Note 105 — Little Dictionary of Creole Proverbs.

This saying has quite a variety of curious applications. The last time I heard it, a Creole negress was informing me that the master of the house in which she worked was lying at the point of death: “pauve diabe!” I asked after the health of her mistress. “Ah! Madame se porte bien; mais . . . quand bois tombé cabri monté,” she replied, half in French, half in her own patois; signifying that after the husband’s death, wife and children would find themselves reduced to destitution.