Economist, Oct 20, 2018 (I)

choi

Tomorrow (Sunday, Oct 28) a local public library is closed for Harry Potter (possibly in anticipation of Halloween). I will have no access to the Web, and will not post.

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(1) How the mongoose got to Spain | Rikkus Tikkus Tavius; Not all introduced species are unwelcome.  
(Egyptian mongoose, which is native to north Africa, but is also found in Spain and Portugal. It has, though, no no-pre-human fossil record in Iberia, and would be incapable of swimming across the Strait of Gibraltar. So the evidence points to it having been carried there by human agency. The question is, by whom?   Like cats, mongooses [the plural can be mongooses or mongeese: merriam-webster.com; etymology: from Marathi [who are a people in India] maṅgūs; Oxforddictionaries.com] were venerated in ancient Egypt for their habit of hunting troublesome rodents -- with the bones that, unlike cats, they would also take on snakes. They were frequently depicted in art as avatars of Ra, the sun god, in his battle with the serpent deity Apep/ This role as pest controllers resulted in mongooses being tamed (though, again like cats, never truly domesticated) as companions in the home)  

Note:
(a) The title is modified -- why, I do not know -- from Rikki Tikki Tavi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
(b) Egyptian mongoose
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_mongoose
(range map)
(c) Apep
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apep
(caption of an illustration: "The sun god Ra, in the form of Great Cat, slays the snake Apep")


-----------------------------------------------------Nov 1
On Oct 27, I wrote I did not know how the Economist came up with its title.

When I composed the above posting, a librarian in Brookline Public Library told me about Rikki Tikki Tavi. At the same time, she recognized Economist's title was meant to be was Latin. I did not have time at the time (library was closing). But now I confirm -- and expand -- what the librarian said. See
plural form of words ending in -us.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural_form_of_words_ending_in_-us

, whose summary is that in Latin, alumnus and radius are nouns masculine, whereas virus (meaning 'poison') is noun neuter (and a mass noun in Classical Latin). In ENGLISH, plural forms of radius can be either radiuses or radii; however, plural of alumnus must be alumni, and of virus, viruses.  

Of course, the Economist's title (not found anywhere in the Web) is pseudo-Latin, pretending to be the singular form of Rikki and Tikki, respectively. The tavius would have taviī as the plural, if there is one (that is, if tavius is noun masculine, not neuter).  Then again, none of the six words (rikki, tikki, tavi, rikkus, tikkus and tavius) is found in Latin.

Further:
ignoramus (n; Did You Know?): "an utterly ignorant person : DUNCE"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ignoramus