{"id":"01KG8AKRMJ4FT9F9ME3DHTM7EE","cid":"bafkreiabk5e6zz2b6k7ga5jlssgqpuh3tvp6ixcgndn464ldw227vo7hsq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5644,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.927Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":5569,"text":"CHAPTER XLI.\r\nChiefly Of Sing Bello\r\n\r\n\r\n“Now Taji,” said Media, “with old Bello of the Hump whose island of\r\nDominora is before us, I am at variance.”\r\n\r\n“Ah! How so?”\r\n\r\n“A dull recital, but you shall have it.”\r\n\r\nAnd forthwith his Highness began.\r\n\r\nThis princely quarrel originated, it seems, in a slight jostling\r\nconcerning the proprietorship of a barren islet in a very remote\r\nquarter of the lagoon. At the outset the matter might have been easily\r\nadjusted, had the parties but exchanged a few amicable words. But each\r\ndisdaining to visit the other, to discuss so trivial an affair, the\r\nbusiness of negotiating an understanding was committed to certain\r\nplenipos, men with lengthy tongues, who scorned to utter a word short\r\nof a polysyllable.\r\n\r\nNow, the more these worthies penetrated into the difficulty, the wider\r\nbecame the breach; till what was at first a mere gap, became a yawning\r\ngulf.\r\n\r\nBut that which had perhaps tended more than any thing else to deepen\r\nthe variance of the kings, was hump-backed Bello’s dispatching to Odo,\r\nas his thirtieth plenipo, a diminutive little negotiator, who all by\r\nhimself, in a solitary canoe, sailed over to have audience of Media;\r\ninto whose presence he was immediately ushered.\r\n\r\nDarting one glance at him, the king turned to his chieftains, and\r\nsaid:—“By much straining of your eyes, my lords, can you perceive this\r\ninsignificant manikin? What! are there no tall men in Dominora, that\r\nKing Bello must needs send this dwarf hither?”\r\n\r\nAnd charging his attendents to feed the embassador extraordinary with\r\nthe soft pap of the cocoanut, and provide nurses during his stay, the\r\nmonarch retired from the arbor of audience.\r\n\r\n“As I am a man,” shouted the despised plenipo, raising himself on his\r\ntoes, “my royal master will resent this affront!—A dwarf, forsooth!—\r\nThank Oro, I am no long-drawn giant! There is as much stuff in me, as\r\nin others; what is spread out in their clumsy carcasses, in me is\r\ncondensed. I am much in little! And that much, thou shalt know full\r\nsoon, disdainful King of Odo!”\r\n\r\n“Speak not against our lord the king,” cried the attendants.\r\n\r\n“And speak not ye to me, ye headless spear poles!”\r\n\r\nAnd so saying, under sufferance of being small, the plenipo was\r\npermitted to depart unmolested; for all his bravadoes, fobbing his\r\ncredentials and affronts.\r\n\r\nApprized of his servant’s ignoble reception, the choleric Bello burst\r\nforth in a storm of passion; issuing orders for, one thousand conch\r\nshells to be blown, and his warriors to assemble by land and by sea.\r\n\r\nBut bethinking him of the hostilities that might ensue, the sagacious\r\nMedia hit upon an honorable expedient to ward off an event for which he\r\nwas then unprepared. With all haste he dispatched to the hump-backed\r\nking a little dwarf of his own; who voyaging over to Dominora in a\r\ncanoe, sorry and solitary as that of Bello’s plenipo, in like manner,\r\nreceived the same insults. The effect whereof, was, to strike a balance\r\nof affronts; upon the principle, that a blow given, heals one received.\r\n\r\nNevertheless, these proceedings but amounted to a postponement of\r\nhostilities; for soon after, nothing prevented the two kings from\r\nplunging into war, but the following judicious considerations. First:\r\nMedia was almost afraid of being beaten. Second: Bello was almost\r\nafraid to conquer. Media, because he was inferior in men and arms;\r\nBello, because, his aggrandizement was already a subject of warlike\r\ncomment among the neighboring kings.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJSXQC95HFRRK3M3VNQFC","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKRK10X47E8Z12NGCNJTH","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.994Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:23.436Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}