98. Coment to tale to natte faut to dourmi. (Comment tu étends ta natte il faut que tu te couches.)

“As you spread your mat, so must you lie.”—[Mauritius.]

99. * Compé Torti va doucement; mais li rivé coté bîte pendant Compé Chivreil apé dormi. (Compère Tortue va doucement; mais il arrive au bût pendant que Compère Chevreuil dort.)

“Daddy Tortoise goes slow; but he gets to the goal while Daddy Deer is asleep.”[39]—[Louisiana.]

[39] Based upon the Creole fable of Compère Tortue and Comperè Chevreuil, rather different from the primitive story of the Hare and the Tortoise.

100. Complot plis fort passé ouanga.[40] (Le complot est plus fort que l’ouanga.)

“Conspiracy is stronger than witchcraft.”—[Hayti.]

[40]

Di moin si to gagnin nhomme!
Mo va fé ouanga pou li;
Mo fé li tourné fantôme
Si to vlé mo to mari....

“Tell me if thou hast a man ouanga for him—I will change him into a 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 vouè, touè 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.”