{"id":"01KG8AKQYKH7P2ZJ6YXBTAMA53","cid":"bafkreibp725loaiye72s4fszcvaqdorisc6fk6a3iywykh7npifi6slcua","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4985,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.927Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":4878,"text":"CHAPTER XXXVI.\r\nThey Attend The Games\r\n\r\n\r\nAt last the third day dawned; and facing us upon entering the plain,\r\nwas a throne of red log-wood, canopied by the foliage of a red-dyed\r\nPandannus. Upon this throne, purple-robed, reclined those very\r\nmagnificent and illustrious lords seigniors, the lord seigniors Hello\r\nand Piko. Before them, were many gourds of wine; and crosswise, staked\r\nin the sod, their own royal spears.\r\n\r\nIn the middle of the down, as if by a furrow, a long, oval space was\r\nmargined of about which, a crowd of spectators were seated. Opposite\r\nthe throne, was reserved a clear passage to the arena, defined by\r\nair-lines, indefinitely produced from the leveled points of two spears,\r\nso poised by a brace of warriors.\r\n\r\nDrawing near, our party was courteously received, and assigned a\r\ncommodious lounge.\r\n\r\nThe first encounter was a club-fight between two warriors. Nor casque\r\nof steel, nor skull of Congo could have resisted their blows, had they\r\nfallen upon the mark; for they seemed bent upon driving each other, as\r\nstakes, into the earth. Presently, one of them faltered; but his\r\nadversary rushing in to cleave him down, slipped against a guavarind;\r\nwhen the falterer, with one lucky blow, high into the air sent the\r\nstumbler’s club, which descended upon the crown of a spectator, who was\r\nborne from the plain.\r\n\r\n“All one,” muttered Pike.\r\n\r\n“As good dead as another,” muttered Hello.\r\n\r\nThe second encounter was a hugging-match; wherein two warriors, masked\r\nin Grisly-bear skins, hugged each other to death.\r\n\r\nThe third encounter was a bumping-match between a fat warrior and a\r\ndwarf. Standing erect, his paunch like a bass-drum before a drummer,\r\nthe fat man was run at, head-a-tilt by the dwarf, and sent spinning\r\nround on his axis.\r\n\r\nThe fourth encounter was a tussle between two-score warriors, who all\r\nin a mass, writhed like the limbs in Sebastioni’s painting of Hades.\r\nAfter obscuring themselves in a cloud of dust, these combatants,\r\nuninjured, but hugely blowing, drew off; and separately going among the\r\nspectators, rehearsed their experience of the fray.\r\n\r\n“Braggarts!” mumbled Piko.\r\n\r\n“Poltroons!” growled Hello.\r\n\r\nWhile the crowd were applauding, a sober-sided observer, trying to rub\r\nthe dust out of his eyes, inquired of an enthusiastic neighbor, “Pray,\r\nwhat was all that about?”\r\n\r\n“Fool! saw you not the dust?”\r\n\r\n“That I did,” said Sober-Sides, again rubbing his eyes, “But I can\r\nraise a dust myself.”\r\n\r\nThe fifth encounter was a fight of single sticks between one hundred\r\nwarriors, fifty on a side.\r\n\r\nIn a line, the first fifty emerged from the sumachs, their weapons\r\ninterlocked in a sort of wicker-work. In advance marched a priest,\r\nbearing an idol with a cracked cocoanut for a head,—Krako, the god of\r\nTrepans. Preceded by damsels flinging flowers, now came on the second\r\nfifty, gayly appareled, weapons poised, and their feet nimbly moving in\r\na martial measure.\r\n\r\nMidway meeting, both parties touched poles, then retreated. Very\r\ncourteous, this; but tantamount to bowing each other out of Mardi; for\r\nupon Pike’s tossing a javelin, they rushed in, and each striking his\r\nman, all fell to the ground.\r\n\r\n“Well done!” cried Piko.\r\n\r\n“Brave fellows!” cried Hello.\r\n\r\n“But up and at it again, my heroes!” joined both. “Lo! we kings look\r\non, and there stand the bards!”\r\n\r\nThese bards were a row of lean, sallow, old men, in thread-bare robes,\r\nand chaplets of dead leaves.\r\n\r\n“Strike up!” cried Piko.\r\n\r\n“A stave!” cried Hello.\r\n\r\nWhereupon, the old croakers, each with a quinsy, sang thus in cracked\r\nstrains:—\r\n\r\nQuack! Quack! Quack!\r\nWith a toorooloo whack;\r\nHack away, merry men, hack away.\r\nWho would not die brave,\r\nHis ear smote by a stave?\r\nThwack away, merry men, thwack away!\r\n’Tis glory that calls,\r\nTo each hero that falls,\r\nHack away, merry men, hack away!\r\nQuack! Quack! Quack!\r\nQuack! Quack!\r\nQuack!\r\n\r\n\r\nThus it tapered away.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRBWN0BRQCNFT0CX6SN6","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKQYPKYDAFW6KWBSZPJED","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.291Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:22.754Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}