Table Of Content-^,?m^ ^
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From the collection ofthe
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San Francisco, California
2006
YA-YA
Compiled by
LYLE SAXON, State Director,
EDWARDDREYER,Asst.State
Director, ROBERT TALLANT,
Writer
Special
Material Gathered by Workers of
the Works'Progress Administration,
Louisiana Writers' Project, and
Sponsored by The Louisiana State
Library Commission.
DrawingsbyCAROLINKDURIFUX
*
Jacket and Decorations by
ROLAND DUVERNET
Illustrated 'with
Photographs
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HOUGHTON MIFFL1
COMPANY BOSTO
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LOUISIANA WRITERS PROJECT PUBLICATIONS
New Orleans City Guide
Louisiana State Guide
Gumbo Ya-Ya
BOOKS BY LYLE SAXON
Father Mississippi
Fabulous New Orleans
Old Louisiana
Lafitte the Pirate
Children of Strangers
BOOKS BY ROBERT TALLANT
Voodoo in New Orleans
COPYRIGHT, 1945, BY THE LOUISIANA LIBRARY
COMMISSION, ESSAB M. CULVER, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
WORKS PROJECT ADMINISTRATION
Howard 0. Hunter, Commissioner
Mrs. Florence Kerr, AssistantCommissioner
James H. Crutcher, Administratorfor Louisiana
QPije JcUbrrBifir $re
CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
Preface
GUMBO YA-YA 'EVERYBODY TALKS AT ONCE' IS
a phrase often heard in the Bayou Country of Louisiana.
ThisGumbo Ya-Yaisa bookofthelivingfolkloreofLouisiana.
Assuch itisprimarily theworkofthosecharacters, real orimag-
inary, living ordead, who created this folklore. We wish to ex-
press our indebtedness, therefore, to Madame Slocomb, who was
so polite that she invited even the dead to her parties; and to
ValcourAime and the golden plates at the bottom ofthe Missis-
sippi; to Monsieur Dufau and his ciel-de-lits, and to Tante Na-
omie, bold in her 'bare feets' at the blessing of the shrimp fleet;
to the ghost of Myrtle Grove and the loup-garous of Bayou
Goula; to Mike Noud and 'The Bucket of Blood,' and toJennie
Green McDonald, left alone in the original Irish Channel; to
Mrs. Messina, who had everything, including half an orphan,
and to Mr. Plitnick, who had the timidity; to Miss Julie, who
rouged her roses, and to Mrs. Zito, who made everybody cry to
beat the band to Chief Brother Tillman, for whom Mardi Gras
;
was life, and to Creola Clark, 'who kept her mind on Mama'; to
John Simms,'Junior, the chimney sweep on a holiday, and to all
the vendors ofpralines and calastoutchauds; toEvangeline and to
Lafitte the Pirate; to Annie Christmas and Marie Laveau; to Pere
Antoine and Pepe Lulla; to Mamzelle Zizi andJosie Arlington
and the hop head's love, 'Alberta'; to Long Nose and Perfume
Peggy; to Mother Catherine and the Reverend Maude Shannon;
to Coco Robichaux and Zozo la.Brique; to Crazah and Lala and
BanjoAnnie; and to the BabyDoll who had beena BabyDollfor
twenty years.
vi
Preface
The material for this book was gathered by members of the
Louisiana Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administra-
tion. The idea was suggested by Henry G. Alsberg in 1936; he
was then the National Director ofthe Federal Writers' Program.
WeinLouisianawerepleasedwith theidea, and ateverypossible
opportunity assigned workers to the task of collecting the folk-
lore of the State.
The Louisiana Library Commission, ofwhich Essae M. Culver
is Executive Secretary, has sponsored this book, as well as the
earlier publication, the Louisiana State Guide. The city of New
Orleans sponsored our first publication, The New Orleans City
Guide.
It may be well to remember that Louisiana was first a French
colony, then Spanish, and that the territorywas nearly a century
old before becoming a part ofthe United States. It was an agri-
cultural territory and many thousands of Negro slaves were im-
ported. In the plantation sections the Negroes outnumbered the
Whites five to one; consequently their contribution to the folk-
lore of the State has been large.
The Creoles, those founders ofthe French colony, contributed
theirelegance, their customs, and cuisine. They influenced their
slaves and, in a sense, their slaves influenced them.
In Southwest Louisiana lived the Acadians or Cajuns, as
they are affectionately called those sturdy farming folk who,
driven from their homes in Nova Scotia at the end of the eight-
eenth century, populated that area.
It would seem that the whole of Louisiana was a peculiarly
fecund part ofthe Americas; the forests werefilled with birds and
animals, the bayous and lakes were teeming with fish, and the
Creole mansions and the Cajun cottages were full of children.
In a leisurely collection of the folklore of the various racial
groups, we have attempted to have the collecting of material
doneeitherbymembersofthegroups themselves orby thoselong
familiar with such groups. For example, in the stories pertain-
ing to the Creoles much of the work was done by Madame
JeanneArguedas, MadameHenrietteMichinard, MonsieurPierre
Lelong, Caroline Durieux, and especially by Hazel Breaux, who
