La Vérette.
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toutt manman sê faiycheyo sans tête." ( I have that illluck, that if I were selling hats all the mothers would have children without heads !) — T h o s e who sit at their doors, I observe, do not sit, as a rule, upon the steps, even when these are of wood. There is a superstition which checks such a practice.
"Si ou assise assous pas-tapote, ou kê pouend doute toutt
moune." (If you sit upon the door-step, you will take the pain of all who pass by.) XXIII. March 30th. GOOD FRIDAY. . . .
The bells have ceased to ring,—even the bells for the dead ; the hours are marked by cannon-shots. T h e ships in the harbor form crosses with their spars, turn their flags upside down. And the entire colored population put on mourning :—it is a custom among them centuries old. Y o u will not perceive a single gaudy robe to-day, a single calendered Madras : not a speck of showy color is visible through all the ways of St. Pierre. The costumes donned are all similar to those worn for the death of relatives : either full mourning,— a black robe with violet foulard, and dark violet-banded headkerchief ; or half-mourning,—a dark violet robe with black foulard and turban ;—the half-mourning being worn only by those who cannot afford the more sombre costume. From my window I can see long processions climbing the mornes about the city, to visit the shrines and crucifixes, and to pray for the cessation of the pestilence. . . . Three o'clock. Three cannon-shots shake the hills : it is the supposed hour of the Saviour's death. All believers—whether in the churches, on the highways, or in their homes—bow down and kiss the cross thrice, or, if there be no cross, press their lips three