Part 1

Transcriber’s Notes:

Small capitals in the original work are here represented in ALL CAPITALS. Italic text has been transcribed between underscores, as in _text_.

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GOMBO ZHEBES

“GOMBO ZHÈBES.”

LITTLE DICTIONARY OF CREOLE PROVERBS, SELECTED FROM SIX CREOLE DIALECTS.

TRANSLATED INTO FRENCH AND INTO ENGLISH, WITH NOTES, COMPLETE INDEX TO SUBJECTS AND SOME BRIEF REMARKS UPON THE CREOLE IDIOMS OF LOUISIANA.

BY LAFCADIO HEARN.

NEW YORK: WILL H. COLEMAN, PUBLISHER, NO. 70, BUSINESS QUARTER, ASTOR HOUSE. 1885.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by WILL H. COLEMAN, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

INTRODUCTION.

Any one who has ever paid a flying visit to New Orleans probably knows something about those various culinary preparations whose generic name is “Gombo”--compounded of many odds and ends, with the okra-plant, or true gombo for a basis, but also comprising occasionally “losé, zepinard, laitie,” and the other vegetables sold in bunches in the French market. At all events any person who has remained in the city for a season must have become familiar with the nature of “gombo filé,” “gombo févi,” and “gombo aux herbes,” or as our colored cook calls it, “gombo zhèbes”--for she belongs to the older generation of Creole _cuisinières_, and speaks the patois in its primitive purity, without using a single “r.” Her daughter, who has been to school, would pronounce it _gombo zhairbes_:--the modern patois is becoming more and more Frenchified, and will soon be altogether forgotten, not only throughout Louisiana, but even in the Antilles. It still, however, retains originality enough to be understood with difficulty by persons thoroughly familiar with French; and even those who know nothing of any language but English, readily recognize it by the peculiarly rapid syllabification and musical intonation. Such English-speaking residents of New Orleans seldom speak of it as “Creole”: they call it _gombo_, for some mysterious reason which I have never been able to explain satisfactorily. The colored Creoles of the city have themselves begun to use the term to characterize the patois spoken by the survivors of slavery days. Turiault tells us that in the towns of Martinique, where the Creole is gradually changing into French, the _Bitacos_, or country negroes who still speak the patois nearly pure, are much ridiculed by their municipal brethren:--_Ça ou ka palé là, chè, c’est nèg:--Ça pas Créole!_ (“_What you talk is ‘nigger,’ my dear:--that isn’t Creole!_”) In like manner a young Creole negro or negress of New Orleans might tell an aged member of his race: “_Ça qui to parlé ça pas Créole: ça c’est gombo!_” I have sometimes heard the pure and primitive Creole also called “Congo” by colored folks of the new generation.

The literature of “gombo” has perhaps even more varieties than there are preparations of the esculents above referred to;--the patois has certainly its gombo févi, its gombo filé, its “gombo zhèbes”--both written and unwritten. A work like Marbot’s “Bambous” would deserve to be classed with the pure “févi”;--the treatises of Turiault, Baissac, St. Quentin, Thomas, rather resemble that fully prepared dish, in which crabs seem to struggle with fragments of many well-stewed meats, all strongly seasoned with pepper. The present essay at Creole folklore, can only be classed as “gombo zhèbes”--(_Zhèbes çé feuil-chou, cresson, laitie, bettrav, losé, zepinard_);--the true okra is not the basis of our preparation;--it is a Creole dish, if you please, but a salmagundi of inferior quality.

