... 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 Vérette_ 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 màchannes: "_Ça qui 'lè
quatòze 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!...