{"id":"01KG8AKN22V41X5CDT10EQ7QXB","cid":"bafkreibyhwtasljkjpgudocoqtcumfwh5mmwsepwfrci2s3beedz4rjyta","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2124,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.927Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":2041,"text":"say. Imbedded in amber, do we not find little fishes’ fins,\r\nporpoise-teeth, sea-gulls’ beaks and claws; nay, butterflies’ wings,\r\nand sometimes a topaz? And how could that be, unless the substance was\r\nfirst soft? Amber is gold-fishes’ brains, I say.”\r\n\r\n“For one,” said Babbalanja, “I’ll not believe that, till you prove to\r\nme, Braid-Beard, that ideas themselves are found imbedded therein.”\r\n\r\n“Another of your crazy conceits, philosopher,” replied Mohi,\r\ndisdainfully; “yet, sometimes plenty of strange black-letter characters\r\nhave been discovered in amber.” And throwing back his hoary old head,\r\nhe jetted forth his vapors like a whale.\r\n\r\n“Indeed?” cried Babbalanja. “Then, my lord Media, it may be earnestly\r\ninquired, whether the gentle laws of the tribes before the flood, were\r\nnot sought to be embalmed and perpetuated between transparent and sweet\r\nscented tablets of amber.”\r\n\r\n“That, now, is not so unlikely,” said Mohi; “for old King Rondo the\r\nRound once set about getting him a coffin-lid of amber; much desiring a\r\nfamous mass of it owned by the ancestors of Donjalolo of Juam. But no\r\nnavies could buy it. So Rondo had himself urned in a crystal.”\r\n\r\n“And that immortalized Rondo, no doubt,” said Babbalanja. “Ha! ha! pity\r\nhe fared not like the fat porpoise frozen and tombed in an iceberg; its\r\nicy shroud drifting south, soon melted away, and down, out of sight,\r\nsunk the dead.”\r\n\r\n“Well, so much for amber,” cried Media. “Now, Mohi, go on about\r\nFarnoo.”\r\n\r\n“Know, then, my lord, that Farnoo is more like ambergris than amber.”\r\n\r\n“Is it? then, pray, tell us something on that head. You know all about\r\nambergris, too, I suppose.”\r\n\r\n“Every thing about all things, my lord. Ambergris is found both on land\r\nand at sea. But especially, are lumps of it picked up on the spicy\r\ncoasts of Jovanna; indeed, all over the atolls and reefs in the eastern\r\nquarter of Mardi.”\r\n\r\n“But what is this ambergris? Braid-Beard,” said Babbalanja.\r\n\r\n“Aquovi, the chymist, pronounced it the fragments of mushrooms growing\r\nat the bottom of the sea; Voluto held, that like naptha, it springs\r\nfrom fountains down there. But it is neither.”\r\n\r\n“I have heard,” said Yoomy, “that it is the honey-comb of bees, fallen\r\nfrom flowery cliffs into the brine.”\r\n\r\n“Nothing of the kind,” said Mohi. “Do I not know all about it,\r\nminstrel? Ambergris is the petrified gall-stones of crocodiles.”\r\n\r\n“What!” cried Babbalanja, “comes sweet scented ambergris from those\r\nmusky and chain-plated river cavalry? No wonder, then, their flesh is\r\nso fragrant; their upper jaws as the visors of vinaigrettes.”\r\n\r\n“Nay, you are all wrong,” cried King Media.\r\n\r\nThen, laughing to himself:—“It’s pleasant to sit by, a demi-god, and\r\nhear the surmisings of mortals, upon things they know nothing about;\r\ntheology, or amber, or ambergris, it’s all the same. But then, did I\r\nalways out with every thing I know, there would be no conversing with\r\nthese comical creatures.\r\n\r\n“Listen, old Mohi; ambergris is a morbid secretion of the Spermaceti\r\nwhale; for like you mortals, the whale is at times a sort of\r\nhypochondriac and dyspeptic. You must know, subjects, that in\r\nantediluvian times, the Spermaceti whale was much hunted by sportsmen,\r\nthat being accounted better pastime, than pursuing the Behemoths on\r\nshore. Besides, it was a lucrative diversion. Now, sometimes upon\r\nstriking the monster, it would start off in a dastardly fright, leaving\r\ncertain fragments in its wake. These fragments the hunters picked up,\r\ngiving over the chase for a while. For in those days, as now, a\r\nquarter-quintal of ambergris was more valuable than a whole ton of\r\nspermaceti.”\r\n\r\n“Nor, my lord,” said Babbalanja, “would it have been wise to kill the\r\nfish that dropped such treasures: no more than to murder the noddy that\r\nlaid the golden eggs.”\r\n\r\n“Beshrew me! a noddy it must have been,” gurgled Mohi through his\r\npipe-stem, “to lay golden eggs for others to hatch.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ1A78RKJV3PZ9MH9K07","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKN22Z9YSPM2ZM2450WP4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKN1ZXPBKSQR6G691VEV8","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:11.330Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:20.497Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}