"Ay, there they are," said Yoomy, looking down into the water wherethey gleamed. "A fanciful legend, Braid-beard."
"Very entertaining," said Media.
"Even so," said Babbalanja. "But perhaps we lost time in listening toit; for though we know it, we are none the wiser."
"Be not a cynic," said Media. "No pastime is lost time."
Musing a moment, Babbalanja replied, "My lord, that maxim may be goodas it stands; but had you made six words of it, instead of sixsyllables, you had uttered a better and a deeper."
CHAPTER LXXThe Minstrel Leads Off With A Paddle-Song; And A Message Is ReceivedFrom Abroad
From seaward now came a breeze so blithesome and fresh, that it madeus impatient of Babbalanja's philosophy, and Mohi's incrediblelegends. One and all, we called upon the minstrel Yoomy to give ussomething in unison with the spirited waves wide-foaming around us.
"If my lord will permit, we will give Taji the Paddle-Chant of thewarriors of King Bello."
"By all means," said Media.
So the three canoes were brought side to side; their sails rolled up;and paddles in hand, our paddlers seated themselves sideways on thegunwales; Yoomy, as leader, occupying the place of the foremast, orBow-Paddler of the royal barge.
Whereupon the six rows of paddle-blades being uplifted, and every eyeon the minstrel, this song was sung, with actions corresponding; thecanoes at last shooting through the water, with a violent roll.
(_All._) Thrice waved on high, Our paddles fly: Thrice round the head, thrice dropt to feet: And then well timed, Of one stout mind, All fall, and back the waters heap!
(_Bow-Paddler._) Who lifts this chant? Who sounds this vaunt?
(_All._) The wild sea song, to the billows' throng, Rising, falling, Hoarsely calling, Now high, now low, as fast we go, Fast on our flying foe!
(_Bow-Paddler._) Who lifts this chant? Who sounds this vaunt?
(_All._) Dip, dip, in the brine our paddles dip, Dip, dip, the fins of our swimming ship! How the waters part, As on we dart; Our sharp prows fly, And curl on high, As the upright fin of the rushing shark, Rushing fast and far on his flying mark! Like him we prey; Like him we slay; Swim on the fog, Our prow a blow!
(_Bow-Paddler._) Who lifts this chant? Who sounds this vaunt?
(_All._) Heap back; heap back; the waters back! Pile them high astern, in billows black; Till we leave our wake, In the slope we make; And rush and ride, On the torrent's tide!
Here we were overtaken by a swift gliding canoe, which, bearing downupon us before the wind, lowered its sail when close by: itsoccupants signing our paddlers to desist.
I started.
The strangers were three hooded damsels the enigmatical QueenHautia's heralds.
Their pursuit surprised and perplexed me. Nor was therewanting a vague feeling of alarm to heighten these emotions. Butperhaps I was mistaken, and this time they meant not me.
Seated in the prow, the foremost waved her Iris flag. Cried Yoomy,"Some message! Taji, that Iris points to you."
It was then, I first divined, that some meaning must have lurked inthose flowers they had twice brought me before.
The second damsel now flung over to me Circe flowers; then, a fadedjonquil, buried in a tuft of wormwood leaves.
The third sat in the shallop's stern, and as it glided from us,thrice waved oleanders.
"What dumb show is this?" cried Media. "But it looks like poetry:minstrel, you should know."
"Interpret then," said I.
"Shall I, then, be your Flora's flute, and Hautia's dragoman? Heldaloft, the Iris signified a message. These purple-woven Circe flowersmean that some spell is weaving. That golden, pining jonquil, whichyou hold, buried in those wormwood leaves, says plainly to you--Bitter love in absence."
Said Media, "Well done, Taji, you have killed a queen." "Yet no QueenHautia have these eyes beheld."
Said Babbalanja, "The thrice waved oleanders, Yoomy; what meantthey?"
"Beware--beware--beware."
"Then that, at least, seems kindly meant," said Babbalanja; "Taji,beware of Hautia."
