Barbadoes, Feb.
It is Sunday, and, separated by the wide Atlantic, I take up my pen to
hallow the sabbath to my friend. Mentally I am every day in your
society: but on the sabbath I breathe a still warmer aspiration to dear
England, and sanctify the wish that we were, personally, nearer. Were
you here to participate, with me, the novel scenes which occur to my
observation, they would have a double interest, and I should find a
charm in many things which now convey only a languid impression.
This is a day of festivity among the slaves. They are passionately fond
of dancing; and Sunday offering them an interval from toil, is,
generally, devoted to their favorite amusement. Instead of remaining at
rest, they undergo more fatigue, or at least more personal exertion,
during their gala hours of Saturday night and Sunday, than is demanded
from them, in labour, during any four days of the week.
They assemble, in crowds, upon the open green, or in any square or
corner of the town, and, forming a ring in the centre of the throng,
dance to the sound of their beloved music, and the singing of their
favorite African yell. Both music and dance are of a savage nature.
Their songs are very simple, but harsh and devoid of melody.
The instrumental parts of the band consist of a species of drum, a kind
of rattle, and the ever-delighting banjar. The first is a long hollow
piece of wood, with a dried sheep-skin tied over the end; the second is
a calabash containing a number of small stones, fixed to a short stick
which serves as the handle; and the third is a coarse and rough kind of
guitar. While one negro strikes the banjar, another shakes the rattle
with great force of arm; a third sitting across the body of the drum, as
it lies lengthwise upon the ground, beats and kicks the sheep-skin at
the end, in violent exertion with his hands and heels; and a fourth
sitting upon the ground at the other end, behind the man upon the drum,
beats upon the wooden sides of it with two sticks. Together with these
noisy sounds, numbers of the party of both sexes bawl forth their dear
delighting song with all possible force of lungs: from the _tout
ensemble_ of the scene, a spectator would require only a slight aid from
fancy to transport him to the savage wilds of Africa. On great occasions
the band is increased by an additional number of drums, rattles, and
voices.
The dance consists of stampings of the feet, twistings of the body, and
a number of strange indecent attitudes. It is a severe bodily
exertion—more bodily indeed than you can well imagine, for the limbs
have little to do in it. The head is held erect, or, occasionally,
inclined a little forward; the hands nearly meet before; the elbows are
fixed, pointing from the sides; and, the lower extremities being held
rigid, the whole person is moved without lifting the feet from the
ground. Making the head and limbs fixed points, they writhe and turn the
body upon its own axis, slowly advancing towards each other, or
retreating to the outer parts of the ring. Their approaches, with the
figure of the dance, and the attitudes and inflexions in which they are
made, are highly indecent: but of this they seem to be wholly
unconscious, for the gravity, I might say the solemnity of countenance,
under which all this passes, is peculiarly striking, indeed almost
ridiculous. Not a smile, not a significant glance, nor an immodest look
escapes from either sex: but they meet, in very indecent attitudes,
under the most settled, and unmeaning gravity of countenance.
Occasionally they change the figure by stamping upon the feet, or making
a more general movement of the person, but these are only temporary
variations; the twistings and turnings of the body seeming to constitute
the supreme excellence of the dance.
For the most part only two enter the ring at a time, but, occasionally,
as many as three or four; each making a small contribution to the band
at the time of stepping into the circle. They dance, violently, together
until one is tired, and when this escapes from the circle another
assumes the place, thus continuing to follow, one by one, in succession,
so as frequently to keep up the dance, without any interval, for several
hours.
The musicians and dancers equally delight in the amusement. They exert
themselves until their skins pour off copious streams. The band seem
quite insensible to fatigue, for in proportion as the fluid distils from
their pores, they increase their efforts, raising their voices, and
beating the drum and the rattle, with additional violence; and such of
the spectators whose olfactories have no relish for African odours, are
sadly annoyed by the high-essenced exhalation which spreads itself
around.
As I was looking on, at one of these dances, I observed a soldier’s
wife, from the north of Tweed, gazing with curiosity and astonishment
amidst the throng; and seeing her features marked with surprise and
dissatisfaction, I asked her what she thought of the African dance.
