Note 97 — THE PIKE’S HEAD.95

Alène is the word in the text. Not an erotic term for penis in French and English slang, though we have the verb “to bore.” C.f. Farmer: Slang and its Analogues, for his amazing list of synonyms denoting the sexual act under the heading “Ride.” Blondeau, in his Dictionnaire Érotique (Isidore Liseux: Paris, 1885), gives no word in his collection of Latin terms for penis which approximates exactly to the sense of awl. Landes, Delvau (Dictionnaire Érotique), and Le petit Citateur (op. cit. supra) make no mention of the word. In our story Danilka, in his very primitive fashion, has used an expression which explains in the simplest way his actions in the sleigh.