* * * * *

For the collection of Louisiana proverbs in this work I am almost wholly indebted to my friend Professor William Henry, Principal of the Jefferson Academy in New Orleans; not a few of the notes, Creole quotations, and examples of the local patois were also contributed by him. The sources of the other proverbs will be found under the head of Creole Bibliography. The translations of the proverbs into French will greatly aid in exhibiting the curious process of transformation to which the negro slave subjected the language of his masters, and will also serve to show the peculiar simplicity of Creole grammar. My French is not always elegant, or even strictly correct;--for with the above object in view it has been necessary to make the translation as literal as is possible without adopting the inter-linear system. Out of nearly five hundred proverbs I selected about three hundred and fifty only for publication--some being rejected because of their naïve indecency, others because they offered mere variations of one and the same maxim. Even after the sifting process, I was partly disappointed with the results; the proportion of true Creole proverbs--proverbs of indubitably negro invention--proved to be much smaller than I had expected. Nevertheless all which I have utilized exhibit the peculiarities of the vernacular sufficiently to justify their presence.

* * * * *

While some of these proverbs are witty enough to call a smile to the most serious lips, many others must, no doubt, seem vapid, enigmatic, or even meaningless. But a large majority of negro sayings depend altogether upon application for their color or their effectiveness; they possess a chameleon power of changing hue according to the manner in which they are placed. (See for examples: Prov. 161, 251, or 308.) Every saying of this kind is susceptible of numerous applications; and the art of applying one proverb to many different situations is one in which the negro has no rival--not even among the Arabs themselves, whose use of such folklore has been so admirably illustrated by Carlo Landberg.

* * * * *

No two authors spell the Creole in the same way; and three writers whom I have borrowed largely from--Thomas, Baissac, and Turiault--actually vary the orthography of the same word in quite an arbitrary manner. At first I thought of remodeling all my proverbs according to the phonetic system of spelling; but I soon found that this would not only disguise the Creole etymology almost beyond recognition, but would further interfere with my plan of arrangement. Finally I concluded to publish the Creole text almost precisely as I had found it, with the various spellings and peculiarities of accentuation. The reader will find _cabrit_, for example, written in four or five different ways. Where the final _t_--never pronounced in our own patois--is fully sounded, the several authorities upon Creole grammar have indicated the fact in various fashions: one spelling it _cabritt_; another _cabrite_, etc.

* * * * *

The grammatical peculiarities and the pronounciation of the several Creole dialects are matters which could not be satisfactorily treated within the compass of a small pamphlet. Some few general rules might, indeed, be mentioned as applying to most Creole dialects. It is tolerably safe to say that in no one of the West Indian dialects was the French “_r_” pronounced in former days; it was either totally suppressed, as in the word “fòce” (_force_), or exchanged for a vowel sound, as in _bouanche_ (for _branche_). The delicate and difficult French sound of _u_ was changed into _ou_; the sound _en_ was simplified into _é_; the clear European _o_ became a nasal _au_; and into many French words containing the sound of _am_, such as _amour_, the negro wedged the true African _n_, making the singular Creole pronounciation _lanmou_, _canmarade_, _janmain_. But the black slaves from the Ivory and Gold Coasts, from Congo or Angola, pronounced differently. The Eboes and Mandingoes spoke the patois with varying accentuations;--it were therefore very difficult to define rules of pronounciation applicable to the patois spoken in all parts of one island like Guadaloupe, or one colonial province like Guyana. Not so in regard to grammar. In all forms of the patois (whether the musical and peculiarly picturesque Creole of Martinique, or the more fantastic Creole of Mauritius, adulterated with Malgache and Chinese words)--the true article is either suppressed or transformed into a prefix or affix of the noun, as in _femme-la_ “the woman,” or _yon lagrimace_, a grimace;--there is no true gender, no true singular and plural; verbs have rarely more than six tenses--sometimes less--and the tense is not indicated by the termination of the verb; there is a remarkable paucity of auxiliaries, and in some dialects none whatever; participles are unknown, and prepositions few. A very fair knowledge of comparative Creole grammar and pronunciation may be acquired, by any one familiar with French, from the authors cited at the beginning of this volume. I would also recommend those interested in such folklore to peruse the Creole novel of Dr. Alfred Mercier--_Les Saint-Ybars_, which contains excellent examples of the Louisiana dialect; and Baissac’s beautiful little stories, “Recits Créoles,” rich in pictures of the old French colonial life. The foreign philological reviews and periodicals, especially those of Paris, have published quite a variety of animal fables, proverbs, stories in various Creole dialects; and among the recent contributions of French ethnologists to science will be also discovered some remarkable observations upon the actual formation of various patois--strongly resembling our own Creole--in the French African colonies.

