SARGASSO


 It will be especially important to correctly identify
the second person in Creole jokes, that is, the person
(or institution) that is the object of the hostile or
blasphemous aggression. The Haitian stories which
follow appear to be concerned with inferior or powerless
people who are laughed at because of their naivete or
their witlessness. Yet, if we are to heed Freud's
advice, we must ask ourselves if it is not the case
rather that these jokes and stories put forth the
character of the "little man," the Haitian "neg," only
to strike at something more important. Here are a few
examples.

 Se yon jinnonm ki tapral nan
 yon f4stin. Li t4 fek fi-n
 acht6 yon souly6. Li abiyd,
 li pran rout la. Min li pat
 met4 soulyd-a nan pye-l. Li
 t6 di: "Le-m pret pou rive, ma
 mete-1." Pandan lap mach4 byin
 vit, li frap6 py4-1 pi-ou nan
 yon roch, yon doubt py4-1 rach6.
 Li di: "Se Bondy6 ki fe soulye-a
 pat nam py6-m, kouly6-a li tap
 chirC."

 Once there was a young man who was
 going to a banquet. He had just
 bought himself a pair of shoes. He
 got dressed and went off. But he
 didn't put on his shoes. He said
 to himself, "I'll put them on when
 I get there." While he was hurry-
 ing along, he hit his foot on a
 rock and one of his toes was torn
 off. He said to himself, "It's the
 Good Lord who kept me from putting
 on those shoes, otherwise they'd have
 been ripped to pieces."

 Here the aggressive tendencies seem to be directed
against an insignificant person, but we must not forget
that the object of a joke's attack can also be
institutions or even dogmas of morality and religion or
views of life which are highly respected in a particular