“To keep the flies off?” said I.
“Lordy gracious! no, master, dey nebber trouble me; dey is afraid in de dark, and when dey see me, dey tink it is night, and cut off.”
“What is the use of it, then?”
“To save my complexion, Massa; I is afraid it will fade white. Yah, yah, yah!”
While we were engaged in eating our steak, he put some glasses on the table and handed me a black bottle, about two-thirds full, and said, “Massa, dis here fog ab got down my troat, and up into my head, and most kill me, I can’t tell wedder dat is wine or rum, I is almost clean gwine distracted. Will Massa please to tell me?”
I knew what he was at, so sais I, “If you can’t smell it, taste it.” Well, he poured a glass so full, nobody but a nigger could have reached his mouth with it without spilling. When he had swallowed it he looked still more puzzled.
“Peers to me,” he said, “dat is wine, he is so mild, and den it peers to me it’s rum, for when it gets down to de stomach he feel so good. But dis child ab lost his taste, his smell, and his finement, altogedder.”
He then poured out another bumper, and as soon as he had tossed it off, said, “Dat is de clear grit; dat is oleriferous—wake de dead amost, it is de genuine piticular old Jamaicky, and no mistake. I must put dat bottle back and give you todder one, dat must be wine for sartain, for it is chock full, but rum vaporates bery fast when de cork is drawn. Missus used to say, ‘Sorrow, meat, when kept, comes bery high, but rum gets bery low.’”
“Happy fellow and lucky fellow too, for what white man in your situation would be treated so kindly and familiarly as you are? The fact is, Doctor, the negroes of America, as a class, whether slaves or free men, experience more real consideration, and are more comfortable, than the peasants of almost any country in Europe. Their notions of the origin of white men are very droll, when the things are removed I will make him give you his idea on the subject.
“Sorrow,” said I, “what colour was Adam and Eve?”