* * * * *

Needless to say this collection is far from perfect;--the most I can hope for is that it may constitute the nucleus of a more exhaustive publication to appear in course of time. No one person could hope to make a really complete collection of Creole proverbs--even with all the advantages of linguistic knowledge, leisure, wealth, and travel. Only a society of folklorists might bring such an undertaking to a successful issue; but as no systematic effort is being made in this direction, I have had no hesitation in attempting--not indeed to fill a want--but to set an example. _Gouïe passé, difil sivré_:--let the needle but pass, the thread will follow.

L. H.

CREOLE BIBLIOGRAPHY.

☞ The selection of Haytian proverbs in this collection was made by kindly permission of Messrs. Harper Bros., from the four articles contributed by Hon. John Bigelow, to HARPER’S MAGAZINE, 1875. The following list includes only those works consulted or quoted from in the preparation of this dictionary, and comprises but a small portion of all the curious books, essays, poems, etc., written upon, or in the Creole patois of the Antilles and of Louisiana.--L. H.

BRUYÈRE (LOYS)--“Proverbes Créoles de la Guyane Française.” (In l’Almanach des Traditions Populaires, 1883. Paris: Maisonneuve et Cie.)

BAISSAC (M. C.)--“Étude sur le Patois Créole Mauricien.” Nancy: Imprimerie Berger-Levrault & Cie., 1880.

MARBOT--“Les Bambous.” Fables de La Fontaine travesties en Patois Créole par un Vieux Commandeur. Fort-de-France, Martinique: Librairie de Frederic Thomas, 1869. (Second Edition. Both editions of this admirable work are now unfortunately out of print.)

THOMAS (J. J.)--“The Theory and Practice of Creole Grammar.” Port of Spain, Trinidad: The Chronicle Publishing Office, 1869.

TURIAULT (J.)--“Étude sur le Langage Créole de la Martinique.” (Extrait du Bulletin de la Société Académique.) Brest: Lefournier, 1869.

DE ST.-QUENTIN (AUGUSTE)--Introduction à l’Histoire de Cayenne, suivie d’un Recueil de Contes, Fables, et Chansons en Créole. Notes et Commentaires par Alfred de St.-Quentin. Étude sur la Grammaire Créole par Auguste de St.-Quentin. Antibes: J. Marchand, 1872.

BIGELOW (HON. JOHN)--“The Wit and Wisdom of the Haytians.” Being four articles upon the Creole Proverbs of Hayti, respectively published in the June, July, August and September numbers of HARPER’S MAGAZINE, 1875.

Little Dictionary of Creole Proverbs.

[_Most of the proverbs quoted in Martinique are current also in Guadeloupe, only 90 miles distant. All proverbs recognized in Louisiana are marked by an asterisk (*). The indications,_ MAURITIUS, GUYANA, MARTINIQUE, HAYTI, _etc., do not necessarily imply origin; they refer only to the dialects in which the proverbs are written, and to the works from which they are selected._]

1. Acoma tombé toutt mounn di: C’est bois pourri. (Quand l’Acoma est tombé, tout le monde dit: C’est du bois pourri.)

“When the Acoma has fallen everybody says: ‘It’s only rotten wood.’”[1]--[_Mart._]

[1] The Acoma, says Turiault, is one of the grandest trees in the forests of the Antilles. The meaning of the proverb appears to be, that a powerful or wealthy person who meets with misfortune is at once treated with contempt by those who formerly sought his favor or affected to admire his qualities.

