University of Virginia Library

VIII.

… EVERY year, on the last day of the Carnival, a droll ceremony used to take place called the" Burial of the Bois-bois,"—the bois-bois being a dummy, a guy, caricaturing the most unpopular thing in city life or in politics. This bois-bois, after having been paraded with mock solemnity through all the ways of St. Pierre, was either interred or "drowned,"—flung into the sea. … And yesterday the dancing societies had announced their intention to bury a bois-bois laverette,—a manikin that was to represent the plague. But this bois-bois does not make its appearance. La Verette is too terrible a visitor to be made fun of, my friends;— you will not laugh at her, because you dare not. …

No: there is one who has the courage,—a yellow goblin crying from behind his wire mask, in imitation of the màchannes: "Ça qui lè quatóze graines laverette pou yon sou?" (Who wants to buy fourteen verette-spots for a sou?)

Not a single laugh follows that jest. … And just one week from to-day, poor mocking goblin, you will have a great many more than quatorze graines, which will not cost you even a sou, and which will disguise you infinitely better than the mask you now wear;— and they will pour quick-lime over you, ere ever they let you pass through this street again—in a seven franc coffin! …