“The frog has no shirt, and you want him to wear drawers!”—[Trinidad.]
114. Cresson content boire dileau. (Le cresson aime à boire l’eau).
“The water cress loves to drink water.” Used interrogatively, this is equivalent to the old saw: “Does a duck like water?” “Will a duck swim?”—[Mauritius.]
115. Croquez maconte ou oueti[45] main ou ka rivé. (Accrochez votre maconte où vous pouvez l’atteindre avec la main [lit. où vôtre main peut arriver].)
“Hang up your maconte where you can reach it with your hand.”—[Hayti.]
[45] The Martinique dialect gives both oti and outi for “où”: “where.” Mr. Bigelow gives the curious spelling croquez. The word is certainly derived from the French, accrocher. In Louisiana Creole we always say ’croché for “hang up.” I doubt the correctness of the Haytian spelling as here given: for the French word croquer (“to devour,” “gobble up,” “pilfer,” etc.) has its Creole counterpart; and the soft ch is never, so far as I can learn, changed into the k or g sound in the patois.
116. D’abord vous guetté poux de bois mangé bouteille, croquez calabasse vous haut. (Quand vous voyez les poux-de-bois manger les bouteilles, accrochez vos calabasses [en] haut).
“When you see the woodlice eating the bottles, hang your calabashes out of their reach.”[46]—[Hayti.]
[46] Mr. Bigelow is certainly wrong in his definition of the origin of the word which he spells queté. It is a Creole adoption of the French guetter, “to watch:” and is used by the Creoles in the sense of “observe,” “perceive,” “see.” Other authorities spell it guêtte, as all verbs ending in “ter” in French make their Creole termination in “té.” This verb is one of many to which slightly different meanings from those belonging to the original French words, are attached by the Creoles. Thus çappe, from échapper, is used as an equivalent for sauver.