84 I N A G U A 



gone mad. She twisted and frothed and swayed with the vi- 

 brations. But suddenly Thomas raised his hand and with an 

 abruptness that made us jump the chanting ceased. Opheha 

 looked startled, swayed uncertainly for a moment or two, 

 and then still trembling and trance-eyed took her seat. 



Thomas strode to a crude pulpit and began his sermon. I do 

 not remember the words nor are they important but the theme 

 of it was "Chillun, if yo don take de blessin yo gotta take de 

 cussin." It was a powerful oration. He told of the children of 

 Israel, of their trials and tribulations, of how the spirit— 'de 

 blessin" he called it— came upon them and guided them out of 

 the wilderness. It was a marvelous story, an epic of struggle, of 

 defeat and of victory. There were mighty wrestlings with "de 

 debbil"; he related how the children of Israel fought vaHantly 

 and cast him out. The Negro poured his whole heart and soul 

 into it. His voice shook with passion and he was an orator of no 

 small ability. The listeners hung on every word, jumped when 

 he crashed his fist. "De blessin is heah foh yo," he repeated again 

 and again, "if yo don take de blessin yo gotta take de cussin." 



We slipped away in the dark. Mounds of black masonry 

 splashed with bluish moonlight stood somberly against the 

 deep sky and high above the stars twinkled and glittered. Down 

 the street we could hear the swish and sigh of surf, the sound of 

 breakers gliding up the beach and falling back again. Once 

 more the thought came that this island was our portion, earth 

 and sea and sky, the deserted and decaying village, these people 

 who shared the land with us. I thought of the braggart Rich- 

 ardson, the smiling suave Commissioner, the Negroes back in 

 their primitive church— and of ourselves, islanders by accident. 

 Sea-girdled people, all of us, enmeshed in a circling wall of 

 foam and surf. And again, echoing down the empty street came 

 the passionate voice of little black Thomas. "Chillun, de blessin 

 is heah foh yo, if yo don take de blessin yo gotta take de cussin." 



