And below in the darkening carpenter's shop Mireio,
the bitch, gave her teats to her young, rolling sideways
that they might come at her belly.
§2
Christophe Marie Benedit began squealing loudly
at the very onset of his baptismal service, so that
Monsieur le Cure had some ado to anoint his breast
with the Holy Chrism, and even more to place salt
on his tongue in accordance with the ritual of Mother
Church and the time-honoured Christian custom.
But when drops of cold water were splashed on his
head then he lost every vestige of self-control and beat
with his heels on his godmother's stomach. In addi-
tion to being his sponsor before God, she was also his
aunt, though he did not know it.
Madame Roustan frowned and gripped him more
firmly as she watched this momentous struggle with
Satan. clt is clear that the devil is excessively angry,*
she whispered to Goundran the child's godfather, che
is blistered, no doubt, by the Holy Oil and scourged by
our good priest's exorcisms!'
But Goundran was young and a fisherman; he had
known far worse struggles than this in foul weather, so
that while Madame Roustan continued to frown at
their godson, he smiled at the turbulent infant —
when he smiled his large teeth gleamed startlingly
white in a face that was tanned to the colour of copper.
Arm in arm near the font stood the earthly parents:
Jouse, a mighty and comely man in spite of the fact
that he was ageing. His head was covered with thick,
small curls, and his plentiful beard was also curly.
The hair of his head and his beard was red gold, but
touched here and there with streaks of grey, for at this
time Jouse was nearing fifty. Marie, a woman of
twenty-nine, was as brown as the soil and as patiently
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