The negroes have very singular words of insult, and I remember seeing a man roused to fury by a little black servant of mine, who, after exhausting every offensive word in her vocabulary, suddenly said in Creole-negro, “Mangé chien.” The black fellow darted at her, and had she not made a precipitate retreat into the house, she would have felt his club on her shoulders.
It is an offensive custom among people of all classes in Hayti to repeat, as a sort of ejaculatory oath, a rather dirty Creole word. Men educated in a former generation cannot get rid of the habit, and many of the lower orders appear to use it at the close of every sentence. When Soulouque was Emperor he often consulted our Acting Consul-General, the present Sir Charles Wyke, now our Minister in Lisbon, as to the usages of the Courts of St. James’s and Hanover, and it is said that our agent gave him a hint that habitual swearing was certainly contrary to courtly usages. Soulouque took this hint in good part, and thought that he would try his hand on an old general notorious for this habit. So the Emperor watched his opportunity, and the first time his victim swore, he called him up and said, “General, I have decided that no one who comes to court can be permitted to use that offensive word with which you interlard your conversation.” The general looked surprised, and answered, “Emperor, f——, of course I will obey, f——, your commands, f——.” “There, you see,” replied his “Altesse,” “you have used the forbidden word three times.” The poor general now completely lost his head, and answered, “F——, Emperor, f——, if, f——, I am not allowed, f——, to use the word f——, I will cease, f——, from coming to court, f——.” The Emperor could not but laugh, and troubled the general no more, for the habit was too engrained. I should have treated this story as an exaggeration had not I myself heard an old officer equally profuse in his ejaculations.
The Emperor Soulouque was a very ignorant man, and a good story is told in illustration. The French Consul-General, Raybaud, I believe, went once to plead some cause before his Majesty, and wound up by saying that if he did what was required, he would be considered “plus grand qu’Annibal.” “Comment, Consite,” replied the startled Emperor, “moué cannibal!” And it required all the Frenchman’s tact to explain his reference. As Soulouque was known to be affiliated to the Vaudoux sect, the illustration was not happy in its sound.
The negroes and mulattoes are very fond of queer expressions, and their odd noises in conversation quite disconcert a stranger. Assent, dissent, anger, playful acquiescence, are all expressed by the variety in which ’ng-’ng are sounded, though a modified or even a musical grunt can scarcely be expressed on paper. The untravelled ladies in Hayti are very proud of thus being able to express their sentiments without having recourse to words.
The negroes of the lower orders are, like all other inhabitants of hot countries, very fond of bathing, but they are careless as to the cleanliness of their clothes. This I also noticed among the Malays and Dyaks of Borneo; they would bathe several times a day, and then return to their dirty garments. The dress of the peasantry in Hayti is often but an imitation of their European neighbours, though the females generally keep to a long white chemise, covered over with a blue cotton dress that reaches to their bare feet, and is drawn in round the waist. They wear a coloured handkerchief on their heads. On feast days and other gala occasions the young negresses dress in white, which makes a pleasant contrast of colour.
Markets used formerly to be held on Sundays. When this custom was abolished the female peasantry began to frequent the churches, and the comparison between their blue cotton gowns and the silk dresses of the ladies created envy. But when, in 1863, the price of cotton trebled, the peasantry had the means placed at their disposal to vie with the rich in Gonaives and St. Marc, and many availed themselves of it to go to church richly dressed. This fashion, however, lasted but a short time, and certainly did not survive the great fall in prices which followed the conclusion of the civil war in the United States.
The upper classes dress exactly like European ladies, but they never look well in fashionable Parisian hats, while their tignon, or handkerchief, tied gracefully round the head, is most becoming. A white tignon is a sign of mourning. There is nothing of which a Haytian lady is more proud than the amount of her personal and household linen. Her armoires are generally full of every kind, and the finer they are in quality the more they are esteemed; and the blacks are, if anything, more particular than the coloured in securing the most expensive underclothing. How they plume themselves on the condition of their best bedroom! It is fitted up expensively, in order that people may see it, but it is very seldom used, except to receive their lady friends in. Then they bring out with great pride the treasures of their armoires, and show how well supplied they are with what they do not make a general use of.
There is one thing for which all Haytians are equally remarkable—their love of “remèdes.” For everything, from a toothache to yellow fever, they have a variety of prescriptions, which are probably well suited to the country, but which a foreigner should be wary in taking. I have not yet forgotten a remède, consisting partly of the juice of the sour orange, which a good old lady gave me on my first arrival in the country. It was my first and my last experience. The natives like being physicked, and apothecary shops appear to thrive in every town and village. I remember a Haytian doctor, educated in Paris, telling me how he lost his patients when he first commenced practice by not dosing them enough.
The lower orders in Hayti have been accused of great incontinence, and the higher classes have not escaped the same accusation; but in no tropical country are the lower orders continent. People affect to say that it is the effect of climate, but I have never thought so. You have but to put your hand on the skin of a negro or of any tropical race, to find it as cold as that of a fish, and their blood is but little warmer. Their food of vegetables would alone prevent their having the fiery blood of a well-fed people.
The fact is, that continence is not considered a virtue by the lower orders in the tropics, and love-stories are told by mothers before their young daughters in all their crudest details, and no effort whatever is made to keep the minds or bodies of the young girls chaste. The consequence is that in early life, particularly among relatives, intercourse is almost promiscuous. As amusements are very scarce, young and old give themselves up to gallantry; but it is constant opportunity and the want of occupation and amusement which are the causes of incontinence, not their warm blood.