The passengers of Admiral Tobakoff include
a mulatto girl whom Lucette dubs ¡°Miss Condor¡± and who gives Van a big jungle
smile:
Simultaneously, a tall splendid creature
with trim ankles and repulsively fleshy thighs, stalked past the Veens, all but
treading on Lucette's emerald-studded cigarette case. Except for a golden
ribbon and a bleached mane, her long, ripply, beige back was bare all the way
down to the tops of her slowly and lusciously rolling buttocks, which divulged,
in alternate motion, their nether bulges from under the lam¨¦ loincloth. Just
before disappearing behind a rounded white corner, the Titianesque Titaness
half-turned her brown face and greeted Van with a loud 'hullo!'
Lucette wanted to know: kto siya pava?
(who's that stately dame?)
'I thought she addressed you,'
answered Van, 'I did not distinguish her face and do not remember that bottom.'
'She gave you a big jungle smile,' said
Lucette, readjusting her green helmet, with touchingly graceful movements of
her raised wings, and touchingly flashing the russet feathering of her armpits.
(3.5)
'Whom did she [Miss Condor] look like?'
asked Lucette. 'En laid et en lard?'
'I don't know,' he lied. 'Whom?'
'Skip it,' she said. 'You're mine tonight.
Mine, mine, mine!'
She was quoting Kipling - the same phrase
that Ada used to address to Dack. He cast around for a straw of Procrustean
procrastination. (ibid.)
The animals in Kipling¡¯s
Jungle Books (1894) include the jackal Tabaqui (Shere Khan¡¯s stooge). Kondor ("Condor,"
1921) is a poem by Bryusov. In Geroy
truda ("The Hero of Toil," 1925), Marina Tsvetaev's
memoir essay on Bryusov, Alya (Ariadna Efron, Marina Tsvetaev's eight-year-old
daughter) compares Bryusov to Shere Khan (the tiger in The Jungle Books) and
Bryusov's mistress Adalis, to a young she-wolf:
§®§à§ã§Ü§Ó§Ñ, §ß§Ñ§é§Ñ§Ý§à §Õ§Ö§Ü§Ñ§Ò§â§ñ 1920 §Ô.
§¯§Ö§ã§Ü§à§Ý§î§Ü§à §Õ§ß§Ö§Û §ã§á§å§ã§ä§ñ, §é§Ú§ä§Ñ§ñ "§¥§Ø§å§ß§Ô§Ý§Ú".
¡ª §®§Ñ§â§Ú§ß§Ñ! §£§í §Ù§ß§Ñ§Ö§ä§Ö ¡ª §Ü§ä§à §º§Ö§â-§·§Ñ§ß? ¡ª §¢§â§ð§ã§à§Ó! ¡ª §´§à§Ø§Ö §ç§â§à§Þ§à§Û §Ú
§à§Õ§Ú§ß§à§Ü§Ú§Û, §Ú §å §ß§Ö§Ô§à §ä§Ñ§Þ §ä§à§Ø§Ö §¡§Õ§Ñ§Ý§Ú§ã. (§±§â§Ú§Ó§à§Õ§Ú§ä:) «§¡ §ã§ä§Ñ§â§í§Û §º§Ö§â-§·§Ñ§ß §ç§à§Õ§Ú§Ý §Ú
§à§ä§Ü§â§í§ä§à §á§â§Ú§ß§Ú§Þ§Ñ§Ý §Ý§Ö§ã§ä§î»¡ §Á §ä§Ñ§Ü §Ó §ï§ä§à§Þ §å§Ù§ß§Ñ§Ý§Ñ §¢§â§ð§ã§à§Ó§Ñ! §¡ §¡§Õ§Ñ§Ý§Ú§ã ¡ª §á§â§Ú§Ò§Ý§å§Õ§Ñ, §Ú§Ù
§Þ§à§Ý§à§Õ§í§ç §Ó§à§Ý§Ü§à§Ó.
According to Van, Admiral Tobakoff (after
whom the Tobago Islands, or the Tobakoff Islands, are named) had an ¨¦p¨¦e
duel with Jean Nicot (2.5). In Kipling¡¯s novel Captains Courageous (1897)
Harvey mentions tabac (which means in French ¡°tobacco¡± and ¡°fight¡±):
"Harmon Rush he said that was the way to rise 'em. Plain United States is good enough fer me. We're all dretful
short on terbakker. Young feller, don't you speak French?"
"Oh, yes," said Harvey, valiantly; and he bawled:
"Hi! Say! Arretez vous! Attendez! Nous sommes venant pour tabac."
"Ah, tabac, tabac!" they cried, and laughed
again.
"That hit 'em. Let's heave a dory over, anyway,"
said Tom Platt.
"I don't exactly hold no certificates on French, but I
know another lingo that goes, I guess. Come on, Harve, an' interpret."
(chapter V)
Btw., pava is feminine of pavlin,
¡°peacock.¡± Among the animals in The Jungle Books there is Mao, the
Peacock.
Alexey Sklyarenko