Candide

Cacambo and Candide cross “deep into unknown country” (39) escaping the Jesuits. They rest and Cacambo encourages Candide to eat, which he protests at first claiming he is too distraught, though he eats nonetheless. That night they hear women’s cries and follow them to find two naked girls skipping across a meadow being chased by “a pair of apes snapping at their bottoms” (39). Candide kills both apes with his rifle, thinking he is helping the women, but the girls begin to wail and cradle the apes. Cacambo explains that the apes were their lovers, as is customary in other parts of the world, and Candide understands by recalling Pangloss’ lessons on cross-species couplings producing “aigypans, fauns and satyrs” (40). They leave immediately to avoid trouble, have dinner in the woods, and fall asleep.

When they awake, they have been captured by the Oreillon tribe, who are naked, armed with “arrows, clubs and flint axes” (40) and chanting “Let’s eat Jesuit!” (41). Cacambo speaks their language and explains that while it is normal to eat enemies, it is not good to eat your friends, informing them that Candide has just killed Jesuit. He encourages them to take the cassock they stole from the Baron to the nearest border post to verify their story.