;-- + +And the vapory Vision of, St. John;--and the grey ghost of Tortola,--and +further, fainter, still more weirdly dim, the aureate phantom of Virgin +Gorda. + + + +IX. + + +Then only the enormous double-vision of sky and sea. + +The sky: a cupola of blinding blue, shading down and paling into +spectral green at the rim of the world,--and all fleckless, save at +evening. Then, with sunset, comes a light gold-drift of little feathery +cloudlets into the West,--stippling it as with a snow of fire. + +The sea: no flower-tint may now make my comparison for the splendor of +its lucent color. It has shifted its hue;--for we have entered into the +Azure Stream: it has more than the magnificence of burning cyanogen.... + +But, at night, the Cross of the South appears no more. And other changes +come, as day succeeds to day,--a lengthening of the hours of light, a +longer lingering of the after-glow,--a cooling of the wind. Each morning +the air seems a little cooler, a little rarer;--each noon the sky looks +a little paler, a little further away--always heightening, yet also +more shadowy, as if its color, receding, were dimmed by distance,--were +coming more faintly down from vaster altitudes. + +... Mademoiselle is petted like a child by the lady passengers. And +every man seems anxious to aid in making her voyage a pleasant one. For +much of which, I think, she may thank her eyes! + + + +X. + + +A dim morning and chill;--blank sky and sunless waters: the sombre +heaven of the North with colorless horizon rounding in a blind grey +sea.... What a sudden weight comes to the heart with the touch of the +cold mist, with the spectral melancholy of the dawn;--and then what +foolish though irrepressible yearning for the vanished azure left +behind! + +... The little monkeys twitter plaintively, trembling in the chilly air. +The parrots have nothing to say: they look benumbed, and sit on their +perches with eyes closed. + +... A vagueness begins to shape itself along the verge of the sea, far +to port: that long heavy clouding which indicates the approach of land. +And from it now floats to us something ghostly and frigid which makes +the light filmy and the sea shadowy as a flood of dreams,--the fog of +the Jersey coast. + +At once the engines slacken their respiration. The _Guadeloupe_ begins +to utter her steam-cry of warning,--regularly at intervals of two +minutes,--for she is now in the track of all the ocean vessels. And +from far away we can hear a heavy knelling,--the booming of some great +fog-bell. + +... All in a white twilight. The place of the horizon has vanished;--we +seem ringed in by a wall of smoke.... Out of this vapory emptiness--very +suddenly--an enormous steamer rushes, towering like a hill--passes +so close that we can see faces, and disappears again, leaving the sea +heaving and frothing behind her. + +... As I lean over the rail to watch the swirling of the wake, I feel +something pulling at my sleeve: a hand,--a tiny black hand,--the hand of +a _sakiwinki_. One of the little monkeys, straining to the full length +of his string, is making this dumb appeal for human sympathy;--the +bird-black eyes of both are fixed upon me with the oddest look of +pleading. Poor little tropical exiles! I stoop to caress them; but +regret the impulse a moment later: they utter such beseeching cries when +I find myself obliged to leave them again alone!... + +... Hour after hour the _Guadeloupe_ glides on through the white +gloom,--cautiously, as if feeling her way; always sounding her whistle, +ringing her bells, until at last some brown-winged bark comes flitting +to us out of the mist, bearing a pilot.... How strange it must all seem +to Mademoiselle who stands so silent there at the rail!--how weird this +veiled world must appear to her, after the sapphire light of her own +West Indian sky, and the great lazulite splendor of her own tropic sea! + +But a wind comes;--it strengthens,--begins to blow very cold. The mists +thin before its blowing; and the wan blank sky is all revealed again +with livid horizon around the heaving of the iron-grey sea. + +... Thou dim and lofty heaven of the North,--grey sky of Odin,--bitter +thy winds and spectral all thy colors!