Chapter XXVI: April 5th

--"_Toutt bel bois ka allé_," says Manm-Robert. (All the beautiful trees are going.)... I do not understand.

--"_Toutt bel bois--toutt bel moune ka allé_," she adds, interpretatively. (All the "beautiful trees,"--all the handsome people,--are passing away.)... As in the speech of the world's primitive poets, so in the creole patois is a beautiful woman compared with a comely tree: nay, more than this, the name of the object is actually substituted for that of the living being. _Yon bel bois_ may mean a fine tree: it more generally signifies a graceful woman: this is the very comparison made by Ulysses looking upon Nausicas, though more naïvely expressed.... And now there comes to me the recollection of a creole ballad illustrating the use of the phrase,--a ballad about a youth of Fort-de-France sent to St. Pierre by his father to purchase a stock of dobannes,[25] who, falling in love with a handsome colored girl, spent all his father's mopey in buying her presents and a wedding outfit:--

"Moin descenne Saint-Piè Acheté dobannes Auliè ces dobannes C'est yon _bel-bois_ moin mennein monté!"

("I went down to Saint-Pierre to buy dobannes: instead of the dobannes, 'tis a pretty tree--a charming girl--that I bring back with me.")

--"Why, who is dead now, Manm-Robert?"

--"It is little Marie, the porteuse, who has got the vérette. She is gone to the lazaretto."

[Footnote 25: Red earthen-ware jars for keeping drinking-water cool. The origin of the word is probably to be sought in the name of the town, near Marseilles, where they are made,--"Aubagne."]