2l6
Martinique
Sketches.
of many hundred boy-voices all rising together,—a retreating storm of rhythmic song, wafted to the ear in gusts, in rafales of contralto. . . . XI. . . . YZORE is a
calendeuse.
February
nth.
The calendeuses are the women who make up the beautiful Madras turbans and color them ; for the amazingly brilliant yellow of these head-dresses is not the result of any dyeing process : they are all painted by hand. When purchased the Madras is simply a great oblong handkerchief, having a pale green or pale pink ground, and checkered or plaided by intersecting bands of dark blue, purple, crimson, or maroon. T h e calendeuse lays the Madras upon a broad board placed across her knees ,—then, taking a camel's-hair brush, she begins to fill in the spaces between the bands with a sulphuryellow paint, which is always mixed with gum-arabic. It requires a sure eye, very steady fingers, and long experience to do this well. . . . After the Madras has been " calendered " (catenae) and has become quite stiff and dry, it is folded about the head of the purchaser after the comely Martinique fashion,—which varies considerably from the modes popular in Guadeloupe or Cayenne,—is fixed into the form thus obtained ; and can thereafter be taken off or put on without arrangement or disarrangement, like a cap. The price for calendering a Madras is now two francs and fifteen sous ;—and for making-up the turban, six sous additional, except in Carnival-time, or upon holiday occasions, when the price rises to twenty-five sous. . . . The making-up of the Madras into a turban is called " tying a head " (marri yon tête) ; and a prettily folded turban is spoken of as " a head well t i e d " (yon tête bien marré). . . . However, the profession of calendeuse is far from being a lucrative