{"id":"01KG8AKT5ARRT9TN32XQK2V5H2","cid":"bafkreifx65ft5fdfbxded5alrejccwskbap4pc5guixbeowoy5vhnvtcnm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11137,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.931Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","start_line":11056,"text":"CHAPTER LXXVII.\r\nThey Sup\r\n\r\n\r\nThere seemed something sinister, hollow, heartless, about Abrazza, and\r\nthat green-and-yellow, evil-starred crown that he wore.\r\n\r\nBut why think of that? Though we like not something in the curve of\r\none’s brow, or distrust the tone of his voice; yet, let us away with\r\nsuspicions if we may, and make a jolly comrade of him, in the name of\r\nthe gods. Miserable! thrice miserable he, who is forever turning over\r\nand over one’s character in his mind, and weighing by nice avoirdupois,\r\nthe pros and the cons of his goodness and badness. For we are all good\r\nand bad. Give me the heart that’s huge as all Asia; and unless a man,\r\nbe a villain outright, account him one of the best tempered blades in\r\nthe world.\r\n\r\nThat night, in his right regal hall, King Abrazza received us. And in\r\nmerry good time a fine supper was spread.\r\n\r\nNow, in thus nocturnally regaling us, our host was warranted by many\r\nancient and illustrious examples.\r\n\r\nFor old Jove gave suppers; the god Woden gave suppers; the Hindoo deity\r\nBrahma gave suppers; the Red Man’s Great Spirit gave suppers:— chiefly\r\nvenison and game.\r\n\r\nAnd many distinguished mortals besides.\r\n\r\nAhasuerus gave suppers; Xerxes gave suppers; Montezuma gave suppers;\r\nPowhattan gave suppers; the Jews’ Passovers were suppers; the Pharaohs\r\ngave suppers; Julius Caesar gave suppers:—and rare ones they were;\r\nGreat Pompey gave suppers; Nabob Crassus gave suppers; and\r\nHeliogabalus, surnamed the Gobbler, gave suppers.\r\n\r\nIt was a common saying of old, that King Pluto gave suppers; some say\r\nhe is giving them still. If so, he is keeping tip-top company, old\r\nPluto:—Emperors and Czars; Great Moguls and Great Khans; Grand Lamas\r\nand Grand Dukes; Prince Regents and Queen Dowagers:—Tamerlane\r\nhob-a-nobbing with Bonaparte; Antiochus with Solyman the Magnificent;\r\nPisistratus pledging Pilate; Semiramis eating bon-bons with Bloody\r\nMary, and her namesake of Medicis; the Thirty Tyrants quaffing three to\r\none with the Council of Ten; and Sultans, Satraps, Viziers, Hetmans,\r\nSoldans, Landgraves, Bashaws, Doges, Dauphins, Infantas, Incas, and\r\nCaciques looking on.\r\n\r\nAgain: at Arbela, the conqueror of conquerors, conquering son of\r\nOlympia by Jupiter himself, sent out cards to his captains,—\r\nHephestion, Antigonus, Antipater, and the rest—to join him at ten,\r\np.m., in the Temple of Belus; there, to sit down to a victorious\r\nsupper, off the gold plate of the Assyrian High Priests. How\r\nmajestically he poured out his old Madeira that night!—feeling grand\r\nand lofty as the Himmalehs; yea, all Babylon nodded her towers in his\r\nsoul!\r\n\r\nSpread, heaped up, stacked with good things; and redolent of citrons\r\nand grapes, hilling round tall vases of wine; and here and there,\r\nwaving with fresh orange-boughs, among whose leaves, myriads of small\r\ntapers gleamed like fire-flies in groves,—Abrazza’s glorious board\r\nshowed like some banquet in Paradise: Ceres and Pomona presiding; and\r\njolly Bacchus, like a recruit with a mettlesome rifle, staggering back\r\nas he fires off the bottles of vivacious champagne.\r\n\r\nIn ranges, roundabout stood living candelabras:—lackeys, gayly\r\nbedecked, with tall torches in their hands; and at one end, stood\r\ntrumpeters, bugles at their lips.\r\n\r\n“This way, my dear Media!—this seat at my left—Noble Taji!—my right.\r\nBabbalanja!—Mohi—where you are. But where’s pretty Yoomy?— Gone to\r\nmeditate in the moonlight? ah!—Very good. Let the banquet begin. A\r\nblast there!”\r\n\r\nAnd charge all did.\r\n\r\nThe venison, wild boar’s meat, and buffalo-humps, were extraordinary;\r\nthe wine, of rare vintages, like bottled lightning; and the first\r\ncourse, a brilliant affair, went off like a rocket.\r\n\r\nBut as yet, Babbalanja joined not in the revels. His mood was on him;\r\nand apart he sat; silently eyeing the banquet; and ever and anon\r\nmuttering,—“Fogle-foggle, fugle-fi.—”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJW038SPT30W81W3A9MBY","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1954N2G0NAERBNJXEX9","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKT5ADDFWVGB3S6E4690T","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.554Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:28.582Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}