Volume I Part 38 (2/2)

Upon exa aswas obtained; and preli over, part of its live brain was placed in the cavity, the trepan accomplished with cocoanut shell, and the scalp drawn over and secured

This reat sense and spirit, he becaHe survived the operationin his delirium

Stoutly backed by the narrator, this anecdote was credited by some present But Babbalanja held out to the last

”Yet, if this story be true,” said he, ”and since it is well settled, that our brains are soans of sense; then, I see not why hu into its cranius, and plants, are but curious physiological experiments; and that science would at last enable philosophers to produce new species of beings, by soredients of various creatures; and so forer and alchy to hatch a fairy, the ingredients being co to a receipt of his own”

But little they heeded Babbalanja It was the traveler's tale that h the tales of Sa the afternoon of the day of the diver's decease, preparations weretheht to their sepulcher, the sea; for, as in Odo, so was the custom here

Meanwhile, all over the isle, to and fro went heralds, dis shark-skin dru--”A man is dead; let no fires be kindled; have mercy, oh Oro!--Let no canoes put to sea till the burial This night, oh Oro!--Let no food be cooked”

And ever and anon, passed and repassed these, others in brave attire; with castanets of pearl shells, --

Be ht is to wed: Be merry, oh damsels of Mardi,-- Flowers, flowers for the bridal bed

Infor rendered, we repaired to the arbor, whither the body had been removed

Arrayed in white, it was laid out on a mat; its arms mutely crossed, between its lips an asphodel; at the feet, a withered hawthorn bough

The relatives ailing, and cutting themselves with shells, so that blood flowed, and spotted their vesture

Upon re with the most abandoned of these reat is the pain, but greater my affliction”

Another, the deaf sire of the dead, went staggering about, and groping; saying, that he was now quite blind; for some months previous he had lost one eye in the death of his eldest son and now the other was gone

”I am childless,” he cried; ”henceforth call me Roi Mori,” that is, Twice-Blind

While the relatives were thus violently la, the rest of the company occasionally scratched thehtly, andexposure, quite callous This was interrupted, however, when the real h at no tith of their faces

But on all sides, lamentations afresh broke forth, upon the appearance of a person who had been called in to assist in sole the obsequies, and also to console the afflicted

In rotundity, he was another Borabolla He puffed and panted