--they that dwell beneath thee +know not the glory of Eternal Summer's green,--the azure splendor of +southern day!--but thine are the lightnings of Thought illuminating for +human eyes the interspaces between sun and sun. Thine the generations +of might,--the strivers, the battlers,--the men who make Nature +tame!--thine the domain of inspiration and achievement,--the larger +heroisms, the vaster labors that endure, the higher knowledge, and all +the witchcrafts of science!... + +But in each one of us there lives a mysterious Something which is Self, +yet also infinitely more than Self,--incomprehensibly multiple,--the +complex total of sensations, impulses, timidities belonging to the +unknown past. And the lips of the little stranger from the tropics have +become all white, because that Something within her,--ghostly bequest +from generations who loved the light and rest and wondrous color of a +more radiant world,--now shrinks all back about her girl's heart +with fear of this pale grim North.... And lo!--opening mile-wide in +dream-grey majesty before us,--reaching away, through measureless mazes +of masting, into remotenesses all vapor-veiled,--the mighty perspective +of New York harbor!... + +Thou knowest it not, this gloom about us, little maiden;--'tis only +a magical dusk we are entering,--only that mystic dimness in which +miracles must be wrought!... See the marvellous shapes uprising,--the +immensities, the astonishments! And other greater wonders thou wilt +behold in a little while, when we shall have become lost to each other +forever in the surging of the City's million-hearted life!... 'Tis all +shadow here, thou sayest?--Ay, 'tis twilight, verily, by contrast +with that glory out of which thou camest, Lys--twilight only,--but the +Twilight of the Gods!... _Adie, che!--Bon-Die ke bent ou!_... + + + + + +ENDNOTES + + +[Footnote 1: Since this was written the market has been removed to the +Savane,--to allow of the erection of a large new market-building on the +old site; and the beautiful trees have been cut down.] + +[Footnote 2: I subsequently learned the mystery of this very strange and +beautiful mixed race,--many fine specimens of which may also be seen +in Trinidad. Three widely diverse elements have combined to form it: +European, negro, and Indian,--but, strange to say, it is the most savage +of these three bloods which creates the peculiar charm.... I cannot +speak of this comely and extraordinary type without translating a +passage from Dr. J. J. J. Cornilliac, an eminent Martinique physician, +who recently published a most valuable series of studies upon the +ethnology, climatology, and history of the Antilles. In these he +writes:...] + +"When, among the populations of the Antilles, we first notice those +remarkable _metis_ whose olive skins, elegant and slender figures, fine +straight profiles, and regular features remind us of the inhabitants +of Madras or Pondicherry,--we ask ourselves in wonder, while looking +at their long eyes, full of a strange and gentle melancholy (especially +among the women), and at the black, rich, silky-gleaming hair curling in +abundance over the temples and falling in profusion over the neck,--to +what human race can belong this singular variety,--in which there is a +dominant characteristic that seems indelible, and always shows more +and more strongly in proportion as the type is further removed from the +African element. It is the Carib blood--blended with blood of Europeans +and of blacks,--which in spite of all subsequent crossings, and in +spite of the fact that it has not been renewed for more than two +hundred years, still conserves as markedly as at the time of the first +interblending, the race-characteristic that invariably reveals +its presence in the blood of every being through whose veins it +flows."