2. A fòce macaque caressé yche li ka touffé li. (À force de caresser son petit le macaque l’étouffe.)

“The monkey smothers its young one by hugging it too much.”--[_Mart._]

3. Aspère[2] iéve dans marmite avant causé. (Attendez que le lièvre soit dans la marmite avant de parler.)

“Wait till the hare’s in the pot before you talk.”--Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.--[_Mauritius._]

[2] Evidently a creolization of the Spanish _esperar_.

4. Avant bois[3] d’Inde té pòté graine, macaque té nouri yche yo. (Avant que l’arbre d’Inde portâit des graines, les macaques nourissaient leurs petits.)

“Before the Indian tree (?) bore seed the monkeys were able to nourish their young.”--[_Martinique._]

[3] The word bois (wood) is frequently used in Creole for the tree itself; and pié-bois (“foot of the wood”) for the trunk or stump. “Yon gouòs pié-bois plis facile déraciné qu’mauvais l’habitude” (A big stump is easier to uproot than a bad habit), is a Martinique Creole dictum, evidently borrowed from the language of the white masters. I am sorry that I do not know which of the various trees to which the name bois d’Inde has been given by the Creoles, is referred to in the proverb--whether the mango, or China-berry. No tree is generally recognized by that name in Louisiana.

5. Avant zabocat macaque ka nouri yche li. (Avant qu’il y eût des avocados, les macaques nourissaient leurs petits.)

“The monkey could nourish its young, before there were any avocadoes.”[4]--[_Martinique._]

[4] The Avocado was the name given by the Spanish conquistadores to the Persea gratissima, whose fruit is the “alligator pear.” But M. Turiault again traces the Spanish word back to the Carib word Aouacate.

6. Azourdi casse en fin; dimain tape langouti. (Aujourd’hui bien mis; demain en langouti.)

“Well dressed to-day; only a langouti[5] tomorrow.”--[_Mauritius._]

[5] The langouti was the garment worn about the loins by male slaves in Mauritius--who were wont to labor otherwise naked. In Creole both _caser_ and _taper_ signify “to put on,” with the difference that _caser_ generally refers to good clothes. In colloquial French _tapé_ means “stylishly dressed,” “well-rigged-out,” etc.

7. Azourdi soûle bon temps, dimain pagayé. (Aujourd’hui soûl de plaisir, demain la pagaye.)

“To-day drunk with fun, to-morrow the paddle.” Allusion to slavery discipline.--[_Mauritius._]

8. Azourdi tout marmites dibout làhaut difé. (Aujourd’hui toutes les marmites sont debout sur le feu.)

“All the cooking-pots are on the fire now.” One man is now as good as another:--this proverb evidently refers to the abolition of slavery.--[_Mauritius._]

9. Azourdi tout femmes alle confesse, més lhére zautes tourne léglise dìabe zétte encore pécé av zautes. (Aujourd’hui toutes les femmes vont à confesse; mais quand elles reviennent de l’église le diable leur jette encore des péchés.)

“All the women go to confession now-a-days; but they no sooner return from church, than the devil piles more sins upon them.”--[_Mauritius._]

10. Babe canmarade ou pris difé, rousé ta ou. (Quand la barbe de ton camarade brûle, arrose la tienne.)

“If you see your neighbor’s beard on fire, water your own.”[6]--[_Martinique._]

[6] “Take example by the misfortune of others.” I much doubt the Creole origin of any proverb relating to the _beard_. This one, like many others in the collection, has probably been borrowed from a European source; but it furnishes a fine sample of patois. In Louisiana Creole we would say _to quenne_ instead of _ta ou_. The Spanish origin of the Creole _quenne_ is obvious.

