er changes clear. A negro was
asked to lend his horse; he replied, _Mouchee_ (Monsieur), _mo pas gagne
choual, mais mo connais qui gagne ly; si ly pas gagne ly, ly faut mo
gagne ly, pour vous gagne_: "Massa, me no got horse, but me know who got
um; if him no got um, him get me um for you." _Quelquechose_ becomes
_quichou; zozo = oiseau; gournee = combattre; guete = voir; zombi =
revenant; bouge = demeurer; hele = appeler,_ etc.[M]

[Footnote M: Harvey's _Sketches of Haiti_, p. 292. See a vocabulary in
_Manuel des Habitans de St. Domingue,_ par L.J. Ducoeurjoly, Tom. II.
Here is a verse of a Creole song, written in imitation of the negro
dialect:--

Dipi mo perdi Lisette,
Mo pas souchie Calinda,[A]
Mo quitte bram-bram sonette,
Mo pas batte bamboula.[B]
Quand mo contre l'aut' negresse,
Mo pas gagne z'yeu pour ly;
Mo pas souchie travail piece,
Tou qui chose a moue mouri.

The French of which is as follows:--

Mes pas, loin de ma Lisette,
S'eloiguent du Calinda;
Et ma ceinture a sonnette
Languit sur mon bamboula.
Mon oeil de toute autre belle
N'apercoit plus le souris;
Le travail en vain m'appelle,
Mes sens sont aneantis.

[Footnote A: A favorite dance.]

[Footnote B: A kind of tambourine or drum made of a keg stretched with
skins, and sometimes hung with bells.]]

The dialect thus formed by the aid of traits common to many negro tribes
was a solution into which their differences fell to become modified;
when the barriers of language were broken down, the common African
nature, with all its good and evil, appeared in a Creole form. The
forced labor, the caprice of masters, and the cruel supervision of the
overseers engendered petty vices of theft, concealment, and hypocrisy.
The slave became meaner than the native African in all respects; even
his passions lost their extravagant sincerity, but part of the manliness
went with it. Intelligence, ability, adroitness were exercised in
a languid way; rude and impetuous tribes became more docile and
manageable, but those who were already disposed to obedience did not
find either motive or influence to lift their natures into a higher
life. An average slave-character, not difficult to govern, but without
instinct to improve, filled the colony. A colonist would hardly suspect
the fiery Africa whose sun ripened the ancestors of his slaves, unless
he caught them by accident in the midst of their voluptuous _Calenda_,
or watched behind s