10/06/2021 Legend of the La Diablesse - Trinidad Guardian

___Thursday, June 10, 2021 Advertise With Us About Us Listen  Watch 

HOME NEWS SPORTS COVID-19 BUSINESS DEATH NOTICES OTHER

Legend of the La Diablesse

by   Sat Oct 26 2013

An­ge­lo Bisses­sars­ingh

In the rich pan­theon of lo­cal folko­re, it is the fu­sion of French and West-African iden­ti­ties which gave us the colour­ful
char­ac­ters which have danced in the sto­ries of our fore­fa­thers, hand­ed down like cher­ished heir­looms from gen­er­at­ ion
to gen­er­at­ ion.Ear­li­er this year I wrote about how the African gri­ot, or sto­ry­teller, found new ma­te­ri­­al here in the sug­ar
plan­ta­tions of the Caribbean where he and his fel­lows were bru­tal­ly en­slaved. Trinidad was to re­ceive an in­fu­sion of
French cul­ture from 1783 when Roume de St Lau­rent (with the sup­port of the Span­ish crown) pro­mul­gat­ed the Cedu­la
de Pobla­cion which of­fered a land grant to Ro­man Catholic im­mi­grants and their slaves.Hun­dreds of French planters
flee­ing the seeds of rev­ol­u­tion and their chat­tels came to the is­land and cre­at­ed a French colony with Span­ish rule,
which was lat­er to be re­placed by British do­min­ion in 1797.

The La Di­ab
­ l­esse looms tall in the an­nals of our mythol­og
­ y. She is the dev­il woman, the temptress and se­duc­tress whose
wiles would en­trap any man whose ill luck led him in­to her path.

She is both the paragon of wom­an­ly beau­ty and the im­age of de­mon­ic lust.La Di­ab ­ l­esse is well known to all who cher­ish
the sto­ries of yes­ter­year. Al­most every vil­lage in Trinidad (par­tic­u­lar­ly in the ham­lets of the North­ern Range) has a yarn
to weave about the beau­ti­ful woman in the Mar­tini­quan dress–vo­lu­mi­nous skirts, head-tie, hat perched jaun­ti­ly on her
head–who waits along the lone­ly paths for heed­less men­folk who would di­gress from their cours­es to ac­com­mo­date a
pret­ty face.Those skirts veil, how­ev­er, the sin­is­ter fea­ture for which La Di­ab ­ l­esse is in­fa­mous, name­ly the cloven hoof;
the cow-foot which dis­tin­guish­es her from mor­tal women.It is large­ly pos­si­ble that Mar­tinique was the place of ori­gin of
the La Di­ab
­ l­esse, since many French set­tlers came from this is­land, and the dev­il woman her­self al­most al­ways makes an
ap­pear­ance clothed in the style which has be­come syn­ony­mous with the French An­tilles.

She ap­pears on the nights when the full moon is the on­ly light that pierces the dark­ness and she waits on those re­-
moved by­ways where a man is like­ly to pass.The em­i­nent 19th-cen­tu­ry trav­eller and writer Laf­ca­dio Hearn spent two
years in the West In­dies in the 1880s and though he vis­it­ed Trinidad, the ma­jor­i­ty of his stay was in Mar­tinique where he TRE
doc­u­ment­ed sev­er­al as­pects of the French Cre­ole cul­ture.It was Hearn's mem­oirs of his West In­di­an so­journ that in­tro­-
duced La Di­ab­ l­esse to the wider world.In a quar­ter of the city of St Pierre (which was de­stroyed with mas­sive loss of life
Three shot in home inv
by a vol­canic erup­tion in 1902) he wrote: "Most­ly she haunts the moun­tain roads, wind­ing from plan­ta­tion to plan­ta­tion,
from ham­let to ham­let.But close to the great towns she some­times walks: she has been seen at mid-day up­on the high­- Police say murdered wo
way which over­looks the Ceme­tery of the An­chor­age, be­hind the cathe­dral of St Pierre." robberies

