gargantua goes to paris, and the big mare that takes him there.
the trip to paris being settled, the first thing to be agreed on was a horse large enough to carry gargantua at his ease. there was no trouble here; for, by good luck, it happened that there had arrived, only a few days before, the most gigantic mare that had ever eaten hay in the royal stables. she had come all the way from africa, a present from fayolles, the fourth king of numidia. when father grandgousier went to look at the mare, he found her a marvellous animal, indeed. she was as big as six elephants, with her hoofs split into toes. her ears hung downward like the great ears of the goats of languedoc. the mare was not alone in her split toes, because history tells us that the steed of julius c?sar had the self-same toes if he hadn't the ears. but she was alone in her tail! oh, how mighty that tail was! it was as big as the pillar of saint-mars near langes, and just as square. if the boys and girls who are reading this are surprised, they will only have to think of what they have already read of the tails of those scythian rams which weighed more than thirty pounds each; and of the sheep of syria, the tails of which were so long and so heavy that they had to be rested on a cart to be carried in comfort. the mare, in short, was so extraordinary a creature that, on seeing her for the first time, father grandgousier could only whistle beneath his breath.
"that's the very beast to carry my son to paris! with her, all things will go well. he will be a great scholar one of these days."
engraving
gargantua's mare.
the next day, after breakfast, the party started on their journey. first, there was gargantua on his gigantic mare, and wearing boots which his father had just given him, made out of the skin of the red deer; then his new teacher, ponocrates; then his servants, among whom was the young page, eudemon. there never was a gayer party. in the highest spirits, and laughing loudly, they jogged on, day after day, until they reached a point just above the city of orleans. at this point, they found a great forest thirty-five leagues long and seventeen wide, or thereabout. the forest was very fertile in some ugly insects, known as gadflies and hornets. these flies were so large and so fierce, and so sharp-tongued and so poisonous besides, that they were the terror of all the poor horses and asses which had to pass through the forest. but gargantua's mare was equal to both flies and hornets. she resolved to avenge all her kindred, even though they were mere dwarfs, which had ever suffered from gadflies and hornets, and which, if she did not help them, would continue to suffer from them. the moment she got well into the forest, and the gadflies began to plague her, she first shook her tail slowly and lazily to see whether or not it was in good working order. this did not in the least frighten the insects, which kept on plaguing and stinging her more than ever. then it was that she loosed that tail of hers to the right and the left. so well did she do this, whisking it wildly here and there, far up in the air and low down on the ground, that she whipped down the biggest trees, one after the other, with a crash that made the hearts of the others tremble within their very bark, with all the ease that a mower cuts down the grass. so well did she do her work that, since she passed through that forest, there never has been seen in it a single tree or a single gadfly, or a single hornet, for the whole wood on that day became the open country, and has been open country ever since.
engraving
ponocrates.
when gargantua, who hadn't noticed what his mare had been doing, saw this, he only laughed, while he said to ponocrates in his old-time french:—
"je trouve beau-ce!"
which, translated freely into english, would mean:—
"i find this fine."
and, from that day to this, the country above the city of orleans, in france, has been called la beauce.
