Volume II Part 13 (2/2)
”Had he not its consciousness?--an empire boundless as the West What to hiood LoGodora sent liniment to the hoarse throats without But what said Bardianna, when they dunned hireatmay ink last? Alas! Fame has dropped more rolls than she displays; and there are more lost chronicles, than the perished books of the historian Livella' But what is lost forever,to what is now unseen There are more treasures in the bowels of the earth, than on its surface”
”Ah! no gold,” cried Yoomy, ”but that comes from dark mines”
Said Babbalanja, ”Bear witness, ye Gods! cries fervent old Bardianna, that besides disclosures of good and evil undrea revelations hereafter, of what has passed in Mardi unbeheld”
”A truce to your everlasting pratings of old Bardianna,” said King Media; why not speak your own thoughts, Babbalanja? then would your discourse possess more completeness; whereas, its warp and woof are of all sorts,--Bardianna, Alla-Malolla, Vavona, and all the writers that ever have written Speak for yourself, mortal!”
”May you not possibly mistake, my lord? for I do not so h he flourished before ue of true thoughts is but small; they are ubiquitous; no man's property; and unspoken, or bruited, are the sa our spontaneous approval? why do we think we have heard them before? Because they but reiterate ourselves; they were in us, before ere born The truest poets are but mouth-pieces; and some men are duplicates of each other; I see myself in Bardianna”
”And there, for Oro's sake, let it rest, Babbalanja; Bardianna in you, and you in Bardianna forever!”
CHAPTER XXIII What Manner Of Men The Tapparians Were
The canoes sailed on But we leave theests so the dental money of Mardi
Ere this, it should have been o, there was a restriction concerning incisors and reat chiefs, brave warriors, and uished by rare intellectual endow per the poets there were many who had never a tooth, save those e but seldom, their teeth almost corroded in their mouths Hence, in commerce, poets' teeth were at a discount
For these reasons, then, many mortals blent with the promiscuous mob of Mardians, who, by any means, accumulated teeth, were fain to assert their dental clai their treasures in pelican pouches slung over their shoulders; which pouches were a huge burden to carry about, and defend Though, in good truth, from any of these porters, it was harder to wrench his pouches, than his lihtest casual touch, these bags seemed to convey a simultaneous thrill to the owners
Besides these porters, there were others, who exchanged their teeth for richly stained calabashes, elaborately carved canoes, and more especially, for costly robes, and turbans; in which last, many outshone the noblest-born nobles Nevertheless, this answered not the end they had in view; so what they wore, and not the out into laudation of the inie to relate, these artisans the their bravery with the best A circumstance, which accounted for the fact, that many of the class above alluded to, were considered capital judges of tappa and tailoring
Hence, as a general designation, the whole tribe went by the name of Tapparians; otherwise, Men of Tappa
Now,to Braid-Beard, the Tapparians of a certain cluster of islands, seeing themselves hopelessly confounded with the plebeian race of mortals; such as artificers, honest , in short, that nature had denied them every inborn mark of distinction; and furthermore, that their external assumptions were derided by so many in Mardi, these selfsame Tapparians, poor devils, resolved to secede from the rabble; form themselves into a coe to each other, which universal Mardi could not be prevailed upon to render to them
Jointly, they purchased an island, called Pioon; and thither they went; and fra they theiance to the coarded section by section, this code of laws seeether, ation of particles
By this code, the s in life were all ordered after a specific fashi+on More especially one's dress was legislated upon, to the last warp and woof All girdles th, and with such a number of tassels in front For a violation of this ordinance, before the face of all Mardi, the most dutiful of sons would cut the h like all Mardi, kings and slaves included, the people of Pirandsires, they seldom reverted to that fact; for, like all founders of families, they had no fa connections; connections, soan the last of his tribe, they see never a cousin to own
Wherefore it was, that ations into the science of physiology, sagely divined, that the Tappariansotherwise indebted for their existence Certain it is, they had a co up their social pretensions When the respectability of his clan was mooted, Paivai, one of their bucks, disdained all reference to the Dooms-day Book, and the ancients More reliable evidence was had He referred the anxious world to a witness, still alive and hearty,--his contemporary tailor; the varlet who cut out his tappa doublets, and rejoiced his soul with good fits
”Ah!” sighed Babbalanja, ”how it quenches in one the thought of immortality, to think that these Tapparians too, will hereafter claim each a niche!”
But we rove Our visit to Pimminee itself, will best make known the ways of its denizens
CHAPTER XXIV Their Adventures Upon Landing At Pi sail over, the island of Piht; one dead fiat, wreathed in a thin, insipid vapor
”My lord, why land?” said Babbalanja; ”no Yillah is here”