In Mr Hearn's nar­ra­tion, La Di­ab

­ l­esse is a tall woman of Afro ex­trac­tion, sim­ply but el­e­gant­ly clad and all the men know Two Venezuelans charg
and fear her.One of the more fool­hardy, Fafa, sees her as she pass­es through his street and falls un­der her charm­ing
spell as she croons a be­witch­ing pa­tois rhythm and takes to a pre­cip­i­tous road lead­ing to the heights above St Imbert worries about su
Pierre.Fafa's com­pere Gaboux fol­lows at a dis­tance but af­ter a while turns in hor­ror and flees since he has seen her Insurance Fund
most ter­ri­ble trait–the cloven hoof that hides be­neath the sweep­ing hem of her madras skirts.On­ward and up­ward Fafa
Three arrested at Maya
fol­lows the temptress as the crag­gy road­way arch­es away from the last signs of hu­man­i­ty to­wards the gloom of the for­-
est where the dread fer-de-lance makes his lair.He is now be­gin­ning to feel fear but his in­fat­u­at­ ion su­per­sedes this Woman hunted down a
warn­ing.
Manufacturers ask govt
Now they are on the sum­mit of a moun­tain and she reach­es for his hand. Hers is as cold as ice as she speaks lov­ing its 53,000 workers
words to the spell­bound Fafa.The ac­count writ­ten by Mr Hearn ter­mi­nates thus: "And she, sud­den­ly–turn­ing at once to
him and to the last red light, the gob­lin hor­ror of her face trans­formed, shrieks with a burst of hideous laugh­ter: "KISS Woman abducted in San
ME NOW." Speaker defends minist
For the frac­tion of a mo­ment he knows her name: then, smit­ten to the brain with the sight of her, reels, re­coils, and, Imbert - ‘No more unde
back­ward falling, crash­es 2,000 feet down to his death up­on the rocks of a moun­tain tor­rent." $600m for 2021

 Tagged in:

Sponsored Content Today's

https://www.guardian.co.tt/article-6.2.409936.cd15700cfb 1/4
10/06/2021 Legend of the La Diablesse - Trinidad Guardian

Guardian
View 
Subscribe

PUBLIC

How to get a second income by investing
200€ in companies like Amazon and
others
Top Invest Advisor
[Fotos] Veja aqui o quanto Pierce Brosnan Eclipse Cross - 4 you 4 Play
tem no banco hoje Suas viagens nunca mais serão as mesmas,
https://afternoonedition.com/ independente do destino
Mitsubishi Motors Brasil L

L
[Pics] Em 1997, ela teve sete gêmeos. Veja Boa Vista Do Jauato : Online Jobs in the Anvisa libera estimulante natural para
como eles estão 21 anos mais tarde! USA May Pay More Than You Think homens acima dos 40 anos de idade
Vitaminews Sponsored Listings Sildenax

WHO 
Popular in the Community

Poem done by Ariel Alexis

Mohammed, seven-year-old,
Second Year student of
Picton Presbyterian Primary
School. Submitted by Parent
Miche Ramai. 

AdChoices Sponsored

0
RESPONSES

https://www.guardian.co.tt/article-6.2.409936.cd15700cfb 2/4
10/06/2021 Legend of the La Diablesse - Trinidad Guardian

AdChoices Sponsored

More Conversations for You

AdChoices Sponsored

CATEGORIES INFORMATION TELEVISION

News About Us CNC3 Television

Business Contact Us
RADIO
Sports Advertise With Us
Features 951 Remix
Privacy Policy
Opinion Subscriptions Aakash Vani 106.5 FM
Death Notices Terms of Services Sangeet 106.1 FM

DIGITAL MEDIA Sky 99.5FM

Slam 100.5 FM
The Big Board Company.
Real Estate Vibe CT 105 FM

Classifieds Mix 90.1 FM (Guyana)

ABOUT US

Guardian Media is the premier provider of multimedia solutions and authoritative insight on news, politics, business, finance, sports, and current affairs. Our brand portfolio includes CNC3, Guard
Board Company.

CONTACT US

Send us an e-mail here or call us at +1-(868)-225-4465

FOLLOW US








https://www.guardian.co.tt/article-6.2.409936.cd15700cfb 3/4
10/06/2021 Legend of the La Diablesse - Trinidad Guardian

https://www.guardian.co.tt/article-6.2.409936.cd15700cfb 4/4