Speaking of the name Abraham, I belatedly realized
that its Arabic counterpart, Ibrahim, links Abraham Milton, the founder of
Amerussia, to Pushkin's African ancestor, Ibrahim (Abram Petrovich*) Gannibal,
and, on the other hand, to Ilf and Petrov's hero, Ostap Bender, or, rather,
his father, "a Turkish subject" named Ibrahim (in "The Golden Calf" Bender
is often respectfully addressed by other members of the Antelope
Gnu crew "Ostap Ibragimovich"). I don't remember, if I mentioned (in
connection with "gory Mary") that there was Maria in Bender's "full" name: Ostap
Suleiman Ibrahim Berta Maria Bender bey.
*Ibrahim was the god-son of the tsar Peter I, hence
the patronymic (see Pushkin's "The Negro of Peter the Great,"
1827).
To JM: There is also a logogriph in
Jules Verne's "Voyage to the Center of the World."
Alexey
Sklyarenko