More From Maltz

In the course of discussing the imminent release of the Klingon translation of Gilgamesh with Maltz, a minor mystery was cleared up. In the epic, Gilgamesh and Enkidu battle the Bull of Heaven. The Klingon translation (allegedly found on a barren planetoid) contains the phrase:

QI'tu' tangqa'

Although QI'tu' heaven is a familiar enough term, tangqa' is clearly something new. Maltz graciously provided the following brief explanation:

There's this Klingon animal, you see, which is kind of bull-like.

It's called a tangqa'.

Both male and female ones are called qangqa'. So it doesn't really mean "bull." But it certainly looks like one. Or more like a bull than anything else.