The Urchin of Malaval 



which since then has passed to the head of 

 the Vaissiere family. 



It was thus at Malaval that the future en- 

 tomologist " passed his earliest childhood," 

 as he told me when writing to me ten years 

 ago. 1 There was no wallowing in abundance 

 at Saint-Leons. In order to relieve the poor 

 household of one mouth, he was confided to 

 the care of his grandmother and sent to 

 Malaval. " There, in solitude, amid the 

 geese, the calves, and the sheep, my mind first 

 awoke to consciousness. What went before 

 is for me shrouded in impenetrable dark- 

 ness." 



The spot which was the scene of this first 

 awakening deserves description. When one 

 follows the road from Laissac to Vezins, 

 a short distance after passing Vaysse-Rodie, 

 just as one has almost reached the crest of 

 the height which by reason of its rocky hel- 

 met is called the puech del Roucas, on the 

 line of the watershed dividing the limestone 

 basin of the Aveyron from the granitic basin 



1 In the reminiscences of his childhood, which are in- 

 termingled with his entomological memoirs, Fabre does 

 not mention a single proper name, whether of person 

 or place; only the vague expression, "the table-land 

 of the Rouergue," which he once incidentally employs, 

 might give an attentive reader a hint as to the place of 

 his origin. Souvenirs, vi., p. 38; The Life of the Fly, 

 chap, v., " Heredity." 



II 



