The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



fully seized the terrible Spider struggling to get 

 away, he said: 



" I know that thing; I've eaten it at Vasna. 

 It's first-rate." 



And he looked round at the bystanders with an 

 air of humorous mockery which was meant to 

 convey : 



" You've never been out of your hole, you peo- 

 ple." 



Favier knows many things; and he knows them 

 more particularly through having eaten them. He 

 knows the virtues of a Badger's back, the tooth- 

 some qualities of the leg of a Fox; he is an expert 

 as to the best part of that Eel of the bushes, the 

 Snake; he has browned in oil the Eyed Lizard, 

 the ill-famed Rassade of the South; he has thought 

 out the recipe of a fry of Locusts. I am astounded 

 at the impossible stews which he has concocted dur- 

 ing his cosmopolitan career. 



I am no less surprised at his penetrating eye and 

 his memory for things. I have only to describe 

 some plant, which to him is but a nameless weed, 

 devoid of the least interest; and, if it grows in our 

 woods, I feel pretty sure that he will bring it to 

 me and tell me the spot where I can pick it for 

 myself. The botany of the infinitesimal even does 

 not foil his perspicacity. 



But, above all, he excels in ridding me of the 

 troublesome folk whom I meet upon my rambles. 

 The peasant is naturally curious, as fond of ask- 

 ing questions as a child ; but his curiosity is flavoured 

 with a spice of malice and in all his questions there 

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