Guadeloupe continued - The Traveller's Tree: A Journey Through the Caribbean Islands - page 24

ing continued and the rapid alliterative jingle of words. The singer was hypnotized by the spell of his
song—
Zoum! pa' dewie'! Zoum! pa' devant
C'est l'amou' comme on dit!
went one chorus. When a song seemed to be dying away, and we were able to recover slightly, the tune
would change, and a new song would begin with an agonizing and long-drawn-out wailing bellow that
contorted us all into new knots of hilarity. We some-how managed to reach Trois Rivières, carried there
by a swift and kindly wind. Weak, helpless, drenched with rain and tears, we climbed ashore at the little
ruined mole. The boat turned about at once, and headed for the Saints, the four sailors waving their queer
hats and shouting affectionate farewells.
An old colonial cobbled road climbs the mountain-side from the little port, to join the main road that
connects Pointe-à-Pitre and Basse Terre. Not far from this old causeway, in a clearing in the forest, are
some rocks adorned by pre-Columbian carvings by the Arawaks or Caribs—' des monuments colossaux,
ornés de sculptures caräibes ,' as a French guide-book says. A little boy led us to the spot through the twi-
lit forest, and there, in a little glade, stood a lump of rock. By the last rays of the sun we were just able to
descry the shapes of three golliwogs. They had circles for heads, bristling with half a dozen wiry strands
of hair. Two holes represented eyes and their mouths were turnip-lantern slits. An arm like a forked stick
projected from one of the heads. ' Twès vieux ,' the child said reverently, and so they were. Their authenti-
city is beyond question, but they might have been scratched there yesterday by a backward child with an
old nail. They are very comic and were the cause of fresh transports of philistine laughter. As it was too
dark for a photograph I made a pencil sketch of this gem of pre-Columbian art:—