MDDM Ch. 63 Zepho and Stig

[Samuel Moyer]

619  Zepho.  Name means watch, watch tower.. in the bible there is a Zepho -grandson of Esau... see Genesis 36.  No meaningful connection to the Zepho here that I can see.

As Mason and Dixon's crew head back Eastward, in August 1766, and at the turning point of a full moon they come upon the home of Zepho Beck and his wife.  Zepho is a werebeaver (a person transformed into a beaver).  619-7  His Eyes throwing crazed yellow flashes all about ...

Beavers are active usually in morning and evening. Their main activities are cutting trees for building or repairing lodges and dams, or for winter food. They can fell large trees (8 cm diameter in 5 minutes). They use their upper incisors to cut a ring around the trunk at the height of their mouth when standing on their hind feet and tail. They sink their lower incisors into the trunk below the ring and lever out a large chip. 
A Beaver's chewing force is 80 kg (176 lbs) compared to man's 40 kg. (88 lbs).
http://www.csh.rit.edu/~snell/beaver.html

619-22 Kastoranthropy    A term evidently created by Pynchon from:

Castor:  1. The beaver. (Now rarely used). 
also:   In Greek mythology, name of one of the twin sons (Castor and Pollux) of Tyndarus and Leda, brothers of Helena; represented in the constellation Gemini or the Twins, of which Castor is the first, and Pollux the second star. 
from the Oxford English Dictionary on-line

and "anthropy" related to humans...

620-8 The Indians are certainly no stranger to the idea of a Giant Beaver

http://aboriginalcollections.ic.gc.ca/clan/legends/nan_giant.htm

Legend of Woman-beaver:
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/Indian/GnawingBear.html  
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/Indian/BeaverandFrogWoman.html

An Osage warrior is in search of a wife: he admires the tidy and shrewd habits of the beaver. He accordingly goes to a beaver-hut to obtain one of that race for a bride.  http://www.sacred-texts.com/goth/bow/bow11.htm

620-622  Zepho's wife cooks up a contest between her husband Zepho the werebeaver and Stig.  Zepho is off to a great start while Stig is posing for the ladies but the match is eventually voided due to an eclipse, causing Zepho to return to human form.  



Related:

see the legend of Paul Bunyan
http://www.geekteacher.net/paulbunyan.html

see also the Legend of John Henry
http://www.ibiblio.org/john_henry/broadside2.html
and man versus machine
http://www.geocities.com/cobbr/JH.html

Both legends coming well after the date of our story

Sam
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