11. Babiez mouche, babiez viande. (Grondez les mouches, grondez la viande.)

“Scold the flies, scold the meat.”--[_Hayti._]

12. Badnèn bien èpis macaque; main pouèngâde manyèn lakhé li. (Badinez bien avec le macaque; mais prenez garde de ne pas manier sa queue.)

“Joke with the monkey as much as you please; but take good care not to handle his tail.”--[_Trinidad._]

13. Baggïe qui fair ziex fair nez. (Les choses qui font [mal aux] yeux, font [mal au] nez.)

“What troubles the eyes affects the nose.”[7]--[_Trinidad._]

[7] I believe there is an omission in Thomas’ version, and that the Creole ought to read: “_Baggaie qui fair mal ziex fair mal nez._” _Baggaie_ has a hundred meanings: “thing,” “affair,” “business,” “nonsense,” “stuff,” etc.

14. Bagasse boucoup, flangourin piti morceau. (Beaucoup de bagasse, peu de jus.)

“Much bagasse and little juice.” (The bagasse is the refuse of the cane, after the sap has been extracted.)--[_Mauritius._]

15. Baignèn iches moune; main pas lavez dêïer zoreîes yeaux. (Baignez les enfants des autres [lit: du monde]; mais ne les lavez pas derrière les oreilles.)

“Bathe other people’s children; but don’t wash behind their ears.”--That is to say: Do not be servile in obsequiousness to others.--[_Trinidad._]

16. Balié nef, balié prope. (Un balai neuf, un balai propre.)

“A new broom’s a clean broom.”--This is a Creolization of our household phrase: “A new broom sweeps clean.”--[_Mauritius._]

17. Bardeaux[8] couvert tout. (Les bardeaux couvrent tout.)

“Shingles cover everything.”--Family roofs often cover a multitude of sins. [_Mauritius._]

[8] The sarcasm of this proverb appears to be especially levelled at the rich. In other Mauritian proverbs the house of the rich man is always spoken of as the house covered with shingles, in contradistinction to the humble slave cabins, thatched with straw.

18. Báton pas fò passé[9] sabe. (Le bâton n’est pas plus fort que le sabre.)

“The stick is not stronger than the sabre.”--[_Martinique._]

[9] _Passé_--_lit_: “past”--therefore synonymous with “beyond.” Word for word the translation would be:--“The stick is not strong beyond the sword.” But the Creole generally uses “plis....passé” instead of the French plus....que (“more than”). “Victorine li plis zolie passé Alphonsine”--Victorine is more pretty than Alphonsine. The Creole _passé_ is really adverbial; bearing some semblance to the old English use of the word “passing,” as in “_passing_ strange,” “_passing_ fair.”

19. Batté rendé zamés fére mal. (Les coups rendus ne font jamais de mal.)

“Blows returned never hurt.”--Vengeance is sweet.--[_Mauritius._]

20. Bef pas bousoin lakhê li yon sel fois pou chassé mouche. (Le bœuf n’a pas besoin de sa queue une fois seulement pour chasser les mouches.)

“It isn’t one time only that the ox needs his tail to drive the flies away.”--Ironical expression for “you will have need of me again.”[10]--[_Martinique._]

[10] This proverb may be found in all the Creole dialects of the West Indies. We have in the South a proverb to the same effect in English: _Flytime will come again_, and the ox will want his tail.

21. Bef pas jamain ka dîe savane, “Meçi!” (Le bœuf ne dit jamais à la savane, “Merci!”)

“Ox never says ‘Thank you,’ to the pasture.”[11]--[_Trinidad._]

[11] A proverb current in Martinique, Louisiana, etc., with slight variations. Favors or services done through selfish policy, or compelled by necessity, do not merit acknowledgment.

22. Béfs laquée en lére, mauvés temps napas loin. (Les bœufs ont la queue en l’air, le mauvais temps n’est pas loin.)

“When the oxen lift their tails in the air, look out for bad weather.”--[_Mauritius._]

23. * Bel tignon[12] pas fait bel négresse. (Le beau tignon ne fait pas la belle negresse.)

