An Ascent of Mont Ventoux 201 



known here by its popular name of ^ebre d'ase, 

 Ass's pepper, because of the acrid flavour of 

 its tiny leaves, impregnated with essential oil. 

 Certain small cheeses forming part of our 

 stores are powdered with this strong spice. 

 Already more than one of us is biting into them 

 in imagination and casting hungry glances at 

 the provision-bags carried by the Mule. Our 

 hard morning exercise has brought appetite 

 and more than appetite, a devouring hunger, 

 what Horace calls latrans stomachus. I teach 

 my colleagues how to stay this rumbling 

 stomach until they reach the next halt ; I 

 show them a little sorrel-plant, with arrow- 

 head leaves, the Rumex scutatus, or French 

 sorrel ; and, practising what I preach, I pick 

 a mouthful. At first they laugh at my sug- 

 gestion. I let them laugh and soon see them 

 all occupied, each more eagerly than his fellow, 

 in plucking the precious sorrel. 



While chewing the bitter leaves, we come to 

 the beeches. These are first big, soHtary bushes, 

 trailing on the ground ; soon after, dwarf trees, 

 clustering close together ; and, finally, mighty 

 trunks, forming a dense and gloomy forest, 

 whose soil is a mass of rough limestone blocks. 

 Bowed down in winter by the weight of the 

 snow, battered all the year round by the fierce 

 gusts of the mistral, many of the trees have lost 



