Master of the Seven-Stringed Koto

A musician of extraordinary skill.

"'It is very difficult indeed to master any instrument,' he continued. 'The possibilities seem infinite and nothing seems complete and finished. But there are few these days who even try, and I suppose it should be cause for satisfaction when someone masters any one small aspect. The seven-stringed koto is the unmanageable one. We are told that in ancient times there were many who mastered the whole tradition of the instrument, and made heaven and earth their own, and softened the hearts of demons and gods. Taking into this one instrument all the tones and overtones of all the others, they found joy in the depths of sorrow and transformed the base and mean into the fine and proud, and gained wealth and universal fame. There was a time, before the tradition had been established in Japan, when the most enormous trouble was required of anyone who sought to learn the art. He must spend years in strange lands and give up everything, and even then only a few came back with what they had gone out to seek.'"

Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji (11th Century).

Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker.

Ratcatcher

An exterminator of unwanted and wily rodents.

“The citizen led the tom to the militia, dragging the poor beast by his front paws, bound with the green tie, and forcing him with gentle kicks to walk on his hind legs. ‘You,’ scolded the citizen, accompanied by a gang of whistling urchins, ‘quit, quit fooling! It won’t get you anywhere! Be kind enough to walk like everybody else!’ The black tom merely rolled his eyes like a martyr. The poor beast is indebted for his rescue first to the militia, and second, to his mistress, a respectable aged widow. As soon as the tom was delivered to the precinct, the officers found that the citizen reeked most revoltingly of alcohol, which cast immediate doubt on his testimony. Meantime, the old woman, who had learned from neighbors that her tom had been arrested, rushed to the militia and just made it in the nick of time. She gave the tom the most flattering testimonial, explained that she had known him for five years, since his kittenhood, vouched for him as for her own self, and proved that he had never done any evil and had never been in Moscow. He had been born in Armavir, and it was there that he grew up and learned his honest trade of catching mice. The tom was unbound and returned to his mistress—true, after having had a taste of trouble and learning from experience the meaning of error and slander.”

Mikhael Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (1928-1940).

Streetcar Conductor

Someone who gets paid to ride the streetcar all day.

“‘But where are the guests?’ Margarita asked Koroviev.

‘They’ll be here, Queen, they’ll be here soon. There will be no shortage of guests. And, really, I would rather chop wood than receive them here on this landing.’

‘Chop wood?’ echoed the loquacious tom. ‘I would work as a streetcar conductor, and there is nothing in the world that’s worse than such a job!’”

Mikhael Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (1928-1940).

Tycoon

A great prince (from Chinese ta great + kiun prince). The shogun of Japan was decribed to foreigners as the tycoon.

"There never was but one emperor in Japan, the Shogun was military usurper, and the bombastic title 'Tycoon' a diplomatic fraud."

William E. Griffis, North American Review (1875).

The Emperor of Russia

The Czar.

"I particularly longed to acquire the least trifle of notice from the big stormy mate, and I was on the alert for an opportunity to do him a service to that end. It came at last. The riotous pow-wow of setting a spar was going on down on the forecastle, and I went down there and stood around in the way--or mostly skipping out of it--till the mate suddenly roared a general order for somebody to bring him a capstan bar. I sprang to his side and said: 'Tell me where it is--I'll fetch it!' If a rag-picker had offered to do a diplomatic service for the Emperor of Russia, the monarch could not have been more astounded than the mate was. He even stopped swearing. He stood and stared down at me. It took him ten seconds to scrape his disjointed remains together again. Then he said impressively: 'Well, if this don't beat h--l!" and turned to his work with the air of a man who had been confronted with a problem too abstruse for solution."

Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (1883).

Oculist

A doctor or surgeon who treats diseases and other problems with patients' eyes.

"It is observed by professed Oculists, that whereas all creatures have but foure muscles to turne their eyes round about, man hath a fifth to pull his eyes up to heaven."

Richard Brathwait, The English Gentleman (1630).

Master of Ceremonies

Someone who presides over or does the introductions for some theatrical performance or spectacle, such as a cabaret or circus.

“For example, George Bengalsky recovered and left the hospital after three months, but he was compelled to resign from his job at the Variety Theater, and that at the best time, when the public besieged the theater for tickets. The memory of black magic and its exposé was still too fresh. Bengalsky resigned from the theater, for he realized that it was too painful to face two thousand persons nightly and be subjected to inevitable recognition and a barrage of mocking questions as to whether he was happier with or without his head. Besides, the master of ceremonies had lost a good deal of his cheerful disposition, so necessary to a man of his profession. He was left with a troublesome and distressing habit of falling into a state of anxiety in the spring, when the moon was full, suddenly clutching at his neck, looking around fearfully, and crying. These fits were transitory. Nevertheless, they made it impossible for him to continue in his former occupation, and the master of ceremonies retired and went to live on his savings, which, according to his modest calculations, should last him for fifteen years.”

Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (1928-40).