The Yale Review

8 4 Y T H E R I G H T F I T F O R S U R E R I C H A R D H O W A R D This menage of three white jerboas the family Dipodidae happens just now to be grooming their often attended tails which they seem to know must be licked clean now and then, a procedure that requires bringing the tail (a longish jerboa appendage) across back and shoulders (i.e. not touching the ground) in order to be licked clean when they are eventually placed on a shadowless shelf (up two flights of stairs) in a seldom visited wing of the Louvre where rare Egyptian pets and toys are toyed and petted by votaries of all ages, as they were by admirers of 13th - to 15th -Century Dynasties of southeastern Egypt). It appears however that in our own moment there may be a lapse in the common practice: families beg o√ sometimes, and in this case a generally shimmering dad finds himself at a loss to relay a like e√ulgence to a less showy son. Of course he assumes that even a hoodlum can be checked by a succession of grandiose postures which nonetheless that son ignores, as does the boy’s real mentor, i.e. his mom, who merely makes that series 8 5 R of matronly gestures which by some matronly discipline enables an intuitive young fellow to fulfill the classical family instance whereby the House of Jerboa – quiescent but consistent – tends to its campaign; for some thirteen dynasties, identical or nicely similar Jerboas carried on (not out but on) their consistent task, in Egypt mostly, though we’ve surely heard of what appear to be creatures quite like ourselves lixiviating their flesh, for which what exercise and especially what name for such exercise might we select? In this case, we should turn with relief to the silent but clearly self-willed master of those white-tailed Jerboa creatures who, without a doubt, would be our man! ...