18 2 devait: 'was to', cf. 26 9, 32 10, 39 26 See note to 2 10.
18 4 était en train de démontrer: 'was in the act of demonstrating'; Transl. simply 'was demonstrating'--amateur 'admirer,' 'lover' The distinction 'amateur,' 'professional,' is French as well as English, but in French the word amateur also means 'lover'--not, however, the lover of a person Tartarin was demonstrating to some 'lovers (of arms)'.
18 5 fusil à aiguille: 'needle gun,' invented in 1836, and used in the Prussian army in 1841 The cartridge in this gun is exploded by a slender needle, or pin, which is driven into it.
18 11 foire de Beaucaire: cf. 13 28 The Beaucaire fair (July 1-28), instituted in the Middle Ages, is still famous but has in recent years lost much of its importance.
18 13 place du château: the square in front of the castle.
18 14 un tas de: 'a large number of', lit 'a pile of'.
18 16 de mémoire d'homme: 'within the memory of man', Latin hominum Memoria.
18 17 s'était vue: 'had been seen', cf. note to 5 23--comme: connect with fièrement in translation.
18 24 entre ses mains: 'in his hands'.
18 25 à deux pas: 'only a step or two away', cf. à dix mille lieues de Tarascon (2 2) 'ten thousand leagues away from Tarascon,' à combien de pas (24 8) 'how many paces away'.
18 27 premier sujet: 'star,' in the company of players.
18 32 n'en pouvait supporter: on en cf. note to 8 19.
18 33 lui monta au visage: 'mounted to his face', cf. 12 25, 45 8.
19 1 D'un geste: 'with a gesture', cf. note to 51 20.
19 5 Hé bé...: Provençal for eh bien! 'Well, but....'
19 8 emboîtant le pas: a military expression, 'marching in lock step'.
19 14 kabyle: cf. note to 40 17 The Kabyle woman's dress, which reaches not quite to the ankles, is loose and held in at the waist, her feet and arms are bare, she wears bracelets and anklets.
19 19 pensionnaires: 'boarders,' here referring to the animals.
19 20 jeta un froid: 'threw cold water,' 'chilled the enthusiasm'.
19 27 se trouva: 'was', cf. note to 13 22.
20 7 perruque: 'wig,' here applied to the lion's mane (crinière, 1 16).
20 10 soit que ... soit que: 'either because ('be it that') or because'--donne de l'humeur. 'made ill-tempered' Humeur usually means 'ill humor' in French.
20 13 en leur bâillant an nez à tous: cf. note to 12 25 A tous is in apposition with leur, hence the dative case, cf. 17 1-2. When tous is a pronoun the s is sounded, cf.below, 1 19.
20 26 Ça, oui, c'est une chasse: 'that, now, that's a hunt worth while!'
21 10-12 Et autrement ... au moins: 'I say, you surely have heard the news--That depends What is it? Tartarin's departure, perhaps?' Et autrement and au moins cannot be translated literally See the paragraph following in the text.
21 15 mouain: = moins misspelled to indicate a pronuntiation as two syllables instead of one.
21 16 à faire trembler: cf. note to 2 2.
21 19 ce que c'est que la vanité: the construction will be clear if a second est is supplied after vanité, 'what vanity is', cf. note to 72 21.
21 22 fit: = dit There are many examples of this usage in this book.
21 23 je ne dis pas: 'I don't say (that I shan't),' 'I won't commit Myself'
22 12 fit ... effroyable: 'gave Tartarin-Quixote a terrible grilling'.
22 16 éléphantiasis: 'elephantiasis,' a disease of the skin which makes it thick, hard, and fissured like an elephant's hide.
22 21 feu Cambyse: 'the late Cambyses' feu is frequently used, but only with humorous intent, in speaking of persons long since dead. For the story of the expedition (525 B.C.) sent by Cambyses, king of Persia, to plunder the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the desert of Libya, see Herodotus III Cambyses himself did not perish in this expedition as Daudet erroneously states.
22 27 que diable! 'hang it all!'
22 30 Mungo-Park (1771-1806, no hyphen in English) Scotch explorer of the Niger--Caillé (René, 1799-1838} a Frenchman, the first European to return alive from Timbuktu.
