{"id":"01KG8AJWKBMTP43H40DQT3XN8W","cid":"bafkreic3mkpindwlpnnxlospwlr5atso4dzvodtzkdqvotrlsvfugnudbe","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# CHAPTER LXXXVII. They Draw Nigh To Flozella\n## Overview - What this is (type, form, dates, scope)\nThis is a chapter from the novel [Mardi: And a Voyage Thither](arke:01KG8AJ8ZNB03D0FWFP362WQEN), extracted from the text file [mardi_vol2.txt](arke:01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9). The chapter, labeled \"CHAPTER LXXXVII. They Draw Nigh To Flozella,\" spans lines 12595 to 12651. It was extracted on January 30, 2026, as part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection.\n\n## Context - Background and provenance from related entities\nThis chapter follows \"CHAPTER LXXXVI. They Meet The Phantoms\" (arke:01KG8AJWKBBN5T4V8YG43Z13W2) and precedes \"CHAPTER LXXXVIII. They Land\" (arke:01KG8AJWKGS16QXQ9JFA9DQSK9). The novel and its chapters were extracted from the source file as part of a larger collection of Melville's works.\n\n## Contents - What it contains, key subjects and details\nThe chapter describes the approach to the island of Flozella, also known as \"The-Last-Verse-of-the-Song.\" It recounts a legend about winged beings driven from Mardi and the subsequent celebrations. The narrator is torn by conflicting emotions as he nears Flozella, where he hopes to find Yillah, but fears Hautia. The chapter ends with the narrator's anticipation of the island's significance.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:04.148Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"CHAPTER LXXXVII. They Draw Nigh To Flozella","end_line":12651,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:38.723Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"CHAPTER LXXXVII. They Draw Nigh To Flozella","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":12595,"text":"CHAPTER LXXXVII.\r\nThey Draw Nigh To Flozella\r\n\r\n\r\nAs if Mardi were a poem, and every island a canto, the shore now in\r\nsight was called Flozella-a-Nina, or The-Last-Verse-of-the-Song.\r\n\r\nAccording to Mohi, the origin of this term was traceable to the\r\nremotest antiquity.\r\n\r\nIn the beginning, there were other beings in Mardi besides Mardians;\r\nwinged beings, of purer minds, and cast in gentler molds, who would\r\nfain have dwelt forever with mankind. But the hearts of the Mardians\r\nwere bitter against them, because of their superior goodness. Yet those\r\nbeings returned love for malice, and long entreated to virtue and\r\ncharity. But in the end, all Mardi rose up against them, and hunted\r\nthem from isle to isle; till, at last, they rose from the woodlands\r\nlike a flight of birds, and disappeared in the skies. Thereafter,\r\nabandoned of such sweet influences, the Mardians fell into all manner\r\nof sins and sufferings, becoming the erring things their descendants\r\nwere now. Yet they knew not, that their calamities were of their own\r\nbringing down. For deemed a victory, the expulsion of the winged beings\r\nwas celebrated in choruses, throughout Mardi. And among other\r\njubilations, so ran the legend, a pean was composed, corresponding in\r\nthe number of its stanzas, to the number of islands. And a band of\r\nyouths, gayly appareled, voyaged in gala canoes all round the lagoon,\r\nsinging upon each isle, one verse of their song. And Flozella being the\r\nlast isle in their circuit, its queen commemorated the circumstance, by\r\nnew naming her realm.\r\n\r\nThat queen had first incited Mardi to wage war against the beings with\r\nwings. She it was, who had been foremost in every assault. And that\r\nqueen was ancestor of Hautia, now ruling the isle.\r\n\r\nApproaching the dominions of one who so long had haunted me,\r\nconflicting emotions tore up my soul in tornadoes. Yet Hautia had held\r\nout some prospect of crowning my yearnings. But how connected were\r\nHautia and Yillah? Something I hoped; yet more I feared. Dire\r\npresentiments, like poisoned arrows, shot through me. Had they pierced\r\nme before, straight to Flozella would I have voyaged; not waiting for\r\nHautia to woo me by that last and victorious temptation. But unchanged\r\nremained my feelings of hatred for Hautia; yet vague those feelings, as\r\nthe language of her flowers. Nevertheless, in some mysterious way\r\nseemed Hautia and Yillah connected. But Yillah was all beauty, and\r\ninnocence; my crown of felicity; my heaven below;—and Hautia, my whole\r\nheart abhorred. Yillah I sought; Hautia sought me. One, openly beckoned\r\nme here; the other dimly allured me there. Yet now was I wildly\r\ndreaming to find them together. But so distracted my soul, I knew not\r\nwhat it was, that I thought.\r\n\r\nSlowly we neared the land. Flozella-a-Nina!—An omen? Was this isle,\r\nthen, to prove the last place of my search, even as it was the Last-\r\nVerse-of-the-Song?\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"CHAPTER LXXXVII. They Draw Nigh To Flozella"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ8ZNB03D0FWFP362WQEN","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJWKBBN5T4V8YG43Z13W2","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJWKGS16QXQ9JFA9DQSK9","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:46.283Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:05.776Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}