{"id":"01KG8AKQYT9PV1MEMJATEA3FVJ","cid":"bafkreiesfagwsxubdvkro6hlp3gkmm2g2z2pjr4pbdh5mosk5jjtzpgqme","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5502,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.927Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":5432,"text":"CHAPTER XL.\r\nOf The Sorcerers In The Isle Of Minda\r\n\r\n\r\n“Tiffin! tiffin!” cried Media; “time for tiffin! Up, comrades! and\r\nwhile the mat is being spread, walk we to the bow, and inhale the\r\nbreeze for an appetite. Hark ye, Vee-Vee! forget not that calabash with\r\nthe sea-blue seal, and a round ring for a brand. Rare old stuff, that,\r\nMohi; older than you: the circumnavigator, I call it. My sire had a\r\ncanoe launched for the express purpose of carrying it thrice round\r\nMardi for a flavor. It was many moons on the voyage; the mariners never\r\nsailed faster than three knots. Ten would spoil the best wine ever\r\nfloated.”\r\n\r\nTiffin over, and the blue-sealed calabash all but hid in the great\r\ncloud raised by our pipes, Media proposed to board it in the smoke. So,\r\ngoblet in hand, we all gallantly charged, and came off victorious from\r\nthe fray.\r\n\r\nThen seated again, and serenely puffing in a circle, the\r\ncircumnavigator meanwhile pleasantly going the rounds, Media called\r\nupon Mohi for something entertaining.\r\n\r\nNow, of all the old gossips in Mardi, surely our delightful old\r\nDiodorus was furnished with the greatest possible variety of histories,\r\nchronicles, anecdotes, memoirs, legends, traditions, and biographies.\r\nThere was no end to the library he carried. In himself, he was the\r\nwhole history of Mardi, amplified, not abridged, in one volume.\r\n\r\nIn obedience, then, to King Media’s command, Mohi regaled the company\r\nwith a narrative, in substance as follows:—\r\n\r\nIn a certain quarter of the Archipelago was an island called Minda; and\r\nin Minda were many sorcerers, employed in the social differences and\r\nanimosities of the people of that unfortunate land. If a Mindarian\r\ndeemed himself aggrieved or insulted by a countryman, he forthwith\r\nrepaired to one of these sorcerers; who, for an adequate consideration,\r\nset to work with his spells, keeping himself in the dark, and directing\r\nthem against the obnoxious individual. And full soon, by certain\r\npeculiar sensations, this individual, discovering what was going on,\r\nwould straightway hie to his own professor of the sable art, who, being\r\nwell feed, in due time brought about certain counter-charms, so that in\r\nthe end it sometimes fell out that neither party was gainer or loser,\r\nsave by the sum of his fees.\r\n\r\nBut the worst of it was, that in some cases all knowledge of these\r\nspells were at the outset hidden from the victim; who, hearing too late\r\nof the mischief brewing, almost always fell a prey to his foe; which\r\ncalamity was held the height of the art. But as the great body of\r\nsorcerers were about matched in point of skill, it followed that the\r\nparties employing them were so likewise. Hence arose those interminable\r\ncontests, in which many moons were spent, both parties toiling after\r\ntheir common destruction.\r\n\r\nIndeed, to say nothing of the obstinacy evinced by their employers, it\r\nwas marvelous, the pertinacity of the sorcerers themselves. To the very\r\nlast tooth in their employer’s pouches, they would stick to their\r\nspells; never giving over till he was financially or physically\r\ndefunct.\r\n\r\nBut much as they were vilified, no people in Minda were half so\r\ndisinterested as they. Certain indispensable conditions secured, some\r\nof them were as ready to undertake the perdition of one man as another;\r\ngood, bad, or indifferent, it made little matter.\r\n\r\nWhat wonder, then, that such abominable mercenaries should cause a\r\nmighty deal of mischief in Minda; privately going about, inciting\r\npeaceable folks to enmities with their neighbors; and with marvelous\r\nalacrity, proposing themselves as the very sorcerers to rid them of the\r\nannoyances suggested as existing.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJSXQJSFA54DV177XKGV2","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKQYT2MA7TSHCK7QCAJPJ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.298Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:23.085Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}