“Piss, grandfather, in this hole we have dug in the dung-
hill, to gauge your virility by dint of the froth it imparts.”
Thus, more or less, spake the brothers, twin young
Toughs in the ancient Caucasian tales of the Narts
(The Ossetian version; also found in West
Circassian, Abkhazian, Georgian – even in Svan.)
I learned about this – bemused but evidently impressed –
From "The Book of Heroes", bought ages ago, in Dan
-te’s land. The author was Georges Dumézil, fam
-ous for setting down the essence of the Ubykh tongue,
– Its eighty-four consonants and benefactive verbs – which came
As a gift from Tevfik Esenç, last speaker among
His people. Two great men, who tried
To capture the soft howl of a language as it died.
(21.5.26) v 1.6
