No. 23. Bel tignon pas fait bel négresse. (Le beau tignon ne fait pas la belle négresse.) "It isn't the fine head-dress that makes the fine negress." (Louisiana.)
Tignon or tiyon, the true Creole word, "is the famously picturesque handkerchief which in old days all slave-women twisted about their heads."
No. 44. Ça qui boudé manze boudin. (Celui qui boude mange du boudin.) "He who sulks eats his own belly." That is to say, spites himself. The pun is untranslatable. (Mauritius.)
Boudin in French signifies a pudding, in Creole it also signifies the belly. Thus there is a double pun in the patois.
No. 256. Quand diabe alle lamesse li caciétte so laquée. (Quand le diable va à la messe, il cache sa queue.) "When the Devil goes to mass he hides his tail." (Mauritius.)
No. 352. Zozo paillenqui crié là-haut, coudevent vini. (Le paille-en-cul crie la-haut, le coup de vent vient.) "When the tropic-bird screams overhead, a storm-wind is coming." (Mauritius.)
No. 267. Quand milatt tini yon vié chouvral yo dit nègress pas manman yo. (Quand les mulâtres ont un vieux cheval ils disent que les négresses ne sont pas leur mères.) "As soon as a mulatto is able to own an old horse, he will tell you that his mother wasn't a nigger." (Martinique.)
No. 324. Toutt milett ni grand zaureilles. (Tout les mulets ont des grandes oreilles.) "All mules have big ears." Equivalent to our proverb: "Birds of a feather flock together." (Martinique.)
No. 291. Si coulev oûlé viv, li pas pronminée grand-chemin. (Si la couleuvre veut vivre, elle ne se promène pas dans le grand chemin.) "If the snake cares to live, it doesn't journey upon the high-road." (Guyana.)
No. 292. Si coulève pas té fonté, femmes sé pouend li fair ribans jipes. (Si la couleuvre n'était pas effrontée les femmes la prendraient pour en faire des rubans de jupes.) "If the snake wasn't spunky, women would use it for petticoat strings." (Trinidad.)
No. 100. Complot plis fort passé ouanga.[23] (Le complot est plus fort que l'ouanga.) "Conspiracy is stronger than witchcraft." (Hayti.)
Di moin si to gagnin homme!
Mo va fé ouanga pouli;
Mo fé li tourné fantôme
Si to vlé mo to mari....
"Tell me if thou hast a man (a lover) I will make a ouanga for him—I will change him into a ghost if thou wilt have me for thy husband."
This word, of African origin, is applied to all things connected with the Voudooism of the negroes.
In the song, "Dipi mo voué, toué Adèle," from which the above lines are taken, the wooer threatens to get rid of a rival by ouanga—to "turn him into a ghost." The victims of Voudooism are said to have gradually withered away, probably through the influence of secret poison. The word grigri, also of African origin, simply refers to a charm, which may be used for an innocent or innocuous purpose. Thus, in a Louisiana Creole song, we find a quadroon mother promising her daughter a charm to prevent the white lover from forsaking her:
"Pou tchombé li na fé grigri." "We shall make a grigri to keep him."
Simultaneously with the publication of "Gombo Zhèbes," Hearn contributed a series of articles[24] to Harper's Weekly. (221-227, 230, 232.) These papers, which are commonplace newspaper work, tell of New Orleans, its Expositions, its Superstitions, Voudooism, and the Creole Patois. He feels that the Creole tongue must go, but while there is still time, he hopes that some one will rescue its dying legends and curious lyrics.
[ [24] Copyright, 1884, 1885, 1886, by Harper and Brothers.
The unedited Creole literature comprises songs, satires in rhymes, proverbs, fairy-tales—almost everything commonly included under the term folk-lore. The lyrical portion of it is opulent in oddities, in melancholy beauties.