CHAPTER LXXIThey Land Upon The Island Of Juam
Crossing the lagoon, our course now lay along the reef to Juam; aname bestowed upon one of the largest islands hereabout; and also,collectively, upon several wooded isles engulfing it, which togetherwere known as the dominions of one monarch. That monarch wasDonjalolo. Just turned of twenty-five, he was accounted not only thehandsomest man in his dominions, but throughout the lagoon. Hiscomeliness, however, was so feminine, that he was sometimes called"Fonoo," or the Girl.
Our first view of Juam was imposing. A dark green pile of cliffs,towering some one hundred toises; at top, presenting a range ofsteep, gable-pointed projections; as if some Titanic hammer andchisel had shaped the mass.
Sailing nearer, we perceived an extraordinary rolling of the sea;which bursting into the lagoon through an adjoining breach in thereef, surged toward Juam in enormous billows. At last, dashingagainst the wall of the cliff; they played there in unceasingfountains. But under the brow of a beetling crag, the spray came andwent unequally. There, the blue billows seemed swallowed up, andlost.
Right regally was Juam guarded. For, at this point, the rock waspierced by a cave, into which the great waves chased each other likelions; after a hollow, subterraneous roaring issuing forth with manesdisheveled.
Cautiously evading the dangerous currents here ruffling the lagoon,we rounded the wall of cliff; and shot upon a smooth expanse; on oneside, hemmed in by the long, verdent, northern shore of Juam;and across the water, sentineled by its tributary islets.
With sonorous Vee-Vee in the shark's mouth, we swept toward thebeach, tumultuous with a throng.
Our canoes were secured. And surrounded by eager glances, we passedthe lower ends of several populous valleys; and crossing a wide, openmeadow, gradually ascending, came to a range of light-green bluffs.Here, we wended our way down a narrow defile, almost cleaving thisquarter of the island to its base. Black crags frowned overhead:among them the shouts of the Islanders reverberated. Yet steeper grewthe defile, and more overhanging the crags till at last, the keystoneof the arch seemed dropped into its place. We found ourselves in asubterranean tunnel, dimly lighted by a span of white day at the end.
Emerging, what a scene was revealed! All round, embracing a circuitof some three leagues, stood heights inaccessible, here and there,forming buttresses, sheltering deep recesses between. The bosom ofthe place was vivid with verdure.
Shining aslant into this wild hollow, the afternoon sun lighted upits eastern side with tints of gold. But opposite, brooded a sombershadow, double-shading the secret places between the salient spurs ofthe mountains. Thus cut in twain by masses of day and night, itseemed as if some Last Judgment had been enacted in the glen.
No sooner did we emerge from the defile, than we became sensible of adull, jarring sound; and Yoomy was almost tempted to turn and flee,when informed that the sea-cavern, whose mouth we had passed, wasbelieved to penetrate deep into the opposite hills; and that thesurface of the amphitheater was depressed beneath that of the lagoon.But all over the lowermost hillsides, and sloping into the glen,stood grand old groves; still and stately, as if no insolent waveswere throbbing in the mountain's heart.
Such was Willamilla, the hereditary abode of the young monarch of Juam.
Was Yillah immured in this strange retreat? But from those around usnaught could we learn.
Our attention was now directed to the habitations of the glen;comprised in two handsome villages; one to the west, the other to theeast; both stretching along the base of the cliffs.
Said Media, "Had we arrived at Willamilla in the morning, we hadfound Donjalolo and his court in the eastern village; but beingafternoon, we must travel farther, and seek him in his westernretreat; for that is now in
the shade."
Wending our way, Media added, that aside from his elevated station asa monarch, Donjalolo was famed for many uncommon traits; but moreespecially for certain peculiar deprivations, under which he labored.
Whereupon Braid-Beard unrolled his old chronicles; and regaled uswith the history, which will be found in the following chapter.
CHAPTER LXXIIA Book From The Chronicles Of Mohi
Many ages ago, there reigned in Juam a king called Teei. This Teei'ssuccession to the sovereignty was long disputed by his brotherMarjora; who at last rallying round him an army, after manyvicissitudes, defeated the unfortunate monarch in a stout fight ofclubs on the beach.
