They let themselves down on their backs, flattening their shoulders for fear of taking the skin off their foreheads, and they slipped so fast down the rocky slope, polished by all the rumps of the workers, that they were obliged from time to time to hold on to the woodwork, so that their backsides should not catch fire, as they said jokingly.
Eux, dévalaient sur le dos, aplatissaient leurs épaules, de peur de s'arracher la peau du front; et ils filaient si raide, le long de la roche polie par tous les derrieres des chantiers, qu'ils devaient, de temps a autre, se retenir aux bois, pour que leurs fesses ne prissent pas feu, disaient-ils en plaisantant.