The Russian word for mongoose is мангуста (mangusta), which sounds like a garbled
mixture of French and Spanish (mon + gusta) for “my pleasure.” But
apparently having a pet mongoose can be more trouble than pleasure.
Chekhov’s Mongoose, Sod the Scoundrel
On the way back home from his trip to Siberia in
1890, Anton Chekhov bought two animals in Colombo. He thought they both were
mongooses; later one turned out to be a palm cat. Here is a letter he wrote to
a friend: “If only you knew what lovely animals I have brought from India! They
are mongooses, the size of half-grown kittens, very cheerful lively beasts.
Their qualities are: daring, curiosity and affection for man. They fight
rattlesnakes and always win, they are afraid of nothing and nobody, and, as for
curiosity, there isn’t a parcel or package in the room they don’t open. When
they meet anyone they first off poke around in pockets to see what’s there.
Left alone in the room, they start to cry.” The palm cat was soon disposed of,
but the mongoose, which they named “Svoloch” (Scoundrel) survived. In
his biography of Chekhov—where I first came across Scoundrel—Donald Rayfield
calls him “Sod.” Which is okay if you’re British and know that sod-off word.
More On Chekhov’s Mongoose
Along with the Suvorin family, Anton Chekhov left
Russia on a trip to Western Europe in March, 1891. Chekhov claimed to speak all
different languages, “except foreign ones.” Restless in Rome, he asked the
hotel porter for the address of the most luxurious brothel. In letters home he
did not ask after any of his relatives or lovers; he asked only after the
health of his mongoose, Sod the Scoundrel. His brother Pavel reported to him,
“The mongoose is well, his behavior is incorrigible, but he deserves leniency.”
In a letter to a different brother Pavel wrote, “The mongoose gives us no
peace; it bit off a piece of mama’s nose in the night.”
Sod the Scoundrel Joins the Zoo
“Last year I brought from Ceylon a male mongoose (mungo
in Brehm). The animal is utterly healthy and in good spirits [but his behavior
has now gone beyond intolerable]. As I am leaving Moscow for some time and
cannot take him with me [besides which, I am thoroughly fed up with Sod the Scoundrel
and can bear no more], I humbly ask the Management to accept this animal from
me and to fetch him today or tomorrow. The best way of carrying him is a small
basket with a lid and blanket. The animal is tame [ha, ha, ha, “tame”]. I have
been feeding him on meat, fish, and eggs.”
Letter of Anton Chekhov to the Director of the Moscow Zoo,
January 14, 1892
The bracketed passages were not included in the
letter as sent. I made them up to give some insight into Chekhov’s hidden
thoughts as he wrote his letter. The zoo accepted Chekhov’s gift of Sod the Scoundrel,
who lived on there for several more years. Chekhov’s sister Masha even went to
see him once. How Scoundrel behaved at the zoo is unknown, but the monkeys are
rumored to have gone on strike, refusing to live in his company.
Mongoose At Work
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