--"Recherches chronologiques et historiques sur l'Origine et la +Propagation de la Fievre Jaune aux Antilles." Par J. J. J. Cornilliac. +Fort-de-France: Imprimerie du Gouvernement. 1886. + +But I do not think the term "olive" always indicates the color of these +skins, which seemed to me exactly the tint of gold; and the hair flashes +with bluish lights, Like the plumage of certain black birds.] + +[Footnote 3: _Extract from the "Story of Marie," as written from dictation:_ + +... Manman-a te ni yon gouos ja a caie-li. Ja-la te touop lou'de pou +Marie. Ce te li menm manman la qui te kalle pouend dileau. Yon jou +y pouend ja-la pou y te alle pouend dileau. Lhe manman-a rive bo la +fontaine, y pa trouve pesonne pou chage y. Y rete; y ka crie, "Toutt bon +Chritien, vini chage moin!" + +... Lhe manman rete y oue pa te ni piess bon Chritien pou chage y. Y +rete; y crie: "Pouloss, si pa ni bon Chritien, ni mauvais Chritien! +toutt mauvais Chritien vini chage moin!" + +... Lhe y fini di ca, y oue yon diabe qui ka vini, ka di conm caa, "Pou +moin chage ou, ca ou ke baill moin?" Manman-la di,--y reponne, "Moin pa +ni arien!" Diabe-la reponne y, "Y fau ba moin Marie pou moin pe chage +ou." + +This mamma had a great jar in her house. The jar was too heavy for +Marie. It was this mamma herself who used to go for water. One day she +took that jar to go for water. When this mamma had got to the fountain, +she could not find anyone to load her. She stood there, crying out, "Any +good Christian, come load me!" + +As the mamma stood there she saw there was not a single good Christian +to help her load. She stood there, and cried out: "Well, then, if there +are no good Christians, there are bad Christians. Any bad Christian, +come and load me!" + +The moment she said that, she saw a devil coming, who said to her, "If I +load you, what will you give me?" This mamma answered, and said, "I have +nothing!" The devil answered her, "Must give me Marie if you want me to +load you."] + +[Footnote 4: _Y batt li conm lambi_--"he beat him like a lambi"--is an expression +that may often be heard in a creole court from witnesses testifying in +a case of assault and battery. One must have seen a lambi pounded to +appreciate the terrible picturesqueness of the phase.] + +[Footnote 5: Moreau de Saint-Mery writes, describing the drums of the negroes +of Saint Domingue: "Le plus court de ces tambours est nomme +_Bamboula_, attendu qu'il est forme quelquefois d'un tres-gros +bambou."--"Description de la partie francaise de Saint Domingue", vol. +i., p. 44.] + +[Footnote 6: What is known in the West Indies as a hurricane is happily rare; +it blows with the force of a cyclone, but not always circularly; it may +come from one direction, and strengthen gradually for days until its +highest velocity and destructive force are reached. One in the time of +Pere Labat blew away the walls of a fort;--that of 1780 destroyed the +lives of twenty-two thousand people in four islands: Martinique, Saint +Lucia, St. Vincent, and Barbadoes. + +Before the approach of such a visitation animals manifest the same signs +of terror they display prior to an earthquake. Cattle assemble together, +stamp, and roar; sea-birds fly to the interior; fowl seek the nearest +crevice they can hide in. Then, while the sky is yet clear, begins the +breaking of the sea; then darkness comes, and after it the wind.] + +[Footnote 7: "Histoire Generale des Antilles... habites par les Francais." Par +le R. P. Du Tertre, de l'Ordre des Freres Prescheurs. Paris: 1661-71. 4 +vols. (with illustrations) in 4to.] + +[Footnote 8: One of the lights seen on the Caravelle was certainly carried by +a cattle-thief,--a colossal negro who had the reputation of being a +sorcerer,--a _quimboiseur_. The greater part of the mountainous land +forming La Caravelle promontory was at that time the property of a +Monsieur Eustache, who used it merely for cattle-raising purposes. +He allowed his animals to run wild in the hills; they multiplied +exceedingly, and became very savage. Notwithstanding their ferocity, +however, large numbers of them were driven away at night, and secretly +slaughtered or sold, by somebody who used to practise the art of +cattle-stealing with a lantern, and evidently without aid. A watch +was set, and the thief arrested. Before the magistrate he displayed +extraordinary assurance, asserting that he had never stolen from a poor +man--he had stolen only from M. Eustache who could not count his own +cattle--_yon richard, man che!