“It isn’t the fine head-dress that makes the fine negress.”--[_Louisiana._]

[12] The Louisiana _tiyon_ or _tignon_ [_tiyon_ is the true Creole word] is the famously picturesque handkerchief which in old days all slave women twisted about their heads. It is yet worn by the older colored folk: and there are several styles of arranging it--_tiyon chinoise_, _tiyon Créole_, etc. An old New Orleans ditty is still sung, of which the refrain is:--

Madame Caba! Tiyon vous tombé! Madame Caba, Tiyon vous tombé!

“Madame Caba, your tiyon’s falling off!”

24. Bénéfice ratt, c’est pou sèpent. (Le bénéfice du rat, c’est pour le serpent.)

“The rat’s gains are for the serpent.”--[_Martinique._]

25. Bon bagout çappe la vie. (Bon bagou sauve la vie.)

“Good gab saves one’s life.”--[_Mauritius._]

26. Bon blanc mouri; mauvais rêté. (Le bon blanc meurt; le mauvais [méchant] reste.)

“The good white man dies; the bad remains.”--[_Hayti._]

27. Bon-bouche ka gagnin chouvals à crédit. (La bonne bouche[13] obtient des chevaux à credit.)

“Fair words buy horses on credit.”--[_Trinidad._]

[13] That is to say: _la bonne langue_;--“the good tongue gets horses on credit.”

28. * Bon chien pas janmain trappé bon zo. (Jamais un bon chien n’obtient un bon os.)

“A good dog never gets a good bone.”--Creole adaptation of an old French proverb.--[_Martinique._]

29. Bon coq chanté dans toutt pouleillé. (Un bon coq chante dans tout [n’importe quel] poulailler.)

“A good cock crows in any henhouse.”--Meaning that force of character shows itself under all circumstances.--[_Martinique._]

30. Bondié baille nouèsett pou ça qui pas ni dent. (Le Bon Dieu donne des noisettes à celui qui n’a pas de dents.)

“God gives nuts to people who have no teeth.” Originally an Oriental proverb; adopted into Creole from the French. As we say: “A fool for luck.”--[_Martinique._]

31. Bon-Guè ka baille ti zouèseau dans bois mangé, jigé sì li pas ké baille chritien mangé. (Le Bon Dieu donne à manger aux petits oiseaux qui sont dans les bois; jugez s’il ne donnera pas à manger à un chrétien.)[14]

“God gives the little birds in the wood something to eat; judge for yourself, then, whether he will not give a Christian something to eat.”--[_Martinique._]

[14] Such a conversation as the following may not unfrequently be heard among the old colored folk in New Orleans:--

--“Eh! Marie! to papé travaï jordi?”

--“Moin?--non!”

--“Eh, ben! comment to fé pou vive, alors?”

--“_Ah!....ti zozo li ka boi, li ka mangé, li pas travaï toujou!_”

[“Hey, Marie!--Ain’t you going to work to-day?” “I?--no!” “Well then, how do you manage to live?” “_Ah!....little bird drinks, little bird eats, little bird doesn’t work all the same!_”]

32. Bon lilit, bon ménaze. (Bon lit, bon ménage.)

“Where there’s a good bed, there’s good housekeeping.”--[_Mauritius._]

33. Bon piè sauvé mauvais cò. (Un bon pied sauve un mauvais corps.)

“A good (swift) foot saves a bad (weakly) body.”--Like our proverbial refrain: “He that fights and runs away,” etc.[15]--[_Martinique._]

[15] Or like the Old Country saying “Better a good run than a bad stand.”

34. * Bon-temps fait crapaud manqué bounda. (Le bon temps fait manquer de derrière au crapaud.)

“Idleness leaves the frogs without buttocks.”--[_Louisiana._]

35. * Bon-temps pas bosco. (Le bon temps n’est pas bossu.)