X.
NIGHT falls;—the maskers crowd to the ball-rooms to dance
strange tropical measures that will become wilder and wilder as
the hours pass. And through the black streets, the Devil makes
his last Carnival-round.
By the gleam of the old-fashioned oil lamps hung across the thoroughfares
I can make out a few details of his costume. He is clad in red, wears
a hideous blood-colored mask, and a cap of which the four sides are formed
by four looking-glasses;—the whole head-dress being surmounted by a
red lantern. He has a white wig made of horse-hair, to make him
look weird and old,—since the Devil is older than the world!
Down the street he comes, leaping nearly his own height,—
chanting words without human signification,—and followed by some
three hundred boys, who form the chorus to his chant—all
clapping hands together and giving tongue with a simultaneity
that testifies how strongly the sense of rhythm
enters into the natural
musical feeling of the African,—a feeling powerful enough to impose itself
upon all Spanish-America, and there create the unmistakable characteristics of
all that is called "creole music."
—"Bimbolo!"
—"Zimabolo!"
—"Bimbolo!"
—"Zimabolo!"
—"Et zimbolo!"
—"Et bolo-po!"
—sing the Devil and his chorus. His chant is cavernous,
abysmal,—booms from his chest like the sound of a drum beaten in
the bottom of a well. … Ti manmaille-là, baill moin lavoix!
("Give me voice, little folk,—give me voice!") And all chant
after him, in a chanting like the rushing of many waters, and
with triple clapping of hands:—"Ti manmaille-là, baill moin
lavoix!" … Then he halts before a dwelling in the Rue Peysette,
and thunders:—
—"Eh! Marie-sans-dent!—Mi! diabe-là derhó!"
That is evidently a piece of spite-work: there is somebody living
there against whom he has a grudge. …
"Hey! Marie-without-teeth! look! the Devil is outside!"
And the chorus catch the clue.
DEVIL.—"Eh! Marie-sans-dent!" …
CHORUS.—"Marie-sans-dent! mi!—diabe-là derhó!"
D.—"Eh! Marie-sans-dent!"' …
C.—"Marie-sans-dent! mi!—diabe-à derhó!"
D.—"Eh! Marie-sans-dent!" … etc.
The Devil at last descends to the main street, always singing the
same song;—follow the chorus to the Savanna, where the rout
makes for the new bridge over the Roxelane, to mount the high
streets of the old quarter of the Fort; and the chant changes as
they cross over:—
DEVIL.—"Oti ouè diabe-là passé
lariviè?" (Where
did you see the Devil going over the river?) And all the boys
repeat the words, falling into another rhythm with perfect
regularity and ease:—"
Oti ouè diabe-là passé lariviè?"
DEVIL.—"Oti ouè diabe?" …
CHORUS.—"Oti ouè diabe-là passé lariviè?"
D.—"Oti ouè diabe?"
C,—"Oti ouè diabe-làp passé lariviè?"
D,—"Oti ouè diabe? … etc.
About midnight the return of the Devil and his following arouses
me from sleep:—all are chanting a new refrain, "The Devil and
the zombis sleep anywhere and everywhere!" (Diabe épi zombi ka
dómi tout-pàtout.) The voices of the boys are still clear,
shrill, fresh,—clear as a chant of frogs;—they still clap hanwith
a precision of rhythm that is simply wonderful,—making each
time a sound almost exactly like the bursting of a heavy wave:—
DEVIL.—"Diable épi zombi." …
CHORUS.—"Diable épi zombi ka d'omi tout-pàtout!"
D.—"Diable épi zombi."
C.—"Diable épi zombi ka dómi tout-pàtout!"
D.—Diable épi zombi." … etc.
… What is this after all but the old African method of chanting
at labor, The practice of carrying the burden upon the head left
the hands free for the rhythmic accompaniment of clapping. And
you may still hear the women who load the transatlantic steamers
with coal at Fort-de-France thus chanting and clapping. …
Evidently the Devil is moving very fast; for all the boys are
running;—the pattering of bare feet upon the pavement sounds
like a heavy shower. … Then the chanting grows fainter in
distance; the Devil's immense basso becomes inaudible;—one only
distinguishes at regular intervals the crescendo of the burden,—
a wild swelling
of many hundred boy-voices all rising together,—
a retreating storm of rhythmic song, wafted to the ear in gusts,
in
raifales of contralto. …
