|
a ACADIAN REBIRTH article
Cultures
of Acadiana |
Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, April 27, 1999
Scholar Alcée Fortier toured Cajun country in 1890
by Jim Bradshaw
Alcée Fortier was a native of the Acadian Coast. Although he was not an Acadian, he had French roots and became a recognized expert on the language, literature and folklore of Louisiana.
In 1890, he traveled through south Louisiana and wrote at some length about what he found in an 1894 essay, on "Louisiana Studies: Literature, Customs and Dialects, History and Education."
Here are excerpts from his essay.
"Having thought of the Acadians and their dialect as an interesting subject to study, I determined to pay a visit to the Attakapas country made classic by the genius of Longfellow. In the beginning of September, 1890, I left New Orleans at 7:30 a.m. by the Southern Pacific Railroad and arrived at St. Mary Parish after a journey of five hours. Along the route the train passed through fields of tall sugar cane, yellow corn and golden rice. Every now and then we crossed a bayou, or a marsh or a forest. Shortly after leaving the city we reached "Bayou Des Allemands," named for the German settlers who had been sent to America by John Law. In the middle of the bayou is an island covered with trees and briers, on which is a hut which serves as a hunting lodge for the sportsmen, whose canoes for duck shooting are to be seen everywhere. Trees grow to the edge of the water of all our bayous and render the smallest stream picturesque.
"After passing another beautiful stream, Bayou Boeuf, we see a few of the Indian mounds which are so interesting to the archeologist and the ethnologist, and at Morgan City we cross the wide and turbid Atchafalaya, the river of the Mississippi, and which threatens, if not curbed by artificial means, to divert the waters of the great river from its present channel.
"A few miles after passing Morgan City I leave the train and am soon on a plantation situated on both sides of Teche. ...St. Mary Parish is one of the most prosperous in Louisiana, and everywhere there are central sugar factories with the most modern appliances ... and through this busy scene of progress flow the tranquil waters of the Teche, its banks covered with moss-grown live-oaks. ... Under the stately oaks the children run and play while I lie upon the ground and mediate. My thoughts return to the past and I imagine what must have been the feelings of the Acadians when they saw for the first time ... the beautiful Attakapas country.
"While in St. Mary I had occasion to visit a number of planters, who received me very kindly; and who did all in their power to help me in my work. They introduced me to some Acadians and communicated to me a few characteristic expressions of the Acadian language. I was, however, anxious to see St. Martinsville (sic), and ... took the train ... to the oldest town on the Teche.
"St. Martinsville does not lie on the Southern Pacific Railroad, and it is only lately that is has been connected with the main line by a branch leading to the Teche. ... French is essentially the language of the inhabitants and it is well spoken by the educated class. The latter speak English also, but the lower class speak the Acadian French mixed with the Creole patois and a little English. In the interior settlements little or no English at all is spoken, and at Breaux Bridge and in ... Lafayette, French is taught together with English in the public schools. Although we desire to see every child in Louisiana speak English we wish every one to speak French also, and I was very glad to see how the people of St. Martin are attached to their French.
"There is but one hotel in St. Martinville; it is a large house with a wide gallery and massive brick columns. Everything is as in antebellum days; no register awaits the names of the guests, and the owner seems ot have implicit confidence in the honesty of his boarders. As the criminal court was in session, the members of the jury were taking their dinners at the hotel when I arrived. There being no place at the table for me, I was given a comfortable rocking chair and I sat in the dining room during the dinner of the jurors. As several of them were Acadians, I listened very attentively to their conversation and took notes while they were speaking. All of them spoke French, but the influence of English on their French was sometimes apparent. One of them, speaking of an important criminal case, said to the others, 'Vous serez tous lockés (locked up) ce soir.' Another, to express his contempt of the argument of a lawyer, said, Ça, ça n'a pas grand fion avé moué' (that does not produce much effect on me); and his friend replied, 'Il aura un bon bout (pronounced boute) encore avec cette affaire.' Although I was very hungry, I was sorry to see the jurors leave the table to go to the court house to be lockés.
"At a short distance from the hotel is the church, on the green before which stands the statue of the late curate, Father Jan, who died an octogenarian, beloved by his parishioners. The present priest, Father Langlois, is a botanist of great merit who has made important discoveries in the flora of Louisiana ... and I determined to pay him a visit. ... I asked permission to look over the church register, and on turning to the year 1765 I saw the record of the first child born of Acadian parents in St. Martin, probably the first born in Louisiana.
"There being such vast prairies in the Attakapas the Acadians settlers compared them with the wide expanse of the ocean and applied to them many nautical terms. They say aller au large (to go to sea), or mettre à la voile (to set sail) when they start to cross the prairie, and an island is, in their language, a piece of wooded ground on the prairie. I was shown l'île des Cypres while in St. Martin. It is in a prairie which is not far from Grand Bois, an immense forest which begins in the Attakapas country and extends as far as the Arkansas line. In the Grand Bois, near St. Martinville, are a number of lakes (including) Lake Catahoula (which is) a great place for hunting and fishing, but is full of alligators and gar-fish. I was shown an Acadian who, being in a canoe on a fishing excursion, was followed by a gar-fish twelve feet long. He seized an opportunity and jumped on the back of the fish, which dived with him (100 feet) to the bottom of the lake. On arising from the water our hero said to his terrified companions, 'Now he will not return.'
