208
Martinique
Sketches.
know this song by heart; you hear children only five or six years old singing it : there are pretty lines in it, although two out of its four stanzas are commonplace enough, and it is certainly the air rather than the words which accounts for its sudden popularity.
V. . . . EXTRAORDINARY things are happening in the streets through which the procession passes. Pest-smitten women rise from their beds to costume themselves,— to mask face already made unrecognizable by the hideous malady,—and stagger out to join the dancers. . . . They do this in the Rue Longchamps, in the Rue St. Jean-de-Dieu, in the Rue Peysette, in the Rue de Petit " V o y e z làbas, dans cette église, A u p r è s d'un confessional, L e prêtre, qui veut faire croire à L i s e , Q u ' u n baiser est un g r a n d m a l ; — P o u r p r o u v e r à la m i g n o n n e Q u ' u n baiser bien fait, bien d o u x , N ' a jamais d a m n é personne Petits oiseaux, b e c q u e t e z - v o u s ! "
[ Translation.'] L i t t l e feathered l o v e r s , c o o i n g , Children of the radiant air, S w e e t y o u r s p e e c h , — t h e s p e e c h of w o o i n g ; Y e have n e ' e r a grief t o b e a r ! G i l d e d ease a n d j e w e l l e d fashion N e v e r o w n a charm for y o u ; Y e l o v e N a t u r e ' s truth with passion, Pretty birdlings, bill and c o o ! S e e that priest w h o , I.ise c o n f e s s i n g , W a n t s to m a k e the girl b e l i e v e T h a t a kiss without a blessing Is a fault f o r w h i c h t o g r i e v e ! N o w to p r o v e , to his vexation, T h a t n o tender kiss and true E v e r caused a soul's d a m n a t i o n , Pretty birdlings, bill and c o o !