{"id":"01KG8AKQ1A5ZJAKTE84NMPNKSF","cid":"bafkreiedlwahbbvoszvlbzkvk5vb3e4g4fpcjo6kgns2p3iiuv3wddsac4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4857,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.927Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":4781,"text":"CHAPTER XXXV.\r\nThey Visit The Lords Piko And Hello\r\n\r\n\r\nIn good time, we landed at Diranda. And that landing was like landing\r\nat Greenwich among the Waterloo pensioners. The people were docked\r\nright and left; some without arms; some without legs; not one with a\r\ntail; but to a man, all had heads, though rather the worse for wear;\r\ncovered with lumps and contusions.\r\n\r\nNow, those very magnificent and illustrious lord seigniors, the lord\r\nseigniors Hello and Piko, lived in a palace, round which was a fence of\r\nthe cane called Malacca, each picket helmed with a skull, of which\r\nthere were fifty, one to each cane. Over the door was the blended arms\r\nof the high and mighty houses of Hello and Piko: a Clavicle crossed\r\nover an Ulna.\r\n\r\nEscorted to the sign of the Skull-and-Cross-Bones, we received the very\r\nbest entertainment which that royal inn could afford. We found our\r\nhosts Hello and Piko seated together on a dais or throne, and now and\r\nthen drinking some claret-red wine from an ivory bowl, too large to\r\nhave been wrought from an elephant’s tusk. They were in glorious good\r\nspirits, shaking ivory coins in a skull.\r\n\r\n“What says your majesty?” said Piko. “Heads or tails?”\r\n\r\n“Oh, heads, your majesty,” said Hello.\r\n\r\n“And heads say I,” said Piko.\r\n\r\nAnd heads it was. But it was heads on both sides, so both were sure to\r\nwin.\r\n\r\nAnd thus they were used to play merrily all day long; beheading the\r\ngourds of claret by one slicing blow with their sickle-shaped scepters.\r\nWide round them lay empty calabashes, all feathered, red dyed, and\r\nbetasseled, trickling red wine from their necks, like the decapitated\r\npullets in the old baronial barn yard at Kenilworth, the night before\r\nQueen Bess dined with my lord Leicester.\r\n\r\nThe first compliments over; and Media and Taji having met with a\r\nreception suitable to their rank, the kings inquired, whether there\r\nwere any good javelin-flingers among us: for if that were the case,\r\nthey could furnish them plenty of sport. Informed, however, that none\r\nof the party were professional warriors, their majesties looked rather\r\nglum, and by way of chasing away the blues, called for some good old\r\nstuff, that was red.\r\n\r\nIt seems, this soliciting guests, to keep their spears from decaying,\r\nby cut and thrust play with their subjects, was a very common thing\r\nwith their illustrious majesties.\r\n\r\nBut if their visitors could not be prevailed upon to spear a subject or\r\nso, our hospitable hosts resolved to have a few speared, and otherwise\r\nserved up for our special entertainment. In a word, our arrival\r\nfurnished a fine pretext for renewing their games; though, we learned,\r\nthat only ten days previous, upward of fifty combatants had been slain\r\nat one of these festivals.\r\n\r\nBe that as it might, their joint majesties determined upon another one;\r\nand also upon our tarrying to behold it. We objected, saying we must\r\ndepart.\r\n\r\nBut we were kindly assured, that our canoes had been dragged out of the\r\nwater, and buried in a wood; there to remain till the games were over.\r\n\r\nThe day fixed upon, was the third subsequent to our arrival; the\r\ninterval being devoted to preparations; summoning from their villages\r\nand valleys the warriors of the land; and publishing the royal\r\nproclamations, whereby the unbounded hospitality of the kings’\r\nhousehold was freely offered to all heroes whatsoever, who for the love\r\nof arms, and the honor of broken heads, desired to cross battle-clubs,\r\nhurl spears, or die game in the royal valley of Deddo.\r\n\r\nMeantime, the whole island was in a state of uproarious commotion, and\r\nstrangers were daily arriving.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRBW3X39BTB13WJ3NAPB","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKQYP9D1KM16A39H394H6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:13.354Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:22.398Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}