A Question Of Vulgarity

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 193, 5 March 1943, Page 9

A Question Of Vulgarity

ss D4MARIS, dear, I have told you so often that it is impolite to stare." "Yes, Mother dear, I know. 1 am sorry. But I can’t help looking at the thick legs of the people." "Well, my dear, it just happens that people have thick legs and fawns have slim legs; we are beautiful and graceful, and that is our fortune. People are not as graceful as we are, and that is their misfortune. Now those people have no bread, so just run along and try to find some grass for yourself," "Yes, Mother. But Mother, a fellow told me that we are. called fallow deer because we don’t have any fawns, but I’m your fawn, so was he pulling my leg?’ "Darling! What an expression! He was wrong. We are called tallow deer because of our colour, The word was used in an old language to mean yellow — not that we’re yellow, of course, but they probably didn’t have a word that described our colour exactly; in fact, they began to use your name, fawn, to describe the colour you are." "But Mother, we have another name, too, called Dama vulgaris, and I think it’s mean, because vulgar isn’t a nice word at all." "Well, of course dear, we are fat from vulgar — except occasionally when we forget and stare. But the word didn’t mean the same when we were named. It meant that we were the members of our race most often seen; we abound in Europe just as flies abound in Auckland." "Oh, well. I don’t know about abound; but we certainly bound. | Watch me, Mother. Here I go!"

J.