{"id":"01KG8AKKBPTYX4FN8RR9XR91E3","cid":"bafkreigzv7kfdofrkgx2d6t55syx5qbooctie3xlmujt7pimosxe45i2om","type":"subsection","properties":{"description":"# Yoomy Relates A Legend\n\n## Overview\nThis subsection, titled \"Yoomy Relates A Legend,\" is an excerpt from Chapter XCIII of Herman Melville's novel *Mardi: And a Voyage Thither*. It is part of the larger [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection and was extracted from the file [mardi_vol1.txt](arke:01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK). This section details the beginning of a legend told by the character Yoomy.\n\n## Context\nThis subsection is found within [CHAPTER XCIII. Babbalanja Steps In Between Mohi And Yoomy; And Yoomy Relates A Legend](arke:01KG8AJWVTKMC0EZ4WMWPFQ2BB). It follows the subsection \"Babbalanja Steps In Between Mohi And Yoomy\" and precedes \"Yoomy Relates A Legend (continued)\". The narrative takes place as the characters sail by the shores of Tupia.\n\n## Contents\nIn this section, Yoomy begins to recount a legend about a race of diminutive people, only a few inches high, who once inhabited the shores of Tupia. These beings are described as being covered in soft down, with green, vine-like hair that they cultivated. The legend details their unique customs, including their nocturnal habits, their affinity for the sea, and their eventual demise, which is linked to the blossoming of their vines. The narrative is interspersed with brief, skeptical interjections from the character Mohi.","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:23.555Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"Yoomy Relates A Legend","end_line":10044,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.388Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Yoomy Relates A Legend","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":9988,"text":"And Yoomy began.\r\n\r\n“It is now about ten hundred thousand moons—”\r\n\r\n“Great Oro! How long since, say you?” cried Mohi, making Gothic arches\r\nof his brows.\r\n\r\nLooking at him disdainfully, but vouchsafing no reply, Yoomy began over\r\nagain.\r\n\r\n“It is now above ten hundred thousand moons, since there died the last\r\nof a marvelous race, once inhabiting the very shores by which we are\r\nsailing. They were a very diminutive people, only a few inches high—”\r\n\r\n“Stop, minstrel,” cried Mohi; “how many pennyweights did they weigh?”\r\n\r\nContinued Yoomy, unheedingly, “They were covered all over with a soft,\r\nsilky down, like that on the rind of the Avee; and there grew upon\r\ntheir heads a green, lance-leaved vine, of a most delicate texture. For\r\nconvenience, the manikins reduced their tendrils, sporting, nothing but\r\ncoronals. Whereas, priding themselves upon the redundancy of their\r\ntresses, the little maidens assiduously watered them with the early dew\r\nof the morning; so that all wreathed and festooned with verdure, they\r\nmoved about in arbors, trailing after them trains.”\r\n\r\n“I can hear no more,” exclaimed Mohi, stopping his ears.\r\n\r\nContinued Yoomy, “The damsels lured to their bowers, certain red-\r\nplumaged insect-birds, and taught them to nestle therein, and warble;\r\nwhich, with the pleasant vibrating of the leaves, when the little\r\nmaidens moved, produced a strange blending of sweet, singing sounds.\r\nThe little maidens embraced not with their arms, but with their viny\r\nlocks; whose tendrils instinctively twined about their lovers, till\r\nboth were lost in the bower.”\r\n\r\n“And what then?” asked Mohi, who, notwithstanding the fingers in his\r\nears, somehow contrived to listen; “What then?”\r\n\r\nVouchsafing no reply, Yoomy went on.\r\n\r\n“At a certain age, but while yet the maidens were very young, their\r\nvines bore blossoms. Ah! fatal symptoms. For soon as they burst, the\r\nmaidens died in their arbors; and were buried in the valleys; and their\r\nvines spread forth; and the flowers bloomed; but the maidens themselves\r\nwere no more. And now disdaining the earth, the vines shot upward:\r\nclimbing to the topmost boughs of the trees; and flowering in the\r\nsunshine forever and aye.”\r\n\r\nYoomy here paused for a space; but presently continued:\r\n\r\n“The little eyes of the people of Tupia were very strange to behold:\r\nfull of stars, that shone from within, like the Pleiades, deep- bosomed\r\nin blue. And like the stars, they were intolerant of sunlight; and\r\nslumbering through the day, the people of Tupia only went abroad by\r\nnight. But it was chiefly when the moon was at full, that they were\r\nmostly in spirits.\r\n\r","title":"Yoomy Relates A Legend"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJWVTKMC0EZ4WMWPFQ2BB","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKKBPEY7GXS7XCQ9V8V4F","peer_type":"subsection","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKKBTQTFZ8D1TGEASBXTZ","peer_type":"subsection","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.590Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:24.281Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}