[46.]--21. des petites bêtes. In familiar style, or when the words form really only one idea, partition is expressed by de and the article even when an adjective precedes the noun.
[47.]--16. on aperçut l'ennemi. Apercevoir refers especially to the sense of sight, s'apercevoir de to a mental process (il s'aperçut de son erreur).
[48.]--4. cessèrent. Note the plural verb though the singular subjects are not connected by et.
17. mangeaille, -aille is a derogatory suffix; the force of the various French suffixes, to which little or no attention is paid in the ordinary French grammars, may be seen in the Dictionnaire général, vol. l, pp. 43 ff. and pp. 48 ff.; also in Ayer, Grammaire comparée de la langue française (4th edition), pp. 300 ff.
[49.]--25. mon colonel. The possessive pronoun is used by French soldiers in addressing superior officers.
TOMBOUCTOU
[63.]--12. bonjou. The letter r is as difficult for Tombouctou as it is for the negroes in the Southern States. Tombouctou's language is like the Pidgin-English used in the Orient, he pays no attention to syntax, but puts his verbs in the first conjugation and in the> infinitive, that is, he knows only one form of the verb (aimé, cherché; reconné, etc.); the mistakes will be easily seen (Bézi, p. 53, l. 18, is for Bézières; Empéeu, p. 54, l. 7, is for Empereur; gives and capules, p. 57, l. 11, are for grives and crapules; povisions, p. 58, l. 3, for provisions, etc.); gadé, pésonne = garder, personne (p. 60, l. 5); pati, p. 60, l. 21, is for parti, one verb which he does not put in the first conjugation; moi fait mangé colonel, that is, he was the colonel's cook; Algéie, for Algérie.
EN MER
[64.]--13. faut couper. Popular omission of the subject pronoun.
19. coupe pas. An example of the popular omission of ne.--je vas, for je vais; the first person is formed on analogy with the second and third (vas, va).