_ "How many cows did you steal from him?" +asked the magistrate. "_Ess moin pe save?--moin te pouend yon savane +toutt pleine_," replied the prisoner. (How can I tell?--I took a whole +savanna-full.)... Condemned on the strength of his own confession, he +was taken to jail. "_Moin pa ke rete geole_," he observed. (I shall not +remain in prison.) They put him in irons, but on the following morning +the irons were found lying on the floor of the cell, and the prisoner +was gone. He was never seen in Martinique again.] + +[Footnote 9: Y sucoue souye assous quai-la;--y ka di: "Moin ka maudi ou, +Lanmatinique!--moin ka maudi ou!...Ke ni mange pou engnien: ou pa ke +pe menm achete y! Ke ni touele pou engnien: ou pa ke pe menm achete yon +robe! Epi yche ke batt manman.... Ou banni moin!--moin ke vini enco"] + +[Footnote 10: Vol. iii., p. 382-3. Edition of 1722.] + +[Footnote 11: The parrots of Martinique he describes as having been green, with +slate-colored plumage on the top of the head, mixed with a little red, +and as having a few red feathers in the wings, throat, and tail.] + +[Footnote 12: The creole word _moudongue_ is said to be a corruption of +_Mondongue_, the name of an African coast tribe who had the reputation +of being cannibals. A Mondongue slave on the plantations was generally +feared by his fellow-blacks of other tribes; and the name of the +cannibal race became transformed into an adjective to denote anything +formidable or terrible. A blow with a stick made of the wood described +being greatly dreaded, the term was applied first to the stick, and +afterward to the wood itself.] + +[Footnote 13: Accounting for the origin of the trade-winds, he writes: "I say +that the Trade-Winds do not exist in the Torrid Zone merely by chance; +forasmuch as the cause which produces them is very necessary, very sure, +and very continuous, since they result _either from the movement of the +Earth around the Sun, or from the movement of the Sun around the Earth. +Whether it be the one or the other, of these two great bodies which +moves..._" etc.] + +[Footnote 14: In creole, _cabritt-bois_,--("the Wood-Kid")--a colossal cricket. +Precisely at half-past four in the morning it becomes silent; and for +thousands of early risers too poor to own a clock, the cessation of its +song is the signal to get up.] + +[Footnote 15: --"Where dost stay, dear?"--"Affairs of the goat are not affairs +of the rabbit."--"But why art thou dressed all in black thus?"--"I wear +mourning for my dead soul."--"_Aie ya yaie!_...No, true!...where art +thou going now?"--"Love is gone: I go after love."--"Ho! thou hast +a Wasp [lover]--eh?"--"The zanoli gives a ball; the _maboya_ enters +unasked."--"Tell me where thou art going, sweetheart?"--"As far as +the River of the Lizard."--"_Fouinq!_--there are more than thirty +kilometres!"--"What of that?--dost thou want to come with me?"] + +[Footnote 16: "Kiss me now!"] + +[Footnote 17: Petits amoureux aux plumes, Enfants d'un brillant sejour, Vous +ignorez l'amertume, Vous parlez souvent d'amour;... Vous meprisez la +dorure, Les salons, et les bijoux; Vous cherissez la Nature, Petits +oiseaux, becquetez-vous! + +"Voyez labas, dans cette eglise, Aupres d'un confessional, Le pretre, +qui veut faire croire a Lise, Qu'un baiser est un grand mal;--Pour +prouver a la mignonne Qu'un baiser bien fait, bien doux, N'a jamais +damne personne Petits oiseaux, becquetez-vous!" + +Translation: + +Little feathered lovers, cooing, Children of the radiant air, Sweet your +speech,--the speech of wooing; Ye have ne'er a grief to bear! Gilded +ease and jewelled fashion Never own a charm for you; Ye love Nature's +truth with passion, Pretty birdlings, bill and coo! + +See that priest who, Lise confessing, Wants to make the girl believe +That a kiss without a blessing Is a fault for which to grieve! Now +to prove, to his vexation, That no tender kiss and true Ever caused a +soul's damnation, Pretty birdlings, bill and coo!] + +[Footnote 18: "Cette danse est opposee a la pudeur. Avec tout cela, elle ne +lesse pas d'etre tellement du gout des Espagnols Creolles de l'Amerique, +& si fort en usage parmi eux, qu'elle fait la meilleure partie de leurs +divertissements, & qu'elle entre meme dans leurs devotions. Ils +la dansent meme dans leurs Eglises & a leurs processions; et les +Religieuses ne manquent guere de la danser la Nuit de Noel, sur un +theatre eleve dans leur Choeur, vis-a-vis de leur grille, qui est +ouverte, afin que le Peuple ait sa part dans la joye que ces bonnes ames +temoignent pour la naissance du Sauveur."] + +[Footnote 19: During a hurricane, several years ago, a West Indian steamer was +disabled at a dangerously brief distance from the coast of the island +by having her propeller fouled. Sorely broken and drifting rigging had +become wrapped around it. One of the crew, a Martinique mulatto, tied a +rope about his waist, took his knife between his teeth, dived overboard, +and in that tremendous sea performed the difficult feat of disengaging +the propeller, and thus saving the steamer from otherwise certain +destruction.... This brave fellow received the Cross of the Legion of +Honor.] + +[Footnote 20: "_Bel laline, moin ka montre ti piece moin!--ba moin lagent toutt +temps ou ka claire!_"... This little invocation is supposed to have most +power when uttered on the first appearance of the new moon.] + +[Footnote 21: "Guardian-angel, watch over me;--have pity upon my weakness; +lie down on my little bed with me: follow me whithersoever I go."...The +prayers are always said in French. Metaphysical and theological terms +cannot be rendered in the patois; and the authors of creole catechisms +have always been obliged to borrow and explain French religious phrases +in order to make their texts comprehensible.] + +[Footnote 22: --"Moin te oue yon bal;--moin reve: moin te ka oue toutt moune +ka danse masque; moin te ka gade. Et toutt-a-coup moin ka oue c'est +bonhomme-caton ka danse. Et main ka oue yon Commande: y ka mande moin +ca moin ka fai la. Moin reponne y conm ca:--'Moin oue yon bal, moin +gade-coument!' 'Y ka reponne moin:--'Pisse ou si quiriese pou vini gade +baggaie moune, faut rete la pou danse 'tou.' Moin reponne y:--'Non! main +pa danse epi bonhomme-caton!--moin pe!'... Et moin ka couri, moin ka +couri, main ka couri a foce moin te ni pe. Et moin rentre adans grand +jadin; et moin oue gouos pie-cirise qui te chage anni feuill; et moin ka +oue yon nhomme assise enba cirise-a. Y mande moin:--'Ca ou ka fai la?' +Moin di y:--'Moin ka chache chimin pou moin alle.' Y di moin:--'Faut +rete icitt.' Et moin di y:--'Non!'--et pou chappe co moin, moin di +y:--'Alle enhaut-la: ou ke oue yon bel bal,--toutt bonhomme-caton ka +danse, epi yon Commande-en-caton ka coumande yo.'... Epi moin leve, a +foce moin te pe."...] + +[Footnote 23: Lit.,--"brought-up-in-a-hat." To wear the madras is to acknowledge +oneself of color;--to follow the European style of dressing the hair, +and adopt the costume of the white creoles indicates a desire to +affiliate with the white class.] + +[Footnote 24: Red earthen-ware jars for keeping drinking-water cool. The origin +of the word is probably to be sought in the name of the town, near +Marseilles, where they are made,--Aubagne.] + +[Footnote 25: I may cite in this relation one stanza of a creole song--very +popular in St. Pierre--celebrating the charms of a little capresse:-- + + "...Moin toutt jeine, + Gouos, gouas, vaillant, + Peau,di chapoti + Ka fai plaisi;--Lapeau moin + Li bien poli; + Et moin ka plai + Menm toutt nhomme grave!" + +--Which might be freely rendered thus:-- + +"...I am dimpled, young, Round-limbed, and strong, With sapota-skin That +is good to see: