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Roman Lyariev, How to Skin Your Kill


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Authors

Gedeeva, Darina 
Ubushieva, Bamba 
Babaev, Andrei 

Abstract

Roman explains how to skin a fox. First, one needs to prepare the ground by trampling it. Skinning should be done with a small sharp knife. A freshly killed fox skins easily. Then one needs to treat the skin with an anti-flea spray. At home the skin should be stretched on a triangular wooden panel called in Russian pravilka and left in a dry room for up to five days. People usually go hunting when foxes are on heat and are busy fighting with each other for females. When the wind is strong, foxes could not hear well. It is the best weather to go fox hunting. The quickest way to kill a fox is to shoot it in the right shoulder, for it is where the heart and lungs are. There is a belief in Kalmykia that fox’s meat has medicinal properties. Roman, however, does not believe that fox’s meat could be good for health, for foxes are dirty, flea infested and smelly animals. Roman also says that he heard from his father that it is forbidden for the Kalmyks to wear cloth made of red fox skin. There could be two possible explanations in Roman’s view: (1) Foxes are totemic animals or (2) the yellowish-reddish color resembles the color of the robes of Buddhist monks.

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Keywords

hunting, skin, fox, medicinal properties, belief

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Sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.

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