22 31 Livingstone (David, 1813-1873) celebrated Scotch missionary and traveler--Duveyrier(1840-1892) French geographer, and explorer of the northwestern Sahara.
23 3 à partir de ce jour-là: 'from that day on'--ne ... plus que: cf. note to 4 23.
23 10 faire son tour de ville: cf. note to 12 21.
23 11 pas accéléré: 'quick time', pas redoublé, 'double quick', pas gymnastique, 'run.'
23 13 selon la mode antique: there is no evidence that ancient runners carried pebbles in their mouths Daudet is perhaps thinking of the well known story about Demosthenes Modern runners carry something, not usually pebbles, in their mouths to induce themselves to hold the mouth shut and breathe through the nose, and also to keep the mouth moist by inciting the flow of saliva.
23 16 jusqu'à des dix et onze heures: 'even as late as ten and eleven o'clock' Des and et (instead of ou, 'or) lend emphasis to the Expression.
23 27 ne battait plus que d'une aile: 'was almost dead', lit 'could no longer flap more than one wing' (like a wounded bird), cf. note to 4 23.
24 1 mouches cantharides: 'Spanish flies' These insects, which are found in southern Europe, are used (crushed) as the chief element in blistering plasters--dessus adverb, 'on top of it', cf. note to 1 6.
24 3 Il fallait voir: 'you should have seen', cf. 69 4.
24 4 se l'arrachait: for se cf. note to 7 2 Se is dative, cf. 4 24.
24 6 se faire expliquer: cf. note to 7 25.
24 7 comment on s'y prenait: 'how you go at it' On y cf. note to 2 29.
24 8 à combien de pas: cf. note to 18 25.
24 11 Jules Gerard (1817-1864) called le Tueur de lions, an officer of spahis (cf. note to 43 8) and celebrated lion hunter.
24 12 Aussi: cf. note to 5 32.
24 16 que = quand cf. note to 5 1.
24 21 disait: cf. note to 7 26.
24 22 laurier-rose: 'oleander', all parts of this shrub are poisonous.
24 23 pluies de sauterelles: particularly in Africa and Asia migratory locusts collect in countless numbers, forming a cloud so dense as to obscure the sun, and consume every green thing, cf. 81 25 and note to 86 20 See the pages on "Les Sauterelles" in "Lettres de mon moulin," where Daudet describes an invasion of these terrible insects.
24 29 balle explosible: a bullet which explodes on striking an object.
24 30 pfft! the sound of the bullet passing through the air.
25 2 garçonnets: 'urchins,' diminutive of garçon, cf. note to 33 27.
25 3 grand'peur: cf. grand'mère, grand'peine, etc The Latin adjectives of two terminations (grandis, e) had regularly in French one form (grand) for masculine and feminine An e was added in the feminine through the influence of other feminine adjectives (bonne, from bona), but the old form is retained, with the addition of the apostrophe, in certain phrases Pronounce as if grand' were masculine.
25 chapter heading pas de on the absence of ne cf. note to 13 1.
25 9 Toujours est-il que: 'at any rate' On the inversion after toujours (still ') cf. note to 5 32.
25 11 peut-être ... se figurait-il the same inversion as that referred to in the preceding note. Compare in the next sentence Peut être qu(e) il s'imaginait.
25 18 le: 'it,' that is, victime, omit in translation cf. 59 13, 84 3.
25 22 fit fureur: 'was all the rage', of cette piece (de theâtre) fait fureur 'this play is all the rage'.
26 2 ne faisait plus foi: 'was no longer regarded as unimpeachable'
26 5 faisait deux doigts de cour a: 'courted a little' (two finger Breadths).
26 6 langue du cru: 'local dialect,' 'vernacular' Cru means 'growth,' 'that which grows in a certain district', croître = 'grow' Vin du cru ='local wine', donner une oeuvre de son cru = 'to produce a work of one's own imagination', cf. dame du cru 60 29, jurons du cru 65 4.
26 9 devait: cf. note to 18 2.
26 10 on le chargeait toujours: cf. 11 12.
26 12 l'allusion: like Master Gervais's gun, Tartarin never went off, partir = 'to depart,' 'to go off' (of a gun).
