CHAPTER II 



THE URCHIN OF MALAVAL 



JEAN-HENRI FABRE was born at Saint- 

 Leons, the market-town and adminis- 

 trative centre of the canton of Vezins. In 

 witness of which behold this extract from the 

 register of baptisms, a certified copy tran- 

 scribed by the Abbe Lafon, cure of Saint- 

 Leons : 



In the year 1823, on the 22nd September, was 

 baptised Jean-Henri-Casimir Fabre, of the afore- 

 said Saint-Leons, the legitimate son of Antoine 

 Fabre and Victoire Salgues, inhabitants of the same 

 place: — His godfather was Pierre Ricard, primary 

 schoolmaster. In proof of which — Fabre, vicar. 1 



Jean-Henri Casimir's mother, by birth 

 Victoire Salgues, was the daughter of the 

 bailiff of Saint-Leons. His father, Antoine 

 Fabre, was born in a little mas in the parish 

 of Lavaysse, Malaval, where his parents 

 were still cultivating the old family property 



1 Those journals which claim him as a native of Serig- 

 nan are therefore mistaken. "At Serignan (Vaucluse), 

 his native countryside, the peasants familiarly call him 

 Moussu Fabre (Un'wers, March 3, 1910). 



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