In those days, Willamilla during a certain period of the year was aplace set apart for royal games and diversions; and was furnishedwith suitable accommodations for king and court. From its peculiarposition, moreover, it was regarded as the last stronghold of theJuam monarchy: in remote times having twice withstood the mostdesperate assaults from without. And when Roonoonoo, a famousupstart, sought to subdue all the isles in this part of theArchipelago, it was to Willamilla that the banded kings had repairedto take counsel together; and while there conferring, were surprisedat the sudden onslaught of Roonoonoo in person. But in the end, therebel was captured, he and all his army, and impaled on the tops ofthe hills.
Now, defeated and fleeing for his life, Teei with his survivingfollowers was driven across the plain toward the mountains. But tocut him off from all escape to inland Willamilla, Marjora dispatcheda fleet band of warriors to occupy the entrance of the defile.Nevertheless, Teei the pursued ran faster than his pursuers; firstgained the spot; and with his chiefs, fled swiftly down the gorge,closely hunted by Marjora's men. But arriving at the further end,they in vain sought to defend it. And after much desperatefighting, the main body of the foe corning up with great slaughterthe fugitives were driven into the glen.
They ran to the opposite wall of cliff; where turning, they fought atbay, blood for blood, and life for life, till at last, overwhelmed bynumbers, they were all put to the point of the spear.
With fratricidal hate, singled out by the ferocious Marjora, Teeifell by that brother's hand. When stripping from the body the regalgirdle, the victor wound it round his own loins; thus proclaiminghimself king over Juam.
Long torn by this intestine war, the island acquiesced in the newsovereignty. But at length a sacred oracle declared, that since theconqueror had slain his brother in deep Willamilla, so that Teeinever more issued from that refuge of death; therefore, the same fateshould be Marjora's; for never, thenceforth, from that glen, shouldhe go forth; neither Marjora; nor any son of his girdled loins; norhis son's sons; nor the uttermost scion of his race.
But except this denunciation, naught was denounced against the usurper;who, mindful of the tenure by which he reigned, ruled over the islandfor many moons; at his death bequeathing the girdle to his son.
In those days, the wildest superstitions concerning the interferenceof the gods in things temporal, prevailed to a much greater extentthan at present. Hence Marjora himself, called sometimes in thetraditions of the island, The-Heart-of-Black-Coral, even unscrupulousMarjora had quailed before the oracle. "He bowed his head," say thelegends. Nor was it then questioned, by his most devoted adherents,that had he dared to act counter to that edict, he had dropped dead,the very instant he went under the shadow of the defile. Thispersuasion also guided the conduct of the son of Marjora, and that ofhis grandson.
But there at last came to pass a change in the popular fanciesconcerning this ancient anathema. The penalty denounced against theposterity of the usurper should they issue from the glen, cameto be regarded as only applicable to an invested monarch, not to hisrelatives, or heirs.
A most favorable construction of the ban; for all those related tothe king, freely passed in and out of Willamilla.
From the time of the usurpation, there had always been observed acertain ceremony upon investing the heir to the sovereignty with thegirdle of Teei. Upon these occasions, the chief priests of the islandwere present, acting an important part. For the space of as manydays, as there had reigned kings of Marjora's dynasty, the innermouth of the defile remained sealed; the new monarch placing the laststone in the gap. This symbolized his relinquishment forever of allpurpose of passing out of the glen. And without this observance, wasno king girdled in Juam.
It was likewise an invariable custom, for the heir to receive theregal investiture immediately upon the decease of his sire. No delaywas permitted. And instantly upon being girdled, he proceeded to takepart in the ceremony of closing the cave; his predecessor yetremaining uninterred on the purple mat where he died.
In the history of the island, three instances were recorded; wherein,upon the vacation of the sovereignty, the immediate heir hadvoluntarily renounced all claim to the succession, rather thansurrender the privilege of roving, to which he had been entitled, asa prince of the blood.
Said Rani, one of these young princes, in reply to the remonstrancesof his friends, "What! shall I be a king, only to be a slave? Teei'sgirdle would clasp my waist less tightly, than my soul would bebanded by the mountains of Willamilla. A subject, I am free. No slavein Juam but its king; for all the tassels round his loins."