26 13 En un tour de main: 'in a turning of the hand,' 'like a flash'.
26 16 Le fusil de maître Gervais--Toujours on le charge, toujours on le charge--Le fusil de maître Gervais--Toujours on le charge, il ne part jamais.
26 24 lui glisser dans la main: 'slipping in (i.e. out of) his hand'.
26 27 il fait bon: 'it's a pleasant thing'.
26 30 sa même vie: 'the same life as before '--comme si de rien n'était 'as if it was (all) about nothing,' 'as if it all amounted to Nothing'.
27 4 portait toute sa barbe: 'wore a full beard'.
27 14 s'adresser: cf. note to 5 23--fouchtras transl. rascals'Fouchtra is an inelegant exclamation, originally peculiar to the inhabitants of Auvergne (south central France), hence, used as a noun it means a person from Auvergne Many bootblacks come from Auvergne, so the word is not inappropriately applied to the little Savoyard bootblacks.
27 16 tenait bon: 'stood its ground firmly', adverbial use of the adjective cf. sentir bon and the corresponding English 'to smell good'.
27 26 ganté ... oreilles: 'with black gloves on, (his coat) buttoned up to his ears' With boutonné cf. sanglé 9 20.
27 27 fit: cf. note to 21 22.
28 8 il lui prit la main: 'he took his hand', cf. note to 12 25.
28 12 Bompard: the personages of "Tartarin de Tarascon" appear in other novels of Daudet. For Bompard see particularly "Numa Roumestan."
28 13 CAISSE D'ARMES: 'WEAPON-CHEST.'
28 18 toute une cargaison: 'a whole cargo', cf. 33 2-3.
28 19 pemmican: 'pemmican', dried meat, pulverized or shredded, and mixed with melted fat, for Arctic rather than tropical use.
28 20 tente-abri: a light, easily-handled tent, used particularly by troops in the field. Abri, masculine, = 'shelter.'
28 21 à la: here = 'in a.'
28 24 vinaigre des quatre-voleurs: 'thieves' vinegar,' a kind of aromatic vinegar, formerly used as a disinfectant. The name is derived from the fact that this concoction was popularly supposed to have rendered immune from contagion certain thieves who were pillaging the city of Toulouse during a severe plague (1720).
28 26 ce qu'il en faisait: on en cf. note to 8 19.--ce n'était pas pour lui: 'it wasn't for him,' i.e. it wasn't for Tartarin-Quixote.
29 10 grelots ... sonnettes: the grelot is sounded by a ball inside, as in a sleigh bell. Sonnette is a broader term, used for any small bell. Une cloche is a large bell; cf. 31 25.
29 11 Arles: an ancient city on the Rhone, nine miles south of Tarascon. Its women, of a marked Greek type, are famed for their beauty, which is enhanced by a very picturesque head-dress (coiffe). --venues en croupe de leur galant: 'riding behind their sweethearts.' Note that leur galant is singular; cf. ses deux fusils dans leur gaine 71 25; cf. also note to 92 15, and Savoyards ... la tête ... leurs 1 8. We say 'arms bare to the elbow', cf. 19 14-15.
29 18 Mésopotamie: 'Mesopotamia,' that part of Asia which lies between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
29 22 traçant ... sillons glorieux: 'leaving, as it were, glorious furrows in their wake.' Note the force of comme; cf. 31 19, 34 9.
29 25 laissant voir: 'permitting to be seen'; cf. note to 7 25.
30 3 il se fit: cf. note to 5 23.
30 12 avait cru de son devoir ... de: 'had thought it his duty ... to.'
30 14 en toile blanche: en is used to denote the material of which a thing is made. De also may be used: une table d'acajou, but we find des commodes en acajou 82 7; cf. un sac de cuir 51 4, une serviette en cuir 71 14.
30 16 chechia: the cap worn by the natives of Algeria; as used by the Algerian sharpshooters of the French army it is somewhat like a fez (note to 33 25), but less close.
30 17 d'une longueur: for the suppression cf. note to 15 21.
30 22 venaient là bien à propos: 'came in quite opportunely.'
30 26 à quoi s'en tenir sur: 'what to expect from ' En is redundant.
30 29 son ... chez lui: 'his ... home'; mon chez moi = 'my home.'
