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Article THE LUCKY INHERITANCE. ← Page 8 of 19 →
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The Lucky Inheritance.
( having also a mail to deliver ) , but he had somehow expected , if he waited , to hit upon a traveller . So it Avas an easy matter to arrange the programme of the journey . I should pay him thirty sous for myself and portmanteau ( the distance Avas six leagues ) ; he Avould start at five o'clock in the morning , and undertook to reach Guerande at midday . This point being
settled , I retired to rest , slept soundly , got a scrambling sort of breakfast , and started Avith Jannik at the hour appointed . St . Nazaire is not an interesting toAvn at five o ' clock in the morning , nor , I should imagine , at any other hour ; but , as the streets can scarcely be called paved , though full of large stones , and as the ^ afeeAewas not exactly the carriage for liding easil
g y over difficulties , my opportunities for observation may have been imperfect . After passing the barrier , where there was a gendarme , whose chief occupation was to intercept salt , the road improved sufficiently to allow Jannik and myself to hear each other speak ; and it Avas a consolation to me to find that , though a Bretonhe Avas not incommunicative .
, He was strong upon many points , but strongest in the articles of wolves and music . There is , indeed , a kind of affinity in Brittany between these objects , suggestive of the notion that the Avolves in that country are the music-masters ; and
I cannot but think that the proverb " hinder avec les loups " must have had its origin there . He led to his subject by observing , in an off-hand way , that Cesar , his horse , had a great deal too much stuff in him ( beaucoup trop fringant ) to allow himself to be OA ertaken and eaten by a Avolf , if one Avere to rush out of a thicket after him . The Breton Avolves
must , I thought , be very slow if this Avere the fact , for Cesar ' s pace was not more than two miles an hour ; but that view of the case did not disturb Jannik : he had paid his horse a compliment , and by his assistance embarked in his favourite theme . He told a great many wonderful stories about Avolves , Avhich I omit in this placeprincipallbecause I don't believe that
, y a word of them was true , but also because they would too much interrupt my story , and I want to get on . He then indulged me with a feAv of his native melodies . I cannot say that they Avere very much to my taste ; partly , perhaps , from the language , partly from the dreary tunes to Avhich they were set . I asked him the subject of one which seemed a favourite . He said it
was " about going to Paradise ; " and the burthen of it , Avhich , sung in chorus , must be something fearful to hear , was , as Avell as I could write it doAvn , and keep to the proper orthography , as folloAvs : — "Kenavo paourentez , kenavo gwanerez , kenavo trebillo , kenavo pec'hedo : " thus Englished— " Farewell poverty , r 2
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Lucky Inheritance.
( having also a mail to deliver ) , but he had somehow expected , if he waited , to hit upon a traveller . So it Avas an easy matter to arrange the programme of the journey . I should pay him thirty sous for myself and portmanteau ( the distance Avas six leagues ) ; he Avould start at five o'clock in the morning , and undertook to reach Guerande at midday . This point being
settled , I retired to rest , slept soundly , got a scrambling sort of breakfast , and started Avith Jannik at the hour appointed . St . Nazaire is not an interesting toAvn at five o ' clock in the morning , nor , I should imagine , at any other hour ; but , as the streets can scarcely be called paved , though full of large stones , and as the ^ afeeAewas not exactly the carriage for liding easil
g y over difficulties , my opportunities for observation may have been imperfect . After passing the barrier , where there was a gendarme , whose chief occupation was to intercept salt , the road improved sufficiently to allow Jannik and myself to hear each other speak ; and it Avas a consolation to me to find that , though a Bretonhe Avas not incommunicative .
, He was strong upon many points , but strongest in the articles of wolves and music . There is , indeed , a kind of affinity in Brittany between these objects , suggestive of the notion that the Avolves in that country are the music-masters ; and
I cannot but think that the proverb " hinder avec les loups " must have had its origin there . He led to his subject by observing , in an off-hand way , that Cesar , his horse , had a great deal too much stuff in him ( beaucoup trop fringant ) to allow himself to be OA ertaken and eaten by a Avolf , if one Avere to rush out of a thicket after him . The Breton Avolves
must , I thought , be very slow if this Avere the fact , for Cesar ' s pace was not more than two miles an hour ; but that view of the case did not disturb Jannik : he had paid his horse a compliment , and by his assistance embarked in his favourite theme . He told a great many wonderful stories about Avolves , Avhich I omit in this placeprincipallbecause I don't believe that
, y a word of them was true , but also because they would too much interrupt my story , and I want to get on . He then indulged me with a feAv of his native melodies . I cannot say that they Avere very much to my taste ; partly , perhaps , from the language , partly from the dreary tunes to Avhich they were set . I asked him the subject of one which seemed a favourite . He said it
was " about going to Paradise ; " and the burthen of it , Avhich , sung in chorus , must be something fearful to hear , was , as Avell as I could write it doAvn , and keep to the proper orthography , as folloAvs : — "Kenavo paourentez , kenavo gwanerez , kenavo trebillo , kenavo pec'hedo : " thus Englished— " Farewell poverty , r 2