A RICEFIELD IDYLL
A brilliant tropical day in late August. A strong breeze from the river moved the glistening leaves and swayed the long pennons of gray Spanish moss that swung from every bough and twig of the great live-oaks, whose spreading arms stretched their protecting shade over the plateau upon which stood the Big House, crowning the highest point of Prospect Hill. A mile away swept the flowing tide of the broad and beautiful Edisto, whose shimmering waters, opposed by the summer wind, danced and sparkled in the sunlight. Upon the lower levels between the uplands and the river lay the great fields of early rice, now ready for the sickle. Intersecting the fields or “squares” at regular intervals, and contrasting with their green and gold opulence, shining silver-blue canals ran from river to headland. Far across the river on “the Island,” the eye rested upon an emerald expanse of June rice which would come to harvest six weeks later. From the ripening fields the “harvest flow” had been taken off, the squares dried, and on this Monday morning 100 hands had gathered by sunrise, for, by the mysterious grapevine telegraph through which negroes on one plantation hear almost instantaneously what is going forward on other plantations miles away, the news had gone about that rice-cutting was to commence at Prospect Hill, and the gregarious negroes, deserting the smaller settlements, flocked hither to the big plantation where, working in gangs, they could exchange quip and jest and gather the gossip of the countryside. Some of the best rice-cutters were thesturdy young women, who, with skirts tied up above their knees and wearing men’s wool hats to mitigate the heat of the sun, kept pace with the best of their masculine associates. Cutting and tying by piece work, an active hand could readily complete his task, the allotment for a day’s work, an hour before noon, and some of those who had walked six or seven miles in the morning would knock off as soon as the task was finished and loaf around the quarters until sundown, while others, pushing their luck, held on until the evening, putting two days’ work into one. Armed with the saw-edged, sickle-like “rice hooks,” the cutters stretched across the squares, each seizing with her left hand as large a bundle of the heavy-headed stalks as she could conveniently grasp, which, with one stroke of her right arm, she quickly severed a few inches above the ground, laid the bundle on the stubble ready for those who tied into sheaves behind her, and, with a sweep of her left, gathered another handful for the embrace of the crescent-shaped blade. Down the steaming field moved a skirmish line of lusty black wenches, bare-armed, bare-footed and bare-legged, their skirts drawn above their knees by a cord about the waist, which took up the slack. Here and there among them worked men, and these, often physically inferior to the females of the species, were subjected to constant raillery and frequent challenges to equal the self-appointed tasks of the women.
Venus Chisolm and Diana Smashum, two strapping Amazons, were the most expert of the women rice-cutters, and excelled most of the men in efficiency. Scipio Jenkins, a smart young buck, was the special butt of the gang of which Diana and Venus were theleaders. Scipio was unusually black, with the common combination of yellow eyes and blue gums, and upon this color scheme his tormentors lit like bee martins on a crow.
“Blue gum, yalluh eye,Black nigguh berry sly;Yalluh eye, blue gum,Black nigguh lub rum.Yalluh eye, w’en you shum,Black nigguh lub rum.”
“Blue gum, yalluh eye,Black nigguh berry sly;Yalluh eye, blue gum,Black nigguh lub rum.Yalluh eye, w’en you shum,Black nigguh lub rum.”
“Blue gum, yalluh eye,Black nigguh berry sly;Yalluh eye, blue gum,Black nigguh lub rum.
“Blue gum, yalluh eye,
Black nigguh berry sly;
Yalluh eye, blue gum,
Black nigguh lub rum.
Yalluh eye, w’en you shum,Black nigguh lub rum.”
Yalluh eye, w’en you shum,
Black nigguh lub rum.”
“Yaas, tittie, ’e stan’ so fuh true. Sat’d’y night da’ nigguh gone Cross Road’. ’E buy uh killybash full uh rum f’um de buckruh. ’E drink’um eb’ry Gawd’ drap. ’E nebbuh gi’ nobody none. ’E gone home. Sunday,’e dead! ’E nebbuh know nutt’n’ ’tell Sunday night ’e maamy full’ uh piggin full uh watuh out de well en’ t’row’um ’puntop’uh Scipio, weh ’e duh leddown ’puntop de flo’, fuh mek’um fuh wake. De nigguh binnuh leddown ’puntop ’e back fuh sleep. ’E sleep’ haa’d. ’E groan’ en’ ’e groan! ’E groan’ en’ ’e groan’! ’E mout’ op’n roun’ same lukkuh snake hole. W’en de watuh full’ ’e mout’, ’e blow lukkuh de ’strucshun strain injine duh blow off steam w’en ’e duh load grabble! De t’ing ’trangle’um. ’E choke! ’E jump out ’e maamy’ do’ en’ ’e gone t’ru de briah-patch dat fas’ ’e lef’ half ’e britchiz ’puntop de briah! Bumbye, w’en ’e maamy gone duh ’ood fuh fine’um, please Gawd, de nigguh binnuh leddown flat ’puntop ’e belly een de du’t, duh swim! Da’ piggin full uh watuh hab shishuh cuntrady tas’e een ’e mout’, ’e mek’um t’ink suh him dey een de ribbuh! ’E ’tretch out all fo’ ’e han’ en’ ’efoot. ’E ten finguh’ duh grabble een de du’t. Bumbye, w’en ’e han’ loos’n de du’t, ’e feel uh pinetree root. ’E graff’um een alltwo ’e han’! ’E holluh. ‘Tengk Gawd,’ ’e say, ‘uh done sabe! Uh yent fuh drowndid no mo!’ En’ da’ fool nigguh pull ’pun de pinetree root fuh hice ’eself out de ribbuh! Da’ rum do’umbad!”