30 30 ne se voyait pas: 'was not seen,' ' did not appear', cf. note to 5 23.
31 5 vieil Africain de 1830: 'African veteran of 30', cf. note to 40 17.
31 6 lui serra la main: cf. note to 12 25.
31 7 express Paris-Marseille: 'express from Paris to Marseilles.'
31 9 fit fermer les grilles: cf. note to 7 25.
31 13 On s'inscrivait: inscrire = 'to inscribe,' 'to enter,' as on a register; s'inscrire= 'to enter one's name.'
31 15 Socrate: ' Socrates,' famous Athenian philosopher(470-400 B.C.), convicted of impiety and of corrupting the youth, was condemned to drink the poisonous hemlock. He conversed calmly with his friends until the end. See Plato's "Apology," "Crito," and " Phaedo."
31 16 ciguë. the diaeresis is written over the e to show that the u is pronounced, [sigy]; contrast the pronunciation of figue.
31 19 comme: cf. note to 29 22.
31 20 D'entendre: 'as a result of hearing,' 'on hearing.'
31 23 hommes d'équipe: 'station hands' An équipe is a gang of men engaged on a particular piece of work.
31 25 cloche: the large bell which announced the approach of the train. On words for 'bell' cf. note to 29 10.
31 31 monta dans un wagon: 'got into a car' Monter is always followed by dans when used in this sense, cf. entrer dans une maison 'to enter a house' cf. note to 94 9.
31 32 pensèrent mourir = faillirent mourir (cf. 15 13): 'almost died.'
32 1 1er =premier.--par: cf. note to 10 22.
32 3 déboucher: used of rivers ('empty into'), streets ('terminate at'), armies ('debouch'). Here used for comic effect; transl. 'debouch.'--la Canebière: the principal Street of Marseilles, of which the inhabitants are very proud.
32 5 s'il en manque ... des Teurs: des Teurs is anticipated by en; cf. 36 19, 38 32, 69 2.
32 10 le Zouave. the corps of French infantry in Algeria called 'zouaves' was organized in 1831. It was at first composed almost entirely of natives (hence the well-known costume which is still worn), but is now made up exclusively of Frenchmen.--devait: cf. note to 18 2.
32 14 pour la première fois: cf. 13 26-27.
32 16 Sinbad le Marin 'Sindbad the Sailor,' the hero of a well-known series of stories in the "Arabian Nights" (Mille et une nuits)
32 17 comme il y en a: 'such as there are', cf.49 8.
32 19 à perte de vue: 'as far as the eye could reach'.
32 21 tunisiens: Tunis was independent when "Tartarin" was written, and has the flag of an independent state to this day. Note that this fragmentary list names only the flags less often seen.
32 22 arrivant sur: 'projecting over'.
32 23 Au-dessous (adv, cf.1 6) les naïades ... saintes vierges: just below the bowsprit is a figure head representing the naïad (water nymph), the goddess, or the madonna, whose name is inscribed on both sides of the bow. Les saintes vierges are images of the Virgin, which are particularized by specific attitudes, attributes, or localities Read "La Diligence de Beaucaire," in " Lettres de mon moulin".
32 29 mousses: le mousse='cabin boy,' la mousse='moss,' 'foam'
33 2 tout un peuple: cf. note to 28 18.
33 4 bogheys: borrowed from the English 'buggy' Paquebot (32 10) is from Engl. 'packet-boat,' and redingote (34 6) is from Engl 'riding coat'
33 8 bric-à-brac: this word means 'bric-a-brac' (odds and ends), 'a dealer in bric-a-brac,' or his store, 'curiosity shop,' as here.
33 9 coulevrines: 'culverins,' an obsolete form of cannon.
33 11 Jean Bart (1651-1702): a famous sailor and privateer, of low birth, ennobled by Louis XIV. Duguay-Trouin (1673-1736) privateer and naval commander.
33 18 saumons: 'salmon' (fish), in metallurgy 'pigs' (here, of lead) A pig is an oblong mass of cast metal, especially iron or lead.
