Candide
by Voltaire
Table of Contents
Chapters 16-20
Chapter 16 Summary
Candide and Cacambo ride far away from the Baron’s encampment until they
find themselves in a place with no roads. They stop in a meadow and Cacambo urges
Candide to eat, but Candide is too overwhelmed with grief. Certain that he has lost
Cunegonde forever, he wonders what the point is in being alive. Suddenly, two naked
girls run into the meadow pursued by two large monkeys. To rescue the girls, Candide
shoots and kills the monkeys. To his surprise, the girls begin screaming and weeping
over the monkeys’ bodies. Cacambo explains that, instead of rescuing the girls,
Candide has killed their sweethearts. Candide now recalls that Pangloss once told him
of countries in which monkeys enjoy the favors of women, and that their unions produce
satyrs and fauns. Cacambo fears that the girls will want revenge, so he and Candide
hide themselves in a thicket. After cursing the Inquisitor, the governor of Buenos Aires,
and the Baron, they fall asleep.
Upon awakening, Candide and Cacambo find themselves bound with tree bark
and unable to move. They are surrounded by fifty naked natives, called Oriellons, who
are preparing a cauldron and spits upon which to roast them. Because Candide is still
wearing the Baron’s priest robes, the natives think he is a Jesuit and are delighted at
the thought of eating him. Cacambo happens to understand the natives’ language. He
explains to them that Candide is only dressed as a priest because he killed a Jesuit and
escaped by wearing his victim’s robes. Once the Oriellons are...
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