Chapter V

There are four dishes which are the holiday luxuries of the poor:--_manicou_, _ver-palmiste_, _zandouille_, and _poule-épi-diri_.[52]

The _manitou_ is a brave little marsupial, which might be called the opossum of Martinique: it fights, although overmatched, with the serpent, and is a great enemy to the field-rat. In the market a manicou sells for two francs and a half at cheapest: it is generally salted before being cooked.

The great worm, or caterpillar, called _ver-palmiste_ is found in the heads of cabbage-palms,--especially after the cabbage has been cut out, and the tree has begun to perish. It is the grub of a curious beetle, which has a proboscis of such form as suggested the creole appellation, _léfant_: the "elephant." These worms are sold in the Place du Fort at two sous each: they are spitted and roasted alive, and are said to taste like almonds. I have never tried to find out whether this be fact or fancy; and I am glad to say that few white creoles confess a liking for this barbarous food.

The _zandouilles_ are delicious sausages made with pig-buff,--and only seen in the market on Sundays. They cost a franc and a half each; and there are several women who have an established reputation throughout Martinique for their skill in making them. I have tasted some not less palatable than the famous London "pork-pies." Those of Lamentin are reputed the best in the island.

But _poule-épi-diri_ is certainly the most popular dish of all: it is the dearest, as well, and poor people can rarely afford it. In Louisiana an almost similar dish is called _jimbalaya_: chicken cooked with rice. The Martiniquais think it such a delicacy that an over-exacting person, or one difficult to satisfy, is reproved with the simple question:--"_Ça ou lè 'nco-poule, épi-diri?_" (What more do you want, great heavens!--chicken-and-rice?) Naughty children are bribed into absolute goodness by the promise of poule-épi-diri:--

--"_Aïe! chè, bò doudoux! Doudoux ba ou poule-épi-diri; Aïe! chè, bò doudoux!_"...

(Aïe, dear! kiss _doudoux!--doudoux_ has rice-and-chicken for you!--_aïe_, dear! kiss _doudoux!_)

How far rice enters into the success of the dish above mentioned I cannot say; but rice ranks in favor generally above all cereals; it is at least six times more in demand than maize. _Diri-doux_, rice boiled with sugar, is sold in prodigious quantities daily,--especially at the markets, where little heaps of it, rolled in pieces of banana or _cachibou_ leaves, are retailed at a cent each. _Diri-aulaitt_, a veritable rice-pudding, is also very popular; but it would weary the reader to mention one-tenth of the creole preparations into which rice enters.

[Footnote 52: I must mention a surreptitious dish, _chatt_;--needless to say the cats are not sold, but stolen. It is true that only a small class of poor people eat cats; but they eat so many cats that cats have become quite rare in St Pierre. The custom is purely superstitious: it is alleged that if you eat cat seven times, or if you eat seven cats, no witch, wizard, or _quimboiseur_ can ever do you any harm; and the cat ought to be eaten on Christmas Eve in order that the meal be perfectly efficacious. . . . The mystic number "seven" enters into another and a better creole superstition;--if you kill a serpent, seven great sins are forgiven to you: _ou ké ni sept grands péchés effacé._]