Note 2 — Chapter II · THE URCHIN OF MALAVAL
Bernard Miall translation
It was thus at Malaval that the future entomologist “passed his earliest childhood,” as he told me when writing to me ten years ago.2 There was no wallowing in abundance at Saint-Léons. In order to relieve the poor household of one mouth, he was confided to the care of his grandmother and sent to Malaval. “There, in solitude, amid the geese, the calves, and the sheep, my mind first awoke to consciousness. What went before is for me shrouded in impenetrable darkness.”