Far down we can distinguish a line of field-hands--the whole _atelier_, as it is called, of a plantation--slowly descending a slope, hewing the canes as they go.

There is a woman to every two men, a binder (amarreuse): she gathers the canes as they are cut down, binds them with their own tough long leaves into a sort of sheaf, and carries them away on her head;--the men wield their cutlasses so beautifully that it is a delight to watch them.

One cannot often enjoy such a spectacle nowadays; for the introduction of the piece-work system has destroyed the picturesqueness of plantation labor throughout the islands, with rare exceptions.

Formerly the work of cane-cutting resembled the march of an army;--first advanced the cutlassers in line, naked to the waist; then the amarreuses, the women who tied and carried; and behind these the _ka_, the drum,--with a paid _crieur_ or _crieuse_ to lead the song;--and lastly the black Commandeur, for general."[19] [Footnote 19: Lafcadio Hearn, _Two Years in the French West Indies_ (New York, 1890), p.

275.] After this bit of rhapsody the steadying effect of statistics may be abundantly had from the records of the great Worthy Park plantation, elaborated expressly for posterity's information.