... So!--She is ready: "_Châgé moin, souplè, chè!_" She
bends to lift the end of the heavy trait: some one takes the
other,--_yon!--dè!--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 midday,--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._
[Illustration: THE DEVIL'S DOOR, MARTINIQUE
_Each turn in the road discloses new scenes of tropical
splendor, beetling cliffs. and verdure-covered slopes._]
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 màchannes who make yet longer
trips,--trips of three or four days' duration;--these rest at villages
upon their route.