2 19: catalans: Catalonia is in northeastern Spain. --couteaux-revolvers: 'pistol dirks,' pistols with dirks set in their butts, ordaggers with pistols in their hilts.--couteaux-poignards: 'dagger-knives' an ancient form of one-edged dagger, having a long and heavy blade.--krish (criss, kriss) malais: 'Malay creeses,' daggers with sinuous edges, famous for deadliness.
2 20: flèches caraïbes: 'Carib arrows.' The Caribs are the most war-like tribe of northern South America, the home of the famous curare poison and other arrow-poisons.--casse-tête: any kind of war-club that can be wielded by one hand; transl. 'war-clubs' (cf. 59 29); indeclinable.
2 21: est-ce que je sais! lit. 'do I know!' transl. 'and what not.'
2 23: glaives: 'swords.' Glaive (cf. Engl. "glaive"), from Latin gladius, is a poetic word for épée.
2 24 vous donner la chair de poule: 'make your flesh creep' With the French chair de poule 'hen flesh' cf. Engl "goose flesh".
2 26 yataganerie. the yatagan, 'yataghan,' is the saber of the Turks and the Arabs, from this word Daudet coined yataganerie on the analogy of épicerie, papeterie, etc, transl. 'paraphernalia of war'.
2 28 bonhomme a noun used adjectively, transl. 'kindly'.
2 29 n'y touchez pas Toucher à quelque chose, hence y toucher, 'to touch it,' y,' replacing à + a pronoun, cf. à Shang Hai and y 16 10, and notes to 6 14, 7 6, 9 7, 24 7.
3 3 Cook: Captain James Cook (1728-1779), famous English scientific explorer, killed by savages in Hawaii.--Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), the famous American writer of Indian and sea stories Leatherstocking (Bas de cuir) is as well known in France as in America--Gustave Aimard (1818 1883) spent several years in America and wrote many tales in the style of Cooper.