The Hermit of Serignan 



working." * It is easy to understand that, 

 for Fabre, the harmas assumed the colours 

 and the charms of Eden, and that his soli- 

 tary life therein was like a perpetual ecstasy. 

 For the rest, the scene changes as well as 

 the protagonists. After the harmas with its 

 breeding-cages and its customary inhabitants, 

 the Serignan country-side with its fortuitous 

 encounters. When the weather is propitious 

 the whole household sets out in a party. But 

 the heat is torrid and the time of day un- 

 suitable for walking. The naturalist sets out 

 none the less. Bull alone dares to brave with 

 his master the blazing heat of the sun. But 

 even he will not hold out to the end! The 

 goal is reached; but the most difficult thing 

 is not to walk the distance to the post of ob- 

 servation; it is to settle down and remain 

 there, under the scorching sun, waiting for 

 an opportunity that is often slow to occur. 



Ah, how long the hours seem, spent motionless, 

 under a burning sun, at the foot of a declivity 

 which sends the heat of an oven beating down 

 upon you! Bull, my inseparable companion, has 

 retired some distance into the shade, under a clump 

 of evergreen oaks. He has found a layer of sand 

 whose depths still retain some traces of the last 

 shower. He digs himself a bed; and in the cool 



1 Souvenirs, VI., p. 295. 



2.37 



