--"_Ça, mafi,--c'est ti limiè Bon-Dié._" (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 pride!_--I am lost, mamma!"
The moon comes up;--she cries:--"_Mi! manman!--gàdé gouôs difé qui
adans ciel-à!_" (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 shiner!"[21]
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 pitié de ma faiblesse;
Couchez-vous sur mon petit lit;
Suivez-moi sans cesse."[22]...
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-gàdien, c'est yon jeine fi, touts 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....
[Footnote 21: "_Bel ladine, moin ka montré ou ti pièce moin!--ba moin
làgent toutt tempe ou ka clairé!_"... This little invocation is
supposed to have most power when ottered on the first appearance of the
new moon.]
[Footnote 22: "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.]