Page:Cerise, a tale of the last century (IA cerisetaleoflast00whytrich).pdf/297

 A negro, under excitement, from whatever cause, is a formidable-looking companion. Those animal points of head and countenance, by which he is distinguished from the white man, then assume an unseemly prominence. The lips thicken, the temples swell, the eyes roll, the brow seems to recede, and the whole face alters for the worse, like that of a vicious horse, when he lays his ears back, prepared to kick.

Célandine's visitors displayed all these alarming signs, and several other disagreeable peculiarities, the result of partial intoxication. Some of them carried axes, she observed, and all had knives. Their attire too, though of the gaudiest colours, was extremely scanty, ragged, and unwashed. They jested with one another freely enough, as they sat huddled together on the floor of the hut, but showed little of the childish good-humour common among prosperous and well-ordered slaves; while she augured the worst from the absence of that politeness which, to do him justice, is a prominent characteristic of the negro. Nevertheless, she dissembled her misgivings, affected an air of dignified welcome, handed round the calabash, with its accompanying stone bottle, to all in turn, and felt but little reassured to find that the rum was nearly exhausted when it had completed the circle.

"Thirteen gentlemen, Missee Célandine," observed the Coromantee, tossing off his measure of raw spirits with exceeding relish; "thirteen charms, best Obi-woman can furnish for the price, 'gainst evil eye, snake-bite, jumbo-stroke, fire, water, and cold steel, all 'counted for, honourable, in dem plantain baskets. Hi! you lazy nigger, pay out. Say, again, missee, what day this of the month?"

Célandine affected to consider.

"The thirteenth," she answered gravely; "the most unlucky day in the whole year."

Hippolyte's black face fell. "Golly?" said he. "Unlucky! for why? for what? Dis nigger laugh at luck," he added, brightening up and turning what liquor was left in the stone bottle down his own throat. "Lookee here, missee; you Obi-woman, right enough; you nigger too, yaller all same as black: you go pray Jumbo for luck. All paid for in dat basket. Pray Jumbo no rain to-night,