{"id":"01KG8AKRMJE0SR7425WNFTP7M3","cid":"bafkreignff5neqlsv6ca4wmkbrzurddq77nwf2ltouklxdz62gopuxodsa","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5756,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.927Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":5690,"text":"last. Very precise and foppish in his imperial tastes was this monarch.\r\nDisgusted with the want of uniformity in the stature of his subjects,\r\nhe was said to nourish thoughts of killing off all those below his\r\nprescribed standard—six feet, long measure. Immortal souls were of no\r\naccount in his fatal wars; since, in some of his serf-breeding estates,\r\nthey were daily manufactured to order.\r\n\r\nNow, to all the above-mentioned monarchs, old Bello would frequently\r\ndispatch heralds; announcing, for example, his unalterable resolution,\r\nto espouse the cause of this king, against that; at the very time,\r\nperhaps, that their Serene Superfluities, instead of crossing spears,\r\nwere touching flagons. And upon these occasions, the kings would often\r\nsend back word to old Bello, that instead of troubling himself with\r\ntheir concerns, he might far better attend to his own; which, they\r\nhinted, were in a sad way, and much needed reform.\r\n\r\nThe royal old warrior’s pretext for these and all similar proceedings,\r\nwas the proper adjustment in Porpheero, of what he facetiously styled\r\nthe “Equipoise of Calabashes;” which he stoutly swore was essential to\r\nthe security of the various tribes in that country.\r\n\r\n“But who put the balance into thy hands, King Bello?” cried the\r\nindignant nations.\r\n\r\n“Oro!” shouted the hump-backed king, shaking his javelin.\r\n\r\nSuperadded to the paternal interest which Bello betrayed in the\r\nconcerns of the kings of Porpheero, according to our chronicler, he\r\nalso manifested no less interest in those of the remotest islands.\r\nIndeed, where he found a rich country, inhabited by a people, deemed by\r\nhim barbarous and incapable of wise legislation, he sometimes relieved\r\nthem from their political anxieties, by assuming the dictatorship over\r\nthem. And if incensed at his conduct, they flew to their spears, they\r\nwere accounted rebels, and treated accordingly. But as old Mohi very\r\ntruly observed,—herein, Bello was not alone; for throughout Mardi, all\r\nstrong nations, as well as all strong men, loved to govern the weak.\r\nAnd those who most taunted King Bello for his political rapacity, were\r\nopen to the very same charge. So with Vivenza, a distant island, at\r\ntimes very loud in denunciations of Bello, as a great national brigand.\r\nNot yet wholly extinct in Vivenza, were its aboriginal people, a race\r\nof wild Nimrods and hunters, who year by year were driven further and\r\nfurther into remoteness, till as one of their sad warriors said, after\r\ncontinual removes along the log, his race was on the point of being\r\nremorselessly pushed off the end.\r\n\r\nNow, Bello was a great geographer, and land surveyor, and gauger of the\r\nseas. Terraqueous Mardi, he was continually exploring in quest of\r\nstrange empires. Much he loved to take the altitude of lofty mountains,\r\nthe depth of deep rivers, the breadth of broad isles. Upon the highest\r\npinnacles of commanding capes and promontories, he loved to hoist his\r\nflag. He circled Mardi with his watch-towers: and the distant voyager\r\npassing wild rocks in the remotest waters, was startled by hearing the\r\ntattoo, or the reveille, beating from hump-backed Bello’s omnipresent\r\ndrum. Among Antartic glaciers, his shrill bugle calls mingled with the\r\nscream of the gulls; and so impressed seemed universal nature with the\r\nsense of his dominion, that the very clouds in heaven never sailed over\r\nDominora without rendering the tribute of a shower; whence the air of\r\nDominora was more moist than that of any other clime.\r\n\r\nIn all his grand undertakings, King Bello was marvelously assisted by\r\nhis numerous fleets of war-canoes; his navy being the largest in Mardi.\r\nHence his logicians swore that the entire Lagoon was his; and that all\r\nprowling whales, prowling keels, and prowling sharks were invaders. And\r\nwith this fine conceit to inspire them, his poets-laureat composed some\r\nglorious old saltwater odes, enough to make your very soul sing to hear\r\nthem.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"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":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKRMJVW8VDYJK4YNC61R0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.994Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:23.855Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}