The Languedocian Sphex 131 



occupied at a spot where he sees nothing, will 

 stop, overwhelm you with queries, take you 

 for some water-diviner, or — a graver suspicion 

 this — regard you as some questionable char- 

 acter searching for buried treasure and dis- 

 covering by means of incantations where the 

 old pots full of coin lie hidden ! Should you 

 still wear a Christian aspect in his eyes, he will 

 approach you, look to see what you are looking 

 at, and smile in a manner that leaves no doubt 

 as to his poor opinion of people who spend their 

 time in watching Flies. You will be lucky 

 indeed if the troublesome visitor, with his 

 tongue in his cheek, walks off at last without 

 disturbing things and without repeating in his 

 innocence the disaster brought about by my 

 two conscripts' boots. 



Should your inexplicable doings not puzzle 

 the passer-by, they will be sure to puzzle the 

 village keeper, that uncompromising repre- 

 sentative of the law in the ploughed acres. 

 He has long had his eye on you. He has so 

 often seen you wandering about, like a lost soul, 

 for no appreciable reason ; he has so often 

 caught you rooting in the ground, or, with 

 infinite precautions, knocking down some strip 

 of wall in a sunken road, that in the end he has 

 come to look upon you with dark suspicion. 

 You are nothing to him but a gipsy, a tramp. 



