The Hairy Am'^nophila '^I'l 



flower, here is the tail/ she said, showing 

 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 Constantinople ! ' 



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 him. The issue 

 was submitted to me. 



* Vaqui la flou, vaqui lou pecoii,' repeated the 

 good woman. 



I told her that the floti 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 shell, are 

 germinating in some old broken-mouthed pipkin. 



Favier, therefore, knows many things ; and 

 he knows them more particularly through 

 having eaten them. He knows the virtues of 

 a Badger's back, the toothsome qualities of the 

 leg of a Fox ; he is an expert as to the best part 

 of that Eel of the bushes, the Snake ; he has 

 browned in oil the Eyed Lizard, the ill-famed 



