he desired to see my passport, and, catching sight of the words John Russell, he entered that name instead of my own in a report to the gendarmerie, uttering an exclamation of joyful surprise at the same time. I foolishly allowed the mistake to pass, and had to pay dearly for it; for he made out a lordly bill, against which all protest was unavailing.
His innocent and not unnatural mistake was eclipsed by a gendarme of Bourg d'Oysans, who took the passport, gravely held it upside down for several minutes, pretended to read it, and handed it back, saying it was all right.
Bound about Abries the patois of the district is more or less Italian in character, and the pronunciation of the natives reminds one of a cockney who attempts to speak French for the first time, Here bread is pronounced pane, and cheese, fromargee. There are a considerable number of dialects in use in this corner of France; and sometimes in the space of only a few miles one can find several, all of which are as unintelligible to the natives of the surrounding districts as they are to the traveller. In some districts the spelling of the patois is the same; but the pronunciation is different—in this resembling the Chinese. It is not easy for the stranger to understand the dialects, either written or spoken; and this will be readily perceived from the samples given below, which are different versions of the parable of the prodigal son.[1]
I quitted the abominations of Abries to seek a quiet bundle of hay at Le Chalp—a village some miles nearer to the Viso. On
- ↑ "Un sarten homme aïe dous garçous; lou pus jouve dissec à soun païre:—'Moun païre, beila nme la pourtiou d'ou ben que me reven.' Et lou païre fec en chascu sa part. Et paou de tens après, lou cadet, quant aguec fachs sa pacoutilla, se mettec en routo et s'en anec dinc un païs eiloigna, ounte mangec tout ce qu'aïé enbe les fumelles. Et quant aguec tout fricassa l'y aguec dine aqueou païs-acqui une grande famine, et coumensec à aver famp."
The above is a specimen of the patois of the neighbourhood of Gap; the following is that of Monêtier:—
"Un home avas dou bos. Lou plus giouve de isou disse à son pere:—'Moun pere, moun pere, douna-me soque me duou reveni de vatre be.' Et lou pere lour faze ou portage de soun be. Paouc de giours apres, lou plus giouve deiquelou dou bos, apres aveira