All glossy-smooth Is this skin of mine; And the gravest +men Like to look at me!"] + +[Footnote 26: It was I who washed and ironed and mended;--at nine o'clock at +night thou didst put me out-of-doors, with my child in my arms,--the +rain was falling,--with my poor straw mattress upon my head!... Doudoux! +thou dost abandon me!... I have none to care for me.] + +[Footnote 27: Also called _La Barre de 'Isle_,--a long high mountain-wall +interlinking the northern and southern system of ranges,--and only two +metres broad at the summit. The "Roches-Carrees", display a geological +formation unlike anything discovered in the rest of the Antillesian +system, excepting in Grenada,--columnar or prismatic basalts.... In +the plains of Marin curious petrifactions exist;--I saw a honey-comb so +perfect that the eye alone could scarcely divine the transformation.] + +[Footnote 28: Thibault de Chanvallon, writing of Martinique in 1751, +declared:--"All possible hinderances to study are encountered here +(_tout s'oppose a l'etude_): if the Americans [creoles] do not devote +themselves to research, the fact must not be attributed solely to +indifference or indolence. On the one hand, the overpowering +and continual heat,--the perpetual succession of mornes and +acclivities,--the difficulty of entering forests rendered almost +inaccessible by the lianas interwoven across all openings, and the +prickly plants which oppose a barrier to the naturalist,--the continual +anxiety and fear inspired by serpents also;--on the othelr hand, the +disheartening necessity of having to work alone, and the discouragement +of being unable to communicate one's ideas or discoveries to persons +having similar tastes. And finally, it must be remembered that these +discouragements and dangers are never mitigated by the least hope of +personal consideration, or by the pleasure of emulation,--since such +study is necessarily unaccompanied either by the one or the other in a +country where nobody undertakes it."--(_Voyage a la Martinique_.)...The +conditions have scarcely changed since De Chanvallon's day, despite the +creation of Government roads, and the thinning of the high woods.] + +[Footnote 29: Humboldt believed the height to be not less than 800 _toises_ (1 +toise=6 ft. 4.73 inches), or about 5115 feet.] + +[Footnote 30: There used to be a strange popular belief that however heavily +veiled by clouds the mountain might be prior to an earthquake, these +would always vanish with the first shock. But Thibault de Chanvallon +took pains to examine into the truth of this alleged phenomenon; and +found that during a number of earthquake shocks the clouds remained over +the crater precisely as usual.... There was more foundation, however, +for another popular belief, which still exists,--that the absolute +purity of the atmosphere about Pelee, and the perfect exposure of +its summit for any considerable time, might be regarded as an omen of +hurricane.] + +[Footnote 31: "De la piqure du serpent de la Martinique," par Auguste Charriez, +Medecin de la Marine. Paris: Moquet, 1875] + +[Footnote 32: M. Francard Bayardelle, overseer of the Presbourg plantation at +Grande Anse, tells me that the most successful treatment of snake bite +consists in severe local cupping and bleeding; the immediate application +of twenty to thirty leeches (when these can be obtained), and the +administration of alkali as an internal medicine. He has saved several +lives by these methods. + +The negro panseur method is much more elaborate and, to some extent, +mysterious. He cups and bleeds, using a small _coui_, or +half-calabash, in lieu of a grass; and then applies cataplasms of +herbs,--orange-leaves, cinnamon-leaves, clove-leaves, _chardon-beni_, +_charpentier_, perhaps twenty other things, all mingled together;--this +poulticing being continued every day for a month. Meantime the patient +is given all sorts of absurd things to drink, in tafia and sour-orange +juice--such as old clay pipes ground to powder, or _the head of the +fer-de-lance itself_, roasted dry