Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-06-23
i The Sturp Teller.
THE BEWITCHED HOUSE.
A MEMORY OF MAURITIUS.

MEMORY OF MAURITIUS.
s
While was on a visit Mauritius a few
years ago the following mysterious circum-
stances occurred, and, although everything
was done to find out the originator, natural
or supernatural, of the trick played upon
us-if trick it Was-We never succeeded
in calculating the matter.
Travellers in different parts Of the world
may have had the like disagreeable ex-
perience, as I have since heard that this
species of revenge on supposed enemies, OF
which so disagreeable specimen came
under nv notice, is commonly resorted to in
Ceylon and several parts of India.
happened to be spending year with
nv sister and her husband in the lovely
island made immortal by the factor fic-
tion-of the romantic loves and deaths OF
Paul and Virginia.
The house servants, with the exception
of the nurses, were all natives; that is In
dians either born in the Island-the Off
spring of coolies imported for the labor OF
the sugar plantations, or who had come to
prosecute their fortunes-creoles of mixed
race, natives of the island, and varying con-
siderable in tint and feature.
The cook was Madrassee, the butler
creole of African descent; three of the
"boysn were pure Indians. They all SEEM
ed to get on very we'll together; now and
again we heard tremendous noise-siX or
seven tongues raised in unintelligible hub
hub of ofincomprehensible talk, but it gradua-
ly sank away or ended in hearty burst OF
childish laughter.
The language in which we communicated
with them was vaguely called creole, mix
ture of French ard other tongues, the for
mer predominating as in Mauritius, though
an English colony French obtains in the
shops and in a considerable portion of the
commercial world, most of the principle
planters in the island being descendants
of old French families. 1t is childish
language full of abbrevations, odd abrupt
terminals and CALCULATIONS, with universal
and most catching burr, which, all chill
dren born in the islandinvoluntarily acquire.
None of the servants spoke English; only
one, the butler, Alphonso Apparvoo, IA
miliarly termed Sammy" understood it,
and he only imperfectly; so that, notWlth-
standing the presence of three or four
"boys" at the table we could speak uncon-
strainedly on any subject. The COOK, whose
name was Manuel, had been nine years
in my brother-in-law's employment, and
was a most respectable, steady, harmless
man, and occupied with his wife and chill
dren, small lease" in the grounds, hidden
behind hedge of bamboo and tamarlnd
trees. 1t was my brother-in-laW's inten-
ton to finally leave Mauritius in six
months, and as the house was to be occu-
pied, after his departure by his partner, a
single man, the establishment would nat
urally be considerably reduced. But, as
his intention was only known to his imme-
diate family, and he did not wish it gen.
orally spoken of until his plans were fixed,
1 do not see that the servants can have had
any acquaintance with his projected move
ment, although subsequent events have
made me come reluctantly to the conclusion
that Sammy, in spite of being trustWor-
thy servant and the factotum OF the estao-
lishment, was the prime mover IN the dls-
turbance of peace and comfort. l may be
doing him an injustice, but he must, think,
impending changes, and have taken the
means am about to narrate to get rid OF
a servant whose footing in the house was of
longer standing than his own.
This, however, is only conjecture, as we
never succeeded in clearing up the mystery
One hot evening we were seated at ia
BILE, the party consisting of my sister, her
husband, two young men-his cousns-and
myself. The servants had left the room for
one of the courses, when instead OF return
ing. we heard hubbub of mingled voices,
cries of terror, stampede of naked feet
pattering along the tiled veranda, and while
we were lost in ainaZement as to what the
cause of the sudden disturbance might be,
in rushed one of them, Dijuman by name,
his face that ashen hue which Indians as
sumo when pale, his very turban shaking
on his head, as in tremulous voice he cried
piteously:
"Msieu, pierre fine tombe, venez, gete-li,
fine coupe tete doomon, ma pas come doo-
mon zette-li, sarse, ne trouve-H.'
Butas Icannot speak creole correctly, not
TO mention spelling it, had better give a
translation of the more puzzing words in
his eiaculatory sentence. "Sarse" is "chez
chez' as creole cannot pronounce "ch; )"
"gete" is "look" or "see;" "doomon' is a
very general term applied to all and sum
dry. Any one wishing to see you is a "doo-
mon" all news is heard from "quelque
doomon," and believe is traced to do
monde" Every second sentence begins
with "fine" and ends with "li," follow
ed by an extraordinary sort of grunt-
"Eh" something like the "iah!' of the
London street boy.
Duman's trembling utterances were to
the effect that while the cook was dlshlng
the dinner, stones began to fall at intervals
on the stove, on the table and in different
parts of the kitchen, coming down on the
outside wooden roof of the building, which
stood alone some fifty yards from the house
with a sharp, clear "ping" and falling down
into the room without a crack or an aper-
ture of any kind being visible on the cell
ing to show how they had effected an en-
trance.
MY sister, who was of nervous temper