Feramorz?
What’s with this uncle’s very unusual given name? “Mormons” have earned a reputation for making up “creative” handles for their children, but when Uncle Feramorz was born, his parents weren’t “Mormons” and didn’t know any “Mormons”.
Actually, it turns out that Uncle Feramorz’ Irish-immigrant father didn’t let his rural frontier environment deprive him of an intellectual life:
It has been said of James Little, by family friends who knew him, that he was a short, well-knit man, with great powers of endurance. He was never known to complain of being weary, slept about four hours in the twenty-four and read or worked the remainder of the time. It is also traditional that he was a well-read, intelligent man, and possessed quite a collection of books.1
And James Little clearly knew (probably owned) Lalla Rookh, a popular 1817 book-length poem by Irish poet laureate Thomas Moore. Moore’s yarn is about “…a princess’ trip from Delhi to Kashmir to meet her betrothed. Along the way, a poet (her husband-to-be in disguise) recounts to her historical tales of insurrection and ecstasy, of revolutionary heroes and passionate women.”2
The talespinner’s name, and the very last word of the poem, is “Feramorz.”
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