33 19 caroubes: 'carob beans,' the sweet pulpy pods, dried, of the caroubier (76 24), a tree of the countries bordering the Medditerranean, the "husks" of Luke xv, 16, and sometimes sold as a dainty at American fruit stands--colzas colza, or rape, is a sort of turnip with no thick root, raised for the oil of its seeds and for pasturage.
33 20 de Hollande: 'Dutch' The hard Edam cheese, made in globular molds and dyed red on the outside, is familiar to Americans.
33 21 Génoises: women of Genoa (Gênes], seaport in northern Italy.
33 25 fez: 'fez', named from the city of Fez in Morocco, where it is made a felt or cloth cap, dark red, with a tassel--a mesure: 'in proportion) as it fell ', cf. note to 58 18.
33 27 de femmes et d'enfants: they followed to pick up (glean, glaner) what fell from the carts--balayette dimmutive of balai cf. colline, collinette 4 11, garçon, garçonnet 25 2, seul,seulet 63 18, seulette.
33 28 bassin de carénage: 'dry dock' Carénage 'careenage' = a place for, or the act of, careening a ship for the purpose of examining or repairng its hull or keel (carène).
34 3 Malte: 'Malta,' an island in the Mediterranean, between Sicily and Africa, which has belonged to England since 1814.
34 9 comme en l'air: 'as if they were sailing in the air', cf. note to 29 22.
34 12 fort Saint-Jean, fort Saint-Nicolas: the two forts which guard the entrance to the harbor of Marseilles.
34 13 la Major: the old cathedral of Marseilles (Sainte Marie Majeure}.--Accoules, Saint-Victor: old churches in Marseilles.
34 14 mistral: (Latin magistralis 'masterly') 'mistral,' a violent north-west wind which sweeps down the Rhône valley.
35 12 golfe du Lion: 'Gulf of the Lion,' off southern France.
36 10 comme ... voulu: en vouloir à quelqu'un means 'to bear a grudge against a person.' Il en veut à Jean = 'he bears a grudge against John.' Here 'how angry they would have been with themselves!' 'how they would have reproached themselves!'
36 13 courage: 'energy.' The word courage (ordinarily = English 'courage') is often so used. Je n'ai pas le courage de travailler aujourd'hui 'I haven't the energy to work (do not feel like working) to day.' Cf. 50 1.
36 16 ne cessait: pas is often omitted with savoir, pouvoir, cesser, oser, bouger, cf. 18 32, 86 3.
36 18 Imbécile, va!: 'what a fool you are!' Va! allez! and allons! (imperatives of aller) are common exclamations, the sense varies with the context. For allons! cf. 56 1--Je te l'avais bien dit 'I told you so.'
36 19 Eh bien ... l'Afrique!: 'well now, here's your Africa!' On té see note to 13 7. La anticipates l'Afrique, cf. 32 5.
36 25 Alcazar: a music-hall. Alcazar means in Arabic 'the palace.'
36 27 la Mecque: 'Mecca,' in Arabia, the birthplace of Mohammed; the Holy City to which every good Mohammedan goes in pilgrimage at least once.
36 28 Ravel, Gil Pérès: popular comedians in Paris at the time Daudet was writing.
36 30 un bon gros vivant de Marseillais: a bon vivant is 'a man who lives well,' 'a jolly fellow' On de see note to 1 12.
37 3 il se fit: cf. note to 5 23.
37 7 Machine en avant! machine en arrière! 'Go ahead! back her!' Machine = 'engine'.
37 9 Machine, stop! 'stop her!' 'The verb stopper (borrowed from English stop) is regularly used of engines. Stop in machine, stop! is an imperative taken directly from the English.
37 10 plus rien: cf. notes to 13 1 and 4 23--Rien que: cf. 1 17.
37 19 Alger la blanche: 'Algiers,' capital of Algeria, about 500 miles from Marseilles. For the epithet blanche, see next note.
37 22 Meudon: a town on the Seine between Paris and Versailles. The white houses of Algiers sloping towards the sea look like the washing of a laundress spread out on the grassy hill which at Meudon descends to the Seine. Étalage means a 'spreading out,' as of things for sale; then, by extension, the objects displayed. Cf. note to 69 15.
37 26 à ses côtés: 'at his (Tartarin's) side'; note the plural côtés; cf. aux flancs du paquebot 93 19.
