Subject
Re: Red dogs
From
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Victor Fet wrote:
To add to Alexey's flavitous flow (may be also useful for Ada 2:2
> comments?):
>
> (1) "across desertorum or agricultural drearies it attained seventy,
> ninety-seven night-nine..."
>
> This clearly indicates one moving across the North American continent on a
> fast vehicle.
>
> Note Latin "desertorum", a species epithet given in Linnean nomenclature to
> many desert animals and plants and meaning "of deserts" (plural genitive),
>
I had the same impressions.
> There, back in the 1950s (e.g. in Texas) one still cound find a.... (2)
>
> (2) ...Canis rufus -- a Red Wolf (literal translation from latin: Red Dog)
> - an enigmatic, now extinct species of North American canids, which is
> closer to coyote than to gray wolf; see:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Wolf
>
> It's not extinct, fortunately, though it's very rare, and there was a
period in the 1980s when the only surviving individuals were in captivity.
(It's not red, either.)
I've occasionally wondered whether the "stuffed fox or coyote" Kinbote
thinks he remembers from Shade's house is supposed to be this species.
- not to be confused with .....(3)
>
> (3) ...a wild Asian species, Cuon alpinus, or Dhole - called in English
> "red dog", but in Russian "krasnyi volk" (red wolf), - see:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhole --
>
> those should have followed Konstantin Godunov-Cherdyntsev's caravans in
> Tibet and Tien Shan, where.... (4)
>
Should they? They avoid people, and an authoritative-looking book implies
they seldom eat carrion; it doesn't mention feeding on scraps left by
travelers, though it seems to aim at completeness.
http://books.google.com/books?id=5gnWHLaUsqUC&pg=PA214
>
> (4) ...the Kyrgyz people of Central Asia consider a Red Dog (Kyzyl Taigan)
> their progenitor who, according to folk legend/etymology, impregnated 40
> maidens (= "kyrk gyz")....
> For the whole story see the website of Kyrgyz Embassy,
>
> http://www.kgembassy.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=110&Itemid=223
>
Which is taken from a Wikipedia article!
Sorry to get pedantic, but the word "Taigan" is apparently the name of a
Kyrgyz breed of hunting dog (Wikipedia again), and not the same as the
Kyrgyz names for the dhole, which are *chue* and *nyar* (according to that
authoritative-looking link above).
> which brings us back to floramors?...
>
And dogs.
Jerry Friedman
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To add to Alexey's flavitous flow (may be also useful for Ada 2:2
> comments?):
>
> (1) "across desertorum or agricultural drearies it attained seventy,
> ninety-seven night-nine..."
>
> This clearly indicates one moving across the North American continent on a
> fast vehicle.
>
> Note Latin "desertorum", a species epithet given in Linnean nomenclature to
> many desert animals and plants and meaning "of deserts" (plural genitive),
>
I had the same impressions.
> There, back in the 1950s (e.g. in Texas) one still cound find a.... (2)
>
> (2) ...Canis rufus -- a Red Wolf (literal translation from latin: Red Dog)
> - an enigmatic, now extinct species of North American canids, which is
> closer to coyote than to gray wolf; see:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Wolf
>
> It's not extinct, fortunately, though it's very rare, and there was a
period in the 1980s when the only surviving individuals were in captivity.
(It's not red, either.)
I've occasionally wondered whether the "stuffed fox or coyote" Kinbote
thinks he remembers from Shade's house is supposed to be this species.
- not to be confused with .....(3)
>
> (3) ...a wild Asian species, Cuon alpinus, or Dhole - called in English
> "red dog", but in Russian "krasnyi volk" (red wolf), - see:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhole --
>
> those should have followed Konstantin Godunov-Cherdyntsev's caravans in
> Tibet and Tien Shan, where.... (4)
>
Should they? They avoid people, and an authoritative-looking book implies
they seldom eat carrion; it doesn't mention feeding on scraps left by
travelers, though it seems to aim at completeness.
http://books.google.com/books?id=5gnWHLaUsqUC&pg=PA214
>
> (4) ...the Kyrgyz people of Central Asia consider a Red Dog (Kyzyl Taigan)
> their progenitor who, according to folk legend/etymology, impregnated 40
> maidens (= "kyrk gyz")....
> For the whole story see the website of Kyrgyz Embassy,
>
> http://www.kgembassy.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=110&Itemid=223
>
Which is taken from a Wikipedia article!
Sorry to get pedantic, but the word "Taigan" is apparently the name of a
Kyrgyz breed of hunting dog (Wikipedia again), and not the same as the
Kyrgyz names for the dhole, which are *chue* and *nyar* (according to that
authoritative-looking link above).
> which brings us back to floramors?...
>
And dogs.
Jerry Friedman
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/