From fieldwork near the village of Plaisance in July 1937, Simpson brings back song texts in Creole with English translations, each followed by the local explanation that makes it legible. The songs belong to two settings: the coumbite, a reciprocal work party where a samba leads the singing and cane liquor is passed round to keep the pace up, and the Saturday night bal. Read together they work as commentary and sanction. One mocks a girl who left a plantain farmer for a schoolteacher; another names a woman acquitted of adultery before the justice of the peace; several warn a neighbour under suspicion of theft or shame those who traded in a rival commune. Simpson argues that the repertoire vents resentment and gossip that daily life suppresses, and that its obscenity helps make hard labour bearable. He catalogues the dances alongside, separating quadrilles and meringues borrowed from the elite from country dances such as the Djouba and the Scie.