{"id":"01KG8AJW7YTW8H43B7CBP9PMA2","cid":"bafkreihydyolbv6z2owjgzccu7tmnctimsgkiogh4x6gn76uwvwky4lfyq","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# CHAPTER LXXXVII. Nora-Bamma\n## Overview\nChapter LXXXVII, titled \"Nora-Bamma,\" is a chapter from the novel [Mardi: And a Voyage Thither](arke:01KG8AJA6157W2830190N652KA) by Herman Melville. The chapter appears in the source text between lines 9458 and 9501.\n\n## Context\nThis chapter is part of a larger work, [Mardi: And a Voyage Thither](arke:01KG8AJA6157W2830190N652KA), which is included in the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. The chapter was extracted from the file [mardi_vol1.txt](arke:01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK) using structure-extraction-lambda. It is preceded by [CHAPTER LXXXVI. Of Those Scamps The Plujii](arke:01KG8AJW83ZNH2JQR58YXYCRR6) and followed by [CHAPTER LXXXVIII. In A Calm, Hautia’s Heralds Approach](arke:01KG8AJW834JRFKDF4QHK1P8YS).\n\n## Contents\nThe chapter describes the island of Nora-Bamma, also known as the Isle of Nods, a place inhabited by dreamers, hypochondriacs, and somnambulists seeking oblivion. The island is characterized by its nodding summit, willowy shores, and murmuring streams, creating a dreamy and soporific atmosphere. The chapter recounts Braid-Beard's tales of the island, where visitors are overcome by the need to nap and encounter silent specters. The narrator notes that as they floated on, the island looked as it was described, and the crew felt the urge to yawn, similar to crews of vessels passing opium ships.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:18.077Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"CHAPTER LXXXVII. Nora-Bamma","end_line":9501,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:39.469Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"CHAPTER LXXXVII. Nora-Bamma","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":9458,"text":"CHAPTER LXXXVII.\r\nNora-Bamma\r\n\r\n\r\nStill onward gliding, the lagoon a calm.\r\n\r\nHours pass; and full before us, round and green, a Moslem turban by us\r\nfloats—Nora-Bamma, Isle of Nods.\r\n\r\nNoon-tide rolls its flood. Vibrates the air, and trembles. And by\r\nillusion optical, thin-draped in azure haze, drift here and there the\r\nbrilliant lands: swans, peacock-plumaged, sailing through the sky. Down\r\nto earth hath heaven come; hard telling sun-clouds from the isles.\r\n\r\nAnd high in air nods Nora-Bamma. Nid-nods its tufted summit like three\r\nostrich plumes; its beetling crags, bent poppies, shadows, willowy\r\nshores, all nod; its streams are murmuring down the hills; its wavelets\r\nhush the shore.\r\n\r\nWho dwells in Nora-Bamma? Dreamers, hypochondriacs, somnambulists; who,\r\nfrom the cark and care of outer Mardi fleeing, in the poppy’s jaded\r\nodors, seek oblivion for the past, and ecstasies to come.\r\n\r\nOpen-eyed, they sleep and dream; on their roof-trees, grapes unheeded\r\ndrop. In Nora-Bamma, whispers are as shouts; and at a zephyr’s breath,\r\nfrom the woodlands shake the leaves, as of humming-birds, a flight.\r\n\r\nAll this spake Braid-Beard, of the isle. How that none ere touched its\r\nstrand, without rendering instant tribute of a nap; how that those who\r\nthither voyaged, in golden quest of golden gourds, fast dropped asleep,\r\nere one was plucked; waking not till night; how that you must needs rub\r\nhard your eyes, would you wander through the isle; and how that silent\r\nspecters would be met, haunting twilight groves, and dreamy meads;\r\nhither gliding, thither fading, end or purpose none.\r\n\r\nTrue or false, so much for Mohi’s Nora Bamma.\r\n\r\nBut as we floated on, it looked the place described. We yawned, and\r\nyawned, as crews of vessels may; as in warm Indian seas, their\r\nwinnowing sails all swoon, when by them glides some opium argosie.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"CHAPTER LXXXVII. Nora-Bamma"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJA6157W2830190N652KA","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJW83ZNH2JQR58YXYCRR6","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJW834JRFKDF4QHK1P8YS","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:45.918Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:19.094Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}