To guard against a similar resolution in the mind of his only son,the wise sire of Donjalolo, ardently desirous of perpetuating hisdignities in a child so well beloved, had from his earliest infancy,restrained the boy from passing out of the glen, to contract in thefree air of the Archipelago, tastes and predilections fatal tothe inheritance of the girdle.
But as he grew in years, so impatient became young Donjalolo of theking his father's watchfulness over him, though hitherto a mostdutiful son, that at last he was prevailed upon by his youthfulcompanions to appoint a day, on which to go abroad, and visit Mardi.Hearing this determination, the old king sought to vanquish it. Butin vain. And early on the morning of the day, that Donjalolo was toset out, he swallowed poison, and died; in order to force his soninto the instant assumption of the honors thus suddenly inherited.
The event, but not its dreadful circumstances, was communicated tothe prince; as with a gay party of young chiefs, he was about toenter the mouth of the defile.
"My sire dead!" cried Donjalolo. "So sudden, it seems a bolt fromHeaven." And bursting into exclamations of grief, he wept upon thebosom of Talara his friend.
But starting from his side:--"My fate converges to a point. If I butcross that shadow, my kingdom is lost. One lifting of my foot, andthe girdle goes to my proud uncle Darfi, who would so joy to be mymaster. Haughty Dwarf! Oh Oro! would that I had ere this passed thee,fatal cavern; and seen for myself, what outer Mardi is. Say ye true,comrades, that Willamilla is less lovely than the valleys without?that there is bright light in the eyes of the maidens of Mina? andwisdom in the hearts of the old priests of Maramma; that it ispleasant to tread the green earth where you will; and breathe thefree ocean air? Would, oh would, that I were but the least of yondersun-clouds, that look down alike on Willamilla and all placesbesides, that I might determine aright. Yet why do I pause? did notRani, and Atama, and Mardonna, my ancestors, each see for himself,free Mardi; and did they not fly the proffered girdle; choosingrather to be free to come and go, than bury themselves forever inthis fatal glen? Oh Mardi! Mardi! art thou then so fair tosee? Is liberty a thing so glorious? Yet can I be no king, and beholdthee! Too late, too late, to view thy charms and then return. Mysire! my sire! thou hast wrung my heart with this agony of doubt.Tell me, comrades,--for ye have seen it,--is Mardi sweeter to behold,than it is royal to reign over Juam? Silent, are ye? Knowing what yedo, were ye me, would ye be kings? Tell me, Talara.--No king: noking:--that were to obey, and not command. And none hath Donjaloloere obeyed but the king his father. A king, and my voice may be heardin farthest Mardi, though I abide in narrow Willamilla. My sire! mysire! Ye flying clouds, what look ye down upon? Tell me, what ye seeabroad? Methinks sweet spices breathe from out the cave."
"Hail, D
onjalolo, King of Juam," now sounded with acclamations fromthe groves.
Starting, the young prince beheld a multitude approaching: warriorswith spears, and maidens with flowers; and Kubla, a priest, liftingon high the tasseled girdle of Teei, and waving it toward him.
The young chiefs fell back. Kubla, advancing, came close to theprince, and unclasping the badge of royalty, exclaimed, "Donjalolo,this instant it is king or subject with thee: wilt thou be girdledmonarch?"
Gazing one moment up the dark defile, then staring vacantly,Donjalolo turned and met the eager gaze of Darfi. Stripping off hismantle, the next instant he was a king.
Loud shouted the multitude, and exulted; but after mutely assistingat the closing of the cavern, the new-girdled monarch retired sadlyto his dwelling, and was not seen again for many days.
CHAPTER LXXIIISomething More Of The Prince
Previous to recording our stay in his dominions, it only remains tobe related of Donjalolo, that after assuming the girdle, a changecame over him.
During the lifetime of his father, he had been famed for histemperance and discretion. But when Mardi was forever shut out; andhe remembered the law of his isle, interdicting abdication to itskings; he gradually fell into desperate courses, to drown theemotions at times distracting him.
His generous spirit thirsting after some energetic career, founditself narrowed down within the little glen of Willamilla, whereardent impulses seemed idle. But these are hard to die; and repulsedall round, recoil upon themselves.
So with Donjalolo; who, in many a riotous scene, wasted the powerswhich might have compassed the noblest designs.