]"C'est mon chameau," dit-il.

Et deja sous l'influence du soleil tarasconnais, ce beau soleil
qui fait mentir ingenument, il ajouta, en caressant la bosse du
dromadaire:

"C'est une noble bete!... Elle m'a vu tuer tous mes lions."

[20]La-dessus, il prit familierement le bras du commandant, rouge
de bonheur; et, suivi de son chameau, entoure des chasseurs
de casquettes, acclame par tout le peuple, il se dirigea paisiblement
vers la maison du baobab, et, tout en marchant, il commenca
le recit de ses grandes chasses:

[25]"Figurez-vous, disait-il, qu'un certain soir, en plein Sahara...."

END OF THE TEXT

NOTES

The notes refer to the page and line number in the following format:
_Page#_ Line#.

_Dedication_ _Gonzague-Privat_ (Louis de): painter, art critic and
novelist, born at Montpellier in 1843. Daudet wrote a preface for his
"Joie perdue" (1893).

_1_ 1 _Tarascon_: a very old city (population 9,000) on the east bank of
the Rhone, opposite Beaucaire (cf. note to _13_28), about fifty miles
northwest of Marseilles. To Daudet the choice of proper names was always
a matter for careful consideration. Tarascon was not the home of the
original Tartarin (see Introduction, p. xxvi), but, as Daudet explains in
"Trente Ans de Paris," p 142, "a pseudonym picked up on the road from
Paris to Marseilles because when rounded out by the southern accent it
vibrated sonorously and triumphed at the conductor's call of stations like
the war-cry of an Apache Indian." On the _Tarasque_ cf. note to _3_25.

_1_ 2 _il y a ... de cela:_ 'that was ... ago,' lit. 'there are ... from
that.'

_1_ 3 _je m'en souviens:_ 'I remember it.' _Se souvenir de quelque chose,_
hence _s'en souvenir (en_ replacing _de_ + a pronoun); cf. _changer de
chanson, en changer_ _7_ 5, _revenir de la-bas, en revenir_ _16_ 12.

_1_ 4 _habitait:_ 'was living in.' Be careful to give the imperfect its
progressive force wherever possible.

_1_ 5 _le chemin d'Avignon:_ 'the Avignon road.' Note that an English noun
used adjectively is usually replaced in French by _de_ + noun, the student
should be careful to translate _une robe de soie_ 'a silk dress' and not
'a dress of silk'; cf. _de petits soldats de plomb_ (_71_ 4) 'little lead
soldiers,' _l'eau de mer_ (_93_26) 'the sea water', _52_25, _79_23. For
_une voix de femme_ (_89_ 5) we cannot say 'a woman voice,' but must say
'the voice of a woman,' 'woman' not being a possible noun-adjective here;