Volume I Part 20 (2/2)

CHAPTER LVII Taji Takes Counsel With Himself

My brief intercourse with our host, had by this tiht, in which I was held by hient subjects

His free and easy carriage evinced, that though acknowledgingme as familiarly, indeed, as if I were a eneration of mushrooms

The scene in the te this demeanor of his A denity neither struck hiood opinion of hinorance of Mardian custo a doubt unfavorable to thened the conviction of them as verities

Thus has it been in sireater extent

The celebrated navigator referred to in a preceding chapter, was hailed by the Hawaiians as one of their demi-Gods, returned to earth, after a wide tour of the universe And they worshi+ped hi them, as to who under the sun his worshi+pers were; how their ancestors came on the island; and whether they would have the kindness to provide his folloith plenty of pork during his stay

But a word or two concerning the idols in the shrine at Odo Superadded to the hoe rendered him as a temporal prince, Media was there worshi+ped as a spiritual being In his corporeal absence, his effigy receiving all oblations intended for hiends of the Mardianfor the fabulous Taji; a deity whom he had often declared orthy a niche in any tee with a place in his own special shrine; placing it side by side with his worshi+pful likeness

I appreciated the coe there, I was heartily ashae of a deified , lately deceased; who had been famed far and wide as the o During his sublunary career, having been attached to the household of Media, his grateful master had afterward seen fit to crown his celebrity by this posthu fronity of an apotheosis Nor must it here be omitted, that in this part of Mardi culinary artists are accounted worthy of high consideration For a is held aaway my queen from my arms,” said old Tyty when overco the Mardians there were plenty of incarnated deities to keep o, besides Media, claie as demi-Gods; and that, too, by virtue of hereditary descent, the divine spark being transmissable from father to son In illustration of this, was the fact, that in several instances the people of the land addressed the supreme God Oro, in the very same terms employed in the political adoration of their sublunary rulers

Ay: there were deities in Mardi far greater and taller than I: right royalin jolly round tabernacles of jolly brown clay; and feasting, and roystering, and lording it in yellow tabernacles of bamboo These demi-Gods had ithal to sustain their lofty pretensions If need were, could crush out of him the infidelity of a non-conformist And by this i, in their own proper persons reigned supreme Caesars over the souls and bodies of their subjects

Beside these

In their woodland ante-cha

For be it known, that in due tinificos of nono temples wherein to feast personal admirers, or spiritual devotees They wandered about forlorn and friendless And oftentiluttonized, and would fain have grown fat, by reflecting upon the ies But poor fellows! like shabby Scotch lords in London in King James's time, the very multitude of them confounded distinction And since they could show no rent-roll, they were permitted to fu and breathing Gods in Mardi, that I heldsuch a host of i ofwoodlands and streaan to bethinkprinciple, to which Goethe and others have subscribed

Instead, then, of being struck with the audacity of endeavoring to pal first iht be a God as much as I pleased, and yet not whisk a lion's tail after all at least on that special account

As for Media's reception, its graciousness was not wholly owing to the divine character imputed to me His, he believed to be the same But to a whim, a freakishness in his soul, which led hi many, not as one with no peer

But the apparent unconcern of King Media with respect to my Godshi+p, by no means so much surprised e from the sun; his indifference to the sun itself; and all the wonderful circumstances that must have attended my departure Whether he had ever been there hiarded a solar trip with so much unconcern, almost became a question in my mind Certain it is, that as a y

My surprise at these things was enhanced by reflecting, that to the people of the Archipelago the map of Mardi was the map of the world

With the exception of certain islands out of sight and at an indefinite distance, they had no certain knowledge of any isles but their own

And, no long time elapsed ere I had still additional reasons to cease wondering at the easy faith accorded to the story which I had given of reater ies of all sorts Any one of them put my exploits to the blush

Look to thy ways then, Taji, thought I, and carry not thy crest too high Of a surety, thou hast more peers than inferiors Thou art overtopped all round Bear thyself discreetly and not haughtily, Taji It will not answer to give thyself airs Abstain froenteel deities a whom thou hast circled Sport not too jauntily thy raiment, because it is novel in Mardi; nor boast of the fleetness of thy Charee, Taji; for Media hi Be not a ”snob,” Taji

So then, weighing all things well, and myself severely, I resolved to follow ht, nor abating of just dues; but circulating freely, sociably, and frankly, aentlemen, that made up the principalities of Mardi