... 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 _mulâtresse, capresse, griffe, quarteronne,
métisse, 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
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 jewellry: immense
ear-rings, 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
graven)--the wonderful _collier-choux._ Now, this glowing jewellry 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
dose 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 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.
... "_Çé moune-là, ça qui lè bel mango?_" Her basket of mangoes
certainly weighs as much as herself.... "_Ça qui lè bel avocat?_" The
alligator-pear--cuts and tastes like beautiful green cheese.... "_Ça
qui lè escargot?_" Call her, if you like snails.... "_Ça qui lè
titiri?_" Minuscule fish, of which a thousand would scarcely fill a
teacup;--one of the most delicate of Martinique dishes.... "_Ça qui lè
cannà?--Ça qui lè charbon?--Ça qui lè di pain aubè?_" (Who wants
ducks, charcoal, or pretty little loaves shaped like cucumbers?)...
"_Ça qui lè pain-mi?_" A sweet maize cake in the form of a tiny
sugar-loaf, wrapped in a piece of banana leaf.... "_Ça qui lè
fromassé_" (_pharmacie_) "_lapotécai créole?_" 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, zhèbe-gras, bonnet-carré,
zhèbe-codeinne, zhèbe-à-femme, zhèbe-à-châtte, canne-dleau, poque,
fleu-papillon, laleigne_, and a score of others you never saw or heard
of before.... "_Ça qui lè dicaments?_" (overalls for laboring-men)....
"_Çé moune-là, si ou pa lè acheté canari-à dans lanmain main, moin
ké crazé y._" The vender of red clay cooking-pots;--she has only one
left, if you do not buy it she will break it!
"_Hé! zenfants-lal--en deho'!_" Run out to meet her, little children,
if you like the sweet rice-cakes.... "_Hé! gens pa' enho', gens pa'
enbas, gens di galtas, moin ni bel gououôs 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!...
"_Hé! ça qui lé mangé 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 clarinet:
"C'est louvouier de la pâtisserie qui passe,
Qui té ka veillé 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
jewellry 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 _poupée._ There are two kinds,--the
_poupée-capresse_, of which the body is covered with smooth
reddish-brown leather, to imitate the tint of the _capresse_ race; and
the _poupée-négresse_, 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 _poupée-capresse_ is a
delightful curiosity. Both varieties of dolls are attired in the costume
of the people; but the _négresse_ 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-à-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.
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 guêpe_, "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 Pelée 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 Pelée is in _costume de
fête_, like a _capresse_ attired for a baptism or a ball; and in her
phantom turban one great star glimmers for a brooch.