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48 MAURITIUS THE ART OF DISCOVERY In the old warehouses the salt workers empty their baskets and pile up the salt before bagging it into 25 or 50 kilos sacks. Each basket gathered brings a precious red token, the reward for hard labour. Dans les vieux entrepôts les saunières vident leurs paniers et entassent le sel avant de l’emballer dans des sacs de 25 ou 50 kilos. Chaque panier récolté rapporte un précieux jeton rouge, prix d’un dur labeur. The last of the Mauritian Mohicans In the 17 th century, eleven saltpans, employing hundreds of men and women salt workers, dotted the island’s coastline, from the northeast to the southwest, creating a flourishing trade. Many disappeared during the development of the capital, Port Louis. Only those around Tamarin remained. Then the indifference of the managers – the same who chose 12 th March to celebrate the island’s independence, in tribute to the beginning of Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt March (1930) – gradually completed the disap- pearance of this national natural heritage. “ We are the last of the Mohicans! ” exclaims Jan. For this Mauritian Asterix in his besieged village, the cause is as much local as personal. “ It makes me angry when I look at this catastro- phic, programmed future. And yet the salt marshes could have succeeded if those ma- licious men hadn’t concocted a ‘Food Act’ in 1998 which declared that the salt from Mau- ritius was unfit for consumption – with no support from scientific studies – and autho- rised the importation of low quality, under- taxed salt fromEgypt, India and China. Sowe sell unrefined cooking salt, but we also produce its best quality, the “ fleur de sel ”, a crystallised version for anyone who happens to pass by. In good years we produce 1,600 tonnes, which will be used for fish salting, textile dyeing and swimming pool maintenance. ” His very small artisanal firm – just 17 jovial, hard- working women, strong and graceful, accom- panied by Raj, the master of salt, and Francis, master of all thewaters, fromthe seawater pump to the cascading water pools – has not been affected by the economic downturn. The salt workers live nearby. They arrive at 5 in the morning and stay until 10, scratching, scraping, brushing, piling, pouring and packaging the salt. Sometimes their families come in the afternoons to help finish the backbreaking work while the children play in the puddles. In early summer, in December, when the “ripe” waters are ready for collection, salt “cutting” (as we say for sugar- cane cutting) can begin once again. “ People have toldme to give it up. But I will never tear myself away from all this, ” roars the last surviving hero in the adventure of salt.