210
Martinique
Sketches.
with rude native sandals, and she carries a hoe. For the man the costume consists of a gray shirt of rough material, blue canvas pantaloons, a large mouchoir fatas to tie around his waist, and a chapeau Bacoué,—an enormous hat of Martinique palm-straw. H e walks barefooted and carries a cutlass. The sight of a troupe of young girls en bébé, in babydress, is really pretty. This costume comprises only a loose embroidered chemise, lace-edged pantalettes, and a child's cap; the whole being decorated with bright ribbons of various colors. As the dress is short and leaves much of the lower limbs exposed, there is ample opportunity for display of tinted stockings and elegant slippers. The " molasses -negro " wears nothing but a cloth around his loins ;—his whole body and face being smeared with an atrocious mixture of soot and molasses. H e is supposed to represent the original African ancestor. The devilesses {diablesses) are few in number ; for it requires a very tall woman to play deviless. These are robed all in black, with a white turban and white foulard ; they wear black masks. They also carry boms (large tin cans), which they allow to fall upon the pavement from time to time ; and they walk barefoot. . . . The deviless (in true Bitaco idiom, " guiablesse " ) represents a singular Martinique superstition. It is said that sometimes at noonday, a beautiful negress passes silently through some isolated plantation,—smiling at the workers in the cane-fields,—tempting men to follow her. But he who follows her never comes back again; and when a field hand mysteriously disappears, his fellows say, " Y té ka ouè la Guiablesse ! ". . . The tallest among the devilesses always walks first, chanting the question, Jou ouvif (Is it yet daybreak ?) And all the others reply in chorus, u
"youpa'ncb ouvè." (It is not yet day.)
— T h e masks worn by the multitude include very few grotesques : as a rule, they are simply white wire masks,