and pounded.... The plantation negro +has no faith in any other system of cure but that of the panseur;--he +refuses to let the physician try to save him, and will scarcely submit +to be treated even by an experienced white over-seer.] + +[Footnote 33: The sheet-lightnings which play during the nights of July and +August are termed in creole _Zeclai-titiri_, or "titiri-lightnings";--it +is believed these give notice that the titiri have begun to swarn in the +rivers. Among the colored population there exists an idea of some queer +relation between the lightning and the birth of the little fish,--it +is commonly said, "_Zeclai-a ka fai yo eclore_" (the lightning hatches +them).] + +[Footnote 34: Dr. E. Rufz: "Etudes historiques," vol. i., p. 189.] + +[Footnote 35: The brightly colored douillettes are classified by the +people according to the designs of the printed +calico:--_robe-a-bambou_,--_robe-a-bouquet_,--_robe-arc-en-ciel_, +--_robe-a-carreau_,--etc., according as the pattern is in stripes, +flower-designs, "rainbow" bands of different tints, or plaidings. +_Ronde-en-ronde_ means a stuff printed with disk-patterns, or +link-patterns of different colors,--each joined with the other. +A robe of one color only is called a _robe-uni_. + +The general laws of contrasts observed in the costume require the silk +foulard, or shoulder-kerchief, to make a sharp relief with the color +of the robe, thus:-- Robe. Foulard. Yellow Blue. Dark blue Yellow. Pink +Green. Violet Bright red. Red Violet. Chocolate (cacoa) Pale blue. Sky +blue Pale rose. + +These refer, of course, to dominant or ground colors, as there are +usually several tints in the foulard as well as the robe. The painted +Madras should always be bright yellow. According to popular ideas of +good dressing, the different tints of skin should be relieved by special +choice of color in the robe, as follows:-- + +_Capresse_ (a clear red skin) should wear.... Pale yellow. _Mulatresse_ +(according to shade).... Rose. Blue. Green. _Negresse_.... White. +Scarlet, or any violet color.] + +[Footnote 36: "Vouela Cendrillon evec yon bel robe velou grande lakhe.... +Ca te ka bail ou mal zie. Li te tini bel zanneau dans zoreill li, +quate-tou-chou, bouoche, bracelet, tremblant,--toutt sote bel baggaie +conm ca."...--(_Conte Cendrillon_,--d'apres Turiault.) + +--"There was Cendrillon with a beautiful long trailing robe of velvet +on her!... It was enough to hurt one's eyes to look at her! She had +beautiful rings in her ears, and a collier-choux of four rows, brooches, +_tremblants_, bracelets,--everything fine of that sort."--(Story of +Cinderella in Turinault's Creole Grammar).] + +[Footnote 37: It is quite possible, however, that the slaves of Dutertre's time +belonged for the most part to the uglier African tribes; and that later +supplies may have been procured from other parts of the slave coast. +Writing half a century later, Pere Labat declares having seen freshly +disembarked blacks handsome enough to inspire an artist:--"_J'en ai vu +des deux sexes faits a peindre, et beaux par merveille_" (vol. iv. +chap, vii,). He adds that their skin was extremely fine, and of velvety +softness;--"_le velours n'est pas plus doux_."... Among the 30,000 +blacks yearly shipped to the French colonies, there were doubtless many +representatives of the finer African races.] + +[Footnote 38: "Leur sueur n'est pas fetide comme celle des negres de la Guinee," +writes the traveller Dauxion-Lavaysse, in 1813.] + +[Footnote 39: Dr. E. Rufz: "Etudes historiques et statistiques sur la population +de la Martinique." St. Pierre: 1850. Vol. i., pp. 148-50. + +It has been generally imagined that the physical constitution of the +black race was proof against the deadly climate of the West Indies. The +truth is that the freshly imported Africans died of fever by thousands +and tens-of-thousands;--the creole-negro race, now so prolific, +represents only the fittest survivors in the long and terrible struggle +of the slave element to adapt itself to the new environment. Thirty +thousand