"The eminent men that have arisen among the Acadians in Louisiana show what good elements there are in that race, but unfortunately, they are, as a rule, lacking in ambition. They are laborious, but they appear to be satisfied if, by cultivating their patch of ground with their sons, the manage to live with a little comfort. They mothers and daughters attend to the household duties and weave an excellent fabric called the cotonnade. The greatest defect of the Acadians is the little interest they take in education: a great many are completely illiterate. As the public school system progresses, education will spread gradually among them, and being an intelligent race, they will produce many men like Alexandre Mouton. Education will, of course, destroy their dialect, so that the work of studying their peculiar customs and language must not be long delayed.
"Having heard that every Saturday evening there was a ball in (sic) the prairie, I requested one of my friends to take me to see one. We arrived at 8 o'clock, but already the ball had begun. In the yards were vehicles of all sorts, but three-mule carts were most numerous. The ball room was a huge hall with galleries all around it. When we entered it was crowded with persons dancing to the music of three fiddles. I was astonished to see that nothing was asked for entrance, but I was told that any white person decently dressed could come in. The man giving entertainment derived his profile from the sale of refreshments. My friend, a wealthy young planter, born in the neighborhood, introduced me to many persons and I had a good chance to hear the Acadian dialect, as everyone there belonged to the Acadin race. I asked a pleasant looking man. 'Votre fille est-elle ici?' He corrected me by replying. 'Oui, ma demoiselle est là.' However, he did not say mes messieurs for his sons, but spoke of them as mes garçons, although he showed me his dame. We went together to the refreshments room, where were beer and lemonade, but I observed that the favorite drink was black coffee, which indeed was excellent. At midnight supper was served: it was chicken gombo with rice, the national Creole dish.
"Most of the men appeared uncouth and awkward, but the young girls were really charming. They were elegant well-dressed, and exceedingly handsome. they had large and soft black eyes and beautiful hair. Seeing how well they looked I was astonished and grieved to hear that probably very few of them could read or write. On listening to the conversation I would easily see that they had no education. French was spoken by all, but occasionally English was heard.
"After supper my friend asked me if I wanted to see le parc aux petits. I followed him without knowing what he meant and he took me to a room adjoining the dancing hall, where I saw a number of little children thrown on a bed and sleeping. The mothers who accompanied their daughters had left the little ones in the parc aux petites before passing to the dancing room, where I saw them the whole evening assembled together in one corner of the hall and watching over their daughters. Le parc aux petites interested me very much but I found the gambling room stranger still. There were about a dozen men at a table playing cards. One lamp suspended from the ceiling threw a dim light upon the players, who appeared at first very wild, with their broad-brimmed felt hats on their heads and their long untrimmed sun-burnt faces. There was, however, a kindly expression on every face, and everything was so quiet that I saw that the men were not professional gamblers. I saw the latter a little later, in a barn near by where they had taken refuge. About half a dozen men, playing on a rough board by the light of two candles. I understood that these were the black sheep of the crowed and we merely cast a glance at them.
"I was desirous to see the end of the ball, but having been told that the breakup would only take place at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, we went away at 1 o'clock. ... My friend told me that when the dance was over the musicians would rise, and going out in the yard would fire several shots in the air, crying out at the same time: le bal est fini.
"The names of the children in Acadian families are quite as strange as the old Biblical names among the early Puritans, but much more harmonious. For instance, in one family the boy was called Duradon, and his five sisters answered to the names Elfige, Enyone, Meridie, Ozeina and Fronie. A father who had a musical ear called his sons Valmir, Valmore, Valsin, Valcour and Valerien, while another, with a tincture of the classics, called his boy Deus, and his daughter Deussa.
"All the Acadians are great riders and they and their little ponies never seem to be tired. They often have exciting races. Living is very cheap in the prairie and the small farmers produce on their farms almost everything they use. At the stores they exchange eggs and hens for city goods.
"... The Acadians are an intelligent, peaceful and honest population: they are beginning to improve, indeed many of them ... have been distinguished, but as yet too many are without education. Let all Louisianians take to heart the cause of education and make a crusade against ignorance in our country parishes!
"Before leaving the prairie I took advantage of my proximity to the gulf to pay a visit to Côte Blanche. The coast of Louisiana is flat, but in the Attakapas country five islands ... break the monotony. These are rugged and abrupt and present some beautiful scenes. A few miles from the prairie is a forest called Cypremort; it is being cleared, and the land is admirably adapted to sugar cane. The road leading to Côte Blanche passed for three miles through the forest and along Cypremort Bayou, which is so shallow that large trees grow in it and the water merely trickles around them. On leaving the wood we enter on a trembling prairie over which a road has been built, and we soon reach Côte Blanche. It is called an island, because on one side is the gulf and on the other is the trembling prairie. We ascended a bluff about one hundred fee thigh and beheld an enchanting scene. In the rear was the wood which we had just left, stretching like a curtain around the prairie; to the right and to the left were a number of hills, one of which was on hundred and fifty-seven feet high, covered with tall cane waving its green lances in the air, while in front of us stood the sugar house with large brick chimneys, the white house of the owner of the place, the small cottages of the negroes on both sides of a wide road, and a little further, the blue waters of the gulf. I approached the edge of the bluff, and as I looked at the waves dashing against the shore and at the sun slowly setting in a cloudless sky, I exclaimed (Gov. Charles) 'Lawrence (instigator of the Acadian expulsion from Nova Scotia), destroyer of the Acadian homes, your cruelty has failed. This beautiful country was awaiting your victims. We have here no Bay of Fundy with its immense tides, no rocks, no snow, but we have a land picturesque and wonderfully fertile, and land where men are free -- our Louisiana is better than your Acadia!'