The other is that only Jesus Christ died precisely at three o'clock. Nobody else ever died exactly at that hour;—they may die a second before or a second after three, but never exactly at three.
XXIV
Mardi 31st.
... Holy Saturday morning;—nine o'clock. All the bells suddenly ring out; the humming of the bourdon blends with the thunder of a hundred guns: this is the Gloria!... At this signal it is a religious custom for the whole coast-population to enter the sea, and for those living too far from the beach to bathe in the rivers. But rivers and sea are now alike infected;—all the linen of the lazarettos has been washed therein; and to-day there are fewer bathers than usual.
But there are twenty-seven burials. Now they are burying the dead two together: the cemeteries are overburdened....
XXV
... In most of the old stone houses you will occasionally see spiders of terrifying size,—measuring across perhaps as much as six inches from the tip of one outstretched leg to the tip of its opposite fellow, as they cling to the wall. I never heard of any one being bitten by them; and among the poor it is deemed unlucky to injure or drive them away.... But early this morning Yzore swept her house clean, and ejected through the door-way quite a host of these monster insects. Manm-Robert is quite dismayed:—
—"Jesis-Maïa!—ou 'lè malhè éncò fou fai ça, chè?" (You want to have still more bad luck, that you do such a thing?)
And Yzore answers:—
—"Toutt moune içitt pa ni yon soul—ça fil zagrignin, et moin pa menm mangé! Epi laverette encò.... Main couè toutt ça ka pòté malhè!" (No one here has a sou!—heaps of cobwebs like that, and nothing to eat yet; and the verette into the bargain.... I think those things bring bad luck.)