“_Oot_,” said she, “_’tis an unco way o’ spending the sabbath night._”
And on my asking her if there were any as pretty women in the Highlands
of Scotland, she, instantly, replied, “_Whether or not—they smell
better._”
Presently a soldier, passing that way, and observing the dance, asked a
mulatto who was standing by, for a cud of tobacco, and twisting it
between his lower lip and his teeth, forced his path, through the crowd,
into the middle of the ring; and there placing himself, between the
negro and the girl who were dancing, set the nymph in African step and
figure. Wowski was responsive, and they danced, cordially, together; but
soon finished by footing it, in quick step, from the ring, happily
enfolded in each others’ arms, to the great disappointment of poor
Sambo; who, no doubt, thought to regain his partner as soon as the
soldier had grown tired in the dance.
Near this merry green I witnessed a sad fracas between a negro man and
woman, in consequence of gaming; which is a very prevailing passion
among the blacks.
Having led you to the loud song, and sprightly dance of the slaves, let
me now conduct you to their bed of death. Seeing a crowd in one of the
streets, and observing a kind of procession, we joined the multitude,
and soon found ourselves in the train of a negro funeral. Wishing to be
present at the ceremony of interment, we proceeded to the burial-ground,
with the throng. The corpse was conveyed in a neat small hearse, drawn
by one horse. Six boys, twelve men, and forty-eight women walked behind,
in pairs, as followers, but I cannot say as deeply afflicted mourners.
The females were neatly clad, for the occasion, being mostly in white.
Grief and lamentations were not among them: nor was even the semblance
thereof assumed. No solemn dirge was heard: no deep-sounding bell was
tolled: no fearful silence held. It seemed a period of mirth and joy!
Instead of weeping and bewailing, the attendants jumped and sported, as
they passed along, and talked and laughed, with each other, in high
festivity. The procession was closed by five robust negro fishermen, who
came behind playing antic gambols, and dancing all the way to the grave.
At the gate of the burying-ground the corpse was taken from the hearse,
and borne by eight negroes, not upon their shoulders, but upon four
clean white napkins placed under the coffin. The body was committed to
the grave, immediately on reaching it, without either prayer or
ceremony; and the coffin, directly, covered with earth. In doing this,
much decent attention was preserved. The mould was not shovelled in
roughly with the spade, almost disturbing the dead, with the rattling of
stones and bones upon the coffin, but was first put into a basket, and
then carefully emptied into the grave; an observance which might be
adopted in England very much to the comfort of the afflicted friends of
the deceased.
During this process an old negro woman chanted an African air, the
multitude joining in chorus. It was not in the strain of a solemn
requiem, but was loud and lively, in unison with the other gaieties of
the occasion.
Many were laughing and sporting all the time with the fishermen, who
danced and gambolled upon the neighbouring graves during the ceremony.
From the moment the coffin was committed to the earth, nothing of order
was maintained by the party: but the attendants dispersed in various
directions, retiring, or remaining, during the filling up of the grave,
as inclination seemed to lead.
When the whole of the earth was replaced, several of the women, who had
stayed to chant, in merry song, over poor Jenny’s remains, took up each
a handful of the mould, and threw it down upon the grave of their
departed friend, as the finishing of the ceremony, crying aloud, “_God
bless you, Jenny! good-by! remember me to all friends t’ other side of
the sea, Jenny! Tell ’em me come soon! Good-by, Jenny, good-by! See for
send me good——to-night, Jenny! Good-by, good night, Jenny, good-by!_”
All this was uttered in mirth and laughter, and accompanied with
attitudes and gesticulations expressive of any thing but sorrow or
sadness.
From the grave-digger we learned that poor Jenny had been a washerwoman,
and that the females who had, so merrily, sounded her requiem, had been
her sud associates. They had full faith in Jenny’s transmigration to
meet her friends, at her place of nativity: and their persuasion that
death was only a removal from their present to their former home; a mere
change from a state of slavery to a state of freedom; did not barely
alleviate, but wholly prevented the natural grief and affliction arising
from the loss of a friend. They confidently expected to hear from poor
Jenny, or to know her influence in the way they most desired, before
morning.
The faith of these poor ignorant slaves, regarding a happy
transmigration, after death, might seem calculated to lead them to the
crime of suicide; and, this effect of their superstition is said not to
have been unfrequent among them. A tale is told of a singular remedy
having been practised against this fatal proceeding of the negroes.
Several individuals of a gang having hanged themselves in order to
escape from a cruel master; and others being about to avoid his
severities by similar means, he prevented them, by the happy expedient
of threatening to hang himself, also, and to transmigrate, with them,
carrying the whip in his hand, into their own country; where he would
punish them ten times more severely than he had hitherto done. The
stratagem is said to have succeeded. Finding they could not, thus,
escape from the tyrannic lash, they resolved, rather than receive
disgraceful stripes, among their African friends, to continue their
existence under all the hardships of slavery.