place
Egypt
also: Египет
Invoked here as the destination of the Holy Family's biblical Flight into Egypt, comically repurposed by a debtor as his own imagined escape route from creditors.
Reading notes
- From the Notes of a Hot-Tempered Man §75 the marriage customs of the Hindus and the Egyptians
The narrator's "historical survey" of marriage customs, ranging from ancient India and Egypt down through Schopenhauer, parodies the same pedantic-dissertation apparatus he uses for the dog tax; delivered to Mashenka as a stalling tactic, it comically fails to answer the only question she actually asked ("kiss me").
- Holiday Money §34 flees into Egypt
An ironic echo of the Holy Family's Flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-14) — the tenant jokes that fleeing his creditors with his whole household is his only recourse, comically inflating a debt dodge into a biblical exodus.