negroes a year were long needed to supply the French colonies. +Between 1700 and 1789 no less than 900,000 slaves were imported by San +Domingo alone;--yet there were less than half that number left in 1789. +(See Placide Justin's history of Santo Domingo, p. 147.) The entire +slave population of Barbadoes had to be renewed every sixteen years, +according to estimates: the loss to planters by deaths of slaves +(reckoning the value of a slave at only L20 sterling) during the same +period was L1,600,000 ($8,000,000). (Burck's "History of European +Colonies," vol. ii., p. 141; French edition of 1767.)] + +[Footnote 40: Rufz: "Etudes," vol. i., p. 236.] + +[Footnote 41: I am assured it has now fallen to a figure not exceeding 5000.] + +[Footnote 42: Rufz: "Etudes," vol. ii., pp. 311, 312.] + +[Footnote 43: Rufz: "Etudes," vol. i., p. 237.] + +[Footnote 44: _La race de sang-mele, issue des blancs et des noirs, est +eminement civilizable. Comme types physiques, elle fournit dans beaucoup +d'individus, dans ses femmes en general, les plus beaux specimens de +la race humaine_.--"Le Prejuge de Race aux Antilles Francaises." Par G. +Souquet-Basiege. St. Pierre, Martinique: 1883. pp. 661-62.] + +[Footnote 45: Turiault: "Etude sur le langage Creole de la Martinique." Brest: +1874.... On page 136 he cites the following pretty verses in speaking of +the _fille-de-couleur_:-- + +L'Amour prit soin de la former Tendre, naive, et caressante, Faite pour +plaire, encore plus pour aimer. Portant tous les traits precieux Du +caractere d'une amante, Le plaisir sur sa bouche et l'amour dans ses +yeux.] + +[Footnote 46: A sort of land-crab;--the female is selected for food, and, +properly cooked, makes a delicious dish;--the male is almost worthless.] + +[Footnote 47: "Voyage a la Martinique," Par J. R., General de Brigade. Paris: An, +XII., 1804. Page 106.] + +[Footnote 48: According to the Martinique "Annuaire" for 1887, there were even +then, out of a total population of 173,182, no less than 12,366 able to +read and write.] + +[Footnote 49: There is record of an attempt to manufacture bread with one part +manioc flour to three of wheat flour. The result was excellent; but no +serious effort was ever made to put the manioc bread on the market.] + +[Footnote 50: I must mention a surreptitious dish, _chatt_;--needless to say the +cats are not sold, but stolen. It is true that only a small class of +poor people eat cats; but they eat so many cats that cats have become +quite rare in St. Pierre. The custom is purely superstitious: it is +alleged that if you eat cat seven times, or if you eat seven cats, no +witch, wizard, or _quimboiseur_ can ever do you any harm; and the cat +ought to be eaten on Christmas Eve in order that the meal be perfectly +efficacious.... The mystic number "seven", enters into another and a +better creole superstition;--if you kill a serpent, seven great sins are +forgiven to you: _ou ke ni sept grands peches efface_.] + +[Footnote 51: Rufz remarks that the first effect of this climate of the Antilles +is a sort of general physical excitement, an exaltation, a sense of +unaccustomed strength,--which begets the desire of immediate action +to discharge the surplus of nervous force. "Then all distances seem +brief;--the greatest fatigues are braved without hesitation."-- +_Etudes_.] + +[Footnote 52: In the patois, "_yon rafale yche_,"--a "whirlwind of children."] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Years in the French West Indies, by +Lafcadio Hearn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRENCH WEST INDIES *** + +***** This file should be named 6381.txt or 6381.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/8/6381/ + +Produced by Richard Farris + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at + www.gutenberg.org/license. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 +North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email +contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the +Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + |