204 The Hunting Wasps 



However, the craving is allayed ; we began 

 by devouring in silence, we now eat and talk. 

 Our apprehensions for the morrow are likewise 

 relieved ; and we give due credit to the man who 

 ordered the menu, who foresaw this hunger- 

 fit and who arranged to cope with it worthily. 

 The time has come for us to appreciate the 

 victuals as connoisseurs. One praises the olives, 

 stabbing them one by one with the point of his 

 knife ; another lauds the anchovies as he cuts 

 up the little ochre-coloured fishes on his bread ; 

 a third waxes enthusiastic about the sausage ; 

 and all with one accord extol the pehre d'ase 

 cheeses, no larger than the palm of a man's 

 hand. Pipes and cigars are lit ; and we 

 stretch ourselves on our backs in the grass, 

 with the sun shining down upon us. 



An hour's rest and we are off again, for time 

 presses. The guide with the baggage will go 

 alone, towards the west, skirting the edge of the 

 woods, which has a Mule-path. He will wait 

 for us at the J as, or Batiment, on the upper 

 boundary of the beeches, some 5000 feet above 

 the level of the sea. The J as is a large stone 

 hut, which is to shelter us, man and beast, to- 

 night. As for us, we continue the ascent to the 

 ridge, by following which we shall reach the 

 highest peak more easily. From the top, after 

 sunset, we shall go down to the J as, where the 



