Chapter XII: Appreciations and Epitomes (5)

Any one who has ever paid a flying visit to New Orleans probably knows something about those various culinary preparations whose generic name is "Gombo"--compounded of many odds and ends, with the okra-plant, or true gombo for a basis, but also comprising occasionally "lose, zepinard, laitie," and the other vegetables sold in bunches in the French market. At all events, any person who has remained in the city for a season must have become familiar with the nature of "gombo file," "gombo fevi," and "gombo aux herbes," or as our coloured cook calls it "gombo zhebes"--for she belongs to the older generation of Creole _cuisinieres_, and speaks the patois in its primitive purity, without using a single "r." Her daughter, who has been to school, would pronounce it _gombo zhairbes_:--the modern patois is becoming more and more Frenchified, and will soon be altogether forgotten, not only throughout Louisiana, but even in the Antilles. It still, however, retains originality enough to be understood with difficulty by persons thoroughly familiar with French; and even those who know nothing of any language but English, readily recognize it by the peculiar rapid syllabification and musical intonation. Such English-speaking residents of New Orleans seldom speak of it as "Creole": they call it _gombo_, for some mysterious reason which I have never been able to explain satisfactorily. The coloured Creoles of the city have themselves begun to use the term to characterize the patois spoken by the survivors of slavery days. Turiault tells us that in the town of Martinique, where the Creole is gradually changing into French, the _Bitacos_, or country negroes who still speak the patois nearly pure, are much ridiculed by their municipal brethren:--_Ca ou ka pale la, che, c'est neg;--Ca pas Creole!_ ("What you talk is 'nigger,' my dear:--that isn't Creole!") In like manner a young Creole negro or negress of New Orleans might tell an aged member of his race: _Ca qui to parle ca pas Creole; ca c'est gombo!_ I have sometimes heard the pure and primitive Creole also called "Congo" by coloured folks of the new generation.

The literature of "gombo" has perhaps even more varieties than there are preparations of the esculents above referred to;--the patois has certainly its gombo fevi, its gombo file, its "gombo zhebes"--both written and unwritten. A work like Marbot's "Bambous" would deserve to be classed with the pure "fevi";--the treatises of Turiault, Baissac, St. Quentin, Thomas, rather resemble that fully prepared dish, in which crabs seem to struggle with fragments of many well-stewed meats, all strongly seasoned with pepper. The present essay at Creole folklore, can only be classed as "gombo zhebes"--(_Zhebes ce feuil-chou, cresson, laitie, bettrav, lose, zepinard_); the true okra is not the basis of our preparation;--it is a Creole dish, if you please, but a salmagundi of inferior quality.

* * * * *

Needless to say, this collection is far from perfect;--the most I can hope for is that it may constitute the nucleus of a more exhaustive publication to appear in course of time. No one person could hope to make a really complete collection of Creole proverbs--even with all the advantages of linguistic knowledge, leisure, wealth, and travel. Only a society of folklorists might bring such an undertaking to a successful issue;--but as no systematic effort is being made in this direction, I have had no hesitation in attempting--not indeed to fill a want--but to set an example. _Gouie passe, difil sivre_:--let the needle but pass, the thread will follow.

L. H.

(6) Creole Bibliography.

Pages 40-42 Indexes.

Articles and Reviews:--

_Nation, The_, April 23, 1885, vol. 40, p. 349.

No. 3.

1887. SOME CHINESE GHOSTS. By Lafcadio Hearn. (Chinese Characters.) Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1887. 16mo., p. (8) 185, brown cloth with Chinese mask on cover, red top.

Facing Title-page:--

_If ye desire to witness prodigies and to behold marvels, be not concerned as to whether the mountains are distant or the rivers far away._

Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan.

(2) Dedication:--

To my Friend,
HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL
The Musician,
who, speaking the
speech of melody unto the
children of Tien-hia,--
unto the wandering Tsing-jin, whose skins
have the colour of gold,--
moved them to make strange sounds upon the
serpent-bellied San-hien;
persuaded them to play for me upon the
shrieking Ya-hien;
prevailed on them to sing me a song of their
native land,--
the song of Mohli-hwa,
the song of the jasmine-flower.
(Sketch of Chinaman's head.)

(Reverse) Chinese Character.

(3-4) Preface.

I think that my best apology for the insignificant size of this volume is the very character of the material composing it. In preparing the legends I sought especially for _weird beauty_; and I could not forget this striking observation in Sir Walter Scott's "Essay on Imitations of the Ancient Ballad": "The supernatural, though appealing to certain powerful emotions very widely and deeply sown amongst the human race, is, nevertheless, _a spring which is peculiarly apt to lose its elasticity by being too much pressed upon_." Those desirous to familiarize themselves with Chinese literature as a whole have had the way made smooth for them by the labours of linguists like Julien, Pavie, Remusat, De Rosny, Schlegel, Legge, Hervey-Saint-Denys, Williams, Biot, Giles, Wylie, Beal, and many other Sinologists. To such great explorers indeed, the realm of Cathayan story belongs by right of discovery and conquest; yet the humbler traveller who follows wonderingly after them into the vast and mysterious pleasure-grounds of Chinese fancy may surely be permitted to cull a few of the marvellous flowers there growing,--a self-luminous _hwa-wang_, a black lily, a phosphoric rose or two,--as souvenirs of his curious voyage.

L. H. New Orleans, March 15, 1886.

(5) Contents:--

The Soul of the Great Bell The Story of Ming-Y The Legend of Tchi-Niu The Return of Yen Tchin-King The Tradition of the Tea-Plant The Tale of the Porcelain God

Appendix:--

Notes. Glossary.

New Edition. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1906, 12mo.

Articles and Reviews:--

Charles W. Coleman, Jr., _Harper's Monthly_, May, 1887, vol. 74,
p. 855.

_Nation, The_, May 26, 1887, vol. 44, p. 456.

No. 4.

1889. CHITA: a Memory of Last Island. By Lafcadio Hearn

"_But Nature whistled with all her winds, Did as she pleased, and went her way._"

--Emerson.

New York: Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square, 1889. 12mo., 3 p. l., pp. 204, terra-cotta cloth, decorated.

(Published first in _Harper's Monthly_, April, 1888.)

(1) Dedication:--

To my Friend
DR. RODOLFO MATAS
of
New Orleans

(2) Contents:--

Part I
The Legend of L'ile Derniere

Part II
Out of the Sea's Strength