37 27 Casbah: the citadel, 400 feet above the sea, crowning the hill on which the Moorish quarter (la ville haute 'the Upper City') is built--la rue Bab-Azoun: lower down, parallel to the shore, the most important street in Algiers.
38 18 Qués aco? Provençal for qu'est ce que c'est que cela? 'what's that?'--qu'est-ce que vous avez?' 'what's the matter with you?'
38 21 pourquoi faire? 'why?' 'what for?' cf. 49 1.--boun Diou: Provençal for bon Dieu.
38 31 tron de ler: more properly tron de l'er, a Provençal oath = tonnerre de l'air, 'thunder of the air!' A Provençal newspaper with the name Lou Tron de l'Er appeared in Marseilles in 1877-1878.
38 32 longtemps: cf. note to 40 17.--en: anticipates des pirates; cf. note to 32 5.
39 4 un brave garçon: cf. note to 3 12.
39 8 tire-vieille: 'man-rope,' one of the side ropes on the gangway of a ship. Tire-vieille (tirer + vieille,' that which helps old women to mount') is often misspelled tire-veille (tirer + veille, 'pull and take care').
39 17 tourmentait: 'tormented,' 'twisted and turned.'
39 20 sous le bâton de: 'under the cudgel used upon.'
39 23 barbaresque: 'Barbary.' La Barbarie ('Barbary') = États barbaresques is a general term formerly applied to the North African states: Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli.
39 24 Michel Cervantes: in 1575 Cervantes was captured by Barbary pirates and carried to Algiers. His five years of slavery afforded him materials for "Don Quixote" and other works; cf. note to 10 13.
39 26 devait: cf. note to 18 2.
40 1 Saavedra: upon his return from Algiers in 1580 Cervantes assumed the additional surname of Saavedra from one of his ancestors, always signing himself thenceforth Cervantes Saavedra.
40 4 dut tressaillir: 'must have leaped', cf. note to 2 10.
40 14 à peine Tartarin eut-il mis: cf. note to 5 32.
40 17 Arabes ... M'zabites: the aborigines of Algeria, three quarters of the population even now, are the Berber race, including the Kabyles (19 14) in the north, the Mzabites, purest Berbers of all, in the south, and the marauding Tuaregs (11 6) in the Sahara. The Mzabites, the heretical Puritans of Algerian Mohammedanism, are seen everywhere as honest petty traders and workers in street industries. The Arab conquest about 700 A.D. made Arabic the dominant language of all North Africa to this day--an important fact to remember--and introduced the Arabs as a permanent population along the north edge of the Sahara. The conquest by Turkish pirates about 1500 A.D., with subordination to the Sultan of Turkey till 1669, brought in very few Turks; the pirates were a mixture of various Mohammedan nations with renegades from the Christian nations. The "Moors" of to-day in Algeria are their descendants; the ancient Moors were Berbers. During the centuries of pirate rule, and earlier, negroes were brought in as slaves; Mohammedan custom favored setting them free in a few years if they became Mohammedans. The overthrow of the pirates by the French in 1830, and the French conquest during the next thirty years, caused most of the few Turks to leave the country, and started an influx of Europeans from the Mediterranean countries; Daudet notices especially the Minorcans (Mahonnais from the city of Port Mahon).
40 22 charabia: borrowed from the Spanish algarabía, which means properly 'Arabic,' then, by extension, any unintelligible 'jargon.' The French word is usually applied contemptuously to the dialect of Auvergne (cf. note to 27 14).
40 23 invraisemblables: lit. 'unlike the truth,' 'improbable', then 'strange,' 'outlandish', of German unwahrscheinlich.
40 26 se faire comprendre: cf. note to 7 25.--barbares: 'barbarians,' the word used by Greeks and Romans to designate uncivilized peoples. Not to be confused with barbaresque.
40 28 du latin de Pourceaugnac: 'Pourceaugnac Latin,' meaningless Latin such as that which Molière introduces into some of his plays. "Monsieur de Pourceaugnac" is the name of one of Molière's farces, and there is some Latin in it; but Daudet probably had in mind "Le Médecin malgré lui," II, 6. He uses the name Pourceaugnac here because he likes the sound. Rosa, rosae, is the type-noun of the first declension in French grammars of to-day, where we have ordinarily mensa or stella. In Molière's time, as suggested by the passage of "Le Médecin malgré lui" referred to, musa, musae, was the noun commonly used.
