The Hairy Ammophila 



show him her find and asked him to mention 

 it to me. She would make me a present of 

 the precious seeds, the idea being that some 

 wonderful shrub would grow from them and 

 beautify my garden. 



"Vaqui la flou, vaqui lou pecou: here is 

 the flower, here is the tail," she said, show- 

 ing Favier the two ends of her fruit. 



Favier roared with laughter: 



" It's a Sea-urchin," he said, " a Sea- 

 chestnut; I've eaten them at Constantino- 

 ple!" 



And he explained as best he could what a 

 Sea-urchin is. The woman did not under- 

 stand a word of what he said and persisted 

 in her contention. She was convinced that 

 Favier was deceiving her, jealous at the 

 thought that such precious seeds should reach 

 me through any other intermediary than his. 

 The issue was submitted to me. 



" Vaqui la flou, vaqui lou pecou," re- 

 peated the good woman. 



I told her that the flou was the cluster 

 formed by the Urchin's five white teeth and 

 that the pecou was the antipodes of the 

 mouth. She went away only half-convinced. 

 It may be that, at this moment, the seeds of 

 the fruit, grains of sand rattling in the empty 

 355 



