{"id":"01KG8AKS9E8BVZSDYJMFV6RZTR","cid":"bafkreihgndgldztv4f5cjgujvgiu7vmvj3624jtzy23inunch2wt6nc4tu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6229,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.927Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":6149,"text":"CHAPTER XLV.\r\nThey Behold King Bello’s State Canoe\r\n\r\n\r\nAt last, bidding adieu to King Bello; and in the midst of the lowing of\r\noxen, breaking away from his many hospitalities, we departed for the\r\nbeach. But ere embarking, we paused to gaze at an object, which long\r\nfixed our attention.\r\n\r\nNow, as all bold cavaliers have ever delighted in special chargers,\r\ngayly caparisoned, whereon upon grand occasions to sally forth upon the\r\nplains: even so have maritime potentates ever prided themselves upon\r\nsome holiday galley, splendidly equipped, wherein to sail over the sea.\r\n\r\nWhen of old, glory-seeking Jason, attended by his promising young\r\nlieutenants, Castor and Pollux, embarked on that hardy adventure to\r\nColchis, the brave planks of the good ship Argos he trod, its model a\r\nswan to behold.\r\n\r\nAnd when Trojan Aeneas wandered West, and discovered the pleasant land\r\nof Latium, it was in the fine craft Bis Taurus that he sailed: its\r\nstern gloriously emblazoned, its prow a leveled spear.\r\n\r\nAnd to the sound of sackbut and psaltery, gliding down the Nile, in the\r\npleasant shade of its pyramids to welcome mad Mark, Cleopatra was\r\nthroned on the cedar quarter-deck of a glorious gondola, silk and satin\r\nhung; its silver plated oars, musical as flutes. So, too, Queen Bess\r\nwas wont to disport on old Thames.\r\n\r\nAnd tough Torf-Egill, the Danish Sea-king, reckoned in his stud, a\r\nslender yacht; its masts young Zetland firs; its prow a seal, dog-like\r\nholding a sword-fish blade. He called it the Grayhound, so swift was\r\nits keel; the Sea-hawk, so blood-stained its beak.\r\n\r\nAnd groping down his palace stairs, the blind old Doge Dandolo, oft\r\nembarked in his gilded barge, like the lord mayor setting forth in\r\ncivic state from Guildhall in his chariot. But from another sort of\r\nprow leaped Dandolo, when at Constantinople, he foremost sprang ashore,\r\nand with a right arm ninety years old, planted the standard of St. Mark\r\nfull among the long chin-pennons of the long-bearded Turks.\r\n\r\nAnd Kumbo Sama, Emperor of Japan, had a dragon-beaked junk, a floating\r\nJuggernaut, wherein he burnt incense to the sea-gods.\r\n\r\nAnd Kannakoko, King of New Zealand; and the first Tahitian Pomaree; and\r\nthe Pelew potentate, each possessed long state canoes; sea-snakes, all;\r\ncarved over like Chinese card-cases, and manned with such scores of\r\nwarriors, that dipping their paddles in the sea, they made a commotion\r\nlike shoals of herring.\r\n\r\nWhat wonder then, that Bello of the Hump, the old sea-king of Mardi,\r\nshould sport a brave ocean-chariot?\r\n\r\nIn a broad arbor by the water-side, it was housed like Alp Arsian’s\r\nwar-horse, or the charger Caligula deified; upon its stern a wilderness\r\nof sculpture:—shell-work, medal-lions, masques, griffins, gulls, ogres,\r\nfinned-lions, winged walruses; all manner of sea-cavalry, crusading\r\ncentaurs, crocodiles, and sharks; and mermen, and mermaids, and Neptune\r\nonly knows all.\r\n\r\nAnd in this craft, Doge-like, yearly did King Bello stand up and wed\r\nwith the Lagoon. But the custom originated not in the manner of the\r\nDoge’s, which was as follows; so, at least, saith Ghibelli, who tells\r\nall about it:—\r\n\r\nWhen, in a stout sea-fight, Ziani defeated Barbarossa’s son Otho,\r\nsending his feluccas all flying, like frightened water-fowl from a\r\nlake, then did his Holiness, the Pope, present unto him a ring; saying,\r\n“Take this, oh Ziani, and with it, the sea for thy bride; and every\r\nyear wed her again.”\r\n\r\nSo the Doge’s tradition; thus Bello’s:—\r\n\r\nAges ago, Dominora was circled by a reef, which expanding in proportion\r\nto the extension of the isle’s naval dominion, in due time embraced the\r\nentire lagoon; and this marriage ring zoned all the world.\r\n\r\nBut if the sea was King Bello’s bride, an Adriatic Tartar he wedded;\r\nwho, in her mad gales of passions, often boxed about his canoes, and\r\nled his navies a very boisterous life indeed.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJSXWKSGYAM3SBQ847R2W","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKS9KEXHFKK9464CWM9XH","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.662Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:23.967Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}