Rikitus Tavitus, the Mongoose Lord of the Great Clam
'That's exactly what he said! Gospodin Bak, I mean. He's a great fan of Rikitus Tavitus.'
A fan of Rikitus Tavitus? How absurd! Rikitus Tavitus had been a typical feudal ruler: cruel, pretentious, ignorant, unscientific, and addicted to the kind of idle ostentation and foolish display which the modern Chalakanesian Families so studiously shunned. [NoP Ch6]
So Heineman learnt what there was to know about Takriti Bak, the conglomerate head who liked to affect the title of Gospodin. Heineman recalled that Rikitus Tavitus, the Mongoose Lord of the Great Clam, had also favoured that ancient honorary title. He said as much. [NoP Ch6]
There are very few snakes in Lexis (a pity, since snakemeat is very good to eat, and Heineman loved it dearly), but the more northerly of the Pearls are overrun with serpents, and, in the feudal period, the great Rikitus Tavitus instituted the first official Mongoose Squad on the island of Midas Makorum (though he was bitterly opposed in this by the shoemakers, who feared, with good reason, that the manufacture of snakeskin shoes would be thereby endangered).
Ever since then, the keeping of great Mongoose Squads has been a feature of Chalakanesian life, with the Seven States vying with each other to see which can produce the fiercest, most reckless pack of mongooses (an unfortunate competition which has led, on occasion, to hapless mongooses being cruelly pitted against such inappropriate opponents as the pig, the honey bear and the water buffalo). [NoP Ch10]