_April 5th._
--"_Toutt bel bois ka allé_," says Manm-Robert. (All the beautiful
trees are going.)... I do not understand.
--"_Toutt bel bois--toutt bel moune ka allé_," 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 Nausicas, though more naïvely
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,[25] who, falling in love with a handsome colored girl, spent
all his father's mopey in buying her presents and a wedding outfit:--
"Moin descenne Saint-Piè
Acheté dobannes
Auliè ces dobannes
C'est yon _bel-bois_ moin mennein monté!"
("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 vérette. She is
gone to the lazaretto."
[Footnote 25: 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."]