HAITIAN CONTRASTS AND BEGINNINGS 



market she will sell her bundles of grass fodder for 

 three gourdes, and with this sixty cents will return 

 as leisurely as she came — the typical Haitian 

 centaur on her way to her mountain home. But 

 let this arouse no word of pity, for she has not come 

 this incredible distance for the sixty cents. If you 

 met her at the end of the first day and offered her 

 three gourdes and a half she would probably 

 refuse. Not for money would she forego the 

 gossip and banter, — the joys of the nocturnal 

 caravanserai, and the ultimate delights of strident 

 barter in the great market-place itself, — with the 

 joyful smells, and cries, and scenes which are so 

 familiar to us all around the girdle of the globe. 

 As she passes I greet her, "Bon jour, madame." 

 And in the unexpectedness and courtesy of her 

 reply she momentarily bridges all the differences 

 between us. "Bon jour, monsieur; prend courage, 

 mon cousin.'* And I return to my task with 

 renewed courage born of the joy of contrast. 



One afternoon I watched a game of polo, excel- 

 lently played, between the Marines and oflScers of 

 the Gendarmerie, and later talked philosophy at a 

 sophisticated Colony Club. And that night the 

 police handed in the following report of a voodoo 

 dance three or four blocks away. 



"VOODOO DANCE AND SORTILEGE 



"Ten men, six women, and one gendarme, 



E D , 20th Co., were arrested at 11 :00 p.m. 



9 



