Tale
Le Folk-lore de l'île Maurice
Not translated into English
Charles Baissac · 1888
Synopsis
Twenty-eight tales in Mauritian Creole, with the French translation facing, followed by sirandanes, the island's riddles, and about fifty songs. The hare plays the lead role: he challenges the tortoise at the edge of the king's pool, teams up with the elephant, and tricks the king and the monkey. Tales from Europe are reworked there on the spot, Peau-d'Âne, Petit-Jean, Jean et Jeanne, alongside the story of Corps-sans-Âme. The author says he gathered them from the last old Creole nursemaids.
Context
The book appeared in Paris in 1888 from Maisonneuve et Leclerc, in the series Littératures populaires de toutes les nations. Baissac had first titled it “Littérature noire de l'île Maurice”. In his preface he presents it as a “post-mortem inventory”, since the tales were hardly told any more, and his judgements on the Creole population carry the racial prejudices of his time. It remains the main written trace of the island's oral literature in the nineteenth century.
Who it is for
Bilingual edition, Creole and French on facing pages; the Creole spelling is that of 1888, and the text can be read freely online.
Prizes and reception
Without this collection, say those who study it today, this oral heritage would have been lost; Mauritian Creole studies see it as a foundational work.
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