XI.
February 17th.
… YZORE is a calendeuse.
The calendeuses are the women who make up the beautiful Madras
turbans and color them; for the amazingly brilliant yellow of
these head-dresses is not the result of any dyeing process: they
are all painted by hand. When purchased the Madras is simply a
great oblong handkerchief, having a pale green or pale pink
ground, and checkered or plaided by intersecting bands of dark
blue, purple, crimson, or maroon. The calendeuse lays the Madras
upon a broad board placed across her knees,—then, taking a
camel's-hair brush, she begins to fill in the spaces between the
bands with a sulphur-yellow paint, which is always mixed with
gum-arabic. It requires a sure eye, very steady fingers, and long
experience to do this well. … After the Madras has been
"calendered" (calendé) and has become quite stiff and dry, it is
folded about the head of the purchaser after the comely
Martinique fashion,—which varies considerably from the modes
popular in Guadeloupe or Cayenne,—is fixed into the form thus
obtained; and can thereafter be taken off or put on without
arrangement or disarrangement, like a cap. The price for
calendering a Madras is now two francs and fifteen sous;—and for
making-up the turban, six sous additional, except in Carnival-time,
or upon holiday occasions, when the price rises to twenty-five
sous. … The making-up of the Madras into a turban is
called "tying a head" (marré yon tête); and a prettily folded
turban is spoken of as "a head well tied" (yon tête bien
marré). … However, the profession of calendeuse is far from
being a lucrative
one: it is two or three days' work to calender
a single Madras well. …
But Yzore does not depend upon calendering alone for a living:
she earns much more by the manufacture of moresques and of
chinoises than by painting Madras turbans. … Everybody in
Martinique who can afford it wears moresques and chinoises. The
moresques are large loose comfortable pantaloons of thin printed
calico (indienne),—having colored designs representing birds,
frogs, leaves, lizards, flowers, butterflies, or kittens,—or
perhaps representing nothing in particular, being simply
arabesques. The chinoise is a loose body-garment, very much like
the real Chinese blouse, but always of brightly colored calico
with fantastic designs. These things are worn at home during
siestas, after office-hours, and at night. To take a nap during
the day with one's ordinary clothing on means always a terrible
drenching from perspiration, and an after-feeling of exhaustion
almost indescribable—best expressed, perhaps, by the local term:
corps écrasé. Therefore, on entering one's room for the siesta,
one strips, puts on the light moresques and the chinoise, and
dozes in comfort. A suit of this sort is very neat, often quite
pretty, and very cheap (costing only about six francs);—the
colors do not fade out in washing, and two good suits will last a
year. … Yzore can make two pair of moresques and two chinoises
in a single day upon her machine.
… I have observed there is a prejudice here against treadle
machines;—the creole girls are persuaded they injure the health.
Most of the sewing-machines I have seen among this people are
operated by hand,—with a sort of little crank. …