Scipio swelled with wrath, but at first “too full for sound or foam,” bent to his task and, cutting savagely at the thickest stalks, under the impetus of anger, soon forged ahead of the others and led the line. Before he drew away, however, he projected this Parthian shot with a torpedo in its tail: “Benus en’ Diana, oonuh alltwo duh bodduh me, w’ymekso oonuh ent study ’bout Paul? Him duh alltwo oonuh sweeth’aa’t en’ t’ing. Diana t’ink suh Paul duh him’own ’cause ’e ge’m da’ catfish ’e ketch las’ Sat’d’y, en’ Benus t’ink suh him duh she’own, ’cause ’e buy gunjuh fuhr’um duh Cross Road’, but Paul nebbuh buy no frock fuh Diana, en’ ’e nebbuh buy none fuh Benus, but him buy’um fuh Minda, en’ ’e duh keep cump’ny ’long Minda, en’ him duh yalluh gal, en’ Paul nebbuh fuh study ’bout no black nigguh’ no mo’! Him duh fool oonuh alltwo!”
The torpedo exploded.
Two dusky faces quickly changed from smirking comedy to girding tragedy. Two stalwart forms stiffened in their tracks and stood astraddle like two Colossi of Rhodes. Two pairs of powerful arms akimboed, and two sets of sinewy fingers clutched the handles of their rice hooks!
“Hukkuh Paul happ’n fuh gi’ you catfish? You mus’be baig fuhr’um, enty?”
“Baig fuhr’um!Me fuh baig man fuh catfish!Iiz uh lady, uh wan’ you fuh know, en’ efyouhaffuh baig’umfuhgunjuh, me yent haffuh baig’um fuhcatfish!”
“Wuh you got fuh do wid wuh Paul gi’ me? Him duhyo’juntlemun, enty?”
“Ef ’e yent my’own, uh know berry well suh him ent fuh blonx to no black nigguh lukkuh you!”
“Nigguh!Who you call nigguh?De Debble is uh nigguh!”
“Him duh nigguh fuh true, but dis ricefiel’ full uh ’e chillun, en’ ’e gran’chillun alltwo, en’ uh ’spec’ you duh one uh ’e gran’!”
A shriek of laughter from Scipio filled Diana’s cup of anger to overflowing, and, with a savage rice-cutting swing, she sideswiped Venus with her saw-edged sickle, and cut her acquaintance below, and behind, the belt. Bustles were not then worn, but the victim was saved from a most inconvenient wound by the folds of her looped-up skirt, which, like a furled sail, hung just abaft the beam, and she received only a scratch. Starting at the scratch, however, Diana was twenty feet away and going strong when Venus, yelling with pain, turned and gave chase. Screams of laughter mingled with shouts of excitement, as Diana tripped and fell on the stubble, and Venus, too close to check her speed, stumbled over her prostrate assailant and came a cropper, the rice hook flying out of her hand as she fell. Diana’s weapon, having been taken from her by one of the men, the two ladies were on equal terms with nature’s weapons, and, both being on all-fours, literally and figuratively, they soon fastened their “ten commandments” in each other’s wool. They fought viciously and silently, and not until, collapsed from exhaustion, they had been separated by the men, did they again become vocal. Venus’ gingham skirthad suffered a cruel rent. As she reached behind her and felt the yawning gap in her sartorial hinterland, and realized the ignominy that had been put upon her by this “most unkindest cut of all,” she shrieked in anger. “Uh gwine tek you Trial Jestuss! You fuh gone Adam’ Run fuh dis t’ing wuh you done do!” and she flung wrathfully out of the field. Out of the babel of voices that arose among the partisans of the two goddesses, the dominant note was abuse of Scipio, who had flung Paul, the apple, or rather the Guinea squash, of discord among them.
