28 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 
lady and her Jean can speak what they flatter them- 
selves passes for English, but their native tongue is 
the perverted French of their white ancestor. Toa 
Parisian, their perversion of the French verb /azre 
would be sufficient to drive him crazy. 
For instance, the old lady strives to make intelligible 
the number of her grandchildren and their respective 
parents: “My zon, Jean, he make ze enfans seex; 
Ma fille, he make huit, and ¢out les enfans make 
seexty.” She passed my door one afternoon as I was 
busy preparing my collections for preservation, and 
told me confidently that she was going to “ make petit 
walk,” but a wail from the house of her eldest son 
caused her to hurry her old limbs to soothe the child 
“zat make ze cry.” “Me make my sleep,” is a com- 
mon expression. 
Jean B. is full of wise sayings, and gives vent to 
some very strange expressions. One day I returned 
from a long hunt in a heavy rain, and my worthy 
friend was greatly exercised that I did not immaediate- 
ly change my clothing. “ Who drink ze watah,” said 
he. “It is youselfs feet;” meaning that the moisture 
had been absorbed into my system. “White man 
next to God (ze Mon Dieu).” “White man not like 
colored, he no eat ze bones of ze poule.” “I tank ze 
Mon Dieu ef I speaks ze Engleesh.” He exercised a 
sort of paternal sovereignty over me, as the first white 
man who had honored his little hamlet with his pres- 
ence, and many a day has he staid from his labor in 
the mountains to procure something for my table, or 
some new bird. 
One day he brought to my door an iguana, nearly 
five feet in length, and very ugly. He had seen it 