41 2 Heureusement qu': que is redundant, cf. 58 23.
41 3 canne de compagnon: 'stout cane.' When the young artisan (compagnon) set out on his travels (tour de France) to learn his trade, he carried a stout cane which is one of the principal attributes of compagnonnage.
41 4 dieu d'Homère: in the " Iliad" and the "Odyssey" the gods often intervene in the affairs of men.
41 11 tenant le milieu entre: 'a cross between.'
41 12 Zanzibar: capital, since 1832, of the Mohammedan power in East Africa, and place of entry for travelers to Central Africa in the middle of the nineteenth century; hence here representing the idea of an African capital, as Constantinople that of a Turkish capital.
41 13 en plein Tarascon: cf. note to 5 7.
41 15 la ligne: in the French and English armies the term la ligne, 'the line,' is applied ordinarily to the infantry of the regular army as opposed to the militia, cavalry, artillery, etc. In America the line includes all that part of the regular army whose business is actual fighting.--Offenbach: Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), born at Cologne, a naturalized Frenchman, composer of light operas.
41 24 Crusoé: the final e of English proper names terminating in -oe is ordinarily pronounced in French; cf. Edgard Poé or Poë.
41 28 monter: the active use of this verb, 'carry up', cf. promener 74 26.
42 1 Gouvernement: the building in which are the offices of the provincial government. Cf. 70 8.
42 4 en avait vu de rudes: 'had had a hard time of it', with rudes supply some such noun as choses, anticipated by en; cf. note to 32 5.
42 14 il se fit servir: cf. note to 7 25.--grande ouverte: 'wide open'; cf. 51 7.
42 15 Crescia: a wine-producing district near Algiers.
42 22 fréter: 'to charter,' a nautical term used here mock-heroically.
42 26 montait d'un bon pied: note the de with expressions of measure, haute de cinq doigts (71 14) 'five fingers high,' il est plus grand (plus âgé) de deux pouces (deux ans) 'he is two inches (two years) taller (older)'; cf. 95 8.
42 28 enfila: enfiler = 'to thread (a needle, pearls, etc.)', then, 'to thread (one's way through arcades, crowded streets, etc).'
43 2 prit le faubourg: 'took the street which leads through the suburb.' Faubourg meant originally the portion of a city outside the walled town (bourg); then also the street leading through this district. Cf. note to 49 7.--route de Mustapha: 'Mustapha road', cf. note to 1 5. Mustapha is a suburb of Algiers, on the sea.
43 4 corricolos: corricolo is the Neapolitan word (Latin 'curriculum, 'chariot'; see curricle in Engl. dict.) for a sort of gig.--fourgons du train: 'army wagons', train = train des équipages, 'the train,' an army's equipment for the transportation of provisions and other necessities.
43 5 chasseurs d'Afrique: French light cavalry serving in Algeria; transl. 'Africa cavalry.'
43 7 Alsaciens émigrants: 'emigrating Alsatians'; contrast émigrés alsaciens 'Alsatian emigrants.' After the Franco-Prussian war (1870-871), as a result of which Alsace became a German province, many Alsatians emigrated rather than submit to German domination. In 1871 about 11,000 natives of Alsace-Lorraine were granted land in Algeria. Daudet visited Algeria in 1861, before the Alsatians immigrated in large numbers.
43 8 spahis: 'spahis,' native cavalry in the French service, commanded by French officers.
43 12-13 bouchers: 'butchers.'--équarrisseurs: 'slaughterers.' Équarisseur, probably because of a falsely imputed connection with Latin equus, is ordinarily used to mean 'horse slaughterer,' 'knacker.' The root of the word is, however, Latin quadratus, French carré, and an équarisseur is properly 'one who cuts a beast into quarters,' one whose chief interest is in the by-products--hide, bones, fat, etc.
43 20 ne devaient pas être: 'ought not to be,' 'surely were not,' 'could not be', see note to 2 10.
43 29 crut devoir: 'thought he had better'; see note to 2 10.