“Wuh you haffuh do ’long Paul’ name? Ef himizbuy gunjuh en’ frock en’ t’ing fuh t’ree ’ooman’, uh sho’ ’e mo’ bettuh den fuh nebbuh buy nutt’n’ fuh none!” showing the world-wide feminine appreciation of a free spender. “Wuh you ebbuh buy fuh ’ooman? Eb’ry Sat’d’y night da’ buckruh’ sto’ duh Cross Road’ full up wid ’ooman, en’youebbuh buy uh tencent wut’ uh bakin fuh greese dem mout’? No, suh! You lub fuh talk sweetmout’ talk ’long’um, but you dat stingy you nebbuh buy uh candy, eeduhso uh sugar, fuh sweet’n dem mout’. Ent you know suh ’ooman lub uh freehan’ man?”
“Yaas, tittie! You talk trute! ’Ooman redduh hab ’e mout’ full’uh muhlassis den ’e yez full’uh sweetmout’ talk!”
“Him lub’um alltwo,” observed a sapient one. “Him mout’ en’ him yez alltwo fuh full one time!”
On the second Saturday thereafter, having been summoned by Big Jim Green, the negro constable, Venus and Diana, with their respective satellites, appeared before the Trial Justice at Adams Run station, where Diana, duly indicted, was charged in thecomprehensive phraseology of the Criminal Code with such a string of offenses against the peace and dignity of the State of South Carolina and the proper person of Venus Chisolm that her ears tingled and her eyes popped with amazement.
“Guilty or not guilty?”
“Uh yent know wuh you call so, Jedge, but uh nebbuh do none uh dem t’ing wuh da’ papuh call dem name. Ef Jedus yeddy me, uh nebbuh do uh Gawd’ t’ing but cut da’ ’ooman, en’ uh nebbuh hab uh chance fuh cut’umgood, ’cause ’e hab ’e frock tie’up ’roun’ ’e wais’, en’ w’en uh cut at ’e hanch en’ de rice hook ketch ’e frock weh ’e roll’up behine’um, dat sabe de ’ooman’ meat, en’ uh only able fuh ’cratch ’e skin, but uh ’cratch’um ’nuf fuh mek’um holluh same lukkuh hog’ holluh w’en oonuh cut dem yez fuh maa’k’um, en’ alldo’ uh yent puhzac’lycutde ’ooman, uhtryfuh cut’um, but uh cut ’e frock en’ uh only able fuh ’cratch’um, en’ ef uhyizbin cut’um, duh Scipio mek’ me fuh do’um, ’cause him come duh ricefiel’ wid da’ bluegum mout’ uh him’own full’uh pizen talk fuh bex me nuh Benus, en’ uh always yeddy suh ef uh bluegum nigguh bite you ’e gwine pizen you same lukkuh moccasin, en’ same fashi’n de talk wuh come out da’ nigguh’ jaw pizen alltwo uh we en’ mek we fuh fight, but, Jedge, uh nebbuh cut Benus lukkuh da’ papuh say, ’cause ef uh had’uh cut’umfuh true, true! da’ ’ooman would’uh haffuh stan’up ’puntop’uh ’e two foot fuh t’ree week!”
“Received as information,” observed the magistrate, and he called Venus, who came up smiling. “You have heard Diana’s story. What have you to say?”
“Uh yeddy’um, suh. But ’e cut me.”
“Where did she cut you?”
“Suh?”
“Where did she cut you?”
“’E cut me een Mas’ Edwu’d’ ricefiel’, suh.”
“Yes, I know you were all in the ricefield, but where did she cut you?”
“’E cut me een ten acre, suh.”
“Cut you in ten acre!”
“’E cut me een da’ ten acre square wuh stan’ close to de baa’nyaa’d, suh.”
“Well, you have given the location in the ricefield, now, where on your person did Diana cut you with a rice hook?”
“Suh?”
“Your person is your body. Did she cut you on your body?”
“Yaas, suh, ’e cut me.”
“Well, on what part of your body did she cut you?”
“Da’ same place wuh you call ’e name, suh.”
“What place?”
“’E cut me on mepussun, suh, en’, Jedge, de t’ing sweet’n’ me so bad, ef uh could’uh ketch da’ ’ooman ’fo’ uh ketch me foot en’ fall obuhr’um, da’ ’ooman would uhdead!”
As there was murderous intent in the sudden heat and passion of both Venus and Diana, the court imposed upon the defendant a fine only sufficient to rehabilitate the wardrobe of the prosecuting witness, who sailed out of court thoroughly satisfied with the new frock in prospect and the present enrichment of her vocabulary by the buckra word “pussun.”