When Lucette visits Van in Kingston, she has a fur
coat on: "'This is where he lives,' she said, looking
around, as he helped her with wonder and sorrow out of her soft, deep, dark
coat, side-thinking (he liked furs): sea bear (kotik)? No, desman
(vyhuhol')." (2.5)
Vyhuhol' (or, rather, sobach'ya
shkura, a dog's skin, made to look like desman) is also mentioned in
Ilf and Petrov's "The Twelve Chairs" (Chapter XXII: "Ellochka the Cannibal"):
Then she [Ellochka Shchukin] was able to climb another step up the
ladder leading
her to the glittering paradise frequented by
billionaires' daughters, who
were no match for housewife Shchukin. A dog skin
[sobach'ya shkura] made to look like muskrat
[vyhuhol'] was bought with a loan and added
the finishing touch to the evening dress.
Mister Shchukin, who had long cherished the dream
of buying a new
drawing-board, became rather
depressed.
The dog-trimmed dress was the first
well-aimed blow at Miss Vanderbilt.
The snooty American girl was
then dealt three more in succession. Ellochka
bought a
chinchilla tippet (Russian hare caught in Tula Province)
from
Fimka Sobak, a private furrier, acquired a hat made of
dove-grey Argentine
felt, and converted her husband's
new jacket into a stylish tunic. The
billionaire's
daughter was shaken, but the affectionate Daddy
Vanderbilt
evidently came to the rescue.
The
latest number of the magazine contained a portrait of the
cursed
rival in four different styles: (1) in black-brown fox; (2) with
a diamond
star on her forehead; (3) in a flying suit (high
boots, a very thin green
coat and gauntlets,
the tops of which were encrusted with
medium-size
emeralds); and (4) in a ball gown (cascades of jewellery and a
little silk).
Note that Fima Sobak's profession is furrier
(skornyak). Skornyak + Shura = sornyak +
shkura (sornyak - weed)
Alexey Sklyarenko