>>>>>In ADA I (ch 3) we read that "He
[Van] invariably wrote in French calling her petite maman ...He called her usually mummy, or
mama, accenting
the last syllable in English, the first, in Russian; somebody had said that
triplets and heraldic dracunculi often occurred in trilingual families
Dracunculi indicates
"draculs" and heraldic dragons, which are associated to
Demon Veen. ….
************
I think it has more meanings, at least two -- one botanical
and one zoological/medical, of which VN should have been quite aware.
1)
Artemisia dracunculus,
Russian tarragon, a species of sagebrush (wormwood), is known in French as estragon,
one of four fines herbes of French cooking; and in Russian as tarkhun.
A nice vodka is made with it; an alleged cure for snake bites, too.
Two interesting connections here:
1.1. Waiting for Godot (Estragon and
Vladimir)
1.2. Lermontov (= Demon’s
author) first and last home (an obvious equivalent of Ardis) has a phonetically
close name, Tarkhany. (“Tarkhan” was a highest noblility
title in the Khazar Kaganate and Timurid empire; the word also was used for non-indentured
Tartars in Russa; it still means a freeman in Mongolian. In a way, VN’s alleged
Tartar ancestor ‘Murza Nabok’ is close to tarkhan.) This
might be farfetched, but the name of Tarkhany (in Penza region) is known to known
to every educated Russian, it was a shrine since Lermontov was killed at age 27
(1841).
2)
Dracunculus
also is a well-known Latin genus name of the parasitic Guinea worm, or “Dragon
of Medina”, a cause of dracunculiasis. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculus)
The life cycle of
this worm, found in Middle East and Central Asia, was first described only in
1870 by the famous traveler A.P. Fedchenko, one of the source figures
for Central Asian zoology in The Gift.
Moreover, it gave origin
to the famous ‘serpent
around a rod’ image –
the Staff of Asclepius, or caduceus,
a very common heraldic image (e.g. in the logo of World Health Organization).
See e.g. “The filarial
worm Dracunculus medinensis aka "the fiery serpent", aka
"the dragon of Medina" aka "the guinea worm" crawled around
the victim's body, just under the skin. Physicians treated this infection by
cutting a slit in the patient's skin, just in front of the worm's path. As the
worm crawled out the cut, the physician carefully wound the pest around a stick
until the entire animal had been removed. It is believed that because this type
of infection was so common, physicians advertised their services by
displaying a sign with the worm on a stick. “
(http://www.drblayney.com/Asclepius.html#worm).
Victor Fet