Kind hearts are more than coronets
(Tennyson, poem)
The most extraordinary coincidence which helps make this program so leaden is that only a few weeks ago I was recited this proverb in Creole in the island of Mauritius.
And in Creole it goes , "Tous la casa la pie nour la cresse du dilly badou."
In fact it was sung. It was sung to me by a small Creole lad aged fourteen who was trying to flog shells on the beach. His name, inexplicably, was Clarence.
And it goes (singing), " Tous la casa la pie nour la cresse du dilly badou."
And that is that quotation. Most extraordinary.
I didn't want any shells because they're sort of rather ugly. Those shells. But he wouldn't be put off. He's going to go far, this Clarence. No worries with him. He'll survive.
He said, "No shells. You like pawpaw? What you like? Pineapple? I shred it for you. You like to see the trees. The ebony trees. I take you to the Pumpernoose Gardens. Where you like to go? I find."
I said, "No no no no. There's really nothing."
Then I had a thought. There WAS some way of using Clarence.
I should explain at this point what my wife were DOING on Mauritius a few weeks ago. We went there because my wife was born there and hadn't been back for thirty-seven years and we decided that was time she went back just to make sure that she turned the gas off.
It was also the anniversary of our silver wedding so we were having a holiday there.
And it's a magnicent marvelous island, Mauritius. It's tremendously beautiful. And the people there are not only extremely beautiful, but the pleasanted people I've ever met anywhere in the world.
The only trouble is, coming back, is the photographic record. I always like to paw over the photographs afterward. And very little of what was sort of real Mauritius seemed to me to be photographed. And I was dying to get a record. And I said to my wife, "What is really indigenous about Mauritius? What do you remember that we should see."
And she said, "I remember that the little old men, aged about a hundred and four, used to sort of hunker down on the street corners and have little bowls of nuts round them. They were peanuts, and some of them were shelled and they're painted bright pink and bright blue. And you grind them up and you put them beside the curry, the dish of curry. It's one of the side dishes of curry. And that'll make a marvelous picture."
I said, "Fine."
"And the other thing I remember in the plantations, the huts nowadays are sort of corrugated iron and concrete in fact. Concrete villas. But the old plantation worker's huts used to be made of bamboo cane strung together with sort of platted roofs. And so if you'll get a photograph of those."
So I turned to Clarence, my little lad, and said, "Right. Find me. Find me a little old man selling these colored peanuts. How much will you charge? I want two of them."
He said, "One rupee sir."
I said, "Fine. Very reasonable. Right. And find me two huts made of bamboo cane. And here's a five rupee note. Bring me the change."
So he came back and he gave me the addresses of these things and I said, "Where's the change?"
He said, "No change."
I said, "Wait a minute. Clarence. Wait a minute. You said one rupee each for finding these men with the nuts."
"Oh yes sir, but we have a saying in our country. In Creole it goes, 'Tous la casa la pie nour la cresse du dilly badou' "
I said, "What does that mean in English?"
And he said, "Cane huts are more than curry nuts."
Frank Muir
741203
